Geoffrey Kent, Founder and CEO of Think Big with Geoffrey Kent. Geoffrey is a serial entrepreneur (having launched 20+ entrepreneurial ventures over the last 5 decades), who took his last tech venture (Cognis IT) from launch to successful exit in 6 years a decade ago. In addition to an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Geoffrey has been an executive at Xerox Corporation, AT&T, the Erving Group (a holding company owned by NBA Hall of Famer Julius “Dr. J” Erving), and Deloitte Consulting, has taught entrepreneurship at Lincoln University, has judged Drexel University’s annual business plan competition, and has served on multiple corporate boards of directorships.

Key Moments

[05:11] Leaving corporate America for successful entrepreneurial journey.

[07:38] Visited 5 professors for startup advice.

[10:00] Simplify business explanations to avoid confusion.

[14:02] Develop thick skin, be humble, seek guidance.

Find Geoffrey Online

https://www.thinkbigwithgeoffreykent.com/

https://www.alignable.com/bryn-mawr-pa/think-big-with-geoffrey-kent

https://www.linkedin.com/company/think-big-with-geoffrey-kent/

https://www.facebook.com/thinkbigwithgeoffreykent

https://www.instagram.com/thinkbigwithgeoffreykent/

https://thinkbigwithgeoffreykent.quora.com

https://twitter.com/think_big_wgk

If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please give us a review on the podcast directory of your choice. We’re on all of them and these reviews really help others find the show.

GoodPods: https://gmwd.us/goodpods

iTunes: https://gmwd.us/itunes Podchaser: https://gmwd.us/podchaser

Also, if you’re getting value from the show and want to buy me a coffee, go to the show notes to get the link to get me a coffee to keep me awake, while I work on bringing you more great episodes to your ears. →  https://gmwd.us/buy-me-a-coffee

Follow Seth Online:

Seth | Digital Marketer (@s3th.me) • Instagram: Instagram.com/s3th.me

Seth Goldstein | LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/sethmgoldstein

Seth On Mastodon: https://s3th.me/@pch

Seth’s Marketing Junto Newsletter: https://MarketingJunto.com

Transcript Provided By CastMagic.io

Seth [00:00:00]:
Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship to the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast.

Seth [00:00:35]:
By now, you know who I am. But I’m Seth. I’m your host. Today, I have a good buddy of mine, Jeffrey Kent. We met on Alignable. So this is goes to show that Alignable was actually some place to hang out because I met a great guy named Jeffrey Kent. He is the epitome of an entrepreneur. He’s done 20 plus entrepreneurial ventures over the last 5 decades, and he’s still and he’s still in diapers.

Seth [00:00:59]:
No. He’d be but, I mean, 20 event entrepreneurial ventures. He has a MBA in entrepreneurial management from Warr the School of Business at University of Pennsylvania. He’s been executive at Xerox, AT and T. He’s worked with doctor Jay at his holding company, which is kinda cool. Claimed the fame. You met you see, you met doctor James, I assume.

Geoffrey [00:01:21]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Seth [00:01:22]:
He’s a really good guy. He’s, like, the epitome of Philly. He’s more Philly than Philly Penn in my opinion. And you have taught entrepreneurship at Lincoln University, which is down in Chesco. Right? Chester County?

Geoffrey [00:01:34]:
Yeah. Yeah. There’s actually a town town called, Midland University. So you wanna be very creative.

Seth [00:01:39]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And you also, have done some judging of business plans, competition at Drexel University. You are in your your gig now as your CEO of Think Big with Jeffrey Kent. All the links will be in the show notes, so don’t worry about that. He’s got a bunch of stuff with that.

Seth [00:01:58]:
He’s essentially and he also run Entrepreneurs University on Alignable, which I thought it’s how I first discovered you. I mean, this guy’s at university on Alignable. Talking about how to be entrepreneur, how to do it right, how to learn from his mistakes

Geoffrey [00:02:12]:
Mhmm.

Seth [00:02:13]:
Or at least not make as big a mistake because no one learns from let’s be honest. No one actually learns from each other’s mistakes. We all have to make our own mistakes.

Geoffrey [00:02:21]:
Right.

Seth [00:02:21]:
That’s how you can do it more gracefully.

