The Success Nuggets

Success Nuggets #32 - Mastering Entrepreneurship Across Cultures with Coach VJ

• David Abel • Season 2 • Episode 12

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Curious about what truly makes an entrepreneur successful beyond just the dreams and ambitions? Join us as we host the remarkable Coach VJ, a bicultural trailblazer with over 40 years of experience in the marketing world. 

Known for his dedication to spreading success and clarity across borders, Volker offers a treasure trove of insights into the entrepreneurial landscape. From understanding legislation and financing to mastering communication, he shares the essential elements that go beyond mere aspirations. With his engaging storytelling and a touch of humour about his name's pronunciation, VJ provides a fresh perspective that both aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs will find invaluable.

Coach VJ takes us on his journey from Germany to America, revealing the challenges and triumphs of his professional path. He sheds light on his work with the School of Entrepreneurship and California State University, where he empowers small and midsize business owners to reach their full potential through workshops and personalized coaching. 

Speaker 1:

Thank you about the patterns that drive progress. Get ready to dive into a world of insights and inspiration. This is the Success Nuggets podcast, with the founder of the Digital Lightbulb and your host, david Abel.

Speaker 2:

Welcome listeners. Today we have a remarkable man on the show bicultural pioneering marketeer and a mentor to many over 40 years who have seeks clarity and success. He's a sought-after, exceptional marketeer. Coach vj, it's great to have you here. Great to be here, thank you. Let's talk about the remarkable man that is you. I never hear the word bicultural yeah, well, I'm.

Speaker 3:

I'm still german, you know, living in amer, loving England and Scotland. When I came to America I thought, okay, I'm done with Germany because it was long enough 37 years but now I still, not that I miss it. You know, I'm still watching German television, but the grass is not always green on the other side. Number one and B I'm fully dedicated, you know, to make it here in the united states work which I had so far a good run. Knock on wood, and I my my goal is bringing my coaching and my speaking and my thoughts um around the globe.

Speaker 2:

So that's my end goal yeah, tell us about the bit of america're taking by storm, then, because you're spreading loads of success, tips, workshop and you've got a huge career. What kind of institutions or people are you?

Speaker 3:

working with. So I'm working right now with the School of Entrepreneurship, which is a particular college of a particular county and California State University who are trying to help entrepreneurs small business owners, midsize business owners to understand what it takes to be an entrepreneur it's not just about dreams and go for it. It's so much more right If that is from the stipulation legislature you know laws, financing, etc. So and I'm a partner of this cohort of the california state and entrepreneurial resource center and the school of entrepreneurship to run courses or run workshops which talk about communication, breakthroughs and most of entrepreneurs. We are not just talking about super worst in front of standing people, magnets, you know, like Mark Cuban or somebody. No, these are guys who had a dream or had an idea, wanted to do it. If that is a garage door company or is an electrician or somebody who is counseling minority kids, you know how to obtain a house and a job. So these are also small business or nonprofit organization. But they don't sometimes know okay, how do I pitch or why can I not get through this one person who I really need as a support through event which I teach now with the School of Entrepreneurship.

Speaker 3:

We are giving away a disk profile with this course which you know, behind me is a swill is disk and a lot of people say I did disk right and I say okay, so what? How was the debrief? Debrief, what do you mean? Debrief, right? I got a printout. I said what did you do with that? Well, nobody told me what to do with it. So we are now really teaching them how to understand other people, how they would like to be spoken to, and not just how we would like to be spoken to, because when you are an entrepreneur, you need to pitch, you need to try to convey somebody, convince somebody to get with you in the same boat and row in the right direction. And a lot of people I learn now through my courses don't know how to do it. They heard about it but they don't know how to make it applicable. And that's the problem and that's what I'm trying to teach.

Speaker 2:

And is that where Coach Vijay comes in, or is that something different?

