Jewels Muller is the founder of Chicks Connect which is a Global Membership for woman where they connect, get into action, and hold one another accountable for professional and personal growth and development all built on a foundation of love, fun, friendship, service and support.
Transcript of this Interview:
Jack: So today I’m interviewing Jewels Muller and she is the chief chick at Chick’s Connect and she is all about empowering women to be strong entrepreneurs. Welcome to the show.
Jewels: Thank you so much Jack. It’s exciting to be here.
Jack: So, I want to get in all is about Chick’s Connect and everything because I think it’s really positive for women and I love entrepreneurialism and I think what you’re doing is great. But what I really like to start with is kind of at the beginning like what got you into even your first experience at being an entrepreneur?
Jewels: Probably my very first experience at being an entrepreneur was when I was in grade school. And I created a bunch of arts and crafts and took them to school and sold them. So I made a pencil with some wild fuzzy hair, it went like this and it freaked out and it became the frustration pencil. Then I made friendship pens and, you know I was a top salesperson in blue birds and all of that. So I think I always had the entrepreneurial spirit. I also had the spirit of wanting to be an actress or something in that field and when it came time to graduate and actually go to college, I was encouraged to become a teacher.
And not pursue my dream of being Julie McCoy, your cruise line director or anything to do with the cruise line which is what I really thought that I wanted to do whether it was on TV or just be a cruise line director. I love to travel and…
Jack: And you love the show The Love Boat, right?
Jewels: I love the show The Love Boat and I thought, well I could have organized these events, I can either be the movie star or just be a cruise line director. And so then, you know, I got caught up in a 13 years in public education; every year trying something different from elementary to middle to high school, to leadership adviser. I got my master’s in administration and became a principal thinking that I was looking for that right fit. And I always loved the students, I love the staff and the parents but I’ve never felt like I was in the right place.
And it wasn’t until 2004 that I actually took the job and started my own business. It was called Peace of Mind Organizing. And I just sat down and realized, what is my skill-set? I at that time was a mother of twin-two-year-olds and just left education and realized that I’m really good at organizing. I am good getting things done. I’m kind of task master and I have a logical brain as well as a creative side too. So 10 o’clock at night on October 20th on 2004, I Googled professional organizers. I found out there was an association.
I joined, I picked my name, I got my business license and I started organizing for people. So that’s when I first started the actual, the big money, you know. Not just money from pencils.
Jack: So, did this entrepreneurialism come from like your family? Did you grow up in like poor or rich or somewhere in between or and how none of it just passed down?
Jewels: No. Both of my parents were teachers. So that’s what about passed down which was not the right fit for me.
Jack: Okay.
Jewels: I did it and I did it well and I think it was a great foundation for what I’m doing today. But my mother’s father had the entrepreneurial spirit. I don’t know if you know Jew’s harp is, you know, your twang twang twang.
Jack: No.
Jewels: So, Snoopy played then in his cartoons and my grandpa Tom Bileau would travel all over the country and even went Dollywood and got on stage and played the Jew’s harp. And he would build those, you know, like manufacture them and package them up and sell them and he would travel all over and do that on his own and my grandma helped with keeping the books and doing that. So they were definitely entrepreneurs. And grandpa actually made the connection with Charles Schultz to have Snoopy use the Jew’s harp in the cartoons as long as he could use the brand of Snoopy on his packaging.
So that’s kind of, you know, I always intrigued. I wanted to go on tour with grandpa. And definitely had that entrepreneurial spirit that he had but not in my just extended family, just my new player family there were aren’t any entrepreneurs.
Jack: Okay. So then you did the teacher bit and teacher, I mean just wasn’t the right fit. And then you moved on to the organizer. And I understand you are good, you are really good at the organizing stuff but it’s still wasn’t your calling, alright? It wasn’t just totally speaking to you. And so what I often hear with entrepreneurs is when it’s when they’re in a business that’s not in alignment with like the real what they should be doing kind of soulful type experience that they get from being an entrepreneur, it either the business owns them or it just doesn’t work? So what happened with you?
Jewels: Well, I found with Peace of Mind that early on, so I did the organizing; the physical organizing, I created the systems. And then I wanted to hire someone right away and I wanted to train them to go out and do the organizing. And so then I created a team of professional organizers. And that worked out great because I love to lead the group. I didn’t want to do the organizing anymore, the technical part. And I had a few clients that I continued to work with but I realized that I wanted to manage a team of people instead.
