Latest / Founder Talk with Alex Sheridan / Podcast Expert Reveals How He's Built Top Shows That Drive Revenue

Transcript

Podcast Expert Reveals How He's Built Top Shows That Drive Revenue · Founder Talk with Alex Sheridan

• 0:00
  John Morris, founder of 444 Media.
• 0:02
  Let's welcome to the show, brother.
• 0:03
  I've. So you're awesome.
• 0:06
  You remember root beers, the drink, man, That's that's the
• 0:08
  thing. I just think that that's
• 0:10
  fantastic. It's always the little touches
• 0:11
  and the details. It's the little things really
• 0:13
  cool. Yeah, Meyer actually sells those
• 0:15
  individuals. Otherwise I was going to buy a
• 0:17
  pack and I like root beer, but I usually I usually drink my.
• 0:20
  Liquid. I've not had this one.
• 0:21
  Too. So really, yeah, it's the Meyer
• 0:23
  brand. It's the expensive kind of let's
• 0:25
  go. It's the so so dude.
• 0:28
  It's been fun following your journey, obviously, because
• 0:30
  we've been connected for I think five years now from COVID,
• 0:33
  really. Longer than that.
• 0:34
  Maybe it was 5 or 6 years or something like that and you had
• 0:37
  a very successful career and then was it this year that you
• 0:41
  decided to, you know, at 49 years old you decide to say.
• 0:45
  Yeah. I'm going to start my own
• 0:46
  business. Yeah.
• 0:47
  Is that right? Interesting.
• 0:49
  Not intended, right? So I had launched.
• 0:53
  You had the bug. Though I had the bug, it's
• 0:55
  always been in there because I've always, since I was 24,
• 0:58
  I've been leading teams and you know, an entrepreneurial spirit.
• 1:03
  I don't know that you can teach that.
• 1:05
  I think for many it's, it's innate, but it is definitely
• 1:11
  something that you catch the bug for.
• 1:13
  And so I always treated teams that I was managing like I own
• 1:17
  that team, like I owned a company within the company and I
• 1:21
  put a lot of time and energy and kind of pride into it.
• 1:24
  So I, I think you're right. I think it was inevitable.
• 1:26
  It was coming. In fact, I, I remember a time
• 1:28
  when I was probably 12 years old, my dad said, you're
• 1:30
  different from your brothers and sisters.
• 1:33
  And I was like, well, of course. Yeah, obviously.
• 1:34
  What does that mean? He's like, I think you're going
• 1:36
  to be an entrepreneur. And of course, you know, you
• 1:38
  don't know that you've you kind of fight it.
• 1:41
  And then next thing you know, you know, I'm 1718 years old.
• 1:43
  I'm starting my own painting company.
• 1:45
  And so then that kind of kicked in and then I went on this this
• 1:48
  kind of journey of working for other people and building sales
• 1:51
  teams. Recently though, I got this
• 1:55
  hankering in tail end of 2023, beginning of 2024 that I was
• 2:01
  going to get back into my golf game.
• 2:02
  You received the God tap. I got a God on the worst day of
• 2:05
  your life. It was the worst day, worst day
• 2:07
  and best day. That was 12/19/23.
• 2:10
  That's correct. Let's talk about that because
• 2:12
  that kind of leads into the to where you're at now.
• 2:14
  Yeah. So I've been battling with
• 2:16
  depression and anxiety since I was a child.
• 2:20
  I don't know how far into that you want to go, but there was,
• 2:23
  you know, some different scenarios that kind of 'cause
• 2:28
  that stress, if you will. And like anything else that
• 2:32
  comes and goes and comes and goes, and it has to be managed.
• 2:35
  I don't know that you ever get rid of it.
• 2:36
  It kind of has to be managed. I have this spirit about me that
• 2:41
  once I get it under control that I'm good, so I don't need to
• 2:44
  take my medicine anymore. I'm good.
• 2:47
  And I just kind of got off track, was making some bad
• 2:49
  decisions. And one thing that does not mix
• 2:54
  is substance abuse, whether it be alcohol or anything else.
• 2:58
  With depression, anxiety, they just don't mix.
• 3:01
  And when you get into those types of spirals, you look for a
• 3:06
  way to numb it. And what's interesting is when
• 3:10
  you numb it, you're not actually numbing it because once that
• 3:14
  wears off, it comes back tenfold.
• 3:16
  What's interesting about depression, anxiety, is I call
• 3:22
  it feeding the beast. So it's almost like you want it
• 3:26
  to go away, but you kind of want it to stay because it kind of is
• 3:29
  like feed that thing, man. Like let's get really depressed
• 3:33
  and then we can numb it more. And then do you feel like you're
• 3:36
  almost, like, motivated on top of the depression and the
• 3:38
  darkness? I talked about dark energy.
• 3:40
  We can go with a podcast guest. Like, let's fucking go.
• 3:42
  You know, the chip on your shoulder, the everything's bad.
• 3:45
  Oh, yeah. And you kind of feed off well.
• 3:46
  Dude, you know how I am. Yeah, right.
• 3:48
  So I can I get here. You want to go here?
• 3:50
  Let's go, man. I'm the let's go guy.
• 3:52
  You know, every team that I ever played for, I was the guy in the
• 3:55
  middle, like. In fact, I think people mostly
• 3:58
  what people see when when it comes to you.
• 4:00
  Because that's what I showed, right?
• 4:02
  And so I got into a really dark phase.
• 4:06
  I picked a fight with my wife because I was looking for the
• 4:10
  thing to kind of push me over. So I left work early one day,
• 4:14
  started drinking probably about 11:00, called her up at about
• 4:17
  5:00. I'm deep into it.
• 4:19
  She comes up, we have dinner, get into an argument that I
• 4:25
  picked. I had to come in, she walks out.
• 4:29
  That was the thing I needed. I get in my car, I get up to 140
• 4:32
  miles an hour on the highway on 90.
• 4:34
  I close my eyes three times, probably for anywhere from 45
• 4:39
  seconds to 90 seconds each time driving 140 miles an hour down
• 4:43
  90. I would but here's the
• 4:46
  interesting though I'm AI have a humanity side to me.
• 4:49
  I would wait till there was thousands of yards of empty
• 4:53
  space. And so I I didn't want to injure
• 4:56
  anyone else, that was for sure. But yeah, so I I would close my
• 5:00
  eyes and on the third time I heard a whether it's conscious
• 5:05
  or subconscious, I I got a got tap.
• 5:07
  I heard it not now. I broke down into tears
• 5:11
  immediately and the brakes slowed all the way down.
• 5:14
  I drove back to my house. There was, you know, a ruckus
• 5:19
  there. I was taken to the hospital.
• 5:21
  I spent two weeks in the hospital over Christmas.
• 5:26
  And on the second day that I was in there, another one of the
• 5:30
  patients came up to me. And I was, I was sitting in the
• 5:34
  room, you know, by myself, kind of sucking my thumb, if you
• 5:38
  will. What the hell did I just do?
• 5:41
  And then I'm angry at the whole world.
• 5:43
  So I'm looking for everything to blame it on.
• 5:46
  And he comes in, he goes. You know, if you stay in here,
• 5:50
  you'll never leave. Like you have to get involved.
• 5:54
  So if if you're mad and you think that this is like going to
• 5:58
  somehow be your cry for attention and they're going to
• 6:00
  be like, oh, well, he's mad, so let's let him out.
• 6:03
  That's not how this works. You're going to have to get
• 6:04
  involved. So I let that sit for a few
• 6:07
  hours and then I got involved and I went up to the nurse's
• 6:12
  desk and I said, can I get a journal?
• 6:15
  And she's like, OK, so what's the journal for?
• 6:18
  Now, mind you, no shoelaces, no belt, no nothing.
• 6:20
  So they're not exactly thrilled to give you a pen or a pencil.
• 6:23
  So give me a, a golf pencil, you know?
• 6:27
  And so I took this journal out and I just started writing.
• 6:30
  And the first thing I started with was asking for forgiveness,
• 6:35
  oddly enough, from myself. I had to forgive myself for this
• 6:39
  hole that I had dug. It's not easy to do, by the way.
• 6:44
  Gosh. Because it was a deep hole and I
• 6:48
  and it was self induced and I knew that.
• 6:50
  So then I looked up and I asked for forgiveness from God.
• 6:54
  And then something came over me and I just started writing.
• 6:57
  And in that, in that writing was a 25 point plan.
• 7:01
  And in that plan, I'm not sure exactly what point, but it was
• 7:05
  like at go get out of here, explain the story of your wife
• 7:10
  and kids, ask for their forgiveness.
• 7:12
  And just kind of I went down this like all these things that
• 7:15
  I was going to accomplish. One of those things was to join
• 7:19
  the Country Club up the street and to win the club
• 7:21
  championship. Now that sounds like to somebody
• 7:24
  listen to this, like how is that going to heal?
• 7:28
  Well, if I was going to replace my bad habits with any type of
• 7:33
  good habit, golf was the best habit.
• 7:36
  I can replace it with something that I'm really good at, I'm
• 7:40
  passionate about. And by the way, my family can
• 7:43
  go, he's at the golf course, he's good.
