Driving Growth: Pioneering Entrepreneurship Across Industries with Chad Jenkins

[00:00:00] .

[00:00:02] In your network and networking, I would say give it all the way. Just try your very best whenever you're engaged in those particular engagements that you're giving the absolute most and best of yourself to benefit and create value for someone else. What you will find is it comes back tenfold.

[00:00:20] Welcome to the En Factor, conversations with entrepreneurs who started, stumbled and succeeded. I'm really excited today to have Chad Jenkins, the founder of SeedSpark joining me today. I understand he's been an entrepreneur since middle school, I think, and maybe before. So I'm really excited to dig into his entrepreneurial journey and his entrepreneurial model.

[00:00:48] And and his entrepreneurial mindset. So, Chad, thank you for joining me today on the En Factor.

[00:00:53] Oh, it's my pleasure, Mr. Beck. I'm looking very forward to it.

[00:00:56] Great, great. Well, let's start first by talking about your latest venture. Tell me what SeedSpark is all about.

[00:01:04] OK, so SeedSpark was created to empower entrepreneurs across the globe by expertly identifying and unlocking opportunities that are hidden within their existing resources. So our approach typically yields the conventional into the exceptional and it drives unparalleled growth and value creation for our growth partners.

[00:01:27] So if you think about organizations or entrepreneurs specifically that are tired of getting the conventional results or they feel like they may be running on a hamster wheel, we're typically referred to them to just look at all that they have at their fingertips and understand how they can recombine those resources and assets to begin to remove the competition and grow exponentially without any margin compression.

[00:01:50] OK, very interesting. So tell me a little bit about who your typical client might be. You mentioned it's a is it a small business owner or is it a medium sized company or a big corporate or all of the above?

[00:02:04] Yeah, so we see them all. But quite often times there's a lot of density in the small to medium sized business. So 15 million and from the five to 50 million is quite a bit. But we go all the way up to the multi billion. A lot of times with multi billion, it's a unit of their business that needs transformation.

[00:02:22] And they feel like they've done all that they could do, but the creative ideas have run out of them. But they have a lot of resources at their fingertips. And you mentioned starting at a very early age. I understood very early on that people are driven by two things.

[00:02:36] Fearing greed are typically what you hear. I tend to say fear and love, and I was struck at the very same time with both of them. So I scared and I wanted for a lot. And that it made or conditioned me to begin to look at all the things that you have at your fingertips and realize the value creation potential that they have.

[00:02:55] That's a lot of times what I feel like is invisible to most, but it jumps off the page at me. So they spend all over but a lot of density in that small to medium sized business working directly with the entrepreneur.

[00:03:06] Okay, so there's a lot in there I'd love to dig into. And I'm just really so you work with the creative process, right? Helping people. You know, there's a lot of people out there that work with companies that take them through creative exercises. And I have a feeling that what you do is a little bit different from that.

[00:03:28] In that everything is rooted to value creation. I was having a conversation with a gentleman who's about to graduate high school. He's the son of a publisher in Cleveland, Ohio, very good friend of mine. And one thing that I mentioned to him and I'm just driven this particular way. Every day that I'm given, I feel like is an absolute bonus. And every day that I am given I feel it is my duty to figure out how to create more value today for what I classify as our hero targets. So in hero targets,

[00:03:58] I mean, from Dan Sullivan, strategic coach, who do you want your business to be a hero to? So to me, every day that I'm given is my responsibility to figure out how to create more value for the hero targets of my businesses than it was yesterday. So I have now through SeedSpark

[00:04:16] growth partners empowering folks around the world with their own business with a very similar mindset and methodology that yields that exponential outcome.

[00:04:26] So how does this work? I mean, I say I'm a company and I'm sort of stuck right up in been growing maybe and I'm you know, I'm sort of stuck. What happens? How did what how does the magic work?

[00:04:38] Yes, so an intake call. So we call them growth discoveries. And that's where you lay it out on the table. So you may, you may think a portion or piece of your business, whether it be a manufacturing facility, it could even be a division where you've got quite a bit of human capital

[00:04:54] resources. But they're seen as a call center to your business. When I may look at it and say, good gracious, you have the complete components to spin this out as a business services unit and make it income creating versus cost. And there's no competition.

[00:05:10] And by the way, when we unpack it all, we would potentially find that others in your industry, the champs, the ones that you just returned back from the show from in your association show or your event annually. They all have the same amount of friction that you do.

[00:05:25] And perhaps you were the one to take that step forward and do it a little bit unconventionally. You may know your top three to four immediate clients, like they're already friends of yours. So it's really initially looking at everything that you have at your fingertips and understanding what its natural expression is or its authentic expression, not the conventional label that your industry or the general business has placed on it. And then understanding how you've been able to do that.

[00:05:55] And then you can recombine that with other components of your business or your resources, or your market, or your digital platform so that you can begin to create more value than anyone else in your space. But you keep in mind, I didn't say you had to launch a marketing campaign or hire a sales team or expand manufacturing or go buy another business.

[00:06:17] You likely have way more capabilities than meet the that certainly meet your current high already at your fingertips. So it makes my job of course, very rewarding and a lot of fun because I just see those combinations a little bit. It feels like a blessing and a curse at the same time because I can't help not see the opportunities for value creation.

[00:06:36] Yeah, there's been there's research and there's been a lot of research looking at the whole creative process. And a big part of it is this ability to connect dots.

[00:06:45] Yes. And, and so I'm really fascinated by it. And I teach create the creative problem solving to students. And it's always fascinating to take them through that process. And we, we can get back to more of that in a few minutes. But I'm very curious about your entrepreneurial journey to where you are today. How did you get to this point?

[00:07:08] I, you know, I read a little bit about your background and I know you started out, you know, I think it was middle school maybe with your first business. So tell us a little bit about how you got where you are and how, you know, how entrepreneurship has been part of your life.