Jack: Okay.
Jewels: And then I started researching productivity tools and I became fascinated with the internet and wanted to learn everything I could about that. And then I also learned about the coaching industry and realized that that was a better fit for me. So, Peace of Mind Organizing was kind of a gateway to a lot, and opening up my eyes to the entrepreneurial world to networking and me realizing that I am a natural connector and what a glorious thing that was when I really felt like I was at home. So, like I said I always felt uncomfortable in education like I wasn’t in the right spot.
I was always trying to look for that next thing but when I was out in the entrepreneurial world, meeting with other entrepreneurs and talking about exciting innovative ideas and how we could solve these problems. That’s when I came alive and I realized that I wanted to make all these connections with other people that had similar challenges and who might have solutions for them. And so coaching really became my passion and I added in 2006.
Jack: Okay.
Jewels: Now What?: 90 Days To a New Life Direction Coaching Program by Laura Berman Fortgang. So that’s kind of the next. I was still managing my organizing firm. I had people going and working but I wasn’t inspired by actually sorting and organizing someone’s clutter anymore. So I moved out of that.
Jack: Right. So, okay, so you had some entrepreneurial success early on with that kind of stuff and as an entrepreneur, I’m sure you’ve had highs and lows. Can you tell us about some of the lows and some of the struggle that you’ve had overcome?
Jewels: Sure, sure. We at that time when I had my kiddos and started my organizing business, my husband had some businesses as well. And we were up for a lighting contract and it was to retrofit 3000 energy efficient lights in the Fred Meyer Distribution Center called Kroger and that was in Oregon. And we bid on that and we got the bid. And so when you receive a bid, it seems like a glorious day and it’s going to take care of so many problems that you’ve created for yourself early on, you know, financial problems and if case any of you can relate.
And so we have that bid which was going to be a three-month-job and he was to hire 12 people at a time when unemployment was really low. So the 12 people he had to hire were not coming from a pool that you might find today. They were coming from a pool of very low unemployment rate. And he set out to do that job very extensive big job. And what was supposed to take three months took five and then eight months. At the end of five, we ran out of money completely. And so he had to finish the entire job on his own for the last three months.
And by that time, his other business was struggling because he was attending to this finishing up this. And I was dealing with creditors and just everyone and everything. We had three houses at that time, we had about 30 insurance policies, we had two golf cart businesses and the lighting company and vehicles and trucks and trailers and golf carts and equipments and — yeah, that’s why I started my business Peace of Mind.
Jack: That was crazy, crazy, you have…
Jewels: That that’s sort of…
Jack: So much.
Jewels: Turn, yes. Yes.
Jack: So many different things that you’re trying to keep all those balls…
Jewels: Exactly.
Jack: In the air at the same time.
Jewels: You know and we had hands yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Jewels: So that was not a fun time for us and it was really hard on our relationship. You know, I was scared and it was, this was 2006 and it was at a time where we lived in Bend, Oregon at that time and Bend was booming still. It wasn’t till 2008 that Bend really crashed. And so we call ourselves leaders, you know, we like to lose everything before anyone else it paved the way for the rest of the economy. So but it was, you know, I just can’t realize and I’m a teacher by trade. So I knew I was going to share this experience and teach to someone.
So I get the kiddos to bed and I go outside to look up to God and ask him, you know, how much more I need to endure and who am I going to be helping eventually. And I would just ask that over and over again and to just remain faithful that we were doing the next right thing that we were — we didn’t have any sort of intentions of trying to take advantage of anyone. We had created a real mess out of our businesses and our finances and we wanted to do what was right but we were so far in and so far under that there really was no solution other than bankruptcy at that time.
So we lost those three businesses and as a result of that, I was working quite a few jobs. So I had my Peace of Mind Organizing, I had the coaching that I talked about. I started as an employee of a company called Closet Factory because that was kind of natural fit to what I was doing. So I would make sales commissions. I started a network marketing company called Event Started but I became a distributor, called Send Out Cards. So I had four business that I was working as my husband was trying to work through all of his loss.
