In a fascinating episode of “Scroll Sessions” hosted by Dan Page, former Spanish teacher turned entrepreneur and strategist Morgan Snyder shares his journey of personal and professional transformation. This blog post highlights key insights from their conversation, shedding light on the power of embracing change and pursuing passions beyond conventional career paths.
From Education to Entrepreneurship
Morgan began his career with aspirations of academia, intending to delve deep into Spanish literature. However, he soon realized that the academic lifestyle and its financial implications were not sustainable for him, especially with a growing family. His story is a compelling example of how life’s practicalities can steer us toward unexpected opportunities.
During a pivotal conversation at a family gathering, Morgan was challenged by his brother-in-law to reconsider his career path. This moment of clarity propelled him from the world of education into the unpredictable waters of entrepreneurship. Morgan’s journey underscores a critical lesson: sometimes, the best opportunities arise from the most unanticipated suggestions.
Leveraging Personal Skills in New Arenas
One of Morgan’s significant realizations was recognizing and repurposing his existing skills in a new context. Initially unsure of his next steps, he explored door-to-door sales, eventually leading to a role in a startup where he helped raise significant capital. This part of his journey highlights an essential career lesson: transferable skills, such as communication and persuasion, are invaluable across various industries.
Morgan’s ability to adapt and thrive in new environments, moving from teaching to significantly impacting the startup ecosystem, showcases the versatility and resilience needed in today’s fast-paced business world.
Building a Niche in Strategic Advising
As Morgan transitioned from tactical roles into strategic advising, he found his true passion in helping other professionals articulate and execute their visions. This evolution from creating content to developing comprehensive strategies illustrates the depth of impact one can have when aligning career paths with personal strengths and market needs.
Morgan’s approach emphasizes the importance of personal connection and genuine communication. He believes in building deep, meaningful relationships with clients, which not only enhances business outcomes but also personal satisfaction and growth.
Family and Work-Life Balance
An inspiring aspect of Morgan’s story is his dedication to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. As a father of six, he integrates his family life with his professional endeavors, often involving his children in his business and treating it as a family venture. This holistic approach to life’s various roles can inspire professionals to seek balance and fulfillment in both personal and professional spheres.
Embracing the Journey
Morgan Snyder’s narrative is a powerful testament to the idea that career paths are rarely linear. By staying open to change and being willing to step into the unknown, he has crafted a fulfilling career that respects his personal values and family commitments.
For anyone feeling uncertain about their current career trajectory, Morgan’s story offers encouragement to explore new avenues, leverage personal strengths, and build a career that truly resonates with one’s aspirations and lifestyle. His journey reminds us that with resilience, adaptability, and a willingness to learn, it’s possible to transform uncertainty into a thriving professional adventure.
Transcript
[Music]
0:08today I have Morgan Snider on scroll sessions he’s a former Spanish teacher
0:14who leaped into entrepreneurship and writing radically transforming his life almost seven years ago he is also a
0:21prolific content creator on LinkedIn dedicated family man of six kids which is awesome I come from six uh through
0:28his work he has raised ions for companies initiated key Partnerships nurtured a writing newsletter from the
0:34ground up and Morgan aims to guide Executives and their creative strategy and development of their digital
0:40footprint Morgan welcome to the show today thank for having me yeah it’s awesome to be here yeah good well first
0:46of all we got to start with the six kids thing so talk to me about your family and your kids yeah so we have six kids
0:53uh 12 down to two three boys three girls so I have we got my soccer star is the
0:58my oldest and then I have three dancers and uh sold my soul to the dance studio
1:03down the road and so they do ballet and Jazz and uh their company performances
1:09and one of my daughters just did her first solo thing and so that that’s that’s an everyday thing and then um my
1:16two youngest boys are basically just like miniature WWE wrestlers and they just attack each other yeah all day long
1:22that’s how I grew up with my little brothers too so I’m the same way it’s like when you’re talking about your kids and you go like this this is what this
1:28kid does and this is what this kid does you get to the last two like I have no idea what they’re going to be like I’m sort of scared about like what what how
1:35they’re going to shape out what’s the a what’s the age range difference um so they’re four- two my youngest boys are
1:41four- two like I got um 12 and 11 and um
1:46nine and eight for the girls so that’s awesome just you know every two years
1:52basically do good good Gap I’m I’m one of six too and three boys three girls in
1:57my family where where do you sit in the order I’m the oldest nice so yeah
2:03oldest hold holding strong so yeah no it’s it’s fun big family is just fun it
2:08it comes with its own unique challenges and also like just amazing like I loved
2:14growing up with all my siblings yeah you know it’s like you had just a bunch of friends so that’s awesome we are a
2:20circus show when we go out yes people are just staring at us probably looking at Julie and I like you guys look like
2:26you’re 17 how do you have so many kid you have six kids well I had the first one when I was 14 and then so it’s uh
2:35you know it’s it’s it’s so like you’re saying it’s so fun to have them and um it’s it’s just an adventure every day
2:42like it it’s just a blast yeah that’s awesome have so much fun I love it and
2:47uh you started as a teaching Spanish is that like is that was that a passion of
2:52yours at the time or like talk to me about how you got into teaching St yeah I mean originally I thought that I was
2:58going to go and study Spanish lit and be a professor so um my my degrees are in
3:03Spanish and second language acquisition and then I thought it’s just a natural thing like I’m going to take Spanish I’m
3:09going to take Portuguese I’m going to take literature and then I’ll be off at some University for the rest of my life
3:14like working wearing sweaters and teaching kids about contemporary contemporary Spanish sci-fi or something
3:20but um what happened is I got into it and just discovered that it wasn’t
3:25really something that I that I loved and that I felt like could have longterm uh as far as a career goes and
3:33I I think one of the key points is that is just like from a strictly Financial perspective is I was doing online
3:39classes I was coaching wrestling I was doing all these things and with a few little kids and going this is not
3:46sustainable like I just can’t I can’t do this forever and on the academic side um
3:52or excuse me on the administrative side there wasn’t a real path for me to be a principal because I didn’t just I didn’t want to chase high schoolers around and
3:59you offense to high schoolers everywhere but I I just didn’t want to do that and so um my my brother-in-law was one of
