Embracing Uncertainty By Mitigating Risk (Ron Johnson)

Entrepreneur Ron Johnson talks to Leo about youth entrepreneurship, which he argues is the key to generational wealth. They discuss faith, embracing uncertainty by mitigating risk, the Flint water crisis, and the importance of community.

Receive a journaling prompt every Friday morning:  leoyockey.com

Ron: tritonpilotprogram.com; tritonconsultingnyc.com; instagram.com/ronjohnjunior;  twitter.com/ronjohnjunior

Leo: leoyockey.com; instagram.com/leoyockey; twitter.com/leovolving; tiktok.com/@leoyockey

By: Leo Yockey

Transcript

0:15

Welcome to Episode Four of the Leo Yockey show. I'm your host, Leo Yockey. How you doing today? Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening, and especially thank you for sharing it with your friends. If you're new, welcome, I'm so glad that you're here. I think you're gonna enjoy the show. I got to keep this intro brief, because once again, for the second week in a row, I had a little bit of a longer conversation with my guest. But once again, I think you're really gonna like it. Anyway, journal prompt, what did you think of this week's journal prompts. So if you have no idea what I'm talking about right now, every Friday, I send out one of my favorite book quotes. And alongside it, there's a journal prompt. So it's every Friday, so you have all weekend long to kind of think about the quote, think about your responses for the journal, and you know, just kind of take some time getting to know yourself. So it's great little exercise is a great thing to add to your weekly routine. If you want to be a part of it, you can go to my website, Leo yockey.com, that's leoyocky.com. And I'll get you all hooked up. I know for me personally. So I recently started volunteering at a local charity. So once a week, I'm you know, checking people in and getting them set up with what they need. While they're there. It's like this drop in center where people can get food and showers and stuff. And here's the thing, they kind of just threw me into the fire and we're like, here's a clipboard, start talking to people go. And the interesting thing is that I've been wanting to work on my sales skills, because I feel like it you know, if I'm going to start my own business, I need to know how to sell right and and the main thing that I need is I need to be able to walk in front of or need to be able to face anybody and feel like confident talking to them. And the cool thing about volunteering is that I'm getting this practice day in and day out of constantly making conversation with people who may or may not want to have a conversation with me, and ask them, you know, for personal information that they may or may not want to give, but we need to have to be able to help them with housing and stuff. I'm getting to get that practice, while also, you know, helping the people in my neighborhood who need help the most. So, I don't know, I feel like so often we think that like, Oh, I need that mentor that's going to help me or Oh, I need money for that course or I need I need money to hire a sales person. And it's like, Nah, um, maybe sometimes all we got to do is help someone and through helping someone, we're gonna figure out our next step. Yeah. So that's kind of what happened with with Ron Johnson, my, my guest this week. So I met Ron through a book club. And we connected like, almost instantly. And one of the things that I liked the most about Ron is that he's taking the things that didn't go well in his previous business ventures. And he's using it to help people. And specifically, he helps kids, he he teaches business skills to kids. And so he's planting the seed early in their life, so that they can start thinking about entrepreneurial paths they can take, we're only ever taught to be employees in school. And so without someone teaching us this other way of looking at the world, this other way of making money, like Whitney said in Episode One, you know, her her parents didn't teach her about entrepreneurial skills, because you know, it wasn't part of their world. Its entrepreneurial ship is so much more accessible now than it was before. But without someone teaching us the way, how do we know to get there? And so today, especially I could I could use a conversation with someone who's looking ahead towards the future, looking at how to make things better for kids. So hey, without further ado, here is Ron Johnson. Hey, Ron, how's it gone? going very well. How about yourself? Pretty good, pretty good. I got my COVID vaccine, the first COVID vaccine shot a couple days ago. So I'm enjoying that a light at the end of the building. Once you get it. I got it on on Thursday. Thursday. Awesome. I got my Johnson and Johnson last Wednesday. The ones one side wins. That's you have the one that done the one shot stop. Nice. That was before all the it was like the day before all the news broke behind Johnson Johnson. So hopefully I got the good batch. The next day, I had all the side effects though I had everything they said was gonna happen. I got the flu, but it was only for 24 hours. And so it was less than 24 hours. So they said it was going to happen. It happened. And afterwards, in less than 24 hours, I was fine. So yes, but light in the tunnel. Cheers to you. So you have like, what, two or three more weeks before you get your next one? Yeah, so I get the next one in in four weeks, and then I should be should be fully vaccinated the weekend before Memorial Day. So this Oh, this is coming on the tracklist. So this weekend? I shouldn't be I should I should be good to go. So to peek behind the curtain for our listeners. It's a recording this on April 17. So quite a bit of time no idea what uh, what what were the news will be with Johnson Johnson by the it'll probably be back by then. Yeah, we'll see how this ages. Cars. Yeah. Oh, man. Anyway, that's not what we're here to talk about. This isn't a medical podcast. You are, in some ways, I feel like what I hope to bring with this podcast is kind of like when you do with kids, which I think is cool. And especially with today, you know, being the anniversary of George Floyd's death, I thought what better way to mark the day than to talk