Business Blasphemy

EP111: Money Isn’t Everything: The Currency of Joy with Joseline Hardrick

• Sarah Khan • Season 4 • Episode 111

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This week I sit down with powerhouse Law prof, lawyer, and creative force, Joseline Hardrick to dismantle the myth that success always requires monetization. Together we explore why joy is its own form of wealth, how to resist the pressure to turn every skill into a hustle, and what business owners actually need to prioritize to build a life of meaning, especially in a world that monetizes everything.

We cover: 

  • The trap of over-adaptation and why joy is a necessary form of self-preservation.
  • Why "not everything has to make you money" needs to be a non-negotiable mindset shift.
  • How to build your life around joy, not the other way around.
  • The 5 forms of wealth beyond money every entrepreneur should protect.
  • The real meaning of freedom, especially for women juggling caregiving and ambition.

Whether you're overwhelmed by hustle culture or finally ready to make your business feel like it's actually yours, this episode is your permission slip to start doing things differently.

Guest Bio:

Meet Joseline Jean-Louis Hardrick, the multitasking dynamo who’s rewriting the script for what it means to be a modern-day legal superstar. By day, she’s molding the minds of future attorneys as an Associate Professor at Cooley Law School, teaching Constitutional Law and Criminal Law. By night (and probably any other available time), she’s the founder and president of Diversity Access Pipeline, Inc., better known as Journey to Esquire ®, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting diversity and providing access to law students through scholarships, leadership programs, podcasts, and blogs and Lawyerish® a business that emperors every legal journey.

Connect with Joseline:

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The Business Blasphemy Podcast is sponsored by Corporate Rehab® Strategic Consulting.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Business Blasphemy Podcast, where we question the sacred truths of the online business space and the reverence with which they're held. I'm your host, sarah Khan speaker, strategic consultant and BS busting badass. Join me each week as we challenge the norms, trends and overall bullshit status quo of entrepreneurship to uncover what it really takes to build the business that you want to build in a way that honors you, your life and your vision for what's possible, and maybe piss off a few gurus along the way. So if you're ready to commit business blasphemy, let's do it. Hello, hello blasphemers, welcome back.

Speaker 1:

I'm excited because I have one of my sister friends here today. This is Jocelyn Hardrick. I met her last year and, honestly, she was just this force in the room. She has such presence. If you're watching this on the YouTubes and on the Instagrams, you will know. You will see it. She has presence and it's just like you sit up and you take notice when she's in the room. So I'm going to get her to introduce herself and we're going to get into some really juicy conversation around law, history, the Constitution and what you, as a business owner, need to really understand in these trying times. Welcome, my friend.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Thank you so much, sarah, for having me. I have been trying to get on your podcast for a while now, so I'm glad we're able to work it out. I'm Jocelyn Jean-Louis Hardrick. I'm the law school pro, and so before I started law school, I had excellent grades, a strong people like me child of immigrants, black woman, autistic, all these other things, checking all these boxes of marginalized groups and I'm like I really want to be in a position to help people. Well, my legal dream turned into a nightmare because it's a crazy bar exam. There's a ton of debt you get into to become a lawyer.

Speaker 2:

When I started working at a big law firm impossible billable hours and then judges screaming at me for doing things I didn't even do wrong so I realized there were just all these unwritten rules about not just becoming a lawyer but a professional that nobody told me about, and I kept breaking those rules over and over again, and so what I did was I just created a new career. I just had to reimagine that dream and make it fit me and what I wanted out of my life, and so that's why I'm a law school pro. Now I help students and graduates do the same thing Full-time. I'm a law professor at law school and I teach criminal law and procedure, constitutional law, as you just mentioned, and other courses that are all about how our American government is supposed to work Maybe not quite how it's working right now or what we're seeing, but how the courts have said and the law books and all these things say it's supposed to work. And I also just support students on their journey.

