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EP646: Alykhan Jetha (AJ) - How Pivoting Helped Grow A Multi-Million $$ SaaS Company
76 Plays2 days ago
“So that day I decided I'm going to start a company. Had I known how difficult it is... I mean, but then, that naivety is essential. You’ve got to just take the plunge and then you'll figure it out.”
Entrepreneurship is like running a marathon through a minefield, blindfolded, and our guest managed to cross the finish line with style. Born in the Congo, AJ’s family faced adversity straight out of a Hollywood drama. They fled the country, lost everything, and landed in Canada with nothing but their grit. Fast-forward, AJ built a multimillion-dollar SaaS company, all while proving that persistence isn’t just a virtue—it’s a business model. Along the way, he learned what’s truly important: adaptability, taking risks (even sweeping floors for free), and creating value by solving real-world problems. This is a story of rejection, reinvention, and relentless optimism.
Alykhan "AJ" Jetha is a software visionary and cofounder of Marketcircle, a leading SaaS company providing tools like ‘Daylite’ to empower small businesses with effortless customer, sales and project management. Born in the Congo and displaced as a child, AJ’s entrepreneurial path has been shaped by his unique experiences, relentless determination, and passion for enabling small businesses to thrive.
Learn more and connect:
Expert Action Steps
- Believe in yourself and address doubts holding you back.
- Imagine the future you want and set clear visions.
- Work hard and stay committed to achieving your goals.
Visit https://www.eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.
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Transcript
AJ's Early Beginnings in Tech
00:00:03
Speaker
I'll work for free if you give me equal time on one of these computers. And I was sweeping the floors. I was cleaning up. And then after a while, they were like, just do the coding because you what you're doing is good. No business can work without sales. I would lose track. you know Who do I have to follow up with? where was Where did I leave off last? Because some of these sales cycles are long. And so this this tool, Daylight, was born that way. It was born out out of our own need, basically help us run our business better.
Introduction to Alikon Jetta on 'The Thought Leader Revolution'
00:00:36
Speaker
Welcome to the Thought Leader Revolution with Nikki Ballou. Join the revolution. There's never been a better time in history to speak your truth, find your freedom, and make your fortune. Each week, we interview the world's top thought leaders and learn the secrets of how they built a six to seven figure practice. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.
00:01:04
Speaker
Welcome to another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. I'm your host, Nikki Ballou. And boy, do we have an exciting guest lined up for you today. Today's guest is a software guru, an impresario who has built a multimillion dollar subscription based SaaS software company. I am speaking, of course, of none other than the one, the only, the legendary,
00:01:32
Speaker
Alikon Jetta, also known as AJ. Welcome, AJ. Thank you for having me on. what ah What an intro. Thank you. God bless you, brother. So I'm really excited that you're here. I know we're going to dive into some really good stuff here. I know you've got an incredible personal story to tell. And let's start with that, man. How'd you get to be the great AJ? What's your backstory? My backstory. Where do I start from? my At my childhood?
00:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, let's start there.
AJ's Early Life and Challenges in Canada
00:02:03
Speaker
All right. so I was born in the Congo in the in the heart of darkness. We were expelled as a family from the Congo when I was five years old. Wow. We were expelled because of this color of our skin.
00:02:19
Speaker
Um, and I ended up here in Canada, uh, as a refugee. And when, uh, when we got here, uh, two weeks later, my father died from a heart of attack. Yeah. So we were in a new country. Um, and basically we kind of had to sort it out between, uh, my, myself, my mother and my two sisters, which really was my mother and my eldest sister. My, my middle sister was, um,
00:02:48
Speaker
11 or 12 at the time. So that's the environment we came in into Canada. And um ah we kind of clawed our way out of that situation. There are a number of people that kind of helped us out a little bit. We had you know nowhere to stay. We stayed with some people. ah Eventually, we we got our own place. um My eldest sister quit school so she could work full time. My my mother was working at Laura Secord packing boxes.
00:03:16
Speaker
um and Eventually, you know we we did end end up myself and my mother ended up going back to the Congo once they realized the silly mistake they made by expelling us. ah so She could start a business there and and help ah with raising us as as children. and so ah so That was a whole entire story in itself, like how she started her own business back home in a different city in Kinshasa, which is a capital city. and I grew up there for a number of years and I came back when I was 12 and and and then stayed in Canada. you know There's a whole lot to unpack from your story. You were five years old and you were forced to flee your country because of ah ethnic and sectarian strife. Basically, I didn't like the fact that you were brown in in Africa.
00:04:11
Speaker
ah and you know, so much for the myth that only white people can be racist, you know, because that's definitely not true. It's not true. Anybody has the capacity to be a saint and a sinner. That's that's for darn sure. And your father died within two weeks of you coming here. Yes. And, you know, I lost my father as a grown man and it was devastating to me. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like for you and your sisters and your mother.
00:04:43
Speaker
to To lose your father, to lose her husband. Must have been awful. Yeah, it's it's it's it was definitely difficult. For for me, um I had no male example.
