60: Talking freedom, success and entrepreneurship with Jet Van Wijk

[00:00:00] Rosie: Hello, hello, and welcome to episode 60 of the Pursuit of Freedom podcast. Can you believe we have hit 60 episodes? That feels awesome. And can I just say, thank you so much for all the people who are sending in reviews. It means the world to me. And I actually just want to read one of them out to you.

[00:00:22] This one is from R and K. They say Rosie is asking some tough questions and seeking profound answers about life. Her podcast is raw, open and honest. Congrats on 50 plus episodes. I look forward to hearing 50 more. so much. And if you haven't already left a review, jump over to thepursuitoffreedom.com.au/reviews. That is the easiest way. If you're on Apple podcasts, you can also do it there, but I know it is a bit of a faff. Now, the other thing I want to talk about, you may have noticed that I am now releasing two episodes a week. And I want your feedback. What do you think of it? I'm so excited about it because I'm just getting so many high quality guests and I have systems in place now that I am much better at staying on top of editing.

[00:01:16] So give me your feedback. If you go to thepursuitoffreedom.com.au/contact, you can send me a voice memo. Let me know what you think and let me know your favorite episode so far. Right. I'm going to stop yabbering. Let's roll the intro.

[00:01:33] G'day and welcome to the Pursuit of Freedom podcast. I'm your host, Rosie Burrows, and I'm on a journey to find my freedom so that I can help you do exactly the same. Join me each week as I share the stories of everyday people who found their own path to freedom. I'm not going to focus on job titles and accolades because I don't care about that stuff, and neither should you.

[00:01:57] I want to uncover what truly makes you tick. Who are you when you step away from society's expectations and follow your heart? I still haven't figured it out yet. Have you? Either way, buckle up, because it's going to be one hell of a ride.

[00:02:15] Welcome back to the Pursuit of Freedom podcast. I'm really excited for this episode. Joining us is Jet van Wijk. She's a marketing strategist, a business coach, a bestselling author, a laptop lifestyle master. She's a self made millionaire and she's been living in Bali for the last four years.

[00:02:33] She's such a badass chick and I can't wait to have a conversation. Jet, thank you so much for joining us.

[00:02:39] Jet: So excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. No, of

[00:02:42] Rosie: course I really want to dive into your story because I've listened to, you know, a couple of the podcasts you've been on and you mentioned when you were a kid, you wanted to be a spy.

[00:02:54] And I just went, Oh my God, that is so cool. So can you talk us through your journey from you as a little girl and how on earth did you end up being a spy? Where you are today.

[00:03:05] Jet: Yeah. So little spoiler, I would still love to be a spy. I feel like this is just, sometimes I even dream about like still like spy scenarios.

[00:03:14] And I feel like I'm living that life in like an ulterior timeline. So you know, really and even for Halloween, I'm going to be Lara Croft. I love that. So it's just part of my personality and even how I dress a little bit. But yeah, as a kid, I was just obsessed with Totally Spies. I don't know if every country will recognize this series, but it's like an animated TV series for kids where there's these four spies and they solve crimes and all of that.

[00:03:41] And I was just obsessed with it. So I got all the gear and all those things and I was literally giving out parking tickets to my neighborhood or spying in the bushes. To my neighbors and doing all of that stuff. Like I was very committed, let's say. So when I finished high school, my first initial thought was, okay, I will go to the police Academy and then you do four years police Academy, and then I think two years to become a detective.

[00:04:05] Rosie: And

[00:04:06] Jet: then I don't know exactly what my plan was. To go to CIA or all of that. I was like, maybe I will get recruited. Didn't really know how it worked, but that was the plan. First let's start with police academy. But then unfortunately when I graduated high school, there was like a freeze. So nobody in the Netherlands was allowed to study the police academy because they calculated that in four years there wouldn't be jobs.

[00:04:27] It was called like a gray, graying period or something like that. Where we're basically waiting for people to. retire before spots open. It's very weird. And then of course, the years after you have a big shortage. So yeah,

[00:04:40] Rosie: yeah,

[00:04:40] Jet: honestly, it's not very smart from the government, but

[00:04:43] Rosie: And they missed out on getting you as a spot.

[00:04:45] I know

[00:04:46] Jet: exactly, Exactly. So I couldn't do that study. And then my other dream was You know, my dad is a business owner and also as a kid, I also already was making Jet the brand, like little booklets with my name. And I was trying to sell that to my neighbors as well. My neighbors probably loved me if they're listening this, I hope you can laugh about it.

[00:05:05] It was either bothering them selling something or I was spying on them. That was my second dream to be a business owner. Like my dad. But at that time, I didn't really know what that was going to look like. He has physical businesses in the Netherlands. So maybe I envision taking that over or also starting something similar.

[00:05:22] And at this time I looked into, you know, other studies and I was like, I don't want to wait for police academy because how long will this freeze take? So I was like, okay, I'm going to do something else. And then. One of my friends, her sister, she studied hospitality management, and she told me that in her third year, she was going to go to Bali and Bangkok and maybe Doha, South Africa, because you were allowed to do half a year abroad.

[00:05:48] And then also a whole year after that abroad for your internship. And I don't know, I haven't been abroad that much, but just something in my gut was like, I think you should just do that. And it was very random because, it was a business bachelor, but specifically in hospitality, but I just thought it sounded more fun and engaging than just dry business admin, you know? so I went for that with zero hospitality experience. Everyone was like, why are you here? You've never worked in a restaurant. And I was like, I, Bali sounds great. I feel like I

[00:06:17] Rosie: just want to

[00:06:19] Jet: travel. So yeah, I just wanted to travel. I just had this weird feeling of, okay, I think you should go for this. And my plan was still to do police after.

[00:06:27] So in my third year, I chose Bali and Bangkok as like my specialization. So I did event management there as a extra course. And that is where I saw people working online. And this was, I would say 2017. So when it was still pretty new, not a lot of people were nomads or influencers, but I saw these people working and traveling.

[00:06:50] I was like, wait a minute, that looks pretty cool. And from that moment I started posting more and gaining traction online. And the algorithm was so sweet back then that it was so easy to grow. So it then doubled into that, but I had my heart already set that, okay, I will start a business online, travel, but because I was already in my third year, I decided to, of course, get my degree and, finish what I started.

[00:07:12] So then after this amazing adventure in Asia, I did one year internship in London for Hilton Hotels. And yeah, this was corporate London, so nine to five and the office was located in the basement underneath one of the hotels. In a dungeon, basically. Yeah. It was no windows, no natural air.

[00:07:34] And it was literally maybe even the same size as my current office, but with 20 cubicles, wow. And I think even in Netherlands, to be honest, we have regulations. I think you need windows and stuff like that. Makes sense. Yep. You know, It was very weird circumstances, but at that point I was still maybe considering Oh, wow.

[00:07:52] I'm working for the Hilton hotels, like that's for hospitality students. That's wow, you're working for Hilton, I was like, okay, maybe I can climb the ladder and, become the director or whatever, go up. Yeah. So that was still in my mind, but then, yeah, after doing one year corporate, super toxic in London in terms of corporate culture cocaine in terms of, the whole pop thing that every Friday you had to go to the pub, otherwise you were outcasted from your office, the whole relationship dynamics of corporate London.

[00:08:25] There were a lot of really toxic things that I was like, okay, this is not exactly what I expected here. And then I got offered a job actually after my internship and they really wanted to keep me and they said, Jet, one, my manager said this Jet, one day we will all be working for you. Like we will all be working for you.

[00:08:44] If you take this, you can go here, you can go there da, da, da, da, da. And that would have been my dream, but because I already tasted what, was possible in Asia and the other way of living and the freedom. I just said, okay, you know what? I think I can always go back to corporate. My gut feeling just tells me to not do this and to figure out this online working thing and to go back to Asia and go to the sun and, you know, out of the basement.

