Episode 1: The Origin Story

Show Notes

Episode Transcript

You are now listening to Leverage for Growth. Hey everybody. My name is Jesse P. Gilmore. I am the founder of Niche in Control and creator of Leverage for Growth. Welcome to the Daily Leverage edition. This is addition number one, and today’s topic is the origin story. So sit back, relax, and welcome to today’s Daily Leverage.

So welcome to episode number one. What I’m gonna do on this podcast is really do something that I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time. I’ve been planning this day for months, and this podcast is going to be a journey of self-discovery and transformation. And before I really get into the podcasts and kind of what to expect in the days, weeks, and years ahead and I’m sure that you’re wondering kind of who I am and what am I doing.

Starting this podcast. So if you guys haven’t met me before, my name is Jesse P. Gilmore. Niche and Control really helps agency owners to ultimately scale and transform their agency into a, a business system allowing the agency to sustain and grow without their direct involvement and how I kind of studied this journey.

I started entrepreneurship back in 2006 when I was about 20 years old and I had this dream that I wanted to own a business with my brother. And this kinda led me towards doing some door-to-door sales and working in Florida. And I talked with thousands of business owners and while selling door to door.

And I continue to ask each one of them, you know, what does it take to run a successful. And I got different types of feedback from that. And I thought that that was what I needed in order for me to start my business. And so when I was 20 years old I quit the sales job and started a business with my brother Jeremy, and we started to implement what we had learned and.

During this time, we had gained some traction with an innovation idea. But what ended up happening was, is that it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough information. And so during the time that we had started that business, it was called the North Coast Collective. So we were promoting the arts and culture in Minnesota together, and we fell in love with the idea of our business.

We gained a lot of tension for what we were creating in a couple of years. We were actually a couple of years ahead of our time, and the problem was, is that the service that we provided was based around our own skills. And so if we didn’t work, work didn’t get done, and we g we were so stuck working in the business, we couldn’t really find a way out.

And it had taken us such a long time to create a proof of concept with that business that we needed a, a change really fast. We ended up getting you know, burnt out and really dissolving the business you know, dur due to a lack of sustainability. Even while the business was starting to look successful from the outside we were dying on the inside.

And this ultimately was something that led me on a journey where I dissolved the first business. I didn’t really understand what the problem was. And so I ended up starting two more businesses. And those businesses had the same exact thing. If I didn’t work, work didn’t get done. And so I headed a ended up sucking up my ego.

And taking a job in a corporate environment as a project manager. And during this time, this was the first time I was exposed to the concept of like business systems and single points of failure. And I worked under the VP of HR and operations with the sole mission of removing all single points of failure from a business.

Through the implementation of business systems. And the interesting thing was is that during my time in corporate America over five years and, and working with the chief human resources officer and corporate and in this 4 billion global corporation, I learned everything that I could about business systems, and it became an obsession because it was ultimately the thing that I was missing in my first businesses.

And I went on this journey where I started nicheing control actually to be kind of like the solution for what I was missing. And thinking back to if I were to teach my younger self or my earlier version of myself, These different things. What could I do to actually create a business and a life by design rather than default?

And I stumbled upon marketing agencies. and you know, eager to get started and, and start to do this kind of self-discovery. I started to take everything that I had learned. What did I learn as an entrepreneur? What did I learn you know, in the corporate environment, and how would I package that in a way that really makes it so where if people had what I had before, they had an idea, they had a vision.

And they were trying to figure out some way of bringing it into reality. How could I help them through a systematic process that just worked to get everything out of their head into systems and really make it to where they could live that entrepreneurial dream, just like I wish I would’ve been able to live in my previous businesses.

And so when I ended up starting to work with some agencies, I found that they were very similar to where I was before. A lot of times the agency is really based around, you know, the founders skills and their specialty. And so if they don’t work, work doesn’t get done or they have to keep on coming in and, and kind of fixing up things because it wasn’t done right the first time.

And I started working with one of my first agency clients. And he was in this kind of same boat where at the, at the time where we were working together in the way beginning it was just him, his business partner, and an employee, and they were throttling around 15,000 per month. And I walked him through this process and I call it leverage for growth.

You’re leveraging the best parts of you as a business owner and your organization for ultimate growth and. And I worked them through the five step process and we started implementing these business systems in his agency and he grew really fast. He went from 15,000 per month to over a hundred thousand per month in nine months and became reoccurring on the 12th month.

And what I learned from this whole process was, is that. That what I had to offer the market you know, figuring out kind of the solution to a previous problem allowed me to reverse engineer what we did together. And that became our first actual version of leverage for growth. And we took this program and we started to bring it to more agencies and start to market specifically to agencies and to see if we could do that.

and we were really tired of kind of reinventing the wheel with my own clients. And so I took leverage for growth and just made it this really predictable, repeatable way of implementing business systems into marketing and PR agencies. And so the idea has been very simple from the beginning. I just wanted to make it to where I could really solve a, a problem that a lot of people had experienced.

A lot of times people have things stuck in their heads and they’re trying to get it out. Systems and procedures, they don’t know how to do it. They get overwhelmed and, and they just go back to the way things were. And so over the last few years I’ve been, you know, working with dozens of agency clients, excuse me through the program and working and learning from what worked and what didn’t work, and continually making you know, changes and updates to the program and started figuring out what was more predictable and what wasn’t.

And over the last two to three years, I’ve continually refined these programs based around the feedback and success of over three dozen clients. And this has allowed me to create this predictable way of scaling an agency without burning out. . And the cool thing is, is that I’ve gotten to a part in my business where you know, I’m able to actually apply what I teach clients and to my own business.

