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You Can't Afford Me
Making the leap from employment to entrepreneurship can be a scary time. The biggest fear people have is the unknown. Here on the “You Can’t Afford Me Podast” we speak with hustlers and innovators on how to make the most of your journey. If you have questions we have answers.
You Can't Afford Me
The Unstoppable Power Couple's Entrepreneurial Journey
From virtual assistance to corporate travel planning, and from a steady paycheck to real estate entrepreneurship, Justin and ShaCoria's journey exemplifies what it means to bet on yourself while building a rock-solid partnership.
When Justin walked away from his management position at the Richmond Association of Realtors to pursue real estate full-time, he didn't just have a dream—he had years of preparation behind him. Their story reveals how calculated risk-taking, diversified income streams, and unwavering spousal support create the foundation for entrepreneurial success.
ShaCoria's pivot from virtual assistance to corporate travel planning demonstrates the entrepreneur's ability to recognize when to let go of a viable business in favor of one with greater potential and personal alignment. Her first major client—a multi-million dollar company needing complex international travel arrangements—came from simply responding to a Facebook post, proving that opportunities often appear in unexpected places for those willing to step up.
What makes this couple remarkable isn't just their individual businesses but how they function as true partners. With Justin as the visionary dreamer and ShaCoria providing organizational structure and pragmatic analysis, they've created a system where each complements the other's strengths. Despite having young children and multiple businesses, they prioritize communication—discussing everything from daily schedules to major financial decisions.
Their story offers invaluable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs: build multiple income streams before making major transitions, don't be afraid to pivot when something isn't working, invest in yourself through coaching even during tight times, and recognize that your aligned clients might look different than you expect. As Justin wisely notes, "Don't be afraid to start something and then it doesn't become what you want it to be"—because sometimes the journey leads to something even better.
www.themrpreneur.com
Are you trying to reach decision makers, entrepreneurs and sales professionals, then you Can't Afford Me is your next marketing move. With six episodes a month and a growing audience of CEOs and industry leaders, your brand won't just be heard, it'll be remembered. Advertisers can place audio ads on our podcasts and even secure visual placements in our full-length YouTube videos. This is where smart brands earn attention. Lock in your ad spot today before your competitor does. Email sam at enzomediafirmcom to receive more information.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the you Can't Afford Me podcast, where we skip the fluff and dive straight into the ground Real entrepreneurs, real struggles and the unfiltered journey behind success. Let's get into it. Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the you Can't Afford Me podcast. So we're doing something a little bit different today. So I have a power couple in the studio today. They're looking at each other like what are you talking about? I'm telling you, one day you guys will see this couple on a magazine or something. I'm telling you they are doing all the right things, they're going fast, they're going hard. They're actually one of my clients for coaching right now as well, too. So I thought it would be a good idea to come on here, chat it up with them. Talk about how the coaching sessions have gone, their businesses, how they've been able to scale at the pace that they have. So today we have in the studio Shakoria and Justin how you guys doing today Doing well Good to be here, awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1:So if you guys real quick give us a quick 30 seconds, 60 seconds on who you are, what you do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for me, my name is Justin Shelton. I am a real estate agent full time. I just quit my job in January, so I'm brand new into this world, but it's good. I'm a serial entrepreneur. You know multiple businesses, from Airbnbs to my wife's travel agency Pretty much anything that's travel or real estate. We're the ones to talk to. Y'all got it covered.
Speaker 1:Y'all got it covered, all right. So we're the ones to talk to. Y'all got it covered, y'all got it covered, yeah, all right. So we're gonna rewind. I want people to get a sense of this, this full journey, um. So, chicory, let's start with you. Where, so now you own a travel agency business? Um, when I first met you, you also had a virtual assistant business. Um, you're still currently working full-time. So talk to us about number one. How did you come up with the idea for the virtual assistant business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I haven't had the privilege of firing my boss yet.
Speaker 1:It's coming, believe me? No, but.
Speaker 3:I used to. I fired my boss before right, and I was like I got to do something. So during that time I was trying to figure out, okay, what am I good at? And one of the things is just organizing and getting people in places for their businesses, doing the tasks that they don't want to do. So I was like I could be a virtual assistant whatever. That is right, because I would hear stuff. And I was like I could be a virtual assistant. So got a couple clients doing that and it was like I could be a virtual assistant. So I got a couple clients doing that and it was good. It sustained me during the time that I was home with our youngest child. No, I don't know, it might have been our youngest. It was either our youngest or our oldest.
Speaker 2:I can't remember.
Speaker 3:But I stayed home with him, had some virtual assistant clients and I loved it, but it felt like it was still a day's worth of work. Yeah, Because they were on 24-7 and I was their support, Like I was their right hand, so I was their support doing that. But really it was just I kind of fell into it. I knew that I could always. I always had that skill administration like it's a skill of mine, so I just went through with it nice, nice.
Speaker 1:So the the idea of still working full-time and starting this on the side, and I know, since you've let that go, why did you decide to push that business aside? Because I think that's a key point for a lot of people to understand like a lot of people will start a business and think they have to die on that hill. It's okay to try stuff and, hey, I learned something from this business. It didn't quite work out the way I want. I'm gonna put this to the side, so why did you decide to put that business aside?
Speaker 3:yeah, so because I haven't fired my boss and because I am still working full-time, being a virtual assistant really took a lot of time, um, and one of the things as so during our coaching relationship, you know, we talked about it a lot what do I have time for, and is it something that is doesn't make sense? And the answer was kind of no, so I laid it to the side. I mean, I still operate in that function, just just in other capacities like church and things of that sort. But as far as it being a business where I'm like out recruiting clients and out, you know, meeting people to be their virtual assistant and having clients that I'm their virtual assistant, I'm not doing that and it was like a breath of fresh air kind of, because I was just racking my brain around like, ok, how am I even going to get more clients?
Speaker 3:to get to the point that I want to be at yeah, it can be a lot.
Speaker 1:Um, I want to come back to the travel agency. Um, justin, with you, so you just recently quit your full-time job, in January. Um, what was the full-time job? What? What type of work were you doing?
Speaker 2:I was the manager of member services at the Richmond Association of Realtors. So, I started there. In my first year I was at front desk. Was it member services specialist? Yeah, and then in a year I got promoted to being a manager. So I was manager for three years, specialist for one year.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. And then why did you decide that?
Speaker 2:Because you didn't go into yeah, you're going into residential, so you were you doing some commercial at one point it's a mix of both, like I got one commercial deal that I'm working on right now and then one residential that I have. So I got one commercial deal and one residential under contract now, but mainly majority of my clients at the moment are residential buyers.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. So let's talk about the moment you decided that you were going to quit your job and the two things I love. Well, the main thing I love about you guys is how you guys collectively work as a team. Like every time I have a conversation with you guys, it's like you can tell that this is a true partnership that you guys are working through. So when you made the decision to walk away from that job, you know it was evident that you guys had discussed that in great detail, deciding what would be best for your family. Yeah, talk to us about that, because it was a very interesting exit in terms of there was another opportunity for you once you put in your resignation. So talk us through that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, first and foremost, I discuss everything with my wife when it comes to what's going to impact both of us and our kids. Everything, yeah, everything. And I just told her one day, like I want to get my license. But that was like what two years ago, yeah, and I just kept procrastinating and procrastinating. The job was going to pay for me to get my license, but I couldn't activate it or I would have to leave. And so you know, my wife was just like, every time I got frustrated at work, you need to get your license, you need to get your license. So you know, eventually I ended up meeting the team lead that I well, he's the CEO of the team that I work for, proximity Realty brokered by EXP, and just that one conversation with him literally just like sparked something in me and I ended up using my own resources to take the class to get my license.
Speaker 1:So why did you choose to do that instead of letting the company pay for it?
Speaker 2:Because the company wasn't going to let me do it in person.
