Building Genuine Connections in Business with Jamuel the Maven
Our discourse's focus revolves around Jamal's insights and experiences, widely recognized as Jamuel the Maven. His journey transcends mere business endeavors; it embodies a profound mission to cultivate growth, empathy, and community engagement. As a second-generation entrepreneur, Jamal expounds on the notion that authentic success is rooted in the ability to comprehend and connect with individuals and in the intrinsic joy derived from fostering the prosperity of others. His extensive experience across diverse industries has equipped him with the acumen to navigate the complexities of scaling businesses, whether by propelling a startup from its nascent phase to substantial revenue or guiding established enterprises to new heights. Throughout our conversation, we delve into the significance of genuine connections and the imperative of community building as foundational elements of entrepreneurial success.
Jamuel the Maven presents an enlightening discourse on entrepreneurship, encapsulating his extensive journey as a second-generation entrepreneur driven by financial success and a profound mission to cultivate growth, empathy, and community. He articulates the significance of establishing genuine connections with people, underscoring that the essence of entrepreneurship transcends profit margins—it lies in the joy derived from uplifting others. Throughout the conversation, Jamuel shares his insights on scaling businesses, which he has adeptly navigated across various industries, from nurturing startups to enhancing established enterprises. His narrative is imbued with the principle that success is contingent upon understanding the needs of one’s community and responding with innovative solutions, thereby fostering a symbiotic relationship that benefits all parties involved.
Takeaways:
- Jamuel emphasizes that true success in entrepreneurship stems from building genuine relationships and fostering community.
- He articulates the importance of maintaining consistent effort and a childlike joy in pursuing one's passions throughout the entrepreneurial journey.
- Jamuel discusses the necessity of understanding one's values as a foundation for effective entrepreneurship and business strategy.
- He makes A significant point that people buy into individuals rather than products, highlighting the importance of personal branding.
- The discussion highlights the critical role of embracing rejection as part of the sales process in entrepreneurship.
- Lastly, Jamal suggests that legacy is a fleeting concept, advocating for a focus on living fully and helping others in the present.
Transcript
My guest today is Jamal, also known as Jamal the Maven.
Speaker A:His journey is more than business, more than a business path, but it's a mission to foster growth, empathy and community.
Speaker A:As a second generation entrepreneur, he's learned that true success lies in understanding and connecting with people and in the joy of helping others flourish.
Speaker A:His experience spans various industries where he embraced the challenges of scaling businesses from the ground up.
Speaker A:Whether it's taking a startup from 0 to 10k or guiding a growing entrepreneur enterprise from 100k mark to the core of his approach has always been genuine connections and community building.
Speaker A:We welcome him to the podcast.
Speaker A:Well, Jamal, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker A:How you doing today?
Speaker B:I'm doing great.
Speaker B:Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker A:It's a pleasure talking to you.
Speaker A:I love talking to entrepreneurs, people who have a vision and to do startups and have the goal to kind of take the world by the horn.
Speaker A:So good talking to you.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm amazed to be able to be here, be able to talk to you, be able to spread some knowledge to people.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, cool.
Speaker A:Let's start out with my favorite question.
Speaker A:What's the best piece of advice you ever received?
Speaker B:The best piece of advice I've ever received.
Speaker B:That's a great question.
Speaker B:And as soon as you said I remembered it, it was so.
Speaker B:I'm a bass player.
Speaker B:I play bass guitar.
Speaker B:I play a lot in church.
Speaker B:And I remember when I first started playing, my godbrother told me something and I don't think how much he realized how much it impacted my life.
Speaker B:He said, well, I know you're just starting.
Speaker B:I introduced you to Ray, I introduced you to these other guys.
Speaker B:And I know it might be tough, but he told me, he said, if you stay around fire long enough, eventually you'll begin to smoke.
Speaker A:Oh, wow.
Speaker B:And that, and that really impacted me, not just from that aspect, but to knowing that my environment dictates my success and understanding to be in the right areas that culminate success.
Speaker B:The mindset of success.
Speaker B:That is the.
Speaker B:That's probably the best advice I've ever been given.
Speaker A:When you said that, I thought you could say something different, but because I had a friend who would say that people out there in the world who love to let you watch set yourself on fire and then watch you burn.
Speaker A:So I didn't know where you were going with that.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:Like, it was crazy though, when you asked me that, I was like, what's the best piece of advice?
Speaker B:I think that's the first piece of advice that was.
Speaker B:Had like a maxim feel to it like maximum was like small sayings that like are quick, that they have multiple meanings, but like, and I think that's the first one I ever remember someone telling me, if you stay around fire long enough, eventually you'll begin to smoke.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:You know, as a successful person, there are people in your life who come in and out who either serve as mentors or inspiration.
Speaker A:If there are some people you can think of and you want to kind of give a shout out to, who are some people in your life who either inspired you or served to mentor you along the way?
Speaker B:Well, first and foremost, I'm going to give a shout out to my mama.
Speaker B:My mama, you know, always love my mama.
Speaker B:She my favorite girl.
Speaker B:Like the song.
