Build a Business That Actually Works | 065

Right? We'll do this. Profit doesn't happen by chance. It happens by design. Let's dig in, and today we are going to dig into the devil in the details with my guest, Jan. Jansen, welcome Jan.

Well, thank you for having me. Sharon. I'm thrilled to be here

before we get started, let's hear a little bit about Jan. I'm going to go ahead and read her bio Jan. Jansen is an author and decision expert who writes about the choices that shapes business and life. Her upcoming book devil with a briefcase. Stop winging it, start winning is built around

101 decisions entrepreneurs must make to move from chaos to structure and results after decades in business, Jan's work focuses on clarity, conviction and building something that works without second guessing. I'm so excited to hear about your book about how this whole thing happened. And before we

get started, you held something up for me before we got started recording, what do you have in your hands?

Jan, this is my my new is about to be released. This is the proof copy I just got it this week. And so this is my devil with a briefcase book. It's a rewrite of a book I wrote back in 2004 and I have updated the book to meet with what's going on in today's world. And I'm super excited. It's an

amazing book.

I am so excited for you. There is nothing like holding that proof copy in your hands and seeing all of that heart, the hard work in book form. So let's go ahead and talk a little bit about the devil with a briefcase. What? What's it all about? And let's dig in a little bit.

Okay, well, I spent 38 years in a high control religion, and it was the Jehovah's Witnesses, and you may know them from them banging on your door. You'll see them standing out there in a park or something, offering their literature. Well, I did that for 38 years. I was a missionary in

Ecuador with my first husband. For four years, I was an active, ardent, really committed Jehovah's Witness. And after 38 years, I chose to escape. And it was a it was an ordeal escaping it's it's not an easy decision to make, but my first husband and I made that decision. And looking back at I was 38 when I

was 38 I thought, I have to make sense of why I did it for 38 years. Like, what can I take out of this? Like, what gold can I glean from a really, very challenging life, and so I sat down and I wrote devil with a briefcase, and I wanted to to make sure that I never went away with any kind of resentment or

any kind of anger or anything that was negative around the experience, even though a lot of it was negative and a lot of it was really challenging, as I mentioned to you before we started, I've been mobbed. I've had dogs sicked on me, hoses turned on me. I've had doors slammed in my face when people

say, Well, what if they say, No, I go get over it.

That is, that is something that is that people that have not faced that, that quote, unquote rejection and hearing no, no, no, no, over and over and over again. It is a very huge fear of people to I will they will say no, I will be rejected. I am a failure. And they turn it into some really

powerful brain mindset barriers that keep us from moving forward. So one of the good things to come out of what you did was that you don't have that problem at all. I am not

faced by it at all. Exactly. One of the other things about that is that you never knew who was on the other side of the door. You never knew what religion they were, what faith they were, what what gender they were going to be. You didn't have a clue what their culture was. And I come from Canada,

where it's a it really is a melting pot of so many different nationalities, like the US. You had no idea what you were going to be dealing with, and who you're going to be facing and who you were supposed to try to convince that you had, you had the truth.

Yeah. Another thing that was really powerful that we discussed a little before we jumped on is that you took from this experience positive things, and you turned that into a a road map for business owners on how to approach their business based on your experiences as a Jehovah's

Witness. Can you talk a little bit about that?

What I did in the second edition, which I really, I'm really pleased I did, because 101 chapters, people go, Oh, my goodness, that must be like you must deliver that must be one package in Amazon. It's not. What I did is I realized how people have a very short. Attention span, and it's got

worse the last 20 years. So my chapters are one to two pages, that's it so, and they're not in any order. So you literally could say, I don't know what I need today, but I need something that's going to give me the right information, open it up. And I always believe that's the right, right place for you to be

and my chapters are not called chapters. They're called decisions, because we're always making a decision, and particularly in your in your business, you're constantly making decisions. But I divided it into seven parts, and one of my most fun is part four, which is the unsexy stuff that changes

everything. Okay, I've got a sense of humor in this. I love that sexy stuff that changed everything, because that's the stuff that we usually avoid. It's the systems. It's the things we go, oh, do I have to? I don't want to do that. But that's the reason that the Jehovah's Witnesses were so

incredibly successful, is because of their systems and structure.

