Hi J T, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

I got my first client, for my coaching business, following my first book, ‘In Business and In Dating’. After it became an Amazon and Barnes and Noble best seller in the first week, I launched a 4 week bookclub workshop online. The price to join was only $50. Each week the members would cover 3-4 chapters of the book and at the end of the week, we would get together on a Zoom for an hour. I would put the groups in breakout rooms to discuss just one chapter at a time, then after about 10-15 mins or so, we would come back as a group and talk about it. The group loved the breakout sessions and I loved the ease of it all, it was fun. Then I started getting inquiries for 1 on 1’s. Once I became certified as a life coach, the journey began.

J T, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

About Me – JT Boyd

Hello! I’m J.T. Boyd, an author, business mindset coach, business owner and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with a passion for empowering individuals and organizations to reach their fullest potential; financially and operationally. My journey began with a deep interest in business strategy and financial sustainability, which led me to take on leadership roles where I could make a real impact. As a CFO of a nonprofit organization, I’ve helped guide the financial direction of the organization, ensuring long-term growth while maintaining operational excellence.

In addition to my work in finance, I’ve expanded my reach as an author and business mindset coach. I help individuals, entrepreneurs, leaders, and organizations shift their mindset to embrace growth, financial clarity, and strategic vision. Through my coaching, I enable individuals to see themselves as a business, overcome barriers, develop a positive and proactive mindset, and take actionable steps toward achieving their business and personal goals.

I specialize in a range of services:

Financial Planning & Strategy: Developing robust financial models, budgets, and projections tailored to nonprofit and organizational needs.

Business Mindset Coaching: Helping entrepreneurs and leaders transform their mindset to achieve success in business and life.

Organizational Optimization: Helping organizations streamline operations, improve cost efficiency, and enhance their overall strategic direction.

What sets me apart is my ability to blend business and financial expertise with a mindset-centered approach. Whether it’s through my books or coaching sessions, I help my clients tackle both the financial and psychological aspects of business success. I believe that mindset is just as important as strategy when it comes to overcoming challenges and driving growth.

One of my proudest achievements is the work I’ve done with churches and nonprofits, helping them navigate major transitions like property acquisitions, shifting donor revenue streams, or restructuring for growth. My goal is not just to help my clients survive but to thrive, financially and emotionally.

If there’s one thing I want potential clients and followers to know about me, it’s that I’m here to be more than just a coach or strategist. I’m a partner in your success, committed to helping you develop the strategies, mindset, and tools you need to achieve your long-term goals.

Whether you’re looking for financial insights, mindset transformation, or operational strategies, I’m here to guide you every step of the way.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I had to unlearn was “quitting is failing”. I grew up an athlete so the q-word was never a popular one to say. There is even a saying, “once a quitter always a quitter”. However what I know now is, when you’re able to properly assess circumstances and identify the hard decisions or losses you need to make for growth, it may look like “quitting” to some but failing it is not.

When I went off to college and walked onto the football team, it seemed all my goals were obtainable. By the time I was a Junior, I even entertained the idea of one day trying out for the NFL. Afterall, I was a pretty good athlete at the time. I was 21 years old, six feet tall, 185 pounds, with a 4.56 seconds 40 yd dash, 33-inch vertical jump, 10-foot standing broad jump, 365-pound bench max and could rep 225 pounds 14 times. After a couple of summer camps, and proving myself, it looked like I was finally about to get the shot I was after—playing time and being 1 or 2 on the free safety depth chart. However, at the height of it all, I pulled my hamstring twice and it never felt the same afterwards. Although I knew I had what it took to play, my heart and the time I had left before graduating told me it would be better to focus on having an amazing student academic life and leave the student athletic life behind.
When I told my position coach, however, his advice to me was, “If you quit football now, you’ll quit everything else for the rest of your life.” His words resonated greatly because of the respect I had for him, which caused me to doubt my decision as well as my own personal assessment. I didn’t want to be a quitter of the things “that lay ahead in my unknown future. It almost felt like a curse to me. So, what did I do? I listened to the coach. For an entire season I sat on the sidelines hoping things in my mind would change, but they didn’t. The longer I stayed, the more it felt like I had made the wrong decision. Once the season was over and I had the option to come back I decided “not to. I was told that if I came back, things would be better for me and it would be my time to shine, but I’d already determined that I didn’t want to shine in that way anymore. I had already assessed that less than 1% would have a shot of trying out for the NFL combine and even less than that would make it. Instead, for the first time in 4 years, I only focused on my academics and excelled in my GPA the remaining semesters.
My coach’s advice wasn’t wrong, he just had the wrong person. The reality was that he was projecting his fear onto me, as most people do to others. I believe that if he were to ever quit football, he would not find much purpose outside of it and would continue to quit everything else for the rest of his life. In fact, after all these years later, he is still a football coach. Football is life for him, but it was never life for me, only an activity. I moved on and became a businessman who watches an occasional NFL game whenever I happen to catch one. I’ve never been a quitter “but I’ve always been an assessor. Whenever someone gives you advice, and you have enough living experiences to draw from, assess your life first and see if their advice fits your situation. The sooner you assess your life, the sooner you can quit the things that are unnecessarily occupying your time.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Yes. My first book ‘In Business and In Dating’ really unlocked new doors for me, changed my outlook on influence and changed my life for the better. My second release, ‘Man Up and Take The Lead’ out in June, was such a therapeutic reminder of so many things that just aren’t said to men in this day and age. It was the reset I even needed.

The books, outside of my own that I’ve read, that have most impacted my management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy are ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ by David J Schwartz,  ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton, ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren and ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho. All of these books in different ways explore that idea of what’s possible in the mind and to the mind. Once you can get it understood that in the mind anything is possible then to the mind nothing is possible, just a process to achieve. There have been more books but these by far are the most transformative to me.