How did this sailor start his business while still serving in the military?
Jonny Coreson is an active duty Navy sailor, husband, father, and entrepreneur at heart. He is the owner and game designer of Pillar Games. They design and publish educational games for kids and young adults. In this interview we talk about how he stays focused, balances work and family life, and leads this startup.
Part 1
Part 2
Insights From The Interview
- Use MeetUp.com to find groups of people with similar interests to start your network.
- Plan for your passions and priorities.
- Stop researching and get doing. Jonny breaks it down into phases for a long term vision of his goals.
- What happens when you can't program, yet want to develop software.
- Finding a developer and leading a programming team.
- What are the costs to starting a business like this?
- Budgeting to build your business.
- Why Jonny chose this business to go "all in."
- The hang ups to starting.
- Why you shouldn't pay for a networking connection.
- How to prepare for networking.
- Following up with your networking.
- Balancing work, life, and entrepreneurship.
Resources
- Check out Jonny's game website, Pillar Games.
- Jonny blogs and recommends PreVeteran, a resource for veterans and their spouses on building their business.
- My interview on HighSpeedLowDrag with John Lee Dumas.
- Inc.com's resources and conferences for military entrepreneurs.
- These are some podcasts Jonny and I listen to to get educated and motivated: CommandYourBusiness, Fire & Adjust, Entrepreneur On Fire, MilBiz, 1,2, Many: Veteran Suicide, and Mixergy.
- Jonny mentioned the books, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
, by Nir Eyal, and Active-Duty Entrepreneur, by Jason C. Anderson (LtCol, USAF).
