Steve Olsher — World's foremost reinvention expert and author of What Is Your What

It is mix 93.8 some legendary radio few on a Monday night my next guest up somebody I've been really looking forward to chatting to for quite a while now and I've got to say thank you for putting up with all the troubles and trials and tribulations of Speaking to us in deepest darkest Africa and welcome to you Steve Alsha. Hey, thanks for having me. No worries, man You know, it's on the side of the planet, but we made it work Eventually we got there and I'm so glad we did so let's get on to the reason why I wanted to speak to you It's sure number one You've written a couple of books already But the best-selling one and the one that sort of first brought you onto my radar was a book called. What is your what? Before we get on to that though and not only do you do that. You are a speaker as well You give keynote addresses and you also have your own very very successful Castes and I say that in in the plural not just the one so certainly somebody who has been around for a while and Somebody who according to all intents and purposes you've had a very very interesting life So let's start off with telling us a little bit about who is Steve Alsha

Well, that's an interesting question it depends on who yes, but Lifelong entrepreneur, you know, I mean really I've been an entrepreneur as long as I was Able to kind of pick up a rake and move some leaves around or grab a shovel and shovel some sidewalks and driveways, right? so been an entrepreneur for a long time always wired to try to make a dollar out of a couple of quarters there and And really, you know from from the get-go I cheese. I just always had an entrepreneurial spirit I got very early involved in the nightclub business and got very early involved in DJing and and so on and so forth. So that led to the catalog industry it led to

Opening up my own nightclub it led to Also getting involved in the online world Gosh as early as 1993 so we launched on copy serves electronic mall in in 1993 and that that company became liquor calm which I bought that domain in 98 and and then I've since gone on to do real estate development and Speaking and podcasting as you said, I host my own live events and Coach people on on how to discover their what and then share and monetize it. So yeah, lots lots of things going on Now when you were sort of initially starting out and I like the sort of reference to the the DJ world in the nightclub world as well But you also you were you into some very successful property development And obviously with these companies you had a bunch of stuff Since then as I understand that you've downsized a little Well, you know, it's it's interesting right? So I'll be I'll be 50 this year and It's it's just more a matter not maybe not necessarily a matter of Sizing so much as it's a matter of just working as cost Effectively in time efficiently as possible because I try to work just just three days a week and I do have three Multi-million dollar businesses that I run but I try to I try to keep the schedule to just three days a week Now this is one of those things often and I'm sure my listeners are gonna love to hear your answer to this one You know, we we often see all of these advertisements and you know Work from home do this work only four hours a day Or you know that the three-day work week or whatever the case may be You are you are living proof that this is actually something that can be done Well, you know, look I'm not gonna sit here and say that it was always a three-day work week, right?

I mean a lot of what I did for years was just well doing doing the hustle as they say right, I mean going and and and just moving and then trying to Build the businesses and so on now You know that I've been able to to build the businesses and put really good people in place to run the businesses That that's really made all the difference. So if I was if I was still actively running So two of the three businesses, I don't actively run. I mean that that's that's the beautiful thing about it the third business That I do actively run. I still have a key person who handles most of the operations and so at some point if you want to have that Lifestyle if you will and you and you want to create a business that doesn't necessarily Completely revolve around you. You've got to let go of some of the reins and bringing people who are good at what they do Which is often a challenge for entrepreneurs because you know that letting go of the reins thing It's it's a lot about control I've come across quite a few people have mentioned that you know, the actual letting go part is part of the process But it is a hard thing to do Yeah, it is and at the same token, you know, if you think about it just in terms of Let's just say a sales force like hypothetically your your company's Leader your your company's Sales team, so to speak. I mean you're responsible for almost all the revenue. I mean like the whole nine, right and And you're really good at what you do The the way that I like to look at it is alright. So if I bring in somebody to handle sales and That person is half as good as I am So let's just say they go into a room and they close ten percent of the room as opposed to twenty percent of the room on whatever that that relevant offering is On the surface that doesn't seem all that great But if you put two of those people out there and they're both half as good as you as you are, I mean then It's the equivalent of putting you out in that environment without your having to do the work And of course if you then put three of those people out and four of those people out and so on and so forth Again, even if they're only half as good as you By the time you turn around you're doing significantly more than you could just do on your own Good point there now as I said initially one of the reasons and we first came onto my radar was the book What is your what now the books been out for a while?