[00:09:09] And I remember my grandparents, my parents, my colleagues, they were all like, Jet, you're crazy. You should do this. Try it for a year, try it for two years, and I did the opposite. I actually. Well, It's like, I can always go back here, I'm sure. But I have this feeling that I have to try this online working thing because otherwise it will never leave my mind and I will regret it if I didn't give it a shot.

[00:09:32] And that was really the mindset and how I then, yeah, moved I moved back to Netherlands for a few months. And I sold all my clothes and all my furniture in my room at my parents house to get the money for a visa and a ticket. And I remember I had 600 to my name. I just got scammed by a fake job, but I told my parents that I got the job so that they thought I was safe and like I had an income.

[00:09:58] But I didn't, I had nothing at this point. I was doing the influencer thing a little bit, but it didn't pay off really well. And I remember sitting in the plane and being, and looking at the screen where it shows like you're going from here to here. And I feel like that was the moment I was sitting there and I was like, What the heck are you doing?

[00:10:15] What are you doing? You don't know anyone there. You have no, you don't even know how it works. The last time you went was like two years ago. You have no friends there, no connections. You don't have a job. You don't know what you're doing. But I just had this very strong intuition, this gut feeling that just pulled me back to Asia and Told me that it would, I would figure it out somehow.

[00:10:36] And long story short, that is, yeah. What happened? I figured it out. , you definitely figured it out. Yep. . Yeah, I fi I figured it out after a lot of failures in the online space, yeah. But

[00:10:48] imagine if I would've done police academy, like sometimes it's so crazy to look at. One decision like literally creates a different timeline in your life, and I guess that everything does really happen for a reason because otherwise in the pandemic, maybe I would have been a police officer telling people, put your mask on, you know, whereas now I was chilling in Asia and feeling as, you know, multi seven figure business during the pandemic.

[00:11:16] And same with that, that Hilton job during pandemic, all those colleagues I had got laid off. So imagine if I would have taken that timeline. It's yeah, it's crazy.

[00:11:26] Rosie: That is crazy.

[00:11:28] Yeah.

[00:11:28] Rosie: How did she? What, where did the courage come from to do this? Because you had no money, no job lined up, everybody's telling you, no, you're crazy.

[00:11:38] Just stick it out. But you had a feeling and you just went, where did that come from?

[00:11:46] Jet: I think it was basically, they always say that, you have two motivators in your life. Often one is running towards a dream and one is running away from a pain. And I feel like at that point, even though I've done corporate just for one year, I Very lucky guys, I know.

[00:12:03] It sounds maybe even privilege Oh, she was one year in corporate. Okay. But one year was enough for me in that basement to realize that we, as humans we deserve to design the life of four dreams, and this is what was happening. I was walking to work in the dark in the winters to arrive on time, going into basement office, and then walking back in the dark in wintertime in London.

[00:12:26] And I was like, how is this life? And seeing all the people depressed in the metro, in the tube, on their phones, the pushing, like the literal, London is a literal. That is the explanation of rat race. People depressed, sad, pushing each other in the tube. You're looking at that. You're like, this is like, we were like rats.

[00:12:45] This is like animals. And, you know, also, yeah, just that realization that I looked at my managers, so the highest people in my office and seeing that how overworked they are, how stressed, how burned out, and they could only still afford an apartment in London, because of how expensive it is.

[00:13:01] And I was like, if I continued. Is that is the dream? Is that what I want? I was looking at them. I was like, is that what I want? I was like, no. And I was like, there has to be another way. And because I had, the opportunity to see, just see people that half here in Asia who are doing something different than the norm.

[00:13:19] Rosie: Yeah,

[00:13:20] Jet: that's what made me just think about life more. And I was like, I can get pretty philosophical. That's just how my brain always worked. So I really asked myself Jet, you are a human, like you can talk, you can walk, you can go places. You didn't get to this planet as a rock, and it doesn't matter what religion you believe.

[00:13:37] The universe, a God, multiple gods, doesn't matter what its name is. Whoever our creator is, or the reason that we are here. I don't think they made us. to live a life that we don't love and to do things we don't love and to look back, let's say when you retire and to look back at your life and be like, 90 percent of it was work, struggling to pay the bills, hating what I'm doing, looking forward to the weekend.

[00:14:02] I think if we just look at a deeper level of how special we are, like how I'm designed, like I have nails, you know how weird it is if you actually think about it. I have nails, I have hair, I can talk, I have teeth, like I'm made so special, you know, like, I don't think I was put here to sit in a basement cubicle, working my ass off for super low pay.

[00:14:24] And I feel like I just really had that comparison of something else is possible. I don't really understand what that thing in Asia was, what they were doing. I didn't understand it. Didn't know what they were doing. I didn't speak to those people enough that I saw, but I just knew that they were doing something else, living in a different way.

[00:14:41] And it felt like to me, that was more freedom because they could make their schedule, they could change locations. And it's like, Wow, this planet, it is the last planet beneath our feet that we are aware of, I know, I always say this comparison and I actually have it tattooed on my leg, so it means a lot to me.

[00:15:02] It's like, when you ask someone, what would you do if you were the last person on earth and you could do anything? And people start saying, Oh, I would get this favorite car, or I would go there, or I would eat all the ice cream I like, or I would do this, right? They say all these statements of Whoa, if I could do anything, what would it be?

[00:15:21] But often we fail to realize that even though you are not the last person on earth, this is the last earth beneath your feet. So you should really live every day, following a dream or doing what you like or designing it the way you want. And I feel like that's fear of. What most people's, let's say, norm is, which is working nine to five, getting by, just making it through this economy.

[00:15:45] That was for me the biggest fear, the biggest pain. It was not failing at trying something new, I was not scared of that because their worst case was already, my worst case, let's say, that was going back to corporate and accepting that, so failing, was never worst case for me.

[00:16:01] It was actually not trying. And going back to that. Yeah.

[00:16:05] Rosie: I think that's really unusual because a lot of people I talk to, there is that fear of failure and that's often what holds them back. I think there's more to it. Why do you think so many people I'd even go so far as to say most people stay in a life or in a job doing something they Why do we do that to ourselves?

[00:16:31] Jet: I believe it's really, it is conformity, which is, you know, one of the other topics I love talking about, but it's social media, but it's also in other places in general, just conformism. So the reason why we do certain things is because a group of people in our, let's say back in the day, in our neighborhood, in our surroundings, a majority of the people were doing something a certain way.

[00:16:55] And everyone started to conform towards doing the same thing because it was safer. And this is also how social norms are created. For example, in, in Netherlands not everyone is burping all the time or farting all the time. So that is not a norm that we have created. The norm is more that you don't do that.

[00:17:15] That is because the majority doesn't. But maybe if everyone does it, everyone will accept it. So norms are created like that, but also laws. It's not great to kill people. Okay. We decided that this is going to be a law that we shouldn't do that. That is because majority, conforms to that idea, conforms to that rule.

[00:17:33] So laws are created like that, but also social norms and also belief systems. We grow up in a certain belief system based on our culture and the country and the people around us. If the majority around us in the society actually shows us that you have to go to school, you have to get good grades, you have to follow university, you have to do master's, then you get a good job, then you get married, then you get a kid.

[00:17:56] It is literally this same story. And yes, in every country, there are some slight variances in this, of course. But that is how these societal expectations are created. And then it comes from our survival instinct as a human to conform. So we literally feel like we have more likeliness to survive and this can be literal survival, but also let's say survival in the economy right now to do what the majority does, to do what the majority says we have to do and to fit into a box that the majority of people try to put us in, such as governments.

[00:18:32] Um, So it is, it is very logical why people fear to go out of that because you are trying to conform to what in your brain as a human feels like the most and the highest chances of survival and the easiest example I can explain this is, let's say back in the day, when we were hunting and all of that period, and there's two caves, you Okay, left and right.

[00:18:59] Now, let's say a man goes into the left cave, and he doesn't come back, and the group notices this. And the right cave, people go in and they come back with fruit, and they have a smile on their face, even without talking to each other. And maybe another one goes into the left cave and comes back without an arm.

