Welcome back to Incorporating SuperPowers, and folks if you’ve been listening for the last year and a half, and I know you have, then you’re going to really, really enjoy today’s show because today we’re going to push the envelope just a little bit. We’re going to talk about the future of business. And if you are paying attention to what’s going on in the world, especially over the last year and a half with COVID and so forth, you’re noticing that things aren’t the way they used to be. And if you’re a business owner, you’re probably maybe having some freak-out moments, of like, how do you keep up? How do you advance the future of business? How do you stay out of cancel culture? How do you move and continue to grow and build an influence with all the craziness going on in the world? And how do you duplicate yourself in such a way that as an entrepreneur especially, you don’t find yourself having to do everything on your own because it’s impossible, especially if you want to grow if you want to keep up and if you want to really get ahead of the game?
My guest today is, oh well, he’s on that edge as well. He is leading in his industry. And he is a columnist. He’s got all sorts of things going on. And I’m super excited to have him on the show today because we met about three and a half years ago. He’s the original underwear entrepreneur. And he’s here. We’re going to stretch some of your concepts of what’s going on in the world and really get down to the nitty-gritty of what you can do to leverage your business for the future. My guest today is Jeff Hunter, and we are going to crack the door wide open on this one, folks. Jeff, welcome to the show.
Oh, thanks for having me, Justin.
So, Jeff, I see you on social media, we met a couple of years ago, and we just kind of been circling around each other for some time. And I think we have a lot of shared viewpoints and just the way things get done in your business is very similar to how things get done in our business and so forth. But really, with COVID out there, and we were talking about this before the interview, we were talking about how big corporations, these old dinosaur industries, these old dinosaur businesses, or the businesses that are just refusing to evolve, thinking that the old ways of doing things are what we’re going to come back to when all this COVID and nonsense is done and over with, think that we’re going to go back to that. How foolish is that?
Well, you have the CEO of Goldman Sachs, who is an old dinosaur, saying that this is just a temporary thing, that business is going to be back to normal, and that he’s going to have everybody back in their offices, and that remote teams are just a quick temporary thing. But what I’ve learned, at least from growing now over a hundred-person virtual team, is that a lot of companies are adapting, they’re adapting to the new way of life. They’re also understanding the cost benefits of having people that work remotely from home. And for those that are able to actually master keeping up productivity and efficiency high and not having to pay all the overhead expenses of an office and everything that goes along with it, it’s actually one of the most important, valuable things that you can do to future-proof your business.
I absolutely 100% agree. And folks, let me just affirm for you here, the entire SuperPower network is built upon the very principles of which Jeff just mentioned, outsourcing your labor, outsourcing work. I mean, we’ve got a team.
We don’t have a hundred people, but we’ve got 20 or so people that help us with the production of the network. They’re all virtual, they’re all from all around the globe. We’ve got people in the United States, we’ve got people in the Philippines, we’ve got people in India, all over. Right. And I can control all of that, I can manage all of that from my phone. And folks, the newly wealthy, the future of business, and building wealth, isn’t necessarily always just about making money, it’s about getting your time back. And when you go virtual, you get a lot back because you’re not having to manage or worry about overhead or doing it yourself. So Jeff, talk to me about your primary business, the outsourcing that you provide for entrepreneurs. What does that look like?
Well, I think, to tell you what it looks like, it’s probably more important to how I got there.
Well, let’s take a step back. Absolutely. I mean, when I first met you and you’re like, “I’m an underwear entrepreneur.” I’m like, “Oh, okay. Got it. I know who you are.” I had heard that before, somebody else was trying to play themselves off as the underwear entrepreneur as well. And you’re like, “No, I’m the original. Dah, dah, dah.” And you had a great backstory. So let’s start there. What is the backstory and how did you get from where you were to where you are now?
Well, first and foremost, I don’t want to even claim that I’m the original. Michael, actually, is the original. If you look him up, he actually owns the trademark for it. But what I will tell you is that I was the first person to go viral for it, because what happened was I had just moved from Portland, Oregon down to California. I had left my six-figure corporate, cushy job, where I had a company car, company phone, company computer, company credit card that I could charge gas and food on, and everything. I had a very comfortable life as a project manager for a Fortune 500 company. And it was actually there I started building virtual teams for them, and I started realizing how amazing they were. And I said, man, this is something the world needs. And I kind of decided to venture off on my own and start my own kind of thing.
Now, I’ve never been an entrepreneur, I’ve always worked my way up. I was an IT guy at a computer store, and then I became the IT guy at a school, and then I became the IT coordinator for a school district, and then I became the IT project manager for a Fortune 500. So, I probably have the most standardized path of most people. I went to college for 12 years because I had a full-time job my whole life. Right. And I finally finished my degree in 2012. And ironically, in 2012, I had already gotten two career paths, not jobs, careers that people went to college to get before I’d finished my degree. So anyway, that’s a whole different conversation about the future of education because I think our education system is trash.
