Antwon Person: From Army Leadership to Entrepreneurial Excellence

Antwon Person, widely known as “The Skillful Advisor,” is a retired U.S. Army Senior Officer and accomplished entrepreneur with a proven track record of leading high-performing organizations across both the Department of Defense and the corporate sector. He is recognized for his ability to build cohesive teams, drive operational excellence, and execute complex initiatives at scale.

As the founder of Skillful Brands, Antwon leads a business growth firm dedicated to simplifying how entrepreneurs start, operate, and scale their businesses. Under his leadership, the company’s mission is to eliminate unnecessary complexity and provide clear, structured, and scalable pathways to sustainable business success.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Listeners of the Tron Podcast, this is your host, Rashad Woods. I have a very special guest today, and I want to thank him for his service as a senior officer officer in the U.S. Army. He then retired and transitioned to civilian life to a very successful entrepreneurial career with his company Skillful Brands. Based right out of Washington, DC, you really want to listen to this episode, Mr. Antoine Person. Thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Hey, Rashad, thank you for having me on your platform. You know, I'm uh really thankful for that. I know it's not easy to run a podcast and then also provide the value that you provide to your audience. So again, I just want to thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

I appreciate that. You know, it and I think that people think that sometimes this could be just like a headphone and then you have to try to find a fill in the gaps, but no, it's a lot more work than that. And uh I'm fortunate enough to talk to very talented and appreciative guests such as yourself. And so I'm honored for for for this welcoming environment. Can you tell us about your background? Because, you know, first of all, the fact that you serve in the military, thank you. And then you have a very successful entrepreneurial career as well, too. Can you dive into your history and your background?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Uh yeah, so my uh my journey uh kind of started before entrepreneurship. A lot of people know me uh, you know, for being an entrepreneur. Um, but I spent 22 years uh in the army leading different organizations. And then when I transitioned out of uniform, I brought a lot of those principles and skills with me to you know the entrepreneurship uh journey. Um, you know, those skills kind of shape how I build businesses and what I do with skillful brands today. So right now, uh my focus is to help entrepreneurs eliminate any of the complexities that um come with starting and operating a successful business. Um, because I kind of know what that looks like. Um I know what it feels like to be stuck, not you know, knowing which way to turn in your business. I know how it feels to wear all of the hats in your business. And then really just trying to try a process to you know see if it works. Um the shift for me into entrepreneurship is when I realize that being busy doesn't translate into actually building a business. Um, you know, hustling, um, but you really might not have a structure um to actually make your business go. So, you know, we I developed skillful brands on a product called Skillful Advisor, um, whereas an accelerator um to help entrepreneurs uh you know get going in their business.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

I think the old saying is don't confuse a habit for hard work, right? So it it it it and that applies, you know, you especially are disciplined because obviously when it comes to the military, that's a different level of discipline than only a few percentage of people will be able to understand. But I I I do love the statement where you say, you know, you can feel overwhelmed or people can feel like they need to conquer all things at once. And really what it boils down to is almost like like I always use the example of White Castle. White Castle was the first fast food chain in America, and the reason they've lasted so long is because they never tried to be McDonald's, they never tried to be the happy meal, they never tried they knew exactly where their position was in the market, and so they've never been swallowed or really, you know, knocked out of the ballpark, so to speak, because they always stayed in their respective lane and they knew what they were and they were successful in in their particular avenue. So oftentimes I have to imagine you get entrepreneurs that are like, I want to do this, I want to do this, I want to do this. It's like you're losing focus of what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Yeah, but you know, I will say this. Um, just like many other entrepreneurs that are just starting out, right? For me, I had a full-time job. I had the responsibility of being a husband and a father, and then I was trying to at the time run a part-time business. Um, but I quickly realized that uh the part-time business involvement really had a full-time requirement. Um, so the less, you know, so that changed. And I realized that most entrepreneurs don't fail uh because they got the wrong idea, they fail because the business um that they're building doesn't have the proper structure and they don't have the proper guidance and mentorship to actually uh, you know, run a successful business.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