[00:19:19] Most of the time, the majority is going to choose the right cave now, because it shows the highest survivability. And now the group is going to go there. Now it's going to become a ritual. Every day we go there to get our fruit and we avoid the left one, because the left one, someone didn't come back, someone didn't come back with an arm, but here's the thing, you can go against conformity as well. Because maybe on the left side, We can be very let's say, interesting and say it's a dragon, but it could be a massive bear. Okay. So let's say there was a bear or a dragon. Maybe one brave person goes in now and takes a tool and a sword or whatever is able to slay the dragon and now was able to feed their family for the next, 10 months because they got this meat.

[00:20:02] And this is the entrepreneur. Okay. The entrepreneur will say, Hey. That cave, nah, didn't come back. It looks a bit risky, but I'm still going to do it anyway. That's how the people will go against conformity. We'll say, I see that, but is that what I want to accept for the rest of my life? Or. Do I want to risk the odds or, take the risk or calculate the risk, or obviously prepare myself for it.

[00:20:29] Maybe the first guy goes in, kills a dragon, comes back, maybe there's more dragons there. So maybe he can teach now another man or girl, whatever. To also, hey, this is how you should bring your sword. This is how I killed the last one. So now you can also do it. Okay. So you learn from each other. Now you go in there too.

[00:20:48] So I think this is literally what happens with society. There are some people now who are going off of the conformity of the societal norm. They are able to teach others to do the same, to inspire others to do the same. And people were brave and were able to. calculate this risk, to put in work, to put in the effort.

[00:21:07] They're going to be able to reap, the rewards of that too. Whereas other people will always keep going to what seems the easiest or seems the most normal or seems, you know, but if you flip that switch of looking at it and being like, what if your, let's say best case is being safe. Being in a nine to five.

[00:21:29] In some cases, that is my worst case because I don't believe that is what I should accept. I believe there's more to life. I believe I deserve to be happy. So now for me, the risk is not going into the left cave. The risk is accepting death for the rest of my life and never getting what they actually desire and never living up to my full potential, to my, true fulfillment.

[00:21:52] I think that's about having some deep realizations and asking yourself, do I live for the weekend? Do I, do I love Monday? Do I generally, can I say I love Monday? What do I think about the most? Am I excited on Friday that the weekend is coming? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, guys. And I'm also acknowledging that there are people in nine to fives or regular jobs that are really happy.

[00:22:19] So the question is not necessarily that you have to quit, you go into the left cave or whatever, you don't have to do that or not everyone should be entrepreneur as well, but it's more analyze your life because it could also be that maybe choosing another type of job will make you more happier or another type of schedule in that job.

[00:22:38] So you can still also analyze your current situation and see how can you adjust it more to basically what makes you happy, what makes you feel good. And And I always mention, I understand we live in a capitalistic world, so we need money, right? It's true. We need to make money, to get by.

[00:22:57] I cannot be the Lulu and say we can just manifest money or something like that. It doesn't work like it. We need money. But my point is then that as long as you can find a way where you feel freedom or you feel free. Fulfillment, you feel that feeling of purpose that, that is the most important and you can fill that in however you want.

[00:23:17] What that looks like for me is yeah, location freedom. So I can, now go to my parents if I want or change my location. But soon, if I am a mom, I can be at home and work from home. The second one is time. So I'm making my own schedule because. Every human being, every body has a different clock. Some people love working in the morning, some in the afternoon.

[00:23:39] Maybe you, like us, we are on our period. So we want to change your schedule a bit and we want to rest a bit more. Everybody has their health reasons and the way that functions best for them. So having your own time, I do think that is important and not being able to being pushed in a box of, you have to work these hours because maybe your body just Doesn't feel like that sometimes.

[00:24:00] And then the third one for me, of course, yeah, like I said, finances, we need to have a way to make money, but if we can do something at least that we love, it feels less like work

[00:24:12] Rosie: and therefore

[00:24:13] Jet: again, you can step more into your, desired dream life as well. But Jet,

[00:24:17] Rosie: that's just so unrealistic. I've got bills to pay.

[00:24:20] That's unrealistic. I can't do that. You're just lucky. What do you say to those people?

[00:24:25] Jet: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it's it's definitely not easy, even the example of the cave, like probably it's not easy to figure out how to slay a dragon or even then get taught how to do that.

[00:24:36] You might get a few scratches trying it. And if you don't try hard enough, you might obviously not even make it out. So it's not easy for sure but the point is that it's possible. And I also don't think it's easy to hate your job and to be burned out and to be depressed and to, do something that you genuinely don't love for the next 40 years.

[00:25:00] I think that is actually harder than trying. To break out and to do what you, what you really love. So it's, it's more like what, yeah, which type of heart are you choosing? Is it the heart of accepting actually something that doesn't make you happy or is it hard to try something and learn something new?

[00:25:20] You can choose your heart in that case, but it's definitely not easy, but it is worth it if it can liberate you and give you that life that you really want in. Yeah and, Locke, I think. Yeah, luck is a funny thing because I think in some, some sections you could have some luck.

[00:25:37] Like one post could go viral. You could see that as luck, but on the other hand you can only get lucky at all if you put in the consistent work, because if I only post once every four months, how likely is it that one post will be lucky, that will get lucky? Or if I post three times every single day.

[00:26:01] One post goes viral. Is that luck or is it just a statistical numbers game that one out of how many went viral now because I was consistent, because I posted every day and sometimes it's true, I can't tell you why this one went viral and this one didn't because sometimes it is just like this weird thing that, okay, this one picked up in the algorithm, but at the same time, I also don't think it's luck because it could only happen because I did the work, because I did it every day and it's with all those things. It's okay, I got lucky lending this client. I don't think so. I went through 30 discovery calls and how much outreach came off of that and how much lead gen did I do to get those clients, so yeah, I also don't think it's necessarily luck, but you can get lucky enough. For something to work out, if you put in the amount of numbers you need statistically to get one's lucky.

[00:26:52] Rosie: And why is it that we have so much trouble being consistent? I'm guilty of this. You'll try something for like a day or two and go, Oh, stuff.

[00:26:59] This is too hard. Nothing's happening.

[00:27:01] Jet: A hundred percent. This is this is the biggest reason why people feel honestly, like really, this is the most difficult part, I think, in entrepreneurship, but also learning any new skill, even if we talk about learning piano, so right now we're living in a world where it is much easier for us to be.

[00:27:19] Super distracted and to be information overloaded, especially because of how algorithms are designed. It is just, it is making us addicted. It is making us yeah, get just this information overload of not necessarily good things. So what I often see happens is that someone might try, let's say one way to work online.

[00:27:39] Okay, and there's a hundred, maybe even more. And I can honestly say that all of them will probably work as long as you stick long enough with it. So you might try one way to work online and you might run into your first hurdle or the first thing you don't understand. Or some people don't even open a course.

[00:27:55] They just think about the idea of doing it. They didn't even try. And then they see a video on their feed of another way to work online. And that looks easier because this girl explains it in a way that it looks like it's boom, bam, done, millionaire, right? Now they will hop to that and that is actually, of course, it's shiny object syndrome.

[00:28:13] But then with ways to work online and business models, you're like, ah, but print on demand seems so easy. She says, you just have to post 300 things and 27 item. And, oh yeah, that sounds so easy. Just design this in Confine one second. Boom boom, boom. I'm a millionaire. Ah, let me try that. And then the next one.

[00:28:32] Oh, this guy says that drop shipping is great. And this is profit margins, blah. No, I will do that. Why are we doing that? Why do we have shiny objects? I think it's because we don't have conviction. You need conviction to succeed. And this is why. It's because choosing these business models, if you're looking at it in this way, it is not analytical and it is not strategic.

