Influence School

Dr. Paul Jenkins is a Positive Psychologist. When it comes to understanding certain things like personality and psychology matters, he's the one to talk to. We have Dr. Paul joining Nate Woodbury as he answers questions about personalities and experiences in today's episode. Check it out!

Welcome back. We've got a fun and maybe unusual topic about experiences and our personality. Got Dr. Paul Jenkins here. Positivity psychologist, good friend, mentor, guru. -Keep going, I'm enjoying this. -So, we're going to talk about how our experiences influence our personality. For this topic, I kind of feel like it going in multiple directions. I'm really excited to hear your perspective on this because you know a lot about personality and I am all about influence. And when I saw this question. I'm like, "That's a good topic, I want to have a conversation about..." -That's a good one to have, Nate. In fact, you know what? The first thing that came to my mind about this is that there's all kinds of experiences people have. I've been podcasting since 2007. -Yeah. -And in my podcast, I interview people who have had all kinds of experiences. And I'm talking everything from paralyzing accidents. Leaving people quadriplegic to more common things like a divorce or bankruptcy. These experiences that we have in life, whether they're positive or negative, seem to illuminate personality. -Yes, explain what we mean by illuminate there. -You know, how when you squeeze a lemon? -Okay. -You get? -Lemon juice? -Lemon juice. Yeah. You're brilliant, Nate. What if? What if you were to squeeze a tomato? You're going to get? -Tomato juice. -Tomato juice. You don't get lemon juice out of a tomato. And you can't get tomato juice out of a lemon. And I think life's experiences come in and sometimes squeeze us. And whatever it squeezes, what's really inside of us is what comes out... -Okay. -...in these experiences. Now we can we can mold and shape our personality. I think our experiences have far less to do with influencing our personality as much as exposing our personality. -Okay. So, you're suggesting that inside of me, I've got all these personality... -Juices. -You know, juices. Okay. Good and bad? Both positive and negative personality? -We've all got both. -Okay. But my experiences are going to allow that to shine? -Right. It will it will bring out what's already in you. -So somebody that might have the same experience might react and kind of choose differently how... You know, what shine so that maybe it becomes a choice if we allow our experiences to bring out the positive part of our personality. -You can look at any major event that take a hurricane, a natural disaster, an earthquake. A terrorist attack. And watch what happens that when the incident occurs and then following that incident stories start to emerge. And the ones that catch most of our attention are the hero stories. The ones who because of this incident, this experience, it brought out their heroic personality. And that's what catches our attention and inspires us. There are other stories about victims. -Okay? So, if you... If you just make a dichotomous characterization there, there's victims and there's heroes. And that's inside of them. And so when this incident occurs, this experience happens, it squeezes that juice out and we get hero stories and we get victim stories. -Alright. So, are... This is like something that's going through my mind then and a question that I have is our personality then really a belief in a perception of who we are? And we might have an experience, we choose to react in a certain way and then we now believe this is the type of person I am? -We develop these beliefs and we're also programmed with them. You and I are speaking English, why? Did we decide to speak English? Did we choose speaking... -I don't... I don't know Japanese. -We're just programmed to speak English. And I don't know Japanese either. So, it's good we didn't pick that one. We're programmed with a lot of what makes up our personality. Now, I'm not saying that you can't change it. If i didn't believe people could change, I have no business being a psychologist. But changing it is kind of like changing your language. Or learning a new instrument. It's a choice and obviously to speak Japanese but it's also a skill set. You have to work on developing the skills and the specific attributes that are associated with (Say) a positive personality. A hero paradigm. -Okay. So, I have a theory then. I have a  theory that if I want to grow and improve and... The word personality might not be the best fit here but I want to develop, I want to grow and I want to improve. -Of course, you do. -So, then I've got to put myself in a place that's going to have lots of experiences. Maybe even challenges. See, I look at entrepreneurship. And I love business and entrepreneurship because of the opportunity that's available. -Mm-hmm. -But there's so many challenges. I look back in retrospect over the last 9 years of me having this company. -Yeah. -It's been a lot of challenges but it's caused a lot of growth and it's probably caused a lot of this personality juice to come out. -Right. And I love the word that you used opportunity. -Mm-hmm. -Which if you look at those two paradigms, the victim and the hero or the agent, (It's what I call it sometimes.) paradigm, when something happens, when we have an experience, an event occurs, it is simply an opportunity. In a victim paradigm, we see it as a problem. It's like this is bad, this is horrible, this is terrible, this is no good. In a hero paradigm, we see it as an opportunity. It's a chance to get some of those hero juices flowing. To choose on purpose a particular response to the tragedy. And I think we've all got hero juice. I think if we're programmed in a victim mindset, then our experiences are likely to squeeze some of that victim juice out of us. But if we stop long enough to think about our own thinking. This is beautiful because we talked in another video we did about metacognition. Which is thinking about your own thinking. When you stop to think about your thinking, it creates a little space and in that space is where choice is. Until you see it as a choice, it's not. So, you'll just roll with whatever you're programmed to do. Sometimes... Maybe this gets back to our topic because sometimes an experience gives us enough pause from our routine that we can actually think about our  response. And it therefore influences our personality. -Okay. I  really like that. So, to wrap up this topic, for somebody who's watching this video, they might think, "You know, I want to grow. I like where I'm at but I know I could be in a better place. I know I could be doing more." -Oh, yeah. What do you suggest? I mean they could create experiences like, "Maybe I'll just go skydiving." I mean what? What's a practical application for our video? -Create  a stretch. Yes, I'm not necessarily advocating skydiving. And that impacts your ability to obtain life insurance too by the way. But something that stretches you. I turned 50 a couple of years ago. I signed up... -No way. -I know, right? Look at this. When I turned 50 I signed up for guitar lessons. Never played the guitar in my life. Is guitar  choice? Yeah. It's also obviously a skill set. You need to hire a coach and you need to do some sessions and you need to practice, practice, practice. Because of the skill set that's involved and it's  the same thing with these personality characteristics. So, hire a coach. Have some sessions, do the practice. -So, if something feels like a stretch, that's a good thing, okay. -Yeah, because that's outside of your programming and it's going to open up some possibilities. Learn a new language, learn a new instrument. Take on a new challenge, start a new hobby. New things tend to challenge your thinking and put us in a meta- cognitive state so that you can actually think about and choose where you're going with it. -Alright. So, if you enjoyed this episode, whether you're watching on YouTube or on LinkedIn, I've got 2 suggestions for you. One, you got to follow this guy on YouTube. Live On Purpose TV, Paul Jenkins. -Come and join us. -This guy is awesome. Now, the second thing... -Produced by Nate. -Produced by me. The second thing is I want to have more episodes like this with Paul out here on my channel and here on LinkedIn. But in order to do that, I want to know what your questions are around positivity, around influence. So leave those in the comments below and that will give us ideas for more future episodes. We'll see you then.

Nate Woodbury has been outsourcing to the Philippines for years now. John Jonas, Creator of Virtual Assistant Tool, is the perfect person to be guesting in this episode, sharing with us his own experiences. Let's listen in on how to build a strong virtual team.

Welcome back. In this episode, we've got John Jonas back. We're talking about outsourcing again. And specifically how to build your virtual team. Okay. So, just before hitting the record button on this on this video, both he and I came up with the same phrase in our mind. Kind of one at a time. -Yeah. -I'll let you introduce it. What are we talking about here? -Okay. So, let me tell you how not to do this first. -Okay. -I talked to a guy once a couple years ago who said, "Oh, man. I tried that outsourcing thing. It didn't work." I was like, "Oh, what happened?" "I hired like 20 guys and nothing ever happened. Nothing ever got done." I was like... -I like your scruffy accent you gave it there. -Well... That's... That was it. I was like, yeah duh. Right? Have you... Would you ever hire 20 guys here in the US and expect something to get done would you give him no direction? No. My advice always when someone comes to me and says, "I want to build a virtual team." Great.  Do it one at a time. Hire one  person to do one thing and make that work and then go from there. -And for context, I've got ten full-time employees in the Philippines. you mentioned you got 24. -I have 24, yeah. -so we have good sized teams. But yeah, I started... I started with one person. And then, you know added a second editor, third. -One at a time. So, I have something else. -Yeah. - people often ask me who do I hire first? -Yeah, that's a good point. -And so my advice is to find something that you are currently doing and get that off of your plate as a starting place for your  team. Get someone that... And your first task, the reason you're giving them something that you currently do. Something that you know how to do is to see, "Can I make this  work?" Because  hat's... That's the whole  purpose of this first task. You hire this guy, now your job is to see, "Are we compatible even? Can I make this workwith this person?" Because if you can, great. Now, you can get him doing all kinds of stuff and then you can hire someone else. If you can't work with them then you you're wasting your time. Right? And so, that's your first job is get one person do one thing. Now, that first thing what you're hiring them to do is hopefully something you know how to do. And my advice what that is find something with good English. So, unless you're hiring like a video editor or a program or a technical person, right? Design or webmaster. English won't matter for that if it's in the Philippines. You'll never have a communication issue. But if it's something to do any sort of writing or social media or admin work or customer support, find someone with good English. Because if they have good English, they can learn anything else. And you... Once you've taken some time off of your plate, you can spend time teaching them. -A lot of people who watch my channel are other YouTubers. And if I were to make a suggestion on the first person that another YouTuber would hire, definitely definitely, definitely. Without question, that's an editor. -Yeah. -But so many YouTubers, that's the last thing that they want to outsource. And they think... Well, I find the camera guy, can't really send that off to the Philippines. So I'm going to do the filming. But the editing, there's just it's an art. It's so much creative control. What if I hire somebody that that's going to help me with product development. They're going to help me with Facebook marketing or you know, it's like... Yeah, those are good things. But if... Just think about the impact that it would have on your life. How many hours are you spending each state editing? And yet you turn that over to somebody else. -Well. And you can... Because I've done this with editing. Like I'm not an editor but I was editing my own videos and I hated it. And you can get someone else and say, "Hey, I really like this and this and this. These styles, right? And hey, watch all  of my previous videos and see what I'm doing." And then they'll get a really good idea of your artistic style. And you can mold them, right? So, "Oh. Hey, this is great but how about this and this  and this? Let's change these things." Great, well you only spent an hour on this video instead of 4. So, you can you can afford to go back and forth with them a few times. -Yeah, absolutely. I mean let's just use that math. If it takes 5 hours, that you're normally putting into editing a video. And you hire somebody else and they get 80% of the work done. And then you still got to go in and tweak it and give them some you know some fine-tuning. Okay, you've spent one hour, freed up that's freed up a lot of time. Definitely where I... -And that's totally doable. Like, get the final cut files from them, right? And finish it yourself. Fine. But that would be the first person. -Who's next then? -Yeah and building the virtual team. Well if you're a YouTuber, I'm going to say someone to handle... Someone social. I don't know. Someone's social who's going to go comment another YouTube videos or who's going to do some marketing for you on YouTube or Facebook, right? -Okay.  So if you don't know who John Jonas is, he's the creator or virtual assistant tool. And  you've got to check out this website. You can... I'll put a link in the description below. But let's talk about for a  minute the power of this tool in building a virtual team. Because I mean... I don't even know if Craigslist is around anymore. I know it exists but do people use it anymore? How else, without the website, how are people going to build a virtual team? -So when I got started, it was really painful  because I went to a company and said, "Hey, I want someone." And they said, "Oh, here you go.  here's this person." I was like, "Well. that's it? What skills?" Like I didn't get to... I didn't get to choose anything. And then I had to pay them a 3 times markup. But it was just weird and... And so, what I wanted was to be able to... I wanted like indeed.com, what they have. -Yeah. I mean, if you're if going to hire somebody locally, you're going to get resumes and have lots of people apply. - Yeah. And so, that's what I built was like indeed.com but for the Philippines. Where you can go on and search resumes and search something and narrow it down and filter and sort. And get down and then like, "Hey, here's 17 people who are amazing. Well let's contact them and started interviewing them and and see who's the best." -Okay. So a lot of... A lot of my following has experience with UpWork or Fiverr. -Yeah. -And if they if they haven't experienced hiring people directly like this in the Philippines, specifically with with virtual assistant tool, you and I see it as night and day difference. -Yeah. -What... How do you... How would you describe that difference? -Yeah. So I did an interview yesterday with someone who... Who was like, "Oh, I just used UpWork." It's like,  "Wow. It's not the same thing." -Yeah. -So number one, I'll say the Filipinos much prefer the way that we do it.