And you know, because if you didn't come from generational wealth, you have to really try to figure it out on your own. And oftentimes you don't have that friend or that mentor that you can tap on the shoulder and say, listen, kind of guide me through this. It's really falling flat on your face, being frustrated, those lonely nights by yourself, waiting until the kids fall asleep, right? And then missing a baseball game and all the little nuances that would involve to get this off the ground because you have to work where nobody's looking. People only see the finished product, but they don't realize the sweat and tears that involve to get to that point.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Right, right. I mean, in in the sweat and tears, but it also can create burnout, confusion. Um your business can kind of fall apart. So that's why I kind of um uh harp on, you know, creating a definitely a framework for your business. And I use a term that three S's, which is structure, systems, and strategy. So structure, you know, having the might, the right mindset, you know, having the systems. I consider systems is the acronym, say your time yourself, time, energy, money, and then having a strategy, working on the right part of your business at the right time. There's a lot of gurus out there that have different courses, and you might see it, and it may be for your business, but not at this current moment. It may be, you know, in phase two or three of your business versus phase one. So, you know, a lot of people look at the the you know, shiny object that this guru is teaching, but you you also, if you look at your framework and develop a framework, you might realize that this portion of this course may should happen farther down the road.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

And that's important too, right? So do you when you let's talk specifically about skillful brands, what stage do you typically get entrepreneurs at? Is it after they've established their LC? Is it after they've hit roadblocks, or is it when they first want to actually get to be an entrepreneur and they're saying, listen, you know, this is I I'm having an idea um and I'd like to bring it from from thought to conception.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Hey, so this is what I would say. So skillful brands uh under our product, skillful advisor, really has uh three phases that we focus on. And I use the term phases because uh, you know, I brought that from the military. We plan all of our operations and phases. Um but um, you know, so phase one is really the proof and validation of your business. So they're really for new entrepreneurs that are just getting started. Then I have a phase two, which is build and optimize. They're a little more advanced than the you know, the new solopreneur turning into an entrepreneur, and then I have phase three, which is growth and expand. Um, so we kind of uh help all entrepreneurs across the spectrum. Um, but for me personally, I love working with entrepreneurs that are in the proof and validation um because I knew and I know what it took for me to actually get going. So I know all of the mistakes that I made. So for me, I have a passion for helping new entrepreneurs, but our program, depending on you know which phase you enter in, can help seasoned entrepreneurs as well. I just take a liking in helping new entrepreneurs. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

I think also, too, you know, considering, you know, this is the era of digital and it's democratized a lot of the processes that maybe people didn't have before, where they didn't have access to information or people such as yourself. Because, you know, if you live in an area where you don't have a lot of people to reach out to, if you're fortunate enough to have internet access now, which a lot of people do, I won't say everyone, now you can actually see that there are avenues to build your business and be successful at it in ways that previously didn't exist. Do you have people that are remote?

