E21: Accidental Entrepreneurs with Jeremy Miller

Jim: What is up Remote Start Nation! Let's get something started. I'm Jim Doyon and I wanna welcome you to another episode of Remote Start, where I bring you stories and strategies on how to start a business, build a brand and create your desired lifestyle.

On today's episode, we're gonna discuss what it means to be an accidental entrepreneur. In order to do so, I've brought on someone I've known for over 10 years, someone who I consider a good friend. He's been on TV as a tattoo artist, he's owned multiple tattoo studios for over 12 years, as well as a multitude of other business. Jeremy recently launched and is a CEO of his latest venture, Action Strategy. With Action Strategy, he's on a mission to help small business owners, learn from the mistakes he's made along the way. Jeremy was a professor in business management at Concordia University in Austin, Texas. He has his PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, his the lead auditor for World Certification Services, which offers certification services to quality, environmental, health, and safety, as well as the aerospace management systems around the world. Remote Start Nation, someone I feel can share a really good story about his entrepreneurial journey, and also with all his background in business and management, I feel he's someone that can come on and really bring value to help you in managing your business and setting up the systems and processes to help you scale. Without further ado, I want to introduce you to my good friend, Jeremy Miller.

Jeremy: Well, thank you, Jim. I appreciate it, man. I'm happy to be here.  Happy to be a part of it.

Jim: Listen, this is fun, man. We've been, I've known you for over 10 years we met in the tattoo industry and I loved it, man, every time you and I got together, it was always a conversation about business and you know, that as you know is definitely the key to my heart, and so I always, always hold our relationship dearly, and I'm stoked to have you on board, man.

Jeremy: Yeah. Well, man, before we go any further, I do have to tell you that, I've been listening to your podcast and I love it. I really gotta focus in on the one with the guitar bar, man, those guys, it's I want, I wanna go where's Nashville, right?

Jim: It's Asheville. You do Mark and Julia. They are, We met them as you heard through the podcast, you know, doing a little exploring in the city with my family and that led to obviously them being on the podcast. And now, you know, two new friends that I didn't have before, who I'll tell you, anytime I go to Asheville, we will be meeting up with them and visiting their bar and two incredible, incredible people.

Jeremy: Well, I need to find a client in Nashville now, just so I can go because I want to go watch people just jam. Like I I'm not there, I'm not the guitar player that can get up on stage and do that, but God, I would love to just sit in there, our audience, just have a beer, just listen.

Jim: You'll enjoy it, man. I can promise you'll feel like family, that's for sure.

Jeremy: Awesome!

Jim: So Jeremy, let's get into this episode, man. Tell me something  about you or about your business journey, that's different than a lot of other entrepreneurs out there.

Jeremy: Geez, man. For me, I did things backwards, I didn't go the typical path that most business owners do. I pretty much, when I got out of the air force, my immediate thing was just, less than six months later, I was business owner. I started my company.

Jim: Wow!

Jeremy: I had a bachelor's in business administration that I got when I was in the service, just because it was, kind of the degree that became easiest to get, but I didn't really learn anything from it. So I started my business before I really had any real business understanding. And then I started getting all this business understanding and knowledge and kind of backed up to the point that I ended up stepping away from my company to go work for somebody else to really get an idea more of what business ownership should be like and then took it a step even further and went into teaching in higher education, and then, now what I do day to day working for world certification services, where I get to go into different companies across the world every single day, to get an idea of what their best practices are and how they do things, uh, to really help to apply those different aspects to any company, you take a company that manufactures parts for military jets, and you can apply some of their same processes to a tattoo shop or to a clothing company. So I switched it all around and did it the wrong way.

Jim:  Wow, what a story, man. That's incredible. And for you to, you know, you think most, most entrepreneurs that are gonna start in an industry like the tattoo industry, to then go back, I mean, it's easy to get comfortable there and, and continue and maybe follow the path of opening up, you know, another tattoo shop and another tattoo shop, and, but you did a complete step backwards man, or I I'd say forward, right? Like you, you step back in order to go to school and get your yeah, sideways, but got your degree, your PhD, like, come on. Who does that?

