Artificial Intelligence Podcast: ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney and all other AI Tools

SNM239: Keaton Nelson

• Jonathan Green : Bestselling Author, Tropical Island Entrepreneur, 7-Figure Blogger

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Jonathan Green: You can build a marketing empire without relying on your traditional education on today's episode. 

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Announcer: Are you tired of dealing with your boss? Do you feel underpaid and under Appreciated? If you want to make it online, fire your boss and start living your retirement dreams now.

Then you've come to the right place. Welcome to Serve No Master Podcast, where you'll learn how to open new revenue streams and make money while you sleep. 

Presented live from a Tropical island in the South Pacific by best selling author Jonathan Green. Now here's your host. 

Jonathan Green: Today we have a very special guest, Keith Nelson. I'm really excited to spend some time with him. He has an amazing journey. Starting off really just the hardest way you can imagine with no money in his pocket and just out there grinding and showing what's possible when you just put a little bit of sweat equity out there. So I'm really excited to hear about this and I'd love to hear how your journey started to key and I'm so excited to spend some time together.

Keaton Nelson: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on. Where do I start? Right. So, uh, I think two years ago it's a good place. Two and a half years ago, I was working at Red Robin, uh, waiting tables. And, uh, I was, I was going through like my management training. I was, I thought that was gonna be the best way to provide for my family and I'd have a steady salary, couple of weeks of vacation and maybe some health benefits. And, uh, I turned 26 and I had like this, like quarter life crisis and I realized that, well, I asked myself, do I want to do this for the rest of my life? And the answer was clearly no. And then I asked like, do I wanna do it for the next five years?

And I was like, no. I was like, so then why am I doing this? And that kind of led me down a path of like wondering what I should be doing. And I didn't really have an answer. I knew that I was, you know, $50,000 in student loan debt. I went to school for jazz composition. That I, that was gonna pay for, um, for much, you know, and then I, I tried real estate, I tried other online ventures, um, online businesses, and failed at all of them, basically just because I quit, right?

So I ended up praying for like three days straight, like 6, 7, 8 times a day and would say, If you just give me an idea that's gonna provide for my family, pay off the student loan debt and gimme the freedom to do what I want, I promise I won't quit no matter how hard it gets. And then when I succeed, I'll tell everyone that you gave me the idea.

And, uh, that idea was to go manage social media for, for a bunch of different businesses. And yeah, that's how I started. 

Jonathan Green: Really interesting. You know, there's a lot of stuff about college education. How crazy the prices are exploding like the company in America with the most money in the bank right now is Harvard.

They have 54 billion dollars just in cash and a checking account, which is more than Apple, more than Tesla, more than any other company. When you think of the biggest companies in the world, and number two is, I think it's Yale, it's another school. Like the top 10 companies are the most money in the bank or all schools, and yet they charge these really intense, tuitions. Like I thought when I went to school 20 years ago, tuition was high and now it's like three times higher. The numbers are just like constantly accelerating and it's very interesting cuz people go to college, when you think of like jazz composition, that's not a high income career unless you get into, I guess, movie scoring, right?

Like it's really hard to make big money and yet they charge you the same tuition as everyone else, don't they? 

Keaton Nelson: Yep, yep. Exactly. Um, I wouldn't say it's a waste of my time cuz I wanted to be doing it right. Um, but what I realized was that I could have just went to these professors and paid them $60 an hour and asked them to teach me what I wanted to learn instead of, um, learning whatever the curriculum was.

Um, and yeah, I, I wish I went about it that way to get the same education or a better one would've been a lot less expensive. 

Jonathan Green: Yeah. It's just so interesting cuz when you think of most of the great jazz musicians, most great musicians, didn't go to school for it, and yet they're still charging college level tuitions.

I guess it's a lot of things. I've certainly met people who have social media degrees and are not any good at social media, so it is interesting that we all start from that place it's like we start at like zero when we're 18, and then instead of like building up, we're going down and we're like, now we're a little bit behind, a little bit more, a little bit behind it.

Some people are paying off their college tuition in their sixties. I think 1 to 4% of people went to college are still paying that off 40 years later. Like that's a really tough deal. And that's of course people that were paying what the prices were 40 years ago. So I can imagine how it's gonna get going forward.

So you're in this situation where, I guess you're at your breaking point and that's, I think it's a point everyone reaches, isn't it? Where you have to make that decision of whether you're gonna jump or not, because it's not a soft transition to go from the security of a job, right? Yeah. You don't love the job, but you have health insurance, which is like, it's a big thing in America, right?

