Digital Age Parenting and Business Mentorship with Hillary D. Simpson

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rock star podcast.

I’m talking today with the owner and founder and CEO of HGS Enterprises. She’s a parent success coach. So super excited to rock out today with Hillary Simpson. Hey, Hillary, you ready to rock?

Hillary Simpson: Ready as a rock star, Tim. Well, we’ll

Tim Melanson: start off on a good note. Tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Hillary Simpson: All right, Tim. Well, the one that I’m going to talk about is about, you know, what inspired me to do this business. So, I was excited to go to my son’s 10th grade parent teacher conference.

I was brimming with confidence. After all, I was Teacher of the Year, and I could not wait to hear how my son was doing. My dad had gone to college, I, in England, my brother had gone to Harvard, and I was so excited for my son, right? And when I got there, I was shocked when he told his teacher that he had no plans to go to college.

That wooden sign on her desk [00:01:00] read, whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right. Well, that hit home for me that day because I realized that my son didn’t think he could, and so he gave up his dream for college. Being an educator for over 30 years, Tim, I see this so many times children give up before they even start.

They feel that this is not what I’m great at. This is not what a lot of the people in my family are doing. You know, I can’t, I don’t know how. It’s so much of that. You know, and it is time that we recognize that fixed mindset. What I do for them is I help to identify it. Help them to erase it and set up steps to get that growth mindset that can make them soar.

The thing is, Tim, failure doesn’t start in adulthood. It starts off as a child and I see that coming up through from kindergarten all the way up through high school, I see what happens. And so I realized that we have to fix this problem in our [00:02:00] children today, so that they can become the success as adults.

They can soar off to their bright futures of success because this is not going to make it happen. We have to fix it. It’s a problem. And so this makes me realize that. I have to work with children and in order to get your children, I need to work with their parents because I know the other side, I know the educated side.

I need to help the people here because parents don’t realize the importance in their children’s lives. Yes, mom, I am dad and I love what you do and I support you, but there are certain things that they need to do that they are not doing.

They are the first and most important role model. You know, it’s not the guy they see on TV, later on, they’re going to watch that person that they see on television, but you, it comes back home later on, you’ll say, oh, my mom did this, or my dad did that. It, the [00:03:00] parent is the first role model, and the child succeeds.

Based on how the parent helps that child.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree. Well, and it’s interesting because, we all know that our parents, we get to shape our kids and all that stuff, but on the other hand, it doesn’t come with a manual, although you say that there are tools we can use to help us.

Have you found that parents are getting help? with parenting, or do you find that they’re a little bit weird about that?

Hillary Simpson: I think most parents, you know, there’ll be a certain sector of parents that feel that I need help, especially the ones coming up today. It’s not what I thought it was.

It’s not as easy as I thought it was. But for the most part, parents feel that it’s natural. Parenting is natural. you have your child and you do what you need to do for your child. That’s kind of like how we grew up, right? And sometimes we realize that a lot of things that we suffer from are things that we had to endure during childhood, right?

And [00:04:00] so, parents these days, many of them are realizing that, you know, everything starts with me. And it starts from me. So, my job is important, even though we think that people have been doing it for eons, right? And no one’s died from being a parent. So, it can’t be that bad. But really, it depends on the quality that you want to produce.

And a lot of it has to do with, if you know better, you’re going to do better. You know, you do what you know, you do what you’ve seen. Most of us parent from the way that we see our parents parent. Good, bad, or indifferent, we do what we know, right?

And we know that we will do better.

Tim Melanson: Isn’t that interesting, right? You sort of like, look at what your parents did when they were parents, and go, okay, well, I’m just gonna do that, because that’s, you know, I don’t know if many of us really make the connection and go like, am I exactly where I would like to be, in my life.

And if I am, well then great, do exactly what your parents [00:05:00] did There are some things you want more in your life. You’re like, well, you know what? If I could design my life right now, I would be here instead of here. Well, then maybe there was some things that you could have done before that your parents could have done differently.

Right. And maybe you can do those things differently. Does that make sense?

Hillary Simpson: Like we just said, you know, you, you know, better and you do better. But you pretty much do what you know, and if you subscribe to the fact that, you know, parenting is innate, I’m born with it, I know how to do this, you know, I got this, God gave it to me, because didn’t I birth this child?

