An Entrepreneur's Guide

podcasts Mar 23, 2021

Podcast hosted by Dana Williams with special guest Joseph Bojang.

Welcome to Dominate Your Day!

We are so excited to share the first-ever episode of the Dominate Your Day Podcast! This podcast is for any professional or business owner who wants to live intentionally and dominate their day. Dana Williams and her guests will bring you practical advice about how to create a productive life through tools and experiences from guests who have designed the life they love.

At Dana Williams Consulting, we teach you everything you need to know about how to live intentionally and Dominate your Day based on your unique talents.  We have also created some great tools like The Strengths Journal™, a daily companion guide to the CliftonStrengths assessment.

 

Episode 1 ft. Joseph Bojang

Take time to think of what you might consider a problem in your life... Consistently putting time into creating a plan and a strategy to either resolve it or to make it less, I think is something everyone can do, no matter your situation.

Joseph Bojang, 17:20

Joseph Bojang, Digital Marketer and founder of Web Champs, was our guest on the first episode of Dominate Your Day. Joseph shared with us his journey with CliftonStrengths, his experience as an entrepreneur, and how he dominates his day, each day. Joseph's top 5 CliftonStrengths are

  1. Significance
  2. Input
  3. Analytical
  4. Responsibility
  5. Command

Below is a full transcript of the conversation, including timestamps. To subscribe to Dominate Your Day on Apple Podcasts, click here.

When I sat down with The Strengths Journal, it really did change the direction of where I wanted to go.

Joseph Bojang, 14:00

We're hurt in relationships and we're healed in relationships. And it's the same thing with our CliftonStrengths- they get better in relationships.

Joseph Bojang, 28:32

Podcast Transcript

Narrator: [00:00:00] Welcome to the first episode of Dominate Your Day, where Dana Williams shares real life conversations with leaders, coaches, and visionaries from all facets of life. She talks about all that goes into leading a life with intention and dominating your day today. She speaks with Joseph Bojang about entrepreneurship, family, life, Clifton Strengths and his company, Web Champs.

[00:00:25] Dana Williams: I am so excited Joseph, to finally have you on my show and recording and sharing your story. We got to meet, I think I heard you on a training this summer, and I just kept saying, this guy's really cool. I need to meet him and talk with him. And we've had some great conversations about strengths and just about being an entrepreneur and growing our businesses.

So tell everybody what you do and kind of  your background, how you got started. 

[00:00:53] Joseph Bojang: Yeah. So I guess I could have two introductions, one that I have in here that's more personal for my journal, but yeah, but then I also just have what I do. So I'm a marketer, and I help businesses grow using paid advertising, creating marketing funnels. I started out working with a lot of businesses that were primarily in retail or brick and mortar businesses, software companies. And then over the years, I moved into helping what we would consider now influencers. So a lot of public speakers, authors, and people that are known as public figures and helping them actually just continue to grow and increase their reach on social media and other platforms. 

[00:01:36] Dana Williams: And I know you have this fun background, like you like to dance, and you were a sound guy, and all these other fun things. How did you find this path for yourself? As we talk about designing a life, you love how did you find this path? 

[00:01:50] Joseph Bojang: Well, I don't know if I found it. I think I've become very interested in things, and I want to understand how they work.  From a very young age, I was around people who are great athletes, and I would say I was a good athlete, but I had friends that went on to play professional sports.

So I think I learned at a very young age that if I want it to run as fast as them jump as high as them, I would have to spend way more time, and there was some sense of, this is just not normal for me to have to put in this much work, to do something I really don't love. But what did people always say about me?

And a lot of people would always say "Oh, you're going to be a lawyer when you grow up" or "Don't talk to him about that. He'll talk your head off" you know, so I always enjoyed learning about things going deeper, you know, taking it apart, trying to understand it. And so I have tons of interests, tons of hobbies and dancing is just something I love.

I love to move my body. I love to get out there and have fun. I just don't like to be tackled. Or push down while doing it. So I think it, it was more just a natural thing based off of my surroundings, knowing that people were good at certain things. And I started to discover, I was interested in learning, interested in seeing how things work.

[00:03:05]Dana Williams: Love when you tell that story, because I heard all of your strengths and I know we've been working together talking about your strengths, so it was so cool hearing them. But why don't you tell the audience? You can tell me your top five or top 10 strengths, just so as we talk through us, they kind of see where you're coming from.

[00:03:21] Joseph Bojang: Yeah, so I'll actually start. So my first one is significant, and  I'll give a depth background story on this one and I'll run through the other ones really fast. . Significance was when I first thought of it, I always thought it was this thing to where I really didn't understand it, to be honest, I didn't really understand it.

But when I opened up my first, it wasn't the 34, it was a different Clifton Strengths finder or a different results. I can't remember . My top five, and when I went through that, I didn't like the definition. The definition was something to the effect that you do everything for other people to like you.

