INTRODUCTION:
The Heart of Networking was actually my very 1st networking experience, when I decided to pursue Hire & Fire as a business back in 2018.
I remember getting dressed up, parking in the Church parking lot and wanting to turn around and go home. I’m sure we have some introverts at this conference, I too am an introvert by nature and work hard to overcome my need to disappear into the background still to this day.
But on that day, I did what I do best and put on my CEO of Hire and Fire your Kids persona and walked in purposefully, reaching out and engaging with everyone I met that day. To my surprise ALL the ladies I met, weather at my table, the lunch, the shopping booths and the lecture hall where we listened to AMAZING, inspirational speakers were all there to connect, support and strengthen each others business. I was made to feel so comfortable and indeed felt like I belonged.
Fast forward and now 3 years later here I am today as your keynote speaker and I couldn’t be prouder to share my Hire & Fire you Kids journey and all the ups and downs many of us experience personally and professionally along the way.
FEAR:
I decided to call my talk Rise Up and was inspired by this Zig Ziglar quote:
Fear has two meanings. Forget everything and run or face everything and rise. The choice is yours.
So where do I begin?
BORN AN ENTREPRENEUR:
Well, I’d always dreamed of owning my own business as a kid. I was such a little entrepreneur. We had these peach trees at our home in Markham and I remember hitting my backyard after school on a Friday and picking the best peaches to bring up to my Grandparents cottage on Stony Lake.
Our cottage was just down the road from a resort and as soon as we’d arrive, I’d hit the end of the driveway, set up my table, my signs and get my peaches ready to sell to all the guests checking in on the Friday night.
It was the best! Guests would stop and support this local kid’s business and I loved chatting with them and making the sale. I’d stay out until it got dark or when my parents would call me in for the night. Then I’d wake up Saturday morning and do it all over again until I was sold out!
I also, loved candy and had my own candy store at 8. I’m the middle of 3 girls and we were paid an allowance every week. I would save up my allowance and head to the store with my sisters and buy a ton of candy. Gumballs, gobstopers, candy necklaces and bracelets and I’d bring them all back and merchandise them beautifully in my aluminum shed in my backyard, I’d jack up the prices from what I’d paid and then I’d invite the neighborhood kids over to come and buy from me as they were too young to walk to the store on their own.
The last I’ll share is collecting golf balls. I would drag my younger sister out and collect golf balls around the golf course. We’d be in the water, the brush getting burs all over us and we’d spend hours searching for them. We head home, clean and shine them up, then put them in egg cartons and start selling them on the 16th tee to all the golfers. We were killing it and making great summer money. I think it was the second or third weekend the Pro Shop actually came and shut us down.
FEAR:
And so, I’ve always had this entrepreneurial spirit!
Then as I got older it began to fall away and some patterns began to surface. I was diagnosed with a learning disability in grade 3, anxiety crept in, I was very fearful of what people thought of me. I didn’t want to be judged, I wasn’t trying new things and I didn’t do a lot of sports because I was worried, worried I wouldn’t be good, worried I’d be the one who would lose the game and have people be mad at me or make fun of me. I was a people pleaser and did what was expected of me “or what I thought was expected of me” and I never wanted to rock the boat or disappoint others.
And so, this kind of continued throughout the rest of elementary school, high school and I just was an overly shy kid. Even at Christmas’ I would stick with my sisters or my parents. I didn’t want to have to talk to my Aunts/Uncles/Cousins. And I would always love when we hosted Christmas at our house, as I could just go hide in my room.
As an adult, some who 1st met me would think I was a bitch. That just wasn’t the case, it was low confidence and low self esteem. And IF I was able to open up and let you get to know me, I would show you my whole heart, but I was very protective of myself and lost out on a lot of living because of it.
CAREER:
Life went on and I ended up getting a job at the local bi-way. Anyone remember bi-way? I was 16 and that job really changed my state of mind and started my love for retail. But, it was almost like I was acting. Acting like I was this confident, knowledgeable sales person, but then you know what? It actually happened! I came out of my shell, I think it was because here was this was a job, and I was getting paid to perform. To be an extrovert, I had to say hello to people And because I was getting paid to do so and because I was a people pleaser, I did it. And I ended up doing it very well! I was very personable very attentive and I climbed the ranks, quickly becoming an assistant manager at 17.