00:04:57
Speaker
Right. That was that was one of the challenges. I I grew up with these strong women like my my mother, my two sisters, they had to be like tough, tough to to to go through the various things that they had to go through to raise us right to to survive. Yes. So um tough as nails, these ladies yeah me tell you. um But that's that's you know, you you kind of have to do what you have to do. And when you're put in a corner,
00:05:27
Speaker
you either you you you you slug it out you're gonna be gonna you know you're gonna punch your way through or you're gonna whimper in a corner and we're not whimpering in a corner. Yeah you know it's interesting you said that you were raised with no strong male examples and that's important for a young boy to have that. so Absolutely.
00:05:50
Speaker
What did you do in order to get some of that male influence into your life? Because as much as your mother and your sisters loved you, they don't know anything about how to be a man. They they can love you all they want. You still need to learn that somewhere. So how did you how did you tackle that problem for yourself?
Learning Leadership and the Role of Male Mentorship
00:06:08
Speaker
So that's a good question. I think um it's a combination of observation of reading biographies.
00:06:20
Speaker
Um, and, and by observation, not just in person, like looking at people, but also in movies, uh, some cases I would watch certain movies. So like there's even a book actually, you know, leadership lessons from movies or something like that, you know, really like, for example, one of them is, is general patent.
00:06:41
Speaker
Right. Like like that. There's there there's read a lot of books about him myself. I love that guy. Yeah. So so so so there's a in this book, there's a chapter on on Patton and there's a movie.
00:06:55
Speaker
have you to watch
00:07:00
Speaker
You know, I would kind of leverage that kind of stuff to kind of learn a little bit about leadership. It wasn't necessarily about being a man, but it was more about leadership at that. You know, that was what I thought I needed. Um, in, in retrospect, It was you that wasn't the only thing I needed, but but know, that's at the time that's one of the tools I used to I, to I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, overcome this this lack of, you know. You know, AJ, this is nothing to do with our conversation today, but because you brought it up, I'm going to I'm going to address it with you because I think it'll be of service to you.
00:07:42
Speaker
One of the things that has been missing in our world since, I would say, probably the 60s, certainly in in the West, in Canada, United States and Western countries, has been masculine spaces and male-only ah organizations. There's been fewer and fewer of those. and yeah One of the things I do is a bit of a labor of love is I actually run a men's organization. It's not a business group at all. So the people in there are not all entrepreneurs. There's some entrepreneurs, but there's also some guys who are definitely not entrepreneurs.
00:08:18
Speaker
but and um we get together a couple of times a month over Zoom, and then once once in a while we also do these in-person events, either like a social, we'll go ax throwing, or you know do do something cool like that, and it's an opportunity for men to be around men. And if a man's not used to that, if he's been a part of this world, which has, for better or worse, become mixed and and feminized somewhat,
00:08:49
Speaker
The first couple of times that he's around that that that kind of very direct masculine energy are jarring. But 99% of the men that go to that love it. Like they go, man, i I crave this because as much as I love the ladies in my life, there's just some times you just want to be that. You need that time. You need to be a guy. You know, and i actually one of my podcasts is about that. It's called The Sovereign Man Podcast. Our group's called The Sovereign Man Movement.
00:09:15
Speaker
and I'll talk to you offline. I want to invite you to come check it out. I think you'd love it. I really do. I think you'd... That'd be great. that'd be right i you know Speaking of that, I you know do have a a set of friends that I lean on for that. It's just the guys. right and sure ah you know But that would be great. i'll ah let's Let's talk after. Let's definitely talk after. i think I think it's good. And there's a um there's a lot of whole lot of groups right now that are out there about this. But years ago, ah in the late 70s, there was a man named Arthur Justin Sterling, or A. Justin Sterling, and he created something called the Men's Weekend.
00:09:55
Speaker
um And um he's been teaching it since the late 70s. And I mean, I think tens of thousands of men have gone through it. I did it. um It's an intense course, but it was a great course. You know what I mean? Like by I'm by intense. I mean, intense like you're going to you're going to confront.
00:10:15
Speaker
things about yourself that you didn't even know you needed to confront. right like oh It's a great course, and and and I recommend any man who's never done it or heard of it to to look into it. Some very high profile people have done the program, including some big ah names in in Hollywood and in business, but you know you're not supposed to tell their names, so I won't say it out loud because it's supposed to be a confidential space, but um it's good stuff. it's good stuff we We men need that. I think it's important. yeah and and And same thing for the ladies, they need their thing. and They do. other thing you know It's interesting, I was about to say the same thing, but the ladies are a lot better at doing that than we are. They actually have a lot of that already going on. They're good at forming these natural you know you know networks with each other. and
00:11:05
Speaker
ah I gotta say, I admire them for doing that. I wish men were better at that and understood the value of that more. But once men come into it, they're into it. Yeah, we tend to be loners, right?
