Joyce Bone: An Interview with a Millionaire Mom

BSN*:  Coming to the subject of this book, what was the underlining idea? Was it an idea to expand the outreach of the site, compile all the ideas in one place?
Joyce: Well, to give your readers a little background on my story... when I was 28 years old, I had become a mom and my husband and I were originally planned to be very traditional. I was supposed to be stay-at-home mom, he was going to work and everything was going great, but when we got from two incomes to just one income things got kinda tight and I just remember thinking "I really don't want to lead my life the way I lived my childhood where… I was always told "no" because there was never enough money. I simply wanted to change that storyline for my life and my family. I decided to start my own business in the environmental field, which is where I worked for eight years. I was working on full-time basis and went to school full-time every night to college. So I copied the business model that I saw – I did what's called a roll-up strategy, where you buy small "Mom and Pop" companies. It's considered a fragmented market when there is a bunch of small "Mom and Pop" companies and then you put them all together and you have one large company.
So I went out and raised a million dollars to get started and ultimately, in 18 months I raised additional 16 million dollars and grew the company to 350 employees and 50 million dollars in revenue. At that point, we went public on NASDAQ and revenues went up to 125 million dollars. After seeing the success, I started the site but I really didn't wanted to be about me. What I wanted is to be about other people, about other women, to hear other voices. To me, my story is boring because I know my story; I don't want to hear myself talk. I want to hear other people sharing their experiences. Thus, I went traveling around and organized series of events to bring outside experts and I would just act as the Master of Ceremonies and people kept saying "Joyce, we want to hear your story". I said "Next time", and took the time to prepare myself.
The book is a way to share my journey, how I went from being poor as a child to Wall Street as a 20-something old mom. I share my journey and the thought processes I had to go through to make my business a success and then I have series of business advices from all these other millionaire moms, talk about motivation, why you want to start a successful business, how to overcome obstacles, how to overcome fear, how to manage time... and I also have a chapter called "What I wish I knew then and that I know now" which is kinda historical perspective of these 45 millionaire moms that made it to the book. They're saying where they started their journey, where are they now and "this is what I learned along the way" in a short essay kind of form.
Basically, I just wanted to put a package together, a book that would help everyone who would read it, and see that life is always going to have challenges but that we can overcome whatever is thrown at us. It doesn't matter what happens to us, what matters is how we chose to react to it. And then, there are 35 examples of millionaire moms that have rise to the occasion and it was something I wanted to put out there to help educate people about what I am doing with the website and just empower them. The book has been really well received by the people that have gotten it prior to the launch and the feedback that I got was that the readers are happy about it.

BSN*: So, an interview with Jon Stewart in March 2010 is in due order?
Joyce: Oh… Jon Stewart… ha ha ha, that's funny.

BSN*: The thing that makes you, well, pretty interesting person is that you created a business with an annual turnover exceeding well over $100 million, but didn't get changed by the success, the image that mainstream media is usually pushing for. The category of "ordinary millionaires" is not exactly represented.
Joyce: Well, it really isn't hard succeeding in life. It just takes the right idea in the right time and taking massive action to port it into reality. As far as the average millionaire goes, I think that money only makes you more of who you are. So, if you are a grounded person that had to work hard their whole life and did done well, you are still going to be that grounded person that works hard. The money is just a score card and I am glad that I have it and the reason why is I love to be able to give my children the education that I want to give them and support the causes I want to support, but certainly we don’t live a lavish lifestyle.
Most people didn't even knew I work until the book came out and they just thought I was a stay-at-home mom.

BSN*: Well, you are a stay-at-home mom and owner of a national-wide company listed on NASDAQ. Yeah, that definitely qualifies you as the regular mom.
Joyce: Yes, there was a genuine surprise. I was like "yeah, I am doing all that". I was actually surprised that they were surprised.

BSN*: They probably never saw you taking a limo to the plane and heading off to New York or any similar flashy city. That's the life of an "invisible CEO," or the "Chief Operating Mom," as you like to put it.
Joyce: Yes. Chief Operating Mom, that's how I live it.

BSN*: For the end of the interview, is there maybe you would like to say to the readers of Bright Side of News*?
Joyce: Well, I would invite all readers to come and visit the "Millionaire Mom" website and let them know that we would like to see them. The site also has a blog with my posts so you can leave a comment there. If there are readers out there interested in the book, they can head over to JoyceBoneBook.com. There are also videos and I actually do a backflip in one of 'em [laugh], that's always fun. Besides these two sites, I also run my personal site at JoyceBone.com, if anybody needs a speaker or want to read more about me. What I would like to leave your readers with is:
I'd really like that you take a deep look into your own personality, chose what you want to create in your own world and know this - "how" isn't really as important as "why". Get some really big goals and dreams, allow yourself that space to dream and not worry about all the answers and just know that if you have a strong enough "Why", which for me was and always will be - my family and my children. Whatever the "How" is, doesn't matter. For instance, when I was starting my own business, I had no idea, I didn't know what kind of business to start. I just knew that I want to create a financial windfall for my family and lead a normal life. Don't think that the first idea is the best one. I was going crazy in my mind trying to find a niche where I could start a business and ultimately ended up starting a business in a field I already knew. Don't give up and always listen to yourself.

We thank Joyce for taking the time off her two businesses to speak with us and wish best of luck in the future.