I consistently worked hard, had a great work ethic, creative ideas, worked well with people and delivered on results. This continued throughout my retail career. I moved from bi-way to Sears Canada and did 5 stores in 5 years as a department manager, then over to the new Eaton’s and opened up the Yorkdale location as a senior leader then over to Holt Renfrew Yorkdale and worked my way up to the AGM. But I never actually applied for anything. I just consistently got a tap on the shoulder saying, Hey, would you want to do this, “We think you’d be great for this” and I would just do it. “Well, if they believe in me, I must be able to do it?” So, I just went with the flow but I never went after anything in my life for fear of failure. People have always just told me what I should do, I’ve never known or been brave enough to actually believe in myself. And this started as I say at Bi-Way through to Holt Renfrew until I actually was fired in 2017, fired at 40.
And I tell ya, that is hard, when you love your career, you love what you do and you’ve opened yourself up to the people you work with, they were like my 2nd family. And my strength was always with the people, developing the culture, driving the results and positively impacting others personally and professionally. And so, when this happened to me, I was packaged out, “based on the needs of the business”, that was so hard for me because my job was really like my identity and had been for, 20+ years. So, I found myself, at home without a job feeling like a useless failure yet knowing that I had just received promotion after promotion year over year, #1 store in the Country and in the end was just a # to this corporation. And so, for where I was in my life at that time, this was sort of like the last straw.
LIFE IS SHORT:
So there had been a series of life experiences and circumstances up to that point that I’m going to share. In 2012, at 40 weeks pregnant I headed to the Hospital to give birth my son, the 1st boy of the Swain family, my dad was so excited as he’d been surrounded by girls for too long. When I arrived at the hospital, I came to find out that Lukas’ heart had stopped beating and that, I would then have to give birth to a dead baby boy. He was 7lbs 2oz, my mom and husband stayed with me on probably the worst experience I’ve had on this earth. And so that was the beginning of my struggles with mental health and I was off work for about 8 months as I worked though the tragedy of losing my son and looking for the blessings that his short life gave me, gave us really as a new blended family and there were many. Then I headed back to work and felt better and stronger and that’s just what you do. One foot in front of the other, day by day and eventually you rise up.
And then, in September 2016 my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer and from her diagnosis to death it was 11 weeks. But at her diagnosis I kept working, it was the start of the 4th quarter and I didn’t want to let the team down, didn’t want to disappoint my boss as I’d be leaving during the busiest time of the year.
I am a bit of a workaholic and many times I’d put my work before my family and here I was actually doing the same thing with my dying mother. I remember my team coming to me asking what are you doing here, you need to go and be with your mom. Again, waiting for someone to tell me what to do vs. doing what I want to do because I don’t want to upset or disappoint others.
So, I left I took a LOA October of 2016 and am so thankful, that I had so much time with my mom for her last days on this earth. But yeah, and she passed away November 20th, on my daughters Birthday of all days. So, the stress and the grieving process just brought me right back to where I was in 2012 when I lost my son. It was very difficult for me, opened up the pain and my suffering began again.
I was off work and returned full time March of 2017 and then was let go 3 months later. And so here I was at home, loss, loss, loss in the last 4 years and I just started to question why am I here, what am I supposed to be doing?
And after losing Lukas what really helped me was giving back. And so, when I’m down and out the one thing that gets me out is being able to give back and having an impact on other. It makes me feel worthy and empowered and grateful.
And so, at this point, fired at 40, burned by a corporation AND what now, what did I have to give this world?
Well, I had created a system in 2015 when I was on maternity leave and it really changed our lives for the better. So let me take a step back and share more on how Hire and Fire your Kids came to be.
STORY:
So, I found myself 2014/2015 home on maternity leave with my new rainbow baby and my blended family. My husband had three boys. I had a daughter and baby Ellen came along and we now had His, Hers and Ours! It was probably around month 2 and I was ready to go back to work. The kids were driving me crazy…
As I shared, I worked a lot of nights and weekends and we only had the boys every other weekend but being home for the year. I felt like I was with them all the time and I could see everything that they were doing and not doing. I could see dishes left everywhere, cupboard doors left open, toilets not flushed, bickering/fighting, too much device time, dirty clothes on their floor, food left in their rooms, you name it.
And as a Step-Mom, I had a hard time communicating with the boys. So, I would turn a blind eye, complain to my husband, just fix it myself and hold in the resentment.
