In this eye-opening episode, Author, Business Coach, and Corporate Trainer, J Haleem, shares how he went from making minimum wage to helping business owners consistently land 6 and 7 figure contracts.
You’ll discover how much work is available that you never even knew existed, why a little patience goes a very long way with government contracts, and who is the ideal candidate to work with local, state or even federal government entities.
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach and I am here with yet another high demand coach and that is the one and only Jay Aleem Washington. He’s a serial entrepreneur. He’s a business coach, a commercial photographer, a motivational speaker and a corporate trainer, who’s worked with international brands, maybe you’ve heard of the Nike, Save the Children, NFL Amtrak, the WNBA. And he’s also a three time best selling author, including his latest book business corner, what’s really needed to survive the entrepreneurial fight. Jay, hello, I’m so excited to have you on the show. Welcome, welcome. Welcome. I’d love to introduce everybody to who you are, and start with your story. Tell us a little bit about what you’re doing before you are a coach and how that led to starting your own coaching practice and why?
J Haleem Washington
Oh, man, thank you so much for having me here. But you know, I was in an entrepreneurial fight. Like we talked about, and you know, me, I was born and raised in northern New Jersey. Um, I came up in the crack era was everybody’s making movies about now. And my family was hit hard. Just like the people you see in the movies, every adult in my household, except for my grandmother was strung out on drugs. I was the first grandchild, so I had a choice to do something different. But I still was doing a little you know, my way I made my money was a little nefarious. But that was all I thought at the time. So you know, I was a good kid went to school play basketball, but how I made my money was just a little different. I became a felon in my first year of college. And, um, you know, I finished school with great grades dean’s list, but I couldn’t get a job. Because that back in those days, it just wasn’t as, you know, lenient as it is now. It’s still rough on experiments. But it was hard, then, you know, and I lived in the South, I lived in South Carolina, and they would not trying to hear none of that stuff. So, you know, I left there for a while came back when the recession hit around Obama years. And I had to face it all over again. I was like, I forgot that I was a felon. So I got back there. And they do it in my face. And um, I had to take an $8 an hour job. Just to feed my family. I had two kids at that time young. And I’m a year into that I realized, like, you’re way better than this. You know, you are you know, and I did knock somebody who’s working that job. I took it because I’m not the ones going to complain. I gotta do something. But I had the camera that I own. I didn’t like I used to do a media work, filming. But I didn’t want to take the pictures ever asked me to take pictures. I always say no, I’m not a photographer. But I sold my camera. I was trying to attempt to sell my camera, because we knew you had money problem. I sold it to my pastor. And my pastor gave it back to me two weeks later and say God told him that I needed to do something with it. I went, I went crazy about the camera after that, and became a pretty dope photographer, I would say. And what got me into the coaching space was I started working with the government. You know, I got introduced to a gentleman that worked for the city of Columbia, who I learned in Columbia, South Carolina. I actually did the mayor’s headshot. And through that I met somebody from the city. And he said, he asked me say hey, do you know anything about working for the government? I said no. And he told me about getting certifications and things of that nature that did it. And I was just I just catapulted my business. I didn’t know that the government paid photographers or people who use cameras over half a billion dollars a year. And so I did very, very well with that. But um, I started making acquaintances with people in the local government space. And he was talking to me about supply diversity, and how they were having a hard time meeting their quotas. Some of them had 10% 12% quotas. I never had a problem putting people in a room that created the I won’t starve experience, which is this my monitor, I won’t start with putting my brand now. But I’m actually at the start of experience where I brought a bunch of minority business owners, to a workshop for them to have an opportunity to get make relationships and become certified with the local, state and federal government. It was extremely successful. We did it about eight times in South Carolina, we’re still doing it to this day. I’m in South Carolina and surrounding areas, we’ve helped over 600 businesses to become certified and do business with the government. And that’s what my consultant and coaching space went because again, you can get certified but that’s just the beginning of it. He’s still got a lot of work to do to actually maintain a business and do and be a special contractor. That’s what my coaching journey started.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic. Fantastic. So if we fast forward into well into the coaching journey now, what would you say is some of the most important work that you’re doing for your clients?