Speaker B:With my mom, I'm a second generation entrepreneur and I learned from her.
Speaker B:My mom still has two daycares that she operates.
Speaker B:She's had a clothing business.
Speaker B:She has 11 rental properties.
Speaker B:She has had I'm in Louisiana.
Speaker B:So she's like had a partner in business with one of my uncles, hall and Sugar Cane.
Speaker B:So for me, I grew up in an environment of entrepreneurship.
Speaker B:I understood it.
Speaker B:So a lot of the things when I actually started doing entrepreneurial ventures, a lot of the things that people were confused about was kind of like second nature to me because it was like, oh, I know this is not, you know, it's not difficult, right?
Speaker B:So like they always say my parents floor was my.
Speaker B:Was my parents ceiling was my floor.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:So I'm always appreciative to my mom really.
Speaker A:So I know you're from Louisiana.
Speaker A:I'm also from Louisiana.
Speaker A:Where you from in Louisiana?
Speaker B:I'm from a place called Berwick, Louisiana which is in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker B:But I live in New Orleans.
Speaker B:It's really, it's in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker B:Like we probably got like 3, 000 people maybe max in the city.
Speaker B:So it's really like out of nowhere.
Speaker B:But I will say this, when it comes to entrepreneurship, so my dad's a pastor and really growing up in a small community, a small area, you really and being with ministry and things like that, you understand other people and being a servant of other people and like being able to like talk to them and understand what their needs are.
Speaker B:And that at the end of the day that's really what entrepreneurship is.
Speaker B:Being a problem solver, like seeing a problem in the world and being able to solve that problem.
Speaker B:And coming from a small town, it allowed me to have my mom as an entrepreneur and my dad as a pastor.
Speaker B:And serving people.
Speaker B:Understanding how serving people does not mean that you don't have to be profitable.
Speaker B:And being profitable doesn't mean you have to, like, take advantage of people.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So that's super important to understand.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Let me see.
Speaker B:Somebody's calling me.
Speaker B:I apologize.
Speaker B:Sorry about that.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, no, that's really, that's really important.
Speaker A:I think that's.
Speaker A:That, that balance of connecting faith and entrepreneurship is really kind of powerful.
Speaker A:So I was.
Speaker A:I want to ask you a question.
Speaker A:Think about your first venture in an enterprise, entrepreneurship.
Speaker A:What did you learn from that early experience?
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:So I learned, I learned that there's more than one way to skin a cat.
Speaker B:I learned that there's more than one way to do things.
Speaker B:Also learn that there's going to be failure.
Speaker B:Like, you're going to fail when you first start.
Speaker B:Like, you, you know, you.
Speaker B:It's very rare when you first start something, immediately you have success.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:So for me, one of my phrases I always like to tell people and that I always try to do is I try to be relentlessly consistent, like just consistent over and over and over and trying to find the thing that I feel like I can do and keep a steady pace at.
Speaker B:Because I think a lot of times people take off, like, at a dead sprint in entrepreneurship, right?
Speaker B:And when they don't get to the finish line, then they tire out, they get fatigued, they, I don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker B:And that's not what entrepreneurship is.
Speaker B:Success doesn't go like this.
Speaker B:It goals.
Speaker B:It does all kinds of things.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:And so for me, I look at something, I put a framework out there, I put a road map out there, and I make sure that the process or whatever I have to do, it comes natural to who I am as a person.
Speaker B:It shouldn't be too difficult to where two years from now, I feel the stress and pain of having to do it.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:Like, it shouldn't be natural.
Speaker A:How do you, as you're thinking about starting a business and being an entrepreneur, how do you determine what you should start a business?
Speaker A:And is it based on your passion, your expertise, circumstance?
Speaker A:Is it a combination of all those things?
Speaker B:So I think it's.
Speaker B:I'll say two things about that.
Speaker B:I would say, first, you need to understand your values as a human being.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Like, knowing who you are.
Speaker B:Like, what are my values?
Speaker B:What do I stand for?
Speaker B:What do I not stand for?
Speaker B:For me, I stand on empathy, community, and holistic.
Speaker B:Just life, like, just living life from all aspects.
Speaker B:Those are my Values.
Speaker B:So when I'm trying to find my people or the people who are going to support me, they're generally going to have those same values, right?
Speaker B:Whatever product or service I put behind that is that people buy people.
Speaker B:People don't buy products.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:And you got to remember that.
Speaker B:That's why.
Speaker B:That's why Nike got Jordan.
Speaker B:And when people bought Jordan shoes, they didn't buy Nikes, they bought Jordans.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:You always got to have a mindset that people are going to buy you long before they buy the product.
Speaker B:And so you got to understand who you are.
Speaker B:Then you have to understand microeconomics, supply and demand.
Speaker B:You got to say, don't.
Speaker B:You can't say that.
Speaker B:Oh, my friends over there selling T shirts, I'm going to sell T shirts.
Speaker B:But nobody said they wanted to buy your T shirts, right?
Speaker B:Nobody said.
Speaker B:Nobody told you that, like, at all.
Speaker B:So why are you even trying to sell your T shirts?