to someone who's working with kids. So before we get into all that, your your intro that you use when you introduce yourself to new people, when you're starting an ag live or a clubhouse, you call yourself a curator of entrepreneurial experiences. So what is an entrepreneurial experience? And how does one curate them? Oh, well, I will have to charge you a consultation fee to explain what those things are. Put in a sense, we are good, right? Put on my Patreon. So I am a carrier of entrepreneurial experiences. So what I've been called that I really appreciate is a connector, a person that a village person who connects people connects the village connects people, and I'm honored to take that label curating entrepreneurial experiences, I'll just say that I create. I've hosted different platforms and spaces for entrepreneurs to come together to mastermind. And so that's existed through panels, panel conversations with different entrepreneurs. I call that the MIS education of the entrepreneur. And so that is based around the idea of talking about the conversations panelists don't really talk about, you know, there's a lot of entrepreneurship panels out there and discussions, a conversation about how to succeed. There are rarely conversations about what you do when you start to stop believing in yourself. What happens when you almost want to give what how did you turn things around. And so in honor of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, is, there's some things you can get out of a textbook or you can't get out a panel discussion, because they're always just want to show it. They want to show people how to win all the time. But we don't show people how to redeem themselves after failure, and show kindness and grace to themselves in order to achieve the goals that they want. So that's the Miseducation of entrepreneur. I done one retreat with 12 people 11 of us because I was, I was the 12th person. And that was called the creators table retreat. And it was amazing. It was amazing. We, this was in 2019. Okay, just in time. Yeah, right, did that the summer solstice was June 21, or without June 21. And we, I organized, everyone went to leave our homes, and I rented out this mansion and upstate New York, and we stayed there. And we really got worked on what we call a deep work, shout out the quote of the day. So what we call deep work, and there we had like maybe three workshops on a Friday, Saturday and the Sunday but all our before and after that, was everyone being able to focus on this stuff. Why? Because at home, we have the things that we're used to we have our common distractions, and what I wanted to do was get us pick us up, get a book, notebook and a computer, take ourselves to another location that we're not used to Just focus on the things that we know that we can. And so that was amazing. The biggest piece where a lot of my revenue comes from right now is through youth entrepreneurship. And that started several, several years ago, and that came from the Flint water crisis where my mother and I had a conversation about, even with the water crisis and the lead poisoning. Even if those things were to get fixed, those kids still have left, we can't reverse that poison. Right. And you're you're from Michigan, right? So this came out the other side to high school Michigan. Yep. And you know what to, you know, great University of Michigan for college, go, Whoa. But I have no family in Flint. I have no family there. What resonated with me, though, is that Flint was a major city during the automotive industry. And the automotive industry moved to Mexico. And so the city of Flint relied on it. And so Flint became the poorest country in the nation, then it wrote into being the most violent city of the nation in the nation. And now you ship water from people fleeing as well. And something for me, that really sparked a flame for me to do the conversation with my mom. Because, you know, traditionally speaking, kids are taught to, you know, go to school, get a good job, or go to college, get a good job, and just, but now you have these kids are going to have these long term effects of lead poisoning, which is going to affect their learning and social development, like all of these things, that even finding a job when you're having a hard time graduating from high school, or even Middle School is going to be very hard finding employment. So what are unorthodox ways that we can actually invest in youth to learn that they don't have to go the traditional routes. And so entrepreneurship is something that stuck out to me. And so I just started doing these workshops, I have friends on an education space that gave me opportunity to test my workshops out. And that segue from doing two hour long workshops with an episode of shark tank. And we're talking about entrepreneurship off of one pitch from Shark Tank into create creating a full 13 week curriculum based on a whole school semester. So I went from one hour workshops, to a full out curriculum at one school. And then 2020 came around. And I pretty much exploded from going working in one school to working through eight different schools between LA and New York. And my last piece here is, this is all during COVID, I've been writing the silver lining of COVID. Because the original school that was working with they were about to pretty much cut the contract because we had to do remote learning. They were like, unless you purchase stuff online. So I'm like, Alright, then I'll put myself online don't got to tell me twice. Exactly. So because of that transition, and learning all the pieces there that allow me to to continue my contract with that school, but also allow me to do summer camps, with a partnership, my own summer camp, but also be able to partner with other organizations that allows me to teach at like eight different schools now. So entrepreneurial experiences, Miseducation of the entrepreneur, I went from our clearance table retreat to come back. And then youth entrepreneurship. Oh, and I do something with my church as well. We do what's called the leap, learning, living entrepreneurship according to purpose. And we tie entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurship experience, and scripture together for my faith base individuals out there. That's really cool. I like that. So it seems like I can find and gather when you say entrepreneurial experience, it seems like you're encapsulating that you show all sides, you know, you're not just supporting people in the good days and telling them to just, you know, like, I don't know, put themselves up from their bootstraps or something when they feel like you're saying like, hey, let's talk about failure. Let's talk about these things. Let's figure out how to grow them. Let's, let's talk about the point. I think you mentioned one point, there's going to be a period where you're going to feel like quitting. And I think that in our culture, we have this weird obsession with certainty, I think. And it's like, we want everything to be certain. And if we feel like insecure about a decision, we feel insecure about a choice we're making or risk that we're taking, then we want to stop just because we want the uncertainty to stop right and so to be able to anticipate that and say like hey, This doesn't mean that you're on the wrong path. almost the opposite, it means you're on the right path. If you're not questioning if you're not questioning whether or not you know, this is this, you know, this is crazy or whatever, like I, then you're probably picking the wrong goal, right? agree with that? I totally agree. And it's making me think of the stereotypes around entrepreneurship, of being risk takers. And you know, in embracing this idea of uncertainty, I think that's something that applies to anybody who has a nine to five, definitely now more than ever, you can have a nine to five and a pandemic and calm and things can squish and just be washed away just like that, like a millions of people, right? So the idea of uncertainty is something that we all need to respect and embrace no matter what lane of entrepreneurship or nine to five, an employer or an employee, we have to respect understand that you can avoid a certainty. Yeah, I think, you know, Adam Grant has a book called the originals. And I still can't get past his first chapter. His first chapter has so many gems in there. He talks about the stereotype of entrepreneurs and risk takers and being identified as risk takers versus the risk adverse, where he has a stat that says, those that are considered risk adverse, have a 33% more sick 33% more likely to succeed than, quote unquote, risk takers? Yeah. Why? Because they put all the ducks in a row before they do the run and jump situation that we all see, glamorize and fantasize like, this is what entrepreneurs do, we just take risk. You know what, at the end of the day, when it comes to even an investment portfolio, you want to diversify where your dollars are, you want to diversify, where you put your energy. And so by knowing how to lay out your risk and putting things out there, because risk is, it's not a bad word, it's all about just really taking a chance on yourself. And that's what risks are posed to me. And it shouldn't be a connotation to just put it all out there and my might lose it all. But risk is also something about taking a chance on yourself, and preparation. And so when it comes to entrepreneurship and uncertainty, the stereotype of being a risk taker needs to change to becoming a risk mitigator Oh, I like that. Yeah, risk mitigation entrepreneur shouldn't go out and try to add on more high risk decisions, I started after fees, the whole point, the point of entrepreneurship is to claim your business service and your solution that you bring, and what gets you to that for your customer, client or consumer. You do that by mitigating risk, not just tacking on more and more risk. That's not that's a stereotype, right? Our job as entrepreneurs is to embrace uncertainty, layer it with the proper foundation to be able to accommodate life's ups and downs in order for us to succeed. And the the real name and words we should be using with uncertainty is risk mitigation, in terms of entrepreneurship. I like that. So you know, for the listeners, I think what can be taken away there is that if you're someone who's thinking about starting a business, and it feels like, what do I even do is to sell or is is, then there's probably some some risk that still needs to be mitigated. There's probably something that needs to be learned. There's probably some some capital that needs to be sourced. Like, there's probably something that's missing that if you if you figure out what that piece is, and go get it or go learn it, or whatever the case may be. It'll feel less risky. I totally agree. I think, you know, I have a friend who is an amazing financial coach, he devised to make sure he's not a financial adviser. He's not a financial adviser, because that comes with responsibility, legal linemen, and all that good. He's not a financial adviser, but my man has gems he jobs Matt gems. And so the thing is, is he really wants to put his stuff out there but he's concerned with X, Y and Z like I don't want to be held responsible for x y&z right. And I'm like, and this is to your point, Leo, some of us actually avoid looking for the solutions for our concerns. is very comfy cozy, to stay in this area of ignorance and I say that with intention right the definition of a Nurses not knowing if we continue to like block or away from addressing our concerns, we don't actually have to kind of front, you know, some potential that we might be afraid of or that uncertainty. And honestly, that's a breakthrough experience if you want to ever pull back the curtain. So like, you know what, let me address these concerns and give this thing a try. But by doing that you are mitigating risks, because those concerns you have, you have the tools to address them, put them in your bag, and make we'll take one step forward. And that's the whole idea behind courage, being afraid, and still moving forward, knowing that you have concerns, have the answers for them, is only going to ensure your success. And it's going to be able to address uncertainty as well. Hell, yeah. Hell yeah. I love that. I mean, I lived a little bit even as recently as today, either former or future guests of the show. I Isha Blake, I haven't