The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Janine Bolon of The 8 Gates

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

Janine Bolon of The 8 Gates The8gates.com

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. The Chris Voss Show.com.

Hey, we're coming to you from the Internet Podcast. We certainly appreciate you tuning in. We always appreciate you tuning in. Why do I always have to say that? You should know that. I don't have to tell you I love you. You should just know that I love you because you subscribe to the show. Seriously.

And the beautiful part about our show, when you go to youtube.com, Fortuna's Chris Foss, hit that bell notification button. You get to join our family. And the beautiful part is, too, it's a family that doesn't join you. Do I have your vote yet? Anyway, guys, go vote for us on goodreads.com fortune is chris faust see everything we're reading and reviewing over there and my books as well as amazon you get all our groups on facebook linkedin twitter instagram tiktok all that cool stuff join the big uh 132 000 linkedin group

and also join uh our new newsletter on linkedin that thing is killing it every day it comes out people like oh this is really great. I think it's like almost 4,000 people that subscribe to the darn thing, which is new. It's like fresh off of LinkedIn, so we're loving it. Check that out as well. Today we have an amazing multi-book author and entrepreneur, and she's done so much stuff. I'm going to have to just let her explain it because it's a long list here. But her name is Janine Bolin. She loves figuring out how things work. She's a scientist from the

beginning, and she craved to dig into the mysteries of life and understand why things are the way they are, which I have some relatives I can have her look at. After working in the pharmaceutical industry for 15 years, she dropped out of corporate America to homeschool her four children. She's always had a side business in her life, probably four children that were the side business. No, I'm just kidding. That's it kind of is actually, and shares with other business owners and creatives how to manage a well-lived life of children, family, friends, and clients while not suffering from burnout. That's so hard. Her 12 books. I feel burnout just saying that.

15 online courses. Still burnout. Four podcast programs and syndicated radio show. All express her desire to share her systems and routines with others. Welcome to the show, Jean. How are you? It is so fun to be here. I finally have a show host I can just goof off and giggle with.

And we can play games about, ooh, who has the worst family? No, I can just goof off and giggle with and we can play games about, ooh, who has the worst family? No, I'm just joking. Just joking. I'm in Utah, so I'm pretty sure I got you beaten. I don't know. There's always a bottom. There's always a level zero.

There's always a level zero. I don't know. I watched January 6th. At least no one that's related to it was at that. Let's talk about you and what you do. Let's get your plugs, your.com, so we can find you on the interwebs. I think one of the best ways that people can get to know me is the free stuff. We always love free stuff. And so if you go onto my author page on Amazon and you type in Janine Bolin, I have four or five books up there that you can get for free if you're on Kindle.

And that's one way to get to know me. Oh, yeah, we've got all kinds. We've got Ditch Your Debt While Banking Bucks. And that's the 60-40 principle. We can talk more about that later. And then we have The Thriving Solopreneur. That's basically how to nurture your business in four hours a week so you get more clients. And then we have the wonderful author podcasting, and that's how to be a standout guest and take your book on virtual tour. Chris, I was thinking of you when I wrote that because I know how much fun you have with some of your guests that are not prepared for all that you are. And then the last one, and not to be outdone, is expressing the divine. And that's basically how to live that perfect life. Now it's perfect up here. I'm not saying it's perfect in the way it manifests,

but you have that ideal life in your head and it's how to get it out of your head and manifesting it into your life. So those are some of the freebies that you can get if you go to Amazon, but it's better if you get it from my website, the8gates.com, because then you can sign up for the newsletter and then you get the cool free stuff that I offer through that. Free stuff, 8gates.com. So yeah, this is pretty cool. Yeah. We're really spoiled on the show because we get a lot of high media guests, a lot of people who do TV regularly and journalists from all the different New York Times, Wall Street Journal that have been on the show. So we get a little spoiled sometimes, but we get the whole gambit from one end to the other sometimes.

And like I said, I just usually sit here like Johnny Carson, and I'm just like, have at it, man. Just fucking go. But you will be one of those guests, so that would be great. No, I want to have fun. I'd like to have a conversation. It's more fun when you get the host involved. I don't want to sit here and just talk. I think so, because you have so many experiences that are new and different. And And yeah, I've been on TV. Yeah, I've been on radio. But it's a lot more fun

when you have a comedy act where you have the straight man and the color person. I love being the color person. You'd be the straight man. Or maybe today you'd be the straight man. I don't know. We'll just bat it back and forth and see what happens. So what should we feature about you? What should we lead off about you that you want people to know? Oh, I think the biggest thing is there's so much that's happened to the entire world over the last couple of years. Let's talk about how to make more money with what you enjoy doing. How about we do that? Sound cool? But you don't want to deal with how to make more money with things you hate doing? And I say that way because I know it sounds kind of, duh, bonk the head, put in the sound mic. But it's really just

because so many people focus on, I have to go to work and I have to do this and I have to do that. And one of the things I know is that there are people out there that have hobbies, whether it's video games or you like to make jewelry or you sew fanny packs on the side. I mean, there are so many amazing things that people are doing in this world, and they do it just because of the love of it. Believe it or not, you can make it into a business over a weekend, and you don't have to think negatively about that. There are so many amazingly creative people that as soon as you say you could make money with that, and you immediately watch them just kind of, oh, no, I don't want to. It'll take all the fun out of it. And I'm like, you never have to take the fun out of it as long as you sell things and as long as you run your business your way.

