Entrepreneurship, Websites & Winning

0:13 We're tuning in for another episode Bankedoutt radio show. I am your host, Andreas, and this is music and business talk. And I brought another entrepreneur via Zoom. We have Mr. Jason McKenzie of Boise Web. And I'm going to get into Jason's background real quick, which to me, he's more than a web developer. He does, I like to say from my own observation. Jason comes up with solutions. I don't think a lot of people actually talk about solutions and systems that people have to put into place. But he has Boise Web, of course, that focuses in on website development, but so much more. But Jason also has quite a few things going on where he also has small business, big visibility, which is another website. that, you know, it's more about the podcasting world, getting your small business out there. And as you know, I'm always highlighting people who can bring those resources to the community. So, Jason, thank you for coming on to the platform.

1:16 Thank you. I appreciate you having me on the show. You know, it was a I'd love the fact that you reached out, you know, just from that was it like a thread poster? No Facebook posts. I've been doing a lot of things where I've been just expanding my horizon a lot with a lot of different guests. It was, you know, in when we did our episode, which I enjoyed by the way. So, you know, with that being on record that I did enjoy that, you know, let's talk about this real quick. How often do you get to be the guest? Because you have a platform as well. Yeah. So I am not the guest as often as I'm the host. And so it's getting to be fun to be able to do some of each and be the guest instead of the host on a show Yeah, so because you get to talk about it from your perspective and then you have both sides of the coin. So Let's backtrack a little bit Has your career or what you wanted to do always been in web development? Oh man, not even close Like it's kind of interesting when I was a little kid. I wanted to be a basketball star that was where i knew that's where i was going to go david robinson all -time favorite loved watching him play he was my guy like oh man i couldn't get enough with the admiral yep exactly yep i love it love it but but my dad kind of cued me in he's like jason your genes are not going to work.

2:48 Like it's not happening. I'm not tall enough. I can't jump. I'm no spud web. I'm no bugsy bugs. So I was like, okay, I got to do something else. And what was interesting is I started programming computers about age 12. And so I got into that whole world really young. But then I moved to other areas and explored other things. And my dad, when I was about 14, said, hey, there's this new thing that's really happening. You should look into it. And I'm like, oh, whatever, dad. You're this old guy. You don't know anything. He's like, it's called websites. And he started explaining it to me. And I'm like, oh, that's interesting. Nah. And I moved on. And looking back, I'm like, man, I wish I'd have listened to that little that little nudge when I was 14, because I could have been in the space for all those additional years and had all that additional experience. But no, I actually was importing pearl jewelry out of the Philippines and selling it when I was in college. And I was like, man, I got to find a way to get in front of more people.

3:46 And I was like, oh, a website, of course. And so then I went to figure out how to build a website. And even then, I wasn't planning to go into building websites, but I was studying marketing and that kind of led me on this Bounce like almost like when you're playing pinball and the balls bouncing all over That was my journey to end up playing in the website space. Oh, do you still remember the four P's of marketing? What's that the four P's of marketing? Do you still remember the four principles of marketing? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, you've got to have your price and you've got to have the promotion, which I, the more I get into it, the promotion, I think is where people lack the most. And so I don't know if you see that too, but I see that over and over and over where people they'll set up shop and they knew they know who they're trying to reach out to. They know what price they're going to charge. And then they just sit there and like, man, it's a tough economy. Nobody wants to do business with me. And I'm like, well, like nobody knows you exist. Yes. No. Yeah. I think, yeah.

4:54 Like you said, you got the price, you got the promotion, the product and the course place. They figured out three of those, but then, you know, that's not talked about enough. And I always try to tell people, like, you know, when you learn about it. Like I used to tell people at the time like one if you have a degree in marketing or at least Understand marketing you're way ahead of a lot of other people because you understand like you said it's about getting your name out there and then marketing in You know advertisers people use the words interchangeably, you know for simplicity reasons we would just say marketing whatever It's changed over the decades it's not what it used to be this isn't like the I like using that reference you know the field of dreams you know just because you feel that they will come that doesn't work that way anymore um especially when it comes to with small businesses so let's jump into your transition so you're you're solving your own problem right with the website and putting yourself out there how does that uh First of all, look at you, it's an important jury. That is like from the Philippines. That is so like fascinating. Like, where did that come from?

