Season 2

Boss Uncaged Is Celebrating 100,000 Downloads and Tons Of New Announcements: S. A. Grant & Alex Grant SEASON 2 FINALE – S2E68 (#96)

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Boss Uncaged Podcast Overview

In Season 2, Episode 68 of the Boss Uncaged Podcast, S.A. Grant sits down with his co-host Alex Grant to talk about a dynamic Season 2 and what’s in store for Season 3.
 
Interviewed by Alex Grant, S.A. reflects again on how a brief recommendation to “just start a podcast” resulted in his new passion for storytelling. 2 full seasons later, The Boss Uncaged Podcast is celebrating over 100,000 downloads and rankings in the top 0.5% of podcast nationwide.
 
S.A. also discusses many of his new ventures for the Boss Uncaged brand including the finalization of the trademark! From the completion of the Boss Uncaged App to app stores very soon, to his new NFT project where you the listener can get a free gift, he chronicles the extreme growth of the podcast and all its related tentacles. 
 
Don’t miss a minute of this episode covering topics on:
  • The benefits and features of the new app
  • The NFT Giveaway
  • His top episodes from this season
  • And So Much More!!!

Boss Uncaged Podcast Transcript

S. A. Grant & Alex Grant SEASON 2 FINALE – S2E68 (#96).mp3 – powered by Happy Scribe

Boss Uncaged is a weekly podcast that releases the origin stories of business owners and entrepreneurs as they become uncaged trailblazers. In each episode, our host, S.A.Grant and guests construct narrative accounts of their collective business journeys and growth strategies, learn key success habits, and how to stay motivated through failure, all while developing a Boss Uncaged mindset. Break out of your cage and welcome our host, S.A.Grant.

Welcome back to Boss Uncaged podcast. This is episode which is really episode 96, the closing season finale of season two. Season three opener, new Year’s Day. Yay to the children. What’s going on?

Hello, Mr. Grant. How are you?

I’m doing well. So for our listeners, every once in a while you see Ms. Alex come out from the woodworks. I had to, like literally, it took like five days of negotiating. Puppies were on the table. We were talking about all these different things just to get her on this show today. Okay, so by all means, a round of applause.

Again, he won’t let me stay in the background. I said, I can just stay in the background. I can just be EP, get all the episodes ready, get people, schedule, all that great stuff, not be on camera. So, yes, it did take about a week of, okay, finally I’m in the right mood. I can’t drink. It’s 11:00 in the morning, so that would be bad. But yes, here I am celebrating the end of season two, getting ready to go into season three. This is crazy that we are number one at 96 episodes and number two actually ending the season and getting ready to go into season three, which was just something we had a conversation about. It’s like, hey, should start a podcast. But two years later, though,

they know me. Like, I like to motivate people as well too. So if you live in my house, I’m always going to push those buttons. As you can see, her beautiful background is growing, and I’m trying to morph her into any podcaster that lives with people. We’re going to try to make them into podcasts. We’re going to add Lib that so she can make it a TikTokker or YouTuber, whatever the hell she wants to call it, but eventually starting her own podcast, maybe her own.

I can do those things that our kids show me, the little ASMR, where they don’t show people’s faces. They’re just like, moving around. And I don’t know where ASMR got to Google it, but I’m just saying they don’t show face. They just show them doing something without their face on it. So that might work. Get me there.

Okay.

Mark my words, sooner or later, sooner or later, she’s going to be one of these random titles, whatever they are, because she has so much content that she just sitting on, she’s not even using it. But I progress. Back to Boston. Cage podcast. So what we got on the agenda for today?

Well, we’re going to see what Boss Uncaged has coming up for 2022. A lot of stuff, a lot of stuff we talked about before, but as this year 2021 has been very interesting, we’ve kind of streamlined some activities that we were working on. So we’ll talk a little bit about that. We’ll talk maybe about some of our favorite episodes from season two and maybe a little bit about season three and what we have coming up. Thinking about changing how we get ready to present the season. One of the first things I want to start with is you just made a post earlier today about listing notes that were moving up in the rankings. Talk about that a little bit.

Yeah. So listing notes is one of these platforms that kind of takes, I guess right now we’re about maybe 3 million active podcasters. We’re not really active, just total podcasts out there. So they kind of give you a general ranking. So this time last year, 2021, when we first started, when I was just kind of starting to pay attention to listen notes. And that’s when I really started to say, okay, let’s start scaling the podcast and start paying more attention to our downloads and just make this thing a little bit bigger than what it was a year before. So listen notes. I mean, we were at the top ten, top ten out of all podcasts, which is a great feat by itself. But once you start paying attention, I was, okay, let’s get us to the top 1%. That was my goal. I wanted to get the top 1%. So in May, we made the top 3%. And then going into the end of the quarter of 2021, we made the top 1%. And sure as hell right off that going into 2022. And I checked today, and we’re at the top .5%. So out of all the podcasts out there, out of the 3 million podcasts, we’re in the top 0.5%. It’s like the 1% of the 1%, but we’re not there yet. Where we’re getting there.

You need a little button where you can do an applause,

okay?

I don’t hear it. We got to work on that. For 2022, you can hit a button and be like, Yay. Funny you should say that, though, because I was looking back at the notes when we did our mid season recap, and we were celebrating. We had gotten to 25,000 downloads, and this was in June. So do you want a drumroll where we finished off 2021?

Yes. So I guess we could even go further back before we hit 25,000. Originally, early in the year, I did a video I did on Instagram I think I did on Facebook and YouTube, and it’s like, okay, starting of the year, we want to get to 10,000 downloads. Yay. For 2021. And then that rolled into 25,000 and we hit 50,000. And closing out the year, we crossed over 100,000 downloads for the year, which is for some people it’s epic. For some people it’s not. For us, it was just kind of like it was a landline, it was a goal and we strive for it. And we surpassed $100,000. That was my general goal when I was coming out with that $10,000. If I start now, I should be able to hit 100,000 downloads if we’re averaging 10,000 downloads plus per month. And we’re well past the 10,000 per month. So this year the goal is I’m going to push my limits. I like to aim at moving targets and heat seeking them. So let’s aim for a quarter of a million. Why the hell not?

1 million downloads.

Oh, shit. This is what she’s like. 1 million. You go from 10,000 to 10,0000 to a million. I mean, it could definitely be done. I was aiming for a quarter of a million, but a million is definitely possible. But at the bare minimum, we’re going to hit a quarter of a million downloads this year.

Okay? 1 million downloads. Remember that. Everybody going to hit a million by the time we talk again at the end of 2022. I got used to saying that. I know it just started in 2022 is going to be a lot another kind of, I would say, achievement in the email we got just the other day, which I’m really excited about. And actually before I say anything, I want to give a shout out to our wonderful, wonderful, wonderful trademark attorney led on Blackett Jones of LBJ Law. She specializes and as a matter of fact, if you go and find her on Facebook right now, maybe Instagram, you’ll see she actually made a post for her 2022 goal is that she’s going to be focusing solely on trademark and intellectual property law. And kind of what that means is really like copyrights and anything, I guess, related to intellectual property if you’re familiar with it. So she’s going to slowly be focusing on helping business owners set up their trademark. And it’s so important when you’re running a business having your trademark in place just so people can’t steal your shit. Long story short, people like, hey, I own this and I own this brand. And you’re like, no, I do. But if you’re not trademarked, then that becomes a really big fight. So I’ll let you make the announcement on where we are as far as Boss Uncaged trademark.

Yeah, so we started that early last year as well, and we went back and forth. And the trademark attorneys are always on your side. But then you have the US. Government that’s always trying to knock down your trademark saying that, well, I think it’s infringing on this space and it’s touching on that. And I’m like, dude, there’s not another Boston cage like Boston cage right now. Like, stop trying to blur the damn line. So finally, after damn near eleven months, we finally got the approval letter from the US. Government saying that trademark is pretty much going to push through, is going to get approved. So I just want to get my certificate. Once I get a certificate, I’ll put it up there like the Serebral360 on the background.

You put another certificate up on your mantle.

Serebral360 Boss Uncaged trademark. Touch it and I’ll burn you to living hell.

Send it to letters going forward. Now, speaking of your background, I see Mr. Manhattan. Okay, so let me tell the story about Mr. Manhattan quickly. It’s a little off topic, but I’ve known probably close to four years now, maybe a little bit more, a little bit less, but close to four years now. And we’ve talked about that pop that he has in his hand right now, mr. Manhattan forever. So every time we go to any store that sells those, we were looking for Mr. Manhattan. Now, our daughter is very internet savvy. She’s been looking online, and they were ranging from the price range of like $300 up to like $800. And, you know, both of us, we’re not spending that much on a tour. I’m sorry. It is what it is. So she actually came to me before Christmas, and she said, I know exactly what I’m going to get Shannon for Christmas. I was like, okay, what is that going to be? And then she showed me, and I was like, and it was a really great price. I want to tell you what the price is, but it was less than the $300 that we were willing to ever pay for actually less than $100. So surprising. And so on Christmas morning, we were all like, you are going to get the biggest gift, not size wise, but most impactful, just because for the last four years, we have looked at every store for this pop character, and now he finally has it. Mr. Manhattan exists among your menagerie of things that are behind you.

Mr. Manhattan. The golden pieces. Just kind of like if you know anything about comic books in general, obviously there’s Star Wars, there’s Marvel, there’s DC. I’m more of a Marvel guy, but when it comes to DC. Mr. Manhattan is the guy that just does it for me and his historian, his legacy of just what he is. And it’s kind of like, kind of goes back to my cerebral through 60 days. And I think he’s just the epitome of everything that cerebral through 60 represented and what I wanted it to become. So, Mr. Manhattan, welcome to the club.

You sitting back there over your shoulder, more things to come behind you in your backdrop. All right, so let’s switch gears a little bit and talk about I know at the end of last year, or maybe even we did talk about it in the mid season recap, but the app, how is the app going? Give us a little bit more information on that.

Yeah, so finally I know, I brought it up last year, and literally I’ve been working on it behind the scenes amongst everything else that we had going on. And I’ve just been layering it and layering it and documenting it and building this Excel spreadsheet to kind of keep it organized because it went from this simple app to where it’s a simple representation of Boston Cage, which is two different things. Right? A simple app would have been one functionality. This app pretty much becomes kind of like the whole metaverse, but it’s the meta verse of Boss Uncaged. It’s everything that’s Boss Uncaged into one app. So if you’re in Boss Uncaged Academy and you want learning and you want more information, that’s there. If you want Boss Uncaged podcast, that’s there. Boss Uncaged Book Club. That’s their essay. Grant and my books, all that’s there as well. And then we’re moving into some new things that you’re going to bring up that’s also in this app. And then again, as I grow and build these different platforms, they’re all going to be integrated into this one platform.

It’s really cool. Where is it at? Where can we find it?

What stage is it at?

Stage wise? Right now, the beta version of the app is complete. So right now we’re just waiting for the Android Store, the Google Store, to give us approval so we can launch it on there. Hopefully, I can get that launched the next week. And everyone that knows about Apple then knows that Apple is a pain. So we’re going through the Apple phase right now. So the Android will come out first, and Apple will come out shortly thereafter once Apple approves it. So Android processes ten times easier and cheaper. And then Apple, obviously, it’s like pulling teeth to kind of get things approved in Apple.

Apple apple is superior, so it just takes a little extra work. I don’t even understand this Android world. What is this? What is this for?

Android is called open source. But.

I’m excited about that. So the app will be out, hopefully very soon. So look out for more information on that. Maybe we’ll do a boss up episode about the app, kind of show people how to go through it, where to get it, what benefits it has. So that would be cool.

Yeah. I’m actually like, out of all the things that we got going on, that’s one of my best things that I think that’s going to be very useful. Because, again, some podcasters, they’ll create things, right? Some posters may do YouTube channels. But when I think about the analytical data and information behind the scenes. The best way for you to capture. Like. What’s going on on YouTube. What’s going on here. What’s going on here. Or somebody finds you on YouTube but they don’t know where you are on podcasting. Or they don’t know where you are on Facebook. Or they don’t know you have a book club. By promoting the app and putting all my marketing efforts into that strategy, then by default, everything will have access into one platform and then I can check that data as well.

All right, makes sense. So let’s talk a little bit about some of the episodes from season two. The second half, we talked a little bit at our mid year recap, but for the second half of season two, you had some really great interviews. And one of the ones that I wanted to bring up, because it is the platform that we host on is BCAST. You interviewed the founder of BCAST, Tom Hunt, I believe his last name was right after midseason, so it was around June or July. If you want to scroll back through and find that episode, or you can just search for founder BCAST and it’ll be there. BCAST has been a really great platform, very user friendly for this non technical person. And they just came out with a really good feature which helps us get ready to highlight some of our sponsorships, which you may talk about later.

So Tom is one of those things. It’s kind of like every entrepreneur, there’s different levels of entrepreneurs, right? So, like, you’re here and someone else is here. And then I looked up time every time. This is part of what we’re going to talk about as far as the tech club, but every time I find an application or find software, the first thing I usually do is figure out how to use it, how do I keep the cost down, and then who is the inventor of that product? So Tom and I looked him up and he did a bunch of different talks and he had YouTube content and he had all the different information out there and he did multiple different things before he created BCAST. I was like, what the hell do I have to lose? This was like, probably maybe January of 2021, maybe December last year when I reached out to them. And then I was just kind of like, do I use your platform? This is what I love about the platform. I would love to interview you on your own damn platform. And he said, yeah. And then we just kind of got to this conversation and we talked about like, AppSumo. We talked about his lifetime deal and what he would bring to the table and why he used that platform. So it was a really in depth conversation about startups and like, what startup owners and startup developers are really thinking about. But to your other point about the features, the reason why I love this platform, because I’m always thinking ahead and I’m always thinking about marketing strategies. I’m always okay, eventually Boston Cage is going to have sponsors. Eventually Boston Cage is going to have this. But I need a platform to be able to support it before it even happens or at least have a road map that’s going to that direction. And it brings us to the point that you were just talking about the features of this platform and one of the best features that I’ve seen as far as hosting platforms is inserts. And with inserts are imagine having a podcast and you don’t have to essentially edit in your ad spots or edit in your intro, edit in your outro. Only thing you have to do is record your intro, record your ad spot, record your outro and then log into your platform and say, hey, I want this to go before my podcast starts. I want this to be interjected in the middle of my podcast and I want this to close out my podcast. By the way, I want you to do it on all my episodes. Hit submit.

Yeah, exactly.

And it’s done. That’s what sold me on this platform in addition to other features.

That is really cool. It was really exciting to see that come up as actually working through editing a podcast and I was like. I think we got the feature that you’ve been begging for like a year. Which was perfect timing because we’ve had some recent companies reach out to us for sponsorships and it was always one of those things we kind of held back on a little bit just because we could insert ad spots. But it’s just so difficult to edit it in as I’m learning Adobe Audition right now. So this makes it a whole lot easier where we can just record the ad spot, click a button and add it into the episodes or run it for whatever number of weeks that we need to run it to in order to fulfill the sponsorship agreement. So look forward to that in 2022. You may get a couple of commercials. That’d be exciting. It won’t be my voice. I want to put that out there to be your voice.

My voice. Well, I mean, obviously it’s a two for one, right? I mean, you’re the voice of Boss Uncaged, right? So I think the sponsorship is a cool thing. I mean, you’re always thinking about like I always get the random question about how you’re doing this podcast, how the hell do you monetize it? And I was like, there’s a million different ways of monetizing it and obviously ads is like the low hanging fruit of classic radio of monetizing. And then you had a radio spot. But the first two years we didn’t do any ads spots except for essentially our own and we really didn’t even promote our own stuff. But now that we have access to this system and to our point, I was asking for a year, our outro and intro right now are pre recorded and I was like, dude, I can’t wait until we get the middle spot. Because the middle spot is kind of like the conversion point. If anyone is listening to a podcast up until the middle, then they’re going to probably listen all the way to the end. So they’re engaged at that point. So we need to have access to that add on feature. So once it’s released, I was just like, dude, it’s about to be a game changer. And to your point, in the past 30 days we’ve gotten some sponsors that would cost them. Okay, hey, we looked you up. We see that you have the downloads we’re looking for. We looked you up. We’re seeing that you’re in the top I think it was top 1% of listen notes at the time. And they were like, well, this is the only thing you have to do. We want you to promote. And then again, I’m going to be reviewing this content as it comes in to make sure that it’s valuable to our listeners. I’m not just going to promote random hair shampoos, right? I’m going to be promoting 100% what’s? Business related business strategy stuff, software, things that can help business owners get ahead. So that’s like the next phase of what we’re going to be doing. So to your point, we’re definitely going to I’m pretty much going to sign off on this contract and then start doing this promotion pretty soon. So listen out for the new ads coming out.

Another really great episode from this season that you talk about all the time is Jacqueline WellWells’ss The Fear of the Spa.

She hit me in my heart because it’s a transitional point for my mom. I see her and she’s probably like 15 years older than my mom, and she’s completely fearless. Like this woman. Her story was crazy, talking about raising her kids in Europe, and she would just put them on the bus and tell them to go to this address. And they were like six, seven years old. It was like, what versus? Like, my mom. I always make fun of her and say, you’re paranoid schizophrenic. But I was like, mom, you have to listen to this episode. Like, this woman is where you can be if you just remove the fear from your life and start embracing the what if? Like the positive what if. So that’s why I always bring up the episode, because she kind of reminds me of where my mom could be. And she’s starting to get there. I mean, like, we got her an Apple Watch for Christmas. So she’s moving through technology a little bit and starting to embrace it. We just got her a Facebook account. I was like, holy shit, she’s making comments on Facebook?

And then did she make a post or something?

Yeah, she made a post. I was just like, dude, so a little bit of a time. Eventually, by the time she hit 70, she’s probably going to be like this Internet monster. But the goal is to remove the fear and step into the world that you live in, right?

True. Okay, so change a little bit. One of my favorite episodes was you and donny. Donny is the head of Success Champion Networks, is a friend of yours. You spoke at the Success Champion Network Conference this past September, I think it was. So yes. Donny’s episode, if you have time, go back and check that one out. It’s explicit. So maybe not with kids in the car or if your kids here, you cuss, whatever. But talk about Donny’s episode.

Donny, it’s a great thing with what podcasting can essentially do for you. Donny originally had found me through his system. His system out there was just looking for people to get on podcast, right? So I was doing my job, his people were doing their job. Then he came on the show and they were promoting a new podcast. So him and Kevin came on the show, right? So they ended up recording two separate episodes. And just meeting Kevin and meeting Donny was just kind of like, both of them are me. If I was to combine myself like, Donny, I don’t care. This is the shit I’m going to do. I wake up on a Tuesday with a random idea, I’m going to execute it. And Kevin is a complete systems automation guy. And my left brain and right brain speaks to both of them equal, just becoming part of their networking, their Success Champions networking group was also very beneficial as well. You’re going to start seeing some new episodes coming from that group of people that are 100% entrepreneurs, business owners. So just getting into Donny’s world kind of just opened up another spectrum, another page of boss and Cage and a lot of duality between what we do and who.

Totally makes sense and kind of, as you said, looking forward to season three. We have a lot of great episodes. I think you’ve recorded pretty much the entire year already. I know we have just to give you a snippet, I’ll just go by the boss names just to give you a little bit of a teaser. You got the giving boss and the venture capitalist boss. That will be really good. We have the talent boss, the productivity boss, the confidence boss, which is good for someone who is lacking confidence. That will be a great episode to listen to. So stay tuned for a dynamic season three. We can talk a little bit about how we may change and do season three and season four in 2022, but we want to hear your feedback about it. Were you good with having an episode come out per week and then we did all of season two in 2021? Or would you like season three and season four in 2022? So your feedback and your comments are always greatly appreciated because we want to know, what do you all like?

Yeah, I mean, with that, I mean, we’re on episode 96 approaching episode 100, which I think that episode deserves us to kind of do. Come back on here and talk about it again because originally first season, I was worried about having enough people to interview. All right, right. The second season, I don’t know what the hell I was smoking or somebody gave me a blue pill or whatever. And I was like, we’re going to record five episodes a day for every single day we’re going to go into well into season four. And I was on that shit earlier in 2020, obviously, but it paid off, right. So now that I’m looking back at it like we’re about to release episode 100. But to your point, we’re backlog up until probably episode 200. At this point, we have enough content to really essentially going back to your formatting of splitting up the episodes. Biannually right. So if we do season three up until June and season four from June to July to kind of make it into smaller bites because this last season was 60 something episodes, that’s just a lot of damn episodes to kind of swallow. So what would that look like? Look back at maybe 30 episodes, 35 episodes, which is a little bit more than season one, but it’s not as big as season two. But to your point, we have enough episodes to roll into season four. Season five, we decide to split that way and then we still have more people that are reaching out. This morning I was in the supermarket and I got two emails while I’m in supermarket saying, hey, we are promoting podcasters and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We’re marketing company. And we realize that just to look for more people interview, we have two or three people that would be great for your show. So keep in mind we have enough content. But the goal is not to just put out any content. I want these people, when I interview them, it’s like they’re interviewing me at the same time. And the synergy is there and the information and the data that you’ve grown to love and growing that we’ve provided for the past two years to be even more fruitful going into the years three, four, five and six.

Right. Well, like I said, get ready for season three. I forgot to add we’ll have our first CBD company coming up, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. That is going to be a really great interview that you also listen to. If anyone has any questions on how the CBD industry works, that is episode that you want to check out. So you have all of these episodes. The irony of it is people always ask, how do you have time to do all of this? Plus your new venture that we’re going to talk about, your NFTs, what is it called? Boss Uncaged Beast. Tell us about your NFT project.

It only makes sense, right? I mean, coming from a design background. And I’m thinking about growing up as a kid with a marker in my hand or a black book. And back then it was. Kind of like broke ass artist that was just sketching. And then you would take it to graffiti and you were writing on stuff. And then Mark Echo took it to a whole another level. And I was just like, dude, this is our time, right? So what am I going to do to kind of add into the space? Because this is one of those bandwagons that I’m not willing to miss, right? Other bandwagon. Just this one. No. So The Beast, it just kind of goes back to being on Cage. The first book that I created was the first new book when I rebranded, was kind of a line on the cover. And I was like, and most people don’t know. Behind the scenes, I have these Excel spreadsheets. And in this Excel spreadsheet, I had variations of different cover ideas, different concepts. The line was the first one. Then it was supposed to be a dragon and a panda. All these different animals that we live with today that are considered like beast. If you really want to get in front of them, they probably shred you, tear you up, right, and spit you out. So I was like, how could I do this and then convert this into an NFT? And those that don’t know NFT, I would definitely go to YouTube and look up my NFT video. And I really broke that down simplistic as possible without getting into crypto, but just understanding how to utilize NFPs. So I decided to say, okay, you know what? I’m going to create an illustration of a lion, and I’m going to do variables of it. And I’m going to release my first collection. And you know me, I’m boss to the wall. So I’m going to go with 10,000 NFT. It’s my first collection, and I know people are like, how the hell? What the hell? Don’t worry about what the hell. Just look out for what I’m going to also going to do is I’m going to give away 100 NFT’s right off bat. So once I do the promo release, which is coming very soon, because behind the scenes, I’m building infrastructure for this because again, I’m an automation guy. But once I say, hey, it’s time for release, and whoever signs up and subscribes or whatever, I’m going to give the first 100 entities of that 10,000 away for free for our listeners.

So you have the opportunity to own your first Boss Uncaged or the first 100 Boss Uncaged NFT’s just before everyone else, and they actually go out to sell. So that would be really cool. For anybody who doesn’t know about NFT, there’s 500 million videos on the topic. I suggest you go out there and listen to it. I’m sure we’ll have an NFT episode once that’s released to talk a little bit about what’s the value of owning an NF t. I had to do a little research myself so I can say I’m in middle school of NFT lesson lessons. I understand what it means. I understand the value of it. Do I have any right now? Soon maybe? I have a boss on casual. But yes, look for that promo to come out. I guess in the next couple of weeks, maybe next couple of months, we’ll definitely do an episode on it. Like I say, he’ll do a giveaway. We’re going to have the first 100 NFTs giving away. So be on the lookout for that. So you can get one of those for free.

You switch up to the next topic. The other thing about NFT is that people don’t realize it’s kind of like looking at as a digital certificate, right? It’s a digital receipt. So imagine having a receipt that has access codes, right. So, prime example, if I decided to give 150s, maybe I’m not saying maybe not, but maybe those 100 NFT will also come with a 60 day free trial or a 30 day free trial to the Boston Cage Academy. Or maybe it’ll come with an exclusive secondary club on Facebook. These are the things that you can add on to expand your value add. But then people could have ownership. And ownership then comes with collecting. And collecting comes with bragging. Right. And I always say you want to think of it like if I could go back in time and I could own the first Super Bowl ticket, the first one ever. And that Super Bowl ticket then gives me access to have 50% off of all Super Bowl tickets ever moving forward, just because I own that first NFT. That’s a hell of a value add to make sure that first NFT was purchased.

Yeah, no, totally get it. So I’m glad you brought that up, Boss Uncaged Academy, what’s going on with the Academy?

Yeah, again, everything that I’m doing is essentially built upon like legacy building and building our structures. And I look at it as Legos, like this one roll Legos, another layer of Lego. And I’m building up this foundation. So the Academy came into play last year and we did like a beta test. I did like a soft test for founders. But now going into 2022, a lot of the infrastructure is ready built. We have hell of content in there. And that was the beautiful thing about joining the Success Champions. This gave me opportunity as the Education Chair to build out content weekly. And in addition to that, like, test that content, get live feedback. So now that we have so much content about digital marketing, strategy, brand building, podcasting, all my books are all inclusive inside of this environment. So that’s the new thing that’s going to be going forward. I’m going to start doing more marketing, more promotion. You can start seeing more content, more videos for that. Again, we have people already in the Academy that’s been in there for like the past six months. But now it’s time for us to really market and grow that. I mean, I want to get that environment to where we could have 1000, 10,000 different individuals that are section based upon they love podcasting or they love branding or they love marketing and be able to go to this environment and get access to me, get access to other people, get access to the content to help them move on the right path. But the beautiful part of the Academy, the add on that’s the next thing you’re going to allude to is a tech club. And that’s a core feature to the Academy as well.

Go a little bit more into the tech club now. I was going to bring that up next.

Yeah. So, like, the book club, as I was asking these questions on the podcast, if you guys are obviously pattern oriented, right? So everyone asks these different books. And then the other section was, what apps do you use? What software are you using that you would not be able to do what you’re doing without having access to this platform? And then as I started growing the Academy, I started realizing that people had lots of questions about, well, I need to be able to do this. I don’t know what software to use. And for me, I plug into software like, I’m Neo and the damn Matrix. I’m plugged into shit. 24/7 So I’m buying stuff and I’m using stuff, and I’m really big into lifetime deals. And I was like, okay, this is helpful for the Academy, for me to do one on one tutorials to say, okay, step by step, this is how you set it up. Step by step, this is how you build this environment, and this is the benefits of this environment. But then outside that, I was like, what’s the free to play version? Right? I was like, Well, I could just take this content, take a 32nd video, tell people, like, the features of it, tell people the benefit of it, and tell people also, like, what is it being used for? And then people that are listening to Boss Uncaged will have access to a complete database of all the software that we’re using to build Boss Uncaged. You can see it in live action, and then you also can see it live on the Academy. And then there’s other people that are starting to use and purchase this software as well that can also give you feedback in that environment.

That sounds really cool because it is true. It’s something that someone’s always asking you like, hey, how do you do this? Hey, what software do you use? It’s one of the questions that’s in the podcast itself. What tools help you do what you’re able to do? And sometimes that’s physical tools. Sometimes it’s the software. So it’s good to have like, a techie club. What about my book club, folks? I’m a book club girl. What’s going on with book club?

So the book club is ever expanding. Right? So, I mean, closing out the last year, I think we just kind of slowed down and again we’re going to ramp back up. Right. So first year we did 52 books. So this year I think we’re going to close out somewhere. I forgot what the team was at. They were sending me updates last week. So we’re at like 200 something books or whatever. So the goal for the book club essentially kind of goes hand in hand with the tech club, right. If we’re interviewing more and more people and more and more people are telling us, hey, these are the books that help them get on there, help them to get to where they are currently, then these books need to be in the book club. So again, we’re not necessarily going to be promoting the books per se in a book club, but we’re going to say, hey, if you want access to a real estate book, go to the Boss Uncaged Book Club directory, click on the Search in Search button and select Real Estate. And it is all the books that real estate people that we’ve interviewed have promoted or marketed, and this is why. And then we’re going to link that back to the Boston Cage episode. So then you can kind of hear, why did they like that particular book? What did that book do for them? And then obviously from there you could easily go to Amazon and purchase a book if you want to. So we’re moving the book club more so from a typical book club where we’re reading and communicating, which we’re still going to be doing, but then giving you more access to a database to say, okay, I’m just looking for a particular type of book, and we’re going to go from 200 to eventually 2000 to 10,000, and the book club is forever going to keep growing.

That’s cool. Yeah. So kind of my last question is, what about your books? What about more books from SA Grant, the Boss, in case Boss UncagedTrailblazers? What are you doing this year or for 2022?

Yeah, so I took a hiatus from books last year just for the last 90 days of 2021. I have so many books that are in development or at 90% complete. And I was like, okay, well, before I release any books, let me start focusing more so on this app because the app is going to feed the books through the app. Let me focus a little bit more on the podcast to kind of figure out what we’re going to do as far as Monetizing. And now we have the ads. So now that these things are in place, the next step for me is more so, not general books, they’re going to be more specialized books. So going into next year, I think one of my first books, it could be the Boston Cage book, that we’re at 98% with that book and we’ve been sitting on that book forever.

It’s right there.

It’s right there. And then in addition to that, my first book that kind of goes to my heart when I talk about branding. So I’m going to probably take all this collective data that I’ve been creating and content and speaking about on stage and collaboratively put all this information into like a Boston Cage branding book, like a one on one branding book. And that’s going to be like a whole another collection of books. But after that, it’ll be the Boss Uncaged Podcast, right? And then obviously we still have the notebooks as well. And that’s something I could easily turn on and produce the rest of that collection tomorrow. But the goal is marketing behind it. So like the why am I doing it? So like, the next book in that line, I just have to debate on which one is going to be volume two. And I already kind of have that pre organized and prestated. So to clearly answer your question, the next four books from Boss Uncaged from SA Grant is going to be a branding book, a podcast book. I’m going to continue creating the notebook series. And then obviously I think we need to make an announcement about it.

But last year we did the notebook series. That was kind of an add on to the I’m trying to remember what was the other one. I got it right here behind me, people.

I know, I was like, grab. One of them is right behind you. The notebook on your other site.

Yeah, here they are. So originally we created the journaling series. Those that remember this is one of many journals to come. And again, I could turn these out pretty quickly and go on. So there’s going to be another volume of this coming out this year, at least one more volume. And then now that Amazon people that know about Amazon and know about KDP, now I could turn these notebooks into hardcover notebooks. So I decided to kind of create these generalized notebooks just to allow people to take notes and obviously marketing and just build a boss in case ethosphere, right? So now the next step of this is converting a lot of the books that I originally had into hardcover books, not as a feature set to actually have and produce that content.

Well, I love that idea. I mean, you know how much of a notebook junkie I am. And when you created that series and do you have it, can you show it again where it’s like the three different versions? Like if you like dot journaling or if you like the grid journal, if you just like blank pages, there is a notebook that essentially aligns with your likes. Like I said, I’m a junkie. I have notebooks all over this that literally will have like one word written on one page because I’ll fill it and I’ll touch it and I don’t like this. So it was kind of great that you created a notebook for each type of individual. The people who like grids, people who like dots, people who like blank pages in addition to the book journal. And then I’m looking forward to the podcast journal. So if you’re listening to podcasts, it gives you an opportunity to take notes while you go and have something to reference back to. And all of that will be more of that will be coming in 2022. Now that we have time for that.

It’Ll be in the app as well. You just go into SA Grant books and it will be all the books that I’ve ever created will automatically list it in there.

Definitely. Well, I think I’ve touched on everything that we have that I know of. Coming up in 2022. Do you have any other surprises for us before we wrap up?

No. I mean, obviously for us as the creators and developers, it sounds like a lot, and for me, this is just all part of my master plan. Again, anyone that has known me from my cerebral through 60 days is like taking that formula and now branding that formula and making it not more so about me, but more so about the bosses out there. So every single thing that I’m creating is essentially a tool for someone. If it’s a notebook, great. If it’s a journal, great. If it’s the podcast, great. If it’s a book club, great. If it’s Tech Club again, we keep layering on these Legos because the goal here is to give access to individuals that just need a little bit more. They just need a little hand holding that needs a little bit of information or insight or to see someone actually building a company that didn’t exist two years ago that was not even in existence. This podcast is essentially coming up on the second anniversary and where we were day one to where we are right now. I mean, we’re celebrating 100,000 download, which is day one. I didn’t even think that was even an option. Right? We’re talking about 100 episodes. Day one. I didn’t think that was an option. Book club. Tech club academy. All that shit was not an option. The only thing I was focusing on day one was let’s just create a podcast post stroke and just start branding Essay Grant and see where it goes. And this is where you’ve been on the journey with us since day one. If you’re new to the journey, all this content is out there. You can go to our YouTube channel, you can go to our podcast and just go back to day one and kind of see how we went from there to where we are right now.

Sounds cool. I’m excited. 2022. One of the young children saying eat.

Truck. Yes. It’s so funny. Caitlin again with her yeeeeee. This.

I think I’m pronouncing it too well. I pronounce the t at the end, which I don’t think what I’m supposed to do.

But you can’t show your age, man. You can’t show your age. I definitely appreciate everyone. Again, I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all our listeners that got us to where we are. And the goal is again, we are continuing to create new content and new information and new tools for you. So by all means, reach out. Let me know if something was helpful, if there’s anything that you would like to see, other additions add ons. Again, we’re in the digital space, so turning on the switch is like a light switch really is kind of like using to figure out how to do it and why we’re doing it and if we’re going to get most benefits to our listeners from doing it as well. So with that, again, closing out 2021 and opening up 2022 again, this is season two, episode six, which is episode 96,

right?

Next time you hear from us, it will be season three, episode one, which is coming very quickly. So, again, essay Grant, I appreciate you guys. Over and out. Thank you.

Thanks for tuning into another episode of Boss Uncaged. I hope you got some helpful insight and clarity to the diverse approach on your journey to becoming an engaged short place. Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, review and share the podcast. If this podcast has helped you or you have any additional questions, reach out and let me know. Email me at SAGrant.com or drop me your thoughts via call or text at 76223. Three boss. That’s 762-233-2677. I would love to hear from you. Remember, to become a Boston Cage, you have to release your inner beast. SA Grant signing off.

Listeners of Boston Cage are invited to download a free copy of our host SA Granton site for ebook. Become an Uncaged trailblazer. Learn how to release your primal success in 15 minutes a day. Download now at www dot. Bossuncaged. Comfreebook. Bye.

Boss Uncaged Is Celebrating 100,000 Downloads and Tons Of New Announcements: S. A. Grant & Alex Grant SEASON 2 FINALE – S2E68 (#96)2022-09-09T06:09:33+00:00

Founder & Owner Of Prophesy Comics: Mckinley Mitchell Jr. AKA The Comic Boss – S2E67 (#95)

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Boss Uncaged Podcast Overview

Founder & Owner Of Prophesy Comics: Mckinley Mitchell Jr. AKA The Comic Boss – S2E67 (#95)
 
Get around people that like what you’re doing, that like to create as well and stick with it.
 
In Season 2, Episode 67 of the Boss Uncaged Podcast, S.A. Grant sits down with the Founder & Owner of Prophesy Comics, Mckinley Mitchell Jr.
 
Prophesy Comics.com is the official site of Prophesy Comics, established in 1993 committed to producing Afro-centric comic books and animation for a different kind of Super Hero adventure. Prophesy Comics was created by McKinley Mitchell Jr. writer and illustrator of Lionheart and The SunHawks Fleet of Heru comic books. 
 
And one day we were just all out in the front yard when his friends came by and he was introducing us all. And he introduced me and he was saying, this is my brother in law. He’s going to have his own comic book company one day. I had never thought about that, but he would see me draw comic book characters all the time. So I was like, yeah, I’m going to have my own comic book company one day. So that’s kind of how that started off for me.
 
Don’t miss a minute of this episode covering topics on:
  • How Mckinley turned comics into a successful business model
  • The journey of analog comics to digital comics
  • What tools is Mckinley using in his business
  • And So Much More!!!
 
Want more details on how to contact Mckinley? Check out the links below! 
 

Boss Uncaged Podcast Transcript

S2E95 McKinley Mitchell.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

Three, two, one. Welcome back to Boston Cage podcast on today, we got, like, a flashback from, like, the past, me and this man. We go back since, I think, like, early 2000s, we actually were at Arsenal school together. For those of you that know that my first degree was graphic design. And we was working at a computer lab at the time, back in the same school. And this man always had a drawing book, pen and paper. And I remember the first time I met him. He had on, like, an Asian Samurai fusion hat on, just walking around with a book with markers in his hand drawing all the time. So without a doubt, I’m going to name him the comic book boss for obvious reason. So McKinley man, tell people a little bit more about who you are.

Yes, sir. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Introduction. Mckinley Mitchell Jr. Comic book artist, like you said, I’ve been doing it a long time. Originally from Michigan, moved down to Georgia, started artist in 1986. That was my first time I started, but that was my first year of high school as well. Who’s a culture shock for me. So I didn’t last long, maybe a semester. So after that, I was just doing around, getting our jobs. I was still doing a lot of drawing because I was living with my sister and her husband at the time. And one day we were just all out in the front yard when his friends came by and he was introducing us all. And he introduced me and he was saying, this is my brother in law. He’s going to have his own comic book company one day. I had never thought about that, but he would see me draw comic book characters all the time. So I was like, yeah, I’m going to have my own comic book company one day. So that’s kind of how that started off for me.

You bopped the bubble right off that in today’s world, when you say comic book company, we have, like, I like to call them, like, the east and the west. Right? We have DC on one hand, and we have Marvel on the other hand, and then everyone else. It’s kind of like two big ass Sharks and all the fish are kind of floating around. So let’s talk about your comic book brand from it. What’s the concept behind it? What’s the motivation? What’s the goals behind having your own comic book prophecy comics?

Since I’m black, obviously, it was kind of toward the black community. So that’s what I kind of focus on. And so that was my goal to have to do comic books that black people and black kids want to read and look at. And it kind of turned into responsibility for me. So that’s where I kind of met with it right now. I feel more responsible that I have to do this as opposed to something I want to do you.

Did. So let’s just talk about, like, how many books have you have a comic book brand? It’s not just a comic book, right? So obviously someone would want to write a book. And obviously in the publishing space that I’m in, you write and publish books on a regular basis. But comic books are a bit different. They’re not like kid books that are like coloring books. They’re not like story books. They’re a totally different monster, totally different creative process. So just talk about it a little bit. How many books have you released? What issue and series are you in right now?

We’re back in 93 is when I first published my first book, that was Lionheart. And at that time, I published two issues of that back then, it was different. There was no computers. So I did everything on paper, no scanning all that. And we had to send it to a printer. And they did the separation. So back then, I just had that one character I was learning. Everything worked then. But now, after I went back to the artist, two artists. Excuse me. I went back to the artist and learned, like, computer programming and stuff of that nature. That was my intent. And then after I left the artist, I thought I might try and work for other companies and stuff, but that didn’t go well. So I started again with my own characters, which was The Sun Hawks, which new addition, which I’ve done three issues of that. There are more teenage based characters where Lionheart was a more older character. So this time, I’m a focus more on teenage based characters. This addition and I also have a King Kick that I released, which is a remodel of The Lion Heart.

So if my account is correct, you released about six different episodes.

Exactly.

How long is each one of these comics right now?

Each one is 24 pages. And since it’s me, I do all the artwork, all the writing. It might take me three months to finish one. So I’m like trying to have a six book story of the Sun Hawks and just have that as a package that will make it easier for me to sell. So that’s where I’m at with got you.

I just want people to kind of understand. I mean, he dropped a couple of different information that if you understand graphic design, like separations. And he went back to the old school, like, back in the day. Nowadays, you could take a picture. You can send it to the printer. They don’t send you separations. They send you the product. And that’s kind of like print on demand back in the day, right. When we had to print something, there’s something called CMYK, which breaks down the four main colors that are combined to create everything that you see in print. So when you hear separations, you’re going to get four separate files that separate out the Cyan, the magenta, the yellow and black. So you’re going to get essentially four copies of the same exact book in layered files to look for inconsistencies and look for errors. And then they’re going to combine these four layers back together to get the product that you get on your shows and magazines and comic books right now. So just the fact that you were essentially you were drawn it by hand. So coming into your style, like you’ve been having the same stylistic look. But in today’s world, it’s so computerized. So is it more difficult for you to kind of get that, etchy hand drawn look on a computer versus just hand drawing out every single cell in a comic?

Good point. That was something that I did adjust to when I started drawing on the computer tablet and drawing in the computer. That was a new adjustment, but I was able to capture the style and the way that I wanted to. That was a good point. I’m glad you broke that down like that.

Yeah. Just thinking about that. Right. So why did you stay with that style? I mean, you had an opportunity to go from, like you said, the Lionheart was like your old. It’s kind of like the lion generation, right. But now you have, like, the Cubs talking to millennials. Why did you keep the same style? But you seem like you changed the content. Why was that a conscious decision for you?

Possibly because that’s just my style and it was working for me. And I didn’t want to look like because there’s a certain look at all the other. It seems a lot of the comics seem to go towards this anime look now, which wasn’t never really my field. I didn’t necessarily like the way that looks, the way I draw things. So I just want to kind of stay with my style, adapted some of that. But I want to keep because I’m a little older than a lot of these casters out here now. +And I’m used to the older Jack Kirby’s and the job simmers those type of artists. That’s what looking at. So that’s the style I have. So that’s the one I just stuck with got you.

I think you’re more so kind of like the original Superman from, like, back in the 30 to 40, 50, 60 era with, like, the hard draw lines and the large upper body small torso before they kind of got to the overexaggerated Marvel universe that we live in right now. Nice. So if you could define yourself in three to five words, what three to five words would you choose three to five words?

Define myself. I’m a husband. I’m a son, and I’m a brother who at this point spend most of the time doing a lot of drawing back here in my office. So that’s probably more than three or five. But that’s about where I’m at right now.

So coming into, like, being an artist now we always hear we come from the same school of thought. We went to the same art school. And as an artist, you always have the fear factor or the enough annuity and insight to realize that starving artists is a real terminology, right? It’s kind of like if you want to live for your art form, you kind of have to die by it. You have to get arrested by it. And then after you’re dead and gone is when that shit really blows up. So in that, like, how does that work for your business? How is your business structure? Are you 100%? Your business is 100% designed to sell comics, or do you have other facets to that?

Well, as far as do I want to sell other things Besides comics?

Yes. How is your business set up right now? Talking about, like, starving artist. I’ve known other people that do illustrations, and I got one guy in my circle. He’s a Barber, but he does illustrations on the side, and he does meetings. He goes to art festivals and he sells his artwork. He gets people to submit custom orders to him. But he focused here on a regular basis. And that’s how he monetizes his art. His art is like his side hustle. But for you, your art is your main hustle. So kind of like you’ve got comics. What else do you have in partnership with the comics to kind of scale grow.

Right now? Financially? The comics aren’t where I want them to be. So I do have, like, things that I do to pay the bills. Like my family has a business that they have been doing my whole life with care and stuff like that. So I do that on the side. But my main focus is my comic books and beating them off the ground. But fortunately for me, I have that to back me up as I’m working on that and getting financially steady with my books and stuff got you hopefully branch off into because the Sun Hawks characters that I design. I design them to have toys and possibly on television and stuff like that. So hopefully it’ll pick up that way because I design them for that purpose.

Yes. Not a problem. So I’m just thinking about with your brand and you’ve been around for, like, it seems like roughly 20 years in comic book feel you ever thought about, like going to digital content? And I know, like, you’re old school, in a sense. You like the texture of the paper. You like the pages. You like somebody to roll it up and hold it in their hand and walk around with the comic book. But there’s a whole new generation of people that would like to learn exactly from the comic books, right? Not just on how to illustrate, but how to publish it, right? How to create a company behind it, right? Like the ins and out that goes behind the scene because on the front, and they may just see the combo. They may see it on the stands or they may find it on Amazon or whatever and make a purchase, but they don’t know the process behind it, but they want to get into commercial developments. Have you ever thought about going into, like, an online education site?

Not necessarily. I have thought about making my books digital. I am currently making one of the books digital where you can upload and purchase it. But I hadn’t thought about going into the education or teaching because I’m not necessarily a good speaker. So I do a lot of talking. So that’s why I avoided that, although, because my mother was a teacher, I would think that I could do it naturally, but I just hadn’t got into it. But I am going digital with some of my products.

Got it. I wouldn’t think of you as like, not a good speak. I just think that When’s the last time you’ve been in front of a camera having a conversation like this, let’s start with that.

I can’t even remember I haven’t been in front of the account.

Yeah, we’re popping the cherry. Right. So as you do this more and more often, like I said, you went to College with me. So I wasn’t like this in College. I was kind of like I was crazy in a while, but I wasn’t in front the camera kind of do. So I kind of grew into this over time. And once you kind of get you get your juices flowing and same thing with a pen and paper, it just comes naturally. It becomes more like your mom again. I wasn’t a natural at it, right? I had the Cerebral 360 brand. I was always behind the scenes. Never want to be in front of camera, much like you in that sense. And then I got to the point. I was okay. I need to start stepping in front of the camera and start building this legacy and giving information. So I’m just saying it from one brother to another, maybe transitioning touches into that space a little bit, creating some YouTube content of YouTube videos and then converting those YouTube videos into a membership website. I don’t think there’s a lot of membership websites out there on training on how to create a comic book from start to finish. So I would think that would be a hell of a fruitful space because everybody in a mom loves DC and loves marble. Kids want to start growing and creating content their own things.

Yeah. With this internet and social media, you can just have you upload your stuff and you have your own company.

I would think as an add on to that. I mean, you do it anyway. I mean, you could just do a time lapse of your sketches and your drawings. And like you said, you’re drawing 24, 24 hours a day. So imagine how much content you’re letting slip through your fingers. If I were drawn like you, I would have my camera on. I would have a camera on my damn walking around.

I have tried to record some of my drawings and things, but, yeah, and taking this interview was exactly the reason all that what you just said. So I could get used to being in front of the camera and being interviewed because I know this is coming. So I had to take this interview.

I definitely appreciate that. So let’s talk about your business. I mean, you have a combo brand. Is it set up like an LLC? Is it like a sole proprietor Scorp? What is it?

I got my LLC. So, yes, it is set up like that. And that stuff that I’m still learning all that business part of it because I am just basically the artist and my wife helps me. Then we have an accounting guy helps us with that part. So, yes, I do have the LLC now getting more business savvy with it got you.

And if I remember correctly, I think your wife, she went to school with us as well, too. And she’s pretty damn business savvy. So she wrote a couple of books as well, right?

