The G.E.M. Series Episode 2 Discovering Opportunities

[00:00:00] Blake: Welcome to the GEM series powered by rocket level. On this podcast, we empower entrepreneurs to succeed by setting big goals, executing like a pro, and having a fearless mindset. The GEM series is all about investing in yourself. We're here to share the path to getting what you want out of life. By sharing the stories of entrepreneurs who have done this themselves, providing thorough research from our team on what careers and habits are yielding the best results, and discussing the mindset it takes to overcome the obstacles that all.

[00:00:32] Blake: Maneuvers will face investing in themselves, starting with putting in the work every single day. And this podcast is here to help you do exactly that. My name is Blake Chapman. I'm the vice-president of the ambassador program here at the rocket level. And I'm thrilled to be your host for the gem series. Welcome to episode two of the GEM series.

[00:00:53] Blake: I'm Blake Chapman. In our last episode, what we talked about was the. The way that the yellow economy works, what it is, and why so many people are leaving their day jobs to pursue passion projects or side hustles or anything like that. So what we touched on last time was that the corporate environment is maybe not all it's cut out to be.

[00:01:15] Blake: People are realizing that. You really only can't even stay in one of these jobs for about three years until you have to hop onto another one. You look at the grand scale of things. If you work for 39 years, that means you're probably going to have 13 jobs that maybe you don't love. So that is compounded with COVID and being stuck in your house all the time.

[00:01:36] Blake: And also just seeing massive layoffs all over the place. Really pointed out a few things. It pointed out one that ultimately. The bottom line is all that matters to most employers which just kind of makes sense. And two, it pointed out that there is maybe a better opportunity in doing something where you get to directly invest in yourself.

[00:02:01] Blake: It's not all it's cut out to be is being stuck on the kind of hamster wheel of life, so to speak right where you're, you're constantly, you know, making a meager raise every year. And coming home and, you know, seeing how your neighbors are, are spending money on things and having to kind of keep up with the Joneses because you, that's the only way that you can kind of keep yourself entertained or feel like you're getting your, your, your worth out of what you're doing at your job.

[00:02:30] Blake: So rather than doing. I just don't think it's such a radical idea that people want to find a way to directly invest back into themselves and enjoy what they do. It's just a shame that so many people for so long have not enjoyed what they did and that there wasn't even a financial, you know, aspect to it.

[00:02:48] Blake: That was really, really, truly beneficial for them. The other thing that we touched on in the last episode too, was there are so many. Successful entrepreneurs are really endorsing this idea right now. We talked about Justin Welsh and, you know, we talked about that New York Times article, of course, and all of these people are endorsing the idea that if you're not already doing something to invest back in yourself, that it is probably time that you get started because.

[00:03:20] Blake: It is you know, we're right at the kind of this groundbreaking stage where if you're doing things like building your own personal brand or, you know, create doing creative, freelancing or freelancing of any kind, really it's, it's really, really underutilized right now in terms of this market that we're in.

[00:03:37] Blake: So before everything gets totally saturated, you should at least get a foot in and do a little something if you have any interest at all in it. So. I wanted to dig into that idea a little bit further, a big focus for this episode is going to be on what are the different types of jobs that you can get within the Yolo economy?

[00:03:58] Blake: What lines up with this big shift that's happening? So of course, you're going to know all of these I'm sure, but you know, there's a number of different categories that somebody might go in. You might be a realtor, you might you know, sell real estate. You might get into digital and creative freelancing, and you might start a business.

[00:04:16] Blake: So those are kind of the big, broad categories that I can think of. And the other one is you might work directly with, you know, SMBs, right. And that's one of the other categories that I can think of as well. So. Each of these has its own hurdles that you would have to have to really get into and they have their pros and cons of course.

[00:04:37] Blake: And it ultimately depends on your background and what your, your, your passion is and how everything's lined up for you. For instance, in real estate. I mean, the big hurdle is going to be, obviously, you have to have some money to get started. You could get into creative or digital freelancing, but that ultimately requires knowledge of how to do whatever, you know, you're wanting to.

[00:04:58] Blake: Do you have to have some skills or background or something you could consider becoming a realtor, but becoming a realtor has its own set of challenges. Once you're at the mercy of whatever the market is looking like right now. And two, the success rate is fairly low for real. So it can often be not all it's cracked up to be.

[00:05:19] Blake: Additionally, you know, you, you could start a business, but the big thing there is you have to have an idea and hopefully it's a good idea. And you know, obviously, the success rate of businesses is fairly, fairly low as well. There's also obviously working directly with small businesses and you know, that has its own set of challenges depending on, on, you know, what your, what your passions are.

