Posts

Ashley Zahabian: Getting Through Difficult Times and Busting the Myth of Overnight Success (AoL 044)

When it comes to success, many times we think that people are lucky and that success just happens. Even this past week with the launch of Pokemon Go, we’ve seen something take very little time to become really well known – even by those of us who have put very little time into it if none at all.

However, just like the creator of Pokemon, our guest Ashley Zahabian would tell you that there is no such thing as overnight success. In fact, when it comes to her story, she’s been on the public speaking path for several years already – which is saying a lot for a 21 year old!

In this session, Ginger and I dive into Ashley’s path and find out how an overnight success story is made. Join in as we discuss how she went from living a caged life to a charged one, what she has planned for the next few years, and how she stays consistent in her work.

If you’ve seen this gal on stage, Facebook or YouTube, this is a backstage pass that should give you hope in reaching for your goals and dreams!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Why the struggles she’s had over the last several years have helped her become an “overnight” success. 10:39
  • What she’s been able to implement into her entrepreneurial career from what she learned in college. 15:34
  • Ashley’s take on Mr. Wonderful blowing up on Maneesh Sethi on Shark Tank 19:09
  • Why she thinks it’s important to work with your passion. 21:00
  • How she belives that she was able to move from living a Caged life to a Charged life 27:22
  • The feeling of what it was like to become an honest person. 23:34
  • The first thing someone can do to step into a Charged life. 28:37
  • How Ashley stays consistent in her work week. 34:38
  • What gave Ashley the idea to start doing her video series. 38:47
  • Why she doesn’t worry about using clips from movies in her videos on YouTube. 40:45
  • How long Ashley has been doing speaking engagements. 42:10
  • What she would recommend for people to do if they wanted their first speaking gig. 43:34
  • What she imagines that the next 5 years of her career look like. 48:19
  • Three truths that she would share with others. 51:25
  • Three of her favorite influencers in her life. 52:02
  • If she could have high school consume certain information, what would she prescribe. 52:41
  • What she would tell the 13 year old version of herself. 56:50
  • …and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS (Update – 5.16.2017):

Hey guys! Thanks for looking for the show note extras for Ashley’s interview. Unfortunately, a lot of her earlier stuff has been taken down. So I’ve gone and added a few other videos for you to enjoy of Ashley at work… including her TEDx talk!

Ashley’s Interview on Addicted 2 Success TV:

Ashley on her Experiences at the Feliciano School of Business:

Believe in Yourself (An Early Speech by Ashley):

Ashley is officially a TEDx presenter!

Ashley on the I Am the Average Podcast:

Ashley Zahabian interview

 

 

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunesStitcherSoundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

Don’t Be a Sell Out: What the Modern Entertainment Industry Can Teach Us About Creativity

Growing up, I remember watching the Star Wars movies. I remember how I saw the first one and really didn’t think much of it at the time. As a 7 year old, I saw it as another action flick – boring when people talked, but cool when they shot at each other!

Like most kids at my age, we were too young to have seen the movies in the theatres. Instead we got to see them when they came on at night on the main network’s movie nights. I remember my mom telling me I just had had to watch them. In fact, I think one of the first movies that we ever recorded with our VCR was Star Wars: Return of the Jedi… or least attempted to. (I’m guessing somewhere in 1987 – 1989.)

As time went on, I became more and more of a action and sci-fi geek. That was probably one of the reasons that the Ninja Turtles stuck with me as much as they did. But, I also remember really getting into science as well. Seeing all those planets in the shows really made me interested in Astronomy.

By the mid 90’s, I had finally saw all of the Back to the Future movies. Sci-Fi series that I watched at the time included all the Star Trek shows including syndicated episodes of TNG. In fact, along with the X-Files, I remember Voyager being the shows I looked forward to that would literally help me get through the week. In today’s world, I realize how silly this sounds, especially in an age where so many people use their DVR to watch their shows. But it was the truth back then before everything was On Demand.

Needless to say I was definitely hooked on my sci-fi shows and movies.

 

The Best Summer Ever?