Speaker 2:

While I'm a full-time law professor, I do all these other things on the side. I paint, I write children's books, I have podcasts, I'm working on YouTube shows, right, and so everyone's always like what are all these things you're doing? Like pick a lane? I'm like, no, I don't want to pick a lane, it's all fun, yeah, and some of them make money and some of them don't, and so that's where the currency of joy comes in the things I'm doing because it brings me joy, the things I do because it brings me money.

Speaker 2:

I also run a scholarship program that I founded called Journey to Esquire. We create student lawyers who lead, mentor and inspire one student at a time, and we just had our seventh class of students graduate. We've given over almost $100,000. At this point, majority of our money goes directly to the students in scholarships to help them with all the expenses that come with becoming lawyers. Because, if you haven't noticed, right now a lot of stuff going on in the world, in the US, and at the heart of it are lawyers, and so I'm really passionate about this work of it are lawyers, and so I'm really passionate about this work.

Speaker 1:

I love this. I mean, there's so much there. And I want to pull on the thread of Currency of Joy. First, because I was reading what you had written about the Currency of Joy and this idea that everything you do does not have to be about money. Everything you do does not have to be monetized, and obviously not in the sense of like starving artist. But I recently had an experience and I mean we've all had multiple of these experiences, but most recently I had an experience.

Speaker 1:

I'm in a group on Facebook and I swear, every time I say Facebook I feel like I'm like aging myself. But Facebook, and it was in a group and somebody had written a really vulnerable post about adult friendships and how hard it is to make them, and people were like running to the comments to pitch this person on coaching and pitch them on this and that, and I was like and I had to make a comment about it later around how not every interaction is an opportunity to pitch someone or to monetize, because we are in this weird culture of everything should be monetized. So I think my question is, first of all, tell me more about this idea of the currency of joy, and then why is it important for us to have things in our life that are not monetized?

Speaker 2:

So the currency of joy is this idea that you are engaging in an activity because it brings you joy. And I phrase it as currency because, like you said, we're in a world that's so capitalistic everything is commercialized and monetized. And it's a starting place, right? It's the start. Okay, I understand, I work and I get paid per hour. I get paid a salary. I exchange that pay for other items like a mortgage for my house, a rent for my apartment, money for my car and my food, and so our minds are already in that place of currency. Now I want you to think okay, but when all my needs are met in terms of safety, security, food, clothing, housing, what is left? Like we were not put in this world just to work and pay bills, right, and so if you could think of what brings me joy, how do I fit more of that into my life and then view it as, every time I do that activity, engage in it, I'm filling up my Joy Bank account so that, when life starts lifing, as it always will, when you are dealing with grief of the passing of someone you love, when you are dealing with, like you and I have a special needs child who is having a hard time in tantrums, and they're doing the best they can, but you feel like you're about to melt down and have a tantrum. When you turn on the news and there's all this negative stuff happening, you turn to your Joy Bank account to help fill you up, because otherwise you get completely drained, and then you feel kind of like the world's falling apart, nothing's right, nothing's. You know working, and that's not true, it's just a perspective you're having, but your cup, as people like to say, is empty. You're at the bottom, you haven't refilled yourself, and so the currency of joy is about refilling yourself, and there are very specific activities that you have always enjoyed, ever since you were a child, because some people like me.

Speaker 2:

When I described my law school experience, that's how it was. It was work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work. I didn't get any joy out of it, I was just like it's just a means to an end. And then I hit a brick wall and burnt out completely, and so I had to realize oh, I need to go back to the things that bring me joy and do it just because it's joy. Joy has value For me. It's painting, telling stories, creating with my hands.

Speaker 2:

So I went back to those things and, all of a sudden, life got better and all I did was add this one little activity, and so it just seems strange to me why is this one thing making everything? Okay? It's because you, just you need to balance your life and I'm using these terms, although they're imperfect, like balancing your life and balancing your day and currency, but it's a starting place so that we can understand this is the stuff that life is made out of, and if you don't get out of the just work and pay bills work and pay bills, work and pay bills you end up burning out. There was a second part to your question bills, work and pay bills you end up burning out.

