Black Entrepreneur Blueprint 621 - Jay Jones - 3 Game Changing Tips To Become A Better Entrepreneur

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[00:00:43] Welcome to Black Entrepreneur Blueprint, the number one podcast and resource for Black entrepreneurs. I'm your host Jay Jones and Black Entrepreneur Blueprint was created specifically to educate and inspire Black entrepreneurs to launch, build and grow successful, sustainable businesses. Join us as we help build an economic power base in the worldwide Black community by building and supporting Black owned businesses.

[00:01:11] If you're currently an entrepreneur or want to be an entrepreneur, you're invited to join us each and every week here at Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Welcome to the BEB family and get ready to elevate your entrepreneur IQ. Welcome to the BEB family and welcome to the BEB family and welcome to the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint episode number 621.

[00:01:38] I'm your host Jay Jones and today we have another outstanding and informative show in store for you. Today's show topic is three game-changing tips to become a better entrepreneur. Three game-changing tips to become a better entrepreneur.

[00:01:56] Guys, we know entrepreneurship is already challenging enough on its own, but with the right guidance guys, you can drastically and dramatically shorten that learning curve and become a better entrepreneur. And we're going to talk about that today and I'm going to give you three tips from my 25 plus years experience as a serial entrepreneur. But before we get to today's show content, let me just share a few things with the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint family.

[00:02:24] First and foremost, I want to welcome all first-time listeners to Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Welcome to the BEB family. Please stick around until the end of today's broadcast and I'm going to share all my social media contact information and resource links such as the link to the website, blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Guys, there's a lot of free content and information on there to help you elevate your entrepreneur IQ.

[00:02:51] Just go to blackentrepreneurblueprint.com, hit the learn tab, there's a drop down and we have all types of content with mindset, marketing, e-commerce, how to scale your business, everything you need to move your business from point A to point B. Now, let's get ready for today's show content. On today's show, guys, I'm going to break down three powerful mindset and business strategies that can actually completely change the way your business runs.

[00:03:21] And once again, if you haven't heard the story, I've been a serial entrepreneur for 25 plus years. I've almost lost it all twice. I've seen the gamuts of the highs and the lows, but I've been blessed to be able to come back each time I almost lost it and build two separate multimillion dollar companies. So I speak from experience and from know how. So this is what I want to impart to you guys.

[00:03:45] And I've told you guys before over the last four or five years, I want to give you guys impactful episodes, episodes that are going to move the needle based on experience, not supposition or theory. So let's break down what we're going to talk about today. Three game changing tips to become a better entrepreneur.

[00:04:05] Now, I'm going to give you these tips and I'm going to tell you why they're important, the benefits of the tips and how to implement each of these tips into your business. First tip, tip number one, and this is super important. Identify a much needed product or service that solves a problem. Identify a much needed product or service that solves a problem. Now, why is this important?

[00:04:32] Businesses get paid guys to solve problems. Bottom line, businesses get paid to solve problems and the bigger or more painful the problem, the easier it is to sell. So if somebody has a massive toothache, right? And they wake up in the morning, their tooth is killing them. They don't care what the cost is. They're going to call and find the first dentist that can do emergency surgery to remove that tooth, right?

[00:04:59] So the bigger or more painful the problem is, the easier it is to sell. Now, another tip is demand driven businesses, guys, are easier to grow than passion projects with no market. I'm going to repeat that because many of you guys are out there doing a passion project, which is cool if you know how to position that passion project. So demand driven businesses are easier to grow than passion products with no market.

[00:05:26] So I was working with one of the BEB family members that started a clothing line and they were selling hoodies, T-shirts and the like. And it was good. It was all fine and dandy. But once again, it wasn't a demand driven business. And when you have that or don't have that, if you're working with a passion project, you have to be able to find that market. There was no specific reason that their brand stood out from anything else.

