Shontavia Johnson (00:00):
What’s up, y’all. Welcome to The Shontavia Show, where my goal is to help you start a business based on your life’s vision. This ain’t gonna be your daddy’s business advice. I’m laser focused on entrepreneurship in the 21st century, vision and breaking the traditional mold. If you can get with that, you can get with me, be sure to visit shontavia.com for more episodes, blog posts, and other content. Thank you for listening. The show starts now.
Shontavia Johnson (00:28):
Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of The Shontavia Show where I want to inspire you to build a brand, business, and life that you love, and I am so excited today, everyone to have Craig Walker here. Thank you so much, Craig, for being here today.
Craig Walker (00:43):
It’s my pleasure.
Shontavia Johnson (00:44):
I’m so, so excited. You guys are going to love this discussion. I’m going to read some of Craig’s bio, but I have to say, we could spend the entire time just talking about all of the amazing things you’ve done, Craig. Craig is the former founder and CEO of Vidistar and as CEO of Vidistar, he helped lead the company’s operations, business development, software development, regulatory affairs and strategic growth initiatives. Craig founded Vidistar in 2004 and his company was acquired in 2018 by Hitachi Healthcare Americas. And today Craig serves as General Manager of Hitachi Healthcare Americas, and Craig has done so many things in life before stepping into this current role. He has experience in the hospital administration industry, public policy, lobbying and government. Craig is from Texas, born and raised, born and raised, graduate, got his master’s degree in health administration from Texas State University, did his undergraduate degree at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. And Craig is the co-inventor or primary and venture on seven different patents. So welcome Craig. Thank you for being here.
Craig Walker (02:00):
It’s great to be here.
Shontavia Johnson (02:01):
Wow. What a background you have. This is amazing to just hear about all the things you’ve done and you’ve taken, it seems so many different paths in entrepreneurship and innovation. What has inspired you to do all these things?
Craig Walker (02:15):
Well, I actually, I have to attribute my grandfather always, he was a teacher and he always said, he said, son, when you look at life, be a sponge. And learn as much as you can and appreciate the knowledge that sometimes nature bestows on you and what you get out of school. He said, you know, you can learn almost as much as you can out in the real world as you could in the classroom. And I always thought that was pretty cool.
Shontavia Johnson (02:38):
So was your grandfather also a Texan?
Craig Walker (02:41):
He is. It was.
Shontavia Johnson (02:43):
So Texans, you grew up there. How did you get to South Carolina? How did you start this whole process? How did you grow up? How did it get you here?
Craig Walker (02:52):
That’s a great question. I was born in Houston. My dad actually he’s a surgeon and he trained under Dr. Debakey and Dr. Cooley. They were the principal inventors of the heart valve. And so he was from a rural town and he wanted to you know, have a practice. So we moved to Nacogdoches, Texas. That’s kind of in the deep heart of Pineywoods, but it’s basically not many people really, really understand it’s the oldest town in Texas, they always equate, it’s where the shuttle broke up and the pieces fell when the disaster, the Discover disaster occurred. So, but Nacogdoches was a great area for me to appreciate healthcare because we didn’t have a whole lot of healthcare providers. Population of about 30,000, and we have Stephen F. Austin State University there. So had an academic setting and by way of just kind of, you know, from there you know, I was fortunate enough to have a lot of interest. I had already graduated from Millsaps. I was studying to take the MCAT and went up to Georgetown to interview for my, for an MD PhD program in biomedical ethics and happened to run into a young lady who I ended up marrying — Bianca. And so I packed all my bags, went up there and courted her and needed to get a job. And so I ended up getting a job in the U.S. Senate for Lloyd Bentsen, you know, so that’s kinda how I got up there and how we met. And then we got married and moved to Austin. And it was interesting. You know, Austin at that time downtown was still relatively vacant. It’s kinda hard to imagine nowadays. But yeah, that’s really how we got got how I met her and how we moved back to Texas.
Shontavia Johnson (04:28):
Got it, got it. So how did you go from what you were doing in Austin to starting a company? How did all that come about — your journey as an entrepreneur?
