24 Hours With… Kerwin Rae, author, investor and entrepreneur
24 Hours With… spotlights the working day of some of the most interesting people in Mumbrella’s world. Today we speak with Kerwin Rae, entrepreneur, author and investor.
5:00am Wake up. It’s always better to jump out of bed before the sun does. Toilet. Teeth. Deep breath. Glad to be alive. 22 minutes of transcendental meditation to get my head clear, then it’s time for community management across my brand’s social channels, particularly Facebook and Snapchat.
Get a message from a guy in New York who implemented a suggestion I gave via a video on Facebook which got him a big deal over the line; he’s pumped and very grateful.
Gavin had been trying to sell a $65K USD service offering to a company for the past three months and they had been stringing him along telling him they were considering but not making a decision. It was clear he was desperate and in his mind they were the ‘prize’, and as such he was diminishing his authority and acting weak.
I told him to call a meeting, position himself as the guy to do the job and demonstrate his ability, then announce if they couldn’t make a decision he was no longer interested in working with them.
I told him to say: ‘If you couldn’t make this decision how could you make even bigger ones when we work together?”. Gavin said he told them, verbatim, and they signed on the spot. He even got a 20% deposit. Boom. I didn’t make a cent but the feeling I got while hearing him almost tear up as he told me was worth it.
After all I only sent him 7-8 snaps. Great ROI for 80 seconds of advice.
6:30am Open a fresh bottle of my home brewed Kombucha. But I only get through two mouthfuls before I’m overrun by my little man, Noah. We play cars and trains and talk about planes for an hour and a half before I drive him to school. On the way he points out every garbage truck, crane, bus and excavator he can find. There were plenty today!
8:25am En route to work. This is where I film my new social series on Snapchat ‘In the car with Kerwin’. Ever since I launched ‘The Social Experiment’ and began producing heaps of social content for my consulting business, I’ve been doing everything I can to come up with new content ideas that give value to my audience.
I’ve found that when you get heaps of valuable material in front of an engaged audience, they’re more likely to want to deal with you in a business sense. This new content series is all about solving the problems of my customers – they message me a business problem via Snapchat and I respond with advice.
Today I respond to Jack Zuvelek from The Body Consultants – he wants advice on how to structure a strong JV. Analyse. Think. Respond. Clarify. He’s pumped.
I advised him to identify the best buyers, identify their spending habits, identify other businesses where money is being spent, create mutuality and a beneficial proposition, then approach multiple companies with a proposition framed in a no-brainer way.
I love working with people who follow through. After 16 years in the game I’ve learned each day is generally all about solving other people’s problems. Problems are the greatest opportunities for growth so I don’t shy away from them ever. If you don’t have problems you aren’t pushing hard enough.
8:48am Arrive at work and huddle with team. Go review yesterday and plan for today. I do this every day – it’s important to stay connected with my team members and with every aspect of my business. In the huddle everyone is equal.
Turns out events team is behind the eight ball. A venue for an upcoming business education conference I’m running is double-booked and we got the shit end of the stick.
I don’t get mad, I get new suppliers. Need new venue for event in three weeks for 300 people in peak time for events. The documentary filmmaker I’ve hired to follow me around for social content starts his filming for the day. Love his work.
In addition to solving other people’s problems, I still have to worry about my own – after all, I need to keep the wheels turning. This year I’ve been focusing on marketing through social. It’s all about the content and a lot of it. Give, give, give to your audience before you ask for anything in return. But we need a solution to this venue problem?
I think about reaching out to my network and catch myself procrastinating so I say out loud – with enough volume to scare the shit out of my filmmaker “just do it now!”.
I laugh, he’s not quite used to my quirks yet.
9:30am Sit at desk, upload first social video for the day ‘Dealing with Failure’. Advice for small businesses on, you guessed it, dealing with failure.
My perspective is my most valuable ally so I share it on a subject that I know very well. Share it across to my personal profile, and all my groups, across all my social channels. Promote on Snapchat and Instagram. Create an email promoting the video and send to database. It’s not just about creating useful content, it’s about distribution as well.
10:30am First meeting of the day with a prospective social media manager, this is the 15th person I’ve interviewed. It’s a short interview. Can’t believe how few people in Australia truly understand social.