And that's the crux of the matter, isn't it? Yeah. Finding something you love. I wrote about this in my book this year. I didn't ever find anything I loved until recently with COVID and we changed the structure of the podcast and had more authors on. We moved away from tech news and tech CEOs and we just opened it to everybody. And finding something you love is really important because those dark times when you're tired or you're frustrated or you can't find the answer, you can't get the key or the safe to open with the right combo that you're looking for some sort of innovation or unlocking the next level. You really need that passion of loving something to get through the next step, which is probably why my first nine marriages didn't work. At least the first seven or so, probably. That's my divorce story. But no,

really, being in a love of business, and I told people this in the book, I'm like, don't be like me. I love being the CEO. I love being the guy with the – I love having the weight of it on me of going, you're the guy. There's nobody behind you. It's either you or nobody. And to me, that was like a wonderful, nice Rambo adventure through business. But when you're not passionate about it, when you don't love it, it's so hard to stick with it. It is. And as you and I both know,

the only way you stay in business is through perseverance. And it doesn't have to be hard, but unfortunately, there are so many ways that people make it difficult to run your business. And what I encourage these creatives that I talk to is you don't have to make it hard. You don't have to make it difficult. And I'm currently writing yet another book this February based on that. And so I offer to your listeners that you're welcome to become beta readers. What's a beta reader?

For authors like me, that means you get to sign up for free. And as I crank out these chapters to you, you get to talk to me about them and say, this chapter isn't very good. I couldn't follow it. This information sucks about them and say, this chapter isn't very good. I couldn't follow it. This information sucks. Or, hey, this is really great. I can actually follow the directions that you have. And so for free, you get to do this. And as you're working with me, the only

thing I ask in return is testimonials after you finish the book. And then we use those at the front of the book when we get ready to ship it off to the printer. So I'm actually writing now the book that talks about how over a weekend you can start a business that you love. And what that means is have a vision for what you want to do, what you enjoy doing, and make sure you only do that and make enough money at what you're doing to hire people to do the stuff you don't like. So the very first thing I did was I made sure I made enough money as an author and a coach and blah, blah, blah, had online courses, all that kind of stuff, made sure that I made enough money that I could hire a bookkeeper. That was number one. Then it was the CPA. And then after that came the administrative assistant. And after that came my housekeeper. Okay. I wanted to make sure that all that stuff

I can't stand to do. Guess what? My hobby, which has now become my full-time job, is what's doing it. But I want to go back to something you said about during those dark times when you're not feeling as energetic or whatever. I do something, some people think it's crazy, but I go back and I go downstairs and I sit with my sewing machine and all my fabrics and I actually sit there and I hand sew pieces of fabric together. Now, true, it's making something and there's all kinds of different things I make, but I hand stitch everything together because it calms me down. It puts me in that present moment as whatever your thing is. The problem with escapism, like binge watching Netflix or doing something like that by vegging out in front of video games or something like that, it really doesn't calm certain areas of your brain down. Whereas if you're doing something physical, that's like sewing or something that requires putting models together, whatever happened to putting models together,

stuff like that. Yeah, I did too. Aircraft carriers, the Kitty Hawk. That was my favorite one that I put together. But it's like doing that kind of thing that actually is calming to your central nervous system. Whereas watching additional screen-based images are not. And there's all kinds of science based around that. I don't care about a lick about that, even though I

am a scientist. I care about how I feel. And I know that I sit downstairs and I'm having a really bad day. I stomp down the stairs, sit in front, put on some good music, probably some rockin' 80s tunes, and then sit there and hand stitch. It calms me right down. Some people find painting the same way. I don't know about you. What do you do when you need to calm down after a pretty tough day? Murder.

Murder. Just kill whoever is the problem and then you're good. I have a drink. It's like Dexter. But they do. It ended badly, but I won't be hearing from them again so so we're all good it's square the digging the digging of the hole pouring the lion and stuff that that is the sequence of the shovel you know calming very rhythmic very methodical plus you get out of your system you don't have to you're not like worried

about that person tomorrow no don't ever see them again you just have to worry about them finding them tomorrow right that's digging a deep enough that's a whole new set of problems so by the way i do have a friend who's a forensic pathologist so we can have that conversation i was kidding on that part i think that's what a friend told me. No, video games usually gets me out. I don't know.

