From Troubled Orphan to Million Dollar Motivational Speaker with Josh Shipp

American teen behavior expert, motivational speaker, best-selling author, and TV show host – Josh Shipp

Josh has an incredible story. If you think your childhood affects how successful you are now, you need to listen in to this. Discover what Josh had to do to pick himself up by his bootstraps and learn how he changed his mindset and his life to create an amazing inspiring business.

Check out JoshShipp.com and YouthSpeakerU.com for more info!

Thanks so much for listening!

Transcript:

Jaime: Today we have Josh Shipp in the show. He's a motivational speaker who had a horrendous childhood and he shows us how you can come from nothing and really make something of yourself. He also talks about taking inventory of yourself to make it better but also not to increase your ego as you increase your business. We also talk about how he increased his opt in rate by over 300%. If you have an online business if you're a speaker, an author or something like that you don't want to miss this!

Announcer: Welcome to the Eventual Millionaire podcast with your host, Jaime Tardy. Real talk and real advice from real millionaires, with a sharp focus on you the Eventual Millionaire.

Jaime: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Tardy and today we have Josh Shipp on the show. Josh does it all he's a motivational speaker, TV host, author he's been on MTV,A&E the list goes on and on. He's been on INC Magazine's 30 Under 30 also, plus more but I don't want to go on and on. I'm really excited to have him on the show today. Thanks so much for coming on, Josh.

Josh: My pleasure, Jaime. Thank you.

Jaime:You work with teens a lot and one of the reasons that you do is because your upbringing was crazy. So just to get it out there, could you tell us what your upbringing was like?

Josh: My biological mother was 17 when she had me. I think I was a prom baby that's the story that's been passed on to me. My mom left me at the hospital when I was born so I immediately entered the foster care system and lived in roughly a dozen different foster homes. Some of those homes were great but I was a defiant, oppositional kid because I didn't trust adults because my mom left me. The good news is that I didn't trust adults that I shouldn't trust but the bad news is that I didn't trust adults that I should have. A lot of these homes were great, I was just hell bent on getting myself kicked out of them by being as terrible as I could. Some of the homes were not so great I experienced a lot of abuse and neglect and all those sorts of things as a kid. That's the sad story but the good news is that when I was 14 I ended up with an imperfect but amazing set of foster parents and they completely changed the course of my life. They gave me one of my big mantras which is that every kid is just one caring adult away from being a success story. The Wedemeyers, my foster parents, were certainly that for me because, statistically, I should be dead or in jail, not being interviewed by you.

Jaime:You had several good foster homes so what was different about them?

Josh: I think the main thing is that they were in it for the long term. I think in both business and parenting it takes 10 years to become an overnight success. They very much understood that and were patient about it. The challenge with a foster kid and perhaps there's even a business correlation with this is that, when I showed up on their doorstep at 14 years old, they were not responsible for what had happened to me for the last 14 years, but it was now their issue. It's like inheriting a family business it's not your fault how your mom or dad ran the company but now it is your issue; it's on your hands. All of the stuff that I had gone through was not their fault but now they had to deal with it. So they were patient and that's okay and, secondly, they were consistent. They backed up all of their actions with words and all of their words with actions. A lot of foster homes I had been in I had heard "We care about you. we're in this for the long term," but the minute I pushed them and tried to get away because I didn't trust them they would fold, give up and say "Well, we wanted a kid but we didn't expect it to be this difficult." So really that consistency and, to be honest, I didn't give them a chance, I didn't open up to them for the first couple of years but eventually, when I couldn't push them away or irritate them enough for them to give up on me I said "Okay, I'm going to give these folks a chance." Then there was tons of counselling, getting mentors and great involvement in the church and my community, plus their love and care. All of those things started to slowly, painfully turn me around to being a decent human being.

Jaime: Thank goodness for them. That's one of the key points that you make that it was slowly. They didn't just suddenly fix you so that you could move on; it's a long process.

