September 23, 2025 • 39 mins
- Bizzics is a business coaching and advisory service focused on small business owners. It provides resources, mentorship, leadership development, and strategy—especially for growth, profitability, and stability.
- Their tagline or mission emphasizes simplifying business fundamentals: helping entrepreneurs scale at a pace they can handle; avoid overcomplicating things; and focus on real results.
- They have a book called The Bizzics Way: Powering Your Small Business to Maximum Momentum, which gives practical guidance and uses analogies (even from physics) to simplify and clarify business growth strategies.
- Chip has a bachelor’s in Economics plus an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Career Background: He spent over 30 years in banking, often in roles that focused on serving small business owners. He’s worked as a lender and in senior leadership at regional banks. This experience shaped his understanding of what small business folks need—especially access to reliable guidance and real-world strategy.
- James Lott JR is the host. alottofhelp.com is JLJ's website
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Well, go to another edition of A Lot of Help
with James loginor who am I? I'm James lot Jr.
Of jail J Media. I'm the Jilj of jail J Media.
That's right, kids, And I've been in business for seventeen years.
So I have two businesses, the super Organizer and of
course Jege Media, and I'm doing it for seventeen years.
I started for scratch. I was forty years old and
started as I'm gonna do my own thing and start
(00:27):
from scratch. And it's been a very wonderful, maddening, crazy,
exciting and very and some adjectives I can't say on
here journey and I wouldn't change it for the world.
I wouldn't say for the world. And I'm so glad
that I went on this path of entrepreneurship and I
(00:51):
love talking to people who want to help people like
I try to do with this show and other shows
on that same path, because I think anybody could do
it on some level. We sometimes you need something, we
need to learn certain tools to get there, but it's possible.
And this person says, I told before the show I
was gonna tell this. There's something he says in his
bio that I like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm going
(01:13):
to He says his philosophy centers on the idea that
small businesses don't need to be large to be massive,
and that to me is my motto. First of all,
I have built a mini empire. I have I have
people working with me for me, side by side by
(01:33):
side me everything. And I'm successful. I may not be
you know, a list out there. You know, I'm not Sony,
I'm not universal or whatever, but I'm JILJ Media and
I and I'm making money. I'm able to pay my
bills and do things and pay other people and and
I think that's such a great lesson and we're gonna,
(01:54):
we're gonna learn. But his thing blah blah. Let me
tell you about him. So he has around thirty five
years of experience into small business leadership and momentum building,
which I like that. He's a founder of Bhysics, it's
a transformative resource hub for small business owners, and the
author of the claim the Businics Way powering a small
business to maximum momentum. And that's something I think we
(02:17):
talked about small business enough. Small business is the backbone
of our country. There's a lot of small business and bounce.
I'm like with the middle children of the industry. So
help me. Welcome Chim Higgins.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It's great, it's great to be here. I really really
appreciate you have me. I'm never gonna have a great
time together today.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yes we are. Thank you, Chip for your times. So now,
first of all, I'm glad we said that that the
phrase the business plays won't be large to be massive.
Can you collaborate of that a little bit more?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, yeah, So, you know, my experience with small businesses,
I'll give a little background that I'll kind of cut
to the chase.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I think my experience with small business owners, I worked.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
In the banking industry primarily and rented all kinds of people,
all kinds of industries and you know, multi generational startups
or whatever. But I generally found that the landscape was
kind of confusing for them.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
You know, there's a there's a lot of books, there's
a lot of information, there's a lot of people selling stuff.
And when I wrote my book, it was really an
effort to simplify, you know, And I had, you know,
very influential physics teacher in high school. I wasn't a
great student, but you know it's in the book. It's
someone you could never forget. And you know, this momentum
(03:39):
equation just stayed with me, you know, and I kept
hearing people talk about momentum and business and you know,
it was just kind of like, you know, every everybody
was saying it, and I just reached a point where
it started like annoying me, Like it was just bugging me,
like is it is it really a thing in business?
Or you know, if it is, like that's the best
thing possible because it's such a simple equation.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
So that's that's the path that went down, and you
know the stories in the book.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I talked to a good friend of mine who's legit,
you know, physicist and Caltech trained, and I just came
to the conclusion that really it really is a thing.
But this issue of mass is one of the ones
that was really difficult when I was talking to Marcus,
my physicist friend, to kind of get his mind around
(04:26):
what I was saying about business mass because it was
completely foreign to him. Like, you know, so there's a
you know, that chapter in the book starts with like
the money Python riddle for the oracle you know, how
can a small business be massive? And so if you
take it back to the physics part of it, when
we talk about mass and physics, it really is very
(04:47):
little to do with size. It has everything to do
with density and the weight that you're bringing towards something.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I mean, that's that's really what it's about.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
So ninety eight percent of the massive any matter is
in the nucleus, uh, you know, and it's.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
All like protons and neutrons.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And how many of them there are and how tightly
they're packed. So I mean that that's really it. I
mean that that that that is the the whole thing
about density.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know, a volleyball and a bowling ball are the
same size, but they have completely different density from a
from a from a business perspective. You know what I'm
what I'm proposing in that in that statement is that
you know, if we if we have a heart for something,
uh someplace that we want to show up and be impactful,
(05:38):
I think that we generally will have trained ourselves in
life about what what the issues are and spent a
lot of time thinking about how we're going to show
up differently for people there. And so you know, part
part of it in business about being massive, is you know,
just having a value proposition. I'm sure, like you've got
multiple businesses, James, I did, every one of them you started.
(05:58):
Is a matter of you showing up for people in
a way that's meaningful to them.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I mean, that's that's.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Really what it's about. And you know, there are other
things at the core of a business, like you know,
your vision and your value system is really important.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Who you are as a person is really important, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I mean I think, uh, you know, they're you know,
I hate to be judgmental, but you know, you know,
they're really impactful people in life.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And then there's some that are just kind of flow
by and hear problem. So I think entrepreneurship is really,
you know, it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
About preparation and finding that right opportunity to show up
and be different and like super meaningful in somebody's life.
I mean, that's really that's really what entrepreneurship is about.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
So you know, I'm very encouraged.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I don't you know, I don't necessarily gravitate towards huge companies.
I admire them, you know, I've admired a Microsoft that
Bill Gates somehow managed to be in charge of that
company from zero to you know, ten.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Billion in revenue or whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
It is, like, it's so extraordinary that somebody has that
skill set to do that. But I just find that
there's a there's a creative energy around entrepreneurs about finding
a way that's very attractive to me. And that's what
That's what I find in the landscape today is we
have so many bloated companies that have forgotten parts of
their business that need better attention than they're getting. And
(07:23):
you know, like I look at the the drink industry.
You know, twenty five years ago, it's like you had
pepsi and coke or whatever, and now it's like, you know,
you get multiple flavors, you get multiple people have found
a way to you know, bring bring that unique thing
to people on a scale that they're able to make money.
So I feel like I'm rambling on now, James.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
But let me jump in. You did fine, because I
want to pick back off of that. I think Number one,
I found my success started to happen when I chose
to serve mm hmm. So when I started my business,
I was starting part was that necessity that makes money
some money I'm I'm not workingna a copy more in
(08:03):
San Francisco. I got to find a way to make
some money. That was part of it. Him I have
a house. I was that's part of it. But no.
But then when I when I honed in like, oh,
my first person is my organizing business organizer. And I
was like oh. Once I zeroed in on there are
a lot of women over fifty in parts of LA
(08:24):
who are either widows, divorced, or you know, the change
of life that need help. I'll just go help them
and women talk. This guy James can in my house.
He's so sweet. He did my room. You got to
your room here. You know you're messing with and and
that's and so when I learned that, I'm I'm here
to serve them, right, that's why making money, he said
(08:48):
JLJ Medium. I started to the media company. I started
some stuff outdrooring, some slapping, some videos up here and there.