[00:28:57] It is just what the algorithm is feeding you on social media. And you're just being like, like you're hungry. So if you're actually going to a supermarket, then you always end up buying sweets and all of this stuff that you shouldn't actually eat. It's so bad. So that's what's happening. And that is because you're chasing money and you're chasing easy money and you want it to be easy.

[00:29:16] But if we actually look at Another process, we're going to ask yourself, what do I actually love? What fits me? Which business model, which skills, what way of working fits me? My passion, my interests, my hobbies. Can we connect this to a niche? Okay, can we connect this to a specific model that matches those interests I have and these existing skills?

[00:29:37] Or maybe it's a skill you really want to develop. So if we look more at it like that, and we come from a place of passion and fulfillment, now you can have conviction. Now you're going to choose one. And the second step is now you're going to choose one mentor and one person to follow their course. And as soon as you've done this.

[00:29:57] You're going to stop scrolling on social media and you're going on an information diet. Stop listening to podcasts. Stop reading books. Stop doing more courses. Just do this one person, one course, one mentor for at least a year and you will see that you will crush it. But it's, you need to go on an information diet.

[00:30:14] You need to tune out the noise. I have never heard that before. And I,

[00:30:19] Rosie: I actually love it because I fall into that trap. I just look at all the things, something gets hard and I go, Oh, I'm going to try someone else's process. I'm going to do this now. I'm going to do that. There's so many different ways to do business.

[00:30:31] So like you say, Information diet, pick one thing, follow that for a year and see what happens. I love it.

[00:30:39] Jet: Yeah. And it's like, you know, uh, I, I've made this comparison a few days ago as well, and it's really easy to follow. Let's imagine you're going to make a recipe for the most amazing cheesecake.

[00:30:51] And. And I print out the recipe and now my neighbor comes and he says, Hey, I think you should add a little bit more of this. And then my friend comes in the house and you should add a bit more of that. And another person comes and now I see a video where they tell me to add blueberries as well. And now I completely ruined the recipe.

[00:31:07] It tastes horrible. And now I ask myself why, why did you think, because you started adding stuff that was not part of the original recipe. And it doesn't mean that their idea of. The cheesecake was bad or the video I saw about the cheesecake was not going to be great, but I should have just chosen one and stuck to it..

[00:31:26] And I think that is the problem that most people have. They think, Oh, but I heard this guru say I should do joint ventures. Stop, don't do that. Just listen to one person because I believe, let's say I have a program, you have a program, other people have a program, they are all correct. They are all our experience into a recipe, into a step plan.

[00:31:47] So if you follow those steps, you have a very high likeliness to get a similar result. Not same, similar result. But the problem is, yeah, if you start listening to other people's recipes, you start mixing up ingredients, then it's definitely not going to work for you, you just do have to follow one to get results and to see, success, plus to know if it really did work for you or not, or if you really did like it or not um, and you have to follow through with that.

[00:32:12] And I think that's the biggest problem. But if the first step is really that. What suits my needs, which business model really fits me the best. Cause then when you're clear on that, you can then make yourself disciplined to do the boring stuff every day, because guess what? You remember, why did I start?

[00:32:31] Oh, because I love this. I love that. Because when I have it. My life is going to look like that because when I do it, obviously this is my schedule. This is my way of working. So now you're clear, you have clarity on the end results. You have clarity on what it is that you want. And now you can make yourself more disciplined to do the needed steps, the boring stuff to get that end result.

[00:32:52] But if you're looking at everyone's end results and you know, like, Oh, that girl lives there in Dubai. That looks cool. But she lives in Bali and I want this. No, find one person and look at their life and if you absolutely love their outcome, how they're living their life, their values, what they stand for, then follow that mentor, follow that process, but the second thing you have to think about though.

[00:33:17] Which is what not enough people do is, are you also ready to make the sacrifices that person has made to get to that end result? Because yeah, it is not easy, to get, let's say to my level of what I'm making now that's a lot of, No, not many people will make the sacrifices that I have.

[00:33:36] They could get to a similar level or make a good income by following my recipe. But really getting exactly to where I am you have to look at all the sacrifices, the hardships, business ships, like all the problems I've had to endure in the last, years. And you have to ask yourself, am I willing?

[00:33:54] To make those sacrifices. Am I willing to suffer for her outcome as well? And if you're ready to do that, then it means you want it. Right. That's true

[00:34:02] Rosie: as well. Yeah. My mind is buzzing. I want you to share a bit more because you're a huge advocate for freelancing. And you have got the laptop lifestyle master program.

[00:34:13] I think I've got that right. Tell us, what is the laptop lifestyle and why do you think freelancing is so great? Because a lot of the listeners of this show, mostly women, which I love, and aspiring or early stage entrepreneurs, so they're probably still looking for, Oh, what do I do? So I Let's share, what's this laptop lifestyle and why is freelancing so good?

[00:34:36] Jet: Yeah. So laptop lifestyle for me, when I started, it was literally that definition of, I was working from the beach, not going to lie. Like it's not just a pretty picture or like an idea. It is possible. Like I was doing social media management. I had clients for websites and it was so chill that I literally could do it from the beach, from the side of the pool, from my roof.

[00:34:57] Like any location, which was pretty cool. Now, of course I've upgraded a little bit. So now I love my big office, my screens, all of that. So, you know, But laptop lifestyle initially, it is really that freedom of, Hey, I can work from any location. So for some people that might be traveling and, just.

[00:35:12] Working from cafes, other people, this might be being able to work from home with your kids or being more with your family or your partner. So that is part of laptop lifestyles, the location freedom. And then the time freedom, of course, so making your own schedule. And third one is working towards financial freedom.

[00:35:28] My philosophy is more, you need money. So at least let's do something that you really love. I don't tell people that, freelancing is going to make you millions necessarily. It could. It's possible if you scale it further, but financial freedom is a really, let's say subjective term that it's hard to achieve that.

[00:35:46] But I think financial comfort would be great to achieve being able to live the life of your dreams that you want. That is important too. So these three, location, time, freedom, and, financial, let's say, comfort are part of laptop lifestyle. And then. The biggest thing, again, is what I will tell everyone listening, you should research which way of working online suits me the best, what do I like, try to learn a little bit about each of them so you understand the business model, the cons, the pros, because all of the ways have pros and cons.

[00:36:15] For me, I started as an influencer. Then I did affiliate marketing, I did MLM, I had a web shop, I did blogging, I tried crypto. And I'm going to tell you that in all of them, I made money. I think I could have crushed all of them. However, they just didn't align with what I was looking for, what I liked. So for example, Influencing, super toxic for my mental health.

[00:36:41] I hated how it made me feel and how it made me change. MLM and affiliate marketing. You're selling other people's products and it's not, I didn't really stand behind that, you know, and especially the way MLM is structured of bothering your family and all of that. No, it was a big no for me, but for some people it might be great.

[00:36:57] And then blogging, it was a lot of effort for little money, crypto and trading very volatile. I just didn't like the way that works. So again, I have, you know, fucked around to find out what I actually liked and, then at the end of all these failures, I looked up and I was like, you know what? I don't want anything with a stock or a warehouse or shipping.

[00:37:18] I want something 100 percent online. Okay. That was my first. Point of analyzing business models. Second, I don't ever want to depend on anyone else's products or company because the MLMs I was in, some got shut down, this, that, it's not yours. You don't own it.

[00:37:34] So I was like, I want to own it. It has to be mine. I have to stand behind it. And I have to believe in this product or service. And then the third one was again, yeah. These. Metrics of location and time. So then I looked at all the failures I had and I was like, you know what? I gained digital skills because as freelancer, I built my own website.

[00:37:52] As dropshipper, I did this, that, you know, I learned all these tools, softwares. I was like, these skills, nobody can take away from me. I learned them. I taught them to myself and I developed my skills further. And then I was like, Hey, what if I offer services, online services to businesses? That needed, because I started to get questions like, Hey, Jet, I saw you build your own website.

