Unlock the synergy of creativity and entrepreneurship with Roberto Blake, the creative powerhouse and YouTube wizard, in our latest conversation from POD Fest in Orlando. Roberto shares a treasure trove of wisdom on thriving in business with a lean approach to content production, punctuated by tales of his travels and the influence of Atlanta on his career trajectory. His candid revelations about overcoming pandemic-induced struggles, prioritizing mental health, and the unwavering support of family paint a vivid picture of a man who embodies resilience and the art of balancing life's many facets for ultimate success.
This episode goes beyond the surface, as we explore the life-altering power of mentorship and the importance of leaving a lasting legacy. I open up about the transformative role a support system plays in fostering resilience amidst life's challenges, like bullying, and the critical need for a sanctuary that nurtures confidence, particularly for youth. Roberto and I delve into the immigrant narrative, honoring the sacrifices of our forebears, and the imperative of integrity in our creations. We dissect the necessity of teaching life skills that empower and enable personal and professional flourishing, setting the stage for a journey of impactful growth.
We wrap up with an introspective look into the essence of self-awareness and the mastery of time management when making the leap to self-employment. I share reflections on the authenticity required to navigate one's true path and the strategic wisdom gleaned from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" in understanding one's strengths and limitations. With the introduction of the TIME acronym as a success compass, this episode equips you with the tools to elevate your life strategy, ensuring you command your time, invest wisely, and harness experience for a competitive edge in whatever you pursue. Join us on this enlightening journey as we traverse identity, empathy, and perception, aiming for a fulfilled life with minimal regrets.
Unlock the synergy of creativity and entrepreneurship with Roberto Blake, the creative powerhouse and YouTube wizard, in our latest conversation from POD Fest in Orlando. Roberto shares a treasure trove of wisdom on thriving in business with a lean approach to content production, punctuated by tales of his travels and the influence of Atlanta on his career trajectory. His candid revelations about overcoming pandemic-induced struggles, prioritizing mental health, and the unwavering support of family paint a vivid picture of a man who embodies resilience and the art of balancing life's many facets for ultimate success.
This episode goes beyond the surface, as we explore the life-altering power of mentorship and the importance of leaving a lasting legacy. I open up about the transformative role a support system plays in fostering resilience amidst life's challenges, like bullying, and the critical need for a sanctuary that nurtures confidence, particularly for youth. Roberto and I delve into the immigrant narrative, honoring the sacrifices of our forebears, and the imperative of integrity in our creations. We dissect the necessity of teaching life skills that empower and enable personal and professional flourishing, setting the stage for a journey of impactful growth.
We wrap up with an introspective look into the essence of self-awareness and the mastery of time management when making the leap to self-employment. I share reflections on the authenticity required to navigate one's true path and the strategic wisdom gleaned from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" in understanding one's strengths and limitations. With the introduction of the TIME acronym as a success compass, this episode equips you with the tools to elevate your life strategy, ensuring you command your time, invest wisely, and harness experience for a competitive edge in whatever you pursue. Join us on this enlightening journey as we traverse identity, empathy, and perception, aiming for a fulfilled life with minimal regrets.
Hello and welcome back to the Lil Mel One Filter podcast. I'm your host, charlie Shaw, and I'm delighted to have you join us again for another captivating episode. Today we have a special guest and an inspiring topic lined up to motivate and uplift you. Your ongoing engagement and commitment to our show means the world to us. We truly appreciate the time you spend with us each week and we're thrilled to have you here once again. Without further ado, let's dive into this week's show and embark on a journey of inspiration and discovery together.
Speaker 2:Hey, good morning. This is Charlie Shaw, host of Lil Mel podcast show. I'm reporting from the POT Fest in Orlando, florida. They're holding a conference this weekend and I have the privilege of interviewing Mr Roberto Blake. Mr Roberto Blake is a well-known creative entrepreneur, youtube certified educator, keynote speaker and content creator. He's been in the game for over a decade now. He has 600,000 followers on YouTube and over 700 and all his other platforms. Let's give a warm welcome to Mr Blake. Thank you for having me, charlie, all right, hey, no, thank you for taking my interview. I sat in on your class yesterday, man, and I was listening to you and you were mixing business with pleasure and all I can hear was professionalism and your voice, and I was looking at everybody that was sitting in on your show. I just can't believe how you had everybody's attention. Everybody was really listening to you, taking in the content, writing, writing, taking notes, visualizing, basically visualizing themselves being you one day. So tell us you have. You do educational products. You hold some almost daily shows.
