Matt Bowles: Hey, everybody. It’s Matt Bowles. Welcome to The Maverick Show. Today, I am here with Tobias Rauscher. He is a guitarist and a location independent serial entrepreneur. After failing at his first business endeavor in his home country of Germany, he changed course, focused his business savvy on his core passion for guitar, and bootstrapped his current company, Guitar Academy, into a completely passive online business while traveling the world that now nets him over six figures a year in net passive residual income. Once he honed in on his true passion, he found it much easier to succeed, and he has since developed over 400,000 followers on social media, and he has gotten over 14 million views on a single YouTube video. Tobias, welcome to the show.
Tobias Rauscher: Hey, thanks for having me.
Matt: So great to have you here, man. You and I, just to set the scene for people, are currently in Porto de Galinhas, Brazil, right on the beach, and we are about to have an amazing conversation. I recently came to full attention of exactly what you do, both your musical talent, as well as how you’ve parlayed that into your business endeavor, both of which I think are independently spectacular, let alone your ability to merge them, and I’m super excited to have this conversation with you. You just blew my mind, as I was doing a mic check, by telling me that you cannot read music.
Tobias: No, not at all.
Matt: And, yet, you run a guitar academy, and you teach people how to play the guitar, and you make six figures a year doing that. So, can you explain a little bit – let’s just start off with the musical element of it, and then we’ll go into the business side of things later. Can you talk a little bit about what it is that you do? What is percussive guitar, and how did you teach yourself, basically, to play this without reading music?
Tobias: Sure. Percussive guitar is basically when you use the body of the guitar, as well, to emulate a drumkit, for example. Yeah, you have the guitar, and you combine this with finger picking, so this enables you to really express yourself with just a single instrument. For example, I cannot sing, but I always wanted to sing. Back then, I wrote the lyrics for my former band and stuff, but I always needed to have a singer to be complete. And then, once I discovered this kind of style called modern percussive finger style, it gave me, basically, the opportunity to express myself, as a musician, without being able to sing. So, this was what really triggered me, and it’s – yeah, then I fell in love with it.
Matt: It is a truly special artform, and I just saw you perform in a packed theater. I was in that theater, and I was near the back. When you came on stage and you started playing Memories, the audience was completely captivated for the entire song, including myself. You took us on such an emotional journey through your music through this one song, and, as soon as you finished the song, my initial reflex, which I did, was just to stand up and give you the standing ovation, and 100 percent of the audience did the same thing. It was truly a powerful experience to be part of that. It was amazing.
Tobias: Thanks, thanks.
Matt: I’ve got you here and the guitar here, which is a truly incredible combination. Would you be willing to play that song, just to give people a sense of what it is that you do and what the songs sound like that you write and perform?
Tobias: Yeah, of course. I can try to play it, right now, for you all.
Matt: Also, I want to be super clear about this because I was sitting in the back when I heard the music that you’re producing from the stage, and it was almost hard for me to believe that it was just you and your two hands and the guitar. There was no other background music. There were no other sounds from anywhere else. There was nobody else contributing to it. So, I just want to be clear, folks, that what you’re about to hear is one person, two hands, and one acoustic guitar, and there is no other sound or anything coming from anywhere. This is just Tobias Rauscher performing the song that he wrote called Memories on The Maverick Show for you.
Tobias: All right, let’s give it a try.
[Tobias playing the guitar 00:05:43 – 00:09:06]
Matt: Wow, thank you for that. This is the song that I just heard you play in front of a completely packed theater of hundreds of people, and I literally just got a solo performance two feet away from you in the studio. I am thoroughly appreciative of that experience. Wow. Thank you. So, can you talk a little bit about how you went about and how you go about creating songs like that, how you learned to play this type of music?
Tobias: Yeah, sure. Actually, I started out by playing the electric guitar when I was 14, so I was really into rock and heavy stuff, and I needed distorted sound. Actually, the funny thing is I started with kind of an acoustic guitar book, and I learned the folk songs, and I hated this stuff because I wanted to play this rock stuff. I almost gave up playing the guitar after half a year because I just didn’t like what I was doing with the guitar, or what I was taught. And then a friend of mine showed me how to play a power chord, and I was like, “Wow, that’s so cool,” and then I was able to cover songs from Nirvana or The Offspring and stuff like this, and then I really got into guitar playing, played up to six hours a day. After around 10 years playing the electric guitar, I reached a certain plateau where it wasn’t really a challenge anymore, and I kind of lost interest and then drew my time – I spent my year abroad in Australia, and then a girl basically – I was struggling with acoustic guitar, back then, and then a girl asked me if I can play this song. She handed me her earphones, and I was listening to Andy McKee’s Rylynn, which is – Andy McKee’s a really nice finger style guitarist, and I was like, “Wow, that’s so different, and I’m not able to play this at all.” I was kind of challenged again, and then I put all my focus on learning this kind of style.