6:12 Well, it's kind of funny. So I had a buddy growing up and we were friends, you know, as kids and things. And then we kind of moved on in life, but I'd always had that entrepreneurial itch. So when I was younger, I'd done some other things. I don't lawn care, done some other businesses. And then he had gone out and done missionary work in the Philippines and he came back and we were talking one day and he's like, it's so crazy. Like the amount of poverty that's over there. And he's like, we have an opportunity. We can literally buy the jewelry from them and give them a good price. But the markup that happens between... the Philippines where the where the jewelry is made and America where it's being sold is absolutely ridiculous and and he's like we can do so much better so we started he had the connections over there and I had had a lot of business experience so we partnered up on that and started to bring in that jewelry which it was a win for everyone because our prices could be lower than all the normal stores and we were giving more money back to the people that were actually doing all the harvesting of the pearls and building jewelry and we were also making a good cut ourselves so it was one of those golden opportunities where all the stars aligned to have a business fall into your lap and make it work. So have you always done entrepreneurial type things like you said you did long care like where did that come from did you see that right with your dad and stuff or your family dynamic

7:42 or were you the first one in your family to go down that path? looking back on back in into the family a little bit my grandfather was a farmer so he owned his own business his whole life and very much was running that, but it was also not like a massive corporation. It was more like the family farm and maybe a couple of helpers here and there. And then my father, he was teaching me a lot of these principles, but at the same time, he's always had a traditional job and worked in the corporate world. And fortunately, I had a very supportive mother who was okay with me breaking the mold and chasing my dreams. And so... I remember, I think my very first business endeavor, I couldn't have been any older than six, but I went in and probably used a stack of paper this thick and just folded paper airplanes for hours. And I don't know what I was thinking, but I was sure I was going to sell paper airplanes.

8:40 And my dad came and bought the whole stack for a quarter. I remember a couple of days later, I'm walking around, I look in their closet and there's my pile of paper airplanes. And he shoved it in his closet. of them. Right, it gives you your first like you know sale and stuff like that and encouragement as well. Do you think that's talked about a lot in the entrepreneurial journey or how it's being presented to the masses like having a support system and even like emotional support? You know I think that the world is is becoming more I well let me rewind like 100 years ago It was much more common for people to just start a business because that was a lot more of the natural life. And you look even back further at history and you go into the 1700s, very much everyone was just doing something to survive.

9:36 And so having a business... was just a natural part of life. Well, I'm going to be out there as a fur trapper. And that's how I'm going to make my money. I'm going to make my money as a farmer. I'm this. But then we had the Industrial Revolution that kind of pushed people into becoming employees and working for larger corporations. And now we're getting to this with the the information revolution where we have so much more information available, this idea has started to kind of rebirth that maybe there is more to having small businesses and entrepreneurship and it's becoming more in style again. But one of the pieces people miss out on is they'll be swinging the hammer working for someone and they look up one day and say, man, I don't like the way the company does A, B and C, I could do this better. but they don't have the all the base understanding because it wasn't the way that they were raised to be living in that entrepreneurial Spirit or maybe they were raised in it, but they were raised in that mindset of I have to do everything myself That's what the father's saying So he's out there working really hard all the time and they never learn that there's other ways of doing things So a lot of people myself included will get trapped building a business where you're actually stuck working too hard and not finding any success Well that you said it so let's pivot back to your chronological journey you're being successful

11:06 with the business where, you know, you're getting items from Philippines and stuff, and you built your website to solve the issue. When did you transition and see the opportunity, like you said, recognizing the golden opportunity? Hold up, I built this website and I can start attracting clients or taking, you know what I'm saying, that stress off of them because everyone doesn't have the temperament even today's age with the new apps and people not understanding all the things you can do with a website because I like to say a website and a web developer are two different people website developer that's why I said web developer because I went to your stuff and that's more about the systems and anticipating systems as well but one site one website or web developer I worked with, at one point, I think I had over 72 pages on my website, but all of them were not published. Of course, there was a lot of backend stuff for different things because I had e -commerce on there. I had very interactive things that you could do with the users and stuff like that. So how was that transitioning? Like, what was that epiphany moment? Like, you know what, I can go into doing this. And like you said, it reflected back to when your dad told you when you was 14. Yeah. So for me, that moment actually happened before I finished building the jewelry website and I started to question like as a partnership we'd noticed that we were

12:39 starting to drift in different directions and it And it was starting to feel like the natural time to kind of close that business down. But I had gotten all this education around how to build websites and the jewelry website was just about there. But then as I'm looking around, I had this buddy who was he was starting this other thing and had been going for a couple of years and I'm looking over here and I had to do an internship at one point. And so I went and talked to that company and I was doing some some financial work inside that company. But they're like, what about these website stuff? So I had just kind of these nudges that kept pushing me like I say that pinball getting bounced all over and and so I just kept having these experiences that were nudging me and nudging me and nudging me in that direction to get me down that path but it happened around the time I was ready to launch that jewelry site and I thought I was ready and I was like wait a second if if I needed this And these other businesses need it. And I'm studying marketing. And at the time, if you could get a website to be number one in the search results, you literally it was game over. You could have a gangbusters business just because someone would type in. If, for example, I'd gotten to the top of Pearl Jewelry, which I never did. But had I gotten to the top, someone type that in. We'd have been doing so much business that it would have been just game over. I could have sold the company for millions of dollars instantly, practically. And that was the environment back then. And so I thought, you know, the Internet's the future of promotion and advertising and marketing.