Yes, she did. She’s currently writing scripts. Yes, she wrote some books, but she’s more outgoing. And whatnot she’s a better salesperson than I am.

Well, I mean, it takes two believe that you need a team.

That’s another thing. You need a team. Whatever you’re doing, you got a good team around you that helps.

So let’s talk about the perception, right? I think we kind of jump around some time frames, and the perception is that somebody may hear. Okay. He has six live issues that have been manufactured, printed and sent to the printer and their physical books. Right there’s. Some people thinking about creating a comic that would probably never create a comic. But you’ve created six. And so how long did it take you to create what you have right now? So the perception, maybe 20 years, 15 years. How long have you been on the journey?

Like I said, The Lionheart. When I did that one in 93, I probably started that story, started that in 1990, drawing on that book. That first one was finished in $93. And with that one because I didn’t know the proper dimensions. I drew that book. And when I took it to the guy to do the separations and print, he was like, well, it’s not the right dimensions. You might have to draw that all over again. So I had to redo that book. So that might have took me a year. But once I graduated from an artist, because now I use Photoshop and illustrator and all that stuff. And I can crank out a book in, like, three months, which is pretty good for someone doing a book by themselves.

The drawing and writing all of that brings me to another behind the scenes kind of question. So you’re doing it like the traditional, almost like cell animation. Drawing it. Right. You’re doing a lot. You’re penciling it, you’re inking it, and then you’re coming in with the color on top. So they might want to know the process of books like that’s, like the bare minimum. It’s pencil ink and then color. Right. And then the fourth step, if you get to it, is shading and like the details. Essentially, you’re redrawing the picture four damn times. Right. So with that, is this something that you think you could scale? Could you train? Because think about, like, Disney, for example, Disney created characters, but he created a step by step, how to create characters. And then he scaled it. He got all the artists that have skills already. So it wasn’t really a learning curve for them. They just need to follow his steps and procedures to make the new characters and step and repeat. And obviously, you can see what Disney has created because of him scaling to that magnitude. Right. So did you ever think about jumping into scaling by training other people? Obviously, you’d have to have legal documentations, non competes, and all that in place. But is that something you ever thought about?

I think about that having a staff in the near future? Yes, I have thought about it. But as far as drawing my characters, I haven’t thought about, like, a process of having to show someone how to draw the characters. I guess what you’re asking me, but I have thought about having the staff, but that’s somewhere in the distant future. Hopefully, I have other artists, but I’ve come to the point where I don’t know, just a good thing. But I just want to do this myself, my characters and my stories. Those are the stories I want to tell myself and that’s reality. I wouldn’t mind having a company where if someone else has their own characters and ideas, if they want to come up under the company, that’s fine. But currently I’m so into just producing this myself. I want to draw it all myself.

Okay. So let’s say, obviously, you’re a big creative thinker. Right? Let’s say parallel universe, right? Time travel is real. If you could time travel back, what’s one thing that you would want to change to do differently if you could do it all over again?

If I could time travel back, I would not waste the time. I would learn to. I would have been more consistent. When I started the Common book back in 93, I would have stayed with it. I would have went back and tell myself, stay with it. Don’t let that time separate. You stay with it and keep going. So that’s that I would change just to stay with it.

Yeah. It makes a lot of sense, man. Everybody that I could think about that’s within my circles. That’s a common theme, right? It’s being consistent. Not only to yourself, but to your brand and to your viewing or listening or your client database of people and staying consistent. And when that consistency kind of falls off, usually that’s when shit hits the fan, either you start losing clients or, like you said, you had a gap in your comic book career, and then you trying to figure things out. You came back to it, but then reliving it. If I can go back in time and stick to it, what will be differently right now if I had not had that two year or that five year or that three month gap in that time frame. So it’s definitely interesting. But you’re back on it now. And like you said, you’re definitely motivated and you’re eager to kind of keep creating this content so early on, you alluded to something that I want to kind of come back in. So if I remember correctly, you come from an entrepreneurial family, like your mom and your ancestors had a business, but also your dad, I think he was a musician, and he had, like, live records and all the other stuff. Right. So let’s talk about these two coins for a little bit.

Well, yeah, my dad pretty decent Blues in that 60s, 70s error he doesn’t work with, like Aretha Franklin and Jackson five used to open up for him. So he was a decent name during this time. So I always have that over my shoulder to try and at least get to the point that my father did. You know what I’m saying? He is an inspiration for me, my mother as well. But he isn’t really an inspiration.

Did your dad record any music? Did he have any albums get put out back then in the 50s.

He had hit the charts. The town I lived in was one of songs that got on Billboard and The End of the Rainbow. That was all also on the charts, but also they used the songs in a couple of movies and soundtracks and stuff like that. So he did very well.

I hope you guys got the royalties to that for sure.

My mother does get royalty.

Yes, sir. That kind of brings me up to like, it’s kind of like an off topic question. But being that you come from a bloodline that your dad was a creative person, he created content. And even to this day, like if his songs are being played on music or being played in movies or being played in commercials, then you get that mailbox money. So you’re trying to say, are you striving for that to a point to where you can leave behind a legacy, which are comic books, to where your ancestors will get mailbox money as well?

Yes, that’s exactly the goal at this point. We don’t have any children, me and my wife, but I still wouldn’t want to have a legacy left here for the family to know I did this nice.

So how do you juggle your work life with your family life?

That’s a good question to my wife. She will quickly tell me I need to spend more time and probably do something romantic because I’m always back here drawing. So it is a juggle. But I have her to remind me, let’s just get out and go do this. Come out of office. But for me, I’m an introvert and I’m comfortable back here not being bothered. That is a struggle to get me out of office and do something else got you.

So she’d actually be more romantic. Does she write romance novels?

Yeah. I guess she would call romance. Yes.

That’S funny, because I would say you read her books. I think in her book, she’s probably giving you the clues that you need. Right? I would say a word of advice every single time you start drawing, keep her books nearby. Turn to a chapter. All right. So what is your morning routine? Look like my morning routine?

I’m usually up around 800 830. If I’m not doing something with the family business, I’m usually right in here turning on the computer. I do a little workout, so I might do some push ups or something like that. Pull ups, get the blood turculating, green juice drink. I do that on the morningly basis. But if I don’t have any appointments to where I have to go, because what we do is write up care homes for elderly or disabled. So if I’m not doing that, I’m in my office and I’ll draw from, say, nine. I’m drawing all day from 09:00 Friday to 09:00. My wife works in the evenings and she’ll leave around 03:00. She’ll get home about 10:00. So when she gets home, then I’ll probably stop drawing. So when I’m drawing, it’s an all day thing.

Obviously, it’s just crazy because I’m thinking about back when we were in College together, it’s like your passion for drawing is exactly the same. And before we start this podcast, we were just talking about. Obviously, we’re connected to multiple different people we went to school with, and everyone’s paths went differently, and there’s some overlap, including my own right. But you have always been 100% passionate about that damn paper and pen, man.

Yes, I can’t explain it, but I’ve always been that way. Anyone that knew me coming up through elementary, junior high school, College. You’re going to say what you’re saying? He’s always had that pencil and that paper in his hand, and you really couldn’t get them to do anything else. I do dabble since my father was at the time, but mostly I’m drawing. But if I wasn’t drawing, I think I would have been a musician.

Be more like bass guitar.

All of that. I can play all bass guitar, keyboard. And I can play by ear, like by hear a song I can play.

It sounds like you have, like, a parallel calling that you hear it. But you kind of like pencil and paper, right.

Because I’m back and forth. It always came back to me drawing, but I am filled with musical district.

So I would think, like with your schedule being so consumed by your passion of drawing. Right. And this is the question that I’m going to ask just to see what your answer is going to be right. It’s a three part question. One, like, have you read any books to get you to where you are, right? Or audio books, for that matter? I would think while you’re drawing, you probably listen more than you have time to physically read. And currently, what books are you reading right now? And have you had the opportunity to write any books outside of your comics, much like what your wife has done?

I haven’t wrote any books outside of the comics. The only actual hard novel I’ve ever read is probably the Malcolm X biography automatic outside. Then growing up, comic books were the only thing I read. You know what I’m saying? But now I’ll listen to YouTube videos and stuff like that. But it’d be like Jack old Jack Kirby comic book artist videos just give inspiration while I’m drawing or someone more. Currently, maybe someone like Alex Ross watches interviews. He’s a very good artist. He’s a current artist, but he’s dope.

And again, I’m just going to drop some information. You could take it or you could leave it. Right. I just think you’re the one person that I’ve known for the past 20 years has been as passionate as you are about one thing. And anytime you think about a business, it’s about niching down to one core thing. And you’ve been doing that one core thing for so long. It’s almost like the world needs to kind of get that information from you. Like, part of leaving behind your legacy is being able to take everything that you’re doing and put it out there for the world to see. So imagine you writing your story in a comic book book, like not a comic book, but a six by nine book. That’s a comic book. But it has written content about your story, but you’re depicting your journey. But you’re inspiring people to get on that same journey with you. I mean, you know, it Cole, you know, about heart. You’re really doing comics. And let me say it’s a little bit of a shift. It’s a little bit of a shift, but it gives you way more of a longevity to have, like, a playbook, a handbook, like the McKinley Handbook of Comics.

Right. I got you. That sounds good. I’ve thought about because I have all this stuff put together, and I have thought about how can I package this to show people the process? So that is something I’m trying to figure out. How can I put something like that together?

Cool. Well, you got access to me at this point. I’ve published seven books, so it’s second nature for me at this point. So it’s like giving you the guidelines and steps and procedures on how to set it up. I could do that with my clothes.

See you out there. Okay. Yeah, that’s what’s up. I’m looking through it.

All right. So in time frame rise, right. Where do you see yourself? 20 years from now?

20 years from now? Hopefully, I’ll still be drawing and doing my music, but the company will be where I want it to be. But if I’ll be doing what I’m doing because I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. So if I’m doing this in 20 years and people are still liking what I’m doing, I’m great if they’re receiving the work that I’m putting out, that’s fine with me.

Okay. So what tools or software that you use currently today, right. And I think you had mentioned Photoshop earlier that you would not be able to execute what you’re doing right now.

Well, at this point, if I didn’t have the Photoshop or the illustrator, I wouldn’t be able to execute because that helps me scanning my pencils. It helps me color, because once I do the pencils, I scan the pencils in and I ink and color everything illustrator Photoshop. So that’s basically what I use. And almost the same programs I had from the school, but it was working for me.

Yeah. Like I said, it goes back to you. You’ve been using the same tools for, like, for 20 years. I mean, obviously the tools have changed. And now Photoshop Miles will be after effects, but it’s the whole different ballgame. And you’re using it for the traditional stuff. Still, to this day. Definitely. Interesting.

Yeah. Because the talent for me was always there. So any of these tools are just gravy just icing on the cake because I always had the ability just to do drawing, like, 3D scope work I could do.

Got you. Your major was 3D animation, right? You did do some recent 3D. You do more. So like, frame animations. Like you did something, Brucey recently. Brucey, what you do it. I always remember, Russie. What you mean you can do, like, still? I mean, like, kind of like, old school. Anybody like this is for younger generations. If you remember flipbooks. And if you don’t remember Flipbooks, essentially a book of a series of images that slightly move per frame. So when you would flip the book, it will become animated from page to page. So back in school, this dude used to be doing this all the time. Like, in the corner of these little books, it should be like these little doodles and drawings. You would flip the damn book, and it’d be like a whole damn illustration animation. People jumping around doing back flips and sidekicks. So are you still doing animations on that level?

I have some animation that I’m trying to do with my characters because I’m working with Flash and that flash. So I do my animation in that. So I am doing animation as well.

Okay. So let’s go into, like, final words of wizard. Let’s say I’m a 13 year old kid, right. And my dad is listening to this particular episode, and he’s like, looking, listening or whatever. He has Marvel old playing in the background. Or he’s looking at Iron Man Three, and he’s like paying attention to this episode. And you could talk through the microphone and talk to this kid that’s 13 years old. What words of wisdom would you give to him to influence them, to follow his dreams, to continue drawing and becoming a comic book artist?

Well, if they’re 13 and they already love to draw and they see they have the talent, what I would tell them is stick with it and surround. Get around people that like what you’re doing, that like to create as well and stick with it. That’s all I can tell someone if they love it and it’s working for them, stay with it. Don’t give up on it.

Solid words of wisdom. So how can people find you online, man? Like what’s your Facebook, your Instagram, your website.

I’m on Facebook, Prophecycomments or McKinley Mitchell on Facebook. Get the products at prophecycomments. Com. Also, you could email me at Prophecycomments at Yahoo. Com. Those are all my sites right now.

Got a couple of bonus questions for you.

Cool.

All right. So if you could spend 24 hours in a day with anyone dead or alive, uninterrupted for those 24 hours.

Who would it be and why you had this question? I heard this question the other day when I heard you asked on this question, the first person that came to my mind was Bruce Lee. But I was thinking about it. Bruce Lee would be dope. But also, just if I could spend time with an ancestor, like an ancestor before we were brought over here from slavery just to see how they kicked it and lived in that day. And there was no language barrier, I would say one of my ancient ancestors, I would love to see how they got down before colonization.

Another question for you, what is your most significant achievement to date?

Most significant achievement? Wow. I guess I would have to say my marriage maintain my marriage, I would guess.

Yeah. Damn it. Creeping up for 20 years now.

Yeah. I’m going to say that my marriage having someone that you a partner in your life for that amount of time.

Obviously, you’re a comfortable guy. So I got to get you get into the countable questions. And I see you rocking a DC shirt right now. So I’m going to ask you the question because it doesn’t mean that you don’t love Marvel. It doesn’t mean that you love DC. If you had to choose between DC or Marvel, who are you going with?

Wow. That’s like apples and oranges. I’m going to say Marvel I guess I’m a bigger Marvel. It almost depends on the day, what day you catch me. But I’m going to say Marvel only because Marvel now in Disney because of the movies, the movies that they’re putting out as a child. I’d never thought I’d have seen movies like this with these characters and stuff. So I would say DC’s movies kind of suck. The sniper version of this superfic is pretty good, though.

But I would say I think you grew up in the dawn of, like, the old school Batman WA Twose and Superman without muscles, right?

Yeah. But I was a DC fan, like, when I was a child. Those were the first comic books I had, like, five, six years old Superman and Batman. Those are the first ones I started reading, and my sister had a boyfriend that turned me on to some Captain America. I might have been nine or ten at that time, but once I seen that Captain America and Jack Kirby and some Conan with John Stemmer, I was on the rap. Nice.

So going into the last bonus question, right. And I know for you, this is going to be a big one. Right? So if you could be a superhero, who would it be in y if you could pick one just one superhero. And it doesn’t matter if it’s DC. It doesn’t matter if it’s Marvel or any other of the universe is out there. Right? Who would it be and why? I knew it was going to be hard for you.

Yeah. I got all these cats in my head that I used to tend to be in every day. I like the concept of the way Shazam, you could be one person in a lightning strike. That’s kind of cool. But as a child, I guess if you would ask me that I would have sent his name. But now I feel like I have superpowers with the talent. You know what I’m saying? My various talents. I feel like a superhero with the talents I have. But I guess Captain Marvel Shazam.

Nice. So going to the closing, man. Obviously, it was a great journey, and we kind of went ups and downs. And I think this was a really cool, fun episode just talking about comic books, because that’s your expertise. But do you have any questions that you want to ask me? So the microphone is yours and the floor is yours.

I didn’t really have any questions. I guess I just want to say I’m proud of where you act. And I was impressed with your journey. I don’t know if I have any questions. I just have to get back at you on that. But I just want to say I’m proud of you. I just want to say that I definitely appreciate it, man. It’s definitely been a hell of a journey. Hell of a ride, man. It’s great to kind of bring people from my past back onto the show now and meet new people. So it’s just information and just spreading the wealth around. Yeah, because I see you out there with your son and stuff. That stuff is beautiful to me.

Yeah, he was the pivotal point, man from when I was in College on some wild man Jack shit and I had a son completely changed my vision.

That’s why I can kind of see your transformation with him. So that is very impressive. I’m proud of all of that.

I definitely appreciate it, man. Well, I appreciate you taking time out your schedule, man, and coming on the show, and I know right now you’re probably twitching ready to get to some pencils and paper and start schedule again, man, but I appreciate you coming on the show today.

No problem. I appreciate it. It’s Friday. I’m about to catch this. Captain America Winterfell.

Perfect man. Sa Grant over and out.

Founder & Owner Of Prophesy Comics: Mckinley Mitchell Jr. AKA The Comic Boss – S2E67 (#95)2022-08-25T20:15:03+00:00

CEO Of ColderICE Media: John Lawson AKA The Ice Boss – S2E66 (#94)

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Boss Uncaged Podcast Overview

CEO Of ColderICE Media: John Lawson AKA The Ice Boss – S2E66 (#94)
Stick to your lane and become an expert at what it is that you like doing.
In Season 2, Episode 66 of the Boss Uncaged Podcast, S.A. Grant sits down with the CEO of ColderICE Media, John Lawson.
John is a 3-time Amazon #1 best-selling author, entrepreneur, and international speaker. He is also the Chief Marketer at ColderICE Media, an IBM Cognitive College adjunct professor, and is celebrated as one of the Top 100 SMB Influencers and The 50 Most Influential in SMB Marketing. He has spoken to over 200,000 people worldwide on eCommerce and social media marketing.
In the marketing space, asking for the money just to be comfortable enough to ask. That was always a big thing for me. Matter of fact, I hid behind Amazon and eBay because I didn’t have to sell. It was on display. And it just really wasn’t until I started getting into training and courses and stuff that you got to ask for the money. And that was a big hurdle for me. I don’t know why, but it was. And I know a lot of people like that.”
Don’t miss a minute of this episode covering topics on:
  • How can ColderICE Media help your business
  • Why John does not believe in work-life balance
  • What tools is John using in his business
  • And So Much More!!!
Want more details on how to contact John? Check out the links below!
Special Offer ​​www.ecomfromscratch.com
Clubhouse @colderice

Boss Uncaged Podcast Transcript

S2E94 John Lawson1.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

Welcome back to Boss Uncaged podcast on Today’s show. I’ve deemed this man. He’s obviously an industry legend, but I’m going to call him the ice off. Done, man, how are you doing today?

I’m doing super fantastic, man. I think that’s appropriate since we’re on Boss and Cage, right? Yes, definitely.

For people that’s living on the rock, they don’t know who you are. Why don’t you give them a little insight to your legend, man?

Oh, man, there’s no legend here. I mean, I’m a guy that literally started a business out of need from my kitchen table. It ended up going through Ebay to Amazon, and we’ve done over seven figures in Ecommerce now, actually, ten figures. But I don’t talk about that.

I’m just saying, you’re talking about you’re, not legend. Think about how many people have the opportunity to say what you just said. And to the point to where you have that many zeros at the end of your sales. Right. So come on now.

Yeah, it doesn’t even sound right when I say it. So it’s cool. But then at the same time, it feels a little. Yeah. I never thought about it, but yeah, not a lot. But you know what? More and more every day, that’s the answer.

Nice. So if you could define yourself in three to five words, what would you choose?

I define myself in three to five words. Enterprising intuitive and constantly curious. How about that?

I can definitely see that. I can definitely see that.

Yeah.

Let’s dive into your business a little bit, right. Obviously, you’re into the ecommerce space and you’ve been down Ebay. You’ve been Amazon. I would think you’re also a coach. You’re a speaker as well on international level. So let’s just talk about your business a little bit.

Yeah. We started on Ebay, and it was so early in the game that we ended up becoming the power sellers on Ebay platinum level power sellers. And when Amazon started their third party system, they were looking for people to do beta testing, and they literally came and tried to scrape all of the top sellers on Ebay to test their Amazon platform. So actually, I was one of the early beta testers for Amazon as well. And I don’t know, somewhere around 2006 2007, I was in a store looking for sourcing products and stuff and an import store, and I saw Bandana, and I was like, oh, that’s pretty cool. I know a lot of hip hop stars at the time were doing the bandana thing. Tupac had just died a few years before that. No, actually, his posthumous albums were starting to come out, so he was getting popular again. And I was like, you know what? Let’s grab these. And I started selling bandanas, and that literally changed everything and created the video and YouTube on how to fold bandanas. And I don’t know, people started catching on, asking me to teach and train. That’s how I got to do all the training and teaching around the world. And then now today I’m helping coach a lot of others because I’m so old that I can call myself a coach and a mentor. Now.

Hilarious. Just to think about it. Every single day somebody goes into a storefront, they may even go on to Etsy. They go on all these different platforms. How the hell did you have enough foresight and insight to pick a bandana of all the things on the planet that you came across, why was that the product?

You know what? On that day, I picked a whole lot of products, and that’s the one thing that might happen with you with products or just in general, with your hustle. 80% of the stuff you do is going to fail. It’s the 20% that covers a multitude of failures. So bandanas just happened to be one of the things. I’m sure my warehouse is full of a lot of things that never sold that I thought were hit. That was going to be it. There wasn’t anything really special other than the price. I was like, wow, I didn’t know you could get a dozen for, like, half the price of one. So I was like, oh, these are cheap, and they were easy to ship because they were light. You can stuff them in an envelope, and it wouldn’t be a whole lot of drama. And I think one of the things I did learn from that or that became pretty apparent for me was that that was kind of a niche that I wanted to go deeper in was light, easy to package, didn’t take up a whole lot of storage space.

Interesting. So I want a time travel back, right? Obviously, we know who you are right now. We know what you’ve accomplished. We know that what you’re doing right now, but how did your journey start where you into media? Were you into marketing? When did that really start for you? And how did you even bridge and begin jumping into ebay?

Basically, a friend of mine came to me back, and this is like, the early 2000s when everybody was flipping houses, and he was like, oh, we can flip this house. I found it. This is a great price, blah, blah, blah. And it’s an up and coming neighborhood. He’s like, you got the credit because I was working as an it my background, is it? So I was always a computer geek anyway, so I was on my job. He was the hustler, and he’s like, Yo, so all I need you to do is sign the paperwork to get the loan, and we’ll split the difference. Well, guess what. The house never flipped. Right. And I got stuck with a second mortgage. So I was totally asked out and didn’t know what to do. And a friend of mine told me, why don’t you sell some stuff on Ebay? I’m like, really? That’s going to work. He’s like, yeah, they’ll still buy anything on Ebay. And I had a whole lot of used books since I was an it person. I used to buy those big, thick coding books. And once you learn how to code or finish the project, you don’t need the book. So I had a whole lot of those sitting around, and I started selling those on Ebay, and that was the beginning of something big. But it wasn’t that big. It was just enough to get me through. And once I ran out of books, I had to find other things to sell.

That’s definitely interesting, because you’re kind of, like, at the you had enough insight to step into the market at the right time and also have the right state of mind. And you also have the right training as well. So you’re talking about coding. Were you more like, PHP? Like, what flavor of code were you doing?

Yeah. No more HTML than anything. Right. So I knew just enough HTML to be dangerous. They used to give me all these books. I never read them. Don’t tell anybody. I never read them. I always got people in the office, man, go ahead and code that up for me. Fix that. I was really good at that part. I was really good at that part. I would engage Fiverr when there wasn’t a Fiverr.

Right. So I think you talked about, like, one. I would think that’s probably a pretty bad experience, right? Like, you got into a business with someone, you try to flip a house and you got stuck with the house. Is there any other examples of going into a business that you’ve had something that happened that was worse than that.

I think that was the worst, because that lasted and took money out of my pocket for years, trying to fix what was one signature deal. And it lasted with me for, like, ten years, paying the mortgage, trying to figure out how to flip it the place where we were. I didn’t even tell you it was on the corner of Joseph E. Lowry and Martin Luther King Boulevard here in Atlanta. You see how his eyes got. So if you’re on a corner of two civil rights leaders, you’re probably not necessarily in the up and coming part of the hood. Finally. Now it’s turning around. So just think about that. I held that property for so long, waiting on it to flip. It’s crazy.

I think that was another disguise, right? In the sense that it was something that happened in your favor, because that event in your life didn’t happen. You wouldn’t be where you are right now.

That’s right. If I actually saw that guy again, my old friend, I tell him, thank you. Because if it wasn’t for that that was the foot up my butt that made me get off of the plantation, or I’d have still been there.

Nice. I don’t think you’d ever go back.

No. Somebody asked me that the other day. Like, how much would it take for you to I can’t see ever going back to corporate.

But I think it’s one of those things, like, once you understand marketing, you understand the Internet, and to your point, you’ve been doing it for, like, 20 years at this point. So you understand the ins and out. You can kind of drop you in the middle of nowhere in an island. You can start a brand new business from scratch and be pretty successful within probably twelve to 18 months. Would you concur with that?

Yeah. I would concur with that. One thing that you learn after being out here is I can see money on trees, literally. Money grows on trees. I think most people just miss it because they’re head down and they don’t know what they’re looking for. But opportunity is everywhere. I remember my cousins came in and my brother and we all went to Stone Mountain Park. And every night at Stone Mountain, they do fireworks. So we were going to do the barbecue thing, and I went to the dollar store because they had all the kids and stuff. And I bought all these glow in the dark sticks. Right. We go to the park, do a barbecue. The sun is starting to go down. We’re going to wait for the fireworks, starts up. I pull out all the sticks, give it to all the kids. And I mean, literally, like, kids from all over the park are coming. Can I get one? Can I get one? And I’m like opportunity right here. I could have been selling those to their parents for $5 a pop, and they would have paid because the kid wanted it. But those are the kind of things we don’t see sometimes the opportunity. And then a lot of people are just lazy. It’s very easy to go and work for a check every week. It’s definitely easier because there’s comfort. Right. Your paycheck is your comfort zone. Yes.

I think you brought up a very solid point in all the things that you do. I think that you’re very big on indirectly about mindset, state of mind and understanding that the mindset is, like, the real key to any strategy.

Absolutely. And you got to be prepared. You got to be prepared for anything and you’re taking risk. You are taking risks like they say, man, the more risk you take, the more the reward. So let’s not get it twisted. And I was just talking to a friend of mine today, man, I don’t know, you know, Lamar Taylor with Tsp, and I was talking to him, and we were just kicking it around because he’s very successful. I’m doing my thing and we work hard. I still work hard. I don’t like disappearance that is going around today. It’s so easy. If I can do it, anybody can do it. The people that are telling you that are working hard, telling you that you don’t have to work hard, just pay me. They’re working hard, right? So hard work pays off. But, yeah, mindset, your mind has got to be right. Or you’re not going to make it all the way through. Just not got it.

So starting from like, mindset to a little bit, a lot of times when you create a company, right? Like you kind of think about protections and you kind of have your company structured in a certain way. So is your business structured? Is it an LLC? An S Corp. A. C Corp. How was your set up?

Yeah, mine started off. It’s an LLC still. Okay, but it’s got passed through. But I started it off as a hobby. I think people again get caught up in the minutia. Just start selling something. You can work that part out later. Yes. We got our business license. Yes, we got our Ein and all that up front. But when it came to filing the paperwork, I think I didn’t do the LLC until two years later, right? When it just became like, look, I could save tax money by doing it this way, right? But don’t let that be a hindrance to you just getting out and starting so with that.

Are you a big believer in getting trademarks?

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. But I’m trying to put a caveat out there again. Don’t worry about it. Most people talk about. Well, I got to go get my trademark. Can I curse on this thing?

Go for it.

Okay. So, look, I’ve asked it like that’s funny. So nobody worried about stealing your shit. You ain’t made a dime, you ain’t made a damn dime. And you worried about a damn trademark. Stop it. And the other thing is too realistically. A trademark does not stop people from using your brand. It’s just a piece of paper right now. If you sue them and you go to court, you will easily win with a trademark. However, whatever you win, you still got to collect. So don’t get so caught up. And the other thing is, most people are too lazy to copy your shit anyway, because if they were going to do it, they would have been done did it already. So that’s what we always get afraid of. But don’t even worry about that. When it comes to like you. What you’ve got here, your brand is so strong now that you want to get a trademark. Absolutely. So nobody can come in and say, unbox Uncaged. No, you can’t do that, right? Even though it’s different, you can’t do that. Those are the kind of things. So it does protect you in it’s a bully club. It’s a bully club. But people don’t have to pay you any attention.

Yeah, this is true.

Now, if you can show that you have been using this prior to them using it, then you don’t even need a trademark. You can still say that they have stolen my brand.

Yeah, definitely. I wanted to go down that road because obviously, I knew you’d want to deliver the goods. And this is one of the questions that I never really go down that road. But I knew you would fulfill the answer. Well, also, keep digging. Let’s keep building. Let’s keep digging. Right. So on the journey to success, right. Everyone has hurdles. You listed out, maybe a couple of your hurdles. But in the marketing space, what is the biggest hurdle that you had to overcome.

Me personally? Yeah. In the marketing space, asking for the money just to be comfortable enough to ask. That was always a big thing for me. Matter of fact, I hid behind Amazon and Ebay because I didn’t have to sell. It was on display. And it just really wasn’t until I started getting into training and courses and stuff that you got to ask for the money. And that was a big hurdle for me. I don’t know why, but it was. And I know a lot of people like that. They’re just afraid to ask. And a good salesperson, right? A good salesman back in the day would knock on the door and be like, Can I sweep your floor and show you my new sweeper? And they would get doors slammed in their face? Once you get enough doors slammed in your face, you don’t get too concerned about asking anymore.

Very true.

So that’s what I was going to say. The no is one of the best things to get you over the fear of selling another golden nugget.

Everyone, I know that you’re also a big systems guys as well. Right. What systems do you currently have in place to manage all your different tentacles in your business?

Honestly, it’s going to be really simple. I mean, Google has changed everything for me. Google, the tools that come with the Google suite are so shareable that we took all of our processes and made them Google friendly. Right. So all those little pieces that we used to have and we pay for this document management platform and other things for chatting and all of that, it’s like, look, I only have two people on staff here. Everybody else’s merch. Okay. And so in order to do that, I needed something that would be worldwide easily shareable. And when I make a change here, it makes a change throughout the organization. And that’s been probably my biggest tool set right now is Google. And another thing called cartridge. And this thing, Zoom, Zoom. Zoom has been amazing. If you think about all the things that came before Zoom the Skypes and what do we used to have? What other chats that we used to have? There was other ones that tried to beat out Skype.

Yeah, it came at the right time. And I think it was targeted to the right market, and it was targeted. Well, as the new users were coming into that space as well.

Yeah. Another thing is, loom loom is a screen capture free. And that really has been really great, because now I don’t have to even be anywhere near anybody. They can make a video show me what’s going on, and we can troubleshoot that right there.

Yeah. Definitely. I think the turn of technology changed things drastically, and I think it just really happened within the last ten years and everything we’re talking about, like you said, it’s not new, right. Zoom as a platform. The brand isn’t fairly new, but the functionality is not new. No, but it’s repackaged in a particular way to target a particular audience. My next question for you is like, okay, obviously, you’ve been in the game for at least 20 years at this point, right? Probably even more than that. But somebody may be listening to this podcast, and they may be like, okay, John, they look him up. Wow. He has all these different tentacles. He’s highly successful, and you may be deemed as an overnight success to someone, but in reality, how long did that journey take you to get to where you are.

All my life, right. Seriously. Okay. Well, I won’t say that there is a tipping point. There is a tipping point in everything when you move from one stage to the next stage to the next stage, and there’s always another level. Right. But I would say 2005 ish was the tipping point for me. And so if you go from when I actually started the business in 2000, so it took about five years. Five, six years. Okay. So the timeline started the business in the end of 2000. 2004 is when I left my job. So just get that in your head, guys, I didn’t leave my job until four years later. And then when I was leaving my job, I was like, you know what? Now is the time because I realized that if I spent 8 hours a day on my business, I could easily replace my company business, but also at the same time or my corporate salary, but also at the same time, most people and I meet way too many people create a business and leave their job too soon because what ends up happening is that you have this burgeoning company, and it’s really a fledgling organization, and it’s not ready to pay you your salary. And what they end up doing is they start taking that income that they could be putting back into the business and use it for their lifestyle. And that can hamper and slow your business growth. I planted a garden last year. Remember this? We put two plants in. I know this is going to be ridiculous, but it’s true, man. We put two plants and they were the same size. One plant was in a little bit of shade, and the other plant was had full sun, and the deal was by the end of the season, the difference in the size and the amount of fruit be it flowers, pollen that it was able to produce versus the other plant. It taught me a lesson. Those early stages can be some of the most important part of growing a big business. And I made sure I can’t even remember the conversation I had with myself to keep me at that job for two, three more years than I needed to be interesting.

So if time travel was possible and you could teleport back in the last 30 years span and you could pick a day to go back and change one thing, what would that one thing be?

I would have started teaching ten years earlier. I would have started teaching ten years earlier. Once I had, I already had the knowledge, man. People say things. And you think it’s true? There’s an old saying that those who can do and those who can’t teach giving the idea that teaching is somehow less than doing. But now that I’m a 50 plus year old man, I will tell you, you can argue with me all you want. But when you get to 50, you’ll say, Damn, that dude was right. Teaching actually Trump’s doing when you know how to teach, right?

I’m recapping in my head.

It’s crazy. But also at the same time when you do, you become a better teacher, right? So there is another side to that as well. But understand, if you think about most of these, like, really big, big, multi billionaires. After a while, they’re not in the hustle. They’re in to teach, because what ends up happening is when you are. How old are you?

41, 41.

You’re too old. Okay? You’re just passed. All right? I will say in the 20s and 30s, that’s your hustle years. Once you get to your age 40s, you start trying to land the plane, right? You’re going to do the most you can. When you get in your 50s, you’re going to realize I don’t have the strength and the fortitude to deal with what the 20 year old me did or the 30 year old me did. I was a hustler. I can’t do that. I’ve got obligations. I’m old as hell. I mean, what the fuck? I am not a hustler. So now it’s become apparent I’ve landed the plane. Now what’s next? Teaching, mentoring and helping others to get where they need to be. At that age, it’s been an interesting transformation, but I think every decade you go through this, you’ll get to 50 and you’ll be like, shit. I know this shit. Now that’s where you’ll be. It’s a weird feeling. But you get this check Mark next to you. It’s verification, like on Facebook with a blue check.

You become an influencer.

You do really do. If you’re ready to step into those shoes because I know other people that just aren’t ready. And to me, some of them, I’m like, bro, you like Uncle Charlie at the bar, trying to hang with the kids. I’m like, what are you doing, man? Here you are, 55 years old. You still hustle. Come on. I’m not talking about just boss hustling. Maybe that’s a good title. I like that Boss hustling. I’m just teasing because I’m seeing boss all over it. But you know what I’m saying? There’s a difference, a level of being just a hustler to being like, you are a boss hustler. Got it.

All right. I think that leads me into just thinking about the history behind you, right? It’s kind of like just talk about your family a little bit. So obviously you have a hustle mentality, or you had one that’s growing into more of a boss hustle mentality now. But did you get that entrepreneurial spirit from any one generations before? I think your dad was like a trainer or.

Yeah, but he wasn’t an entrepreneur. I got to watch him just over broke. He was job just over broke, right. And he would supplement with other odd jobs. He had the skills to paint cars. So I remember he was always working, but also at night, he would come home and do other people’s cars. So that was adding to his income. But it wasn’t getting him anywhere to where he was. This level so I can’t in my own circle, give you that. I don’t know where it came from, but I definitely had it. I was definitely born with it in terms of there was these little things that I go back and look at and be like, you always wanted to do something. You weren’t going to ever be satisfied in your job lifestyle. That structure never worked for me. So I can’t really pinpoint that. But I can tell you where it crystallized and became real. And that was from Reading Message to The Black Man, the Malcolm X autobiography and movie. And then I ended up joining the Nation of Islam, which you all can take that and leave it alone. I don’t give a shit. It’s my story. So inside of the nation of Islam, however, there was the teaching of knowledge of self to do for self and understanding for me that if I wanted it to be, it has to start with me. I’ll tell you what my dad did teach me. My dad taught me there was no such thing as Santa Claus. That was probably the best thing he ever taught all of his children because he let us know that at first he wasn’t going to lie to us. But second, ain’t no white man coming down the chimney giving you no gifts. And it was like an epiphany. But it also gave me the fortitude to stand in my own truth, like they say today, right. So I was very aware that if it’s going to be something. Then you got to do it. And so the deal was going back to the nation was that they had built the newspaper. They had, like, the fish store. They had trucking companies. So I was really looking at what Elijah Muhammad had built in his day back in the early 60s, 70s. That really got me pumped. I was like, dude, I know I can do something. And so I did a whole different shift mentally. And so the first business I ever did was doing other people’s taxes, because, like I said, I was in the computers and stuff. The first year that I had my computer, I went and got turbo tax. Yeah, I think it was turbo tax, one of those tax programs, and I learned how to use it. So when tax season came around, told the company, hey, I’ll do your taxes, give me $50. I’ll do your tax. And I used to make a lot of money doing taxes, but it was only for three months. But I think that was a big mind shift for me.

Definitely.

Yeah. And here’s the deal, man. I think it’s really great that a lot of young people today are coming up with entrepreneurial influences. Like, you can watch Shark Tank on TV when I was coming up, that just wasn’t there. People thought you were crazy. If you were like, I’m going to be an entrepreneur and start my own business. Like, what? Come on. You didn’t even graduate from high school. That’s another secret. I didn’t graduate from high school. I didn’t like high school.

That’s an interesting fork in the road right there. Right. So how did that pan out? Did you go back and get, like, your GED or it kind of leads me to the real question. Do you see any principles and prosperousness in going to College?

I mean, if you’re going to be a lawyer, a doctor? Sure, there’s value in education. Don’t get that twisted for me. I lost a value in education because if you go back to your high school days, the 11th and 12th grade were worthless. Hardly anything you learned during there do you use today? And it just was so disinteresting to me. I left high school and I was passing. I was getting ready to graduate. I got kicked out because I wouldn’t go. Not because I have bad day grades. So I was always pretty well self taught. So back after they kicked me out, I went to take the GED and got it. I didn’t study for it or nothing. I just went through and did it. Okay, fine. Because I wanted to go to technology school, which was where my interest was. So I ended up going to devray for the technology stuff and the it stuff. But high school wasn’t teaching me none of that or giving me no opportunity. So I was out playing music and DJing.

Definitely. Interesting. So that kind of leads me into your family life a little bit in today’s world, right? How do you currently juggle your family life with your work life balance?

Okay. I’m so contrarian. I hate it, but I don’t believe in work life balance. There’s no such thing, right? Because if work or at least for us. Okay, you’re going to be an entrepreneur. Do you love doing what you do?

Oh, yeah.

Okay. So why do I want to balance that? I love what I’m doing, right? And as long as I’m loving it, then I’m happy doing it. And my family is not suffering because I’m here. I didn’t miss a thing that my daughter was a party to when she was in school. We were there for everything because we created our own business. And what you have to do or think about is how you want your life to be. Because I think there are people that get lost in the hustle, where they just constantly. They can’t stop the hustle, and they end up passing through all the roses. For me, my business is part of the lifestyle that I want to live. It puts me in the position so that I can travel when I want to travel so that I can do the things that I want to do. And we created a lifestyle company. Right. So, yes, I’ve done millions and millions, but I probably could have did hundreds of millions. But do I need hundreds of millions? What am I going to do? Hundreds of millions of dollars. I’ll take it, but I can’t take it with me. So I was just thinking about this today, man. It’s like people will drive their wealth, right? I’d rather create memories. Right? So I’ve flown around the world having amazing memories and drive a piece of shit car. Okay? It ain’t piece of shit, but it ain’t brand new and sparkling like diamonds because I don’t need the car. The car gets me to the plane. That’s it. So you got to have your priorities in order to know what you want.

I definitely appreciate that. It’s always one of the statements I talk about. Once you understand wealth and understand revenue versus wealth versus the paycheck, you’ll get to the point to where you’re not going to be looking at my home or my car. To your point, it’s all about the memories. Like, what legacy can you leave behind? What have you done in this life? And you kind of look back on and smile at it’s. Not about the car that’s as will sit in the garage. I commend you for saying that. I definitely appreciate that statement.

There’s too many people that are millionaires that kill themselves. Why, right? Be happy, man. Be happy. I mean, if you’re happy on your job, hey, go for it. Don’t let nobody else shame you into being something that you don’t want to be. But that comes with growth. That comes with wisdom, because it’s hard. It’s hard out here for Pimp.

Digital pimp. Digital pimp?

Yes. Exactly. Let’s be clear, folks.

Funny. So let’s talk about, like, your morning habits, your morning routines. What are those? Look.

Oh, Lord, I don’t have a morning routine. Oh, yes, I do. Okay. Because after I get done with the breakfast and all that, literally, every morning I get breakfast, I sit down, I watch the news, I go through my phone, see what’s interesting topics that’s first, right. Or that’s the regular stuff. But when I come in, I write a blog post. Lately I’ve been creating a video and editing the one we talked. Right. And then I make sure I post it all around. Then I check in with my VAS because usually they’re leaving or that’s the end of their day. So I check in with them and make sure everything’s handled there. And I don’t check email until noon. Nice. Because I start today eating the frog. What’s the big thing? I have to get done today, and I won’t check email until after that’s. Done because email has a tendency of rejuggling all your priorities and the real thing you want to get done doesn’t get done.

Very true. Yeah, very true. So this is the part where I started a book club because of Boston Cage. Just realizing that everyone that I speak to that’s like you books that helps you on your journey. And there’s still probably books that you’re reading or audio books that you’re listening to. So it’s a three part question. What books do you recall that helped you get to where you are currently? What books are you reading currently right now. And as an author, what books have you written?

Okay, cool. The big books for me were Think and Grow Rich. What’s the Babylon book? Richest Man and Babylon Riches Man and Babylon and Rich. Okay, so those are like, dude, get those books. What did you say? What’s the other thing? What am I currently?

Yeah. What are you currently reading?

Okay. Currently it’s sitting here. I’m reading Digital Millionaire Dan Henry. Good book. I like that. I’m impressed with Dan. I would just talk shit about him because he was just young guys, like what he really has. He really has asked that’s Ryan Levesque, right. Going back to the Oldschool dot com secrets. Right. And this one is interesting, man, that I’m keeping around how business works. And it’s like a hard back, but it’s done with images that really resonates with me. So I’m keeping that around. So that’s what I’m reading currently. And here’s what I’ve written. Kick associate commerce for E Panurs. That is the Bible. It is the best book ever written, possibly second only to the Bible. According to my mother, these are all things my mom and I’m really thinking about writing another book. I wasn’t thinking about that, but I think I’m getting ready to start this year, writing a new book. Don’t know exactly what it’s going to be or entail. Well, I kind of do, but it’s going to be part of the journey in the story. But also, I want to make it interesting. So maybe it’ll have a bill in and there’ll be a murder somewhere. You know what I’m saying? Wouldn’t that be different?

Well, it’ll be extremely different to have, like, a murder mystery selfhelp book.

Yeah, because you know who you’re going to kill. I even know I’m going to kill my imposter syndrome.

Yeah, I can see that.

Nice twist. That’s a good twisting. This is on recording, too. So I’ll remember.

Yes, you will. Hilarious, man. So what do you see yourself? 20 years from now, man?

20 years from now?

20 years? Yeah.

Here’s what I mean. I want to be next to water. I want to be out of the country at least four times. Maybe I’ll come back. Guess what? I have grandkids at that point. And who knows, man, I haven’t thought that far ahead. And I never thought that far ahead. When I was 30, thought about being 50. I never did. I think I lived the Tupac syndrome forever. Like, I’m going to die young. I’m going to die young. And here I am, kind of middle age, and I’m still here. But legacy wise. I’m already seeing that coming to pass. And like this on Friday, I have a lunch meeting with, let’s say, my kids, it’s my niece and my nephew for you, and they’re starting their own business, and we’re talking about it. So it’s like it’s finally coming to pass. And I feel really good about that. Really good about that. So 20 years from now, I get to watch them do what I did nice on their own, because they ain’t getting shit from me. It’s like I’m teasing.

Yeah, but I think you’re leaving my legacy of content. I mean, to the point to where just recently, like you said, you kind of started this whole new campaign, these little tidbit videos of, like, selfhelp here’s things that I’ve done, things that I’ve used. And I just think that once that’s on the Internet, it’s going to be there forever. So you’re kind of building a legacy of digital content in your videos, though, just talking about your videos and just come into mind what tools would you recommend that you use on a daily basis outside of Google, that you would not be able to do what you do without what tools that I use on a daily basis?

I mean, there’s a lot of marketing tools that we use for ad load balance, but that’s inside of Amazon, right or not. But everything I do is in cartridge. I mean, I used to have the email programs, and that’s all I use, bro. That’s all I use. I don’t have any other tools. You know what? Let me pull this up because I’m just thinking I’ve got this tool list that I put together and let me go and just tell you some of the things I actually recommend, because that’s what you’re really looking for.

Yeah, definitely. I’ve been thinking for the longest time, like, I’ve been asking this question. It’ll be cool to kind of create, like, an online directory on these different disciplines and have all these online resources to say, okay, you know what? This is what John uses. This is what John uses it for.

Yeah, that’d be cool. That’d be cool. So like I said, Cartra loom screen flow. Yeah. I’m in screen flow all the time. What’s this one? Snagit is probably the best tool. I don’t think there’s any tool I use more than Snag screen capture.

Okay.

Screen Capture Keynote, one of my big favorites. And let’s see anything else that I actually use. Webinar jam, of course. Yeah. I use Twilio for messaging, stream Yard for streaming, sometimes in Zoom. I’ve got my own little tool suite. Nice, but I gave you the back how I’m making the sauce. It is literally keynote for pretty much all graphics and snag.

It got you screenshots. Nice.

Yeah. Because I used that to. One day I got to do a teaching on how I use the tools. They’re totally weird. But you take all that together, and I can create all kinds of graphics and documents. And the whole nine.

It goes back to the proofs. And to put it, not only are you a good teacher, but you enjoy teaching, and I can see that in your videos. I mean, every time you produce a video, I see that passion coming through. It’s like he’s giving you diamonds. He’s giving you diamonds in a rough. But if you’re not listening to them, you’re missing out on them. And that’s just the way you come across. So I definitely appreciate your videos. I watch them on a regular basis as well.

Awesome. Somebody’s watching that makes me happy. But I will tell you this the teaching part. Remember, I was very dogmat about teaching teachers. I’ve always been a good teacher. I mean, from day one. And that was part of even when I got into religion and did the nation thing and did the Christian thing. Both of those. I was teaching and preaching. So that’s one thing I’ve always been able to do. And that’s something that comes now that I definitely got from my dad. Nice, that I definitely got from him. I used to watch him do that.

So spitting off on that. Right. So just talk about, like, words of wisdom, words of insight. Like you just brought up your dad. You’re talking about being a teacher. So let’s say I’m 41 years old and I’m coming to you, John. I’m like John. I’m obviously on my journey. I’m branding. I’m doing all these different things, but I want to scale. I want to burst my bubble and expand more. What words of insight would you give to someone like me?

Okay. What do you want to spend, too?

What do you want to do as far as what? One more time.

What do you like doing? What do you like doing?

