From Viral Fame to Authentic Success | Jeremy Bishop

PROFITABLE TALKS...

In this episode, Christian Brim interviews Jeremy Bishop from Influencer Club, discussing the significance of personal branding in today's digital landscape. Jeremy shares his journey from early entrepreneurship to building a successful brand, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and a solid foundation in establishing a personal brand. The conversation explores the challenges individuals face in self-promotion, the dichotomy between viral fame and genuine success, and the responsibility that comes with building a brand. Jeremy encourages listeners to understand their goals and the impact they can have by promoting their true selves. In this conversation, Jeremy Bishop shares his journey from being part of a company to starting his own business, emphasizing the importance of self-promotion, personal branding, and the challenges of entrepreneurship. He discusses the motivations behind his transition, the significance of building relationships, and the realities of owning a business. The conversation also delves into the complexities of choosing the right business partner and the importance of focusing on what truly matters in business.

PROFITABLE TAKEAWAYS...

• Personal branding is essential for long-term success.
• Building a brand requires a solid foundation in real life.
• Self-promotion should be seen as a way to help others.
• Going viral is rare; focus on consistent growth.
• Authenticity is crucial in branding and marketing.
• Many successful individuals lack social media presence.
• Understanding your goals is key to effective branding.
• You have a responsibility to promote good business practices.
• Self-promotion can feel egotistical but serves a purpose.
• Building a brand is a long-term journey, not a quick fix. Self-promotion is essential and comes in many forms.
• Building a personal brand is crucial, even before starting a business.
• Transitioning to independence can be a slow process.
• It's important to evaluate how clients are treated in business.
• Entrepreneurship involves navigating tough decisions and relationships.
• Not everyone is cut out for entrepreneurship; some thrive better in employment.
• Starting a business requires focus on immediate revenue generation.
• Choosing the right business partner is critical and requires thorough evaluation.
• Partnerships can complicate business decisions and relationships.
• Success can be achieved without owning a business.

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Transcript

Christian Brim (00:02.95)
Welcome to another episode of the profitable creative, the only place on the interwebs where you will learn how to turn your passion into profit. I am your host, Christian Brim. A special shout out to our one listener. Yes, one in Tokyo. Actually, I said Tokyo last time. Let's take that again. Special shout out to our one listener in Washington, Virginia. Never been to Virginia. I've been to Washington, both the DC and

the state, but never Washington, Virginia. Hopefully I can get there. Joining me today is Jeremy Bishop of Influencer Club. Jeremy, welcome to the show.

Jeremy Bishop (00:44.035)
I it. Thanks so much. And I actually just got back from Tokyo. So shout out to that Tokyo listener.

Christian Brim (00:48.146)
nice. It's in it's it's on my bucket list for sure. I've tried I'm trying to talk my wife into it. She doesn't like traveling that far. But I'm like, know, you're not getting any younger. And everybody that I've spoken to that have been to Japan said it's like top shelf top tier, top destination have to go. What was your experience?

Jeremy Bishop (01:12.3)
Yeah, 10 out of 10. So excited to book another trip back. Well worth the long travel. I understand that that can be, that can definitely be rough. It was a bit of you know, bit of jet lag and kind of getting into the groove of things. overall, mean, Tokyo, the city was absolutely incredible. Very inspiring. I could probably, we could do an entire, you know, two, three hours on that.

Christian Brim (01:21.064)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (01:39.902)
So was this business or pleasure that you went to? Nice.

Jeremy Bishop (01:42.1)
It was pleasure, yeah. Myself, my wife, that was actually just, that was the honeymoon, was Japan for two weeks, yep.

Christian Brim (01:47.314)
Very nice. Well, that's interesting because a dear friend of mine got married in September, no, October, and that's where they honeymooned was Tokyo. So, interesting.

Jeremy Bishop (01:58.956)
Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Really great time.

Christian Brim (02:01.682)
So for the benefit of our listeners, Jeremy, give us the brief introduction to who you are and what you do.

Jeremy Bishop (02:09.358)
Sure. Well, hey everybody listening. Great to meet you. My name is Jeremy Bishop. Started as an entrepreneur when I was about 19 years old. I got introduced to a company and had an opportunity to represent a product and build an affiliate network. I, this was kind of where I had my first little tiny bit of success. And I built this affiliate network of like 5,000 people and

after a few years I get a phone call and basically the company had a problem and they basically shut down overnight. And so I was sitting there and I looked back and I was like man you know if I could have done one thing more I would have focused on building my name just as much as any company or product or service that I represent.

