[00:01:17] A.J. Lawrence: So yeah, we both worked for the same company. Completely never knew it was one of these rollups, agency rollups in the 90’s so it was just funny when I was going through his background. It was like, oh my God, we’ve worked for this crazy company that has exploded during the first dot-com boom or dot boom.

[00:01:36] What’s really interesting about Jon, and is something I think we should look at as entrepreneurs, is one of the things I think that has helped so many entrepreneurs is finding a good coach, a good program, a good framework of which to build a business. Now, one of the things that we’ve discussed multiple times over the show is there is no one true path. As great as some of these are, no one program is the only one. You kind of have to pick and choose and skill.

[00:02:07] Now, the other problem out there though, is there is so much garbage out there. And so many people try and sell you snake oil, so you have to be careful. Really in good diving through Jon’s background, what Jon offers as a coach, what his program offers, and sort of the ongoing material, I was pretty impressed. Did a bit of research before talking with him.

[00:02:29] So I think it’s gonna be interesting to one, to kind of joke about a little bit of the 90’s and the interesting space of the dot-com agency, digital agency, early digital agency world. But that’s a little bit of just nostalgia for me. But then two is sort of the value and when and where you bring in a coach, and how you get more value out of the right coach or the right program depending upon what you’re looking at.

[00:02:55] So, you know, I think this is gonna be really interesting if you are there, because I know in my past I’ve had- it’s not that I’ve had bad coaches, but I had coaches I was not prepared or didn’t fit for what I was trying to do or how I was looking at the world or my willingness to bring.

[00:03:15] When I found coaches though that I was mentally prepared and I could connect with, the value of my businesses just grew. And it’s kind of a hard thing because you’re being kind of sold a solution a lot of times. But the reality is it’s a relationship, and you have to find that right mix and that right kind of person to interact and learn from. So Jon’s gonna kind of go into this a little bit so I think this is a lot value for us to learn. Let’s go talk with Jon.

[00:03:48] Jon, it’s great to have you here on the show on the other side of the podcast now.

[00:03:53] Jon Dwoskin: Yeah, great to be here. Thanks so much, A.J..

[00:03:55] A.J. Lawrence: It was so fun to be on your show that now I get the chance to return the favor and grill you and no, no, it was, it was a really, it was a great experience. So, hey, thank you so much.

[00:04:05] Just going through your background and everything, and I’m really impressed with everything you’ve done. I mean, as we were just joking before the show, we both worked within the same early digital roll up. So where do you see yourself these days as an entrepreneur?

[00:04:21] Jon Dwoskin: You know today, I mean, I see myself as an entrepreneur, someone who started a business, being able to be myself, loving what I do, doing what’s in my unique ability within something that I think comes very, I study every day, but something that is in alignment with who I am and what I can do. I feel very fulfilled.

[00:04:42] And I built the business that I have always wanted to build since I was 18. And as of June 1st, will be seven years that I started this business. And I feel very fulfilled. I wanna say somewhat content, but I’m never fully content cause I’m always kind of building my business. But very fulfilled and content that I’m where I’m supposed to be, doing what I’m supposed to be doing, helping other people get unstuck in their business.

[00:05:13] That’s what I do, I work with people to- I’m a business coach and I have this kind of bigger mission that I feel like is kind of bigger than me, which is to provide contents, to provide coaching to over a billion people and get them thinking big by getting unstuck and staying consistent and being fulfilled.

[00:05:34] Not all of those people will be one on ones, but you know, if I add up the one on ones and the keynotes and the contents that I push out and the other coaching programs that I have, that’s my goal.

[00:05:46] A.J. Lawrence: That is a great goal. And that’s a BEHAG of a number, which is very cool. And I’m gonna put just cuz you and I were chatting, but you’re someone who sold your business at 25 and you sold-

[00:05:57] You know as someone who also did that, but sold to a company that wasn’t as good off, wasn’t as well off as you as web even though it was a few years before it. You had this success, but now you’re finding such a passion within coaching and helping grow other entrepreneurs. How did that kind of come about for you?

[00:06:14] Jon Dwoskin: So when I was 18, I’m gonna be 50 on Sunday, when I was 18, my dad gave me a set of tape sets by Brian Tracy called the Psychology of Success. And he said to me, Jonathan, I think you’ll learn more from these people than you will on college. And so I remember putting it in my Walkman, right? And thinking, oh my God, this totally resonates with me.

