Ep248. Scaling Yourself First: Rewiring Your Life Through Vision and Alignment - with Jordan Black.

In this episode, Mike sits down with Jordan Black to explore what it really looks like to build a life aligned with your design, not just your conditioning. From leaving a secure teaching career to building and scaling a multi-territory franchise business, Jordan shares how vision, courage, and internal growth created a level of freedom most people only talk about. This conversation goes beyond business tactics and into identity, emotional intelligence, and the rewiring required to step into a bigger life. 

They also dive into the contrast between building from survival versus creation, and how Jordan’s journey—from franchise success to launching (and exiting) his own startup—ultimately led him to clarity about his path. Now helping others find aligned franchise opportunities, Jordan embodies what it means to evolve, expand, and follow what’s true. This episode is a powerful look at how internal work drives external results, and how alignment unlocks both freedom and fulfillment. 

Key Takeaways:

1.  Your life expands in direct proportion to your willingness to grow internally. Vision, emotional intelligence, and nervous system regulation are what actually create external success and freedom. 
2.  Building from alignment creates fulfillment, while building from fear or conditioning creates pressure—even if it looks successful on the outside. 
3.  Scaling a business requires letting go of control and developing trust in others, which forces personal growth and leadership evolution. 
4.  Franchising can be a powerful vehicle for freedom because it removes much of the guesswork and allows you to build on a proven foundation. 
5.  True expansion comes from moving out of survival mode and into creation mode—where you’re no longer reacting to life, but consciously designing it. 

Notable Quotes:

•  “It’s taking someone and getting them as aligned with who they are and their natural gifts, their natural design, their natural talents as humanly possible.” 
•  “You’re not going to get up every morning and work towards something unless you’ve got the end in mind.” 
•  “I used to feel like my business could fall apart at any time… and I haven’t had those thoughts in years now.” 
•  “You either play small… or you try to go big, and it takes a lot of money, a lot of time, and there’s no guarantees.” 
•  “80% of the work was internal, 20% external.” 

Call to Action:

Connect with Jordan Black through his website: https://beyondaw2.com/

Jordan's Business Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondaw2/

Make sure you’re subscribed to the Inner Wealth Podcast so you don’t miss what’s coming next. The work we’re doing here isn’t surface-level—it’s about rewiring how you experience life so you can finally live in alignment with who you really are.

Email Mike directly: mike@innerwealthglobal.com

Mike's Media:

Website: https://www.innerwealthglobal.com/
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike_kitko
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikekitko
Subscribe to my YouTube: / @mikekitko

Music Credit: "What's Left of Me" by Wes Hoffman & Friends

Transcript

Why Soul-Based Work Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If there's not a special story, there's not a special reason. And today there is someone with a special story. So that gives me every reason. And my good friend, my longtime good friend Jordan Black, was on episode 18 of the Inner Wealth Podcast when it was known as Lead Love Profit Play back what, like four years ago. And back then he was just moving from being a teacher into entrepreneurship. And he let go of the golden handcuffs in his W-2. And that was about three or four chapters in his life ago. And now he's entering a whole new avenue and in a whole new era. And why I'm inspired to have him on today is because this new venture to be stepping into is an expression of his soul. And we've been talking about this thing for years. And on my business, on a business call in my inner wealth mastermind last week, I asked one of the business owners, if money was not an issue, would you still run your business? And their answer was no. And a soul-based business is where your soul craves the expression of your business. It's not just a money-making asset, but it's a soul-based asset that you get to uh you get to experience and you get to express every aspect of who you are. And that's what Jordan's entering into now. We've been talking about this for years, and he's he's embarking on it. And I'm so, so excited that I've got to put him in front of the audience and I've got to support him in every way. Not only will he help you uh step into higher levels of financial freedom and time freedom, he'll help you find an expression of your soul just like he has. Are you running your life or is your life running your business? I'm like you feel like it's line to create a life. Don't make it in line with anything real well, you'll feel excited to live. I'm helping to create the real world exactly freedom from the inside out. Welcome to the Inner Welt Podcast, where we learn and choose to live inspired each and every day. Hey guys, I don't bring on very many podcast guests. You you guys know what today is today's gonna be episode 24248, I believe, somewhere around there. And I've probably only had a handful of of interviews of people that I've brought on here. And they're people that I really, really believe in and that I really trust and I really admire, and I feel have something significant and important to give the world just beyond the make money achieve success. Make money achieve success. There's something that's that's more heart-based, that's more soul-based, that's more aligned. And uh today I've got my good friend, Jordan Black, and I'm so excited. Jordan was on episode 18 back when I first started this podcast, and uh holy shit, have things changed since 18 to 248, and I'm excited for you guys to catch up. Jordan, welcome to the show, man. Thanks for being here again.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Thanks, Mike, for having me. It seems like honestly, yesterday that we were on episode 18. Can't believe how uh time flies.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Bro, that's like four years ago or something. Isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Time flies, telling you.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Are you having a good time?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Time flies fast when you're doing things you enjoy. I'll say that. So I'm having a great time.

Teacher To Franchise Owner Origin

SPEAKER_00 3:44

And we're gonna get all into that because there's there's a lot of people that I've worked with. And when I talk about someone, not just from the work that I've that that I did with you, right? It's not about that. I'm just talking about your experience and your journey overall. The the overall um arc of your entire life has been the exact expression of Innerwealth Global and the Inner Wealth Mastermind and the work that I do in the world. It's taking someone and getting them as aligned with who they are and their natural gifts, their natural design, their natural talents as humanly possible. And just over the over the course of time, you're just more and more stepping into design and your design, your purpose, your destiny. And that's what we're here to talk about. So um are you ready to go? I'm ready. Give a little background, right? Let just catch up where you know, where are you coming to us from? Um, what are you doing right now? You know, what's going on in your life?