You've published a couple of others, but certainly what is your what is one of the things that you're most well known for Speak to me a little bit about that. Why did you decide to write a book like this? Yeah, you know, it's um, it's really the core question that I've had for most of my adult life which is you know, how am I naturally wired to excel and When I did the Myers Briggs and the what color is your parachutes and the strength finders and you know all these different modalities which are you know, which are fine in their own, right? They just left me with more questions than answers and so I Really felt like there had to be an easier way to get to The answers of you know, what what is it that I that I really am good at?

What am I going to do in order to share whatever that gift is and then Who were those people that I'm that I'm most compelled to serve? So those so those are the questions that you know that I had to answer and and that really became the what is your what framework? Because once you're clear on on your core gift again, how you're naturally wired to excel and then you're clear on The vehicle that you use to share that gift and then you're clear on who you're most compelled to serve if you have clarity on your gift in your vehicle and your people you can really hit the ground running and actually do something with that information and so It was a it was a struggle that I was having and I wasn't finding any luck with the existing framework So basically I created my own Wonderful stuff will tell a little bit more about the book in just a bit my special guest on mix 93.8 It is Steve also will be back with Steve and we'll be telling more about the book and then also I'm going to get into the podcasting side of it as well because that seems to be a bit of a passion as well We'll be right back with Steve. All right. We are back with Steve. Also. We're talking his book and what is your what?

Which I must be honest. I've only just recently got an into a brilliant book You've written some more as well and it does seem to me Steve that that you're like the all-around man, you know, they're the da Vinci man because Not only have you got the books you've got the businesses You've also got a couple of successful podcasts running at the moment, haven't you? Yeah, I've been I've been running reinvention radio off and on since 2009 and then mostly on since 2015 and That's a that's a really fun show because we we have an opportunity to sit down with people from all walks of life who have reinvented their world and in unique ways and and are just up to amazing things now as a result and so we sit down with I mean, you name it just the the most incredible people from business from

Holistic, you know healers from I mean just Marketers you name it. We sit down with them on reinvention radio and they share So so much of what they're doing to dismantle the status quo and and it's just it's really It's amazing to hear how some people have gone from point a to Point in Z in their lives and how they're really changing the world as a result So that's that's a really fun show and then we have a second show as you mentioned, which is called beyond Eight figures and so that podcast is really all about sitting down with entrepreneurs Who have either exited for more than ten million dollars or currently run businesses that gross? More than ten million dollars annually and we get to the bottom of how they started and scaled and in some cases exited their business Now this this is one of the things that that fascinates me is you've got these two podcasts You are known one of the labels that has been given to you is America's reinvention expert You talk all you know, you're continually out and about you're you're busy I mean and to think to go from somebody who is I think at one stage I read somewhere that you were sort of flogging speakers out of the back of your car to being able to do this and You know in in sort of looking up a bit more info on you The the podcast thing and the writing thing seems to to ring very true for you It sounds and you certainly come across as somebody who is very very passionate about that. Is that the case?

