Which Prior Experiences Best Prepared You for Owning and Leading Your Own Company?- Ask JP #079

Hello, it’s another episode of Ask JP, I’m JP Moery with the Moery company. I had a question the other day from some of my colleagues at the National Association of Manufacturers, they asked, what previous experiences do you believe best prepared you for owning and leading your own business?
I have two examples. The first and foremost one was I got my association credibility, while I worked at the US Chamber of Commerce. I got to work with Association CEOs, had the opportunity to engage with Chamber of Commerce professionals, and was able to work in the education areas with Institute.  I was able to establish my network at scale, with the largest and frankly, the best associations and chambers of commerce all over the country. That network was so rich and it enabled me to establish the network that I would then do business within the future.
But I also learned that the association business is a little bit of a bubble. It’s not reality. Your stakeholders are somewhere else. It’s not like you’re making a bottom line, you know, net profit evaluation every single month.  I learned that through SmartBrief, the electronic newsletter. I worked there for almost three years, their EVP of association relations, and in that environment, it was much more entrepreneurial, more fast-paced, more urgent, much more, hey, if we don’t make the business work this week, I don’t know what happens next week.  It wasn’t that urgent, but you definitely got the pressure of working in a bottom-line environment.
So, the association credibility with the chamber and then working with SmartBrief to learn that entrepreneurial stuff is what helped propel me and helped set me up for running my own operation. Hope that’s helpful to you. Best wishes. Bye bye.
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