Speaker B:You should find what you enjoy, what you love and look at it, or talk to people and see what problems that they see in the world and see if you can have the solution for it.
Speaker B:So for me, let's say, for instance, if.
Speaker B:Let's just say I wanted to start a grass cutting business.
Speaker B:This is my favorite one to talk about.
Speaker B:So if I wanted to start a grass cutting business, I'm not going to go buy the lawnmower.
Speaker B:I'm not going to do none of that stuff.
Speaker B:I'm going to go and say, okay, let me go ask 200 people if they want, you know, if they need someone to cut the grass.
Speaker B:And from that particular standpoint, if I find 200.
Speaker B:If out of the 200 people, let's say 20 of them say they want their grass cut, right?
Speaker B:I'll say to those 20, okay, look, your yard, you're typically getting charged $75 to get your grass cut, right?
Speaker B:Look, if you invest in my business right now and you give me $50, I'm gonna make sure for the next two years your grass is cut at $50.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:So if out of those 20, 10 of them give me the $50, then that's 500, right?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Now I'm gonna go buy my lawnmower, I'm gonna go buy my weed eater with that money.
Speaker B:Because those people invested in me, and I got 10 people that I'm gonna cut for $50.
Speaker B:But everybody else, I'm gonna cut for 75.
Speaker B:But I didn't have to come out of my own money to fund the business, Right?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So understanding supply and demand going out there letting.
Speaker B:But also remember, I had that a hundred.
Speaker B:180 people told me no.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And that's the key.
Speaker B:Like, the key is 180 told me no.
Speaker B:And I gotta deal with that emotion of being told no 180 times in order for 20 to say yeah, and then for 10 to actually invest.
Speaker B:And it's just a volume game.
Speaker B:It's just going out there, putting yourself out there.
Speaker B:Now, the next 200, I asked, maybe 30, 40 will say yes.
Speaker B:Because I'm mastering the skill of communication.
Speaker B:I'm mastering the skill of understanding the needs of people.
Speaker B:And that's what entrepreneurship is, understanding the fears, the desires, the frustrations and the passions of the people that you're trying to sell.
Speaker B:If I know what your goal is, then I want to give you that.
Speaker B:When someone buys something, whether a product or service, it has nothing to do with the product or service.
Speaker B:It has to do with the feeling that they're going to get with using it, you understand, or having it on.
Speaker B:It's the feeling.
Speaker B:And so if I understand what that feeling that they're looking for is, then ultimately, if I understand that, then I know that that's what they're really buying and that's what I'm going to use.
Speaker B:As far as my verbiage, my everything like that.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:There's a misconception.
Speaker A:I've talked to several entrepreneurs because I hear this in the world out there.
Speaker A:Entrepreneurs got where they are because they took advantage of somebody.
Speaker A:And you just.
Speaker A:And, and so there's that mindset.
Speaker A:They didn't earn it.
Speaker A:And I always ask entrepreneurs, how do you respond to the mindset that some have that they didn't earn it or they took over, took advantage of somebody to get where they are?
Speaker B:Well, that's, that's people.
Speaker B:I think that I'm gonna give you a.
Speaker B:I'm give you a philosophical answer that's something completely different like this.
Speaker B:That's maybe not going to answer your question, but I, I have a strong feeling about this.
Speaker B:I have a feeling like I think there's laziness in the world.
Speaker B:There's mental laziness.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:That people utilize.
Speaker B:And when they don't understand anything, they need to put it in their own framework order to be able to express it.
Speaker B:And they're not willing to explore any ideas outside of the frameworks of what they understand.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:And that's.
Speaker B:You got to also understand who you're talking to when you're talking to people.
Speaker B:I tell people this.
Speaker B:You have a.
Speaker B:You you have a product or service, 10 people, 10 of people in your life are going to support everything you do.
Speaker B:10, 10 of people are not going to support anything you do.
Speaker B:Like you can put it out there, you can know they need this help.
Speaker B:They're not going to support you.
Speaker B:They're.
Speaker B:They just won't.
Speaker B:They're just not.
Speaker B:You gotta come to terms with that.
Speaker B:That 10 is not going to support you.
Speaker B:The key is that other 80 to convince them to support you.
Speaker B:Because you got 10 people that's gonna support no matter you, no matter what you do.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:And you gotta on them for emotional stability and support.
Speaker B:You gotta say, man, like I'm doing this.
Speaker B:Can you post this on social media?
Speaker B:Can you let other people know you're gonna have somebody, People you're gonna ask, they ain't gonna post nothing about what you're doing.
Speaker B:And you got to be okay with that.
Speaker B:Like, hey, it's cool, you know what I mean?
Speaker B:And I think that that's where that mindset comes from.
Speaker B:Because those people don't understand how this person is having success.
Speaker B:And the only way they can fathom that someone's having success is by taking advantage of someone.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:You understand what I'm saying?
Speaker B:And that's not the truth.
Speaker B:It's like these people, I can't take advantage of someone that admitted that they had a problem and I gave answer to the problem.
Speaker B:Are you telling me that the people that have the car wash down the street taking advantage of people.
