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Alex Barker: Learning to Think Like a Business Owner · The Daily Writer

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Rider.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Each weekday we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: Creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with writers and teaching that helps us apply what we're learning.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: For more, you can visit us at dailyriderlife.com.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: I am thrilled to bring you this conversation with my good friend Alex Barker.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Alex is an entrepreneur and an all-around brilliant guy.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: He's the founder of The Happy Farm D, which is a company that helps pharmacists find work that is fulfilling and inspiring.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Alex is also the author of the book, Indispensable: The Prescription for Fulfilling Pharmacy Career, which I have to say is a really, really brilliant book title.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Now I've known Alex for a number of years since we've been involved in several of the same groups and online entrepreneur communities the past number of years, and I've asked him to come on the show to talk about the importance of thinking like a business owner.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: He's not only a great thinker, but also a humble and generous leader, as well as a fantastic coach.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Alex shares about his experience as a business owner, the benefits of owning your own business, why it's hard for creative types to think like entrepreneurs, and much more.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: This is an important episode, especially if you want to own your own business as a writer.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a full-time ghostwriter, and if you're listening to this, there's a good chance that if you're not doing freelance work or work for a hire already, you probably have considered it.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: So if so, this episode is going to teach you a lot about business leadership as well as running your own business.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: So get ready to take some notes from my conversation with the amazing Alex Barker.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: Alex, thanks so much for making time to be on the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: We have known each other for a number of years, and I think this is actually the first time you've been on my show.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks for making time to do this.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you valuing our friendship enough to have me on.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like we've escalated our friendship to the next level.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think so.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, it's funny, whenever I and people sometimes ask me, how do you decide who to have as a guest on your podcast?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: And you've had podcasts before, so you've you've been through this process many times.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: But really, it's it's two ways.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I have a topic that I want to feature and I look for a person who's aligned with that specific topic.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: But honestly, the majority of the time, I just think of people that I want to talk to and I know who know a lot of stuff, and then I try to figure out how their area of expertise aligns with this topic of writing.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: You're definitely in that category because um you know a lot of stuff, you're a cool guy, you're very, you're a very experienced business owner.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: So again, thanks for doing this.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: You bring a lot to the table.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad to fit the criteria.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: It and I think like you, you you just enjoy talking, you know, with others and learning as you as you talk.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: And hey, people are listening, and hopefully they gain some insight as well in their own journey.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think so.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, there are some podcasts that are very, very niche focused, and they're only on these very, very specific topics related to that that show topic, which is totally fine.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: I guess I kind of take the view that if I'm interested in something, then it by definition fits within this podcast.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh plus, when it's your own podcast, you're like, hey, I can make the rules.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not having to play by anybody else's rules.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: So we're here to talk about the topic thinking like a business owner.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: And you have owned multiple businesses and have been doing this quite a while.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to start out by having you share your a bit of your story as a business owner, like how you got into business and what kind of things you're doing now as a business owner.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: How did I get into it?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think my first ever touch of business was being told during college, don't go into business.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's really encouraging.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it kind of felt the same way about how I felt about becoming a comedian, which is what I wanted to do a long time ago.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but my mom was like, You're really good at math and science.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you're not gonna make a whole lot of money doing it.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a safe career.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: You should you shouldn't go that way.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: So listen to her, went into pharmacy school.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's typically what most failed far comedians go into is pharmacy school.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: I I've never made that connection before.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Fun fact that you learned today.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: We yeah, I think we tend to listen to others for wisdom, and sometimes that wisdom is based in fear, right?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's so true.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: In pharmacy school, I learned that going into business is scary and it's bad, and you're not gonna do very well.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I just thought, okay, I'm not gonna do that.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it was oddly enough, podcasts that got me into business because I had an hour commute um during my residency, and I needed to listen to something besides the radio.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I listened to personal finance podcasts, and that got me into leadership and then into business.