79: You are Never Out of the Game, Lessons from America’s Reinvention Expert, Steve Olsher

Show Notes

Steve says he got to being where he is by being a Misfit.  His journey has been full missteps in a lot of ways.  It these missteps that he credits with getting him where he is at.

At the 6 min mark, Steve tells the story of how he started in the web in the early 90’s creating some of the first online stores and secured the domain Liquor.com.  In 1998, he bought Liquor.com for $7500 which was a good amount of money for web address back then.  By March 2000, they were doing millions in sales and were ready to IPO the company.

It was bad timing as the markets literally crashed and by this time, Steve had signed away the bulk of his control to Wall Street.  He gave up his management rights.  And then when the company couldn’t go public, he was stuck holding the bag with his hand completely tied.  After 9 years of hard work, he walked away from everything.

In 2005/2006, he tracked down the domain and convinced the owner and get it back after a long process and reclaim it.  He then put it up for sale and got an offer for $4.25 million, which he took, only to have to buyer default after a couple payments.  So, he took the domain and rebuilt the company around it to what it is today.

He uses this as a lesson that if you stay the course and pursue your goal, it will eventually work out.  It may not work out as you planned, but it will work out for you.

At 13 min mark, Steve tells the story of how he got into the real estate markets.  After walking away from Liqour.com, he got into real estate development.  He would buy older buildings, refurbish them, and then turn them into different types of developments and did it up to 2008/2009.  Once everything imploded in that world, he had to give properties back to the bank, go through litigation for over 5 years, and lost almost everything.

You can reinvent your life on a dime.

You must answer the core question of “What is your what?”

What is your core gift?

What is the primary vehicle you will use to share that gift?

Who are most compelled to serve?

Many people are spending their time support other people’s “what” and that adds up to a tremendous amount of time you cannot get back, so figure out what is your what and focus your time to get it.

How does someone get the true answer of their “what?”

Start with taking a look at who are the people you most enjoy being around, working with, and helping

This is the best place to start to get an understanding of who you want to serve and the type of work you truly want to do.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned about how to succeed along the way?  What is the most important thing you’ve learned about yourself?

It boils down to one thing – Having that one thing that you are focused on.

Focus on finding and doing one thing that you were born to do for now

Do whatever you can to give yourself fully to that one thing for a period of time, you’ll be amazed at the results you can generate.  Go all in.

You can do different things, but at the time there is one that is most important and where you need to fully focus on.

Create your day by design

It is very easy to just let your days to go by

Be deliberate about your day and your life

It is amazing how much we can get done in 2-3 days with focus – more than most can do in a week

Ask yourself what you want to be doing with your time and ask yourself if there are better ways to accomplish your work.

Best advice to succeed and build a business today?

In order to truly help people, consult, and help people work through challenges, you have to have gone through them and experience them as an entrepreneur

You can then share the knowledge you have to truly help people

You have to earn the right to help people

We should teach what it is that we know

You will hit a ceiling of limitations based on your experience – realize that and work with people that are “the 2nd grader to your 5th grader”

Don’t be what you are not

Thoughts on creating and maximizing a niche?

You will be amazed at far you can take a niche and how big of a market it can be

Create a business around who you are most compelled to serve

Pick the one the one thing that creates the fire in your soul

Steve uses a great example of niche in this section starting at the 41 minute mark

Best tips to grow an audience and get found?

There is no magic bullet

You have to say yes to every opportunity that you can to gain visibility

Everywhere you are adds up for you over time

At some point, you have to move beyond free.

You can’t cheap it out

You will need to invest in education, mentorship, or coaching to get you from point A to B to help you succeed at higher levels and accelerate your success– you can’t get it just from videos on the net.