14:09 I've got to be at the forefront because if I'm not out at the forefront, I'm back where it's going to be dying. And I certainly don't want to be the guy that's saying, hey, this used to work 20 years ago. You want to keep trying it? No, I want to be that guy that was on the edge saying, hey, let's move into what's going to work tomorrow so that we're ahead of all the competition. How was it attracting your first client? Was that a scary process for you? Was it a confidence builder when you finally landed the first client? Or did you get your first client based off of just talking? That's the amazing thing. And I think that so many people who are getting started with doing a business, I think they do it wrong. Because for me, I didn't go out and try and build everything up front. I said, hey, I'm really interested in doing this, and I'm exploring this, and I'm starting to do this. And I had some people around me, and because I was so excited about it, I just started talking about it with them. Before long, those people either were interested themselves or they knew someone who was interested. The first couple of customers actually trickled into me just from me being excited and talking about this cool thing and this cool opportunity and what I'm excited about in life. And I think that more people can utilize that core group. that core support group, that core friend group to talk about what they're excited about. I'm not saying go and hard sell your friends because that's not who I am at all. But just naturally talking about things and being excited about things is going to lead them to be excited for you and start telling others. And you'll get your first

15:39 few customers that way. And that's a great way to start because it gives you that feedback you need early on. Is this a good idea? Is it a bad idea? Am I at kind of the right pricing? Am I the wrong pricing? And you can get some feedback really early before you invest tons of time and effort into something just to find out you did it wrong. Yes. So as you're doing it, what's the next bump or the next huge milestone that you're able to accomplish or roadblock that you're able to knock down? You know, it's interesting that there's been so many roadblocks and hurdles and issues, but The biggest ones that I've run into over and over and over, they actually don't exist in the outside world. They always exist inside my brain. And I'll give you an example.

16:28 So when I first started my company, I was like, I'm going to, I'm going to set up this company. And my goal is to never have to have an employee. And I thought that having employees just would be terrible. I thought it was going to be negative. I'm like, I, I'm the lone wolf. I'm going to go out there. hunt it. I'm going to kill it. I'm going to bring it home. I'm going to be wildly successful and I don't need anyone. And that was a mindset issue that I had that held me back for years because I thought it had to be me. I thought I had to carry the whole load on my back. But what I didn't discover is until far later and I should have known it because I saw so many examples of it in life, but very rarely as if never does anyone ever succeed on their own. I'll give you an example. David Robinson, he still played on a basketball team. He may have been the best, but he was still on a team and there were still coaches and they still had systems in place and he had teammates and he wasn't carrying the ball the whole time. He's passing to other people. They're passing to him.

17:32 They're working together and it wasn't they were all doing the same thing. You had a bunch of different positions and each of those positions was being filled. Basketball is just one. Football, baseball. Soccer even the people who are out there playing golf by themselves and it looks like they're on their own How many coaches and trainers and support staff and nutritionists and all these different people are behind that one? Solo guy that's golfing. How many people do they have behind them helping them forward and on top of that? How many fans do they have that are cheering them on? Keeping them going nobody succeed on their own. No one can do it No, you can't. I tell people all the time, first of all, you're a plateau in the business anyway because you ain't going to be able to build something of a massive scale because just scaling something alone requires other people and resources and infrastructure. So as you root, because from my understanding, you're walking your clients through this process of helping them come up with systems. What's been the one thing that you can see that's a repeat with a lot of clients not maybe not maybe every single one of them but it stands out to you as something okay this is what you know pigeonholes these small businesses from like really getting up there what they want to accomplish financially yeah so i've i've actually gotten to the point where i'm now coaching people a little bit and giving tips and tricks and i've

19:03 talked with and helped probably a couple hundred business owners at this point. So it's not something new for me to do. And it's more of I just can't help myself. I'm like, hey, I see you're doing this. Let's move you. And have you considered this or have you thought about this? And what I see over and over is that people will have some sort of limiting belief. So just the other day I was I was in a meeting with someone who's trying to step out and they've been trying to step into this role for a really long time and they just keep hitting this this wall. It's like a brick wall that stops them. And I said, Hey, I see what you're doing. Let's shift your mindset just a little bit on how you're going to approach this. And instead of going at it the way you've been going at it for years, what if you utilize some of these new tools that are available? What if you were to utilize YouTube instead of hating on it? What if you were to build connections with people via Facebook instead of holding yourself up and saying, I'm better than everyone else because I'm not wasting my time on social media.

