Anthony “AJ” Joiner is a tech leader, entrepreneur, three-time bestselling author, radio personality, and the founder of Blooksy software. He enjoys making the lives of others easier through innovation and education. Through Blooksy, writers, professors, teachers and students will be able to accelerate book and research writing through AI software.
Joiner shared what inspired him and the tips he has for other technopreneurs.
How did your career path lead you to create Blooksy?
I had this parallel career, that I always was interested in understanding what moves people and what moves eyeballs. [During] that transition along with tech, I started to get into the technical analytical side of it, like, “What does the data say? How can we use technology, and leverage technology to get people to behave a certain way to get them to do certain things, or get them to expand their voice?”
Maybe about 14 to 15 years ago, I got into podcasting, and now it’s the thing everywhere. I started doing it back then. I started looking at analytics and all [those]things. Fast-forward, I left corporate America and started a marketing agency working with super fancy people — TV, radio and media people — building out their back-end platforms, e-commerce stores before that was a thing.
Eventually, I started partnering with Radio One, not only providing content with Radio One but working with their personalities, to help them expand their reach and generate income. Well, [then I] started doing book-writing workshops in partnership with Radio One, and I created a brand called Books Across America. Right after I closed my agency, I would travel to different cities doing book writing workshops, and then the pandemic happen. … I thought, “OK, well, how can I build something that doesn’t require people to need to talk to [me], and still help people write and publish their books?” I started to mock up software because I did it for corporate America, why not do it for myself? I built what I wanted to call Booksy, but when I looked out on the domains, Booksy was already gone. So, I named it Blooksy.
It’s a software platform that uses artificial intelligence and customized templates to help write books and manuscripts. [It also helps] educators write dissertations and academic articles, and school-aged children write essays and turn those into books.
What advice do you have for other tech entrepreneurs who are looking up to you?
The whole time I was outward-focused. I’ve never been focused on the money, because unfortunately on social media it’s all about getting the bag and getting to the bag. That’s what people sort of focus on. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting to the bag, [because] I’m going to sell this and make a lot of money, but that’s not how I operate. Focus on how you can solve a problem for one person, and then find a million other people with that same problem or solve the problem for one person, because they will tell other people.