Speaker 3:I did. I've been doing YouTube daily for maybe almost three years. On YouTube, that ramped down. I found a way to become efficient and up to where I didn't need to do daily. I could get the same results with only doing 150 uploads a year. Then I was also doing other things. I was traveling basically every month for a while doing a speaking engagement. So that ramped things down a little bit. So I was doing that route through 2019. When the pandemic happened actually slowed down a lot of my content. I focused more on a combination of trying to find some balance between business and mental health during the pandemic Went a little stir crazy actually, right?
Speaker 3:I think, all of us did. I ended up with deep pandemic depression, but I worked through it, overcame it and I bounced back, but I was also able to maintain my business doing it, because what I did was I ramped down content creation. I focused on my customers and my coaching clients and the students in the Austin Crater Academy pro group that I run. My focusing on that, focusing on doing some back end work for brands and sponsors, I was actually able to have the best years of my business during the pandemic. The caveat to that was I also had the worst years of my mental health since becoming an entrepreneur. Right, I hadn't had such bad mental health since my days as an employee.
Speaker 3:During that time, let me ask you, you were operating on New York, right? No, I lived in New York. I worked in New York for a time. I was born in Brooklyn, but my family was military. I told you, my father was a Marine. Yeah, that's what we were Master of Marine, sergeant E9. Right, so we moved all over the country.
Speaker 3:So I've moved all over the country and now I've traveled to almost all 50 states in my lifetime, which has been tremendous. There's still a couple I have to hit up Hawaii, alaska, obviously Right, but I've met people from all walks of life, every culture you can imagine in this country. It's been great, but I operate out of Atlanta, georgia. I spent a lot of time in Georgia as a kid. We did two different duty stations when I was a kid in Georgia and I was constantly coming back to Georgia for business and events. The airport at Hartfield Jackson is the biggest in the country. It is the best in the country as far as I'm concerned, and it's a one stop international hub too. So I jokingly tell people I moved to Atlanta, georgia for the airport, but it's kind of true for as much travel, as I was doing before the pandemic, but no, it's been great.
Speaker 3:You have city when you need it. I live in the suburbs, I live right outside the perimeter, so I have downtown Metro Atlanta for business. I have a wee workout of there that I go to. So I'm in the Ponce area. Ponce area yeah, it's great. Great artistic community, great food, great culture, great aesthetics for photography and video. There you go. So me and my brother are shooting a lot of footage out there now because we're doing some kind of more walking and talking videos, not just up in my studio anymore. There you go. Then I have my home office studio in Atlanta. I bought a house two years ago Congratulations on that, thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, bought that with. What I did from concentration Changed my whole family's life. I retired my mother. She's elderly, she's diabetic, she has some issues. I was able to do her surgery for her cataracts. She was going blind and because of what I built, I was able to save my mother's vision.
Speaker 2:There it is man, and that's a beautiful thing when you can help a family. Yeah, so it's like that you're making this a family affair. You're bringing in your brother with with the video and you also have my sister also works for me.
Speaker 3:She works on the coaching side of the business. She does admin work and coach for the business. She was one of my first hires and one of my best hires. One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life was hiring my sister. Now I feel that my brother's maturing. We have a 10 year age difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well you know, I'm like asking people age, but so so I'm turning 40 this year.
Speaker 3:I'm turning 40 this year Congratulations. But I have a metabolic age. My fitness is so good. I have a metabolic age of 35 in my fitness house.
Speaker 2:My man, we're going to repound that out right now. There you go, you know I'm doing good.
Speaker 3:Like you know, I'm only five eight, but I'm like five eight, I'm still in fantastic shape. Yeah, I'm 16% body fat. I'm going to get under 15 because you know I'm taking off the pandemic pounds, you know, and I'm actually at the highest muscle mass and protein I've ever been in my life. So I'm like I'm going to be in my in my. I was a track and cross country runner when I was in high school. I was a champion, actually track and cross country I was. I did a 515 mile almost broke apartment miles, my one of my cigarettes 1818, 5k run 1026, 2 mile. Yes, I still have my stats memorized and everything.
Speaker 2:So they could check your receipts.
Speaker 3:is what you say, I was a monster back in my prime in my track and cross country day, so maintaining fitness has always been important to me. My father was a Marine. I used the military PT standard when I was a teenager for my workout of what I had all the rain would have to do, so I set myself that standard and what I learned from my parents.