4:06the original ADT door knockers back in the 90s and he’s been doing door to-door sales forever and we’re um we’re at my
4:15in-laws house and at their kitchen table in in Washington state and he just goes what do you want to do like what do you
4:20really want to do because yes it’s fun to teach Spanish and it’s a true salesman coming out and him yeah yeah
4:27yeah and and it was it was great to like teach Spanish and and even um in the area that I was at in the Northwest like
4:33I had I had got this grant to create a uh a Spanish class for native speakers
4:39and so oh that’s awesome I had like a group of 30 kids that all played soccer together and their families were together and and they’re like whoa like
4:46proace Snider who is this who is this guy guy and and I’m like the first day of the class like how many of you have
4:52read a novel in Spanish before and no one raised their hand and I was like okay let’s get going and so they they
4:58read their first book in Spanish they wrote for the first time for a lot of them they wrote their first essays in Spanish they did everything in their
5:04native language for the first time with me that’s super cool and so there was there’s obviously really amazing
5:10experiences with that but at the same time like it all came to the point at that kitchen table where my brother-in-law goes like what do you
5:16actually want and I didn’t have a very clear understanding of what that was I just said not this like yeah I don’t
5:23have a I don’t have like a mood board or an idea board where I’m going like actually I’d like to do this here’s my
5:28business plan yeah I didn’t have that I had no idea it’s just and and it’s not like I grew up in a household with tons
5:35of entrepreneurs all around me that were telling me okay this is what you should do it’s just figuring it out and so I I
5:42went out and I knocked doors I was halfway decent at that um and I’m going to go through this fast because I I
5:47don’t want to talk about this the entire time but um knocked into the door of uh an executive at the Cleveland Clinic
5:53which is one of the largest Healthcare works in the country and he said you should come and do this with me I’m I’m breaking away from the clinic and we’re
5:59going to do some Consulting and and then he reconnected with someone in Utah at a startup and then I was brought out to
6:06you know move my family across the country to go be a part of a startup and I I had no idea what that meant and I
6:13think this is a common yeah this is a common thing for Morgan in his life through his 20s is like I don’t know
6:20yeah I just said yes I didn’t know what it meant or anything and even getting to the startup and um the the co-founder
6:27like we didn’t bring you here to raise any money we’re we’re in the middle of fundraising but like you’re here to just
6:33to learn yeah because and and totally they have trepidation because who is this Morgan character who’s going to go
6:38out and sell our company like that’s that would be wild he has no experience he has no MBA has nothing and I just
6:44said okay and then I walked back into the office and I started emailing people and getting on LinkedIn and doing it
6:50yeah and we ended up raising a lot of money and that was an awesome experience and um I’m pretty sure they forgave me
6:56for my from from of experience and lack of disability all things I guess I guess
7:03like just my my spirit animal is Juggernaut from the X-Men like I’m just just going through doors and whatever
7:09happens happens and um that was sort of my mentality around that and what it did
7:15was it shifted my own perspective like Morgan the Spanish teacher to now Morgan
7:20a startup team member and not and and from that Morgan can be a value creator for somebody in a business situation
7:27which was totally foreign like so foreign to me and then um people came to
7:32me after ID raised that money and said like hey could you help us with this project could you think through this for us could you and I just started picking
7:39up a little additional work and eventually decided I can do this I can do this full time yeah like I I can do
7:44this and um originally I thought that I was like a pure Communications person where I was tactical creating marketing
7:52materials or messages for people or whatever but really it’s it’s it’s a
7:58combination of that plus the actual strategy behind what they do what is that unique thing that the value
8:04proposition about them what are they not who are they speaking to there’s all these questions that I answer along that
8:11um that train of thought and so what I’ve discovered now in this latest transformation of Morgan you know the
8:17Juggernaut is is uh is that I can be strategic with people and be a real
8:23adviser to people and I’m not just this and I’m not just this but I have a lot to offer to the to the world and to
8:30people and it’s just been very empowering and I think the side effects of that too is um for my wife and my
8:36kids as they’re seeing their dad go through that and they get all the Gory details because a lot of time I’m working from home and they’re dropping
8:42off artwork in my my impromptu office and asking me questions about things and
8:48they’re they’re just living this this in their face experience with the business and um you know often we refer to it as
8:55our business and it’s our family business and my my wife it’s such a fun place to be it really is when you get to
9:02that point yeah it’s cool they start talking about it to their like when their friends come over and they’re like
9:08telling them about client work and their friends are probably thinking like I just want to play the switch man like
9:13don’t tell me about your dad’s stuff but they they’re I yeah I mean the side effect of it is they’re they’re proud of
9:19it and they want to be a part of it as much as they can as much as they can and my my oldest actually said like can I
9:25start cold calling for you oh man we’re going to be dangerous like if he if he
9:31picks up the phone and starts calling people that would be so funny man that would just be hysterical it’s like my
9:3712-year-old like so what are some of the things you’re going through right now in your business like talking to people
9:43little kid this little voice how old are you um 12 and a half yeah there’s um
9:49there’s a lot of that and I think it’s it’s also just it’s been fun for my relationship with my wife too is um I
9:57think we hear a lot of chatter in different channels like you know always keep that separate and then there’s
10:03other people that are advocating for always keep it together and I’m I’m on the keep it together side because it has really done a lot to strengthen my
10:09relationship with her and the things that she can do to both support me and
10:14give me ideas about things and it’s so amazing like she’s completely separated from that world she’s she’s
10:20homeschooling she’s doing her thing and then like I’ll I’ll just say hey I’m
10:26going through this thing and she’ll say why don’t you think about about this like oh my gosh why didn’t I think I
10:32like I feel so stupid why didn’t I come up with that and so she’s she’s just as much of an advisor to me as I am to some
10:39of my clients and thinking through their creative problems and so that’s amazing well SP man having a spouse that
10:46supports you not only espe I think especially as like an entrepreneur is like critical I feel like es if you’re
10:53in any kind of relationship whether whether they’re you’re married or not but having like a really key
10:59relationship that isn’t like tied to your business is like really important like I had uh Corey Stevens uh we just
11:07launched his episode and we talked a lot about mallerie his wife as the co-founder of tap shoes with with him