00:11:18
Speaker
Anyway, it's coming back to you and your story. So, you know, you you you went to um you went back to the Congo for a period of time, then you came back to Canada to stay. So what prompted your mother to come back to Canada to stay? Why? Why remained? She remained. Oh, so what happened was my eldest sister um was getting married. Oh, my and my mother didn't want my middle sister to be on her own.
00:11:47
Speaker
m She sends 12-year-old AJ to help out on the situation there. um and so so so Effectively, from the age of 12 onwards, it's my my so my sister who raised me. Oh, wow.
Academic Struggles and Triumphs
00:12:05
Speaker
That's incredible. yeah so like I recently found documents that she became my legal guardian. and She was 18 and I was 12.
00:12:17
Speaker
Wow. that's That's wild. Yeah. that's why i didn't I didn't know about that. I i i thought, you know, I'm just going to live with my sister. But ah she had to take... ah She had to become my legal guardian in order to be able to put me in school and, you know... Make all those decisions, right? Slam me around when she needed to, etcetera. Slam me around when she needed to, love it. Yeah. so So AJ, walk me through the part of your story that had you go from being ah essentially a refugee to Canada and living with your sister because that that is that is an intense ah life period to becoming a successful entrepreneur. So what did that evolution look like?
00:13:06
Speaker
So there are a bunch of twists and turns on this path, and they're still twists and turns. But what what happened? So i'll kind of so let's say let's talk about the end of high school. So I was in high school. I didn't do well in high school. right i'm not I'm not an academic type. And so um I managed to get into York University.
00:13:33
Speaker
And guess what, I failed first year York University. Have you ever heard of anybody failing first year York? It's like a rare event. I have that distinction. um And so from there, I learned something about myself is that I need to be hands-on, right? I need to to do things. I can't be just like looking at lectures and and so forth. So I got into, at at Seneca ah College,
00:14:01
Speaker
And it was a co-op program and with with hardware ah electronics kind of stuff, right? So it was getting my hands dirty and that was great because I came out of there with honors. um Out of that, i you know, I earned some money because it was also co-op. I also learned what I did not like because in my co-op terms, I would go, you know, I worked at IBM and so forth and I learned, you know, big company and AJ, that's not working.
00:14:31
Speaker
right so um so that so that's That's a little bit important because I learned what ah what's not great for me. I didn't learn what was great for me, but I learned what's not great for me. so ah you know I took some jobs, some work. Actually, the first job that I I took or I got after graduating was was a catcab CAD CAM firm and I was like a techie, you know, one of those people who put stuff together.
00:15:05
Speaker
um and you know They went bankrupt. and so Now all of a sudden, I was um ah ah you know out of a job.
00:15:16
Speaker
right and um so I was like, okay, what am I going to do about this? so In the interim, what was I was trying to do was I was trying to get a job as a software developer, um but everywhere I would go,
00:15:32
Speaker
They were like, you don't have a degree in software engineering, or in computer engineering, or in mechanical, or something like that. that you know So I got rejected, I don't know, 30, 40 times. One company rejected me 10 times. the yeah This one company, so so I was interested in a specific set of technologies, right and I wanted to be in that space.
00:15:55
Speaker
and and um So there's a handful of companies that, you know, worked with those technologies. I don't know if anybody knows, but it was Next Computers, which was Steve Jobs' middle kind of, you know, he was at Apple.
00:16:11
Speaker
got booted out, started next, and then went back to Apple. And so during that period, i was you know that was the thing that interested me. There was a handful of companies that that did this stuff and I would you know apply, they would reject me, apply, they would reject me. ah The salespeople felt sorry for me because they were like, you know this guy is like you know persistent as hell and they won't give him a job. So they were always rooting for me. In any case, what happened was when I got laid off,
00:16:38
Speaker
one of those companies, I said, look, I'll work for free if you give me equal time on one of these computers. And and they were like, they took me up on the offer. So so when I say ill I'll work for free, I'll do anything that you need me to do for X number of hours. um And then you know you give me the same number of hours on on one of these computers, which I couldn't afford to buy. It was like $10,000 at the time.
00:17:03
Speaker
so So they took me up on it and I was sweeping the floors, I was cleaning up, I was doing all kinds of stuff that they needed me to do because they were running their business. um I did them and then you know four hours of the day I would and would code, I would learn how to code. and And then after a while they were like, forget the cleaning, and just do the coding because you what you're doing is good. And so that company then went bankrupt.
00:17:30
Speaker
Wow. So so this this was ah this was in the early, like like in the late 80s, right? Early 90s, that kind of timeframe. There was some economic difficulties there. Yeah, I remember it well. So here here's the persistence that comes in. So now I have some experience working on these computers. And one of the companies I wanted to work for, which made police software actually,
00:17:53
Speaker
um They, I went back to the same same sales guy, you know, they'll be doing presentations at various places. I would go there and I'd be like talking up to sales guys. and there And so now I have some experience, right? So the sales guy is really rooting for me, talks to the boss. He says, you know, you gotta give this kid a chance. They give me a chance. I go in there, but I'm the guy that helps ah the sales people put the systems together when they're doing demos.
