Artist Jane Pollak turned her unique art into a highly successful business. She wanted to stay home with her children, so her passion for Ukrainian egg decorating filled the entrepreneurial side. She wrote a book on it and enjoyed a thirty-year career in the art. When she felt she had said everything about eggs she could, she pivoted to a role as a managerial coach. Jane's high-energy interview will convince you she is definitely one of the luckiest people in the world. www.theluckiestpeopleintheworld.com
www.janepollak.com
TRANSCRIPT
Diane Dayton 0:02
This is Changing the Rules, a podcast about designing the life you want to live, hosted by KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world.
KC Dempster 0:11
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Changing the Rules. I'm KC Dempster. And I'm here with Ray Loewe. And we have a great, great podcast ahead for you. Changing the Rules is about just what our announcer said in the beginning, it's about designing your own life, and then living it to the fullest. And oftentimes, the luckiest people in the world recognize that, in order to design their own life the way they want it, they do have to change rules. And so we like to bring you, our listeners, interesting guests who have changed the rules, and they are now living their best lives, and they're living it to the fullest. So keep coming back. Because it's really, really interesting.
Ray Loewe 0:59
Yeah, you know, every week we try and interview one of the luckiest people in the world. And we do that for several reasons. First of all, I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of just talking to lively, interesting people and and I'm so motivated, by the time the show's over. And these are the kind of people that I like to hang out with. But I also find that other people who are the luckiest people in the world, you know, life changes all the time. And we need new motivation all the time, and to be able to listen to people like Jane, who we're gonna bring on in a couple minutes. And listen to the way she has restructured her life and the things that she's doing. It's just exciting, and it gives us new ideas, and I want more of that, too. Okay.
So so we're gonna take a quick break, and then we're gonna bring back Jane Pollak, one of the luckiest people in the world, and you will understand why by the time we're done so Taylor,
Diane Dayton 1:56
You're listening to Changing the Rules with KC Dempster. And Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world. We will be right back with more exciting information.
KC Dempster 2:06
Welcome back, everybody. And we're gonna dive right into our interview segment of the podcast, and I'm gonna let Ray introduce Jane.
Ray Loewe 2:17
Okay, thank you for the opportunity. So Jane, first of all, is an author. She is a certified coach. She's a speaker, she's given TEDx talks, okay. And she also describes herself as a lifestyle, lifestyle entrepreneur. And, Jane, if you would put up with me, I'd like to start there. Because what is a lifestyle entrepreneur? And how did you get there?
Jane Pollak 2:43
Great question. And delighted to be on with the two of you. I was I, I wanted to have balance in my life. And I had started as an art teacher, my husband and I, now ex husband and I met at Columbia Teachers College, university, teachers college, and I was teaching art. And then I started my family many, many, many decades ago. And I wanted to continue to produce art, but I also wanted to stay home. So I had this wonderful craft called pysanky, which is Ukrainian easter eggs. And I decided to make a business out of that, which is not something people encourage you, to do make a business out of decorating eggs, but I was very successful at it. And I said that, rather than me working for my business, my business would work for me. So I had an at home business, it was income for the family, it wasn't the primary income. But it allowed me to do what I wanted to do what I love to raise my kids and to make a contribution to the family. So I did that for 30 years, and then from like, 1973 to 2003. And then I stopped and, you know, went into something else. But it was it was a business for me for all those years while I got to have the balance in my life of being home with my kids.
Ray Loewe 3:57
Okay, I think that go, ahead KC.
KC Dempster 3:59
Well, I was just gonna say, you know, the concept of making a business out of decorating eggs is absolutely fascinating to me. And how how ornate were they I mean, cuz I'm, I'm imagining Faberge eggs, which of course had gold and jewels and all that kind of stuff. So what Tell me about a Ukrainian easter egg.