I never saw my kiddos, didn’t see my husband and it was not how I wanted, how I envisioned entrepreneurialism that is entrepreneurship. It was uncomfortable and painful and disastrous.
Jack: So I met you, what is it, 2010 at an event in LA, where were you with all this at that point?
Jewels: Well, in 2009, I went to a Send out Card convention and for those of you who didn’t know what Send Out Cards is, it’s network marketing; a big component of really great network marketing companies is personal growth and development. And they had a man named T. Harv Eker who wrote Secrets of the Millionaire Mind as one of the keynote speakers.
Jack: Oh yeah.
Jewels: At the Send out Card convention. And I’m fairly hyperactive and high energy and when I saw this man speak on — I’m goose bumped right now just talking about it but when I saw him speak on that stage, I said, whatever he is doing, I want to know more about it. I want to learn from him. I want him to be my mentor and at the end of his presentation, he said that we can all go to a 2 ½ day seminar and I have never been to a personal growth and development seminar. I hadn’t even watched Tony Robbins on YouTube. I didn’t know anything.
Jack: Really. You weren’t one of those ones that bought all those series of tapes that he had when it was like late 80’s of all infomercials?
Jewels: None of that, none of that. I was public education trained. I had not an ounce of personal growth and development and not an ounce of seminar in me. And when I heard T. Harv Eker speak again, I felt like, okay, I am home. This, whatever this guy, I want more of him. And so we went down to San Francisco and it was so funny because we didn’t have extra money and so we drove from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco and we shared room with another couple and we brought all our food in the cooler and we carpooled down there and we just made it work and we got this seminar for free.
And during that seminar, it had such a profound effect on my life but more importantly on my husband’s life because he was feeling horrible about the whole situation with the loss of everything and he let down his family and, you know, things like that.
Jack: And then that can be just — I mean, the man usually has this role of this needing to provide, you know, needing to be that strong shoulder and sometimes when you just get things like just the wind taken away from you or your legs taken down from underneath you, it can be so — I am speaking from personal experience here it could be so devastating. So I can feel his pain, you know.
Jewels: Yeah, yeah. And what’s interesting Jack, is during that time I mean I felt so raw. You know, and I was dealing with all the people calling and all the creditors and all the customers that wanted golf carts and he wasn’t there to do the work and the business was struggling. Anyway, I was so wrapped up in my own fear that I was not very nice and understanding to him, you know, because I was afraid and I wanted him to solve it. I wanted him to make it okay. And he was doing the best he could at that time which was finish that job and figure out what the next steps are.
But I was so, you know, distressed and distraught and fearful and all of that. But it’s so funny because when I would tell my story to someone, I was looking for them to say, oh poor Julie, you know, poor and what they would say inevitably was, oh poor TJ, you know, that must be so hard for me and I’m like, no, don’t you know how hard it is for me?
Jack: Right, I’m the one, I got the little boys, I’m taking — yeah, you’re juggling all the stuff.
Jewels: And I — you know, now that I look back, I’m like, oh my gosh, poor guy. You know, and I wasn’t as supportive as I could have been and it was all because I was so based in fear. And there wasn’t a lot of help, not a lot of support. There weren’t programs out there that were saying save your house, do this. They were saying, no, we’re taking your house, we’re taking your cars, we’re taking everything, we’re locking you out, we’re going to steal your motor home in the middle of the night with all your stuff in it. It was, you know, I got threatening calls from the repo man say, you better get your tennis shoes Julie because you’re going to be walking. I mean just really horrible things. I’m like, I was a principal…
Jack: Oh God.
Jewels: Why are you repoing my car? You know, it just — it was a time that made no sense and was so, so difficult. But I was given some beautiful words of wisdom on the day that I thought that I was going to leave my husband because I just couldn’t — I was so distraught. You know, this woman came up to me and said, she stuck her little finger on my face, she’s like 86 years old and she said, you know, we don’t run from our problems. We face our fears, we work through them. If you don’t like him after this mess, then you leave him. You stick it out and I’m like, oh okay, okay.
And that’s when we got in to motion. And we really started figuring out the plan of how to lose everything and what did that look like? And, you know, I divert a little bit but during that seminar where we were sitting there together as a couple, still married, you know, learning from these people and really diving deep into stuff that we’ve never dealt with before, or even talked about, my husband and I had a profound experience and we said, you know, what if we invest my education retirement on our education from here forward and learn how to do it from the people that were successful and really doing what we’re passionate about?
