#18 Happiness as a Business Strategy: Insights from Peak Performance Coach Janine Jakob

In this episode, we're joined by Janine Jakob, a global citizen born in Germany who relocated to China six years ago to pursue a double master's degree. Janine's transformative journey began when she discovered the profound link between happiness and success. Following her instincts, she decided to stay in China and establish her coaching business Full Potential Partners, dedicated to helping individuals lead happier lives and achieve peak performance.

Janine shares her transition from a corporate career at HP to entrepreneurship, discussing the unique challenges she confronted as an entrepreneur in a foreign culture and how she overcame them through unwavering determination and creativity.

Janine strongly believes in the inseparable connection between happiness and success, which she endeavors to integrate into the business world. During our conversation, we delve into the intriguing dynamics of embedding happiness within company culture in China and address societal attitudes toward happiness and mental health.

Janine elucidates her multifaceted roles as a coach, trainer, and consultant, emphasizing her commitment to helping individuals and companies achieve peak performance while fostering happiness. She underlines the pivotal role of company culture and the importance of effective leadership, especially in the unique context of China.

Additionally, Janine shares her inspiring journey of creating "Monday Morning Motivation" (MMM), a thriving community dedicated to fostering positive habits and happiness. She humbly reflects on the impact of MMM and the profound satisfaction it brings, despite being a volunteer-based endeavor.

Our conversation concludes by exploring the significance of open-mindedness, effective communication, and cultural understanding in the global business landscape, and highlighting the importance of collaboration, balance, and finding win-win solutions in our increasingly interconnected world.

Janine's contagious positive energy is bound to uplift your spirits. I hope you will enjoy her happiness-filled insights.

Contact details of Janine Jakob:

Websites: www.fullpotentialpartners.net and www.thegrowthzone.global

E-Mail: fullpotentialpartners@outlook.com

WeChat: janine_ja

LinkedIn: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/janinejakob7/

Wechat video channel: 安丽彦JanineJakob

RED 小红书：Coach JANINE 安丽彦

Instagram.com/janinejakob7

Douyin: 安丽彦JanineJakob

Tik Tok: coachjaninejakob

Bilibili: JanineJakob

Facebook: shorturl.at/fCU23

Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCcNW0KV8eHAO6aLQ7yFbU7g

You can purchase Janine's book "Be the Coach of Your Life" via: https://www.amazon.nl/Be-Coach-Your-Life-Resources-ebook/dp/B0B697BX1X/ref=sr_1_5?__mk_nl_NL=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=22JMOPAB7KHFZ&keywords=be+the+coach+of+your+life&qid=1697138030&sprefix=be+the+coach+of+your+life%2Caps%2C72&sr=8-5 

You can watch or listen to the podcast on the following platforms: 
🌱  YouTube: https://youtu.be/AjsFauZWqDU

🌱Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/23MDLHw0ZIZEo05AsNhwjq 

🌱 Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/our-cultures-our-world/id1650591999 

🌱 Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8yMDY5NTYxLnJzcw 

🌱 Buzzsprout Podcast website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069561 

More information about Our Cultures & Our World Podcast: https://iibboo.com/podcast/. Here you can also discover a lot of fascinating tips from my podcast guests on how to do business in China and how to connect with Chinese people.

Transcript

Mei (00:00 – 00:30)

So, Janine, welcome to my podcast. How are you doing today?

Janine Jakob 

Actually, the cats are both excited and grateful to be here with you. Thank you.

Mei 

Yeah. Thank you, thank you. Nice to have a small animal join our podcast. Thank you. And yeah, two animals now. Great, so we have some extra energy here. And Janine, could you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Janine Jakob (00:30 – 02:09 )

I always love to say I'm a global citizen, born and raised in Germany, now living in China for six years. I lived a little bit in the US, in France. And I have two life phases, I would like to say. So the first life phase was back in Germany. I worked for a corporate in IT for HP, that you may know. And then I kind of found my purpose in life while doing a double master's degree in Germany and in China at a French business school.

And I decided, hmm, I think I need to open my own company. I didn't have any savings. At that time, I wasn't even that much interested in China yet, but it kind of hit me. And I was like, okay, goodbye corporate world. Although I was safe there, I loved it. I loved my clients, my job, HP, but the gut feeling somehow said, okay, you gotta do something bigger. So that's why it's actually five years ago now, I started my own consulting, training, coaching company in Shanghai, China. 