00:18:24
Speaker
Because remember, back then, there was no Zoom. There was none none of that. There was no laptops, really. like These were big computers. And so when you had to do a demo to one of the one of these police forces, it's a setup. So that was my job.
00:18:38
Speaker
And I was working with a sales guy and, and um um you know, so that's how I got into being able to actually learn how to code properly. At school, I did electronics. I didn't do software, right?
00:18:56
Speaker
But i I wiggled my way, one you know you zigzag, and got to a place where you know now I'm like one step away from actually writing software.
Entrepreneurial Journey and Market Circle's Evolution
00:19:08
Speaker
So um one of the challenges that we faced, and and this is an important thing here, is that when we would go see customers, myself and and the sales persons, who's a senior, you know a senior guy, like knows this stuff, knows how to sell,
00:19:24
Speaker
we would, the customers always had some kind of technical challenge. There was some issue with the software or whatever. And, you know, we'll report back to the software engineers and they, you know, one thing they couldn't fix it or whatever. So, you know, to me, it's like, why does this, you know, this it's like, you know, it's how come they can't fix this? So I, I fixed it. I fixed those problems.
00:19:51
Speaker
and And so when I fixed those, I took the initiative, I fixed the problems, customers were happy. The boss is like really irritated at those other guys because those software problems prevented other sales from happening. Sure, makes sense. Now I fixed those problems. This kid who doesn't have a degree um ends up fixing the problems. Meanwhile, these engineers couldn't or didn't, or I don't know if they couldn't. um And one thing led to another and I was running engineering at that point, ah a little after that, at that one company. So that's how I got to learn how to do my trade. Then I worked at various other companies um and eventually I started doing consulting. um And as I was doing consulting, I was learning you know how to do a business. And then I started this company.
00:20:48
Speaker
and and And the way it started, so many people ask me sometimes, what made you decide to to start this company or a company? And it was ah it's it's a really silly answer, but it's an important one in the sense that um I just decided. like there was no like like It wasn't like you know I did some big you know business plan or whatever. I was watching TV one day And it was a TV show on eBay. And I'm like, how hard could this be? I could do something like this. Now remember, i've i've I've been writing software for a number of years. So so in my mind, it's like, I can do this, right? So that day I decided I'm going to start a company, right? Had I known how difficult it is, I mean, but then that naivete is is essential. You know, you've got to just take the plunge and then you'll figure it out.
00:21:46
Speaker
So that's how I started, you know, owning a business. It's a beautiful thing. It truly is. There's a lot to unpack from what you just shared. First off, I'm not surprised when you say that you didn't take to school because you see the school system as it's currently constituted was created in the 1800s in Prussia.
00:22:13
Speaker
Prussia was a militaristic Germanic state run by a man named Otto von Bismarck. And he's the one who unified all the German states and made Germany one nation. And the system is not designed to encourage independent thinking, a system designed to produce soldiers and workers who take orders and can be told what to do.
00:22:40
Speaker
So someone who is by nature an independent thinker or a creative, it's going to be difficult for them to take to that. i go um And all of the top entrepreneurs in the world of software seemed to have a similar story to you. I mean, I'm not a fan of Bill Gates for a variety of reasons, but he dropped out of Harvard. Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard. Steve Jobs dropped out of, I forget the college that he was in, yeah back in the day. yeah None of these fellas wanted to be um college graduates. They all wanted to be rich entrepreneurs. or They wanted to change the world.
00:23:29
Speaker
you know, something meaning to them meaningful. that I don't think like, for example, Steve Jobs or or some of them were thinking like, I'm going to be rich. It's more like, ah you know, this doesn't make sense, right? Like what I'm, what am I, I'm wasting my time here. I could be doing something way more interesting, which other people will want and pursue that. Right. And hundred percent people did want it.
00:23:53
Speaker
100% and let's not get ourselves. All these guys wanted to be successful and build world beating companies and they wanted to, you know, I'm not, I'm, I'm, I know Steve Jobs wasn't interested necessarily in having like, you know, palace is made of gold or private jets to take him here and there and everywhere, but he definitely wanted to be a success. He wanted to make his mark on the universe. You want to make a difference. Yeah. to make a difference yeah ah Make the difference you were born to make Steve. That's something Steve Jobs used to say. Yeah. and That is not your typical college graduate, right? No, not your typical college. You're right. And so when you say, OK, I didn't take to school, I wanted to get my hands dirty, as it were, and get into doing the work, that that makes that makes a lot of sense to me. So you started a company.
00:24:43
Speaker
ah After going through a journey of of working with a bunch of people, building your skill set, making yourself more valuable, making yourself more sought after. That's the whole world of thought leadership is be sought after, right? So you AJ started to be sought after by these companies.