11:14and about like really how how pivotal it is to have a really supportive spouse
11:21especially as an entrepreneur so it sounds like your wife’s really been that for you do yeah yeah she absolutely has
11:28and um not only suggesting things to me or or putting things out there but when you’re just
11:34when you just don’t feel like you can go on anymore she gives me the tough love that I need right just get up and do it
11:40yep and and then when I’m riding highs she tells me to stay balanced like stay focused I’m like I just landed this
11:47amazing client and she’s like that’s awesome keep going keep going like keep doing your thing brother um so it it’s
11:54it’s it’s really nice from like a balance and a stability standpoint just to because I’m I’m still solo I hope to
12:01someday and very soon have other people that are writing alongside me and creating things alongside me and um that
12:07I think that’s coming down the pipe this year but in the meantime she really is the the force that I can interact with
12:14and and have in my you know my dealings and my business and yeah no that’s amazing especially as a sounding board
12:20and some you need somebody to keep you grounded if it’s not a business partner then definitely needs to be like very
12:27close second and and and you know our our spouses wives husbands they’re you
12:33know should be right there with you hopefully yeah yeah that’s awesome what
12:39what are you passionate about right now with with your business what is
12:44something that you are like just psyched up about right now I I think I’m I’m
12:49super psyched up about um allowing people to realize that they have value
12:55and that they can do things on their own and and it’s not like I’m I’m helping
13:01people like see that for the first time like they’re very seasoned Executives they’ve run successful companies they
13:08are I mean by all uh I guess measures smarter better more attractive all the
13:15things than I am and but what’s so cool about what I get to do is I get inside of their world I get inside of their
13:22business um I understand their personality their psyche the energy that they bring and I try to create opportuni
13:29for them and a lot of the times it is in the creative worlds of the different marketing channels and stuff like that
13:35but a lot of times it’s it’s they need similar to what we were just talking about with with spouses is they need
13:41someone that can meet them that can tell them the truth and that can ask them the right questions and totally and um this
13:47has been something that’s happened a lot in the last month is um whether it’s in
13:53a restaurant in a home in a shared workspace wherever I’m meeting people and all I’m doing is just sitting
13:59there just listening them just listening to them and um and sometimes I do
14:05challenge them and I’m probably one of the few people in their life that excuse
14:11me ask them the tough questions that they need to hear well especially as like a like more or less a neutral third
14:17party yeah especially as an executive CU I feel like you get siloed in a little bit where it’s like I can’t necessarily
14:26or maybe they think and I I’m trying to get in their head cuz I feel that way sometimes it’s like I can’t go talk down
14:32more or less down the food chain and talk to them about advice or go up the food chain like I’m just kind of in my
14:38own head and space sometimes so it’s nice to have that third party well a lot of these Executives the only people they
14:45have in their lives are yes yes men and yes women exactly I have this idea that sounds great yeah I want to do this off
14:51perfect it’s like actually no it doesn’t align with our with our strategy we’re not doing that yeah we’re like and and
14:57the the other thing too is along with value creation and creating opportunities just like understanding how to filter everything that’s coming
15:04to them because they’re at the point of their lives where they’ve been working working working and it’s time to reap it’s time to dig into all these things
15:11that they can do and and make money and monetize on their experience and their knowledge and so part of it is just
15:17picking people to go with and choosing collaborators and identifying friends and people that can Champion the cause
15:23of a given executive and when I started my business I thought I was in a writing business I thought I was like produ
15:29night night and day 11:00 I’m going to write this ad I’m going to do this it’s just so awesome and then I realized I’m
15:36not really in a writing business um and and I’m not even like in a communications field per se but I’m in a
15:43and I’m a people oriented advisor and and it’s and it’s just working through
15:48some of the problems that they face every day and understand how I can help solve them because they’re doing
15:54operations they are meeting with people they don’t have opportunities to sit there and think about what unique value
16:00can I present to the market what can I do now to make my company go from here all the way to here where I want it to
16:06be and I know it should be and it’s it’s it’s like when you’re staying up late at night and you’re going oh I wish I could
16:11do this I wish I could do that or if your brain just going a million miles an hour if I could only do this but then
16:17they wake up and it’s like oh Groundhog’s Day again I got to run my business and so they can not necessarily
16:22rent my brain but they can um have somebody that is just walking right alongside them that has no bi like no
16:29bias or other perspective or that’s directly tied to some of the political
16:35Warfare that goes on at companies and I can just be a friend to them and and it’s weird to say that out loud like for
16:42sure I am Executives friend like but but it’s very much who like who you are now
16:48sure and was there was there like a pivotal moment between going from tactical the writer Morgan to like
16:56tactical strategy Morgan right I I think I think it’s just um I think it’s just
17:01replaying all the conversations in my head the last few months and going I’m I’m not this like I’m not here I’m
17:07actually over here and it’s not a matter of like higher or lower more important less important everybody has a role to
17:13play in an organization or in a business or making money whatever it’s just the it’s just identifying and saying this is
17:19who I really am and I think that’s what I’m unlocking for people too is is I’m helping them see exactly who they are
17:25and not the person that they wish that they could be that they’ll never get too but understand okay this is exactly who
17:31I should you know I should be aiming for and the types of things I should be producing and saying and this is this is
17:37how I present myself to the world and I I understood that through years of just
17:44continuing to continuing to iterate listening and um and testing things and
17:49writing things and and speaking to people and it’s just um it’s it’s continuous transformation and I was I
17:56was actually talking to um a strategist this morning who I don’t directly work
18:01with but um I I started with um this executive and now he’s having me work
18:07with the entire team on establishing their own like if you know gong or other other people that are online like they
18:13have massive team presence oh yeah and they they’re all United and everybody knows well you land on a profile it’s
18:19like oh this is gone and and they also have a really they do a really great job of the Strategic messaging across those
18:26platforms and they have a style and an aesthetic and I think that’s what we’re going for with this this certain company
