Meet Jonathan Beskin: The Least Likely Millionaire

Have you ever felt like the odds were stacked against you? Ready to meet someone who took those odds, flipped them on their head, and used them as fuel to create a top 200 company in the Inc 5000 from scratch? Our guest today, Jonathan Beskin, takes us into his world, from growing up in a single-parent household and battling severe anxiety to becoming a successful entrepreneur and author. He shares the raw, real journey behind his thriving businesses, Singles Swag and Paradise Delivered, and how he leveraged his challenges.

Jonathan is no stranger to doubt and negativity. But instead of letting it weigh him down, he used it as a catalyst for his success. . He also shares about his bestselling book, 'The Least Likely Millionaire', a Wall Street Journal Best Seller.  The book offers actionable steps for anyone looking to overcome hurdles and achieve success. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or you're facing your own set of challenges, Jonathan's story promises to inspire and encourage you to forge your own path.

https://www.amazon.com/Least-Likely-Millionaire-Succeed-Everyone-ebook/dp/B0C976BDJ9

https://www.jonathanbeskin.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome, welcome everyone to local living community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. I'm David Conway, your host for today's episode, and I am extremely happy to be here today. We have a very interesting guest, jonathan Beskin, local Boca Raton resident business owner and the author of the least likely millionaire how to Succeed when Everyone Else Expects you to Fail. Jonathan, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Thanks, david, excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Excited to have you, as I said, and I want to start by congratulating you on your early success. The peak before we logged on today took a peak on Amazon nothing but five star reviews so far. Congratulations.

Speaker 2: 1:00

Thank you very much. We've had an exciting one for the book. Wall Street Journal bestseller been in number one in some categories business, motivation, a spiritual on Amazon and lots of reviews. Love the reviews.

Speaker 1: 1:15

So definitely want to get into the book, but can you start by sharing with our listeners a little bit more about your business background, about your entrepreneurial journey thus far?

Speaker 2: 1:28

Sure, I grew up in Boca with a single mom who was a teacher. I never really had any entrepreneurial mentors, anything like that, so I kind of went to Spanish River High School. I went to undergraduate at Florida State. I had about a study finance at about a 10-year corporate career in commercial banking Never really that exciting, never was really that happy doing it.

Speaker 2: 1:54

I decided to go to business school at FAU and what they consider an executive MBA program, which was designed for working professionals and that was really to make myself more attractive to potential employers. And with some of the curriculum in that program we studied recurring revenue model businesses and other types of businesses and I decided, instead of making myself more attractive to employers, I wanted to start a business. That really foundation was built at FAU. I started my first company, single swag, in 2016. The company was top 200 in the Inc 5000 in 2020. We were on the top half of the Inc 5000 again in 2021 and have done over 80 million in revenue in six years.

Speaker 2: 2:45

And I started the company with less than $2,000 when I had nothing. And then in 2020, I bought a business called Paradise Delivered and both these businesses, I should explain, are subscription boxes, so people sign up for a service and every month we send them a box of full size products and the products are designed for women. They're cosmetics, organic skincare, jewelry, fashion accessories, books, food. So it's a recurring revenue model. So as long as our subscribers don't cancel, we send them a box and we recharge them every month.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Now you said a lot of these products are catered towards women. You being a male, was there any pushback before you started this business? What are you thinking?

Speaker 2: 3:35

Oh yeah, I talk about this a lot in my book that people thought it was a joke. They thought that I didn't know anything about this space, that I didn't know anything about digital marketing. I had a background in financial services and definitely didn't know anything about women's products or what would be attractive to women, what type of marketing messages. But I'm glad I didn't listen to that kind of negativity. So many people told me it would never work without women. I didn't know these things but fortunately I learned a lot and I was able to make a lot of sacrifices, like simple things like not watching TV, not going out with friends, really dedicating myself, becoming kind of obsessed with this business. But I think a lot of people could have had a similar idea and a lot of people did. And because of my hard work and perseverance and willing to learn things and kind of step out of my comfort zone, that's what led to the ultimate success.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Now in the book. I think you refer to this mindset as a healthy obsession. Is that right?

Speaker 2: 4:40

That's correct. Yeah, so essentially I've also my whole life suffered from kind of severe anxiety and depression. I was hospitalized both as an adolescent in South Florida and as an adult in South Florida for severe anxiety depression. I've been on different forms of psychotropic medications my whole life and this is not something that I chose, this is something that's kind of biological, like any other disease. It's not something that I can turn off. And what I've been able to do and what I talk about in the book is how I can channel that energy of this toxic anxiety or seemingly toxic anxiety and racing thoughts, catastrophization, and channel that into something positive so I can think about the business from every angle, so I can maybe preempt what the competitors are doing, that I can be a step ahead and I can just use that thought process and that anxiety or even just that intensity towards the business.

Speaker 1: 5:43

So, in regards to the book, do you recall the first moment when you thought, hey, I'd like to write a book, and can you tell us about that and maybe a little bit more about the process of becoming an author?

Speaker 2: 5:56

Sure, yeah, I think the first moment I had no entrepreneurial network, when I started my business, I had no mentors. I did everything on my own. I didn't have anyone in my family or extended friend network that had taken an idea, a concept and turned it into a serious business. But now that I've had some success I do have a network and I do have some other successful entrepreneurial friends and uber successful people that have written books and had success with it and I think I have a unique story. I think some of the things that I'm vulnerable with in the book about my story like the hospitalization, like undergoing electroconvulsive therapy treatments as like an alternative to psychotropic medication that's going to be a unique piece of my story. There are also a lot of actionable steps and ways that readers can take concepts, you know, take an idea from concept to execution, employ things like healthy obsession and use my story as a kind of a catalyst to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and get to the next level.

Speaker 1: 7:07

So you know one of the things I noticed about your title. I mean the least likely millionaire. But how to succeed when everyone else expects you to fail? It seems like that doubt has really fueled you.

Speaker 2: 7:22

Definitely. Yeah, that's been my biggest motivator and I think in a lot of ways it's a blessing and a curse because it, without that doubt, without that overt negativity people telling me to my face this is never going to work. People telling me without raising money I was never going to be able to scale the business we did. I started with 2000,. We did 80 million. I never raised a penny and people told me all the reasons it was never going to work.

Speaker 2: 7:49

And even when I was growing up and I was growing up in Boca and there were some families that because I came from a house with a single mom and I didn't live in a nicer country club or a nicer area, people wouldn't invite me to stay for dinner. I just was kind of when kids went, a group of boys or girls got in trouble. I would always get blamed because I was thought of as just trashy or whatever it is. And I think it just built this kind of immense chip on my shoulder, which is good. It helped me achieve this goal. It's kind of a life changing success for me and my family.

Speaker 2: 8:23

I have a 14 year old son who's kind of my main priority, but the challenge is that that's hard to get rid of and I think it's difficult to ultimately live a happy kind of content life if you still have this chip on your shoulder. So I think that and it's really never going to be enough, because you can never really kind of prove yourself enough to these quote people that really the people that that treated me this way, are not like an active part of my life, so they're not people that I interact with socially or professionally or anything like that, but they still just left such an imprint on me that it's like ingrained in me and it's not always healthy to have that I've been able to use it to my benefit, but as I'm getting older, I'm hoping to be able to let some of it go and be able to just live a more content life and enjoy the success.

Speaker 1: 9:19

It sounds like you, like the rest of us, are a work in progress, is that right?

Speaker 2: 9:26

Oh, definitely, yeah, I am in no way just because I wrote a book and I've had this success in business. I'm in no way totally cured and I think even you know, with a lot of these mental illness things. I mean, you know, with the healthy obsession is really a savior for me, because if I didn't have something to focus on, if my brain does not have something to kind of hone in on at all times, I get more anxious, I get more depressed, I go down rabbit holes, I catastrophize. So it's very important for me. I'm not someone that, regardless of how much money I have, I'm going to retire. Retire because I just can't do that, I just need to. I'm 42 now. I see myself just kind of having something professionally to focus on for the rest of my life. Hopefully at some point it could be with my son.

Speaker 1: 10:21

You know, whether or not quote unquote that using that negativity as a fuel is healthy or not. It is human. And I thought of you. This weekend I was watching the US open, as many of us were down here in South Florida and Coco golf and the biggest moment of her life she referred to that in her speech after winning the championship how she used some of that negativity to help fuel her to her success. I thought of you, jonathan, and your book.

Speaker 2: 11:01

Well, thanks for thinking of me, david. I was watching the same final. I was watching the same remarks by Coco Gough. To be honest, for, however this may sound, it's weird. I thought of myself and I thought of that. This is such an. You know, the book is kind of top of mind and my kind of story and this, you know, chip on my shoulder improving people wrong, improving all the haters and doubters wrong. But that really resonated with me and I'm glad that Coco was able to be vulnerable with that and I think it's an exciting time in a women's tennis and that I was happy to see that.

Speaker 1: 11:40

So I know you work a lot, but you did mention your son. Tell us a little bit more about what you like to do when you're not working.

Speaker 2: 11:50

So we love our boat. We have a 39 foot CV which is really a fishing setup, so we fish off the coast of Boca, boyden Beach, highland Beach, for Mahi Mahi, wahoo, blackfin tuna. We've taken the boat to the Bahamas. Outside of that, I like to spend time at the Boca tone, actually take the boats Sometimes the Boca tone, hang out with family and friends there, like to travel and like to read and listen to podcasts in my free time.

Speaker 1: 12:26

So let our listeners know how can they find out more information about your subscription boxes?

Speaker 2: 12:33

Sure. So the two subscription boxes one is single swag and that's singles plural swag. So it's the website is singles swag dot com with two S's in the middle, and then the other one is paradise delivered dot com, and they can go on there. We not only have a subscription box options. A couple of years ago we introduced a shop on both of these websites where everything is 50% off, and we've had a lot of success with mystery boxes that people get excited about. We have a colossal mystery box which has over 24 full size products. It's fun. It takes a lot of time to open. It has over $600 in retail value for less than $100. And so they can buy subscriptions. Or, if they don't want to sign up for a subscription, there's more things to look through or look for shopping wise in the website.

Speaker 1: 13:28

So the book is the least likely millionaire. Where can we find your book, Jonathan?

Speaker 2: 13:34

So pretty much anywhere online where books are sold, the primary place is Amazon, so it's available in paperback as Amazon Prime purchase, also on hardcover. The ebook is available for immediate download on Kindle and it's available Barnes and Noble dot com, walmart dot com, books a Million Any website where you purchase your books.

Speaker 1: 14:00

So very inspirational. I love your story, Jonathan. Thanks for joining us today.

Speaker 2: 14:06

Thank you very much, david, excited to be here and to our listeners.

Speaker 1: 14:10

Thanks for listening and we look forward to having you back To local living. Once again, a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. This is David Conway and we will see you soon.