Jeremy: Yeah, it didn't really fit the typical mold, but I think that's kind of where I really tend to fit, like if you consider, you know, you said a minute ago that you and I, every time we interacted at tattoo conventions across the country, right everywhere, every time we interacted, it was always talking about business, and I think being in the tattoo industry, an industry like that for so long, I began to realize that so many of these practitioner don't really understand the business side of what they're doing. They see that aspect, that I'm a tattooer, I'm a tattoo artist and that's what I am, that's what defines me. So that's what everything's gonna be about, but they tend to miss the bigger picture of what they're doing. So they might end up opening up a studio or opening up a second studio at third, but at the end of the day, it's hard to break away from I'm a practitioner to I'm defined as a business owner who happens to do tattoos also, and that I really it's the same kind of across the board, which is why you and I are talking about business so often felt rare. It felt like it was the exception to the rule.

Jim: Now being in the tattoo industry for as long as you have and starting action strategy, is that something that I imagine you hold dear in your heart, that that's gonna be someone you're gonna try to help as much as possible, right?

Jeremy: Absolutely. Man, I have a few individual coaching clients right now that are tattoo shop owners. And they're amazing guys, man, really amazing. At some days I I'm talking to them, we're in a session and I'm thinking, man, like you should be coaching me. Like you're, you're amazing. How do you not see how great of a business person you are? But see it because no one has ever said, right? These are the tasks that, that are required for a business owner, right? But they're told all the time, oh, you're a great tattoo, right? Especially when you consider our, you know, new social media kind of lifestyle, where you put your persona persona out there, right? The persona is I'm the tattoo artist. And no matter how good or how bad I am as a tattoo artist, still people are gonna tell you how great you are. So naturally you gravitate toward that where really your strong skill set might be in the business ownership side, but nobody ever points to that, so that side has more, but doesn't get built up as much. So I really, I see the tattoo industry as a place for incredible potential over the coming years. And it's an industry that I know really well, but I can't imagine how many industries are out there, like it, that has that same potential, but no one to really take the accidental entrepreneurs and focus on the business ownership side rather than the technician or practitioner side.

Jim: Remote Start Nation. If you're listening to this right now and you are a tattoo shop owner, I hope you get a ton of value out of this, but even if you're not, and you own a different business with Jeremy's background and how educated he is on running a business, then he's done it for 12 years, which is way above when most businesses are set to fail or succeed. So Jeremy has a ton of experience. I hope you can really listen and take a lot of value out of this episode and you know, Jeremy, one thing you just hit on accidental entrepreneurialship and, you know, I wanna know, like, what does that mean to you? What, being an accidental entrepreneur, tell me what that means to you.

Jeremy: Well there's, and it's a term that I really love and I find really does define me personally, but it defines a lot more entrepreneurs than you might have imagined. Recently I was introduced to a book by Michael Gerber, called the E-Myth. I read this book and I was, when I read it, I was amazed that I had never read it because basically he alludes to the idea that most business owners were technically, basically accidentally became owners, so they, they go back to the old idea that you will go work for somebody, and then as you're working for them over the years, you stay there, you build some loyalty and eventually they're going to retire. So when they retire, you either lose your job or you step in as owner, so you naturally become an owner, and in the tattoo industry specifically, I know countless people who that's happened to, you look at some of the oldest tattoo studios in the country that date back a hundred years practically, and those studios have changed ownership multiple times, but it's always somebody who worked in that position, right, somebody maybe who started out in ownership capacity. So when, with the idea of accidental entrepreneurship, it's the business owner who never intended to be a business owner, who maybe didn't study the idea of business ownership and what it really means, so I think back to industries like medical or dental fields, where, like I have a cousin, who's a fantastic business owner, and he is a dentist, him and his wife are both dentists and they have a wonderful practice, but they didn't go to business school, they went to dental school, they happened to be real kind of people, people, real they're definitely both extroverted and they like to be in front of people, which helps a lot, but think about how many dentists out there that went to dental school don't have that extroversion trait they're more introverted. So business ownership might seem really scary for them or might be very difficult because they never intended to be a business owner, they intended to be a dentist. Same thing can be said for, this is just a rough estimate, but I would say probably 90% of those hair salons you drive past every day or nail salons you drive past, or really any business that is sitting on the strip center on the side of the road that you pass by, there's millions of them out, and they're almost all started by people who never anticipated being a business owner and doesn't have that formal business training. It's very different.