Craig Walker (04:37):
You know, I was just very fortunate. I was working for, at the time, I was chief of staff to a fabulous woman by the name of Patricia Gray. She was probably the most powerful female legislator. And she represented Galveston, which had the University of Texas Medical Branch. UTMB were the founders, they’re actually in the Smithsonian for being the founders and being very innovative in telemedicine. And so I was fortunate to help pass a lot of law and legislation. And it helped me implement rules at the very onset of the telemedicine industry. And so I had exposure to where technology could help bridge and connect providers. And unfortunately for my wife and I, we had tried to have kids for about eight years. And luckily we finally had a pregnancy get to the first trimester and low and behold, if he doesn’t have some complications. And so I would take VCR tapes, remember those big old cassette tapes and I would literally send them by mail to a buddy of mine in Fort Worth. We had done a telemedicine program to try to reduce low birth weight amongst a medically underserved area of downtown Fort Worth. And so I knew he was an expert. I trusted him. And you know, in healthcare it’s all about trust. And I wanted to get his opinion about the gestational development of our hopefully future child. And so that whole process was very it was very emotional, Shontavia, because were getting advice that maybe our, our, our future child, cause we didn’t know the sex, was going to have issues with his kidneys. And so at the end of it all, after his birth, I remember looking at Dr. Massingill, that’s my friend in Fort Worth. I said, Sealy, isn’t there some way that you could just transmit this data from the ultrasound to a computer and check it out over the internet. And he said, no, nothing like that exists. And I thought, Hmm. I said, wow, maybe I can help find a way. And that was really the inspiration. It was very personal, very emotional. And I felt like there was a need.
Shontavia Johnson (06:29):
Wow. So what year was this?
Craig Walker (06:32):
Wowie, well our son was 2001. So from that point in 2001 until 2004 again, I was just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I was sitting next to some people that worked in various industries. I was the chairman of the American Telemedicine Association it’s the industry advisory board. And so I got a chance to meet with people from DARPA. You know, they did advanced the Defense Advanced Research Project Cisco, Intel. And it was, you know, and so when you’re around those kind of individuals you know, it was very inspiring. And so I put together a plan, came up with the idea and and just really went from there to building a company.
Shontavia Johnson (07:16):
So how do you go from idea to company? You have this idea, you have a plan. What do you do with that idea and that plan?
Craig Walker (07:23):
Well, you, first thing I did was document it. You know, I put it in, I had, you know, I went from like, you know, the old Starbucks idea on a coffee napkin to you know, putting it in a Powerpoint to where, you know, for me it was a, the timing was very ironic. I literally had just left a company where I was the vice president of a pharmacy software company to go into grad school. So I literally started this company my first year in graduate school. And so cause I remember going to the coffee shop and actually getting on the computer and downloading a CT image from Poland, you know, so just to see how it worked. And so what I did is I put together the idea and formalized it and then I started looking at where would be a cost effective way to get my development done. You know, cause at the time I didn’t really have much money hardly any money really. And so I wanted to understand, you know, what were my costs? The easiest thing that anybody can do really right off the bat is get it online to the secretary of state’s office and register their company. And that’s, that’s literally the first thing I did do. And then I you know, I went to friends and family to look at outside investment. You know, that’s typically kind of the first place you want to go. And then fortunately for, for me my wife and her family lived here in Greenville and I— out of just nowhere, a physician from Greenville called wanting to talk to me about telemedicine. And that led into him becoming an investor and his practice becoming the first customer.
Shontavia Johnson (08:57):
Oh wow. Okay.
Craig Walker (08:58):
So it just was really, and then, the state of South Carolina has a fabulous program through the South Carolina Research Authority called SC Launch. I understood that to qualify we had to be a South Carolina based company and so I decided to go ahead and sell the assets of my company in Austin, create a South Carolina company, which was called Vidistar. And you know, one thing led to another. We applied for funding through SC Launch and received a couple hundred thousand dollars in funding, which helped help us launch launch the company with sales.
Shontavia Johnson (09:29):
Wow. So you’re doing all this, you have a wife, a new baby, you’ve moved to a new city. Were there any difficult things about all of this? How did you navigate moving a whole company to a new state with you and I know you had family here, but did you have other professional connections beyond the person who reached out to you? How did that all come together for you?
Craig Walker (09:50):
Not really, I mean, for us it was it was kind of a leap of faith. I mean, I had already, I had gotten in at Tenet Healthcare Corporation’s leadership development program for CEOs. So we were in Houston. I’d already run some hospitals in Houston or help run some hospitals in Houston. We went to Lufkin, Texas where I was an executive. And so we, we kind of looked at it and thought, you know, we’d been in Texas 15 years, you know, let’s look at maybe spending some of that time in South Carolina while we got it. And so really the connections were that I actually wanted to run a hospital here in this state because I wanted to gain some really good experience in healthcare. And so the was the company at the time was kinda more it wasn’t a hobby for me, but one of the partners actually was my father in law was kind of managing it while I was really trying to learn more about the hospital side of the business because that’s, that was the market we really wanted to go after.
Shontavia Johnson (10:40):
Yeah. So that’s smart. So you used your professional career path to support these entrepreneurial endeavors.
Craig Walker (10:48):
That’s exactly right.
