E285 – Greg Rollet – How to create leverage and value by building your brand and audience

Junaid Ahmed 0:10
Thank you for tuning in to hacks and hobbies with your host Junaid. In Season Two of hacks and hobbies were visited by our amazing guests coming from all walks of life want to learn their story, their struggles and their journey on how they got to where they are today. So stick around.

In this episode, I get to speak with Greg roulette.

He's an Emmy Award winning producer, best selling author and marketing expert. Now I met him through a weird way. I was scrolling through my Instagram feed. And I saw Greg's ad and I was like, Dude, this is exactly what I've been looking for. I messaged him, signed up, got a call with him. And I was like, Dude, this is amazing. So he's, he has written from Mashable, fastcompany, inc.com, and Huffington, Huffington Post, AOL and others. And he has co authored some best selling books with jack Canfield, Dan Kennedy, Robert Allen, and many other leading experts from around the world. Now when I read that he's an Emmy Award winning producer, and he's also a marketing marketing expert. It's like, those are two things that I would eventually like to get to. But Greg has Greg has been doing this for a while. And I'm so honored to have him on the podcast. Greg, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast.

Greg Rollet 1:44
Thanks for having me, man. I'm excited. And I know we're going to have a good time.

Junaid Ahmed 1:48
Sweet, fantastic. So some of the things that I absolutely love. The story that I tell everybody is, I love the process, the the time that you go through to build your self up, it's almost like the scene from Iron Man 2008. When he stuck in, he's in the cave, and he's just got scraps. And he builds an Iron Man suit in that room, and all the tinkering that he's doing. So those are some of the things that like totally blows my mind. I love to see those hacks, I love to see those tinkering happening and how you bring that bring, things don't don't even relate to, and bring it all together into something that's just massive. And one of the one of the awesome things I like to ask my guests is their journey, you know, how did they get here? Like some lot of the times we tell a story to everybody that is now welcome. But there are some parts of those stories of that journey. That's not known to everybody. So tell me a version of your journey that no one's ever heard of before?

Greg Rollet 3:11
Man, it's a great question. Because you're right. A lot of people here like the bio that you read, a lot of people see me on stage, when it's all polished, you know, or semi polished, they see the presentation or the ad that you spent a lot of time on and it looks good to the outside world, but what they don't see is everything that went into, you know, getting to that place. And so I love that question because,

you know,

for me two things I love the the what you said about Iron Man and the cave building his suit. But if you also watch the evolution of Iron Man, I'm a super nerd, like love movies, is every movie, he's still tinkering with the suit. He's still as a kid better. He's still I was watching Infinity War. I have a four year old, you know, the other night. And, you know, when Bruce Banner comes back, and they're facing like, Santos, his goons, if you will, but the first time and Bruce Jenner's like how did you do that? And Iron Man's like the new nanotech, you know, and so it's this constant evolution to always be your best self. And I think you know, a lot of people think that it's like, a, it's a destination, like, when I do this, my life will be perfect. When I hit this plateau, when I hit this milestone, you know, the heavens will open and you know, it's all unicorns and rainbows. And the truth of the matter is, we're always getting better, we're always, you know, trying to be the best version of ourselves. And so, you know, I'll start kind of back with a little bit of the version that people probably don't know, about me is, you know, I was I wasn't poor growing up, but I wasn't rich, I wasn't wealthy, I didn't know that my parents lacked and a lot of areas because your kids like you don't know, right. And looking back now, like, I know that they had to my dad had to work overtime to buy the extra baseball gloves, or to sign me up for travel league and you know, things, things like that. And I knew from a very young age, it was about 16, when I was allowed to work, go get a job, that I if I was going to have the nice things, if I was going to be able to afford to go to the nice dinners, if I was going to be able to you know, go on a date, you know, it wasn't going to be my parents that were going to do it for me, it was going to be me, like it was up to me if I wanted, you know, an extra 20 bucks to go to the movies. I had to make that happen. Yeah. And so, you know, right. I think it was like the week that I turned 16 I walked excellent have a car. So I walked over to the local target, and applied for a job and I got to be a stock guy, you know, and I got to work from 6pm to 10pm because it was after school, but it was still early enough to where, you know, you weren't, you know, working till like midnight, or the overnight shift. And, you know, I stuck shelves on target for, you know, year, two years, you know, making six bucks an hour, you know, and but every single paycheck I got it allowed me to take that next step to again, like silly things like go on that date, go to the movies, but you know, not go to the restaurant with everybody. And you have to say split an appetizer five ways because you can't afford your own food. And so it was that understanding that led me into All right, well, you know, if I can make six bucks an hour here, what are other opportunities, other ways that I can, you know, create income for myself, and that obviously led into entrepreneurship. The early days of entrepreneurship for me was all in the rap game, the hip hop game, which is weird for like the white kid, you know, coming from, you know, Coral Springs, Florida, but um,

Junaid Ahmed 6:27
I think that's that we are the main VC Vanilla Ice VC know some of these guys have been rapping to Beastie Boys, right?