[00:07:26] Oh, sure. Okay. So starting all the way back to when I was around eight is my best recollection. Around that time, I was putting up fence, bush hogging pastures and training or writing courses. And I figured out what my father made roughly annually. And I did the backwards math to understand what it would be by the minute, by the hour, by the week, by the day. And it didn't seem like too big of a number when you broke it down by the hour. So I added a zero to it. It's actually where the name of the first book came from. And when I added a zero to it, it was like, Oh, I'm going to write a book.

[00:07:56] And then pulled it back out to what the annual amount would be. That was a considerably way different number. So at that very time, I was struck with fear and also love because I wanted to be bigger. I wanted to perform or have a higher performance than that. But at the same time, I felt like I had absolutely nothing at my fingertips to be able to create value, which was absolutely not true. When I began to look at things in a little different perspective, the very first business, if we'll call it a business, it was soul proprietor.

[00:08:26] It wasn't LLC at that time. I was quite young, but I recognized that some things that I had at my immediate fingertips were capabilities. A friend of mine created the VCR formula. His name is Dean Jackson. And he division portion that or the V stands for vision.

[00:08:44] C stands for capabilities and R stands for reach. So I didn't know it at the time, but I was actually able to see the VCR formula with existing resources. Now put that into concept or in the context at eight years old, I'd been trained to ride horses since before I could actually walk.

[00:09:01] I attended horse sales of all things two or three times a week because my father and I did also trade horses. But in going to these horse sales, I recognize pretty quickly that there were one of the facts.

[00:09:14] It's very similar to this growth discovery that we talked about earlier. Well, the facts are at horse sales, they're going to be horses. Yes, they're going to be people who want to sell horses. Yes.

[00:09:22] There's also going to be people that want to buy horses. Yes. What contribution or value can I give to this?

[00:09:29] Well, it is also true that I can ride is also true that I can ride well enough that I can make a horse that looks that actually not a whole lot of people could write it. It will project once you see a little peanut kid on it that anyone could write it.

[00:09:43] So understanding that value creation, I began to offer my services to ride people's horses through the sale barn for 10 to $20. If I would have been a little bit more mature, I would have participated in the higher yield of revenue that the horse brought.

[00:09:57] But at that time I was very young and I didn't understand that I do now. To the extent everything I do is based upon future money and not fee for services.

[00:10:05] But at that time, 10 to $20 first, first entry into business. When I say entry in the business, what I really, really mean is entry into value creation. As I mentioned earlier, everything stems back to that.

[00:10:16] So the reason that businesses exist is the value they're creating for someone else. So that was my very first one that evolved to people figured out that I could ride and also I could train.

[00:10:26] So I began to train horses at a very early age and that would just board them monthly and charge a monthly fee. And that worked out very well, had more of my time back.

[00:10:36] And then I evolved from there. Once again, what's the next business? I grew up on a farm. I have tractors. I have a bush hog. I have a trailer and have a truck in the great state of South Carolina.

[00:10:46] You could drive at 15 years old. So the day that I turned 15, I don't luckily, hopefully I won't get in trouble for this, but I think I drove to get my license and I drove home with my license.

[00:10:56] So it's been a very long time ago. But in doing so and growing up, I'd been around people that were 20 to 30 years my senior. I spent a ton of time with my father.

[00:11:06] That is I can not replace it with anything, but I understand that God gave us one mouth, one input and I'm sorry, four inputs and one output. So eyes and ears and then the mouth.

[00:11:18] As a kid in the South growing up with people who are your senior, your elders, you keep your mouth shut. But what that afforded me the ability to do is just listen and learn.

[00:11:27] I was a complete sponge and I still am today as well. Growing up on the farm, I was around horses. Horses do not say a whole lot, but nonverbal they communicate at a very high level.

[00:11:39] So tracking backwards to being eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 all the way up into my early teen years. I was around not a lot of verbal that I was giving, but I was receiving a ton of it.

[00:11:51] That still provides me an immense amount of value today in business, even though of course not applicable on this podcast. I've got to do most of the talking, but in general business, I typically like to keep my mouth shut and just observe because I see things in the way they combine them.

[00:12:04] So I've been doing the same thing since the time I was eight looking at those resources. And now one other of my concepts is remove the film.

[00:12:15] So film for me, just like if you were to get a brand new iPhone, you would take it off and you'd see how vibrant it is or get a new car, your GPS screen. Very similar to me. I see people's businesses that way.

[00:12:27] So I'm drawn to friction, which is what the F stands for. I identification L for leverage and the M for me is for market.

[00:12:37] So there's things in people's businesses. And when I look back across more than 50 businesses that I've started sold maintainer currently on, I've chased that friction. I've been drawn to it.

[00:12:49] A lot of times this is applicable for probably most of the listeners who came into work this morning. The first text message you get, or if you still get phone calls, the first telephone call would definitely the email.

[00:12:59] You'll start to see what otherwise would be considered complaints. Those are absolute frictions. The way that I perceive them is I look for frictions with commonality or trending.

[00:13:10] And I began to ask questions when I spot a pattern. If I resolve this friction, I complain for one of my businesses. Does it help just that business?

[00:13:20] Or does it help everyone that has a business in that size or that category in the local market or everyone who's in that business or everyone in a business across North America?

[00:13:31] In my past, when I would get yes, yes, yes, I would start a business. Again, everyone's running to the right. I found a way to create value over here on the left.

[00:13:41] No competition. The margins are not compressed. And the second that I resolve it, I've got a lot of built in clients.

[00:13:48] So the entrepreneurial journey that you spoke of earlier started way back when it's the same thing as it is now.

[00:13:54] Look for the friction, understand how to create value and then began to today. I partner with other businesses to help create that value through my growth partnerships in their own industries.

[00:14:04] I created a thing a couple years ago. Well, actually about a year and a half ago now.

[00:14:10] Nothing new without a who you may have heard of the book who not how I'm a big subscriber of that methodology.

[00:14:17] But the way that I've made it practically applicable for the way I am wired, I said nothing new without a who.

[00:14:23] Therefore, not only in an industry that I may find a way to create value, I throttle myself and I do not create individual businesses anymore.

[00:14:32] I will partner through growth partnerships with someone in that industry as well.

[00:14:37] If I find something that I have that I want to do, I've refrained from me just going and doing it myself, which is my old M.O.

