August 30, 2024 • 39 mins
In this episode, dive deep into the entrepreneurial spirit with Joah Spearman, founder of TenYour, as he shares his journey of resilience and innovation. Discover how Joah transitioned from various entrepreneurial ventures to founding a company aimed at providing financial peace of mind in the unpredictable job market. From his early days of strategic lawn mowing to facing the challenges of the pandemic, Joah’s story is a testament to the power of grit and foresight in entrepreneurship.
Listen as Joah discusses the impact of his unique insurance product on communities, especially those affected by layoffs, and how his upbringing influenced his entrepreneurial vision. Gain insights into the crucial lessons learned through adversity and the importance of mental health awareness among founders.
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Connect with Joah Spearman and explore how TenYour can offer you a safety net in today’s volatile job market by visiting TenYour’s website.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kenny (00:28):
Welcome.
Welcome everybody anotherepisode of the beyond normal
podcast.
I'm your host, Kenny groom.
We are in season six.
I can't believe it.
We've made it this far.
We've got a very special guesttoday.
someone who I've been followingfor quite some time, their
entrepreneur journey.
they are a serial entrepreneurin my eyes.
And so I thought, you know, whynot have this, incredible
(00:51):
founder on the platform today toshare their story with you all.
the founder today that we'regoing to be speaking with his
name is, Joe experiment.
He is the founder of TenYour,which is offering an incredible,
insurance product, for thosethat could be impacted by
layoffs.
and just the dynamics of the,the, job market now, incredible
(01:13):
product.
I am a consumer of this productmyself.
And so I just wanted to, bringJoel on and let him, share a
little bit about hisentrepreneur journey is really
incredible.
so without further ado, let'sbring Joel to the stage.
How's it going there,
JS (01:28):
how you doing?
Kenny (01:29):
Doing great.
appreciate you, uh, you know,being able to spend some time
with us today.
letting our viewers know whatit's like.
in my eyes, I call you a serialentrepreneur.
I'm not sure if you go by thator you feel that way.
Yup.
JS (01:42):
I mean, I'm on number five now, so,
Kenny (01:44):
Wow.
That's incredible.
So let's start out, give folks alittle bit, obviously we're
going to talk about TenYour alittle bit, but give folks a
little bit of background about,Joa prior to you starting a
TenYour, what you were doing,like what, what, what was it
like being a young, a Joa, backin the day?
JS (02:02):
I would say that a lot of the traits came through early,
from when I was four and fiveyears old.
My grandmother would ask me whatI wanted to be and I would say
bending man.
so it was, it was very, veryclear early that that business
was something that I had a knackfor or a desire to pursue.
I think in a lot of ways.
(02:23):
To be an entrepreneur is to be afuturist.
And so since I was a kid, I wasalways, I think initially I was
applying my futurism to my ownlife.
I grew up very, very poor,single mother, youngest of three
boys.
And so I was aware of thoseconditions and that while I grew
(02:44):
up with a lot of love, andsupport from my grandmother and
my uncle and my mom, obviously.
I also knew that there wasopportunity that was beyond what
I had access to.
And so honestly, I started myfirst business, without really
knowing what entrepreneurshipwas.
I was 11 years old and I startedcutting grass for, I borrowed a
(03:05):
lawnmower from a neighbor andstarted cutting grass for
neighbors in our like littleworking class duplex
neighborhood.
And then in the fall at rakeleaves, And then at school I
would sell bubble gum and Iwould use that money to help pay
for my own school clothes.
I paid for my own field trip toWashington DC in eighth grade.
so I, I, I got those earlyexperiences of having, feeling a
(03:26):
sense of pride with not havingmoney so much as like getting
myself access to things oropportunities that I otherwise
wouldn't have had.
Kenny (03:34):
Incredible, incredible.
just thinking like the lawnservice as a first business,
like that is A great way to kindof cut your teeth right as a
first time business owner.
JS (03:45):
So I have two older brothers, my middle brother, he
and his best friend who theywere both two years older than
me and they were cutting grassfor our neighbors And, but they,
I saw, I kind of studied theirbusiness and this is me, 11
years old studying theirbusiness and their business was
they'd borrow this lawnmowerfrom a neighbor.
They would go knock on ourneighbor's doors and say, Oh,
(04:05):
can we cut your grass nextweekend?
And they would say, we'll cutyour grass for 20.
And so they would get, you know,five, six neighbors would do
that.
So they would, I'd be like,okay, they're all, they're,
they're making a hundred dollarsa weekend and they're splitting
it.
So they're both getting 50 andI'm like, okay, that's good.
But I was like, man, like itdoesn't seem like cutting grass
is that hard and what I went tothe same neighbor and said, Hey,
(04:30):
can I borrow?
I went to borrow his lawnmoweron weekdays.
So I would go to the neighborson like Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
say, can I cut your grass for 15and so, I went around cutting.
And so basically I price cut andI, I basically within like one
summer I had all the business.
(04:52):
I was cutting like 12 and 15yards a week, 15 each and
getting, making six, 700 a monthon my own.
So my first Jordan, I rememberbuying the Kevin Garnett Jordans
when they came out for my, youknow, like it was like, and I
say that I, it worked outbecause at that same time, I, I,
my, my brother's, interest inmusic productions was sparked
(05:15):
and I convinced my mom to buyhim a keyboard and equipment to
start doing that.
even though I took the lawnmowing away from him, I got him
toward music production.
So I feel like it worked out.
Kenny (05:26):
It worked out for sure.
Oh my God.
I feel like that's a lesson.
Like that's like an MBA, likegrad school level, like lesson
and like business one on one interms of undercutting your
competitors for a strategicadvantage.
So speaking of that, learning,lessons in business early on in
(05:46):
life, you went the, collegeroute.
you went to a university.
tell us a little bit about,where you went, and then like
what that did, for you in termsof, you know, maybe sparking or,
stoking the flame, from anentrepreneur perspective.
JS (06:02):
Yeah.
I increasingly, you know,because of the cost of college.
And also the fact that so manypeople have college degrees yet
don't have real gainfulemployment I understand why some
people are kind of questioningwhether or not college still has
value in the way that maybe itdid 10, 30, 50, whatever years
(06:22):
ago.
But I, for me, college was a bigpart of my story.
I mean, I, I'm the first personin my family to graduate from
college.
I worked really hard in highschool.
I got great grades and wasreally involved.
And I applied, I applied for ahundred, over a hundred
scholarships, my senior year ofhigh school.
And I won 30 of them.
(06:44):
So I pieced milled a bunch ofeverything from 500 to 5, 000
scholarships.
And I was able to basically payfor myself to go to college at
the university of Texas inAustin.
my thing is I wasn't some greatstudent.
I think, honestly, I think I waslike a 2.
7 GPA student in college.
I mean, I had a few semesterswhere I got a 4.
Academics wasn't my focus.
(07:05):
My focus was access.
So I went to college really toget access for myself knowing
that no one in my family had hadthat kind of access.
my first semester on campus, thefirst thing I did, I remember I
went to class the first fewweeks, I got the syllabus for
all the classes and I kind ofmade a decision.
I was like, okay, I can workreally hard academically and get
(07:26):
A's.
Or I can save some of that timeand I can work full time and I
decided to work full time.
So I got a job.
I apply, I called and emailedthe athletic director for the
university of Texas, the TexasLonghorns, every day for 30
days.
And then I eventually got a jobin the media relations PR
department for the TexasLonghorns.
(07:46):
So all four years of college, Idid media relations.
I learned how to do mediatraining.
press conferences, doing gameday stats for ESPN for the
basketball team, football team,helping to run Texas relays.
So I got really valuableexperience and access just by
being at a really big publicuniversity.
And so I think that actually iswhat prepared me most for
(08:08):
entrepreneurship as aprofessional, more than like
going to the classes.
Kenny (08:13):
I think that's a real.
That's a gem there because like,like you knew yourself, right?
You knew what you wanted to getout of that situation and you're
paying all that money anyways.
Like you said, you gotscholarships, but somebody's
paying all that money.
tuitions are rather, you know,
JS (08:30):
Even when I was going, it was, I think it was like 4, 000
a semester for tuition.
I think now it's like, you know,14, 000 or something.
Kenny (08:40):
Yeah, exactly.
So, but you knew yourself toknow like, Hey, here's how you
get the most out of thissituation being in this,
university, the network, theaccess, like you talked about.
I'm curious, like, what do youtell, like, what's your advice?
If you're talking to somebodynow who, you know, could be
similar story to you, they havethat entrepreneur, you know,
(09:02):
that they have that skill set,that DNA in them at a young age.
But they also want to navigatecollege.
And now the costs are what theyare.
Like you mentioned, like, whatadvice would you give somebody,
who wants to go intoentrepreneurship, but is looking
at that, that, university as aroute.
JS (09:19):
I think if there, I don't want to say it's a regret, it's
not a regret, but if there's onething that I didn't do in
college, one thing that I'mreally proud of is I've made
some lifelong relationships,friendships, connections in
college, where even investors inmy last business are people who
I met in college 20 plus yearsago.