And like I told you, this is, this is what I love to help my business owners do with is, how do you create those systems and structures? How do you create the foundation? How do you navigate your journey and do it in a way that you're not burning out, you're not hating what you do,

and you are actually achieving the success that you want to have in your business, and this is all foundational. And what you just said was that the Jehovah's witness has have been around for quite a few years, and the reason that they're able to continue and be successful is all of these foundational

principles they've put in place exactly.

People aren't really familiar with them. They only know when they bang on their door. They see them, like I said, standing out in a park, but they print their literature in over 100,000 100,000 languages. Wow. Now you and I would be hard pressed to you know, think of one 100

languages, but they are incredibly they are they are global, and so that is a huge thing about them, is that no matter I could go to a meet their meeting place called the Kingdom Hall in Timbuktu or in Venezuela or in India or wherever, and it would be exactly the same information. It

would be the same system that they have, which it's hard to build systems, and that's why I break it down every single system that you really need. Plus, I've been an entrepreneur since I was 19. I bought a franchise at 19, and I'm now almost 65 so I've had a few decades, and wow, in having

businesses, I love that and and so you can see both sides and how having systems and processes in a business is actually it's, it's, it is found it. I call it foundational. It's like, build that foundation. If you have that strong foundation, you can build a skyscraper. And if you

don't, you don't have any foundation, then a storm could come and blow over your building.

Absolutely And today, it's hard for entrepreneurs to know where to start first. And it's also missing the little details. You can build a house, but the nail is really little, yeah. But if you don't have enough of them, your house isn't going to stand. And if

you don't have the right kind of nails, and

if you don't have the right kind of nails, and if

there's not to use the little one, you put us you put a picture in your wall is not going to hold up your your the frame when you're building the house, exactly.

So that's why I wanted to really help. I love entrepreneurs. I love being an entrepreneur. I love entrepreneurship. I once had a business that wasn't doing so well, and it went for a job interview, and the man looked at me and he said, Jan, go make your business work. You are so

unemployable.

Oh, that's so funny. And you know what, especially after you've done it for a long time, you are unemployable. You are. It is. That's a real phenomenon, right?

It is. So if we have decided that we want to do this, then why not do it well? And that's why we decide we're going to be an entrepreneur, then decide to be a successful entrepreneur that isn't just scraping by, isn't hating their business, isn't just eking out a life that's okay, go for it,

because we have the privilege, and I also think the responsibility Sharon as entrepreneurs, to not only make sure that we're providing for ourselves, but I have spent many years traveling the world, and most of them in underdeveloped countries. I was a missionary with the Jehovah's Witnesses in

Ecuador for four years. I'm on the board for girls, matter where we put girls in Africa through school so they don't get married as young as 10 and have babies and are dying. The number one reason for deaths with girls between 15 and 19 is childbirth and pregnancy. And so that's why I came back to work. Was because

I'm already an avid supporter, but I wanted to do more. So portion, a larger portion of the sale of my book is going to girls matter. Wouldn't we all love to be able to do more in the world. So if you're going to spend your time running a business, why not run a really successful one?

I love that perspective. I think sometimes we, we the business owners, get caught up in the the mechanics and the every day, and they're, they're like, heads down and just not looking at the bigger picture and the success that they think they want. They've not actually really defined or

identified so that they can't ever get there. They're just caught in this loop of running around solving the same problems all the time. And so I am really passionate about that perspective with business owners is to get them out of that. And so I think that your book and your whole perspective is going

to be really powerful to to help business owners. So when the book is available, is that, where can they find that it

will be available on Amazon. Okay, great to the last, the last revisions, and you know, a little typo here or there, and it will be released. Yes, absolutely awesome.