Josh: I did a TV show where I worked with some at-risk kids. It aired on Lifetime and A&E. What we really tried to communicate with that is that you can make a decision in one second to change your life but the actual process of changing your life is slow, painful, frustrating and a pain in the butt and it takes years. I think it's very important, both in personal life and business life, that we're committed to the process of changing, not just the end result. The end result is the carrot whether you want to become a millionaire or you want to launch a business or you want to write a book it's the shiny thing that, when it gets frustrating, you think about it, like 
When I have my name on a book, that will be so awesome." But you also have to be committed to changing the process of your goal because that is, genuinely, the only way that it is going to happen. Everyone wants to be a millionaire, everyone wants to write a book but what separates those who do from those who don't is their commitment to the process. Some days you wake up and you feel awesome and motivated and you feel like you're killing it and some days you wake up and feel like an absolute failure and miserable, "Why would anyone want to listen to me? I'm fooling everyone; I don't know what the heck I'm doing." You just have those days I had one just the other day. My encouragement to you is that, when you're having days where you're feeling awesome, when you're feeling courageous, I want to encourage you to make decisions that place you in something that's going to be hard to back out of later. So let's say you've got a business opportunity and you know it's the right thing to do but it's scary. If you happen to be feeling courageous on a particular day I want to encourage you to begin moving that ball down the court to commit, say "Yes, I'm going to do that," because in a couple of days you're going to wake up and question yourself. Those voices in your mind are going to begin to talk to you again so when you know a decision is the right thing to do, put yourself in a position where it's hard to back out of it.

Jaime:I love that first of all, because you said you have those days too. Being honest about that is huge. You've been in so much press; you've done so much in your life. It's ridiculous. You can still wake up one day and be like "Meh." That's horrible!

Josh: And I'm a motivational speaker so there's this implication that I'm supposed to be the one that's positive, turning lemons into lemonade, and all that garbage. But the truth is, regardless of who you are, regardless of your situation, you are human and I think that can be one of your greatest selling points. Your imperfections are what make you human and it is your humanity that makes you influential. Whether you're a speaker, a leader or whatever capacity you operate in, I think it's really important for people to see your humanity because it lets them know that they're not screwed up, they're not alone, everyone's in the same situation, but we're still going to be committed to our cause, to our goal, to whatever we want to do.

Jaime:How did you get into business? Did you always know you wanted to be in business or were the foster family that really helped you in business?

Josh: I was mischievous and rebellious as a kid so I always wanted to do things differently. In one foster home, when I was about five, there was an old woman next door who had a lemon tree that was overtaking her yard. It was a big burden to her so I said "Let me have those lemons. I'm going to start a lemonade stand and I'll give you a percentage of the profits." So it was a no-brainer for her to say yes because it was a burden to her. My buddies helped me collect all the lemons and went and sold the lemonade at different stands around the neighborhood. I took a profit and I gave her a percentage. So I was always interested in that kind of stuff. Once, as a kid, I went around and wrote fake tickets and put them on people's cars. I wasn't really a police officer at age six but I watched CHiPs a lot. The margins on that were great, because it cost me nothing, but of course no one paid.

Jaime:But you were thinking!

Josh: I was always interested in different ways of generating revenue. How I got into business was that I'd had this terrible childhood but I made somewhat of a success of myself in high school and college and some people asked me if I would talk to their students about that because they felt that they could relate to me and should hear some of the things that I had to say. So I thought "Alright, fine," even though I had no idea what my message was about, I felt insecure, I was 19 talking to 18 year olds why would they listen to me? I don't know anything! But it was on a whim, I was feeling confident that day. I started doing the speaking and I didn't even know that sharing your advice for a living could be a "business". For me it was something that I initially got into for two reasons number one, selfishly. I'm just being honest it made me feel better about myself. When I first started speaking it was more about be and less about my audience. I'm not saying that that's right, I'm just being honest that's the way it was. But secondly, I realized that the more open I was about my story the more I realized that it really helped these kids to realize that they're not alone. So I got into speaking and a few years later I realized it was an opportunity and I should start treating it like a business. Just because you have a good cause or a product doesn't mean that it's going to sell itself a lot of people who operate in my space feel that they just want to help and share and these are folks that are good hearted and have good intentions, but you've still got to share your good message. You've got to sell your good advice; you still have to sell your good product. Just because it's good and pure and has good intentions doesn't mean it's going to sell itself. Then I became obsessively compulsively fascinated with how I could create an empire of impact. How can I take something that I genuinely want to use to help other people and if I really feel like it would help someone I need to be committed to convincing them, in an ethical way, obviously, to buy it, listen to it, to consume it.

