Our special guest today is JB Glossinger, the founder of morningcoach.com, the world’s largest ‘real time’ personal development resource on the web. Discover how to find your true passion, the importance of being authentic and real and why consistency is so important.
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Franziska: Welcome to another Basic Bananas podcast. Today we have another fantastic guest all the way from the US, JB Glossinger. JB has an MBA and a PhD in metaphysics. He‘s an internationally known speak, author, coach, and consultant who is here to help people manifest what they want in business and personal life. JB shares what he has learned from his personal transformations, his corporate and personal experiences and his MBA and PhD background. He offers a very unique perspective, bringing pragmatic approaches to a new and evolving world. His studies are interesting and fresh, combining wisdom of the ages with modern science. JB‘s firms includes the Alive Foundation which launched morningcoach.com. The world‘s largest real-time personal development resource on the web. JB‘s energizing podcast reached number one in the iTunes healthy category after just three weeks of broadcasting.
Franziska: So Hi, JB, thank you so much for being on the podcast show today.
JB: Hello. Hello. Great to be here!
Franziska: All the way from Florida in the US.
JB: Yes, in Fort Lauderdale, FL in the other beach place of the world. Not California, but the other beach place on the East Coast here.
Franziska: There is another beach place and it doesn‘t have waves.
JB: No waves. You got to go up north a little bit to catch the waves. But it does have a really international flare to Fort Lauderdale and Miami down here.
Franziska: Yeah, I think Kelly Slater is from…is he from somewhere that side or he from further up? He might be from further up on the East Coast.
JB: I think a little bit further up.
Franziska: By the waves. Yeah. So JB, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as a successful, very successful entrepreneur?
JB: Well, I think I‘ve kind of had the road that a lot of people take. I went to school and decided that I was going to follow the pattern of a lot of the personal development speakers in the world that Tony Robbins and Zig Zigglars, and I started listening to a lot of those guys and decided to chase my dream, which was material. And as I went after the material dream I did my bachelor‘s degree and got into aerospace industry, did my MBA and kind of went up through the corporate ranks. At a very young age I was running a business, running about a 15 million dollar aerospace business, but I hated my life. I was working 60 hours a week. I didn‘t know who my wife was. I was stuck on the highway all day. And I think I had to find the real truth to living. Doing that, it was freedom. I wanted freedom. I didn‘t really want to work for somebody else. So I did the traditional route that they said you were supposed to do and I listened to a lot of the positive personal development that said, “Okay, this is what I‘m supposed to do,” but I found myself very miserable.
So at that point I really made a decision that I need to make some changes. And that‘s when I kind of looked at the metaphysical side of things, and I studied my PhD in metaphysics. And I really took a totally different track. And I decided that there were much more bigger things in life than just trying to manifest material items all the time and just being in that corporate world.
So for me, breaking away is really what got me into the entrepreneurial spirit. And what really helped me to become and really project myself into the world. And the success came as I started making a lot of mistakes and listening to people. People were telling me, “Oh, you got to look this way.” I wrote a book, “You have to do it this way.” And I just kept losing money. I didn‘t do it right. Where the success came was when I realized that you just need to be yourself and you need to go out there and find ways to project your expertise into the world. And that‘s when I started to gain some success.
Franziska: That‘s gold like right up front, because when you say about being yourself, I think that is such a great goal. And I realized that when we started, and I‘m actually quite excited to talk to somebody who has done the traditional stuff. You‘ve done a PhD. You‘ve done an MBA. Because you know, and I‘ve done the same thing and then broken out of that career path. But a lot of super successful people always talk about how they dropped out of school and they were rebels. I guess we were probably rebels in a different way, but still finishing school. Because I want to say to our listeners that you can have your, you don‘t have to drop out of school like other successful entrepreneur, to be an entrepreneur, to have an entrepreneurial mindset.
JB: No, and I think that‘s the key. I think there‘s a lot of value in my schooling. I have to tell you, I think there were some great things that came from it. But you don‘t need school to be a successful entrepreneur. My whole thing in life is to take everything that you can get and just continue to use it in your progression. And everything that I‘ve learned along the way has helped me in my career, even going to my MBA and the business stuff that I do now, I can look back and I can read financial statements. So all of that was part of the process.