I love podcasting. I love podcasting.

You love podcasting. One of the things is, do you have a course?

Academy is in development right now.

That’s going to be huge for you. That’s going to be huge for you, because everybody wants to know how to do a podcast, but not only how to do a podcast, but to do one successfully. And you’re doing one successfully. So if I had one thing to tell people, stick in your Lane and become an expert at what it is that you like doing, right? Because there’s so many shiny objects out here. But if you become the expert in the one thing, then everything else. Let everybody else be a generalist. You go to the doctor when you got a pain and you pay that doctor fee to the general list. And what do they do? They recommend you to the specialist. And when you go to the specialist, he’s going to charge you ten times more.

Right about that.

Right. So it’s your specialty. Go deep into the specialty for whatever it is that you guys are out there wanting to do. If you go deep into your specialty, there’s money to be made in there.

Nice. So even with that, obviously, you’re an online coach. You have courses. You have all these stuff on your profiles online. How can people find you and get in contact with you?

My name Johnlawson. Com. All right. Johnlawson. Com. And then you can just look up like, ColderICE one word. C-O-L-D-E-R-I-C-E on Google. You’ll find me. I’m on colder ice on all the channels. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram. What’s that stupid phone one that I don’t like. Yeah, I had to take it just because somebody else might. But, yeah, I’m a Droid user. I’m not going to sit there with my phone all day listening to Clubhouse because it’s not on Droid.

Not yet.

Not yet. Do you like it?

Well, in the beginning, I was all about it, and I started maybe like October last year, and it was like, it was cool. But for me, it was like the conversion point. Those things off. It’s like there’s no real conversion point. I have to take you from one system to another system or kind of have to follow back up. But there’s no built in conversion, like on Facebook. I can convert Instagram. I can convert. I can convert LinkedIn. I can convert Clubhouse.

Yeah, exactly. One of the things is, too. People were talking about clubhouse is the new podcast. See, I’d rather listen to a podcast. I’d rather listen to somebody go deep into their understanding. Like you’ve done with me today, right? Versus all this 15 minutes of surface level understanding and then dumb questions from the audience, which drops me crazy. You know what I’m saying? So everybody has their mode, and I really like the long format of a podcast.

Oh, yeah. I think people don’t realize the power of a pocket at the end of this pocket. There’s so much content that we’ve developed in this communication between us that we can reuse and repurpose and do cross marketing, cross promotions, day in and day out for years to come.

It’s amazing. And it’s like one of the first ones out. Podcasting has been out since the freaking 90s. People don’t get it, but podcasting has lasted almost as long as email. The two things they want to claim are dead.

Well, yeah, the email is definitely not dead, right? Obviously, I deemed you the ice boss. So let’s talk about the company name. What’s the meaning behind the company name? How did you come up with that colder ice? Yeah.

I’m glad you asked. So when I was getting started and like I said, this was around 2007 eight, when I started teaching, I didn’t think people would pay any attention because I was a black guy. I was a black guy. I would sit in rooms on ecommerce events, and I’d be the only black guy. There’d be two or three others. I’d make sure I got to meet that one because there’s only a few of us here. So I really didn’t think that anybody would pay me a lot of attention just because I was a black guy. So I kind of went out to the Google and tried to get my name. I got my name. Now it cost me money because somebody was sitting on it for years. But I couldn’t get the johnlawson. Com because it’s a very common name anyway. And just my study. I remembered back in the day there was this saying that the white man’s ice is colder. And what did that come from was that black businesses. And this is one thing a lot of people don’t recognize. Entrepreneurial ship for black people was a necessity 50 years ago. It wasn’t an option. If you wanted to go and get your stuff from the Department store, you had to go to the black Department store because white people wouldn’t let you put nothing on. You know what I’m saying? If you wanted to ride in the cab, you had a black cab. You weren’t getting into white people’s cabs. Everything that there was for the whites was for the Blacks, and they were run by black people. Right. The deal was as soon as integration came, the black store owners would watch their consumers walk right past their storefront to go shop downtown. And they said, oh, I guess the white man’s ice is colder. And I had the realization like, my ice is just as cold as the white man. And that’s where I came up with Ko DEIS did a search. It’s like, oh, Koda rice. Com and it was available and that became the whole thing.

I’m happy I asked that question too. Damn.

That’s where it came from.

Yes, sir. That just adds to the whole nostalgia of calling you the ice boss like that’s official that’s on a T shirt, and I’m going to have to have to do it.

That’s awesome. I love it. I’m totally in. But you know what? This is off topic. Well, not off topic, but I want to make something really clear for me and my life where that fell off for me. Nobody would listen to me because I was black. Happened two years later, when Barack Obama was sworn in, he gave me validity to others. I don’t care what you have to say about the man or his politics or anything, but the way people perceived me the day before and the day after was a whole nother level. And so I’ve used that to expand my brand worldwide. It was the affinity of everybody. Oh, they got the black President. And all of a sudden, they were looking for some sort of representation, and if they were, I would be that guy for you. I’ll fly over and we’ll do a thing and we’ll talk and be that difference that they were looking for from America.

That’s awesome. Definitely awesome. Trailblazing it man. Trailblazer.

Trailblaze, trailblazing.

It’s crazy. So let’s go into the bonus round really quick before we close out.

Shotgun question.

So if you could spend 24 hours with anyone dead or alive uninterrupted for those 24 hours, who would it be? And why you mean other than.

Like my dad or my grandparent? Like that? Yeah. Outside of family business.

Or motivational or inspirational or someone that you deem that. Hey, I would like to spend 24 hours with this person uninterrupted again.

I’m a contrarian. So I’ve learned that the closer you get to somebody, the more the fantasy gets dissolved. Right? Okay. I do have somebody that would be kind of cool to sit and ask them a lot of questions. Right. So I really would dig talking to Steve Jobs the way he thought. I know he was half damn crazy half the times the way people talk, you know what I mean? But I think I could get through to finding the core of whatever it was he was saying, because when I listened to him or I read the book. So Steve Jobs, that’s my answer.

Nice. So what is your most significant achievement to date outside of your family and your kids? Yeah.

I don’t know, man. It’s probably doing the American Express commercial. I just thought that was really cool. I did this years ago, but the experience of being treated like a Hollywood star was absolutely amazing, right? Because they picked me up with the sign and the black cars waiting, and that changed my entire life. I was like, oh, I need this every day. You know what I’m saying? And it really elevated what I thought I could do and be. And I think that set the stage for me teaching and speaking and being a world traveler.

So I was saying earlier, you’ve been really modest, man. And we’re just kind of like, I didn’t know you was in a damn American Express commercial. Let me tell you guys a little story real quick. The first time I met this guy was at a marketing meeting, and I’m walking in a meeting, and I’m sitting in a room full of damn Sharks and Titans, and I’m sitting in the corner like, I’m going to keep my mouth shut. I’m not going to say anything crazy today. I’m just going to listen and take notes. And he’s just sitting there nationally talking about, yeah, I just came back from I think it was Belize or where were you were? And he was like, I just did a workshop in Belize with a mastermind group of, like, ten to 50 people. And I’m just sitting there like, did he just say he was in Belize with a mastermind group of ten people? It’s just say what it is. So he’s being modest. Don’t let his modesty fool you by any means. Okay?

No. But again, there’s trade offs, man. That’s what I wanted to do. There used to be this game, like a board game called Passport. The job was to go around the board and get your passport stamped. And if you land on enough of those places, you’d win. And that set the tone. I always wanted my passport stamped. And I do somewhat up until last year, I did take it for granted. And having the world shut down all of a sudden, I’m like, wow, I got to do that. Hopefully this will come back. But I don’t think it’ll ever be the way it was. I mean, it was open border season back in the day. Yeah, it was, unfortunately.

Okay going to close it, man. I mean, obviously, I think this was a great episode, and you dropped Nuggets, jewels, diamonds. You made it rain gold from the sky.

Right. Well, stop.

But in this conversation, we went through a lot of different topics. So in any part of this conversation, if you had any questions that may have arrived that you want to ask me. So the microphone is yours. The floor is yours. What questions do you have for myself?

A question for you? For me, man. That’s good. That’s fantastic. All right. How did you come up with Boss Uncaged? Oh, yeah.

So what part of it? Because it’s multifaceted, right? The name or the iconography of it.

So, I mean, the boss Uncaged the name first. Okay.

So the name, essentially one was my other company is Cerebral 360. And I’ve dealt with the misspelling of that shit every day. Right. So I was like, how do I find out a brand that symbolizes everything within just two words, two parts, and make sure that these words are very short boss, a five year old spelled boss. And on cage, a six year old could pretty much sounded out. So I kind of opened up my audience a little bit wider. Then the boss part was essentially entrepreneurs, small business owners and people that are like you said before, nine to fiverrs that are looking to become bosses, or they’re tired of their boss and they want to become their own boss. And then the Uncaged part is that journey. It’s like you’re a damn lion in a cage working the nine to five dying to break out where you’re an entrepreneur on the treadmill, spinning your wheels, trying to figure things out. But you’re a hamster in a cage, and you want to break out of that cage. So the combination between the two become boss and cage. So it doesn’t really matter. My target niche is small business owners and entrepreneurs, but it’s helping those people find their destinies through people like yourself. And my goal is to continue to record episodes like this because everything that you said today, there’s somebody that’s going to hear this podcast, and the light bulb is going to go off. And they’re going to be like, that Boston Cage brand. And what John said, they’re going to merge the two together. And you and I may get a letter or get an email from somebody 2030 years down the road that says, Dude, that one episode that you guys did 20 years ago that should change my life. And that’s the goal of Boston Cage.

Very good. That was a good question. You know what I mean? You’re really good at what you’re doing, because I do a lot of interviews. I’ve done hundreds over the years, probably. But the fact is, you actually interview where most people, not most. But most unprofessional people don’t interview. They just ask questions so they can answer it themselves. And have you done that? Have you seen that?

I do more listening. I like to listen.

Yeah. And what happens is that is great for the audience, because you’re asking the questions that they have. And that’s brilliant. That’s brilliant. So I mean, more power to you. I love the logo. Tell me how the logo came about, too.

So the logo was weird. Man, I was sitting down. You’re from Atlanta. So Rome, Rome, I think at the time was in Alfaretto at Dunwoodie, and I’m sitting there working in my Cowork space, and I look up to the right. And this is this huge whiteboard and sure as hell, there was like, four red arrows. And I’m looking sideways. And then off to the right, there was like a magnet dot. And I’m like, what the hell do I get up, stop what I do and walk in there, move the magnets, put the hours together. And I was like, Holy hell, that’s everything that symbolizes in kind of like the singular wireless logo. It’s all about you. But it’s also about breaking out. It’s all about the multiple directions, all becoming focused, like you said, coming into a core niche. And it was like, so many different variables and symbolism and stories that can be told just by using five simple damn shapes. And so I put them together. And then I just replaced the o and the boss with that symbol to make the boss in Cage’s brand.

And why purple?

Well, purple for multiple different things. Right. So you want to go, this is America red and blue makes purple. Purple has always been symbolic to royalty playing off, like the whole lion. And so pulling into the purple. And it’s also a universal color. It doesn’t necessarily mean male or female. And again, I want this brand to be universal. I don’t want to 100% talk to just male. I want that other audience as well. So in being in that purple spectrum, it’s just a more softer color, but it also has some masculinity to it as well.

Okay. See, that’s a master class right there, because you talked about the brand, how you came up with it, the logo, the meanings. And that’s what a lot of people really just don’t do. So both of us, we have meaning behind our names. Colder ice as a company. Boston Cage. I think that passion moves businesses forward when you have a purpose and good on you. Thank you so much.

Well, I appreciate you, Johnny. It’s funny because I had a list, right? A list of people I want interview. I was like, okay, I’m going to get Tycoon. I’m going to get John, and I’m just thinking of all the different people I want to get. So it’s like, I’m going through a list, and I’m like, okay, I got Tycoon on the show. I got Greg Caesar on the show. Earlier this week, I had Justin. I was like, Dude, I’m going to get every last one of you bastards before it’s said and done.

But it was easy. It was easy, right? Yeah. That crew of people have, you know what I mean? Just so welcoming open. They’ve helped me out in so many ways, just knowing these people. It was the antithesis of what you think would happen with a bunch of brothers.

You’re 100%, right? Because after I left that room, I was just sitting there. I literally sat in my car that day, and I was just like, Where the have these people been? Where have they been? Like, they’re in Atlanta on top of it, too. And the way I came to find you guys was kind of like, Do Ty Cohen introduced me to Greg, and Greg was like, I live in Atlanta. Come to my marketing meeting, I was like, okay, and that showed up, and then the rest was history. It’s a night and day difference just when you’re guided in the right direction and you see those opportunities, man.

Awesome. It’s so good to reconnect after Kova times definitely.

John Man, I’m not going to suck any more of your time. I definitely appreciate you and commend you, and I love everything you do and you have done and you continue to do. Man, it was a pleasure.

Hey, I got something for your audience, if I may. All right. Ecom from scratch. If you want to build an ecommerce store, go to Ecom from scratch. It’s completely free, and it’s a video of me walking you through how to build your own ecommerce store. I think everybody should at least consider ecommerce. It’s just so amazing. It’s growing. And if you go to ecommerce, there’s a free trading there.

I would definitely say if you don’t take advantage of that coming from someone that has mastered both Ebay and Amazon at the same damn time, I will strangle you myself by having to in person a cigarette over and out.

CEO Of ColderICE Media: John Lawson AKA The Ice Boss – S2E66 (#94)2022-08-24T18:04:07+00:00

Founder Of Audience Magnet: Dennis Morrison AKA The Storytelling Boss – S2E65 (#93)

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Boss Uncaged Podcast Overview

Founder Of Audience Magnet: Dennis Morrison AKA The Storytelling Boss – S2E65 (#93)
“…you do need a guide, the right kind of guide. You need to be someone who’s willing to implement and do the work and that means taking responsibility for your actions.
In Season 2, Episode 65 of the Boss Uncaged Podcast, S.A. Grant sits down with the Founder of Audience Magnet, Dennis Morrison.
Dennis Morrison is an entrepreneurial creative who originated as a filmmaker. He’s a business storyteller, marketing story strategist, and founder of Audience Magnet, which helps businesses and professionals to communicate authentically and effectively. He’s helping business owners and digital creators find their unique voices.
He originally started a video production company, and then in the mid-2000s, decided to create an online and mobile platform for short films. (This was pre-iPhone)
It turned out that he was ahead of his time. And it didn’t quite work out. But he learned from his mistakes, picked himself up, and came back stronger.
He’s now created a storytelling-based marketing platform, specifically for coaches, digital product creators, service providers, and small businesses, to help them use the power of storytelling to grow their business and sell their products and services.
As Dennis says, “Everyone’s talking about storytelling, but no one’s guiding you on how you can do it yourself.
This is what the Audience Magnet platform changes. He demystifies and breaks down the art of storytelling, and gives you the power to tell stories in your business, just like the pros.
“I would say I inspire people and empower people so they can do it themselves.”
Don’t miss a minute of this episode covering topics on:
  • How can Audience Magnet help your business
  • The power of storytelling and business
  • What tools is Dennis using in his business
  • And So Much More!!!
Want more details on how to contact Dennis? Check out the links below!
Clubhouse @dennismorrison

Boss Uncaged Podcast Transcript

S2E93 Dennis Morrison.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

Record. So we are recording Real Live. Three, two, one. Welcome back to Boss on Cage podcast today. We have an interesting guest. Now I’m going to deem him the storytelling boss. And once I give him the floor, he’ll be able to tell you why. So from the UK without further Ado. Dennis Man, the floor is yours.

Hi. Thanks so much for having me on your show and be able to have a conversation with you and speak to your audience. Really looking forward to it.

Great. So I’ve deemed you the storytelling boss. I looked at your background, did some research. It seemed like that’s the key thing. You’ve been in films, you’ve been in video. But it seems like your core niche in today’s world is storytelling. So let’s dive into that a little bit. Like, what are you doing with storytelling?

Yes. Well, I’ve kind of created a platform and a program for small businesses, coaches, course creators and service providers, so they can actually use storytelling in their business to market and sell their products and services. I kept seeing so many people talking about storytelling all the time, but they kept using Star Wars and not really giving people real practical ways that they can do it themselves. And that really got me thinking, Well, it’s no good talking about something if you don’t give people the keys to unlock it so they can take advantage of it themselves.

Nice. Yeah. They’re definitely interesting. So let’s talk about you a little bit like if you could define yourself in three to five words, what would those three to five words be?

Oh, gosh. I would say I inspire people. I empower people so they can do it themselves. A few more than three there the last day.

Yeah. With that, would you deem yourself more so as a coach or a consultant or you’re a hybrid of both?

I would say I’m a hybrid. I’m a hybrid. Definitely. I’ve done both. I’m very good at enabling people. I think I’m good at teaching and training people. And my specific approach is realizing and guiding people, so they realize that they actually can do it. And so I would say it’s definitely a hybrid as well as going in and giving people advice. There’s something about seeing the spark in people’s eyes when they think, oh, my God, I can do this myself. And that’s what kind of excites me when people realize that. Yeah, with the right guidance, with the right support and training and also implementing that, they can have a lot more power than they think they can in areas where they feel they don’t have the strengths.

That’s definitely interesting. Let’s just walk down that role. Let’s say I found you in the net, and I’m like, okay, storytelling. I’m liking what he’s saying. I’m a marketing guy. I have all these different facets, but I want to be able to tell a better story. I want to talk to my target audience directly. I want to deliver the message. Like, what steps would we kind of go through to get me to that point?

Well, there’s not one step, but say, if you found me, the first step is I’ve got a gift for your audience, which I can tell them more about. The end is, I’d say, do the five day sell with story mini course that I’ve created that standalone that helps people get clear on their own story. But more importantly, telling the story in the way when they realize what they offer and why someone wants it from them, then they can specify who their target audience is and see how they can talk about their products and services. So they’re interested. I think the key thing when I talk about storytelling and business storytelling is storytelling with a purpose and that’s stories that lead to a sale. So it’s not telling any old stories. I’ve been very intentional around it yet at the same time using it as a magnet. So you draw your ideal audience to you and you draw them to you by them choosing to want to come close to you.

So are you doing that way of the method of if there’s a problem, your story is defining how you can help them in the solution. Is that the way you’re staging it?

That’s one. I think the other thing misconception is people talk about stories, but they talk about story singular. There’s multiple stories we tell. Each audience member or each customer or each potential client is on a different stage of their journey with you. So that means different kinds of stories. And so it’s not just one story you tell. It should be something that’s implemented in your business and use in all stages of your communication, whatever the medium. I think that’s the beauty of business storytelling. It doesn’t matter what platform you’re using, whether it’s social, whether it’s emails, whether you’re doing videos or doing landing pages, you can infuse the art of storytelling, which is really grabbing people’s attention on an emotional level. So they are interested in what you’re talking about and build that relationship. It’s all about building relationships.

Wow. It’s definitely powerful and insightful as well. So going into stories, let’s talk about your story a little bit. Were you always like a kid that was telling stories? Did you have a group of friends and you would tell these stories? How did you get into storytelling?

That’s a great question. Do you know what I would say that as a kid, I don’t know if I was like that probably wasn’t, but it all started when I was 18. I had no clue what I wanted to do. I got a gig as an extra on an advert and this is predigital. This is a long time ago and I thought, Great, let me go there. I’ve been told you just stand in the background, you get fed and you get paid I thought, Well, that sounds great. So I went for the first down on Monday, turned up, and at lunch they said, oh, we’re not doing anything today. Go home. I thought, oh, this is great. Came on Tuesday, and suddenly I saw all these big trucks appear and all this equipment come out. And I was like, what is that? That’s what I want to do. And that started my whole journey of working in film, working in the media and storytelling. Literally. I decided that’s what I want to do. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. This is pre digital. So even to get my first gig, I literally spent nine months, about three days a week pounding the pavement, knocking on doors just to get my first gig.

Wow. So you keep saying pre digital. It seems like you’re going back to, like, Beta or Beta cams. How far back are you talking before digital?

Do I look that old?

No, not necessarily.

Yes, it was. It was beat Cam SPHs to actually put stuff on Pneumatic after you filmed it, or it was Digi beta. That was the high end tapes. Or it was film. So I was taught and I learned using film, and I’m probably the last generation to actually edit on a steam back as well. So, yes, it was kind of predigital. I remember when digital first came in for us, small independence when they created the DV camera, and we were like, oh, my gosh, we can get a camera for three grand, and it can do that. And when it came in, it was really interesting because the industry didn’t like it. So they did everything to stop Indies getting their stuff put on broadcast because they invested, like, thousands, tens and hundreds of thousands in gear. The last thing they want is someone who’s managed to muster up three to ten K worth of gear to be able to do the same kind of thing.

Wow. So you definitely get back to the point to where you actually have to make the clap to sync the sound and everything else. And I think in today’s war is digital, right? So people don’t tend to do that, right?

They do. So the other side of me is I actually am a tutor international film school. So I teach the next generation of budding filmmakers how to sell stories. And I kind of teach them in the context of where you put the film together, which is in the edit. So that’s another side of me. We still use a Clapper board because that’s our guide. And even if you are recording sound because you record external sound, often you want to record on camera at the same time, do the clap, and it’s much easier to sync. But more importantly, computers don’t always do what they say they’re meant to do. So you can always do it manually.

Still, I pulled that story out of you because I knew you’re going to go down that road. I knew you were the video guy to talk about experiences. I mean, in film, we always hear about the negatives, the positives, like the assholes being that you’ve been in film for 30 years. Like, what is the worst or the craziest experience you’ve encountered worst or craziest experience?

Yeah. Do you know what? I’ve got a pretty thick skin. So I kind of didn’t have bad experiences that I’ve had mainly because I’ve got a fixed skin or just ignore it. But I don’t suffer fools badly. So I’m not very good when people say certain things that I think is out of order. So I haven’t had any problems in that capacity, but weird stuff. I’ve had it’s like, okay. So I remember when I was really starting out. There was a guy called Chris Evans here who made it mega big. And I kind of worked on one of his first TV shows. And we were kind of doing a live show every morning, five days a week because he came from radio. He suddenly became mega massive, by the way. And I was young. I used to be out partying, going to bed at four in the morning and getting up a half six, seven and working and doing a great job at the same time. I’d say it’s not wacky or weird, but bad experiences. There’s so many in this industry. It’s not getting gigs when you should get the gigs for various reasons, and that sometimes you don’t actually believe that’s the reason I feel other than acting, I think acting is the hardest because acting is like it’s just so subjective. You could have the right look, but the wrong voice. But I think it’s kind of you don’t do this work in this industry. If you’re doing it for the money, don’t get me wrong. You want to get paid. But there’s much easier things to do if you just want to get those bills paid.

Nice. You’re based out of London and I’m in the US. In the US. We have C Corps, S Corps, LLCs. How was your business structured overseas?

Mine is a limited company, so I’m not sure what that would be. Basically limited company. Is that Escort? I’m not sure yours will be LLC. Limited liability. That’s it. So LLC. Mine’s an LLC.

Yeah. Nice. Okay. Do you have any business partnerships? Are you partner with any other corporations as well?

No, not at all. Let me tell you a story. Listen, I said, let me tell you a story. And I hate when people say that. Let me tell you a story. So that’s tip number one. When you’re about to tell a story, don’t say let me tell you a story. I hear too many people saying that everyone’s going okay.

From the storyteller himself.

Exactly. I forgot your question. You have to repeat your question now. I’ve been talking so much what you asked me. I forgot what I was going to say.

Well, maybe I may paraphrase that question a little bit. Let me just think about that for a second. I was asking you about partnerships, and then you said you tell me a story. Daniel is going to probably be something about partnerships, maybe.

Okay. So I’ve worked with many people over the years. Some have been great, some have appeared great and not so great. So I had an experience probably eleven years ago where I was brought into a company because they want to do certain things. I had certain skills coming as a director. And if I do something, I give my all it’s just there’s only one way. So there I was doing stuff. We’re doing a lot of stuff and cut a long story short. The person who said they was going to do stuff and get sales didn’t do their job. I did loads of work and they didn’t pay me. And it wasn’t that it was that when I was working there, I was like, you know what I like being 100% me. That’s what I like to be. And this is what I tell everyone. Part of telling your story is so you can be you quirks and all because you only want people who resonate with you if they don’t, you don’t care about them. You only want people who resonate with you think that you’re the right person to guide them in whatever capacity that is. And after that situation, I thought I’m never putting myself in that situation again. So that was step one. And then I had the whole situation of managing people. Too many people. When I was doing previous things, and then I realized that I spent most of my time managing people and not actually getting stuff done. So when I set up audience magnet, it was a decision to make it lean and bring people in only as and when they’re needed. There are some challenges with that, because sometimes you have to do a little bit more than if you had a team. However, it’s kind of really freeing that when people come on board, you know why they’re coming and what you’d like them to do and they’re coming and they deliver because they’re professionals on their own right.

Definitely interesting and delightful at the same time. Obviously, you kind of touched on a little bit. You hinted at systems to a certain point. So what systems do you currently have with your courses in your business and your online solutions systems?

I love tools and tech. Probably a little bit too much. I’m trying to control myself at the moment. I think the key system is it’s a platform, not a course. I think many people create courses and people don’t finish courses. So two things were really important to me. Firstly, was to create something which was about implementation, and then it’s about building a routine. So you do it consistently and regularly. Secondly, I think one of the challenges people find sometimes is tech and making the personal side work. So yes, I have a course platform that host stuff, but I’ve integrated other tools to make the platform work. How I’d like, just even today, for example, there were some emails that went out when people did certain things, and I was like, It doesn’t feel congruent that they may not have finished it. And then they get this email. It feels like a bit pushy. And this is what most people do. So I’ve just been really setting up automations that they only sent this email when they say they’ve completed it and actively say that themselves. So again, I think my focus when I’m looking at the tech is, how can I make it feel personal yet? How can I automate a lot of that and then interject on a personal level? So when you’re going through any of my programs, it’s like, I hear you. I see you, you’re not a number. You’re a real person. I care for you. I care for your success. And I’m here to support you along the way. And I know as a responsible adult that you take responsibility for your actions. And with that, I’m there as a landing place for you anytime you need.

Definitely your viewpoints and your philosophies and how you’re combining two different things, right? I mean, most people would think in systems is very analytical, but you’re pulling the emotion and you’re bridging the gap between using the systems, but you’re feeding the systems off of the emotional response that you’re looking for from your target audience. And that’s definitely a solid system. Next question for you. Anyone listen to this podcast may perceive you to be an overnight success. Maybe they’ve heard about you. Maybe they haven’t, right. But in reality, how long have you been on this journey? How long did it take you to get to where you are currently.

I would say all my life, all my working life to get to where I am. Currently, there’s been many iterations. I’ll tell you something I did previously, which is just a precursor to where I am now. So pre iphone, I created a platform for independent short filmmakers to be able to sell their short films. And the premise was, Would it be great if people like myself could build an audience and earn a bit of money? That’s what it’s about. So fast forward. Everything is still about the audience. It’s about distribution. It’s about connecting to your ideal audience. Just doing that. I used to talk at film festivals, being by stake hands beyond panels about distribution and monetizing, all of the stuff that you did. And I launched the platform, which took way too long. There was so much I didn’t know I had developers in another country in a different time zone. So I used to stay up at night to learn stuff, so that when I spoke to them, like, oh, we can’t take the piss. He knows what he’s talking about. However, it wasn’t quite done right. And this is why I’m cutting the story short because I had people who tried to shaft me, trying to bamboozle me with talking rubbish because they wanted to get you caught into a system. And when we launched, we actually launched just when the world recession happened. When was that 2008? And I’m not saying it’s because of the recession, why it didn’t work. The problems I had, I was a bit too idealistic, bit too creative. The business model wasn’t right. I had tech that wasn’t fully working because I had a limited budget. This was all self funded. So that really taught me a lot about the web and using tools online. And I’ve had many iterations up to this point. And really, the Genesis of audience magnet really was I was actually working on another program, a coaching program. And like, anything, you see people out there doing this, and in order to do this, you got to do that. You’ve got to do that. I was like, I’m really good at some things, some things I’m okay at, but some things I’m not good at at all. I was trying to integrate them in. And then one day I just went, what am I doing? What am I doing? I’m doing something that isn’t me. And by the way, I’ve spent quite a few months working on that. To that point, I looked at all the things I’d done, and their front and center was storytelling and communicating and storytelling. And I went, I need to focus down on what I know well, what I love. But more importantly, I know there’s work to structure it, so it’s accessible for others, and that really starts the Genesis. So from then to now, I would say it’s been three years. And if I’m really honest with you essay, I should have been out a year ago. That’s my own failing. So I should have put it out earlier. But I just tightened it up. And so that’s my own failure. I’ve had people oing through the beats. I had them going through it for a year. Great reviews. So that’s something that I look back on and say, if I had done something different, I would have put it out a year ago.

So you’re talking about if you would change something, you would do that right? Is there anything else that you would want to stage differently to get you to where you are a lot faster now, you were just talking really isolated about a particular product. But was there anything on your life long journey to success that if you could travel back in time and change, what would it be?

Do you know what they’re little things like that in terms of big things? It’s like, no, I wouldn’t be who I am today. I wouldn’t have my perspective on the world today without the journeys that I’ve been through, I generally don’t look back in that way. But if I did look back, there’s very little I would change. There was certain things I would do in terms of business and approached it differently and stuff like that. There are things I would ch ange, but on a personal level, no, there’s nothing I would change on a personal level. But on a business level, I think there were things I would change in the context that I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Then I could change in the fact that this is in hindsight, by the time I didn’t have that knowledge or that experience to even have that foresight, if that makes sense.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Perfect sense. So it seems like obviously you’re an entrepreneur on multiple different platforms for multiple different years, like this tenacity and hustle mentality, I’m sure did. It come from somebody in your family. Do you have someone generations down the road that was an entrepreneur that influenced you?

Well, my dad worked for himself. He creates his own business. He’s a builder, master builder, master decorator. I’m very fortunate. I’ve got the best family that done everything in their power to kind of give me the best possible life. So I’m blessed. And I’m honored. And he did his own thing. And it was really interesting. There’s a friend of mine who I went to school with, and he told me, like, when I was, like, mid thirties, I met him. He goes, I remember when you were 16, you said you will not work for anyone. I was like, really, you’re going to do your own business. So this is someone who told me when I was 16, I decided that and to be honest, that’s what I’ve done. I’ve never worked for anyone. I’ve been a freelancer. My whole life will do my own thing. Language is quite important. I like working with people.

Nice being that your dad was a part of your influence, like currently, right now, how do you juggle your work life with your family life?

You know what? It’s always a challenge. However, I think for me, I’m very fortunate that my other half, she’s a creative and an artist as well. So our perspective on the world is quite different to maybe nine to fivers. So for us, X time, it’s not about on the clock. Yes. Don’t get me wrong. I do have other gigs. I do go out and I go and teach and train at schools. But again, they bring in professionals for six times at specific stages of production. So I think the challenge or the balance is that it doesn’t all become work. I think that’s a big challenge. Make sure it doesn’t all become work. I also feel that I always feel that people who come from a creative point of view is what they do, part of who they are. And we just view the world differently to some people who go to their job, some people couldn’t go to a job they’re not like because it gives them the holiday in the house. Generally, creators find that hard because it feels like it erodes your soul erode your soul.

That’s definitely a key takeaway. So what are your morning routines? Your morning habits look like?

Well, let’s say I get up at 430 in the morning. I sun salute. I look at the stars and then I make my no, I’m taking the Michael by morning routine on a good day. All right, let me put it in this context when I don’t have to go out and do things, I like at least 2 hours in the morning before I do anything. That’s an opportunity for me to think, to ponder, maybe do some. I want to say exercises, but let’s call them stretches, do some stretches. My first meal of the day or breaking my fast is really important to me. I will spend an hour and a half doing that. That’s when I listen to podcasts and then I’m ready for the day. That could take two to 3 hours. When I do have external work to do, I speed that up a bit. It takes an hour and a half. I’ll get up a half six and do it. I’m not an early morning person, but that morning time is so important to me. Even if I’ve got to be somewhere at 830 or nine, I need that at least an hour and a half just to get myself grounded as it were. So I say that’s my morning routine and what does it involve? It involves some health supplements. It involves maybe granola or some fresh fruit. I have a coffee machine, so I make coffee and only have one coffee a day. I use oat milk. I don’t do dairy and I have a frother and even the coffees. I like being kind of the process. It’s the process of making it as the enjoyment. I dabbite chocolate on the top. So all of these kinds of things. So that’s my morning routine and that sets me up for the day. It really does set me up for the day. I also find that before I go to sleep, I think about what I need to do the next day. And if I wake up and I still in my mind, that’s something I should do, it disappears. It’s not that important. And if I don’t know what to do, if I think about it before I go to sleep, when I wake up, I have the solution.

So this is a part of the podcast that I’ve kind of just grown to enjoy because it gives me an opportunity to kind of get some insight to more education. Right. So I’m going to ask you a three part question.

Okay.

What book or books helped you on your journey to get to where you are? What books are you currently reading? Right now or audiobooks for that matter. And have you had opportunity to write and publish any books yourself?

Good question. Okay. I can’t pinpoint any specific books. I’ve read so many books. The thing is, all my books, I go through them. I read on the Kindle. I highlight them. I extract the notes. So I’ve got a library of all my books. There’s about 100 of them I’ve read at different stages. And then from those notes, I’ve just brought a book down that might take three to 6 hours to read to 45 minutes of the key things. In terms of I go through stages of reading and not reading. Sometimes I like not reading enough. I’ve just finished a free book called Free. I can’t remember the author. It was like they were obviously doing something a couple of weeks ago and they said I’ve got a book and it was actually quite good. It was about marketing and how you create freedom in your life in terms of other books I’ve read is a book called Blindside. It’s absolutely fantastic. It’s about how marketing works, neuroscience and marketing. Really good book. So that’s something I’ve read recently. I really like the great OgMandino, the greatest salesman in the world. I think that’s a great book. I really do. I’ve read that quite a few times when I go through different stages. And these are the ones I can think of. By the time I’d open up my Evernote and I’ll just read the list. Oh, there was Fast Lane, actually like Fast Lane. That was an interesting book as well. Just whose approach and certain things to think about. And then in non work related books, I would say my favorite is Chanteram, have you ever read Shantram have that? Yeah, that is a fat book. So if you’re going to get it read on a Kindle because it’s really fat. But it’s the kind of book that when someone else knows you read Strange Ram. And if you don’t know them, you’ll sit down and talk 20 minutes, half an hour. That kind of book. So I really would like to get into reading more fiction. And I’m not doing it enough. I read too many business books now in terms of publishing. Yes. I have published a book a while ago called Online Video Success Toolkit. And it was called Use Video to capture and create your audience. Do you see the link and everything I’m doing there’s? Synergy and everything. Look at it. It’s like really consistent. And I didn’t realize that until about six months ago and I looked back. I went, you know what? It’s been very consistent. What I’m interested in, what I’ve done in the journey. When did I do that? I can’t remember 20, 11, 20, 12.

Wow. Yeah.

And that was kind of before all of the big stuff. And I tell you something that’s quite sad about that. In terms of other your listers might feel this sometimes themselves. I put all my energy in this book. Really good book. I had a business coach at the time. She said she’d never seen something that’s been packaged and done so well for the Kindle. It was amazing all of this. And at the time, some guru was doing some video thing, and I went, who am I? Who am I to put this out? And I made sales, but I didn’t push it. And I think this is just according to everyone listening is do it anyway. Do it anyway, because sometimes even if other people are telling us, go for it, we talk ourselves out of it. So going back to your question earlier, in hindsight, what would I have done differently, as I say, the business thing, I would have put that out of put that out. What doing? I was listening to some guru who at the end of the day, the guru is probably doing this video thing for, like, six wekks, and then they’ll go on to something else. So it’s really important that we put ourselves ourselves and what we do out there because it comes down to what audience magnet is about. We’re only interested in our idea.

All right. Well, I think we do a might check. Can you still hear me?

Yeah, I can hear you. Yeah. Okay.

You bumped out for a second.

Did my voice drop?

It was at the end. So it was at the dead zone. So editing it will just be easy edits. I just wanted to make sure that you still live because it sounds like it went out.

Cool.

So next question is like, where do you see yourself in 20 years?

20 years? Yeah.

20 years.

Okay. 20 years. I see myself being contented, continue having freedom of mind, have my faculties, having and giving love in my life and doing what I want when I want and continue to inspire and enable other people so they can inspire themselves and pass that forward to others and living. Enjoy being wonderful, continuing to be wonderful, being wonderful.

So kind of journeying back. And we go back about 30 minutes or so. You talk about your really big tech guy. So what software or digital tools or products that you use that you would not be able to do what you do without having access to them?

The reality is there are many companies that do these tools. These are kind of platforms that do it. I wouldn’t say anything specific, apart from sounds crazy pen and papers just so powerful. I’m surrounded by pads because I find that I think differently when I write compared to when I type and I just feel there’s something about that digital thing, and I normally write stuff. And then I put it on the computer and that’s edit too. So that’s the advantage. So even when it’s just like, quick brainstorm, you put it down, just bullet points. Then it’s on the computer then I understand what I’m looking to do. So even when I’m using my platform, I take a few bullet notes, then put them in. Then I know what I’m aiming to do. So I’d say that what other technology things that I think is really good. Ecam life. I do love Ecamm life. That’s a great tool. So I think that’s one of their wonderful team brothers, but it’s a powerful tool if you have a Mac for doing live streaming, that’s really great. What else do I have?

You said it’s called ECAM.

Ecam. Yeah, Ecamm live for Mac users who do live streaming. To be actually honest, we’re going through ECAM directly to you right now because I’m just able to connect it and manage it and do everything really easily. So I really do like that. I’m just going to quickly have a quick look and I’ll just tell you a few things.

Yeah, definitely. That’s what this is all about is about taking things that you’re using and get you to where you are and that’s making you successful to help someone else on their journey.

Now, Salesforce bought them, but I got access to a tool called Quip about three, four years ago. I think it’s great. Use it for notes for my ideas. Put them there. I’ve just started using notion. Everyone’s talked about it, so I’ve just started using it. I’m specifically going to use that for ideas that would be good for teaching and training. I kind of don’t like tools that do it all. It doesn’t suit my brain. I like compartmentalizing things. It works better for me. I don’t like, hey, this does everything. It doesn’t work. Air table is fantastic. I use Air table a lot organized stuff. It’s just amazing. Scribner is good when I’m doing notes, the platform that I’ve created. I use that every day in terms of editing. I got Final cut. I got DaVinci or Premiere. I do a lot of stuff with Final Cut, although I teach people how to use Premiere a lot Hindenburg for audio, so I like Hindenburg. That’s really good for recording audio, just putting things straight in. I’ve got a great music tour that I recently bought called Unify. Absolutely amazing. And basically they created this tour. How can I describe it? You can play multiple instruments at the same time. So, for example, if it’s an Orchestra, you can play like a full Orchestra is playing and they position them on the keyboard. It’s absolutely brilliant. And then my browsers. I’ve got five browsers. I use browsers for different things, literally. So if I go on social, it has to be Firefox because it creates a nice siloed window for them. They want them following me around. They want any of that kind of stuff. Sidekick, have you heard of Sidekick? Oh, my gosh. If you do any work through a browser, most tools are browser based. Now. Sidekicks great for me. I do all my work that’s my work browser because it allows you to create what’s the word, an icon for each app. So you just click on it and it opens it up and it remembers stuff. So I just do all my work, that’s work mode. So it allows me to go in a certain kind of mode when I’m in that one. I really do love that. And then I love text edit. It’s so simple, but it’s absolutely fantastic. Text edit simple, just typing and doing stuff. So that’s a couple of tools that I’m kind of using. I’ve got a few tools that I still have, and I’m looking to explore more. One that enables you to send videos to people via SMS is called Quick Page, so you can speak to them, send them a message via SMS. They can see the video in their SMS, and they can reply back to you via live chat. You can have that app on your phone, see their message, and respond to them. So I’m looking to use that. If anyone’s interested in enjoying my coaching program to build that relationship, it’s all about relationship. It’s all about connecting with the person we’re all individuals. And it’s really important for me for people to know that I see them. No one’s a number. You’re someone who has a dream. And if you decide to come into my world, you feel I may be the guide for you.

I think that’s a hell of a segue into. My next question is words of wisdom. Words of insight. For someone that’s deciding to step into your industry, maybe they’re looking out for you to help them to coach them. What words of wisdom would you give to them to help them on their journey?

I think my words of wisdom are really simple is you do need a guide, the right kind of guide. You need to be someone who’s willing to implement and do the work. And that means taking responsibility for your actions. You need to realize that you can do it, you can do it. And more importantly, it’s about getting skills. Real skills. I think there’s too many things out there that give you a little bit, but not real skills. I’m really focused on giving people who enter my world real skills that they can implement. And by doing that, that enables you to build the business and life that you design. I think that’s the key. I’d also say that there’s a lot of competition out there, and if you look out, you think, why would I bother? Who would want it from me? My question is, yes, we want your quirkiness. We want your weirdness because people who identify with that want you. The world is so big. When you think about your business, you really don’t need that many people to make your world go round and really empower others to do the same. So they’re my words of wisdom. I hope people who are listening find that useful.

Yeah, I definitely commend you for that. I think it’s one of those things that I’m recapping in my head and just listen to what you said. I definitely think it’s not only inspirational, but it’s very thoughtful as well. And I definitely appreciate that for my listeners. So going into earlier on you was talking about you have an offer. How can they find you online? What’s your social media profiles?

Okay. So I’ve created a special gift for your audience essay. And to get that they go to theauddenmagnet. Comcast. That’s theaudianswagnet combouncaged. And when they go there, they can download the four types of storytelling with 60 different ways that you can use storytelling in different mediums. And if you decide to get that, you’ll get the opportunity to do the five day sell with story minicourse for free. And that will just be coming into your inboxes. And from that, if you want to, you can continue and enter my world if you choose not to. Just the five day mini course itself will give you enough to go to the next steps.

Right.

People can also go to audiencemagnet. Com. There’s an opportunity. I’ve got a mini master class, and if someone wants to work with me more closely or maybe join my program, they can go there, watch the mini master class, and then there’s an opportunity to potentially book a call with me and you can connect with me on social. So LinkedIn is probably the best place. I’m Dennis Morrison. Just search me out Instagram. I use it on and off. But I’m Dennis Morrison underscore there Facebook. I’m Dennis Morrison there as well. Sometimes Twitter the same sometimes. But you know what? If you join and if you decide to get the free gift, if you want to speak to me, just email back. It comes to me.

Nice. I definitely hope some of us take heed to that and go check it out. I mean, anytime someone is willing to put a package together and they’re going to give it to you way for free to kind of give you some insight. And then obviously that gives you a two way doorway of communication. So going into bonus questions, right.

I’m ready.

All right. If you could spend 24 hours with anyone uninterrupted for those 24 hours dead or alive, who would it be? And why this is where I start playing the Jeopardy music.

Yeah, I’m not sure. Off the top of my head Deepak Tropper is very interesting to hear what he has to say. The thing is, it’s like.

Do another mice. It like your mic just went on again.

Okay.

Yeah. Just recap it. So just three, two, one. And so if you could be a superhero. Sorry. Wrong question. Completely film you all. That was my next question. So Rwandan back. Right. So if you could spend 24 hours or anyone dead or alive uninterrupted for those 24 hours.

Who would it be and why it would be my doppelganger the person who’s got to where I’m going to and I’d like to ask them, what do I need to do next in order to get to where you are? How do I need to be? What do I need to think? How do I need to feel that’s who I’d like to spend 24 hours with and listen to their guidance? Listen and then follow.

So I got another bonus question for you. If you could be a superhero, who would it be?

And why superhero? I’m not great with all the Marvel stuff, but if I had superpowers, I’d like to be able to touch someone and suddenly they had freedom of mine. They felt free and everything was possible. That’s the super power. I’d like to be able to give people enough freedom so they are able to decide their next steps. I think that’s my superpower actually better touching. I have to be there. I just have to see their picture or look at them. That’d be better. That’d be better, wouldn’t it?

Yeah. We could do it remotely then.

Exactly. Let’s do a Zoom call.

Going at the closing. Obviously, we had a hell of a conversation and we had twists and turns and multiple different topics, and usually on this journey, whoever I’m interviewing may have questions for me, so I’m giving you the microphone and the floor is yours. What questions do you have for me?

What inspires you?

There are multiple things that inspire me. For one. First and foremost, I always look at like my son is my inspiration because I want to instill in him things and trades and understanding of the world that it is now that may potentially be tenfold later on. So getting him prepared is the reason why I wake up every single morning to put things not necessarily food on the table, but more so information and content in my voice. For example, my podcast. So I’m leaving behind a legacy for him and for his kids. And everything that I’m talking about is podcast is evergreen, so it’ll be a legacy of information and content that will always be there and always be available once I’m dead and gone.

Great. My next question is if one thing could happen in the next twelve months that could take your business to wherever you want it to go, what would that be.

In the next twelve months? I think it’s kind of like a caveat between two different things. I think I’m on the path to get to where I’m going to go regardless of whatever happens. But I think part of that is making a larger noise, getting in front of more people. And I’m doing speaking engagements. I’m doing books and I’m doing podcasts and all sort of stuff, but essentially not necessarily the 15 minutes of Fame, but an opportunity to talk to everyone on a global scale, even for five minutes. And I think if that was to happen then. Obviously, the magnification of what I’m doing would be scaled up.

Wow, that’s great. I like that we’ll end up having another podcast show pretty much.

Well, I definitely appreciate you taking your time about your busy schedule. You guys are like, 6 hours ahead. Where you at right now?

Yeah, I don’t know. It’s probably what.

09:00 p.m.. Yeah, over here is roughly about 04:00, so I definitely take time on your schedule. Definitely great. With definitely a good episode of great insight. Great information. I definitely appreciate you.

It’s been a pleasure. Thanks so much for inviting me on your show and have the opportunity to have a wonderful conversation with yourself.

Great estate Grant Over and out. Bye.

Founder Of Audience Magnet: Dennis Morrison AKA The Storytelling Boss – S2E65 (#93)2022-08-20T17:36:39+00:00

CEO Of Miestro.com: Justin Burns AKA The Miestro Boss – S2E64 (#92)

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Boss Uncaged Podcast Overview

CEO Of Miestro.com: Justin Burns AKA The Miestro Boss – S2E64 (#92)
 
You have to create that plan and you have to have that vision that everybody sees. But that starts with you. You have to start with you and you have to believe in you.
 
In Season 2, Episode 64 of the Boss Uncaged Podcast, S.A. Grant sits down with the CEO of Miestro.com, Justin Burns.
 
Justin Burns is the “go-to” authority when it comes to online selling success in the Digital Age. Not only is he the brains behind the best-selling digital marketing book on the ExpertCode, “ but a sought-after speaker who has traveled to 5 continents, touring more than two dozen countries and addressing tens of thousands of business leaders and entrepreneurs.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Miestro.com is a small, minority-owned, but fast-growing player in the massive open online course (MOOC) industry and has been carving out its own space as a viable online course creation platform for authors, speakers, industry experts, and entrepreneurs with small businesses. –afro.com
We are an online platform that provides coaches, speakers, trainers, the ability to broadcast their brilliance to the world and sell their expertise. We provide the technology to do that.”
 