Jaime:I love that. How long had you been speaking before you upped the ante with that? And, also, were you doing that for a living or did you have another job and it was just a side thing?

Josh: When I first started I lived in Oklahoma with my parents so my overheads were ridiculously low. Yes, I was doing it for a living, but I was making the equivalent of waiting tables 10 hours a week or something. I didn't need to make a lot of money and I was fortunate in that situation. Even when I went to college and I was taking classes, this is what I was doing full time. I had other jobs at some point but then I would say "I need to quit this job because if I don't I'm not going to have the fear factor of "if I don't book a speech I don't know how I'm going to pay my rent"." So putting myself in a situation where I was forced to bring my A-game was really helpful because I know my personality. I know my strengths and weaknesses and one of my many weaknesses is that if it's too easy I'm going to coast. If I'm making enough money to get by waiting tables at this Italian restaurant in town I'm not going to take my speaking business as seriously because I'm comfortable. I think "comfortable" is the biggest threat to us as entrepreneurs. "Comfortable" is just good enough that you won't make a change it's not so painful, so frustrating, so annoying, that you say "My gosh, I'll do anything to get out of this situation." So I intentionally placed myself in a situation that was uncomfortable to force myself, knowing that I tend to be lazy, to not be lazy.

Jaime:Was that scary?

Josh: Of course. Had I overthought it, which I can do, I wouldn't have made that decision. It was a case of "Screw it, I need to do this. I'm going to give it a shot." It was incredibly terrifying but I think you never really know what you're capable of until you must. You hear these stories of a kid getting run over by a car and their mother picks up the car. I don't know if that's total BS, I've never picked a car up off of my child.

Jaime:Thank goodness!

Josh: Yeah, thank goodness! I can tell you that I've been in at least half a dozen situations where I felt that same adrenaline rush of "If I don't pick up this thing, it's over. This is life or death. This is a really, really serious situation." I feel that we really don't know what we're capable of until we're in those situations so I think that you have to sometimes intelligently and thoughtfully place yourself in that situation.

Jaime:You say intelligently I was wondering whether you think it's necessary for people to find out what they're made of, to put themselves in those situations. I've heard from people who put their houses on the line and that sounds horrible. Do you think that's necessary?

Josh: That's a great question. I think it depends. For some people, like me, because I know my weaknesses, yes. Maybe the real answer is that you need to take inventory of what your weaknesses are and you need to ask people who know you and love you enough to tell you the hard truth, to tell you what your blind spots are. If you're wired a bit like me and one of your weaknesses is that you'll coast if there isn't a challenge presented, then yes. If you're someone who's more strategic, more forward thinking and would be crippled by the burden of debt or the burden of unknown income then maybe that could be the absolute worst thing you could do. Now that I have a wife and a couple of small kids, I wouldn't put myself in that situation. If I was going to start a venture and it would cost me X number of intimidating dollars I would say that I'm not allowed to move forward until I had that amount of money whether that's saving it or raising it, whatever. I'd say "Josh, if you want to do this thing, prove it by meeting this mile marker." As a guy who works for himself, the good news is that you have no boss, but the bad news is also that you have no boss. What I try to do, in any ventures that I'm starting, because I have a tendency to want to move onto the next one, thinking that the next one is what I need, instead of really nurturing and honing this one, is that I set up some kind of mile marker. I'm not going to move onto this other idea that I have until I've earned my way out of this, until I've earned the right to move on. As people who don't have bosses, sometimes we don't govern ourselves. Like you might be working on a book but then you get an idea for a blog post or some other thing. It's easy to alleviate the pain you should be going through in writing this book by working on something else but I think you need that pain, you need to be going through that situation, and you need that terribleness that our dreams contain. Sometimes people think that once they have their dream job there will be, no frustration,no pain, but everyone's dream career, at best, contains 10% of stuff that's terrible and awful. I love speaking but I despise travelling.

Jaime:Really?

Josh: I hate it. I don't like strangers, I don't like new people, I don't like confined spaces. I hate all of that. But I adore speaking and meeting young people and hearing their stories so that 10% of pain is worth the 90% of pleasure. Just realize that if you're out there and you're not quite to your dream spot yet, don't buy into the delusion that once you get there it's all going to be beautiful and showers and sunshine and Skittles.