[00:14:44] Now I do it with someone you have found out is leveraging the vision that I have combined with someone else's capabilities,

[00:14:52] multiplied times reach is the absolute formula for exponential growth.

[00:14:58] Very cool, very cool. So so you have started a number of businesses over the years.

[00:15:04] I have have most of them now SeedSpark is would you say SeedSpark is in the consulting state category of businesses and and if so, talk to us a little bit about building a consulting company.

[00:15:20] Do you do you hire a lot of people? You know how how how how does SeedSpark work?

[00:15:27] Yes, so I would tell you with starting with this one.

[00:15:29] I'm definitely a big subscriber of strategic coach methodologies and I see them very similar to the way I see other people's businesses.

[00:15:36] All of the concepts combined together to create new value.

[00:15:40] So I'll put that in context specifically with SeedSpark originally at SeedSparks inception was back in 2005,

[00:15:48] 2006 when I created the first Blackberry store of the world.

[00:15:52] I had one of my other businesses growing very fast and I was began to leverage software development both in building applications that would run across the Blackberry browser

[00:16:05] and also software development to improve the velocity of one of the consulting natures of one of my other businesses.

[00:16:13] But SeedSpark continued to evolve.

[00:16:15] So it began and absorbed one of my other technology companies

[00:16:21] and it continued to do things that were products and services in the technology category that facilitated growth.

[00:16:28] But if you would look from the outside SeedSpark originally back in let's say 2015 to 2023,

[00:16:34] it had a digital marketing company, a software development company, a cyber security company and a managed services company.

[00:16:42] And you would say that doesn't make any sense.

[00:16:44] Of course it would maybe to potentially mean the way that view things.

[00:16:48] I need cyber security to keep them safe.

[00:16:50] I need managed services to make sure that their infrastructure works well.

[00:16:54] I need the software development and business process automation to improve their scalability.

[00:17:00] And then I need digital marketing to pour gas on the entity that's now created, ultimately resulting in exponential growth.

[00:17:08] But the world doesn't really understand all those capabilities and components as one.

[00:17:12] So recently I've spun out over the last year each one of those entities.

[00:17:16] They're all about a five to ten million dollar P&L.

[00:17:19] So I spun them all out in their individual nature and branded them individual companies that enabled me to elevate SeedSpark to do exactly what it was always meant to do.

[00:17:30] SeedSpark, the name comes from Seed the Opportunity and Spark Growth.

[00:17:35] Not a lot about cyber security.

[00:17:37] So building SeedSpark and now pull it all back together with some of the methodology and concepts that I've been exposed to with Strategic Coach.

[00:17:46] Two of their concepts, self managing, self multiplying.

[00:17:51] I mentioned earlier what my responsibility is, is to uncover the hidden value creation opportunities in a business's existing resources.

[00:18:00] So I focus there.

[00:18:02] But what I figured out is, is I am helping and being referred to helping organizations across the world, specifically small to medium sized businesses.

[00:18:11] The ones that are very, very good at what they do, which is most of them, that just may have a little trouble in packaging or messaging or structure.

[00:18:19] As we work through that, they become assets for my growth partners.

[00:18:24] So the self managing and the self multiplying is actually facilitated by the introduction of growth partners to growth partners through an introductory call to see if the combination of the two create more value.

[00:18:39] And if it does, both of them began to grow, which of course, remember was my original responsibility.

[00:18:47] So building a consulting firm, I'm sure there's a best practices which I'm not really best practices guy.

[00:18:54] I understand those as being average.

[00:18:56] What I wanted to try to do here is to create a mechanism or an entity that would be one self managing, self multiplying and completely rooted on value creation.

[00:19:06] And I'm happy to report that we've successfully done that.

[00:19:09] We're just before launching the seats park collective, which will be an online community for all of those growth partners and how I value creation entities to be able to collaborate with each other.

[00:19:21] And then also be exposed to our seats park Academy and the methodologies and thinking tools that I've created to help facilitate and I kind of do it yourself fashion for to create the outcome of this type of thinking and exponential growth.

[00:19:36] So, so you've you've you've taken parts of this company which you've been running for a number of years and and they are now separate entities that are being run by somebody else and they've become your partners.

[00:19:49] They have become as well as entities all over the world that I get introduced to to help them grow.

[00:19:56] They also become my partners.

[00:19:58] So you build you've built this network, if you will, of companies.

[00:20:04] So, you know, they're there.

[00:20:06] You know, one of the big challenges with consulting companies is always how do you scale it?

[00:20:11] And you're scaling it through partnerships.

[00:20:14] How do you scale what you do personally?

[00:20:17] Because as you pointed out when you talked about your entrepreneurial journey, it was sort of one of your super strengths, if you will, being able to see these connecting the dots.

[00:20:27] So how does somebody maybe who's listening to this and they too have a skill set they've turned into a consulting company, but they're trying to figure out how they scale what they personally do really well.

[00:20:41] Yes, I can I can sum it up in one sentence and then we'll need to unpack it.

[00:20:44] The obstacle is the way in collaboration is the way through it.

[00:20:49] And what I mean by that, you alluded to it even whenever I became aware through understanding doing a lot of work to understand my unique ability.

[00:20:59] That makes me the product and you picked up on it immediately.

[00:21:02] Well, the first thing I need to solve for is embrace the friction.

[00:21:05] I have the word ever going to scale myself.

[00:21:08] And from that, I began to leverage my growth partners to help each other.

[00:21:14] And I am had and have built thinking tools that enable them to basically be met exactly where they are, but take them through a process that can be self guided that it begins to uncover those opportunities that they have at their fingertips.

[00:21:31] So the seed spark collective and the seed spark growth Academy are two things that I started building immediately when I decided that, hey, I understand exactly what the name stands for and what the original why was.

[00:21:45] It's still the exact same.

[00:21:46] Why?

[00:21:47] How can I take all the my experience and empower someone else to result in the outcomes that I've created over and over so that the seeds were growth Academy trains different methodologies that we created that we operate on.

[00:22:01] We operate ourselves and the seats part collective is the online platform and community that enables that to happen just with leveraging our thinking tools in our community.