Matt: How old were you at this time?
Tobias: Was around 21 or 22.
Matt: Can you talk a little bit about then, how did you develop – I mean, when you start creating these songs, and then how did you develop, from there, also, your passion for teaching other people, and how did that whole process come about for you?
Tobias: Actually, it was never my passion to teach. It was like I did it while being in high school, so I earned some side money teaching how to play the guitar. When I started out, it was mainly by covering other artists, to challenge myself because, a lot of times, you play the same stuff over and over again, but you don’t really progress. I focused on playing stuff that was really hard for me to play, and it sounded horrible. When you would have listened to me practicing, it’s just not nice because it’s like I just focus on a certain part. It doesn’t sound well. I make a lot of mistakes, but I keep on learning and repeating it until it sounds good, and it is fun in the process. Yeah, this was basically how I learned it, and, of course, I had an advantage, as I played the electric guitar for 10 years. So, a lot of the techniques came kind of easy for me. But still, with this type of music, you use completely different techniques because you emulate a drumkit while playing fingerpicking and stuff. This is basically what I did, yeah, covering other artists and challenging myself. And then, basically, when I put up my first music videos on YouTube where I showed my original compositions, people started asking me, “Wow, I would like to play like this. How do you do this?” And then I was like, “Okay, maybe I should teach stuff like this.”
Matt: Now, when people come to you – so, me, for example, I have never played a musical instrument, and I can’t read music and all that. So, for me, it’s a super intimidating thing because I assume I’m going to have to learn how to read all this music. It’s like a foreign language. It’s super intimidating to me, and then I’m going to have to figure out how – so, I just assume that I’m not musically inclined. You know what I mean? Because it’s just so intimidating for me. But when a student comes to you, at this point, and says, “Wow, that was amazing. Can you teach me how to do that,” the student doesn’t even need to read traditional music or go through that traditional –
Tobias: No, no, no.
Matt: – experience that we associate – or at least I associate – with having to learn any instrument.
Tobias: I’m pretty intimidated by it. Seriously, when it comes to theory, reading notation, I really suck at it. I never wanted to learn it, and it always felt like an objection and side to learn it because I don’t want to say that knowing and applying theory’s bad. Not at all. It can be, really, a blessing, and a lot of people even need it in order to make music, but it put me off. I always associated music, like learning an instrument, with something negative because of that. In my personal opinion, you don’t need theory to write awesome songs because music is something that comes from the heart, from within, and you hear if it sounds well or not. I can give you an example. I always use these really weird tunings, like open tunings, and I don’t play in standard tuning. For example, if I want to fret a pretty simple C major chord in this tuning I’m on, it sounds like this, and that’s kind of strange. And then I just start figuring out, how can I come up with something that sounds nice? I just reposition my fingers until something sounds nice. I don’t know what chord I’m playing right now – not at all. It sounds fine. Keep on doing. Okay, that’s a different interesting sound. Maybe I move it over here. Maybe I change some base notes like this. And here we go. I don’t even know what I’m playing, but it sounds nice, and that’s totally enough to keep on writing a song and making something out of it, and this is basically the approach I use. I call this the Columbus effect because it’s kind of like you’re arriving somewhere, you don’t know anything. I have this tuning – I mean, I know this tuning by now because I use it often, but sometimes I just retune a certain string just to – I kind of format my head and my knowledge so I cannot use any chords. No, I cannot use any scales or whatsoever because I’m totally lost on the fretboard, and then I have to start from scratch. I really start with playing an open string, and then, a lot of times, it doesn’t sound nice, but then, eventually, I find something – a little riff or link, we call it, that sounds really nice, and then I keep on working on this and making it really nice. This is how I usually write my songs, and I think this is a really creative process.
Matt: That is amazing. And so, as you’re moving along through creating the song and writing a song and creating a musical piece like this, do you just memorize and remember what you did along the way, or do you transcribe it down so you won’t forget it, or what’s your sort of process for “writing a song”?
