Black Entrepreneur Blueprint 634 – Jay Jones – Pivot To Prosper – How To Get Your Business Unstuck

[00:00:12] 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.

[00:00:41] 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 634.

[00:01:07] I'm your host Jay Jones and today we have another outstanding and informative show in store for you. Today we're going to be doing a rebroadcast of one of our most impactful and downloaded episodes from June of 2025 titled Pivot To Prosper, How To Get Your Business Unstuck. Let's get ready to lock in for today's episode. Today's show topic is Pivot To Prosper, How To Get Your Business Unstuck.

[00:01:35] Pivot To Prosper, How To Get Your Business Unstuck. So if your business is stuck, stagnant or slowly going backwards, it might be the right time for you to make a strategic pivot in your business. And we're going to talk about that today in addition to why most businesses get stuck, recognizing the signs that it's time to pivot and also the power of strategic focus.

[00:02:01] And I'm going to give you some real life examples including one of my own businesses. Now, before we get to today's show content, I just want to share a few things with the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint family. 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 where I'm going to share all my social media contact information and resource links,

[00:02:27] such as the link to the new revised revamped website, blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Guys, make sure you go to the website, click the learn tab, and we have all types of resources about how to scale your business, strategy and mindset, e-commerce, marketing, side hustles, free content for you to help move your business from point A to point B. Now, let's get ready for today's show content.

[00:02:57] So today we're talking about pivoting to prosper and how to get your business unstuck. And this topic came up because this is actually something that I had to do. I've done it before about two years ago and I'm doing it or I'm in the process of doing it right now. So I have multiple businesses. The main ones that I focus on are BEB, Black Entrepreneur Blueprint, that whole ecosystem.

[00:03:26] I have some physical products brands and digital products brands. And also I'm back in the mortgage space. So I have my own mortgage brokerage. And one of the things that I had to do is I really had to pull back and focus and let some of the things that I was doing, let them go by the wayside. So in terms of my physical products and digital products, I paired down a lot of my digital products that basically I call it sun setting.

[00:03:55] They had their time. Some of them are outdated. So I paired a lot of that down with my digital products brand. I'm only focusing on two brands, one of my hot sauce and then my flat iron brand. So I dropped a couple of other brands that were doing okay. And I really wanted to narrow my focus because what I figured, not what I figured, but what I learned was even though I like having multiple balls in the air juggling, I can't do it all.

[00:04:24] And I want to focus on the things that number one, that I'm really hyped about. And number two, that makes sense to me. I'm really narrowing my focus so I can be more intentional and be more profitable as to having too many balls once again up in the air trying to juggle too much. And I really want to focus on things that are going to make an impact. So we'll talk about a little bit of that as we go along in today's show.

[00:04:52] Let's first talk about why most entrepreneurs get stuck. You know, there's a period of time when you're starting a business where finally you think things are going well, everything is moving smoothly, and then you get to a point where you get stuck. So a couple of the reasons are you may have too many irons in the fire and you're doing too much with too little traction. Now that has currently happened to me with one of my physical products brand.

[00:05:22] So I'm pretty much not even going to focus on that anymore. Another way that entrepreneurs get stuck is they're confusing activity with progress. A lot of activity doesn't mean that you're progressing as a business, right? So many times people do what we call busy work. They're doing all types of things that they don't need to be doing. They could hire somebody to do as opposed to doing the main things that are going to move the needle in their business.

[00:05:50] So confusing activity with progress, right? Focus on the things that are going to move the needle and the things that you can delegate or hire out for. Go ahead and do that. Now I understand when you're starting a business, you may not have the funds to do it, but just understand that activity does not mean progress. And another reason why a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck is a lack of clarity of what's really working versus what's just busy work. And that's kind of the same thing.

[00:06:20] What's really working? You have to be able to quantify things versus what's busy work. So I know when I started my business, one of my businesses, I didn't have a lot of money. I was the chief cook and bottle washer. I was doing everything. I was trying to build websites. I was trying to do this, trying to do that. And it got to the point where I was doing busy work, but I wasn't moving my business along.

