BIZ/DEV
David Baxter has over fifteen years of experience in designing, building, and advising startups and businesses, drawing crucial insights from interactions with leaders across the greater Raleigh area. His deep passion, knowledge, and uncompromising honesty have been instrumental in launching numerous companies. In the podcast BIZ/DEV, David, along with Gary Voigt, an award-winning Creative Director, explore current tech trends and their influence on startups, entrepreneurship, software development, and culture, integrating perspectives gained from local business leaders to enrich their discussions.
BIZ/DEV
The Unique Villain of Innovation w/ Jordan Wilson | Ep. 94
In this podcast episode, Gary goes solo with a lively chat about AI, innovation and startup hard knocks with the CEO and Founder of Accelerant Agency, Jordan Wilson.
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David Baxter has been designing, building, and advising startups and businesses for over ten years. His passion, knowledge, and brutal honesty have helped dozens of companies get their start.
In Biz/Dev, David and award-winning Creative Director Gary Voigt talk about current events and how they affect the world of startups, entrepreneurship, software development, and culture.
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Hello, and welcome to the biz dev Podcast, the podcast about developing your business. I'm your host today, Gary void. David's not here. And that's probably going to be good thing because no one likes him anyway. So we're here to discuss topics ranging from tech news, software development, small business startups, leadership, strategies for growth, and how they're all kind of related. We'll try to keep you entertained as we go. And to help me today, please welcome my guest, Jordan Wilson. Hey, Jordan, thanks for joining us.
Jordan:Carrie, thank you for having me on. I'm very excited to talk all things tech, software, AI, wherever it goes. I'm excited.
Gary:Yeah. And Jordan, you actually have your own podcast about AI. So I think we're gonna nerd out about that a little bit. And you're also the founder and CEO of accelerant agency. We'll talk about that in just a minute. But like I said, to get started here, let's talk about AI. Typically, we have a couple of intro topics that we bring up for guests. lately. Everybody's just talking about AI. That's the only thing people want to talk about. So with the recent changes that have come out, I wouldn't say changes. But the recent events that have occurred with, you know, people testifying before Congress about there should be some guardrails and regulations. And then you see about 15 to 20, new AI apps or plugins or add ons, like every day. And so I just wanted to get your take on first, if you use it, how you use it, and where do you think it's going? And what might scare you?
Jordan:Great question, or I'll try not to talk for three hours straight here. Okay, do I use it? Yes, I use it every hour of my working day, kind of because I do have a daily podcast on AI. I need to stay up with it. Yeah, makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I've been trying to actually, um, 80% of the way there. I've been trying to replace normal Google searching, you know, with chat GPT. You know, obviously, with with browsing and plugins enabled on that Google barred Microsoft Bing chat. So I've been trying to replace normal googling with kind of this this new AI, search? Wave? I guess. So am I using it? Absolutely. All day, every day? Where where is it going? There might have been a question in between, but I'll jump to where it's?
Gary:Yeah. I was asking you use it, how you use it. You've explained that where it's going? And if it scares you in any way?
Jordan:There we go. Okay, where's it going? Gosh, who knows? You know, Gary, while you talked about, you know, the so many tools every day, you know, I always look on Product Hunt, which is a place where a lot of you know, new AI software debuts. And yeah, there's literally hundreds of new AI software that are released every day. I don't look at them all. But I look at the more popular ones. So where it's going, developments going fast, very fast. And it's it's going to the point which you know, we can talk about later where I do think the same way that we all use the computer and the Internet right now to if you have a desk job. Ai, that's that's where we're going to be with AI in a matter of months, I believe, especially with, you know, kind of what what Microsoft announced recently with with their co pilot and integrating AI into an actual operating system.
Gary:Yeah, it seems like it's just going to be intertwined into our everyday computing really soon. What we thought might be like, oh, yeah, 510 years now looks like 510 months, maybe? Yeah, bring up something. My role here at Big pixel, the company that has this podcast, our podcast is creative director. And so I've been a designer for many years. And just yesterday, I think it was yesterday. We'll just say it yesterday, because no one's really going to check the dates on this. Photoshop announced their AI component in a beta that generates images and removes things from images and I have to say anybody who's used Photoshop or has been a designer the past every time that we made a selection around an object to remove it, or tried to use like the stamp and Clone tool to try to get rid of something or replace something or composite two images together. It was always in the back of our head like can you imagine one day you could just like select this and then like type in what you want there and boom, it would show up. That'd be crazy. Yeah, that happened yesterday. So we comes in hits home and in a way that you're like that's never gonna happen and then it happens. Yeah, you can't deny it it's just insane.
