,Show transcript:
Christine: Hello and welcome! DFW networking Diva Christine Deane here, and we are excited. I love connecting you to people that you should know. So today we have an awesome guest, and and we’re just going to blow your mind today. So if you like entrepreneurship, then this is the place that you want to play, because we’ve got SJ in the house. Hey SJ!
SJ: Well hello, it is a pleasure to be here. Thank you for the opportunity.
Christine: Oh absolutely, when we were talking last time and I was like we got to bring you on the show because you are all about everything entrepreneurship, not just your old grandpa style entrepreneurship, but this you like to call it what – future preneur – is that it?
SJ: That is one definition, and it wasn’t my original creation of the term, but when I learned that you can marry futurism and entrepreneurship – smack it together in a Venn diagram, Christine – it’s like that’s me. So here I am.
Christine: So you’re going to have to explain. So what is futurism? And then we understand the concept of entrepreneurship, but what does that mean when you put it together? So talk to us.
SJ: All right, like anything else, there’s different definitions. It’s going to depend on your frame of reference. It’s going to depend on your worldview. It’s going to depend on your values – the whole bit. But here is one way I’ll describe it: futurism in a nutshell says that you have the mindset of looking over the hill, over the dell, over the mountain, around the mountain to what’s already there, what’s coming that others just haven’t seen yet.
Okay, it’s sort of like before mass adoption. Let’s pretend that we are in the 1880s roughly. You might have seen or heard that people were working on this newfangled thing called a motorized carriage. It’s like “Oooh, a motorized carriage, what is that mean?” I’ve been riding a horse and buggy for 20 years, 25 years, 50 years, right? Or I just went on a local motive. Right, what’s a motorized carriage?
Well, the futurist, futurism, would have been like you’re more inclined to be very curious, to be maybe a little bit counterintuitive and basically open to new experiences.
That is what someone in the 1880s roughly would have said about the motorized Carriage; “Tell me more, Christine. Tell me more what is this thing that have you heard. What’s in the New York Times? You know? What you know back then, you know the paper record back then, you know what’s in the local paper, right?
Well, futurism now with the mass adoption of the internet is a whole heck of a lot easier because things spread so fast that when new things come out like the latest NFT or the latest development in web3.0 or another new autonomous vehicle start up, these things spread much faster but our attention span is so more it’s way more diverse and way more dispersed now that you still may miss something so the futurist can also be a guide saying here’s what I know is a trend or a new business concept or a new model or a new app or something.
So that in a definition, in a nutshell, is future, right? So if you’re excited about new things, you want to find out what’s going on, you always want to be up on the latest greatest, that kind of stuff, then you probably want to embrace this whole concept of the future, right?
But at the same time, you have your future preneur so when we combine that together now we have a pretty potent mix because entrepreneurship in one way of defining it is kinetic or kinesthetic energy.
You’re in motion. You’re doing things. You’re producing value. You’re producing a product a service or you’re transmuting knowledge. As Napoleon Hill taught, a specialized knowledge, it’s emotion. it’s kinetic. it’s kinesthetic.
So now you combine that with futurism, you literally are almost like launching a rocket to a far away plan because…
Christine: I love this!
SJ: You’re taking two things that are already more. They’re very immersive. They’re very intuitive. They’re very much exciting. They’re almost intoxicating and you’ve now put them together.
You’ve created a VIN diagram. You’ve gone beyond directional innovation in many cases to intersectional Innovation.
And that is what the iPhone did in 2007. For example, and it completely over a short short time frame, Christine, obliterated Blackberry. it obliterated them because it was intersectional. So now you merge futurism with entrepreneurship; I see that as intersectional Innovation and it can obliterate old school bureaucracies, old school status quo, and I love to do that. That’s just the way I think.
Anyway, so it’s like status quo “be gone, bring on futurism and bring on entrepreneurial excitement.”
Christine: Well, so if you don’t like change, then this is not the podcast for you. Disappear. Go away; just sign out now because we’re all about change, innovation, things that are new. How to get excited. How to get involved in things and I really think that’s what you bring to this table which is awesome, right? Because you’re consciously doing it. Some people become accidental entrepreneurs, right? Like “well, this is interesting” then they end up going that direction.
