Interview with Josh Cramer

Richard Mote: Hi, Josh. Thanks for agreeing to this interview. First of all, could you tell me a little about your current job?

Josh Cramer: So, I own and operate a consultancyBeratungsunternehmenconsultancy called Ghost CMO — we’re a full-service brandingAufbau einer Markebranding consultancy. I focus on the verbal strategy side of it. So, my specific title is verbal strategy consultant. Essentially, I help brandMarkebrands to get a message acrosseine Botschaft rüberbringenget their message across in ways that are truthful, differentiating and compellingzwingend, überzeugendcompelling. 

Richard: I seeIch versteheI see. That sounds like a really interesting role, but you weren’t always in this position, were you? In fact, before this call, I remember you saying that it was failure that led to your success. Could you to expand on sth.hier: etw. näher erläuternexpand on that?

Josh: It’s hard to have regrets because I like where I am now, and I like where my life is where sb.'s life is headedetw: welche Richtung jmds. Leben eingeschlagen hatheaded, but there have definitely been some hard lessonharte Lektionhard lessons that I’ve learned along the wayauf dem Weg dorthin, in dieser Zeitalong the way. What I had come from originally was I sold shoes on commissionauf Provision(sbasis)on commission for eight years during high school and then through college. And then once I to graduateeinen (Hochschul-)Abschluss machengraduated with my bachelor’s degree, I said to myself, “Well, now it’s time for a serious adult job.” 

And we were at the height of the recession in 2010, so what a time to go out and try to knock on doors and get people to buy radio advertising! brilliant (UK ifml.)genialBrilliant, what could go wrong? So, I went in, and I received no training whatsoever. I didn’t even have my own list of existing clients, like everybody else had. And all I had to to rely on sth.auf etw. vertrauenrely on was what I had learned selling shoes in a shoe store, which, you know, I consider myself a very good shoe salesman, but there are fewer translatableübertragbartranslatable skills between inside sales and outside sales than one might think. 

And it was living hell. I would to get a ball of tension in one’s stomachunter großer Anspannung leidenget like a ball of tension in my stomach getting ready for the weekend to be over because I knew that I had to get in my car and drive all around the Twin CitiesBallungsraum von Minneapolis und Saint Paul in MinnesotaTwin Cities and be to reject sb.jmdn. ablehnenrejected again and again and again, and treated like the the scum of the earth (ifml.)der Abschaum der Menschheitscum of the earth. And then I had to go to the office and be to berate sb.jmdn. scheltenberated for having produced nothing and it was that process for three straighthier: glatt, ganzstraight months. And the day that I decided to quit (ifml.)kündigenquit, it was a surprisingly euphoric feeling. So, yeah… I wouldn’t say that I was a big failure or that failing at the job was my biggest failure, but in failing to recognize how shitty (ifml.)beschissenshitty the situation was to begin with and then sticking with it probably for as long as I did was the biggest part of failure for me. 

Richard: What were your key learnings from this experience?

Josh: I mean I shouldn’t have been as desperateverzweifeltdesperate as I had been because there is nothing wrong with the job that I had. It was just that I’d been there for eight years, and I knew that I had to ascendaufsteigenascended to as high a position as you can get in selling shoes. You know, I wasn’t about to be a store manager because they knew I wasn’t a lifer (ifml.)Lebenslängliche(r); hier: Person, die etw. ein Leben lang tutlifer, so that was the best that I could do there, and I wanted really badly to begin my career. And I let that pressure get to me.

Richard: Thanks so much for sharing those insightErkenntnis, Einblickinsights with me. Take care.

Josh: You, too.