Speaker 1:

There was a second part to your question. Yeah, I actually want to interject on that second part. I want to, I want to change it. What you're saying is so, so important and you've given us the reasons why it's important. Can you help listeners understand, like, how do you prioritize joy? How do you break out of this, this idea of everything's got to be monetized because I need to make money, when people are financially struggling?

Speaker 2:

Yes, what I found was, as I incorporated more things that brought me joy, the other activities that were monetized increased. I did better in that and so more money came in. That practice of gratitude also reminds you of all the things you do have, because, as business owners, entrepreneurs, salespeople, we've all heard these things like the law of attraction, manifesting abundance mindset. It's never about chasing the money, it's all about being the energy that you want to attract, and so that currency of joy helps you vibrate higher, helps you attract better, so that you have to work less in order to monetize your other activities, because no one wants to buy from somebody who's depressed and stressed out. They want to buy from the happy person who looks like I want some of this joy you got.

Speaker 2:

They'll buy from you, just because they think your joy is somehow going to pass through whatever you're selling.

Speaker 2:

The joy is the magnet right it is the joy, is the magnet, and I like to think of our ancestors. All of our ancestors have been through really tough times. This feels like a tough time now. That's one of the points we talked about. When we're talking about, it's not just legal and constitutional issues that come up, it's historical issues. This is a cycle that has happened before in the world in the United States, in Canada, us relations, as you're aware of the things happening now, and so, if we look at what did people do when they went through a similar time, they still experienced joy, they still got married, they still had kids. They found ways to feed themselves, even with sparse, you know, raw materials and produce not being available, and so we can do the same thing. But we have to remember to stay focused on the things we can control the joy, the gratitude, building community and things like that, and so all of those things are not really things that are easily monetized or should be monetized.

Speaker 2:

You can monetize some of it. Obviously, people monetize joy all the time. That's why all these industries exist, but we don't always have to do that. You can choose which things you want to monetize and which things you do to bring you joy, and what I can tell you about that is that is very freeing. Once I realized I don't have to monetize my children's books. I can just make them available in a way that doesn't cost me a lot of money and people can buy it if they want. But for me the joy really is in writing them. When I tried to monetize, it became work. I already got a full-time job. I already have a nonprofit. That's like another job. I don't want more work, I want more joy, more joy, and so if you are intentional about what you do for joy and what you do for money, it is very freeing yeah, it is very freeing.

Speaker 1:

I, I had that experience with my own art. I, um, I started drawing, sketching, painting, uh, a few years back and everyone was like you should sell this, you should sell this. And I went through this very short, like three months window where, you know, I posted it, I created an instagram account for my art and blah, blah, blah and you're absolutely right like it started to suck the joy out of actually doing it, and so so, when I put the foot down, I was like I'm not monetizing this, like if somebody wants me to do a piece of art, that's great, but I'm doing it for my own joy. Like it just completely changed the way I felt about it and I love what you're saying about, you know, finding joy despite the circumstances. I'll never forget I had gone, as probably 1991, 92 now is the last time I'd ever been overseas back to Pakistan, which is where my parents are from, and you know, one of the things my mom was always really passionate about was going to lower income areas of the region we were in and getting involved in the community, and I remember I was like 16 or 17 at the time and I remember seeing all these little kids, you know, and they had, from a Western standpoint, nothing right, nothing but the shirt on their back.

Speaker 1:

They're playing out in the dirt, but they were some of the most happy children I've ever seen to this day. Right, and they were so filled with gratitude for even the smallest little thing, and I sometimes look at just everything that we are privileged to have here, and yet we're still so devoid of joy, like we're constantly chasing this feeling, and it's like it's right there. If you, just if you just notice it.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, it's already inside of us and that is what capitalism does, unfortunately. By commercializing and monetizing everything, you think you have to buy joy and happiness and forget that it's already inside of you. Now, certainly, money can buy a lot of things like healthcare. You know you all get that as part of your taxes.

Speaker 1:

But you'd be surprised, Sorry, you'd be surprised. We do have free healthcare here in Canada, but the number of people who complain that you have to wait or that it doesn't like they're still not happy with the fact that you've got free healthcare, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. And then I went to London to study abroad once and I had access to their free healthcare as a student. I was like, wait, I get this for free.