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh my gosh, you can create something and get paid for it over and over again.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like that sounds amazing.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: How do I do that?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the first thing I ever did, you know, to make money, besides, you know, like garage sales and typical things kids do, um, was I I sold Star Trek stickers on Etsy.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not like a Trekkie fan or anything, but are do you you know Star Trek?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, very well.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: So you'd know the phrase space, the final frontier, right?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I made a sticker that said the final frontier, and you put it on your space bar on your computer.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Keyboard.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: That is awesome.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it sold.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I realized production costs like were just way too high.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so from there, I did anything and everything.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: I made affiliate websites, I made a podcast, I made I did coaching, consulting, uh, I created a media company, got into a franchise, and some of these things made me some money on the side while working full-time, but a lot of them were me pushing my creativity because my job didn't fulfill that desire within me.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was a lot of like trying stuff, and I think that's when I first met you was like 2013, 2014, maybe something like that, yeah.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think it's because of podcasting.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: I was into podcasting at the time, and I tried a lot of things, learned a lot along the way, but ultimately I never really gained momentum.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like I never really beyond eight to twelve months, continued any one of my projects.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember telling a really good friend of mine at the time, uh, who now has a a publishing company, he said, you know, Alex, you you're not really giving everything to the the one thing that you want to do.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that was kind of like a shameful moment for me.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: I remember being ashamed of my lack of progress from 2012 to 20 uh 17, the beginning of 2017.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt like the last five years I had been pushing myself, waking up at 5 a.m., working on Saturdays, um, negotiating with my wife to have time in the evenings to hustle to build this thing.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I had very little to show for it.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: I had learned a lot, a lot of skills, helped a lot of people along the way, but not a real business.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't really thinking like a business owner.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say 2017 was the beginning of that shift for me in my mindset.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm going to try to replicate my income.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if I can't do that in 18 months, then I'm gonna give up.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just not gonna do this anymore.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna find something else, or I'm gonna get a new job, or I'm just gonna do something entirely different, but I'm gonna give one thing all of my effort and energy.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And if it doesn't work, then I know that I tried my best.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And by October of 2017, I replicated my expenses, and so I told my my wife and I agreed that we're gonna pretend as if my day job income doesn't exist and just live off of the business and see how we do.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: And did that for about six months, and that was the Happy Farm D.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: That is um one of the businesses that I own.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's a career coaching company specifically for pharmacists, so super niche.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're industry experts.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I wrote a book during that time as well.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um, in 2018, I left my full-time job and I've been doing that ever since.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Lots of mindset shifts in between then and now, but that one shift of giving it my everything, instead of just like saying, Oh, this next idea is my thing, you know, and it's gonna help me get to financial independence, um would peter out.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'd lose momentum, I'd lose creative drive.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And by making that really powerful commitment to myself and to my friend, was the first major shift to move into entrepreneurship.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: So if you see me looking down, it's because I'm writing several notes here.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: There's a whole bunch of really great things that you mentioned.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: One thing that I'd love to dig into is okay, this period between I think you said 2012 and 2017, you tried a bunch of different things.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: How did how did how did that that experimentation phase lead into you creating the happy pharmd?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's a that's a very specific thing that you landed on that you felt could make money.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: You want to try this for a while, et cetera.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: But how how did that specific thing that has made you money materialize out of that experimentation phase?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: And here's why I'm asking this is because I think this is where a lot of people really get hung up, and it's certainly where I spun out for a number of years before I landed on ghostwriting is kind of my thing.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: So we kind of have a similar story in in many ways, where both of us have done a lot of different things, but then we landed on kind of this main thing that really provides a good stable income.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: So, in your experience, how did all that experimentation what came out of that that made you go, okay, this is the thing that I'm gonna really, really focus on, as opposed to 15 other different things?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm reminded of a concept that we teach in our in our company.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's called ikigai, it's a Japanese word.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: It literally means a reason for being.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's a mixture of four things what you're great at, what you're passionate about, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's and with for pharmacists, for example, the common problem that they have is you can be paid to do it, and the world needs pharmacists, but very few people find themselves excelling as a pharmacist, and very few people feel passionate about what they do.