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah, so um the individuals in the program are across the country, so they are remote. And you know, in the um proof of per um principle phase um and validation, that's one of the main things that we talk about as far as mindset. Trying to get a new entrepreneur to understand that one, you can't do it all on your own. You need to um, you know, maybe hire a VA, um, which is another thing that I would like to uh talk about. And then also a mentor. Um, so that mentor is a person that can help you out, it helped my business out when I was getting started because it was someone that I could reach out to if I had a question. It was someone that would could almost like hold my hand to make sure that I was doing it correctly, and that gave me the confidence to know, like, okay, this is the right way. Um, there's so many businesses that fail because they they fail to get started. Um but a lot of companies fail to get started because they're scared, they don't know what to do. So having that mentor, and then I will also share about you know hiring VAs or hiring individuals that can help you run your business. Um, so we talk about the process of how we source VAs and then also how we utilize them. So, you know, I share that one of the mistakes that I made when I first started hiring VAs is I hired one generalist VA, and I had that person doing almost all of the tasks. So they were admin, they were editing videos, they were creating videos, they were doing social media posts. And what I quickly realized is that probably was not the right way to be effective with the help that I was that I was hiring. Um, I should have looked more at hiring VAs that had a zone of excellence. So someone that specialized in admin, someone that specialized in editing videos, and then that would be their focus and specialty versus hiring one person to try to do everything, which you know, jack of all trades, master or none is the concept that uh, you know, you would get in that kind, you know, in that in that thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Without question, you know, and I I think the the adage of you know when they talk about building something, build one good mousetrap, right? So like you said, it's better to get somebody that masters in very one one good skill, or particularly somebody who's very good at what you're not very good at. Right? Right. Because what happens is is that you tend to gravitate towards what you like. It's like basketball, right? You'll drill you'll if you really don't like to dribble with your left hand, you'll work on your left hand for like five minutes, but then you're gonna gravitate towards your right.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

You have to work on all those things.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

So that's definitely correct.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, it's it's a tough one because you don't you certainly have to have somebody who's gonna compliment those little the dirty little things that you don't like to do. It's even like like a podcast, right? Like interviewing, but then you still I'm a terrible social media person, right? You better get somebody who's really very well at social media in order to actually get your message out because otherwise it's all for naught.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Right, right. And you know, and I I will also add so framework, but then entrepreneurs also need to have some type of system and process. Um so you know, uh another thing, let's you know, say about the VA. So we also realized that we needed some type of onboarding process for our VA. That would um allow them to come into our culture, understand our mission, understand our ideal client, understand their responsibilities, and you know, then things will start to work out a lot smoother, smoother. So we developed the onboarding process for the VAs where they come in, they learn all about the culture, and that's really been helpful because it also brings them into our our organization and you know, give them a responsibility that they uphold. Um, so that's all been working out great.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

That's fantastic. So and again, so my question is this, and this is kind of an out-of-the-box question, because there's really not been a lot of new products that have come out, there's just more personal preferences of what you use, right? How do when people are coming to an idea and conception, if you're an entrepreneur and you're saying, well, somebody's done that already, or I'm kind of mimicking this because we utilize different services and tools every single day. You know, you can go to Burger King or Wendy's or McDonald's, they all serve cheeseburgers and fries, right? How do you get somebody who says, I had this idea and it's already been something that's successful to market, but they themselves still want to bring this product to market?

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Yeah, so I use this concept here. So um, you know, what when I started, uh I started out doing as a real estate investor, and uh, you know, I bought multiple different courses that try to, you know, learn different concepts. But what I quickly realized is a lot of the concepts of being a real estate investor were the same. And then a guru would really put his twist on it, name a certain a certain step, something that was tailored towards him and his business, and then package it and sell it. And at the end of the day, it was the same course almost that another investor have. So it's really all about tailoring your products and your services to your ideal client. You know, um, it's all about the passion that you have, um, you know, and how you brand your products and services to match your ideal client. A lot of times I get a lot of people to ask me, um, should I be focused more on the product and service, or should I be personally branding myself? And I think initially starting out uh in our phase one, we kind of talk about doing both because you, you know, people are buying from someone that they're comfortable with. So as you initially get started, you know, it's all about branding both yourself, getting your name out there, but also providing a great product. As you get farther away and you know, get more established, then it may be you you may do a transition where it's more about the product than you. Because at the end, at the day of phase three, phase four, you may want to step away for legacy and freedom, and you have to start transitioning your brand to stand alone versus just you. But in phase one, really it's it's it's about yourself and you branding it as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah, I think that's a powerful statement, too, because you know, you can still have in and you know, a very successful firm, company, and client base based upon the service that you provide for them. You know, maybe they don't want to necessarily talk to a, you know, if you have a small IT firm, for example, it's gonna work very effective for your local base nearby of those businesses that can talk to you directly, have personalized service, have a personalized onboarding, talk to the CEO themselves, the VP, the CTO, instead of just getting a preloaded computer and you kind of figuring out on your own, and you're like, well, I don't have a lot of guidance here.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Right, right. Yeah, and because you know, I um uh one of my friends was telling me a couple of weeks ago that he had you know signed up for a certain CRM, um, and then one day he was just setting it up and he got a call, and then it was actually from the CEO of that company just calling him to see how you know he was doing. And that you know, that's really big that you know you would just openly call from the CEO and just say, like, hey, we know you signed up, you know, it's been about a week. What are your product?