Jane Pollak 4:20
So it's basically a raw egg with wax and dye, I wrote a book called, Decorating Eggs, Exquisite Designs with Wax and Dye. And it really goes back to advice my father gave us when we were young. He said just you know, if you can be the best at something, you'll own the market. Well, I chose a very small market, you know. However, I exploited it, to the extent like you know, gave a TEDx talk about it. I had eggs in the White House. I wrote a book about it. I created. I was on catalog covers, I I did workshops. I made it work for me and it was a successful business. I you know, was Near six figures for, you know, several years of that, doing many, many different things. I'm very entrepreneurial. And to me an entrepreneur is someone who finds the opportunity. So I just kept finding opportunities of ways to convey it. And one of them became telling my story, if I can make a business out of this, you can make a business out of anything. And, you know, it was a motivational keynote speech, and I became a keynote speaker, and tell people because the remember that book, "Everything I Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten?" yes, I needed to know about business, I learned decorating eggs. And so my second book was sole proprietor, "Sole Proprietor: 101 Lessons from a Lifestyle Entrepreneur" because I learned so much about you know, how to market how to set goals, how to set your pricing, how to I had legal issues, at one point, somebody was imitating my designs. And so, you know, I learned everything any business owner learns, and I conveyed that. So, you know, it was, you know, as a 30 year fabulous career and people it was very memorable.
Ray Loewe 6:00
Yeah, and, you know, this is just a perfect example of what you can do if you get excited about something, and you have a skillset that you can use. And my understanding, although I didn't ever see one of your eggs, Jane, do I have to go to the White House to see one?
Jane Pollak 6:15
Haha, they're in the Smithsonian? So they're there a couple in the Ronald Reagan collection in Simi Valley? I think it is. So you might find it there. But you can you can find my book on Amazon. It's called Decorating Eggs, Exquisite Designs with Wax and Dye. And there, it's a type of thing Ray and KC, that you'll laugh when I say this, but you know, I would go to a not a cocktail party, but just meet people, because I didn't really get invited to many of those. But they say what do you do? And I'd say I decorate eggs, and they would go look for the next available person.
What I learned to do was bring a picture of my eggs and they'll say, Wow, how do you do that? Haha, they are. They're extraordinary. And I would encourage people to you know, look me up. It's Jane Pollak without a C, P-O-L-L-A-K, And on the artist page, there's, you know, their pictures. I was on the flax catalog cover, I was on HGTV I was on the Today Show. They were museum quality works.
Ray Loewe 7:15
And you know, you created a book on this and you sold 30,000 copies or something
Jane Pollak 7:20
thirty thousand copies. And that was my first book. And actually, it's in reprint now somebody else bought, I own the rights. And somebody else actually scanned and printed the entire book. So it's available again.
Ray Loewe 7:31
Wow. Okay, we may come back and talk about eggs more over. But but there's so much about you, that intrigues me because because you're the perfect example of one of the luckiest people in the world, you first of all, you you sat down and you said, you know, I'm gonna stay home and take care of my kids. But I don't want to do nothing. And I'm an artist. So how do I make this work? And how do I tailor something. And now you've kind of moved on, I don't know whether you got tired of eggs or eggs got tired of you? Or, or maybe you know,
Jane Pollak 8:03
Ray, my line is I said everything in eggs I needed to say
Ray Loewe 8:07
which is perfect. Because Because this is a pivot point which says, Okay, it's time to move on. I've gotten everything out of this. And you can do this as one of the luckiest people in the world. And, and you've moved on to this whole concept of lifestyle entrepreneur. But before we get there, I have to I have to talk about something, It's called study hall. Now, I don't know if you ever go ahead. Tell us about study.
Jane Pollak 8:35
I'll explain it. But I know where you're going. And I saw my acupuncturist yesterday. And I said something about it's the Jewish New Year just started, or Yeah, and I said I wished her happy new year she she's not Jewish, but it's just like that time of year. So I said, it'll be nice when 2020 is over. And she said, why it has been very good to you, you found this new craft that you're doing and also your family has gotten much closer. And you know, because of the pandemic, we're doing weekly zoom calls together with my ex husband and our grown children and grandchildren. So that never would have happened. So I have so much to be appreciative of. And the art form is called Penny rugs. It's another one you have to look at pictures because it doesn't say what it is. But I started I took a class right before we were all quarantined, and fell in love with this craft. And, you know, with anything that you'd love to do, you often don't make time to do it for yourself. And so I created something called a an online creative study hall, where people will join and do whatever project they want to do for and that's how we met was through a woman who wanted to create a operations manual for her business. And so she did 30 hours with me online where we both had our cameras on through zoom. And we work for three, two or three hour chunks, you know, three times a week. So most people don't allow them themselves that that really delight
or That structured a time period. But when you do, you go really deep. And somebody was on I started a new one last week and women said she had taken a webinar on writing a book. And the woman, the woman who was leading it said, what everybody needs is a time enforcer. And what my study hall is really a time enforcer or somebody else called it a forcing mechanism. People are paying me to work with me, and I get paid to do the work that I love. So I'll be working for two and a half hours this afternoon sewing while somebody else's. She's downloading a. She's transcribing. I her journals. And that's what she wants to do. But she needs that committed time. And we'll do
KC Dempster 10:43
that's so true. You know, when I moved into my current abode, 13 years ago, I had boxes and boxes of photographs. And I my plan was I was going to get them all organized. And there's still a mess.
