The Woman School with January Donovan

January is the founder of 'The Woman School," a mindset and skillset training school for women. She has 25 years of experience coaching women and is a 2x Best Selling Author. ('Redefine Success for Women' and 'This is the Me I Choose to Be.') She was featured in Forbes list of top self-worth strategists. 

January built a multimillion dollar business in 2 years, and went from 0 to 40+ countries in just 3 years. 

January has shared the stage with top influencers and leaders in the world. (Ed Mylett, John Maxwell, Russel Brunson, Amy Porterfield and more) She has a powerful mission to bring honor back to being a woman. 

She inspires a message of hope for women who aspire to achieve their highest potential without compromising their marriage and desire for a beautiful family life. She built a multimillion-dollar business with her husband while raising her 8 children. She believes that women's voices, especially mothers, are needed in every facet of the society more than ever.

http://howtobeawomanfreecourse.com

I am 100% passionate and committed to fighting a culture of war. I believe we have a call to redeem the value of faith, family, and freedom. I created this FREE resource to help women defend their value and defend their right to be a woman.  

This is our grassroot effort to redeem womanhood. Please share this mission to the women you love. It's totally FREE and thousands of women across 40 countries are being transformed through the woman's school. It is exciting! Let us know what you think

January spent year suffering unnecessary overwhelm, stress, and anxiety simply because she was undertrained. Then she met her mentor Elena and her life was changed forever. January now believed women battle feeling like a failure when in reality, the world has failed to prepare us. We can no longer afford to hand over a generation of men and women who doubt their worth and give up on who they were created to be. We cannot afford a life without training, we need to skill up.

January had a bold dream to build a school designed to train women with the practical skills to manage their lives. She spent 15 years training women for free before realizing that in order to reach millions, she had to learn to build a business and do so while prioritizing her husband, and 8 children.

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Transcript

Speaker 0 (0s): Welcome to the Tim Heale Podcast. If you have the time, you cannot only listen to the episodes, but you can also watch all the shows, and you'll find the links in the description below. thank you. 

Boom. I'm in the room. Good. Welcome everybody. Welcome to Ordinary People's Extraordinary Stories. Now I've got a fantastic guest on today. 

Now she's done a huge amount with her life. So what we're gonna do, I'm gonna drag her in and we're going to tell her, tell us all about her life. So, Jen, welcome, 

Speaker 2 (53s): Welcome, Thank, you for having me. I, love that This is about a legacy and a story. thank you for doing it through the future generation. 

Speaker 0 (1m 3s): Yes. And it's, it's, it's all about your life. So if you can tell me where you were born, not necessarily when you were born, because you were a lady, if you could describe to me what it was like, where you grew up, the schools you went to, and the education that you received. Wow. So the platform's yours for a minute or two. 

Speaker 2 (1m 29s): Oh, great. Well, thank you for that question. So I, my first earliest years was actually in the slums of the Philippines. My parents were a very, I would say, you know, limited means. And so I grew up, I remember I was three or four and my grandfather lived in this, in the slums, and I didn't know any better. I loved it. There were, there, there was dirt everywhere. It was, didn't smell too good, but it was rich with joy and laughter and didn didn't know any better. 

And so that was sort of my ear, earliest years. And as my parents grew up, I mean, sort of really gained, I would say, in their business and worked hard. We kind of moved into the next neighborhood, which was a little bit better. And then my parents put me in the best school And. that was their goal, even though they worked so hard and they, we had, we, we barely had anything, you know, and, but they wanted me in the best school. And so I went to the best school and it was where all the wealthy people lived, but I was one of 'em. 

As a matter of fact, I, I didn't even have a living room. I didn't even know what a living room was. When I was about six or seven years old, we moved into this one house. And my parents worked so hard as entrepreneurs are great, they're very generous people. But our living room was full of a, like, like eight feet printing press. 'cause that was their business. And all day I would hear the sun tick, tick, tick, tick. They were creating papers because that's what their business was. And traveling to pitch to the government so they could sell and make money. And so, but my, it was wholesome. 

People around me, you know, loved to laugh. There was a lot of singing, a lot of dancing. And I didn't really think anything about it until I grew up a little bit older and I realized, oh, there's a difference between rich and poor. And clearly we were not the, the rich people. And, but I didn't see it sort of as a bad thing as it was. I just looked at it as I wasn't. And they were, and maybe someday we will. And so my parents then left for United States so that they could have a better life for their children. 

So I didn't see them for five years straight. I was raised in those times around my families, my aunts and my uncles. And so there was some suffering there, I think, as a child. But really it was, we made a wholesome life. Philippine Philippines is a great place to be able to raise, I would say children. And so I had a glorious time. It was simple, it was beautiful, it was rich. And then I came to United States and my parents became nannies because that's the best way to, for them to get a, and so now it was very, you know, I would say simple means to now this billionaire took us in and created a mansion and extension of our mansion into our house and lavished us with so much. 

I mean, she would take me shopping for 10 with $10,000 a day. It was the opposite extreme. And so that was where kind of two different worlds collided for me. And I was trying to wrestle with who am I as a woman? What do I do with everything that I have? What's important? And so there's so many things that in the world of materialism in the United States, I lost who I was. I lost sort of that joy and wholesomeness. I didn't think there was a lot of depth and meaning. 

