Scaling Faster Starts with Letting Go with Antwon Person

Welcome And Meet Antwon

Welcome to Tech Diva Biz Talks, where we tune in, dive deep, and level up. I'm your host, Audrey Wiggins, aka the Tech Diva, brand strategist, marketing mind, and your guide through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Let's talk Tech. Welcome to another episode of Tech Diva Biz Talks. Today we're going to meet Antwon Person, and he is a retired U.S. Army senior officer with a demonstrated history of high performance, leading various organizations throughout the Department of Defense and the corporate sector. Recognized as a cohesive team builder. That's the key word right there. Remember that. He is the founder of Skillful Brands, an organization dedicated to changing the status quo for business development and growth. The company aims to eliminate the complexities of starting and opening a successful business. Antwon Person, welcome to Tech Diva Biz Talks, and thank you for your service in the U.S. Army.

Yes, ma'am. First, I would like to say thank you for having me on your platform. I know it's hard to actually, it's not easy to have a podcast. And then on top of that, the quality information that you're providing to your audience. I think it's awesome.

Thank you. Thank you, Antwon. What's one personal or two fun facts you want to share with us?

Travel Stories And Airborne Jumps

Two fun facts that I would like to share over the last, you know, 20 years, two years while I was in the military. I either lived or visited about 15 countries. And, you know, some of the things that I realize is people are people. You know, there's really no difference. And, you know, I think that's probably something that people don't realize is that, you know, when you look at TV, you may see something that may look different than where you live, but people are people. And then the other fun fact is during my career, I loved to jump out of airplanes. So I would say in 22 years, I probably conducted about a hundred airborne operations. Since I retired, I haven't done it as much, but I am looking to get back into doing some skydiving here soon.

Wow. Now that's something I've always wanted to do. And I finally got up the courage to do it. And my former barber, and one of the other barbers in his shop, they were all they were younger than me. And like, you know, so yeah, we'll do it, we'll do it. And you know, they had picked the place and everything, and I was like gung-ho. And I'm like, oh my goodness. I'm like, I've got 20 years on number or so. And they chickened out. I was so mad. I'm like, are you kidding me? I got all we got all the swag. I'll call, I'll call them all kind of little names, you know. We we'll keep it, we'll keep the names, you know. See, I won't share that. But they were laughing at me, but I was like, Are you kidding me?

I would say for me, you know, you know, I did it for a career. So, you know, after after my first training, I was like, you know, pretty much I don't want to do it anymore. But, you know, uh, because I was in I was an ROTC cadet. So I went through, I joined the military through ROTC. And, you know, I went to airborne school as a cadet. So I officially wasn't in the army yet. So the army decided, being that I was already trained airborne, that my first duty station would be on an airborne unit.

Thanks, Antwon. So we're gonna set this up before our commercial

Turning Hustles Into Real Companies

breaks. One of the questions I'd asked in the pre-questions was what problem you're solving for your clients, your cons your constituents, and you help entrepreneurs move past scattered systems, inconsistent direction, weak execution, and the absence of real support. You equip them with the clarity, tools, and strategic structure they need to build and operate a true company instead of just running a hustle. I like that. So we're gonna unpack this and more with Antwon and skillful brands after this message. Sponsored by All Together Domains, bringing your business online. Whether you are launching a new venture or leveling up your brand, alltogetherdomains.com helps you secure your digital real estate the smart way. Visit all togetherdomains.com. Welcome back, Antwon. Are you ready to get into our questions here?

Yes, yes, yes.

All right.

The Three S Framework Explained

Thanks again for being here. Okay, so our first question is, you know, for clarity, entrepreneurship can feel unnecessarily complicated. How do you strip away the noise and help everyday people start and scale a business with confidence instead of confusion?

Yes, ma'am. So, you know, my goal as far as entrepreneurship is to simplify it. So, you know, we've developed some systems and tools. So we have a mastermind program that's nine weeks that individuals can sign up for, where we take them through their whole business. Everyone is not at the same point. So we do have an onboarding call before they start to kind of get a feel for where they're at in their business. And then from there, we go through our nine-week program. And our focus is the three S's so structure, systems, and strategy. So we take them through each one of those. Some business owners get to a point where they're stuck and they can't progress or they feel like they're not progressing. And we realize that they just don't have the network or individuals around them to help them excel to the next level.

The growth ceiling. So most businesses don't fail, they stall. In your experience, what's the number one reason entrepreneurs hit a scaling wall and can't push past it?

So, in my opinion, they've reached their maximum knowledge of where they need to go. A lot of people may start a business because it's a hobby, but they don't know the intricies of their industry. So, in a mastermind program or getting a mentor that's already in the industry, they have a better history of possibly succeeding because that individual has already gone through a lot of the trials and tribulations in that industry that they haven't faced yet.

Okay, let's look at the mindset flip. If you could rewire one belief that keeps new entrepreneurs stuck or playing small, what mindset shift would move the needle the fastest?