But once the fan started coming to me saying you
we thout doing this show, or you're not doing this
or talk about that, I started listening. I was like, oh,
so now there's a given take. So everything that I've
ward ninety shows on my network, so that's over the
(09:10):
last ten years or whatever. But they're all the shows
a are a purpose for somebody, right, star Wars tuff,
even Star Wars stuff. I knew it serves a purpose
for Star Wars fans. Star Wars right at that. But
that's but when you said that, I go, yes, and
(09:30):
I'm still a small business. I'm a proud small business.
I mean, I'm like because but once I started to
serve and have and have a purpose and what I
was creating to make money, that I started making money
that sounded like familiar.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Absolutely, it's a byproduct. It's a byproduct of what you're doing.
I mean, you've got to be smart about what the
costs are and what you charge. But the first chapter
in the book is about energy, entrepreneurs energy, uh, because
we get into like you have to talk about velocity,
and you can't have velocity without energy. But relative to
(10:08):
what you're saying, I think one of the big points
in that first chapter is that entrepreneurial energy can't be
about money. I mean, it's got to be about that service.
And you know, I love that rich role podcaster and he's,
oh yeah, there's something about him that I really enjoyed.
I was listening to one of his shows one time,
and he said that, you know, when you're in service
(10:29):
to other people, your energy is inexhaustible. You know it's
not it will it will never run out as long
as long as you're you're feeling like you were you
were trying to help somebody or solve the problem for somebody.
And you know, I saw that many times in my
banking career, very short lived businesses that thought they were
going to make a lot of money, and beyond them
making the money there there really wasn't the heart for it.
(10:50):
And you know, you just find that they run out
of energy before they run out of money, Like it's
almost over as soon as they start. You know, it's
just it's not sustainable. Yeah, definitely, I believe pickback off
for you.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Again, the other point you're making about energy, because we
in our business always say it's not Sometimes what you
do is how you make people feel. On TV show sets,
on movie sets. Uh, I do red carpets. People remember
me because I'm kind. I show up on time, I
(11:26):
do my job like when we only so they walk
away going, oh my god, James and Juniors coming, Oh
my god, Chim Higgins is coming. I love me like
it's it's so, it's and that's energy. And so then
if you have success with that person as part of
your project, even better. Right. So then they're like, I
want to keep hiring him. Yes, there are eight thousand
(11:48):
people can do my job. Probably there's eight thousand James
Jus out there. Not really, but they couldn't possibly. Well,
what I bring to the table is different energy. So
I agree. I can see your physics your physics friend
is saying, but it's all about for momentum, you have
to come in with a certain ball of energy.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It makes sense right to me, it makes sense, it does. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, And you know, I think that.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
We talked, we talked in the first chapter about Connecticut potential,
and I feel like there's just a lot of potential
energy out there in entrepreneurship today that never starts moving.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And I think that, you know, that was.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
One of my hopes for the book, is like, if
there's a better roadmap that kind of conforms to the universe, uh,
you know, maybe people will find that path that taking
the first step and getting their energy in motion. You know,
I mean it's a it's a very it's a very
powerful and daunting thing to say I'm actually gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
But I think people have a lot of pent up.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Energy for things that gets contained by other rappers that
you know, they're in the corporate world, they're feeling safe.
You know, it's just and I just get amazed by
what people can do when they start. You know, it's
just it's really powerful. And you know, there's another thing
that I wanted to mention as as you were talking
about showing up on set and I feel this today,
(13:07):
just the energy feel.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Between us and.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Just the important of importance of connection in this momentum equation.
It's it's so important the way we are bonded to
each other. And when I speak publicly, you know, I
always point out that, you know, ninety eight percent of
the mass is the protons and neutrons and the rest
of it is about bonding. But that bonding can have
(13:33):
just this amazing impact on mass because you know, pencil,
lead and diamonds are basically the same matter with completely
different packing properties. I mean, they're the same. And the
other thing about connecting is that it is it is
energy producing. I mean, it's a difference between a mixture
and a compound. Is Basically, when things get bonded, there's
(13:55):
an energy created a release that you need all the energy.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
You can it in business. And I'm convinced to that.
So definitely definitely feel that with you today, James.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
When I said with you to do I do what
I want to bring up. I want to ask you
a question about that. I'm picked back with that. You
mentioned harnessing energy to prove something that gives momentum, Right,
so what do you What are a couple of mistakes
that you see some entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs make the beginnings because
(14:26):
they're like, well, I have this idea and business I'm
over here over there.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Definitely right, there's there's there's a lot, there's a lot
of energy.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
In the book.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
In the book, I talk about you know, there's a
there's a linear momentum, and there's an angular momentum, and
angular momentum just makes you spin around in circles. I
talk about the pin wheel firework I used to enjoy
as a kid. You I was very colorful, but it
didn't go anywhere. Ex it's a high heat. And so
(15:02):
that's really getting getting into the first component we talked
about in the book about velocity is that you know
when you when you ask people where are you going
with your business? Uh, A lot of times it's very vague.
It's usually something like more or you know, they're they're
excited and to be successful in business. You know, a
vector in science has a direction of distance and a speed.
(15:26):
So now so to comply with the physical world in business,
you would have to say the same thing about your business.
I mean, exactly where you headed, Like what's the target market?
How far into it are you going to get in
over what period of time? And I think that is
probably one of the biggest uh stumbling blocks for for
startups is that they have a they have a great
(15:50):
idea of something that's new and different, but they haven't
really defined a target segment that it's suited for where
they can go after that segment and speak their language,
use the imagery that's relevant to them, so they can say, look,
I've got I've got ten percent of the people in
this zip code are coming to my restaurant. You know,
(16:10):
it's just like they love their menu, it's got you know,
it's a mashup of Asian or whatever. You kind of
love all that, but you have to you have to
do the math of how many people are you moving
toward and how many of them would take for you
to be make a profit? First of all, but how
do you continue to guide yourself on a path of
like growing and share with that because that you know,
(16:32):
when you think about what we talked about earlier, it's
not it's not necessarily about the revenue.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
The revenue is a byproduct.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
But if your price ride and you continue to grow
in the number of users in that segment, the revenue
naturally follows.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And I'm sure you know it's the same for you
with listenership.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
I mean, everyone your programs has a different kind of
target listener and that to me, You know, first of all,
are you getting into business for the right reason? The
service orientation that we're talking about, that's let's let's make
sure you have the energy, But is it directed toward
something that you can you know, track and say that
(17:09):
I'm making progress and delivering the solution to people.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
If you don't have that, you really.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Do end up with a lot of angular momentum of
the idea of being in business of like, well, I
need to talk to marketing person, I need to talk
to you know, I need do I need billboards or whatever,
and you know you stop and think, you know, I
don't know that you've got a viable product yet, like
you haven't even haven't even been down that been down
that road yet, Like I mean, just take your time
(17:35):
and develop something that stands out among the peers and then, uh,
you know, figure out how you're going to get more
and more of that market.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Well we the people, well, I well, generations are changing.
I'm gen z gen x X total gen x. You
go your card, you just do it. It's you gen
zers are a difference. Well, some millennials are different. I know.
It's more about I have I think I have a
(18:03):
good product. It should just be a hit.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Right, Yeah, it speaks for itself.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So I always I love their spirit. I love their
spirit too, but I just I just want I'm talking
down like I just want to say it, but that
it's a different world now.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Sensitive to that.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yes, but we're but we're learning. Nothing happens that fast.
It's still that the world hasn't changed that much when
it comes to business building. And that's still still right.
There's still blocks that have to be built, right.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, like even even an app, I mean, like go
on the app store, Like how many bajillion apps are
out there?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
You know that.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
I mean it's just so.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I think if you can, if you can master that
part of it, the energy and a specific direction and
solution for somebody, you're gonna have a pretty good chance
of making it if you give yourself enough time. And
that's another thing, is like people that they get the
urge to start something, they leave a job that was
paying them pretty well and they've got they've got six
(19:06):
months to start making money or they're going to be
laid on their mortgage payment. It doesn't work that way.
