EntreLeadership - #84: Mike Rowe—Somebody's Gotta Do It

Episode Date: November 17, 2014

Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs and current host of CNN's Somebody's Gotta Do It joins our podcast to talk about his new show, entrepreneurship and the desperate need for skilled labor. Plus, check out our bonus audio with Mike on his greatest passion and the mikeroweWORKS Foundation. http://www.entreleadership.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charismatic, passionate, as integrity, humble, servant, faithful, inspiring, persevering, positive, flexible, driven. This is who we are that call ourselves leaders. Helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Now, here is your host, Ken Coleman. Coming to you from the Music City, this is the podcast of leaders, by leaders, and four leaders. I'm Ken Colbert. thrilled to be talking with you today. Our feature conversation,

what a treat this is, folks. Mike Roe, you know him as host of Dirty Jobs, producer and voice of shows like Deadliest Catch. He's got a new show on CNN called Somebody's Gotta Do It. And the team here at Entree Leadership chased him down for months. We've been going after this interview. I couldn't tell you folks about it, but the conversation recently took place, and I will tell you, no holds barred, one of the most enjoyable interviews I've ever done in my life, and I've done some great ones. Very insightful interviews with people I didn't belong in the room with, and I will tell you, this is top five. That's how excited to him about this conversation. Hey, I want to also make sure that you know, as you're listening in, wherever you listen to us, because we know that this is on-demand content for you.

We want you to tweet us at Entree Leadership. My personal Twitter handle at Ken Coleman. Of course, email us. We are loving getting your emails. Eric, the producer, collects these emails, and you can do that. podcast at entreleadership.com. Now, I got to tell you, this conversation with Mike centers almost exclusively around the idea of work and that work is honorable and that opportunity is there for so many people and they don't realize it. And after the conversation was over,

I was reminded of something that Thomas Edison once said, I want to share this with you, many of you've heard this quote before. Edison once said, opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Now, this conversation is going to be really refreshing for many of you entrepreneurs. People like you men and women. It is you that the economy is fueled by. It is you who understands dreams and failure. And when you hear this conversation,

I think there is opportunity for men and women like you who realize that there are jobs that need to be filled and give opportunity to people who may not have ever seen it before. This is really fascinating stuff. If we look at America and our economy in 2014, and this isn't political, this is just straight up economics, you're going to be really fascinated by this conversation with Mike Roe. So let's get right to it. This is my conversation with Mike Roe. Well, Mike, it's great to hang out with you, and we appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule.

Before we dive deeper into the conversation, tell us a little bit about the new show on CNN. Somebody's got to do it. I love that title. I like the show before at Dirty Jobs. It's a look at real people. That's why I love this particular show. I love Dirty Jobs as well, but to an audience on a podcast titled Entree Leadership, as we talk about leadership and entrepreneurs, I mean, this title is so great, Mike,

because the leaders listening into our conversation today, they know that they're the men and women who, when no one else will do it or wants to do it or even notices that it needs to be done, they do it because someone has to do it, and it's usually the leader. as you had a great career of giving us behind the scenes of these great stories of men and women and entrepreneurs, what is that unique quality that leaders have, that they realize somebody's got to do it, and despite all the circumstances, they just say, I'm going to get it done. What is that unique quality? Yeah, that's a great question.

You know, I think, and I've asked it a lot. You know, Mike, you talk about your grandfather and the men and women that have the same spirit that your grandfather had, and you really had it too. You mentioned it too in the first part of your answer there. And I want to stay here for a moment because you've talked about the idea that, you know, you've got to try things, and your grandfather wasn't afraid to try to build a house. They knew that there was going to be failure involved. And that's a spirit that some people come by naturally, but I also believe it can be developed.

Talk about this idea of stepping into the unknown and being okay to fail. well you know the tagline of somebody's got to do it is it's about a show about passion and purpose two of my favorite words discussions that we have quite often on this podcast and i saw a quote that was attributed to you you never know these days if it was actually said by you but i'll throw it at you but i loved what it said it said good jobs look a lot like kids playing and adults working did you say i might have said that explain that because i love what you're saying there but i want you to to unpack that? Well, same. That's right. They've been lied to.

They're 18, 19, 20 years old. No one. That's so spot on. I mean, listen, I'm passionate about the game of basketball, Mike, but I'm a five-foot-nine white guy who can't jump over paper. So if I try to... You're not going to have a good time. That's right.

I mean, if I try to feed my family, well, no, I can go out and play with my buddies on the weekend, and I can suck spectacularly and still sort of enjoy myself. But if I try to make a living at pro basketball, my kids are going to starve. I think this is a great distinction here. I talk about this all the time. I had a mentor when I was in my early 20s, Mike, tell me that the sweet spot in life is the intersection of your greatest strength

and your greatest passion. And I love how you're really drawing this out for us that our passion comes with us, but it is our great strength that we've got to mine into. And to that, and let me ask you, I think it would be fun to hear. What would you define, because you're very, very talented,

and as a result, you've been successful, but what would you define as your greatest strength? I think, honestly, don't think I... That's good. That's right. That's right. And not to mention, we're not helping kids understand what their great strength is and how it marries up with their great passion. So to your point, we're not filling practical jobs, but we're also sending people into the real world completely lost and confused. And that's what you described. It happens on American Idol. The first time the judge tells them they can't sing, they're distraught because they've been lied to their whole life. I mean, that's what's really happening. Yeah, the strengths call it cognitive dissonance. right you know and i think my bad just calls it reality well we have this huge outbreak of reality

deprivation syndrome i made that up mike you can use that because you have a lot more people watching r ds that's what it is uh but you know this too mike you've seen the shot the camera shot when the kid is walking off and sometimes it's a 23 year old kid and you see in the background the parent skulking in the background in complete shame as the kid melts down on camera because they've now been outed as the liar you know what i mean exactly yeah Worse than the liar, Ken, the enabler. Oh, yeah, you're right about that.