And so, I thought you know what? I’m not going back to work, I love these kids and we really hadn’t communicated our expectations as this new blended family, and that wasn’t fair to them. I felt I had a responsibility to share our house rules, what we wanted for our kids in this world, and why.
So, my husband and I sat down and we literally went through everything that we did around the house. So, everything from doing the dishes, cutting the grass, cooking meals, laundry, paying the bills, house maintenance, you name it. We listed them all and we put a reward amount beside the ones that we were prepared to reward our kids for if they were to “apply”. and then we did the same with expectations. Everything in regards to hygiene, manners, Family Values, chores, behaviours. We listed them all out. Like if we had the perfect kid, what would they be doing? And obviously there’s no such thing, but it was a fun exercise for the both of us to be on the same page in regards to jobs and expectations in our home. And then we called our family meeting and sat them all down. But before the meeting I actually went around the house and I took pictures of everything that drove me crazy that week and I put them together in a little slideshow.
So, the kids sat there one Sunday afternoon and we’re like, oh something’s coming… the presentation finished and I said so who made all those messes and they said we did and then I said and who’s been cleaning up all those messes and they said you have and then I said, do you think that that’s fair? and they all said no, which was great and I thanked them for that and I said, you know what?
We are a family, we are a team, you’re getting older and are more than capable to be contributing to the home and I need your help, I need your help. I want to make sure you’re ready when you get on your own, you can take care of yourself, you know how to do your own laundry, cook your own means and you can take care of you!
THE GAME:
Anyway, so we rolled out this game and called it hire and fire your kids which I’d based off my work experience where I manage teams of people and my role was to motivate, Inspire and Lead my team to deliver on results.
And I asked myself, if I was getting paid and was being held accountable to raising my kids, how would I do it differently? I probably would manage my home the same way I managed my team in the workplace.
And so, we got our kids input in regards to the jobs and expectation, we changed some of the reward amounts, removed some, added some and really customized them to suit our family. And we found, getting our kids input with these, really helped increase their buy in to play Hire and Fire.
So, then we cut our kids off. We shared that from now on they would have to EARN their WANTS by playing Hire and Fire and we’d be taking care of all their NEEDS. In past if we went to the zoo and the kids wanted a souvenir we would buy it, we’d head to the convenience store and the kids would want a treat, we would buy it. But no more…We really wanted to teach them the difference between NEEDS & WANTS and what’s actually important to them, when it’s their hard-earned money.
And so that’s sort of where it came to be. The HIRED side were the posted Jobs, the kids could apply for and earn reward if completed on time. So no assigning or telling the kids what to do, it was their choice.
Then the FIRED side, were our family expectations. So, if an expectation was you make your bed every day and they didn’t make their bed that morning, I simply had to go and take a picture of the unmade bed and they would get a warning X.
The kids’ goal was to finish the pay period without getting fired. And in our house, they would get fired after receiving 4 X’s. So, you didn’t make your bed X, yelled at your brother X, dirty socks left on the floor X, didn’t flush the toilet X, you’re fired.
And being Fired meant they lost their incentive bonus as well as activated the consequence that we had set together as a family at our last team meeting.
And Warning Xs could be removed too in the game. So, if they went and made their bed, I would simply remove the X. All happening without any friction or sometimes even having to say a word…
And so, it became gameplay that we had within the home, the kids were totally on board, were engaged, having fun and it was a gamechanger! We played the for 9 months and it really nurtured our family bond and brought us closer together as a blended family.
LIFE’s PURPOSE:
And then I went back to work and we stopped playing. Life went on and it brings us back to loss, loss, loss and the last straw. I was seriously questioning what I was doing here on this Earth. The burn from getting fired was still stinging and I just didn’t understand why. It was a big slap in the face and I didn’t know what to do next. And then, I kept hearing my moms voice in my head or in a dream as she said something to me in the Hospital along the lines of “Jody, you have so much more to give this world, why are you giving most of YOU to this company?” and she was right, I spent a lot of time at work, giving more time and attention to my job sometimes than my own family, I’m ashamed to admit. So that was ringing in my ear when this happened. and this is going to sounds weird. But I kept seeing this flashing light of hire and fire, almost like this Beacon calling me, and the binder that I had put together during the time that we played Hire and Fire was now starring right at me on the office desk, not sure if it had fallen off the shelf or what but there it was. So, I opened it back up and began to wonder. Would this work for other families? Then I pushed it away, because I was afraid, I didn’t want to share this. What if people didn’t like it, thought it was dumb? I don’t want to put myself out there, I’m a private person. At that time, I wasn’t on Facebook or Instagram, I’d have to share my private life with people, I don’t want to do that. But again, something inside me kept tugging. Why are you hanging on to something that helped your own family? Why are you NOT sharing this with others, that is a disservice? I knew others could benefit from Hire and Fire, I knew it was time to be brave and share, I knew this was what I needed to pursue and potentially have positive impact on other families as it was a system to help them nurture their family bonds and empower their kids with life skills, they’d need to take on the world! So, for once in my life I chose to do something for me, to go after something I wanted that could help others and have a positive impact on this planet.
