Josh Kemp Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Josh Kemp
Josh Kemp is our guest today joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast.
He is a man who quite simply has powered his way through many obstacles that would stop most in their tracks.
As he says “I love creating online courses that teach a specific side hustle and how to make money with it in the shortest amount of time possible!
I am the author of No Degree, No Problem.
Originally I was a Blacksmith / Farrier for 8 years but then had to switch careers after getting kicked by a horse.
I self taught myself how to code and landed a Junior Software Development position 9 months later making $ 70K.
I currently live in Raleigh, North Carolina with my wife, three kids, two goats and a gecko.
Now most interestingly for a show called Join Up Dots, which follows loosely the words or the late Steve Jobs, our guest did a similar thing when it came to getting a college qualification.
How The Dots Joined Up For Josh
He goes on to say “I remember when I was 16 my Mom had me take Business Law classes at the local community college.
My Mom was big on making sure ALL her kids went to college and got a degree.
After barely failing the first class, I decided college wasn’t for me, it wasn’t until I was 18 that I broke my parents’ hearts and told them I wouldn’t be going to college.
Over the years I have had to switch careers and have had over a dozen different side hustles in my life.
My Mom no longer worries about me becoming destitute, l have used the power of side hustles all my life ( except for a 1 year period ) to provide better for myself and family, as well as learn more about what things are a good fit for me.”
So does he feel he is still working towards the big thing that will define his life, or is that not important anymore?
And why do people struggle so much to make a living online, when all the clues are already there to follow the success of others?
Well let’s find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Josh Kemp
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Josh Kemp such as:
How culturally we have lost the ability to get down and dirty and work for a living, even if its an online venture. A dream life doesn’t come easily.
Josh shares why you should always go where the money is. Look for who has it and then decide what you can do for them.
Always look for the problem that can be solved for as many people as possible you can then scale scale scale.
And lastly………..
Josh tells us a great story of a snow blower, inspiration and hustle that almost ended his marriage but became amazing motivation.
Josh Kemp Books
How To Connect With Josh Kemp
Return To The Top Of Josh Kemp
If you enjoyed this episode of Josh Kemp why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Spike Ball Founder, Nick Ruiz, Sarah Caltieri or the amazing Sam Bearfoot
Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from.
Full Transcription Of Josh Kemp Interview
Intro [0:01]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK, David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:26]
Yes, hello there. Good morning. Good morning, and Good morning, and welcome to another episode of Join Up Dots. It truly is a delight to have you. And if you’re a new listener, thank you so much for being here. If you are long term list now and I do know some listeners who’ve been with us for seven years now. And I’ve listened to every single episode. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, today’s guest Yes, it’s one of these interview shows, who’s joining us on the show is a man who quite simply is Paddy’s way through many obstacles that would stop most in their tracks as he says. I love creating online courses that teach a specific side hustle on how to make money with it in the shortest amount of time possible. I’m the author of no degree, no problem. Now originally, he was a blacksmith a farrier for eight years, but then had to switch careers after getting hit by our horse. and prove that process. He taught himself how to code and landed a junior software development position nine months later, making 70 grand. He currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife and three kids, two goats and a gecko, but most interestingly for a show called Join Up Dots which follows loosely the words of the late Steve Jobs. Our guest did a similar thing when it came to getting a college qualification. He remembers when he was 16. And he his mom had to take him to business law classes at the local community college and his mom was big on making sure all her kids went to college and got a degree. Now after barely failing the first class he just When I did college wasn’t for him. And it wasn’t until he was 18. But he finally broke his parents heart, boo, boo, you got to look up your parents and told them that he wasn’t going to college. Now over the years, he says I’ve had to switch careers. And I’ve had over a dozen different side hustles in my life and my mom no longer worries about me becoming destitute. I’ve used the power of side hustles all my life, except for a one year period fascinating to provide better for myself and family as well as learn more about what things are a good fit for me. So Does he still feel he’s working towards that big thing that will define his life? Or is that not important anymore? And why do people struggle so much to make a living online when all the clues are already there to follow the success of others? Well, let’s find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Josh Kemp, good norning, Josh, how are you?
Josh Kemp [2:57]
Hey, Dave, I’m doing great. How are you?
David Ralph [3:00]
I’m very well I’m very, very well I’m a podcaster for a living. It’s kind of a job but it’s not a job. struggle to get there. But isn’t that what all side hustles are about? Or maybe you’re gonna tell me a different way and you can do it as easily as possible.
Josh Kemp [3:17]
Hey, you know, right now I think the world needs side hustles like, you know, you only need two books in the world right now Google and YouTube, right? Like literally Yeah, I make online courses but you don’t even honestly I’m not stupid. You don’t need those like you can literally find anything you need online if you want it bad enough. Like you mentioned in this podcast all the time. There’s all the clues online already for start starting an online business. Yes, David, you know more, you’ve done more. But people need to just just take action and start looking. But no right now at the corona going around. I feel this is a perfect time to use this. This this downtime to say hey, I got caught caught flat footed. What do I want to do moving forward? Hey, I need money. I need toilet paper, or whatever it is. I think everyone needs a side hustle.
David Ralph [4:08]
Trouble is So Josh, do you think that the majority of people lack hustle? I remember I listened to a podcast about seven years ago. And I still listen to it every now and again. It was a huge inspiration for me. It was probably the inspiration for me starting this called the solopreneur hour podcast. And the host, a guy called Michael O’Neill tells the story that he was watching some kids playing sport in a field. And some of them were just naturally talented. And some of them you could see see we’re putting the effort in and some weren’t doing anything. And the coach turned and said to him, you can’t teach hustle. And that has stuck with me for seven years because so many people that I see just haven’t got that ability to hassle I haven’t got that ability to go one more dot Berber today.