I have a really weird thing, like heavy metal. If I go to the gym or heavy metal, Metallica, like for some reason, just getting the anger out, for some reason that releases the anger in me. The murder. But hey, I'm totally into that with Crazy Train and Sandman. I totally enjoy that kind of stuff, especially if things get a little too tough on me. When it comes to running your business, you're going to have good days and bad days. And the thing is, have systems in place so that when you're having a bad day, you can shut the computer down, walk away from it, and give yourself a break. Because nothing is worse than trying to run business when you are feeling like you want to strangle someone. That's true because you might end up strangling them.

Then you got a felony right there. Thank God for Zoom. No, it's really important. So find a business you love and manage your health and emotions. One of the things that most business owners do not do, especially if they're new to the game, is they don't set office hours. They're working whenever they can get to work. And I'm like, are you kidding me? It's like by 6 p.m., the lights shut down. I have automated systems that I have alarms that go off on my phone and on my computer.

If you don't shut down in 10 minutes, because I put timers on the electrics because I know me. I know me very well. And if I'm on a roll with something, it's you better finish up by six o'clock because this stuff shuts down and you don't want to have a blackout on your electronics. So that kind of inspires me and keeps me motivated to shut down at six o'clock because game over. We are done for the day. You're going to start back up at 10 o'clock the next morning. And so I do that Monday through Friday. So some people say, Janine, that's a little extreme. I'm like, well, I'm an extreme personality in case you haven't noticed. Okay. So I have to go

extreme because I'm not normal. And I know this about myself. So if I'm not going to stop when I need to stop, then I set systems in place to make me stop. That's pretty smart, man. I've suffered from burnout so many times over the years. One of my escapes was taking a weekend or where I just drive to a bed and breakfast just to get away and sometimes take a notepad to think about business. But I don't have an off switch with me and my companies and I really probably should where I do, yeah, it's punch out time. When I worked for some investors to build a mortgage company for them in Vegas once, it was really nice not to have to worry. I could go home and just not have to worry about it. That's what I call my temporary jobs. When I have temporary jobs where they ask me to

come to the business wherever they are and do some consulting, it's like, wow, I forgot what this was like. You can leave and not think about it. And not think about it. Hey, but if you're a business owner, just like Chris was talking about, once every three months, I go on retreat. And that retreat is I drive up to Cheyenne, Wyoming. That's only an hour and a half away for me. That's nice and peaceful.

Yes, it is. And there's a little Airbnb there called the Buckaroo Cabin or something. I forget the exact name of it, but I head on up there and I sit down and I take a three-day weekend. And I sit there with, like you, with the pen and paper and I figure out what I want to do for my business. But really I'm checking in with, am I happy with the way my life is going? And the reason I had to learn to do a hard stop on my brain, because like you, I could see myself headed into burnout, especially with 2020. Because I don't know about you, but Q1 was not a good time for me. I lost $28,000 in speaking engagements.

And I had three kids that were headed to college. And I am sitting there saying, how am I going to make this money up now that I can no longer get out on stages and sell in the back office? So that was a real mind bender, but Hey, we're still here. So still here, still working. So it's COVID. Somebody's got to win this battle. No, I remember watching the first years it's like watching money evaporate guaranteed freaking money that you just like and we do events all year long cs nab show and for years we've cultivated great client lists it was almost like sleepwalking and we're said to have one of our greatest years ever and yeah just watching

the money burn just cs canceled none of us canceled, any beach show canceled. It was like, wow. So there went, there was a lot. And I did a lot of free work during that period of time because these event planners, they couldn't pay your money back. They had all those deposits that they had to do for these event shows and stuff. And so I was like, guys, let's just take it online and we And since everybody's already paid up front, I'll go ahead and do it for free. And what's really cool is by Q4 of that year, those same event planners had done the shifting they had to do.

And they had me back and then paid my normal fee. And that worked out just fine. But staring down Q2, that was pretty scary there for a very good time. Yeah, I thought we were going into a whole other 2008 recession. There were times, yeah, that I remember those days. That wasn't a good time. But for those business owners out there or for people who are sitting there working on a book or you have some sort of creative process. It's very simple. There's only three things that you need to do to make your business profitable and be able to set it up so that you know what you're doing.

And the first thing is create a minimum viable product. It's called the MVP. Okay. Take a minimum viable product, something that somebody will pay $5, $7, or $9 for, something that's very easy for you to make or create and get that on to the internet in some way. The other thing is make sure you have an automated system that will book your calendar. So if people want to talk to you about your product, or if they want to communicate with you, make sure you have an automated scheduling system. Number two, make sure you have an automatic way for people to pay you because you do not want to be an administrative assistant chasing down that dollar. So make sure you have a Venmo account or PayPal. I prefer Venmo right now and Ko-Fi.

