In this episode, Dave is excited to welcome Roy Huff. Roy is a best-selling author, scientist at the University of Hawaii, teacher, and blogger. Roy has earned five degrees in four different disciplines spanning liberal arts, history, education, and geoscience.

He has worked on projects such as forecasting volcanic emissions from the Kilauea Volcano and training on geostationary satellites for NASA's GOES-R Proving Ground.

He has been published in numerous publications for his work and seen on TV, but his entry into creative writing did not occur until the age of thirty-four when he began writing a creative paper for an English class while working on his fourth and fifth degrees. That paper later became the opening chapter of his first book, which grew to be an Amazon number-one international epic-fantasy bestseller, Everville. Subsequent books in the Everville series have also gone on to become bestsellers and continue to win awards for both cover art design and content. Roy is a monthly contributor for Lifehack.

After learning more about Roy, one of the most amazing things about him, aside from all his success, is his story of hardship that he had to overcome to reach these levels of accomplishment.

Learn more about Roy and the Best Selling Everville Series here

Book Roy Recommends if You Want to Sell Your Own Books in a Massive Way

Roy’s story is incredible. He grew up in abject poverty in rural Kentucky and North Carolina. His father was manic depressive. His parents divorced when he was 6 and his father died of HIV when he was in 8th grade. He suffered through some abuse and at times only had one set of clothes and was lucky if he had shoes.

As Roy says, "We didn’t even have enough money for a bus pass growing up."

Through much hardship, Roy managed to graduate valedictorian of his class and then set off to Hawaii to fulfill his dream of becoming a weatherman. Withing a year, he ran out of money and had to leave. This started a 10 year journey of entrepreneurship and more hardship for Roy. Roy tasted some major success, but through a series of unfortunate events had to file for bankruptcy and liquidate his businesses as well as his home.

It was at this point that Roy decided to go back to school. While working a full time and part time and raising a family, Roy was able to earn 5 degrees in 6 years!

It was in year 4, that Roy found writing – totally by accident. Listen to the 12 minute mark to hear this amusing and life changing part of his story. It was while getting a degree in Geo-science that a simple creative writing assignment became the basis for his best-selling series, Everville. He struggled to get it off the ground and then was spurred by a book he read and subsequently finished the first Everville book in 30 days. He put the pressure on himself by actually marketing the book before it was even written! It took off and he went onto the 2nd and 3rd books, but had another setback – a divorce.

At this point, Roy made some life changes and created a Life Action Plan for himself focused on his health, relationships, and wealth. Listen in at the 17 min mark to learn how he did it and the results he has been able to achieve. There are some great lessons in this section about how to get an idea off the ground and create a platform to be able to launch it, including how he got accepted as a writer on LifeHack.com. His latest project is a series of books on personal development looking to be released later this year.

​Lessons from Roy for Entrepreneurs:

• Success is not about being the smartest or having the most talent, its about the willingness to keep going and push through where others would stop or your personal limits are encountered.
• When you keep doing things, you get better at them, and people start to think you are good and tell you so, but its when you start to believe your own “hype” and get complacent where you lose your edge. Never be satisfied and check your ego at the door.
• Beware of getting just “good” at something and not doing the extra needed to be “great” at it. Additionally, beware of becoming the jack of all trades and master of none – “just good” at a lot of things.
• Be open and receptive as you never know how a little tip or item can make a huge difference. And sometimes these come from the most unlikely sources.
• Continue to strive for and find ways to add value, even when you think you are already adding value is critical to success
• If people aren’t buying your stuff, its because you are doing something wrong. And if you are not willing to accept it, then you can’t learn or grow or find ways to improve.
• Focus on the most important things, the 80/20 rule. Don’t waste time on the small things or stress on them. Put your effort, time, and focus into things that actually matter and have a serious impact in driving you toward your goal or goals.
• There is a big difference between being truly productive and just be busy. Beware the “busy trap.”
• Roy also discusses what he calls “leveraging your time.” This is not so much about prioritizing your time as much as understanding when you are most productive in your day and making sure to be focusing on your most important items during those times.

Best Quote: "The universe doesn’t care about the problems that I have. And if I want to succeed at something, the only way I am going to is by taking action."

Roy's Misfit 3

1. Take Real Action. If you don’t take action, everything else is irrelevant. If you want to achieve and accomplish something, you have to do something, You have to do more than read or listen to inspirational content and "prime the pump." You most importantly have to take action on the core goal that is most impactful in getting you to what you want to achieve. Put yourself out there. What is one thing you know you can take action today that will help you get closer to a goal? Do it.
2. Resolve to Really Learn from Your Failures: This includes a lot of things. It means you have to allow yourself to fail. It means you have to not give up when you fail. And it means, that when you do keep going, you actually learn from your failures. So be willing to learn and actually put into effect what you have learned from your mistakes. What is one thing you have failed at recently? Write down what you have learned from it.
3. Seek Your Passion: It’s your life. And if you’re not happy with yourself at the end of the day, what’s the point? When you find your passion and have something that you love, you are more motivated to work at it and be successful anyway. Why not stack the deck in your favor? What is something that you are passion about that you know you can provide value in? Why not give a shot? What do you have to lose…some great lessons from a failure or two?