Speaker B:Well, it doesn't matter because guess what, they're the only car wash there.
Speaker B:They're charging you a hundred dollars.
Speaker B:If you don't want to go to them, you can drive 40 miles down the road and pay $20.
Speaker B:But you're not comprehending.
Speaker B:If they're the only place there and they're charging a hundred dollars, they may have more back end things they have to pay for in order to even bring this service to people.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:Understand.
Speaker B:So that it's just a mindset thing.
Speaker B:And I don't, I don't let people.
Speaker B:If I know who I am, and that's why values are important, then I won't let that affect me.
Speaker A:That makes sense.
Speaker A:So let's talk about how you scale something up from 0 to 10k.
Speaker A:What are some specific examples of how you do that?
Speaker B:Cool.
Speaker B:Are we talking about.
Speaker B:Just get.
Speaker B:I'm just getting a framework.
Speaker B:Are we talking about like a business that's online, a brick and mortar business, you could take whichever one.
Speaker A:Let's go.
Speaker A:You know, I think most people can, can do the online thing because I think that's probably the, the new.
Speaker A:Well, I think there's both, but I think online is probably one that people can make maybe.
Speaker A:See, I see advertise often on YouTube here you can go sell Amazon and do this really quickly.
Speaker A:So let's use online just as an example.
Speaker B:Cool.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:If I have a business online, so first thing I'm going to do is this, I'm going to understand my values as a person, understand what I want to bring to the table.
Speaker B:I'm going to look around me, see what the problems that people are having, like digital problems, things that can be solved online.
Speaker B:I'm going to go around, start asking people, are you having this problem?
Speaker B:Are you having this problem?
Speaker B:Because I want to get a sense of is this just me or is it everyone who's having that problem?
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:That feedback from people.
Speaker B:Then I'm going to say, okay, this is something that I can solve.
Speaker B:What price point should I use to solve this particular problem?
Speaker B:Do a little bit of research.
Speaker B:Once I do that research and I always have a number, I generally have like 300 to 400 people.
Speaker B:I ask where do those three, 400 people come from?
Speaker B:All my followers on Facebook, everyone who phone number that's in my phone book, anyone who's ever emailed those people have already agreed that they gave me their information so I can ask them questions.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:These are the people I ask questions too.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So once I ask them, people, hey, do you, does this solve your problem?
Speaker B:And are, you know, this is a problem I come up with what's called a L, a minimal value product mvp.
Speaker B:A minimal value product is not the full blown product.
Speaker B:It's just like a sample of what the product would be.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:And so I tell people, well look, this is what I created, this is what I do.
Speaker B:Do you think this will work for you?
Speaker B:It'll be like, no, I don't think so.
Speaker B:Other people like, oh yeah, that's perfect.
Speaker B:That's exactly what I'm looking for right now.
Speaker B:I'm going to do the same thing I did with the grass cutting business.
Speaker B:I'm going to be like, hey look, if you invest early, I'll give it to you at this price instead of this is going to be the retail price out of those 300 people.
Speaker B:30.
Speaker B:But I want, I know my number that I need to do to put it in mass production.
Speaker B:So once I.
Speaker B:So from there I'm generally giving people a discounted price to Be early investors, right?
Speaker B:And so from that particular standpoint, and not investing in the owner piece of my company, but be the first to have 100% very important to state.
Speaker B:So once I do that and I got those people, there's only, there's only five things you can sell in life.
Speaker B:Access, convenience, security, validation, and opportunity.
Speaker B:Convenience, getting people things faster.
Speaker B:Uber sells convenience.
Speaker B:Uber eatself convenience.
Speaker B:Access, getting people stuff that they didn't have access to before.
Speaker B:Apple Music sells Access.
Speaker B:Uber sales.
Speaker B:Access to maybe you know what I'm saying?
Speaker B:So access Security.
Speaker B:The government sells you security.
Speaker B:Hey, these people are going to attack us.
Speaker B:I can keep you safe.
Speaker B:Lifelock or maybe a home security system.
Speaker B:Most home security systems sold in areas up.
Speaker B:They might get robbed in the first place.
Speaker B:But whatever they want that extra layer of security, right?
Speaker B:So security validation.
Speaker B:Louis Vuitton Coach brands, they sell validation.
Speaker B:When you put this on, you're gonna feel like you, somebody get the, get the Range Rover, get.
Speaker B:That's, that's the selling of validation.
Speaker B:An opportunity.
Speaker B:Hey, if you do this, then you'll be able to do this.
Speaker B:Hey, if, if you buy my program, you'll make this amount of money or whatever, that's opportunity.
Speaker B:So you have to understand what bucket, whatever you're offering falls in, right?
Speaker B:Because that's going to go behind your verbiage.
Speaker B:Once you understand that, then there's only four ways to get leads or four ways to find customers.
Speaker B:First way to find customers is that list of 300 people.
Speaker B:Like warm outreach.
Speaker B:The people that you know, hey, I'm starting this online signature company where I'm, I, I'm a great penman.
Speaker B:Everyone knows my penmanship.