20:09 What if you use these tools instead of hating on the tools? What would that get you? Because right now, this person can't even get past the brick wall because their mindset is holding them back. But if instead of saying that all these tools are evil, they said, how can I use these tools to better my goals and further my goals? So that mindset shift, that's what I see hold business owners back so often is they're so ingrained in their way of thinking. that they don't even realize that they literally have blinders on that keep them from seeing anything except for what they're expecting to see. Well, you know, I think if you're looking at everything from a whole from what I've been able to observe, they're taught that, though, like people like, oh, no, you got to put on blinders on. You just got to go full string, full steam ahead. But I think, like you say, that handicaps people because then you're talking to them and it's like. I'm sure you probably, you come across as a person who probably has this talent. It probably takes you maybe five, 10 minutes at the max to assess someone's business, right?

21:16 If you're just asking them questions, you can see where they've been and where they're supposed to go. Or you can see like holes in the business. And that's like you say, that comes through experience and that comes through working with a vast number of industries. because you get to see it from a business perspective, all different things. When you assess someone's business, let's just say you're just doing it from, you know, just from a standpoint, you're just being helpful. Do they receive the information the same? Like, are they willing to accept, okay, these are my flaws, I can fix them, I can get him to help me fix these, or they're adamant about... Well, I created this. This is my business. This is my baby. Don't be talking about my baby and all that stuff. Oh, man. You know, I think that the answer to that depends more on how I present than on whether I present. So if I come in and I'm talking down to someone and I'm like, oh, yeah, I can see exactly what you're doing wrong.

22:22 You're an idiot. Nobody would ever do business this way. I can't believe you survived this long. Like anyone's going to put their guard up. But if I come out and I say, wow, it's pretty incredible what you've already accomplished. You know, I was curious. Do you know why you do this one thing this way and just let them explain why they do that and let them talk through it? More often than not, they discover. that there is another alternative without me ever having to put my finger in that pain point and really poke in a painful way, they can almost self -discover just by asking a few of the right questions. And then people are always, not always, actually, I've had a couple of recently that were like, hmm, well, I'm not willing to change, and that's fine. But most of the time, I should say, people, once they discover that, it's almost like that light bulb moment, and you can almost see their eyes open up. They're like, whoa. wait a minute and then they have this idea and then they start chasing it on their own and you never have to tell them that there's a better way because they discover it. Do you have like a story that you normally are able to tell people like I guess your biggest success story with working with a client and what you was able to do for them whether it be like financial mindset they got back time you know because I tell like a lot of people, let's say when it comes to marketing and stuff and like, you know, content creation and all that, right? When we were talking about in my interview with you and I tell people, look, at the end of the day, you're going to get back your time. We are can't, you know what I'm saying?

23:54 We can't do everything. We're not supposed to do everything. So why put yourself in this position, especially if you're not creative? And with me, I'm extremely creative, but I'm always keeping the customer in mind though. whoever the customer is in mind and who they're trying to go after. And I use that to fuel the creativity and be like, okay, let's do this, do this, blah, blah, blah. And at the end of the day, that's what I'm selling. I'm going to give you back your time. You won't have to worry about, that's the solution I'm bringing to you. How has your experience been with all that? I've got two very different success stories. One, I started working with this company and it was a bigger company than your mom and pop size shop. But at the time I was helping them to a large degree with a lot of their e -commerce presence and some of the pricing structures and a number of things like that. And we just started working on it. And then we started doing SEO, which when I talked earlier, I mentioned how I said if you could get to be number one and SEO, search engine optimization is how you do that. And I actually have written an entire book for small business owners, what they can do. Anyway, we were trying to rank this website nationally. And one of the biggest companies in America, and I can't give too many details because of the situation, but one of the biggest companies in America came to them and said, hey, we want you to work with us. And this company

25:26 is looking around like, what? Us? And they're like, sure, let's do it. And it was a very lucrative contract and it had a lot of zeros in their initial number and it got better over time. But they asked that big company, why did you come to us? And they said, you have the two things that I remember them saying, you have the best web presence and your website is very professional. So we know if you're willing to invest that much into those two things that you're most likely going to be there in a way that we need you. And so that was their two deciding factors that I was told is their web presence was amazing and their website really looked professional. And that meant a lot to this big company. And they were willing to come down and work with a small company because they put that effort out there. To me, that was a huge success story because we've got my company's name down at the bottom that we built that website. Now on the other extreme side of the spectrum, we had this guy come to us and he said, I need a website. i'm just starting out and i really want to rank number one and take over the whole market and the whole area and he was a home inspector and i and i said you know we could do that for you it'll cost you a fair chunk of money but the big success

26:57 was we had a conversation and by the end of the conversation We had convinced him not to do business with us because it wasn't in his best interest. He was just starting out. He didn't have a big budget. And I said, you know, 90 % of home inspections don't come from the Internet. And is that right? Oh, yeah, that's right. How do they come? Well, they come from real estate agents. And so we talked about what if you took all that money that you were planning to spend on my company and instead you put together the best the best program to get in touch with and build relationships with real estate agents, which one would give you a better return on investment? And he's like, well, of course it's gonna be spending that money over here. And so we were able to find a place where our service wasn't a fit and send someone to do something that would really help them.