I'm in China now for six years. I still love it. Who would have ever thought that? And all I do is basically unblocking teams and individuals full potential. So we provide trainings on soft skills, leadership, mental fitness. We have coaches from executive, life, peak performance, business coaching, and also we bring happiness to workplaces through a consultative approach.

Yes, that's me. Last but not least, I have two cats and I'm a passionate dancer because everybody also needs to get stress out of their body.

Mei (02:09 – 02:46)

Yeah, great. Now, Janine, next time maybe we can see you dance somewhere. Not in a podcast. It's a pity people cannot see it. Yeah, but yeah, I'm looking forward. Janine, you went to China five years ago and you started your own company, left corporate and started your company. How was it all started? 

Janine Jakob (02:46 -06:06 )

Yes, so basically there was one step in between. The reason why I came to China was actually through my double master's degree. So I chose a degree where I could do two semesters abroad. And I was like, OK, out of 60 different countries, where do I want to go this time? I even took a bank loan and everything. And I decided to go to this Grande Colle, which is a very good French business school in Suzhou, China.

And at that time, I was really not interested in China, to be honest. And I was supposed to go back in full time to HP. At that time, I just worked in part time for HP Germany while I did this master's degree in international business. So my clients in Germany, they were all, this was the time when everybody like in the manufacturing industry and other industries was saying, oh, look, KUKA, OSRAM, and all these good German companies were bought by Chinese companies, invested by Chinese. And I was thinking that, who knows, maybe in the future I will have a Chinese boss. So I guess I have to get to know the culture and throw myself out of the comfort zone in the cold water, come to China for two semesters. And that's actually how it had started.

And it was not even because of China that I started my own company, because I was here studying for two semesters. I even decided to live with a local family in Suzhou. And it was a specific course in Munich called Success Factor Happiness. And that course, the learnings, the experiences I got, actually made me realize, oh, more people need to find out about it. More people need to experience it.

Because why do business students need to learn about happiness? But basically, I started to put less pressure on my shoulders, although I was always very ambitious. And I started to make some changes in the way how I live, how I think, integrating more gratitude, more mindfulness, more compassion, even for myself in my life. And that made a difference. So I really realized that.

We can be successful because everybody wants to make a lot of money, be successful, yes! But we can be successful and happy at the same time. And happiness, apparently, even to research, should come first and it can help us to be successful. So that's why I was like, wow, I think I can make a big difference here in China or in Asia. Because this is somehow still a new topic, happiness and being successful integrating this in companies through a consultative approach. Although consulting was not that big in China yet, coaching wasn't big in China yet, whereas in the West, in the US, where a lot of research comes from or in Germany, there were a lot of people like me existing already. So it was actually my gut feeling saying no matter how crazy this sounds, I didn't have savings, although I still work for HP Germany after years. I even had debt because I went to private business school, but I was like, hey, this is the right thing to do. And I literally just followed my gut feeling and tried it out. 

Mei (06:06 – 06:22)

When you start in China in a totally different culture, environment, you don't have the guanxi yet, maybe. And yeah, how did you start to bring your knowledge and this coaching to the companies and people there?

Janine Jakob (06:22 – 10:24)

So at that time, you have to know, I had already like six and a half years of work experience within HP, within a corporate. I'm super grateful to them and my bosses. I think I'm super, super well trained. But in China, it's not only about the culture. It was also, of course, the language. Yes, it was extremely challenging. I think because at that time I was still in my mid 20s, I probably underestimated it a little bit. So I thought, yes, I'm strong, I'm hardworking, I'm positive, I can manage it. But I underestimated it. 

So the first summer I had, so basically after like six to nine months later after I started, I couldn't make any revenues. Like everything that worked beforehand just didn't work out. And other people taught me, oh yeah, later on, oh yeah, it's because of the summer. But I didn't know that for summers you need to prepare and have more savings and yeah, be prepared for a downtime. So it hit me pretty hard. And I had to take on a part-time job to kind of figure out where the next food will come from next week. Because I don't come from a rich family background or from a big family where I could just say, hey mom, send me some money. 