And I was like, I don't like that at all. I don't know if I even liked the StrengthsFinder thing. So I got on YouTube, and I started going through videos and I don't remember their names, but they had like this YouTube show. I know that you were on it, and they were talking about the word Significance, how it was almost going to be called desire at one point and how they update definitions.

And they had like 10 different videos talking about the word and because of how I am, I want to understand things. I actually started to understand it more than just the short definition. And I was like, that is me. And then I started to learn more about  the other ones, but so Significance is number one.

And I would probably say I have that in a large portion. The next nine are Input, Analytical, Responsibility, Command, Communication, Relater, Competition, Activator, and Intellectual. So those are the ones that I have. 

[00:04:54] Dana Williams: Well, and it's funny because just playing back in my head, what you said right before you mentioned them, you talked about how your friends said that, "Oh, you're going to be an attorney because you're going to go deep."

And then how you like to research things. You know, that Intellection is probably where they're picking that up, and then the Input is how you like to research things. And then as you went through saying how you like to talk, well, there's your communication. I always tell everybody, you know, that has communication, you know, I've talked about this too, it's so much better to talk rather than write everything down. You get more energy, right?  Leading teams or leading others. 

If I have somebody with communication, I'll make sure we're just talking about things. Instead of saying, "send me an email," you know, "write down all the things" because that's wearing on people with high communication. And I loved your Significance, and I love that you didn't just listen to one description that you went deeper with your Input and your Intellection to kind of figure out. Gallup has some amazing videos on YouTube, which you probably look through some of those, where people would talk about what that means to them.

And for those in the audience that don't know significance was one of Dr. Clifton's top strengths, and he really didn't see it in himself either until he talked about that he wanted. I think the story goes that he wanted to reach, you know, like a million people, and of course now has 25 million people that have taken their Strengths, and it's just making a difference in the world.

You kind of just start seeing them come out. So how long ago did you do your Strengthsfinder Assessment and how long have you kind of been working with it? 

[00:06:32] Joseph Bojang: Well, I was going to say to that one thing that's interesting. When I was reading the word Relater, I actually stopped at it because I think I completely forgot that was in my top 10.

That's like one I just skip over. So I'll need to, only to look into that  more. But I think it was early 2020  or late 2019.  

[00:06:52] Dana Williams: Was there anything that was surprising to you when you first got your strengths? 

[00:06:57] Joseph Bojang: The definition of the word Significance. That was probably because I grew up with the perception that I didn't care what other people thought about me. That I'm doing things based on my own internal reasons. 

Significance, when you just read it, seems the opposite of that. It seems that you're doing things for your audience. And I think there's a part of that, but that was probably, that was the thing that actually hooked me. And cause I've always done these types of tests. I was big in you know, understanding my Enneagram, doing Hogan Assessments as well.

All these types of assessments, my DISC Assessment. So I've always liked this, but this was the first time I saw something and thought, "Hmm, I don't know about that." And that's probably what took me deeper into doing these like understanding my Clifton strengths was from that being surprised by the definition of significance.   

[00:07:52] Dana Williams: I love that. And you also mentioned something that I've had happen to me too, is I forget to dig in some of those six through 10.  It wasn't until I was developing the journal, and using that as a daily planner to apply my strengths that I started pulling them up. I have Responsibility in my number seven.

So it was like, man, I need that right now to help me get through starting my business or, you know, there's different things. So it's, I was kinda like you, I was like, I need to get back into that one and figure out what that is and how I can use that. So tell me, you bought the journal, you've been using the journal, tell me what you've learned. I think that you had some ahas when we first started talking about it. 

[00:08:30] Joseph Bojang: Well, I will say I've been fighting the urge to not go to the back right now and look at the definition for Relater, because I haven't looked at it. So I will say that was a really cool thing is just a really quick guide of when you're going through it, trying to remember everything.

And I hadn't even heard you talk about what you bring, what you need.  I heard you say it and, you know, we're talking, so I didn't catch it all. But then when you actually go through the journal, you look in the back, you see that it gives a quick definition, but then it's saying, this is what you bring.

So it's a quick way to be like, okay, if I'm somewhere, if I'm doing something, I can either increase this, decrease this, but I can be aware of it, but there's also the part that you need. And that's been very helpful for me and I'm fighting the urge to go look at what you might see me do it, do your next question. 

[00:09:17] Dana Williams: Go ahead. And that's what they are there for.

[00:09:20]Joseph Bojang: I want to look. 

[00:09:21] Dana Williams: Because you know, this was designed by me, who was a busy leader and busy, and I didn't have time to go find a file or go look. So everything was designed that it's right at your fingertips, especially those main bringing needs and what you need, especially when you're having a challenge to get something done and trying to figure out, can you do it, or can you partner up with somebody to get it done?

[00:09:46] Joseph Bojang: And I think I said, Relator. And just for people listening, it's what you bring is social depth and transparency. What you need is time and opportunities for one-on-one interactions. And so yeah, that's funny because I do feel that that's pretty significant to me. Even since COVID, and I know a lot of people have kind of been isolated or away from other folks, but I've been doing a lot more Zoom meetings, a lot more networking, a lot more connecting with other people this way, just to kind of connect, see what they're doing, how they're working on their business.

