CEO Kid – Shane Hudson of Success Circuit

I had the opportunity to interview one of the most supportive CEO Kids I have ever met! Shane Hudson of Success Circuit is a talented blogger, web designer, and interviewer of successful people from around the world. He began at just six years old learning computer programming.  Shane is so talented in seeing the gifts and talents in ALL people! You will want to go right away to be INSPIRED by the site he has created and the people he has interviewed!

Here is his interview and you can listen to it in the audio section for members:

Sarah – I’m Sarah Cook from Raising CEO Kids and today we are here with Shane Hudson from the Success Circuit and I’m so excited to be able to talk to Shane today because he has been doing online work since he was about six years old.  And now he’s 16, he has site, his Success Circuit that he’ll tell you about that he interviews people from all over the world that are successful and talks about principles of success and role modeling and all kinds of different aspects of business.  So I want him just to share some of the things that he’s learned from all the people that he’s interviewed as well as some of the things he’s interested in and where you can find him on the web.  So go ahead Shane and tell us first off where we can find you.

SH -     Hi.  Well, you can find me on SuccessCircuit.com which as you said I interview a lot of people.  There’s quite a bit on there.  And I’m also on places like Twitter and Facebook, which a lot of people like to go on.

Sarah – Exactly.  A lot of people do like to go on there.  So on twitter you’re @successcircuit, right?

SH -     Yeah, I’m also @shanehudson.  I have two.

Sarah – Okay.  You have two.  All right.  That’s good.  It’s a really good idea to have both pieces for your branding perspective.  That’s good.  And then on Facebook, you’re Shane Hudson on Facebook?

SH -     I am, yes.

Sarah – Okay.  How about are you on YouTube yet or not quite?

SH -     I have an account on YouTube but I haven’t actually done anything with it yet.

Sarah – All right.  So we’ll find you there after you’re there.  And tell us a little bit about maybe some of the people that most inspired you that you interviewed.

SH -     I’ve interviewed Cameron Johnson.  Yeah, he’s good.  Loads of people actually.  Even people that you probably never heard of like Corey Freeman and Kelly Armstrong who is my mum’s favorite author.  And everybody has a really inspiring story no matter what they are.  Like  Kelly Armstrong does fiction authoring which is nothing to do with business but it’s still really inspiring to anyone.  Which is good.

Sarah – That’s good.  So what did you learn most from Cameron Johnson?

SH -     I think it’s that you’ve got to start as soon as you can.  It’s like obviously he started right in doing things and taking action really early.  He is an extremely inspirational person.

Sarah – Good.  So tell us how you started doing web design and learning how to code websites and different computer type related issues?  How did you start that?  I mean, at six years old, that’s really really young.  How did you start that?

SH -     Well, yeah.  It wasn’t so much the website design back then because we didn’t have the internet.  But I was doing things like basic which is a programming language and I did a Tetris version on it.  And it’s mainly my uncle that ended up with it, let’s see my mom and dad as well, but my uncle has some books on it and I saw them and thought that was really interesting.  So I read them.  And although the books themselves weren’t extremely useful, they managed to get me to try things out and learn myself basically.

Sarah – That’s amazing.  And so did you design your website or did you have someone else design it for you?

SH -     Well, my websites based on a free template.  But I’ve always completely redesigned it and I am currently in the process of converting over to Thesis which is much more useful.

Sarah – Yeah, it definitely is.  Thesis is a really nice design.  So it’s based on a WordPress platform then and then you tweaked it with changing the colors I’m sure and lots of different aspects of it, putting in your own widgets and different things.  Right?  Okay.

SH -     Yeah, completely changing it and like everyday I think of something and have to change it.

Sarah – Yeah, yeah.  That’s the hard part.  I know this morning I spent some time on my own site and I thought, “Are you kidding, I’ve wasted this much time?”  So you kind of have to set a timer for yourself otherwise you run out of time.

SH -     That’s my problem.  I think of loads of things I need to do one day and then I start designing the website and I forget to do everything else.  It’s not good.

