#004: Mindset Mastery: Ditching the Day Job and Say F#@k-It to the 9-5 Grind

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About This Episode:

In this episode, of "Mindset Mastery," Jack Long dives deep into the exhilarating journey of breaking free from the 9-5 grind and transitioning into entrepreneurship.

With his signature blend of wit and wisdom, Jack shares his personal experiences and invaluable insights on how to transition from the confines of traditional employment to the freedom of entrepreneurship. 

From igniting your passion to building a thriving online business, Jack lays out a step-by-step roadmap for listeners ready to say "F#@k-it" to the status quo. Whether you're dreaming of launching your own digital course or coaching program, this episode is packed with actionable strategies and inspiration to help you make the leap with confidence. 

Join Jack as he empowers you to master your mindset and embrace the exhilarating possibilities of ditching the day job.

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Primary Topics:

- Introduction to the transformation from a 9 to 5 job to entrepreneurship

- The nitty-gritty of quitting a job and starting a digital course business

- Pivotal moments and strategies of successful digital entrepreneurs

- Host Jack Long’s personal journey from a corporate job in the film industry to entrepreneurship 

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Links Mentioned in This Episode:

The Coursepreneur Revolution - https://www.jacklongdigital.com/event

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Full Transcript:

Jack [00:00:01]:
Hey there, digital entrepreneurs. Welcome back to another electrifying episode here of That Digital Entrepreneur podcast with me, your host, Jack Long. And today's episode is an absolute game changer. So if you've been kind of dreaming of breaking free from the 9 to 5 grind and plunging headfirst into the exhilarating world of entrepreneurship, then you're in for a treat. Now today, we're diving deep into the nitty gritty of quitting your job and going all in on your own digital course business. And hey, look, we're not holding back here, and this episode is even titled Jack in your job and fuck the 9 to 5. Yeah. You heard it right.

Jack [00:00:45]:
It's time to take charge of your destiny. Are you ready? Welcome to That Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. The show that takes you on an exhilarating journey into the world of digital entrepreneurship. I'm your host Jack Long, a former corporate guy turned CEO of a moldy 6 figure online business. And if you dream of creating a business that turns your passions into profits, changes other people's lives, and gives you more freedom than you ever thought possible, this podcast is for you. Each week we dive into the minds of inspiring digital entrepreneurs revealing the secrets, the strategies, and the pivotable moments that propelled them to greatness. This isn't just about the victories, it's about the challenges, the lessons learned, and the courage to take the leap. And if you're an ambitious entrepreneur or one in the making and you're looking to create a business that makes an impact, then this podcast is your go to resource, your inner entrepreneur.

Jack [00:01:41]:
Join me on a transformative journey. Don't miss out on the inspiration, the motivation, and knowledge that you need to build and scale your own business. Get ready to conquer new heights and unlock the secrets of digital entrepreneurship. You're in the right place to turn your dreams into reality. Let's dive in. Okay. So before we dive into this episode today here inside that digital entrepreneur podcast, I wanna share with you and I'm really excited to share with you so you can get ready for the coursepreneur revolution. This is my free day live event where we dive deep into the strategies to helping you quit your 9 to 5 and launch your digital courses and coaching programs.

Jack [00:02:23]:
It only happens once a year and this is your chance for a complete blueprint from myself and top online experts who have achieved success starting from scratch. There's gonna be no fluff, just actionable strategies to take your business to the next level. So why should you join? Well, if you're ready to challenge yourself, unlock your potential and achieve the success that you deserve, then join me for the breakthroughs and insights and moments inside the Coursepreneur revolution. If this sounds really exciting for you, head over to my website atjacklongdigital.comforward/ event. That's e v e n t. Jacklongdigital.comforward/event. Reserve your spot now and let's revolutionize your business together. Okay.

Jack [00:03:10]:
So welcome back. This is episode number 4 here in That Digital Entrepreneur Podcast with me Jack Long. And, there's a little bit of a thing going on with the title of this podcast. First of all, there's a slight like tongue in cheek, Jack in your job. My name is Jack. See what I did there? And then there's a slight little naughty word that we're using, the f word as in to say f your 9 to 5 job. So before we dive into the nitty gritty of this whole entire, exclusive new episode and me revealing these 4 magical steps that are gonna help you, get closer to quitting your 9 to 5. I wanna share a little bit about my own journey and how I went from being in a 9 to 5 job, Monday to Friday job to quitting to becoming an entrepreneur.

Jack [00:04:00]:
So I used to be in the film industry. I used to work, Monday to Friday, normal Monday to Friday job, and I used to work in the film industry for one of the large the world's one of the world's biggest. In fact, at one point when I was there, it was the world's biggest Hollywood film studio. They created films like Harry Potter, and Batman, and Matrix, and Interstellar, and all of those huge Hollywood flicks. And you know what? As much as I enjoyed working there and I was there for over a decade and I loved obviously working in the film industry and I went to college and studied. I have all the right certifications to be able to get into the film industry. It hit me after about a decade that I decided it was time for a change. Like my life had changed.