We're always told like, oh, the benefits are worth more than the job. It's like there's this constant threat that something horrible is gonna happen to you . Like if you don't have in church, you're gonna get hurt. Especially if you have a kid I know that can like double this. I have four kids and so probably 25% of my income goes towards medical bills.

There's just always something when you have lots of kids, and so I know that pressure, so it must have been like a really tough moment. What was that moment like when you go, I have to give up this security for the possibility. That's the trade off. I think most people see it as, even though how many people in the restaurant industry lost their jobs or last few years, turns out security's not that real.

Keaton Nelson: Yeah. Um, that's a great question. And it wasn't, it was a transition. It wasn't like overnight. Right. So what ended up happening is, is beginning of 2022, so I turned, or 2020. So right before the pandemic was like a real big thing. Um, I was working at Red Robin, turned 26 in into January, and then I decided I was gonna go for this thing.

I, uh, played with the idea, started an Instagram account for my business business at the time, right? Having the customers, it was a hobby to post on social media for it and. I finally said, you know what? Screw it. I'm gonna at least give this a real shot and go try and make some sales for this thing. And, um, I, I was broke.

I was dead broke, you know, I, I had 32 bucks in my bank account and I went and spent 27 of those $32 on flyers to say that I'll manage your social media for you. Right? Um, and I printed out about 50 of 'em. It was funny. It didn't even fit on the page, right? It it literally, I printed 'em out and then I had to go home and cut with scissors the edges off of it so it, it looked nice. 

It took me about like two or three hours just to do that. And I, I had a two year, two year old daughter at the time. Uh, now she's five, but, um, I went and I passed those things out to a bunch of businesses and didn't hear anything for a couple days, and I finally got a ring, but I, I thought it was, it was like an out-of-state number. I thought it was like a scam call or a bill collector or something. And, uh, I got the voicemail. 

It was like, Hey, yeah, my manager said, you, you want manage our social media. I, you know, ended up calling him back and he said he had someone that was already doing it for him for X amount of dollars a month, and that he wasn't doing the job that they wanted them to do.

So I said, Hey, I'll do it for less and I'll do everything that they're not doing, plus everything they're doing right now. Pretty easy sale. But what I did was I over delivered, did a great job for him, and that turned into a referral, which turned into another referral. Then just exponentially grew from there.

And I was still waiting tables, uh, I was waiting, I was doing less. Um, and then I stopped working at Red Robin and everything kind of shut down. It was, um, it was Covid, right? I came back, I think at the end of March or something like that when things started to open back up at least a little bit and I was waiting table.

I was at Red Robin in this other place called the Safe House, a little bit higher end, so making a little bit more money. But my business was starting to pick up, I say pick up. It was doing maybe like two, $3,000 a month. Um, but it was nice cause I only had to work a few hours a week to, to manage it and I was making all this money waiting tables.

But what I ended up doing was I was, I was in like the kitchen and I'd go be taking sales calls and calls from my clients out back. And the people I was working for did not like that. And I actually ended up getting fired a couple months down the road and I was like, you know, I could either freak out or, and then go and try and get another job waiting tables, which I certainly could do.

Or I could just take this as, um, my opportunity to go all for it. And at the time, I wasn't making enough money to provide for my family that way, but I said, screw it. I'm gonna do it. And, uh, kind of built the plane on the way down, as they say. Right? 

Jonathan Green: Yeah. Most people wouldn't take the leap at that moment, right?

They wanna wait until they have a buffer or built up. And like that little bit of breathing room. And some people, it's interesting, they have a huge buffer and they still hesitate to take the leap cuz I think there is something unique about people that wanna be in the arena, in on the field, like the one who's in the game, instead of just having the security of someone else make the decisions and you just ride with them as an employee.

So what's interesting, I think most people, the biggest hurdle is zero to one. It's either zero to the first client or zero to the first dollar online because it goes from, I think I can do this to, okay, someone will pay me to do this. It's such a confirmation of belief and the sooner it happens from when you start, like the more like you are to stick around.

As if it takes like six months to get that first client. It's hard to stay the course, took me four days to get my first client. I was posting ads on Craigslist, so very similar idea. It made like a cool flyer that was just a digital flyer and I was just grinding Craigslist and it really worked me cuz I go, people on Craigslist are here to buy.

It's not like research like Google anywhere else. And I just really went well for me. And this of course 10 years before you were doing it, but it's the same ideas that you just have to be willing to put yourself out there a little bit. But it's that the first client, the idea is like, well, I don't really know what's gonna happen.

