More Money Podcast - 117 Turning Your Side Hustle into Your Main Hustle - Luisa Zhou, Business Coach

Episode Date: October 4, 2017

Luisa Zhou shares how she went from Princeton grad, to climbing the corporate ladder, to quitting her 9 to 5 once and for all to start her own business as one of the most sought after business coaches. Long description: I absolutely loved chatting with Luisa Zhou, probably one of the hardest working millennials around. She is all about the hustle which I think is awesome. She has gotten to where she is today in her career because she knows that the only way to success is to work hard. That and some other pieces of wisdom she shares in this episode. The reason I wanted to talk with her for this episode is because she has some great advice for starting a side hustle, and then turning that into your main hustle while still working full-time. I always cringe when I hear someone’s quit their job to pursue their dream, but clearly didn’t have a solid business plan or enough in savings to sustain them throughout the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. That’s a big reason why I kept my side hustle as just that for 5 years until I was financially ready and was actually earning enough from my business to make me feel secure enough to leave my job. I certainly didn’t have $100,000 like Luisa did, but I had enough in my bank account that would basically last me a year if for some reason I couldn’t earn a penny during that first year on my own. Beyond talking about the financial aspect if starting your own business, Luisa also shared some other great tips on how to success and how to promote yourself even at your 9 to 5 so you can grow in your career. Important Lessons When Starting Out on Your Own Learn from your failures, don’t quit because of them. Stay humble. Figure out how to be a leader for your community. Stand up for what you believe in. How to Promote Yourself at Work (without sounding arrogant) Study how success people around you present and talk about themselves. Speak about your projects with enthusiasm. Sharing your accomplishments as stories. Grow a thick skin. Helpful Resources Sign up to Luisa’s Weekend Empire Challenge. Sign up to Luisa’s Free Master Class “How to Get Your First 3 Coaching Clients.” Follow Luisa’s latest updates on Facebook and Twitter. Check out Luisa’s blog to learn more about side hustles and entrepreneurship. For full podcast show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/117 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 117 of the Mo Money podcast. I am your host, Jessica Morehouse. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode. I kicked off season five of the podcast last week. And as I mentioned, I'm going to be doing two episodes every single week for the entire season. So I'm super pumped for all of that. And I also kind of mentioned last week that the kind of theme, even though I generally don't do themes, but the natural theme that just kind of happened from all of my interviews that I've done this season is around earning and, you know, starting a side hustle or asking for a raise or starting a business and all things earning. So I am very excited to talk to my next guest because she is awesome when it comes to

earning. I definitely hope one day I'll be, you know, in her realm. Probably not. But, you know, we can dream. Her name is Louisa Jo, but her last name is spelled Z-H-O-U. And I guess for anyone who's American listening, Z-H-O-U, Zed, Z, whatever. Louisa, I have been following for a long time and she is just such an inspiration. You know, a millennial that is, you know a millennial that is you know anything but that image of entitled or lazy my gosh she like has done it all and is kicking butt at doing her own business but of course she didn't start off as an entrepreneur she started in the corporate world and was very successful in that realm too but she at you know a certain point decided that she wanted to go off and do her own thing, which we will obviously get to in this episode. So what Louisa is known for now is being

a business coach and teaching others on how to start their own business. But of course, what I think is really significant about her story is she's not trying to sell this dream of, you know, quit your day job and then go make a ton of money each month because that is not a realistic story. I can attest to that because I am an entrepreneur myself and it's not like that. Her story is really about starting a side hustle, something on the side while still doing your normal job to see if it is something that you want to do a full time and kind of starting slowly and just ramping it up. And eventually when your financial situation is such that it is secure for you to leave your job, then maybe it's a good idea to start your side hustle as your full time hustle.