Am I not the dad of this child? You know, I see like a lot of times these days, this is one thing that bugs me, Tim. It’s like, dads love their children and moms as well, right? However, they don’t realize the fact that when you’re off from work and pretty much, if you sit down and play video games, that’s what you’re teaching your child.

That’s what dads are supposed to do. When you don’t go in and help and you don’t take them in the [00:06:00] backyard and teach them some things that you know, right? Your child doesn’t grow up learning anything. I’ve seen the ones who are their dads. Support them, teach them everything that they know and these are the ones that, you know, can’t wait to come home from college.

I have this young man coming to see me tomorrow. I think he is maybe like 21 and his father, you know, they had issues but his father supported him so much. And he taught him everything that he knew. He’s coming now to put the burglar alarm in my home. He’s coming to order this stuff. I mean, like, these are all things that he learned and he has so much confidence.

So, you know, you can’t just say you’re a parent and it’s a chill job and I just, Whatever, it can’t be that it’s your most important job because here’s the deal, Tim, we’re making people, you know, we’re making people, we’re not fixing gidgets, we’re not, you know, using widgets and fixing [00:07:00] things, we’re making people, so we have to give them the best of what we have, and then they become the best of what they have, and that just, that cycle that just starts, and that just makes our world better, but if we just, Figure, you know, it’s innate.

Whatever I do, that’s what parents are supposed to do. Just back off. I got this. This is what my dad did. You know, this is what my grandpa did, so it’s some things to it that we just need to understand and learn. Just always learn and know your importance in that child’s life.

Tim Melanson: Right. And I think another big thing is that the world is changing faster and faster as time goes on. Like, I think that the difference between, you know, maybe my parents growing up and their parents growing up, There’s a lot smaller difference between me growing up and my son growing up. Right. Yeah. And all these gadgets and all this, like, I, I mean, I, I just think about like, I’m a, I think that’s gen X, I think, is it?

So basically I, [00:08:00] you know, I remember just being outside until the light, the streetlights came on and then it was time to go home. Yeah. You know, my parents didn’t know where I was all day. Right. It was just one of those things. Yes. My son, I mean, they kind of. Stay on their devices. They’re inside a lot more.

Hillary Simpson: Totally different. Because back then, Tim, when, when you were out there, you know, out until the lights came on, you know, there wasn’t really a lot to kind of like suck you in the way it is today, right? That technology was not there where, and I just did a podcast, it was probably a few months ago, where we’re talking about the technology and is it as addictive as drugs?

And I have on there where the people that founded it say, Hey, we know it’s going to be, we’re going to do it anyway. Right. They do it, but they’re doing it anyway. You and I can handle it as older, not older. I’m older than you, but as people who are adults, right? We can handle it a little bit better. [00:09:00] A child coming up.

That brain is just being warmed, they can’t handle it. When they have all this technology at their fingertips and all this stuff, I’m not saying that there are not some good things to it, but when they sit there and do the roadblocks and all the this and that, it messes up their concentration. When they go into school, what do they hear?

The teacher cannot compete with those lights and colors and quick movement. The teacher cannot compete, and that’s how they compare them with. So they tune the teacher out. If you’re not one of those parents that’s going to sit down with them in the evening and go over the stuff and ask questions, you know, they tune them out because that’s what they’re competing with.

And so today we just have to be more vigilant. Because it’s a different world, we have to be more vigilant and we have to not worry so much about them liking us or being their best friends, but to be the parent that God made us to be. We have to say no, I did a [00:10:00] video on that too, how to say no to your child.

We have to say no, and they’ll still love us. But we have to say no, but they understand that there is a certain, we give them a certain window. And as parents, our job is to make sure that that window closes a certain time, and we open it a certain time. That’s our job. Okay? It’s easier for us to let them do, oh let them do it, let them have fun.

It’s a different day today.

Tim Melanson: Oh, wow. Okay. So now along with the good notes in business comes some, some bad notes too. So I’m wondering like on your journey, does not go as planned and how did you recover from that?

Hillary Simpson: Okay. So there’s so many of them, but the one that I will talk about, you know, from the technology to, you know, people saying people are not going to pay for parenting So I’m going to talk about how you need to pick up the pieces when things go wrong, because as entrepreneurs, we still have to live.