[00:38:16] Can you do that for me? And I was like, actually, yeah, I can do that. You grow your socials. Can you grow my company socials? Yeah, I know a lot now. So why not? So I learned that, wait, I can offer these marketing services, these skills I learned, I can turn them into a service that I can sell. And guess who I'm selling them to?

[00:38:36] Not to my mom, asking her to buy it. I'm selling them to businesses.

[00:38:40] Rosie: Yeah. We

[00:38:41] Jet: already need them. Because realistically, let's think about it, there's no business in the world who doesn't need a website, who doesn't need social media, who doesn't need a designer, who doesn't need a copywriter, who doesn't, everyone needs marketing now so, what if I could offer services to people that already are looking for them?

[00:38:57] It made so much sense to me, you know, skill to service to lending clients and it was realistic as well. And then the way of course I started doing it was high ticket. So at least above one K a month. And the great thing was that obviously they need, Social media management every month, not just once.

[00:39:17] So you lock them in for longer periods, six month contracts, 12 month contracts. And you just need a few clients and you definitely replace your nine to five. And if you then want to scale this further, that's what happened to me. I started an agency. So I got too many clients to the point where I was like, okay.

[00:39:34] Now I'm going to hire people and I scaled it into an agency. And then once I really, truly mastered these skills and I had the proof that my agency was doing multi six figures, that's when I started in consultancy, coaching and course creation. And this level. Make so much sense. You learn a skill, get freaking good at it.

[00:39:53] You lend a lot of clients. So now you start an agency. Now you have proof and evidence and you're a true master. Okay. Now you can teach others too. But guess what? At these three levels, it's all digital services. It's high ticket services that you're selling. For me, this was just like, how do you say, like a eureka moment?

[00:40:11] Like, This is the thing like, wow, it makes so much sense. , this is a reasoning why I choose it. And I will always keep choosing it because it is very realistic. It's logical. A beginner can start with this and crush it because everyone can learn a skill. Like we have people in my program who are 65.

[00:40:30] We also have people in my program who just turned 17. Anyone can learn a digital skill. It might just take some people a bit longer than others, right? Like Learning piano. But if you're consistent and you keep going, you will eventually. Learn how to play piano. So a skill is something nobody can ever take away from you.

[00:40:49] And it's something you can monetize forever. So for me, that is why I love, yeah, service providing and for newer people, that would be freelancing that I would recommend for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:01] Rosie: What one bit that stuck out for me, you're saying you start with a skill, turn that into a service, and then you start lending clients.

[00:41:07] Like when you put it like that, it is an incredibly simple. Not necessarily easy, but you don't need to go to university to learn these skills. Like, Your degree has nothing to do with well, I'm making an assumption, but does it really have anything to do with running an agency and selling digital products?

[00:41:28] Jet: No, No. I had some marketing classes in that study, hospitality, but to be honest, it's That still scares me so much. And I have nothing against university guys. Do it for the experience, for the college parties, all of that. Sure. Go for it. If you want to become entrepreneurial, you don't need it.

[00:41:42] That's a different point. So for me, I had marketing classes from books that were made four years ago. So by the time I graduated, the information was eight years ago. And this is not. How entrepreneurs, how you become a business owner, it's better to learn on the job. So come work for me, learn from me, or obviously get a mentor, learn from that person and work with them and work on the job.

[00:42:06] And I think that is really how you're going to become the most successful, not by doing something in four years, which. It's from information from four years ago.

[00:42:16] Rosie: but that's what you meant to do, right? You go to university, you study for four years, you get the corporate job. Well done. Yeah. Yeah. To me, that's gross.

[00:42:25] I did go down that path and I hated it.

[00:42:27] Jet: Why,

[00:42:28] Rosie: why, Why

[00:42:34] are we so scared of failure? I'm coming back to this because I feel like it's like a rite of passage as being an entrepreneur. You're going to fail and you're going to fail a lot. Yeah.

[00:42:46] Jet: Yeah.

[00:42:47] Rosie: So many people don't take that leap because they've just decided I'm going to fail. So I'm not even going to try and I'm going to stay in this miserable life.

[00:42:56] So why are we so scared? But also how do we work through that?

[00:43:03] Jet: I would say now realizing looking back, let's say with the information I have now, I do see failure as feedback. So I knew that I had to fill out a lot of things in order to get the feedback on again, what business model worked for me. And then even through that, lots of failures that shaped obviously how my business looks like today.

[00:43:22] even if I launch something and it feels it's okay. I see it as feedback, but I think. I think it's a key mindset shift first that you have to make, especially as newer person in entrepreneurship is that mindset shift of, but isn't staying where you are the real failure.

[00:43:41] Whoa. And it sounds harsh, but that is the question you have to ask yourself. Like, why would I say, see trying something new that might bring me closer to happiness? Why would I see that as failing, even trying it, right? Whereas staying where you are and not even trying, that is the real failure in my opinion, because you're letting yourself down.

[00:44:01] You're not even trying to unlock the potential that you have. And really think about this, okay, whatever job you have right now, whatever job that is. If you stepped away from it for a year to try something else, do you think you could get back to a similar type of job in another company, in another country, in another city?

[00:44:25] A little bit, maybe a bit different, but, and do you think that if there you work then another five years, you're pretty much on track again with your old trajectory of life? You can always go back. And I'm not saying that because that's what you should keep in mind because I'm a really big promoter of having only a plan A.

[00:44:42] That's why I sold all my things and had no plan and I just left. There was only one plan and I was figuring it out, but I didn't even have a specific plan. But my plan was never, if this doesn't work, I'll go back. That was never my plan. That's what I, just what I told my parents as a justification, but that was never my plan.

[00:45:02] My plan was that I will figure it out because I believe there's something else. I believe I can do it. I know and I see people who have done it. Yeah. So I can do it too, you know, like, let's say you see someone play guitar. They learned it somehow. Do you think you can also learn that? Yeah, you can. You, do you know how long it's going to take you?

[00:45:23] Maybe not because you might not be musical or maybe you are, maybe you're not that great with your hands. I don't know. But do you think if you don't give up that Eventually you will be able to play guitar. Yeah, you definitely will. So this is again about the question of finding your why.

[00:45:39] Why do you want to do something else? What's the real reasoning? What do you want? Being clear on that, but also being very clear on your pain. And this is asking those uncomfortable questions of, am I going to be truly happy? If I do what I do now for the next 40 years of my life until I retire, and that's a tough question, but not enough people ask themselves this, am I going to be truly happy if I do this, the nine to five, whatever your hours are, your job right now, if I do that for the next 40 years, am I going to be happy?

[00:46:13] Plus do some research. What is the highest point you can get in the company you're in right now? It will shock you how low it is. Like how big of a promotion will you get compared to how much inflation and recession we have? Honey, this is facts. It's not just that I'm saying this is facts.

[00:46:33] Look at how much you get promoted each year and then how much inflation and all of that we have. It's often not even outweighing them, so this is really asking those questions. If I don't make a change will I truly live the life that I want? If you have kids right now or you want kids, do you want to spend more time with them or not?

[00:46:54] It's a fair question to ask. Do I let's say if I was, would be a corporate boss babe in Hilton. That would have probably meant I would have to put my kids in daycare every day. There's no shame in that. It's not a bad thing. But just ask yourself, would you prefer that? Or would you prefer maybe a different way of living?

[00:47:11] You know, Where you can have more time with them. And again, it's a question of not everyone has to be an entrepreneur. It's not for everyone, but just look at your current job. What flexibility do you have to either change this into something better aligning with what you want? What flexibility do you have to obviously get to your income goals, and just the most important one, are you really happy what you're doing? Because otherwise you have to accept being, doing something you don't like for the next 40 years of your life until you retire. And to me, that just doesn't make sense. Just logically doesn't make sense.

[00:47:43] Rosie: Nothing works.

[00:47:45] Jet: You have the ability to listen to this amazing podcast, you're not a rock who can't talk or have their own decisions like you came here as a human being and the chances of you being human are so slim and what are you doing with it?