My thing is don‘t let somebody else‘s life find what you really want to do. Find your true passion because it‘s out there and you can do it. I think that‘s what‘s so exciting and what I‘ve created with morningcoach.com and the success that I‘ve had is because it‘s just helping people get clear. Most people, and entrepreneurs are the same way, they don‘t recognize the fact that, “What am I going after? Why am I doing it?” asking that big question why. Because once you realize that, then you can become yourself. I‘m a tee shirts and jeans or shorts type of guy. You won‘t find me in a suit and tie ever again.
When I first started to break away and become an entrepreneur I had people telling me I had to pay a lot of money to have people tell me, “Oh you need to be in a suit and tie. You need to look this way.” And I really was unsuccessful. So I think my big thing is be clear about what your lifestyle is and what you‘d like it to be and then go after that, not somebody else‘s idea that they‘ve given you that it should be this way.
Franziska: I love that. And you are the only person who really knows the real you and can bring out the real you. No branding expert can bring out the real you by putting you in a suit.
JB: No, and I think that‘s the big thing. So many people are looking for answers when they‘re all inside and it‘s just a matter of clearing the clutter, getting away from the news and getting away from some of those friends that we all have and really finding people that are going to support you and help you move forward in your dreams. It‘s not easy. It‘s very tough. When I started, I‘ve done 1,350+ podcasts. When I started people would say, “You‘re terrible. That stuff‘s horrible.” And really were almost brutal with me, especially when I went from free to paid, it was amazing the resistance that I got. But it‘s amazing is I just believed in myself and kept going. The people that believed in me and the people that wanted to be around successful people just kind of came together, and the rest of those people just fell out of my life.
Franziska: Interesting. And you know, I‘d like to ask you for our listeners, there will definitely be listeners on the show that are just wondering, “Well, how can I find my true passion? I don’t know what my passion is. It might be stocking a job, or I‘m doing something that I don‘t really love – I‘m just doing it for the money. Do you have any tips on how somebody can find their true passion?
JB: I think the first thing for anybody to do when they‘re really trying to find that passion is to clear the mental clutter. I see this as the biggest issue. When I followed Tony Robbins, who I love, and Zig Ziglar, who I love, people that really were personal development teachers; they were saying that you could have your dreams. But to me those dreams at that time were a Ferrari and a house on the beach and it all costs. But that‘s not really what I wanted. What I wanted was freedom. I didn‘t want those material things. But we‘re so conditioned by advertising messages and marketing messages that we never can get clear about what our true passion is. We think that‘s what we want, but is it what we want? It may be just talking to your 12 years old daughter.
So what I tell people is start with the next experience. What is the next thing you would like to experience? Don‘t get so far out in the future. If you’re having trouble finding your passion, what would you really like your life to look like? What would you like it to look like next week? That‘s where we got to start, simplify it, and then the decisions you make start to make the massive changes. And it‘s the small things that you do every day. I teach one percent improvement every day, not massive improvements, just small, little improvements and those incremental improvements become exponential.
So take it slow but watch your conditioning. That‘s the first thing you got to be cautious of. Where are you getting your information from and why does your life look the way it does and it‘s probably a reflection of the information that‘s coming into your mind.
Franziska: Awesome. Thank you so much. It‘s about clearing the mental clatter or turning off all the things that aren‘t constructive to finding your passion, maybe such as TV, some friends. And then also thinking about the next experience and just doing it slowly step by step every day.
JB: Yeah, and that‘s where it will come. Believe me, passion, like everybody wants this “Aha” moment where the arch angle Gabriel comes down, you know? And we have this massive enlightened moment. Now, I don‘t want to say you can‘t manifest it. I hope you do. I hope some people have those great enlightened moments. But the reality of the situation is most people aren‘t going to have that and their dynamics of their life are going to change. If they‘re in a car accident and something happens and they have a significant issue, guess what, your whole life changes in that moment. So your passion‘s going to change. You might just want to walk again. So we have to take every moment as a blessing and you just have to work with your passion during the day. And it‘s amazing how all of a sudden you can put a business together that matches that passion and start to develop a real awesome life.