Sarah – No, not really.  All right, so you have a post on your site that was titled, “When I grow up.”   So tell me about who some of your role models are and why you really respect them in business and in life?

SH -     Well, I have a lot of role models.  Gary Vanyerchuck, he’s obviously one of the big ones and I only heard about him a few years ago, maybe only one year ago actually.  His passion and everything is almost like the same as me.  It’s like everything he says, I really understand stuff.  And Richard Branson, the same there.  All of his experiences and stuff, I’ve always said since before I had even heard of him that they were my dreams which kind of annoyed me when I found out he was experiencing them.  But I saw him near where I live and after I saw him there, it was like really inspirational because I was very young when my dad told me about him and stuff.

Sarah – That’s great.

SH -     But as I said earlier, it’s not just the famous people that are my role models.  Everybody I meet are inspirational in their own way.  So I can’t really say I’ve got any certain ones really.

Sarah – That’s true.  I think you hit it on the head.  You find people, you find out about them and then you see the inspiration, the good qualities and the truly giftedness in each person.  And I think that’s what makes you so successful in what you’re doing and so passionate about what you’re doing is that you truly look for success in everybody and you pull it out in your interviews and everything.  So I love that about you.

If you could do anything that you wanted to do because obviously, eventually you’re wanting to make huge amounts of income and really be able to change the world.  Not that money necessarily makes you happy because I don’t think it does.  But it definitely gives you choices and allows you to bless a lot of other people because of what you can do with that money.  So what would you love to do if you could do something what would you love to do?  Like what would be your perfect vision of a perfect business or a perfect lifestyle?

SH -     I’ve got a lot of ideas.  I’d like to travel the world.  Obviously everyone says that.  Go to Africa and see all of these people that you see about on TV stuff and like help them out and jump out of airplanes and just really do the best while I can.  Have a good time and help people.

Sarah – That’s awesome.  Well that’s different than me.  I’m kind of a homebody.  I don’t like to travel.  I mean, I like to be there but I don’t like the traveling part.  When I get to London or when I get to Paris because I’ve been to a lot of different places.  So when I get there I love it.  But the travel part, I could do without.

SH -     I suppose I don’t go away very often so I’m not so like scared of the traveling yet.

Sarah – ff Well, it’s not my favorite thing to do maybe because I get a little motion sick or something, I don’t know.  So all right.  Well, if you could just based on the interviews that you’ve done, if you’d give CEO kids maybe five tips that you’ve learned from other people what would you share with them?  What would you say, “If I could share with you just a few things that would change your world and really help you to be successful in your life whether it’s business or their personal life.”  What would you share with them?

SH -     Five things.  Well, firstly I’d say you’ve got to be what’s the word, opposite of pessimistic.  Like really certain and – that’s the one, optimistic.  Yeah, you have to be optimistic because otherwise you’re not going to get anywhere really are you.  And you just got to just, even if something bad happens, you have to get on with it really.  And certainly you have to take action.  If you’re just sitting at home playing the Wii, you’re not going to get anything done.  So you have to do something.  And one interview that I remember quite a bit was Joe.  He’s very different and online he calls himself Normal Joe but he’s different.  It’s really good to see these people that are willing to be different from everyone else because that’s part of the action.  And it’s some inspiration to watch him because like you think to yourself, I would never do that.  That’s really good.

Sarah – And so what about for parents?  I know you’re parents have probably really supported you so what about for parents?  What would you recommend to other, because you’re not a parent.  But if you could say, “This is what I love that my parents do or this is what I wish that my parents would do to support me.”  What were some ways that you feel like parents can best support their kids in being in business and in archiving their life goals?

SH -     Well, I think that parents that give their children money to start up, although that will help them, I think that you’d learn much more if you start with little money.  I know some people, not many of us.  Some people get given large amount of money from their parents just like that and they do successful.  But they’re not as successful as they would be if they started with nothing.

Sarah – Right.  If you have to really struggle and work it out, right?