And, but I just really liked that. She talks about how being smart with your money and your finances is very key. And I think a lot of other kind of business coaches out there and stuff don't necessarily put as much emphasis on that. So I think you're going to get a lot out of this episode. I can't wait to share it with you. But first, I want to share a few words about this episode's sponsor. So you're racing against the clock to wrap up three projects, prepping for a meeting later in the afternoon, all while trying to tackle a mountain of paperwork. Welcome to life

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Create and send professional-looking invoices in less than 30 seconds, set up online payments with just a couple of clicks and get paid up to four days faster, and see when your client has seen your invoice and put an end to all those guessing games. FreshBooks is offering a 30-day unrestricted free trial to all of my listeners. To claim it, just go to freshbooks.com slash mo and enter Mo Money Podcast in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Once again, that's freshbooks.com slash m o and enter Mo Money Podcast in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Thank you, Louisa, for joining me on the Mo Money Podcast. I'm so excited to chat with you for this episode. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm really excited as well. You have an incredible story. And when I emailed you initially to get you on the show, it's partially because, I mean, I'm on Facebook all the time and I kept on seeing your ads pop up. And I mean,

I think I get targeted by a lot of business coaches just from all the stuff that I search. But your ads really spoke to me just because you kind of seemed like someone I could relate to, someone I'd probably be friends with and your story I totally identified with because you do come from this kind of corporate background. And then you did start with a side hustle and kind of turned into something. So it was kind of like you weren't necessarily, in my view, selling this impossible dream. I'm like, oh no, I could do that. And I actually have done that. Wait a minute. So I'm like, I definitely want to find out how you did all this stuff. But before we get to where you are now, I would love to know how this all started. I was looking at your bio.

You have a very impressive resume. You went to Princeton and studied to be an electrical engineer with a minor in robotics. So you're like a scientist. That's amazing so so I know a part of your story is you came your parents were immigrants and they really kind of um I guess instilled you the importance of hard work and achievement do you want to kind of talk a little bit about how that kind of uh started you on your path yeah I would say that really is the beginning uh that instilling that work ethic in me, just because throughout my life, that's, I mean, I would not say I'm the smartest person or the

luckiest, but I am one of the hardest working people I know. And that's really what's gotten me, it got me into a good college. That's what's helped me build my businesses, that more than anything else. So in terms, let me just, like you said, share a little bit of my background. So my entrepreneurial journey really started about 10 years ago. That's when I started my first business. And that was, the way it started, it was pretty cliche. Since I'm Asian, there's this very stereotypical, a lot of my mom's friends asked her if I could help their kids do well in school and get into a good college. And I figured I'm really good at this. I could get paid for it. So let me just do it. And that's how my first

business got started. I grew it into a six-figure business and did that for about two years. And then I decided, you know what? I've spent the past two decades of my life thinking about school and grades. I don't want to spend the next however many years thinking about it. So this is not going to work. So I shut it down. And then I went and worked in the corporate world for a while. I did work for a short while as an engineer for Boeing.

That was really cool for the International Space Station. And then, yeah, that was cool. And then did a while in financial services. And that's when I kind of got to start for my second business venture, which with a co-founder was to start a mobile payment startup. This was back late in, I believe, 2010 when mobile payments was the next big thing. And we thought we were just going to change the world and really do something amazing. So as you can probably tell, because we're not all using it, it didn't quite work out like that. After about three years, we just got to a point where we just weren't seeing the customer numbers that we needed to really make an impact. And I said, all right, this is, this is it. I've got to, it's time. And so that was really heartbreaking, but moved on, joined a digital advertising

startup. And that's when I was kind of for a while living what I consider my corporate dream. I had a really great salary. I had a really great position. I was in middle management and just, this had been my goal since being a little girl. And I, since it was a tech startup, we had a lot of the same luxuries that most tech startups do like amazing meals, snacks, parties and everything. And so I was living the life, but I started feeling as a lot of people do that bug where this is, this wasn't being challenging enough. I wasn't feeling super fulfilled, but I didn't really do anything about it because I was, to be honest, kind of tired out. And it all came to a head in about late 2014 when basically everyone in my life had something

life-threatening happen to them. My dad had a last minute ER emergency heart surgery. My mother was diagnosed with cancer and my sister almost lost her sight because of this freak snowball accident. And I couldn't be with any of them because I didn't have enough vacation days. And so I decided this is it. I, I mean, I wasn't feeling fulfilled before life was good, but I mean, not great. And now I can't really spend my life with the people that really matter. So I need to do something that allows me to do that. And that's when I decided to start my own online