Franziska: Awesome. Thank you so much. Now, the morningcoach.com, one of your projects, one of your businesses is the world‘s largest real-time personal development resources on the web. How did you come up with that idea?
JB: It‘s pretty interesting. I‘m a big personal development junkie. I‘ve always listened to all the guys and all the beautiful women that have put out their energy and their talent into the world. And what I found was I wasn‘t having real success. Like I said, the first thing wasn‘t really clear because nobody was teaching that metaphysical clarity type of thing, so I could say, “Okay, what do I really want?” so I wanted to bring that into Morning Coach. And the second thing I found is like doing a Tony Robbins courses, and then I would get a little bit of success and they say to keep reading and keep getting good stuff in your mind. So then I would move to Zig Ziglar and I‘d read and I would get some good stuff. But what I didn‘t realize is that every time I would switch from person to person I was switching a system. It‘s like going from an Apple computer to a PC computer to a Lennox computer back to an Apple computer. And your mind just gets so confused because you‘re getting great information, but you’re getting three ways to set goals, you‘re getting all these different ideas. So I didn‘t even connect the dots until later in life. That‘s when I said, “Somebody has to put a system together where you can do 15, 20 minutes of personal development every day and have a consistent system. So you‘re not switching every time from person to person-to-person.” And that was where Morning Coach came in. It actually came in for me. I did it for me. I would make notes and I would record my notes and I would listen for 15 minutes. I built the system consistently. So instead of going five million different directions, I was going one consistent direction. And it just tremendously changed my life. So MorningCoach.com is a 15 minute session with a workbook and that‘s the primary basis of it. And the foundation that came from, giving people a system to really improve their lives that‘s consistent.
Franziska: I think it‘s really different to anything out there. As you say, a lot of times you go to seminars, you know Tony Robbins is amazing speaker, and you go for maybe a weekend and then you‘re all hyped up and you’re doing all this stuff and you have all these goals, but then comes to fall, you fall down a bit. And you‘re like, uh, it‘s all too much. I don’t know what to do now. And you go back into your normal routine. And with your stuff, which is why I love having you on the show and which is why I want to share your stuff, too, it‘s every day. Every day you work on yourself and you do something every single day, which makes it so powerful.
JB: And that‘s the bottom line. And that‘s what I love about it and why it works so well because not everybody is going to listen to 1350 days in a row, even though I have some people that listen three times a day. It‘s pretty crazy the dedication that people have. But at the end of the day it‘s about just doing as much as you can. So if you can listen three days a week and get some consistent information you‘re going to be much better off than if you don‘t do anything, or if you go to a Tony seminar and you come back, a lot of times I like to say you get back in the real world. So you get back around those same friends, you‘re back in the same job. And it‘s hard to really put an entrepreneurial plan together and live a dynamic life or intelligent life design is what I like to call it, where you‘re working and you spend two hours at night building your dream business. So that‘s hard if you don‘t have something consistent that‘s around you. And the reality is most people don‘t want you to succeed. They want you to succeed, just not more than them. So you‘ve got to get around the right type of people and the right type of information. That‘s what‘s going to ultimately lead you to success. And that‘s why I know my program and what we do works so well because it‘s just consistency. It gives you a place to come that‘s going to be consistently there to get a return on your investment and learn a little bit.
Franziska: Yeah, I agree. And consistency is pretty much, it‘s one of the keys to entrepreneurial success in my opinion.
JB: Oh, it‘s huge. And just keeping going on. I wrote my first book. I spent $40,000. I published it myself. I thought it was going to sell millions of copies of it and I had 10,000 of them come in. I had them in my bedroom. I had them in my living room. I had them everywhere. I sold like three copies. One to my mom and two of my friends. My wife about wanted to kill me. She‘s like, “What are you doing?” And at that time I didn‘t know what I was doing, but I consistently just kept doing it. A friend of mine said, “Hey, why don‘t you give some information out? Why don‘t you start recording?” So I did a conference call. That‘s how morning coach started is a conference call. I blew up the conference lines. I didn‘t know what else to do. So I discovered podcasting. I put it out there and went to number one on iTunes and the rest is history. But it was consistency. It wasn‘t giving up. When three people were listening to me and telling me it was horrible, I just stuck with it.
