IAM128- Founder and Author Provides Online Personal and Professional Development Training in Humanist Learning

Jennifer Hancock is a mom, author of The Bully Vaccine, and founder of Humanist Learning Systems. Her professional background is varied including stints in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. She has served as Director of Volunteer Services for the Los Angeles SPCA, sold international franchise licenses for a biotech firm, was the Manager of Acquisition Group Information for a ½ billion-dollar company, and served as the executive director for the Humanists of Florida. Her speaking and teaching business coalesced into the founding of Humanist Learning Systems which provides online personal and professional development training in humanistic business management and science-based harassment training that works.

• CEO Hack: (1) Only give 80% and 20% to family and things you're passionate about. (2) Bring in allies
• CEO Nugget: It will be okay
• CEO Defined: Responsibility and getting the stuff done. Letting go of control and allowing creativity

Website: https://humanistlearning.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifershawhancock/

Full Interview:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jennifer Hancock of Humanist Learning Systems. Jennifer, it's awesome to have you on the show. What I want to do is read a little bit more about Jennifer so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Jennifer Hancock is a mom, author of The Bully Vaccine, and founder of Humanist Learning Systems. Her professional background is varied, including stints in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors.

She has served as a Director of Volunteer Services for the Los Angeles, SPCA, sold international franchise licenses for biotech firms, was the Manager of Acquisition Group Information for half a billion dollar company, and served as the executive director for the Humanists of Florida. Her speaking and teaching businesses coalesced into the founding of Humanist Learning Systems, which provides online personal and professional development training in humanistic business management and science-based harassment training that works. Jennifer, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Jennifer Hancock 1:26

Yes, I am.

Gresham Harkless 1:28

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had with just to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Jennifer Hancock 1:34

I had been working for the Humanists of Florida as their executive director, but I became a mom, and they needed someone who could devote themselves full time, so I realized that wasn't me anymore, because I was a mom. So I have them replace me and dedicated myself to being a mom. But that doesn't last long. Because I didn't set out to form this business, it was almost forced on me. And I'm really glad it happened that way. And then I found my calling, because I do feel that what I do is my calling, but I didn't intend to end up here.

Gresham Harkless 2:09
It's funny enough like I say a lot of times with a lot of things, that what I did, it was people that were kind of forcing me to do a lot of things like you're gonna do the digital marketing, oh, no, I want you to do that. And I was like, Nah, that's okay. Right? Or you don't have to pay me. And then some people are forcing your arm and saying, hey, you know what, you should do this, this is what you're good at. And sometimes you just kind of move with the universe.

Jennifer Hancock 2:28

Exactly, that's kind of what happened to me.

Gresham Harkless 2:31

So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear exactly how you're serving clients, can you tell us a little bit more about what you're doing?

Jennifer Hancock 2:36

It turns out, I do like speaking and teaching. But I don't necessarily like the travel part of it, because it takes me away from my family. And my priority is my family. And then the other problem I was having, especially with teaching people how to stop bullying using behavioral science. And this is kind of important for people to understand that this part of it is what kind of forced me into my business, I can train a bully to stop, given the problems we have in society with kids and in the workplace. It's immoral to not share that knowledge with other people.

And I realized that (a) I don't like traveling and (b) trying to teach people one on one is not an efficient way to create societal change. If I get hired by a company to teach them how to stop harassment in the workplace, I'm simultaneously teaching the parents who work in the workplace, because they are the parents that are in the workplace, I'm teaching them what they need to know to teach their kids. And so I can get an economy of scale. But the other reason to kind of put this online is to create this online learning company so that I don't have to travel.

I can train as many people by not leaving the house as it would take me to leave the house, even just going to the next town over if I had to drive an hour, that's an hour each way plus an hour in the training, that's three hours every time I do a lesson versus I record it once and they can come in and take it from me and I don't have to travel to them. But they still have access to me to ask questions to get feedback and all that stuff. So for me, the online learning component fits my personality because I like to do the education part, but I was increasingly not liking to travel unless it's somewhere cool like India.

If you want me to go someplace cool, I will go but generally not. A lot of my business grew around my desire to not do things which is a really weird way to grow a business but I was very clear on what I didn't want to do. And so every time I tweak my business, it's because I've realized there's something I don't like to do and so I find a workaround to it that allows me to still do the work but in a way that eliminates the things I don't like about the work and maximizes the stuff I do.

Gresham Harkless 4:45

I love that because a lot of times and this is like true it's in my eyes you know entrepreneurial-type mindset because you're saying okay, I have a problem. You know, I have to do all this traveling. I don't want to do this traveling. How can I not do this traveling but still have the same impact or even a greater impact by doing something different?

