The Blog Of Greg Rollett

When  first started blogging I was working at a “real job” that focused on finding people “real jobs.”

Jobs that I would never want, nor would recommend to anyone even remotely close to my circle. But they were real jobs. Telemarketers, construction workers, housekeepers, financial sales reps, mechanics and the like.

They are the jobs our parents, and their parents held down to put a nice meal on the table and kept the lights on.

When I first started blogging, I was blogging so that I would never have to hold down another “real job” again.

And the plan was going pretty darn well. I was building a sweet following of musicians and creating some products over at Gen-Y Rock Stars. The income was starting to fliz-ow and I was in the pre-launch for my biggest launch to date, the New Music Economy Blueprint.

Then it happened, I got sucked into a “real job” again.

But it wasn’t a job like most young people are accustomed to. It was with a startup, Cognitiv, that offered some pretty nice perks and an opportunity to do all this crazy stuff I do at a massive scale.

So I jumped from at home, surfer bum entrepreneur to employed. With an office (window view).

Then I had a conversation with Rob Granholm from IT Arsenal today and we talked a little about his job. He didn’t think of it as a job. Something that he dreads every morning and anguishes over every night.

It’s a similar conversation I’ve had with many young pros who are not entrepreneurs but who work like one. They are passionate about their work, about their industry, about learning and sharing and about making a better future for themselves.

So Then What Is A Real Job And Why Do We Hate The Feeling Of A Real Job?

About 2 weeks ago I got an email from Scott Gerber from the Young Entrepreneur Council and author of the book, Never Get A Real Job (How To Dump Your Boss, Build A Business And Not Go Broke).

The book and Scott’s mission are pretty common among Gen-Y leaders. College doesn’t lead you down a yellow brick road to a dream job and neither does sitting on your ass. You need to stand out and be great amongst a sea of other great peers and no one is waiting to hand out million dollar bills for ideas alone.

But if you work your tail off, have a stellar idea and put it onto the real world, with a more than Facebook marketing strategy, you just might have something that people in “real jobs” with have envy over.

Scott’s real power is in his overall mission to help young people overcome the devastating effects of youth unemployment and underemployment by teaching them how to build businesses. I think this is really important as he really gets behind everything that is wrong with the current structure of the American work force (sorry, I’ve never applied to a job or worked anywhere else), and how young people are getting a royal shaft from universities with rising tuition, credit card companies who take total advantage of the high ticket price of college and post grab life and companies who still look at a piece of paper before seeing if you qualify via some bullshit piece of software that can tell what people are like.

He has started the Death To The Resume Movement and even kicked off his book launch with a resume burning party.

We All Hate Real Jobs, Because At A Real Job…

you can’t be yourself. You can’t express yourself and your vision. When you have something vested into a company your true colors show. You write blog posts at 1am knowing that you have to run a few miles at 6am before a full day of ass kicking.

I know that when I started this blogging thing 4 or so years ago a real job was where I thought my life was headed. I tried the entrepreneur thing. I started a record label in high school, ran a recording studio to pay for college, waited tables, DJ’d, rocked the world with my music, flipped real estate, tried eCommerce, got a “real job” and then killed it with Internet Marketing only to get back wherever it is that I am now.

And I couldn’t be happier or more excited to see the damn sunrise every morning.

So what the hell is a real job today? Shit, I dunno. And I never want to find out.

Win A Copy Of Never Get A Real Job

What’s your idea of a real job? Let me know in the comments. Best answer wins a copy of Scott’s new book - Never Get A Real Job. You got till Friday. The clock is ticking.

And if you don’t want to wait to get a copy, grab one now via this sexy Amazon affiliate link.

-Greg

Over the weekend I was driving home from a nice run on the river when I started thinking about conversations I had the previous night. Only I wasn’t really focused on the context of what was said during dinner, drinks and a weird ass Rampage Jackson UFC win. It was the words I chose to use.

I remember using the word “hate.” And I hate using the word hate. It’s one of the worst and most harmful words in the English language. It not only has the potential to hurt others, but also changes your frame of mind. Saying you hate something tells your brain to start thinking negatively. You instantly start to begin to focus on the negative.

That’s not the only word that I have been trying to remove from my vocabulary.

