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Episode 1 - My Epiphany: Why and HOW I Want To Help You Grow
Michael Jackson • Nov 10, 2019
About This Episode
Most People think that running a business is all about making money and being able to live a better life and buy things. I believe that's PART of what a business is and what a business can do for you. But it can be and SHOULD BE MORE.
I want to take you along, step-by-step, as I grow ChileJam. I'm going to share my successes and my failures. I'll tell you how I did everything and you are welcome to copy those ideas, cheer, jeer, or just sit back and watch. Let's get started.
TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Hey guys, this is Michael Jackson. I'm going to take you on a journey with me. I decided to start doing this because as I start building ChileJam, I want you to see where it goes from the beginning of this journey to the end. Over the years I've done lots and lots of businesses. I've had software companies, I've had photography businesses, I've helped people in the gym. I've done karaoke. And the thing that I've always enjoyed was actually helping people.
And let me specifically talk about two of those things that I did. One was karaoke and one was the LA fitness where I was actually a trainer. For awhile I did indoor biking or cycling or spin as some people might call it. I want to tell you about those experiences because I think they've actually shaped the way that I actually want to run my business. And not only that, it shapes the way that I want to give you information so that maybe we can make the world a better place. And maybe I can help you build your business.
So here's what I discovered . When I was working in Dallas I was working at with my brother and dad. We had a, a business that was basically a virtual assistant company. We had office space. We had secretaries, we had conference rooms and offices and we'd rent out all those facilities for people to use,. You know, you pay by the hour or by the day or by the week or by the month to use the facilities. Well, I've always been the artist type. I've never really been the, "I'm going to sit in an office in a cubicle, answer the phone and wear a tie," type. And I was getting super stressed.
I mean, so stressed that I actually ended up in the emergency room one day and literally I was having heart palpitations. I couldn't breathe. I was, you know, in the emergency room for hours and finally went home, you know, after being there. I think I stayed overnight for that time and it was just like, okay, Michael, we've got to cut the stress. I'll tell you, one of the things that happened to me is one of my she's a good friend now, Beverly came cause she came to the hospital with me and I think a day or two after that, it might even been before, but I remember one of the best things that Beverly ever told me was I said to her, I said, "These phones are driving me crazy. Every time it rings, I just makes me insane. I can't, I don't know what to do."
I was out of my mind. And so she said, "Well, Michael, why don't you just turn it off?"
And I was like, "What do you mean?" And she said, "Michael, why don't you just turn the phone off? Don't answer it. You've got secretaries answering the phones. Why do you need it to ring on your desk?"
And I was, huh, I don't know why I don't turn it off. So I did. I turned it off. And I will say that within literally 30 minutes, I was feeling better. I turned off that phone and it wasn't bothering me anymore. It was just, that was just a little epiphany.
Well, let me tell you what happened. I was way out of shape then and I started going to LA fitness and at LA fitness, I was determined, Io was way, way out of shape and I want it to lose some weight and be able to walk up, you know, half a flight of stairs and not be out of breath.
So I joined the spin class, which is indoor cycling for you guys that haven't been, it's probably, I'm going to just say it's one of the toughest classes in any any gym. I want to say it's the toughest, but someone's gonna argue with me about that. It's a very good class.
I remember going in there and Tyler was my instructor and she showed me how to set up the bike and I got on it and I was like, literally by the time people got into the class and I had been, you know, riding my bike for two or three minutes. I was out of breath and couldn't even start the class. So my goal was to actually make it through a class. I started doing the class every day and I would go and I'd get on that bike and I'm just like pushing myself and I finally got it to where I could maybe do five minutes of the class, literally five minutes of the class before I had to just sit there and watch everyone else work around me.
It took me probably six to eight weeks before I could make it through an entire hour long class. And I remember as I was getting better and better at this, I would, there was a part in the class where you get the stand up and it's like you're climbing Hills. Right? And I could not stand up to do that whole thing under any circumstance. And the day that I actually stood up and was able to make it up that Hill, I sat down and I teared up in the seat. I was just so overwhelmed that I had achieved that goal. So spin became my new thing. I loved it. I eventually moved from the second row in the class back to the fourth row, which was against the wall because I didn't want anyone just watching me. And I sat back there and at the begin at the front of the class, I was sitting on the fourth row and there's guy, his name was Tracy sitting on the, on the first row.
Dude was amazing. He looked like an Olympic biker. So I started copying him and I was like, okay, I can do this, man. I let them, he rocked back and forth. When he got up, he had, he just had this attitude about him. He was like, I want to be as cool as that dude. We got to be friends. And eventually he asked me, "Hey, say, do you want to do this thing with me where we go out and we're gonna raise some money for the for Team in Training for the Lymphoma Society?"
And I was like, "Okay, sure, but I don't have a bike,"
"So don't worry about it. We'll figure a way to get you a bike."
And so long story short, and I'll go into this in greater detail one of these days. I went out and trained with them.
I had gosh, at first it was just a, a rented bike that, you know, they had extra bikes and somehow I got to rent a bike and I was able to ride with them on the weekends. And eventually my folks were like, "Wow, Michael's pretty serious about this."They actually helped me get a bike. They got me a bike. I'm sorry. They did not help me get a bike. They got me a bike and I went out, raised money and did a my first hundred miles. It's called a century bike ride at Lake Tahoe. I had only written literally on the street for, I'm gonna say five or six times had I gone out with the entire team that I was part of and riden 20 or 30 miles with them, which was quite a feat.
Now this was a hundred miles I was gonna ride in Tahoe. And all of my training had been indoors. And I say this because your training is mental. It is in your head and you have to believe that you can do it. I would literally sit in the spin class and after class I would put on my headphones and I'm just picturing the ride, you know me riding.