So I knew how to buildrelationships and not just
networking from a transactionalstandpoint, but really building
(09:41):
real friendships andrelationships.
But I think to that end, onething that I would recommend
anyone who's entrepreneurial incollege is you have at least
four years where you have anamazing opportunity to both
dabble in a safe kind of betalike environment, with different
business ideas, different thingslike that.
But I think even more so, Ithink college is a great place
(10:04):
to find, co founderspotentially.
Whether that's people who arestudying, you know, whether,
let's say you need a technicalco founder, find out people in
the computer science program.
Let's say you need a business cofounder, find someone that's
studying business.
Let's say you want somethinglike more like an advisor or a
mentor, a future board member,like maybe that's a professor or
a faculty member.
(10:24):
And the thing is, is in collegepeople are really eager for
connection like that.
So whether it's a professorthat, that, you know, they see a
younger version of themselves orsomeone who's willing to take
more of a risky path and likemaybe going into academia, I
think there's so manyopportunities.
For people in college to, usethe fact that it's kind of a
closed environment, to buildrelationships that can pay huge
(10:47):
dividends in their entrepreneurcareer.
Kenny (10:50):
Yeah, that's dope.
but being a part of theuniversity that you were part of
as well, like, I think it's oneof the universities where
there's this network, right.
Where you can kind of dobusiness in Texas.
For example, You don't have tonecessarily say, Hey, let me
boil the ocean.
let me do the whole entireworld.
Like, let me start in this oneplace where there's tons of
(11:11):
value
JS (11:11):
Yeah.
I mean, it's like Facebook,obviously Zuckerberg started
that at a Harvard.
when I started local or yearslater, it was, it was on the
backs of, of belief that, youknow, Austin was enough.
Like I, I like in Atlanta, theyhave these shirts.
and the hats and stuff and saysAtlanta only needs Atlanta and
from like a music industrystandpoint, you can see that,
(11:33):
like, there's a whole ecosystemout of hip hop that Atlanta has
just kind of lifted itself tothe studies that's in with
organized noise with outcastsand so, so depth with Jermaine
Dupri and all that.
And from there, in Austin's thesame way with local businesses,
and I saw that in college, youknow, companies like Dell, Dell
computers started at theUniversity of Texas campus.
Tito's Vodka started in Austin.
(11:54):
It's now the biggest vodkacompany in the world.
Whole Foods started in Austin.
So there's very much like a buyand support local ethos that was
there.
And so by the time I started myfirst businesses, my purview was
like, Hey, if I can make thiswork in Austin, then that may be
enough.
Kenny (12:10):
So you mentioned localer, that is the previous business
you spent a long time, buildingthat out into what it was.
Can you talk a little bit about,um, you know, you starting that,
some of the learnings fromrunning that, for the amount of
time that you did, what, seven,eight years, maybe, and then
where, where that is, where thatcompany is now.
(12:31):
Cause we know that you'refocusing on
JS (12:32):
Yeah.
So I mentioned that, you know,TenYour is number five company
for me.
And I, before Localr.
Before TenYour, I had threeother businesses.
One I still have, which is asocial media kind of executive
communications company workingwith clients.
Like my first client actuallywas FedEx back in 2009.
now I have a few CEOs as clientsof different businesses from,
(12:55):
startups.
That have raised a seed round upto 150 million, uh,
organizations where I'm mostlyjust kind of sharing thought
leadership and in CEO support.
my second business actually wasa sneaker boutique in downtown
Austin that I had for a fewyears doing brick and mortar
retail.
from that experience, I closedthe sneaker shop and then I
(13:16):
created and ran the first everfashion and style segment of
South by Southwest festival.
but we, each of those fewbusinesses.
I, with the sneaker stores inparticular in the South by
Southwest event, I only didthose for a couple of two or
three years, and thoseexperiences were really rich,
but I decided after that I waslike, man, I really want to my
next company.
I wanted to be something that Ifeel like I can do for at least
(13:38):
seven years.
So when I had the, when I, whenlocal came about, I remember
meeting with my first investorand I committed to him.
I told him I was going to dothis for at least seven years
through hell or high water.
And there was a lot of hell andhigh water.
I ended up actually because ofthe pandemic ended up tacking on
more years.
So it's been, I found it localthere in December of 2012 and
(14:03):
ran it for over 10 years.
And actually just last week, aweek ago today, actually, I just
managed to facilitate atransaction in which.
I bought out my, um, uh, inessence, did it like a debt
buyout of my investors and nowI'm the sole owner of Locler.
And so I still continue to runthe business, but unfortunately,
(14:26):
after the pandemic, it justwasn't going to have the kind of
venture sized acquisitionoutcomes that we wanted.
And so it just made more sensefor me to take over as a sole
owner, making it more of alifestyle business where it
generates revenue, but nothingthat's venture size at the time.
So that's still going in thebackground.
but that experience doingsomething for 10, 11 years
through good times, bad timesthrough the pandemic, I mean, I
(14:50):
think I've experiencedeverything you can possibly
experience as an entrepreneurrate, fundraising, team
building, having to do late,having to do, having to fire
people, landing partnershipswith big companies like, JetBlue
and Nike and lift, match dotcom.
scaling from just Austin usersto users in 200 cities around
(15:10):
the world, language translation,different mediums from apps to
websites to print, you know,like we did it all.
So all that experience isgetting poured into anything I
do in the future.
And immediately it's gettingimportant in a TenYour.
I felt like.
My next venture, it would takeme maybe a year and a half to
get where I took.
It took me 10 years to get localor, and here I am month, 10 into
(15:33):
TenYour.
And it's, we've already eclipsedwhere local or was in year 10,
Kenny (15:40):
Yeah.
I love to see, like you're ableto apply all those learnings,
whether good or bad, right.
And there's an acceleration thathappens.
I'm curious.
Like all the things you wentthrough as a founder, like you
mentioned the highs, the lows,you're, you're, you're, you're
hiring, you're firing, you'redoing all those things that come
with the job.
like how do you maintain yourmental health, through, all of
(16:03):
these situations?
JS (16:04):
That's a, that's a great question.
Honestly, maybe the mostimportant question that founders
should be asked that are oftennot asked.
I say this from experiencebecause I.
face some very, very, very darkand challenging times from a
mental health standpoint.
Um, in mostly in as after thepandemic, like 2022 Was a very,
(16:26):
very tough.
The end of 2022 was very brutal.
I spent that, you know, postpandemic, I spent probably six
months just pivoting thebusiness to survive the
pandemic.
And we, I'll say this, we hadour best quarter ever in Q4 of
2019.
We were on the verge of havingour best quarter ever Q1 of
(16:47):
2020.
And it was that year, 2020 waslining up to be a breakthrough
year for Loclear.
And this is after seven plusyears grinding on this thing.
And then the pandemic hits andwe basically lose 95 percent of
our business like that.
And I, and basically spent thenext six months doing a hard
(17:08):
turn on the business.
And, um, and, and then reallyjust grinding for a couple of
years, working towards trying toland some type of exit and
having.
Really fruitful acquisitionconversations with some of the
biggest tech and finance andcredit card companies you can
think of in the world.
And there were some greatconversations that, you know, we
(17:30):
felt like we were on thedoorstep of finally getting that
breakthrough, maybe getting thatexit.
That was going to be attractiveto us as myself, as a founder,
my team, and then our investors,and at the end of 22, they, they
just didn't happen.
and it was like the season whereall those big tech layoffs
started happening and theinterest rates going up and it
just was perfect storm of not agood moment for us and, and it
(17:56):
was, and I can, you know, I'llsay openly, for the first time
in my life, there were, therewas a couple of months, the end
of 2022, beginning of 2023,where I was, at an all time low,
I was near suicidal.
And I know that there are somefounders who have shared that
they've had those experiencesand, but not many and, and now
(18:19):
I'm super open about it.
I put so much of myself into thebusiness and also into trying to
pursue this outcome and feelingthe weight of all I have this
cap table with all theseinvestors, people counting on me
and, and it just, it was justheavy in my, my lead investor.
I should also mention was just aphenomenal man.
And he passed away, severalyears before due to an
(18:40):
unexpected heart attack.
Obviously, um, I guess they'reall unexpected.
And, um, and I just, I just feltlike such a high level of
responsibility to honor hisinvestment and trust in me and
all my investors.
And it was a lot of pressurethat I was putting on myself.
And I think that that led tolike being after those
acquisition talks ended.
I mean, I remember I woke up ina San Francisco hotel room.
(19:03):
that 4 a.
m.
and honestly, I wascontemplating ending my life and
it was, you know, I felt like,you know, that was a week after
getting all these rejectionsfrom these companies saying, you
know, after all the goodconversations we had, you know,
We don't, we don't think we'regoing to be to do it and all
this stuff.
And it was just, I felt like,man, I had just wasted 10 years
(19:24):
of my life and I didn't haveanything to show for it.
but coming out of that in highpart, leaning on my faith,
leaning on good friends, ithelped me to see that.
