What happened yesterday is yet one more reminder that people with a message can change the world.
I believe this world-changing ability is available to each and every one of us!
Blackfish director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, not only created an award winning documentary on the treatment of orcas at SeaWorld. It turns out she added fire to a movement.
While SeaWorld had been under pressure from environmentalists in the past, Blackfish was the spark that ignited the powder keg.
[shareable cite=”Jason R Owens”]Each of us has the ability to change the world![/shareable]
Due to the relentless public pressure and mounting financial losses, the company had to take decisive action.
Yesterday SeaWorld announced the company is ending its orca breeding program which has drawn great criticism after the film.
SeaWorld has been listening and we’re changing…Society is changing and we’re changing with it. SeaWorld is finding new ways to continue to deliver on our purpose to inspire all our guests to take action to protect wild animals and wild places.
Cowperthwaite praised the announcement and added that she will continue to lobby for changes in the aquatic theme park industry.
Imagine what you can do.
Imagine the impact that your life can have.
[shareable cite=”Jason R Owens”]Who is going to change the world? YOU are![/shareable]
Keep dreaming.
Keep pressing.
Keep chasing.
Your efforts are going to lead somewhere.
Your work is going to change lives. In fact, your work is probably changing lives already!
We need you!
Keep fighting!
[reminder]How do you want to change the world? What cause do you want to champion, or what injustice do you want to see righted?[/reminder]
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One of the best parts of being a self-employed dad is the flexibility I have with my hours. Just because I work a lot does not mean that I have to skimp on time I spend with my daughter.
This weekend I knew that…
My wife would need some time away to recharge after a stressful few days at work.
My kid would want some quality father-daughter time.
I had not yet reached my goals for the week at work.
11:30 to 12:30 Have lunch with the family, then wife is off to have fun.
1:00 to 2:00 I take kid to Defy Gravity (indoor trampoline park)
2:20 to 2:50 Take kid Sweet Frog for frozen yogurt after exhausting trampoline workout.
3:00 – 4:00 Back at the house. Down time for the kid. Work time for me.
4:00 Father-daughter prep home made pizza. Wife returns home. Dinner as a family.
5:30 Set up our make shift theater for family movie night on the big screen
Some of you may wonder if I bailed on my kid while she was at the trampoline park.
No way.
I didn’t hole-up with the mass of bored parents in the lobby while my kid had fun.
Sure, I had planned on sticking my face in my laptop to steal an hour, but it just didn’t work out. My kid still needed some help navigating some of the obstacles, so I jumped in to encourage her.
[shareable cite=”Jason R. Owens”]With a little creativity self-employed dads can enjoy great relationships with their kids![/shareable]
The 3 Ways that Being a Self-Employed Dad really rocks!
When I’m not traveling to give a talk, this self-employed dad does most of his work from home. This means I get to put my kid on the bus in the mornings.
Once a month I schedule a special day with my daughter to go to school to have lunch with her.
As mentioned above, my schedule is usually pretty flexible, so this allows me to be with my daughter when I need, and to work when I need.
[reminder]What special tips can you share about blending work and family time as a self-employed worker?[/reminder]
A few years ago I was listening to a podcast from Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life. This episode was a beginning-of-the-year address, and may have even been his sermon for that Sunday.
He said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Your goals are going to take longer than you think, so you might as well get started.”
No truer words could be spoken.
1) This will Take Longer than You Think
I chose to list this one first because the #1 skill I see in short supply in newer entrepreneurs is the skill of handling disappointment.
I’m a huge believer in something called expectancy theory. I’ve seen this at play a number of times in my experience, namely with regard to unmet expectations.
People often feel that they should experience some type of success at certain points in their journey. Namely, success should happen…
More quickly
On a larger scale
With less expense…
However, when this expectation isn’t met (geek term: expectancy disconfirmation), people tend to get frustrated.