18:31and I was talking to her and she said um she said I I’m just I’m finding my path
18:37I’m finding my way and I don’t have anything good to say it’s like actually what you should do is you should be
18:43saying things because it’s in the saying that you discover yeah exactly who you are totally I love that well walk walk
18:51me through how you start with somebody what’s like what’s some of the initial
18:56questions that you maybe ask somebody or go through to kind of iterate and find
19:01their own voice um I I do a lot of interviewing and not only one-on-one but I talk to teams I go to stuff with them
19:09yeah um sometimes like I said I I show up to a house or I go out to eat several times or it’s it’s all um very informal
19:17and I think there’s a lot that could be learned through chatting if people would just understand that informal chats
19:23bring out like the the real meat and color between the different points like the strategy that they want to go
19:29instead of being like all right we’re locked into this one hour here’s our agenda let’s strategize right like it
19:35doesn’t natural things just they just don’t happen there because everyone has a role to play everyone has their own
19:40talk track and their own opinions and they got to have their opinions heard within that hour in order to formulate the strategy and so I just I completely
19:49avoid that like if someone tells me we’d like you to come to a board meeting nope yeah I’d like you to come to this nope
19:55like what do you mean nope like you work for me and it’s like well that’s actually no nothing nothing real or true
20:02about what the offering is or the product service it’s like I need to get about way behind the scenes like and and
20:09um it’s not going to come out of a board meeting it’s not gonna I need to meet you at a PF Changs or be on your couch or something else like that in order to
20:15really have the walls come down and me get to know you in that way where we’re
20:21not putting on ears or pretending to be things that we’re not and and I think
20:26that is that is the the foundation of what do is getting the barriers to come down understanding exactly who this
20:33person is outside of those business scenarios right the the things that are formalized and and what’s amazing is
20:40people will just tell me everything yeah and and I’m not saying that like hey look at me people tell me everything I’m
20:46I’m just saying if you really got in those environments with the the people on your team your audience that you’re
20:52trying to talk to potential clients it doesn’t matter like if you just get in those informal chats and you just start
20:58talking to them and and there’s no incentivizing or any it’s just it’s like let’s just have conversations about things and that’s
21:05why I start that way with every um with every client is text me whenever you want call me whenever you want slack me
21:13whenever you want I’m not going to charge you like it’s just part of it’s part of the thing like it’s part of the
21:18engagement and we become really close and um almost like hairdresser
21:23confessions it almost is like that that’s right that’s a that’s a different story feel super weird when I’m getting
21:29my haircut I don’t feel like I can really tell her anything yeah I I would say um
21:36that’s where I start and so once once you have that foundation and the established relationship where it’s not like you’re you’re my contractor or
21:43you’re my strategist or you’re this it’s like no Morgan is he’s much more than that like he can be my publicist he
21:49could be my uh you know my copywriter he could be this for me but more than anything like he’s a trusted person in
21:57my circle and he just thinking about things to help me totally and and and he
22:02doesn’t have an agenda really I mean he’s getting paid like don’t get me wrong getting paid do this for money but
22:07um it’s not yeah it’s not like that but in it’s it’s different in the sense that I’m not um advocating for more and more
22:14leverage within the company like I’m not trying to get a promotion I’m not trying to make myself you’re not the Yes Man in
22:20their Circle I am just a a guy that comes in and and can answer some of those foundational questions for them
22:26and so that’s where I start and then we start to test things we start to experiment when does it become tactical
22:31right you take you take all the listening all the learning and then do you go straight into tactics or are you
22:37developing the strategy and then tactics well if it was up to me you know this I would just go wild like I would just
22:42start testing all sorts of things but most executives are not super into that they like they’re a little more like ah
22:49can we please think before we do um and I’m just more of like a do do kind of a person um and so I we start to test
22:56content we write we have talks like I’m I’m monitoring all the communications
23:02that they’re putting out into the world as well as inside their own company and trying to get okay are there places that
23:08that can be cleaned up so that there’s more clarity within the company that points back to our strategy and then um
23:14do the content pieces that we’re putting out there really get to the Crux of what we’re trying to do as an individual um
23:20executive and also as a a wider brand um and so I I do a lot of testing and
23:25experimentation we have workshops and different things that I run with execu too but that that that next level stuff
23:31is just experiment and test and learn and um in a world of immediate results
23:37that can also be kind of tough too because we want to discover things about oursel instantly yeah and and
23:44conditioned to do it now because we’re spending money because this because this but um well I think also the way like
23:51Marketing Executives are trained now is so performance driven like there’s no
23:56room there’s almost no room in anymore for like testing or for fail or for
24:01failure for sure no room for failure well it’s like the average tenure of like a CMO is like 18 months like in the
24:08like Fortune 1000 it’s like it’s basically 18 months and it’s because you take a big swing and miss and you’re out
24:15yeah you know and it’s like there has to be more room eventually especially with
24:20AI and with the way everything’s going like there has to be more room for
24:26creativity yeah you know and what what’s the value of the relationship that you have with someone where you truly
24:31connect to somebody like outside of the business world when you have that actual relationship where you’re thinking man
24:38this person is incredible and it’s it’s reciprocal and and that takes time you
24:43can’t instantly fire that up you don’t put in a microwave and then two minutes later you got a bag of friendship right like yeah exactly it’s going to take
24:50some time you’re going to have to invest in it and you have to be comfortable with that because like in in in my case
24:57I’m I wrote over 100 substack articles in the last year and for the first part of that I didn’t see anything nobody was
25:04responding nobody talked to me but as I just kept going because I knew I knew it
25:11was a unique Channel I’m getting them outside of the scroll of social media and I’m having like a real talk with
25:16Morgan and their inbox and they’re staying there they they experience a different level of connection with me
25:22where if they’re looking on LinkedIn and they see some goofy thing that I posted and then they just go okay now it’s
25:29instantly forgotten because I’m looking at Dan’s thing and I’m looking at this person thing and but with that suback
25:34article I knew I don’t know I maybe it was just my own intuition I just knew
