Episode 564: What Makes Someone A REAL Entrepreneur?

I have a bone to pick with the word entrepreneur because somewhere along the way, it became less about building something real and more about having a sexy title in your Instagram bio. Everyone wants the label, but not everyone has put in the time, taken the hits, failed, adjusted, and kept going long enough to actually earn it. In this episode of Habits & Hustle, Shani and I get into the difference between being entrepreneurial and actually being an entrepreneur. We also talk about fake business gurus, online courses, social media self-promotion, and why you need to be way more discerning about who you trust, follow, and pay. Because here's the truth: selling a course on success does not automatically make you successful. If you want to build something real, you need persistence, proof, and the ability to get back up when the first version does not work. No sexy bio line. No fake guru playbook. Just the actual work. Let's dive in. What's Discussed: (00:59) Why the word "entrepreneur" has become the new sexy Instagram bio label. (02:15) What actually qualifies someone as an entrepreneur versus someone who just wants the title. (03:08) The problem with people selling courses on entrepreneurship when they haven't built anything themselves. (04:04) The real difference between being entrepreneurial and being an entrepreneur. (05:27) Why selling a course can make someone a good internet marketer, but not necessarily a qualified business expert. (06:15) How social media creates the illusion that someone is more successful or experienced than they actually are. (07:35) The fine line between being an entrepreneur and being a snake oil salesman. (10:24) Why discernment matters when deciding who to trust, follow, listen to, or buy from online. (12:04) The "do your own research" mindset and why people get burned when they blindly trust influencers. (12:54) How Shark Tank and social media made everyone believe they could build the next big business. Thank You to Our Sponsors! Momentous: Ready to try supplements that actually do what they claim? Head to livemomentous.com http://livemomentous.com and use code JEN for 35% off your first subscription. Therasage: Visit therasage.com http://therasage.com and use code JEN to get 15% off your order. Your skin deserves this level of care. Magic Mind: Head over to magicmind.com/jen http://www.magicmind.com/jen and use code JEN at checkout. AirDoctor: Head to AirDoctorPro.com http://airdoctorpro.com/ and use promo code HUSTLE to get up to $300 off today! AirDoctor comes with a 30-day money back guarantee, plus a 3-year warranty (an $84 value) FREE! Kion: Visit getkion.com/habits http://getkion.com/habits for 20% off. Pique: Go to piquelife.com/jenniferrsd https://piquelife.com/jenniferrsd to get 20% off for life plus free gifts Prolon: Prolon is offering listeners 30% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program! Just visit prolonlife.com/JENNIFERCOHEN https://prolonlife.com/JENNIFERCOHEN and use the code JENNIFERCOHEN to claim your discount and your bonus gift. Manna Vitality:Try it now by using code Jennifer20 at mannavitality.com http://mannavitality.com Rho Nutrition: Go to RhoNutrition.com http://rhonutrition.com and try Rho's Liposomal Glutathione. Use code JEN20 for 20% off sitewide. Find more from Jen Cohen: Website: jennifercohen.com https://jennifercohen.com Instagram: @therealjencohen http://instagram.com/therealjencohen Books: jennifercohen.com/books https://jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements https://jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

• 0:07Jen Cohen?

  Before we get into today's episode, I want to talk to you about something I think a lot of people are getting wrong, and that's hydration. Most people think the answer is simply drinking more water. But if you don't have the right electrolytes, your body can't properly absorb it and use that water. So you still end up feeling depleted, low energy, and actually dehydrated, no matter how much you're actually drinking. And that's why I've been using Peak's Deep Hydration Protocol. It's a simple two-part system designed to support hydration around the clock. In the morning, I take the BT Fountain, which contains ceramides, hyaluronic acid, and nutrients that support cellular hydration, healthy skin, and steady energy throughout the day.

• 0:48Jen Cohen?