I remember the summer of 1996 as if it was last year. This was the summer after I got back from my 8th grade trip to Washington D.C.. During the trip, I was exposed a ton to what my peers listened to as far as music. Really, up until that point, when I heard music, it was my mom listening to her oldies music, or what I heard in school for band and music class. I really hadn’t developed an interest in it.

Nope, I was too involved in video games, TV, and, movies to care about music.

Well, when I got back from the trip. Things were different. In fact, it wasn’t very long at all before I signed up for what was called BMG Music Service. And, you might remember, back then being able to get 10 relatively new CD’s for a third of the price was awesome! Especially if you just had to have certain songs you wanted to hear over and over.

Well, again, being fairly new to the music scene, I didn’t really have any preference to what I was listening to. It was all new to me. So what I ended up doing was ordering a ton of soundtracks because they gave me a good sampling of what was popular. I felt that I had my own radio station.

I remember that in one particular catalog, it mentioned some of new releases which were going to be coming out in the next month. One of those was the soundtrack to Independence Day. I didn’t know much about the movie at the time, other than Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum were both going to be in it.

Will had just gotten off of Fresh Prince not too long before and had some success with Bad Boys. Jeff had already been in Jurassic Park, so I knew who both actors were.

Up until the movie came out, I knew it was going to be about aliens invading Earth and the military. I guess I just figured it was going to be something similar to Stargate (the movie) which I loved as well.

So, all of these parts coming together AND having seen a little bit in the making of, I knew that it was going to be a great flick.

That being the case, I ordered the soundtrack along with a few other CDs. I figured, “hell, if this is as good as any of my other soundtracks (especially Batman Forever), then it should be a great album!”

So, July 3rd comes around and I see the movie. I was blown away. (I think I ended up seeing it in theaters two other times – which is actually saying something for me.)

Shortly after, I get my soundtrack and pop it in a CD player and…

Disappointment.

Here I was hoping for the songs from the movie and I get the score. I didn’t realize what scores were until this point. But, you know what? Even though I was disappointed the first couple of times I played it through, the score started growing on me – especially as I saw the movie a couple of more times.

From there on, while I continued to order soundtracks from BMG, at least I paid more attention to what I was ordering.

 

Nice Story down Memory Lane, JC, but So What?

This past weekend, on July 3rd, 20 years later, I saw the sequel of ID4, Independence Day: Resurrection (does that make it ID4:2?).

For the most part, I enjoyed it. It was fun. I didn’t expect too much going in, because I knew Will Smith wasn’t going to be in it. It was interesting to see how they approached the story 20 years later.

As I was leaving the theatre, though, things didn’t sit with me right. There seemed to be something missing from my experience. A sense of awe that the first one left me with.

To be honest with you, a lot of blockbusters that have been coming out in the last few years – I’ve gone in thinking this might be the one where I get a sense of awe again.

Nope. No such luck.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I searched on reddit for the discussion of the movie. And then it hit me. ID4:2 was a shell of itself. The franchise had sold out.

Perhaps I’m using too aggressive of a term here. I mean, isn’t that what Hollywood is all about? Going mainstream? Isn’t part of going mainstream trying to appeal to more of the masses?

I tried to rationalize what I was feeling…

It might simply be the fact that I’m older and I’ve seen everything you can do in a movie. That might be it. Because there have been only a few movies recently which were such an experience that after watching it I’m like, “That was cool!”.

Two of them have been animations: Wreck It Ralph and Big Hero 6 were pretty cool. Live action ones included The Martian and Interstellar. Those were pretty awesome. If we went a little further back, the first Iron Man movie was cool. So was the first couple of Spiderman movies.

As far as EPICNESS goes, nothing beats the Matrix or The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

However, I’ve still not gotten any big “Woah!” moments for a very long time.

Has Hollywood in itself sold out even more than what I remember of it in the 90’s?

 

Finding the Woah!:

A big part of the reason that I think that I haven’t gotten any woah moments recently is because I end up seeing movies that are formulaic. I’m seeing most of the blockbusters – and while these are neat, cool, and have great visuals, they just don’t seem as intimate or real as those that I remember from the 90’s.