But you get really, really creative when you are in these down phases. I've even faced two burnouts in the last five years. It was not easy. because you don't have the guanxi, the right network. You still have to build up your branding. So I started with a business to consumer approach, whereas so that people could get to know who is Janine, what does she do? And a lot of things that I did and offered were just different. And selling happiness is not really fancy that people say, yes, I wanna pay money and buy happiness. 

So you also had to figure out and experiment a lot, like what's the right business approach? What's the right business model, the right marketing, the right wording even? Who is the right target group? I mean, at the beginning, you're still like testing, right? Is it the Chinese, the local one? Is it the Chinese who studied abroad? Is it a foreigner? Which... age, what's their background. So it's all about like experimenting, trying out. 

That's why I definitely say, if you guys wanna start your own company, make sure you have at least some savings for a few months on the side so that you don't have the pressure that you don't know where the food will come from or how to pay your rent. Because you will make different decisions whether you have the basic foundation actually met so that you can survive. It's different because of course you have a long-term strategy, but you may not be able to follow it if you don't know where food comes from. So that's why I would definitely say have some savings on the side and at least you have a few other kind of problems. I mean challenges come up all the time not just because of the culture, but no matter what comes up, I found a solution. After five years I'm still existing even after COVID. And this year actually is a very, very good year. After some challenges beginning of this year and last year with COVID and the Shanghai lockdown was very challenging again, but this year it's going really well. I'm so grateful for it. So, yeah.

Mei (10:24 – 11:35)

Yeah, yeah, great. Janine, I think it's really tough for you to start your business in, in China, building your business, go, went through all of those difficult phases also made you a better person. I think when you have all of those difficult experiences, you can, Yeah, you know even better how you can help people become happier, even if you don't have such a lot of money. 

But this is also a question I'm so curious in China because I'm Chinese, we very much focused, I think in general, there are also a lot of people really seeking happiness. But in our Chinese society, we pay a lot of attention to your achievements, so your positions and your wealth, and how do you approach people and companies and to convince them to integrate happiness into their company culture instead of success?

Janine Jakob (11:35 – 17:19)

To be honest now, after the whole pandemic and COVID happened, people are more open and more aware. A lot of multinational companies might hire me now as part of the diversity and inclusion strategy or HR days or whatever they have to come up with some keynote speeches, introduce some new topics on. I do a lot on Positive intelligence, mental fitness, I'm certified in it as well. It's a program taught at Stanford even. So people are more open for this now, they're more welcoming. In Chinese, typical Chinese culture, we still don't really openly, especially in front of strangers, talk about mental health issues. I mean, suicide rate is still high, depression is really high. 

I can tell you so many executives, whether Chinese or foreigners, they have gone through crazy things. For example, in like the hotel industry, where the GM often lives inside the hotel. And you know, in Shanghai, we were in lockdown for 60 or 90 days. Nobody could go out. We barely had water. We barely had food. And the executive did not even have to handle like the clients or the guests, but also employees. Plus they went through their own emotional, well, I was about to say shit. But to be honest, I think this is the right word to say here. So people are more aware of it. And what I've also realized is use different words for it. Instead of happiness, I started to use words like well-being. 

So we started to have a movement where people, especially in Shanghai, are more open to general well-being also in workplace. But again, a lot of the companies are bigger companies or companies where maybe somebody has lived abroad before a little bit more westernized, not fully traditional or state-owned Chinese companies. And then what I've also realized is, I mean, this is not only about Chinese culture, everybody wants to see results, right? 

Numbers are selling. If you can promise them, I'm give you more revenues or your KPIs are increasing. And these are the numbers that we have achieved in a seven-week program or so. Like, for example, one of my clients here in Shanghai, she did a seven-week mental fitness program with me. Every day she just invested 15 minutes online and she didn't even have to see me in person. I have an app and then we do coaching every week. And basically she improved her sales by 25% after seven weeks. And 15 minutes of time to invest this every day, it's not that much. And just after seven weeks, you have such a big increase. And then she continued the coaching and the program with me and she increased her sales after I think two, three months for another 20%. 

And if I can show you and promise you specific KPIs or improvements, then of course, suddenly people start to open up a little bit more, especially like the rationally functioning people. And then they're more open to say, okay, let's try it out.