  And at night, I take the Re Fountain, which contains magnesium to help calm the nervous system, support deeper sleep, and help you wake up feeling much more refreshed. And what I love the most is completely clean. No sugar, no fillers, and no artificial flavors. And right now, Peak is offering 20% off for life plus free gifts. So head to peaklife.com/jenniferdhp or click the link in the show notes. That is 20% off for life plus free gifts by heading to peaklife.com/jenniferdhp.

• 1:33Jen Cohen?

  Welcome back to Habits and Hustle Solo Edition. Well, kind of Solo Edition. I do have my foil Shawnee with me, but you can't see her because we only have one camera. So you hear her, but you don't see her. And we just kind of just jibber jabber on, you know, current topics that are interesting, at least to us, hopefully to you. And, you know, today's topic, we're going to talk about, I feel, something that is so overused, which is the word entrepreneur. I mean, is everybody now an entrepreneur because of Instagram and social media? Like, I feel like it's become like the sexy hashtag. Like, everybody now wants to be an entrepreneur. It's so overused.

• 2:17Speaker 02

  I had serial entrepreneur in my Clubhouse bio for about a week because a friend told me I should put it there.

• 2:23Jen Cohen?

  Yeah, everyone has that in their bio.

• 2:24Speaker 02

  And then I was like, this needs to go.

• 2:26Jen Cohen?

  Okay, every bio now, if you look on anybody's bio, it has the word entrepreneur. You could be like a dog walker slash, I don't know, I guess meditation guru, okay? And then you have the word serial entrepreneur, because I think what happens is everyone assumes, well, if I'm my own business, I guess technically you are an entrepreneur, right?

• 2:48Speaker 02

  Technically, you are. Just so many people are now starting their own things. And even if it's like a small thing, they're counting themselves as an entrepreneur. But it is exhausting.

• 2:56Jen Cohen?

  I guess the question is like, what classifies or what are the qualifications to make somebody an entrepreneur? Because there's a lot of people out there who may think or want to be an entrepreneur because it's become that sexy hashtag. But they don't have the characteristics that make a good entrepreneur. And so there's nothing wrong with not being an entrepreneur and being something else. But you know, now everyone's an entrepreneur.

• 3:23Speaker 02

  Well, I feel like you're asking the question between what's a successful entrepreneur and what's just not.

• 3:28Jen Cohen?

  No, I'm not. I'm asking, I'm asking a few different questions. But first question is, what are the characteristics of actually being an entrepreneur? Number one, not just saying you are because it sounds good and it sounds sexy because it's trendy right now. That's the first question. The second question I have is, you know, I have a, not even a question. I have a bone to pick with the fact that there are so many people now just selling courses like as to how to be a successful entrepreneur. But these people, the only entrepreneurial thing that they're doing are selling these courses to entrepreneurs. But they don't have any actual, you know, experience or background in building a company or doing anything entrepreneurial.

• 4:11Jen Cohen?

  But they're just now, you know, doing funnels. So is that an entrepreneur? Because you were, you thought about that idea to then make money off of the program? So technically, you are an entrepreneur.

• 4:22Speaker 02

  Technically, anyone who has their own business, right? Or starts their own business is technically an entrepreneur. But I think some people who are just entrepreneurial in spirit, but don't necessarily have a business, still also call themselves entrepreneurs.

• 4:34Jen Cohen?

  That's a great point. Great, great point. So there is a major.

• 4:38Speaker 02

  Thank you so much.

• 4:39Jen Cohen?

  No, I think that's so true. I really believe there is a big, big difference between being an entrepreneur and being entrepreneurial, right?

• 4:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:48Jen Cohen?

  And, you know, maybe wanting to, you know, kind of work on being an entrepreneur, but like, from my perspective, anyway, I think of it as if someone has actually done something repeatedly over time and like got up, failed, got up again, tried it, created something. There has to be an amount of time put in to call yourself an entrepreneur or actually have grown or built a business to some extent.