Jaime:Sunshine and roses raining from the sky! Tell me about your journey you've built up an empire, an empire of impact. You have over 220,000 followers on your site so tell me more about how you grew that. When did you actually start?

Josh: I started in 1999 when I was a senior in high school, just doing the speaking thing. There was absolutely zero strategy to it, zero game plan, zero intention or marketing. Someone would ask me to talk and I would say yes and they would give me $50 or something. That was it. Two years later I felt like I was decent enough at speaking that I should give it a go. By the way, if you go onto my website and you see videos of me speaking now, you will see a pretty polished product. I need to be clear that at first I was absolutely terrible. I've tried to wipe them from the face of the planet but if you scour the internet you will find some of my videos and they are absolutely terrible. I have no idea what my message is, it's unfocused, I'm wearing a suit, I'm trying to be Zig Ziglar at 19 years old. It's terrible. So realize that, in order to do something great, you're going to have to start by doing a slightly crappy version of it. And that's okay. Stephen King says that to write an amazing book you have to write a crappy first draft. So for many years I wrote a crappy first draft. There are things that I'm doing right now that I would say are crappy first drafts. You have to earn being good it's not just given to you because you're sitting around thinking "One day I'm going to be a great speaker". To be a great speaker you have to get up and give 100 poor presentations and then 100 bad presentations and then 100 decent ones and then 100 mediocre ones and then, eventually, you become alright.

Jaime:Which is so hard for people. Stephen King can hold in with the first draft and not show anyone but with public speaking you have to get out there in front of people that might think you suck and that's hard.

Josh: I think with businesses in general, you're launching a site, a blog, a product, and the first version of it tends to not be that focused, that honed, that beautiful. You just have to be okay with that. When you're a writer you go and read someone's amazing book and you tend to study the success story instead of the origin of the success story and the original of every company and individual's success story looks more like yours than this other person's. Meaning it's not as polished, so just be okay with that. Those people and companies who fascinate you go and look at their early stuff, look at the origin of their stuff, and you'll find it's more cluttered, it's not as focused, it?s not as clear, and be inspired by that. Maybe you do have what it takes. Maybe 10 more revisions and it will be better, like theirs. So I was probably around 19 when I decided to take this seriously and I decided to seek out some mentors people you can talk to and interact with who are in the speaking world. I probably sent out 100 e-mails and 98 of them denied me, essentially, for many reasons. In some of my e-mails I was too egotistical, thinking "Why would these guys listen to some kid?" so then I'd be egotistical and I'd put them off. Some of them were jerks and didn't want to help the competition. But there were a few folks who said "Sure, I'll talk to you," so I started to pick their brain about how to go about building a speaking business, "I don't understand, can you give me some advice?" and that was super helpful. Then I started intentionally marketing my stuff and put up a website and a demo video. If you're a speaker, a demo video is the most important thing you could have you wouldn't hire a photographer without a portfolio; you wouldn't hire a speaker without having a taste of what it's going to be like. Think of it as the trailer to a movie I need to see a trailer of your speech. If your speech is meant to be funny or serious I need to see a trailer that's funny or serious. Then it started to go well and I started getting gigs from people who weren't just friends and family in town and not just from other people who had seen me speak, not just relying on word of mouth but also having intentional lead generation systems in place. That began to go pretty well and that led to writing some books, doing some media appearances and developing my own TV shows and then I started having this burden to duplicate myself and so then I started this thing called Youth Speaker University which is where I train speakers who are interested in talking to kids and that has been a tremendous joy and privilege and legacy builder for me to help train that next generation of individuals who want to do what I do because I'm not egotistical enough, at this point in my life, to think that my message is the only one that kids need to hear or that I'm the only messenger kids need to hear. Not only do kids need to hear different messages but they need to hear them from people who are different from me different genders, different ethnicities, different ages, different everything. Then it began to grow into not just speaking, but seeing how I could take my advice and package it and sell it in as many formats as possible. The bad news is that, when you become a success as a speaker, all you have is a good paying, manual labor job. At this point in my life, I'm not trying to brag, but I get paid a silly amount of money to go and talk for an hour.

Jaime:Can you tell us how much?

Josh: It's low in the five figures.

Jaime:That's awesome.