What I would give to find a social media manager who genuinely knows social. It’s not that hard really. Strong ideas, strong content, strong engagement, and strong analytics. It wouldn’t hurt if they also understood the impact of organic reach on paid ads. And why do so many want to use scheduling tools when the impacts on reach are so blindingly obvious. Native content all the way. How come no body knows this shit? Hope I love the next one. Until then, I’ll have to keep doing it myself.
11:30am Breakfast. I have an intermittent fasting schedule where I only eat during eight hours of the day, between 11:30am and 7:30pm. It keeps my metabolism running high, helps my brain cells, too. They tell me it helps to prevent Alzheimer’s. I have three brain injuries from a stroke, a skydiving accident and 20 years of Muay Thai kick boxing, so anything to keep the wolves at bay.
I value the speed at which my mind is able to process things and am always looking to tweak it. Being ADHD I have a serious advantage, as I have hacked this for my personal gain.
12:30pm Film 10 videos back-to-back with the help of my Swedish filmmaker Mattias (I call him ‘chef’ because the kid knows how to cook up great content). These are business insights videos for my social channels. A couple of my favourites are ‘The truth about motivation’, ‘Can anyone be an entrepreneur?’ and ‘How to overcome your fears’.
Did eight out of 10 in one take, so feeling pretty good. Again, the key to my content marketing is valuable content. And lots of it. It’s called the mere exposure effect – the more exposure people have to my content, the more they connect with my brand, the more likely they will want to have a business conversation.
I’m thinking what do they already watch, what will make them share, comment and react positively. I’m always thinking about how I can stack the deck in my favour so I reverse engineer the outcomes I’m chasing.
2:00pm Calls with clients. Each day I make time for client calls. The glitz and glam of the company may be all about our marketing image, but the foundation is the clients. They pay the bills. Remind myself to never forget that one fact. Talent and clients, then my marketing image … in that order. Talent and staff are not the same thing.
3:00pm Deliver webinar for clients about the talent attraction method, as my filmmaker catches all the excitement. Still getting used to having someone follow me around with a camera. Weird. Now know what it feels like to be a Kardashian (not). My webinar focuses on holding onto good talent – one of the many essential elements to running a good business.
3:30pm Shit, we really need to solve this venue problem. Running out of time and distractions are a killer. Jump into a meeting with the events team. Discuss possibilities. Have to think outside the box as the usual suspects are booked out. Come up with the option of the Maritime Museum. Execute. Not ideal but we’ll make it work. Not every solution will be perfect, but a solution is better than an unsolved problem.
4:40pm Lunch, then steal 18 minutes in the car for meditation.
5:30pm Head home. Start prepping dinner. Marinade some chicken, put on the quinoa, roast some almonds on the stove and make magic in the kitchen with some other choice ingredients. I love to cook. It’s a form of meditation. Cooking is like business: if you love what you are doing it always produces a better finished product.
6:00pm Dinner with the family. Bathe son, water everywhere, and I now have a bubble beard. Bed son; I am the puppeteer and bring out Kenny the Koala as there is non-stop giggles, until mum tells us we need to calm down for bed. We keep going anyway. Boys will be boys. The love I feel for this child in incomprehensible. I want to eat his feet!
7:30pm Watch Suits with my wife Kristen. I want to be Harvey Specter when I eventually grow up, because he oozes stamina and really knows how to control a situation, even when things aren’t going his way. He’s a closer, I’m a closer and I wonder if he wishes he were me, too?
I turn to my wife and profess my love for Harvey, she just laughs and asks if she should be jealous.
8:45pm See the half empty bottle of Kombucha that I forget to drink this morning. Think to myself ‘What a waste’. I hate waste. I drink half and pour the rest down the sink. Open computer, two minutes of planning for tomorrow. Close computer. Shut down.
Kerwin Rae is an entrepreneur, investor, international speaker and author of The Entrepreneurial Apprentice
Imagine having to spend 24 hours working for this guy, whose life and approach to work appears to be a composite of every entrepreneur / CEO cliche – your jaw would be strained to breaking point from stifling yawns and forcing smiles at his glib inanities every day.
“Oh, you’re a transcendental meditating ADHD former kickboxer who homebrews his own kombucha AND you’re one of the few people so truly understands social?”