I couldn’t ignore the signs any longer and decided to see what this was about.
FEAR:
And so, I needed proof of concept. I wasn’t going to pursue this unless I had better proof. So, I created some flyers with the intent to hand out and invite neighbors to hear more about Hire and Fire your Kids and invited them for some wine and cheese. And The type of neighbor I was, was more like the “hello, how are you?” That’s it. I really didn’t socialize, and so I went out and put these flyers on all the doors of my street feeling so sick with each piece of scotch tape and I waited to hear back. Five of them responded to come listen to me share more info on hire and fire kids or came for the wine and cheese, I’ll never know.
Anyway, I remember thinking oh my gosh no ones going to show, they’re all going to say they’re not interested. Why did I do this, I’m so embarrassed. Why did I ask them? Anyway, they all showed up, listened to my presentation and ALL the ladies actually said yes, they were looking for something like this to help them at home and would absolutely play hire and fire your kids with their families.
And so, I had them all back two weeks later. And lo and behold they all were like, oh my gosh Jody. This is a bit of a game changer and they couldn’t get over the results in such a short period of time. They all had similar feedback that I had with my own family and these were families that had boys, girls some, Singleton children, their ages were all over the place but they all had the same results.
BE BRAVE:
So, I decided to take my Severance that I received and put it into building an app to help more families. Now, we had been playing with the paper version that was on your fridge up to this point. Turning it into an app is a whole new ballgame. I wasn’t technical in the least and I outsourced to companies that could do a little hand holding with me as I got my bearings and figured out where to start. I read so many books, listened to podcasts, took courses, watched you tube videos, joined networking groups, worked with focus groups and accelerator programs as I needed support from others to help me on this venture that I was embarking on. And the networking was a blessing for me, again as a shy kid and adult to put myself out there and connect with others doesn’t come easy to me but when I put on my CEO persona on as did as a sales person during my bi-way days way back when I became pretty good, the channels opened up and opportunities really came together when I was able to be a little brave and share more about me and what I wanted for this company and why.
FEAR:
Scary for sure, moving forward each day but not knowing exactly where you are going…and on top of that worrying if you’ve made the right call, spending the $ in the right places, and family pressure. When I lost my job, I had a number of offers from really great companies, with a nice salary to go with it. But I stayed true to what I wanted in that moment of time and trusted my gut to stick with it. I remember telling my dad I was going to pursue Hire and Fire as a business and my perception of course but could see on his face that he was not a fan. “Are you sure, maybe do it on the side with another job?’ Still today my motivation is to prove to myself that I can do this. I can be a success but there’s definitely parts of me that want to show my kids, my dad, friends and family as well as the boss that fired me that I’ve got this.
THE VISION:
“Because the ones who are crazy enough to change the world, are the ones who do.” Steve Jobs
“If you’re working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed the vision pulls you.” Steve Jobs
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are NOT in your favor.” Elon Musk
“I could either watch it happen or be a part of it.” Elon Musk
“If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing, success will be yours.” Ray Kroc McDonalds
“Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure you do things differently from everyone else.” Sara Blakley (Spanx)
“1st, think, 2nd, dream, 3rd, believe and finally, dare.” Walk Disney
“Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it and work at it, until it’s done right.” Walk Disney
Hire and Fire your Kids is the worlds 1st gamified parenting. There is no such thing, at this moment in time. No parent has an app on their phone today, to help them raise respectful, responsible, accountable, kind kids so that they’ll be confident, independent and happy adults of tomorrow.