• 7:47
  So it it, it just kind of soothed me.
• 7:50
  So I just went deep into that. And in that I had said I'm
• 7:54
  addicted to Grant Horvat. Grant Horvat's a YouTube golfer
• 7:59
  and Bryce in the Shambo. So I don't watch TVI watch
• 8:02
  YouTube golf. That's it.
• 8:03
  And and I, and I became a student of it, start watching
• 8:07
  like how the camera worked and like what shots were they
• 8:10
  getting at what angle and the conversation.
• 8:12
  So I wrote down on there that I was going to start my own
• 8:18
  YouTube golf show. Golf with Jamo, right?
• 8:21
  Golf with Jamo. So I accomplished joining the
• 8:24
  club, I won the club championship.
• 8:26
  I started checking off all these things, apologizing to people,
• 8:29
  getting myself under control as of this December.
• 8:34
  Well, it is December, isn't it? What?
• 8:36
  In 17 days, it'll be two years sober, back to church, lost 40
• 8:41
  lbs. And but in that was I was going
• 8:46
  to launch another podcast. I had left the company that I
• 8:51
  had this career at. I went to another company.
• 8:53
  It launched the second podcast and we both know that one time
• 8:56
  might be locked 2 times as a potential trend.
• 8:59
  First podcast got the top 5% globally for business and
• 9:02
  marketing. Second in 40 episodes got the
• 9:05
  top 10% for business and marketing.
• 9:07
  Now we're going, OK, maybe we got something.
• 9:09
  So in June I call up one of my previous guests who is now a
• 9:14
  current client who is an ex golf digest golf pro.
• 9:18
  He was doing the training videos and a hell of a guy I said hey,
• 9:22
  could we be my first guest. So we filmed the pilot episode
• 9:25
  and I had my two older sons working cameras and a guy that
• 9:29
  drove in from South Dakota and he's working a camera and we
• 9:33
  played nine holes and I asked him 9 questions, have the GoPro
• 9:36
  set up and put out this pilot episode and it got 12,000 views
• 9:40
  on the long form or 1200 views on the long form, excuse me?
• 9:44
  And it got 40,000 views to the seven or eight clips that we
• 9:47
  made. I thought to myself, I think I
• 9:50
  got something here and I had people reaching out to me like,
• 9:53
  hey, that was you're in your element.
• 9:55
  Yeah, I could see it for sure. Yeah, definitely so.
• 10:00
  I then announced on LinkedIn that I was the owner and creator
• 10:04
  of the Golf with Jamo show and I started a LinkedIn page and that
• 10:06
  caused a bit of a ruffling of feathers.
• 10:09
  Oh, did it? Previous company.
• 10:13
  So at this point, you're not you're not saying I'm going to
• 10:15
  go start my own business and be an entrepreneur, quit my job.
• 10:17
  You're just thinking I'm doing the show.
• 10:19
  It's passion. It's helping me recover.
• 10:20
  Look, it's good for me. God's at the wheel right now.
• 10:23
  My friend, right, that's what you thought that's.
• 10:27
  You know, I'm just, I'm following break and if I feel it
• 10:30
  and I and I hear it in my mind or I feel it in my heart and I
• 10:34
  I'm praying on a lot of stuff, but I'm not forcing anything
• 10:37
  right now. I'm just kind of letting it come
• 10:40
  to me like a really good shortstop.
• 10:42
  You let that ball come into your, you know, we're not going
• 10:45
  out and getting it. I'm just kind of letting it come
• 10:47
  to me. And so, yeah, had a little bit
• 10:52
  of a conversation there. It didn't quite work out.
• 10:54
  And next thing I know, I'm starting 444.
• 10:58
  Media 444, the name is, because those are my Angel numbers.
• 11:03
  Every day since the second day I was in the hospital, I have seen
• 11:07
  those numbers in a row three to five times a day, every day
• 11:11
  somewhere. How so?
• 11:13
  On my odometer, on the clock, the coffee machine, I could wake
• 11:17
  up at 4:30, go make coffee. The coffee is ready.
• 11:19
  It's 444. So today you saw it.
• 11:22
  I've seen it three times already.
• 11:23
  No shit. I watched what was the football
• 11:26
  game last night. The clock stopped at a time out.
• 11:28
  It was at 4 minute and 42nd. What, 44 second mark in the
• 11:32
  second quarter or whatever. I mean, it happens.
• 11:34
  I have pictures on my phone. Do you think there's something
• 11:37
  significant with those numbers? So I looked up what the numbers
• 11:40
  mean. It means allowed divine timing
• 11:41
  to take shape. Oh wow, that's interesting.
• 11:43
  So what that? Tells me is that I was saved #1
• 11:48
  #2 my biggest challenge has always been a lack of patience.
• 11:53
  And there's something telling me you don't have to force it.
• 11:57
  You don't have to rush. You're we got you.
• 12:01
  Just let it, let it work, do the right things and let it come to
• 12:06
  fruition. So to your point, like no plans
• 12:09
  to start a company, but you know, sometimes you make
• 12:13
  decisions that force the hand of yourself or other people and it
• 12:18
  clears a path for what was intended for you.
• 12:22
  And so I think that that's what happened.
• 12:24
  And in fact, I, I went home after an intense conversation
• 12:28
  and I talked to my wife. She goes, well, what did you
• 12:31
  think was going to happen? I'm like, well, what do you mean
• 12:34
  she goes, well, wouldn't you post it on LinkedIn?
• 12:36
  Like you kind of forced the hand.
• 12:38
  I'm like, I guess I kind of did, didn't I?
• 12:42
  So sometimes, you know, we, we, we plan things out and we create
• 12:48
  them. Sometimes subconsciously what's
• 12:51
  running it, we don't know. And I think you probably had a
• 12:53
  similar thing when you were in business development and started
• 12:56
  creating content to sell more. And then you're like, wait a
• 12:59
  minute, this is a thing. And that's kind of the
• 13:02
  trajectory that I'm following in this regard.
• 13:04
  So would they basically had a conversation with you, you guys
• 13:07
  butted heads and then you made the decision to all right, this
• 13:10
  is my time. Yeah, so there was a there was
• 13:12
  a, and rightfully so. And no, no ill will whatsoever.
• 13:15
  It was a great run. I enjoyed my time.
• 13:17
  I was treated extremely well. Great people there.
• 13:21
  And I can, you know, in the moment, maybe you don't see
• 13:23
  their point. Maybe I see it a little bit
• 13:25
  better now. But essentially the conversation
• 13:27
  was, hey, look, this is a conflict of interest.
• 13:29
  You're the face and voice of this show now.
• 13:31
  You're kind of moving over here to be the face and voice of
• 13:34
  that. It's a conflict.
• 13:35
  I didn't see it that way because I thought, hey, look, I'm going
• 13:38
  to leverage this for my current role.
• 13:43
  You see it one way, I see in another, but nobody's right.
• 13:46
  But there was a decision that you had to make because you
• 13:48
  could have said, all right, I won't do the show.
• 13:49
  I'll go back to this podcast for the company.
• 13:51
  But you decided. I bet on myself, that was.
• 13:53
  And what was that? Was that what was that
• 13:55
  conversation like in your mind or was it something you talked
• 13:57
  over with your wife or how did that?
• 13:58
  Come. Well, here's the crazy part, OK?
• 14:00
  Did you decide it in the moment with your, your talk with your?
• 14:03
  Company I decided that day it was there was no, you know, hey,
• 14:06
  go home and think about it, It was that.
• 14:07
  So when they brought you in to talk to you about it, you're
• 14:09
  like, it's me, I just said. Yeah, I'm going to go.
• 14:11
  Do it. I'm the one.
• 14:12
  I'm going to go do it. And you know, what's cool was
• 14:14
  there was an encouragement of that and in fact, they became my
• 14:16
  first client. That's cool.
• 14:18
  So and then, you know, it just didn't work out after that.
• 14:22
  And and sometimes, you know, you try and make something happen
• 14:25
  that isn't meant to happen. It just wasn't meant to happen.
• 14:27
  So, but what ended up being really amazing about it is once
• 14:35
  I kind of was like, well, I'm doing this and I started to let
• 14:39
  people know I'm doing this not through a cold call, not through
• 14:44
  an e-mail blast through content. Of course.
• 14:47
  All of a sudden DM sort of come in, Hey, can you do for me what
• 14:51
  you did for them? Hey, can you do?
• 14:53
  And so then I think I looked at my wife about a month and I'm
• 14:56
  like, I have 4 clients already and I haven't made a call and
• 15:00
  like I'm drinking through a fire hose and this is amazing.
• 15:05
  What happens when I really put my emphasis into this?
• 15:09
  Cause the first month I'm like do I have?
• 15:10
  Something to put. My resume out do I need to call
• 15:13
  Alex? Like what like what am I?
• 15:16
  What am I doing here? Right.
• 15:17
  So once I figured out that I had a model that I had used for two
• 15:27
  of the companies that were bigger brands that were invested
• 15:29
  into it, and I could take that model and I could duplicate it
• 15:33
  in multiple companies, then I started to recognize that I had
• 15:36
  something. Yeah.
