57: Creators Rewriting the Rules to Success with Jermane Cheathem

[00:00:00] Welcome to Work it, Live it, Own it, a show that explores how to upgrade your lifestyle through

[00:00:05] life lessons, real estate and entrepreneurship. Here's your hostess, SaCola Lehr.

[00:00:15] Have you ever wondered what separates those who thrive in life and business versus those

[00:00:23] who merely survive? Let me tell you a little bit of backstory about Jermane Cheathem. Jermane

[00:00:31] is a trailblazer who turned adversity into opportunity, transforming a life of uncertainty

[00:00:39] and challenges and constant upheaval to becoming a dynamic entrepreneur and coach.

[00:00:47] Now, even though he was raised amidst constant upheaval and abandonment, Jermane discovered early

[00:00:53] on that success wasn't about playing the game but rewriting its rules. So, going from selling candy at

[00:01:02] school to shattering sales records, he found his stride in entrepreneurship and eventually

[00:01:09] empowering others to do just that. So, I want you to give a warm welcome to Jermane Cheathem

[00:01:17] as we delve into his story of resilience, strategic thinking and the power of choosing to be

[00:01:25] a creator rather than a victim in both life and business. Welcome to Work it, Live it, Own it.

[00:01:33] So, welcome Jermane. How are you doing today?

[00:01:37] I'm great, SaCola. That was one hell of an introduction. I don't know if I could

[00:01:40] have said it better myself. Hey, I try to amp up everyone that comes on the show and sometimes we

[00:01:47] got to amp up ourselves, right? Yeah, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

[00:01:51] You gotta do what we gotta do. So, Jermane, I just want to say thank you for taking your time

[00:01:56] to sit down and talk with us today and the Work it, Live it, Own it community.

[00:02:01] But to dive in a little bit, I'm interested because after reading your bio and actually

[00:02:06] following and listening to you on LinkedIn, I was really intrigued and wanted to reach out

[00:02:11] to have this conversation. And if you don't mind, can we just get a little backstory about some of

[00:02:16] the early challenges and lessons that you've learned? I mean, your childhood involved constant

[00:02:23] movement and adversity. And I want to know how did these early challenges actually shape

[00:02:29] your resilience and approach to building a successful life in business?

[00:02:34] So, I grew up basically on the wrong side of the tracks and with the narrative that

[00:02:44] this is a self-imposed narrative that the world is untrustworthy, that people are runners,

[00:02:54] that they don't want to be seen. Because I was abandoned by my biological and adopted father

[00:03:02] by the age of seven. I moved 18 times by the age of probably 13, 14 and just growing up in bad

[00:03:12] neighborhoods where you just saw desperation in general. And I never knew what to believe

[00:03:20] about people, about myself. And I developed a worldview that said the world is full of people

[00:03:31] that don't want to take responsibility. And I didn't like this worldview that I developed.

[00:03:39] And so, I wanted to challenge it. And that was my mission, was to challenge the truth,

[00:03:50] to find out what the truth is about myself and about other people and what makes them

[00:03:54] operate and why are they so fearful? And what do they really want? And that was the beginning

[00:04:02] of my journey to finding freedom. And the ultimate freedom is always mental freedom.

[00:04:07] Everything is downstream from there. And that was always my North Star.

[00:04:15] Thank you for sharing that. And I can relate to that. It used to be one of those people who had

[00:04:22] a chip on their shoulder about everything, didn't trust a lot of people. So thank you

[00:04:27] for being vulnerable enough to share that story. And how did this actually transition you into

[00:04:35] where you are? Because you started out as an employee, right? You made a significant shift

[00:04:40] from being the employee to an entrepreneur. What inspired this transition and how did it

[00:04:48] redefine your definition of success and fulfillment?

[00:04:54] I think it comes down to trying to find out what the truth is. And so,

[00:05:00] I always thought that you're supposed to just get a job. You have a nine to five,

[00:05:05] have a safe path so you can tiptoe safely to death, right? And I believed the brainwashing,

[00:05:14] I believed the cultural conditioning until I didn't. And it goes back to this idea of

[00:05:21] challenging the status quo and the biggest challenge, the biggest status quo you can

[00:05:27] challenge is your own, your own personal belief system that you accepted, that you bought into,

[00:05:33] that you listened to. Because no one ever controls you. You allow them to control you.

[00:05:39] You accept these ideas. And so when I was an employee, I accepted the employee model until

[00:05:45] I decided I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going to try something different. I'm going

[00:05:49] to challenge this notion that we're supposed to work at a company for 40 years and then retire

[00:05:53] at 75, 65 where you're too old to go do anything or enjoy yourself because you have bad knees.