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and what we tend to do in our company is we help them find what you are great at and what are you curious or passionate about, and how could we find that career path for you?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: In the case of entrepreneurship, um, I would say my passion was creativity.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know it, but I was constantly creating all the time, constantly thinking about the future and wondering what I could create and what could I solve a problem and how could I make a living doing that?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't really have the answer to it, mainly because many of the problems that I focused on were influenced by influencers.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I listened to podcasts, I'd read books, and they definitely help open my mind, but I often took their ideas and applied it to industries that I didn't really understand.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for example, for a long time, you know, I branded myself as a coach.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: I learned how to coach.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: I uh I was mentored, I took training programs, and I was validated by other people.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: You have the ability to coach, you should learn how to do this.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I did that and I enjoyed it and I got clients' success, but I never really got momentum.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it in my mind, it was really because I wasn't clear about who am I helping.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Going back to Ikie Guy, where's the greatest problems in the world?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Where are the what does the world need?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so near the end of 2016, I started to notice a trend in my coaching that more pharmacists were like reaching out to me and asking me questions about like, what are you doing?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Why are you doing it?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: And how can I do it?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I didn't really want to teach people how to coach because you know I never coached full time and I just didn't feel like that was interesting.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I did find a lot of pharmacists saying things like, I'm not happy with what I'm doing.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like my job.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: I want to get out, I want to do something different.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I kind of rolled the dice to think this is, I think, a big enough problem where the pool of people is big enough to support a business, but it's small enough to be niche enough to be a specialist.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you probably found this out too with your freelancing that if you're a generalist, that's great.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a place for that, but then people don't really know how to refer you, they don't know how to talk about you, they don't understand what you're really good at.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, and if you're mediocre, right, right.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when when I have a business client, for example, you know, I I tell them like no one no one refers people to Walmart.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people aren't like Walmart strawberries, they're the best, or they're clothing line.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's list of things that have never been said by anybody.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, maybe someone to surprise you, where'd you get this chicken?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, we just pick it up at Walmart.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, okay.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's people don't, you know, yeah, it's fine, it's mediocre.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: What they have going for them is scale, right?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're starting out, you will never have that opportunity.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: You'll not you won't have the billions of dollars that they have.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, when I I know like there's some backlash against the the recommendation to to niche down, but it's it it it that is like the whole reason why so much of the things I've done in the past never worked out.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was too broad, it was too general, it never really appealed to one very specific person.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of other reasons why I didn't make progress, but that was one of the main ones.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Did you find that true for you as well?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, you tried.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, in fact, this is this is such a fascinating conversation because I think there is a lot of value in niching down.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: You can't really start out that way because you don't know enough to know what the niches are or how you can serve those specific different niches.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: For me with ghostwriting, uh honestly, this has been a very, very recent development, like in the past couple of weeks, where I don't remember who I was talking with, but oh, it was a good friend of mine.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: And they, you know, sometimes you'll talk to somebody and they frame an issue or a topic in such a way that makes you go, aha, then you have a real light bulb moment.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: And they said they made the observation that what you do as a ghostwriter is is a luxury good.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: And they said, because the people who typically hire ghostwriters are, you know, they have to be people with resources.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's a and you know, you and I are both part of faith community, so I'm not trying to diss anybody in the church world or ministry world because that's where I come from.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess if I wanted to, I could sort of have the right to diss it to diss it a little bit, but I'm doing it out of love and honesty.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things I always say on this podcast is I will be honest with people, like I just want to tell the truth.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: But the truth is that there's a reason that I don't target typically ministry organizations and churches for ghostwriting services, and that's because those are not those typically are not places that val that would value what I would bring to the table enough to to pay me for it, like I would, like I would charge a business person or consultant.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: That's just it's not the right market for what I do.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's not good or bad, it's just not the right market.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: So what I do is I target, and I hate the word target because it just sounds so cold and impersonal, but I can't think of a better word.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, my ideal client is somebody who has money, who has resources, who wants to pay me to do work that either they don't have the time or the interest in doing.