Black Entrepreneur Blueprint 630 - Jay Jones - 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became An Entrepreneur

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[00:01:48] 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.

[00:02:17] 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 Black Entrepreneur Blueprint episode number 630.

[00:02:44] I'm your host Jay Jones and today we have another outstanding and informative show in store for you. Today's show topic is titled, Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became an Entrepreneur. Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became an Entrepreneur.

[00:03:03] So, what if you could sit down with someone who has spent over 25 years building businesses, making mistakes, overcoming setbacks and creating success and ask them one question? Well, today I'm going to give you all of my experience wrapped up in five things I wish somebody told me before I became an entrepreneur.

[00:03:25] And we're going to dive into this and I think this is a very enlightening episode where I can look back and think about some of the things that I've experienced, the highs and lows. And if you've listened to this show for any period of time, you know that I almost lost it all twice. But I was blessed to be able to come back and build two separate million dollar, multi-million dollar businesses. Before we dive into the content, let me just share a few things with the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint family.

[00:03:52] 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 1234mynewcreditscore.com. That's the numbers. 1234MyNewCreditScore.com

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[00:04:42] So you use it as long as you need to and it helps you do the exact same things that the big companies that charge you hundreds and even thousands of dollars a month will cost you. So go to 1234mynewcreditscore.com. Now, let's get ready for today's show content. So today we're talking about five things I wish someone told me before I became an entrepreneur.

[00:05:07] So if I could travel back in time and have one conversation with my younger self before I became an entrepreneur, what would I actually say to myself? So this is basically five things I wish that I knew. And I'm going from my own experiences and perceptions of being a serial entrepreneur after leaving college and going into the corporate world,

[00:05:31] having 25 years of successful entrepreneurship, starting over 17 businesses, highs and lows. I've seen the gamut of it all. So I'm going to give you guys five things I wish somebody told me before I became an entrepreneur. Lesson number one, understand that your vision was given specifically to you. Understand that your vision was given specifically to you.

[00:05:58] So when I say that, I want you to understand that not everybody has your vision. Not everybody has your beliefs. So your vision is designed specifically for you. Everyone has a unique purpose and you have to stop comparing your journey to someone else's journey because everybody's journey is different.

[00:06:18] And just because your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, aunts, uncles, wife, husband, partner, spouse, they may not believe in your vision. Okay. But guess what? You have to recognize and understand that that vision was only given to you. People won't always understand your vision because they weren't given that specific assignment. Understand that your family and friends may not see what you see, but that's okay. All right.

[00:06:48] You have to understand that. Once again, expectations. Don't expect everybody to be happy for you when you tell them about your vision. The other thing I'm going to say is you need to keep your visions to yourself and only share with people that it makes sense with. Okay. If you have a spouse or partner, obviously, if you're leaving your job and you're going to have and you're starting a new business, obviously, you're going to have to share that. Okay. Okay.

[00:07:15] But there are people out there that are naysayers, that are doubters. There are haters out there. People that don't have the wherewithal to follow their own dreams and follow their own visions. So they're going to wait for you to fall and they're going to act like they're happy for you in your face. But they're waiting for you to fall down because once again, they don't have the gumption to go out and do what you do.

[00:07:41] I call civilians and entrepreneurs totally different people. If you're nine to five and there's nothing wrong with that because I used to be a nine to five or two. All right. If you're a nine to five and that's what you want out of life and you're happy and you love your job, more power to you. But I call those people civilians because they're not in the battlefield of entrepreneurship. They don't understand what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Many of them do not have that vision.

[00:08:10] And when some of them do finally decide to become an entrepreneur, I call them reluctant entrepreneurs. They may have lost their job. And so they, the only thing they see is, Hey, I got to start a business so I can make money. Those are what I call reluctant entrepreneurs. Those aren't real entrepreneurs that had a vision for that per se, because if you were truly built for this and had a vision for it, you would have already been thinking that way.

[00:08:37] So lesson number one, understand your vision was given specifically to you, not anybody else. Be careful about who you share your vision with. And me being a serial entrepreneur and been in the game for 25 plus years, I was an entrepreneur when entrepreneur and founder wasn't even a cool thing. Oh, you quit your job to start your own business.

