If You Want To Start Your Own Business This Fifteen-Minutes Will Help

David WIlliams, BookDavidWilliams.com, is successful, but he worked for it. His story is worth hearing and his wisdom worth heeding. Give it a listen because it change your tragectory. 

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Quick Moving Tuesday. Good to bewith you this Morning Show fifty one forty
eight of The Morning Show with Prestonscott On Preston, He's Grand Allen.
Great to be with you, friends, ruminators, near and far. However,
wherever you are listening to us from, thanks so very much for sharing
your time with us. We greatlyappreciate it. We are humbled by the
fact that you choose to hang outfor a while each and every day,

(00:33):
and have for a long time now, and in part it's because we have
this knack of finding great guests.And I am excited to talk with David
Williams. The website is book DavidWilliams dot com. It is National Small
BusinessWeek and Dave is a He's aFlorida guy. He's an entrepreneur, founder

(00:58):
of Team Hired, as well asthe fifteen gree Academy. He's been featured
in I mean all over the cablenetworks, all the publications, all the
trades and David, welcome to TheMorning Show. How are you sir?
I'm doing excellent? How about yourself? Thank you so much for having me
today. It's my pleasure. It'sa great topic because I think now more
than ever. Certainly COVID put iton steroids, but more and more people

(01:21):
are looking at starting their own business. So being an entrepreneur, you've got
a vast amount of experience in thisHow different is it now to try to
start a business than it was whenyou started? No, I think now
honestly, you know, the oneblessing in the silver lining that came out

(01:42):
of COVID, I think there's moreopportunity in abundance than ever before before because
COVID created a whole new subset ofproblems, and those problems need solutions to
them. And in this new virtualworld that we're living in, I think
there's more business opportunity than ever Isthat kind of a good start karting point
for any business is to find thatniche. Yeah, I think it's finding

(02:06):
that niche. I think finding thatproblem that you solve, and I think,
you know, a combination of havinga good motivation. You know,
that's how I started, you know, kind of my my long story short,
I was a store manager at Iwas a store manager at certain city
in two thousand and nine. WhenI started one off of work on disability,
was told I was going to beon disability for life. I fought
through those challenges, came back towork, was broke, and I had

(02:29):
to find a solution. Knew Icouldn't work in retail anymore with my health
condition. So then the liquidators wereselling all the merchandise. I had a
friend of the family and the insurancebusiness. Decided I was going to start
my first insurance agency, and theliquidators were selling all the merchandise, pennies
and the dollar. I took thelast seven grand in my name out of
my four oh one K, boughtup about seventy eighty grand worth of merchandise,

(02:50):
resold it online, paid off mydebt, raised the capital for my
first insurance agency, and we scaledit to a twenty two million dollar operation
nine years later, and I exitedthat first one and started these other ventures.
So your springboard to that first businessventure for yourself wasn't even remotely related
to where you wanted to go.No, I had no idea. God

(03:13):
was. God was closing one doorby force. And you know, that's
how I really started to look atchallenges in my life because I started that
one moment in my life, Hey, God, why are you doing things
for me or to me? Likethis, but I realized he was doing
them for me. On the otherside of every single challenge was the next
best phase of my life. Andnow I try to look at challenges through
those lenses that the next best partof life is right on the other side

(03:37):
of solving that challenge. If youwhen you sit down and talk with people,
and sometimes I would imagine it's small, you know, somewhat intimate gatherings
where you just got friends and they'vegot a friend who is just kind of
curious about how you've done what you'vedone. Other times there are these big
seminars that you're doing and conferences andconventions. How do you help someone to

(04:00):
herman that they're in a place wherethey need to take this step or is
that something you can even lead anybodyto? Yeah, well, I think
it's I think some people know thatright. And what stops us in life
it's fear, all right, moretimes than not. And I think you
can define fear one of two differentways. That can be forget everything and
run or face everything and rise.And I think it's when we step on

(04:24):
the other side of fear, wehave the right knowledge, we have the
right mentors, and you couple thatwith taking action. I think that's the
recipe for the start of any goodbusiness. The Morning Show with Preston Scott's
what what do you do on Freedom? I used Radio one hundred point seven
w the UFLA. He's a dad, he's an entrepreneur, founder and our

(04:49):
guest. That of course is mostimportant. David Williams with us this morning
on the Morning Show. David,are the are the fundamentals of of making
the decision to go into business?Do they vary in terms of initial steps
based on the type of business orare there commonalities that are shared? Yeah.

