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Hey Rob Fajardo! Very nice having you here. Tell us a bit about you?
I am the founder of Leave Normal Behind and host of LNB Tv. I am an advisor to Fownders, a social impact accelerator founded by Gerard Adams. I am a contributor for Influencive and Prsuit.
City where you’re from: NYC
Hobbies: Reading, Playing Piano, Athletics, Gym
Favorite quote: If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together. No man can multiply himself unless he can divide himself amongst all others
Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?
I did not want to allow my dreams to be in the hands of someone else. I realized that giving someone else the ability to determine the outcome of my life was not for me. I wanted to put my life in my own hands and through my own effort determine if I would succeed or not.
Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life?
Initially my biggest influences came from reading timeless books that I believe all entrepreneurs should read. There are certain authors who’s material is necessary when developing the foundation of your entrepreneurial career. Some of these books were:
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles
- The Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol
- Start With Why by Simon Sinek
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Go Givers Sell More – John David Mann and Bob Burg
The defining moment in my life came my sophomore year at Amherst College, an elite liberal arts school in Western Massachusetts. At the time I was a two sport athlete that was recruited to play both football and baseball. I asked myself a big question which was, “What is my major league talent ?”
I asked myself if I really wanted to play professional sports and if all the time I was spending focused on athletics was worth it.
I knew that my purpose was to help others leave normal behind, become the best version of themselves, and create things that matter. I realized that I would never be so fortunate to be at such an elite institution surrounded by some of the most intellectual minds on the planet and had the epiphany that my major league talent was MY BRAIN ! It all hit me at once. Obviously your brain and the knowledge it holds can benefit your life positively or negatively. I committed to becoming the best version of myself and helping others do the same by stepping into their inner genius and creating things they are passionate about.
What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?
Right now we have launched a new FB LIVE television show called LNB Tv. It is a place where we share authentic news on trending topics in business, technology, innovation, social impact and more in order to give a millennial lens on the most important topics of the day and educate the under-informed on issues that affect their daily life. We came up with the entire after realizing that there is no talk show host under 30 years old that has a top quality production and discusses important topics in an articulate, researched, and informed way that can give a millennial lens on these topics. Other talk show hosts include Oprah, Ellen, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, and Dr. Phil.
How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision?
We have an amazing LNB Tv studio with all the television equipment necessary to run a full news station and eventually a network. The big vision is to create a network that uses the media to spread more hope, more love, and more authenticity by sharing content that matters and requires people to critically think and engage so that they can use what they’ve listened too in order to shift daily conversation. The best moments are when people call-in LIVE on the show. It’s awesome when people interact with us and feel compelled to share their thoughts, insights, and opinions on the topics we are talking about. One of my favorite quotes by Nelson Mandela is, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It takes a community to impact a generation and with LNB Tv its all about providing value to our community.
If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of?
We are just beginning to run facebook ads. The strategy we are using is all through content marketing. Luckily for us each episode of LNB Tv is an hour long and we address multiple topics. The key is to turn that macro-content into micro-content and create awesome 1 to 2 minunte clips of content that you can run ads too and target the specific niche. For example in one episode we can talk about Donald Trump, SnapChat IPO, and a Personal Growth Tip. Each one of those topics appeal to entirely different audiences. For us we will be promoted the short clips which hopefully compel them to click and watch the whole show. You can only promote the entire 1 hour episode to your fans because the people who do not know you will not watch for that long yet. So in order to wet their appetite a bit you have to target them with micro-content first.
Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it?
I have experienced failure. I have built a company and teams and then lost them and started from zero then did it all over again two more times. Granted, these are all startup companies so the losses were not immense, however I gained tons of business development insight that has helped me connect with celebrities, influencers, and some of the best business minds in the world. The best thing I’ve learned is that you need to consistently always add more value than that of which you take in payment. Not just in business, but even in your friendships. If you are always asking yourself how you can add more value to others than that of which you take from them then you’ll always be in a pretty good position.
Value-add questions
Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.
The best entrepreneurship/life advice I can give in my short 23 years of living after learning from artists, multi-millionaires, authors, teachers, homeless people, and diving into books of the most brilliant minds is to:
- Love yourself.
- Be you without regret
- Be grateful for everything you have
- Create your ideal life and hold the clear vision daily.
- Take action now
- Create more than you consume.
Teach us something about content marketing. Can you recommend any favorite resources to learn that topic?
You want to put people into a buying position. Content marketing with a knowledge of internet sales funnel is one of the most powerful combinations in my opinion. Content marketing is what builds an organic audience. If you can give value with a brand that aesthetically pleasing then you will create an audience that will willingly fill out your opt-ins, scale your value ladder, and purchase your high-ticket backend products like masterminds, summits, VIP experiences, and business accelerators.
I HIGHLY recommend you read Russell Brunson’s book Dot Com Secrets. If you have not you are simply cutting yourself short. That’s just it.
While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc)
Social media algorithms use thousands of factors when determining the content that fills your newsfeed. Consistency, the quality of content, and engagement are some of them. After creating content for about three years now I’m starting to see how the algorithm can work in your favor organically because it realizes that your content is worth it and gives you free traffic. Be consistent and use the algorithm in your favor. Also do frequent friend list purges to remove people who do not engage with you. They are simply taking up space.
What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak?
Each day I do at least one thing that helps me become 1% better. It might be as simple as reading a chapter in a book, a meditation session, a workout, creating content, etc.
What should an entrepreneur focus on?
An entrepreneur should focus on the vision of their ideal life and fill themselves with love and excitement to embark the hard road of the journey toward their dreams.
Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today.
I will boil this down to simple action steps.
- Know who you are and what you want
- Establish your WHY and your big vision
- Make a commitment to overcome all obstacles for that vision
- Go to google and type in “How to become better at ____”
- Start learning all the knowledge you can for your craft and industry
- Begin to create content from the knowledge you’ve learned
- Stay consistent with content.
- Add more value than you take in payment.
- Always listen to your audience.
- Continue to grow. If you continue to grow it will reflect in all the content you create.
Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?
In a couple years we wish to be a major TV network that is making a positive dent in pop-culture and can influence political agendas.
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