I mean, it's like you know, you've got you've got
the tinker in the back office, you know, your garage
or whatever. For sometimes years before we figure out, you know.
I mean, it's just it's a long it's a long
process of doing that, and you know it's the amount
of the amount of money involved in it. You know, it's, uh,
(19:29):
you got to keep balancing out, like when is when
is my big scale moment where I leave everything behind
and I'm I'm in this one hundred percent? And uh,
that's that's a tough call. And it kind of varies
by industry. You know, there's a there's a there's a
chapter at the end of the book that after I
get through the momentum equation, I talk about two other
physical principles that are closely related but they're not part
(19:51):
of the equation with leverage and friction. And leverage is
one that I talked a lot about the small business
owners about this. This is the reality of small business
startup is it's going to take you a lot longer
than you think it's going to take. So if a
lever is designed in physics to move an object from
(20:13):
point A to point B faster, then you need to
figure out your levers.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I mean what you know, what are what are the
levers that will move you along faster?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
And it may be contacts in an industry, or are
a group of customers you've already dealt with. I mean,
I think it's important to think about leverage as part
of that. And you know, there's a big part that
has to do with debt, but it's mostly about getting
started and being purposeful.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Moving in a direction.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And sometimes you find out like people that you thought
were levers are friends and they don't really have the clout.
You know, they don't are they not not really interested
in being a lever, how you look at them, I
see the potential.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I found for me. There are times I even had
to change. I had a pivot and change. I was
a pandemic hit five years ago that did a lot
of changing. For a lot of years, we couldn't be
in person both my companies. I was at a standstill
for like a two weeks. I was like, and then
(21:17):
non sense. So what I say. I padded for two
weeks and then I pulled together. But figure it out.
But one of the things that I really tell people
all the time is when I started seventeen years ago.
The first year, I didn't make anybody. The second year,
I broke even barely. I got excited. I I broke even.
(21:38):
I was like, I'm not great. The third year I
saw a small profit and then it went up. It's
been up ever since. But I'm saying that all time,
it took at least I would say four years where
I was like, oh, but even now to me, seventeen years.
But now I'm really making the money that I wanted
to make.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I've been on some other
pod cast now and we always talk about the failure rate.
You know, when I started banking in eighty four, it
was about fifty percent will fail in the first five years,
and it's still that way.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So you're you're just you're.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Describing this five year trajectory of like, think of all
the reasons to quit at year one, two, three, or four.
You know, you're don't have the cash, You're don't have
the energy, whatever it is, you know. I mean, so
I think if you you know, if you study this book,
I think I think it'll be a lot of insight
about what you what you need to equip yourself if
(22:34):
you're going to be successful over five years. I mean
that that's really why I wrote the book. Is you
know why I put your whole life on the line
for a fifty to fifty proposition. You know, it's like, yeah,
I mean John John Maxwell say it says it's easy
to be average, you know, I mean, what what would
it take to be above average? Like, well, you got
(22:55):
you've got a ten You've got a ten percent chance
of not making it instead of fifty percent, you know.
I mean, it's just to play the odds and be
prepared well.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Also, I mean it's something that you know, but we
were kind of touching it on Tony Conventional earlier. It's
just again the energy to go all in. I have
mentees and people I talked to it, and I always
tell them it's up to you. I mean, I can't
tell you what to do. I can give you suggestions,
but that part that's on you. That's that's your mindset,
(23:24):
that's your energy, that's your drive. And yeah, you and
I could give people, you know, ways to reframe things.
One thing for me to leave. I left. Seriously, people
all love people to my story out there, but I
guess don't know. I left this high powered insurance education job.
I was there ten years, making like two hundred thousand
dollars a year. There's a nice apartment in San Francisco.
(23:47):
It was that money coming through, bills were paid. I
was like taking trips. I wasn't happy. I just I
was pushing papers. I wasn't happy. So when I stopped
and I thought it was crazy. And during the recession
of two thousand and eight, recessions, right, you're crazy, I
was like, I probably am crazy. I'm gonna be a
little crazy to do this. But I said, but my
(24:07):
reframing wasn't I'm losing all of that stuff that was
not my my reframe. Look what I'm about to gain.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, that energy toward the positive. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
That's what it is. Chip. I mean seriously, we had
to really look at it a whole different way. Yes,
So no, I'm not losing that. That stuff. I'm shedding
that stuff. That's I'm like, that's not what made me.
It was soulless working and not make me happy. Now
I can do whatever the f I want.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, I mean I found I found that in my
own trajectory, you know, and unfortunately I feel like I
succumbed to it a little bit because I mean I
started physics in twenty nineteen. It was just kind of
a you know, a coaching practice, and then COVID hit Yeah,
and there weren't a lot of people thinking about big dreams.
It was kind of how do I get PPP money
(24:59):
and get through this? And honestly got very discouraged about it,
and you know, uh, that idea of like leaving it
behind and being happy about it. You know, I started
started getting backing back to the banking industry and I
gave in and I was like, oh, and I worked
at three banks in three years. Oh okay, But you know,
(25:20):
in the middle of that, I did make this huge
decision to write this book because I wouldn't let you know,
I wouldn't let go of the idea of physics. But
I kept getting that, you know, that safety call back
to something that was familiar.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Okay, So a question for me for you is, because
this happens, we have to give you grace. This stuff's happened.
I've been tempted a few times go back. I mean
they were like, come on, Jay, come to the dark side.
Know when they do it. But what I want to
ask you, so, what have you learned? Was one big
lesson you learned after doing those three banking jobs in
(25:56):
three years.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
You have to listen to your gut. You can't deny it.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I mean, you know, at the end, I knew that
I had made the same mistake multiple times, that it
was not I had. I had to be one hundred
percent in and not look back. I mean that that
was such a powerful lesson to me. And I feel
like sometimes I'm a very intuitive person, and sometimes I
(26:23):
get into this rational part of my brain because I
don't trust it.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
It's like I keep saying you know, overthinking it and
tamping it down, and that doesn't do me any good
at all. You know. It's like you got to go
with the passion and the you know, the bliss part
of it and just have faith. I mean, it's such
a faith walk, honestly. I mean, it's like you have
to have faith that what you're doing is important and
(26:49):
that you care enough to do good things for people
and it will.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
All work out. You know.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
It's a it's very daunting, you know. I don't I
don't like talking about that part of it. But also
I feel like, at the same time, like it gave
me some space to write my book, which I'm really
happy with, and I feel like that is kind of
a scaling thing in its own right, that what I'm
about is accessible to a lot more people and I
could ever.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Meet with one on one, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I mean, I think that's uh, you know that that's
a really good thing that came out of it.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
That's good. That's good. But but I mean, I mean,
it's I know, it's a tough time, but but you
some good came out. But obviously I was just saying
out of things, beauty can be born.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
As they say, I was you know, there was this
probably goes back fifteen years. But when I when I
was starting on the John Maxwell team, they had all
these guru people that would, you know, give lessons and
things and I'm coaching and uh, this is something I
repeat fairly regularly, but there was one session where the
whole topic was about the word decide and uh that
(27:48):
when you know, decide is the same word as like
in size or excise, and it's all about cutting and
you know that that decision and basically says, you know,
you haven't decided if you haven't cut it off, cut
it off. You know, it's like you haven't you haven't
really made a decision until you say that's I'm done
(28:09):
with that part of my life and it doesn't work
for me anymore and I'm not going to do it.
So I give you a lot of credit, James. I
mean to, uh, to walk out and just stick to
it and crank it up over seventeen years. And that's
an amazing story.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I'm crazy right after ask me, I mean, so here,
here's something funny. So when the pandemic hit and said
everything stopped in Hollywood, I mean everything stopped, so I said,
because I was working for a network based out of
everything stops. I said, I would have become my own network.
