How Networking and Personal Growth Can Transform Your Career Path with Ena Hull

0:0010 years ago, I made the decision to build my personal brand that was elevated, yet approachable, and reflected who I was, not just what I did. I created my website with ShowIt because it's true drag-and-drop freedom, so you can easily build and update your site. Plus, their real human support team, game changer. Want to try it for yourself? Head to jasminestar.com forward slash showit for a 14-day free trial and first month free when you subscribe. Welcome to the Jasmine Star Show, where we talk about business mindset and the ability to start over and grow beyond anything that your wildest mind can imagine.

0:36With me as my guest is Ina Hull, and we had the opportunity to be introduced by somebody on my team. And she said, Jasmine, she's practically your neighbor, and she's so well fit for this audience. And so this is the first time I have ever reached out, sent a cold email and said, I think I need to get you in my world. Because after I did a lot of research, and I listened to a lot of conversations, I know that she is so perfectly suited to speak to so many of us who time and time again have had the opportunity to pivot, to start again, to reinvent, and to give ourselves the permission to do something bigger than we ever thought was possible.

1:12Welcome to the Jasmine Star Show. Aina, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, such a pleasure. Good. I'm happy you're here. And part of the reason why I resonated so deeply with your story is you were talking about this idea of reinvention. And when somebody hears the background of your story, when somebody knows the work that you've done and the success you have created literally from nothing. And they think, how could you, one, ever stop what you're doing? Two, how could you ever start again? And then most baffling is how do you continue evolving and growing and getting more and attaining more and having more satisfaction and fulfillment and having a wonderful marriage and very happy, successful children?

1:53First and foremost, what is a key takeaway that you look back at your very illustrious career and say, this is the number one thing I'm taking now. And then we'll get into the backstory of what brought you here. So I think as I look through my career, there were a lot of highs and lows. And as I even prepared for this discussion with you. Hold on, we have to tell people how you're prepared. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time I'm five years podcasting that a guest comes to me, has printed out notes, has a copy graphic of my podcast. She came, y 'all, she came. I mean, listen, lest anybody doubt her ability to succeed, she does not come to play.

2:33We have highlights. We have notes in the margin. And so, you know, if you're sitting here saying like, well, how do I become successful? This conversation is for you. Thank you for coming and being prepared to the show because you are not messing around. No, I'm not. Well, that, there you go. That was probably Hopefully you picked up on it being prepared. I learned early on, even as a child, when I wanted more, I just watched and studied very successful people. And that could be somebody who was successful in a teacher in the classroom or, you know, someone I would see even in Girl Scouts or athletes.

3:11And I was always insanely curious. And that curiosity is what's led me where I am today. Can we pause there for a second? So what I like to do is I like to see patterns and I like to understand the pattern. And oftentimes the gap between myself and people who are watching and listening and yourself would be, okay, but what does it actually mean? When you say I studied, there's one thing to watch. Oh, exactly. So you and I enter in a room and we see somebody that we both like and respect and want to emulate. What is the brain doing for you to process? Like how do you emulate? What does the study look like?

3:43That is a great question. the way they engage, even to the point of when you handshake, you give someone a strong, firm handshake, to the way you greet, hug, smile, the warmth, what attracted me to really great people, and that's what I watched and studied. So as I would listen to individuals that talked about certain subjects, if I didn't understand a word, I always would take that away and I would go back can research it. I think that if you are not curious and not listening, you will miss the mark. And so I think if you look at my background, folks are always saying, you are involved in so many different areas.

4:27And that was by design because I would meet really interesting people, even as a young person. And I would just listen and ask lots of questions because I didn't know what I didn't know. And if I could share that little nugget later, I found that that helped me in my life growing up as a child to get ahead. And I don't mean get ahead like putting others behind me, but it allowed me to get the attention of my teachers because I would ask a question, they would get curious. Because sometimes when you do not have a whole lot, you may be treated as less than, so you may not get the attention from a teacher because you're not dressed at the same caliber of some of your classmates.