business and grew that into where I am now. Yeah, No, I think that's a big reason why a lot of people think about leaving their nine to five to do their own business is the flexibility. And yeah, similar to you, I experienced something in which a family member got really sick and I live in Toronto. They lived in Vancouver and not having, you know, the vacation days or the time off to be able to kind of really dedicate more time. So I can see that person. It really did kind of shake me and be like, huh, is this really how I want to live my life only with like three weeks of vacation? And usually it's just to go back home to visit. And I was getting burnt out. So I totally get that. And I think that's why a lot of people are kind of like, eh, I don't know if I could do this forever. And maybe it's also the millennial in us

that after a couple of years, even if things are great, we still want something like if something's missing or we're not being challenged. Cause you know, as you said, you're a hard worker and a hustler, you've accomplished a lot. So why would anything change if you get to a certain point? You're like, no, I'm good. I'm just going to relax now. It's like, probably not. You've got that work ethic in you. You'll probably always want to kind of see where you can take yourself next. Exactly. And I love that you share that driving motivation because I think you and I were talking about this earlier where a lot of people want to start a business to have more income, to live that dream where a lot of people are being sold that. And that's great.

I definitely believe in increasing your income as well. But more than that, it's about the freedom and the flexibility. That's, I mean, quality of life is not going to change that much, but if, if you can just live your life the way you want, that to me is the most important thing. Absolutely. So one thing, so when you started that, uh, your current business, you were still working full time. So it's not like, you're like, I'm going to quit. Then I'll figure it out. Probably not something you'd recommend. I definitely do not recommend that because when you have a good job, so many people I know, and I felt the same way. We want to just leave their job as quickly as possible and go work on their business full-time. But here's the thing,

a business takes money to get off the ground. It takes time. And when you are having to worry about paying your bills with your business, you're just basically stacking the odds against yourself. Instead, like it's a little bit slower, but it's going to go so much more smoothly if you're doing it on the side. You're not having to worry about paying the bills with your business revenue from day one. And you can just focus on growing it, on investing back in the business. It's going to get you ultimately to that end goal of being able to replace your salary so much faster than trying to leave your job and do it all and then running out of savings, having to go back to another job. And that's just a vicious cycle. Yeah. And stressful too. And you probably won't, you know, because you always have that worry about money, where is my paycheck coming from or whatever,

you probably would be less inclined to take risks that could be potentially good for your business. Exactly. So I guess the question is, when did you find it was a good time to leave? Like when you had a certain amount of money or when you had kind of like, it almost seemed like you had some regular business coming in or when did it feel safe? So both I'm very risk averse. And, um, I knew that if I left my job, I, it would have to be, that would have to be it because, uh, I had really built, I got, I'd gotten lucky and I built my reputation at that company. So I was aware of that for my age and everything. I got, I'd gotten lucky and I built my reputation at that company. So I was aware that for my age and everything, I was, I, I, it would be hard for me to find something with a similar compensation and title anywhere else. So I knew once I leave, this has to be it. And so I waited

until I'd made over a hundred thousand dollars in my business before I turned in my notice. Yeah. Not only that, but I also had a course launch planned right after I left. So I knew that was going to bring in another big burst of income. So basically I just minimized my risk as much as I could. How did you find the time to like create such a, like, that's a successful business in my view, having a six figure business while still working full- time and probably still like not, you know, slacking off. So no one knows that you're potentially going to leave. How are you able to balance doing that? It was really hard. I looking back, it was like, I wouldn't do that again. Or would you do that again? I mean, I would do it the same way again, just because I cannot imagine doing it any

other way in terms of what would have made me personally feel safe. But it was just backbreaking. So I mean, I was spending my time at my job. It was pretty demanding anywhere from nine to seven and sometimes on weekends. And any time I had outside of that was literally spent on my business. So I would go to work, come back, eat a really quick dinner. And then I would sit on my sofa and it just work any from anywhere until 10 to 12 or whatever time during the weekends, it would be the same thing. I would literally, I wouldn't, I didn't see my friends

for months. I didn't even call my parents for months. All I did was business, like job business. And it got to the point where my coworkers would ask me, how was your weekend? What'd you do last night? And all I could say was, oh, you know, not much. And so I'm sure it kind of seemed to them like I lived the most boring life ever. But you're really, I'm like, I'm building a business. Exactly. But, you know, I knew it was going to be short, short term that I was doing what I needed to do to build something amazing long-term and keeping my eye on that prize made it worth it. So I guess the question is it seemed like, yeah, you, you're really busy with your full-time job and then you added the side hustle on so you're really busy with your full-time job and then you added the side hustle on so you could eventually make that your full-time job. And that was really hard.