Franziska: Yeah, and you know what, it really is doing the doing, because those three people that tell you that it‘s horrible, they‘ve probably never written a book. They probably keep saying, “I want to write a book.” Whereas you are successful now because you‘re doing the doing and you‘ve written that book even though you had no idea what you were doing and you maybe didn‘t sell the 10,000 copies. You were doing the doing. Whereas people who are holding you back and telling you it‘s crap, they‘re not doing it probably.
JB: It‘s so true. And the thing is I think one of the biggest fear people have is of the negative criticism. And it was really hard on me. I‘ll be the first to admit. When I went from free, I used to do Morning Coach for free and then I had to go to paid because we‘re a business and it was hard. I literally had a death threat from somebody. We had people sending hate mail saying how much of a loser I was. People have trouble accepting that and I even had trouble accepting that. But when my true success came was when I recognized that none of that matters. What matters is the lifestyle that I wanted to achieve. And see, that was the whole growth process as an entrepreneur and I think what holds a lot of people back and maybe some of your listeners is that fear. The fear of rejection. Nobody wants that. Nobody really wants to have that. But you grow through it.
It‘s funny if I can tell you a quick story. When I first moved to Fort Lauderdale a few years ago and I was in corporate, didn‘t have a lot of money, we bought these fake Rolex‘s because we wanted to impress the girls. What‘s so funny is I couldn‘t impress the girls because they knew it was a fake Rolex. The same thing now, if I put on that same fake Rolex and went out, people wouldn‘t even question it. They would look at it and say, “Oh, it ticks, but it‘s got to be real because that‘s JB.”
As an entrepreneur you just kind of grow. Nobody criticizes me now. They know better. It‘s like I have success. It‘s like, go ahead and criticize me. I‘m number one on iTunes. I got a lot going on. Nobody, it‘s funny, nobody criticizes me anymore. But when you first get started that‘s when you have the harshest critics because you haven‘t built up the belief in yourself yet. And don‘t worry about being afraid of what people think. Just start doing it. And as you do it, you‘re going to get better and better and better and you‘re going to have more success and that‘s the most important thing for entrepreneurs.
Franziska: I agree. And as you go through that process I think you suddenly started tracking those people that are empowering your and that are supporting your journey. And the people that are holding you back, they suddenly it‘s really hard. It was really hard for me. They suddenly start to drop off. And when I had that the first time with a person, I was like, “Oh my God.” I just pretty much said good bye to somebody that I had in my life before. For myself it was a really tough decision to make, but as you go through the process you realize that there are people who are holding you back and people who are supporting you and that‘s who you want to hang out with.
JB: It‘s critical and I think that‘s so important. I had the same thing. We all do. As we grow and develop it‘s the growth that‘s the most important thing and you just become this person. That‘s why I think it‘s so important as entrepreneurs that you just be yourself. If you‘re a tee shirts and shorts person, be that person. If you‘re an Armani suit person, be that person. But make sure it‘s your true passion then build your business around that.
Franziska: I love it. The Morning Coach also has a fan page on Facebook, which I love. And you‘ve got over 30,000 fans. How long did it take you to get to 30,000 fans?
JB: We have a huge group on Morning Coach, so it helped us. We have kind of an advantage because we have a nice community there. So, that got us started. And then they just started telling their friends. So it really is about a year and a half. Facebook‘s an interesting vehicle. It truly is. I think you connect with some great people and I think it‘s the number one obviously social media platform right now. But it took us about a year and a half. Now we‘ve really got some exponential growth. We have about 300 to 400 people join the fan‘s page a day now, so it‘s pretty cool.
Franziska: Wow. So do you have any success strategies for Facebook that you could share with our listeners?
