Why We Need More Entrepreneurs And How You Can Become One

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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of Image Group International and an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies, and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques, and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image, and reputation.

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Hello, Today, our chat will be on why we need more entrepreneurs, and how you can become one. To start our conversation, I want to ask you a question. Have you noticed how the current workforce has changed a lot, especially in the last two years? Well, there are several reasons for this, I will cover some of that, that I believe is relevant. Obviously, the COVID pandemic has played a big part. But there's also been a lot of changes prior to this. And if we look at some stats from the Lloyds and they call that the seven disruptors are virtually the reason for a lot of the changes is coming from technology, I think we're all aware of that, as an army of data, changing the nature of careers. In other words, you know, people are changing careers and changing jobs upskilling and looking for new opportunities, diversity and generational change. That's Millennials reaching, you know, 50% of the workforce. That's what's starting to happen. AI and cognitive computing, robotics, affordability, you know, AI, for instance, cost and finally, explosion in contingent workers that you can actually be in a biased in one country and doing work in another fairly easily, and the whole jobs vulnerable to automation. 

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That's also played a big part where a lot of people are losing their jobs and will continue losing their jobs as per the disruptors I've just mentioned. And of course, there are other reasons as well. And they are probably more the reasons, you know, that people might share from a perspective of personal reasons, some of the ones might be people are realizing right now that you know, life is short. And COVID has been a perfect example of that, where people have actually passed on to, to the whole medical situation we've been facing, you know, and they've realized specifically that we're not going to be here forever. So we better start enjoying ourselves and you know, living life, I think young people in motion discover the 25-year-old gold watch concept. In other words, you work for a corporation for 25 years, and then you get a gold watch at the end is all over. And if you want to also control your own destiny, you know, you need to be around people that also have similar similar values and also similar spirits in reference to going forward and never giving up where you know, some environments and some cultures where if that person worked, you know, for a long time, obviously, they realize that time that that whole energy of Creation and creativity has virtually disappeared. 

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And finally, you know, yes, entrepreneurship is invoked. And a lot of people definitely want to get on board with many of the reasons I've just mentioned. So, overall, when we think about the pandemic, another crisis that the world might have gone through in the past, and it's gone through now, we know that there's a very similar correlation, and the word is called fear. And fear is a concept that human beings by nature, have a lot of apprehension with because although it can be used for good, it can also be used for negative reasons. But fear as a concept is mostly a limiting belief. Because if you buy the concept of fear, especially in your day to day life, I'm not talking about, you know, if you have a wine about to attack you, in the forest in Africa, that's a different story. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, you know, fear for our daily way of being, it stops you from creating and certainly can lead to stress and anxiety about the future. And we know that worrying about the future is something that telling your hands so why would you want to worry about something that's really, really just a story, I suppose that we create in our heads, as opposed to something that's solid, factual and in the present. So when operating in fear actions become about survival. You know, survival is, as I mentioned, is very important in the forest, or in the jungle. But, you know, on a day to day level, that's a different conversation.

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That is why entrepreneurship is almost like an act of citizenship, when you overcome your fear, you know, along the way, you become more resilient. And, of course, you know, you've got a lot of self benefits and family benefits that would come out of that. But on a broader scale, you're also adding a lot of value to that community, and you're helping the community, the economy to do the same. So with that entrepreneurs, the government cannot collect taxes. Without taxes, you can't build hospitals, you can't build schools, etc. Without hospitals and schools, we become a third world nation. So entrepreneurship is definitely an essential component of our whole system. But actually, it's actually a lot more than that. And the times, it gets undervalued for whatever reasons, and many of those reasons in my experience are political. You know, entrepreneurship is freedom. Entrepreneurship is about creating your own destiny. And entrepreneurship is about taking responsibility, and accountability of your life. And it's great to see a lot of people doing that today, and especially a lot of young people, I think that's exciting, and certainly something we want to support for the future. So if you're looking to begin your entrepreneurial journey, now is a great time to think about how you can create an impact. 