K-O-F-I. Those are my two favorite platforms for creatives that are just getting started in the biz. And the last thing after the business hours, you have the minimum viable product. Make sure you know how to get on a calendar with people. Make sure that you know how to get paid without people having to talk to you. And number four, make sure you have those business hours. When I started my very first business, I was working full time. And I only had from 8am till noon on Saturdays to start my business. And I was able to get a very viable business that I now do full time.

But that was the start. So those are some tips for your listeners. That's how you go about getting started with things. Definitely. Yeah, I just, when I put my book out in October, I started trying to do podcast tours. And it's just astounding how many of them don't have schedulers. You use the Calendly system and it's like a no-brainer. But like most of them, it was a nightmare just trying to schedule. And I'm like, do you just have Calendly or something?

No. And you go back and forth 50 times. Do you want to do Tuesday? Yeah. Do you want to do Tuesday in the afternoon or in the morning? Yeah. Afternoon. Do you want to do it Tuesday? This is like back and forth 50 times. Do you want to do Tuesday? Yeah. Do you want to do Tuesday in the afternoon or in the morning? Yeah, afternoon. Do you want to do it Tuesday? This is like back and forth emails.

You're just like, seriously, how do you freaking run this thing? I never knew how great my podcast was. I always thought I was like, whatever, it's there. I think it's listed as a top 1.5 or whatever. And then you have our numbers, which is the funny part. If they had our numbers, we'd probably be in the top 0.5%. Way to flex there, bro. Way to flex there, bro. Way to flex there, bro.

Just keep flexing, my man. I've got to flex. And so I was like, how many of you don't have that? But once I went on tour with some of these podcasts, I was just like, and then I think we were talking pre-show, but there's one show I went on where there was so many shows, actually, that were posting in – this was in October. They were posting for March. One show I went on, we get done, I go, hey, when does that go out? She goes, 2022.

I'm like, eight months from now. I'm going to have a new book by then. That's true. That is the way some of them run. How do you guys run a business this way or a podcast? Half the stuff we're going to be talking about is probably going to be irrelevant. People are going to be, what references are they doing? But yeah, you're definitely one of those good schedulers.

It's insane. But those are the areas that over and over again, I've run into business owners who don't have separate bank accounts. Like they're running. And they're a C-corp, right? They're co-mingling funds. It doesn't work out. Lawyers love that. Yeah, lawyers love that stuff.

They do. They do. It helps them with their feeding their children, so to speak. I have a C corp. There's no one can sue me. We just mix all the money and use the corporate account as a personal account. What could go wrong? I don't understand why people are upset by this.

Yeah. And so that was one of the fun things that as I started really helping people start these businesses in 2020, because they got a severance package or what have you, but now they were having to work for themselves for the first time in their lives. And they had absolutely no background or training on that. So I wrote a book on how to nurture your business in four hours a week. It's free. You can go to Amazon. It's called The Thriving Solopreneur. And it's all about how to get clients, how to prospect, how to do these things. And it's very simple. If you're looking for a fat book that has a lot of storytelling and clients and stories and testimonials, I'm not your

author. Okay. My books are, I want you to be able to read them in less than an hour. And I want you to be able to implement all the systems within a weekend. So that's how I write. And so if you're looking for one of these business books, that's going to make the wall street journal probably never will happen with any of my books because mine are down and dirty. Here are the five things you need to do. And this will keep you out of trouble. That's probably much better because you're just getting right to the point. or down and dirty, here are the five things you need to do, and this will keep you out of trouble. And here you go. That's probably much better because you're just getting right to the point. Yes.

Like some of these books where I'm like, I want to learn something, and they got like all these stories. Just tell me what happens. Like I think it was really bad. I just got done listening to a couple of Robert Greene books, and I wanted to recover them because they were so damn long on the audio book. So I bought like the short versions so i can go back over in two hours you can buzz through the cliff notes the cliff notes because

it was like students like you dude i've had students like give me the juice i just want to i just want to meet i just want to what tell me what the hell to do i don't want to have to sit there and be like i fell asleep during that chapter. What happened? It's one of those things that I don't know why it is in the publishing industry that way. I don't know if people think that the heavier or thicker a book is, but I don't know about you, but I've been in so many classes and I've taught so many courses and everything. I've just become very much an executive summary person. So do A, do B, do C. And I've written so many how-to manuals and check sheets and stuff like that. I know how I am and how I like to learn,

which is like what you said. Just give me the facts, man. Just give me the facts. What do I need to do? And so that's how I started writing the books. And it seems to be working. I have quite a few people that have cranked through several of them. And I figure if you've got questions or if something is about as clear as mud, and then you can know how to reach out to me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is where my happy place is. And that's where I have a whole team of people that I've hired that do take care of LinkedIn. And so if you ask to connect with me and you have a question, they will make sure you get my calendar so that you can talk to me. They take real good care of our communities, right? You got to have people that take care of our people, right? Definitely. Definitely. I've been thinking about if when I was speaking this year, assuming coronavirus doesn't do the Omicron thing, doesn't kill

everything. I'm thinking about doing what you mentioned. Just give the executive summary. I'll get up on stage, put up the PowerPoint. Here's five things. And I'll just be like, do this shit. Thank you. Good night. Spend the next half an hour looking at it. Write it down. I have had so much fun when I would go into a conference and I was paid to do the keynote address or do give the big keynote, blah, blah, blah. And I get up on stage and I say, okay, here are my four talk topics. Who wants to learn about item one, raise of hands? Item two, raise of hands. Item three, all right, go to slide number XYZ.