Jesus, Kerwin…
‘Think to myself ‘What a waste’. I hate waste. I drink half and pour the rest down the sink.’
You my friend, are absolutely cooked.
I couldn’t even finish it
“Still getting used to having someone follow me around with a camera. Weird. Now know what it feels like to be a Kardashian (not).” 10/10 something David Brent would say.
Ahahahahahahaha that was comedy gold. You should seriously consider the benefits of setting up a daily snapchat series called ‘In the ocean with Migaloo’…
Seriously some of the best satire I have ever read.
Give this guy a deal with the BBC!
Is this satire? Please be satire. This is the 2016 David Brent.
This was painful. Actually painful.
Someone professing about how adept he is at social should instantly recognize the way that this transcript of self-love might be received poorly.
This reminds me of the very first episode of The Office – people couldn’t work out whether it was real or satire… If this isn’t satire, I fear for our species.
Is this ghost written by David Brent? This guy must be having a great laugh..great satire. Fair play. “After 16 years in the game I’ve learned each day is generally all about solving other people’s problems” Gold!!
Is this ghost written by David Brent?
Not the article – the comment stream. Best comment stream in Mumbrella history!
“This new content series is all about solving the problems of my customers – they message me a business problem via Snapchat and I respond with advice.”
I can hardly think of a more inefficient way of communicating.
This will go viral… thus the prophecy fulfilled. Diabolical, Kerwin. Diabolical.
“I call him ‘chef’ because the kid knows how to cook up great content” hahahaha so cringe
A big prize for anyone who can tell me what this bloke actually does for a living?
I was wondering how they’d come up with a new series of The Office.
According to him, Social? And he’s one of the few in Australia that gets it!
His website is even more hysterical. Maybe in his next 24 hours he can get in some self awareness training. His photo’s also present two versions of himself – pre and post weight gain… Love the shot of him walking fully clothed with a surf board 😉
All he was missing was some activated almonds.
This is supposed to spotlight some of the most interesting people in Mumbrella’s world. Huh! All it has done is confirm my belief that much of marketing is a complete wank. What does this character actually produce? Lectures. Who in the blazes would part with money to attend? Possibly the brain dead.
Ten bucks this buzzword spewing bro is blissfully unemployed in a year.
This dude IS David Brent. 1) He pays a guy to follow him and film doing the mundane. 2) He thinks he’s the messiah. 3) He’s blowing cash on a series that nobody is watching. Love it.
This has to be satire. Or he’s a douche. One of the two.
What the hell is mumbrella, I thought it was an outback town’s local paper!
Has anyone even bothered to check out what this guy actually does b fore criticizing his day?
He runs amazing events on how people can genuinely improve their lives and is at the forefront of social media promotion.
Well done kerwin and keep it up.
I can’t speak for Harvey but thank christ I am not you Kerwin.
A “closer”….means different things to different people…. Its an awesome song by the Nine Inch Nails, a crap movie starring Julia Roberts or a sarcastic nod to someone’s revered ability to end a conversation or social event because nobody likes them……..goodbye.
It all makes sense…
Jordan Belfort, AKA the Wolf Of Wall Street (con man, wife beater), gets his business advice from Kerwin Rae:
http://www.adnews.com.au/adnew.....piRwy6p.99
I read it all. But after reading the comments i don’t even know how I’ve been played. is this real or satire?
It’s just that, that’s how i picture an entrepreneurs day(though quite exaggerated) and i’m also fasting.
So i believe it’s real.
8:48am – But we need a solution to this venue problem? I catch myself procrastinating so I say out loud “just do it now!”
3:30pm – Shit, we really need to solve this venue problem.
If he’s so good at social then how come nobody knows who he is or if he isn’t just some actor who was lurking as an extra in Neighbours last week.
Keep this shit comin Kerwin I love it
Spot on.
Kerwin is always one step ahead…
Why do I get the feeling that Kerwin owns at least one autographed photo of Pete Evans and carries it around for luck / good karma?
How much money did you give him to say that?
No, he actually did have the activated almonds (while creating his ‘kitchen magic’):
‘…roast some almonds on the stove and make magic in the kitchen…’
And that poor child. No escape.