[00:05:56] You know, they had a niche. But once again, to get traction in businesses like that is harder than you guys think. So another tip is problem solving businesses create recurring customers and referrals based on the type of problem that you're solving. OK, so now you can have a one off business. You know, for example, I'm in the mortgage business. Now, I do get repeat clientele, but they don't come that frequently.

[00:06:23] Another reason why it's important to identify a much needed product or service that solves a problem is, is because you reduce the need to convince people to buy because the need already exists. If you owe Uncle Sam $50,000 in taxes, guess what? You don't have to be convinced that you need to solve that problem, right? Because the need already exists. So tip number one, identify a much needed product or service that solves a problem.

[00:06:53] We just talked about why this tip is important. And let's talk about some of the benefits of this tip. Number one, you get faster customer acquisition, right? So if it solves a problem, people have that problem. I talked about the toothache, right? You want to get that problem solved fast. Higher revenue potential. Remember, the higher the pain, the more you can charge.

[00:07:17] Also, easier marketing and messaging because you're working and you're messaging directly to the problem. You get increased customer loyalty, stronger word of mouth marketing, and greater scalability and long term sustainability. Now, that's key. You want to build a successful, sustainable business.

[00:07:36] So if you have a product or service that solves a problem, you can continue to scale it and you can have long term sustainability as long as that problem already or always exists. Now, let's talk about how to implement this tip. And the tip is identify a much needed product or service that solves a problem. So you want to look for common frustrations people complain about repeatedly.

[00:08:02] If you're walking around or just you notice that people are complaining about something all the time, that may be a great way to identify business opportunity. Also, you want to study online reviews. You want to study the forums, Facebook groups, Reddit, and also the comment sections. So if you're looking to build an Amazon products, I used to sell a whole lot of products only on Amazon. Now I sell them mostly on my own websites.

[00:08:30] But I would look at the product reviews, normally not the five stars or the one stars, but the two, three, and four stars. The five stars a lot of times may not be real reviews. A lot of times they are. And the one stars sometimes are bad reviews, not even based on the actual functionality of the product. It may be something like, oh, I got this product shipped to me and it was broken when it got there. So it doesn't have anything to do with the functionality.

[00:08:58] So I always looked at the two, three, and four star reviews to see if I can find something or an opportunity to position my product or service in there. Another way to implement this tip is ask potential customers what their biggest challenges are. That's a face, I mean a beta group. So you're getting feedback. So that's super important. Identify industries with growing demand. All right. So you have the AI industry right now. All right.

[00:09:28] Is there a problem you can solve to help people learning AI? That's a growing industry. Focus on solving one specific problem first. Now this is a problem with a lot of entrepreneurs. We want to solve 55 different problems. And then we end up solving none of them because you get your prospective customer too confused. So start out and focus on solving one specific problem first.

[00:09:53] Another way how to implement this guys is validate your idea before building a full blown business. I always talk about becoming a mad scientist. Test, test, test, test, and test some more before you spend all your time and resources on a business that doesn't work. And you also want to start with a minimum viable offer, which is a minimum product or service to see what's going on.

[00:10:19] And you want to test the market with small offers as opposed to coming out with a crazy grandiose offer. Okay. So that's number one. Today we're talking about three game changing tips to become a better entrepreneur. Tip number one, identify a much needed product or service that solves a problem. We just went through why this tip is important, the benefits of the tip, and how to implement the tip.

[00:10:48] Now let's go to tip number two. Align your business with your passion and your talents. And that's actually what's called your genius. Your genius is the intersection of your passion and your talents. So you want to align your business with your genius. Now, as we speak, I'm doing a beta group for Pinpoint and Monetize Your Genius.

[00:11:11] And as we go through this group, we're developing and identifying people's passions, their talents, creating that genius, creating a genius statement. And then we're right now we're in the monetization stage. So these are some of the things guys that are going to give you or help you become a better entrepreneur. Align your business with your passion and your talents, which I call your genius. Now, why is this tip important?