Greg Rollet 6:36
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. And and so you saw that, but what I saw, so this is late 90s 2000 2001. But it was the era of like the hip hop mogul. Right? So it was Puff Daddy, it was, you know, Jimmy IV, and it was masterpiece. It was Cash Money Records. It was all of these, like, CEOs of these record labels that were becoming the stars. Yeah. And so I was like, Oh, this is awesome. And so like, Master P is one of the stories that again, weird reference, but that's like, who I saw is like, no one wanted to give this guy a record deal. No one was going to give him studio time no one was going to give them distribution. So he said, You know what, I'll do it myself. And he, you know, signed himself and his two brothers. So if the Shaka and see murder to his own label, right, and he created his own label, no limit records. And he started, you know, recording them with, you know, his own money. And then he would go to the swap meets, and he would sell, go to the local house parties and go to the clubs and sell his CDs, you know, there and he became, you know, he created so much momentum and created so much noise that priority records came to him with, you know, hey, we'll give you $30 million if you can distribute your your albums. So he created all the leverage by not waiting for the record label, but but creating such demand for his music, that the record label came with that, you know, kind of an offer. And so I saw that I was like, This is incredible. Like, no one wants this, no one's going to knock on my door and sign me to a record deal. No one is going to, you know, just give me free studio time. No one believes in me for this. So you know what, I'm just gonna do it myself. And that's exactly what I did. I moved from Target to waiting tables at a Mexican restaurant. And you know, I'd make 100 bucks on Friday night and make 100 bucks on Sunday on Saturday night. And then on Sunday, I take my $200 down, I still remember it was Danceteria studios, it was 40 bucks an hour. So I could get five hours of studio time on Sunday. And I recorded my first album that way. And then, you know, I still took my hundred dollars and my you know, on Friday night, hundred dollar and Saturday night, and then I went to this local manufacturing place and you know, printed 1000 CDs, and you know, with my own money, and then I went to parties on Friday nights and Saturday nights and sold CDs for five bucks apiece. And you know, as a 16 1718 year old kid, you know, you sell 100 CDs on a Friday night at five bucks apiece, you walk out with $500 cash, like you're a baller, like, that's good money for, you know, as a 17 year old kid with, you know, no bills, and you know, no real responsibilities. So it was just always that understanding of, you know, and it's one of the lessons that I teach now is, is people wait for permission, they wait for somebody to say, you know what, now you can start a podcast because you've hit this milestone in your career. And now you can write this book, or now you can start this TV show or now you can start your business or not like, we're always waiting for somebody to say that it's okay. Yeah, when in reality, it's on us to say, you know what, this is what I want to happen in my life. And I have to make it happen. And I'm going to take whatever steps are necessary so that I can live the life that I really want to live. And I you know, somehow I found that at a young age, and I think it was just the environment around me as I was around all these rich kids who had the nice car rather than nice clothes. And I wanted that, but I knew my parents were never going to give it to me. So anyway, hope that's kind of the a little bit of the origin story that that peaks behind the hood a little.

Junaid Ahmed 9:51
Absolutely. That was that was beautiful. Because what you mentioned, you know, you gotta do it for yourself. Nobody's going to hand it to you. Like here is that record deal? You've been looking for it? No, no. And and it's, like, masterpiece, masturbated, right, is a masterpiece, the masterpiece, masterpiece. And my son was here, he'd be laughing his head off. But he made his own studios, like, it's not rocket science, right? You figure it out. You make your studio, you make it happen. And that's exactly what our good friend Kevin Hart did to become a movie, you know, a movie mogul. Because I read his book. And he's like, you know, he was going through this stuff. But he had a good foundation where his mother taught him to be always resilient. Always keep working, you know, never sitting down and doing nothing. So he was a stand up comedian, he got a deal to be on a TV show. That TV show made him wait for a whole year in Hollywood history. You know what, screw this. I'm going back to my comedy nights. And he started doing that. And he learned from Dan, Dan cook to build an email list. So when you go to a city that you're going to be touring on, or doing a comedy show you tell all the people Hey, Kevin Hart is coming to town. Come check him out. And he built his entire foundation on being super popular. Now Hollywood just goes to him and be like, hey, come be in my gimmick kit. Come be in my movie, come in, be in our movie, and write your own dialogue and death what Kevin Hart has, and that's what you built for yourself. That's amazing.