J Haleem Washington
Oh, man, you know, the education portion is everything because I have clients who were doing millions of dollars um, it then went here is goes but you know, we are all a business that ebbs and flows and they they’d never known about doing government contracting work. And they never knew how to scale their business. And most will have that situation where you don’t have to worry about a contract for the next nine years. Because you’re working with the government. And because that’s one of my, that’s my main niche. I’ll go and get these businesses and go ahead and shore up their business even more with getting government contracts. They’re already prepared, they haven’t anything. They’re just afraid to do the paperwork. They don’t know how to navigate when you say all the opportunities that they see on the list of things for the government to do. They don’t know how to get there. So we help them navigate that space. So yeah, the education portion has been the best thing for me, I love to teach.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s awesome. What would you say are some of the biggest challenges with getting getting for profit private businesses, working in the public sector space?
J Haleem Washington
Patience, you know, they want it right now, you know, the funny thing is, I always tell them, I say to people that you’re trying to fail are not entrepreneurs, the government has their own timeframe, and they’re not going to change it for you. And we’re not in the mafia, breaking people’s legs and making them give them a contract is the system, you know, you got to get in the system, and start let this circulate. But once you get there is the blessing, because, again, they’re not entrepreneurs, they’re not going through the certification list and say, Who who’s certified for this, they know you, and you got it under $100,000, contract potential contract, they don’t have to get no other bids, they already know you and call you that look for somebody else. He did a good job last time for them. And so it’s a sweet deal. Um, when it comes to that, so yeah, it’s just a patient. So getting them to understand that it’s a system, the entrepreneurship period, but they want it right now.
Scott Ritzheimer
As a founder, myself, and I know, you’re too we get it, we really do. But patience is a virtue, and it pays off in the long run. So how do you help folks identify whether or not you’re working toward government sector jobs? is the right fit for them?
J Haleem Washington
Oh, man, you know, that’s, that’s a great question. For me, you know, sometimes I tell people, it’s not for them, you know, and I do an assessment, and I talk to him and tell him, first of all, that I paid you peace, then financially, because if you’re talking about going to the government, you have to wait, that’s good, you got a million dollar contract, that’s not your money, the government is going to tell you that you got to have a certain amount of people employed on this contract, they’re gonna tell you how much you have to pay the minimum. And when you employ the private sector, you don’t have to do all of that you can kind of do it how you see fit, but the government a lot of oversight, I don’t oversight, and you got to learn the game. And so they’re not ready to do that. I’ll tell them, that’s probably not for you. And that’s not the only people I work with, but that’s my main thing. And, um, but I will tell people immediately, that’s how a lot of people call me because they want to get the government. And I say no, I can probably help you make some money, and tell you what to do and straighten up your company. But you got to intersystem to do this thing. And if you’re not prepared for I will tell you not to hurt yourself.
Scott Ritzheimer
Right. I think it’d be helpful if you could give us a couple of examples of what you’re talking about. Because I mean, you talked about being a photographer for the government space, right? There’s something I don’t think anyone knew that that was a thing, right? I don’t think you’re alone in that. So why don’t you just give us a couple of examples of types of contracts that companies have one, working with the government?
J Haleem Washington
Oh, my God. So let’s start with myself. I shot for every airport in the state of South Carolina and Charlotte airport, and a couple of times for Atlanta airport. Now, what do you mean, shoot? Well, they have functions all the time with their time. I’m trying to get time on suppliers. They’re all those events. I’m shooting those events, all the offices, so DOP offices, I’m doing headshot for them, you know, documenting things when when construction sites and things like that you wouldn’t bring drones out, you know, all that those pictures you’ve seen on website when they’re telling you, you know, this is coming up that somebody took those photos or did that video. And so we didn’t think about that bill, I got put in into that space. Well, but some of the people I’ve helped, I mean, I have right now I got a four tier company here in Vegas. They just they have to, you know, plants in North Las Vegas, they make tortillas. That’s it, they sell it to the military, local government to you know, things of that nature. I have not tried to help people get their water, you know, a million dollars worth of water. You know, bottled water. We did a school car chat where they wanted ketchup packets. Like the government buys everything. You know, the government buys everything. I work with roofing companies, you know, so we’ve done things with local fire departments, from the government space to police department, stuff like that. So, I mean, the government buys everything. is nothing except for haircare. I wouldn’t. That’s the only thing. I don’t see them. I never saw the government purchased something like hair care. But other than that there’s not too many things that the government don’t buy?
Scott Ritzheimer
Wow. Well, so one of the things I know, and you’ve even mentioned this is that the government has programs that are there to help lift up and benefit disadvantaged businesses of all kinds. Right? So why don’t you tell us because that those categories are way broader than I think most people know. So tell us what types of you know, businesses would would qualify for contracts like that? And and maybe even for those who don’t? What they can do to partner up with others who may.
