#120: Derek Sivers – How to Live as a Creator and Why You Should Focus Like a Monomaniac
10/04/22 • 53 min
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EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Derek Sivers is a musician, producer, circus performer, entrepreneur, TED speaker, and book publisher. He's written four books including How To Live, Hell Yeah Or No, Your Music And People, and Anything You Want.
He's also the founder of CD Baby – the largest seller of independent music online, with $100 million in sales for 150,000 musicians. In 2007, Derek sold that business for $22 million – almost all of which Derek donated to a charitable trust for music education.
In this episode, we talk about how Derek keeps himself focused on ONE project at a time, how to navigate conflicting philosophies, what we can learn from professional musicians, and how creators can pursue balance in our lives.
Full transcript and show notes
See Derek Sivers book recommendations
Follow Derek Sivers on Twitter / YouTube
***
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Who is Derek Sivers?
00:27 - Derek is a Monomaniac
01:19 - Derek’s Inspiration for “How To Live”
01:58 - What We Learn Today
02:45 - Derek Has a Singular Focus
04:14 - Is Being a Monomaniac Innate or Learned?
04:57- Don’t Be a Donkey! (Buridan’s Donkey Paradox)
06:54 - Why It’s Important to Prioritize and Sequence in Your Life
07:46 - How to Use Journaling to Prioritize Your Life
09:19 - Life is NOT a Problem to be Solved
12:33 - How Do You Decide What Gets Priority?
17:10 - How to Navigate Conflicting Philosophies
20:10 - Derek’s Process of writing “How To Live”
21:30 - Your Values Change Over Time
23:13 - Breaking Away From Tribalism
24:21 - How to find Balance in Your life
27:49 - STOP Relying on Your Job to Fulfill EVERY Need
30:23 - Derek’s Life as a Musician
31:34 - Momentum is SO Important
34:39 - What Creators Can Learn From Musicians
35:57 - The History of Starbucks (And What You Can Learn From It)
38:22 - Intrinsic VS Extrinsic Motivation
43:10 - Even Rock Stars Have a Boss
44:54 - What Will Derek Do Next?
***
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WATCH
▶️ Watch this episode on YouTube
***
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Derek Sivers is a musician, producer, circus performer, entrepreneur, TED speaker, and book publisher. He's written four books including How To Live, Hell Yeah Or No, Your Music And People, and Anything You Want.
He's also the founder of CD Baby – the largest seller of independent music online, with $100 million in sales for 150,000 musicians. In 2007, Derek sold that business for $22 million – almost all of which Derek donated to a charitable trust for music education.
In this episode, we talk about how Derek keeps himself focused on ONE project at a time, how to navigate conflicting philosophies, what we can learn from professional musicians, and how creators can pursue balance in our lives.
Full transcript and show notes
See Derek Sivers book recommendations
Follow Derek Sivers on Twitter / YouTube
***
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Who is Derek Sivers?
00:27 - Derek is a Monomaniac
01:19 - Derek’s Inspiration for “How To Live”
01:58 - What We Learn Today
02:45 - Derek Has a Singular Focus
04:14 - Is Being a Monomaniac Innate or Learned?
04:57- Don’t Be a Donkey! (Buridan’s Donkey Paradox)
06:54 - Why It’s Important to Prioritize and Sequence in Your Life
07:46 - How to Use Journaling to Prioritize Your Life
09:19 - Life is NOT a Problem to be Solved
12:33 - How Do You Decide What Gets Priority?
17:10 - How to Navigate Conflicting Philosophies
20:10 - Derek’s Process of writing “How To Live”
21:30 - Your Values Change Over Time
23:13 - Breaking Away From Tribalism
24:21 - How to find Balance in Your life
27:49 - STOP Relying on Your Job to Fulfill EVERY Need
30:23 - Derek’s Life as a Musician
31:34 - Momentum is SO Important
34:39 - What Creators Can Learn From Musicians
35:57 - The History of Starbucks (And What You Can Learn From It)
38:22 - Intrinsic VS Extrinsic Motivation
43:10 - Even Rock Stars Have a Boss
44:54 - What Will Derek Do Next?
***
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE
***
WHEN YOU'RE READY
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🧪 Join The Lab (private membership community)
***
CONNECT
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SPONSORS
💼 View all sponsors and offers
***
SAY THANKS
Previous Episode
#119: Omar Zenhom – Lessons from 200M downloads and 2000+ episodes of a daily podcast
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EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Omar Zenhom is co-founder and host of the award-winning The $100 MBA Show, which consistently ranks as a top business podcast in over 30 countries and has over 200 million downloads.
