If you have been in blogosphere during the last the you will know this man. He needs no preamble… some refer to him as Britain’s answer to Gary Vaynerchuk, some call in The Infopreneur but he just calls himself… James Richmond!

The questions to this interview were thought of after reading and watching ‘A Blogger’s Success Case Study’ by Maren Kate, so I suggest you go there first so that you can understand why I asked some of the questions I did. The first question especially was because I could see how family orientated James is, I think he is pure inspiration!

Being the great person he is, James agreed to this VIDEO interview! Not only did he do an interview, he did two parts! Though I do not think you deserve to have to wait for the second part, it has such good answers… so here are the two parts of James Richmond!

More Information about James Richmond:

• The Infopreneur About Page
• A Blogger’s Success Case Study

Please comment with questions for James, questions help everybody (including himself) learn… so they are important! Also, what do you think of this comparison with the great Gary Vaynerchuk? Even if you perhaps have even something bad to say about him, I am sure he would really like to know your comments!

Today I have an exciting interview for you to listen to! I will soon (hopefully) be updating this post with a transcript and more information, but I really want to publish it for you all to listen to. This is the first audio interview to ever be published on Success Circuit, so I did have quite a few technical problems… hopefully you will be able to hear it all.

I am sure you can see why I think Dale is so inspirational. He is 18 and is working on starting up a transatlantic airline… that’s big aspirations and he is going after them very quickly!

You can find even more about Dale at dalejstephens.com.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Hello everybody! How has your day been?

As you may know, I was recently interviewed by the wonderful Sarah Cook of RaisingCEOKids.com. So today I was pleased to see my face (okay, a terrible picture… but it’s me!) on her website.

Although at the beginning I was extremely nevous as it was actually the first audio interview I have done, there is a lot of answers (and of course questions) that you will enjoy reading and take a lot away from.

You can read the whole interview at Raising CEO Kids. Be warned though, being an audio interview there it is a bit “all over the place”, there may be a couple of errors in what I said, as I do mumble a bit, but I believe we have corrected them all!

Below is a small extract of the interview, I hope you like it!

Shane

“Sarah – And so what about for parents? I know you’re parents have probably really supported you so what about for parents? What would you recommend to other, because you’re not a parent. But if you could say, “This is what I love that my parents do or this is what I wish that my parents would do to support me.” What were some ways that you feel like parents can best support their kids in being in business and in archiving their life goals?

SH – Well, I think that parents that give their children money to start up, although that will help them, I think that you’d learn much more if you start with little money. I know some people, not many of us. Some people get given large amount of money from their parents just like that and they do successful. But they’re not as successful as they would be if they started with nothing.”

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:

1. Completeing the challenges you set for yourself; and
2. 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.

• Headway Hacks
• Writer Seven (Currently down but linked just incase it is revived.. which I personally am hoping for!)
• Corey-Freeman.com

You are probably asking “What on earth is a Manualist!?!” well, I decided to look it up on good ol’ reliable Wikipedia.

“Manualism is the little-known art of playing music by squeezing air through the hands. Because the sound produced has a distinctly flatulent tone, such music is usually presented as a form of musical comedy or parody. The musical performer is called manualist, who may perform a cappella or with instrumental accompaniment.”

Wikipedia – Manualism (hand music)

I am also going to tell you a little story about how I found out about this amazing man. On British TV there is a program on Channel 4 called Rude Tube, which is basically a compilation of popular You Tube videos. I cannot remember what position he was, but he was very high and I thought to myself “wow, someone that has become THAT popular just because of their hands has to be classed as successfull… I had emailed him before the clip was over! Don’t forget to go to his YouTube channel, Gunecologist, which has over 150 videos with some having millions of visits per video! So without further ado here is the great manualist, Gerry Philips!

Firstly, could you please tell us about yourself?
I’m 49 years old. I live in troy, Michigan. I’m married 13 years to liz from new Zealand. I have 2 stepsons. Scott and tim and a shi-tzu named jake. I own a gunshop in Waterford, Michigan. That is where the name gunecologist came from.