Greg Rollet 11:42
Yeah, I mean, you come in that situation? You're coming with the leverage. Yeah. Right. So that's what Kevin Hart did. He said, Look, I'm already selling out all these clubs, I already have all this material already have this legion of fans already have this database, the same thing, you know, about master P is like, Look, I'm already selling 10s of thousands records on my own, you come with the leverage when you go out to you know, and this is something I did when I was trying to get into TV is I was like I was trying to look for the agent. But I needed the agent more than the agent needed me. And that puts me in a vulnerable spot either to get taken advantage of or get the crappy jobs or the now I'm like, Hey, I already have, you know, you know, I've already done all these documentaries, I've created my own TV show, I got distribution on it, like, I have leverage now, you know, I've created on my own. And again, so many people are waiting for, you know, to get funding for their business, and then they'll start or they're waiting for. But if you create your business, and you create customers, and you have a customer like, again, now you have leverage. So when you go into a funding situation, like you can say, like, Look, I already have this, you know, like I don't I don't need it when you can say that you don't need the help. But you do actually want the help, because other people around you to push you further, like Kevin Hart needs studios and the marketing and the big dollars to get him to that global reach. Right? Yeah, she could also walk away from it. I mean, he is he has the power were to say no, knowing that he can go back to his own database and sell out clubs. And, you know, and so that power of, you know, what you need me more than I need you is just such a lovely place. But it requires you to put in work, it requires you to, you know, put in the sweat equity or requires you to have some self motivation. And that's hard for a lot of people, you know, it's really difficult to say that you know, what my future is in my own hands, and I'm going to work every single day in order to create that life or to take that one step forward. You know, jack Canfield, one of my mentors and who I've got to work a lot with, you know, says, you know, when you're when you're going on, like, let's say, a road trip, right? Oh, you don't know, every street that you're going to be turning on, you don't necessarily know what the highway looks like 100 miles from where you are. Now, you just know that your headlights are showing you the next, you know, hundred yards. And most of the times in life, that's all you need is like, what's the next thing I need to do. And then once you do that next thing, the next hundred yards will open and you'll appear right? So it's like when you're driving, you only see the next hundred yards. But as you try, and you continue moving forward, the next part of the road will appear. And the next part of the road will appear, you turn the corner and the next part of the road will appear. Same is true in life. Like I didn't know what I was doing when I was recording albums. first song and then you record the second song. And then when you're done recording, you go, all right, what's the next thing I need to do? Yeah, instead of saying, you know, seeing somebody right now they see, whatever celebrity guru, you know, person they look up to. And all they see is Kevin Hart. Now. It's really hard for you to go from zero to Kevin Hart. Now, yeah, it's very easy to go to those nightclubs. You can you know, do what I did and work in a Mexican restaurant, record your album, like, you have to think about what's your next step to get you where you want to go. Don't think when you start thinking, you need to be Kevin Hart today. That's where it gets overwhelming. And you never start. You never take that first step because it's it isn't like, looking at it that way. It's impossible to be Kevin Hart. Like, how do I book my first comedy show? What do I need to do today to book my first comedy show? Yeah, I'm much simpler step. And then once you book that show, what's the next step? How do I fill the room? How do I market it? How do I create the material for it? And so think about it one step at a time without losing sight of where you want to go.

Junaid Ahmed 15:10
Amazing. Amazing. Here, you're absolutely right. It's like you're you look at you look at you look at Mount Everest, and like, hey, I want to be on top, well, you've got to climb, you got to get to base camp, get to get to the second base camp, you got to climb that mountain, you can't jump up 20 flights of stairs without taking that first step. Excellent points. And that's what I did for myself. I was like, I've been wanting to have a podcast running for the past, you know, seven years since 2012. But, and I even started one with my cousins. And that went well for like four episodes, but then be we're in a different time zone. We didn't have all the software in place. We didn't have all of them mindset in place to get it going. But then last year, I was like, all right, this is it, I've got to do it. And nobody else is going to help me. I got to do it on my own. And luckily, I found this amazing distribution platform. Like you could do this on your mobile phone. And I was I was commuting for two hours every day. I was like, this is the best time that I can record my podcast. And I started talking about my hobbies. And this is where we are today. It's been it's been a pretty amazing journey. And it's always a learning. You're always learning new things and adding to the journey and adding to where we are going tomorrow.

Greg Rollet 16:46
Exactly. And and again, you're always getting better in the process, right? Like you're always building the next Iron Man suit. I'm sure that this interview is better than your first interview. So 20 interviews from now you're going to be much you're gonna look back at this one and be like, Oh my gosh, that was terrible. Now I'm so much better and but you don't get better unless you do it right. like reading another book about podcasting. buying another course. And this is what people do they they mistake, the buying of the course the buying of the book, The watching of the video with actual accomplishment. Yeah, right. And they say I bought the course on podcasting. Therefore, on the podcasts are like, No, you what you've done is you said, You know what, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna figure it out. that's gotten you so much better. You're like, All right, now I recorded the first episode, how do I edit it? How do I create the artwork? How do I get it on iTunes? How do I get it on Spotify? How do I get it here? How do I find guests like, but you you have to do otherwise, you're just on the hamster wheel. And I see so many people and you've joined the inner circle. So you've gotten to see a little bit of what I do and how I coach people. But there are people that are, you know, been in my coaching groups for three months, six months, and I almost like want to give them all their money back because they're in the same spot does their skill, they'd rather watch another video, they'd rather listen to another podcast, then go out and actually do and I call it consuming verse creating. And you want to stop consuming at some point and you want to start creating and something that I find myself doing this is a tip for everybody who's listening right now is if you find yourself scrolling Instagram, and you're 10 minutes in, and you're like I'm wasting time and wasting my life now stop and create something it is the creators who get rewarded, not the consumers, right? The consumers are spending the money to go watch, you know, Iron Man, the creator, the people creating that movie, are the ones getting rich right now. You know, the people who are creating the podcasts are the ones who are building audience and building brand equity and building value with an audience. The ones who are consuming the podcast, yes. Are you getting information or eating? Of course you are. But it's the Creator, who is always ultimately going to win at the end of the day. And so if you find yourself in that consumption mode, where you're just consuming Instagram consuming Facebook consuming YouTube consuming podcasts stop. And you know, it's Instagram's an easy one. Because if you're stopped and post something, stopping post a photo with the right, if you're listening to a podcast a little harder to just stop listening to a podcast, create your own right, but you know, stop the consumption start the creating. And you know, I'm sure even in your own journey so far, like, it's been really good for you, right? You're discovering yourself, you're meeting great people, you're having good conversations, and it's so much better for you as the creator now,