Tobias: Yeah, I basically really memorize everything, at least I try to. To be honest, I forgot so many really nice riff ideas I had, so I usually record them. As soon as I come up with a nice riff, I just record it so I have it. But if I have a riff that I really like, I usually play it that often. It can be hours I repeat it. I try to work further on it to make a song out of it so it really – because of the repetition, it really gets deep inside your brain or wherever, and you just remember it. And then, eventually, for example, if I come up with a finished song or if I put something on YouTube, I tab it out – tablatures, which are basically a translation for notation, or it’s a different way to transcribe music – way easier and intuitive one. And then I write it down, and I sell tabs on my website, for example, and sometimes I share these tabs, as well, for free, so others can learn how to play what I’m doing.
Matt: So, when you’re teaching your students how to do this, are you teaching them both how to play, for example, songs that you’ve written, perhaps, and you’re teaching them how to replicate what you do and how to deliver a song, and then are you also teaching them about the creative process for how they can be their own artists and invent their own music by ear in the same way that you do?
Tobias: Yeah. Basically, my guitar academy is like a membership site with tutorials and different courses, and I teach exactly that. So, one part of my guitar academy is, let’s say, my own song tutorials or song courses where I really teach how to play my songs in depth, step by step so people can, yeah, just learn how to play my songs. On the other hand, I teach all the techniques and skills that you need in order to play stuff like this and, as well, the song writing process. So, one lesson of mine is, as well, the Columbus effect, and we start by just retuning one string and try to come up with the creative riffs. So, this creative riff approach and how to structure your songs and all that stuff, but it’s all without theory. It’s more like a – yeah, with skills, techniques, and, yeah, the right approach and mindset.
Matt: Let’s backpedal a little bit because I want to talk about your entrepreneurial journey and your business background and experience because, ultimately, I think what’s amazingly fascinating about you is how you’ve melded both your musical art and also your entrepreneurship. So, we just sort of went through a little bit of your musical trajectory, but let’s go back and talk about your business and your entrepreneurial trajectory. How did you initially become an entrepreneur? How did you get that drive, and what were your initial attempts to go in that direction?
Tobias: I think it started all when I was taking that gap year, and it was in 2007. I think I was on my way from New Zealand to LA, and I picked up this book, Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. This was my first book I read about this entrepreneurship and having a different mindset, and it just kind of really blew me away back then. Then I was like, “Okay, yeah, I kind of want to do my own thing. I don’t want to work for somebody else, and I want to travel around.” So, I was like, “Okay, I want to create this life that I dream of,” and I wanted to be free. Freedom is really important for me, not dependent on a company or a boss or whatever. Yeah, then, what did I do? Based on this, I actually started international business in management because, back then, I wanted to combine my passion for music with entrepreneurship kind of because I wanted to start working in the music industry. Then I did an internship at Warner Music. I noticed that corporate life is not really what I wanted to do. Back that, at that time, Warner Music was making the contracts with Spotify, and so I kind of got a glimpse of the startup scene because it was like, “Hey, what kind of company is that?” That’s kind of a smart approach and disrupting the music industry. And so, yeah, I got into the startup scene and, yeah, had a lot of ideas in my head, but basically, I kept true to my passion and founded an online music school, a centralized eLearning platform for music. I found a technical co-founder. We were actually seven people in the company. We got venture funded by two of the biggest German media corporations, [foreign language] [00:20:58], and so, yeah, we got some venture capital and – yeah. But after, I think, almost two to three years, we kind of didn’t reach our revenue goals, didn’t get the follow-up investment, and then we had to close down the company. So, this was kind of my first company and my first big failure, but I don’t want to call it failure. It is, objectively, a failure because we had to close the company down, but for me, this was kind of the best business education I could ever have because I learned so much from my mistakes, actually, and failing.
Matt: What were your biggest takeaways from that? I mean, I agree 100 percent that any successful entrepreneur – 100 percent of entrepreneurs that I have talked to have failed, usually, more than once in their endeavors, and the successful ones are the ones that are able to fail and take things from their failures and apply those lessons to their next endeavor and continue to apply and apply and apply until, eventually, you create a successful endeavor. What were some of your biggest takeaways or lessons that you learned from that first business endeavor that you then applied later on and helped you succeed?