Speaker B:I'm going to make your, your signature into a logo.
Speaker B:If you're interested in this business, then are you know anyone who's a realtor?
Speaker B:Do you know anybody who's a lawyer?
Speaker B:Do you know anybody who's a doctor who would.
Speaker B:This would truly benefit?
Speaker B:Now they are a lawyer, doctor, or realtor.
Speaker B:They're going to say, yeah, I want that.
Speaker B:So I'm going to buy if they're not.
Speaker B:And the reason I didn't ask those people to buy it initially is this is the reason why if I name the people who this directly correlates with, when they're out and about and they're talking to people and they're talking to another lawyer and they say, yeah, I'm starting a business.
Speaker B:I'm trying to, I know this guy that's doing actual logos for lawyers, right?
Speaker B:So now I'm at the top of mind when communication happens.
Speaker B:That is warm outreach.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:And so you always got to understand how you ask people.
Speaker B:Stuff is super important.
Speaker B:Second way to do it is social media content.
Speaker B:Putting out content, letting people know why your stuff is important, why it's big, this, this and this.
Speaker B:People are going to comment underneath.
Speaker B:You always want to reply to their comments because you're getting feedback about what their desires are.
Speaker B:Once you get enough feedback, then you can start doing the third one, which is running ads.
Speaker B:So now that you really have a full understanding of what people are looking for, now I'm going to start running ads for my signature business.
Speaker B:Someone's going to see my ad.
Speaker B:They're not going to buy it the first time, they're going to watch it a couple of times.
Speaker B:They may even go to my page, see what I do, see where I come from, get a better understanding of who I am.
Speaker B:But they're going to consume some information about it before they actually purchase.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:And then lastly is cold outreach, where you just call in random people and you know, just like everyone know, you're not going to sell cold outreach the first time you talk with somebody.
Speaker B:But the key to cold outreach is the first time you reach out to somebody, you give them value.
Speaker B:You don't have to give them, you don't give your product away for free.
Speaker B:But it can be information, it can give them insight.
Speaker B:And then reciprocity says that if you've given them something valuable, then they're going to be more willing to want to support whatever endeavor you have going on.
Speaker B:Those are the only four ways you can find leads.
Speaker B:And those cold outreach people, after they get off the phone with you, they're going to go online and look up and see who you are.
Speaker B:They're going to see those ads, they're going to see those social media posts, they're going to see those people talking about your product and they're going to be more likely to want to buy your product.
Speaker A:So what you're describing is, if I'm getting this right, is you before you start a business, you work with the community you've already connected with.
Speaker A:And that's how you, that, that trusted community, strong community are the foundation for the start of your business.
Speaker B:It's going to be, it's everybody's.
Speaker B:You can't, you can't warm, warm outreach, word of mouth is always is.
Speaker B:It doesn't matter what happens in the world.
Speaker B:You have to understand that you're always going to get started from word of mouth.
Speaker B:Someone knows somebody.
Speaker B:It's Called what?
Speaker B:The six degrees of separation.
Speaker B:You're six people away from knowing everyone.
Speaker A:Oh, Kevin Bacon thing.
Speaker B:Why, why would I not use that?
Speaker B:You know, saying like, if I'm.
Speaker B:If.
Speaker B:If I know 300 people, that mean I know everybody in the world, that means I gotta.
Speaker B:I gotta engage what I already have.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:To build trust.
Speaker B:It takes time to build trust.
Speaker B:No people, like I said before, people buy people.
Speaker B:People don't buy products.
Speaker B:Who are more likely to buy Jamal.
Speaker B:The people that already know Jamal.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker B:It's going.
Speaker B:Jamal a lot longer to sell people that don't know him.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So it's a.
Speaker B:It's a stepping stone.
Speaker B:It's a ladder.
Speaker B:It takes time.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:If you do it at scale, if you do it at volume, if you understand the frameworks that go behind it, then you can accelerate it.
Speaker B:But business is frameworks.
Speaker B:So just to give you the full answer to your question, if I'm selling a product and the product is a hundred dollars a person, right.
Speaker B:What I'm first going to do is I'm going to make sure it's a recurring product because I don't want to have to sell new people all the time.
Speaker B:I'd rather have a product that's a recurring revenue model to where I'm giving them a hundred dollars of value every month.
Speaker B:So that's the first thing about the product.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So I'm trying to make $10,000 a month.
Speaker B:So that would mean that I need to sell a hundred people, I believe.
Speaker B:Yeah, 100.
Speaker B:100 people.
Speaker B:So I need 100 people to buy my product.
Speaker B:So that in my mind, that means I need to touch 3,000 people.
Speaker B:If I touch 3,000 people, I should be able to convert at a 10% ratio.
Speaker B:So how do.
Speaker B:Now I look at my product and I say, if it's signatures, and I said I need to touch 3,000 people, I'm going to use my inner circle, like I said before.
Speaker B:Then from there I'm going to start putting out social media content.
Speaker B:Then I'm going to put out ads, and then from there I'm going to actually reach out to real estate firms, I'm going to reach out to lawyer firms, and when they look me up, they're going to see all that content on social media and they're going to know that I'm a valid person.