Yeah, you know and and you're right. I mean I've had a Certainly a storied career and yes, there was the period of time where it was a short period of time but yeah, I was I was one of those guys selling speakers out of the back of a van and You know, I mean if you can if you can sell speakers out of the back of a van You can you can pretty much darn near do anything you want from a business perspective in terms of sales So that that kind of honed my chops, you know I mean and I would say that for most of what you do in life whether it's selling or marketing or Dating or I mean, it doesn't really matter the the hardest part of all of that really is the ask and when you're willing to ask someone to Well someone you've never met before you're just seeing them on the street and you ask them to buy a pair of speakers that Magically appeared in the back of your van there, you know, I mean it really does shatter a lot of preconceived notions and hangups about asking people to to do something whatever it is, so It's it definitely has been an interesting trek to get to this point no doubt, but what I become really clear on is that I've got a very unique gift to share and I can monetize that gift and You have a very unique gift to share and you can monetize that gift and so on so on so Whether you're just trying to figure out what that gift is Or if you know what it is and you really need to share and monetize it then yeah, you know, I certainly have a passion and a desire to help people do Exactly that because you know at the end of the day if you can make money doing What it is that puts fire in your soul. Well, you're gonna you're gonna do it and That ultimately is gonna make our world a better place Which means if you're happy and you love what you're doing and well, that's gonna make the world a better place for me, too So I guess you could say I do it for selfish reasons Well, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of selfishness every now and again question is though to transition from from writing the book and to transition into the podcasting world and I talk about this because in South Africa Podcasting hasn't been that big or that popular. I think we're probably a couple years behind the trend internationally in South Africa But people are starting to catch on more and more what why the attraction for you to to podcasting well, you know, I mean you're you're there on a particular station and your station has a signal and That signal that radio signal reaches, you know, however far it reaches it could be a small Signal it could be a big signal, but even the biggest of signals isn't going to reach, you know People and other parts of the globe. I mean, we're not we're not gonna pick up your signal here and I'm in San Diego, California You know, we're not we're not gonna pick up your signal here, right? So what what I love about podcasting is I I liken it to the new broadcasting and Why I'm so fired up about it is because it really levels the playing field for all of us you know, anyone anywhere can reach virtually anyone at any time with their podcast and that's a fairly new phenomena and It really does break down all of the barriers to entry that have prevented people for you know forever of being able to share their mission and their message with the masses in A cost-effective way. I mean most people can't buy a radio station most people can't buy air time and even still like I said, you're only going to reach those people who can get that signal so it's It's just a very I guess the best way to put it is it's it's the democratization of communication And and that's incredibly powerful I've got to agree with you there. And the one thing that amazed me since I started looking into to the whole podcasting thing And what it can actually do is the sheer number and variety of podcasts that are out there and and as you say it it seems to me that this is giving People a platform to share their passions to share their pursuits whether you're into model shipbuilding or stamp collecting There's something there for you It's true and and you know the reality Reality is that even though there are a lot of shows as you're seeing right now I mean, it's it's really just the the tip of the iceberg because there's only about 6700,000 podcasts of which you know, maybe 60 70,000 of those are active and When you compare that to the number of blogs or websites in general, I mean There's there's no comparison right? I mean you've got billions of websites billions of blogs So it's it's we're really just scratching scratching the surface So what you're saying as well though, I mean in terms of what you've done you're a speaker You're a very very well established and very successful author But by doing the podcasting thing, you're actually giving yourself More of a platform to reach more people that would you say that?

This is and and we hear a lot of it bandied about here in South Africa now about this whole concept of new media Would would you put podcasting into that category? Now for sure, right? So I would put anything that falls in the category of pull media under under the category of new media because if you think about push versus pull Push media is really, you know push communication if you will is really old media From the standpoint of you know, if you think about television and even radio from that standpoint You know, somebody's flipping through the dial and they hear us talking and they're like, let me let me stop Let me listen, but they didn't have any Choice about what's on the radio right now They just happen to flee flipping through the dial and you can hear us talking like that's an interesting conversation Let me let me listen to that but we pushed it out to them here through radio right versus podcasting where basically You know if you think about from this standpoint, no one's forcing you to listen to a podcast I mean, nobody's forcing you to listen to radio or watch TV either but but you are literally raising your hand to say I Have a demonstrated interest in wanting to hear what it is that you're talking about And so I'm literally pulling and by downloading that episode to my device and and listening to it so it's really just 100% choice versus sort of a 50/50 type of relationship 50/50 being 50% is I'm gonna push this out to you and then 50% is you're gonna sit there and you're gonna consume it right, whereas pull media new media is 50% pull where I decide what I want to listen to when I want to listen to it and on my preferred device And and that's the biggest difference. I believe between old media and new media is at least we have a choice about what we fill our You know our listening or watching device with