Speaker 3:Tell them what really happened.
Speaker 2:Give us a T, man Give us a T.
Speaker 3:You started out virtual.
Speaker 2:I did start out virtual, but it just wasn't hitting on nothing.
Speaker 3:He wasn't doing it.
Speaker 2:I was doing it. I got to like 50% because it's just a lot of reading. It was just it's not for me.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm not the way you learn. You need someone in person. I need somebody in front of me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or audio, but I don't want to be reading the whole time. That's a lot, but yeah, so you funny. So, yes, I ended up deciding to use my own resources to go in person and I knocked that class out in five days and so after that, you know, you got to take the test, took the test in November, didn't pass, failed it by like what one point.
Speaker 1:Which most realtors don't pass it on the first try.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is fine. You know, I didn't let that rattle me and I took it again in December. I took it again in December, I got my, I passed it and then in January I just told my boss like you can't afford me.
Speaker 1:And well, and it's funny too, because you know they did offer me an opportunity, yeah, so I want to dive into that because we talked about that in length where, once you put in your notice, yeah, you were in a position a lot of people don't realize this like there are certain people in my company that if they came to me right now and be like sam, I gotta move on. I'm coming back with a counteroffer because it's gonna cost me a lot, first off. It's gonna suck up my time because I'm gonna have to kind of fill a role there, um, and then I'm gonna have to train somebody else. It's gonna be a while before I get somebody up to speed. So they actually came back to you and said well, hey, we want you to train the next person, correct? They ultimately asked you what's your price, correct? And we discussed that and what was the initial number? You came up with um.
Speaker 2:The initial number I came up with was like what? 65. I think it was 65 65 or 75 yeah 65 or 75, and that's you know. During our coaching sessions too, we discussed it, and then their number was 35. And so I said well, we can't do nothing If 35 is your pull-the-plug number, then we pulling the plug.
Speaker 1:And there's where the guts come into play and the entrepreneurship comes into play, because a lot of people would look at that and be like, man, y'all got a young family, you got two kids. Like your wife's getting another business off the ground. Like to have stable income coming in for a period like, even if that's 35 and 35 an hour ain't nothing to sneeze at? Yeah, exactly. But it's the fact that, like we talked through, the fact that you knew your value and where it stood, yeah, I honestly believe that they were going to come back after you said I'm walking away, I thought they were going to come back with a higher number and they ended up not doing that. But the fact that you stood on that like to me, showed me everything I need to know about you. I'm like this is a guy that when he's determined to do something, he makes a decision, he's going to roll with it. It ain't no looking back. So so I was very admirable, because I'm not sure in y'all's position when I was starting out.
Speaker 1:If I could have walked away from that. So it says a lot that you guys have faith in each other and what you have going on with that, so you walked away from that. Also, the way you kind of rolled out the introduction to the world that you were now a realtor was pretty interesting. There was a new app that came out on Apple, so talk us through that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I saw an ad on Instagram about Apple invites and it was a new app where you had to update your phone to get it and you basically use the invite for you know events like birthday parties or whatever.
Speaker 2:So I was like I'm going to use this, because they said it's compatible with Apple and Android. I'm going to send because they said it's compatible with Apple and Android, I'm going to send this invite out to let people know, hey, I'm inviting you to know that I'm a realtor now, yep, and so I sent it out literally to almost everybody in my phone and you know I got responses. And then that catapulted when I started posting on social media, where you know I'm getting 100 likes or you know 59 comments. You know, just for saying that, hey, I'm a realtor and it's like those things. Um, it was just amazing to. It's just amazing to see how, when you take a chance, how it's like man, what?
Speaker 1:I knew I was gonna roll a seven yeah, when you put and I don't know what it is about your industry particularly but realtors are so hesitant to put out like, hey, I'm a realtor, like, if you're looking for something, give me a call. Um, I guess they feel that they're just being like overbearing, putting this stuff out on social media too much. But I'm like people can't do business with you if they don't know what you do for a living. Yeah, so it's important to get that out and I thought that was a very creative idea you had. And for those who aren't familiar with that new app, it's very similar like Eventbrite, correct, but just through Apple's own own software and devices score. Let's pop back over to you. So the travel business. So, from the time I started working with you guys to where you are now and have we even been working together more than six months what has it been? Five, six months? Yeah, I think we've gone on At that point.
Speaker 1:No, like now, up to date, I think we've been here like eight oh it's been that long.
Speaker 3:I feel like it's almost been a year.
Speaker 2:No it hasn't been a year. No, I said almost.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it going on like. It's going on like, because I remember we met in the summertime.
Speaker 1:Oh dang, it was like we met in the summer. We're close to the year, yeah, we're almost there. Yeah, man, man, time goes by fast. It does so.
Speaker 1:When, when you were first, um telling me about your travel agents business, I remember, like you guys did an expo at a wedding event, um, you know. And then I think you were a lot more focused on, like, uh, cruise lines and like you had NFL packages, which I still think those are very good ideas. A big thing that we talked about was finding the riches and the niches, and we really broke down and tried to figure out what is it that will make you happy, what are you going to enjoy doing and also what's going to bring in the most money. And then you went out and did it. So talk us through that, like the client base that you're currently working with and what you're doing on that end yeah, you know, when you start out, you kind of you get what you can yeah right, it's like, okay, this client wants to go on a cruise, great, I'll help you get on the cruise.
Speaker 3:But I was like I don't love doing it, not to say I, but I was like I don't love doing it, not to say I won't do it, but I don't love doing it. And then I just you know I did I went to the expo just trying to figure out. Okay, who's here.
Speaker 3:That was a realtor expo that we went to at first. So there's all different types of people that have all different travel needs and the first client that I got there was a business owner and she was like I'm going on a conference. Actually she has somebody coming here for a conference and I just asked. I was like, do you have their travel figured out? She's like, oh my gosh, like basically she forgot.
Speaker 3:I did everything else, but I forgot that they needed to fly from Philly they need somewhere to stay and they need a ride, you know, as they're in she was like well, I bought the tickets. Basically she's like they're coming to the conference to speak. That's it. So hooked her up with all that and it was like man, it was easy first corporate client yeah, first corporate client.
Speaker 3:I was like that was easy because they're so, they're really laid back, really chill, they know what they need. It's like I'm going to that place, I have to be in this place, here's the parameters, okay. So then she was like all right, I'm going on a couple conferences too. So I'm like, all right, bet, let's do it. So hooked her up with you know her conference travels and stuff like that. And I'm like I need more of these people because they're they have like people in business, they travel, they travel for a multitude of reasons and they're going there. So they're not really hesitant, like oh, and can we do this and can we change this part? And so I was on Facebook one day in my virtual assistant community because I'm still there, right, because I like to keep abreast of things, and so I'm in this community, and somebody reached out and was like, hey, is anybody here a travel agent or know of any travel agents?
Speaker 1:Look at God.
Speaker 3:Because I don't even be on Facebook like that, but I was on there and in that group for some I mean because of the genocide right and so I'm scrolling and I was like I literally went back and forth Like, do I respond to this, do I respond to this? And I took a chance and I'm like, hey, I'll send you it, I'm sending you a DM. So I sent her a DM and I was like, hey, I used to be a virtual assistant, you know, now I'm a travel agent and I work with corporate clients, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's she's like, oh, this is perfect, can you meet with our ceo next week? And I was like he got hyped because she sent an email. He's like babe, I'm literally driving, I'm driving from the grocery store, so I'm like that. He's like you gotta respond to this email now it's friday at like seven o'clock at night. I'm like they not looking for me right now.
Speaker 2:Yes, they are, yes, they were.
Speaker 3:I'm like all right.
Speaker 2:He's a man about action.
Speaker 1:He's like let's get this done now. He's literally like we're going to jump.
Speaker 3:So, I'm like draft the email.