Speaker B:And then I know I got to touch 3,000 people in order to get 300 of them to agree.
Speaker A:Makes sense.
Speaker A:I'm curious, as people are listening to Us talk.
Speaker A:They're probably going, that works for Jamal because he's got this.
Speaker A:This charismatic leadership style.
Speaker A:Charismatic personality.
Speaker A:What if that's not your personality, what it mean?
Speaker A:So how much does leadership or personality play into what you're talking about?
Speaker B:You'll be surprised.
Speaker B:I'm what you would call an ambivert.
Speaker B:I'm very introverted.
Speaker B:But then when I'm out and about, I'm, you know.
Speaker B:But do I like going places?
Speaker B:Do I like being outside?
Speaker B:I would say in the recent months, I am more outside, but proud to.
Speaker B:I was very much so inside person.
Speaker B:So I would.
Speaker B:And I had to, like, teach myself how to communicate like I like.
Speaker B:There's a book called Cues that allows you to learn how to read Social cues by Vanessa Van Blake, I believe her name is.
Speaker B:There's Crucial Conversations, which is one of my favorite books.
Speaker B:Understanding how to communicate in times with flight or flight feels like it's the natural thing to do.
Speaker B:Leading unleadable people, extreme ownership, getting things done, helping you argue.
Speaker B:So I'm a book reader.
Speaker B:I'm an avid book reader.
Speaker B:My favorite book, Anyone?
Speaker B:Anyone who knows me, my favorite book is the Art of Seduction by Robert Greene.
Speaker B:Now, the artist seduction is not usually thought of as a relationship book, but in actuality, after you read the first time and then you read it the second time and you understand your seduction, because everyone has a seduction type.
Speaker B:Once you understand what your seduction type is and you understand the people that you're talking to, who you're talking to, then you understand what you need to communicate to them in order for them to know that you have the answer of what you're doing.
Speaker B:So it's really about going out there, experimenting, trying, getting more information and making yourself better.
Speaker B:Like, you just have to become better.
Speaker B:But it's impossible to be a successful entrepreneur without doing sales.
Speaker B:Because, to be honest with you, entrepreneurship is sales.
Speaker B:It's really not the technical aspect of it.
Speaker B:If you have a bakery and you start a bakery, you started that bakery based off the technical aspects of being a great baker.
Speaker B:That doesn't mean you're gonna walk through your door and buy your stuff.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:In the business, the actual easiest thing to do is bake the stuff like that you actually like.
Speaker B:That's the easiest thing.
Speaker B:The hardest thing is going out there and convincing people to buy it.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:And I always say for kids, anyone who has kids, there's four skills I believe people should always learn, and there's no time frame that you have to learn them.
Speaker B:The first one is finance Understanding money, understanding profit loss, understanding just a simple concept of make.
Speaker B:Spend less than you make.
Speaker B:Understanding that wealth is time and how much time you can go without.
Speaker B:You know, I'm saying wealth is just time.
Speaker B:Some people aren't negative.
Speaker B:Some people in the positive.
Speaker B:Right, Right.
Speaker B:So fine.
Speaker B:The second thing is leadership.
Speaker B:Just because you know how to flip burgers don't mean you know how to teach somebody else how to flip burgers.
Speaker B:So you got to make sure that you're a quality leader.
Speaker B:We're not born with leadership skills.
Speaker B:You have to gain leadership skills.
Speaker B:So you need to be able to read because leadership transitions at every level.
Speaker B:Just because you're a great leader here, the next level, you.
Speaker B:You still got to educate yourself on leadership.
Speaker B:The next one and be most important is sales.
Speaker B:You have to understand sales to understand sales.
Speaker B:You have to understand the psychology of people, how people think about things, how people see the world.
Speaker B:And you have to get out of yourself in order to look at other people and say, how is this person seeing the world?
Speaker B:How can I improve their livelihoods?
Speaker B:How does my product help with that?
Speaker B:Once you master sales and you sell to 10 to 15 people, then you take that same messaging, you package it up, and you put it out in marketing to the mass.
Speaker B:And marketing is the fourth most important thing you need to learn.
Speaker B:So finance, leadership, sales, and marketing.
Speaker B:So once you learn those four things, those four traits and skills, whatever entrepreneurial venture you go out into, you should have success.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:So for those people who are listening going, I want to do this.
Speaker A:I want to be an entrepreneur, but I'm not sure I have the skill set you just gave us.
Speaker A:Really four points about that are important to keep in mind.
Speaker A:What would you say is the hardest one for most people to master?
Speaker B:Sales.
Speaker A:Sales.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:And it's not really the sales is rejection.
Speaker A:Oh yeah.
Speaker B:It's overcoming rejection is.
Speaker B:That's 100 of what it is.
Speaker B:Like, it's very difficult.
Speaker B:Like, it's really hard to.
Speaker B:To deal with that.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And you know people.
Speaker B:You know why?
Speaker B:Because people always feel like you're rejected.
Speaker B:Like they're being rejected by their rejection is personal.
Speaker B:It's personal.
