Justin Taylor: Higher Education | The Business Blast Podcast #95

Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.

Good.

All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I am your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Justin Taylor with us. He's an account executive at higher education, so welcome to the show, Justin.

Cool, thanks Tyler, I appreciate it.

Uh, thank you for coming on, and, um, we'll start off with the first question. So the first question I have for you is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Cool. So I was working for a startup in the UP of Michigan called Handshake. They're based out of San Francisco now. And I actually left there kind of suddenly to join a monastery. So like in that kind of adventure, I, you know, I saw that like maybe I wanted to understand what it would be like to step away from all the things that I thought that I was, all the kind of like the business and the technology I felt very confined by it. I walked 37.5 miles, something like that, to this monastery and spent a good amount of time there. It was a very interesting experience for me, really stepping away from a life that I was leading and heading towards. I guess the biggest message that I learned from that experience is that A lot of times we have this like romantic nature of what it would be like to get away or to be someone else or to step away from our experience. And one thing I realized there, among many other things, was that you always bring yourself wherever you go. And so all the things that I thought I was going to step away from or get away from really kind of met me there in a very intense way. I realized that if I was going to work through those things, I was going to be the best version of myself. It was not necessarily a monastic life that was going to be the solution. It was going to be facing those things head on, which kind of brought me back into the world that I'm in now.

I love that, man. Thanks for sharing that. The next question is, what's the most valuable piece of information that we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

Yeah, so I've done a couple startups and small businesses in my lifetime, and one of the things that I've kind of learned from that is that if you can recognize that, you know, as a leader or as a visionary, as someone that's starting something, that it's not on you to do it all yourself, it will take a lot of weight off of you. What I kind of mean by that is like, if you can recognize that people around you, like people will show up in your life that are willing to support you and give energy and want to see you have success and want to see you have success in the context of your own experience. And I noticed in the past, a lot of times I would really try to like do everything or hold that weight on my own shoulders. And so through my work as a founder, as a co-founder, as kind of this entrepreneur lifestyle, I've kind of really recognized that it's really important to see who's around you, what they bring to the table, what they're trying to achieve, and kind of give those things focus through, you know, vision. And that's a really great way to see your vision come into the world, but also a way to give people around you a sense of purpose. And I think that's like To me, that's a really good quality of leadership. Does that make sense?

Absolutely, man. And what's your best piece of overall business advice and not necessarily industry-specific?

Things take time, honestly. I feel like I'm a very urgent kind of person. And so I would also often mark myself as feeling successful or unsuccessful based on how how much time things took. And so I've kind of over the years learned patience and the importance of waiting for right times and right opportunities to kind of bring things into the world. And so that's kind of like a general piece of advice, right? Like, it's okay to wait, it's okay to respond to the world around you, and that things do take time. So I feel like a lot of times, We have a pressure to be successful or to be really, really rich or be a name right now. But if you want to build a following, if you want to build a company, if you want to have financial success, all those things take a lot of time and maybe a little bit of luck. But waiting, responding, and then stepping into opportunity is something that's really important.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

I'll be like, "Hey man, it's okay." That sounds kind of generic too, but what I mean is I feel like younger Justin really, really carried a lot of weight on his shoulders and took things very seriously. I'm only 26 now, but I feel like I've kind of recognized that this is all learning and it's all very iterative. And so whether you're right or you're wrong or you win or you lose or you're successful or you fail, right? Like those things are very formative either way. And so, you know, like it's okay. It's kind of just some advice I would give to my younger self and maybe a little bit of a hug too.

I love that answer. Thank you, man. And then in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?

I think the key to happiness is not always wanting happiness. I don't think that happiness is like this constant state that you can be in. I think that happiness comes and so does sadness and so does, you know, anger or so does stress and all those things motivate us differently. They're very like biological. They're very like neurological. And if we're always looking for happiness, then it's really hard to recognize it when it is there. And when it is there and it leaves, it leaves a sense of dissatisfaction. So what I would say is like, you know, like the key to happiness is like, okay, hey, it's there. You have it. Awesome. But don't think that it has to be your entire experience because, you know, sadness can be inspirational. Or pain can be inspirational, or stress, or frustration, or nervousness. Those things can all really drive us to be successful in different ways. I think that's something very special. Recognize happiness when it comes, but don't think that it has to be your entire being.