25:40that that was going to be important and what happened is six or seven months down the road people are texting me and
25:45calling me all of a sudden saying I have read this for so long and I feel dumb saying this but we should talk now yeah
25:52they’re just coming out right they’re like I have because you’ve not given up and you’ve kept going with and been
25:58consistent yeah and because I understood that relationships take a long time they are not an instant thing they’re rarely
26:04an instant thing and writing is the great relationship engine as well as having that clear strategy because when
26:10you do have a clear strategy across your your comms or the type of content that you’re putting out there things just
26:15come to you because they understand it finally and maybe that was that was part of the reason why it did take longer on
26:21suback is because I was trying to figure out how I should write and how I should communicate to an audience and then once
26:27I had that clear and people are like yeah I’ve opened 35 emails of yours in the last I don’t know
26:34few months and yeah thank first off thank you so much like that’s very flattering that you would spend that time with me because some of these
26:41Executives get a couple hundred emails a day like I only read your emails I don’t
26:46read anybody else’s I’m like oh my gosh that’s so awesome thank you yeah no and then we have the we have great
26:51conversations so I get on Zoom and they’re like I already know you yeah I feel like because I’ve I’ve read you for months yeah I know exactly who you are
27:00and and that’s what’s so fun like going back to your question of what is exciting that’s exciting is when a CEO
27:07who thinks they have nothing to to offer even though they do because they have amazing experience they’ve done a a
27:13crazy amount of cool things in their career and then they start writing and they start producing and they start
27:19seeing the value of that and they’re they’re thinking I just made 10 amazing relationships because of my writing over
27:26the last year and because of that we’re now going to be doing x amount of business and that in turn affects my
27:33family’s life and it’s just you know waterfall to different else total Ripple
27:38waterfall effect from all of the work and and and strategy you put into place right yeah um how do you help Executives
27:45get out of their head like I think for myself right like I am relatively active on LinkedIn I post a lot or engaging
27:52this podcast like we’re but sometimes I still get in my darn head about like do
27:59I have something important to say today do I have something that’s gonna make an impact how do you help somebody through
28:05that I think the first thing to remember is that everything has a short shelf life and so nothing you can say will
28:10ruin you you know yeah to infinity and beyond and unless it’s like some serious
28:15political misfire I don’t know maybe you could completely yeah destroy yourself but I I
28:23think it’s important to remember that nobody really cares and that’s what I tell myself like I’m just speaking for
28:28personal nobody nobody’s going to remember what I said about thought leader today no one’s going to remember tomorrow what thing I commented on or
28:36they’re just going to forget unless I continue to make grievous mistakes every single day which you would have to try
28:43yeah like unless you’re trying to shoot yourself in the foot then we probably shouldn’t be engaging as clients we
28:48shouldn’t be working together um but yeah that everything has a short shelf life and I think um part of that process
28:55too is is just being kind to yourself and to uh forget forget this whole
29:01notion that I have nothing of value like every human has value yeah everybody has
29:07something that they can talk about and um I’m going to totally totally butcher the the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson
29:12but it’s like I have I can learn something from everyone like every person that I meet I can learn from them and that therefore they they’re my equal
29:20and I think that’s that’s really important to remember is like whe whether or not you have something
29:27amazing to say about your business business but there’s something amazing you can say about your family there’s something amazing you can say about your
29:33community that you’re involved in and there are different things that you can contribute to any channel to any
29:41conversation that someone is going to be touched by if you are real about it now
29:46if you’re backs slapping everyone and constantly bragging about yourself no one wants to be around you but if if
29:52you’re saying if you’re looking inside yourself and you’re like I have these three things that I know that I perform
29:57at a high Lev level I have deep expertise in um that other people have commented to me in the past like you
30:03should totally share that if any of those things have happened to you you know you have something to contribute
30:09and like to your point of getting out of your own head um it’s having the confidence to finally make that step off
30:16of a cliff and say I’m going to say this and that can be really terrifying yeah
30:21especially for the first time yeah the first time and then I think like I mean for me it’s gotten much easier over time
30:28with additional practice right it’s just it’s like building building that confidence up comes from the repetition
30:35comes from the practice comes from putting it out there do you feel like you see the same same thing with the
30:40executives and the people that you work with I I think I think they they experience it to a small extent um I no
30:49one wants to hear this but it takes years to feel I think ultimately comfortable and that’s why I don’t care
30:55about putting things out that are a little zany wacky or whatever is I’ve just done it so long and and for the
31:01last few years that’s all I’ve been doing is writing like it’s been a continuous flow when I’m not writing I
31:07am writing and it’s 11 o’clock at night and I am writing like it might not be for some project but I am in the
31:14practice of writing and it’s a little and people that do meditation might laugh at this but I almost find it’s a
31:20meditative practice in a way totally of just expressing myself getting words on a page mulling over these things and
31:27always being reflective in how I approach my life in business and the the yes the executives experienced that but
31:34I’ve had very few that take it to that level where they’re they’re they’re just putting ideas down on the page and
31:40thinking about their life in that way but I think I think to an extent they do they’re like this is a good practice for
31:46me whether or not we’re making tons of money initially which they always want to do yeah um but it’s it’s just great
31:53practice for you mentally and and you know spiritually emotionally to always be thinking where am I right now and I
32:01think it’s EXA I think it’s exactly like meditation like I feel like meditation is only just writing in your head more
32:08or less you know mantras and and all the things and and thinking deeply and also
32:13letting go too you know and and you can do all of those things in writing yeah
32:19yeah and I I I would just um I guess put it out there that everyone should have a document where and you can you can
32:25adjust the title but I mean things I never want forget yeah and it’s just a a
32:30a few minutes where you spend typing out things that are wonderful in your life things that are great that you’re
32:35grateful for things that are happening because so much of how we think and write affects everything else in our
