This is Mustafaa, your digital marketing specialist, founder of Digital Marketing with Mustafaa. Tonight’s guest has been advertised as Coach Jordan, but if you’re from Pensacola, you may know him as Preech. Coach Jordan Nichols, also known as Preech the God Body, is an entrepreneur, media founder, author, and public speaker born in Pensacola, Florida. His journey began with early entrepreneurship and expanded into entertainment and media in 2011 with his blog, What’s the News, laying the foundation for a career centered around storytelling, business, and community impact. In 2013, he founded Entrepreneurs of Color magazine, which expanded into networking events and the Let’s Talk Business podcast. He is also the author of the Amazon number one bestseller 100 Tools and Resources to Boost Your Brand.

The following is presented as it happened in our conversation.

Who Is Coach Jordan

Coach Jordan: I’m Coach Jordan. I still go by Preech. As a coach, I am first a business coach because I’ve been doing that a lot longer. And I most recently became a fitness coach within the last year or so. I’m a certified personal trainer, certified sports nutrition coach, and a youth exercise specialist. I feel like I specialize in building ecosystems and communities that introduce people to knowledge, information, and opportunities. So I’ve done quite a few things, but they all have a common thread, and that’s to create an ecosystem or create a bridge between one thing to another. Whether that be creating a bridge between a coach or consultant and a potential client, or creating a bridge between an entrepreneur and the information and resources they may need to be successful. I take pride in building connections, linking things together, introducing people to people, introducing people to information and opportunities. The most successful way I’ve done that is as editor and chief of Entrepreneurs of Color magazine, which I started as a blog on Tumblr in 2013, and since then it developed into a full fledged publication available in both digital and physical.

The Origin Story

Mustafaa: Every successful brand has an origin story. Where did yours begin, and what was the first moment you realized entrepreneurship might be your path?

Coach Jordan: That goes way back to my childhood. My dad is an entrepreneur, has been for some 40 or 50 years, longer than I’ve been alive. I’m 35, so he’s got more work experience working for himself than I have years on this earth. I came up basically being raised by an entrepreneur, and I was working with my dad as early as middle school, 12, 13 years old. One of my earliest memories, I might have been four or five years old, my dad was pouring a concrete slab, adding on to the house. I didn’t understand what they were doing, but subconsciously I remember saying to myself, I want to do that, I want to work hard, I want to be like my dad.

By the time I got to middle school I was old enough to work with him, and my first entrepreneurial endeavor was in the seventh grade at Wedgewood Middle School in Pensacola. I was selling DVDs and CDs. Me and another guy had a business partner at 12 years old, and our idea was to purchase used electronics and resell them, sort of like a pawn shop. But I found more success pirating music for people. People would come to me with a list of songs and artists they wanted on a CD, and I’d charge about five dollars, get a stack of blank CDs from Walmart, download the music, and sell customized mix CDs.

I got serious about entrepreneurship as I was graduating high school. I was trying to write a business plan at 17, 18 years old, from a draft I downloaded online for a restaurant. But when I really knew it was for me, honestly, was after I got out of high school. I had actually got kicked out of college because I missed too many days from being locked up in the county jail. I had a hard time finding work, I didn’t pass the background check, and it was rough, it was depressing, it was stressful, there was a lot of anxiety involved. And I was like, since they don’t want to give me a job, I’m gonna give myself a job. Granted, I still work a day job to this day, but at the end of the day I feel like I would never be unemployed. I might be underemployed, I might be self employed, whatever, but I’ll never be unemployed, because I will employ myself if I have to. That mentality was further strengthened when I started to see success with Entrepreneurs of Color magazine.

Never Accept Unemployment

Mustafaa: I always believe you got to have something in your back pocket, even if you work a day job, a skill you can lean into. I ask myself and other people, if this job told you don’t come back tomorrow, do you have enough skill and know how to make a buck tomorrow, to transition into something that can make sure you and your family are all right?

Coach Jordan: No, you’re definitely right about that, and a lot of times it’s unexpected. We were taught to look for security in work, which could very well be, but it’s not guaranteed. You got federal workers that go without income. I’ve seen people online express how they’ve been laid off from positions they probably never thought would happen. That’s why I say I would never be unemployed. That’s a mentality we as adults should adopt. Never accept unemployment. If you got to employ yourself, do that. Unemployment means you have no skills, that’s the way I take that.