[00:06:44] One of the things that you need to understand, guys, what are the foundational tools that you need to start your business? Okay. What are the foundational tools that you need? So to give you an example with my new mortgage brokerage firm, I know I needed a website. Obviously, I had to get signed up with lenders. I had to get my licensing, things of that nature. So what are the things or the tools you need to actually do business?

[00:07:12] Just focus on that. Okay. And while you're focusing on that, I would try to build your database or build up an audience where then once everything is finished and you're ready to sell, you have somebody to sell to. So why most entrepreneurs get stuck too many irons in the fire. You're doing too much with no traction or very little traction. You're confusing activity with progress and you lack clarity. All right.

[00:07:42] And you need to have that focus and that clarity. Now, here's some of the signs that it may be time for you to pivot. And I understand guys, when you start a business, it's like having a baby and you're going to carry that baby around. And you think you got the prettiest baby out there. Right. But you may have an ugly baby. Right. Your business may not be pretty. It may be an ugly baby. So here's some signs that'll let you know that you might need to pivot your business.

[00:08:11] Number one, your sales are flatlining or declining. Now, this happened to one of my physical products businesses. And you have to understand that there's a life cycle to everything, to a podcast, to physical products, to digital products. Nothing is going to keep going straight up, up, up and never stop. It's a life cycle. So I use the example of a lot of these recording artists, these singers, right?

[00:08:39] You know, you're never going to be on top. I don't care who you are and how great you are. You will never be on top the whole time throughout your career. Michael Jackson was on top for a long time. But then he started to descend. James Brown, anybody you mentioned. Prince, it doesn't matter who it is. Mariah Carey. You're always going to have an arc to your career and also your business.

[00:09:04] So if your sales are flatlining or declining, that just may be natural. It might be just the life cycle of that product or service. And now it's declining. Another sign that you may need to pivot is you're attracting the wrong type of customers. Sometimes this happens by accident. When we're not focused or intentional about who's our target market, who's our avatar,

[00:09:30] then sometimes we can start focusing our products or services on people that really don't fit who we want to serve. And a lot of that comes from not being able to make the money you want. When your money isn't right, you're trying to expand, well, who else can I sell this to? Without being able to speak the language of your audience or of that avatar, then we try to take the wrong type of customers. We're just trying to make a dollar.

[00:09:59] And when you sell to everybody, you're selling to nobody. Another reason why you might want to pivot is you're getting tired and you're feeling burnt out. And that happens. And so if you've been doing something for a long time, you may be tired of doing what you're doing. You may not have a thrill anymore. You know, I, people ask me, man, you, you've been podcasting for 11 years. I say, yeah, but I enjoy it. I do it once a week, you know, so I'm not over, you know, overdoing it.

[00:10:28] And I truly enjoy what I do. I truly enjoy my mission. And I understand that submission is something that's innate in me. So it's natural for me. I can jump on this microphone at any time and, and, and do a podcast episode literally with two minutes notice. I can pick a topic. I can get on here and I can talk intelligently and convey quality information literally without even setting up anything or using notes.

[00:10:56] And so one of the things is when you lose your passion or feeling for what you're doing or you feel burned out, you may need to pivot. And the last sign, now there's a ton of them, um, that you may need to pivot is you're constantly chasing new tactics instead of refining a strategy. So we all know about the shiny object syndrome, right? Oh, well, anything new that comes out, we're, we're always trying to chase it. Right.

[00:11:23] But once again, you need to refine your strategy. It's just like social media. Now people are moving off of Instagram because they're not getting the response. It happened to Facebook years ago. You used to be able to advertise on Facebook and your reach was, was crazy. Now you advertise on Facebook and Instagram. Your reaches is no, it's nil. People are moving the threads, you know, so things are going to change.

[00:11:49] They're going to be new shiny objects all the time, but you have to be strategic and refine your strategy. So it doesn't matter what the social media platform is per se. What's the one or two platforms that are working best for you. And you work on that and you stay on that until it's time for you to change. Okay. And what we're talking about today, guys, is pivot to prosper, how to get your business unstuck. We talked about why most entrepreneurs get stuck.

[00:12:19] I just gave you guys a couple of signs when it's time to pivot. And now I'm going to talk about the power of strategic focus, focus. And people use the acronym follow one course until successful focus. And as entrepreneurs, I did a show on this several years ago. You know, I don't know about, about everybody else, but I know I have entrepreneur ADD, right? Sometimes it's hard for me to focus.