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I will share some ideas with you for actionable steps you can do today to further your entrepreneurial journey. But before you get started, of course, every journey needs a map, it needs a journey map. So the first thing we suggest, is, of course, get your foundations right, make sure your foundations are solid, what does that mean? Well, certainly you can get started doesn't have to be perfect or anything like that. But foundations are important, because no different to when you're building a house. If the foundations are loose like that, you know, every time you put a brick in the wall, it's not cemented properly, the foundations will eventually collapse. So you got to get the foundation's right. And of course, the next week would be about, you know, what are you hoping to offer? That's gonna make a difference out there, what does, you know, your product or service look like? And of course, that comes down to then working out, you know, how you're going to make this product or service to be different out there. And, and what's it going to make it stand out in this ocean of many, many different products and services that potentially all look the same. So you got to get clear on that. But you know, the biggest on the entrepreneur journey, my experience is the mindset, it's about attitude. It's about, and what I say to people is, and this is very important in whatever you're doing, I mean, of course, this lends itself also to the corporate world. And really life in itself. It's held bankable is your attitude, you know, is your attitude, so bankable, that I will invest in it, you know, and that's, and that you're going to need any in the entrepreneurial journey, especially also, if you've come from a very stripe, corporate environment, because that environment has different sort of safety nets, attached to a where entrepreneurship hasn't got many, you know, so that's where, again, you got to get really clear on that. And of course, you know, that's where also go back to your foundation, because you feel foundations aren't strong, then you're potentially building on quicksand. 

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The next one is to develop your skills. And I have you know, a sign around that. And I say basically, doesn't matter where you're at, always be an apprentice, even when you become the master. And what I mean by this, well, of course, if you're a young person, just getting into something new, you're automatically an apprentice, you know, don't believe the rubbish that you read, read that, you know, you're going to become a billionaire, but you know, in 24 hours, because you've learned something new online, you'll always be the apprentice we say, even when you'll become the master, and also in developing your skills. You know, find mentors, find people that you respect, trust, and like that can specifically teach you some of the skills that you're not so good at yourself. The moment you take and this is very important from a psychological point of view. The moment you think you're not an apprentice anymore There's an element that makes you stop learning. Okay, and that's where the ego comes into play. So it doesn't matter how good you are at what you're doing, you know, take on the hats of The Apprentice, you know, really, really use that as an opportunity to learn, ask great questions and be curious. And in my experience, that will certainly help you eventually become the master that you're possibly aspiring to assume you're not a master already. In number three, what we say is reach out, no one has reached out to me. Well reaching out really means in this context, connecting with great people that have the rungs on the board. You know, we mentioned earlier about life is too short. So, you know, it's definitely too short to hang around with blood-sucking vultures, you know, so what that means is reach out to people that give you know, the givers, you know, become a giver yourself, you know, be abundant in your being. Because when you operate that way, and you give value to people, it attracts, like nothing else, you don't you know, and it's more than if you look at it from a marketing point of view. It's not a push approach. It's more you know, it's a pull approach, people are coming to you, they're being pulled in, right? Nicely as opposed to you, you know, crunching them online, as we get daily, or, you know, spamming people and so on, reach out from the point of view of, you know, adding some real value. Yes, it does take a little bit more time. But what we're talking about here is sustainability. You know, it's sustainable relationships that you're connecting within your reaching out as opposed to anything that's too flimsy and lightweight.

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The show's almost over. Thank you for listening. I hope this episode has given you some insights and inspiration. You can all find me on social media. You can follow me on Twitter at John underlying Michael on LinkedIn is John Michael and on Facebook as image Group International. If you need my help on your entrepreneurial journey, please email me and I'll be happy to work with you. The email is on the description of the episode. Thank you all and I look forward to chatting again next week, cheers.

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists, based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world.   To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.