BiggerPockets Business Podcast 99: Finding Profitable Opportunities Using “Deliberate Data” with Dr. John Johnson

Data can be a confusing topic for most people, but what about when it has to do with your business? How is your business using data? Are you even using data at all? Dr. John Johnson, expert witness, professor, and founder of Edgeworth Economics and Edgeworth Analytics argues for businesses using data to grow. Dr. Johnson understands why so many people fall victim to studies and findings that may not be entirely accurate. He talks through confirmation bias and how we, as consumers, can find the red flags when listening to interpretations of data. We are urged to take time to think before we accept statistics and data as fact. He also dives into how he started his own firms, Edgeworth Economics and Edgeworth Analytics, and how he himself uses data to track his firm’s growth, recruiting, and revenue. Often, his firm is hired to find why a product or group of products is or isn’t selling, which strategies make the most profitable sense, and how a business can change to ensure more sales. Aside from that, Dr. Johnson also acts as an expert witness in corporate lawsuits, sifting through the data to find out what is really true, and what has been inflated. There’s no mistaking that data is important for modern businesses, but what’s more important is how you use and interpret this data to come up with accurate conclusions. His book, Everydata: The Misinformation Hidden in the Little Data You Consume Every Day goes into the data all around us, and how we can sift through it to find truth.