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Well, I'm coming from uh Denver, Colorado area, live in South Denver, and I've been out here for about five years, born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where I met you, Mike, originally many years ago. And well, it's been a long journey. And uh well, it has to go back about 20 years or so, where I started my teaching career, where I was getting my degree in music education, became a music teacher in the St. Louis area and taught music for 10 years. Um, that was my passion growing up, and I came from a family of teachers. And um, you may have heard the story before, but I was kind of locked into the golden handcuffs, as they say, where I was in a career, it felt stable, felt like there was good benefits, um, a good retirement way down the road. And I felt like I wanted to get out because I had other ambitions, another to really just own my own life, start my own business, and see where that took me. So um in 2018, I actually made the decision to leave teaching, start my own franchise business, um, which was the biggest change in my life. I started a two-mates house cleaning franchise and uh over the last what, eight years now, expanded that across two states to Colorado, originally from Missouri and into Colorado, um, through some acquisitions of resales, through new territory development, got up to six territories, and um just recently sold one off. And uh now I've got five. I've got management, got a GM, I've got roughly 50 employees, and built up that business to where it's basically only a few hours a week for me. Um and I've flirted with other ventures with my time that I've uh you know created for myself, and we can talk about some of those today. Um, but the latest thing I'm doing is I'm helping people now find franchise opportunities just like I did. So living the same journey if they if their uh desire is to kind of get out from golden handcuffs and uh own their own life that I have lived that path and now I'm helping people um live that path as well.

Vision Setting And Mountain Life

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Man, what a beautiful, what a beautiful adventure and what a great place to start. And uh I remember four years ago talking about the broker consultant thing, right? You were so passionate, and we'll get more into this in a bit, but you were you were so passionate about what franchising had done for you. And this is this is pretty early on in the journey, right? When you were it's not like you were just green and you were just getting started, you were literally starting to get some momentum and you were starting to develop some freedom in your life. And uh that's when you started like really believing in franchising and and and and the power of the franchise model, and you started getting, I started feeling that passion to share it for you to share it with other people. And and and we're gonna get a little bit more uh you know into that as as this episode goes on, because there's so much that you have to give to the world. Um, and that's just that's the next chapter, but we're gonna stay with some of the other chapters between the beginning and and now. So years ago, and the episode 18 was all about the golden handcuffs, and that's why that's why Jordan mentioned that. So you and I had a conversation about creating a vision for your life. All right, let's let's let's let's jump into that a little bit because I I believe that that was probably maybe I don't know, 20 visions ago for you. So 20 iterations ago. You and I had a conversation about what the perfect life would be like for you. And for from what I remember, there's only one thing in that vision that you didn't accomplish. Okay. Um, and that was a choice to not accomplish it. I don't know if you remember what that is, but you you set out, you accomplished a or you you you you created a vision and you you wanted some things. You were still living in St. Louis and you wanted some things. Can you tell everybody what that was, the simplicity and what you wanted in your vision?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah, I think my vision when I first started talking to you, Mike, many, many years ago and iterations ago, was just to have a few territories of my my house cleaning business to have some freedom in my schedule to go uh leave the business during the day, go see my kids, you know, at school. If they did a field trip, maybe I can chaperone and um just kind of spend maybe a little bit more money on things and experiences in my life that I wasn't able to do when I was making 60k a year as a as a teacher. Um, so with a little bit more time, maybe a little bit more income, um, just just experience life a little more. But I actually didn't have a lot of big, big visions. It was small things that I thought at the time were big, but looking back, they were they were pretty darn small.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Yeah, and I don't even I'm just coming from my recollection, and I I tend to remember people's experiences a little more than they do. Yeah, go for it.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

You you probably remember some specifics that I'm not bringing up and go for it.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

I do, and there wasn't a whole lot about freedom, but what I do remember is you wanted to you wanted to spend more time in the mountains, yeah, and and and you you wanted to uh you wanted to experience more time just you know in you during your day, just walking trails and and just being in the mountains and experiencing the mountains. And and you where do you live right now?

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Yeah, so yeah, it's it's Colorado. So basically, uh the dream was to be able to travel a few times a year and do some hiking. Yeah, that was pretty much it. And if I could do that, it would have been like my vision was realized. And you know, fast forward five years later, I don't know how it it all ended up happening, but you know, not only going to hike a few times a year, but living in Colorado, hiking all the time, not only hiking, but enjoying obviously the mountains and in many other ways, all seasons of the year, skiing and and whatnot. So it the little seed of of being more in the mountains just grew into a giant forest of trees, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

It just blew up, it just blew up everything. And and yeah, you know, I I love one of the the magical moments or the magical points of of my life and and the work that I do is when I watch people step into something, you know, greater for themselves. And I've seen a lot, a lot of people from a conversation start a business that that is like is a is is kind of a an expression of their soul and a passion, and I love it. I I I I think I get more excited about that than they do. I don't know if there was a whole lot of freedom in your vision, but what you did say is I want to spend more time in the mountains, and then you got the opportunity to to buy a franchise and buy it by a territory in Colorado, and you did it, and and you were and you were going back and forth between uh Colorado and St. Louis, driving back and forth, and then you decided to move to the mountains. And now I see on you know on Facebook and you while I follow you on social media, I see you like walking with your dog just you know, just day almost daily, you know, going for a walk in the mountains, and your vision blew up. And um, it was it's awesome to see. Your vision was simple, and now it now I'm sure it's it it's it's like 10 iterations, but there was only one thing that you didn't accomplish in that vision. Do you remember what that is?