[00:09:02] I mean, people were looking at me like I was crazy and I couldn't share my vision with everybody because those other people don't understand. So you have to be specific with who you share your vision with. Now, I got a word from, from, from the creator not long ago. You know, I was dealing with some stuff that I wanted to focus on in terms of entrepreneurship in one of my companies. And this is what he told me.

[00:09:27] He said, keep your head down, keep your mouth shut and follow your course. Not everybody else's course, my course. Keep your head down means focus on what you need to do. Keep your mouth shut, meaning don't share your vision with everybody and follow the course, meaning I've designed you this way. And this is the course you have to take regardless of what other people think.

[00:09:53] So lesson number one, understand that your vision was given specifically to you. And we're talking about five things I wish someone told me before I became an entrepreneur. Okay. Also, before I go to the next one, think about every successful entrepreneur who was doubted in the beginning. Nobody saw that vision, right? If you listen to these entrepreneur stories, man, they were fighting against not just the forces of entrepreneurship.

[00:10:21] They were fighting against the forces of other people, the doubt, the negativity. And you have to block that out. So protect your vision, guys. You don't need anyone's permission and all you need is commitment. So that's number one. And we're talking about five things I wish somebody told me before I became an entrepreneur. Lesson number two, and I talk about this all the time. You're really in the marketing business. You're really in the marketing business.

[00:10:50] Many entrepreneurs think that you're selling cupcakes or mortgages or consulting or whatever. There's no business that anybody has that does not have competition. So I own a mortgage brokerage shop. Guess what? There are thousands of mortgage brokers out there. So the same products that I sell, guess what? The other mortgage brokers can sell. But it's all about marketing. How do you position yourself to stand out from the crowd?

[00:11:18] With my mortgage business, I focus on four verticals. Athletes, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and real estate investors. So those are my four verticals. So I do what I call micro marketing. Okay. So I market to each specific vertical differently. Okay. Now, here's the beauty of it, guys. Once again, I still do other businesses, uh, business. I do first time home buyers.

[00:11:47] I do all types of stuff because I'm going to get ancillary business. If I do good business, people are going to refer me. So it's not that I only do this business, but, uh, those four verticals, but those are the four I focus on and concentrate on. So my marketing has to stand out versus other people. So I talk about micro marketing. I've done an episode or two on micro marketing.

[00:12:14] Micro marketing is speaking directly to that vertical. Now I can do a refinance for an athlete, entertainer, entrepreneur, or real estate investor. But the way I talk about it and discuss it is totally different. So when I'm speaking to a real estate investor and I'm doing a refinance, many times they're more interested in, is this refinance going to help me with my cashflow?

[00:12:40] Am I going to be able to generate more cash than, uh, in my pocket, positive cashflow if I refinance? So that could be something that I speak specifically to real estate investors. All right. So an entrepreneur, I could speak to them and the conversation is going to be totally different. So recognize and understand you are truly in the marketing business.

[00:13:04] You may sell something different or your product or service, but you're in the marketing business. He who markets the best makes the most money. All right. So, and here's another thing, guys, a lot of times the best product doesn't actually win. All right. It's the best marketed product that wins. For example, look at McDonald's hamburgers, right? If I don't even eat them anymore, they're not even real meat. Right.

[00:13:33] But they're, they're probably not probably they sell more hamburgers than anybody else. So once again, they're in the marketing business. All right. Their product isn't the best, but guess what? They marketed the best or they used to anyway. So back in the day, you know, long time ago, they don't even have, you know, the Ronald McDonald commercials, the grimace, the Hamburglar, all those other guys that would be the kids would be attracted to. Burger King had the crowns and they would do stuff.

[00:14:02] So they're not doing that anymore, but they're the biggest and largest, uh, hamburger seller in the United States, probably the world. And their hamburgers are garbage. Okay. They're not good. So understand and recognize you're really in the marketing business. You may sell mortgages or clothing or consulting or cupcakes or whatever it is, but you're really in the marketing business. All right. So you have to have a marketing plan. You have to have systems in place.