[00:22:11] Because it was foundation item for those guys, a pre wreck mindset.

[00:22:16] So working hand in hand with them they may come with the mindset, but they just can't see the things that I see the tools help.

[00:22:23] But once they have the mindset and you began to put others with similar mindsets in community, wonderful things happen.

[00:22:31] So that well that well there's a lot I'd love to talk to it to you about the hair but what I'm hearing is that you created product.

[00:22:39] You know you took your expertise and creative products, which is something that when I'm working with consultants or my students and they want to start a consulting company.

[00:22:49] We always talk about how can you productize what you're doing and and and so I was I wanted to ask you about products, one of which is your growth flywheel principles.

[00:23:01] I think but before I did that before I do that, I just have to ask you about mindset because you brought it up and mindset is my area of expertise and the research that I've done.

[00:23:11] So I'm very curious about how you measure and understand mindset in terms of identifying people that you might work with to ensure they have mindset.

[00:23:21] Yes, the mindset you're looking so I certainly appreciate the question.

[00:23:25] One thing and first and foremost, I'll preface this with no formal education.

[00:23:29] Just extremely naturally curious and I am a big sponge.

[00:23:35] What I'll say that's a great that's a number one attribute.

[00:23:38] I think I think Sir Richard Branson said what's the number somebody asked him that you know what is the number one attribute for an entrepreneur and he said curiosity.

[00:23:47] So you've definitely got that.

[00:23:49] I would certainly agree to that.

[00:23:51] But upon that basis, I began to focus on add to the best of my ability of learning and reading.

[00:23:58] How does the brain work?

[00:24:00] And let's embrace it.

[00:24:01] So earlier when I talked about the obstacles the way in collaboration is the way through it.

[00:24:06] So the collaboration for me to understand the obstacles of me wanting to understand the brain is read, listen, find the folks who are researching that and then embrace it.

[00:24:16] So being open in one could argue natural curiosity is certainly a foundational element of being open.

[00:24:23] But if I have an organization in Wisconsin or a trucking company and I listed just six companies in Seattle or a very large HVAC company in Jersey, what are they very much open to thinking unconventionally?

[00:24:36] Maybe they don't have the capabilities or the know how but are they open to it?

[00:24:40] And if they are, that's wonderful.

[00:24:42] I'll give one thinking tool an example of it.

[00:24:45] So just add a zero being the name of the book.

[00:24:49] Folks, of course, are immediately drawn to putting a zero to the end of any result.

[00:24:53] And I would say, well, that's obviously that's very easy and somewhat logical.

[00:24:56] But how about we put it on the front?

[00:24:58] I'll give you context around that.

[00:25:00] If we have 10 sales professionals and six of them are knocking the cover off the ball, four of them are not.

[00:25:06] And we're almost to hit our numbers, but not really.

[00:25:09] Then inevitably, and I'm sure many of us have been in a meeting like this.

[00:25:12] You're in a leadership meeting to talk about how can you get the other four to do or what should we do?

[00:25:17] And some of the ideas are thrown out as, OK, let's just let the four go.

[00:25:21] Let's start and redo it again.

[00:25:23] I'm saying, OK, why don't we just put a zero on the front of it and go down to one for this particular meeting with all this brain power around the table?

[00:25:33] How can we come up with an exponential outcome?

[00:25:36] Well, instead of creating the same revenue that we're targeted was with six.

[00:25:41] What if we could do it with one and then we could repurpose those other nine or we could grow by that much if we come up with the right strategy.

[00:25:49] So in many meetings, and I would dare say most of the listeners are probably not in their heads.

[00:25:54] That is not normal of your normal traditional EOS meeting.

[00:25:58] You know that you'll have an idea side about the sales team coming from the scorecard and people don't ask questions like that, though.

[00:26:06] Yet they possess all this great brain power around the room with all these years of experience in the business.

[00:26:11] They have the capability.

[00:26:13] They have the resources to be able to think at that level.

[00:26:15] So whenever combined with SeedSmart Growth Services, I'm really hoping to empower them.

[00:26:22] And I use that word specifically.

[00:26:24] I feel like they have all the abilities already.

[00:26:27] There's not asking the right question.

[00:26:29] I've long since ago heard if you want the right answer, figure out how to ask the right question.

[00:26:34] So I absolutely try to focus there as much as I can.

[00:26:37] But foundationally for me, are they just open minded?

[00:26:41] Maybe they're not wired up to have natural curiosity.

[00:26:43] They want much bigger outcomes and they're open to the idea of thinking about things unconventionally.

[00:26:51] So that being a prerequisite.

[00:26:53] Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.

[00:26:57] Especially it's really fascinating to hear you talking about how a lot of times companies have resources.

[00:27:03] They have too many resources going towards the wrong thing.

[00:27:07] And so coming in with a fresh set of eyes can be really helpful.

[00:27:14] But they have to be open to consider what you have to say to them, which might be totally the opposite of what they're used to thinking about.

[00:27:23] Most often times it is, yes ma'am.

[00:27:25] They really like the outcome though.

[00:27:27] Whenever you can outline here's where you sit today, you don't have to go invest or spend a whole lot more money.

[00:27:32] We're just going to repurpose some of these capabilities and resources that you have.

[00:27:35] We're going to repackage it, remessage it.

[00:27:38] Naming is required.

[00:27:40] You talked about consultants.

[00:27:43] And I have one other tool.

[00:27:46] It is named, named the baby.

[00:27:48] An example, if you had a baby and I had a baby, we didn't name it, which would be quite unconventional.

[00:27:54] Which one? Who's this is? I'm not sure.

[00:27:57] Maybe yours would have a little bit more hair.

[00:27:58] I'm not sure.

[00:27:59] Over mine.

[00:28:00] So we don't do that personally in our families.

[00:28:03] We give something a name.

[00:28:04] It has an identity and it takes on identity of its own.

[00:28:07] And not only can we embrace it here applicable to our business in our organization, our team can, but also our hero targets.

[00:28:15] Our our target clients can also begin to embrace it.