Just an example: when you think of the Turtles from the 90’s, they sure aren’t the same guys from the most recent movies. The most recent movies just seem more fake to me.

One thing I’ve thought that it might be is all the CGI. Perhaps, I HAVE become a little too accustomed to all these special effects or maybe it’s that the writing is so much more predictable compared to when I was growing up. It’s hard to tell.

But, one thing’s for certain, it doesn’t just plague movies. There’s formulas for what sells in TV, video games, and especially in music. Everything seems to be a copy of each other.

But just because things sell over and over again does it mean it’s good? Obviously the answer is no. The entertainment industry is giving us very high filler and very low content.

Going back to ID4:2, I really think that’s why I felt something was missing. I didn’t have much connection with the characters. And what connection I did have from the first movie was all but taken out – if not from this movie, then definitely from the next. (Yes, there’s going to be another one.)

So what is Woah! when it comes to storytelling? I think it’s all about having deep connections with the characters, having amazing and out of the ordinary things happening to those people, while at the same time making sense (no plot holes).

When you think of movies like Jurassic Park, the original ID4, The Matrix, and even The Lord of the Ring Trilogy, and even as far back to the Wizard of Oz. What was so mesmerizing about these movies? It was that we, as the audience, felt that we were connected to the characters in the movie. Things started out normal, but when things started to pick up, we were in those experiences with them. And, we weren’t left in the dust to try to figure out how they got from Point A to Point B.

 

How this All Applies to Us as Creators:

When we’re building our creative business, we need to make sure that those that are from the beginning feel like they’re part of what we’re building. We need to build relationships and engage with as many potential fans of our work as possible.

When we start having success and reaching higher and higher levels of it, don’t forget those who were there in the beginning. If treated right, these can become your biggest fans and help you grow larger and larger.

If you don’t treat these folks right and just try to sell to them and keep stringing them along, then you might regret that in the long run. You might have your own success, but you won’t be seen as some epic people mover.

Also, make sure you’re showing who you are. There’s already a Gary V., a Pat Flynn, and a John Maxwell. Learn to understand and embrace yourself, and your story, like they have. The continuing of that story is what makes you original.

 

Action Steps:

As your working this week, realize that your story is original. Don’t try to be like someone else out there. It’s not going to work. Even if you’re just starting off on your journey, embrace the moment. Pull it all in. In the future as you meet more and more people, they’re going to wonder how you got started. Telling them that you put one foot in front of the other might help, but being able to give them exact examples will be even better.

Also, don’t be afraid to be authentic. Whether that’s through LIVE streaming apps or simply by writing your blog in a journalistic way. The more authenticity you have, the more people you’ll attract.

AoL 042: A Journey in Internet Marketing on MySpace through Facebook LIVE with Alessandra Colaci

Are you embracing technology the way you should? Like really? No one likes change. Heck, I KNOW I don’t. But sometimes we got to do it.

Today’s guest, Alessandra Colaci, is someone that has not only embraced changed, but she’s gone out of her way to show other people how it can be useful for them. It’s like she relishes in it.

In this session, we talk about her background in being a successful entrepreneur in the big days of MySpace (before Facebook became so popular!) and what she’s doing these days after she realized that she had to create another business!

It’s a great episode for all of us to remember that success can come, go, and come again as quickly as technology changes.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • What major she went for when she knew that she wanted to build an interactive experience online. 7:27
  • Where her interesting in Internet Marketing came from. 7:56
  • What inspired her to build Blingy Blob and where the name came from. 10:45
  • How Alessandra was introduced to entrepreneurship. 14:34
  • What lead to her success with Blingy Blob? 17:16
  • How early social media websites including MySpace lead to people learning technical skills. 20:21
  • How Alessandra has been able to keep an interest in developing her online business skillset. 24:02
  • Why she decided to close the doors on Blingy Blob even though she had great success with it. 26:59
  • Why she transitioned from consulting to starting her new endeavour, Influence Buzz 31:31
  • Her thoughts about not waiting for opportunity but making your own. 35:52
  • Why she thinks that today’s live streaming apps will actually go mainstream versus Justin.tv and Ustream. 38:10
  • How you balance actually being a Creator of quality work vs creating behind the scenes snippets. 41:30
  • Ideas in how people can use LIVE platforms to build audiences. 45:47
  • What she uses to project any feed she wants into Facebook LIVE. 49:30
  • How she finds out cutting news to share with her audience. 50:26
  • What she’s excited about in the future of Influence Buzz 55:11
  • 3 things she wants people to remember her by after hearing her on the show. 57:23
  • 3 truths that she wants other people to know 59:10
  • Her ad into the world… 1:00:19
  • What she would say to her 22 year old self 1:01:29
  • When she thinks of the word success, who comes to mind and why? 1:02:46
  • …and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Alessandra does an interview with Deborah Deras:

Original Blab recordings of the We Mean Business Show with Allie McAdam

cover170x170

How to Use Wirecast in Facebook LIVE:

How to patch better sound into your LIVE streaming feeds via Mihkel Teemant:

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunesStitcherSoundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

AoL 041: Authenticity Rules – How a Performing Artist Can Become a Digital Marketing Maven with Mari Sauer

No matter your age, background, sex, or culture, in the United States you’re free to pursue anything you want to in your career. Many people don’t realize this. They believe that what they’ve always done or what they’ve always been determines their future.

One of the best mainstream movies that come to mind that I recently watched the sequel to is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In that movie, there’s a ton of traditions that the main character, Toula, has to deal with as she realizes more about the life she wants to live and with whom she wants to live it with.

I know my own previous thoughts of what I could be always included something “technical”. I grew up loving video games, reading n0n-fiction books about astronomy, being a sci fi geek in general, and thinking about places that I could travel to – and how their cultures were different. All of these things in a small town were hard to achieve. So as I got more involved in the internet, I found myself exploring the world wide web even more. I believed that my excursion into electrical engineering would help me understand the technology that goes behind how it worked – but I don’t know if I ever expected for it to be the focus of my job, in retrospect.

Today, I like to believe that part of my quest with New Inceptions is helping people reconnect to that in which they loved to do in the past, or even more so, help them realize that the silly interest that they care about but no one else does, might actually be the thing that sets them free.

The guest of this session is someone I believe has had a similar realization. She’s a great example of someone who is discovering her new inception.

She loves to help people connect with others about what they’re doing through digital marketing. She also has a love of performance and, in fact, wanted to be a professional dancer as she was growing up. However, as you might know, artists generally can’t make a living on their art early on in the career – so they have to pay the bills through other work. And like many struggling artist stereotypes out there, she became a waiter.

Funny enough, though, she developed an interest in her work there too and soon in the rest of the world of hospitality.

When I found out about her past in dance, I knew I had to have her on the show to talk about her transition to the role that she plays now. Needless to say, she’s not just some kid in their 20’s who just because she knows how to set up a social media account calls herself a social media guru. She’s someone that uses her experience in these other fields to make her clients not only feel great about the work they’re doing, but also plan it out so well that it’d be suitable for a five-star hotel.

In this session with Mari Sauer, we talk about her trek through dance, hospitality, and what brought her to digital marketing. We’ll also discuss why she believes why solopreneurs need to be more consistent with their social media. And we also talk about Gary Vee a bit and his interest in SnapChat.

If you feel like you’re stuck on an island that is closed off to opportunity to become a truer version of yourself, I hope that this talk inspires you to get out of your comfort zone of who you think you are professionally. Let’s learn to reconnect to the new version of yourself!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Where her interest in pursuing a degree in dance came from. 7:06
  • How Mari made Hospitality and Tourism Management a big part of her career – even though she didn’t have a degree for it. 11:28
  • How authenticity helped her climb in the hospitality industry – including ending up working at the Four Seasons Maui. 16:02
  • How Mari ended up moving from Maui to Chicago. 18:20
  • What she learned from her time a PTA President when it came to dealing with volunteers. 20:29
  • How she eventually got back into the working world – this time in startups. 23:49
  • When she felt it was time to start her own thing vs starting again elsewhere. 30:10
  • How Mari gets paying clients and what she does for them. 36:52
  • How she keeps all of her client’s social media schedules straight. 39:40
  • What types of things she sees her clients doing when she first starts working with them. 42:41
  • Some of the hacks that she’d recommend to help solopreneurs out with their consistency in posting to social media. 47:05
  • Why it’s important to plan out your marketing and involve storytelling into your marketing. 48:21
  • What Mari is excited to be doing these days. 52:10
  • What she thinks SnapChat is a tool of authenticity. 53:22
  • What she’s looking forward to in the not too distant future with her brand. 49:42
  • How she wants people to remember her by from listening to her in this show. 57:30
  • Who are some influencers that she likes right now. 1:02:24
  • What she’d tell her 25 year old self. 1:09:23