Speaker 3:My mother was a nurse and Eventually an administrator back when she had her career, aside from the years she spent as a stay at home Mom. Right, yeah, that was so important for my early development that I had her as my mentor, my Caretaker and my first real teacher, and it gave me a tremendous advantage of life. I would say that the greatest privilege I have and we didn't have a lot of money my father, my mother, was a stay-at-home mom for the majority of my childhood. She only, when my parents got divorced, moved into more of her career in nursing administration and then that was a single parent income. Before that we're still kind of a single income family because of my father being in the Marines. He had to work his way up Right when we were, when I was young, he didn't have that prestigious military career yet he was earning his stripes. He was an immigrant who came to this country from Panama my family's from Panama.
Speaker 3:I'm a first-generation American I'm a man.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm gonna tell you one thing I went through the military, went through federal law enforcement, and it is hard for an individual to obtain those rings, yeah. So pass all to your father for instilling those values of hard work and absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, the values that my mother and father gave me. And you know my dad, my dad was a perfect mother.
Speaker 1:There's no lot both right the.
Speaker 3:They were perfect, they'd have a perfect marriage, but I still feel that they perfectly parented me. This was. I got the best and worst and I learned to take the best and to work on Myself to shed the worst of the things that I inherited from. So the rigid discipline from having I mean, you know my mother was a nurse is still disciplined. That's Administrative, but it's also empathy, it's thoughtfulness, it's detail, it's meticulousness, because you play for real stakes. You play, you know, for keeps, for keeps, and the same thing with my father. So, being an immigrant family, having professional parents, having such a Focus on learning and education beyond what you learn in the classroom, and having my mother's presence, you know, especially with my father deploying so much and also him doing so much side work to make extra money for us, because he also did mechanic work on all you know.
Speaker 3:You know, having that meant the world to me and it made all the difference in who I became and it shaped my personality, my temperament and my values and I will always be grateful for that. I think the most, the greatest privilege you can have is To have both of your parents in your life for as long as you can. That's not always the case. You lose them sometimes or things don't work out, marriage is fall apart. But for me and my siblings I think that we got the best hand that we could have possibly been dealt with my eyes Right and it doesn't mean that it was a perfect hand.
Speaker 2:Oh, and you know what? I'm glad that you're speaking on a lot of the topics that you brought up Same focus, taking care of your health, taking care of yourself both mentally and physically, monitoring your health, taking care of your family. My listeners want to hear that and I didn't ask you for that. You share that. I appreciate you doing it because that, for me, those values Resonate. I come from the same kind of makeup. However, you know oh, I didn't. You know, I was born here in the States, but our backgrounds are so similar. Yeah, you know, our background is similar to your father's, and what he instilled in you is what I instilled in my family as well. I have two daughters and then I have a whole series of nephews where I think sometimes they get tired of me.
Speaker 3:You know providing advice and all that, but you know I love them, so I'm always going to do that, whether they want to hear it or not, I mean well, they're blessed, they have a great mentor in you and if you're instilling those values and continuing that in the audience and I think it's important I think that a lot of people, the way that they're the most underprivileged is they don't have mentorship, they don't have leadership, they don't have a legacy of knowing how proud they can be of where they come from.
Speaker 3:They're only told the worst version of their history, not the best version of it, and I think that if you trip away that from people, you undermine the foundation of their confidence. My parents made sure that I had a strong foundation for confidence and even though I was bullied, I was ruthlessly after we got off of military bases. We're in the public school system after leaving military bases dealing with a lot of kids, especially kids from underprivileged backgrounds. They beat themselves up by bullying a smart kid and it's especially hard if you're an ethnic immigrant person called but smart kids in general would also in the background, get bullied. But when it feels like okay, why are the people who look like me putting me down? That's an extra level of hurt. And then it's like why is it that I get more support from people like outside of my in group than I do from my in group?
Speaker 3:Now with me, some people have it even worse than that. Some people's own family undermines them. So I didn't have to deal with that. So with my family I had at least had that strong foundation of support and with my dad it was always hard to tell when I was being supported because of his own background, growing up much harder, much more privileged in a poor country and everything he went through as an immigrant in this country, coming here as a teenager. But when I was able to grow up, going to my little public background, look back in my own career, as he always told me. Like you may not always like it, but you'll understand.
Speaker 2:You'll understand later.