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: So they said, what you do is kind of a luxury good, like your your clients in the same way, in some of the same ways are people that like Rolex and Mercedes might target, and you need to think of yourself as a luxury brand because what you do is is an expensive service.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, wow, that's really interesting.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'd never thought about my niche in that way, but there is some truth to that.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: So there is a lot of value in thinking about what you do as a niche where you're serving this particular type of person.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think if you if you just add the word luxury premium to your idea, yeah, you you save yourself a lot of trouble.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's there's so much clarity that comes from that.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not again, it's not good or bad, whoever your your target market is, but it's like, oh, if I if that's what I want to be, and I want to to be that kind of a ghostwriting agency, then then I have to position myself in a different way.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: I have to really think about is the way that I'm presenting myself on social media and in my marketing, does that align with what that group would expect or desire?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: So there with clarity, there that's really, really valuable having clarity about who you are and what you're doing.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: When you have those light bulb moments, it's it's like it makes everything else fit into place.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: But it only comes through thinking and creating the time for that.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um that was one of my other major shifts that I had to do because you know, as a pharmacist, I was trained you have to do a job, and that job should take 40 hours, 50 hours a week, and you should be working.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not working on something, especially if you're not creating in my case, then you should feel guilty or shameful.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's only in the last maybe 18 months that I've been able to create the time and the space to allow for creativity and thinking.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember a friend told me, you know, the reason why CEOs are are seen as bad people is because their thinking goes beyond eight eight to five p.m.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're thinking about the business on the weekends and at nighttime.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why they're on vacation right now is because guess what?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's related to the business.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: And they get, you know, I understand the public's viewpoint because the public has a different view of time.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: They think for every hour you do something is equated to a dollar amount.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: You've got to get out of that mindset, right?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's based on factory work from the early 1900s, you know.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And we've evolved past that now, and especially with business, time does not equate to money.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, now for me, I I've had to shift away from that.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: I remember feeling shame about that, shame about Fridays.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't work.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like today's a Friday.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it does this does not feel like work.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Me neither.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I get to do this as part of my job.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's fun.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in the beginning, it was it was hard for me to, I guess, accept that without guilt or shame.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because it it made me feel like I'm not giving this my everything.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: I could be working today.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: I I could be building that new marketing strategy, or I could be building this new class.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: But the truth.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Is that if I'm constantly doing that all the time, I will eventually be depleted.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I have been.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: I have been in the past.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: I took a sabbatical for that very reason.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: But it's in these big shifts that you get you get to really reap some rewards.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like now we're in a place where I'm working 20 to 30 hours a week and it's it's perfect.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Spending time with the kids, hanging out with my wife when I want to.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's just it's heaven.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: It took a lot of work to get there.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Too many years.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, when I hear people saying like they want to retire, like I can't imagine not working.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because I love what I do.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: I don't understand this culture of, you know, make so much money that you retire at 35 or you retire at 40.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, but if if you're gonna live like 40 more years, do you really just want to sit on the beach?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what kind of an existence is that where your your whole life is just leisure?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like that just seems like a total lack of purpose.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, it feels very selfish to me.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it feels devoid um for fun, really.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um a new discovery I recently learned about myself is that uh fun fun is a core value for me.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm not having fun, then I get miserable.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um sounds a little selfish to to admit that, but um it's true.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, with my work, if something isn't fun to me, then I end up either hiring someone or delegating because I it sucks the energy out of me.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: I don't do a good job at it.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um I get behind on my goals.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: There's a ton of reasons why fun needs to be a part of my day-to-day.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that may be not true for everybody, but you know, it there's a lot of power in understanding what you're good at, what makes you you, and incorporating it into your work.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's part of the beauty of setting the rules and business and creating a wonderful team that loves what they do.