So whenever you whenever this podcast comes out, it will all be already be available. So go to Amazon. Look for devil with a briefcase. And one of the things I think so powerful about the way you've designed your book is that it is that go and read a get a tip. Go in, open it up wherever you need

that inspiration today, because I find I read a lot of business books, and I get about three quarters of the way through them, and I'm like, I don't know if I can finish this book or I'll get distracted with something. So when I wrote my book, I've intentionally wrote it with very short chapters as

well. I not quite as short as yours, I don't think, but I think that's a really useful way. It's a powerful tool, and it gives you an injection immediately of what you need to hear today.

Absolutely, because we have to remember that as entrepreneurs, we don't have a cheerleader. We don't go to the supervisor, whoever. I'm very unfamiliar with how business works in the corporate world, but you do, you always have someone up there who's going to help you along, or kick you in

the pants or do whatever you need. At the time, when you're an entrepreneur, you don't have someone like that. You don't have anyone to tell you what to do. You can get up in the morning and stay in your pajamas all day and not do a darn thing, and there is no one there that's going to say, what are you

doing? And that's why I left right from motivation and every every idea. Matter of fact, one of my favorite chapters is have fun, because Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate any holidays. There's no Christmas. I didn't have a birthday or Christmas until I was 40. Wow. I didn't have a clue how to do it. It

was, it was a pretty funny, little pretty funny stories around that, that's for sure. But my whole attitude was, have fun. I don't want to do it. If I'm not having fun, I don't want to do it. Yeah? Just a reminder, if you're feeling down or be grateful, or all kinds of things that you might not realize,

there's a chapter on Be humble, yeah? Who talks about humility? Who talks about humility in a in a business book today? Well, I do yeah, because all of that is all of that is important. Building a building, a team, building loyalty, being hospitable. It's stop caring what other people think

that's a big one right there, because especially really talking about really podcasts, you know, getting yourself out there, it's all about, what do people think about me in our own heads. So really, really powerful perspectives. I really am very excited to get this book. I'm

going to get one myself. Jen, I do have a question to ask you. Oh, before I do that, if you would like to get more information about Jan, you can go into our member portal. It's called profit connectors dot club. That's profit connectors dot, C, l, u, B, and you'll her information will be in there.

You can watch the podcast episode, and then all of our other podcast episodes that we've recorded, and the gifts from those particular podcasters, if they happen to give one to our audience that's in our community, profit connectors, dot, C, l, u, B, you can go there. And Jan, I am

going to hit you with this question that I have begun to ask all of our guests, what's the most unexpected experience that made you adjust your approach to your business?

It was my husband, my second husband, who got sick early, early on, much earlier than we expected in 2000 20 I realized that he was not doing well, and by 2022, he passed away. So I had to make a tremendous first of all, I had to pause everything and make sure that he was a priority. And

then just watching someone that you love, and that was so full of vitality, he was a brilliant doctor in the US, and had an amazing product. He was out of the box, unconventional, and helped so many people, and yet there he was lying on his death bed, and there was nothing anybody could do to help him,

including me. What I realized is, and that's the next book that's coming out. It's called, life's too short for maybe, and I really, really encourage people look at what you're doing. How do you spend your day? Because we didn't. I didn't expect to see him go at at 73 my dad is 104 this month. We have

no idea how long we have. Mm, hmm. So make sure that you are living each day, is it? But once you're last, so that you can be on that deathbed with no regrets. And that, to me, is is super important, because I've seen someone on that bed with regrets, and it isn't fun.

Oh, that's really powerful. Thank you for sharing that, Jan,

well, thank you for asking that question. That's a very, very good question. I like it. I might just steal that one. Sharon, okay,

thank you so much for being my guest here today, Jan, everybody keep an eye out for devil with the briefcase. Get it. Put it on your shelf. Treat it like your business partner. Pull it out whenever you need it, and whenever you're working on your business, when you're creating

that magic that you're putting out into the world, remember to build with clarity. Lead with purpose. Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you next time.

Thank you. Sharon, you.