27:49 And so for me, that was a massive success because had I taken their money, I would have given him something he didn't need. At his core, he knew he didn't need it. He just needed pushed in the right direction. He's going to do far better because he went the right direction. And he's now going to sing our praises as well, because we didn't just take money when we could. We were truly looking out for how can we help our, how can we help our fellow men? How can we help our friends? How can we help our community? I think there's one thing that's very overlooked while we're talking about sales sales sales and wanting to get money and cash flow into your business. And then talk about the integrity part of that. in which I love the fact that you did that, because I've done stuff like that as well. I'm like, look, I'm not going to be able to help someone, especially like you said. You know what you can do for that business. You know what it takes to really push, because you know your numbers, right? And I tell people like marketing all the time, I'm like, look, you're going to be spending some money when it comes, especially when you say it like you're trying to be number one. I remember years ago. when I used to do a lot of promotional services for artists, but then the labels, independent labels would hit me up. And they're like, look, I got this artist I believe in, blah, blah, blah. For one instance, this guy's like, no, hey, I want to take over Atlanta area. I was like, OK, do you not understand that, first of all, that he was in Columbus? I was like, I put together a proposal. Look, I could do this cheaper than a lot of other people because I have the experience and I know when it's working.

29:17 I've done it in the past. So I have different things that I can implore that's going to work But you're you're talking about an unknown artist being known in a community in a city That already has major label artists there as well and independents. So you're competing with both And if you don't have the funnest to do that It's not gonna work out done a proposal isn't a half it was a four or five high figure range and he was like Man, it's gonna cost, yeah. And I was like, that's my rate. Everyone else is gonna be even more. So it's like, you said you wanna take over. This is what that looks like. You don't understand those words. Those words alone are very ambitious.

30:04 Once you just start trying to establish yourself first and prove, you know what I'm saying, like a proof of concept, then you gradually add to that. And I think that's where, you know, sometimes, people don't break down their really big goals into smaller ones to like, you know, help them get along to that big goal. Yep. And they have like a, you know, a different reality that they see versus what the reality is. What's been some of your, you know, challenging moments in your business and how were you able to overcome them? You know, I think my biggest challenging moment built up over the course of a few years and it just kind of festered and all of a sudden it just was there. And the issue was I was working super hard when I first got started and I had a ton of limiting beliefs. By this time I'd overcome that idea of not having employees and I had a couple of employees but I still didn't understand how it should work. And so I got to the point where I was kind of needing a vacation. And so I told my customers, I said, hey, I'm going to be gone for one week, no cell phone service, no internet, no Jason. And I had people looking at me and one in particular, they said, what if something goes wrong? I was like, I have employees, they can take care of you. And they said, no,

31:35 we need you. man what a punch in the gut it doesn't get any worse than that and in that moment i remember looking at them and there were several thoughts going through my head but i thought i'm gonna have to fire you and but what i really needed to realize was it wasn't my customer's fault It was my fault. I built the business that way. I was the reason that I couldn't go on vacation. It wasn't them. They didn't really need me. I just made the business set up in such a way that they thought they needed me. And so it took me a long time to unpack all of that and realize it's not them. It's not my employees. It was me. I approached it the wrong way. And I had to retool and figure out, okay, how does a person build a business? that doesn't rely on them.

32:30 How do I set things up so that everyone can be successful and it's not just this machine and I'm the central cog and I'm holding everything together with sheer force and grit? And that took me a few years to figure out. Yeah, they want to start delegating and passing on responsibilities and letting people take ownership in it too. That's why I discovered at one point when I was helping with a counseling business, oh yeah, what 22 people on payroll? Yeah. And I was like, That's a lot. You got to start managing folks. But I knew from day one that I, from an administrative standpoint, in doing a lot of the admin work, and then also operations, marketing, all that stuff, I wanted to put people in place. So they wouldn't have to call me. And clients, new ones coming in, didn't even know who I was. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. Because then I get, as a owner, a partner in that business, I got to go in to the location observe to make sure everything was being followed as far as procedures and policies and stuff and I got to witness my own eyes and listen with my own ears and how they took care of the clients and I was like yay they're doing right or okay this is what we need to tweak you know and go over some you know retrain and stuff like that or whatever so I definitely get that so you're you're doing this you're getting successful you're having a success When is it transfer a transfer over to one you just mentioned you wrote a book which

34:02 I didn't know about which is great I think is a great resource to you built a platform and podcast to where people can go when I see I've seen the website where the Small business big visibility where you have a I guess those are clips that are on there And then people can go watch the actual YouTube channel And there's a lot of information and a lot of gems there, too, that people can pull from. So, one, why even go in that area? Because, you know, podcasting what it is today seems like, excuse me, it's oversaturated and all that stuff. I don't believe that. But, you know, that's what the regular consumers believe. Because I go on active numbers.