SPEAKER_01 12:06

I've got a maybe a few things, but go ahead and just speak your mind because I remember one cardinal season tickets, yeah, yeah, St.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Louis Cardinal season tickets. And the only reason you didn't do that is because you moved to Colorado. It wouldn't have made any sense. But but anyway, it it was so cool. But I I do remember, and then and I'm gonna I'm telling you, I remember that conversation when when you first put that that vision together, and and it was all you know, it was all about living this life that that you know you security-based Jordan couldn't have imagined. You said, Mike, is this even possible? And I said, No, it's probable. Let's get it. And now you're you're so far beyond that. So do you believe explain to our our listeners or or or our viewers, explain to them the power of vision, vision setting, and dreaming, dreaming bigger.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah, I think it it starts with you're not gonna get up every every morning and work towards some kind of goal, achieving something, unless you've got the end in mind. And it's gotta be, you know, Mike, you taught me a long time ago, it's gotta be clear, write it all down. People have vision boards. Um, I've known a lot of people who have done that, and actually picture and envision and start thinking this is not only possible, but it's actually going to happen. This will be my life. And what you realize is not only are a lot of those things gonna happen for you, but they're gonna seem small compared to the what's gonna happen on down the road. You know, you're gonna think, wow, that was the only vision I dreamed of. You know, I never thought this was possible. So um, yeah, I'm a big believer in the vision work. I continue to do it all the time. Like you said, several re- reiterations later. Um, I've got even bigger dreams than that. And um if I right now I'm experiencing it, you know, having a new venture and getting up every morning and working towards my goals here, um, just establishing what what I want, how I want my life to expand, I think is is the way to think about it. Because it's it's a great life right now, but I'm not I'm enjoying it, but I'm also looking to expand it even further all the time.

Building Managers And Letting Go

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Yeah, yeah. That have some fun with it, right? Have some fun with the dreaming and the expansion. So you bought a um you bought territories here, and you were offered territories in Colorado. Think of a big a big moment in your life was when you started moving managers into place to really to really start to start everything on autopilot. Describe describe that adventure and describe that a little bit and how it felt, right? Moving from teaching to being the the reason that your business built to to starting to put things in place to work for you.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yeah, again, uh a step up, right? It's it's taking steps constantly. And and for me, a big step was taking my hands off the operation, which I knew I wanted to do, but it doesn't make it easy, even though you want to do it. And taking your hands off the operation and going, okay, the you know, when you when you run your own business and you own your own business, um you've got uh you've got that one business in mind, but if you start thinking about bigger, right? How can I grow this thing? It's can I open up more of these? Can I open up more businesses? Can I expand? And so the only way to do that is you you can't be involved in everything, right? You've got to put layers into this thing and designate roles and put managers in place. And so for me, it was taking my hands off the wheel and accepting that the person who's gonna be doing this role may not do it exactly like me, may not do it perfectly, but I know if I find the right person, they're gonna continue to grow the business with me in some capacity, and I can continue to open up another business, take over another territory. And so the idea of scaling a business was a huge growth opportunity for me. I had to really think of myself getting, you know, expanding my confidence level, my personal power, uh, my belief that I could do it, um, all those things. And then obviously making things more efficient operationally, um, just being a better leader, being calmer was a big thing because, you know, yeah, I mean, you're gonna get hit with the biggest problems when you start getting yourself in that role. Then your managers will take care of the little things, but they're gonna bring the biggest problems to you, you know, to solve critically what's going on. And so, you know, I've got to be the level-headed Jordan as the owner and make sure nothing gets to me and just be that strong leader. So, yeah, the whole growth oper the whole growth um process to scale my business to all the territories and even across two states where I'm 800 miles away from the business and my staff every day in another state. Um, that was a that was a huge, a huge growth opportunity. But I encourage everybody who's listening, if they are um an entrepreneur, they're involved in business, don't, don't let the fear of scaling stop you because you're you'll grow into it. You know, there's gonna be a lot of opportunities to to make mistakes and to fail, but but scaling a business is is uh is an enormous opportunity to change and grow and become a much better person.

Anxiety Into Calm Leadership

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah, you you 100%, 100,000 percent chance you're not the same person that I met, you know, back in 20, I think when I when we first met, it was probably in 2017. Um you're not the same person. I I remember having a conversation with you. Um we were just having a little coaching session. And when on a scale, you know, when you were getting a rating back for, you know, and this is early on, when you're getting a rating back for for one of your cleans, anything less than a 10 or anything less than perfect was an absolute failure, right? And and I didn't, I couldn't, I didn't have a name for it back then, or I didn't have a deeper understanding, but that's emotional intelligence. That's that's all that is. Over the course of time, you became more emotionally intelligent. You became you became more uh more able and uh and willing to uh to to manage your emotions instead of allow your emotions to manage you and how to manage and direct your emotions. And I think that's what you're talking about. This isn't about being stoic and not having emotion, it's it's knowing how what to do with them, what to do with our emotions and how to manage them and direct them. And over time, you're as you become more emotionally intelligent, you become a better leader. Would you would you say that that's true?