And so, so I fell into this trap where I didn't like who I was. I didn't like the woman I was becoming. I had no language for it. And so I was living the American dream. I, you know, at eighth grade, I was home. I mean, at ninth grade I was president of school and homecoming queen. And from the outside I, it looked like it was a great American dream story. in the inside, I felt like I was empty. And, you know, even though we had more, I was less inside. And so when I went to college, I really looked for a place where I wanted a place where people had depth and meaning and people cared. 

So I found a college and I decided I wanted to study theology and philosophy. I wanted, I wanted to study the richness of, of life. I wanted more meaning. so that became my journey. And then in that time, I also met a woman who mentored me and really taught me how to be a woman. Because my mom, who was a great mother, great woman, she was an immigrant. So really didn't have a lot of, I would say, training on what is it like to be a woman. And so, so much of that I got all through my college years, which then led me to really ask a question, why is there no school to teach women how to be a woman in the world where so many women are hurting because they don't know how. 

And that became, you know, sort of a, a journey for me. And my philosophy studies really led me to acidity for question. And so I started training women. And I still am, I'm still, you know, 25 years later, 45 years old. I've been doing it ever since in college. Teaching women how to be a woman in a world that I believe has devalued women. And yeah, now we have a school for women. And it's practical life training and how to be a woman in a world that is now choosing to unef define us. 

Speaker 0 (6m 36s): Well, that went extremely quickly. Now let's, let's drag you all the way back, way back to when, when you was in the Philippines. So what's, what's your early earliest memories of of school? 

Speaker 2 (6m 55s): Great. 

Speaker 0 (6m 57s): Like to remember your kindergarten days? 

Speaker 2 (6m 60s): Yeah, So, it was a very prominent school. And my earliest memories was, it was, I didn't belong there 'cause it was so big, but it wasn't, it was prestigious. And my earliest memory I would say was, you know, I went to this school and I had to learn Chinese, I had to learn English, I had to learn Filipino all at the same time. And there was a lot of fun. 

We did a lot of fun things as a little girl, a lot of joyful thing. There was no internet. There was really, you know, so we played outside a lot. And that's some of my earliest memories. It was just wholesome childhood play. 

Speaker 0 (7m 49s): Now you mentioned that you, you, you were learning three language, English, Filipino, and Chinese. Well, I can understand English and Filipino, but Chinese, what was the Chinese influence in the area at the time? 

Speaker 2 (8m 5s): So a lot of the Chinese influence really came, 'cause we were very close to China and a lot of the businesses came because it was better labor, I believe at that time as my recollection. So a lot of the wealthy people were Chinese. So there was great influence where a lot of people that are wealthy wanted their children to learn Chinese because it bettered the opportunity for business. so that was for a lot of the people and say, let's incorporate now Chinese so that our children can actually learn how to develop business skills in Asia. 

so that was, and it was a very complicated language. I You know, I don't think I kept up with any of it, but I I learned it since kindergarten all the way up to moved to the United States, which is sixth grade, which is a pretty extensive amount of time I can write. 

Speaker 0 (8m 52s): Yeah. So write Chinese. Wow, I could barely use chopsticks. 

Speaker 2 (9m 1s): Well, there's what, 5,000 characters we, 26. It's, you know, yeah, I know. Can't write all, but 

Speaker 0 (9m 7s): It's, it is it, it is a strange language, that's for sure. Yeah. So, so I can understand the English because that's like the international language of the world and an awful lot of Filipinos tend to go and work on cruise ships. Yeah, I think, I mean, certainly my experience have been a, a, a cruiser. I've seen lots and lots of Filipinos working on a cruise ship. So, and they all speak very good English. 

That certainly the ones I've come across. And there's a lot. 

Speaker 2 (9m 41s): Yes, there's a lot. And they choose to keep their family so that they could actually have a better living, kind of pretty consistent. 

Speaker 0 (9m 51s): So moving up then from kindergarten, what about your, your elementary school? How was that? Were you still in the Philippines for that? 

Speaker 2 (9m 59s): Yeah, I was still in the Philippines till about sixth grade. And so You know my elementary days, I would say had an incredible group of friends. I, we did a lot of things. We had a lot of freedom because you could do a lot of things in, in the Philippines because it was a kind of a close proximity. So I went island hopping, we always went on adventures, caved diving. I mean, we went mountain. I mean, it was just rich with nature. 

That was what I remembered it And, you know, I could, in the Philippines it was typical that you had a driver. And so I lived in a very sort of wealthy area. And even though we weren't wealthy at that point, but we had a driver. And so we could just say, let's go island hopping. And we would go there and we would have the local food and you just go rent a boat and go from island to island. And. that was part of, you know, part of what you did. But also I, I was sort of living in this both worlds because my, I, you know, I had a lot of families that were poor. And so I went to a lot of the poor places in the Philippines and there were poor markets. 

And I loved it. I loved it. I loved the fact that, you know, you could buy fish on the side of the road and you could eat at the fancy restaurant. There was just that, I was able to experience so much of the gamut as an element, you know, elementary and quite honestly Tim. It, it really made me think about life in a more deep way because of the experience that I had. And so much of it. 'cause my parents were gone. I had to think about life, what I wanted, what I didn't want. Suffering causes us to do a little bit more thinking. 

It leads a gratitude. And I think that was You know for me, a real gift that I had as a child. I had, I had no one, I had to think about my life. I had to fend for myself. And I was very grateful. I, I would never be who I am right now without the privilege of the struggles that I had in the Philippines. 

Speaker 0 (11m 57s): So, talking of struggles then. How did you go on at school? What was your elementary school? What was, what was your favorite lessons? What was the, the lesson that you just want to get out and get to school for? 