• 15:37
  And those experiences gave you the opportunities to build the
• 15:40
  skills that you then took out and used so.
• 15:42
  But I'm like, yeah, so Alex, I, I had a 20 year sales career,
• 15:47
  you know, in, in 1999, I got my first inside sales job, right?
• 15:52
  And I had a very fast trajectory, probably weighed
• 15:56
  into some of my anxiety and depression and that I took off
• 16:01
  way faster than most people should take off like by 24, you
• 16:05
  know, I'm making $200,000 at 24. And by the way, in what, 19?
• 16:10
  That was a lot. In 2002 or whatever, like like
• 16:14
  that's crazy for a, a kid who failed out of college and it's
• 16:18
  just has become really good at sales.
• 16:20
  Like, and I took off and, and then there were some moments at
• 16:26
  that, at that company that kind of put me back in my place.
• 16:29
  And then 2008 hit and I lost everything and I was out of work
• 16:33
  for a year. And, and so the spiral, you
• 16:37
  know, was always waiting there behind the scenes.
• 16:40
  And this time was different because this time I was going to
• 16:44
  lean into it and like follow through.
• 16:46
  And that's I'm in the midst of it right now.
• 16:48
  It's funny, man, cuz me and Pete, who's a mutual connection,
• 16:51
  a friend of ours, we would always, we talked sometimes be
• 16:53
  like, John should start his own fucking business.
• 16:55
  You know, like he just you remind me of when I was in
• 16:58
  corporate and I would be like writing playbooks or trainings
• 17:01
  or in sales stuff and I'd be like, you have this
• 17:03
  entrepreneurial side of you that's like just wants to come
• 17:06
  out and play so freaking bad man, like.
• 17:08
  Alex, it's so true cuz I would take I would write those
• 17:11
  playbooks and I would take them to my boss and dude, just stick
• 17:14
  to the script, man. They would no, they like stiff
• 17:17
  on me like no, no, no, just stick to the script, the script.
• 17:20
  So it was cool when I got to club colors because they were
• 17:23
  like, OK, this is crazy, but let's get a shot.
• 17:26
  And so that was really cool that they believed in me to do that.
• 17:30
  So. What did you, so obviously your
• 17:33
  company now helps companies build out podcast strategies,
• 17:36
  build outs, you help them run the show, you do content
• 17:39
  strategy. What initially got you in the
• 17:41
  podcast because you're very bullish on podcast and I'm
• 17:44
  curious why and how did you originally at Club Colors get
• 17:47
  into it? So what was really cool about
• 17:49
  working for a brain management firm is we were selling
• 17:51
  promotional products and branded apparel and the stigma is that
• 17:54
  it's trinkets of trash. We hated the word swag.
• 17:58
  If you said chotsky near us, we got repulse.
• 18:00
  We might swing at you. So we were always about creating
• 18:04
  a brand experience. That was the nomenclature that
• 18:07
  we were using. We're going to create a brand
• 18:09
  experience, lasting memories, right?
• 18:12
  So when you hand out a promotional product, you're not
• 18:15
  handing out A2 dimensional product with a logo on it.
• 18:18
  You're giving something that is memorable, that's going to
• 18:21
  create a lasting impression and a brand experience.
• 18:25
  So I was, I was indoctrinated in a great way into that thought
• 18:30
  process and I'm very thankful for that because that really is
• 18:34
  something to the point I walk in here, I got your root beer.
• 18:38
  That's a brand experience. I'm going to remember that as
• 18:41
  much as this great experience, but I'm going to remember that
• 18:44
  you thought of me that way. So when I went into club callers
• 18:48
  initially, I was brought in as the sales manager and I kind of
• 18:51
  looked around at the organization and I said, well,
• 18:55
  there's so many great things here.
• 18:56
  Like what am I going to do? Like it's already kind of
• 18:59
  running pretty well. Like, and I was given the the
• 19:02
  instruction that like this is not a turnover turn around job,
• 19:05
  dude. Like you don't have to go in
• 19:07
  there and like just blow the. Thing out OK and.
• 19:09
  That's what I was accustomed to. This is like, in fact, I'd never
• 19:13
  had somebody say, take six months to analyze the company.
• 19:16
  I'm like, you're going to pay me for six months just to think and
• 19:19
  learn and analyze. And so I really got a chance to
• 19:22
  kind of sit back, get to know everybody and look for the
• 19:25
  weaknesses. Where I saw that what there were
• 19:28
  weaknesses was there wasn't a lot of rallying, kind of team
• 19:36
  type of energetic incentive and team building things where you
• 19:42
  would go. This is our identity.
• 19:44
  We are this company, we do this. So I started to think, OK, well,
• 19:49
  how can I take identity and turn it into increased productivity?
• 19:54
  Or it's, you know, inspiration that that leads to incentives.
• 19:57
  So the first step I I I called up and I said, Hey, can you buy
• 20:02
  me a gong? I remember I've been to the
• 20:05
  office. Yeah.
• 20:05
  And they're like, they're like, yeah, OK.
• 20:08
  They're like, what form? Like don't worry about it.
• 20:10
  They're six months like I need, I need.
• 20:12
  A gong. They're like, here we go.
• 20:14
  So I'm sitting at my desk and a package comes in and it's about,
• 20:18
  you know, yay big. And I open it up and it's the
• 20:20
  gong. And I call up.
• 20:21
  I'm like, no, no, no, no thank you.
• 20:24
  But I'm talking about our gong. Like I need a big gong.
• 20:27
  The reason I put that in place is our average transaction was X
• 20:32
  and I was at a management meeting two weeks into being
• 20:35
  there and I heard one of the Co CEO say if we can keep the
• 20:38
  employee count the same and make the same amount of transactions
• 20:43
  but increase the value of each transaction by $150.00 our
• 20:47
  revenue will jump to this. So my thought was, well, how can
• 20:51
  I create a brand identity while incentivizing the team to
• 20:54
  upsell? So I put this gong in place and
• 20:58
  I essentially said if you make a sale over $5000, you get 1 gong
• 21:02
  head 10,002. And it was a way to inspire
• 21:06
  people and motivate people to get this kind of crazy thing to
• 21:11
  be able to stand up and hit the gong.
• 21:12
  Now, what was interesting was there was a lot of veterans that
• 21:16
  were there. They were like, this is crazy,
• 21:17
  we're not doing this. And at one point I went up to
• 21:20
  him and I said, it's not for you.
• 21:22
  It's for the people that want to be like you.
• 21:24
  So if you get up and you hit this gong and you describe to
• 21:27
  him how you took a client from a no to a yes and then a yes, that
• 21:32
  was 5X because you upsold them on kidding and inserts and all
• 21:37
  this other stuff, then they're going to go, oh, that's how you
• 21:40
  do that. So you get the to hit the gong
• 21:43
  and get recognized, they get the teaching, we all win, and then
• 21:48
  we make a team incentive around that.
• 21:51
  So that was the first step. Second step was put the belt in
• 21:54
  and then we start putting A wish board up.
• 21:56
  We put all these different things in.
• 21:57
  So next thing you know, the company's scaling, I start
• 22:00
  hiring people underneath me to manage the direction of the CE
• 22:04
  OS. Hey, build a team underneath you
• 22:05
  to manage so you can start to delegate.
• 22:08
  Cool. We get that built.
• 22:10
  So now it's 2019, we're up 35% over the year before record
• 22:14
  year. And I'm kind of, I got layers of
• 22:17
  management. I'm kind of like what do I do
• 22:19
  now? I got them all doing all the
• 22:21
  stuff that they're working the model and it's working.
• 22:24
  So January, February 2020, we're up 40% over the 35% year COVID
• 22:32
  hits. We all know what happens by May.
• 22:35
  We're down 80%. So this is when the content
• 22:41
  journey starts. So I'm like, well, how are we
• 22:43
  going to get our message out? Nobody's answering the phone.
• 22:45
  So I take the phone, I turn around, I start doing did you
• 22:48
  knows? And the first did you know that
• 22:50
  I did was we shifted our model from promotional products to
• 22:53
  PPE, logoed face covers, logoed hand sanitizers.
• 22:58
  Pretty brilliant when we had to change all the company stores
• 23:00
  that we had built, put new product in there, open up the
• 23:03
  channels, the top of the the heap did that.
• 23:06
  They were brilliant in doing that.
• 23:07
  My job was to get the message out and then figure out what
• 23:09
  worked and then train the sales team on how to do it.
• 23:12
  Next thing I know, I start getting people sending me DMS
• 23:15
  like, hey, I saw that you can do T-shirts now.
• 23:18
  I see you do PPE. Can you get me 1000 face covers?
• 23:23
  And I'm like, yeah, no problem. And a big client, the third
• 23:28
  largest insurance broker in the world, I reached out through
• 23:33
  LinkedIn DM and said, hey, I know that's your company store,
• 23:36
  you don't have any PPE on it. We could set that up overnight
• 23:39
  for you. And he's like, he had sticked on
• 23:41
  me 3 weeks, 4 weeks earlier before COVID hit, right?
• 23:45
  And then he's like, yeah, let's do that.
• 23:47
  So that was one of the first stores.
• 23:48
  And now there's still a huge client.