Speaker 2:Don't send it because I need to read it.
Speaker 3:So he drafts the email Soon as I get in the fridge.
Speaker 1:So I'm like all right. She's like girl, don't worry about these Doritos, let's go.
Speaker 3:So I get I'm literally in the kitchen going through this email and she's serious. She's like you know, we have our CEO and basically it's like a husband and wife team. I had no idea who they were. She's like have you know, a bunch of travels coming up, they'd love to meet with you. So I'm like okay, great, so we had a meeting. The meeting went great. They're like yeah, you know, we'll try you out. And I'm like all right, let's try each other out, because I don't know what I'm doing either. And trying out actually ended up being them going to Australia, china, japan and Indonesia, right, and this is like they're full team.
Speaker 1:This is like 16 20 people going on these trips.
Speaker 3:Well, so for this one it was yeah, they had quite a bit, but like the main people that I planned for it was like five of them, so five people that's on like their main team.
Speaker 3:And then they had other people that are in the country or like coming to the countries that do some of the work that they do there, and so really, like what I was arranging was for the main core team and I mean it was like okay, I was supposed to play in their Vegas trip, which is in November, and they're like no, we just gonna try you out now. And I'm like all right, cool, and I just like I just put it together and it's something I love to do, so it's easy for me. But they were like thank you so much. Like you don't know how much like you lifted off the stress of our business and the person who was doing that role she used to do all the travel planning she's like I don't know what I'm doing and I mean we worked through lots of kinks, like yeah, because those different countries are things that you had to become familiar with.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like that's one thing, like when you're a travel agent, like people, when you're traveling, like you don't really think through a lot of things, but like each country has their own criteria for getting in that country. If you don't meet it, you're going to be standing at the airport waiting to get back to the us because they have really strict regulations, and so, yeah, we worked through all of that and it ended up being great. So I'm like I need more of y'all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so I mean just to show the scale of this. Like this is a multi-million, if not billion dollar company that you're working with and all that came from responding to a post in a Facebook group. Right, like I tell people all the time when it comes to social media, social media is like stepping up to bat in the Major League. In Major League Baseball, the more opportunities you step up to bat like if you step up to bat one time in an entire game the likelihood that you're going to hit a home run is very small, but if you get to step up to bat ten times, your likelihood of hitting a home run drastically increases. And the piece that I love with you guys is that you guys aren't willing to learn along the way. Like I used to keep a. There was a painting in my old office that said it was like the definition of an entrepreneur is, uh, jumping out of a plane and building a parachute on the way down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like that's literally what it is like half the time we don't know what we're doing, yeah, but it's just keeping face enough to show people like, hey, even if I don't know the answer, I'm gonna figure this out, we're gonna find this out, so I'm gonna get you taken care of. So you went from, like you know, family trips to them canceling at the last minute saying no, I going to take this cruise this other company being like, hey, I need you to send us to Tokyo, australia, italy.
Speaker 1:Like, let's go. Like here's money, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I think a big lesson in this too, which I think it takes. You guys are learning this lesson way quicker than I did. I think one of the biggest lessons to learn in business is that it is much easier to work with rich people than it is with people on a tight budget. The best clients have always been the ones that have the biggest bankroll. I hear the least from everything we send them. All this phenomenal, this is great, like perfect. The ones who came in when I was running a discounted rate and they got 15 off for like, could you change this? Could?
Speaker 1:you do this like this wasn't really what I had envisioned in mind. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Rich people pay for their time. Poor people pay for things. So, realizing that you're in a space where, when you're giving people in high positions their time back, it's hard for them to put a price on that, Like, whatever you're charging them, they're probably actually willing to pay more because of the convenience that you bring to them. You're charging them, they're probably actually willing to pay more because of the convenience that you bring to them. Um, I want to jump into something in terms of uh, we've talked about the partnership that you guys have in terms of your marriage. Um, justin, I want you to kind of talk about the dynamic between the two of you, because having two young kids and I'm trying to work on y'all and getting these babies to bed earlier this was this would help y'all out so much with your business. I tried, tried, y'all these babies staying up to like 10 o'clock at night.
Speaker 2:They grinding with us. They do they be grinding? They grinding with us. They sending emails. Little young entrepreneurs. They ain't supposed to see them, but they sending emails?
Speaker 3:They do.
Speaker 1:It's sexy Talk to us about the dynamic like you pick up weekends now, like before, that may not have been a thing for you, but now you're having to show homes and properties on the weekends. What's the dynamic and how have you guys worked through the the systems in terms of making sure that you guys have enough time for your family, enough time for each other and enough time for your business?
Speaker 2:I think it started out when we were before we even got married, because we set a foundation of communication.
Speaker 1:Say it loud for the people in the back man.
Speaker 2:We set a foundation of communication, he said before the marriage y'all Got to do that Because we were, believe it or not, long distance for two, three.
Speaker 3:We were long distance, literally, until we were long distance, literally until we got married. Yeah, until we got married.
Speaker 2:We were long distance because she was in Washington State.
Speaker 3:No, or Washington I was in St Louis, st Louis, washington State.
Speaker 2:University, no, washington University Right. Yeah, I was in St Louis and then North Carolina, right, but you know, and I traveled to go see her when I had the time, but we established that from the beginning and so we continue doing that. We talk on a regular basis, you know, and sometimes they can be heated, you know, it's okay.
Speaker 1:It's going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to happen, but we have gotten to a point, to where we can literally like, for example, we just had an issue with schedules. So I'm like, hey, hey, what can we do to make sure that this doesn't happen again? And so I send her my schedules, she sent me her schedules. Or we have a meeting about our schedules. Um, we do we. Communication, I think, is the the biggest uh thing for us. And then, in terms of just like how we operate, I am daring, I am.
Speaker 3:Let me just if I see it You're the dreamer in the relationship.
Speaker 1:I'm the dreamer.
Speaker 2:If I see it, I want it. She's the one that brings me down to reality and say, okay, well, how is X, Y, Z going to happen? Because I'm focused on Z. She's looking at X, Y.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, okay, well, let's come together and form a plan. In, being an assistant is her thing because she's very organized, whereas for me, you know, I'm going to win. So we brought those aspects together because she didn't want to become a travel agent, because how am I going to pay for this platform to give it access to all these things? I'm like, well, you just need to do it and then you know her doing it. Then she's like, okay, it's working. I'm like, yeah, and same thing for me. I'm like, well, you just need to do it, and then you know her doing it. Then she's like, okay, it's working. And I'm like, yeah, and same thing for me. I'm like, okay, well, you know, this client, that client, need this. Then the third well, you need to create a schedule. Okay, well, how do I create a schedule? You got to do it like this structure, like that. So that's really how dynamic is. I'm very energetic and she's very like laid back, but, um, my, my chaos is brought together by her organization that's typically how it works out.
Speaker 1:Like I'm the dreamer in in my marriage and my wife is the systematic one. Like bringing it down. Um chicory, if you can talk to the other side, like what when justin came home and said, all right, I think I'm ready to quit my job? Talk us through. Like what were the discussions that you guys have?
Speaker 1:Cause, obviously, when you have young kids, it's not just the two of y'all Cause, like if it's just the two of you, you can eat little C's pizza and you know live in a janked up apartment for a while while you're building, but when you got other mouths to feed like it's a totally different situation, how did you guys systematically work through that and say, okay, yes, you need to go ahead and do this and this is how we're going to make this work financially?
Speaker 3:yeah, so I think justin actually took some time before he was like all right, I'm really gonna jump and do this, because remember he told you like he was thinking about getting his license, but he wasn't actually like pursuing the process, you know, to get his license.
Speaker 3:So, it took him some time and during that time I was like all right, so what are we gonna do? How are we going to sustain? Where is the money going to come from? Like all the questions and all the things making sure, okay, if my income is here, what is it going to cover? We have these bills to pay. So, like there was some time he literally wasn't. He didn't come home and was like I'm quitting my job next week. Because I would have been like heck no, we're definitely not doing that, that's never even a thought.
