I’m excited to share with you a interview I had with Joseph Michael. You might know him as the Scrivener Coach. Joe is husband and dad as well as a blogger, a creator of digital info products and a creative entrepreneur.
Joseph created the Learn Scrivener Fast online course to help writers understand better how to use Scrivener in their everyday writing.
You can connect with Joe on one of his 3 blogs, JosephMichael.net, or EfficientLifeSkills.com. You can also find him hanging out on Twitter or Facebook.
In the intro of the podcast, I share some books and book giveaways.
First book that I’ve been rereading is Do The Work by Steven Pressfield. This book really challenges me and takes me beyond my comfort zone as far as work ethic and thinking bigger. If you haven’t read it, you should. Level Up Your Day: How to Maximize the 6 Essential Areas of Your Daily Routine by S. J. Scott and Rebecca Livermore. Learn how to start simple and effective habits that will take you to your goals.
Click Here to Watch the Video Interview
Summary of the Interview:
*Joe tells his story of growing up in a home where his parents were entrepreneurial and his Dad was a business man, always trying new things. So he thought getting out there and trying new things was normal. He knew that he wanted to make a difference, but he wanted the results of what he did to be directly related to how hard he was going to work at it. So by the time he was in High School, after he tired of the mall jobs, he decided, along with his girlfriend(now wife) to start a snow-cone business in the summer. They worked whenever they wanted to and made twice as much as other jobs.
*A couple of years ago, Joe was able to retire from his Corporate job, because of the success he’s had in his online business. He says it feels like he’s a teenager again and able to have fun doing what he loves.
*He started looking to supplement his income on the side. Originally all he wanted to do was make an extra $300 a month. Just to have a little extra cushion and pay off some debts. He said he hated the feeling that someone else held the control over him whether he would have a job in a month or not. So he started looking for pizza delivery jobs to make extra money. But he said he got rejected because he didn’t have delivery driving experience. So he got frustrated and it was at that point he started looking for different opportunities online.
*His blog www.efficientlifeskills.com started because he had a wealth of information from listening to Zig Ziglar and Tony Robins, etc. He was inspired by Pat Flynn when he saw he was making a living online. So he started to research all he could about how to start an online business. That’s how he got his start.
*Joe says his goal is to bring all that he’s learned and break them down and see if anyone else can learn from them. His YouTube video, that was so popular, was birthed out of a real life problem he had with teaching his daughter to tie her shoes.
*He says he wouldn’t have started working on Scrivener to help writers to write faster and better, if he hadn’t originally found a pain point from scanning through people’s comments on Michael Hyatt’s blog. Joe encourages anyone who is creating products or any kind of info product, to really learn the Art of Listening to what people are struggling with and what they need help with. Then go make that product.
*Even though creating the Scrivener was totally different than what he was doing on his blog EfficientLifeSkills, he was willing to pivot. He says as creative entrepreneurs that’s an important skill to learn. Even though what you’re doing might look different than what you originally planned.
*Joe encourages people who are creating products and spend a bunch of time online to listen to the tips from InternetBusinessMastery.com. Put yourself on a information diet and focus only on the strategy you’re working on in that moment. He says you’ll find a way if there’s something you’re passionate about otherwise you’ll find an excuse. He says he sacrificed his lunch breaks to record some of the tutorials on the Scrivener course, and that’s how he found time to get the course finished. Just do the one next thing that’s right for you.
*He says he’s had a few failures, with businesses he started early on … even to the point of burning himself out. At one point Joe said he gave up, thinking he’d need to be stuck in his job until he retired. It was due to those failures, that he started learning what he could do differently. He started to see new opportunities like a science experiment instead of feeling stressed like each new thing was a do or die type of thing. One of his failures was when he wrote a ebook to giveaway on his blog and no one wanted it. His learning point was that he created what he thought his audience needed instead of asking people what they wanted.
*He encourages people to keep testing things, asking questions on their blogs and on social media to find out what people really want. Is what you’re putting out there getting shares? Is it getting likes? What do others say in the comments? What words are they using? If you do that, you won’t be frustrated with wasted time. Listening to people’s pain points is really the Art of Listening.
*Joe talks a little about his online course Learn Scrivener Fast. He originally got the idea when he read that Michael Hyatt used Scrivener for his blogging. In the comments of that blogpost, Joe listened to people talking about how hard it was to learn Scrivener. He saw a need and started to create the course. This course is very easy to listen to and very professionally done. If you’re a writer and you need a great program that shows you how to keep your blogposts in one place or a spot to write your novel where you can also learn how to put your ebook onto Amazon, this is the course for you.
Thanks Joe, for sharing your story and all the tips and inspiration you’ve given today to writers and other creative entrepreneurs.
You can connect with Joe on Facebook or Twitter.
Have you learned the art of listening to people you’re connected with? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments, that way we can all learn from each other 😉
