138. Living and Leveraging Your Values As An Entrepreneur with Jeraud Norman
Choosing To Do Things Differently
Have you ever taken the time to acknowledge that you are doing things differently than how you were taught to do them, and then impact that it makes?
By choosing to live through your values, you are charting a new path.
That’s powerful behavior modeling.
Husband, father, and marketing consultant Jeraud Norman joins Erica to tell his story, and how his experiences in corporate America changed how he wants to do business and how he interacts with everyone in his life.
They also discuss how his business was an opportunity for him to choose to live his life differently and to create a life that serves and supports him and his family.
Listen on your favorite podcast player or keep reading to learn:
Why unlearning hustle culture requires openness and vulnerability
How choosing to operate with integrity and humanity has impacted Jeraud’s business
How Jeraud is writing new stories about money and entrepreneurship by prioritizing his family and personal wellbeing
Taking A Different Path After Tragedy
Jeraud Norman is the father of two wonderful boys, Joseph & Zamauri and husband to his beautiful wife Danielle.
He started working in the shipyard in 2003 in the Newport News Apprenticeship building aircraft carriers and submarines. He rose through the ranks but was often met with opposition because he didn't understand the politics. He thought that having integrity and pride in your work and getting it done right would elevate his career. He was very wrong. He tried starting side hustles but they never fully took off.
In May 2012, he was hit by an 18 wheeler truck and couldn't continue working the yard and was forced to find a new way to take care of his family. In the process, he created his own rules and culture.
Jeraud says we all have a story to tell. He wants people to remember that others want to hear your story and how you overcame your struggles.
Opening up
On the Pause On The Play podcast, Erica notes Jeraud’s openness and vulnerability as a member of the Pause on the Play® community.
Jeraud says “I'm much more of an open book than I was...I'm still learning how, you know, because men are usually taught to just do what they're supposed to do and show up and move forward...I think at a certain point, we're just taught not to feel. And I'm starting to understand that now...and I'm, learning to feel more and more.”
She asks Jeraud how the realization that he wasn’t taught to openly have feelings has shifted things for him.
Jeraud says he had been living and working under the idea that hard work would get him where he needed to go. “I was willing to work hard at the expense of anything and everything.”
He adds that hard work and that mindset has helped him to get where he is, but now that he isn’t in survival mode, he wants to find what works for him, and to be able to carry positive energy into his life and work.
“The beauty about my situation now is I get to choose who I want to talk to. I don't have to talk to people like I used to have to do at work...Not being able to talk at work and, do things the way I felt I needed to do them...There's other ways of getting things done, so that's why I did it.”
Jeraud leads his bio with his family because they are the ultimate reason for the commitment to the shifts he’s made in how he approaches business, so that he can be fully present and in the moment with them.
Choosing to do it differently
In terms of the impact those shifts have had on his business, Jeraud says the number one thing he emphasizes is acting in integrity.
For him, that means not taking on clients or projects when he knows he’s not the right fit, and he interviews potential clients as much as they interview him to be certain of it.
“I had to actually start putting myself first and figure out what works best for me and how can I help someone in the process. But if it's not a good fit, don't force it because no amount of money is worth that kind of headache.”
It also means Jeraud knew what he didn't want to do in his own business was the workplace politics he’d experienced at the shipyard, where seeing things like people doing small favors for lax inspections was a constant source of frustration.
His ethos is, “you do what you’re supposed to do, and if you do it, then you’re good. If you don’t, then you’re not. There’s no favoritism.”
He also strives to be understanding and compassionate to his clients and employees. “It’s building my people up, developing trust with them,” as opposed to the cutthroat environment at the shipyard.
Erica adds that the old model of “it’s just business,” doesn’t work anymore and that the humanization of clients and employees with compassion and sensitivity is so necessary. But, she says, there can be stereotypes, particularly of Black men, of not being able to lead their teams and clients that way.
She asks Jeraud how a more human approach has benefited him.
He answers that “you want to be in the boat with the people that want to be there.”
He says at the shipyard, he’d estimate that the majority of his coworkers wanted to be anywhere else. With the way he runs his business now, his employees and clients want to be in the boat with him.
Money stories
Jeraud has shifted his relationship to work, both through how he operates his business and the ways that he prioritizes his family and his personal wellbeing.
Erica asks if there are other stories about money and work that he has had to rewrite.
He says he learned about hard work from his family, but that the message that it has to be hard to be successful was “one of the most unbeneficial things that I’ve learned growing up.”
Getting comfortable with the idea that he can make a living without physically laboring for it has been a major mindset shift that isn’t always easy for him.
Erica agrees that the narrative of hard work, physical labor and earning is a story that has been passed down to many people of color, and that narrative has worn them down emotionally, mentally and physically.
She says the questions she asks herself come from the perspective of “how can I make this work without having to work myself to death? Literally.”
Jeraud says he knows his son is growing up with a changing narrative, away from long commutes and overtime, out of hustle and grind culture, to having his dad be there in the morning and after school, and still supporting the family.
He’s also teaching his son the value of hard work and using his body for fitness and fun, but not necessarily for paid physical labor like Jeraud did as a kid.
Planting seeds
Erica says this is an example of Jeraud setting up his family to create generational wealth, and modeling what it is to be an entrepreneur. She says she has also somewhat unintentionally done the same with her own children, by exposing them to the many entrepreneurs in her professional and social circles.
Jeraud acknowledges the influence of his father, who’s been running his own landscaping business since Jeraud was a kid. While he didn’t want to follow exactly in his father’s path, he did have a model of what it could mean to work for yourself.
Mindset shifts
Aside from working to unlearn that success must equal hard work, Jeraud is also learning to build in time for planning and reflection.
“When you’re in survival mode...I didn’t know I had to do that. I just thought the answer was to work harder, work harder...I’m glad that I don’t wear that badge of honor anymore.”
He’s working on creating and documenting systems to make bringing new team members into his business as seamless as possible, which frees up more of his time.
Jeraud also uses his acronym G.A.V.E (Gratitude, Appreciation, Vision, Every Day) each day. He lists what he’s grateful for, and tries to go above and beyond the obvious, appreciating things even as small as a stuffy nose clearing up. Then he thinks about the vision for his family, himself, and his business.
Going through this process of gratitude and visualization every morning and evening helps him set the tone for the day. He says, “if you can control how you start your day and how you finish your day, the in between is actually way more manageable.”
Ready to lead like Jeraud? Join us:
At Pause on the Play® the Community we are talking about what's essential and digging into this so that we can reconnect to what really matters most.
Learn more and join us at www.pauseontheplay.com/community
And listen to our sister podcast, Flaunt Your Fire® Podcast where India Jackson and her guests explore visibility and the art of owning your power as you align your brand, have conversations that disrupt industry standards and defy stale marketing advice. If you are ready to amplify your influence and create lasting impact, this is the podcast for you!
Connect with Jeraud Norman:
Instagram: @jeraud_gave
LinkedIn: @JeraudNorman