Shontavia Johnson (10:48):
So when did you decide I’ve learned enough about hospitals or learned some amount about hospitals so that I can do this full time? How did you make that transition?
Craig Walker (10:58):
It was the toughest decision in my life. I actually had contacted several individuals in this community in Greenville that were, I called them my “kitchen cabinet.” They were mentors. Individuals like John Warner and Tom Strange, who had already, you know, done something similar and, and it was through the advice of Tom that said, he said, Craig, this is never going to take off until you do it full time.
Shontavia Johnson (11:19):
Wow.
Craig Walker (11:19):
And it was scary because I thought I have to give it, I’m going to take us, you know, cut and pay. We’re not going to have any insurance, you know, this was before the benefits of Obamacare. And it was rather terrifying. And so I, after being here for almost a few years, I just finally took their advice and took the cataclysmic leap and ran it. And that was 2011.
Shontavia Johnson (11:42):
Wow. And so you said it was the most difficult decision you’ve ever made, and how did you kind of get through those early years where things are unpredictable? You mentioned, you had a new baby, no health insurance. Is it just the day to day? Every day is a leap of faith or…?
Craig Walker (12:00):
You know, yes. And no, I mean, I think you become the captain of your own destiny, you know, so you have to really understand that you’re going to be on the road a lot. Because not only are you the founder, the inventor, the CEO or president, but you’re also the number one sales person. And if you’re not that person, then you need to find somebody that is. Fortunately, I’ve always been kind of loquacious and charismatic. And while I hadn’t had a formal training in sales, to me it was like lobbying or any of these other things I’ve done in the past. And so I just kind of gravitated naturally. And so I literally drove all over the South, all over the state meeting people that were in cardiology, which was our specialty area in hospitals. And because I’d been in the hospital market and had run hospitals and worked with a lot of different providers, I understood where they were coming from. And so I was able to, to, to succeed in getting a lot of sales for the company. And so we grew, we grew the company actually almost exponentially year over year
Shontavia Johnson (13:02):
With you going out on the road and making, building those connections one at a time.
Craig Walker (13:07):
Yeah. It’s a lot of work. A lot of miles.
Shontavia Johnson (13:07):
It sounds like it. Gosh. So you mentioned your mentors. How do you find good mentors? Because they’ve given you advice to take this leap of faith, so you have to trust them too. How did you find mentors that you trusted who would give you great advice and that kind of thing?
Craig Walker (13:24):
God? That’s a great question. I think it was just, I think you, or at least my opinion is when you meet people, you sometimes formulate opinions quickly about who they are and the rest of the time you’re trying to convince yourself if you’re right with, with Tom and John, I met them through SC Launch, and I was, I was bold to go up to them and just, and really I was curious, you know, I was, I was like, Hey, we’re going to be presenting to you. Would you mind meeting with me and us to look at what we’re going to present and give us advice before we do it? You know, we want to do a good job. And through that process I saw in them interest in wanting to coach me and I was excited because I think sometimes in my professional development, the best advice I’ve ever gotten is really from the individuals I either worked for or I had exposure to that had been there. You know, and, and it’s sometimes the, the one question I always asked them– what would you do different? You know, and that stuff you can’t always get in a book, you know? So that’s how I found them. I literally we connected through that and through SCRA and SC Launch and we are still good friends today and I still go to them to seek outside advice, you know, whenever I feel compelled because I find, I find that they have a lot of acumen and wisdom.
Shontavia Johnson (14:50):
Yeah, no, that’s awesome. Yeah. So they give you this advice, you take the leap of faith, you’re driving up and down the Eastern seaboard, it sounds like. How do you get to the point where your company has grown as much as it has, that there’s interest from third parties and acquiring you? How does that happen?
Craig Walker (15:07):
Well, for us the market had changed a lot. After the recession, there was a lot of consolidation in the healthcare market, both for medical record companies, imaging companies. And what I realized was sobering, because at first I, I really wanted this to be a company I could just hand over to my son one day in the future. But the consolidation really grew disconcerting because I thought, we have a great product but we’re small. And we’re seeing a lot of the smaller companies either go extinct or get gobbled up and you know, everything in the market is like an inverted bell curve, you know? And so what you’re constantly trying to do with, you know, when the reason– and we can still, you know, pursued the innovation in the IP world, intellectual property world — is you want to push that bell curve further and further out, right? Constantly innovate, constant create new. So what you don’t want to do is sell the company when you’re starting to cascade on the other side of the bell curve, you want to hopefully sell it at the top, at the peak. And I felt like the market was such where at least in terms of capturing our best valuation for the company, the timing, whether we liked it or not was eminent. And so, you know, that’s really what compelled me. And part of it is just like I had been in the professional side of this — healthcare. I’d seen a lot of the products, I’d use them. I knew the competition and I felt like the timing was critical for us to seek a buyer and and try to, you know, try to sell the company in a way that works best for our customers and for our organization.