This game is reducing family friction & helping parents prepare children and teens with household responsibilities, money management and life skills for a successful future.
We have apps for everything these days. Why not an app that’s used daily to empower kids & help parents be better parents and raise great, financially savvy kids who’ll have the skills they need to take on the world!
Why not? Why not me? Why not us, because I need the communities help to do this!
VISION BOARD:
I believe we can do this, and that we will be successful in creating adoption of the world’s 1st gamified parenting app. In 2019, I had Trish John of your spiritual connection over to my home and I hosted a feng shui vision board party. Here it is today and many of these have come true including getting an offer on Dragon’s Den, Mompreneur Award, Amber Mac, getting beyond fear and more. The top left is a cheque I wrote to myself for 15 million dollars when we get acquired November of 2022 (Jim Carry style).
Everyday I work hard, reading, connecting, building relationships, exploring, attending events/conferences, getting out of my comfort zone and utilizing the many tools at our fingertips like social media. But I do BELIEVE, I believe in what I’m doing and I have the support from others who believe in what we are trying to accomplish with Hire and Fire your Kids. It’s not just a chore app, it’s the World’s 1st Gamified Parenting App!
THE DRAGONS:
Which brings me to Dragons Den, and at that time it was mostly was just a chores app. DD kind of came out of nowhere. I was reached out to by a producer of the show through a LinkedIn connection. I’d actually never seen an episode of DD, it was my sisters favorite show and she said you HAVE TO DO IT. And I though no, we don’t even have a product at this point. It was just an idea, but I ended up doing it. Pitched to the producers in Oshawa and then got the call to come and pitch to the physical dragons in May 2019, what a whirlwind experience. I brought my husband and my daughter and some of our hire and fire kids, families that had played the paper version. And here I was pitching for a national TV show, which again, for me WAY outside my comfort zone, and that year I literally had a word which was BRAVE and I basically did the opposite of everything I normally would do. So, again I just put on this persona of brave CEO, and made it happen like my bi-way days and ended up with 4 offers! I went with Lane and was thrilled as I needed help, I needed someone with technical experience and the right connections. This was May and we began due diligence, August rolled around and I received an email from his team basically saying thanks but no thanks. No real reason at all, I was devastated… no 100K to help me with the business and no people to help me with the business. It was probably a week of me under the covers and then I decided to crawl out and try a Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a crowdfunding campaign. I put together one the end of August 2019, looking for a $100,000. But then my sister got in my head and said, you don’t have an air date yet for DD and may not get one, especially if it looks like you’re seeking 100K after you just got 100K on their show. She was right, so I changed it to $10K and still proceeded, but only sent the invite out to close friends and family, kind of like an underground Kickstarter. We had achieved 100% of our campaign in less than 2 weeks that we used towards technology and marketing.
So, then our episode aired for Dragon’s Den that fall. We had only been selling in stores for about a 1 month and I just remember all the customer service that was coming through because it was a game, it was unique. There’s nothing like this out there and people didn’t know how to play and they didn’t go to the website to learn more where I had done all these FAQ’s & tutorials. They came to customer service which was ME. We also came to find that people didn’t think the app was in stores because the pitch I gave on DD, the app was just an idea not a live app in stores. We had people reaching out asking to let them know when the app hit stores.
INTERVENTION:
Well, I ended up falling back into my corporate ways where I forgot I had a family and I just was living and breathing the business. And at time it was just me and my sister who was helping part time, but that was it.
The episode aired in October and as I shared people were just like, how do I do this? And do I fix this? Why isn’t this working, I was inundated with these emails coming through about the game play. And the background I had was in luxury retail where customer service is of the utmost importance and I didn’t want to lose any of these customers even for only $8.49. and so, I just I just stayed up, I just stayed up as I wanted to get back to these people in a timely manner. And so, our episode aired October 24th 2019, I was getting maybe two to three hours of sleep every night from October 24th until the end of November. And then my husband and my eldest daughter sat me down one night and had a full intervention with me and basically said.
Where is my wife? Where is my mom, you’ve built this app, so you could help families nurture their bond and bring them closer together. And yet here you are pulling this family apart. So that was hard, that was very hard for me. And I am now a bit of a recovering workaholic. But here I was trying to scale this business and capitalize on my 15 minutes of fame yet, what’s the most important thing in my life?