[00:06:39] At the time, A.J., I didn’t know that, I always thought I was a visual learner. And at the time, I didn’t know when I was 18, that I was actually an auditory learner. I didn’t know that ’til I was really 30 and got an IQ test and they shared that with me. But it made sense because I was, I am a huge reader but I could always retain things so quickly when I listened to them.

[00:07:01] And so I became addicted at 18. I never, I don’t think I’ve gone a day since then without learning something. And I knew at that moment, I said, oh, I wanna be a business coach. I wanna be like this guy, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, and Tony Robbins. I wanna be like this.

[00:07:15] I believe that I can help people grow their business, and kind of get unstuck, and write books, and speak. And so I just studied all of them, I still do. And now it’s much easier with podcasts and audible and things of that nature. But so I knew.

[00:07:32] And so when I was in my early 40s and I knew I needed, that was kind of my window to get started. So right before I turned 41, I left my corporate job and I was getting ready to start my business. I ended up going into another quick one year thing where I helped restructure a 50- year old company. And then I started my business.

[00:07:56] So seven years ago and it was always in the works. I had been building business plans since I was 18 years old and kind of what the business would be and what it would look like.

[00:08:05] A.J. Lawrence: So you had this early exposure and sort of this realization that, you know, audio could kind of help you. But it was, I think, the material itself that is having read mostly a lot of that material. I could see that, 18.

[00:08:21] Now, I have a 17 year old right now and anything I try and suggest that seems even related to business doesn’t seem to even get his interest. So this could be a different ongoing, could be how to kind of position it for teenager to be interested like you were.

[00:08:36] But back to the point, you had this early kind of awareness. What do you think sort of helped you the most? You started the company, you went da da, da. And now, you’re here building this company and you’re helping so many other entrepreneurs. What do you think has helped you the most on your journey to be this entrepreneurial coach?

[00:08:57] Jon Dwoskin: I’ve always surrounded myself with mentors and coaches. And so I’m not even saying this to kind of promote myself, but I’ve had business coaches for the last 20+ years. And I’ve had mentors that I can have and do reach out to at a very young age and still now, where I can ask for help, be vulnerable showing what I don’t know, and asking for guidance.

[00:09:22] I move a lot on instinct and I move a lot on intuition. And so sometimes I gotta kind of ground that intuition with a couple data points. And so reaching out to mentors and coaches, kinda saying like, Hey, here’s my idea. I do it even now. Anytime I have a new coaching program I’m launching, I just created this whole new one, I have a couple people that I beta test. Hey, what do you think of this idea?

[00:09:49] There’s certain people that when they tell me, ah, that’s a great idea. I know it’s a great idea. And they’ll kind of tweak it a little bit and then I take it to my team and they’ll tweak it even more. I’m open for feedback.

[00:10:03] And I always know if my wife tells me that an idea is great, then usually it’s a slam dunk cause she’s got really good instincts. But if I had to summarize all of what I just said, being open for feedback has been key, being open for feedback, but still trusting my own gut. Not being overly influenced, but yeah, but being open for feedback.

[00:10:24] A.J. Lawrence: That is funny, sorry I was gonna kind of jump on that because that is something that is relatively difficult for a lot of entrepreneurs and not for the typical like it’s my way or the highway. Especially it’s that we get into these moments where kind of force of will. I will make this happen. And I think that kind of leads to blinders.

[00:10:45] Compared to like when you were earlier, if this was the case to now, how do you think that has evolved for you? And how you were able to be more open?

[00:10:53] Jon Dwoskin: You know, I think it’s a journey. I remember when you don’t know you’re in your own way until you know you’re in your own way. But I remember, very clearly, thinking what I was doing, just kind of feeling stuck in what I was doing.

[00:11:09] I remember at a very young age thinking I was doing everything right and then somebody would give me a little piece of advice that would go a really long way. That would begin to shift my perspective. And so I then began to think, okay, it’s amazing, the power of being vulnerable and talking about what’s really happening.

