Black Entrepreneur Blueprint 647 - Jay Jones - Betting On Yourself With No Guarantees - 8 Ways To Stack The Odds In Your Favor

[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 a business.

[00:00:38] supporting black owned businesses. 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.

[00:00:56] Welcome to the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint episode number 647. 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 betting on yourself with no guarantees, eight ways to stack the odds in your favor.

[00:01:24] Guys, every entrepreneur faces that defining moment when they decide that hey I'm going to bet on myself. When we do that, we put ourselves at risk. But what we're going to discuss today is eight ways that we can put the odds in our favor.

[00:01:44] So if you're about to walk that tightrope with no net under you, make sure you tune in and stay locked into this episode. Also share the episode with anybody in your network that you think needs it. Now before we get to today's show content, let me just 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.

[00:02:12] And I'm going to share all my social media contact information and resources like the new revised BEB website. Make sure you go to blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Check out the new website. We have all types of resources that are free and paid that can help you level up your entrepreneur IQ and help you move from point A to point B. So go to blackentrepreneurblueprint.com for the new website. Now let's get ready for today's show content.

[00:02:43] So today we're talking about betting on yourself with no guarantees, eight ways to stack the odds in your favor. Now the biggest gamble guys may be doing nothing. So everybody talks about how risky entrepreneurship is, but let me ask you guys something. Isn't it risky to put your entire financial future in the hands of an employer? Isn't it risky to depend on one paycheck, one company, or one person to determine how much money you can make?

[00:03:11] So there's always risk in everything you do and the things that you don't do. So why is betting on yourself scary? Number one, you have the fear of the unknown. So that fear keeps a lot of people from creating a successful life or a successful business. You don't know how or if your business is going to succeed, how long it's going to take, what type of obstacles are in the way, or how much money you can make.

[00:03:39] So that's one of the biggest reasons why people are scared to bet on themselves. Also fear of financial loss. You're risking your money, your time, your resources, and potentially your financial stability. And that's scary. Fear of judgment. You have friends and family, colleagues that may question your decisions. You know, once again, if you are a civilian, and there's nothing wrong with being a civilian,

[00:04:03] I call a civilian, somebody works the nine to five that has no aspirations of being an entrepreneur. And so they may judge you saying, hey, why are you going out on your own when you're making good money in corporate America? Also, there's fear of failure. You know, what happens if you try and it doesn't work? So you always want to have a backup plan or a plan B, something just in case this doesn't work.

[00:04:28] Now, you don't want to be relying on that because many times when you do have a plan B, you don't put enough effort into the original plan and you end up falling back. Now, some entrepreneurs say they have no plan B, that they have to make this work. Now, you have to determine if this is something that you're able to do. Some people's risk tolerance are a lot higher than others. Some people's goals and desires are, hey, it's either this or nothing.

[00:04:56] So you have to determine before you start what type of risk tolerance that you have. For me, I knew it was time to leave corporate America because I got disenchanted with all the corporate bureaucracy and the BS going on and I wasn't fulfilled. Now, one of the things that happened to me was I left corporate America, had a nice little run for about three years. I had to come back to corporate, left corporate again, had another nice run for a couple years,

[00:05:24] had to come back to corporate for about another year and then I was finally able to break out. So I get it. Sometimes things don't go as you want them to go and you have to pivot. But the eventual goal was to go back out on my own. So I understand there's risk involved and you have to be strategic about it, right? I'm not telling you, hey, if you don't like your job today, just quit your job and say to hell with it and I'm out, have some type of plan.

[00:05:52] And we'll talk about that a little bit later on. But I just knew that if I wanted to take my future and my family's future into my own hands, that this is the only way to do it. You know, I got tired of the bosses that were, I hate to say it, that were less experienced than me, that were not as smart as me when it came to entrepreneurship, excuse me, when it came to business. And I'm listening to these guys and I'm seeing right through them.

[00:06:18] When you have a leader that you know that you're smarter than and better than, it's kind of hard to work for people like that. You have to, you know, suck up your pride and move forward. But when you work for somebody and you know they don't know what they're really doing, it's hard to follow that. Even in sports, right? If you have a coach that the coach isn't that good and you know what he's teaching you or how he's coaching is wrong, it's not going to get maximum efficiency from that team,

[00:06:48] it's hard to follow that because you know there's a better way. And that's what happened to me. I knew there was a better way for me. Now, that better way doesn't necessarily mean an easier way. The better way was more aligned with how I'm built. So yes, there have been trials and tribulations. And I say it all the time, guys. I've seen the highs and the lows of entrepreneurship. I almost lost it all twice, foreclosure, everything.