You know, and so at that point in time, we decided that even if we failed miserably, it would be good for our relationship.
Jack: Yeah.
Jewels: So bottom line, to spend the $20,000 we did on his two-year program, that’s what we did and we knew it would help us in our relationship but we learned so much more. So at that time I met you with what…
Jack: On T. Harv Eker’s program.
Jewels: Yes and that’s called Peak Potentials, yeah.
Jack: Yeah and okay.
Jewels: And so at the time I met you, I had already been learning from another mentor of mine that really deals with the business aspect of personal and professional growth and development where T. Harv does a lot of the inner game and your thought process and your mind, Bill Walsh really takes care of the how to and the business end. And so, between those two programs and when I met you in 2010, I was on the verge of having this huge heart filled with so much. I knew, I knew I need, I knew there was something in me and it wasn’t my organizing business.
You know, I thought I’d franchise my organizing business, business in a box or something like that but that wasn’t feeling right, it didn’t fit. And I knew I had something so fulfilling in my heart but I didn’t know what it was. And Barbara De Angelis talks about a time in your life where you’re happy, sad, emotions are rollercoaster. You feel like you have so much to give but then you retreat in fear all of this whole angst that you have and she named it. And when I understood the name, I was able to say that’s what I have, now I can move through it.
And she called that period in time divine discomfort. And I thought that is so beautiful. That is what I have. It’s okay, I’m about ready to step into my divine self. I am so prepped and ready to go. And then two like four weeks, out came Chicks Connect and it was crazy. It was crazy.
Jack: I think we must been going through similar things at a similar time because, you know what I mean, beginning in 2010 of the discomfort of my life was so intense that it changed everything. And, you know, I think there’s a real power and discomfort that you are talking about. And I think it doesn’t feel great necessarily at the time but very powerful, very, you know, and when you’re just so uncomfortable with the way things are, then you just have to change. And I think the universe supports in that.
And then, it just, it’s kind of crazy we’ve met during that window because I didn’t really know that much. I mean, we met, we spoke with a bunch of us. We had dinner and there was a bunch of people there and all that stuff but I’ve been following you a little bit on Facebook. And yeah, I just really admire what you are doing. I think, you know, that’s wonderful. So tell us about this forming the Chicks Connect and how that started?
Jewels: Well, like I said it was probably October that I realized the divine discomfort and it had such a powerful effect on me. I was driving, I had to pull over and it was like a flood of tears. And, you know, that time where I described prior to that, I felt like I was raw. You know, and you probably experienced that too but I felt like someone was taking…
[Silence]
Jack: Okay. So this is the beauty of entrepreneurship and being creative. So now we’re back and you’re in your car. And hopefully I can make this all work and splice this all together and have it…
Jewels: I’m such a big play and I’ll remind everyone that although it’s February, I’m in Florida and it’s probably about 80 degrees. So if I start dripping, maybe you can edit that out as well.
Jack: I don’t know how good I am at that kind of stuff but I am a little jealous. I mean, it’s only 65 here in California. So, but hey, the rest of the country is in a deep freeze. So where were we when we got cut off, so rudely interrupted by the internet with that?
Jewels: I know, I know. Well I think we were talking about just my journey to personal growth and development when you and I met kind of being raw, you know.
Jack: Yeah.
Jewels: Both of us kind of experiencing a lot of that pain and angst and really wanting to do something but not knowing what it is, you know. And you would ask how Chicks Connect came to be. So I can start here, is that good for you?
Jack: Yeah, yeah. So did you — I mean were you moved out your living and now you’re travelling in this RV and you’re on this like adventure thing. I mean, did that happen before the Chicks Connect or after?
Jewels: After, yeah.
Jack: Okay. Okay, so I don’t want to rush you through the story. So, yeah, Chicks Connect, so your — how did that start?
Jewels: Well we, you know, my husband was then looking for a new job and was able to secure job in Washington just over the border which is very close to Portland, Oregon. And we were in Bend, Oregon which is about four hours from the border to Washington. So he was working on that job and again we were in Bend four hours away from him and one day in December I just said, forget it, we’re moving to Portland. So I had to recreate my network. I needed to start all over again and share my entrepreneurial path with other people that in the Portland area knew me as a teacher which is a totally different type of connection than an entrepreneur.