Geoffrey [00:02:24]:
Yeah. And the

Seth [00:02:24]:
next one’s Yeah. Jeff, well, welcome, buddy. How you been?

Geoffrey [00:02:27]:
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I’ve I’ve I’ve been well. I’m I’m incredibly busy and, you know, which is a good thing. It’s better than the alternative. Exactly. Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:02:36]:
Yeah. Exactly. So how does all

Seth [00:02:38]:
this start? Have you always been an entrepreneur, or have you did you do the corporate grind first and decide I’m sick of this? I’m gonna do the entrepreneur thing because 20 20 Ventures. I mean and I we forgot to mention your last venture, Cognus IT, it was from a launch from 6 years ago, you know, launch to successful exit in 6 years. That’s pretty impressive. Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:03:01]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you’ve been around the block

Seth [00:03:03]:
a few times?

Geoffrey [00:03:04]:
Yeah. Yeah. 2007. So, for the first half of my career, I was you know, you know, my parents are in their nineties. Their their depression We were just we

Seth [00:03:17]:
were just, discussing this before the show that that Jeff Jeffrey’s parents and and family lives in their 100. So he’s got a good run ahead of them.

Geoffrey [00:03:26]:
Yeah. Yeah. He can do some more ventures. Yeah. People who were children in the, you know, late twenties, early thirties, you know, because of the economic conditions at the time, you know, they weren’t gonna take, you know, they weren’t being raised to take risk with their careers. Weren’t raising their children.

Seth [00:03:44]:
They were the gold watch generation where you went. You worked for 65 years. You got your gold watch, and you went to the golf course.

Geoffrey [00:03:51]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so I I jokingly tell people every night going to bed, my mother would whisper, I’m the youngest of 4, whispering to my, my brother, my sister’s ears, you know, you’re going to college to become a doctor or lawyer. You know, none of us became doctors or lawyers. We all went to college. We’ve all done well professionally. I started the traditional corporate career.

Geoffrey [00:04:12]:
My first job out of college was with Xerox, went to AT and T, decided 11 years into my career to go back to school and get an MBA. So I came to Philadelphia to go to Wharton to do that. Then, you know, doctor j and and, and and from doctor j, I went to Deloitte Consulting in Philadelphia.

Seth [00:04:28]:
Big one. It’s a

Geoffrey [00:04:28]:
big one. But, by the time I reached so while I was in corporate America full time, I was dabbling in entrepreneurship part time.

Seth [00:04:37]:
Yeah. Side hustle. You gotta have a side hustle.

Geoffrey [00:04:39]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, venture after venture. And and, and then finally at the age of it was about I was in my late forties.

Seth [00:04:47]:
We’re gonna take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show.

Geoffrey [00:04:51]:
Yeah. You know, I’m at Deloitte, and and I was just saying to myself, you know, I hate corporate America. You know? And It

Seth [00:04:57]:
got you, man.

Geoffrey [00:04:58]:
What I love is when I do this entrepreneurial stuff and Mhmm. And so, you know, I I sat down, had a discussion with my wife, and and she kind of corroborated. And she’s like, yeah. When you do when you do something entrepreneurial, your eyes light up.

Seth [00:05:11]:
Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:05:11]:
You know? And I know you’re miserable, you know, doing what you’re doing now. So, I literally just decided I’m leaving corporate America. I’m gonna do the entrepreneurial thing full time. This was in 1999, and, basically, everything I’ve done since then is is just been, you know, paved with the gold. So That’s awesome. So I I you know, knock on wood. I I I’ve been very lucky.

Seth [00:05:35]:
Very lucky. I mean, look. I mean, 6 years went from starting a company and then exiting 6 years and that’s pretty impressive. I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s it. And then now you’re doing your now you’re doing mostly coaching, right? You’re coaching entrepreneurs and helping people kinda figure out the landscape.

Geoffrey [00:05:52]:
Yeah. And it’s and a lot of it’s really based on that last venture. So that Cognus was a a private cloud computing business, that we launched in Philadelphia. I had 2 cofounders. We launched it in 2007. You know, both of my both of my cofounders were were were techies. It was their idea. You know, they were considerably young.