Josh: And this is in schools, which apparently have no money. So a silly amount of money to go and run my mouth for an hour.

Jaime:But you still have to get on a plane.

Josh: I still have to get on a plane. I'm married, we have two small kids now, and it breaks my heart. I'm not emotional but I cry when I leave. And you also begin to go "What if I died? What if I didn't want to travel? What if I couldn't travel? Does my message have any longevity beyond me?" That's when I began to think about how I could take these things that I care about and put them in a package that someone can hand to someone, because you can't hand them you.

Jaime: "Here's Josh wrapped up in a little bow!"

Josh: I am a miniature man I'm only 5? 8? so I think I could probably fit into a large FedEx box.

Jaime:That would be a good video for your site! I have a question we're going through your history, was there anything that exploded? You talked about the media was there anything that exploded your business and it just went insane, as far as revenue goes? Because, yes, views are great, but revenue is probably more helpful.

Josh: Did any one particular thing make my business? No. No particular incident or impressive thing on my resume made my business. However, there is one, underlying, foundational thing that made all of those opportunities good for my business, versus my ego. This is a really important part if you're in a position where you're selling yourself or some message or something, it's really easy to get distracted by things that build your ego versus build your business. For example, everyone wants to be on, well back in the day it was Oprah, today it's whatever. If Good Morning, America said they wanted to have you on tomorrow you'd say "Yes, of course! That's amazing!" and you'd think that would make your business. It's not. It's going to get you a ton of spikes to your website for about a day, day and a half, and then "Poof!", it's gone. You're going to get e-mails from people from high school that you hated and they're going to suck up to you and maybe mom or dad will finally say "Hey, I guess you can actually do this speaking thing". All the things that are good for your ego but not good for your business. So what is the underlying thing? For me, the secret to not my impact but my empire is building an e-mail list. The truth is that you?re silly if you think that someone is going to jump on your site and buy something from you on day one. The only reason that they would is if they're so warm to you that they're already sold. Meaning maybe they watch our conversation or saw me speak at their school and said :I'm going to go and buy that guy's book:, but strangers need to be systematically warmed up to you and you need to, like an attorney, place pieces of evidence in front of them, systematically, over a period of time, and automatically, so that it's not dependent on your mood, but systematically,through an automatic sequence, they need to be given evidence as to why you're credible, trustworthy, add value, all those sorts of things. Now, any time I'm going and doing a media appearance or anything, my goal is not to sell books, not to sell anything. My goal is twofold number one, add value, and number two, get them on my e-mail list. Those are my only two goals. I did Good Morning, America recently and I know, out of the million viewers, a few thousand are going to be really interested and relevant to what I'm talking about so if I can get a few hundred of those on my e-mail list eventually a dozen or so will buy something from me and it will be really worthwhile. As an example here's a practical piece of advice when I'm speaking at an event or doing a media appearance and I have the opportunity to promote my website I never, ever give the direct URL because there are too many distractions. If I just say "Go to joshshipp.com" there are too many distractions.

Jaime:You have very good videos, by the way.

Josh: Good videos, but they're a distraction from my ultimate goal, which is to get you on the e-mail list. I set up a particular URL that is essentially just a squeeze page. Let's say I'm speaking to a group of parents of educators I would say "Jot down this website eyjosh.com" and heyjosh.com is just a squeeze page and it has a bribe that is relevant to that audience. Then I know, firstly, what sort of individual I'm talking to, so heyjosh.com is a parent or an educator, so I know what would add value to them, I know what they will eventually be interested in buying, and when I did this strategy, as opposed to just blurting out my website with all the distraction, buttons and, as you said, great videos that you can watch, it increased my opt ins by 300%. By giving them a very specific, focused site where it's either opt in or go away, that increased conversions. People aren't going to go to that page, particularly when you're sharing it at a speaking even or a media appearance, unless you've already given them value and they're thinking "This guy is interesting,he seems to know what he's talking about. I'd like to get some of his stuff."

Jaime:If they just go to your website they might go "Oh, that's cool," and leave and never come back again and there's no way to contact them even if they loved your stuff.

Josh: Precisely. I've made so many mistakes back in the day I would make regular appearances on this show called Total Request Live.

Jaime:People that are old enough will have heard of it.