Hey, even without that bigoutcome, that big, financial
outcome, there is so much that Igained in those 10 years.
And honestly, maybe I gainedmore in that experience as a
(19:47):
person and as a leader and as anentrepreneur than even if I did
have that outcome with thatbusiness.
And now that's kind of part ofwhat's pointing me into not just
TenYour, but my life goingforward.
So I feel like I'm alreadystarting to reap the benefits of
getting through that tough time.
Kenny (20:04):
All right.
that transparency, man, is, isdefinitely appreciated.
like you said, there aren'tenough, I don't know if there's
not enough founders talkingabout it, or it just doesn't
bubble up enough with just allthe stuff that's out there, but
it doesn't seem like, um,there's, there's, there's enough
resources, for foundersspecifically when they're going
through something stressful likeyou went through.
(20:25):
Somebody telling you a lot ofno's for something that you
worked so long for.
You put a lot of blood, sweat,equity into to have folks just
kind of shutting the door onthat.
seeing those dreams, notnecessarily play out the way you
want to.
but you know, I'm glad to behere with you today and I
definitely appreciate you, usingyour platform, across all social
(20:47):
media, networks to really.
Make sure folks know that mentalhealth is, something serious
that should be prioritized.
JS (20:54):
Thank you.
And you know, one thing I wouldjust say to is, you know,
founders, I think we put a lotof the pressure on ourselves.
Obviously, we're leading work.
We're pursuing a vision, apassion.
We're leading a team forfundraising all these things.
I think even right now in thelast, year and a half, and this
is part of the partially why I'mfocused on TenYour.
(21:15):
a lot of people in general andover the last, I think, 15
years, Post recession, you know,I think millennials in
particular, we put so much ofour identity into our work and
into the companies we work for,the job titles we have, the pay
we get this, this last, youknow, this post recession era in
the 2010s, 2020s, it's so muchemphasis has been on like
(21:37):
getting the bag and having acertain title and all this
stuff.
and while that's impressive andimportant in some ways, I think
we've put so much emphasis on itthat.
Even it's not just founders whoare experiencing these moments
of mental health low.
I think within this last yearand a half, we've seen so many
layoffs in the industry, liketech, for example, and it's been
(21:58):
very tough for people To havethe, the not just dealing with
the burnout and the, the, thewhiplash effect of the pandemic,
shutting down things, but thenracing back to work and
intensity, and then now beinglaid off.
And I think that it's justreally important for people to
really try to think about how toget themselves peace of mind,
(22:20):
even beyond their jobs.
And so much of, you know, you,you mentioned TenYour as an
insurance company, and I wouldsay.
We're, we're insurance like inour, in what our product is, but
really we're a peace of mindcompany.
Like a lot of what.
The reason why I'm doing this isbecause growing up, you know,
poor, as I did, as I said, youknow, my mom never making more
than 50, 000 in a year.
(22:40):
And, you know, working two andthree jobs and just seeing that
struggle, I just see how much itweighs on people to not have
peace of mind, especiallyfinancial.
it's really important for peopleto figure out how they can get a
sense of, self and a sense ofidentity and peace of mind that
isn't always just attached totheir job or their business.
(23:00):
And I'm saying that fromexperience of not necessarily
doing the best of that for someyears and now really
prioritizing that.
Kenny (23:08):
I love that.
so you touched on a lot there,but I just want to, pivot a
little bit in terms of, existingoutside of work, existing
outside of, your nine to five,or even, running your business
as a founder or CEO.
I think you have an activitythat you go to, quite a bit.
you want to tell folks, what,it's prevalent if anybody has
(23:29):
followed you on social media,but tell folks a little bit
about your, uh, your, youractivity that you're all in on
outside of the work stuff, allthe, uh, the, the, the
businesses and things that
JS (23:40):
Yeah.
So I mentioned when I was 11, Istarted my first business and in
that following year, I startedmy lifelong kind of passion,
which is distance running.
So at 12 years old, I, you know,I realized I had two older
brothers who were 6263.
I probably wasn't going to bebeating them at basketball or
football.
So I decided to start running.
(24:00):
I started running track and thenhigh school added cross country
and I just kept it as a lifelonginterest.
And so In the last couple ofyears, especially during those
tough times I mentioned in 2022,I really dug in deeper into the
running and I've always doneraces and 10 Ks and marathons
and stuff, but these last coupleof years I've gotten into ultra
marathoning.
So now I'm running, I did a 50mile race last November.
(24:23):
I've done three 30 mile plusraces this year.
I had another one on deck laterthis summer and then another 50
miler later this year.
So it's really been a place forme.
to meditate to kind of be still,obviously I'm running, but be
still mentally and spirituallywhen I was younger, I think
(24:44):
running was a time where I wouldbe working through business
ideas and coming up with ideasand going through my to do list
and things like that.
And now, honestly, I'll go runthree, four, five hours solo and
be working actively to not thinkabout that stuff at all.
And just really getting to aplace of peace and clarity.
And then I come back fresh tothe business and things like
(25:05):
that.
So, it's, it's something thatI've built friendships out of.
I mean, my best friend, I met.
Through high school, in highschool, cross country practice,
my kind of like surrogatefathers, my middle school and
high school track coach, so manyof my good friends I met through
running and very much likeentrepreneurship and tech.
it's, I've built a community,in, in, in friendships and
(25:26):
network through this passion.
And so it's, it's been, it's,it's been there for me very much
like a good friend for almost 30years now.
Kenny (25:35):
Yeah, I love the, just a way to escape like the thinking,
you're probably thinking aboutso many different ideas on any
given day, just with, thebusinesses that you run.
And so having that outlet, yeah,I think that's really cool.
I think everybody should havethose outlets, right.
Where it's not necessarily like,there's no KPI, there's no
(25:56):
metric, right.
You're doing it because it doessomething for you.
It fulfills
JS (25:59):
Yeah, well, I will say that there is a KPI for that, but
it's Strava it's,
Kenny (26:06):
Oh, got it.
JS (26:07):
it's, it's kind of like, uh, it's, it's, You know, am I more
fit now than I was three monthsago, but it has
Kenny (26:13):
Got it.
JS (26:14):
has no attachment to like my business or my livelihood.
Like I'm not counting on runningfor sponsorships or money.
If anything, running is a placewhere I spend a lot of money
because I'm like traveling torun these races.
I just qualified for the Bostonmarathon.
So I'm already scheming on like,okay, am I going to do it next
year or not?
That kind of thing.
Kenny (26:33):
That's so cool, man.
I commend people who can get outthere and that's a similar,
like, I've heard people who areinto running talk about, like, I
don't know if it's called likerunner's high or whatever, but
it's like, you get
JS (26:44):
Yes, it's
Kenny (26:46):
and there's nothing in, there's nothing in your way and
you're just,
JS (26:49):
It's real.
You know what?
The only thing I can comparerunners high to as an
entrepreneur is when you'regelling as a team, when you're
in a flow, like I mentioned, Isaid, Q4 of 2019 was our best
quarter ever.
And Q1 of 2020 was about the Ifelt we were in this, we were
(27:09):
gelling.
It was like all those yearspouring into localer we were in
flow.
It was like the meeting, themeetings were going well, people
were starting to get to wherethey wanted to sign contracts.
things were happening and it wasjust flowing.
And that's the only thing I cancompare to runner's high where
it's like, the first couple ofmiles of any run are hard
(27:30):
because they're just like, youhave to get your body moving.
But then there's a, somethingswitches where.
You stop thinking about what youhave to do and you start just
doing it and you get into a flowand you know, the longer you
run, the more you can get, youcan get yourself to a place of
staying in that.
Like I've, I've had morningswhere I'm in runner's high for
like three hours, which is justunreal.
(27:52):
And which, but I've also hadmonths in the business where
it's like, man, this month justlike blew by just everything
clicked.
It was all firing.
And, you know, you have that.
And, but a lot of what the ultramarathon has taught me is you
really.
You're really trying to getyourself to prepare for the, you
(28:12):
know, a lot of runners calledthe pain cave.
And it's like when, you know,anyone can be good when they
feel runners high.
It's about when you don't feelthat and you don't feel good.
Kenny (28:23):
got to push through.
JS (28:24):
entrepreneurship is just like that.
It's like, it's not going to,things aren't going to be
clicking.
You know, you're going to haveto, you know, maybe you're gonna
have to switch up your team and,Maybe you're going to have to
pivot and change your businessmodel, all these different
things you have to be preparedfor that stuff.
and so that's what I think myexperience with local alert has
equipped me with going forward.
Kenny (28:41):
Yeah.
So let's talk a little bitabout, um, TenYour, tell us a
little bit about, what can, whatis the product?
Like you said, it's more of apeace of mind for folks, in the
current market.
Talk a little bit about that,what people can expect, you
know, if they go to the site andthey start figuring out how they
can use the
JS (28:58):
Yeah, that's great.
so the idea for TenYour camefrom two places, one from
professional experience and onefrom lived experience.
The lived experience piece I'llmention first because it's the
most important.
I grew up again, a single mom.