Speaker 4 (12m 12s): Stay with us. We'll be right back. 

Speaker 5 (12m 14s): Are you ready to check? 

Speaker 6 (12m 16s): I'm having a huge struggle with eating too much. And I'm not sure how to stop. 

Speaker 7 (12m 21s): My spouse seems to be changing her priorities and I'm worried. 

Speaker 8 (12m 24s): Yeah, we are fighting the digital battle in our house. I never can seem to make progress and I'm not sure what to do. 

Speaker 5 (12m 29s): Welcome to Let's chat with Will and Tony 

Speaker 9 (12m 33s): Focusing on what matters and Ditching, what doesn't. Now 

Speaker 5 (12m 36s): Here's Will Kessley and Tony Peck. 

Speaker 10 (12m 40s): Well, welcome to the show. It's the Will and Tony show. I'm Will, I'm Tony otherwise known as Mr. Muscle. No 

Speaker 11 (12m 46s): More like Mr. Mr Clean. Mr. Already ditched my New Year's resolution. What? 

Speaker 2 (12m 56s): Oh, that's a great question. I loved science. I loved learning about the plants and the stars and the wonders in the world. I love learning also kind of social studies, which touch on cultures and geography. That was just something fascinating about the different parts of the world for me. So those were my favorite subjects. And we live the kind of education that we had. It was not your standard education, you know, or you give your test. 

It was, it was slightly Montessori in some degree. But really you had to do your own research at a very young age. You could go on your own pace. You sort of had lectures, but you could go further on your own particular interests that, you know, it didn't have to be the same for everyone, which I thought was great. 'cause then I felt like it wasn't a one size fits all and I could go deeper in the things that I wanted to go deeper. And I remember studying more about chlorophyll. I love, I'm like, I was fascinated by it and some of the countries. 

And so I could, and I think that was also something that was very different when I came to United States 

Speaker 0 (14m 4s): States. So what lesson wanted you to, to have a duvet day and not bother going to school. What one did you really not like? 

Speaker 2 (14m 17s): Oh gosh. 

Speaker 0 (14m 20s): To a particular lesson that, that you just didn more than attend? 

Speaker 2 (14m 24s): It was penman penmanship. I had to rewrite things over and over again because you were taught the discipline of repetition. And I had to rewrite my penmanship. And it was non-negotiable. Like in America, penmanship was never, you know, but there it had to be in the straight line and, and you had to be so precise. And it was not my favorite, but it taught me 

Speaker 0 (14m 47s): Something like, I, I must not talk into class. I must not talk in class. Something like that. Yes. 

Speaker 2 (14m 54s): Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Over and over And I was talking at the class. I, okay, this is really interesting. So when I was in kindergarten, when you talk And, I was like a talker. I wasn't a bad kid, I just really love people. And we had wore slippers when you walk in the school. But if you're talking the catch to teacher, you had to take your slippers off and put it in your head as a punish. And the reason why I do that is 'cause then you can't turn your head. And so I still found a way to turn my head And. you know, I just, I felt like I always had a slipper in my kindergarten class because I always talked. 

And so that sort of, my memory was my pink slipper on top of my head because I just talk to people. 

Speaker 0 (15m 37s): Well, you canal always take a, a positive at it. And they were teaching you department. 

Speaker 2 (15m 43s): That's right. That's right. It gave me great. 

Speaker 0 (15m 51s): So let's, let's move on a little bit. Let's have a look about when, when you moved to the states. So whereabouts did you move to and what was the reason for that? 

Speaker 2 (16m 6s): So I moved to Maryland, which was where my parents had worked for this lady who had two children. And that's, you know, they were nannies. And so I went to the public school that was there and started out as sixth grade. Sixth grade. But I knew because I knew English, I transitioned really well. They put me actually into this ESOL class if you were somebody that wasn't from United States, from a different country. And they were very surprised that I spoke very well English, even though You know I had obviously an accent. 

But I, I had a head start because I knew English so well. I've been studying it for almost a decade. 

Speaker 0 (16m 47s): Yeah, that one's really good. So I guess Chinese wasn't spoke that often? No, 

Speaker 2 (16m 53s): No, I was not, it was not I didn. I was glad to actually not have to You know. And in our elementary school, I, you had to have a card in front of you and you could only speak those three language. You could speak English, Chinese or the native language, not my dialect. I spoke a different language. And so if they catch you get in trouble. So I, it was a very strict school. I didn't really, you know, it was strict school. I didn't think it was a bad strict school. I just really taught you discipline. 

I appreciate discipline. 

Speaker 0 (17m 28s): So the school in Maryland then, and you'd So you transitioned fairly quickly. And how was your level of education compared with the, the, the, the kids you were up against when you went there? Were, were you behind, were you in front? Did you, did you struggle at all? I was, 

Speaker 2 (17m 50s): No, I was, I was actually, my first two years I was a straight A student. I don't think I studied because of rigorous education that I got in the Philippines sort of bought me time to transition. There was not a, it was not difficult except for the writing part because of the grammar. I didn't learn English grammar and, or I guess the grammar that we had in the Philippines was sort of slightly different or it wasn't sort of up to par. so that was the challenging part initially. But really I didn't, you know, I was, I was, I was a good student and I got straight A's. 

Speaker 0 (18m 22s): So again, what was the favorite subject? Was it, was it continued with the sciences or did you pick up a different subject that you really liked doing? I, 

Speaker 2 (18m 34s): Yeah, I would say, I think I continued on with social studies, which is understanding the culture. I really kind of took a turn to that because of, I was obviously an immigrant, so I appreciated just understanding the lay of the land, what it's like to transition So. yeah, I think that's kind of where I gravitated to. 