Jack [00:04:46]:
Me as a person had changed. Like my wife and I, you know, we had we got married. We we got a mortgage. We got a house. We started having children. Responsibilities change. Beforehand it was, you know, red carpet working for a Hollywood film studio, and it's good fun flying around the world, going to events. But then when you've got a family and you've got responsibilities you then start craving more freedom in your life as opposed to craving fun things like going on red carpets, meeting celebrities, watching movies, going to after after parties.

Jack [00:05:18]:
And don't get me wrong, all that stuff is really cool, but my whole entire family dynamic changed and therefore I changed as a person. I grew up. I got older. I became an adult. So today, I'm gonna guide you through the exact steps that I took to transition from the corporate world to then becoming my own boss. And it's a journey filled with, you know, excitement, but there was also challenges. But most importantly, and I've said this word already, it was the freedom to live the life that I wanted to live on my terms. You see there were times that I'd say to my boss, hey look, I wanna book a couple of days off so I can spend, I don't know Friday and a Monday a long weekend with my family.

Jack [00:05:57]:
And my boss might turn around and say, but we've got a major big event coming up, or we've got a big, launch coming out, or I need you. You can't have Monday Friday off. I need you around or we're looking at traveling to an event somewhere or or there's a really important meeting happening and I need you to be present. All these things were constantly going on and I'm sure you may be able to relate for that. And I always felt like I didn't have this freedom to live the life on my terms because I was ultimately tied in to working for a company. A Monday to Friday office job ultimately is what it was at the end of the day. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go through this whole entire process of how I did it, and I did it in just 4 steps. And you may be thinking, my god, you're crazy leaving the Hollywood film studio industry to go and start up and become your own boss.

Jack [00:06:50]:
But actually I've never looked back and I'll never go back to working for another person ever again in my life. So step 1 or rather should I say actually I'm not gonna call this step 1, I'm gonna call this the foundational step. Okay? So we're gonna jump straight into it. It's called the foundational step and this is to start doing something that you are truly passionate about. It's almost like it's not really a step. It's just something you just gonna naturally start doing or maybe have already started to do. So I'm not talking about randomly just picking an idea whether it's a business idea, or a hobby, or something you like. I'm gonna just do that, or oh I know I'm gonna do this because it looks really profitable.

Jack [00:07:30]:
I'm talking about something that really lights you up, really fires you up with inside you. Something that kind of completely bursts you of energy with inside. So whether it's creating content, it might be writing, might be sharing your expertise on something. Okay? It might be, something you love doing at weekends. I don't know making cakes. It might be surfing. It might be playing the guitar. It might be riding a bike.

Jack [00:07:57]:
It might be helping others with something. You might love reading. You might love writing. You might like drawing, you might like making things. What is it? What really fires you up in your spare time or something that you could do every day and that becomes a job and it's got to be something that you just get so excited about. You you're excited about talking about it. You're excited about telling someone else about it or sharing your passions or your breakthroughs about it others, and you almost wanna treat this thing like it's a full time job on the side, like a side job. Okay? And you wanna be making time for this thing.

Jack [00:08:34]:
Make time for it in the evenings. Make time for it at the weekends, and let your passions drive you. Okay. Just like it did for me. So let me give you an example of what I was doing. So as you know, I've already told you I was working for a Hollywood film studio and I can assure you right now the glamour was literally 10% of the job. It sounds great, it sounds glitzy. And I know I've already said things like red carpet events and flying to other amazing seminars and and seeing celebrities and all the rest of it.

Jack [00:09:03]:
But that's really, you know the 10% of the real job. Okay? That was 10% of the job. The other 90% of that job was daily grind in an office. It literally was. Daily grind in an office, pressures, targets, you know, all that kind of stuff. Yet in my spare time though as I've just mentioned to you in the kind of foundational side of things, I followed my passion for playing the guitar. Now, once upon a time when I was in my early twenties, I was in a band. I loved playing guitar.

Jack [00:09:37]:
I was in a band. I was the guitarist. The band split up, but I wanted to carry on and fulfill my passion for playing the guitar. So I decided that teaching other people how to play the guitar would then fulfill that passion and that need for me to still want to create or, either create music or ultimately pass music onto others. Now I found this to be one of the most enjoyable fulfilling things I've ever done. I didn't think it would be. Obviously teaching someone is enjoyable and fulfilling, but the feeling when you're actually doing it and then you're seeing somebody sitting up at you with a guitar who's never played a guitar before in their life, and about 3 or 4 weeks of you teaching them they're now playing a song. That was just the most amazing experience for me.

Jack [00:10:20]:
And so just that one person who could do that, I then, you know, took on another student and another student and another student. And my students were all different ages from school kids to retirees and everyone else in between. So this is where you start. Okay? I was literally although I was in a full time job at the time working Monday to Friday, starting at 9 finishing at 5:30 every single weekday, Central London for a Hollywood film studio, I found time for this passion for teaching others how to play the guitar. And so for me that meant driving to people's houses and teach them how to play the guitar weekdays when I got home. I'd literally come home from work, I would quickly eat my dinner, grab my guitar and I'll be driving to someone's house, sitting on their couch for an hour and teaching them how to play the guitar, but I loved it. And then at weekends, I would book out my weekends with a handful of students on Saturdays mornings through to lunchtime, and a handful of students on Sunday morning through the lunchtime, and I would do the whole thing again. And each student was at different levels and different progressions, but I worked out my own method of teaching them.

