Day 287: Rob Britt

July 14, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“My daughter read this book [The Yes Man], and she immediately … thought of me and she was like ‘Wow, that’s like my dad’ and she bought it for me and gave it to me for my birthday.  That’s like, you know … it’s just the possibilities of what’s out there if you say yes … that you don’t know what’s possible until you try it, until you really make an effort and say yes to things.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Rob, for agreeing to be part of the Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Rob Britt: Sure.  My name is Rob Britt, and I primarily consider myself a writer, although I wear a lot of hats.  I work with my wife in a company called Britt Marketing, which is a sort of an internet marketing, social management stuff, and I also blog at The All Health Network about health and fitness pretty much daily, and I do community theater, and I also do improv comedy, plus I am the inspiration scout for the Get Inspired! Project, at least for a couple more months.

Toni: Absolutely, and if you wouldn’t have added that to your introduction, I was definitely going there.  So everybody who has enjoyed the interviews, Rob has just been one of, as he calls himself, the inspirational scout, and has found you and your referrals, so thank you so much for that as well.  It’s important for you to be part of the Project in the last 100 days, so this is awesome.  Rob, when you think about inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does it happen?

Rob: Well, I inspire people I think … and I think this a question a lot of people struggle with because you like to think you put things out to the Universe and that, you know, people are responding, but you know, are you “inspiring people?” That’s in quotes “inspiring people.”

I think that because I put myself out there and I try to provide information to people, and people find me through different websites that I have or through maybe YouTube or different video hosting areas, and I put out videos and blog posts on sort of how to do things — let’s say instructional sort of videos, things on software, some WordPress stuff, Moviemaker, all kinds of things like that — and I think people find those and realize that, you know, even if you don’t know about something, you can find the answer somewhere.

I try to help people by providing answers to questions, so if somebody wants to make a video or wants to learn how to be more fit maybe they might find what I provide, and maybe it helps them to lead a better life or, you know, at least some aspect of their life gets better.  So hopefully people are inspired by that sort of thing.

Toni: So really the inspiration occurs … as you said, sometimes you don’t know, but what you’d like to think is that it occurs in all the work that you do trying to find resources, and then putting it out there for people.  So it’s not only finding the answers for others to learn from, but it’s also the process you go through.

Rob: Right, exactly.

Toni: How do you think that by doing that and living the life that you’re leading and the work that you do, Rob, how do you think that it helps people to explore their potential?

Rob: Well, I have sort of a couple of examples.  I was poring over this question trying to figure out how people explore their potential through things, and some of the videos I have, like I said, help people to do things that they might not know that they can do.

I think the thing that really kind of sends shivers up and down my spine sometimes is when somebody writes me and says “Thank you for doing this, because I realize that I can accomplish this goal.”  One in particular I had, a young kid who I was think 18-19 years old and found a video that I have that’s like an instruction on how to run a 5K – which 5K is just a little over 3 miles – and the video was about if you don’t even walk much, you can follow this program, and within eight weeks or something, you could run a 5K.  And I’m not talking running some sort of world-record time or anything, but just completing the task.

This kid found the video and followed it, and then he wrote me and said “You know, I followed your video and through the instruction, I completed a 5K and I’ve lost 50 pounds, and it has totally changed my life.”  It totally changed his perspective from being just, you know, like … I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but from being like a couch potato and being overweight and not being able to do things, and knowing now he can do things, and I helped with that.

And you know, I think either in fitness or in work or your life or whatever, you’re either making an effort to make things happen, or you’re making excuses why they’re not happening.  I’m trying to help people know that their efforts can bear fruit, I guess.

Toni: Well that’s a great way to put that as far as people exploring their potential.  If they don’t put the effort forth, then they won’t be able to do that, so you’re not only trying to educate them on what the end result can be, but what that effort would look like, and that’s a really cool way to handle that.  So Rob, what inspires you?

Rob: Lots of things.  I like … it sounds … I mean, because we’re so close to this Project and obviously listening to the interviews on a regular basis, and you know, sometimes I won’t listen to an interview or any interviews for a couple days in a row and then I have like this marathon session of listening to four or five interviews within an hour or two, and it kinds of gives a window into what’s possible.  I think that listening to them lets people know that you aren’t really limited in what you can do, and I think a lot of people don’t realize what is possible and what they can do, and what’s inside them.

I mean, I listen to interviews.  I’m huge into reading books.  I think like it’s like visiting an old friend, because I re-read books a lot of times, or like finding a new friend.  I read mostly fiction and biographies because I’m looking for information.  I mean, I read some light … scratch that … I read mostly nonfiction and biographies.  Sometimes I’ll read some light fiction just to give my mind a break, but I like reading things on thinking, the process of thinking, and psychology and fitness and stuff.  I really like authors like, I’ll say, Malcolm Gladwell where he looks at one little thing and kind of opens up your eyes about it.

I hope that I’m passing all my love of reading … at least one of my kids, my youngest daughter, gave me a book for my birthday this year that was called The Yes Man and it was by a guy named Danny Wallace.  They made a movie about it; Jim Carrey starred in it.  The movie was pretty good, but the book was … I mean, it was a true story where this guy just decided that he had too much negativity in his life, and he was going to start saying “yes.”  Whenever anybody made an offer to him, he was going to say “yes” and just see where that led him, and he made a kind of pact with himself that he was going to do this for a year.

