In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Joshua Jordan, the founder and CEO of Chosen Drinks. Jordan shares a personal story about failing a college placement test and being placed at a 5th‑grade reading level, then dedicating five hours a day to reading and writing to raise his level to college standard within a year, illustrating perseverance. He emphasizes the importance of staying current in one’s field through continuous education, especially in the competitive food‑and‑beverage industry, and advises entrepreneurs to create businesses that stand out rather than mimic existing brands. Jordan counsels his younger self to focus on one pursuit at a time to build a niche. He identifies self‑discipline as the key to happiness, explaining that without it one may say “yes” to everything and sacrifice personal fulfillment. Discussing a memorable book by Andrew Carnegie (unnamed), he highlights the need to treat both employees and customers with respect. His favorite quote, from Reginald F. Lewis, “The dream is free, but the hustle is sold separately,” underscores the necessity of action behind aspirations. Finally, he provides his social‑media handles (Instagram: King Josh 215, Facebook: Joshua King Jordan, LinkedIn: Joshua Jordan) for listeners to connect.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Joshua Jordan with us. He is an entrepreneur and CEO of Chosen Drinks. So welcome to the show, Joshua.
Hey, thank you, thank you, thank you, Tyler. I appreciate you bringing me onto your show.
Yeah, I Of course, man. Happy to have you on. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Josh, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Okay, yeah, so prime example. After graduating high school, I had 3 choices. Either I was gonna go to trade school, college, or the military. So I decided to go to college and like, eh, and within the Philadelphia public schools, some of the skills that we obtained throughout the schools don't really like help us like after high school. So I decided to go with college. I decided to attend Community College of Philadelphia. I took the placement test, and I failed. The results that I received were that I was on a 5th grade reading level.
Wow.
Yeah, but I never let that stop me from pursuing college. So I decided to start taking some time out to do reading and writing. And I set my schedule for every day, Monday through Friday, to at least take 5 hours out of the day to do reading and writing. And the results of that is within one year, I was able to increase my reading level to a college level. So I'm guessing, well, the message behind it is like when you have a goal, you should never let anything stop you and just continue to persevere and break those barriers. So yeah.
The next question I have for you is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
As far as expertise, I would say stay on top of, stay on top of the game. And what I mean by that is you always want to know within your expertise, you want to know what's new, because if you don't, you will be left behind and just and just trying to figure out a new niche, and possibly that niche might not even be useful to everyone else. So I would say just continue to, I guess, get, no, no, receive continuing education just to stay on top of your game. As far as industry, I'm in like the food and beverage industry. So it's all about being competitive and creating new things that customers want. So yeah.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
Okay. I guess it would be try to stand out as far as business. Try to create a business that's actually gonna stand out and not be like all the other brands in whatever industry you're actually in. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure if that answered the question.
No, no, it does. And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I would say to be focused on one thing at a time. Because when you are young, I mean, you always want to have your hand in almost everything. And sometimes it can be stressful, I mean, because you're really— running around trying to do all these things and trying to achieve all these goals. But sometimes it's just, it's best to just do one thing at a time and basically build off of that and create your niche or your craft rather. So yeah.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
The key to happiness, I would say, is self-discipline. And the reason why I say that is because, I mean, discipline is one of the key elements as to why I'm happy because, because I feel as though, like, if you don't have it, you'll basically just be saying yes to anything. And sometimes you're, sometimes you saying yes isn't gonna make you happy, but it might make the other person happy, but it might not make you happy. Yeah.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I read a lot of books, man. This is a tough one. I'll probably say from, there was a book I read, I forgot what it's called though. It was from Andrew Carnegie, I believe his name is. It's like a red book, red and white. I really forgot what it's called.
Sorry, man.
But yeah, one of the things that I learned from the book as far as business is basically about the psyche, psychology portion behind it as far as treating your employees and your customers right. I feel as though sometimes in business we only treat our customers right and then we treat our employees wrong. As if they're not human. So, I mean, yeah, so that book gave me a better understanding of how to just treat people overall with the proper respect as far as business.
Yes. And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote comes from a guy, his name is Reginald F. Lewis. Yeah, so his quote is, de The dream is free, but the hustle is sold separately. And the reason why is because a lot of us have dreams, but we don't have the action behind it to really carry that dream out. So, I mean, so basically we're basically having thoughtless thoughts, you feel me? So, I mean, 'cause I feel as though for you to carry that thought out or that dream out. You need to have a plan in place and the footwork in action to make that dream manifest. So yeah.
And thank you so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
You can find me on Instagram, King Josh 215, or Facebook Joshua King Jordan, or LinkedIn Joshua Jordan.
Yeah, perfect. Thanks again for joining us. We appreciate it.
Hey, thank you, Tyler, and I appreciate you taking time out of your day to interview me. Of course, brother.
We'll talk with you soon.
Yes, yes, I will talk to you soon. Thank you.
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