Shontavia Johnson (16:42):
So when you sell a company, do you just like put up a for sale sign and people reach out or…
Craig Walker (16:47):
You know, I wish it was that easy. It’s kind of like in many regards, selling a house to some extent. You know, you get a broker or you can get a broker. Not all, it doesn’t always happen this way, but I think the best methodologies employ this and that’s where you, you hire a firm that specializes in mergers and acquisitions and investment. And you know, because you could either, because we did look at growing organically, which we did for a long time. We also sought outside investment which, you know, they’re always going to want a big piece of your pie, you know, and they may replace me or management. And then we also then discussed, okay, well let’s look at–, you know, look at a buyer. And so we hired a group that had specialty in actually selling companies just like ours in radiology.
Craig Walker (17:35):
And so they were, you know, we were impressed with that acumen and their professionalism. And they, we hired them. They come in, they, they know a lot of the individuals at all these companies. And so they send out, you know, information about them. We used a group out of Boston called AGC Consultants and they did an incredible job. And over the course they help you make sure that your finances look good because you know, it’s a process, right? I mean, it’s not something normally you would just say, Hey, I want sell my company and do it tomorrow. We actually had been planning for two years to get our accounts in order. You know, we wanted to have financials that were audited. We wanted to have a lot of HR policies and procedures because we’re in healthcare, our products are FDA regulated. So we had, you know, we had to make sure our quality management system was good or at least we thought it was. And you know, things like that. So there’s a lot of foresight that sh—, you know, we used and going into this to make sure that we maximized our opportunity when we were looking at the valuation to sell.
Shontavia Johnson (18:44):
As I mentioned at the top of the podcast, you are the inventor or co-inventor on seven different patents. So if you have seven patents, I assume you had 700 ideas. So how do you decide what type of inventions warrant patent protection, what things will be important for the business or for what you’re trying to do? How do you—
Craig Walker (19:05):
You asked great questions. Well I think sometimes it’s, it’s understanding your market and because I was fortunate and blessed enough to be in healthcare, I understood the things that are directly related to the physicians getting paid. And so what we did is we came up with, you know, process patents, which are really hard to get nowadays in software. You know, back in when Clinton was president, you know, you could patent the internet, you know, but nowadays it’s, it’s very difficult. And so what we looked at is what are the key what’s the key innovation that we offer that helps our customers get paid by Medicare or by insurance companies and to us, you know, I had been involved in doing a lot of patent work prior to that and with other employers and I, you know, I looked at this process and I thought it was, it was novel at the time.
Craig Walker (19:54):
And what we really were able to do is everything that the physician comments on. And in the clinical report, we said, Hey, every one of those little words or, or values has like a unique identifier. That way we could do data extraction on it and nothing existed. We’d looked. That’s the nice thing about the internet. You can get on, you can go into the USPTO, you can type in some keywords. See what people have done. And at that time, nothing of that source had ever been conceived of. And so that’s what we, that’s what we invented. That’s what we patented. And that patent, I think it was actually John Warner, John Warner said, you know, your first patent you want that to be kind of your, your keystone, you know, where they are the foundational stone and everything around that, that you continue to file is associated with it. And so that literally was the strategy we used.
Shontavia Johnson (20:43):
So you create this great intellectual property portfolio, you create a sound business, you do all of these things right. But it sounds like building relationships was really critical for you, particularly early on. What else? What else was important as you started on this journey and continued on this journey? What things were critical?
Craig Walker (21:04):
I think for us it’s because we’re in healthcare, everything is predicated on trust and relationships. You know what I mean? You think about you know, the relationship a patient has with a physician it’s all predicated on trust, right? And confidence. And so we went out and whether it was to a fault or not, we made sure that our customers were always taken care of. Going into the acquisition, we had over 95% customer retention in like 10 years. Wow. It was really high, and we’d replaced or displaced a lot of the major competitors. So, you know, taking care of your customers and trying to, you’re going to make mistakes own up to them. And so if we made mistakes, we would say, hey, this is on us. Let us take care of it. And, and I think just being honest and taking care of them, they appreciated that and they maintained that relationship.
Shontavia Johnson (21:55):
That’s great. So what kind of mistakes, what kinds of things are you willing to share?
Craig Walker (21:58):
Well, in software it’s easy, you know, cause we were, you know, we weren’t huge. We only had about 20 some odd employees. You could, you know, develop something. And we didn’t have a really a dedicated quality assurance team at the time. And so you could literally, what we did is we used our tier one people for doing QA, which worked, which worked, you know what I mean? Everybody’s kind of multitasking. But you know, you could, you know, deploy a new version and something’s broken, you know, so you’d have to go back and fix it and then deploy it again, you know? And so things like that can happen. Yeah.