But entrepreneurship really is a mindset, right? It’s thinking about what are the opportunities before me, right?
I don’t know about you but I was raised with the “you go to school, you get a degree, you work for someone else and…” And and that’s what you do!!
My background is teaching college, right? So I have a great respect for education but at the same time that’s not the only option out there. We have all sorts of fun opportunities.
So I know you consider yourself a future preneur so as an entrepreneur, how did you get down that path of Entrepreneurship? Has it always been there or did you wake up one day and go “aha I see the light”?
SJ: I believe it was a seed in need of water, sunshine, and fertile soil. Here’s what I mean. Growing up as I did, I’m a Gen Xer for your audience. I’m a Gen Xer and if you have no idea what all the generations stand for, you know brackets about when we were born or whatever, feel free to look it up. But a Gen Xer, I did most of my growing up – and I’ll give you a little hint here before you even look anything up – I did most of my growing up as a kid in the 80s. That might make me feel extremely old to you or maybe like “hey, you’re my brother, good to see you, Mr Xer.” Right?
But as I was doing that, my father had already been in business for over a decade. He had a business of his own. He called it self-employed, which I still believe is a term that can still work in the modern age.
Because until we continue to morph these old style bureaucratic institutions and a lot of the old lingo calling it self-employed is still a valid term, right? So that’s what he called himself. And as my father called himself self-employed, in the modern day we might also call it a solo preneur. We might call it a soul proprietor.
Either way, as I’m growing up in the 80s before the internet went mainstream, cable was rolling out etc, my father was supporting my mom and I, because I’m the only child, strictly on income coming into his own business endeavors. So the seed was already there. However, he hit a rough patch. He had already made it through, I think, two recessions or three but this third or fourth one finally hit him and he just couldn’t see a path forward so he sold the business to one of his competitors. This was when I was in high school now in the early 90s.
So therefore the seed was there. It just needed sunlight. It needed water, fresh water, and it needed fertile soil. And then a number of years later, it received those but it took a while, from the early 90s until the early 2010s, so about 20 years, I’m doing the math right in my head, I was either in a classroom or I was working for someone else, that was a part of my journey, but my ultimate destiny, if you will, the seed growing came about 20 years after my father sold out. And then it went from there and all credit to my very first Mentor Terry with a watch, a gentleman in this case, he’s the one that drew it out of me as a mentor. So there you go.
Christine: Yeah, I really think there’s different paths to entrepreneurship whether you’re not happy in your workplace, you want something different, maybe you’re tired of having a boss that dictates what you do, or maybe tired of what they think of as “stable employment” but how stable is it? Because how long do people actually stay in a job nowadays, right? So it’s not as stable as you would like to think it is. So it’s kind of a misnomer there, but at the same time, right. How long are you going to stay in your lane? The idea is, okay, you might have your main job and then you have a side hustle maybe, right?
But we’re changing the way we look at that, right? We’re no longer saying “okay, this is your main job and this is your side.” Well, how many side hustles can you have? At what point do you bridge that from “I’m a business owner” to an “I’m an entrepreneur”?
SJ: Well, there’s a lot there’s a lot there or unravel. So when I say I met my first mentor in the early 2010s, that’s when I started as a bigger hustler myself, right? Because again, been over been 20 years since my father sold out. He didn’t leave me some pool of dollar bills somewhere, right?
So I had to start and not completely cut off the pipeline that was taking care of the basics, right? Maslow’s Hierarchy, we can’t forget it. Maslows’ hierarchy talks about Safety and Security as Basics at the bottom of the pyramid. Or if you don’t believe Maslow intended as a hierarchy, either way, it’s the beginning of where you start, right? So that’s what sometimes makes people not want to move past it because they’re so used to that.
But with the mass adoption of the internet, the availability of mentorship, of getting advice of getting coaching, of getting consultation, of finding support, networks, platforms, funding, lifelong learning, professional development, if you will, all of these things are so much easier than my father faced. 1970 was the first year of his business so he ended up having it for over 20 years before he sold out.