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I emotional intelligence to me back then or lack of was having a ton of anxiety. You know, feel feeling like yeah, feeling like any mistake made or a rating that came back from a customer that wasn't a 10 out of 10 was potentially a signal that I was gonna fail.

unknown 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

I was looking for those things. Um, instead of you know, flipping the switch where I was able to work on my anxiety, work on my emotional intelligence, as you say, um, understanding that as you go on, you see the same patterns happen again, and you're like, well, that didn't cause my business to fail before, so why would it cause it now? So it's just a matter of time, just managing the emotional intelligence and at the end of the day, um being able to take everything as a learning opportunity, not uh a signal that this is gonna all fail and it's gonna fall apart. And I used to have this feeling like my business could fall apart at any time if this and this and this happened, and I would wake up some days feeling like that, and I haven't had those thoughts in years now. Like I just am confident this is gonna work. There might be stages where things go down, but we will always get them back up where they need to be.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Yeah. So and and putting more things together and piecing it together with some of the other teachings and other podcast episodes that that I've recorded. I think you grew up. My my understanding of you is you grew up in a very security-oriented family. And and like in that that that was the teaching thing, teaching is the only way for security, right? And there was probably a certain fragility uh about life that was conditioned and ingrained in you, that life was more fragile than it actually is, or money was more fragile than it actually is, or business was more fragile than it actually is. And you need to create the most safe life possible because at any part at any time everything could fall apart.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

And maybe there was very little risk in my family. I'll just say that to add just not to interrupt you, but there was like looking back, I didn't see my family take hardly any risks ever. Yeah, it was like you said, kind of the most safe path um to create as little obstacles as possible. Um, if that makes sense. So yeah, no risk, no entrepreneurs in my family growing up, nobody owning their own business. It was lock into a safe job with safe benefits and don't stray.

unknown 21:09

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Because your whole life could, you know, fall apart if you do.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

And I love that word fragile, right? Like, like life is life, business, money, it's all it's all so fragile. You need to what just popped up as you were talking, you got to play defense, not offense. And that's that's a great way to say it. Jordan the teacher was playing defense. Jordan the entrepreneur plays offense every day, right? And and you know, the uh the level of offense that you're playing over time keeps getting bigger and bigger, and it keeps scaling, right? It's not, you know, and and that's why your life keeps scaling, is because you were playing offense at a at a bigger level. Right. I know you're a big sports fan, but relate that.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah. And let's let's kind of correlate offense is probably more risky for for what most people would consider risky. Sure. But but in our world, As entrepreneurs, we're always taking calculated risks. Everything is very well calculated. Due diligence is done. We don't make stupid decisions that are just careless, right? Spend a lot of time researching. But then when you see the opportunities there, you have the courage and the confidence to make the move because you know it's going to happen. So yeah, playing offense is a great way to say it.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Courage and confidence is the emotional intelligence. And and and what I'm going to bring in something else, and probably something that I know, I know you're a busy man, and I know I know you don't listen to every episode of the Interwealth podcast, but I often talk about the drill method. And drill method is a way to become more emotionally intelligent. When you start to feel that anxiety and you start to feel that fear, because let's be honest, you still do, right? We all as human beings, we still do. It's not like you're avoid of emotion. It happens, you just know what to do with it. And when you feel it, you drop into the body, you recognize what's in there, recognize what you're feeling. You inquire into it. Why am I feeling this? What am I afraid of? What's it teaching me? You listen to it, let it talk to you, learn from it, and then let it go. And then you move on and you make a decision, you make a, you know, a confident, courageous decision, and you move forward. You just don't let the emotion control you.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Yeah. I had a moment today, Mike, literally this morning. I woke up um with my new gig and thought, hey, there's there's things I want to be going better already, even though I've only been in it for a short time. And there was a little bit of anxiety there, and a little bit of anxiety that lasted for maybe 20 minutes. And then that anxiety caused me to do some reflections and gain some more clarity on what I was anxious about. And immediately I took some action and spent the next few hours taking action, making things happen, um, where I saw a gap in my business. And so, yeah, I still have anxiety from time to time, but I don't let it affect me long term. Like I said, that was 20 minutes of like not a good feeling, like maybe a little bit of a rut, I'd say, for only 20 minutes, you know, not a whole day, not uh, not months at a time, whatever. It was like, okay, now let's get into action.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Yeah, yeah. And in 2017, Jordan, the first one that I met was very guarded, defensive, and uh in a rut, always always, always waiting for everything to fall apart. And I'll I'll say that it the the first conversation you you and I ever had, you were very um, you were very hesitant, you were very timid, and your words were very uh shaky. Let's let's just say there wasn't a whole lot of confidence and and uh yeah, there wasn't a whole lot of confidence in your body. Not that you, not that there was anything wrong with you. You were just that's the way that your nervous system was built at that time, and it's no longer built in now.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Well, we have a we have a story, Mike, um, if you remember, but when I first came across my franchise opportunity, I remember talking to you and my wife Angie about it and and feeling like should I even be just or you know, actually may have not been the one, it was not the one I'm in now, two mates. It was a different opportunity, and I was afraid to share it with you guys because I thought if I share it with somebody, they might take the opportunity. There's that anxiety growing, and I might lose it, right? Lose the opportunity. And now it's uh, you know, I've learned um with your help along the way for many years, like there's always opportunities, and there's always things, and and all these things we think are the worst things that could happen, they just never happen. Yeah. And you guys, you guys didn't take my idea and start that business.