Thank you, Mr. AV man. Let's go. And we hit it and just go because I'd much rather talk to what the audience wants to hear instead of what I want to talk about. I'm like, oh, that's boring as all crud. We've had to sit through enough lectures in our lifetime. We don't want to be doing that stuff. Sounds like an auction where you're like, do I hear a number one?

Do I hear a number one? I got a number one over here. I got a number two. Who's got two? Who's got two? I am from Southern Missouri. So yeah, that fits right in with my background. There you go.

Missouri. Missouri. Oh, hey, if you're below I-70, my man, it is Missouri. And I have taken years of elocution lessons to get rid of the accent. There you go. So what else do we need to know about you that our audience should know? Actually, it's really important is what's going on with them. There's a lot of reasons that you can be in high anxiety these days.

There's a lot to be uncertain about. But one of the things that I read when I was working on a constitutional law degree, yeah, I was one of those people. And when I was working on that constitutional law degree, by the way, I did not get it. The university went bankrupt before I could finish. So anyway, but I was reading all the volumes of Thomas Jefferson. I know I've got so many stories and I'm just trying to get to the executive summary. What's important to learn? Thomas Jefferson said that as long as we had farmers and as long as we had farmers and entrepreneurs, this country would be fine.

And one of the things that we're seeing through this crazy time is we have more entrepreneurs and business owners than at any other time. So stay in business, freak it. Just do whatever you have to do. Do not give up. Keep rolling. Do what you have to do because we need what you have, whether it's a service or a product, what have you. This country needs you to stay in business for as long as possible. So what is the first rule of business? And that is, if you're not making a profit, you are not in business. So rule number one, do not go into debt for your business. You are not Pepsi-Cola. You are not Grace Company. And if you don't know what Grace Company is, that is a megacorp that owns many of the products and services you are using today.

Oh, P&G and stuff like that, I think. Oh, yeah. Stuff like that. So you're not at a point in your financial acumen where you can start leveraging loan options. You're not in that tax bracket yet. So when you're first starting out, don't go into debt for your business and bootstrap your way until you're making a profit. And the second rule of business is put money in your IRA first, then pay yourself. And that is a very wise way to use that hobby that you have to leverage your future.

So those are just some tips. You don't have to listen to me. Am I a certified financial planner? No. Do I have any kind of credentials that I can flaunt to you and say, hey, I know what I'm talking about? No. All I can say is that I've learned a lot and I am financially stable during a very instable time.

And that is because of what I have taught myself. So there you go. I'm an autodidact. I've taught myself, but I have absolutely no credentials to be able to flaunt around. I have no alphabet soup behind my name. You know, I mean, you don't have to anymore. In fact, some people that do have credentials, they don't really know what they're talking about sometimes because they haven't adapted. They just, it's something they read in a book.

Like I was seeing this on LinkedIn. Somebody posted something about, will you hire salespeople out of college? And I won't hire salespeople out of college. Nine times out of 10, they, yeah, they learned how to sell in a book, which doesn't teach you human behavior and doesn't teach you how to sell really. It tells you decent mechanics. I could never get those guys to sell their way out of paper bag but you give me some guy off the streets who knows how to do the thing i'll tell you a quick joke uh on the constitution side of it i had some constitution

who constitution uh constitution anyway i'm just a bill. I'm just a bill. It's a Saturday morning rock or whatever. You bet. But I had somebody write the other day on my Facebook. They're like, the Bill of Rights is more important than the Constitution. We don't need the Constitution. I'm like, do you understand what? Wait a minute. They're the same document.

People don't know. Well, the Bill of Rights is built on the Constitution. Well, it's in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights is in it. Okay. Sorry. Have you read the document? It's on display publicly, and it's also on the Constitution. The Bill of Rights is in it. Okay, sorry. Have you read the document? It's on display publicly, and it's also on the Internet. And I highly recommend that you go read the document.

And if you're lucky enough to be part of people that they have documents that are touring the country, not now with COVID, but I was lucky enough to actually see one of the copies. And it's just, oh, yeah, there's 24 copies that tour our country. And one of the things that is something we've been talking about in our girl scout and boy scout troops has been the, um, situation that people don't know how to read cursive. And what do you do with a free people that do not know how to read cursive when they're founding documents are in cursive. Yikes. I've seen enough people online to know that they don't know how to read cursive when their founding documents are in cursive. Yikes.

