Greg Hickman
“When you’ve identified that one thing, make sure that you’re not allowing other people’s success or what other people have or what you hope to have necessarily define what you think you need to be doing.” — Greg Hickman
Greg is the founder of MobileMixed.com. He teaches businesses and entrepreneurs how to use mobile marketing, from strategy, websites, app development and text message marketing to improve their digital marketing efforts (list building, sales conversion, loyalty and retention etc).
He is the author of The SMS Marketing Handbook and creator of Convert From Anywhere, a training program teaching you how to build your audience and drive sales with text message marketing.
03: I Share Hope with Greg Hickman
“When you’ve identified that one thing, make sure that you’re not allowing other people’s success or what other people have or what you hope to have necessarily define what you think you need to be doing.” – Greg Hickman
John Lee Dumas:
Hey, this is John Lee Dumas of EntrepreneurOnFire and I share hope. Somebody that I love who is doing some amazing things in the mobile space is Greg Hickman of greghickman.me, so he’d be a great person to have on the show.
Intro:
Welcome to I Share Hope! The podcast where world leaders share their real stories of hope and how you can use actionable hope to start changing your life today and now here’s your host, Chris Williams.
Chris Williams:
Alright, well today I have Greg Hickman with me. He’s a mobile marketing consultant, an entrepreneur, podcast host, so many things. He has done marketing programs for the New York Jets, I see, Florida Marlins, other pro teams, celebrities, 300 shopping centers and craziest thing of all, I was interviewing and talking to John Lee Dumas of EntrepreneurOnFire the other day and asked him, “Who’d you like to hear from if I was going to ask the same questions from anybody, who’d it be?” He said, “Greg Hickman”. You were right there with the lead singer for The Eagles, I think, also. Wow. I got to know more about this guy. So, Greg thanks so much for your time.
Greg Hickman:
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Chris Williams:
Tell me more about yourself.
Greg Hickman:
Yes, you kind of covered a little bit, but yes I’ve been blogging and podcasting for the last two and a half years and through that has opened a ton of doors to speak in a lot of amazing conferences and meet people like John and become friends with John. So, we always end up going back and forth a little bit. I live in Denver, Colorado with my wife and dog. I just recently got married two months ago from today and just really focused on helping businesses engage their customers with mobile marketing.
Chris Williams:
I’m curious about that because if I read correctly on your website and a few other things I’ve seen, you quit your job, got engaged to be married and bought a house last year.
Greg Hickman:
Sold my house.
Chris Williams:
Sold your house, sorry. All this at the same time and decided to do something new and here you are. Obviously, you seem to be paying the light bills.
Greg Hickman:
Yes.
Chris Williams:
A lot more than that I’m sure.
Greg Hickman:
I do, it’ll turn the light on. Actually today, as we’re recording this, December 04, 2014, this is officially one year to the day that was my first day working full time for myself.
Chris Williams:
Nice.
Greg Hickman:
The end of 2013, kind of in a three-month span between September and November, like you said, I got engaged first, then I sold my house and then gave my notice at my job, I gave like a month’s notice and yes, it was a busy end of the year last year.
Chris Williams:
Here’s how this works, we ask all of our guests the same five questions about hope. The point of all this is just to make hope more approachable for people who are working on getting enough hope to do something to change their life. It may be a weight loss program, getting out of a bad addiction behavior pattern or relationship pattern or relationship that may need to be shaken a little bit, a job, whatever it may be.
So, first off…
Question 1: What is your definition of hope or the best quote about hope that you got?
Greg Hickman:
My favorite quote actually comes from a Maya Angelou poem. It’s like a stanza of her poem, but actually part of it is tattooed on my arm and it’s one that I always really loved. It goes like or the stanza says, “Like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides; just like hopes springing high, still I rise.” I look at that, I look at my arm all the time, I look at that quote all the time and it’s been really, really helpful for me. I also read this poem – my mom went through breast cancer, she’s fine and everything years and years ago and I read this poem to her. It really highlights the fact that I think that there is going to be these ups and downs and really just like everything else, you’re going to bounce back just like the moon falls and the sun rises. Just like the tides, you know, there’s low tides and high tides, always consistent, they’re always up and down, you’re going to bounce back. It’s the exact same thing with hope. Sometimes you feel like you don’t have any hope and then sometimes you’re completely hopeful and you can ride that to the end, but it’s always up and down. When I’m down, I just tell myself that I know I’m going to bounce back.
Chris Williams:
That’s great. She’s a great author.
Greg Hickman:
Yes.
Chris Williams:
Phenomenal. My wife got to hear her speak recently here in Memphis and man, it’s just really powerful, it sounds like.
Alright, so….
Question 2: Who has been the most influential in your life for hope? Who’s delivered that hope to you that you need on a daily basis?
