Embracing the Hustle with Joe Marfoglio
On today’s episode of Just the Tips, the Bearded Wonder Dean Holland and I welcome my good friend Joe Marfoglio to the show. Joe is an expert in creating engaging content and making YouTube work for businesses, but the really big news on today’s show is that this is the first time Joe’s been on a podcast. So I broke out all of my new fancy gear, and we talked about how Joe got into the entrepreneurship game, how he got into the palm-tree game, and how to break out of in-the-box thinking.
Being the glue as an entrepreneur
A lot of people say they’re self-made men, but Joe actually is. After barely graduating high school, Joe had a roommate who would repair vinyl car upholstery for good money, but wouldn’t teach Joe how to do it. So he went out to Montana from San Diego, got the training, came back and started doing the work himself. From there, he somehow got started importing glue from Italy (long story), wining and dining glue exporters from The Boot. And with that money he started investing in real estate around San Diego, and also sold palm trees for a while. Joe has done it all, and is a great storyteller, making this episode of Just the Tips a blast.
How Joe (sorta) blackmailed his first client
How did Joe go from being an importer, a real estate mogul and the palm tree king of San Diego and find his way to search engine optimization (SEO)? As he says, he had his fingers in so many pies, he eventually became way over-leveraged, and the bottom dropped out. He was looking around for a job, something, and a friend offered him a job at IBM. But instead, he decided to tackle marketing for small, local businesses. His first client was a guy who initially said no, but then Joe was able to get his video onto page one. And from there he knew he was onto something, and he closed his first $100,000 in sales in the next 60 days. When it comes to SEO, sales, all of that, no one knows it better than Joe.
Think outside, outside the box
Joe has always been hustling, always been an entrepreneur who has seen a need and done his best to fill it. And as he says, creativity is incredibly important for entrepreneurs. But when people say “think outside the box,” what do they really mean? Well, Joe has a theory about a new way we should look at creativity. As Joe says, from day one of your life you’re put into a box. At school, you’re told to memorize and to think a certain way. You’re chained to a work/reward system, where if you do a certain amount of work, you get rewarded. And that trend continues throughout your entire life. But if you can see that box for what it is, then you can step outside of it and figure out what actually brings you value or brings you closer to your goals.
Learning to work as an entrepreneur is like learning a new language
As Joe says, if you want to break out of the box, you have to reevaluate what’s holding you back, and then work toward the goal you want. Joe told us about how he met a guy who went to Harvard and claimed Joe had an advantage because he had been forged by his struggles coming from a blue-collar background. Yes, a guy from Harvard said the other guy had the advantage. That’s the type of thinking Joe wants to break people out of. I carry a coin in my pocket with the latin phrase amor fati inscribed on it. And it means: Play the hand you’re dealt like it’s the one you wanted.
Outline of This Episode
- [5:02] How Joe got into the game
- [10:00] Selling palm trees in San Diego
- [19:50] Joe’s first SEO client
- [25:20] How to be more creative as an entrepreneur
- [35:40] Where to begin with thinking outside the box
- [45:20] It’s easy to learn, but you have to take action
Musicfor “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