(28:44):
I would take my business. Yes, yes, myself who wants
to go along for the ride? And so everybody else
was afraid to it themselves.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
I love that James crazy.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
I had no idea. I had no idea I'm gonna
figure it out. But I had and I was like,
I'm going forward. I'm excited. But it's like, okay, I'm
going to do this, and people came along with me,
and I have some wonderful collaborators and wonderful producers, like
we're working out, but like, oh, I had no idea
what I was doing. I'm like, I must be crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
And you did it here, you're still doing it. I mean,
that's awesome. It was.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
But I think also one of the things I want
to get people talk about a little bit is that
you can nowadays and you see this change too. I
mean I I my first job was in ninety eighty four.
Actually my first time I had was the first job,
so we're probably around the same age. It might be
a little older, who knows, but I have seen the
workplace change, and nowadays I'm doing jobs that weren't invented
(29:42):
until like five six years ago. Those things, a podcaster,
those things, a YouTube like new things are all want
that right, things are all recent. So but I found
as a small business owner of this enterprise, I can
be a big fish in a small pond.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
But also I want you to talk about this too,
but also big fish, small pod But also niches are good.
Mm hmm our niches are good? How do you pronounce it?
I found some that have been good to me so days.
So you go from there. There are two things I
think nowadays you can be a big small business.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I think it's just uh, I can't remember who it
was talking about this the other day, but we're just
talking about.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
AI and oh yeah, a I you.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Know there's you know, there's there's clearly.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
A downside of it and in certain jobs, you know,
I think I think there are some jobs that are
more likely to be impacted by it early than others.
But I would say for a small business owner, you
have access to a C suite. I mean it needs
AI properly, you asked the right questions. I mean, you
(30:58):
you can be aware of so much stuff that most company,
you know, you wouldn't be able to compete with that
level of knowledge because it would be a company that
had eighteen senior executives that are doing market research and
all you can find this stuff out like immediately, And
I think I think that's a huge boost all these
productivity tools.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
I can't believe the stuff that I do every day.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
James's like, you know, I'm in chat GPT that have
got going into Canva and I'm like, you know, it's
like and I'm like, I just can't I just can't believe.
But I'm able to do this. That made it so easy.
So I think it does allow you to stay small
and nimble. You know, it's like, you don't you don't
(31:40):
have to have like a full time person that's doing
six different jobs because you don't have a full job
for them and they're all different jobs, you know what
I'm saying, Like that that would be the normal path
of small business owners, like well, I'm going to make
up a job description because I need help, but it's
going to be six different things.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
It's like you've got access to it right now. So
I think that that part is really really huge. The
niches is honestly one of my most favorite topics about
small businesses because that's that's where I mean, that's not
only where the action is, it's.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Where the profit is.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
And you know what what I going back to I
kind of touched on a little bit earlier, but I mean,
you think about how these companies have gotten so large.
A lot of them have grown through acquisition. They picked
up things that seem like they're you know, they're going
to be, you know, a synergy to their their overall
enterprise because now they're in this piece of the business
(32:38):
and they pick it up and over time, Uh, what
you end up with is in attention to the passion
of the person that started that business in the first place,
of serving somebody. And that's where a smart, you know,
entrepreneurial minded small business owner will jump in and say,
whatever happened to the people that were doing that? Like
(33:00):
is it still relevant? Can I jump in and do
something better now it's five years since the merger happened,
and there are all these capabilities for me to do things,
like I feel like I can make it better than
it was before.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
And that is you know, that's really it's a chapter
in the you.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Know, when I when I started writing the book, I
tell people I was writing about momentum and then be like, well,
I hope you write something about sustaining momentum, and that
that's that chapter on momentum where I talk about like
an entrepreneurial culture of every single year, every person in
the company identifying niches that could be a start to
(33:39):
something much bigger. I mean that that is a really
healthy thing for a business. And they're all over the place.
I mean they're they're everywhere, So you know, stick with
you know, the passion that you have and think about
the people that aren't being served and why. You know,
it's like how many companies could Amazon acquire and still
run them the same way? You know they're in their
(34:00):
early days? Like how many? So that's that's a that's
a huge part of entrepreneurship. And I think we're the
big values delivered. And then you know, you have to
be cognizant of It's like once you start blowing up
a niche, uh and and reaffirm to people that there's
money to be made in that niche, just buckle up
because capital will always follow the profits and somebody else
(34:23):
is going to come along seat. You have to have
that level of nimbleness to say these are these are
the ones I've identified. We're going to start here. But
I think in two years I could do this one.
You might need to move that two year one up
as you start getting pounded by people that have enough
competency to get in that niche with you. So those
are my general thoughts on it.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I mean, it's so it's I just think that it's
right now. It's about filling something that's that's just not
that that's needed or someone's thinking about. I have a
section of shows or that are based in high school football,
a bunch of pot casts that are successful and people
are in and it's like high school football is a
(35:05):
big thing, especially in the Midwest and the South. I mean,
football is a big thing period, and we're in, you know,
it's a big thing. And so we're getting parents, alumni,
students all into the podcast, making them successful, creating we're
creating community podcast.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
And you think about that idea too, James. It's like.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
If you think that, like being in Nashville, outside of
Nashville and the recording industry, and like what I've seen
happen with you know, studio time, the way people record
the expense involved in it, and technology has created this
amazing environment for people to do things. The amount of
the amount of people that you need to touch to
(35:48):
be profitable is also shrunk. I mean, you could be
you can be so micro in in you know, podcasting,
music genres. I mean all these different things, like you
can you can make a fine living. You know, it's
like everybody doesn't have to be Taylor Swift, you know,
it's like you can. You can do what you enjoy
and find find a little niche that you like and
(36:11):
do really well with it. I got to a guy
here in the neighborhood. It's kind of funny you talk
about niches. This guy is kind of freakish in that
he sounds exactly like James Taylor when he's sings. Wow,
it's we've done him a long time, but that that's
how he, you know. And and he was he was
messing around with the music business here for a long time,
(36:32):
and finally he decided, I think I can do this,
Like I'm just gonna be uh, you know, uh a
cover guy. And that's what he does. He goes all
over the country doing James Taylor music. So he doesn't
need a band he doesn't need you know, it's like
you can you can operate at a scale where you
can make a good living and enjoy it. I mean
that's I think that's the fundamental lesson that's getting very specialized.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yes, that's that's that's amazing. We're in it here. Come
back on again some time. Chip, this is great. I
love that.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Oh I've enjoyed it, James, I really appreciate having me on.
And I go to podcast on a podcast and I
feel like I made a new friend.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
That's how. That's how we know our new friends. We
are new friend. We are. And I want to take
Chip I Higgin's friends time the busics way. Where can
they find the book? Where can they find you? I'm
gonna put it in the description about what you've been
telling people at Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah, so it's on Amazon. I think it's like fifteen
dollars right now. We've got hardback audio kindle version. They'll read,
you know pretty well. I've also started up a new
AI agent to accompany the book. So unlike traditional coaching
of like having a certain amount of hours with the coach,
(37:44):
I've made I've made myself accessible twenty four to seven.
It's called physics on Demand. So I think if you
google physics on Demand. Going to be in San Diego
in a couple of weeks at the Small Business Expo
doing my first big public launch of Physics on Demand.
But I've had amazing feedback because all you have to
do is go in and ask a question and you'll
be in a one hour conversation and getting your full
(38:06):
implementation plan for what you're trying to do in there.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
So I highly recommend that. So those are my two
big things.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
And if you ever need a speaker on business or
anything like that, I love getting up in front of
people and talking.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Go to him. Folks find you, find you, So go
to him. Get the book, aget book. I'll put him
in description. Of course, a lot of help is I
have a Facebook page also, I have a lot of
help dot com. I have a daily blog which I
talk about all kind of stuff on the blog. So
check that out. We have some some fun stuff on there.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Oh that's awesome. I'll look forward to that.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Yeah, blog blog is against it's a good time. We
do that. Uh, and everybody out there just you know,
if you're thinking about it, or if you just started
or you've been you've been doing it for a while,
he feels stuck. Go to Chip, go to the book,
come to me, come to us. Let's all help each
other out again. This is the American dream, it's all.