• 23:51
  So in that I pitched the idea that we would do a podcast.
• 23:55
  So now tie all of that together. I know it's a long story, but
• 23:57
  I'm, I'm getting somewhere. So tie all that together.
• 24:02
  We bring a client in, a current client.
• 24:05
  We, we have them come in, they walk through the sales
• 24:08
  department. Somebody in sales stands up and
• 24:11
  goes, what do we do when a guest is here and everyone yells guest
• 24:15
  gongs. We turn the gong from a sales
• 24:18
  incentive into a tour stop. So now the guest comes in and we
• 24:23
  go. I take the mallet, I go, this is
• 24:27
  an honor we only give to our top guests and our top sales
• 24:32
  performers. We'd be honored if you'd hit our
• 24:34
  gone. And they're like, whoa, this is
• 24:37
  the thing. And everyone's got their phones
• 24:39
  out and they're all taking pictures and the guest hits the
• 24:41
  gone. Then we take them to the the
• 24:44
  leading salesperson. We go hold up the belt.
• 24:46
  So now we've got them holding up.
• 24:48
  So we literally took a stranger that was a client that had never
• 24:53
  been to our office and essentially folded them into our
• 24:56
  culture in an hour. So smart.
• 24:59
  So now we've got all that content, the video, the
• 25:01
  pictures. So we start posting those things
• 25:03
  out. Then we bring them back.
• 25:06
  I take them up to meet with the CEO's.
• 25:08
  CEO's. I tell them stay up, stay up
• 25:12
  here. We called air traffic control,
• 25:14
  stay up in the tower. I'm going to bring them in.
• 25:16
  So it's like an honor to come meet our CEO.
• 25:18
  So I deify the CEO's. It's a big deal to come meet
• 25:21
  our. They're going to take time out.
• 25:23
  CEO stand up, tell stories, make them feel like 1,000,000 bucks.
• 25:27
  They walk out skipping, hit the gong, held the belt, met the
• 25:31
  sales team. Every person stands up and
• 25:33
  shakes their hand. Then I bring him into the
• 25:36
  podcast room. Now at that point, they can't
• 25:40
  wait to talk about how great the experience has been so far.
• 25:44
  So what do I have? A testimonial?
• 25:46
  I got a testimonial of what it feels like to come to our
• 25:50
  facility. And now I've got also energy so
• 25:55
  that when they're on the podcast, they're not nervous,
• 25:57
  they're not boring, They're going to tell compelling stories
• 26:01
  and they're going to have a twinkle in their eye because
• 26:03
  they just had an amazing experience.
• 26:05
  So you do the testimonial first, record that, and then you get
• 26:07
  into the podcast. So you create the brand
• 26:10
  experience. Yeah, it's tucked in.
• 26:12
  So in the opening it's like, hey, it's so great to have you
• 26:15
  here. Yeah.
• 26:16
  What have you thought about it so far?
• 26:18
  Oh my gosh, that's cool. Now they're they're giving that.
• 26:21
  So along the way are all things that we sell.
• 26:25
  We sell the belts, We we give them a gift that's AT shirt or a
• 26:30
  speaker, right? These are all products that we
• 26:32
  were sourcing and selling. So it's like a no brainer that
• 26:36
  we're essentially introducing them to what it could look like
• 26:39
  at their brand. If you gave somebody a tour and
• 26:42
  made them part of the culture, created the content, gave them a
• 26:46
  guest gift, put them on a microphone, collaborated with
• 26:50
  them by promoting them and then giving up all the clips and then
• 26:54
  sending it to them. So that was like, how do I
• 26:58
  create in one recording day? How do I create the ultimate
• 27:03
  brand experience for the guest who was a current customer, a
• 27:07
  potential customer or an influential person like an Alex
• 27:11
  B Sheridan who was on, who came in?
• 27:13
  And I wanted you to talk to the sales team.
• 27:15
  Why? I wanted the sales team to be
• 27:17
  like you. So if I could get the sales team
• 27:20
  35 people to post everyday like you do, imagine how dynamic of a
• 27:26
  sales team a company would have if they had 35.
• 27:31
  Alex B Sheridan's and John Morris is working for the
• 27:33
  company. They could close deals.
• 27:36
  They're still writing it up. They're doing all that.
• 27:37
  But they were also brand champions.
• 27:39
  They were telling the story of the brand every single day.
• 27:42
  That sales team will dominate. So I was trying to leave from
• 27:47
  the front and doing that, and the podcast became the nucleus
• 27:51
  of how to batch all that content and create that ultimate
• 27:55
  experience. What did you see from a a
• 27:58
  podcast from the outcomes and results standpoint for anyone
• 28:01
  that's listening? That's like, I thought about
• 28:02
  doing a podcast. I kind of think I might be into
• 28:04
  it, but I'm not really sure. Is there a business ROI is
• 28:06
  there, you know, because from us, I mean, man, you get a ton
• 28:08
  of great content, you enjoy doing it.
• 28:11
  You do create a brand experience.
• 28:12
  You bring people in, you have their favorite drink, you got a
• 28:14
  gift box. You do, you know, you have an
• 28:16
  awesome conversation. You build a relationship that
• 28:18
  lasts way longer. Than the way.
• 28:21
  Longer than the podcast. It's not like a OK, John, see
• 28:23
  you next. You know, you build a community
• 28:25
  around it if you want to, and then some of those people just
• 28:28
  naturally end up turning into clients.
• 28:30
  I'm curious what you saw from your. 100% And I had no idea
• 28:33
  that that was going to happen. And to be honest with you, I've
• 28:35
  never gone viral. I've created a lot of content.
• 28:39
  I've never gone viral, but somehow everything that I've
• 28:41
  done is create a revenue. So this is the biggest
• 28:44
  challenge, I think a lot of people.
• 28:45
  Have and you don't need to go viral all the time.
• 28:47
  That's it. You don't.
• 28:48
  It's nice. Yeah, you find your pocket, you
• 28:50
  find your pocket and you dig down on value for that niche and
• 28:54
  that particular audience. Man, 90% of the people that have
• 28:57
  gone viral in the world either had celebrity status already,
• 29:01
  yeah, or did something absolutely ridiculous that you
• 29:03
  can't duplicate. Like, are you going to push your
• 29:05
  kid down the stairs once a week to go viral every time, or are
• 29:09
  you going to slam the door on grandma and have her fall down
• 29:11
  the stairs? Yeah, because those are most of
• 29:13
  the videos that go viral. And it doesn't usually generate
• 29:15
  revenue unless you're maybe an influencer or something like
• 29:17
  that. But for AB to B Company, it's
• 29:18
  like we need to put out the content that actually brings in
• 29:21
  business and builds a brand that people recognize and love.
• 29:24
  That's it. So the the idea was #1 let's
• 29:28
  have on our current customers because no brainer depth of
• 29:32
  partnership, yeah, saturation. Let's just be honest, no matter
• 29:38
  how good you are, your competition is going to call
• 29:41
  your clients totally. Are they armed to say no, Alex
• 29:45
  is the best because he does this above and beyond.
• 29:49
  So what are the intangibles that you offer beyond your products
• 29:52
  and services? So that was always my thing is
• 29:54
  like, I know First off in our agreements that we had, and I'm
• 29:59
  referring to the promotional product and branded apparel
• 30:01
  space still, but in those agreements you rarely had a
• 30:05
  preferred stature where they only bought from you.
• 30:09
  You're one of four, one of 17. So take a university, there's
• 30:14
  300 buyers of promotional products there.
• 30:17
  You might have four of them that are your clients and you're
• 30:19
  fighting with the other 17 preferred vendors over the
• 30:23
  remainder. So if it always comes down to
• 30:27
  product or price, that's a race to the bottom.
• 30:30
  So what's our differentiator? What causes us to stand out?
• 30:35
  So I felt like that was a great way to stand out.
• 30:38
  Was that like we promoted your brand, promoted your thought
• 30:42
  leadership so that the the podcast and you know, this was
• 30:45
  never about me. It was never about club callers.
• 30:47
  It was never about the people. It was never about our roles.
• 30:50
  It was always about the guest and promoting the gas.
• 30:53
  We got the secondary benefit of that.
• 30:55
  So first current customer, second sales kills me right now.
• 31:01
  And here's the reason. It is completely
• 31:03
  counterintuitive to everything that we know as human beings.
• 31:08
  We call up a complete stranger on the phone and we asked them
• 31:11
  for their most precious commodity.
• 31:13
  Time to offer them something they didn't know existed, they
• 31:18
  likely don't want, and they didn't even know that they
• 31:21
  needed. And they're not in the market at
• 31:23
  the moment for it. So it's not even impulsive.
• 31:27
  Now, you might get lucky every once in a while if you dial
• 31:30
  enough to find that. But for the most part, we're
• 31:34
  calling up and asking somebody for the most precious commodity.
• 31:37
  Now reverse the call. Hey, I'd love to have you on to
• 31:40
  talk about your brand, to promote who you are, what you
• 31:43
  do. I'm going to create an hour and
• 31:46
  a half long content, give it to you, post it, push it out on all
• 31:49
  my platforms. I'm going to chop it up into
• 31:51
  multiple clips. I'm going to give it to you.