Even though I’m not an agency. I’m I’m more of a consultancy kind of mixed between consultant and Coach and a a, you know, course creator and really create experiences for people. And so what I’m doing in this podcast is really just getting to a point where I want to document my own kind of lessons and learnings and, and share that learning with you of, you know, this daily leverage.

We’re leveraging and the lessons learned from applying leverage for growth to my own business. So that way I’m able to share that journey with you. And we’re going to kind of go on this journey together. And I’m also gonna have episodes where I’ll bring agency owners that are successful onto the podcast as well.

And we’ll do an interview version of it where we talk about what happened before, during, and after as they went through all their own trans transformations and. You know, one of the main things that I want to get across, especially in this first episode, is really just setting the stage for it.

So you’re gonna start to see me a lot more consistent. One thing that I will continue to do for you guys is just show up. I know that there’s a lot of people out there in the podcast world that will start a podcast and then disappear. I’m not that type of person. Once I commit to something I do it pretty, pretty hardcore and and I’m also really into just documenting this experience and, and being able to.

Really give a gift of authenticity and, and transparency, because ultimately I’ve gone through a lot over the last 15 years or so, and I’ve started to realize that, you know, there are things in the past that held me back from really growth and expansion and the vision that I have today. And I went through a a process of kind of removing the negative beliefs or limiting belief.

Some of the bad habits that I had. I, I used to be an alcoholic. I used to you know, watch TV all the time and just kind of take away from my personal power. And one of the things that I really did in 2018 when I was in corporate America I had, I became a father for the, for the first time.

And I, it started to realize that at about six months when he was about six months, I could go back to the way that I was before or I could do something different. And I decided to do something different. And I started to remove all these addictions. So alcohol was one of ’em. TV was another one.

Another one was based around agreeableness. That was one of my personality traits where I was constantly trying to fit in or try to be accepted or and I started to realize that that was actually just me playing small. I was nervous about how much potential I actually had. And so this journey from, you know, understanding that, you know, there are certain beliefs or stories that you tell.

And that actually hold you back from achieving what you want to achieve. And so in 2018, I started removing all these sedation methods, things that took away from my personal power, and I started to have goals in each one of my categories. My mentor calls it body being balanced in business where basically you’re looking at, you know, how your health and your body work how your spirituality or purpose you know, how, how you’re able to.

Put towards, you know, progression rather than constantly focusing on the lack of where you are and where you want to go. There’s always a gap you know, and balance really just your relationships with your spouse and kids and, and then also business. If there is a gap of knowledge, like how are you continually you know, going after seeking new knowledge and applying that towards your business.

And so one of the things that you’re gonna know about, And you’re gonna learn a little bit more about me over a period of time is just to understand that I’ve gone through a lot of transformations especially over the last four years of just removing things that were holding me back. And the cool thing is, is that you know I have a clarity of mind.

I have a, an understanding of kind of where I’m going. And this journey is gonna be one that’s gonna be really. It’s gonna be a fun one to share with you because I’m looking for 10 x growth in one year. I’m going to be writing a book you know, and getting leverage for growth into the hands of many people.

And the goal is actually. Not necessarily a transaction, but a transformation. And I know I have to actually lead by example. And so one of the things you are going to see on this podcast is just real being real about challenges that I’ve, I’ve faced or you know, Like the understanding that I had to go through a transformation.

And a lot of times people that are trying to grow and trying to accomplish what they want to accomplish in life, a lot of times there are certain beliefs or stories that they’re telling themselves that actually holds ’em back. And so one of the things that I do every morning is thing called stacking, which is basically just a systematic questioning leading towards a.

And basically tracking progress. Where am I at right now and where am I going today? What do I need to know? And I meditate in between ’em. So I’m able to really tap into my higher self and the podcast mission and what to expect going forward is just really understanding that I’m gonna share my.

My journey with you. My, my main goal is that you can learn from my experience and, and leverage some of the times where I’ll talk about, you know, challenging things almost losing a business again, and, and what did I learn and if I was to do it over again, what would I do differently? Some of the things that my clients are learning you know, as they apply leverage for growth as.

and really just get to the point where there’s some transparency. There’s a journey and I’m gonna invite you onto this journey with me. My goal is actually to release 200 episodes by the end of this year. So hold me to it, and and by the time that you’re watching this just know that the next one’s coming and I look forward to really just being a part of this.

And if anything resonates that I talk about on any one of these episodes, I really do want to. You know, stay in contact and, and be in contact with my community. Cuz my main goal is actually to you know, connect with you guys. And that’s the reason why I’m doing this podcast. So welcome to Leverage Growth podcast.

I’m super excited to have you here and I look forward to seeing you in the next episodes where we’ll talk about daily leverage and I’ll go into more of a very specific, what am I learning right now and what am I applying and how can you apply that into your business? So thank you for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.

Thanks for joining me on the Leverage for Growth podcast. I believe in you and your capabilities. I hope you spend the rest of your day feeling inspired, but keep in mind that inspiration is fueled to propel you into action. If you do not take action towards your own growth and the growth of your business, then that inspirational fuel that you’re feeling is wasted.

Put your ideas into action by joining me at our next live. It’s online. Go to niche and control.com/next live event. We have events every other week, and we cover all sorts of topics that’ll grow your business when you put them into action. So these events are for you to put that inspiration and creativity into practical action to grow your business.

I would love to see you there. Go to niche and control.com/next live event. That is niche incontrol.com/next live event. At Niche and Control, we unlock the potential within you and your agency. Through the development of you as a leader, you step forth to discover the potential you have always had. We help you with clarity of vision strategy, coming from a place of competence, operational systems to develop consistent client results and retention, pricing and packaging to differentiate you from the rest of the market and finding, developing, and managing the right team to support you in the realization of your vision.

Stop playing small, rise to your potential, your time. Can you feel it? I’ve gotten more time, more clarity, and more money.