Christian Brim (02:45.437)
Ouch.

Christian Brim (03:02.045)
Mmm.

Jeremy Bishop (03:02.602)
And so that kind of that led me down this mission, this path, this journey of I guess what we would call now kind of personal branding. Right. And so all things considered growing your own name, you know, growing your your your reputable brand, your credibility through social media and everything that can come along with that. And so, you know, fast forward six, seven years later, now we have Influencer Club and

I was very fortunate to have a mentor that in my early 20s that helped people like Patrick Bette David and Grant Cardone and Damon John, Kevin O'Leary. He helped these individuals go reach their first, you know, 1 million plus followers on their social media and build a really strong brand. And so that's what I spent a lot of time and reinvesting in myself and my business in my early 20s. And now we have Influencer Club where we help.

Hundreds of other high performers do the same, build a really strong personal brand for themselves.

Christian Brim (04:02.384)
I was watching, I think it was on Netflix recently, a biography on Martha Stewart. And I don't know if you are old enough to remember Martha Stewart, but I didn't became aware of her right before she got really big because I wasn't her target market, clearly. But my wife sure knew who she was.

The the interesting part of that story was that the you know one was that she was she was a billion dollar brand and the first one to really in the modern age accomplished that and that was fascinating to me because it was like what what exactly is the value here? Well, it's her and the second thing was the

when she took her company public, a lot of the investment bankers were real shy on the deal because it was all centered around her. And like if something happened to her reputation, then the whole thing collapsed. And they were a little prescient in that because that's exactly what happened. I guess what you're talking about is creating little mini Martha's.

Jeremy Bishop (05:15.512)
Right.

Jeremy Bishop (05:26.944)
Yeah, mean look, that's a great example, the thing that everyone wants to have, if you look at it like the tipping, the scale, okay, most people have hardly any control or ownership over their industry or their...

any given service or what they represent that earns them money or allows them to do business. So whether it's the company, the real estate company that they work for or the corporation that they work for. And so this is not just for the individual solo entrepreneur that needs to build this brand. We can get into this, but you know,

the first five years I was working or partnered with someone else I was working for another company and I built my personal brand inside of that company so that one day if I ever needed to switch companies make a move or go out on my own you know as an example Martha Stewart she's by herself that was the entire business was all her but people you know everyone out there can start building

Christian Brim (06:39.037)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Bishop (06:49.43)
some personal brand equity, right, no matter what they're doing, so that they have a little bit of control and a foundation as they move forward.

Christian Brim (06:52.157)
Right.

Christian Brim (06:58.376)
So do you at Influencer Club work primarily with entrepreneurs or employees or both? I mean, what's that breakdown look like?

Jeremy Bishop (07:07.232)
Yeah, I think, well, it depends on, of course, you know, kind of what someone might consider themselves in any given position. OK, so they might be inside a big mortgage company. They might be a real estate agent. Right. Or then you have a solo real estate investor who truly has their own their own company, their own fund, or you just have a serial entrepreneur, right, who has many companies as an investor. So.

I would say high level producers in any industry that are ready to now kind of reinvest and start correlating what they've done in real life, the success that they've created in real life and start correlating that with their brand, their credibility on social media.

Christian Brim (07:40.03)
Okay.

Christian Brim (07:54.92)
So what is the one or two biggest challenges people have in establishing their brand?

Jeremy Bishop (08:04.398)
man, well, I think the first is understanding that you have to do something special in real life first. That's kind of the, you know, we have a saying in our company, which is we don't want to make bad people more popular. Okay. Yeah. And what I mean by that is, you know, you really have to create a foundation.

Christian Brim (08:15.09)
Mm.

Christian Brim (08:22.302)
There's enough of that.

Jeremy Bishop (08:31.414)
if you decide that you want to create some sort of reputable big name for yourself you have to have something to be able to really back that up right so you know just.

Christian Brim (08:41.032)
Do people come to you without their bona fides wanting you to create something that isn't there?

Jeremy Bishop (08:50.059)
Well, at this point, at this point, not necessarily just because we don't really cultivate conversations with, you know, with maybe let's say the individual that hasn't already, right, created that foundation. But of course, you know, over the past six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years, I'll say there are, we have all seen many individuals that, you know, want to create the facade first and then, and then try and fill in the blanks after and.