Tobias: One of the biggest lessons, for me, was basically a personal lesson because, back then, I was, so to say, the CEO of that company, but I didn’t – yeah, let’s say – identify with that role because I didn’t want to have responsibility for a team and a company because that contradicted my strive for freedom kind of because, when I had this company, I had so much pressure and responsibility on my shoulders. So, I couldn’t just fly to Bali or whatever because I had a team there. I had investors and all that stuff, and I felt really kind of trapped. And so, I was like, “Okay, I might not be this CEO person. So, I’m not the manager.” You have these managers and leaders and kind of I rather consider myself as a leader in terms of I, let’s say, think about a lot of stuff and ways how to create adventure, how to do it, but I’m bad at implementing it and focusing on a team and managing everything. And so, I was like, “Okay, I just want to be really independent and free. And, if I don’t want to work for a month, I don’t want to work for a month, and I don’t want to justify to anyone.” And so, I was like, “Okay, yeah, I just want to focus on building something on my own where I’m my own boss, and I don’t have to report to anyone,” or stuff like this. So, yeah, this is basically how I went into entrepreneurship. So, this was one of my personal learnings. And then another thing was, business wise, which was really important is, for example, to have, especially in the beginning, a really strong customer focus because, with my company, we had an, let’s say, investor focus because what I did as the CEO was to convince investors to invest in our company. So, I flew around. I went to conferences. I went to investor meetings. I was working on my pitch decks, on the liquidation plans, on the four-year forecasts, and all that stuff. This was what I was focusing on, and we even raised a lot of money before having our first 10 customers. I basically sold the vision to our investors of selling my product, or our product, to our customers. So, a totally wrong focus. So, I would definitely – with everything or everyone who asks me, I always say, “Focus on your customers first. Get your first customers first and kind of give them something they really desire, and give them value instead of focusing on other stuff.”
Matt: I think that makes a lot of sense, and a lot of that resonates with me in terms of understanding that, if you do bring on investors, in many ways, you are bringing on a boss of some kind –
Tobias: Yes, yeah, yeah.
Matt: – because you are creating an accountability relationship where people have very specific expectations of you, and you have deliverables in a particular way that is different when you bootstrap a company and when you are really piloting that and financing it yourself, which is what you eventually ended up doing with Guitar Academy, is a bootstrapped business that you –
Tobias: Absolutely, yeah.
Matt: – built in with your own vision and then implemented it with your own vision in a particular way. What were some of the techniques that you used or business building strategies that you used that made Guitar Academy so successful? When you turned to that endeavor – maybe start with how it came about and how that particular vision congealed, and then what was the business building path that you took to bring that to fruition to make it successful?
Tobias: So, I definitely wanted to have a business that separates my time from my income. That was really important for me. Another thing that was really important was to start by having a strong focus on a certain niche. So, as we talked about, there were just finger style guitarists, and even not just finger style guitarists. It was more like advanced finger style guitarists.
Matt: So, you wanted to go into a particular niche with your business, and you saw the vision that you could add value and focus on this one particular niche, and then what were the business lessons that you implemented from all of your past entrepreneurial experience that you sort of credit in terms of really taking this – because you’ve only been doing this for, what? Guitar Academy is what, three years –
Tobias: I started my Guitar Academy in August 2015. So, yeah, around three years.
Matt: Yeah, so just over three years old, and you’ve taken it from scratch to, now, six figures of passive income per year. I mean, that’s a big jump from zero to six figures in just three years, and to have it fully automated is quite amazing. So, how did you build it that quickly, and what techniques did you use to accelerate that fast?
Tobias: Basically, one really important factor was definitely my YouTube channel because I kind of had a lot of traffic that I just needed to monetize. That was kind of the blessing of YouTube. When it comes to my business lessons or what I did differently, it was definitely to have a customer focus. So, for example, when I started with my Guitar Academy, I didn’t just build it and throw it out there. I started by sending out surveys. I started building an e-mail list. I sent these people a survey to really understand them. Who are they? What do they want to learn? Learn as much as possible. Then I started giving in-person workshops with small groups to really test like, for example, my first concepts. And then, after I got feedback, I started creating these video courses. So, it was kind of a really lean approach, like the lean startup approach. Then, of course, focusing on a niche, don’t get any investors on board. Yeah, start a lean customer focus. Those were some of the most important.
Matt: I think that’s really important, and being able to really understand what people want to buy and what people are willing to pay for first and then producing that for them and selling it back to them. I think that’s a very simple concept that very few people actually do, but it’s very effective, obviously –
Tobias: Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah.
Matt: – as you’ve seen. So, I think that is super, super important. And then, as you were building it, you talked about your YouTube channel. Your YouTube channel, at the time of recording, currently has over 300,000 subscribers, and you’ve built that up over how many years?
Tobias: YouTube is a long-term game, let’s say, but it took me like – I think, in – when was it? 2014/2015 – oh, I can’t even remember the numbers, but let’s say, in the last three to four years, it really kept growing bigger and bigger.