00:25:01
Speaker
And then you went out there and became a consultant and then you started your own company. So what made you start your own software company? What was that ah genesis all about? So um the first, you know, ah let's talk about when I started consulting.
00:25:22
Speaker
and so I was working at a company called Visible Genetics and they made DNA sequencers and I made some ah software to help manage those DNA sequencers or the data that's coming out of those those sequencers and you know with lab people and so forth. and I left that company. I was it you know politely walked out. That's a whole different story.
00:25:47
Speaker
um Actually, that is it's an important story in the sense that I told the CEO of that company that what the work that I was doing was in a sense futile because I was i individually was competing against 50 people in other companies that we're competing against. right like it was not it was secondary The work I was doing was secondary to the actual sequencers and the actual analysis of that data. so so He was like appreciative of that, but then middle management didn't like the fact that I told the CEO,
00:26:24
Speaker
the fact that he's just wasting his energy on me um and they you know walked me out. um It was the right business thing. so In any case, after that, I started doing consulting and I consulted with this software stack that I learned right ah with the likes of GE and you know some some bigger companies where I came in, i I did the work that they needed me to do, um various other companies that I did some work for.
00:26:54
Speaker
And then after that, I started my um the the company that is today Market Circle. so So the consulting part was kind of a transition into you know working for somebody else to to this this you know the owning a software company. So you started the software company. What was your vision for Market Circle back in? So it was really um simple. Remember, I was telling you about I was watching eBay.
00:27:24
Speaker
right I was watching a documentary on eBay and in eBay it was auctions, right? So somebody would put something up and people could could bid on on those things and you know drive up the price, et cetera. And I was like, man, who in real business does auctions? You know you negotiate, right? Like you you know you have a service or you have something to sell, I'd be like, hey, Nicky, I'll give you X for this. And you'll be like, no, no, no, no.
00:27:49
Speaker
You know like you would negotiate, you go back and forth a little bit. and so I was like, okay, well, maybe why can't we do that? Why can't we make a website where ah you could put something up for sale and and and and you can ask a price and people can negotiate with you.
00:28:07
Speaker
right um and We built that site. Uh, that was the idea that was the Genesis that was like, like to me, it was like, man, auctions are dumb. Um, negotiation is actually where it's at. And I'm thinking, you know, business owners talking to business owners kind of thing. Uh, and so that's, and I just said, you know, how hard can that be? It was naive and stupid. Um, and, and so I, that was the Genesis that literally was the Genesis. I'm sitting, you know, watching this eBay thing and I'm like thinking.
00:28:40
Speaker
Damn it, like, you know, negotiations is where it's at. You know, I haven't seen, I haven't seen business people talking to each other auctioning, they'd negotiate. Yeah. ah And so that was the genesis of Market Circle. I wanted Market Square, but that domain was gone, ah obviously, right? But so Market Circle comes from that idea of a market where you can negotiate. I like it.
00:29:05
Speaker
I like it. that was That was the genesis of of of the you know going on my own kind of thing. um and you know There's a whole story now, and you know we are where we are today. but I pivoted many times to get to where we are today. It's not the same company that I started with.
00:29:32
Speaker
That's good that you pivoted because a lot of people don't pivot and they get left behind. Oh yeah. benics roasted ah their Companies just get, you know, left in the dustbin of history as it were. So what made you understand that you needed to pivot and talk to us about the latest set of pivots that you've made and what you're doing for people now? We we can go into a whole episode of how I built that that negotiation platform, I got to the top VCs in Silicon Valley, yeah and then the day I got there is when the internet, you know the dot-com bubble burst. Bubble burst, yeah. Right? It's not going forward. right so I reverted to consulting, and in that process, I needed a tool to help so i was doing you know i me. and
00:30:27
Speaker
three other folks, we, you know, I'd recruited a few other folks that helped me build this thing. And so the three of us were, or four of us were writing the soft, you know, software, whatever. And I went and sold our consulting services. But the problem was, is that I, you know, as I was, I was also writing code, right? And I was selling, I would lose track of like, where, you know, who do I have to follow up with? And And who, you know, where was, where did I leave off last? Cause some of these sales cycles are long, right? They're not, you know, it's not like, Hey, I talked to you today and I closed the deal today. It can take weeks. It can take months. Uh, cause these are, you know, bigger jobs, like a hundred thousand dollar job kind of thing or $50,000 job or whatever. And so, um,
00:31:21
Speaker
I was like, okay, well, how am I gonna keep track of this stuff? Now remember the whole next ah thing, right? And then Apple had kind of, um Steve Jobs went back to Apple and and so forth. So I was like, okay, well, you know, if I want to use like contact management software or sales management software um to help me track this stuff, I would have to switch to Windows.
00:31:49
Speaker
Right? To use something like after Goldmine or, I don't know if you remember these tools. Sure, I do. Absolutely. and so and so um But I said, how hard could it be to build my own? you know Again, my naivete came in. And so we built this application called Daylight, the one that is youno the the cream of the our company now.
