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What was your dream career as a child?
As a child, my dream career was to be a businessman who traveled with an art hobby. I didn’t have many opportunities to travel as a child, growing up on a small island in the Bahamas where tourism was the main industry. I was always fascinated by the tourists I saw and wanted to see the places they came from. Additionally, I had a passion for drawing and envisioned organizing art exhibitions and having an art and woodworking studio at home.
Describe the moment you decided to become an entrepreneur.
First, I decided that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. At 21, I was an international student with 90 days to build a career or business or leave the country. I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I explored the job description but couldn’t find anything that resonated with me. As an entrepreneur, I faced the challenge of not knowing what to sell, where to start, and how to gain people’s trust in my offerings. I need immediate financial stability.
Despite applying to over 100 jobs and getting no response, I discovered how to sell myself effectively. This resulted in 7 responses from 10 job applications. I started helping other people learn how to sell themselves and land higher paying jobs, usually with pay raises of $20,000 or more.
Then, I decided to become an entrepreneur. After 6 years of working and helping other people find work on the side, my father was diagnosed with dementia and my brother and I moved countries to return home to care for him. Then, I realized that I can’t stop making money when life goes wrong and I need to build a career with more flexibility. This transitioned me into full-time career coaching and later business coaching.
What drives you to work?
Client conversion. I help people restructure how they work, so that they align their work and their income with their life goals. Designing your job is planning how you will finance your life and the time and energy you have left to spend with family and loved ones. Here are three examples:
Brittany — Brittany quit working at a family-owned daycare and built her dream career by landing 50 clients in her first 18 months. He helps marginal non-fiction writers go from an idea to a compelling book with consistent sales. He moved countries with his partner and removed himself from stressful relationships.
Mo — After helping Mo get a 39 percent pay raise, he was able to buy a car and pay off a mortgage so he could move his parents out of Palestine. His father was a political prisoner.
Recently, a client of mine went from a salary of $70,000 to $210,000 with bonuses — it made a huge difference in his life.
My favorite part is when clients discover career paths they didn’t know existed before.
What is the most exciting thing you are doing in your business right now?
Recently, I implemented a 4X ROI or your money-back guarantee. My clients make a 4X return on investment after working with me or getting their money back. I’m also certified in Trauma of Money, which helps us unpack our fears and anxieties around making, using and keeping money.
What does entrepreneurship mean to you?
Financial and lifestyle independence, and serving others.
My favorite part is when clients discover career paths they didn’t know existed before.
What led you to SPI Pro?
I have been following Pat for almost a decade. When he launched SPI Pro, I had some serious doubts and imposter syndrome about joining. I wasn’t sure if I was good enough to keep up with other entrepreneurs in my business growth, but I always found Pat’s approach to entrepreneurship to be grounded, honest, and welcoming.
Also, I went through the phase of trying to get my friends, even entrepreneurs, to be my “business friends”. I quickly realized that instead of looking within my community, I needed to expand my community to include entrepreneurs actively seeking community.
SPI Pro offers a community around entrepreneurship and business growth. In the last two years, it has evolved to offer only access all Pat’s online course.
What is your most powerful interaction or learning moment in the community?
Resources are in niches in the SPI Pro community. My most powerful interaction is definitely with Mastermind! SPI has done a lot of work to bring the right people together so I can build community around business growth.
When I joined SPI Pro, I tried participating in masterminds led by other members and couldn’t find what I was looking for. I thought about leaving the community, but then I decided to lead my own mastermind. I put out a mastermind request describing the small community I’d like to have and the support I’d like. This mastermind has been going on for almost a year and we all say we are grateful and amazed by the knowledge, value and support brought to the table.
I am surrounded by many diverse skill sets – lawyers, accountants, entrepreneurs, therapists, nutritionists, doctors. Since joining and running Mastermind, I’ve launched a podcast, 3X my price, been a podcast guest for an SPI member with over 60,000 downloads per month, and I just feel supported. Now, with access to SPI Academy, SPI Pro is simply unbeatable value.
My mastermind gives me accountability and perspective when I feel anxious or question my next steps in growing the business.
What role has SPI Pro played in your business?
It gave me an online community and expanded my knowledge base, network and tools My mastermind gives me accountability and perspective when I feel anxious or question my next steps in growing the business.
I started a podcast and used it as part of my lead generation to generate 10k sales and podcast guestings from it in the first few months.
What do you like most about SPI Pro and what sets SPI’s community apart from other entrepreneurial communities?
It felt like support around the wrap. If you want community and accountability, create or join a mastermind. If you have a specific question about a topic, the forum is the place to get answers from people with a wide variety of expertise. If you want to learn about a skill, tap on all SPI Academy courses. There are many resources online that teach you one thing, but SPI helps you unlock a little entrepreneurial-focused MBA-like feeling with community.
What would you say to encourage non-community entrepreneurs to join one?
You grow faster when you’re not doing it alone, and the journey is less lonely. I’ve heard many people turn to their spouses, partners or friends who are employed to talk about their entrepreneurial goals and obstacles. When you can talk to someone who has been through it or who is going through it, especially when you are in an online group that is actively looking for a community to talk through these issues.
If you were to start a brand new online business from scratch today, what would it be?
Career coaching. For me, I find it easy to find work that aligns with people, and I’ve done it on 4 continents in over 40 industries. Business coaching is niche and takes a little longer to build clients. I don’t know if that counts as “from scratch”. If not, my second choice is a marketing agency. I love geeking out on the marketing process and writing sales copy.
If you had your start current Starting over today in business again, would you do one thing differently?
I will focus on experimenting and taking action in community rather than learning in isolation. I’d look for community instead of endlessly listening to courses, podcasts, YouTube. Then, set up sales channels and invest in marketing soon. I will soon be accessing therapy to support my change in how I see the value of my work and money so that I don’t let imposter syndrome hold me back so much.
My community will consist of community and accountability, course/course instructors and other entrepreneurs seeking therapy for healing. It would have been radically different and cheaper in the long run than a completely do-it-yourself approach.
If you were given $1 million today, with no strings attached, what would you do with it?
I will invest in new businesses and passion projects. I will invest $100,000 – $250,000 increments in new business ideas, leaving the rest to sit. I want to focus first on marketing and concept testing. There are a lot of great projects that I will be involved in that focus on social impact and social entrepreneurship.
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