Jack [00:11:27]:
I had my own system. My system was a really quick system for taking someone from scratch. I've just literally bought my guitar to bang, oh my God, I can play this guitar, and I loved it. I loved everything about it. So my spare time I was doing this because I was fueled by passion, and I was fueled by this kind of urge to want to teach as many people as I could to play the guitar. So this is where the magic happens. This is the foundation stage of all this and you've got to get this foundational stage and this magical stage to happen and then you've got to get the momentum of it to keep going like a like a snowball effect. Okay? Like the snowball for me was that tiny small snowball in my hand was the 1st student I ever took on.

Jack [00:12:15]:
But then that snowball got gradually bigger to the point where it was the size of a boulder, and that's when I had then bookings booked out. I had people on a waiting list. Okay? For me to want to teach them, and my kind of side hustle guitar teaching gig blew up. It went crazy. Now, all of this was going on at the same same time my wife and I just had our first child. We just got a mortgage to give up, and are still working Monday to Friday, 40 hours a week on a full time job. Right? But the passion of wanting to teach others was what's fulfilling this extra energy within me to do that. Now, 2011, I stumbled upon this thing called YouTube.

Jack [00:12:57]:
1 of my students who was about 12 or 13 said to me, oh, I just learned this brand new song. I want you to hear it. So they played this song for me and I was amazed that they could play the song. I was like, wow. That's amazing. How where did you learn this? Like, I'm I'm teaching you once a week. So like, where did you learn this thing? And they said, I learned it on YouTube. Now I was blown away.

Jack [00:13:18]:
I kinda heard about YouTube, but I've never really explored it. I'd only seen 1 or 2 videos on there to be honest with you, of like people falling off a skateboard that kind of thing. But I didn't really know much about YouTube. So I went on to YouTube. I typed in guitar lessons and my whole entire world just completely changed within that moment. I was so captivated by this incredible platform. And when I typed in guitar lesson on YouTube, I think it came up with over a1000000 found results. There was like a 1000000 videos I could choose on this one platform I've only just discovered about, and it was all doing the thing that I love doing teaching guitar.

Jack [00:14:01]:
And I was absolutely captivated by it, and I was determined to be a part of it. Starting from scratch, I had no clue about YouTube, but the combination of my passions to teach people how to play the guitar, plus the determination to learn YouTube and get my own video up there led me down the path of creating a YouTube channel and uploading videos. So fast forward 18 months and I had a YouTube channel. I had over 10,000 subscribers, and we had like thousands of thousands of video views across a handful of videos. Now that wasn't my initial goal. Remember, my initial goal was going around people's houses and teaching them how to play the guitar on the couch. Now I wasn't chasing money at this stage either, I was like a 100% in passion mode. Again, foundation.

Jack [00:14:55]:
The foundation level of all of this you could call passion mode. Serving people, providing value. Okay? Doing it with integrity. This is where you need to be and this is your journey too. So if you're in a full time job or maybe you're at home, or whatever your situation is, you have this perfect time right now to start something meaningful. If you've got more time in your hands or you've got a full time job where there's an income already coming in. This is the perfect time to start something meaningful. Don't expect overnight success, right? Like I said to you, I spent 18 months on YouTube before I got those 10,000 subscribers.

Jack [00:15:36]:
I've just kind of jumped a huge probably 3 years of me having my first ever, student on the couch to then having YouTube channel. Right? So don't expect overnight success, but the best way to launch an online business is to start from scratch. Build a following just like I did for my YouTube growth journey and do something that you are incredibly passionate about. So that is the foundation level. Just whatever it is you're currently doing or you wanna start or something you can talk about until the cows come home, that is where the passion lies and you need to keep that passion ignited. It needs to be something that flows energy that you don't stop. Like me, every week I was driving to people's houses. Sometimes it was snowing.

Jack [00:16:23]:
Sometimes it was raining, sometimes it was boiling hot, but whatever the weather I was out there with my guitar teaching people on their couches and their homes how to play the guitar, and then I was uploading videos onto YouTube. Regardless of the fact that I had no clue how to record videos, edit videos, upload videos or create a YouTube channel, I did it. Okay? And I grew that channel to over 10,000 subscribers in a very short space of time. Now I grew it to more than 10,000 subscribers after those 18 months and I'll probably mention that later on in this podcast. But the point here is you need this passion, this thing that drives you, and the minute you start it other doors begin to open or other opportunities. Like I said to you, had I'd not gone and taught students on the couch, I never would have found that student told me about YouTube that opened this new opportunity for me. Had I've never actually started at all I never would have gone down that road. Okay? So just think about it.

