Rob Galvin created DegreeFreeCareers.com to help teens who are not able to attend college or who are just looking for alternatives, discover the world of becoming a digital entrepreneur.
After attending the free Digital Entrepreneur Career Fair, teens can start their own online business by taking a variety of online courses and coaching services offered by Rob.
I’m actually one of the speakers at Rob’s career fair talking all about being a digital nomad and why it can be something you can become too. In today’s post, Rob goes through the objections people can have when you tell them “I want to be a digital nomad.” Rob has geared this post towards the student getting ready for college and bringing this conversation up with their parents, but even if this isn’t you… I think you’ll get some amazing insights from it too.
So, take it way Rob…
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This is going to be pretty uncomfortable.
Seriously.
Your parents have their shit all backwards.
But you have to understand that they have been brainwashed for many years now. They think the only path to a successful career after graduating high school is to:
- Go to college
- Get a degree
- Get a 9-5 job
- Climb the corporate ladder for pretty much the rest of your life
- Retire when you are 65
- Enjoy life
When they were your age, before we had the Internet, this used to practically be the only option anyone had.
It used to be that a college degree = guaranteed job.
Well, that shit doesn’t fly anymore and so much has changed since then.
So this conversation is going to be a tough sell. Really tough, but don’t worry;
I am going to equip you with some super jedi mind tricks and some mind numbing facts that should have your parents practically begging to join you on your digital nomad journey.
Let’s start with some facts that your parents have been ignoring for some time. These should start to open their eyes.
Getting Real When It Comes To College
There are many reasons to go to college, but I think we can agree that most send their children off to college so that they can get a degree. And we feel that this degree is supposed to get you a good paying job.
Well, before your parents start tearing up imagining you wearing that cap and gown, they will need to hold back their tears as you tell them what a struggle it is going to be to even get there.
First of all, did you know 30% of college students drop out after their freshman year? That is no drop in the bucket. 1 in 3 students will not only waste one year of college tuition, but they will also waste a year of their life and be right where they started when they graduated high school.
“Make sure you emphasize that it is their money that is being wasted (if they are footing the bill).”
So now let’s assume you are one of the lucky ones.
The average college student is taking 6 years to graduate from a 4-year degree. Mostly because 80% of them change their major at least once, on average three times.
Students simply have no clue what they want to do in the real world because they have not stepped one foot into it.
“Now would be a good time to tell them you haven’t really thought about it much and then suggest that you were going to put a few college majors in a hat and pick one out.”
Let’s assume you finally graduate college.
Mention to your parents that only 27% of college graduates who are lucky enough to get a job, will actually find a job in their field of study. Which basically just means you wasted the past 6 years filling your head with shit you don’t need.
Again remind them that this also means it wasted their money.
On top of this dismal outlook, you can look forward to paying off your tuition for the next 21 years with a starting average salary of less than $50k per year.
Your parents probably have been trying to ignore these scary facts, but remember they have been brainwashed and feel like there is no other option.
But there is my friend.
This is the part of the conversation where you say:
“Listen, I know college sounds super risky and I am worried that this is going to be very stressful for you. I don’t want it to waste my time and your money, so I have come up with a much better plan.”
They will be impressed that you even have a plan.
And now you will hit them with a one-two punch. The first punch will be about how college is limiting you.
Don’t Limit Your Education
Remind them that college is supposed to be about an education that leads to a career. So instead of discussing “college plans” with your parents, you really should be discussing “education plans”.
And if you really look closely at the “education plan” that college is planning on giving you, you may start to realize how limited it is.
A typical college student over a 4-6 year period takes around 50 or so classes on a variety of subjects. Think about how limiting this is in comparison to the amount of information we have available to us online.
“You could easily consume the knowledge of 500 classes in the same amount of time. “
College was great before the Internet existed because there was nowhere else to go for a ‘higher education’, but now we have so many new ways to learn, quicker ways to learn them and an endless supply of educational sources.
Remind your parents how fast you can browse the internet and how many Youtube videos you can watch in a few minutes. And then tell them that you can do the same with educational videos as well.
Tell them you don’t want to be limited to the tiny amount of information that college wishes to drip out to you over 4-6 years.
Ask your parents if they realize that the first two years of a 4-year program are filled with “general education requirements” that have nothing to do with your major.
You can use my daughter as an example, she decided to study to be a “surgery technician”. This is someone who is setting up the operating room with all of the equipment needed to perform the surgery.
She has no other choice, she has to go to a college to get certified. It’s also very important that she knows her shit inside and out. You don’t want the doctor screwing up while you are under the blade.
Her college is forcing her to take courses in art, music and a second language for the first year. Not only is she not interested in that and those courses have nothing to do with being a surgery technician, but she would rather take more classes about medical equipment and other things directly related to her career.
She would even be better off using that same amount of time just standing in an operating room watching what is going on instead of sitting in her art class with a paintbrush.
“And let us not forget who is paying for all of this wasted time on bullshit classes.”
Again, remind them about wasting money and you really don’t want to waste money.
Now that you have them rethinking about how the educational landscape has changed, it’s time to hit them with the second punch.
This is where you start telling them how the career landscape has dramatically changed and how a typical 9-5 job is limiting your potential and lifestyle.
Digital What?