I've seen enough people online to know that they don't know how to read either. Are we really going to talk about the trolls? I think the trolls have had enough airtime, Chris, don't you? Yeah, they have. Yeah. Unless you're the troll. Unless you're the troll, go for it, my man. I totally think you should. I've been known to do that. These are great business tips. I remember seeing after COVID the scaling of, and what was really interesting was the opposite of the 2008 recession. In the 2008 recession, you saw business licenses just plummet. And with the 2000 COVID thing, you saw these businesses, these new business registration filings just go through the roof, complete.

It's like you flipped the graphs. And I was like, wow, a lot of people are starting businesses. And we're seeing them do that because a lot of people are starting businesses. And we're seeing them do that because a lot of people are just like, hey, man, I'm tired of a dead-end job. I'm tired of flipping burgers or whatever. And I want to go do something that I love. And it's just crazy, too, because a lot of those folks were making $13 to $18 an hour. And what is fascinating to me is how there are companies out there still that are thinking that they're going to get quality personnel for that. And I'm just like, a lot of folks are saying that kind of lifestyle is gone the way of the dodo.

There's going to be some vestiges of it floating around. back, then you might want to start contemplating the fact of how do we make ourselves competitive with the rest of the world and help with that creativity that's brewing. So I know there's a lot of hate that sometimes goes out regarding millennials, especially when I'm talking to people that consider themselves to be boomers. And I'm like, hey, wait a minute, those millennials are risking it all. They don't have the resources you do. They don't have the relationships and the connections that you do, but they're out there making it happen on social media and they're building businesses around it. So maybe we could take a lesson or two from them.

And then I also love the scouts that I work with who are running around with their entrepreneurial merit badge and they're giving me great tips every week on, Hey, did you know what you can do on Instagram? Guess how many followers I have now on TikTok and I'm just blown away. You should see what you can do on OnlyFans.com. That's a whole new thing. That's how I survived the coronavirus. We won't talk about that. No, it's interesting. I think it's really wild. I don't know how many are going to survive, but certainly buying your books and listening to your

advice, they have a better chance. But I think so many people just went through this cathartic moment with coronavirus and they just said, am I really doing my life's purpose? Am I really doing what I love? No, screw it. If I'm going to die, whatever, my life's on the line, I'm going to go do something I love. Yes. And that's one of the things that is so wonderful. Like what you were, what you're intimating and talking about is how many of these businesses are going to actually survive? I don't think that is the point. The point is that people are actually starting a business. They are working towards some sort of element. They're creating a lifestyle for themselves. And if they can't quite achieve it, or some people just, they're just

wanting to see if their concept will live. And so how many times have you and I failed epically, fallen flat on my face? Now I have built and sold 17 businesses, but I do not talk about the three, except today. I talk about them all the time. The three that were epic failures, crash, burn, barely left the wreckage alive. It's like a whole Howard Hughes moment. Totally true. It was awful. And what is fascinating to me though, is I learned so much from those experiences. So just because a business fails and the person walks away and decides to do something else, that still is valuable not only to the community, but to them and to our economy. So anyway, I just people talk a lot about, oh, did your business fail? Did your business be successful? A lot of times just the creation of the business is what the person needs to do to be able

to make the next step in their lives. Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see how it turns out. But yeah, I know a lot of VCs got ready at the beginning of 2020 where they're like, this is going to be like 2008. You saw a lot of inventions come out of 2008 crisis. You saw Twitter, Facebook, social media came out of it. You saw this rise of all this sort of new technology.

Podcasts became really huge. Blogging, websites, all this sort of stuff. Now there's even talk about Web3 coming out with new stuff, the metaverse, and these, what do they call them, the LFTs or whatever. The new, I don't know, the new picture buying thing that people can do. Clearly, I'm not hip. I'm kind of lost on some of the alphabet soup you're throwing my way. NFTs.

Okay. Oh, gotcha. So there's a lot of cool things that should come out of this, and a lot of it will probably come out of all these new entrepreneurs because they're going to be re-innovating stuff and making new stuff and creating hopefully maybe a home. I think so because anytime somebody has time to sit and be creative and they finally are like, oh, I've been waiting my whole life to be able to just take the time to do X, Y, Z, and they get so passionate about it. They spend 17 hours a day

creating whatever it is for weeks on end. You can't help but have something epic come out of that, right? We've all seen the different types of video games that have come out of that. It's fantastic the number of role-playing games. It used to be just Dungeons & Dragons, right? And now, look, these people have avatars that run around in these three-dimensional spaces and it's just holographic we got the holographic stuff oh it's fabulous stuff i know some people are looking at me like oh my god you are so last century janine yeah i may be but it's

not often that somebody like me watch used to watch star trek the Generation. And now I'm living it. It's true. You forgive me if I get just a little geeked out by all of that. Yeah. Yeah, especially the cell phones. And I'm still waiting for the Beamey and Scotty thing. Oh, teleportation. I know. Yeah. Then we wouldn't have to worry.

