Resilience is not just outlasting or surviving a hardship, but taking a hit, and then coming back stronger than before.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Josh Currier: Of course, thanks for having me! Ultimately, what brought me to this specific career path was a mix of my interests, personality traits, and timing. For as long as I can remember I have been very interested in how things work – how they’re put together, why they work, what they are best for, and how they could be made better – I was curious, and I would tinker with things. You know, take things apart, put them back together, and fix broken things that my family had lying around.
I developed an interest in business and making money as well, and found that I could these two interests went hand-in-hand. My first business was a car stereo sales and installation company. I understood the technical application of designing and installing car audio systems and went into business making money for myself doing that. That started my Junior year in high school.
When 9/11 happened, during my Senior year, I opted to join the Navy and left that business behind. Years later as I finished up my enlistment, the digital space was really taking off and I had friends and family needing websites, help with social media, and online marketing. I found myself naturally inclined to help in this area, and I can say from there that the rest is pretty much history. I found what I love doing, and I love helping others grow their business.
Was there somebody in your life that inspired you to take that specific journey with your business?
Josh Currier: There have been times where I’ve gone to work for other people, and I’ve gone back and forth on running my own business. I got married young, and had kids early, so one consideration was always providing stability for my daughters. I had achieved what I suppose is a goal for many, to have a good job with a good salary, but I wasn’t really fulfilled. I actually struggled with taking the leap fully, but when I finally accepted that I’m a builder and I can offer my daughters a lot more by going all-in, then it really was them that inspired me to jump. My goal is to leave a legacy for my children and give them the opportunity and set an example in the belief that they can do anything and be whatever they want to be in this world.
What are the most common mistakes you see entrepreneurs make and what would you suggest they do?
Josh Currier: I see entrepreneurs focus on the wrong things, like their logo, having systems set up before they need them, thinking about hiring and making plans, etc. which more often than not is actually a distraction from them doing what they need to do to grow. They engage in the dream activities (little things about the business that they envision being in place when they are successful) instead of doing the actual work. The actual work is making the phone calls, marketing themselves, running ads, making the sales, etc.
A business does not exist without sales and revenue, but this seems to often get placed on the back burner. They’ll get caught up in fulfillment, trying to manage a budget, or a problem employee, or any other mix of issues. Meanwhile, they lay awake at night worrying about or dreaming about making more money. Everyday action needs to be taken towards expanding their business, making more sales, capturing more clients, and ultimately bringing in more revenue, which will help solve the other problems.
I also see a lot of entrepreneurs try and save money by looking for cheap options or trying to do anything and everything by themselves. I find this is often the case because they don’t know their numbers. They don’t know what their time is worth, they don’t know what a client/customer is worth, they don’t know what they can spend to acquire a new client/customer, so they operate within a guessing game. Without knowing their numbers, they make bad decision after bad decision,
My main suggestion for anyone who will listen is to know and understand your numbers, and action every single day to grow your business.
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Josh Currier: Within this context, I think of resilience as being able to bounce back, so to speak. When I hear the word ‘resilience’ I often think of how people say, “kids are resilient”, generally meaning that despite parental errors, setbacks in life, trauma, etc. that they’ll recover and be fine. Resilience is critical in critical times, but I think it’s more than about surviving or recovering from hard times. I think true resilience stems from perseverance – the willingness, desire, and determination to go on. Resilience is not just outlasting or surviving a hardship, but taking a hit, and then coming back stronger than before.
In your opinion, what makes your company stand out from the competition?
Josh Currier: We stand out because we compete. Our goal is to be the best at what we do, whatever we do, and to do it in a way that provides immense value and leaves an impact on our clients beyond just our service. We often enter the conversation with our clients about their business, but beyond that, we know that their business also serves their family, their community, their employees, etc. and we do our work not just to help grow their business, but to also help them serve and impact others as well.
What do you consider are your strengths when dealing with staff workers, colleagues, senior management, and customers?