Speaker 3:So him we're definitely not doing that, that's never even a thought. So him giving that, you know, lead time was like okay, cool. But then when it became reality, like literally he got his license and we were just waiting Because it takes the, it takes D4, which is like who does the?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the state licensing. The state licensing it. Takes them a little bit of time to like activate it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it took a lot of time so with that, I was like all right, we're buying time here.
Speaker 1:So and then your job would have been notified as soon as it was.
Speaker 3:Live too, yeah, like so. Yeah, I couldn't come in the next day as soon as he told his job, cause I was like don't tell him today, like when he got his, like his license was activated.
Speaker 1:I was like tell him tomorrow, tell him next week, let's make sure we got one more full paycheck before you do this you don't have to do it today.
Speaker 3:Like you can't go out and sell real estate right now. Like you're not ready so he told him and he's like yeah. So they told me, I'm done like this, is it?
Speaker 1:and my heart literally sank because I was like huh no two week notice, no notice, even though, like if he was to leave, like he would have to give him and my heart literally sank because I was like huh, no two-week notice, no, no notice, Even though like if he was to leave, like he would have had to give him a notice.
Speaker 3:And it was like all right, today's your last day. So I'm like, all right, I know we made a plan, but what are we really going to do? And so he had these bright ideas Like he's been coming up with these bright ideas for a little bit of time. Getting into investment, you know, having investment portfolios and and it's been doing well doing different things, yeah, so what?
Speaker 1:you started the investment side way years ago.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he started that a little bit ago, which was good, because it's like that was a part of the planning, like he's like we're going to be good, so like by march, about q3 of 2025, like our portfolio should be at this, and I'm sitting here like, well, I need to see it, because I don't see it, but i'ma trust it um and so yeah, like yeah, I'm seeing it, but yeah, so just working through that, really like just trying to, yeah, did that force you to be like okay, now I really gotta step up this travel agency thing not really, cuz I'm like I'm gonna float away, I flow cuz I'm like, I'm still working a job like, and I'm still, you know, I still got a kid at home and all these things. So I'm like I'm not about to go crazy with the travel stuff yeah.
Speaker 3:I want to do more and I still want to do more, but I feel like my full-time has to kind of get out of the way a little bit for me to operate in a full capacity that I want to.
Speaker 1:That's one of the biggest things I've taken away from you guys is that you guys are very. You may jump out and dream about something and like, immediately want to do it, but like, when you guys conversate, bring it together. You guys are very pragmatic about the steps in terms of like, well, hey, we're gonna do this, and even as big of a dreamer as he is to have the foresight years ago to be like, okay, because you guys are in real estate too, like it's real estate investing too.
Speaker 2:Right, so you got two rental properties yep, two rental properties on airbnb and vrbo and how old are?
Speaker 1:you guys I'm 32, she's 31 I was about to say I'm 30 but I want people to hear, like all these combinations of different things where it's like one person, that is W2, coming in, they have a side business, the other, you know, stepped out on faith and they have the real estate business now, their rental properties that were put in place years ago, there's a stock portfolio, there's cryptocurrency, like there are all these things. I think you liquidated your 401k when you first made this transition and it was like, okay, we got the extra breathing room there, um, for those things. So it's like for you guys to be in the position that you're in right now, before you guys even really knew what you were going to do. There was thought put into this years before, um, and I want people to understand that because, well, number one, I did not do it that way, anybody close to that.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of the person where it's like you know, I mean, I know how to box, but if you put some gloves on me and throw me in the ring with Mike Tyson, I'm going to figure out a way out of this.
Speaker 2:We don't figure it out.
Speaker 1:But you guys just had such foresight in terms of, like, I see where this is going and I see how patient you guys are with this too. It's not like, hey, we got to do this right now, even though I hear the urgency in your voice when you're talking about it's more excitement than like hey, this has to be done right now. Um, but you guys understanding, like, well, hey, we're gonna be at this for the next three to five years before this really gets us into the spot that we want to be, and understanding too that, like you know, 32 and 30 like dude, this is still young, like I remember there was a post that came up the other day on my social media that showed like all the tv dads, like carl winslow and like everybody from that, and they were all like early 30s, like when they were on that show, and I'm like, yeah, I remember watching that show.
Speaker 3:I'm like these dudes look old as I don't know what. Now I'm 40 and I'm like, I think I look better than Carl.
Speaker 1:Winslow did. Once you reach that age you realize man, 30 ain't nothing.
Speaker 2:We just getting started.
Speaker 1:Now you finally have a foundation. You have the knowledge to move forward with this. You can move a lot more freely with this and you can move a lot, a lot more freely with that um as you're going through. So absolutely love that. Um. On the real estate side, you actually had a couple deals set up before you even got your license. Talk to us about that and how you were putting stuff together yeah, I, um, I had a.
Speaker 2:So the ministry that we go to, um, we are currently renting a space and my pastor, he, wants to buy property and so, um, it's. It's. That's why I say it's a commercial deal, because, you know, dealing with the county and all these, oh yeah, I'm like man, it's a lot, but it's it's helpful because I originally, you know, when we talk I say I want to get into commercial, because that's I think it's cool. I want to build my own apartment complex one day, you know, and I'm going to do it.
Speaker 2:But, with that being said, yeah, as soon as I got my license, it seemed like, you know, my pastor was always saying we're going to buy property, we're going to buy property, and then they're like how we're not even talking to a realtor or anything like that. What's going on? And so as soon as I got my license, it just like clicked and now we are preparing to close on that deal next week and I found that out today. So hopefully everything goes through, if not next week, then definitely in May.
Speaker 1:On that note too, as black church folk, we got to just stop lying and thinking God going to take care of everything and we ain't got to take care of the details.
Speaker 2:Like he going to provide when we're ready to buy this property.
Speaker 1:No pastor, we need to go.
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Speaker 3:Visit wwwenzomediafirmcom to get started but that you know what he was really waiting on him yeah, so that's why I was like he was taking his time to get his license. A little bit right, but pastor was really waiting on somebody who was within to do the deal because the word was given to um my, his wife.
Speaker 2:You know, everything that the ministry needs is in the house and literally, like we have so many different entrepreneurs, so many different skill sets that we literally brought all that together. Who knows where we would be, you know, just within a year. So I had that deal and then there was, I got. So I got a couple of clients out of just being in the ministry but then my cousin randomly just hit me up I don't talk to him often or anything like that. He's a vegan. He's been a vegan so long that they call him Earth.
Speaker 1:Like literally that's. His nickname is Earth.
Speaker 2:And so he just called me one day. He's like, yeah, cuz, cuz, you know, I see you in real estate. Um, I'm looking for you know this, that and the third multifamily investment property. I'm like, all right, cool, let's, let's do it. And literally like just hit the ground running and they're about to close on their property. Um, it's supposed to be in june, but they want to close in early may.
Speaker 2:So we're trying to work on the specifics of that now, but literally I did everything that I'm supposed to do, you know, giving them the information, the facts, him and his lady, and they're just like literally ready to take the world by storm. They already are successful in other entrepreneurial things, so I have no doubt. And then, you know, they asked me. They were, they were like, you know, you know anybody that do um contractor work, and I'm like, yeah, hooked him up with a contractor, so they literally have everything laid out. And so I'm just thankful to the Lord, you know, for these opportunities, because I know that I knew that I could perform when I work for somebody else. But can I perform for my family? Yeah, can I perform for myself, you know. And to be able to see that you know all the things that I've learned, I'm grateful for every position I've ever had, you know, w2 jobs. I'm grateful for all of them, because all of those things taught me what I need to know to be where I am now absolutely love that.