Jordan:Yeah, those those and the fact care you can do it with text as well. Right? Like yeah, tax to text to replace, like I think early on, you know, speaking from A designer standpoint, I kind of used to do that in a previous life. But you know, when Content Aware came out in Photoshop where you could use your mouse and spend a lot of time and I think you hit like Shift Delete, and it would delete an object and replace it, you know, this was in theory, Adobe was, you know, really early with that. And that seemed like at the time, which I don't know how long ago this was,
Gary:was actually their AI two, they built something called Sensei, which was their machine learning. Yeah, now it's just exploded,
Jordan:they'll say taxed. Now, it's just tax, you know, it's it's taxed to, you know, Photoshop tax to this, this new technology, you know, you don't even have to spend the time, you know, clicking it or outlining it, it's just, you know, talking to Photoshop with text prompts.
Gary:Yeah, I mean, there is some clicking, but not anything new. Like, you don't have to know how to use the pen tool as an expert to make distinct selections around, you know, weird odd shapes, you don't have to try to guess what's in the background behind the subject that you remove. I watched it actually, people took cars out of the parking lot of a restaurant that was near the water. And it replaced the cars with the road, the sidewalk, the light poles that are supposed to be there, and the water and all the lighting matched all the compositing looked like it was just, it looked like it was fake, like a fake presentation of, you know, we really had the original photo and put the cars in there and just took the cars out to make you, you know, think that we did it, but now it's it was almost too much. And it's still in beta, so it's gonna get crazy. It's also gonna get a little scary, cuz you gotta also imagine the way that fake photos fake videos, fake voices, fake text, can be damaging. So
Jordan:yeah, that's that's a huge point. Because I think Photoshop, you know, it's, it's one of those things like Google, it just became a verb, for when bad actors would do something, or, you know, someone would get caught. And they're like, oh, no, that's photoshopped. Right. But it used to take in order for someone to do that. It used to take a highly skilled designer, you know, sometimes many hours to make something look passable. But now anyone that has an internet connection, and can, you know, watch a 10 minute tutorial can go in and and do it. So, yeah, what that means for the future, a lot of a lot of misinformation and disinformation.
Gary:So you mentioned your podcast, we talk about AI, it's called everyday AI. And when did you get that started? Yeah,
Jordan:recently, actually. Just hit Yeah, just just hit 30 days, I think. But yeah, we've been doing an episode every day, you know, a live stream. So people can ask questions from different experts in different fields, you know, a newsletter, the whole thing. You know, I kind of just quickly get into the story, you know, even before I started accelerant agency, you know, so it's only been around for four years. But I wrote a business plan in 2018. That said, advancements in technology, I didn't know it's going to be AI. But I said, it's going to make traditional marketing deliverables obsolete. So I always knew when I started accelerant agency, it was just going to be a jumping point, to pivot to something in technology. And this is kind of the menace, the manifestation of that this everyday AI, kind of media group or whatever you want to call it. But it's because it's hard, it's so hard, unless you're spending many, many hours a week, to keep up with not just how to use all this technology, but to understand how it impacts our lives. You know, because I kind of made the reference earlier, like, Hey, if you're at a desk job, you know, the same way that you use a computer and internet, that process in a lot of sectors and parts of the US at least if we're just talking about the United States, took decades, right? It took like, I remember working in a newspaper, like when the internet, you know, first became like, quote, unquote, popular, like, there was pushback, why would we put anything on the internet? Like, it's, it's slow, it takes forever, right? So, you know, when you think of how the work, that the workplace in general changed, you know, because of the internet because of computers and technology, it was a long drawn out process. This it's not happening with AI, it's it's instant, you know, things are changing, companies are cutting 1000s of jobs instantly because of AI. So I don't think we all have time. Like that was afforded to us in ramping up to speed with the internet or ramping up to speed with smartphones or social media. You know, we were afforded many years to understand what it meant. I don't think that's how it's happening with AI, which is, you know, one of the catalysts for actually starting kind of the everyday AI