She's working two, three jobs.
And I remember my mom in hertwenties, my brothers and I were
all in elementary school.
(29:19):
I believe my mom was laid offfrom a job.
And she, you know, she's a soleprovider for three boys and
herself and she's laid off.
And so she, you know, that's atough time for her.
thankfully she followed that upby getting a lot of job
stability.
she's had jobs for eight andnine years back to back.
(29:41):
and in the time since then andfrom watching her through that
and I think what it informed inme is this idea of peace of
mind, this idea that like, man,my mom was like we were living
hand to mouth, check to checkweek to week for so many years
and that just wears on you, youknow, the stress of that and
(30:01):
then not having the ability toreally think long term
financially and, you know, Butwhat I learned so much as my
mom, even through all that, mymom was thinking about
generational wealth somehow.
I don't know how, cause shedidn't grow up in it.
but she fought tooth and nailand she bought her, bought her
first house at 45 years old andshe graduated from college at 55
(30:21):
and then got another degree at60.
So my mom is just someone who'sjust eternally driven and, has
stayed consistent.
And, and then that's, so that'sthe lived experience piece.
The professional experiencepiece is that six years ago.
I got invited to this retreat,in Omaha, Nebraska, where
Berkshire Hathaway WarrenBuffett's company is based and
basically spent a weekendlearning the ins and outs of
(30:42):
their business.
And a lot of people think aboutWarren Buffett and they think
about investing, but they don'trealize that actually the big
flywheel of their business isGeico insurance and how it's
such a big piece of what makesthat business go both in
generating premiums and revenueand also flow with that, that
they're able to invest.
And so TenYour, in essence, whatwe've done is combine those two
(31:04):
experiences and say, what wouldit look like to offer people who
are in a predicament around alayoff, a peace of mind where
yes, of course, they're thinkingshort term in that moment about,
paying for their bills andfinding a new job and things
like that.
But how do we help them to stillkeep some focus on a long term
goal, like generational wealth?
(31:24):
And so the way that TenYourworks is it, in essence, we
provide a form of financialassistance.
to people, that allows them toideally not max out their credit
cards, not empty their savings,not make short sighted financial
decisions that prevent them frombuilding generational wealth.
and so it's something that I'mreally passionate about.
It's something that we reallyneed, especially in communities
(31:45):
of color.
I'm really proud that most ofour customers to date across the
country are women, unmarriedwomen, or, People of color,
people who are maybe the mainbreadwinners in their families,
people who are maybe the firstperson in their family working
in tech or working in industrymaking, close to six figures or
six figures.
so really focused on helpingmiddle class professionals, have
(32:07):
peace of mind, both with thedownside risk of something like
a layoff, but then the upside ofbuilding generational wealth for
their families
Kenny (32:13):
Yeah, I love that the combination of the two, the
story goes so well, like yousaid, you have this lived
experience with it and then weknow that there's big brands out
there.
We all have insurance in someform or fashion.
these companies are definitelyleveraging those pools of
assets.
And so folks need to have someform of security just with the
current, job market is crazyright
JS (32:36):
and future with, you know, with AI and all that.
It's like.
The reality is this moment inlayoffs, you know, unemployment
is very low.
It has been very low in theUnited States, like 4 percent
and below for several years.
but what isn't really beingreported is that a lot of the
times the employment is countingpart time work.
It's counting people who don'tnecessarily have income, like
(32:58):
really strong income.
they're still relying ondifferent things, you know, here
and there to, to make itpiecemeal and make it work And
with the rise of AI, more jobsin the future could be
threatened.
So it's really important thatpeople be thinking about
employment as, you know, I kindof tell people all the time that
everything we have is asubscription.
You know, TenYour is product isa subscription, but rent is a
(33:19):
subscription.
A mortgage is a subscription.
A car payment is a subscription.
A job is also a subscriptionwhere they they're buying your
time for those wages, you know?
And so it's really importantthat you should always be
reviewing your subscriptions,like, both at the Spotify, Hulu,
HBO max, whatever level, butthen also at the employment,
housing car kind of level.
And so a lot of what we'retrying to do with TenYour is
(33:41):
give people A way to kind ofsubscribe to the peace of mind
and generational wealth at thesame time.
Kenny (33:47):
Yeah, I love it.
so tell folks, how, how canpeople, connect with the brand,
start seeing, you know, whattools are, what, what tools and
tiers of the 10 year product arerelevant to
JS (33:58):
Yeah.
So, the first way to start, Iwould say is if you go to
TenYour.
com and that's T E N Y O U R.
is if you go there, you're goingto see, first you're going to
see a video with my mother and Italk, sharing a lot of her life
experience and thinking aboutgenerational wealth, which I
think is really justmotivational, inspirational,
whether that's her experience ornot.
And then second, you're going tosee something that's it's, it's
(34:20):
a button on there that says, seeif you qualify.
And it's a three minute onlinesurvey and it'll, in essence,
ask you a few questions and itallows us to see if TenYour is
something that makes sense toyou.
And, and I'll tell you, if youdo that survey, you will hear
from me if you qualify.
I'm about a third of the peoplewho do it do qualify based on
(34:41):
their job history, incomelevels, et cetera.
And I personally reach out tothem and follow up and say, Hey,
like I would love to get 15minutes with you to talk about
TenYour and share you with youwhat it is exactly.
so that's what I would recommendpeople to do is go to the
website, start there.
Um, we'll be coming, we've beenmore or less in stealth for the
last nine months or so, butwe're going to be coming out of
(35:01):
that soon.
we have some great fundingpartners already raised some
institutional funding.
And so we're going to be comingout of stealth more fully soon.
And I'm really looking forwardto that.
So people can really access iteven more.
Kenny (35:14):
Yeah, that's awesome.
I can't wait.
I already used the product, so Iappreciate you for, offering it,
to me early, Joah, working forstartups.
which I've been doing for thelast couple of years.
it's just always good for me tohave just an additional kind of
safety net, for myself and myfamily to keep us
JS (35:31):
Yeah.
Kenny (35:32):
You know, you have shared so much with us.
your journey is incredible.
you are a serial entrepreneur inmy eyes.
I'm excited to see what you'regoing to do with TenYour and
just all the other, endeavorsthat you have now already on
your plate or the ones thatyou're thinking of, in closing,
I want to give it to you, like,what do you want our listeners
to leave this conversation with?
(35:53):
We always give it to our guests,to close this out.
what do you want folks toremember from this conversation
that we had?
JS (36:00):
You know, I really hope that they remember that the lessons
come from everywhere.
You know, the lessons come fromeverywhere.
Came from watching my brotherand his friend cut grass.
They came from watching my mom,respond to a layoff.
they came from my college bosseswhen I was working for the Texas
(36:22):
Longhorns who taught me moreabout entrepreneurship,
honestly, than anyone in techindividually has, they, the
lessons come from everywhere.
And mostly I've learned that thelessons actually come the most
from struggle.
If you have an easy.
Then it's not that growth isn'thappening, but not nearly the
kind of growth that happens whenyou're struggling and facing
challenges, overcomingchallenges.
(36:44):
Um, so I, I think that is justreally important that, you know,
I think a lot of times peoplelook at millennials, look at Gen
Z and they say, oh, we, we wantit too easily.
We're too entitled.
What I, what I would say is Ithink that we are actually a
couple of generations that havealready faced so much adversity
in our careers, both startingwith the recession 15 plus years
(37:07):
ago now, the pandemic, and therise of ai.
I think just having to respondto that, not having the kind of
security that previousgenerations were offered.
If they got a high schooldiploma or a college degree or
got in a union membership.
I think that we're a veryresilient couple of generations.
And I think the important thingis not to necessarily pursue
(37:28):
ease as much as to lean intowhere those struggles are to
pursue growth and whether youwant to pursue entrepreneurship
or not.
If you pursue growth, I thinkthat that's actually what's
going to be fruitful for you inyour entire career, financially,
spiritually, mentally,emotionally.
I have a young college, uh,sophomore who, or she just
finished her sophomore who I'vementored for several years now.
(37:51):
And she was struggling herfreshman year of college, being
away from family and friends.
And she was like, Oh, I'mthinking about transferring,
getting closer to home.
And I told her, I was like, Hey,you're a really capable
Caterpillar right now.
And you're going through thatgrowth phase of deciding, like,
are you going to become abutterfly?
And it's like, there's nothingwrong with caterpillars.
Caterpillars are awesome.
(38:11):
But do you have to choose, doyou want to be the fly and roam
and have more access than youwould as a caterpillar?
you're on the ground, you'removing slow, but it's a
butterfly.
You hit, you know, you can see alot more, So it's kind of like
that.
You got to decide, like, do youwant to metamorphose,
metamorphose or whatever?
Do you want to transform in thatway?
So for me, like the experiencethat I mentioned with local or
(38:32):
in the Lowe's mental healthwise, now I'm sitting here, year
plus later, realizing that mayhave been the most formative
personal and professionalexperience I have ever had and
ever will.
Kenny (38:45):
I love it, man.