Do you find that there's more balance? Like, was it worth all of that hard work? Is there more balance in your life now? Yes, there, it was absolutely worth it. You know, I always want to caveat, I'm not sitting by the beach, sipping my ties all the time, but there is a lot more balance in my life. I still work hard, but because I love doing what I do, not because it's like, I need to work hard or I won't make any income in my business. And now my days, just to give a brief overview are really organized. I mean, once in a while, if I feel like taking a day off, I will just because I now have that luxury, but it's more about having the freedom of the

discipline to plan my days the way I want rather than not doing anything. So for example, Mondays, most of the time are really spent on just me time, um, recharging, thinking, planning. Tuesdays through Thursdays, I will have calls with clients or students or just do the doing in my business. And then Fridays, a lot of the time I'll just take off just so that I can just do something fun to remind me of why I built this in the first place. And then weekends I'll just spend with my husband, but that's, that's a pretty typical week for me. That's pretty good. Actually. There's some downtime and yeah, I think it's important to kind of build in those days for yourself. So you don't burn yourself out, which I think is pretty typical for people who work for themselves because you can, you're your own boss. So you can

technically work forever all the time. Yeah. You could, I mean, and I did that in my first year working full-time just because I had to, you know, I was building something that I wanted to build really big. And that was tough. It was, it wasn't like I left my job and instantly there was all this freedom. You know, I spent, it was pretty much the same schedule, but now all my time was spent on my business. But I got to a point where thankfully I didn't need to do that anymore, where I couldn't, I was close to being burned out. And so I realized, all right, this is good. Now it's time to really build it for life. So what did you do, I guess, to ensure that you weren't just working all the time?

And is it just like delegating or, you know, using software to help you? What helped you? So it was a little bit of a few things. The first thing was what I was spending my time doing in that first year or so was systematizing my business. So a lot of newer entrepreneurs burn out because they don't have a way to systematize their leads. And so I was working on building funnels in my business that would really automate my marketing and my sales and all of that.

Once I had that, that made things a lot easier. And I did delegate. I, you know, have people who handle my tech and my customer support. Those are my two biggest areas of delegation. And then more than that, it was just setting those boundaries for myself, because if you don't do that, you can't, I could still work 24 seven. There is an always endless amount of things to do, but instead it's just about deciding this is when I'm going to work. This is when I'm going to call it a day. And knowing that everything is still going to be there for you tomorrow. Absolutely. So do you want to talk a little bit about what your business exactly is? What do you do? Yeah, sure. So my current business is an online education business and I help ambitious men and women, any age range really,

build, take their skills, whatever it is, figure that out, build a business on the side, and then build it to the point where they can replace their income, their job income and go from employee to entrepreneur. That's actually the name of my signature course. Absolutely. And what made you decide to create a business around that? Was it like just some of your background from past jobs or? Yeah. So a couple of things first, um, my past business background, I felt like really helped me stand out because in this industry, it's very crowded, but a lot of people don't have a lot of business background. And so I saw that and I wanted to really do something about it. But not only that, when I first started out, I wasn't, you know,

immediately doing this. I had my job at the time was in digital advertising. And so I was doing digital advertising consulting on the side. And despite my previous business experience, I still had to learn a lot of things that are specific to the online space. Like how do you do a sales call? How do you host a webinar? How do you write sales emails? And what I found was that there was no one place for me to learn all of that. I didn't even know what I didn't know. And so it was a really kind of painful process trying to piece everything together. And I wanted for, because it's hard enough building a business. You know, I wanted someone to be able to find everything

they needed in one place and so that they could focus their time on going out there, getting clients, making money, rather than trying to figure out, well, what do I need to learn next that I don't even know I need to learn? Absolutely. Yeah. Which is definitely tough being, I mean, I understand that also being in the online space, it's, there's so much to know. It can feel so overwhelming and yeah, it's not an easy feat. That is for sure. So what do you feel like? Well, how long actually have you had your full-time business? Have you not been with your nine to five? I think about three, three years now closing on three years. Yeah. And what is the, you know, from where you are now from like year one, what do you feel like is the biggest changes or what are some of the biggest

