How To Stand Out, Be Yourself And Start A Business With Michael Gebben

The Fail On Podcast with Rob Nunnery - Fail Your Way To An Inspired Life

Michael Gebben bypassed college and started his own video production company at the age of 19.

Since starting his first business, he has done video production for successful entrepreneurs all over the world including Richard Branson, Tony Robins, Tim Ferriss, Pat Flynn, Lewis Howes, Derek Halpern and many more.

Michael has an inspiring story to tell and today, we’ll be discussing how he was able to get out of a tiny town and a job at a funeral home to overcome all odds and become one of the world’s most renowned videographers.

Michael will share how he leverages free work and how he landed his first filming gig for Tim Ferriss.

He also shares his simple strategy for creating strong customers relationships and delivering excellent service, through genuine kindness, being yourself and doing your best work for others. Take a listen!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Why lack of execution is often the reason for failure.
• How Michael made $4,000 in junior high.
• Funeral homes and beer joints: Michael takes us through his first jobs.
• How a successful career largely happens by accident.
• The importance of trying to create new opportunities for success.
• Learning to become hyper self-aware; owning who you are.
• Figuring out what to pursue by not following your passion.
• Learn more about Michael’s Massive Imperfect Action concept.
• The power of removing expectation.
• Why Michael believes that success is trying.
• Learning to be okay with losing; opportunities for self-growth.
• Why your network is your net worth.
• The impact of living your values and not just speaking them.
• Embracing your job and shifting your mindset towards making an impact.
• Understanding the hard work that is often associated with opportunity.
• Why friendliness and fun go a long way.
• Learning to understand the journey behind the person.
• The reason why authenticity always trumps a copy-cat.
• The process of discovering your way in life; collaborating advice.
• Find out why Michael chooses to give and give and give.
• The honesty factor: we are the ones holding ourselves back.
• And much more!

Tweetables:

“All the things that I either have done or do now or I’m excited about doing, were not my passions at all.” — @mgebbs

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“When people are looking for their passion, they don’t ever find it sometimes because they’re looking for it.” — @mgebbs

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[0:12:20].1]

“For me, when I’ve just removed expectations, it’s incredible.” — @mgebbs

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[0:30:24].1]

“Success is just keeping it simple and you know, just trying.” — @mgebbs

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[0:35:23].1]

“It only takes one thing, one person, one moment, one anything to literary change the trajectory of our life.” — @mgebbs

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[0:56:00].1]

“Everybody is just in 100% consumption mode. They don’t produce, they don’t create and then they don’t learn.” — @mgebbs

Tweet This

[1:00:00].1]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Unbound Merino – http://unboundmerino.com (PROMO Code – FAIL ON)

Michael Gebben Website – http://michaelgebben.com

Michael Gebben Twitter – https://twitter.com/mgebbs/

Michael Gebben’s YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/user/michaelgebben

Michael Gebben’s Jumpstarters – http://jumpstarters.net/

The Fred Factor – https://www.amazon.com/Fred-Factor-Passion-Ordinary-Extraordinary/dp/0385513518

Delivering Happiness – https://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446576220

Book Yourself Solid – https://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-Marketing/dp/0470643471

The Four Hour Work Week – https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357

Transcript Below

Read Full Transcript

EPISODE 028

“MG: I genuinely loved, really, more than anything which is what I still love, making people smile. When I did the same thing at it, they smiled, they laughed, they cried, they hugged, they high-fived, that’s what I lived for.”

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:15.5] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Fail On Podcast where we explore the hardships and obstacles today’s industry leaders face on their journey to the top of their fields, through careful insight and thoughtful conversation. By embracing failure, we’ll show you how to build momentum without being consumed by the result.

Now please welcome your host, Rob Nunnery.

[INTRO]

[0:00:39.8] RN: Hey there and welcome to the show that believes failing in a hyper focused way is the only way to create freedom and quit your job in a world that only shares successes. We dissect the struggle by talking to honest and vulnerable entrepreneurs and this is a platform for their stories.

Today’s story is of Michael Gebben. Michael bypassed college and started his own production company, gettv.com at the age of 19 and since starting his first business, he has done video production for successful entrepreneurs all over the world including Richard Branson, Tony Robins, Tim Ferriss, Pat Flynn, Louis Howes, Derek Halburn and the list just goes on and on.

The actual story of how he got started in all this is just absolutely inspiring. We’ll be discussing how Michael was able to get out of a tiny town and overcome all odds to become one of the world’s most renowned videographers.

Michael will share how he leverages free work and how he landed his first filming gig for Tim Ferriss and he goes into a simple strategy for creating strong customers relationships and delivering excellent service. Just through genuine kindness and doing your best work for others.

But first, I’m on the road a lot nowadays and thankfully I’m traveling wider than I ever have before, can’t say the same about my wife but hey, that’s neither here nor there. All I travel with now is a backpack and just a few pieces of clothing for one reason only.

It’s a shirt from a really sweet Toronto apparel company called Unbound Marino, they have clothes made out of marino wool and get this, you can wear it for months on end without ever needing to have it washed and there is science backing behind that, I just don’t know it.