[00:05:40] Blake: You would have to be somebody that is. Relentless is somebody that is able to you know, communicate really, really effectively with the business owners and wants to see a community thrive, which I, you know, I know a lot of people would want to do that, but it's not necessarily for everybody.

[00:05:56] Blake: I kind of touched on the SMB thing a little bit more because that's a big part of what I do and aligns with what, my big shift was. Is the team that I lead currently. So whenever you look into whichever one you're doing, all of these are viable options, but the big thing there is you want to find a place where you can most quickly get a return for what you're doing, so that you can immediately start building a strong book of business and getting some passive income coming in and.

[00:06:27] Blake: Yeah, I have a way to a clear path to financial freedom. So of those, I've evaluated them and I've come to the determination that working in the SMB market is one of the quickest ways to be able to get closer to financial freedom. Whenever you work with SMBs, there is this natural magnetism that happens.

[00:06:51] Blake: So I guess what I mean by that? is Anytime you go to work, you are immediately excited at the prospect of being able to know that you're working directly with your community. That you are serving businesses and helping them with, really taking care of anything online for them in a way that you wouldn't normally, they wouldn't normally have access to a lot of small businesses.

[00:07:13] Blake: Do not have the expertise to take care of everything online. And right now, if you look into the market and you look at what kind of websites these businesses have, how many reviews they have, all of that, you'll see that there is a lot of really, really antiquated information out there for these businesses.

[00:07:32] Blake: And that, there's a big gap in the market where many, many companies, you know, probably sold, sold them a service. Five six years ago, maybe even longer and nothing has changed since which is. Directly contradicts the way that technology works. We are at a place where everything has changed online.

[00:07:55] Blake: So it's absolutely crucial for these businesses to be able to have the most effective online presence right now. And most of them don't the majority shareholders of who works for, you know, these works to help these businesses. They are using these super old practices that I was talking about. Where I work at rocket level what we're doing right now is we're providing an all-in-one marketing platform for small businesses.

[00:08:23] Blake: And, you know, the big thing there is, we want to make sure that every single business owner is ahead of the curve and be able to empower them so that they can intern help out directly with their communities. So this is something that's a really good fit for anybody that is looking to go towards this big shift but does not have a, let's say.

[00:08:43] Blake: A bunch of savings in the bank, right. Or doesn't have a very, very clear set of skills lined up. But, you know, I really love people. I really love seeing something grow and I am you know, passionate about being able to invest back in myself. So that's what we call our rocket-level ambassador program over here.

[00:09:03] Blake: And that's, you know, what I, what I'm the VP of. And it's, it's been really interesting seeing the parallels between the yellow economy and how this operates. So that's something that I've found that a lot of my team they've all come from a background where they've recognized that the traditional work route does not set them up for exactly what they want.

[00:09:24] Blake: They were telling me, you know, I, they had to. Forfeit time with their families, forfeit time doing what they want. You know, they have to give up on their passions just because they are stuck trying to pay the bills. So. If this sounds interesting to you at all, I'm I would always love to talk about it, but that is, this is one of the key ways that you can really, really break through this big shift and ultimately make sure that you are getting the most out of it and have a very clear path to financial freedom.

[00:09:57] Blake: The way that this happens. Whenever you partner with you know, somebody that's, that's doing something that we do. The big thing there is rather than focusing solely on salary or solely on you know, how many hours you've worked. We want to focus on making sure that you get paid for the effort that you put in and the results that you get.

[00:10:18] Blake: So. It's just as simple as that. The other thing with this too, is we want people to be able to have a true work-life balance. So people get to determine their own schedule. And they also get to treat this as if this is their own business because, for the sake of what you're doing, it is your own business.

[00:10:35] Blake: I get really fired up talking about it because I've seen so many people go. Being like I was working at an enterprise or I was selling windows. And then it turns into this situation where, you know, they are all of a sudden able to have some true financial freedom and break. They're like, oh, I'm so excited.

[00:10:55] Blake: I got to break past that, those six figures mark or anything like that. And that gets me really, really fired up. And I believe that that's where everybody should be able to be. That is really what I wanted to touch on for this episode. As always, if you have any questions or want to talk, I'm a hundred percent here and would love to share more information, but, you know, I'm just going to keep digging into all of these different topics that are popping up.

[00:11:20] Blake: And I look forward to sharing more with you. Thanks and have a wonderful rest. Bye.

[00:11:29] Blake: Thank you for joining us on this episode of the gem series, the podcast for anybody dedicated to investing in themselves, stay tuned for our next episode, and look in the links below for resources that you can use for yourself until next time. This is Blake Chapman, and remember to be awesome and do awesome things.