[00:12:47] I'm doing research on one thing. And by the time I finished an hour later, I got a whole new business idea. Something I wasn't even thinking about because that's the way my mind works. So the power of strategic focus, that's something as an entrepreneur, you're going to need to learn how to control. Okay.

[00:13:07] So simplify to amplify, simplify to amplify how focusing on one problem or one product or one niche creates momentum. All right. The power of strategic focus. And these are, this is just a tip simplify to amplify. I did a podcast episode years ago where it was titled, get smaller to get bigger, right?

[00:13:35] A lot of people, especially during COVID, they were out there trying to be, you know, the next TV stars or whatever. My thing is in order for me to grow at the podcast and the whole BEB equal ecosystem, it wasn't about me getting bigger. It was about my systems getting bigger or allowing the BEB ecosystem to be bigger, get smaller. That was in my spirit so I could get bigger. It's not about me.

[00:14:04] It's about the BEB ecosystem. I'm just a part of that ecosystem, even though I created it, but simplify to amplify how focusing on one problem or one product or one niche can help create momentum. So instead of juggling all these, these bottles in the air, maybe you put two of them down and focus on one, get some traction. This is something that I tell my, my coaching students all the time, because once again,

[00:14:34] we have a lot of ideas. Oh, I'm doing this, this, this, and this. No, let's focus on getting something working first. That's going to give you a consistent revenue stream. Once you do that and have mastered that, and you have that revenue streaming, now you can go to something else, preferably an ancillary product or service, something that's going to play off of what you just created. Okay. So simplify to amplify.

[00:15:03] So example, um, a business focused on a single client avatar can trip with revenue in six months, as opposed to a company focusing on three or four different avatars. All right. So if you focus, you can go deeper, right? If you go wide, you're not going to go as deep. You'll get more people, but you won't have that penetration. So focus on a single client avatar one at a time.

[00:15:33] I use the example on multiple, uh, shows about an insole company that I started years ago and I was selling insoles. If you haven't heard the story, I'll give you a brief, brief overview. My daughters in high school, middle school, high school, whatever they used to feel hockey was their game. Right. So, you know, club teams, AAU teams, summer leagues, high school teams, all of that stuff.

[00:16:00] So we were at a tournament one time in Naples, Florida for, for the girls AAU team. And, uh, my oldest daughter, uh, had insoles because she had a flat feet and her feet were bothering her. So we go and, uh, I go to the doctor, get some insoles right before we go to Naples, Florida, go down there. And, um, it's like, she's doing well, feet are good. She's, she's, she's balling out of control.

[00:16:27] And, um, I was talking to somebody else and they were saying, Oh yeah. Um, my daughter got insoles too. Now mine costs like $400 from the orthopedist. And she was like, Oh yeah, we got them offline for like $15. And I looked at them and they literally were the same, uh, same, uh, same insole. And I said, this is ridiculous. So now I said, mine starts working at ADD kicking in. And I'm like, you know what?

[00:16:56] A lot of people could use these insoles. It made a great difference in Erica's feet. And so then I started thinking about, well, who else could use insoles? And I was like, okay, I know this market field hockey players, you know, who else is on their feet a lot? Oh yeah. People that like to run, they're joggers. They could be competitive joggers or just, you know, jogging for fun. Then I was like, okay, that's another avatar. Then I thought about how about waiters and waitresses that are getting tips that are on

[00:17:26] their feet all day. The better their personal disposition, the more tips they're going to make. If their feet are hurting and it's killing them, you're not going to be as cheerful. So I had three different avatars for the same product. Now, in order to be successful selling these products to three different avatars, you have to micro message. Same product, but your conversation and messaging to each one of these different avatars is totally different.

[00:17:54] I'm talking to a waiter or waitress. The conversation may be something like, hey, you want to make more tips? You know, do your eight, 10 hour shift. Your feet feel great. You have a smile on your face that conveys to your customers. You're going to get more tips. I talked to a field hockey player. Oh, in order to score more goals, to be more effective, to get back on defense, to improve your scoring, help your team win. These are the insoles. Okay. It's a totally different conversation.