Shontavia Johnson (22:32):
So you mentioned you asked your mentors, what would they do differently? What would you do differently?
Craig Walker (22:38):
You know, I think knowing what I know now, I would continue to approach the business the same way. I think I would definitely have tried to explore more regional sales. We were mainly concentrated in the Southeast and South. You know, I think being able to have more presence, physical presence in other regions would have been neat, but, you know, but just, we were kind of organically growing. Yeah. You know, I also think I’m trying to approach more of the international business. We did get into Canada prior to the acquisition, which was cool. You know, Canadians are always so nice and they’re good to do business with and we were in some territories like Puerto Rico, but I, you know, I would have probably wanted to pursue more international business.
Shontavia Johnson (23:26):
Okay. And why is that?
Craig Walker (23:28):
Because there’s significant business opportunities there. Not everywhere. Some of these countries you have to be careful of because of the level of corruption while others, you know, it’s English can be, you know, is a, is a language that they’ll use in the professional segment and it’s easy cost of, you know, the transfer of getting into that market. The cost may be relatively low.
Shontavia Johnson (23:51):
Yeah. No that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So final question, what advice would you give to some kid who’s got a dream? An idea, doesn’t really know where to start. What is the hustle where should they start? What are the types of things they should be thinking about today?
Craig Walker (24:08):
Well, I think it’s, the first thing I would ask is what is the, what is the idea? What is the idea addressing in the market? What is the market and what is kind of the problem it’s helping solve. And if it’s one of these things that, one of these ideas that helps you know, it has it kind of a utilitarian aspect or if it’s financial, whatever it is, then identify that, write it out to where, here’s the business proposition for that. Here’s the value proposition for that idea. And then either to determine if it needs to be protected or if it’s something they want to take to market. And once they, and how do they want to take it to market? Do they want to be the one selling it? So do they want to create a company around it or do they want to license another company?
Craig Walker (24:55):
So begin with the end in mind, but also look specifically what is, you know, what do you believe you want to do with this? Because I think too often entrepreneurs come at this and they’re like, Oh, I’ve got a great, I’ve got a solution to a problem nobody knows they have, you know, and then they put all of their investments into it and it fails. You know, out of a hundred company ideas or a hundred a hundred startups, you know, 99 fail, you know, so to look at this pragmatically would be the first advice I’d give them. You know, and then secondly, if they really want it to succeed, they need to be all in. Doesn’t mean they need to be the salesperson. Not everybody’s a salesperson doesn’t need to be that they need to play lawyer, but look at the role that they can serve and then make sure they get the right people and let them do their job.
Shontavia Johnson (25:44):
Great advice. Thank you so much for being here, Craig. This has been fun.
Craig Walker (25:49):
This has been a lot of fun.
Shontavia Johnson (25:50):
So I suppose I should also ask and feel free to decline to answer Craig, but if people want to connect with you, if people have questions, if people want to see more about Vidistar or what you’ve created, are there places online where they can find you?
Craig Walker (26:05):
Absolutely. I mean, they can contact me currently at Hitatchi. Walkerc@Hitachihealthcare.Com.
Shontavia Johnson (26:12):
Alright, awesome. Thank you so much. So hopefully this conversation has been as amazing for you as it has been for me. I am going to take some notes after this conversation about ways to think about my own brand, my own business, and how I can be of service to other people. Feel free to reach out to me if you have other questions about what Craig has mentioned or anything else revolving around brands, businesses, and creating those things that support the life that you want to lead. You can find me at shontavia.com Thanks for listening.
Shontavia Johnson (26:45):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Shontavia Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to like, subscribe and leave a comment wherever you’re listening. You can find me on social media everywhere, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and wherever else @ShontaviaJEsq. You can also visit me at shontavia.com to find a transcript of this episode along with other show notes. While you’re there, please be sure to subscribe to my email newsletter.
Shontavia Johnson (27:16):
The information shared in this podcast and through my other platforms is designed to educate you about business and entrepreneurship and I love to do this work. While I am a lawyer, though, the information I provide is not legal advice and does not create or constitute an attorney client relationship.
Shontavia Johnson (27:34):
The Shontavia Show is a LVRG Incorporated original. The show is recorded on site in South Carolina and produced at Sit N Spin Studio in Greenville, South Carolina. Original music and sound design is by Matt Morgan and Daniel Gregory. Mixing and mastering is by Daniel Gregory and the video is by GVL Media.