[00:06:00] And that wasn't the life I wanted to live. So I knew that was the only path for growth

[00:06:06] because growth is my only option. I have no other options but to grow.

[00:06:10] And so I decided, okay, let's go into entrepreneurship and start my own business.

[00:06:17] I think a lot of us have that same journey, but you put it so succinctly

[00:06:21] where you're saying we're slowly tiptoeing to death. And that's a scary thought.

[00:06:28] And there's nothing wrong with having that nine to five, but at the same time, I've seen it so many

[00:06:35] times where people are working into their 70s, like you said. And then it's kind of late then

[00:06:43] wanting to travel the world. If you're still in health, you're in healthy fit shape or condition.

[00:06:48] Okay. And you were able to do that. That's great. But I know a lot of people who don't,

[00:06:53] and I've even worked with quite a few people who worked 30 plus years only to find out a couple

[00:07:00] of years later, they passed away because they had cancer. And I'm like, wow, that's so devastating

[00:07:05] because they didn't even really get to enjoy life outside of waking up and working that nine

[00:07:13] to five, having that proverbial ball and chain attached to them. So thank you. Thank you for that.

[00:07:20] Now, Jeremy, I mean, Jermaine, sorry, Jermaine, looking back on your journey.

[00:07:27] Can you share some of your significant setbacks that you faced, whether in life or in business,

[00:07:35] and how you overcame them and continue to move forward?

[00:07:42] I think every day is a setback. And this is where self mastery comes into play every moment.

[00:07:54] And so my definition of self mastery and my definition of a creator versus a victim,

[00:08:01] victims live in the past or the future. Creators live right now. Right now,

[00:08:07] as I'm speaking these words to you, I have nothing else to do but talk to you right now

[00:08:11] and listen to what you're saying. That's the only agenda. And so creators understand that

[00:08:17] intuitively. And so they take action in the moment. And so the setbacks are everything that

[00:08:24] comes up in your life and the outside world and in the inside of your mind. And so the

[00:08:30] self mastery is the understanding that you are in control of your decisions.

[00:08:35] And in any given moment, I can choose in this moment to take a different action,

[00:08:41] regardless of what's going on in my mind. And so this could be procrastination,

[00:08:46] it could be self doubt, it could be lack of energy, it could be whatever. But you are always

[00:08:53] in control in any given moment to make a new decision. And that is really typically the

[00:08:59] reason why you're not doing the thing you know you want to do is based on fear.

[00:09:04] Because you either believe, A, you're not good enough, B, it won't turn out right,

[00:09:09] or you're overwhelmed with where to start. Or lastly, it could even be you just think that

[00:09:18] you possibly don't have the skill set or the tools to even begin this or you're not

[00:09:23] even interested in it. Like, you know, sometimes people tell you, well, you should do

[00:09:27] Facebook ads. Well, what if I'm not into Facebook ads? Then it's not congruent with

[00:09:32] my values. It's not congruent with what I believe in. And so just because someone tells you you

[00:09:37] should do it, and you're battling this idea, maybe you shouldn't do it. So it's about like self

[00:09:42] reflection. That's about being clear in the moment. And then deciding who do you want to be?

[00:09:48] Do you want to be the person that gives into that lower energy? Or do you want to be the

[00:09:52] person that stands up takes action and then reassesses tomorrow? And so to answer your

[00:09:58] question, there's no defining setbacks. Every moment, there's setbacks. And there's none that are

[00:10:05] bigger or smaller than others. They're all just whatever story you want to say about them.

[00:10:11] And it's just reframing whatever neutral event is happening and to make it into there's a moment

[00:10:18] in time right now. And I can maybe I should just go for a walk. Maybe I should journal down

[00:10:22] what's bothering me? Like why am I scared to write the post? You know, why am I scared not

[00:10:28] to eat past 8pm? Whatever my challenge is, right? And realizing you're in control.

[00:10:39] That really hits on that mindset and motivation piece because I was actually going to talk to you

[00:10:44] about the creator versus the victim pathway in life and in business. And you explained that

[00:10:51] so beautifully. And how you maintain resilient mindset and stay motivated again. It's

[00:10:57] I like how you said there's no setback that's larger or bigger or smaller than the other is a

[00:11:04] setback and to choose to live in the moment. Because a lot of times if we're a victim, we're

[00:11:11] always living in the past. And we can never move forward if we're always playing the victim

[00:11:17] role. So thank you for sharing that. Now you've achieved breakthroughs and sales and focusing

[00:11:25] on strategic partnerships. What advice do you have for business owners who are focusing on building

[00:11:33] an effective partnership that can drive growth and success? Well, there's three components really.