• 31:52
  You could do whatever you want with it and I'm going to give
• 31:55
  you an amazing brand experience and I'll fly you in.
• 32:00
  That's a lot different call then.
• 32:02
  Hey, can I get an hour of your time on a Zoom?
• 32:05
  I always tell people, people with prospects will say yes all
• 32:08
  day long to be in on your podcast or show versus you
• 32:12
  trying to sales pitch them in the DMS or e-mail or phone
• 32:14
  calls. And sure, to your point, you can
• 32:16
  send out 1000 and maybe you do get a couple, but you lose a lot
• 32:19
  of brand trust and probably a lot of that communication too.
• 32:22
  But you asked 10 people to be on your show.
• 32:24
  Seven of them will say, yeah. And.
• 32:26
  By the way, you know why? Let's break it down to the the
• 32:29
  simplest form 1 is an ask, the other is a give.
• 32:34
  And reciprocity tells me if I give first, you almost feel
• 32:39
  compelled to give back, especially if you're a good
• 32:42
  human. So if I give you 3 things and I
• 32:45
  asked for this little one thing, is that worth your time?
• 32:49
  What if I give you 10 things and ask you for one thing?
• 32:52
  And eventually, if if I had you on a podcast, I've given you the
• 32:56
  experience, I promoted you, I've got your college roommate you
• 32:59
  haven't talked to in 15 years, saw you on YouTube and reaches
• 33:02
  out and goes, dude, what the hell are you doing on a podcast,
• 33:05
  right? And you've got suppliers and
• 33:08
  vendors going. You were really good on that.
• 33:11
  Now when I call you up and say, hey, remember that one thing I
• 33:14
  asked for, I just want one shot the next time you go to bed,
• 33:18
  just give me one chance. Can you do that?
• 33:22
  They're going to say yes. You're going to get.
• 33:23
  It once you have the one chance you better be damned good, then
• 33:26
  it's then. You got to then you got to show
• 33:28
  up and do your. You better got to do work, yeah?
• 33:30
  But the hardest part right now for any of us is to get the
• 33:33
  attention getting in of people that are in a noisy world that
• 33:36
  are being pulled in 9 million different directions.
• 33:38
  And I feel like this is a great Ave. to do that.
• 33:42
  Now, what did you say to the CEO?
• 33:43
  That's like, we need leads and clients today, John.
• 33:46
  We can't wait to build a podcast and have people on every week.
• 33:49
  What do you say to those CEO's? Well, First off, I would say
• 33:53
  that's ACEO that probably spent a lot of times in time in
• 33:56
  accounting operations and or was in sales and has completely lost
• 34:00
  sight of what sales actually is anymore.
• 34:04
  Because the fact of the matter is in the old days, I could pile
• 34:07
  on the phone 300 times, get 60 people to talk to me, funnel
• 34:11
  that down to 30 and give you 15 leads for tomorrow.
• 34:15
  Now if I make 300 calls, I get two people to answer.
• 34:17
  So how am I going to get you the 15 leads?
• 34:20
  So I have to create a brand experience, though.
• 34:23
  Can that happen overnight? Can I get you the leads
• 34:25
  tomorrow? Unlikely.
• 34:28
  Can I get them by the end of the week?
• 34:30
  If I if, if I helped you build a podcast and you did a batching
• 34:34
  recording session where you just said this week all we're going
• 34:37
  to do is bring in 20 clients. We're going to record 20
• 34:40
  episodes in a week. Yeah, I can give you 19 leads
• 34:44
  right there. And by the way, a year of
• 34:47
  content. Yes.
• 34:50
  Exactly. And content and, and by the way,
• 34:55
  fandom evangelism ambassadors, because every one of those
• 35:00
  people leaves, gets in their car and goes.
• 35:04
  That was awesome. You know what they do?
• 35:06
  Then they flip the phone and they go.
• 35:07
  I just met with Alec Sheridan. You wouldn't believe.
• 35:12
  Now they're promoting you for you.
• 35:14
  So in their network of followers are leads as well.
• 35:18
  Totally. And you get referrals to be on
• 35:20
  the show and yeah, for sure. What about the CEO or the
• 35:23
  founder that says, listening right now and they say, man,
• 35:26
  this podcasting seems like it'd be good for our business and
• 35:28
  leads and clients and all this stuff and the content.
• 35:31
  God, I don't want to do it though, but I'll do it just
• 35:33
  because I got, you know, it's we'll, we'll create the revenue
• 35:36
  or whatever it is. What's your advice to that
• 35:38
  person? I would say either either a line
• 35:42
  you know. Because you know how some of
• 35:43
  these shows are, right? It feels like.
• 35:46
  Hi John, welcome to the show. What's your favorite color?
• 35:49
  So that's the first thing is that I would tell them that if
• 35:52
  you, if you feel that way, you shouldn't do the show on your
• 35:54
  own. I agree.
• 35:54
  You need a coach. Or maybe just not do the show.
• 35:57
  Maybe just don't do the show. Maybe podcasting is not your
• 36:00
  Ave. Maybe it's short porn videos?
• 36:01
  Or YouTube or not your face or voice like me or you to host the
• 36:05
  show for you. That's right.
• 36:06
  And build you a show and we'll be the face or voice for the
• 36:08
  show for you. We'll host the damn thing and
• 36:11
  it'll it'll be logoed out with your logo behind.
• 36:15
  And we will be doing it on your behalf of the brand.
• 36:18
  Or you identify two or three people within your organization
• 36:21
  that have the appropriate personality.
• 36:23
  They have to be curious, capable of communicating, someone
• 36:28
  entertaining, maybe someone aesthetically pleasing, perhaps
• 36:32
  somebody who is an expert. Maybe it's a combination of you
• 36:34
  hit all those points with a panel.
• 36:37
  But I would say that CEO LED content is the best content
• 36:41
  because if I'm being honest, I buy from an organization when
• 36:47
  it's not like a retail or. He's.
• 36:50
  Talking about a service right, where it's going to be a year
• 36:53
  long, 2 year long commitment or whatever it might be.
• 36:56
  They're going to play a part in how my business functions.
• 37:00
  I kind of like to know who's steering the ship.
• 37:01
  Hell yeah. So I think that the other thing
• 37:06
  that is ACEO could do is be the guest on your own show.
• 37:09
  So have your director of sales be the host, curate the
• 37:13
  questions and get a a guest on that's a current or potential
• 37:18
  customer who is the guest with the CEO guest.
• 37:22
  Have somebody run point and ask both of you questions so that
• 37:27
  you're communicating. The camera is not on you, it's
• 37:32
  in the room while you're talking.
• 37:35
  So there's a lot of ways to structure it to fit all
• 37:38
  different personnel. For sure, you can get creative
• 37:40
  with it. That's what's fun about creating
• 37:41
  content is you can do a million different things and you're
• 37:44
  starting something new too. Maybe we'll talk about here in a
• 37:45
  second, but what's so when you look at being a host, like what
• 37:49
  makes a good host for a podcast and then what makes a good guest
• 37:53
  for a podcast? What makes a good host for a
• 37:56
  podcast is somebody who's confident enough to ask really
• 37:58
  strong questions, sit back and let the answer happen and also
• 38:03
  know their guests well enough to know if the answer wasn't good
• 38:06
  enough that they dig deep enough to help that guest create the
• 38:10
  answer that's on brand. So there there will be times
• 38:16
  where I will ask a question of somebody and I know they gave me
• 38:18
  the surface of the answer and I know if I'm watching as a
• 38:22
  viewer, I'm going that was shaky, that didn't hit.
• 38:27
  So as a really good host, knowing that my job is to create
• 38:30
  a brand experience and to best promote the guest as possible to
• 38:35
  put them in the best light, I'm going to ask follow up questions
• 38:38
  until I feel they got an authentic, vulnerable, powerful
• 38:42
  answer out. Or at least some sort of answer
• 38:45
  that evokes emotion, right? Being a really good guest is.
• 38:52
  Really quickly on that, I think it's a great point that you
• 38:54
  make, because I do think most podcast host are scared to ask
• 39:00
  not only the the questions that would put the guests in the
• 39:02
  favor will light, but the challenging and tough questions.
• 39:05
  And you got to push a little bit sometimes in a healthy way.
• 39:08
  But there are certain types you watch podcasts and someone says
• 39:11
  like, yeah, we did this, this and this and you're like, that
• 39:13
  doesn't sound right or there's something missing from that
• 39:15
  story and a good host will go hold on.
• 39:17
  What made you do why that for me?
• 39:20
  So what would you say someone that doesn't say that?
• 39:22
  Like you got to sometimes challenge a little bit and I
• 39:25
  think people love that and you've probably gotten that
• 39:27
  feedback. I've gotten that back where
• 39:28
  people were like, I like that you go deep, correct?
• 39:30
  And there's depth. Follow up on shit.
• 39:32
  I've had people, I've had people tell me stuff that I like.
• 39:36
  At the end they were like, wow, that was like there like I
• 39:39
  didn't think we're going to go there.
• 39:40
  You just did it to me. I had no intention of coming out
• 39:43
  and telling my story of December 19th, 2023.