[00:18:25] So focus on a single client avatar as opposed to a broad, multiple avatars at first. Get an avatar that works, make that messaging work. And then you start to move into and deal with other avatars, the power of strategic focus. All right. So there's a myth of multitasking in business growth. Not everybody can do it, right?

[00:18:52] I'm blessed in that respect because the way my mind works, I need to be overstimulated or super busy. So if I don't have enough to do, or I don't think I have enough to do, then I'm not going to work at maximum efficiency. I need several plates in the air that I'm juggling. That's just the way I operate. Other people need singular focus. Now you have to understand yourself and know yourself.

[00:19:19] But one of the things I did recognize was I can't have too many plates in the air because I'm not going to master everything. I'll be okay at multiple things. But if I focus, I can master one thing at a time. Okay. So the myth of multitasking in business growth isn't necessarily true, but you have to know yourself as an entrepreneur and as a person. And how do you function at your highest level?

[00:19:45] Like I said, I'm, I like to be more busy than less busy. I like to have too many things on my plate than not enough on my plate. And that's how I work at maximum efficiency. That's just me. Now let's talk about how do you pivot the right way? How do you pivot the right way? When I say pivot guys, I'm not saying that you necessarily scrap your entire business,

[00:20:11] but you may think about the different products or services that you offer. You may think about your delivery mechanisms. You may think about what you're selling. Does it make sense? Is there something else that's better? Can you add something to what you're doing or your, your process or systems? So let's talk about how to pivot the right way. The first thing you want to do, you want to audit what's working and audit what's not working. What is working in your business?

[00:20:41] And this is why it's so imperative guys for you to have a database because that database is going to allow you to test things. It can test new product offers. You can go and you can do, um, ask for a survey. The, your audience, your avatar is going to tell you what they like, what they don't like, uh, what, and what they want. Same thing with BEB.

[00:21:05] When I started the podcast, I didn't monetize the podcast for over two, about two and a half years because I needed to see what people wanted. I wasn't just going to come out there and start trying to sell stuff. I let the BEB family say, Hey man, I hear you talking about this. I'm interested in learning how to do e-commerce. I'm interested in learning how to do this or that or whatever.

[00:21:28] So you have to listen to your audience and you need to audit what's working and also what's draining your resources. So if you're, you have a product out there that it's like your baby, you love it. And it's costing you all of this money to get the product out there. People aren't gravitating to it and you're losing money. Guess what? It's draining your resources. You may love that product or service, but the customer don't. Your audience doesn't.

[00:21:57] So audit what's working and what's draining your resources. And this is how you pivot the right way. Second step, clarify your unique value proposition and target audience. Clarify your unique value proposition and target audience. What is your unique value proposition? Okay. Who is your target audience? And I just talked about micro messaging.

[00:22:26] You may have, um, and a large general audience, but in that audience, you may have different clicks or factions of that audience. You need to understand how to communicate with each of those factions, but clarify your unique value proposition. Your unique value proposition is it communicates why a customer should choose a particular brand over its competitors.

[00:22:53] So for example, Nike says, just do it, which focuses on motivation and empowerment. Uh, Domino's pizza guarantees 30 minute delivery promise. Domino's fresh hot pizza delivered at your door in 30 minutes or less, or it's free. Uh, let's see Apple iPhone. The experience is the product. Uh, Uber, the smartest way to get around. Now, so what is your unique value proposition? Okay.

[00:23:21] So it has to match with your target audience. So with my hot sauce, right? Hell yeah. Hot sauce. The name says it all. Hell yeah. The name says it all. That's the tagline. So basically it's telling you it's the best hot sauce out there. So this is how you pivot the right way. Number one, audit what's working and what's draining your resources. Number two, clarify your unique value proposition and target audience.

[00:23:48] Number three, realign your offers to match demand. Realign your offers to match demand. You have to give the offers that your audience wants, right? Not what you want. It's what your audience want. All right. And I say this all the time. I give people what they want more so than what they need, right? A lot of people know they need things, but people are going to do what they want more so than what they need.