I don't know what to charge. I don't know what to deliver. And it can be very scary because you're not sure if you're gonna do a good job, cuz you've never done it before. So there is this feeling of like stepping out. What would you say to people that are kind of in that spot where like, oh, I wanna get my first client, but I'm not sure if I can do a good enough job.

Keaton Nelson: Yeah, so I, I always say start before you're ready. I still do this in my business now, right? Like, I'll hire the employee before we can afford them. I'll, um, I'll go and buy a software before we can afford it. I'll go by the office space and the, the hardware, the phones that we need to before we can really support it with our revenue.

Uh, and it, same thing when you're starting, just go ahead and do it, uh, in this. You should pick up the book, the Alchemist. It's really, really good and it is great for anyone who's starting a journey like this. And the reason is, uh, it talks about a, it's a story about a kid who used to be a shepherd and he's discovering his personal journey is, uh, personal destiny, right?

And the idea is that when you make the decision, an actual decision, which by the way decide means to cut off from all other options, um, you make a decision to go up towards your, your personal journey, the universe conspires in your favor. Right? And I love that. And I, I found it to be so true that every single time that I'm pushed against the wall or like I'm afraid that it won't work, that's the time when I know that like I should just give it a shot.

And what I tell myself is what I said in the beginning. If it doesn't work out, at least I know I tried, right? Cause you're gonna end up in the same place either way, or you're gonna end up where you wanna be. 

Jonathan Green: It can be tough when you are in a family situation, like I find that when people are younger, I was lucky enough that I was single. I had no kids, I had no responsibility. So I moved back into my mom's basement for my first year. Then I lived on my friend's couch for my second year in business. But when you have that conversation, when you come home and go, Hey, I just lost my job. I'm gonna go all in on this. What was that conversation like?

Keaton Nelson: Oh, that's good. Yeah. I wanna point out that, um, I did have a two year old daughter. . We were living in a tiny two bedroom, in a crappy part of town. And in April we found out that we, she was pregnant with my second, which is about the time where I lost my job, right? So there was a lot going on here. Um,

I came home and I let her know I lost my job, and I basically said that, if you believe in me, it will pay off . Right? I said, if you just, you stick with me, support me through this, um, it, it's gonna pay off. Right? And I am not sure she was going to school for nursing and waiting tables on the weekends at a breakfast place.

So she wasn't making a ton of money either maybe 200 bucks a week, two 300 bucks a week. Certainly not enough to support a family. Right? Um, and we, she, she really, I, I think I'm very lucky to have this partner and, and that's probably the biggest decisions that people overlook, is the partner that you're gonna spend your time with, you know, for the rest of your life, uh, that person needs to be able to support you and, and you guys have to work together because, I mean, I couldn't have done it without her.

There's another time where, you know, I had to rebuild an entire website because an affiliate was going to send out a message to, um, 80,000 people on their email list, and it was literally like the last, like $300 in my bank account and rent was coming up next week, like, and she said, I was like, listen, I don't know how we're gonna pay rent, but if this thing works, it's gonna work out great.

And um, but this is the situation. And she said, just go and do it. Right? Like, I probably wouldn't have done it if I didn't have her support. Luckily the next day I had like 50 hot leads and people paying me without even getting me on a phone call, which it was a gr it's a, what I say though, universe is conspiring in your favor when you're actually, you're making the decision to make that first step.

Um, so yeah, the conversation was, I, I was lucky, right? I, I don't know if everyone has that partner, but I think it might be a, a flag to look at who you're with and or have a conversation with them. An honest conversation about what, what you're really looking for. 

Jonathan Green: I know a lot of people that on both sides where they have a really supportive partner, like they have this amazing success and when the partners like really, and it depends like how much you either lean towards risk and like the possibility of greatness versus security.

Keaton Nelson: Mm-hmm. , 

Jonathan Green: So I know people who like you know, their partner like says one thing and then they start having kids and it really shifts, which it can happen, right? We all feel that way. I couldn't do the things now that I was doing 10 years ago. I got four kids. It's a whole different ballgame. You know? I would never do, I could never go back.

I can't go back 12 or 13 years in my career. Cause I have so much more responsibility now. There's like school bills and diapers for one kid and other kid needs a new TaeKwonDo uniform. There's always something. So it's very different. But yeah, it can be so critical. I think a lot of people overlook that when they're kind of choosing you know, like they're saying is like the guy marries the first woman who wants, who says yes after he decides he's ready to get married. Like there's that age where it's different for each of us. But it is really important to kind of think about building your business as there's, you do have a partner, you do have your family.

When people rely on you, that the decisions we make to affect them. So that's pretty big. Like to risk the rent money on a big deal. You know, I'm in a situation, my wife doesn't really understand what I do. She knows I go into the office and magic happens. But she wasn't there from the beginning of the journey.