Speaker 0 (18m 58s): Was there any classes that you didn't like doing? 

Speaker 2 (19m 5s): Yeah, maybe English. I didn't know. I mean, because English, not because of the, the grammar and I, I just wasn't, I think I wasn't really good at the actual written language and I felt like I struggled with it because, but it was, it was deceiving because I spoke it really well. Almost a pointment that I didn't really have an accent. So yeah. But I didn't, I don't, I think I missed learning it in the United States. And when I came here, they had already learned so much of the language and the grammar that at sixth grade I came in, I never got the grammar training that I needed. 

Everyone else did. Yeah. And So, it was a struggle just because I really didn't know how to write, you know, the grammar grammatically I would say English grammatically. 

Speaker 0 (19m 53s): Yeah. So did you do any other subjects like the, the arts did, did you play music? 

Speaker 2 (20m 1s): No, but I really loved home economics because it was, I felt like we had sewing and then we had woodwork and then we had, I had, you could cook and you had to cook for the whole class. And I appreciated that because it was beyond the academic work. And I thought, I always sort of thought that education needed to be beyond the academic work. And I felt those, I was able to sort of use those really well sort of in everyday life, which I appreciated. 

Speaker 0 (20m 35s): I don't think they do that with schools nowadays. Today. They, they don't do the home economics. I mean, when I, when I went to school, which is an awful long time ago, the girls did like sewing and, and cooking and the boys did metal work and woodwork and, and never the train should meet nowadays. They, they went through a period a few years ago where, where boys could cook and girls could do metal work and stuff like that. Nowadays I don't think they have those classes in school because of the, I think health and safety and when kids around lighted fires and might burn themselves. 

Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (21m 17s): Well I don't, yeah, I, I I think that's a robbery because today children are Yeah, 

Speaker 0 (21m 22s): Absolute 

Speaker 2 (21m 23s): Have become so incompetent that they are incapable of some of the most basic foundation. And it's such a foundational skill that helps you layers Yeah. Layer those s And, you know, I train thousands of women across the globe who have no, you know, and a lot of 'em suffer because they just have no basic kitchen skills. Forget cooking. That would be an upgrade. Yeah. Just a big order, clean up preparation. Everything feels overwhelming when you're under-skilled. And then it becomes a compounding problem because then you, you don't, you've never, always also taught how to organize your home, how to manage your mind, how to figuring out, you know, what you want in your life. 

Just one hardship after an hardship. And I just feel it's, it's unfair and unjust because we have almost reached the heights of education without the foundation, which is crumbling. Yeah. you know, it's, it's, 

Speaker 0 (22m 21s): I think, I think I'm missing a trick and it's, it's, it's, it's globally, it's not just one country. It's not just America. It's not just Europe or the uk. It, it's, it's everywhere. And, and I think people are losing skills that we used to have. 

Speaker 2 (22m 42s): Yeah, you're 

Speaker 0 (22m 43s): Right. Which is a great shame. 

Speaker 2 (22m 45s): Yeah. And it used to be common sense And, you know, and common sense has now become common practice. 'cause we don't practice any of these things. And yeah, 

Speaker 0 (22m 53s): It's, they don't courtesy, they don't like people with common sense nowadays. It's not a thing to have. 

Speaker 2 (22m 60s): It's really, it's really sometimes shocking. Some of the things that people do and think maybe they were, they never thought about what they're thinking. There's not even a thought of consequence of your words, of your action. Being a man of your word, being a man of integrity. All these, I would say foundational character and people achieve so much but have so little interiorly, And, you know, what, what good is it to to gain the world and lose yourself in the process? 'cause you literally don't know how to communicate to the people around you. 

Basic courtesy. If you go to American school, I don't know what it's like in England, but the children are on their phone. They, they don't know how to say hello. I have eight children and I have teach my children some of these foundational communication skills that I'm very fierce about. 'cause it's, it's so important and it's so basic that if they don't have it, it will have them of opportunities. But see, there's no reinforcement because when they go to school Yeah. And they go to their peers. Nobody's saying hello, I, no, I mean, just the common 

Speaker 0 (24m 2s): Well they do, they they text each other, don't they? 

Speaker 2 (24m 6s): Yeah. And it's, and I am, you know, I, I don't put up with it. I say, well, I'm not, you can't graduate from my house without learning basic courtesy skill that's going to enhance the quality of your life in the future. And so mothers. But see, if you are a mother and you also lack the discipline, how could you discipline your children? 

Speaker 0 (24m 25s): Yeah. I think, you know, I think it's a problem that we're gonna see more and more as the years go on, where the generation aren't being taught that. So, so that, that skill's lost and it's just, yeah. 

Speaker 2 (24m 37s): Yeah. I think there's a new found hunger for the Tim. I do believe it. Just 'cause I'm in the forefront of this battle. I am seeing people, women, men becoming more aware of this crisis and saying, wait a minute, we, we can't continue this road of, you know, demise. Essentially we're, we're burning ourselves alive. And so I think there is a newfound hunger for death, for meanings for some of these skillset. The problem is that where do you go to access it? Which is a reason why we have the school for women, which is not just, you know, it's not just skills about practical life. 

It really skills about how to expand your life in every part of your life. And. that to me is, I think the crisis of our culture is a foundational crisis of how to be human. 