Life happens to all of us. [00:11:00] So I’ll tell you about one of the life things that happened to me during this business. So, I met my fiancé in about 2014, somewhere there. And he was very supportive, went with me to all the speeches. Whenever I had to do anything, he would go, he would take my stuff, and would just sit there and listen and just be there, be supportive of everything that I did, right?

And he had a kidney illness, but we had this thing where it was set, he was going to Emory, he was going to get a new kidney, all this stuff, we had this all taken care of. And he got really sick in 2020, when I say sick, not sick to the point where he was in bed, but you know, he was weaker, but we knew that this was coming up, the doctor’s appointment, he was scheduled.

So we just figured everything was going to be okay. His dad was turning 85, did a lot of great things, and came over and helped us out and did so many things. And, you know, he said, I would like to kind of [00:12:00] party for him. And I said, okay, fine, let’s do it. We did the party.

He wasn’t doing well. He got his brother and sister from Florida, and it was a great, great night. He said, my dad loved it. My husband died the next day, and I was devastated. I just did not know what hit me. I was there, I, called the ambulance. I did all of these things, so I was there, and I think he died in the ambulance going to the hospital.

And he was very alert, very awake, very everything, like, sweet, bring my phone from upstairs. I do you need your wallet? Don’t bring your wallet because, you probably may have to go to the other hospital. Don’t worry about it. Like, no, no, no, sweet, bring the wallet. I need to have it. So very, very quick.

He never came back. And so when that happened for me, I didn’t know whether I was up or down. I started having physical symptoms of sciatica in my back. I could barely walk. It was a problem. I had to see an orthopedist for months. [00:13:00] After that, I went to the doctor and they called me back when I was at the nail shop and he said, I need you to go to the emergency room.

And I said, emergency room? This was in January. I said, why? He said, because your white count is very high. And I said, I feel really great. I feel fine. I really was feeling great. And I said, maybe they need to just do it again.

He said, we have done it three times. There’s something wrong. I said, what could it be? He says, I don’t know. I just need you to go so that they can run some more tests. You know, I was kind of a little bit feeling a little bit upset about it. Why are you telling me I’m feeling good? I’m getting my nails done.

You want me to go to the emergency room? You wait there all day and nothing happens. So I thought about it while I was almost finished at the nail shop. He called again and he said, Did you go? I said, I’m just finishing up. I am still thinking about it.

So he had like this vested interest. And so he didn’t want to see anything happen to me. So he said, I really do need you to [00:14:00] go. So I went to the emergency room, did all the testing, and they said that it looks like I have cancer. And I said, hold up, because you guys are really going nuts. That doesn’t even make sense.

I’m feeling great. This doctor told me that I needed to come see you. I have no pains. He says, you know, are you feeling weak? No, I am not feeling weak. I am feeling none of those things. It’s the opposite of everything that you guys are saying.

Oncologist that mostly focus on hematology because it looks like it’s blood cancer. So they set me up, I went to see the doctor, then they had me go to the hospital to do a test in my spine and all that.

Turns out I have leukemia. My husband died in 21, I was diagnosed with leukemia, set me up on this medication. It’s just like a pill you take once a day. I’m doing it and I’m thinking to [00:15:00] myself, this just can’t be real. Too many things. Then Tim, I started just like every morning I woke up, I would just swell up in the eyes, just like swelling all over my face, just right around here, just swelling.

And I couldn’t understand what was going on. Finally, yes, I have gotten the okay that my blood levels are okay, but I still have to take the medicine for a good three years. You know, a lot of the things that I was feeling that sciatica has is gone.

But here’s what I know, that this ease brings on disease, and so I felt like all of that was happening to me, and I really felt like, okay, I wanted to sell my house because that was too big for one person, I just didn’t want to be there anymore with all the memories,

And so I sold and I couldn’t find one, then I went to live in an apartment. I just bought another house. I’m moving, so you don’t see all this stuff about office. But, you know, this is a transition place right now. So I made sure to, [00:16:00] I hope I’m not gonna cry about this, but the things that happened to me, I realized that It’s part of life and, you know, when you’re running a business and you’re a solopreneur, you know, it’s just you and it’s so when things get so low to the point where you’re like, you know, I don’t have to do this.

I don’t need to do this. I can’t do this alone by myself. Then I realized all the people that still need to hear my message and all these kids that still need to get the help that I can offer them. I feel like I can’t.