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's a very rare opportunity that that you get to have.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'd love to dig into two specific things here.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: The first is there's so many directions this could go.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I said this might have been before I hit record that uh, you know, when I whenever I talk to you, Alex, it could go a bunch of different directions.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, well, I'm I'm really fascinated by how do you pronounce this Japanese term that you mentioned?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: Ikigai.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: Ikigai.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I wrote down like a phonetic thing, but I'm like, I didn't write that down correctly.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, ikigai.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: So it really consists of four elements that you mentioned skill, passion, what the world needs, and what the world's willing to pay for.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm paraphrasing.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: That do you think that is a great filter or template that people can use to decide what kind of business they should be building?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: So this podcast is for writers.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think most people listening to this, if not all, want to make money with their writing, even if it's just they're they're only writing their own stuff.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe they don't necessarily do client work.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: But I think most people listening to this show are interested, or maybe they're already doing some type of client work.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: This to me is a brilliant filter for making that decision.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: And as I look at this, my ghostwriting business fits all this criteria, which I think it has worked for me because it's something I'm good at, it's something I'm interested in and curious about, it's something the world needs, and it's something that people are willing to pay for.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it seems to me like a like if if your side hustle or your business is not working, one of these, one or more of these things is probably off.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think do you feel like that's an accurate way to put that?
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: You could look at that way.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: It may be a poor filter, though, for evaluating current endeavors, because there may be another a ton of other factors that could be influencing why something's not taking off.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: And truthfully, you know, I think a lot of people like to say things like, I'm a really good communicator.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: We've learned that by interviewing, you know, hundreds of people.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really good at communication.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: But if you were to ask their manager that, they would say, No, they're not.
• 26:39
  unknown: True.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: That may be true of writing.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I I would claim I'm a decent writer, but if you were to get a professional on board, they'd be like, You're trash.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: You need to and and that could be true for people that want to do writing.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I you know, I don't know.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to say.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think the best filter for whether or not this is actually going to work is momentum.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's good.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: If if you're not seeing momentum happen, then you know you may want to question whether or not this is worth doing.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so by momentum, I mean you're putting forth diligent, consistent action towards it, and you're either being rewarded with some external, you know, factor.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're writing, you know, online novellas, then it's viewership reviews, comments.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: If it is ghostwriting, then it's referrals and you know, new client bids.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's not necessarily income because that's that is you know outside of your control.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the more conversations you have with people, the more people are obviously interested in whatever service you're providing.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's so many factors, you know, for me, sometimes it was knowing that I wasn't consistent was a huge red flag for me.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because I tried a lot of stuff and I would eventually peter out, you know, around 45 to 90 days.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: I would I would lose steam on it, and then I would bring like a second wave of energy, and then that second 90-day sprint would peter me out, and I would think, or I'd I'd listen to a podcast more likely, and I oh wow, that that's such a sexy idea.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I should do that, and and and here's what how that'll look like, and I'll draw up a business plan and and and oh, I bought this website already, um, and then I'd do it for 90 days, and the cycle would repeat itself.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's why I think committing yourself to one thing for a long period of time is a really powerful move.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because it, you know, I think so many people live with a glass ceiling above them that says they can't have a certain amount of success.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: They self-sabotage themselves, right?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: Tiger Woods.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Man, that is so true.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: Think of Tiger Woods, he's like the perfect example, top of his game, world championship, is dating or is married to an extremely attractive woman, sleeps with a stripper, right?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like success, he he at some point he sabotaged himself from having more.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: And we all do that.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think for me, it was not committing and going full out, because if you go full out into whatever endeavor it is, whether it's writing or starting something else, even if you think it's a failure, you can be satisfied by the fact that you gave it your everything.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: You did absolutely all that you had to do it.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: And and if it failed, then you like you can rest peacefully knowing I tried and it didn't work, and that's okay.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's better to do that than try with a half you know what approach.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how PG-rated this podcast is.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Typically PG, but it's not good.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's not good.