[00:47:58] Are you really trying to get everything out of it that you would love to do? You don't have to become a millionaire, billionaire. That's not what happiness means. I know that because I've been on that side, achieving the awards, the stages, the blah, blah, blah. No, but what makes me happy is that I can walk my doggy whenever I want, I can see my family, I can spoil my family.

[00:48:17] I'm doing something I love every day. So for me, Monday is my favorite day and I actually hate Sunday and my friends are always like that. Jet, let's do something relaxing today. I feel like you need to relax. And I'm like yeah. I'm just going upstairs for a minute and then I'm just working because I freaking love what I do.

[00:48:32] I love what I do every single day and then it doesn't feel like work. And then for me, I know that I can look back when I'm 18 years old and in my life and say, fuck, did that, you did these things you wanted, you saw the countries you wanted to see, you had these experiences, I made my human experience on this planet.

[00:48:53] whatever I wanted it to be. Yeah. And for me, that matters. And I think if you're asking yourself some deeper of these reflection questions, you will find out whatever you actually truly want, you know, and what changes you have to make in order to live in that full potential of what your life can look like.

[00:49:11] Rosie: Yeah. And I think it does start with asking those uncomfortable questions, which we all hate. Yeah. Of course we don't want to feel like that or admit, Oh, actually I'm really unhappy right now. I don't like where my life is, but wouldn't it be better to admit that and then move towards the life you do want?

[00:49:26] I think so. Yeah.

[00:49:27] Jet: Exactly. Yeah. And it's also that sometimes what I tell my students we have this exercise is called what is your why? And I can give a few questions of it because it's so good. So basically researching what is your, why your reasoning for wanting to make a change that's so powerful.

[00:49:43] And one of the questions we ask is What would you never allow to happen to a specific person you love? And why we ask this is because sometimes for certain reasons we need money. So let's say for me it would be like, I would never want my parents not to be able to pay their medical bills or to, something that could literally change their life.

[00:50:05] And if you have that reason of who are you fighting for, why are you doing this? Could be your kids, could be your family, could be yourself. What would you never allow to happen in your life? And then that's your why. That's the thing that you're always going to look back at when things get tough, when you have to be reminded again of that vision of why you started.

[00:50:23] And the reasoning is because if I tell you, Hey, we're going to the Bahamas next week, it's going to cost 10K. Can you come? No, if you don't have 10k, you will say, no, I'm not sure. I don't know. But if you heard that maybe your family member needs a surgery next week, and if they don't get it, they will not make it.

[00:50:46] And surgery costs 10k. What are you going to do to make it happen now? You will find a freaking way to get 10K. You will, trust me. You will do whatever it takes. You will work so hard. And this is the thing, which is, it's sad, but we run away from pain faster than that we run towards our dreams.

[00:51:06] Rosie: Yeah.

[00:51:08] Jet: And sometimes that's why we have to actually make that pain in our life to have that really strong motivation.

[00:51:16] What is your why? Who are you doing this for? And keeping that in mind, and this philosophy it's the pain you're running away from. You have to know that pain, you have to feel it. So you have to look at your life and identify right now what you're not happy with. And it has to be deep, you have to cut very deep, you have to bleed.

[00:51:34] Because that's the only way you're going to actually make a change and stay motivated to do it. It's not going to be all because I want to Birkenbeck, that motivation is not as deep as, Hey, I'm actually really unhappy right now. That is where the real motivation will come from those, from digging into your pain.

[00:51:51] I want to unpack

[00:51:52] Rosie: this more with you. I've been bringing it up recently on the podcast. It just seems to be coming up a lot because you talk about the pain and I agree that it is those really digging into the pain really can give you a kick up the bum to make the change. But I'm curious.

[00:52:10] Does it take a horrible life event or really that pain for you to be able to make a change? Or is it possible to move towards that dream life without running away from pain and running towards your dream?

[00:52:22] Jet: I think it's possible, but it's just less, yeah, it's exactly that example. You're just less motivated because it would be nice.

[00:52:29] It's different than I have to get out of XYZ, it's just holds a whole different emotion even. And for me it was just running away from the future that I really didn't want, which was my manager's future, that was one thing. And the second thing was also, of course, I thought about my family and, hey, you know what, I'm not going to wait for a man to take care of me and my family.

[00:52:54] I felt like I had to. To do something as well, to secure that and, to give back and to make sure my family is okay. So that's also one of the pains, let's say, and reasonings I had of okay, I'm going to be it in my family. I'm going to be the one that's going to make sure it's all going to be good.

[00:53:09] Yeah, I do feel it requires finding a pain. What I see sometimes though, so there's two types of people. There's one type of person who really knows their pain, so they know they don't like what they do. It's very easy.

[00:53:22] Other people sometimes come on calls with us and they have these really life changing conversations with my team because coming into the call, they didn't really realize why they're here or what their pain is. Yeah. And because we ask the right questions, they come out of the call and they realize, it's even this question, are you happy to do what you do right now for.

[00:53:42] rest of your life? And not enough people just ask that question. And then you realize you might have that pain. You just didn't really acknowledge it. You didn't really realize it, so I think everyone has certain pains that we are, trying to Run away from and fueling that and using that as motivation I think is the most productive versus running away from it No, you use it as your fuel.

[00:54:05] Yeah

[00:54:06] Jet: in your new vehicle in your new plan,

[00:54:08] Rosie: yeah, you

[00:54:09] Jet: make it happen

[00:54:10] Rosie: I love that so much. I think we all have pain you know, you were mentioned before some people just don't realize it something I want to touch on, we're going to change topics a little bit is as an entrepreneur, you try things, you fail.

[00:54:24] So how do you know when it's not working? Because we haven't even, we haven't really mentioned this. You brought it up. You were an influencer for a while, but you got to a point, you were like, I don't know who I am anymore. This is not me. So obviously it was working for a while. So what kind of happened and how did you know when it was time, okay, I need to do something else.

[00:54:47] Jet: I would say a general answer to that is when you know it's not working for you. For me, it's really intuition. And I feel like we don't, we get programmed not to listen to that, right? But it's again, that gut feeling, that intuition that just tells you where I am right now. It's not good. It doesn't work.

[00:55:02] And I want something else. That, that is like really the biggest thing. It's always been intuition and my gut feeling that has led me through a lot of things. But I would say in terms of influencing, yeah, it was realizing that it was changing who I was, so I was starting to post for my audience and what they wanted to see and not necessarily what I actually liked as Jet, you know, the Dutch girl from a farmer's town.

[00:55:26] No, that changed into chasing the likes and the dopamine and all of those things because it got the most likes and attention. And as influencer likes and attention got you the most money. And so for me, what I was doing started to clash with my integrity, with my ethics, with my morals, with my values.

[00:55:45] And that's a gut feeling. That's when it's an alarm bell. It's like, Hmm, it doesn't feel great. Doing this doesn't feel, it doesn't feel in line with who I am. And that's for me when, yeah, I realized. One, that I was obviously super depressed. My mental health was suffering because I was chasing the likes and the followers.

[00:56:04] I was chasing my, changing myself and what I was posting to be liked all because of yeah, social media addiction and conformity, and trying to be liked the most. And then the other part was also seeing the dirt of the influencer industry for me. So it was seeing how, a roommate I had in Asia back then, how she was saying, okay, I have to promote these wet wipes, but I hate them.

[00:56:30] They're bad for the environment. They're smelly. I don't like them. But then I saw a video posted the next day promoting them because she got paid 500 bucks for it, that's also when I was like, just this industry. As a whole, we get actually paid to persuade people to buy certain things. And your want for money overshadows a lot of people's integrity.

[00:56:55] Unfortunately, not everyone is strong enough to say, Hey, I don't stand for this. And I was, I was declining a lot of collaboration and I was, I've done a few bad ones though. And I always admit that. I think one of my first ones was like skinny mint tea or something. Like this ski, this tea that makes you skinny or unbloated or whatever.