So you decided to write a book, and you decided to do a lot of these things online, largely because you had that problem. And you understood that you had 24 hours in the day just like everybody else. So there was a limit to that. And you figured out how to solve that problem. So I love that.

Jennifer Hancock 5:14

And you know, what's the point of working from home? If I'm not home for my family?

Gresham Harkless 5:21

Yeah, yeah. And I love that. And I've always heard like the quote, unquote, laziest people are the people that do come up with those, you know, incredible kind of hacks or ways to kind of automate things because you're thinking, Okay, I'm not going to do this, there has to be a better way. And you need to find a better way. Or sometimes you just create that better way. And a lot of times, that's where the great innovations come about.

Jennifer Hancock 5:39

Yeah. And that's exactly my philosophy I don't want to work hard. But I still want to work. And I still want to have an impact on the world. So how do I do that? And that it just requires me to be creative.

Gresham Harkless 5:50

Yeah. Oh, there you go. And I love that. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And you might have already touched on it. But can you tell us something that kind of differentiates you or sets you apart and makes you unique?

Jennifer Hancock 5:58

I think it's because I do have this background in behavioral science, I used to be a dolphin trainer, I went to college to study linguistics, and specifically, to work as a dolphin trainer at a Dolphin Language Cognition Research Laboratory in Hawaii, I had read the book Day of the Dolphin. And that's what I wanted. When I was 11. I read that and that's what I wanted to do. And when I went to college, that's what I did. Because that's just the sort of person I am. Anyway, you set a goal of love and you do it. Okay.

Gresham Harkless 6:28

Good for you.

Jennifer Hancock 6:29

The point is, I have this background in behavioral science in a way that most people don't. So I can actually like I have a cat in the background, my cat is trained to come to the station when I want her to I'm a good trainer. And when I teach a lot of people who teach bullying and harassment topics, they're teaching it from a legal standpoint. And they're not teaching the behavior like what is exactly going on, what exactly do you need to do to make it stop? And how exactly do those dynamics play out?

And as far as I can tell, I'm the only person in the world teaching that which annoys me because I'd rather let other people do it so that I can go back. Because you know, what I dream of doing is watching Bollywood movies all day. No, I'm not joking. That's what I would be doing if I wasn't doing this. And you know, I can't because no one's teaching what needs to be taught. So it's one of those if I don't do it, no one's going to do it. So I have to do it. And that is my secret sauce.

Because it's not only that, I'm unique doing this, and I don't want to be, but it's motivating to know that if I don't do this, no one will say I don't have a problem with waking up in the morning and thinking, Oh, crap, I have to do X, Y, or Z today, I never, never wake up thinking that, you know, my business grew out of my desire to make the world a better place by teaching what I know, which is how to get these bullies to stop using behavioral science and everything flows out of that. And the business kind of created itself because of that. And again, I didn't want, I'd rather let other people teach this, but no one is. So I have to. And that's my motivation. That's the secret sauce.

And for people that have motivation problems, I think changing around what you're doing in your head. And thinking about what you're doing makes the world a better place. If your only motivation is to make money, there are ways, easier ways to do it than to be an entrepreneur. Right? running your own business is hard. But I'm never not motivated to do it. Because I have to do it because the overriding motivation is to make the world a better place. And everything I do is in service to that, including the creation of the company.

Gresham Harkless 8:41

Makes perfect sense. No, I love that. It's kind of like your why is so much stronger. So I mean, when your why is very strong, you know, about all the things that are going on in the world. And with bullies, especially, I completely understand why you say, you know, I wish somebody else would do it, but they're not doing it. But I have to do it just because I know how to solve these issues, and nobody else is doing it. So I have to do these things. So I think that there can be no stronger pull than having a strong why like that.

Jennifer Hancock 9:05

Yeah, exactly. And when I say you know, I wish other people would do it, that's part of my motivation, it is to teach other people how to teach this so that I'm not the only person because I as an individual can only reach so many people and I want to reach the world. So other people need to learn what I know, and then teach it. And then I can retire and watch Hollywood movies.

Gresham Harkless 9:25

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Jennifer Hancock 9:35

So my hack is I'm only giving 80%, and this seems like a really weird hack. Right? Someone's only giving 80%, and most people think I have to give it 110%. Well, I don't have 110%, no one has 110%. And if I give 100%, then there's nothing left for the things that make life worth living which is my family.

And I find by committing myself to only giving 80% of the business that I'm forced to find creative ways to solve my problems, more efficient ways, both economically because I'm committed to staying within my budget and not going into debt for this business, right? That would not be good for my family. I'm committed to being around for my family.

So I remind myself that this is not the entirety of me, it helps me keep that work-life balance that's so critical to my happiness. Many people, you can tell, I'm in a good mood. It is Friday afternoon, I'm in a good mood. And you know what, my husband and son are camping this weekend, and I have a whole weekend I can work. And I'm excited about the work part I'm doing this weekend. Because it's one of the few weekends I can work because the boys are camping. Okay, fine. But I love what I do. Because it's not overwhelming.

