“I’m not a ‘businessman’. I’m a business, man.”
That famous quote is from the great American philosopher, Shawn Carter aka Jay-Z.
And Forbes recently reported that Jay-Z Is a $1 Billion dollar business, man. (Billion with a capital B, as in the three comma club.)
Jay-Z has 22 Grammys and 14 #1 albums but at a measly $75 million bucks that’s just a small portion of his total net worth. According to Forbes, while music might be what he is best known for it’s actually the third least valuable of all his assets.
Meanwhile, his stake in champagne company Armand de Brignac ($300 bucks a bottle) is his most valuable position at $310 million.
He also owns a chunk of Uber, the cognac D’Usse and streaming service Tidal.
Why is his champagne company so successful? Well a big part of it is because he’s smart enough to reference it in many of his songs.
Why did his streaming company gain quick traction? Because he partnered with other artists like Alicia Keyes, Beyonce, Jason Aldean, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, and Rihanna just to name a few. As it is artist-owned they don’t have to share a piece of the streaming royalties with a big corporation like artists do with Pandora or Spotify.
He also owns the rights to his music catalog and doesn’t have to share a piece of that pie either. With the democratization of media and publishing today, that move has proven to be sheer genius.
Yeah whatever Coach Bru… what’s any of this got to do with me?
Glad you asked. Are you a businessman or are you a business, man. (Before some of you get offended, feel free to replace man w/ woman in that sentence.)
It’s chess not checkers…
As I illustrated for you, Jay-Z has branding on top of branding on top of branding.
And there’s a lesson in that for everyone.
His music feeds his champagne brand, his on stage appearances feed his apparel line Rocawear as well as his record sales, his music feeds his streaming company and vice-versa. Instead of popularizing someone else’s brand and making them money, he either creates his own or buys positions in a variety of brands.
You get the point.
Now here’s the big question for you…
How are you utilizing one aspect of your business to grow another aspect of your business, man?
While I’m not quite at Jay-Z’s level (not yet at least) I am taking a page from his playbook…
My speaking business feeds my book sales and coaching business, my book sales feed my coaching and consulting business and vice-versa. It’s a concept called intentional congruence.
And while it might not be a champagne brand or a position in Uber, I do have a couple other irons I’m putting into the fire. (I’ll tell you later.)
The same thing is happening for many of the top performers in my membership community. Take Tyler Brandt for example, he began his business 7 Second Coach as a coaches effectiveness expert which then spun off a coaches certification platform in Iowa, which he then rolled out nationally.
This led to his creation of a college and career-entry consulting service which he launched with two business partners.
My thumbprint might be on a little bit of his business, man. But he did all the hard work and is reaping the benefits as he’s doubled his income each year for the past three years.
This is just one example of many inside my inner-circle.
If you want to move from business man to being a business, man…
THIS is the place to do it.