Matt: And you’ve been able to bring that, now, to over 300,000. So, what tips do you have for building an audience on YouTube. How strategic have you been about having that as a concerted business focus, and what have you learned about how to effectively build audience on YouTube?
Tobias: Oh, that’s a really interesting question because, actually, one of my new businesses is the tubeaccelerator.com, which is basically, let’s say, an academy that teaches musicians how to blow up on YouTube, for example, by growing your fanbase on autopilot, because there are definitely some strategies you can use. Of course, one of the most important things is your content. You have to deliver good content. That’s key. It’s 70 percent. And then there are some really good strategy optimization tactics you can use. For example, one thing is definitely to promote videos in the right way. Just don’t upload your video and pray. That’s the wrong strategy. You need to have a concise strategy of how you use your text, your title. What do you do with your description and to keywords in there? It’s not all about the SEO and keyword stuff. YouTube is more about – the majority of traffic comes from YouTube recommending your video, so you want to learn how to get recommended by YouTube and all this stuff – and then, of course, doing some offsite promotion strategies to bring traffic in on YouTube. It’s really important to get as many views as possible during the first 48 hours, for example, and there’s a lot of stuff you can do.
Matt: And your new online program teaches all of these things to musicians that want to build an audience on YouTube, how to do all of those technical things as well?
Tobias: Yes, exactly, exactly.
Matt: And can you say the website for that again?
Tobias: It’s tubeaccelerator.com. Like YouTube but just without the you.
Matt: T-U-B-E accelerator.
Tobias: Accelerator.com.
Matt: .com.
Tobias: tubeaccelerator.com, right.
Matt: Okay, and you go through all of that stuff in terms of how to strategically focus on YouTube for audience building.
Tobias: Absolutely, absolutely.
Matt: Awesome.
Tobias: Because the thing is you have so many musicians out there that are really good, but usually – I’d say 95 percent of musicians have no clue on how to market themselves and their music. As a musician, you need to see yourself and your music as a product, and most musicians don’t do this. But without this kind of entrepreneurial focus or business focus, it’s really hard to get views and to get seen and to get fans. And so, this is what I kind of teach on there. I think YouTube is one of the best tools, nowadays, for creators to grow an audience. Yeah, it’s really important because most musicians just gig around, play gigs, but that’s, in my opinion, the worst thing you can do in order to grow your fanbase. It’s, of course, awesome to be on stage – no questions asked – but if you want to grow your fanbase, don’t do it while playing shows. I mean, just imagine you play – I don’t know – around 200 shows a year in front of – I don’t know – 200 people. You’re just running around and, in the end, after the year of play is at around 20,000 people, that’s what I get every single day, even while we’re talking here. Tens or hundreds of people – even more – are watching my videos. And so, without me doing anything – and part of these people sign up for my academy, buy my stuff, and all that. I don’t have to do anything. So, focus on getting your content out there, promoting it, ideally, kind of automated. This is way more important than playing shows.
Matt: I’ve been, of course, watching your YouTube channel, and you have amassed, on a single video, over 14 million views on one 5-minute video.
Tobias: Yeah, right.
Matt: That is unbelievable, and the song that you play in that video is called Still Awake.
Tobias: Yes, right.
Matt: Would you be willing to play that song for our audience on the show now?
Tobias: I haven’t played this song in a while because I’m just struggling with my guitar, but of course, I will try.
Matt: All right, this is Still Awake written and performed by Tobias Rauscher on The Maverick Show.
[Tobias playing the guitar 00:33:30 – 00:38:42]
Matt: That is amazing, and that song has 14 million views on YouTube at the time of this recording. Folks, one of the reasons I want to send everyone to our YouTube channel is because this is an audio podcast, and so they’re able to listen to hear how that sounds. But I am sitting two feet away from you, and I am watching how you are playing that song, and the visual is just extraordinary. And on your YouTube channel, and they can actually see exactly what you’re doing. I mean, that’s why I’m describing this to people. I’m just going to say it again. This is just Tobias with two hands, one acoustic guitar. There is no other sounds background music, or anything else. He’s doing all of this by himself. And when you go to his YouTube channel, you can watch and see exactly how he does it. It’s amazing.
Tobias: Thanks.
Matt: So, can you actually give out your YouTube channel while we’re talking about it so people can go there and see the two songs that we had tonight, as well as some other great stuff?
Tobias: Yes. I have a really weird URL, so it’s best to just look for my name on YouTube, Tobias Rauscher.