Speaker 1:

And they're like yeah, and I got in and I'm like this is awesome, oh my goodness.

Speaker 2:

And then, of course, you know I I just got a bill the other day. I'm like what is this $500 bill? I thought the insurance covered it. I'm like, okay, I'll deal with that later. But you know, everything's so monetized that we just can't escape all the trappings of monetization, which is like feedback and customer happiness and reviews and this and that. And again, I'm not attacking capitalism, not attacking monetization. I am saying you get freedom when you choose what to monetize and what you don't. And we have to resist other people telling us you should sell that, because I think too, and everyone's like you should sell it.

Speaker 2:

I'm like I don't want to sell it necessarily, I just do it for fun and give it away Like you can't give it away, Right. We had a coach that would poke fun at me for doing stuff for free. But I'm like I'm doing it because I enjoy it.

Speaker 2:

It is not making me tired, it is giving me energy, and that that's the other thing that joy does. It gives you energy. You know, when you first fall in love and you're talking to someone, no, you hang up Right and you're up all night and you wake up and you're full of energy. It's the same feeling. It's not just in romantic relationships, it's not just when you have a new child. That feeling is always inside of you. But for us, those moments remind us that it's there and you can create those moments through the currency of joy.

Speaker 1:

So, in a sense, joy is a kind of wealth that you can tap into that isn't monetary. So what kinds of wealth should business owners people in general, but business owners, because that's what we talk about be prioritizing over the next little while?

Speaker 2:

Oh, yes, absolutely. Wealth of stability. So maybe you're not going to be able to increase, you know, and meet some new revenue goals, but if your business is stable, that is a form of wealth Because, as we saw from COVID, a lot of businesses disappeared. They didn't have that kind of stability that could carry them through the tough time of in-person interactions falling by the wayside. But there are still some restaurants and things that are still around. Right, there are a lot of businesses that thrive because they pivoted and could still work. So look at how your business is stable and how you can increase that. Another form of wealth is autonomy. A lot of people who are business owners were just so tired of working for other people. I know that's part of your story, sarah. You kept going to these places. You were awesome doing all this work, didn't get any of the credit, didn't get the promotions. You're like you know what I'm out of here, and so that autonomy goes a long way. It's like, okay, how am I autonomous? How do I maintain that?

Speaker 2:

And let me be grateful for it, because all you got to do is think back to the last time you were at a job and had a boss breathing down your neck and you know that wasn't your thing. I have a boss. I'm always. I've always been OK with a nine to five job, as long as I have some autonomy and independence and as a professor you have a lot of autonomy and independence. My day is pretty open outside of teaching, and so that allows me to do all these projects while still having a full time job, so I really enjoy my autonomous wealth.

Speaker 2:

Flexibility is another form of wealth. Some people have jobs. I've had jobs where I had to physically be there, regardless of what was happening, and I remember one time a hurricane was barreling towards my neighborhood and I was a federal employee and they said no, by signing up for this job, you signed up to be on the front lines, you know, regardless of what was happening, and I couldn't go home. And that was one of those moments was like, OK, I'm not going to stay in this job too much longer. So that flexibility is a form of wealth. You know you and I were talking about taking our kids to the dentist and doing those kinds of things.

Speaker 2:

I remember my mom not being able to do that. She couldn't just take off because she had to use up, she had to save her days off for when we were sick, for when she traveled. She's from Haiti, so it was like your family. They would go back to Haiti every year. They had to send money back to members of our family. Most of them lived in these little shacks. They had to share bathrooms. They didn't have landlines or phones this is before cell phones, right and so she had to save up her sick days for that. So she didn't have flexibility. So for me, having that flexibility to be able to take my kids somewhere in the middle of the week, whether it's because they're sick or it's a wellness appointment, or even just go on a trip with them, that is a form of wealth. And as a business owner, you know, like some people I know who are running businesses, they're running it from different parts of the world, they're like you know what, the US is getting a little too hot and heavy.