Shontavia Johnson (00:04):
Hey everybody. I’m Shontavia Johnson and this is another episode of the Shontavia Show where I want to inspire you to build a brand, business and life that you love. It is Thursday. And what I love to do on Thursday is hear from you to get questions from you about building your brand or starting your business or connecting all the stuff you’re doing at work to some new side hustle and that you want to create.
Shontavia Johnson (00:29):
And so what I’d like to do on Thursdays is answer questions you have about those things. If you have a question that you’d like me to answer, please shoot me an email at askshontavia@gmail.com that’s askshontavia@gmail.com and you may hear your question and my answer on a future episode.
Shontavia Johnson (00:52):
So today’s question is a really interesting one about just where to get started when you know you want to do something new, but you have no clue where to start.
Shontavia Johnson (01:03):
So I’m going to read the question and then just walk through some suggestions for this person.
Shontavia Johnson (01:08):
Hey Shontavia, I worked for a large retailer and I hate my job. I want to start my own business, but I don’t really know where to start. I’ve heard you talk a lot about ground zero and I am literally at ground zero. If there was lower, I would be there. My budget and my time are both limited right now, but I just can’t imagine staying here forever. Can you give me some suggestions about how I can pursue my dreams? I usually have about an hour each day and again, I don’t really know where to start, but I do know I want to start something and I want to start somewhere. Thanks so much Trashawn. Alright. Trashawn great question. I actually wrote a blog post about a similar topic to this a few weeks ago.
Shontavia Johnson (02:01):
I will make sure I drop a link in the show notes about this because it is a common sentiment. I know I don’t like where I am. I don’t really know where I want to go, but I want to go somewhere. And so in that blog post, what I did was listed like 50 or maybe more than 50 places you can start when you don’t know where to start. So what I think I’ll do in this episode is read through, not all 50, but some of the best places I think you can start when you know you really don’t want to do what you’re doing right now. You have these entrepreneurial dreams but you don’t know where to get started.
Shontavia Johnson (02:41):
So I’m a big fan of learning from other people. I actually, and I’m, I’m such a nerd in this way. One of my favorite things to do is read other people’s Wikipedia pages and find out their backstory, their life, how they got to where they got.
Shontavia Johnson (02:59):
And I can do that actually for hours at a time. I could read through Wikipedia pages for days because I learn that way. I learn from the stories of other people. I learn from the experiences of other people. And one of the cool things about learning from other people is if they are open and if they are authentic, then they will share their mistakes too. And you can learn from those mistakes so you don’t make those same mistakes. So one of the places I would start if I did not know where to start is by looking at what is happening with other successful entrepreneurs. And that is one of the things I’m going to suggest to you too, looking at other people.
Shontavia Johnson (03:42):
But before we even talk about looking at other people, the first question really is what’s going on with you? Right? Like you said, I hate my job.
Shontavia Johnson (03:52):
So my first question is, well, why do you hate your job? What are the things about it that you really hate? You know the things you don’t like, but let’s figure that out. Like what is it that you don’t like you said you worked for a retailer, I don’t know what capacity you worked for retailer, but are you working with other people a lot and you don’t like working with other people? Are you on your feet a lot? And you prefer to have a desk type job.
Shontavia Johnson (04:18):
So my first question and the first thing I think you should do is figure out what is it that you really don’t like about the job. Is it the people, is it the environment? Is it the day to day of what you have to do? And then you know, so you know what you don’t like. We can use that to deduce what you do like.
Shontavia Johnson (04:35):
Number two, what are the things that actually excite you? What are the things that you really, really like? What are the things that you would do for free? What are the things when you’re not at work, what are the things that you’re out doing every day? So I would suggest if that’s, gosh, that’s number two, three, four, five, six I guess.
Shontavia Johnson (04:59):
But that whole category of things really just ultimately comes down to what are the things that you actually like?
Shontavia Johnson (05:06):
Number three, how are you already solving problems? How are you already helping people? And that could be anything from giving advice to your friends about dating and relationships to maybe you’re fixing people’s cars or changing oil to maybe your proofreading folks’ resumes or something. What are the places where you are already helping people? I think that’s number three or four.
Shontavia Johnson (05:38):
I’m going to stop doing numbers. I’m just going to list some things. So how are you giving advice? How are you already helping people? What are you good at? And those things really are related. If people are reaching out to you asking for help with things, then you must be good at it. If other folks are trusting you to help them with these things. So what are the things you’re good at?
Shontavia Johnson (05:59):
If you don’t know where to start, this is a great place to start to figure out what type of business you do want to start. And even if it isn’t starting a business, maybe you just need to be in a different field or industry, but what are the things that you like? What are the things that you’re good at? Where are people already asking you for advice?