• 5:15Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 5:15Jen Cohen?

  As opposed to just thinking entrepreneurially and being like, you know what? I can make money off of doing this thing and let's just see how it goes for like a couple of months or a year. That, I, I don't think that should count.

• 5:29Speaker 02

  I mean, I think anybody who starts something, anyone who starts any sort of business venture to me is an entrepreneur. I just don't think that they're good entrepreneurs. No, because it, it's not necessarily like, I don't like, you could be, you could start a business and be running it for three months. And for that three month period, you are actually an entrepreneur. If you then go and start working for somebody else and you stop it, you're not really an entrepreneur.

• 5:49Jen Cohen?

  Right. You just tried something and you had an entrepreneurial idea and you did it. Okay. This is, I guess, where my rant is coming from.

• 5:57Speaker 02

  But wait, the coaches thing is really, the courses thing is really important because I think people who sell courses on how to be a good entrepreneur, but have never really successfully started or grown a business. That's psychotic.

• 6:07Jen Cohen?

  Well, no.

• 6:08Speaker 02

  That's literally, but it's also a really smart entrepreneurial thing to do because they're making a ton of money. So in that regard, they are actually quite successful. So it's so weird.

• 6:16Jen Cohen?

  If they do it well, but then that makes them a really strong internet marketer.

• 6:21Speaker 02

  Right.

• 6:21Jen Cohen?

  So what I think is happening, yeah, true. This is what I think is interesting. I do believe it's like a, it's a very blurry, blurry line, right? Because if you are doing, if you do have your own business and you're very entrepreneurial in spirit, and then you create these courses and call yourself an entrepreneur, and then you sell these things online. I guess you're right. You are an entrepreneur. I guess my problem with it more than anything is that. Like any Tom, Dick or Harry can do this online now and like create this illusion that they're really successful and they've done all these things. And like, the only thing they've really done was, you know, understand how internet marketing works. And get people who don't know any better to sign up for something and learn from somebody.

• 7:05Jen Cohen?

  Who quite frankly, they don't even know what they're talking about.

• 7:08Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 7:09Jen Cohen?

  So I think that's really my problem is that like, people just jump on this bandwagon of what's like sexy or trendy, hashtaggy or whatever, and then that becomes the new thing. It's just, there's such like, I guess what you're hearing right now is just total like frustration with the masses that are on social media, just like touting.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 7:31Jen Cohen?

  Basically like self-promoting their abilities. You know, that's where my problem comes to, you know, like it's a constantly self-promoting their abilities of what they can teach you, what you can learn from them. Pay me this amount of money and you're gonna get, you know, all your answers and all your dreams are gonna be answered. That's such the shit that drives me crazy. Like just, you know, click over here to this funnel. And I'm gonna give you everything for free, but just click this and then buy this for a hundred ninety-nine dollars. And then go to this webinar for whatever. Like, I just feel everything is just like a racket.

• 8:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:08Jen Cohen?

  You know?

• 8:09Speaker 02

  It's all an upsell.

• 8:09Jen Cohen?

  It's all an upsells, all a racket. So I guess technically, you are very entrepreneurial if you're doing it and doing it well.

• 8:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:16Jen Cohen?

  Right? But at what point are you just a snake oil salesman? Like where's the difference? Where's the fine line between being a snake oil salesman? Cause technically you still are an entrepreneur.

• 8:25Speaker 02

  Well, you're an entrepreneur, you're just a scummy entrepreneur, which does exist.

• 8:28Jen Cohen?

  So then that's it.

• 8:29Speaker 02

  There's differences between, like, anyone can call them, anyone who starts a business can call themselves an entrepreneur, but we have, but you need to have the discernment to say, are they a good or bad entrepreneur? Are they a scummy entrepreneur? Are they smart entrepreneur? Like, what are the prefixes that go to entrepreneur?

• 8:43Jen Cohen?