Gary:Have you brought up newspapers, I used to work at a newspaper publisher as well. And you were right. When you say the internet, kind of, even though it was a little bit slower, it did pull the rug right out from underneath a lot of newspaper advertising. Because it used to be the model was the newspapers free, and everybody's jobs paid for through advertising sales. And of course, the newspaper used to be the most eyeballs in your local area, seeing it every day. So the engagement was huge. And you could charge big rates. And then that turned into, okay, we got to put everything on the Internet, what are we going to do with the ads? Well, no one's gonna pay for the same amount for internet ads for you know, your little website. And then everybody saw newspapers, giving away the content for free and getting the ad revenue. And then now, the paywalls exist, because the content cannot be free, because they do not get the ad revenue, because they're not the biggest entity of engagement in your local area anymore. So long story for just saying, it took a while for the Internet to destroy that kind of model. It's not going to take a while for AI to start, you know, and I hate saying the word but disrupt the industry when it comes to I think marketing engagement and traditional means of marketing, like you brought up but definitely definitely technology. And the way that people use computers, just writing in general, that's not creative writing. almost seems like it's not even going to be necessary anymore. You just have to give a couple of prompts and like, Hey, give me 15 paragraphs about this subject, then you might have to do some editing. But, man, it's gonna be minutes instead of hours.
Jordan:Yeah, you bring up you bring up a great point. And it's, it's relevant with that, Gary? Because, yeah, if you look at not just the newspaper, and you know how it for the most part, most newspapers failed to adapt to what you were talking about the advertising strategy, they weren't clicking, you know, putting out your Yeah, putting out news, like news and advertisement online, you know, moving at a Jurassic pace. But even if you look at what's happening with the journalism or the news media, landscape, I mean, look at what happened with with BuzzFeed, laid off its editorial staff, and what happened, the AI generated content that they put on their site to replace humans performed 40%. Better. Right.
Gary:So what you're seeing exactly what I was trying to say, that's an excellent point. Yeah.
Jordan:Yeah, what happens when AI is better at us than then doing some of our jobs? You know, it's like, even as a former journalist, you know, I used to think I was pretty good, you know, one of in order to, and then, you know, when when GPT first came out, and was publicly available in 2020, you know, through tools like copy AI, Jasper, some of those things, and I sat down and use it, and I'm like, I'm not good at writing anymore. Right. And I think that's, it's, it's hard. And I think that's why AI gets a bad rap, for some reason, because people are threatened by it. And to see, you know, to say, Oh, I'm, I'm an analyst, you know, and, you know, GPT can analyze better than me, yes, it can. Like, if you prompt it correctly, and, you know, make sure it has access to the correct information. It absolutely can. So, yeah, I think AI has become a villain, for whatever reason, versus people just accepting that this is going to be a large part of our future and learning to work with it.
Gary:Yeah, learning to work with it is definitely there's going to be jobs that are new and created based on your experience with AI how good you are with, you know, writing prompts and getting the information you need quickly, and then double checking for accuracy and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean, at first, like I use Jasper and copy I had before, and it was not that great. But of course, it's getting better now. And people will still say that, yeah, you can get all this, you know, copy written through AI, you can generate images through AI with mid journey and everything. But it still lacks a little bit of soul. Yeah, for now, it does for now, but it's getting better and better and better to while you can still recognize a lot of stuff like side note, work currently hiring and we're getting a lot of resumes and cover letters sent to us, literally within seconds like 200 and something within like five minutes, and 80% of them look the same. And you can tell exactly which ones were just prompted from a I just sat back. So it's noticeable in certain areas, but I think that's probably going to change too. I think people are going to be able to, you know, become prompt wizards and make everything seem a little bit more human, even though it's not.
