Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in leadership development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jovan Glasgow, Founder of Glasgow International LLC, located in Dallas, TX, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I joined my first company in their management training program. Within a year, I was their number-one manager in the country. My passion for this role drove me to early success (both mine and the employees I was responsible for developing). But internally, I was suffering.
Even as I got promoted at different companies, I was working 50 to 60 hours a week and drinking a bottle of wine a night. Looking around, I saw my peers engaging in similar overwork to avoid their brokenness. Unfortunately, like so many people, this chapter of my life closed only when I received FMLA due to burnout and rapidly declining mental health. On leave, I finally fully woke up to how overwork was destructive — and just how common it is in the American workplace.
I reconnected to my Caribbean roots, where the purpose is prioritized over profit. The next iteration of my career was born from this: I blended all my practical leadership experience with personal and purpose-driven development, and Glasgow International LLC was born.
Through speaking, training, and consulting, I help organizations honor the full humanity of their people, addressing challenges like communication barriers, past experiences, overwork and burnout, and more. The leaders, coaches, executives, and managers I work with learn how to achieve more while comprising less!
Tell us about yourself
Growing up in Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean, I witnessed my father's big heart for people, especially those who were struggling. He wouldn't hesitate to help if he could, even dipping into savings to buy a neighbor a washing machine when they needed one. I looked up to him as THE example of how to serve people, and he gave me a glimpse into how that people-focused mission offered true fulfillment. But by the time I moved to Miami to pursue my degree in aeronautical engineering, like all teenagers, I think I had lost sight of that mission.
Then, in a couple-year blur, I had graduated… and my father had died, losing a swift battle with a rare form of cancer. There's a desperation to make your life mean something in the aftermath of a great loss like that. In my grief, what shined through was the example my father had given me, a life dedicated to helping people. The greatest service I knew I could provide was developing people and being a leader.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I rank on Yahoo Finance's #2 Top 10 Motivational Speakers to watch in 2021 and Choice Point's Top 30 speakers globally. As a professional Motivational Speaker, Leadership Coach, Author, and Social Entrepreneur, I have spent the past decade working alongside prominent organizations such as Kaiser Permanente, T-Mobile, One Life America, Aspen Dental, Green Bay Packers, USF Federal Credit Union, Zoll Medical, and many more – helping them create extraordinary teams that consistently produce remarkable results. Most of my clients are long-term partners who have brought me back multiple times to work with their organization again and again. Many have also referred me to organizations that could benefit from my company's services. In fact, the majority of my business comes from referrals. This is one key metric I use to measure the success of my business, and consistent client satisfaction is a huge accomplishment for me.
As a dynamic speaker and leadership coach, I deliver personal and professional development programs designed to educate, enrich, and empower. My specialized training methodology and approach help clients achieve transformative and sustainable results. Being a part of their growth journey is the why behind what I do. Every day I help clients break through their limitations and seize their potential. Getting to be a part of my client's growth journey as they experience transformation is the most rewarding part of my business.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
Balancing my heart with what's best for business. My heart wants to say yes to everybody and give to everybody. But business is about understanding my capacity and what's best for me right now. It's important for me to keep myself around people who understand my heart and will help me to balance it with my head.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Find a coach! Getting a coach will help you understand your limiting core beliefs and bad habits that are blocking you from clarity, focus, and succeeding in what you set out to do. A coach will help you break down these barriers and provide accountability.
- Make sure you are going to do something you are passionate about and believe in, something that aligns with your why.
- Get a good understanding of marketing. You can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, you'll get frustrated before you can actually see the fruits and benefits of your product.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://iamjovanglasgow.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jovan.glasgow.16
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamjovanglasgow/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jovanglasgow/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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