[00:11:34] So if I can talk about, Hey here’s an issue that I have that’s going on. In this instance my business, do you have any insights? And asking for help and being vulnerable and not feeling like I had to know it all. In my kind of mid 20s, I would say that shift became very relevant to me.

[00:11:57] And that to me, I think has always been a theme to just be vulnerable and say, Hey, here’s a problem that I have, I need some help. Give me some guidance. But I think it’s important to reach out to the right people because in that journey, I’ve also reached out to the wrong people and there’s a danger in being vulnerable and reaching out to the wrong people whose intentions are not clean, and intentions aren’t clear.

[00:12:24] And so after you get burned, you kind of revert a little bit. But then tapping into a little bit more of my instincts, my intuition, my voice, my inner knowledge and knowing now who to trust to be vulnerable with, to say, Hey, I got this issue with my business, can you help? And then being open to the feedback.

[00:12:47] But I think that level of being vulnerable and yeah, reading books. I remember reading a book by Gary Zukav called The Seat of the Soul, 25 some years ago. And in it, he talked about the ideal human being is when personality ends and the soul begins or the soul ends and the personality begins.

[00:13:05] And I remember thinking that I was a little just disjointed in that realm. And so, you know, you take the Gary Zukav, Zhar, Toles, the Brene Browns, who really kind of mainstream this whole idea of being grounded, being yourself, being vulnerable, being in the arena, being in the presence. I kind of mix all that up in one and say, okay, that makes sense.

[00:13:31] So I always felt like I made a business out of just being myself. I’m not worried about any corporate person firing me. I’m not worried about something I have to say that may not be within corporate guidelines cuz I have my own company. So I just think that has been a journey, continues to be a journey for me, but that has been hugely helpful.

[00:13:49] A.J. Lawrence: No, I think that is pretty, you know, you don’t have to worry about anyone copying you because, good luck. Or if you do, it’s gonna be a little weird dude. I’m just gonna say, you may not wanna be me, but I’m fine with that. So yeah, that is really interesting. And I like how you kind of, you came about for that.

[00:14:09] Now, first off, why don’t you tell us the ideal type of entrepreneur to come in and start talking to you? And what’s the kind of process that would be best for them to think about to make it relevant.

[00:14:22] Jon Dwoskin: So I work with solopreneurs to Fortune 100 companies and everything in between. And I love what I do because I work with C-Level execs, managers, and I work with sales people. And the clients that I work with, they really struggle with being stuck and not having someone to strategize with.

[00:14:39] They struggle with feeling overwhelmed, finding their flow, and next step. What to do, what to say, where to kind of really move, growing and forecasting their business and as well as their teams, and growing their sales, and managing people to their highest potential. Thinking bigger and just being stuck and getting in their own way. And so the way I coach is, typically somebody will call me and I will do- it depends on the role, a 1 to 3 hour deep dive with them.

[00:15:05] And I take it and type, I can type almost as fast as I can talk. And so we can record it. I type all my notes so everybody knows what we talked about, what the action plans are, what the ideas are. And then after that deep dive, we do 15 minutes a week or 30 minutes every other week.

[00:15:22] Occasionally, I’ll have somebody do a little bit more time, but really the shelf life for most people is about a week or two before they fall backwards. And they also don’t need a lot of coaching because if they get too much, then they can’t receive it and actually execute it throughout the course of the week or the two weeks that we meet next.

[00:15:40] I also return every call, text, email, same day. So I’m always accessible to my clients in between coaching sessions because that’s the insurance policy.

[00:15:49] A.J. Lawrence: No, I like that cuz you hear a lot of like, well I use this workflow process, we follow these pillars. And given your experience and just from our conversations to date, you’re an experienced entrepreneur and you seem to be bringing to bear your experiences, your realities, plus a lot of training on top to that.

[00:16:11] So it’s not Here’s what you need, it’s what unique clients coming into your program, coming in to work with you, need to kind of move forward. Not a X, Y, Z structure. I like that. That’s pretty cool.

[00:16:24] Jon Dwoskin: Everything I do is custom. I do know contracts and I guarantee every syllable I say.

[00:16:29] And so it’s really, really important for me for people to consider me a month to month investment and it’s my job to bring value every time we talk. And so to me, that is because everything I do is very custom.