Matt: Okay, and what we’ll do to make it easy for people is we will put it in the show notes, so I’m going to –
Tobias: Yeah, that’s cool.
Matt: – link them directly to your YouTube channel. So, for everybody, you can just go to themaverickshow.com to the show notes, and we’re going to have links to everything from your Guitar Academy to the YouTube training to the YouTube channel, and everything that we’re talking about in the show is going to be in one place, so you can just go themaverickshow.com and go to the show notes page for this episode. You’ll have all of the links right there. Tobias, I want to ask you, now, about some of your techniques for productivity and optimizing your work on a daily basis. Do you have morning routines? Do you have a way that you structure your day? How do you manage and optimize your time?
Tobias: I would actually say that I don’t really have a routine. I should get one, and I always think about it, haven’t really implemented it. The way I work is that I kind of work in, let’s say, focused periods. For example, last time, when I launched my guitar book or the Tube Accelerator Program, I kind of work for like two to three months really hard and a lot, like until late in the night, in order to kind of automate the process afterward and then be completely free, and then I usually travel around for one or two months and do, really, nothing, more just creative stuff, thinking about new ventures or new projects, and then I kind of start working again. So, for me, setting up an online business is something like even something creative, like writing a song, because I really like the planning and automating and all that stuff. So, it’s even kind of a hobby. Yeah, but when I do it, I usually really focus really hard on it.
Matt: So, I also want to talk about your travel structure. So, you have built these businesses such that they’re passive online revenue generating businesses for you, and you’ve created a location independent lifestyle for yourself so that you don’t have to be in one particular place for work or for the sake of someone else, and you can choose how to structure your lifestyle design. How do you do that in terms of, what are your personal choices that you make? How much do you travel, and what does your lifestyle look like?
Tobias: Usually, I just do what I like doing. So, I travel a lot. I would say like, half of the year, I’m traveling. I’m still based in Berlin, Germany, but I usually do like this: I just travel for a few weeks, a month. Then I come back, usually, when it’s summer in Berlin. Stay there for a few months, and then I keep on traveling and combine this with working. Usually, my time in Berlin is usually when I work because I have my studio over there, and this is where I really can focus. And then, when I travel, it’s more like a lightweight working, traveling mix. So, I do some stuff if it needs to be done, but usually, when I travel, I try not to work as much. It always depends in which state I’m in, if I’m working on a new project or if I’m just in a relaxing and traveling state.
Matt: How do you deal with stress in your life as a business owner and so forth? You mentioned you’ve gone through the initial situation with the investors and then that forming up to – with that happening, and you went through a whole sort of cycle there with that entrepreneurial endeavor, which I’m sure involved a lot of stress. We call these types of things, along the way, the entrepreneurial roller coaster, right?
Tobias: Absolutely, absolutely.
Matt: Ups and downs and all of that stuff. So, how do you, as a business owner, manage stress in your life? What techniques do you use for that?
Tobias: First of all, I try not to get into a stressful situation or kind of avoid it. I mean, I would say I’m even quite stress resistant, yes, but usually, I try, yeah, just to avoid stress. Having a business and automated income kind of helps to live a stress-free life because, yeah, usually, you don’t have stressful situations. When I’m in a stressful situation, it’s usually because I’m producing it myself when, for example, I’m working on a new course or new project and I really want to get it done, but you have to differentiate between these two stresses, like eustress and distress, like the negative and positive stress. Usually, I work in positive stress, and then it really helps me to, yeah, get shit done, basically, and I try to avoid the negative stress.
Matt: Can you talk a little bit about your new initiative that you are undertaking right now about the digital lifestyle conference and what the vision for that is going to be and what you’re doing with that?
Tobias: Yeah. One of my newest projects right now is, like you said, thedigitallifestyleconference.com, and this is basically a thing Timothy Ferriss’ book The Four-Hour Work Week but just as a conference. So, we interview, really, experts in the fields like digital nomads, people who run remote businesses, and try to get out as much value for new people that want to quit their 9:00 to 5:00 and start living the digital lifestyle and using, basically, the resources we have nowadays to start their own business and free up their lives because I think we’re living in a time where it has never been easier to start your own business. You don’t need to invest a lot. You can just start out with just WordPress. You have so much potential in that. For example, when I started out with my first company and I told you that I had a, technically, co-founder, and we were basically working on this online music school, and we were coding everything from scratch, like the membership area, locking, and everything, and then I discovered, hey, the stuff we worked on for a year can be bought for $150.00. It’s a theme or a plugin. I was like, “Wait, and I don’t even need to know html or CSS or nothing. It’s just a builder and we just build this where teams are working on and doing all the back-testing already, and we just basically tried to build the same.” I was like, “That’s just so easy. I just have to do the video content, and I can set up a full-fledged membership site, yeah, in a few days, actually – or courses or whatever.” Yeah, you can even build your social networks. There’s so much opportunity for – you just really have to invest a few hundred bucks, and you’re good to go. You can test it so easily because you can reach so many people nowadays with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. It’s just, yeah, an amazing time we’re living in.