Speaker 2:

I'm just going to go abroad, or maybe a different part of the country you're in, or even spending six months here and six months there.

Speaker 2:

You know, that kind of flexibility is very valuable. It is a form of wealth. A lot of people don't have access to it, but it allows you to shape the life the way you want to. So don't just focus on revenue goals. Don't just focus on how many new clients Really examine all these ways that you are allowed to run your business and still meet your daily needs and recognize how much wealth is in that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I've often said that if you are even just breaking even, but like covering all of your expenses, not going into debt, you're a successful business owner. You don't need the seven figures or the eight figures or whatever the new milestone goal is. But there are, like you've said, all of these other ways in which you can see yourself as wealthy. And it really does come down to what is it that you want, Like, what is the outcome that you have gotten into this for in the first place? Because there's so much noise and static around. What success is supposed to look like?

Speaker 1:

We're so consumed with doing, you know, checking the boxes and doing all of the quote unquote right things. We never stop to ask whether they're right for us. Like, yeah, I'm doing all the things I'm posting five times a day, I'm doing this and be like all the things that coaches tell you to do, but is that allowing me the freedom that I want? And and I so my my phone was stolen. Um, when we went overseas to Spain, it was stolen right out of my hand. It was fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Um, but it it was.

Speaker 1:

It's like trauma still, but it was. It was like two weeks of forced disconnection from all of that noise and static. And you know I tell everybody that I can that it was probably one of the best things that has happened to me over the last little while, because it forced me to realize that, you know, that constant noise was actually counterproductive to the success that I wanted. And so, coming back this week you know, or well, we've been back for a while, but this week, as I was sharing with you before we started talking, our recording took my kids to medical appointments. This week we spent two hours at the dentist this morning we, you know doing things like that.

Speaker 1:

And a message popped up while I hours at the dentist this morning we, you know doing things like that and a message popped up while I was at the dentist waiting for my little one, and it was a friend of mine. She says did you get my email from a couple of days ago that you know to do a thing? And I'm like, yeah, I got it. I just I haven't looked at it yet and thankfully she's very understanding about that, but that's not something that two months ago, three months ago, I would have been on my email, sitting in that waiting room, I would have been doing things Right, but being able to enjoy that time, that flexibility, like you said, it's just, it's a completely different level of freedom.

Speaker 2:

It is. You know, a lot of people is like you should be a judge. You should be a judge because that's considered the ultimate thing when you're a lawyer and I'm like I like what I'm doing now and, by the way, I'm creating judges. Yeah, so I could sit on the bench and be one judge and handle whatever cases come my way, or I can teach people who will be the future judges of our community. And, by the way, yeah, it's a legacy, and by the way.

Speaker 2:

I don't actually like what judges do every day. I've worked for judges for five years. I know day in and day out what they're doing. And I've worked for judges for five years. I know day in and day out what they're doing and I don't want to spend every day doing that. To me, the freedom I have, the flexibility, is more important than the title. The pay isn't that much more because it's, you know, you're a government employee. So I'm kind of like and people just don't get it and I'm like it's okay, you don't need to get it, okay, but I'm happy. Yeah, yeah, it's not for you, and so that is.

Speaker 2:

There is a lot of, as a business owner, in particular especially a newer business owner, a woman business owner, a mother business owner trying to balance all this stuff out. What is working for me? What is it that I truly want? Not what other people are saying I should want. What do I want? And so for me, I want to inspire, I want to create this legacy, and you know, and I'll pivot as many times as I have to while I try to create the best way to do that for me. And you know, you and I met through a coaching program and they had lots of great advice and a lot of it worked. But again I found all that noise to be too much for me. It was too overstimulating and I'm like I can't maintain this all year.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I realized, okay, I'm going to pivot again and figure out. Now I know. But I took some key things that are still working. But I can't follow the full formula because it's just too overstimulating. That's part of wealth as well.

Speaker 1:

The choice when I was working at a law firm building 80 hours a week.