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Right, and that goes a long way. And then next thing you know, you're like, man, you know, oh, that's a take my cell, etc. So when it comes to skillful brands in particular, and you're onboarding a client, you know, and they get that initial call and that setup, can you kind of walk people through what your stages of your process is?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Okay, yep. So um, what we have is we do onboarding calls um because you know, all entrepreneurs are in different stages, and there it may be some entrepreneurs that we can't help, so we don't want to take any anyone's money. So, you know, they go to our website, skillfuladvisor.com, schedule an onboarding, and then once they get there, we in the onboarding call, we'll have a questionnaire just to kind of see where we can help them at. Our focus really for new entrepreneurs, we want to get them to making 10k a month continuously. Phase two is from 11 to 50k a month. So if you're in phase two, you know, we want to definitely get you in that range. And then our phase three is uh above 50k and beyond. Uh that's kind of like our our three phases. So we kind of see where you kind of fit. Um, and then, you know, once you decide if you want to join us or not, we onboard you and get you into our group where you get to network with other entrepreneurs that are in our program. Um and we do weekly uh meetings there every um every week. One meeting every week. Plus, right, you get personalized time with myself where we go over your plan, give you homework and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Are there particular industries that people would gravitate towards your service with? You know, and I say that respectfully, right? Because there may be better fits for them and you in particular, you know, when it comes to what they offer as a potential entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yes. You know, that's really a funny question that you asked that. Because someone else I was speaking to um last week, and what I was sharing with them is in the fundamentals of what we teach, it's all industries, because all industries need the base, this base foundation to be productive. You may still need an industry coach, but the concepts that we're teaching you, you know, mindset, you know, structure, foundation, business credit, processes and systems. Um, all businesses need that to actually, you know, scale. So for us, it doesn't matter the industry. Uh, we just want to make sure that you have a strong foundation.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

And you know, and the reality about it is this is that, you know, I think oftentimes people look at, you know, whether it's an Instagram post or a YouTube post, and there are a lot of people out there that will swear up and down they can improve your business. And if you don't you do your research, you can get really burned because you'll find out that just like anything else, you know, this, you know, the what attracts people is flashiness, right? What attracts them is what they can eat, what they're playing in between their YouTube videos. And I'm not saying some of those people aren't credible, some of them very are. But it's important for people to do their homework and the research. And and you've done a very masterful job about that. Oh, when you came out of the army and you were transitioning to civilian life, what was that time frame like when you first transitioned to either a corporate or a traditional uh career and then decided to become an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_00 18:30