When your parents heard that you wanted to be a digital nomad, they probably had no idea what the hell you were talking about.
Before you tell them what that is, they have to understand that not only has the digital world given us new ways to be educated, but it also has opened up many new ways to make money and have a career.
It all stems from a single source of power: Information.
You see, with the enormous amount of information being pumped into the Internet each second, it is actually getting more and more inconvenient to find answers.
“There is so much junk online and anyone can contribute to it in a matter of seconds.”
Ask them to think about it:
Which search result should you trust? What about when you find contradictory results? How many pages of search results do you traverse before you give up?
Finding answers is getting more time consuming and more frustrating than ever. And the problem is only getting worse.
Anytime you can save people time, money and frustration, there is an opportunity for you to provide value to them and profit from it. Smart people have realized this and are now running six and seven figure businesses just by providing information.
Let’s take this blog for example. Not only are people making a full-time income just blogging, but people are making a full-time income teaching others how to blog.
Or take any social media application – Facebook, Pinterest, SnapChat, Instagram – and you can find someone who is making seven figures just by providing information about just one of those platforms.
And the great thing is, you don’t need a college degree or spend 4-6 years learning how to do any of this. Within 1-2 years you could start from knowing nothing to building and running your online business.
“All of this without any college tuition debt and while making a full-time income (rub your fingers as you say this like you have money between them)”
The formula is pretty simple:
- Start providing information about something you really love and can get deep on
- Start attracting people who like to read or watch what you have to say
- Once you have a following – package up some knowledge bombs into a digital product and sell it to your fans
- Rinse and repeat with some other “product” that has information in the same category as the first
The amazing and ironic twist to this all is that you are packaging up information that exists for free on the Internet. And although your consumers of your products also know this too, the reason they are purchasing it is because they are a fan of “you”.
They like your style. They like how you connect with them. They like how you interact with them. They like you.
So it doesn’t matter that someone else may also be selling the same “information”. They are buying “you” and since there is only one you, anyone can be their own business.
Now would be a good time to show them how many followers you have on SnapChat or Twitter – “See mom, people really love me”.
Because you can have a business centered around selling information, it opens a whole new set of opportunities that a traditional 9-5 job will never give you.
No More Trading Time For Dollars
In a traditional 9-5 job, you are trading time for dollars.
The new way to make money is to trade information for dollars.
So your first informational “product” could be : “How to get 10,000 Twitter followers in 30 days”. This alone could generate a decent stream of income because anyone with a business would want to know how to do this and gladly pay you for it.
But now you can take that same concept and create your second “product”: “How to get 10,000 likes on your facebook business page in 30 days”. This would create a second income stream and as a bonus, the same exact “fans” that bought your Twitter product would most likely buy this one too.
Rinse and repeat.
How sweet is that? Do you see how quickly you could scale this?
You could never do this with a traditional job unless you can get multiple jobs and are able to clone yourself into multiple people that could schlep into the office each day for you.
And the sweetness does not stop there.
Since everything involved here is digital, you can set up a few systems to run this business automated and fully passive. Everything from getting new customers, emailing and communicating to them on social media to pitching and converting them to paying customers can be fully automated.
There is a decent amount of work, however, to understand how to do this as well as setting it up correctly and I highly recommend getting some coaching to help you do this quicker than learning all of it on your own.
But once you have it running on autopilot, you can then enjoy spending your time doing other things that you love to do.
Expanding Your Perspective And Opportunities At The Same Time
Here is the kicker;
You can do all of this from anywhere – you just need a laptop and an Internet connection.
No more rigid work schedules – work whatever time of day you want – work as long as you want.
No more sitting in traffic commuting to an office – heck, no more office – work from wherever you want.
No more trading time for dollars.
Depending on your lifestyle, you may just decide to do all of this from the comfort of your home base (wherever that may be).
But for those who want to take it to the next level, you could decide to constantly be on the move and be a “digital nomad”.
Live in different countries and document your experience about it.
People will start to take interest and follow your nomadic activities. Not everyone – but the people who have the desire to do this but can’t because maybe they are stuck in a 9-5 job. They will start to want to become like you.
And before you know it, you can sell them a whole series of informational “products” that teaches them every aspect of living a digital nomad lifestyle.
And if you bring the “education” piece back into the equation here, once you become nomadic, you are exposed to different countries, cultures, people, social issues, problems to solve, etc.
All of these experiences can never be taught in school or from sitting behind a desk.
You will have a new perspective on life.
You will have a new perspective on what success really means.
You will have a new perspective on the power of information.
Don’t be surprised if it does not sink in right away. Your parents have had many years of society telling them that college is the only path to success.
They don’t understand this new world – these new paths to education, careers and lifestyle.
End the conversation by telling them to really think about what an amazing opportunity it is for you to do this and that there is no better time than now. If it does not work out in a few years, you can always go back to getting a degree.
Your parents will most likely not be convinced at this point, but they are sure starting to second guess themselves. They just need one more push.
Sign them up for the next Digital Entrepreneur Career Fair, it’s a free virtual event they can attend from home. They will hear from over 25 top digital entrepreneurs talking about a variety of online careers that you can pursue while becoming the digital nomad you know you are.
They will become informed, influenced and inspired for you to start your journey.