Here’s a short list that I am focusing on right now:

• Should
• Can’t
• Try
• Problems

This small list is helping to transition my mental state from that of negativity, failure, lack of confidence and by replacing them with strong, empowering words like

• Will / Can
• Challenges / Obstacles

What we focus on is where we go. It’s not the Law Of Attraction, it’s the ability to control your own actions. When on a coaching call with Tom McCarthy I remember him hammering it into my head when he said that no one controls how you act and what you do, but you. You can always say no, you can always say yes.

Of course there are consequences for making decisions, but it is you who creates your own state, the way you feel and the way you act.

Once you start to relaize this and you start to act in a positive, successful manner, things will start to turn up right in front of your face.

Instead of investing in the problem (a negative word), focus on the solution (an empowering word).

An example would be being broke. If you focus on bills, and crazy ass creditors calling you and start to stress about how much money you owe, you are defeating yourself and putting yourself in a state of stress, in a state of unhappiness and possibly depression.

The opposite would be the person who has a stark of bills and starts thinking about how to make more money. Instead of spending 30 minutes cutting coupons, can you contact 5 potential JV partners, write the next 10 pages in your eBook, shoot a video, read a book or whatever else you can be doing to get ahead. You are putting energy into the positive, and it works, it works damn good.

So back to vocabulary.

Start thinking consciously about the words you not only say out-loud, but use internally. They will help you have a kick ass day, and ultimately have that kick ass rock star life.

What are some words that you need to remove from your vocabulary that are limiting your success, your business and your state? Holler back in the comments below.

-Greg

Top photo by y3rdua

Today I  get to share a very cool story from the Kick Ass Copywriter, Jared Kessler. Jared and I have been talking through email and some phone chats for the past year or so and he is an awesome dude with some amazing talent. I’ve written about Jared before here if you want to check more of the back story. Jared just opened his new copywriting company, the Kick Ass Copywriter and is having a super dope November sale. Check out the post below and if you need some new vernacular on your site, your sales page or your eCommerce, holler at the homie Jared.

So What’s The Magic Formula?

Sometimes there isn’t one.

You want to live the way you want to live yet you also want to make some money to not only “pay your bills”… but actually do something beyond it - not just “survive.”

Two options come to mind:

1 - Follow the rules and get a “job.”
2 - Don’t follow the rules and create a life.

First things first… if a job doesn’t exist, don’t find one.

It gets really friggin old, demeaning and stale (with what an employer puts you through these days – so you’re not alone in feeling that you’re trying to win a contest in getting hired).

Not only that, you’ll probably become a bit resentful to those companies that you’ll stop buying from them and start tweeting some rather unpleasant things about how they’ve treated you in the whole entire hiring process. I know. It’s not pretty, trying to nibble at the bits to get someone to believe you’re worth working for them.

Furthermore, if you try to follow the rules like you’ve constantly been told, you most likely won’t survive (or even live). You’ll starve.

Since discovering Copywriting I’ve come to the understanding that if jobs don’t exist… I must create my own – I can’t force it. These days we all must do the same. No more bitching and moaning about what’s happening in the world and that “no one is hiring.”

Not only that, it’s sometimes not even worth the time you’ll spend in going crazy with everything you have to do to get hired these days… that it’s easier to just use that time to start your own biz.

How did I do it?

I made money right off the bat with the Copywriting side of my business because I found one person that would hire me, and gave them my absolute best. Then they told ten of their friend, I got more business… and the ball started rolling rather nicely. So much so, that I was booked solid in a month or two.

So what’s the magic formula? Again… there isn’t one.

It takes work.

However, I do believe you can accomplish something similar with any business you want to start (without the B.S. business loan or going in debt to do it).

First, find out how you want to live.

Next, you’ll notice that HOW you’re thinking, got you to where you currently are (so you’ll have to find ways to change that – through books, personal development, daily affirmations, etc). After that, you should get a mentor to keep you on track (I have a free eBook here that can help with that).

So that’ll at least get you started. Anymore than that, you’ll have to hire someone like me – to get others to hire someone like you. !

To find out more about my Copywriting service, please visit thekickasscopywriter.com – it’ll help reignite your biz (& help prevent you from finding that “magic formula” that doesn’t exist).

You can also grab his free mentor guide here.