Junaid Ahmed 19:15
yeah, there's so many benefits to that, as opposed to being the one in the in as the consumer. Exactly. And and what I find myself is I'm not consuming content, like I used to anymore. Like I go to LinkedIn, and I'm scrolling. I'm like, all right, stop, because I'm not adding anything to the story. Sure. I'll go in and I'll engage with the with the post or a comment. Because then I am creating, I'm creating a conversation, I'm continuing conversation. But if I'm just a mute looking through this thing, well, I'm not adding anything valuable to the conversation or what the post was talking about.

Greg Rollet 19:55
Yeah, it's just intent. Right? So consumption with intent is different, like you and I were talking before we went live of you're going on LinkedIn to find like, really cool guests. And people want to learn from like, that is intent, as opposed to just the mindless scrolling and what are people up to, and let me just kill some time. Right? So having that intent of, you know, I want to be an actor. So let me go on LinkedIn, and you know, spend 30 minutes looking for agents or looking for acting coaches or looking for production companies, and, you know, seeing how I can start developing those relationships. There's a difference in that in active consumption versus passive consumption. And I think you've made that switch now. And if everybody listening can just slowly make that switch, look, dude, I'm, I don't have superpowers. I scroll through Instagram all the freakin time, right? Like, I'm not, I'm not immune to it, right? some intense like, All right, I'm going to go look for guests or my podcasts, or I'm going to go do that. That just it gives again, it gives you the leverage, as opposed to being consumed to,

Junaid Ahmed 20:53
it's like gold driven versus like, All right, I'm just, I'm just spending time to spend time because I'm just so tired out of my mind meaningful. Exactly. Sweet. Thanks, man. So yet, it's been it's been a pretty crazy journey. And I find myself okay, like this, you know, I, I'll go, I'll go and communicate and talk. But then I'm also not listening to a lot of the podcast, I'm not doing any of the listening or, or consuming, but I'm also finding myself, okay, I need to sit down and then to write, I need to create content. And it also takes strategy, right, you got to have some kind of strategy behind the creation of that content, too. Because a lot of times people will, let's say, just start posting. They're like, Oh, great, I'm posting. And then they run out of steam after two weeks, but they run out of steam after, you know, a pretty just 10 days to Team time and your book. And DD awesome. Video journal that you said that. That's, that's the one that pulled me in, right? Who knows? Amazing, it's got 52 weeks of what it is that you can talk about in your videos. So that's fantastic.