5:14Boy, I'm going to share a lot. My last name as a child, because I was with a single mother, changed three times in elementary school. So that would create a lot of questions about why did your last name change again? And there were just dynamics going on, but that allowed me, if I were being looked, I don't want to say less upon, I knew that I could learn and study and there was nothing going to hold me back. And so if there was a subject, whether it was science or math or reading, and I couldn't pronunciate a word, I would go back and I would listen to the teacher say it and I would just rewrite it over and re-say it over and over again.

5:52I literally feel like I am watching a version of myself before we get there. I have to say, my father immigrated from Mexico and he didn't learn how to read English. Very smart, but was put into like the dumb track because he didn't speak English. And so he didn't learn how to read until he was about like 24-ish. And he was teaching his kids how to read and he was teaching himself how to do it. And to this day, my dad and I share books. And when there's a word that he doesn't understand, he underlines it in the back of the margin, he'll go through and he looks it up. And so by the time I intercept a book for my dad, I get to see a glossary of the words that he's learning.

6:31And so I see that. And I want to put a pin in the idea of the changes you went through as a child and what brought about your success. And I want to put a pin there. If we're in a elevator, we're going down four floors. What do you tell me you do? What have you achieved? And then let's go back and start with that story. Absolutely. So my career actually began in education. It was not intended. I had started college with the intention of becoming an orthodontist, of all things. Why? Because I had a crush on my orthodontist. You have great teeth. I mean, let's let you listen to that, too. Thanks to my mother.

7:05That is something my mother, if she heard this right now, she will tell you. Same as my dad. My mother is all about the smile, and so we did not have a lot, but guess what? We got braces. We got braces, and she made sure we had great teeth. And I had a really cute orthodontist and he had this amazing office, drove a Porsche. And I thought, that's what I want to be. So I had gone to school. And my first year in college, I had someone recruit me into the financial aid office because I didn't have, I was researching about how am I going to pay for college? And there was a person who recruited me and long story short, they recruited me to work behind the desk.

7:44And instead of going into dental school, I ended up finishing school, but going up through an academic process of getting to know the deans. And that was probably the best decision I ever made because they supported my college journey at that point in time. But I had a knack for it. This is when computer systems were first coming into play and they were deploying their first set of, you know, your first student information system and they were clueless. They were still on typewriters, if you can imagine, this would have been in the mid-80s. I was really good at figuring that out quickly. And at 20, I had started a consulting business because I had set this college up with their platform.

8:24They got wind of it. They needed me. And before you know it, I had probably consulted with about 20 different community colleges in California before the age of 22. So you built your first business when you were 20. I was. I was. And I started that. And then I started as a consultant, and then I was converted into a full-time employee. So I was probably one of the youngest directors I had migrated up through. I'd gone to Fresno City College, then up to San Joaquin Delta College up in Stockton when they offered me a director role. And I was really young at the time, and I thought, wow, I'm going to do this.

8:57And it took off from there. And so I became very well known for re-engineering systems in the campuses. Delta College at that point in time up in Stockton was one of the first schools that deployed electronic funds transfers for student payments. I had initiated that project with the IT department. And I always was just like, you know, this is one of those skills. I was actually inherently lazy. So if I could figure out a way to make my job easier, so I didn't have to put as much effort, I did that. And that skill proved to be very effective for me because then I could see that in technology. I'm like, this is way too much work.

9:35All of this stuff is so much paper and we're cutting manual checks. And so I talked about electronic funds transfers. And before you know it, I'm like, this will make my life a whole lot easier. So it was always about how can I make my workload easier? Born out of being lazy, I guess is the best way you could say it, because it was a lot of effort. And so that is where my career took off. I was able to go into consult. That led me into other channels. I began speaking about it at conferences. That got the attention of others. Citibank came along. They were in the student loan business. Then they grabbed me.

10:10So my career, I was in that role where I was always being pulled forward into the next position until 2008 when the markets collapsed and I was in the banking industry. So that was the first time I was left without a job. So I'd done this long career in education where I was a director and did work. And I was out of work and I thought, what do I do now? Wow. And a couple months into my, you know, my hiatus, I like to call it, I had a group of career schools in these. This is when I was out in the Nashville area out of Kentucky who recruited me over. And I was just like, I'm not going to go work at these career schools because there was kind of an elitist attitude amongst the levels of institutions.

