In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Janet Hudson, founder of Excel Quest, about her personal and professional journey and the principles that guide her coaching practice. Hudson recounts her early struggle with remedial college courses, a decade‑long path that led to graduating summa cum laude, earning a master’s and PhD in history, and eventually leaving a tenured faculty position to start her own business. She explains her core coaching framework: change requires understanding the brain’s two systems— a fast, habit‑driven system and a slower, effortful system that must be trained before habits become automatic. Hudson advises entrepreneurs to ignore generic advice, focus on self‑knowledge, and identify their first actionable step. She stresses the importance of releasing perfectionism, viewing mistakes as essential learning, and maintaining internal control through reframing to achieve happiness. The book that most impacted her is The Now Habit by Neil Fiore, which reframes procrastination as a strategic response to anxiety and offers techniques to develop a proactive mindset. Her favorite quote, from Henry Ford—“If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re right”—encapsulates her belief in mindset shaping outcomes. Listeners are directed to connect with her primarily via LinkedIn.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Janet Hudson with us. She is the owner of Excel Quest and helps her clients tame the chaos that our 21st century culture creates so they can achieve their goals and have peace of mind. So welcome to the show.
Great, thank you so much, Tyler. So happy to be here.
Yeah, grateful to, to have you here. And you're, you're down in Columbia, South Carolina, where I used to go to college. So that's exciting. And we'll jump into the first one. Janet, the first one I have for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, that story probably has to start when I was 19. I was working full time. And decided to enroll in a night class at my local community college and discovered that even at a community college, I was starting below zero because I didn't have the qualifications to take the general education courses and instead had to take remedial courses. I'd never really prepared for college, not taken a lot of math, and I didn't know how to spell, and therefore writing was a stumbling block. And I just had this story that I couldn't learn because of that. But I plowed through and make a long story short, 11 years later, I graduated summa cum laude from an honors college. But in the process, I went to 5 schools, transferred, lived in 3 different states. And when I graduated, I was 30 years old and 9 months pregnant with my second child. So it was a long journey, but an amazing one and transformational. And then I went on to get a master's and a PhD in history, which took me half the time of getting my undergrad. And then I went on to be a faculty member and had a career as a history professor. And then I gave up that secure faculty position to start this business. And I think the underlying message to me is that change is really possible. And I've changed a lot in my life. And change is very powerful and exciting.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, I'm a coach, and so I help my clients achieve their successes, and that almost always involves changing. And change, to be successful, requires knowing a little bit of something about the brain. First, knowing that there are two systems, and one of them is fast, it's efficient, it's quick, it's easy, and that's where our habits are. Sometimes those habits propel our success, but of course, sometimes they greatly undermine it. But you can create new habits, but new habits require the slow part of our brain, the slow system, and that requires effort, it requires intention, it requires a lot of energy and practice. But when you do that, you can then create a habit which goes to the fast system of your brain, and then it's effortless and easy and efficient. So that's really the magic of understanding how to work with your brain and how to work on that habit formation.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice? You're not necessarily industry specific.
Well, ironically, it would probably be don't pay attention to people like me who give you advice. And I think part of that is because people who are successful in business want to share their success and they are honest in what helped them become successful. But when you dig beneath it, you realize that their path came because they started at a certain place. They had a set of beliefs, they had a set of experiences, and they pursued that path. And if you aren't in that place, in those circumstances at that time, you can't exactly follow that recipe and have the same results. And of course, there are some shared principles, absolutely. But oftentimes it's easy to get caught up in the specifics. It's much better to begin understanding who you are, trusting yourself, and knowing where you want to go and what's that very first step that you can take.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Definitely let go of perfection, which has haunted me for a long time, and recognize that mistakes or falling short or, dare I say, failing is not only human, but it is the pathway to learning. And as a professor, I know this, and it's also the pathway to success. If you haven't made some mistakes along the way, if you haven't tried something that didn't work out, you often don't know what's next. You're staying safe.
And this kind of leads to the next one. In your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Understanding it's completely in my control. I think we're tempted to think that when other people meet our expectations or or when circumstances unfold in a way that we had imagined, that that creates happiness. But if you live long enough, you know that people don't always meet your expectations and neither do circumstances unfold as you want. And you don't have much control over either one of those, but you have complete control over yourself. So it's really about the power to reframe and think about things the way in which it's going to create happiness for you.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?
Well, the best book for me came at a crucial time in my life, and it's called The Now Habit by Neil Florey. It's about procrastination. And he really helped me understand that it wasn't a character flaw and it wasn't genetic and it wasn't a big label I had to wear on my forehead. But it instead helped me understand that it's a strategic response to actions or decisions that need to be made that actually create a pain sensation and anxiety. And so we avoid it. And what he does is helps you rethink that, helps you identify the triggers and then find ways to think about it differently. And through that, the book explores how to develop the now habit instead of continuing practicing the procrastination strategy.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Well, hands down, it comes from Henry Ford, and that is, "If you think you can, or if you think you can't, you're right." And that has proven true in my life so, so many times.
I love that quote as well. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find and/or connect with you online?
Well, there are many, but the best is probably LinkedIn. There you can find my website link or you can leave me a message. Thank you.
Perfect. Thanks again for jumping on.
I appreciate it so much, Tyler. Thank you.
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