things and lessons that you've learned that have really helped you grow? Yeah. So there are some really good ones. I think I've learned a lot from my failures. That's the biggest thing that's helped me grow. So, I mean, I'm not proud of it but when I first started this business because of my previous business successes I thought this is going to be this is gonna be a breeze you know there's no like overhead to worry about there's nothing physical this is gonna be just great uh so that really set myself up for failure in the beginning. And I really had a lot of stumbling blocks. Like initially when I started, I first started with wanting to teach people how to use Microsoft Excel because I was really good at that. And I figured this is going to be really easy.

And basically it just, I hated it because I was spending all my time in my job working in Excel. I didn't want to spend my free time doing it either or as well. And I just realized that, yeah, I need to do something that I actually like because there are going to be a lot of obstacles along the way. And so it really taught me humility, which I really needed. I'm not proud of it, but I did need it. And that was really the biggest kind of beginning lesson I had to learn. And then along the way, just as I've grown more into being, I think one of the biggest things is that in this online space, you get a lot of visibility more so than you would for an offline space or any of my previous ventures. And it's really grown into how do I be a leader for my community? How do I stand for what I believe

in and not just follow the, whatever trend is going on online. And that for me has been one of the most uncomfortable, but most important growth journeys, just because I've always been a huge introvert. Because of my background, I've also been taught to basically be really polite and not necessarily always say what I'm thinking, especially if it disagrees. I disagree with most people. And stepping up into that of speaking for what I believe in and teaching what I believe in has been just, I mean, it's been wonderful and scary, but a big growth. Yeah. Yeah. I like that you mentioned that you're an introvert because, I mean, that's something I've learned too, being an introvert too. And that's, I feel like it was one of my biggest roadblocks to not just,

you know, deciding to eventually start my own business, but just working in general for any kind of company. I was always afraid to put myself out there because I guess I was afraid of rejection or if I asked for a raise or a promotion that they would say no. And then I'd be like, oh my gosh, I'm so embarrassed. I mean, let's, I would like to raise or a promotion that they would say no. And then I'd be like, oh my gosh, I'm so embarrassed. I mean, let's, I would like to actually talk a little bit about, cause you did do very well in the corporate world as well, but it's, it's not easy to even make it that far in the corporate world. I'm trying to do it like that. And, you know, not even trying to do a side hustle on the side as well. What are maybe it could be part of our generation. It

could be being women, but what are some of the things that, I don't know, helped you take big risks even within that corporate world too, that I think a lot of people probably are having a hard time dealing with themselves? Yeah. So I think the biggest thing was I grew a thick skin. When I first started out, I was just this really quiet girl who just put my head down and did the work. I had this misconception, which I think a lot of new to the workplace professionals have is that if I did good work, I would get noticed and I would get promoted. But what ended up happening was I got this reputation that, Oh, Louise is so nice and she's so quiet, but is she actually good

at her job? And here I was just working my butt off to do a good job. And so I realized, okay, that's not going to work. But at the same time, I didn't know how to promote myself without sounding arrogant or just basically saying, hey, I'm doing an awesome job and you need to recognize me. And that was a really long and uncomfortable learning process for me. I eventually realized that I just studied what people around me were doing and doing well, like just speaking about your projects with enthusiasm, sharing your accomplishments as stories with your team and your manager, just speaking up more in general. And even more than that, I just really grew a thick skin. So there was a phase where I was just kind of growing into myself as a professional,

and I was really aggressive. I would say, hey, I've done this, this, and this. And because of this, this is why I should be promoted and why I should have a raise, et cetera, et cetera. And I just got the feedback that you are being really aggressive and you're coming off as kind of itchy. So you need to tone it down. And part of me rebelled against that because I thought I'm doing exactly what I've seen other men do, you know? So I don't know that this is just me. But I learned to work with that and just learned to basically promote myself in softer ways