34:49 But then, two, building a platform because it's different. You know, what's the problem that you're solving there? you have to figure out the why the why even go in that direction and then what solution were you bringing to the world you know podcasting or the audience that you're going after yeah so great questions so yeah i i did start the small business big visibility podcast because i realized there's depending on the numbers 20 30 million businesses in america at any given time and and the big majority of those are all these little guys It's not the massive corporations. There's only a few massive corporations. Most, most, most businesses is one employee, maybe two, just a handful. And there's massive turnover. Someone starts up a company and within a year it fails. Why is it failing? And I kind of mentioned the why at the start of the show. And it's because what's in the business owner's brain is what causes them to fail. I've discovered most of the time someone gives up emotionally before the business starts to fail physically. They may have some rough problems and then they don't know how to solve it. And then they're like, oh, and they emotionally start to check out. And when that happens, things just keep crumbling. And then they're just grabbing and holding on until they're like, okay, I'm done. And so if a business owner even if they're

36:22 a startup or if they've been running for a while, but they're not getting. the kind of success they were looking for, most of the time they need to change the way they think. And so I started a podcast where I'm podcasting five days a week, Monday through Friday. And if I have a guest on, we have the guest be able to give their experiences and tell their stories because that's inspirational for other entrepreneurs because entrepreneurs often feel alone and lonely when they're solving these problems over and over and over. And so to hear other people tell their story and be inspired by it and get new ideas is amazing. But on the days I don't have a guest, I'm sharing little five minute nuggets of what if you think about this one thing a little bit differently.

37:05 So it's not that I'm trying to change the way you see everything. But if you just listen for five minutes and you get that Oh, whoa, what if I do see running promotions this way. What if I see coupons this new way? What if I see how to set goals in a new way? What if I see how to delegate in a new way? And over the course of a year, you listen for five minutes a day and start picking up these nuggets, you're going to naturally start making changes in the way you think, the way you talk, the way you believe, the way you act, and your business is going to start shifting as well. So I thought it would be really cool. And I've been told, oh, podcasting, it has to be 30 plus minutes. You don't do a short one. It doesn't work that way. Nobody does it. And I thought, oh, if no one does it, that means I should. I love it. I love that mindset.

37:53 And so I came in with this idea of if I can just take a couple of moments from someone's day and start shifting for them and give them that thing, I'm going to save so many business owners. felt some from the pain I experienced to get where I am today. And I want to help. My goal is to help a million small business owners to be able to shift in a positive direction so they have more time, more money, more freedom to really fulfill what they're supposed to do in life. Because if you're just grinding 20 hours a day just barely to keep alive, that's not really what you're here for. I think there's a lot more than that. But it comes down to learning new things and applying them to be able to find that success. No, I love it. And I love that your mission is so bigger than you. You know, a lot of people make it about them and yours is purpose -driven. You know what I'm saying? For a community.

38:43 And then that you're using podcasting as a vehicle to scale that. You're talking about you want to touch a million business with us. Well, you can do it through podcasting. You said, you mentioned five days a week. Ooh, that's a lot. Especially when it comes to content. How are you constantly coming up with, like, you know, the content? You're doing a lot of solo episodes, I imagine. And then, of course, you say you bring on the occasional guests. So how are you, one, staying motivated? I understand, you know what I'm saying, you have the ultimate goal, but that in itself, you're in the trenches of doing that. You know, you got to come up with content and then you got to promote that content and put it out there and show the value in it. How you staying motivated? And then also, where are you pulling all the content from? You know, it's amazing. When I first started, I knew I wasn't going to quit.

39:28 I said, I am going to do this every day for a year. at minimum that there's non -negotiable it doesn't matter how I feel that day it doesn't matter what it doesn't matter if I do terrible and one of my favorite comments early on was someone said you're so uncharismatic it's incredible I was like well I guess I got to work on my charisma or whatever charisma is I don't know how to like I can't go buy it on Amazon so I don't know what to do but but for me it was I it didn't matter how I felt I was going to do this for a year. So I set up a bunch of processes before I ever started the podcast that would assist me in being more successful. But then the other thing I noticed is, have you ever noticed the people that don't need to go to the gym are the ones that are always at the gym? There's a reason behind that. And I think it's because it becomes a part of who they are. And so I've done, I've done well, I'm above 300 episodes now. And I mean, it just like is a part of who i am now i literally am like my daughter just just this uh just recently was walking around the house singing i want to wish you a merry christmas i'm like well whoa that's a podcast episode and i'm gonna record it probably today or tomorrow because how many people do want to do something their whole life and they'll sing a song about it but never do the darn thing that they were wanting to do. And they think about their whole life and yet they never take