Jordan:Yeah, that's that's a great point. And I think that's where, at least early on Gary, like people thought AI was falling flat, because it's like, oh, look at this, this is this, this is nothing what a human, you know what would produce these resumes, right? But if you know how to do it, and you, you know, get get a good if you give, you know, GPT, or whatever program, you're using the right memory and the right instructions, you know, and say, Hey, write this in a manner that is not typical of, you know, AI or GPT. And, you know, infuse these feelings or emotions or words that then it will but yeah, the majority of people just, you know, expect it, you know, to put something Tet spend 10 seconds and to get a resume out. And, yeah, like what you said, when you do that it's everything looks the
Gary:same. Yeah. But anyways, that's enough for AI for now, let's talk about you and your company. You're the CEO, for accelerant agency. When did you start accelerant agency? You mentioned it before.
Jordan:Yeah, so started officially in 2019. So owning it still us still a pretty, pretty young company.
Gary:And give me the 30,000 foot view of what you guys do?
Jordan:Sure, working with small, medium sized businesses, to help them better understand their digital strategy. And a lot of times, you know, there's there's two parts of that. So its front end strategy and consulting. And then on the back end, you know, at times actually working with them on those deliverables. So anything from content creation, you know, running ads on digital platforms, SEO, conversion, rate optimization, email marketing, you know, anything that happens that a business can can use to grow online, we also handle back end deliverables, as well.
Gary:So there are a lot of marketing companies that exist, and a lot of them are, quote, unquote, digital marketing strategists. We went through a phase where we kind of had an outside marketing consultant, and then we took on marketing ourselves. And then we looked through other agencies. And eventually, we did ended up just hiring a marketing professional, who's Christie, by the way, and she's awesome. So we've been through the journey of small business would typically go through when trying to find someone to help them with their marketing. And we're in a unique position, since we create custom software, and most of our clients are either large companies that need help, they might have a dev team, but they just need a little bit more help or startups who don't really exist yet. So our efforts and trying to market to those two targets, was a strategy, we had to figure it out. But we were told by many marketing agencies that they would guarantee us lead generation, all we got to do is tell them our ideal customer, and then we'll have 200 leads in a month. Now, as a professional in marketing, working for small businesses, do you find that model to be a little outdated? And do you go the step further to try to craft strategies specific to the company and their reach? Or do you kind of just what are your feelings on how some marketing agencies will just give you the blanket, you know, from A to Z? These are the steps that everybody's doing? So that's what you have to do as well?
Jordan:Sure, yeah. marketing agencies, rightfully so have a bad name. You know, I often try to you know, when I'm talking about accelerant not even talk about marketing, and if we can, I try to even avoid doing marketing deliverables on the back end, and instead work with clients to help them fulfill those in house and to teach their teams just because I think the technology, it's a lot easier now than it was, you know, 10 years ago to, you know, do websites or to, you know, run ad campaigns. But, you know, to get to your point, Gary about, hey, every marketing company will say, hey, we'll give you you know, this many leads, and they they will and they can because a lot of advancements now, you know, if you're running ads on Google, or, you know, doing campaigns and Facebook, they make it easy enough to get a lot of low hanging fruit. But many times that low hanging fruit is already spoiled. And the fruit is not very good. So we, we we've always taken a different approach. We, you know, get referrals all the time from clients, and we just say no, we'd spend a lot of time before taking on clients and we will spend many times and I'm not exaggerating this but hundreds of hours. Before we actually get started on a project. We will Look at every single piece of data available, which there's a lot of data available. So if you're, you know, a small business, you know, we look at all your competitors, we look at every single Google Ad they've ever run, we look at every single Facebook ad they've ever run, we look at, you know, where they're getting backlinks from, we look at their offline marketing tactics, and then we will go back to our clients say, Hey, if you want to compete in this space, it's going to take 18 months, you can start to compete here in three months, and then we'll start planting the seeds for the other one. So I think so much of marketing, there's, there's two ways to do it, you can do the smoke and mirrors and, you know, give people that that low hanging fruit. Or you can go take a super analytical, long term, slow and steady approach and do things the right way. I always liken it to weight loss, right? Or getting in shape, right? So if you're, if you're, yeah, if you're if you're a little overweight, yeah, you can do a smoke and mirrors low hanging fruit approach, you can go on a crash, you know, seven day diet and wear, you know, a sauna suit, and, you know, drop 40 pounds, but you're kind of gained 38 of it back immediately. Or you can get a plan, you can look at what's the best way for you to lose weight. Why do you want to lose weight? You know, Hey, are you training for something in the end that the reason why you're losing weight. So it's, it's, our approach has always been a much more analytical data driven approach, saying no to clients, because sometimes will will say, hey, we can help you grow, you know, you're already kind of, you know, one A, or one B in your area. So if you're expecting to double, you know, revenue, there's not an appetite for that, you know, we look at search volume, we like, we look at so many different data points that, you know, most marketing companies don't do that. Because it's easier instead to just sell low hanging fruit. And hopefully you keep clients long. I like
Gary:that approach a lot better. That does seem like it seems like you're actually putting in the effort to figure out how to not just maybe grow their brand recognition, but it's, like, put them in a position to keep growing and growing, whether it's gonna be slow or fast is really, I mean, it's not very controllable, but it's somewhat controllable, I guess, but it's definitely not like you said, with the, the fad diet analogy, you can't throw everything at them all at once, and then expect to get great results. But yeah, so yeah. And you are a small business yourself, and you're helping other small businesses. How many people on your team? If you don't mind me asking?