It's all starts with small business. And I and I'm
(39:01):
not saying you should never strive to be big. Sure,
and it's fine, but it's okay to be small business.
It is And it's always been about I can't make
enough money to get my bills paid, put some away,
have some fun at the same time. And I'm proof
you can do that.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Well, you know that's right. I've loved talking to you, James.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Thank you everybody at home. We're here on Tuesdays. We're
here on Tuesdays, every Tuesday, new episodes. We'll talk to
you next time.
Well, go to another edition of A Lot of Help
with James loginor who am I? I'm James lot Jr.
Of jail J Media. I'm the Jilj of jail J Media.
That's right, kids, And I've been in business for seventeen years.
So I have two businesses, the super Organizer and of
course Jege Media, and I'm doing it for seventeen years.
I started for scratch. I was forty years old and
started as I'm gonna do my own thing and start
(00:27):
from scratch. And it's been a very wonderful, maddening, crazy,
exciting and very and some adjectives I can't say on
here journey and I wouldn't change it for the world.
I wouldn't say for the world. And I'm so glad
that I went on this path of entrepreneurship and I
(00:51):
love talking to people who want to help people like
I try to do with this show and other shows
on that same path, because I think anybody could do
it on some level. We sometimes you need something, we
need to learn certain tools to get there, but it's possible.
And this person says, I told before the show I
was gonna tell this. There's something he says in his
bio that I like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm going
(01:13):
to He says his philosophy centers on the idea that
small businesses don't need to be large to be massive,
and that to me is my motto. First of all,
I have built a mini empire. I have I have
people working with me for me, side by side by
(01:33):
side me everything. And I'm successful. I may not be
you know, a list out there. You know, I'm not Sony,
I'm not universal or whatever, but I'm JILJ Media and
I and I'm making money. I'm able to pay my
bills and do things and pay other people and and
I think that's such a great lesson and we're gonna,
(01:54):
we're gonna learn. But his thing blah blah. Let me
tell you about him. So he has around thirty five
years of experience into small business leadership and momentum building,
which I like that. He's a founder of Bhysics, it's
a transformative resource hub for small business owners, and the
author of the claim the Businics Way powering a small
business to maximum momentum. And that's something I think we
(02:17):
talked about small business enough. Small business is the backbone
of our country. There's a lot of small business and bounce.
I'm like with the middle children of the industry. So
help me. Welcome Chim Higgins.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It's great, it's great to be here. I really really
appreciate you have me. I'm never gonna have a great
time together today.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yes we are. Thank you, Chip for your times. So now,
first of all, I'm glad we said that that the
phrase the business plays won't be large to be massive.
Can you collaborate of that a little bit more?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, yeah, So, you know, my experience with small businesses,
I'll give a little background that I'll kind of cut
to the chase.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I think my experience with small business owners, I worked.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
In the banking industry primarily and rented all kinds of people,
all kinds of industries and you know, multi generational startups
or whatever. But I generally found that the landscape was
kind of confusing for them.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
You know, there's a there's a lot of books, there's
a lot of information, there's a lot of people selling stuff.
And when I wrote my book, it was really an
effort to simplify, you know, And I had, you know,
very influential physics teacher in high school. I wasn't a
great student, but you know it's in the book. It's
someone you could never forget. And you know, this momentum
(03:39):
equation just stayed with me, you know, and I kept
hearing people talk about momentum and business and you know,
it was just kind of like, you know, every everybody
was saying it, and I just reached a point where
it started like annoying me, Like it was just bugging me,
like is it is it really a thing in business?
Or you know, if it is, like that's the best
thing possible because it's such a simple equation.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
So that's that's the path that went down, and you
know the stories in the book.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I talked to a good friend of mine who's legit,
you know, physicist and Caltech trained, and I just came
to the conclusion that really it really is a thing.
But this issue of mass is one of the ones
that was really difficult when I was talking to Marcus,
my physicist friend, to kind of get his mind around
(04:26):
what I was saying about business mass because it was
completely foreign to him. Like, you know, so there's a
you know, that chapter in the book starts with like
the money Python riddle for the oracle you know, how
can a small business be massive? And so if you
take it back to the physics part of it, when
we talk about mass and physics, it really is very
(04:47):
little to do with size. It has everything to do
with density and the weight that you're bringing towards something.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I mean, that's that's really what it's about.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
So ninety eight percent of the massive any matter is
in the nucleus, uh, you know, and it's.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
All like protons and neutrons.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And how many of them there are and how tightly
they're packed. So I mean that that's really it. I
mean that that that that is the the whole thing
about density.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know, a volleyball and a bowling ball are the
same size, but they have completely different density from a
from a from a business perspective. You know what I'm
what I'm proposing in that in that statement is that
you know, if we if we have a heart for something,
uh someplace that we want to show up and be impactful,
(05:38):
I think that we generally will have trained ourselves in
life about what what the issues are and spent a
lot of time thinking about how we're going to show
up differently for people there. And so you know, part
part of it in business about being massive, is you know,
just having a value proposition. I'm sure, like you've got
multiple businesses, James, I did, every one of them you started.
(05:58):
Is a matter of you showing up for people in
a way that's meaningful to them.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I mean, that's that's.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Really what it's about. And you know, there are other
things at the core of a business, like you know,
your vision and your value system is really important.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Who you are as a person is really important, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I mean I think, uh, you know, they're you know,
I hate to be judgmental, but you know, you know,
they're really impactful people in life.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And then there's some that are just kind of flow
by and hear problem. So I think entrepreneurship is really,
you know, it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
About preparation and finding that right opportunity to show up
and be different and like super meaningful in somebody's life.
I mean, that's really that's really what entrepreneurship is about.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
So you know, I'm very encouraged.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I don't you know, I don't necessarily gravitate towards huge companies.
I admire them, you know, I've admired a Microsoft that
Bill Gates somehow managed to be in charge of that
company from zero to you know, ten.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Billion in revenue or whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
It is, like, it's so extraordinary that somebody has that
skill set to do that. But I just find that
there's a there's a creative energy around entrepreneurs about finding
a way that's very attractive to me. And that's what
That's what I find in the landscape today is we
have so many bloated companies that have forgotten parts of
their business that need better attention than they're getting. And
(07:23):
you know, like I look at the the drink industry.
You know, twenty five years ago, it's like you had
pepsi and coke or whatever, and now it's like, you know,
you get multiple flavors, you get multiple people have found
a way to you know, bring bring that unique thing
to people on a scale that they're able to make money.
So I feel like I'm rambling on now, James.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
But let me jump in. You did fine, because I
want to pick back off of that. I think Number one,
I found my success started to happen when I chose
to serve mm hmm. So when I started my business,
I was starting part was that necessity that makes money
some money I'm I'm not workingna a copy more in
(08:03):
San Francisco. I got to find a way to make
some money. That was part of it. Him I have
a house. I was that's part of it. But no.
But then when I when I honed in like, oh,
my first person is my organizing business organizer. And I
was like oh. Once I zeroed in on there are
a lot of women over fifty in parts of LA
(08:24):
who are either widows, divorced, or you know, the change
of life that need help. I'll just go help them
and women talk. This guy James can in my house.
He's so sweet. He did my room. You got to
your room here. You know you're messing with and and
that's and so when I learned that, I'm I'm here
to serve them, right, that's why making money, he said
(08:48):
JLJ Medium. I started to the media company. I started
some stuff outdrooring, some slapping, some videos up here and there.
But once the fan started coming to me saying you
we thout doing this show, or you're not doing this
or talk about that, I started listening. I was like, oh,
so now there's a given take. So everything that I've
ward ninety shows on my network, so that's over the
(09:10):
last ten years or whatever. But they're all the shows
a are a purpose for somebody, right, star Wars tuff,
even Star Wars stuff. I knew it serves a purpose
for Star Wars fans. Star Wars right at that. But
that's but when you said that, I go, yes, and
(09:30):
I'm still a small business. I'm a proud small business.