Greg Hickman:
On a daily basis, I’m going to have to go with my wife. In that last year – we’ve been together now for over four years and when I was getting close to getting ready to leave my job, I mean I was super scared, concerned with where income was going to be coming from. I mean I was making money, I had put things in place to feel more comfortable, but there’s always that uncertainty which is something that I’ve never really had to deal with on a daily basis because I had the security of a full time job. She was always just very, very supportive and I think without her I definitely, probably would have very likely still been at my full time job.
Even like recently, I mean this year has been, what I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is like, the most emotional thing. I was just telling a good friend of mine who was interested in leaving her job. She’s like, “I want to go start working for myself. I feel like it’s going to be so much less stressful”. I was like, less stressful? I can’t guarantee it’s going to be less stressful. I made a comment that I think entrepreneurship for me has been the most emotional roller coaster this year that I’ve ever experienced. She’s like, “even more than a relationship?” and I said yes, way more. For me personally, way more than a relationship. Sarah has always been there to push me and challenge me. I think as we get further into this, I don’t necessarily believe that you can only rely on hope also.
Chris Williams:
I agree.
Greg Hickman:
I think hope is like a very powerful thing, but in tandem with like my wife Sarah, always calling me out on me not taking action — that combined with some of these things really, really help me move forward.
Chris Williams:
I love it. That’s a really good point and I hear that frequently with interviews. I totally agree. You can’t rely 100% on hope. You got to do something about it.
Greg Hickman:
Right.
Chris Williams:
Hope is a great motivator and it gives you a good focus. It keeps you focused past today, but it’s all about action. It really comes down to get off your ass and get busy.
Greg Hickman:
100%.
Chris Williams:
I’ve got a wife who does the same thing. She encourages me off my ass frequently and says, get right with it. So, good call. Tell me about a time in your life, it don’t have to be the past year, it can be whenever you want, that it was tough and you really had to think through what is going on long term. What’s my long term hope to really bring me through this?
Greg Hickman:
Again for me it’s not too long ago. I guess for me a lot of the things are more relevant because I feel like it’s so fresh, but when I was getting ready to leave my job and again I was with Sarah for four years and probably for two and a half of those I was constantly talking about how I was going to leave my job and work for myself. I probably sounded like a broken record, to be honest, and it got to the point where she didn’t even honor my word. She didn’t believe that I was actually ever going to take action. To be honest, she had every right to feel that way as well because up until that point I was pretty much all talk. I was like, I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this and I just need these things to be in place, which I definitely needed things to be in place, but it actually got to the point where our relationship got really, really bad because all I was doing was working and the thing I kept saying was well, I’m doing this so that I can work for myself, so that I have the flexibility and freedom to spend time with you when I want to. I was working my full time job and I was working all through the night and it definitely put a huge strain on our relationship.
There was definitely moments where I remember just being like, “Oh my God, I hope that I can get to the point where all this stuff that I’m saying ‘I would like it to be this way’…like it ends up being that way.” There’s that hope of okay, when I do this, I hope it works. I hope that it’s not as scary as it is right now. I hope that this actually solves the problem that we may be having due to the relationship because I was working all the time. But again, without her in my ear frequently about, like calling me out on being all-talk, it would’ve just been me constantly saying like, oh, I hope that this is going to be this way when I do this, but again back to that action. It’s like I needed to be really pushed to take that action.
Chris Williams:
Sarah sounds like a great person. Maybe I should be interviewing her next.
Greg Hickman:
Yes you can. It would be tough to get her on. I’d give it my best.
Chris Williams:
She can talk about sharing hope with Greg. I hear that frequently again, back to that taking action and you having a hope that was out there long term. You’re really hoping that something would work and would deliver all the things you were promising to her and yourself. But again, it comes back to action. A lot of hope with no action isn’t worth much.
Greg Hickman:
That’s true.
Chris Williams:
Question 4: I know you’re doing an enormous amount right now. You’re speaking all over the place, you’re very successful, working with a lot of clients, doing the podcast blogs. You’ve got so much going on. How are you sharing hope pretty consistently out there in the world today? Either professionally or in your off-time, what are you doing to deliver out there?
Greg Hickman:
I never really actually thought about it this way, but I host a couple of Masterminds and in a couple Masterminds I do group coaching and I do coaching. All those things I think really help, but I think just the setting an example has been really, really helpful. The podcast in general, people that had been following my journey through the podcast or through the blogger have seen me speak and gone to know me through a speaking event. They’ve seen the journey that I’ve been on and for those that relate to it or aspire to have something similar, I definitely think that it gives hope to a lot of other people that it’s possible. I think that’s why I try to – I’m actually writing this blog post that was going to go live probably tomorrow or the next day.