figured out yet when her episode is coming out, so Okay, but it's either the second week in May or the third week in June. So she's either before or after. Anyway, I digress. She She is someone who has a career in tech that some of my other friends thought might be good for me. And I'm like, Oh, yeah. But like, I looked into it, and oh, no, oh, man, it's for me. And it's like, well, if I just asked her, I would like find out for sure if it's something that I would like or not, as opposed to always being like, well, maybe I'll fall back on this. And sure enough, after talking to her, I don't feel like it's something that I want to do. So this thing, it's always been kind of sitting in the back of my mind as a possible Plan B is not a plan B. And so learning that, you know, definitely affects the decisions that I'm going to make moving forward. But it was easier to sit in this like, oh, maybe I'll do this, maybe I'll do that without going to the right person. And I think we can also trick ourselves by asking your own people to it's like, you know, that you have like that one friend who whoever you call is going to be like, Yeah, do it. You got this. You're the man you got this. And then you have other friends that you I mean, hopefully people are learning to get rid of these people. But there's always the friends who are going to be a little bit more like, I don't I don't know if you mean to cut them or to cut. You know, Ron did a cutting motion program. Yeah, no, seriously, but but even Okay, so even beyond that there are other people who will be more likely to actually challenge you and have you you know, work out the details of your idea to me Yeah, as always, because you definitely don't want to have a hater, but you also want someone who's going to be, you know, like, radically honest with you, and transparent. And if I have something where I'm like, I think this is something that I want to do, but I don't want to work out the details. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna cross my fingers and hope it works out and I go to my hype friend because I don't want to hear what you know, Mr. Honesty is going to say then you know, then that's an that's another form of deception that we do on ourselves. I am Yeah, I feel you and I call them my no friends. I like I keep my no friends around. I don't need to any Yes, friends. I'm my own. Yes, friend. Yeah, no friends, keep me in check. Still sharpen still. And the only way you polish the shoe is by rubbing against the grain. And that's how you get your better shot. It's putting people in front of you that are there to support and challenge but also help you shine and the only way to get your shine on is to rub against the grain and let those things release. So I hear you loud and clear. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. So back, so back to entrepreneurship, especially. So I personally know a little bit about your your business background before this. And we'll we'll get into that a little bit. But because this is my show, and I'm selfish, I'm going to ask you stuff that I don't know first, even though I think it's probably less relevant to the listeners, but I don't care. That's right. So youth entrepreneurship. Is this your first time like, ever working with kids? Or do you have experience with kids? Like were you like involved in like youth church or like, have a bunch of siblings or, like, were you a teacher in a past life and you've never told me like, Is this like your first time with with with the children with the youth? This is my first time. Interesting. So yeah, it is very interesting. Yeah, I never taught before. I mean, I, before I became an entrepreneur, my first year, my first entrepreneurship venture was a groceries restaurant. Yeah. And so before I launched the grilled cheese concept, I worked full time as a digital advertising themselves. Sure. So, while I was working in digital advertising sales, I took a 16 week entrepreneurship course, the program is called weebo wi Bo workshop and business opportunities is in New York at different locations. Every Wednesday, I took that course from 630 to 930. I left work, went to that program, and graduated from it was a was a I came back to be a volunteer for and so I taught the course to other adults for about four or five years. I took that experience to say, wait a second, I can break all this stuff down for some kids, because it's math off like long as these kids know how to divide and know what percentages mean. Entrepreneurship is ageless. It has no we say if you guys watch any you can watch Shark Tank. There's nine year olds making 100 odd $100,000 deals. there's a there's a nine year old mckaela Alma right now, who is a millionaire. I have my kids reading this, but we have a book club, right? So my youth can see that all this stuff is possible. And what's beautiful about the whole thing is when she started her lemonade business is because she was in a youth entrepreneurship program. So yes, cool. Yeah. So how about Todd kids? No, I have been teaching that I did not know that until last year, the dots didn't connect. But I've been teaching for almost a decade. I just didn't know that. And that wasn't my intentionality back then either. But kids going on two years, two years now with kids. That's really interesting. And I think that that's good, because I feel like Well, I mean, it is what it is. But I feel like it's, it's, it's cool to get that perspective. Because I think a lot of the people that I talked to, there's some sort of like, underlying, like lifelong connection with what they do. Like, for example, my friend Aisha, again, she does a lot of stuff with her platform in tech, where she's, you know, in front of a camera a lot or on stage a lot. And she has a theatre background. So for her, she kind of got to combine like her love of performance with like the world that she's in, in tech. But I think that there's also so many people who like, don't know what they're even, you know, they don't know what they like, they don't know what they want. And so I think to understand that there are some people who just kind of, I don't want to say stumble and because it sounds like there was no