Josh Kemp [5:00]
Well, so so I, you know, if you’d asked me this a few years ago, I probably would have a different answer. But let me give an example. I have a neighbour. And right now everyone’s home from college, right? Everyone’s freaking out staying home. Okay, so my one neighbour, he’s 91 years old. Guess who’s outside mowing the lawn? The 21 year old from college. There’s two of his great nephews home. No, he’s 91 years old, and he’s out freakin mowing and I go over them like, Dude out. How’s it going? He’s like, Oh, I just got to finish mowing. And I’m just kind of like, why is the 22 year old not out here mowing, maybe it’s his thing? I don’t know. But the guy is 91 years old and still huffing and hustling. And I’m just like, you know, I think culturally, we have this thing in the world. Now. It’s like, almost like, if you’re young, you’re not supposed to work hard or you’re allergic to sweating. And I just I just think that’s that’s wrong. Like I think we should all be it’s nothing like Why can’t you sweat like, work hard. Yeah, you don’t have to have a manual job. Like I had a manual job, you don’t have to. But um, but the thing is with hustling, you don’t have to do something you hate. But if you’re just like, if you can never get up in the morning, alarm goes off, and you’re always like, screw it. I’m just gonna eat this button again. And again, again, I think that’s like a muscle. If you can get up out of bed, hop out of bed, get going. You can do anything like it’s the same kind of muscle.
David Ralph [6:24]
I talked to my son, my son’s 18. And he’s going to be unemployed for the rest of his life. And I said to him the other day, I said to him, all you want, then all you’re looking for is a job that they pay you a fortune and you don’t really have to do anything. And he said, Yeah, he said, that’s exactly the kind of job. I said, but that’s not life, mate. I said, You know, I can be a fiver to my, my loans have never been mowed by my kids, but they just won’t do it. And unless I pay him a squillion pound to do it, I just won’t, but just so kind of lazy and just looking for it. opportunity to be a YouTube star or whatever. It frightens me, Josh, I don’t want to come across like an old man, saying, Oh, it was better in my day. But certainly, as I was growing up, you didn’t have opportunities of choice. So you had to get down and work for a living. Now, it’s so much better because you have got the opportunity of choice, but you still have to work on it don’t Yeah,
Josh Kemp [7:26]
absolutely. So back in back, I’m 35 just turned 35 the other day, back, even when I was younger, like there still were things fantasies, like I think people you know, it’s great to teach your kids to dream big, like my kids. I’m telling you guys, you can do virtually anything. Now, with that said, you have to do something and my I teach them you know, we’re crazy homeschooler so we may not relate to everyone, but I teach them. Okay, look, you have a responsibility to provide for yourself one day, I am not always going to pay for you. You shouldn’t hate your life, but your responsibility is to pay for yourself. Once you’ve paid for your self, you’re using your own TP you’re wiping your home but like, then, you know if you can find something to do that you’re passionate about, do it. But this attitude of like, hey, I need to have an online gaming channel. And if that’s if I can’t get to work, I’m just gonna stay at mom’s. I think that’s not healthy because it’s artificial. It’s like when I was a kid, I was really good at baseball, I made the All Stars is a, you know, 12 year old 14 year old when I was like, I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be a pro one day I’m and I hustled and I worked. Well, I didn’t make it as a baseball Pro. You know, I was good for the local area. But there’s the world. Huge, right? So my brother tried the same thing. He made it to college. He also didn’t make it, use a backup right in college, which was good. And maybe you gotta say, you know what, it’s not the end of the world I need to now provide for myself and I think that’s a hard message to sell to people who kind of want to hear more about butterflies and rainbows, but right now with like the corona if you’re running out of money or you’re having a really hard time Financially, this is where you kind of have to go, what’s the truth? What’s kind of, you know, not everyone could have an online gaming channel and make a billion dollars. It’s just not true.
David Ralph [9:11]
So, but what people can do, they can find an opportunity locally, they can find a problem that needs to be sold and whether it’s online or offline, you’re still producing your income. You know, I say to people, there’s nothing wrong with going around sticking leaflets through doors, you like old school methods to drive up a bit of custom that you can just do it but once again, it takes you back to EPA. So with your specific side hustle, how do you zone in on a business which is good for you because businesses come plenty don’t like as Richard Branson says, You just wait to the next one and they come along. How do you find a good one for yourself?
Unknown Speaker [9:55]
Well, this is the thing that I think I certainly was intimidated about at one time. I’ve changed a lot over the years. Um, one time, I didn’t take a lot of action. Now I take tonnes of action. But so like, for example, if we, if we look at Richard Branson, we look at Elon Musk. People like, Oh, that’s how to be an entrepreneur, you have to make billions of dollars risk everything. You pretty much if you read entrepreneurial books, you think to yourself, I need to lose and go bankrupt 12 times before I’m going to be successful. And to me, I still have a full I know, right, so I still have a full time job. I make six figures. And I don’t I don’t brag to tell people I try to encourage people I look. Yeah, I can do it. I have no degree you can do it. So like I make six figures in my current job doing software testing, okay. It’s not my life’s passion. Now. Do I hate it? No. So like, somewhere in the middle, it’s not the end of the world. And my kids aren’t gonna be little forever. They’re 10 eight little foster babies. So like, for me, I think you got it. If you’re just starting out, there’s some people who are fine with you know, risk and I’m pretty good with risk. My father is extremely risk averse. So so my thing is this don’t quit your full time job keep keep your full time job but but you probably have to say bye to the whatever stupid Tiger show is right now. Whatever the Netflix show is, like, you got to turn that crap off and say now with these three or four hours, what am I going to do? That’s the first step. And then as far as opportunities go, that yes, there’s tonnes, but what I do is this, okay, when when i get i always my success has always been when I’m desperate. Okay. People are desperate right now. What works right now? Don’t you know if you you know, like, if you don’t have the mind do crap, that’s fine. You can totally do stuff right now. So right now, everyone’s hunkered down in their little hidey hole and everyone’s like, just just hiding everywhere. Okay, so how do you make money? Okay, here’s one way, think of this. Whether you hate or love the wealthy, I don’t know, not a political thing. Whether you hate or love the wealthy, they always have money. They’re really wealthy people will always have money. So they still have some okay. Just Google, the wealthiest zip code in your area find the wealthiest zip code. Okay, the inside of people’s homes is basically off limits right now you can’t go in and maybe get a hazmat suit on. I don’t know.