Creator Mindset And New Experiments

SPEAKER_00 25:27

No, we didn't. And and frankly, that idea sounded nauseating. So for me, it definitely not aligned with me. Yeah. Um, I I I've been having people in the mastermind, and Jordan, you were you were a member of the mastermind for a long time. You were actually you were member number one, you were founding member number one. Um I would have them do this little check-in where I'd say, Hey, I just want you to fill in the blank, and I'm gonna give you a whole list of words, but I want you to put whatever word you want there. And and I'd say, I am and happy, sad, depressed, anxious, fearful, right? And I just give them a whole list of feeling words, and I'd say, just pick whatever one you want. And they'd pick a word, and I'd say, okay, now take I am and scratch it out, and in its place, right? Currently, my nervous system is wired to feel right, and happy, depressed, anxious. And I said, and that gives us a starting point. That's that's the work that we get to do because it it's just nervous system realignment. And you you've done that work over the course of of years and years, and it just keeps leveling you up. And again, it's emotional intelligence, emotional control, emotional regulation, and you just keep getting your life, keeps getting bigger because of that. Yeah. And I like that exercise, by the way. Oh, it's it's a great exercise. And you can do that, like I am rich, I am poor, I am, I I struggle financially. I whatever, you can do whatever you want. You can do it with with money, you can do it with with how how how you relate with life. Uh, I have a happy marriage, I have a miserable marriage, I have a whatever marriage, and then just scratch out the I have or the I am, and write my currently my nervous system is wired to experience, and it's true. And and that's the work that we get to do is to rewire our nervous system to experience something different. And again, when you do that work, the inner work, our our good friend Brian Schroeder, our mutual friend Brian Schroeder says in his success, and he's he's had a lot of it, 80% of the work was internal, 20% external. So, and and you've done the internal work. So, okay, now I'm gonna I'm gonna fast forward you're out of teaching, you've got you've got some territories in St. Louis, you've got territories in Colorado, and you've got managers in place. And you started getting this like this yearning to build something else. What was that to create to create something? What was that next thing?

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Yeah, so what we have the the creation versus what's the opposite of that? What would you say?

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Creator mindset versus survival mindset, survival, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Survival versus so I was finally, you know, had a had my fair share of survival mindset, like we talked about being anxious wonder if my business was gonna grow and seeing it grow and working through all that emotional intelligence and getting to a point finally where I felt really good, I felt confident and very clear how I wanted to create something new. And um this time, uh, you know, in the past I had my franchise, right? So my franchise business uh was basically a business model, branding, marketing, systems, everything was handed to me uh in my purchase of a franchise agreement, and I had my business and I ran with it. But that but around a few years ago, I started thinking I really want to create something of my own. I just had this urge, this desire to do that. And so I I assumed I I know where you're going with this. But yeah, I I started a whole new business um with some family members, and that was a roller coaster to say the least in the last few years. Um, could talk more about it, but learned a lot, got my creative juices flowing, and let those kind of run their course and um learned a lot from it. So, what do you want to know about that?

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Did you first of all, did you have some fun with something new? I had a blast. Yeah, you did for most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

The major hurdles we hit and the challenges were not fun, and they tested me, but I would say 95% of the time the last few years, I was having a really fun time, even though we weren't making money yet. The creation alone was was just really fulfilling.

Building The Break Up With Cake Brand

SPEAKER_00 29:50

I would say you lost a lot of money, but but what what what was the what was the creation? What was the business? Like talk about what that was. Like you got your franchise and your home cleaning services business. Now, what was this next thing that you were looking to build?

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Yeah, so early 2023, I was in that creator mode of trying to figure out what doing a lot of meditation, yeah, what this was gonna look like, what I wanted to create and and and do for uh another venture while I while my two maids business kind of ran itself and had um uh people in the family, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, um, kind of come to me with their own idea of a business and how I could team up with them and kind of help with the operation side. But it was basically launching um a snack bar, like a healthy snack bar, um, in this case, refrigerated bar. Actually, the previous, the old version was um more like a cake pop. It was a ball, roll, it was the snack bar, but rolled up in a ball and put on a stick. And so we spent uh several months sort of developing the concept, fine-tuning the recipes, and then we made a big leap um in 2023 when we launched to really get our own team involved. Uh, we found some kitchen space to rent in Boulder, Colorado, and we um had our own branding kind of in-house and developed this healthy cake pop. We called it break up with cake, uh, because the idea was actually we're not a cake pop, we're breaking up with the bad food, the cake that's not healthy and it's not good for you, too much added sugar, all that stuff. And we had this recipe that was a few simple ingredients, and um, we developed this product and immediately got great feedback, but realized there is um some some quick quick to realize there's a lot of confusion over the product. Who was it for? Because this product was kind of brand new. No one had ever heard of it, seen it out there in the marketplace. All we can see is like bad cake pops for you. And so we thought it actually was cake or had sugar, and we're like, no, it's actually a snack bar that's clean and healthy rolled into a ball, shaped into a cake pop. So there's confusion there. Um, a lot of times kids are given cake pops, but we want it to be like adults having fun with the cake pop too. So this healthy cake pop was branded towards adults when they had never really bought their own cake pops or or things before like that. So that was confusing. And then um the the the hardest thing of all was just to scale it. We would never really be able to scale it because um in the in the consumer package goods space, you work with co-packers often. Copackers are the manufacturers who they've got the systems down, they've got all the equipment, they do this for tons of brands and they make your product. And when we went to copackers, they said, well, that product's too creative, too new. There's nothing like it. Our systems aren't set up to make that product at scale. So you're on your own. And we we did the math and we couldn't do it by hand and and and have our own team doing it. Um, we we couldn't find the path to get there to go scale and make money. So we had to change it to a snack bar, which is a regular square or rectangle that the Copackers all set up to make with your recipe. They can't make the healthy cake pop, but they can do the bar. So we we we spent the last few years just you know pivoting and coming up with new branding, new packaging, and going down that road. But um, at the end of the day, um, what we discovered was that industry, that product, it you're either small or you're really, really big. And if you get stuck in the middle, you'll never make money. And here's the reason why. If you know um packaged goods, products like wholesaling, get into retail, really any type, you've got to produce at volume. And to get to volume, you have to invest over and over again in new inventory, more ingredients, uh, more storage. You got to get distributors involved, you got to get buyers involved. And we were finding that this was too big. It was gonna cost us too much, and there's no guarantees it would ever be successful. So you either play small and you kind of stick to your local farmers' markets, and you make whatever you're gonna make every year and impact a small amount of people, which is which is fine for some people, or you or you try to go big and it takes a lot of money, a lot of time, and we'd already lost so much money and lost so much time that it just it was like a slap in the face to to get out of this space before you you keep doing it. So we got stuck in the middle for a short time and and ultimately we decided to exit.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Well, it was fun watching you through all that because I think you it it I got to be part of some of the marketing, and you know, you would you when whenever you were rebranding or marketing or looking for new colors or things like that, you'd send it to all the people that you know in our group and in our world, our little entrepreneurial ecosystem, and we all got to have some input. And I thought it was a lot of fun for a while. Ultimately, what what I saw, and tell you know, you could speak to the truth, or where maybe I'm missing something, but here's here's my experience. You you stepped out of teaching, and there was this thing called a franchise that ultimately just it was the foundation was already built. And I know this is what we're gonna talk about when we get to you know the broker, the brokerage part of of the the season now chapter. The foundation was already built, and all you had to do was leverage the foundation and build the build, you know, the moving parts on top of the foundation, and it created freedom for you. It was a mechanism for freedom.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