Jack [00:17:20]:
Okay. So, let's shift the gears then and we're gonna go now to step number 1. Like I said there's 4 steps that I'm gonna be sharing with you inside this podcast and it's really exciting. This is step number 1. Okay? And step number 1, I call schedule your exit, or you could also call it schedule your start date. Okay. So let me let me tell you what I mean by that. So once you've ignited your passion and you've kinda started to build a community, it's time to kinda set a start date or an end date, and what I mean by that is you're literally like right from 3 months from now, I am gonna quit.

Jack [00:17:58]:
So 3 months from now, I'm gonna start this, or I'm gonna exit whatever it is you wanna exit your job, or I'm gonna start this business. Okay? Or 2 months from now, or 6 months from now. Whatever that date looks like, but I wouldn't do any longer than 6 months because what you tend to do is, not you, but we as humans, what we tend to do is if you say, oh, 9 months from now, you then tend to kinda get maybe bored, other things happen in between that period, and that 9 months then gradually goes to 10 months. Oh, I'll move it another month because I've been busy, and then it goes to 11 months. Oh, this thing happened and that thing happened and then 12 months and so on. The short of the distance, I wouldn't say like next week, but I'd say probably the shortest time period or the safest would be 90 days and you can do a hell of a lot in 90 days by the way. And I would say the longest period maybe 6 months. Okay? If that makes sense.

Jack [00:18:51]:
But once you've ignited your passion and built your community and you've set your date, commitment and focus must come next, and creating a sense of urgency that propels you forward to the exit date or that start date. Now, if you're not thinking about YouTube as a opportunity to grow a community, and by the way, those YouTube subscribers were my community. You can grow a community in many different ways. We cover it a little bit later on. But let me just quickly just, while I'm on that topic, just tell you what else a community could be. It could be a Facebook group. You could grow a free Facebook group of people who are passionate to learn more about what you talk about and what you love talking about. That is a community.

Jack [00:19:31]:
It could be an Instagram following. It could be LinkedIn. It could be Twitter or what's now called x. It could be blogging. It could be podcasting. So many different ways in in which you can create content and different mediums, and then grow a community and a following love to engage in that content. So the next step is step number 2. The runway phase.

Jack [00:19:49]:
Okay. So you rubber stamped your date, your exit date, and now you wanna move on to the next step. So step number 2, you're gonna refine your business idea and set up an online presence. Okay? Like I said, it's great that I had this kind of urgency to teach as many people as I can around the world or should I say in my local area to play the guitar. Okay? But at the time that was still a hobby in the side hustle is bringing in some money, so I was driving around people's houses. But there was a ceiling to that. There's only so many people I can teach and so many couches I can sit on and so many times I can drive someone's house in a week. Plus with a full time job and a baby in the house and a mortgage, it wasn't fulfilling enough as a business.

Jack [00:20:28]:
It was great as a hobby but it wasn't a business. The minute I took this kind of concept idea of being a guitar teacher as an online guitar teacher, 2 things were in my mind as a passion. 1, I can now reach more people and which was my original intentions is to teach as many people as I can to play the guitar. And 2, it now has more of a business opportunity. The business model was much more scalable than say being a local guitar teacher. So I could see this, obviously, working in sales and marketing for a large Hollywood film studio. I had some business degree behind me guys. I know my business stuff.

Jack [00:21:04]:
Right? So I could see the opportunity ahead of me. So the business idea was to set up an online presence which gave me more scalability opportunities, and this is now where you're at. Right? So whether you've been, you know, running your passion and doing your thing locally, you can now bring it to an online world and serve more people and get an online presence. Okay? And so this period step number 2 is all about gathering momentum before taking off into your entrepreneurial journey. So what I may what do I mean by that? Like I said to you before when I was in my YouTube days, I wasn't creating content for my YouTube channel in the hope of of thinking about making money. The intentions was to build a community and serve as many or shall I say teach as many people as I could online. And actually my goals was always about how many 1,000 views can I get in my next video? How many subscribers can I get this week? And those are always my metrics I was always looking at. So actually, what I was doing was I was gathering momentum and I was building momentum online.

Jack [00:22:13]:
Okay? I was creating content. I was growing a community, but I wasn't offering anything to sell. I wasn't being spammy. I was purely just turning up with a 100% integrity and the whole passion and the energy that I was providing and serving inside my YouTube videos was always at a service of teaching. And that's what all of my community would see whenever they watch my videos was this guy's full of energy. He's just here to turn up and show us how to teach this new song on guitar. This is an amazing experience. So think for way in which you can set up your online presence.

Jack [00:22:48]:
Now, I wouldn't personally if I was you go all in on every platform on the planet, like don't get an Instagram, and then a Facebook, and LinkedIn, and you know Pinterest, and then have a YouTube channel. Just go all in on one kind of ideal platform would be my kind of advice. So whether that's Instagram and you think Instagram is a platform for you. You gotta you choose a platform where 1, your ideal, customer or your ideal prospects are hanging out. And then 2 a platform that you feel very comfortable creating content on like it's water off a duck's back. Okay? And so that leads you on to step number 3. Step number 3 is all about amplifying your voice and then reaching your audience. So you wanna embrace social media platforms like I said like Instagram, like Twitter or x whatever it's called now, like LinkedIn to ultimately share more valuable content, but only go in on one of those.