David Ralph [12:11]
How do you do that? Just just jumping in how do you is find a zip code of wealthy people?
Unknown Speaker [12:18]
I mean, I just googled it. I’ve always just typed in Google it, maybe there’s a certain site. But another way is this. I mean, here’s another way, like, just higher income homes, if you type in, you know, go to Zillow, or whatever the web places for homes in Europe, I don’t know but like, go find wealthy areas, who someone like like, where do the CEOs live? Where is like, oh, man, I wish I could live there one day, basically, don’t go to like the sketchy apartments and start trying to start your business. That’s, that’s not gonna I mean, it could work but right now, what I think is go where you know, there’s money. And you know, for example, homeless people, I help homeless people. There’s a guy who’s on the side of the road, he sells his artwork. his artwork me and my kids come out, and I teach my kids whatever money you make, you need to give 10% back we call it a generosity jar. They take that 10% and they bought a $29 piece of art from this guy miles. And he’s a great artist. He’s homeless, he lives in a tent behind a food line. And I try encourage my dude, you should get a website and I’m like, I can help you get this website can help you. So he doesn’t take action. But that’s another point. The point is making money from miles who’s homeless is going extremely hard and I’m not trying to make money from him. But just helping people that are absolutely destitute is great thing as Mother Teresa and it’s great to help people. If your cup is full if you have a lot of money, but that’s not where I would start off if right now you’re you need money. Don’t look there. That’s what I’m saying.
David Ralph [13:46]
And you do really have to leave the ego behind. That’s one of the things I’ve talked about a lot through Join Up Dots. If you’re trying to transition from maybe a corporate gig where you’re seen as somebody to an entrepreneurial there’s that there’s a journey bear and you’ve got to basically find cash somewhere while the side hustle isn’t bringing in what you were earning the other way. You know, I did a load of stuff, but I was desperate but nobody saw me from where I used to work, but it wouldn’t have killed me might say mania 30 days I would just say, you know, I needed a few quid and that’s what I’m doing.
Josh Kemp [14:25]
Yeah, you know, and I’ll be totally honest with you so like, is the thing my son I made 126 k last year so like some people like oh, I make way more than that other people like wow, I wish I could make that it you know, like comparisons a terrible thing. You can always feel like you’re not making enough you can always feel like whatever. For me. When I first started doing this, the one year I didn’t do a side hustle was the year I switched from horse shoeing to the tech world. I for some reason thought Oh, I’ve made it now I got this job where I’m sitting in a you know, high rise building I’m looking out I’m getting free espresso and Coca Cola and Pizza on Thursdays. I don’t need to do any side hustles anymore. And then I realised not true at all. So I basically, you know, realise that okay, I’m making 70 K, but I need more than that. And I certainly can’t take my kids to Disney on that. Let’s put it that way. So, after that year, I wrote my book, I did different things. And I’ve always been, I never took a day, I didn’t allow myself to slack off mentally, like I did that one year, and it’s been the best thing for me. So, what I did, what I do, and I recommend is like when I first let’s give example, my kid has horrendous allergies, there’s got to be other people whose children have allergies. Well, at a certain point, like my kids are gluten allergies, certain allergies like that. If I feed him garbage, like McDonald’s crap, okay. He’ll be laying on the ground saying his stomach hurts. My stomach hurts. Now, can I justify that in my mind saying, Hey, I’m gonna give you garbage food because it’s cheaper. Well, no. I have a hard time with that. So I get all everything like as organic as I can and I get a whole foods. So my food bill is 1600 dollars a month, which is much higher than most people. Well, how can I do that? I can do that because I can all this side hustle stuff is my extra money. It’s like the no stress money. It’s the Disney money. So to me if you don’t have a side hustle, maybe you like your current job. But if you’re the top of what your income is, like, my current job at corporate America, I make the top one I can make pretty much so if you want to go any further, you need to find a way to make more income but also you can kind of find things you enjoy. Like I started I did things I hated but but as you get more successful, you can kind of back away from that.
David Ralph [16:46]
Lets hear from Oprah Winfrey and then we’ll be back with Josh.
Oprah Winfrey [16:49]
The way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself what is the next right move? not think about Oh, I got a of this debate, what is the next right move? And then from that space, make the next right move, and the next right move, and not to be overwhelmed by it. Because you know, your life is bigger than that one moment, you know, you’re not defined by what somebody says, is a failure for you, because failure is just there to point you in a different direction.
David Ralph [17:21]
Now, one of the things I do Josh, I play around with Google Trends, and I’m sure you do as well. And I look to see if something is trending with stability over a period of time because what you don’t want to do you don’t want to choose like a one of those finger spinner things a little while ago. Everybody was buying them and then you’d never see them pull up no money. And I was playing around with it today. One of the really good business that’s stable all the way through blackheads. Yeah, those little Pesky Things that teenagers get, and we all spend at the mirror and we were digging them away and people say No, you shouldn’t squeeze squeezer. That is a really good business to start, because it’s stable. Everybody has them. They’re looking for healthy ways of getting rid of them or quick ways of getting rid of them. Do you play around with Google Trends as much as I do?