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't give it your everything, then you didn't try.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so you'll be constantly wondering oh, well, I could have done this and I could have done that, and this person screwed me over, so it never really worked out.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: And you ultimately just leave yourself with more regrets by not giving it everything.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's that there is a lot of comfort in thinking, well, this could be the way that I could go, but I'm not actually going to try and do it.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because then we'd like we never actually know.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we think that we could do it, but until we try and we either fail or succeed, we just don't know.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: But it's so much less risky to just stay where we are and not actually make the effort, you know, or we give it a half-hearted effort and go, well, I tried, and it just didn't work.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so we give up.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: I see so many people do that, and I've done it myself about a million times.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's hard to be it, it's scary when you do something and you have a little bit of success with it because now it's like, oh, I have actually like something positive has happened as a result of my action.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: Now I'm responsible to do something with that.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: So what's cool about that though is once you make that decision, you you can't go back on it.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: And just even reflecting on when you and I first met, like I for me, and I think you had the same dream, you know, we wanted to do entrepreneurship full time.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like this stuff is so much fun, it's creative, it's engaging, it's satisfying.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't I want to fill my entire life with this kind of thing?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember feeling that even though this was still the dream, it would it would likely never happen.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, or if it did, like I'm gonna be 40, you know?
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and for me, I when I started, I was like 24, 25.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: And now I I don't know of any other way to live.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: So once you make the commitment, you know, your life changes and it requires you to make some pretty cool decisions that I think you'll enjoy, like not having to check email anymore or things like that.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: I have not gotten to that point, and man, I I gotta figure out how to do that because it just I feel like I spend half my life in my inbox.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta get out of there, buddy.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: I know I don't know how to do it.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, you know, people send you personal messages.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they've got all these personal emails from friends or you know, clients or whatever.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how to not do that, other than I guess you just train an assistant to deal with somebody else.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hire a team.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, here I am.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta hire a team.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: I have an assistant a few hours a week.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, she's amazing.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I've just kind of dipped my toe in those waters, and I need to keep going in that direction for sure.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: So you've set a great example for that, definitely.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, once you give up control, you can create some freedom, which is counterintuitive.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: But when you delegate powerfully to people and empower them to do a job and they enjoy that job, that was another mindset shift for me because I remember thinking, who in the world am I going to get to flip and take care of this website?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: I hate it.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: No one else is gonna like it.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: But the truth is, is people love a tie, you know, entirely different work than you.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: That is so true.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: So, so true.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: And once you, you know, maintain profitability, you should use that money to improve your own life, your own work, and the output of your company.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what we did.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: We've hired a COO, we've hired an operations manager, an entire team for the website, marketing, you know, and all of these people help elevate the business.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, of course, they cost money, but the return on the investment is so much greater than the cost.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's where I am with my business.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, I gotta start thinking about these things, but it's all a journey, right?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you take a little step, make a little bit of advancement, take a risk, see if it works, those kinds of things.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: Journey before destination.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: So let me throw out one more question as we kind of start to wrap this up.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: How does your mindset need to change when you are a business owner versus when you're working for someone else?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: I know that's a really, really huge question, but I'm gonna throw it out there.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's a big question.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I think a great question to ask yourself is would you hire yourself again?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I remember a shift I made that really helped me in the beginning when I was working full time was am I being a good employee for this company?
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: Am I managing my time right?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: Am I working on the right things?
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: When should I stop working on things?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I found uh, you know, to be honest with you, when whenever I got a new job, I I usually came with it with a little bit of excitement to figure out the norm.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm a guy who likes shortcuts, I'm a guy who doesn't try to outbeat everyone in terms of when I have a boss.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would find the norm, I'd find the average so that I could just perform to that average and not have to give any more effort.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Which doesn't sound like an entrepreneur at all, you know?