Speaker 0 (25m 25s): Hmm. Anyway, let's, let's, let's take you back to, what about your high school moving on to high school. How was that for you? 

Speaker 2 (25m 35s): It was, it was a great experience. Up until my end of my junior year, I excelled. I had great friends. I, I education to me, I was also a straight A student most of the time. I think every semester, you know, you might have a, so that was great. In my end of my junior year, I think I started to ask some painful questions of can we do something meaningful with our life? And I felt like the, the kids that I surround myself with, they're good friends, but they also lack, I think, the depth. And so they So it was, it was very, it was, it was whole. 

It was fun. Until it wasn't fun anymore my junior year. 

Speaker 0 (26m 15s): So what about your senior year? How was that? I, 

Speaker 2 (26m 19s): It was hard. It was hard because I began to think about my own life, my purpose, why I am here, the legacy I am leaving. I asked the hard question as an 18-year-old woman. And what I did was I pulled away from my friends because I realized I was the only one asking it. And I was either gonna be influenced by the shallowness and the lack of depth, or I was gonna go find other people who were asking the same questions so that I could find the meaning. And so I pulled away. I I was very absent in my high school years, but I was very present to myself. 

So those challenging senior year actually became a great gift in my life. 

Speaker 0 (26m 60s): So you mentioned earlier that, that you was the homecoming queen. 

Speaker 2 (27m 8s): Yeah, I was homecoming I think my junior year. I think I beginning. 

Speaker 0 (27m 11s): Alright, so, so, so that didn't go on until the senior year then? 

Speaker 2 (27m 15s): No, no, they have a junior. And then, see I didn't even go to my senior year prom. 

Speaker 0 (27m 20s): Oh, he reached out on the prom. I was gonna ask about the prom. Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (27m 24s): So. yeah, no, 

Speaker 0 (27m 25s): I So you didn't even get a corsage. 

Speaker 2 (27m 28s): I, well we had a, you you, there was a, a dance every year. And so I, I went to the dances and then my junior year I was from coming queen. But my senior year, I, I had no desire. 

Speaker 0 (27m 39s): Hmm. So what about, what did you do after you graduated from high school? 

Speaker 2 (27m 46s): I went into my college years and I, at that point found a great school. I felt like there was a lot of depth and meaning And, that I started really developing a relationship with God. I wanted to understand who God was. I wanted to understand who I was in, in the place of God, my place in this world, my purpose. And so I decided to study theology and philosophy simultaneously. And I loved it. I loved learning about philosophy. I think I even loved it more than my theology class. 'cause it's a study of You know what you're thinking and it's study of all the studies. 

And so that became, I would say, a new love for me and learning some of the layers of wisdom. So my college years exciting. It was, it was the best, I can't say it was the best 'cause like I'm living my best life every year. But it was a great, it was a great, i, I turned the corner, I would say in my college years. And I felt like I was kind of going the wrong way. My senior year and my college years, I began to have, you know, I began sort of that little girl in the Philippines who appreciated life, who had quality And. 

that was my turning point was my college years. And so I, I, I really loved it and I found quality friends. My education was rich and I found myself in college. 

Speaker 0 (29m 8s): So where was the college? 

Speaker 2 (29m 10s): It was in Ohio. It was not a very pretty place. It was cold. The water was not, it smelled good. The town itself was not very pretty, but there was a city on the hill, they called the school And. that was a kind of a special place for a lot of people. So people went there actually for the school. But we never really left outside of the college campus. The campus itself was so much, so rich with joy and laughter and dancing and it was wholesome and there was really no need. I went to school abroad. 

My, I wanna say my sophomore year, I can't remember. Yeah, I think maybe it was my sophomore year. And I went, I did a semester in Europe in Austria. And I got to travel all around. Yeah, all around Europe, including England. I went there actually by myself. I traveled and decided to go by myself and venture out. So 

Speaker 0 (30m 2s): I love it. So, so how did, how did you get on in Austria? Because they, they speak a different dialect of German. 

Speaker 2 (30m 8s): Yeah. So, yes. So there was a 

Speaker 0 (30m 10s): School, were you able to communicate or was there an international school used in the, it was international language in the world. 

Speaker 2 (30m 16s): Yeah, it was a campus of our college. So everyone spoke English. 

Speaker 0 (30m 21s): Alright. 

Speaker 2 (30m 22s): It was a, a campus, an extension of our campus. It was in Goming, Austria. It was right outside Salzburg, I believe it was about, you know, right outside. So you'd ride the, you'd ride the train there and it was this town frozen in time behind the Alps. And it was just stunning. So I loved it. I traveled all, every weekend we traveled somewhere. And, that was, 

Speaker 0 (30m 44s): You went somewhere every weekend? 

Speaker 2 (30m 45s): Yeah, 

Speaker 0 (30m 46s): We did a 

Speaker 2 (30m 47s): 40 day class and three days. They wanted you to travel. And that's what we did. 

Speaker 0 (30m 51s): That's Brilliant. Yeah, it was So you. How long did you spend in Europe? 

Speaker 2 (30m 57s): Almost six months, maybe five months, January to all the way to May, whenever the semester was done. So I, I was, I covered a lot of grounds. 

Speaker 0 (31m 9s): So what did you do when you finally graduated college? 

Speaker 2 (31m 14s): I worked, first, I did some volunteer work on understanding. I, I studied women. I was, I, I really wanted to focus my education on women. And then I landed in now working in Capitol Hill for a congressman and worked in congress for almost four years as an executive assistant of a Florida co congressman and I. learned a lot there. Put my theology education right into the heart of politics. 