[00:07:13] But I was blessed to be able to build it back up each time that everything went to pot. And so it's not an easy path. But if it's your path, you need to follow that path. Now, let's talk about eight ways that can mitigate some of that risk or stack the odds more in your favor. And I don't want you, when I say odds, to say that you're gambling. You want to be strategic. And that's what these eight points or these eight tips are about

[00:07:42] to make it more strategic for you. All right. Tip number one, validate before you invest. Excuse me. Validate before you invest. Don't confuse a good idea, guys, with a profitable business. There's a difference between a good idea and a profitable business. You need to test, right? Find out whether people have a problem they're willing to pay you to solve. Do they have a problem that you can solve? And are they willing to pay you? All right.

[00:08:12] You want to test your demand before you invest a significant amount of money or time or resources into your idea. Okay. And also, for example, if you sell a service manually before investing in software to automate it. So that's something that you can do. So validate before you invest. And I always talk about test, test, test, and test again. Right. And you're a mad scientist. You got your lab coat on. And you want to test to validate.

[00:08:42] And the true validation, I always say that, is if somebody goes in the hip pocket national, takes that money out, and pays for your product or service. All right. So the best validation isn't applause or somebody, you know, doing something or saying this is a great idea. It's somebody opening their wallet. All right. And you can test. And you can test very easily today with websites, landing pages, video sales letters, everything.

[00:09:12] There's so much technology that will enable you to test and offer to see if it works. So here's what you do. If you have a service you're selling, see if anybody buys the service first before you go out and invest a lot of money, create a landing page, drive traffic, whatever you need to do to see if it's validating. All right. So number one, validate before you invest. Number two, calculate your risk before taking the leap.

[00:09:41] Calculate your risk before taking the leap. Know your personal and business expenses. Now I'm going to say this. You will never know your true business expenses until you get in and start a business. You can have estimates, but I promise you from experience, 25 years plus as a serial entrepreneur, your expenses are probably going to be more than you anticipate because they're things that you don't understand or don't even know yet that you need.

[00:10:10] So calculate your risk before taking the leap. Understanding how much of a runway you have in terms of financial runway. So do you have six months of expenses put aside? Do you have a year of expenses put aside? Do you not have any expenses put aside? You know, sometimes people start businesses because they get laid off. They get fired and they're not necessarily prepared to start that business financially. So calculate the risk before taking the leap.

[00:10:40] Don't put yourself or your family in unnecessary financial jeopardy. Now it's going to be jeopardy period, but not unnecessary jeopardy. So try to plan in advance. And here's a real life example. When I first started an ADT security dealership. So I sold security systems. I had two offices. Now I planned everything before I left corporate America.

[00:11:06] This is after I came out of corporate America, had a nice run for three years, went back to corporate America and had to figure out my next move. So when I came out next time, I was an ADT dealer. And what I did was I got an office, you know, this is while I was still working. I actually bought furniture. I bought computers. I bought telephones. I had the whole setup in my basement. Physically had everything.

[00:11:31] Every paycheck I got, I would allot certain amount of dollars to go and prepare my office. So before I left, I signed the lease on a new office. I had all the equipment and this took over about six to eight months. I had all the equipment. Everything was set up. And then when I gave my, my letter of resignation, that literally that was on a Friday, that Monday, I had opened my new office. Everything was ready to go. All right.

[00:11:58] So, you know, calculate your risk before taking the leap and you want to make sure that you do things strategically. Okay. That's number two. And what we're talking about, betting on yourself with no guarantees, eight ways to stack the odds in your favor. Number three, master the skills that generate revenue. Master the skills that generate revenue. You want to learn marketing, sales, lead generation, and communication.

[00:12:26] Marketing, sales, lead generation, and communication. All right. I talk ad nauseum about lead generation because no leads equals no sales equals no money. So if you cannot generate qualified leads, I don't care what business you're in. You're not going to be successful. So you need to understand how to attract prospects and convert them into paying customers. And that's where your funnel comes in.

[00:12:53] I know people make funnels super, you know, super hard nowadays. Funnels are not hard to create. You have to have generate leads to a landing page or some type of source of information. And then that source of information, which could be a landing page, has to help convert them. Something simple as running Facebook ads to a landing page. Say you're selling some type of service, CPA or accounting services. All right.