The whole carbon footprint thing would be great. It's the only way to fake your death. It's really great. You really have that thing about the dead bodies. I don't know. It's a comedy callback at this point. It just keeps coming right back. But no, it's really interesting to live.

And it's going to be interesting to see what a lot of these entrepreneurs do, the new things that they come up with. Because like you say, there's going to be some that won't survive, but there's going to be some that are going to survive and they're probably going to be really. And I just think how weird it was when I remember when social media rose and I was at the forefront of that and I had to be because it wiped out all of our companies. And yeah, just watching the rise of it and the whole new, basically the whole new revolution of ways of doing business and making money.

And so it'll be interesting to see what comes out of this. I have to say, I am looking forward to it. And one of the things that I would like to share with folks is that don't sit there and try to figure all this stuff out by, for yourself. All right. Not only I know a lot of folks are already very familiar with YouTube. You're listening to the show here on this and on other platforms, but not only is YouTube one of those fabulous places where pretty much everything you need an answer to is there, but if you truly get stuck, if you truly get stuck

in your business and you want to talk to a human being who's been through 17 different businesses, please go to my company, The 8 Gates. It's T-H-E 8, the number 8, gates, G-A-T-E-S.com forward slash lightning. I hope you can spell lightning. And if you type that in forward slash lightning, you can get 30 minutes with me. We will talk about one problem, one problem that you have. And if I can't answer it, oh, by the way, I charge you 75 bucks too, just to let you know. But if I can't answer it, I have somebody in my network that can. I give them the 7575 and they help you. And so that is something that we can do for you.

And thank you for that plug very much, Chris. I appreciate that. But I just want to let these people know. It's all about the plugs. Yeah, it's all about the plugs. But I also want to help people. Don't make my mistakes. Make different ones.

That's what I'm always saying to my children and to my students. Don't make my mistakes. Make different ones. That's what I'm always saying to my children and to my students. Don't make my mistakes. Make different ones. Yeah. Make different ones. Don't make mine. What are some other advice you have for business owners or some of the other things that you've touched on with your- Okay. Let's talk about how you get clients. Let's talk about relationship marketing. That seems to be the big brouhaha, big biz that's going on. It's all about relationship marketing. And one of the things I'd like to share with you is if youaha, big biz that's going on. It's all about relationship marketing. And one of the things I'd like to share with you is if you don't have me as a friend on LinkedIn, go to LinkedIn, ask to connect with me, and then don't respond, but watch the messaging that my team does as you connect with me on LinkedIn, and you will see what relationship

marketing is about. The very first message is, hey, thank you so much for connect with me on LinkedIn, and you will see what relationship marketing is about. The very first message is, hey, thank you so much for connecting with me here on LinkedIn. I would love to get to know you better. How did you find me? Was it through my books? Was it through my course? Blah, blah, blah. If you would like to see more, and then I have a link there to my podcast program. Actually, I have four, but I have a specific one for business. And so that's there. And then two weeks later, they'll say, hey, thanks so much for connecting with you. What was interesting to you? Blah, blah, blah. If you want to book a free call with me, schedule a link. At no time do I ever sell. Why? Because I don't see you as a customer. I see you as a human being on planet earth. And maybe I'm not your perfect

person to help you with your problem or to help you with your life situation. Maybe it's somebody in my network. What I see you as is somebody who I can assist or at least refer to other people. And that is the core of relationship marketing is not looking at somebody as a mark. That's what con men do. And con women, sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be sexist there. Chris, thanks for backing me up.

Thanks for waving at me. Hey, that's sexist. You shouldn't be saying that. Con person. I think most men are con men, really. I don't think that way. Sorry. I have seen too many amazing heroes in my life. I have too many good men.

Look at you. You let me come on your show. There's good men and bad men. I don't know. I don't know. Do you really want to go into the shadow soul and all that kind of stuff? I don't know. Okay.

I'll save that for a psychology show. But no, I like how you approach that with LinkedIn. Cause I, I hear these people on LinkedIn that make me mental. I think you make everyone mental. Cause I see a lot of people on Facebook complaining about it, but they just go right for the land grab. They just write you and be like, Hey, do you want to spend money? And you want a 15 minute call with me? And you're like, I don't know who you are, dude.

Like I do. I don't know what, like, I don't know. 15 minute call. What is this? Like a Chris Hansen or something? What's going on? What's with that? I don't even do that for the people who are my clients.

I know. It's really weird. There's no warm-up. There's no qualification, too. That's the other thing I hate. They'll call you up and be like, hey, can we do a 15-minute call about steel production that you can do locally? And I'm like, I'm sorry, not steel production. I don't even, I'm not even based in Pittsburgh. What are you talking about?