I think there’s like 35 things that I’ve learned in my first year of working for myself. A lot of people that I talk to are looking to work for themselves, looking to build their own business to be able to work from wherever they want to work from and live the life that they want to live while working on something that they love. I’m only like a year ahead in regards to working for myself full time. I mean I’ve been working on it for like two and a half years now, but that’s still not really in the grand scheme of things, like not that much time that I feel that as the more that I can share my journey, the ups, the downs, the struggles and do that in an effective way, the more that other people will feel like it’s within reach.
The more that people feel like that is attainable for them specifically, I think the more hope is created. It becomes more believable. There’s a lot of really interesting studies about even online marketers that teach people how to make a thousand dollars, how to earn an extra $1000 a month. There’s a reason that they’re doing $1000 a month, not hey, here’s how you get to making $100,000 a year because for so many people, that just automatically seems unattainable and it just doesn’t seem like they’re going to get there. To get people to believe in something that actually is within reach and show them how to do it and be transparent on how I was able to get there, then I think that really does help spread the hope really and make people believe that they’re capable of doing the same thing.
Chris Williams:
I think that’s so true. It’s real. It’s a connection. It’s a human. It’s somebody you can sit across a coffee table from or across the ear bud from and say, how do I – he did it and he’s a real guy and he told me it was going to be harder than it is, but he was honest about the hard part which means he’s probably about the success part too.
Greg Hickman:
Absolutely. There’s John. John’s story is amazing. If you hear Pat Flynn’s story – all these people are just like regular people. Tim Paige, Tim was doing his own thing and then through a connection with John ended up getting the opportunity to work for LeadPages and Tim was in love with it. It’s like being able to be open and vulnerable and share the things that you’re struggling with and that you hope to, aspire to with other people, the more likely that that is going to come back to you because if Tim had never shared how he was feeling about certain things with John, John would’ve never made the introduction to Clay Collins which ended up with him getting a job at LeadPages which he is now in love with. I think being vulnerable too and obviously transparent, really helps humanize you, brings you down to at least a level where other people can relate to you a little bit better.
Chris Williams:
I think that’s really true. I think that’s something great about podcasting and maybe it’s – I hate to say generational shift and it would isolate anybody who’s in a more advanced generation, but I think our generation is really after a reality, a real touch and feel that you can get off of a person who’s going to be vulnerable. We don’t want that corporate, shiny façade. It doesn’t turn us off if it’s not corporate and shiny. It’s just be real and be part of the community. That’s just really cool. I love it.
Question 5: Number five is maybe some easy, simple action step. Again, you said – what’s that? That hope that’s attainable, not the $100,000, but the $1000 you can make. In the sense of hope, how would you tell our listeners and tell me to start taking action on hope? What can we do today? What should I be doing?
Greg Hickman:
There’s a few things, but I would say first is read the book The One Thing by Gary Keller.
Chris Williams:
I’ll put that on the show notes. Absolutely. I’ll find it and track it down.
Greg Hickman:
It’s by Gary Keller and it looks like this.
Chris Williams:
There’s the product sample.
Greg Hickman:
Right there. It’s very easy to distinguish. This is an amazing book I read this year and I can’t say that I’m living it perfectly, but I’m getting there. I think one of the reasons that a lot of us probably lose hope and more specifically me, it’s that you’re not really clear on what you’re trying to accomplish. This book is all about identifying that and then focusing on that one thing and then how do you now spend your time in order to accomplish that thing. I know for myself, I had a second podcast. With all these other stuff in the last three or four months, I’ve been literally cutting away all these other excess fat of stuff that’s just been constant distraction so that I can really go all in on one particular aspect on my business and get it to where I want to be. Within my first year of working for myself, it’s like I was all over the place and I’ve been trying really hard now or I’ve been working really hard now to correct that by focusing on one thing.
I think until you, listener, and you yourself know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, you’re going to feel really, really lost and you’re going to be hopeful for all these different things. But back to the point of it can’t just be about hope, if you have that clarity on what this one thing is, then you know and you can align yourself with other people that will help you get there. So, having mentors, having coaches and things like that, that you can clearly communicate this one goal to, will really just help bring you to the next step closer to achieving it. To break that down, (1) know your one thing; (2) find mentors and coaches that will help guide you to getting that one thing. Really, those mentors and coaches should be, ideally, only be a few steps ahead of you, in my opinion, so that it’s fresh and relevant. They can help guide you through this because no one ever does it alone. I would’ve never left my job if it weren’t for Sarah super pushing me as well as other people that were really motivating me. Even if that one thing changes – you need to have focus on one thing and go after that one thing to even have a chance.
Chris Williams:
I like it. That’s great. You know, I don’t think anybody said that quite yet. That’s a really great way to put it. I’m going to put that book in the show notes and put a little more about that because that really is a great point. You have to have a focus and you get overwhelmed in the mud if you don’t.