So it's interesting that I really hadn't noticed that.  

[00:10:22] Dana Williams: Yeah. So what other ones? I know one of the ones we talked about was your Intellection. And given you're a busy dad,  you can run a business, you've got small children at home. How do you find that time to think? That was something we talked about early on, was you finding some time to think every day?

[00:10:41] Joseph Bojang: Yeah, I think it's an easy answer now. I just plan it. I think for anyone else, I have a Google calendar. Google's free, Microsoft calendars, and I just put time in for myself. Even with my kids, my kids are about to be six, about to be eight. So they're at the point where in the mornings, if I wanted to, I could wake up and do more things, but I just put it in the middle of my day.

My business is at a point now where I can focus on my business. I've also, even though you're aware of, but for other folks, I've had Dana actually do the Strengths 34 results with me and one of my marketing assistants. So even he is doing other things that I used to do to give myself more time to actually think about where I want to go and what I want to do.

And that's part of the reason why I think I've seen an increase in the type of output I'm doing this year. When I got your journal, it was sometime in December, and I think it was like a Saturday actually. So I waited until Saturday night, I opened it up, and I thought this was really cool. So if you're watching, if you're listening to the podcast, go find it on YouTube or somewhere, but this is actually what made me go,

"Oh, she went over and above and created this." Because I saw this little card, I saw that you had written on it, and I thought, "okay, let me actually like, look through this." This isn't just a normal  journal. But you had put a lot of thought even into how you, you know, did all the design here. So then I started looking through it and I started reading it.

I went and got my 34 results, my top 10 and I started writing it in there. And then, I'm really big about writing notes in my phone because then that way I can always have them, so I just started writing my mission and just doing like the assignments or the activities. 

[00:12:31] Dana Williams: Yeah. It's just before you plan. I'll just kind of have everybody kind of start with, what is your mission? What are you here for? And most of us don't take time to think about that. We're just doing life or stop and have that time. It sounds like you spent some time on it. 

[00:12:47] Joseph Bojang: Well, yeah, it kind of, it took me by surprise because it was the thought that I saw that you had put into it.

So I said, you know, let me just go ahead and read everything. Let me actually go through it. And when I did, it was the perfect time because it was December and a lot of people at that point are thinking about the next year. I usually start my next year's goals in September. Like I'm already starting to plan.

But I felt last year that the previous few years, I had reached my goals and they were mostly like financial, or they were to reach a certain milestone, and paying off debt, or doing some type of thing like that. And this year it was like, well, you know, what is my goal? Like what do I want to do?

And I wasn't clear, even though I had started making plans in September. So when I sat down with this, it really did change the direction of where I want it to go, because my mission statement was really about the folks that I can help and there comes that Significance. And how do I want to help them?

And what do I want to convey into the world? So my business, which has primarily been marketing, meaning that someone comes, they hire me. I take care of certain aspects of their marketing. My business has started to shift to actually, I am creating much more course content, more programs, more coaching.

To actually help more people with the things that I've learned and doing the exercises in here started to push me towards it, to where now I've been very consistent in doing it and I've started to see the results from it. So it's been really neat. 

[00:14:15] Dana Williams: That's great. And after you did your mission and core values, have you seen those at play too? Kind of before you got your goals set up, were you able to spend some time on that?

[00:14:25] Joseph Bojang: Yeah. So I actually have them on my wall here, so I have a big board. Well, I want to get some stuff done. And I can't get it done if I don't see it,  if I'm not putting it in front of me. So that's what I did. I wrote, I wrote some things down in the journal, like the activities, but I have everything here on the board.

So even when I post something, when I write something, when I'm communicating, I actually filter it through what I'm trying to put out into the world. So yeah, I wrote everything down. I keep it mostly in my phone or on my whiteboard. 

[00:15:02] Dana Williams: I love that. Did you notice, and this is something that's been a big aha,for me, as I developed, this was working with core values and strengths together, they kind of match up? And they become the door to your strengths because your core values are with you all the time.

So, I don't know if there's a certain core value that you recognize when you did that exercise that popped out or that came out when you were thinking about it.I bet we could find a strength that matches up with that.

[00:15:33] Joseph Bojang: I will say too, for people who are listening, one thing that you said to me was talent x investment = strength.  I think even when I think of Strength now I'm thinking of, okay, there's something that I can do. And I'm putting time into making it a Strength. And feel free to correct me if I'm saying it slightly differently than what you said.

So when I think of that, a large part of my initial work, I think that you had directed me to do was to develop, you know, that one through 10. And you used the phrase "balcony and basement." So I think with a lot of what I want to do, of course, I'm going to say I could probably list a few. But I'll actually choose number 10, which is Intellectual.

I love thinking. I love taking time to think. And when I look at my board here, for one of the values I have is problem solving and I love solutions. I could probably do this part all day because I sit and think about it.