And so, I literally took my foot off the gas and I canceled different podcast and shows that we had booked. and I didn’t want to do it. But I knew in my heart of hearts that it’s something I had to do because I was just getting sucked in. and so Christmas came and January came and I actually took a last-minute vacation and went away with my sister that helped me launch HFK.
And I came back from my holiday, recharged and ready to give hard fire another go, putting more attention on my self care and my family. And I really didn’t touch HFK much at all during that time. I have a hard time balancing the full steam ahead vs. the crawling under my covers. The balance was hard and I just couldn’t figure it out. I was either Full Throttle or Hard Stop, and so returning from vacation into a new year 2020, I started to feel like I was getting my groove back. In February, we were invited to join 1855 a tech accelerator program to help us scale and grow and then… what happened? Covid hit….
COVID:
Covid days were hard for me, hard for the world really and especially hard for moms. Trying to manage their home, kids, homeschool, lockdowns, relationships, self care and then throw a job on top of that… I was peri menopausal, my husband lost his job, my daughter hit puberty and so our mental health was not good as a household. We were even contemplating selling our home and began some minor renovations to prepare it for sale.
The app was actually a paid download when covid hit and I think like most people I just wondered, what can I do? how can I help? I saw so many posts on Facebook and Instagram from people struggling, trying to manage some sort of work/life balance in this new norm. And here we were with this Household Management System that could potentially help.
and so, my thought was let’s make the app for free during this thing called COVID-19, here are all these families stuck together driving each other crazy and I’ve created this tool that can help bring some sanity and structure back to the home, where structure essentially had gone out the window. And so yeah, we move the app to a free download and we saw our user base grow at a steady organic pace.
The app is far from perfect and that’s still hard to swallow for me. The money invested is from me and my severance and from my husband. We’ve invested almost 200K into HFK. We continue to release new versions based off feedback from our families and we know there it still lots of work ahead and that we need investment and test families to move forward. The potential for Hire and Fire your Kids is there, we will eventually be more gamified with badges, streaks and points. The technology you see today is not intuitive or dynamic, it’s is a glorified MVP. Our goal is that you don’t need to watch all the tutorial videos I did to learn how to play the game. The app is far from perfect but for the families that take the time to learn and play we are having such a positive impact on their lives and they’ve been playing with us for 1 year, 2 years +. Whenever I get a new testimonial, it absolutely means the world to me and pushes me to keep going. Most recently we’ve even been added as a resource by Autism Speaks Canada.
So that is how the Hire and Fire your Kids app came to be and since sharing it for free we’ve been working with parents and kids to help manage the behaviors and chores at home as well as tweak the app as we grow. The feedback we’ve received from families has been the absolute best part! We hear things like “oh, I just feel like I’ve got control back”, I feel I can breathe again” “mom doesn’t yell as much anymore”
We’ve just introduced our Kids Kash card program and the Parent Point Rewards program will be coming soon. We want to be the 1st app that recognizing parents for doing one of the hardest jobs on this planet. We too need pats on the back and help keeping us accountable to raising great kids!
FAMILY & SELF CARE:
But parents have bad days and we let things slide from time to time and that is 100% ok! I’m sure you’ve heard the airplane safety tip to put your oxygen mask on 1st before helping your child: well, the same applies with emotional regulation. I had to slow down, I had to give time to myself to workout, eat better, sleep more, nurture my relationships. I have to trust that scaling HFK will come in due time. I don’t have to work the insane start-up hours, pushing my family to 2nd place and myself to dead last. I think it was Arianna Huffington that once said more start-ups would probably succeed if the Founders were able to practice self care from the start. Burnout is real and not necessary to achieve success.
As parents, we have to prioritize managing our own stress especially during these uncertain days. We need to practice self-care activities like exercise, sleep, hygiene and relaxation. Easier said than done I know, but if we can do this it really helps us respond calmly to our loved ones and regulate our own emotions.
It’s so important to lead by example, your kids can see and learn that they too can contribute, be more independent, responsible and add value to the home by helping you, as well they can learn how to cope and manage stress by watching you.
I don’t believe there is such a thing as work life balance but I do know that if you can look after YOU 1st, the rest tends to fall into place, you must take the time to care for yourself. It’s not selfish, its smart and necessary as we manage all the balls, we’re juggling these unusual days…
TIMELINE:
Quick timeline to share where we began and where we are going, hire and fire will not be an overnight success, I continue to push past the obstacles that come my way, continue to work hard yet prioritizing my family 1st and finding the right connections to help us as we grow and continuing working with families to enhance the app and make a positive impact in their life.