Yeah, it certainly makes sense and for somebody who's sort of grown up and been brought up in the broadcasting world Who's who's sort of paid his dues sleeping on non production floors, etc, etc The advent of the so-called new media was a little scary because we started getting all the reports here Radio is dying radio will be dead. It's going to go the way of the the vinyl LP, etc, etc And I think radio largely in this country I'm not sure about in the states there, but largely they've dug in their heels stuck the heads in the ground and said no It's never going to happen to us We're not even at the stage where you guys are yet where you have the digital broadcasting We still don't have that but I mean rightly so with the station like like mix FM where that we're on now If you drive outside of the broadcast radius, that's it, you know, there's it's gone. There is no more mix FM So it's a very very interesting in a very challenging Well, I think to be we'd like to chat a little bit more about that and about some of the other things you do When we come back, it is mix 93.8 legendary radio for you As we do each and every Monday night at this time back with my special guest Steve Olscher in just a bit Right here. We are back. It is mix 93.8 legendary radio on the line with me from the United States Steve Olscher Steve I just wanted to say to you as well I mean one of the things that impressed me as somebody who runs the kind of show that I do this business lifestyle slash Show on a Monday night here in South Africa in the dark continent I spend a lot of time looking for guests looking for interesting people to chat to people who can give value to my listeners and as a result of that I send out a lot of males are trying to reach out to a lot of people and as you know, the hit rates are Sort of not always what I would like them to be and what impressed me about you is you actually came back to me And I was like whoa, you know, this guy does what he does But apparently he still reads all of his own emails. Is that something that's important to you?

you know it is because And and the truth is, you know there of course are times where I'll just turn an email over to my assistant and just you know, let her process whatever's going on there, but it is important to You know, and I know that there's obviously two sides of this discussion in terms of email and what makes the most sense and so on You know again because I try to limit my schedule To working just a few days a week. I've also become Very efficient with my time. And if you look at my inbox, I mean, I think I've got I don't know seven emails in my inbox Right now and that's it. So Why is that am I am I obsessed with having an empty inbox? Maybe You know, I mean that might be part of it But you know at the other side of it is I like to keep a solid pulse on what's going on With my business and keep a solid pulse on how the work that I'm doing Is impacting people and so if I invite someone to email me then Why on earth would I not want to? See that correspondence and you know, look reality is whether it's and I'm not saying I handle all the customer service because I don't But reality is if a customer writes in and they have an issue about something I at least well have the opportunity to see that and then pass it along to someone or handle it myself but what better way to keep pulse on what's going on in your in your company then By giving yourself the opportunity just to monitor the communication and if somebody takes the time to send an email Then the odds are pretty good that there's something that's on their mind that that you should know about as that business owner so Yeah, again, I'm not sitting here saying that I 100% Handle every email that comes in but you know, if someone like yourself says hey I'd love to to have you as a guest on my show and here's what we're doing and here's why I think you'd be a great guest then That's that's a message. I like hearing you know, and not to say that I say yes to to every invitation but you know, look the God's honest truth is When else am I gonna have an opportunity to be a guest on a radio show and in South Africa, right?

I mean like that's to me. That's super cool. I mean, that's that's the beautiful thing about The world that we live in right now and and you and I are connecting on Skype and I'm on my mobile phone in my car. I just dry. I just had to drive my kid to To camp it's the summer here So, you know, I just dropped him off at camp and I'm and I'm sitting here in my car. We're on Skype I'm in San Diego. You're in South Africa and this is gonna air on you know on your radio station, right? So it's just it's just an interesting time that we live in and I don't want to miss this Well, I think it's fantastic and it's one of the drives behind the show as well Is that I want to get people like yourself onto the show to share with my fellow South Africans and listeners to say there is There is other ways there are different ways there are ways that we can because you know, let's be honest You may not know much about South Africa, but economy is pretty much in the toilet at the moment. There's been all sorts of political changes, etc etc, etc And we keep hearing these doom-and-gloom messages about the fourth industrial revolution people are going to be losing their jobs You know the robots are taking over etc, etc and and people are sitting and wondering what do they do because We come very much from a culture where you know, you finish school you go to college you go to university You get a job you work at one job for 40 plus years And then you retire and hope you can live on on your savings and your retirement and that's not happening anymore so people are looking for other things to do and just the way you talk about in your book about what is your what finding that passion that single thing is to me and Absolutely. It's an amazing thing. And I just want to be able to give this story to our listeners to go Listen here's somebody who's done it Who's done it repeatedly and it is possible?