You're right. That's another step of evil, you know? Yeah. Look, lies are easy. You know, lies are, you know, it's either true or it's false. Yes. That's the thing. That's so true.

You know, I mean, look, there's something very noble in the mood. That's right. That's so good. And to that in, I want to move towards the TED talk that you gave. And for our audience, just a quick note, you can just simply search this on YouTube. or to the TED app or wherever. But the theme of the talk was changing the face of the modern proletariat, which I love.

For those of you haven't used that word since the fourth grade, or maybe sixth grade, proletariat would be your workers. And I love this because you've also talked a lot about this fact, and I think it's true. This is not a political statement. I think it's an actual contextual fact that it is kind of a dirty word to talk about work and people who work hard and do well at work. So give us a summary, if you could, and what you did in that TED talk,

what you shared with that audience. Well, yeah, it's wonderful. And I want to really recommend that you men and women leaders, people that are creating jobs, go watch the talk. It really, really is important information. And I want to kind of stay here because this is such a perfect lead-in to something you said earlier in our conversation, which is just that, you know, we've got this huge amount of jobs.

jobs that need to be filled. You just said it a moment to go as you went around on the 300 jobs that you did and you saw just help wanted signs everywhere. And it seems to me, Mike, that there is a huge opportunity for an entrepreneur to come out there and go, no, wait a second. We've got all these people who need jobs to be filled. And we've got this big gap. And it seems to me that there might be a great business opportunity somehow, some way to try to find a way to communicate that these jobs are greater that you could do quite well at them. Do you see that being the case? Isn't this a huge opportunity?

Is it a communication issue? Well, I do think it's a huge... Yeah, do the job. I think of her herself by basically hitting the reset button. I mean, you're right. That's right. That's real. Yeah.

I think there's a huge opportunity for someone to reset or someone to get involved on a trade and then build a business, like you said, and you're spelunking golf balls and you're a multi-election. millionaire, you know, because somebody's got to do it. I mean, there's a great theme here. And before I let you go, if I could put you on the spot to share one thought from your heart or maybe your head or maybe both to the men and women leaders and entrepreneurs, maybe students, we have people of so many different ages and race and different backgrounds who listen to this podcast because they feel that there's something they could do and there's something they should do.

And so I want you to encourage their heart, Mike. There's a pleasure of encouragement. It is my sincere belief, folks, that the best food is sloppy food. And Mike just said that was a sloppy answer. And if it was, in fact, sloppy, it was equally good. That was absolutely fantastic. What a challenge for us, men and women, as we do work that matters. Mike, I've got to tell you, I'm a fan of who you are.

I know I don't know you. This has been a privilege to have a conversation with. you, but I know that I speak on behalf of our entire audience that we're fans of how you do what you do, the stories that you're telling, and we want to support you to continue to tell those stories. Make sure folks, you check out his foundation, Mike Row Works, and of course, you can follow him, Mike Row.com. He's also on Twitter, The Real Mike Row. And so just to be a part of what he's doing, you can check out the show. Somebody's got to do it. What an incredible name that is. That ought to be a book title as well, Mike.

I figured you were. Somebody's got to do it on CNN, Wednesday nights at 9 o'clock. Mike, again, thank you very much for being with us. Just so there's no message. All right, he is Mike Rowe. And again, if you want to follow more about what he's doing, mikero.com, that's R-O-W-E.com. And also, Eric, our producer,

pulled a couple of extra questions from the conversation, and he's going to make this available at entreleadership.com slash podcast. And just click on Mike Rowe. two specific questions that we're making available to you as bonus content. The first was, what is Mike's passion? What is he most passionate about? I think you'll enjoy that answer.

And then I love what he's doing to give back. And he has a great foundation. He'll tell you a little bit more about that. I think this is valuable stuff. And I think it will strike a chord with some of you. And hopefully you can get involved to help him out there. So make sure you check it out, Entreeleadership.com slash podcast.

Click on Micro for the bonus content. Hey, folks, as always, if you're looking to go deeper, You're looking to make a big decision in your business and you think, well, I may need to hire some outside help, something along those lines. We would ask you to wait before you spend all that money and consider all access. This is our online coaching resource. Check it out. Great program and great community to help you out. Also, don't forget, brand new event, entreleadership.com slash summit.

That's the Entree Leadership Summit with John Maxwell, Dave Ramsey, Pat Lincione, Henry Cloud, Rabbi Daniel Appen, and on. and on the list goes, of course, a part of that list, Christy Wright and Chris Hogan from our team. It's going to be a great event. Coming up this spring in San Diego, Entre Leadership.com slash Summit to learn more about it. It's going to sell out, already moving quickly towards that goal,

and so we'd love to see you there. Well, folks, that is going to do it for this edition of the Entree Leadership podcast on behalf of our producer Eric Anthony and the entire Entree Leadership team. Thank you for listening. We will talk with you again very soon. Thank you.