What did you want to be, during your childhood, when “you grow up”?

I wanted to be a professional manualist. I ended up working in the family business.

How has being able to play music on your hands affected your life and did you ever believe that it would have that affect?

When I was 9 years old I thought I invented playing songs on the hands until 5 years later when I saw a man named john twomey on the tonight show with Johnny Carson play stars and stripes forever. That was also the first time I heard the term manualist, which means “one who works with his hands”. When youtube became popular , I thought I would put a video or two on and see what happened. I never expected I would have 18 million views. It has sent me around the world making commercials and performing on tv shows. So, yes it has enhanced my life.

How would you describe your lifestyle?

I work 10-12 hours a day. 6 day a week. I don’t have much time for any lifestyle. When I get gigs is the only time I get away and it’s harder than working my regular job. Especially the travel.

Did you put any effort into getting so popular on YouTube (with loads of videos getting over 50 thousand hits and some with more than a few million!)? If so, what did you do? If not, how did it happen?

I put more effort than you can imagine into the videos. Learning the songs note for note sometimes takes weeks of listening to the song over and over in the car. Then play it live for a camera without making too many mistakes. I always thought there were songs I just couldn’t play because they were too hard, or I didn’t have the speed or the notes were too long. I have figured out ways to do these songs. 10 years ago, if you asked me to play the green hornet theme or classical gas or the star wars cantina band song I would have said it’s impossible. Now anything is possible

I first saw what you do on Rude Tube, a TV program on Channel 4; do you often get a lot of media attention (such as TV, Newspapers, and the Internet)?

Yes, at one time I was doing 3 interviews a day by phone to radio shows around the world. Lots of magazines newspapers and tv. The internet is the biggest.

Have you been able to make money from YouTube and your ability to make music with your hands?

Yes. But, I don’t make money from youtube. All money has been from live performances and tv shows.

If you could go back and change one thing in your past, what would it be?

Nothing, I have done everything I wanted to do and more.

Do you think you would have been able to be so popular if it was not for YouTube and the internet?

No.

Could you please describe your personal definition of the word “Success”?

When the musicians who wrote and performed the songs I love are watching my videos and telling me how good they are. Examples: brian may, guns and roses, Ronnie Montrose and the california guitar trio.

What plans do you have the future?

On the 21st of this month (Novemeber 2009) I am the celebrity guest star at a charity event for 90 charities in ohio. They are expecting 4000 people. I am honored to be asked.

If there was just one thing that you would like people to remember about you, what would it be?

That I was a musician. Not just a guy who farted with his hands.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thank you!

Thank you very much Gerry. I hope you all liked the inteview, I shall now leave you with some of his most popular videos.

And for those of you that want to be able to do this yourself…

Well now is the time to stop! I would like to introduce you to a book that I recently had the pleasure of reading. “Stop Peeing On Your Shoes: Avoiding the 7 Mistakes That Screw Up Your Job Search” is a book written by career consultant Julie Bauke.

There are two main reasons as to why I recommend you to buy this book (don’t worry, I am not trying to make you click an affilite link). The first reason is obviously content (after all Content Is King), every single word in the book is important. There is no “filler” content, the whole book is useful. Secondly, Julie has a writing style rarely seen in books… she is funny. Yep, a useful humourous book… impressive!

I was going to give you a massive review but why? Nope… better idea… lets interview the author!

Firstly, could you please tell us about yourself?

I am a Career Strategy Consultant and I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. I speak professionally, write and coach clients to live the career of their dreams. Most of my one-on-one work is with senior level professionals and professional athletes, but in my writing and speaking, the messages, and info are for everyone.

What did you want to be, during your childhood, when “you grow up”?

I always liked talking to and learning about people and I always loved to write. I got into Human Resources work for the first half of my career- it’s the most people oriented side of business. I found that no matter what job I was in HR, I was always drawn to career conversations. I made a decision to move in to the career field for the second half of my career and have been wildly happy ever since. What I do is what I was meant to do.

You have recently released your book “Stop Peeing on Your Shoes”. Why did you write it?