Gresham Harkless 10:48

I love that. And it reminds me of a book, there's a book by Daymond, John called The Power of Broke. But the whole idea and the concept around it are not just broke from the money perspective, but it's the idea that when you have a limited amount of resources, whether that be time or money or whatever, it forces you to be creative, because if you know, as you said, I only have 80%, well, I have to be creative on how I'm doing these things. And that's where all these great ideas come about.

Jennifer Hancock 11:12

Right, exactly. But that's my hack, it is to remind myself about the work-life balance part. And it also helps me remind myself to bring in allies, I spoke at a talent development conference in Tampa last month, and I was speaking to one of the people afterward. And she has a skill set I don't have she's great at creating creative experiences for people to learn multiple things simultaneously. And I'm just in awe of her. She's cool. Her name is Sherry Sutton, by the way, if you're interested.

But she was like, well, you can learn this too. And I'm like, Well, why, when I have you, it's probably better for me to collaborate with you than it is for me to try and be you. Right? I have my own skill set. I don't need to be everything to everyone. I just need to know other people who have the things I'm lacking, and I need to collaborate with them. And that to me, as part of that 80% hack is, I don't need to be everything. It's okay. My limits are okay.

Gresham Harkless 12:13

Yeah, your limits are wide, so it allows you to spend that 20% doing the things that you're truly passionate about, and you know, spending time for sure as you want to have that work-life balance, that you teach.

Jennifer Hancock 12:22

Right and then it forces me to collaborate with people for the other pieces that would take me forever to put together.

Gresham Harkless 12:29

And there you go. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom, a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Jennifer Hancock 12:38

It'll be okay. You know, the CEO journey is up and down, and it's filled with moments of sheer terror. It won't be pleasant like you'll be okay.

Gresham Harkless 12:49

Absolutely. No, I love that. And it's always a good reminder because I always say sometimes you build it up in your head, like the failures, they're never really sometimes as bad as we make them out to be. And you think that you know, if something bad happens, you'll never be able to recover from it. But that's not always the case.

So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is a definition of what it means to be a CEO. So we're having different quote-unquote, CEOs on the show, but I wanted to ask you, what being a CEO means to you.

Jennifer Hancock 13:12

Responsibility, a lot of people think of responsibility as a bad word, right? It's something you want to avoid. And I just talked about a bunch wanting to be lazy. Being responsible feels really good. It means I'm getting stuff done. And to me, a CEO is ultimately responsible for getting the stuff done, CEOs have a lot of trouble giving up control, right, especially a solopreneur. We know how to do it.

But how do I get someone to do my social media marketing for me in a way that I'm okay with? And this is going to seem weird. A lot of times when I do training on how to stop a bully, and I'm doing it with adults, inevitably, a question about loading dishwashers comes up, right?

And anybody who's married or lives with someone knows the problem of the dishwasher, the other person does not load the dishwasher the way you do. And it's completely wrong and annoying. And they feel that way about you. And this is an item of contention and a lot of marriages. And you just have to if you want the other person to take on the responsibility of the dishes, you have to be okay with how they do them. The end goal is that the dishes get done. And it's the same thing with solopreneurs becoming managers, you have to let go of that control and allow the other person to solve the problem their way.

Now at first, it's uncomfortable because they're not doing it your way. But if you've brought on someone with talent, their creativity could take you to places you didn't even know you could go. But you have to give up control to allow them to fly so that you can fly. And I think the problem is people don't like the uncertainty of letting go of control and they have this illusion of control. And the reality is they're just suffocating themselves in their business. They have to let go of control and let their employees do their job.

Gresham Harkless 14:59

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. What I wanted to do was pass on the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional to let our readers and our listeners know and also how they can get a copy of your book and get in touch with you.

Jennifer Hancock 15:10

My company's called Humanist Learning Systems and it's at humanistlearning.com. And I've got all these online courses. We have courses on how to deal with cranky customers using behavioral science, for instance, which a lot of entrepreneurs need because a bad customer can suck you down a rabbit hole and take all your time.

And it also has a list of all my books, all my online courses, and courses from other humanists doing similar education. I also volunteer because I'm a humanist, I volunteer with the International Humanist Management Association, and we do online live conversations with academics from around the world. This is the sort of stuff I'm involved in. I'm working on a book for academia on humanism and business management and trying to get all my talks into book forms. But all of that is on my website, humanistlearning.com.

Gresham Harkless 15:55

Awesome, awesome, awesome. We will have a link in the show notes. Jennifer, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Jennifer Hancock 16:02

Oh, you too, and thanks for having me on.

Outro 16:04

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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