[00:16:42] I just wanna say two more things. So those people who can’t afford one on one coaching, I do keynotes and trainings for company, you know, larger companies. But I also have a program that is every Monday from 4:30 to 5:30 Eastern. It’s a private coaching group and meets for one hour every Monday and it’s $97 a month.

[00:17:02] And I’m coming up with another coaching program that is new videos, Monday-Wednesday-Friday and 30 minutes of live coaching a month for the entire group. And that is basically to plan your week, get through your middle of your week and end your end of week strong. It’s gonna be an amazingly dynamic thing to keep people on track. That’s gonna be $15 a month.

[00:17:21] So I have a $15 a month option, a $97 a month option. And then for those who need the one on one, it’s custom. But I didn’t only wanna be a coach that services the elites. And so I want to be able to hit every budget point so anybody in the world can afford to work with me in some capacity. And for those who don’t even have the $15, I update content on my site every day. So they can get it all for free.

[00:17:47] A.J. Lawrence: All right. We’ll make sure we have that. We’ll say this again later, but this will all be in the show notes and in our socials on this. I like this stuff because it really is a lot of good material that you do have from what I’ve been able to see, and just from our conversations.

[00:18:03] As people are looking, what do you think something our audience, we are talking about upper 6, low 7-figure entrepreneurs, what’s something they can learn from your experience that you struggled with?

[00:18:17] Jon Dwoskin: You know it didn’t feel like a struggle when I was going through it, but in hindsight it was a struggle. Early in my career learning and knowing how to manage people was very, very difficult. And I had to learn it right. I mean, nobody taught me how to manage people. I had to learn it. And so I did some things that were great and I did some things that were really wrong. And that’s kind of how I learned how to manage. But now, you fast forward, I train a lot of managers because most people don’t know how to manage people.

[00:18:49] And so a lot of times what happens is companies promote people who are good at their jobs to be managers, and then don’t train them to be managers. And those are the leaders that are leading all the people under them. Maybe it’s 1 person, maybe it’s up to a 100. And so you’ve really got to make sure you have the right managers in place that are able to actually manage and grow people and get them to their highest potential.

[00:19:14] And if they can’t do that, then you need to train them to do that. And if they still can’t do that, then you need to move them out of management because it is so hard to retain employees today. And people quit managers, they don’t quit companies. And so doing that, and then also I would say asking for help.

[00:19:34] I always thought I had to know it all early in my career, mid my career. Feeling insecure that I didn’t know certain things as I grew in certain businesses. And then when you get to a certain point, you’re like, wait, I can’t ask that question now because I should have learned that already, I thought.

[00:19:50] And so I think asking for help, being vulnerable, making sure your managers are there. Those are things that have had a huge impact in my growth.

[00:20:01] A.J. Lawrence: Those are really good. I kind of like that being vulnerable and saying when you don’t know, because it’s almost like the older I get the easier it is to say that. But yeah, I do know there was a period of time where I was a LA man, and that was a very difficult question.

[00:20:16] In kind of leading this, you’re building this up. You’re going for a billion, trying to help a billion entrepreneurs out there, how are you going to define your success? You personally, how do you look about defining that success?

[00:20:31] Jon Dwoskin: The way I look at it is very simple. I think a lot of times when I say this, I wanna make a lot of money in my life, right. So I’m not suggesting when I say this that I don’t, but I just wanna be fulfilled and I wanna do it in a kind way. That’s it.

[00:20:49] I wanna help people get unstuck. I wanna be approachable. I wanna be accessible. I wanna be kind. I wanna be fulfilled. My family always comes first, and my health. I always am taken care of because I wanna be in optimal health. And so if I’m healthy and my family’s healthy and my family is number one. And then in my career I wanna be fulfilled and I wanna be kind.

[00:21:17] Someone said to me the other day, I just met him. I’m in a golf league. There was this new person that was there and they said to me a week after I met him,.They said, You know I was just asking someone, is Jon Dwoskin as genuine as he appears to be? Or is it bullshit?

[00:21:32] And I was kind of offended. It kind of, you know. But the more I kind of thought and I thought, well, you know, so I told him, I was telling my wife my son was at college, but my wife and my daughter was selling them. I said, well, it’s a compliment maybe because most people just aren’t kind, aren’t as kind as, or aren’t as friendly or aren’t as this. And maybe that’s the case. I don’t know.