[00:24:18] I'm going to tell you what you need. I'm going to give you an option to get what you need, but I'm going to give you what you want, right? Most people know they need to eat better to be healthier, right? They know they need to do it, but do they want to do it? No. And most people have a hard time staying disciplined, myself included, when it comes to diet, exercise, and things of that nature, unless you make a total life-changing commitment.

[00:24:45] So realign your offers to match your demand. And the only way you're going to know what the demand is, is by having an audience and interacting with that audience. I keep telling you guys over and over and over again, you need a database. That's the biggest and most important thing in your business. You need an audience or a database so they can tell you, hey, Jay, this is what we want. Well, Jay, nah, we don't want that, man.

[00:25:13] But if you don't have that, you're just going to be, you know, throwing darts against the wall, blindfolded. So you need to understand, you need to realign your offers to match your demand. Number four on how to pivot the right way. Create a 90-day pivot plan. You want to focus, execute, and refine. Create a 90-day pivot plan. My business isn't going well. Why isn't the business going well? My sales are down.

[00:25:42] Why are my sales down? Are my products what my customers or my audience want? Yes or no? If not, then you need to survey your audience. Find out what they want. Do you need to have an ancillary product or service that goes along with your primary product or service? That's another way you can test, okay? So you already have an audience. They've purchased something from you. Is there a follow-up product or service?

[00:26:11] So with my hot sauce, right? I'll be coming out with barbecue sauce soon. A whole brand of barbecue sauce. So people, we'll see if it works. It may, it may not. But hopefully the quality is good and hopefully the people will want it. So that's number four. Create a 90-day pivot plan. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. You don't have to create or write the treaties of Versailles or anything like that. It could be on one or two pieces of paper, all right?

[00:26:41] Focus, execute, refine. And number five, don't pivot out of desperation. Pivot from a place of strategy. Don't pivot out of desperation. Pivot out of a place of strategy. Many times, guys, we wait until we're in a desperate situation and we have to figure something out. Now, if you see that your sales are declining, right? If you see that your money's getting short, you know there's a problem.

[00:27:11] Remember I talked about recognizing the signs it's time to pivot. Your sales are flattening or declining. You're attracting the wrong type of customers. You're losing passion or feeling burnt out. You're constantly chasing new tactics instead of refining a strategy. These are some of the signs that it's time to pivot. So don't pivot out of desperation, guys. Pivot from a place of strategy. And the way that you know or that you can check the temperature of your business, guys,

[00:27:40] is KPIs, key performance indicators. Sales is always a good one, right? Man, I hadn't made sales in three weeks. I wonder what's going on, right? Or people are returning your products or services. People aren't responding the way they used to respond. So don't pivot out of desperation, guys. Pivot from a place of strategy. And I do this every several years, guys. I sit down.

[00:28:08] I actually do it once a year, but I really get into it probably every two years. I sit down and reassess where I am as a business and where I am personally. And is my business helping me get to where I want to be? All right. So I've thought about, I've been doing this 11 plus years. I still enjoy it. But I thought about, man, when am I going to stop doing the podcast on a weekly basis? When am I going to give it up? You know, I have no idea. I still enjoy it.

[00:28:37] So no time soon. It's just like Oprah, when she stopped her TV show after 25 years, it was time to do something else. So you have to understand, guys, when is it time to pivot? And what I look at is my business helping me fulfill my lifestyle. I plan. I base my business around my lifestyle, not my lifestyle around my business. Did that before. And it was it was crazy.

[00:29:07] I remember my wife was telling me we were a whole family. I took them on vacation to Turks and Caicos years ago, spent all this money. And she's like, dude, you're on your phone or you're on your laptop, you know, every day for a couple hours. You're not even giving yourself a chance to relax. Isn't that what we came here for? The girls are like, yeah, where's dad? Dad's up in the room working.

[00:29:33] So I had to recognize and understand that's not what I wanted from my business. I want my business to give me freedom and flexibility and unlimited income. I want my business to help help, you know, create my lifestyle. That's the only reason I have a business is to help my lifestyle. I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it with who I want to do it. And I want to serve the audience that I want to serve.

[00:29:59] And the only way you're going to be able to do that is if your business supports your lifestyle. Okay, not your lifestyle supporting your business. That business needs to function in a way that makes the creates the lifestyle that you want. So after I almost lost it, uh, the second time in the mortgage business, you know, I talked about this on multiple occasions. I have 50 plus employees.

