Robert Pennington, an Army soldier and freelance writer, spent six months fighting to enlist despite repeated rejections. He warns writers to skip crowded platforms like Upwork and build their own networks instead. Fear was his biggest limitation, he says, and early confidence would have changed everything.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás?
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Robert Pennington with us. He is a part-time freelance writer, owner of the Pennington Post, and is in the Army active duty, and he specializes in areas of business strategy, customer service, and marketing. So welcome to the show, Robert.
Thank you, Tyler. Thanks for having me.
Of course. Thanks for joining us, and we'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
I think the best life story I have that gives a clear and positive message is a story about me actually joining the Army. Most people think of enlisting as a simple matter of just going down to the recruiting office and signing away your life, and maybe that's the case for some people. I was not an easy contract to draw up. And I was told on multiple occasions that because of my past medical history, I would not be able to join the military. It took me 6 months of constant screenings, rescreenings, calling my senator, a lot of waiting, and several trips to the MEPS, which is the Military Entrance Processing Station. Joining the Army was something I knew beyond a doubt that I wanted to do. And I would not let anyone tell me that I could not do it. My persistence paid off, and after 6 months, the Army finally let me join. I would say that when you have a lifelong dream, don't let anyone deter you from that dream. Don't ever take no for an answer and find your way to yes. Too many people stop at the first roadblock and end up selling them, uh, themselves short. By committing yourself to reach your desired outcome, you will nearly always achieve that goal.
Yes, man. Um, and what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Freelance writers should be very careful when resorting to using job networks that welcome mediocre writing levels. You get a lot of that with Upwork and a couple other sites, but these sites tend to take a large chunk of your commission and are also oversaturated with writers. The best thing a freelance writer can do is develop a brand, generate an independent online presence, and find jobs through their own networks and word of mouth. This is gonna separate the professional writer from the small-time writer. Yeah.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
Okay. I, I'd say that my best, uh, piece of business advice is to just go ahead and have the courage to take, uh, reasonable risks to expand your brands and, uh, your company mission. I don't mean that you should go out there and just drop $100,000 on the first investment option you trip over, but on contrast, when you have done adequate research, planning, and networking, then go ahead and pull the trigger on that, um, calculated leap of faith. I think developing your self-confidence is something that is very important when stepping into business.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
If I could go back and say 10 years ago, I would definitely tell myself to have more confidence in my ideas. There are many times in the past that I declined opportunities or failed to follow through on business ideas because I was worried that I would fail. I was worried that I would underdeliver or my money-making idea would in turn take money away from me. So I can only speculate as to where I would be professionally if I had learned earlier in life that my fears are always my biggest limitation and that I'm capable of whatever I set my mind to.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
So the key to happiness for me is going to sound kind of contradictory to what I said earlier about committing to reaching your goals. But I would say that the key to happiness is, above all else, contentment. There are many things in this life that fail despite our best efforts. There are a lot of things we just can't change for at least this moment. And those things are going to rob you from even the happiest of times because we as humans tend to obsess over what we cannot change. Once you learn to become content with things that are outside of our control, happiness is made possible. So.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
So I think this is probably going to be a pretty generic answer, but I think Zig Ziglar's book, See You at the Top, has to be one of my all-time favorites. In that book, he really drove home the point of controlling your attitude regardless of your situation, which I think is extremely important for entrepreneurs. Because I mean, let's be honest, stemming out of your own or stemming out on your own and trying to start something new from nothing is far from all butterflies and rainbows. Being able to absolutely control or have absolute control over your attitude in the hard times will only make every situation better. He says a positive attitude will have positive results.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote is actually from President Truman when he said, "The buck stops here." And I think more people in America need to have that perspective. That statement should be the cornerstone for business strategy and customer management. No matter where the problem arose, no matter what teammate caused that issue, the buck stops with the company representative. So you need to take control of the issue, own the downfalls, and make the issue your own until there is resolution.
Love it, man. Dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we do let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
Yeah, it was a blast doing it with you. I just launched my official website. It's at thepenningtonpost.com. So it's new endeavors. You'll see a lot of changes here in the future, but be sure to check it out and watch it grow.
Awesome, brother. Thanks again for joining us. We appreciate it.
All right. Thank you, Tyler Wagner.
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