Christian Brim (09:14.556)
You

Jeremy Bishop (09:19.958)
Again, hey, know, someone can go viral and create a brand, but I would highly encourage most to build something real first and then it'll make everything else easier.

Christian Brim (09:21.255)
Okay, well...

Christian Brim (09:30.13)
That's kind of interesting because you look at, know, people like the Kardashians or just to a lesser extent, Paris Hilton, know, people that became famous for being famous, you know, and versus a Damon John who had, you know, bona fides before he became really.

Jeremy Bishop (09:47.886)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (09:57.48)
popular, mean, or a household name. I mean,

Jeremy Bishop (09:58.465)
Exactly.

Christian Brim (10:04.231)
How does it work that people like the Kardashians become billion dollar brands without really ever doing anything?

Jeremy Bishop (10:15.842)
Well, look, you know, there's a lot done, right? First off, we can't say that there's that they're not doing anything right. mean, that that's a whole that's a whole journey in itself. But but to your point.

Christian Brim (10:24.208)
No, no, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not disputing that they're successful, but initially it's like, it's like those two are flipped. Damon and the Kardashians are flipped in how it works.

Jeremy Bishop (10:30.113)
Right, so...

Jeremy Bishop (10:34.254)
Yeah, so there's there's two foundations, right? And this is this is exactly what you know, people have to be clear on is on one hand, you have the 1.0001 % of what could happen. Okay. You could go viral, you could be the next Justin Bieber that gets picked up, you know, by someone coming across a YouTube video and the next thing you know, you're on the way.

Christian Brim (10:51.645)
Right?

Jeremy Bishop (11:03.662)
to become you know a worldwide phenomenon sure as an example exactly so and again that that could have been something that died in 24 hours or somehow you know it caught enough traction and the person leaned into it enough that they ended up you know starting a journey down their brand and business so again that is a 0.001 percent and

Christian Brim (11:05.886)
The hock to a girl comes to mind.

Jeremy Bishop (11:29.848)
for most, okay, not to discourage anybody from trying to reach whatever that is and create that because again, there's not much of a layout as to how that may or may not happen, but for someone who has a business and wants to create their social as a business tool, okay, somebody who wants to, someone who is already in the journey of their business and their life and wants to add to their ecosystem.

Christian Brim (11:48.851)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Bishop (11:57.42)
That's this other side which is the Damon John as an example, great example. mean, this is somebody who like many of our members, they've built extremely successful businesses and they have zero social media presence. They're not being invited to the interviews. They're not being invited to the speaking events. They don't have some high level of credibility on Instagram or any platform, but they have a massive company and they've done some incredible things, right?

That's most people, if you are worth $100 million, there are still individuals that go and hire a team, build this thing, and grow, and put money behind it, and push it. So those are kind of the two different things. So there's the 0.001 % going viral for a reason that could be luck mixed with timing, all of these things.

Christian Brim (12:54.459)
Right.

Jeremy Bishop (12:55.18)
And then there's building and growing, you know, for the purpose of growing a business tool and building the brand. so, yeah, those are certainly two different journeys.

Christian Brim (13:07.58)
I have a colleague who's very successful and he and I were talking about this podcast. He's not in the creative industry at all. He's in IT and he's like, well, tell me about it. And I was like, well, you know, I should have you on the show joking. And he goes, why would I want to do that? And I'm like, well, for popularity. And he goes,

I popularity is, is a tax. He said, like, I don't want popularity. I don't. And it's true because like he is very secretive. Like there's no public persona of him anywhere. And that's the way he wants it. So how would you, how would you convince him that he needs to build a social brand?

Jeremy Bishop (14:03.618)
Yeah, I probably wouldn't. And I think that's kind of the really important conversation that everybody has to have with themselves is what is the goal? Why? Why would you want to do something like this or whatever this is, right? Grow the brand, grow your name. If you can find a clear and strong reason, okay, that's what's gonna pull someone to actually do

Christian Brim (14:05.511)
Okay.

Jeremy Bishop (14:31.95)
things that they need to do to have a successful brand inside of their business inside of that kind of ecosystem. you know you'll hear people say things like it's not worth it it's a waste of time I don't see an ROI you know these all correlate to not having a clear or big enough end goal that would pull someone.

to do those certain things, right? So for that individual, it just simply might not be in the cards and it might not make sense whatsoever for them to do it. Or one day there might become, there might be a goal that shows itself as an example. Maybe he doesn't own his own company, maybe he works for a big corporation right now, but one day, you know, okay, perfect.

