I promised you an interview in the post yesterday, you can have it today! As you know I find Corey Freeman to be a very inspiring and amazing person to talk to. But why? Well just read this interview and you will understand all! As you can see, this interview is set in a more conversational tone.. for two reasons. Firstly, it was done through Skype and secondly, we speak to each other quite often so it is not as formal as interviews usually are! 
Could you please tell us about yourself?
My name is Corey Freeman and I’m a 17-year-old entrepreneur from the USA, I currently do freelance web design although I’ve done a small amount of graphic design and I’ve done a lot of freelance writing. I just started Minus the Pie Media and hope to turn it into a publishing house.
What is Minus the Pie Media, and what plans do you have for it?
Minus the Pie Media is my new company brand so basically anything I do will have the MTP logo on it, I’m hoping to turn it into a publishing house to make books and websites and maybe one day publish movies.
Wow, might need your help later on with publishing a book! Hehe
What do (or did when you were younger) want to be when you “grow up”?
I wanted to be a LOT of things when I grew up but mostly i wanted to own my own business, haha… my own kennel or my own restaurant, etc.
Well you are certinally achieving that early on, well done!
How would you describe your lifestyle?
I’m not actually that big on “buying” stuff. So I’m upper-middle class but I don’t like…go shopping every weekend or anything. I like to chill and play video games, watch DVDs or Hulu.com when I have nothing interesting and I hang out with my best friend down the street, haha
How often do you work on your sites and MTP? What kind of work does it take to keep them all running smoothly?
I do -something- everyday whether it’s just sitting around thinking up new ideas or actually making content and designing a website. I communicate a lot with other contacts in various niches about ideas and the best way to execute those ideas and maybe 20% of the time I actually make something so…communication is what keeps them going: customers, clients, readers, whatever. I just talk, haha
How do you go about meeting new contacts? Is it through social media such as facebook and twitter, recommendations from others or another way?
Yes and no, haha, I interact with people on twitter a lot, but I prefer talking to people via instant messaging. Umm I might see someone really impressive on a forum or an expert on twitter and contact them via email and grab their MSN or Skype and then chat them up about an idea or whatever but I also have, you know, small talk and “bonding” i guess you could call it. I like to say “hi” every once in a while. I’d like to think that’s what makes people remember me. Probably not though!
One thing that you have recently (infact as of writing this, yesterday) released is Headway Hacks Premium. Could you please talk about Headway Hacks and what the Premium section allows access to and why people could not just use the free content?
Umm so I bought the theme Headway like two months ago? And I thought it was really cool and I was considering writing an unofficial guide, of course at the time my only site was writerseven.com (currently down) and It wasn’t relevant… So I got together with the guy from headwayhq.com to work on it, but he is opposite me so then I just…started headwayhacks.com and it got noticed
Headway Hacks Premium is kind of a double feature you -could- just use the normal version of the site, because those are the tutorials i write first. HHP is where I take that content and expand on it, or make a video on it and there are some articles written -just- for HHP members, like how to use your site in new and interesting ways, and soon there will be full-fledged “how to move from concept to completion” videos, etc. Also you’ll have access to downloadables, like skins, styles, and custom leafs, for free. In the future, all of what you can find on HHP will be available as a buyable PDF guide or something
The thing is, a lot of beginning users come to Headway Hacks searching for basic information, I think the more hardcore users could benefit from some hard-core attention. Although there is a special beginners category with a TON of video content. So it’s a double feature in that it has stuff for beginners and advanced users
That sounds very impressive, lucky for those who use headway!
You mentioned Writer Seven, that was the first site of yours I heard about so could you speak about that and any plans you may have for the future?
Writer Seven was actually made after the collapse of a big project I was working on, and it was when I was kind of about to give up on blogging. Everybody encouraged me to start it, and since I’m a writer by talent, I took it up it was basically no bull-sh** writing tips for the rest of us.
You have big guys like Brian Clark of copyblogger and everybody talking about freelancing and hemmingway and all of this “advanced” writing stuff and nobody was talking about what needed to be said, for those $0.01/word guys. So that was my target audience – the outsource crowd from like…india or the phillapenes who wanted to start making money they could be proud of.
As far as future plans go, I may re-open Writer Seven if I find a good way to monetize it. That content takes a lot of brain power, and I need money for college.
You spoke about encouragement… have you ever had times where you thought yourself as a “failure”? If so how did you stop feeling like it? If not how do you keep yourself so optimistic?
I’ve never thought of myself as a failure because you kind of have to fail at something first.
That sounds kinda weird haha… I don’t actually set -goals-
Well there goes my next question!! Haha
Goals have a number of problems.
Explain :)
They’re time oriented, so if the deadline passes, you feel like a failure if you don’t meet a goal at all, you feel like a failure… it hangs over your head and all this crap, who wants that?
I agree with your point of view, though I have never heard it in that way… very interesting! Okay, instead of failure.. how about motivation? What keeps you motivated?
I would say my curiosity, haha, I love learning about stuff and the only good way to learn is to practice so if i stop blogging, i stop learning, and that’s no fun!
What an amazing way of looking at it!
Could you please describe, and explain, your personal definition of the word “Success”?
It depends on what you’re trying to do. So I would say there are two:
- Completeing the challenges you set for yourself; and
- Fixing a problem in any way possible that works positively
I personally just try to be better today than I was yesterday!
“I personally just try to be better today than I was yesterday!”
Corey Freeman
What an incredible mindset!
If you have no goals, do you have any plans for the future?
Umm in the “future” I’m going to be attending college for business administration and then working on building my business up. Probably going to hire somebody other than just me, haha
If there was just one thing that you would like people to remember about you, what would it be?
If there was one thing I would want people to remember, it’s that no matter how I might come across, I’m always just trying to help. And I am a girl, so don’t let the name confuse you.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
And…be sure to check out my personal blog if you get really bored and I actually manage to update it, because that’s my personal hub for the time being. :P
Thank you Corey, what great answers!
Links that you might find useful are shown below.