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it became a habit for me in school for my day job.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I found the average and I I performed to the average.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um and in business, you know, I found a lot of creative juices and drives and fun and passion.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: But for me, I also found that I didn't hold myself to a very high standard.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I didn't say to myself, I'm going to perform and I'm going to do well and I'm going to exceed expectations for my clients.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that that for me, that was a pretty hard shift to make.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but by seeing the impact on my clients, I was able to see raving testimonies and referrals and people saying like amazing things about me and and whatever I was starting.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I can see it now in our team as well.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in fact, a part of our conversations and our monthly reviews are things like trying to disarm um performance anxiety in people because they feel like they're so valued that they don't want to disappoint me, which is a weird place to be.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like I never imagined that I would have this problem.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: But by making that shift in the beginning, it's set the standard for everyone else.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, good isn't good enough kind of mentality.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: We want to do our best.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: We want to perform high.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, it's created the consequence, you know, of people feeling like, oh no, you know, we only got this many sales this month.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the world is crashing down.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like everything's fine.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, chill out, everything's good.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have to, we have to allow ourselves to fail in order to figure out how we can improve.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: So not meeting the goal is okay.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Let's figure out how to, you know, improve.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that empowers people to come up with those creative solutions.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say that is a great way, I hope, to answer your first question.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: I I think we may have gotten off the rails there, but I don't know.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's all good.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's all good.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_02: Just riffing.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's all good.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: It see, it does seem to me like the the main thing that I think I would take away from this conversation, which to me is kind of the big idea of what it means to start your own business in the first place.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it really is the mindset of you don't just accept the world as it is, but you realize that the world is malleable, that the world is changeable, and the world will move and it will adjust for you if you're willing to put forth the effort, go in, go in the direction that you want to go, you know, do all the things that we've been talking about.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_02: The world will adjust and make room for you, and the opportunities will come your way, but you have to you have to decide that you want this.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like the vast, vast majority of people, they're just kind of content with um, this is kind of how life is, this is what my job is, this is what my situation is.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just going to kind of passively accept whatever life happens to throw at me.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas people who want to start their own business, that is a function of realizing everything that you see around you in the world has been built by somebody.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, every road that you drive on, every building that you're in, uh, every town that exists was created and founded by somebody.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: And you have the exact same power to build something, to create something, to make something from nothing.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: And we just look, we look around at the world and we we kind of assume things have always been this way, but they haven't always been this way.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody built everything that we see, and that they were no smarter or more talented than you are, probably.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: But we all have that power.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's but that's a major, major mindset shift.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think I've been thinking about that a lot.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_02: There's probably a book idea in there somewhere, but I just have been kind of obsessed with this idea of realizing that you you can change the world around you and you can build something from scratch if you really want to.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to just accept your life as it is responsibility, I think is what you're talking about.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's sadly not talked about a lot.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think a part of it is culture.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: The the phrase, you know, ask not what your country can do for you.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like that has gone away in large part.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_02: It has, and it's it's sad.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's really, really, it's really sad and disappointing.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we all need to take responsibility for our lives.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: And once you take responsibility, then you can accept that idea, right?
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and that's where the magic can happen.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you just take responsibility, if you realize, you know, I I'll be honest, I often look to storytelling for these kinds of things to see how people shift into that.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: In movies and television, often people like the circumstances are thrown on the person, right?