Don’t miss a minute of this episode covering topics on:
  • What is Miestro.com
  • The power of education and technology
  • Books Justin is reading
  • And So Much More!!!
 
Want more details on how to contact Justin? Check out the links below! 
 

Boss Uncaged Podcast Transcript

S2E92 Justin Burns.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

Three, two, one. Welcome back to Boston. Cage podcast on Today’s show is a special episode for me, because I met Justin, maybe about, like, roughly a year ago, and I met him at a mastermind kind of group. And that group came way of Greg Caesar, which is a highly loved episode on this particular show. And in that particular day when I met Justin, it was kind of like, Where have these people been my entire life and kind of hearing Justin’s story and understanding what he has achieved so far and what his goals are going to be. It was just kind of eye openness. And then we had the opportunity to work together on a client project, and simply, the rest is history. So without further Ado, man, Justin, the floor is yours.

Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate you definitely being here, man with the boss unkage himself. I’m excited now to be here, though.

Cool. I look forward to it. Obviously, I always deem whoever I’m interviewing a nickname. So obviously, I’m going to deem you the Maestro boss, and you can kind of go into why I’m calling you the Maestro boss, right? So kind of give people a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Yeah, definitely. So my name is Justin Birds. I’m the founder of a company called Maestro. We are an online platform that provides coaches, speakers, trainers, the ability to broadcast their brilliance to the world and sell their expertise. So we provide the technology to do that. And I’ve been in this crazy online world of selling online digital marketing for the past. It goes up every year. It used to be like, eight years, nine years, and you creep up and you’re like, man, I’m becoming a dinosaur in this space. But it’s been about, I would venture to say, twelve years that I’ve been in the space, and I love the space. And it changed my entire life because I went from a broke, unemployed salesperson to running an organization. And so it’s just been a really good ride.

So he says, twelve years, like, he’s 60 something years old. So you almost that bubble, man. How old are you?

34.

Yeah. So obviously he started this entire brand in his twenties. Right. So I want you to understand that he sounded like he’s 60, but he’s really only, like, 30. So if you could define yourself in three to five words, what would those three to five words be?

Three to five words? Tell you what people describe. I think that’s better when people are in your circle describe you, right. So a lot of people say I’m very driven, ambitious, and a future thinker when I think about those things, I’ve always wanted to be described as those things, because where I come from, which is the south side of Chicago, I didn’t know what being driven actually looked like. I didn’t know what being ambitious looked like. And so one of the things I realized even about twelve years ago, when my eyes were open to this whole world of entrepreneurship is that we’re living, especially a lot of people don’t see it this way. But I kind of shifted my view. And that’s what allowed for me to kind of kick into gear, which is like, man, this is one of the best times in history to do what you love. And some people may agree or disagree. But let me kind of tell you why I say that we all have challenges in life. We all go through things in life. We all have these things that happen to us. We all face fears, negativity doubts. And I had a really rough childhood. But one of the things I had to do was reprogram my thinking around where I was and kind of really reinvent myself every so often, always reinvent myself. So the Justin, you see before you today may not be the Justin you see in a year or two, because I’m always thinking that and one of the things about a good I would say decade ago, if you will. I was sitting in a crowd and I was just an attendee at this event. I remember the guy saying something he’s like, we are going to kind of go into this creator’s economy. That means that essentially the biggest growing segment of small business. And this is actually reported in New York Times is the creator, the person that’s sitting at home, like your creator, right? You may not be selling courses, but you’re still a creator. So we’re living in this amazing time where a person with a laptop, a microphone that they get for $99 off of Amazon don’t do like I did and buy this equipment you don’t use, but you can literally take a small connection, hook it up to a computer and start broadcasting what you do to the world. And when I saw that, I just knew it was going to be the future.

Got it. That kind of opens up a lot of different directions in conversational topics that we could talk about. Right. And I think one of the things that recently, you’ve been really big on your ads, right. You’ve been putting a lot of ads out there. And with one ad that I really appreciate that you dropped was being okay with being bored. I think it took you maybe five to ten minutes to kind of talk about that. But if you don’t mind, kind of, like, regurgitating that for our listeners a little bit about that particular topic.

Yeah. It’s so funny. You bring up that video. That video was probably seen over 150,000 times on various channels. Absolutely. I didn’t even know people are sharing it like crazy. I didn’t even know it’s going to go that viral. But, yeah, the interview on the show shout out to my man, David Shanz on the Social Proof podcast show. But he said I think he asked me, what is the greatest thing that you think that as an entrepreneur, you have to master. And I immediately thought about as people as influences, whatever it is, everybody has a period of boredom in their life. When you think about boredom, you think from a mental state, you think it’s like the state of you sitting around not doing anything. That’s not what boredom is boredom. Most people think, oh, because I saw some comments online. Oh, I never get bored. That is BS. Everybody gets bored, you get bored in your job, you get bored as an entrepreneur where you’re sitting there because there are certain things you have to do that are not fun. The opposite of fun. And the opposite of that is boredom. And so one of the greatest things that I realized is that when you master boredom, it changes everything for you. And what that means is that if you progress it on anything, you know, you have to do that’s a level of boredom. That’s a space of boredom that you don’t want to do. That’s really what procrastination is. So when you go to a workshop or you buy a course and you buy a book and the person tells you to do something that you don’t do it, that is where you are perceiving in your mind that that is going to give me a level of boredom. And so what I realized is that I had to master boredom as an entrepreneur over the years. And so I had to read the books that I didn’t feel like reading. I had to master this space, and I actually got this concept from the 50th Law by Robert Green and 50 Cent. Right. And that book changed my life. I’ve read that book probably ten times, and I always go back to it because there’s different things in my mind hasn’t picked up on, and I extract gold from it. And one of the things he talks about in the book is like just how Masters go through this period of time. He used an example in the book, which I can’t remember his name. But there was similar to what happened today as a pandemic, right. It’s a pandemic, just like today, but it was worse. It was just absolutely worth where people would catch it. And there was no nothing that way, like there were a lot of casualties. And so the guy who basically invented modern mathematics, and today, I don’t know, my brain is just name, but he went through four or five years of literally sitting in the house, not doing anything, no TV, not even going out just studying. Why does gravity happen? Like, why does a tree? Why does the apples sit on a tree and fall from it like these different things? And he eventually ended up creating mathematics, gravity, all these different things. It shows me that every master in reality, if you want to be the best in your industry. You have to sit there and you have to dial so deep into that subject and you have to be so obsessed with it. And what’s going to happen is you’re doing that. You’re going to get anxiety, you’re going to get fear, you’re going to get worried, and you have to be able to work through those things in order to break through to the next level.

Yes. That makes perfect sense. It kind of goes into, like having the 10,000 hours of a particular discipline before you can consider yourself to be a pro or a master and things like that. That’s what you’re talking about. Essentially, with the 50 Laws of Power and anybody that has not read the 50 Laws of Power or the 48 Laws of Power. Obviously, those are two books I would definitely recommend you got to pick up ASAP to Justin’s Point. So diving into your business. Right. So obviously you have 10,000 hours worth of education in your particular discipline, which is essentially course development. But you took it one step further, right? Somebody can kind of create courses. They can create academies, create membership websites. And you would like, oh, that’s great. I have all that. But what I’m going to do is I’m going to create something that allows other people to do what I’m doing. So talk about that a little bit. Like, how the hell did you make that jump from just creating courses into creating a course platform?

Yeah. So back into this, probably this idea came about in about 2015. I had the original idea, which doesn’t really seem that long ago, right? About 2015, I wanted to do something bigger. I had a social media agency. I was completely burnt out in my business because it can be tough working with clients one on one, sometimes being honest as we know, right. It can be really tough because I miss expectations and different things like that. So I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something where I said, I want to do something. I didn’t know exactly what I want to do at that time. I knew I want to do it in the internet field because I just believe so just this amazing world where you can create all this stuff, like, it’s going to be in the internet field. And so my last client that I ever had was getting all these crazy results and just doing some amazing things. And essentially, what happened is he took me to this tech conference, and I remember being in the room looking around. And I’m just like, it wasn’t really many people that look like me. It was like this light bulb that went off for me. And I was excited because, again, I’m a creator. You got to understand who the type of person you are. Like, I’m more of a creator. And so I could go into any field that really challenges me. And so I saw this. And I saw him build this eight figure business in a technology space. And so I realized that I wanted to build something that people could use and make money from and change the way that they did everything.

So I definitely commend you on that because to your point, right? Like you saw the bigger picture, you saw a bigger vision. You saw a bigger and larger opportunity to give back more to your community of people that you’re trying to help. So in that process, right? Like, start up capital. We always hear about equity raises we always hear about. Well, I’m going to do grass roots. How did you get into that? I mean, did you kind of have, like, a stash? Did you do equity raises? Where did the funding come from? To start your current platform?

Yes. So I boosted Maestro pretty much 100%. The great part that I when I came into the space, I started to go to these tech startups, and it was an interesting dynamic that was happening. A lot of people were talking about the idea they were talking about. Nobody was talking about how to get customers. And I came from this world of marketing that I had absorbed for, like, five years where it’s like, you want to make money, put an ad out or do a podcast or do something to generate leads. And then people will buy your products. And so it was very fascinating. But it allowed for me to because I was already in the mindset of that right of getting customers. It allowed for me to scale. And so what happened is let’s take a step back for a second. Maestro wasn’t the first platform that I built. That was my second platform. So my first platform was a product called Script Engage, which is a copywriting app. And so we did it the grassroots. I took some of the money that I had made from my agency that we had in our business. And I just used that money to build my first prototype of my product. And then what I did was we had so many failures along the way. It was absolutely insane how many times we failed. But again, I had to master boredom. I had to understand that this was a part of the process. This was a part of the game. And so when we failed, I had to look at why we failed. I had to get out of my feelings. A lot of people get when they fail, they get caught up in their feelings. And we all do. I still do to this day. But I have to always check myself and go, okay, Justin, let’s take a step back and look at the birds eye view. Why didn’t this work? Number one? What happened? What is the learning lessons from this? What can we do to be better, more efficient in the future? And what I came up with was that, yes, this is something that is amazing. And I just started to build upon that build upon that. And then we had our first breakthrough. We did a bigger launch, and I think we did around 4000 sales in a span of seven days. Jesus, I said the same thing because it was like, my first launch did, like, ten customers. And I kept reiterating fine tuning, fine tuning, fine tuning. And then it got to a point where we did. And it was, okay, let’s go all the way. And we did six figures in the span of seven days. And I had never had that level of success before. And so every single time that we build upon that, I didn’t let it go to my head. I didn’t go, oh, man, I’m making money. Let me go buy this. I always kind of stay living below my means, making sure I kept my business really lean and tight. And then I bootstrapped Maestro. So then about two years, the year before, I thought about really building Maestro, a guy came up to me and was like, hey, I like, your project, is it for sale? And I was like, Well, I never thought about selling it. And then he came up, he purchased the product. And then again, I didn’t go to Vegas. I did take a vacation to Mexico. I ain’t going to lie. But after that and I came back from a vacation in Mexico. Then what I did was, I took that. And I just like, let’s just bet it all on this. And let’s build this whole platform. And it became a success. We did the same thing with Maestro, and we’re still doing it where we fine tune, we get a success. And then you build products that are based around your software. And that’s why I even built. And you see the problems. And you build around that like I built Maestro. I had kind of got out of the course game for about a good year. I didn’t build any courses, any training for a year. And I was fine tuning the problem. And then we were realizing that people who weren’t using our platform had a big issue of not really knowing how to build a course. So then I started diving even deeper. I was like, Well, why don’t people build courses? They’re easy. You can just get on a microphone on the top, whatever. Why was that? And I was looking at all these other course stuff. And I was like, the big problem is people teach you what to do, but not how to do it. The biggest thing, especially with courses, is that people, especially even content. You need a framework. That’s what the system is. It’s a framework. So there was no frameworks. It’s like, people get on and say, hey, here’s a bunch of slides. They’ll teach you what to say in the damn slides. I said, here’s a bigger opportunity. I could serve my customer. And then we went in and built a course that supports the platform and put them together. And that’s how we’ve seen a lot of our customers have a lot of success, too.

Got you again. It kind of goes back to your age. You sounded like you’re 65, right? You already sold the company, right? You already built another one. You already had an agency, but it kind of shows that you’re not just hungry. You’re not just motivated, but you’re an executor. And I think part of execution goes back to your inner circles, like people that you’re surrounded by on a regular basis and people that you can look up to, whether you’re admiring them or being able to ask them particular questions. So with that, right. So that’s the positive side. On the negative side, what issues have you had to overcome and you’ve hit on your multiple journeys to success?

Yeah. That’s a good question. What issues haven’t I here when you think about most people think, when they see somebody who has had a level of success, like Biggie said, more money, more problems. I didn’t understand that until I started making more revenue, but also building a company. And I’ve had everything happen to me, man, like merchant accounts being shut down in the middle of a launch, that’s successful website, shutting down, hosting companies, shutting down the site, especially we’re in a technology company, developers leaving in the middle of a project that we got a week before we’re away from launch. Every single issue that you can think of, everything from people see my ads everywhere, but that took years to develop to get a science to it. Before I’ve spent sometimes $10,000, I don’t even see a return on investment. Now we have a strategic way where that doesn’t happen anymore. So all in all, I would say, man, every damn problem that you can think of that has happened has happened to me. It’s just my response to it is different. And it doesn’t mean like, I have a rule, right? I have a rule. And here’s what it is. And this is when you start to do, because I always tell people, as entrepreneur, entrepreneurship will pull all of the skeletons out of your closet and put them directly in front of you to face. Right. And the biggest thing is I have a rule which is not to sit up here and be super strong and be like, I don’t have any emotions. And I’m Super strong. And I’m a lion like, no, there are times I’m not a lion, but I have a program of mine to go, depending on the issue. You have one day, one day to moat wine, get in your fillings, get it all out. Usually. Now it’s a couple of hours. I gave myself a couple of hours, but now it used to be you got one day to get this all out. If something really, truly bad has happened or something crazy has happened. Listen, go and watch the Netflix. Get it out. Your system reset. Go on a walk. You got one day. But really, it’s a couple of hours now. But back in the day, it was one day you got one day to get this out to the system and then back to business. And that has also helped me in a really big way of really dealing with conflict of let me get my mind off of the problem and come back to it. If it’s too overwhelming. And I think that has helped me really be able to really deal with challenges. And then what I do typically, even in that day, I say, okay, once I’m off of the high emotions, let me write down, what are these solutions to all these problems? Because I always tell people there’s a solution to every problem. If your business is struggling with money, then if you just look at your calendar and you look at if you’re spending money, if you’re not doing anything to get customers, you spend one day out of the week getting customers. And it’s the reason why you’re not getting customers. There’s always a solution to why this problem happens. And so that’s the mindset that I approach. It’s like I take out my literally have technology has evolved back in the day, it was a sheet of paper. Now it’s on my ipad with my pen. So now I take on my ipad and my pen and I write down, okay, here’s the three things that struggling. What are the three things I need to do right now to get past this journey? And one of the things, why did this issue come up? When you do that? You put your mind into this focus of instead of just being so focused on the problems of saying, oh, I don’t want to deal with that. You get to this point where your mind becomes, okay, I’m overwhelmed right now. But now you get into this reactor mode of figuring out, how do we get this all.

It’s funny because you sound such like a philosopher. So instead of saying Nietzsche says, I’m going to substitute in Maestro Boss says from now on, right? Because you’ve earned enough to the point to where all these philosophies or philosophy that you live by, it kind of shows the proof is in the pudding. Right? So going into business structuring a little bit, you had multiple different business. Are you an LLC? An S Corp. A. C Corp. How is your structure?

Yeah, we’re S Corp. Essentially, we’re really one company. What we do is we just have what we call a value ladder. And so we’re not going to do anything outside the scope of our values. So everything we do is around digital marketing and also digital product creation. And so what I’ve had to do over the years is really focus because there are other companies that I want to do but I tell an entrepreneur, like, if you haven’t made one business successful, why in the hell are you starting? Three or four or five more like that was just something that my successful friends taught me. And so that was one of the things I had to realize. So if you see me promoting a product that ties to Maestro, essentially, it all ties in right now. We’re in the middle of planning a live event that we can come to. We’re planning a live event in August of this year. And, you know, everything ties into Maestro. Everything ties into what we do as a company and benefiting course creators and business owners. So I’m not going to do anything outside of that. Does that make sense? I’m going to focus on this. I literally focus on this for years. And now the business kind of take a form of his own. It’s growing. We have eight. We’re about to hire a couple more people. We have eight people. So I don’t always have to be involved in the business if I don’t want to. Right. So I think when you get to that point, then you explore other options. And I would just say, outside of my passion for investing because I do have a passion for investing, because it’s funny, I was just talking to somebody about this. I invest probably 80% of my money into various channels because even though I’m only 34, there were so many things even in my 20s that I missed out on that, because what you do today is I look at life like this, right? What you do today is you’re planting a bunch of seeds, right. And those seeds grow for tomorrow. And so in my 20s, I definitely did plant a lot of seeds around building Maestro and building Internet and investing in that. But one of the things I made, the biggest mistake I made in my 20s was trying to hoard 1020, 30, 40, $50 when I could have been investing in stocks, when I could have been investing it in ETFs and index funds and crypto, I could have been letting my money work for me. And so I said, I’m not going to make that mistake because, like you said, I’m a future thinker that’s the thing that people describe me as I always think about what is the next five years going to look like and what do I want it to look like? And so for me, I’m not married. I don’t have any kids. But I’m like when I turn 40 and when I turn 45, what is the type of life I want to live? I don’t want to be sitting up here paper chasing and trying to make money. I’m going to still be doing those things. But I don’t want to have to do it. I want to just be able to do it as a choice. Right. And so I want to be able to go to my kids based because I just want to. And I’m able to do that. And I’m not locked down by a business that’s killing me. Right. And so for me, outside of that man, it’s just investing in Maestro takes up a big majority of my time, but they all have the same principles.

Wow. Definitely insightful information. I think you and I had, like, an off bar conversation just about investing in general. Right. So, I mean, I definitely commend you for you putting 80% into the market. And at your age, it kind of goes to the statement about the recovery time. But you don’t really have to worry about the recovery time. If you’re actively investing that quantity of capital into a market that you understand and you could actually grow that money. And you probably have submission accounts that are different than Maestro that support Maestro. Like you’re saying, you’re creating a live event. And most people don’t send live events that’s capital that has to go into creating a live event. But that live event is then going to support Maestro. So it’s feeding into the one central system. So diving into systems a little bit like what systems do you guys currently have in place that helps you manage and juggle all the attributes of Maestro.

Yes. Funny, you say that because we just had a whole deep meeting about that. Today systems are so important, our systems, we try not to go. There’s a couple of things you have to do, right. So for us, we create a lot of standard operating procedures. When we run into issues. We used to just create 100 of them. But it’s like you don’t need to create that many just the issues that you see are recurring. We create SOPs for standard operating procedures for and then we just really say, okay, what is going to be our software stack that we are going to use and communicate. So, for example, we keep a lot of our communication in slack because we just be able to go back and see. Oh, you said you’re going to do this or you didn’t. Okay. Let me go back to the message that you Typed out. So that keeps it simple for project management stuff we use click up. That’s going to be like our that’s how we kind of manage everything. But here’s the biggest thing I always tell entrepreneurs the first two things you need if you don’t have employees, is that you really have to get these two roles. One is a virtual assistant or a personal assistant. That changed the game. For me, having a personal assistant. Now I kind of switched to a more virtual assistant, but that changed the game because that helps with all those little things that just nitpick. And I’m telling you, like, 20,000 things come your way every single day. Right. And I don’t want to deal with all those little things we’re climbing back to this person or this person sending me a Facebook message, like, I don’t have the time. People go, Justin, why don’t you reply? Sometimes I’m like, listen, if you only understood the demand that I have, it’s different for me, right? So I have a virtual assistant. And then the second thing that I think transformed my company was having somebody who was an operations person, somebody who just focused on making sure that when I’m not around, that they’re constantly trying to make sure that they stay on task and making sure things stay on topic. Those things is really kind of improved. I tell entrepreneurs, like, if you are going to hire and you haven’t hired people yet, get you a virtual assistant, they’re cheap enough, but just about being cheap, they save you so much time. And then when you really start to grow, get your operations person who can just make sure they hold you and your team accountable, especially you. My accountability. Today, I’m looking at my students like, I’m going on vacation this week because I need one. That one in, like, over almost a year. And I was just, like, all right, I got to get this webinar done. I got to do this webinar every Thursday, every single Thursday, I do a webinar. You saw my webinar. I do this every single week. I do this webinar, and my project management person has to make sure that we stay on task and everything else.

I think you brought them up, but you didn’t name my name. So I know Brian, and I’ve dealt with Brian like, multiple times. How do you find someone like Brian? Brian is like, a gem in himself, right? I mean, he does so many different things for your company, and he’s so proficient, and he’s itemized out to where, like, I see him as much as I see you online now, right?

Yeah. We were just joking about this. Brian is like, the face of the company. I’m just the guy who writes the checks, but Brian is the crazy part. Brian is not even my operations guy. Brian is a guy who here’s the thing, right? You have people around you right now that you’re not utilizing. So Brian instantly enough came to a live event membercon that we did two years ago about to do we didn’t do one last year. We’re doing one this year, but we did. Membercon and Brian joined one of my programs that are offered at Membercon and in working with him in my mastermind, I got a chance to see the type of person that he was. I got a chance to see everything about him, and I liked everything about him. Here’s the thing. On one of the calls, I said, hey, if you guys know anybody who’s looking for work, we’re hiring. And Brian was like, well, I’m not looking for work, but I just love what it is that you’re doing. And I would just like to essentially join and be a part of what you’re doing. And at first, I was just like, yeah, let’s just try because I didn’t have a role for him at the time because what his skill sets were. But eventually we just kind of morphed his role. And he’s been with me for the past two years. He ain’t going nowhere because I need them. Right? So you just got to make sure, like, you get those, you build those relationships, look in your network, like people are in your network on your customer list. You think because they signed up for a course on how to build whatever. They’re not looking for work yet. They are. When you get those people, you treat them well. That was one of the things I had to learn over the years is that you’ve got to work on yourself so that you can be a better leader for people. And people believe in your vision. They’re going to go to the ends of the Earth. And that’s just how I feel. Like my team is. We have a solid team now. It wasn’t like that a couple of years ago, right? We had some people who just didn’t fit, and you knew some of them. There are people who didn’t fit, and we had to kind of move them out of the mode to build this culture where people say, Man, they’re a good team, man. They’re on top of things, man. That’s the way people describe us now. And they have good customer support. That’s what you want. People you have to kind of set the presence of what you’re looking for when people come in and Brian embodies, that a lot. And he’s been taken out. And now you see him more like you said, you see him more than you see me.

That’s powerful stuff. So we always hear the perception of someone being an overnight success. Somebody may be listening to this podcast, and they may be like, okay, yeah, he’s 34, but this just happened to him in the last two, three years or whatever. But in reality, it probably took 20 years to get here. How long have you been consecutively on this journey?

Yeah. So this journey started when I was about here’s an instant thing of people always say, Justin, you’re young. You’ve been around. You’ve been doing this for twelve years. How is that even possible? Well, here’s the thing. It’s when number one, you make a decision and how fast you move on that decision. And when I was working a job, there’s no entrepreneurs in my family there’s. This guy used to come into my I used to sell cell phones, right? Can you picture me selling cell phones? Probably not. But I used to sell cell phones, right? I was slinging cell phones. I had my nice little Polo shirt. I had my tucked in khaki pants with my Brown shoes. I hated wearing the outfit, but I wore it every day. There’s this guy who used to come in and shout out to him, my boy Brad used to come in. He was a customer. He would just come in sometimes just to talk to me. And he’s like, every day we wouldn’t talk every day. He would come in at least once a week, and he would talk about entrepreneurship. And I used to be like, Man, that’s not me. That’s not who I am. And he’d be like, it’ll be who you are if you didn’t have any more cards on the table and you were faced to create your own economy. I didn’t understand what he meant by that. And then about six months in of him doing this every single week of him doing this every single week. I was kind of like it started to take shape. And then I had an opportunity that came up. Everybody has an opportunity. You think some of the opportunities that came away, you didn’t kind of interpret it as a scam, right? But there’s always opportunity. And I took this opportunity. And I spent three years in the trenches. A lot of people don’t know this, but my business didn’t make any money. For almost four years, I had a couple of checks here and there, but my house was in foreclosure. I had to hide my car from the repo man. Literally. For four years, I stayed committed to this grind. And then one day, something just happened. And I got into this program, and it changed my life. And it taught me skill sets. And even since then, like, I tell people, you are in the game of life. And what you do every single day is what’s going to determine what you get tomorrow. So for four years, I was struggling, but I didn’t look at it. I’m like, one day. And I used to always tell myself because I didn’t know any friends. Some of us, I always teach my students this that you’re at a couple of different places. You’re at the starting point. And the starting point is one of the hardest places to be because you typically are losing the old you, which usually what comes with that is you’re losing old people. But you’re still not at a point where you could connect with people that are on your level because your mind hasn’t really went there where you could connect with high influences yet. So you’re kind of in this blank space, right? That’s the hardest place to be in because you feel alone. You’re trying to get through your shit, all this other stuff. But that’s the place now where you become powerful. That’s the place where I became powerful. That’s the place where I understood, like, I got a bet on me. I got a bet on me. And if I bet on me, because if I realize my own potential, if I bet on me, I’m going to come out winning no matter who wants me to lose. So for me, that has always been a bet where I’ve always placed bets on myself and say, let’s take this risk. Let’s do this. Let’s do that. Let’s change this. Let’s go here. Let’s adjust this. And it’s always kind of play this self out once again.

Man, Maestro Boss says I’m recapping what you just said, and it’s such a powerful insight that you’re delivering. And I’m hoping that people that listen to this episode would like, stop and rewind. That’s the beauty of having a podcast rewind and listen to that segmentation a couple of times, much like how Justin was presented by a coach, and he didn’t really understand it right away, and he kept hearing it, and he kept hearing it, and he kept hearing it. And finally the damn light bulb went off and it changed. Everything is what he just did for you guys. Some of you may not even realize it yet. So going into, like, what’s one thing that if you can go back in time and do it all over again, what’s one thing that you would want to do differently if you could do it again?

What’s the one thing that I would do differently? I would probably start off with mentors right away in opposed to waiting, because I think I waited way too long to get mentors, right? I waited way too long, and it’s great to read a book, but it’s way different when you invest in yourself in a program that somebody has been through the trenches, has been doing it for a long time, and they are able to navigate you through the rough terrain, so to speak. Right? I wish I would have instantly came into the game, found you and said, hey, man, I want to start a podcast. Hey, man, I want to do some business system stuff. Can I just pay you to show me? It would have completely shortened? I wouldn’t have to listen. We will be talking at 29, and I will be like, yeah, man, I’ve achieved weight now. By the time I reach 34, I’d have been even more successful. So I think people wait way too long to really do that the second thing. And I think I did this pretty successful, but I wish I had did this a little bit more. I wish I’d invested more into my personal growth, right? And I did this, but I wish I would have took more seminars, went to things like Tony Roberts events in the beginning, or found coaches and mentors and went to therapy. I wish I had done all that earlier, man. I would have healed even more because it’s just how you show up. Like I found my therapist two years ago. People think therapy is looked down upon it’s not as an entrepreneur and anybody who’s in life in general, we all have trauma. So I wish I had dealt with that in my early 20s because in going to therapy, it has allowed for me to really explore those sides of me that I don’t see, right and heal from that. Those are two things, man. I would invest in myself more with a mentor and gotten more coaches in the more personal growth space for sure.

Great. So I think earlier on, you alluded to your family history to a certain point, there’s no entrepreneurs or, like, IBM investing investors in your family in the past. So where did this come from? How did you get inspired in that space? Who was the first person that you saw that was an entrepreneur. And that light bulb went off and you was like, look, I want to become like, that person, my friend Brad.

The one I was telling you about coming to the grid. So what happened is I got fired from my job at that time. They laid everybody off. And what happened is that I got fired from my job, and I was just trying to figure things out. And what happened is I called up my boy Brad. I was like, he was an Internet entrepreneur at the time. At the time, you had ebay entrepreneurs. He’s doing all this stuff online, selling on ebay, all this stuff. And I was like, Man, they just fired me. But I’m going to try to look for something else. And he was like, Man, I’ve been coming into your workplace for the past four months. You still want to work for somebody. And I was like, Bro, I’m not cut from that cloth. I don’t know. And he said something on the phone. I changed my life. He said, you only cut from the cloth that you create, right? He said everything that you have been taught up until this point has been given to you. But now I have conversations with you, man, you’re way different. You’re way different. And I’d say nothing wrong. Working a job just talking about in terms of thinking about the future, right? And I was like, Well, what do you suggest? And I don’t know why I asked him that question. What do you suggest? He was like, Man, come to this seminar. We’re doing this seminar, and we’re teaching people about social media and selling online. And I was like, all right. And I called my mom, me and my mom have really close relationship. I tell everything even to this day and shout out to mom. She was a great supporter. But I’m going to this event. She’s like, an event. What is that? What is it, like, a work event? And I was like, no, it’s this event. They’re teaching stuff. And she goes, Be careful. That’s what always happens. Be careful. Don’t get scammed. And so I went to the group or whatever went to the seminar, and my eyes were just like, this. My guy was like, your eyes did not. I didn’t even know if you freaking blinked in that whole because what he was saying was just like, it was so simple, but it was like, Wait a minute. I could sell my products. If I create a product, I could sell to somebody in the UK, and I’m asleep and they buy my product like, Wait, what?

Yes, sir.

Wait a second. Somebody on a whole, another part of the country. I could wake up to sales in the morning. Like, what? It just completely blew my mind. And so for me, I think that there was a crossroad of making this decision. The next day, I had got a callback from this company, and the company had basically offered me a $35,000 position. And then Brad had called me up and was like, Yo, we’re starting a social media company. I like, the person you are, man. You got really good communication skills. You should come out to Callie. I can’t pay you a lot right now, but we can get you started with a little money. And so I called at the destiny moment here, I could get this comfort right here or here. There’s not any level of comfort. So I don’t know. In that moment, I called my mom and asked her I was like, oh, my God, I was wrong. Of course, my mom was like, you have to get a job. You have to choose that. And something inside of me on the gut level was like, no, you have to risk it all if you want to make changes and do something different. And in that moment, that’s what I decided to do. It was the best decision that I made.

It’s the best decision. And it’s definitely a powerful decision to your point that you made earlier about opportunities are knocking all the time, right? And a lot of times you kind of hear, oh, it’s a Ponzi scheme or it’s this kind of scheme. But in every opportunity that you accept to at least show up at least one time, I guarantee you’re going to learn and take away something even though you don’t sign up, even though you don’t make a purchase, even though that you don’t become a conversion form. But just being in that room and being in an environment can change your life down the road. So I definitely commend you for stepping into that space, because if you did a step into that space, you and I would be having conversations right now. That’s real.

We wouldn’t. And that’s the thing that people don’t understand is, like, every decision that you make today, it impacts the next day. It impacts a year from now, and we get so emotional about things, and it’s okay to be emotional about things, but I think we get so caught up in I don’t have the money today, or it doesn’t look the way I wanted to. And that’s something for you to mold and create. And so now, almost ten years later, one of the things that just has been so crazy in my life is that I now have this life that I’ve created.I’ve created. It doesn’t mean I don’t have challenges. It means that because of the decision I made twelve years ago, I get to live this life the way that I want to today, right? The nights that I stayed up. And I still do this till this day, my best friend this morning on the phone because I’ve been obsessed, right? She’s like, that’s how she she said, said, I was like, I’m studying this whole crypto and investment game, and she’s like, Bro, if I know you are not studying, you are obsessing. Like, you are probably going through so many videos, reading so many books. And then I looked at it. I was like, yeah, you’re right. I probably was doing that about 4 hours yesterday, like, literally spent 4 hours just going through YouTube videos, reading books, ordering books on Amazon, buying courses. I still do this till this day, because now I’m thinking about, okay, you’ve created the life. You want it now. But when you’re 40, what does that look like when you’re 45, what does that look like? So I still have to master going back to the point of mastering border, I still have to master Border myself. You think I want to sit up here and look at charts and understand how this works? And sometimes I even reach a certain field where I’m up here. Like, what the hell is this person talking about? I don’t even know what this person is talking about. After a while, I start programming my brain where I go now. Oh, I get it now. It makes sense because you just have to have that you have to have that investment of knowledge in yourself.

Wow. So kind of going into it seems like you’re very linear with your strategies, but you’re open minded to expansion. So on your day to day, right? What is your morning habits? Your morning routines look like my morning habits.

So typically I have, like, a couple of things I do that said today. So when I wake up in the morning, I try not to jump on my phone, because that is the we all do that. We’re programmed to do that where first thing you check in is Facebook, Instagram or email. Right. So what I’ve done now is every single day I’ve cut my phone onto silent just to wake up in the morning, and I glance at my phone. But what I do as soon as I turn around in my bed and I literally just lay my feet on it and just be grateful to God. Man, just be grateful that I woke up. And then what I do is I grab my Journal. I actually have it right here. So, you know, it’s real. And this is my best friend, because I always Journal. Like, in the morning, I Journal three or four things I’m grateful for. I’m grateful for my health. I’m grateful for just everything, and I write that down. Then I write down what are the three biggest things? Aside from my freaking 50 thing to do list? And over the weekend, my team empowered all ten more things on top of my to do list. What are the three most important things that I need to get done to make this day an impactful day when you ask yourself that question that changes everything, because even though you got a million things in your to do list, you need to get those three things done in order to have a level of success. Right. And then I actually have this whole workbook that’s, like, five pages long that I review. I have a whole process there. It’s like, who do Justin wants to become in the area of health, wealth. And I literally say these things, and I have my vision board in there, and I literally review this. And I’ve also recorded the audio. I know this is a whole lot, but I recorded the audio, and I listen to it every day because I program me. I don’t let anybody else program me. And I’m still getting over the programming from generations and decades and my whole life. So I have to make sure I’m consistent with that. And then I’ve incorporated this new thing of working out, working out every single day with some weight training. And then I start today. I start today, and I never start my morning. No meetings until the afternoon, unless it’s a team meeting that’s twice a week. So that’s like my morning.

That’s my morning ritual to your point of what your best friend said. Obviously, whatever you’re going to do, you’re going to be obsessed with it. And that’s part of being a successful person. If you’re not obsessed with your goals and your orientations of where you are to where you want to be, then you lose the insight into foresight to stay on that path. So the fact that you’re obsessed with your morning routines as well, it only makes perfect sense for you to be who you are currently right now. So in that obsession, right? I mean, obviously, I think you’re a big learner, right? You absorb a lot of information. So because of that in this podcast, it gave me opportunity to create a book club. So I always ask individuals like yourself what books in three part question. First part is what books helped you to get to where you are. What books are you currently reading right now? And have you written any books yourself?

That’s a great question. So the books again, I say one in 50 of law. That one changed my life. The 50th law. I haven’t really read the four day laws. Power. I got to read that. But the 50 of law has completely changed my whole paradigm. And the way I think some of the other books I’ve read a couple of other books, I would say the book that I’m reading right now is a book. I think it’s by Don Miguel. It’s called The Mastery of Love, right? The Mastery of Love, because that’s the switch up because I’m so used to reading marketing and business books that now I’m trying to shift that to how do I show up in my relationships now? I don’t want to just be all business. I want to be able to my future relationships and my friendships. Like, how do I show up in a more loving and supportive way? So I’m reading that book. It completely talks about a lot of things about love and just what love is and how Fierce shows up and messes up relationships and stuff like that. So that’s one of the books I’m reading now and then. Yeah, I’m actually the author of a book called The Expert Code. You can get it at theexpertcode. Com. But that’s a book all about how to take your expertise and turn it into a profitable online business.

Nice. I definitely appreciate you sharing. And I think with the love thing, I think it just kind of goes into being a well rounded business owner, right to understanding how to love yourself and love other people and love the people in your inner circles. That way, you’re giving more than you’re taking and you’re getting that balance. So I definitely commend you to take that journey and be even more fruitful than you currently are right now. So let’s say 20 years now, where do you see yourself?

20 years. I’ll be 54. I see myself, man, really enjoying the fruits of my labor. Everything that I’ve sold, I’ve reaped my investments are there. I’m super wealthy, but I’m spreading that wealth instead of thinking about, oh, Justin is driving a nice car or that’s limited. That’s something that’s accessible to us that our parents and other people couldn’t have. If you want to drive a Rose Royce or Lamborghini or whatever you want or a Range Rover, you have the choice to do that, right. So I think that’s limited in thinking, like, all of that is going to be there. But I would say, man, I’m looking at my children and who knows, maybe grandchildren. Probably not. But looking at my children, man, and just seeing them and helping them in their journey in life. I value family. I’m really close to my family. So I think, man, it will fill my heart to just really have a great family and be able to spend as much time with them as humanly possible. That is what will be successful. And I’m going to be deeper in the investment world because, like I said, I’m really passionate about investing because I think that when you understand how to make your money work for itself, that’s where you achieve financial freedom. Because this morning I woke up and I checked a few of my investment accounts. I’m like, oh, we made some money. I didn’t have to do anything because I invested, right. And now I’m even getting more obsessed with making more money in business. So I can’t say, how can we direct that into accounts that pay for itself? Right where I look up in a decade and I’m living off of dividend income. And I’m also taking care of my mother and my family. And I’m not worried about money. So that’s kind of what I see in the next 20 years.

Yeah. Great. And it just kind of goes back to I think I brought up earlier just about your inner circle. So just to kind of give some people insight of this man’s inner circle, right. You guys remember the episode with Tycoon? And in Tycoon’s episode, we were talking about the Kindle cash flow. We’re talking about equity, of having online real estate. And then also he has physical real estate, which leads me to, like, Lenny the boss, which is also in your circle as well. And Lenny is a big real estate person. Real estate investment. Right. And then we have Greg Caesar, which is also in your circle. And Greg Caesar is more so of like the digital content about buying companies that are already existing and getting a jump start before having to start from scratch. So imagine Justin is who he is not only because he has the diversification and the drive, but people I just listed off are all major bosses in themselves, but they’re all within this one circle of individuals that are always constantly promoting and helping each other grow and expand. Would you consider that?

Oh, man, that’s a big portion of it. Man, you can’t do this all yourself. The part where you have to do it, the part that you invest more so comes from the drive to do it. And what happens is I didn’t build my network overnight, right? These are people that I’ve always these are people I purchased their products. These are people that I still purchase their products because I realize the value of who they are just because we’re friends don’t give me free access to your program. If I know that you’re legit and I know you’re real, I just pay one of my friends to consult for 2 hours, and he’s the guy to talk to on a regular basis. So you have to be able to see the value of yourself and other people because when people see this is what I realized has been the big relationship currency for me, right? It’s people see you doing the same thing and showing up in the same ways years from now. That’s how people who are at a higher level says, man, this person, this person is still in this area, but this person continues to reinvent themselves, but they’re not going anywhere. Like some people who I’ve been around, they went on to other businesses, which is great. But I’ve stayed consistent. So I want you to see me as the digital marketing the digital product creation guy. I’m going to teach you how to create a freaking amazing course at the end of the day. And so my circle. And even in your struggles, you have a circle where people have been, where you’ve been. And so calling them. I think I went through a challenge about two years ago. Really bad challenge. And I was like, for about two days, I was standing in this bubble. I’m like, what the hell am I doing? I built all these amazing relationships, reach out to him. And I reached out to one of my friends. I called him first, and he’s like, Man, I went through that about a year ago. Let me tell you how overcame literally, in about a week. I fixed that whole situation. So it is so important that you keep and you have to also invest in relationships. It’s something I’m learning even more today. You have to be able to invest in that. You have to be able to be like, hey, what event are you going to? Where are you going to be at? How can I invest in you? Let me refer some clients to you. Let me push some clients to you. You have to be able to do those things in order to keep having great relationships with people, for sure.

Yeah. And I think that goes for, like, micro to macro. You’re thinking about on a large scale. But even on the microscope, I think last year, sometime when COVID hit, you had the opportunity to reach out to Ron Douglas about, like, Clippers, which is, like, a totally different thing. But I remember a lot.

That’S crazy. That was a year ago.

Even having access to that. But Ron is a whole, nother monster by himself. He’s a New York Times top seller. But you wouldn’t think to reach out to Ron to borrow or to buy Clippers from. But having access to that Brotherhood makes a hell of a difference. Like, somebody’s been in your shoes before makes a great difference. So going into, like, my next question, there’s obviously a million tools. And you’re a tool creator. Like, what software? And I think you alluded to some of your productivity software earlier. But what tools that you would not be able to do what you do right now without access to these tools?

Yeah. So some of the tools that I really love, I would say it categorizes personal tools and business tools. So personal tools. I got to have my Gmail. That’s just a live and breathe Gmail. I have this program called Things, and that’s because I’m on a Mac. I think it only comes on a Mac. I think it is. But it’s called Things. And Things is like, I can’t even navigate without things because Things has a whole concept of, like, inbox because you have to have an inbox because so much gets thrown at us, you can’t just put on a piece of paper or you’ll forget, I have to kind of clock things. That’s one of the things. And we use a million tools, and we’ll be in here all day talking about those tools for our business. But click up is how slack. I mean, I use slack every single freaking day. And I would say that’s kind of like I talked about click up. We use some other tools, like, I’m trying to think, man, so many different tools that we use, but, yeah, that’s kind of the core. I usually just try to keep things simple, man. Try to keep things as simple as possible. And I have 50 million tools because that will run your life. But, yeah, that’s the tool I use.

Nice. So just to talk about final words of wisdom, obviously, you’re pretending to be a 65 year old, but you still have the Millennium blood running through you. Right. So on the coin of let’s say I’m somewhere in the middle. Let’s say I’m 45 years old. I’m listening to this podcast. Your hell of motivational. I’m completely inspired by you. I’m, like, burn down the man. I want to step into the market on my own, going back to when that moment when that guy kept coming to you and telling you about step into the market. Step into the market. What words of wisdom would you give to an individual that’s listening, and you could tell them to step out on their own? What would you tell them?

Yeah, do it. I know that’s cliche, but do it today. Meaning, like, do whatever it takes every single day. Like me. I went back to the example of investing. Investing is a new area for me. I mean, I know how to invest, but I’m talking about really understanding the art of different things, like trading and crypto and all these things to invest my money. I’ve had to be obsessed. You have to be obsessed when you are obsessed. It doesn’t matter what’s thrown your way. You’re going to get through it. You have to create that plan, and you have to have that vision that everybody sees. But that starts with you. You have to start with you and you have to believe in you. And that takes some time for a lot of people. So start today. Start programming yourself to be that way, like this. Justin was not Justin. Ten years ago. A decade ago, I was this little weakling, like everything that came. Oh, my God. Life is horrible. I can’t even see that shit. I sound like Kevin Hart for a second, but no, that was me. Every challenge that came up was like, oh, man, no, I can’t do that. Oh, my God. And I will go in a box and hide for a whole week and then come out and hoping that it was fixed. And here’s the thing. It takes time for your brain to realize this person is not like this person is serious right. And that takes time. And then it gets to a point where you are serious and you push yourself. But you got to start with a plan. And so every time I approach something, I come out with a plan, and I say, we are going to execute 100%, right? Like, you see my ads everywhere. My ads are everywhere, right? And people always see that. That’s because I had to go through a couple of people to get to that. But I had to have an execution plan in place. Right. So whatever you’re thinking about doing, get off the. I call it the thinking fence. Get off the damn thinking fence. I’ll tell you this as a wrap up. I have a childhood friend, and he’s been my road dog since I was in high school, man, like one of my old friends. We don’t talk every day like we used to talk, like every couple of months, though. And as much as I love them, when I started this journey almost a decade ago, I put him on and told him everything that I was doing. He didn’t even have to go through the school of hard knocks. Literally. I told him, here’s the blueprint. Here’s a game plan. Here’s how you create digital wealth online. Here’s how you invest your money. Here’s how you go to this. And every single year. And he’s my boy. He’s a smart guy. But every single year he calls me and goes, he says the same thing. He asks this one question, which always shows me where he’s at. Hey, Justin, where would you start? And I mean, that’s the same damn question he’s asking for ten years, because what happens is. And I told him this the other day in love. I said, Man, you got to get off of the damn thinking fence because you’re thinking too much and you’ve been overthinking. Now you’re in the overthinking phase. Get off the damn fence, make some stuff happen, fail and then readjust to Success. That’s the formula you fail. You readjust. So get off the thinking fish, make it happen and make your dreams come true is what I say. Wow.

So with that, how can people find you online? Obviously, you have the Maestro platform and what’s your social media profiles?

Yeah. So you can reach my Instagram. C-E-O. Justin Burns. That is my Instagram. You can follow me there. And then on Facebook, it is Justin Burns, J-U-S. You can just follow me there as well. You can hit me up and also have a personal site called Justinburns. Net that you can hit up because the brother that owns Justinburns. Com only wants to sell it to me if I pay them $2 million. So I had to get Justinburns. Net. Put them on Blastjustinburns. Com come up off that domain, man. But yeah, Justinburns. Net. And mostly I respond a lot to Instagram messages as well.

Got you. But you’re pretty big on clubhouse as well, too. Right.

I haven’t been on clubhouse in about a month, man. Interesting enough. Listen, I like clubhouse, but I think a guy wrote a post the other day, one of my friends who was on clubhouse, too, and I built it up a big audience. I think I’m at, like, 15,000 something. I forgot. I’ve been on it in a while. And in the beginning, I was going hard on clubhouse really hard. I was on there every day. People were adding me to their stages. It was just really easy, but I realized that sometimes you have to protect your currency and your mental currency, and it’s cool to go on there once in a while. The house workshops of being on there every day and giving away something that you put time, effort and energy into is just not something I want to do. I like helping people, but you have to protect your currency, too. I want to really wait until they develop out a system that allows for their creators to benefit. Because right now, as it stands in order for somebody to message you about products or anything like that, you have to redirect them to Instagram. So it’s like I’m doing all this work just to kind of build Instagram. I don’t want to be sitting up there answering messages. All this. I kind of took a break from it, but I still do believe in the concept of clubhouse. I think they just got, like, some more money, so hopefully they build it out and keep developing the tools.

Nice. So going to, like a bonus question for you if you could spend 24 hours with anyone dead or alive, uninterrupted 24 hours, who would it be? And why?

That’s a good question. I think it’d be two people. Can I do two people?

Sure. What was yours, man?