Jack [00:23:47]:
Okay? Not all of them. And you wanna be engaging with your followers, building a community around your brand, and sharing what you love talking about, being passionate about what you love talking about. Share what you believe. Be you. Be a 100% you, a 100% authentic. Like if someone in your industry or the industry that you're going into should I say, this industry that you're going into. If someone in that industry predominantly talks about x, but you disagree and you think and you love talking about why, then you go in talking about what you believe. Not just because someone in your in that industry is bigger and is more successful is talking about this other thing.

Jack [00:24:26]:
You wanna be going in almost disrupting if you can. If you can go into an industry or a niche market and be the disruptive person, you will then find the audience that don't particularly like the big players in that in that industry, but will start to resonate to what you're saying and what what your voice is all about. Now there's one platform I always advise students and clients who are starting out who work with us. And we always say, if you're gonna go all in on one form to build a community, you're starting from scratch and you have no online presence. I would say the easiest and quickest way to grow a community and voice, what you believe in and create amazing content and create a community that's engaging, one of the best, platforms you can actually set up for that and build an online established presence is a Facebook group. Yes, a Facebook group. Now, you might be thinking, oh, yeah. But I'm on Facebook, or I never use Facebook anymore, or Facebook's dead or this that and the other.

Jack [00:25:30]:
To be honest with you, Facebook groups are still incredibly and powerful. Really really powerful platform. If you created a Facebook group, you can go to platforms like canva.com and Canva has Facebook group banners and templates. So you can go in there, create your own banner, create a template from their templates, and they've got loads of different templates and variations and amazing designs by the way, incredible designs. And you can create a banner for your Facebook group that just clearly calls out who this who this group is for. So for example, let's say, I don't know. You wanna grow a Facebook group of birthday cake decorators. Right? So you would literally have a Facebook banner, you know, birthday cake decorators or this is a this is a group specifically for birthday cake decorators.

Jack [00:26:17]:
Call out who this is for. Okay. Make sure that it's very clear. Make sure that it's exactly who this is for. The target audience can clearly see the banner or can clearly see the name of that Facebook group and say, oh hey, that's me. I'm a I'm a birthday cake decorator. This group looks like a wonderful group. I'm gonna join this because that's where I'm at.

Jack [00:26:36]:
That's what I'm also passionate about. That's what I also love talking about. That's what I also love doing. Right? And so you can start creating this group whatever it is that you specialize in and start attracting the right people coming into that group. Okay? Facebook groups are really powerful. You can do live video. You can obviously share recorded video. You can share audio.

Jack [00:26:57]:
You can share images. You can, have polls. You can do surveys. You can really find out about an audience. You can really ask questions, you can really get loads of people to engage with you. And the minute you set up a Facebook group and you have like your first 100 people in there, that group's gonna be buzzing, like properly buzzing. And the other amazing thing about Facebook groups is when people join that Facebook group, Facebook then goes and actively looks for people that are just like those other people. So if like a 100 people have joined your Facebook group and they're all interested and showing behaviors of interests in cake decorating and birthday cakes, Facebook is then gonna go and find a ton of other people just like these people.

Jack [00:27:35]:
And it'll bring more cake decorating, birthday decorating people into your group. And it will find more of these people and more and more and more. The more you fill your bucket with the most perfect, prospects, specific prospects, the more Facebook can find more of those people for you. And then you're gonna build a really powerful community. But like I said, Instagram's great. Twitter's great. Linkedin's great. Whatever you want to use, but I personally advise Facebook group is one of the best places to grow a community.

Jack [00:28:02]:
But with social media like Instagram and Facebook, the content you create is ultimately what I call quick content. Like, you can create content today and it's gone tomorrow. So on Instagram, you constantly having to create content all the time so that your community is seeing your content all the time on a regular basis and engaging with that content, which means they're engaging with your brand. Okay? But that's the kind of downside to social media, but there's no way around getting around it because social media is a great way of growing a community. So I also recommend considering what I call longevity content, Creating longevity content. What I mean by longevity content is where you create content that sits on a platform and stays there for the longest period of time you can think imaginable. As an example, I created a video for my YouTube channel in 2,011. You could find that video today and learn the guitar song that I was teaching in 2011.

Jack [00:29:01]:
You could learn it today. Okay? That's over 10 years and that content still sits there on that platform. It's still searchable. It still gets watched every day. That video is still teaching somebody something new every day. It still gets likes. It still gets engagement. It still gets people commenting.

Jack [00:29:17]:
That content is still on that platform. It's still rich. It's still highly valuable, and people are still enjoying it. They're still engaging with it. Okay? They're engaging with me, the brand and everything else that goes with that content. Alright? That's called long overdue content. That's 10 years plus that content's been sitting there. Okay? It took me half an hour to record it.