Speaker 1:love that on the on the church piece that you said like I feel like as people of faith, we need to get back to that in our churches, where back in the day, if it was like if your roof caved in, it was a deacon who did roofing.
Speaker 1:It was like you always went within your congregation to find those services and I feel like we've gotten so far away from that. But like, if you look inside a congregation, basically you got lawyers, you got doctors, entrepreneurs, everything there. Um, man, this is awesome, uh, talking through. So I want to touch on what you just said there in terms of you know, I was able to perform for other people when I was working for a company. Now being able to perform for myself and my family.
Speaker 1:I want both of you to touch on that and describe to me what it was like the moment that you realized that you could do this, where it was like I'll never forget the first check that was ever written to me for my business was $400. I thought I was the richest man on earth and it was just the fact that I saw my LLC name on that check and I made sure they did the check. I was like I need to hold this. No, no credit card, no debit card. I need this in my hand. And it was that moment it hit me. It was like wait, hold up. I don't have to do this with another organization and I have to talk to a supervisor. I have to do any of this. I made this deal happen and this check is going directly into my account. Yeah, what was that moment like for each one of you when you made that deal? And it was like hold up. Now I think I can do this. You want to start?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, my answer is always going to be crazy, because I don't think I really take a step back long enough to really process, you know. So let me think, because for me, like my dad would always tell me when I was young, the goal is to have your own.
Speaker 3:The goal is to have your own. So, like he always pushed school, like school was a thing always too, like when you go to college, when you go to college, but also like when you have your own business. So for me it's like this is just something that's supposed to be. And then I'm trying to think. I mean, I feel like I was an entrepreneur in middle school, like I used to sell gum and all that stuff it was like you know that was the real hustle.
Speaker 1:You know you make your money back there like legit people.
Speaker 3:Don't ask me for gum. Like you gotta slide the coins over here, you know so it was like I know.
Speaker 2:Don't look me in the eye. And I got you.
Speaker 3:So yeah, it was just like you know, the first time that I got a check or the first time that somebody like bet on me because I bet on myself, I was just I don't know. I was kind of like you were expecting it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was expecting it.
Speaker 3:It's the way it's supposed to be yeah, it's like it's supposed to be this way, but also imposter syndrome. Is this me? Because we just had a conversation and again, as an entrepreneur, you're figuring stuff out.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be real.
Speaker 3:You're figuring things out as you go. It's like, all right, I did the services, you're satisfied with the services. But at the same time it's like, all right, I did the services, you're satisfied with the services. But at the same time it's like, but dang, is it me like what? What just happened here? Like. And then it's like, yeah, you pay it, like it's a transaction and it's good, but yeah, I just I don't really take a step back long enough to to really really ponder and admire, like, okay, this is what's happening.
Speaker 1:So this is why y'all need to get them kids to bed early, so you can have these moments to ponder on this stuff.
Speaker 3:Until I'm on vacation and I'm like oh yeah, we did this we did this. Look at this room, that's the time where I'm like, okay, we did that.
Speaker 1:I will tell you because I am the same way. And I will tell you because I am the same way, and it's the circle of people that I keep around me, literally one of my best friends you guys met Javon. Javon has to sit me down sometimes and be like bro, you've done something.
Speaker 1:Man, chill out for a second and take this in, because I think that's how entrepreneurs can be wired sometimes, where it's just like go, go, go, go go, because I could literally close the biggest deal that I've ever done today. I'm gonna jump up for about five minutes and the next thing in my head is gonna be like all right, what's next?
Speaker 2:give me something else like we gotta go.
Speaker 1:If I, if I can do this, then that means I can do more. Let's go. But just to sit back and take and I'm not saying a long time, because I I do the same thing on the opposite side where, if something bad happens, I give myself five minutes to cry about it, dwell on it and then, okay, now let's just start working on the solution. Yeah, but you have to find those moments, whether it's um, I think I told you you need to start walking around that walk around your block and just like taking the okay, taking those moments where it's like you can just think on these things. They're like, yeah, what was I doing a year ago?
Speaker 1:And think about the state of mind that you were in and were you happy and were you in a spot that you wanted to be in, like knowing now that you're in a spot where you feel you're being called to and you're doing the thing you're supposed to do. That puts things in perspective so that when the hard times do come it's not if the hard times are coming is when the hard times are coming you have that base and that foundation to know, well, hey, I've accomplished way more than this. Like this ain't gonna be the thing that takes me down. We can definitely get through this. What was that moment like for you, justin?
Speaker 2:um, I think I'm always someone that has to have my back up against the wall to like really perform. And so for me, um, I'm, and what it was is when I bought a car to go see her because she was living in North Carolina. I didn't have a car, I didn't have my own car, I was using my grandmother's and my grandfather's car, and so I was like, man, I'm just going to go buy me a car.
Speaker 1:So I was at the point to where I couldn't it seems like she just learned about this for the first time.
Speaker 2:No, she know I bought a Toyota Corolla and you know I couldn't even afford the car in terms of like the way my credit was and the car note that they gave me. So I was like all right, so how am I going?
Speaker 1:to oh, this is one of those drive-time specials $600, $700.
Speaker 2:No, I went to Toyota, but you know that's.
Speaker 3:We'll talk about that on another time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know how to talk to a dealer now, but you know, my credit was shot, so I ended up getting a car, but my interest rate was like what? 17%.
Speaker 3:It was 17%. Something like that. And I'm just like I need a car and he's like I got a car and I'm like you did what? Yeah, not even thinking of it.
Speaker 2:But I used that to propel me into entrepreneurship in this way, because you know my mom. She was an entrepreneur, but I didn't really understand what she was doing you know being a hairstylist, and so I decided to put my car on Turo. And this is before everybody started talking about Turo.
Speaker 1:This man right here.
Speaker 2:Literally In 2018?. Yeah, it was 2018. Nobody was talking about T, especially in richmond, and so I put my car. I got um my friend sean that took pictures.
Speaker 3:I gotta take professional pictures of the car at the airport and the top deck, yeah, so I would literally drop my car off at the top deck in the airport and he was working at the and I was working at the airport at the time.
Speaker 2:So I was. I was like I'm gonna just use this. So if I had to sleep at the airport that day, you know, just to take on the extra shift, just to get my car back in the morning, I would do that like genius, like literally I I made sure that my car was where I was going to be. So if I'm in between flights or whatever, I'm making sure that everything is top notch and my people that booked the car loved it.
Speaker 3:I'm talking about they were coming back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were five stars every single time. And so that's when I was like, oh snap, I can do this, and literally I was not paying the car note. It was some months where I was making extra A lot of months, yeah, a lot of months.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was like double Double the car notes.
Speaker 1:So she was like, yeah, I ain't worried about the 17% interest rate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we had to get past that part.
Speaker 2:But that's when I was like, okay, I can do, you know I can do something, because other people were trying to figure out. You know what you? Why would you let somebody drive your?
Speaker 3:car. Yeah, why would you let somebody?
Speaker 2:I'm like I don't care about this car that much.
Speaker 3:This ain't my dream car.
Speaker 2:This is an A to B as long as this and I made sure that you know, somebody wrecked it or anything that I was covered. And that was my biggest thing making sure that if anything happens, I'm covered because at the end of the day, I got to pay for this. And so when all those things checked out, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to jump out and do this because I'm here at the airport. I might as well make money off the airport.
Speaker 1:Bruh, this is man. You ain't never told me that story. Yeah, that is genius. It was Like the hustle, the grind, the mentality of ain't nothing going to stop. I tell people all the time, man, like I understand people are in different circumstances and different situations in this country, but like it is too easy to make money in this country figure it out yeah, like go like gary v always talked about this for years.
