No Joke! A Visit to KFC Led to My Launching My Online Course Building Business

You may not believe it, but a visit to KFC  (Yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken) was key for launching the business I run to this day.

So here I am at KFC. I love fried chicken. Being on a budget, the $4 to $5 dinner worked for me. It was the second evening of a conference I was attending. It was an event in Phoenix to learn this marketing automation CRM I used in my business.

I had just left a presentation where I felt as if these three speakers on stage were talking right at me.

“Can you afford to learn these tools by yourself? Do you have the time to work trial-and-error figuring this out on your own? Wouldn’t it be better to tap into the knowledge we have so you don’t have to do it solo?”

Note: One of these presenters was Michael Mitchell. More on him in a moment.

I couldn’t get their presentation out of my head. Joining their mastermind program, to get the help I knew I needed, would cost me $800 a month.

That was a LOT OF MONEY for me back then.

I was able to make the conference because I used frequent flyer miles for the airfare. An almost maxed out credit card paid for my hotel and car rental.

Getting to that conference was a stretch. 

At the time, my title was Director of IT. That meant I had a lot of responsibility and only mediocre pay. I worked my consulting side gig to bring in money I needed badly for my family.

You see my wife and I have three daughters, each gifted with their own unique learning disability. The private schooling and tutoring to keep them mainstreamed tapped every penny I made.

I constantly felt ashamed and inadequate. Why was it I could barely provide for what the needed? We were always in catch up mode.

Paying for this mastermind, which I knew I needed, was competing with my “barely keeping my head above water” existence. Was I letting my girls down thinking I could get this?

After some soul searching, I called the wife. I explained, “Honey, I need this mastermind thing for my business. I never have enough time with two jobs.  This can speed up my learning and make it so I can handle more business in less time.”

My wife knows me well. She knows my engineering mindset.  I’m very calculated and not at all impulsive with spending. She was quiet for a little while and says, “You know what you’re doing. I trust you. Do it!”

I finished my chicken, got back to those speakers and joined the mastermind.

That small step was a turning point. It was the first on my road to launching my now Larry Jacob Internet Marketing.

Earlier, I mentioned Michael Mitchell. He was one of those three presenters. He ran a business that built tools for creating online and membership sites. When I joined the mastermind, he was after me, “Jorge. You do web development. Membership and online course websites are a big deal. Learn them.”

At first, I didn’t get it. I didn’t see the market opportunity like he did. But he worked with me patiently and slowly I came around. I eventually learned it well and focus my entire business 100% on working with business owners and their membership and online course sites.

That was key moment at KFC, with all of its gut wrenching,

• do I have the money,
• couldn’t I just figure it out on my own, and
• a ton of self-doubt.

I was the spark that got me to where I am today. It gave me the tools, support and. most importantly, outside expertise I needed.

If you’re reading this right now, you might be at your own crossroad. You have responsibilities at home. You have big plans to move yourself and those you love forward. You too might be worried about the money. You can be concerned about your lack of time to spend with your loved ones. You have all the pressures of life.

You might be thinking to yourself, “I can stick it out and do it on my own. You may be able to to it, but would be the cost of making the choice?

• Are you unnecessarily delaying something that jumpstart your business forward?
• Are you heads down focused on “figuring it out on your own” and that is costing you a lot of time you could be spending with wife, kids, loved ones?
• Is fear (meaning blood pressure, stress, etc.) going up and up and up paralyzing you, keeping you in the status quote and holding you back from a future that is so much better for you and the people you care for?

If this is where you’re at, reach out and schedule a call. I’ve been at the crossroad and I can share what you some options for getting support so you can get from where you are now to where you want and need to be.

Take that next step. I can make a big difference in your life.

Grab a spot on my calendar. The call is free and there’s no obligation.