But just the idea of taking time to think of what you might consider to be a problem in your life,but consistently putting time into creating a plan and a strategy to either resolve it or to make it less, I think is something everyone can do, no matter your situation. And even taking that time to consider it can start reducing it. And I started, I'm saying this a lot to my kids. Like they were, they went to bed and they were saying they were cold and it was a big deal last night.

] And I'm sitting there thinking when I was growing up, I lived in section eight housing. I remember at times where we were on food stamps and just like the things that I didn't have and what was the problem to me and their situation is like, I couldn't even imagine the situation they have now. But when you stop and think about it, and you have time to actually like, let some of these things breathe it's easy to get to the point to where it's like, I'm okay.

Now I can actually start focusing on it on how to develop some solutions to what I'm going through. And they were fine. They just cuddled together, and they were fine. But part of that is the thing that I'm trying to teach them is you're cold. Let's put on some clothes. "Well, I don't want to put on clothes.

I just want a bigger blanket. Can you buy me?" And you know, like the things that kids do. And I think we do them as adults. I don't think it stops just because we're adults. I think we still have those types of patterns. And so one of the strengths of taking time, thinking about it, and then the value of let's try to bring some solutions forward. Let's try to marry these two together. 

[00:18:21] Dana Williams: I love that. And I love that this is a whole dimension. We haven't spent much time on it, or I hadn't until I worked on the Journal, was really getting deep in these core values. And I think it's going through a pandemic or going through something really rough in our lives.

And I saw this in a corporate culture way with Southwest airlines. How, when we stay with our core values as a company, that's your culture. When you stay with the core values as a person and your personal branding, that's your character. And so who influenced your life? Who are those leaders young in your life?

It sounded like you had a lot of challenges as you were growing up, but you got through them, but there must've been some people in your life that were lighting the way and lighting the campfires as you hit the journey of life and who are those people? 

[00:19:15] Joseph Bojang: And yeah, I'd absolutely, it's the easiest one is my mom.

Like that is absolutely the easiest one when it comes to having a conviction and standing by your convictions. Whether you're right or wrong. And so that, that cuts both ways. So absolutely that in seeing how when she believed in something, it was a deep belief, and there's value in that because you can depend on people that have these beliefs and will stand by them.

And I would, I would say my dad from a social standpoint, my dad's from Africa, and I would say I'm an introvert, but I'm a learned extrovert. And primarily, because when we would go to, you know, a birthday party or a wedding and times it would be, you know, an African wedding and you walk in, you greet everyone, you say, hello, you have conversations.

And when you leave, it's over, you say bye to everyone, and then you leave. There's none of this you just get up and you walk out. So my dad is a social butterfly, and I think he  sees people and he never sees someone that he can't have a conversation with like, he can speak with anyone, he's happy.

He's just, he's the life of the party guy. So I would definitely say them in regard to just building me as a little person as I was growing. And then I would actually say one guy in fifth grade. He was a friend's dad, and he paid for me to play football and that just changed the direction of my life.

Not because I played football, but because I got into different environments, and he was more of a mentor for a few years of just life.  So I have a few friends, as I get older, but those would probably be the few that when I was younger set me on a path to see how to just operate and live in a way that was good towards other people as well.

[00:21:10] Dana Williams: I love that. I in one of the other podcasts interviewed my 84 year old mother who's in college and asked her about her role models. And then my daughter did the same thing. And it's interesting how different people have come at different times. But what I loved about your story was how you talked about getting yourself in the proximity of people that you couldn't have been in that got you to that next level.

And I think as an entrepreneur, I'm always fascinated by how people build their businesses and get where they are. I think you've established yourself as a strong voice in digital marketing and someone, a trusted advisor. So how did you get there? What was that path like? 

[00:21:49] Joseph Bojang: I think you said something very well and it kind of flipped a connection for me. I would say the values and how to live from my parents, prepared me so that when I got in other situations, I was prepared. And by prepared, meaning able to network, able to say please and thank you, able to be a certain version of myself, even though I was young, that I think has helped me, even as I've started to grow my business, to go deeper into my strengths.

I think an important part of that is the more I am myself, the more that I actually am attractive to people like me, that want to be like me that can see them, their story in myself. And I realized the value of that, the value of seeing other people do something in a way that's similar to what you would and how that can be healing to someone to see their stories.

So there's a big part of this, of why I'm so such an avid believer of going into my strengths, and understanding myself better, and living by values. Because there's going to be other people similar to that, that if they can see what I'm doing, they start asking themselves, "well, Joseph can do it. And he's in Oklahoma.

What's in Oklahoma? Isn't that just above Texas?" That's what people say. And you know, "if he can do it, then I can do it." So I think that's a big value for me is the better I can be of myself, the more I can help other people rewrite their stories. And I really believe that. And I think that's why that works in marketing, in anything that we do in marketing,

We want to show, you know, the busy mom and dad putting other kids into the wagon, or we want to share a story that people can relate to. So then they look at that product and they go, "Oh, that's for me." And so I would say this journey of growing a business of delving into who I am and how I am is really for other people.