Josh Kemp [18:16]
David, I’m sure not as much as you do. I’ll tell you so. So I’m not a you know, like, I never let fear stop me from making a decision like that. So to Google Trends, I’ve looked at it but I’m not an online wizard like you, you’re a wizard of technology. Like I write, I write code. But knowing how to make an online business as a whole nother animal, I put out content, I share my message, and I do sell courses. So like, it works for me, but someone like you probably would chuckle and laugh and be like, Oh, you could do this twice as well. But as I move forward, I am learning things and getting better. So I don’t let that process stop me then I’m not as good as David Ralph yet to not take some action. So I hope that encourages people Don’t Don’t be like oh, Josh has a 12 side hustles I have never done one that doesn’t matter it’s it’s pretty straightforward and simple like like blackheads like you’re talking about that’s that’s not sexy but
David Ralph [19:10]
hey, it sells. Hey certainly does sell the very first business I ever did was hemorrhoid cream. And I look back on that. And then the next one I remember doing was a real big success. And I didn’t even make a website. I use blogspot. I don’t know, blogspot.com is still out there. But Google actually gives you the ability to create a free website on their server and you don’t even have to pay for hosting or anything. And I created a business but a very small lead magnet in and very quickly was making 30 grand a month. It was very, very easy to do if you find something that people want. Now with yourself Josh, what is your process of finding the side hustle? Yeah, so
Josh Kemp [19:56]
me Okay, when you’re first starting out, I think Using, wherever you’re at not being like I love that quote from Oprah. It’s like, don’t, don’t feel like you have to have everything figured out like, here’s, here’s my I’ll give you an example. Okay? My wife has a, we were crazy. We had a home birth in Virginia. So we had this baby at home. Kids are little, it’s 2009. So the economy’s tanking similar to today. It’s different than today. But it was still tough time. I’m shoeing horses for a living. I have to stay home because my wife lost so much blood she can’t go to the bathroom by herself. I’m having to help her every step of the way. So with that said, I take off a bunch of time from work. My clients have had for years take that opportunity to fire me because they really want to get someone cheaper. So here I am. I’m not telling my wife this because you know, newly married, maybe not communicating the greatest, but I’m freaking out. I look at our account. I’m like, you know what, I’d like $540 I’m not sure if I can make it to my next work. I think I can but I’m not sure. So what do I do? I’m desperate like okay, what am I Kinda What can I do? And I don’t want to leave because my wife’s there. And I remember it’s funny how like, join up the dots like connecting information from the past, I remember somehow came to my head. The last big snowstorm we had had in Virginia. I was a teenager. And I don’t know why I looked. But I remember this popping in my head at that moment was somebody had tried to sell an old piece of garbage snowblower for like 1200 50 bucks on Craigslist, and I remember thinking, Hmm, that’s crazy. I remember seeing the ad go away like it’s sold. And I thought to myself, it jumped to my mind right at that moment, and I thought snowing outside, the forecast says 16 to 24 inches, which is so rare for Virginia. It’s like once every eight years like it’s very rare. And I said to myself, you know what, if I had a snowblower I bet I could resell it online, or I could, you know, put on Craigslist somewhere. And now again, this is terrible execution. I told my wife I caught first off I called North Carolina, Virginia and said does it you know, Lowe’s or Home Depot Do they have a story? No blur left. And they basically laughed in my face and said, Dude, there’s no nothing slapped. Everyone’s bought it, you know? So it’s kind of like asking for toilet paper right now. It’s people like Dude, are you? It’s like, Come on, get some newspaper. Some leaves are poison ivy cuz, but now like, so then I called all North Carolina they laughed at me. I called South Carolina and they were like, dude, we don’t even carry snowblowers I think oh, so I skipped Georgia and Florida. But I went up the other side of the East Coast and I said, Okay, let me call do Washington, DC, let me call Maryland. So eventually, in Pennsylvania, I found Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Amish country. I found maybe they don’t use snow blowers. I found one snowblower left at Home Depot. And I said, Hey, can you hold that for me? And the person said, yeah, if you pay for it right now with your card, I’ll hold it. So I paid $500 to hold it. So now I decided to tell my wife, hey, it’s snowing, yes, couple inches on the ground. I’m gonna go up and get this thing. And she’s basically very polite. It was like you’re an idiot and she’s such a supportive wife. So when I tell you about She’s not nasty. She’s a nice woman, but she also just had a baby. And her husband just spent $500. And maybe we had like 545 80 or something like that.
David Ralph [23:09]
Did she say? Yes? Did she say you’re an idiot? Or did she use bad words? She cleaned that up for a podcast.
Josh Kemp [23:16]
No, no, she might, I don’t even know. She said, You’re an idiot. But she’s the type of person where she looks at you and you just feel bad because you’re like, you know what, you’re, she’s like the Mother Teresa. If Mother Teresa was ticked off at you, she wouldn’t give you the finger. But you’d be like, Oh, man, I like this lady down.
David Ralph [23:30]
I would love my Teresa to give me the finger when you brilliant.