So I would say trying to do everything. So, you know, as a small business owner, individuals try to wear 10 different hats. So just understanding when it's time to actually get a mentor or when it's time to actually hire individuals that help you out. I think a lot of individuals, they don't want to give up the rings of doing everything because they feel that it may not go the way they want it, or they just don't know what they don't know. They don't know how to hire individuals. If I could go back, even for myself, just being able to give up the reins and then actually hire people when I did not know and I was trying to figure it out.

Yes, absolutely. All right. This is this next question is kind of post-COVID, right?

Remote Leadership With Virtual HQ

Remote leadership reality. Remote teams are the future, but no one knows how to lead them well. What does a performance-driven remote culture actually look like when it's done right?

Yes, so I will say, you know, for remote uh workers, I've had over the years, I've had experience with remote workers. So I've had challenges and then I've had success. And for our company, what we've done is we've created a virtual headquarters where we're able to collaborate with our remote workers. They actually come in to work in our remote virtual headquarters every day, just like they were checking in the work, and they all sit in our co-working space. And that provides a couple of different things. With all of our remote workers in their co-working space, they are able to collaborate with other team members that are on our team. And then also for me, if I need one of my uh virtual workers, I can easily go to the remote room and have a conversation with them. I'm not sending emails and then waiting for them to respond to me or try to call them. Our remote workers are all overseas. Let me say that first. So I'm not waiting for them to respond or answer my call. I can easily just go to our co-working space and uh collaborate with them.

Now that sounds that's fascinating. Can you unpack that a little bit? What does what does that actually look like? When you were talking, I was like imagining, you know, the scenario and the actual setup when you say the a virtual headquarters or your your virtual co-working space.

Yes, ma'am. So I will say that just like in any business, you have an address. So in a virtual space, your address is actually your URL. We build out different rooms in each. So I have my own personal office, I have a conference room, I have a co-working space, and then I have a training room. So they look just like if you were looking at a picture of an office, it looks just like that. And it has spaces where you actually sit. So it's our alternative to Zoom. So we don't use Zoom or Teams, we use our virtual office for meetings, uh, trainings, uh and just overall day-to-day work.

Okay. All right, awesome. So we're gonna learn more from Antwon on the other side of this message. Got a podcast idea in your head or your notes app or in your spirit. Let's change that. I'm Audrey Wiggins, also known as Tech Diva, and I've been podcasting for over 15 years, and I want to help you get on that train. So, my Unlock the Power Podcasting Toolkit Mini Course is designed for aspiring podcasters, entrepreneurs, and content creators who are ready to stop thinking about it and start building with clarity. No fluff, no unnecessary overwhelm, just a practical self-placed starting point to help you move forward with confidence. If your voice has a purpose, your podcast needs a plan. Start today with Unlock the Power Podcasting Toolkit Mini Course. Visit altogetherlearning.academy. Alltogetherlearning.academy. I want to hear your voice in the marketplace. Welcome back, Antwon.

The Systems Wake Up Call

So the systems wake up call. There's a moment when hustle stops working. What's the turning point that tells an entrepreneur it's time for systems or else?

Yes. So I will say that, you know, when you start getting a lot of tasks and you it's hard to keep up with them, you start getting more leads than you can track. My thing is then time for a CRM assistant to be able to assist you. That's one of the main things uh that we uh initially had a challenge with before I, you know, start doing more research into it and just get familiar with systems. So now all of my clients, we uh suggest that they get some type of CRM system, Monday.com. We have a system, skillful CRM, where we kind of show all of our clients how you build your website, how you, you know, get capture leads and things like that. So, yeah, so once you start really just not being able to keep track of your overall day-to-day task, we would suggest that you get a some type of system.

All right, so the first six months trap, all right. Those early months matter. What's the biggest mistake you see entrepreneurs make in those first six months that quietly limits their long-term success?

So I will say it depends on what type of business structure they have. If it's someone that's just starting a business as a hobby, is a lot different than someone that wants to have a long-term business. So just understanding the proper structuring of your business because that because the structuring will determine if you you're able to get financing later. It will determine if you have asset protection. So I advise all entrepreneurs when they're starting to select, get a good understanding of what structure and entity you need, because that's very important for business credit and things like that later. You have to start early getting the proper structure in place if you want to qualify for loans and things like that, and you know, later on down the road.

So then

Delegation And The VA Hiring Playbook

my next question is you kind of we talked about this a little bit, but the delegation dilemma. Many entrepreneurs treat delegation like a luxury instead of a strategy. Why is leveraging virtual assistance a growth decision, not just a time-saving one?

Uh, one of the things that I've seen is by me delegating to, I have a manager. So I follow a system called the EOS system. I'm not for sure if you've heard of that. But what we do is I decided to hire a manager to actually manage my VAs. And what that did, that freed me up to be able to like, you know, look at strategic growth and things like that and coordinate with other partners in my industry. And then I'm not trying to manage 10 other virtual assistants at one time. So with that manager, I really coordinate with that manager every day. We have a meeting usually at 9:30, and we kind of talk about different tasks and visions that I want to head off. And then that manager actually manages our virtual assistants that we have.