that everyone around me would appreciate or respond to better. And basically as a culmination of all of those experiences, I was able to figure out my own unique style. No, that's really important. Yeah, that's definitely like a few of the lessons I've learned too, especially when you mentioned when you're talking about projects you've worked on that, you know, worked out well, or that, you know, you have successes to prove to not kind of sometimes retreat being like, oh, it's not that big of a deal. Cause there's a weird balance of like, I don't want to sound arrogant, but I want

to seem humble, but I also want people to know what I've actually been doing. How do you, you know, what's the balance? It's, it takes years to, I think, figure out the balance with that. Agreed. Completely agreed. Yeah. It was just like, exactly like you said, I didn't want to seem, cause I think a lot of us, especially women, when someone praises you automatically go to, Oh, it wasn't a big deal. So yeah, it's, it's a process. It's a tricky, tricky thing. So if someone is listening and is thinking of starting a side hustle, maybe they're totally fine just making a little bit of extra money on the side, or they want to venture off and start their own business that's been a dream of theirs.

I mean, I guess it could kind of really do anything, but what are kind of the first steps in terms of figuring out whether your business idea is even a good idea, whether you've got the guts? Cause I, I, I don't know about you, but what do you think about is really like doing a side hustle or being an entrepreneur for everyone? Or is it really depending on like the type of person you are? Yeah. So let me answer those questions in backwards order. So I don't think that being an entrepreneur is for everyone. It's not. It takes a lot of resilience. It takes a lot of determination to pick yourself up no matter what happens and just keep on going.

There's a lot of stress involved and you have to constantly evolve yourself as the marketplace evolves, no matter what your industry is. And so for some people, it's worth it. All of that, they thrive on it and there's nothing else they would rather do. Plus the freedom and flexibility that we've talked about before makes it worth it. But for a lot of people, they want that dream,

but they're not willing to pay the price or they're not willing to put in the work on themselves or on their businesses to have it. And for those people, it's not a good fit. Plus, there's nothing wrong with a job. No. Yeah. Yeah. It's you get great income, great benefits. And so it just really depends on what your goals are, how you want to live your life and even your personality. That being said, like, like you said, you can decide also how you decide to go with your business, right? You can just have it as my

side income, or you can decide to do it full time. So no matter what that is, my recommendation would be a few things. So there are a lot of different business types and business models that you can do online. But if you're just starting out, it's your first business. The easiest thing to do is to offer a service and it's offered as a one-on-one service. Don't try and sell a course. Don't try and blog and get ads income, anything like that. Sell a service. And then in terms of figuring out what you can do, there's really an unlimited number of businesses out there. And I think this is key. A lot of people think that they need to come up with an original idea, but it's not about that at all. It's about, because there's almost nothing new under the sun. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. It's just about figuring out what can I do that people are willing to pay for? What is there an existing supply and demand chain for? And where can I fit myself into that? And everyone has skills that they can do that with, even if it's starting from just doing administrative tasks or analytics tasks, whatever that is, wherever you have to start, that's where you start. And then the third step, I would say, is to go out there and speak with people. A lot of aspiring entrepreneurs I see put up a website or just hope that someone's going to come to them or spend all this time thinking about their articles or their blogs. But the most direct way, the fastest way, because people aren't going to just find you, is to go out there, list 20 potential customers who might be interested in what you have to offer, speak to them, offer a discount, offer to work for free,

whatever you need to do, get those clients and then turn them into paying clients. That's it. You know, the fancy systems, business models, all of that, that can wait until you've gotten some proof of concept and some money in the bank. Yeah. I think people kind of forget that when you're starting a business, you do need to kind of start small. And so people don't even think that, oh, you mean I have to talk to people one-on-one to get clients? Because most people are like, how do I even get a client to buy my service or buy my product? It's like, you have to, like, there's lots of ways to talk to strangers. Exactly. And you have to kind of, yeah, start small and create those relationships and think it's also a long game. I think a lot of people have this misconception because there are a lot

of people that have these glorious stories of I've made this amount of money in such a short amount of time. Those are the exception to the rule. Most businesses take a long time to get off the ground. And it's all about kind of not quitting if you're really passionate about it and you do see potential. That's so important. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that it's, yeah, unfortunately there's this concept or idea that you can just build a business like that and you're going to go from zero to six or whatever figures and overnight. And that's so not the case. I mean, if you can build a six figure business in your first year, you are doing great. But yeah, like you said, more than that, if you really want

to build a business to change your life, you have to be in it for the long haul. So, so what if it takes a few months or a year longer than you thought you're going to end up in the same place as long as you don't give up. Exactly. Patience is, I think the key that people forget about. You have to be so patient. Yes. That's like anything in life though. Exactly. Like you don't just, you don't, you know, become an Olympic athlete just overnight.