[00:14:32] Okay. And today we're talking about five things I wish someone told me before I became an entrepreneur. That was number two. You're really in the marketing business. Number three, solve a problem. People are willing to pay to fix solve a problem. People are willing to pay to fix. So many times I talk about passion, right? Entrepreneurs also, uh, often start with what they love, right?

[00:15:01] But customers actually buy solutions. All right. Not that you can't meld your passion. That's pinpoint and monetize your genius, which is the intersection of your passion and your talent and learning and knowing how to monetize that genius. All right. But the easiest and simplest way to make money as an entrepreneur is number three, solve a problem. People are willing to pay for. All right. To pay for the fix. Okay. What business should I start?

[00:15:30] Ask what painful problem can I solve? What problem can I solve? All right. So now you're probably saying with black entrepreneur blueprint, what problem do I solve? I didn't start this business to make money. I started it as something cathartic and I wanted to share, uh, with the black entrepreneurs worldwide, my experiences and help cut the learning curve. So I never started out to monetize black entrepreneur blueprint. I just talked about in episode 629.

[00:16:00] I mentioned, I didn't start monetizing black entrepreneur blueprint, uh, for two and a half years because I didn't know what the audience wanted. And when I started talking about certain things, e-commerce and things of that nature, the BEB family, you guys reached out to me. Hey, I want to learn how to do this. And I was able to monetize it. So that's a little different, but with my mortgage business, what problem do I solve?

[00:16:24] I help athletes, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and real estate investors, uh, source the best mortgage for their financial situation. So I, I look at a mortgage as a financial tool. It's not a standalone product. It's all based on what you're looking to accomplish as, uh, with your finances. How does it fit into what you're trying to accomplish with your financing? Okay.

[00:16:51] So once again, solving a problem, people are willing to pay for all right. Credit, fixing credit, getting financing, reducing stress. You know, what are painful problems you can solve? Saving time. Okay. Businesses don't get paid for ideas, guys. They get paid for solving valuable problems. And the bigger the problem you solve, guess what? The more money you can make.

[00:17:15] If you're a tax accountant, a CPA, and somebody comes to you and they owe $500,000 to the IRS and you tell them, Hey, I can save you. I can cut that bill down to $200,000. Do you think they'll be willing to pay you a ton of money for saving them $300,000? Yes. Most definitely. The larger the problem you solve, the more you can make. Okay.

[00:17:41] So you have to understand that solving a problem people are willing to fix. So if you're thinking about being an entrepreneur, think about problems you can solve. For example, one of our new sponsors, 1, 2, 3, 4, my new credit score, right? What the problem they solve is fixing credit. The other thing they focus on is not paying these credit repair companies hundreds of dollars a month or thousands of dollars a month.

[00:18:09] They've created an AI product that can help you fix your own credit. Does everybody want to do that? No. But there's a lot of people out there that don't want to spend the money that have the time to go through the process. And it's super simple. So that is solving a problem. Weight loss, probably one of the biggest industries out there in terms of money making weight loss industry.

[00:18:36] Now you have these GLP, uh, products out there with Govi, all these other type of products out there, Manjaro solving a problem. People are paying millions upon millions, billions of dollars in that industry. Solve a problem. People are willing to pay to fix. All right. And these are five things I wish someone told me before I became an entrepreneur. Here's a real story.

[00:19:02] I had a, uh, coaching client that came from the podcast and they wanted to create a line of clothing like hoodies, t-shirts and sweatshirts, which you can do and you can be successful, but they weren't solving a problem. So what I told them was you have to create or, or, or catch into a niche. You have to kind of narrow it down to, you know, specific verticals. So who were the hoodies for? They were for everybody. Were they for black people? Were they whatever?

[00:19:32] But you had to find a hook in there somewhere. And sometimes you come up with products or services that you want to sell and they're really not solving a problem. So be very careful about what product or service you decide to sell. And I promise you the easiest way to be successful is solving a problem, uh, that people are willing to pay for versus doing something that you're passionate about, um, which you can do, but

[00:20:01] it has to all make sense. Okay. So that's number three. We talked about number one, uh, was understand that your vision was given specifically to you. Number two, you're really in the marketing business. Number three, solve a problem. Some people are willing to pay to fix. And number four, connect yourself with an entrepreneur community. Connect yourself with an entrepreneur community. Success leaves clues, guys. Success leaves clues. Entrepreneurship.