Speaker 3:And you know, when I started to reach ages where I was reflecting on, like, wait, I'm older than my father was.
Speaker 3:At this stage, love, this stage, love, let me re-litigate how I feel about things he said or did or how things were, and then I go okay, now I'm older than he was in those situations, I understand that, I have more empathy, I have more respect, I have more gratitude and it's like, and it doesn't, you know, it's not always a forgiving congethion, but I could put it in its proper place and see, okay, he was doing the best he could and knew how to do with what he had where he was, and I could appreciate that more and that helps you with your mental health, that helps you with healing and that helps you also decide how you're going to move in the world, how you're going to teach your mentor and how you're going to lead people.
Speaker 3:And I'm going to bring back to this whole thing with the bullying in high school, because I think it's important for some of your listeners, especially if they have kids, right, is that it's so important to make sure your kids feel good about who they are and they feel safe in their own home and feel safe with you to be themselves when they're not getting the support they need from everyone else. They need to know that their family has their back.
Speaker 2:They have to have a safe, safe place, exactly.
Speaker 3:And safe people, and safe people. And they have to know that, come hell or high water, you have their back. Yeah. I like that Always, for example, my mom was my safe space. I knew I could always go to my mother and that she would believe in me or she would have my back. And that she also knew that she raised a son that would honor her and would never make a fool of her, that if she goes to war for me, I won't make her look like a fool.
Speaker 2:That's it and you know young people need to understand that. Older people need to understand that, because not only, not only with young people, we support older people as well. And when you go to back somebody, whether it's against whatever the case may be financial, whatever you want to know that they gave their all and they're not lying to you. Exactly, you're here to support them. Don't play with me with trying to get over. You know, get over on me.
Speaker 3:I'm here helping Well, that's what I bring to the business side. Like, even with content creation, it was the integrity Right and that's what a lot of people value in me and why I have you know. A following is that I don't have the. I'm not a viral content creator.
Speaker 3:No, you're not my basis is in, and my basis has always been in, education, helping people develop skills, learning how, then, to put themselves forward in the world, what I call building a personal brand, right. So I give you right here, foundational skills and you could apply these, whether you're doing a job, which I did, freelancing, which I did, or building a business, which I did. So the thing is you can go through the trifecta of basically apprentice, which is basically being an employee, right, and this is, I think, the view careers. By the way, when you're a 95 employee, I do that as your apprenticeship.
Speaker 3:That's your opportunity to learn, whether you like it or not, and you should be looking to people above you in your industry and in your career, profession, and you should make yourself their apprentice, whether they like it or not. You should learn all their secrets, learn their origin, learn their history, learn their values, take the best, leave the worst behind. You should be their apprentice, whether they like it or not, and then, if you gain enough skill, you have the option to go your own way and go into the market. That means being a freelancer, maybe being a consultant, maybe being a developer, being an independent contractor of some time, being a tradesperson. So that's your journeyman experience Going out into the world, finding your own way, building your bones and building a reputation that belongs to no one else. And then you can move into your mastery, and that's with entrepreneurship, and that's where you're now a leader and you're building other people up in your employing, training, teaching and passing on and building a legacy.
Speaker 2:Well, let me segue into that, because you brought up a very good point. I did a little background on you. You were an entrepreneur before you were a teenager. You started, your grandmother put a computer in the home and you went at it. Yes, Listen, you want to hear something? I was in the computers when I was in high school and that was back in the 80s, and you wanted no reason why I got away from it. It's because other kids were looking at me like a little nerd and it was cooler to be cool than to learn.
Speaker 3:I took my lumps, I got beat up at the bus stop, I got bullied and girls who even liked me turned sideways because they didn't want to lose the social status by being my friend or being my girlfriend and everything. Oh, but like yeah, no, I'll make out with you under the bleachers, but I'm not going to claim you.
Speaker 2:So yeah Well, I'm proud of you for being brave. I took my lumps.
Speaker 3:I took my lumps, so I'm like no, I'm not going to compromise. See, that's the other thing. My parents could trust me not to be peer pressure. I went through my whole high school career even to this day, I've never smoked a cigarette, right, I've never smoked a joint. And the thing is, you know, we have a different culture, you know, as Caribbean Latinos, on the drinking thing, right. So like I wasn't going to go out and go crazy or get drunk as a teenager or even as an adult.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they made alcohol, not some wonderful taboo that made it seductive. No-transcript. I would roll my eyes at, like you know, the other kids who, like, thought that drinking was special. I was like it's not special and you're not cool.