Your transparency, you'releveraging your platform, to
give people honest, dialogue on,founder journeys and just would
excite you like things likerunning.
I enjoy seeing it.
And I'm really looking forwardto being a customer of 10 year
moving forward and may, and justseeing where you take the
company, thank you for being on.
(39:06):
And, thanks for our listenersfor tuning in to another great
episode of the beyond normalpodcast.
JS (39:12):
Thank you.
Welcome.
Welcome everybody anotherepisode of the beyond normal
podcast.
I'm your host, Kenny groom.
We are in season six.
I can't believe it.
We've made it this far.
We've got a very special guesttoday.
someone who I've been followingfor quite some time, their
entrepreneur journey.
they are a serial entrepreneurin my eyes.
And so I thought, you know, whynot have this, incredible
(00:51):
founder on the platform today toshare their story with you all.
the founder today that we'regoing to be speaking with his
name is, Joe experiment.
He is the founder of TenYour,which is offering an incredible,
insurance product, for thosethat could be impacted by
layoffs.
and just the dynamics of the,the, job market now, incredible
(01:13):
product.
I am a consumer of this productmyself.
And so I just wanted to, bringJoel on and let him, share a
little bit about hisentrepreneur journey is really
incredible.
so without further ado, let'sbring Joel to the stage.
How's it going there,
JS (01:28):
how you doing?
Kenny (01:29):
Doing great.
appreciate you, uh, you know,being able to spend some time
with us today.
letting our viewers know whatit's like.
in my eyes, I call you a serialentrepreneur.
I'm not sure if you go by thator you feel that way.
Yup.
JS (01:42):
I mean, I'm on number five now, so,
Kenny (01:44):
Wow.
That's incredible.
So let's start out, give folks alittle bit, obviously we're
going to talk about TenYour alittle bit, but give folks a
little bit of background about,Joa prior to you starting a
TenYour, what you were doing,like what, what, what was it
like being a young, a Joa, backin the day?
JS (02:02):
I would say that a lot of the traits came through early,
from when I was four and fiveyears old.
My grandmother would ask me whatI wanted to be and I would say
bending man.
so it was, it was very, veryclear early that that business
was something that I had a knackfor or a desire to pursue.
I think in a lot of ways.
(02:23):
To be an entrepreneur is to be afuturist.
And so since I was a kid, I wasalways, I think initially I was
applying my futurism to my ownlife.
I grew up very, very poor,single mother, youngest of three
boys.
And so I was aware of thoseconditions and that while I grew
(02:44):
up with a lot of love, andsupport from my grandmother and
my uncle and my mom, obviously.
I also knew that there wasopportunity that was beyond what
I had access to.
And so honestly, I started myfirst business, without really
knowing what entrepreneurshipwas.
I was 11 years old and I startedcutting grass for, I borrowed a
(03:05):
lawnmower from a neighbor andstarted cutting grass for
neighbors in our like littleworking class duplex
neighborhood.
And then in the fall at rakeleaves, And then at school I
would sell bubble gum and Iwould use that money to help pay
for my own school clothes.
I paid for my own field trip toWashington DC in eighth grade.
so I, I, I got those earlyexperiences of having, feeling a
(03:26):
sense of pride with not havingmoney so much as like getting
myself access to things oropportunities that I otherwise
wouldn't have had.
Kenny (03:34):
Incredible, incredible.
just thinking like the lawnservice as a first business,
like that is A great way to kindof cut your teeth right as a
first time business owner.
JS (03:45):
So I have two older brothers, my middle brother, he
and his best friend who theywere both two years older than
me and they were cutting grassfor our neighbors And, but they,
I saw, I kind of studied theirbusiness and this is me, 11
years old studying theirbusiness and their business was
they'd borrow this lawnmowerfrom a neighbor.
They would go knock on ourneighbor's doors and say, Oh,
(04:05):
can we cut your grass nextweekend?
And they would say, we'll cutyour grass for 20.
And so they would get, you know,five, six neighbors would do
that.
So they would, I'd be like,okay, they're all, they're,
they're making a hundred dollarsa weekend and they're splitting
it.
So they're both getting 50 andI'm like, okay, that's good.
But I was like, man, like itdoesn't seem like cutting grass
is that hard and what I went tothe same neighbor and said, Hey,
(04:30):
can I borrow?
I went to borrow his lawnmoweron weekdays.
So I would go to the neighborson like Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
say, can I cut your grass for 15and so, I went around cutting.
And so basically I price cut andI, I basically within like one
summer I had all the business.
(04:52):
I was cutting like 12 and 15yards a week, 15 each and
getting, making six, 700 a monthon my own.
So my first Jordan, I rememberbuying the Kevin Garnett Jordans
when they came out for my, youknow, like it was like, and I
say that I, it worked outbecause at that same time, I, I,
my, my brother's, interest inmusic productions was sparked
(05:15):
and I convinced my mom to buyhim a keyboard and equipment to
start doing that.
even though I took the lawnmowing away from him, I got him
toward music production.
So I feel like it worked out.
Kenny (05:26):
It worked out for sure.
Oh my God.
I feel like that's a lesson.
Like that's like an MBA, likegrad school level, like lesson
and like business one on one interms of undercutting your
competitors for a strategicadvantage.
So speaking of that, learning,lessons in business early on in
(05:46):
life, you went the, collegeroute.
you went to a university.
tell us a little bit about,where you went, and then like
what that did, for you in termsof, you know, maybe sparking or,
stoking the flame, from anentrepreneur perspective.
JS (06:02):
Yeah.
I increasingly, you know,because of the cost of college.
And also the fact that so manypeople have college degrees yet
don't have real gainfulemployment I understand why some
people are kind of questioningwhether or not college still has
value in the way that maybe itdid 10, 30, 50, whatever years
(06:22):
ago.
But I, for me, college was a bigpart of my story.
I mean, I, I'm the first personin my family to graduate from
college.
I worked really hard in highschool.
I got great grades and wasreally involved.
And I applied, I applied for ahundred, over a hundred
scholarships, my senior year ofhigh school.
And I won 30 of them.
(06:44):
So I pieced milled a bunch ofeverything from 500 to 5, 000
scholarships.
And I was able to basically payfor myself to go to college at
the university of Texas inAustin.
my thing is I wasn't some greatstudent.
I think, honestly, I think I waslike a 2.
7 GPA student in college.
I mean, I had a few semesterswhere I got a 4.
Academics wasn't my focus.
(07:05):
My focus was access.
So I went to college really toget access for myself knowing
that no one in my family had hadthat kind of access.
my first semester on campus, thefirst thing I did, I remember I
went to class the first fewweeks, I got the syllabus for
all the classes and I kind ofmade a decision.
I was like, okay, I can workreally hard academically and get
(07:26):
A's.
Or I can save some of that timeand I can work full time and I
decided to work full time.
So I got a job.
I apply, I called and emailedthe athletic director for the
university of Texas, the TexasLonghorns, every day for 30
days.
And then I eventually got a jobin the media relations PR
department for the TexasLonghorns.
(07:46):
So all four years of college, Idid media relations.
I learned how to do mediatraining.
press conferences, doing gameday stats for ESPN for the
basketball team, football team,helping to run Texas relays.
So I got really valuableexperience and access just by
being at a really big publicuniversity.
And so I think that actually iswhat prepared me most for
(08:08):
entrepreneurship as aprofessional, more than like
going to the classes.
Kenny (08:13):
I think that's a real.
That's a gem there because like,like you knew yourself, right?
You knew what you wanted to getout of that situation and you're
paying all that money anyways.
Like you said, you gotscholarships, but somebody's
paying all that money.
tuitions are rather, you know,
JS (08:30):
Even when I was going, it was, I think it was like 4, 000
a semester for tuition.
I think now it's like, you know,14, 000 or something.
Kenny (08:40):
Yeah, exactly.
So, but you knew yourself toknow like, Hey, here's how you
get the most out of thissituation being in this,
university, the network, theaccess, like you talked about.
I'm curious, like, what do youtell, like, what's your advice?
If you're talking to somebodynow who, you know, could be
similar story to you, they havethat entrepreneur, you know,
(09:02):
that they have that skill set,that DNA in them at a young age.
But they also want to navigatecollege.
And now the costs are what theyare.
Like you mentioned, like, whatadvice would you give somebody,
who wants to go intoentrepreneurship, but is looking
at that, that, university as aroute.
JS (09:19):
I think if there, I don't want to say it's a regret, it's
not a regret, but if there's onething that I didn't do in
college, one thing that I'mreally proud of is I've made
some lifelong relationships,friendships, connections in
college, where even investors inmy last business are people who
I met in college 20 plus yearsago.
So I knew how to buildrelationships and not just
networking from a transactionalstandpoint, but really building
(09:41):
real friendships andrelationships.
But I think to that end, onething that I would recommend
anyone who's entrepreneurial incollege is you have at least
four years where you have anamazing opportunity to both
dabble in a safe kind of betalike environment, with different
business ideas, different thingslike that.