Josh: It was so much fun live studio audience and I would give practical and funny advice to kids. Every time, after I did an appearance, I would have tons of traffic to my website but I had no opt ins, certainly no focused opt in, and absolutely no way to add more value to these kids? lives or to get them to buy my book eventually. So all of that was good for my ego but a terrible missed opportunity for my business. Again, that's why the heart of everything that I do is focused towards building the e-mail list because when you're a speaker you're borrowing someone else's stage. If a high school says "Come and speak to our 1000 students" I'm borrowing their stage, which means I have one chance to make an impact, one chance to make some income, and then it's over. But by building your own platform, your e-mail list, now I can step out onto my "stage" at any given time and talk to an audience of over 200,000 kids and parents.

Jaime: Which is extremely impressive. I know you've built that over time. Do you mind me asking what you use for your e-mail software? You probably have a higher level one but what sort of things do you have set up?

Josh: I use Infusionsoft. If you're a beginner or selling less than $100,000 per year in online products, don't use it, it's too complex, you don't need it to start off and it's too expensive, which will be discouraging to you. You're not going to make your ROI back as soon as you need to. Back when I was starting, so if you're selling up to $100,000 per year, I used AWeber plus 1ShoppingCart. Regardless of what your e-mail program is, my number one thing is to have the ability to do auto follow-upsequences. If someone gets on your parent e-mail list they should immediately be sent your eBook and three days later they're sent one of your videos, then another three days later another video, and fifteen days later "Hey, buy this thing."

Jaime:I completely agree. I was using AWeber and 1ShoppingCart and I just signed up for Infusionsoft last week. I know there's a huge learning curve and it's going to suck for a while but in the long term it will work better.

Josh: When I first signed up there was certainly a dip. I thought "My gosh, what have I done? This was an enormous mistake," but it's worth it. Putting those systems in place is so terrible, so frustrating, but, looking back, so, so worth it.

Jaime:Just like what we were talking about before you have to do the crappy stuff in order to have the other side of it.

Josh: You've got to find a nerd or hire a nerd.

Jaime:I'm a geek! I'm planning on hiring someone anyway but I'm a geek and I still had a problem with it. I'm really looking forward to what it can do because it's very powerful, that's the point. You've been doing this for a long time and right now everybody, especially online marketers, talk about "it's in the list". Everything is about the list. Do you have any tips or advice for us that you've learned as you've gone through this? Ways to make an auto-responder better or copy tips? Anything that you've found, especially in your niche, that might be helpful to someone.

Josh: Let me start by saying that there are certainly things that I could improve with my own list, opt in sequence and follow up sequence, but there are a few things I can share. Number one, the more you can segment your audience, the better.My tagline for everything that I do is "Helping adults understand teens and teens understand themselves." So everyone I'm communicating to falls into some category within that parents and educators are influencing teens, speakers are influencing teens, teens have to figure themselves out and lead themselves through a frustrating and difficult time. I used to have all those folks on one e-mail list but a 15 year old has different frustrations, wants and needs than a 42 year old lady in Kansas City who has a teenager who was once a great kid but now he's pushing the boundaries and she's freaking out. So the more you can segment your list the better because then you can speak directly to their needs and you can really imagine then when you're writing your e-mail or filming your video. As an example, I'm launching this thing later this month called "A Year of Awesomeness" and it's an online mentoring program for teens. Every week they'll get a new practical video that's life skill based - how to regain your parents? trust, those kind of things. When I'm filming a video for that, for example, I try to think about who I'm talking to, so I think about my 15 year old godson, Isaiah. He's my target audience so I put a picture of him below the camera so that when I'm filming that video I'm not talking to me, I'm not talking to parents, I'm not talking to fellow speakers I'm talking to Isaiah and kids like him. Deep down they're good kids but they're confused and frustrated; they're making some stupid choices, they're making some great choices. Regardless of who your e-mail or video is for, really think about who that person is. It's not a speech it's not one person to 500, it's one person to one person times 500. I'm having a one on one conversation with you via e-mail or video, it's not "Hey, how is everybody doing today? Great to see you!"

Jaime:I love your rendition of yourself doing a speech!