10:53There's career schools and there's community colleges and Cal States. And I had done all these like professional development roles. And I had a recruiter and a colleague say, no, you want to talk to them, Ina. So I did, and I talked to them, and that led me into the private career college education space, which was classified as for-profit. And that opened my eyes up to a whole other world because I didn't realize how difficult that educational space was because they were heavily scrutinized. But I figured out and cleaned up a lot of messes, cleaned up some audits. that created another, now I got another reputation.

11:32So I got known in the industry because I was in these career schools of fixing gnarly problems. So if there were a group of investors who bought a school that was in trouble because they weren't doing things correctly, I would be brought in to say, can you take a look at it? And I would fix, clean up the audit, put up tight systems, get them compliant so these schools could be successful. And that just continued on until March of 2020. I joined a PE-backed group of schools here on the West Coast. I had worked for the CEO. I had previously worked with her. She was amazing. And she says, Ian, I need you to join me.

12:08I have this tiny little school group up in the Bay Area that just got acquired by a private equity group. And their portfolio companies are in health care. And then five years later, we grew it now to one of the largest nursing schools on the West Coast. And that was an amazing experience because I learned the world of private equity. I understood the mechanics of how to get a company ready to exit over a five-year period. worked with an amazing team of executives, and many of them are still today. And we sold the company in March of 2020, right before COVID hit. And it was on a Friday, and I'll never forget that.

12:48We sold it, and then the following week, we were closing down campuses because COVID hit. Our new investors at that point in time were freaking out, but guess what they needed at that point in time. Technology. Nurses. Oh, yeah. Nurses. We were the largest nursing schools. And so it was the best investment they ever made because all of a sudden we were in demand and we deployed technology to go with it. We had the online platforms to scale and move quickly. We moved our theory online just like that and created simulation labs. They had amazing simulation labs for these nurses. And we were getting calls from the state, how quickly can we get these nurses deployed out into the field?

13:32Because we had a bunch of them backed up in the pipeline. It was an incredible period, but also kind of crazy at the time. What I hear are distinct times of hiatus to where you're being pulled up and through industries and a financial collapse in 2008. And then it causes you to reevaluate things. What I'm going to do. And causes you to step into an industry that's highly scrutinized and sometimes looked down upon to which you go in and you become a fixer. You're a cleaner upper. And you become so good at that that you come back to the West Coast with a private equity firm and say, we're going to sell something in five years.

14:08And I want you to be the person to get us there. And then you achieve that. And then on the back of that sale, you guys go and do the impossible, which is to facilitate the sale, make the most profitable, make that investment ROI positive within 12 months at minimum. It was just, you took a really low period and it actually ended up being a really great period. And that company today is doing amazing work in the nursing space. They are just, they took off from there. So it's interesting. So I had had that successful run and I opted to leave and go to another company. And this is something I'm going to give a little nugget is I was fortunate to get a little piece of that sale.

14:52Right. Because I was part of the team. Good for you. And I had my own little liquidity event. So I had prepared for that. I kind of knew something was going to be coming. So I was already researching about how do I take this little nugget I'm going to get, find some tax-friendly investment opportunities. I had a really good CFO friend. He said, Ina, you've never had one of these before, but I'm going to tell you, get ready because taxes are going to be right there. So you've got to figure it out. So I did. But what I found was we exited the company. We sold. It was a great day. I don't even think that you can win the lottery and have the best feeling ever that when you're part of a sell.

15:29That's right. That is something you earned. What did you do that day? So that day, I literally cried. I took a snapshot of my bank account when the wires hit because there was a group of us saying, you know, did it hit? And then I get a buzz, check your account because a deal isn't done until the wires hit the bank. That's right. So I'm going to tell you, I've been involved with a lot of deals. And then they cry. And it's the 11th hour. I said, it's never done until those go through. I did not think I would ever see a bank account like that before. So, but it happened during COVID. So I actually was pretty smart about that.