Shontavia Johnson (06:18):
And then once you figure out that list, get on Google, and I know everybody says get on Google, but this is very, very specific thing I want you to do when you get on Google, after you list out all of those things, search for experts in whatever that thing is.
Shontavia Johnson (06:38):
So if it’s “expert at resume writing,” that was one of my examples from earlier. You’re proofreading people’s resumes, helping people write resumes, Google “expert at” whatever that thing is. Find a list of the people. When you Google that phrase, find a list of the people who are experts at that thing. Visit their websites. Oftentimes if this person is appearing really high in the Google rankings, they probably have a podcast or a blog or a newsletter or something online where you can see the type of work that they are doing. So you can start to follow that person, follow the moves that they’re making, look at the things that they are doing to make money.
Shontavia Johnson (07:26):
And if you’re doing that for a specific industry with five or 10 different people, at some point patterns will start to emerge. You’ll see the things that they are talking about and the ways that they’re making money.
Shontavia Johnson (07:39):
But you’ll probably also start to see if these are things that you’re interested in too, is where there are gaps, where, you know, maybe there’s something you’re really good at that these folks aren’t talking about.
Shontavia Johnson (07:50):
And so this actually is something that I have done a lot. So for me, like I love talking about building brands and businesses and figuring out how to take the things that you’re doing at work to create, whether it’s an internal brand or an external side hustle, or if you’re going to ultimately leave a company and start a new business. I love those things. So I started following all kinds of experts in the field and I noticed a couple of things. Number one, very few of those people were lawyers like me. Very few people in that space where people of color very few people were in the South.
Shontavia Johnson (08:32):
And those are things that I have. Those are things that are unique to me and so I kind of play up those things. I use those things to my advantage. I talk about culturally competent entrepreneurship a lot. I interview a lot of people in the South who were doing really sophisticated entrepreneurial things who are building really dynamic personal brands.
Shontavia Johnson (08:57):
I spend a lot of time talking about law, talking about copyrights and trademarks and intellectual property because those were the gaps that I saw in the industry and in the marketplace. And that has served me really well.
Shontavia Johnson (09:11):
So I’m suggesting that you do those things too. Look at people who are already out doing things that you really like. Are there gaps in the industry where you can play a role and where you can be of service to lots of people. And so after you do that, after you look at all the things that you don’t like, after you look at what you’re good at, after you get on Google and find experts and follow all of those people and look at all of those things, the other thing I want you to pay attention to is who those experts are talking about. Who they are citing, who they are, retweeting, whose podcasts they are appearing on, whose YouTube channels they are appearing on.
Shontavia Johnson (09:55):
And follow those people too because that’s kind of that next level in the industry. Those people who are maybe not doing exactly what you want to do, but people who are supporting those spaces. So follow those people too. You will start to see really quickly that industries are pretty small, number one.
Shontavia Johnson (10:15):
That when there’s a gap, when there’s a gap in the marketplace, it’s usually a pretty big gap and waiting for somebody like you to come fill that gap. And so you start to see all of, not just the overlaps, but where there are holes within that overlap. So don’t just follow the experts. Look at the people that they are talking to, the people they are citing, the other places that they are appearing. And I think that type of stuff will help you start to see what the possibilities are. I’m not saying you need to go out and start a new business tomorrow, but you can see what the possibilities are and what types of ways you can be creative in figuring out what your next step should be.
Shontavia Johnson (10:59):
And the other thing I would suggest, so you said you don’t have a lot of time or a lot of money. So what I’m suggesting–all these things I’m suggesting to you to do are free. Research ways to become good at the things that you really, really like. If you’re not already really good at them, figure out if there’s a certification you can get. If there’s a training, if there’s, I don’t know, a YouTube channel you can watch for free. Figure out what steps you need to take to, to get really good at the thing you want. Now, I’m not suggesting you have to go out and get a PhD or get certified in something. There are a lot of folks who are really, really good at what they do who don’t have those things, but if you don’t know where to start and if you’re looking for places to start, then it is always helpful to figure out how can I get really, really good at something.
Shontavia Johnson (11:52):
Maybe you do need a certification. I don’t know necessarily what you’re interested in. Maybe you do, maybe you don’t, but if you go out and research those things, you can come up with a game plan for what you need to do and maybe what you don’t need to do. I mentioned earlier, YouTube channels, those are free. You can watch as many YouTube channels as, I don’t know,there’s probably millions and millions of YouTube channels about all kinds of things, so you could start watching some YouTube videos about things. Listen to some podcasts. I know you listen to this one since you reached out to me and we walked through a lot of things about business and branding. So as you are building whatever the business and whatever the brand is, you can find free tools and resources to help you along the way. If you don’t know where to start.