intention, you're just a tumbleweed in the wind. But there there wasn't like you wake wake up one day and say, I gotta help the kids, you know, so let me start teaching entrepreneurship, you started teaching entrepreneurship first. And then it seems like the Flint water crisis is what changed your mind. And I think that that is also like, really interesting when I tried to ask here. So Flint water crisis before this happened, were there other crises that you had seen that caused that like, desire to act within you? Um, you mean, as far as teaching entrepreneurship? No. So okay, so the Flint water crisis is something where, you know, like, we all saw the news, what happened, we all kind of read and found out like, what the situation was in Flint, and it prompted a lot of people to want to, to act in various ways to to help and to make things better, and including you. So has, whether it's youth entrepreneurship, whether it was, you know, I saw, you know, a homeless person, and now I donate food to this shelter, you know, whatever the case may be, has there ever been anything else that's that's made? You feel like, I need to do something big to help offset this? The short answer is no. Okay. The short answer is no, I'm not too much of a, you won't really catch me doing the marches. won't catch me. And it's not that I'm not down for them. I got your role in the movement. I don't think it is. And that's my, that's how I that's how I identify. And I will say, because of Flint, this does make, you know, shift very political. For me. This is a response to injustice, looking for areas of people of color. You know, if I wanted to run a prison pipeline somewhere, I would do it in Flint, Michigan, right? They gave me they gave me these people for six years ago.$600 million. Yes, it's a city a whole city. $600 million for drinking dirty water. Do you know like, that's a drop in the bucket and Jeff Bezos, you know, saying like, that isn't that much money for lies in the long term effects of these five year olds for the rest of their Like$600 million is not at all right. So, for me, if I had a place that was the poorest city in the nation, the most violent, and I shut the water from them, and the kids were poisoned, that looks like a great place, and nothing water plant, the nasty water pet is an hour away, and they pay $2 in property taxes a year, they work for free, and they bought a water. Flint, Michigan is in the center of the state of Michigan, the state of Michigan is surrounded by three of the Great Lakes. Yeah. Did you know that the Great Lakes is responsible for 80% of the United States water supply? let you know, I did not know that. in Flint, Michigan, is into citizen in the center of three of those five lakes, there is more water in Vegas than in Flint, Michigan. Okay. So youth entrepreneurship is very political for me. And that's where my contribution is. That's where you're going to see me doing the work. And so I don't March, but I run marathons. And so my, by the time I was on my second half marathon, I started printing out shirts, and every race I did for the last 15 races since then, it's all been a name of Flint, Michigan, and youth entrepreneurship. So that's where you're gonna see me taking action. But it did happen in Flint, Michigan was the catalyst for it. Other other situations, it did not result in this type of it did not manifest into this outcome, like like this one is with youth entrepreneurship. Yeah, for sure. And I think I think we we got to where I was trying to go. So I appreciate you bearing with my trying to stretch for that question. But also, I think that's, that's exactly it is, it seems like, from what I'm gathering from these conversations, it seems like there's generally two different ways that people kind of go into their calling, it's either they've known that this is what they're supposed to do since their kid in some cases, and but in a lot more cases, I think that something happens in life to kind of wake us up and make us realize what our calling is. And like, you know, for you, for example, when you're going through these numbers about like how inexcusable it is, we'll say the state of the of the water crisis in Flint, given their geographical positioning, like That's the first time I've ever heard you sound like angry. You know what I mean? Like, you're usually a pretty, pretty cheerful guy. And that was the first time where I was like, dang, like Rondo had. And I think that's exactly it. It's like that, that incident or ongoing into that crisis is, you know, feel fueled a fire in you that you previously didn't even know was there. Right. Yeah. I mean, I went to high school at Rochester high end, which is part of Oakland County, which is what one point was one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. Yeah. And on the other side of Oakland County is Eight Mile which is Wayne con in Detroit. And, you know, let low water crisis happen in Rochester Hills, Michigan, right, that shit will be fixed. So quickly let that should happen in Manhattan in New York somewhere or Yeah, Orange County, let that happen somewhere else, that stuff is going to be fixed immediately. And so it's what even gets that point to begin with? Probably. Exactly. And Adele is like this Flint is just an example. Just a microcosm because there's a lot of low income areas, underserved communities that are having lead poisoned waters Flint is is is one of the headlines, but a lot of underserved communities experience are experiencing lead poisoned water to this day. Yeah. So yeah. It's interesting how humanity is so diverse. And so I think one of the cool things is that, I mean, it's not cool that these crises happen, but I think it's cool that they affect different people differently. And so you end up with all kinds of different people doing what they do best to make the world better. And it is, I don't know, we cover a very wide scope of, of, of issues as a as an entire human race. And it's kind of cool to see like, which ones will trigger action in which people you know, and I think that I think it's really cool that you were able to like, recognize that calling, you know, do something with it, build something with it, and now you have