So on that same vein then, so let's look at VA success blueprint. You know, what does that look like? So hiring is one thing, onboarding you talked about is another. What's your proven approach for training and onboarding VAs so they become assets and not added stress?

Yeah, so I think with any VAs, you need to have an SOP for how your company operates. I think that uh employee handbook and SOP lays out how you want that VA to operate. And you should have it tailored for each position that you have so they know what time they need to come to work, how do they request time off, pay holidays if you're paying that? It's just the overall structure for their position. You have to establish that. I've tried to operate without having uh SOP, and it was very challenging. So we developed an SOP that I also give to my clients to actually just lay out how that VA should work. Now, as far as hiring VAs, there's a host of different platforms out there. I use online jobs, PH, to hire a lot of my VAs. And we have a system where when they apply for our with our company, their information goes into a database. We look at their background, we look at some of their uh references and reach out to them to just get a feel for what they are able to provide to us. And then what we do is we set up three interviews. One is with the other uh employees in our company to just see how they would operate with our other employees. And then if they move on from that, they meet with the manager, and then last they meet with me to just verify that it's a good fit for our company.

Oh, I like that. And it's kind of it almost sounds like reverse order because sometimes you, you know, that that first interview is, you know, might be with you or or the manager, and then they meet with the team. I like that, that we that that order that you're doing. Yeah. Right.

The reason we do that is because they will work with the other employees on a day-to-day basis. So they are able to give me good feedback if they feel that it will be a good fit for our company versus me thinking in, and then it's a really bad relationship with the other employees.

Yes, absolutely. Okay, idea or distraction. Every entrepreneur has ideas, lots of them. How do you know when an idea deserves real investment versus when it should stay on the idea shelf?

Uh, I think you have to solicit advice from other people in your in that industry. And I would tell you that for me, one of the most invaluable things is just I was on another mastermind program. And what they what I got out of that mastermind program is that networking with the other individuals in there was really important because it may be an industry that I'm gonna go into. It may be someone in that networking or mastermind that's already in that industry. So just soliciting advice from them is very important versus you just thinking it's a good industry because you heard that from someone and then you jumping into it.

Mentorship Skillful Tools And Next Steps

Antwon, how can we get in touch with you and explore skillful brands?

Uh yes, so I'm on LinkedIn if you want to speak directly with me, Antwon Person, A-N-T-W-O-N Person, P E R S O N. And then you can also visit my website, skillfulbrands.com, and we have all the information about the programs that we have and technology that we have on there. We have a family of skillful products. So we have Skillful Advisor, which is our mastermind program. We have Skillful CRM, which is our CRM, uh, Skillful Connect, which is a social media poster and manager, and then we have a product called Skillful Projects. And we use that, it's similar to Monday.com and Asana, where we manage all of our projects on that platform.

Fantastic. So, Antwon, we're gonna take one more break and then we're gonna come back and we're gonna do that rapid fire questionnaire. Okay. All right. Did you know? Up to 20 times a day. It's the first thing people do online, even before looking at social media or other news. But viewers retain only 10% of what they read, adding video to email, the retention skyrockets to 95%. Video plus email equals success. It's time. The future of email is here. Goodbye, email. Hello, video email. Ready to ride the wave? Visit all together.confusion.com.

Rapid Fire Takeaways And Closing

We're back with Antwon Person. Antwon, are you ready? I am. Okay. Well, let's get going. First to answers, no overthinking. Let's go. Okay. Systems or hustle.

Systems.

The first thing that every entrepreneur should delegate is different tasks that they have, especially for your manager.

So I I just uh always advise that you hire a manager to be able to delegate a lot of the tasks.

One system or process you believe every business needs in place before trying to scale.

A CRM.

The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make when hiring their first virtual assistant.

Not knowing their background, thinking that that virtual assistant can do everything when you really should be hiring a virtual assistant for maybe one or two tasks versus trying to have them do, you know, 10 tasks.

In one sentence, what separates a busy entrepreneur from a scalable CEO?

A strategy.

Most entrepreneurs would grow faster if they were willing to solicit mentorship and advice. Excellent, excellent. That was on fire. Antwon shared powerful insights on systems, delegation, and what it really takes to scale a business with confidence. If this conversation sparked an idea or clarified your next move, I encourage you to explore his work at skillforbrands.com. And you can also find this episode, the full show notes, and any additional information or resources at TechnefabizTalks.com. Antwon, is there anything else that you wanted to share today?

If you're stuck in your business, it's always good to solicit a mentor or find a mastermind group that you can attend. That will really help you out because you can ask questions and get advice from industry leaders.

This episode has been sponsored by Altogether Marketing LLC. Visit altogether.biz. That's it for today's Tech Diva Biz Talks. Hope you caught a gem or two. If you did, share it, review it, and most of all, put it into action. Until next time, tune in, level up, and talk tech.