Matt: Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, I was honored to be included in the people that you interviewed for the digital lifestyle conference, and I know a number of the other people that you’ve also interviewed, and they are powerhouse entrepreneurs. I’m super excited myself to see all the content that they contributed. I think you have collated and curated and put together, really, a power-packed group of people that I’m personally super excited to see how all the content turns out. So, for people that want to go to that website, at least some of the content is going to be accessible for free. Is that right?
Tobias: Yes, yes, yes. Usually, we record two sessions. The first session is about the story, the businesses, and the vision, and this is for free for all our speakers. But then we have a second video, which is more like a deep-dive into the businesses they run. We’re talking about the revenue numbers, the revenue streams, about marketing techniques, how they started, how they would start from scratch, if they lose anything with their learning. So, we try to get out as much value and learnings as possible for new people to get inspired and learn how to start their own ventures and free up their time and lives, basically.
Matt: Yeah, I thought the questions that you guys put together were really fantastic and really high value to draw that information out, and then I think the entrepreneurial lineup that you put together is formidable and impressive. And so, we’re going to link that up in the show notes as well so people can check out thedigitallifestyleconference.com as well. So, all of the stuff we’re talking about will be in one place in the show notes, so you can just go there and see all of it. So, Tobias, are you ready to get ready to close this out with some lightning round questions?
Tobias: Sure.
Announcer 1: THE LIGHTENING ROUND
Matt: All right, so these are just sort of quick questions here. What is one book that you would recommend that has most influenced you, let’s say, other than The Four-Hour Work Week –
Tobias: The Four-Hour Work Week.
Matt: – which you already mentioned. We both have influence from that. But other than that, what’s one book that you’d recommend?
Tobias: One book is definitely The Code of the Extraordinary Mind. This is a really good book, I think.
Matt: We’re going to link that book in the show notes as well.
Tobias: Yeah, cool.
Matt: For sure. Okay, what is one app or productivity tool or gadget that you’re currently using that you’d most recommend?
Tobias: I use Trello a lot to organize everything, like all the projects, and I collaborate with people I work with over there. And one, let’s say, service I use often is Upwork, as well, to find digital virtual assistants and to outsource tasks. I think it’s really powerful, and, yeah, it’s a big help for me.
Matt: If you could go back in time and give one piece of advice to your 18-year-old self, what advice would you give 18-year-old Tobias, based on everything that you’ve experienced up till now.
Tobias: Yeah, yeah. I will say worry less.
Matt: Worry less.
Tobias: Yeah, and just do it because I tend to overthink things. I think a lot – way a lot – and I’m really detail-focused, which is kind of nice, especially when it comes to music and stuff, but when you start a business – and I’m still struggling with this because I could set up things way faster if I, let’s say, would sacrifice on one of the – for example, designs. I love, and I still love, designing myself. So, all my websites, I design it myself because I just love it. For me, it’s a passion to set up my website design. It’s a creative process. But letting go of it or just outsourcing this would be way more efficient when you think business terms, but I still keep struggling with this, and I want to focus on the colors and the logo and all that stuff to make the site pretty. It’s like, for me, a song, like a creation of something. Some people who are, for example, way more successful, they just don’t bother about stuff like this. They just execute, and this is, I think, of course, more efficient and better on the business side of things, but I’m not as good at this because I would never want to launch a site that looks ugly in my eyes or something like this. This is a point – on the one hand, I think I should overcome this. On the other side, it’s still, for me, a lot of fun, and I like focusing on the details.
Matt: What are your top three favorite travel destinations that you’ve ever been to that you would most recommend other people visit?