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Episode 13 of #AskGaryVee: Gary mentions that SnapChat will be HUGE in 2016

Cliff Ravencraft’s guide to SnapChat:

Marie Forleo and Gary Vee talk about the future of Social Media Marketing (ca 2013):

Smart Passive Income Podcast Session 215 – How to Keep Up With Your Editorial Calendar (and How to Get Ahead):

Cjata3kVAAAxbag

 

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunesStitcherSoundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

AoL 040: Understanding Alpha Women and Maintaining High Creative Performance with Moe DeCarlo

Everyone has heard of the phrase Alpha Male. If you remember, they’re the type of guy who is normally thought of as a natural athlete and/or have everything going right in life, or just have many women around them at a given time. They’re a natural leader.

Have you ever heard of the phrase Alpha Female? There’s a good chance that you’ve heard that phrase too. When you think of the phrase, what kind of women come to mind? For me, I think of women in business, government, entertainment, and the military. All of them are leaders of some sort. And most of them probably don’t have time to be the center of a traditional family that society teaches us is the norm.

Personally, I’m married to an Alpha Female. I’m always joking with her that she’s 52% girl, 48% guy. Otherwise I don’t think she’d be able to have done as well in the military career as she has. Perhaps growing up with two brothers helps. But for the most part, I can joke with her like I joke with most guys – which is actually awesome. And for me, that’s normal.

Today’s guest, I imagine has married an Alpha Female as well. In fact, as he explains in the interview, he grew up with mainly women in his house. This forced him to learn how to think like the women in his life.

Today, Moe DeCarlo uses this power of his to be a translator for women and gets paid to do so as a woman’s social coach.

In this session, we’ll be talking about what got him into coaching in the first place, how he keeps up with all the work he does, and what he got out of his recent time at this past April’s Experts Academy.

If you feel like you have this special trait, or something similar, and not sure how to use it, perhaps Moe can help you learn how to utilize those skills in a way that you never thought you could!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How Moe schedules his days and weeks to be masterful. 8:06
  • How Moe sees himself as a coach in relationships. 10:01
  • How Moe compares himself to Steve Harvey. 11:00
  • Why he works with women more so than he works with men. 12:28
  • 3 Ways that men and women are different. 15:10
  • When Moe realized he could be a Women’s Social Coach as a full time career. 20:01
  • Resources that Moe has used in getting better at coaching. 24:23
  • How he was able to secure his first paying client. 26:57
  • What Moe would have done differently as he was building his business. 30:45
  • What Moe believes will sap your energy quickly if you’re not careful. 35:19
  • How Moe gets past the societal label of a Player when it comes to him doing his work. 38:43
  • Why it’s important to start your business with boundaries and how you let others know that you have them. 43:09
  • Why Moe decided to go to Expert’s Academy vs buying a lease expensive online training. 46:33
  • Why he believes that the biggest take away that he got from the event was the new connection with other people. 49:28
  • Why you should market to aspirations, not demographics. 51:19
  • What Expert Academy helped him realize he should change in his future business. 56:12
  • 3 Life Truths He’d Want People to Know 1:02:12
  • 3 Favorite Teachers or Influencers 1:04:40
  • What Would He Tell the 20 Year Old Version of Himself 1:06:10

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

How to pick Alpha Girls out:

Dr. Gaby Cora’s TEDx Presentation on Alpha Women:

Finding out if you’re an Alpha Women through Astrology:

An example of what I imagine Moe does with his clients:

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunesStitcherSoundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

The Importance of Why: Learning How to Get Going when the Going Gets Tough

People wonder where I get inspired for my writing. Sometimes I get inspiration from the people I’m working with. Other times, it’s just to fill a knowledge gap in my content.