[00:57:13] And it was such a big trend then. And for example, that's the things I look back at Oh my God. I didn't even research that product. I was young. I was stupid. I promoted it. It was not a super bad thing, but looking back, now I obviously wouldn't promote it, but I also did the amazing collaborations with travel apps or postcard service that did align with my travel blogging niche.

[00:57:33] Rosie: But

[00:57:33] Jet: again, It's a realization of not all influencers have this integrity. So just the whole concept of this business model felt dirty to me. It felt un, unethical. And then for another business model, I tried MLM. Again, it was also this feeling of we are selling something that is not mine. I don't really know how it works.

[00:57:56] And they're telling me to message my friends and family and, it's no, it doesn't feel right either. And I was doing affiliate marketing. I had the same thing. I was like, Okay. I'm promoting other people's courses, but do I really like them? Have I followed the courses properly? No. Okay.

[00:58:11] Another thing, crypto and all of that, I just, got confused and I felt like just didn't, wasn't aligned with my skills at that time. And also I realized that you need more leverage to be successful in trading and investments, and when you just start, you don't really have a big capital.

[00:58:26] So yeah, there's these red flags, but I feel like the main uh, Point there, let's say, the takeaway is that it was always my gut that just told me um, this doesn't feel great. This doesn't feel aligned with who I am and what I stand for. So I don't want to do it. Yeah.

[00:58:42] Rosie: Yeah. You got to trust yourself.

[00:58:44] I've got a tattoo that says stay true because that's a reminder I need, but it's really important to me because, it's obviously happened to you, but when, I'll wake up one day and go, Whoa, how'd I get here? What am I doing? Like, It's not me and you're like backpedal quick and it happens less, but it's still It still happens.

[00:59:03] Yeah. How do you ever get a sense of shame when you find yourself in those situations and how do you deal with that?

[00:59:11] Jet: I would say, I don't know, even as an influencer, not really, I guess it was more like just acknowledgement to myself. Oh, I understand now why I did what I did. I understand now how that's happened and how I got here. And I realized it's not what I want. So I'm allowed to. Make a pivot. And I feel like that's also what a lot of people are scared about.

[00:59:32] It's Oh, I need to choose one thing. And this is what I'm going to marry. And it's no, you can always pivot niche. You can always pivot business model. And it's really true. This, and I refer to this graph, right? This meme of the more you fuck around, the more you find out it's true. If you don't fuck around.

[00:59:47] You're not going to know if you like it, if you're good at it, if it's something for you. You can save a lot of time though. This is why I say just do some research and try to figure out what matches your personality or passion. But in general, you're not really going to know until you just try it. So just try a lot of different things and then see how you feel.

[01:00:04] See what matches you. Don't expect to be good at it. Just look at like, More like look at, do I enjoy this? Can I see myself doing this? That is the first point of success. It's not like, how much money did I made or, clients did I land? Because that will come later. You first have to get good and obviously practice, but it's more that first initial feeling I think of okay, yes, I can see myself doing this.

[01:00:26] Yes, this makes sense to me. So yeah, no, to answer that question, I would never feel ashamed of trying, I think you should be ashamed of not trying. and wanting to fail. Yeah.

[01:00:38] Rosie: Failure is not bad. I feel like I was raised like at school, like you get an answer wrong. That's bad. Like naughty, like that's just being conditioned that way.

[01:00:49] And I very much don't like not being good at something. It's a tough pill to swallow for me. I like being good at stuff, but I'm learning that it's okay not to be good at something and you can still enjoy it even if you're rubbish at it and you can get better.

[01:01:05] Jet: Especially with skills, and nobody is going to be good right away trying something new.

[01:01:10] You're always gonna have to go through that first period of feeling like an idiot to feeling dumb, but that's when you know, you're going to succeed. If you feel dumb at something, it means you're learning, you know, you're just going through that process. And I love this. I think Alex Ramosi said this about the imposter syndrome.

[01:01:26] Imposter syndrome is actually true. You kind of are an imposter because you haven't done it enough times yet. But how you're going to overcome that is by doing it. Yeah. So it is not about like, you know, like We can be very woo about imposter syndrome feelings and all of that. And I, I also believe that is part of it, like how you feel about it and da da da.

[01:01:48] But it's also just accepting, yeah I, I'm not really an expert right now, but how am I going to get to expert level is by doing it, practicing, learning, going through it, learning on the job. Am I going to go from imposter to expert by just reading about the skill? Am I going to go from imposter to expert by just watching videos?

[01:02:07] No, you're gonna go to expert level by actually mastering it. And mastery comes from doing, from practicing, from experience. And it is more like, it's okay that I suck. I can just charge a bit less. I can just practice the skill. I can get good at it. And then once I'm freaking undeniably good, I'm going to raise my prices.

[01:02:26] That makes way more sense. You're not going to learn how to drive in a parked car. You have to actually start the car. You have to actually start driving. So obvious when you say that. You'll hit some bumps, but otherwise you're not gonna, you're not gonna get good at driving. You're not going to learn.

[01:02:41] And they, this is also the thing they say, right? Learning how to drive actually starts as soon as you've, you passed your exam and you're on your own in the car.

[01:02:49] Rosie: I nearly crashed my car when I passed the exam. I nearly, yeah. Yeah. That is exactly when you start. That's when it starts. And

[01:02:57] Jet: you learn it from experience, that's the only way you're going to get good at it.

[01:03:00] And it's with any skill, any new business model you're going to learn or any new strategy, you have to learn to love to be, to suck actually, you have to learn to love to suck at something because that's the only way you're going to Good.

[01:03:12] Rosie: Yeah. Something I'm trying to lean into at the moment is I'm a beginner and that's okay.

[01:03:17] Like for a long time, I thought I had to pretend I'm this expert, but ever since I've started leaning into, Hey, I'm a beginner. It's amazing. The kind of clients that come my way, they really respect that. And I'm like, you know, I've never done this, right? They're like, yeah, take my money, and I go, Oh, I just had to be honest and own.

[01:03:34] Yeah. I'm learning and do the thing. Yeah. I'm surprised.

[01:03:39] Jet: But I say that the biggest, actually the biggest scale guys to have is the ability to learn new skills. That's the only skill you have to possess, honestly, just the ability to adapt and to learn new things. Why? Because especially in the digital space, we have new tools, AI software programs, platforms every single minute.

[01:04:01] So you actually shouldn't want. To master everything, because one of them might be irrelevant tomorrow. There might be another one. There might be a new way. So don't be so scared that you're like, you know, uh, that's also what imposter syndrome is actually what we think, right? We think that everyone knows this and we only know very little, that everyone knows a lot and we know very little, actually, we know a lot of the same things as other people, some other people might touch on a few things.

[01:04:28] Yeah. But the core of what the skill is, as long as you understand that, that is, that is the most important part with that after it from experience, you're going to learn the most, but right away, you shouldn't think, Oh, I don't know everything yet. You will never, you will know everything because a new thing is created every single day about every skill, about every tool, about every software.

[01:04:50] So you should just lean into it and learn to be good at The ability to learn new skills. And then, yeah, you will get amazing clients and projects who trust your ability to learn new things. They don't have time to learn it. You have time to learn it. You have time to learn on the job to make, to obviously practice and so on.

[01:05:08] And that's the cool thing I think about skills. It's even for a beginner let's say in our program, you have two options. Either you're going to watch all the videos and you're going to wait until you feel ready. Or you're just going to take on a client and you're going to watch my video while you do it at the same time, and this is how you're going to learn.

[01:05:28] That is how you learn from experience. It's like apprenticeship. You learn on the job. And that's how you're actually going to obviously be able to feel confident in your abilities is by practicing, just going for it, making those mistakes and learning from it.

[01:05:41] Rosie: Yeah, you got to get over yourself and do it.