Greg Rollet 22:16
Yeah, you made some really valid points, and it raises the art. So what do I do, right, I've been podcasting or blogging or creating videos for a week, two weeks, three weeks, and I'm not creating traction. Right? And, and it's very easy to give up when you post your video on YouTube or Facebook, Instagram, wherever you post it. And you're like, already got nine views, right? Or 90 views or just like you spend all this time, you know, thinking about it, creating it, editing it, posting it, creating the best caption, adding the hashtags, you know, whatever that you do, and then crickets, and then it's just, it's just quiet. And there's a so what a lot of creators fail to do. And I'm not there's a couple things these aren't in particular order is one, they forget about the marketing part of it, right? Like you, you have to market your content, because you're competing with so much other content I was. I spent some time with Lewis house, he was in one of the episodes of ambitious adventures, the reality show we did. It's on Amazon right now. And you know, we were asking him all about podcasting and how he's built his podcast. And, you know, the question, I'm sure everyone asked this to him, but we asked it as well. We said, you know, Louis, what advice do you have for someone starting a podcast today? And his advice was really enlightening. He said, don't. And, you know, obviously, you're a little taken aback, but you're like, you know, all right. So obviously, explain like what you mean. And he says, look, no one, no one needs another entrepreneur show with entrepreneurs, interviewing other entrepreneurs, you know, because they already have my show, or Tim Ferriss show or, you know, and you know, who would you rather listen to Joe Smith, who, you know, doesn't have a brand doesn't have a following? Tim Ferriss, you know, or Lewis house or Gary van der Chuck, or, you know, now you have all these big brands coming into the fold, you know, with NPR and these big so like, so the competition for time because if a podcast is an hour, like Joe Rogan's are like two to three hours, you know, if you know if you're listening if Joe Rogan's one of your favorite podcasters and Tim Ferriss is one of your favorite podcasters. You know, if they each only did one episode a week, that'd be like four to five hours of content. Yeah, how many more podcasts? Can you actually listen to when you're consuming these guys already? So his whole point wasn't not to create a podcast, it's where do you fit in. So you're not just another blank, you're not just another entrepreneur podcast, you're not just another lifestyle podcast, you're not just another whatever it is. So. So that's a big piece of it is, is in positioning, and I love what you've done here with, like, Max and Hobbes is like, it's not just an entrepreneur podcast, it's not just you're helping to find these hacks, and these little things, and our how all of these hobbies fit together, and that people are multi dimensional, and they don't have like, you know, so finding that lane, I think is really important. Yeah. Because otherwise, yeah, who is going to listen to you? Or john Lee Dumas, you or Pat Flynn you or like, I'm just using entrepreneurs, because that's the space I'm in. But you know, we only have a finite amount of time. And we're not talking about a two minute video on YouTube. We're talking about, you know, this, you and I here today, even, you know, 30 to 45 minute episode, like, that's a lot of time in someone's life. Yeah. Why are they going to choose to listen to this over something else? So that that's thing one. Thing number two with it is that, you know, aggressive promotion, aggressive marketing, whether that's spending money on ads, whether that's building an email list, whether that's leveraging the guests and their platforms to build your audience, but you can't just post something on iTunes, and hope that someone's going to discover it, because there is so much other things that they could discover, which, you know, just blows people's mind, but they never really think about, you know, how am I going to get my message and get attention for my message. And that could be anything from headlines to the guests that you choose to, you know, how can I whenever I talk to somebody about creating a podcast, it's how can you go and interview people who no one's interviewing what people might find really interesting. So I work with a lot of real estate agents. And I'm like, you know, the a great podcast, if you went out and interview the local, the best pool builder in your area, because guess what he's never been interviewed on a podcast before. He's gonna think it's super cool. He has a customer list of, you know, hundreds of pools that he's built. So he's going to email all those people out and say, Hey, you know, check out my, you know, interview, it's on iTunes, like, again, a pool builder. That's really cool to someone like me, I'm like, dude, I got like, dozens of interviews on iTunes. It's not that I'm still like, flattered that people want to talk to me and ask me questions, but different than finding somebody new. You know, if you are in the, you know, marketing space, instead of interviewing all the internet marketers or digital marketers, can you go interview the head of marketing at Red Bull? Like, that's cool and interesting and unique? Can you interview the head of marketing at Burger King, when they're doing all these really busy? No one's interviewing them. And be they have a different audience. Like, you've got to find those those approaches and leverage their audiences to build your own. So you know it. And then the last thing I'll kind of say about it. Yeah. And the reason I think people give up really easily is because they think it's about them, and not the audience. You have to be audience focused. First, you have to deliver some type of value to the audience and stop thinking it's about you. It's not about you. The interviewer is not about you making flubs. It's not about it's about the audience. And when you make that switch, because now you're mission driven, now you're I'm creating this podcast so I can help other people. If you're if you're creating the podcast, just to help yourself or feed your ego or think it's going to grow your business. Yeah, you will give up when you don't see that traction, because there's not a bigger purpose or bigger mission. But if everything that you do, like every video that I put out, it's not about me, I don't care how I look, I don't care if I'm wearing a hat and a hoodie or a suit. Or if I stumble, or if my hair's not like perfect, because it's not about me, it's about the audience. Like even in the delivery I'm doing now. Like, I'm trying to as much value as I can and actionable content for your audience. So your audience goes, man, that episode with Greg was awesome. And now they want to listen to more of your episodes, and now they want to go seek me out. It's not about me, it's about the audience. And when you have that in mind, you know, all you need to do is, you know, at the end of the day, like, this is how I judge it, if I get one good message that was like, Greg, I watched that, and it changed my life. Or I did this and it helped me grow my business or, you know, I stopped, you know, scrolling Instagram, and I posted something on Instagram today, and I got 30 likes, it's the first time I've ever gotten three, like, that's the coolest reward for me in the entire world. It's about the audience, if it's just about you, you will quit after four episodes, and you're only getting 20 views on an episode. But if it's about the audience, every single person that watches even if it's only 20 is an opportunity for you to make a difference to make an impact to you know, do something really cool. So that's kind of my at least initial thought process on, you know, starting something and gaining traction. And

Junaid Ahmed 28:59
no, absolutely that that was that was just amazing. And, and what so it falls in right in point with how the movie industry or how the TV industry works even right? There's hundreds of pilots that production houses create. And then they do do a survey, like, Okay, how many people like this pilot? Right? It's audience driven. If people don't like that pilot, they're not going to go with that show. Is that about right?

Greg Rollet 29:30
Yeah, I mean, you know, it, you're, you're spot on. It's just like, you know, what do people care about this show to people that care about this show? And, you know, do they think that it has legs? Does it have the right ensemble? Does it have the right, you know, does it have the right chemistry between the characters and the writers and you know, all these different factors, but it's all the stuff that I kind of just talked about is does it fill a need in the marketplace? Or is it just, you know, somebody that the TV and movie industry is really bad at is they see something working and then they copy it? 100 times copyright?

