In today's Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight, we are thrilled to introduce Jon Allen, a dynamic force in the entrepreneurial world who specializes in rekindling the initial sparks of visionaries. With an eclectic background spanning multiple startups and an impressive stint in the audiovisual touring industry, Jon has a unique perspective on what it takes to sustain and amplify entrepreneurial passion.
Hi, Jon! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?
We’re all about helping Visionaries rediscover the spark that ignited their journeys, from early-stage startups to established enterprises.
As someone who’s personally been through the whirlwind of creating and managing multiple businesses, I’ve seen how easy it is to get caught up in the day-to-day and lose sight of that initial, brilliant vision, which can easily cause the visionary to drift off to other ideas, taking the company's greatest asset away.
Here’s what I believe: focused, batshit crazy visionaries can save the world.
But when they lose that focus, it’s not just the business that suffers—great ideas that could have made a significant impact fade away. That’s where we come in. By refocusing that visionary energy, we not only bring back the passion but also drive better business results. We’re talking about increased profitability through clearer strategic direction, enhanced team cohesion as everyone aligns with the core vision, and accelerated innovation because your energy is directed toward creating value, not just maintaining the status quo.
Our approach is tailored and personal. We dive into what drives you, reignite that passion, and align your team during an immersive process we call the Visionary Timeline. Your personalized process can be virtual, in-person at a private offsite location, or a luxurious hands-on mind & body retreat. Whether you’re running a small team that’s just finding its way, or you’re at the helm of a larger operation that’s veered a bit off-course, we’re here to help extract the next growth strategy FROM you and with you.
The result? A re-energized leader, that motivates the team's buy-in, and a business that not only grows but also makes a profound impact on the world. Let’s focus that incredible energy of yours and turn your visions into realities. Together, we can make sure those amazing ideas don’t just stay ideas—they become the innovations that truly shape our future.
Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.
Honestly, it had nothing to do with any of the businesses I've started. Because at each of them, I didn't see myself as the pedestal-based "entrepreneur" who in my mind is a successful person full of confidence, cars, and airline status. Despite being 6 businesses in, I still felt like the 19-year-old kid hustling for some cash (wantrepreneur).
It came from focusing on my personal mental development. Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking Fast & Slow was my backward way of discovering how to connect with my body and treat it like a person. Once my body and I figured out how to work together, I realized... No matter how much I make or how many startups fail or succeed, I'll be just fine. Panic hustling season of my life... Over.
The freedom that comes from that confidence leads to a flood of clear thinking and happiness. Together we learned a huge truth for myself... It's ok to be happy. I don't have to self-flagellate on the altar of imposter syndrome or put on a persona that others are expecting of me. I get to be nerdy me... And I want to be happy.
Now the "persona" of entrepreneur that I dreamed of, actually doesn't matter to me. I'm happy and have a brain full of cool stuff I love helping people with.
Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.
I mean... I was kinda always that way. My parents have no idea where it came from, but apparently, I was taking charge of kids on the playground and organizing them into departments to serve a larger storyline we all worked out.
BUT when I was 19, I was working a summer job, training to be a chef. I went to a concert, was mesmerized by all the cool audio and lighting gear, walked up to the audio engineer, and demanded: "How do I get your job? This looks awesome". 2 weeks later I was on my first tour. 15 years later, I retired from the touring industry and dove head first into startups.
That concept of Have a good idea that gets me excited > Do the good idea, has kinda stuck with me ever since. Now it just involves pitch decks and capital raises.
Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?
Well, that depends on the stage of the business. Some of my startups had super sexy massive HubSpot implementations with every hub on an enterprise level (not so humble brag)... but then I've also seen an intern kid with a spreadsheet be just as elegant.
All that matters is how easy it makes your customers' lives. Focus on their results. Dream in their perspective. Choose tools that make their life easier, not yours.
All that nerdy context being said:
I LOVE Notion. I'm bordering on Jedi Master level at this point. It's my love language I think. When me and the friends are scheming some cool idea, they all know I'm taking it seriously when a new Notion account gets spun up and they all get invites.
Zapier was huge and always has been. It’s the “integrate everything” platform. When I’m trying to create a specific experience for a customer but the service I’m using doesn't do it; I use Zapier to do the handoff, without needing a staff member who might forget, which hurts the customers… The people I serve.
At this point, ChatGPT is an irreplaceable tool, which happened shockingly fast. We’ve written internal bots trained on our processes, that helps keep our ideas fresh. We have a copywriter bot that was trained on 1000s of lines of text from books (authors way smarter than us), internal research, and other sources on exactly who our customer is and what kind of language they use, which is why if you look at our website and it makes no sense to you… congrats! You self selected out of the funnel!
Squarespace has been awesome for Visionary Clarity. Our beloved Visionaries tend not to think linearly (as they should!) so the traditional Section > Square Div > content section of most page editors just don’t offer the organic free-flowing design we needed.
We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.
Having co-founded a few startups at this point, several of which failed, I’ve had a few.
I’ll give the highlights:
Partnerships are like a marriage. Do your freakin research.
You’re marrying not only them and their history, but their family, their beliefs, and their other entanglements. If they pass research, clearly define roles. “Partner drift” is a real thing.
Disruption is costly:
If your big idea is trying to take on a massive incumbent industry… do your research, do it again, then pay someone on Upwork to do it again.
1. Why has no one else done your idea?
2. How much power are you about to piss off? Do you have a similar level of power/cash? (”Power” can be a crowd of loyal customers. Doesn’t have to be cash, but cash helps too)
3. What kind of preferential treatment do they have in higher power centers that could prevent you from launching your solution? Can you change that faster than your cash runway?
What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?
Disinterested Commerce as defined by Krystof Pelc in his book Beyond Self-Interest. I’m just going to leave it at that, in hopes that you beautiful nerds read the book.
What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?
Validate the idea on paper in greater detail, as best you can, before you raise capital. If you’re great at getting people excited about your passion, you’ll get the money. But you only have X number of years left in your life which is Y number of startups in total… Don’t waste one on an idea that won’t validate 2 years later after you spent a ton of your biggest believers' money. They prob won’t believe you again
Also…
“Pessimists get to be right. Optimists get to be rich”
Which honestly might not help all readers and out of context sounds kinda terrible. But at the time I heard it, it really helped me to stop freaking out about and building solutions to all the things that could go wrong and just focus on a little blind faith it would work and just launch the damn thing so you can start selling. Sales are the true validation.
Want to go deeper into Jon's work? Visit his website at visionaryclarity.com
