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Description: Julie Jones was one of the first three females on the SWAT team. She shares how she broke free from the old way of living, not taking no for an answer and following her own dreams. Shownotes: When Julie Jones joined the SWAT team, she had no idea that a devastating diagnosis would lead her on an unexpected journey to become an entrepreneur. Through courage, resilience, and risk-taking, she has achieved her dreams and encourages others to do the same. But what is the secret to her success, and how can others use it to achieve their goals? In this episode, you will be able to: 1. Discover the significance of resilience and perseverance in your entrepreneurial journey. 2. Uncover the value of networking and forming substantial connections. 3. Recognize the necessity of striking a balance between work and life for all-encompassing well-being. 4. Grasp the art of taking measured risks and capitalizing on opportunities for continuous growth. 5. Realize the essence of nurturing authentic relationships by offering assistance to others in the first place. Connect with Julie Jones: Julie Jones Website Connect with Sabine Kvenberg: https://www.sabinekvenberg.com/resources Sabine Kvenberg on FacebookSabine Kvenberg on Instagram Sabine Kvenberg on Linkedin Sabine Kvenberg on YouTube BECOME Podpage TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Julie: He knew about being an employee. And so I grew up with that same mindset, that same mindset of, okay, you work for somebody, you retire, you get the pension, the gold watch, all that kind of stuff. Being an entrepreneur was nowhere. Nowhere, I will say in my world because there wasn't anybody. Again, I was the first one to go to college. Then I get this idea that I'm going to work for myself, that I'm going to have my own business. 00:00:27 Sabine: Hello, my name is Sabine Kvenberg, founder and host of BECOME. The content will inspire you to reach your aspirations and become the best version of yourself. I feature interviews with successful individuals from various industries, delving into their personal and professional journeys and their strategies to achieve their goals. We have to become the person we are meant to be first so we can live the life we are destined to live. That means we must overcome challenges and work through difficult times to learn, grow, and become the new, more fabulous version of ourselves. I'm so glad that you're here. Let's get on this journey together. 00:01:19 Sabine: Hello and welcome, Julie Jones. I love that, the JJ, Julie Jones, the coach that's Getting Shit or the Get Shit Done coaching. So as you can see, she is so lively with her colors and hair and whatnot. So I'm so excited to have you here today. 00:01:38 Julie: Well, I am so excited to be here and thank you. And you know, it's funny because most people don't ever just say my first name. The alliteration Julie Jones just seems to run off, easily off people's tongue. So I'm used to Julie Jones. Whether or not they know me or not, it's Julie Jones. 00:01:59 Sabine: Yeah. Oh, that reminds me, on this one, one of my favorite movies called The Holiday. And she introduced herself as, who are you? Amanda Woods. Oh, Amanda Woods. Amanda Woods. Like her one first name, right? It was funny. Anyways, I digress. So today, I would love to hear your story because your story and your journey is quite exciting. You actually started out before you even get into this coaching. You were a police officer, right? So tell me about, first of all, how you got to become a police officer. 00:02:41 Julie: Wow, we're going back. So that's an interesting kind of journey. I had been best friends growing up, and we're still friends today. So I met my best friend in kindergarten, and her father was a police officer. And I didn't realize how much of an impact that that had on me, like, kind of hanging out in that environment until when I was deciding to go to college. And I was the first one in my family to go to college. I had been very strong in math, technology, science, those types of fields. And so I was going to be a medical technologist. I was going to do labs and all these kinds of things. And then my junior year of high school, I decided to start looking for colleges that offered criminal justice. So I have a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice with a minor in psychology. My intention was to go into the Secret Service. And it was during a career fair at my college that I found out you had to have almost perfect vision, almost 20/20 uncorrected for Secret Service, which I had no idea. At that time, I was legally blind. I was 2800 in my one eye and 21,000. I did wear contacts. But you couldn't have corrected vision and have that severe of blindness, I guess, is the best way to put it. So I decided to then pursue a career in law enforcement. Not FBI, not Secret Service. The Feds didn't want me, but the cities did, so that's where I ended up. 00:04:15 Sabine: So you were a police officer and also a SWAT member, right? 