Happy Thankful Thursday #5!
I’m thankful for a lot today. First of all, I’m thankful for you.
You don’t have to watch read this. But you are. And I really appreciate that.
I’m also thankful today for my pastor, John Stange – for the reasons you’d expect one to be thankful for a pastor, and reasons you might not.
As the pastor of my church, he has played an integral role in leading and teaching the community that has been such a huge part of my life and my family’s life for the past 10 years. So mad props to him for everything that’s involved with that and everything that’s often overlooked.
John, you’re a good leader and I especially admire your commitment to raising up more leaders. In many churches – or organizations in general – you’ll often find 20% or less of the members doing 80% or more of the work. But at Core Creek, I feel like almost the opposite is true. Or maybe only it’s 50/50. But either way you cut it, a lot of people are involved. And who knows – maybe John has nothing to do with that at all. Maybe we collectively don’t trust him to do that work himself so we all step up to make sure things don’t fall apart. I kid!
No, John can’t take all the credit. God had something to do with bringing all those people together – but I have noticed, John has a gift of encouraging people’s entrepreneurial spirit. Within the congregation – if you have a good idea, he’ll usually be quick to green light it and offer help to get it off the ground.
In my own life, he’s been something of my entrepreneurial spirit animal. He’s planted a lot of tiny seeds and pointed me to some resources earlier on in my freelance career that have really taken root and started getting me thinking more seriously about starting my own business. Just small things. He told me about this podcast – Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn. Which, if you haven’t heard of it,Pat is one of the OG entrepreneur podcasters and he has a ton of great resources. be sure to check it out. I first heard about SPI from John. Before John, I didn’t really know anyone else who was interested in stuff like passive income. But I quickly learned that he and I were kindred side-hustlers, and he had a few fun irons in the fire himself. Kindle publishing, podcasting, blogging, a few other things that turned into more things. Big things. And now, he’s running a membership community, helping other people develop their own platforms and entrepreneurial endeavors.
It’s just been really cool to watch. I’ve known him for 10 years now, and to see with your own eyes someone you know grow and succeed at some really cool and exciting things. And to do it with integrity, without compromising his faith and family, and to invite other people along for the ride. It’s really inspiring. It’s heavily influenced my decision to start this channel. And to push ahead with a lot of the things I’ve been developing over the past few years.
I confess was a bit skeptical when he told me he was launching a membership community. Weren’t there already hundreds of more established players in this field teaching a lot of the same things? I pushed him on this. “Is there a market for this?” And his answer really struck me. “Absolutely. But there’s a lot of similar programs, but none of them are lead by me – with my voice and my perspective. And there might be people who will resonate with my style of teaching and the unique things I bring to the table who wouldn’t connect with someone else.” Something like that.
It’s something that I think about often as I’m building my own platform – this channel, my coaching program. I’d love to write a book someday (don’t get excited – that’s like 20 years out) – but who am I to do any of this. What do I have to offer that hasn’t already been covered by someone else. I’m no expert. Most of what I do is simply repackage what I’ve learned from others.
But I have a unique style and perspective, and I leave a unique fingerprint on everything I touch. And maybe – just maybe, my strange combination of swirls and ridges are exactly what someone else needs to unlock their smart phone. So to speak.
I’m actually going to touch on this in a video I’m releasing tomorrow on how to start a business – especially if you are in a creative, education or message based business, you don’t need to be the first. You don’t need to be the absolute best. Sure, those things are good. But you just need to be helpful. Because you actually are the first person who is exactly like you offering exactly what you offer, and you might be the best – the best fit for a certain group of people.
And John’s pulling it off. Which gives me hope that I can as well. Maybe. I dunno. We’ll see.
I actually joined his group, it’s called Platform Launchers, and let me take one more minute to extend my gratitude to everyone in the community.
I have learned a lot from the content John presents in his course and membership sessions. But more importantly than just getting new information, is to learn and work with a group of people who are on a similar journey. I confess, I originally joined Platform Launchers just to peek behind the curtain and see exactly what and how John was running it, take a few notes, and bounce. But I’ve made some really great connections inside the community, and John runs a tight ship, running challenges to help everyone keep moving forward, we all help workshop ideas, encourage one another, it’s exciting to check in each week to share and listen to each other’s progress. I actually recruited a couple of beta tester for my own program from the group. John recently rolled out a private Facebook group for Platform Launchers that’s actually super engaging. It’s been a delightful surprise and I’m getting a lot of value from it.
It shouldn’t be a surprise though. What have I been saying for the past month? Self-employment shouldn’t be by-yourself employment. We grow faster, stronger, work it harder, make it better [breaks into Daft Punk karaoke session].
If you want to check out Platform Launchers, you can take it for a free test drive. There’s a 14 day trial. But I can double that for you if you’d like. Sign up at sidekick.show/pl30 to join the fun for 30 days and see if it’s a good fit for you. That’s more than enough time to go through the Launch Plan course which is included – that normally goes for over $200 by itself, and it’s worth it. John put together a really solid training. So check it out.