But I think even more so, Ithink college is a great place
(10:04):
to find, co founderspotentially.
Whether that's people who arestudying, you know, whether,
let's say you need a technicalco founder, find out people in
the computer science program.
Let's say you need a business cofounder, find someone that's
studying business.
Let's say you want somethinglike more like an advisor or a
mentor, a future board member,like maybe that's a professor or
a faculty member.
(10:24):
And the thing is, is in collegepeople are really eager for
connection like that.
So whether it's a professorthat, that, you know, they see a
younger version of themselves orsomeone who's willing to take
more of a risky path and likemaybe going into academia, I
think there's so manyopportunities.
For people in college to, usethe fact that it's kind of a
closed environment, to buildrelationships that can pay huge
(10:47):
dividends in their entrepreneurcareer.
Kenny (10:50):
Yeah, that's dope.
but being a part of theuniversity that you were part of
as well, like, I think it's oneof the universities where
there's this network, right.
Where you can kind of dobusiness in Texas.
For example, You don't have tonecessarily say, Hey, let me
boil the ocean.
let me do the whole entireworld.
Like, let me start in this oneplace where there's tons of
(11:11):
value
JS (11:11):
Yeah.
I mean, it's like Facebook,obviously Zuckerberg started
that at a Harvard.
when I started local or yearslater, it was, it was on the
backs of, of belief that, youknow, Austin was enough.
Like I, I like in Atlanta, theyhave these shirts.
and the hats and stuff and saysAtlanta only needs Atlanta and
from like a music industrystandpoint, you can see that,
(11:33):
like, there's a whole ecosystemout of hip hop that Atlanta has
just kind of lifted itself tothe studies that's in with
organized noise with outcastsand so, so depth with Jermaine
Dupri and all that.
And from there, in Austin's thesame way with local businesses,
and I saw that in college, youknow, companies like Dell, Dell
computers started at theUniversity of Texas campus.
Tito's Vodka started in Austin.
(11:54):
It's now the biggest vodkacompany in the world.
Whole Foods started in Austin.
So there's very much like a buyand support local ethos that was
there.
And so by the time I started myfirst businesses, my purview was
like, Hey, if I can make thiswork in Austin, then that may be
enough.
Kenny (12:10):
So you mentioned localer, that is the previous business
you spent a long time, buildingthat out into what it was.
Can you talk a little bit about,um, you know, you starting that,
some of the learnings fromrunning that, for the amount of
time that you did, what, seven,eight years, maybe, and then
where, where that is, where thatcompany is now.
(12:31):
Cause we know that you'refocusing on
JS (12:32):
Yeah.
So I mentioned that, you know,TenYour is number five company
for me.
And I, before Localr.
Before TenYour, I had threeother businesses.
One I still have, which is asocial media kind of executive
communications company workingwith clients.
Like my first client actuallywas FedEx back in 2009.
now I have a few CEOs as clientsof different businesses from,
(12:55):
startups.
That have raised a seed round upto 150 million, uh,
organizations where I'm mostlyjust kind of sharing thought
leadership and in CEO support.
my second business actually wasa sneaker boutique in downtown
Austin that I had for a fewyears doing brick and mortar
retail.
from that experience, I closedthe sneaker shop and then I
(13:16):
created and ran the first everfashion and style segment of
South by Southwest festival.
but we, each of those fewbusinesses.
I, with the sneaker stores inparticular in the South by
Southwest event, I only didthose for a couple of two or
three years, and thoseexperiences were really rich,
but I decided after that I waslike, man, I really want to my
next company.
I wanted to be something that Ifeel like I can do for at least
(13:38):
seven years.
So when I had the, when I, whenlocal came about, I remember
meeting with my first investorand I committed to him.
I told him I was going to dothis for at least seven years
through hell or high water.
And there was a lot of hell andhigh water.
I ended up actually because ofthe pandemic ended up tacking on
more years.
So it's been, I found it localthere in December of 2012 and
(14:03):
ran it for over 10 years.
And actually just last week, aweek ago today, actually, I just
managed to facilitate atransaction in which.
I bought out my, um, uh, inessence, did it like a debt
buyout of my investors and nowI'm the sole owner of Locler.
And so I still continue to runthe business, but unfortunately,
(14:26):
after the pandemic, it justwasn't going to have the kind of
venture sized acquisitionoutcomes that we wanted.
And so it just made more sensefor me to take over as a sole
owner, making it more of alifestyle business where it
generates revenue, but nothingthat's venture size at the time.
So that's still going in thebackground.
but that experience doingsomething for 10, 11 years
through good times, bad timesthrough the pandemic, I mean, I
(14:50):
think I've experiencedeverything you can possibly
experience as an entrepreneurrate, fundraising, team
building, having to do late,having to do, having to fire
people, landing partnershipswith big companies like, JetBlue
and Nike and lift, match dotcom.
scaling from just Austin usersto users in 200 cities around
(15:10):
the world, language translation,different mediums from apps to
websites to print, you know,like we did it all.
So all that experience isgetting poured into anything I
do in the future.
And immediately it's gettingimportant in a TenYour.
I felt like.
My next venture, it would takeme maybe a year and a half to
get where I took.
It took me 10 years to get localor, and here I am month, 10 into
(15:33):
TenYour.
And it's, we've already eclipsedwhere local or was in year 10,
Kenny (15:40):
Yeah.
I love to see, like you're ableto apply all those learnings,
whether good or bad, right.
And there's an acceleration thathappens.
I'm curious.
Like all the things you wentthrough as a founder, like you
mentioned the highs, the lows,you're, you're, you're, you're
hiring, you're firing, you'redoing all those things that come
with the job.
like how do you maintain yourmental health, through, all of
(16:03):
these situations?
JS (16:04):
That's a, that's a great question.
Honestly, maybe the mostimportant question that founders
should be asked that are oftennot asked.
I say this from experiencebecause I.
face some very, very, very darkand challenging times from a
mental health standpoint.
Um, in mostly in as after thepandemic, like 2022 Was a very,
(16:26):
very tough.
The end of 2022 was very brutal.
I spent that, you know, postpandemic, I spent probably six
months just pivoting thebusiness to survive the
pandemic.
And we, I'll say this, we hadour best quarter ever in Q4 of
2019.
We were on the verge of havingour best quarter ever Q1 of
(16:47):
2020.
And it was that year, 2020 waslining up to be a breakthrough
year for Loclear.
And this is after seven plusyears grinding on this thing.
And then the pandemic hits andwe basically lose 95 percent of
our business like that.
And I, and basically spent thenext six months doing a hard
(17:08):
turn on the business.
And, um, and, and then reallyjust grinding for a couple of
years, working towards trying toland some type of exit and
having.
Really fruitful acquisitionconversations with some of the
biggest tech and finance andcredit card companies you can
think of in the world.
And there were some greatconversations that, you know, we
(17:30):
felt like we were on thedoorstep of finally getting that
breakthrough, maybe getting thatexit.
That was going to be attractiveto us as myself, as a founder,
my team, and then our investors,and at the end of 22, they, they
just didn't happen.
and it was like the season whereall those big tech layoffs
started happening and theinterest rates going up and it
just was perfect storm of not agood moment for us and, and it
(17:56):
was, and I can, you know, I'llsay openly, for the first time
in my life, there were, therewas a couple of months, the end
of 2022, beginning of 2023,where I was, at an all time low,
I was near suicidal.
And I know that there are somefounders who have shared that
they've had those experiencesand, but not many and, and now
(18:19):
I'm super open about it.
I put so much of myself into thebusiness and also into trying to
pursue this outcome and feelingthe weight of all I have this
cap table with all theseinvestors, people counting on me
and, and it just, it was justheavy in my, my lead investor.
I should also mention was just aphenomenal man.
And he passed away, severalyears before due to an
(18:40):
unexpected heart attack.
Obviously, um, I guess they'reall unexpected.
And, um, and I just, I just feltlike such a high level of
responsibility to honor hisinvestment and trust in me and
all my investors.
And it was a lot of pressurethat I was putting on myself.
And I think that that led tolike being after those
acquisition talks ended.
I mean, I remember I woke up ina San Francisco hotel room.
(19:03):
that 4 a.
m.
and honestly, I wascontemplating ending my life and
it was, you know, I felt like,you know, that was a week after
getting all these rejectionsfrom these companies saying, you
know, after all the goodconversations we had, you know,
We don't, we don't think we'regoing to be to do it and all
this stuff.
And it was just, I felt like,man, I had just wasted 10 years
(19:24):
of my life and I didn't haveanything to show for it.
but coming out of that in highpart, leaning on my faith,
leaning on good friends, ithelped me to see that.
Hey, even without that bigoutcome, that big, financial
outcome, there is so much that Igained in those 10 years.
And honestly, maybe I gainedmore in that experience as a
(19:47):
person and as a leader and as anentrepreneur than even if I did
have that outcome with thatbusiness.
And now that's kind of part ofwhat's pointing me into not just
TenYour, but my life goingforward.
So I feel like I'm alreadystarting to reap the benefits of
getting through that tough time.