  So this is, okay, I'm so glad I'm just, I'm talking this out and like saying this out loud. Because I think that is what the crux of it all is. I think it all goes under the umbrella of an, of being an entrepreneur.

• 8:54Speaker 02

  Right.

• 8:55Jen Cohen?

  But there are different types. You could be a really successful one, a successful entrepreneur. You could be just someone who's like, you know, trying a lot of stuff, but never really had success. You could be really good in one area, like an internet marketer, and know how to like get money out of people and be a great salesman.

• 9:10Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 9:11Jen Cohen?

  You know, I think that's what it is.

• 9:13Speaker 02

  Well, I understand also your frustration because you actually are a successful entrepreneur. And people selling courses on entrepreneur that have never really done anything before or have a proven record is very frustrating. It's how I feel about people who sell podcast courses who've literally been producing for like five months and now all of a sudden they're selling like, you know, courses for like $800. I'm like, what? I've actually purchased some of the podcast courses out there to see like what's going on in the competition and some of them are awful. And I can't believe people are paying, people pay like $5.99, $8.99. Some of them are 1300 for these courses that are giving them information that's outdated, that's not really that great that you could find on YouTube for free in five seconds.

• 9:50Jen Cohen?

  Well, I don't think any of these course, I mean, listen, I shouldn't say, I don't know. Okay, I don't know. But what I would, I would imagine is that, you know, you could find anything online. You can Google anything, you can YouTube anything. So the question really becomes like, are you somebody who, what you're really paying for is convenience. You don't want to go through the hassle, I don't blame you, of researching and going through all the due diligence. So you, you're picking a package that someone's done for you. And the problem is like, if you don't know what you don't know. So if you're somebody who is someone who's interested in a certain area and you see someone advertising it because they have the wherewithal and the ability to know how to like advertise well, then you're going to buy that course. Doesn't mean the information is great.

• 10:33Jen Cohen?

  So this comes back, I feel like this podcast, not this particular episode, but I think the overarching message, one of them in this whole podcast that I do, Habits and Hustle, I feel like the same through lines are always coming up, which is like being discerning from who you, you get information from, who you get advice from. Like discernment is so important, right? That's one of the through lines. It's like, also it's like, who do you want to be? Like, what are you trying to accomplish? And act accordingly, right? I think that's another through line. But I think the idea of having discernment and knowing who your outlets are, like who you're watching, who you're listening to, where you're like, what you're doing, like, maybe I'm not the best person for you to listen to. Like, maybe I'm talking out of my ass, who knows?

• 11:18Speaker 02

  She might be.

• 11:18Jen Cohen?

  Yeah, but I mean, I'm not, I'm not. Selling anything right now, maybe I should.

• 11:23Speaker 02

  Not yet.

• 11:24Jen Cohen?

  Not yet, but maybe I should.

• 11:25Speaker 02

  Jennifer's course coming soon.

• 11:26Jen Cohen?

  Entrepreneurial, exactly. I am very entrepreneurial. But I think it's really important, if you are gonna buy something from somebody, like know who you're buying it from. Like, don't just go buy a course on because some yahoo tells you he's an entrepreneur and he's gonna answer all your dreams and you're gonna become like super successful by doing this, this, and this. Like, look at their background.

• 11:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:47Jen Cohen?

  Most of the time, these people are a bunch of yahoos. That's the problem.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  Also, it depends on like what their marketing is. If they're, if they're promising you, you know, the, the dream life and everything. Like, you have to kind of read between those lines. There's a slang, or not a slang, it's an acronym, I guess. D Y O R means do your own research. And it was heavily used in the N F T space because a lot of people would purchase projects without doing, you know, their full research. They'd just see an influencer posted a project, they would buy it also.

• 12:12Jen Cohen?

  Yep.

• 12:12Speaker 02

  And then they'd get screwed, right? And that, that project would tank and it would actually, you know, be a FUD, which is just like a project that kind of goes to shit. And like that would happen a lot. And so D Y O R became a really big theme. And I think that's a big theme of your podcast is literally do your own research. Like, don't just believe everything, you know?