JB: Be real. That‘s the most important thing. Grow your community offline and online. Don‘t be the person that just puts links up there to sell. We don‘t really sell anything on our page. If you follow it, it‘s actually Facebook/MorningCoach22 because I‘m morning coach on Facebook, but the page is Morning Coach 22. And we don‘t really sell. We have a lot of inspirational messages. We allow the community to talk to each other and our page is truly about inspiration because that‘s our business. But you‘ve got to be real. I think the biggest problem in social media today as an entrepreneur is we want to sell. We want to get our product out. But at the end of the day those people on the other side of the computer, sometimes we think they‘re just numbers and we‘re shooting for millions. We‘re shooting for the 36,000 on Facebook. Those are all people. And if you respect them, how would you like to be addressed? What would you like to have put on you wall? That‘s I think the real key is to treat everybody with that type of respect. And that‘s how you‘ll star tot have success. One will become two. Two will become four. Four will become eight. Eight will become 16 and you‘ll hit the exponential growth that way.
Franziska: I love it. Again, the being real, because especially on social media you can be anybody. You can be this super successful person. You can post pictures of Ferraris that you don‘t own. You can be anybody. I have little funny story – on Valentine‘s Day we went to dinner with some great friends. And one of my friends makes beautiful cakes in the states.
JB: Yes.
Franziska: Cool, well they say it‘s Aussie. I don’t know if it‘s true, but they saw Aussie in it. And she made this beautiful love heart, and it looked amazing. So Christo, my husband took a picture, posted it on Facebook and said Happy Valentine‘s Day my beautiful wife. So he looked like he made the cake because you can. And everybody was posting, all the girls, “Oh my God. You’re amazing, blah, blah, blah.” And I was just laughing because I said on Facebook you can be anybody. You can be the guy who made the cake even though you don‘t know how to do anything in the kitchen.
JB: That‘s funny. It‘s so true.
Franziska: You can be anybody. So if you can be real on Facebook and treat the people as real people I think that‘s what makes a huge difference.
JB: Yeah, and you have to be. As an entrepreneur the more real you can get, the more honest you can get, it just makes life great. I sleep great at night. I don‘t have any secrets. I live my life out into the world and it‘s not the fake it till you make it. It is what it is. I don‘t mind saying I spent $40,000 on a book and failed. I‘ve failed many, many times, but that is what has brought me to this point in my life and I‘m getting better and better. And I think people need to hear that. So just be yourself and just put out your energy and effort. There‘s billions of people in the world. There are enough people out there that will buy your things, that will want to be a part of your community and a part of who you are if you share your values, if you share yourself to the world.
Franziska: I agree. And what did you say, another thing I like about it is some people will like you for you who you are. If you are the jeans and tee shirt or a suit guy, and others maybe won‘t. And that‘s okay because you attract the people that you want to connect with anyway.
JB: And that‘s who you want to be with anyways. You want to be around the people that are like you and want to do things with you and I think as an entrepreneur that‘s who I want to be with. So my friendbase has changed tremendously since I really broke away and started being an entrepreneur because I think some of the people are kind of held back in their life. And like we had discussed before, we have to let those people go. So the more you can be yourself, the more you can have integrity and honesty and just be transparent in your business, the more success you‘re going to have.
Franziska: Fantastic. I think that‘s a huge lesson for our listeners, too. Now our listeners love hearing a little bit more about marketing strategies and how they can use successful marketing strategies. What are your top three favorite marketing strategies for small businesses?
JB: For small businesses, I own a few businesses, too. I actually have the biggest maid service in South Florida. I love the internet. I‘m a huge internet fan. The things that are happening with search engine optimization, blogging I think is tremendous. The beautiful thing about the internet is it gives somebody in a small position, or even one person like myself a voice. Nobody knew who I was compared to Tony Robbins. But because the ability of internet blogging and for me specifically podcasting are great tools that anybody can do. So my main thing is that if you‘re in a small business, you‘ve got to get on this internet train. You‘ve got to. You‘ve got to learn how to do YouTube videos. You‘ve got to learn how to podcast. You need to learn how to blog with WordPress. Those things are critical. They‘re part of the new world and any entrepreneur needs a jump on those and start marketing. I know a lot of people don‘t have success right away. They‘re like, “Uh, I only have ten people watching my Facebook page. Only one person read my blog.” Well, what you have to do when that occurs, is you have to love that one person. Don‘t get frustrated and walk away. Love that one person. If you have two people on your Facebook page, love those people. Contribute value to them. If I can give you any marketing tips at all in the social internet area, that‘s the key. Love the people that are following you or getting involved. Don‘t spam them. Don‘t put crazy links out there in your Twitter, your Facebook, your blog comments. All that will grow if you just are real and you slowly build it up.