I mean, I'm like because but once I started to
serve and have and have a purpose and what I
was creating to make money, that I started making money
that sounded like familiar.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Absolutely, it's a byproduct. It's a byproduct of what you're doing.
I mean, you've got to be smart about what the
costs are and what you charge. But the first chapter
in the book is about energy, entrepreneurs energy, uh, because
we get into like you have to talk about velocity,
and you can't have velocity without energy. But relative to
(10:08):
what you're saying, I think one of the big points
in that first chapter is that entrepreneurial energy can't be
about money. I mean, it's got to be about that service.
And you know, I love that rich role podcaster and he's,
oh yeah, there's something about him that I really enjoyed.
I was listening to one of his shows one time,
and he said that, you know, when you're in service
(10:29):
to other people, your energy is inexhaustible. You know it's
not it will it will never run out as long
as long as you're you're feeling like you were you
were trying to help somebody or solve the problem for somebody.
And you know, I saw that many times in my
banking career, very short lived businesses that thought they were
going to make a lot of money, and beyond them
making the money there there really wasn't the heart for it.
(10:50):
And you know, you just find that they run out
of energy before they run out of money, Like it's
almost over as soon as they start. You know, it's
just it's not sustainable. Yeah, definitely, I believe pickback off
for you.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Again, the other point you're making about energy, because we
in our business always say it's not Sometimes what you
do is how you make people feel. On TV show sets,
on movie sets. Uh, I do red carpets. People remember
me because I'm kind. I show up on time, I
(11:26):
do my job like when we only so they walk
away going, oh my god, James and Juniors coming, Oh
my god, Chim Higgins is coming. I love me like
it's it's so, it's and that's energy. And so then
if you have success with that person as part of
your project, even better. Right. So then they're like, I
want to keep hiring him. Yes, there are eight thousand
(11:48):
people can do my job. Probably there's eight thousand James
Jus out there. Not really, but they couldn't possibly. Well,
what I bring to the table is different energy. So
I agree. I can see your physics your physics friend
is saying, but it's all about for momentum, you have
to come in with a certain ball of energy.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It makes sense right to me, it makes sense, it does. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, And you know, I think that.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
We talked, we talked in the first chapter about Connecticut potential,
and I feel like there's just a lot of potential
energy out there in entrepreneurship today that never starts moving.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And I think that, you know, that was.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
One of my hopes for the book, is like, if
there's a better roadmap that kind of conforms to the universe, uh,
you know, maybe people will find that path that taking
the first step and getting their energy in motion. You know,
I mean it's a it's a very it's a very
powerful and daunting thing to say I'm actually gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
But I think people have a lot of pent up.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Energy for things that gets contained by other rappers that
you know, they're in the corporate world, they're feeling safe.
You know, it's just and I just get amazed by
what people can do when they start. You know, it's
just it's really powerful. And you know, there's another thing
that I wanted to mention as as you were talking
about showing up on set and I feel this today,
(13:07):
just the energy feel.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Between us and.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Just the important of importance of connection in this momentum equation.
It's it's so important the way we are bonded to
each other. And when I speak publicly, you know, I
always point out that, you know, ninety eight percent of
the mass is the protons and neutrons and the rest
of it is about bonding. But that bonding can have
(13:33):
just this amazing impact on mass because you know, pencil,
lead and diamonds are basically the same matter with completely
different packing properties. I mean, they're the same. And the
other thing about connecting is that it is it is
energy producing. I mean, it's a difference between a mixture
and a compound. Is Basically, when things get bonded, there's
(13:55):
an energy created a release that you need all the energy.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
You can it in business. And I'm convinced to that.
So definitely definitely feel that with you today, James.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
When I said with you to do I do what
I want to bring up. I want to ask you
a question about that. I'm picked back with that. You
mentioned harnessing energy to prove something that gives momentum, Right,
so what do you What are a couple of mistakes
that you see some entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs make the beginnings because
(14:26):
they're like, well, I have this idea and business I'm
over here over there.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Definitely right, there's there's there's a lot, there's a lot
of energy.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
In the book.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
In the book, I talk about you know, there's a
there's a linear momentum, and there's an angular momentum, and
angular momentum just makes you spin around in circles. I
talk about the pin wheel firework I used to enjoy
as a kid. You I was very colorful, but it
didn't go anywhere. Ex it's a high heat. And so
(15:02):
that's really getting getting into the first component we talked
about in the book about velocity is that you know
when you when you ask people where are you going
with your business? Uh, A lot of times it's very vague.
It's usually something like more or you know, they're they're
excited and to be successful in business. You know, a
vector in science has a direction of distance and a speed.
(15:26):
So now so to comply with the physical world in business,
you would have to say the same thing about your business.
I mean, exactly where you headed, Like what's the target market?
How far into it are you going to get in
over what period of time? And I think that is
probably one of the biggest uh stumbling blocks for for
startups is that they have a they have a great
(15:50):
idea of something that's new and different, but they haven't
really defined a target segment that it's suited for where
they can go after that segment and speak their language,
use the imagery that's relevant to them, so they can say, look,
I've got I've got ten percent of the people in
this zip code are coming to my restaurant. You know,
(16:10):
it's just like they love their menu, it's got you know,
it's a mashup of Asian or whatever. You kind of
love all that, but you have to you have to
do the math of how many people are you moving
toward and how many of them would take for you
to be make a profit? First of all, but how
do you continue to guide yourself on a path of
like growing and share with that because that you know,
(16:32):
when you think about what we talked about earlier, it's
not it's not necessarily about the revenue.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
The revenue is a byproduct.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
But if your price ride and you continue to grow
in the number of users in that segment, the revenue
naturally follows.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And I'm sure you know it's the same for you
with listenership.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
I mean, everyone your programs has a different kind of
target listener and that to me, You know, first of all,
are you getting into business for the right reason? The
service orientation that we're talking about, that's let's let's make
sure you have the energy, But is it directed toward
something that you can you know, track and say that
(17:09):
I'm making progress and delivering the solution to people.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
If you don't have that, you really.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Do end up with a lot of angular momentum of
the idea of being in business of like, well, I
need to talk to marketing person, I need to talk
to you know, I need do I need billboards or whatever,
and you know you stop and think, you know, I
don't know that you've got a viable product yet, like
you haven't even haven't even been down that been down
that road yet, Like I mean, just take your time
(17:35):
and develop something that stands out among the peers and then, uh,
you know, figure out how you're going to get more
and more of that market.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Well we the people, well, I well, generations are changing.
I'm gen z gen x X total gen x. You
go your card, you just do it. It's you gen
zers are a difference. Well, some millennials are different. I know.
It's more about I have I think I have a
(18:03):
good product. It should just be a hit.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Right, Yeah, it speaks for itself.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So I always I love their spirit. I love their
spirit too, but I just I just want I'm talking
down like I just want to say it, but that
it's a different world now.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Sensitive to that.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yes, but we're but we're learning. Nothing happens that fast.
It's still that the world hasn't changed that much when
it comes to business building. And that's still still right.
There's still blocks that have to be built, right.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, like even even an app, I mean, like go
on the app store, Like how many bajillion apps are
out there?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
You know that.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
I mean it's just so.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I think if you can, if you can master that
part of it, the energy and a specific direction and
solution for somebody, you're gonna have a pretty good chance
of making it if you give yourself enough time. And
that's another thing, is like people that they get the
urge to start something, they leave a job that was
paying them pretty well and they've got they've got six
(19:06):
months to start making money or they're going to be
laid on their mortgage payment. It doesn't work that way.
I mean, it's like you know, you've got you've got
the tinker in the back office, you know, your garage
or whatever. For sometimes years before we figure out, you know.