00:04:22 Julie: That is correct. So I did spend my career on patrol, and there was an opportunity to be on the SWAT team. And so our SWAT team at the time was an on call position, so we wore pagers. Okay, I'm dating myself because I'm talking about pagers, but we wore pagers 24/7. And then when a serious incident would come in, we would be paged to come in and to handle the call. And boy, now things have really even changed in that department because it's a pretty significantly busier department than even when I was on. And so, yeah, I was on the SWAT team. I often say, and it's a story of my resilience of two, if there's something I really want in life, how I go for it, and I don't take no for an answer. I was only the third female hire on by my department, which I really had no trouble with the men that I worked with, with me being female because I proved myself early on. 00:05:19 Julie: But when I went out for the SWAT team, believe it or not, I'm six foot tall, at that point, I just didn't have enough upper body strength, so I wasn't able to get over the six foot wall. And one of the guys, in his infinite wisdom, decided to give me a little boost, which disqualified me. And the sergeant that was running the obstacle course, he pulled me on the side. I said, I know I'm disqualified. It's okay. I worked out even harder. I improved my upper body strength the second time because I really wanted to be on the team. The second time that I went out for it, I passed everything with flying colors. I officially got onto the SWAT team on my own, and that was how I always wanted to do things, was didn't matter if you were male or female, it was the most qualified that, who was getting on the team. And I proved myself. 00:06:08 Sabine: Absolutely. And it also shows that you had perseverance. You didn't let this incident discourage you or say, well, I cannot make it. No, even more. And that's how you lived your life. Now, how did you make the transition to say, okay, enough with the police stuff? 00:06:31 Julie: Well, it was twofold. So I had been a police officer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. And then I moved about 21 years ago to Arizona, which is where I currently live now. And it was during that time that a couple of things happened. First and foremost, I realized that in law enforcement, as much as I loved it and that I was very good at it, I really was. I had great communication skills. There were so many things, yet there was just a lot of negativity for me. And one of the hardest things I ever did as a law enforcement officer was give death notifications. So I saw how quickly life changed, here today, gone tomorrow. 00:07:11 Julie: And when I moved to Arizona, I had the application pulled. I was going to go back into law enforcement. And then it personally hit me that my mom, at the age of, young age of 57, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. And it was in that moment that my mom's dreams and my father's dreams went to the wayside because they were of the generation that you retired and you waited till retirement to be able to have the lifestyle, to live the dreams, to live the goals, everything you had worked so hard for. And I realized that I wasn't going to wait anymore to start living my life, that I was going to start living in the moment. So that's exactly what happened. I pursued career paths that gave me the opportunity to be able to really help people. 00:08:00 Julie: See, I've always wanted to help people. I've had this strong desire to help and serve and love people. I just wasn't able to do it in law enforcement as much as I would have liked to have done. So that's what made me transition into speaking, coaching. Eventually, now, I have a television show. So all these things and it's been a journey, but it was the personal journey of losing my mom and then eventually losing my grandmother that really got those wheels turning to get off the hamster wheel. 00:08:32 Sabine: And I totally get it. I think things changed in the world that we live today. People are not waiting any longer or don't want to wait any longer, right? They're even frustrated in the jobs that they're in right now because it doesn't give them the security and they are not appreciated most of the time and they just feel that life is passing by. And having that mentality, well, wait until you retire and then you have fun. No, I love that you took that moment in time to make that shift. Now, how hard or difficult was it? Or maybe not, when you made the decision you're not going to go back to law enforcement, you start your own business. How was that journey for you? 00:09:27 Julie: Honestly, Sabine, I think for anybody, life is about ups and downs. It really, truly is. There were moments that I was so excited about what I was doing, and then there were moments where, oh, my gosh, what did I just decide to do? See, because again, my parents, especially my father, because my father worked full time and supported our family. He started working at the age of 25. And he retired at 55, and he put 30 years in for the city of Milwaukee. So that was what he knew. He knew about being an employee. And so I grew up with that same mindset, that same mindset of, okay, you work for somebody, you retire, you get the pension, the gold watch, all that kind of stuff. 