It may not be to this degree, but things are going to happen. But it’s not the time for you to give up and quit. And say, maybe it wasn’t meant to be, maybe that’s not what God wanted for me to be, just pick up and pivot, continue on, because you know, there are people that are [00:17:00] waiting on your message, people are waiting for your help, just move on, yes, you need to take a little bit of time and get yourself together, but you can’t give up.

You can’t stop. If it’s coming from deep within, you have to move on and you just have to switch because life happens to all of us.

Anik Malenfant: Hi, my name is Anik Malanfa. I’m from Mastering Ascension and I’ve been working with Tim Malanson and the Creative Crew Agency for a number of years now. Tim is my go to guy for all things technology and his team have helped me to really Create the platform that I need that represents my brand, my message, and connects me directly to my ideal clients.

What I particularly love about Tim is before he starts to dive into the technology, he always makes sure that he understands what your global view is, what your ultimate goals are. So then that way you’re not wasting a lot of time back and forth switching around technology or platforms. He creates something from the get go that is scalable, which is highly, [00:18:00] highly beneficial for any business.

for joining us. What I’ve experienced from Tim and his team is they’re highly responsive. They are a wealth of information, and they’re going to offer you the tools that you need to really make the mark that you want to make in the world. So that’s my recommendation for Tim. He’s awesome. You’re going to love every minute.

Tim Melanson: Wow. That’s amazing. So you’ve been through quite a bit then. Yeah. Yeah. A lot. Well, congratulations for making it through it. It’s been difficult for sure.

Hillary Simpson: It is. But listen, would I have met you today, Tim? No. We wouldn’t be having this conversation. So I’m just saying, you know, let’s just move on because as long as there’s life, there’s hope.

I agree. We just pick up and we just move on.

Tim Melanson: So, I mean, you’re, you’re moving around and all that stuff. So like, let’s talk a little bit about your workspace, man, your jam room. Like what, what do you got going on now?

Hillary Simpson: Well, what’s going on now?

I know how to get the perfect [00:19:00] jam room. I’m going to get it again, right? But right now I am in transition. So the perfect jam room for me you know the first thing that you need to make sure you have is a Comfy chair, you must have a comfy chair because you’re sitting all day in that room, right? So once you have that chair, make sure you have the arm rest and your legs are on the floor so that you can get what you need to do.

Now, a lot of people these days, they have this desk where they stand all day, and that’s okay. But if you’re a sitter like me, and I go to the gym at workout, and you need to make sure that you’re comfortable sitting. That’s number one. So that chair. With your workspace, your laptop, you should really have two, like a laptop and a monitor or a laptop and a phone or something, because so many things come at you and if you have just that one computer or that one monitor, there is a lot, you can’t do [00:20:00] so many things, so you should be able to, you know, get on a device, find some things and then come back on and do what you need to do.

It makes it so much easier. Easier and so much better. So I have like two devices that you can work on at the same time. The next thing is number three is to make sure that you have high speed internet. You should know that, you know, I don’t know, they’re very experienced it. But when the internet is low, nothing happens.

You get so frustrated, you get up, you just want to walk out. You’re like, this is ridiculous. They’re only 24 hours in the day and is still trying to get to that website. Right. And it’s not good for business. You need to invest high speed internet, right? You don’t need all that you need, but you just need the one that’s going to get the job done.

And it’s usually high speed. All right. Number four, I want to have a room that’s well ventilated, like More so with like a window in it, or there is space in the room so [00:21:00] that the air flows. Can you imagine working in a stuffy room where there are boxes all over? I have a room right now. One bedroom that I put a whole lot of boxes in from my last move.

And if I didn’t have like this little space right here to work in, I’d have to go in there to work. So, ventilation is great. And number five, finally, I say natural light.

If you can have some natural light, that is great. Because, you know, studies have shown that people, offices are saying that if there’s natural light, they get 3 to 40 percent more output from people in rooms with natural light than with the artificial lighting. I’d love to be able to look. Through a window, not spend my time just gazing through the window.

Or sometimes you just need to, and then the inspiration will come, but I need to have some natural light for me. I love natural lighting. So those are the five things that I think. Our must haves, and it just makes you work so much better.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I [00:22:00] love that. That’s really such a great list. You did a lot of thinking about that.

And the natural aid one, that does make sense. I mean, having some sunlight outside is pretty good.