Jane Pollak 10:56
KC there's room in my group.
Ray Loewe 10:59
When you know i i'm absolutely fascinated by this. So so you know, this is a quick aside, when are you going to do recess?
Jane Pollak 11:07
Well, in between at the top of every hour, we do a little stretch, we do a little shimmy, shake and take a few deep breaths. And that's recess because people really want to make the time count. And there's something very particular when you work for three hours straight, that you go really, really deep in something. Because most of us when it gets the going gets tough. We go to the refrigerator, we make a phone call, we look at our phones, you know, we do something to distract ourselves. But when you're you've committed and do it, you work through those difficulties. Usually your Gremlins come up. An example I gave was when I have a very large egg commission, I was doing an ostrich egg for something. And I was looking for it was for burn survivors. And I was trying to find the phoenix rising from the ashes as the main symbol. And I had committed to this was years ago. Brian Tracy calls it single handling. You know, I'm calling it an online study hall, but to doing two hours on the design, and I couldn't find the image and I couldn't find the image and the voices were saying you might have to give back that deposit. Jane, what Who did you think you were taking this on? But I stayed I stayed with it. And then you know, I was googling images and I found the exact right image and I thought I should charge more for this. This is beautiful.
It's really working through that. That gets us to the point of you know, of passing something rather than giving up and distracting ourselves. So I'm actually giving people a real benefit to that. You know that a butt in the chair concept that writers talk about? That's really what it takes.
Ray Loewe 12:37
Oh, yeah, it seems it seems dumb that we would need something like that. But we all need an accountability coach. And, and I find I've found different ways of getting mine but without an accountability coach, I don't get my stuff done. So Jane to be commended.
Jane Pollak 12:52
Yeah, yeah, no, I do that I do it you know, as well for clients who want to work with me one on one. And, you know, the accountability is I have a client calling this afternoon and she had a phone call to make she had a letter to respond to, you know, she had very specific action steps that she needed to take for this afternoon to report in, because she's paying me She wants to get the value from it. And and people do need that forcing mechanism. So I'm I'm good at motivating myself and I'm really good at helping other people stay motivated.
Ray Loewe 13:21
Yeah, so so what's going on in your head here? You know, it's got to be an amazing brain because you started as an artist, okay? You were extremely creative in a way to do an egg by Jane. Okay. You know, you got a book, you got easter eggs out there. And you've you've morphed you've taken your system and you're sharing it with other people now as kind of a lifestyle coach. Mm hmm. Am I right?
Jane Pollak 13:47
Absolutely. Absolutely. I what I do in my coaching and I'm certified to coach so it wasn't something I made up I you know, I had a coach and I thought I want to do that. But I'm an artist, how can I do that? Because it transformed my business when I worked with a coach. And then I started taking classes and and learning and then I took on several practice clients. And then I got really good at it got certified, took a leadership training course through the same Institute. And you know, I've been coaching since 2002, which is a long time. A lot of people start and stop and can't find clientele. But I've been fortunate and you know, very lucky person in the world. And I love doing it. I love listening to the intimacy that coaching creates is something that I love having in my business. Right
KC Dempster 14:33
now. Do you get frustrated when you're coaching somebody and you're giving them very sound, Very positive leadership, and they just aren't buying it? Yes. So what do you do when that happens?