[00:28:18] So in the consulting world specifically, we have those ones who have just a lot of capabilities individually, but they haven't productized or so.

[00:28:26] The very first thing I would consider is name it, name it, name it.

[00:28:29] And I have a very specific way of naming that I'd be happy to share as well.

[00:28:32] It could empower others because naming, as I understand it, is not as easy for some as it is for others.

[00:28:38] So in the naming and I can I'd be happy to give it away.

[00:28:43] Picture a whiteboard or imagine a whiteboard in front of you.

[00:28:46] When we think about this product or service, when it's implemented with our clients or our hero targets, what outcomes are created?

[00:28:54] And you just began to list them on the left side of the whiteboard.

[00:28:57] I'm just going to list them. So what outcomes, outcomes, outcomes, outcomes.

[00:29:00] So great. Now that we have all these listing, maybe 10 or 12 or up to 25 different words that describe the outcome that your hero target or client target feels or experiences when you deliver your product or service.

[00:29:14] Then look at those particular names or sorry names, those words.

[00:29:19] And I typically grade them number five.

[00:29:22] You can it's almost palpable or you can taste it.

[00:29:25] It creates such an outcome.

[00:29:27] Therefore, there's emotion attached to this outcome that you perceive for your hero target.

[00:29:33] That would be a lucky number five less for all the way down to number one, which is a great outcome, but it's really something invoke any emotion.

[00:29:42] So the next step in my process is to take all those number fives and fours of those descriptive words applicable to the outcome that you create and move them to the right side of your whiteboard.

[00:29:53] Just a line down the center. So I've got my fours and fives over here to the right side.

[00:29:57] Oftentimes, I don't need to reach down to the number threes.

[00:30:00] Then I begin to look at those words who are now on the right side of the whiteboard.

[00:30:04] And I'm trying to look and see, can I take any of these in hyphen?

[00:30:08] Can I take the first three letters and the last five letters of this?

[00:30:11] And I'm literally trying to create a word, but I don't want to go too far away from this audible sounds.

[00:30:18] So that and I know I've hit pay dirt when this happens, when you say the word, you may have to explain it one time.

[00:30:26] Think of a tagline, maybe one time, but the very next time that your hero target or your client target, however you deem them, here's that word.

[00:30:34] They can feel those emotions. You have now hit success.

[00:30:38] So that is a way to empower those consultants when they're trying to productize their outcomes, that they can create their value creation results.

[00:30:47] That's an empowering way to give them names and hopefully for someone some value.

[00:30:51] Yeah, that that's really fascinating. And it's really interesting and timely for me.

[00:30:57] I'm working on a new project and working, you know, trying to come up with a name for it.

[00:31:03] And one of the one of the epiphanies I had as I was going through the whole process was that the successful names are the ones that really show the benefit.

[00:31:15] And and you mentioned the emotion associated with it, as opposed to being simply a descriptor of what you're doing.

[00:31:24] So naming is a big deal, isn't it?

[00:31:27] And especially in our world today where so much of what we do, it has to be done in sound bites and we have to get attention very quickly.

[00:31:36] So I appreciate you sharing that. That's a really fascinating way, I think, to approach it.

[00:31:42] My question, which is kind of leading us a little bit away from well, maybe not.

[00:31:48] My question is, how do you think about all the what I'm beginning to hear called the cognitive revolution with A.I.?

[00:31:59] And, you know, for example, with with my naming experience that I was just going through, I went to chat, GPT, and I started asking for suggestions and giving ideas.

[00:32:12] I got about 25 back, none of which I really liked.

[00:32:15] But then I had to go in and I had to do a better job of defining what I was looking for.

[00:32:20] But I was able to get there and over time.

[00:32:25] But how does A.I. figure into what you're doing?

[00:32:28] Because A.I. can kind of connect some of these dots for us if we know the questions to ask, which is I think you brought up that point earlier.

[00:32:35] You're exactly right. And you've alluded to the answer even in the context here.

[00:32:39] I appreciate that. If I want the right answer, I have to ask the right question.

[00:32:43] A.I. is an exact example of that.

[00:32:45] The better that I focus on my ability to prompt properly the higher yield of better results that I actually end up receiving.

[00:32:53] So the nature of A.I. being able to make all the connections that we as humans are able to do, I don't foresee that in the short future.

[00:33:02] I have an immense amount of friends that were in abundance 360 last week.

[00:33:06] Last week? Yeah, last week.

[00:33:07] And there was projections there that will reach singularity with A.I. in 2029, I believe five years, five years.

[00:33:14] So maybe then not currently what I experienced in leverage and we leverage A.I. in all of my organizations, even personally a lot.

[00:33:22] It's a great first draft. It's a great facilitator.

[00:33:28] It is not the driver. So our ability to most importantly ask the right question that yields the right answer with the true essence of humanality in it.

[00:33:40] And I talked about, of course, invoking the limbic part of your brain when you name things, the emotional part.

[00:33:45] All of those things are fundamentals for me to create the type of outcomes that the folks that I work with see.

[00:33:51] Leveraging A.I. as a facilitator, I think is paramount and required.

[00:33:56] Just please focus on asking the right question and my goodness, do not take what it gives you as the gospel.

[00:34:02] It's getting better and better, of course, but it's not there yet.

[00:34:06] I'll give you an example. I'm working with two firms I've put together, one has a couple thousand people in India, in the Philippines,

[00:34:14] and another has an immense amount of experience and they're looking to put an organization together, leveraging both their resources.

[00:34:20] So to me, it's a JVC, which is a joint venture collaboration.

[00:34:25] It's not a true pure collaboration. But in doing so, I had and I often do this on the way to the gym very early in the morning.

[00:34:31] I'll hit record on Otter and I'll just be began to talk about concepts and methodologies and ways to think unconventional.

[00:34:40] And then that, of course, is a long transcription that one of my strategic assistants will take running through chat GPT.

[00:34:46] This particular time, I didn't have that amount of time. So I did it myself and owe me.

[00:34:51] It did definitely give me a very nice, perfectly formatted outline and it completely lost the essence of value creation in the entire context.