J Haleem Washington
You ask them amazing question, because that’s exactly what we try to convince people to do. Everybody that’s not a heterosexual white male is a minority contract. So everybody is for the most part can be a minority contract. And it is common practice, it’s kind of frowned upon, but not particularly illegal. But people that might have a wife and say, Hey, you go ahead and sign up, or they put their wife as the 51%, owner of the company and go ahead and get the minority status. Although they do that all the time. Again, it’s kind of frowned upon, but I don’t think he’s illegal. But I do encourage people to partner up. And not just if you don’t qualify for minority contracts as a minority contractor. But if you’re having a hard time, and you really need to get this business, you might want to partner with the person who’s already in it. And you can go ahead and create that strategic alliance, so that you can start making money and you don’t, you could probably skip past patients, well, because they already have the cert and then the primary contractor, then you can just be itself and the government allows a lot of a lot of sub contractors underneath their award for you to be so all they got to do is let them know that you love and you fit the criteria. And the rest is history.
Scott Ritzheimer
Got it? Got it. Got it. And one of the places that I know folks can get caught up is kind of navigating the different layers of government. So there’s federal or state, there’s local. How do you how do you recommend? I mean, obviously, folks, if they’re at all interested, just called Jay Halim, like he’s gonna, he’s gonna do that. But how would you tell people to, like, where’s the best place to start working in that environment?
J Haleem Washington
It just all depends on the company. So like, somebody is doing what I do what I know. So if I start, when I started, I would say go local, because you a lot of times, you’re gonna have a lot of work. Because they these are contracted, they don’t need multiple bidders. You know, some local offices have enough of a credit card that it’s been up to 20,000 out. So they can just cut you a check. You don’t have to wait. You know, but you got to have a certification if they require it. Some offices don’t, um, locally, but it’s more and more now. And they’re starting to have these certifications, because it benefits them. And when they get Miss money, and they quote us, they got to do the COLAs. But I will tell them, I like that start date locally. If you got 15 truck, you know, and you’re going up and down multiple states. I’m saying let’s go federal, you know, let’s let’s talk federal. So I go off of what somebody’s doing. Like I talked about the toe to toe to come company. They have things here. It makes it harder for them to go all over the place, though. But we have the federal government here. You have the military here, you got the local schools, and even some of the casinos in the Vegas area getting in the supply diversity space.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. All right. So I’m actually I’m dying to know how you’re going to answer this question. It’s a question I ask every one of my guests and it tends to be my favorite part of the show. But what would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing that you wish everyone listening today knew?
J Haleem Washington
You know, I think that the biggest secret that wasn’t a secret, it’s not a secret. And that’s that hard work pays off. And reason why I say that is because now we live in a social media age. And they’re telling people that you can just do this one thing, and you’ll be rich, or you can circumvent the system. And that’s just not true. I was literally just in a dealership trying to I’m working on getting another vehicle for my company. And we had a laugh because the guy said, Hey, you have credit lines in your business. You have your Dun and Bradstreet set up, you have all your stuff together. I have people coming in all the time with just the LLC paperwork and say I want a car without a personal guarantee. I say we I told the guy said that comes off the internet. I said they heard too many people tell them that they can do it this way. You know, so they’re telling people how to be self employed, not actively entrepreneurs. And it’s the system that you can step out and work for yourself immediately. But to be an entrepreneur and actually run a business that takes some doing and that’s hard work. And it does pay off, but it takes some time.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, that’s so good. That actually leads us to be to your book, your more recent book, which is business corner, what’s really needed to survive the entrepreneurial fight? There it is. So just give us a minute or two on, why did you feel like it was needed to write that book? Who’s it for? And what can they expect to get from it?