40:58 that first step. And so it's become this thing where now I see the episodes just coming at me faster than I can put them out there almost because it's become just that habit of me doing it so much for so consistently. I love it. I love it. I love it. What's been one of the highlights that you I had over those 300 episodes that really stayed out to you they're like you know really like what I know that I'm on this right path and I'm about to you know do something big because here is the you know the first indicator of that yeah yeah I'd say the first indicator was somebody reached out to me about a month after I started my podcast and said hey I've been listening and super good stuff and they wanted to work with me and I had never even talked about my main business. on the podcast. I was not trying to promote my main business with the podcast. I was literally just out to help people. And then I kept having little happenings like that where someone would say, I listened to the first 20 episodes. I'm hooked. This is crazy. It's so good. They're like, I had to listen for a few.

42:12 And then I needed to stop to implement all the things that I learned. And I just kept having those. And then the coolest was I was out at an event recently. And I had somebody and they're like, Oh man, branding works. I know exactly who you are. I'm like, what? Excuse me. I have had that experience a few times to where, you know, like you said, you're building something and you're doing something to help others. So it's not about you. And that's what I set out to do through interview style. You know, I've done solo episodes, but I would say about 80 % of my material is interview style, because I always wanted to share people's stories like we're doing today, right? Right. And I find that everyone has a story. I learned that. But in doing that, though, because I'm doing video as well, of course, I get recognized, too. Sure.

43:13 So people are walking up to me when I don't have any of the material on that there's like banked out or anything like that. And people were like, oh man, I love your show. I love what you're doing. Keep doing what you're doing. Your stuff's so educational and informative and no one's dropping jewels like that. It's more than just giving people information. It's actually giving them information, but they're telling them also how to implement it and how to apply it to themselves and them hearing other people of how they applied it to themselves. And I think like the bigger... produced or the bigger platforms do not really do that. They treat it more like, you know, media, which is cutting stuff short or, you know, because they're trying to cater to like, let's say, two million people. And they know that, you know, in order to appeal, they have to have, you know, stuff sensationalized, blah, blah, blah, use misleading head titles, all sorts of different things that, you know, people use in that world, in the industry. and they'll just, you know, people see the value of what you're bringing, but then also recognize you in the process of it. But then also like, you know, I've had a situation where they're like, they try to like push you up as far as like, look at you on the pedestal. Have you had that type of interaction yet where they look at you like, oh my goodness, you're so way up there. And that's just because you're doing something every day. But, you know, and I guess they compare it to themselves where they're not. Have you had that experience yet?

44:36 you know, I've seen that a few times. And that's, and that's so interesting to me, because we look at ourselves, and I think it's human nature. Like, there's this side of us that's out to protect ourselves. And I call it my subconscious, and I say my subconscious is out there. And it's looking at the best of other people, and comparing it to the worst of myself. And I think that everyone does that to a certain degree. And so you have these people who are like, oh, man, I've never done anything. I just blah, blah, blah. And they're all negative on themselves. And then they're looking at this other person who did something relatively cool or relatively amazing. And they have no idea how much it actually took to get there, whether it was easy or hard or anything. But they immediately, oh, man, look at this person.

45:17 They're so great. They accomplished all these things. And I haven't. so interesting to me, Dick Van Dyke, he just turned 100. And he says, I have no idea why I'm so healthy. I have no idea. But the one thing I think it probably is, because I'm always looking at the positive outlook. And so I think he's probably onto something that we need to as humans recognize. Well, yeah, maybe that guy did something cool. Maybe he podcasted 300 times, maybe 1000. Maybe he's helped a bunch of people. But He's still just another human. All he did is have enough gumption and enough motivation to not give up when it was tough and Anybody can truly do that same thing It may not be the same result and they may not go out and help people the same way But really there's no there's no difference. We're all just human people We all literally have that ability inside of us to do incredible things. It just matters that we get enough push and enough drive and enough hope and enough persistence and maybe enough like bullheaded Determination to see through and to not give up and then anyone can be accomplishing incredible things but I agree to say though because As you build stuff you become successful you fail at different things Well, I'm not gonna use the word fail. I don't like using that word.

46:44 You don't hit the goals that you initially wanted to hit because I believe failing is not trying at all. So you try these things and they don't hit the goals that you normally want them to hit or that you envision, but you get to learn stuff. And I think that's what I've learned over the course of time doing this since 2005, full time since 2013. Persistence and consistency will keep you in the game. And the longer you stay in it, The higher chances are success. And I think, you know, a lot of people miss out on that. And like you said, they give up emotionally before they have those breakthroughs or they're doing something positive and they're making strides.