Yet, other times, it’s when I’m constantly berated by a subject and I need to make an account of all that is coming my way.

I mean, when the universe tells you to do something, you better be listening and be prepared to act, right?

Passion is Half the Battle:

In the last two blog posts, I wrote about building a website. While this might not necessarily be the most interesting to me, it is a question that I can answer and have a knack to help people get started on. It’s kinda like me and math. Can I teach it? Sure. Do I have a passion for it? Well, I have a passion that people are educated. So… in a way I guess? But not directly.

Same thing for building websites. Is it something that I can help people with? Sure. I had to figure it out on my own and if I can help someone else figure it out, then I’m happy.

Also, it’s a question that I’ve been meaning to respond to in a blog post form for awhile.

Today’s post has a little bit of both: “Something I want to make sure people get because it’s important” and something that I’m asked about quite a bit.

How did I find my Why?

The Secret is in the Why:

Pursuing your Passion with a definite Why, I believe, is one of the critical parts of being happy, building a successful life, and building a thriving business.

I share this belief with a well known author, Simon Sinek.

If you’re unfamiliar with Simon, there’s been a big TEDx speech of his out there on the web for several years now. Time and time again I recommend it to people if they’re having trouble finding their Why.

Good stuff, huh?

Bonus: He also just recently did an interview with Marie Forleo that came out last week about his newest book.

Don’t Forget about Being Happy:

As Simon was saying in that last video, many times we get so focused on the small details of a job that might actually be part of our Why, that we forget about why we started it in the first place. When this happens, we might actually become unhappy.

I was listening to a really interesting conversation between Jordan Harbinger and Raj Raghunathan that was paralleling this thought as well.

Among many of the great points that Raj talks about in the discussion, he points out that we all need three main things to be happy: Mastery, Belonging, and Autonomy.

  • Mastery: We need to feel that we’re good at something.
  • Belonging: We need to feel a sense of intimacy or connection with at least one other person.
  • Autonomy: We need to feel a sense of freedom in what we’re doing. (Not to be micromanaged.)

Just a note here: Mastery is another way of describing passion. Those that don’t have a passion in a particular subject rarely care to develop a mastery in or of it.

A Recent Example:

Say you’re interested in starting a podcast. You want to have really interesting conversations with people and get those out into the world and inspire others to take certain actions.

That focus – having really interesting conversations with others – might meet the three criteria of being happy.

However, when you start figuring out the details of where the host for the recordings might be and what the your site looks like that you’re posting the talks to, those might be things you don’t really want to deal with.

As you get lost in the details of getting technical things prepped to do the show, you might actually start asking yourself why you started thinking that you wanted to do podcasts in the first place.

Right?

Well, for starters – the two are not mutually related. Technical parts of doing a podcast aren’t the same as actually being the host. In fact, the only “technical” thing a host should do is hit the record button. In the ideal world, you’d have people to help you with all the other stuff.

You don’t necessarily have to pay those folks, either. There’s plenty of trading that goes on in the business world behind the scenes – both online and offline. Maybe you have a talent that they need as well? They help you, you help them.

And the other thing is that this is where the Why gets you through. Without a strong Why, you might just tap out early on in your endeavor of being a podcaster. There’s a saying that goes, “If you want something bad enough, the facts don’t matter!”.

More Resources to Help You Find Your Why, Your Passion, and Find What Makes You Happy:

If you’re wanting to make sure that you’re on the right path, that you’re on it for a good reason, and that you want to make sure you can make it all the way through to completion, then there’s a few resources that I think you should check.