But there goes my Significance again. There it goes again. 

[00:23:53] Dana Williams: So, a couple of things that I pick up on, and I want to make sure to remind our listeners, when you're in your Strengths every day you get energy. So we talked a lot about you making sure you had time to think, because that gives you energy, making sure you're helping others, but we talked about how that can go in your basement if you're having to do all the work, as opposed to guide all the work and come up with the strategies, right? So it's learning that, and they say the best leaders are the ones who are self learners and want to grow and learn. Instead of, you know, instead of waiting for everybody else around them to grow.

And I see that a lot in you, you're constantly a study of yourself, and how can I be better, and what can I do to be doing better? And how can I grow? And I'm big on you've got to know yourself, so you can grow, but there's only one Joseph, right? There's only one Dana. So how do you bring out that authentic best person in yourself when you start with Strengths that's one in your values and your mission and it all starts coming together.

And then all of a sudden this energy starts building up because all of a sudden you start seeing, "oh, I'm becoming who I was created to be on this earth." And what, how cool is that? It is, 

[00:25:08] Joseph Bojang: It is. So what do you say to people who want what you're saying? They want more and they say, "I just don't know where to start."

And then you say to them, we'll go take your StrengthsFinder. And they're like, and they never do it. Do you ever follow up with those folks to do it? 

[00:25:29] Dana Williams: And there's quite a few people who do it and they say, "yeah, I got my strengths!" And then they go put it in the drawer.

They go," I think we did it." And you know, they can't remember. And I pull it back out. Let's go through that and then figure out how to live intentionally every day in them, like what you're doing. That's the power in it because I think we're in such a world of imposter syndrome, in comparison, and we all think we're supposed to be well-rounded.

But when you start digging deep into Strengths, you realize how unique you are, and that's okay. And that gives you that confidence, and that energy, and that power to push through, and try to get things done when you might think to yourself, that little narrative we have in our head, the little film that we're running "Oh, I can't get this done because I can't," but now you can say, "I can do this and I can pull up X strength to get this done."

Or I can partner with Joseph, who can help me do that, because that's not one of my strengths. He can help me think through and problem solve with this. And that's the other thing, and I think we talked about this when you brought up your coworker, is Strengths don't develop by themselves. They develop in relation to one another, right?

Whether it's a marriage, which we're close to Valentine's Day, or if it's a working relationship. And that's one of the things, I put you guys in a grid right away, and we saw kind of where your strengths are as a team, and I think that's important. Even if you have people that you don't work with all the time, but you may be in a cross-functional team to get something done.

We did that a lot with COVID, and that is really powerful because then you see, who can you lean on in the team to get things done that maybe is not in your giftedness? 

[00:27:16] Joseph Bojang: Yeah. Dana, you just said one thing that made me think about how unique we are, I heard someone say before, something like this is that "we're hurt in relationships and we're healed in relationships."

And the same thing with our Strengths is that they get better in relationships. I don't just go away and think about stuff, and then never share that with the world, or I don't go away and practice Woo, or Command, or whatever. And it just stays in a box, but at some point I have to bring it into my relationships and then bringing it into my relationships,

I find out what works and what doesn't work. So if I'm trying to, I don't know what Strength would be for being a leader, or if I'm trying to bring something to the floor, I'm going to work on it and other people are going to tell me if they like it, or if they don't. And I actually get to be a student in those situations to where I could say, well, did I do this wrong?

Did I do that wrong? But I keep working on it. And that process of actually keeping to it and working on it, is what helps me to go deeper into that Strength. And I think for anyone that's listening, for the strengths that you have, for the ones that are listed, taking time to actually, you know, have your daily plan.

If you get Dana's journal, or if you just hear me talking about it, you make your mission statement, you write some goals, and you start going towards it, make sure that you're doing this in relationships. Because yes, you can get hurt in relationships, but it can be very healing as well. And that's what gives you the actual tough skin

I would say to deal with people who do, and don't like your strengths and that's okay because it's better to actually have people attracted to who you are for who you are. And in that way, you actually get to be more of who you are. And if you look at any show that a person likes, if you look at any product that a person likes, you like it, because it consistently is what it is.

So I buy an iPhone and I'll, I have my iPhone here, if my iPhone changes and it becomes, it starts doing something different, me and millions of other folks are going to get on Apple's comments and say, "we don't like that you change this thing," but we'd love it when Apple becomes a better Apple. And I think it's the same thing with people is that we have to try things.

Some people may comment about our life and not like what our change is. Some people might love our changes, but ultimately, it comes down to us being true to our values and our Strengths, and we keep trying. And that's why we see it all around us with every product, if we don't like it, that's okay. 

You just try again. And I think that's a big part of this is having some goals about how I want to develop as a person, having goals about how I want to use my strengths in my life, is really it's really important. And it's difficult if you're living life without a plan. So I think that's a big part of what you talk about Dana and dominating your day.