this You know, this this foundation that you've built? That's, you know, you have like a Northstar of like, you know, the kids in plant like these are, you know, the people who I want to reach? I mean, I think that's, that's great. Appreciate it. We'll bring it back now to what I think the listeners might find more interesting. Well, maybe not I guess it's I'm not going to school cares who shows it? Yeah, right, exactly. I'm like, honestly, like, stop speaking for us, you don't know what we want. So you mentioned you had the cheese. She wrote cheese grilled cheese restaurant that that failed. And you you've also mentioned something to me once about about 36 failures, which I'll let you let's talk about so how, how was it going through that failure? And maybe this isn't fair to ask you both of these at once? Do you think that you would be doing youth entrepreneurship right now if that grilled cheese restaurant was still in operation? So for what was it like going through that experience? So I think there was a couple scenarios that I just kept pushing through. So I'm a man of faith. So I definitely think God is a huge impact on me personally, in my journey, and where I attach my spirituality with, there have always been signs that have challenges, and a lot of the challenges I overcame. And so what I like to tell people what it took me almost, I quit my job in 2012. It took me almost a year and a half to open up a grilled cheese restaurant. And if anything, could go wrong, did go wrong. Right. So I had an eight year relationship that ended I had a business partner that sued me we saw different ways saw different directions in the business and he went on his money back. And so he sued me. I had a puppy that I have for only several months the puppy die reine de right countries. Right, you lost your girl lost your business parent lost your dog, my dog, your truck, your truck, repossessed, you know? Well, I definitely had to break into my car, but no one stole anything. So maybe think about what that was. But I digress. Interesting. So the dog his name was lucky. Ironic. So that wasn't an omen well. And so all these things are taking place. And oh, and then I had two different contractors walk off the job on like bleeding out the restaurant, like they will literally walk off the job. And all these things happen back to back to back to back. And I overcame them all. I kept going. And so I finally get the doors open. I had a good solid team here and there. But a lot of times it was just by myself. I was doing the I had the restaurant, I have pop up markets, and I had catering and business was doing very well. One of the things that I did not see until a couple years later is that money was good. I didn't need I didn't need the restaurant, I did not need the restaurant, that restaurant was so expensive to maintain that all the money and profit that I would earn for pop up market, our catering event. The restaurant is evaporated everything. On top of that I was still operating off of proving people wrong, right the all the all the disappointments that I experienced from other individuals. I had this chip on my shoulder that I'm over here proving people wrong. And it wasn't until I saw this video on Facebook about this football player who kept trying out to be walk on to the football team, he finally made it on the squad. And somebody interviewed him on after he made a team. He was like he shared his breakthrough moments when he stopped trying to prove people wrong, and start letting people in showing people that God is real. And for me in my journey, I spent a lot of time trying to prove people wrong that they kind of did me wrong or they disappointed me. So now I'm going to show them by doing this grilled cheese situation that I ignored my worst case scenarios, real worst case scenarios. This is something that I actually teach right. And I never applied it to myself. That's why doctors aren't supposed to like operate on their on their on their family members because I listen to clients. So to clarify, sorry to clarify the worst case scenario situations where things that you would, if this happens, I need to exit is that is that? This is what I did. And you didn't do it and I did this well. I did not This is these are all things I did not do. And so measuring my worst case scenario is that I ignored the fact that I need to sell at least 500 grilled cheese sandwiches over the month. In order to make all my expenses, I ignored that fact, I just knew that I had a catering gig, I had this that I got to book this stuff. And there is times where I didn't meet those numbers. And I just ignored the fact I became late on paying rent, paying bread for bread delivery, all these things, I just start piecing together and robbing Peter to pay Paul and I did that for free for a very long time of just always scrambling to pay other people and holding other individuals off that there have been times and this is I want to get to the I'm gonna close this up real quick, is that there been times where God has showed up and like, show me some light at the end of the tunnel like he came to eye for you. Here we go. He told me so he told me a blessing. And I'll take you there. I was like, Alright, food, I'll mess this up. Next thing you know, I'm over here scrambling again bested up. And so he thought a couple more blessings I gonna do with it. And here I go, messing them all up. And it came to a point where I'm like, I got where you at? Where's the next blessing? I'm ready for my blessing now, please. Nothing. And I was like, oh, there's nothing, you know, we're not here today. What's up. And so that was me explaining how I went straight for here. And who I am by myself, and I put on all that weight on myself. And I and I ignored my, my humanity. I was not giving myself grace. I was not respecting my worst case scenarios. And I just knew I had to get the job done. And, you know, there's one thing about Siri Right, exactly. And they say, you know, until the wheels fall off. Well, we on what was fall off, that means you broke your vehicle. You know, that's not that's not a good point. Until the wheels fall off. That means Yeah, that means you're done. And so and that's what