Speaker 1:He would go to uh yard sales find beanie babies that somebody had they know what it was and they're selling them for like 25 cents and he's going on ebay selling for 30 bucks a pop, like flip something, yeah, or like the app. Uh, that's probably about the same time rover came out where you could like dogs yeah, dog walk, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's like you ain't got no transportation, but you got a roof over your head. Let all these people bring dog. I met one lady we did, we used that app one time and there was one lady. We booked with her and I talked to her and she had a couple other dogs running around, um, but basically like she was making 40 bucks a night per dog, wow, and she had this big yard and like all this other stuff. She's like yeah, I'll take up to like 10 dogs at a time and do x, y and z.
Speaker 1:So I mean caking it up like every night.
Speaker 2:All you gotta do is feed the things, make sure they don't kill each other and like you get to go, the owners come back in two, three days, pick them up.
Speaker 1:They're still barking, yeah but there are so many different ways that people can make money. It's not w2, isn't the only option correct and everybody need to go full-blown entrepreneur, but I do believe everybody needs to have a side hustle. Yeah, like something else where, like because if I could do it all over, I I would have had my w2 and my side hustle would have just been going into my investment account, like stacking it up, like high interest yielding savings account and living off of my w-2, but like investing and growing the rest.
Speaker 1:Um man, y'all get me pumped talking about this y'all sharing some stuff now with me that that I didn't know before. Um, let me ask you guys this in terms of I'll be real with you, I haven't said this to y'all. When you told me you were quitting yeah, quitting, and you were starting your own hustle and I know you were going a little bit harder on the travel agency thing one of my first thoughts was all right, well, I'm just waiting for them to call me and let them know that they're done with coaching and mentoring, because I'm like they're cutting costs and this is probably going to be one of the first things they got, and I'm not going to be offended or anything like I totally get it. Um, and still I haven't gotten that call um. So the question I want to ask you guys there is despite all these changes and despite things with your financials, why have you guys continued to decide to invest in yourselves?
Speaker 2:that's a good question and I I'm gonna start because we had the conversation you know I've heard it man.
Speaker 3:She said look this coaching costs money.
Speaker 2:And so you know, we had the discussion and it was literally, I think she couldn't make it to one of our sessions and it was just you and I. And then she came the next session and I think it was mainly you two, and so because of that second session, you know she was like we can't.
Speaker 3:It was just so much value. Yeah, it was like we can't. I mean it's always value.
Speaker 2:And then we learned that there are a lot of people who will try to get it the free way and you know you can. You know as much as you can get, but if you really want to take it to the next level you got to put some money into it.
Speaker 2:And so if you choose not to invest in yourself, then you are losing, because you're your biggest asset. Your time on this earth is your biggest asset. So if you choose to waste it, that's on you, and so you know I'll let Shakur yeah, I can't wait to hear her answer.
Speaker 1:Let me get comfortable for this, yeah, so we love working with you right, in fact.
Speaker 3:Listen, we gave Samuel such a hard time. Well, I gave Samuel such a hard time before the relationship even began. He was probably like I don't know about this girl.
Speaker 2:It's just been so much value.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I you know that's just me, but it's been so much value every time. And even like, going back to the last question that you asked about, like when you realized what you did. Like you, you're a coach, but like you always hype us up, like you always bump us up, not because you have to, but like you, you give us our props y'all doing it and that's the thing.
Speaker 3:If we wasn't like, we would know yep, but like you do, like you literally take me back for a second and like, all right, you've done this, that's great, because for me I'm like let's just keep going. And so yeah, like when it's funny because the the money come out every 15th of the month, she knows, she knows.
Speaker 3:One time Justin was like what is this? And I was like I don't know, what did you subscribe to? And we figured out this is in the beginning. So, like you know, as he decided to quit his job and stuff, and I'm like, all right, what can we cut? Like what do we need, what don't we need? And I'm going through the list and I was like, man, that coaching and mentorship is great, but uh, you know, we could do it at extra money, like you know, just saving it, because that's what I do. I just I would save it I wouldn't spend it.
Speaker 3:And so he's like okay, all right, well, we'll have, we'll just let sam, you know, the next time we talk, you know we'll have a conversation. So y'all talked because I was doing something else, it just the most. I said it this way. Y'all talked and I was like did you tell him?
Speaker 2:it's like he didn't even come close no, no, I was like I was like, what did y'all talk about?
Speaker 3:He was, like you know, da, da, da, da, you know where he got me.
Speaker 2:He was talking about crypto.
Speaker 3:Y'all started talking about crypto Because I was like what is happening, like you were supposed to be setting up a time for us to talk.
Speaker 3:So, he's like all right, yeah, I set up a time for you and him to talk, I him to talk. I said me by myself like we're not gonna both have this conversation. So when we got on the call, samuel's like all right, so what, you got going on in travel and I'm like what I thought that this was gonna be like this is hilarious because when I got on this call like I got no sense for you guys at this conversation that happened.
Speaker 3:It was just a regular session and I'm like y'all just talked the other day we didn't pay doubles, so like are we doing this?
Speaker 3:So, we had a conversation and Samuel was like, alright, this is what you gotta do. Like you know, this is your value, this is your worth, and just like coaching me through all that stuff, man, we got off that call and I was like this ain't a cut that we bought Because, like you bet on us and it's like we bet on ourselves, but like you bet on us too. And that conversation was just like no, and when we first, you know, jumped out into entrepreneurship, like we listened to EYL, we listened to, you know, all the heavy hitters, like in that industry, in that space, and everyone always said get yourself a mentor, get yourself a coach, like we follow real estate people, they're like you need someone to walk you through this because there's so much that you're going to do that I've already done yep and instead of you going through every little nitty-gritty part, I can get you all the way over the hump just by this like, just by this relationship.
Speaker 3:So, like all of those things came back to me, I'm like why cut corners, why de-invest in myself and our business and literally be sitting there twiddling our thumbs?
Speaker 2:trying to figure it out and you know, our business has grown since we started Like it's not, like we don't have the receipts and my wife and I we're really different ends of the spectrum. But even though I'm innovative, when I talk to you I'm like dang Sammy will be thinking I got all the ideas.
Speaker 3:I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 2:So that helps me because it's like, okay, if I'm drawing value from somebody that's doing something that I already do, then that's even better. And then, knowing where you started and where you are now and how you continue to grow, it's like I reached out to you. Anyway, you know, I reached out to you first from just seeing a….
Speaker 1:You heard me on a podcast. It was a podcast. Yeah, it was a podcast, full circle moment yeah, so you guys found out about me from a podcast. I don't even remember who was the person I'm jay, that's my.
Speaker 2:I know bj from my past. We um, we connected ministry wise yeah.
Speaker 1:So you saw the interview I did with bj you watch, not only because I remember when you reached out to me, not only did you watch that episode, you went through and listened to a bunch of other episodes and I think you were on like the fifth episode. You're like yeah, I got to reach out to his brother, I got to talk to him, so full circle moment. You guys are now on the podcast Like bro, that's crazy. So number one appreciate everything.
Speaker 1:Y'all just said Number two, I don't ever want y'all to feel like number one you're hurting my feelings or, if the time comes, because there's going to come a time where the little birdie's going to fly away and you're not going to need me, like you're going to need the next coach, yeah, um, I always tell people I'm your six-figure entrepreneur, I'm the one that'll help you get from zero in revenue to that first six figures, because I had mentors that were making six figures and then, once I started making six figures, well, this brother can't teach me nothing else because hopefully, by the time y'all get six figures, I'm already at seven figures and eight.
Speaker 1:That's right, but after the coach I had, he was still at six figures. I'm like all right well. I've gotten what I need out of this relationship. It's time to move on to the next thing no-transcript a year, or something like that.
Speaker 1:I don't work with a ton of people on this side yeah, I'm glad yeah looking at that like you guys, I've never had a couple or individual that I've worked with that like literally just took everything I said and said, okay, we're going to do this and if it doesn't work out, he's the one that told us and I know Shakur would tell me- like. Sam, you told me to do this and it blew up in my face. Luckily, that hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 1:But you guys have done everything and it's literally like there's so many people along the way that I've talked to and I've gotten tidbits from, and like they've told me something, they're at levels I want to be and I was like, yeah, well, that worked for them.