Nice one Ariel. I hear he has a job going for social media manager (so long as you ‘get it’ as well as he does)
No, he actually did have the activated almonds (while creating his ‘kitchen magic’):
‘…roast some almonds on the stove and make magic in the kitchen…’
I looked at his website to try to understand what he actually does and who he is – lots of random buzzwords, he sounds like a Tony Robbins wannabe and his ‘About’ the company and himself is riddled with typos, disjointed sentences, very repetitive and gives the impression that he he is the sole employee. No information given on his educational background or how he’s made $200 Million Dollars (caps are his) for all the ‘international’ companies he has helped. It reminds me of the spambots in comments sections – find out how you can earn $10,000 a day from home! Also noted he only learned about ‘Social’ a year ago so it’s very impressive that he’s already one of the few experts in Australia.
There are so many self titled entrepreneurs these days. ‘Author’ of a book that nobody has read. ‘Speaker’ at a trade show, in front of a sleepy 20 people. (Enter further buzzwords here…’Guru’?)
My local butcher runs a boutique meat selling shop. He is an owner of a small business. If somebody sets up on their own and it involves anything advertising, marketing, social or tech, they are all the buzzwords under the sun and they run a ‘start up’.
Dear wnkers: please stop being total wnkers and try to work on your EQ.
This has to be satire right?
If David Brent watched/read every Gary Vee/Tim Ferriss video/blog this is what would happen. No self-awareness at all
so so so so funny
Hey Ariel, I did check him out. He has a web series on Youtube. Absolutely toe curlingly cringe. Best parts are when he asks his staff to bring in good energy to the room when he’s presenting as he gets thrown off by bad vibes. He’s a real life David Brent.
Nowhere did I read the word evangelise – call yourself a social media guru. pfft!
If only there was a device that could quickly re-heat cold food stuffs such as cold coffee to avoid senseless waste
Someone get the guitar.
i really want to apply for the social media job for the LOLs
This cannot be real.
…come the revolution
Satire or serious, it’s hard not to get frustrated at this. Ask anyone who slaves away in in Digital and they’ll tell you, that for every clever satirical peace, there are four real-life KerwinCharm SMEGs peddling this snake oil to worry about.
By the way, my day started at 6.09am where I hit the snooze button twice, got up at 6.27am cursing the lack of electric shock integration (FYI Apple) to get me up at 6.09am. Just got home at 7.47pm and am still emailing reports with attributed-spend against sales docs to colleagues. Not one meditative session or ‘chef’ to speak of but we did have an awesome quinoa salad with poached egg at our desk while looking at puppy snaps.
Comedy Gold! Give this man an ABC TV series.
If this was real, still Comedy Gold!
Then give this man a channel TEN reality TV show and get out of the way! It’ll be a reality TV mix of an idiot abroad mixed with the office.
I hope this is real, that’s even more bloody hilarious!
Everyone else is playing Checkers. Kerwin’s been playing Chess for years.
Kerwin should really think about cutting down on Kombucha.
His website is absolute gold. The pic of him on Bondi beach fully clothed carrying a surfboard WITH THE LEG ROPE ATTACHED is comic genius.
Thank god Kerwin sees blunders as great learning opportunities. Life has just delivered him a wonderful chance to grow (the f**k up).
This is a parody. Surely.
Going by the view counts on his Youtube channel, I’d say the only guy in Australia who gets social doesn’t make valuable content at all. 14 out of 36 videos haven’t cracked 100 views…
A “closer” is also an American racehorse, who runs well behind the leaders and tries to win with a powerful burst in the last furlong.
But that’s probably not what he means?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrPWfM6UkAAFHVH.jpg
1,000,000 views is hardly ‘nobody’. Can you pick up the phone and chat to GaryVee, founders of InfusionSoft and LeadPages, Michael Gerber, Oren Klaff, Tony Hsieh or get Jocko Willink (the SEAL who wrote Extreme Ownership) to a keynote in NZ? Didn’t think so …
And the time was after his 8 hour eating window. So much for the fast. Hilarious.
Spent more than 24 hr working for him (not much more) and this article is NOT SATIRE. Yes, he is being serious….
Wow you guys are brutal
Hahaha This made me laugh out loud, good catch!
you get home and make dinner pretty quick. 1/2 an hour all in all. not bad.