• 12:29Jen Cohen?

  Don't believe it.

• 12:29Speaker 02

  Look into it.

• 12:30Jen Cohen?

  And, yeah, exactly. But I, I think also it's just about the fact that like I get, I get so worked up when every day there's another like crop of entrepreneurs, self-help gurus, people who are experts who like aren't, they're just not.

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• 14:15Jen Cohen?

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• 14:40Speaker 02

  Wait, I have a question for you. How much do you think Shark Tank has had an impact on this kind of thing?

• 14:45Jen Cohen?

  Okay, so the next thing I had written down that I didn't even get into because I'm on my rant right now, is I think it was like the evolution and the popularity of Shark Tank that like it made everyone feel like, oh, I can do that. And listen, I think it's amazing. Don't get me wrong. I think if you have a great idea and like you stick to it and you actually are building something, successful or not, you're an entrepreneur. I'm all for that. What I don't love is when people try to take advantage of other people's like naivety, right? And just like unknowing and you know, take them for a bunch of money from someone. That's a charlatan. You're a charlatan then. You're a snake oil salesman. You're a charlatan. You have no business doing it. You know, there's enough real people out there that you can learn from

• 15:29Jen Cohen?

  versus that you don't have to settle for these, you know, these charlatans who are selling you the moon and the sun and everything else in between. But you have to be. Able to do your own research and have discernment because that's what social media is becoming. And it's becoming more and more of that every single day. I used to see only fitness stuff, for example. Maybe my algorithm has changed now a lot.

• 15:55Speaker 02

  Right.

• 15:55Jen Cohen?

  But I do believe that what's become, who are becoming celebrities, who are becoming famous, who are like Insta famous or social media famous are people who are these big motivational gurus and entrepreneurs who are just completely just like behind the scenes, a total yahoo.

• 16:12Speaker 02

  I think it's hard for people who are not, I feel like if you live in LA, you know that, right? Like because you're so exposed to this kind of BS and you're exposed to the behind the scenes. You watch people taking their Instagram photos, you know what they look like in person. Like you're, you're more aware. I feel like it's really hard when people are disconnected from this world to be able to discern between, you know, who is that and who is this? And I completely agree. And I feel like for you, it's so frustrating because you're surrounded by all these people who are doing that, you know? And you can see the behind the scenes of all this stuff. And you're like, damn, like there's so many people who are just really preying on people.

• 16:44Jen Cohen?

  But I think if you just, anybody can, I don't think it's only because in LA. I think now anybody can be anywhere and they, and their social media famous and they can do whatever. Like a lot of these people, by the way, live, living in.

• 16:54Speaker 02

  I mean, I mean, if you grow up in LA or you live in LA, you see the behind the scenes. So you're, you're more able to discern it.

• 16:59Jen Cohen?

  I understand. Well, I guess my point in general, overall is that you just, I think anybody who just takes like a moment and questions a little bit and like, hmm, what is this? Or like just does a little bit more, but you know, background, I think you'd be surprised. But I think we've done other, other episodes on that. I think it's just really more about the idea that like, really what does, what is an entrepreneur? Like really, what is the definition versus being just entrepreneurial in spirit? There is, I think, a huge distinction.

• 17:28Speaker 02

  Huge difference, yeah.

• 17:29Jen Cohen?

  And you know, is that like amount of time that you have to sustain something or build something? I really think if someone is persistent and resourceful over a long period of time and stays and sticks with something over and over again, regardless of the success, you really are an entrepreneur and you want something and you know, like, and you are. You've grit and you try over and over again. But just by creating something and throwing a lot of money on advertising and selling a program doesn't make you an entrepreneur. And it sure as hell doesn't make you a great expert to teach entrepreneurial skills. Like, that to me is like a joke. That's it.