happened to my restaurant. And because of that, I had to suffer collateral damage with my how I manage my money, personally, my credit, dealing with eviction, all those things all took place after I close the restaurant, all these things. And so those are things I was going through. With that off. Now. You asked me a question, what I teach you entrepreneurship had those things not happened? That's a really good question. Because I was actually hosting these little entrepreneurship sessions in the restaurant on Mondays when it was really slow. But it was for adults. Yeah, so the see the teaching had already been planted at that point. Yeah, because even after I graduated, the weeble program would fall open up the grilled cheese business. I came back as a volunteer and I was a business coach for other students that went through the program that I went through. So I was already connecting and having these conversations with students no matter what adults and but as far as youth I will probably say I want in half. And you know, one of the things I try to wrap my head around is like okay, rago you feel that your grilled cheese restaurant? What are you doing teaching kids? Right? And so you know, and my short answer for me is that I want them to avoid the avoidable mistakes. There's things in life that you're just gonna have to chew it take it on take it on the chin I got that part I get it I'll never be able to I will never get in somebody's own journey and tell them don't do this and that well I will help my youth do is avoid the avoidable holes. The thing is you don't need to do you don't need to go through that because hope did that right. That's the Jay Z like Alright, so Exactly. I there's a lot of things that I went through an all Surat SOP around mindset and justification. So when it comes to profit margin, when it comes to sales forecasting, when it comes to your worst case scenario, the stuff I teach adults and even high school kids, I teach fifth graders the same thing, the content does not change, the conversation does, but they get the same Jen's mouth, I kick it to my fourth graders. Same way if you get to 12th graders, and so for me understanding the nuts and bolts of us financial education and how I didn't apply some of these great habits that I should have, I'm doing my job and giving back and point out to you have to make sure that they don't skip on these steps by implementing it, implementing this into their heads early on. And I want my youth entrepreneurship program to be the place where they can try out these new things. And they can fail as much as they want, try things out, because they're fell, they fell in my arms. And there is nothing safer than that. Because imagine what they can do now that they know what it's like to pivot from an idea now that they leave Mr. Ron's program, they've mitigated the risk now, and now as part of the decision making experience, but while they're with me, they're failing with me. And I'm supporting them and encourage them along the way. Because I didn't have that. I did leverage. I did have that. leverage that. Yeah, that's, that's so cool, man. Because I mean, that's the thing, like you were saying, like, why should I, you know, like, Is someone I asked, like, oh, why why teach entrepreneurial skills, if you know, if your business failed, but like, most people's first business to help, you know, like, you're not too far out from from the norm for having that business fail. And I think that this safe space to fail is, I think that is the missing piece, you know, it's like people who the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad kind of came to mind as you were talking. And for listeners unfamiliar with the book, it's about this guy who grew up, he had his dad who was just like a government employee, and then his best friend's dad, who was a business owner of some type. And he talks about how the two different men who were both father and father figures in his life taught him very different theories and concepts and relationships with money. And, you know, so people who have parents who are business owners, or have access to business owners in their life, they are able to learn these things and make these mistakes when they're young. And so you're kind of creating this like, almost like, you know, like, after school program, where it's like, you know, hey, like, we're like a place where like, your kids can hang out, but oh, we're gonna teach them, you know, some some skills that they're not learning in school, we're not just gonna, like, help them with their English homework, we're gonna also or not also, but we're gonna teach them the skills, you know, mis mis education of the entrepreneurs assess, right? I love that. Yeah, give me your English homework will turn into a pitch competition, you know, we'll put a storytelling together I can. And that's, you know, even with the curator, entrepreneur experience, I'm at a point now, where just you went through failure. And I'll say this humbly, I do have I do feel that I can create an entrepreneur experience out of anything. And I do feel that way. And but that's because of the failures and the rejections and the redemptions that come from it and seeing how I can always I can show the story and the experiences on who I am today, but who also who I want to become shout out to. personality is a permanent, hell yeah. Great book. Great book. It'll be all news by the time this comes out. Because we'll be on how we change and two reasons why we don't stop all right. Shawn, if you're listening to this, what up what oh, cool, man. I mean, wow, that was a that was a great conversation. I mean, I really, I'm really excited for for what you're doing with kids and I hope that I hope that this grows I hope that this inspires other people to also you know, teach their kids different skills. Almost any skill you can teach your child that they're not gonna learn in school is probably going to be beneficial bucks so i i love it and I think that your your openness in talking about the failure and your willingness to say hey, well, I just fell so let me tell you about this like curb that I like tripped over see because you can't really see it so like