Josh Kemp [23:36]
So she was she was just upset. Like, what are you thinking, Josh? Why did you spend our money like on this? And I said, Look, I told her that. I don’t know if we’re gonna make it financially. We need to do something and there’s no way to get anywhere. It’s like, Hi, Corona, right. People are like, there’s no way to get any work because everything’s shut down. Well, there’s very limited ways to get work. And that’s kind of where I was at where it’s like there’s snow on the ground. No one’s hiring you to shoot horses when there’s two feet of snow. So that was my only skill at the time that I had was shoeing horses. Lesson learned have more skills. So I say I’m going, I don’t care. I’m going to, you know, so she decides to come with me because she’s like, I’d rather know where you died than not know. So we drive up to Pennsylvania. It’s about a four hour drive. I get up to Home Depot. It’s about nine o’clock at night. I run inside I get the blower put in the back of my van, old van, piece of crap van kind of half bald tires. I drive to a Wendy’s drive thru, get a burger, and I’m feeling good. I’m like, dude, I got this. And then I don’t know what happened. like God was punishing me. As soon as I got the drive thru. It’s like the skies started dumping snow, like insane amounts of snow. So about an hour back home, we’re driving through the Pennsylvania mountains, and I’m slipping and sliding all over the place. And I’m like, I thought myself I said, You know, I didn’t tell her this. But I said, You know, I really screwed up. This was it’s colossal mistake. I have a brand new baby in the car. My wife’s in the car. freakin it’s where you’re so far out at night. It’s like 11 o’clock at night. It’s like you see one car 118 Wheeler way ahead or you see one car going the other way. But that’s it, you could slide off and just disappear. And I told the good Lord, I was like, you know, if I ever get through this, I make better choices. Now, whether or not I’ve made that is debatable, because I’ve tried to make better choices. But anyhow, long story short, we make it home, but I literally had to hop out of the car, leave it and drive, push the car, run back up and jump in to keep us moving. So do I recommend that no, I ended up selling that snowblower I almost got robbed by four dudes who looked like they just got to prison. We lived on a horse farm. And I had this snowball at the end of this farm, which is like a three tenths of a mile driveway. And basically this guy showed up and it’s kind of in middle school people surrounds you and you’re like, What’s going on here? So I ended up having somebody on the farm I called him and he came over and helped me in these people left, basically almost lost the snowblower. I ended up selling it for like 800 bucks, I made a little bit of money. But to me, yeah, that was a horrendous little side hustle. It made some money. But you don’t have to be that desperate. But you shouldn’t just say I can’t make any money because of Corona because you can. It sounds to
David Ralph [26:21]
me, though, that you are somebody that there’s a guy and I think it’s called 24 steps. And this guy is all about finding value, and then passing it on to somebody and his logic is that you walk along the road and you find a penny and you go up to somebody and say to them, Look, I’m doing a bit of an experiment. If I give you this Penny, will you give me two pennies back and most people will go Yeah, okay, no problem at all. And it’s all about doubling it and in 24 steps you can become, you know, a multi millionaire and this guy’s done this two or three times now, and what you’re doing in your side hustle is not about creating online. benches, you’re thinking about situations, but I just get it going. Just get it going. Get the snow, plough, plough, get back, go around to your neighbours get some money in last thing, do a bit of work. And that’s easy, isn’t it? And I like this because it goes against this. Yeah, that Facebook community, get a Twitter account and drive it on, you know, it just takes too long in certain regards. You’re taking instant action action and finding the right value.
Josh Kemp [27:30]
Yeah, absolutely. And I, I think we should all look for these desperate moments. So for example, last desperate moment, but further down the line, I’m at a tech job, I make good money. Most people say, hey, you make six figures, you should just stay where you’re at. And I’m kind of like what turn off my brain. So I, my my bit my fountain business. I installed giant water fountains for CEOs, doctors, lawyers, you know, well, high end people big houses, big homes, they buy these $4,000 water fountains and they’ll pay me to instal them. So it’s very successful business. However, it’s very weather driven. So like right now, with Corona lots of places that normally sell fountains are closed because they’re deemed non essential. Okay, not the end of the world, I can still repair fountains, which I do. But back in the day, two years ago, we had a horrendously cold and wet spring, April May, which is generally where I do about half of my business. So what turned out was I got about half the money. And I told my wife, I said, Look, we’re not going to die. But if we want to go to Disney this year, which was the first time we’re ever take the kids, Disney, I said, we need to we need to pay for that somewhere, you know. So I said, Look, I’ve always wanted to tune pianos piano tuning, I mean, friggin try that I just wanna see if I can do it. I want to see if I’m any good. Let’s see if I can make any money. Well, there’s so much opportunity. The average piano tuner is like, 65 years old, cranky old white dude, who is just been doing this forever, doesn’t need any work. He doesn’t know anything about technology may not even have a website. So to me some younger person. Yeah, they haven’t heard of piano tuning. But guess what, there’s an app, there’s an app on your phone, you can get to help you tune a piano that makes you like, you’ve been tuning pianos for 100 years. So taking those things like for me just setting up a Facebook marketplace ad, putting on next door, I don’t know if that’s an app you guys have, but putting on some free ads, and just starting at a cheap price point I did $80 got tonnes of work, then I moved up to 90 got tonnes of work, moved up to 100 got less work. So I said, Okay, keep between 80 to 100. As soon as I stopped getting work at 100, I need more work. I’ve dropped my price, like not not allowing circumstances to stop you. But But you have to keep experimenting, I think like you do with Google Trends, like you probably tried things to figure out like your creams, like, I don’t know exactly how you did it. But like, for me with the courses, I make a course. I try to give lots of helpful content to people. And hopefully they like it And though they’ll go buy the course if not, I don’t need this money. It’s just extra money. So that’s my encouragement. To start something where you don’t need the money, and then anything you make is gravy.
David Ralph [30:05]
I agree with this totally. And we’ll be back with Josh, after these words.
Unknown Speaker [30:12]
Are you ready to make a full time living online?
Unknown Speaker [30:14]
Check out the amazing Join Up Dots business coaching. Hello, my name is Alan. And I’ve just completed the excellent eight week course with David. Before I started working with David Actually, I had no idea at all, where to start. I had a lot of ideas about what I probably thought was going to be good in business. David was able to help me through that though, to find that passion. Within literally minutes. We had we had a business idea and for the last seven weeks, we’ve been building on it and building on it and the position I’m in now I don’t think I’ve ever got here
Unknown Speaker [30:48]
on my own because of the amount of information that David gives the structure. He’s got the full package here and he explains it in a way that I can understand. His support is phenomenal. feel like this is the way business is supposed to work. David
Unknown Speaker [31:03]
helped me understand, okay, what were the next logical steps that I should do? How can I get this up and running? So I would really recommend this as an excellent course helping you if you have an idea if you have no idea, really teasing that out and at some of the practicalities and steps to take to really launch your business, whether as a full time job or as a side hustle. So it was really excellent. I recommend it for anybody thinking about setting up their own business. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say David will totally save you years.
