This week’s guest, Jeanet Bathoorn, is a bestselling author of 6 books, international speaker and trainer and a no-nonsense business coach. She is a certified NLP Master Coach and a Certified Sacred Money Archetype Coach.

She started the Freedom Entrepreneur Movement a couple of years ago after having dealt with a total lack of freedom in her business and private. In 2020 she started her own podcast show in which she recorded 100 episodes in 100 days.

She is a multiple six-figure entrepreneur since 2005 and has coached thousands of entrepreneurs finding their own unique path to freedom. She also runs several mastermind groups.

We talked about…

>> Changing plans from freedom entrepreneur running cruises to focus on the dutch market again

>> Launching a podcast with 100 episodes in 100 days

>> The importance of having fun with your content

>> Writing your first book shifting to author

>> Keeping things simple to avoid confusing your clients

Episode Links and Mentions:

English Website: http://jeanetbathoorn.com/

Assessment: https://jeanetbathoorn.com/money-archetype-assessment/

Ebook: https://jeanetbathoorn.com/ebook-7-steps-to-become-a-freedom-entrepreneur/

LinkedIn Link: Jeanet: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanetbathoorn/

LinkedIn Link: Stephanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniefiteni/

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Prefer to Read? Here’s the Transcript:

Stephanie:

Hello, Jeanet, how are you? Hi, Stephanie. I'm fine. Thanks for having me. Thank you very much for joining us today. I'm really happy to have you on, would you like to start by introducing yourself and letting us know what you do? And we do it for? Okay. So my name is Janet - I work for the Dutch market, so all my content, everything is in Dutch. I call myself the freedom entrepreneur and I guide/mentor self-employed entrepreneurs to break through their own limiting beliefs, like the beliefs that they created in themselves. And I do that by running mastermind groups. And by putting out a lot of content, I know we're going to talk about content, but I put out a lot of content. Yeah, excellent. Yes, we're in the right place to talk about content. So, what does that content look like?

Jeanet:

So I am, I'm in the habit of writing books. I love to write books. And in fact, this year I will publish two books. My first book is about running a mastermind group. So what do you need to run a mastermind group? And what does it take to run a group? And the next book I wrote that my publisher asked me to write it. That will be published in November. And it's about online business models because of the whole COVID-19 situation.

Stephanie:

Oh, wow. Yes, definitely the right topic and especially the right topic for you. . Excellent. So that would be book number 10 in all, because you've already written eight books, right?

Jeanet:

Yeah. That's that if it's like books that I wrote his book number eight, but I wrote also like chapters for other books, so that, that would bring it to like books and co-writing books.

Stephanie:

Wow. was it all in dutch? For the Dutch market then, which is a pretty big market. Really.

Jeanet:

It's interesting, yeah, it's interesting, it's not so big. I mean, it's not English speaking or German-speaking, but it's a very active market. People are really eager to learn more and to develop themselves.

Stephanie:

That's really good. That's a very good one to be in then, especially if you're in the online space. So speaking of content, I know you've done something a little bit special In the last few months with the launch of your podcast in the middle of this a virus outbreak, which has caused so many people to rethink what they were doing. And I know that's, you know, what you were doing before, which is, what I got to know you for the cruise lady, everybody calls you the cruise lady. Cause that's used to do business mentoring cruises, right?

Jeanet:

Yes. Trans Atlantic cruise this year. That's right.

Stephanie:

So tell us how everything changed and you know, how the podcast came.

Jeanet:

Yeah. So last year, 2019, I took on a big project. So I organize my first international cruise before that it was only Dutch and I wanted to take as a lot of entrepreneurs with me. And before that I had groups of six and my, my biggest group was like 10 people, like very small intimate groups just because for me, it was just for the fun part of my business model. I, it was, it was an extra I used to run groups like since 2015, 2016 mastermind groups and things like that.

Then the cruise came along and I had this crazy ambition to bring more people with me and to do it for the English speaking markets. So in fact for like a lot of people and then doing that last year, because we left in November, the virus was not known by then, but doing it and being on the ship with all these people, I realized that it is not really the business model for me. It didn't make me happy to travel with so many people. And there was a big, big realization, like, who am I doing this for? Why would I do it this way?

So when I, yeah, when I left the ship, it was December. And then I already started to think, well, I want to cross the oceans. I love it. And I love to take people with me, but not so many and not so intensive and not long and not so like, not as a travel. So when I came back in the Netherlands, it was like in the winter, I started to rethink my home business model in January. And I was like, no, I'm going to go back to the Dutch markets. That's where I'm known. And I had to claim a position in the English market. It's easier. So one of the decisions as I'm going back to the Dutch market and let's see what will happen with the cruise, I didn't make my mind up about it. I didn't decide to do it. Yes or no. But then Corona came COVID-19 came, we had a complete lockdown.

And one of the first things I did was making a phone call to the CRO cruise company and told them that I want to cancel next year's cruise. And then I put the phone down and I was so relieved. I was like, who am I fooling? Why would I do it? If I don't like it? If it's like a burden on my shoulders.