32:42life and so maybe that’s why I’m doing it at night is because I’m hoping that some of my big struggles my big pains
32:48will be naturally solved through this like subconscious sleep c yeah like I’m going to bed and I’m like debrief of the
32:55day I’m debriefing and I’m also kind of saying these things are amazing in my life and then I’m waking up and I’m
33:01going okay I’m out to look for those things and maybe there’s some Cosmic uh
33:08principle to that I don’t know if there is but I I just think it’s really great for anybody um to to put yourself in
33:15that that mindset of I’m going to do a little bit of writing I’m going to do a little bit of thinking I’m going to do a little bit of an adjustment every day
33:21and I think it just helps everything yeah just come together no exactly how
33:27do you feel like your your writing has like
33:33impacted more or less like your I guess your maybe professional career like I
33:40feel like you you’ve been ingrained in it since you were know teaching Spanish
33:45right I wrote a lot of papers it it feels like it’s just been this almost
33:50this like core to who you are what have been some ancillary things that you’ve pulled in other than writing that you
33:56feel like have been pivot in your your career path um I I was I
34:02was never this my I’m going to get to the answer I promise but I was a really bad student in school which seems weird
34:09that I would want to then lock myself into teaching in a public school after I was terrible at being a student and I
34:15had teachers that were like you’ll never learn this I had a counselor that was like essentially you can’t take any of
34:21these classes CU you would just bomb them like every time those are good motivators well they can be good
34:26motivators but they can be Crush they they can really damage you and um and I
34:33think what I did and I I was probably not good at school for a lot of reasons
34:38but I I think I was just I was not built for school period like I was not built to thrive in an environment where you’re
34:44locked traditional SCH when you’re when you’re locked in there and so um it was just too much like and I and I guess I
34:52coped with that through expression and music and um having like I was friends
34:58with drama kids I was also on the football team and I I mean I I just had every and I would just bounce around and
35:03talk to people and that’s how I cop yeah my grades were horrible so I had to like I had to find I had to like get some joy
35:09out of it and so the that was a big part of it was communication with people and
35:14I think writing is that great I get I refer to it as a relationship engine but
35:19it is that great it’s a great way for you to make friends and to have some human Connection in your life and so
35:26through through middle school and high school and into college and as an adult I I use writing as a meditative practice
35:33to have that peace I also use it to make friends and and build up my
35:38relationships and um and find ways to just get to know people like and support
35:45other people um other benefits of of writing that have have come out of just
35:50non-stop writing I I think it just has helped me become a better thinker overall like and
35:59and because I don’t have like I haven’t run a Fortune 100 company or anything and I feel sometimes very inadequate
36:05when I’m talking to these Executives but it has helped me it has helped me to
36:10think clearer because I’m in I’m always in the mode of how do I refine how do I
36:16refine and I get burned out by that no doubt because if you’re always looking for refinement you’re just always going
36:22to you never will actually live yeah and make and be okay with not knowing things
36:28but um that is uh for better for worse writing has helped me just stay in tune
36:34with that and and try to come up with answers about everything and just being naturally curious when you are curious
36:40it doesn’t seem like you’re getting burned out it’s just the next adventure the next thing that you get to discover
36:47yeah and so it just has has helped me become very curious about my world and and that’s why I think people hire me on
36:53some level is like they can just have someone that will go down every rabbit in the field and be comfortable like
37:00just learning and listening and discovering yeah totally what are some of those pieces that you discover that
37:05you’re now like applying tactically because like I think tactics kind of like always evolving right whether it’s
37:12on LinkedIn whether it’s whatever Medium you’re writing in like substock is different than a normal blog on your you
37:19know a website right so like talk to me about some of the tactics that you’ve
37:25discovered uh I would say the first thing in is you just go to where your audience is and you just have a ball
37:31just have a fiesta with them um a lot of my Executives enjoy substack because it
37:36is out of the scroll and they can concentrate there may be places where your audience lives that you just need
37:42to go there and set up shop you know Discord is a huge thing for a lot of different audiences maybe you need to
37:47build up your your your place there whether it’s Instagram I would say just pick something like pick a spot follow
37:54through and and and stop segmenting yourself to the tilt and thinking we’re going to get massive exposure and yeah
38:00and I I’m not and all the channels all at the same time yeah I don’t want to argue with Gary ve and like there’s
38:06probably some Gary ve supporters out there trading right now yeah right Morgan but I if you’re starting up or
38:13you’re in a growth stage I would say find your audience and just start talking to them and and find out what
38:19they think how they feel what is their reaction to the content that you’re putting out there and having some some
38:27convers ations and and and deciding that this is where we’re going to camp out for a while and this is where we can put
38:33the stake in the ground and be okay with instead of instead of just diversifying
38:39all over the place and killing your social media manager yeah I mean maybe
38:44if and it that may just be one person depending on what company you’re at maybe yourself yeah maybe yourself too I
38:50mean a lot of people are running their own stuff yeah um other tactical things
38:55um I I would say is is like don’t be afraid of experimenting with the actual
39:01creative um that you’re putting out there like if you have if you have white if like you’re in a white paper and I
39:07don’t know maybe this is speaking to like very few but like I was with an executive and they’re like my people I
39:13don’t know what that means but my people read white papers it’s like yeah in some Industries Why do they only read white
39:18papers like how do they consume that are they okay with that like is that do they
39:23love it they love that experience of the white paper I mean I would be yeah I hate myself if I read white paper white
39:29paper white like are there other things that we can offer that are a little bit more digestible or consumable where
39:36they’ll actually have a pleasant experience with that um so I I would say like finding your spot is important but
39:42also um the actual material and I just call everything material but like the
39:47the medium whether it’s video white paper um a Blog a PDF like sometimes I
39:53think it would be cool if um if I could just give uh like a bunch of spec ads in
39:59a PDF to someone and be like this is how I think yeah and then people would read it and they would love it and I mean
40:06some people might do that but I would say um when when you’re making marketing materials think about what’s being done