let me just tell you that it's there and it's still on my trip because it's really hard to see but like, at least now you kind of know and then if you do probably be like oh well, Mr. Romm said so like, I guess I can keep going or whatever like a lovely Oh, this one it just said he said it like that's exactly I just didn't say that yet. But that's the piece that I feel we all have responsibilities for Yeah. To others when when it's time or wherever giving advice to others, other people based on where we are versus someone who might be you know, quote unquote, a chapter behind us or two chapters behind us in life. We have a responsibility to let other people know about the potholes. Yeah, dark alleys. And the broken traffic lights and the the dark corners, we have a responsibility like, Look, guys, it's about to get dark on the side when you get on it right here. Mm hmm. Unless you got a full tank of gas. Because this may or may not happen, but it happened to me. And had I done this, I would have bla bla bla, you don't got to do it my way. But at least I told you something. And I think we all have a responsibility to let other people know and give them a heads up on the potholes. 100% I couldn't agree with you more. Well, that I mean, I can't think of a better note to end on so and we're out about time. So do you have anything that you would like to promote? Oh, yes. The name of my overall business is Triton consulting NYC that's Triton t r i t o n. consulting NYC shine is the moons of Neptune. It is the only moon in the solar system that orbits in the opposite direction. That is the essential definition of the entrepreneurial journey is being able to create your own path instill coexists with everyone else. You're not in this planet alone. You have your own journey. But you're not alone. And you can coexist with what you have and who you are. Please be resourceful and ask for help. Help is an acronym H e LP. Honor, every leverage point? Yeah, oh, yes, I will honor you. You are someone that I can lean on. I will honor the fact that I know you as an individual, and I'm going to leverage you and I want you to leverage me. And if I don't, if I don't leverage you, I'm not honoring you being in my space of I have tools around me and I do not use them I have not honoring them. So that is my piece are trying I have a youth entrepreneurship program called the Triton pilot program. pilot is a play on words for testing an idea before the big idea launches off. It's also I was someone who flies a plane or a spaceship a pilot is taking an idea and launching it. So that's dedicated to my youth. I have a pitch competition coming up on Memorial Day. So somebody wants to support the program. I have a Patreon account and you can find it on Triton pilot program on Patreon if you want to support going to have some more pitch competitions coming up, and also a summer program coming up as well. So if anybody wants to support you can visit the website Triton pilot program comm Patreon Triton pilot program social media Triton pilot program. You can follow me personally, Ron john Jr. on all the social media platforms are Oh NJOHNJUNIOR Ron john Jr. I think that's Oh, US entrepreneurship is the gateway to generational wealth. You know, ship is a gateway to generational wealth. I want my students to be in a point of understanding entrepreneurship that they can teach someone else entrepreneurship, that's how deeply I want them to be engaged. And that can only be done through support of everybody else. And my last thing is gratuity, gratuity gratitude for my village who supported me allow me to do the things that I'm doing right now because I definitely couldn't do it alone without them and shout out to my mama lovey mama pop seven tops Leo Levy, man and Cody What up I love you to your iron and thank you for this this this kind words about the leverage you were one of the first people I call it here this is episode number four I believe but your let's go on the first people I called to be a guest I knew immediately you know, I gotta get right here Ron is 1,000% has to be the first person from pod or the first person I connected with on a one on one. You know, I want a call from God and I I really enjoyed be on this journey with you. I really enjoy everything that I've learned from you and and honestly on a personal note, and I'll say this on the record on the podcast, you know, your talk, you're speaking about your faith has helped me kind of undo some of the trauma I have around the Christian church. And so I really appreciate you kind of bringing that other perspective and I Have a respect for the Christian faith that I did not have before meeting. So I appreciate that. Man, I did not know that until right now. So yeah, that means a lot I, I never been this vocal until recently. Last year, honestly, and these have been very fruitful. And I understand. I don't know your specific trauma that you experience. But I understand. And I've had these conversations a lot of people and, and I know these are real experiences, and they're very valid. And I'm glad that my presence and the way I speak on my faith does resonate. And if there's ever a time that you do want to talk deeper about it, I'm a great listening here. I don't have anything to say, you know, nothing that you don't know already. But I can always listen, if you ever want to talk more deeply about it. I'm here for it. Yeah, I appreciate that a lot. Cool. All right. On that SAP. Yes, no, I got this done now. Awesome. All right. Thanks, Ron. Thank you. All right. Once again, that was Ron Johnson. Man, Ron, thank you again for being on the show. listener. Thank you for listening and being a part of this show. Did you like what you heard? If you did go ahead and give me a five star rating. It'll really help me out a lot. It'll help more people discover the show. And the more people that are here, the better I can make the show, the more I can do with it. And be sure to go to Leo yockey.com to get signed up for this Friday's journal prompt. I'm not quite sure yet who I'm going to have. So it'll be a surprise, but it should be a good one and I will see you next week. Have a good Memorial Day. Summer is here. Y'all stave off