Successful entrepreneurs, like our guest Jon Matzner, realize the power of stepping outside their local bounds to find and leverage global talent. Today, Jon sits down with A.J. to discuss how venturing beyond local boundaries can give your business a massive advantage at home. They also talk about Jon's experiences living and working abroad, his transition from government to Main Street business, and his approach to creating leverage in his businesses.
About Jon Matzner
Jon Matzner is an accomplished business leader and former national security professional who divides his time between Dubai, UAE, and San Diego, California. With a rich background in government service—specifically in counter-terrorism and non-proliferation strategies—Jon brings a global perspective to his business pursuits. Since transitioning from the public sector, he has launched, acquired, and sold several businesses, demonstrating his passion for entrepreneurship through acquisition.
Jon focuses on improving businesses by hiring top talent from abroad. He aims to modernize traditional industries using AI and help from workers from around the world. He also shares his insights and experiences through his free newsletter, 'Lazy Leverage,' and his X profile.
Key Insights:
- Keep reinventing yourself. Whether it's learning a new skill or just finding a different approach to everyday tasks, self-improvement is key for every individual. But this also has a positive impact on your business. When you're learning and growing, you bring new perspectives and solutions to your work. This ultimately leads to innovative products, better services, and more efficient processes.
- Choose high-return business opportunities. Jon suggests prioritizing high-leverage activities like creating scalable systems or automating processes if you want to multiply your returns over time. This will ultimately give you more time to focus on your other ventures or priorities in life but still keep your business running smoothly.
- Always start with the problem. Instead of obsessing over groundbreaking ideas, focus on identifying a problem that your customers have. Do this through customer surveys, market research, social media, or competitor analysis to get to the core problems of your audience. Otherwise, you run the risk of creating a product or service without a clear audience or purpose.
- Build a global team. People from different backgrounds tend to approach problems and challenges uniquely. They can bring diverse and creative solutions to the table, which helps your business stay innovative. This diversity also makes your business more agile and gives you a substantial competitive advantage in your local market.
- Build your media leverage. Grow your brand by being active on social media, running a value-packed blog, sending out interesting newsletters, and creating other types of content. These tools can help increase your visibility, position you as an industry expert, and ultimately ensure you’re never out of work.
Jon’s best advice for entrepreneurs:
“I don't think of this as outsourcing. Outsourcing implies that you're throwing it over the fence, and it's no longer a part of your company. [...] No, this isn't outsourcing; this is building a global team.”
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