There’s not one job on this earth that can’t be contracted. I don’t care what you do. If you’re a janitor, your janitorial services can be contracted. If you provide customer service, that can definitely be contracted. Is it easy to get those contracts? No. But can it be done? Yes, if presented well. There’s a lady, she’s a nurse, teaching nurses how to contract their nursing services instead of looking to get hired by hospitals. It’s definitely a thing, but they don’t want us to think like that.

How Pensacola Shaped Him

Mustafaa: How has growing up in Pensacola influenced your entrepreneurship, if any?

Coach Jordan: For me, I’ll be straight up honest with you, brother. We grow up in a predominantly white society. I felt like it was harder for me because I had the arrest record and didn’t have as much work experience. But even for people who have clean records and valuable skills, there are environments where they’re not going to be accepted. Unfortunately, that’s just what it is. So that was another thing that contributed to me wanting to be an entrepreneur, because in my mind there are certain people who will stereotype me just from looking at me. Whether they know about my history or not, they’re likely to have some preconceived notion about what type of person I am. And so that made me say, you know what, I don’t even want to be accepted no more. Y’all don’t have to accept me, I accept myself.

What Branding Actually Is

Mustafaa: What is one thing people think branding is, but is absolutely isn’t?

Coach Jordan: I think branding overall is a term that most people don’t understand unless it’s explained to them. A lot of times branding is mixed up with marketing, but branding is not marketing. Marketing is a way to establish a brand. What branding actually is, to me, is basically creating or establishing, portraying, a personality for your entity. When you think about a brand, there’s a certain personality or set of values tied to that brand. Even Walmart, you think of savings, cheaper prices, affordable products. When you think about Fendi or Prada or Gucci, you think about luxury. Every brand has a certain personality or set of characteristics tied to it, and that’s how they communicate to their target audience.

So that is what branding is. You’re establishing what are your brand’s values, what are your brand’s principles. If your brand was an actual person, what would they stand for, what would they represent, what type of personality would they have. That’s your brand.

A lot of the mission statement is what helps people understand the brand. If people understand your mission, they understand your vision, they have a good idea of what your brand represents. When your brand is introduced or exposed to people who share those same values and principles, that’s where the connection comes. And the companies that brand themselves the best are the ones who have clear messages that clearly communicate to the people they’re looking to reach, and know how to reach them, what mediums and media outlets these people consume.

Threads Among Successful Entrepreneurs

Mustafaa: After interviewing so many entrepreneurs through Entrepreneurs of Color magazine, are there any particular threads or habits that almost all successful entrepreneurs seem to share?

Coach Jordan: I would say creating systems and scaling your business to go from one phase to the next phase. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs and business owners think in phases. Just like as a personal trainer, I’m not going to have you do phase three or four workouts when I know you’re at phase one or two. As a business, you’re not going to try to operate like a phase four or five company knowing you’re more a phase one or two. But the most successful entrepreneurs know how to implement strategies and plans to go from a one or two to a three, four, or five.

When I first started, most of us don’t think about systems, we’re thinking about sales. But sales are optimized through systems. As you mature as an entrepreneur, you learn to not think so much in terms of transactions or sales, you learn to think in terms of transformation, creating that system that’s going to create that cash flow. I think at first we’re hustle and bustle, get it, make a sale, do what we got to do, make some money. But then you get to a point in your entrepreneurial journey where you say, I need to create a system to where this brand doesn’t rely so much on me.

I’d say the biggest lesson I got in interviewing people is understanding that as a CEO or head of the company, it’s not your job to do everything, it’s not your job to be everybody. Your job is to focus on the bottom line.

Mustafaa: Sam Walton, the visionary leader behind Walmart, passed away in April 1992, but Walmart hasn’t missed a beat since, because they had a system in place, people to take the helm. Often I see us as entrepreneurs, our business is just set up for our lifetime, instead of having a system in place where if I die next week, will my business continue going on?

