Jordan Erskine Talks About His Entrepreneurial Journey of Building 8-Figure Businesses

Welcome to the Marketing Growth Podcast. I’m Shane Barker. I would love to welcome Jordan Erskine, an Inc 500 entrepreneur, and the co-founder of Dynamic Blending, once again, to talk about his entrepreneurial journey for our listeners who are joining us for the first time. Here’s a quick recap on previous episodes. Jordan discussed how to disrupt a traditional industry the right way and the importance of a solid value proposition. Today, let’s have him walk us through his journey of building two successful eight-figure businesses. So let’s talk about Jordan the entrepreneur here because rumor has it that you might have sold a few businesses last time I checked. It looks like maybe potentially two successful eight-figure businesses at the age of 37 so that’s…

I love it, yeah, you’ve got, you’re crazy. You’re like me—one of those crazy entrepreneurs. My wife, when we first got together, was like, “So how many businesses do you have?” I’ll do an interview, and they’ll say, “Oh, tell them, hey, this is what I do.” And then I’m like, “Oh, yeah, I forgot, I also teach at UCLA.” And they’re like, “You forgot that you teach at UCLA.” And I’m like, “Yeah, I do a lot of stuff.” And they’re like, “That’s something. You’re supposed to teach the youth of America.” And I’m like, “Yeah, sometimes I forget.” And they’re like, “How do you do that?” And obviously, I know being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. In the beginning, it was me working way too many hours and trying to manage too many different businesses—doing okay, but not crushing it by any means. But this is less about me and more about you. The idea that you’re a little bit of a crazy entrepreneur like me was one of the reasons we reached out for this interview because we appreciate that. But where did, when did you know that you wanted to be an entrepreneur? At what point were you saying, “Hey, I’m seeing what these guys are doing, and this is great, but I think I can do it better?”

Yeah, sometimes pulling off that band-aid can be hard. I have clients that I consult, obviously, but it’s funny when they start on their own. I’m like, “Listen, I’m not saying don’t be an entrepreneur; go do this on your own, but just know that having that cushy job, your medical insurance, and always being paid on time has its value—not saying don’t be an entrepreneur because I’m the crazy entrepreneur—but there’s some stability there. I have a client who’s a doctor, and he started his own company. He’s worked at a lot of local hospitals and does many speaking events. He jumped off on his own, and he said, “I didn’t realize how expensive it was,” because before, the hospital would pay for new software, a new laptop, or whatever. Now he’s looking at his burn rate—he just started it, and he’s at 10 grand a month for the stuff that everyone else was paying for. And that’s something to be careful about. We had to scale back a few things—not that he couldn’t afford it—but it’s like, how quickly do you have to sign a contract in the next month or two with that kind of burn rate, knowing that his wife wasn’t working and blah, blah, blah. So anyways, yeah, you definitely have to look at that. But I will also tell you, it’s also some of the most rewarding times as well. Because now, you’re doing crypto businesses, and there’s all kinds of opportunities coming your way because of the success you’ve had. And I have to tell you, in a short amount of time—2015 wasn’t too long ago—I love the fact that you’ve got the hustle and have worked so hard to get to where you are today. So what are some of the biggest challenges you faced becoming an entrepreneur? I mean, obviously, we start off financially. But what were some of the things that made you say, “Man, I didn’t see this coming,” or “this hit me in the face”?

Yeah, I wouldn’t—and that’s so funny—I wouldn’t even think about that, because obviously I work with a lot of SaaS companies. So, once again, you can be in 500 square feet and make it happen, right? But for you, you’re like, “Okay, now I’ve got equipment. I need to buy this—that’s 10 grand, this is 20 grand, this is 50 grand,” and that’s just to get off the ground. That’s not even fulfilling orders yet. Or if you do fulfill an order, you’re like, “Great, we just got a $50,000 order, but now I’ve got to buy $150,000 worth of machinery to make it happen.” That’s not the same. This is very different from, “Hey, I’ve got internet and a laptop and a microphone—or not even a microphone—and I can start something.”

I think that’s what people have to differentiate—it’s not cheap. You are bootstrapping, but every single dollar goes right back into the business. There are no salaries. I do love the scrappy effect, though—realizing, “Hey, if we build this thing out, there’s going to be money on the back end for you. Not a big salary now, but if you can help and use your knowledge, there’s your 3%, 5%, whatever that looks like, in the long run.”

And I think knowing you as a person helped, too. They could say, “Okay, I know Jordan’s a hustler. I know he’s going to go out and make this thing happen.” There’s a level of trust there. So why not give your expertise now, knowing that long term, there could be real upside? And it sounds like it paid off pretty well for a few folks who didn’t take salaries in the beginning, which is awesome.

So what is—what would you say is one quality that all successful entrepreneurs need to have? Like, I know everyone talks about perseverance and grit and the grind and all that good stuff. But is there one other quality you’ve seen that stands out? Something where you’re like, “This is the one thing I’ve noticed all successful founders seem to have”?

I think that’s a really important part, because I’ll tell you, that was a boat I missed early on in my career. I was pretty good at networking with people, talking and this and that, but I really didn’t leverage my network the way I should have. I was very stubborn and would say, “Oh, I’ll help people all day long.” If someone called me up and said, “Hey, Shane, I need five grand or something,” or “Hey, I want to talk to you about an idea,” I’d ignore dinner with my wife and my kid and have that conversation, saying, “Hey, I’m here to help you.” But then I never really leveraged my network the way I should have.