Speaker B:People take it personal.
Speaker B:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker B:And it's not about.
Speaker B:It's really not personal.
Speaker B:It's just like in that moment, you don't have what they need.
Speaker B:That's all it is.
Speaker B:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker B:And you just got to be okay with that.
Speaker B:Like, it's fine.
Speaker B:It's fine.
Speaker A:There was a.
Speaker A:A speaker I Heard who decided he, he, he had a fear of rejection.
Speaker A:So he went on a, a campaign to ask people for things he knew he was going to get no.
Speaker A:To hear, to hear the word no.
Speaker A:And he was surprised by how many people actually said yeah.
Speaker A:He went to a donut shop and said, I want to get a dozen donuts, but I want to pay for dozen of those, but I want to get 14 donuts.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And they say, oh sure.
Speaker A:And he's like, oh.
Speaker A:And so he started asking more and more things and he got less and less no's.
Speaker A:But he wrote a whole book about, you know, the fear of, not the fear of not waiting to hear people say no.
Speaker A:So it's kind of interesting that you mentioned that.
Speaker B:Oh yeah, you got it.
Speaker B:You have to.
Speaker B:There's even this book called Million Dollar Weekend.
Speaker B:And they tell you before.
Speaker B:And I'll get, let me get his insight.
Speaker B:Let me just give you a tidbit, two things.
Speaker B:And I'll tell you about Million Dollar Weekend.
Speaker B:$2,763 a day.
Speaker B:I believe $2,763 a day is a million dollars a year.
Speaker B:So if you're trying to make a million dollars a year, you're trying to build something that does that.
Speaker B: Secondly, there's: Speaker B:60, 60 hours in a year.
Speaker B:So when I think about making money, I think about making money within 8, 760 hours.
Speaker B:That means that I'm thinking about money making money in my sleep.
Speaker B:So I'm trying to create something that generates revenue that's not dependent on me.
Speaker B:Right, Right.
Speaker B:Also, it has to generate $2,763 or whatever.
Speaker B:So understanding those frameworks helps you understand what you're trying to create.
Speaker B:Million Dollar Weekend, he tells you to start your business off by accident, just walking on the street to asking people for a dollar.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:You know, hey, you know who have the greatest less fear of rejection bombs?
Speaker A:They don't care.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:They don't care.
Speaker B:You might want to go have them start selling whatever you say.
Speaker B:They gonna get rejected, put them in a nice suit, get their hair done and say, man, go sell this and I'll give you, you know, but I'm just saying, like you have to get over that.
Speaker B:You have to overcome that.
Speaker B:And you have to understand that your first, at least your first 10 people are going to tell you no.
Speaker B:And that is why it's so important to talk to the people that's closest to you first, because they're less likely to tell you no.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:But if you Go out there just straight talking to strangers.
Speaker B:They don't know you from anybody.
Speaker B:They're not going to buy you that you like.
Speaker B:And they have to be buying you like that is so important.
Speaker B:I, I, people do not understand.
Speaker B:Kylie Jenner was the youngest billionaire in the, in the world.
Speaker B:She's a Kardashian.
Speaker B:People were like, how is she the youngest billionaire?
Speaker B:Well, people seen her grow up on tv, right?
Speaker B:And she built a following from, from growing up on tv.
Speaker B:Everybody and their brother knows she knows nothing about makeup.
Speaker B:But guess what?
Speaker B:When she came up with a makeup line and put it in Sephora and them little girls went into that store and seen that and they came up with her, they were not buying the makeup.
Speaker B:They were buying Kylie Jenner.
Speaker B:You understand what I mean, right?
Speaker B:People, people buy people, People don't buy products.
Speaker B:And you have to understand are we buy ideals.
Speaker B:Like an example, I see something out there is great.
Speaker B:The logic that I'm gonna put behind buying it because I don't want to.
Speaker B:If I don't want to spend my money, but I still want it, then I'm gonna have to rationalize it to myself.
Speaker B:And I'm going to rationalize, oh, it's a black owned business.
Speaker B:I want to support a black owned business.
Speaker B:Oh, it's a woman owned business.
Speaker B:I want to.
Speaker B:That's the rationale that goes between our head and our minds to justify what we're about to do.
Speaker B:That's why purchases are emotion.
Speaker B:That's why you have to be able to trigger emotion to be able to get people to want to buy.
Speaker B:But people are not going to be emotional about a T shirt.
Speaker B:People will be emotional about the story behind the T shirt.
Speaker B:If you're not good at telling stories, then you're going to be good at selling yourself because you know your own stories, right?
Speaker B:And that's why you got to understand that people are going to buy you and you got to put yourself out there.
Speaker A:No, that's, that's great, great advice.
Speaker A:So I love to ask my guest this question.
Speaker A:This is a fascinating conversation.
Speaker A:I've learned so much from you.
Speaker A:But I'm curious, what do you want your legacy to be?
Speaker B:Can I give you a real answer?
Speaker A:Yeah, I like a real answer.
Speaker B:And you know, this is this part.
Speaker B:You've never gotten this answer on this show.