[00:11:43] The first one is what do you sell? A lot of people that are entrepreneurs, they don't even

[00:11:51] know what they actually sell. It's very vague, or they have five different offers, six different

[00:11:57] products, four different services, it's hard to sell when you don't have any clarity. So first

[00:12:03] of all, what do you sell? And then once you have one thing you sell that is highly leverageable,

[00:12:11] very lucrative, then you figure out, okay, who do I sell this to? Who's going to be my

[00:12:17] ideal avatar that can afford my services? That it's actually going to be a perfect fit that I like to

[00:12:23] work with? Simple stuff like that. And then once you realize what it is and who it's for,

[00:12:30] then you just think about okay, who already has a network of this ideal avatar

[00:12:38] in their realm? And they already have all their trust. And that way I can just tap into

[00:12:47] my partner, my friend and have them refer me in clients day after day after day. And ideally,

[00:12:56] the clients will be aligned. For example, this is a random example, but it'll give your audience

[00:13:04] a clear idea of what I'm talking about here is if I was say a weight loss coach,

[00:13:10] how hard is it to find people that need to lose weight? I don't know who needs to lose

[00:13:15] weight because just because someone is overweight doesn't mean they want to lose weight.

[00:13:20] So now I'm chasing a needle in the haystack, I'm basically chasing ghosts.

[00:13:24] So instead, I think holistically, okay, who would have a network of people that would be

[00:13:30] motivated with money to want to lose weight? And so what I would do if I was a weight loss

[00:13:35] coach is I would just partner with high end corporate dating coaches. Because they're

[00:13:43] high end clients, they're executives that are dating, they're going to want to look best for

[00:13:47] their dates. If they're going to lose a few pounds put on some muscle and they're going to have

[00:13:53] money to pay for my services. So I would just go to these dating coaches and tell them, hey,

[00:13:57] I'll give any of your clients 30 days of free training on the house because I want them

[00:14:01] to look the best for their dates. And then after the 30 days, maybe they'll sign up

[00:14:05] for my package, maybe they won't. But I'm just gonna have an inflow of high quality leads

[00:14:10] because they came from a trusted source. And so everyone is aligned because the dating coach,

[00:14:16] he gets good or he or she gets good will by offering me to their clients because the clients

[00:14:21] are like, great, I get free weight loss training by working with this dating coach. This is awesome.

[00:14:26] And then the dating coach gets goodwill and then I get more clients. So it's just aligning

[00:14:31] with strategic partnerships. It was just about being a little bit creative. It could be other

[00:14:36] things. There's so many different ways to skin the cat when you think about who has a network of

[00:14:41] my ideal clients. And most people are just thinking one-to-one transactions and I'm thinking one-to-many.

[00:14:49] I like that. That's what people call strategic alliances or a joint venture partnership. And

[00:14:56] if you guys are listening, I didn't hear Jermaine say one thing.

[00:15:02] I didn't say social media. He didn't say anything about social media advertising. And guys,

[00:15:11] I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. But if you're talking about social media,

[00:15:17] you are doing that one-to-one, right? And then if you're constantly doing that one-to-one,

[00:15:22] then you're gonna always constantly try to put out money, put out ads. And if you are just

[00:15:27] starting out in business, I don't recommend you paying money for ads or for leads because it's

[00:15:35] operating for me personally. And I'm speaking for me personally is operating out of this feast and

[00:15:41] famine mentality of scarcity and lag. It's like, okay, I gotta put out more money to get more.

[00:15:48] But if you are partnering yourself, like Jermaine says, with people who have this revolving

[00:15:54] door or constant flow of people who need your services, and they know you and they trust you

[00:16:02] and you've built a great relationship with them, then you have that leverage of a win-win

[00:16:09] relationship. So thank you, Jermaine, for breaking that down into three viable steps and giving

[00:16:16] an example for those who are listening. Now, you're our coach and consultant. So

[00:16:24] others achieve their dreams. So could you share a powerful transformation story with permission,

[00:16:32] if you have permission, or key principles that every entrepreneur should know to achieve both

[00:16:39] business success and personal fulfillment? So there's really only three.

[00:16:48] Okay.

[00:16:49] And I'm about simplicity and I'm about leverage and I'm about doing the least amount of work to get

[00:16:58] the biggest bang. And so the way I think about life in business is I think about three buckets.