40:12right now and then how can you run in the complete opposite direction and then give them something that’s like oh my
40:18gosh what is this and it will repel some people but it will also attract some people because that shows that you are
40:25are you are unique and you are special and it you deserve to be looked at and so I think I think those two things are
40:32what come to mind when you’re asking me like what are the Tactical things that you’ve seen move move mountains for
40:37people that’s those are probably two of the starting blocks I love that and I think like these days having like it’s
40:44now the trendy thing owned audience right like we need to build an owned audience because we’re renting audience
40:50on social what what do you feel like are ways that your your advice and the
40:55things that you’re doing build the owned audience for these Executives yeah I I’m
41:01probably not the right person to ask this question to because so much of what I do is on a one-on-one basis like yeah
41:07we have a few people we have a few people that we want to talk to or build relationships with it and so there’s not
41:13like an owned audience I would say um and maybe this is part of what you’re asking is maybe just like news like
41:19newsletter right you’ve built your own newsletter I’m sure you advise other people on how to build and build that
41:25newsletter which is definitely I would I yeah so I my my head is on straight I
41:30think but um I would say every time you go to produce something have someone
41:35that is a tangible face Personality yeah and we always I think ICP everyone has a
41:41definition of what ICP means but um all the great writers that I have studied
41:46anyway when they’re writing something they have a person that they are writing to and they have like a real and it’s
41:54not a physical person obviously but it’s like a person personality an emotion as something that they are constantly
42:01writing to and it’s not like you’re writing Love Letters to people but in a way you sort of are because it’s it’s
42:08very specific and it’s very it’s designed around that person and and how
42:14that person is going to either love it love it hate it or whatever and so I I
42:19would just like strongly encourage anybody that does newsletters specifically or that that like to your
42:25question of how do you direct your energy towards that is just pick pick a person too and and under and maybe it’s
42:32just an imaginary person at the start and you’re just completely creating it from scratch and that ends up being not
42:38the not the thing that you need to be writing to um but you’ll just you’ll just uncover it as you keep producing
42:43and producing and producing well and I think a lot of people re don’t realize they have like this almost unmind gold
42:51in their own customers right where they they for whatever reason have chosen not to speak to their own customers and get
42:59feedback and whether get feedback about like the content they’re producing get feedback on the product I think some
43:05people do but I feel like at least the kind of content I’m consuming it’s it seems like a lot of people are like this
43:12is like a new idea and I’m like this is crazy you know we have like the um the
43:17the the bestie guys that have their you know post-p purchase survey uh software for Ecom uh providers and that you’re
43:26able to learn so much more if you actually just talk to your customers yeah you can pull so many more levers
43:32because the data that you’re getting out of any kind of platform analytically can also lie to you too can
43:40tell you other things that don’t I mean it can give you it’s biased towards its own you know own right but you may
43:47actually get the real meat of the data from your own customers so you feel like
43:53finding probably the a good medium is you know obviously building your own audience but also talking to your own
44:00customers yeah right talking to them the way they want to be talked to and the way that they communicate and um and
44:06I’ve seen this with like what I what I consider to be like conservative very
44:12well-educated um accountants attorneys and we think
44:17that they want to be communicated in a certain way yeah like 81 page documents and 8 point font it’s like actually no
44:23they’re humans too yeah they’re like they’re probably sick of communicating that format they they don’t want that
44:29they they just want a real human connection and uh something beyond their title their position and their status
44:35yeah so talk to them that way well and at the end of the day like people do like obviously buy from people but like
44:44at the end of the day that relationship building and being human with each other
44:50is what moves the needle yeah they want to see expertise and the language is an identifier of expertise like if if they
44:56see certain things in your document or in your email in the social they’re like okay this person’s legit this person’s not but you can still you can still
45:03present yourself with that um you know that content that knowledge of your given industry and still be human about
45:09it and still do things that your industry is not doing currently and get noticed I love that you spoke a little
45:15bit about obviously expanding the the more or less Morgan experience so to
45:20speak this year what’s in the F what’s in the future for you where do you where’s your what’s your vision
45:26[Laughter] yeah I um I I know what’s I know what’s
45:31not in the future for Morgan is that is that a good enough place to start yeah what’s not in the future oh I’m just not
45:37employable anywhere I don’t think anyone would want to hire me to do anything neither am I at a normal company yeah no
45:43kidding um that has been very apparent is that I I have to be doing what I’m
45:50doing right now it just gives me so much energy it just just fills me up so much
45:56I just couldn’t IM imagine doing anything else um on a more serious note I think what’s next for Morgan is I want
46:03to get I want to continue to explore the idea of not doing as much of the
46:09Tactical and into more of the strategy and into the the relationship building for executives and some of the things
46:16that I’ve talked about already um my my number one motivator for myself is is having freedom and having opportunities
46:23to do amazing things in business as well as doing amazing things with my family and so my the the freedom Factor if I
46:31can put it that way is always top of Mind how is this going to affect my freedom yeah because that is that is the
46:36most important thing in the world to me and I was actually talking to a friend who is my client but um I was talking to
46:44him about some of the ideas I have for building my business up and and making like bringing in some writers bringing in some other strategists and and making
46:51not a firm because I’m not I’m not cool enough to have that but I think um I
46:57think um like a broader offering and he just said I’m not convinced that’s what you even want and I said how dare you
47:03like I’m I’m trying to like Express out yeah I’m trying to talk through this here and you’re not taking me very
47:09seriously like I just don’t think that’s what you want to do and in discussing that like I don’t want to build massive
47:17a massive client base potentially because that’ll affect my freedom and as we all know the bigger you get and all
47:22the things that come the more complicated it gets yeah yeah and I I think um for me it’s it’s just finding some
47:28full-time not full-time but um some longer lasting relationships that Can Go
47:34the Distance where I can just continue to work for them and um and find real partners that care about me and I care