I mean, it's just it's a long it's a long
process of doing that, and you know it's the amount
of the amount of money involved in it. You know, it's, uh,
(19:29):
you got to keep balancing out, like when is when
is my big scale moment where I leave everything behind
and I'm I'm in this one hundred percent? And uh,
that's that's a tough call. And it kind of varies
by industry. You know, there's a there's a there's a
chapter at the end of the book that after I
get through the momentum equation, I talk about two other
physical principles that are closely related but they're not part
(19:51):
of the equation with leverage and friction. And leverage is
one that I talked a lot about the small business
owners about this. This is the reality of small business
startup is it's going to take you a lot longer
than you think it's going to take. So if a
lever is designed in physics to move an object from
(20:13):
point A to point B faster, then you need to
figure out your levers.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I mean what you know, what are what are the
levers that will move you along faster?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
And it may be contacts in an industry, or are
a group of customers you've already dealt with. I mean,
I think it's important to think about leverage as part
of that. And you know, there's a big part that
has to do with debt, but it's mostly about getting
started and being purposeful.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Moving in a direction.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And sometimes you find out like people that you thought
were levers are friends and they don't really have the clout.
You know, they don't are they not not really interested
in being a lever, how you look at them, I
see the potential.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I found for me. There are times I even had
to change. I had a pivot and change. I was
a pandemic hit five years ago that did a lot
of changing. For a lot of years, we couldn't be
in person both my companies. I was at a standstill
for like a two weeks. I was like, and then
(21:17):
non sense. So what I say. I padded for two
weeks and then I pulled together. But figure it out.
But one of the things that I really tell people
all the time is when I started seventeen years ago.
The first year, I didn't make anybody. The second year,
I broke even barely. I got excited. I I broke even.
(21:38):
I was like, I'm not great. The third year I
saw a small profit and then it went up. It's
been up ever since. But I'm saying that all time,
it took at least I would say four years where
I was like, oh, but even now to me, seventeen years.
But now I'm really making the money that I wanted
to make.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I've been on some other
pod cast now and we always talk about the failure rate.
You know, when I started banking in eighty four, it
was about fifty percent will fail in the first five years,
and it's still that way.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So you're you're just you're.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Describing this five year trajectory of like, think of all
the reasons to quit at year one, two, three, or four.
You know, you're don't have the cash, You're don't have
the energy, whatever it is, you know. I mean, so
I think if you you know, if you study this book,
I think I think it'll be a lot of insight
about what you what you need to equip yourself if
(22:34):
you're going to be successful over five years. I mean
that that's really why I wrote the book. Is you
know why I put your whole life on the line
for a fifty to fifty proposition. You know, it's like, yeah,
I mean John John Maxwell say it says it's easy
to be average, you know, I mean, what what would
it take to be above average? Like, well, you got
(22:55):
you've got a ten You've got a ten percent chance
of not making it instead of fifty percent, you know.
I mean, it's just to play the odds and be
prepared well.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Also, I mean it's something that you know, but we
were kind of touching it on Tony Conventional earlier. It's
just again the energy to go all in. I have
mentees and people I talked to it, and I always
tell them it's up to you. I mean, I can't
tell you what to do. I can give you suggestions,
but that part that's on you. That's that's your mindset,
(23:24):
that's your energy, that's your drive. And yeah, you and
I could give people, you know, ways to reframe things.
One thing for me to leave. I left. Seriously, people
all love people to my story out there, but I
guess don't know. I left this high powered insurance education job.
I was there ten years, making like two hundred thousand
dollars a year. There's a nice apartment in San Francisco.
(23:47):
It was that money coming through, bills were paid. I
was like taking trips. I wasn't happy. I just I
was pushing papers. I wasn't happy. So when I stopped
and I thought it was crazy. And during the recession
of two thousand and eight, recessions, right, you're crazy, I
was like, I probably am crazy. I'm gonna be a
little crazy to do this. But I said, but my
(24:07):
reframing wasn't I'm losing all of that stuff that was
not my my reframe. Look what I'm about to gain.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, that energy toward the positive. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
That's what it is. Chip. I mean seriously, we had
to really look at it a whole different way. Yes,
So no, I'm not losing that. That stuff. I'm shedding
that stuff. That's I'm like, that's not what made me.
It was soulless working and not make me happy. Now
I can do whatever the f I want.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, I mean I found I found that in my
own trajectory, you know, and unfortunately I feel like I
succumbed to it a little bit because I mean I
started physics in twenty nineteen. It was just kind of
a you know, a coaching practice, and then COVID hit Yeah,
and there weren't a lot of people thinking about big dreams.
It was kind of how do I get PPP money
(24:59):
and get through this? And honestly got very discouraged about it,
and you know, uh, that idea of like leaving it
behind and being happy about it. You know, I started
started getting backing back to the banking industry and I
gave in and I was like, oh, and I worked
at three banks in three years. Oh okay, But you know,
(25:20):
in the middle of that, I did make this huge
decision to write this book because I wouldn't let you know,
I wouldn't let go of the idea of physics. But
I kept getting that, you know, that safety call back
to something that was familiar.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Okay, So a question for me for you is, because
this happens, we have to give you grace. This stuff's happened.
I've been tempted a few times go back. I mean
they were like, come on, Jay, come to the dark side.
Know when they do it. But what I want to
ask you, so, what have you learned? Was one big
lesson you learned after doing those three banking jobs in
(25:56):
three years.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
You have to listen to your gut. You can't deny it.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I mean, you know, at the end, I knew that
I had made the same mistake multiple times, that it
was not I had. I had to be one hundred
percent in and not look back. I mean that that
was such a powerful lesson to me. And I feel
like sometimes I'm a very intuitive person, and sometimes I
(26:23):
get into this rational part of my brain because I
don't trust it.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
It's like I keep saying you know, overthinking it and
tamping it down, and that doesn't do me any good
at all. You know. It's like you got to go
with the passion and the you know, the bliss part
of it and just have faith. I mean, it's such
a faith walk, honestly. I mean, it's like you have
to have faith that what you're doing is important and
(26:49):
that you care enough to do good things for people
and it will.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
All work out. You know.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
It's a it's very daunting, you know. I don't I
don't like talking about that part of it. But also
I feel like, at the same time, like it gave
me some space to write my book, which I'm really
happy with, and I feel like that is kind of
a scaling thing in its own right, that what I'm
about is accessible to a lot more people and I
could ever.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Meet with one on one, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I mean, I think that's uh, you know that that's
a really good thing that came out of it.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
That's good. That's good. But but I mean, I mean,
it's I know, it's a tough time, but but you
some good came out. But obviously I was just saying
out of things, beauty can be born.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
As they say, I was you know, there was this
probably goes back fifteen years. But when I when I
was starting on the John Maxwell team, they had all
these guru people that would, you know, give lessons and
things and I'm coaching and uh, this is something I
repeat fairly regularly, but there was one session where the
whole topic was about the word decide and uh that
(27:48):
when you know, decide is the same word as like
in size or excise, and it's all about cutting and
you know that that decision and basically says, you know,
you haven't decided if you haven't cut it off, cut
it off. You know, it's like you haven't you haven't
really made a decision until you say that's I'm done
(28:09):
with that part of my life and it doesn't work
for me anymore and I'm not going to do it.
So I give you a lot of credit, James. I
mean to, uh, to walk out and just stick to
it and crank it up over seventeen years. And that's
an amazing story.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I'm crazy right after ask me, I mean, so here,
here's something funny. So when the pandemic hit and said
everything stopped in Hollywood, I mean everything stopped, so I said,
because I was working for a network based out of
everything stops. I said, I would have become my own network.
(28:44):
I would take my business. Yes, yes, myself who wants
to go along for the ride? And so everybody else
was afraid to it themselves.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
I love that James crazy.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
I had no idea. I had no idea I'm gonna
figure it out. But I had and I was like,
I'm going forward. I'm excited. But it's like, okay, I'm
going to do this, and people came along with me,
and I have some wonderful collaborators and wonderful producers, like
we're working out, but like, oh, I had no idea
what I was doing. I'm like, I must be crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
And you did it here, you're still doing it. I mean,
that's awesome. It was.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
But I think also one of the things I want
to get people talk about a little bit is that
you can nowadays and you see this change too. I
mean I I my first job was in ninety eighty four.