Shontavia Johnson (12:41):
Go to the library. A lot of people forget about the library, but the library has lots of awesome resources. I don’t know where you live or if you’re in the U.S, but if you’re in the U.S. There are a couple of organizations that provide free workshops all the time around starting businesses. One is SCORE, so the SCORE organization has workshops all over the country. Maybe go to your local Chamber of Commerce. There are a lot of really dynamic chambers of commerce that offer events, workshops, networking functions, all kinds of things for people who are looking to start businesses in a specific location.
Shontavia Johnson (13:23):
Find an accountability partner. So if you want to get out of this job that you really hate, you probably need a cheerleader. You need somebody who’s going to say, Hey, you are doing great with whatever this new thing, but you also want a person who’s going to be an accountability partner who will say, okay, we know you hate your job. You said that a thousand times. What are you going to do about it? Have you done that thing that you said you were going to do? Did you go to that networking function? Did you sign up for that workshop? Did you read that book? Find yourself a really good accountability partner who can keep you on track, who you can talk to about the things you want to do.
Shontavia Johnson (14:07):
Some other ideas. If your new idea– as you’re going through, like all of these different exercises trying to figure out what you want to do next. It’s okay not to know right now, but if one of those things includes like a physical location, say you want to start a, I don’t know, a bakery shop, go to four or five bakeries and don’t just go, you know as a consumer. But go look around. Go see what the business of owning a bakery looks like.
Shontavia Johnson (14:36):
And if you, you know, have the confidence to do this ask the owner of the bakery of you can talk to them for a couple of minutes about how they started their bakery shop. Now a lot of people will tell, you no, some people will tell you no, I won’t say a lot of people but some will tell you no, that’s okay. But continue to go to new, other bakery shops. Ask them a few questions about how they started, whatever the business is that they started. And again, you will probably get some nos, but the goal for you is to just put yourself in a position where you’re starting to see new possibilities. And that’s really the thing, right? Allowing yourself, giving yourself permission even to explore what these new possibilities will look like.
Shontavia Johnson (15:22):
Keep a list in your phone of ideas. When you have an idea at work, if you have the liberty to do this, if you don’t do it on your lunch break, write down ideas, write down things that you are thinking about. Keep a list in your phone and go back and look at that list. And then start to explore some of those possibilities and some of those options.
Shontavia Johnson (15:44):
Screenshot things that are inspirational. So if it’s a bakery shop, screenshot on your phone, pictures of really, really cool bakery shops so that you can keep your mind in that place. If you really, really hate your job. And I think I have a podcast episode too about what to do when you really hate your job and you want to do something different. But if you really, really hate your job, then you’re going to need some inspiration from somewhere else. So screenshot things that are inspirational and continue to go look at those things.
Shontavia Johnson (16:17):
You’ll be surprised– at some point you’ll go from just looking at things on your phone or on your iPad or whatever, to taking some steps to make those things happen in your life. Because you can’t look at these inspirational things day in and day out and not want to move forward. And when you get to that point. So after you’ve done all this research, you’ve gone and interviewed people, you started to figure out the thing that you really, really like, create a vision. So I talk a lot on this show and in my business about vision, about creating a vision for your brand, your business, your life, and your energy. And that would be my next suggestion. Once you get to the point where you have a great idea that you want to start implementing, create a vision for what that will look like and you can do that here with me.
Shontavia Johnson (17:07):
If you visit my website at shontavia.com I’ve got a whole vision plan that is free for anybody to walk through. Actually, I have two vision plans for people that are free to walk through to figure out what you really, really want to do with your brand, your business, your life, and your energy. And when you create this vision, ultimately you’ll have a blueprint for what you want to see happen. And then your next step really is to just work backward from that vision. What baby steps can you start to take today and even if the baby steps right now are just Googling things, just continuing to listen to podcasts or watch YouTube videos or whatever. At some point you’re going to have some baby steps you can take to move in the direction of your vision, move in the direction of your dream. So those are my suggestions.
Shontavia Johnson (17:59):
I know that was a little bit of a stream of consciousness kind of list, but really I want you to start with why don’t you like what you’re doing right now? What do you like? What are people doing in the field that you do like? How can you find inspiration there? Then how can you start to take steps in your own life to create a vision that supports what you want to do?
Shontavia Johnson (18:22):
So I hope something I said, Trashawn, was helpful to you in this episode today. For everybody else, I hope something I said resonated with you too. If you have additional suggestions, if you have questions about what I’ve said here, or if you have questions about other things relating to building your personal brand, building a business, or connecting things you’re doing at work to a side hustle or to some new idea that you have, feel free to reach out to me at askshontavia@gmail.com I’d love to hear from you. You may hear your question, my response on another episode of the show. Thanks so much for watching and listening.