Lemme tell you to theology, politics and theology or what? 

Speaker 0 (31m 51s): So, so we, we, we won't go down a politics route I don't think. No, we won't. We'll stay out wet. We'll stay out. We'll stay. Our politics is too, it's too toxic. 

Speaker 2 (32m 2s): But you know what's so interesting? When I was there, I wasn't very political. I, I had a group, my job was, I was executive assistant. So I learned a lot, but it really, I don't even really think I understood politics the way I'm understanding it now. So, and I would also say that in those time that was there, I don't think it was quite as divisive as it is now. I think there was, it was a different culture then, or maybe, you know, it's sort of, I was sort of preserved in the way I was thinking about it. 

So. it wasn't really until my later years that I had kind of studied a little bit of the influence of politics in all areas of culture. But when I was there, I, it was just an adventure to me. I learned a lot. 

Speaker 0 (32m 53s): So what did you do after that? 

Speaker 2 (32m 56s): When did I, after that, so I got into real estate and I tell you, I find my best real estate, which was my husband. I went to my real estate my first year. I met him my first day. And then we were engaged in six months and then got married in another six months. And then I never really practiced it because then I got pregnant with our first child soon afterwards. And then it was just, you know, I couldn't really do it simultaneously. And then I had four children after in four years. And So it really, I, I really couldn't work, nor did I sort of want to, my mental space was there. 

And so he built a his business while I was home with the children. But at the same, I was still training in women. I would still do conferences, I would create classes for them. I never lost my love for teaching women. 

Speaker 0 (33m 46s): Hmm. And that continued through the years then. 

Speaker 2 (33m 52s): Oh yeah. I just felt like I always had a dream to build a school for women. When I graduated college, I drew a school and it was a dream. And I thought women need a school. We need to show women how to be a woman. And I have never imagined that that statement could be as relevant as it is now. And so that was a dream I kept in my heart and I just skipped at it. And then it was 10 years ago, my husband said, you know, January, do you want to reach thousands or millions? And I said, millions. 

And, and the reason why I was so passionate about, it's because I never, nobody ever showed me how and I suffered for it. And so I felt like my legacy is that what I endured, I hope that I would give women tools so they don't have to endure and rob themselves of the gift of life that I never received. so that is so much of my passion. 

Speaker 0 (34m 45s): So you, you've learned the hard way and there's always two ways to learn. Obviously there's the easy way and the hard way. And most people generally choose the hard way. Yeah, 

Speaker 2 (34m 59s): The hard way. That's right. And, but a lot of times you just don't, you don't know what you don't know. you know, you don't know. Yeah. That you need to know how to value yourself. What does that look like? What does it mean to value yourself? How, what does it mean to respect yourself? What does it mean to be in command of your emotion? What does it mean to take care of you? I mean, all these things we hear all the time, but really who's showing us how? 

Speaker 0 (35m 24s): Yeah. So that's what you do. You, you, you show women how 

Speaker 2 (35m 30s): To be a 

Speaker 0 (35m 30s): Woman. How to be a woman. So, so what's your basic curriculum that you sort of set for the, for these s Yeah. So I How'd you, how'd, how'd you go about it in the first place? I mean, do you assess them on, on what they know and then build from that? Or, 

Speaker 2 (35m 45s): Or Yes. 

Speaker 0 (35m 46s): What's the process? 

Speaker 2 (35m 47s): So? yeah. I've been teaching women for 25 years. And so I've really created a system through this year. So I, we have a signature course that's 16 weeks, but I go through it where they start with assessing every, what we call arena, which is part of their life. There's eight parts of a woman that we've just divided. And then what I do is that they, they really assess themselves in every part of their life, all throughout the course. And we have learned sort of the most genius model to teach women is actually through a group, small group setting with a coach and a course with a committed time start and finish. 

And so it's typically about six to eight months they go through the course with a group and a coach. And then I've presented to them these 16 classes, which is essentially about 64 lessons. I take them through an assessment. Every lesson has an assessment. I start them understanding, I teach 'em how to discover their purpose. I teach 'em how to discover their wounds. I teach 'em how to discover the desires of their heart, how to dream as a skill, how to plan, how to manage their mind, how to design the woman they wanna become. And then I teach 'em how to have friendship, how to honor their mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. 

I give them all the practical tools and I give them How do you, how do you develop skills to be in a relationship? What does it mean to communicate effectively? What does it mean to honor your value in a relationship? I teach 'em how to manage their home. How to design it not just physically, but also how to really create an inspiring place. I teach 'em how to discover their work, what they love, how to use their strength and their talent to use it for the purpose. I teach 'em how to design their home life. What is it like to create an infrastructure and a standard at home? How to build wealth that's not just limited on money, the time and your resources. 

So I give them all the how tos and all those different arenas. So even though it's six to eight weeks, they have assessment, they have homework, they have the classes, they have coaching, they have a community. All that sets them up really to begin the foundation. But really our, the women that take our course, take it six and seven times that one course alone because there's so much depth teaching the frameworks and formulas. And so You know, when you think of Einstein You know, when you think of all these formulas that have lasted time, it's replicable. 

So the course that we have, it's replicable. Any woman can take it with 13 all the way up to their eighties taking it because they can take a formula on how to rewire the limiting belief or how to manage your mind. And they can use it, their daughters can use it. And so that's really the tool that we're creating is a replicable formula on how to be a woman in the world that perhaps has devalued women. And I think it's, it's, you know, the thousands and thousands of testimonies have been a fruit shows the fruit of, I would say the work and it's women that are doing work was giving them formulas. 