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: The villain is the one, uh, the agent of change in a story.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly, exactly.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas the superhero, like, they just want to maintain peace, they just want to maintain status quo.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: They don't really want to change things.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's the villain that does.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good insight.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: I've this is what I've struggled with because I'm trying to write you know a non-f or a fiction novel, and I'm struggling, I'm struggling with these big picture ideas and how they actually work in a story.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because we we we kind of like we praise peace, we praise lack of change.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that means that the responsibility of that goes on to someone else, not ourselves.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you see it in our political discussions on both sides of the aisle, you see it in religious discussions, you see it in communities.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it would be amazing to see a culture shift for us to move away from um overabundance, I suppose.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: Not abundance, but excessive, just excessive behavior and just taking responsibility.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: And boy, families would change, communities would change, the nation would change for the better.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: But maybe it's just one person at a time, and maybe it's only the entrepreneurs that'll do that.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: I I think it is, you know, and that man, that is so true, is especially with the pandemic, you know, the government has had a I mean, obviously, I I'm so grateful for scientists and people in the medical field who have created vaccines for us.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, holy cow, talk about the heroes of society, you know.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_02: But but we can't just rely on other people to make change or the government to make change.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: We have to accept that responsibility.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_02: To me, that's kind of what entrepreneurship is all about.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's you're stepping away from a life where you're like the passive hero in act one of the story, where you're like, I'm just kind of gonna live my life, then you know.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Know then change comes, or the villain comes after us, or we have this moment of transformation, and it's like, oh, now I'm actually responsible and I I don't reject that mantle of responsibility.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_02: I embrace it, I accept it.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm going to willingly step up to that challenge and not just create a better life for my family.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: I want to actively create a better world for my clients, for my customers, for my community, whatever that is.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I hope everybody listening has paid attention to your journey because you've definitely done this and are a great example for us to follow.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I appreciate that.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks for letting me share.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoyed talking with you.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry to take up so much of your time.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: This went like twice as long as I anticipated, but that's what happens when you have awesome guests.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hopefully you can use a part of it or something.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to use the whole thing because the whole thing is great.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's going to go up.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to put it up there just like it is.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's awesome.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Alex.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: This has been a blast.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Alex.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_02: Wasn't that fun?
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: I learned a ton from this conversation, and I'm sure that you did as well.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: If I had to boil down this conversation into one simple thing, it would be this.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_02: We must take ownership of our lives.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_02: We can't just sit back and accept the world as it is.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: If you want something different from your life, if you want to start a business or you want to build something or you want to grow something, then you've got to take the initiative and do it.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just going to happen.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_02: We can't just sit back and be passive with our lives.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: We've got to go for it.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: We've got to make it happen.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_02: We've got to simply take action.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that this podcast is obviously for writers.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: And as creative types, so oftentimes we sit back and we don't take the action that we need to take.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_02: We have tons of ideas.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: We may be brilliant in our field.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_02: We may be really creative.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: But the problem is that creative types oftentimes are not also action-oriented entrepreneurs.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_02: And that's part of what I want this podcast to do for you is to motivate you to take action and to make things happen instead of just kind of passively watching life pass you by.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because you might be an awesome writer, but unless you're willing to do the work required to make your dreams come true, you're going to be constantly frustrated.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why I invited Alex into this conversation because he's a great leader.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_02: He started a really wonderful company that is helping tons of people.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a lot that we can learn from him.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_02: So given all this, what do you want to see happen with your career and with your writing, with your business and your life?
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: If you want something different than what you're currently getting, you're going to have to take action.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I hope this conversation really inspired you just like it did me.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_02: I want to encourage you to check out Alex's social media links, which will be in the show notes, as well as his book, which was written for pharmacists, but there's a lot that you can learn from it about career and uh leadership as well.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_02: And again, the title of that book is Indispensable, the prescription for a fulfilling pharmacy career.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to mention that because I think it's important for us to cross-pollinate our creativity with ideas from different industries.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: You may not be in the pharmacy industry, you may have not ever thought about that in terms of what it's like to work in that field or what it's like to have a career in that field.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_02: But I guarantee you're going to learn some cool things from that book.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: So make sure and check it out, as well as Alex's social media links as well.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_02: And also a huge thanks to Alex for taking the time out to be a guest on this show.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_02: I want to take a moment to let you know about our daily writer membership community.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, one of the very best ways to develop better habits and impact more people's lives with your writing is to spend time around other successful writers.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're tired of feeling isolated and chasing success on your own, then I know you're going to love the Daily Writer community.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_02: For years, I searched for the kind of writing community that I would want to join, but I can never find what I wanted, so I created my own.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_02: Some of the features include weekly writing sprints, monthly community calls, book discussions, calls with guest experts, and much more.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_02: For more info, you can visit dailywriterlife.comslash community.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.