So is there a limit on the number of hustles and gigs? I don’t think there is as long as you break the chain between time and income, time and money, or time in income, time and currency. However you want to describe it. Break that chain.
It was put into you probably from the schooling system which I might remind your audience, Christine, has its roots in the 1850s. It’s the ancient idea of trading time for money, right exactly and that had its purpose in the past when you were an industrial or even an agricultural economy when you were timing the crops for Harvest when you were going to the factory and punching in and putting doors on Henry Ford’s Vehicles fantastic this is as we’re recording this this is late 2023 why in God’s name are we still teaching time for money when that is such an old old concept that no longer needs to be interconnected so that is what I say is once you get past that Hur hurle which can be a mental hurdle can be a financial hurdle can be a social hurdle it can be a cultural hurdle all of the above then you can have 17 side hustles if you want to call them that because you can create Partnerships and collabs and connect people to resources and such and pocket a little bit of money here and there you know what I’m saying oh absolutely so that’s the story here it’s not about jobs it’s not about careers anymore it’s about proof of work creating value helping solve crises that are often created by centralized institutions that are no longer reliable in 2022 well and think about the whole concept of multiple streams of income right that used to be like a what right you get a job and then that’s your stream of income what about right and and then you watch with the pandemic and how some people’s businesses did not do well with the pandemic right right they did not pivot well or um you know I had a friend that was doing concerts and all of a sudden people couldn’t meet in groups anymore talk about total pivot on the business model right so multiple streams of income now more than ever right you got to think about how are you supporting you and your family and one stream may not be all that you want you you probably want multiple options and and really whether that’s within a business or whether it’s outside your business and you have multiple businesses it’s having that mindset of um I want to be part of more something bigger right and it’s not like I have to stay in my Lane I can only focus on get rid of that mindset right you can have other areas of interest you absolutely can my Terry who I already mentioned one of his earliest lessons for me was at minimum you need two absolute minimum there is no room for one anymore with maybe if I were to be a little picky with Terry’s advice 10 plus years later I might be able to be picky and say if you are a federal judge or if you’re a politician in a Jerry Mander District maybe those are about the only exceptions but even think about it this way even someone who has an amazing skill like a professional athlete they sign these big contracts don’t tell me you haven’t heard out there in the audience of a contract being terminated or renegotiated or rescinded things like that those kind of terms so even if you have such a unique skill of hitting a baseball 101 miles you know 101 M hour fast ball 450 ft or throwing a 70 yard p in the air you still shouldn’t have one source of income and these athletes get it because it took so long but Kudos that had finally arrived the name image and likeness policies it allowed athletes to create a brand that allows them to be very entrepreneurial that was The Missing Link in my view in professional sports it’s allows them a bridge now so when they do injure their KNE or whatever or they get their contract terminated because of budget issues for the team they now have a brand and they can go off and have all these sources of income and at a younger age than before because the name image and likeness is for younger people you know if you’re already an established athlete like Tom Brady was or something obviously you probably already had that right so that is exactly it and I thought I would highlight the n because that’s a real neat thing that I was very happy to see roll out a couple years ago and that brings up a great topic the idea of branding okay so if you’re an entrepreneur as opposed to I have a business I’m gonna brand my business I work for this company I have their brand behind me right so how does this tie into The Branding space with this whole future preneur this might be this might be a little bit out there for some people but as you teased earlier Christine this this podcast is not for the faint of heart when it comes to transformation and change so I’m about to I’m about to maybe burst a bubble here maybe I don’t believe that you should be seeking to be a business owner if you will or a founder or a CEO or something I believe you should be looking at creating a brand that transcends that so on a piece of paper somewhere you have business a business B business X right and on another piece of paper you have collaboration joint venture partnership FG and M so that’s fine and dandy it’s on a piece of paper it’s in a cloud somewhere eventually you be on a blockchain right but more important certainly what is your brand so when you’re asked and you’re identifying yourself at some sort of an event or on a bio somewhere in my view focus on your brand that’s what I do because I have my hands in different things you know I’m a future preneur underneath that I