Speaker 3:

Vijay is because my last name Jekyll. A lot of Americans don't know how to pronounce. They always ask me how do you say your name? Don't know how to pronounce. They're always asking how do you say your name? And they're saying with a French undertone, jaquel, like Frederick Forsyth's novel the Jackal. You know the Jackal right. And so my first name, volker. They say Volker. In Germany you say the V as in F, so it would be Volker, but then it sounds like Mietze Fockers, which is like Ben Stiller's comedy show. So I said I don't want to hear that either and that's why I came up with VJ, my initials and also the industry where I grew up in America was automotive industry. Everybody knows me as VJ and Coach VJ is now. People call me now Coach VJ. It's okay, I take it yeah, no, it's really cool.

Speaker 2:

I can sense, with over 40 years in the piz, you're going to be such a great ally for those people. But I think there's more to you. I can see behind you. There's motivational speeches and I think you're probably quite spiritual in terms of the, the mindset. Tell us a bit about your mindset or your approach.

Speaker 3:

So the mindset and approach, sometimes a bit about your mindset or your approach. So the mindset and approach. Sometimes you come to a point and you hear affirmation oh yeah, I tried this. Okay, trying doesn't cut it any longer. You have to live it. You have to do it every night or every day. Let your MP3 or your phone run voice or YouTube through the night and listen to affirmation for seven, eight hours. If you think I am not listening to it, yes, your mind is listening. It's almost like a listening device. You know when you have your cell phone next to you and you're talking to somebody about curtains or wallpaper and then two minutes later you're going on your news app and suddenly you see an advertisement about wallpaper. That's exactly the same. It's subliminal, it's an approach, how they are catching up and your brain catches up.

Speaker 3:

And my spirituality comes from when my son passed away. He was four months old, december 10th 2002. And it was, of course, a devastating news and devastating situation nobody wants to go through, especially as a parent or a young parent. And I was at this time in the automotive industry, very successful in car sales, automotive sales and marketing, and I almost wanted to give up. I wanted to leave America because it was so bad to me, this destiny, that my son passed away and wanted to forget everything. And that's what we as humans often do we are closing up our eyes, we are holding our muffle, our ears, we don't want to speak any longer. We are getting really introverted and some people come out and some people don't, you know. They jump from the, unfortunately, or fall into alcohol or drugs. I said, as hard as it is, I have to be there, for at this time still, my wife now ex-wife and I had a stepdaughter and I said I need to guide them.

Speaker 3:

And so I started to look more into it. Why that happened, nobody knows. How it happened, we know, but the problem is you have sometimes no answer, so you can only make the best out of it. That's how I started then thinking about what I one time read about Sir Winston Churchill when he said never, never, never give up. In front of his old college, when he was invited to speak, and he literally had only a few sentences to say, and one of them stuck with me behind me on the wall never give up.

Speaker 3:

And that was the message my son, who passed, actually gave me, and I see him not daily, but I feel him daily on my shoulder, you know, pushing me, giving me inspiration, giving me hey, you cannot give up now. You have other people to take care of and I know you care of yourself, but there's a reason why you're here. I have still a legacy to do, I have still jobs to do, and he is the driving engine behind me to say never give up, just do it. It will be hard, it's not easy. And he's right to give up, just do it. It will be hard, it's not easy, and he's right, right, and so that's where my spirituality comes from, that I like to believe in the good. You see a lot of evil everywhere when you switch on the news. I would suggest stop watching the news so because, uh, it hinders you to create your new connections in your brain and make you you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for sharing that, volker, and I know that saying also says be better than you were yesterday. And as you've amassed those skills of being better than yesterday, how does life look now? How far have you got? For anyone out there listening who could have given up?

Speaker 3:

I'm not done yet. It sounds like I'm the old President Biden who also said watch me, I'm not done yet. So it is really true, because sometimes you think, okay, I did everything, so what now? Do I now open up every morning a cork and have a glass of scotch on the rocks? No, so there's so much more to live for, and you see it when you have children, you see it with your partner. Um, they have lives too, and and you have to be selfish, but also unselfish. Selfish for you to make the best out of it what you can do and provide to them. And unselfish share. Share what you can do, whatever you can do, share right, it's a go-giver mentality, and there's this little book behind me too. I learned that I have so much more ambition.