[00:13:21] You run ads to your landing page and say you're offering a free consultation or whatever. And based on that, that's simply a lead funnel. Okay. And you want to convert those leads. I'm not going to get deep into lead funnels, but that's simple. Something that's simple that you need to be able to master. You have to master the skills to generate revenue. All right. So develop skills that you can monitor monetize across multiple businesses. Lead generation.

[00:13:49] If you learn how to generate leads for yourself, you can learn how to generate leads from business A, business B. If you create a new business and you can also generate leads for other people, people will pay you for lead generation. So don't become so focused on creating products that you forget how to sell the products. All right. One of the biggest problems I see, uh, people have a new product or a business idea and all they focus on is the product or the idea.

[00:14:16] And then once that product or idea is finished, they absolutely have nobody to sell it to. They scratch their heads and be like, all right, well, who am I going to sell it to? So before you create the product or while you're creating your product or service, start building your database, start building a list of prospects. Okay. And I'm not going to get into all of that because that literally is another whole episode by itself. But number three, master the skills that generate revenue.

[00:14:45] And you need to be able to have a lead generation system. That is the biggest thing you need. No leads equals no sales equals no business. Number four, build assets that you own and control. Build assets that you own and control. Develop your own email list and your customer database. Guys, I keep telling you, you don't build a business on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook.

[00:15:14] Are they tools to build your business? Absolutely. But if you get shut down on Instagram and that's the only form of communication you have with your clients, guess what? You're not able to communicate with them anymore because you shut down. You know, a cautionary tale. I say this and I've said it on many podcast episodes. I had a client of mine that built their business solely on Instagram.

[00:15:38] Her competitor who she was killing in the market had his followers go and file complaints on Instagram and literally got her account shut down and she lost her business. And this was a side business, 10 to 15 grand a month because she didn't build on her own platform. Build assets you own and control. Develop your own email list.

[00:16:02] That I'm telling you guys, your database is the biggest asset you have to your business. All right. When Borders Bookstores went out of business, Barnes and Nobles didn't buy their books. They didn't buy that inventory and they didn't lease their properties. They bought their database out of bankruptcy. That's how important the database is. It's your biggest asset. That's why Amazon has Amazon Prime Days. That's why they make so much money.

[00:16:29] All they're doing is they're turning on promotions and discounts to the list or database of Amazon customers, which are us. Hey, we got Amazon Prime Days. We have all these different promos, specials and discounts. They're turning it on. Amazon doesn't even let you talk to your customers. If you sell on Amazon, you will never get their email from Amazon. Excuse me.

[00:16:54] You'll have to have an encrypted way in Amazon's back office to even speak to a customer that bought a product from you. Amazon will tell you up front, if you sell on Amazon's platform, we're charging you to use our customer database. All right. You can have sell whatever you want, potions, lotions, whatever. But this is Amazon's customers and their Amazon's data. So that's what you have to understand. Build assets that you own and control, right?

[00:17:24] Create products or intellectual property and repeatable processes. You don't rely exclusively on social media platforms, as I said before. So some of the ways to own and control your assets. This podcast, nobody can stop me from connecting with you via the podcast. Nobody can shut me down. All right. If you have an email list, nobody can shut you down from emailing your people. If you have a newsletter, same thing.

[00:17:50] There's all types of ways that you can control your assets and build your database. That's number four. And we're talking about betting on yourself with no guarantees. Eight ways to stack the odds in your favor. Number one, validate before you invest. Number two, calculate your risk before taking the leap. Number three, master the skills that generate revenue. Number four, build assets you own and control. And number five, create systems that make success repeatable.

[00:18:18] Create systems that make success repeatable. I know everybody talks about that, that hustle mentality. The hustle mentality is good, but systems guys are what creates wealth. Creating systems that make success repeatable. Document how you attract leads, how you follow up, how you close sales and how you serve your customers. Automate the repetitive task where it makes financial sense. All right.

[00:18:45] You want to have automation, create a process that produces consistent results. Those are all from systems. The three systems that you need to start with are number one, your lead generation system, your fulfillment system, number two, and your referral system. Number three, there's tons of systems you need, right? Lead generation, fulfillment, and referral. Those are the three systems you need. I talked about it earlier.