do super connecting I have many many Partnerships I um do do like free Lance projects I do fractional work you know things like that so the brand is what you lead with in my view so if you’re thinking of an old dance you know like the waltz or something you know you lead with your left or I think you leave what your left if I remember right well in this case entrepreneurially you leave with your left and the left is your brand I love it and you know as a marketer I do a lot of work with companies and individuals and and you’re seeing more and more the need for that personal brand as as we think about how long even those that are working for a company right how long do they stay there versus shifting or just because you went to school to do something specific we shift right and we end up with a second career right so what what do we take with us from place to place ourselves right our personal brand goes with us wherever we go right and and I’ve been flying under DFW networking Diva but at the same time when you have a pandemic and you can’t be as local and you have to do everything online right my networking Diva status now goes Way Beyond just Dallas Fort Worth right you know I talked to people internationally on a consistent basis right so whether it’s National International so you can shift and when it’s your personal brand to take with you those shifts don’t matter as much anymore you go where that energy is but you see a theme right there’s probably certain things in a space that you like to play in right and I I know for me right it’s it’s get connected with Christine Deane right I will connect you with people resources um Power Partners Synergy connect you with your audience through marketing right whatever that is so I’m all about that connection space Also and as a super connector I know you feel that I do because I followed a Continuum that I think a fair amount of people follow even if they don’t realize it it might be unconscious or subconscious today here’s what I did I started out when I was Mr corporate I started out and even this goes back to when I was in a classroom for 17 years I started out as a consumer consume what you need or what you want of course right consume consume consume consume even past presidents would come out in public and say don’t worry about it we got under control you go ahead and consume right that’s how that’s almost your default modality folks but then here’s where it gets fun Breaking Free and stop fitting in and doing something that matters now producing something of value I read the producers Manifesto within the first year of being mentored by Terry and I went from being a consumer to a producer as soon as I read it the producers manifest it and then I also read an entrepreneurs Manifesto and a few others then the next step became being a networker networking when done well and done right with the right Spirit the right heart the right soul and the right mindset is a very productive Endeavor the people who say it doesn’t work or they’re afraid of it or it sucks or any of those kind of negative connotations they’re doing it wrong they don’t they’re not doing it for the right reasons they’re still have that consumer mentality which is where the concept of pit slapping comes from and I’ve been pit slapped more in the last week or two than I thought I thought I already had seen it all but I’ve seen so many others and some of them don’t even have anything to do with my polyic my multiple Ventures that I’m involved in I’m thinking can you please do a little bit of work on this if you want to pit slap me do a little work right so that’s networking then you can move into connected which is now a conscious desire to help other people that you’ve already met while networking hey Christine I know someone that you need to know hey Christine I know so I know an event that I attended that I think you should attend the next time it’s available hey Christine here’s a podcast or here’s a white paper you should or watch a video or whatever then when you take it to the final step which I believe is super connecting I haven’t found another stage or step past it yet super connecting means you do the exact same thing as a connector but now it’s wider and deeper it’s almost like going from 2D to 3D it’s almost like going from Web 2.0 to web 3.0 which by the way we’re in that transition as we speak so that is a super connector and that folds underneath my brand and it’s all about serving solving and sharing absolutely I love those values because that’s that’s where my heart is if you’re coming in and you’re going into a networking situation with the idea of what can I get out of this you’ve already lost turn around go home you know I and it’s a mindset it really is and so those like you said who aren’t finding the success they’re looking for in networking aren’t doing it right so they need to team up with some uh super connectors here your or your networking divas and uh talk to somebody and find out what am I doing wrong number one change your mindset right if we look at it we’re all on this planet and we all have to exist and coexist together let’s see what we can do about making the world a better place and that’s kind of my goal right is let’s make the world a better place and and it’s all about building relationships so I love that that’s your heart and where you’re coming from which leads me to think about how we met right uh we actually met through my B2B Network and so it’s want to check them out they’re actually the sponsor of