Coach Jordan: That’s exactly where I’m at right now. I’m at that point where I’m thinking, how can I establish my business, my infrastructure, to a point where I don’t have to be so involved. If I were to leave this earth right now, will things still be able to run smoothly. In order to do that you have to have your SOPs, your standard operating procedures, your company bylaws, your job descriptions, your written programs. I’ve been doing a lot of documenting. I have my Google Drive set up for my company and I’m creating new documents all the time, spreadsheets, word documents. A person can come in and I don’t have to say too much, they can go through the paperwork. That’s the biggest thing, I’ve been putting together my governance document. That’s something we as entrepreneurs, especially Black entrepreneurs, don’t too much get around to or think too much about.

What Never Changes About Building an Audience

Mustafaa: You’ve been creating content long before it became trendy. What is one thing that has never changed about creating an audience, even though platforms keep changing?

Coach Jordan: The first thing that comes to mind is clear messaging. You got to be able to portray your brand in a way where people understand your values, your principles, what you stand for, what’s your mission, what’s your vision. No matter what platform you’re using, at the end of the day you have to have a clear message, otherwise it won’t land. That’s one thing we as entrepreneurs and business owners tend to fall short on, because we’re always in our head, how we see things. But when you’re marketing to an audience, you have to think about how your audience thinks. What are people going to see when they see your flyer, what are they going to think when they read your message.

From Content Creator to CEO

Mustafaa: At what point did you stop thinking like just a creator and start thinking like, man, I’m a CEO?

Coach Jordan: If I’m being completely honest and transparent, it would be this year. Up until now I’ve just been doing things here and there, dabbling. This year was my return to entrepreneurship. For the last four years I’ve mostly just been working, I haven’t really been in the public eye, I just kind of went ghost. I had reached a point where I needed to take some time to myself, clear my mind, get myself together and figure things out. When I decided this year that I was going to relaunch Entrepreneurs of Color magazine after four years of inactivity, I decided I was going to go about it differently, that I was going to be more on top of making sure I had infrastructure. So when I jumped back into entrepreneurship, I spent more time writing and documenting and brainstorming than I did trying to make a sale.

Mustafaa: I was part of a business accelerator about three years ago, and it shifted my mind. They asked me how much money I would like to make in a year for my business, and I said if I made six figures I’d be happy, and they said, that’s it? As an individual that’s a lot of money, but as a business, that’s nothing.

Coach Jordan: Exactly, that’s good for a salary. But a reputable business with systems in place, bringing people on board, you got to have a million dollars, because you got to live off some of that money yourself, and pay taxes.

Where AI Helps, and Where to Use Discretion

Mustafaa: Where do you think entrepreneurs should embrace AI, and where should they be careful not to rely on it?

Coach Jordan: I would say entrepreneurs should embrace it more so when it comes to brainstorming and looking for areas of improvement, looking for different opportunities to capitalize on. AI has access to millions of sites, information, it’s a huge information hub. If you’re looking to turn scattered thoughts into organized thoughts, AI is great for that. If you have an idea and you’re in the ideation stage, AI is great for that.

Where AI falls short is discretion. AI doesn’t necessarily have discretion like we have. The only thing AI can do for the most part is compile information. And the way it deciphers which way to go is based on statistics, and statistics a lot of times can be subjective. So when it comes to your messaging and marketing, or really important sensitive decisions, especially decisions involving other people, you want to be very discretionary about that. I’ve used AI to determine how to go about working with other people and business partners, and in some responses I’m like, yeah, I don’t think I want to go that route with it. A lot of times it’s because it doesn’t have enough information about that person or about you. It can only give you an answer based on the information it has.

AI in Action: Automating a Website Refresh

Mustafaa: One thing AI has been really good for me lately, especially the past few weeks, is with co-work, ChatGPT’s version of working on complex tasks in the background while you’re doing something else. I have a blog on WordPress, and I had an idea, I wanted to change out the signature on 107 blog posts, the messaging at the bottom and a link. I thought, that’s over a hundred blog posts I got to change out manually, that’s gonna be very tedious. So I told ChatGPT the scenario, you’re already linked to my WordPress, can you go in there and just switch out the old signature and put in the new one and this link. It asked me a few questions to make sure it understood, and it went to work. I was up there watching Fast and Furious 7, and it would check in with me, okay I did 30 blog posts, you want me to continue, and it did that in the background in less than an hour.