We see people come from UpWork all the time who they... They're making $8 an hour on UpWork and they're happy to take a full-time job for $3 an hour. Because that stability is just prized in the Philippines. So the difference between up work and virtual assistant tool comm or hiring a virtual assistant full-time is commitment. Where in UpWork, you have no commitment. -That's huge. - and what that means... For most people they're like, "Oh, that's so good. I don't want the commitment." For me, what I meant was I hired this person full time and if they're not busy, that's on me. And now, I'm paying. And I'm not paying very much but I'm still paying for them. And so if they're not busy, I need to find something to keep them busy. And that right there was the difference between me being... Me being like this. Like the grunt worker. You know, like, "I'm busy. Oh, they're not busy. I don't care. I got to get this email done, right?" And stepping back and saying like, "Oh, they're not busy. What else can i work on in my business?" Right? "What can I do? What can I create that'll give them something to do?" That made the transition from me being in my business, to being the CEO and working on my business. So, that's the really big difference between... Between UpWork and virtual assistant tool. -When you mention commitment, another word that comes to my mind is loyalty. And and I'll be a vulnerable a little bit here. I'm in a pretty good place in my company right now. But it hasn't always been this way. -Yeah. -I've had I've had some ups and downs financially. And my... I just met my team for the first time a few weeks ago. I traveled to Manila and we had a really good good time. We were... We were talking and they were... They were saying because a lot of... Most of them work for me for many years. They were going back and saying, "There's a point where their payroll was at the longest point of 3 and a half weeks." And they stuck with me. -Delayed. -Delayed. So, their pay day was here and I wasn't... And I communicated but I wasn't able to pay him for 3 and a half weeks. And they... What they told me is, "You know what? We we knew we could trust you. We knew that you would get us paid and we the company succeed. It was never a question of where they were going to leave." And I... When I heard that from them just a few weeks ago, it just... It hit me so much like... I've kind of took it for granted. I mean... I wanted to be open and upfront with them about everything. And I...  But it really meant a lot. It would never have that with like hiring on Fiverr or UpWork or something like that. It's like we really have... We have a great team. We... It's like a business family that  we've created here. It's really neat. -Yeah, that's really awesome. -And now... Now, it's good to be back in a place where I can, you know ,give them pay raises and stuff like that. So, alright. Thanks again John. We kind of gave him a resource to go to check out virtualassistanttool.com. I'll link it below. If you're watching this on YouTube, be sure to subscribe, comment. If you're on LinkedIn, you can actually share. I'm going to tag John in this. So you'll get this. I don't know if you're a LinkedIn.- I'm not much of a social media guy myself. But I'll see... Someone's going to see it on LinkedIn from my team. -We'll see you in the next episode.

Do you feel conscious in front of the camera? Emily London Miller is a professional photographer and in this video, she joins Nate Woodbury as they discuss some of the things you can do to look better in a video and what the difference is when you're in a photo versus when you're on a video.

Welcome back. You saw the title of this video. We're going to talk about how to look better on video. We've got Emily Linda Miller. She's an amazing portrait photographer. We're going to compare looking amazing on photos and video and how it applies. This is going to be awesome. I've made other tutorial videos that focus more on the equipment side of things. Like how to make a better quality video but now we're talking about you know the subject or the talent that's in the video. And how to... How to make them or us look better on video. Let's let's kind of go with with hair or with makeup. What are some things that we can do to look...  You... We'll talk about it first from the photography point of view because that's where you're really skilled and then we'll apply that to video. -Okay, cool. So, hair and makeup it's kind of an interesting thing because I know a lot of your audience is probably men, right? So, when I have a man coming to the studio, we have a hair and makeup artist who's going to make their hair look awesome. In your case maybe a little  powder on the top of your head. What did they do with your makeup? Why is... Did they just do powder and that was it? -It's changing of skin color. A little bit special around my neck. -A little bronzer. -I think that's the first time I've ever had makeup in my life. -And it wasn't like they were putting full makeup on or anything like that, yeah. So just little bronzer where you're really extra fair. But otherwise with men, hair makeup obviously is basically chapstick. Making sure that you have  enough moisturizer that you don't look flaky or anything like that. And you know, hair styling of course can be important with men too. For women, it's almost like transformational. You become... You can become a very different version of yourself. Some women are very pared down in their hair and makeup normally. And they don't necessarily want to come across as uber dressed up. Which completely makes sense. But at the same time, even if you're that woman, you definitely want to have certain... Certain makeup for camera, okay? So, the main things are skin. So, you want your skin to look really even. So, the foundation that your makeup artist or if you're going to be doing yourself, you'll want to use a HD foundation. And it has to be like the exact right color. So you want to get support and help with that to make sure that that's on point. If it's just a little bit off in color, that's probably the thing that you hate about makeup and why you don't wear it at home, right? And then powder is pretty important because, you know, a lot of times with photoshoots that are going to be lights. And the lights get get a little hot. And so, you don't want to have  any shininess especially in areas that  aren't flattering tap shine. And so, powder is important and defining your eye lashes is a pretty big deal. So I always, in my studio, on women put false lashes. And that's kind of even for the  women who are super pared down. That would basically be our main thing. We would have some very beautiful neutral lip gloss, put blush and that's it. And then... Also, eye browser are a big deal. So, all of those things are the like core things. Then obviously women who wear lots of makeup, we just add more basically eyeshadow or lipstick. Those 2 areas where you can get extra color. But the foundation aspects or the skin evening blush and what types of products you're using, it's pretty consistent. -Okay. And as you're describing that, I don't think that there's any difference that there would be form from photography to to video. I mean I will see those principles of playing the same? -Mm-hmm. Well, so one thing that I bet would  be a little bit different is for hair. So, with video, obviously we can't use like a blow-dryer on somebody's hair to get them to be all fabulous and incredible. And also you don't necessarily want the hair to be sprayed so that it's still like a helmet. -Okay. -So you do want to have a little bit of softness to the hairstyle or things like that. Also when in photos, we can maybe create a little extra artistic element. You know when we've got the fan blowing it's also like getting in your face sometimes. And we have the luxury of being able to just sneak somebody's hand in and you know quickly get the hair out of the eyes or stuff like that. Which you can't do in video so it has to be low maintenance enough in video that you're not having to constantly fix the hair or touch the hair, right? So, those things are a little bit different with hair and makeup with hair styling in versus video and photo. But I will say volume is definitely your friend. I know that sometimes people think of big hair as it's like it's very southern or something that's not necessarily their style. But it makes a big difference in camera because the way that 3ds translated into camera flattens things to a point that anything behind gets quite small. And anything close to the camera is larger. And so the hair at the back of your head suddenly visually, on camera looks like it's completely gone. And so if you don't have volume in your hair, your head will look really small, And one of the drawbacks of having your head look small in camera is that by default it makes your body look a little bit bigger. So, that's one of those things that I always say. Just trust me a little bit extra volume in person than what you're comfortable with will translate really nicely in a camera. -It's good to know. I won't be able to play that personally. For everyone watching who does have hair. Okay. So now, let's talk about lighting. And I've gotten a lot of advice from you on lighting. What's important in lighting for a photography? -Okay. So, one of the things I always hesitate to talk a little bit about lighting because it can get very technical. And the intentions about why you know you're lighting  the shot or what you're wanting the image to look like all factor into what kind of lighting you'd use. But that said, for just the regular person who is maybe setting up their own cell phone camera to take a video of themself or get a selfie or even to create Facebook live content and things like that in their own business. I would say there's nothing better than window light. So, I  usually say turn off all the lights in the space so that you don't have any ambient like orange glow from the incandescent lighting. And just get really near to a window so that the window is just  living you this beautiful soft diffused look. If you're working with a videographer or a photographer who knows more about light, they might obviously do things a little bit differently. But I'm going to say, yeah, there's nothing better than facing a window. If you're backlit, that doesn't necessarily work. -Okay, so now talking about the difference between photography and video, you obviously specialize in beauty photography or you know, portraits. In video, you can use lighting for a whole bunch of different things. Whether it's a scary movie or suspenseful or it's action or something and the character might not be portrayed as beautiful. You know, that's... That might not be the intent of the scene. But for those of you watching this video, you're... You or the product you're the service, you're the influencer. So, essentially you want to look your best. You want to be... You want to be beautiful. That's part of your brand. We'll have a lot of other episodes that go into the technical aspects of lighting and how to get that good soft lighting. But that's... That's definitely a good first place is just face a window even if you're just doing a selfie video on your phone. I've actually done a presentation where I was given a chance to speak for like 20 minutes at a networking event. And I walked into the room and all of the windows were on the side wall. And my presentation was going to be facing, you know, towards this direction from the side windows. And I remember just looking at it saying, "Nope." And what locked in changed the position of how where I was going to be speaking because all I had in that environment was the natural light. There wasn't any kind of lighting or stage. And so that gave me a chance to say, "Oh yeah, I want the window light on me so that I can look my best for this presentation." I don't want to have side light which kind of can look a little rugged. -So, that's awesome. Okay. So I cheated and I looked at Emily's notes about leaning towards the camera. So I mean, we're doing... We're not... -Neither of us are very comfortable in our relaxed... -So, why is that important? Why is it important to lean towards the camera? And let's talk first about photography. -Okay. So, I mean on a psychological level, leaning in is obviously more engaged connected, okay? Leaning back is going to be disconnected. In fact, sometimes gives people the the chance to close off their body language.  And so having to lean enforces that body  language to to give you that feeling of being engaged. Okay? But also on a an aesthetic level, basically leaning back, you know, I mentioned before the principle of anything further away from the camera gets smaller and everything closer it gets larger. So  right now what's closer to the camera is my chest and if I was a little bit more full figured, my belly, my booty and not my face. My face is getting smaller visually. And the the difference in you know how much that is being affected is quite a bit more significant the closer you are to the camera. Okay? So, if you're holding a selfie that's arm's length away, this is going to be extremely exaggerating it. That's why you'll see a lot of women are holding their camera up here. The face is really close, body is really far, right? Okay? So, that's similar principle rather than you know having to change the angle of everything. We'd be looking at the floor if we had our camera up there, right? Then you want to be able to say this is the angle of the space that I like. And instead of changing the camera angle would change our angle come towards the camera. -Alright. So to talk about this with video, we're obviously applying that here and that we're sitting up, we're leaning  forward. We're attempting to have good posture. There's probably a little bit more flexibility because with photography, you're wanting to catch that exact moment. And so you've got, you know,  you're perfecting everything tilting the head. You know, making sure you've got the right expression with with video if we went frame by frame, there'd be some that's like, "Okay, that's good." Because went the way that our mouth moves on we talked and whatnot. So, there's a little bit more flexibility I'd say. But in general, you know, leaning in, leaning towards is a good idea.