Let me see what this. The first one is, I would say, is elamas, right? He’s like a robot. That’s not from this planet, right? I mean, he’s just a great entrepreneur. He literally in the face of all adversity built an electric car company, continues to do all this stuff that just is just fascinating. There’s not really many human beings that will come after him or before him. So I think he’s just great. And I love Tesla, man. I am a Tesla Superbowl. I love Tesla, so I would love to do that. And then another guy is a dude by name of Robert Smith. You may have not heard of him, but I think he’s like, the number one wealthiest black person in America, and he did it all through technology investments, starting the venture capital firm, which is something I’m also passionate about as well. I can sit down with those two people. My life will be a lot more amazing because those are just people who have achieved a lot of great things in life.

Great. So going into closing, man, my signature thing is that obviously, on the journey of this podcast, we talked about a lot of different things. Any questions that may have come up that you want to ask me, this is the time and the microphone is yours.

No, man. I mean, just keep doing what you’re doing. I would say that when you do these podcasts and you’re building your brand, what’s your vision?

So my vision and I keep it very simple, right? I look at it’s two sides of a coin or like a balance and act right on one side is to give motivation and inspiration and steps on how to create businesses that turn into wealth for entrepreneurs, small business owners. And that’s on one hand, on the other hand, it’s more so for me, kind of like when I had my stroke back in 2018 and I kind of recovered from that, it was like, okay, what is my legacy going to be? What am I going to be able to leave behind? How is it going to be an evergreen legacy that way, if my kids decide to use the wealth that I leave for them, or I could leave the informational wealth that they can then utilize to kind of grow their businesses and their strategies once I’m dead and gone.

That’s good, man. Yeah, just keep pumping. Keep creating content, keep putting everything out there. And I think things will be different for you as well, man. So I’m excited for your growth and yeah, man, keep it moving.

Yes, I definitely appreciate it, man. Again, I appreciate you coming on the show and taking time out your busy schedule to be on here. And you definitely dropped a lot of information. That again, I think people would have to listen to this podcast one at one time to actually take the executable items that you’ve delivered.

Yeah, definitely. And if I can give your audience a valuable thing to kind of get my book, I’m actually promoting my book even more right now, which is the expert code tapping into digital. I call it digital real estate, like, all these things you guys see. So if you want a free copy of that, just go to theexpertcode. Com theexpertcode. Com. We’ll probably have it in the show notes below the expert code and just pay for shipping and you get a free copy of the book.

Yeah, definitely. I look forward to hearing the feedback once we get the hands on it. He’s not just talking and he’s lived it, man. So again, I appreciate you coming to the show. Sa grant over and out. Yes, sir. I think definitely. Man, I definitely appreciate everything that you dropped on here, man. It’s insightful shit. And I know we ran longer than an hour, but I wasn’t going to stop you. You were vibing.

Oh, yeah. I try not to go too long either, but I didn’t really know how long the show went, but. Yeah, for sure, man. Excited definitely.

Yeah, I didn’t let him run, man. I think with Ty, I think we ended up being, like, somewhere damn near, almost 90 minutes or something. I was like, I ain’t going to say stop. If he wants to keep going, I’m just going to keep going.

90 minutes.

Yeah, it was close. Definitely close, man. But I can’t hold you up, man. I appreciate it. And I’m going to probably post this, like, once I get it converted, I want to make sure the live the live didn’t go live. Then I’m just going to post it in my groups. And then once I convert the audio scheduling wise, I’ll send you all the information about when I’ll post the podcast live.

All right. Sounds good, but I appreciate you.

I appreciate you, man.

All right, bro, let’s catch up soon. Peace.

Definitely bye.

CEO Of Miestro.com: Justin Burns AKA The Miestro Boss – S2E64 (#92)2022-08-17T02:25:21+00:00

Founder Of The Sustainable Business: Josh Patrick AKA The Sustainable Boss – S2E63 (#91)

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Boss Uncaged Podcast Overview

Founder Of The Sustainable Business: Josh Patrick AKA The Sustainable Boss – S2E63 (#91)
So the first thing you need to do is figure out what your business is going to be, who’s it going to serve, and most importantly, what problem does it solve? If it doesn’t solve a problem, you have a crappy idea for a business.
In Season 2, Episode 63 of the Boss Uncaged Podcast, S.A. Grant sits down with the Founder of The Sustainable Business, Josh Patrick.

Josh’s passion in life is helping private business owners create extraordinary value with their businesses and lives. As a Certified Financial Planner® and a Financial Transitionist®, he knows how to help you get the most value from your business both from personal experience (selling his successful 90-employee business) and from helping countless others do the same.

As a former blogger for the New York Times, Josh shared his tips for preparing for the future in his book, Sustainable: A Fable About Creating a Personally and Economically Sustainable Business. He has taught over 200 seminars and hundreds of companies over the past 35 years.

Well, there’s four areas. We have a full resource area that we go through that helps them look at literally every part of their business in their life, both from a personal and financial point of view. And most folks have something in their business that’s not working the way they wanted to, and we help them figure out in a very simple way what it is that’s not working and then come up with some simple solutions to solve them. But the simple is not easy, which is really important for people to understand.”
Don’t miss a minute of this episode covering topics on:
  • How to create a sustainable business
  • Great books that Josh is reading
  • The beauty of learning by making mistakes
  • And So Much More!!!
Want more details on how to contact Josh? Check out the links below!
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!

Boss Uncaged Podcast Transcript

S2E63 Josh Patrick.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

All right.

Three, two, one. Welcome back to Boss Uncaged podcast on Today’s Show. I’ve deemed this guest the suitable. No. Well, not suitable. Maybe it’s sustainable, boss. Maybe. So let’s kind of get into this a little bit and dive into why am I calling him that particular boss? So, Josh, give our audience a little bit about who you are.

Well, I’ve been hanging around private businesses for a little bit over 40 years. 1st 20 years. I own a food service and vending company sold at when it’s the wealth management business, which morphed into helping private business owners who have blue color private business owners who have successful businesses make them personally and economically sustainable. And there’s four pieces to sustainability that drive it. And four results that come from it.

Obviously the keyword and what you said is the reason why I deemed you the sustainable boss. So if you could pick three words to essentially define yourself, which three to five words would you choose.

Me personally or the business itself? You personally curious, innovative and kind of commodionly like.

Interesting choice of work. So this will dive into your business a little bit. What are the steps in your business that you’re doing to help entrepreneurs?

Well, there’s four areas. We have a full resource area that we go through that helps them look at literally every part of their business in their life, both from a personal and financial point of view. And most folks have something in their business that’s not working the way they wanted to, and we help them figure out in a very simple way what it is that’s not working and then come up with some simple solutions to solve them. But the simple is not easy, which is really important for people to understand. Solutions need to be simple. Implementing solutions takes some work, and if you’re not willing to do the work, you’re probably not going to get the result. But the four areas of sustainability are you values like company. Do you have a recurring revenue stream? Have you made yourself operationally irrelevant in the business, which means you’re not involved in the day to day and have you systematize your business so the business can run without you. And when new people come in, they know what to do in a very rapid manner.

That’s definitely interesting. It seems like you have a hybrid between coaching and at the same time you’re doing consulting and you’re figuring out what their businesses are. Then you’re giving them the opportunity to streamline their processes, streamline their business, to get the most value and the most profit out of their business from where they were moving forward to where you want them to go in that direction. Is that essentially correct?

Yeah, it’s pretty right on the money. And what I tell people is that I’m not a coach, I’m not a mentor, I’m not a consultant. What I am is a thinking partner. I sit next to you, and I help you think through your problems. I help you figure out what it is you want to do. We drill down on why that’s important. We go back and look at the what? Because the first one we started with is usually going to change. And then we go to the really important step, which is who is going to help you. Then we finally get around to how you’re going to do it. But we really almost never get around to how you’re going to do it, because who you’re going to help you is going to determine how you’re going to get to point A to point B. In fact, those people who you bring on board to help you basically should bring experts on who know how to do what you need to have done. Let them do it. And you just stay a at relatively high level, supervising what they’re doing. In other words, that’s part of delegation, which is operational relevance.

Got it. That definitely makes perfect sense. So with this particular system, let’s just think about time, right? How did you even get into this business structure? Like, when did you wake up? Was it one of those things that you knew in high school? Did you figure it out post College? When did you figure out this was going to be part of your journey?

I don’t think I ever did. I think it just sort of happens leads to another step, leads to another step leads to another step. I was the education chairman for the National Vending Association for eight years. So I developed and taught a bunch of boot camps for vending operators. And the basis of what I’m doing right now came out of those classes, and I’ve modified and simplified and made it more applicable for every business owner, but especially people on blue collar businesses where the people in the front line do or make something.

So you’re talking about you went from vending machines and anybody that kind of understands vending machines, they’re kind of like cash cows to a certain extent, right? I mean, you kind of put products in, and if you set it up correctly.

I wish they were cash cow. The industry itself is a really very marginally profitable business. Our best year was 5% for a bottom line. Most of the time is 2%, and most vending companies actually lose money every year. They make money in the cash flow, but they lose money.

You make a solid good point. So just talk about that a little bit. Why would somebody go into that space if they’re only going to be relatively between three to 5%?

Most people get into it by accident, which is how I did it’s a family business. My father had a vending company back when he went to the vending business. It was more like a twelve or 13% bottom line. As time went on, every place that could have vending machines had vending machines. So now you’re starting to compete on pricing Commission. And when you start competing on that, it’s a race to the bottom, which means that nobody was really making any money. But we had a lot of costs, and it was a good cash flow business.

It’s one of those things, I think obviously, you made a positive shift and you took what you learn from that business, and you created a whole newer business based upon those philosophies. So I guess my next question would be, when is a good time for someone to try to make that shift, right? Obviously, you had a business that was at one time you said your dad was at 13%. Now it’s about 3% to five, and you made that shift. If I’m a client coming to you and I’m telling you my same exact numbers that you just stated were your numbers, what would you then tell me to do next?

Get out of your business and find something else to do? It took me years to get there. I mean, it wasn’t like I woke up one day and said, hey, this business stinks. I’m going to have to get out of it. It took me three to five years somewhere in that range to say, hey, this business isn’t working so well to actually have sold the business to somebody else and make it their problem. We have choices. This is really important. If you’re going to start a business from scratch, one of the things you should be doing is looking at the profitability of your industry. If the industry is not profitable, don’t bother. There’s lots of industries. You can go into hundreds of them and many of them if you run them right, can make you a lot of money. Or if you happen to be say, you’re in a construction business and you’re not using any process controls to improve how you do whatever it is you do. I happen to, like, scrum a lot for project based things, which is a software development tool, but it works really well for anything you got a project for. And I might say, hey, if you got a 5% bottom line, you’re running interior contracting company. We’re doing sheet rock and studs and all that kind of stuff. But what if I could come in and show you a system that would take 20% of your labor today, which will take 20% of your labor? Reduce it, and it goes right to your bottom line. So that 5% bottom line you had will now become a 14% or 15% bottom line. Would you be interested in that? Yeah.

Everybody should raise their hands constantly, right?

Yeah. Well, again, they have to do the work. So knowing what you have to do and then getting around to do it are two different things. So one of the things that Peter Drucker used to say is strategy eats tactics for lunch. And what I just talked about is a strategic decision you would make in your business and how you’re running it. And then you have to implement that through tactics. But without the strategy behind what you want to do, you’re never going to get to where you want to go. You want to keep your strategies really simple, really understandable by everybody in your organization, otherwise not going to be used.

So it seems like you’re running a lean model to a certain extent. Kind of like the lean philosophy.

Yeah, it’s a lien philosophy. The philosophy really is W. Edwards Deming, who in the 30s came up with this 14 points used. It was actually in the 20s, came with those 14 points, and it was used by the United States to create the most amazing war machine of all times after World War Two, American industry, for whatever reason, decided they didn’t like them anymore. He was a really cranky old guy. So he went to Japan and Toyota adopted them. And what came out of ten means 14 points became the Toyota production system, which became what we know today as lean manufacturing. But the basis for that goes back to the 14 points of Deming developed in the 30s. It’s really easy to see what they are. Just Google Deming 14 points, and you’ll find out exactly what they are. Put them on your wall, memorize them, use them every day. And that’s a great place to start. For small businesses. Small businesses should not be doing lean. It’s way too complicated. Lean is good for Toyota, it’s good for GM, it’s good for Ford, it’s good for Caterpillar, it’s probably good for craft foods. It’s not good for Joe’s plumbing and heating. Way too complicated. Way too many moving parts. If you want to use what’s modern process improvement stuff, you either want to use Scrump or you want to use the theory of constraints. Both are really good, and there’s lots of information and lots of books on both. Yeah.

I think you brought a good point about, like the 1930s. I think a lot of people don’t realize it’s so much information that came out from the 1930s that we’re still utilizing in some shape form. Prime example would be like Napoleon Hills. His mastermind principles are still being utilized effectively almost 100 years later.

That was more than 100 years ago. That was Carnegie was just what his writing was about.

Yeah, it was definitely was.

So now you’re in the beginning of the 20th century when you’re writing about that. Interesting.

So let’s just go into your business structure. Is it structured as an LLC.

S Corp. Or C Corp. S Corp. You should never have a C Corp as a small private business today. Now, that may change in the future. But my guess is with what’s going to happen with Biden’s tax code, you’re going to want to stay as a passenger through Corporation, which is an S Corporation. And by the way, an LLC is just a corporate thing. You get taxed either as a C Corp. And S Corp. Or sole proprietor or a partnership within your LLC. So an LLC is not a structural form all by itself or is not a tax form by itself. It’s sort of like there’s a new form of incorporation called B Corps benefit corporations that doesn’t change your tax structure on one single bit. You still choose how you’re going to be taxed within that B Corp. Structure. Same thing with an LLC.

Do you have any active partnerships inside of your S Corp? Or is it just you or the sole proprietor of that?

I’m the sole owner, but my wealth management business, we sort of act as a cooperative. I’m the owner, but there’s limited profits within that company, and we just sort of share expenses between the other advisors and myself.

Very nice. So obviously you’re very seasoned in business structure, and you understand a lot of different things on a deeper level than most business owners do. So how long have you been on your journey and anyone that’s listening to this may perceive that you’re overnight success, but in reality, how long did it take you to get to where you are 42 years?

And if you have some time and want me to tell some early stories, I’ll tell you how bad a manager I was when I first started at 23 years old.

Let’s dive into that. What’s the worst experience you had in your early days?

Well, I had lots of bad experiences in early days. The worst thing happened to me that could ever happen to a young business owner. When I first started, I was really, really successful. And you would think that’s a great thing. But when you first started out in business and you’re 23 years old, when I put a million dollars in new business on our books in four months, that was lucky more than it was skillful. But because I was 23 and didn’t have any life experience in running the business, I thought it was because of my great skill. So I went charging off being the worst boss of all times, making every mistake that could possibly be made because I didn’t understand how to read a cash flow statement, which is way more important, your profit and loss statement or your balance sheet, but almost no private business owner knows understands it. I was very profitable, but running out of cash. So the grim Reaper came. The phone started ringing, said, what am I going to get paid? And I said, what do you mean? Well, you’re 90 days overdue. Another phone rang. What am I going to get paid? What do you mean? I’m 120 days overdue. So I had this emergency going on that I never knew existed was I had flat used all the cash I had available. I used all the bank lines I had available. I used all my supplier lines. I had available and I didn’t have enough cash coming in to pay off all the people I owed, which caused I have a problem. I managed to work my way out where I renegotiated and set term loans up with my major suppliers, paid them cod agreed to pay to my back balance over three years. They kept me in business. I didn’t have to go bankrupt, but it still was a pretty stressful time in life, and that was a pretty hard lesson to learn. Another lesson I learned was I was a till with a Hun. When it came to running my business, I had no idea what the values of business was. I didn’t know how important values were in the business and it was my way or the highway. And when things went wrong, I would either scream at somebody, which was my usual thing, and I would blame them for screwing it up, even though they didn’t know what they were supposed to be doing in the first place. Or I would justify why it wasn’t my fault. And it was their fault. And around when I was about 30 years old or actually 29 years old, I went to a new age seminar. And at that seminar, the main thing I learned was if you’re not personally responsible in your life, you’re never going to have real success. So I went back to my business and I said, hey, we’re now going to have personal responsibility as our most core value. Except I wasn’t being responsible at all. I was still blaming and justifying. So I’ve seen by all the people working in my company as a liar, and eventually I got it. And I looked in the mirror and I said, Until I start acting responsibly, nobody else in my company is going to act responsibly. So I learned that if you don’t walk your talk, nobody believes a darn thing that comes out of your mouth. So that’s where I learned the lesson of being a values led company. Now, four or five years later, after I started down that road, we actually became a values like company. I wasn’t just talking about it. And as a result, the whole world changed as the people in our company knew what they were supposed to do. They knew how they were supposed to do because we are systematized at the same time, and it became a much better place to work than with me screaming to people every day. Although I had the reputation of being a screamer for my entire 20 years, I owned that business. I really only screamed for five of those 20 years. When you get a bad reputation, it never leaves you. It stays forever. So you just have to say, okay, that’s part of life. But the truth is, if you’re acting consistently with what comes out of your mouth, you’re going to have a great company, definitely.

Talking about those mistakes. If you can go back and change anything, just change one thing. What’s that one thing that you would change if you could go back and do it all over again.

See the point with people ask that a lot, and I usually say nothing, because without that learning experience, I wouldn’t be where I was today. I am today. As a result, I was an American history major in College. It doesn’t do a lot to get you ready to run the business. My father was an English major in College. He never took any business courses. So he was my role model, and he was a screamer. So I was a screamer. So you have to learn by making mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not going to learn now, I can help you avoid mistakes. But if you’re really stuck in a bad behavior pattern, you need to figure out if somehow I can help you understand that by thinking through your challenges that you’re having with you. But I need to help you understand that. And I do that through asking questions. A great leader doesn’t tell. They ask, we all know what we’re supposed to do. I’ve never talked to a business owner at some level. When I ask them a question that they’ve never thought about that before. Everything I’ve said today, anybody who’s a business or listen to this podcast, you have thought about everything I’ve said at some level, or you’ve heard about it at some level. Very true. And the truth is, you need somebody sitting next to you, not coaching you, but helping you think through your actions and making it work in your way. See, coaches want you to do things their way. Mentors want you to do things your way. I want you to do things your way, but use best practices to do it way different way of looking at the world of helping people create more sustainable businesses and ultimately make your business sale ready. And by the way, if you make your business sale ready, it just means your business is in a position somebody else would want to own. It not that you want to sell it. Most of the time when we actually get a business to be sale ready, and I go back to the owner and say, okay, now you’re ready to sell your business? They look at me like I’m crazy, and they say something like this. Why would I ever want to sell my business? Now? I’m having way too much fun and I’m making way too much money. It doesn’t make any sense. I’m not even working very hard.

Makes perfect sense. Obviously, you’re a hell of an entrepreneur, right? And you brought up your dad about a minute ago saying that he was an English study. Do you have any entrepreneurs in your family? Like, where is your entrepreneurial? Hustle and Tenacity coming from?

My father is an entrepreneur. He started a zillion business. He had a couple that were quite successful, but he would start to buy businesses all the time. Most of them were really dumb, but he did it. His father was an entrepreneur. He was an immigrant from Russia, so newspapers on the corners. When he was seven years old, when he first got to the United States, ended up only a Slipper factory during World War two, sold out, retired when he was 45 years old. On my mother’s side, her family were peddlers. They went into the woman’s retail clothing business. So both sides of my business, my family, our strong history of being private business owners.

I think you could definitely tell there’s some people that kind of grow into entrepreneurship, and there’s some people that I would say kind of like yourself. You were kind of born into it like you’ve seen it your entire life. And obviously it kind of shows. I mean, you’re definitely well seasoned in verse in entrepreneurship 100%. So let’s just dive into your family life a little bit. How do you currently juggle your work life with your family life?

Well, I don’t believe in work life balance. I think that’s a myth. I think it’s work life integration. You integrate your work into your life and you integrate your life into your work. Sometimes you’re working 80 hours a week and sometimes you’re working 5 hours a week for me, my kids are gone and grown. I have two puppies and a very nice wife, and we’ll ski a lot during the wintertime. I ride my bike a lot during the summertime. I’m a live music freak. I go to live music stuff as much as I possibly can. Unfortunately, the last year signed knocked that off. I play around to playing the bass. I’m not very good at it, but I enjoy it. So it’s not like all I do is work, work, work. And I’ve been reading almost a book a week since 1976, when I graduated from College. Wow.

It’s funny that you brought that up about reading a book a week, because recently I started a book club, and that was like one of the first things that I established right away in the first week was how to be able to read a book per week because the average CEO reads about 60 books per year to just kind of get that group of people to understand it. Reading a book per week is not as hard as you may think it is.

All you need to do is find 45 minutes a day to read or even a half an hour a day to read. And you’re going to read the average book in three and a half 4 hours. You got to find three and a half 4 hours to do that. The other thing you can do is learn how to read faster. I don’t read one word at a time. I read two lines at a time, so I just scanned down the page. So I read about 75, 80 pages an hour as a rule, so I can read a 200 page book in a couple of two and a half 3 hours. The other thing you need to do is turn off your TV and read. I mean, if you actually sit down, there’s a good exercise to do. And I have all my clients do this for two weeks on a yellow pad every 15 minutes. Write down what you’re doing, and at the end of two weeks, you go back and look at that. You’re going to find at least half the time you spend doing things a other people could do it better and be much of that stuff you shouldn’t be doing in the first place because it’s just a time waster and adds no value to your life.

Yeah, you’re definitely right about that. So this is going to like your morning routines, your morning habits.

I always get to ask this question. Excuse me, but it’s just for me, it’s a dumb question because I don’t have a morning routine. I get up, I take the dogs out, I make coffee and I wander around playing with the dogs and go outside. If it’s nice. And I happen to like Morning Joe, which is showing MSNBC. I watched that for half an hour and I go downstairs and start doing whatever it is I want to do for that day. I’ll do a Journal entry a few times a week, but it’s not something I do. I don’t have something to do. This is what I do every day to get ready for the day again. If you are somebody who’s highly systematized in how they live their life, that sort of routine works really well for you. I’m not. There’s an index called the Colby Index, which measures energy units around different areas. Somebody who has that high morning routine sort of thing would be a high follow through. In other words, they have a lot of energy for doing things in a systematic way. I have no energy to do things in a systematic way. I just use systems to keep me from going chasing my favorite bright, shiny object to the second because my attention gets scattered really fast and I’m writing a book. The first thing I do is I write for an hour for 2002, 500 words. When I’m done with that, then I do everything else in my day because that takes some real deep focus. Or if I’m doing, like, over the weekend, I did seven videos. So for the first day, I sat down for 3 hours and I wrote seven video scripts, and then the next day I sat down first thing in the morning and I shot seven video scripts. So that was the one thing I really wanted to accomplish that day. And I did that first thing in the morning. That’s about as much of a morning routine as I have.

Yeah, I think for you, it’s just so ingrained in you to do what you do. But the reason for asking that question is probably somebody listening to this podcast that may be much like you, and you just kind of outline and define things even when you went into talking about your scripting, right? That’s not something you do every single day. But what you pretty much said is that you get into deep work, you set time aside and you make sure you do these particular things every single morning so you can get the best results every single day. And that’s like the major takeaway for someone listening to this to understand like that’s your morning routine, and they could relate to it.

Well, essentially, what that comes from is a concept that Steven Covey had years and years ago called Big Rocks, and you should always have two or three big rocks in your life, which are major projects you’re working on. And those are the things that you do first thing in the morning. Now I will tell you, I don’t do deep work every day. There are days where I just screw around for the whole day. I mean to do something useful, but I end up doing nothing, and I don’t beat myself up about it unless it happens for three or four or five days in a row. And then I kind of have to have a conversation with myself and say, Is this what you really want to be doing? Is this how you want to live your life? And the answer will usually be no. And then I have to get some discipline in place to actually just go and do the stuff. Now, discipline is a really important skill to bring to the party. If you don’t have it, you’re not going to be successful.

I think we went over several different topics and we alluded to the book club a little bit. So this is the time I’m going to ask you a three part question, and it’s about the books that you’re reading, right? I want to know what books that you can recall that you would want to recommend from your past that helped you to get to where you are. What books are you currently reading right now? And have you written any books?

I have written two books. This is my second book, which I just got copies of. If you can’t see this because you’re listening to the podcast, it’s the sale ready company what it takes to create a business someone who don’t want to own, even if you have no intention of selling. It’s a parable. And my first book is sustainable, a favorable creating a personally and economically sustainable business. And that’s also a parable in the second book is actually a continuation of the first story. I find that parables are much easier to consume for business owners because they like stories. And how two books my sister, when she read my first book, said, you know something? This is the first business book I’ve ever finished because I wanted to find out what happened. So one of my favorite authors is a guy named Patrick Glencioni, who is the Parable King. The guy has written 1012 parables and they’re really good. And also my favorite business books by him is a book called The Advantage, which is only how to book. And in there he talks about values and how to use values in your company. And he puts values in the Four Buckets, which is really interesting. Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a book that everybody should be reading. Management by Peter Drucker is a book that everybody should be reading. If you’re interested in sales, the Challenger Sales, the best sales book I’ve ever read. If you’re interested in how to create content, that’s really good for you. You want to read Story Brand by Donald Miller and integrate that stuff because this stuff is just amazing. In fact, we just launched our second Story Brand site this morning, so if you want to check it out, go to www. Dot sustainablebusiness Co. And you’ll see an example of what a Story Brand site looks like for marketing. My favorite book of all times is Book Yourself Solid, the illustrated version by Michael Port. That way you can go through all the exercises in the book. And at the end of the day, you’ll have developed a really good niche and avatar of who your best customer is and you’ll know how to stay in contact with them. Give me a topic and I’ll tell you the book. As far as Scrum goes, you want to read Scrum by Jeff Sutherland. He’s the inventor of scrum. If you want to read about the theory of constraints, you want to read the goal, which is again, another parable, which is a really good example of how to use the theory constraints, which is just whack them all for business. In other words, you find a bottle of neck, you fix it and you wait for the next bottle of neck to appear. I’ve probably read 1500 business books over the years and both of my books I have I think about 120 books I put in the bibliography that you should read.

I think that kind of opens up Pandora’s Box to a certain extent. Obviously, my question for you is listening to you recite these books, right? Like most people, they would have to say, I’ve heard before. Oh, I don’t remember or I remember the title of the book. I don’t remember the author, but for you, you were distinctly stating book titles and authors. So my question is, do you have a photographic memory or have you practiced the art of memory to get to the point to where you’re just reciting these things off the top of your head like that?

I have no memory. I cannot remember anybody’s name. I embarrass myself all the time. With that. It happens to be I’ve talked about these books enough where they’re ingrained. And when I do a public talk, when I’m on the stage and I’m doing a keynote presentation, I’ll usually mention 15 to 25 books during my presentation. The reason is I’m a real believer that if you really want to be good at what you’re doing, read The Masters. I’m a big fan of Stoicism and Stoicism fits really well with my core value, which is personal responsibility. And it sort of talks about how do you get to where you want to be in the most effective manner? And the thoughts and things have been written by people who have come before me or people. All these people are way smarter than I am. So I get to steal their best thoughts and integrate it into my life. And I talk about these books all the time for the people I work with.

Got it. So I mean repetition, repetition, repetition.

Yeah.

So where do you see yourself and your company, right? I mean, obviously they’re two different things, but they’re working together in unisons. Where do you see both the alliance in 20 years from now?

I’m 68 years old, so I can promise you 20 years from now, I’m not likely going to be doing my business. My personal mission in life is to do interesting things with interesting people. So that’s how I sort of measure everything I do today. If it’s not interesting to do. And I’m not doing it with people who excite me, I have no interest in doing it. I, luckily have saved probably enough money for retirement. I’m working for enjoyment more than I am. Of course I want to make a living. But it really for me is if it’s not fun, why do it? And actually, if you want to know the truth, if it was not fun, why do it? It should be your mantra when you’re 30 years old as well as 68 years old.

Yeah, definitely some inspiring information. So what are some tools? Like you said earlier, you were talking about scrum. What are the software are you currently using that you wouldn’t be able to do what you do without?

Well, I could do everything I do with a paper and pencil if I had to. The truth was, when we put our first computer and was 19 and 78, it was a computer was as big as a washing machine. It was made by Digital Equipment Corporation. It had 256 KB of memory, not megabits kilobits. It had 20 megabytes of hard drives, and the hard drive container was as big as a washing machine. And it took about 80 hours to run a profitability statement. It would now take about three minutes if that.

Did that run off of punch cards or what kind of.

No, this was key punch. Okay. Yeah. This was after punch cards. Punch cards were the early 70s, early 70s. We actually had terminals for inputting.

Got it.

And so all the computer does, and the software does. It takes what you could do with a pen, paper and pencil does it faster and more intensely. Obviously, Excel. Everybody works with Excel. My favorite project management tool is a program called Monday, which I could I live without if I had to. But, boy, it would make life a whole lot more difficult than it is. I use Base Camp for some really basic interactions with people. I don’t use Slack because I hate it. There’s a new program out, which is called Mighty Networks, which we’re putting together for communities, which we like a lot we use ClickFunnels mostly for landing pages, and I use HubSpot for my website in integrated marketing. Right. And there’s a bunch of other programs we use that are specific for the wealth management world.

So let’s go into the final words of wisdom. Right? To your point. You’re saying 30 years old, you would say things a little bit differently, right? What words of insight would you give to a 30 year old coming up in this particular space and you want to not advise them or coach them, but you want to point them in the right direction?

Well, I would ask them some questions. First of all, what is it they’re interested in? What is their passion? Are they following their passion? And if their passion doesn’t appear to make any money at it, how could you figure out to make money at it? It’s really interesting if you talk to I went to Brendan Buchard seven hour coffee a few years ago, and it was called Experts Academy. So it was about teaching you how to take your expertise and make it into a business. About halfway through the seminar, asked how many people here have a business or an expertise they want to share with the world. Now, there are about 5000 people in the room. If 100 hands went up, that would have been a lot. I was sitting there saying to myself, My God, you guys are all trying to do a business and you have no idea what your business needs to be. So the first thing you need to do is figure out what your business is going to be, who’s it going to serve. And most importantly, what problem does it solve? If it doesn’t solve a problem, you have a crappy idea for a business.

Definitely solid information. I mean, I’m just stopping and I’m recapping what you just said in my head, and it really comes down to any solution that anyone is creating, any coaching, any mentoring, any online course at the end of the day, if it’s not solving a problem or it’s not the solution to a particular problem than why you can create it. So it’s definitely insightful. Words, wisdom?

Yeah. One of my sort of more obnoxious habits I have is I look at other people’s websites, and it’s amazing how few people ever talk about the problems they solve on their website. They talk about the stuff they do, but nobody really cares about the stuff they do. You do. They care about the problems you solve. My example, if I buy a car, I don’t really care if there’s 400, 500 or 1000 HP under the hood. What I really care is there’s a Hill which is outside the town I lived on? Will my car in cruise control go up that Hill at 70 miles an hour and not lose speed? If it does, that car has all the power I need. I don’t care about torque or power or any of those stuff because it doesn’t mean anything to me. And is the car big enough for me to fit in? Because I’m 65? Those are really the only comfortable. Those are the things I want to know. Those are the problems I need solved. I don’t care how many inches of space there is. It’s just can I fit in it and put my legs out straight? So when you’re running a business, if you’re not thinking about the problems that you solve for your customers, you’re missing the point with your customers.

Well set. Definitely. Well set. So how can people find you? I mean, like, what’s your website, your social media profiles.

I have two websites. One is www. Stage twoplanning. Com. That’s with the number two, and my other one is www. Dot. Sustainablebusiness co that’s cot. Com. Those are the easiest places to find me both have contact me if you want to send me an email. My email address is jpatrick@stagetwoplanning.com. Social profile on Twitter is ask.JosPatrick and on Facebook look for the sustainable business. You’ll find our business page and I don’t do Instagram, so I can’t tell anything about that. I’m too old for Instagram. I’m old by my daughter.

That’s just the way the kids try to keep the adults off of their particular platform. That’s just the way they look at it.

She’s 36, so I don’t think really care.

So let’s go to some bonus questions. Right. And I think because you’re a historian and you studied history, this is probably going to be a pretty interesting answer coming from you. If you could spend 24 hours with anyone dead or alive uninterrupted for those 24 hours, who would it be and why?

Oh, boy, that’s a hard one. That’s a hard one to answer for me, because there’s a zillion. Probably buck. Mr. Fuller. Buck. Mr. Fuller is a guy from the 20. He was alive in the 20th century, invented the geodesic Dome, was a mathematician, probably one of the most interesting philosophical thinkers in the world. He had a very interesting thing about mistakes. He used to say it said two things said one, you don’t learn less. And two mistakes are learning opportunities. And those were the two statements that sort of made a light bulb go off my head to say I might be doing this wrong the way I’m running my business because I used to punish people who made mistakes and never really thought about mistakes being learning opportunities. I was the only one who could make mistakes, not other people in my business. When I learned that other people could make mistakes, it turned everything around for us.

Well, interesting. Another bonus question for you outside of your family, outside of your kids. What’s your greatest achievement today?

Making it through cancer? Very serious about a cancer about twelve years ago. It took me about four or five years ago through it.

What kind of cancer was it not?

Hoskins lymphoma, the subsidized methyl cell, which is a very nasty used to be very deadly type of lymphoma. Wow. Yeah.

I definitely commend you. I mean, I had suffered from a stroke two years ago, so just the road to recovery is one of those things. I look at you as one of the survivors and one of the people that kind of figured out that life doesn’t have to end when you’re confronted with death and there’s always more opportunities after that.

Yeah. There’s some really interesting stuff going on with mushrooms and people using them to stop fearing death. I’ve been doing a lot of research into that. Again. I’ve seen 100 Grateful Day concerts, so you can take with what that means. I have found that micro dosing or using Hallucinogenics for facing really difficult life things, getting some really interesting research done on it right now.

It’s pretty interesting. I mean, I definitely look into that. So going into closing, I mean, I always have the opportunity to interview people like yourself. And I always love the insights. And I love the words of wisdom on this journey on this podcast. Any questions that may have come up that you would like to ask me?

Yeah. What do you think is the most interesting things we’ve talked about today.

Collective? I think I could definitely for me, it’s the overall conversation, and I can definitely see you utilizing your history background like you’re pinpointing particular things, your dates even earlier, when you were correcting me about the 30s versus the it’s like you understand the history of what has happened and you’re using it in today’s world. You understand back then and you’re converting it into now. And I think that’s my general takeaway that I love and embracing from what you said today. Cool.

The thing about history, which is really interesting in high school, your history classes. What, in other words, what dates did something happen? That when you go to College, history no longer deals with dates. It’s all about why, why did this event happen? And that’s the most interesting thing about business. Also, why is the business successful? Why is the business not successful? Why is one person in the same industry far more successful than the exact same industry? So if you focus on wise, life becomes a lot more interesting at least for me.

Yeah. And I think that goes back into your other statement about if you’re not solving a problem right, then why are you doing it to begin with? And that’s like the conclusion of everything is you have to essentially apply whatever you’re doing, that’s your value add to solve someone else’s problem or educate them on how to solve their own problems.

Yeah. Absolutely. Definitely.

Well, I definitely appreciate your time, Josh. It was definitely an enlightening episode. Another one of these episodes. I’ve had one of these. Maybe in the last week. That’s just kind of like I wish I wasn’t interviewing you. I wish sitting there taking notes, so it’s going to be one of the episodes. I’m going to go back and review over and over again, but it was definitely a pleasure having you on the show.

Thanks so much. It was really fun doing this. I appreciate it.

Great S.A Grant over and out. Bye.

Founder Of The Sustainable Business: Josh Patrick AKA The Sustainable Boss – S2E63 (#91)2022-08-13T06:58:55+00:00

How Can I Use NFT’s To Increase The Value Of My Digital Real Estate Portfolio With S.A. Grant Of BOSS UP Q & A: Motivated & Focused Growth Edition – S2E62 (#90)

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Boss Uncaged Podcast Overview

How Can I Use NFT’s To Increase The Value Of My Digital Real Estate Portfolio With S.A. Grant Of BOSS UP Q & A: Motivated & Focused Growth Edition – S2E62 (#90)
 
How Can I Use NFT’s To Increase The Value Of My Digital Real Estate Portfolio?
 

In Season 2, Episode 62 of the Boss Uncaged Podcast, S.A. discusses how you can use NFT’s to increase the value of your digital real estate. The goal is to motivate and focus on growth and in this episode he discusses the following:

 

What Is An NFT?
What Is Digital Real Estate?
Who Could Gain To Use NFT’s & Building Digital Real Estate?
User Cases Of NFT’s & Digital Real Estate
 

This is a new bonus episode you don’t want to miss.

 
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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WHAT IS BOSS UNCAGED ACADEMY?
The Boss Uncaged Academy is an online membership community and learning platform for you to get better results by giving you Actionable Growth Strategies in Business Building, Branding, Marketing, Mindset, and Lead Generation.
 
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#businessstrategy #businessgrowthstrategy #smallbusinessstrategy #businesstrategy #businessstrategyforwomen #businessstrategycoach #onlinebusinessstrategy #businessstrategyconsultant #businessstrategyroundtable #nfts #cryptocurrency #etherium #nft #businessmarketingstrategy #businessstrategydesign #businessstrategy2020 #business #businesscoach #businesscoaching #businessdevelopment #businessgoals #businessgrowth #businessideas #businessmotivation #businessowner #businesstips #entrepreneur #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #entrepreneursofinstagram #inspiration #motivation

Boss Uncaged Podcast Transcript

S2E62 S.A Grant.mp3 – powered by Happy Scribe

Boss Uncaged is a weekly podcast that releases the origin stories of business owners and entrepreneurs as they become uncaged trailblazers. In each episode, our host S.A. Grant and guests construct narrative accounts of their collective business journeys and growth strategies, learn key success habits, and how to stay motivated through failure, all while developing a Boss Uncaged mindset. Break out of your cage and welcome our host, S.A. Grant.

Welcome back to boss Uncaged Podcast. This is another bonus episode. So today’s topic at hand is it’s been around for a period of time, but things are not necessarily mainstream as of yet, but they’re building up to it. And being that I’m a digital marketer, I’m plugged into these spaces and I hear about the great vine, about things that are coming up. And then I studied them and I research them before I even bring them to you. So today we’re going to be talking about NFT’s. Some of you may have heard of NFT, some of you may not have heard of MPs. Some of you may think NFT’s are a fad. But hopefully after this particular episode, I’ll be able to kind of clarify some user cases and the definition of entities and kind of breakdown, like how you can creatively use entities, right? So today’s topic is how can I use NFT’s to increase the value of my digital real estate portfolio. So what we’re going to cover in this episode, we’re going to cover what’s an NFT? We’re going to cover what is a digital real estate, right? We’re going to also cover who could gain to use NFT’s in building digital real estate.

And we’re also going to close out with user cases of NFT’s in building digital real estate portfolios, right? So what we’re not going to cover in this episode, which I’ll probably cover in future episodes, is how to create an NFT, what is the NFT collection? Understanding the BlockchEthereumain , what is a gas fee, how to market an NFT, and how to do NFT’s effectively in the environment, right? Or how do NFPs affect the environment. So those are things that we’re not going to cover. So I’m just going to dive into this and you guys know if I’m talking about this, I’m excited about it. And I think that you need to know about it. If you don’t know about it already, or at least I can kind of help you clarify some things about it. So first off the bat, what is an NFT? Now, you probably heard the non fungible token is a unique and non transferable unit of data stored on a digital ledger, right? And then they go into blockchain. They go into all the stuff. So I’m going to summarize it and I’m going to tell it to you in a story format.

So the first summarization of what entity really is, it is a ledger of ownership of digital content tracked on blockchain. That’s the base level definition of it. So you’re probably still like, what does that mean for me as an individual? Right? Well, think of it from an example of, let’s say you went to an art show in the 80s or the 90s or early 2000s, right? And in this art show, there was a piece of art that you purchased. Now, you may not have been the first owner of this art. It could have been a piece of art that maybe was owned by Shaquille O’Neill, or it could have been a piece of art that was maybe owned by a famous musician. And that’s what they’re telling you as far as the marketing for this piece. So you want to own this piece. This piece has been in multiple different people’s hands. It’s a legacy piece. It’s been in this hands. It’s been in the 18 hundreds. But you’re going off of their work like there’s no proof of that central record, right? Maybe back then they may have been some kind of ledger. But ledgers back then, it could have been falsified, right?

It could have been written signatures, kind of like who had it, who didn’t have it. Kind of like a log file for your car when you go to get all changed with more premium cars, right? But now with NFT’s, it allows you to have something that cannot be disputed. It’s locked into what’s called the blockchain, which is essentially just nothing more than technology behind the scenes. And the way this technology works is that every single time someone purchases or becomes the owner of that product, in this case, we’re talking about art. This ledger is digitally created, and also it’s locked in based upon multiple different computers that are verifying it at the same time. So there’s no way for you to really falsify it, right? So if you just say you have 10,000 computers, all 10,000 computers are going to have to verify that John just sold this painting to Susan. And once that happens, and then that’s considered to be minting. Once that’s minted, then you have a blockchain record of from owner one to owner two, right? So now when you purchase something like that, you could literally go into the record and see who has owned this piece of art, or anything digital for that matter.

That’s what the real value behind NFC is coming. Now, obviously, there are multiple other strategies that go into that. But if you’re into the collecting space, which most people, they collect something, right? Whether you’re collecting equipment as a podcaster or whether you’re an art collector or you’re collecting baseball cards, the problem is always the verification of who owned it, what’s the value of it. Why is this same products, two of the same identical products? Why is one worth more than the other? Well, if you have two pieces of the same similar artwork, and one was owned by JayZ and Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk versus another one that wasn’t owned by anyone. Which one do you think will be worth more? The one that’s owned by all the billionaires with proof of ownership that’s like the meat and potatoes of NFT. So, number two, going into what is digital real estate? Well, digital real estate, NFT go hand in hand because NFT are essentially creating ownership ledgers of digital assets, right? So digital assets can be podcasts. It can be videos. It could be courses. It could be images. I mean, the owner of Twitter sold his NFT of his first tweet of Twitter, right?

And I know you’re probably thinking like, well, I could just take a picture of it. That’s always the rebuttal. Why do I want to have ownership of something digital where I could just take a screenshot of it, right? Well, guess what? If you ever seen some influencers, they may go to this big ass mansion, big house. They will take pictures in this house, but they don’t own the house. They’re renting the house. Or maybe their friend may own the house, or maybe they’re on vacation at the house, but they don’t own the house. So part of it, yes, is bragging rights, but also, it’s also the credibility of having ownership of something that has value. And value then can turn into monetization. So if I’m taking pictures in front of a jet, well, do I own that jet or am I renting that jet? There’s this fake reality, and then there’s real reality, right? There’s fake ownership, and then there’s real ownership. So NFD kind of clears that up. So when you get into digital real estate, you have to look at it as assets, much like regular real estate. I could be renting a house, right?

Spending 3000, $10,000 to rent a house. But I don’t own the house. So it’s kind of like, I can’t sell that house. I can’t make money off that house. I can’t take that house and put it on the market. I can’t sub lease that. I can’t do anything with the house to make any monetary gains from that house because I’m renting it for somebody else. Somebody else has ownership of the house, and they’re making that money off of me. So the same thing with digital assets. Boston Cage podcast. I own Boston Cage podcast. I own the audio that we’re creating. I own this episode, right? But imagine, for example, this is something that I’m working on. Let’s say if I create an NFT of images from the podcast, or maybe I create a new brand, sub brand of Boston Cage called Boston Cage Beast. And what I’m doing is selling artwork of uncaged animals, like a lion or beer or tiger. Oh my. And they’re representing quality artwork, but at the same time, it gives the listener ownership of this artwork. So 20 years down the road, 100 years down the road, much like you’ve seen Picasso pieces or bosquia pieces, usually the value of those pieces kind of go through the roof after someone dies, right?

And I’m not trying to say that that’s what’s going to happen with the Boston Cage pieces. But the reality is. If you have ownership of something now over a period of time as Boston Cage grows. Or as your brand continues to grow. Or as your legacy continues to grow. Or if you have kids and your kids have kids. Well. Now you could have a product that can have ownership that people cannot dispute. And you could pass it down legacy to legacy to legacy. Right? So that’s another good thing about digital real estate. In addition to digital real estate, as far as owning it, you can monetize it, right? So prime example, a podcast. You can monetize a podcast, you can monetize YouTube channels, you could monetize audio files, you could monetize images. Getty Images is the big monetization, right? Think about it. They’ve been monetizing images, like forever. They’ve been kind of using the NFT format without NFT even being in creations, right? They’ll create one image and they’ll sell the royalties of that image. So you can use that image, but they still own that image, right? So you want to look at it from that standpoint.

What do you have that’s currently digital real estate? And I want you to think about it. Your website is digital real estate, right? Now, your Instagram accounts, your Facebook accounts, your YouTube accounts are not necessarily digital real estate that you own, but the content that’s on those platforms could definitely go into your digital portfolio. So if you have 600 hours of videos on YouTube, well, as long as those videos are off YouTube as well, and let’s say YouTube decides to go under tomorrow, which that’s highly unlikely, then you have access to this content which has value, which becomes part of your digital real estate, digital assets. Okay? So hopefully that dives into what digital real estate is. So now you kind of understand NFCs. You have like a point of reference to what digital real estate is. Let’s go into number four. Who could gain from using NFCs and building digital real estate? And I’m going to read this list, and this is just like off the top of my head, and I’m kind of give you some variations of it and some case studies as well. So digital marketers, that goes without saying, right?

Digital marketers create digital content. So essentially, if you’re a digital marketer like myself as a grant, and I’m creating books, podcasts, courses, images and so forth, then it totally makes sense for me to then create some content in that space. That’s a unique value proposition for my listener or other people that are investors or collectors to say, well, Boston Cage has a great following. It has multiple listeners. I like what they have to say. I want to go ahead and invest and make a purchase for this NFT. And then from there, they’ll have ownership of this piece of artwork that’s associated to Boston Cage brand, right? Graphic designers, same thing. Graphic designers, that’s all they do is digital, right? They create digital things all day, all night. And those things then become physical podcasters, YouTubers, videographers, photographers, authors, coaches. And I know you’re probably thinking, like, what does coaches have to do with NFTs and digital real estate? Well, if you’re a coach, you’re creating content. And that content is usually in the form of a course, right? Or a Mastermind or Webinar. These are all videos that are all digital. That falls on the digital real estate, that can then become an NFT.

You could then give ownership, right? You can give not ownership of your course, but you can give ownership of different things. You can give ownership of audio clips. You can give ownership of video clips. You can give ownership of images, right? So you have to kind of think out the box of a user case, and we’ll get into that shortly. But to understand that there’s value in what you have, but it’s also value in your listening community to give them ownership of some of these elements as well. Influencers software companies. I think software companies are golden, right? So you can kind of give, hey, if you buy this NFT, we’ll give you access to a lifetime deal to our platform, or we’ll give you access to a discounted rate to our platform. So now you started to see, like, the bridging of the gap between the marketing and the product and services by using Nappies. So look at it. Hey, buy the steel shot of Boston Cage podcast. And if you buy this still shot for whatever the value is at that point in time of purchase, you’ll own that still. But with that still, you’ll also get access to more digital assets, which is access to a year’s subscription to the Boston Cage Academy, or you’ll get access to one of the Boston Cage courses.