AWARDS: We’ve had success getting involved with our community, BACD, Whitby Chamber, Spark Centre, UnNetwork, Heart of Networking, HUB Inc. RevHer 1855 and more. Connections, community and stepping outside of your comfort zone brings about great things!
MEDIA: Most of these were me “JUST ASKING” as uncomfortable as it was, what’s the worst that can happen. They say no and you’re right where you started. The others were based on the connections I’d made and the support others wanted to show me as Jody.
I use google alerts and chose topics of interest like resilient kids, independent kids, benefit of chores, etc. I get them right in my inbox and anyone who writes these articles will get a connection request from me on LinkedIn, then I follow up as time goes on and wish them a happy anniversary or like their posts etc. to get noticed and my goal is to reach out in due time when I need something from them.
JUST ASK: So, we started pitching to investors this past April. The first was at an event with the BDO, I had major technical issues, was super flustered and it bombed. No investment, then #2, no go, same with 3 and 4. Then I was checking out Clubhouse this new social app that is audio only and I was listening to people pitch and I thought I can do this, should I raise my hand. And there were hundreds of people in this room maybe even over a thousand. My heart started to pound as I knew I was going to raise my hand and I did. I just asked & I got picked, I pitched and received amazing feedback yes, but also received further conversations with the investors on the stage who wanted to learn more about Hire and Fire your Kids. Fast forward to today and we have been selected as the top 8 in a US fintech global accelerator program with investment and we are currently in due diligence with a UK investor who is in the Tech Ed space and hoping to seal the deal by the new year.
FEAR:
And as I embrace the fear inside and push past the uncomfortable feelings, good things tend to happen. I’ve started to just ask and not wait for the taps on the shoulder, not wait to be told what to do and when. Just asking, Just doing it and that’s how I got on air with Amber Mac who is a tech guru and is on my vision board, got Julie Cole of Mabel’s labels, received funding and more. No’s will happen, oh will they ever and that’s ok, sometimes you’ll hear feedback that hurts your soul but you’ll be able to reflect, learn and grow and know this is part of life, part of the journey both personally and professionally.
CAREER:
So that’s my story, Hire and Fire your Kids 2018 – present and I’m so thankful that I continue to have the support from my family, friends and this community, we were actually just named top new business of the year with the Town of Whitby! We continue to look for more moms and dads to join our parent testing team and help us as we create the world’s 1st gamified parenting app. Our mission is to provide parents the digital tools to effectively communicate with their kids and empower those kids to contribute to their households in a meaningful way. Let’s help more parents raise their kids by building them up today to be the confident, independent & happy adults of tomorrow.
KEEP AT IT:
I started Hire & Fire as a business in 2018 and we are no where near where I thought we’d be at this stage. We are moving in the right direction and have more ups than downs for sure but it’s hard to keep going on some days, months or even years since this pandemic hit. But when you feel in your gut that you are on the right path then KEEP AT IT and perhaps, we can be the 10-year overnight success!
GO DO IT:
I know for me fear has and still is a barrier to my success. I quote Sherly Sandburg a lot with “done is better than perfect” just get out there, put it out there and get feedback, listen, iterate, grow. Now this one here is quite fitting “What would you do if you weren’t afraid, now go do it!”
AS WE WRAP UP:
LIFE IS SHORT, it really is. No one knows exactly when they’re going to go. I know that’s morbid but you are here now, what do you want to accomplish?
BE BRAVE, what impact do you want to have while you’re here and while you still can. Think hard, what’s stopping you?
JUST ASK, or maybe you’re already doing it, making it happen and pushing past the fear and all the obstacles that come your way because you believe, you believe in you and your vision and you’re getting out of your comfort zone to make it happen. I applaud you if that’s the case because it’s hard to do, but you JUST have to DO IT!
Don’t lose sight of what really matters to you in this world. YOU must be a top priority for yourself and stay strong and healthy for the people and business you love so much, TAKE CARE OF YOU.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to share my story with you all today. I’m going to close off with this video, thank you again for having me. I hope I was able to strengthen the belief, in your chosen path to success!
It’s time to face everything and RISE! – RISE UP, for YOU!