Jordan:Yes, we have three here in the Chicago area. And then we, you know, usually work with a handful of contractors at any given time, just depending on what the what the project is.
Gary:Are you guys remote? Or do you guys all work? As you said, you're all in Chicago? So do you work out of an office? Or you all kind of remote?
Jordan:Yeah, yeah. So we're hybrid, we do, you know, two or three days a week in the office two or three days a week at home?
Gary:Yeah, we're a small company till we get about 10, maybe 11. If I'm adding doing my math, we'll edit this. But yeah, we also work with contractors, we're 100% remote. So the one thing I knew you were a small business, I assumed you were remote, but that's why the hybrid thing kind of threw me off. But what do you find, as the CEO of a small business as a beneficial way to kind of keep a good culture in the group, if you are hybrid and remote, because at our company, we love being remote. We don't buy into the whole, you know, debate between hybrid remote or in office thing, productivity versus, you know, creative discussions, blah, blah, blah. I think it's all in the way you approach the culture. And that's something that we really focus on, I want to know what you did for your small team to kind of keep that culture going for everybody to feel like they're involved in and part of a team instead of just a cog.
Jordan:Yeah, so it's, it's so important and full disclosure, I think, I suck at it. Like even even talking about this right now. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's always been, that's always been my weak point. But, you know, it's, it's trying to do small things like, you know, walk, you know, half mile, go sit down and have lunch, you know, or instead of starting the day in the office, let's start the day, you know, across the street at a coffee shop, or, you know, you know, being a small budget, you never have huge, you know, huge budgets for or smart sorry, being a small business. You never have huge budgets for holiday parties, but it's like alright, this this year, you know, a couple of us one, you know, did an indoor golfing thing. So it's just trying to take those opportunities when you can to do Whoo, small little things that normally remote employees can't just getting together, you know, aside from being in the office physically, right now, that's always great. But it's just like, you know, yesterday, we had a meeting on the patio, you know, at at our, you know, at our office, there's kind of like a shared patio space. So taking small steps like that, you know, as a kind of hybrid, small business, I think it's important.
Gary:For us, since we're remote, we do pretty much the same thing. But it all involves like Slack, or zoom, like we'll have, like yesterday, in fact, we had a group lunch, a team lunch, at least once a month, everybody gets together, orders food into DoorDash, to us, and we're all just on Zoom, just chatting, eating and doing whatever. There'll be like, the group of our developers have like training days where they all have time to kind of just learn something new, whatever they pick, little things like that, that while we can't be in person and encouraging everybody, we do try to create that culture where it feels like it's a team of friends in a way, and not so much just the employees, we like, we'd like to try to consider everybody being part of the same goal. And I know that sounds cliche, but the way we do it is by being open and transparent with not just our employees or team members, but with each other for what we expect and how we think we can get there. So
Jordan:you're actually super important.
Gary:I was going to say, I know, you didn't really like the idea of culture or didn't have an answer for it right away. I can tell you, it's something that we still, it's still hard to do. It's, I think, even in person, it's hard to do. But it's something if you if you do try and you're open about it, and you're just a little bit more honorable with everybody, that human connection is really what the culture comes down to. So
Jordan:yeah, and I think it's actually easier when we were just in person, like more before the pandemic, I think, you know, that, that hybrid is it's hard to find the balance of culture. And it's yeah, it's actually good to even talk about it out loud, because then you're like, oh, yeah, I have to be intentional, because I think if you're fully remote culture is top of mind, because it's your fully remote team. And you know, you aren't able to connect and have that in person energy. But then if you're fully in office, maybe it's not as much of a concern, because it naturally happens.
Gary:Yeah, or you tend not to cultivate it, because you feel like you just see these people everyday anyway, like, I've been in, you know, a large company. And no matter how many employees there were, I talked to three, four, maybe, you know, and I mean, knew of everybody, but you didn't really share a connection. So I guess when it is top of mind, you do make an extra effort to be there. I wanted to talk more about your business. Can you tell us? What drove you to actually start a business on your own? Like, what was the passion behind saying, You know what, I'm not going to work for anybody else anymore. I have this idea. I'm gonna go, I'm going to do what I can to get started. What drove you to do that?
Jordan:It's a great question. I think a lot of circumstances, but more than anything, it was opportunity. And actually, my wife really pushing me. So I've always had kind of that entrepreneurial spirit, even from, you know, when the time I was little, you know, even when I was a teenager, you know, I was I was freelancing, you know, it's I picked up certain skills. You know, I started as a journalist at 17, you know, so writing stories for daily newspaper as a teenager, I think I started writing actual stories when I was 18, maybe. So I use those skills. And I started to freelance. And even even in newspapers, you know, we kind of already talked about it, but I was always what's the best way to describe it, I was always disappointed in the newspaper industry with how slow it innovated. You know, the fact that like, I was so excited by internet and technology and, you know, being a newspapers for full time for, you know, five, six years, however long it was, I was frustrated. So that, you know, one of the things that that led me to kind of leave that profession was I'm like, Y'all are moving so slow, like, I like to move fast. So that's not for me. So kind of the second part of my career, I worked at a nonprofit for 10 years. You know, I was the marketing director, and then the executive director and, you know, kind of the transition to how I started my businesses, you know, the last five years of the 10 year stint there Um, are nonprofit very weird, we essentially became a community and activation agency for Nike and Jordan Brand. Which was awesome. Yeah. So we got, you know, I traveled the country, you know, always doing these these anytime, you know, Nike or Jordan had a community based activation. So they brought us in first as a community partner. And then we just started doing activations with them, and I was handling, you know, creative for, you know, Michael Jordan's community initiatives. So all these things that really led me to, you know, I was working with some of the largest marketing agencies in the country, a lot of times multiple of them at the same time, because, you know, we'd be having simultaneous, you know, activations, you know, week after week after week in New York, LA Atlanta, all over the place. So I got to learn from not just really smart people in marketing and advertising at Nike, but I also got to learn from some of the smartest in the business at large, you know, advertising and marketing company, so kind of like that combination with my my wife pushing me to be like, Hey, you're, you're smart. You've always had this entrepreneurial spirit, you can do it on your own. So that's kind of what led me you know, about now, four years ago to start accelerant?
Gary:Did you start just freelancing again? Or did you say, You know what, I'm gonna if I'm going to do this on my own, I'm gonna do it and start an actual business than I'm gonna grow. Yeah, because you exactly. Yeah, doing some freelancing. But man, talk about a client, you want to brag about Nike and Jordan. Yeah. Kudos. And that's it? Yeah.
Jordan:Yeah. That's, it's so cool. You know, just because early on, when we started, we were more the the community partner, we would just get to sit in on the meetings, you know, between Nike and the marketing agency, and we'd hear them collaborate. But then we'd also have separate meetings with just the marketing agency or separate meetings with just Nike. And to have the perspective of being like, oh, first we're in the group with a, b, and c, and then we're just with a and then we're just with C, it was such a enlightening experience, with how fast pace, you know, marketing and advertising works. It was it was such a, it was such a great base, that I was blessed to have to, you know, use that base as a foundation to start a small little company.