Then just this last weekend, my website had been three years old, it needed new paint, new messaging, and I didn’t have the time or the money to pay somebody. So I asked ChatGPT to update the website, and it rebuilt my whole website from the ground up, and I was still in control. It would ask, hey I did the homepage, you want to go look at it, and I’d say I don’t really like that. We went page by page, and in a few hours on a Saturday my whole website had been updated, and it looks better than what I would have done myself.

Coach Jordan: That’s crazy, I didn’t know it could do that. I’ve used it to build an app, that’s how I built Co-op, the app I recently created, I use ChatGPT co-work to go about coding. But I didn’t know it was doing those kinds of agentic tasks, I didn’t know you could connect it to your WordPress like that.

Mustafaa: So many entrepreneurs are solo, one person operations, and that’s one thing I see AI doing, taking some of that work off the table.

Coach Jordan: Just to be completely transparent, bouncing off what I said earlier about deciding this year to get back into entrepreneurship and take it seriously again, a lot of that had to do with AI and how efficiently I could get things done. AI has helped me turn scattered thoughts into actual programs. I’ve implemented a sales process in my company, a program that started with a thought to just have salespeople, but then turned into me creating not only a program for people to make commissions, but also an ambassador program. I combined the two, so now it’s one program with two pathways, the salesperson route or the ambassador route. That didn’t come out of thin air, that was me bouncing ideas off the answer engine. That’s how I’ve taken the time to come up with the mission statement, the vision statement, the founder story, different job descriptions. Now I have job descriptions for positions I might not fill for another five or six years, but when that time comes I have the paperwork for it.

I put together a marketing intern program, and a program I call the CDP program, community development partner. As a community development partner you could be a salesperson or an ambassador. As a marketing intern, you could be marketing intern one, two, or three, based on a 90 day program, and you graduate levels every 30 days.

Mustafaa: I think the biggest thing with AI is learning when to control and when to relinquish control, and that’s one thing a lot of people don’t implement, and that’s why people have such a problem with AI, because most people are allowing AI to have too much control.

The What If Round

Mustafaa: If by chance social media disappeared tomorrow, what would still allow someone to make their brand valuable?

Coach Jordan: Publicity, public relations, media outlets, newspapers, radio stations, blogs, podcasts. Social media is free, but it’s also limited. You can’t really get publicity like that on social media. You got to be willing to hire a publicist, pay for public relations services, connect and create relationships with podcast hosts, radio hosts, newspaper publishers. That’s the old school way of doing it, that’s the way people were doing it before social media.

Mustafaa: If someone has only six months to build their personal brand from scratch, and you and I were coaching them together, what’s the very first assignment you’d give them?

Coach Jordan: I would challenge them to come up with a mission and vision statement. I’ve done some youth entrepreneurship classes, and that’s how I start the class, getting the youth entrepreneurs to think about how they’re going to present their business to other people. What is your message, what do you stand for, what are your values. If you can’t answer that question, then you got some thinking and some planning to do.

Mustafaa: If you could go back and give your 20 year old self one piece of advice about entrepreneurship and building a brand, what would it be?

Coach Jordan: To stop trying to do everything and wear every hat, and even if you have to do that, plan to not always have to do that. My mind goes back to systems. I wish I would have thought as heavily about implementing systems at 20 as I do at 35.

Where to Find Coach Jordan

You can find Coach Jordan Nichols, also known as Preech, at EOCMediaGroup.com for his parent company, Entrepreneurs of Color Media Group, and at eocmagazine.biz for Entrepreneurs of Color magazine. His book, 100 Tools and Resources to Boost Your Brand, is available on Amazon. He also recently created an app called Co-op. The easiest way to find everything he has going on is to search Coach Jordan Nichols or Preech the God Body.

This post is based on a conversation from my show, Digital Marketing With Mustafaa. Catch new interviews most Wednesdays at 5:30. You can find my podcast, YouTube channel, blog, and everything else at digitalmarketingwithmustafaa.com.