00:10:13 Julie: Being an entrepreneur was nowhere. Nowhere, I will say, in my world, because there wasn't anybody. Again, I was the first one to go to college. Then I get this idea that I'm going to work for myself, that I'm going to have my own business, and if there's anything that I know about myself is that I'm a risk taker. I'm like, okay, I don't know exactly what this is going to look like, and I'm going to figure it out. And there were times, like, for all of us, I would want to just curl up and cry because I'm like, okay, maybe this isn't exactly everything that I thought it was going to be, but the one thing that I knew, and I knew so well is that, again, that resilience, that perseverance, the saying yes to life opportunities. Because my mom and dad, both, my mom died with her dreams going to the grave. My dad did as well because he first initially helped my mom take care of her when she was sick. And then, more importantly, when she passed away, that was it. He had all of his dreams built around a life that was going to be spent with her. 00:11:19 Julie: And if I knew one thing, I knew one thing that I was not going to follow that same path. And trust me, there were times that I knew it would be easier for me to fall back on getting an application, filling it out for a police department and going back in, because any department would have been happy to have me based on my experience, based on my communication skills, based on everything that I brought to the table. But I won't quit. I just will not quit. And I will figure out a way to make it happen. And I got support. If you're an entrepreneur listening into this, it's all about the support. One of the biggest things I can say is, don't be a lone ranger. We're not designed to be in it alone. Find the people. Find your tribe that are going to support you in making your dreams and helping you to make your dreams come true. 00:12:13 Sabine: Let me hop in here real quick to share something with you. Have you ever tried to build your own website, start a newsletter, or build a course and charge for it? Have you ever wanted to make money online, but are totally confused by all the different systems you need to have? That's why I use Kajabi. Kajabi is the most popular system for online marketers, coaches, thought leaders, and influencers. Kajabi helps online entrepreneurs take off. Over 100,000 of us use Kajabi and have made over $4 billion. Why not be part of it? The best thing is you don't have to figure out tons of systems or crazy technology to start your online business. Kajabi helps you do all of that, and it's all on one platform. That's why I use it. It makes my life so much easier and I can even earn money while I'm sleeping. You can build your web pages, blogs, and membership sites. You can create offers, checkout pages, and collect money. You can host your videos. You can start your newsletter list, capture emails, start your marketing funnels all in one place. It makes it fun and easy with awesome tutorials and support. 00:13:39 Sabine: Since I've joined Kajabi from the beginning, I have a special affiliate link that I would like to share with you. A 30 day free trial. So nothing to lose, but everything to gain. Just go to my link that's in the show notes sabinekvenberg.com/resources, and we will redirect you to the free trial page. And if you are just starting out and want to get your offer out for sale in just three days, let me help you do that. Visit my web page, by the way, that I build on Kajabi and apply to making it happen. So now, let's get back to the show. 00:14:24 Sabine: It's so, so important. It's true. You got to have a support system. Now, how did you build your support system? Say, you started out, okay, I'm going to become a coach. I'm going to share my knowledge. But how did you get the support that you needed? And what were the path that you took? 00:14:48 Julie: The biggest support system and the biggest thing that I did was effective networking. See, the state of Arizona is very unique in the fact that everybody is almost a transplant. I do find natives now, but it seemed like 20 years ago. It was very rare to find a native, someone who had been born and raised in Arizona. So I remember growing up in Wisconsin that you always knew who you were going to use. Like, imagine this, the TV repairman. There was a time where TVs got repaired, right? And so with that, everybody in the neighborhood called the same TV repairman, right? We all knew who to call, and that was based on referral, kind of thing, but we just all knew. You came to Arizona. And I had some pretty bad experiences initially with some different services because I didn't know who to use and I didn't know who to call. And even 20 years ago, Facebook wasn't like you didn't go to Facebook and say, hey, who do you use, right? 00:15:52 Julie: So I started networking. I mean, I just kept putting myself out there and I started building relationships and I started connecting with people. And what I discovered, which I've always known about myself, is I'm a master connector of people. So it wasn't so much about what was happening for me. I would get so excited. When I met, like Sabine, I mean, like how we met, right? We…
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