So it’s a two for one kind of thing, but then they also have a value add of owning that. So once they go through the course, they’ll get value there. They may take action on what you’re teaching them, but they’ll always have the ownership of this piece of art that later on they can sell at a higher value, right? They could make money off that piece of art. So, again, buying that art, not only do they get access to a course, but they also get access to art that has value that they can resell down the road. It’s a no brainer when you look at it that way. Dive it into more variations. So software companies, marketing agencies, art students, find artists, content creators, consultants, publishers, I think publishers and trademark owners. Those are big, right? Because publishers essentially, they literally, for the most part, own digital content. And they’ll take that digital content and they’ll convert into physical content, much like the music industry, right? Music industry, they’ll record the recording artists, they’ll do all the marketing. The contract would say the music company may own 75% of the ownership of that particular label, and they’ll probably give 25% of royalties.

And these are just numbers that I’m throwing out there. But think about that. What would that look like? If artists and companies would share the ownership of the NFL, and the NFL is then the music, right? And then you can obviously see who owns it. There’s no question behind it. And it goes 100% of the trademarks, right? So trademarks or copyrights, you have to go to the United States, right? For example, you have to go to the trademark office. You have to wait six months to sometimes, like right now, I’m working on a trademark, and it’s been active for about nine months. We’ve been waiting for the trademark to come back. But what would it look like if I took that trademark, right, that image or that logo or that brand and I made it into an NFT? And then the trademark company would then start the trademark office would then look at that NFT validated to say, okay, well, essay has owned the ownership of this particular artwork or this particular logo or this particular brand from 2001, for example. By the time the office gets through all their documentation and verifications and they want to see proof of use and all this other stuff that comes along with trademarks, well, I have an NFC of it, so you can’t debate it.

There’s not anyone else that comes down the pipeline and says, hey, I had that logo before he did. Well, you can’t say that because I have an NFT and it’s a ledger, that’s indisputable ledger that said, I had it since 2001. So it makes the trademark work so much easier because you can’t deny it, it’s undisputable. So that’s another way of looking at another variation of that, right? Let’s dive into like, brand specialists, service based companies. And you’re thinking about service based, what aspect of services? Well, there’s different, like, could a plumber have NFT? Could a roofer have? NFTs. My answer is, why not? Why would you not want to create maybe some valued art piece on roofing? Hear me, it sounds asinine, sounds crazy, but here the philosophy behind it. Imagine creating 150 for a roofer, and these roof images are like beautiful illustrations of roof art per se. It sounds crazy, but what comes with that roof art, NFT is also a lifetime quarterly check on your roof for leaks. So no brainer, right? So you could look at it as a service that someone could then pay to say, 179 per month, or you could essentially sell the NFT.

And as the NFT becomes, the owner has NFT. As that value grows, they’re still getting the access to checking the roof, but then they can sell an NFT and make money off of it. And this is the beautiful part. With NFT’s, you can do multiple different royalties. So with an NFT, I can sell you an NFT, let’s say at $5, right? Because I’m not even going to get into the ethereum conversions. Let’s say I sell you the NFT for $5. And then I say every time that you sell the NFT, after I sold it to you, I’ll get 10% of those royalties. So you may get it for $5, and then you may sell it for 50. Then I’ll get $5 back, right? Then after you sell it for 50, the next person may sell up to 500. Well, guess what? I’m going to get another 10% out of that 500. So again, all of that’s all in the blockchain. The blockchain is keeping that ledger active. And it’s saying that, hey, every single time this piece of art is sold and the value increases, the original owner of that piece then gets 10%. So you start to see like, well, damn, if I’m selling a piece of artwork and I’m giving them value, and I’m also giving them an opportunity with my services as an add on bonus for purchasing it.

And as they decide to sell and move that through the market, then I also get a trail of royalties as well. Where’s this shit been for the past 30 damn years? The fact that it’s in existence right now and I’m trying to get you guys to understand you got to take advantage of this or at least comprehend it because the technology is going to be more intrusive in our current day world. Like I’m talking about trademarks. Like, what would that look like if NFT is our trademarks? What would it look like if you’re going to the DMV to get your driver’s license and your driver’s license is the NFT, like, this shit is going to infiltrate essentially everything once it becomes mainstream. So understanding the principles behind it is going to be very valuable going back to the list, right? So service based companies, event planners and event owners. And I think this is a gold mine, right? So for event planners and event owners, this is where I want to get into the case analysis of this. It’s going to be beautiful, right? Just think if I’m selling tickets, a lot of times tickets are like design tickets.

What if I look like selling a digital ticket and that digital ticket becomes NFT and that ticket has value? So imagine going to the first Kiss concert, right? Going to the first Wutang concert and you still have that digital ticket. What would that be worth right now for someone to say, oh my God, I’m a WuTang collector. I’m a Kiss collector and you have the first ticket for the first concert and you’re the original owner. Think of it like cars. If you are buying used cars, the first thing people usually look at is like, how many owners did the car have, right? And it’s kind of easy to figure that out. You can kind of look it up, right? You can kind of go into the history of the car. It’s the same exact philosophy. So it’s two folds, right? If I wanted a car that only has one original owner, and it’s not 20 owners, that’s great. With NFT, if it had 20 owners, what that means that every time it’s been sold, hopefully the goal would be that the value would increase and there’s a high demand and it becomes more of a commodity, right?

So going back to the list, you have collectors, large corporations, families, and promoters. Promoters go hand in hand with the event planners and event owners. Families will think about it. You could have images of your family, you could have family portraits, you could have videos of your family gathering all the different information that can be locked in to essential ownership, to where you can pass it down from generation to generation to generation. Right? Now, today, you may have instagram accounts for that. You may have Facebook account, but keep mine. If instagram decides to shut down, facebook decides to shut down, all those images are essentially gone. If your hard drive crashes, those images are definitely gone. But if you put that sucker in the blockchain, it’s being verified by thousands of machines. So it’s a global platform that can keep your images in the clouds essentially forever, right? So that’s just one way of looking at it. Going into number five, the case studies, and this is something that I really want you to like. I’m going to break these down to a certain extent, some of them. I just want you to kind of think of it again outside the box.

So we’re talking about NFT’s, we’re talking about digital real estate portfolios, music and video, right? And I think I mentioned it earlier about the ownership and royalties. So imagine a music label that has NFT’S for all their artists. And remember I was telling you about, if I sell NFT, then the artist or the original person, the original owner would get a percentage of shares. So think about that, right? And another part of ms that we haven’t talked about yet is smart contracts. So essentially a smart contract is taking all the variables of contracts. If someone does this, if that happens, if this happens, then do this, do that, right? So all of that goes into this NFT, it’s a digital asset. It’s digitally created, it’s associated to a digital product, which essentially in this case is music. It’s a contract which is binding agreement, and then it automatically then executes that agreement, right? So every time that song essentially is then played, then a royalty share can be paid out, and that royalty share can be paid out based upon the percentages of the ownership. That itself makes NFT a gold mine. Because right now in the music and the other industries is not really orchestrated that way, right?

I mean, obviously accountants that go in and is verifying this and doing all that. But imagine a system that does that for you before. And I’m not saying people won’t necessarily lose their jobs, but it will open up opportunity for people to do more constructive stuff than tracking and analyzing where you’re going to be at a particular show this week. And what you’re going to make on this show is that just put all that into the smart contract, into the NFC agreement of that particular song and then base it upon how many songs you’re going to sing on the stage. It’s a no brainer. But again, it’s not mainstream as of yet going into content creation and social media case studies. Well, it’s a no brainer just to monetize, right? Because a lot of times you create content and your problem is trying to monetize it. How do I monetize the podcast? Do I get people to do advertising? Do I get to market my own products? Do I get to sell all these different opportunities to monetize the podcast? But what would it look like if you’re monetizing part of the podcast through NFTs, right?

And when I say part of the podcast, NFT’s, again, you’re going to give added value. You’re going to give bonuses. So imagine, for example, listeners are boss on Cage. This week I’m going to release NFCs, just hypothetical. And if you purchase the first 100 people to purchase NFT, not only going to get lifetime access to Boston Cage Academy or a year subscription to Boston Cage Academy, but you’re also going to get access to the first Boston Cage Summit. And that summit is also going to include an NFT as well, right? And then you can say, hey, maybe you can get 20% off or you can get it for free or whatever it is. But now you’re building a community of people that are all going to be interconnected to these entities. So when you see someone that’s associated to the Boston Cage Facebook group, for example, and then on their profile picture, you’ll see a boss of Cage NFT, then you know that they bought into it. And it’s social awareness, right? So if one person buys it, hey, that’s pretty cool. How did you get it? And then becomes referrals as well. Because recommendations, word of mouth, there’s so many different variables of strategy to these NFTs that you can utilize as an influencer or podcast or YouTuber, but you just need to understand to think outside the box on how to utilize it, right?

So think about it as a branded micro economy. Imagine if Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, decided to sell his first audio recording of Kermit the Frog, right? Imagine that there’s people that love the Muppets, but imagine not only loving the Muppets, but owning the creator of the Muppet’s. First audio recording of Kermit defrog. Now obviously, they’ll still have the rights to use Kermit the Frog’s voice. But for you as the owner of that one little nugget, that one little five minute 32nd clip or whatever, there’s probably going to be a hell of a lot of value for that. Because now you have bragging rights on one hand, but on the other, right, if you’re a collector, you have ownership of it. And by having ownership of it, then you can sell it and monetize it, right? So imagine being the first person if Jim Henson had NFT when he originally created Kermit, and let’s say he sold it for $10,000 back then. How much do you think that would be worth today? Right? So that’s the beauty of that. And imagine if he was still getting royalty shares, 5%, 10%, 20% on the original NFT that he created when he created the current voice.

It’s a no brainer. All right. Think of it from the standpoint of Superball. Imagine being the owner of one of the original Superball one tickets with the Green Bay Packers. And if you purchase that ticket, then maybe you’ll get access to behind the scenes content in the locker room, never before to see interviews of the team on the day of the damn original Super Bowl. Now, obviously, it goes into bragging rights, but it’s so exclusive that not anyone and everyone is going to be able to have access to that content. But if they put that together and they created that, people love football. People love football. So I guarantee you, especially with the Green Bay Packers following, if that was a created NFT, people will be flocking to that sucker. And then the first person they’ll buy, maybe they’ll buy it at a higher premium and never sell it and then leave it for their family and leave it as a legacy. So that way, as it grows and grows and grows and grows and grows and grows, much like owning a Bosquiat piece or much like owning a Jackson Pollock piece, then it becomes a family heirloom to where maybe 100 years down the road, someone sells it, but they’ll sell it for a few million or a few billion dollars, give or take inflation.

All right, going into intellectual property and patents, right? So we talked a little bit about trademarks, but what would NFT look like in patents? That’s another thing as well, too, right? I can say I created the first patent for the iPad, and then Apple will say, well, we created the first patent for iPad, or we already submitted our patent for review, and all this stuff that goes back and forth with the legal jargon behind creating the ownership of patents and trademarks and copyrights. And again, the NFT was created on the day of thought, the day of execution, right? It doesn’t have to be a completely finished model per se, but just to say you have access to the NFT and that ledger. Is then going to back it, because once you mint it, then it goes into the blockchain, and again it’s going to be kind of you can’t dispute it, right? So think of it from that standpoint. What would that look like as a user case analysis to then infiltrate NFT’s into patents, goods, and supply chains, right? Tracking, that’s a big thing. The US. Post office completely sucks ass, and I’ll be very frank about it.

You may send out something from 20 miles distance in Atlanta, and it may not even end up in Atlanta, right? I ordered something from Facebook marketplace that was in California. It disappeared. It never showed up. All the tracking information was all over the damn place. And they come to find out when they finally did find it, it went from California to Alabama back to another location, another city in California. I’m like, what the how is that even possible? How do you go from Cali to Alabama? Back to Cali and I’m in Atlanta. So imagine applying the blockchain NFTs into that formula, right? You’ll be able to then see where it goes, wherever it goes, however it goes. But the beautiful part of it is that it will be a public available transcription of every single stop. Now, right now you may put in a tracking number, and the tracking number should work, but sometimes the tracking is usually paused, right, until that driver essentially inputs that data in is kind of your waiting and pending. Okay. Like Amazon does it all the time. It’ll be there in two days, and on day two they’ll say, oh, it’s not out for shipping yet.

Day three is not out for shipping yet. Then day four like, hey, it’s not here in two days, then go ahead and cancel the deal because it hasn’t even left the factory. It hasn’t even left the warehouse as of yet, even though it’s two day shipping. So imagine infusing NFT’s into a tracking model for the blockchain. Well, sorry, that the blockchain for the supply chain, right? I think that’ll be a hell of a value, right. Another user case analysis would be like the metaverse and everybody that’s like a new keyword that everyone’s hearing metadata metaverse, and it’s not necessarily something new. It’s always been in existence, but Facebook is kind of pulling them all into one new brand, right? So metavers, let’s say, including virtual reality, augmented reality, right. Think about games like Fortnite, Skylander, Pokemon Go, which are all handheld games that could be played on mobile devices except for like, Skyland. Skyland was more so like a product, right? You actually had a figurine of a character, and you would use that figurine of a character to then infuse and play in the game, and you switch it out and it would switch out your characters, right?

Sounds like NFT art to me. Right. So that’s the other thing about NFT art right now is that people are then creating NFT art for marketing for their upcoming games. So they’re releasing the art of their characters for their games. And if you buy the NFT art, then you’ll be able to use the NFT art as that character inside of the game. It’s kind of like Pokemon, right? If I have multiple different Pokemon characters, I could use my Pokemon characters. As I see Pokemon Go is essentially you’re finding Pokemon hidden, right? So imagine you’re searching for NFTs, right? And these NFT’s are associated with Pokemon. And as you find NFT’s, if you’re the first one to find it, then essentially you have ownership of it. There’s so many different possibilities with this thing that it just blows my mind that if you don’t know about it, hopefully this episode is going to kind of help you to kind of make the wheels on the bus start turning, right? They make you sit down and be like, oh damn essay. I wish I would have thought about this before. Right? So again, this episode is essentially just to open up your mind to realize to plug into these damn NFT’s.

I’m not saying to go out there and create them. I’m not saying to go out there and buy them, but I’m saying at the bottom line, minimum, at least comprehend and understand that these things are here and they’re probably going to be here to stay. If they don’t stay, then they’re going to morph into something else based upon the technology. So if nothing else, please understand these principles. Collectibles. So collectible art, memorabilia, memories, digital fashion, all these things essentially falls underneath a great use analysis for NFT’s, right? Art. Well, the NFT art came to existence because of the whole art collection craze, right? So people always want to collect art. They’ve always been collecting art forever. And now they’ve merged technology with art, which is the gold mine for all artists, all creators, right? Memorabilia, baseball cards, basketball cards, football cards, basketball video clips of the whole company that has created a whole NFT craze just on the basketball highlight reels, right? So imagine football highlight reels. Imagine all the different variables of all the different sports all being created into entities to have ownership, right? It’s like you’re creating money out of nothing, essentially, right?

But again, the value is based upon the beholder. If you’re a really big basketball fan and you love the Chicago Bulls and you love Michael Jordan, well, imagine owning the original Schematic drawings for the Jordan ones in a digital PDF or a digital image. And that also came with a signed digital autograph from Michael Jordan himself. People that collect sneakerheads sneakerheads would lose their damn mind and probably spend millions of dollars on that one damn NFT, especially if it’s one of a kind. Please don’t lose their damn mind and they’ll be flocking to get access to that one NFT. Last but not least is like the tracking of ownership. And I said this keyword several different times. And I want you guys to think, I think it was like maybe in the late nineties, early 2000s, it was a website called where’s George and you was able to track money, right? Oh, I had a $20 bill and my $20 bill was in Alabama, it was in Tennessee, it was in Washington, it was in New York, and now I own that $20 bill. So it’s kind of like playing with money in a sense, tracking the history of the money, kind of figure out where did that money come from?

Well, if you like that platform, if you were into that craze about tracking dollar bills and running serial numbers. And again, I may not be talking to everyone, but I’m sure I’m talking to at least a person at the other end of this digital signal that you remember this craze about tracking money, right? It’s the same exact principle as NFCs. So again, I’m just trying to get you to comprehend the value add in the preposition of how to utilize these NFT’s. So imagine this whole where’s George.com and you’re tracking this $20 bills. Well, imagine scanning the $20 bills and converting them into NFPs. Well then it will be no problem to track them wherever they go, right? And then that doesn’t have to be money. It could be anything. It could be anything that’s digital. And that’s what’s crazy about it. If it has a digital signature, a digital pulse, if they take a picture on your cell phone, it can be a tweet, it could be a text message, it could be an image. And again, it goes back to the statement I said earlier. Yes, you could take a screenshot of it, but you’re not going to own it and be able to sell it for a value add.

And the beauty of having a tracking ledger to say that you are the physical owner and you can sell it because you own it, then by default, you’re transferring the value of that ownership to someone else, makes NFT’s hell of valuable versus just a simple ass screenshot. Much like if I just run in front of the White House and take a selfie, it does not mean I own the damn White House. It does not mean that I can’t do anything with the White House besides take a selfie in the front lawn behind the damn gate. All right, so just to recap, we covered what is NFT, essentially NFT, it’s just a digital ledger, right? Just keep that shit simple. You don’t have to get it too complex. When we get into the next version of details of entity, then we can dive that deep. But for right now, I just want you to think about having a digital ledger of ownership. That’s the basis of entities. And that ledger is then supported by verification by the blockchain, right? And the blockchain is just a series of computers that are computing the ownership, right? It’s verifying that a transaction was happening.

So it’s verifying your ledger. That is it. Bottom line, period. Yes, there’s other facets to it, yes, there’s other details that go into it, but at the simplest level, that’s all it is. Digital real estate. Much like regular real estate. If I own the deed to my house, then I can sell my house. If I own the ownership of my content, then I can sell my content. The more content that I have that has value, the larger my portfolio gets and the more monetization that I could possibly make. The same thing. If I own more properties, more turn keys, more apartments, more buildings, more commercial properties, then by default, the more money I would make for people renting it, people leasing it, people wanting to purchase it, right. Same exact principle. Put those two together, you have NFT’s, and you have your digital real estate portfolio. Number four, just who can gain? Essentially, I would say, I hate to say anybody and everyone, because it’s not for everyone. It’s not for anyone, but anyone that’s in the digital space. Anyone that’s in front of a computer. If you touch a computer at any given time of your day, and if you have a cell phone and you touch your cell phone, you take pictures.

And if you’re on social media, you need to dive into NFT’s, at least learn what the hell they are and then how you can use them for yourself. And number five is this is a case studies, and I’m not going to go through all these all over again, but I just want you to understand the cases that I went over, which is to open your mind to kind of think of all the possibilities and use case analysis that you can utilize NFT for running side by side with digital assets as well. So think about that. Good example to recap on was like the super ball. Well, imagine every super ball ticket being an NFT. There’s only a limited amount, right? There’s only been a limited amount of super balls. So let’s say total, and this is arbitrary number. Let’s say total from the first super bowl until the next super bowl. Let’s say there was only 10,000 tickets in creation. Every single ticket was a different year, a different team, a different city. Think about collecting that. Think about what would that look like as far as ownership? And you may think about, well, I got bills to pay, this down third and all that.

But essentially you’re looking at it as more of an investment, right? It’s much like looking at property. If I’m going to buy a property, it comes out of location, location, location, right. So it’s the same thing with the NFTs. What are the location? Not necessarily like the geolocation, but in reality of time frame. When does this ticket digital asset relate to something? It relates to football. It relates to Superball. It relates to a location. So there are three variables that make it very original. So to have ownership of it then gives value and then having the value of that, then you kind of sell it and monetize it and make money back from it. All day, all night. Especially you would want to create the original asset and then you’ll get royalties on that, right? So again, this is Essay Grant. Hopefully this information. Again, I just want your wheels on the bus to go turning comprehend it. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me and let me know. Was this helpful? Did you get a ha moment? And I want you to say, AHA, I got it, I understand it and if you don’t, then let me know.

Again, I’m going to create more videos about this topic and create videos about many other topics. But the goal would be NFT’s is here now and I think they’re definitely here to stay. So before the bandwagon kind of gets too fluctuated, at least comprehended you don’t have to invest in it, but at least understand the world that you live in and where the world’s going. SA Grant. Over and out. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Boss Uncaged. I hope you got some helpful insight and clarity to the diverse approach on your journey to becoming an engaged trailblazer. Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, review and share the podcast. If this podcast has helped you or you have any additional questions, reach out and let me know. Email me at ask@sagrant.com or drop me your thoughts via call or text at 76223 three boss. That’s 762-233-2677. I would love to hear from you. Remember, to become a Boston Cage, you have to release your inner beast. Essay Grant signing off.

Listeners of Boss Uncaged, you are invited to download a free copy of our host S.A. Grant insightful ebook, Become an Uncage Trailblazer. Learn how to release your primal success in 15 minutes a day. Download now at www.bossuncaged.com free book.

 

How Can I Use NFT’s To Increase The Value Of My Digital Real Estate Portfolio With S.A. Grant Of BOSS UP Q & A: Motivated & Focused Growth Edition – S2E62 (#90)2022-08-10T08:25:21+00:00

Publisher of the Life Masterpiece Journal: Charles Collins AKA The Craftsmanship Boss – S2E61 (#89)

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Boss Uncaged Podcast Overview

First, recognize that you are the craftsperson of your life and that you wish to take responsibility for the way you’re pursuing craftsmanship and living the way of the craftsman or the craftswoman. That acceptance of responsibility for becoming the craftsperson of your own life is that first step.
 
In Season 2, Episode 61 of the Boss Uncaged Podcast, S.A. Grant sits down with the Publisher of the Life Masterpiece Journal, Charles Collins.
 
Charles has been active for more than a decade in the personal development space as a best-selling author, podcast producer, and featured guest on more than 50 podcasts around the world. His written articles have appeared in Thrive Global, The Good Men Project, Change Becomes You, Personal Growth, The Ascent, and his own Life Masterpiece Journal.com. His “Life-as-a-Craft” personal development framework allows anyone to manage a healthy work-life balance, and make a masterpiece of their life. 

What I defined as a craftsman came from decades of investigation and study. And the definition is one who is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and developing one’s skills and one’s capabilities through incremental excellence, and that requires balance and process so that the end result that you deliver is a work of such high quality that it speaks for itself.
 
Don’t miss a minute of this episode covering topics on:
  • How to become the craftsman of your life
  • Great books that Charles is reading
  • What Charles’s work-life balance looks like
  • And So Much More!!!
 
Want more details on how to contact Charles? Check out the links below! 
 
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!

Boss Uncaged Podcast Transcript

S2E62 Charles Collins.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

Start there. Three, two, one. Welcome back to Boston Cage podcast on today’s show. We have a unique individual, so I’m going to deem him the Crown craftsmanship boss. And you may think craftsmanship in the sense of woodworking and hands on crafts, but I’m going to go ahead and let Charles tell you a little bit more about who he is and what he does. How are you doing today, Charles?

I’m great this morning. Thank you very much for having me on your program and look forward to bringing your audience a new and unique perspective on craftsmanship. Great.

So let’s just talk about, like, if you could define yourself in three to five words. What three to five words would you choose to define yourself a craftsman of my own life?

That’s definitely interesting. So let’s dive into this craftsmanship thing. Obviously, I’ve deemed you to craft a ship, boss. I’ve done some research on what you do, so I want you to kind of tell our audience a little bit more of a definition of what you define as a craftsman.

What I defined as a craftsman came from decades of investigation and study. And the definition is one who is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and developing one’s skills and one’s capabilities through incremental excellence, and that requires balance and process, so that the end result that you deliver is a work of such high quality that it speaks for itself.

I think that’s definitely like an homage to the standard craftsman, right? I mean, it’s all about the detailing, and it’s all about how the finished product comes to fruition and the steps that it takes to get there. So in your business, what steps are you taking to help people become Craftsmans of their life?

The first step was to give folks a framework by which they could understand craftsmanship as something far beyond the first definition that they normally relate to, that word that has something to do with a product that has been fashioned by hand, usually throughout all of human history. And I’m going back thousands of years now, craftsmanship has meant much more than things that were touched or fashioned when the human hand, the Greeks, the Japanese, the aspects of Mexico defined craftsmanship as excellence of execution at a very high level. And that had to do with everything it had to do with the way that you think it had to do with the way that you perform and do and work and the way that you actually live. So for a lot of people who have only come in to contact with the definition of craftsmanship in its simplest form, a product. The thing that I had to do was to create a place, an environment which is now the Life Masterpiece Journal, where people could go and understand that craftsmanship is a way of thinking, is a way of doing and is a way of living, and that in order to be able to apply craftsmanship to your own life in order to be the craftsperson of your own life. I had to give people a framework or a structure through which they could understand this at a deeper level and have an architecture to learn how to make a masterpiece of their own lives in the same way our trades, occupations and professions teach us that trade, occupation or profession. So what I fashioned was something that is very similar to the schooling, the training, whether it’s a trade school or University. It’s a similar idea that you go there and the body of knowledge of what you’re going to learn is put in front of you the stages of development that you’re going to go through to learn that is there for you to learn. And then the underlying principle of doing it with craftsmanship is also there, both in written articles and in audio articles which you’ve seen on the site so that people have a place to go and to take this on board rather than it just disappearing after our conversation is finished.

Great. So I think obviously this particular topic, I would definitely say it’s one of your passions. I can hear it when you’re defining it. You have everything articulated in such a fashion that I know you’ve done it 1000 times over. Well, let’s just time travel back a little bit. How did you get into this profession? Like, when did it start?

It did not start as a profession. It started as a challenge, and the challenge was put to be by a six year old young girl who pinned me against the wall in the kitchen one day and said, dad, what’s the purpose of my life? Wow. And if you’ve ever been there as a Guardian or a parent or an uncle or anything, you just start to either give them an answer that sounds cool or you start to say, Wait a minute. What do I really need to teach this young human being in terms of the breadth of skills and the foundation in order to deal with all the situations of life that are going to come before her in a skillful craftsmen, workmanlike manner rather than in a state of panic and meltdown. Right. And panic and meltdown comes when you do not understand the circumstance of the moment that you are in and you do not have the skill set to work through it in a step by step, well managed way. So when you don’t have that framework to deal with something, you melt down. When you do have that framework to deal with something, it becomes second nature. You just simply take care of the circumstance of situation. Move on to the next thing. Right. And that comes to training, skill and practice.

Yeah. I think we definitely share some commonalities. I think our terminologies are different based upon what our philosophies are, but much like I created Boston Cage, it was for me to create a legacy for my kids and for also other entrepreneurs to have documentation of different journeys so they can understand philosophies of business structures in Multifacets. So that’s what you’re doing. But you’re more so like you’re sculpting you’re doing it from an artist’s standpoint. And I definitely like the analogies and the terminology that you’re using because it is art. It is a form of art. And I think a lot of people don’t see it that way, but I think you’re giving people an opportunity to understand that business could be perceived as art. So I definitely commend you on terming things that way and presenting it that way is definitely fruitful.

Well, you know, I’m sorry. Go ahead.

No, I’m listening. Go ahead.

So the first thing that comes to people’s mind is they associate craftsmanship with as you just deemed it as art, but it is actually art and science. Craftsmanship requires science because craftsmanship by its fundamental nature, no matter what trade, crafts or profession you are in, requires that you have almost a molecular level knowledge of the material of the crafts that you’re going to be working in. You go deep. I don’t care if it’s wood or the law or medicine or podcasting and communications. You have to go deep into that material and understand all of its nuances and elements. If you are going to be able to skillfully manipulate that material with the tools of the trade and the craft, now, that’s universal. If we go back to the statement you just made about your journey and you use the words legacy and you use the words Journal and recording. Let me take you into traditional craftsmanship. In the fourth stage of craftsmanship, it starts with apprenticeship is stage one. Journey. Work is stage two. Master works is stage three, and mentorship is the final four stage the end game of mentorship in your trade craft and in your life craft is to leave a legacy of artifacts, tools and processes that are packaged in an elegant craftsman like way for the next generation to take up, learn from and build upon. So you just gave us in your work the absolute quintessential definition of the craftsmen, definitely.

I think just by listening to you speak, I mean, obviously you’re a motivational speaker. Your choice of words are very impactful to any listener, because I think that you kind of have, like, a philosopher mentality, but you’re delivering these steps very clearly and very elegantly. So let’s just talk about like that’s the positive side. Right. So any time you get into a space of coaching and helping someone, a lot of times, you may get some resistance. You may get some negative feedback with a particular it may be one out of ten. It may be one out of 20. What is your worst experience that you’ve had first hand dealing with coaching someone in becoming a craft?

Well, the first response to that is, I do not have a one on one coaching practice. I simply don’t. It’s not my particular calling, and I don’t have those circumstances. I raised a child that did it for me. That was plenty of one on one coaching because my child is still alive and well. She’s a young woman. She’s the crass woman of her own life. She has her own two year old baby who’s coming up and in a couple of years, her baby is going to pin her against the wall and say, mom, what’s the purpose of my life? However, that said, there have been people to your point, which the most difficult thing for those that are in that role who want you to craft their life for them, that becomes the most difficult, in my opinion, the most difficult thing. And this happens in business all the time. When we go into our the reason that this exists is it came out of me observing in great depth the trade, occupations and professions, our businesses, in our businesses. It’s the one area of our lives, our companies and what we do in those companies as craftsmen and craftsmen. And this is one area of our lives where the human species for thousands of years has gotten very deep into defining the body of knowledge that has to be learned the processes we’re going to apply to this particular company and trade how to manage the workshop, which is the company, right. So we have done an amazing job structuring this, but we never take that beautiful structure and process and skill out to the rest of our lives. So when you’re in the work environment, which most of us spend a great deal of our time in one of the most difficult elements, number one is for a manager of that workshop, a manager in that business to have to deal with a young journeyman or journey woman, or they could be a master, usually not, but journeyman or journeywoman who effectively is not been well trained and is basically asking you to take over for them and to direct them and give them to basically craft their own circumstance. And I think getting the message across to people, look, you are the craftsperson of your own life. You must take responsibility for building your skills and practice through incremental practice and excellence. And you must have the result of your work be the center of your pride. I’m not going to craft your life or your work for you. You have to do it on your own. So now here’s the framework within which to do it. If bosses don’t provide the framework in the workshop of their company, for these young craftsmen and crafts women to take responsibility for their work and put it forward. Pridefully, they’re going to carry a heavy load by carrying other people’s burdens in that company. Wow.

So let’s talk about companies for a minute. Since that was your last note that you ended on, how was your company structured? Is it an LLC.

An S Corp. Or a C Corp. My current company is an LLC. All this work that I’m doing, which is technically intellectual property. I’m making sure that even though I’m putting it out to the world as a product and the way that I’m monetizing, it is different than other approaches, mostly because I want to provide the content to the world because craftsmanship says you do quality work for yourself and then a true craftsman. To wear that label, you have to put that work out for the benefit of society at large. And if it impacts society in a positive way, then you can call yourself a craftsman or a craftswoman. If it doesn’t impact society in a positive way, you don’t have the right to wear that label. So in order to protect that, I’ve developed it as an LLC.

So I think one of the key things, as you said in how you monetize it. So if you don’t mind, let’s just talk about that. How are you monetizing your current deliverables.

The channel that I’m currently using, the channel that I’m going to continue to use is in the written articles, the written content. So two elements out of this work have been created as books, and those books are available on the Amazon platform. And there are people who are going and purchasing those books because they want the condensed version of my life masterpiece or the way of Craftsmanship. And so that’s one operational way to monetize intellectual property. The second way that I’m doing it is on a publishing platform called Medium. Com. And for those listeners that are not familiar with that, you become an article publisher. You can actually set up your own publication, and then you can put those works out and become part of their affiliate program and monetize your writings and your work through people reading it as members of medium. So that’s the second way that it’s being monetized. And now there’s a third way that we’re starting to think about, which is the possibility of merchandise associated with the ideas and the phrases and the focus of the work. Like Craftsmanship and My life is a masterpiece in the making those types of things that could be put on merchandise because people like having this reminder, seeing it on their phone or on their laptop cover or something. They like having those reminder things coming back. And so we’re looking at that now as a third channel got you.

Well, definitely insightful information. So let’s talk about the perception of the status quo status quo. Someone may see this podcast. They may hear you speaking, and it may be like, wow, this guy is very astute he knows his topic. He delivers it in such a fashion that I understand I comprehend, and I’m learning from him. But maybe they’ve never heard of you before. To them, maybe a perception of an overnight success. But in reality, this journey has taken a period of time. How long have you been on your journey to get you to where you currently are.

On this, specifically on the way of craftsmanship and life as a craft. 35 years. Wow. I didn’t put it out into the public domain 35 years ago. I’ve just begun putting it into the public domain in little bits and pieces. But now, in a more concerted effort through the good offices of podcast hosts like yourself, that I have a chance to speak with. Podcast hosts are great people because they’re very switched on, very engaged in what’s going on, want to learn and pull the information out of me. And that’s what really helps people understand the work. If people will come and see the work and come up against it, and they don’t have the background of this kind of a conversation, they will have to be very self starters to look at that and say, I’m going to go in deep and I’m going to go after it. Someone listening to this podcast, two human beings having a deeper conversation about what it went in to make that work. That might be a catalyst to take them over and say, I want to experience this work now firsthand. So the 35 years is me constantly working at it and thinking about it. But it’s relatively a recent release.

So if time travel was possible and you can go back 35 years anytime in that 35 year span, is there one thing that you would want to change if you could do it all over again?

Yeah. I think the one thing I’d love to change is that I would have had all of this knowledge back then and somebody would have dropped it on my desk at age 33 with my daughter pinned me against the wall in the kitchen, and I would have realized, gosh, this does not have to be trial and error or fly by seat of my pants life by terror encounter. There is actually a structure here that’s equally well put together as my trade as my occupation, my profession, and it has steps and it has processes and it has incremental excellence. I now have a framework by which to go forward and build my household, my family, our family wealth, our family management and relationships. All of those things would have had a context. Prior to that. It was like too many people. It’s like, I have no plan and I’m sticking to it.

Definitely very interesting. Obviously. I think that your season in the sense of understanding business, understanding structures you’re on this entrepreneurial journey. Did that come from any ancestors in your past? Is your mum, your dad? Any one of them entrepreneurs?

My dad? Oh, yeah. He was definitely an entrepreneur financially, very successful. I went on to build and sell multi million dollar companies myself. Several of them. I’m not on Forbes list of wealthiest 400 by any stretch of the imagination, but not only the spirit of the entrepreneur as to why you want to build something yourself and take it out, so to speak, as unrestricted as possible. But he did teach me the principles of the entrepreneurship in a structured format. His company was a business and industrial consultancy that would go into other companies and look at their business processes and literally realign and reengineer those processes for a smoother functioning. People are listening to this and know business processes, especially from the Toyota quality Systems and Kaizen and those types of things that’s the world that he worked in. So that’s the world that I learned got you.

So I would think that is a part of the journey, but it’s also part of your key to success. I mean, having that foresight from your father in those industries and being around him kind of helped you become who you are today. Is that a true statement?

Yeah. There’s no question about that. I say in the way of craftsmanship in the work and life as a craft, as presented, there are five key elements which create the framework or the structure of the knowledge that you need to manage in your lifetime. And they’re broken into five master categories. And the first category, element, one of five elements is called family and personal heritage. That’s element one and family and personal heritage has within it like a dozen or so subtopics family symbols, family tree and genealogy and family culture and history where you came from and what you are. The reason for this is that we the human being, which is the life, the craft that we’re building at the end of the day ourselves, that family heritage, where you came from, the family you came from, how it was managed, the values that they instilled upon you. That is the first master impression on the blueprint that is your life that they’re giving to you to work on as you start getting older. So from my father, just as probably from your parents and or family members extended potentially, however, that is, those are the things that start us and move us initially, and sometimes they’ll be very well structured examples, meaning those people were very good at what they did, and we now had a great mentor to teach us something. Or perhaps they were not very good at what they did, no matter what it was being a parent or work, and that could have had the impact there’s the story of the two brothers. One is a derelict and an addict, has an addiction, trouble and problems. And the other one is a surgeon and a doctor, very highly decorated, known in his craft, his trade. And when asked what had the impact on you for doing that, they both said Our father and their father was an alcoholic. And so the one brother who was an attic, he said, how did you expect that? I was going to turn out look at the model that I had and the other brother, who was the surgeon, said, how did you expect that I was going to turn out look at the model that I had. It’s a very good fellow, I’m saying, but that comes down from that, definitely.

So talking about just this family in general, how do you currently juggle your family life or your general life with your work life?

So at this stage, the good news is that I’m in the fourth phase of life as a craft. So I’m in the mentorship phase, which is age 65 to 85 and beyond. So at this phase in life, a lot of people will recognize that there’s more free time, especially if the young ones have now gone out and they’re building their own homes and workshops and having their own children and doing those types of things. So at this point, the amount of freedom that I have in my day to be able to pursue this and then go be a grandfather and whatnot is significantly more comfortable in terms of time. It’s not as comfortable when the baby’s getting heavier and older and I’m trying to pick a rough, but it’s much different than when I was a young journeyman 25 to 45, making my way in the world and having my family and my job was taking ten or eleven or 12 hours out of my day in which I only had a few hours to turn around and think. Now I have to be skilled at a parent or skilled at this other thing. And there wasn’t enough hours on that day. That was always a burden. That’s the endurance phase of life as a craft, age 25 to 45. That’s when you get the heat of the day and you’re back and you better be strong and you have to endure very nice.

So going into, like routines, I would think that you’re a very structured individual by the philosophy that you’re talking about. I think each one of these principles you have to be structured in nature to make these things effective. So what are your morning habits and your morning routines?

My morning routine is pretty much the same thing. Every day, there’s rising, there’s personal grooming, then breakfast with the wife, the family as might be. So those are fundamental things. Then there is the work day when I sit at my workbench first thing in the morning and on my workbench are going to be the day’s events. I use a task manager that has the tasks laid out for the day, which have been preset through planning. So planning obviously is critically important in craftsmanship, because if you don’t know what that destination is going to be and the end result that you are looking for in your business and your life, then you’ve got no plan and you’re sticking to it. Anything goes so simple. Task management, for me is after boiling everything down for years and years and years is the most effective way to move through my day and not too many tasks because you have to leave yourself time for what the craftsman call deep work. You need to be able to go in for more than half an hour. There are at least Pomodoro programs, which they try to get you away from your desk every 25 minutes and do different things. And that’s okay at different times and stages throughout your life. But I have to tell you that to achieve the level of internal flow when executing your work, that you become one with your work in time and in space, and you’re moving in a unified fashion. That’s when, as a craftsman or craftswoman, you’re achieving a state of art and you are just in the zone. Now you need time to get in the zone, and then you need to spend time in the zone. So a critical part of that day planning or that routine is to not allow the distractions of the world to interfere with you getting in the zone and being a craftsman and a craftsworm, because when you come out of that zone, I’m telling you, you’re richer for it.

Wow. So. Just based upon what you just said, it seems like you’re really big on intake. Obviously, I would think with the intake, there may be different values to that. There may be audiobooks, they may be books, they may be articles. So this question is posed to you because I have a book club. So I usually ask this question on three parts. First part is what books have you read to help you get to where you are? What books are you currently reading right now? And the third part is that what books have you particularly published yourself?

The books that I’ve read that have helped to get me to where I am in this particular work that I’m doing. Life as a craft were hundreds of books about makers. I’m talking about books, of how to build a stone wall, literally in which the tradesman is showing you illustrations of how to take a particular stone and lay it into the wall and interlock it with another one with no mortar and build that wall. And I would go into something as your audience is probably going, this guy’s what when you go deep into a craftsman or craftswoman’s work and their trade, you start to see the same universal principles of they know their material, they know their processes well, and they use their tools with skill to execute a finished product of high quality. So I read hundreds of books on trades by tradesmen and trades, women, textile, weavers, woodworkers, financial. I would read things by financial people about what they call financial craftsmanship. Believe it or not, they’re using these terms. So those are the books in the past that affected me the most. As I started to build this idea that life is a craft, the books that I’m currently reading now are more article based, individual pieces of articles that may have a snippet on it or about it, in which I can identify another explanation or an alternative way of words that end up describing the same fundamental principles of craftsmanship. So I’m always looking to in my current to test are these three simple phases of material process and practice, and the tools of the trade skillfully used. Are those still the universal principles that I find everywhere. And so far I’m finding it nothing has changed that framework yet. And the books that I’ve written are two. One is making a masterpiece of your life, the art and science of the way of craftsmanship and living that way. And that’s kind of like almost like a workshop manual. Here’s the five elements of the life, the trade of life. And here are the function and the elements within it. So it’s used as a reference, so to speak. And the second book was The Way of Craftsmanship, the Dow of the craftsman, and that takes the reader into a journey across seven different locations in the world. And there’s an audio version of this to talk and show how craftsmanship and its principles, even though by different names, is the same everywhere and always has been, and that all of us are craftsmen or craftswoman in something in our lives that we’ve done, that we had to study and practice. I don’t care. Was downhill skiing or was skateboarding or was your trade or your profession? Everyone has that if they understand and recognize it and then realize I can use that understanding to go learn something else. Wow.

So I think with those two books, right, they’re definitely taking what you’re doing until your point, you’re consolidating, right. And you’re building a legacy on your own by just creating these books and creating this environment. Where would you see yourself in your business 20 years from now?

I probably would have closed the workshop and turned off the lamp for the last time, and I probably would have walked up the Hill at the end of that 20 years and lifted off and left only a Lantern behind to light the way. Wow.

That brings me into, like, final words of wisdom. Right. And I think just starting off with that closing out with leaving a Lantern to lead the way. If I am just 18 or 35 or 60 years old and I’m listening to this podcast and I’m being inspired by your words, your insight. And I’m reaching out to you and I’m asking you, okay. I’m at a crossroad in my life in my career, and I want to become more of a craftsman. What insight would you deliver to me to keep me on that path?

First, recognize that you are the crafts person of your life, which kind of sounds like what you just said and that you wish to take responsibility for the way or pursuing craftsmanship and living the way of the craftsman or the craftswoman, so that acceptance of responsibility for becoming the craftsperson of your own life is that first step. So let’s say you’ve made that step. I wish to craft my life and make it a masterpiece. The second important critical step is you now must seek out your mentors, find those who teach the skills for the particular areas of life as a craft in order for you to apprentice. Because if you do not apprentice and learn the trade and then go on to practice that trade and incrementally improve your skills and use your tools of the trade skillfully, you will get nowhere. You are not following the way of craftsmanship. So if you wish to build a masterpiece, strap on that tool belt. Because making a masterpiece is not a simple thing, making a masterpiece takes skill. It takes commitment to turn a vision of yourself into a tangible result. And craftsmanship is about delivering a tangible result to the world in a work which speaks for itself that others in society will benefit from. If you achieve that, you can probably wear the label of craftsmen or craftswoman. Otherwise, you’re simply a skilled artisan. Definitely.

It’s kind of just listed to you. It’s kind of like kind of like Aristotle. To a certain extent, you’re delivering like these philosophies on a higher level. And people like, when you say something, you have to really stop and think about what you said. So I would commend anyone that’s listening to this particular episode. Certain times when Charles speaks, you’re going to have to stop it and rewind and listen to it two or three, maybe four or five, six times to actually not only articulate his action items that he’s delivering, but the comprehension and the direction he’s pointing you into. And I definitely appreciate your insights. So, I mean, how could people find you online? Like what’s? Your Facebook, your website?

Yes. Mylifemasterpiece. Com will drop them at the Lifemasterpiece Journal, which is my final work where all of the content is being accumulated. There they’ll find the articles there. They’ll find links to the audio collection they’re called podcasts, but they’re really not. They’re me delivering articles and so forth. Or if they want to go there directly, they can go to podcast mylifemasterpiece. Com if they just want to directly consume the audio version. Right.

Wonderful. So let’s get into some bonus questions.

Great.

And the particular question I’m going to ask you, I think you’re going to have a very unique answer. Fingers crossed, no pressure at all. If you could spend 24 hours with anyone dead or alive, uninterrupted for those 24 hours.

Who would it be and why it would be a master craftsman or craftswoman of their trade. They are Legion. They are invisible, and I identified and knew them because I came in contact with their work and their work drew me into their life. And I would spend the 24 hours simply in the presence of their work. Wow.

That’s something like to the point that I made earlier. It’s one of those things you have to kind of rewind and listen to it so many times to really get the in depth measure of what you’re trying to say. It’s crazy. I definitely appreciate that. So if you could be a superhero, who would it be? And why.

The farmer and I would be the farmer? Because they are a craftsman or craftswoman that deals with an organic material, just as you, the craft person of your own life, are dealing with your human being, your body and your inner human being that is your craft material. It’s organic. And that farmer has learned to be a steward and a curator of the ultimate organic material, which is the Earth.

So my last bonus question for you, what is your most significant achievement to date?

I am well on the way to making a masterpiece of my life and my child and her family have this work before them and available to them for now and going forward when I’ve left that lamp on the Hill and that I am confident that the work is available to the greater society at large so that they too, may benefit by it. So the achievement is I feel I can confidently call myself a craftsman. Wow. Definitely.

Well, I definitely appreciate all the insightful answers that you’ve delivered. This is the time in the podcast that I’ll give the microphone to you, and if you have any questions for me, this will be the time to do it.

Yeah. I think the question that I would ask you is on your journey. You’re making a masterpiece of your life, the work that you are doing, the extent of the work it’s prolific and what you are bringing to your audience. And I’m going to assume that you are in the journey work phase of life, which would be age 25 to 45. So as a journeyman, you are in the endurance phase, you’re in the building phase, you are establishing the foundation. So when you reach age 45 and cross into the masterworks phase of your life for the next 20 years and are literally delivering masterpieces and master plans. What have you got ready for yourself in the masterwork phase? Because the journey work you are doing is phenomenal.

I think that’s probably one of the most difficult questions I ever had because to your point, being on the journey phase versus the master phase, and I always deemed myself to be a lifelong journeyman that even while I become a master, I’m still going to be on a journey. And I know that I’m going to hit another fork because I’ve hit several Forks on my journey to get me to where I am like my boss and cage journey currently only started relatively about a year and a few months ago. But I’ve been on the journey of entrepreneurism and everything since about 2000. So being that this phase that I’ve just stepped into is probably the most prolific and the most impactful phase that I’ve ever been in my entire life. But I think it’s only the dawn of what I’m going to be able to achieve and do to your point once I cross over 45. So to answer your question directly, I want to commit to continuously journey. If that is the opportunity for me to continue on this journey, take the Forks as they come and create more insightful information and be able to deliver more to my audience and deliver more of a legacy to my family until my last breath.