[00:17:06] We all have the same 24 hours in a day. So let's not over complicate this. We have the

[00:17:11] morning, we have the daytime, and we have nighttime. So in the morning, I call this

[00:17:16] win before noon. And with my clients, I make sure they set up their mornings so they do 80%

[00:17:24] of the heavy lifting on their business before 12 noon, before lunch. And so this is all about

[00:17:29] self mastery. This is about discipline. This is about routines, habits, and what I even like better

[00:17:35] is rituals because when you call them rituals, they become more powerful.

[00:17:41] They become something inside of you. And so this is about setting

[00:17:49] daily actions that you take. And this is about, and this is personal, you have to know yourself,

[00:17:54] know thyself. But this is about waking up at a certain time, whatever time that is for you.

[00:18:00] Getting your mind right. This could be journaling, this could be meditation,

[00:18:03] this could be working out, this could be whatever we decide we want to do. But for

[00:18:07] the first hour, hour and a half, two hours, that's the focus. It could be reading. We go

[00:18:12] through that part of it. So it's waking up at a designated time. Basically, we want to frame it

[00:18:17] where you start doing the things you said you're going to do every day. And we build from there.

[00:18:23] And it can start very small because you want to take baby steps. But it's about framing

[00:18:28] the morning where you focus on your mind, your body, and your spirit. And then we move into

[00:18:34] four hour dedicated deep blocks of focused work. And it's only four hours. So if you wake up at

[00:18:41] 6am and you have two hours to putz around and get your mind right, start at eight. From eight to

[00:18:47] noon, all you're working on for four hours, you can use your phone as a timer. There's no

[00:18:53] need over complicated. You have to put us on your calendar, put 60 minutes on the timer,

[00:18:57] and you start go. And we find the highest leverage activity. So for example, say the

[00:19:01] dating coach, excuse me, the weight loss coach, all you're going to do if it was if I was coaching

[00:19:09] the weight loss coach, go on LinkedIn, find all the dating coaches on LinkedIn and DM them,

[00:19:14] start a conversation. Don't sell them anything, don't pitch them anything, start a conversation.

[00:19:18] Hey, I see you're from Cincinnati. Cool. I love the Reds, whatever makeup, some

[00:19:22] shit doesn't matter. Start conversations with people be friendly, be a human. You do

[00:19:27] it for four hours. You are going to have at the end of 30 days, so many deals and leads in business

[00:19:34] you're not going to know what to do with. But the beautiful part about that is you're only doing

[00:19:38] that one thing for four hours. That's the one thing that's it. Talking to dating coaches,

[00:19:44] high-end corporate executive dating coaches. That's it. At noon, you're done for the day

[00:19:49] from work. From noon till about three or four, I want you to read books, go on walks,

[00:19:56] go to the gym, listen to podcasts, fill your mind with ideas that's going to get you thinking about

[00:20:02] what you did during that four-hour block and how you can be better tomorrow. Maybe you listen to

[00:20:07] some sales training or some type of psychology podcast, whatever. Just so you can start to

[00:20:13] build that muscle of, how can I iterate a little bit every day on the next four-hour block tomorrow?

[00:20:20] And then three or four o'clock, you start to do your social stuff, hang out with your family,

[00:20:25] your friends, your kids. Go play a little league, whatever. Play basketball, chill out, go to church.

[00:20:31] I don't care. Watch TV, relax. Then around eight, nine, about an hour and a half before bed,

[00:20:37] you need to start winding down no devices. And we start thinking about what are you going to

[00:20:42] read? And you're going to write down tomorrow's list today. What's the thing you're going to

[00:20:47] do for four hours tomorrow? You write it down. And so you're planting that seed in your mind.

[00:20:54] I'm going to work on this for four hours tomorrow. And this is the time I'm going to wake up. You

[00:20:58] write down those two things. And then you read, and you go to bed. You have no devices.

[00:21:04] And you do that again. And it's about these two bookends, the morning and the evening,

[00:21:09] and in the middle of the day is basically the four-hour block of execution on one thing.

[00:21:16] So you're not overwhelmed. I like that. That was helpful even for me. Thank you

[00:21:24] for sharing that because in the morning, you're focused on you starting your day,

[00:21:29] setting the tone for your day, taking care of yourself. And then the four blocks of execution.

[00:21:39] So if someone says, well, I have all these ideas, right? They're creator. And they have

[00:21:45] all these ideas of things that they want to do. How do you even help them hone down on,

[00:21:50] okay, let's pick one? Do you tell them, okay, let's pick one thing that we're going to execute

[00:21:57] for a time period? Or do you help them to figure out, okay, what is the most important ones that

[00:22:03] they should focus on? How do you structure that even for yourself? Because I'm pretty sure as

[00:22:09] a creator, you have all sorts of ideas and plans. So how do you hone in on what is the

[00:22:15] most valuable one that they need to focus on? Well, it depends on their goals.