Speaker 3:So like my parents could trust me because they were honest with me. They had rackle candor, they had standards for me. They expected great things from me. Yes, it's a lot of pressure, but I knew who I was and I wasn't going to change who I was or value. We weren't compromising. Yeah, no, I wasn't going to be compromising and yes, there's a price to be paid for that to some degree in terms of being accepted and likable. But what it is is I narrowed myself to the circle of people who would accept me as I was and take me as I was, but also would also make me better people who would make me better, and that was crucial. It's better to be liked for exactly who you are by a handful of people than for people to fall in love. The mass is to fall in love with a facade, falling in love with a fake version of you that you have contempt for. That's serious.
Speaker 2:You know, that's basically what. That's basically. What I'm producing a show is that I want people to instill those values in them, the values that they already have, but they just just need to bring it to the surface. The confidence that they have in themselves. They need to bring it to the surface, the ideals that they have. They may bring it to the surface. Don't compromise for anybody. The world will play tricks on you. If you allow it to play tricks on you. The world will tell you, oh, you're not good enough for that, when you know you are. This is brand new to me. What I'm doing right here is brand new. And you took the time out. It took a lot for me to go up there and grab you. All that will get your attention, you know, through that crowd and ask you to do this.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, well, I definitely appreciate that and you know.
Speaker 3:I mean, if I have a regret in life, it's the times I didn't have the courage to go after the things I want, the times I didn't have the courage to speak up for myself or to stand up for myself, fueling for them. Between that, those might be. I still carry to some degree those regrets and think, well, what if? And so I would tell you that, yeah, I'm all about limiting and mitigating risk, but I love what the Jeff Bezos says, that a life well lived, in a life well lived, you won't prioritize, just mitigating risk, you'll mitigate or minimize the amount of regrets you have. Now, again, mine are probably a pocket full of people care around a backpack. We don't know what another person holds. That's why it's important to have empathy.
Speaker 3:That's why, with my mom. The one of the strongest values she gave me was empathy, compassion, understanding, intellectual curiosity. What I didn't understand when I was younger, though, is I had to temper that with discernment, judgment and accountability for holding other people accountable, and because, otherwise, your empathy is weaponized and you become a doormat right, and people feel they have a license to abuse you. And then, when they were bounders across one too many times and you decide enough is enough, oh, they don't like it then, but the problem is with you. At that point, if you're me, you've bottled up all these emotions, you've bottled up all this resentment, this anger, and the thing is, then it's the straw that breaks the camel's back, and then you have an overreaction to the disrespect or to the abuse, and it's disproportionate. And so now you're out of balance, because now you think you're balancing karmic justice, because you have genuine, righteous anger, but actually you're taking it too far, and now you're creating another imbalance yourself.
Speaker 2:Well, sometimes, let me say it, sometimes it can be perceived as an angry black man.
Speaker 3:right, I'm gonna guess that far there is that aspect, but I think it can be for anybody. I mean a primary example. Well, just in our case, for example with, like my mother or my sisters, for example, the angry woman in general in general the angry woman.
Speaker 3:And the thing is there's a disproportionate consequence to being perceived as an angry woman. There's a disproportionate consequence to being perceived as an angry black man. But there's also a disproportionate consequence of seeming angry and entitled. If you're somebody else, for example, if you're not like an ethnic minority, for example, you could be genuinely wronged and agreed, but then people might just see you as the angry white man.
Speaker 2:And the thing is.
Speaker 3:But here's the thing what if you just were genuinely agreed? See, that's why I've been very obsessed lately with this concept of I want to know the truth. I don't want to accept the perception as reality. Right, Because what I want to know is the truth. Because you, reality and truth may not be the same thing. Reality as presented can be skewed by perception, but I need to know the story. I need to look underneath the underneath because of like, why did that happen? Why will be the truth? It might be other things boiling, and the thing is, how do you know who's in the right or wrong If you don't know why something is happening? What happens might be reality. Why it happened will be the truth. There you go, there you go.
Speaker 2:And I appreciate you bringing in all of that, Because you know it's not always about about race, or who this person is or who that person is.
Speaker 3:No, it's about the truth.