[00:35:01] So it's getting closer, but it's just not there yet. So use it.

[00:35:05] Yeah, I've heard it. Yeah, I've heard it said that that AI is competently inaccurate.

[00:35:10] You have to be careful. But it's I agree with you.

[00:35:15] I think it's definitely can be helpful in terms of putting some things out on the table.

[00:35:21] And like I said, with naming, it does spark a lot of different.

[00:35:26] It can give you in a very quick period, it can give you a lot of things to think about.

[00:35:32] So now you created something called growth flywheel principles.

[00:35:36] So I read a little bit about that, but I'm curious if you could tell us a little bit about what that is and how our listeners might might benefit from understanding a little bit more about that.

[00:35:49] Sure, sure. If my wife were listening, she would think this part is a little bit comical because sometimes she projects them a little bit more of like a robot for business here in this concept of building seed spark so that it can begin to grow and scale.

[00:36:05] One thing that I had to do is, of course, create a process, which is what my brain does automatically with process.

[00:36:10] When I say automatically, not just to the individual's business, but also including the individual.

[00:36:16] So I've created two flywheels personal and also professional.

[00:36:20] So we it's paramount. The entrepreneurs that I'm referred to, they're all similar, but yet they're all unique and different.

[00:36:28] So during our intake process, initial growth discovery, we're identifying what they themselves and also their business has as their unique value contribution.

[00:36:41] So unique ability from strategic coaches, very, very, very impactful, practically applied.

[00:36:48] I coined unique value contribution.

[00:36:51] So how are we going to find that? What process are we going to take people through?

[00:36:54] And that's what led me to create these flywheels.

[00:36:56] So on the personal, I'll give you a little example of it, a little insight.

[00:37:00] Purpose like truly purpose.

[00:37:03] I meet tons and tons of entrepreneurs that are wildly successful and they're wildly lost as well.

[00:37:08] They're completely lost. They become disenfranchised with the business.

[00:37:12] They've reached success for the conventional sense of anybody or an outsider looking in.

[00:37:18] But those folks are hollow. And that's not 100% true.

[00:37:21] They just put all their work and passion into building the business, but they didn't foundationally start with the why.

[00:37:27] And I could attest I did that as well.

[00:37:30] Finding my unique ability was very, very beneficial.

[00:37:33] And then also focusing on what my unique value contribution was individually.

[00:37:38] And now I've created that flywheel that helps them as well.

[00:37:40] So meeting the entrepreneur where they are.

[00:37:42] And on the professional side, there's a few key categories.

[00:37:45] Purpose, as I mentioned, but some folks already know their purpose beyond that's health.

[00:37:50] Right? So if I'm not healthy, then I'm absolutely not my best self in my business nor am I my personal.

[00:37:57] So we want to take them and get them introduced to different other growth partners around the world who are the best in their industry of what they do.

[00:38:06] And because they're a growth partner and they're part of the collective, they give an open door opportunity for a very consultative conversation.

[00:38:13] Whether they engage or not to their own discretion.

[00:38:16] It's my job to open up doors for them.

[00:38:18] They decide if they want to engage.

[00:38:20] So health wealth as well.

[00:38:23] We have tons of entrepreneurs that have made money, certainly in the smaller to medium sized business.

[00:38:27] They've made money, but it's all their wealth is just tied up in their business.

[00:38:31] So getting them introduced to somebody who just is not looking for a commission, but is looking more for a partnership.

[00:38:36] And oftentimes you heard me earlier in the conversation.

[00:38:39] I talk about I only engage in future outcomes.

[00:38:43] So I never I learned a long time ago, wealthy people do not trade time for money and I don't want to be that way.

[00:38:49] So I try to focus on what the outcome is.

[00:38:52] And then I dictate my participation in it, also taking on risk on that outcome.

[00:38:57] So many of my growth partners are of a very similar mindset.

[00:39:00] They're there to help the entrepreneur grow.

[00:39:02] They understand their unique value contribution could be in this hypothetical health category.

[00:39:08] We have a ton of folks in longevity or into wealth category have quite a few RIAs and other wealth managers who are really good at what they do.

[00:39:17] But they also fit a certain segment of the market.

[00:39:21] So that's a little bit of what I was talking about meeting where they are.

[00:39:24] So, yes, I've created this flywheel that gets them exposed to all the core components of building a very, very solid foundation for exponential growth, personally and also professionally.

[00:39:37] But it is paramount that we meet the entrepreneur and their business where they are and then try to support them with the best in breed in their class and in their verticals and just combine them with it and really fun and exciting things happen.

[00:39:53] Yeah, that sounds really interesting.

[00:39:55] And I like your holistic approach.

[00:39:57] I think that's really important.

[00:39:59] I'm really curious, too, about your network because it sounds like you've developed a very robust network, which is a big part of how you're building out this consulting company.

[00:40:12] And I think that's an area that some entrepreneurs find challenging.

[00:40:18] Many are, you know, many are natural at networking, but others find it challenging and they find that there's always a trade off because networking takes time.

[00:40:31] And as we both know, you know, networking may or may not yield the results that you're hoping for.

[00:40:38] So you kind of have to have a mindset about how you approach networking.

[00:40:42] Do you have any thoughts on that for our listeners?

[00:40:45] Anybody out there who might be struggling with how much do I invest in my network?

[00:40:49] Because, you know, I've heard the quote, your network is your net worth.

[00:40:53] And as I listen to you talk, it sounds like that it's an integral part of your strategy.

[00:40:58] Absolutely.

[00:40:59] Give it away.

[00:41:00] Ultimately.

[00:41:01] So my focus whenever I'm engaged or referred to someone, I don't hold anything back.

[00:41:06] Why would I do that?

[00:41:07] I would love to think that when I share with them these growth strategies to revolutionize or completely wipe out their competition, they're going to hit the ground running.

[00:41:16] Oftentimes, they're not.

[00:41:18] I'm never concerned with that.

[00:41:20] And if they are more power to them, if I have someone trying to build the exact type growth consulting firm that I am and I share with them all the time, I'm not going to be concerned about that.