Tobias: All right, so I really, really like Thailand, especially Ko Tao. This country’s just so easy to travel. The people are so nice. The food is awesome, and the islands are amazing. Yeah, I really like Thailand. I’ve just been there once, but I really like New Zealand, actually. For me, it was a totally different world. When I stepped out of the plane, I was like, “Where am I?” I don’t know. In some countries, you just have to be there to really understand them and feel these countries. I was just, yeah, memorized by how beautiful this country is. And, number three, actually, to be honest, I like Spain a lot. I’m from Europe, and, usually, for us Europeans, it’s like we want to go as far away as possible, and the grass is always greener on the other side. But then, when you travel and go to the Caribbean or all these far away countries – and sometimes you just think, “Hey, just Spain in Europe is so beautiful.” Mallorca, it’s such a beautiful Island. Yeah, I really like Spain.
Matt: I agree with that. I have spent, now, about, probably, over four months in Spain living in the different places, from the Basque Country in the north to –
Tobias: Yeah, like San Sebastian, San Sebastian.
Matt: Yeah, yeah. I was just there this year, in fact –
Tobias: Yeah, how nice.
Matt: – in San Sebastian and Barcelona and Catalonia, and then I’ve spent time in Andalusia and Madrid, and all the places in Spain are just so different. The Balearic Islands, as you mentioned, the Canary Islands. There’s so much there, and it’s just an incredible place. I would agree. That would be very high on my European list, for sure. What are your top three bucket list travel destinations you’ve never been to that you most want to go that are highest on your list right now?
Tobias: So, I first check mark Brazil because I always wanted to go there, and here we are.
Matt: Here we are.
Tobias: And then I definitely want to go to Iceland and Patagonia.
Matt: Nice. I was just skiing in Patagonia.
Tobias: Oh, nice.
Matt: Last year, I went to Bariloche in Argentina and skied the Andes Mountains –
Tobias: Nice.
Matt: – and that is a really special experience, for sure.
Tobias: Awesome.
Matt: So, that’s a great one. All right, last question, and then I want to ask you to let people know how they can find you and follow you on social media and all that kind of stuff. But one piece of advice that you would have for entrepreneurs, people that are getting into the game, maybe earlier stage in the process, and starting out their business building venture. With all of your experience, what is one tip that you would give to people getting into the entrepreneurial game?
Tobias: One tip is definitely just do it because I think most people block themselves or are their main biggest enemy when it comes to just starting because, usually, people procrastinate and come up with so many reasons why not to start, and I think, yeah, you have to start with yourself. That’s the most important part. Overcome your objections, your worries, your negative thoughts, and just do it. Just do the first step, and then that will lead to the next step and so on, but you just have to start. Even if you’re uncertain, not sure where to start, just go the first step and leave your objections behind. I think that’s – yeah, it starts all within you.
Matt: I love that advice. I agree 100 percent. Okay, Tobias, how can people connect with you, find you, follow you on social media? Where do you want us to send people?
Tobias: Right, yeah. You can follow me on Instagram. Oh, my Instagram handle is @tobias.rauscher. And then, of course, Facebook – basically, you just can find me on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube by just looking for my name. I’ve got a weird uncommon name, so it’s like just type it in there, and you will usually find my profile over there.
Matt: And we’re going to link up your social media profiles into the show notes as well. So, they can just go to themaverickshow.com, go to this episode show notes, and then you’re going to be able to see all of Tobias’ social media profiles where you can follow him – his YouTube channel – and then as well as the Guitar Academy, the Tube Accelerator, and all of the initiatives that he is involved with. You can go check it out – the Digital Lifestyle Conference as well. Super excited for that to roll out, my man. Tobias, thank you so much for being here, man. This has really been fantastic.
Tobias: Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.
Matt: All right, everybody. Good night.
Announcer 1: Be sure to visit the show notes page at themaverickshow.com. For direct links to all the books, people, and resources mentioned in this episode, you’ll find all that and much more at themaverickshow.com.
Announcer 2: Would you like to get Maverick Investor Group’s white paper on Real Estate Investing for Digital Nomads: How to Buy U.S. Rental Properties from Anywhere in the World and Finance an Epic International Lifestyle, just go to themaverickshow.com/nomad. The report is totally free and available for you now at themaverickshow.com/nomad.
Announcer 3: Do you want to learn how to travel the world for a year plus with carry on luggage only and look good while you’re doing it? Go to themaverickshow.com/packing to see a free recorded webinar and learn exactly how Matt does it. He shows you the luggage he uses, the specific items he packs, and the travel brands he likes most. Even if you’re just looking to go on shorter trips but pack more efficiently and eliminate your checked luggage, you won’t want to miss this. You can watch the free recorded webinar at themaverickshow.com/packing.
[End of Audio]
Duration: 58 minutes