Or maybe we start with like a team of five or 10 from the company to try it out. And then later on, if this goes well and we get the results, then we can move on. And the nice thing is, for example, I worked with one, a Singaporean company here. And so the boss was Singaporean, a very tough, impatient one, very good in business. Right. And then his team was Chinese. Now, they started to really weaken their inner saboteurs and grow their strength and their sage powers, as we call it, the positive mindset. And after seven weeks, what they have improved is not just like sales, right? But a big thing was actually, one of the goals was they wanted to reduce stress. So we started to manage with the same techniques where I helped my client to increase her sales.

The same team decreased their stress immensely. One of them even became pregnant at the time. The other one even quit smoking, which was more easily within these seven weeks. And their relationship between boss and employees improved a lot, not just because they decreased the stress, but also they changed the way how they communicate with each other. They had more self-awareness about each other's saboteurs and also like about their own, their strengths and their positive mindset, how to create more positive emotions, how to support each other to perform better in workplace. So the relationship has changed a lot.

 And the nice thing is that he later even mentioned that not just the relationship to his team had improved, but the manager with the same techniques, the same practice he did, he also said that, hey, my relationship to my teenage child has improved at the same time too. And we basically got so many positive outcomes that made life and daily work so much easier in just seven weeks with targeting one thing, improving one KPI, but there were a lot of other benefits. And whenever I see this at the end of the day, I'm just so happy and it makes my my life, my work, so fulfilling, and especially that I had tough times and challenges when building up the company and yeah, it's very fulfilling.

Mei (17:20 – 18:15)

When I hear this, I can really feel how happy you are to see these changes and the people not only with their team, with their colleagues, but also at home. So I think happier people, they are all more creative and they are more productive. The best employee you can have, are happy employees. 

And  Janine, do you also see differences in approaching happiness? If you look at the Chinese companies and the Western companies in China?

Janine Jakob (18:15 – 20:55)

Definitely. I even wrote part of my master thesis about it and did some own research. And when I was still living in Suzhou the first year, like six years ago, I interviewed a couple of Chinese companies, like medium, no, sorry, smaller sized companies, up to 50 employees. And I asked them, like the leaders, the GMs, for example, how do you make your employees happy? And this is a little bit different compared to how they would do it in a Western approach. I'll just give you one simple example. Now, in China, if you want to marry, the men have a lot of pressure that they probably need to buy an apartment before they can marry the wife. And there are some other things, but this is related to money.

And especially after you have graduated from university and you're just working for a couple of years, let's say the age of 30, 35, you don't have that much money to like buy an apartment, especially not in such a crazy expensive city like Shanghai or even Suzhou got more expensive. So they may take loans from or get support from parents, but also like they may talk to their company owner about it.

And some of them, like what I've noticed, even from like Western managers told me when they have Chinese staff, they said they feel like here in this company, they are more like a family, like a dad taking care of the employees. For example, in Germany, we separate a lot like work and private life. And if my employee approaches me now asking for a loan, for example, because I have to buy an apartment for so that I can get married and have children and have a happy family life. This may not happen, for example, in Germany or in some Western countries. It's a very private topic. Or I don't know if this is common to ask a boss for a low end. So there's different ways how to make people happy. But even if you ask people what's your definition of happiness and different cultures influence, also the leadership style. So there's profound differences here, how they do it. And also if you look at a big company, a smaller company, of course a smaller company is very often we may be more like a family, more familiar. So yeah, there are differences in here as well, coming from, yeah, not only the culture actually.

Mei (20:55 – 21:07)

Yeah, it's so interesting. I would like to talk about your Monday morning motivation. Why did you start this Monday morning motivation? And how it all started?

Janine Jakob (22:07 – 23:50)

So I remember I was still living in Suzhou and I started to create a 21 day morning habit coaching program. Because people who know me, they know I'm an early bird. So getting up at four o'clock or five is not a big deal for me. I'm so creative in the mornings. I get so much done in the morning compared to late at night. So I partnered with somebody from Shanghai. We started the first 21 day morning habit program and I had people on this 21 day program. So we did this every morning from Monday to Friday at 7 a.m. in the early morning. And some people who joined were not early birds. For example, I had this like a Mexican entrepreneur. He loved to sleep in till nine o'clock or 10 o'clock until he starts working. And I'm not judging different people, different work styles, whatever suits you well, right?