[00:20:31] It feels lonely out there, guys. When you're out there, everybody else is going to work and you're out here struggling, trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. You need to have a community. You need to have mastermind groups, networking groups, mentors, coaches, uh, other people in business. So you can actually bounce things off of them. Okay. Because once again, you don't, if you're not in this space, you're not going to understand it. You're not going to understand it.

[00:21:00] People have generalizations, but until you get out there and you put it all on the line as an entrepreneur and you're banking on being successful, people can't understand that. So you need to connect yourself with a community. Okay. A community of successful entrepreneurs. And once again, I talk about mentorship a lot. If you're an entrepreneur and you want to give back, become a mentor and becoming a mentor

[00:21:27] doesn't mean that you know everything, but it means that you're one step, three steps, five or 10 steps ahead of somebody else. So you could be new as an entrepreneur, maybe even a year in, but you can be a mentor for somebody that's still starting. And also look for people, for mentors that have accomplished what you want to accomplish. Okay. If you want to be a successful podcast host, talk to a successful podcaster.

[00:21:55] If you want to be one of the top CPAs out there, talk to successful CPAs. So you want to make sure guys that you connect yourself with an entrepreneurial community, because if you don't, you're going to be super lonely. And I'm going to tell you the, the, the motivation, which is internal, it sometimes can wane. So you need to be around other entrepreneurs. That's why I have a WeWork, right?

[00:22:23] So I have a, uh, you know, a shared office facility. I like to go in, I may go in two or three times a week because I need that energy of other entrepreneurs around me that are doing the same thing that I'm trying to do. I work out the home office. I have a home office downstairs. Uh, a beautiful office. I love it. But sometimes I need that energy, that camaraderie. That's going to help take me to the next level.

[00:22:48] It's going to help, uh, inspire me to do more and actually be more. So that's number four. Connect yourself with an entrepreneur community. That is super important guys, especially when you're starting out. And last but not least, lesson number five, stay focused on your mission and ignore outside noise. Stay focused on your mission and ignore outside noise. The world is full of distractions.

[00:23:18] Also as entrepreneurs, I did an episode on entrepreneur ADD, right? We like to see shiny objects and we can get taken off track. So stay focused on your mission and ignore outside noise. Social media, outside noise. Comparison, outside noise. Politics, outside noise. Shiny objects that I just talked about. Outside noise. Every week there's another overnight success.

[00:23:46] If you keep watching the internet, you're going to think that, damn, I'm, I'm, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. This guy's had success. A lot of that is BS, all right? None of that matters because you're committed to your own mission. You want to stay in your own lane and protect your own mental space. I'm telling you right now, one of the biggest issues with kids nowadays is, is social media. Not just kids, even adults.

[00:24:12] People think that, oh, everybody's life is sweet, but that's not the case. So you've got to stay focused on your mission and ignore the outside noise. Be patient. And remember, it's a long-term game. You have to think long-term. All right. Another thing about staying focused, guys, is you have to say no to opportunities that don't align with your purpose. Say no to opportunities that don't align with your purpose.

[00:24:40] If you're focused on building this business and some opportunity comes up and it's not aligned with what you're doing, guess what? Don't do it. One of the greatest words you can use as an entrepreneur is no. Stay focused because guess what? Our minds are built differently. We can get sidetracked super easily because we're always looking for opportunities. Oh, I was talking to somebody else the other day and I'm like, damn, that's a new business I can start.

[00:25:09] That happens to me every day, all day. And I can go down a rabbit hole. So you have to stay focused on your mission. Ignore the outside noise. The outside noise can be negativity. It can be social media. It can be false representations of what other people are doing. You go to social media on Instagram and you swear all of these entrepreneurs are living their best life. When in reality, most of them are probably broke, busted and disgusted.

[00:25:37] So you have to recognize and understand that. And staying focused, guys, is the key. Stay focused on your mission. Your mission. Okay. I talked about in the previous episode, 629, your vision, right? Nobody is giving your vision but you. So your mission is the same thing as your vision. So whatever your mission is, stay focused on that and ignore the outside noise.