I I tell people all the time I had no business background really, other than starting a little few side things that were just small little things. I had no real business background, no MBA, no corporate experience. I never ran a house cleaning company, I never really cleaned my house that often. But what I was able to do was invest in a business model that someone else had already proven over years and years. I mean, when I when I came into the franchise, it was 2018. The first two maids ever was 2003 when it was launched by the original founder before it ever franchised. And so that founder and those people, the new, the early franchisees, they had already proven and tested so many things, so many systems, so many things, and you know, with branding and pricing structure and marketing efforts, you know, all that had been already handed to me in a box. And I just had to follow the model, right? And so when I paid my franchise fee and my investment, I was paying for the system that had already been proven. Yeah. Meanwhile, I spent a lot of money doing that myself with breakup a cake, losing a lot of money, losing a lot of time trying to figure it all out myself and never made money. And that's the truth. You know, we were still what are they called in the black or in the red. I always forget, right? We were we were in the red. The red is danger, right? So we were in the red um constantly, and with my house cleaning franchise, I was profitable in one three.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Yeah, it was quick.

The Real Power Of Franchising

SPEAKER_01 36:43

It was very quick, it was quick because I just followed the model that had already been proven. So, you know, my I came out of this whole experience the last few years having a much clearer understanding of the power of the franchise model. And then there's a we'll talk about it, I'm sure, uh further into this podcast interview. But basically, there's a lot of good companies out there and there's a lot of bad companies. So there's not, it's not like you're guaranteed to have success, but the good companies have figured out some good things and they've reduced your level of risk and have set you up for success. And with my own independent business, not to say I couldn't succeed at my own independent business, but the odds were much more stacked against me and the hurdles were higher and all that. So yeah, that's what I learned.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

So jumped out of teaching, jumped into franchise, built freedom for yourself, autonomous freedom, where someone else was actually running your business. It took it took some time and a couple iterations to get the right managers in place and and the moving parts. Once you got those pretty much in place and and and that established, that created some freedom. It gave you a mechanism to go out and experiment with some other things. Not that there's anything wrong with building a business, there's nothing wrong with it. Oh, absolutely. I love it. Like I said, go ahead. I was saying, but it's not for everybody, right? The there's a reason that franchise work franchising worked for you. It's because that you it provided you some all some initial stability and foundation where you could just build upon that. You didn't have to start with a marketing plan, you didn't have to start with building a team, you know, or or a sales team, or marketing spend, or colors, or branding, or all these things to help the market understand what you're about. You didn't have to build any of that, you just had to go out and hire professional house cleaners and buy some cleaning supplies, right? So pretty much and I'm not saying that's all you had to do, but the the foundational elements of the brand and the business model and the business mechanics were built.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Yeah. And I think one of the one of the biggest things was the marketing efforts alone and just having your brand established, having your your model established on the back end. But then the marketing efforts, you know, people spend so much time, as you know, in the business world trying to figure out how to acquire customers. And I think that was one of the biggest things is that my company did very well right off the bat, is they really figured that out and and what what advertisements, digital advertisements were gonna work and how and how much money to spend. And like that takes a really long time to kind of uh hone in on. And one of the reasons that I think I was passing up other mom and pop house cleaning companies in my area was because they figured out if you do this and this and put some money into it, you're gonna grow pretty quick.

unknown 39:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

And I, if I was independent, I never would have committed to those marketing efforts, for example. So just one of the areas of the franchise that that pushed me ahead as quicker than I even thought I could. You know, I was already, I was six months in, 12, six to 12 months in, I was already annualizing half a million dollars in sales. And some mom and pops spend years and they're not even close to that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

And I remember a good friend of mine, or a good friend of ours, like I said, mine, good friend of ours, that when you hit a million dollars in in gross sales, we we took you out for a steak dinner. And I remember that being a freaking great moment, a monumental moment because Jordan Black, the teacher, was now like an accomplished business owner and leader. Sure. So so break up with cake, not that it it you would have made that successful if you wanted to keep pumping money into it. And if you if you you know had I believe you would have. But but in that moment you made a decision to pull the plug. And then that's that's kind of I feel that that's when it gave you really the the the unbreakable uh belief in the franchise model. And it kind of proved that, right?