But then he decided because of the three weeks I'm off the program with me, and he literally was there every single day and got up whether he was tired or not, he didn't make excuses, but he realized, wow, after three weeks, I got so much more done. Like he started to see these benefits. And this is where my inspiration came from. I started to see these benefits, not just in my own life, but other people saw these benefits. And then I was like, hmm, in regards of self-development, getting more things done, and you know, there's the saying, the early bird catches the worm. And if we look at all these successful people, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Jack Ma, et cetera, et cetera, they all get up early. They have these morning routines. So that's why I came up with the idea of Monday morning motivation. So that's why for more than, it's four and a half years now.

every Monday morning. It used to be 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Then I change it to 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. so that people from other countries outside of China can join as well. Now we're just back to 7 a.m. And you also can get access for free to the recordings in case you are in a different country. But yeah, I just wanna get people out of the bed. I always tell them, hey, if you wanna have your breakfast at the same time while we have this inspirational speaker.

It's okay. You're still in your pajamas lying in bed. It's okay It doesn't matter no matter what excuse you come up with why you're not here life with me at 7 a.m I probably have a nice answer to this why you can still come up and join us That's why our motto is stop making excuses.

Mei (23:50 – 24:10)

Beautiful. It's, yeah, Janine, I have watched your Monday morning motivation videos. They're fantastic. And also see people from all kinds of countries joined the session and you are building a community of 5,000 people. It's such a remarkable achievement. 

Janine Jakob (24:10 – 28:07)

Like, when you say the number, I have this judge coming in my mind saying, oh my gosh, Janine, you only have 5,000 in the world of social media. You should have had so many more by now, right? But no, and on the other hand, looking at the glass can be half empty or half full, right? No, it is, I mean, I am proud. I'm happy, to be honest.

Very often I don't even hear the impact that our community does because people may be silent. We have like eight WeChat groups, eight WeChat groups. Like every WeChat group has 500 people. We now have a LinkedIn group. On Instagram and Facebook we are small, but LinkedIn is growing. So yeah, to be honest, like whenever I get to hear a story on how we made an impact, whether people join us online every Monday. or they watch the recording, or they are in our group chats. We really try to share something positive, inspirational, a video, a quote every single day. So we are a small group. We used to be a group of 10, no, eight volunteers, very international. Now we are actually four or five left. Even outside of China, I have people now, but we just want to spread positivity and even if it just reaches one or two or three people, and it probably does reach more than that, and it gives you positive impact, then it makes us happy. 

You're gonna be laughing, but last weekend I went dancing, and yes, I was in the club, and out of nowhere, I saw this man, I met him six years ago. In my first ever, no, second ever weekend, I was in Shanghai, because I had already lived in Suzhou back then, and then he was telling me COVID times and he was always posting like this delicious food. He had salmon, he had steak. Some of us like me, we had barely any food, barely any water left. And I always thought he lives a really good life. He's in China for a very long time. And then he's just telling me like how the videos that I post that I recorded whether it's during lockdown or even in our MMM community before after or just the quotes help made a difference in his life.

And he said, like, I'm sorry, I don't like it. I don't comment it, but I actually do watch it. I see it. And I'm just thankful that you and your team, you do it. And I have to say that I do have these moments where I'm like, the community should be so much bigger worldwide now. We're not making a good enough impact. But then you hear this. And I was like in a club at one o'clock at night. On the dance floor, I meet this person that I'm connected with for years. Met him two times in person, like for real. Haven't spoken to him, but then he tells me this. I mean, in a nightclub, right? You wouldn't expect it was like I had tears coming up because it just made me so happy again and we don't really get money for this.

It's like we're volunteers. I started this four and a half years ago. We maybe have two Mondays off per year. And we're doing this every Monday morning, but I sometimes wish that more people would tell us what kind of an impact we actually make. So it keeps the team and me motivated, but at the same time, when we hear it, it's just beautiful. And I am grateful and it gives me this extra energy, especially when I have a low day.

because I'm also just a human person to keep on going because we are actually making a difference out there. And again, it makes me happy doing something good for other people makes me happy.