Jack [00:29:35]:
It took me half an hour to edit it over 10 years ago, but now millions of people have enjoyed it and have shared it. So I always say long everyday content is gonna be the lifeblood of any online business because that's the content that will stay around the Internet, Whether it's being searched upon and it's founded on Google, whether it's founded on the YouTube search engine, wherever it's founded, you wanna create content that's got long overte about it. Now if video is not your thing, I would consider either starting a podcast just like this one or a blog. So which one do you wanna choose really depends on you as the person. So if you prefer audio and creating audio content then the podcast is for you. And the great thing about a podcast is like I could be recording this right now in my pajamas and you wouldn't know about it. Okay? And blog, blogs are great if you love writing. You just really enjoy writing.

Jack [00:30:31]:
If you could sit there all day writing then blogging is your thing. But if you like the idea of sitting down with a microphone and just recording a quick half an hour podcast once a week, editing it quickly and uploading it and started getting your community to engage with that content, then that's for you as well. But at the same time you don't have to stop there because podcasting and blogging is just as good, but you could also take advantage of video content too, And as I found with my YouTube channel, it really escalated very quickly after the 1st 6 months. It grew rapidly. We grew the channel to 10,000 subscribers in 18 months, and after that it's gone went up to 25 25,000 subscribers. We've had over 3 to 4,000,000 views across our videos. It drives traffic every day to our website. You know, it's amazing.

Jack [00:31:16]:
We generate leads. We generate customers from that one YouTube channel. And so I would really say a YouTube channel, if you're all in on video, then YouTube can become one of the best most powerful marketing assets in your business, but don't do all 3. Like I said to you, don't do Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn all of those. Just choose one of those platforms and the same for longevity. Just do either YouTube, do either or a podcast or a blog, blog writing a blog every week. You just do one of those. Which ever one you feel comfortable doing.

Jack [00:31:47]:
Okay? But remember with YouTube or with a Facebook group you can still do live streams, and with video in general actually you can obviously have record video and upload it. You can do live stream videos. You can do behind the scene glimpse videos. Whatever it is you can really showcase your personality and your expertise in a very dynamic way through video, but you can do that also with audio and blogging. And in step number 4 is all about accountability. Okay. Remember the first step. The first step was rubber stamping that date, the exit date.

Jack [00:32:21]:
I'm gonna quit my job and I'm gonna tell my boss to stick it where the sun don't shine and storm out of his office. Or maybe you're not in a job, maybe you're not in a 9 to 5, but you got more time in your hands. Maybe you're a stay at home parent or whatever the situation is for you, but you've got a lot of time in your hands, you wanna always put that date in. It's so important to put a date in the calendar, in the diary, write that date on a post it note. In fact, one thing that I did actually when I had about 2 months to go, I got a post it note. Now bearing in mind I was at work, so I had loads of post it notes on my desk at work. I had a post it note, I wrote down the date that I was gonna tell my boss that I'm quitting. Hand him my notice.

Jack [00:33:00]:
I took a photo of that post it note and then I had that photo as my screensaver on my mobile phone. So every morning when I woke up, I saw that date on my mobile phone. Every time I opened up my phone to send a text or read a text that was the that was the thing. I saw that date, that photograph, that post it note, and I saw that every time I looked at my phone, and it reminded me about how close I was getting to that exit date that I wanted to achieve, and therefore it gave me that accountability to do that. So this is, you know, step 4 accountability. This is a real crucial component of entrepreneurial success. Okay? You wanna be sharing your goals with a trusted friend. Okay? Or maybe a mentor, or a family member, or another accountability partner who you've met online maybe, who also shares the same, passions of quitting a job or starting something from their passions and having an online business themselves.

Jack [00:34:02]:
So you wanna set smart goals. Smart meaning specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and of course time bound, and track your progress regularly. So for example, if your exit is 3 months from now, how many people do you want inside that Facebook group that you're gonna grow? Or how many videos do you want to have have uploaded by that point on your YouTube channel? If you're gonna launch a YouTube channel or how many podcasts or how many blog posts. Okay? And so, you wanna set very specific goals, measurable goals, but achievable. And again like I said, if you can have an accountability friend or a family member or partner or whoever it might be, that person will be checking in with you. You wanna say to that person, I I need every Friday check-in with me. Just say, hey. How you getting on with your dream of launching your business? Or how are you getting on with growing your Facebook group? Or how are you getting on What is your next YouTube video gonna be? Or what is your next topic of your podcast? You want somebody to be there in your corner helping you.

Jack [00:35:06]:
Someone who feels just as passionate as you do. Someone that can see you doing this thing and that believes in you, and they're there with you as well helping you get there. One of the things that I really advise is kind of consequences that ultimately keeps yourself motivated and on track during this whole process. Okay? So for example, you wanna celebrate wins. What I mean what I mean by that is when I first got my first ever 100 subscribers on my YouTube channel, for me it was like the biggest thing ever. Like a 100 people from all around the world have randomly found me, subscribed to my channel and are watching all of my videos. Like that to me was crazy. Right? But that was a win.