Jim: But you look at do you look at that as an advantage or disadvantage or, you know, what can they do if they don't have that formal business training to, you know, not miss out on opportunities or to understand what it takes to grow their business?

Jeremy: Well, it's both, it's a disadvantage and an advantage. From the advantage side, you go in with heart really. And truthfully, that could sound cheesy, right? But in all, honestly, you go in with, with your heart and soul and your passion, right. I started to say a tattoo shop for one reason, I like doing tattoos, I like doing artwork, right. That says something to my customers, says something to the people that are flying in from around the world to get tattooed by me. Same thing with all the guys who work for me, they started tattooing because they wanted to expand their art, but it's a disadvantage when you consider it that you don't have the tools and the skills that could have been taught in say an MBA, you know, Master's of Business Administration, marketing course on how to get your brand out there, so those people that are missing those tools, it doesn't mean that your business is gonna fail. It just means that you might have a disadvantage over the people that did have that training for that hopefully the heart will make up for that and the passion will kind of excel you forward or propel you forward, but at the end of the day, you're still missing out on something that's critically important to growing and, and having a successful business. So at that point, I say, you know, that's where a business coach comes in, or even, consultants come in or even just, if you can't afford a business coach or consultants come in, just investing a little bit more of your time every day into your company. There's a good old saying that's says don't work in your business, work on your business, and when I first learned that phrase, it was kind of a, you know, mind blown kind of moment that helped me to really understand that, I'm defined as a doer, as a business owner, as entrepreneur not defined as a tattoo artist, the tattoo artist part is just the tasks that I do, but if I open up a different business which I have, then it's different tasks, so the, you know, the root of it all is that I'm a business owner. So if I even spend 10 minutes a day working on being a better business owner, then my business will naturally succeed a little bit more as a result.

Jim: Now, one thing Jeremy, that you know, other guests I've had on this podcast and something I'm a firm believer in, and I'd love to know your opinion on it, but, you know, I always look at as soon as you can afford to hire somebody to be, to take over what you're not good at, go out and do it. Don't be afraid to surround yourself with people that are better than you, right? Like that to me, it's some, it's a way that I've grown a lot in my businesses, and, you know, what's your opinion on that?

Jeremy: Delegation's critical. It really is, and if you can afford to hire somebody, that's better than you at it, that's incredibly important. There's a lot of business coaches and presenters and speakers out there who will tell you that ego is the biggest killer of business. And that's kind of where I see this. You know, if you consider the idea of someone who's better than you, a lot of people have the ego that'll get in the way of that and say that no, nobody can be better than me at this, at my tattoo, at my tattoo studio, I want to be the best tattoo artist, there is. Well, my tattoo studio is only gonna grow as much as I grow, if I bring in somebody who is a better tattooer than me, then that's propelling me forward, just as in management, right? If right, you do your own books, then that's great Congratulations. You do your own books, but if you hire an accountant, who has a specialist who does a better job at those books than all that time that you spent working on your books could have been cut down to where you just send them the information and then you get to put all that time into more important things, which might not even be the business that could be family time, right? Like, like if life's not happy at home, then it's definitely not gonna be happy in your business, so you have to make sure those things are in balance. So if you have the ability to delegate something out to someone who is a specialist, do it, do it for your time up to be able to invest where it's gonna be most valuable.