Actually my first time I had was the first job,
so we're probably around the same age. It might be
a little older, who knows, but I have seen the
workplace change, and nowadays I'm doing jobs that weren't invented
(29:42):
until like five six years ago. Those things, a podcaster,
those things, a YouTube like new things are all want
that right, things are all recent. So but I found
as a small business owner of this enterprise, I can
be a big fish in a small pond.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
But also I want you to talk about this too,
but also big fish, small pod But also niches are good.
Mm hmm our niches are good? How do you pronounce it?
I found some that have been good to me so days.
So you go from there. There are two things I
think nowadays you can be a big small business.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I think it's just uh, I can't remember who it
was talking about this the other day, but we're just
talking about.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
AI and oh yeah, a I you.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Know there's you know, there's there's clearly.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
A downside of it and in certain jobs, you know,
I think I think there are some jobs that are
more likely to be impacted by it early than others.
But I would say for a small business owner, you
have access to a C suite. I mean it needs
AI properly, you asked the right questions. I mean, you
(30:58):
you can be aware of so much stuff that most company,
you know, you wouldn't be able to compete with that
level of knowledge because it would be a company that
had eighteen senior executives that are doing market research and
all you can find this stuff out like immediately, And
I think I think that's a huge boost all these
productivity tools.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
I can't believe the stuff that I do every day.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
James's like, you know, I'm in chat GPT that have
got going into Canva and I'm like, you know, it's
like and I'm like, I just can't I just can't believe.
But I'm able to do this. That made it so easy.
So I think it does allow you to stay small
and nimble. You know, it's like, you don't you don't
(31:40):
have to have like a full time person that's doing
six different jobs because you don't have a full job
for them and they're all different jobs, you know what
I'm saying, Like that that would be the normal path
of small business owners, like well, I'm going to make
up a job description because I need help, but it's
going to be six different things.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
It's like you've got access to it right now. So
I think that that part is really really huge. The
niches is honestly one of my most favorite topics about
small businesses because that's that's where I mean, that's not
only where the action is, it's.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Where the profit is.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
And you know what what I going back to I
kind of touched on a little bit earlier, but I mean,
you think about how these companies have gotten so large.
A lot of them have grown through acquisition. They picked
up things that seem like they're you know, they're going
to be, you know, a synergy to their their overall
enterprise because now they're in this piece of the business
(32:38):
and they pick it up and over time, Uh, what
you end up with is in attention to the passion
of the person that started that business in the first place,
of serving somebody. And that's where a smart, you know,
entrepreneurial minded small business owner will jump in and say,
whatever happened to the people that were doing that? Like
(33:00):
is it still relevant? Can I jump in and do
something better now it's five years since the merger happened,
and there are all these capabilities for me to do things,
like I feel like I can make it better than
it was before.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
And that is you know, that's really it's a chapter
in the you.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Know, when I when I started writing the book, I
tell people I was writing about momentum and then be like, well,
I hope you write something about sustaining momentum, and that
that's that chapter on momentum where I talk about like
an entrepreneurial culture of every single year, every person in
the company identifying niches that could be a start to
(33:39):
something much bigger. I mean that that is a really
healthy thing for a business. And they're all over the place.
I mean they're they're everywhere, So you know, stick with
you know, the passion that you have and think about
the people that aren't being served and why. You know,
it's like how many companies could Amazon acquire and still
run them the same way? You know they're in their
(34:00):
early days? Like how many? So that's that's a that's
a huge part of entrepreneurship. And I think we're the
big values delivered. And then you know, you have to
be cognizant of It's like once you start blowing up
a niche, uh and and reaffirm to people that there's
money to be made in that niche, just buckle up
because capital will always follow the profits and somebody else
(34:23):
is going to come along seat. You have to have
that level of nimbleness to say these are these are
the ones I've identified. We're going to start here. But
I think in two years I could do this one.
You might need to move that two year one up
as you start getting pounded by people that have enough
competency to get in that niche with you. So those
are my general thoughts on it.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I mean, it's so it's I just think that it's
right now. It's about filling something that's that's just not
that that's needed or someone's thinking about. I have a
section of shows or that are based in high school football,
a bunch of pot casts that are successful and people
are in and it's like high school football is a
(35:05):
big thing, especially in the Midwest and the South. I mean,
football is a big thing period, and we're in, you know,
it's a big thing. And so we're getting parents, alumni,
students all into the podcast, making them successful, creating we're
creating community podcast.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
And you think about that idea too, James. It's like.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
If you think that, like being in Nashville, outside of
Nashville and the recording industry, and like what I've seen
happen with you know, studio time, the way people record
the expense involved in it, and technology has created this
amazing environment for people to do things. The amount of
the amount of people that you need to touch to
(35:48):
be profitable is also shrunk. I mean, you could be
you can be so micro in in you know, podcasting,
music genres. I mean all these different things, like you
can you can make a fine living. You know, it's
like everybody doesn't have to be Taylor Swift, you know,
it's like you can. You can do what you enjoy
and find find a little niche that you like and
(36:11):
do really well with it. I got to a guy
here in the neighborhood. It's kind of funny you talk
about niches. This guy is kind of freakish in that
he sounds exactly like James Taylor when he's sings. Wow,
it's we've done him a long time, but that that's
how he, you know. And and he was he was
messing around with the music business here for a long time,
(36:32):
and finally he decided, I think I can do this,
Like I'm just gonna be uh, you know, uh a
cover guy. And that's what he does. He goes all
over the country doing James Taylor music. So he doesn't
need a band he doesn't need you know, it's like
you can you can operate at a scale where you
can make a good living and enjoy it. I mean
that's I think that's the fundamental lesson that's getting very specialized.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yes, that's that's that's amazing. We're in it here. Come
back on again some time. Chip, this is great. I
love that.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Oh I've enjoyed it, James, I really appreciate having me on.
And I go to podcast on a podcast and I
feel like I made a new friend.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
That's how. That's how we know our new friends. We
are new friend. We are. And I want to take
Chip I Higgin's friends time the busics way. Where can
they find the book? Where can they find you? I'm
gonna put it in the description about what you've been
telling people at Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah, so it's on Amazon. I think it's like fifteen
dollars right now. We've got hardback audio kindle version. They'll read,
you know pretty well. I've also started up a new
AI agent to accompany the book. So unlike traditional coaching
of like having a certain amount of hours with the coach,
(37:44):
I've made I've made myself accessible twenty four to seven.
It's called physics on Demand. So I think if you
google physics on Demand. Going to be in San Diego
in a couple of weeks at the Small Business Expo
doing my first big public launch of Physics on Demand.
But I've had amazing feedback because all you have to
do is go in and ask a question and you'll
be in a one hour conversation and getting your full
(38:06):
implementation plan for what you're trying to do in there.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
So I highly recommend that. So those are my two
big things.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
And if you ever need a speaker on business or
anything like that, I love getting up in front of
people and talking.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Go to him. Folks find you, find you, So go
to him. Get the book, aget book. I'll put him
in description. Of course, a lot of help is I
have a Facebook page also, I have a lot of
help dot com. I have a daily blog which I
talk about all kind of stuff on the blog. So
check that out. We have some some fun stuff on there.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Oh that's awesome. I'll look forward to that.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Yeah, blog blog is against it's a good time. We
do that. Uh, and everybody out there just you know,
if you're thinking about it, or if you just started
or you've been you've been doing it for a while,
he feels stuck. Go to Chip, go to the book,
come to me, come to us. Let's all help each
other out again. This is the American dream, it's all.
It's all starts with small business. And I and I'm
(39:01):
not saying you should never strive to be big. Sure,
and it's fine, but it's okay to be small business.
It is And it's always been about I can't make
enough money to get my bills paid, put some away,
have some fun at the same time. And I'm proof
you can do that.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Well, you know that's right. I've loved talking to you, James.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Thank you everybody at home. We're here on Tuesdays. We're
here on Tuesdays, every Tuesday, new episodes. We'll talk to
you next time.
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