What the hell? It's just insane, man. But I like that approach you're using on LinkedIn. It's relationship marketing, which is you go after the relationship, you go after learning more about the person. And like you said, qualifying, all that kind of stuff. But my goal is if you're really going to buy into this whole, you can make the world a better place one person at a time. If you're really going to buy into that philosophy, which I do, can't help it. I'm a scout. I bleed green. But I want to make the world a better place one person at a time.

I think that's an alien thing. It is. Thank you for noticing. I was hoping. Sorry to interrupt you. But you want to be able to serve those individuals in whatever way you can with your business. And so I can do that through referrals and through my network or through people that I know will be able to guide them appropriately. And if you just go into business for the money's sake, you will burn out. But if you go into the business because you have a vision and a passion, that'll get you through the hard times.

It definitely will. I'm my only fan, not for the money, just for the exhibition of it. So as we start rounding out, what else do people need to know about you, Jean? I really think the best thing that you can know about me is that I have a philosophy that was considered kooky and weird and ended up becoming the strongest asset I had. And that is, I see the world through rose-colored glasses. You know what? My world is pretty great. And yes, there are a lot of things

that have happened to me. And I know that every person that comes into my world doesn't look like what they've been through. And I can think that is true of all of us. And one of the coolest things that I heard was from the Dalai Lama, who said, be kind to everyone because everyone is fighting a battle. And of course, it's that internal battle. Some of us have super high anxiety. And so just showing up and being on a podcast is all they can do that day. For those of you who that's the way the hand that you've been dealt, thank you for showing up every day. For those of you that have physical challenges, and it's all that you can do to get out of bed in the morning and make breakfast for your family, thank you for getting out of bed. And for those of you who are bedridden, thank you for listening and giving hope to people because you may be bedridden, but you're sitting there making a

business on social media just by letting people know where you see the beauty in the world. So there really are no more excuses anymore. You can run a business. You can make money in no matter what your life situation is. It just depends on what your focus is. So yep, I am annoying. That is my job. If you're not feeling good and you run into me, I'm the most annoying person because I see the world through my rose colored glasses and nothing is more annoying if you're depressed than having somebody happy standing beside you. So I guess that's the best thing I can say to your people. Awesome. I do it through rose wine colored glasses. I'm not only happy, I'm drunk too. And doing very well. I can't feel anything. Hey, you're not slurring your words. You're doing great. Not yet. I mean, I'm not only happy, I'm drunk too. And doing very well. I can't feel anything.

Hey, you're not slurring your words. You're doing great. Not yet. I mean, I'm still in the first class. Janine, it's been wonderful to have you on. Give us a roundabout of all the wonderful things you do and the plugs and everything else. Hi, thank you so much. And all I can say is that the best way to get a hold of me is through LinkedIn.

Just go to Janine Bolin and you can take a look at what I do for debt-free living. If you're stuck in debt, we can help you with that. And you've got so many books, 12 books, right? Yeah, just 12. I'm working on number 12. Podcasting, Expressing the Divine, The Thriving Solopreneur, Cash, Cars, and College. That's for young people. That's for people ages 11 through 18.

Yeah, that's how they get that financial training. Cash, cars, and college. Ditching Debt, The Grocery Store. This is kind of an interesting book. The Grocery Store Game. Yeah, that book was written before Kindle was even out. So some people have purchased the book. It gets the most negative reviews of any of my

books. And that's because it was written in 2005, people. Wi-Fi had not been invented. Guess what? That year, there was this thing that was launched called YouTube. So that's why the book is set up with all of the forms and everything. And they're like, why don't you just digitize it? Why are there 50 pages of forms? I'm like, dude, it was a workbook for my students. Sorry. Thank you for letting me get that out there. You can help me off my stand now, my podium. There you go. There you go. This is wonderful. And it's been wonderful to have you on the show, Janine. Thank you for coming by today. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. It's been wonderful. Take care of yourself. Yeah. Don't be digging any holes in the garden beds. All right. Stay well from that. There's one I got to fill in.

There's one more. It's in the freezer. Wonderful. Thanks, my audience, for tuning in. I hope you guys had a lot of fun, too. Be sure to go to Goodreads.com, Fortress Crispoff. See everything we're reading and reviewing over there. Are you on Goodreads, Janine?

Yes, I am. Thank you for those reviews, people. Love you. Love you. What are those giveaways they do? Those giveaways are awesome. Also go to all of our groups, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, see our big group on LinkedIn and our new newsletter on LinkedIn.

That thing is awesome. Also go over to, what is it, YouTube.com, Forge has Chris Voss, and subscribe over there. See our CES covers that we just did, the CES show. That was pretty amazing. Anyway, thanks, my guys, for tuning in. Stay safe, be good to each other, and we'll see you guys next time.