[00:19:15] A lead generation system can be something as simple as you running Facebook ads to a landing page where people qualify themselves. And then you have a specific call to action. If they meet your specific requirements to be a quote unquote qualified lead, click this button to schedule a free consultation or whatever your call to action is. That is a lead generation system, a fulfillment system.

[00:19:42] That's a system where you fulfill your sales. So if it's a physical product, you want to make sure when somebody buys the product that the product is pick packed and shipped and it is fulfilled. It could be by Amazon. It could be by a shipping partner. It could be by you, by you yourself. But once again, you want to systematize it. And the other system I talked about, guys, is the referral system. How to make more money from your current customer base, right?

[00:20:11] So if you have happy customers, why wouldn't you create an affiliate system, affiliate program, a referral system, or something that's going to help, you know, generate more sales by using your happy customers, maybe giving them a discount, right? Things of that nature. So number five, create systems that make success repeatable. When you have to hustle all the time and you're doing everything manually, there's only

[00:20:38] a certain level that you're going to get to until you learn how to systemize. Once you systematize everything or most things that are important, now you can grow and scale. That's where scaling comes in, okay? So that's number five. Number six, make small bets before making big bets, all right? Launch small, test instead of waiting to build the perfect product, minimum viable product or service, right?

[00:21:06] So number six, make small bets before making big bets. Don't go all in until you understand or recognize if this is going to work, all right? So launch small tests instead of waiting to build the perfect product or service. Get real world feedback as quickly as possible. I know beta groups and surveys, all of that stuff helps. But once again, the true test is when somebody goes in their pocket for your product or service.

[00:21:33] You want to double down on what works, guys, and eliminate what does not work. So making small bets before making big bets. Treat unsuccessful experiments as information rather than failure. Remember, you're a mad scientist. So if this doesn't work, guess what? All right, I know this doesn't work. Oh, but this works and this even works even better. So once again, make small bets before making big bets. Don't go all in.

[00:22:02] So when I'm selling my physical products, I have a formula that I use. So if I make, say I profit, just say $30 on one product, right? So, and this is after advertising and marketing. I know my numbers. So what I'll do is if I make $30 profit on this one product, I'm only going to spend $30 a day in advertising to see if I can get one sale for that same $30.

[00:22:29] Now, if it costs me $30 to make a sale and I only profit $30, my net is zero, right? Great. But what I'm trying to do is, hey, if now I've learned how to tweak my marketing and advertising where now it only costs me $10 and I make 30, then I'm profiting $20, right? So you have to test with my hair flat irons.

[00:22:52] At one point during holiday season, I was using Amazon pay-per-click and I was spending $1,500 a day in advertising. Now people are like, my God, you're spending $1,500 a day. I'm like, yeah, I'm spending $1,500 a day to make five or $6,000 a day. So it's a great trade-off, but I didn't start off spending $1,500 a day. I start off spending 30, 50, 100, 200.

[00:23:21] And as I was able to scale and I was able to keep being profitable, I built up to spending $1,500 a day. I didn't start out that way. So once again, number six, make small bets before making big bets. Number seven, learn from people who've already done what you're trying to do. Learn from people who've already done what you're trying to do. Surround yourself guys with experienced entrepreneurs and operators.

[00:23:50] If you want to see how something is done, then learn it from somebody that has done it. Right? I always talk about knowledge versus know-how. You can acquire knowledge anyway. You can watch somebody do something. You can listen to something. You can read a manual. So you'll have knowledge of it. But until you know how to do it, you're not going to be effective. So talk to people, work with people that know how to accomplish what you want to accomplish.

[00:24:18] Find mentors who have achieved the results that you want, right? Not just people who give you advice. Advice is good. But you also want mentors of people that have walked the walk, that understand intimately what it takes to be successful in what you're trying to do. You also want to learn from your mistakes. So learn from, excuse me, their mistakes so you can avoid those costly errors, right? So learn from people who've already done what you're trying to do.

[00:24:47] And I'm not saying don't listen to advice, but I always talk about my mom's favorite thing she used to always tell us was remember the source. So remember the source of the information. Where did the information come from? Did it come from somebody that has already done what you're trying to do? Did it come from an outside source? Did it come from a source that's really hating on you?

[00:25:12] So there's all types of sources and you have to understand and recognize what that source is for exactly what it is. Somebody that may be a hater. Oh man, you're never going to be able to do that. You know, that's a dumb idea versus somebody that's done exactly what you're trying to do versus somebody that genuinely wants you to be successful. Remember the source. So number seven, learn from people who've already done what you're trying to do.