What typically happens is the person will take another shot — a very reasonable approach to be sure, but this usually leads to yet another brick wall. Hopes are dashed yet again, and this leads the would-be expert in a quandary.
What to do?
Try yet another approach?
Take a break for a few months?
Just toss the whole mess in the can?
For most of us in the expert business, we are trying to become speakers, we’re trying to become thought leaders, or trying to sell information products.
This isn’t really a franchise approach to business. You don’t get to walk down a path that has been proven to work time and time again.
The problem with what most of us experts are trying to attempt or accomplish is that there are 100 ways to get to where you want to go.
When I was researching how new businesses form, I was shocked to learn that most of what I thought I was doing wrong was actually right all along!
[callout]Article Upgrade ->Here I share my biggest “ah-ha!” moment about how most new businesses really get their start. (Link may not work if you are viewing this in email) Email Readers Get the Upgrade->here[/callout]
It is natural to want to emulate other successful big-name experts.
You may even try to take the same steps that they say they’ve taken in growing their business. It’s not a bad approach, however it often does not work. Your natural gifts and abilities do not match those of the expert you are emulating.
The only way to really learn this is to go out there and try, take the risk, get in the middle, and discover your limitations.
[Tweet “The only way to really learn this is to take the risk and learn your limitations.”]
I wish I could tell you that there’s a better way to do this, a way that would save you some time.
Truth is finding your way often takes a lot of experimentation, and takes a lot of wrong turns, and takes an awful lot of feeling like you don’t know what you’re doing.
[Tweet “When building your business you may feel that you don’t know what you’re doing.”]
You have to get really uncomfortable with not having success for some period.
When I think of people that I’ve studied over the past 4 or 5 years I can name several who have gone down a path, did a great job of exploring it, made some money, and then figured out that they wanted to make a change.
Their existing path was good, but it wasn’t the best. That particular path
Took too much time away from home.
Asked them to operate in areas where they were not gifted.
Required team members that were too expensive.
There are number of reasons why a particular path may not work for you, but you never know that until you travel down the path. And, yes, this takes time.
For those of you who know my story, you know that it’s been a multi-year journey of fits and starts and success and failure. Yet, the business is taking the right trajectory. It’s going in the right direction. I am making more money year after year.
It has been a hard fought battle with most of those battles being internal.
2) Your Faith can Play a Strong a Role
While faith plays such an integral part in the lives of many people, I don’t see experts in the start-up space paying a lot of attention to it, writing about it, or even talking about it much.
When I have asked entrepreneurs about their experiences with where God is leading them in their business or their ministry, it’s fascinating to listen to their stories.
[Tweet “I think intersection of our work and our faith simply does not get enough air time.”]
As entrepreneurs, we live lives inherent with risk, often overestimate our capabilities, and find ourselves in the occasional financial bind. It is only natural to think that we would turn to our respective faiths for help.
Sometimes I think God puts these desires – for us to want to share or message, to start a business, to monetize what we know – in order to get us to step out, to have faith that what He has asked us to do is, in fact, possible.
When I find myself in the middle of a wrong turn or having traveled down a path that is apparently leading nowhere, it’s very natural for me to begin asking why God let me down this particular path.
[Tweet “As entrepreneurs, we live lives inherent with risk, often overestimating our abilities.”]
I can think back to this past week where I really felt like my back was up against the wall, and I needed to produce some results. I was really leaning into God in prayer asking for some really specific answers, that He would bless the efforts of my work, and that it would not all turn to sawdust.
I was asking for guidance, for some type of confirmation.
Article Upgrade for Email Readers -> Or click here if reading this vie email
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Rather than getting a direct answer to my prayers I often hear, “Hey, I’ve given you skills and talents. Go figure it out. I am with you.”
Specifically, I don’t hear, “Everything is going to work out” or “You are going to make a ton of money at this”.
So, the good news is…
I’m not alone in my business pursuits.
I get to do what I feel is best.
Pretty good deal, eh?