[00:22:22] So if you have a pizzeria, you're going to have a different goal than if you want to be a digital nomad.

[00:22:29] So a pizzeria person is going to be working at the pizzeria all day because that's a

[00:22:34] brick and mortar people are coming in, you're at their beck and call. But if you want to be

[00:22:38] a digital nomad, then you want to have leverage on your time because you want to enjoy Paris

[00:22:42] or wherever you are. And so it depends on their goals. But what I will say about this is

[00:22:51] I'm always helping them find the leverage where you put a little in, you get a lot out because

[00:22:56] most of the ideas you have are just hobbies. They don't bring in any money. They don't give

[00:23:04] you any freedom, any time, any mental freedom. And so if they are a hobby, that's fine. We'll

[00:23:11] keep that. But those are going to be on the blocks outside of noon, past noon, where you have your

[00:23:16] free time. If you want to do little things, that's fine. But it's not highly leveraged. And so I just

[00:23:23] help them see clearly where is the leverage? Where's the money? Where's the pain and where's the

[00:23:29] pleasure? Those are the three things you got to look for. The money, the pain and the pleasure

[00:23:33] you want to find out where the money is coming from, eliminate the pain and find what you

[00:23:37] enjoy doing. That's the process. And once we get clear on that, then we can say this one thing.

[00:23:45] Okay. Look at that. All right. Jermaine, thank you for sharing that. And I know your time is precious.

[00:23:52] You probably got me on the time block right now. But I want to thank you so much for taking

[00:23:58] time out of your schedule. And I've really been appreciating all the advice and tips that

[00:24:04] you have been sharing on LinkedIn. And so guys, if you have not been following Jermaine Cheatham,

[00:24:10] I advise you to do so on LinkedIn. He shares some very powerful messages and videos on LinkedIn.

[00:24:16] And Jermaine, where else can they find you or follow you or stay in touch with you? If they

[00:24:22] have any further questions or even perhaps may want to work with you?

[00:24:26] So the best place for me would be creatorslearn.com. So if you're a creator,

[00:24:31] you don't want to be a victim, you want to have self mastery, you can find me there for sure.

[00:24:37] Excellent. And before I let you go Jermaine, I have two rapid fire questions for you. Are you ready?

[00:24:42] I'm ready. Okay. What's your favorite book or podcast that has had a profound impact on your

[00:24:50] entrepreneurial journey? Book would be Awareness by Anthony D'Amello. Podcast,

[00:25:01] I think the first one that had the biggest impact on me was Tim Ferriss's podcast. Because when I

[00:25:08] read that four hour work week, I was just like, oh, wow, this is real.

[00:25:15] Yes. And it's really had a profound impact because you're a digital nomad yourself.

[00:25:20] So and the second question is what's one piece of advice you wish you had received

[00:25:27] when you first started your entrepreneurial journey?

[00:25:37] I don't really have anything because I always believe you're right where you're supposed to be.

[00:25:45] And so for me trying to go back in time and pre-warn myself about something I'm going to face

[00:25:55] eliminates the joy of the journey and of life and of the fun. So

[00:26:01] I believe I'm right where I'm supposed to be. I've always been right where I'm supposed to be.

[00:26:05] And I don't need to try to avoid something that was not needed to be avoided.

[00:26:13] Thank you. And thank you for sharing your remarkable journey, speaking of the journey piece.

[00:26:21] So Jermaine, I want to thank you for coming on and sharing your insights with the work at

[00:26:25] Live at Owned Community, talking about how you've been able to navigate adversity to thriving as

[00:26:32] a digital nomad, an entrepreneur and a coach in living a life that you really truly love.

[00:26:37] Now, his story reminds us of the power of resilience and strategic thinking

[00:26:44] and the choice to be a creator or a victim in our own lives. And we hope, Jermaine,

[00:26:52] and I hope that you've really take this episode to heart. So I want you to stay tuned for more

[00:26:58] conversations on the Work at Live at Owned podcast where we continue to explore the journeys of those

[00:27:04] who dare to turn their dreams into reality. And remember to subscribe, leave a review,

[00:27:10] and share this episode with other fellow entrepreneurs until next time. Keep thriving,

[00:27:16] not striving, to work at Live at Owned in your everyday lives. Take care.