[00:25:41] Number eight, stay consistent, but know when to pivot. Stay consistent, but know when to pivot. Understand that entrepreneurship, guys, it's a long game. It is a long journey. Nothing happens overnight. Like, for example, podcasting. You know, people talk about me. Oh, I want to get into podcasting. You're not going to see results in podcasting overnight.

[00:26:07] I've been rocking 647 episodes, 12 plus years, and it took time to build and get that momentum. So stay consistent, but know when to pivot. Don't abandon a viable business, guys, simply because your results aren't immediate. So you don't want to abandon something because you don't see immediate results, right? You want to measure progress through your customers, your revenue, and meaningful milestones. What are some of the KPIs?

[00:26:35] Key performance indicators. Are you trending in the right direction? Are things working there? Sometimes you're trending in the right direction, but the money isn't showing up yet. So you have to be strategic about how you do this. Know the difference between persistence and stubbornness. Persistence and stubbornness. And stay committed to your goal while remaining flexible about your strategy. Your goal is one thing. The strategy is how do you get there.

[00:27:05] So be flexible about your strategy, okay? But remember, keep the goal, but your strategy may end up changing. Pivoting, right? Sometimes we get into a situation where we think we're going in the right direction, but after we get in and we get feedback, we're in the mix, we see what's going on, then you may end up pivoting. Okay? The original idea is great, but now that's not what people really want.

[00:27:34] They actually want this. So you may have to pivot, all right? So there's nothing wrong with pivoting. So number eight, stay consistent, but know when to pivot. Now, one of the things I have a good friend, been in a financial services for years. He came in a year before me. He never left the business. And I remember when we got in there, man, we were struggling. So back in the day as a stockbroker, they gave you an empty book.

[00:28:02] You had to cold call, network, do whatever you need to do to fill that book up, right? Now, for me, I was in there about six years and it was okay, but I knew that's not what I wanted to do. He always wanted to do this. He dreamt of being in this business. And over years, he's become one of the high, I don't know if he's the highest paid, but one of the most successful guys in the financial services when it comes to sports and entertainers,

[00:28:32] representing them in terms of their finances. And he started off small. We used to go to McDonald's with coupons at lunch. So just so we can eat. That's how hard it was back in the day. But he stayed consistent for 40 years or whatever it is, 30 something years, stay consistent and continue to build. You see what I'm saying? And so once again, he knew what the outcome or what outcome he wanted and he had to pivot a little bit, but he stayed consistent.

[00:29:01] Now, before we get to this last segment, guys, where I'm going to recap and give you guys a couple of gems. Let me just share all my social media contact information and resource links. Remember at the top of the show, go to the website, blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. We have all types of free and paid resources that are going to help you elevate your entrepreneur IQ and move you from point A to point B and give you actionable steps.

[00:29:29] Here it's about actionable steps, guys. It's not about rah, rah, none of that nonsense. We want to give you practical and actionable steps to move your business along from point A to point B. Now, if you want to connect with me anything long, family, hit me on my email, jjones at blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. That's J-A-Y-J-O-N-E-S at blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Facebook, blackentrepreneurblueprint. Instagram, I have two IG accounts.

[00:29:58] The first one is jjonesforreal. J-A-Y-J-O-N-E-S, the number four, R-E-A-L. Second one is blackentrepreneurblueprint. Uh, X or Twitter, jjones001, J-A-Y-J-O-N-E-S-0-0-1. Uh, LinkedIn, connect with me there. Type in jjones, SAS entrepreneur, S-A-A-S, SAS entrepreneur or blackentrepreneurblueprint. I'll come up. Make sure you connect with me there.

[00:30:27] YouTube, guys, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel. We have additional content on YouTube that is not on the show. So go to YouTube, type in blackentrepreneurblueprint. Now, let's get ready for the last segment of the show. If you're listening to this podcast, you probably already bet on yourself or you're serious about betting on yourself. Now, as the title says, betting on yourself with no guarantees, eight ways to stack the odds in your favor.

[00:30:54] And from somebody who's been a serial entrepreneur for 25 plus years after leaving corporate, guys, I know the ups and the downs. I know the stress that it can put on yourself and on your family. But if you're truly committed to it and you work it, you know, entrepreneurship is a science, guys. It's not luck. It's a science and it's hard work. And you have to continue to put in the work. You know, I tell people all the time, they ask me, when's the best time to start a business?

