What makes business HARD (and how to fix it)

I'm Jean-Pierre, founder of Empire Blueprint, a digital consulting firm, but more and more we've turned out to be a tech startup who builds AI products and sells them as SaaS software. I'm shooting this video raw and in one take, and it's really for myself, and I don't know if I'm going to publish it, but when people say that business is hard, well, there's two types of people: those that say business is hard and we think that they're lying about it, just to make it, to deter us from doing it. And there's those who say it's hard and truly, truly believe it and give us all the tools around it. My shower thought this morning was, what if it's hard? So business is hard. And then I want to go into this video for my own sake as to why, why it's hard and what makes it hard and what we can do about it. So I'm going to not structure my thoughts in any particular manner. I'm just going to lay them out the way that they appear in my head. And I hope that if you— if I do choose to put this online and I feel like it's worthy of getting people to watch, that it helps someone else who's going through the same thing as though why is it so hard and then how does it impact their personal life because it impacts mine. And I think I've solved it in my head, not sure how far we'll get, but let's try thinking this through together. Um, let's start with the first statement that business is hard. It's hard up until you realize that there are a number of steps and tasks that can be, can, that can be completed in a typical scenario or sequence to achieve a desired outcome. So it's hard if you don't know the recipe, it's hard if you don't know the formula, it's hard if you don't know the way. But even if you failed the first 100 times in trying to find what the way is, I'm becoming of the belief that once you have found that way it's not hard any longer. Some would say, well, even when you know everything to do, it's still hard. And the antidote to hard is to be consistent. And it's like, well, if you could be consistent, you'd win at life and at work. But what makes consistency hard? And I think for me, as the individual I am, it's the ability or the lack of ability to exert self-control over the boring mundane shit that I never want to do again and again and again and again and again. And I know I've heard this so many times, but I'm not sure why it sounded so different today. So think of it like— I was thinking of in the shower, like, okay, it's hard to be in a committed relationship for a lot of people because they have to get rid of all other options and focus on one. It's hard to stick to one game. It's hard to stick to one favorite thing. Like, there's so many options. I keep looping back to this thought process that what makes things hard isn't that things are inherently hard, but there's so many other fun or cooler or grass is greener things that you could be doing, and that makes you feel like what you're doing is hard because you're looking at everything else and losing sight of what you should be doing. And it would be normal to lose sight because it's so goddamn repetitive. And I think we were created to do the fun thing, the different thing. And so when I look at it, it's like, it's not that it's hard, it's that you have to be extremely or ridiculously committed to doing the same thing again and again and again till perfection, knowing that perfection is never true. Aiming for good enough and not giving up in the process, which is what we call hard. For me, hard is the process of doing the same thing every day without seeing a result and being willing and committed to realize that if you do that, you will inherently become the best at it, and then there will be a result waiting. For me, this is particularly, uh, interesting at my— at this time in my life because it's been 2 and a half years. If you'd say that we started— I can say we, but I started Empire Blueprint. We, because we're a team. But I started on my own in April 2023, and as I record this video, it's September 2025. So I'd score that 2.5 years. Um, yeah, it's hard because all I've done in that time is do the same thing again and again and again. And the good news is, or what I should be proud of, is that when we started selling in June of '24, uh, we did like $1 million in that first year. So we got to 7 figures within the first year. What I find hard is that I'm still choosing to take nothing home. Because I'm putting every dollar, every cent, everything I've got, every fiber of my being, along with still 12-15 hour days back into not so much the business but the team and the structure of the business and the systems in the world that will organize the business. And that can be hard and disheartening. It can be very, very demoralizing when you think you've understood something, when you think you've— I finally solved a problem— and you've solved it, or you've solved the wrong one, or you solve the right one at the wrong time, or you just solve something that doesn't need to be solved at all. Like, you focused on the wrong thing. And it's a humbling lesson to be like, well, probably it's because the thing that you should be doing— so for me, I'm currently rewriting all their marketing materials so the marketing team know what to do. They have structures, deliverables, and outcomes for content because without it they feel lost. It's hard because I've done it before, and the first hire cost me $60K. That was like a complete waste of like 12 months. I ended up paying her the, her final 6 weeks and said like, good luck. Then the next one like bummed as well. So it's cost me real money and it's cost me real people. And I guess I'm hiring people that I could afford at the time, hoping that they had something that I didn't have, but realizing that really they didn't. All that they actually had was the title because they've done more reps, but they haven't bothered to workflow it or think it through. And so that's hard, going through and getting burnt, losing money losing the trust in people who said they could do one thing, and then losing trust sometimes in your own ability as the leader who should know what to do when it doesn't know. And like, you have to still make decisions without having all the facts, and you've got to be responsible for the outcome and accountable to the thing that goes wrong. And you give away all the credit, and that's hard because you're not looking for credit or