Same thing for your business or even closer to home. You don't get the job that you want the first day that you start out. Why would you expect at the business that you want? Exactly. Exactly. Absolutely. Well, where can people learn a little bit more about you and your business if they're so inclined? Yeah, absolutely. So I actually have a free fun gift. It's a five-day challenge called the Weekend Empire Challenge for anyone who wants to start their business on the side and get their first paying clients.

And your listeners can get that at luisajo.com slash challenge. Perfect. And I just want to spell my name out really quickly. Yes. Not spelled how it sounds. It's L-U-I-S-A-Z as in zebra, H-O-U.com slash challenge. Perfect.

Perfect. And I'll make sure to link that in the show notes and everywhere. So it's easy to find. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Louisa, for joining me and chatting with me. It was an absolute pleasure. And I'm excited to keep on track with you to see where the next, you know, three years will take you.

I'm sure some place great. Yes. This was so much fun. Thank you. Thank you for having me. And that was episode 117 with Louisa Jo. Again, you can find her at louisajou.com that's spelled l u i s a z h o u.com. She has lots of cool freebies and things to get you started on her website. So make sure to check her out there. Also make sure to check out the show notes. I'm going to put a lot more information about her the episode and some other things i'll get to in a second but again for the show notes it's easy peasy

lemon squeezy is always jessicamorehouse.com slash 117 so if you're ever listening to an episode and you want to check out the show notes it's always just just jessicamarose.com slash the number of the episode. Not super complicated. Now, before I get to something a little special, I want to share a few words about this episode's sponsor. Did you know that one in three Americans are self-employed? Because of the internet, it's now easier than ever to become self-employed or start a small business. That's why I was able to take a huge leap of faith and leave my nine-to-five almost a year ago. What started as my side hustle is now my full-time job, and I can run my entire business out of the comfort of my own home. Now, it has not

been a walk in the park. I will not lie to you about that. Going from employee to entrepreneur is not for the fainthearted. But what has made the transition so much easier in my life is by using software that really fits my needs. That's why I use FreshBooks as my go-to cloud accounting software. It helps me stay organized. I can pull reports within seconds. I can stay on top of payments from clients. And it basically takes a huge weight off my shoulders come tax time. And what's really cool is FreshBooks just came out with an all-new version of their cloud accounting software and they're offering a 30-day unrestricted free trial to all of my listeners. If you want to take

advantage and try FreshBooks out for yourself, all you have to do is go to freshbooks.com slash mo and enter Mo Money Podcast in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Once again, to try it out for free, go to freshbooks.com slash mo and enter Mo Money Podcast in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Okay, so I mentioned there's a couple other things that I wanted to tell you. Well, first, I want to remind you that I'm currently running a contest from October, November, December, a three-month contest that I'm currently running a contest from October, November, December,

a three-month contest where I will be drawing winners every single month and awarding them with a $25 Amazon gift card. And all you got to do is, well, there's instructions in the show notes, so that'll be an easy way to get started. But basically, it just entails that you have to give me an iTunes review, or if you've already done one in the past that you're that's fine you could still enter the contest too all you have to do is again go to the show notes jessicamorris.com slash 17 for more details uh and you can enter and be in the running to win a $25 Amazon gift card easy peasy um and another thing that I want to remind y'all of is if you are not currently part of my Facebook group,

you should probably get in there now because it's a lot of fun, a great community of people that want to help each other, learn from each other. If you have a question about anything related to money, life, balance, anything, then this is the group for you. And it's super easy to get in. Just go to facebook.com slash groups slash money life balance. And you just have to click on a button or something. And then I click a button and then you're in the group. It's that easy. So I hope that you decide to join us in the group after

listening to this episode. And I will see you back here tomorrow for a brand new episode of the Mo Money Podcast. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.