Blaise Pascal called this “The dignity of causality”. We get to be part in God’s creation. We get to work, create, shape, prune, and bring things to life.
God is effectively saying, “It’s your nickel.”
3) You will Lose Your Path Before Finding it Again
If you have the luxury of being tutored by someone who is in the expert business, to go with them to their events, to sell materials from their book table, to be with them as they cold call for speaking engagements, then by all means sit at this person’s feet and absorb everything you can.
Mentoring at someone’s side will lead you to a lot greater clarity about how to make this business work for you.
[Tweet “Mentoring at the side of an established expert will lead you to much greater clarity.”]
For the rest of us however, the ones who don’t have that luxury, it’s simply going to take an awful lot of exploration to find out what’s going to work for you.
You may feel very called to write a book, and let’s say that you do write that book. You put a lot of effort into launching it, and you end up selling some copies!
However, at some point you will discover the string of your successes is only going to be so long.
You are going to reach the boundaries of your competence, and this isn’t a bad thing.
[Tweet “At some point you’re going to reach the boundaries of your competence, and this isn’t a bad thing.”]
Not that this is any deficiency of yours. It’s just simply a matter of experience.
You’ve never been down this road before. You may have never even written a book before, but yet you’ve managed to
Write a book
Get it published
Do a book launch
Sell some copies
You’ve managed to ring the cash register! You have to understand how many people would’ve never even made it this far.
Yet, I’ve also known many people to miss their bookselling goals considerably.
The numbers here are not important. We all have our own numbers that were aiming towards, but let’s just say that you ended up missing your goal — by a lot.
It is very natural to get discouraged by this, and at that point you may end up running off into a different direction.
Which is totally fine!
As your book is on the shelf for a while, you might get excited about having some type of a membership site. Maybe you’ve grown your email list over the past six or eight months, and you’ve decided that what you know when your book can be supplemented by great membership site.
So you go down the path of making a membership site. Only to find out here, that you don’t really know as much as you thought you needed to know about membership sites, and the whole technical aspect overwhelms you.
You put together a membership site as good as you know how, and then do a trial balloon launch too people on your list.
You get a few takers, and receive only luke-warm feedback.
[Tweet “Building an expert business? There are 100 ways to get there.”]
You have put in a tremendous amount of time only to realize that you won’t really see any return on your investment any time soon.
In summary…
You have written a book
You have sold some copies
You’re able to bring the cash register,
You tried launching a membership site and that fizzled.
So at the end of six or eight months of work you have put an awful lot of time into this, and are really starting to wonder if this whole expert business is all that it’s cracked up to be.
This is totally normal!
I can’t tell you how many times I run into situations where I talk to people who have put in a ton of work into a product, and sales did not take off the way that they thought it would. This does not mean that you’re doing anything wrong.
In fact, you’re doing a ton of things correctly!
You are leaning into your problem.
You are having faith in your skills and abilities.
You are taking risk in your life to believe in yourself.
All of these are qualities that makes a person good at being in the business of promoting your expertise.
[reminder]What is the biggest blindside that hit you as you are growing your expert business?[/reminder]
I know many of you are hard at work breaking through the noise that clamors for the attention of your target audience.
Me too!
If you are like me there are times when you wonder if you are doing the right thing, and if you’ll ever get noticed.
This makes it so special when you do get noticed and someone pays you a compliment.
It is absolutely priceless when you find your voice and people start resonating with your message.
This is what made it so special for me to see that one of my products got reviewed on a new site called smartBusinessPlanet.
This site is put together by Mitch Aunger (of Planet5d.com fame) and Abby Sayers. The sole aim of smartBusinessPlanet is to be a clearing house where solopreneurs can sort through all of the bajillions of resources available in the market.
Think of it as a Rotten Tomatoes for solopreneur education materials.