SH -     Yeah.  So I think parents should be really supportive and give good advice and make sure their children listen to that advice.  Although I don’t listen to my mum’s advice all the time.  But yeah, I don’t think they should be doing it all for them really.

Sarah – You’re right.  Looking back, my parents did give really good advice and sometimes I didn’t take it and I had to learn my lessons.  And sometimes I took it maybe a year later and said, “Dang, I wish I would have done that earlier.”  But it was still good advice.  So I think you’re right, with parents we need to really listen to our gut and share with our kids things that are going to really help them even if it’s hard for them to hear.

SH -     Yeah, I wrote a post not long ago about hindsight.  And I read on one of the forums they say they wish they had hindsight.  But people don’t realize that most of us do have hindsight because there’s the internet and we’ve got phones and we have a few friends and family they have gone through, well I suppose the experience that you would have gone through.  So if you’d talk to the people then they will tell you where they’ve gone wrong and that way you don’t have to go wrong.

Sarah – You just have to be willing to listen.

SH -     Yeah, definitely.

Sarah – Got it.  Okay.  And what, is there anything that you would have changed?  I know you had, you’re still extremely young but is there anything that you wish you would have changed in the last six years since you been doing some things online and learning how to program and things like that.  Is there anything you would do differently or do you feel like nope, I’m just going to keep going forward?

SH -     Well, if I did do things differently, then I don’t know I would be where I am now.  My last blog was not very successful and I did give up with it actually.  But I learned so much from that that Success Circuit would not be here if it wasn’t for that.  That was “Lonely Designs” which you’ll read about in one of my first posts since Success Circuit.

Sarah – That’s so true.  You’re exactly right.  If you say, oh I wish I would have done this, then it wouldn’t have led you down the path to be where you are today.  So that’s so true.  Oh, my goodness.  I love that.  Well, I didn’t want to keep you too long because I know you’re extremely busy.  But is there anything else that you’d like to share because I know that in this coming year, you’re going to find some things I’m sure Shane that are going to make you wildly successful with profit as well and that will allow you to do those things like traveling to Africa and maybe going to India or I don’t know where else you want to go but I know definitely with the heart that you have and with the goodness that’s within your spirit, you will be able to really leave a huge impact on the world just by what you’ve already done but with also with what you want to do.  And I really hope that other kids will want to be just like you as far as the heart that you have the heart for giving back.  I know that’s something that’s really important to me to teach my own kids that yes, be successful but don’t just keep all that success to yourself; share it with others and I think that’s exactly what you’re doing.

SH -     Yeah, thank you.  One thing that I would like to say is that most people do think that money is the most important thing.  It’s not.  Success is what’s important but success is not money.  Money could be a bonus of success but success is helping people and making something or doing something that others aren’t doing, that sort of thing.  It is not about making a lot of money.  And it really annoys me when I see people saying that I’m really successful, I made lots of money because that’s not the case.  So yeah, thank you for all of what you said to me.  That’s very nice.

Sarah – Well, you’re so welcome.  Well, you deserve it.  I know that, I mean you can tell from reading your blog as well as from your tweets and stuff like that and just the comments that you’ve made, you can tell that you really just have such a great heart.  So I may be crossing my fingers for you that you find, that you dig deep and find exactly what you want to do next that will help you to do that traveling that you want to do and to go help all those people that you want to help because I know it does take some money to do those kinds of things.

SH -     Yeah.  Thank you.

Sarah – You’re so welcome.  Well, I will be able to, I will be sending this to you probably in the next day or so I’ll send you the recording and you can do whatever you want with it and then it will be appearing on raisingceokids.com and you’ll be able to find it there and then we will pick some quotes and things like that out from our interview today and we’ll be sharing those with other people in the book that we’re hoping to publish in the next several months.  So thank you for taking time with me today Shane.  I so appreciate you.  So you can find Shane on successcircuit.com and then you can also find him on Twitter and on Facebook and just do a Google search for him.  You’ll find him and you will find him doing good things and helping other people.  So I know you’ll be inspired and I know you’ll be grateful that you looked into what he’s doing.  So thank you so much Shane.