Speaker 2:

Whatever I was doing, I was working five, seven days a week, yeah, and I hated the work I did. The people there, you know they're good people, good lawyers, but I was going foreclosures, bankruptcies, people you know and people who I thought I was going to be helping by becoming a lawyer. Instead, I'm kicking them out of their homes and collecting all these bills and I'm hearing all these sob stories. I'm like this isn't it. This isn't what I went to law school for, and so being able to walk away was a really big deal for me, and it was something that I realized my mom probably wouldn't have been able to do, or other members of my family, and so that is also that form of wealth as well being able to walk away. I took a year off with my son. Another form of wealth having enough saved up and having a uncomplicated, simple lifestyle that you can maintain and not work if you don't want to.

Speaker 1:

Do you know, I have often said that I don't want a millionaire's life, I want like a very middle of the road, mediocre, comfortable, just. I don't want a millionaire's life, I want like a very middle of the road, mediocre, comfortable, just. I don't want an exciting life, I just want to be able to do what I need to do Right. And it's it's because I mean, and I and I did in my previous life, you know, I did all the exciting things, I traveled and I did, and it was a lot and and for me, I think, the the sort of the catalyst moment that made me start to rethink all of the conditioning that we are given of what success looks like and you have to have three degrees and you have to go to university, you have to do all these things was a cancer diagnosis. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2006. I was on a job site. We were prepping for a major international music festival in Europe. I was sitting in a field and I got the call and I had to. They basically said it's like it's Friday now we need you in the hospital on Monday. So I ended up having the surgery and you know, I was in the hospital for about a week after that, I ended up having the surgery and, you know, I was in the hospital for about a week after that. And then when I went back home I will never forget my boss, you know I contacted her and I said I need three months, like that's what they've said the recovery period for this is going to be. She said you have 10 days and if you're not back at work, your job goes to somebody else. Now me at the time, being young and stupid and ambitious, and like yep, okay, fine, cool, I'll be there. 10 days later I was back at my desk, bandaged, you know, still only able to drink through a straw, like it was a lot. But that started me down the road of I need to build something that I can walk away from and be okay, right, and that's.

Speaker 1:

I think entrepreneurship as a whole is something that we tend to forget. We built this so that we could have choice. We built this so we could have freedom and flexibility and autonomy and all of these things, these markers of wealth that you've talked about. And then the second catalyst moment for me was my youngest daughter's diagnosis of autism and ADHD, which I don't talk about, but it seems like a good time to talk about it today. You know being able to be there for her because she does have much higher needs than you know my older daughter. So, from your perspective, how do you continue to build a business and prioritize those pieces of wealth, including the financial bit, but not lose the joy, because I gosh the number of people I have worked with in the past few years who are successes in business but are absolutely miserable? What's your take on that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I, when I was at that law firm. I mean these people are making, some of them are making a million dollars a year. Most miserable people I've met, so I knew immediately money was not going to solve all your problems. And you hear that a lot. Most miserable people I've met, so I knew immediately money was not going to solve all your problems.

Speaker 1:

And you hear that a lot, especially as a kid you're like yeah right, if I had money I'd be doing it Right.

Speaker 2:

But when you're a kid you don't realize all the things you have to do to get the money. Do to get the money Yep.

Speaker 2:

Yep, but what I? That for me, was the moment where I really realized okay, the money isn't it. So what is it? And it's being intentional about building the life that you want to live. I remember working with a gentleman who had been there I guess five years when I started and they started. This is a big law firm, so $100,000 a year. I was like this is more money than any one of my family has ever made. It will take my mom three years to make it right what I was going to be making in one year. And so I'm talking to my colleague who's training me and he's been there five years, so he's made what At least a half million dollars Didn't own a home, didn't own his car Hadn't paid off his student loans.

Speaker 2:

I'm like what are you doing with a half a million dollars? I?

Speaker 1:

mean, I know there's some taxes, right, what's that?