Now talking about that you you you've you've still as you say you run a couple of businesses already You've got the podcasts you've taken the time out to talk to us, but you do also offer various courses and trainings online, don't you Yeah for sure and you know look reality isn't thanks for for sharing a lot of what's going on there I mean, I will be the first to admit that the my sort of my My news source if you will for what's going on in South Africa Is Trevor Noah here in in the States on on his show the Daily Show, right? So he he's the he's the one who provides all the reporting in terms of what's going on in South Africa So other than that, I would have no idea what's going on there, which you know, look and that's just why is that? I don't know. But you know on his show, which is a very popular show here in the States and I guess in probably a lot of other countries as well, but his His his background obviously coming from South Africa. It just brings a really unique perspective to To folks like myself who just have no clue what's what's going on there So the bottom line being now that you know You've shared that with me and then talking about the book and so on what makes me even happier to Just be able to tell folks that they you know They can grab the book for free and we do give away. What is your what for free?

So maybe we can share that URL But yeah, you know, we we definitely have courses and products and programs and services that that are focused on helping people to scare discover share and and monetize their what so yeah, that's That's a lot of what we do and you know, the beautiful thing about creating online courses is that they're accessible to Anyone anywhere on the planet and and of course people can enroll at at any time as well Which is absolutely fantastic a lot of my learning that I've been doing because I'm a big fan of lifelong learning and continual learning Is that accessibility that whatever time I'm up and about or whatever I do I can actually log in and I can do whatever I do just getting back to Trevor though for a minute For us it sort of is a bit of a national treasure at the moment because he's done some amazing things and for South Africans We're very proud and we crow about anybody that reaches celebrity status maybe not so much about Charlize Theron, but Trevor I've had I've had the privilege of actually meeting him and chatting to him and and he is probably one of the most down-to-earth People you'll ever meet what you see is what you get I do have to warn you though that every now and again, he makes jokes that are directed at South Africans That only we would understand. Yeah, and he says a couple of things on the show in Afrikaans Which is one of our official languages, which we find hysterically funny And we sit here and wonder about all the poor Americans who are wondering to themselves. What did he just say?

Great guy nevertheless. Yeah. Okay, Steve. We're almost at the stage where we can wrap up now Let's let's talk a little bit about some of your courses and then when we wrap up, maybe we give out that URL I think it's very kind and very generous of you to make that book available because It is certainly something that can have a huge impact on people's lives So some of the other courses because we've talked about this podcasting thing and I'm a bit obsessed about podcasting at the moment Because a lot of people that I've talked to are saying this is the way to go and it's a great way to market your business You obviously feel the same way. Do you offer anything in that direction training wise? Yeah, so we've got we've got a couple of courses. One is a course called profiting from podcasts, which teaches people how to land coveted guest appearances on top podcasts and then develop real relationships with those hosts and producers and when they land those appearances Really learn how to monetize their visibility. So yeah profiting from podcasts Covers the guest side of the equation and we've got another course Which is called launch your podcast which teaches people how to launch market and monetize Their own show and so that so that's a second course That we offer that are and both of those obviously are strictly related to to podcasting So yeah, we cover both sides of the microphone being a host and being a guest Because one of the things and I think it's a myth that needs to be dispelled I mean for me getting onto radio was was always a lifelong dream but there were barriers to entry and one of those is that You you had to have a very good general knowledge, but most importantly was your voice You had to have as I've often said to people. I have a voice for radio and a face for print media But with with podcasting, it's not like that. It's a whole it's a lot more real I feel And and and the voice aspect of it seems to play a lesser role than the informational aspect Well, you know, it's interesting, right?

