Charlie Hoehn is a keynote speaker and the author of Play It Away: A Workaholic?s Cure for Anxiety and Recession Proof Graduates. Previously, he worked for Tim Farris as his director for special projects, helping him edit and launch the Four-Hour body, which sold over a million copies.
Charlie is also the CEO of BookPop! , a company that helps authors market their books.
HSLD: Besides the little background that we?ve give about you, could you tell us a little more about yourself?
Charlie: I graduated in 2008 which was the recession and I spent months frustrated- sending my resumes to companies who didn?t want me.
Finally, I just started working for free for people whom I thought were doing interesting work- guys like Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. Ramit was just getting traction then and I helped him launch his book, which did very well.
I went on to help other authors- from marketing their own books, including Tim Farris.
I got burnt out after that and took some time off and when I wanted to go back to work, I decided to co-found an app startup with my friend Chad Muretta who is the author if App Empire. We did a product launch which went well.
After a few months I decided that I was still burnt out and that I needed to take some more time off. That?s how I ended up writing Play It Away.
I had written Recession Proof Graduate before that which was about how to get meaningful work and land jobs that you want but I had not managed to strike the work-life balance very well which was why I burnt out.
Now I?m speaking, work on individual projects on my own, consult and help other authors with their own work. For fun I do stand-up comedy and play basketball.
HSLD: Can you share with us your connection to the military?
Charlie: I?m a speaker for American Dream U. They are an organization that helps veterans transition by teaching them skills so they can become self-starters.
HSLD: Do you have a success quote? What is it?
Charlie: There?s one that I kept on my bathroom mirror for the last 10 years was from Napolen Hill?s Think and Grow Rich. It goes:
I worked for a menial?s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.
HSLD: Can tell us what is one thing that really impacts veterans to take action, based on your talks with them?
Charlie: I just came from speaking from a Montessori school and there are similarities.
If I just stand there and tell people my story that doesn?t really work. However, if I flip it and ask them about their story and situation then that gets more of a response.
HSLD: Can you tell us a story of failure? What did you learn from it?
Charlie: I have had so many failures in my life but the one that stands out was when I was working with Tim Farris. I considered it my dream job but I was also burning out.
I was so terrified of quitting. Also, no one around me was encouraging me to go after what I wanted. They all wanted me to stick with it.
There was also a period I went though panic attacks but told no one about it for a year. That was a failure because I didn?t want to admit it because it was a shameful things to me. I needed to listen to my body.
I was always trying to keep on going when my body was obviously broken.
HSLD: Tell us how you got the job with Tim Farris
Charlie: I did some work with Ramit and Tucker Max which are friends with him. I was very intentional about wanting to work with Tim.
I knew he usually got hundreds of offers from people who wanted to work with him and for him. I also knew I was probably going to stand out.
So I needed to go through his network and find people that he trusted. I knew that these people had to recommend me to him so I would be considered.
HSLD: Who was that first big name that you got in contact with and how did you get into their good graces?
Charlie: The initial thing that I did was a virtual internship with Seth Godin. It started out with about 200 kids and went on for a summer.
By the end of the summer, everyone had basically dropped out except me and ten other guys.
I got some credibility from that as I could say I had worked with him. After that, I reached out to Ramit and told him about my virtual internship with Seth.
That?s when I got to work with Ramit and it was a domino effect from there.
HSLD: What was the reason why you felt so burnt out working with Tim Farris? What were those days like and what did you usually have to do on a daily basis?
Charlie: I don?t think it had anything to do with Tim. This was an inevitable thing that was going to happen to me because of my personality.
When I first started to work for him, I came from a very wholesome attitude. I wanted to do things that mattered to me but also meet people that would help me raise my game. I also wanted to have fun.
It started out that way and then we achieved major success. I achieved even more success after that.
All of a sudden I became, in my own mind, this badass who was so capable in his job. All of the success went into my head. My job suddenly became more and more, me working in a caf? all by myself, drinking coffee all day, sitting still, barely moving, checking my emails from the moment I woke up, barely sleeping and then binge drinking on the weekends.
I did this for months and months. And I thought this was normal as all of my friends also worked this way. None of us had any work-life balance.
After I while I became extremely anxious and wound up. A ton of it had to do with stimulants but also with the lack of genuine interaction, the lack of sleep and the lack of a healthy lifestyle.
I was working not because it was fun or meaningful. It became all about the money and the status. There was this disconnect and I could not have fun anymore.
HSLD: We?ve come to the end of this so why don?t you take a moment and give us an idea as to what your book is all about.
Charlie: Play It Away is the book I wish had existed when I went through the darkest period in my life. I wrote it because it was what could have saved me from an entire 2 years of intense debilitating stress and burnout. Aside from reading, playing games such as 벳엔드 사이트 can also help in releasing all that negativity.
If you have the symptoms that I mentioned or the work life that I described then you may want to check out this book.
If you want a preview of the book, you can google ?Cure Anxiety? and my name should be among the first ones that pop up.
We value your privacy and would never spam you