validation. If you're, if you're the person listening to this, if you're like me, you're just looking for a different lifestyle or an easier lifestyle, or you're looking to make a difference. It's hard because we're not consistent, and the answer to hard is, well, be consistent. Well, then I'd rebut the question that I hear from everyone online, which is consistency is key, which is true. And then, so if hard— if being, um, if business is hard, then be consistent. Okay, that's agreed. Can you please tell me, and this video wants to try and unpack in my own head, well then, what's the key to being consistent? Right, and I think because being consistent is hard at anything in life. So work, business is hard, it's like yeah, anything's hard if you're not consistent. And that consistency is hard, so let's go in and dig deeper for my own sake in that one. So consistency is hard when you feel like you're doing it all for nothing. These are things that stand out to me. When you're working hard and you're seeing no results. When those around you can't see what you can see. And they don't need to, but it's just like sometimes you might lose your way, sometimes it might be a hard day. And you want someone to talk to that won't tell you slow down or ease up, I would say keep going, remember this, remember this, or remember that, or who would correct your path and remind you. And I've written on my mirror like, remember why you came here, because I know that I forget. And I know that my faith keeps me grounded and helps me, and my goal is huge to help other men. But I said that so I wouldn't lose track of who I was and where I was going. But there's times where even I lose that, because on your own for a long period of time— and this period of time really is lonely It's a lot of work hidden away from the world, trying to uncover and unpack what makes business hard and trying to simplify it for others, truthfully doing it for myself, and in the process documenting everything along the way. It's not the most sexy of things to be doing, yet I still feel like nothing is more important. And I'm terrified to share it with the world, but I know that I should. Yet I also still don't feel like I don't know how to present it. And then I think, well, why do I worry about these things? Like, I know I've done this, I know I've got this. Like, I know I know my stuff. Put me in a room with anybody else in that space and I would beat them. Like, I'm confident not about who they are, but about the work I've done and who I am. If consistency is hard And if the antidote to work being hard is be consistent, then what is the antidote to consistency being hard? Faith. Because it allows me to zoom out of life as it is and realize that, like, no matter what I do, I'm going away to a better place, and that this is temporary. That's tied closely tied with the imminence of death, because nothing truly ever really matters, and no one really ever belongs to anyone. For our parents, we come— we don't belong to them, rather we come through them. And what a humbling, sad reality that is, right? But faith, imminent death, which would be memento mori, I believe, in some, in some other— yeah, this is cool. I can see where this video could go, but let me stay on track, right? Um, Family, and by family I don't think I mean the ones that you're born with. I think the family that some of us call friends, that we choose to have along the way and that we keep in our lives because they understand us and we understand them, or they don't but we still hold space for each other and love and care about one another. Faith. This is so interesting, I was looping. For me, farming, because farming is grounding, but not everyone has that opportunity, but something to do with, with nature. So if an antidote to consistency is nature. Well, how does that work? Because it's such a weird thing. It's like, well, we were never born with phones in the— once upon a time when God created Earth, we didn't create it with phones, and technology might be taking that away. So get out into nature. So to be more consistent, spend more time in nature and off digital stuff, which sounds so stupid because like it's the— it's like, duh. But so many people don't do that. And if they're walking outside in nature, they're walking still looking at their phone. Like, switch off from digital stuff for a day a week, for half a day a week, for an hour a week. I guess I call nature farming, but at the end it's also the ability to take action and to move. It's not to— it's not to sleep it off. This is something I'm struggling with because it's like, it's not going to get better in your dreams or in your sleep. It's not, um, going to get better by you overthinking or by mental masturbation. Run, jump, stretch, like get it out of your physical body. And so maybe the key to consistency through this video— and if I can unlock the key to consistency in, in my life or simplify that in some other way for not only myself but for others, I can then take those teachings and adapt them to how they work for, for business or work, what people would call work. And I'd say some of the antidotes that have been true for me anyway in my life for when I have not been consistent and it's affected my personal life and my work life have been faith, family, farming/nature, getting off the digital stuff, and then movement. And so I hope that you found value in this. I hope that I watch this and I find value in it. As I said, I don't know if I'm going to post it, but I think I will. I think I should. If you do watch this, I'd love to know what you think down in the comments below. And it looks like I am now. And as always, think your hardest, work your best, and know that God will take care of the rest. I look forward to doing more of these, and I also look forward to seeing if this is the type of content you like. And then note for myself, When you watch this back, remember that today is the 28th of September, '25. You're rewriting all of the marketing content. You're having to create new resources for the AI space. You've got a speech coming up next week about manufacturing and AI. You know you're going to ace it, but typically you're nervous because why wouldn't you be? Because it's a larger audience. As the audience you reach now, JP, keeps growing, you start becoming more nervous. But keep on going. You've got this. You can do all things through Christ who strengthened you. And always remember, Godspeed.