So you know, Game of Thrones is watching. So we need a dragon, you know, you know, show I don't watch Game of Thrones, I don't know, you know, but like, you know, Walking Dead is working. So we need a zombie show. We need like, you know, instead of how do we fill in need in the marketplace, where's the gap? Where's the opening and those are the shows that that tend to break out is Game of Thrones works because at the time there was nothing like it

Junaid Ahmed 30:21
Walking Dead works, because at the time there was nothing like it. You don't want to be the third version of The Walking Dead cares about that, you know, so find your unique place and and to me, those are the shows that really do they break out like a show like this is us. It is like nothing else on TV. Every episode makes my wife cry like bawling tears. That's not uplifting. That's not about dragons. It's not comedy that's not like it's because it it filled a hole in the marketplace instead of just another me to copycat of the marketplace. That's a really good point. Because I never thought of that, you know, just Hollywood just copies but that does make sense. They they have they come up with the formula. They use that formula on every single thing that that they make. And sometimes they'll deviate. And I think that's what Marvel has been doing with their MC you. And they've they've deviated but then they've kept that core formula about the same. So all the origin stories look something similar, but then they have a different angle in each of the movies. And some of the examples that I'm thinking of is Iron Man. Then we had Dr. Strange, incredible didn't date started at twice and they're like, all right, it's not going to work. We're just going to keep on going and start a new trajectory. And then Captain Marvel same thing. Black Panther similar thing. So really well done movies that taking that formula, and then they've modified it for their audience for what story they're telling. So that's what we gotta do, right? Yeah, I

Greg Rollet 31:55
mean, there's no one path to success, right? Like Captain Marvel is a is a different movie than Iron Man right now. Yes, they're both superheroes. Yes, there's both. There's the story arcs might be similar as and, you know, underdog finds powers, you know, has evildoer defeats evildoer, you know, but they're they're completely unique movies. And in the entrepreneur landscape we see this a lot is there's a big product launch, or there's someone teaching you how to podcast and you know, 1000 people buy the course. And now there's 1000 people that are just clones of the original, you know, like we don't like I said earlier, like lewis is, you know, we don't need another entrepreneur podcast with people interviewing entrepreneurs, because it already exists. We don't need someone else being Gary Vee dropping f bombs talking about content because who Gary Gary Vee already exists? There is your Where's your lane now? Can you like your show is an interview show? Right? You didn't have to reinvent the wheel on let's find cool guests. Let's ask them cool questions, leverage their audience to build my but you were doing it in your unique way you like the first question you asked me the question I do. I probably done 6070 podcast interviews. I was never really asked that question before you found a way in. So yes, the fort Yes, you're still going to put your podcasts on iTunes because you'd be stupid not to write, but you're going to do it with your own artwork and your own as opposed to just copycatting everything else that is out there. So the world doesn't need more copycats. It doesn't mean that you don't find a model and make it yours. But don't just copy that like like, we don't need more of the same. We need you to be you you were put on this earth. I believe that you have a unique ability. I learned that from Dan Sullivan. And play to your strengths be weird, be unique, be whatever it is. Now followed. Like if podcasting. Like there are people that have successful podcast, what do they do so model it, but find your own way of delivering it, instead of just Hey, I bought this course. And in this course they said here the 10 questions to ask every guest. And here's like, that's dude. And trust me, I've been on those shows they have, right they're boring there. There's no personality. I was like, Ah, so yeah, you got to find a way to uniquely be you which it sounds super easy, but it's actually really hard for people to uniquely be themselves because they feel like they have to present themselves in a different way to get people to like them, or they got to be like this other person who's popular if they're not like that. It's not going to be popular. But the opposite is the truth. Like before Gary Vee, there was no business person dropping f bombs on stage. He was the first he was uniquely himself. Now the problem is there's a ton of other business coaches dropping f bombs on stage trying to be Gary Vee. Now it's not like now you're just copycatting the original?

Junaid Ahmed 34:25
Yeah. Excellent, excellent. points, man that that just blew my mind. So I mean, we're so in sync. It's it's, it's insane. I love it. What are some of your motivations for things that you do? And I think a lot of the things we talked about in the past, in through our conversation, you mentioned some of your motivations. But what are some, like it's always evolving, it's always changing. So how do these motivation changes as you go forward?