SPEAKER_01 40:44

Yeah, not to say that I I don't believe in independent startup businesses, because clearly that's that's not true at all. If I were to say like that doesn't those don't work, I'm a I'm a complete liar, right? And we we all know so many people who have done that, and it's great. Um, it also depends upon the personality, too, right? And and kind of what we could talk about that, but what's a what's a good fit? Who's a good fit for sort of a franchise business who may not be a good fit? But I think I I gained ultimate clarity that there's a lot of additional things that I don't really want to go through and starting my own business from scratch and inventing that wheel from scratch. And I learned the hard way, but I don't have any regrets at all. I want to be super clear on the record. It was a fun experience. It was great. It taught me so much about business that I didn't even know. Um, and a whole nother industry and sector that I didn't know, and I learned. And um ultimately it helped me gain my clarity that I'm really a franchise guy. You are. And I have sort of this new affection for it that I never even had, even though I was running a franchise business for years. I gained a new affection for it, and I personally call myself the franchise cheerleader. I don't put that out there, but like I wake up in that sort of in that persona every day. Like, I need to go shine the light on this because I think it could be a great, a great avenue for for a lot of people who may not be thinking about it that way.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

Well, let's go. And and that you you said you said you you do believe, you know, you're not saying that building your own business is bad or anything. No, I Jordan, I do believe, and I know I know the fabric of of how what you're made of, that if you would have just kept pumping money into it, you would have made it successful. I have no doubt in my mind. I you would have. Yeah. We're not either, neither of us are casting shade on building your own business from scratch. This is just making sure that that everyone understands that there are certain people out there that a franchise model will will help you build and help you uh, you know, create this the freedom in your life that you want, because most of the work is not most, a good bit of the work is already done.

SPEAKER_01 42:54

Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So if I can if I can say this, um, you know, it's not people people get so locked into what they're passionate about and what they love and what they know. And for example, I didn't really know house cleaning, but I was passionate about developing a recurring business with teams that was able to accomplish certain things in my life if I got there, right? Or when, not if, but when I got there, right? And so time flexibility, certain earnings level, um, just impact overall. But I didn't have to like like I was a musician, I didn't have to open a business that had to do with music, per se. It was these are the end goals. Find me a franchise business that will achieve those end goals. And that's where I was, that's where the approach is it's really great for someone who they're not so distracted by what it has to be per se, the exact product or service, but that they have the end goals in mind. And what I do in my new role is I say, okay, let's determine what those end goals are. Let's determine what you want your life to look like when you run a business, and then we'll find a project. Product or service franchise that fits with what you want your life to look like. What's your model? And that's what we do.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

Exactly. And I do believe that one of the things that I observed in you that you're passionate about is developing leaders. You developed your managers, you developed, you had a passion for developing your managers. You had a passion for developing your general manager. You you had a passion for that. So although you didn't have a passion for cleaning toilets, you did have a passion for developing the people who who maybe did, right? Or who had a you know another passion for leadership. And I do believe that your business benefited through that. So describe what you're doing. I know one on below your name, it says Jordan Black Beyond a W-2. So describe what you're doing now. Describe the kind of like this new role that you're playing in the world and this new service, this new benefit that you're providing for the world.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

Perfect. So I'm basically a franchise matchmaker. We call ourselves franchise consultants, or some people call us brokers. We just help people that are out there wanting to change up their life, to own their own life, to start a business that can achieve the goals they want in their life. Um, we do we work with a lot of first-time entrepreneurs, some people that are already entrepreneurs wanting to add more businesses into their life, more assets to build wealth, or or high-earning professionals that just want to diversify income while keeping a job or a career that they already have. And um we help people match up with the perfect franchise for them. Okay, so we're not all about fads or the hot, shiny new object business franchise out there that's quickly growing. What we want to do is we slow everything down and we spend hours working with someone to develop their model, kind of like the vision work we talked about. Basically, a vision for their business, a vision for what they are going to achieve in their life. And then we put together that model. And after several hours of developing that model with them, then I finally say, okay, I think I've got some brands out there that would fit your model perfectly.

SPEAKER_02 46:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

And that's what we do. So we have an expertise in franchising and we're basically a matchmaker. So ultimately, what we do is once we get them a few brands that they can look at, we uh connect them directly with those companies who we've already have established relationships with. I work through the Fran Choice uh Consulting Network. They're the gold standard of this. They've been doing it for a few decades. Part of their network has an independent consultant, and we've got great relationships with a few hundred brands out there that we believe are A plus opportunities across a wide range of industries. And we set them up with conversations. They usually get moved right to the front of the line because those people also have leads coming from all over. But with franchoice consultants, they know we've done a great process of screening that candidate, making sure that they're a great fit for that company. We've done all that upfront work. So in exchange, if they do make a deal, we then get paid um a fee, a commission, essentially from the franchise, or that's the only way we get paid. I don't ever send my candidates a bill. I call them candidates, not clients, because it's a free service. They're not paying me for anything. Uh, it's like a real estate agent helping you buy a house. If you buy a house, they get a deal. If you never buy a house, they just helped you for all that time for free. Not a big deal. So um that's what we do. And I get to live out my dream of helping people now find franchise businesses like I found mine that could change your life.