Speaker 2:It's about the truth and but when I brought up and I'm collecting that thing I was talking more along the lines of what somebody has perception of that particular person that we were we're discussing initially.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I totally get that. I was thinking about something the other day even perception of me. I'm a marketer, I'm a brander. I understand the concept of perception. You know. I had a conversation with you yesterday. I said you know, marketing is a polite way of saying propaganda for money instead of propaganda for goods.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I remember that and I said that a marketer is essentially a behavioral psychologist that actually makes money without academia, right? So I think that that's true, and as marketers, as content creators, as influencers, we deal in perception and we have a reputation, reputation based business. That's part of why we talk about personal branding, right? The thing is, I try to make sure that the perception of me can be as closely aligned to the truth of who I am as possible, and I think that that's also one of the fortunate luxury items of being self employed to a degree. You don't always have that luxury when you're an employee. When you're an employee, you're under the mandate of somebody else's rules. You can find yourself being a yes man or yes woman very quickly, because that could be a matter of survival for you. Yes.
Speaker 2:You know I, like I said, I just retired from the federal government working in law enforcement and I had to follow certain protocols. And I noticed, as soon as I said I want to get into this business, into this world, I was a little apprehensive because now I'm exposing myself, I have to tell the people who I am, I have to let them know what flaws that I have before they figure it out, because you know, the last thing you want to do is be, you know size swipe by somebody with that and you know the conversations that we've been having just in the last what 24 hours it helped me. It helped me identify, it helped me Realize it's okay, not the palm, it's okay to have imperfections because, yes, as long as you acknowledge them, you can. You can get better at what? At those flaws.
Speaker 3:I Consider self-awareness of your weaknesses the ultimate strength. That in the art of war, sun Tzu said something to the equivalent of you know no day enemy. No, they sell. No, that's up, and you know if you don't really know. Some people lack a stunning laugh self-awareness, but they also lack awareness of the world. There's a stunning amount, even in the business, even the current content, creativity, in all of it. There's stunning amount of naivete even I had it going in and people do not realize how powerful they can be right. They also don't understand how many things work for them or how many things work against them, right, but also as powerful as they can be. They also don't understand their vulnerabilities, their risk or where they're exposed, or their weaknesses, and they don't and they don't see their flaws and they don't do enough to correct or comma correct those things or to limit the damage that those things can do and all goes back to risk management.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you should. You should be constantly doing risk management on yourself.
Speaker 3:Well, that's one of the things I constantly actually teach the creators I coach, I teach them about there.
Speaker 2:We do a SWAT analysis your rape with this, with your back analysis.
Speaker 1:So this is opportunity whenever.
Speaker 3:I do a coaching call with people. We go through this one analysis and I compliment them on their strengths, I ask them to help me sort their weaknesses and I get them to admit their weaknesses and acknowledge them to me. They do this usually even in the intake form when they coach with me. The minute someone signs up to coach with me, they get a form that they feel and they tell me man, roberto, before I even coach with you, I got value just filling out this form.
Speaker 3:I would not have asked myself these questions. I gained a deeper understanding of myself from my brand just by thinking harder about this, so that I can come up with an answer, so that I don't feel like I'm wasting your time, right, and so then we get into it. And then we have an agenda and where I go is like I'm gonna show you opportunities you didn't know you have, based on your strengths and based on my awareness of an experience of the market and that you may not have, I'm gonna say, hey, these are these threats that you don't even know, lurk in the shadows for you, based on your niche, based on the industry, based on the current State of things. And are I here? Are the things we can do to Benefiting for you to extract more value from your strengths. Here's how we're gonna show up your weaknesses.
Speaker 3:We're gonna, in some cases where we deal with weaknesses, we're gonna have to be delegate some of these to the other people. Can we automate some of these things to give us more time to play to our strengths? What can we eliminate? Some of the risk, harm and things that we're exposed to. So we delegate, automate, eliminate. Now I also add another things, this that called duplicate. So, in duplicate, how can I duplicate my previous successes? How can I duplicate the things that I've done very well and that comes to building systems, protocols and templates?
Speaker 3:Right so we have a. Okay, we're gonna build a system so that I can duplicate the results of the things that produce the best outcome for me. We're going to speed up everything I do by having templates that allow me to modify Shortcuts. Templates, plugins, all these things are gonna, like you know, we're gonna optimize right and so that becomes incredibly Powerful for a lot of people because now they have this abundance of time.