[Tweet “It is priceless when you find your voice and people start resonating with your message. @JasonROwens”]
I was fortunate enough to pop up on their radar a few weeks ago when they published this article on my Sales Workshop 6 Disc CD series. Check out the review here.
[Tweet “Free business books mailed straight to your door! http://upvir.al/2863/lp2863 @smartBizPlanet”]
What I’ve learned since the review was published is that Mitch and Abby are looking to review more products in the upcoming weeks, and it is quite possible that they might review your material as well. Drop Abby a line here to submit your product or service for review.
[reminder]What are the most important things you want to learn this year? Continue the conversation on facebook, twitter, or linkedin.[/reminder]
You were made for something more! Down deep most of us know this. We get a sense of it when we go to the movies or we feel our hearts tug as we read a good story. It comes as a haunting voice that we can hear only when we slow down long enough to listen.
We want to be the hero. We want to have adventure in our lives.
The good news is that there is plenty of adventure out here for those who seek it.
An epic story started thousands of years ago, and now you have a vital role to play. We need you.
Your New Identity
For many of us pursuing our best selves means trading in our current jobs in favor of self-employment.
We leave behind the identities we formed during the 5 years we spent in engineering, the 10 years we spent in accounting, or the 20 years we spent in HR.
The “sensible” thing to do would be to continue what we learned at our employer. If you worked in accounting, then become self-employed as an accountant.
But most of us don’t want to do the sensible thing.
When I talk to people who have left corporate America they are not continuing their old roles. Often they shed the accountant or HR title for something like chef, app developer, or even guitarist.
People sometimes choose a path that you might think was for the younger crowd. I’ve known plenty of people who want to go on the road — at age 40+! Some as public speakers, some as workshop leaders. Others want to start their own ministry.
Our hearts don’t always lead us to do what is sensible, but following the heart is often great medicine.
[Tweet “Following your heart is the best thing you can do.”]
We Need You
Please know that without you, our world slows to something less than perfect.
Apsiring chefs, we need the new dish that you will cook.
Authors, we long to hear another great story.
Dancers, we love to watch you.
When you hold in your gifts, when you play small, it does no one any good.
You inspire us to take our own first steps towards greatness.
Let your light shine!
We you realize that living from your gifts and calling enables and inspires others to do the same, it gives you even more encouragement to continue on your path.
Your Adventure Awaits
Over the years I have come to realize that the thrill of being self-employed doesn’t come from being my own boss. The thrill comes from stepping into uncharted waters.
I remember when my wife and I were first married, and she would say, “Let’s go hiking and have some adventures!” Several hiking trips later I realized that “adventure” does not always mean “fun” or “safe”.
Be prepared my fellow traveler — if you seek self-employment, you will have plenty of adventures. I can’t guarantee they will be fun, and most of them are far from safe.
[Tweet “There is plenty of adventure out here for those who seek it.”]
[reminder]What is the larger story that you feel called into? Continue the conversation on facebook, twitter, or linkedin.[/reminder]
Life gave me one of those moments of clarity lately, the proverbial whack on the side of the head.
I’ve been teaching myself the ropes of online advertising off and on for the past 3 years. Truth is I’ve had limited success and could not figure out why for the longest time, but this week I had my breakthrough.
I had been following directions like…
Here is how you create a Facebook ad that will change your life:
Put a headline here.
Insert a picture there.
Choose your daily budget and wait for the money to roll in.
Most of the time I end up spending money with nothing to show for it.
Facebook ads are working for everyone else, right? I usually spend 4-5 days trying to get traction before getting completely frustrated.
Formula vs. Craftsmanship
In the most basic sense there are 2 different types of learning.
The first are what I what I will call formulaic learning.
How to change a starter in your car.
How to thread a sewing machine.
If you screw up installing your new starter, you’ll know right away. You can’t put it in backwards. You can’t even wire it backwards. The car will either work or it won’t.
Same goes for the sewing machine. If you route the thread incorrectly, it will snap or knot into a mess in short order.