Yeah, that’s the way of craftsmanship. I mean, that is the journey of craftsmanship. When you move into the masterworks phase of life, age 45 to 65 and you look over your shoulder at the work that you’re doing now in the journey work phase of your life, you are going to start crystallizing during that 20 year period, something very important to that phase and life as a craft. And I’ll leave you with that thought as to what’s waiting for you. Nice and what’s waiting for you is a task to be accomplished in the masterwork’s phase of life, which is the creation of your master’s Journal. And I’m not going to tell you what that is that’s for you to seek. Wow.

Well, Charles, I definitely appreciate everything you brought to the table today and just taking the time off your schedule to not only to be on my podcast, but to influence my listeners, but to also influence myself and motivate me and even give me some coaching indirectly, to kind of put me to where I’m going to be 20 years from now and the fact that you have that kind of foresight and that insight to even deliver that message, it comes from open arms and I embrace it. Thank you very much.

You’re most welcome. Essay. Thank you.

All right. Essay, Grant. Over and out it’s.

Publisher of the Life Masterpiece Journal: Charles Collins AKA The Craftsmanship Boss – S2E61 (#89)2022-07-13T18:46:04+00:00

Owner Of Angela Photography and Fine Art: Angela Murray AKA The Photography Boss – S2E60 (#88)

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Boss Uncaged Podcast Overview

Owner Of Angela Photography and Fine Art: Angela Murray AKA The Photography Boss – S2E60 (#88)
“Be moldable and teachable. Look for some mentors that you admire and that you are willing to work for – suck up as much knowledge as you can.
In Season 2, Episode 60 of the Boss Uncaged Podcast, S.A. Grant sits down with the Owner of Angela Photography and Fine Art, Angela Murray.
Angela Murray is a photographer and mixed media artist. She specializes in commercial photography as well as fine art prints and paintings.
Angela started as an actress that transitioned to a model who later found her passion behind the lens. After finishing her courses in Photography at the Art Institute of Atlanta, she dove headfirst into establishing her experience in the field.
I came out really enjoying photography, fashion, and music, but I didn’t know how to get a job. I looked at Music Midtown, and I looked at who the publicist was, and I emailed her that I had a little website. She actually checked out my website and gave me a shot. My first shot, actually, and said, come out to Music Midtown, photograph whoever you want there. I was lucky enough to photograph some bigger names.
Don’t miss a minute of this episode covering topics on:
  • Shooting your shot to get your first shot
  • Great books that Angela is reading
  • What Angela’s work-life balance looks like
  • And So Much More!!!
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Boss Uncaged Podcast Transcript

S2E60 Angela Murray.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

You have some shadows around your glasses?

Yeah. I just reset up my lights and I changed the hanging from the ceiling now, so.

I need to bring them is more centered. I mean, glasses are hard because they’re reflective.

Yeah, I try to keep it pretty easy. The lights are right here, and I got to follow the lights in this room.

All right.

So you ready?

Yeah, I’m ready. Do it.

Three, two, one. Welcome back to Boss and Cage podcast. Today’s show is a pretty cool show. I’ve known Angela, probably. It’s been like, maybe 1516 years. We kind of all started out at our Institute of Atlanta. I met her way of Paul, which you guys heard in last season. So by default, you know, in that space, she’s a photographer, but she’s way more than just an average photographer. And I was just talking to her before the show started. And I was kind of like making a joke like, you’re not a triple threat.

You’re more like a quadrility trip. And what that really means is that she’s a photographer. She’s a mom. She’s also a painter. She’s also a woodworker, and she does the occasional modeling as well, too. So I don’t know how many levels of threats that is, but that’s a lot of threats. Let’s just jump into the tell people a little bit more about who you are.

Well, I think you threw out a lot of who I am right there, which seems like a lot. And I actually started as an actress. That’s probably a little known fact about me always wanted to act growing up. And it was during my acting period that someone saw me jumping on a bed at a casting. And just like that energy and said, hey, I need another model. Do you want to try modeling? And back then when you’re young, you’re not afraid. So you just kind of say yes to everything.

So I said yes. And from there, that photographer ended up becoming my mentor as we were on set. He taught me a lot about he said, Well, what are you thinking right now? I guess I had the blank face on. So that was not good. So I started asking him questions, like, what does that light meter do? And why do you put that reflector over there? And I really found over time that I wanted more creative, say, I didn’t want to be always just told what to do.

I wanted to take a little bit of the control back. And so that is when I went, I had already graduated from undergraduate from UGA. So then I went back to Art Institute, where I met so many people. It was a great networking experience, learning experience and got the basics of photography. I didn’t have the business of photography class, so that really I hear from some that would have been helpful, but I had to do the basics, and they just kind of throw you out there and you kind of sink or swim, right?

I don’t know if you had a different experience with that part.

Yeah, completely different. I don’t knock artists to Atlanta because it gave me my design principles, even though I came from a design background previously. But after graduation is when my real journey started in business development, business strategy. So all that came post graduation.

You don’t know, how do you actually get a client, you know how to design for them or to photograph for them. But you don’t know all the basics of how do you price things? How do you make an estimate and that kind of stuff? I thought it was a good base, but I either thought people had to do more on the business side or you kind of went to trial by fire, and I had, like, a trial by fire experience, but it was good.

So I think you kind of gave a little bit of your origin story, right. So you kind of found photography kind of through leadership. Right. So now that you have photography under your tool belt and you’re talking about your business, what does your business really look like? Because you have multiple different facets. But how did you work your photography side of the business?

So with photography, I came out really enjoying photographing, fashion and music. I have passion for music. My brother is a drummer. My ex husband was a musician, and so I wanted to do both those things. So I didn’t know how to get a job. But I looked at Music Midtown, the old Music Midtown before it came back, and I looked at who the publicist was. And it was Karen West, and I emailed her, and I had a little website. If we could see that website now, it would be a testament to how far it’s come, I hope.

But she actually checked out my website and gave me a shot. My first shot, actually, and said, Come out to Music Midtown, photograph whoever you want there. And I was lucky enough to photograph some bigger names. Snoop was probably one of the biggest names I got to photograph, and that led to the AJC calling and saying, we need some images from this. And Karen said, Well, I’m a photographer, so I was able to pick a couple of bands that I had photographed that I liked the images of and submit those.

And that actually led to working with those bands. Those bands reached out and said, we would love to have those images, and we would love to have you out to shoot something else of us. And so I worked that music angle. And in the meantime, I also photographed. I contacted magazines because I liked fashion, and I wanted to shoot fashion editorials. And let me tell you, when you’re young, you’ll do stuff for nothing. As you probably know, the seasoned people hate us. But I was able to get paid to photograph events for magazines.

And I remember actually a professor telling me, don’t get pigeonholed into events. But what I did at the event ended up happening naturally, is that it was a great networking tool, and people would come up and they would want their picture that I had taken of them. And somehow you meet people and they think because you can take a candidate of them that you can photograph their jewelry line or you can photograph their line of hands. So it’s not that I didn’t have a small bit of experience in school, but I went ahead and took those jobs.

And Meanwhile, I was trying to assist bigger photographers, and I ran into a bit of a wall with that. A lot of people didn’t want to hire a female. I know it sounds crazy, but we have to carry a good bit of equipment and sandbags. I’m pretty small as you can see. And some people didn’t think that I could carry what the other people could carry and actually did have one female photographer not hire me because she said, women cry too easily.

So.

I said, you know what? I’m going to just start shooting if people don’t want to hire me as an assistant. And I did have a few. I had Jason Ivany, who has a studio that I work out of the Ambient plus studio. He was nice enough to hire me. He thought that I was good on set with people and his subjects. And he said, sometimes you can get more out of them by talking to them. And he was more of an introvert. So he was like, you get my guys to stay longer and shoot longer.

So I’ll have you out and I would try to prove myself and carry all the standbags that the guys would carry. But in later years, I actually hire or, I guess, mentor a lot of female photographers or upcoming female photographers. And that’s the reason it’s an industry that can be very catty. And even sometimes the female photographers are afraid of you taking their work. So I feel like I could have gotten farther if other older photographers have given me more of a chance to assist and to learn more quickly of how they had gotten where they did.

And I think giving back to that next generation is pretty important.

So I think you alluded to something, right? I mean, obviously you dealt with sexism in a sense, for both male and female in that photography space, and you overcame those hurdles, and you kept pushing forward and pushing through. So what was the worst experience that you’ve experienced as a photographer? And I think you remember I asked Paul the same question, Paul way left. I’m just wondering, as a photographer, right? You probably deal with crazy things from nudity to probably random liquor. So what is the worst or the most intriguing experience you’ve experienced in photography?

Yeah. It’s hard to nail down one. But there were certain things in my industry that I felt I had to hide. For instance, I have three children, and I would hide each of my pregnancies as long as I could, because I actually had people say, oh, you have a kid, so you probably can’t travel with us on the road to tour, or, oh, she’s pregnant. So she may not show up. And I had actually photographed in New York with a company. And it was one of those times where I had the worst morning sickness.

So we were shooting, and I would be like, oh, I just need to use the restroom 1 minute, and I would go and throw up, and I would come back and they wouldn’t know, actually went to labor on set, and I hid that as well. But the second one, Paul, was there, actually, and the model was pregnant, too. It was for Pregnancy and Newborn magazine. She wanted to sit on the stool because she was, like, four and a half months pregnant, and she took my stool, and I said, Paul, I need my stool back.

I’m in labor. You got to get that thing for me. I have a bigger need for it. But as far as I went off to kind of on the female experience of working in my industry. But as far as crazy, there’s instances where this was obviously before the me, too stuff. It started with modeling. A lot of the soccers that came out as harassing models were photographers that were familiar to me.

So.

Unfortunately, I felt like a lot of the people that hired them, the magazines that hired them knew you kind of know what’s going on. And all of a sudden, me, too, came along and everybody jumped on the bandwagon. I was like, oh, no, we’re not going to hire him again. But we’ve been hiring him for 20 years knowing what he’s doing. So I was a bit disappointed with our industry that it took so long. There’s instances where we would be on set, and Paul would lean over to me and be like, you know, they keep asking you to party because they’re into you, like, this couple wants to take you with them.

And I was like, oh, yeah, I kind of got that. But I just really need to get the shot. So sometimes you have to just stay focused. There are times, and there’s been some celebrities that I felt like didn’t treat my assistance like they should. And so at the end of the shoot, when they say, oh, yeah, after the Grammys, you can come out to my studio and shoot me. Thank you. But no, thank you. So I think there’s a lot of ways you can treat people, and there’s a lot of craziness that does happen in my industry.

But really, to me, I’m always focused on the outcome of the photo shoot. I love to have fun on set. So if we can do that, that’s great. But I’ve been put into every instance of the art director saying to me before we go, hey, I’m really excited about this Ducks Unlimited shoe, which is for glasses and fashion. I’m a little worried for you being in there with the alligators, and I’m like, Wait, alligators. And then he’s like, yeah, I’m going to be in the boat, but you’re going to be in the Marsh with the alligators and actually have your assistant bring his gun.

And I was like, okay, I don’t know if I’m getting paid enough for some of this. I’ve had it all. I’ve had a model that had no bra to bring to her shoot. So all of a sudden, 34 B became my bra that we had to. So I said I envisioned myself shooting braless, but here I am. So it’s a little bit of everything. And celebrities I find can be great. They can be difficult. A lot of the D levels are some of the most difficult ones.

I don’t sometimes know who I’m even shooting, and they’re like, no, I’m not going to drink. I can’t drink that. Nasani. I only drink Fiji water. We have had those instances for sure. You can’t play certain people’s music because that artist doesn’t like it, or they have a risk going on. It’s definitely good to know history of that kind of thing.

You just listed off a lot of things that you had to overcome, right. So in overcoming these hurdles, do you think it’s a testament to your experience level, that understanding that these things may happen, or is it just a testament to who you are on a personal level?

I think it’s a testament to how bad I wanted to succeed, how much I enjoyed doing what I did and my drive to get there and reading. I just finished this book, The Year of yes, by Shonda Rhimes. And I’m in a period myself where I’m changing from photography to painting and woodworking. And I couldn’t believe that someone like Shonda Rhimes, who had two major shows already under her belt, had self esteem issues.

And.

I struggle with the same thing. I don’t know if you remember my message to you was like.

Well, I’m planning on bringing it up before the show was out. Yeah.

Can I bring someone else on? How about let’s spotlight Paul with let’s spotlight Kamani, who is in my industry. So sometimes taking the spotlight is hard for me. I’m now used to being more behind the camera and enjoying directing others. So just like a lot of creatives in my industry and people in general, I struggle with self confidence. And so when I was younger, I found the confidence in my ability to be a photographer. I knew I could make you look good. I knew that. And so I would push through any kind of personal self esteem issues because I knew I could get the job done.

So now Segwaying into other industries. That crisis of not having the confidence that I need has come up again. And I’m really encouraged, actually, that very successful women and people in general have dealt with that even after achieving a level of success. Actually, we went to talk that Annie Leeboitz did, and she was saying that she used to be afraid to ever say no to a job and that it would go to someone else. She will lose opportunities. She will lose her edge.

And.

I definitely had that, too. I kind of said yes to a lot of stuff, and it did end up opening a lot of doors for me. And now, through reading a lot of books, I’ve realized I need to learn how to say no and saying no is even harder. But it will get you to the next level. It can help get you to the next level and you gain self esteem. That’s a long answer to your question.

But it goes to the point, right? I mean, when I originally reached out to you, I was like, yeah, sure. And then literally, it was like, a couple of days before the show, and you were just kind of like, well, let me share the spotlight. And to your point, learning to say no. Like, if I was younger, I’d have been like, okay, and I’m like, hell no to the point to where we’ve been about maybe, like, 20 minutes into this episode. And you’ve delivered so many Nuggets.

You’ve delivered inspiration. You delivered woman empowerment. You’ve delivered like, just the struggles that you’ve overcame. What would it look like if somebody else is in this conversation right now, like, these Nuggets would have been missed. So just understanding that I think another thing that you talked about was about our hour seems to be pretty long, but we already, like, halfway through an hour already comfortable without even thinking about it. So I definitely commend you for pushing through and sticking to it, because again, I think you’re delivering valuable insight for other women that are listening to this podcast.

They’re a lot like you, in a sense, right. Whether it’s suffering from depression or whether it’s suffering from identity or whatever it is. To your point, everybody that’s successful has been through all these things multiple times, and it kind of showed the testament to you. I mean, you’ve been through multiple things, but you always come out on top. Thank you.

We’re working on that the next level. And that’s the thing I’m learning. It’s about a mindset like, to me, you have the right mindset. You have that confidence or you display it. You’ve worked on it, and that’s something that I envy and that I see that I want, too. It is you can get there. And there’s opportunities that I realized that I passed up even five years ago feeling like I was asked to do a Ted talk. And there wasn’t a lot of time, and I know and I felt, what can I tell these people?

I’m not really qualified to lead other people to success or to give them something meaningful. And I was wrong looking back on it, and it’s taken me a long time to deal with that. And there’s a question you have to ask yourself because looking at yourself is uncomfortable. It’s awkward for me to realize this about myself because I try not to put that out there when I’m on set. I don’t think people would ever think I’m uncomfortable or insecure. And so it’s kind of a question that I’m asking myself is, how long am I willing to feel uncomfortable for get to the next level, to get to where I want to be with painting and with woodworking.

And that’s something everyone every business owner has to ask themselves, because when you leave the corporate world, you’re kind of just pushed out there. And it is scary. You don’t have the security that you used to have in a corporate job with health insurance and 401K automatically there you have to do that all for yourself.

I think you brought another good point about being uncomfortable. And I talked about this on another episode before, but it’s a Jewish proverb about lobsters, and a lobster has to be uncomfortable in order for it to grow out of its shell. If it’s not uncomfortable, then it would never grow. So just grow in general. And the journey that you’re on, you’re growing. So you’re feeling uncomfortable. The second you stop feeling uncomfortable, you stop growing.

Yeah, exactly. Your complacent. You level off. And I feel that I had grown to a place of comfort with photography, and I had a group of clients I like to work with. It was easy. I was happy. I thought I was happy. My business wasn’t growing. It was just leveling off. And I was feeling a little bit burnt out. And then the pandemic hit and the clients that I had couldn’t even afford to pay their own bills, and we couldn’t do photo shoots. And so that made me realize I did three of you where I was.

Am I willing to be uncomfortable to move to the next level? So I’m wrestling with that now. But I think today is the first step in this interview.

Well, I appreciate being part of that journey, and definitely it’s kind of one of those things and people don’t realize, like, on social media, social media is a good and bad platform. For me. It’s a great platform because I’m always looking for people that I want to interview based upon their journeys. And for you, you’re living it. So from the outside looking in, I’m seeing all this progressing in this steps. I’m just like, I have to get her on the show because there is someone that’s 18 or 20 years old that may be looking to you as inspiration, but they don’t know your story.

So by delivering your story and telling these hurdles, that’s delivering so much insight to people. And it’s inspiring people. It’s inspiring me just hearing you tell the story. And I’m a male.

You.

Yeah.

It’s not just female to struggle with this. I think creative, passionate people, anybody who I don’t know if you get it from when you’re young, like, where do you get that mindset of where do you build your self esteem? I think it is. And for me, I want to do that with my children. Learn how to instill that from when they’re young, because I see a difference in people like my cousin, who from 24 years old, leaves investment banking and starts a cannabis company. And now it’s one of the largest cannabis companies in the country.

His mindset was always so confident, so confident that you’re kind of like, Whoa, this is too much. But I see the difference in how he believed in himself from the beginning and what he could achieve. And that led to achieving things early on in his career and at an early age. And if you can change that or you can build that with it in yourself early on, then the sky is the limit, no matter what your background, your color of your skin, who you are. I really believe that.

Yeah, definitely. I think you brought up another solid point. I mean, I had the opportunity to work with your cousin, so I understand that he is a boss in every aspect of the word because he knows exactly what he wants. He knows exactly what the vision is and to the point to where if that vision doesn’t come to fruition, he’s not. Hesitating on cutting the ties and moving on to the next step. And that’s part of understanding how to get to that next level. You don’t want to waste any time.

You would put capital into where you will build and develop. And if you get the results great. If you don’t, then you move on to the next step.

Absolutely.

So going into this like this, people, always the perception of success is always delivered in, like, instant success, 15 minutes of Fame. But the journey behind it is usually a 20 year process. How long did it take you to get to currently where you are right now?

So I would say it’s been about 16 years to get to where I am now.

I.

Probably had a good amount of success photography wise or from what the outside world perceived as success within five or six years. I didn’t make six figures until probably seven or eight years. Then I don’t know what people measure success by really, but I measure it by. I have certain goals that I’ve written down. I used to write down. I want to work with Usher, and then I would go and figure out how to work with that person, and I would hit a certain level of financial stability.

I’ve never been about money. I certainly didn’t follow photography for the money. However, you do realize when you have kids, especially that you have other people that you’re responsible for.

So.

There is a certain amount of financial success that you do need to take care of other people. And during that time, as you know, I went through a divorce and became a single parent of three. So it’s learning to balance that and keep going after your goals in the meantime.

So if you could do it all over again, is there one thing that you would want to do differently?

There’s probably a lot of things. Say yes to that Ted talk. No, I’m in it right now where I’m back at the point where I realize I need a mentor. And I think that if I had found a strong photography mentor early on, the path would have been a little different, maybe a little easier. Not that making things Rocky makes you a stronger person overall, right. But I would definitely advise for anybody doing it that they get a mentor. I did work for a bank while I was at Art Institute, and that was another place where people said, don’t get stuck working for the bank.

But I use the bank to meet my first clients. So I built up a client network while working there. And once I had enough clients to make the living, I left the bank. So I would really say being financially responsible. I saw a lot of my friends in our school that struggled with being financially responsible. As creatives. We want to throw it all in. We’re super passionate. We just want to create all the time, and the money will come is kind of what we think. But in order to go for the long goal and not just do this temporarily, you have to balance learning how to get clients and do the business side along with being a creative.

I would definitely say grab a mentor do not feel like a failure. If you have to do a side hustle. I know people that still do a side hustle and even reading a book recently was telling us that a lot of people made money to make art and not the other way around. And they first made money and then made art. So I’m not sure that I would go back to the corporate world. Now it’s kind of up in the air. But if you can do something that you can be stable and still go for your dreams, I don’t think that’s a bad way to go.

I mean, everyone’s different, right? Your path may have been very different. That’s the question I have for you. Different.

Got it. I’ll hold that question. So just remember to ask me that. I think you brought up some other solid points on this episode so far, so I want to kind of pull back a little bit, go back in the history of your life. You’re such a hustler. You have a hustler mentality, even though you don’t come off as a typical hustler. But you have these different facets of business. You have this understanding of business. You have some strategy behind you as well. Do you come from an entrepreneurial background?

Entrepreneurial family. We talked about your cousin, but is your dad your mom entrepreneurs as well.

So actually, both of my grandfathers were entrepreneurs, and on my dad’s side, he owned a hardware business in Buckhead, and I probably was too young to take as much from that as I should have. But it’s definitely on both sides of my grandfather. On my mother’s side was a medic in World War II, survived for years over there all the way to the Battle of the Bulge. So kind of watching Band of brothers. I’m realizing this is my grandfather, like he started in Africa and then Italy and Germany.

And then he came back and he started my mom grew up in a trailer, and she was teased growing up for being trailer trash. And my grandfather, when he came back from the war, he started a construction business and they moved a lot. So a trailer actually made sense for them. But he was able to build up, and he built parts of Duke and Chapel Hill. They were in North Carolina, and he died multi millionaire, but they lived a hard life, and he never lived like he had that.

But I don’t have that from. My mom died when I was young, and my dad was very much taught me how to save money and to be good with my money. I can live off of very little. But he didn’t teach me how to invest in my future and build wealth. It was almost like I grew up serving others, helping others. That mentality. It was almost like wealth was bad. And so my perspective was different on that. So it was easy to go after my passion and say, I’m probably not going to make a lot of money.

But then to realize that you have to we all have to take care of ourselves at a certain point that needs to be there. So I did have it around me, but not directly.

So obviously like to say, your pedibree, you come from a genome that understands how to hustle, even though it wasn’t direct generation, it was a generation back. So going into that, right. How do you juggle your work life with your family life, considering that you’ve seen that growing up? Obviously, your dad was teaching you how to save. What do you do with your family that allows you to kind of have the balance between all the things that you’re doing and family time.

You say you struggle probably with the same thing as a lot of single parents. All parents were working. People struggle with how to balance. And when I was young, I thought I can have it all. I can be the wife. I can be the mom. I can have a successful career. I can build my own business. But the truth of that is that something always has to give.

And.

I think we spend a lot of the rest of our lives trying to find that balance of how you put in enough time to your children and your family life and the things that really matter to you and still do something that you enjoy and that puts food on the table. So I’m still working on it. I’m not perfect. I’ve had times where I had to take time off to just be with the kids. I came out of a very volatile marriage. Rebuilding myself and them is kind of a process, right?

I don’t have the answers to all of it, but I will tell you, multitasking can be key. I do little things like I’m in the car going, so I have multiple changes of clothes in my car. I don’t need them as much during this time, but I’ll have my gym closed in case I can fit in a small workout. I have nail Polish in my car so that I can put on a pair of heels and paint that one toe that sticks out and then go right into the vent for Vogue, an inside secret right there inside behind the probably more than people wanted to know.

But I’m an excellent car changer. You may see me next to you in my bra to go to the next thing.

That’s funny. So obviously you have three kids and juggling. That right. Going into the next question, like, what is your morning routine? Your morning habits. What does that look like?

Morning habits? Well, I used to be one of those people who got up way earlier than my kids to get in a bit of work, and since I’ve hit 40, I’m a little more tired than I used to be. I used to be able to work late night and get up early morning and get some work before getting them up for school. So now I get up about 20 minutes before I get them up. And it depends. Actually, I live with my boyfriend now, and he has two kids.

So we actually have five kids in the house, and we have some on Zoom, and we have some at school depending on the day or the quarantine. So I try to get them started first. Like one of your other interviews. I have to have coffee. I never had to have coffee until I became a single parent, and now I feel like I need it.

And.

Lately I’ve been listening to Audible to some books on the way back from dropping them at school. I drink my coffee in the car or I listen to NPR. I listen to some other Am radio stations to kind of keep abreast of what’s going on in the world. And then every moment I can, I’m pretty much sitting in.

Work.

Depending on the day. If there’s no kids in the house, then I’m able to paint. I started woodworking and I kind of have a makeshift. I work on the back deck. I get some clamps out there, and I’m self taught as far as woodworking, it is something that again, my grandfather made venture, but not before he didn’t teach me before he passed away.

So.

If I can fit in a bit of word, working a bit of painting and then work on photography and getting back to clients and that I’m trying to do that. I have decided to try to put the phone away a lot when my kids are around. It’s hard because running your own business, you feel right. You feel like you always have to. You have to be there to any client. It might be no clients, especially working with celebrities. They want stuff at, like, 11:00 p.m. On a Saturday.

Oh, I need a copy of these pictures. They’re going to use them right then. In the past, I had a really hard time saying I’ll get them to you in the morning. I would literally go home and from whatever I was doing out dinner with friends and get on my computer and get them to them. Or now I have Dropbox.

Which.

I can read deliver images right to them. So I definitely make that more mobile. But I do want to focus on the kids when the kids are around. And it’s hard because some people are on their phone and the kids are on their phones just to socialize. But usually for us, it’s actually work. So it’s hard to say like Mommy is working. No, I swear, not technically. My buddy. Every day is different for me, especially in Segwaying, between going back and forth between photography and painting and woodworking.

But fitting in as much work as I can while they’re at school and then working on afterwards. I definitely have a better balance. Now, at the beginning of your career, you work like seven days a week, you work on a weekend, you work every moment you can. And I’m definitely facing that. Now, can I go back and do that again for another profession or how does that look now that the kids are older and they need me more? And my 16 year old, he’s a bit more self sufficient, which is nice.

I don’t know. What does your day look like? Oh, I’m not allowed to ask that yet, right.

She’s taking all these mental notes to ask you all these questions.

I am. I’m writing it down.

Yeah, she definitely should. I think one of the things that you brought up was like, the books. And I think you alluded to a book earlier. You brought up books again. Now that you understand why I asked that question, it’s like literally nine out of ten. People always fall into that trap of I’m reading a book. So because of that, I decided to create a book club.

Again.

What recommendations you have, what books are you currently reading and what books helped you get to where you are currently?

Yeah, I have a few that I’ve really enjoyed recently, and one of them is because I actually have said the starving artist quote before which now I wish I could take back after reading this book. And I think this one is good. It talks about everyone from Dr. Dre to Michelangelo, and it affirmed some things for me as far as like or even you in your career is like, okay, Michelangelo went from sculpting painting to being an architect to being a Foreman. And about every ten, it’s really a definition of Renaissance, right?

But he’s a Renaissance man. But about every ten years he actually changed what he did and then spent those years mastering that. Similarly with Dr. Dre. And kind of like you referenced my cousin. I see that he also had that ability to know when to start something up and when to walk away and move on to the next project that he wanted to do. And so he has his hands and so many things, and as a creative, we can have a mind to do. Oh, I want to try this, and I like this and the ability to do many things, but to learn how to focus that energy for business, to really what we need to do.

I really enjoy that book as well as how to overcome under earning. And that is the one that kind of went to your mindset. As far as it really makes you dig deep, you have to Journal. You literally feel like you’re in counseling, but you do realize some things about yourself and how to get to the next step in your career. So I would definitely recommend those two, along with the year of yes, by Shonda Rhymes, who doesn’t like her really.

Pretty much.

I know she is inspirational and relatable and real, and I appreciate that sometimes if you’re on social media, you wish you could just post like, My life is total crap right now.

And.

It looks great from the outside. But these are really the struggles that are going on. I almost feel like that would be more relatable and encouraging to others than just the glossy side, because I really don’t know anybody who only has a glossy side that didn’t overcome some adversity, whether in their past or currently to get to where they are.

That’s part of the reason why I created this podcast because it gives the opportunity to see the pros and the cons. And to your point as we’re talking, you’re going to have 50 questions for me. And those are questions are going to expose my weaknesses and my strengths as well. So this podcast in general is doing that. I post about it all the time on Facebook. But if you really listen to the episodes, you can hear someone’s journey. You can hear that this happened to them. They failed here.

They overcame it. They failed again. And that’s life to your point. Social media is kind of bullshit to a certain extent, but every positive is a negative behind the scenes, right?

I think knowing that is important just to remind yourself that it isn’t always that way for even the most successful people, the Sarah Blakeley’s of the World and Dr. Trays, it wasn’t always like that for them. I see in a lot of people that get there, though, there’s motivation and there’s fire, like they have a fire inside, right?

Definitely. What do you see yourself in 20 years from now?

Oh, my goodness in the world. And I really am looking for a sense of purpose as far as leaving a Mark on the world in a good way, whether that be to one, to make a difference in a few people’s lives or in a lot of people’s lives. I think I mentioned it in the email, but I love to collaborate with charities, and one of my favorite ones is by someone in my family. It’s called Refuge Coffee House, and it’s in Clarkston, Georgia, and it is the most diverse square mile in the country, and they hire refugees.

They train them, they give them English lessons if they need that, they pair them with a mentor for what they want to do next in life. And for me, I’ve had a few opportunities to work with different groups that I felt have helped people. I worked with the sex trafficking group, and I met some amazing people there. I did mentor someone probably one of the hardest times in my life when that person committed suicide.

And.

So I hope that later in life, I can still photograph. I can still paint and woodwork, but make a meaningful difference in other people’s lives. And I want to show my kids how to do that, right. Because it isn’t all about me all the time. It’s about others.

And.

I hope that’s what I’m doing, traveling a bit more like I said, but really finding a place of where I can work with others.

Yeah. I think it’s really cool that you’re working with the Clarkson community. I don’t know if you realize, but I graduated from Clarkson High School.

I didn’t know that. So you definitely know from personal experience, that area. It’s an amazing area. My an uncle lives down there, and it’s really growing and booming, but it really shows you where someone can come from. And it kind of reminds me that we’re a bunch of babies here in the US, literally. So having that just as a reminder is great. But yeah, so that’s kind of where I see myself. We don’t know if I’ll pick up any other things I did write when I was young, so maybe back to writing publication is a hell of a thing because I mean.

To my point, I never liked reading, I never were into writing. And then now I have seven published books. So it’s just kind of like, right? Yeah.

I was at one of your openings for the book, which was an amazing experience. That’s crazy that you came from, not even enjoying it to writing a book. I mean, I feel like you might have more to say than me.

No, I think everybody equally is born with the same principles and the same. It just comes down to when the day I would say it’s kind of like being in the Matrix. And once you wake up and you realize everyone is like, he’s starting to believe everyone is neo in their own right. And once you believe it, there’s no turning back. So just talking about tools a little bit like what software and tools. I mean, obviously, we know you use Photoshop because you’re photographer, but what software tools do you use that you wouldn’t be able to do what you do without.

To the point of multitasking. I have really been able to use apps on the phone, and one that I find really helpful is a one called Tiny Invoice and just kind of for all business owners. I get asked when I’m on go to send an estimate and what not or even to send an invoice. When someone says you get paid right now, you definitely go ahead and send the invoice very quickly.

So.

I loved having that as a tool to use. I used all the creative suite. Obviously. Let me think, as far as bookkeeping knowing Excel or using something that works for you that’s easy to use. I do not mind numbers to having worked at the bank, but I know a lot of creators don’t really want to focus on that. So anything like that, they can kind of throw the numbers in for you and be easy to use is definitely key. And also, of course, learning Instagram and all that stuff.

Right. So promoting the business as far as just really quick, you asked about how to balance. How do you balance everything? And there’s a photographer I really like himself. And she’s done a few documentaries, but one that I thought was her document generation. Well, it goes to the inside of how she has tried to balance being a photographer, a documentary filmmaker and being a mom. She interviewed her children and her 16 year old, and she’s been highly successful. And she struggled with guilt about making that balance.

And she asked her something like, what can I do differently as a parent? How could I change things to juggle my career, my drive and being there for you? And he says, Well, the damage is already done. And so that was really eye opening for me. Even afterwards, she took questions and her eleven year old son came up and was like pulling on her arm, pulling on her arm. She had brought him to the opening, and it’s like a minute. I think a lot of us that were really driven to succeed or really passionate.

We do really struggle with how to be there for them and how to achieve a level of satisfaction or happiness for ourselves. So I would suggest anybody that is struggling with that, maybe check out her documentary on that. It’s very eye opening.

I definitely want to check that out. I think that just rolls into words of wisdom. So let’s just say I’m a 20 year old and I’m a highly creative person, and I’m trying to figure out, like, my next moves, what words of wisdom would you give to me to inspire me to move forward.

Be moldable, teachable, looking for some mentors that you admire and that you are willing to work for, like, you’re willing to bring something to their set. And in exchange, they bring a lot to you. So I would definitely say, suck up as much knowledge as you can. And that young, 20 year old brain, it’s a great time to learn and to gain knowledge. I would say definitely number one thing is find mentors and maybe not even just one mentor, but multiple mentors.

And.

I always had the attitude. And this came actually from my dad is you never know who you’re going to meet. I used to be embarrassed by we would travel to New York, and my dad would talk to everyone in the plane. He would talk to everybody in the line. And I was like, oh, my goodness. As a teenager, this is humiliating.

And.

We were like, going to the stock exchange and someone yells out, Tim Murray, Timury, everywhere we go, someone knows my dad. And what I learned from that as an adult, actually, was that I found clients not on purpose, but on a plane, in a line, in the elevator. What do you do or ask something about their child? I find asking things about other people because actually, you are generally interested in other people and learning how other people are. It’s a great tool to your next. You never know, like, who that person is that’s going to hire you or that’s going to refer you to the next job.

I don’t know if you feel like that as well, but I think school, art school is a great place. And then the first places you go after that, building that network up, because when times are tough, you can go back to that network and say what you got.

I totally agree with you because I would not have this podcast if I didn’t have the Rolodex that I currently have. So it gives me opportunity to kind of look at it and be like, I worked here. I worked with this person or this person mentored me. Or I was at this workshop. I was at this webinar and collectively as you keep doing these things in every single webinar seminar, workshop, networking meeting. At least I walk away with one person’s information. So if you times that one per month times 20 years, it adds up pretty quickly, right.

And I think too, when you meet people like that, when you have the ability to get out of your comfort zone, maybe you are a natural extrovert. You learn about them in my industry. For photography, I learn about how to make my subjects comfortable. And just by networking, talking to people, you’re gathering all this knowledge up for how you are going to do your business, how you’re going to be better. So is this the part where I get to ask you a question.

Or five? You know what I mean? It doesn’t have to be scripted. So I’ll get back to my last question later. Go ahead and ask your question. Shoot what you got.

Well, I think we said earlier, what does your day look like as a parent? Because I always see I’m so impressed by all the experiences that you’ve created as a dad. I mean, you were on a farm, and I really think you’re doing a great job with that. So I’m curious of how you’re balancing and how you’re doing multiple creative industries and being apparent what that looks like today.

Believe it or not, this may sound kind of crazy, but I look at being a parent in much the same way. I look at business and everything to me needs to be systems. And obviously it’s organic in nature. I don’t want to force it, but I want it to be systematic. So to your point, when we go and do stuff, it’s not necessarily planned. I’m just kind of like, sometimes I’ll just wake up and be like, let’s go and let’s find something. So I’ll go on Facebook.

And before Kovan Facebook events was my best friend, because literally, the algorithm got to the point to where I had enough information. I could just pick something random. Like, I think one time we had an opportunity to go to, like, a bubble festival, and it was just like foam bubble in a field somewhere. It was just random. But because I went on Facebook, it was there. So we went and did it right. The farm you’re talking about, and we went on different farms at different times.

It was kind of like, let’s look at Aaron B and see what’s available. Oh, it’s a trailer on a farm.

Okay.

Sounds like a win. Let’s drive 4 hours and go to the farm. But because of the way my business is set up, it allows me to do a lot of remote things. So as long as I have WiFi or a cell phone, then we can do that. In addition to that, I’ve had the opportunity pretty much raising my son since he was a young age, that he was in golf. Now he’s a teenager is completely different when he was younger. If I was at a meeting, he was at a meeting.

If I was at a conference, he was at a conference. If I was in a webinar, he was at a webinar. So it’s to the point now to where I don’t think he 100% despises it, but I catch him at a certain time of the day watching Shark Tank, or he’s a hard gamer. But Shark Tank is something that he watches on a regular basis, and I could kind of hear him. They’re not going to give him the money. So he understands the principles. But now he’s at that adolescence age where he’s kind of like, he just wants to be with his friends and be in his game world.

But I’m hoping that when he is 18, 1920, it’s like that circle comes back around. And now I could be like, dude, I want to interview you on my show. I want the business ventures that you have going on. And how are you succeeding? And I can ask him the question, do you come from entrepreneur family? And his answer should be hell yes.

Right. And you planted those seeds from when he was young, which I think is going to be a huge advantage. One day it is going to come full circle, and he’s going to get all those experiences and use them and how he becomes a man, which is awesome.

I’m looking forward to it. The adolescent age is kind of like the weird age. It’s kind of like I was predetermined to understand this age group. So I was like, okay, between 14 to 1718 is going to be interesting. But once he turns 20 and he’s coming out of it, it’s like that’s the return. And it’s like, kind of like the father and son unite and take over the world together. That’s my hopes and dreams and aspirations. But again, I don’t want to influence him in that direction.

I wanted to kind of make his decisions on those roofs.

Absolutely. I think that’s a great dream. Does he know it or is it a secret?

Yeah. I’ve had the question before. Why am I creating this content? And I always say that life is parallel to existence for perpendicular time. And the only way an individual could live forever is you have to create a legacy. So that’s when I was like, okay, I need to create content. So 20 years, 50 years from now, my grandkids were able to look back at these moments, and everything I’m talking about is evergreen. So that’s the journey that I’m on right now, delivering this package of information for the generations to come.

That’s your way of making a Mark. Yeah. Love it. That’s great.

What are the questions you got? I’m used right now a lot.

I know what was the thing I was asking, how was your start? Different from mine? As far as you started out, I’m curious about that? Like, how you came from my journey? Yes, your journey.

So it was kind of like, the design is, I guess, genetically ingrained to me because I started off in New York. It’s just kind of doing graffiti drawing and notebooks and just, like, tagging up. So when I came to Atlanta, I got kidnapped by my parents, and I graduated from high school, and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. And my parents told me in art school, and I was like, okay, this makes logical sense. I draw all the time. And then once I got into our school, I was like, oh, it’s Photoshop.

I could cut off people’s heads and do it. I thought, That’s cool. So I didn’t really think about the monetary side right away. I was just kind of, like, completely engulfed in the art, completely engulfed in the technology. And then shortly thereafter, I was like, there’s got to be more. So I became, like, a forever learner and didn’t realize it at that point in time. So I graduated with my first degree, which is graphic design. And then I was like, multimedia web design. What’s this? Then I got a degree in that.

And then I graduated. And then I came back and worked at the school. And I was kind of looking for I think I was working at what do we call the wormhole? So you kind of meet people that don’t understand. The wormhole was kind of like a print Bureau in our school, and we did print jobs, and we help people with their technologies throughout the school. And then from there, I went into the video and photography Department. And that’s kind of how I got hooked up with Paul and kind of came into you guys circle, and I fell in love with photography.

I fell in love with videography. And then I graduated around September 11. I was kind of like, what the hell is the world coming to? How do I monetize anything I learned. I was completely green. So I used my first degree, and I went to graphic design, and then that it was okay. But I was like, there’s got to be more. So then I jumped into multiple different things to your point. And then I realized that, oh, that’s what the problem was. I’m half analytical and I’m half creative.

Once I woke up once you realize that. And once I was like, okay, so now I need to understand the money. So I became an insurance agent. I got my series six, got into the market, got into stocks, got into growth strategy, marketing development. And then I put the two together. And then it was kind of like the dawn of the Boston Cage, because now I’m both sides into one unit. So that’s how my journey went. It was like people influenced me to be creative. And I am very creative.

But I’m also equally analytical, right?

Which is a great way to be. Honestly, at first I thought, oh, I am too financially minded to be as good creatively as I can be. But then I saw a lot of people who had so much talent creatively fail. You know, they couldn’t make the business work, they couldn’t communicate with their clients or their subjects. They couldn’t get what they needed out of them.

So.

It’S a great thing to be both.

Actually, once you realize it, once you come to terms with it, it’s about being personally acceptance of who you are and not trying to fight that. Like if I said, okay, I just want to be creative, and I ignored my analytical side. I don’t think I would have been aware of it. I’d have been a struggling artist trying to be 100% creative and not realizing that my real value is bringing both to the table.

Yeah, and ultimately being unhappy, even though people are like, oh, he’s creating, he’s creating. But you weren’t making it financially. You weren’t totally fulfilled or happy not bring table.

Did I facilitate all your questions?

I think you did for today. All right.

Got it. So just going back into, like, how can people get in contact with you? I think you also pretty much have an offer. Did you want to put out there for our listeners as well?

Yes, I do. If you are interested in headshots that are mainly I do headshots for 350, and I want to give $75 off to that. You can use the headshot however you like. It’s two different looks. You’ll get all usable images through your Dropbox and you’ll get two edited images to use. I don’t care if you throw your dog in there, your kids, your family, however you want to use that, it can be for your LinkedIn for work, for acting. I love meeting people. And if it’s your first time getting in front of the camera even better.

I’d love to work.

In contact. Do you have a website? I do.

Well, I thought I made it really easy for people. It’s angelafotography. Com. What I found out over the years is people struggle to spell photography, but now your phone autocorrects so you guys should be able to find me. And just Angela at angelaphotography. Com if you want to shoot me an email phone number 404-314-4789. So check it out. And I have Instagram Angela MPhoto and Angela Marie art if you’re interested in looking at the art side of things.

Definitely. So I definitely committed by the opportunity to check out her stuff and facilitate that dealership put on the table is a great offer. In addition to that, let’s just go into the bonus round, right? Bonus question.

Right.

So if you could spend 24 hours in a day with anyone dead or alive.

Who would it be and why you guys are probably going to laugh at me, but I would love to be with Nancy Reagan. Ronald Reagan my wife, I’m a child of the 80s. I grew up with Ronald Reagan, and whatever politics you fall inside of, I enjoyed seeing their relationship as she was his number one supporter. She was her own person and she championed her own causes. But they were a team. And I think whether you have a team, that’s your partner, the love of your life, your business partner, your assistant that you hire.

I feel like we can do more in our work and life as a team with somebody else. So I’m interested in how she found that for her life and still was able to do her own thing as well. So I do love their love story. It’s inspiring, especially after you’ve had a bit of trauma, Lovewise to have hope. But also she balanced kids and being the first lady and all of that and taking care of him in later years. So, yeah, I kind of admire her as a person.

Some people didn’t see her as strong because she stood by him. But I saw her as very strong because she chose to be there and she chose to help make him a great individual and a great President. He was a diplomat. Whether you agreed with his politics or not, he talked to people. He inspired people. He inspired the country. And, I mean, we have had a few presidents like that. And I’m hoping for more of that as we move forward. But, yeah, I kind of looked up to her as a woman when I was young.

Yeah, I think that’s a great answer. It’s an insightful answer. And you kind of giving people to kind of really think about it. Reagan was the era that a lot of people from the 80s grew up with and understanding his journey and the fact that he was an actor that became the President. And that’s not a novel feat in itself. So it’s definitely respectable.

He definitely had the mindset that I’m after that we need to grow for ourselves.

So going into the last question, what’s your most significant achievement today? And again, I’ve asked parents to this, and I always get the kids. So outside of the kids, what is your most significant achievement today?

It may seem small to some people.

But.

I’m proud of the way that I’ve grown personally and been able to have my own business doing something I love. It may seem small to some, but to me and to a lot of people, if you really ask somebody they want to do what they love, I hear from people all the time that you’re lucky to do something you’re passionate about. I mean, I am lucky. It’s very hard. It’s a mixed bag. But I feel that I’ve been able to support myself and my kids is somewhat of an accomplishment.

And when I started out, there wasn’t as many female photographers in our industry. And so I think that overcoming some of those obstacles and trials and not letting them beat you down. The stuff in life and stuff in your career is what I’m probably most proud of.

I think that you’ve had a hell of a journey, right? You’ve overcome so much that your modesty shines, right? I think you’re overly honest. But in what you just said, I think there’s people that are scared to step out. There’s people that are thinking about it. There are people that I’m going to do it, but you’ve done it. And just in the process of you doing it, you’ve made that accomplishment, and you’ve made it a reality for other people to understand that they can do it, too.

So I definitely commend you for that. And I wanted to also say, look, I remember when you first sent me a message an hour. Well, we’re at, like, an hour and 15 minutes right now. So you were so scared of that 1 hour, but you’ve blown past it beautifully, right? Without even thinking about it twice. And you delivered so much inspiration and so much insight. So I just want to say thank you for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me. Thank you for pushing me to take the spotlight and to say yes, I really appreciate that and something that has taught me and think we’ll teach others that struggle with doing those things that they’re most uncomfortable with about stepping out.

Yeah, right. That’s the end of the show. Man essay Grant over and out. It’s.

Owner Of Angela Photography and Fine Art: Angela Murray AKA The Photography Boss – S2E60 (#88)2022-07-11T10:17:05+00:00

Founder & CEO Of Success Champions Network: Donnie Boivin AKA The Champion Network Boss – S2E59 (#87)

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Boss Uncaged Podcast Overview

“Don’t do it the way I did it. Create a side hustle and get that side hustle to a level that replaces your current income. Then jump!
 
In Season 2, Episode 59 of the Boss Uncaged Podcast, S.A. Grant sits down with the Founder and CEO of Success Champions Network, Donnie Boivin.
 
Donnie Boivin is changing the game of business development. At the age of 22 right out of the Marine Corps, he struggled with what to do next. He landed his first straight commission sales job and has spent over 2 decades learning what it takes to be successful in sales, business & life. At the age of 40, he discovered he’d been living other people’s dreams and not chasing his own.

Launching his own business, he found himself and grew an international business Success Champions. He is the Founder and CEO of the Success Champions family of companies. Success Champions Podcast, Success Champion Magazine, Success Champion Consulting, the Badass Business Summit, and Success Champion Networking.

His story about becoming a Success Champion in his own life has inspired thousands to get out of their own way and go for it. Get ready to have your fire lit and start chasing your own dreams.

I’ve shared the failures, I’ve shared the screw-ups, and I’ve put everything out there for other people to hopefully have some sort of roadmap of how to do the things I’ve done – I just teach from my own experiences. We have a mantra in my company ‘go break some shit’, because if you’re not fucking things up, then you’re not learning. You’re not growing. You’re not trying to get to that next level.
 
Don’t miss a minute of this episode covering topics on:
  • How the Success Champions Network of verticals all serve one purpose
  • Great books that Donnie is reading
  • What does “if you don’t have haters, you’re not yelling loud enough” mean
  • And So Much More!!!
 
Want more details on how to contact Donnie? Check out the links below! 
 