[00:21:55] But I guess I’d rather have someone question if I’m genuine than think I’m an asshole. And so, I remember early in my career, I thought you had to be kinda rough and tumbly. Not that I was an asshole, but I think I was in certain cases where I didn’t know I was. It was just a level of harshness. And I just haven’t felt for a long time I need to be that person nor do I ever feel like I need to step into that person.

[00:22:24] And so, I don’t know. I just wanna be, I wanna be fulfilled. I wanna love what I do. I wanna do it in a kind way. In my business, I have to say very direct things to people. I can be very direct and very candid because when I coach, I’m very intuitive. So I see and hear things that people miss.

[00:22:41] So I’m telling them very sensitive things that are really in alignment with no one, but them. I get into the bedrock DNA of what’s getting them stuck and give them tools to get unstuck. And so I have to be able to do that in a tactful way that they’ll actually receive it and hear it with the right ears.

[00:22:59] And so I’ve really trained myself to do that, which I think is who I am in my soul. There’s my answer.

[00:23:07] A.J. Lawrence: No, I like that a lot. And I think that comes across in a lot of how you are positioning. So I do love it. Someone actually was asking a question cause I was like, all right, you know? Yes, your answer is better to actually think, maybe it’s a show versus the reverse. No one wants to be the Jonah Jameson of the coaching world.

[00:23:31] One thing, as you were talking about the types of work that you do with your clients, what are a few core things that you see clients coming to you for help? The audience can go, oh yeah, I have that problem.

[00:23:44] Jon Dwoskin: For the C-Level execs, they’re overwhelmed, right. They don’t know how to balance the overwhelmness. So we prioritize and put things in planning mode when it comes to understanding how to prioritize, and looking at their business and their team, and making sure that they have the right people to take away the overwhelm.

[00:24:03] Most people are overwhelmed because they have the wrong team in place. If you have the wrong team, it’s gonna add to the overwhelm. When I’m working with managers of people, I’m working with them on effective communication, how to truly manage people. I do a lot of keynotes when it comes to how to manage people effectively.

[00:24:23] I’d be able to talk to them, understand their people on a deeper level, coach them on a consistent basis, influence them, and really get them on track consistently to grow into their highest potential. And when I’m working with sales people, it’s all about giving them plans on how to grow their sales.

[00:24:41] Most people are afraid to ask for the business. They’re afraid to pick up the phone. They’re afraid to go to meetings. They don’t really have the masters. And I work with salespeople who are making a 100K to 10+ million dollars a year. And many of them still hide behind an email, or don’t necessarily know what to say or how to talk about a moving market, or how to be real time and really giving them kind of the talking points and the strategies and the follow up and the marketing.

[00:25:12] Marketing is something I work with clients a lot with in all sectors, you know, how to market and grow and brand your business. One of the things that’s very common that I work with everyone, I do a lot of keynotes on this, I’ve done like seven in the last three months, is teaching people about time management.

[00:25:27] I have a system that I’ve created and most people are really poor at time management. My dad signed me up for a time management class when I was 18, the Franklin Planner weekend course. I became obsessed with time management so I’ve created my own time management training. And I would say on average, people tell me they get an hour or two hours back in their day, every day.

[00:25:51] And so you quantify that. When a company has me do for a keynote times the amount of employees that they have, just at the base of maybe saving an hour a day by me teaching them how to plan their day and map out their day and use their calendar and think of their day, it’s a game changer. So time management is a common theme for everybody that I coach.

[00:26:13] A.J. Lawrence: Very cool. No, those are very important kind of concepts that I know from having spoken to a lot of audiences both in combinations and then individually. Those are issues that I think resonate quite well.

[00:26:28] Since we’ve talked about some of the programs, we’ve talked about some of the things, we’ve talked about your site and different things, how should the audience engage with you? What’s the best way?

[00:26:36] Jon Dwoskin: The best way is to- you can call or text me (248) 535-7796. It is me. I answer all my own texts. You can email me at jon@jondwoskin.com or you can go to my website, jondwoskin.com and just check out my podcast, my tips, my books. You can download my book and my ebook for free.