[00:26:07] Now, before I get to the last segment of the show, guys, let me just share my social media contact information and resource links real quick. I talked a minute ago about 1234MyNewCreditScore.com. If you're credit challenged, if you want to increase or improve your credit, you want to buy a house, buy a car, you don't want your auto insurance to be sky high, improve your credit. It's a great DIY company. Go to 1234MyNewCreditScore.com.

[00:26:35] That's the numbers 1234mynewcreditscore.com. I actually refer people to them from my mortgage business and they've been doing a great job. So it's a DIY platform and I highly recommend it. Now, if you want to get in touch with me, guys, anything long, hit me on my email. That's jjonesatblackentrepreneurblueprint.com. J-A-Y-J-O-N-E-S at blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Facebook, Black Entrepreneur Blueprint.

[00:27:05] Instagram, I have two IG accounts. The first one is jjonesforreal. 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 there. Just go to LinkedIn, type in jjonesblackentrepreneurblueprint. Twitter or X, it's jjones001. J-A-Y-J-O-N-E-S 001. YouTube, make sure you guys subscribe to the YouTube channel.

[00:27:34] I have additional content on YouTube that is not on the show. Go to YouTube, type in Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. For all you first-time listeners, wherever you're watching this or listening to this, please hit that subscribe button. We drop a new episode every Monday morning, 5 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. I want you guys to be alerted. And we drop on all your major podcast platforms and YouTube.

[00:27:59] So make sure you hit that subscribe button wherever you're watching this or listening to this. All right, let's get back to this last segment, guys. And today we're talking about five things I wish someone told me before I became an entrepreneur. So once again, being a serial entrepreneur for over 25 plus years, a business coach for over 20 years, I teach entrepreneurship, I do coaching. And so I've seen the gamut, guys, the highs, the lows, the everything.

[00:28:26] So I wanted to share these five things with you. So hopefully you don't have to go through all the ups and downs that I have had to go through over the years. Now, once again, they're all learning experiences and you build upon that. That's what entrepreneurship is. So you take your setbacks, you take your failures, and those are learning tools. As long as you learn and don't make the same mistake twice, that's what your education is as an entrepreneur.

[00:28:55] That is the process. We're always taught, guys, don't fail, don't fail. And we taught that through school and everything else, which I get it. But as entrepreneurs, that is to be expected. You may, your first two, three businesses may be garbage. It may go into tubes, right? I've created 17 businesses throughout the years. And throughout those years, five of them were abject failures. I had another five that was so, so, so pretty decent.

[00:29:24] I've had two, three multi-million dollar businesses. And I've had some that were very good businesses. So you're not going to hit 100%. You have to be persistent and you have to be diligent and you have to block out all the other nonsense and focus and commit. So let me just rehash these five things I wish someone told me before I became an entrepreneur. Number one, understand that your vision was given specifically to you.

[00:29:53] Don't, you don't care what anybody else says about your vision because guess what? They didn't get that vision. That was given to you by the creator. So don't expect other people to understand. All right. Because it's not going to happen for the most part. Lesson number two, you're really in the marketing business. There are all types of competitors that sell the same products and services as you. What differentiates everybody is your marketing. Okay.

[00:30:20] You have to recognize and understand you are in the marketing business. Number three, solve a problem people are willing to pay for. All right. Solve a problem that people are willing to pay for you to fix. All right. If it doesn't make sense for people to pay for it, guess what? You're not going to be making any money. You'll be out of business. Number four, connect yourself with the entrepreneur community. Connect with an entrepreneur community. You need that support. You need a mentor.

[00:30:49] You need mastermind groups. You need networking. You need to surround yourself with like-minded people that understand the struggles that you're going through. Number five, stay focused on your mission and ignore the outside noise. Head down, mouth shut, follow your course. That's what the Lord told me. Keep your head down, keep your mouth shut and follow your course.

[00:31:17] So stay focused on your mission and ignore the outside noise. Now, I say this each and every week, guys, because it is true. We get more and more downloads because of you, the BEB family. I appreciate you guys so much. Please continue to spread the word about the podcast, the blog, the ecosystem, the online courses, the books, everything designed to help you elevate your entrepreneur IQ. Remember, it's not about me. It's not about you. It's about us.

[00:31:46] 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.