[00:30:26] I have two of my, you know, two business partners, uh, center city office, downtown Philly, 15, 12, $15,000 a month in rent, uh, a hundred plus thousand dollars in payroll, you know, 50 employees, uh, big office on the top floor. Yeah. It looked good until it didn't. Right. I don't want anything close to that anymore. My, my, the, what I want is totally different.

[00:30:56] So funny with, with my new mortgage brokerage firm is just me and I have a VA and I have a processor. So I make it rain, bring the deals in, hand them off to my process and my virtual assistant. So I'm not doing it all. I don't want a lot of employees. I always joke around and said, I already got kids. I don't need any more. I don't want to be responsible for anybody else.

[00:31:22] I don't need to go into center city, Philadelphia every day in a big ass office. Even though I do have a, we work in Philly, I may go in there into my office two or three times a week. And it is normally just to have meetings or whatever. If I need some, some solitude or other than that, I'll be working either at my house or sometimes I just like to go to the library and work if I'm working on some projects. So once again, guys, you don't pivot out of desperation.

[00:31:51] You pivot from a place of strategy. And the only way you're going to not pivot out of desperation is if you catch the clues or the signs that you are about to falter, the signs that your business is slowing down. So you need to be proactive. And when you see that with your key performance indicators, the response level, how much response do you get from your audience when you're sending emails? Are your sales still looking the same?

[00:32:21] Do you get the same amount of traction or feedback when you do posts? You know, uh, so when you post about certain topics or subject, are the, are those posts getting great response? Are they getting traction versus when you talk about another subject? So these are some of the telltale signs guys that you're going to need to be, uh, uh, on top of to understand how to pivot, not out of desperation, but out of strategy.

[00:32:49] Now, before we get to the last segment of the show, guys, real quick, let me just share all my social media contact information and resource links. Everything I'm about to tell you is on the website, blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. I mentioned at the top of the show, go to the website, hit the learn tab guys. We have free resources to move you from point A to point B.

[00:33:12] Anything that you need to do to elevate your entrepreneur IQ is on the website, blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Now, if you want to connect with me anything long, hit me on my email, jjones at blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Instagram, I got two IG accounts. The first one is jjonesforreal. The second one is blackentrepreneurblueprint.

[00:33:35] Twitter or X, you can connect with me at jjones, J-A-Y-J-O-N-E-S-0-0-1. LinkedIn, connect with me there, jjones. Just type in jjones, blackentrepreneurblueprint. And every time it's jjones, it's always J-A-Y-J-O-N-E-S. Okay, what else is there? Oh, YouTube guys. Don't forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel. I have additional content on YouTube that is not on the podcast.

[00:34:05] So make sure you go to the YouTube channel, type in blackentrepreneurblueprint, hit that subscribe button. And for all you first time listeners, wherever you're watching this or listening to this, make sure you hit the subscribe button. We drop a new episode every Monday morning, 5 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on all your major podcast platforms and YouTube. So make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any of this new heat every Monday, 5 a.m.

[00:34:33] Eastern Standard Time. Now, in this last segment, guys, I just want to kind of capsulize things. And we talked today about Pivot to Prosper, how to get your business unstuck. So I always say that there's no such thing as standing still in your business. It's like sitting in a lake or an ocean. You're either going to be moving forward or you're going backwards. If you're not doing anything, guess what's going to happen? You're going to be moving backwards.

[00:35:01] If you're not doing the right things, guess what's going to happen? You're going to be moving backwards. So you have to continue to roll and push forward. So that's where you are as an entrepreneur. You have to continue to move, grow and evolve as an entrepreneur. You have to be strategic. And many times, once again, we hit a ceiling or a place that we or a hump we can't get over when it comes to business. It could be revenue. It could be new clients.

[00:35:31] It could be whatever. But you need to understand, guys, one of the key factors in growing and scaling a business is your database. That database is so tied in to your revenue and growth. Okay. I tell people the number one statistic I look at every morning is not what's in my bank account, but how many new subscribers I put on to my list. I have multiple businesses.