Published Books:

Boss Uncaged Podcast Transcript

S2E59 Donnie Boivin.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

All right. Your microphone is sound good. Your video is clear. All right, three, two, one. Welcome back to Boston Uncaged podcast on Today’s show. I’m going to give you guys a little tidbit. This show is probably going to be funny, super informative. It’s going to be a little bit on Niranche and Wild side, but I guarantee you you’re going to get some hell of actionable items by the time this guest is done with you, I’ve deemed him the Champion network boss without further Ado. Donnie my brother man, how are you doing today.

Dude Shannol. I’m telling you, man, I am stoked to hang out with you. I’ve been checking out your show for a little bit. Now your content spot on you ask brilliant questions, and you’re not a bad dude. So it’s a pretty wicked combination. So I’m looking forward to this, brother.

Cool. So let’s jump into it. You have a laundry list of things that you have done and different marketing, different strategies. So let’s just jump into, like, who the hell are you first off?

Yeah. So Donnie Bovine, CEO and founder of Success Champions. There are five companies under that brand. I spent 20 years as a straight commissioned sales guy, making everybody else wealthy and rich and got tired of living everybody else’s dreams. Launched Success Champions in 2017 and didn’t realize I spent my life being an employee of others. So when I launched my business, I had no flipping clue how to be a damn business owner. So I promptly ran my business straight into the fucking ground. Found podcasting in 2018, turned the company around. Podcasting taught me business. I ended up having one of the top podcasts in the world. I’ve got some cool screenshots of my show sitting right next to like Jocko Tim Ferris and all the guys. And then from there, we’ve launched all the business. So it’s been crazy. I spoke, I should say, all over the world on podcasting, sales, business development. And now we’re continuing to run and gun and change lives and help people get out of their own way and build that fucking freedom they sent out when they started to run a business.

Nice. This takes little pieces of those puzzles, right. So as a sales guy, and I think that was the hook. That when you were telling me that you wanted to kind of be a guest on the show. And it was like, how does a sales guy become an entrepreneur? And most people will think, well, sales guys are into business and they’re selling. But to your point, they’re kind of like slaves to a system and they’re earning and they’re killing what they’re keeping. But you realize that and then kind of converted that into a business structure. What does that journey look like for you?

Well, it’s fascinating for me is when being a sales guy, right. And I’ve sold hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. But as a sales guy. I sold. That was my job. My job wasn’t accounting operations, delivery structure, processes. My job was to go get the deal done. So when I launched the business, I did that, I went and sold. But in my head, I had to be a CEO, right? So a CEO is a guy back behind the scenes doing operational things and all this stuff. So I got into this weird series of okay, let’s go sell something. Now. I got to fucking deliver it. Oh, crap. Now I got to build this thing. Here comes the operational side of things. Process, structure of crap. I’ve been back here on the back side of the business. I haven’t sold shit right now. I have to go back out and try and sell things. And this wicked cycle came along. So what happened was somewhere around January of 2018, I stood on the back porch of my farm, looked at my wife and said, We’re about to fucking lose everything we have. I blew through my nest egg because I was trying to throw money out of business versus learning how to be a business owner. And she looked at me and she finally said the key phrase that got me to start pulling my head out of my ass. And she said, look, you’ve got to get off your ass and go sell something. You’re not meant to be behind your business. You need to be out front. So I started selling and building that business up again. But the biggest shift I had to literally make is to stop being an employee. Because when I built my business, I built a damn good job for myself and not a company. So I had to flip the script. And one trick your audience may enjoy is this is how I figured out what I was doing to be an employee versus a business owner. I wrote down everything that I was doing in my company, fucking everything. Every task, job role, everything else doing in the business. On the left side of a sheet of paper, I drew a line straight down the center of this damn thing. Top right column over that I wrote, Would Steve Jobs do this task? And then I went through every freaking item, and I was just doing a lot of stupid shit that I shouldn’t be doing. And that’s when I finally got the podcasting and it flipped the script and taught me about outsourcing operations, process systems, and what it was like to really be a business owner. So I had to go from just sell it. Then somebody else takes care of it to okay, what’s the process of sales? What’s the process of business? What’s the systems and everything behind it. It was a massive leap.

That’s definitely serious insight. So let’s talk about your business. Use a little bit. I mean, you’re a published, successful author. On one hand, you have a coaching program, a networking program. You have magazines just list out your business structures. And what does that look like?

Yeah. So five companies altogether. So we have Success Champions as a consulting company where we go in and we consult Fortune Five hundreds and Fortune One thousands on how to use podcasting as a business development tool. Nice. Underneath that consulting umbrella, we also teach small up and coming business owners how to launch a podcast and monetize it. And then we have another consulting arm underneath there where we bring small business owners in through Masterminds and help them scale and grow their business. That’s all under consulting. We then have the Success Champions Podcast, which we generate well over six figures a year with that through various different entities, some sponsorships and the like. We have Success Champions Magazine with almost 10,000 subscribers in. It’s a digital magazine where we have a Facebook group where we feature people inside of our Facebook group, and they provide all the articles and content. So it’s written by small business owners for small business owners. Nice. Then we have the Badass Business Summit, which is something we launched in 2020, where we bring speakers and small business owners from around the world talk specifically about the business development side and scaling and grow their business. And then we launched Success Champion Networking in 2020 as a competitor to a BNI or Rotary Chamber type thing. We launched that in 2020 and now grown that to 30 States across the US. We’re getting ready to open up Canada, London and Baja Mexico. Nice.

So with all of that, if you had to define yourself in three to five words, which at this point, I think even for me to think of three to five words to describe you as difficult. But I’m going to ask you to do it right. Define yourself in three to five words?

The guy that’s teaching others. And what I mean by that is when I launched a business, everybody was out there saying how easy it was, right. You need to be an entrepreneur. You need to do this, right. And even Gary Vee and I love a lot of shit. Gary Vee says, I don’t love everything. But Gary is out there like, there’s no reason to work for somebody. You should be an entrepreneur. It doesn’t say it exactly that way. But there was a lot of people, and all of a sudden, being an entrepreneur became like the new MLM. You be an entrepreneur. You’re a millionaire overnight, right? And so I think part of me got caught up in that hype, caught up in that journey. And when I launched the business, I think a lot of my struggle was nobody was teaching how to be a business owner. They were teaching different various tactics and strategies. But nobody was teaching how to be a business owner. So for me, I literally decided early on that I was going to teach what I was learning. I think a lot of success that I found is I’ve shared the fuck ups. I’ve shared the failures. I’ve shared the screw ups, and I’ve put everything out there for other people to hopefully have some sort of roadmap of how to do the things I’ve done. And I just teach from my own experiences. And we have a mantra in my company is go break some shit, because if you’re not fucking things up, then you’re not learning. You’re not growing. You’re not trying to get to that next level. And so I mean, shit. I’ll sit on a Zoom call with almost anybody to help them figure their shit out. And I want somebody when they’re done talking to me, to be able to run through a fucking brick wall because they’re ready to fucking light the world on fire.

Nice, So i mean I think I saw one of your videos. I think it was on Instagram, and you were talking about if you don’t have any haters, then you’re not being loud enough. And the reason why I’m bringing this up because dealing with clients, they always think like, okay, prime example emails. Send one email a month, send one email a week. And I must like, you got to send emails like, Damn it, or twice a day to even get through the bullshit to kind of get in front of people. So why don’t you kind of talk about that a little bit more about if you’re not yelling loud enough, nobody’s going to hear anything you have to say.

My latest book came out on Amazon, and it was Endless Stream Referrals, and I got a one star review on this book. Now, this book, I’ve sold almost 16,000 copies and it continues to blow up and have a lot of fun on there. And I got a one star review. Dude, I took a screenshot of that one star review, did a video, put that star up behind me, and I have no idea who gave it to me, right? But I thanked them so much in this video and the reason I thanked them for the one star review is because that means somebody Besides my fucking mom and dad were reading this book finally.

Yeah.

Right? Because mom and dad, your family friends, they love you. They’re always going to tell you the good shit, man, when the haters show up, celebrate that stuff because it means that you’ve got outside your circle. You got outside the people that are going to be nice and fluffy and talk to you, and then I’m empathetic, I cuss like a fool. That’s part of my contents who I am, and that book literally starts off with. All right, let’s get the bullshit out of the way. The reason you’re not getting referrals because you’re not fucking asking for them. And I’m almost 99% sure that that’s the reason I got a one star review. I don’t think they read the rest of the book all the way through it. On one hand, you don’t put out content to get hate. You put out content because it’s your truth, and you feel like the world should hear it, right. But when the haters show up, man, when they start getting on your ass and they’re talking smack, whatever you want to say, every time somebody does that, another ten to 50 people are fixing to see that piece of content, and that’s the beauty behind it. Right? That’s the joint. But you know there are, what, 7 billion people in this freaking world?

Yeah seven. It changed now.

You’re not going to connect with everyone, and you don’t need everyone. You need your people. What I mean by your people is you need the people that geek out on the same ship that you geek out on. It’s so much easier to do business when you got a natural connection with somebody and can hang out with them. Go ahead. .

No I think you’re going to dive into tribes a little bit. Got you before we dive into tribes a little bit. I want people to really understand because you went from sales to business. So you understand business structures. So, like, how was your business? You got multiple, different business, multiple, different assets. So are you more like S-Corp a C-Corp. Combination of multiples. And how is that set up?

Yeah. Combination of multiple. So we’re an LLC with an S-Corp back, and then we have a ton of DBA sitting underneath that. All under a success Champions umbrella overall. But we split them into different entities for different revenue lines, so we could track how well a particular business was doing underneath the overall umbrella for a lot of reasons. More than that, too. But I’m really big on looking at what’s working and what’s not working. And if everything was smashed under basically one line item, we wouldn’t be able to see the individual structure of each one of the businesses. In that token, I have people who run those divisions underneath everything. So their job is to hold the line on all of those and keep everything running and getting and flowing as we move through. But to give people an idea, we’re launching a new podcast right now called Growth Mode. That podcast has a twelve person team on it, producing that podcast. It’s a pretty wicked structure and scale. And I’ll be honest some days, it’s a lot of shit to keep going in your head because, like anybody who knows who’s run a business, it’s a lot of work. It gets complicated when you bring a lot of people to the table.

So that kind of goes back to the original thing we’re talking about with tribes. Right. So you have essentially two separate tribes. You have your internal tribe that’s essentially running your business. You have your external tribe that you’re talking to and communicating with. Right. So what systems do you have in place to manage? Because it’s two separate tribes.

It’s almost one tribe. And here’s what I mean. So one of the greatest things I did for my podcast was launched a Facebook group. And having that Facebook group gave a place where the Champions, the people who listen to the show could come to hang the fuck out. And I launched the Facebook group. Same reason I launched the podcast. I wanted to get around other entrepreneurs and business owners because I had no entrepreneurs or business owners in my life. So I kind of really felt like an island and out there on my own because when I talk to family and friends, I’m like, hey, this is fucking up in a business. And their advice was, go get a job early on. Anybody who’s trying to run a business and entrepreneurs heard that. So I created all this so I could get around other people that were doing the things. So what’s fascinating about having that Facebook group was everybody who works for me. Take it back. There’s two people that don’t out of everybody who works for me. They’ve come from that Facebook group. So they’ve come from the tribe. So as that Facebook group grew, I was doing Zoom calls with people getting to know people and understanding what they were, the strengths and weaknesses. So the cool thing about that is the people that work with us, they already geeked out on the brand, the message they were already into what we were doing, and we just allowed them to continue to geek out in whatever their company business line is. They just do it for success Champions. So it’s almost one tribe, first and foremost for sure. We got the Facebook group to bring everybody in. And then we got a ton of programs from there between Asana entrepreneurs and then team meetings and processes and systems. And I am not a processing system guy. That’s why I got Kevin Snow, who’s my director of operations, because he loves that shit and big ideas vision out front. Kevin, make sure everything goes.

And I think it helps that he has kind of like a porn star name like Kevin Snow is like a cool-ass bad-ass name.

dude I can’t wait to tell him that.

Obviously you’ve been on this journey for this shit didn’t happen overnight. You didn’t just wake up on a random Tuesday and say, hey, I’m going to go out there and create this multi, six, seven figure business. We always hear about the 20 years it takes someone to become successful, and when somebody meets them for the first time, they’re perceived to be an overnight success, right? How long have you been on your journey?

So I launched in September of 2017. We’re about three and a half years in now, but I can tell you it was 18 months into that journey before I felt like a real business owner. It was probably two years into. I really started to see momentum and things to start shifting, but I got a long way to grow. I got a long way to continue building, so I still don’t feel like we’ve made it, and I don’t know when I’ll ever feel like we’ve made it, but we do have some cool things working. And for us, let’s go break some shit and then keep pushing forward and learning all the way through. Patience is a bitch. Being patient to find success is one of the toughest things. And I really think for someone to find success, they got to be dumb enough to hold on where most people will throw in the fucking tile because no same person is going to put themselves through this shit. No same person is going to almost go broke be up the next day going, oh, my God, this is going to work. The next day going, oh, my God, I’m going to lose everything the next day. Get up. No sane person is going to do that. You got to be a little fucking crazy to want to do this. And I think really the people who have the grit and tenacity to hold on and realize that if they start learning through the process, they start applying those learnings that they’re going to find some sort of second gear that’s going to push them forward. So, man, when it gets tough, put your head down and could dive right the fuck back into it.

That’s definitely a solid philosophy, because I always kind of reference that in the sense of a visual, right? I think everybody has probably seen this meme before. Where there’s two tunnels, two guys with pitchforks and one is digging away and one turns around and gives up. And the one that turns around and gives up is an inch away from the damn diamonds. And the other one is a mile away from the diamonds. But he would eventually get to the goal and get to the diamonds because he’s persistent. And that’s what you’re just going to be saying. It’s being constantly persistent. So in your persistence, right. If you can go back and change anything, one thing, what would that one thing be and why?

Oh systems early on. Absolutely. Systems early on. Well, if I want to go back any further, I wish I would have started a business 20 years ago. Anybody says they don’t have regrets, they’re fucking lying. I think people have all kinds of regrets all the way through each of their own. But I wish I could start a business 20 years ago. Nobody tells you when you start a business that you’re going to finally meet yourself because, look, working for somebody else, you got excuses for days as a sales guy. If my numbers were down, it was like the economy sucks. The leads aren’t coming in, too much competition in the marketplace, and you can make up all these bullshit excuses while your numbers weren’t down, but still be successful, right? Still hitting your quotas and everything. So it was no big deal. When you get out and run a business, there’s no one left to fucking blame. But you right. So you’re out there. If your shit’s not hitting you’re not getting the numbers you need to be getting. You’re not accomplishing the things you need to be getting that’s on you. So I always tell everybody success. That’s your fault. Failure. That’s your fault. Everything happens. I’m not saying you have a fault. I’m saying you’re fucking up or you’re fucking up, right? And getting it. And once you take kind of the jockey willing ownership of it all, then life gets really simple. But when you get down to a spot in life, when you realize that you dug this fucking hole like I did when I had to look at my wife and say, I was going to lose everything, you realize that for your world to change, you’re going to have to change. And, dude, when I finally started figuring me out, I didn’t like that, motherfucker. I didn’t like that. I wasn’t a dude that totally got after life. I didn’t like that. I was a dude that did good enough was good enough. I didn’t like being just okay. So I had to start figuring out, okay. What the fuck am I good at? What things really get me off, get me ticking, get me fucking rocking, and then go do those fucking things. And the more I did, the things that just got me fucking stoked and going, the more people showed up in life that started doing the things that I fucking sucked at. So that’s the biggest thing, man, is start a business a lot earlier and fail a hell of a lot faster than I currently did.

That’s crazy man. In that moment, I’m sitting here and I’m on a football field and I’m like, yes, coach. Yes, coach. Get it in the game Coach, put me in the field coach.

right?

Definitely. So you got the hustle, right? You got the tenacity, right? You got balls of steel. Are you from an entrepreneur or family? Like, where is that?

God, I fucking love this question. No, I’m not the kid who had the fucking lemonade stand. I didn’t sell Boy Scout cookies. I didn’t have shit. Nobody in my family has ever run a business. My dad worked for as a technician. Wow. Mom worked the front desk receptionist of an eye doctor for fucking years growing up, his kids, dad was a truck driver and mom worked in factories. I did four years in Marine Corps. My brother did 24 years in the Marine Corps. My other brother was a fucking sales guy. All of my family were employees and banks and real estate and everything else. Nobody in all of my generation ran a business. I’m the first one as far as I can fucking know. And trust me, sitting around my family. When I said I’m walking away from almost a seven figure income, partnership and everything else to launch my business. Everybody looked at me like I had two fucking heads, and it was wild. But that goes back to why I had to surround myself with people that were doing this, too, because my family, my friends. I remember the day that I told one of my best friends that I was walking away from all this and launching a business. The dude looked right at me and goes, oh, my God, how are you going to pay your bills? What are you going to do? Where’s the income coming from? And I had to look right back at him and said, I have no fucking clue. I’m going to figure all that shit out. And he was white. I mean, like, scared shitless white for me because it was like, no way in hell he could do this. And for me, that was all the indicators that this was the right damn direction to go. So every bit of this shit I’ve had to learn along the way, and it’s been a painful journey, learning a lot of this stuff. It’s been really tough. So fucking thank you for that question. I really appreciate that.

Yeah, definitely. It’s a cool question in the sense, because most people by default think that if you are an entrepreneur, if you’re a business owner, that it comes from some genetic genome somewhere in reality, most of the successful people in the world are kind of like they woke up on it one day and made a decision. They made a decision like you said earlier, to change, to change their outcome, to change their legacy, to change everything they’re going to do moving forward in that change you brought up earlier about your wife, right? So how do you juggle your work? Because obviously you’re juggling a lot of different things. And from what I can tell, like, you’re engaged 100%. So how do you juggle your work life with your family life?

So let me bust a myth really quick. For most people, there’s no such fucking thing as work life balance. It is an absolute fucking myth. And people need to quit beating themselves up. Here’s what? I mean, there’s one caveat to this. If you’re an employee for somebody else work life balance all day long, eight to five, go home, be with the family. Blah, blah. If you run a fucking business, you’re never going to fucking stop thinking about the business ever. It’s a 24/7, seven days a week fucking endeavor. My buddy Mike Michalowicz, who wrote the book Profit First, fix this next pumpkin plan. Good dude. He put it this way. Being married to an entrepreneur is like being in the passenger seat of a car that’s doing 100 miles an hour going down the freeway. And there’s no fucking steering wheel. Because. Being around people that are crazy enough to do this business ownership thing, to be an entrepreneur, whatever. Fuck you want to call it is absolute pure insanity, especially early on when you don’t not sure where money is going to come from and you’re trying to figure it out. And your spouse, your loved ones, whatever. They’ve never done this either. So they’re having to adjust and learn along the side. So I’m not saying don’t be with your family. I’m not saying you don’t go out to dinner. I’m not saying you don’t go on trips. What I’m saying is when you do those things, you’re going to be thinking about the business and that’s okay, right? It’s okay to be thinking about what you’re working on. It’s not okay to be stressing about what you’re working on, because that’ll fuck a lot more things up, but it’s okay to be thinking that. So it’s not a matter of trying to balance it all. It’s a matter of being you and allowing your spouse and family to be a part of the game. On that journey. My wife is one of the most wisest people in the face of the Earth, and she’s constantly if my head is up my ass thinking about something and I say it out loud, she’ll put me in my place without even blinking twice and give me a different perspective. But she was also in the same sentence. She’ll tell people I have no fucking clue what my husband does for a living, right? But that’s kept some sanity in there. So there is a little separation of Church and state, if you will, that she doesn’t need to know all the inner workings of the business so we can talk about other shit and have a fun conversation. But she knows that I’m always going to be working on the business and that’s part of the game. So don’t beat yourself up over work life balance.

Got you so going into, like, just your general day to day. What’s your morning habits, your morning routines?

This is where your people are going to think I’m fucking nuts. So in addition to these five businesses, I run a full working farm. So right now I’m on my farm just out of Fort Worth, Texas. We’ve got goats, chickens, Ducks, geese, sugar gliders, bearded Dragons, turkeys. You name it. We’ve got it all over the damn farm. So I’m up at 04:00 every morning and 04:00. I get up, I read a Journal, I work out, and then I go take care of the farm, taking care of the farm animals. About an hour endeavor between getting all the stalls ready, getting the babies, milk and everything all the way through about 07:00. I’ll sit right here in this chair. So it’s about a three hour morning trick to get all set. At 07:00. I’ll sit right here and I will be in almost back to back Zoom calls till five or six in the evening. And some days I have to remind myself to run downstairs and go get fucking lunch. But if I’m not on a Zoom call. I don’t feel like my business is moving forward, so I’m either talking with a teammate figuring out what’s going on the section. I’m talking with a client, or I’m talking with a prospect to come into one of our programs, and then I’ll finish the day either with a kickboxing class or some extra reading. I don’t read a whole lot in the afternoon, but then I’m going to Cook dinner. It’s going to be ready most times before my wife walks through the door, and then we’re going to sit down. We’re going to watch a couple hours of TV together because that’s our time to unwind and everything else. I’m going to pour myself a stiff glass of room and sit on some Captain Morgan put my feet up, and then we’re in bed by 10:00 so I can do it all again. The only thing that changes up is on the weekends. I don’t do the sitting here on Zoom. I do more farm work, and Thursday afternoons we shut down the whole company at 02:00. The whole company shuts down at two, and you go spend time wherever you want, doing whatever you want. So we called our farm day. So we’re doing a lot of projects around the farm just to break it up a little bit in the middle of the week to confirm your statement.

Yes, I think I just think you’re bat shit crazy for running a full blown farm, and I’m sitting here thinking, I’m like, okay, well, he’s in Dallas and I’m in Atlanta, right? And the thing is, you book this pocket at 8:30 in the morning. So you guys are about 2 hours behind us.

No. 1 hour, 7:30.

7:;30 So I’m just like, okay, it’s 7:30. And I usually do that early for people in Australia to kind of make sure. And I’m like, Why the hell? Okay, now it makes perfect sense. I’m like, Well, this dude is up pretty damn early to get on the podcast, so jumping into books a little bit every time I interview somebody on this podcast, I always have opportunity to grow like my book club. So what books are you reading? What books got you to where you are? What books do you want to recommend?

So books that got me where I’m at probably the book that made me make the leap to being an entrepreneur. Was “You’re a badass of Making Money” by Jensen Sincero. That book was just right timing, right. Read along that journey. And I can remember sitting on the back of my tractor listening to the audio version of that laughing my ass off and she’s talking about the goat breaking in the house and shit. If you haven’t read that book or listen to it, you need to a phenomenal read. So absolutely amazing book business wise. The book that helped me get the finances in order for sure is “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz. Freaking brilliant. Read personal Finance, then would be “Automatic Millionaire” by David Bach. Absolutely amazing. Read the book that I’m completely devouring right now is “Atomic Habits”, which is part of our success Champions Networking groups. We do a training every Thursday at 10:00 if you’re a member of the networking and all the chapters from around the US come together, and I do a training. We’re actually doing a book club for this month. So every Thursday at ten we’re reviewing. So right now we’re going through Atomic Habits, which is a phenomenal read Prison of Your Own by Sean Kane. I’m just getting ready to drop his podcast interview on my podcast. Brilliant, brilliant read about how he spent five years in prison and turned his life around. So good stuff. Oh, God, there’s a ton more, but those are the ones off the top of my head right now.

Got you. Yeah, I definitely appreciate it. Flows out like water once you start really thinking about it. And to your point, I think Atomic Habits, if you have not read Deep Work by Cal Newport, no, I would say definitely. They go together, hand in hand synergy between those two books, you read one, you read the other one vice versa. And to your point, The Badass Series is a great series, and anybody has not read The Badass series, I would definitely advise them, like you said to read it, because when I first read her first series and she was like, I’m going to go in there, I’m going to buy this car and I’m going to figure out how to pay for this shit. I’m just going to buy the car. And I was just kind of like, that’s crazy. And she was like, yeah, I am crazy. And she just did it. And then she figured out how to pay for it. So it’s kind of like you have to put yourself in a state of awareness to be on to stay ahead at all damn times. So what do you see yourself in 20 years from now?

I think in five, we’re going to change the world. So I think right now our fastest growing brand is Success Champions networking. And I truly believe we are going to change how the world networks. We’re launching the Growth Mode podcast to help promote that. We’re in an interesting time as a whole. So with Cryptocurrency coming in and I don’t know enough about it to be dangerous. But you have these new things called NFPs coming to the marketplace, and I’m learning about them, and they’re fucking fascinating. So it’s going to be a unique role. On one hand, I’m trying to keep up with tech currencies and those, like, on the other hand, it’s how do you stay in touch with your tribe and your people in 20 years is such a far reach for me to look at and go. This is what I’m going to be doing. I’m not a goal setter guy never have been, I think goals demotivate people and things shift too fast to worry about setting goals. So set a freaking quick target. Let’s get to that target and hit the next one. But for sure, in five, we’re going to be changing the world and we’re already doing it. We’re just going to be doing a lot bigger and fucking louder.

Got you. Let’s talk about it. I’ve been part of Power Corps and other networking groups before. So what’s the unique factor to your networking group? How is it structured? How does it work? Is it kind of like a weekly meet up? You meet for an hour. What’s your stage on that?

So first and foremost, it’s built for virtual. Always. We’ll always be virtual. I hate commutes. Don’t put me in my truck and go anywhere. I lose half a fucking day. So it’s built for virtual. And then it’s built on. Let’s bring real business people together. So there’s no multi level marketing, direct sales or anything like that in there. And then it’s heavily focused on education and training. So what most networking, I think lacks is the ability to actually learn how to grow and scale not only yourself but your business. So we run four different types of meeting styles during the meetings. There’s some similarities to a lot of other networking. One seat per industry. It’s an hour long meeting. We have leadership teams and the like. But the meetings is where we start, really separating from everybody else. So one meeting is going to be a mastermind. We’re going to bring people in, put them in small groups, mastermind the hell out of things. Second meeting, we’re going to come in and, look, we don’t do the whole 62nd commercial where you spend an hour, the fucking meeting going around, trying to learn what everybody does. It’s boring and nobody gives a shit once. I know you’re a realtor once I know you’re a consultant coach. I don’t need to fucking know every week, I need to know who I need to get you to. So the philosophy behind everything is I should get to know you so damn well that I can introduce you to my mom. Or, better yet, my best client. That’s how networking should be. It’s not meant to be a place where you go in and just get referrals. Because if you only get referrals, that thing is going to fall apart and crumble. Your job is to give more referrals than you receive and watch how big your business grows. So meaning number two, we’ll do a little portion at the beginning, and then we’ll split everybody off in what we call virtual coffee. So virtual one on one for 40 minutes to dive into. How can two people collaborate together? Another meeting will bring in one of the members, and they got to come in and they got to teach. They got to teach something unrelated to their business that other people can use. And apply and put in place for their business. And then the last meeting is we got approved speakers that go around all of our chapters and teach things that are not portion of the business. Like a guy named Dan goes around. He teaches LinkedIn, but it’s not the stupid shit, like, get your profile right and do all the stuff he’s teaching. How do you actually use LinkedIn to go get business and some cool strategies? And he runs a tax firm out of New York, and he’s teaching LinkedIn shit. So we really divide it up and then the most badass things. A lot of these organizations are like, BNI is a great organization, nothing against it. The one thing that I always hated about being I is, if you were part of a BNI chapter, you couldn’t be a part of anything else. They didn’t want you to go network anywhere else. I’m like, fucking dude, you need to be on board. You need to be a part of Rotaries. I don’t give a shit if you’re part of BNI, but if you’re not in the community networking, then you’re not opening doors for others. So to really harp on that at every Thursday at 10:00 A.m. Central, we do a live training where all the chapters from around the US and soon to be around the world come together. And I’m teaching business development, sales, everything that I’ve learned and done how to scale and grow. And that goes back to right now for the month of March. Each week, we’re talking about atomic habits. So all the members from all the chapters are coming together, and we’re doing a massive ass book club as part of it. So it’s really about bringing your tribe of people together so you can have other people out there representing your business and helping you grow.

Yeah, that’s definitely awesome. I’m just listening to you speaking. I’m just like, are you guys recording those coffee meetings? Are you recording any of it? Because that’s a lot of damn content that you can kind of broadcast on the television station, right? You can kind of get your own Roku station and just take that content and deliver it. You only need 24 hours by default, so that you get 24 hours in a week.

Mainly because I wanted to stay as a benefit of being a member of the groups. I mean, look, to be a member of one of our chapters is only $47 a month, right? I’m not here to try and break the bank, and there’s no commitment. So it’s not like you’ve got to be there for a fucking year. If the shit’s working, stay. If it’s not working, get the fuck out. If we’re not showing up and doing what we need to be doing, then get out of it. So I want a lot of this stuff to stay behind the scenes. So people get it as part of a benefit of the organization, because I go pretty fucking loud and crazy myself with the podcast, interviews, YouTube and everything. I’ve got a pretty good team now behind me, helping me put out a massive amount of content. We’re just going to see if we can. I don’t think I can ever put out as much content as somebody like Gary Vee does, but we’re going to put out shit on a condo. That ridiculous amount of content.

Well, he’s been compounding it like stock for like, 10,15 years.

And he’s got a team of 27 people behind him helping produce that much content.

Yeah, I knew Gary was on another level when he was interviewing himself. I was like, wait a minute. Did he interview himself from 20 years before? Like, how the hell do you? Okay, that’s real shit, right?

And Gary looks like shit back in the day, you know what i mean?

You’re talking about all these different systems and tools, what software that you are using right now that you would not be able to do what you’re doing without?

First and foremost is “Entrepot”. That’s why I can put it as MailChimp and HubSpot on steroids. I think you can get into it, like, for 100 and $5160 a month. So it’s not MailChimp cheap, but it’s not HubSpot Salesforce expensive, right? But that’s why I have Kevin. Kevin is an absolute genius when it comes to entrepreneur, knows how it works inside and out. But our entire company works because of that program. So if you get an email, if you’re getting some sort of automation, you’re getting anything that’s coming through that program. Nobody writes us a check, all of our payments that people pay us. It’s all automated. I don’t have to do collections. It’s all automated. Everything in our company is 100% automated. That’s why I’m fascinated by digital currency coming up, mainly because it’ll fit right into our system as it continues to become more mainstream. The second program is Asana, and my team will tell you, I hate systems and processes. They’re constantly reminding me, hey, we have a process for that fuck, because I’m the one that’s always going to fuck it up in step by step. But Asana allows us to coordinate all of our team. So we’ve got team members all over the world, and it’s really cool, especially if you’re doing any sort of project management, because you can just put it in stages all the way through. And people know when step before theirs is done, it gets moved to a new section. You can see it right then and there and keep on rocking out with it. So those are the two biggest programs we’re looking proactively for a competitor of Facebook, because Unfortunately, Facebook would be my third one. We use a lot of their messenger chats, and I don’t want to use Slack. There’s just too many complications with slack, so we’re using a lot of their private Facebook groups and stuff. So if anybody listening knows any great competitor to Facebook hit me up. I’m absolutely interested in how we get all of our people, not off of Facebook, but to a platform we can control.

Interesting. Obviously, Facebook is kind of like the elephant in the room, and they’re also the big brother and everything else on the sun. And they have, like, maybe 3 billion active users at this point. So asking you the question because we’re both marketers. Right. So understanding that Facebook makes it very easy to target use is very easy to say, hey, I’m looking for John a dad that makes six figures that lives in Texas. Why would you want to move off of Facebook when you can do that on Facebook naturally, right now?

Well, it’s not the marketing that I want to move on Facebook. It’s the communication for our networking groups. We got a private Facebook group for all the groups, and we have private chats and everything else for the Champions that are just into the podcast, the magazine, everything we do, we have a Facebook group for that. We do all the communications. My fear is at some point, Facebook is going to ship and decide, OK, groups are no longer a cool thing. So we’re now going to kill groups. And if they do that, we lose a huge communication space. So what I’m looking to do is recreate what we’ve done. The problem. We’ve tried a couple of programs and in trying to get off Facebook, there’s no reason for somebody to grab another program. Facebook, they’re already there, right? They’re communicating on a regular basis or having great conversations. So to pull them off of Facebook monster networks, there’s convene. There’s a bunch of programs out there, and we’ve tried a lot of them. But if there’s no reason for somebody to go there on a regular basis, like, they’re already going to Facebook to see what Mum and dad are doing or see what their kids are doing or whatever else they’re already there. I need to find a way for the company as a whole. How do we maintain that high level communication where people are engaging contacting, having a conversation? But it’s just off the Facebook platform. And that’s what we haven’t found is every time we try, it’s like, I forget that programs over there because I’m not on it already because that makes sense.

Yeah, it definitely does. And I think we’ve covered some conversation. We covered different elements. I think the one element we haven’t really Dove into is, like, the magazine side of things, right? It’s funny because I think the owner of podcast magazine, Steve, was like, if you have a podcast, you should have a magazine. They go together hand in hand. And I have, like, my wife in the background always talking to me about, dude, you got to start a magazine. You got to start a digital magazine. I’m like, I got so many different. I just started the directory, a book club. Eventually, I get to the magazine. So I just want to kind of get your take on it and kind of like, how did you stage that? And how is that running for you?

Well, I think Steve’s wrong just for the record, because I think the way Steve did the magazine was very smart because Steve doesn’t do shit with the magazine. He literally found other podcasters in particular genres and said, okay, you own that genre. Go get me content. Fucking smart. Move on his part. Oh, yeah. A magazine is a shit ton of work. I’m just going to tell you right now, we’ve got a six person team that takes care of the magazine for us when my team came to me because what happened was we were in the Facebook group. We had a ton of people that were like, hey, we need more content from you. And a lot of people were like, hey, we just need more and more and more. I’m like, Fuck, how do we continue to produce more? And somebody on the team said, hey, let’s start a magazine. I’m like, Dude, I spent seven years in the commercial printing game. I am not about to spend the capital to print a magazine, and they’re like, no, you can do it online. I’m like, what do you mean, you can do it online? And I had no idea that online magazines were a thing. So they found a couple of programs, and we got into it. The first episode, the first issue, it was fairly easy, straightforward put together. We figured it out where it gets complicated is the consecutive issue. So we put out a new issue every other month. And there’s a lot to think about in a lot of moving parts. You got to figure out what’s the cover, who’s the cover, what’s the story of it, what’s the theme of that particular issue? And then you’ve got to figure out what’s all the content that’s going to go with that. And so there’s a lot of people that want to contribute to a magazine. So it’s okay who’s going to edit all that stuff and then turn around and you’ve got to put page layouts and everything all together. And we generate a significant amount of money off of the magazine as a whole. But there’s often times where I’m like, Fuck, why are we still doing this? Because it really is a lot of work with it all. But I would 100% disagree that if you have a podcast, you need a magazine. I think that’s probably some affiliate play on his end. But because the average person is not going to produce enough content to be able to fill out a magazine because you’re talking six to 14 articles, written 750 to 1000 words. You got to go find those people to write those articles, and then you got to have those edited. You got to get pictures and graphics that are license free to go along with each one of those articles. You got page layouts. Then you got to deal with advertisers and figure out which ad can go with, which copy. And there’s some legal things behind the scenes to cover your ass, too, all the way through it. So I’m not trying to discourage anybody from doing it. I’m just saying that unless you’re going into that magazine already with a revenue source created, and, you know, there’s going to be a revenue play out the gate. Then I would look at a lot of other things before I started a magazine.

In the monetization of it. Obviously, you have subscriptions, right? You have advertising spots, maybe you have affiliate deals and affiliate offers in there. Are there any other monetization options for magazine?

We’ve had people come to us and pay to write articles because they were launching a new book or everything out there. So instead of doing the affiliate pay elite and there’s people that have paid to put advertising in there and then pay to write an article in most of our articles are not paid for. But if they want to do an Advertisement and then do kind of a write up for their Advertisement, then they’re going to pay for the ad and then in there. So that’s the additional in there. But it’s also a massive lead magnet to all of our other stuff. So we’ll put our own ads in there for our podcast workshops, our own ads in there for our podcast. We’ll put our own ads in there for success, Champions networking. So it’s a great place to advertise our own stuff. And then we can track it all so we can see what’s come from the magazine and watch the flow of it all.

Got you.

We got a couple of affiliates

Affiliates programs. Definitely some insightful information, and it kind of drills down to hold a little bit more about magazines. So just talk about final words of wisdom. Let’s say I’m an up and coming entrepreneur. Maybe I was a sales director. Maybe I was starting out in sales, and I’m like, Fuck this. I’m tired of working for the man. I want an opportunity to run my own show. They hear this podcast and they’re like, Donny, is the truth. What words of wisdom would you give to that person to continue them on their journey?

One don’t do it the way I did it. Create a side hustle and get that side hustle to a level that replaces your current income. Then jump. I think if I would have done that early on, I wouldn’t have been as mentally exhausted as I was out the gate trying to build this thing. So that would be first and foremost. Second thing is, don’t pigeonhole yourself into one business because oftentimes the business people start is not the business they finish up doing. So go try fucking everything. And if it’s fun, keep doing it. If it sucks, don’t do it. It’s like, somebody who wants to start a podcast. Don’t start a podcast. That’s about your business. Nobody gives a shit. Start a podcast on something you completely geek the fuck out on. So you could still be wanting to talk about five years down the road all the way through. Because if you do something like, I had a Gal who ran a tax firm say, hey, I want to start a tax podcast. I’m like, no, you don’t. Who the fuck wants to listen to a tax podcast goes, Well, I think my business is. Well, I think it would be a great lead generation tool. I’m like, how much do you enjoy talking about taxes? She’s like, I fucking hate it. I’m like, right? So why would you start something you fucking hate? I said, what do you geek out on? She goes, Dude, I love wine. I’m like, all right, tell me more. And she’s like, I love that different wine tastes different and different glasses and different brands. And she starts going into it. And she’s like, in this ten minute freaking diatribe of stuff Unwine. I’m like, Go start a wine podcast. You obviously geek out. She goes, but how does that fill my tax practice? And my answer is always simply this, what is Gary Vee’s business? And people were always like, Well, he’s a motivational speaker. No, he is not a motivational. He runs a 1.3 or $130,000,000 ad agency. He’s got Vanners Ford. He’s got, like, five or six businesses behind him, and then I’ll flip it. I’m like, What’s Tony Robbins business, and they’re like, oh, he’s a motivational speaker. No, Tony has, like, 31 businesses a tune of, like, $5 billion. Motivational speaking. What he does on stage is his lead magnet to get to every fucking thing else. Start a wine podcast is the same damn thing. Don’t turn your passion into business. Go find something very fun, and then do that and watch how much more shows up for you.

Nice. I mean, to your point, Gary started off with liquor as well.

You’re right, he did. Maybe that’s the answer. Everybody should just start some sort of liquor thing.

Definitely. How do people find you online? You have a lot of different handles, a lot of different profiles. So which ones do you want to broadcast?

So pretty much. If you go almost anywhere, you can just type in Donny Bovine, and you’re going to get there. So last name is B-O-I-V-I-N. And it’s Donnie with an I. E. The proper way to spell it. No, y in this shit. I got the same problem as you guys Shannol is nobody can get my fucking name right. I keep threatening. I’m going to do a Gary Vee episode where he’s like, Vaynerchuk. I’m going to be like, Bovine, because that’s how you pronounce a fucking thing. Nobody ever gets it right. If they want to get to me fast and directly, they can send the words “I am a success champion” to 81-7318 630, and that’ll get them to me very quickly and I’ll respond and everything else. So yeah, I’m everywhere.

Yeah, I’m definitely with the whole name thing. I usually have to say it’s like, Shannon, when you change the last letter to an L Shannon, you got to do a depiction for them to get it. So going into the bonus round, right. If you could spend 24 hours with anyone dead or alive uninterrupted for those 24 hours, who would it be?

right now I’m fascinated with Richard Branson and Elon Musk, and I don’t think I could sit long with Jeff Bezos, but I think we’re in a very cool time in history, and I’m not picking these guys because of their wealth. I’m more fascinated what they’re trying to do when you got three of the richest men in the world all competing to get their asses in space, that fascinates the hell out of me because I’m looking okay. These guys have built some of the largest companies on the planet, so they’ve got this driven drive, whatever the fuck behind them. And now they’re putting that behind going to space. I really wanted to sit in and be a part of those conversations just to be around guys that think that big. I mean, Steve Jobs says the only people that can change the world are the ones crazy enough to believe they can. And those guys are absolutely proving that right now with what they’re doing. So I’m fascinated by that. But out of three, it would be Richard Branson. And the reason I picked Richard Branson is they’re growing up for me, business, CEOs presence and all that. We’re fucking assholes, right? You had to be a cold hearted, white dude. That was just a prick. And I love the fact that Richard Branson my perception of him, right? I’ve never met the guy, but my perception of him is he is a kind, gentle soul that has run his business that way. And I hope I can always emulate that because I think it’s truly a beautiful thing to watch how he treats his people, how he always seems to put them first and still has made a shit ton of money, but maintain that level of pleasantry. I know Gary Vee puts that shit out there all the time, but Gary Vee still strikes me as one of those guys to be an absolute Dick to work for nothing against the guy. I think at the end of the day, his hustle and grind is going to beat the shit out of some people. But Richard Branson always just struck me. That dude that was just genuine down there, and I could be completely wrong. But that’s my perception of him.

I think Sir Branson is one of those people that you just kind of look at like this dude with the whole Virgin. He went to so many different tentacles and to your point now he’s kind of venturing into space. It kind of only makes sense for him to be in that market and to be kind of like a nice guy because he’s been doing it forever. He’s been doing it longer than I mean, he’s older than everybody as well.

Yes he is. If you haven’t read the book, Losing My Virginity, which is kind of his life story up until he did Virgin Airlines, which I’m so disappointed. Virgin Airlines and not in the US anymore. You want to talk about the best plane to ever fly on if you can ever fly Virgin, it’s amazing. But just a phenomenal story of basically how a hippie kid is. The way I look at it, built this Empire, it’s pretty fucking cool.

Nice. So if money wasn’t a factor, would you still be doing exactly what you’re doing right now?

Yes. And money is always going to be a factor of everything you do. But I’m really enjoying this. The biggest thing that I’m looking forward to, and one of the things that’s on my wife and I agenda as we continue to grow is we’ll create an entire wildlife refuge for all the critters. She really wants to create an old dogs home. So when dogs get sent to the shelters, nobody will do. She can go in and rescue them all business, wife, life wise. Hell, yes, I’d still be doing all this. But I’ll also put this caveat on there is why the fuck would anybody do anything if they can’t make a lot of money and it really impact the world? Money impacts and changes a lot of things, right? The more money you make, the more money you can fucking impact and change for others. Lives, advocacy and all that stuff is a beautiful thing. But it takes money to move mountains. I’m looking forward to the day that we can continue to create and do some just amazing things to continue to impact and change the world as a whole and just do some good shit.

Got you. So just based on what you said, I think my daughter would probably want to move from our house and move into your farm because she collects animals like their baseball cards. If you need someone, like, maybe a summer hand, right?

We’ll put her to work, man. I’ll give her a weekend muck and stalls, and she may change her mind.

I don’t know, man. She’s pretty engaged.

I love it. Encourage that because we need more people out there that maybe aren’t in that world and realm wanting to get into it because it takes people from the outside that aren’t doing it to really make great change, because oftentimes we’re in the weeds of doing whatever we’re doing an outside perspective of somebody who hasn’t necessarily done it. He goes, Why do we do it that way is a fucking beautiful thing to encourage the shit out of that man.

Got you? Yeah, definitely. So, I mean, going into closing. I mean, obviously we had a hell of a conversation, a lot of ways, a lot of ups and downs. And I think we definitely delivered on our promise in the beginning, this was going to be an interesting conversation, a lot of insightful details on how to structure businesses and just give insight to who you are. So on this journey, did you have any questions that may have rise that you want to ask me?

Oh, dude, that is a fucking first on all my interviews. Yeah, actually. So this boss Uncaged, what is it? So if I’m just walking down the fucking street and I see Boss Uncaged, what is it?

So you’re talking about, what is it from the business side or what is it not yours? To me, my representation of Boss Uncaged is too full. On one hand, it’s an opportunity to target people that see the word boss, and they’re intrigued by the definition of what they think boss really is. And essentially, it’s helping them on their journeys to become entrepreneurs, whether they’re small business owners, whether they’re startup companies like you’re. A great example of why I wanted you on this show because you’re going to give content and deliver information to that viewing audience. On the other hand, it’s especially my legacy. It gives me opportunity to look at my Rolodex and expand my Rolodex into people like you to then give to my grandkids and my kids and other family members down the road to listen to this. 20 years from now, 15 years from now, I’d be like, everything that they’re talking about. Essentially, one is evergreen and two 20 years from now, someone’s going to be able to listen to this and be like, Holy shit, I can take what they’re saying and apply action to it and 100 years down the road do the same thing.

I fucking love that. One more then for you.

Yeah go for it.

What are the four arrows?

Oh The four arrows, essentially, is the components of like just business structure. So it’s essentially a person, right? It’s all about the inner you, but it essentially symbolizes multiple revenue streams. It symbolizes multiple facets of business. It symbolizes intelligence, intellect, the grind. It’s like anything that you want. I would say it’s kind of like triangulation, right? You have to kind of figure out your ins and your outs whether you’re going to be an entrepreneur. If you’re going to talk to podcasters, if you’re going to establish something down here, if you’re going to talk about revenue, what are your four main components and those four main components shouldn’t be revenue streams. And then you compound and compound and compound out.

Love that, love that. Last question.

Yeah. Go for it.

How are you taking your brand big and fucking loud?

I mean, every day I’m pushing it and promoting it. But to your point, I think that I’m going to get bigger and louder as I continue to interview people like you continue to get out there and interview more and more people and get more and more people on the show. And I think that’s going to be my compounding to get louder and louder and louder and amplify it.

Fucking love it, dude. Keep doing, man. Seriously, I love the research you did behind the scenes and the show good shit and I love the dialogue, man. Well done.

I appreciate it.

Let me do one solid for you. So, guys, if you listen to this episode and you got any tactic, tips, tricks, something that was of value for you, do me a favor and teach somebody else how to subscribe to this fucking show. Being a podcaster. I can tell you reviews are beautiful and we love them, but subscriptions mean fucking everything and there’s still a lot of people out there have no clue how to listen to podcasts. Watch YouTube whatever. Freaking go teach somebody else how to dial into this shit. So his message, his word, his brand can touch more lives, and so he can impact and change more lives. It’ll mean fucking everything.

I definitely appreciate that, man. And it goes to show that not only are you a good dude, you’re a hell of a marketer, a hell of a brander, and you understand the philosophy of business behind the scenes and how to network. So I definitely appreciate you taking time out your busy schedule to be on the show. You gave hell of Nuggets and jewels on this episode, and I hope that my audience will take heed and take action on what you’ve taught them today.

I appreciate you brother.

Definitely, man. S.A Grant over and out.

Founder & CEO Of Success Champions Network: Donnie Boivin AKA The Champion Network Boss – S2E59 (#87)2022-07-09T09:46:27+00:00
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