As a former school teacher for over a dozen years, Omar decided to apply his natural passion for teaching and learning to the business world. Now, through The $100 MBA Show and his software company, WebinarNinja, Omar has made it his business to help others learn, teach, and grow as entrepreneurs – every single day.
In this episode, we talk about the numbers behind the $100 MBA podcast, his strategy for growing the podcast, his process for publishing a daily show, and why you should really focus on your strengths when you’re getting started.
Full transcript and show notes
Subscribe to the $100 MBA Show
Follow Omar Zenhom on Twitter
***
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Today’s Guest
00:37 - Omar Zenhom’s Background
01:50 - What We Learn Today
02:33 - How Being a Teacher Helps Omar Now
04:30 - The Turning Point In Omar’s Career
06:21 - Omar’s 1st Podcast Failed
06:50 - You Should Double Down on Your Strengths
11:43 - How The $100 MBA Show Became a TOP Podcast
16:42 - Omar Loves Helping Entrepreneurs
17:56 - Entrepreneurship is REALLY Hard
18:34 - How Omar Grew The $100 MBA Show
20:13 - How to Sponsor Other People’s Shows
22:03 - Most Effective Cross-Promotion Strategy
23:25 - More Strategies for Podcast Growth
25:33 - How Omar Approaches Audience Retention
29:19 - Does Omar Ever Make Repeat Content?
30:04 - Your Problems All Come From Your Head
32:52 - What it Takes to Make a Daily Podcast
37:05 - Why Omar DOESN’T Do Video
38:58 - How Omar Approaches Making a New Episode
42:43 - Storytelling is Everything
43:42 - How Leading a SaaS Company Impacts Omar as a Creator
45:37 - Documenting Your Process is VERY Important
47:24 - How to Help Listeners Navigate Your Catalog
***
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE
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WHEN YOU'RE READY
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SPONSORS
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SAY THANKS
Next Episode
#121: Bryan Harris – How this sales master grew his business $100K/month
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EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Bryan Harris is the founder and CEO of Growth Tools, a monthly coaching service that makes it nearly impossible to fail at growing your online business. They combine proven growth playbooks with 1:1 coaching and peer support so you’re never overwhelmed, stuck, or left wondering what to do next.
Not only does Growth Tools offer a 100% refund, but he'll even give you $1,000 on top of that to hire another coach.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to get people to take action, how Bryan sells a $15,000 coaching program, what makes a sales offer irresistible, and an entirely new pricing model that increased Bryan’s monthly earnings $100K per MONTH.
Full transcript and show notes
Join the Growth Tools VIP list (free)
Follow Bryan Harris on Twitter / YouTube
***
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - What If You Could Earn an EXTRA $100K per month?
00:37 - Bryan Sold Baseball Cards Out of His Bedroom Window
01:09 - Bryan’s First Company Video Fruit
01:59 - What You’ll Learn Today
02:43 - 9 Year Anniversary of Bryan Quitting His Job
03:47 - Being On a Constant Mission to “Figure It Out”
05:51 - Bryan Started Making Content
06:56 - The Growth Tools Flywheel
07:22 - Bryan Zigs When Others Zag
07:56 - The Mission to Scale 1-on-1 Coaching
11:02 - What You Need To Do To Consistently Produce Results
13:19 - People Fail Because They Lose Belief In Their Plan
17:04 - Why Do People Lose Belief In Their Plan?
21:26 - Who is Bryan’s PERFECT Client?
24:26 - The BEST Business Framework I’ve EVER Heard Of
27:58 - It’s Depressing There is Only ONE Elon Musk
29:31 - Elon Musk vs Mark Cuban
30:13 - Bryan’s 20 Year Problem
34:22 - What Makes an IRRESISTIBLE Sales Offer?
39:59 - How to Make an Effective High-Ticket Offer
44:26 - How Bryan Added an EXTRA $100K in Revenue PER MONTH
51:33 - Clients Leaving is a BUG Not a Feature
53:25 - Should You Use Software for Lead Generation?
***
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE
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WHEN YOU'RE READY
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***
CONNECT
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SPONSORS
💼 View all sponsors and offers
***
SAY THANKS
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