Like, I love that phrase. Like you wake up and you dominate the day. You can dominate the day and things are going to come out, like I got out on the road yesterday, and it was slippery. My car was sliding everywhere. I had to go to the doctor's appointment. I didn't feel like I was dominating my day, but what I was doing was taking care of my health.

And that's the way I have to think of it is, you know, I don't like the way this person's driving too fast. I don't like that. I just hit a red light, but when I sit down and think about it, I'm dominating my day because I'm taking care of my health. And if I'm taking care of my health, I'm taking care of my family.

I'm taking care of the clients. I'm taking care of so many other things. And I think that dominating your day starts with a plan.

[00:31:01]Dana Williams: And you know, something you just brought up that is so hot right now is wellbeing, and it's that wellness, the whole wellbeing. And so in the journal we have every week, how am I doing with my health, my fitness, my friends, my, my faith, my finances.

Those are all part of wellbeing. I think one of the passions of mine is, as we get into 2021, is helping people keep a good barometer on their wellbeing because we know that can change every day. While our strengths don't change, our wellbeing can change. And Gallup has a wellbeing assessment as well.

Actually they developed it 10 years ago, and it's in a book called Wellbeing. And one of the things, when I developed the journal, I was about how do we keep wellbeing in here? I think we've gone from wellness to wellbeing, right? And wellbeing, as we know, seven out of 10 people right now  have something going on.

They think they're got some, you know, grief, or addiction, or marriage issues, or health issues. And community is so important right now, and being able to not isolate. And that little kind of weekly check-in on the journal is for that reason is how are you doing in these, if you're by yourself, if you're not, you know, in a good place, how do you get help?

You know, it's thinking about those things. So one of the wellness questions was, did you laugh yesterday? You know, when it's like, wow, did I make myself go have fun? You know? And I think that sometimes working from home and the virtual environment that everybody's in right now, it's just building and accelerating new habits.

And so thinking about how to make that happen within your day and with, like you said yesterday, even though you didn't get to dominate because the weather, and we were sitting in ice today, here in Dallas, it's still, how can we change our day? So we still run it, it's not running us.

[00:32:58] Joseph Bojang: That's good. I laughed at the, “did you laugh yesterday?” I had a friend send me a book. And I was like, oh, this is interesting. So I opened it up and it was dad jokes. It was a book on dad jokes. So that was pretty funny. I need to learn some of those. 

[00:33:16] Dana Williams: We had a good laugh last night. I don't know if you saw in the news, there was a Midland attorney that somebody put a screensaver on with a cat talking so that every time he talked, it was a cat. Oh, we had the best laugh last night. 

It was pretty good. But, it's thinking of those things to put in your day, you know, what makes sure you've got those funny friends, or those friends that are going to listen.

I have several friends that have high empathy, because my empathy is low, and they're the ones I always reach out to when I'm having a moment ,or I need to have that time. My thinkers, like you, I have several that are Intellection, and they can help me go deep and think really deep about things.

So it's kind of cool that I try to know as many of the people that I'm around. And that's the question I get often is, well, "if they haven't done your strengths, how do you know?" Well,  you can kind of start, once you learn them, Joseph, you can start Strength, spotting. You can even spot them in your children right now. Because I think, are they six? How old are your kids? 

[00:34:13] Joseph Bojang: About to be six and seven. So next month and then in April.

[00:34:16] Dana Williams: So you could probably spot some of their Strengths right now. When they're about nine, you can have them take the assessment for kids, Strengths Explorer, but it's really fun to start recognizing it in your spouse, and your kids, and in your parents.

Like I said, my 84 year old mother, we just did hers in January or December. And I wasn't surprised, I had been spotting them all along. She has Learner and she has Input, so she wants to keep learning. So all kinds of neat ways to spot them. So as you think about what you're doing right now ,creating this meaningful life, and helping others, what do you want when you get to your 80th/ 90th birthday, what do you want your legacy to be?

What do you want to be remembered by as you think back? You mentioned some great things about your parents and people that have poured into your life. What are the things that you want to be doing at that time? 

[00:35:11] Joseph Bojang: Yeah, so I'll kind of answer this in the reverse of, I know what I don't want to be.

I don't want to just be sitting around. I hope I, in some way, my kids still value what I have to say. I hope that my grandkids want to be around because I've invested time in them, in their interests. I think that's probably how I've always looked at things from the meaning in that sometimes I know what I didn't want.

I know I didn't want a job. Because if I stayed at that job, it would make me feel like it was sucking my soul away or something. So I've always just looked for what's the meaning that I want. What's the way that I want to live? So for me, it would be kids and maybe grandkids. If I'm 80, it'd be great to be somewhere where my wife and I are still around what friends we have, you know, and still investing, even if we are healthy enough to get out and about, I'd still love to be. I don't want to have an end.