• 39:47
  I'm like beyond that. But guess what?
• 39:50
  I'm not beyond it because who I am right now, that's, that's
• 39:55
  truth, right? And there's truth sets you free,
• 39:57
  by the way. So I'm happy to tell the story
• 39:59
  because guess what? I'd rather control the
• 40:02
  narrative. Another great reason to podcast.
• 40:05
  I'd rather control the narrative than you find out from somebody.
• 40:09
  You found out from somebody what you think maybe kinda is the
• 40:13
  story. I'd rather just flat outlook you
• 40:15
  in the eye and tell you what the hell the story is.
• 40:17
  That's a great point. So if I'm ACEO or or whatever,
• 40:20
  and let's say, you know, I got a four Google review and there's a
• 40:25
  story behind that. There's an episode, Why isn't it
• 40:28
  a 5? But maybe there was, you know,
• 40:31
  25 disgruntled employees that decided they were going to and
• 40:37
  maybe you could speak to that and maybe you could be
• 40:39
  vulnerable and go, you know what, hindsight, I probably made
• 40:41
  some mistakes in that, right? So yeah, I I completely agree
• 40:47
  with you that that being being a really good host is creating
• 40:52
  depth and making sure that you don't leave your guest hanging
• 40:55
  with an answer that doesn't show up well for them.
• 40:59
  Totally two other things one we kind of hit on this, but
• 41:03
  extracting value for the audience making sure that when a
• 41:07
  guest comes on that and this kind of leads in my third one,
• 41:09
  which would be preparation. I think it's so key you have to
• 41:11
  prepare, know the guest you can't believe.
• 41:13
  So what is your company do? Yeah, it's like, dude, because
• 41:16
  it's not the it's also a balance of not doing too much
• 41:21
  preparation to where you have all the answers already.
• 41:23
  You have to have a little discovery process, you know, But
• 41:26
  I think you can't show up and just not know shit because it
• 41:28
  doesn't allow you to ask better questions.
• 41:30
  But I think extracting value, I mean, on our show founder Talk,
• 41:33
  it's extracting knowledge, insights and stories from one
• 41:35
  founder and passing it on to the next.
• 41:37
  And you got to know who is my audience right now for the most
• 41:40
  part. And what can this guess what can
• 41:42
  I extract? It's not your job to do it.
• 41:43
  It's my job to come on here and make sure I ask the right
• 41:45
  questions or push where I need to or have you tell the right
• 41:48
  stories to where the audience listening goes.
• 41:50
  God, that was awesome. And I, we're going to start
• 41:52
  doing a brand experience like John did.
• 41:54
  We're going to start, you know, like that's what it should be
• 41:56
  like. So you do a fantastic job of
• 41:59
  that. And in fact, you, you posted
• 42:00
  something. You posted something a few
• 42:04
  months ago. And by the way, whether I
• 42:06
  comment or like on every post, every post of yours is seen by
• 42:10
  me and it marinates. So I, I have mad respect for you
• 42:13
  and, you know, and I and I likewise, brother, Yeah,
• 42:16
  likewise. So you posted that the biggest
• 42:20
  mistake a lot of hosts make is they get on and they essentially
• 42:23
  say, so tell me about yourself. And then the guest rants for 15
• 42:27
  minutes and there's like, it's like, you just gave me the
• 42:30
  origin story and like, where are we going with this?
• 42:33
  You got to tie it into something.
• 42:34
  So there is a little origin story you set that you set the
• 42:37
  audience at ease the way you started this podcast because
• 42:41
  they're like, well, who's this guy?
• 42:43
  And then I just got vulnerable told, told my truth.
• 42:46
  And now we're talking, now we're getting into the brass tabs.
• 42:48
  It gave you a little bit of a setup.
• 42:50
  There was a strategy to get there, but they don't always see
• 42:52
  that, you know what I mean? Yeah.
• 42:53
  But it was it's. It's the way.
• 42:55
  Yeah, and you also make it really easy because you're just
• 42:57
  a great guy. So it's like it's.
• 42:58
  Like do you? It's a way, it's a way home.
• 43:01
  So it makes a lot of sense to do that.
• 43:06
  I forgot your question. So get well, we were talking
• 43:08
  about being a great guest and or a great host.
• 43:10
  I want to get to guest. But before we get to the guest,
• 43:13
  who are some good host that you watch or listen to that you
• 43:16
  really say, wow, they're really good at their craft and what
• 43:19
  they do and and who are they and why do you think they're good?
• 43:22
  So I'll just give you, I'm going to give you my list, please.
• 43:27
  Political, not political. I think Tucker Carlson is
• 43:29
  freaking awesome. Good interviewer regardless of
• 43:31
  interview. I don't care don't judge based
• 43:35
  on the merit of whatever you think his beliefs are political
• 43:38
  from a pure interviewer of challenging the answer, asking
• 43:44
  the question, adding value, letting the person give like
• 43:48
  really really effective. I think Rogan is, is obviously
• 43:51
  amazing because Rogan is, is very, very smart, but he knows
• 43:57
  that he's having people on that are far smarter than him.
• 44:00
  So he is helping us to go through the journey, the
• 44:03
  curiosity journey with him because he, he, he could
• 44:07
  literally sit there with all these guys, be like, well, I
• 44:10
  read this, I read this and banter.
• 44:11
  And instead he's like, why is that?
• 44:14
  Right and. So I think he's he's really good
• 44:16
  in that regard. Shawn Ryan.
• 44:21
  Yeah, yeah. I think he's really good because
• 44:24
  he is so authentically himself. There's no, there's no extrovert
• 44:29
  there whatsoever. There isn't a ton of transfer of
• 44:33
  energy. He is authentically himself and
• 44:36
  there is a great indication as Aceo that if you are an
• 44:41
  analytical, if you're a thinker, if you're a listen first speak
• 44:47
  last kind of ACEO, you don't need to think that you have to
• 44:51
  be super animated in order to be an effective podcast.
• 44:56
  So those would be the three that I spent a lot of time, I spent a
• 45:01
  lot of time in in really digging in and and listening to as it
• 45:06
  relates to like business, I would say Mel Robbins is is
• 45:11
  fantastic. Really enjoy her.
• 45:15
  I'm addicted to the school of Hard Knocks.
• 45:18
  What is that? School of Hard Knocks 3
• 45:21
  gentlemen. One who's the primary on camera
• 45:24
  guy. He went to University of Texas
• 45:26
  as a college project. He was going around interviewing
• 45:29
  people with a mic. He'd go up and he would find
• 45:31
  billionaires and millionaires and he would essentially
• 45:34
  interview them on the street. So you probably saw some of the
• 45:37
  the content where somebody comes up and goes, is that your car,
• 45:41
  right. And then and then you never see
• 45:42
  the guy on camera. But the interview he was doing
• 45:45
  it where he goes to like Scottsdale for affluent areas of
• 45:49
  the country. He waits for somebody to come
• 45:51
  out. He gets tipped off by somebody
• 45:53
  at the store that a billionaire is in there, Sir, excuse me,
• 45:56
  excuse me. And he interviews them on the
• 45:59
  street. I.
• 45:59
  Think I've seen his his short porn videos.
• 46:01
  I know he had a podcast though. Yeah.
• 46:02
  So he's OK. So he's got a, he's got a long
• 46:05
  form, but most of it is the what you see is the short form
• 46:09
  content, but the long form is more training where it's him and
• 46:12
  his two partners describing how they built their content model.
• 46:16
  So I'm really, I really find his interview style to be pretty
• 46:20
  amazing because he powerfully in, in 3 minutes gets 5
• 46:26
  questions out and the editing is amazing because you know that
• 46:30
  they didn't answer that purely but they edited it.
• 46:33
  So it's just it's like it's real punchy and jumpy and it's really
• 46:37
  good. What do you what about from a
• 46:38
  guest standpoint, what makes a good guest for a podcast?
• 46:41
  Because we've got CE OS founders listening to this that are
• 46:43
  starting to guest on podcast more and more to get their brand
• 46:46
  and word out there and story and they're thinking how do I show
• 46:48
  up for these things? What are some?
• 46:50
  Tips First off, know your stories.
• 46:51
  So you should have 5 or 6 stories that you would stand up
• 46:54
  in front of your sales team and tell.
• 46:56
  You would stand up in front of stakeholders and you would tell
• 46:59
  all those stories. Know your brand identity.
• 47:01
  Know your core values. Know your principles and
• 47:05
  beliefs. Know your origin story.
• 47:07
  Know the instrumental points in your life where something
• 47:11
  changed or modified. Know, know that your your story
• 47:19
  of your brand is way beyond your products and services.
• 47:23
  And if I'm being truthful as a guest, nobody cares about your
• 47:26
  products and services. We care about you.
• 47:29
  We want to know who you are and what you stand for and what you
• 47:31
  believe in and how you inspire and motivate in that.
• 47:34
  You can give us some information and some details and some ideas
• 47:37
  for us to to kind of chew on. But if you're compelling enough,
• 47:40
  I'm going to go look at your website and find out what your
• 47:42
  products and services are anyways.
• 47:45
  So think of yourself as a podcast guest as SEO, you're
• 47:49
  creating your own search engine optimization.