Jim: That's great advice. And I it's something I agree in so much. And it's through all the businesses I've ran it's the same thing. And definitely can't let that ego get in the way, but the sooner you can bring somebody in, you have to be aware of what you're not good at, right? Look at it as like, understand what you want first, understand what your goal is, understand what drives you and is gonna make you happy and don't be afraid to admit that you suck at other things and if you do bring in those other people. So, you know, you've traveled around this world, you've experienced things that most of us have it in life and hats off to you, man. I absolutely applaud you for that, but you know, you've been able to sit down across from business owners everywhere you've been, and you get to see best practices, you get to see worse practices, you get to see a lot in these entrepreneurs and business owners that, you know, I'm sure helps you to become a better business owner, and it's gonna help you through action strategies to, you know, to help coach others through it. Give me some of those stories. Let's talk about some of the things, some of the winds and losses that you've experienced that, you know, might be able to help the Remote Start Nation and what we're doing.

Jeremy: All right, man. Well, everything in my opinion is about balance, right? And I think most, very successful people will tell you that, but out of all the companies that I go into and I'm typically on site with the company 145ish days per year, right? So a very significant portion now that could be one company for two days or three days, or it could be, five different companies in a week. But on average, I'd say I'm probably in 75 different companies per year, and with those, you can look and you can see when they are just focused on the process, yes, things might, the efficiency might improve, but the morale suffers or the opposite when they're just focused on the people, everything's great, the morale's gone wonderful, but the process begins to break down, so you have to find the balance, right? So I was recently at a manufacturing organization where, they're working on putting some processes in place and they have 10 different people that are all working on little bitty things, right? So I got a cup here and it's got ice and it's got Dr. Pepper. So if you think if this was the company, they would say, all right, well, one person's gonna go get the cup we're gonna write a procedure for how they're gonna go get the cup, the next person's gonna put ice in the cup, they're gonna write a procedure for how that's gonna happen, next person will fill it with Dr. Pepper, the next person will put a straw in it, and then the user, the end user will be able to drink it. Well, that's a little bit overkill, right? There's no balance in that they're focused so heavily on defining every aspect of the process that they remove the human component to it, and I think that it killer to the efficiency of every business. At the end of the day, you might make more profit right up front, but at the end of the day, when you finally get a couple years or a couple months down the road, you stress everybody out to the point that you don't have happy people, and as soon as they get another offer, they're gone, and then you're relying solely on those procedures, But on the, when you get a focus on the people, I think you tend to have more malleability like the people in the company, start to develop a bit of loyalty when they realize that you're focused on them. So I would say that most businesses that I go to, if they're focused on the people first, and then the process is as a result of that and then always considering how it relates back to the people, then the success is much more likely that was recently at another company and another manufacturing organization, and we came across a forum that, you know, isn't being filled out properly, and I brought it up and the boss says, well, I went out and I yelled at them last month about that, they should have fixed it, but you know, they don't ever get it, right? So I have to go out there and yell at them every month or two. And, you know, and basically I tell them, if you can't do your job, right, you're gone. And I asked him, how long has that been going on? And he says, you know, it's always the case, it's been the case for the last 20 years. I said, well then, clearly your approach is not working right, wasting your effort, if you were to, let's say that takes you 10 minutes and you have to do 10 minutes a week on this. Well then at the end of the month, you're at 40, 50, 60 minutes, you're almost an hour each month that you're putting into this. So that's 12 hours over the course of the year, take two hours and actually solve the problem, and get back to the root of it and figuring out what's really going on and how you can motivate your people to do what you really need them to do and then you don't have to worry about that hour a month now that hour a month can be dedicated to figuring out how to bring some efficiency to your process or take the hour off and go home and spend it with your kids. You never know, right, open up.

Jim: Talking about that, thinking about the people in an organization, something that I believe is very important and we, I help businesses with this all the time with branding, it's a big part about branding, but your organizational culture and, you know, looking at the things from an ownership standpoint of what are the important things to you and we already hit on this in this episode, right? Like what's important to you first, looking at your core values, and then even looking at the vision of where you're looking to take the company and your mission, your overall mission. Those are very important aspects of defining your branding, defining your business of who you are. I feel like a lot of times in an early stage company, a company that is just starting off, it's one or two people, You cannot to write these things down, you cannot to, you know, focus heavily on any of these criteria because you're so focused on being in the business, not on the business, right?