Jack [00:35:52]:
No matter how small the win is you wanna be celebrating it, but you also wanna learn from your setbacks. Okay? You wanna learn from things that may not have felt right, may not have been aligned, didn't quite work out as best it was what you thought they did. And certain things that you are confident in your head this is gonna be amazing, this is such a great idea might not work out, and that's okay. For example, I would teach a song that I knew for myself. Wow. This is one of the best songs you can play on the guitar. It's really easy. It sounds wicked.

Jack [00:36:23]:
I'm gonna teach this song. It's gonna be a massive hit of a of a guitar lesson. I upload onto my YouTube channel and it doesn't do very well. That's a bit weird, but then I might do another obscure song a couple of weeks later that I think well no one's gonna like it, but hey ho it's a nice song to do. I've had a few requests. I'll upload it anyway and it goes crazy and viral. Okay? So don't expect things that you think are gonna be a hit in your mind. So learn from the setbacks of stuff that might not be working.

Jack [00:36:51]:
Remember, accountability isn't about perfection. Perfection is your enemy. Okay? It's about accountability, it's about progress and growth. And so lastly step number 5. Now, I know I said there was 4 steps, but I'm sneaking in a 5th one because hey why not? But step number 5 is like giving your notice without burning bridges. Okay? This is really really crucial because as much as I got to the point where I was working in my full time job, Hollywood film studio, I didn't particularly like my boss at the time. My previous boss before that loved her to pieces. She was amazing, but she left the company, a new boss started, things are going a bit weird.

Jack [00:37:33]:
I was there for the last 2 years. I wasn't really enjoying myself and I thought there's got to be another a better way. There's got to be something better than this. Right? So as much as I didn't particularly like that boss or my boss's boss for that matter, I still didn't wanna burn any bridges. Okay. Because it's not personal in the day, it's just business. So you wanna approach your resignation with complete professionalism and gratitude. Alright? That's all I can say.

Jack [00:37:56]:
I know people who have not done this and it's just not a good thing to do. So schedule a meeting with your boss to discuss your decisions, and you don't wanna leave your job or quit your job kind of like just because you got a 100 people following in Facebook. So I'm gonna go into detail in a minute about when you should and how you should be feeling confident to quit your job. But when you do hand in your resignation, express the appreciation for the opportunities and the experience you've gained during your time with the company. Now if you're not quitting a job and you're kind of like, I don't know, just got more time in your hands to be able to start this thing and whatever reason your situation might be right now, then you can just be grateful for being able to just, you know, grow something from a passion, grow a community without this worry or burden on your shoulders of having to quit a job. So enjoy it while you can. So step 1, we talked about the exit date or should I say the start date because they go they come hand in hand. If you're working in a full time job and you wanna quit your 9 to 5, you got an exit date.

Jack [00:38:59]:
Okay? But at the same time when you exit that day, you got a start date, the day you start running a business full time. So remember to leave on good terms to not only ensure a smooth exit, but also maintains positive relationships with future. But also you don't wanna leave your job and it's all been negative and then you got to start your new venture as a business owner, as an online entrepreneur with like these bad thoughts and gremlins in your head kind of thinking like what what's everyone in the office saying about me or, you know couple of people texting you. You don't want all that stuff going on. You wanna leave with a really good note so that your path going forward is always positive. But also, you may cross paths with former colleagues or employees down the road and you wanna leave a lasting impression of professionalism and integrity at all times. And so one more thing, you're probably sitting here thinking, okay step well, foundational step is to start something with absolute passion, something you love, something you can do and talk about until the cows come home. Step 1 was all about scheduling your exit and start date.

Jack [00:39:59]:
Step 2 was about refining your business idea and ultimately turning this kind of online presence that you're creating into an actual business model or looking at it should I say as a business. Step number 3 was about amplifying your voice, creating content on a regular basis and start building a community of people that love to watch your videos, listen to your audios, read your blog posts, engage with your social media content and just love everything that you voice online about the thing that you started in the foundational steps that you've been passionate about. And step number 4 is accountability. Accountability in the sense that you don't go off piste, you stay on track and you remain on track as a component of the entrepreneurial success, which is ultimately not getting sidetracked or derailed. And step number 5 is about not burning bridges. So if you've done all those steps in place and you're now thinking, well I've quit my job but I still don't have anything to sell or I'm not making any money online. One thing I would say is, if you're still in full time employment, I would run a launch campaign to sell a digital product to that audience and that community that you've built over the course of time, and test that audience with a digital product for you to go and sell and make. So imagine if you go and do that and you test a digital product to this new audience that you've been building over the last 3 months or 6 months, whatever that looks like.

Jack [00:41:31]:
And in my case it was longer than that. It was 18 months. Okay? But I was building this on the side. I was still working and I had no real kind of intentions of this being an online business until I could see there was an opportunity. The thing is I then looked into opportunities of monetizing that community that I built on YouTube. And the way in which to do that and the the the easiest business model to make a lot of good money, and I can assure you the selling online digital products is one of the easiest business models you can have as a business. Okay? There are hardly any expenses. It doesn't take much to run the business.