Then there is the other type of learning — the type that tends more toward true art than paint-by-numbers. Like making a violin or making your own wine — this is a craft, not a formula.
[Tweet “The fast track to frustration is applying tips-and-techniques solutions to complex problems”]
Availability Bias
My breakthrough this week is realizing I fell for something called Availability Bias. Here’s how it works:
If we have a personal experience with something, or hear about it often, or read about it often, then we are more likely to give these things more weight when we are making a decision.
The same way that most people guess that there are more deaths by auto accident than by emphysema (the opposite is true). Emphysema deaths aren’t in the news often, so they are not top of mind with most people.
When I start looking for a solution to my online marketing woes I go — online — where I find a hundred online programs that:
Promise instant access
Imply anyone-can-do-this success
Since this is all I see, I inadvertently think one of these programs must hold the solution.
We Need Each Other
What I don’t see offered online is the more time-honored path. The path that is not paved with claims of instant anything.
I don’t see any offers for the path of apprenticeship within my community.
Turns out I could have saved myself a lot of time if I had just surrounded myself with people who are on the same journey I am.
I started sharing my roadblocks with several other people who are on the same path, a few are a little ahead of me. The insight they offered was simply…amazing!
[Tweet “We don’t need another online course. What we need is a group of peers to stick with us.”]
And the good news is that we are going to do it again!
Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks about a very unique type of group that I’m forming
where we all have each other’s back
where those of us who are strong in one area can guide those of us who are not
where everyone comes out ahead
[Tweet “I am ready to stop doing it all on my own!”]
[reminder]In what areas of your business have you been banging your head? Where could you use a Guide? Continue the conversation on facebook, twitter, or linkedin.[/reminder]
Something really surprising happened when I ran an event this week. I wasn’t looking to receive such a deep confirmation in my calling.
Just to provide some context — I run a ton of short 2-hour and 4-hour workshops each year. I rarely do full-day events. In fact, I’ve only run two so far this year.
The first was The Sales Workshop back in March, and the second was my first ever AEPC workshop for Authors, Experts, and Product Creators.
I want to contrast these two events for you.
The Sales Workshop is my flagship product. I deliver around 30 of these engagements per year across the southeast, plus I have built out this product with a 6 disc audio series plus an online training program.
The Authors, Experts, & Product Creators (AEPC) event was designed for my affiliate tribe. It is a one day annual planning event where I brought in 4 guest speakers and gave people plenty of workshop time to work on their businesses.
In short, we find ways to work together and cross-promote each other throughout the year.
[Tweet “To Be Vulnerable – To Really Put Yourself Out There…Is to Live Courageously @BreneBrown”]
When I ran the full-day version of The Sales Workshop it was a LOT of work. I set an aggressive target and worked with my team of affiliates to fill the room. We met our goal, but it took a tremendous toll on me.
For the AEPC event I vowed I would not push myself so close to burnout. The class was a prototype and I wanted to start small before pushing it to a larger audience.
Surprise Results
Compared to The Sales Workshop I spent about 1/10th the time promoting the AEPC event and had 3x the fun.
Here’s what I didn’t expect.
They Want to Keep Meeting
The AEPC event was always billed as a once-a-year thing. Just me adding as much value as I can to my affiliates.
Toward the end one of the attendees said, “What now? I feel like we need to meet again. Otherwise I won’t know how his story turned out with the new business, and I won’t know how they are doing with their membership site.”
Several others agreed.
She was right. I had made no allowance for keeping the tribe connected to one another after the event.
Spoken Affirmation of My Calling
One of the attendees said, “This — working with these types of people, authors and experts — this is your calling.
I was blown away.
Never in all my time running presentations and events have I had someone say these words to me.
Word of Mouth
Another great piece of news came when I reconnected with yet another AEPC attendee.
She said, “Hey, I mentioned you on my podcast yesterday. I hope you don’t mind.”