SPEAKER_00 47:26

I love it, man. I love it. And then and again, I want to talk four years ago. We were kind of starting to talk about this a little bit, right? With with this pat this growing passion in your in your heart to to help people step into the franchise because you you really did start to see the the freedom it gave you. And once you felt that freedom, you kind of wanted other people that you know to experience it with you.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

Yeah. And I knew early on this was a path I might take because in my own franchise, uh, well, during this process, when I work with a candidate and they're talking to a brand, they also get the opportunity to talk to current franchise owners in that brand. We call that the validation stage of a of a discovery process, and they can ask them anything they want. And so years ago, I was on for two mates franchise, I was one of the people, one of the current owners that that was on the shortlist for hey, call this guy, he'll answer all your questions during their due diligence process. And I got calls from people every week that were in the process of researching and discovering what it would be like to be a potentially a two-mates franchise owner. And I love those calls. I got to to take them and then answer questions and sort of be a mentor and a guide. And I got a lot of people across the finish line because I they answered, I answered their questions in a way that that that sounded good. Um, and um, I never made a dime off any of those conversations, off any of those deals because I was a current franchise owner. I was not a part of that. So I knew I loved that work of being able to help people into business ownership. Um I was good at it. And uh so now I hopefully, you know, can can provide that same service as an independent franchise consultant and uh and make some money while doing it as well. So I get to do what I love. I think I'm pretty good at it. I have the experience and the authentic journey people can relate to. And um, yeah, it's it's just a blast being able to do that now.

SPEAKER_00 49:11

Meanwhile, how many hours a week are you are you spending in your franchise?

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Yeah, so like we talked about, built up the management structure and and a GM model and everything. So realistically, five hour stops.

SPEAKER_00 49:24

Guys, there's so much freedom available uh and franchise, you know, franchise uh uh business ownership is just an avenue to it. And Jordan, you're if this sounded interesting to you at all in exploring what a franchise is not gonna cost you anything to connect with Jordan to have a conversation, he's got a passion for it. And listen, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be uh I'm gonna testify for Jordan Black and the quality. So uh I've worked with Jordan, I've worked with his wife, I've worked with his sister-in-law, I've worked with his mother-in-law, uh, I've worked with the whole family and uh for my 50th anniversary three years ago, almost four years ago now.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

50th birthday.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

50th birthday. I said anniversary for my 50th birthday. My wife Angie asked us if we wanted asked me if I wanted to go somewhere and and take some people. And I took three, three people with me. My three people, the three of my favorite favorite people, and Jordan Black was one of them. So we went out to Sedona, Arizona for for a week and had a good time. So I I I will have a great time. I will testify to the uh to the quality of Jordan Black and the uh the heart that he has for bringing people, helping people create more freedom in their life.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

Well, I think that's a teacher in me as well. You know, like I so I kind of said it wasn't for me for my long-term career, but I do have still the innate teacher in me, the mentor, the coach. I love helping people if I can. So um, you know, there's like I talked about a minute ago, there's validation process. People get people call people like me in the past. I did it for many years. I loved it. There are people out there that don't want to be called, you know, have no interest in helping someone achieve business ownership. That's not in their purview. They don't want to be distracted by it, they want to focus on their own business. That's fine. But I personally love being able to help someone else with their own business. That's essential to own their own business.

Contact Info And Closing Message

SPEAKER_00 51:14

And that's why your kids thrived in the classroom. That's why your managers and your general managers thrive in their roles. And now that's why new franchise owners that uh that that work with you to get started, that's why they'll thrive too. Jay, it was great catching up with you, brother. And uh maybe in four years we'll be back on another podcast and you'll have another venture going. And you'll have you'll have your territory still going, you'll have a network of of uh business consultants working for you, uh, and you'll be on your next venture and it'll all just be working, you know, on on automatic. All right. So perfect. World with me, Mike. The world's your oyster brother. You can do whatever the hell you accomplish whatever you want. Guys, I hope this has been helpful to uh to help you see that there's there's many mechanisms to uh to create more freedom in your life. If you're interested, I'm gonna drop uh Jordan's contact information uh in in the show notes. Is there an easy way for them to get in contact with you, Jay?

SPEAKER_01 52:12

They can visit my website beyond uh w2. So beyond letter AW number two without the dash, beyond W2.com. And uh they can get my contact information there. Um, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, Beyond the W2, and on LinkedIn. You can find me as well.

SPEAKER_00 52:30

Yep. And I'll put all that information in the show notes, both on YouTube, uh, Apple, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Reach out to Jay. Great guy. I qualify or I testify to his to his heart. He will get you taken care of. And guys, thanks for joining us for another episode of the Interwealth Podcast. I just hope to, I don't bring a whole lot of guests like I started, but I want to bring high-quality guests that are going to help you get into alignment with your soul, your design, your purpose, and that destiny that's unique to you. You're built a certain way. And it's it's imperative to all of us that you get into alignment with who you came here to be. Thanks for joining us for this episode. We'll see you next week. If you enjoyed what you heard and you want to learn more, go to www.innerwealthglobal.com for more tools and resources.