(05:12):
I think there's a lot of commonalitiesthat are shared, right because they're
the same basic principles that you gotto do. You got to find that
right niche. I think one rightone that's going to be I'm a big
fan of finding a nine out often offer, and what does that mean?
Like something if I offer that toten different people, there's going to
be nine of them that are highlyinterested in that product? I think or
service. I think too often wehave people going out there with a product

(05:35):
or service. Is there's not enoughneed for us? I think it's having
the right solution first and foremost,going after that right niche and then really
coming in again, finding knowledge,finding the mentor, and putting in the
work. And it's that same formulakind of any business that I've found being
a serial entrepreneur myself, it's beenthat same formula of business to business that

(05:57):
I've stepped into. One of thethings, and I've got maybe a few
years on you, David, butone of the things I've observed as as
just someone who's watching life, andit's kind of what I do for a
living. I read and I watchwhat's going on in culture is I've observed
that that many of the younger peopleof today, the people that are most
likely to start businesses. While thereare some real successful examples, there's still

(06:21):
a lot of people that have neverheard the word no. They weren't raised
to kind of fail, if youwill, to come in third or fourth
and not win a prize, andthey struggle dealing with that. How do
you help someone that's in this agegroup of wanting to be an entrepreneur but
they've never fashioned that armor to takeno no. I think what that what

(06:45):
really comes in handy for me.There is mental reframing, so understanding that
those nose those failures, those challengesis all part of the process, because
I don't think you can do anythinggreat in life without failure, right,
And that it's the failure in thosemoments that teach us the lessons that we
need to learn to really embrace theprocess to have a successful business. So

(07:06):
when we don't look at it necessarilyas a failure but part of the process
of having this ultimate successful business,we look at it through a different lens,
and you can look at it througha lens of excitement versus disappointment.
You know, you live in Florida, and I think a lot of us
in this audience would say, we'revery fortunate. It's not a perfect state.

(07:26):
There isn't such a thing. Butin Florida they're working hard to remove
regulatory barriers and things obstacles for smallbusinesses and people that want to get into
their own kind of line of workfrom doing so. But that's not the
case everywhere, and it's not necessarilythe case federally. How adaptable are your

(07:48):
thoughts as it relates to the challengesthat we can't even predict their coming and
the ones that come that are regulatoryin nature and just make things difficult.
Yeah, so one there. Youknow, obviously, you know, the
less government the better, the lessregulation always the better, I think when
it comes to business. But Ithink it goes back to reframing again,

(08:09):
right, So when we look atthe challenges that are out there, even
in some challenging states, well everybodyelse is facing those challenges. So I'm
actually a fan of doing business intimes of challenges and in times of adversity,
because that's when there's the least amountof competition and everybody else is running
the opposite direction. And if youlean into it during those times when everybody

(08:31):
else is running the opposite direction,I found that there's the most opportunity for
those that are looking for it.It's sort of like being being able to
find that wave in the stock marketwhen everybody's doing one thing. You're the
contrarian, absolutely, And I thinkthat's the rule to live by right there.
All right, David, standby.When we come back, we're going
to talk to those of you whowant to start a business, you want

(08:52):
to be an entrepreneur. We're goingto get David's keys to that. What
are first steps, where are someresources, what are some things to think
about? David Williams my guest bookDavid Williams dot com. The website here
in the Morning Show with Preston Scott. Back a few more minutes with David
Williams. The website book, DavidWilliams dot com. It is National Small

(09:15):
Business Week. This is his wheelhouse. David, you're talking to people and
I just I know from my audiencewhat I got, and we've got them
scattered across the country because of iHeartRadio. What are the most important things for
people to know or to do orboth that want to be an entrepreneur,
that want to start a small business. Yeah, I'd say some of the

(09:37):
most important things, you know,I'll address some of the things I think
to get in a way of peoplestarting the beginnings to be the business to
begin with. I think it's gettingclarity on the right thing that there's a
need for, right so that proofof concept, doing the market research,
and really going in on something that'sgoing to make a difference. You know,
I started an insurance everybody. Youknow, I didn't grow up saying

(09:58):
hey, I want to be aninsuran eng agent when I was a kid,
but I thought it was a greatvehicle to get the life that I
wanted to and everybody needs insurance bylaw, passive income, reoccurring revenue.
So I'll look for those sort ofcomponents. And then I think it's taking
action because we always in life lookfor the perfect moment and the perfect time
to start, and the time foreverything to be perfect. Well, there's

(10:20):
never a perfect time. There's nevera perfect time to start. There's never
a time everything's going to be perfect. So it's just going out there and
taking action and getting some momentum.I think that's the best thing anybody can
do. Get the business started,get it rolling, start getting some clients
under your belt, and then thatmomentum is going to take you to the
next place that you want to go. How do you navigate? We talked
about this topic a few weeks ago. That's why I jumped on the opportunity