I want to be able to do as much as I can while I'm still alive. So if that's one time a week, I'm going out and donating my 85 year old time somewhere, that's what I hope to be doing. I love investing. I love helping. I love caring for other folks. So that would be the thing that would be the thing is my kids and family would understand that learning is lifelong and giving is lifelong too.

And so that's what I would want to be doing still doing that. I don't know what it would look like in 2050 or 60. 

[00:36:48] Dana Williams: That's okay. Because at least it's like, here's where I want to be. This is right now. And we got to focus on now and what that looks like. And we talked about bringing goals in, you know, three years,

six months, and 90 days, just for that very reason, because we see how quickly life changes and we have to be able to pivot and accelerate. So just being able to think about what that feeling's like and what you want and things working towards that, and that your time and your purpose is spent here doing that.

It's great. As I look at your, at your other Strengths, I heard the Relater in that, but I see something we haven't talked about, and that's your Competition. How does that show up for you? 

[00:37:28] Joseph Bojang:  So I actually wrote that down. It's interesting because I don't think it's Competition in how I understood it at first.

So I even wrote down the Competition, you bring an aspiration to be the best, but the need is peers, you know, to kind of see what they're doing. So I do surround myself with folks that are really good at what they do. And, I would say, if I were updating the definition, I'd put competitors or collaborators, like people that you're collaborating with.

 So a lot of my friends are a lot of the people I'm building relationships with are really good at what they do, but I don't think I'm competing because I'm unique and they're unique, so they can build their audience, I can build my audience, they can build their business, I can build my business cause we all can't help all

the 7 billion people in the world. But that is a huge driver for me, being around people that are getting better because I always want to either help them or even be helped by them. And I think it kind of pushes everyone higher. So if I see someone that is much better at something than I am, I'll pay for their time, I'll join their group,

I'll do their thing, and learn from them, and then become their best students, and then eventually on their platform. So that's one thing is, and maybe I'll take a quick aside for anyone out there looking to build their business, even if you're great in your profession, or if you are new to marketing, new to business building it depends on where you are in your life, because I like to think of it as risk.

It's a risk to start a business. 41% increase in business applications to the SBA last year, 41% increase. So people listening to this are out there starting businesses because it's an increase in the middle of a pandemic. But it's a risk, so you can do it safely, and you can do it in a way where you can just keep it as a side business or make it your main business.

But depending on your age, if you're 22 years old and no kids, no mortgage, no nothing. You can take an even bigger risk because your responsibilities are low. But if you're older, you're in your forties, and you have a kid, you have a great job with a great 401K,  there's different risks and responsibilities you have to take.

So I think with that aside, you have to manage that on your own and personally, and there's a lot of different ways you can manage that. I think As you start moving towards business, as you start taking some of these risks, there is competition, and the main competition that I've found is attention.

So part of what we're doing right now is fighting for someone's attention. Should they go listen to something else? Should they go see what, you know, a family member is doing, do they want to go watch Netflix? We're fighting for attention, and I think if you make the leap or whatever, you're going to do, be serious about it.

And I would say, that's what I am. That competition aspect of me is I want to be the best because if people are listening to me I want them to focus on what I'm saying, but in order for them to focus on what I'm saying, I have to be saying something that's worth them focusing on. And so my competition is not so much another person but it's other things that can distract people.

So it's big. I love that theme. I want to be good. And I like being around other folks that are becoming better at what they do as well. 

[00:40:51] Dana Williams: Absolutely. And I love how you put it in that perspective. And that's what is so much fun about coaching and working with teams and individuals is that the different perspectives that come in and how they're able to apply their Strengths in different ways.

And I think we all want to put everything in a black and white and it's not, and all of your strengths, right? You're reports that we talked about, those top five reports are a combination of all the algorithms of all your strengths together, so if you and I have the same talents or strengths, our reports are going to be totally different.

And the fact that you're one in 34 million is huge.  There's only one Joseph. And so I'm just curious as we get ready to kind of wind down here, you have worked with a lot of entrepreneurs. You've worked with a lot of leaders in companies, and you've had your own business for how long now?

[00:41:43]Joseph Bojang:  I first started in 2012 and that business lasted two months and then I had another go in 2015. And so since 2015. 

[00:41:52] Dana Williams: That's awesome. So what's your advice? You talked about the listeners out there that are maybe thinking about starting their own business, or they've had some things change in their lives and need to pivot what, what's the advice that you would give?

[00:42:06]Joseph Bojang: I say this, and I'm not even trying to be super nice to you, but you need to get with Dana. You need to do your Strengths. I'm serious. I think most people fail based on mindset, and that's what happened to me and even business owners I am working with. I'm serious.

I'm not just saying this because I'm on your platform, but I really believe it. I think the most important thing you can do is understand yourself and understand why you are doing something so that when things get difficult, you know, why. And you know how to respond. So I would say, get with Dana and hop in one of those coaching sessions.

And if someone can't afford that, I don't think you're really ready to start a business. And if they're saying, "okay, well, I probably just don't match well for that type of coach or that type of system," find something. The first time I started a business, I didn't. And when I didn't have systems and things got difficult, it just wasn't ready for it.