So we do an event called the new media summit Which is a live event where we give 150 attendees the opportunity to meet 40 top Podcasters and we set aside time for them to pitch the podcasters on who they are on what they do and they literally get booked on the spot and What I will tell you is that you know, we're doing our fifth new media summit coming up here in September 2019 and We've had just really incredible podcasters share with us Everything that's going on in their world and their strategies for monetizing the power Podcasting and what they're looking for and guests and so on and I'll just tell you that, you know The voices and the topics really do run the gamut and there are no hard and fast rules in Podcasting in terms of how you have to sound or what your approach needs to be or you know Colorful language or these sort of things. I mean everybody really can be their own person and a lot of folks that you would think would would have very little success with the medium because of Their voice and the way that they sound and things that they say and so on I'm actually find quite a well quite a lot of success in this in this medium Because it is a medium that embraces uniqueness, so They're really the same radio rules. Just just don't apply. Oh

He looks to the fondly and says if only I'd known back then but Steve getting into Podcasting has also become the barrier to entries become a lot less because I remember in the days it was a good couple of years ago first looked at Podcasting and and the equipment required and what you needed to do and how you needed to publish a podcast It was quite daunting these days. It seems to me anybody with a computer and a microphone can get up and running and That's exactly right really what what's happened is Well for lack of a better term technology has caught up with demand both from a production standpoint and from a And from a consumption standpoint and so the the honest truth is yeah I mean you you can literally just use your laptop and your earbuds And and hit record and that's pretty much all you need to do In order to create your own show and so if you have a computer and in any sort of microphone You're pretty much good to go and that fortunately Has changed quite a bit over the years where? launching your your own show really isn't Isn't what it used to be in terms of the complication of tech of tech So I mean really the bottom line is technology is no longer the issue Its mentality really is And is it true I mean, you know There's a lot of times you'll see people talking about this the podcasting aspect of things and they turn around and go, okay Well, there we go. I'm just gonna bang out two or three of these things and I'm gonna be an instant success Like everything to be an overnight success. It does take time doesn't it?

I mean, this is not something that you're going to build up in in a couple of weeks or a month or whatever If you're going to get into this, it's something you need to get into quite seriously And I mean seriously is a relative term, right? I mean you could release one episode a week and you'll be just fine You just have to be consistent about it, but I'll also say this I mean as I said, we've been doing re-imagined radio since 2009 off and on and and again mostly on since 2015 I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I've got a top show in terms of it being number one or number two Like it doesn't it doesn't work that way and our downloads are are decent But you know, there are shows out there that are getting millions of downloads every single every single month, you know, I'm I'm not you know and that's just then that's but it's okay we have the number of downloads that I need to support the lifestyle that I want and At the end of the day, that's you know You got to just figure out a reason why you're doing it And for me what I love to have millions of downloads Sure, but we don't but it doesn't matter the people who listen to our shows Are the people who for lack of you know, just an understanding of how the universe works here I'm just gonna sit here and say that those are the people that should be listening and and and that's and that's great

Fantastic stuff Stevie people want to find out more about you your work what you do Where's the best place for them to look at doing it? Yeah I'd simply say to start with the book What is your what and then figure out what your what is and get you know Get clear on your gift and the vehicle you use to share that gift and the people you're most compelled to serve so you can Start changing the world in your own unique way And we give that book away for free at what is your what? Dot-com so you get the whole New York Times best-selling book What is your what discover the one amazing thing you were born to do for free and again? I just say start at what is your what dot-com?

Fantastic stuff in there. Thanks again for making that available to to everybody into the listeners as well Otherwise Steve ulcer calm and somewhere else we can find a little bit more about you

Yeah, I mean Steve ulcer comm is is fine just start there if you don't want the book and and yeah, you know, it's It's it's just an exciting sign to be alive and just really appreciate you having me on and if the book opens things up for you Yeah, I'd love to I'd love to hear about what opens up and you can just email me It's Steve at Steve ulcer calm and that's my direct email Thank you very much Steve I got to tell you if you have been listening tonight go out get the book okay number one It's free which we always like What is your what calm? I'll post a link to that as well. What is your what calm get the book read it It is truly life-changing Steve ulcer. Thank you so much for taking the time out and having a chat with us today I really really do appreciate it and we wish you all the best going forward. Well, thank you very much and Appreciate you having me on cheers, mate