Greg Hickman:
I was so overwhelmed this year trying to do too much. One thing that’s really important I think that I want to share is that when you’ve identified that one thing, make sure that you’re not allowing other people’s success or what other people have or what you hope to have necessarily define what you think you need to be doing. I definitely have been heavily influenced by those around me and those that I look up to and you try to mimic their actions which is a great path to take, but that doesn’t mean that I need to be making my money the same way that ABC person does. As you look to those mentors and coaches and you’re focused on that one thing, just make sure it’s actually your one thing and you’re not picking that one thing because it’s like what someone else has that you just desire to have. That’s lust, so really be clear on that.
Chris Williams:
Great point. I like your word on the mentors as well. It is important to have mentors. I’ve had some really phenomenal ones and I know you have, obviously, and it sounds like our mentors have all had really great mentors too.
Greg Hickman:
Everybody has a mentor.
Chris Williams:
Yes. If you don’t, it takes a lot longer to get there.
Greg Hickman:
Yes.
Chris Williams:
These are really good points. Thank you very much. I really appreciate all the hope sharing that you’re doing with us. We always ask this on the way out. What is the thing you want to be listening to on your drive if you’re trying to get the funk out of your head and get back in the game? What are you popping in the iPod?
Greg Hickman:
That’s a good question. I’m a huge hip-hop/R&B fan, so I would need something upbeat like some Biggie or Tupac or something. Probably the upbeat songs would get me going. I’m a huge fan of music, so if I’m down, I definitely need to listen to something that gets me going.
Chris Williams:
Those are good selections too. If you were going to hear from somebody about hope, who would it be? Who would you want to hear from? If I was going to ask the same questions, anybody in the world, you pick ‘em.
Greg Hickman:
Who would I want to hear about hope from? I actually want to hear about it – I don’t know if you’ve interviewed this person already, but Grant Baldwin. He’s actually a very good friend of mine. He’s a motivational speaker. He speaks the youth generation, younger generation. Just recently, I found a video of him. I was like, I talk to him and I know him personally, but I’ve never seen him speak on stage. I saw a highlight reel and he’s just a really inspiring dude and he’s out there engaging with younger people, giving them hope, giving them motivation, so I would actually be really interested to hear where some of his hope came from because I’ve never really talked about that with him.
Chris Williams:
That’s great. I think we should do that. I’ll talk to him. That’s a fantastic idea.
Greg Hickman:
Yes, for sure.
Chris Williams:
Greg, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate your time today and I appreciate you sharing some really insightful stuff. We’re going to put all these things in the show notes, transcripts. Any links to your website, communication? How can we find you if somebody wants to reach out and be part of what you’re doing?
Greg Hickman:
From mobile perspective, I’m at mobilemixed.com, but I think what would be a little bit more relevant for this audience is my personal site, greghickman.me which I’m kind of re-invigorating at the moment, but you’ll find plenty of interviews from my previous podcast called Leaving Corporate and I interviewed entrepreneurs to figure out how they made that transition into working for themselves. A lot of them came from really tough situations and were able to now go on to accomplish some amazing things. John Lee Dumas was on there, Amy Porterfield, a lot of really inspiring people. So, if you’re looking for that, there’s plenty of content at greghickman.me as well for that.
Chris Williams:
Perfect. Twitter, Facebook?
Greg Hickman:
Twitter: @GJHickman
Chris Williams:
Great. Okay. I’ve got your website pulled up right now. It’s fantastic and there’s a lot of ways to connect to you on there, a lot of information about you. Thanks for your time Greg and look forward to talking again soon.
Greg Hickman:
Thank you, appreciate it. Alright. Take care.
Chris Williams:
Wow. I’m sitting here at my computer several days after that interview, listening back through it and picking that one thing and then getting mentors in your life to really help you grow and reach that goal faster, great, great advice. Thank you Greg Hickman.
Head over to the show notes page at isharehope.com and you’ll find all of the interviews, the transcripts, other people we’ve interviewed. On the Greg Hickman section, you’ll see so much information about Greg, ways to get in touch with him and a discussion section at the bottom of the show notes page where you can join this conversation about what Greg is doing and how we can implement hope in our lives in a better way.
I would also love to hear who you think we should interview. If you’ve got ideas and you’ve been thinking, man, I wish they’d interview such and such or this person here or there, put them on there. I’d love to know. Almost everybody we ask says yes and it’s incredible to talk to leaders like Greg and so many others around the world who are very willing, in their busy schedules, to share hope.
Look forward to seeing you at the show notes page, at the discussion section and I look forward talking to you next time. Thanks. Talk to you soon. Bye bye.
You’ve just listened to I Share Hope. If you’re ready to make a change, head to our website at isharehope.com and claim your free copy of the Top Ten Actions of Hope from World Leaders to use hope in your own life. Thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you next time.