00:32:13
Speaker
ah But as a technology demonstration, I wasn't thinking of it as a product. I was thinking of it as, hey, look, this is what we built and hire us um as as your consultants and we can help you build you know stuff around your business. Again, still targeting small business, not not you know large enterprises or anything like that. um And so this this tool, Daylight, ah ah was born that way. It was born out out of our own need yeah to to, you know, basically help us run our business better so that, you know, no business can work without sales or without following up or or what what have you, right? So that's the genesis of of what you saw. So that was the first pivot, right? So first ah dot.com to consulting.
00:33:03
Speaker
Right? Consulting to now having something that, you know, as ah a product, as a demonstration for consulting, eventually we made enough sales that we didn't need to do consulting. So then we we were a product only company.
00:33:19
Speaker
And then the next pivot was when the whole cloud thing started to happen, because at that time it was on-premise, local kind of software, license-based, right? And so we pivoted to the cloud where we still have the the the the native application and all that that, actually one of the things that makes us unique, but the backend is all you know cloud, right? So that's what we have today.
00:33:43
Speaker
So a number of pivots there, I kind of modeled it all together, but so it's not just one pivot, it's actually multiple. It's multiple pivots. Yeah. So why do entrepreneurs need to pivot sometimes? And how do you recognize when it's necessary to make a pivot? That's that's you know that's a really good question. um And how do you recognize when to pivot. I think you recognize these's there's a couple of components there. One is being aware enough of where the industry is kind of going, right? um And then being
00:34:25
Speaker
um detached enough from your own current business so that you can say, wait a minute, this is not going where the kind of places are going or where things seem to be going and where i'm ah this company is at, there's there's no path there. right So if I want to survive as an entity, I'm going to have to make some kind of a change. And so that's the genesis of the pivot. and then you know just not being so attached to to an an older idea so that you can kind of let go and go somewhere else while leveraging the assets you've built. Yeah, if if the world is changing and you're not changing along with it,
00:35:18
Speaker
um But the question really that you asked that's key here is how do you even tell? like you You have to be aware enough that the world is changing. You do. right or Or see a a little bit that, oh, it looks like it's changing. So you can keep an eye on it. um and then And then realize, OK, it's changing. I got to change. you know This is where I think having good good advisors um and ah and peers and mentors is important. Yeah, I agree.
00:35:50
Speaker
I agree. i agree hundred percent i i mean i i Steve Jobs is you know one of my favorite historical figures and entrepreneurs of all time. i've've I've read a lot about him, studied him his his life, his work. I read the biography written about him by Walter walter Isaacson, which is really good. and Steve had some informal peer groups.
00:36:13
Speaker
Like he was buddies with David Packard of, you know, Hewlett Packard back in the day. right Even though him and um Bill Gates, were mortal enemies at one point, business-wise, he still would talk to Bill Gates and ah and learn from him. And I think it's important for people in any industry to have peers in their own industry and peers outside their industry that they can either formally or informally partake in regular discussions with.
00:36:45
Speaker
Yeah. 100% agreed. You can't live in a bubble. um You can't you know just learn off of books. you You do have to have interactions with people. And that' that's where you know these these ideas germinate and exchange and and you kind of become aware of certain things. you It opens your eyes a little bit like a little red flag or a yellow flag comes up. right um That's when it happens is when you're having these discussions with with with people that are you know ah
00:37:23
Speaker
good in their field. I don't know if good in their field, but they want to make a difference in their field. so And if it happens to be the same field as you, you can kind of pick up some of those vibes and and and go from there. So I 100% agree with you. you know I actually met Steve Jobs three times. Oh, that's amazing. I wish I'd i wish i'd met him before he passed away. Yeah. yeah yeah i'd I'd like to meet Elon Musk right now and I'd like to interview him and I'd i'd actually like like to but like to do some work with him as one of my clients. is that right I think that he's got a huge opportunity with X ah that he's not taking advantage of.
00:38:07
Speaker
um So he's got a massive platform in X. right right And um he's the world's richest man and probably the most successful entrepreneur of our day, maybe of all time. And I think he can use X to create the world's largest entrepreneur mentoring program in history. And the way that he would do it is he would have a a special ah
00:38:39
Speaker
biweekly ah session, hour and a half, two hours on X spaces where he'd answer questions from regular entrepreneurs and they pay extra to be a part of that. And then he asked someone like me, and this is why i I'd like to partner with him, to help to interview him and get all the genius out of his mind in the form of like,
00:39:02
Speaker
video modules and then lesson plans for you know how to start your first business, how to take your idea ah and test it, how to take your idea and turn it into something big.