My daughter read this book, and she immediately, which I’m blown away, that she immediately thought of me and she was like “Wow, that’s like my dad” and she bought it for me and gave it to me for my birthday.  That’s like, you know … it’s just the possibilities of what’s out there if you say yes, and I think that goes along with the rest of what I said with this answer, that you don’t know what’s possible until you try it, until you really make an effort and say yes to things.

Toni: Absolutely.  What a great inspiration you must have been for your daughter to think of you for that book as well.

Rob: I have hopes.

Toni: So how do you explore your own potential?  You’ve spoken about how you love to read and learn and you do this research – what else happens with you?  What else do you do to explore your own potential?  How about in the … you mentioned in your introduction that you do theater and stand-up?  What happens?  How do you explore your potential in those areas?

Rob: Well, I think that a lot of life – and you mentioned the word education – that it’s like challenging yourself and not getting into a rut, because, you know, there’s an old saying, and I’ll probably get this wrong because I’m kind of doing all this off the top of my head, but there’s an old saying that, you know, the difference between a rut and a grave is like the depth, and if you stay in a rut long enough, you’re going to walk yourself right into your grave.

I think that everybody needs to challenge themselves to kind of try to, you know, look at themselves, because I think that people start out their life and make huge decisions about their life when they’re young.  You know, are you going to college?  Are you not going to college?  Are you going to work?  And then you end up working at something that maybe doesn’t have anything to do with your passion and you’re stuck in this rut.

So I think, to answer your question, at certain points in my life … like I was 36 years old and said to my wife … and I’m so lucky to have a wife who is so supportive of things, because at 36 I just said to her “You know, I think I’m going to audition for this musical.”  I saw an ad in the paper for auditions, and I think most people would think you were insane, because I never did any theater whatsoever.  I didn’t do anything in high school, I didn’t do anything in college.  I didn’t do anything in this nature at all, and I auditioned for a musical and got cast in the lead in the musical singing a five-part harmony, and it just like blew me away that, you know, I’m doing something that I really hadn’t ever thought of much in my life.

I had a conversation last night about this where you don’t have to think “Oh, I’m 30, I can’t try something new,” or “I’m 40, I can’t try something new.”  I graduated from college when I was 41 because I had … my first marriage broke up and I had a lot of troubles, I’d say, early in my life.  My first marriage broke up because my first wife didn’t support me in things that I wanted to do, and she thought going to school was a waste of time.  I had gone to college when I had first gotten out of high school and dropped out of college because I just got involved in things that weren’t conducive to thinking so much, I’ll just put it that way, and she wasn’t supportive of me getting an education, so you know … that was one factor, and we ended up not together.

That’s another thing where you can say, you need to know that you’re not stuck, no matter where you are.  I got divorced, and I got custody of my two kids who were one and three at the time, and I was a single dad for four years with those two until I met my new, wonderful wife, my forever wife, and you know, you don’t have to be stuck in a rut.

Theater, doing that and going out for that show … I auditioned for a few more shows and then somebody told me about an audition for an improv troupe, and I thought “Wow, that’s kind of cool,” because you know, I think of people like John Belushi or Dan Aykroyd or original Saturday Night Live people and thought “That’s really cool stuff.”

So I auditioned for this troupe and made it and ended up going out to Second City in Chicago, which is a training center that all these people went to — Joan Rivers, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Mike Myers.  And I went out there for a week’s worth of training just on improv and writing, and just thought “I’m going to try to do everything I can and challenge myself to new things,” which is kind of what I said a few times in this interview; you know, challenging yourself and not getting stuck in a rut.

You mentioned stand-up, and we talked a little bit about that offline.  I’m 47, and tonight I’m going to go to an open mic and I’m going to do stand-up.  It’s going to be the first time ever that I’ve done it, and I’m scared and excited, but you know, I think you have to keep challenging yourself in life to grow, and that’s how I try to … that’s where I get inspired.

Toni: Well, you can hear a lot of … I think the word education is really the takeaway for me here, because with your interview – and people will have their own perspective as well – but the way that you’ve shared information, even during this interview about who you hope to inspire and help people explore their own potential by the education that you go through for yourself so that you can provide that education for others and encouragement, and then it’s also what you’ve been through.  You know, the road that you’ve traveled, the courage it takes to do your stand-up tonight, to say I’m just going to do it – and raising two children on your own because that was important, and learning along the way, so that’s what I’m hearing.

It’s not just, you know, staying at it and being tenacious, but it’s learning and then sharing, and that’s awesome.  So for sharing your time today on the Get Inspired! Project, we can’t thank you enough, Rob.  And also thank you for all of the work that you’ve done to help bring this Project to life.

Rob: Well thank you.  It’s been an amazing journey for me; I think for all of us who are directly involved in this Project, and such a learning and growing experience and tenacity – you just used that word.  I mean, you’ve been doing these interviews for nine months, and doing anything every day, getting up every day is tough.  Interviewing somebody every day … it blows the mind, you know, the journey we’ve taken, and I’m very happy to be a part of it, and I’m very happy to be a friend of yours.

Toni: Oh, thanks, Rob.  Take care and knock ‘em dead tonight!

Rob: Okay, thank you!

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For more information about Rob Britt:  www.britt-marketing.com, www.theallhealthnetwork.com, www.selfesteembuilder.net

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