Meet Expert in Residence Caleb Wojcik

How did you get started in entrepreneurship?

Back in 2010, I started blogging about personal finance at PocketChanged.com and starting read books & blogs by entrepreneurs like Chris Guillebeau, Tim Ferriss, and Gary Vaynerchuk. Running that blog led me to start working with Corbett Barr at Think Traffic in 2011 (which eventually became Fizzle.co). At that role I fell in love with video production and left in 2014 to start my own video production company and teach what I knew at CalebWojcik.com.

What makes you tick?

Systems. Processes. Checklists. Order. Rules. Structure. Anything that makes logical sense. 🙂

What does an average day in your entrepreneurial life look like?

The first few hours are about our three kids. Wakeup, breakfast, school drop-offs, etc. Then I settle into determining the three most important tasks for the day across my clients, my digital projects, and my physical product business (SwitchPod). Really changes each day depending on whether I’m recording, doing a lot of editing, or completing admin tasks. I keep strict hours, so I’m always done by five and barely work nights and weekends (see: three children).

What are your areas of expertise?

My main areas of expertise are everything to do with video: Filming, editing, equipment, software, and all the places to publish videos like YouTube, social media, or online courses. Through 10+ years of running my own business, I can make a mean spreadsheet, develop a course launch, run a podcast, set up a mailing list, and more. I’m also well-versed in physical product launches (via Kickstarter) and running an ecommerce brand on Shopify or through retailers.

What are you looking forward to most in your residence with the SPI Pro community? How specifically do you want to help entrepreneurs?

Beyond helping people with what I’m an “expert” in, I want to help those who feel stuck. People who know they can accomplish more than they are now, who can see where they want to be but for whatever reason just can’t see the path to make it there. This isn’t easy. Otherwise, everyone that has boring jobs they hate at companies they don’t like would do it. Being an entrepreneur is hard. But it is also the most rewarding way to spend your working time on the planet.

Why did you join the Expert in Residence program? What is it about Pro that makes it a special place/community for entrepreneurs?

This is a community of action-takers. I did a few accelerator group calls for a YouTube From Scratch cohort and each week I came back, people had already tried or implemented what we discussed on the previous call. I LOVE THAT. Action over research. You don’t see that in every community online. A lot of people just want to pretend or play business. This community is different. It is full of action-takers.

What is your biggest professional challenge to date, and how did you overcome it?

Juggling three types of businesses. Service, digital, and physical. I “overcome” it by being extremely focused on what I’m trying to do with each of them and understanding that they aren’t all going to be the biggest, best businesses out there, but they all help me to have fun, meet new people, and keep my income diversified.

What is your biggest professional win to date and what did you do to make it happen?

Launching SwitchPod on Kickstarter to raise over $415,000. To make it happen I worked a lot. 🙂 But more seriously, it was such a successful launch because we took our time and launched it when the time was right. We waited until our prototype was 100 percent ready. We waited until we had the right partners on board. We waited until the Kickstarter page was ready. We had to have patience for such a big launch.