I'd get up and I'd ride on Hills and I'd be playing some crazy beats and I'd be playing some rap music and so I'd be playing some rock music and I just think like, you know, "Livin' on a Prayer".
I'm riding and I'm climbing the Hills and it's, "Ooooh, livin' on a prayer..."
By the way, it ties into karaoke too, which I'll tell you at another time. So I went to Tahoe, let me tell ya, it was not easy.
Mile 60 I'm like, okay, I'm like done. Where's that like truck to come pick me up. It didn't come. I had to keep riding, I had to keep riding. I was by myself. I'm 10 miles from the finish. I'm at 90 something and I'm like, "Oh my God, I'm going to just walk this." I got off my back and I'm walking. When another one of my coaches came up to me and says, Michael, you can do this. You only got 10 miles to go. I made it and it took me for EVER to make it across that line. But I made it.
My whole point about this is I went from being overweight, being in the hospital, thinking that I was stressed by my life and not able to do anything about it. When I got back to the gym everyone gave me a round of applause cause I had made it and and Tyler and I think Jerry, both of them said, "Michael, you know what? You ought to be an instructor. "
And I was like, what? I ride in the class. I'm not an instructor. And they both eventually convinced me, "Michael, okay, you should be an instructor and teach other people this thing."
I was like, okay, I'll give it a try. I was petrified. I'll give it a try. I was petrified. So before my first class, I went home and put on every CD that I had. Cause you know, you have to do the music as well as several people, you know, get up, sit down, ride faster, ride slower. And I scripted out my whole ride, the whole thing. And I played it over and over my head. Like with the music I was singing along, I was writing in my desk chair, like I was in class at the front of the class doing it. And I got there and I did my first class.
And it was okay. It was okay. And people liked it and I was like, "Oh, that was kinda cool," And I was like, "Oh, all right, I'd like this, I'll do it again. "And so I, I kept doing it and doing it. And eventually I had some of the most attended classes at LA fitness and turned into this, you know a kind of a rock star. You know, we're going to teach people how to do spin. But that's not really what got me going.
What got me going was the fact that there were people who'd come into class and I loved the overweight people coming in the class that said I can't do this. And those were my favorite people ever to work with because they said, "Michael, I don't know if I can do this," and I would tell them my story.
I said, "You know, I was in the hospital. I came here and couldn't ride for three minutes, just before the warmup. I couldn't even make it through the warm up before class to make it into class. And I did this ,"
And I said to them, "If you keep coming, I will work with you every day until you can make it through this class and you reach your goals. "So I think that has been my mission in life. It has. It is my mission in life. I'll tell you about the karaoke cult one day because that was my same thing with karaoke. I didn't care how bad people saying, I only cared that they got up on the stage and tried. And I only cared that everybody there, no matter how bad that person was, stood up and treated them like a rockstar. Like you get up and you scream like you just came from the last concert that the Rolling Stones ever gave or you were at a Michael Jackson concert or you were at a Prince concert or you just got done listening to the best rock and roll Anthem song you've ever heard and you've got your hands up in the air waving.
I don't care if that person couldn't sing one note on stage in tune. It was never about the singing. It was all about the love. I'm going to show you guys video that one day on my YouTube channel. But for right now, I just want you to know that the reason I am doing the business I am in right now is yeah, I want to make money. I want to learn how to make beautiful funnels. The whole theme of my company right now of ChileJam I took it from my karaoke days was "It's not about the singing. It's all about the love." I want to help people get past their disbelief and believe that they can do it. And I think I'm going to do that by actually building this whole company in front of you. So it's not like I am famous or anybody right now.
I am just, you know, Michael Jackson. That's interesting. And I'm starting at the beginning. I want to teach you how to become, let's say internet famous. And mostly you know, locally famous cause you know, I learned this from I watch, I used to watch videos on the internet all the time, but you know what? There's no use trying to be internationally famous if you can't, if you're not doing something right in your own neighborhoods. So why don't we start with your, in your neighborhood, you're learning how to do X, Y, and Z. You're helping other people and because you're helping other people, you're building up, you know, your business. You're building up their business, you're building up your community and everybody's getting better. I'm going to take you on my journey and every day, I'm hoping it's going to be every day.
I'm going to try it every day. I'm going to take you through what I'm doing to build this. And if you have questions about your business and you go, "You know what, Michael, I kind of resonate with that," I want you to get in touch with me. You can call me, you can send me an email, you can leave a message on my website. However you want to get in touch with me and I'll answer you and we can talk and maybe I can help you.
I believe in helping people and it's what I want to do with this company. So this is my first podcast on this subject. I did one earlier on my photography. We're going to talk about photography. We're going to talk about music. We're going to talk about programming. We're gonna talk about funnels.
We're gonna talk about internet marketing. We're gonna talk about doing things offline, like press kits. We're gonna talk about how to do interviews, all that stuff to help you build your audience, build your business, get your product out there, your service out there, your message to the people that need to hear it. And you're going to become internet famous. You're going to help other people, and hopefully you feel good by helping them and they feel good because they work with you. Okay? That's it. This is Michael and I'm supposed to do this again tomorrow. I told myself I can do it every day for, well, we're starting with a year. Even if it's five or 10, 15, 20 seconds or a minute, I'm going to try and throw some value out there for you every day, okay? Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.
Today, I want to talk about fear in those things that hold us back. I'm afraid of snakes and I'm going to tell you all about it here in this episode and we're going to relate it to our lives and business and everything else and see if we can't get past that fear. Let's listen.
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