Hello, hello, hello, my podcast people. Thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite online business podcast.
If you are tuning in, if you are listening, if you are watching on the day that it drops, it is Monday, September 14th. Happy middle of September. PSA, it is still not PSL season, in my opinion.
PSL, pumpkin spice lattes. I think that should be October. And I realize that they put that disgusting, I almost said pineapple, not pineapple, that disgusting peppermint drink in, like at the end of October.
It's capitalism at its finest, right? But you know, at the end of the day, if you want pumpkin, do you. But it is so fucking hot here, which I love. It's unseasonably hot.
We got this humidity rolled in, super El Nino, and hopefully the background noise today isn't too bad. I think it's okay. But I got the window open because it's too hot.
I can't be recording this thing. I got the fan going. It's too hot.
It's too humid. I just didn't say it's too hot. It's too humid.
So, you know, you do you. That's the weather update from meteorologist Maestro. But I got a quick announcement for you, and then we're hopping into today's main topic, which I'm excited about, which is playing it safe is risky.
So quick reminder, which is my life and biz bestie, Jill Fitts. She's hosting that four day boot camp, the business boot camp, and it starts today. So if you're listening to this, watching this on the 14th, it starts today.
You can still sign up. It's called Build Your Brand, Get Your Bag, again, starts today. She is, like I talked about this last episode, but, you know, Jill is the best in the business when it comes to helping newbies launch their online business and really get into the strategy and focus on selling.
That's not what I like doing. I don't like focusing on selling. And I work with intermediate to advanced business owners on selling because they've worked through a lot of the mindset stuff.
And that's who I prefer to work with. The super beginners that need all of the steps and the nuances, except for when they're going from in-person to online, Lex and I do that with Lex for mine. But for folks that are just 100% online all the time, that is Jill.
This is what she does. Folks are looking to get into that. So you know, additionally, my zone of genius tends to be folks who want to focus on consistency, who want to learn their voice, who want to gain the confidence to show up as more you.
That's what I do. Jill's zone of genius are the folks who are like, I either have an online business or I know for certain that I want to have an online business. I'm ready to launch it.
Give me the strategy. Tell me what to do. If that is you, check out our bootcamp, right? Four days, four trainings.
Y'all know Jill can teach. She's been teaching for four days in a row. It's $37.
It's basically free. So yes, I'm an affiliate for it. So if you use that link, I will get a kickback and you will be helping fund my Harbor Freight addiction.
So thank you for that. So that is a perfect segue into today's main topic, which is talking about tools. Now, the perfect segue is that the training that she's doing, I just had like a brain fart right there, just out of my head.
Courtney, leave that in. Jojo, leave that in. The segue here is that in full transparency, one, I'm an affiliate, two, the bootcamp is part of her lead magnet for her signature offer, right? Her signature offer is FBA, but you do not need to sign up for FBA, register for FBA in order to get a shit ton out of the bootcamp.
And that talking about online business is the perfect segue into today's main topic, which is playing it safe is risky. So that's a quote that I first heard, first read from Seth Godin many, many years ago. And it was actually the advice that I gave to the folks in Rock Tape when I retired from Rock Tape in 2020.
So right now, and honestly, it happens all the time, but as is the case with all cyclical things, and that means that sometimes some things are more prominent than others. But right now we are seeing some online creators and online business owners go back to corporate and go back to a regular nine to five job. And there's nothing wrong with that.
I want to highlight, preface, start by saying that. I have no idea of the breakdown, I say this a bunch, I have no idea of the breakdown of the audience, of you folks listening and watching this, but my guess is that a good number of you folks work for someone else or have a job in corporate or in some way, shape or form. And I totally fucking get the appeal of a steady paycheck.
And also these corporations and these companies, they be having the money, they always have money. But what I want to highlight today is the value of having a fallback, namely something that is within or fully within your control, meaning that the money you make is fully dependent on you and your efforts. All right.
So I've gotten served the same real a few times because I haven't I haven't interacted with it, which is why they keep serving it to me. But it's like basically this man and he's talking about and it's good, it's positive real. Let me start by saying that he talks about if your business that you started pays for your life, it pays for all your bills, then you're doing the damn thing, right? Something along those lines.
And I heard it the first time and I was like, oh, yeah, that is me. Like my business pays for my everything and there's no money coming in from like some secret source. I wish, I wish it's all contingent upon and dependent upon my work.
Yeah, I split bills with Lex as well. But our businesses are paying for our life. That wasn't always the case for me.
Right. I worked as a traditional PT for eight years. I worked for Rock Tape as a 1099, but my income was contingent upon them existing.
More on that in a moment. All right. I can think back to grad school and in a PT grad school, I never wanted to have a business.
The staff, they made it sound terrible. Worth noting, none of them had their own business, their own practice, except for one man, Dr. Weber, who did not make it sound terrible. So bless you, Dr. Weber.
And he actually ran a business class, which, you know, spoiler, I came to learn that I didn't want my own PT practice, but very much wanted to have my own business so that I could be on my own rules and on my own schedule. Having health care, remember, that felt so daunting. And I was like, I don't even fucking go to the doctor.
Why is this so daunting? Is this like, you know, the golden handcuffs are very, very real and other people's concerns are very, very real for you. So, you know, circling back to Rock Tape, I thank Allison for everything. I thank Perry.
I thank Steve and Ethan and Greg and Jody and the entire MJ Rock Tape crew, the entire MJ and MJ and the entire Rock Tape crew. And Australia, Steve, may he rest in peace. Right.
They, that company, all of them, they gave me wings. And also at the same time, to me, the writing was very much on the wall, which was that if Rock Tape goes under or sells, which they did, they sold. What happens to me? Right.