• 47:51
  You're the reason I'm going to dig into your company.
• 47:55
  Give me a reason right So. It's actually it is good for SEO
• 47:59
  too because you get black backlinks from the podcast and
• 48:01
  people don't know that shit. But if you go on a lot of
• 48:02
  podcasts, it dramatically increases your search, whether
• 48:06
  it's AI search or SEO traditional, because now your
• 48:09
  websites, your names, you're being linked to other sources
• 48:11
  that are credible and AI sources and SEO.
• 48:14
  Love to tell you the last two companies I work for, if you did
• 48:17
  searches on them, you saw a lot of the podcast and my face and
• 48:22
  it was because that was the person that was putting out the
• 48:24
  most links and the most content. So as ACEO, if you want your
• 48:27
  company to be seen, put out a ton of content with links behind
• 48:30
  it and you'll push that number up.
• 48:32
  Here's another really smart thing to do realize that anyone
• 48:35
  who does a long form podcast is using the long form as a model
• 48:40
  to create short form. So you want to talk in some
• 48:42
  whites? So I've probably made the
• 48:45
  mistake a few times already because I'm used to being a host
• 48:49
  and I'm so excited to being a guest.
• 48:51
  But you really want to speak in like, know your story, Speak in
• 48:54
  a minute to two-minute power segments, and then kind of
• 48:59
  pause, let it rest, and then see if there's a follow up question
• 49:03
  that you can add on to that. That's a great point.
• 49:05
  I always teach people to like, yeah, speak in points.
• 49:08
  And I think there's a time to go off and just have a
• 49:10
  conversation, not worry about it.
• 49:11
  But even for me, and you're probably the same way, when I
• 49:13
  listen to stuff, I'm like, there's a hook, there's a hook.
• 49:15
  It just triggers. I've been doing this for so
• 49:17
  long, you know, it's like it just triggers.
• 49:19
  But I think going into the conversation as a guest, knowing
• 49:22
  that sometimes you want to even rephrase the question back.
• 49:25
  Yeah. So, you know, you did it a
• 49:27
  little bit ago if you notice it. But I said what is what is a,
• 49:29
  what makes a good podcast host? You know what makes a good
• 49:31
  podcast host is now that's an easy trim.
• 49:35
  Now we could trim it from my standpoint, but you could even
• 49:37
  this is in person. So you're going to get a bunch
• 49:39
  of amazing content. So you don't got to worry about
• 49:40
  it. But if you were virtual, let's
• 49:42
  say which everyone does a lot of virtual podcasts, you just set
• 49:45
  up your smartphone and then there's a clip for you.
• 49:47
  I don't need you to send me the footage, bro.
• 49:49
  I got the whole. Thing right there while you're
• 49:50
  asking the next question, I can be posting that exactly.
• 49:56
  You've got natural starts and stops and.
• 50:00
  And that takes time to build that skill.
• 50:01
  It does. It does.
• 50:02
  You really do have to be on quite a few.
• 50:04
  But think of it this way, like if you were in a sales meeting,
• 50:09
  you, you probably don't want to go on a rant totally right in
• 50:13
  front of a board. Like they ask the question,
• 50:16
  answer the question, give some merit, a little bit of
• 50:20
  quantitative and qualitative data and fact and, and kind of
• 50:25
  finish that statement off right and wait for the next thing or
• 50:29
  see if there's a follow up. I will tell you another thing
• 50:34
  about being a great guest. Show up willing to be fully
• 50:41
  authentic and vulnerable because you have to give the interviewer
• 50:49
  the ability to dance a little bit.
• 50:52
  Yes. Let them play and and if if you
• 50:57
  make things off topic or it wasn't pre discussed and they go
• 51:03
  into a question and you're not willing to go there, it will
• 51:07
  affect the next 25 minutes of the podcast.
• 51:10
  Because now the host is like, OK, what are the boundaries?
• 51:13
  What can I ask? What can I not ask?
• 51:15
  And a really good podcast host is trying to get you away from
• 51:18
  products and price. They're trying to get you into
• 51:22
  inspire and form influence, right?
• 51:25
  And so this is entertainment, man.
• 51:28
  You should be using. Think entertainment.
• 51:32
  Entertainment that sells. That's right.
• 51:35
  What about sending questions before the podcast starts?
• 51:38
  No, I'm a hell no on that one dude.
• 51:41
  I didn't move the 1st 5 episodes that I ever recorded.
• 51:44
  I think you were like episode 10.
• 51:46
  So you didn't catch the the pre question.
• 51:49
  The first five episodes that I did, I had to go through an
• 51:52
  approval process with the the gents upstairs and then I was
• 51:56
  sending it to the guest. So first I sent it upstairs,
• 51:59
  they added it. It was like good Morning,
• 52:01
  Vietnam, where the redlining things and I'm like, this is
• 52:04
  crazy, like you're taking my legs out from underneath me.
• 52:07
  Then I would send it to the guests and the guests would
• 52:09
  either say, hey, can we go here or whatever, or that's too much.
• 52:13
  Here's what would happen. I'd ask the first two or three
• 52:16
  questions and I could see them thinking of the rehearsed answer
• 52:21
  that they thought about on the drive over, and it was terrible.
• 52:26
  So you could see a major difference around episode 6 or 7
• 52:31
  where it was like, dude, I'm going to research you for 24
• 52:34
  hours so it's fresh. The hour before you come in, I'm
• 52:38
  going to know everything about you.
• 52:41
  I'm going to get the bullet points of where I want to go and
• 52:44
  I'm going to let it RIP. And wherever you take me, I'm
• 52:47
  going to go with you. I think what you said about
• 52:49
  this, having your story down as a guest is super important
• 52:52
  because some people get on and they just don't know how to talk
• 52:55
  about their industry or their point of view or what they do.
• 52:58
  And it's like how they got to and it's, it just feels all over
• 53:01
  the place. And then when people listen to
• 53:03
  it, they're like, are they not very good at what they do?
• 53:06
  And that's not always the case. Sometimes people are just not
• 53:08
  good communicators at that particular time or topic.
• 53:11
  But actually they do deliver a really good service.
• 53:13
  I mean, you've met business owners that are 2030, fifty,
• 53:15
  $100 million that struggle to get on and say a message, right?
• 53:19
  So it doesn't always correlate, but I think it does help your
• 53:22
  brand when you can communicate that story and your point of
• 53:25
  view on the industry. What is your point of view on?
• 53:26
  This, that's it too. And I will tell you this like
• 53:28
  let's take somebody who does windows and siding.
• 53:31
  Small to mid sized business owner does windows and siding.
• 53:35
  What I'd love to know is how the hell do you get into that?
• 53:38
  Yeah, like does do you wake up in the morning and choose to
• 53:42
  like, how do you get like, where did you start?
• 53:45
  What summer job did you have? Who did you see that pulled up
• 53:49
  in the coolest F-150 power duty mag wheels truck, whatever that
• 53:54
  was selling windows and doors and siding and you went, Oh my
• 53:58
  gosh, I want to do that. Like that's what I want to know.
• 54:02
  And by the way, you know, who else wants to know that?
• 54:04
  Your employees, your suppliers and vendors, your current and
• 54:11
  future clients, they'd love to know that story because people
• 54:16
  tend to want to root for somebody.
• 54:18
  So if it's like if I can know that you're so passionate about
• 54:22
  this thing and my doing business with you or working for you
• 54:27
  helps you to live out your purpose, I have a little more
• 54:30
  energy and fight in me for you. That's true.
• 54:34
  If someone's going to start a podcast, what are the steps that
• 54:37
  they should follow from I want to start a podcast, but I'm not
• 54:40
  really sure what it's going to be about, but I want it to help
• 54:42
  grow my business, build a brand. What are kind of some of the
• 54:45
  steps you'd take them down? Well, the.
• 54:47
  First, the first thing that I would say is you answered it.
• 54:51
  Why would be the first question. If you have a tremendous
• 54:57
  challenge recruiting top salespeople, there's a great
• 55:01
  reason to start a podcast. That's a good one.
• 55:02
  Yeah, OK. If you have an unbelievable
• 55:05
  difficulty right now finding your ICP and getting their
• 55:09
  attention and the sales cycle is so long because you can't get in
• 55:14
  the door, once they hear from you and know your offering,
• 55:18
  you're golden. The sales cycle condenses quick.
• 55:20
  The problem is it takes you 6 months to get the appointment.
• 55:23
  There's a great reason to start a podcast, right?
• 55:27
  If you are, if you are trying to separate yourself from the
• 55:32
  competition, there's just too many blurred lines.
• 55:35
  Everyone kind of does the same thing.
• 55:37
  It's like, OK, well you do that, but you do that.
• 55:39
  It's kind of the same thing and there's no real separation or
• 55:41
  difference. There's a great reason to start
• 55:43
  a podcast because if products and price are all the same.
• 55:48
  But I love Alex and I only kind of like John.
• 55:51
  I'm going with Alex. Yep.
• 55:53
  So there's a great reason to start a podcast.
• 55:55
  So that would be the first thing is write out your why, What are
• 55:58
  you trying to accomplish? Is it is it a branding play?