Geoffrey [00:06:13]:
Yeah. Yeah. They were considerably younger than me. So they they came to me initially to help them write their business plan. And then once we finished writing the business plan, they’re like, you know, hey. Philadelphia is not Silicon Valley. It’s not a tech centric city. We’re really young.

Geoffrey [00:06:27]:
We don’t have experience doing anything entrepreneurial. You do. We we actually think that if there’s someone with gray hair running the company, they’d like to you know, people might take us a little more seriously. So, they asked me to join, and I bought 51% of the company. And and, you know, Yeah. I came in with, you know, this is probably my Wharton training. Yeah. I I basically told them.

Geoffrey [00:06:50]:
I’m like, you know, I’m not you know, technology in and of itself doesn’t doesn’t excite me. And so I’m like, if I’m gonna do this, we have to try to create the next $1,000,000,000 business in in Philadelphia. Yeah. And so they both looked at me, and they’re like, we wouldn’t know where to start to do that.

Seth [00:07:09]:
That’s all you, Jeffrey. It’s all you.

Geoffrey [00:07:12]:
We’ll we’ll ride your coattails. So, you know, that that was the goal. We did we obviously, we didn’t hit that that that metric, but we did incredibly well. Yeah. And 6 years later, we, we sold the business. And, you know, I I was 11 years ago, and I’ve I’ve spent the last 11 years mentoring other entrepreneurs. Because what I found out through that experience was that, you know, I I actually again, because I had, studied entrepreneurship at at at in business school

Seth [00:07:38]:
Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:07:38]:
You know, I had I had taken 5 courses from 5 different professors. So I actually went back to Penn before we launched and sat down with my 5 professors. I asked him one question. It was, you know, if you were to give me one piece of advice that if I implemented it would maximize the probability I’d succeed that venture in this venture, what would that be? And I had 5 incredible conversations. Every professor gave me a litany of books. They wanted me to read about, you know, scaling business growth. I read all the books. By the time I finished the last book, I’m like, it’s like I read the same book over and over and over again.

Geoffrey [00:08:09]:
Successful entrepreneurs attribute the same things to their entrepreneurial success.

Seth [00:08:13]:
I noticed that.

Geoffrey [00:08:14]:
Yeah. That there there is a success blueprint, right, for entrepreneurship. So I kind of jotted down all these repetitive themes I was hearing and reading about. And I we when we launched, you know, I said, you know what? And it was almost a as a lark for me. It was I’m gonna infuse all this stuff in the business just to see what happens. Yeah. So we did that. Everything worked.

Geoffrey [00:08:38]:
So then what that told me was, one, there there is a a blueprint for entrepreneurial success.

Seth [00:08:46]:
Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:08:47]:
It’s actually readily available. Yeah. It’s easy to get your hands on.

Seth [00:08:50]:
It’s in a bunch of books.

Geoffrey [00:08:50]:
But it’s incredibly difficult to implement. Right? So that’s where a coach comes in. Someone needs to kinda walk you through. Because what what where you can succeed with the blueprint is Mhmm. When you take that blueprint, you customize it to your individual strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. Right? Love it. Yeah. So you’ve gotta be doing the things that you like to do and are good at doing, and you’ve gotta outsource everything else.

Geoffrey [00:09:14]:
Mhmm. But you’ve gotta take the time to discover what are those things I’m incredibly passionate about so that I can build this business around that.

Seth [00:09:22]:
That’s awesome. And you found

Geoffrey [00:09:23]:
that in your cofounders,

Seth [00:09:24]:
they did what they were good at. You do what you’re good at. You’re like, I don’t wanna do the tech. Yeah. Yeah. The business. You do the tech. You do the kiki stuff.

Seth [00:09:30]:
Yeah. I’ll make sure that, you know, you’ve got gray hair at the top. Kind of, like, the the adult in the in the room. You know? You you’re the adult Well,

Geoffrey [00:09:39]:
it kinda worked out really

Seth [00:09:40]:
Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:09:40]:
Yeah. I mean, it worked out really well in that. What I realized, my lack of technical expertise Hobby help. Came actually came in incredibly valuable because most people are tech savvy. Right? Particularly, you know, at the c level. Yeah. And so these are the people that I’m talking to to try to transfer it. Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:10:00]:
Get business. Exactly. I would sit in meetings with my cofounders and I really don’t know that. And they start explaining cloud computing to a CEO. And I would just sit back and and look at, you know, the person’s eyes. And when when when the eyes started to glaze over, I would I would stop my we got one of my cofounders. I’m like, I would tell the the other person. I’m like, do you want me to explain what they just said? You know? And they’re like, you know, because no one else would feel stupid.