Speaker 3:

I think I did pretty well in the last 24 years in America Coming doing September 11th attack in 2001,. Had no job, nobody wanted to talk to me, nobody wanted to hire me, was waiting for my green card, I had a funny accent, nobody wanted to understand, which I didn't understand. And so the interesting part is I said that is my vulnerability as a weakness. My accent, or my English, is actually my strengths. So I turned it around and made it work for me. So that's why I called an automotive dealer group up in Michigan who sold BMW, porsche, mercedes-benz. I said hey, mr Williams, I think it makes sense to have a German guy with a German accent selling you German cars. And he was laughing and he said did you ever sell cars? I said no, but I know I will be the best. I tell you. So you have to be, of course, full of yourself too. Sometimes you have to have the confidence you go for it. So what when it's not working out? But that's what I did and it worked really well out. And, on the whole, this is my entire career. The automotive industry was good to me. In the last 20 plus years I achieved a lot.

Speaker 3:

I wanted to be on the cover of a magazine. I wanted to speak in front of people. I wanted to publish a book about marketing automotive. Everybody said you are crazy. Where come these ideas from, especially my at this time in-laws? And I said I just have it in my head. I know it's happening. Why? It's a manifestation of it will happen. So when you are convinced you can do it, do it. And yeah, I came on the cover of a magazine nationally acknowledged as top 10 e-commerce director in the United States, I wrote the first book on digital marketing for the automotive industry in the United States.

Speaker 3:

I was invited through a headhunter to join a SaaS company to speak in front of people and travel America and preach the gospel of digital marketing. To speak in front of people and travel America and preach the gospel of digital marketing and I said see everything, what you have in your mind, as long as it puts a seed and waters a seed with your ambition to make it work, it will happen. And that's why when people now ask me so you know you're a coach, so how's it going? That's not easy. Coaching clients are not ringing your doorbell or on your phone the entire day. You have to work for it and it's a steady grind. That's how it feels. It's a steady grind, step by step, and you know, sometimes I feel like giving up. But then I look at the sign and I said, no, we're not happening Because I have still my full-time job too, as a chief marketing officer.

Speaker 3:

So I'm working 60, 70 hours a day for Europeans. It's like what? How is that possible? It's possible, but that was all I have learned in America and America was good to me. Now I'm good to them and that's my goal. I will be bringing my company worldwide. I know, when I'm 85, that's my vision Sounds funny. I know, when I'm 85, that's my vision. Sounds funny. I will be standing with a cup of tea or coffee at the coast of Scotland and have a little college there and that's where I retire and I have hopefully still five to 10 more years because my mom turns now 92. So I have the hope that I'm also making it over the 90s. So, 60 years old now, I still have 30 years at least.

Speaker 2:

Let's go go volker jackal. What an inspirational, uplifting episode. Do you have a one golden nugget for life?

Speaker 3:

yeah, the one gold nugget for life is what is over my shoulder here. This is the side never, never give up. As I said, you know, sometimes you feel like giving up, but it is just a test and, honestly, there is never a guarantee that you will be successful or that you will fail. The success is in within you and and and, like anthony robbins said, now awakens a giant in you. This is what needs to happen.

Speaker 3:

Everybody of us has a giant. It's hidden, he's hiding under the rock or whatever, but it's somewhere there. You only have to trigger or tickle him on the right way that he jumps out and said here I am. What do you want to do? And that's how I see how life should be. So that would be my golden nugget. You do not need more mentors left and right. The mentor is already in you because you lived your life already and sometimes you had maybe a dry spell and a really bad time doing life. But then think about the good things. How did that happen? Remember these things? Where they came from? Most likely out of nowhere, and that's what I want everybody who's listening or watching to look at and search for themselves and find the giants sleeping in themselves.

Speaker 2:

That is so good. Volker, thanks for coming in. He is called the German in California. Volker, thanks for coming in. He is called the German in California. I believe, volker, your Instagram is focalpointcoachvj. Yeah, please go look the VJ up, and it's been great having you on.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much. I was looking forward to it.

Speaker 2:

And to you guys out there go and find your giant, if you haven't already.

Speaker 1:

We'll see you again. Join David and his incredible guests next time on the Success Nuggets podcast, and to find out more, visit OneGoldenNuggetcom. Thank you for listening.