[00:11:39] Entrepreneurship requires long-term commitment and resilience. So if you're doing something that you're passionate about and you have talent in, that builds up your resistance, guys. All right. So what happens when you're doing something and you're just chasing the money? You know, as soon as trouble comes, you're out of there and you're looking for the next lowest hanging fruit. Okay. Another tip why this is important is passion helps to sustain motivation during the difficult times.

[00:12:09] And your natural talent, guys, gives you a competitive advantage. If you're naturally talented at something, that gives you a competitive advantage. If you're naturally talented at speaking and you decide, you know, you want to be a public speaker, guess what? That gives you a competitive advantage. Also, operating in your genius, guys, creates authenticity and confidence.

[00:12:33] When you're doing something that you know is your genius, the intersection between your passion and your talent, you work in authenticity and confidence. So I actually teach, in addition to owning a mortgage business, I teach continuing education for the mortgage business. So the company that contracted me out flies me around the country to teach these eight hour continuing education courses.

[00:13:01] And the beauty of this is it's I'm operating in my genius because I'm a good speaker and I love teaching. So once again, that creates authenticity and confidence. Also, another reason why this tip is important is people are attracted to businesses led by someone who truly understands and enjoys their work. You ever talk to somebody that that just loves what they do?

[00:13:28] And most people, when you do that, they get jealous. Like, damn, I wish I love my job that good that much. But people are attracted to businesses led by someone who truly understands and enjoys their work. OK, and this is tip number two. Align your business with your passions and talents, which is your genius. So we just discussed why this tip is important. Now, let's talk about some of the benefits of this tip. Increased consistency and execution.

[00:13:58] Greater fulfillment and purpose. When you're doing something and not chasing the money, you get more fulfillment and you're dealing with your purpose. OK, easier content creation and marketing because you're living in this. This is your genius. Higher confidence in selling your offer because you know exactly what you're selling. You ever sell something that you really didn't believe in or you really didn't quite understand. That's hard, man. That's hard.

[00:14:27] I've had jobs and I've left jobs that I didn't believe in the product or service or I knew there was a better product or service to help that customer. All right. So these are some of the benefits of being able to align your business with your passion and your talents. You get more innovation and creativity, reduce burnout and frustration, which is big as an entrepreneur. So many entrepreneurs burn out and get frustrated because they're doing things that are not aligned with them.

[00:14:55] And also the ability to build a brand around your unique perspective. The ability to build a brand around your unique perspective. These are some of the benefits of aligning your business with your passions and your talents. Now, let's talk about how to implement this tip. The first thing you need to do to implement this tip, guys, is identify your genius. And once again, your genius is the intersection of your passion and your talent. Identify what comes naturally to you.

[00:15:25] Ask yourself, what do people constantly ask me help for? What can I do for hours without getting bored? What skills have produced results for me repeatedly? OK, so these are some of the things that you're that come naturally to you. Now, find the intersection between your passion and your talent and a market need. So you want to build offers around your expertise and experiences.

[00:15:51] So if you have expertise in a subject matter and experience, you build your offers around that. Lean into your personal story and your unique journey. So Pinpoint and Monetize Your Genius, guys. That came when I almost lost it all for the second time with my mortgage business. I'm laying on the couch and I'm saying to myself, OK, when I make this comeback, what is it going to look like? What do I like? What don't I like?

[00:16:20] Well, what do I want my lifestyle to be? And I sat down and unbeknownst to myself, I created the framework for pinpoint and monetize your genius. OK, so these are some of the things that you have to do. Find the intersection between your passion and your talent and market it. Build offers around your expertise and experiences and lean into your personal story and your unique journey.

[00:16:45] So another thing is avoid copying other entrepreneurs blindly. A lot of times monkeys see, monkey do. But that doesn't mean that this business is correct for you. You have to find out what your genius is and basically align your business with your passions and your talents and focus on becoming known for your lane. All right. You don't want to necessarily be a carbon copy of somebody else. What is your lane? Right.