J Haleem Washington
You know, it’s funny story behind that I wrote a blog for about a year and a half straight every week, called Business corner, and it was talking to beginner entrepreneurs, it’s talking about being in a corner, that was my job to be in the corner. I do all of that stuff out when you talk to me to write this book. And I focused on the whole business of gambit from soup to nuts from beginning to business to selling the company, because I realized that is not one part of entrepreneurship, but you don’t need someone in your corner. And I liken it to a fight in a boxing match. And we’ve seen some amazing people fighting but they never came to the corner, I’m attending to the ring alone, they always have to make an appointment, even if they couldn’t athletically perform like they was they still with people around them, people around them that brought the best out of them, that made them feel like they can do it. And we as entrepreneurs truly, truly need that. We don’t have that enough. That’s why they say those numbers are staggering. 80% of businesses fail in the first year, I’m sure that they don’t have the support. And some of the things I put in the book, I said, you know, you tell your wife or your spouse, hey, we started this business. And that means if you’re a real entrepreneur, that means next five years, he’s not wearing a Louis Vuitton bag, you’re not going on a trip, you’re not doing these things. And he might say you’re crazy. And then, you know, once the five minutes is over, you got $100,000 in the black, and you saying hey, now we should be able to be okay, no, baby, we got to put all this back into the business. Now. You got a you got to have somebody around you that thinks like you or understand your level of thinking, or your level of crazy to actually be able to be successful as an entrepreneur. And that’s what I call being a surprise business point.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, that is so good. And I couldn’t agree more. I love that you called it an entrepreneurial fight. Because this mystique and you know, it just myth of you can be an entrepreneur, and it’s wonderful and you sit in your boxers on the other seasiders. I don’t know what people are doing. But that’s not true. And, and again, I want to pull this out, because I don’t know if folks caught it or not. But like, if you are an entrepreneur, if you’re considering if you’re not married to an entrepreneur, right, but are thinking about it, like if you are married to an entrepreneur, you are an entrepreneur, but it does not stop when they come home, you know, it does not stop in the business bank account. And, and and it’s one of the biggest challenges I think that you have as an entrepreneur is it’s not just business, right? We even had someone on earlier, and she just did a phenomenal job talking about the personal journey of an entrepreneur. It’s very personal, personal journey for the entrepreneurs spouse as well. And you’re right, you’ve gotta be on the same page. You absolutely do. So good. That is so good. I’d love to ask you one more question. And then we can just make sure folks know how to reach you. But I’m gonna have you take off because I love that you’re wearing a hat because there’s work so take off your coach consultant hat for a moment, put on your CEO hat again, for us your entrepreneur hat and tell us what’s the next stage of growth look like for you and your business and what challenges we have to overcome to get there?
J Haleem Washington
Well, I’m in the middle of my next stage of growth, I literally just relocated to the biggest area from South Carolina, which is a whole nother market. A way bigger market. You know, where I was had 150,000 people maybe about 400,000 in that general area, we’re at about three or 4 million people in the area where I am. So I’m in the middle of that getting acclimated to the area. You know, everything cost a whole lot more. You know, here, I had a 3000 square foot space. In South Carolina, I got about 1000 Right now, I didn’t know what I was what to expect. Exactly. But we’re looking to grow before the year is out, get back to where we were there and just just go high and go go further. I’ve made contracts and on the West Coast. I started working with other doing business b2b from the coaching space. So I’m started going in offering my coaching services to other companies that didn’t have coaching, you know, there wasn’t offering coaching. So it worked out I have a contract with a company in San Diego, that I’ve been working with over the last year just renew that contract. So it’s a great look. And we’re working on other companies as well.
Scott Ritzheimer
it’s fantastic. Fantastic. All right. I know we’ve got folks listening, they’re like Absolutely. I’ve never thought about this before but why haven’t I you know, it’s taught me of the government buys everything. I’ve got something. So how can they how can they find out more about you and what you do?
J Haleem Washington
jhaleem.com. Put J Haleem in there in our Google search, go to .jhaleem.com You’ll see my consulting firm J Haleem LLC. I Won’t Starve my first book, baby. And also my mantra and my movement. Put in I Won’t Starve or go to IWon’tStarve.com and you’ll see the nonprofit as well. I Won’t Starve Academy where we help minority business owners to get started. And we just want entrepreneurial training based off my second book, U Won’t Starve key principles entrepreneur development, because we believe that entrepreneurship is like going to the military, we can train you but you gotta get the basic training first. Yep, find me.
Scott Ritzheimer
Well, thank you so much for being on the show. It’s just an absolute absolute pleasure having you here and for everyone listening today, your time and attention means the world to us. I’m so glad you’re here. I hope you got as much out of this show as I did. And I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
J Haleem Washington
Thank you so much, man. Appreciate you.
Contact J Haleem Washington
J Haleem Washington is a serial entrepreneur, business coach, motivational speaker, and corporate trainer who has worked with international brands like Nike, Save The Children Foundation, NFL, Amtrak & The WNBA. He’s also a 3-time best-selling author including his latest book Business Corner: What’s Really Needed to Survive the Entrepreneurial Fight.
Want to learn more about J Haleem? Check out his website at https://www.jhaleem.com
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