Greg Rollet 34:58
Yeah, I can tell you now being a dad, like, that's everything to me is I want to be the best dad on the face of the planet. And nothing is more important. And so with that being a motivator, I've structured my business in a way that I get to be the best dad first. And my business revolves around that. Yes, so many people do it the other way they let circumstance happen to them, they let clients take advantage of them. They, you know, jumping out, you know, they how high whenever anyone says jump, and I've structured it the complete opposite way. Like I you know, we did this interview at 10 o'clock in the morning. The reason I scheduled it for 10. I don't get to the office till 930 I hang out with my kids till nine. No, I'm up. I'm up at you know, 536 I usually do a gym session, I make them breakfast, I make coffee, we watch some sports center, we hang out, I play some Legos, then I go to the office. I don't take a meeting before 10 o'clock. You know, and you know, it could be the most important business meeting on the face of the planet. And they're like, I got to do it at nine. I'm like, I'm sorry. I have these strict rules. I learned this from one of my mentors, Craig Ballantine, is your have rules for your life. That's one of my rules. My other rule is five o'clock is my end time. I don't do dinner meetings, I don't do calls at night, I don't do five o'clock is my end time. So I work from 930 to five, you know, and now does that mean? Like at 11 o'clock, some nights, I'll go on the patio. And I'll write or I'll be great. Like, of course, I will write cuz I love what I do. But for me, my motivation is being the best dad on the face of the planet. And then during 930 to five, I have the freedom and the capability to be the best freakin business owner, coach, content creator that I can be because I know during from 930 to five, I get to be that person. Right? I'm not worried about All right, well, I have to go do this for the kids, like my wife takes care of it. Like from that time that is concentrated, focused, kick butt take names on the business. But then at five o'clock, that hat comes off, you know, and I get to be dad mode. And so people that try to juggle, like, all right, I got to do this, then I got to do this, then I got to do this. And now I got it. Like that's really hard for me like today is Day of almost all calls. So I got podcast interview, I got sales calls, I got onboarding calls, delays, like it's called million. So I get to get in the zone, I get to be in the flow state, and I get to do that, I get to focus on that, as opposed to, I got to write an email, then I got to do a call, then I got to do a sales presentation, then I got to do a webinar. And I like that. So that's really hard for me to do, and to be my best self. So structuring my day and that way, all leading to the original question, which is, you know, I'm a dad, like, that is my motivation. And every business decision I make is, is this going to allow me, you know, does this take me away from that? Or does it allow me to do that. So, you know, like, even in the inner circle, which are now a member of, you know, all I do all my coaching calls at, you know, 1011 o'clock in the morning, you know, not seven, eight o'clock at night, like most marketing business teachers, because that's kid time. That's way more valuable to me. And you know, and I know, some people are turned off by that that's not my client, I've decided that if you're like, screw you, Greg, I can't make that 10 o'clock in the morning, then

guess what? Just dude, unsubscribe.

Like, I know that the there's abundance out there, there's enough people that I can help. And so my motivation is structuring everything so that I can coach the T ball games, I can be there for going to the moon, like, to me, that is everything. And that's changed, like you said, like it's evolved, you know, seven years ago before kids, it was much different, right? I was a hustler. You know, what, um, but so yeah, that's,

Junaid Ahmed 38:22
that's the current motivation. I love it. Because see, I'm a dad, myself. And I initially had my interview times on the on Thursdays, because that's when I would be home from certain times. And then now, I was like, I can't start my interviews before 10 o'clock, because I've got to drop off my kids to school. I've got things going on. And now summers coming. So now it's going to be even more restricted timing. Like, after three o'clock, my my caught my calendars closed, because it's kid time. You know. So I love that motivation, a really great podcast that I've been listening to first class father. I've had it, I've had the opportunity to edit some of the episodes for the, for the host, and there's some really cool guests on there. I think sugar Ray's top lead singer was on there once. I would recommend you be on there as well, because there's a lot of parent, you know, fatherhood related questions. And yeah, a lot of cool stuff in there. really powerful.

Greg Rollet 39:27
That's awesome.

Junaid Ahmed 39:29
Cool, man. So we've had a really amazing conversation, conversation, but there are some core questions at the end of the episode that I like to ask my guests. What is one hobby that you wish you got into but never had the chance?

Greg Rollet 39:45
Man, it's a great question. I think I'm now as a dad, my kids are starting to be like wanting to be more like, outdoor adventurous. And I never I just never really enjoyed fishing or camping or that kind of stuff growing up. Yeah. But now it is like a skill or a hobby that I wish I had. Because now I'm having to like, learn it on the fly. And, you know, so I think it's more being being more outdoors being more hands on being able to, you know, whether it's hunt fish, like,

even if I caught a fish today, you know, to eat for dinner, like

I don't know how to skin it. I don't know how like, I wish I knew some of those more hands on skills. And I'm, you know, and having that as a hobby, I think would have been really, really cool. I dove in to some newer hobbies lately. I don't know if you and I've talked about like, I'm super now you know, like archery, which is kind of a weird hobby. But like, that is like one of my favorite things on the planet to do. And it was definitely out of my comfort zone and went to like a local archery range. And like, I didn't know, I knew nothing and a new terminology. I didn't know what kind of bumps like being vulnerable and like, help me you know, and doing that. It's it's the coolest hobby that I have. Because to me, it's very therapeutic and meditative.

But the hobby I wish I had was a little more of those doors, hobbies, those outdoor skills.

Junaid Ahmed 41:02
Nice. Very cool. All right. And we talked a lot about movies and TV shows, what is one of your favorite ones.

Greg Rollet 41:11
Dude, as cliche as it is like, I will watch every Iron Man movie 1000 times when my four year old is now obsessed with superheroes, and so I get to watch them all over again with him. And so we're watching almost all of them, like from start to finish and you know, getting to relive it, not just relive the movies for myself, but during his eyes and seeing that hit where the Iron Man suit for the first time in his eyes just light up like is that real, like, it's time to start real like you're going to New York next week for a business or for you going to go to Avengers Tower and just like, but just, you know, getting lost in those worlds of, of possibility and dreaming big and heroism and, you know, putting someone else's life ahead of yours. Like just all the lessons that are in those movies. You know, they can be cheesy comic book movies, or you can really see that as an opportunity to you know, see how big the world is, you know, I mean, it and that's what I choose to see him for.