Jane Pollak 14:48
You know, I just heard somebody speaking in another context, and he had really good questions that I'm going to incorporate now. And I think the main question is, what's the cost of you're not doing this? Okay, yeah, like you're getting out of resisting this. What's the you know, what's the benefit to you? Because, you know, whether it's staying in a dead end marriage, and I don't I don't do marriage counseling, but sometimes the writing is just on the wall and people stay because they do. What, you know, what are you gaining from this? So we don't ask why we ask powerful questions like, what, what's in it for you? Right? There's always something, you know, there's always something.
Ray Loewe 15:29
Okay, so we have just been through an incredible change. And I think going forward, life is going to continue to be an incredible change. So as we move beyond this COVID thing, what do you see happening with your clients, your life, you know, the, the universe in general. So so when we move into normal 2.0, over here, 2.7, or whatever it's gonna be, I don't think we're going back where we were. And so what's gonna happen with the way you do things and the way you're coaching,
Jane Pollak 16:04
I, I feel like I've been onto something for a very long time. And that's, you know, the old do what you love, and the money will follow. I am so happy in my days, I wake up joyfully, I love what I'm doing. I love my coaching, I love my sewing, I love being creative. I love the people, and, and I'm staying home, you know, 90% of the time, you know, I'm in my pool, just reopened at my health club. So I'm basically home and go out for an hour walk. We're I don't, I know that those chains will be loosened. But I think it's really being happy within yourself is the key. And if you can find what makes you happy. And coaching is really a you know, a beneficial tool towards that. I can help people find that it's like what lights you up? You know, that's a prime question. Or talk about a peak experience. When do you remember being really happy in your life? And what was that? And I think people realize, well, I could, you know, I could never do that I could never, you know, not, you know, I can't pay the mortgage. But in fact, people are managing now somehow, where everything has been taken away, or, you know, so much of what we rely on our foundational beliefs have been taken away. I think it starts inside, and our can our connection to ourselves and to other people is what makes me happy. And I believe what makes other people happy. We just throw so many layers on top of that, that we didn't even we don't even realize that that's what we have.
Ray Loewe 17:24
Well, you know, unfortunately, Jane, we're at the end of our time, you know, it goes so fast. And you know, we'll have to talk more and maybe get you back on here again. But But I think the the comment I want to make is you very definitely are one of the luckiest people in the world. you exude confidence, you found your way to do things. And I think as a leader of other people, I you know, I love to kind of hang out with you when I get a chance to do that. Because you're inspiring and motivating. And I really want to do an Easter egg and I can't do Easter eggs...
Jane Pollak 18:04
very, very, very good instruction. I think you'll you'll enjoy it. But it's you know, it was republished so you can find it now.
Ray Loewe 18:11
Well, and study hall I can do and what a great idea. And you know, thanks for bringing that up. And, and people can reach you through your website. It's very simple, Jane pollak.com. Right.
Jane Pollak 18:23
Right. And there's no C and my last name, a lot of people insert a C so it's POLLAK.
Ray Loewe 18:27
Yeah. And we're gonna post this with our podcast notes so that people will be able to see it and find you. And, you know, thanks so much for being with us. And Taylor, let's talk to both of you. Let's, let's take a quick break, and then we'll come back and close up.
Diane Dayton 18:43
You're listening to Changing the Rules with KC Dempster. And Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world. We will be right back with more exciting information.
KC Dempster 18:53
Welcome back, everybody. That was really great talking with Jane. She's so positive and upbeat. And I'm noticing, I believe that there's a trend in the people that we talk to that they are very optimistic, positive, upbeat people.
Ray Loewe 19:09
Yeah, and I'm excited from this thing. I mean, you sit there and you to say, Okay, I can't get something done because I just never can get to it and, and the concept of study hall just came out of Jane, you know, and and it's just exciting the way people are doing things. And I think she's absolutely right. You do what you love, and you figure out a way to make it work. And sometimes it's a little difficult, but there's always a way. And that's what the luckiest people in the world do. So we'll see you in a week.
Diane Dayton 19:41
Thank you for listening to Changing the Rules, a podcast designed to help you live your life the way you want, and give you what you need to make it happen. Join us in two weeks for our next exciting topics on changing the rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world.