Mei (28:07 – 30:22)

Yeah, Janine, I think I can only admire you for what you do and keep the persistence and keep going and just pure give people something without asking anything for return. I think this is, yeah, I always believe contribution is ultimate resource of happiness. I think if we can give and selflessly and we can yeah we can experience a kind of happiness which nothing can bring us. So I think this is something really admirable and this action, your MMM community, I think this already made a difference in many people's lives and only they don't share or share with you. So I thought you can just believe that this really made a difference in many people's lives. Thank you for doing it. 

Janine Jakob 

Same for you with your podcast. Thank you for the contribution that you are doing and putting in for the same kind of reasons!

Mei 

Yeah, really, thank you! This is what motivates me every time. And sometimes I'm not feeling well. And I think, oh, I need to prepare the podcast. I need to set myself up to do the podcast. Sometimes I'm feeling just very much down. I don't want to talk to anybody. But I need to show up for my guests and to connect. Because I have a mission. I think I, yeah, I can do something for this world. So I think this is what motivates you and me and many people to do what we love. And I think this is something which makes our lives more meaningful and makes this world more beautiful. I truly believe. 

And Janine, could you please share a little bit about your work and what kind of approaches you use to teach companies and employees to get happier?  

Janine Jakob (30:22 – 37:09 )

So I'm a coach trainer consultant basically and there's different approaches like my end goal Is always like whether it's an individual or a company a team. I want them to like Have peak performance, but at the same time feel well be happy So I'm going both paths because as I mentioned earlier research also shows the signs of happiness, happiness and success is closely correlated. 

And for organizations, it always depends on how open they also are, what their real goals are, what they've already taken. The company culture is very, very important. And preferably, I'd like to work with more companies on their company culture, like on the foundation. Because if you wanna have higher employee engagement and you want them to feel well and to perform better, the company culture is the foundation.

A lot of changes have to come in here and it starts with, you just mentioned, you are motivated by the mission that you're having with your podcast, even if you have a low moment, but this mission keeps you up, gives you the energy back, the motivation. So part of the company culture is the vision, mission, purpose. And this can be one part to make people happy, just to make sure the right employees work for the right company.

And it is something I can companies help with. And we have like a more consultative approach where we work on company cultures. And then this goes also back to the leadership stuff. Especially in China, the leaders are even more important. Like employees kind of like may not take action like in Alibaba, they have amazing tools in the like provided from trainings to a lot of other things to boost their happiness. But if the leaders don't do it and they actively don't live it, the employees may not do it either. So it means that our leaders need to be aligned as part of the company culture, being a role model of the company culture, living it, and bringing it down to the staff to also live and implement the company culture. 

And with my master trainer, Gabor, who connected us, he's certifying me on global disk right now. And he was actually saying, the company culture influences us way more than the culture of the nation, the country you actually live in. So that's why, again, the company culture is important, then the leaders. And that is something where I consult and work with companies in a company culture. Then I train leaders. 

And at the same time, through like, trainings on leadership, as I said. We could also train employees with the science of happiness, how they can implement it in daily meetings, in their trainings, in their breaks. But again, it should also be preferably aligned as part of the company culture. So yeah, this is a training consultative approach. 

Of course, we also do one-on-one coaching for executives or for teams, as I mentioned, with the mental fitness program or positive intelligence, how we call it. So there's a lot of different approaches. At the same time, we also work with individuals, where we do coaching. Life coaching is very often a way how to help people to live a happier life. 

A lot of executives, actually, they might be very successful in their job. But what they're struggling with, if you dig a little bit deeper, is, for example, their personal life. They may not be that successful with their families or with their partner, the wife or even the husband. So a lot of the people, like you always see, right? Work and private life is just so correlated. Success or peak performance and happiness is correlated. So that's why we always tackle everything. 

Now for all the individuals who are listening here, I started from zero. This year, I have a really good year, which I'm very grateful for. But everybody starts at zero. But I've always invested in a coach like some of my last money. I'm a big believer in lifelong learning and why should I make mistakes that tons of other people have made before me? That's why I hire a coach. I set specific goals, I know what my challenges are and my weaknesses. I get a coach who can get me to the next level. And even when I moved to China and I was studying in Suzhou in full time, so working in part time for HP Germany, I hired my first coach who made a difference in my life. So coaching can be expensive. Literally, I didn't go out partying or spend money on alcohol like the classmates did. No, I spent it on education self-development. And coaching made a difference. 