[00:17:15] I've had people come up to me and say, hey, man, you need to be more flamboyant, you know, more bombastic on you on your on your podcast. I'm like, that's not me. You know, now in real life, you know, I'm a jovial, fun loving dude. But when I talk about business, this is serious business. You know, I joke around a little bit on the podcast. But if you met me in real life, you'd be like, yo, this dude, this dude is a he's a jokester. I enjoy having a good time.

[00:17:45] But I know when I get on this microphone, you're all on here to have me hollering and screaming and hyping you guys up and not giving you any direction. Right. So I'm staying in my lane and my lane is giving you the straight facts. I'm giving you actionable content to move you from point A to B. So if you're coming in and looking for a motivational speaker, I'm not that dude. First of all, I can't motivate you anyway, because motivation is internal.

[00:18:14] I can inspire you to do things, but I can't motivate you. That's something that's internal. So focus on becoming known for your lane. So that's tip number two, guys. Align your business with your passions and your talents, which I call your genius. Now, let's talk about tip number three. Design your business around your desired lifestyle. Design your business around your desired lifestyle.

[00:18:43] Don't build your lifestyle around your business. And let's talk about why this tip is important. So many entrepreneurs accidentally build businesses that they hate. I call them Frankenstein monsters. I built one business that I couldn't stand going to. I was an ADT security system dealer. I had two offices. I let the culture get out of hand. I hired some people in key positions that I shouldn't have hired. Then I had to fire them.

[00:19:12] But the culture was already off kilter. And so many entrepreneurs accidentally build businesses that they hate. Financial success, guys, without the freedom often leads to burnout. So I was working like crazy with that business. I was making money. But it's funny because my second daughter was born and I was working seven in the morning, eight, nine at night. You know, and my wife, I come home one night.

[00:19:40] She was like, she said, yo, dude, Erica's not even going to know who you are because you're never home. And so once again, I was designing my business or I was living my life around my business as opposed to building or designing my business around my desired lifestyle. So another tip or another thing why this tip is important is your business should support your life, not consume it. Your business should support your life and lifestyle and not consume it.

[00:20:10] So lifestyle alignment, guys, creates long term sustainability. So when everything is aligned, that creates sustainability. And another reason why this tip is important, guys, intentional design helps prevent overwhelm and chaos. So intentional design helps prevent overwhelm and chaos. And we're talking about design your business around your desired lifestyle, not your lifestyle around your business. Now, what are the benefits of this tip?

[00:20:40] You have more freedom and flexibility. If you design your business around your lifestyle, you get better work life balance. You reduce stress and burnout and you increase happiness and fulfillment. Once again, your business is designed to support your lifestyle. Okay, not take it over. All right. Another benefit is, guys, the ability to scale strategically instead of emotionally. You can scale strategically instead of emotionally.

[00:21:07] You get more control over your schedule and your priorities. This was key for me, guys. When I started back and I started back, you know, building e-commerce, you know, an e-commerce portfolio of private label products. I tell this story and I've told it probably 20 times on several different episodes. But it's something that you guys need to hear. When my girls were young, they played field hockey in middle school and high school.

[00:21:36] And they played field hockey. They ran track. They were great students. They swam. They were in all types of clubs and organizations. So when I started out in e-commerce, that allowed me to have freedom and flexibility with my time. And when my girls are three years apart. So from the time my oldest daughter was, I believe, a junior in high school.

[00:22:03] I'd never missed any of their summer league games, their AAU games, their high school home games, their high school away games. And they used to travel all the time for AAU in their summer games. We'd be down in Florida, Maryland, Virginia, all over the place. And my youngest daughter said that a lot of her friends would ask, hey, does your dad have a job? Because he's at all the games. I literally never missed a game. It was close to almost seven years straight.

[00:22:33] And she was like, nah, my dad is an entrepreneur. And the ability, guys, it was one of the greatest benefits of my life was to be able to be there with my kids as they experienced those things. So they knew dad was there. My dad was making money, but I was also present. And that was super important to me. So more control over your schedule and your priorities. Remember, another benefit is a business model that matches your goals and personality.