this show today and that’s my B2B network.com and they’re a B2B market place so you can go check them out they’ve got a bunch of resources on there it’s a a list of um if you want to provide services or if you’re looking for services it’s a great place to go great group of professionals over there so I’m gonna do a little plug on that [Laughter] one as you should because these kind of marketplaces which I have an economics background but I was more for those who are a little bit more and I hate to use this term it’s so negative but forgive me folks nerdy okay if you’re a little bit nerdy or geeked out on economics you know that there’s micro and macroeconomics macro is a little bit more of the zoom out a little bit more of the bigger picture that’s me I was never a big fan of microeconomics when I was in a classroom I took it it was a part of my coursework but I really didn’t like it as much so macroeconomics what my B2B network is is it’s a multi-sided platform an MSP not a minut service provider it’s a different MSP multi-sided platforms are a new kind of Economics there’s an entire school now dedicated to it one of the very first that went mainstream Mass adoption folks across the chat was Airbnb and Uber they were multi-sided platforms because hey you have a vehicle I need a ride the multi-sided platform connects you with less friction they take a percentage of it buyer seller free enterprise happens done you have extra space in your house you have a vacation home you’re only using two weeks a year someone needs a place to stay boom same thing happens so connection Services right it’s all about connection services so they’re taking what networking but they’re doing it in a way that’s monetized it’s a multi-sided platform and three winners result the person who needs something the person who wants the person who needs St the person who has it and the person who brings them together on the platform which is meant to be neutral that’s what my B2B network is and if you look up multi-sided platforms you look up Matchmaker economics as a futurist as a future preneur I’ve been watching Matchmaker economics for about five years so glad that they’re sponsoring it because I fully love that school of Economics as you can tell right and and that’s the idea is we’re bringing the best together right I mean that’s you know this needs this and this needs that that’s what we do every day as a super connectors so it’s kind of cool that it all fits together right it’s like Co we’re doing something magical here a a puzzle a puzzle completed or finishing off as I was okay so here’s a little peek into my past Trivial Pursuit was one of my favorite games you know how much fun it was to get that Sixth and final pie piece into the little circle and then you went around and answered the final question and you won that’s basically what you got going on here you got all six pie pieces from trival Pursuits and you’ve answered the final question so that’s exactly well so favor bring that’s okay you know we got to date ourselves sometimes while we’re talking about Cool Tools I’m thinking about you know any other Cool Tools you want to share with us because I know we also are on both of us are on DEC connected which is another great playground to play um it’s kind of the idea rather than the old school idea where you’re trying to get those uh what as many likes and follows and all like right you know it’s just this like oh I need to sign in and see how many people liked my Facebook post right it’s a it’s a little bit different than that it’s GNA call it social business which is pretty awesome we we still want to do business with people we know like and trust and but it’s not so much of the um I don’t know it doesn’t feel like it’s as much of the the fan club kind of concept right like I have all these followers it it doesn’t feel that way you know what I mean it just feels more authentic well and it does because I would put be connected into a web more of a web 2.5 3.0 box or a or a bucket it’s going past what the 2.0 people saw so with all respect to the Zuckerberg and to the um and to the um I can’t remember oh Jack dorsy original founder of Twitter right um Reed Hoffman with LinkedIn all of those three platforms plus others are attempting to remain relevant from a web2.0 era to a web3.0 era and we’re already well underway so what other things have I come upon there’s so many things out there and I know I’m going to miss something I’m only going to give a couple quick ones and we’ll just hit this at the Treetops in no particular order um I I’m a bit I am on board with a platform called links ly NX which is meant to help business people through matchmaking getting support that they need um so Lynx I also believe economic impact Catalyst of the EIC is a great platform especially if you are in a metro area and you’re attemp to connect all the dots of all the resources to help businesses help startups EIC economic impl catalyst so I’m involved with both of those I also have onboarded to a web3.0 platform called Iris which has looks a little bit and acts a little bit like Twitter or now X but is still not the same because it’s decentralized protocol um and then another one is pick my brain so you have knowledge in your head Napoleon Hill taught us in 1937 that you can monetize that pick my brain says set up a profile and let people pick your brain they can do it on a freemium level for a short amount of time and then after that is now when you can make some make some dollars because you’re