Other things that if I hadn't actually done you'd think I was just braggin'...but like I once heard somewhere...
"it ain't braggin' if it's true..."
I started as a nurse (RN with a 4 year BSN degree) and before that, I was a sheep rancher and before that, I was a private in the US Army but before that, I was a college flunkie.
But let's skip ahead to the RN thing. I did that in 1995 (yeah I've been around the block) then after being sick of making $12 an hour I was hungry. Not like as in I need a glazed donut hungry, rather hungry for more.
** Wait? Hoooold up a sec. Did you say $12 an hour? **
Yep. I made more as a bartender than I did as an RN for a while.
But back to that hunger thing. You see, it drove me to take that proverbial jump and build your wings on the way down and basically ideate, launch, and grow what became one of the largest, veteran owned staffing firms in the US
. We even won an award or two. And I did it with no loans, no silver spoons, and no rich uncles.
(Remember that hunger thing?)
I dove deeper into my thinking and writing (yep, that stuff that doesn't make any money but sure fills a fellas soul up) and for a while, a friend called me 'The Kung Fu Monk' mostly because I'm super quiet but when I speak it's like my words punch you in the gut.
You know, like a Kung Fu monk's pen would...
After over a decade of being a real-life CEO (not a made-up one that lotsa wanna-bees put on their Insta profiles), with a eye poppin' buyout offer on the table, I sold that company. We were at about 600 employees, around'ish $1mm in weekly revenue (that's not a typo) and I felt a calling.
So I
wrote a couple of books. Published in some really big magazines
like this one and
this one too, both you've heard of and darn likely you've read. I spoke around the world but not so much about entrepreneurship, rather how one can build a pretty good life simply by being hungry and harnessing that energy in an ethical, dare I say, righteous, way
.
Some folks hired me to coach them. Not really business stuff because those types are a dime a dozen and frankly all those "6 Figure Blueprint" or "Your First Million in 60 Days" types are simply full of caca (that's Spanish for shit) and I'll bet dollars to donuts most of them have never really made 6, 7 let alone 8 figures. Maybe that sounds harsh but it's the truth.
Other folks hired me to write for them. That's when I re-kindled my love for the written word and especially telling stories. If you asked me what my writing specialty is I'd have to tell ya it's writing emails, like email welcome sequences, and newsletter writing & production. Of course I do
write for pleasure here.
What I really discovered is that these two aren't too far apart. I learned from real-life experience what it takes to start and grow a company and since I also wrote our company newsletter I also understood, on a visceral level, what our clients and prospects wanted to hear.
I learned to get into their hearts and minds...
Lemme put it a different way.
While many marketers out there are wanting to sprinkle fairy dust on SEO, ad spend and fancy stuff like 'geo-fencing', homies like me take that fairy dust and pour it all over relationships...connections. Real life, I give a damn about you connections! There's a big difference. I'll take a horde of 300 fanatical fans vs. 3,000 people I need to 'sell', any day and twice on Sunday's.
Some people want gobs of leads for their shmancy funnels and lose sleep over conversion rates and percentage this and optimized that (and pay out the ying-yang for it) all the while folks like me are building solid relationships.
With words and with emails...
Fact is you may be the type who loves vanity metrics like followers, likes, open rates, funnel data and all that stuff that many a marketer packs into a sweet 'Lil monthy report (along with their invoice), and if that puffs your chest then by all means give your dough away.
Me?
I like the bottom line.
Metrics don't feed my kids and funny thing is they kinda like to eat 3x a day and sheesh, they need new clothes just about every 3-4 months.
Maybe this resonates.
Maybe not.
I dunno.
You might still be here simply because you like my writing and then my wife would be proved correct.
That a fella can't make a living by lookie-loo tire kickers who just like fancy (powerful) words written by a nurse (Kung Fu monk) who built some cool shiz (multi-million dollar businesses).
But alas, if perchance you're not a lookie-loo tire kicker and you feel moved to take action then don't let me stop ya. Hell, I'm gonna make it super simple and give you a couple of choices.
Hop on my email list and let's take the long, slow road...
or...
Let's get down to business, grab a real chat, and see if you're truly hungry...
Gotta run now.
The 'hot, fresh donut sign is blazin'...