Geoffrey [00:10:24]:
So they’re like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Please. Could you do that? Yeah. I love it.

Seth [00:10:28]:
I love it. So you’ve done the corporate grind. You’ve done the entrepreneurial journey past 2 decades. What’s the best thing about being an entrepreneur?

Geoffrey [00:10:40]:
You know, for me, it’s it’s it’s giving me the well, 1, it’s having control of my own fate, 1. But, 2, it’s also, and I tell entrepreneurs this all the time. This is why it’s incredibly important to find out what you’re passionate about and then build a business around it.

Seth [00:10:55]:
Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:10:56]:
Because I tell people when you when you when you do what you love, you love what you do. Right? Mhmm. So for me, it’s it’s it’s, and the easiest way to explain this is is I I will get text at, say, 2 in the morning

Seth [00:11:07]:
Aye.

Geoffrey [00:11:08]:
And respond to someone at 205. You know. And then they’re like you know, the person is like, why aren’t you asleep? And I’m like, I was asleep. You know? You woke me up. I sleep lightly, and I keep my phone on. And, you know, it when it pained, I I woke up. I responded to your I saw your text, responded to it, and went back to sleep. Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:11:26]:
You know? I make sure I get 8 hours of sleep every night. But Yeah. You know, I mean, you know, then they’re like, why would you do this? I said, you know, why would you do work, you know, while you’re sleeping? I said, because to me, it’s not work. I do what I love. I enjoy entrepreneurship. You know? So for me, the this comes as naturally to me as eating, breathing, sleeping. Right? So it’s just what I do.

Seth [00:11:48]:
It’s your thing.

Geoffrey [00:11:49]:
So Yeah. You know, whenever someone needs me, I help.

Seth [00:11:53]:
I love it. I love it. So what’s what keeps you up at night besides these text messages at 2 o’clock in the morning? What keeps you up? What what what’s what’s the scary thing about being an entrepreneur? Not much anymore?

Geoffrey [00:12:07]:
Yeah, there’s nothing at this stage. Nothing yet. Yeah. I’d my youngest is You see it. You see it.

Seth [00:12:12]:
You see

Geoffrey [00:12:12]:
it now? With a degree in architecture from Temple. So, Yeah. In 2 weeks. So Oh, okay. I I tell my daughter I have 2 daughters. So I tell my daughters when when the youngest is done, I’m done. I’m I’m probably not gonna really retire, but but, you know, so for me, I’m at a stage in my career where, you know, there aren’t many challenges or or obstacles that I haven’t already seen multiple times in my career.

Seth [00:12:36]:
So So probably be a coach.

Geoffrey [00:12:37]:
Absolutely nothing that scares me.

Seth [00:12:39]:
Yeah. Probably just be a coach.

Geoffrey [00:12:40]:
And and, you know, I’m I’m I’m in a stage where I I I don’t need to do this. I do it because I love doing it, and I wanna help other people. I actually believe that no one needs to fail, that everyone can succeed. It’s it’s it’s a matter of

Seth [00:12:55]:
do fail,

Geoffrey [00:12:55]:
you gotta

Seth [00:12:56]:
fail fast.

Geoffrey [00:12:56]:
The proper direction. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The right direction. What well, it’s failure is part of the entrepreneurial process. You know? It’s like hearing no. It’s no get you closer to yes.

Geoffrey [00:13:07]:
Failure gets you closer to success. It’s part of the process. So, you know, I I you shouldn’t be afraid of failure. Yeah. You should you should embrace it because it’s you learn through failure. It’s called failure. Every time you fail, you you you’ve added something else onto your onto your, you know, armor. Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:13:25]:
And and you’re better off with the next, the next one around.

Seth [00:13:27]:
My friend. Love it. So what is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

Geoffrey [00:13:35]:
You can go as woo as

Seth [00:13:36]:
you wanna go. You can go as physical as you wanna go.