producing value you’re transmuting something that will help someone else and pick my brain of course just like uber and Airbnb and all the takes a percentage of that because they too are practicing Matchmaker economics absolutely so yeah that’s a good one um I was looking at that one just the other day going I may have to participate in that one too that one looked really interesting one that I just talked to the owner um Nick wise is he’s doing um it’s the influencers together with those that are looking for influencers so the small business owners right you may not be able to sign yourself a big NFL player right but there’s nothing saying that you couldn’t find yourself an influencer that’s on a smaller Market that might be perfect for what you’re looking for so that’s another one of those matchmaking bringing people together the business owners that are looking influencers along with the influencers well the influencer world is still very much out there I see as part of the future not your grandmother’s version of Entrepreneurship I see that there is a very thriving gig economy putting aside the cynics and the unhealthy Skeptics that incorrectly brand it as some sort of exploitative thing it’s only exploitative if both parties aren’t winning in some way right right and there’s always going to be some level of exploitation in everything because the human condition is so flawed right right so that is the first thing that I wanted to point out right MH then of course you have the Creator economy let’s reward people who are creative they’re artists they’re musicians they are really good at writing copy well so don’t get me down that path because I’m gonna I’m going to do a plug now SJ you open the door so the Crea is we have no more starving artists. art so or Noosa and and that whole goal is to pair up the business owners that have blank walls and maybe don’t want your Walmart art on it and want something to support the community with the artists in the local community so that they can actually have that income coming back and forth supporting the Arts so I’m gonna throw that plug in there right is that something you would like wait a minute wait a minute are you telling me Christine that you know this certain fellow named Oz by chance Perhaps Perhaps I might even be a business partner why that entrepreneur [Laughter] thing I think I might know this fellow oh if you’ve met Oz you know Oz you can’t mistake him for anyone else and he is a personality and a force to be reckoned with I of course have to play mildly koi there but I can’t completely maintain a poker face I do know him well and and and he deserves the plug because one of the things that I learned in the liberal arts was Arts just like the hard Sciences just like the humanities just like the social sciences they all connect knowledge is all connected by Golden Threads and and there’s a singularity out there however people who were thinking from the agricultural or the IND Industrial Age would constantly denigrate and look down upon these people that have courses to study in the Arts and say well how are you going to get a job with that right that is the one of the worst questions that you can ever ask creatives create and you can monetize it but to oa’s point with that concept it’s making sure that on the process of scaling up you can do the basics from maslo you don’t have to worry about where your next meal is coming from you don’t have to go into debt to the banking system you don’t have to give up on your on your creator economy Um passion project just because and then go work at a place that you cannot stand right right you know some Warehouse or something so bottom line is kudos to Mr Oz I’m a fan of the gig economy I’m a fan of the Creator economy I think influencers have their role and again obviously Matchmaker economics and multi seted platforms is a real thing so I like them all and really there’s if we shift our mindset towards this entrepreneurship right is it the idea that art has no value because it has no Monet how does that even right is that practical right we need to get beyond that because as a society if we’re only thinking about art as Commercial Art you know okay you can make money if you are designing the candy wrapper for somebody but you don’t have any appreciation for the art on your wall really art is all around us right and so appreciating that imagine I always say imagine life going with blank walls you know everywhere you went plain white walls you know like oh right it has value it does and and so we need to find a way to make that valuable through our society every part of it right everybody’s got a skill We Have Skills we have talents and and that’s kind of one of my favorite places to play is helping people draw out their inner talents and their skills my belief is everybody has a god-given gift and you know are you using it to fulfill your purpose and part of your purpose is making the world a better place in some way shape or form whether you whether you whether your audience or you Christine are familiar with the Hedgehog concept from cols or whether you’re familiar with you call the Hedgehog concept it’s called the Hedgehog concept Jim Collins all right I’m writing it down okay because of time I won’t I won’t get into that too deeply but I’ll just I’ll give that as a trailer to the movie there’s something you can look up and get familiar with anyone also eek guy right we need to stop leaving all of these latent skills these latent gift sets these experiences um these