Speaker 2:

30%, but that's still a good chunk of money. That's more money than most people in the world ever see. So the first thing, watch how you spend your money. You put your money where your mouth is. A lot of like our family members will say well, if we had you and your husband's money, we'd be in a mansion and by driving this car into the.

Speaker 2:

I said, yeah, and you'd be broke this car. I said, yeah, and you'd be broke. You'd be broke and working more to maintain that lifestyle. We live a very simple lifestyle and we invest a lot of our money. We save a lot of it, we stay away from too much debt, we have our mortgage in the cars and that's pretty much it. We don't finance too many things. Keep our lives simple. I still shop at Old Navy I've been a lawyer 15 years but I like their clothes. It's always on sale and so you know. My son is also has special needs and we have him now in homeschooling, so that means we have to do homework and things like that, but he's thriving. It's his first year doing that and you know no amount of money can replace how happy, much happier, he is now.

Speaker 2:

So back to that being a professor versus a judge, right. If I was a judge, I couldn't do that. Being a professor allows me to do that. My daughter also now has special needs, and we're taking them to a lot of appointments, and so I just build those things in first and then put everything else around it. Build those things in first and then put everything else around it. We do the opposite. We put the job or the money making opportunity first and put our whole lives about that, which is what you described with your job, and I've done that too, and I was there for four years billing, working seven days a week, right.

Speaker 1:

And then. But you know, and I also, start calculating.

Speaker 2:

$100,000 is a lot of money, but then when you divide it by 80 hours per week times 52, you're like the hourly rate is not that high. Sometimes you just got to take a moment and really do some calculations. You know, I was cranky all the time. My husband was upset with me, my family never saw me, so it was just not adding up. And so you really have to design the life that you want first. Put all the joy things in first, then put the monetization in around it. I can be here with you, then I'm going to help him with his homework. You know, sometimes I'm sitting my daughter's taking a nap on my lap, so I take out my phone and I do some stuff for my YouTube, I go on social media and post. I schedule things ahead of time. So that's how I'm able to build it in, because this is really important to me to have her sleeping on my lap at this age, cause she's when she gets older. That's going to be it.

Speaker 2:

She's not going to be in my lap anymore, as you know because your kid's a little older and those moments can't come back, and so that is the first thing I would recommend you do, put the important stuff in first, then fill in the monetization around it, fill in the job around it. I love that, yeah, and I know everyone listening. Some people are working full-time jobs because entrepreneurship can be tough and has a learning curve, so you might already be having those two things, but then don't put nothing else in there. You don't got to be superwoman. I've seen these people I talk to these young women all the time who are in a position like you. I said man, you're doing too much. I need you to pick the most important one, yeah, so you know, to everything else and then next year switch. You don't got to do it all at the same time. Sometimes we got to get in over our heads before we know how far we can go.

Speaker 2:

But, once you're in over your head, you got to take a few steps back.

Speaker 1:

So you can see the forest for the trees. Yeah, yes, it's like I've always said. Like you can have everything that you want to have, your timeline just has to look different from somebody else's who doesn't have your capacity right or your priorities. Jocelyn, this has been like such a wonderful conversation. I have one final question. What, in your perspective, is the smallest or the most impactful thing someone can do right now to operate more in the currency of joy?

Speaker 2:

someone can do right now to operate more in the currency of joy. Oh, one thing I want them to think about when they were little kids, what was the thing that you love doing? They had to pull you away and people are like you're doing that again. Or people say you're so good at that.

Speaker 2:

I would recommend really meditating on it, get quiet. Would recommend like really meditating on it, get quiet, take a few deep breaths, put on music, sit back and really allow yourself to go back to your childhood and I want you to all those, all that noise, all the programming, all the societal expectations, just kind of peel those layers back, feel them back. Feel them back, feel them back and find a little you about five or six years old right, elementary school age usually is good and then say, gosh, what did I really like doing? Because it's a seed that was planted in you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's still there. You might have been burying it, you might have been plucking it out, but it's still there. The roots are still there, and when you're around that age, you're not worried about what society thinks. No, you're around that age. You're not worried about what society thinks. No, you're not Just doing things that bring you joy. If you can get to the heart of that, you will start to find out what really does bring you joy, what is going to bring you energy, what you're naturally good at, and then build from there and find that thing, no matter how ridiculous it is.