Speaker 3:I don't know if that's going to work for me.
Speaker 1:And then, years later, I end up coming back to it and it's like man, if I had just listened the first time, this would have got me past so much. So I applaud you guys more than anything, because y'all just take advice and y'all run with it like I feel like the second I get off a call with y'all you were me like the second that laptop closed.
Speaker 1:Like all right, let's jump on this, let's do this. Like y'all don't take breaks, you're just ready to go. Um. Last thing I want to touch on before we wrap up um, the marketing component for what you guys do so that was a big thing that we talked about in our early sessions was like hey, we got to get the word out, like people aren't going to book you if they don't know. And then going through the content and things like that and obviously you guys aren't videographers and editors and social media managers and all that stuff but the content you guys have put together, you found success with that. Like I remember when we first started working, I you guys have put together. You found success with that. Like I remember when we first started working, um, I was looking at some of the videos that were pinned at the top of your page. There are some that had hundreds of thousands of views. Like we're talking five, six, seven hundred thousand views and your face ain't in it. It was super simple stuff, yeah, and I'm like wait hold up.
Speaker 1:You said you ain't no, out of market, like how you get because I can get one video going viral for a minute, all right, okay, cool, that was a fluke, but multiple ones, no. That means you have a formula in the system with this and I know still to this day, that's a painstaking for you guys. It's not something that you enjoy doing, but you recognize that this is a part of your business that you have to do. And as Kory is shaking her head, she's probably like man. I hope sam didn't look at my instagram page before we came here next session.
Speaker 1:I know you're not doing it as often and that's not something you should feel guilty about because, like I'm in a phase right now if you've been looking at my social, I've been going ham the last couple of weeks and because I know those phases that I get into, like when I stay on that track, results always come, come in. But at the same time, I have a team now in place. I have the right team in place. So I had to let a bunch of people go from this organization. I basically started from scratch this year, minus one person, but I have a team that can support me now where I could go to this summit all day and I'm getting text messages like hey, don't worry about this, took care of that. Boom, boom, this is done.
Speaker 1:Cool, enjoy yourself, stay focused it took a long time to get the right, people on the bus, um, but there are going to be times when your business is going to require more attention and you're not going to have the time to do those things that you know you need to do. Um, so don't feel guilty about that, but kind of talk through, like number one, what was describe the videos or videos that went viral for you guys on your on your instagram page.
Speaker 3:I need people to understand how simplistic these were yeah, it was super simple, like okay, what is it? We came up with some travel ideas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like these are the best places to go.
Speaker 3:With no passport.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stuff like that it was. Another one was in reference to not like we just booked. It was literally just like giving people information.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were super like, super simple.
Speaker 2:But like five seconds, five, ten seconds.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so what we did? Because you know samuel coach just threw all the the marketing stuff because and it was like follow the trends, okay, so like what is that trend? I mean instagram changes so frequently yeah, that's right yeah you did. You do a great job of like keeping us abreast on that, but it was like follow the trends, okay, what's the trend in audio? So we, we did that. Okay, at the time it was trending audio and then it was those short clips.
Speaker 3:It was like you gotta catch people's attention but also make them loop like so fast that people couldn't see like what it was.
Speaker 2:They went back to them yeah so that's what we did.
Speaker 3:And I mean when I say like we just kept seeing the numbers grow and I was like, oh my gosh, like this is happening, this is happening. And you know, when you're putting it together, I say I take a lot of pride in the work. So like I feel like it took me a little bit of time, but like I kind of had the design eye for it, so it took a little bit of time to put it together. But then when you see, okay, hundreds of thousands of people have seen this. That's exposure for the business. Um, but I can't remember exactly, well, the big.
Speaker 1:So two things on that. One, I want to highlight the fact because I talk to a lot of people and they're like I don't want to be on camera, I'm not comfortable, blah, blah, blah. You guys did that. Now I did push you guys to do some stuff with you guys in it and I think that content did very well. But you can have faceless pages that are going to generate revenue for you. So that's one.
Speaker 1:Number two, just learning you Sha'Cori over our time together. You overanalyze, so you'll put something together and be like but it ain't this that blah blah, who cares? Get it out there, like while I was at. So I'll give you a strategy that I've been doing this week. So this, I'll give a shout out to the Big Dipper Summit that I've been doing this week. So this, uh, I'll give a shout out to the, the big dipper summit that I've been attending this week. Uh, here in Richmond. Um, as I walked in there and I saw the level of speakers and I saw how this was set up, um, literally the first day I walked in the ladies at the front desk. They were like hey, good morning. Like, are you an attendant or are you a speaker? Um, and immediately my, my mind goes into joke mode and I'm like well, I should be a speaker, but y'all couldn't pay my bill this year, so I'm just attending the event.
Speaker 1:They start cracking up and I'm like make sure you book me now, because next year the price is going to go up, blah, blah, blah. And I'm looking around and I'm like you know what I need to be on this stage next year. So I was like I'm my meta glasses filming some stuff on my cell phone. I invited them as a collaborator. Today a bunch of people have started following my page like I've booked meetings with people from that, this, that and the other it's just like I just want to grab attention.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like they're gonna know who Sam Anderson is by the end of this conference. And I'm meeting the people who are putting this on like for lunch, like I one lady. She kept walking around with the vest so I knew she was involved with the organization at some point and me and my buddy were getting lunch today and she was sitting at one of the tables and there were a couple extra seats. I was like, mind, if we join you, I'm sitting down chatting with her, asking her her story.
Speaker 1:I wasn't pitching anything, I'm just like tell me who you are and people just don't realize how much content is just sitting in front of you. And a big thing that you just said about the content that you guys had that went viral. You were adding value to people. You weren't selling something. You weren't telling people hey, book your cruise with us today or do X, Y and Z. It was like hey, here's information you need to know. If you got Wanderlust, here's a page where you're going to get this information that's going to, that's going to feed your soul when it comes to these things.
Speaker 1:And you use stock footage. It wasn't like you guys had to personally go out and shoot this stuff. If you didn't overanalyze, it would probably take you 10 minutes to put it together. But even with chat GBT throwing some stuff in there and like, hey, give me some suggestions where travel agency business boom, boom were travel agency business boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Um, but still I I admire when people can overanalyze things, because sometimes I'm like my wife will text me a lot. She's like you misspelled this in your post, like go back and fix it.
Speaker 3:I don't care about that. Like she's like new, shout out to your wife yeah, she's like new.
Speaker 1:You need to fix this like it's not a good look. My thought process is just get it out like. Get it out like Something good is going to come from this.
Speaker 3:We're working on that. Yeah, we walk around with our phones now just recording. We got lots of content.
Speaker 2:You got to put it together Lots of content.
Speaker 1:I'll give you one that I've seen these guys doing. I've only seen maybe three creators do it, which would be a good one for your page. Guys like looks like he's like had some lake house or lodge and it's like winter, so he could be like in colorado or something like that, and this music's playing. He's just spinning around with the snow falling in the background and the caption on the screen says uh, three places to travel if you don't have any income. And then, as you spin around, the screen fades and then pull up the indeed logo like job hunter, like all this quick six second video and, like the first time I saw that I was rolling
Speaker 1:but, and I heard something at the conference today um, they were saying and this the one lady I was telling you about that I bought a book today and, like she was super analytical about this stuff, um, she talked about how there are no, no great businesses built on an original idea. It's taken a piece from something. So, like, she used Netflix as an example. So it's like you take the pain state. They took something from Blockbuster, they took something from Amazon. Um, in terms of like, uh, delivering directly to you, cause people forget Netflix, we used to just get DVDs sent directly to our house, and it wasn't just streaming. Um, they utilize the United States Postal Service. Like, wasn't a great, like insane idea. Oh, and then they took the basic gym membership concept where it's like, yeah, you pay your $7.99 per month and this is where your margins come in. So they took three different businesses. Only one was related to what they actually did. They looked at three different businesses and said how can we pull the best out of their model? And that's ultimately how Netflix came together. And it's looking at things like that, where you're looking adjacent to businesses when it comes to marketing ideas, you're looking adjacent to things that have absolutely nothing to do with what you guys do for a living, but you can take ideas from that and say, oh, this video is popping. How can I relate that to real estate? Or, like they said this and that, how can I relate this to a travel business? So I feel like we, as entrepreneurs, we're always trying to reinvent the wheel. We don't need to do that Like that's when I, for our model with Enzo Media Firm.