dreams and desires we need to stop putting them aside and falling into that Industrial Age mentality of we have to pay the bills we have to make the donuts because number one that will grind you down and we’ve heard enough about mental health the last three to five years we don’t need to make it worse right number two we need to tap into these latent things and stop leaving them on the table monetization is absolutely possible for pretty much everything okay as long as there’s a win-win as long as free enterprise happens The Exchange makes two people pleased at the result it’s all that matters and in the grand scheme of things okay Adam Smith taught us in The Wealth of Nations when he wrote that muser book Adam Smith taught us that there’s a division of labor in any society some people will choose to do things that are more physical science-based like medicine like engineering things like that fantastic we need those people some people are very creative very artistic humanties we should lean into them some people like me I was I loved and still love the social sciences macroeconomics I deeply love history philosophy I could talk about philosophy all day um social sciences so all of those things Humanity social sciences physical sciences Arts need to be equally valued we need to stop leaving things on the table we need to stop using an old grandfather and grandmother’s version of Entrepreneurship or wor at some sort of academic model which is all Theory and no results all hat no cattle um let alone some sort of corporate thing or governmental thing which drains all the humanity out of us just to produce some piece of paper or something people will work in all those parts of the economy and they’re needed but we don’t want to strangle the other parts at the expense of what we might be doing or what we don’t understand okay don’t denigrate what you don’t understand either learn about it or let it alone so absolutely there I am I’m on my I’m on my Soap Box a little I love your soap box make room for me up there I’m just saying right this whole idea of the the future the future preneur think outside the box let’s like go some of those old rules and let’s recreate what we think the society can be like like let’s do some good in the world let’s connect Let’s Help Let’s uh be that serial entrepreneur with multiple hands and pots right don’t stay in your l Lan by golly break the lanes well well see we were led to believe going back to when we were all kids the vast majority of us we were all led to believe that we needed to fit in now there is some biological imperative to that I understand that people would rather fit in than feel like they’re on the outside of the glass right don’t get me wrong I went through that stuff like anyone else but when it comes to entrepreneurship when it comes to future futurism future preneur when it comes to the Creator economy when it comes to gigging it there’s plenty of room for all of us at the table the marketplace table is always growing it’s not a zero sum game even in really bad economies cool Concepts pop up I happen to be part of a global Community it’s a membership platform called the 87 network okay that’s where I met this gentleman named Oz that we were talking about a few minutes ago that platform was started and if you know your history I’ll I’ll give you a little secret to your audience and to you perhaps Christine that that platform was started in 2008 and I think we all know 2008 was not really a good year for the economy there’s always people that say you know what the economy is not good what do I have to lose right let’s do something different let’s take the um let’s take the lemons and let’s create lemonade you’ve heard that one a million times right so case in point I don’t I’m not able to get into this too detailed today but there’s a really cool thing from Satia St a s great thing to subscribe to they said that over the period 1994 to early 2022 the trend line for new business establishments or startups constantly was going up with a few plateaus here and there and over the last several years the cynics and the Skeptics who said entrepreneurship would die during the co era or it was going to be ground down and slowed down to imperceptibility or something they couldn’t have been more wrong right because over the last several years there have been more startups more new establishments than pretty much ever before absolutely in a time where you’re backed into a corner right yes Americans are pretty industrious the whole idea of uh being creative and being like I’m not gonna starve my family’s not gonna starve I will figure out a way to make this work right yes and and it even and even in other parts of the world too on the other five populated continents I have to my apologies to the Penguins and seals in Antarctica but um but on the other five populated continents there was even their own movements to some degree too it’s like hey if you’re locking me into my house or restricting my movement or whatever I can still do stuff because the internet’s there for example the apps are still there you know I have a book that I’ve been wanting to write for 10 years you know I have a screen play I want to write and I think the screenplay is going to make a big difference once someone procures it so bottom line is there’s always something you can do to add value and you need to take kinetic energy kinesthetic get out there and do it don’t fear failure you’re going to fail The Human Condition is what it is some of the stuff