Jo Hooper's Simple & Spacious Business
On running a rebellious business...
Jo was at the top of my list for people to interview for this series as I’m always so inspired by how boldly she prioritises her humanness in her business and how unapologetically she encourages all of us to choose ourselves in our work and reject conventional norms in our journey.
Jo is a freedom coach who offers courses, coaching, and retreats through her awesome business and regularly inspires me over on IG when she shares the behind the scenes of the ways she prioritises her humanness in her business along the way.
Tell us a little more about you, your work, and the life you’re living right now…
I’m a life and business coach helping people find/create freedom. My work is kinda motivated by breaking the rules that society sets for us (patriarchal rules, ableist rules, capitalist rules, white supremacist rules). But also by knowing that we get to choose. That we have so much more power than we realise. Those rules don’t have to be rules.
I’m living a pretty unconventional life - living in rural west Wales, where I moved from central Edinburgh last year, to long term house sit for my friend who inherited her mums home and animals. I like the unconventional life!
What type of season are you in in your business and life? Gentle growth? Recalibration? Enjoying what you’ve already built? Healing from burnout?
I’m on a precipice of growth - I’m having to consciously choose to let myself fly, rather than pull myself back to safety.
What does ease, joy, and freedom mean to you in your work and life?
Minimal calls in my diary, the ability to make all the decisions, to change those decisions, to take my partner and family on holidays, to go to a local spa day, to cancel work stuff when I’m not feeling great, to be seen by my clients just as I see them. The freedom to play with work and enjoy it.
What’s the most impactful decision you’ve made in your business to bring more flexibility, spaciousness, or ease into your working life?
That I’ll only work with a maximum of 8 1:1 clients at a time on two days a week, with two sessions a day. And not ‘just squeezing someone in’.
What has been the biggest obstacle for you in creating more ease, flexibility, and joy in your business and how have you overcome it?
It’s one I’m currently going through (although I’ve been through it in different iterations over the 5 years of my business) - trust. At the moment - trusting that the possibility on the other side of my clinging onto the safety of what’s known is huge and exciting and I want it. For me, I ask myself one question to help me cut through the fear. At the moment it is: is me doing / not doing this thing, me pulling myself back to safety or letting myself fall forward to fly? I know I want to fly, so I choose that.
What’s an ‘industry norm’ or conventional piece of entrepreneurial wisdom or advice that you’ve opted out of to make your business and life work best for you?
Oh god so many. Put the client first. You got to work hard to succeed. Nothing that comes easy is worth having. You have to work all the hours in the first 3 years to make it work. Be professional. Be available. Be flexible. All that bullshit.
If someone was exploring how they could bring more ease, joy, and flexibility into their business and life what would your encouragement be for them?
Trust your instincts. We’ve been conditioned - especially those of us socialised as women - to believe that our gut instinct is just a woo woo thing not to be listened to. When really it’s a scientific signal from our body to our brain that we’re safe. Trust your gut and go with what it says.
And finally: what’s something that you’ve read, watched, or listened to recently that’s brought you joy?
I’m currently reading Four Thousand Weeks and have a notes app full of quotes that are like lightbulbs going off in my head.
You can connect more with Jo’s work over on Instagram and she also has an awesome free 20 minute behind the scenes video on how she runs an anti-hustle, anti-patriarchal, rebellious business this way.
And if you’d love to dig deeper into what a simple and spacious business looks like for you? I have an awesome 3-part deep dive kit that’s 100% free for you to work through at whatever pace works best for you.
Until next time,
Jen