47:41about them and we we hesitate to use the word love in business because it’s just not it doesn’t fit within any framework
47:48or thesis statement or anything but I’ve I’ve learned to love the people that I work with and they’re they’re in my
47:56circle they my crew and I’m going to do everything I can to work with them long
48:01term because it I get so much out of the relationship I learn so much from these
48:08leaders and um in in the bio on my website I just I I do feel truly that I
48:15am the luckiest person in the world to get to do this work because I’m constantly interfacing with people I’m
48:21learning from them I get to publish their stories I I get to know all the details of what has made them successful
48:28and so I’m I just feel like a little kid taking notes on people and and trying to
48:33be them um and I I have like tons of people that I’ve learned from but it’s
48:39like I just get to take all the best pieces of who they are and and make that a part of my life or at least attempt to
48:46I’m not perfect at doing that but I I get to have these these different um
48:51relationships and so if that means if that means I get to go to 20 clients and
48:56I’m working with 20 clients in their brands that’s where it’ll be yeah if it I mean my goodness I don’t know what I
49:01would do if it was any bigger than that like if we were talking 40 or 50 clients I just have no idea what that would even
49:08look like because when people are coming to me from substack LinkedIn or other channels like they’re coming to work
49:13with me yeah and they want to work with Morgan it’s it’s it’s a Ser it’s just one of the things of a service business
49:19like this type of a businesses I I’m sure like it’s it’s not the constraint of the one it’s not that I it’s not that
49:26I doubt that other people can do what I do I mean there’s lots of incredibly bright people that could do this
49:31whatever it is that I do but um but I I just love having that Ono one value and
49:38uh so I don’t I don’t know if that is even possible to scale to massive Heights I just think it’s going to be a
49:45very personal these and I I mean ideally I’d like to get it to like 10 or 10 or
49:5115 which is what I’m doing right now and just keep it here and just flourish right and just and just do it that way
49:57but um I always feel slightly underwhelming at networking events lately too when I’m talking to new
50:03people what’s the big Vision like it’s actually right now yeah like what I’m
50:08like what I’m doing right now is my vision yeah which is amazing and it’s an amazing place to be like you find a
50:14really good happy medium for like impact Freedom time with family fulfillment
50:20with what you do and you’re making money and it’s fun you know like that’s such a good fun place never I’ll never build a
50:27decacorn but I mean I will be happy and um and one of my another one of my
50:34clients said like I I know so many multi-millionaires that are way sadder than you like way way worse off yeah and
50:42you are because and I think that’s the tendency is like as we build and as we grow we’ll find more and more
50:48fulfillment but that trajectory does not actually make sense at all like you
50:53don’t actually know that and it’s better to just be present right now and think
50:58man my life is incred like it’s great and one of my good friends says that all the time like I have nothing to complain
51:04about and and um super blessed for sure and then one of um because you’re you’re
51:09like looking at the entire Human Condition and the human race generally in the world it’s like yeah it’s uh why
51:15would I ever complain why would I ever say that I need more right it’s it’s actually we need less we need to be
51:21present here and now and um sometimes when I’m feeling snarky and people ask me how I’m doing I say I’m you know
51:27better than I deserve yeah yeah because um you just you have there’s so much
51:33abundance and I guess that’s what’s also fun about the work that I do too is showing people that they they can have
51:41this abundance in their business and their life in their own head space in the things that they create um and it
51:47brings them Joy like it brings them happiness like love and happiness not exactly great for a website headline
51:53like I help people but is the feeling you want to create though it’s the feeling that you want to create and for
51:59the work for the work that I do specifically like it is a little touchy feely and not like that’s great for
52:05marketing but when I tell people like I’m I’m I’m helping them get clarity and focus around their their work and and
52:12their drive and stuff like it makes sense to them like they uh they have a a very positive and almost oh my goodness
52:20this totally makes sense to me I need to have something like that in my life um so that’s really rewarding no that’s
52:25awesome man and on that note like how do how do people find you and work with you
52:31is it led is it really LinkedIn or like where where can people come and start to
52:37work with yeah so I um I have a very short Forum on thought lader today.com
52:42that you can fill out and just tell me a little bit more like what’s important for me to know about you you can always
52:48DM me on LinkedIn you’ll never get uh I’m so busy we’ll respond later message on yeah LinkedIn so you can do that
52:57um it’s it’s uh it’s hard not to find a way if you really wanted to talk to me
53:03you could I’m happy to send anyone myself number I mean it’s just uh but
53:09yeah I I know I’m not being very serious but LinkedIn is probably the best way because I filter a lot of stuff through
53:14Linkedin specifically and so if you send me a DM I’ll respond well Morgan super
53:20appreciate the time today thank you so much for one sharing your story sharing a lot of advice on on how to be one I
53:29think a thinker two how to like tactically build uh your voice and three
53:37like get started right what is there any other piece of advice that you would have uh you know for somebody wanting to
53:45get started who yeah someone that wants to get started either um in some creative world or even in the business
53:51world I think is just don’t be don’t be afraid to jump in and TR try it and go
53:57for it and there’s a lot of haters out there and there’s a lot of miserable people that will latch on to you and say
54:03don’t do that and they’ll come from all places family friends people on LinkedIn they’re all going to say things about it
54:10but until you’ve done it hundreds of times you don’t really know you have no idea what you’re capable of you have no
54:17idea what’s inside of your mind and what can actually manifest it through work and through effort um and and the other
54:25part of that too is just having the confidence and the belief that every day when you wake up um hopefully you feel
54:32like you’re on fire hopefully and if it brings you that and if if you genuinely wake up and you’re like oh I got this
54:38today then you just keep doing it and you keep doing it and you keep doing it and you keep doing it I mean I I would
54:43hate to um I would hate for that sentiment to enter the world of hustle culture that we’re just so inundated
54:50with in media channels but it’s not so much of the hustle it’s just it’s more of the trying and being like I don’t
54:57have to be a billionaire tomorrow I don’t have I don’t have to be this this something that my mind makes up for me
55:03every day these like crazy unreachable goals I can just be me and I can be
55:08happy with who I am right now so I love that well thanks for the time today Mor really appreciate it man yeah awesome
55:14awesome to be here that’s a wrap thanks guys thanks appreciate it
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