Marni Spicer [31:32]
Thank you, David, for all your amazing help and support which keeps on going. And we certainly couldn’t be where we are today without you. So you’re awesome.
David Ralph [31:43]
So if you would love to become my next success story and have your own life changing online business following my step by step system, fine tuned over many years to take away the effort and expense that others struggle with. Then come across to Join Up dots.com and book a free call with me So let’s get you living the easy life as it’s there waiting for you to get it but is Join Up dots.com business coaching. Now as those words were playing, I was I was googling, I don’t like to listen to myself there and I was googling. And I was looking at this guy and it says best 24 year old is earning $230,000 a year. And here are the three steps he’s taking to become a millionaire by 30. Now, you look at it and you’re paying 240 or 230 grand a year. That’s a good salary, what’s he’s doing? And it’s actually he’s willing to work overtime. He works six days a week and has Sunday off. He says I don’t want to do it, but I want to save as much money as I possibly can. He steps up his side hustles so when he gets a bit of money buys another rental property and he now owns three rental properties, which NetSim about 1600 dollars per per month by Bertie you’d like to own at least 20 and making such Pisces and I think this is interesting. He takes his own lunch to school to school ways to eat to outbursts go it would be wrong for him to go to school that be like pizza parlours on it but he has his own lunch chicken and rice as a common meal for him. He limits the amount he goes to restaurants and bars. In all he spends around $400 per month on groceries and eating out well below the 680 average bogeys area, because he’s looking for that long term thing. Now, I think that’s interesting. And that’s one of the things that I always say to people, but if you make sacrifices and you’re willing to cut back on things, Josh, then the side hustles double don’t know they just double you’re getting so much more value from them because you’re not just trying to pay for things that we all fritter away Oh
Josh Kemp [33:49]
yeah, I’m, I’m also a big believer in like, you know, it’s your life. So like, I don’t want to grow up, make a bunch of money be a miser so like, for me, I’m happy as a clam to buy expensive food. My kid cuz like, he’s not gonna be my baby for very long when he’s 18. He’s paying for his own food, like, but but I love the guy sacrifice, like I will work very hard and hot weather 100 degrees outside. I think I admire that work ethic. So if it’s, if it’s cutting back, if it’s working hard, just watching Netflix will guarantee you zero. So I love that he’s doing something like that.
David Ralph [34:23]
And one thing he says here, and this really speaks to me is I’m not really motivated by things. I’m more motivated by having the freedom to be able to do what I want, when I want. And that’s big for me, you know, I’ve actually got rid of my car, my car, I started to think I don’t really use it. And if I can, I can just jump into my wife’s one. Let’s get rid of the car. And I’ve just thought downsize so much, but I don’t actually need that much money to survive and it’s just, it is weight off when you’re not trying to surface so many things. Now, of course, I’ve got a wife who has a totally different perspective on this. And she’s quite happy to have amazon prime and Netflix and Disney plus and all these other things because why can’t we we can afford it. But there comes a point where Yeah, you don’t need to have two or three cars you don’t need to have three or four holidays you can just live frugally and squirrel as much away as possible to make your runway to freedom easier.
Josh Kemp [35:24]
Yeah, no, I’m I’m still working hard. I My kids love Hulu Disney plus all those things. But yeah, I love that. I love that approach. But see, my thing is, I think this is where like, at first you start off do whatever you can to make money, you know, eat as cheaply do whatever. But like, if you get your bills paid, like right now I feel fine with my bills. I’m not going homeless. So my thing is, if you’re at this point where you feel financially stable, like David, you’re very, I’m sure you’re very financially stable. So like now, how can I create a life that I don’t have to take a vacation from Patients but like, Don’t hate, like, if you hate eating chicken rice for lunch every day, okay? You have enough money now your reward is you can go to Chipotle or wherever you want to go. Um, but yeah, you have to do the sacrifices, I think to get to that point.
David Ralph [36:14]
I’ve got a big problem, Josh, you may not understand it, but I love America. And I literally will go and just do road trips for the rest of my life. I never get fed up with just traipsing through America, stopping off at places and just sort of living life. Now, for me, that is my big expense. That’s when I say to the family, come on, let’s just do it again. And they say, Oh, wait, we only did about six weeks ago. I don’t care. Let’s just do it again. And so for me that that is that’s my value point. That’s my value proposition. That’s what I work for. So when people say to me, do you love Join Up Dots? I always say yeah, I love most of it. I don’t love all of it. But now, I do love is what it gives me. And that’s why I’ve become very pragmatic. Over the years of not going for what I love in a job, because ultimately you can’t keep on loving it, I think it becomes a job, but love the life it brings you.