Gary:And when you did start, did you get most of your clients just through like referrals and word of mouth? Or? I'm assuming you probably already have a little bit of a network built up from your years in in that previous position? Or did you just go out there and start trying to just brand and build your brand or throw your name out? wherever you can?
Jordan:Yeah, the ladder, the crazy thing is, you would assume that doing all these things, I would have such a large network, but I didn't, because we were literally all over the place. So it was never, you know, overly concentrated in like, one area. So it's like, I'm from Chicago. So like, Yeah, we had, like, you know, the Jordan Brand program was called Jordan Brand wings. So we had a big activation for years in Chicago, but I was also working on other programs and other parts of the country. So, you know, I unfortunately didn't build up, you know, a super strong network. So when I did start my business, it was, you know, I was knocking on doors, you know, it's literally starting from zero is, is hard. And I essentially, even though it's like, I started when I was still wrapping up some work with a nonprofit. So it's like, you know, part of my brain was like, oh, finishing up this, you know, this design piece that's going to be used, you know, by Nike. And the other part of it is, you know, trying to talk to a local business and me saying, Hey, I'm going to work for free, actually. And people just don't trust marketing people for whatever reason. And I, and I really wanted to do it on my own. So you know, I wasn't even saying like, Hey, look at this project that I'm literally doing right now with Nike, like LeBron James is tweeting about it. Like, I wasn't using that I really, maybe I was too proud. But I didn't want to lean into, you know, what I was doing. Previously, I wanted people to, especially trying to position myself to work and more strategy and consulting. I want people to understand and value kind of my knowledge and expertise. So you know, I really just started from scratch going around working for free.
Gary:On this podcast, we do try to get down to the real part of starting a business and then the real problems and triumphs that come with it. But there is always going to be that that area in between starting being passionate and like just going all in and then realizing, oh, wait a minute. I might not know everything. I might not have enough. What am I going to do? How am I going to get through this? Do I push on or Do I just wrap it, call it a day and go back somewhere else? You seem to push it on. So I was just gonna ask you, was there any hurdle or roadblock in the way that was that like defining moment where it's like, this is either I'm gonna go forward, or I'm gonna go back, but I have to decide right now, did you come to that journey? Or any? Did you come to that kind of like a fork of the road at any part of your journey so far?
Jordan:Yeah, I think I'm definitely, definitely not alone in this. But, you know, I think so many people who started a business around the time I did, you had that moment, instantly, yeah, because, you know, a matter of months after I, you know, kind of, hey, I'm all in I'm doing this full time, you know, the world started to shut down because of the pandemic. So, you know, got slapped in the face pretty hard, pretty quickly. Because at least, you know, one of the early kind of ways I was trying to separate myself from other companies is like, Hey, I will come in, and we will meet in person, you, right? Like, you're not going to be working with, you know, in an offshore team, or, you know, some company, some huge company, that it's impossible to get in touch with the person in charge. I'm like, Nope, you want to meet tomorrow, let's meet tomorrow, I'll come to your office, let's sit down, let's talk about it. Let's, let's look at your, you know, your PPC campaigns, let's look at your strategy, whatever it may be, in that kind of, you know, quote, unquote, advantage was instantly taken into try to drum up new business. When you know, the world, you know, depending on where you're from, but when the world kind of shut down, you know, that's that's a hurdle. You know, speaking of a hurdle, that's that's a huge one.
Gary:All right. Well, that's definitely something that you had no control over. But you seem to get through it. So leads me to another question so far, in your journey, what do you consider your biggest your biggest? Yeah, what do you consider your biggest accomplishment?
Jordan:I mean, making it I think, I think if you talk to anyone, I think if you talk to anyone that starts from, yeah, anyone that starts from actual zero, you know, I think a lot of times when people start a company, they're working at a different company, and they kind of break off with one large client, right? It's like, okay, disagreements over?
Gary:Absolutely, yeah.