(10:41):
to talk with you, David.We talked about it, and we talked
about the hurdle that a lot ofpeople face. They'd get this idea,
they had this thing, but thenthere's the hurdles. There's the incorporation,
there's the paperwork, there's the filingfees, there's how do you help someone
navigate that the resources available? Yeah, I think you know, anybody,

(11:03):
anybody starting small, you know,go down. You can go down to
some of your local resources there withthe state, they can help you set
up the entity. They can helpyou set up to LLC some of the
basic framework. And then I wouldsay outside of the basic framework is find
a mentor. And where do youdo that? Right? You find somebody
that's already gotten to the destination thatyou're looking to go. I think too
often we try to do big thingsin life alone, and I'm a big

(11:24):
fan of saying always ask for help, because you can't do great things in
this life alone. You see,everybody surrounds themselves with great people. So
find somebody that already got to thedestination you're looking for. Find a way
to serve them and add value intotheir life where they want to reciprocate,
you know, do that through afriend, do that through a family member.
There's you know, there's people thatknow people that can connect you to

(11:46):
that person that's already got the compassand the roadmap to get to your destination.
You know, this might be alittle disconnected, but last night I
just I had saved on a DVR. I'm a big college basketball junkie and
it was co and Roy Williams,and they were talking just together in front
of a group of high school coaches, and Coach k said one of the

(12:07):
one of the things that he didin his entire coaching career is he asked
his players in each practice to makesomebody else better. It sounds like you're
describing creating that kind of culture fromthe ground up in your business. Yeah.
And I actually have a rule ofthirty three, So I think you'll
always get to where you want togo in life if you thirty three percent

(12:28):
of your time you're lifting and helpingother people get to where they want to
go. Thirty three percent of yourtime you're collaborating with other like minded people
that are on your level because youknow, they say you are who you
surround yourself with, right, andthen thirty three percent of your time with
people that are light years above you, you know, people that make you
feel uncomfortable in the room, becausethat's how you know all you're always growing,

(12:50):
you're always collaborating, and then you'realways keeping your sword sharp by you
know, serving and helping other peoplethat need to help, just like you
did one day. Tell me whereyou are are right now in your life.
Is it now about pouring into otherpeople and helping them through the life
you've lived and the businesses you havehave started and run. Is that where

(13:11):
you are? Yeah, that's whereI am. I mean, that's why
we started our kids program fifth DegreeAcademy too. Is you know, teaching
kids some of the things they don'tteach in school. It's not knocking the
school system, but there's a lotof things that's not part of the curriculum.
And you know, my journey,I stumbled across a lot of my
success. I started to finger outa finger two about a finger two,
and I had to learn the hardway. And I don't think it has

(13:35):
to be that way. So Itry to go around teaching kids that they
can have everything they want in thislife and more. You know, give
you an example of that is,you know, we teach an American dream,
get that new house, get thatnew car, get that cell phone,
and before they know it, they'repart of the statistic in the debt
trap paycheck to paycheck, like seventyeight percent of Americans twenty five and under
that also have sub prime credit score. But what if you taught different You

(13:56):
don't even have to be an entrepreneur, but you can step into your W
two job and it maybe instead ofjust buying a first time home buying program
for yourself, you use a firsttime home buying program to get a duplex
or a four plex. You rentout the other units. You take the
passive income from those other units,pay for your living expenses, pay for
your car, and now everything thatyou're making in your W two is a

(14:18):
net positive. You know, whatwould life look like then, instead of
kids going out there just trying tosurvive, they would be thriving in life.
So I try to teach a differentway, have a little bit of
patience and go out in the worldthe right way to set yourself up for
success. David, it's been adelight. I could sit and talk with
you for a very long time,and so let Heather know you are welcome.

(14:39):
Anytime anything you got going on,you let us know and we'll join
arms and do what we can tohelp and benefit from your wisdom. Thanks
for the time today. Now,thank you for your time, and I'll
look forward to coming next time inperson. Thanks so much, David.
David Williams with us this morning.I'm telling you go to the website gonna

(15:00):
be really intrigued by his background andhis accomplishments. It it earns a listen
and I'm glad we made this happen. We had a little mix up and
he thought he was on yesterday,and he was gracious enough to say,
yeah, I'm back, and asyou heard, he wants to come in
studio and join us sometime. Lookforward to it. Book David Williams dot

(15:22):
com. It's The Morning Show withPreston Scott