[00:41:28] And I share with them all that we're doing and they outrun me.

[00:41:31] Awesome.

[00:41:32] Now I got to learn something and I should have done more homework myself.

[00:41:36] So in your network and networking, I would say give it all away.

[00:41:41] Just try your very best.

[00:41:42] Whenever you're engaged in those particular engagements that you're giving the absolute most and best of yourself to benefit and create value for someone else.

[00:41:51] What you will find is it comes back tenfold.

[00:41:55] I don't do it for that reason.

[00:41:56] I do it because my natural wiring.

[00:41:58] I'm just I'm very fortunate and blessed that is my natural wiring, but I can tell you and I'm a living result of that type of approach.

[00:42:07] I'm very fortunate to have folks all over the world.

[00:42:09] I have growth partners almost on every continent now.

[00:42:13] And I grew up in a very small town in South Carolina where I joke time moved backwards.

[00:42:20] So only looking at the resources and capabilities that I had in my fingertips and understanding them.

[00:42:28] At a very authentic expression level, could I see how they could be recombined to create more value?

[00:42:33] And then sharing that with somebody else is the only reason that I can be here on this podcast today.

[00:42:38] So it's a wonderful question.

[00:42:40] And I hope that is empowering to many folks who are listening.

[00:42:43] Just know it's a wonderful answer, too.

[00:42:45] I absolutely love it because I, you know, I agree with you.

[00:42:49] I think it's, you know, it's a we're building relationships.

[00:42:54] It's not about what what's in it for me all the time.

[00:42:57] And people can sniff that out pretty quickly.

[00:42:59] And yet when we're when we're generous and giving the you know, I agree with you.

[00:43:05] That's that's been I grew up also grew up in a very small town as I think I told you before we started in southern West Virginia.

[00:43:12] And I think that that's part of my roots as well.

[00:43:15] But that's great answer. I love it.

[00:43:17] I have one. I didn't want to ask. Yes, I'm sorry.

[00:43:20] I want to add that hopefully this as well can be sticky in someone's brain.

[00:43:24] When I mentioned, you know, Jackson is a gentleman that is a friend and I think his concepts are just super simple and a lot of times they get past people.

[00:43:32] But if you really think about him, you dig beneath the surface there willfully valuable one that he says or that he had shared with me some time ago.

[00:43:40] More cheese, less whiskers.

[00:43:44] I mean, a pretty nice office building. Very fortunate if I were to drop a piece of cheese behind my shoulder on this floor, how many days would it take for mice to show up?

[00:43:53] I don't know and I don't want to find out, but I don't think it would be very, very long.

[00:43:57] So if you think about your business or you think about your network, more cheese, less whiskers.

[00:44:03] So if you're giving more cheese, more cheese, you're educating, you're using all your capabilities to provide value to someone else.

[00:44:09] You'll be surprised at how much comes back to you. So more cheese, less whiskers.

[00:44:14] Yeah, that's a great way to remember it and something that doesn't, you know, having an analogy like that often helps us to remember it and think about it in a different context and a different way.

[00:44:26] So I like that a lot. I have to ask you, as you work with entrepreneurs today, where do you see the biggest mistakes that they're making?

[00:44:35] Like what are people struggling with and what are they doing? You know, I love your focus on creating value.

[00:44:43] And, you know, what's the biggest mistake that you see entrepreneurs making today?

[00:44:50] This one is quite easy for me. There's a there's a quote that I actually had a gentleman about two hours north of Toronto sent to me.

[00:44:56] I had failed to remember that I put this quote in the book. Never let the request dictate the value that you can create.

[00:45:04] So I think in a lot of small businesses, small to medium sized business, I should say, there's this convention of their industry.

[00:45:11] This gross profit, this net profit, these overheads, this compensation model, the way you engage with your hero targets and delivery of your value or delivery of your product or service.

[00:45:21] And it all just kind of fits in a mold that we have these trucks and these trucks are half tons of that.

[00:45:27] Why? Who told you they need that's what everybody does. I don't really like that answer.

[00:45:32] Let's peel back the onion a little bit. So taking the convention and just challenging it.

[00:45:38] If you to take this Saturday, because of course, most of us run like on a hamster wheel most of the week unless you subscribe to free focus and buffer days.

[00:45:45] But your next free day and I might be a Saturday.

[00:45:48] Just take a legal path and try to write down all the conventions that exist inside of your industry.

[00:45:55] And then in the next column, write why, why, why, why, why and try to fill out what you will potentially find.

[00:46:01] And most likely you will find there's a lot of these conventions that you're just doing because somebody told you to or the industry of the last show that you went to.

[00:46:10] Why? How does how does that add value to your product or service that you're delivering to your hero target?

[00:46:19] If it's not, why the heck are we doing it? Because somebody told you was the right thing.

[00:46:23] If it's not contributing to the overall value that we're delivering, I stop it immediately.

[00:46:28] Immediately. That's a I think that's that's really great advice.

[00:46:34] And and you know, it's something probably most of those things that you're talking about.

[00:46:40] We don't even know why we're doing them. Just always remember why we start.

[00:46:45] Of course, it's a little bit complimentary to me. I started with no form education, just a lot of curiosity.

[00:46:50] So I question everything. I just embraced that and now applying it, I help others with the same.

[00:46:56] So yeah, just challenge all the conventions. I've never met to type a person.

[00:47:02] Yes, I mentioned best practices to me are average. Why would we want to do that? It's a nice frame of reference.

[00:47:06] Awesome. What can we do with all of the brain power that we've amassed in our organizations?

[00:47:13] All the resources that we have and how could we can recombine it to create more value at the end of the day?

[00:47:19] The only thing that matters is the future and how you're going to help somebody else create that future.

[00:47:24] If you're not helping them create the future, they have no time for you, honestly.

[00:47:28] So if we focus there, you'll find that a lot of those conventions that you're somewhat beholden to or you're experiencing

[00:47:35] mediocre results because you're following them. You're able to break those walls down, increase the value and begin to separate from the competition and control your own margin.

[00:47:43] So it pays well. Yeah, that's great advice.

