How To Break Into The Hidden World Of Celebrity Journalism & Serial Entrepreneurship (Video)

James' story is awesome. Thanks for putting this out there.

My Main Take Always:

• Begin with the first step and take ACTION
• Poke the box- be persistent
• Find you own way to get what you want
• Hustle your ass off and do not take no for an answer

A Shift in Mindset:

• Change your mindset from how can this person help me, to how can I help this person. The more you give, the more you get.
• Tell yourself, I can do this!
• Surround yourself with positivity and begin to think bigger

The importance of internal personal development

• It was amazing how he already had success and yet did not learn to deal with it, until he went on a meditation retreat.
• We all have success barriers and face resistance, but it is not until we work on ourselves that we can truly make identity level change.
• When you understand what your mental barriers are, you can learn to deal with them.

On Failure

• Accept your failure, learn from it and come back for more.

Awesome interview! I couldn't hear any of the info over myself trying to speak with an Australian accent unfortunately

Yeah, and having an attitude of happiness. And no burning bridges!

Great interview man

Solid interview, Daniel! This was enjoyable to watch and take nuggets from.

James went from a cold call asking "I want to be a celebrity journalist, how do I do it?" to $150K per year working 2 days a week in under 18 months, and it was the result of a system.

Not only a system for becoming a successful celebrity journalist, but a system that can be applied to every area of life.

That hustle... that idea of persistence and learning that there isn't any particular "secret" that led to his success is a valuable takeaway. Also, to hear how rapidly things changed for him as a result of his hustle was a cool anecdote to hear.

Oohhhh so many takeaways!!!! 1. Always think BIG BIG BIG because even if you fall short you will still achieve better than thinking small. 2. Giving to others 3. Finding a mentor 4. Taking action.... Heck the whole interview was great. Congratulation Daniel :) and thanks for sharing!

Congrats on landing this TV gig dude! The ultimate truth I'm learning and what James said is the fact of building relationships and giving vs. trying to get from people. So true!!

Wow, great interview. So many takeaways... here's the biggest on I got: resumes don't work. HUSTLE instead (aka pick up the phone).

Another great interview. I'm so happy for you man!

I Remember when we talked about the future back in Nicaragua and your plans for growing your audience and putting great content out there. It's exciting knowing that you are getting started on interviewing all these awesome people and sharing the lessons with the rest of us. Looking forward to many more to come.

On hitting Rock Bottom:

James had to struggle for a while sleeping on mattress away from home eating $.30 cents tacos with no guarantee that he was going to be successful.

How many people are willing to do that? probably 1% out of 100

Out of all the successful people I've met and read about there's a pattern of hitting Rock Bottom. Divorce, break up, bankruptcy, jail, lay off, death of someone close, no money to buy food, you name it and the majority of them have experienced some sort of loss or struggle.

It's scary of course but they all made the conscious choice of rising above their limitations and figuring things out somehow. You can talk about it, but not that many people are willing to go to that place because it's the most vulnerable you will ever be and no one likes that feeling.

So every time I find out about someone who went through harsh struggles and still manages to succeed, it puts a smile on my face because it reassures me that your circumstances do not determine your success if you have the will to rise above.

On Resumes:

Resumes have never ever worked for me. It's all protocol. Who wants to hire a piece of paper anyways? People still ask for them but it's just protocol. What they really want is results and someone who fits the company culture and you can only find that out by face-to-face interview or a phone call and if you are in different cities/countries then skype or make a youtube video.....the point is nothing beats relationships. After all, we are all in the people business.

On Persistence:

I'm guilty on giving up on things by the 2nd or 3rd time......or even the first time when I'm feeling lazy but it's something I'm working on and I'm now self-aware and more conscious about this., Everybody agrees that out of 10 attempts....9 will be rejection and the best way to get yourself noticed is to outwork everyone on a persistence basis.

On Relationships:

It's all about people and communicating needs and gives :-D

On Mentors:

I 100% agree you need mentors and these are everywhere....books, conferences, youtube, meetups, blogs, etc; you just have to go look for them........in the end mentors are just there as a guide.....we have to do the work to make it work :-D

Great stuff man!

@callumbull Really glad you liked it! Biggest takeaway?

@RobertJamesCollier Totally. My favorite part is the rapidity.

Think about it: You get an idea, you start working on it systematically....you get ONE break, and it's off to the race.

The problem is that most people won't be able to withstand the rejection long enough to make it to the first break — but it's SO worth it.

And you're absolutely right. Can be applied to ANY scenario.

Can you think of a time when you tried something and gave up before you even saw if your system worked?

@Diana Reid Thanks so much for watch. I definitely love the idea of GIVING. It seems counterintuitive because we're out here hustling and there's so much that we WANT. But if we stop and think about others first, it usually comes back to us MUCH FASTER.

@practicalcivilization Thanks, John! Dude, SO true. I also had that mental shift about 2 years ago and DAMN...things started happening so much faster. And I felt a lot better about myself too!

@nickr8 dude, so true.

So tell me — have you ever tried to network your way into a job/position rather than using the "front door" with a resume?

@iamcesarromero Cesar, such AMAZING feedback. Thank you so much!

This was my favorite part:

"Out of all the successful people I've met and read about there's a pattern of hitting Rock Bottom. Divorce, break up, bankruptcy, jail, lay off, death of someone close, no money to buy food, you name it and the majority of them have experienced some sort of loss or struggle.

It's scary of course but they all made the conscious choice of rising above their limitations and figuring things out somehow. You can talk about it, but not that many people are willing to go to that place because it's the most vulnerable you will ever be and no one likes that feeling.

So every time I find out about someone who went through harsh struggles and still manages to succeed, it puts a smile on my face because it reassures me that your circumstances do not determine your success if you have the will to rise above. "

I'm telling you, man — I find this to be true time and time again. The more successful people I talk to, the more this proves itself to me. It's definitely encouraging, and it reminds you that you're not the only one in the world going through something. Somebody else has been there before, and if you pay attention, you can follow their clues to get what you want.

Thanks for adding to the community, as always, C :)

@Rich20Something @practicalcivilization Just finished "When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead." Very entertaining and useful read!