Surrounding yourself with A players is something successful people talk about all the time. I always thought it was true, but never acted upon it thoroughly till this year. In the past 10+ months I have changed the people I hang around, talk business with and chat for advice with from startup young entrepreneurs, to already successful business rock stars and things have drastically changed.

I spent last week in NYC with B. Smith, who has 300+ licensed products in Bed, Bath and Beyond, had a network tv show for 7+ years, owns 3 restaurants in Manhattan, The Hamptons and Washington D.C. Seeing what she has been able to accomplish and that she still has the drive for more gets me excited t be surrounded by people like her. And that is just the tip of the ‘ol iceberg.

This week in the inbox, I got a nice little note from FSB Associates a out a new book from Brian Tracy and Mark Thompson called “Now…Build A Great Business.” One of the main factors in creating their idea of a great business is surrounding yourself with great people. Below is a great excerpt from the book, which you can grab from Amazon if you need some reading over the weekend (the book drops on November 17th).

“The best thing about giving of ourselves is that what we get is always better than what we give. The reaction is better than the action.”
– ORISON SWETT MARDEN

The greatest untapped natural resource and the most expensive in any organization is its people. Motivating people to make their full contribution to the organization is the fastest way that managers can multiply their personal effectiveness. It’s the only way to grow a great company.

This means that the greatest improvement in performance and in results can come from unlocking and unleashing the latent potential of the average person in the business.

The People Equation

Getting the people equation right is the hardest thing you will ever do in business. When discussing this subject with Mark, Charles Schwab leaned forward as if to confide a secret. “Your job as a leader is to find, attract, and develop other leaders. If you do that, your business will grow,” he whispered. “If you don’t, it won’t. It’s that simple.”

Chuck Schwab learned early in life to surround himself with people who not only shared his ambitions, but who were more gifted than he was in important parts of the business. If he wanted to make progress and get things done, he had to become a team leader.

Schwab discovered something entrepreneurs often realize when it’s too late: He had great talent in one area and not nearly enough skill in many other facets of his company. The only way to sustain his success was by finding, recruiting, and empowering others who had talents that he didn’t have. It is a skill that few entrepreneurs learn until they have a crisis that teaches it to them.

“Most entrepreneurs think that they’re brilliant at everything,” Schwab smiled wryly. “It’s never true. I thought I was a bright fellow,” he said (and he is!), but he admitted that he was “humiliated in subjects like literature and language.” The second time he flunked they nearly threw him out of college.
“When your name is on the door you are responsible, more than ever. But if you actually end up doing everything, then the business is in danger,” he said. If everything depends on you, the business can’t grow. If it’s all about you, you are just one traffic accident away from bankruptcy.

Until you can trust other people to carry the torch, your company can only get as big as your workweek. When you have found people you can groom to fill your shoes, “only then have you graduated from being an entrepreneur to a leader,” Schwab said.

For more information on the book, go ahead and check it out on BrianTracy.com.

To go ahead and grab a copy of the book, head on over to Amazon.

This post contains affiliate links, where I will make a few bones to grab a few beers with my new friends, if you decide to buy something after clicking your mousy, mouse on the links.

A few weeks back while in Miami speaking at Murray Newlands‘ Social media and Advertising event, I got to hang with someone that I’ve been working with behind the scenes for sometime.

Taylor Jackson is like the Tim Ferriss of the photography world (a wedding photographer to be exact). He gets to set his own schedule, work with only the brides and corporate clients that he wants to, outsources the stuff he doesn’t like, such as editing and making albums and spends his days off (all 300 of them) traveling the world, snowboarding and catching some sun in Miami.

I wanted to get him on video for a few minutes and we just avoided a quick afternoon shower when we shot this. It’s only about 5 minutes, and there are some great insights into running a business on your own terms, finding the clients that not only pay your bills, but that you enjoy working with and how to promote your business using video (even as a photographer).

Enjoy.

Here is another cool video that shows Taylor in action. He is doing a photo shoot with a Toronto DJ, DJ Bounce. Check out how he uses video to promote his photo business.

If you want to learn more about Taylor, holler at him at:

@TaylorJackson on Twitter

TaylorJacksonBlog.com (sign up to his list, a cool product may be coming shortly)