Junaid Ahmed 42:08
I've been constantly watching review videos on YouTube of Avengers and games. What's coming up in the future for you know, far from home Spider Man. And it's just amazing. Like, there's so many, like, I know a lot of these things over the years, but then it's funny when they talk about it again, like, Oh, it's this arc is that arc? It's just amazing to see that.

Greg Rollet 42:35
Yeah, I mean, it's just it's masterful storytelling and the way that they were able to weave so much into, you know, Infinity Ward and game. Yeah, just I mean, just to be able to think, like most of us think, you know, what, what are we doing tonight for dinner? You know, nice people are thinking 15 movies down the line? How do we throw in some easter eggs that are going to, you know, come in and just, it's super cool.

Junaid Ahmed 42:59
If what? And this is a new new question that have added and what movie would you choose if you got to play a character in it?

Greg Rollet 43:09
Hmm.

It's a great question. Um, thank you.

You know, I I really enjoy that like, badass, like spy person. So like a James Bond, like a Jason Bourne. Like an Ethan Hunt from like, Mission Impossible. The the ability to a to have those skill sets, you know, is just, it is incredible, almost like bond I go to because he know that he has it all. Like, look, he's got a lot of messed up things, you know, in the head, you know, but you know, but to be able to wear the tuxedo and go to the nice event to drive the fancy car, but then to have that set of skills like, I don't know, like that. That just seems, you know, obviously, it's every guys like fantasy they like be in those kind of roles. But why not? Like it just, it encompasses a lot of what I feel, you know, would just be super badass. Nice. I love it. All right, who is your favorite superhero? I think we've been talking about this favorite superhero? It's going to be a different answer, because the easy answer is Iron Man. But actually, my favorite superhero right now is the green arrow. And what I like so green arrow, I'm a big fan of night wing. Not as much Batman, but Batman. And so here's the reason why. We're all regular people that decided to rise up and do something great. Yeah, the green arrow didn't get bit by a spider, he doesn't have a suit of made of armor like it's him and a bow and the skill set and all those things, you know that to me. And he decided that it's, it's on me to take care of my city to take care of my people to take care of my family. And to me like that's, that's cool, because it's almost like any one of us can rise up and be that superhero. And I think that's why I fell in love with that character from the TV show. But now I've gone back and I spent too many dollars on you know, getting all the old comics and going through the method and just, you know, seeing how that person is evolved as someone who just decided, you know, I'm not going to let my life go to waste without doing what's right. Not for me, but for my city for my family for the people around me.

Junaid Ahmed 45:12
Was that one of the reasons why you got also got into archery 100% Yeah, so

Greg Rollet 45:17
actually, you got into archery and also Ninja Warrior training, like a ninja warrior, Jen here called ninja fit. And it's like CrossFit mixed with Ninja Warrior training is amazing. And part of it was because of the show arrow, I wanted to do the Salmon Ladder, like that was like, and so that's the reason why and now I've stayed at the gym for like three years. It's been incredible and just transformation in myself. But um, but yeah, that was kind of the the reason to get into archery. And all that was, again, it's a skill that I can learn. Like, I can't learn to be Superman, right? You can't learn to be Spider Man, but you can learn some of these tactical skills, you know? Absolutely, by putting in the work.

Junaid Ahmed 45:54
Absolutely. Sweet man. Last question. If you were a board game, but what be

Greg Rollet 46:02
a, you know, I actually really enjoy monopoly. I just that the idea of the game of, you know, there's chance and there's luck. But there's also strategy, there's, you know, you're you're developing short term assets that turn into long term assets, like just the way I think about businesses a lot into that game. So let's go monopoly.

Junaid Ahmed 46:22
Nice. I love it. Where can my audience find you?

Greg Rollet 46:28
Yeah, I think you know, just to interact to say hi to see what I'm up to. Instagram is probably my favorite place right now, just at Greg roulette, just my name on Instagram. It's the same thing on Facebook. But Instagrams really cool. We also we do have that video planner that you picked up, it's free, all you do is pay shipping and handling. Right now with the time we're recording this, it's like six bucks and change night, you can grab one of those at ambitious video planner.com. And it'll help you to do really what we talked about here in this episode, which is stop consuming, start creating. But if you don't know where to start, you're like, I want to start creating, but I don't know what to say in my videos, or I don't know, you know how to outline them. This will get you started really, really quickly. And I think that's a really cool tool, you know, for six bucks to figure out how you can go ahead and get started. But yeah, follow on Instagram. You know, grab a video planner, if you liked what I said, that's a great way to support what we're doing and get into my world at a deeper level.

Junaid Ahmed 47:21
Fantastic. Thank you so much, Greg, for your time. This was an amazing conversation. I loved every single minute of it. Thank you so much for your time.

Greg Rollet 47:30
Thanks for having me, man. This is awesome.

Junaid Ahmed 47:37
Thanks. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this episode on hacks and hobbies. We absolutely appreciate your contribution. You can find additional notes on hacks and hobbies. com. please share the podcast with your friends and tell them what you learned about our guests today.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai