Tyler Jorgenson 0:01
You’re listening to biz ninja entrepreneur radio. This show was created for entrepreneurs, business owners, marketers and dreamers who want to learn from the experts of today and drastically shortcut their own success to build a business that supports their dream lifestyle. Since 2011, Tyler Jorgensen has been interviewing business thought leaders from around the world, a serial entrepreneur himself. Tyler also shares his personal insights into what’s working in business today. Welcome to biz Ninja, entrepreneur radio.
All right, welcome out to business entrepreneur radio. I am your host, Tyler Jorgensen. And today, coming to us from the nation’s capital is Dr. Willy jolly. Dr. Jolly has written books and he’s a speaker. He’s helped major companies like Ford and we’re going to talk about overcoming challenges and turning setbacks into comebacks and all kinds of really cool stuff. Welcome out to the show, Willie.
Dr. Willie Jolley 1:06
Well, Tyler, thank you so much. I have just a minute 60 seconds and it forced upon me can’t refuse it didn’t seek it. didn’t choose it. But it’s up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it give account if I abuse it, just a tiny little minute. But I turned it either wrapped up in it. And I’m thankful for this minute, this moment, this opportunity to be on with you and to share ideas with your listeners.
Tyler Jorgenson 1:33
Awesome. Thank you for that. Now was that freestyler? Is that how you usually start your public speaking gigs?
Dr. Willie Jolley 1:39
That’s how I start every thing I do every speech by Sirius XM show every week, every interview, that’s a piece called God’s minute. And it was written by Dr. Benjamin Mays, who was Martin Luther King Jr, his mentor at Morehouse College. It is a piece that I heard when I first started speaking 30 years ago. I was so taken by it that I became a student of Dr. Mayes. Even though he was dead, I read everything he had, I listened to every thing I could find. He was such a great film philosopher, educator, thinker, that that minute became something I would start off and it became synonymous with Dr. Willy jolly. So people will come up to me and say, do the minute I want to hit that minute. And so that’s something that I have been doing for 30 years.
Tyler Jorgenson 2:35
Awesome. Well, I like it. It’s a great way to start. So yeah, well, we’ll get into it a little bit here beyond the first minute. Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur?
Dr. Willie Jolley 2:45
I do. I am an entrepreneur. I’m a second generation entrepreneur. So I think that has some impactful concepts that I want to make sure people know about. My mom was a school teacher. Dad was an entrepreneur. He was a journalist who had his own company. So every morning my dad would get up maybe six o’clock, put on a freshly starched white shirt. Go to the basement of our home in Washington. And you’d hear when we got up and ready for school, you hear this Underwood typewriter going to Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi being like, I can’t think about my mom would cook breakfast between 730 and eight. And at eight o’clock, she said, I’m off to school. My brother and I would eat breakfast at 830 and then my father would come upstairs at 830 and say, Okay, guys, time to go to school. So we would drive our car to the local elementary school. And as we did we heard the other parents say to their children, okay, Sally, remember what you’re supposed to do today? Yes, ma’am. Go to school. Yes. Get a good education. Yes, so I can get a good job. Right. And then you hear another parents say okay, bye Bobby, what are you supposed to do today? Go to school? Yes. Get a good education. Yes. So I can get a good job, right? And then my father would say to my brother and I Okay, guys, what are you supposed to do today? Go to school? Yes. Get an incredible education. Yes. So we can create some good jobs. We want to be job makers, not job takers. And so that was drilled into our mind every morning. So when my brother and I grew up, we both became entrepreneurs. And so I have been an entrepreneur, building different businesses. I had a recording company. I had a and I’m by that I mean a recording studio business, that I had a record company business that I had with my brother and I had a jingle company. We did a lot of the big jingles. You’ve heard over the years. We’ve had a number of businesses and now we have by speaking business, a public Wishing business jolly publishing, a media business jolly media and a music business. JM music jolly music. So, yeah, we’ve got a lot of things going on and we are. We are entrepreneurs second generation. So yes, I am
Tyler Jorgenson 5:16
raised by an entrepreneur to be a creator. I think that’s really fantastic. You know so you’ve been doing a lot of things you’re you do a ton of public speaking you’re known as in some circles as one of the top five most entertaining public speakers, which is pretty cool. Yeah, but you’ve also done you do consulting and you’ve helped businesses come back from the brink of bankruptcy. If you had to put into a an elevator pitch what it is that Willie jolly does give me Dr. Dolly’s elevator pitch.
Dr. Willie Jolley 5:43
Yeah, I’m big on elevator pitches. I was on a elevator one day at the National Press Club. I got on the phone the lobby level and get on the elevator and who was on the elevator. But Doctor, but Bishop Desmond Tutu. I was stunned because he was there had his body guides and I was only one day and I said Bishop tutu. My name is Willie jolly. I am the president of Willy jolly world where why we do inspiration, entertainment, education, motivation, with a mindset to help people turn this setbacks and to incredible comebacks and help them to win more and their everyday pursuits. I sure would like to stay connected, I handed in my car, he said, I love that. You let me say whether you help inspiration, entertainment, education, and motivation that correct? Yes, sir. And he said and then you help people do more, be more and achieve more and help them to win more. Is that correct? I said, Yes, sir. It turns setbacks in the comeback. Yes, sir. He said, I got it. I got it. Thank you. A few months later, I got a call from South Africa and I went to South Africa and I spoke all over the continent because I gave an elevator pitch That work. So I always encourage people to work on the elevator pitch, you’ve got about 30 seconds, or maybe a minute, to be able to tell somebody what you do, and why it would be a benefit to them. That’s the big thing. Tyler is not just what you do. It’s what is the benefit to them? How can you help their people, their employees, their stakeholders, to have greater success? So yes, that’s what I do. I wrote the book a setback setup for a comeback. And it is built on the fact that it’s one of those businesses I had was, before I became a speaker was I had a recording company, as I told you, and I was a jazz singer. I mean, I did jingles during the day. But I sang in nightclubs at night where I made the majority of my income, but we had a very popular nightclub act. And I won the award for Best jazz singer, best entertainer, best performer in the Washington DC area. Things are going great people would line up at seven o’clock or eight o’clock. Talk Show, nine o’clock or 10 o’clock show. It was a small club, but it was packing them in. But one night I went in the club owner said, we want to talk after the night show. I told the guys in the band they want to talk. We’ve been selling out for six months, we get standing room only audiences we bought to get our raised. I walked in his office that night. And he said, we love you guys. Y’all are awesome. We made a lot of money, which is hot. Why it’s hard for me to tell you that we’ve decided to make a change. We love you guys, but we need to get a better return on investment. And only way to do that with a full nightclub is the lower the cost. The band’s the biggest cost. We’re going to try something new. So what Yeah, they said we’re gonna be bought a karaoke machine. We’re gonna try that for a month. I said, but what about my bills? And I learned that night nobody really, really cares about your bills, but you and the people you Oh, am I right about it? That’s right. And I went home and told my wife I got to do something else. I thought of working with the washington dc public school system while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do As a temporary drug prevention coordinator, and helping them to put together this program to use students to be drug prevention, peer counselors, and as part of my job, I had to give little speeches. And that’s what I found what I was born to do speak. So I mixed the entertainment, plus the motivation, inspiration education, and created this program. And let me tell you, it’s been incredible. And so I wrote the book, I set back as a setup for a comeback. That became a global bestseller. And that was how Ford Motor Company, when they want to break a bankruptcy, knew to reach out to me or one of their executives had read the book and said this guy who could help us come back, they were losing a million dollars a month. They said this guy, they looked me up, they contacted me and said, We want you to come help us to come back. We need to come back. So I work with Ford in 2006 2007 2008 and in 2009, for was the only one of the Big Three automakers to be able to reject a government bailout and go from losing a million dollars a month to making a billion dollars. Now Tyler, did the economy go up between 2006 and 2009, though? What changed? thinking, when you change your thinking, you change your future. And that’s what I do for a living. I help people change their thinking, through my books to my podcast, and my radio shows, through my PBS specials through my television, through all my resources, change the thinking so they can turn a setback into a comeback, and they can win more.
Tyler Jorgenson 10:37
So what are some of the things that people need to do from a practical standpoint to change their thinking, right? So in order to change your thinking, you have to start with the premise that your current thought processes is wrong, juvenile or neat could somehow be improved, right. So well, what needs to be changed?
Dr. Willie Jolley 10:54
Yeah, well, you know, I would like to say is maybe not wrong, and juvenile kind of gets in the right direction. Albert Einstein said that the thinking that brought you thus far, will not be able to take you to the next level. Right? So you must grow your thinking. So, you know, Scripture says when I was a child, I thought like a child, I acted like a child. But when I became an adult, I had to put away childish things. And I had to grow. Another scripture I really love is, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. When you change your thinking. You change your actions, then you change your results. You change your thinking, change your actions, change your results, you change your destiny, and that’s what I want to help people to do. So I think it’s critically important that we help people grow their thinking, and that’s what I do.
Tyler Jorgenson 11:47
Okay, so what are some common limiting beliefs that you come across with people that they need to grow out of?
Dr. Willie Jolley 11:54
Yeah, yeah. And let me tell you this. I’ve been doing a webinar and that webinar events, I’ve been doing a webinar Announced I speak now, I was booked. my calendar is over here on my right, Tyler. And it’s a big wall calendar and it takes up the whole wall and before March of this year, every date was just about booked all over the world. People bringing me whether it’s Coca Cola, South Africa, Johnson and Johnson, Dubai, Walmart Verizon, Prudential Chase Manhattan Bank, I was booked for Fortune 100 as well as a lot of conferences. And some some years ago I replaced Zig Ziglar and to get motivated tour so I was doing two cities a week with that on top everything else so I was busy. But on March 9, everything shut down. Everything cancel. So what I want to say to people in many people who won’t be listening to this are still dealing with the crisis we call Coronavirus, the pandemic and I want to give you a couple real quick thoughts that I sharing in the help people through this because before I could tell them to be an entrepreneur, we got to get through this. Number one, do not panic. Panic is taken from the Greek word to choke. When you panic, you choke off the air to your brain, you cannot think clearly cannot make wise decisions 1929 there was a stock market crash, people panic, some jumped off of bridges, not realizing that the market will come back bigger and better than ever. The lesson is, this too shall pass. If you’re willing to think your way through this, you will be able to not just survive it, but to actually thrive in it. There are companies that went through adversity that grew the thinking, Disney started, and the depression over thought in the recession high it started in a lean time. Some of the greatest companies we know thought it in tough times, but they thought their way through it and one, so that’s first Do not panic. Got to think your way through. Number two. Don’t let your pride pull In your prosperity, this is a big one for entrepreneurs. Because let’s say you are. I’ll give you an example. My daughter’s a entrepreneur. She has a salon in North Carolina, while doing the tough economic times of the pandemic, it got shut down. But what do you do? Then she had to write these down, folks. You got to lift, shift and pivot. Let me say it again. You got to lift, shift and pivot. So I had taught her that she knowing that she couldn’t make money doing hair and nails and, and salon stuff. She went to the grocery store, she can cook. So she’s a wonderful cook. She went to the grocery store, bought a lot of food, started cooking meals, took a picture of the finished meal, put it on Facebook said I’ve got meals for those who don’t want to cook. They started saying I want one I want one on one on Facebook. She said now pay me on on my phone through an app that she got paid through an app and then she said I’m Send the food to your beat over and just wait for the Uber person to budget. That’s how she started pivoting to make money. Don’t let your pride poison your prosperity you might have to drive over during these tough times. You might have to do something outside of your normal way of staying afloat. Do it. He’s tough time started. But whatever you do, as long as it’s legal, and moral, then it’s a good thing. So, okay, no, do not panic, lift, shift, pivot to the positive. Don’t let your pride poison your prosperity. I’m gonna give you one more be pro active. I had on a couple years ago to do an event in Sydney, Australia. We were keynote speakers to keynote speaker myself and a guy named Dr. Steven Covey. He wrote a book called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And backstage I said Dr. Covey. Which of those seven habits are the most powerful, he said the two that I would recommend you keep in mind the all of them are powerful, but these are the two Well, number one, think Win win. How can you help other people win? So Tyler, when you asked me to come and do your show, I was on it to do it because one day I asked you to do something, it creates a win win relationship. Number two, after you win win is be pro active. I had never heard that word before for Dr. Covey. In that book. What does that mean? That means don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it. Get busy. during these tough times, call your clients, check on them. I want you to think of three things I’ve been telling realtors, business people, here are the three things during tough times I want you to serve seed. So you can sell later, serve them now. Every client when I call and they got wiped out, my team and I we went to work not calling saying can you book me we called every client over the last 20 years every one over the last 20 years and just said how you doing How’s your family? You’re healthy. Is everything okay? That’s all we call it. And then we serve, see how they do then we see if there’s anything I can do to be a help. Let me know if there’s anything and I’d say I’ma send you an article, or I’ma send you a little piece. I’ll send you a song and I record I recorded a song called we’ll get through this you can see that it went with Willie calm. I’m gonna send you just saw. All I want you to do is listen, it will encourage you, it will inspire you. And just as so many of them said I listen to it every day. I listen to it every day. And then I said then we’re going to put out one minute motivational messages. We’re starting doing the pandemic, every morning on i G and on my, my newsletter, you want to be on that sign up for my newsletter, you get it absolutely free, one minute, that’s all it takes for you to get it. And we are overwhelmed by the response globally. And all we did was server, then C and then later on, we’ll sell them and many I’m going to call it now. Things are starting to open up. Hey, I haven’t forgotten what you did. Would you speak for me? I’ll pay you your feet. So boom. So I’m encouraging people to be proactive and be creative and go to work. Okay? This is the time that we can’t be sitting but while waiting for stuff to happen, you got to make stuff happen.
Tyler Jorgenson 18:18
I totally agree. I’m a big believer in being proactive. I’d love the seeking to win win, serve seed sell later. I love that because especially in there are some industries that are growing right now but many many are taking it back. And even if we take out the current situation with with Coronavirus, people are always going to hit challenges. And so you’re gonna everyone’s gonna have their own micro pandemics in their own lives. And they still go through those same steps, right? Don’t panic. Right? Yep. they
Dr. Willie Jolley 18:46
bury the work. That’s right, absolutely work. Whether it’s a corporate setback or an individual concept back Let me tell you one more thing. I don’t know how old you are. You pretty young guy, but I’ve been able to live to 911 the economic downturn of 2008. And I remember back in the 60s, okay, I was a little bored. But so I’ve seen the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, and 90s. Here’s what I learned. every decade, there’s going to be a crisis that’s coming. So if we get to pandemic this, by the time people hear this because they go from radio to podcast, this might be we might Oh, man, that’s all one. But let me tell you folks, listen carefully. You better prepare for the crisis before it comes. It’s another one coming every decade you get one. So prepare for and then there’s all saying, you either got a problem, you just left a problem, or you were on your way to a problem. That’s life. So get ready. Everybody has one.
Tyler Jorgenson 19:45
You know, there’s a there’s a school of thought that as we grow, right, we’re just simply moving from wrong to less wrong. We’re constantly just trying to get a little bit closer to like right and get a little bit closer and that, you know, it’s one angle and one perspective on growth. But I do Sometimes trials and problems are the same way we were always leaving one, our goal should be always be moving away towards one. But we usually are just elevating to a new type of problem or to a new obstacle. And if we, I think it’s dangerous to have the mindset of like, I’m done, right? Because there’s always going to be another problem coming. And so but if you have that mindset of not panicking and thinking your way through, looking at setbacks and challenges as an opportunity for growth, you can face them with a little bit better energy. Absolutely.
Dr. Willie Jolley 20:29
You’re absolutely right. I’ve heard people say, Well, I arrived or the struggle is over. And I laugh at him. I say, Okay, today, I had a guy who bought my book, set back set up, we’ll come back, well known clothes designer, and I had him on my Sirius XM show and I encourage people by the way to tune into my show, it’s on channel 141. And then my podcast Willy jolly, wealthy waves podcasts. And this guy said some I asked him in the interview, tell me Have you ever had a setback and his response was which thing Okay, he says one every day, I got a new new challenge every day. But it’s through the challenges that we grow. It is through the challenges that we become who we are, so that we can succeed on the long term. Think about if you didn’t get past first grade, you never get to sixth grade. And you didn’t get past the challenges sixth grade, you’d never get to the 12th grade. So it’s every level is a new challenge. That’s what grows us to be able to succeed.
Tyler Jorgenson 21:28
Absolutely. I think there’s that old analogy that life is like trying to go up a down escalator. Right. So yeah, you got to be constantly progressing or you’re going to be regressing. There’s really it’s really impossible to stand stationary. Absolutely. Yeah, I think, you know, this is interesting. It’s come up a few times on recent shows, you know, with Nietzsche once said, What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. And it’s been popularized in pop pop music and stuff these days. But the concept is that our challenges are what allow us to grow and actually it’s the only way we grow is through going through those So I think that perspective of seeing challenges, as much as they’re hard, has an opportunity to improve and get better. I know that it absolutely helps me face them with a little bit better spirit, at least.
Dr. Willie Jolley 22:11
Absolutely. And so I’m just honored that we are able to share with folks that this too shall pass, we will get through this, whatever you’re going through, everybody has setbacks, but I can tell you for sure that a setback is nothing but a setup for combat for those who are willing to work on not just going to them, but growing to them. Absolutely.
Tyler Jorgenson 22:38
So what were some of the mindset changes that a company like Ford motors had to do? You know, sometimes, individuals, we can go through, hey, you need to go through these five steps, right? How do you apply those same principles into a large organization?
Dr. Willie Jolley 22:52
Yeah, that’s a great question. I wrote a book called an attitude of excellence. The attitude of excellence book, The principles I learned from the folks at Ford. And going through that process. And this book is just it’s for business. It says how the best organizations get the best performance from the best people. And the principles are number one, developing leaders at every level of the organization, that you must develop leaders at every level from the people answering the phones, to the managers, mid managers to the top, everybody should be a leader of one. Number two, you must see change and teach change. The change is not a enemy. It’s an ally. So you got to see change from a new perspective. Number three, you must create a teamwork makes the dream work culture where everybody is working toward a common goal. Number four, you must amaze the customer. With Wow, customer service. The customers should walk away saying wow, that was the best whatever If they did I’ve ever experienced because then they will become your marketing team. And they are unpaid, but they your marketing team. And number five is develop a winner’s attitude. A wellness attitude is an attitude where you develop a mindset that says, I don’t know how I’m going to win through this challenge. But somehow, someway, I’m gonna win. That’s what winners do. They learn how to win. And that’s a mindset. That’s a state of mind. That’s a position of mine. So those are the things I learned from Ford. And they did it two ways. They first thought it internally and then they work externally. So they first thought it working on their people, and then they work on their brand and customers outside internal first, build your internal Make sure your house is strong, and then working on getting your message out to more people.
Tyler Jorgenson 24:57
Okay, I love it. So I’m gonna big believer that business in life should be hand in hand and that building a business that you love also should allow you to live a lifestyle that you love. What is one major item on Dr. Willie jollies personal bucket list that you’re going to accomplish in the next 12 months.
Dr. Willie Jolley 25:15
By this time next year, you will be seeing and hearing about jolly media as a major player, Netflix, Disney Plus, you will be seeing our productions and places that are beyond what was traditional. Maybe PBS was predicted traditional or terrestrial radio was traditional. We’re going to take jolly media, inspiration and motivational entertainment to the marketplace in a massive way. Music videos, movies, we’re going to do jolly media in a mass way. That’s our biggest goal. I saw how Disney I studied Disney. How a guy started with a mouth called Steamboat Willie. That was converted from Steamboat Willie To Mickey Mouse, a series of cartoons to build an empire, why not me? Why not others to build empires out a little small stock? no scripture I’m big on scripture scripture said do not curse the day of small beginnings. So I’ve started I’ve known syndicated radio now 48 markets I’m on Sirius XM now, the national or global wherever you get access to the signal, and then I’ve got these i g one minute messages on Facebook, and on YouTube and on Instagram. But that’s just the start. That’s the small beginnings. You’ll be seeing more and more Dr. Willy jolly. And you’ll be saying wow, where did this guy come from? When he overnight success? Yeah, it only took me 30 years. Sure.
Tyler Jorgenson 26:47
Well, that’s awesome. We’ll be keeping an eye out for that for sure. encourage you guys to please go check out when with Willie calm there. You can learn more about his book, and you can watch some of his motivational videos and subscribe. Do his newsletter please go check out when with Willie calm, Dr. Jolly really appreciate you coming on the show and all my businesses out there wherever you’re listening. It’s your turn to go out and do something.
Beau Crabill 27:11
Thank you for tuning in to biz ninja entrepreneur radio. What you didn’t hear was one more very important question that Tyler asks each guest if you want to be a fly on the wall when the real secrets are shared, go to biz ninja.com slash VIP and get your access today. Remember to subscribe so that you don’t miss any future episodes. And our one last favor. If this episode was meaningful to you, please share this podcast with a fellow entrepreneur so they can grow along with us is ninjas. It’s your turn to go out and do something