Speaker 1:Like the reason 85 percent of the companies that we work with the clients we serve work with us on a monthly basis is because I was looking at how broken the freelance system was. If I start this thing and I get a big job in January and I have no guarantee that I'm going to get another check, it could be April, may before I see something else. What is something that I can do? Well, you know what? Like gyms, like most of the people that have a gym membership I got to look this stat up I dare say probably 60% to 70% of people who pay for a monthly gym membership are not there more than once a week, if that, yeah, a lot of them because the price is so low. And that was my concept. Was I wanted to start with the price point that was so low for business owners where they're like you know I ain't really using this, but it ain't real.
Speaker 1:That's the reason people don't quit the gym is because you go to quit your gym membership. It's like, well, I may want to go next week. And it's only like $10.
Speaker 2:What's the big deal so?
Speaker 1:looking at things like that where you can. That's the next thing I want to challenge you guys before our next session is be aware of some of these other adjacent businesses where you see something was super successful. Recently I had the guys from Cocky Rooster on the show.
Speaker 3:If you guys haven't eaten at Cocky Rooster, we saw your post about oh yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we love Cocky Rooster. They're cauliflower wings though.
Speaker 1:Dude. I told my couple white brothers that started business. I was like, dude, I was looking in the kitchen when I was there. I know y'all got a brother back there somewhere because ain't no way a black dude ain't had something to do with, just chicken. But one thing I'm I was talking to them about that blew my mind and I haven't released this episode yet, so this will be out. After that.
Speaker 1:One airs um, they have a three and a half day work week for their employees. So they have two separate staffs, like manager, employee, like all the way down. One staff comes in, you know, sunday through Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday, whatever, and the other staff comes in from that Wednesday or Thursday afternoon to the next Sunday. So they literally work 12 hour shifts, work three and a half days, and then they got the rest of the week off and he said their employees couldn't be more happy. Everybody's just so adjusted and it's like if you have other things that you want to do, like that's a difficult thing about working full time and having a side hustle because you don't have that time.
Speaker 1:I know a lot of guys in the firefighting business. That's one of the big things they love about being a firefighter is like man, I'm going to work three days this week but I'm going to be off for like the next week, so I can go power wash a house, I can go do this, I can do that. And I'm trying to figure out, man, how in the world can I incorporate something like that in my business? It may not be this business, maybe another one, because an editor is not going to want to sit down for 12 hours straight, yeah, but I'm like how can I figure out a system like that? Because I do feel like this 40-hour workweek thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you guys know, traveling I it's been a while since I've been overseas, but like Europe is on a different time system. Like Sundays, everything shuts down. It ain't just Chick-fil-a, everything shuts down. It's like we're all gonna spend time with our families, we're not gonna do X, y, z and people are just moving at a slower pace versus here in the States, we're all go, go, go, go, go, go, go. So yeah, challenge you guys, look at some adjacent businesses and figure out what is something that they're doing and how can that be incorporated into what we do. Final thought with you guys I want you guys to give a bit of advice and let the people listening know that. Let's say, someone who's just about to start their entrepreneurial journey, or they've been started for a while and they're not seeing the results. What's one main tip that you would give them in order to move the needle?
Speaker 2:forward. I'll start. Don't like what was said in the beginning of the podcast or the episode, don't be afraid to start something and then it doesn't become what you want it to be. Because you know we done went through many different business names and now only yeah and ideas. And now you know we got three main ones that stick. You know we got GJS solutions, which is our property management company for short-term rentals. We got Juco ventures travel, which is her travel business, and then you know me, I'm Justin Sheldon, I'm the realtor. You know proximity realty and so, with that being said, it's like man, you have to be okay with figuring it out. Yes, Because what I learned a long time ago just being in front of people, whether it's on stage or whatever, or playing a game, like a basketball game or whatever people don't know what you practice.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So if you performing in front of people, they don't know if you're messing up unless you show that you're messing up. People they don't know if you're messing up unless you show that you're messing up. And so, being able to keep face and say you know what, I'm gonna keep going, you know people are going to be applauding you for what you're doing. My grandma asking me all the time what y'all doing now like what?
Speaker 2:y'all doing now, and to us it's normal now. You eat, sleep and breathe this, so it's like, don't be afraid to fall on your face.
Speaker 1:Yes, just get back up, love it, love it. Spoken like a, like a seasoned entrepreneur man. I love it right?
Speaker 3:thank you for giving me some time, because I like to think that's how we work. Yes, no I think okay. So like the biggest thing for me that I've learned and thinking about people in entrepreneurship is where your support comes from, because we all want support from within, like, oh my gosh, you're my family, you're my friends.
Speaker 1:They ain't gonna support you.
Speaker 3:And that's not where it's gonna come from. They're the worst clients you know like, and so you have to be okay with that. It's not that they think your idea is dumb.
Speaker 2:It's not that they don't want to support you. It's just that they're not, they're not aligned.
Speaker 3:They're not always aligned and so you have to be okay with that and you have to step out. Contact that person that you always it's like man, they've been doing this. Okay, contact that person, do a collaboration with them. Contact that person who said they're looking for this thing, those are your clients. They're going to put, they're going to shout your name greater and further than some of the people that you've known forever. So that is like the biggest thing. When you're stepping out there, know that you're a line client. Might not look like what you've always seen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do want to add one thing too. Um, don't like what. What I'm told now by my mentor in real estate is don't be a secret agent.
Speaker 2:So, it's like whatever you do, don't keep it a secret. Put it out there. Just share it with somebody, even if it's at the grocery store. You know everyone always say, hey, how you doing. You know just say, hey, can I talk to you real quick? Let me just, you know, tell you what I do, or can I ask you a quick question? You know just something the more people you let know what you do, the more people are going to reach out to you. Absolutely, that's just statistics. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Man again, I'm always enamored by the fact that you guys are learning these lessons so much quicker than most entrepreneurs do. Like I couldn't be more proud of you guys. Like I love the progression that I've seen with you guys and it's been awesome to see and we're going to replay this, this episode, years down the road and be like remember when we talked about that, like just quitting the job, the little, the little amount of money we were paying for coaching, can you?
Speaker 3:believe we thought about canceling that. That's literally going to be me in a couple years. Man, what was I thinking? I mean, I know what I was thinking, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I love it, but like knowing, because I can see exactly where you guys are going, like I mean, the future is bright, Like the work ethic you guys have and the mentality and you know what you're willing to do to get to where you're in the example that you guys are already setting for your young family Like I love it. I love it. So we're going to end it right there. Thank you guys for coming on. It's been an awesome episode. I think people are going to get a lot out of this and we will see you guys on the next episode. Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Our one-on-one coaching tailor strategies to your unique business goals. Dive into interactive workshops fostering skills essential for success. Looking for an inspirational speaker for your next event? Book Mr Prenuer to elevate your gathering. Visit wwwthemistaprenuercom to learn more and embark on your path to entrepreneurial success. Mr Prenuer, empowering your entrepreneurial spirit.