This next time I launched my business. I had a coach, I had two coaches. I had a much different mindset about things. I knew where I wanted to go. I was consistently working on learning and developing, and that business went to six figures in three months, and then it just kind of went from there.

But the biggest thing is knowing what I want, because when you think about a business, sometimes I remember the first time I thought I was going to be sued, when you're an employee and you've worked for other businesses, you don't care about being sued. You don't care about ending contracts. You don't care about those things, but when this is your only way to be paid and you hire or someone hires you, and it's just not a good fit and they can burn your business down if you're not protected, like all of those things that happen, it really starts with your mindset about learning, about being able to be resilient, to understand who you are and to dig in.

So to me, that's number one. And even when I started my first podcast, I think my second episode was about an assessment that I did with Hogan assessment. I have a family member that worked there and she did that. And that was like my podcast episode. Because it was like, understand who you are digging into, and then you go out and launch.

Because that also lets you pivot. One of the things that I would say for people looking to start is you have to pivot fast. You might decide to offer 10 different services, 10 different products. You might need to reduce it to two and put some on the shelf until they start launching. But the real big thing about business is having something that people want to purchase and when they purchase it, that's the exchange of value.

And hopefully you can get their money because you have systems set up online, you have contracts, you have agreements. So I think being able to focus on a few things at first allows you to build the systems faster, to get the additional help, to know how to market better. I do a lot of marketing coaching.

I have a few courses now and my assistant actually, thanks to you, I love everything Dana says, but thanks to you, I had him use his gifting and I said, "go through this course, write down every single question that anyone asks during the whole course." And this is probably like 20 hours of question and answer course material.

And. Everyone asks how to: how do I set up this? What landing page software? What about this? What about this? And there was only one question on their audience. One question. So what that means is when they were writing an email, they didn't know who they were writing to. They didn't know how to talk, they didn't have an editorial guideline of how to communicate.

So they were always asking me and I would say, "Oh, do your research. This is how you do your research", but they always got lost there. Because they're good at what they do. They know it's the best. And I'd say, well, you don't have to be the best to grow. Like there's a lot of coffee shops that aren't the best. One is green on every corner, but they are everywhere.

There's burger places that are international, that aren't the best burgers, but they're consistent. And you know, if you go and what you're going to get, so I would say You know, know who you're selling to know what they need and sell them that. And if you can't well  pivot to something else that you can sell.

So I think business and growing it and marketing is super fun. I love it. And I think anyone out there that wants to do it, you can you really can, you might not think so at first, but you can, and you just have to keep learning, keep pivoting, keep trying and it will happen. 

[00:46:38]Dana Williams: I love that, and I love how you mentioned the coaching because coaching really is about accountability.

I mean in its essence, it's about somebody that's not going to sugarcoat everything, but keep you accountable and guide you through. Whereas mentoring is a little different, right? And so I think the coaching, whether it's the marketing coaching or the development coaching, professional development coaching, I think that is something we all, I love the saying everybody needs a coach.

And that is so true. And even in our coaching group that we have right now, today, we've got about 10 gals and guys from Southwest airlines that have retired and are doing their own thing now. And they're an amazing coaching group, but we've told them everybody needs a coach.  Make sure not only are you coaching, but you have someone coaching you, and I think you've role modeled that in what you've been talking about today.

How can people reach you, Joseph, if they're interested in what you do, how would you recommend them?  

[00:47:34] Joseph Bojang: So the best way would be to go to my website, Josephbojang.com. If you don't know how to spell Bojang, just spell Bojangles and you'll probably find me, or YouTube, connect with me on YouTube.

Just search for my name, Joseph Bojang. I post a lot of content on YouTube about building a business about mindset. I have like the three M's mindset, marketing and money. But the money part is really just business. And so YouTube is probably ideal and check out my website as well. 

[00:48:04] Dana Williams: I love that. Is there any last minute parting words you want to share with the audience? Anything I didn't ask you, or anything on your mind that you want to share today? 

[00:48:13] Joseph Bojang: Well, I would just say, thank you. Thank you for inviting me on the show. Thank you for having me here. I know your heart for people, to help people dominate their day and really achieve their goals.

I'm glad to know you, to be coached by you, to have my notes from our meetings that we have. And I see the benefit of it in my business. And I would say for anyone watching, whether you want to be a StrengthsFinder coach like Dana, because I'm sure people are listening and watching the show because they want to be like you,

or if you want to be coached, I would just say read the things that she has, listen to the things that she produces, and it's going to be a great template for a lot of folks to dominate their day. So I'm in. Thank you for having me. 

[00:48:58] Dana Williams: Thank you, Joseph. 

[00:49:00] I just love my conversation with Joseph. He is such an inspiration to me and has shared such great insights today. And it's people like him that just get me all excited when I hear how he's using his strength, so we hope today as we close out that you go out there and dominate your day..

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