00:39:15
Speaker
um how to how to how to sell, how to market, how to create brand awareness. All these things that I gotta tell you, as an entrepreneur, the chance to learn from the greatest entrepreneur of our day is a lot more exciting than learning from just anybody, you know what I mean? um right And if you did this with X,
00:39:39
Speaker
Let's say it was a 50 or $100 a month subscription for him on how to grow your business. I got a feeling there'll be 10, 20, 50 million people will sign up for that. You think about that. That's a lot of money. And for X, a big part of their issue was a lot of their advertisers walked away in the past. Yeah. This means you never have to worry about your advertisers again. Ever. Ever.
00:40:06
Speaker
you know yeah so so i mean you know like like ah He now has another task of cleaning up the government. but um He's a guy who has a thousand tasks on his hand at any given time and he and he yeah manages half a dozen companies. This isn't your average regular guy. yeah no no it's it's ah It's an interesting idea um because I think you know many people need ah many people need to learn how to grow.
00:40:36
Speaker
You know, how to build a business. and Everybody does, brother. When they're starting out, nobody knows what the hell they're doing. You and I didn't know what we were doing. You're right. I'm just saying that the audience is large for for that. And he's got the brand. He's the richest man in the world and the greatest entrepreneur of our day.
00:40:55
Speaker
All he needs, because this is in his business, he doesn't know how to create these modules or whatnot, but it is mine. I know what to ask him. I'll come up with the topics. I'll go, okay, Elon, we're gonna do 20 interviews over the next year. They're gonna be an hour long each. I'll do the interviewing and we're gonna record them.
00:41:15
Speaker
And then I'll take the recordings. We'll put the recordings up. We'll have like a team, you yeah you know, put the the nice little screen graphics. And then we're going to take what you wrote. We're going to transcribe it and turn it into ah a workbook and a lesson plan. And that'll be available for everybody. So whoever signs up, as long as you're subscribed, you get access to this stuff, right? And boom.
00:41:38
Speaker
I think 50, 100 bucks a month. We're not talking thousands of dollars, right? Like, come on. For any entrepreneur who's who's under 100 million dollars, the chance to learn from Elon Musk for 50 to 100 dollars a month, I think it's a no brainer. I think you're just going to go, yeah, I'll sign up for a year. No problem. You know what I mean? So so how would you go about just, you know, getting that idea into his brain?
00:42:09
Speaker
Well, um, I'm talking about it on podcasts. Um, I, uh, I'm starting to get some contacts that, uh,
00:42:24
Speaker
that know him. So I'm goingnna i'm going to, or or even if they don't know him, they know someone who knows him. i'm I'm going to say to them, I'm going to go build relationships with those people. And I'm going to say, look, I've got this idea. I'd like to to get in front of Elon Musk. And um it's recorded. Here you go. Here's a link to the recording. Would you mind looking at it yourself?
00:42:45
Speaker
Tell me your thoughts. And then would you mind sharing this with Elon? And I'm also going to use my law of attraction process, which I talked to you about. It's very powerful. I got to tell you, since I use the law of attraction process, everything that I put into there and focused on has started to come to me. So that's what I'm going to do. And I believe it will happen.
00:43:06
Speaker
one one of my one of ah One of my colleagues, a guy I wrote a book with, you know he's got Donald Trump's here. He knows Trump. So what the hell? All I got to do is sit down and figure it out. What is that? Two degrees of separation? Two degrees of separation. Yeah. Right. So you're close. I'm getting close. Getting close. Getting close.
00:43:28
Speaker
so um The other question ah that I want to ask you is, let's talk about your customers.
Customer Success Stories with Daylight
00:43:36
Speaker
So out of them working with you, give me like a ah story or two, a success story or two of what they got as a result of using your software. So we have actually many of those stories. Give me two strong ones.
00:43:57
Speaker
so what so so Let me give you a little bit of a premise as to what we do. and that little bit so so What we do that's different. like We call ourselves a CRM because most people understand that term. Really, it's it's it's the tool. like Let's rewind back a little bit. Why did I even build the software? right I built the software because, and I so chose to stick with it, is because I'm a champion for small business. like like like think of Think of me. right I came from literally nothing right and I have a small business. And so I want others to be able to grow their own businesses. I also feel that
00:44:42
Speaker
Generally speaking, you know, economy wise, you know, humanity wise, small business is better than big business. I agree. small business Any big business always started as a small business. right so so My energies are are directed towards um um that space, you know the small business space, the individual the ambitious individual to companies about 100 in size type of thing. right so that That's a segment that that I'm thinking about and I'm really thinking about you know
00:45:15
Speaker
you know, that, that ramp where you start yourself or a couple of, couple of folks, and then, you know, you're, you're adding a third and a fourth and you're, you're building your business. It turns out that a lot of the people that I, that like our software are the ones that are in the professional services, creative services space, or people that have really long sales cycles. Like they're selling $10 million dollars generators, for example. Right. Um,
00:45:41
Speaker
But mostly, they're in the professional services space and and and creative ah services, right? So so but those those are things. And so now if you think about that, a whole bunch of those people, um they they have lots to do. they Not only do they have to sell, but then they have to then produce the work.