Jeremy: Absolutely.

Jim: What part do you feel is, do you think there's, is there ever a, when it's too early to lay out your, I'm with you, talk to me about that a little bit.

Jeremy: Never, there's never a time when it's too early. Now there's definitely a time when it's too late, when your business is failing and you can't figure out what's happening. It's probably because you don't have a dedicated mission, core values and vision, right? That's those three components everything to a small business, right? Yeah. So have you ever heard of Vistage groups?

Jim: I have not.

Jeremy: Okay, Vistage groups, I'm gonna give a little plug to Vistage because I'm so thrilled with my experience and it, but basically Vistage is a group, a mentorship group. So you're in a group with other guys or gals that are pretty much on your same level, roughly, right? So you're all like my group is of CEO slash owners group, and I have 12 other people in this group that all would bounce ideas off of each other and we tend to you know, kind of go through these different strategy sessions and things like that, right? So when I'm in my group or when I was in my group a few months ago, I was asking them and teaching them one of my courses that I have coming up and I started talking about organizational culture and one of the guys said, well, who's your target audience? And my target audience is new business owners, accidental entrepreneurs were just getting started, and one of the guys said, you know, if that's your target audience at that stage, I don't care at all about culture, I didn't have time to deal with that, I'm dealing with all this other crap, I gotta figure out how we're gonna pay rent this month, I gotta figure out why the toilet's leaking or why everybody stole our pens, right? Like stupid little things like that get in a way. I started thinking more about it and realized, you know, any business owner at any point, if you just take a few minutes, even if this is like at night, when you're at home, sitting on your recliner, watching Netflix, like take some time, take 10 minutes and say, this is what I wanna define my mission, I haven't even started my business yet, but the mission is gonna why it's going to start, why it even exists in the first place, right? And then once you know that, then you can say, okay, how am I going to be successful with this mission, what values will define me going forward? So if you're that owner who is not actually an owner yet, and you're listening to this podcast thinking I want to start a business, well, this is perfect for you. Now, you know how to go forward. When I first started my first business, it was in 2009 and I didn't do any of this, right? I didn't consider that a mission was even necessary because we do tattoos, that's what we do, that's all anybody needs to know about, we do tattoos, this is how much we charge, we're open 24/7, really, if you wanna be straight up honest about it, we will come in whenever it's necessary to be able to do your tattoo, but then I went to hire my first artist and right, I picked an artist that did not in any way align with my core values and the result ended up being six months of pure chaos where my clients weren't happy and new potential clients came in the door and immediately left, because there was this chaos that existed in my company because my values and the values of that person who worked for me, didn't align, even moving forward, if you move forward about five or six years, the values of the company changed, right? So those core values didn't stay exactly the same, and as a result, I ended up pushing out guys that worked for me that were very valuable to have, and I nearly killed my company because of that, because my values and the values that I tried to impose in the company didn't line up with the way the other guys were. So that specifically, my values turned into money, right, that was what I valued over everything else. Whereas the guys that worked for me, they valued art over everything else, and there's a clear disconnect there. So my, when I said, well, I'm gonna fix that, right. So to fix it, I said, Demanding that everybody that works here spend at least five hours a week working on a new art project, well, I don't know if anybody listening here knows anything about art, but you can't demand somebody to be creative, it doesn't  so naturally those guys basically gave me the finger and left because value was focused on the wrong thing that, and it wasn't in alignment with what the company had, right with what the people in the organization had.

Jim: You lose a, you lose a lot of momentum there. When you're bringing in people and the faster you grow, the harder it's gonna be, unless you have your values and your mission laid out, and you know, even as it's someone coming into a business, like I wanna know that about a company, I'd love to know that I wanna make sure that this company stands for the same thing I do, and if not, then it's pretty easy to make a decision and leave, right?