Christian Brim (15:18.054)
no, he owns the company. now and, and, and, I, but he's one of those people, like he got in trouble because he had an event for his customers and it was a CEO event. And, and he, the CEO of his company didn't show up. And like the feedback at the, at the, at the event was, this is a CEO CEO event, but the CEO of the company is not here. And so like he begrudgingly went the next year. So like.

Maybe it's a social aversion. Maybe he just doesn't like people. I don't know. so my head of revenue when she started, she's huge on brand. And since we published the book and launched the podcast, she's started talking to me about my personal brand. And initially, I was very resistant to that idea. And it was probably

more along the lines of, I don't like self promotion. I was raised with a value system that like, if you're good, other people will talk about you. You don't need to talk about yourself. That's kind of been my value.

But talking to my business coach about it, you know, he kind of reframed it and is like, if you're trying to accomplish your goal of helping creatives with their businesses, don't, don't you want more people to know about you? And I'm not a hundred percent there yet. I still have some mental block around it, but I'm starting to see the value.

to the cause, to the purpose, not to me personally. So if you were gonna pitch me on why I need to use Influencer Club, what would that conversation look like?

Jeremy Bishop (17:21.11)
Yeah, think we would, you I would start by asking about those goals that you have in the business, right? And a lot of people's answers are very contradicting. And so that's kind of the conversation that we would have to have. And I would have to kind of present that to you. And again,

Christian Brim (17:36.478)
Mmm.

Jeremy Bishop (17:45.332)
What I do for my members is not something that I can convince them to do, is it something I want to convince them to do because it's not like, you know, you need this new dishwasher, it's gonna make your life better. And once they buy it, they're good to go and they walk out the door. No, I mean, this is like an 18 month journey together minimum.

Christian Brim (17:50.493)
Right.

Christian Brim (18:11.623)
Right.

Jeremy Bishop (18:12.266)
You know, this is a relationship that's going to grow and grow and grow. by the way, I only would like to build success stories that represent my company. So I'm not looking necessarily to help somebody, you know, get their feet wet, have a bad experience, turn around, regret it all and add to the add to the negativity around building a brand or using social media. We want to we want to help people kind of figure out how this can be a

Christian Brim (18:33.565)
Right.

Jeremy Bishop (18:41.08)
helpful aid to their business and their life and so you you just mentioned the goal of wanting to impact more people you know and building a brand and social you know I'm sure you have great relationships with the people that do business with you now you know and I'm sure they do business with you because they like you not just because you have a great product or service okay I'm sure you've probably had people refer you because they like you

Christian Brim (19:05.149)
Right.

Jeremy Bishop (19:09.806)
Okay, and so, you you have a podcast, you're literally, you know, here building relationship and building face value with your listeners. And so, you know, there is kind of this tough love that a lot of people need, which is, you know, we got to get over some of these little things that are holding us back from doing what could make a bigger impact in your business and your life and for others. And so it's like, if you're not going to do it for you, do it for

the next hundred people that wouldn't know about you, right?

Christian Brim (19:41.948)
Yeah. Yeah. Because yeah, I think at the, at the core of it, it's the resistance I have is, is it seems egotistical, right? and, and S self promotion seems egotistical and I'm not comfortable with that. so let's

Jeremy Bishop (20:01.794)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just, I've never had anyone go out of their way to promote me. You understand? And even when you mentioned, you said you had a great line, which is, if I'm great, you know, others will see it. You know.

Christian Brim (20:09.769)
Hmm

Jeremy Bishop (20:20.214)
I think about my mentors and my grandfather, he's 96 years old and maybe years ago in his little hometown of Delaware, if you're great, people will see you and they'll find you. Maybe that was the case. Now, there are people out there that are terrible at what they do and they are better known than you are.

Christian Brim (20:42.522)
Yeah, yeah. And yes, and maybe that's a little bit of it too, my hesitancy is that, and you know, I think this is a valid question. Like, if you're going to put yourself out there and promote yourself, then you better be able to deliver the goods, right? I mean, the worst thing would be to

Jeremy Bishop (21:07.672)
Sure.