Alright. And that leads into the next point of kind of how you hold your head, how you hold your neck. Very important in photography. Let's start there. -Okay. So, this kind of goes into posture a  little bit. So, a lot of times if your posture is not awesome, your... The way that your spine is curved forces your head to balance backwards. And so people with not good posture often sitting like this. I know it's not awesome. And I want to point out a few of the things that are not awesome about it. And then I'm going to teach you how to get out of it. So, first of all, I'm sitting in my relaxed posture. This is also definitely applies. If I'm leaning forward in a comfortable posture is my throat is dominant. So you'll see, it's really bright and it's also just as wide as my face. Okay? So, if I get into the correct position, you'll see that my throat becomes quite secondary and it's my face that's primary and the most important part, okay? Also in this position, you'll notice that there's not a ton of definition at the bottom of my face here. And that my eyes are slightly closed. So if I get into the correct position, you'll see my eyes open right up because now they're looking straight out of my face instead of down my face, okay? So, the way that we fix it is by you kind of imagine me lengthening the... At the back of your neck. And you did it exactly right. But most people when I say that, they start by bringing the bridge of their nose on the ceiling. So, you don't bring the bridge of your nose the ceiling. Ghe bridge of your nose stays to the camera. It's the crown of your head that comes to the ceiling and then you push your face forward. Okay, so you could still have terrible posture and fix that part of your face. So. it's not all about your spine. But just being in bad posture naturally forces your head back if you're not thinking about it. -Very cool. Okay, so how do you do that? Let's say we're filming a 10 minute episode. You just... Is it practice? -A lot of it is practice. I feel like there are going to definitely be moments where you lapse and you forget and get comfortable and that's okay. I think it's more appropriate to be in your natural mannerisms and  body language in video. Even if it's sacrifices a little bit of that perfect head and neck position. Just because that's what matters. People aren't going attention to my neck when I'm talking to you. I could just, you know, get into the perfect and then just freeze. Okay, so the last one I wanted to talk about was facial expression and laughing. Now, we're talking specifically about photography  here. When we work together, you would... You would laugh to get me to laugh. What's that about? -Okay. So when I'm taking a picture of you and I get you in this perfect pose, your head and neck is exactly right. The last thing I need to do is to get you to connect with me and your expression. And if I tell you to just give me a little smile, maybe you're already really good at giving me fake. You know, not fake. Really engage smiles. And that's perfect and easy. But most people who come to me are not super comfortable the camera. So they're not going to be like perfectly smiley. They're going to have a little... You know, whether it's like the scared eyes or the tight mouth or whatever it is. And so the best way I found to get people to connect with me through the camera is to tell them, "Just relax your expression and let me engage that smile from you." So what I do is I provide a visual. Well okay, most people it's a visual mirror. So when I look at you like this like really connected engaged, you naturally look back at me the same way. And so I teach people that and I say, "This is how I want you to look at me. You're doing it exactly right." And it's a little bit tricky when I hide my face. Just keep that mirror up or to happen. Now that you don't have that visual mirror, it's hard to keep the expression up, right? So, what I do is I have my camera up and I give  ou an audible mirror. So I just will chuckle a little bit behind the lens. You know? And that is a trick you can actually take and apply to yourself. You don't need me there to chuckle for yourself. So you can be having anybody take your picture. You could be doing a selfie, a group shot and you just give yourself a little chuckle. And that, even if it's fake, in the moment you do it, usually translates to really laughing at yourself because you feel a little self-conscious and silly. It also translates if you're in a group shot. Everybody starting to laugh around you which everyone's  expressions then are going to look so much more connected and real and believable and happy and pleasant and all of that. -Thanks Emily. Appreciate you joining me on this episode on how to look better on camera. If you want more episodes like this, give it a thumbs up. Both on YouTube and on LinkedIn. We'll see in the next episode.

With greater influence comes greater responsibility. If you're someone like YouTube Producer Nate Woodbury, influence must be a big part of your life and there's a lot of psychology to it more than you think. Tune in to find outwhy.

Welcome back. We're here with Dr. Paul. Dr. Paul Jenkins. Positivity psychologist. Amazing friend. And we're here talking about influence and combining those 2 things. How to have a positive influence on others. This is one you want to watch. Okay, influences a big part of who I am, it's a big part of my career and I work with influencers. I love... I love influence. So, I'm excited to have  you here to kind of pick your brain because we think a  lot of the same ways but you know a lotmore than me. -There's a lot of psychology behind influence. We impact each other. That is for for  certain. How you think makes a big difference in how you can influence other people. -Okay. So, let's start with the premise that we will have an impact. What kind of an impact? Well, that's determined by a lot of factors. So, let's start with our focus, okay? And I'll break it down into 2 dimensions for you. If you can imagine your focus being either on how I feel...? No, own this. I'm saying this first person so that you can just own it, okay? My focus is on how I feel or it might be on how you feel. The person that I'm trying to influence, okay? Now, forget about the feelings for  just a minute. Let's look at the content. It might be about me or it might be about you. Okay Now, when you combine those 2 dimensions, we have 4 different areas that it could be. My focus might be on how I feel about me... Do you see how I combine those 2 how I feel about me. Let's go there for a minute. -Okay. -Have you ever had an interaction with someone and you can tell that they're all wrapped up on how they feel about themselves? -Yeah. -It's all about me, me, me. It's like, "do I think, I'm good enough? Am I prepared for this? Do I have this? Do I know this?" It's all about how I feel  about myself. "Am I good enough?"-Yeah. -When I'm in an interaction with someone like that, it's like the lights  are on but nobody's home. -Okay. So there's not really much connection made. -And it impacts me negatively. -Yeah from a... From an influence perspective... Yeah, it's not it's not positive. -No, what about yourself? What if your own focus is on how I feel about myself?  Am I good enough? Am I cute enough? Am i smart enough? I'm going to be consumed with self consciousness. And it's not... I'm not  talking a positive self-awareness presence kind of a mindfulness. I'm talking about that anxious, "Oh, am I good enough?" Okay, let's move to another aspect. -Okay. -What if my focus is on how you feel about me? Okay. Now you chuckled a little bit because this is where, "Oh, do you think I'm good enough? Do you approve of me?" -So, in our conversations, I'd be focused on trying to say things that will impress you? -Yes. Impression management? Welcome back to junior high. "Do I fit in? Is it...? Do they like me? Will they accept me?" And that leads to insecurity. A very painful anxious insecurity. In fact,  either of those focuses. If I'm focused on how I feel about me or if I'm focused on how you feel about me, I'm going to experience anxiety. -Well, I'm feeling anxiety in this quadrant here. So let's move on to another one. -So the next. Now... Now, it's not about me. Now it's about you. Okay? Now my focus is on how I feel about you. -Okay. -Alright? -Maybe a judgement? -Judgement. -Mm-hmm. - Yeah, how does that feel to you if I'm like, "Do I approve of you? Do I like you? Do I  think your choices are good ones?" Parents get into this quadrant all the time. -Hm-hmm -Because they're so concerned about how they feel about their kids choices. -So thinking about it from an influencer perspective, it's more... That's more along the lines of the peer pressure angle where your... And wanting to do something because... Yeah. -And if as an influencer, my focus is on "How can I, the brilliant me, how can I go out there and change their lives? Because t,hey obviously need me.  Because I'm here and you're there." See it's a mismatch and that creates a sense of judgment or criticism. That's the impact that it has. So we got one left. -Okay. -Okay? And this is where things get exciting. Now my focus is not about me. How I feel is only secondary. Now my focus is on how you feel about yourself? Okay, how's that going to feel to you if I'm focused on how you feel about yourself? -I would then.. I would feel that you have genuine concern and interest for me that you've got my best interest in mind. -This is what I call the influencer quadrant. -Influencer quadrant. I like that. -And it's where our focus is it's not about me and how I feel is only secondary. My focus is on how you feel about yourself. And that puts me in a position of influence. But you got to be careful because if I'm doing it for that purpose in order to have influence, it's no longer influence, its criticism. -Mmm-hmm. -Because now I'm like "Oh, I care about how I feel about you." And  people will love you. People will be drawn to you. They will love you if you're in this  influence quadrant. But if you do it forthat purpose, it's not influence. -And it's back to... -Its insecurities because now you're concerned about other people feel about you. -Okay, so let's put this into a practical application. We're in that, we want to operate. We want to influence people's lives. -Right. -And we want to put the focus on how they feel about themselves. -Let's pause for a minute. Why? Why do you want to influence their life? -So let me just maybe be vulnerable and a little bit more authentic on myself because I love influence. Why is it that I feel so drawn to influence? I love the impact that it makes. I love creating a legacy. I want to know that that I make a difference in this world. I want to feel important. -Yes. -So that is focused on me. That is about how I feel I guess. -Yes and if you're doing it to be accepted by others, you're going to feel insecure. -Hmm. -Because that's always dependent on some external validation. If you can get yourself into that true influence quadrant where your primary motivation is to enhance the way other people experience their own life, then it has this beautiful effect of putting you in a position of influence and people will love you because you're improving their lives. And you get out of that anxiety and that judgment that characterizes the other quadrants. -So, in my mind, I've got a specific example. Just from last weekend, I was having a pretty heartfelt conversation with a couple. -Mm-hmm. -and they were making some decisions about the direction they were gonna take their business and I really was was in their world. I really felt that in that moment, really cared about them and how they're feeling and what they want to accomplish. And I gave them some advice that they then made a decision that was you know a big decision. -Mm-hmm Now, stepping back I look back at it and I think about the influence that I had on. I think about it from my perspective and I then feel... I feel pretty good about it. So, what I'm trying to distinguish in my mind is like in the moment, I wasn't thinking about myself. I was all thinking about them. Because it's hard for me did not think about myself. I'm just, I've acknowledged that. But in the moment... -Yes. -...I was... I was totally thinking about them. -And you were free from anxiety in that moment. -Oh, absolutely. -And you didn't feel any judgment. -Yeah. -So notice that. -Yeah, that's right. -And it is hard. It's not... It's not easy. I think our natural tendency is self-preservation and so it's natural to have a self focus. It's powerful to shift that to that influence quadrant where our focus is on how other people feel about themselves.  We go there and we can have influence. -So, of any of the videos that I've ever seen on how to have a positive influence on others, I would say this one rankat the top. And I really appreciate having that conversation. If you guys feel the same way, make sure to give it a thumbs up if you're here on YouTube. If you're on LinkedIn, comment below, share it. And be sure to find Paul Jenkins, Live On Purpose TV. And we'll see in the next episode.

Outsourcing can save so much of your time and effort, which is why we have brought in John Jonas to share with us the wonders of outsourcing. What should you outsource and what shouldn't you outsource? We're going to talk about that in today's episode, so tune in!

Welcome back. We've got John Jonas here for another episode. Of course, we're talking about outsourcing. But in this one, we're going to talk about what things you can outsource and what not to outsource. -Great. - Okay. To start off, let's start with what can we outsource? What types of things do you have your team? -Okay, sweet. So, on my team I have multiple programmers. So, any sort of custom programming work online for a system or an app. You have... Have someone else do that. I have designers and different kinds of designers. Like graphic design or web designer. I have people that do those things. I have web people. People who take integrate like design and code and put it into a website. I have admin people. People who do whatever I ask them to do. Just supporting me. Or we have back-end admin. People who like look at all of our data and try and find problems or good things or whatever. We have customer support people. I have an HR  person. I know people that have people in the Philippines doing data entry or making phone calls or telemarketing or doing I know, like people with real estate virtual assistants. Or I have a guy  that does video editing and photo editing. I have, I know, you have you have a bunch of that too. Basically, any process that can be done on a computer and where it's going to be delivered  somehow online can be outsourced. -Yeah. So, just some similar examples. I've also got several video editors, graphic design. You know, I've got a got a web team that I actually then trained to do video editing because we don't do websites anymore. But I've got somebody that does my bookkeeping and does kind of team management. I've got another person that I actually... Just gave a promotion and gave him additional responsibility because he's really, really capable. He's my systems creator. Which is... Which is cool for me because I'll come up with some ideas and I'll say, "Okay, here's kind of us. We need to create a system for this. Here's some ideas." And that'll let him run with it. And he'll create the systems and then really, it just a little tweak here and there so that's really helpful. -That's... That's sweet. -You know, design, anything. Like you said, anything that can be done on a computer. Another question I have on this because I know you'd provide a lot of coaching or resources for other people. What are some other unique things that you've seen people use for hiring people in the Philippines? -So, one time I saw a guy who he had a full-time job and he had learned about this. And I think he just had an opportunity that he knew about. He wouldn't took a part-time job and hired someone in the Philippines to do all the work. That was interesting. I have seen people do a lot of lead generation with their... With the Filipinos. Where they'll take like, "Hey, go collect this data from all these different places and put it together and then craft an email or a phone call or whatever and call that person and just kind of pre qualify them for me." And then I'll take it from there. So, they have them do like, you know, a lot of lead generation for... That ends up with them or that ends up with another team or something like that. But it's just a it's a good way to prequalify someone. -Alright. Now, let's switch gears and talk about what not to outsource. In the way that we do. What are some things that you've learned or that you knew right off the bat not to do? -So, the first thing is like your marketing message. You should be the CEO of your business. You know your customers, you know your product. The marketing message is for you to create. Don't go give that to someone else and say, "Hey, here's my product what do we tell people?" -Yeah, tell me what our mission statement is. -Yeah, right. -That's you. That's your job as a CEO. With that, my team does a lot of marketing for us. They do a lot of writing, they do a lot of pushing content out and social media. Posting and stuff like that. But it's based around the marketing message that I have created. So, that's one thing. Sales copy is  a... Is kind of a hard thing to outsource in the Philippines. You can outsource it, gets expensive usually. And the same thing with like a marketing message, you can outsource that. It's usually to an agency and then that's where it gets really, really expensive, right? -So, as I first started building a team and you know, building a clientele, there were some things that I had hesitations to outsource. -Yeah. -And there are some things that I haven't outsourced successfully that we'll start with that. So, I've tried several times to hire telemarketers. And I haven't had any success with it. I've had people that are dedicated. It wasn't a matter of their skillset. When I look back, I didn't have a system that I could do successfully myself. -Yeah. -And so, that was a big part of it. You mentioned... You mentioned, you know, writing sales copier things like that. There's a lot of cell psychology and even somebody that speaks English in an amazing way or in writes great. But there's just an additional level that includes that cell psychology. And so, it's a difficult. -It's... That's really hard. I mean I've tried that multiple... I had some success with it. It's really hard to outsource sales copy. -And I think going back to what we talked about in a previous episode. But to hire somebody to do something that you or I... Like that I don't know how to do and I'm  hiring them to do it, that's pretty hard because like I have a hard time supervising. One example is I launched a web design company. That was successful. But then I had somebody come to me  that needed custom programming. I don't know how to program it. Mine was just... We were using Joomla in WordPress and designing it. You know, in Photoshop or  creating it visually. But I had a client come to me saying, "Hey, I need some custom programming." I'm like, "Oh, I can do this. I'll just hire some programmers." I had a team of 4 programmers. They actually did a good job but it was so hard for me to know how to gauge time and how to price the projects. And I didn't want to let my employees down, I didn't want to let my clients down. So what I ended up doing is  aying, "You know what? I'm the middle guy here and I kind of brokered an arrangement." And I basically said, "Hey, if you pay me a finder's fee, you can just take over my employees." But get this, the price that I was paying my employees, I negotiate their payment over here to be double. -Wow.  So i thought really good about... "Sorry, I hired you. This isn't going to work." But hopefully it paid  off. -You know and I see I see people successfully do the the programming thing like building a custom website where you don't know how to program and you still manage to do it. -That's your background. I know you're programer. -Yeah. But for me, I graduated in computer science so I get it. But I see other people succeeding at it. -Okay. -But it's hard. I see a lot of people not succeeding at it because you... Like you're saying, you don't have a gauge of time, you don't have a... I had a  friend that said, "Hey, I just want to clone this website. That should be really easy, right? Like a week." I was like, "Yeah, I don't think so. It's not going to... It's going to take months. At least months." You know? And then he gets into it and and he wants this and this and this. It ended up takin like 9 months. He thought it was a week. You know, that's hard. -Okay. So, the moral of the story conversation that we're having here that I really want to emphasize. Because I encourage a lot of people to outsource, I absolutely love it. And with a few exceptions, you can outsource just about everything. But I understand that it's going to take time for training and it's  going to take some time to kind of master and create the systems. But the time that you put into it compared to the time that it frees up, so worth it. -Oh, yeah. -So, worth it. -Yeah. And and the most savings is a big deal. And when you combine that cost with the time, it's you know, it's pretty low risk. -Yeah. We haven't mentioned the cost of hiring so many of the Philippines. But to be able to hire somebody full-time and just make a nice round number. 500 bucks a month. -Yeah. -That's... That's a great blessing. -Yeah. -So, if you haven't checked out the website yet, go to virtualassistanttotool.com. I'll link it below. And what that is it's a resource where you can... It's basically like a directory. -Job board. -John created this this website. You can... You can you know, drill down and search for the exact type of skill sets you're looking for. And your ideal employee to outsource for the Philippines. If you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you subscribe and on LinkedIn, you can actually do some social things. You can share this. So I'll tag you, I'll tag you on LinkedIn here. But share it with other people who might find this video helpful  as well. We'll see in the next episode.

Emily London Miller is an expert when it comes to branding and in this episode, she talks about practical application. If you want to up your branding game, this is definitely something you don't want to miss out on!

Welcome back. We're talking about how to build a brand for small businesses. We've got Emily London Miller. You've done some amazing things with your clients in helping them with their visual brand. And as I've learned about your business and your own branding and the steps you've gone through, you got some amazing things. So I am excited to share it today. Okay, so this might be considered the part 2 to a previous episode that we did about branding. And in that video, we  talked a lot about the words that represent your brand and what the emotions you want people to experience. And so if you haven't seen that episode, I definitely recommend checking that one out. I'll link it up here if you're on YouTube. And if you are watching this on LinkedIn, you'll find it in the previous post. So once you have the words, let's talk about the practical  application. So if we're designing a local then, how the words relate to our logo. I mean, what do we need to provide to our logo designer word wise. Sure, so what I would give a graphic designer a logo design or a web design is basically your pinterest  board. So your curated board that you've already developed, you know, the visual brand that look that you like. And I then I'd also be sure to give them the list of your words because those words are going to be... Something you want to be the forefront of their mind is visually a logo. A logo is cool thing to have. A logo is something that once you have an established brand... Like give us people a chance to associate a little image that connects to that brand. But until you have an established brand. And if your brand is you, then your image, like your head shot is what they'll associate with your brand. Or what you looked the last time they saw you. So a logo, I think at the beginning of a brand journey isn't the very first thing that you need to worry about  necessarily. But that said, if you're in that process of branding, you've got you graphic designer creating something and you're not on pause in your business to create a logo. I think that is incredibly powerful to have a core concept of what your brand should feel like. And so the words are what the logo should based on as much as anything else. And you already said this but  ust to add emphasis. So you are saying a person could have an amazing professional brand and not have a logo? Yeah. Yeap. You can succeed? You can make sales without a logo? Yeah. And honestly, I feel like a lot of people will self design a logo. And I think it's worse that having no logo. You can have a really terrible logo that you think it's great because you've made it and it's a lot of stuff that you love. But it's not, you know, actually professional looking to everybody else. And so, I've seen people who hold on to a logo for years that's not serving their business at all and how many hours did they spent  creating it. When it would've been better to just have a nice-looking simple text based. You know, image of your name. Awesome. Okay, so create the brand first and then the logo that you do create will enhance the brand or be a good visual symbol of the brand, is that right? Well, I know people who get really enthusiastic about starting their own business. And they channel a lot of their enthusiasm into the logo design or the visual branding. And then they're... their left over energy goes to then creating the business. And the problem with that is just that you're not gaining momentum in your business like creating your branding first. So the branding should be something that either somebody else is creating for you while you're building your business or that you do... After you've had the chance that to get more clarity on what your business is. So, you have to be a little bit in your business for a minute before you can really know what your visual brand should look like. Okay, so if we're  then building a website, having a designer design that. Or let's say we've got a physical store in front of a website and online storefront, how do we ensure that our website or store carries our brand. That it's branded. Okay, so if you're hiring a graphic  designer, that should be something that they take care for you. That if you've got these words, you've got your pinterest board, they should be able to cultivate a, you know, basically a brand board is what they'll give you. They'll give you your logo and and they'll give you what colors your brand is going to be using. In my case because I am, you know, visual in my content I create that also kind of adds to that. But when I talk to the photographers, you know and say, "Train other photographers." One of the things that I'll see with websites is that they're kind of thrown together and they just have their images. And maybe the  photographer wants to be perceived as really high-end, elegant, timeless. But their logo design or color scheme really looks really playful and childish and whimsical. And it almost has the effect of if you imagine walking... You said storefront. You know, walking by tiffany's jewelry store. And looking in, you can tell probably what you're going to spend by just looking it  but... You know, in front of outside, looking in. And say, "Oh, that's going to be really nice story." Like, maybe afraid to ask how much it cost that's going to be that nice. So it's setting expectation for how people... And you know, people aren't going to show up in their pajamas. Like you do sometimes when you go to WalMart, you dress down. It's going to be more like  Nordstrom or near market so you get dress, you put on your high heels and then you go into this store. So you're training your  customers what to expect about what you'll be like and how to show up for you as customer. Okay, so how do you find the right  web designer  then? I mean it maybe it just through the.... Or figuring out how much they pay attention to brand? Honestly, I would say, one of the best things that you can do is if you come up with your words for yourself first and then as you're looking for your graphic designers, you just look for graphic designers that have created brands that match those words. That's a good idea. You can also just look at the portfolio of the graphic designer and if you can give a sense of what each of the different brands that they created, what their words would be and if it seems intentional, like for example, if they created a very  whimsical website for somebody that's clearly designed to have a whimsical brand, they might be totally on-point even if that's not necessarily the graphic designers personal taste. So as long as they know how to cultivate a brand for somebody else that honoring their request then it doesn't necessarily have to only look like... That's a good point though. I mean, if you look at the website you can get a sense if this on purpose? Is this intentional?  Is the texture match the colors? Does the photo...? You know. So that is a good advice. I like that. Okay, let's switch gears for a minute. Let's talk about wardrobe. How important do you think wardrobe is for a brand. Okay, so that's a really interesting question. In my studio, I have my clients come in fora full personal branding session, photo-shoot. And that involves 5 different outfit changes, so wardrobe is very, you know, a big part of photo-shoot and so for me, rather than talking about specific styles that are trendy or what... You know, how to dress for your body type, I really focus on who's the person that you want your clients to meet when they're looking at your photos. And if we're talking about in person wardrobe  then obviously, who's the person that you want people to think they're meeting when they first look at you. You know, before they even had a chance to start talking to you, right? So for me, with images, with  the photos that I'm creating for my clients. I feel like clothes have convey a lot of information, okay. Give us some examples. So an example is if I want to be... I'm going to say this really quickly. You are multi-valsitive and there are all of these different  sides of yourself in you. So it's not that I am saying show up as this to... Which I think would dishonor the other aspects  of  yourself. You know just to say like, "I am only this in my business." So, when I talk to my clients and we have 5 outfits so that  you can show up as powerful and confident and having all of your stuff together in your business. That you are assertive and  strong, right? Maybe that would be a dark outfit with really strong edges or lines with really defined  silhouette. Maybe it'll  include blazer and really killer high heels.  If I am talking about you know, some of my clients, it matters more to be perceived as really soft. They work with kids and in counseling and maybe it makes more sense for them to have almost like a cuddly  sweater and jeans and we photographed them in a light way that's really airy and soft and the way that they pose is really soft  and connected and vulnerable almost, right? So wardrobe can match the vibe that you need to give off. So if that's just friendly and approachable, then maybe it's bright colors and you know, fun ruffles and designs in the pieces that you're wearing, right?

If we're talking about just super classic, simple... And you know in my case, sometimes I love the dress up aspects so much that  put on all these glamorous, fabulous pieces and then I go to a networking event. But I found that one of the best things that I can do is almost dress down so that people  aren't talking about my clothes anymore so that I can be having really important  conversations where the clothes disappear. So in that case, it's not that I'm not putting any thought into my clothes, it's that my clothes are so simple and clean that that's not the first thing people are going to think about necessarily. They're not going  o be thinking I look sloppy, they're not going to be thinking that I don't have it together or that I have no style. They just won't necessarily be thinking about my style only. So, the way that you dress can be a little bit, you know, pulling from different elements of each of those things. So, there's obviously, a lot more that we could talk about. We could talk about social media or  copyrighting the content that we create or books or messaging that we putting out there in our podcast or  in our videos. We'll make other episodes. So obviously, after watching this episode, people are going want to find you. Where do they find you. Where do they find you online? So, emilylondonportraits.com and also Instagram at Emily London Portraits. Okay, if  you're watching this on YouTube, be sure to subscribe, comment below.  Same thing in LinkedIn. Comment below and then follow me because I'm sharing a lot of videos like this on LinkedIn as well.

Influence is all around us and it's important to understand why people give into negative peer pressure. That's why we've invited Dr. Paul Jenkins to explain to us what peer pressure is and how we handle them. Tune in to learn more about this.

Welcome back. Today, we've got a fun conversation on why people give in to negative peer pressure. Paul Jenkins here. Positivity psychologist. -Mmm. -Knows a lot about this. That's we're going to talk about today. So, when we're talking about peer pressure, we're talking about... We're influenced by what other people think or what other people want us to do. Why is it that we're so influenced by that? Why do we give in to that? -Probably more than we should be. -Yeah. -Right? Or  more than we want to be because we'll get it in our head we want to do things a certain way. And then we find that we're  influenced by other people. And then we change our behavior. I think it comes down to 2 basic human motivators. There's pleasure and there's pain. -Okay. And of the 2 Nate, which one do you think is the most powerful and changing your behavior? -Well, if there's pain to avoid, I think the pain. -You nailed it. -It's pain. And I'm the positivity guy. I want to say, "Oh, it's  pleasure. You know we'll do things because it's good for us." No, it's all about pain. -Mm-hmm. Whatever our pain is motivates us more than anything that could bring us pleasure. So you think about it your brain is going to do more to avoid pain than to  seek pleasure. And if you don't believe this go put your thumb and a vise and try to think of your favorite things. That's not how our mind operates. And it's a survival mechanism. -Okay, so if we're if we're connecting this to peer pressure, where there's some type of pain that we perceive is going to happen if we don't... -Yes. -We don't give in. -And there are fears involved too. You think about the fear of rejection, for example. -Mm-hmm. -Because rejection is painful. -Yes. And this is probably the most  obvious one as it relates to peer pressure. Rejection if I don't do what they want to do then they will reject me. They'll toss me  aside. And that causes me pain. I don't want to have pain. -So thinking about it. If I were hanging out with a for friends and the friends started to do an activity. Maybe they found a can of spray paint. I just make all this stuff. They're going to straight  painting a wall and I'm thinking... "Come on, Nate." -So, I've got I've got two discomforts that I've been thinking of. 1 is I don't want to be left out or I don't want to like want them to feel like... -Right. -...you're not a part of us. But at the same time I'm like, "Well, I don't want to vandalize this property. I don't... That's that's not part of my value system." So, it's like I have to choose the pain. The lesser of the 2 pains I guess is what I'd be choosing there. -Well, think about that too because if what we're being influenced to do is in alignment  with our core values, then we don't call it peer pressure. -Right. -We call it positive influence. Right? But if it goes... If it causes a conflict like what you were describing. I'm morally opposed to vandalizing property. But my friends want me to go spray paint this wall. Now I have a conflict. And so whichever pain is greater will win over. Rule of the day. -I like that. -So, as a viewer, you might be wondering, "Okay, why are we talking about peer pressure on the name Woodbury Channel?" Well, we talked... We talked a lot about influence. And so I really like how you made a kind of a comparison. Peer pressure, positive influence. Maybe 2 sides of the same coin or maybe that the same thing just in a positive  situation and in a negative situation. -Right. Depending on whether it aligns with your values or not. And if it doesn't now you're in conflict. And so the pain starts to jockey for position. And whatever pain is greater is going to determine your behavior. -Okay, so other part other videos that I filmed with you on Live On Purpose TV, you can check out Paul's channel we talked a lot about the space that's between like a stimulus and our in our response or our action. -Right. -So, there's a space where we can think and decide, "So, I'm wondering how does that apply here with with peer pressure?" Because what I'm really wanting to get at is what do we do about it? You know, how can we overcome this peer pressure to not, you know, not be in this  more dilemma or not make the decisions that are against our judgment. -You brought up such an important point, Nate.  because this space. I attribute this to metacognition. Now, metacognition is a made-up word. We make up words in psychology  because it makes us feel smart. But if you think of cognition at this level. It just means thinking. Metacognition is that higher  level. It's thinking about thinking. And that creates the space that you're talking about. That space actually puts us back into choice. But there's a dilemma that we have when it comes to pain. Your brain is designed to keep you alive. Okay? Survival  mechanisms. So, you must avoid pain because well, that threatens your existence. Pain can be delayed or it can be immediate.  Which one do you think your brain is going to be most concerned about? -Pain. -The immediate pain. Yes. So, the immediate pain that's right in your face is going to carry more weight. Even if it's not ultimately more painful to you or destructive. So, you used the example of spray-painting the wall. You know, the kids that are being influenced by their friends to go out and  vandalize. The immediate pain is rejection from the group. The long-term pain could be incarceration. Which one is worse? But in the moment, your brain will always seem now pain as being greater than later pain. So, when we go to the metacognition and we think about our thinking, that gives us an opportunity to really study the situation. -Mm-hmm. -And to think it through really which pain is greater. So, that you can make a good decision. Because in reality going to jail, that's... That is a greater pain  but it's perceived as less just because it's down the road. -It's off in the future. -I might... I might not get caught. -I had a client who wanted to stop smoking. He knew... He had seen all of the videos that they show in health class about the black lungs  and you know, dying early and all that. He knew. He reads the warning. The surgeon general's warning on the pack. He knew that this was going to kill him. But not today. When he got a diagnosis of... I can't even remember was it was a lung related issue. It may have been emphysema or lung cancer. When he got that diagnosis and the doctor told him, "Look, you're dying. You've got to quit today." He quit today. The pain became immediate. See? As long as it's off in the future, I know this will kill me but not today. What do we do with our diet or exercise plan? I know I need that. You know in the pain, you're going to pay for your health today or tomorrow. Okay? It's more expensive tomorrow but we don't think about that because it's off in the distance. So, this delay factor is something that metacognition allows us to actually assess more accurately. -Cool. -And that's... That's how you can avoid the trap of I'm going to do what's easy now at the expense of something that's going to cause me even more pain later on. -So, very helpful. So, if we were to kind of even turn this conversation another direction, you know I work with a lot of influencers. I believe in the power of influence and as spider-man's uncle, you know tells them that with  great power comes great responsibility. -Yes. -Thinking about it from the influencers perspective, we want our influence to be positive influence. We don't want to ever I jump into the realm of peer pressure. Like are we in... Meaning, even if it's aligned with our values, our values can't be imposed upon somebody else's values. So we're you know, as far as peer pressure or whatnot. You have any any thoughts on that side? -It's a huge responsibility to be in a position of influence. I think all of us need to take the time to... Like we were saying earlier. To study the situation why are we trying to influence people? Is it to get gained some kind of money? Some kind of reward? Or is there some greater purpose or mission that drives our influence? And  that... And that has to do with our own core values. But it has to do with being sensitive to what those core values are for other people too. And making sure that that's in alignment. Because it is a responsibility to know that what you say, what you do, what you put out on YouTube is going to potentially influence someone's behavior. And you hear news stories all the time of people who did stupid boneheaded things because of something they saw on YouTube. So, we got to be careful with what it is that we're putting out there in terms of the core values that drive it. Having a purpose. Live on purpose. -That's right. So, I've really enjoyed our conversation of diving into not only why people give in to peer pressure but what we can do about it and how  it relates to influence. Thanks for being here. -Thank you. If you enjoyed this type of an episode, make sure to comment below  so that we can create more like this. Obviously, if you haven't subscribed yet, it's probably something you should do. We'll see  you tomorrow.

John Jonas taught Nate Woodbury how to outsource to the Philippines and in this video, he's sharing his experiences he will also help us understand the process of hiring our own replacement. Check it out!

Welcome back. In this video we're going to talk about hiring your own replacement. And this is John Jonas. A good buddy of mine. You're the one that taught me how to outsource to the Philippines and really replace myself. That's kind of your message. -Yeah. -So this... This is a great video to learn this. -Sweet. -So, to start off this video, I don't know that I've ever had a  conversation with you about how you first got an outsourcing. Where this all started? Because you're the one that made it real for me. -There wasn't enough time to get everything done. And I was so busy. And so frustrated and I had tried hiring a whole bunch of different people. Like I had hired people in the U.S. Local people. And that didn't work out. They... As soon as they  realized what I was doing in my business, they quit. When did it on their own. And I hired people in India and that didn't work out. And I don't want to get into it. And I had heard contract workers. And I just needed help. And I didn't... I didn't know when I kind of stumbled into the Philippines that I was stumbling into something that would completely change my life. Because of the quality of the people and the quality of the work you can get done. Their loyalty and all kinds of stuff like that. So, that's  how I got started. I'm out I just got a reference from someone. Ended up hiring someone full-time which was kind of an  accident. And that, it was amazing. It changed the way I look at my business, changed the way I think about business. Was that full-time thing was a big deal. -So, you and I are now in a different paradigm about replacing ourselves. It's like we can't... I can't imagine what life would be like. -Oh, yeah. -Okay? So, if we could somehow. For those of you watching this video that... Let's make submit... Let's share some advice that's helpful for you that haven't ever hired someone whether outsourced or not. What's... What would you say is the first step in somebody that's wanting to replace themselves? -Okay, so let me tell you my first experience. What I very first did. Because that's so telling of kind of my path. I had hired someone off of up work. It was  ODesk at the time before UpWork wasn't what it is. I'd hired this guy to write a whole bunch of articles for me. Because article marketing was very effective.  And so, I hired him to read these articles and I gave him a whole bunch of instructions whatever. And I get them back from him and I just had this burden fall on me. Because I had to go check and see if they were plagiarized or not. And I had to then... When I found some of them were plagiarize had to go back to him and like just this whole disaster. And then when I got him right, I had to go and add titles to them and I had to add links to them to the correct places. And then I had to go and publish them at websites. And I hated it. I hated everything about it. I knew that I wasn't going to do it. Like there's not enough time for me to do all these things every day. I'm doing all these other things. And I don't like to do it. So, I ended up hiring this guy in the Philippines as his full-time job was to do whatever I asked him to do. -I like that. -So, yeah. Right. That was my thing was like, "Oh, my gosh. I can have him do anything I want." So, I knew how to do this whole marketing process. And I was the one doing it sometimes because I hated doing it so much as I didn't do it very often. I took those articles which I had you know used 5 of them and I had 45 of them left. And I gave to him and I taught him the process. And so, we worked through like, "Here's where you're going to publish these. Here's why you're publishing them here. Here's the... Here's these 6 different websites were you going to publish. I mean here's how you do the links." So, I worked with him on this whole process. And and it took probably you know a month to get this process down. And after a month, I had replaced myself. This was like the first time I ever realized like, "I just replaced myself but I don't ever have to do this thing again."And he's doing it. He's doing it just like I would have done it. And it's not me anymore. And from there, we moved on to like teaching him how to write the articles. And then I didn't have... Then I didn't have to do anything. I didn't have to check for plagiarism because he worked for me, right? Why would he plagiarize something, right? And that was my whole process. So, my biggest piece of advice for someone. Because I've done this over and over and over since, is find something you are currently doing. Something that you know how to do. Something that maybe you don't like to do but you know how to do it or maybe something you're good at. Whatever it is. Something that you think you could teach someone else to do. And when you can teach someone else to do it, then you have freed up your time and after I you know, I did that, I got myself back like 4 hours a week. Because I was doing that for like 4 hours. And now it took me 5 minutes to manage those 4 hours. And I've just done that over and over and over again. -So yeah, I mean if there's a project that you want done, that's not what we're talking about here. -Yeah. -You can hire somebody on Fiverr or  find a project base. -Yeah. -But what you're talking about here and what I've learned from you is you've got to... It's something that you are to do that you've already got systems in place and you know everything you need to train them. And when they do something right or they need need improvement, you can give feedback. -Yeah. That's exactly right. The fact is... Or the important part is you know. You know what's going on. And the goal here isn't to  get more done. The goal here is to get time back. -Yeah. -That's how you replace yourself is to get time back. Because then, if you have a project you want done, you get the time back. Then you can go manage that project in other ways because you have  the time to do it. If you just... If you go out and add more on to your current schedule, it's really hard to take on more without getting rid of something else. -Yeah. So, an example of something that you don't want to do with outsourcing that we certainly don't recommend. Let's say that you don't know anything about Facebook marketing or Facebook advertising. And you think, "Oh, well I can hire somebody. John and Nate are telling me who can hire somebody in the Philippines that can do Facebook marketing for me. So I'll just hire them and I'll have them do that for me." It's not going to work. -It's really hard. It  could work. It's just really hard to make that work. -How do you... How we... How are you going to know whether they're doing it right or not? -That's right. And the problem with the Philippines is they're worried about letting you down. And you  haven't shown them how to not let you down. So, you're going to have a hard time getting work done. It's so much better of a situation if you get something... Get someone to do something you do know how to do. And this, is what I've done is I got  someone to do what I do know how to do. And then took that time that I was spending doing that thing to go learn something else. And then it was like, "Oh, okay. I know how to do this. Now here, do this for me." And then I move on to something else get everything done by other people. -Now, let's talk about why. -So, why is it...? I mean I think it's important. Why am I promoting or why are you...? Why do you  promote replacing ourselves? -I work about 17 hours a week. I play golf a lot. I ride my bike with my wife a lot. I spend a lot of time with my kids. Why do you replace yourself? Because this is... This is how you get to the 4-hour workweek. Like everybody talks about the 4-hour workweek, right? And I've been there at 4 hours and right? I'm at 17 right now. I've been at 17 for like 10 years. And it's awesome. And it changes your life. And it changes your  ability to contribute to society and to do charity work and to succeed in your business and to raise your family and to do  meaningful things when you're not drowning and work. -So, my hope in having you here to do this episode is really to convey how much I love and how much I've been blessed by outsourcing and being able to replace myself. So, hopefully found that helpful. Now, he's created an amazing website. VirtualAssistantTool.com. I'll link to it down below. But that's the how of how we find people in the Philippines. How many people are on this website now? -There's like half a million resumes of Filipinos. There's more than that. It grows every single day. -So, and let's say I'm looking for a new video editor and I want somebody that's specifically good at premier. That's updated their profile within the last week or her specific time frame that's got a photo there, I can really filter it down. You've got to check out this tool. So I'll put the link below. Be sure to subscribe, if you're watching this video on LinkedIn, comment below. I'm curious to see what you thought about learning how to replace yourself.

Welcome back. Today we're talking about

branding. And do you know who this is?

We've got Emily Linda Miller here. So

we're talking about how important

branding is for small business. Okay, so

let's just jump right in with that

question. I mean how important is

branding for small business? -Well, to me

when you say branding, you can be

referencing different things. You could

be talking about your visual brand. Which

is what I think most people mean when

they say branding. But in general, the

word brand, your brand is everybody's

perception of you as a business. And if

you're a small business owner, that's...

That is your business. -Okay, so yeah. So

we're not just talking about then your

logo. -Right, right. But we're talking about

people's perception of you. -Yeah. So, you

know, I definitely want to get into all

these different kind of elements

especially for a small business owner

who's their brand, right? You are your

brand in certain businesses. But for this

video, I wanted to be really, really clear

on visual brand. Creating a visual brand

concept that's something that you can

take then to your team. Basically

the people who are making your visuals

for you. Whether it's your website, your

graphic designer or, you know, even your

wardrobe consultant. -Mm-hmm. Those are you

seeing the improvement to my brand will

recognize and improvement to my

photography, to my website, things Emily

hears is responsible for that.

Well, let's let's first address why is

having a powerful visual brand so

important? -You know people are going to

be making a first impression judgment

about you whether you've given it any

thought or not. And so getting some

clarity on how you want to come across.

Not just because you're wanting to fake

something. It's not that at all. It's more

that you're wanting to get to the core

values that you have and want to come

through in your business and that

you can give people an idea of what to

expect when they work with you. What the

experience would be like. -Okay, so to be a

contrarian what if I think, "Well, I

shouldn't want to... I shouldn't need to

care what other people think." -I literally

have no answer to that because you're in

business.

So, by default not... You know, I think it's

kind of funny when people say they're

going to quit their job, fire their boss.

When you're a business owner, your

clients are all your bosses. So you end

up having a lot of bosses in your life.

And so, what they think and how you

perform for them really really matters.

-Yeah. It matters. It matters 100%

-And if you're doing it right,

your brand should give them an idea of

who you are and what it's going to be

like to work with you before they even

hire you. Which is good for you because

then it helps you to be able to deliver

exactly what they're expecting. -Well, I

want to throw another twist in this

because I've experienced as I've

increased the quality of my photos of

increased my brand through wardrobe,

it actually has given me a boost of

confidence. Just earlier this week, I was in a

meeting in Austin where there was a lot

of very, very wealthy influencers. You

know making millions of dollars a year.

And I wasn't even expecting to go to

this meeting. I was just kind of invited

and I was wearing the right attire.

And I was having conversations and

several of them want to hire me. And it's

like, "I'm so glad that I wasn't just... I

don't know. dressed like I used to dress."

-Well, so what's interesting about that is

yes, definitely self-confidence makes you

show up in a bigger grander way. But also

the way that you dress or the way that

you present yourself, it tells people, it

gives them clues about your tastes. And

so, if you've got a high level of taste,

then they know that your work is

probably going to reflect that as well.

Without even necessarily having to see

your work first. And obviously this

applies you know, if somebody's first you

know, impression of you is through your

website. You want your website to reflect

that. If somebody's first impression of

you is how you're dressed just seeing

you across the room, you want that to

riff like that. And if your first

impression is how you communicate to

people when you're standing in the front

of that room and introducing yourself,

then the where... Even the words that you

speak, the mannerisms that you have, the

the way that you show up as maybe really

friendly and inviting and warm versus some businesses

makes more sense to show up as

commanding and strong and powerful and

very capable. So, it kind of depends on,

you know, your needs in your own brand. So,

I thought keeps coming on my mind about

how you and I we got working together.

Almost 3 years ago, I saw a friend

who a good friend of mine. She had a new

profile photo that she posted on

Facebook. And I've seen lots of

different headshots of her. She's an

amazing woman but I saw this photo and I

thought that... I thought, "That

is Anne? Who took this photo?" And it was

obviously, it was Emily. And then I went

and I looked at your portfolio. And when...

I then, you know, made a decision right

there. "I'm going to work with Emily." Because

like when... And when I was ready to up my

brand when I was ready to step into a

just a stronger role to really help

people the way that I'm good at,

obviously, went to Emily to up my

photography. I mean if there's a chance

of making an improvement on a

photography, why wouldn't you choose the

best? So, I want I want to switch gears

for a minute to talk about like how you

created your brand. -Okay, so kind of to go

back maybe 7 years, I was actually

working as a graphic designer in a

previous business that I had created. And

in my role as a graphic designer, I

wasn't... I wasn't trained in college. So, I

didn't have the training that that says

branding is you know giving a feeling

about who this business is. And so for me,

branding was purely visual. Okay? So, I

started my you know foundational

elements of building this business. My

portrait photography business on just

the purely visual aspect of branding. And

I.. Looking back have thought about it and

part of me wants to say that was maybe a

little frivolous or you know, I didn't

have to be as complicated as I made it.

But at the same time, I really loved

that that was the first step because it

gave me a chance to get clarity on how I

wanted my brand to look first. And then I

switched gears into how I wanted, you

my, brand, my persona to feel and how I

wanted people to feel when they worked

with me. And those conversations kind of

built on the visual foundation. -Okay. Because there's a difference there.

If you focus all about the look,

how do you want something to look versus

the feeling how do you want them to

feel, it might completely change

the look. -In my case, what... That actually

definitely happened. So, what I did when I

was trying to curate the idea of what my

brand looked like is I went on Pinterest

and I just pinned all of the different... I

just did searches for a branding or web

design or things like that and I pinned

everything that I thought was really

beautiful or really cool. And what I

found is that there was this enormous

collection of very not consistent

looking content. And so then I went

through and said, "Okay, what are the

keywords (Visually) that are really

important for my brand?" And you know, in

my case, I photographed mainly women. And

my images have a specific style. Since

I'm a visual brand. I mean, what I do. That

kind of helped give me some starting

points. And so I started by asking myself,

you know, "What are my images like and

what are, you know, what are the kind of

images that I want to create for my

clients?" And remember at this point, I'm

brand new and so I don't have tons of

clients. And so I get to choose in this

moment. Who are the clients I want to

work with and how do I want to serve

them? Right? So for me, it was like I want

to be able to photograph really elegant,

timeless, glamorous, super feminine images. That are classic. And so that those

words kind of became my visual branding

like direction. So then after that, I took

those words and I said, "Alright Pinterest,

which of these pins that I put in this

brand board match those words?" In which

totally don't because I would find that

there would be some that were super

playful and trendy posts that definitely

didn't fit the bill for timeless. And so

those had to go. And then I also kind of

got a little more clarity on the color

schemes that I wanted. I wanted to be

really... Obviously I wanted it to be

classic and timeless.

And the kind of thing that that's not

all you're looking at. I didn't want it

to be color based. So I chose colors that

are in the images that I photograph. Like

skin tones and the colors of the

backgrounds that I use in black and

white and just keeping it really clean.

And so once I got clear on the colors

and the keywords then I was able to

curate down that Pinterest board to

something that was really, really defined.

-So, it's really cool. So that's a

lot of what I do myself and when I work on my clients is to find examples, to search on and find what you like. But it's so

important to follow the steps that

you've done as well. Really knowing the

words, how long how long was that process

of kind of choosing the words that

represent your brand? -Choosing words was

easy. Narrowing them down was the hard

part. So I started by just... I would come

up with several words and you know, it

would be like 50 or something, outrageous.

And what I even... Some words, I would go to

the thesaurus and add five that are all

kind of related to each other. And that

gave me a chance to say, "Do you know what?

This specific word has everything that I

want to communicate. And in this word

allows me to get rid of these many." You

know, all of these other words. So it was

kind of an exercise in clarity that

was the most valuable aspect of it was

probably the opportunity that it gave me

to really be... To get that clarity. -So how

many words did you narrow it down to? -I

narrowed it down to 6 words. -Awesome.

-Yeah. -And how long have you had those 6

words? Since the beginning? -Since the

beginning and what's kind of interesting

is when I... I started with just those 6

words and then I started going to

networking events and I started to feel

a little confined by those words. Not

just networking events but also like

when I would be posting content on

social media. And I found that I really

wanted to post content that was

emotional and that would connect with

people and it was going to kind of give

people an insight into my heart and how

I wanted to hold space for them and

invite them to my studio. And I felt like

the words classic, timeless, elegant,

glamorous

kind of hold people at heart arm's

length. They're beautiful visual words

but they're not great for how I want

people to feel around my brand. So that's

why I ended up kind of cultivating

another list that was separate from my

visual list. So today, I was thinking, "This

video would be great to talk about the

visual list and that it would be awesome

to have another conversation about the

next level." -Alright so what you what

you mentioned there's pretty interesting.

And I... Grab that paper because what

she has here... She's got like different

visual brands. You've got my brand images

are and they're their words we've

mentioned timeless, luxurious, elegant

glamorous. Let's talk about this one here

though. The "I am." So you've got different

words that you're going to use in different

scenarios? Is that... Is that how I'm

understanding this? -Yeah. So essentially,

my visual brand is how it looks, okay?

That's also kind of the first impression

if you were looking at something I was

wearing or something from a distance.

That's maybe how you would see me. But at

the core of who I am... Like glamorous,

elegant, feminine, polish. Like those are

all things that I aspire to be and that I

dressed up as. But in reality, you know,

people aren't those things. Those are

people words. And so for me, you know, I

wanted more than anything to come across

as compassionate and inviting to people.

So that when they came into my space

that they would feel safe and feel seen

and heard and important. -So, there's

obviously a difference there. It would... It

would... Those words don't necessarily

represent your photography business

brand. Compassionate and inviting. So I

see what you're saying. -Yeah. And honestly,

the way that I photographed women, that's

my visual brand. You know, it kind of ties

together. Some women I photograph as... Most

women actually are very powerful and

engaged and deeply connected in their

images. And so that's part of my visual

brand absolutely. But then there would

also be images where people were super

dressed up and really glamorous and kind

of playing that fun dress-up game

and it's like that is my brand. And it

completely makes sense for that to be

kind of how I show up at events and

things like that. But at the same time, I

don't want it to be the kind of maybe

intimidating woman

whose cold and and a little scary to be

around. And I'm not that and so it didn't

make sense for me to play at that. So for

me, it was just kind of giving myself

these words. And they're directed to me.

So for me, it was... I wanted to be able to

come across as vulnerable and playful

and whimsical and sensual and inviting

and all of those other things that I

think are super important to be able to

have relationships especially with women.

Who are my main audience, my main client.

-This to me, words mean a lot to me. And I

have not at all gotten this specific. But

having a foundation, I think that's

something that I'm committing to right

now is I need to get more clear on my

words in different areas

because having clarity on the words that

then makes it seems like it's going to make

everything else easier. -Right. Well and

what's fun is it's interesting because I...