00:46:04
Speaker
ah and and in you know and and get to the point where they're making money from that. So in that process, they get super frazzled. right Think of it, I have to follow up with with Bob and I have to do this for Bill and I need to get this sorted out and I need to finish this. So there's a lot of these things that have to happen. um So this is where our software comes in. This is where where we kind of kind of automatically put these things together. And we end up building context, like like important customer context, automatically in in our Daylight app.
00:46:39
Speaker
And that, what that does is gives that entrepreneur that piece of mind, because there's a system that all this is in. I can focus on what I do. at There's not, I'm not chasing around information for, you know, uh, this customer or that customer, this prospect or that prospect. It's all automatically in there. Um, and that, that piece of mind then gives them the ability to, um,
00:47:06
Speaker
do what they love. Like they got into that small business not to do this admin kind of work. It's more like they, because of what they love to do, which is maybe a creative thing. It may be a legal thing. It may be, you know, um, big real estate stuff, et cetera. So, so that's the, so now our customers, they come to us and, and there's two kinds of stories we kind of hear. One is that, Oh my God,
00:47:35
Speaker
i have I can do more with the people I have and the stuff I have because I'm spending less time trying to just figure out what's the next thing or or you know where is this information and so forth. do We have a number of those stories. and Then the other stories that we have which is you know later in the life cycle of a customer is when you know customers have instructed them to do certain things or what have you and then maybe they didn't instruct you properly or you you know and they come back and they're blaming you for a particular kind of problem and Now they're pissed off and and and upset and you know threatening lawsuits, etc And so because of the way our our software kind of puts everything together um You can go back and and just show them like you look this is what you said.
00:48:28
Speaker
Right? And then I've had many customers tell me that, you know, this has prevented, you know, uh, this, uh, disagreements escalating into, so into lawsuits. Like within, within a day, they're like, you know, they have the customer complaints all furious. And then not even a day, like whenever they have time to respond, like, look, you sent me this two years ago. These were your instructions. I followed those instructions. Shut the hell up.
00:48:57
Speaker
Right? And so so those so so that's the kinds of stories we hear. we hear And this makes me you you know this this is what wakes me up in the morning, is that I'm able to help um those entrepreneurs, those new entrepreneurs kind of grow their business and then I'm able to help existing ones you know that have been using our software for a while ah retain their sanity, right? Because there's a lot of ah little things that that you always have to keep track of. And we've had many customers that have started with us, like they're two, three, four person company and and you know now they're like a hundred. So. That's amazing. Yeah. AJ, you have a profoundly um unique and interesting story to tell.
00:49:48
Speaker
um I think you're amazing. Thank you. I love so are you. Thank you. I love you and I love what you're all about. um If someone wants to um check out your offer, where do we send them?
00:50:04
Speaker
So you can send them to daylight dot.app, so D-A-Y-L-I-T-E, not L-I-G-H-E, L-I-T-E dot APP dot app, daylight dot.app. Daylight dot.app, all right. And we end off each episode by asking you, our guest expert, in bullet point form for your top three expert action steps. These are your three best pieces of life or business advice. So what say you? So number one,
00:50:33
Speaker
um, believe in yourself. And, and if you're, if you have doubts there, find ways to believe in yourself or, you know, ah correct the things that are preventing you from believing in yourself. Secondly, um, imagine the the future you want. So that's vision, dreaming, whatever you want to call it. And thirdly, don't be afraid to work hard, work Work your ass off. Yeah, I love it. These are three excellent expert action steps. Yeah, so that's kind of like my my like my thing I kind of share with people.
00:51:16
Speaker
I love it. So listen or go to daylight dot app. Check out what you'll end up on our market circle website or or the app website, and then you can see what we have to offer. And if it's if it's something you like, then, you know, we have a team of people that can help you implement it, get implemented quicker or you can do it yourself. But the team of people is typically we we have better success with that because there are, you know, there are things you have to kind of think about and learn about.
00:51:45
Speaker
100%. So go to daylight.app. And um if you got value from this, do me a favor and give us ah a like, a rating and a review, because that helps us. And AJ, please give us a like rating and review on the Thought Leader Revolution website yourself as well. ah Every single one helps. And um if there's someone in your life that you believe would benefit from this message, just share the episode. And we're gonna have Reels up for it as well, but share share the episode, share the Reels, and make sure that people that maybe their belief in themselves is wobbly right now, get to hear from AJ, because AJ's going to help restore that belief. And it just takes one little spark to turn ah into a roaring fire of belief.
00:52:39
Speaker
Absolutely. And then you're off into the races. Yeah. AJ, thanks for coming on the show, brother. God bless you. Thank you for having me on. Was it? It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. And that wraps up another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution, to find out more about today's amazing guest, the one and only Alikon Jetta, also known as AJ. Go to the show notes at the thought leader revolution dot com or wherever you happen to listen to the episode, be it iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Audible, YouTube, Rumble or what have you.
00:53:09
Speaker
Until next time, goodbye.
00:53:15
Speaker
This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.