Christian Brim (21:10.312)
promote something that isn't real to your point of, of, of, of making, because I'm thinking there is a, there is a tax group, which will go unnamed, they're, they're extremely, popular on social channels. And, we, we've kind of been, you know, spying them along the way and, and some of the stuff is just.

flat out fraudulent. mean, like, you know, these, what they're saying is going to land somebody in jail. And, but they're, they're very, they're very good at promoting themselves. And, I guess, you know, that's marketing in general, right? I mean, you know, you, you can put a lipstick on a pig and, and, you know, that

Jeremy Bishop (22:04.374)
So that to your point, mean, that's the phrase about I don't want to make bad people more popular. So I don't know for anybody listening, you can take this with a grain of salt, but I do believe that if your intention is to go do great business and make an impact and it could be any industry, okay, it doesn't need to be launching a rocket into space and all of that. You can do great business just by

Christian Brim (22:10.183)
Right, right.

Jeremy Bishop (22:33.61)
entering the marketplace you have a little bit of responsibility to You know if there's so much of this BS out there Then really the one guy who has something special he you don't want to self promote and you're gonna let you know all the rest of so You know, I mean I've literally watched tax strategy companies grow massive brands Become extremely popular show up to every single networking event

Christian Brim (22:37.821)
Mm.

Christian Brim (22:42.547)
Yeah.

Jeremy Bishop (23:03.278)
and dominate on social media doing the wrong things for many years. And then at one point they just shut down. There wasn't enough business, it wasn't real and it died because that's what happens to a lot of things that aren't real, right? So you let that kind of have its journey and have its life. But I do believe that that's a great point because a lot of people spend so much time analyzing.

Christian Brim (23:07.112)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (23:19.635)
Yeah.

Jeremy Bishop (23:28.686)
what everyone else is doing and this person's great and this person's bad and I don't want to be like this person or I don't want to be like this company. But you know self promotion gets kind of a bad rep. know self promotion comes in many forms. Okay self promotion is this podcast. Self promotion is all of the great clients that have amazing things to say about you. We've got a testimonial page with 200 amazing

Christian Brim (23:47.198)
True.

Christian Brim (23:52.038)
Yeah, yes.

Jeremy Bishop (23:56.726)
members and all of the nice things they have to say. So, you know, all of that is that's important too, right? You know, not just not just you shouting about how great you are, right?

Christian Brim (24:02.61)
Yes.

Christian Brim (24:06.398)
Yeah, no, that's a valid point. So let's pivot a second. You were involuntarily, I don't use the word terminated, this relationship that you had initially at 19 went away. What was that like making that transition to being on your own?

Jeremy Bishop (24:33.346)
Well,

You know, it wasn't it wasn't a light bulb moment. It was definitely a slow burn. It was okay. You know, for anybody that's out there and young in business, you know, I was in the mindset of man, this is going to be a company I'm going to be with, you know, forever. Maybe right. So I learned very quickly. Okay. And I looked around and I was like, what do I still have?

Christian Brim (24:42.61)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (24:58.173)
Right.

Jeremy Bishop (25:06.026)
Okay, I have reputation with the people I've met. have relationships with the people I've connected with and done business with. And it was through that network that I found my next partnership and venture with someone in that network and moved into growing and helping others with their social media. And again, that's kind of what led down a really long path of

you personal branding and growth and went down to South Florida and but you know I didn't start my own company until many many years later okay and so you know again this this journey of the personal brand was happening inside of more opportunities as you continue to grow and move forward so my light bulb moment now looking back is

I'm really glad that I did spend time focusing on building my name even when you might say there was no point because I wasn't a solo entrepreneur at the moment. I didn't own my own business and then decide, okay, this is now important. I kind of started building that so that no matter what happened, I'm kind of building my own home over here that I can always come back to, right?

Christian Brim (26:12.273)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (26:29.0)
Right.

Jeremy Bishop (26:31.246)
Yeah, I hope that gives anybody a little insight.

Christian Brim (26:33.01)
Yeah, so did you start out when you started your company? Did you start out doing personal branding? And I mean, or was that something you came to after you started?

Jeremy Bishop (26:45.462)
Yeah, I was in a previous partnership and had grown a company with another guy in South Florida and again had the privilege of working around a lot of the people like around Grant Cardone and a lot of these individuals we helped some pretty big names grow to their first large numbers and brand. And so I had built a lot of relationships through

Christian Brim (27:01.47)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Bishop (27:14.626)
through that time period and when it was time to kind of make a decision and make a move and go out on my own, my wife and I started our companies and continued on and better, created a better service and something that we owned.