16:05I leveraged that really bottom of the market and did some strategic things that I got lucky with because a lot of us got lucky if you happen to have that event. But after a few days, I wasn't happy. You know, money doesn't make you happy. I'm just going to say that. And what I realized is that it was a great time. It represented all my hard work. and I was able to change the trajectory of my family and what we were doing, but I still had an itch. And I had left and gone to another company. It still wasn't enough. And a year and a half ago, I walked away after doing a lot of spiritual work. That's a whole other story.

16:39I went to three Dr. Joe events, Dr. Joe Dispense events, after the first one came back and resigned from my job with no position lined up. And I just said, I trust and believe that I'm going to figure this out. So for me to be sitting here in front of you a year and a half later from that decision, where I was a COO of another education company, and we were going to be doing the same thing, and to say, you know, I've got more to give, and I'm going to do it in a different way and do more impact work. I had done 30 years in the education space with students. That is my heart and soul is like giving back, and that's why I love the education space.

17:18I just didn't love the operational heavy lifting anymore. I'd done that for too long. So that's where I want to pick up the story, because there's a lot of people who might not have been a part of another team trying to replicate the previous success that you had had. And you're a COO. And that might not be somebody's story, but they're at a point to where they know it's no longer serving them and they have more to give. And what I've seen and heard and researched over your stories is this is not the first time you've been in this position. And so you have successfully continued to grow even after making a big, bold decision to leave.

17:52So there's somebody who either wants to leave, either knows they have more to give, and either has just left. So walk us through maybe the top three things that you have done to, in the past, find your next best path and what you're doing right now to emulate those three things. Right, your next next. Well, I will tell you, you know, they always talk about there's different forms of capital. Probably outside of actual real cash are your networks. That is probably the biggest form of capital that you have, because if you're going to make a change, you better make sure you have your tribe around you.

18:26And this desire to make a change and move forward, because I lived in different parts of the country, those relationships that I had curated over the 25 years of my career proved to be very valuable later in time. And whether it was individuals who mentored me along the way, even as I curated new relationships, because they always say you shouldn't be the smartest person in the room. You should have your five people around you. You need to have people around you that you can elevate up. So I was elevating up always through this process. And when I decided to look for my next next and I was gearing up for it, I always got this itch about every five years, right?

19:08It's like, okay, I just stretched myself, and then I'm getting bored, and I need—I got to get scared again. And then I always found out—and I've done this probably five times in my career, and I look back now. I didn't know it at the time, but I see it now that you need to have some fear in your belly, and that's when you know you're pushing. And you hear those stories, but you—so—and it gets really painful for a short window because you're like, oh my gosh, what did I just do before it gets better? And so as I made that decision that I was going to exit, I was fortunate that I had a runway. So, you know, some people don't have a financial runway where they can say, I'm going to take a year off.

19:53I had known, I had had that exit two and a half years earlier. I was in the COO role and I looked at my husband and I said, instead of taking this bonus and reinvesting it, we're going to invest it in me, right because you always talk about oh you go put this in this asset class and you can get a eight or ten percent return and I said we're going to put it in me because I'm going to bring you back a 50 percent return on that money I don't know what that looks like but I believe in me and we're going to go redesign this and see what it looks like and I'm going to get off the w-2 job for the first time in my career and I am going to create at least five income streams so not one will hold me hostage so I can be free to create.

20:39And my life has never been the same. And last year, Tiger came knocking on my door, Tiger 21. Okay, well, we need to pause there because I had written in my notes how to get to the next next. Number one was your network. You got to get around the right tribe around you. Number two was you got to get the fear in your belly and it's painful before it gets better. What was three? So number three, you need to financially prepare. I'm not not be unrealistic here. If you know you're miserable, actually misery is what makes me, that's my springboard. It is. So if you're not happy and you're financially not in a position, then get yourself a budget, line it up, start trimming back and get ready because it's like going on a diet.