Josh: Realizing that you've having a one on one conversation times 500 is an important thing. Secondly, as far as your copy goes, authenticity trumps everything. Back in the day I was trying to be Zig Ziglar, because I was terrified of being young and not being taken seriously so I wore a suit and I tried to talk like Zig Ziglar and be him and it was terrible. Everyone knew it but no one had the guts to tell me. The more authentic you can be the more your audience is going to relate to it. For me, I like to be goofy, I like to be sarcastic, but I also like to be serious and give practical advice so that's going to be the tone of my e-mails and videos. When you're writing these e-mails and videos think, if you were taking that person out to lunch, how would you talk to them? I remember thinking that if I had a niece and she was dating some jerk and I was going to take her to Starbucks to talk to her about it, how would I do it? I wouldn't put on a suit and try to be something that I'm not, I would ask her what's going on and I'd make fun of her and the situation a little bit to try to loosen her up, but at some point I'd get in her face and say "Look, you're better than this. You're better than this guy. Cut the crap you need to realize that you're better than this and you need to get away from him." So think about that person you're e-mailing or making a video for if you were taking them out to lunch, how would you talk to them? What would you say to them? Do that. Most of us, and I know I struggle with this, as a person, we're fine and interesting and dynamic and compelling but the minute you sit down to write an e-mail or put a video camera in front of yourself you become this stale, boring person and everything about you that's compelling and interesting goes away because you're fearful that your tone, your message, your delivery isn't good enough but it is! I'm not just trying to be a motivational speaker here honestly, it is. So really embrace your awkwardness and awesomeness and communicate like that.

Jaime:That humanity, that realness, and also, like you were saying before, having that connection. It's harder to build a connection on words on a piece of paper than it is in person, but you can do it, and I think that's a huge piece that you've probably done which is why you have 200,000 on your e-mail list, still, because they can unsubscribe at any time but they don't.

Josh: Exactly. Another great, quick tip that I've learned is that, from time to time, if you don't know what to write or send out, just go to surveymonkey.com, do a survey and ask your list. Make the survey as short as possible; I would suggest no more than three questions, but just ask them, very simply "I want to add value to your life what would help you." Maybe give them a few ideas and then a fill in the blank category. "Do you want stuff about how to get your kid to listen to you? How to set appropriate boundaries? How to deal with bullying? Or other?" and let them tell you. The truth is, your idea doesn't matter unless they think it's a good idea. You're not there to serve yourself, you're there to serveyour audience, so don't be bashful about asking them what it is that they would like, both for free content and paid content. "I'm thinking about creating a webinar on one of these three topics which of these would be beneficial for you and which would you buy and attend?" Ask them.

Jaime:I love that especially for your niche, specifically, because you?re not a teenager anymore, so if it's something to do with that you really need to get the feedback. A lot of people don't realize that they are not their ideal audience most of the time. If you're the expert, you are not where they are even if you were before. It's hard to remember back to when you were a teenage and exactly what you were thinking and feeling and needed at that time.

Josh: Your example of not being a teenager is relevant. I have speakers that I serve, the Youth Speaker University,but they're usually beginner to intermediate speakers, which I am not anymore and it's sometimes hard to remember what was really stressing me out at that time. Even if you're a few steps ahead of your audience, which you should be challenging yourself to be, it's still important to ask them what they need because what is a no-brainer to you is terrifying to them. It should be helpful and comforting to know that you don't always have to give super advanced stuff it's often the beginner stuff that is blocking someone from pursuing their dream.

Jaime:I love that. I made a note to do a survey recently too, because that keeps coming up over and over again. Thank you for that.

Josh: It shows them that you really mean it; that you give a crap that you're not just writing stuff or sending stuff out for your ego, but rather to serve them and help them. If you do so, and you're thoughtful about the way that you sell, you're going to be able to sell your stuff. 90% of your e-mail list is never going to buy anything from you and who cares? It doesn't matter. It's that other 10% that will fund everything else and make it worth it. I would challenge you to put as much time and thought and investment into the free stuff that you create as the paid stuff that you create, because if the free stuff is great, people will go "I can't imagine what the paid thing is going to be like, because I got so much value from this."

Jaime:We're so lucky to live in a world now where you can send an e-mail and it touches both people who do want to pay and people who don't and there's no difference in terms of how much you have to give, which is an amazing thing. Give as much as you possibly can, no matter whether they buy from you.