So for all the people out there who cannot afford a coach or who may not be ready yet to hire a coach, my colleague and I, we created a book called Be the Coach of Your Life. You can find it on Amazon. We published it there as an ebook last year. If you're in China, you can also get a printed version of me because this book is actually just a tour to the cards here. And on the cards, we basically have like nine different kind of categories because every change in your work, in your private life, every first step that you take starts with self-awareness.

So that's why we basically have these different categories here where you can, where we ask yourself, we ask you eight different key questions for every category for your wealth, your career, your health, your social life, environment, contribution, et cetera. And then you can come up with answers to these different kind of questions. Because if you don't ask the right questions, you cannot come up with the answers. You cannot improve your private or work life.

And what we coaches often do is we ask you a lot of questions because we always say you have all the answers inside you. We try to dig them out from the deep from you. And then we bring in other kind of tool sets, like a vision board or whatever is needed to get you to the next level. So that's why it was so important for me to empower individuals to become the own coach in their life, to make the best decisions, their own impact in their own lives first, so they can make an impact in the world by creating this tool set. 

Mei (37:09 – 37:53)

It sounds so practical. Practical cards and book, and people can become the coach of their life. Because I fully agree with you, Janine. This is also my personal experience. I spent every year a lot of money on learning and educating myself, following all kinds of coaching courses and to use the skills to help others also help myself. Really, all of those courses really transformed myself and helped me to discover many layers of myself that I never knew and I never aware of. And by creating awareness just like your book, your cards, if you can create awareness for yourself and for the people around you, your team, your family, that's where the changes start.

Thank you and I will put the Amazon link and other link in the podcast show notes. So all the listeners, if you are interested in Janine’s book, you can find the information in the podcast show notes.

Janine, you are really a global citizen. You lived in many countries and yeah, you're really good with building networks and connections with people. But our world is getting more and more polarized at the moment. And be a global citizen, what's your vision for the future of global business interactions? And how do you see your work contributing to that vision?

Janine Jakob (37:53 – 41:19 )

I think as global citizens or international business people, it's very important. The first rule we always say in cross-cultural trainings that I give, do not say my culture, my country, is the best in the world. Because when you go with this kind of arrogance in a business meeting, in living in a different country, you're already setting yourself up for failure.

Try to be open-minded. Get to know yourself, your own cultural roots, your own values, and then be open-minded to learn from other people, (37:43 – 38:10) whether it's their culture, their values. That's why nowadays I say I'm like a global citizen because I'm not typical German. I may have some German values and culture, some American, French, where I live, Chinese, Russian, and so on.

Just be open-minded, create your own culture, be open-minded to learn something new. Like in China, for example, we're extremely flexible. I'm already saying we, right? Whereas in Germany, we're very slow and a little bit like stiff. We got to stick to our agenda. And nowadays I had to get out of my comfort zone to adjust a bit to that value, that way of working. And I think there's a lot of great things in there. China is super fast. It's something that we in the corporates and in like the slower west in Germany, in the US could still learn from China. Right. So be open minded, see what you can learn from others. 

So we can. It's like a give and take. Everything should always be in a balance when we. Yeah. In anything that we do, private and business life. So like, like I said, like peak performance and happiness. I believe in the approach that you can have both in life, everything should be yin and yang, like a balance. 

So, and also communication is a key. If you look at the wars and misunderstandings nowadays, we need to be open-minded to communicate. And I believe that there are solutions for everything, no matter what problem we have, prologically, or like in a business or in a trade, in anything.  Just like sit at the same table, be open-minded, have a translator, a mediator, and then openly communicate about it. Don't play games or so and find a win-win situation. I think this is what we really need more nowadays. 

Put away your ego, just be open, make one step towards the other person instead of building up your shields higher and going away. Especially like we should have learned from all these like, wars from the past. But at the same time also like so many people have done business, so many businesses failed before us, cross-border businesses. So let's learn from it, embrace it, overcome it, find solutions together and that is something where we as trainers, consultants, coaches can come in from full potential partners from my company and I mean the world is It's so beautiful, it's so bright, there's less borders nowadays and yeah, it's great, we just gotta embrace it.