Stephanie:

So it was a good thing for you because you really didn't want to do it.

Jeanet:

Not in, in the way that I shaped it. Yeah. So I do want to do cruises again, but only with small intimate groups. And most of the time, the people that join me are already in one of my mastermind groups. So I already knew them. We already had a connection, but now I had strangers on board. I'm like, it's not my usual fun. It didn't make me happy. It's a very important lesson.

Stephanie:

Yes. A very important lesson. Sometimes we make decisions and we do something. And then because it took so much work and so much investment, we kind of feel like we have to take it forward, even though maybe we're not enjoying it so much. So yes, it's definitely, I've made that mistake before. And it's, it's really nice to hear that, you know, you kind of did it once and you felt it wasn't right. And then you took that away. It takes a lot of, I think, clarity and self-awareness too, to be able to backtrack so quickly and say, no.

Jeanet:

Yeah. So, I mean, I was forced to cancel it because of this whole COVID-19 situation. And I was also very happy to cancel it. And I was like, okay, that's a good sign. So I cleared out my whole calendar, all the retreats, all life events, everything got cancelled or I cancelled them. And that was the point where you were referring to like all of a sudden it was February. I had loads and loads and loads of time to plan my business and to make a plan for reclaiming my position in the Dutch market. That's where my crazy podcast plan came. Yeah.

Stephanie:

Yes. That's truly crazy. Gosh, how many episodes are you on already?

Stephanie:

Started on March the fourth. And initially, I did, I said, okay, I'm going to create a hundred podcasts in a hundred days. And that's a very easy sentence to pronounce. It's very easy to say it. But looking back, it was, it was a lot of work and it was, I really loved it because I clear my calendar. I took my losses like also financially or like, okay, let's make a plan so that I can finish 2020 in a different way. That makes me happy and money flowing in again. And it worked, I mean, we're now six, seven months ahead. Or we are six, seven months from March. So I did a hundred and a hundred days that it was in the middle of June. And then I switched to a frequency of twice per week, two podcasts per week. So we are now at 134, I think. Yeah. It's one of the lists I'm like, okay, did I do that? Yeah.

Stephanie:

Yeah. I'm super curious. How did you manage a hundred episodes in a hundred days? What did your content creation schedule look like? Because it's more than batching. Isn't it? It's like a full-time job.

Jeanet:

Hold on. Thing. It's, it's almost a full-time job. And so I created this whole Excel sheet. And before I add one podcast, I already had three episodes on my digital shelf. I already had some episodes. I created them two years ago, but I never aired them. Yeah. So I wanted to start a podcast before I decided to go to the English market. I'm like, why would I start a Dutch podcast if I go to the English market, but okay.

Going back to the Dutch market. Okay. I have these podcasts like I have three episodes. And then the first thing that I did was created an Excel sheet with topics to talk about, but also what could be your call to action after that podcast show? And then I did a whole inventory. Is that the word like, I made a search in my own content. Like I had some digital online training. I had the most video, well, why not create audio?

There were some interviews that I already had, well, why not create them into a podcast episode? I took one of my books. I have a book about money mindset, and I just literally read some of the chapters in the book from the book. And I say that to them, like, I'm going to read this chapter for you because it's a useful chapter. So it just to get going.

Stephanie:

Excellent. So did you have a pattern? Did you have you know, was every episode different or, you know cause you know, some people go for a solo episode. Some people go for interviews. Some people like myself, I do alternate one solo and then one interview. Sometimes I mix them up. Cause I have more guests. So how did you do it? What did you, did you have a format?

Jeanet:

I, of course, thought about that and I listened to like the famous podcast is out of Pat Flynn and John Lee Dumas and people like that. And they all have a format and they all have a plan and I'm like, no, I want the podcast to be my playground. I want it to, to be a project. It has to be fun because it doesn't pay the bills, creating a podcast costs money and time. So I decided everything that I like is suitable for a podcast. So it can be a 10-minute episode with like a short, short mantra thing or like a short trip.

But it can also be a two-hour episode in which I have like a long interview or training. And I just decided I want it to be a representation of the work that I do and the person that I am. So there's no format. That's the thing. So I had, I did have this theme month. I, so like in may I thought about, I want to talk to entrepreneurs. Self-Employed entrepreneurs who wrote a book author, but also the non-fiction authors.

And I like to talk about them, talk about their book, like the content of the book, but also about becoming an author like this whole journey of changing your identity into becoming an author. And that was like an instant hit because I put some posts out on Facebook and on LinkedIn like I want to talk to authors who wrote a non-fiction book. Can you recommend people? And before I knew it, I had like 70 or 80 people on my list.

Stephanie:

Oh, fantastic. Wow.

Jeanet:

That was so easy. And that's yeah, that's really great because I got to really enlarge my network. I learned a lot because of receiving books, reading books. So they'd people telling me about their book and it was fun to do like one interview every day, like one interview out every day. There were days that I did three interviews and it was a max.