They aren’t at networking groups and things like that. So, I started going to networking groups in Portland, Oregon and realized that I loved bringing people together, meetup.com had been created and so I just started using MeetUp and scheduling kind of dream board parties and potlucks and we’d have people over to our house. And then one day I thought, you know, my best form of networking back in Bend was when I gathered women together and we met over coffee. And so I just said, let’s — you know, I scheduled an e-vite I think.
I said, let’s call it Chicks in Business, let’s invite a few women. I came to the meeting with an agenda. I only knew three of the women there and we all shared what we do for our business and then we had a little lesson. So I taught them a lesson on identifying their ideal client. And then we went around with accountability checking and asking for help. And I said, you know, I really want to know how we can help and support you in your personal life as well as your professional life. And that just stumped them. They — you know, women are used to taking care of everyone else and sometimes putting themselves last on the list.
And so to be asked by especially another woman, how can we support you and celebrate you and hold you up and, you know, they were still kind of focusing on business. But then they got the hang of it, you know. And so one of them said well, I’m newly divorced, my kids are grown and gone and I’m lonely. I want to have fun, I don’t know how to meet women on a social basis. And so I said great, let’s create the Fun Chicks. And so the Fun Chicks were in charge of creating fun ideas and activities. And the next woman said, well my son is 14, he’s causing me all sorts of trouble.
Another woman said, well mine is 22, I’ve been there, I’ve done that. Let’s chat after the meeting. I said, great, a chick-chat. You know, so then it’s kind of like a one-on-one if you compare it to be an eye. And then another woman said, I want to read for pleasure, another one said, I’d really love to start exercising and the synergy and the excitement throughout the group was just amazing. And they all wanted to help each other and support each other in that personal realm. And then we also did the business and then they said, can we do this again next week? Sure, so brought women together in a different location.
Different women showed up and during the middle of the group, like no idea why or how, I opened my mouth and I said, I need a new chair chick for this group. I need to leave this group and open this up worldwide. Who would like to take over? And a woman shoved up her hand and said, I’m Linda Rutledge, I’m a financial planner with MetLife and I want to chair this chapter. I’m in Toast Masters, I’d make an excellent chair chick. Everyone is like…
Jack: Okay, okay, hold up, hold up, so where this come from? You said, this is a shot out of the blue, you haven’t thought about it?
Jewels: I had four jobs Jack.
Jack: Yeah.
Jewels: I was doing four things. I was selling closets for Closet Factory, I was organizing, I was work — you know, I had a team of 100 distributors for Send out Cards, I was training them. I was not looking for another business opportunity but I had to be doing all those businesses to feed my family. You know, I was passionate about what I was doing but it wasn’t my niche, you know, it wasn’t the thing that I was made to be doing. And you know, I am honestly, I had to catch up spiritually to my journey, you know. I didn’t grow up in a family that was religious or even really spiritual, very good people but we didn’t attend church.
I didn’t have a real close connection with God. And I never got the messaging that God put us all here on this earth, you know, and we all have special gifts. I didn’t learn until a little bit later in life. And so the part that I had to catch up with in my entrepreneurial path with chicks connect was not the logistical, mechanical how to create a business. It was how do I fit in to these shoes that God has in store for me and become more spiritually connected. I didn’t doubt that I could do it. I knew I could do the mechanics of this business, you know, and make it so valuable to these women.
Jack: Right.
Jewels: But why me? You know, it’s like, where did that come from and that whole universe and spiritual connection to something bigger than myself was the heart it is and was my journey of challenge.
Jack: And that’s — and I think that’s just so powerful because I look at these entrepreneurs and they come to me and they say, oh I have this business idea and I’m like, well, does that business idea, does that fulfill you? Does that help you feel the spiritual connection and you know, are you doing what you’re here to do? And no, I just think we could do this and we could make some quick money. So, okay, you can go over here to make the money so that you can get where you want to go. Why don’t you just go directly to the path, on the path that you want to go?