I was already doing this way. So it's a little different, but it can be really trepidatious, especially for people that are thinking about starting it older in life, right? There could be so many elements that are intimidating, like, oh, I have to master every social media platform, every single tool, every technique.

And there's this feeling of like, oh, I have to learn everything if I wanna build an online business. And there are so many different ways to big money online. Say for some reason they're all grouped into the same category. Like everyone who, like a social media person and a drop shipper are not similar other than they, they happen to both use a computer.

And yet we've all, all fall into that same category. And it can be make you feel, oh, I gotta learn everything that everyone does. So how do you kind of narrow your focus so that you only deliver one type of product. So you don't start expanding. Cuz there's this temptation when you're doing services.

You're like, Hey, you know what? We'll handle your email marketing, we'll handle your website. We'll, we'll start doing web development for you. We'll start building your app. We'll start doing SMS marketing, we'll start doing SEO. We'll start doing paid advertising. We all will do Facebook ads. And you start to do this mission creep where you expand beyond your ability to deliver, but you just kept thinking, oh, this client, I can just get a bigger and bigger paycheck from each client.

Keaton Nelson: That is a great point. Um, so in thinking grow rich and talk about specialized knowledge, right? And how important specialized knowledge is compared to generalized knowledge. Um, and that's a great, I think it's chapter five. Definitely go and read that, just that one chapter if you're, you're worried about that.

But for me it was, I knew that I wasn't gonna be great at everything, first off, right? So I picked, at the beginning I started off with just Instagram and Facebook. Now those were the only two platforms that I did, and I said that we're only gonna do organic content. , right? 

And those things did come up. Can you do my email marketing? Can you do my paid ads? Can you, uh, manage my Google My Business? Can you do some, uh, make sure my reviews look good? And I, in the beginning, you kind of do have to say yes to everything until you get so busy they can say no to things. And I do believe in that. But you, you're towing a fine line once you are approaching like your max capacity.

And what I did, Is I, I got up there and it was really easy for me to say no eventually, cuz I just knew that I didn't want to do that, but, what gets really exciting is when you don't do everything, is that you can partner with people that are really, really good at what they do. And that's where the, like honestly, that's when your, your business starts to explode is when you don't do email marketing, but you find someone who's amazing at it and you can go and say, Hey, I've got 50 clients that need email marketing. I don't do it. Let me send them to you and you can send me for royalty. And then they have 50 clients that need social media and they don't do social media, and they send 'em to you. Now you guys have, let's say 50% of them convert because they trust you. Now you have, you both have 75 clients. Then you find someone who does paid ads that's amazing at it.

And then like those things start to spiral. And those types of relationships, I mean they become friendships, they become, um, just things that skyrocket your business in opportunities to travel and do things with people that you never thought you would be able to. That's been like the biggest reward from starting the business.

I travel about once a month. All over the United States to, to go to different seminars and masterminds now that I never could have dreamed of and working with some very, very high level people. Um, so that's what I, I definitely steer away from gen, generalizing yourself as big as you can online, get really, really good at one thing and find other people to do the other things.

And. , it'll make your job a lot easier and you can charge more for what you do because you're on, you're good at that one part, and I just wanna touch on this really quickly, if it's okay, Jonathan, is that people, I think before they start, or like when I started, I didn't realize how easy it actually is to make a, a living on online to make $6,000 a month is like two clients paying you three grand a month.

And all you have to do is provide more value than three grand to that client. It's not that hard when you're serving other businesses or like just to replace someone's income of like 70 grand a year. It's, it's so much easier than people think. 

Jonathan Green: Awesome. So this has been a really cool conversation. Where can people find out more about what you're doing, see what you're up to online and maybe start following you?

Keaton Nelson: Yeah, so I'm at the Keaton Nelson Show everywhere. YouTube, I have my own podcast. Uh, you'll see episodes there, a bunch of YouTube shorts, uh, Instagram, TikTok, uh, you can find me on Facebook. I'm everywhere. LinkedIn type in the Keaton Nelson show. I'm sure you will find. 

Jonathan Green: Awesome, and I'll put the links to everything in the show notes and below the video on YouTube.

Thank you so much for being here today. This was awesome. 

Keaton Nelson: Yeah, you got it. Thanks, Jonathan. 

Jonathan Green: Thank you for listening to the Server Master Podcast. Get a free copy of my bestseller Fire Your Boss right now on Amazon. Go to servermaster.com/getfire or just search Fire Your boss on Amazon. 

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