Jeremy: Yeah, well, in my Vistage group, like if we're going through a scenario where somebody in the group has an issue and, and we're all talking about that issue specifically, and it all giving our ideas, it always comes down to well, what are your core values of your company? Is the decision that you're thinking about right now, does that align with your core values and every single time, and I'm talking about successful business owners here, we're not talking about guys who are just getting off the ground, these guys have been in business a long time and they're successful, but every single one of them will say crap, you're right, it didn't align with my values. Now I have to re redirect, because that provides your guidance, it really hopefully does, and as long as your mission and core values are aligned, then you have the guidance to reach your vision, you know, the direction and you know, the tools to get there, so every decision you make can now be related back to those.

Jim: Jeremy, thank you for sharing that. That was great information. I couldn't agree with you anymore. Brand values, getting your, your mission, your vision, everything laid out right away. The sooner you can, and it doesn't have to be in you know, we like to put together brand decks for our clients, and I think that's so important, and anybody that touches your brand can look at that and they get an idea of who you are, what you are, what they can and can't do when doing marketing, doing any advertising, but it goes back to the growth of the company and the culture, and if you have those things in place, as you mentioned, you're only going to have that much more success and scaling because everybody that you hire, like you said, they're going to be on the same page as you, they're going to understand. And you're only going to hire the people that makes sense to fit within your organization. So I thank you for that, that was you, you and I are absolutely on the same page as that, and I wish more people understood the value and hopefully if you're listening, Remote Start Nation, you took some of that to heart and it doesn't have to be an extensive document, like Jeremy said, if you're, if you're watching a show at night or whatever it's, jot down your notes and as you start to hire and as you start to get bigger, then make it into a, a more well drafted document, make it exactly stand out for who your business is and what it's meant to become.

Jeremy: Yeah, you're defining yourself. So, my business, I have a business coach as well is I know you do, and then my business coach has a coach and then I coach other people, we all see the value of getting that extra perspective, but my business coach likes to say that culture is the thing that defines your organization and attracts good talent, and keeps that talent, right? It keeps the people that you want, right when you take away that monetary compensation, you take away money, like why does somebody work for you? They work for you because of your culture, and the mission values and vision are really what start that definition of your culture, so at any point at any stage in the business, there is value in returning to those three key components and really determining what are they do, they still fit, but is still accurate are the decisions that we're making in alignment with that? a Few months ago we were really hurting for another tattoo artist at my studio, we had one guy that had left and so we were, we needed somebody else and we had somebody come along that did really great work, wanted a job and we were talking about it, talking about it and talking about it and what we came to was this person as good as they are, they don't fit our same values, so if we, then it's actually, it might solve an issue right now, but it's gonna cause more issues down the line then, and it's not going to equal out to the benefit that it creates today.

Jim: Let's talk about let's along the same lines but switching a little bit. I know for me, one of the ways I've been able to grow the businesses that I've owned is being able to take a step back, and like we've already talked about instead of working in you, working on, right, and one of those things is strategic, developing a strategy, developing strategic objectives, and really using critical thinking to get to that next stage of growth. Talk to me a little bit about that.

Jeremy: Well, I think critical thinking is a term that people glaze over a lot, right? And same with strategy or strategic thinking or strategic development, people think that if I'm going to think critically, then I'm going to make one quick little step down the line that I wouldn't have made before, but I think it was much further than that, right? So, I love this term, but have you ever heard the term metacognition?

Jim: I don't believe I have.