That was my biggest thing for my son. We put him in an expensive college—or high school—here in Sacramento. It was a Jesuit High School, and I say that for my wife; she was very Catholic. It wasn’t that I wanted him to be Catholic, it was the fact that I wanted him to have that networking—being around all the people in town who were making big money, who had all the businesses and the construction companies, and whose kids went to this high school. Honestly, my son’s high school is more expensive than his college. But for me, it was the networking. I really missed out on that. I don’t really keep in contact with tons of people from my high school—just some friends here and there—but there was no business owner saying, “Oh my gosh, your dad is crushing it.” They were all awesome people, but not making millions of dollars.

So I looked at that and said, “Okay, all these people in Sacramento that are making great money, that have been through 10, 15, 20 years of experience with their businesses—where do I want to send my son?” It was all about networking. I told them, “I’m not investing in whatever you want. Religion-wise, you can believe whatever you want. I don’t have a problem with that. You and your mom can talk that one out.” But for me, it’s networking. You need to get to know your people, add value to what they bring to the table. I love that man. I think it is tapping into that network and being more valuable to somebody than they can be to you—really put your heart out and help people, and they will come back tenfold. I think that’s an awesome recommendation. I wish I would have done it early on. I was too caught up in this “don’t worry, I’m an entrepreneur, I’ll figure it out” type of situation.

Now, like I’ve talked about earlier, I just hire people that are smarter than me, which is not that difficult these days. There’s a lot of smart people out there, and I’m really not that smart, so I just have to go find the people that are smarter. And I love that. Tapping into that network is invaluable.

Now I’ve got some questions for you too. I want you to talk about that book again in a minute because I always ask everybody what their favorite book is, but we’ll talk about that in a hot second. So here’s what we call the fun section: my question for you is, if you could travel to one place in the world for free, with no cost—well, I guess I’ll pay for it because I’m feeling very generous today—and it’s also COVID free, so you don’t have to wear a mask, where would that be?

Nice, and so, and if you’ve been out to, like, Ireland and Scotland, or no?

So it’s so funny—I’ve been to Switzerland and Germany, but I haven’t been to Ireland or Scotland. My wife has, and she’s like, “Oh my God, we gotta go out there.” So it’s on that top 10 list. And once again, I ask these questions a little bit for my audience, mainly for me—my top 10 list keeps changing, and now I’m ready to crush it. Now we’ve been courting, vaccinated, and all the other fun stuff. So if you could have any superpower, what would your superpower be?

There we go. I like that.

Yeah, make it happen. You definitely need that snowboarding and in Utah, because you guys have those right, like, you’re definitely like, why would I wear a helmet? I’m unbreaking it.

Oh yeah, no time for yourself. Well, you will one day because once you keep selling some businesses, I think you’ll be fine. You talked about a book a little earlier—Don’t Eat Alone, I think it was. So what are some of your favorite books or podcasts that you’ve listened to, that you’re currently listening to, or that have helped shape your career personality? Give us some good stuff.

I love it, yeah. I think speaking was the first time I jumped on stage. I was about three seconds before I came on stage, and I thought, “Why are you doing this? What is the goal of this?” Again, this sounded like a great idea. When I’m sitting in my chair negotiating an email, and then all of a sudden I’m going up on stage, I’m thinking, “This is not good. I’m going to be the first person to pass out or pee on myself on stage or something.” I’m happy to say I didn’t pee on myself and I didn’t pass out, and I feel like I did a pretty good job. They invited me back.

Man, speaking is not an easy thing to do. But I’m gonna check out that book. Man, I think that sounds good. I wish I had that book 20 years ago when I was bullheaded and could take this all on. Or maybe you can tap into your network and figure out what you need to do, but don’t eat alone. So we’ll include that book in the notes section of the podcast here. If you guys are listening, you can go to the website and take a look. Well, yep, Jordan, man, this was awesome, bud. Congratulations on your success.

Man, I know I had a business that I did; I don’t know how many years ago we went from nothing to 130 employees in two years, so I know the word grind. I know what you’re going through, and congratulations on your success, man. I’d love to hear more about the crypto stuff you’ve got going on. And you guys are building some good things out there. I love that you looked at an opportunity and said, “Hey, people are missing this small business, medium-sized, mid-market type situation because the minimums are so high,” and there’s all kinds of people that want to do it. And what you’re really doing is investing in the little guy, right? You’re going to put them in and say, “Hey, what can we do to help this little guy?” Because you can’t fight the big ones and say you don’t take on big clients, because obviously those are great too. So if you’re a big client listening and you want to switch over to these guys, go ahead.

But this has been awesome, Jordan. So if anybody wants to get in contact with you, how can they get in contact with you?

Thanks Jordan for joining us. It’s been a pleasure to have you on the marketing growth podcast. If you’re listening to the podcast and you like what you hear, make sure you subscribe. We are one of the top 33 business podcasts. We bring in marketers entrepreneurs every week to discuss what they do, so be sure to subscribe and stay tuned to the Marketing Growth Podcast.