21:27You need to go on a financial diet and go look at those. I did that. I went a financial diet the year before and I started trimming and cutting. And, you know, I think having, you know, I have two daughters. I'm going to tell this to parents out there. Your number one job as a parent is to get them off your payroll as fast as possible. And I did. I have great girls and that was a piece of it. So I knew that my kids were, my two daughters were adults and they were moving on. But I did. I did a lot of financial trimming. Okay. So let's get into Tiger. There might be people who are not familiar. Can you give us that version?

22:03Because that was one of the things that initially really piqued my interest. So I was not aware of Tiger until last summer. This is where... Wow. Okay. So I have to tell you, I'm a big believer when you create a strong intention that you're going to redesign and you put it out there and you ask for it. I'm very mindful of that, whether you call it the divine God or the universe. I was intentional. And so last August, literally, I was at a Dr. Joe Dispenza event in Marco Island, and I get a call from a recruiter saying, hey, we'd like to talk to you. And I picked up the phone and I said, you know, have you heard of Tiger 21?

22:40I said, no, I don't know anything about that group. I'm going to send you some materials. You know, I've known more. I've known about Tiger 21 longer than you have. You have. And you have to stop right now. I know. I didn't know this part of your story. Yes, I did not know anything. You are actually at the Dispenza event. I'm at the Dispenza event. I take a call. Oh, this is stop. I have chills in my right arm. I know. I cannot believe it. And I had a friend of mine who I had taken to her. It was her first time. So it was my second event. I'd gone to Dr. Joe in January. Okay, hold on. I need to pause.

23:13Because for people who are not familiar with Dr. Joe's Dispenza, his work is amazing. He really focuses on brain elasticity and literally being aware of your subconscious, bringing your subconscious to your conscious awareness, which is where we take action, where we start seeing things and where we start bringing things into our life, not because they didn't exist before, but we see them differently because the subconscious has brought it up to the conscious. So the fact that she was at this event and she had said, I want to make a change. And then a recruiter called her at this event. I'm sorry, like blinking lights.

23:42Okay. You have no idea that whole trip in itself. There's so many other little, great little nuggers. That's favorite, girl. That's favor. So let me rewind just a second on that particular trip because you're going to enjoy this. Yes, I will. Give me the tea. Okay. So I'm bringing a friend of mine with me that I had met at another event. And she's incredible. She does breath work, somatic breath work. She does big event planning. I was there supporting another colleague of mine who was a keynote speaker in Las Vegas. She says, Ina, I want to create with you. And I'm like, why me? She goes, there's something going on with you and I want to create with you because I had just gone to my first Dr.

24:18Joe event. So long story short, fast forward for her birthday, I said, you're going to go to the Dr. Joe event in August, in September with me, right? She says, I said, but this is what it takes because they sell out fast. So we get there. She's so excited. It's her first. It's my second. So I already know the drill. We're checking. We walk in and we got there early, walk into the hotel and the lady pulls us aside. It happens to be the front manager. And she says, ladies I say you're are you here for the Dr. Joe event I said yes we are and she says so I've got a little offer I'd like to make for you we have one penthouse left on the top floor and you know it's the last one we're going to unload it it's only an extra seventy dollars a night I knew it was okay she and I go she goes do you want it and she and I knew it was Seppi's birthday and she we were rooming together and she goes it's a beautiful view it's a VIP level and I looked at her I already was like thinking okay if they're saying it's vip i'm gonna i said we're doing it happy birthday that's what i told seppy it's a beautiful room and i said you do know we have a shot of running into dr joe on this floor right right his room was right next to us so they save and she goes you do know that they save that one room next to his room because they don't want guests disturbing Right.

25:35And we were selected so we could hear him next door. I knew we thought he was probably we were cuckoo birds because we were playing our meditations in the morning. I'm sure he's hearing his own voice, you know, into nothing and all these things. But it was an incredible event. And it was there, yes, that I had gotten a phone call. And, you know, you turn your phones off. So I happen to be on a break just to check in and make sure there was no family emergencies. And there's a recruiter on there. And that's when I got the Tiger 21 recruiter. And so you start doing research of Tiger 21. That research, can you use it to describe what it is?