Josh: Some people are scared to give out their best stuff, because that's the thing that people are going to buy, but really, by putting out your best stuff, you are proving to them in advance that you are worthy of their investment.

Jaime:And that's why they'll throw over some money, so they can get some of that investment back, because they trust you, which is one of the things you were talking about before. I could chat to you for too long but we have to wrap up so I'm going to ask the same last question that I always do what's one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of $1 million?

Josh: I would say find a mentor who is a millionaire or has achieved whatever end desire that you want. Be thoughtful and spend money to earn their trust and then I would encourage you to meet with them weekly or monthly, ask them how you can improve what you're doing, go out and implement it, show them that you've tried what they said, and rinse and repeat. Inspiration doesn't change your life someone may be watching this interview and going - I want to be a speaker or a writer too? and be inspired by the things you and I have talked about, but this interview isn't going to change their life. we can't interact with you, we can't hold you accountable, we don't know your blind spots, we don't know your strengths and weaknesses - you've got to have someone in your life who can do that, who can help you by encouraging you on your weaknesses and point out your strengths. I think that's what it is - inspiration doesn't change your life, it's week in, week out, fine tuning, honing that changes your life. having someone that has the wisdom of having gone through what you want to accomplish say "Here's what I did great and here's what I did terribly that I would do differently" could take that ten years that it takes to become an overnight success and, in the best case, accelerate it to seven. If you have the right mentor and the guts to do what they say, it will accelerate your success.

Jaime: I love that. I agree 110%. The journey is the thing that is the hardest but that's what we need help with, definitely.

Josh: Most people want the reward but not the risk. Any amount of success comes with a lot of "This sucks!" So just know that going into it. Otherwise everyone would be a millionaire because it's something shiny and sounds fun. By the way, it won't make you happy I'm no more happy now than I was when I had no money - but it does give you leverage, it does allow you to serve more, to give more, to accelerate your projects quicker, but it's not going to make you happy.

Jaime:It's not an easy button that makes everything go away.

Josh: Exactly.

Jaime:We talk about that a lot on this show. It's all about building something based on what you love and enjoy doing. That's why it's called Eventual Millionaire - it doesn't really matter how long it takes, as long as you're enjoying it, but that goal is still there because why not?

Josh: Exactly. I came from no money, no wealth, no education basically all my parents gave me was a name - and if I can do it slowly, difficultly, painfully, you can as well. You're just going to have to discipline yourself and do whaat you have to do to get what you want to get. If you want something different, you have to implement different disciplines in your life - meaning you're going to have to go and find a mentor and the first dozen people you request it from are going to say no. you're going to have to hone your ask and hone your approach and then, eventually, that will happen. Just realize that it is possible and realize it's going to take a lot of courage.

Jaime:Where can we find more information about you online?

Josh: I would suggest that you go to the main site.

Jaime:I was going to say which squeeze page are you going to give us?

Josh: JoshShipp.com is general. If you're someone who is interested in being a speaker or an author or something, I don't necessarily train people in the corporate space but if you're interested in working with youth, families or colleges, that site is youthspeakeruniversity.com.

Jaime:Beautiful. So everybody sign up for his e-mail list, because we know how important that is. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Josh. I really appreciate it.

Josh: My pleasure. Thank you so much. Take care.

Jaime:I hope you enjoyed that interview with Josh. He has an incredible story and I hope you thought so too. I know a few of you are following this story my book is finished. It's not coming out until February but you can check it out on Amazon if you look up "The Eventual Millionaire." Feel free to preorder it, I won't be pushing it until later, but I just want to thank each and every one of you I had a whole insiders group that was helping me edit the book and make it better. Josh was part of it, along with some of the other amazing millionaires that you've listened to. It's a really condensed version of everything that I've learned from over 100 millionaire interviews. I hope you enjoy that and I just want to say thank you because I would never have had this opportunity if it wasn't for you guys. So thank you so much. I hope you have an amazing day. Take care.

Announcer: Thanks for listening. You can find out more great information like this on EventualMillionaire.com.

Tags: bootstraps, Focus, josh shipp, millionaire interview, Mindset, Motivation, Personal Value, productivity, Self-Esteem, Work Life Balance

Categories: All, Business, Business Model, Entrepreneurship, Mentors and Mastermind, Millionaire Interviews

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

Learn More