Jack [00:42:10]:
You can run the business solely as a solopreneur, but what's more is this business model gives you more money, gives you more freedom, impacts other people's lives, it impacts your life or the lives of your loved ones, you can buy a new house, you can go on more holidays, whatever it is that you desire more of in your life, it is this business model selling digital courses. Okay? Digital coaching programs. But like I've said already you have to get slightly uncomfortable and you're gonna have to be okay with kind of doing things that might feel counterintuitive, and so when you go to launch a digital product for the first time to a community you've built. Okay? This is where it starts to get exciting. But what you're really doing is you're testing the community and the easiest way to do this is simply say to the community, hey, when it comes to cake decorating for birthday cakes, what is the most kind of frustrating you struggle with that you face on a daily or weekly basis? And when they tell you the overriding biggest struggle or frustration they face, what do you then do? Have a think about it. What do you think you should do? You then go to create a digital training program that basically gives them the solution to the problem they've just told you. It's that simple. Imagine if you built a community of 500 people following you on Instagram, or 500 people inside a Facebook group, or 500 subscribers on on, on YouTube or wherever it is, you've got your community now.

Jack [00:43:49]:
And you've got these 500 people who have been consuming your content, engaging with your content, loving what you do, and you've been just there to serving them, providing them lots of value, sharing your voice, sharing your passions, your beliefs and everything that you do, turning up with integrity. And then you say to them, hey look, what is the one thing you struggle with when it comes to this thing that we all love? Like for me, for example, it'd be like, what is the biggest or the most irritating guitar skill you have on the guitar that you wish you could just learn quickly and move on from? And the overriding answer would ultimately be pretty much the most common similar answer that most people will be giving me. Now I know what my overriding communities problems are. So all I've now gotta do is create a program that is the solution to their problem and that is it. That's how easy this is. So if you're in a 9 to 5 job before you quit, before you do anything, I would test the water with a product. I would sell that program to my community and I'll make sure that program or that offer has bought in some kind of revenue and some money before I quit my 9 to 5. Okay? Because I would want something out of my belt that is bringing in money or has already brought in some money that I can then rinse and repeat and do it again several months later after I've quit my job.

Jack [00:45:12]:
I would want some kind of income coming in. So just to give you a heads up, I'm not telling you to quit your job. Alright? And go all in and then you're starting from scratch and you got no money. Okay. We wanna be testing these things to make sure that before we quit our job and before we adventure into our online business that we have a sustainable business offer or an offer that is actually working, an offer that our community has actually invested into. So in other words you've validated the idea for a digital course or a coaching program and you validated it to your audience by presenting them with a coaching program that gets rid of the problems that they have. You have the ideal solution and by validating their offer, you have seen money coming in from your community who want to be a part of your brand new training program. So there you have it.

Jack [00:46:07]:
That is a comprehensive guide to quitting a job. It's also my journey of how I did it back in the day and launching a successful digital course business. And just real quick, what I just said to you there about building a community and then testing an offer with that community to make sure that that offer is actually what my audience wants and giving them the solution to their problem. I have done this myself personally over 4 other deep different niche markets. Okay? I have personally done this myself and sold digital products that way, grown a community and sold them a product or an offer should I say a program, and I've done this in 4 different niche markets. Okay? So you can do the same. So from laying the groundwork to amplifying your voice, holding yourself accountable, these steps will set you on the path to entrepreneurial success. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Jack [00:47:01]:
But with the right passions, perseverance, and a solid plan, you can build the business of your dreams as well. So I wanna say a big thank you for tuning in to That digital entrepreneur podcast. Again with me here Jack Long, and if you found this episode valuable, don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review and share it with any other fellow dreamers ready to make their mark in the online space, and until next time. Keep hustling, keep dreaming, and remember, it's time to jack in your job and say goodbye to the 9 to 5. See you on the flip side. Hey there, fellow Coursepreneurs. Get ready for a revolution in your online business journey. I am thrilled to announce the Coursepreneur Revolution, a 3 day live event where we're diving deep into the it is gonna be epic.

Jack [00:48:07]:
We're talking about a complete blueprint, roadmap to success from today's top online experts, coaches, membership site owners, and of course course creators just like you. But let me be clear, this isn't your typical training field of fluff and sales pitches. This is the real deal. We're gonna be diving deep. No b s, no fluff, just actionable strategies and insights to take your business to the next level. Whether you are starting from scratch and you don't know how to launch a digital program or whether you're a struggling course creator, this is gonna be perfect for you. Now I'm gonna be honest with you, some of this training might challenge you, It might push you out of your comfort zone, but trust me that's where the magic happens. So if you're ready to unlock your full potential and achieve the success that you deserve, then I want you in this event with me.

Jack [00:49:00]:
Get ready for breakthroughs. Get ready for insights and moments. Don't miss out on the Coursepreneur revolution. Reserve your spot now, and let's revolutionize your business together. If you want it all in and you wanna register, head over to jacklongdigital.comforward/event. That's jacklong digital, all one word, dot com forward slash event. We will see you inside the coursepreneur Revolution.