Hillary Simpson: No, because then, you know, you can’t control the weather, but you know, sometimes some people love to look at the rain, right? Some people love to see the rain.

My, my husband, when he passed away, he loved to drive in the rain.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Hillary Simpson: Love to, I’m like, no, I don’t want to be out in the rain. He loves to drive in the rain. So, you know, the rain is something you’re not able to control, but that’s also nature. You’re seeing nature and that’s fine. And some people just love to look at the raindrops, you know, or hear it on the rooftop.

Tim Melanson: I like hearing it on the rooftop too. Like it’s just such an interesting sound. Right. And sometimes people need like some white noise and all that stuff too. So that might be one of them natural white noise. Right.

Hillary Simpson: Yes, absolutely.

Tim Melanson: So now we talked about, I mean, you’ve been working for yourself and you mentioned that [00:23:00] sometimes things get a little lonely in order to really make things go, sometimes you need some people around you, right?

And so I’m wondering for you, what’s your band look like? Who do you have around you that you’re working with?

Hillary Simpson: For so long, Tim, I was in a solo band. I was the soloist and I couldn’t sing very well. If anybody who knows me well, knows, listen, God didn’t give her that gift of singing.

She just needs to listen to music and not sing. So being in this band where you’re the soloist and you’re not sounding good is not great for business. Yes. So I quickly realized that I needed to have other people around me, even people just to talk to, to bounce ideas off of. So I have, what I needed to do, anything that has to do with technology, Tim.

It’s not me. I’m going to tell you right now. Do not ask me to fix anything that’s technological. I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to learn it. Don’t ask me about technology. I’ll call [00:24:00] somebody in to get that done.

So I have used Fiverr and I’ve used Upwork to get some delegating done, you know, there’s subcontractors and I have found that right now, full time, I have someone who does some of my social media for me. I can’t do that. I can do it, but It’s constant. And it keeps you away from doing everything else.

Right? So I have someone doing my social media. And I also have someone that edits my videos because when I do my videos, it’s just like one person talking and that is no fun for anyone to watch. So I have a video editor that’s full time, every week they would take my videos and they would edit them.

So those are the full time people that I have, but I know that I need more. I have a coach, awesome, awesome, wonderful coach gives me great advice, but in terms of having people to work with, even with the coaches that I have and the programs that I’m involved with, [00:25:00] they say, try to get an accountability group where you can talk about things and all of that.

And right now I’m having some you. Problems with getting the right people who are in my space, in the same space, but it’s going to happen because, you know, I realized that it is a lonely, if you’re into business or you’re trying to get into business, you’ll find that it gets to be very isolating and lonely.

You have to deal with that. So you have to have other people around you that are supporting you, that you can talk to. That’s important. So that’s my bad.

Tim Melanson: Well, and when you mentioned about the loneliness, yeah. So, I mean, when I was first starting my business, what I did to get away from that was I’d go down to coffee shops, you know, and just try to get around people.

So I would just work there and, you know, it ended up working out pretty good. Cause it was other people that were, you know, Also going to the coffee shops and working. Cause that was a thing. I’ve seen it, but now, you know, I find with all the improvements that have been done with video conferencing and zoom and all that [00:26:00] stuff, we’re kind of in a good spot right now, because like you will find a great group of people that you can meet with regularly that can be all over the world.

Yeah, absolutely.

Hillary Simpson: know,

Tim Melanson: now you can look everywhere. The coffee

Hillary Simpson: shop days are over, right?

Tim Melanson: Do

Hillary Simpson: you still do the

Tim Melanson: coffee shop? Every once in a while, but it’s really rare now. Now I actually do things on Zoom. Thoughts with the commute and all that stuff and the extra distractions, right?

Yes,

Hillary Simpson: Absolutely. I need that part. I need to set up really well. I do have some people, but it’s not really the right group. So I need to get that right group. and do it, you know, on zoom. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: I think what you’re doing is the right thing. Like, you’re better to have. somebody with nobody at all, or even if it’s not exactly the right alignment, not the wrong alignment’s bad.

if it’s just people that it’s working But it’s not exactly what i’m looking for. That’s better than nothing at all. I think

Hillary Simpson: yes. absolutely You definitely because you know, we’re social beings

You can’t do anything [00:27:00] with one hand. You need to have other people around you. you must, otherwise you’re just going to burn yourself out. You have to have other people around. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: So now you mentioned earlier that you have a coach like, is there anything else?