Christian Brim (27:29.918)
So that was my next, my follow-up question is that you decided that you wanted to do it yourself because you wanted the independence or you saw a better mousetrap, a better way to do it.

Jeremy Bishop (27:44.044)
Yeah, all things considered, one of the biggest real motivators was I didn't like the way that, you know, clients and individuals were being treated, you know, in a previous in this previous partnership. And, you know, and in that in that position, it's tough because, know, I only have so much control. I only have so much say. And and so, you know, I left in a time period where I would have earned more money that year than I ever had before.

Christian Brim (27:54.558)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (28:12.752)
Right. Right.

Jeremy Bishop (28:13.55)
right? The company was doing revenue wise extremely well, but it didn't feel too good, right? And so there was a point where that move and transition had to be made.

Christian Brim (28:23.294)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (28:31.75)
Yeah, I it's interesting the number of guests that I've had that have left, you know, some, some, you know, knew from the outset that they wanted to, to start a business. Some, were forced into it because of life changes. and then others left really good, jobs, or situations even like changing.

changing you know they they had one business and then they switched to another and left money on the table and doing so was that a was that a mental challenge for you?

Jeremy Bishop (29:14.366)
Was that tough to do? Yeah, absolutely. mean, was tough to come to terms with the fact that this relationship that I had built with this other individual after many years, I mean, had, again, I was more or less the VP of this company.

Christian Brim (29:15.334)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (29:38.461)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Bishop (29:39.63)
And, you know, we had become extremely close. mean, we were best friends. mean, we, you know, we ran this thing from sun up to sun down and watched the company grow from a few thousand dollars a month to three, four hundred thousand a month in revenue by the time that I walked away. But, you know, things change, you know, with the times and with the growth. so, you know, it's tough to come to terms with some of that.

You know, I had to have some really tough conversations with myself and with my now wife. you know, again, sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes from from the outside looking in to just kind of, you know, help you see what you might already know is there and happening. And so, you know, I was I was pretty aware of just, you know, kind of the tough stuff that I was dealing with. And you know what? I was really, really great.

Christian Brim (30:26.728)
Hmm.

Jeremy Bishop (30:37.408)
at dealing with problems and challenges and when clients were having bad experiences. One of my skills, not that I want to use it for bad, is to have and build really great relationships with people. And so I noticed towards that tail end that I don't think this is for the better. So yeah, it was tough. It was really tough.

Christian Brim (30:43.219)
Right.

Christian Brim (30:57.736)
Did did did did

Did something change with, with your partner or, or was it that they weren't who you thought they were?

Jeremy Bishop (31:10.654)
No, something was changing. Yeah, something changed. It's really a shame. mean, this is an individual that once we broke off the business relationship, I haven't spoken to in six plus years. But yeah, something changed. hey, maybe it was a growing pain. Maybe it's a growing phase and hope for the best later on. But at that time,

Christian Brim (31:24.743)
Right.

Jeremy Bishop (31:39.19)
Yeah, it was definitely a pretty clear indicator. You know, your parents teach you right and wrong. It's just that simple, right? And so, you know, the more time I'd spent in that environment, you know, I would have been leaning further and further and further over, you know, over the edge. So, yeah.

Christian Brim (31:46.77)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (31:59.634)
Yeah, well kudos for you identifying that and making that choice.

Jeremy Bishop (32:05.114)
And I wanna say something because you mentioned owning your own business, becoming this entrepreneur that there's this big excitement around starting your own company. And if you've ever heard someone like Gary Vaynerchuk talk about this, I love his message because you don't have to be the individual that has to start a company.

Christian Brim (32:19.038)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Bishop (32:31.628)
to have incredible success and to be in the best position. so me leaving and having to start my own company. Look, there are a lot of things that we can talk about that are big challenges that I did not have when I was a part of that, when I was in that previous partnership. Okay, I had it, you know.

Christian Brim (32:46.332)
Yeah.

Jeremy Bishop (32:51.818)
In fact, I was in a great position. did what I did best and I, you know, earn my, earn my, my, my, my revenue, earn my money. And, and, I didn't have to think about payroll. I didn't have to think about the office space and the overhead. So, you know, there are a lot of things that, are not so sexy about having a business. And it's important that people also know that they can succeed at a high level without needing to go be the, you know,

Christian Brim (33:03.57)
Right, right.