Do I mind? Are you kidding?
I’ve never had someone mention me on their podcast after one of my events.
How to Create Your Own Surprises
What started out as a way to help my affiliates build their businesses has taken a surprisingly good turn.
I made no attempt to engineer these results. I don’t think I could have if I tried.
[Tweet “What started out as a way to help my affiliates has taken a surprisingly good turn.”]
Truth is I aimed for a goal, and reached it.
But I landed on something far greater than my initial goal.
I landed on a need within my community — a need that I can meet. Something that I can do to truly help people.
If you are looking for the “How To” from this post, here it is:
Put yourself out there.
Test things.
Try.
Repeat.
You have genius inside you.
Go find it!
[Tweet “You have genius inside you. Go find it!”]
[reminder]What surprising results have you found so far on your journey toward self-employment? Continue the conversation on facebook, twitter, or linkedin.[/reminder]
About a year ago I had grown so frustrated with trying to grow my business through blogging — that I quit blogging entirely. It was the best move I could have made.
I believed the “grow your blog, grow your business” hype. After all there are so many examples of where it worked for people. The internet seems to be littered with stories of people who narrowed their blogging focus, found their tribe, and cashed in.
I wanted a piece of the action, but it just didn’t seem to be in the cards for me.
I had plenty of great things to say, but I just couldn’t find an audience.
Writing took a lot of time, I wasn’t seeing any tangible results, and I was simply losing patience with it.
Game over.
What I Did Instead
Instead I stopped trying to get organic traffic and just picked up my phone.
I started pitching my speaking engagements — If readers won’t come to me, I’ll have to go to them.
It worked!
[Tweet “The #1 most overlooked way to generate more revenue fast? Your phone! Start dialing today!”]
In all I booked 40 speaking engagements in 12 months and the craziest thing happened — people started coming up to me after my talks saying things like:
“If I give you my email can I get a copy of your slide deck?”
“More people need to be talking about that ‘effectuation’ topic you shared.”
“Your session was the best one I heard all day.”
I couldn’t believe it. All the validation that I was craving through blogging just didn’t happen, but I found it in public speaking.
Who knew?
Why Did I Start Blogging Again?
Of course the big question is: Why are you blogging again, Jason?
Simple. I know the long-term benefits of sharing my message in written form.
I now know — thanks to some guidance from Mitch Aunger at Planet5D.com — that it could take years before I have enough critical mass to start seeing tangible results.
But the effort is so worth it.
I get to hone my craft of writing, and I get to refine my message (both of which are topics that I speak about in depth on my membership site, myBusinessGuild.com).
[reminder]What is ONE thing that you should stop doing, which, if you stopped, would make room for something else much larger in your life? Continue the conversation on facebook, twitter, or linkedin.[/reminder]
I picked up this Cannon Vixia HF R400 about 2 years ago on a Black Friday deal. It is the perfect entry-level camera and has more than enough features for me.
It records in full HD, has a 53X zoom, and has a memory card slot for easy file transfer.
I realize this is a small thing, but here’s one feature that I like the most about the camera: it has a standard microphone jack. So many of the other cameras I considered had special jacks that required an adapter from the manufacturer. Because it was going to be an additional hassle, I just skipped those models.
Tripod
Years ago I bought this tripod for something like $90 from BestBuy. Now I see that Amazon is relabeling it under a house name and the price is incredibly low at less than $25.00! Check out the AmazonBasics 60-Inch Lightweight Tripod with Bag.
This is not one of those flimsy, dinky tripods. This thing has some meat to it and stands at 60 inches (5 feet) tall. I have had mine for years and I highly recommend it.
There are 4 light heads in all. Each head contains 5 bulbs. Bulbs are controlled with 3 on/off switches giving you the ability to light 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 lights at a time. You have total control.
Kit comes with bulbs, too!
I bought 4 lights because I wanted to have 2 lights on the background and 2 lights on me.
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