The book was the result of my 10+ years coaching really smart professionals and seeing them make the same mistakes, regardless of how successful they were in their careers. Career Management is something that no one teaches us- we typically stumble through it and hope to figure it out. The problem is that most don’t.  My book as meant to get people started on the right foot- and to prevent them from making those mistakes.

As I have mentioned earlier, you are a very clever yet humorous woman. Most people either write really intensely with amazing information or they are more casual but with less useful information. Yet you write in a funny AND amazingly informative way, how do you manage it?

Thanks. My writing style is exactly like my speaking style. In fact, one of my good friends read the book and said it was exactly like spending the day with me. There really isn’t much to laugh at in job search as it is very serious and fraught with all kinds of pitfalls. BUT, at the same time, it can be very funny in kind of a “ya gotta laugh, or you’d cry” way. I really tried to capture that in the book by filling it with 100% true client stories of the good, the bad and the hilarious, and the use of cartoons.  My style is very direct, so I wanted the book to be very direct and very helpful, while making you smile.

Who/what is your greatest inspiration?

I would say that every client who sat at my desk over the years so completely burnt out and feeling so hopeless inspired me to inspire others to be in control of their careers. Companies absolutely do not care about your career the way you should. You have to drive your own Career Bus instead of careening through it as a passenger.

What would you say is your greatest passion and how does this passion affect your work?

Because I am in a career I love, I want others to experience the joy that it can be to truly be excited on Monday morning and as I say “skip to the shower”.

How would you describe your lifestyle?

Filled with male creatures. I have a husband, two teenage sons and three dogs, so that is 6 males and me. I love it. My kids, husband and dogs are all great. I like to think that I have found my perfect balance as the kids know they are top priority but that Mom is a better Mom when she has a career. I’m not a domestic- cooking and all of the other stuff that goes with running a perfect house is not my strengths or interests. I admire people who do it well, but it’s not me. We can’t do it all, so I choose to focus on the stuff I love and know that my kids will not be in therapy some day because there was dog hair in the corner.

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?

Yes… When I was in a big job with a gorgeous office and looked around and felt empty. But I quickly got to “it’s not me, it’s that the job is wrong for me” and set about making a change.

Your book speaks a lot about common mistakes, rightly so as it is what makes the book so useful, yet what intrigues me is what would you say is the most unique situation/mistake you have come across whilst you have been coaching?

Definitely the guy who had toy safes delivered to his top companies of interest that had his resume locked inside. This was before 9/11. Needless to say, it fell flat.

What advice would you give somebody wanting to speak at an event, possibly even as the keynote speaker?

You have to have something to speak on that people want to hear. Start speaking for free at lunchtime professional events, church, etc. and get your message honed and your speaking skills polished.  Be ready for someone to come up to you and say “I’d love to have you come speak at an event I’m hosting. What is your fee?” You’re off and running!

If you could go back and change one thing in your past, what would it be?

Not a thing. I am so happy with where I am today, that I believe everything that has happened, good & bad, has brought me here.

How has the internet improved your business? If there was no internet how would your business differ from its current form?

It’s been transformational. People can find you, follow you, engage with you from anywhere in the world. Without it, I would be limited to handing out marketing materials in my own community and hoping for the best.

Could you please describe your personal definition of the word “Success”?

Using your natural skills and talents, and pursuing your interests (and getting paid for it!) while maintaining a healthy personal life.

Obviously you have written your own book but what other books would you recommend to somebody that is looking for a job, or to improve their career?

I like Career Distinction by William Arruda & Kirsten Dixson. It’s a great way to get in touch with your personal brand, i.e. how others see you and how you see yourself

What plans do you have the future?

Continue to grow my business to spread the word that we all need to find what makes us skip to the shower. Yes, it’s takes courage, answering hard questions, and some risk. But the result is more than worth it.

If there was just one thing that you would like people to remember about you, what would it be?

I genuinely care about others finding their own version of career success but believe it is something that cannot be delegated or outsourced. And that I love to laugh…!

Thank you Julie.