But the point is that I started my own virtual assistant company. I was actually giving a webinar. This is probably around the same time or maybe a year before you and I met. And I was giving a training, a paid training. People pay me $1,000 for this training on how to build virtual teams. And I was doing this and because they’re paying me good money, I put on my best. I had a sport coat on and a button-up shirt. And this is five years ago. So, we didn’t have the joys of the inexpensive LEDs five years ago, right, Justin?
Yeah, no. Now they’re cheap.
Back then we had those giant ass CFL lights, the giant spirally glass lights that you’d put in these boxes and you shine them at yourself and blind yourself and who knows how much damage I’ve gotten my retinas from it. But I had those lights shining at me during my webinar, I was right in front of my webcam. And I have a sit/stand desk. I’m actually sitting at it right now. But usually, I’m standing or I’m sitting. And at the time… When I give presentations, I usually get nervous so I actually stand up because I’m a walker. I’m the guy that always has to walk around when he’s on the phone.
So, I’m doing this webinar and I’m just sweating my ass off. And I literally, like mid-presentation, I just reached down because no one can see my lower half, I just reached down and I unzipped my pants and I kicked my jeans to the side. And here I am with a sport coat in my underwear. And no one can see this, but then my sister just randomly stops by to visit me while I’m giving my presentation. And she looks through my glass door because I have an actual office in my house and I have a glass door office. And she looks in and she’s giggling and she’s tapping on the window. And I’m trying to give her the “Hey I’m busy” kind of sign. Right. I lift my finger up and kind of pointed at her like I’m busy. And she just has this hilarious look on her. And she snaps a picture. And of course, I catch her snapping the picture of me in my sport coat in my boxers.
Drawers.
Well, she goes and she posts that in the… Oh, actually, I think she sent it to me and I posted it in the… It had like 400,000 people in this group. Or maybe it’s 40,000 or more, maybe I’m exaggerating. I think it’s maybe 40,000. But it was called Escape From the Nine to Five or something like that. It was an entrepreneurial group. And I said, “Hey, just got done giving a training today in my underwear.” And then I made a joke and I said, “I call this the Webcam Mullet because it’s business up top and a party down below.” And the post went viral.
And you didn’t think you’d go virtual.
Yeah. The post went viral and it got so many likes and shares. It was actually the first time I’ve ever seen traction on social media at all. I mean, that was before TikTok. On TikTok, I’ve got over a hundred million views, I’ve got a hundred thousand followers, 3 million likes on my videos. But this is way before the age of that. And actually, I was asked by several people to talk about what I do and my journey and that and a lot of people related to it. And I even had, get ready for this Justin, I even had a company reach out to me, called Sock and Sack, and I became an official sponsored underwear model. And by the way, for those of you listening and you don’t know who I am, I’m a 290 pound, bald… We’ll just say I’m plump.
You’re in good company, my friend, you’re in good company.
I’m six foot though. I hold it well, but the point is I’m definitely not your underwear model. And it’s funny because they approached me, Justin. They were like, “You know what? You’re exactly who we want to represent our brand because we’re trying to reach out to entrepreneurs. And we have the most comfortable underwear on the planet and we want entrepreneurs to be wearing ours when they’re at their desk.”
This is awesome.
Isn’t that funny? And by the way, I think that company went out of business. I mean, having me as their underwear model, I can see why. See, but they were the best, most comfortable underwear I’ve ever had. So…
Oh, folks, this right here is just the tip of the iceberg of the future of business. And to be full transparency, I’m sitting here in my sweats during this interview right now because we’re in Phoenix and it’s like 65 out so it’s cold for us here in the Valley. But yeah, that’s the beautiful thing about going virtual and it really is the future of business. Jeff, before we take a break, where can people go find more information about you?
Oh, you know what? I’m super excited. You can actually go to Google now and type in “Jeff J. Hunter.” And I’m officially Google verified now.
There you go.
I know you in the security world, you probably know how much of a big deal that is. But I’m officially verified. And actually, I’ve been invited to be an official influencer. So, I have what’s called Google Cameo access. So you’ll see little videos of me with my gaming rig on the side of the screen. And you’ll be like, “How did you get that?” It’s funny, people always ask me, “How did you post videos to your Google profile?”
That’s awesome.
But yeah, they can just Google me and it’s going to show my Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, whatever. But I just love to connect with people. And LinkedIn is the best way to connect with me because my Facebook’s been full for like three years. But yeah.
Nice. Well, I’ll tell you what, folks, stay with us. When we get back, we’re going to dive down the rabbit hole a little bit further as to really what it takes to build out a virtual team for your business so you can stay ahead of the curve and what I see as kind of the upcoming tsunami of change, because things aren’t going to go back the way they used to be. Stay tuned. We’ll be right back.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
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