Kenny (20:04):
All right.
that transparency, man, is, isdefinitely appreciated.
like you said, there aren'tenough, I don't know if there's
not enough founders talkingabout it, or it just doesn't
bubble up enough with just allthe stuff that's out there, but
it doesn't seem like, um,there's, there's, there's enough
resources, for foundersspecifically when they're going
through something stressful likeyou went through.
(20:25):
Somebody telling you a lot ofno's for something that you
worked so long for.
You put a lot of blood, sweat,equity into to have folks just
kind of shutting the door onthat.
seeing those dreams, notnecessarily play out the way you
want to.
but you know, I'm glad to behere with you today and I
definitely appreciate you, usingyour platform, across all social
(20:47):
media, networks to really.
Make sure folks know that mentalhealth is, something serious
that should be prioritized.
JS (20:54):
Thank you.
And you know, one thing I wouldjust say to is, you know,
founders, I think we put a lotof the pressure on ourselves.
Obviously, we're leading work.
We're pursuing a vision, apassion.
We're leading a team forfundraising all these things.
I think even right now in thelast, year and a half, and this
is part of the partially why I'mfocused on TenYour.
(21:15):
a lot of people in general andover the last, I think, 15
years, Post recession, you know,I think millennials in
particular, we put so much ofour identity into our work and
into the companies we work for,the job titles we have, the pay
we get this, this last, youknow, this post recession era in
the 2010s, 2020s, it's so muchemphasis has been on like
(21:37):
getting the bag and having acertain title and all this
stuff.
and while that's impressive andimportant in some ways, I think
we've put so much emphasis on itthat.
Even it's not just founders whoare experiencing these moments
of mental health low.
I think within this last yearand a half, we've seen so many
layoffs in the industry, liketech, for example, and it's been
(21:58):
very tough for people To havethe, the not just dealing with
the burnout and the, the, thewhiplash effect of the pandemic,
shutting down things, but thenracing back to work and
intensity, and then now beinglaid off.
And I think that it's justreally important for people to
really try to think about how toget themselves peace of mind,
(22:20):
even beyond their jobs.
And so much of, you know, you,you mentioned TenYour as an
insurance company, and I wouldsay.
We're, we're insurance like inour, in what our product is, but
really we're a peace of mindcompany.
Like a lot of what.
The reason why I'm doing this isbecause growing up, you know,
poor, as I did, as I said, youknow, my mom never making more
than 50, 000 in a year.
(22:40):
And, you know, working two andthree jobs and just seeing that
struggle, I just see how much itweighs on people to not have
peace of mind, especiallyfinancial.
it's really important for peopleto figure out how they can get a
sense of, self and a sense ofidentity and peace of mind that
isn't always just attached totheir job or their business.
(23:00):
And I'm saying that fromexperience of not necessarily
doing the best of that for someyears and now really
prioritizing that.
Kenny (23:08):
I love that.
so you touched on a lot there,but I just want to, pivot a
little bit in terms of, existingoutside of work, existing
outside of, your nine to five,or even, running your business
as a founder or CEO.
I think you have an activitythat you go to, quite a bit.
you want to tell folks, what,it's prevalent if anybody has
(23:29):
followed you on social media,but tell folks a little bit
about your, uh, your, youractivity that you're all in on
outside of the work stuff, allthe, uh, the, the, the
businesses and things that
JS (23:40):
Yeah.
So I mentioned when I was 11, Istarted my first business and in
that following year, I startedmy lifelong kind of passion,
which is distance running.
So at 12 years old, I, you know,I realized I had two older
brothers who were 6263.
I probably wasn't going to bebeating them at basketball or
football.
So I decided to start running.
(24:00):
I started running track and thenhigh school added cross country
and I just kept it as a lifelonginterest.
And so In the last couple ofyears, especially during those
tough times I mentioned in 2022,I really dug in deeper into the
running and I've always doneraces and 10 Ks and marathons
and stuff, but these last coupleof years I've gotten into ultra
marathoning.
So now I'm running, I did a 50mile race last November.
(24:23):
I've done three 30 mile plusraces this year.
I had another one on deck laterthis summer and then another 50
miler later this year.
So it's really been a place forme.
to meditate to kind of be still,obviously I'm running, but be
still mentally and spirituallywhen I was younger, I think
(24:44):
running was a time where I wouldbe working through business
ideas and coming up with ideasand going through my to do list
and things like that.
And now, honestly, I'll go runthree, four, five hours solo and
be working actively to not thinkabout that stuff at all.
And just really getting to aplace of peace and clarity.
And then I come back fresh tothe business and things like
(25:05):
that.
So, it's, it's something thatI've built friendships out of.
I mean, my best friend, I met.
Through high school, in highschool, cross country practice,
my kind of like surrogatefathers, my middle school and
high school track coach, so manyof my good friends I met through
running and very much likeentrepreneurship and tech.
it's, I've built a community,in, in, in friendships and
(25:26):
network through this passion.
And so it's, it's been, it's,it's been there for me very much
like a good friend for almost 30years now.
Kenny (25:35):
Yeah, I love the, just a way to escape like the thinking,
you're probably thinking aboutso many different ideas on any
given day, just with, thebusinesses that you run.
And so having that outlet, yeah,I think that's really cool.
I think everybody should havethose outlets, right.
Where it's not necessarily like,there's no KPI, there's no
(25:56):
metric, right.
You're doing it because it doessomething for you.
It fulfills
JS (25:59):
Yeah, well, I will say that there is a KPI for that, but
it's Strava it's,
Kenny (26:06):
Oh, got it.
JS (26:07):
it's, it's kind of like, uh, it's, it's, You know, am I more
fit now than I was three monthsago, but it has
Kenny (26:13):
Got it.
JS (26:14):
has no attachment to like my business or my livelihood.
Like I'm not counting on runningfor sponsorships or money.
If anything, running is a placewhere I spend a lot of money
because I'm like traveling torun these races.
I just qualified for the Bostonmarathon.
So I'm already scheming on like,okay, am I going to do it next
year or not?
That kind of thing.
Kenny (26:33):
That's so cool, man.
I commend people who can get outthere and that's a similar,
like, I've heard people who areinto running talk about, like, I
don't know if it's called likerunner's high or whatever, but
it's like, you get
JS (26:44):
Yes, it's
Kenny (26:46):
and there's nothing in, there's nothing in your way and
you're just,
JS (26:49):
It's real.
You know what?
The only thing I can comparerunners high to as an
entrepreneur is when you'regelling as a team, when you're
in a flow, like I mentioned, Isaid, Q4 of 2019 was our best
quarter ever.
And Q1 of 2020 was about the Ifelt we were in this, we were
(27:09):
gelling.
It was like all those yearspouring into localer we were in
flow.
It was like the meeting, themeetings were going well, people
were starting to get to wherethey wanted to sign contracts.
things were happening and it wasjust flowing.
And that's the only thing I cancompare to runner's high where
it's like, the first couple ofmiles of any run are hard
(27:30):
because they're just like, youhave to get your body moving.
But then there's a, somethingswitches where.
You stop thinking about what youhave to do and you start just
doing it and you get into a flowand you know, the longer you
run, the more you can get, youcan get yourself to a place of
staying in that.
Like I've, I've had morningswhere I'm in runner's high for
like three hours, which is justunreal.
(27:52):
And which, but I've also hadmonths in the business where
it's like, man, this month justlike blew by just everything
clicked.
It was all firing.
And, you know, you have that.
And, but a lot of what the ultramarathon has taught me is you
really.
You're really trying to getyourself to prepare for the, you
(28:12):
know, a lot of runners calledthe pain cave.
And it's like when, you know,anyone can be good when they
feel runners high.
It's about when you don't feelthat and you don't feel good.
Kenny (28:23):
got to push through.
JS (28:24):
entrepreneurship is just like that.
It's like, it's not going to,things aren't going to be
clicking.
You know, you're going to haveto, you know, maybe you're gonna
have to switch up your team and,Maybe you're going to have to
pivot and change your businessmodel, all these different
things you have to be preparedfor that stuff.
and so that's what I think myexperience with local alert has
equipped me with going forward.
Kenny (28:41):
Yeah.
So let's talk a little bitabout, um, TenYour, tell us a
little bit about, what can, whatis the product?
Like you said, it's more of apeace of mind for folks, in the
current market.
Talk a little bit about that,what people can expect, you
know, if they go to the site andthey start figuring out how they
can use the
JS (28:58):
Yeah, that's great.
so the idea for TenYour camefrom two places, one from
professional experience and onefrom lived experience.
The lived experience piece I'llmention first because it's the
most important.
I grew up again, a single mom.
She's working two, three jobs.
And I remember my mom in hertwenties, my brothers and I were
all in elementary school.
(29:19):
I believe my mom was laid offfrom a job.
And she, you know, she's a soleprovider for three boys and
herself and she's laid off.
And so she, you know, that's atough time for her.
thankfully she followed that upby getting a lot of job
stability.
she's had jobs for eight andnine years back to back.
