Business Coach, Jullien Gordon, on a Mission to Free People of Color From Mental, Financial Burden

Jullien Gordon is one of millennial generation’s leading business coaches and the go-to thought leader on mastermind groups. He is a six-time author and five-time TED speaker. As CEO of Masterminds.org, his vision is to create a world where everyone has a team. He helps entrepreneurs and organizations transform their businesses and clients’ lives through coaching and collective accountability.

“My mission is to help people achieve freedom through self-mastery, skill mastery, masterminds and business mastery. This is why I founded TheFreedomSchool.com— an online university that teaches business and life coaches, consultants, speakers and authors how to turn their intelligence into income and impact and build businesses bigger than themselves,” Gordon explains.

Gordon has also been featured on MSNBC, Forbes and INC Magazine. He earned his Masters in Business Administration and Masters in Education from Stanford University and his Bachelors of Arts from the University of California Los Angeles in three years. He is originally from Oakland, California and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York with his wife Pam and daughter Jada.

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Mr. Gordon where he discussed more about his movement and how he is liberating the minds and lifestyle of our people. Check out the interview below.

Can you tell myself and the readers about yourself?

My mission is to free 300 people just like Harriet Tubman. She helped about 300 people cross The Mason-Dixon Line through 19 trips over the course of a decade. So far, I’ve fully freed five people through entrepreneurship as their coach. Now I’m seeking ways to free people at scale through The 40 Days of Freedom challenge, my courses in The Freedom School and my entrepreneurial residency programs.

Growing up and still to this day who are your inspirations? How did they impact your life?

I’ve had tons of informal mentors. It takes a village to raise an adult (Google my TED Talk with that title) My third grade teacher Luigi Santini taught me how to make learning fun. My baseball coach Wil Ash taught me the power of visioning. My soccer coach Jim Hopkins taught me agape. My Godmother, Carmen Kelley, taught me entrepreneurship through her BBQ restaurant. My Living and dying teacher father Malo taught me the importance of values. My mentors at UCLA, Tim Ngubeni and Mandla Kayise, taught me how to empower myself and build community. Janet White, my writing coach, taught me the power of my voice. And my professor, Chip Anderson, taught me my strengths. There are more. I did not get here alone.

What influenced you to pursue your degrees and career in education?

At the age of 18 I bought a 1990 190E Mercedes Benz to show my parents on was on a path to success like them by getting the things they got faster than they got them. As the son of two doctors, I had a lot to prove, especially since I knew I didn’t want to be a doctor. So I saved up my own my from umpiring and working at the batting cages to buy it. Two weeks later, my friends and I were promoting a party in Los Angeles and when I pulled into the parking lot to pass out our fliers, two men jumped out of a car in front of me with guns drawn and stole my car. That was a huge wake up call for me.

At the age of 18, I started asking myself some of life’s most important questions that most people don’t ask themselves until the mid-life crisis. Whose definition of success was I living? What is my definition of success? What’s my purpose? Why am I here? That moment began my quest to find my purpose and helping people find theirs and get paid for it is my Life’s Work today.

Over the years you’ve accomplished a lot of goals and developed an extraordinary portfolio, you’re a 6x author, 5x TED talk speaker, featured on MSNBC, Forbes, and INC Magazine. What effects do you think this much success will have on your next feat?

Life is about momentum. One success leads to another. Right now I feel like I’m simply building momentum to bigger and better things. It’s beautiful to see how my life and work keep weaving together toward a more authentic expression of who I truly am. I feel like my work today is an embodiment of all of my books, TED Talks, blogs, vlogs, articles, and TV interviews. It’s all coming together as one. I’m just enjoying the process as it unfolds.

After accomplishing so much do you feel like just stopping because it’s nothing else to do?

There is always more to do. The scripture says, “You will do even greater things than these.” I think life is about greater expansion, evolution and expression. I don’t mean doing big things for the sake of them being big. It’s not about magnitude. It’s about leaving the world better than it was when you inherited because of your presence and impact on people’s lives. Legacy is left through the people you touch and transform, not the things you leave behind or titles you held.

Your next goal/project is the 40 Days of Freedom starts in August, can you tell us about this? How does it work? What’s the purpose and end result?

The 40 Days of Freedomis a free online challenge to help people obtain more mental freedom, time freedom, and financial freedom. Each day I’ll be releasing a short video and exercise that increases your degrees of freedom in a specific area of life. At the end of the challenge, each person will get a personalize Declaration of Independence which is their custom plan to continue their journey toward their Mason-Dixon Line however they define it.

I believe in freedom for all. We are too smart and too hard working to not feel free in this day and age. Everything we need to achieve freedom is at our finger tips. For me, freedom is just about having a lot of money. Freedom starts in the mind. I’ve coached millionaires who aren’t free yet.

What other projects or upcoming events can we expect to see you in or providing?

Every Fall, I speak at dozens of colleges on The Undergrad Railroad Tour. There are about 18 schools on that tour as of now.

In November, I’ll be doing my 7-day Entrepreneurial Residency Program where I bring about a dozen entrepreneurs to Brooklyn for a week and install every asset that has worked in my business into theirs. They get my webpages, funnels, ads, PowerPoints, contracts, email sequences, and more.

And then every January, I kick off the year with The EntrepreNewYear Plan live event where I help entrepreneurs create a business plan and content calendar for the upcoming year.

Any words of wisdom and great advice you would like to share with us millennials?

Student Loans + a Single Family Home + a Single Salary = Modern Day Slavery.

Adulthood is the most dangerous neighborhood in the world. Have fun. Don’t take life too seriously.

Don’t just follow your passion. Find a problem you’re passionate about solving.

Cash is not king. Invest until you’re broke. Grow your equity, not just your hourly.