What's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

So I have two favorite books, but I'll probably focus on— I'll pick one. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. It's just a really great book, probably like less than 250 pages. So I would really recommend everyone to read that. And they have this scene at the very, very, very end where he's kind of like looking at the river. And he realizes that he hears all these different voices. So people he met in his past and all his past experiences, and they're all in this steady stream. And he comes to this realization that life is like the river. It just flows on. And we get to be both caught in the flow, but sometimes we also get the opportunity to watch the flow happen. And I think that both those experiences are really important. And reading that book kind of brought me into a sense of recognizing, okay, hey, you know, I'm in a flow and I don't necessarily have control of where the river goes. It's just going to keep going, right? But also sometimes I have the opportunity to be beyond the river and see it in its entirety, or at least a portion of it, and watch that flow happen. And that's a really special experience too.

All right, for everybody listening, we just have a little interjection. So that was a great answer, but it looks like he put me on hold.

Hey, can you hear me? So cool.

Yeah, I can hear you.

Okay, cool.

Awesome. So yeah, you were talking about, or did you finish your answer there?

I don't know. I got a call right between. I'm sorry.

No, it's okay. That makes the podcast more legit.

I was just saying, in Siddhartha, there's in the book, the river, and he's kind of looking at it and hears these voices coming through. And there's kind of two messages. One is like, you're a part of this flow of life. That's a really special experience. You kind of get this opportunity to be caught up and be a part of a very like, you know, immersive experience that goes on beyond you and beyond everyone you may know. But also sometimes you have the opportunity to like recognize that we're in this river or this flow. And, you know, in that you can kind of be beyond that and you get to see like, okay, hey, this is how we're all unified. So, you know, Justin is having an experience. And also maybe has the ability to recognize that he is in an experience. Tyler Wagner has an experience where he's creating this podcast or building this community, but he also maybe sometimes has the opportunity to step beyond that and recognize the people he's connecting or the audience that he's building. There's this river, there's this flow. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is a really great book that gives you a lot of perspective on the stages of life. That moment of the book where he really sees the river hit home for me.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

Cool. Let me actually save the quote for this very moment. Different book though. So this book is from Ender's Game, which is my other just— I don't know, it's just an awesome book by Orson Scott Card, and he has a line that says, like, "Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be." And I think that that's such a powerful quote because I think a lot of times we kind of have a mix, right? We, like, want to be something that we're not yet, and we have this sense of what we are that we both like and don't like, but that makes our identity and we're gonna always kind of show up as that. And I think there's a really good opportunity in our lives and in our experience to say, okay, hey, this is the person I wanna be. This is the mask I choose to wear. 'Cause a lot of times, you know, we do wear masks and we do show up in different ways for different people or different experiences, but you can kind of choose that mask, choose that person you wanna be and bring that to any type of experience as often as possible. And sometimes it's conscious, sometimes it's unconscious, but I think it's a really great opportunity to define that, say, hey, in this world, you know, for me personally, you know, I want to be a visionary person. I want to be a leader. I want to be humanitarian. And so in all my experiences, how can I bring vision? How can I bring leadership? How can I be a leader? And how can I really have that human-centered approach? And that's the kind of mask I hope I wear, and that's the kind of person I want to be in the world. And so I think that, you know, that quote from Orson Scott Card in Ender's Game is really powerful because there is a lot of power and potential in the masks that we wear and how that affects both ourselves and the people that we come in contact with. Yes, dude.

Thank you so much for coming on, Justin. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?

I have an Instagram. It's @justinjosephsjourney, and that's probably the best place to find me online. You can kind of connect with me there, DM, follow me obviously, and I would love to kind of connect. I travel a lot, so if I'm ever in your city, I would love to kind of connect and be with you.

Awesome, man. Thank you again. We really appreciate it.

Cool. Thanks, Tyler Wagner. The podcast you just heard was recorded with Anchor. If you want to make your own, download the Android or iOS app completely free from anchor.fm/podcast. That's anchor.fm/podcast.