[00:23:03] So once again, design your business around your desired lifestyle, not your lifestyle around your business. I talked about why this is important, the benefits of this tip. And now let's talk about how to implement this tip. Number one, you want to define your ideal lifestyle first. What does your lifestyle look like? You're going to have to reverse engineer this thing. So do you want freedom and flexibility?

[00:23:28] And that's one of the things when I was laying on the couch trying to figure out how I was going to make this comeback after I almost lost it all the second time with the mortgage business. There was a couple of things that I had to think about. I knew I didn't want to have, you know, $15,000 rent in a center city office space in Philadelphia. I didn't want 50 employees. I didn't want $100,000, a couple hundred thousand dollar a month payroll. I didn't want to have to be suited and booted every day.

[00:23:57] I didn't want to have to work, you know, nine, 10 hours a day for five days a week and sometimes Saturday. I didn't want that. OK, so I had to define my ideal lifestyle first. And that ideal lifestyle was freedom, flexibility and unlimited income. So here's some of the things you want to ask yourself. How much time do you want to work weekly? How many hours you want to work 60 hours a week or what? Right. Do you want to travel? Do you want a remote business?

[00:24:27] Do you want employees or a lean operation? So in my mortgage business right now, you know, I used to have 50 employees. Now I have zero. I am the sole person in my mortgage business. I use a virtual assistant. I have, you know, a processing assistant and I have a virtual assistant. But I'm the rainmaker. I market. I make it rain. I close loans and I don't have to worry about anybody. Right. So I'm on my own time.

[00:24:57] And that's more important to me right now than to be going to Center City every day, suited and booted, going into the top floor office. That's not what I want. OK. And we're talking about how to implement these tips. All right. Do I want employees or a lean operation? I just mentioned that. How much income do I truly need? So these are some of the questions you want to ask yourself. Now let's talk about more ways to implement this tip. Choose a business model that aligns with your goals.

[00:25:26] That's pretty simple. Right. Create systems and automation early, early systems provide leverage so you don't have to do everything with AI out there right now. I have an AI employee that does a lot of the marketing for me. I created it and now does a lot of the marketing and prospecting. Delegate low value task. Build boundaries around your time. So I do not work on Sundays.

[00:25:55] I don't care what it is. I my Sunday usually looks like this. I go to church. If it's football season, I'm watching the Eagles and I'm having a good meal and I may cook or my wife will cook on Sunday. I enjoy cooking, but that's my Sunday. Don't talk to me about business. I ain't trying to hear. All right. Saturdays. I usually don't talk about business either. If I have to, I will. But I work from Monday through Friday and in the summertime, guess what?

[00:26:24] I work Monday through Thursday. So I build my schedule where I'm not even working Fridays. OK, so, you know, so build your boundaries around your time. Also, how to implement this, guys. Avoid building a business solely based on trends or hype. So you can't build a business, a long term sustainable business built on trends or hype. I don't know if you guys ever remember years ago, they used to have this thing that everybody

[00:26:53] was buying called the fidget spinner. It was a thing that kids would spin on their fingers or whatever. And people were making goo gobs of money with it. But once again, it was a trend and a trend isn't going to last. So build your business on something foundationally strong. And the last way to implement, guys, regularly audit whether your business still supports the lifestyle that you want. Sometimes your business can get out of hand, right?

[00:27:22] All money isn't good money. All opportunities aren't great opportunities. I've had opportunities that I've turned down because it was going to affect my lifestyle. OK, so partnering. I've had so many people come up to me for some of my businesses, even in the mortgage business. Oh, let's become business partners. If we do this, we can we can tackle this market. We can do this. Yeah. You know what? We probably could. But I'm not trying to answer to anybody.

[00:27:51] OK, except my damn self. All right. So these are some of the things, guys, that you need to recognize and understand. These are three tips that can help change and transform your business. Now, before we get to the last segment of the show, guys, let me share my social media contact information and resource links. I mentioned at the top of the show, guys, use and utilize the website blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Go to the learn tab. There's a dropdown.