[00:47:48] So I have to ask you about failure because failure and overcoming failure has been a part of almost every entrepreneurial journey that I've been on or that others that I've talked to have been on.

[00:48:04] So tell us about failure. Have you ever had any moments when you had a big failure or a big challenge? And how did you deal with that?

[00:48:15] Okay, so for the listeners who are familiar with Colby, are you familiar with Colby, Ms. Rebecca, the personality study?

[00:48:22] Oh, yes, yes, yes.

[00:48:24] I'm a 7383, right? So a big quick start. Big fact finder, surprising enough.

[00:48:29] But as far as my follow through, it's adaptive. So failures to me, I've just learned a new fact, which empowers me to see the conceptual of what I need to create so that I am continuously moving forward.

[00:48:45] So if you were to ask me about many failures in the past, which I know I probably had many this morning, I don't really embrace them that particular way.

[00:48:52] It's just another fact that I use to create this conceptual image with a path to reaching overall success.

[00:49:00] But yes, I've had many of them, probably more than I would care to count. And I just choose to embrace them in a different fashion so that it propels me forward instead of pushing me backwards.

[00:49:12] Well, one of the things that I talk about in my own book is that entrepreneurial journey is a learning journey.

[00:49:19] And so I think that's what you're talking about there. It's definitely, you know, if we can be honest and willing to learn and learn as quickly as possible, then failure can really come in very helpful along the way because it teaches us what not to do or what didn't work.

[00:49:39] Yeah, as far out into the future as I am, as tip of the spear as my personality is, I would respond this way. I try to fail as quickly as I possibly can intentionally.

[00:49:50] So many folks are going to do something when interest rates drop. I have one, this young gentleman who's talking about real estate earlier, but I understand the real estate market is down.

[00:49:59] I'm like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. The real estate market being down just opened up an immense amount of opportunities for people that are going to continue doing it the conventional way because guess what? That doesn't work anymore.

[00:50:10] So there's no time like the present. I'm not gonna wait to interest rates go down. Not gonna wait to self storage gets a higher lower cap rate.

[00:50:19] It's like, no, no, let's understand what the market variability is currently. How can we attack it? And let's get started today. We know we're going to fail. Let's just make sure that when we fail, we recognize it really quickly. We recalibrate and keep going forward.

[00:50:31] It's proven quite impactful for my entrepreneurial journey to look at things that way and get started today. Not foolishly. I mentioned I am a seven fact finder, so I'm going to gather a lot of facts. It's just I gather them as I'm walking forward.

[00:50:46] As I run into a new fact that, Hey, that didn't work. That's just another fact to me. Recalibrate and keep walking forward.

[00:50:53] Yeah, that's great advice. And I think for people entrepreneurs who are listening and that may be struggling with something that's not working the way they want, you know, to understand that it's part of the journey and the sooner you seek to learn the lesson in it, the faster you can move forward.

[00:51:05] So this has been great, Chad. I've really enjoyed our conversation. Lots of great insights, I think, for our listeners. But I always end by asking if you had one piece of advice for our listeners, knowing that most of them are current entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs, what would that be?

[00:51:15] I would say add a zero and see what let your brain tell you why not leverage the power of unless and let your brain show you the way that you want to.

[00:51:25] That's it. So in the army say earlier, the obstacle is the way and collaboration is the way through it. So oftentimes when you leverage what your brain will tell you, you'll be able to do it.

[00:51:35] And that's the way I think we're going to do it. And I think that's a great way to do it.

[00:51:41] So oftentimes when you leverage what your brain will do when you use the power of unless, after you've documented all those reasons that you couldn't add a zero to your revenue, to your profitability.

[00:51:51] In my example earlier, to the front side of having 10 sales professionals, how are we going to create the same outcome and exceed our revenue targets?

[00:51:59] With one collaboration is the way there's someone out there billing with a credit card on file. Every client that you want to do business with, you may consider collaboration with that particular person or entity to help you with your goals.

[00:52:11] That's great advice. Yeah, we think that's a great advice.

[00:52:15] Yeah, we live in it. I think it's not all about competition. There's a collaboration that matters in today's world.

[00:52:25] Now you have a book, right? And so tell and it's got these very a lot of these ideas that you can use to build your business.

[00:52:35] So could you tell our audience about your book and where they might connect with you or find out more about what you do?

[00:52:41] Sure. So as I mentioned a little bit ago, the book was named at eight years old because I just did it impracticality.

[00:52:49] I added a zero to the number that I figured out there when my father was making. So I've continued doing that.

[00:52:55] And I decided to do it. And I've been doing it for a long time. And I've been doing it for a long time.

[00:53:02] So I'm continuing doing that. And I decided to name the first book that that book absolutely combines a lot of the

[00:53:09] methodologies that help folks think in a very similar fashion. I just want to pack it all into one.

[00:53:15] And it's been wildly successful. I'm actually a little surprised that it's making as much of an impact all across the globe as it is.

[00:53:22] So as far as where can you find it,

[00:53:24] that's a great question as well.

[00:53:25] Any place that you get your books,

[00:53:28] whether it be Audible or I'm surprised

[00:53:31] that there's so many different places

[00:53:32] that you can get books from these days,

[00:53:34] but all the major ones and then ones

[00:53:36] that I come across that people say,

[00:53:37] oh yeah, I got it on this platform.

[00:53:39] And I got it, I didn't know anything about that platform.

[00:53:41] So it's very easy to find,

[00:53:42] Just Out of Zero is a little bit of a unique title

[00:53:45] and it's very easy in a Google search

[00:53:47] to find nine ways you can get it.

[00:53:50] Just Out of Zero and your company again is SeedSpark

[00:53:54] and people can find you and SeedSpark online.

[00:53:58] Yeah, SeedSpark.com.

[00:53:59] And then of course the personal website

[00:54:01] at ChadTJenkins.com and JustOutOfZero.com as well.

[00:54:06] All right, wonderful.

[00:54:07] Chad, thank you again for joining me today.

[00:54:09] I very much enjoyed it Ms. Brecker, thank you very much.

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[00:54:15] and would like to learn more about entrepreneurship,

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