Christian Brim (33:16.102)
No, I think you're a hundred percent right. And I think there are a lot of entrepreneurs that, aren't cut out for it, so to speak. And, and they, they would be better off, financially for sure, but mentally too, just, just going back and being great for somebody else. you know, oftentimes they have to go through that.

process of starting a business and then not working to come to that conclusion. But that actually segued into my next set of questions is what were the challenges that you didn't know you going to have in starting your own business?

Jeremy Bishop (34:03.618)
Well, you know, I really had a lot of training and a lot of great experience in working so closely in the growth of that previous company. so, you know, that gave me a lot. That gave me a really great foundation. You know, I like to create something from nothing. I really enjoy that process. It's fun. It's an art.

Christian Brim (34:16.423)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (34:27.314)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Bishop (34:31.968)
And again, like you said, not everyone can wake up not knowing how they're going to get X, Y, and Z done by the end of the week and how they're going to make sure that there's food on the table and money in the bank account.

Christian Brim (34:41.061)
Right. Right.

Christian Brim (34:45.97)
Right.

Jeremy Bishop (34:49.374)
I enjoy that side. Actually, I think there was a week or two in that previous company where I was put on salary and it was like, I mean, it was just the worst two weeks of my life, right? So I hated it. I hated it. I hated it. I would rather not know what's going to happen for a potential incredible week or the worst week ever, right? I want to experience that. so that's just for me. the challenges, the challenges.

Yeah, I mean again, it's like I'm gonna tell you it was was it was fun to figure these things out. It was fun to have zero business. In fact, we made a we kind of made a test out of it. I remember telling my wife, hey, let's before we create a website and do all this fancy stuff that everybody likes to do when they start a company. I said, let's not do any of that until we at least just do our first hundred grand in revenue. Let's just do a hundred thousand in revenue real quick.

before we have a website and let's just see if people are going to believe in us and believe in maybe our personal brand, social media. Let's just do any of that before we do anything else. And we did that before we started, before we even created a website, right? And so the boots on the ground, pick up the phone, get to it, get to the point, you know, get to the real MVP, which is what is your most valuable?

Christian Brim (36:07.804)
Yeah, yeah.

Jeremy Bishop (36:14.75)
action step that you could be taking when you focus right on that that's gonna help you start really actually get to the point of starting a business and getting some money through the door getting some clients and relationships happening so the challenges come later when it's time to grow and scale okay and and you have to take care of a team of people and you know you need to make sure that yeah you need to make sure that everybody's taken care of that's a big responsibility you know I wouldn't call it

you know, scary, I mean, it's a big responsibility, right? Yeah, it can be, yes.

Christian Brim (36:47.592)
Can be. Yeah. Well, no, I love that, that you started with first things first, because it's easy in business to get distracted by things that don't really matter. and, and it's, it's, think there's a safety, an intellectual safety of, of dealing with those things that you can control. Like, so like, I'm going to, I'm going to go.

build a website because I know how to do that and I know what the outcome is going to be. But if, if I start picking up the phone and soliciting clients and I'm just starting out, haven't, I haven't done it yet in the business. That's, that's something you don't know what the outcome is going to be. And so you're, you're naturally hesitant to do it.

Jeremy Bishop (37:21.966)
Yeah.

Jeremy Bishop (37:39.276)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And again, that kind of falls into a lot of other questions like, you know, who you decide to partner with. If you decide to partner with anyone, you have to kind of take a look at your your skill set and be, you know, and be very real. If you are the individual that can do everything but pick up the phone, you need to make sure that you fill that you fill in that gap, you know.

Christian Brim (38:08.348)
Yeah, I would say that it'd be difficult. I mean, maybe if somebody had a lot of experience and a lot of social capital to bring to the table, but I think every entrepreneur starting out has got to be able to sell at least a little bit. They may not be great at it, my attorney, my business attorney describes

business partnerships as marriage without sex. And, you know, in a lot of ways people get into partnerships because they feel like they have something that they can't do and they see somebody else that's good at it and they think that that's a good match. Not looking at, maybe to your experience, what the quality of that person is.

because you know, it is, it is an intimate relationship. It's not just a combining of skill sets.

Jeremy Bishop (39:15.232)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, we could we could have another two hour conversation about how to pick the right business partner and and you know what, I don't think even with two hours of advice from your experience and mine and many others, I don't think you could still give someone the the how to on on that right. So, you know, I mean, there are stories of entrepreneurs

Christian Brim (39:23.782)
Right, right.