Franziska: That‘s fantastic. What about do you do any offline marketing or mainly your stuff is online?
JB: I‘m all online. I do believe in some direct mail if the list is good. But right now I‘m 100% online. And what‘s amazing is I don‘t spend $1 in advertising.
Franziska: That‘s great. That‘s so great to hear for our community, too, because most of them don‘t have the big budgets that the big guys have, and that‘s why online is so amazing because the big corporations have money. And I used to work in advertising and we spent millions of dollars on TV ads and big banner ads and whatever you can buy. But now with YouTube and podcasting and blogging and social media, the smaller businesses have a voice. That‘s what makes it so powerful.
JB: Yeah, and just watch the numbers. This is the problem people really get frustrated with they have three views on their YouTube. It takes time. If I can tell anybody anything, there‘s two ways to do it. Throw a lot of money at it and try and hope it makes, hope it works. Or you can just take your time and build up over time. You get three views a day, over a year, guess what, you‘ve got 900 views. 900 people saw your message. That‘s a tremendous amount if you‘re a small business. I have a maid service down here that‘s just grown. I don‘t spend $1 in advertising and I have a few blogs and I put up some videos. And literally now we get between ten and 12 new clients a day. It‘s amazing. But when I started, nobody looked at it. But I didn‘t give up. It‘s been three years now since I put the system in place. And I literally don‘t have to work it anymore. We get that many clients every day.
Franziska: That‘s fantastic. Now, JB what‘s been the funniest or weirdest thing that has ever happened in your business? I‘m sure you‘ve got some of those.
JB: I got to tell you, this one‘s hilarious. When I started podcasting, I didn‘t know how to mute my mic. So I used to record a conference call. So if you know what a conference call is, everybody can talk. So literally, I used to do seven in the morning at 10:15. Now I just do one. But I would do a seven in the morning every morning and I would have 100 people on that conference call and I would be talking, “Good morning everybody. This Morning Coach toady we‘re all excited about being here. It‘s time to get your day started right,” which is what Morning Coach is about. And literally there would be a guy in the back that would lift up the toilet seat and go to the bathroom. And I wouldn’t know. So I was doing my thing all fired up and excited and ready to go, and this guy was going to the restroom during my coaching call. So literally what happened was I started getting all these emails from people saying, “JB, the guy is using the restroom again.” And I‘ve never been so embarrassed in my life. And I couldn‘t figure out how to mute those people. It literally happened for like two weeks in a row. It was the most embarrassing thing ever.
Franziska: Every single day the guy listened to your show in the restroom.
JB: Yeah, I don’t know if it was me that made him have to go to the bathroom or what happened. But everybody else could hear it. You talk about making mistakes, it was hilarious. Then we got through it. We got through that. If we can get through that, I think we can get through anything.
Franziska: That is so funny. That‘s awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing all your gold nuggets. JB, it‘s been totally amazing. Where can people find out more about you, your podcast, Facebook? Where can people find you?
JB: Yeah, MorningCoach.com is our personal evolution system. It‘s pretty cool. You can check us out there. It‘s just MorningCoach.com. Then on Facebook we have our fans page which is Facebook/morningcoah22 or you can find me at Morning Coach. They have a new subscribe thing that I didn‘t even know about. See, I‘m learning, too, all the time. So you can subscribe because I‘m maxed out on friends. But Morning Coach or Morning Coach 22. Any time you Google Morning Coach, that‘s going to be us on Twitter and everything. So anything Morning Coach is going to be us.
Franziska: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, JB. It‘s been totally awesome.
JB: No, thank you for having me. And to all the entrepreneurs out there, don‘t give up. Don‘t let your critics slow you down and just believe in yourself. That‘s what it‘s about. Everybody can live their dreams. It‘s the best time in the world to be alive. Don‘t let anybody tell you differently