47:32 But because of the mental anguish and like you said, being at it alone, when you're an entrepreneur, oh my goodness. I don't know if we can just get in there all day long. But I did want to... talk about how important is it for you to incorporate your natural being like your personality and being authentic because I was watching some of your videos and when you was like you had the s'mores or you had the marshmallows behind a fire well the fire is behind you and is a real fire you was like oh it's getting hot how important like to me as a person if I saw that it was a potential client I would hire you just off of that loan because you're showcasing yourself and you're being you know in your natural element.

48:24 I don't like people who are too polished or too salesy like I like when people do things like that but how important is that for you to you know showcase your natural personality and be authentically you as much as possible. You know when when I was a little kid I was full out Jason like I was just me and I loved it. But as I got a little bit older, people would be like, oh, you're too intense. Oh, tone it down a little bit. Oh, wow, man. And I and I had one moment where someone near and dear to my heart told me, Jason, I admit you are hilarious, but sometimes that was exactly what they said to me. And I thought and that moment crushed me for years.

49:08 And I was like, oh, oh, wow. I didn't real I had I have no idea and I held back for years and I wouldn't let anyone see the real Jason. I was Mr. I was Mr. Polish Mr. Professional at all times. Just keep it cool even keel. Don't be too funny. Don't be too far out. And I realized I was sucking the soul out of myself. Yes. Oh my goodness. Oh, it was terrible. But the worst part was people didn't like me any better. Haters are still gonna hate. Maybe it's a different group of haters, but it doesn't matter. You, me, no one can take any opinion on anything at all in this world without having somebody have the exact opposite opinion and probably hate you for your opinion. There's people who probably think I shouldn't even be alive because I'm wasting the natural resources of this planet. So me being alive is probably offending a few people. And I have to be okay with that. And so I realized I'm here, I'm me, and I might as well enjoy being me and be the best me that I can be and help as many people as I can help while being me.

50:25 And if I do that, then it doesn't matter if I have haters. because they can just go on and do their own life anyway. No, like if I wanted their opinion, I'd ask for it. Most of the time, they're just gratuitously telling me what I do wrong with myself, but I might as well just be me and enjoy it. And I'm going to attract far more people because they know they're dealing with the real deal and not some polished snake oil salesman that's just trying to do whatever and sell whatever. They know, Oh no, that's Jason. That's who he is. That's how he behaves. Yeah. I learned that a long time ago, the being authentic and people would tell me that too. And I was like, that's the way I can be, whether it's online, offline, I'm the same, regardless of the situation.

51:06 But I also noticed that, one, a lot of people don't live themselves in life, or I guess they just don't have the opportunity. Maybe that's how they look at it, whether it be like work or whatever the case may be. But it also comes with this sense of freedom that you get. then you could just walk in and people are like, well how do you walk through life just doing this and doing that? Because they saw my content too. I do all sorts of stuff with characters and all different things. That's just like, at the end of the day, I think one of my core belief systems is like, you know, you're supposed to laugh.

51:48 Life is about having fun. My guess, will it always be fun? No. but if we can get it to like 90 % fun and just 10 % everything else cool I'll take that you're supposed to enjoy life because what's the point of living if you're not going to enjoy it yeah and and I think that a lot of people and and I know this is where I came from it was that subconscious side of me saying oh watch out you're gonna hurt somebody watch out you're gonna you're gonna hurt yourself watch out people won't like you watch out this what and it's all that fear it's just fear fear fear and we're so busy trying to dodge all the fear bullets of things that like it hasn't even happened yet and so we're out there trying to dodge what we think might happen in the future and we're so worried about it we we don't ever bother to live if we just say you know what you're right body that could happen and if it does we'll deal with it but until then I'm gonna be me that's extremely liberating exactly I love it Jason, was there anything that we didn't get to talk about that you wanted to talk about? Oh, man, I've just had the greatest time talking with you. Thanks for having me on the show. You're welcome. So let anybody out there that needs any of your services, they want to take out your book, which I think is a great resource, especially for all the entrepreneurs and even people who are thinking about entrepreneurship, to put them on the path to success, how they can get there and listen to the podcast, follow all that good stuff. Yeah.

53:13 So if they're looking to get in touch with me, Jason, hyphen McKenzie dot com is how you can find me specifically Boise web dot net. So you can find my company the the book is titled small business big visibility looks like that available on Amazon and then I named my podcast the same thing small business big visibility podcast if you're looking to get in touch with me for anything reach out I'm a real person I'll respond to you and if you're a hater that's okay I'll probably laugh at it. Y 'all make sure y 'all go check out Jason, as you can hear and witness, wealth of information, knowledge, all that good stuff, especially for all my people out there wanting to start businesses, who are in businesses, who are just, you know, maybe you just have your own roadblocks that, you know, you need help remove. Jason would be a great resource. Go and follow him. Of course, all the links and all this stuff will pop up and y 'all keep supporting the platform so I can keep having guests like this who will keep bringing all these nuggets to y 'all. Thank y 'all for listening and the amount of support that you've had over the years and look forward to producing more content for y 'all in the future.