And 

Speaker 0 (38m 43s): So, so is it all done online or is it, do, do you have a, a campus where they come to? Do they they have, is it a mix of both? 

Speaker 2 (38m 53s): It's a mix. So there is no campus, everything is online because we live in an online world. But some women do it what we call live, where they meet live. 'cause they prefer it. It's a group of 8, 10, 20 women. They have a coach or they can do it online and they usually meet every other week. They take one class, they meet and discuss it, they have homework and then they go to the next class. They, we, you know, do their homework and they discuss it. So So yeah, they go, go, go through as a journey. And I feel like that's, you know, I, I used to think about 25 years ago, we really need an infrastructure school for women. 

But our, I never imagined the internet would actually allow us to have a school full in without having a physical infrastructure. The biggest department store in the world is Amazon and they have only have a warehouse. There's no physical forefront. And so that's our vision and our dream is that we want our school for women to be used in every home, in every woman's home and give them the resource that they need that's not available in our current infrastructure in society. 

Speaker 0 (39m 56s): So how, how would a woman get in touch with you in the first place? How do you market yourselves? How, how does a, a a lady find you to be able to start that process? Great. 

Speaker 2 (40m 9s): Let just go to The Woman School dot com and they can start, we, they have a wholeness quiz, which is an assessment. It then they, it takes them to sort of some questions and then we set them up with our team member to start actually thinking about every part of their life. And then they decide, I love it. And we set them up with a coach and a community. So just go to The Woman School dot com and we set it all out for you. 

Speaker 0 (40m 38s): Fantastic. So is it purely just for women or can blo to it? 

Speaker 2 (40m 48s): We have a man school And. that was because the women were asking for it. So we actually, when I started doing the school for women, when I launched it, women were so moved and transformed that they said, January, how can I build a business around this one course? So my husband said, great, you know, he let's build a business. So now I'm teaching with about three, about 300 plus coaches all over the world. And we're only four years old, roughly, that are building a business based on this one course. 

So if anyone, you know, woman out there or any man out there and say, I want to facilitate a group of people. We teach 'em how to do it. And see, they don't have to be an expert coach 'cause the course actually teaches them for 'em and they just facilitate and walk people throughout the journey. So it's both for men and women, And that there's also for those that wanna build a business around it, which is the coaching part. 

Speaker 0 (41m 41s): Oh, Brilliant. So, so you've been working on this for the last 25 years and it's finally come to fruition and and it's just picking up momentum all the time then? 

Speaker 2 (41m 55s): Well, we, I've been teaching one for 25 years, however, we just launched the school officially four years ago. So we grew from zero to 40 plus countries in just three years. And so I was doing it for free. I didn't charge a dime. I, I just believed in it. And then what I realized, when people don't pay, they don't pay attention. So will invest and invest in themselves. They actually invest time and energy to commit to their own growth. 

And that's, it doesn't matter how good anything is unless women or men are willing to and growing. And that's what we realize. And you know, when they invest in themselves and there's a community, there's a coach. I mean, you have exponential transformation simply also because the courses that we offer them is really a how to course I teach dreaming as a skillset. You know I teach effective communication skill. I break it down in layers of skills and they've got their frameworks and formulas and thousands of scripts in our courses. 

So they really have a lifelong, I would say course in their hands. 

Speaker 0 (43m 2s): Hmm. Yeah. I I I, I've seen that in the past where if if something's for free, it doesn't matter. But if you, if you've had to pay for it at your own hard earned, then it means something. And I think that's, and and it doesn't matter how much it costs, but you've, you've invested in it and so you've, you've got a vested interest in in, in getting on with it. Whereas if it's free, well, I can't be bothered today. 

Speaker 2 (43m 35s): Yeah. But you know, the more actually people invest in it, the more money they invest in it, the more they actually value it. And that's Yeah, true. Across the board, You know you buy a cheap old bag that you spent $2, you'll treat it like a $2, you buy a fancy bag, it costs $200, you'll actually take care of it more. That's just human nature. And so, you know, we had to price it to a point where You know you wanna be able, you're committing your time and energy to it because our goal is so that you actually make the time for you otherwise You know, they really won't because there's a million things distracting us in our culture today. 

A million things. I mean, You know, I often think of these grandmothers who are great cooks and their granddaughters or their daughters don't know how to cook. Why? Because even though they're next to them. 

Speaker 0 (44m 30s): Yeah, because because they've done it for them. They've, and then, and then the grandmother won't let it go. 

Speaker 2 (44m 39s): Really? And then how can we pass on the legacy of those beautiful recipes? 

Speaker 0 (44m 43s): Absolutely. Unless they, unless the grandmother teaches them how to do it. Yeah. Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (44m 48s): We have to. And so we have to teach some of these basic skillset of focus and concentration or role modeling or asking questions or I would say, you know, creating an infrastructure where you actually can have time together and conversation. I mean, you get put people together, they don't even know what to say to each other. They have no conversation skills. That's, you know, where it used to be that you could go deep with people and laugh with 'em and talk to anyone because that's what you did on the front porch. 

That's just the courtesy. That was the standard. And Tim now there's no standard you could berate somebody internet, nobody would hold you to it because that's the norm. Yeah. We've lost a sense of humanity and that's gotta stop. We can't continue this demise. I mean it's just, it, it's, you know, the loneliness is an international epidemic. I mean, it's not frightening to think it in a world that's globally and hyper connected, the mental illness, the marriage, everything is literally, I mean, they have a data right now that in spite all the freedom that women have achieved in the west, women are actually unhappy today than they were a hundred years ago. 