So I think that’s just a big point that you made there. You know, it’s like when you figure that out, when it starts to just feel in this place of really soulful type of experience, I think that that’s really powerful because it does take a lot of love to get a business going. You know, if you only love your business, your business are going to love you back. And most people don’t look at that love or that spiritual aspect when they’re looking at their business. I think women and then I think this is something that you’re on to and just they are much more in tune than that I think than men are.
Jewels: And, you know, I think I was at an event, you know, a similar event to where I met you. I was there just helping out the back table in Las Vegas a couple of months ago. And I was checking people in and asking them, you know, oh what are you all about, you know, tell me what’s going on in your life and the majority of people had a real strong message of something that was providing value to other people. You know, oh I’m really passionate about this and I want to help people do this. And the majority of the people there were that way.
But there was one man, he said, I just want to make a lot of money. And I thought, I’m not going to buy what you are selling, you know. I was like, I have no connection to you…
Jack: Right, right.
Jewels: As a result of that. And he might, he might make a lot of money right upfront.
Jack: Yeah.
Jewels: And, you know, you and I were kind of chatting about this before. It’s like, you know, if you’re driven by money, there’s going to become a point where your business idea, you know, you’ve made enough money, you have everything you want and need and so you’re not passionate about providing that service or product anymore. And then what, you know? So, you know, I think everyone is driven by different motivation but there is something really cool about when you are in alignment with who you are meant to be and doing what you are meant to be doing, and it’s natural, it’s awesome, you know.
Jack: Yeah.
Jewels: And you — I’ll go ahead, I can talk a lot.
Jack: Yeah, it’s — well I know, we could have a whole talk about just this. But, how long before you moved in to your mobile home after you got the idea about Chicks Connect? So I mean, you moved in to this motor home and I mean, with two kids, your husband…
Jewels: Yes, yes.
Jack: What, you have a dog or something too of that?
Jewels: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah? I mean, how big is this?
Jewels: It’s 32 feet, it doesn’t have any slide outs at all and it’s a 1998 Rexhall airbus and I will voice right now live on this recording that my dream RV is a Road Voyager 390. So any of you that are listening and want to look that up, that will be the thing that I’ll be able to live in for the rest of my life, I just need to kind of double my membership and then we’ll be able to get that. But for right now, we are in less — it’s right around 300 square feet, like 320 square feet. We went from 3000 square feet to 320 square feet.
Jack: Right, and you move about every 14 days, right?
Jewels: We do, yeah.
Jack: You’re going around and you’re starting to chapters and yeah. So, how long was it again?
Jewels: And so we started Chicks Connect November 10th, 2011 and we hit the road. Well we bought our RV February 25th, 2012 and I knew that we were going like the vision came. I am telling you, when you’re in alignment with what you’re supposed to be doing, you get messages from universe, from God, whoever, whatever you believe in and the doors open up and it’s very clear. It’s, you know, I got a clear message in January of that year that I was to quit working at the Closet Factory which was paying for the rent in our home and start, and get in a motor home and tour the US and meet the women face to face.
I had no idea how I was going to do that. We didn’t have a savings anymore, we didn’t even have a retirement anymore, we didn’t have any means of doing that. And I mentioned that to my mom and sisters at a luncheon that we have and, you know, my sisters were like, well you just have to save up. Maybe a couple of years from and, oops, it’s supposed to be now, I don’t know how but it’s supposed to be now.
Jack: Life’s a now business, that’s what I always say.
Jewels: It was perfect timing because the kiddos were just finishing up fifth grade. They would have entered middle school and, you know, I wouldn’t have ever been able to pull them out of that. You know, so, home schooling.
Jack: So your home’s schooling too.
Jewels: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Jewels: So anyway, you know, my mom came to the house after that lunch and you know, my mom is just a beautiful woman just quiet, you know, kind of behind the scenes, can get a lot done. She was a librarian, she is like, you know, just smarter than a whip but flies under the radar. You know, not overdone like me, you know, like I’ll go in she’s just very — just an amazing woman. But she came to the house, knocked on the door, I opened the door and I’m like, oh mom, you know. And she’s like, when your grandma passed, she left $20,000 for each of your girls.
And I talked to the other girls and I’m going to give them their money right now and you can have your money right now so you can buy your rig. And I was lie, whoa, you know, again I had and…
Jack: Wow!