[00:31:24] And I tell them why you got a full time job. Right. And what that does, it alleviates the stress. Now, there's a trade off because when you work a full time job, that means you can't a lot, but X amount of hours to your business. So you have to figure out what makes more sense for you. Some people, you know, I talked about pacify by a paycheck. They want to start a business, but their paycheck is so good. They're pacified. Get it. I understand that.

[00:31:50] You know, but if you truly want to get to a certain place, then you're going to eventually have to bet on yourself. I was talking to my youngest daughter who's in corporate America and she's concerned about, you know, layoffs, right? With her job, she works for, you know, fortune 100 company and she's concerned. And I've been telling them all along. I said, what you need to do in order to live the life you want to live. Guys, I always talk about the freedom equation. Cashflow plus passive income equals freedom.

[00:32:20] So if you create that prior to leaving corporate America, right? So that gives you the freedom and flexibility to work on, say a new business, to work on a craft or things you want to do. So I'm going to tie this up with my older daughter who's also in corporate America at another fortune 100 business. And she and her husband make excellent money, but they're getting tired of all the BS and all the corporate bureaucracy and everything like that.

[00:32:48] And I told her just last week, the same thing. While you're in there making that money and they do have a side business in real estate, you're building, you know, Airbnb properties. I said, keep building that up until you get to the point where you don't need your salaries anymore. And I said, that will allow you to do all types of things. So the freedom equation, cashflow plus passive income equals freedom.

[00:33:14] And I told my youngest daughter, if I could have done it again, if I knew what I knew now, before I left corporate, I would have built up at that time, a real estate portfolio that would pay me. Now you have all types of other ways to make, you know, passive or semi-passive income. You can build software back in the day. You had to be a tech guru to build your own software. You can build software. You can be a social media influencer.

[00:33:40] There's so many type of ways that you can build passive slash semi-passive income that can free you up. So right now, um, I'm into SAS right now. I'm building micro SAS products because I want the monthly recurring revenue to continue to free me up. Now the podcast, I have, you know, all types of revenue, uh, generation from the podcast, like my books, my online courses, my masterminds and things of that nature.

[00:34:08] And yes, some of them do take time, but I enjoy doing this. So this is something that I enjoy doing. I enjoy spending my time doing because it's fulfilling to me. The black entrepreneur blueprint podcast and everything around it, the ecosystem that fulfills me. That's part of my mission is part of my assignment. So I'm cool with that. But if you want to truly live that life, you want to live guys, cashflow plus passive income equals freedom.

[00:34:38] Set that up. The faster you can set that up, the better your life is going to be in terms of, of being fulfilled. So now, as I was telling my youngest daughter, since she's worried about layoffs, you know, if you had that set up and I get it, you're young, but thinking, thinking like that and having the mindset of setting up that, that freedom equation will allow you cause she likes acting. Right. And this will give you time to take more classes, to go try out for different things,

[00:35:08] to hone your skills. And that's what it's all about guys. Betting on yourself with no guarantees, eight ways to stack the odds in your favor. And one of the biggest ways to stack the odds in your favor is when you come out, you already have monthly recurring revenue, passive or semi-passive income. That's going to allow you to follow your dreams, try to build your business and still have that security of having income coming in.

[00:35:37] It may not be your full income if you leave corporate America, but it'll be something for you there to at least tide you over. And don't make any, you know, quick impulse decisions to quit your job today and go out to be an entrepreneur, be strategic. And I'll go over these real quick one last time. And these are the eight ways to stack the odds in your favor. Number one, validate before you invest. Number two, calculate your risk before taking the leap.

[00:36:05] Number three, master the skills that generate revenue. Number four, build assets you own and control. Number five, create systems that make success repeatable. Number six, make small bets before making big bets. Number seven, learn from people who have already done what you're trying to do. Number eight, stay consistent, but know when to pivot. So hopefully you guys will take this into consideration when you're starting a business or if you're

[00:36:33] thinking about starting a business or even now while you're starting your business. These are the ways guys to help put the odds in your favor. Also, one of the biggest ways is to dive in deep, dive in strong, focus, and make sure you spend the allotted time needed to be successful. You can't work your business part-time and think you're going to get full-time results. It doesn't work like that. Yes, I believe in leverage. I believe in systems.

[00:37:01] But the more time and effort you put into something, guys, you know, the better it's going to come out on the other end. 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 books, 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.

[00:37:30] 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.