Jeremy Bishop (39:44.034)
you know, taking a thousand interviews before hiring the right person. Now that's a brilliant concept because it is so easy to be swayed by one thing or another, whether it's because you like the person, you like their personality, or you like their skillset and you're willing to deal with the personality. mean, there are so many ways that this could go, but there was someone who interviewed a thousand.

Christian Brim (39:48.606)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Bishop (40:11.402)
individuals to find their business partner and again you know if you have a real foundation like that and you're willing to go through the hard work truly the hard work to find that right person you're definitely going to be a a lot better off.

Christian Brim (40:25.82)
Yeah, and to that point, I think a lot of people are reactive, know, they're fearful of like, I've got to have this, and I need to have this. And so they latch on to the first thing that looks good, instead of doing what you call the hard work. You know, I think my advice to anybody, any business owner that is thinking about

a business partnership would be, you know, just like, you hire it? Like, you know, can you hire an employee? Can you hire a contractor? You know, even if you have the bandwidth, can you learn the skill yourself? I mean, you know, is it something that you're just telling yourself you can't do, you know, versus you just don't want to do it?

Jeremy Bishop (41:05.742)
sure.

Jeremy Bishop (41:19.726)
Partnering and writing up the percentage is again one of these fancy fun things about creating the business. So it's the same as the website, it's the same as the business cards and the t-shirts is, you

Christian Brim (41:30.414)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Christian Brim (41:37.87)
It's the honeymoon, right? Yeah.

Jeremy Bishop (41:39.246)
Exactly. It's the honeymoon phase. You know, you're going to get you're going to get 25 % because you're really great at this. And yes, I promise I'm going to do this, this, this and this. These are my responsibilities. This is the value I bring. Look, the reality is a lot a lot more black and white than than we make it sometimes. You know, it's like, you are you bringing money to the table? Do you do you do you have a list of clients? Do you have a track record skill set, etc?

Christian Brim (41:59.293)
Yeah.

Jeremy Bishop (42:08.334)
And yeah, like you said, is it even necessary for you to partner to some capacity, right? So yeah, these are definitely great questions before getting in, before just doing the exciting thing because partnership is a long, long road, you know?

Christian Brim (42:27.558)
Yeah. And I think a lot of those principles, you know, apply to hiring employees as well, because it, you know, it's, it's an easier relationship to get out of than a partnership. but, but a lot of the principles still hold true.

Jeremy Bishop (42:43.276)
Yeah, absolutely. I think that the kind of type one or type two decision, right? Meaning there's one that's easily reversible and you can fire, hire, make the decision. The minute somebody shows you the dark side, you can get rid of them or you love them, you can promote them and push them up. On the partnership side, again, things might come out.

Christian Brim (42:51.208)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Bishop (43:09.582)
a way in the future when things are a lot bigger and more complicated. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, my grandfather, whether anybody thinks this is good advice or not, my grandfather told me, you know, Jeremy, you don't want to necessarily own a company with somebody just because, you know, having the percentage sounds really sexy. You know, I'm going to be an owner of this company. He said, but

Christian Brim (43:14.174)
and a lot more complicated, yeah, yeah.

Jeremy Bishop (43:38.016)
You could also just take the money. You can also just find a way to have a great deal and earn that money and be paid very well and not have to, as an example, if I had been a partner, which I was not, if I had owned a part of that company in the past, that would have been a hell of a lot more complicated than just walking away when it was time for me to move on.

Christian Brim (43:41.523)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (44:02.014)
Yeah, 100%. So Jeremy, how do people find out more about Influencer Club and you and what you do?

Jeremy Bishop (44:09.676)
Yeah, well, hopefully there will be some links or something here to check out. Yeah, so, yeah, I think we'll have an influencer club VIP page here that everyone can take a look at. Just some other members examples, some individuals that have kind of gone through this big personal brand journey that we have chatted about. if you like anyone or you're interested in kind of their stories more in depth, or if you'd like to do kind of like a free

Christian Brim (44:13.31)
There are a hundred percent will be links in the show notes.

Jeremy Bishop (44:37.868)
brand audit overview with one of our team, feel free. I'm sure there are lots of links there to kind of book a call from that page and our team would obviously love to chat with you.

Christian Brim (44:48.766)
Perfect. Jeremy, I appreciate your time today and your experience share, your candor, your honesty. Listeners, if you like what you hear, rate the show, follow the show, share the show. If you don't like what you hear, shoot us a message and I'll get rid of me and Jeremy. Until then, ta ta for now.