In this episode, I am excited to welcome my friend and longtime investment mentor, Doc Severson. Doc is known as the Options Doctor. He is a principle at TheoTrade, an organization that provides, solid, no hype, time tested advice those looking to trade options and futures in the US Markets. The organization is unique in that is has very specific requirements to be on their team - All of the traders/mentors on the team must have a minimum of 15 years’ experience of hands on trading in their specialty with proven documented results that you can see and review.

Doc is your quintessential misfit – walking out on a 6 figure job to pursue his dream of trading for a living almost 10 years ago. Starting from essentially square one, Doc created a multimillion dollar business.

He is also the author of Hacking the Holy Grail: The Trader’s Guide to Cracking the Code of Profitability, an Amazon best-seller.

Doc’s story of starting over in his mid-40’s because he was displaced by disruption is a great example of how you can reinvent yourself at any time.

Pay close attention to around the 12 minute mark when Doc talks about taking the chance and leap of faith, running through walls, finding what you are meant to do, and breaking the bonds of being an employee. We also discuss writing a “day in the life paper” and what the power of convincing yourself and your mind of what is possible can do for you.

Doc, who is arguably, one of the world’s top option traders, gives us some of this best insights on investing and getting started in investing. Doc mentors thousands of people all throughout the world and gives us some of the biggest pitfalls to avoid in investing.

Doc also discusses some other great success tips such as choosing not to be mediocre and focus on the “one thing” to be the best, challenging the convention norms by being a contrarian and NOT diversifying, putting a value on your knowledge, and advice for starting out in investing and trading.

He also talks about what it’s like to compete against the best every day in the markets and how to create an edge and carve out a place to win. Pay attention to this at the 41 minute mark for some great content on this.

Doc's Misfit 3

1. Corridor effect: When you close a door, you walk into the corridor with many doors– Disassociate yourself from defining yourself by your job title, free yourself to the opportunity around you. You will become alive again and get your life back. Today, take 20 mins to look around you and find one opportunity you never thought about before, write it down, and put a plan in place to maximize it.

2. The Secret of the Entrepreneur: Open you mind and your ears to what problems that people are having…then go solve them. Pick one problem that you know you and other people have, one in which you have clarity and know you could provide a solution. It doesn’t matter if it is large or small – you just need to get in the act of finding and solving a problem. Then go do it. You can start on this right now, today.

3. Learn to recognize disruptive forces in the world. The things that are changing the way we live, work, and play – and seek to be one yourself or align yourself with them. Don’t ever get complacent or comfortable. It’s when things are going well that you need to be most alert for a disruptive force. Take time today to identify a disruptive force in your life. Whether it’s to your work or business or a trend you see coming. Ask yourself how you can use this to give you an edge and ride its wave. Then start doing it!

Welcome Misfit Nation!

Today's guest is a great friend and mentor, Miguel de Jesus.  Miguel is the founder of Purpose and Action. He's credited with leading the growth efforts of a Fortune 1000 from $40 million in sales to over $2 billion. We take some time on Miguel’s story as it really represents a trip through history with some of the most storied companies in history. Starting from humble beginnings in New York’s lower East Side. Miguel started out his entrepreneurial career as a Trumpet player in high school, playing gigs around the city. He then started a retail clothing company with storefront on Broadway in Manhattan…where he used everything from arbitrage to unique radio spots to drive sales. Miguel also explains how he learned the hard lessons with this business and those spurred him to continue his entrepreneurial career in the early days at Xerox and was there for 20 years including 8 years in Puerto Rico.

In this episode, we take a little walk down memory lane from my early days at Paychex working with Miguel. Miguel will help to learn the inner workings and perseverance needed to get things done in a larger company, how founders think differently that the rest of us, how to find the sacred cows and don’t be afraid of them, but also be conscious to their importance, and lastly, learn to gain leverage by having all of your assets and resources clearly defined. Assess where you are today and determine where your gaps are.

Tune in at the 16 minute mark to learn how Miguel used his entrepreneurial skill to help take a $40 million company to over $2 billion. Miguel talks about the importance of people development and how Miguel founded the University of Paychex, one of the Top 100 corporate training programs for over 15 years, but more importantly, he gives us model he has used in growing and making businesses successful.

Here's Miguel's model that he has used for 40+ years:

Dissect your business into 4 categories:

1. People – You cannot grow without people, but more importantly, the absence of people ready to assume higher responsibility that are “ready” is going to limit growth. You must have a bench that is well trained and ready to step up.
2. Programs- What programs do you have in place? Which ones are needed? Is leadership aligned on doing them? Are you prepared to execute on those needed and see them through?
3. Process – Take a look at your existing processes and #1, if you don’t have them documented, get them documented. Immediately. This will not only allow your business to grow faster and easier, but save tremendous headaches later on.
4. Execution: Deliberate, planned, written. Then you Practice, Practice, Practice Best

Quote from Miguel: "Tomorrow you’ll be the same person that you are today, except for the workshops that you attend, the books that you read, and the coaches that you work with."

Miguel's Misfit 3:

1. Always be and stay curious. The 3 most dangerous words in personal development are “I know that.” You have to check your ego and be open to be coached and get coaching.

2. Stay aggressive. Don't get complacent or comfortable. If you feel you are comfortable in your role or business, everything is about to change, so get moving!

3. Attend as many worthwhile workshops, seminars, podcasts, etc. that you can in the specific areas you want to learn or grow and focus making sure you are working with those that are true experts and SME’s in the area you are focused on. There is a big difference between and SME and a motivation speaker, make sure you understand that.

Learn more about Miguel at www.purposeandaction.com