Spoiler, Rock Tape did sell. But I had seen that writing on the wall very early. And, you know, Allison had had planted that seed.
And I started building my own brand very early, very much following in Perry Nicholson's footsteps. And the writing that was on the wall from the beginning was that playing it safe is risky. Right.
To me, playing it safe by having your entire livelihood be dependent upon someone else, especially like a big corporation, is risky. They can take it away at any moment in time, especially when it's a big corporation. Right.
Even with Rock Tape, which is a smaller company, but like, you know, multi million dollar company, we saw the furloughs hit when COVID hit. And Allison, bless her, the matriarch of Rock Tape, she fought for us. She fought for the people that were higher up.
So they didn't get furloughed. She was like, these people got to fucking eat. But that ain't the case with most companies.
Right. There isn't that matriarch. You are a line item, you are an expense, and you can get cut no matter how long you've been there.
And I'm not saying this to be like, now go quit the good paying job that you have and, you know, at the company you're at and start doing your own thing. No way. Right.
I just want to present a counter offer. And by offer, I mean argument. Present a counter argument that, you know, this doesn't need to be the only way.
The population at large tends to be working for somebody else. And that's fine. And we see like a much smaller percentage is self-employed.
And I kind of want to put that out there that the other opportunities and other paths exist. And that despite the fact that the narrative is that like, get a job and like, you'll be fine. Like, in my opinion, playing it safe like that can be very risky.
And so, you know, I'm making the case here for any of you who might be thinking. I'm hoping to trying to make the case for any of you who might be thinking of starting your own thing in any way, shape or form. I largely just want to encourage you to diversify your skill set, even if it's just, you know, how you view your skills.
So that, God forbid, if something happens, you don't have all of your eggs in one basket. When I say like diversifying how you view your skills is, you know, you can even put that into into, you know, Claude or whatever you're using. And suddenly you're like, oh, like this thing that I do translates into this other thing.
Right. Or it could even just look like when I say diversifying your skills, it could just look like having social skills as well as whatever your technical skills are, so that if you do get let go, you have a network or it's easier to network. Maybe, maybe diversification of your skills actually looks like getting really fucking good at your job.
So you, the expert, not that that makes you expandable, but was that the word that I'm looking for? Not that that makes you, makes you not, not that that means that you're not going to get rid of you. But perhaps it makes it easier for you to get another job if that should happen. Or maybe diversifying your skills looks like continuing to keep up with whatever is changing with the times as relates to the thing that you do.
Or maybe it's, we got some thunder, or maybe it's, can you teach the thing that you do? There's a lot of different pathways and adjust again. And that's why I made this the title of today's episode. It just feels to me that playing it safe, traditional route, everything is dependent on somebody else, is risky or is far riskier than people would have you believe and the companies would have you believe, right? Now, obviously there are exceptions to every catchphrase and every, you know, every, every pithy, every, every phrase that's like, oh yeah, it's really punchy there, but every catchy phrase, but you know, there's definitely times when playing it safe is the best bet.
Wear a helmet, play it safe. Uh, don't touch the money that you invest, play it safe, just invest it and leave it. Right.
But, or I guess with that phrase, some people may think playing it safe would actually be keeping your money in your mattress and it's like, okay, but also let your money work for you and invest it and then don't touch it. Um, but as it stands for today's episode and what we're really discussing, I really do believe that there is a case to be made for self-employment through the lens of playing it safe is risky, right? And absolutely it takes a certain kind of person to do self-employment. And I'm by no means saying that it's easy, but yes, it comes with its own risk.
But to me, to me, those things are worth it. Those risks are worth it. And ultimately they are less risky than being fully employed, solely employed, wholly employed, having every single, everything dependent on somebody else, you know, again, dust my two pennies on that.
So I knew I started off the episode by talking about PSLs, but I am really never here to yuck anyone's yum. I like the way they taste. I do.
Um, I haven't had one in quite some time, but you know, I think I do. I just hate when things are forced on me. Um, but at the end of the day, I'm never here to yuck anyone's yum.
You want to have a PSL every day? Do that. You want to work for somebody else all the time and forever and that's it? Go ahead. Do that.
I am not here to say that working for somebody else is bad. All right, go crush it. That is, again, let's say what 90 to 95% of employed people do, right? The five to 10%, uh, that is self self-employed.
But if any of you have that self-employment itch, whether you're doing it now or you're thinking about it, fucking go for it. You know, I'm seeing this pop up a lot and I'm kind of letting it marinate and thinking about stuff in my head and maybe offering something. I don't know.
Um, but I'm seeing it in the over 40 crowd, which is awesome. I'm in the over 40 crowd, so it's not surprising that my audience is there as well. But I am seeing people that are like, you know, let me give it a shot.
Let me, not as my full career or anything like that, but let me just try this thing. Um, you know, we're seeing people leave the space and the universe, that's what happens is it a void, but it gets filled. Um, and I'm seeing people express interest in maybe entering the online space, which, you know, I'm not here to say that if you give it a try and just because you give it a try, you're going to succeed, right? It is a long game.
It is a slow game and not everyone that plays that game gets to win. But, uh, I do think that if you have any of that itch to try the self-employment, even if it's just a little bit of the employment side hustle, fucking go for it. All right.
Because again, to me, playing it safe is risky. All right. That's all I got for you.
Don't forget about Jill's bootcamp. All the deets are in the link in the show notes and as always endlessly, endlessly, one more time, endlessly appreciative for every single one. Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
Watch this episode on YouTube!
Get in on Jill’s Build Your Brand, Get Your Bag Bootcamp
Catch me on the socials: Instagram | YouTube | Threads | TikTok | Facebook