Speaker 3:Time freedom is the biggest gap between successful people. We don't all have the same 24 hours a day. We kind of do, but what I mean by this is we all have 24 hours in a day. We all don't have the luxury of allocating them efficient to it, whether we want to or not. So how can we create more time freedom? You have to look at what can I do, and this is where systems, protocols and templates going to place. How can I optimize my life Right so that I now have, of that 24 hours, the best method for allocating my time portfolio? People sit there and they think that they have a lack of resources holding them back. I promise you the biggest thing holding the back is a lack of time free.
Speaker 3:It's not themselves, it's time free.
Speaker 3:Okay, and time freedom is starts the beginning of this other equation that I teach creators, and it's an acronym called time, time freedom, investment capital, manpower, experience, expertise and education.
Speaker 3:So the thing is, if you lack time and freedom, you can't compete with someone who does. If you lack investment capital, you don't have the capacity to buy back your time or to buy other people's time and manpower, their specialization, their expertise. And then if you lack experience, even if you had an abundance of time, you wouldn't use it effectively or efficiently anyway. Even if you had an abundance of resources, you wouldn't use it effectively or efficiently Anyway. Even if you had manpower and people willing to support you, you wouldn't know how to put them in their best role to serve you in the first place. So that's why you have to develop your expertise and gain education. Funny thing is, you can shortcut expertise and education by having a mentor, and also by educating yourself with mentors from afar, through books, coming to conferences and events and asking direct questions that are specialized to you, because go to events and get multiple people oh, this is like fire holes here. Exactly, multiple people to tell you only about your own situation Right.
Speaker 3:When people go. Why do I do free content? Oh, free content is the best. Free content I can get everything I need. I don't need coaching, I don't need co-sus, I don't need cohorts, I don't need conferences, I got free internet content. That's public school, my friend. If education that was free was the best, it's going to be. Why is it that free education, even in our public school system, doesn't produce the best outcome in results? You know who wins People who are already smart win in free education. Now, people who know let me get a tutor on top of the free education, the kids who are a tutor. That's like hiring a coach.
Speaker 3:Those kids win the kids in athletics that get a coach, get a mentor, they win. Yeah, okay, the kids in private school have more specialized attention. That's the same as going into a cohort or a group or a mastermind they win. Kids who join clubs, kids who join secret societies of like-minded people they disproportionately get the best outcome.
Speaker 3:Even in corporate America, the people who belong to an organization beyond the company, the people who are part of a smaller overall network, a small consolidated network of like-minded people, they always have a disproportionate advantage of people who only deal in what is publicly available. So, public versus private, private always has the leverage, so you always put yourself in a position to be behind the paywall, whatever it takes, because that is where leverage exists, and it exists in specialized information that's only useful to you, right? It also has a network effect, because it's not just about the nepotism of the network you should leverage that Right but it's about the fact that these people in themselves are a resource, because they will also motivate you just by their sheer proximity. They're investing, even when they're not. Proximity is power, even when they're not.
Speaker 3:You can see now them in a moment that other people in the public aren't seeing, and you can sit there and you go. You can be motivated and inspired by that or you can glean something from that. It's because now you see the work that people don't when they're watching. You see also when the mask slips and now you understand how people like that might move and you understand when it can work for you and against you, because proximity is power. So when you move out of the public that's publicly available, you start to get into these smaller, smaller communities. You now have a proximity now to differentiate yourself from the masses, because the masses aren't winning. So get into smaller groups and smaller pools of people.
Speaker 3:Even in, even in public school, the kids who win study groups, study groups, study groups are mastermind Right. Even if you don't pay for someone else's mastermind, what people should be doing is finding like-minded people like them that are hungry, ambitious, motivated, reliable, of good character, but still hungry, yes, and are ruthlessly focused with their time. Ruthless with your time is one of the best things you can do, right. Be ruthless with your time, generous with your excess and be thoughtful and consistent in your character. Those would be three very easy rules for success.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us for this episode of Lil Mel on Filter Podcast. We hope you found today's discussion inspiring and thought-provoking. Your ongoing support and engagement are incredibly valuable to us and we appreciate the time you spent with us. Remember to stay connected with us on social media and share your thoughts and feedback. Your input helps us continue to improve and deliver content that resonates with you. As we conclude today's episode, we want to extend our sincere thanks to our special guests for sharing their insight with us and, of course, a big thank you to all of you for being part of our podcast community. Until next time, take care and stay inspired. This is Charlie Shaw signing off, wishing you all the fantastic day ahead. We look forward to having you join us again for our next episode of Lil Mel on Filter. Goodbye for now.