Talk about a traveler’s absolute dream, never check a bag again, check in at the show notes page for an exclusive Fail On discount that you won’t get anywhere else and if you’d like to stay up to date on all The Fail On Podcast interviews and key take away from each guest, simply go to failon.com and sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page.

That’s failon.com.

[INTERVIEW]

[0:02:35.1] RN: Hey there and welcome to The Fail On Podcast. Today, I am sitting down with Mr. Michael Gebben and we are going to explore his struggles, failures and how he has been able to work with some of the most influential people on this planet.

Michael’s worked with Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins and sir Richard Branson and many more. Michael, welcome to The Fail On Podcast.

[0:02:52.2] MG: Rob, thanks for having me buddy. I’m excited.

[0:02:54.5] RN: First, some context here, we’re sitting in a co-working space in San Diego, downtown works. We just saw a friend and I had talked to him, Mr. Clay Heber. You get to follow on the footsteps of the legend trader.

[0:03:09.6] MG: Greatness, exactly.

[0:03:12.1] RN: I want to obviously dig in to how you got started with all the big names and filming for them but first, take us back to the very first time that somebody actually gave you money in exchange for a product or service that you created.

[0:03:26.5] MG: You know, it’s interesting. I’ve always kind of been entrepreneurial and this will tie in to, I think some of the questions you’re going to ask me about failure and that’s what this is really about. What’s interesting, we moved in to this house and it had a football field and my parents tell me that I wanted to cut a hole on the fence and sell hotdogs and popcorn to the opposing team.

Well, that failed. I was like seven years old, I never executed on that like most people with ideas, we don’t execute. Really, what had happened is, my dad’s always been into film and video and he made these silent films in the 80’s and we made these goofy movies and he works at a cemetery. I had made a slideshow for an aunt that passed away and this funeral home caught wind.

[0:04:11.8] RN: How old were you by the way?

[0:04:13.1] MG: Yeah, I was probably 17 years old and mind you, I had a candy machine business in high school. I tried all of these different things and you know, none of it ever really went anywhere and I didn’t know whether I was going to go to college or not or what I was going to do.

I got asked by this funeral home to make these slideshows and that was kind of my first thing in video. I mean, I had had a paper out.

[0:04:37.4] RN: Did they just come to you because it’s such a small town or they just knew that you did this slideshow thing?

[0:04:41.0] MG: Well, my dad, again, worked at a cemetery so they were connected and they knew, it was a small town, they had talked. They had known that my dad and we made these little movies and stuff because we had some showings at our local theater and stuff. I mean, I had a paper out which I’d come to find out a lot of these billionaires out had paper out.

Alright, I’ve got one trait. No, in video production, that was my first thing that I had made some money when I was about 17. I was a junior in high school and I made I think $4,000 that first year as a junior. Doing these slideshows and then I also filmed some plays and my senior year did even more slide shows, filmed some more plays. I also found a video yearbook for my senior class.

I made about $8,000. When I got done and graduated, I have still work in which is another part of my story, the beer distributor because it was right next to the cemetery that my dad works at so I worked there from like 12 to the summer I graduated. I tried to get like a quarter raise.

[0:05:42.8] RN: You started working at the beer distributer at 12 years old?

[0:05:44.5] MG: Yeah. There’s these little nuances. I got a lot, we need like four hours to get through everything, I’m trying to you know, be succinct here. But I started there when I was 12 which is crazy. I mean, I was literally in a room alone with bottles of beer, cans, everything. I was cleaning them up. I was called the breakage boy.

I wanted to get a quarter raise and this is an interesting thing that I think that actually just saw this video in my Facebook feed recently, that was from a couple of years ago where I saw the guy who I went in to, to get this quarter raise and they wouldn’t give it.

I’ve been there six, seven years, I mean, cleaning up the trash, I mean, doing anything for these people. They used to get new cars every year and all the stuff and so I always wanted a quarter more and they wouldn’t give it to me.

I think I made it through that summer of 2005 right after I graduated in May of 2005 from high school and then I quit. I said, “You know what? This is ridiculous” and I thought, I told my parents, I said, “Just give me one year. Just one year and we’ll see what happens.” Because they weren’t necessarily – “You got to go to college.” I know some people’s parents, like, you got to go to college. Mine were more, that’s the thing I should do. But I think where some people go wrong is they might just say “I’m just not going to college, I’m just not going to do this.” But I had a little momentum already.

I made some money and I said, “Just give me one year, let me see what happens with this thing and if it works, great, and if it doesn’t, I can always go back.”

[0:07:08.1] RN: Those previous two years, you went from 4,000 to 8,000. Were you like really hustling to get that 4,000, 8,000 or was it kind of just an organically growing snowball?

[0:07:17.5] MG: No, I would say, I wasn’t hustling, like really. I was you know, I don’t know that I really controlled the slideshows like that was how many people died and then how many people to – I hate to say it but how many people the funeral home convinced to do the slide show and mind you at the time, I mean, I think it was…

For a single one I started as low as maybe $50, got as high at one point in time is maybe $250, $300 but we had a thing where you know, so many...