Jordan:I don't know if there's a study, but I, you know, I know, a bunch of friends who started businesses, and a lot of them start that way. So it's like, Oh, if you start with a nice client, a six figure client, and you already have a pre existing relationship for them, you know, you have a much higher likelihood of succeeding, but I forget the study, but it's an overwhelming majority of small businesses fail after the first five years. So you know, we're not. Yeah, so it's like, we're not at the five year mark. But we're pretty close. And you know, we'll make it. But that's if I, if I'm being completely transparent, it's making it because to start from, absolutely. No clients, no money, no revenue, and to go all in. To make it out on the other side, that's, that's by far if I'm, if I'm being real, that's by far the biggest accomplishment.
Gary:Yeah, I hear you. And so if you were to give other small companies, or entrepreneurs, like three pieces of advice from just what you've learned so far, about their new business startup, or how to succeed, what would you tell them?
Jordan:First, first and foremost, you have to actually talk to your customers. So you know, whether you haven't started yet, or you're in the early phases, you have to talk to your customers, you know, that's something I did you know, I, I set out with a goal to do 100 Free consults for small business owners. I failed, I only got to 72. But I talked to 72 small business owners 70. Yeah, that's a lot, right. So I had to talk to customers. So first and foremost, you have to talk, right? Like, I think people start a business to, you know, put their head down and to, like, grow big, but like you, you have to stay in line with the pain points. So I'd say number one, talk to your customers. Number two is, is you have to be able to effectively communicate your USP, your unique selling proposition. So many, you know, companies, I think when they're first starting out, or entrepreneurs, they just follow someone else, and they try to be the next Uber of this, or they try to be the next Airbnb of that, or they just try to replicate what some other company is doing. You know, and this is something that we help companies with too is we say, Okay, well, why, you know, not trying to be a jerk, but why why would I choose, you know, your company or this bigger company that you're trying to do the exact same thing as. So I'd say the second thing is you actually have to be able to effectively communicate you your unique value, what makes you uniquely better, especially when you're starting out, because you're probably, you know, drawing inspiration from someone else, which is normal. So you have to be able to take your personal pride out of, I'm a business owner, I'm an entrepreneur, you have to be able to separate yourself from that, which is extremely hard. And you have to be able to say, Okay, why would someone choose me over the 1000s of others over, you know, this other person that's just down the road. So I'd say number two is you have to be able to effectively communicate that USP. And then I'd say the third thing, kind of my third piece of advice, is you have to constantly innovate, but with data. So you know, just because you can talk to your customers, and then effectively communicate your, you know, what makes you uniquely better. You have to use customer data, and you have to constantly innovate, and then you it's a cycle, then you have to go back and talk to your customers. And you have to say, Hey, are we still, you know, being that uniquely better for you? So it's, it's a revolving cycle, but that would be kind of my three different pieces of advice.
Gary:All good. And yeah, I agree with all three of them. Especially the value proposition or your core values as a company, not just what your company plans on doing. But just the company itself. Yeah, that one's that one's a big one for us as well. And meant, you're getting close to the five year mark, it sounds like you're, you're heading straight forward, and you're not going backwards. So congratulations on that for sure. If anybody else wants to learn any more about you, or the accelerant agency or your podcast, how can they get in touch with you? Yeah, it's
Jordan:it's funny, I should have wanted picked out names. I should have made names easier to spell. But yeah, so accelerates agency, you know, you can go to accelerant. agency.com or the everyday AI, you know, podcast, newsletter livestream, whatever it is. So that's just your everyday ai.com. So yeah, trying to just help people understand AI and grow their business.
Gary:We'll put all the links for your business, your podcast, and even your LinkedIn, in the show notes. So anybody who wants to learn more can just click those below. And if you want to leave a comment or have any questions about this podcast, you can email us at Hello at the big pixel dotnet. Or you can reach out to us on LinkedIn and any other social media platform we have. We still have tick tock even though David doesn't like it. But who knows, eventually, it might go away, it might not. But to wrap it all up, again. The conversation we had about AI, I think what we spoke about is probably the same topics most people are talking about, and I'm interested to kind of see next month, if it's going to be different, or how it's going to change. So I'm going to check out your podcast and see where that goes as well.
Jordan:So, thanks. Thanks. I appreciate that. Thanks for having me on.
Gary:That. It's been fun. We're gonna have to check in on that everyday AI podcast and see how things are changing. But until then, for now, we're out and we will see you guys next week.