Josh Kemp [37:12]
Yeah, I agree with that. I’ve struggled this a lot where it’s like, do your passion, you’ll never work another day. But it’s the same thing if some kid says like, like, my little kid, he, he loves this. It’s like a YouTube channel, where they make things I came up with a name, but and he he’ll see these videos and he’ll go make things he’ll He’s like, I’m gonna be an adventure like Benjamin Franklin. I’m like, dude, you can do it, go invent something, we’ll go sell it. But, you know, he wants a YouTube channel. Make sure start a YouTube channel. But I don’t want to lie to him and be like, hey, you will absolutely make a million dollars. You do a YouTube channel? No, you might have 12 subscribers, right? Like, I don’t have a huge following. Like, it’s not like I enjoy what I’m doing. I love teaching. So I’m thinking to myself, okay, what do I enjoy doing? How can I make some money with it? I’m not going to tell Help people. If you want to, you know, grow dandelions outside, you can make a million dollars. I don’t think so. Now I bet you can make dandelion root tea and you could probably sell that at farmer’s market. But I think it’s ludicrous to act like everyone everywhere. And that’s a hard thing to tell people. So so like, for me, I love teaching things. And whenever I’m out, like someone will buy me lunch, they’ll be like, you know, hit me up on LinkedIn, like, Hey, can we get together and ask you some questions? I’m like, dude, yeah, buy me lunch. Let’s go spend 45 minutes an hour. Like, I was already gonna have lunch Anyway, let’s do it. Like I love sharing what I know. So then I was like, Okay, I struggled with some things like the piano tuning. They teach that, like, it’s 1905 they don’t teach about an app. They don’t teach anything modern. The course I bought was like 750 bucks. Well, I’m like, dude, like, Is it real? Do I really have to make my full time living? I’m gonna charge like, you know, 50 bucks. Like it’s not a big deal, but I love teaching. I love showing people things. So for me, that’s the happy medium. So for someone else, I think like you, you love your road trips? Well, that’s your reward. Maybe you don’t you know, some parts of this show you don’t enjoy. But yeah, you have to have. I mean, not everything in life has to be one giant smiley face, but I try to make my life better each day just a little bit. You know, like, I’m gonna have a little time with my kids today. I’m gonna, you know, make lunch today for my wife like things that I enjoy doing.
David Ralph [39:23]
Absolutely. I agree that totally. And the next guy that we’re gonna hear says if he looked in the mirror for 10 days on the trot, and didn’t see what he was doing, he made changes his Steve Jobs. Of
Steve Jobs [39:35]
course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards. 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny life, karma, whatever. Because believing The dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart Even when it leads you off the well worn path and that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [40:10]
So did that host kicking you do you a favour Josh?
Josh Kemp [40:15]
It did you know it? Absolutely did I got broke my right thumb broke my left pinky within like a month of each other. I end up getting kicked in the face. So my joke is I’m not beautiful anymore. I never was. But but no it at the time I thought my life you know, I care. I didn’t go to college people think oh, you’re going to your life’s gonna suck. Now I’m shoeing horses. I don’t have any skills that transition. I mean, shoeing horses with a sexy job in 1865. And during the Civil War they needed you. But getting to to that game to the 2000s. Like how do you do that as a blacksmith farrier person? That was so hard. So discouraging. I really thought I was trapped. But the exciting part is, once I was able, and I just told myself I had this moment. I was like I’m gonna learn how to code. I’m just gonna keep pushing forward until I till further notice and I’m just gonna keep working. Once I made that transition to me, I’m not gonna I don’t brag, you know some things in life, we suck at some things we’re great at, and we should celebrate those things. So one thing I’m great at is being very laser focused, driven, and can push through like obstacles. So once I made that transition to me, that was the hardest thing I’ve done in my life now where it’s like, hey, I want a little extra money. Oh, well, I make less with water fountains. Okay, let me do something else. It’s not that intimidating. It’s not that hard.
David Ralph [41:36]
Now, just before we move on to the end of the show on the Sermon on the mic, I’m always interested to see people that are focused on side hustles, how they actually stopped their brain working, and how they actually stopped thinking of it as an opportunity that as an opportunity, as we said at the beginning, you know, Richard Branson always says there’s a business opportunity everywhere. So how do you actually not spend all Your time sitting there thinking to yourself, ah, yeah, I could do this. I could do that.
Unknown Speaker [42:05]
Yeah, you know, and this is, this is something at night, I’ll be just wired and honest, man, I wonder if I could do that love to do this, I have that I just want to do something. But I didn’t for a while I kind of thought no, you get one job that studying. That’s it. But I’ve come to realise that there’s no security in a job. My first two tech jobs, I got laid off with a whole bunch of other people. And I realised like, oh, wow, if one person employs you, you could lose this. So now I always look for new opportunities because the world is changing so fast. You should be kinda like I did machine learning. Turns out, I don’t really love machine learning. I got good enough, I could probably get a job. I interviewed a few places. But I don’t love it. In fact, it’s it’s really more math based, which I’m not super great at. So I was like, you know, it’s not a good fit, but I’m always looking. So I gotta tell you, for example, I don’t have a course on this. I don’t sell anything with this. But my next thing I want to do chainsaw carving, Why? Because think of
David Ralph [43:02]
sewing. I didn’t get I want carving,
Josh Kemp [43:05]
chainsaw carving get a chainsaw. Oh, okay, you know read. Yes. Yeah. So so. So for example, I saw this one place I saw this guy had a little bear. And I saw a lady in our neighbourhood had this bear on her front porch and I just kind of like, Oh, this lady bought this from somewhere. I looked it up. But the thing is like, okay, that’s stupid. Some people might think, but let’s talk about brain surgeons brain surgeons make a tonne of money. Why is it because they’re like God’s gift to humanity. We just worship them. debatable, but it’s because I No one’s going to Google. Well, how can I save a little money and do my own brain surgery? No one’s doing that. There’s very few people who can do it. Right. So like, if you like, if you’re cleaning gutters, well, you can clean gutters. You might not want to do gutters. It’s nasty. There’s maybe Hornets up in your gutter. There may be leaves. It’s dirty, filthy. But you could do it. So there’s there’s the rarity aspect. So my thing is like, I was always taught to get the good jobs. You had to have the degree that was Rare do the most schooling? Well, no. Now you might use like Google Trends to find things that are not sexy like blackheads we’re talking about, but like for me, I’m okay. chainsaw carving. How many people do this? Oh, not a lot. Okay. Yeah, it can be dangerous. Okay, we’re all these like safety gear. Cool. I’m very artistic. I love drawing. So I’m like, would that be a good fit for me? I don’t know. I haven’t done it. Well, wood is pretty much free. You have your chainsaw, like there’s very little startup cost. And I know places like places to sell glaze, pottery, flowers, plants, statuary, like, you know, he’s like, these like concrete, like bird baths. I know several places. They have extra space on the floor, where you could say, Hey, here’s a free bear, sell this thing. And then you get the money. And I always believe in giving first and then if they sell some bear for 300 bucks, they might say hey, do you have any more and then you could do something like 5050 deal. So like I haven’t done that yet. But I absolutely want to do that just for the heck of it. I want to see if you can. So my thing is, do something, don’t do everything because then you’re going to be like this like jumping from one thing to another commit to something for at least six months. And I always try to make sure I’m profitable and then quit. If I don’t want to do it. I piano tuning I made did it for six months, I made $8,000 part time, I could have made way more than that. And now I only do it for my wife and family. I don’t charge at all anymore. I could I get calls all the time, too. So like, that’s how I do it. I try to really make sure I’m making money and don’t just flit around jumping from one thing to the next.