So I so I actually started um my first business in 2007. Um, so I was still um in the military, but it was like a part-time uh you know gig. So during my career, I started and sold multiple businesses. So when I did transition from the military, I kind of already knew um that I wanted to be an entrepreneur coach because I had I would have a lot of people that would be coming to me for advice. Um and I just I just took a liking to that. So it was kind of easy for me. I know some people when they get out, they struggle to try to you know find what they um you know want to do. And if their career set in the military didn't match to something that they wanted to do in the you know in the corporate sector, it may be a little challenge. But for me, I I mean I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I knew I wanted to help entrepreneurs uh scale start and scale their business. That's amazing. The military does have for entrepreneurship, um, and then also other tracks as well. They have when you're transitioning out of any of the services, um, they have different tracks to help you. So they do have a program called Boost the Business, um, where you go through where it teaches you how to be uh um an entrepreneur as well. But I will share based on one of the comments that you said about um there is a lot of uh you know coaches out there, some are good or some are not. I think for me, um I've paid for training in the past and I've taken a little bit from all of the coaches that I've had. So I've I've taken some of the negatives and be like, hey, I want to make sure that my program does not do that. And then I've taken a lot of the good stuff um with it as well. Um so it's been really um rewarding just you know going through some of those uh different trainings. And then the the last thing I'll say just on leadership, um when I was transitioning out of the military, I've I've had the opportunity to lead a many different organizations. But the one of the last organizations that I did lead when I was in the military was um an organization called Defense Logistics Agency. And uh troop support um section of that. And they deal directly with corporate organizations. So if you really think about it, the military really doesn't produce any of the commodities or that they use, they usually purchase a lot of the things from corporate entities and transition it into the military. So for me, when I led DLA troop support, I was the liaison pretty much from the military engaging with the corporate entities for a different military needed. So I got a first-hand understanding of how corporate supply chain works and you know the the link between the two. So I felt like I was in the military, um, but I got to see it directly how the civilian and corporate sector work um as far as supply chain and leadership. So I I bring that, you know, with me as well, just when I'm you know talking to entrepreneurs.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Yeah, like over 20 years ago, I was an intern at uh Sears Corporate, and the majority of the people that were in charge of the supply chain were actually from the military, right? Because they when it came to logistics in particular. I mean, with all I mean, I can only imagine how integral like logistics is at that level, right? You know it's it's it's one thing to make sure you put dog food on shelves. It's another thing to supply troops, you know, overseas and and and the complexities that involve with ports and navigating through different countries and things of that nature and getting things on boats. You know, it it you know, I've heard how you know how challenging that is, but I can only imagine it, and that's why they need that high level of expertise.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Definitely, you know, um military supply chain, um, you know, it there's obviously military is here to you know support and win wars. Um so you have that part of the supply chain understanding how to you know support the war fighter, but at uh defense logistics agency, you also have you know people that are not at war, um, and just understanding how to support them with clothes, food, um, you know, medical supplies, eyeglasses. So just having an overall perspective on um, you know, those commodities and how that works really helps me when I'm talking to you know other entrepreneurs that may have a supply chain problem or may need you know help um sourcing a product. So I'm you know, I'm really appreciative of my experience.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

That's a fact, that's fantastic. You know, I've always been a big proponent of of being conscious of people's time, but I could talk about you know, pick your brain forever because the stories and the success that you've you know, I'm only getting small doses of what you've really accomplished in life in the small amount of time that you've been fortunate enough to share on this show. For the purpose of this show, because obviously people know who you are and you're very successful in your business. Where can people find Antoine Peterson Antoine Persson, excuse me, and skillful brands?

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Yes, so um I'm real heavy on uh LinkedIn now, so you can always find me on LinkedIn. Uh I think I'm the only Antoine person there. So that's uh A-N-T-W-O-N, uh last name person, P-R-S-O-N. You can definitely find me on there if you want to um connect directly with me, or you can go to skillfuladvisor.com and you can find out more about our accelerator program there.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

It you know, and like I said, I really am very appreciative of your service and the protection you have provided and that's just the time that you put in to serve the country. It takes a very, very dedicated individual to put their lives on the line for just to keep us safe every single day. So I'm very appreciative of that. And for what you do for entrepreneurs and you know, your your programs and services you offer. I would hope that everybody who's listening to this show would reach out to Antoine because his advice and his authenticity is is tantamount to what your success could be. And I thank you for your time for being on the show. Thank you, sir. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you. And this is Rashad of the Randomness of Nothing podcast. If you like this, please subscribe and listen. Have a wonderful day. Thanks, Antoine. That was awesome.