An Entrepreneur’s Guide for the Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated”
Nationwide — Continuing his mission of empowering people impacted by the criminal justice system, author and entrepreneur Joe Robinson has just published a revised and expanded version of his nationally acclaimed Think Outside the Cell. This inspiring and informative book when first released led the way as an entrepreneurship manual specifically designed for people who have served time in prison. The latest edition offers a wealth of guidance—including the transformative content from the original book and valuable new facts and ideas—that will make the journey to entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and personal empowerment far easier and destined for success.
With Think Outside the Cell, Joe is encouraging men and women nationwide to use what for many are innate entrepreneurial gifts in order to build the lives they want and break the cycle of recidivism. This step-by-step guide is packed with straightforward information on a range of topics, including how to get others to embrace your ideas and help launch your business, how to legally avoid taxes, how to establish good credit, and the steps to take to remove occupational restrictions that many states place on convicted felons. The just-released edition offers a treasure trove of new material, including on using a customer avatar to hone in on your ideal customer’s aspirations and pain points, maximizing the use of the internet for business, and leveraging social media to establish deeper relationships with existing and potential customers.
Joe’s passion for his mission is deeply rooted in his own life experiences. He hails from the rough and tumble heart of East New York, Brooklyn, a neighborhood that bore the brunt of the crack era’s devastating impact during his formative years. This turbulent environment exposed him to the harsh realities of economic disparity and the consequences of financial illiteracy. It also forged his resilience.
His journey was profoundly influenced by 25 years of incarceration, an experience that ignited a fervent desire to reach out to those who find themselves in similar circumstances, grappling with myriad obstacles and challenges upon release. It is Joe’s unwavering commitment to improving the financial well-being of this segment of the population that fuels his relentless pursuit of normalizing conversations about money.
Joe’s mission is not limited to teaching mere financial concepts; it is about helping people to embrace their dreams through catalyzing a profound shift in money mindsets, nurturing healthy relationships with money, and providing the tools and knowledge necessary to invest wisely.
Think Outside the Cell has won high praise, including from the late John C. Whitehead, whose titles included U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and co-chairman of Goldman Sachs; Steve Mariotti, founder of the internationally acclaimed Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship; Wahida Clark, best-selling urban fiction author; and Julio Medina, founder of Exodus Transitional Community, whose work with the formerly incarcerated has been recognized by the White House.
Think Outside the Cell is being published amid renewed efforts to help the formerly incarcerated — who are disproportionately black and Latino — successfully reenter society. For example, New York State recently enacted the Clean Slate Act, which automatically seals certain convictions after a set number of years. Formerly incarcerated people in the dozen or so states that have enacted such legislation now have the possibility of a more realistic second chance.
Think Outside the Cell presents an important option that can help give these men and women–and millions of others who have returned home or are making plans to one day do so–the building blocks needed to establish productive lives.
The book can be purchased on Amazon or at MindfulMoneyLLC.com