David Ralph [45:35]
I won’t do yourself brain surgery. I’ve actually just googled and there is a book Do It Yourself brain surgery and home skills and you can get that on Amazon. So somebody is actually doing it. But um, yeah, DIY brain surgery who, who would have known anyhow, this is the part of the show that we’ve been building up to the week or the Sermon on the mic when we’re going to send you on a journey to Have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could go into the room and speak to the young, just what age would you choose? And what advice would you like to give him? Well, we’re gonna find out because I’m going to play the music when it fades is your time to talk? This is the Sermon on the mic.
Unknown Speaker [46:21]
We go with the best bit of the show.
Josh Kemp [46:39]
Hey, Josh, you’re 18 you’ve had one conversation that changed your life. It was with a millionaire the father of this girl you’re dating and the relationship turned out horrendous down the road, but he gave the best piece of advice where he told you if you don’t know what you need want to do with your self. You don’t know you hate college. Just go try some things, get a four year start on people that thankfully followed most of his advice. That is the best piece of advice you could ever do. trying things and just doing things taking action, nothing happens until you take action. You don’t believe that until you’re about 2526 years old. The sooner you can understand that, the better off you’ll be there believing what you do at 18 that well, there may be luck, some of might just give me a great job. I might just bump into the right person. Know that believe that nothing will absolutely nothing will happen. Nothing will change for the better until you make it happen and take action. Action overcomes all fixes virtually all problems. Hold on to that 18 and your life will go much quicker, much better. Focus on real skills that pay the bills. Don’t worry if someone goes oh, I have a cool sexy degree. I have an engineering title. They may also have a tonne of student debt that’s taking one third of their income, focus on creating money, income, and then slowly focus on what you really enjoy doing. As you go through life. You’re going to look back and join up the dots and say, Oh, I actually hate doing this. Oh, I actually love doing this. Drop the things that you hate as long as you’re making enough money and focus on the things you love more, and your life will be happier, better, better off financially.
David Ralph [48:28]
Great advice and great advice for everyone. So Josh wants to be number one best way that our audience can connect with you sir.
Josh Kemp [48:35]
Hey, you know I have a free resource to give you guys not selling anything, nothing at all. But as I said, we all suck at some things. We all are great at some things. One things I’m great at. people accuse me of being like superhuman or just lucky is I can focus and push through like no one else. And so what I have is there’s nine simple things you can do don’t cost a penny. There’s no there’s no courses to buy nine simple things. simple ways you can improve your focus and your willpower. And it’s a free PDF, go to Josh camp dotnet forward slash dots all lowercase Josh camp.net forward slash dots. And I’ll give you one of them. So it’s not like some secret thing. Okay? I haven’t eaten this morning, okay. And I won’t eat until at least noon. Why do I hate food? No, I love food. It’s not because I’m way overweight. When I need to accomplish something at work, or I’m trying to get something done. I will purposely not eat, skip a meal. And I will make me a little frustrated. Maybe a little cranky. Like we all get a little hungry. But instead of going boohoo, I need to go eat some Oreos and milk. No, take that little kind of frustration up maybe anger and throw it into your work and say, Hey, when I get done this next task or whatever your goal is, then I’ll eat. That’s my reward. Now, I’m not saying have an eating disorder. I’m not saying do things if you’re not healthy, but denying yourself is a religious practice. It’s been around for forever, you know, the whole thing of fasting. Now that’s one of the nine things. There’s other things you can do that aren’t fasting. But do something where your life doesn’t depend on it. But you’re you’re denying yourself of something and getting something else right turn. Maybe it’s because you have more blood flow to the brain. I don’t know. But But to me, I can push through get way more work done when I do something simple like that.
David Ralph [50:22]
Right, right. And go over there. We have all the links on the show notes to make it as easy as possible. Joshua, thank you so much for spending time with us today, joining up those dots of your life. And, of course, please come back again when you have more dots to join up. Because I do believe that by joining up the dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. Josh, thank you so much.
Josh Kemp [50:43]
Hey, David, thank you so much. And guys, if you if you listen to join the dots, you should really think David, he puts a lot of time and effort into this go leave a review online. He puts a lot of time and effort and we should support him in this. Thanks so much, David.
David Ralph [50:58]
Mr. Josh can So side hustles and side hustles that don’t really need websites and stuff, it’s just getting out there and providing service and value for people. That’s all it is if you can provide the value to people that are willing to pay, and I love that idea, or, you know, you know, your local area, you know, where they sit, all the rich people, jump around your streets, find out where they are, and then target them. Because it’s easy to make money from people that have got money. It’s quite obvious, really. And it’s funny because so many people that come through my coaching course, when they start, they always target the people that aren’t going to pay them is bizarre. It’s almost like they don’t believe in themselves. And so they go really small, but it’s not go bigger and bigger and bigger in your own mindset. And when people will change your life. It’s happened to me and it can happen to you as well. Until next time, you Look after yourselves and thank you so much for being here. On Join Up Dots.
Outro [52:00]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you or wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