[00:28:19] We have all types of resources to help you level up your business, marketing, e-commerce, scaling your business mindset. Everything you need to elevate your entrepreneur IQ. Now, if you want to connect with me anything long, hit me on my email. Jay Jones at blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. That's J-A-Y-J-O-N-E-S at blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Facebook, Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Instagram, I have two IG accounts.

[00:28:48] The first one is Jay Jones for real. J-A-Y-J-O-N-E-S, the number four, R-E-A-L. Second one is Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. LinkedIn, connect with me at LinkedIn. Go to LinkedIn, type in Jay Jones, Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Also, YouTube. Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel. We have additional content on YouTube that is not on the show. Go to YouTube, type in Black Entrepreneur Blueprint and hit subscribe.

[00:29:17] Also, X or Twitter, Jay Jones 001. J-A-Y-J-O-N-E-S 001. Now, for any first-time listeners, make sure wherever you're watching this or listening to this, you hit that subscribe button so you'll be alerted to our new episodes. We drop new heat, guys, every Monday morning, 5 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on all your major podcast platforms and YouTube.

[00:29:46] Now, let's get ready for the last segment of today's show. So, as I'm going through my Pinpoint Monetize Your Genius beta group right now, I mentioned this earlier, I just really see the importance, guys, of, once again, aligning yourself with your business. Today's episode is three game-changing tips to become a better entrepreneur. Number one, identify a much-needed product or service that solves a problem. That's number one, guys.

[00:30:15] You can do a passion project if you want, if you have the monetization or know how to monetize it. But solving problems is usually the easiest and quickest way, guys, to become a successful entrepreneur. Now, the bigger the problem, guess what? Usually, the bigger the money you can make off of solving that problem. The second tip was align your business with your passion and your talents. That's your genius.

[00:30:41] Once again, your genius is the intersection of your passion and your talents. And when you do this, guys, it's aligning your natural gifts to business. The problem is most people don't know how to monetize their genius. And that's why I created the beta workshop, Pinpoint and Monetize Your Genius. So we're going to have another group coming up, the next cohort, probably within the next couple of months. But this beta group has been eye-opening.

[00:31:11] And it's really great to help people use their genius and be able to monetize it. So that's number two. Align your business with your passions and your talents. That's your genius. And tip number three, guys, design your business around your desired lifestyle. Not your lifestyle around your business. You can create a business that you literally cannot stand. Been there, done that. So you have to work in reverse.

[00:31:38] Reverse engineer what you want your lifestyle to be. Then you put the systems in place to get to that point. So I'm at a point now in the summertime, I don't work on Fridays. Okay? I just don't. Reason being is I enjoy my time. I'm at a different stage of my life right now. Before, when I was younger, I'm hustling like crazy, you know, and that's fine and dandy, right? But at this stage of the game, I want to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

[00:32:07] Now, I got a lot more labor left to do, but I want to work strategically where it benefits my lifestyle. I want to spend time with my family, my friends, doing things that I enjoy, working on projects and things that fulfill me. And that's what it's really about, guys. It's really trying to figure out how to serve people, make money, and do something that fulfills you. That's what Pinpoint Monetize Your Genius is all about.

[00:32:36] So when that next cohort drops, I'll make sure, you know, that I post it out. But I think really, guys, that's the penultimate when it comes to entrepreneurship. The greatest form of entrepreneurship is monetizing your genius, which is the intersection between your passion and your talent. Now, I say this each and every week, guys, because it's true. We get more and more downloads because of you, the BEB family. I appreciate you guys so much.

[00:33:04] Please continue to spread the word about the podcast, the website, all the resources, the online courses, the whole ecosystem designed to help you elevate your entrepreneur IQ. Remember, it's not about me. It's not about you. It's about us. It's about building an economic power base in the worldwide black community by building and supporting black owned businesses. Love you guys. See you same time next week. Peace.

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