  1. Pat Flynn’s Book: Will It Fly
  2. Cal Newport’s: So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
  3. Mark Nathan and David Anderson’s Book: The Delusion of Passion
  4. Raj Raghunathan’s HappySmarts Project

Action Steps:

As I was writing this post, I took a short break and ran across an interesting piece that I wanted to share with you guys:

When you think about this family – is it clear to you that Garrett knew his why when he was building his business? Do you think it was what he started with or did it grow over time? Or perhaps he realized it when he sold his business?

Regardless, the Why was deciding factor of the life that they have now.

The best thing you can do with yourself before you ever start your business is to figure out what really motivates you to start working and to keep going when it’s hard for you to do anything. Us solopreneurs, we have very wild emotional roller coasters. One day we feel like we’re on the top of the world, the next day we could feel like “meh”.

If you don’t get the books that I’ve mentioned in this post (which I think might be a mistake), I’d definitely check out interviews that they’ve done, and talks they’ve given across the web.

Also, another something that I think would help you is making a bucket list for yourself as well as a list of things that would be fun to do with your family (if you have one). Make each one at least 10 to 20 items. Let it be as wild as you want.

Now from there, start categorizing these into things that don’t cost anything or very little, all the way up to those that cost a fortune (like a prolonged trip, a boat, or a better house!)

Those that don’t cost anything or cost very little, you should plan to do them as rewards soon.

The more the something costs, the higher up on your success ladder you should place it. Think of it as a reward for getting to that level of success.

Now find some pictures of these rewards and place them on a bulletin board, tape them on the back of a door, or, put them up on a refrigerator. These are forms of what many people call Vision Boards. If you need help of what I’m talking about – here’s an example:

Vision Board

I’d love to see what you all come up with!

AoL 038: Yoga, How to Measure Creativity, and Being a Better Human with David Rachford

Being in business for yourself has many different labels. Solopreneur, Expert, Entrepreneur… the list goes on. Many times we’ve found out that these particular names might not necessarily mean anything other than you have a passion for what you do and you happen to make income doing it.

Most of us go the long way of doing that. Going to school for one thing and then making our business from something else.

I frequently ask myself, could I have learned what I know today about online business without going to school? Would I have been able to help people they way I do today?

While I think that I might have been able to shortcut the process, the truth of the matter is simply this: I wouldn’t have the experience to be able to help people at the LEVEL that I help people today.

The same goes for today’s guest, David Rachford.

David started his career in the military after being an athlete for years in several sports. After getting out of the military, he went to college to become an accountant. Growing tired of that world in 10 years, he found himself at a position that he could do something that utilized those accounting skills, but at the same time, he didn’t want to make that his whole career.

That’s where his interest in teaching others about Yoga and starting the Better Human Show came from.

In this session, we’ll learn exactly how a kid who was too husky to be in youth football started playing all kinds of sports, How his yoga journey started, how he “measures creativity”, and why he started doing his podcast.

Listen to this episode if you’ve ever found yourself bouncing from one thing in your career to the next, thinking about starting a business, or you’re simply curious in what it takes to sit with “strong determination” like monks do in meditation.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • What kind of sports David played growing up despite being too big to play football. (10:04)
  • How David got into Meditation, Yoga, and eventually learned how to sit in “strong determination”. (13:48)
  • David’s advice to someone who says they get migraines when meditating. (20:42)
  • Why he left the accounting world after doing it for 10 years. (22:50)
  • How Dave measures creativity. (26:22)
  • Why Dave focuses on established entrepreneurs for his ideal clients (29:00)
  • How the Better Human show came into being. (34:38)
  • Which talks on his podcast have stuck in his mind the most. (38:18)
  • What’s an occurring theme that he’s gotten from his guests. (42:20)
  • David’s thoughts on falling back on a safe job (45:07)
  • What purchase $100 or less has most affected David’s life. (50:43)
  • What are three truths that he wants to share with others (53:10)
  • Who are David’s three favorite teachers (56:55)
  • What Dave recommends in spreading your message into the world (1:03:34)
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Installing a Retargeting Pixel on Your Website:

https://www.facebook.com/rachford/videos/1550197105273045/

Travel Yoga Poses on KKFX News:

Couple Yoga Poses on KKFX News:

David’s Norwegian Lundehund, Nikolina checking out a T-Rex!

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

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A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!