[01:05:43] I'm talking to myself when I say that. Now, one more topic I want to touch on. I could just keep talking to you for hours is goal setting and this idea of success, right? Because, and what set me down this journey. It was a video you posted on your YouTube channel. I can't remember what it was from, but, and I can see it in the background, your plaque.

[01:06:08] You, you're in the two comma club, right? For ClickFunnels. So for people who don't know that's reaching a million dollars in sales. And you mentioned um, there was a bit of a void, like you set these goals and then you get there and it's a bit like, Oh, so can you, can you talk a bit about that?

[01:06:26] Because when I heard you say it, it really resonated.

[01:06:29] Jet: Yeah, totally. Definitely.

[01:06:31] Let's say when you're starting out anything, and you have certain things on your vision board. So for me, yeah, that was the Tukoma Club Award. It was being a TEDx speaker, being on billboards.

[01:06:39] It was also speaking on stages, but also monetary amounts. So my first big goal was 10K. Then it was 20, then 40, 50, then 100, then 150, 200, 250. And you keep setting these goals and it is actually that realization that once you have it and you achieve it, so for me it's just that video you're referring to as me opening the awards and being like, I don't know, did I expect fireworks or something?

[01:07:04] Or did I expect that if I got this award, All my problems would be gone. I feel like that's often what we think. We think if I get this, I will finally be happy, be successful, be safe, feel stability, feel like something, feel some kind of emotion. But it's not like that, it doesn't happen like that.

[01:07:22] And I can really speak from experience. I ticked off most of the crazy stuff on my vision boards. That is Really, as soon as I got there, it was like, whoa, I feel different than expected. And often the bigger you set, the more problems they come with too. That's again, the question of, are you willing to have that sacrifice for that specific goal?

[01:07:41] But it's true. The bigger the goals, the bigger their problems. Plus now let's say, yeah, I got the, yeah, the two comma club award. And I was at that event, but I was sitting next to people who had the 10 X award and a hundred X award. And, so as soon as you are. reaching that level, there's another level you want to unlock, and there's another level, and it's never going to be enough.

[01:08:00] You're never going to feel satisfied if you keep setting goals based on that,

[01:08:05] based on getting

[01:08:06] Jet: to the next stone. I think what's important is actually the person you have to become. To achieve those goals, so that's how I look at it now. It's okay, what is the real reward? It was the skills, the capabilities, the character development, personal developments, sacrifices, the lessons that is the real goal.

[01:08:28] And success for me is the person that I had to become to get to 100K, to get to 200K, to get to 250, that is, The person I had to become. That's a real success. To be honest I was very monetary and let's say number oriented. And I still am, I, we, our next goal is 500K month, 1 million a month.

[01:08:46] And I'm very excited for it, but not necessarily for the money amount. Not really, but I just learned to love the process. And I know that in that process of scaling, hiring, team, automations, whoa, I'm going to learn so much, I'm going to face so many challenges you have no idea. And I can't wait for them.

[01:09:05] I know that they will come with that. With that result, but that is what's going to shape my character. That's what's going to make me a better human being, a better, future wife, a better mom is all those things I'm going to learn. And that is what I'm more excited about. Than necessarily the amount or attaching a feeling to that

[01:09:22] chasing the money is never a good thing. It's not good to start because you're going to chase the wrong things. You're going to keep changing what we talked about before, shiny object syndrome, information overload. Because you don't have conviction, but it's also not good in general, in a business to focus on monetary or, let's say recognition goals, like awards or PR, that extrinsic

[01:09:43] Rosie: kind of stuff.

[01:09:44] Yeah. It's

[01:09:44] Jet: not, it shouldn't be extrinsic. It should be intrinsic, like who you had to become and what you had to learn. That it should be your real goal and your real value. That goes against every

[01:09:54] Rosie: business textbook out there. Can I just say, and I love

[01:09:57] Jet: it. Yeah, probably. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, that's, I guess that's the only thing, like you said, you also maybe felt in some cases that way it's when it happens, you really realize that, you know, and for me also was a big thing.

[01:10:09] Like I bought my own house and sitting in my house with my parents. Pretty award, doing all this cool stuff. And I was like, fuck, I'm not happy. Why? I was like, okay, I'm missing something else. And I realized I actually am very excited to get married and be a wife. I never expected that. But things change, these realizations when you have experience, life experience, business experience.

[01:10:32] That was like, it's not the monetary goal at all, or business or a new company to set up. No, I was like Hmm, actually. Jet, I think you should be mom. And I'm like, yeah, actually, probably.

[01:10:42] I would love that. Yeah. So these things also change over time, what you attach value to, and that's a good thing, I think. Totally. And now also that realization of um, When you have money, you want what money can't buy, and it would be even nicer if you could realize this earlier. So take that lesson for me like what is worth more than anything is spending time with your parents.

[01:11:09] My parents are getting older every time I see them, my grandparents, my sister, friends and like for me now realizing, fuck, I want a husband. I want to be a mom. I want kids soon, I attach way more value to that now because I have money and it's fucked up because I fulfilled what I thought I wanted, which was money.

[01:11:30] And success and the, PR and being like this big speaker and dah. And then I got it and I was like, this shit doesn't matter. Family, health, that's the only thing that matters in life. But I think at the same time I could only have this realization point because, I literally felt it and achieved the things I thought I wanted.

[01:11:51] And then I realized that's not what I actually want. So yeah, take my advice from that right now. It's going to be way more of value in 30 years to say that you could spend more time with your parents or the people you love than having 30 million on your bank. Really. It's, you're going to value it more that you spend time with the people you loved.

[01:12:11] And

[01:12:13] Rosie: on that note, I want to ask you a question I ask every single guest and that is, what does freedom mean to you?

[01:12:25] Jet: Freedom to me is being able to design your own life, however that may look like, so yeah, in terms of time, location, what you do, what your day looks like being able to chase the things you really want or want to see in the world.

[01:12:40] So I would say, yeah, to be able to live your life by design and to make sure that. You built your work around your life and not your life around your work.

[01:12:51] Rosie: Why isn't that the norm? Oh my goodness. I know. I know.

[01:12:56] Jet: We're getting there though, we're getting there.

[01:12:58] Like I feel like people are waking up and. And that causes another issue because if everyone is an online guru soon, we will have another big problem to function in this world. But, I've, I hope that also more companies, maybe even we'll listen to this, you know, companies, think about how can you make your work for your employees, your team more closely to what matches with their goals and their dreams.

[01:13:23] Then we would also solve a lot of these issues. Yeah, hopefully we will move more towards that way in general, in corporate entrepreneurship. Maybe you should be doing a course in leadership.

[01:13:33] Rosie: Just hearing you talk.

[01:13:37] Uh, Jett, thank you so much. This has been such a fascinating conversation and there's so much more we could have talked about. I just want listeners go check Jett out online. She's been on so many podcasts, she's got a YouTube channel, she's got a book it's called What Influence is it? Is that what it's called?

[01:13:55] Yeah.

[01:13:56] Jet: What's influence.

[01:13:56] Rosie: And a TEDx talk that was, I think it was published just a few weeks ago, which is amazing. And yeah, I just, you've, you dropped a lot of truth bombs You know, one of them that stood out is we run away from pain faster than we run towards our dreams. That is painfully true.

[01:14:14] Yeah. I feel embarrassed. Yeah. But it's true. That's true. And. And, what you were talking about, our sense of survival, and that's very much why we conform. But I think society today is very different to when we're choosing the left cave or the right cave.

[01:14:30] Yeah,

[01:14:31] Rosie: totally. Sometimes we've got to ask those uncomfortable questions. Thank you so much. I, oh, I've got a fly on my camera. That's disgusting. I don't know if you've seen the whole time we've been talking, there's been flies buzzing around. It's gross. In this part of Australia, it's really hot. And for some reason, the flies just love it. There's still the flies. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:14:52] The flies love you too, I guess. yeah. Yay. Thank you again. And let's talk soon.

[01:15:00] Jet: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.