Freedom Entrepreneurs
HOW TO THINK OF YOURSELF WITHOUT BEING SELFISH
Jeanet Bathoorn is a 52-year-old business woman, mother of three, living in The Netherlands, who’s core value is freedom. She left her corporate job and started her own business as an entrepreneur. Not knowing what to expect, her whole entrepreneurial journey is one of discovery, action, failure, success but she decided to never give up and keep learning.
Jeanet is an exceptional woman with a big dream: Freedom Entrepreneur Transatlantic Cruise . She loves being independent and earning her own money. After becoming a successful entrepreneur, she realised that self-employed entrepreneurs build their own prison and experience a total lack of freedom. They work too much, earn too little and let their clients fill their calendar. This is when she decided to help them take back control of their freedom.
‘I love to work with entrepreneurs who chose freedom. They earn enough money to come by, they can pay their bills. They have clients but have no time. Clients always go first. I start to work with my clients on the choice of their business model, their pricing, their dream client and their money mindset. I love to push them out of their comfort zone and introduce them to a new way of online working. The internet changes everything for self-employed entrepreneurs who sell their knowledge.’
A business woman now, Jeanet remembers some defining moments from her youth. “Most of us grew up with the ‘you can’t have it all’ mentality. When I turned 10, I wanted a go-kart for my birthday. My relatives had one, and we used it in the woods to slide down the small hills and sandy paths. I loved it! But I didn’t get the go-kart because ‘that was for boys’. I asked for it, but never got it. I remember a day in high school, when I just turned 15. Our class was split up in two groups. The boys went to the cool part- a workshop where you can do the woodwork, the welding, the sawing, the hammering. The girls were sent to the needlework classroom, for stitching, knitting, crochet, the less cool stuff. There was one other girl, red-haired, who disagreed with this school decision based on our genders. We did not accept it and went to the principal’s office and asked to be placed with the boys. A week after we were granted access to join the boys in their cool classroom and left the girls with their needlework. This felt like a victory.
I remember a day in my first real full-time job. I had been working there for at least a whole year when the company merged. That meant new salaries and new job titles. I was shocked the day I found out that all men had higher salaries than the women.
All my life events proved to me that women have to fight harder. And I did. Not on a political level, but on a more practical level. Just walking the talk and stepping up to become a role model.’
Books are a big source of inspiration for Jeanet and she surrounds herself with people with a positive mindset, with a drive to succeed. ‘I get inspired by global icons like Michelle Obama, but I also get inspired by the first female student in the Netherlands, Aletta Jacobs. Both my grandmothers always have inspired me to take opportunities, get a proper education and make sure I always have my own money. They never had the chance to go to university or to travel the world. I am so grateful for the life I can lead now.’
Jeanet believes that women entrepreneurs are ambitious, they like to create excellency, but they need to learn to work on the business, not in the business. Most business women do not have an exit strategy, they have a “prison strategy”, a business which will not collapse when they are not present. “I feel it is my mission to create awareness, connect like-minded people, share my knowledge and vision. I love to be surrounded with women who are so successful and make the news, write books and appear in tv shows. I love to be inspired by women who show me what it is possible, women who believe that we can be millionaires and still be ourselves.’
Jeanet is supporting other women’s dreams and is performing better when bonding with other business women.
“We give birth to our children, first we have our life cycle, after the 50th birthday women enter the menopause stage. A women’s body and mind are different. Unfortunately, I grew up in a society in which I could not become an airline pilot, an ambulance driver or a navy captain. We have come a long way since then. I believe in sisterhood, I believe in sharing, I believe in harmony, I believe in win-win. I want to build a better world. Cruising with likeminded entrepreneurs is a step forward to change the world, bit by bit. I encourage women to have fun, to live a fulfilled life. We are mortal but we could leave behind a better place for our children. I believe in the power of the next generations’
When is last time when you took away a memory that will last a lifetime?
‘The sea wind in your hair, the fantastic people around you, the quality of the food, the deep relaxation, the fun, the conversations and connections and the moon glistening on the water… Imagine holding memories from a once in a lifetime experience! It is my dream to bring together 1500 Freedom Entrepreneurs, and embark our own cruise ship, sailing the ocean, enjoying life, talking about our businesses, our life journeys, about growth, about the legacy we want to build.
The cruise starts on 21st of November in Genua, Italy. After a few stops in France and Spain, we will sail to the Caribbean and have the first stop in Barbados. We will disembark in Guadeloupe on 8th of December. During the days at sea, I will host The Conference@Sea with keynote speakers and inspirational talks. During the crossing, we will offer a variety of workshops and implementation trainings.‘
Jeanet created this adventure to inspire female entrepreneurs to think big, take action, take some risk and be the better version of themselves.
‘Female entrepreneurs tend to undercharge and work long hours. They want to stay friends with their clients and are afraid to set boundaries. We have to accept that female entrepreneurs think too little about their own wellbeing and as a consequence, they think small. Thinking small is our default and that is one of the biggest obstacles in up-scaling a business. It is difficult to find female role models and be inspired to recognise our inner strength and silent powers, to allow personal growth. And this is exactly my bottle neck: how do I get this message out in an appealing and acceptable way without losing the connection with the women I want to reach?
I want them to help women take time off from their children and family without neglecting their children and family commitments. I want to help them think about themselves first without being selfish. I want to live in a world where no one tells someone else what to do and what to think. I want to help women to think about the consequences of their choices. My biggest challenge is that I think that the world is not ready for my message. Is the world ready for strong women who earn their own money and are creating their own destiny?
I want to contribute in building a world that sees the strength of women, encourages every individual to live their best life, men and women alike.”