Geoffrey [00:13:38]:
Yeah. Yeah. So so, for me, it it it’s probably my cell phone. But but outside of that, one thing that I I love to see in entrepreneurs is, humility. Yeah. You know, because, you know, there there’s an arrogance that is needed to be an entrepreneur. Right? Because, you know, you’re you’re you’re constantly hearing no. You’re constantly facing rejection.

Geoffrey [00:14:02]:
And in order to develop the thick skin to be able to overcome that, you you kind of have to, you know, get to a place where where you think very highly of yourself. Mhmm. However, within that, you still have to be humble enough because none of us the the the the goal should be to try to to know everything and learn everything, but you never will. Right? You never will. And so you but and you have to be humble enough to, 1, seek out advice and assistance and mentorship, and you have to be humble enough to to be quiet enough to listen and absorb what you hear so that you can implement it properly. Right?

Seth [00:14:42]:
You have 2 ears

Geoffrey [00:14:43]:
and one mouth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Seth [00:14:46]:
2 ears on that mouth using proportionally, which, you know, I’m still learning how

Geoffrey [00:14:49]:
to do. I am still learning. I’m I’m

Seth [00:14:52]:
42 and

Geoffrey [00:14:52]:
still learning. So Yeah. I I, you know, I I see this question a lot. I get asked it occasionally of, you know, hey. If you could turn back the hands of time, what what would you change? And I tell people I wouldn’t change anything, you know. Oh. I’ve had an incredible life. I said, but what I would do is I would I would change my ability to understand what I was being taught when I was being taught it.

Seth [00:15:15]:
Right? That’s a good one.

Geoffrey [00:15:16]:
Yeah. Because you could accomplish so much more when you’re younger if you actually understand the things that you know, we all are being given gifts. But when you’re young, you just, you know, you tend not

Seth [00:15:27]:
to be able to. A different kind of thinking too. Isn’t that isn’t that I think Yeah. What’s his face? Arthur Arthur somebody or other, he teaches at NYU, I think. He wrote a whole book on this, Arthur Brooks.

Geoffrey [00:15:39]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Seth [00:15:39]:
About how it crystallized intelligence, which we’re both in now versus the other time intelligence where it’s more plasticity. And it’s like, you know, it’s not you’re not losing your noggin. It’s just different ways of learning. And I really like

Geoffrey [00:15:52]:
it. Yeah.

Seth [00:15:53]:
The book was kinda depressing because I’m like, wow. Yeah. I should I should have done more before, but whatever. I’m in my crystallized Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:16:00]:
Yeah. Age. Yeah. You can. We we all should have, but but, you know Sure order. Is what it is. And yeah. Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:16:06]:
Yeah. So you just have to live your life as it’s given to you and Absolutely. With the with no regrets.

Seth [00:16:12]:
Exactly. So people can find you at think big with Jeffrey Kent. Jeffrey is spelled g e o g e o f r e y.

Geoffrey [00:16:20]:
Yeah.

Seth [00:16:21]:
The fancy schmancy way. There you go.

Geoffrey [00:16:23]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank thank thank her or or chastise my parents for that. I have no con I have no control over that.

Seth [00:16:30]:
It looks I like the Joffrey better than the wasn’t was it was it was it Jeffrey the Toys R Us mascot spelled Jeffrey this way too?

Geoffrey [00:16:38]:
Yes. Absolutely. You’re in good you’re in you’re

Seth [00:16:41]:
a great company.

Geoffrey [00:16:41]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jeffrey the giraffe. No. Exactly. No. It’s it’s the old old English spelling.

Geoffrey [00:16:46]:
Oh, it’s It’s it’s I found it’s unique, and so it’s, you know

Seth [00:16:50]:
But it can actually be found in Google a lot easier, I’m sure, too. So

Geoffrey [00:16:54]:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. There there are a couple other, you know, Jeffrey Kent’s, but, yeah.

Seth [00:17:00]:
There’s only one you.

Geoffrey [00:17:01]:
Not many.

Seth [00:17:01]:
There’s only one you. Yeah.

Geoffrey [00:17:02]:
Yeah. Exactly. Abs absolutely.

Seth [00:17:04]:
Yeah. So, Jeffrey, thank you so much for coming on. This has been so much fun, and we’ll see everyone next time. That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the marketing podcast network at marketing podcasts.net.