Josh Currier: This makes me think of servant leadership. I’m not trying to control or manage anyone. If someone works for me, with me, as a client, vendor, etc. I consider us to be on a journey together and participating in a shared vision. As such, my relationship with anyone only covers a segment of their life – they have their family, friends, past, future, struggles, hopes, dreams, and so on that all exist outside of our scope of engagement. I have a responsibility to expect the best from everyone I’m engaged with, and they should expect the same from me. I think this belief system is what enables my strengths as a leader.
Empathy, commitment, passion, competitiveness, courage; I consider these to be some of my strengths, and I would say all of these are derived from or enhanced by that belief.
How important do you think it is for a leader to be mindful of his own brand?
Josh Currier: I think any leader should be incredibly mindful of their brand. Your brand speaks, as does your reputation. Can you get by without focus on your brand? Of course, but I think you’ll encounter limitations. A brand when properly developed and managed can do a lot of heavy lifting and provide support for your marketing and sales efforts. It can show a commitment to quality, consistency, and mindfulness.
That being said, a brand can be simple, and I think smaller businesses can fall into a trap of focusing too much on the brand. The brand is the outward expression of the company, and as such should be the expression of the company, not be relied upon as the driver of the company. Meaning, a well-developed brand is great, but it won’t save a poorly run company, and a brand alone won’t make up for the lack of action taken towards growth, improvement, etc.
What’s your favorite leadership style and why?
Josh Currier: Servant leadership, to me, is by far the most impactful way to lead. My experience in the Navy gave me the opportunity to both be led and lead. I had some great leaders, and I had some poor leaders. Likewise, I’ve also made leadership mistakes.
In all of my experiences, the leaders that I’ve had who show care and concern for me and their subordinates, who can lead while also relating, and who have always been ready and willing to take care of, look after, and invest in their people are the ones that I’ve seen be the best leaders. These are the ones that I’ve always been happy to work for, happy to do extra for, and who I cared to perform at my absolute best for because they were willing to do that for me.
Servant leadership is the most effective and impactful within the context of the work that we do and how I operate.
Do you think entrepreneurship is something that you’re born with or something that you can learn along the way?
Josh Currier: Entrepreneurship, in this context I believe referring to the drive of entrepreneurship is something I think you can be born with, and I think you can acquire it, but I think it’s solely up to you. Anyone can learn about entrepreneurship and understand the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, but being an entrepreneur and having that drive stems from something internal.
Entrepreneurship is that element that makes something greater than the sum of all the other inputs (cost of good, labor, etc.). The desire to risk greatly, to create value far and above raw inputs, to create something from vision; this to me is entrepreneurship. Trying to teach someone entrepreneurship who doesn’t have an innate drive for it is akin to teaching someone to love, to have courage, or to be passionate – all of these things can be sparked, but it’s internal.
What’s your favorite “life lesson” quote and how has it affected your life?
Josh Currier: “Si vis pacem, para bellum” – this is a quote I don’t often share because out of context, I think people consider it to be barbaric or brutal, and at the same time, unfortunately, it has been adopted by and associated with some far-right extremist organizations, so I read. And, it really is unfortunate, because they tend to lean heavily on the first part of this quote, and seem to ignore the latter part.
Translated, this quote is “If you want peace, prepare for war.” I’ve adapted this somewhat into my own as being “Seek love and peace, but prepare for war.”
To me, this quote brings a sense of passion and power, and the need to be prepared for anything, which means always being ready to be at your best, even if that ultimately means employing some level of violence, whether that’s protecting my family, my community, etc. Ultimately, that violence is reserved only for protecting others, which is the basis for this quote in the first place. Ultimately, it carries with it the question, am I prepared to give everything for those I love? Yes.
By the driving command is to seek love and peace. In that sense, I operate with love, empathy, and willingness with others to seek out and create love and joy – this is the legacy I envision for my family. That brings with it the requirement that I’m willing, in a more practical sense, to face anything that is counter to this which could be malicious actors, bad business practices, harmful policies, and damaging belief systems. Having a drive and commitment to the first part, and capacity, if needed, for the second.
This interview was originally published on ValiantCEO.