Jeremy: Okay. So metacognition is thinking about your thinking, right? So, that's what it means, right? So how do you think, I like to do this exercise where we just step back and get in, I'm not to sound hippy here, but almost a meditative state where you sit back and really focus on the way you're thinking, so in my head, I like to picture process maps, I like to picture something like an organizational chart where even like a fish bone diagram, where you can see things coming out and breaking out into different different pathways. So I'm picturing this in my head and kind of aligning my thoughts this way, but thinking about your thinking and engaging in that metacognition forces your brain to go a little bit deeper and a little bit deeper with the goal being to just go deeper, think more critically, so with everything we're doing, going forward in the company, we want to think in this manner, right? So this is not always gonna be a sit on your little bench at the end of the bed and, you know, cross your legs and breathe slowly in and out, not that crap, but really it's when you're in your business and you're talking with your leadership team, uh, trying to figure out what does next year look like, well, if you sit back and you say well, let's go back to say 2019 and everybody's planning for 2020, if everybody's sitting down and saying what could happen in 2020, the critical thinker would've said, oh, we could have a pandemic, seems crazy, right? But there's creativity behind that thought process. So I have one client who actually did that now it's wild to think that they could have figured out that there could be some kind of catastrophic event like this, but when they did it, they said, if something like that were to happen, What are we gonna do? How would we handle it? And they use a lot of nuts and bolts for the things that they manufacture. And so they had a little bit of a plan in place because they went a little bit deeper on that level of thinking, so when the pandemic started to hit, they thought, oh, the next thing obviously is going to be a supply chain issue because that's what we figured out would happen, if there was a catastrophic event. And so they went and bought a whole bunch of nuts and bolts. So when I went into their business in 2020, I was fully prepared for every, for them to be just like everybody else, where they had no work, they had an abundance of work, but couldn't actually do anything. Cause they didn't have any material, but lo and behold, they had an abundance of material and they were getting all the work from their competitors because their competitors had none of the nuts and bolts that were needed for these types of jobs.

Jim: That's where extreme growth comes in right there.

Jeremy: Yeah. Because you're thinking about what could happen, and then when you answer that question, you say, what else could happen? And then when you answer that, you say, what else could happen? You don't stop when you think you have the answer, you don't stop when you, when you've nailed it down and you are excited and saying, yep, this is what's gonna happen, right? There's a period of different things that come into play when you consider that, because every path has 50 different paths of things that could. But the more you dive into that idea of thinking critically and really making it an exercise, not just a, you know, routine meeting, but make it an exercise, the more prepared you are for when anything occurs, and then if nothing negative occurs, you've got, you're fine, you've got a great strategy for how to move forward then.

Jim: That is absolutely great. Great value, Jeremy. I thank you so much. Unfortunately, we're coming up to an end here and but I will say this, I want to, I wanna leave this as an open invite, this has been a great conversation, I really, really look forward to having you back on, like, like I said, to start this show, you've been a friend of mine for a long time, you are, you continue to just grow and grow your knowledge of running a business and it's been an absolute pleasure. Remote Start Nation. I'll let you know, I'm gonna put how to reach Jeremy, how to get in contact with him. It'll be on the show notes page. Go to remotestartpodcast.com. Check it out. But before I let you go, Jeremy, one question I really wanna ask, if there's one, you've owned a lot of businesses, if there's one thing that you can give the Remote Start Nation, before we go on starting a business, something that's helped you out or something that you feel like has been, if you would've done differently, you'd be so much further along, right? And we've covered a lot, but the one thing that sticks out in your mind the most, what would that be?

Jeremy: Man, I would really say, just do it. There's plenty of time in the day even when you feel like there's. Every, this was put to me a few months ago when I was getting extra strategy going, I've been coaching for a long time and doing consulting for a very long time, but it had not become a business yet, and I started getting it and I told my Vistage group that I was running out of fuel and they all looked at me and said, how much TV do you watch tonight? And I said, I don't know, two hours. And they said, well, take 30 minutes out of that. And into your business, it's not complicated. We get in our own way, right? We end up staring at our phones for hours on end aimlessly scrolling, take 10 minutes out of that and do something for your business today. Even if you are 10 years into your company, take 10 minutes to work on it rather than working in.

Jim: That is great advice. Thank you, Jeremy. Again from the bottom of my heart, can't thank you enough for taking your time to be here with the Remote Start Nation today. Remote Start Nation, thank you for joining us.

This has been an awesome journey and we're just getting started. So I ask, remember to leave a comment, subscribe, share this episode with your community who you think can learn from what Jeremy discussed today.

Until next time as Jeremy said, just go do it, go start something, start it today. Go build a lifestyle you desire and take action. Thank you. Remote Start Nation. And we'll see you next time.