how do leaders lean into funding their vision?
That's a great question.
So with my approach is I was Army,
so I use a lot of my scholarships
to get certifications in schooling.
So I didn't actually have to pay for my licenses,
certifications, things of that nature because of that.
And obviously that's not everybody,
but take advantage of where you work currently
if you're about to get out of the said nine to five
or the career to go full time in your business
and see what incentives there are.
And also based off your ethnicity,
there's so many college funds, grants, business grants,
there's so much stuff that people don't realize
are out there, basically free money.
And that is out there that people are unaware of.
So I would just really sit down,
take two hours on the weekend
to see what funding is out there.
And that's outside of taking out a business loan or anything.
Like there's a lot of information out there.
And on top of that is also a huge thing
that I learned from my mentors,
just a quote that stands out is skills pay the bills,
skills pay the bills.
And he's like, if you suck at sales, focus on sales.
If you suck at speaking, focus on speaking.
He's like, if you suck at closing, focus on that.
And we just keep it very straightforward
because business is linear.
And he was like, people read like level 12 business books
and all this and they don't help them right now.
And so my other recommendation would be to ask yourself,
what is the most important skill
that you need to work on right now?
Maybe it's content, maybe it's public speaking.
But with that being said is that,
that skill is gonna move you forward faster
than most things.
Cause some people, they can within one month,
crank out sales and provide amazing value,
but they were just about to take another course
on something that's totally different
that they don't need right now.
So I would really assess what resources are out there.
What skill do I need to elevate?
And three, I don't necessarily have a business partner,
but if you do really vet your people,
it doesn't mean that getting into business
with family is bad, it's 50-50.
With your best friend is bad, 50-50.
So personally, I like to do it solo.
I'd rather work with a stranger.
There's no history, there's nothing else.
It's just the way that I work with somebody
I was in the army with and I haven't seen them
in eight years.
And we're like, all right, here's the vision.
Here's what we're gonna do.
But as a whole, it's all depending on the person,
but definitely the best thing is to look at the resources
and your skills and don't feel that you need
to have said capital.
Because another perspective is some people,
they get the capital, but they don't have the skills.
And they're like, oh shoot, now what?
Yes, yes.
They got the LOC, they got the office,
they got the things and it's like, all right,
you had eight calls, we didn't close anybody.
So the capital is irrelevant.
And so I just go back to the skills
because skills pay the bills because if you have
sales skills, closing and speaking,
you can create anything out of thin air.
As long as you have a good service product,
but just my perspective and experience is that
my younger version in business,
I would read every business book.
Yes.
And I realized that I was at level zero
or level one in business.
And I was learning this high level stuff.
And I was like, oh yeah, I got all this information,
but I don't use any of it until nowadays.
And I was like seven years ago.
Makes sense.
And I realized that I was that motivational
dopamine hit person where I would learn to learn,
but I wasn't able to apply any of it
because I wasn't even at that level.
So I had a lot of useless information
that I couldn't really take action on.
So nowadays I don't read anything unless I need to use it.
Like in a moment.
Like I rarely read, so there's a lot of books behind me,
but let's just say that I like Grant Cardone
mentality or sales.
I'm like, all right, let me open up that
or get into his course.
All right, got the golden nugget.
Now I don't look at it again for a couple of months
and I'll take action.
And then I get the result for myself or a client.
And then everything starts to go up
rather than going to old school route.
Because nowadays you can find information
that you need of what is most important.