Like what else do you do to, to, to learn what you need to learn to get to where you need to go?

Hillary Simpson: Well, I do a lot of, you know, the YouTube, I do a lot of that. there is what we have down here, black wall street, where they have all kinds of, business conferences and things going on. I would frequent that a lot.

so, I spent a lot of time just learning from other people, learning from others. And that has helped me a lot. Are we talking about the, the, the, the, the coaching, the coaches and the, the different ways that we, we learn from others, we learn the best. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I have been in that business where I have.

Had many, many coaches, like seven years ago, I [00:28:00] remembered, you know, I was listening to this woman and she had a wealth of knowledge and when she had the call later on and know just exactly what to say, I said, Oh yeah, that’s definitely what I need to do. It was about 10, 000, but I said, all right. I’m going to find it.

I’m going to do it. So I did that. And then when, it was working because I was learning some things that I didn’t know before, you know, and then with that, then they would have these groups where they meet in person. So I would have to get on the airplane now to get over to Baltimore and I would have to like meet with the other people and have all this several days of, you know, what that’s like.

Right. And then they talked about the mastermind, you know, where these people who are doing wonderful later on, several years later, I got into the mastermind, Tim, you probably know what that’s all about. A thousand dollars. But that mastermind and I have done over the years, I would say I’ve done upwards.

Of about a hundred [00:29:00] thousand dollars in coaching and people that are helping me what I’m trying to say to the rock stars out there, if you’re working at home, there’s so much out there for. People who are in business, kind of like the target market for a lot of people, because they figure that these people don’t really know what they’re doing and they want to make money and to make money.

And that is also true. However, you can waste a lot of money. On these masterminds and coaches. I’m not saying you shouldn’t, but I’m just saying, don’t overspend on it. You have to be right. When you learn all these things, can you implement all these things? Do you need other people? People around you to implement it.

And when you get other bill around you, you have to spend money for all those other people around you, you know, and then you have to monitor all those other people around you, just be [00:30:00] careful, right? Because there’s a lot out there for. Business people, especially the work at home market, which is getting bigger and bigger

So just be careful because you can spend what you don’t have, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going to get it back because you alone can only absorb so much.

You have to implement. You have to do. Right? You have to reach out. So learning all day, you could spend months just learning and learning and learning and doing nothing. But you’ve paid for all of that. Just be careful about all of those out there because there are a lot of them. They’re impressive, but are you ready?

Can you take in all of that and can you implement all those things? Will you get your money’s worth and don’t get sidetracked by someone who has, is great at talking, you know, because there’s some people out there were just great at talking and they’re [00:31:00] great at sucking you in and, you realize you have spent the money.

You don’t have the money and you’re really not benefiting from what’s going on because their job is to sell you. Their job is to sell you. I’m not saying they don’t want to help you, but your job is to sell you. It’s to make money. You just make sure that you’re careful and you’re ready. Work on yourself first.

See what your needs are, write them down and figure out what is your next step and what is your next need because you can’t absorb. All that’s coming at you, you can’t, it’s impossible. So that’s kind of my tip for the, you know, we’re using learning from the best. Like I have a coach right now and he’s, I’m like the support, listen, Hillary, you are doing a lot of people that I see.

They don’t have this, they don’t have that. They don’t, they don’t have the other. And so I see it in you. My thing is you have to go [00:32:00] from. From the gut. It’s not so much from what everybody else is looking for. Like you started this business to help yourself because you needed it. I went to New York university back in the day to learn business because my dad told me, because my dad was a businessman that you need to learn.

To become a business journalist, right? And he said, no, no, no, no. You don’t make any money from that. Go to business school. I went to NYU school of business. It took me a long time for them to admit me and accept me. Cause I had just come from Jamaica and I had to go to a two year college, maintain a 4. 0 to get there.

Bottom line is I got, I graduated with marketing and management degree. I worked in public relations for a little bit and I did teaching because people owed me a lot of money and my husband said at the time, he said, why don’t you just teach, you know, for a little while? You know, part time and see what happens.

I didn’t want to do it because my mom [00:33:00] was a teacher. And, and she was, she was a very good teacher. I just didn’t want to teach, you know, I don’t, I want to be a teacher. but I knew that I could do it well. And I said, all right, let me just try it. I’m just going to do it part time. I’ll just come back home and later on and do what I have to do.