(29:41):
and in the time since then andfrom watching her through that
and I think what it informed inme is this idea of peace of
mind, this idea that like, man,my mom was like we were living
hand to mouth, check to checkweek to week for so many years
and that just wears on you, youknow, the stress of that and
(30:01):
then not having the ability toreally think long term
financially and, you know, Butwhat I learned so much as my
mom, even through all that, mymom was thinking about
generational wealth somehow.
I don't know how, cause shedidn't grow up in it.
but she fought tooth and nailand she bought her, bought her
first house at 45 years old andshe graduated from college at 55
(30:21):
and then got another degree at60.
So my mom is just someone who'sjust eternally driven and, has
stayed consistent.
And, and then that's, so that'sthe lived experience piece.
The professional experiencepiece is that six years ago.
I got invited to this retreat,in Omaha, Nebraska, where
Berkshire Hathaway WarrenBuffett's company is based and
basically spent a weekendlearning the ins and outs of
(30:42):
their business.
And a lot of people think aboutWarren Buffett and they think
about investing, but they don'trealize that actually the big
flywheel of their business isGeico insurance and how it's
such a big piece of what makesthat business go both in
generating premiums and revenueand also flow with that, that
they're able to invest.
And so TenYour, in essence, whatwe've done is combine those two
(31:04):
experiences and say, what wouldit look like to offer people who
are in a predicament around alayoff, a peace of mind where
yes, of course, they're thinkingshort term in that moment about,
paying for their bills andfinding a new job and things
like that.
But how do we help them to stillkeep some focus on a long term
goal, like generational wealth?
(31:24):
And so the way that TenYourworks is it, in essence, we
provide a form of financialassistance.
to people, that allows them toideally not max out their credit
cards, not empty their savings,not make short sighted financial
decisions that prevent them frombuilding generational wealth.
and so it's something that I'mreally passionate about.
It's something that we reallyneed, especially in communities
(31:45):
of color.
I'm really proud that most ofour customers to date across the
country are women, unmarriedwomen, or, People of color,
people who are maybe the mainbreadwinners in their families,
people who are maybe the firstperson in their family working
in tech or working in industrymaking, close to six figures or
six figures.
so really focused on helpingmiddle class professionals, have
(32:07):
peace of mind, both with thedownside risk of something like
a layoff, but then the upside ofbuilding generational wealth for
their families
Kenny (32:13):
Yeah, I love that the combination of the two, the
story goes so well, like yousaid, you have this lived
experience with it and then weknow that there's big brands out
there.
We all have insurance in someform or fashion.
these companies are definitelyleveraging those pools of
assets.
And so folks need to have someform of security just with the
current, job market is crazyright
JS (32:36):
and future with, you know, with AI and all that.
It's like.
The reality is this moment inlayoffs, you know, unemployment
is very low.
It has been very low in theUnited States, like 4 percent
and below for several years.
but what isn't really beingreported is that a lot of the
times the employment is countingpart time work.
It's counting people who don'tnecessarily have income, like
(32:58):
really strong income.
they're still relying ondifferent things, you know, here
and there to, to make itpiecemeal and make it work And
with the rise of AI, more jobsin the future could be
threatened.
So it's really important thatpeople be thinking about
employment as, you know, I kindof tell people all the time that
everything we have is asubscription.
You know, TenYour is product isa subscription, but rent is a
(33:19):
subscription.
A mortgage is a subscription.
A car payment is a subscription.
A job is also a subscriptionwhere they they're buying your
time for those wages, you know?
And so it's really importantthat you should always be
reviewing your subscriptions,like, both at the Spotify, Hulu,
HBO max, whatever level, butthen also at the employment,
housing car kind of level.
And so a lot of what we'retrying to do with TenYour is
(33:41):
give people A way to kind ofsubscribe to the peace of mind
and generational wealth at thesame time.
Kenny (33:47):
Yeah, I love it.
so tell folks, how, how canpeople, connect with the brand,
start seeing, you know, whattools are, what, what tools and
tiers of the 10 year product arerelevant to
JS (33:58):
Yeah.
So, the first way to start, Iwould say is if you go to
TenYour.
com and that's T E N Y O U R.
is if you go there, you're goingto see, first you're going to
see a video with my mother and Italk, sharing a lot of her life
experience and thinking aboutgenerational wealth, which I
think is really justmotivational, inspirational,
whether that's her experience ornot.
And then second, you're going tosee something that's it's, it's
(34:20):
a button on there that says, seeif you qualify.
And it's a three minute onlinesurvey and it'll, in essence,
ask you a few questions and itallows us to see if TenYour is
something that makes sense toyou.
And, and I'll tell you, if youdo that survey, you will hear
from me if you qualify.
I'm about a third of the peoplewho do it do qualify based on
(34:41):
their job history, incomelevels, et cetera.
And I personally reach out tothem and follow up and say, Hey,
like I would love to get 15minutes with you to talk about
TenYour and share you with youwhat it is exactly.
so that's what I would recommendpeople to do is go to the
website, start there.
Um, we'll be coming, we've beenmore or less in stealth for the
last nine months or so, butwe're going to be coming out of
(35:01):
that soon.
we have some great fundingpartners already raised some
institutional funding.
And so we're going to be comingout of stealth more fully soon.
And I'm really looking forwardto that.
So people can really access iteven more.
Kenny (35:14):
Yeah, that's awesome.
I can't wait.
I already used the product, so Iappreciate you for, offering it,
to me early, Joah, working forstartups.
which I've been doing for thelast couple of years.
it's just always good for me tohave just an additional kind of
safety net, for myself and myfamily to keep us
JS (35:31):
Yeah.
Kenny (35:32):
You know, you have shared so much with us.
your journey is incredible.
you are a serial entrepreneur inmy eyes.
I'm excited to see what you'regoing to do with TenYour and
just all the other, endeavorsthat you have now already on
your plate or the ones thatyou're thinking of, in closing,
I want to give it to you, like,what do you want our listeners
to leave this conversation with?
(35:53):
We always give it to our guests,to close this out.
what do you want folks toremember from this conversation
that we had?
JS (36:00):
You know, I really hope that they remember that the lessons
come from everywhere.
You know, the lessons come fromeverywhere.
Came from watching my brotherand his friend cut grass.
They came from watching my mom,respond to a layoff.
they came from my college bosseswhen I was working for the Texas
(36:22):
Longhorns who taught me moreabout entrepreneurship,
honestly, than anyone in techindividually has, they, the
lessons come from everywhere.
And mostly I've learned that thelessons actually come the most
from struggle.
If you have an easy.
Then it's not that growth isn'thappening, but not nearly the
kind of growth that happens whenyou're struggling and facing
challenges, overcomingchallenges.
(36:44):
Um, so I, I think that is justreally important that, you know,
I think a lot of times peoplelook at millennials, look at Gen
Z and they say, oh, we, we wantit too easily.
We're too entitled.
What I, what I would say is Ithink that we are actually a
couple of generations that havealready faced so much adversity
in our careers, both startingwith the recession 15 plus years
(37:07):
ago now, the pandemic, and therise of ai.
I think just having to respondto that, not having the kind of
security that previousgenerations were offered.
If they got a high schooldiploma or a college degree or
got in a union membership.
I think that we're a veryresilient couple of generations.
And I think the important thingis not to necessarily pursue
(37:28):
ease as much as to lean intowhere those struggles are to
pursue growth and whether youwant to pursue entrepreneurship
or not.
If you pursue growth, I thinkthat that's actually what's
going to be fruitful for you inyour entire career, financially,
spiritually, mentally,emotionally.
I have a young college, uh,sophomore who, or she just
finished her sophomore who I'vementored for several years now.
(37:51):
And she was struggling herfreshman year of college, being
away from family and friends.
And she was like, Oh, I'mthinking about transferring,
getting closer to home.
And I told her, I was like, Hey,you're a really capable
Caterpillar right now.
And you're going through thatgrowth phase of deciding, like,
are you going to become abutterfly?
And it's like, there's nothingwrong with caterpillars.
Caterpillars are awesome.
(38:11):
But do you have to choose, doyou want to be the fly and roam
and have more access than youwould as a caterpillar?
you're on the ground, you'removing slow, but it's a
butterfly.
You hit, you know, you can see alot more, So it's kind of like
that.
You got to decide, like, do youwant to metamorphose,
metamorphose or whatever?
Do you want to transform in thatway?
So for me, like the experiencethat I mentioned with local or
(38:32):
in the Lowe's mental healthwise, now I'm sitting here, year
plus later, realizing that mayhave been the most formative
personal and professionalexperience I have ever had and
ever will.
Kenny (38:45):
I love it, man.
Your transparency, you'releveraging your platform, to
give people honest, dialogue on,founder journeys and just would
excite you like things likerunning.
I enjoy seeing it.
And I'm really looking forwardto being a customer of 10 year
moving forward and may, and justseeing where you take the
company, thank you for being on.
(39:06):
And, thanks for our listenersfor tuning in to another great
episode of the beyond normalpodcast.
JS (39:12):
Thank you.
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