Speaker 0 (46m 2s): Yeah. And that's a fact. 

Speaker 2 (46m 4s): And that's 

Speaker 0 (46m 5s): A fact. And 

Speaker 2 (46m 6s): And why is 

Speaker 0 (46m 7s): The question there's not a lot you can do about it. Well, and I think it's just, 

Speaker 2 (46m 12s): I think I don't wanna give up 

Speaker 0 (46m 13s): On, look, I think technology's had a lot to do with it. The way that they, we we've moved forward so fast sometimes. I mean we, we go back a hundred years, we don't even know to go, go back sort of 40 or 50 years. Yeah. We didn't have the internet. We didn't have mobile phones. We had call boxes on the side of the road that you need. 

Speaker 2 (46m 38s): We had a bell. you know, you had to come in and so 

Speaker 0 (46m 42s): So yeah. And people, people had to talk to each other. Nowadays you, you pick up a phone, it's got more power than they, than the rockets they sent to the moon So. 

Speaker 2 (46m 54s): Yeah. I 

Speaker 0 (46m 55s): Mean it's really, it's just technology has ruined people, I think. Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (46m 59s): But I, but I can't, there's a part of me that's saying, well, we have to learn how to live in this new kind of world. Yeah. in the new kind of world. There's new skills that are necessary. The skills that maybe our grandmothers didn't need to learn, but the skill of brevity, the skill of conversation, And, you know, where you have to go deep fast because there's just not a lot of time. The skill of managing our tonality, you know, where we have, we've talked to people eye contact. 

I mean, it's sad to think Tim that we have to reteach it, but we have to reteach it. You don't have to go far in the education system right now. Go down to the local high school eye contact. Yeah. One-on-one skills that opens doors of opportunities for you. Kids don't know. And I know that 'cause I have children and I am on it with them. But if our world doesn't enforce it, and that's why to me, it has to be a grassroots effort of training this generation and next generation. We can't save it in politics. 

We can't save it externally. It has to be an interior grassroots, every woman on deck that's saying, you know what? I need to learn how to be a woman again, otherwise I'm going to suffer. And 

Speaker 0 (48m 9s): Yeah. And, and future generations will suffer. Yes. And that, that's, that's a sad part of it. And and you're seeing it day on day now. Yeah. Where, where people aren't, they, they, they're so wrapped up in themselves. They, they don't see the wider picture, they don't see the wider world. They, they, they, they, they're, they're, they're glued to these things. Oh. Day in, day out. And, and 

Speaker 2 (48m 38s): They're slave 

Speaker 0 (48m 39s): Losing, losing that communication skills that we always had and, and missing out on. So, so much. 

Speaker 2 (48m 50s): So they're missing, they're they're, they're literally a slave And, you know, think about yeah. This, I love this. Be a man of your word. We, we didn't need contract by 120 years ago. Think about what that sounds like right now in the internet world. Oh sure. I'll be there. Oh sure, I'll do that. There's no sense of character, integrity, honor. I mean, where is that now we have, yeah. you know, we, we've we've devalued the word of a man or a woman and so I'm fighting against it because if you don't honor your word as a man or a woman, you'll suffer. 

You will be untrustworthy. Yeah. Nobody's gonna wanna be around you. And then you, all of a sudden you're gonna realize, why am I lonely? I don't like my life. I hate my life. Nobody wants to give me a job. Well, your character has everything to do with your job. 

Speaker 0 (49m 36s): Absolutely. 

Speaker 2 (49m 38s): That's our 

Speaker 0 (49m 39s): Legacy. Well, well January, I wish you every success in your endeavor. 

Speaker 2 (49m 45s): Likewise. thank you, Tim. I appreciate it. I really am so grateful. thank you for the opportunity here to speak my heart. I get passionate about it. Fiery, as my husband would say, 

Speaker 0 (49m 55s): I's been fantastic. I, I've, I've loved every many of it and it's been very, very interesting. thank you So. you. thank you. Where do you see yourself going in, in the sort of the next five years? 

Speaker 2 (50m 6s): Oh, it's a great question. Really fighting the culture war. My dream is to have this masterclass in every home in everyone's home so that it can be in every woman's heart. So that's my goal in five years is to get us to a million students. And I think that creates a ripple impact in society. I've got a book that I need to write a wrote a book last year. I've gotta write a new book. I'm launching a class. It's called The Rise of a New Woman. What is the kind of woman that we need for such a time as this? And so that's an it And that a lot of speaking, I think in the next year or two, now that my baby's three years old, a little bit more time to travel. 

But yeah, I'm fighting the culture I'm fighting for. I'm not giving up 10. I can't give up on the next generation. My children are young and I have to fight for them. I have to fight for the women who want so much more out of life, but don't know how to. 

Speaker 0 (51m 2s): Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for your time. thank you. It's been fascinating. 

Speaker 2 (51m 8s): Thank you, Tim. 

Speaker 0 (51m 12s): Wow. What a fascinating story. If you want to learn, and it's not just for women, it's, it's for men as well to, to learn those new skills, just finer details down in the description, contact January and good luck. So until the next one, TT FN Tatar. For now.

Welcome to the Tim Heale podcast. If you have the time, you can not only listen to the episodes, but you can also watch all the shows and you'll find the links in the description below. thank you.