That first day I went into the classroom, Tim, I found myself. I found myself because all those kids needed me and I needed them. I got more creative. I saw ways to help them. I saw ways to see their gifts and let them know what their gifts are and work with them. And so many different things I found myself.

And I would never, ever say that I would ever become a teacher. Cause I worked too hard to get all these degrees and all of this. It’s like, no, I don’t want to teach, but that’s where I found me. I am helping to make people, they love me, I love them and this and that’s why, you know, they said I was teacher of the year because It’s just me.

I love to do it. I love to see [00:34:00] young people succeed and become who they were meant to be. You know, the confidence lasts forever. It lasts forever. And it makes not just them better, it makes their families better. It makes the world better because you have so much more confidence. You have so much more intelligence, whatever it is, you have it.

And you can stand alone. You can stand alone because you have what you need to have. So that’s my job.

Tim Melanson: I love that right on. Well, it’s time for you to get solos. So tell me what’s exciting in your business right now.

Hillary Simpson: all right. So I love, okay. So my books, I have a book called. How to become a successful black man, and that was inspired by my son because I wanted to see, to have him get role models from different places.

So I talked to a lot of these young men that are doing great things and that’s what I did. And I put it in the book and that was for what I was doing. Pretty much for him and other young men that needed to see that. And my other book, What Every Parent Needs to Know for Their [00:35:00] Child’s Success, they’re on Amazon and they’re doing very well.

But I am very excited about something that I’ve been thinking about for a year and I know that it’s going to do well and I’m getting ready to start it. It’s called Success Leaves Clues. And this is how did you tip become a, work at home post podcast. How did you do it? What made you do what you do?

There are other people that probably want to do something similar to it, but they don’t know how to do it. Right. So if I can talk to all these people. Who are doing so great, and to find out what you’re doing and how they are doing it is going to help so many people because everybody doesn’t necessarily want to go to college.

Everybody doesn’t have that, you know, have that mindset of studying all the time. but there are other things that you can do and let’s talk to the people who have done it to find out. what [00:36:00] clues they can leave for us.

Tim Melanson: I love that.

Yeah. And you’re right. I mean, you know, not everybody is, I think like the advice you gave about, hiring coaches and masterminds and all that stuff probably applies the same way to college or to university. I mean, just think about it. Imagine if you went and took five degrees and five different things.

Hillary Simpson: Do all five at the same

Tim Melanson: time.

Hillary Simpson: There you go. Wow. Absolutely. Yes. That’s exactly, that’s a great analogy. Yes.

Tim Melanson: Yep. Right on. So, so how do we find out more about you then? How do we, your, your books you say are on Amazon. How do we find out more about your courses?

Hillary Simpson: Okay. So, you can go to, there’s hillaryneesimpson. com and that’s one that has a lot of information, but the parentsuccesscoach. com has information that you can get download free stuff. Free stuff that I give to parents. Okay. The parent, the parent success, successcoach. com. And if you want to hit me up, I’m on LinkedIn.

I’m an Instagram on Facebook as Hillary [00:37:00] D Simpson, because there’s another Hillary Simpson that does that. She’s an equestrian. I don’t do horses, right? I do people. so I’m at Hillary D Simpson and all of those platforms. And my, if you need to, Email me. I am Hillary at HillaryDSimpson.

com. And I know that you don’t have that email. I use that for business. Hillary at HillaryDSimpson. com and that D as in, D as in Dawn, D as in, Denver. Okay, so hillary d simpson.com and, Hillary d Simpson on the LinkedIn, the Facebook pages and Instagram. And, you can go to hillary d simpson.com just to see, you know, where you can get the books.

But go to Amazon, put my name in Hillary Drummond Simpson, or Hillary d Simpson. They will pop up for you and it was awesome. A pleasure, pleasure talking to you.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Yes. Thank you so much for rocking out with me today.

Hillary Simpson: [00:38:00] I enjoyed it, Tim. You made it wonderful. And, I really enjoyed this.

Thank you so, so much. Thank you. And just keep doing what you’re doing because it’s helping so many of us, solopreneurs that sit at home and do our work.

Tim Melanson: Oh, I think I will. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate and comment, and we’ll see you next time on the work at home rockstar podcast.

Intro: Thanks for listening to learn how you can become a work at home rockstar. head on over to workathomerockstar. com today.