I was so nervous that I was going to be

showing up. I mean I was 25 when I

started this business. And I was so

nervous that I was going to be seen as

maybe too silly or too young if I had

those words. And so I was so focused on

words like committed to excellence and

successful and prepared and you know,

things like that that are certainly

important to my brand and to how I want

people to perceive me and as a business

woman. But not necessarily how I want

people to see me as myself. So, I wanted

to give myself words that were separated

out. This is how I show up in my business

and this is how I'll show up when I'm

serving you as my client. But this is how

I'm going to show up as your friend and

we're going to bond and this is part of

what I bring to the table. Because being

able to photograph somebody... I mean, you have to have a bond and a connection

with them. -Cool. So it's kind of a take

away for small business owners that are

wanting to create a brand. The message

here then is to come up with words. So if

people see you, they see your brand, they

see your website, they see photography.

What words you want to come to their

mind? Or what feelings you want them to

have? And then I guess another level is

okay, when they're interacting with you,

what experience you want them to have?

What words to find that experience? And

would you say that the words are the

starting point for creating a brand? -I

would say it it's the thought that goes

into

up with the words. And then for me a huge

aspect of these words were just

permission to show up as I already was

in a way that said, "This is okay.

This is okay in this context and this is

okay in this context." So... So it wasn't

necessarily about changing Who I am or

changing how I'm being perceived or

wanting to be perceived. It was more

about saying, "It's okay for you to be

perceived this way and in fact, here's

why it's good." -So, you'd find this episode

helpful, I know I did. But was also. Thanks

so much. If people want to find you, where

do they go? So, emilylondonportraits.com is my website. -We'll link it below.

-You can also find me on Instagram

emilylondonportraits. And on Facebook. -Okay. So

if you're watching this on YouTube and

you're not a subscriber, be sure to

subscribe. If you're on LinkedIn then

follow. Because we're starting to post

all these videos on LinkedIn as well. So,

we'll see in the next episode.

Nate Woodbury is an entrepreneur himself and in this video, he speaks about a few reasons on why people are leaning towards to become an entrepreneur themselves. If you are interested in becoming an entrepreneur, check this out and learn from Nate's own experience.

Alright Scott. So, why do people want to  become entrepreneurs? -We have so many great reasons. So many great answers. -we're gonna wrap this back because there's a lot of reasons. -Rapidfire. -I am an entrepreneur. I'm going to tell you why I love it. -I'm a business owner. -Alright. Let's go there. What...? -Well because it's got such a pretentious sounding name to it. And it sounds more important. Plus we've already talked about how some people are just kind of working for themselves and their own business. And not necessarily entrepreneurs. I know you've read books. What's the name of it? -The E-Myth Revisited. -Although you didn't read it, you listened to it. But yeah. Why... Why do? And I would just say right off the bat. This is just me. But I think people like to be their own boss. They like to run their own show. They don't want anybody tell anyone they got to be in or when they got to leave. They want to do their own thing. -That's number 1. -Be my own  boss. There it is. Rapid fire. Here we go. -Be my own boss. Okay. So number 2. An innate desire to create. I believe that we all have this desire. And maybe there's exceptions out there. But being a business owner really allows you to create... When I... There was a short stint where I had a sales job and I saw some things that the company was doing. And I just like I had some ideas and I wanted to contribute and put these ideas forth. And I... And I shared some of the ideas and it wasn't my place to share them. I was put back into my place. I'm not meant to be an employee because I like to create. I like to take my ideas and roll with it. And even though I make mistakes a lot and even though a lot of my ideas crash and burn, some of my ideas have really worked out well and it's really... -And now you have your own employees who probably someday will be their own... -If they watch my videos and follow my advice, absolutely. -They're watching them. They've got to  watch them. -They edit them, they polish them. -Number 3. -Number 3. We want to become entrepreneurs because it's a challenge. -Ooh! Do we need to be challenged? -I like... For some reason, it's of a weird thing but I like to take the hard road. Just discover that about myself. I like to do things the hard way. It's kind of like it's... I know that I'm going to grow from it. I know that I'm... -That's the word right there. Yeah, grow. Develop, change, improve, progress. And all of that the kind of the opposition you find in the challenges and the being wanting to be challenged. That does. It helps us. -I will not shy away from the fact that I've had this company... We're approaching. We're at 9 years now. I think 9 years this month or next month. It hasn't been smooth sailing. -Sure. -It's been a very rough road. Lots of ups and downs financially. Lots of... Lots of stress at times. So much stress that I developed an ulcer. -Mm-hmm. 0I don't know if it was exactly the stress. But I've definitely experienced a lot of stress. So, why did I put myself through that? Why don't you just get a job as a lot of people would have recommended? -Good question. That's a great question. I  argue with myself on that almost daily. -And the next point here is a big reason, a big answer for me. It's we don't want to settle. Honestly for me, getting a job is settling. It's like settling for below my potential because I know that I can do more. I know that I can achieve more things than just being... And I don't mean to insult people that choose to be an employee. -Right. -But for me it's  settling. -It's okay to say that. I mean the question today is why do people want to become entrepreneurs? Or why do they become entrepreneurs? And that is legitimate and honest answer. Even  though it may there may be others that are watching going, "I have never felt that a day in my life.: Companies need employees. I love my job, I love what I do. They pay me fair. You know what I  mean? But for whatever reason within you, you know, that's... That's your feeling that you just... It feels like you're settling if you sign on with someone. Rather than being that signee. -Like for example, a few years into my business. There was a time where financially hit some hard times. Had to borrow some money from family. And I got posed that question. "Why don't you just get a  job?" And I look back at the previous few years and just thought but I've grown so much, I've learned so much. I've experienced so much. -And you paid them back? -Of course. -Okay. I'm just  saying. -And I've... And I... And I think, "But if I get a job, it's like all these 3 years of hard work is wasted." You know? It's like... That's how I felt. That's like... -It's probably not rational. But you know you. I mean the fact is is you wouldn't... You wouldn't have wasted anything if you had to have gotten a job, you could have. But luckily you didn't have to. Things worked out beautifully.

Alright, next ball. They go in freedom of time. I mean that that's a big one. We get to control our schedule. -You've got kids, you've got activities, hobbies, interests. You want to have... Yeah. -Like,  I like to go running. I like to go snowshoeing in the winter. And if I want to go... If it's... If it's a hot summer day, I like to go mountain biking in the morning when it's cool. And a lot of people, you  know, they get up, they shower, they go to work. They can't go mountain biking the morning. I get to. -Yeah. -Or if there's something that my kids doing it at school. There's, you know, the spring program or whatnot. I don't have to get time off or request permission to leave work or maybe there's a doctor appointment or something that I want to do. I really control my schedule. I have  freedom of time. If... -Yes, that's true. To some extent, I mean, you can say no and you can because no one's going to fire you. However, you do have deliverables that are on a schedule. And you know, you have places to be and stuff that... -If we're going to make a video about the disadvantages of being an entrepreneur is you've got... You've got to be your own boss, you've got to have the  discipline,  you've got to keep a schedule. You've... -Yeah, those don't sound positive. -Let's move on. -You can make more money. -Yeah. Higher potential income is the point that I made there. -Or at least maybe not more but you have flexibility in terms of income. I mean you don't want to make less. -So let's... let's be open here. The first 8 years of my business had I been an employee, I  would have made more money. 8 years. 8 years. But year 9? I don't think I would have ever made this much money as   an employee? I don't know what job I could have done. -Yeah. -Even if I were  a surgeon. -Yeah. I don't know. Maybe surgeons make good. I don't know. -I don't know what surgeons make. They seem to make good money. Yeah. So, the potential to make more money.  It's true. You're really only limited by how much work you put in or the connections you make or how much... People always say that you can make as much or as little as you want. The realist in  me says, "BS." You know? Like, "Really. I can't make as much as I want but you you can to some degree." I mean... You know, the sky is somewhat the limit. But in contrast to that, there is a limit when you are an employee. There's always a limit. Even if you become CEO and they pay you  outrageous, you know, ungodly amounts of money. A thousand times more than the average  worker where you are. It's still a limit. Because the board isn't going to... "Well, giving them 30 million a year. And no more." I mean it's still a limit. So technically. -Alright, next one. Tax  advantages. Well, no we're not going to get deep into this one but if you don't understand how beneficial these are, this is this is quite amazing. Like this MacBook here, this is a business expense. -Of course. -I get to write it off on my taxes because I use it for work. My team are in the Philippines. I just flew to the Philippines in background trip. I paid for an Air B&B. -That's all work. All that business. -All that stuff was a business expense. I got a write it off and it doesn't count on my personal taxes. I let my accountant kind of take care of the nitty-gritty of those those details. But I keep track of all my business expenses and I get it right those off. You know, this this room of this house is specifically used just for filming, just for my business. -So you can write off the whole cost of the house. -Not the whole cost of the house. No. -He's like... -She does the taxes. I don't remember what she does but, yeah. -Alright. This one's important to me. I talk a lot about influence. As an  entrepreneur, I put down... I want to be an entrepreneur because I want the ability to influence. And this one really hit home to me in a bigger way when I got to meet my team in the Philippines.  We were all sitting down together for dinner for the first time having the whole team together and I just thought, "I never really realized how much influence I have this group of people." -Yeah.  You know, one of them has been working with me.. for me for 8 and a half years. Many of them for many, many years. And I just thought, "Wow. Like I'm the reason that they're here in this room and I provide their livelihood." That's something that I hadn't thought of before. Did you get it? -I think you might have brought the snap from the Philippines. -Uh-oh. -It's like a fruit fly. Because  there's just a lot of little bugs there. -I didn't really see any bugs. Crawling on the ground but not flying around. -Kidding I got him though, yeah. -Okay. Last one. Last point here. We want to be an entrepreneur. What have I write? -Solve a problem. -What do you think I mean by that? -I don't know. -You got a problem, you'll all solve it. -Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it? -Ice, Ice Baby. -And that's game. Thanks for coming. It was an elaborate way to get into a rap. -So, we create solutions right? If there's a problem out there and we know a way of fixing it, we can create a service, we can create a product to serve it. I think that's the reason why a lot of people get into business. They see a better way of doing things. -Yeah. -Maybe they were an employee of a company. It's like, "You know what? I could do it so much better." So, I think that's another reason why we become entrepreneurs. -Solve a problem. -So, I'm sure there's a lot more things we could add to this list and so I invite you whether you're on YouTube or on LinkedIn to leave a comment below about other reasons why you are an entrepreneur. I think other people choose to be an entrepreneur and you don't. And we'll go from there. We'll see you tomorrow.