[00:26:58] I have tons of contents. Over 600 video tips, over 1300 podcasts. I just have a ton of contents, hundreds of blogs to help you grow your business. And it’s updated every day.

[00:27:11] A.J. Lawrence: Very cool. I’ll make sure that we include all those link. Everyone, we’ll have the links in the show notes and the email we send out when this episode goes live and in our socials, of course.

[00:27:21] All right, dude. Thank you, Jon. I really do appreciate you coming on the show. It was so much fun to be on your show so I am glad you were able to come on. So thank you.

[00:27:31] Jon Dwoskin: Thanks so much, A.J.. Thanks everybody.

[00:27:33] A.J. Lawrence: That was a lot of fun to talk with Jon. For me, it’s always fascinating to talk to people who sort of started around the same time I did. Even worked with the same company, though he was in Detroit I was in New York, in the USWeb, CKS to MarchFirst, and early internet agency roll up explosion disappearing.

[00:27:52] What I find so fascinating is just the different directions people take but with similar beginnings. Entrepreneurs come to this with ideas around what they want to achieve, what they wanna create in the world. And his father’s influence on him with these early coaches, which is very interesting because when you talk with serious coaches you hear them reference not just the latest, greatest, best selling business book, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or the hot coach they’ll be referencing people going back into the 19th century. And yes, this was, he was not, you know, brilliant, but just the idea of where you pull your knowledge isn’t limited to just the bright flashy stuff. So that’s something, just kind of think about.

[00:28:41] Yes, this was early in his life and it helped set it off, but still he did reference other things in more modern setting. Also just the way he goes about about defining his own success and sort of the implications it had. Yes, he’s trying to make money and he wants to make a lot of it. That’s what we do as entrepreneurs. We’re here to make money, but we’re trying to do it in ways that resonate with who we are. And for him, it’s to be a good person to the point where someone challenged, I don’t know if it was a teasing or just straight up ask, but I thought that was good.

[00:29:20] I think this goes back to a lot of what we’ve talked about over different episodes about being deliberate in your efforts to be an entrepreneur when there are things that resonate with us, and then to bring them into the concepts of who we are as entrepreneurs. They’re sometimes very disjointed and a little here, a little there, and you’re doing this, you’re doing that. And it doesn’t seem to kind of help anything.

[00:29:46] You may be doing things that you think are good, but if it’s not helping to grow the business and helping you increase your ability to do that, then you’re really not doing it right. The way he talks about it shows a very deliberate focus on using that as he looks to kind of grow his efforts by creating this content that really does focus on him helping others and him being able to be that nice guy, that good guy. He’s a lot more than that, but that is something kind of to pull into this.

[00:30:18] Like I said, I like how he talks about the flexibility of how he works. He’s bringing in a lot of experience. Someone who’s gone through that first internet wave and then watched a couple of the others as I’ve done, you’ve probably seen and made a few mistakes along the way.

[00:30:41] And you recognize that entrepreneurs have each their own needs so it’s cool that he kind of dives first into what they need and then creates things around them. Yes, he works with other people not just entrepreneurs, sales people, entrepreneur companies, team members, et cetera. So, yes, but still that focus on what do they need and then build from there, I think is really pretty cool.

[00:31:07] So, hey, go check out Jon. We’ll have his URL in the show notes. It’ll be in the email when we launch this. It will be on our socials. We’ll put his Twitter, everything. It will all be there. And again, if you like this episode, please leave us a review. Let us know what you think. Let us know how we can improve.

[00:31:29] I’m really trying. The team and I do a lot of work to kind of do this, but we want this to be useful and worthwhile to you, the audience. So please leave us a review. Do what you think about this episode, really appreciate it. And of course, go to beyond8figures.com and sign up for our newsletter. So that way when the next episode comes, or we have some other cool people come you’ll know. The email will come to you and let you know when all the great shows are coming.

[00:31:55] I hope you have a wonderful day. Thank you so much for listening and I can’t wait to talk to you again. Bye bye.

[00:32:06] This episode of Beyond 8 Figures, but your journey as an entrepreneur continues. So if we can help you with anything, please just let us know. And if you liked this episode, please share it with someone who might learn from it. Until next time, keep growing and find the joy in your journey. This is A.J., and I’ll be talking to you soon. Bye bye.