I’ve been involved in hasn’t always worked out since 2010 when I met my mentor but guess what I’m still standing so and we learn and we grow and we take those skills and talents and experience with us to the next project that we work on but don’t stop dreaming right there’s so many possibilities dreaming could be said I think I heard this once I think I’m getting it right cing the essence of it dreaming is the first step in making something and the second step is actually making it you’ve already made it in the dream right I have this new shoe concept you know I have this new way to you know I have the mo motorized Carriage of the 2020s right you know um which I guess one might call the cyper truck with uh with Tesla that maybe right um but anyway you dream it you do it there’s a dream struggle Victory Continuum and it’s it’s really invigorating it’s very empowering it’s very edifying it’s very encouraging because it’s entrepreneurship absolutely H SJ you are an absolute Delight I love having you on the show and talking about my favorite topic entrepreneur and and just being the best version of yourself so if people want to reach out to you for those of that aren’t watching the video maybe are listening to it on audio instead tell them how to connect with you what’s the best way to connect with you SJ um the best way is I have pretty much perked myself on one Legacy social media platform so I’m on LinkedIn so if you look up SJ which is my name you know last name is Barone it’s Hungarian long as you can spell at least half right you find it that’s the best way I have I have a couple LinkedIn pages that I’m affiliated with so you might find me on the page first you know I also have a digital platform scheduler that I’m happy to provide to Christine as part of notes or whatever um you know I have email addresses so I’m gonna drop your your LinkedIn link into the chat so take a look and you can connect with him that way also click that link and and make a friend and say hey the diva sent me right and uh yeah yeah so any of those ways starting with LinkedIn um are always ways to reach me and again while I’m not on a lot of the web2.0 platforms that’s my choice because I said I’m going to exit these and I’m going to wait for the web3.0 ones and again I’m keeping an eye on them I is one of them so you gave us the list of where to go find you so if you want to stock SJ it’s one of my favorite pastimes and you can go find him on a couple of different platforms let’s say you said links e Iris and pick my brain were some of the places you’re playing at right that is right stalk him go find him this is somebody you want to connect with why he’s a super connector so come with that giving heart and how you can give are you looking for anything in particular at the moment that our audience can help you with SJ well since I also consider myself and I almost forgot to mention it but here we are as we wrap up another thing I like to say is I I like a lot of ews so I mention encouraging edifying empowering Etc but I forgot one evangelist I like to say I’m a startup evangelist so connections to startups in their first phase or two are always appreciated because the pick my brain concept the links concept these are ways I can be valuable right through my ties for eight years with H7 network with the B my B2B Network um lots of podcast I’ve been on prior to today I can be have helped the startups also where do you find a lot of startups not exclusively but you find them in incubators you find them in accelerators you find them hanging out at co-working facilities either in the open space or maybe they get an office connections into any of those three types of facilities or even entrepreneurial centers for example any of those facilities are great too so I’ll leave it at that and if there’s other connections you think I can maybe be a Valu to feel free to ask me in the form of a question and I will use my Jeopardy skill to address it you are such a joy SJ thank you so much for coming on to play with us today maybe we’ll have you come back and play again soon because you are a wealth of knowledge and I don’t think there’s a topic we could pick out of the sky that you wouldn’t be educated know about and have an opinion it would be it would be a challenge um it might be a fun challenge it’s like does he know anything about Opera you know um but tell me but see let me quote this one last thing because as you can see I do bring some pop culture in here because you it’s a part of pretty much everyone so I’ll leave you with this one final final thought should be it’s a small scene in the original Die Hard which by the way I will argue with you and win that it’s a Christmas movie okay in the original die hard in the OG there’s a small scene for about less than 30 seconds where Hans Gruber played by the late great alen Rickman said these words he said benefits of a classical education when you are deeply and richly educated folks the world is your oyster when you get too too narrow or you don’t open your horizons don’t take off the blinders you miss a lot of the world benefits of a classical educ and abolutely thank you Christine for the opportunity thank you SJ we’ll see you again soon buddy thank you so much and that’s it for another episode of DFW networking Diva with Christine Deane connecting you to who you want to know what you want to know those resources and those people so we’re going to have a lot of fun with this we’ll have SJ back again and we will see you again next time thank you.