Rob Swatton: All Trades | The Business Blast Podcast #10

Alright everyone, welcome back to the Business Blast Podcast. I have Rob Swatton on today. He's a jack of all trades and a master of none. I'm excited to have him on and we'll dive right in. So the first question I have for you, Rob, is what's your best piece of business advice?

I think my best piece of business advice is effectively to promise the impossible and then deliver on it. So it's a dangerous theory potentially, but I think you have to put yourself in a position where you stand to lose something in order to gain something.

And what's the number one thing you do to increase your productivity?

It's effectively the same strategy, unfortunately. It's a case of, yeah, figuring out where I can put myself in an uncomfortable position and then working out how to get out of it. I suppose it's sort of, yeah, mental jiu-jitsu almost.

And I just want to dive in real quick here. So are you kind of saying like you, you do like you set really high stakes and then it forces you to grow and achieve like bigger success in a sense?

Precisely, yeah. I mean, I don't have any kind of formal qualification to do what I do, so I always go into it being the underqualified person and then effectively just having to sort of, you know, catch up to speed very quickly.

Gotcha, okay. And what's your favorite online business tool?

Oh, it's got to be LinkedIn. I mean, I don't really, you know, I don't really have any need for any of the more sort of advanced productivity tools or anything like that. So yeah, just the ability to communicate and connect with people is by far my most useful tool.

And what's your number one tip for increasing your physical health?

So this one's really easy for me. I'm a former mountaineering guide, so my advice is always get outside.

And what's your number one tip for increasing your mental health?

I have to admit, when you send that through, I tend to think, well, it's probably the same answer, but I realize it's probably go further outside. So if you live in the city, get out into the country. If you live in the country, maybe go into the city for a little bit.

And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?

That one is very subjective. You know, everyone's obviously got their own path. So for me, I think it's going to have to— you have to find the thing that drives you, that gets you passionate, that gets you out of bed. If you're waking up and you don't want to get out of bed, then you're probably doing the wrong thing. If you're waking up— well, unless I suppose you're a bed tester. So it's basically do the thing that you want to do the most and then just do more of it.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Well, having had children, it's take more advantage of time and basically just do more.

And what's the best business book you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?

So I'm going to disappoint you on this one. I don't read business books. I have a sort of a real hatred for the whole concept. I think that, yeah, business is an individual pathway that we all find. Again, going back to that thing of what makes you happy. Yeah. So for me, I mean, if I had to pick a book or the Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi, sort of ancient text on Japanese sword fighting, has taught me more about life than I think any other book has.

Awesome. No disappointment there. You're actually the second person on the podcast to say that they don't read business books. I might open that up to just any book in the future.

I think it's probably— it's a good question to ask because it does— it puts people in the mindset of, do I like business books or not? It forces them to ask that question. But yeah, I think that they never work for me.

What's your favorite quote and why?

I can't— I don't know who to attribute this to, but I heard this a few years ago and it stuck with me, which is, be careful what you incentivize, you'll get more of it. I think that comes down— I mean, it's like an issue that Facebook's running into right now. They incentivize clicks and they realize that they ended up polarizing people because of it. All these kinds of things. It's the consequence of your actions that you need to consider carefully before taking a step, which goes almost counter to my promise the impossible, then deliver. We're all complex, so I can't offer one contiguous theory.

No, of course, of course. And just last question is, what's the best place for people to find you online, like website or social media? I'm assuming LinkedIn and then your— Yeah, LinkedIn.

I mean, because I sort of change industries reason, you know, being that jack of all trades, I never really stick with a website or an email address because it's, you know, it ends up being tied to the wrong brand. So yeah, just LinkedIn is the best way.

Perfect. Well, thanks. Thanks for hopping on, man. I really appreciate you coming on and all your answers. And we did it in record time, about 4 minutes. So I appreciate it.

No, it's been fun.

I will talk to you soon, Rob. Thanks.

Thanks.

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