Jewels: And the rig we wanted was $21,000, we went, I said we should look one more place, see if we can find something for under that amount, we found a new rig for $16,708 and we bought it and it’s just like every door opens, you know. And I had no idea that money was there and no intention that anybody of my family would ever give it to me, you know. And so it’s been a wild ride, a wild ride. And the membership, we’re no on our third year and we’re about 200 members right now. And we have 100 women that are interested in launching chapters of their own or they currently are a chapter leader. So we’re just going to keep going.
Jack: Wow. That’s awesome. So, before you melt, there you go, so we can cut this short because I’m sure you’re baking in that car right now. Can you tell me a success story about one of your people and one of your highly empowered chicks?
Jewels: Sure thing. We had a woman that, you know, she will tell the story. She is like, you know, I didn’t like woman, I wouldn’t trust woman, the last thing I’d want to do is go to some sort of women’s event, you know. And her friend that she was living with at that time said, you really need to come check this out, it’s different, it’s not like anything you’ve ever gone to before. Just give it a try. You know, come once or twice. And so she came and she was kind of negative and she shared, you know, like it’s a very structured organization that we have but there is also lot of room for flexibility and stuff.
And she shared and then by the second time, then the third time, she is like, well I want to join this. I’m still not sure but I want to join, you know, and she was really kind of hard about it. Then she joined, then she didn’t have a business yet and they said, okay by October 4th, we want you to pick something anything, we don’t care what it is, just pick something. She decided on something by October 4th and by that — I mean by that day, she had her business license, she had her logo, she had her brand, she started her business.
And, you know, through her journey over the last couple of years, she cries to this day sharing that she used to have the messaging that she didn’t like women. And that she couldn’t trust women and how beautiful her sister chicks have been to her and so loving and supportive and celebrating her success. They had a whole day dedicated to her just to celebrate her and her courage for stepping outside of her comfort zone and taking on this new business venture. You know, and so that’s what it’s all about. It’s about really celebrating our brilliance and like you mentioned love that they’re, you know, part of our foundation of Chicks Connect is love.
You know, and we say that right out there and all of our activities are based around you loving yourself first so that you can love everyone else. And lot of people don’t have that yet. You know, so it’s important aspect.
Jack: Yeah, yeah that’s the thing about putting on your own mask first. The plane is going down, you put on your own mask first and then you help your children, you got to help yourself first or you’re not good to anybody else. So, alright, so with the Chicks Connect, if there’s not chapters in their area that it’s still you get a lot of stuff online, right? I mean there is a lot of support that the women, they give online…
Jewels: Right, right, well everything is available.
Jack: Like what?
Jewels: You know, we have a protected area for the membership site and all of our content from the very first lesson we ever created is on there. So, 2011, 2012, 2013 and now 2014, all of the content is on there. We have webinars and teleseminars. We have tons of online Facebook groups. So if you have an interest in being part of our Chicks Book Club, we have Chicks and Books, we have Video Chicks, we have Author Chicks. And then we have just a bunch of interest groups that range from fashionista chicks to cycling chicks, to healthy chicks, mommy chicks, all sorts of ways to connect that way.
And we help you launch your own chapter. So, you know, women have stepped up in these leadership roles and they’re like, oh I’ve never even, you know, led a group before and it’s okay as long as you can read, you can facilitate one of these chapters because we provide everything for you. You just find the location, bring the beautiful women together and follow the format. And it’s a done for you product.
Jack: Okay. Well thank you so much for taking the time. I’ll put the link in the description or on the screen or somewhere that somebody can go and, you know, check out the Chicks Connect. And I just got to commend you on what you’re doing and I love watching you rise up and making this thing happen.
Jewels: Well, it’s — you know, like you mentioned lot of faith, lot of love, I have just a ton of support from my family, you know, I mean not too many husbands would be the chauffer of the rig driving us around the country sharing this movement. So I am very blessed for my family and my boys have been, you know, they’re 12 years old and that could be a real trying time and they’re right there as support to me as well. And then people like you Jack, I just appreciate this opportunity and your belief in me. You know, it’s people like you that keep me going because you see me doing it and you encourage me. So I appreciate that.
Jack: Yeah. Well keep going.
Jewels: Thank you.
Jack: And rock on.