Stephanie:

Wow. Okay. That's good. Wow. I'm, I'm very interested in what you said and you know, you said it has to be fun. It doesn't have to have a particular set format task to be fun. And I completely subscribe to that idea because I think with content. What most people struggle with is motivation, the motivation to keep doing it. And yeah, unless you pick the right thing, that's really gonna make it an experience in itself for you that you want to do it.

You don't want to do it because it's good for your business because it goes out there because people will engage with it because people will find you want to do it because you enjoy doing it. And that is so, so important with content. Sometimes I have to dig really deep to find what really lights people up about their business because once you find that, then creating content is not difficult.

Jeanet:

I think. Yeah. I think that's, it's really important that you have fun in what you do, because it's what you say. If you have to write a blog every week, but you hate writing or don't start a blog, start a podcast or do videos or whatever.

Stephanie:

That's right and then there's always repurposing. It's like you said, you've got your book, you turned it into a podcast episode. You can do the same thing. You can get a podcast episode and turn that into a blog post. You know, it's, it's all about at least keeping your content exciting because repurposing, you know it can be automated to some extent outsourced later, it's something you can manage. Yeah.

Jeanet:

I discovered that I really liked it and I'm really, I'm like a really curious person. So I loved to interview people and ask them the questions that some people are afraid to ask. I just ask them.

Stephanie:

I liked the sound of that. I love talking to people as well because I'm very curious, but what is the kind of question for instance, that people wouldn't ask?

Stephanie:

What is the kind of question? So I had people in my podcast show that were really, really skilled, really experienced entrepreneurs and they get into feud a lot. So like I have, for example, I had one in my show, I think you wrote about 80 books already and he's like 65, 67. Yeah.

He's like productive and he's well known, but he's, he's like so used to getting interviewed by the press, et cetera. And I could tell that because if I ask a question, he just had an answer within microseconds. And then I, I asked him to go back to the person he was before publishing his first book.

Like, because that's the whole identity shift. If you are an author with 80 books it's very hard to remember the struggle, maybe when you didn't have 80 books when the first book was still not published. So I asked him to go back to that period and to describe what kind of person he was back then. And then that's the first time that he fell silent.

Like, Oh, I have to think about that. And then he said, well, good question. Yeah. I try to find insights in people that have got to do with them, like this whole identity shift that they have gone through. That's I think that's really interesting for people listening to my podcast because we all have started at zero. Every one of them started at zero.

Stephanie:

That's right. And I think every little success kind of does cause a bit of an identity shift in your beliefs as well, which I know is a topic you, you work with a lot.

Jeanet:

Yeah. But it has to, I mean, and the only way to gain these, these identity shifts, like in a positive way is to do the right things and to have the habits that support you. Like, if you want to be an author, you just have to write a book. It will not be written itself. I mean, you have to do the work, but you have to do the good things and yeah. Only shouting, like you have to do like take massive action. That's what Tony Robbins says. You have to take massive actions. I agree with that.

But as an entrepreneur, especially when you do a lot yourself, you have to know if I do this, why would I do it in order to get that goal? Is it, is it clear? Is it, is it, is it connected? Because very often, I mean, people write a book and then I asked her about that book. I said, is it your profit book? Like, do you have online training about it? Or would you like to run a mastermind group about it? Or no. I just wanted this book to be written. I'm like, okay. You just wasted six months of your life probably, but

Stephanie:

Oh, that sounds painful.

Jeanet:

Yeah. Well, I say it in a loving way, but if you don't have a plan, it's, it's a lot of work and everything is a lot of work.

Stephanie:

Yes, indeed. So you need to do it with, you need to have the goal first. First, and you need to, as you mentioned before now, It's going to take you in a direction you want to go. Excellent. Wow. Okay. So what made you write your first. So maybe your next book, maybe if it's easier. No,

Jeanet:

I can remember really well because I started to blog in 2008. Okay. Because someone told me that it's going to be the next big thing blogging. I'm like, okay, I'll start a blog. And I wrote about social media, but then a lot about LinkedIn. And I think I wrote already like 40 or 50 blog articles in two and a half years, two years. And all of a sudden I wasn't, I was on Twitter and Twitter was really new back then.

And it was like this lovely, wonderful village in which you knew people and people knew each other. And we could talk to the minister and famous people, et cetera. So I was surrounded by authors, by people who wrote books, but people who already achieved what I wanted to achieve. So one day I put it out on Twitter. Well, I would love to write a book and someone else responded to that.

Stephanie:

Her name was Suzanne. She already published two books and she said, well, it's, Hey, you should write a book. And here are the details of my publisher. So she sent me a direct message with the details of a publisher, why I reached out to the publisher, they checked my blog articles and they were like, yeah, let's write a book. Here's the book deal. So I never had to write a book first and go to a publisher. They just said, okay, this topic, social media is okay, great. When are you going to deliver? When is the manuscript ready? And that was the story of my first book. And it took me one initiative. Yeah.

Stephanie:

Well, that's like in, in social media years, that's a century. Yeah.

Jeanet:

But still, it was one...