Speaker 2:

I love mysteries and so now I'm writing a book series based on Sherlock Holmes, because I loved that when I was yeah, it's a little girl now Shirley Holmes. I love painting and people would tell me I'm so good at it, I'm just doing it. I had no training or anything. So now I'm doing another portrait soon and for me it was a lot of different things, a lot of creative things, but start doing it again. Make a little time. It doesn't have to be like you drop everything, right, you don't have to travel to some fancy place, you don't have to spend a lot of money.

Speaker 2:

You just have to start, see how you feel, and if you leave that activity feeling energized, then you know you're on the right path. It should flow very easily. There should be no resistance. It's not about you trying, it's just you just do and then start to build from there. And again, you know one of the funny things I see whenever someone puts out a message like self-care, rest, people always want to monetize it again.

Speaker 1:

They turn it into this huge thing we're having a retreat it's $5,000.

Speaker 2:

Fly to Spain Like what? No, that's not restful, just go rest Right or, like you know, grow your hair natural. You know I let my hair go gray now and different things. And then now there's all these products. I'm like I thought the whole point was this was supposed to be easier and simpler.

Speaker 1:

Resist the urge to make it complicated resist the urge to make it complicated oh my gosh. Resist the urge to make it complicated. Not everything has to. Oh my god, oh man. There are so many lessons here and honestly I think that, like you said, the biggest resist the urge to make it complicated. I have such a bone to pick with the entire self-help self-care industry, but that's an entire episode on its own, so we're not going to go down that rabbit hole today. But this was wonderful. Thank you so much. Can you please tell everybody where they can find you and experience all of the incredible things that you are doing for joy?

Speaker 2:

Thank you. You can go to jocelynhardrickcom. That's my website and I've tried to organize it so you can see all the little things that I do and you can pick the path that makes sense to you. And on social media I'm at JJ Hardrick. So that's.

Speaker 2:

Instagram, twitter, linkedin, facebook but for the old people, facebook's for old people. Okay, I guess LinkedIn is where I post more of my law school pro stuff and things about law school, my documentary, because I just started a production company, so trying to tell more of this history so people can understand the current moment. And then on Facebook and Instagram, you'll see more of my creative things and my children's books. I have a children's show coming out on YouTube this summer, so I'm excited about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know it's funny. I work on these things for years. I recorded some of this footage from my kids show last April and so that's why I was like how do you do everything? I'm like I just a little at a time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's not all happening, just like that. Yeah, a little at a time. A little at a time. Yeah, it's not all happening.

Speaker 2:

Just like that, yeah yeah. So I'm excited about that and we're, you know, celebrating joy with kids, mindfulness, diversity and inclusion and belonging, and through songs, and so I'm turning my books into songs, you know, just kind of repurposing some of the things I've been working on. And I love YouTube because it just makes it available for people of the world, so I hope people can enjoy that and listen. Just, you know, if you go to meetwithjocelyncom, you can get on my calendar.

Speaker 1:

Let's chat, you know, about what. Whatever is on your mind, listen, run, don't walk. Run to the show notes and go and check her out Because, honestly, I had the very distinct pleasure of having Jocelyn do a children's book, like you did the thing with the dragon for me last year and it was honestly, it was so cool, so get on her calendar, go check out her stuff.

Speaker 1:

Like just honestly, she's, she's incredible. So thank you so much for being here. It was such a pleasure and, like we always say every week, my friends, friends, you can have success without the BS. Stop making it complicated. Talk to you next week. That's it for this week. Thanks for listening to the Business Blasphemy Podcast. We'll be back next week with a new episode, but in the meantime, help a sister out by subscribing and, if you're feeling extra sassy, rating this podcast, and don't forget to share the podcast with others. Head over to businessblasphemypodcastcom to connect with us and learn more. Thanks for listening and remember you can have success without the BS.