Mei (41:19 – 42:07)

Yeah, yeah, thank you so much. It's really if we embrace it and we will find the common ground and to grow together. I think that's so important. Xinyi, you have lived in China for so many years. You built up your own company there and you engage with so many people and help them to achieve the peak performance in their professional lives, also in their private lives. Based this broad experience, do you also have some really practical tips for the people who want to start business in China and who want to build very strong relationships with Chinese people?

Janine Jakob (42:07 – 44:31)

Yes, so going back to cultural difference, depending on where you're from, some of us, like a lot of Western countries, we're very task oriented, processes, tasks, to get things done. Whereas here in China, it's a little bit the contrary. It's very focused on relationships, the guanxi, as Mei has mentioned earlier, right? So I think, for example, in China, we really need to learn to take the time and do not see it as a waste of time, to communicate, to get to know the person like Mei does in her podcasts, have dinner with them together, build up the trust, and then see how we can create the synergies grow together and do business successfully together. So that could be a cultural difference.

Another way is communication. Now, the way how we communicate may be very different. We Germans, Americans, Australians, British, we are more like direct, more direct in our communication, whereas in China, we are more like here, like a circle, like a snail, till we get to the point it's more implicit how we communicate, more indirect. 

So learn about different cultural differences and be open-minded. And growth mindset is important. For anything you do in the world. And that would be my tip. And then of course, as I mentioned earlier, proactive communication to overcome miscommunications. Miscommunication because it will happen and... Oh yeah, lifelong learning. McKinsey actually wrote a very nice paper on this. It's called Reskilling China. And lifelong learning and the right mindset are just so important. And then as I said, no matter what challenge you have, whether you're an entrepreneur, you're an executive, no matter who you are, you will tackle anything. You will overcome any challenge, whether it's in your home country or abroad.

Oh, wait, one more thing. Guys, that's one thing I regret a little bit. Learn the language as fast as possible because it's not only about the culture, but the better you speak Chinese or the local language, the easier it will be for you to integrate and really understand the other person.

Mei (44:31 – 44:48 )

Yeah, great tips, Janine! And this really thank you so much. And thank you Janine for taking the time to come to talk to me and to share everything you do. I really love it. And before we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners that I didn't ask?

Janine Jakob (44:48 – 45:48 )

My big gratitude towards Mei for taking the time, for having that mission, for taking action and making a difference in the world with what you're passionate about, what you are good at the same time. So the only thing I can tell you listeners now, if you like that, if you love what Mei does, what I do, please support us. Remember it's a give and take. If this made a difference in your life or anything else of Mei's work, share it with your friends. Don't be shy. Tell your family, your friends, your LinkedIn network, singing network, it doesn't matter. Spread it. I'm a big believer in a butterfly effect, right? So it starts with a trigger. We're planting a seed and we want this plant to grow or the domino effect, butterfly effect. Let's spread it so that more people can have a positive effect in their lives. So you are part of making an impact here as well.

And thank you so much, Mei!

Mei (45:48 – 46:14 )

Thank you so much for those beautiful closing words. I cannot wish better words. And this really, I hope your words will reach a lot of listeners and we can together, we can make a huge difference in this world because I do believe if we work together, inspire each other, we can move the mountains. And thank you, Janine! 

How can people find you online and connect with you?

Janine Jakob (46:14 – 47:17 ) )

Yes, so my LinkedIn profile is Janine Jacob, also on Instagram, janine.jacob7, I think. I'm on Xiao Hongshu for the Chinese listeners on WeChat. My company's called, so my website is full potentials, sorry, fullpotentialpartners.net. And if you're interested in Monday Morning Motivation, you can find us also on LinkedIn, or we have something called and inspired by Oprah Winfrey. The Growth Zone dot global, where you can listen for free to our Monday morning motivation webinars and other great resources so that you can empower yourself even more. Thank you for all the love that you are spreading here, Mei

Mei (47:17 - 47:40)

Thank you. Thank you. I will put all of the information in the podcast show notes and also the YouTube show notes. And thank you so much, Janine, I love our conversation!