[00:36:00] I have multiple lead magnets. I have multiple lists. And I'm telling you, there is a correlation with the more people that I put on, the more money is going to be in my bank account. Okay. I'm trying to explain some foundational principles to you guys. You have to build your database. Okay.

[00:36:22] And I'm not talking about your Instagram, your Twitter followers or, you know, whatever, TikTok followers, all of that stuff. That's good. Leverage those social media platforms to bring people on your list. There's so many horror stories and many BEB family members have reached out to me. They built their business on a social media platform and got shut down by the platform, either for something they did wrong or nothing at all.

[00:36:52] I talked to a brother who had his Facebook ads account shut down. They didn't even tell him why. That's actually happened to me before. I had a Facebook ads account shut down. They were like, oh, you didn't follow the terms of service. I didn't even run any ads on it. What are you talking about? Same thing happened on a native advertising platform. I was on. I was like, what are you talking about? I just opened this up. I didn't even run any ads and they shut me down.

[00:37:20] A lot of that stuff is done by computers and you're not going to be able to get in touch with anybody. All right. Here's a real crazy thing. My, uh, my cousin, uh, unfortunately my, my first cousin's son passed away. He had a business, uh, doing pretty well in the business. And, uh, when he passed away, nobody else knew his, his codes to his Gmail with his Google accounts for his business accounts.

[00:37:46] And it's crazy because my oldest daughter works for Google. She couldn't even help him out. And she pointed him into the direction of somebody in high up in the food chain. And it literally took them four months for him to get, uh, be able to reset that email. And they miss all types of orders and business, man. You gotta be in control of your platform.

[00:38:12] So when I talk about building a database is you gotta have an email database. If you're able to get phone numbers, you need that something that you control and own. You don't control and own any social media platform. You may have a ton of followers there, but leverage that platform to bring them on your email database to get. So you can, uh, text them, email them, SMS, whatever it is.

[00:38:38] So in terms of being able to build your audience where you control it, there's not that many platforms out there or vehicles podcasting. Nobody can stop me from podcasting, right? As long as I pay my, my podcast, uh, bill to Libsyn who, uh, who I run my podcast through. Guess what? I can podcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Email database. As long as you pay your email provider, guess what?

[00:39:06] You can email stuff out SMS text provider. You can do that. Newsletters. You, you own that. You control that control your database. That will help you scale. I'm telling you guys, if you focus on building your database with lead, uh, you know, with lead magnets and, and having people opt in for quality content or information. And it doesn't have to be anything crazy.

[00:39:33] Hey, listen to the latest podcast episode about such and such, which is going to help you do a, B and C. Sign up for that. It could be a PDF, a checklist, a cheat sheet, whatever it is. Build your database because now you have the audience. And remember what I was talking about, guys. The audience is going to tell you what they want and what they don't want.

[00:39:57] The audience is going to let you know why your sales are declining because you can send out a survey via email. Man, you know, we don't like this new program you got because of such and such. You know, it's funny. It's just like when you'll find it, find out in the sales. It's just like years ago they had this, uh, new diet. No, it was a new Coke or new Pepsi or something like that. People couldn't stand it. That thing lasted for maybe a couple of months and, and, and the public has spoken.

[00:40:27] So recognize and understand guys that it's better to be a pivot out of not out of desperation, but out of strategy. And the way, you know, it's time to pivot. I gave you guys some signs, but you have key performance indicators that are going to tell you that, Hey, this isn't working anymore. This is slowing down. And whatever those KPIs are, key performance indicators. Once again, sales is always a big one.

[00:40:54] Your returns and people are returning your products or services, uh, social media comments, your ratings. Those are things that people are going to let you know. Hey man, we don't like this, but that's what you need. You need to be cognizant on today's topic, guys, pivot to prosper, how to get your business unstuck. So if you've hit a wall or a plateau, or you're going backwards about the sink, you need to make a move. All right.

[00:41:23] You need to be cognizant of what you need to do and focus. Remember refocus, realign, reposition your business for growth. Narrow your focus and stop having too many plates in the air that you're juggling. All right. Now I say this each and every week family, because it's true. We get more and more downloads because of you, the BEB family. I love you guys and appreciate you so much.

[00:41:48] Please continue to spread the word about the podcast, the, the, all the online courses, the BEB ecosystem, which is 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.