Speaker B:I can promise you that.
Speaker B:You never got this answer.
Speaker B:I believe legacy is a fallacy.
Speaker B:I don't believe in legacy from that particular standpoint.
Speaker B:I believe the Queen of England died two years ago and no one talks about her, but she is the greatest leader in, in English history, right?
Speaker B:In, in their country's history.
Speaker B: eve that the Roman Empire was: Speaker B:I read the Bible, I read about Samaritans.
Speaker B:I, I don't know nothing about Samaritans.
Speaker B:I know that they talk about in the Bible, but that's about it.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:So I, I, so I understand there's a time stamp on legacy.
Speaker B:General legacy lasts 20 years, 20 to 25 years.
Speaker B:In your immediate family, if you've done something significant to a certain degree, it may last 40 years.
Speaker B:Outside of that, the maximum is probably 70 years of legacy.
Speaker B:So I always want to frame it to understand how long will people remember you?
Speaker B:The impact they have.
Speaker B:People, they have streets named after people and, oh, that street was named them.
Speaker B:Kids don't know who Langston Hughes is now.
Speaker B:They can't go and look it up and find out.
Speaker B:Legacy doesn't have that direct impact.
Speaker B:You have to understand what you're really talking about, right?
Speaker B:So for me, I always say, this is your time.
Speaker B:This is your time on this planet.
Speaker B:You, you have to do what.
Speaker B:First of all, obviously, I'm a believer, so you have to do what God leads you to do and, and what he's telling you to do.
Speaker B:But I think being a good human being is important and being, and being able to be happy with your own life and what you've done.
Speaker B:The only thing you're going to regret in life is the things you never tried.
Speaker B:When you, when you lay there, you're going to be like, I wish I would have did this.
Speaker B:I wish I would have did this.
Speaker B:You're not going to regret the things that you tried and failed.
Speaker B:You're only going to regret the things that you didn't do.
Speaker B:So I would say that if you, if I had to say something about legacy, which I obviously, that was a good person, like, I would just know that I was a good person and that, you know, I wouldn't, that, that's about it.
Speaker B:But I just want to live my life the way God wants me to live my life and live my life to the maximum and know I did everything I could to help others and be successful.
Speaker B:So I may not be a great answer, but I.
Speaker A:No, that's a good answer.
Speaker A:It's really good.
Speaker A:So as we wrap up our conversation, what key takeaways do you want the audience to walk away from?
Speaker A:Our conversation?
Speaker B:I would say this.
Speaker B:And it kind of starts where I started at.
Speaker B:I think that no matter what you do in life, no matter what you're trying to achieve, whether it be business, whether it be whatever, you have to understand that you have to be relentlessly consistent and you have to approach it with the mindset of a child.
Speaker B:You have to have intrigue, you have to have true investment in it.
Speaker B:Like, you gotta want to do it just because you want to do it.
Speaker B:Like, you can't do it for the profit or anything.
Speaker B:Money is not success.
Speaker B:Money is the benefit of the success.
Speaker B:The success is what you did.
Speaker B:You just got money because you did it right.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So always remember that that's just the benefit.
Speaker B:The true success is what that was that you did.
Speaker B:And so that's.
Speaker B:And whatever it is that you did, it has to be sustainable.
Speaker B:And you have to be able to be relentlessly consistent.
Speaker B:So you have to approach it like a child, like, oh, I'm playing basketball, I love bass, I can do this all day.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:And is it.
Speaker B:Your mind is not.
Speaker B:Well, I have to be relentlessly consistent at playing basketball.
Speaker B:It's like, I love playing basketball.
Speaker B:And so whatever you decide to do, you just have to have the joy of a child when you're doing it right.
Speaker A:Is there anything I haven't asked you that I should have asked you?
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:So look, I'm Jamal the Maven.
Speaker B:I have a online community called the Funnel Factory.
Speaker B:This year is the end of the year, so I've been doing my calculations in the Funnel Factory itself.
Speaker B:It started in March, I want to say my members have generated roughly about 690, I think $93,000 to date, like just in their different ventures and the different things that they've been doing.
Speaker B:I've also have Brand Maven, which is my first company, which we help people with lead generation.
Speaker B:We assign virtual assistants to people to help them with scaling their businesses.
Speaker B:We also do business strategy.
Speaker B:I want to say this past year we have increased our customer base revenue by $1.9 million.
Speaker B:So that's been really great.
Speaker B:And if anyone needs to find me, they can type in school.
Speaker B:Funnel Factory, find me there.
Speaker B:You can find me on social media, Jamal the Maven Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, thanks, Jamal, for coming on.
Speaker A:And I think adding such great content to people and give them the dream to.
Speaker A:To go and look for those aspire for those visions that they have the opportunity to change their career, their destiny, even their family structure by planting some seeds that may grow and.
Speaker A:And flourish.
Speaker B:I'm super excited to have this conversation.
Speaker B:It just naturally flowed and I really appreciate you for having me on.
Speaker A:Thank you, Jamal.
Speaker A:Blessings on your Christmas, and we'll talk soon.
Speaker B:Likewise.