• 56:03
  Is it a sales play, business development play?
• 56:06
  Is it a recruiting play? Or there's the fourth magic
• 56:10
  thing. It's I don't have enough time to
• 56:12
  create enough content to massage every algorithm and what it
• 56:16
  calls for. Yeah, So and I know that you
• 56:20
  talk about this and I, I agree that you should dominate one,
• 56:24
  then go to your second, dominate your second, don't get on all of
• 56:27
  them and be average at all of them.
• 56:29
  So the 4th 1 would be your marketing department has the
• 56:32
  toughest job in the world that you don't think of.
• 56:36
  And that is how do you mix data and analytics with creativity?
• 56:42
  They're two different sides of the brain.
• 56:44
  So like creative people imagine everyday having to come in and
• 56:49
  think of something creative to do content wise and to put
• 56:53
  enough of it out there to be dangerous.
• 56:57
  That's really, really hard to do.
• 56:58
  A podcast solves a huge marketing challenge, which is
• 57:03
  filling in all the gaps of content when they can't think of
• 57:08
  that awesome thing that's going to hit, and making sure you have
• 57:12
  enough content to cherry pick the best and massage every
• 57:16
  algorithm. So that'd be the first thing.
• 57:18
  Why are you doing it? Let's say it's all four.
• 57:21
  OK, Then it comes down to what's the cadence now?
• 57:25
  So I would determine the why, then I would figure out
• 57:29
  naturally we're doing it in studio, so that's just going to
• 57:32
  happen. Like if you're doing a Zoom, I'm
• 57:33
  sorry, you'd be better served flying in gas for $1000 and
• 57:39
  having them on the show. If you're a national company
• 57:42
  then you would doing a Zoom. By the way, look at the best
• 57:44
  podcast out there. Are any of them virtual every
• 57:47
  episode? No, they're not.
• 57:49
  Are most all of them in person? Almost every single time, yes.
• 57:54
  And by the way, if you're going to do a virtual get ATV, get a
• 57:58
  big TV, put a camera on the TV and have a camera on you live
• 58:03
  and a camera on the TV. So it's like, I think lives are
• 58:06
  cool, lives are fine. Virtual, We're gonna start doing
• 58:08
  lives. Yeah, that's different than I
• 58:09
  think a little different than a podcast where you have guest on,
• 58:11
  you do a live show about a certain segment or something.
• 58:14
  I think that's cool and it allows you to get virtual people
• 58:16
  on cuz I can't have, you know, I can only have local people.
• 58:18
  I choose to only have local people on, but that's another
• 58:21
  Ave. for us now to be able to have people all across the world
• 58:24
  on. But it's not we're not changing
• 58:25
  the podcast setting because the in person is the way.
• 58:27
  It's the way in the relationship building back to what we talked
• 58:30
  about earlier, the connection, the relationship building, the
• 58:32
  local presence, the community that that you just do not get on
• 58:36
  a virtual standpoint. Yeah.
• 58:38
  So next would be making sure that you you have a studio that
• 58:43
  looks, looks pro like it should be built out.
• 58:47
  You should have your logos. You should have promotional
• 58:50
  products, branded apparel, you should have logos.
• 58:53
  I would strongly recommend that you don't name your podcast the
• 58:56
  name of your company. It's the It's the XYZ podcast
• 59:00
  powered by your company. Yeah, why do you say that, by
• 59:04
  the way? Because like if if you do, like
• 59:09
  if you do the Kelly Tires podcast.
• 59:12
  Yeah, sounds salesy, doesn't it? Yeah.
• 59:16
  And if there's no mission or purpose behind it, I think
• 59:18
  that's. Just like, hey, we have a
• 59:20
  podcast. So it it would be, you know, you
• 59:25
  know, if I was, if I was a tire shop, it would be like, you
• 59:28
  know, mechanic talk, right? Or something like that.
• 59:31
  Or like Pit Stop Power by, you know what I mean, something in
• 59:36
  that regard where you could kind of theme around it where the
• 59:39
  name of the podcast tells you what you're going to talk about.
• 59:43
  If you're going to talk about tires, I probably don't want to
• 59:46
  listen to that podcast. It's not for me.
• 59:48
  But if you're going to tell me the intricacies of what goes
• 59:52
  into, you know, running a business like yours?
• 59:56
  Or maybe it's an automotive base because that's what ties back
• 59:59
  into. Tire and then you do tie in
• 1:00:01
  racing then then I might be a little bit more intrigued.
• 1:00:05
  And then lastly, what is going to be the experience?
• 1:00:08
  You need to map out very clearly what the experience is going to
• 1:00:11
  be when they come in the door. Who's taking photo one?
• 1:00:15
  When they come in the door, where's their bio on the TV's
• 1:00:22
  like when they come in the door, who's bringing them a coffee?
• 1:00:25
  Was an e-mail sent the night before to the whole team,
• 1:00:28
  especially the sales team or the client facing team that such and
• 1:00:32
  such is coming in at 10:00 when we walk through the building,
• 1:00:36
  please stand up, introduce yourself, smile and thank them
• 1:00:41
  for being here. Like that has to be mapped out
• 1:00:45
  and everyone's got to be on board.
• 1:00:47
  And by the way, if you start a company podcast and you just
• 1:00:49
  isolate it to one or two people, you're missing a huge
• 1:00:52
  opportunity. This needs to be all hands on
• 1:00:55
  deck. Everyone's involved, everyone's
• 1:00:57
  got a piece in it. And and then your distribution
• 1:01:03
  of that content will 10X because now employees will be using it,
• 1:01:07
  their, their, the gas and their staff will be using the content.
• 1:01:11
  And next thing you know, you'll flip on LinkedIn one morning and
• 1:01:14
  you'll see your face 7 times and you haven't posted yet.
• 1:01:17
  That's power. What do you look at on the back
• 1:01:20
  end? Obviously got post production,
• 1:01:21
  that kind of stuff. But I believe that even if you
• 1:01:24
  had no metrics, even if no one listened to it, there's still
• 1:01:27
  value in a podcast. So there's that side.
• 1:01:30
  But from a metric side is only that you look at download
• 1:01:32
  streams. Do you look at that type of
• 1:01:33
  stuff? And try to get or what's
• 1:01:35
  important is is important, like watch hours and, and just
• 1:01:41
  natural views. And by the way, if you're
• 1:01:43
  starting a business centric, brand centric podcast, the long
• 1:01:47
  form content is never going to perform the way the short form
• 1:01:50
  does. But you need the long form to
• 1:01:52
  get the short form. So if you get 150 to 400 views
• 1:01:58
  on your long form episode, that's an hour and 30 minutes
• 1:02:01
  with a client who sells knives. Thank your lucky stars.
• 1:02:06
  Would you, would you accept an offer once a week to talk to 150
• 1:02:12
  to 400 people, knowing that if 400 people were in the
• 1:02:16
  auditorium that you were speaking to, 370 of them are
• 1:02:20
  going to get up and walk out? From second one to the five
• 1:02:24
  minute mark, they're going to get out and walk out, but though
• 1:02:27
  the remaining 10 are going to stick around for 5 minutes to
• 1:02:33
  the full hour and a half and come back for the next
• 1:02:36
  presentation. Would you do that?
• 1:02:38
  I do it all day, every day of the week.
• 1:02:41
  So you got to have some expectations that you're not
• 1:02:44
  doing the podcast to go viral, you're not trying to be a
• 1:02:46
  celebrity. This is a part of your funnel.
• 1:02:50
  It's the widest part of the funnel and it achieves multiple
• 1:02:54
  goals. Yeah, I think downloads and
• 1:02:57
  streams are important. I think you got to realize that
• 1:02:59
  it does take time to. It's not.
• 1:03:01
  And to your point, you're going to get short term, medium term,
• 1:03:03
  you're going to get a lot more traction with the short clips
• 1:03:05
  because you just get 5000 couple, 1000 views on one clip.
• 1:03:09
  A downloader stream means they they watched it for at least 30
• 1:03:12
  seconds or more. They're bought into it.
• 1:03:14
  But those are loyal to me. Yeah, that's a really like that
• 1:03:17
  one downloader stream makes up for hundreds of view.
• 1:03:21
  Regular views that could be 3 or 4 or 5.
• 1:03:23
  Seconds. That's why subscribers is is
• 1:03:25
  important too, because if you think about it, subscribers is
• 1:03:27
  that's an intimate thing. I'm putting you on now.
• 1:03:30
  No longer am I just putting you on my phone.
• 1:03:31
  I'm putting you on my TV. Like I don't watch NBC.
• 1:03:35
  Yeah, I watch YouTube. Yeah.
• 1:03:36
  Same here. I go to subscribers and I I go
• 1:03:40
  there first. That's my that's my TV Guide, if
• 1:03:43
  you. Will I think that's my very
• 1:03:44
  common for a lot of people now, yeah, you know, they don't go to
• 1:03:47
  the TV remote and look for different channels.
• 1:03:49
  They go on their phone and it's YouTube or it's podcast, YouTube
• 1:03:52
  and and Spotify. Those are like, that's it.
• 1:03:54
  That's where I live. If I'm driving or doing laundry
• 1:03:56
  or something, I'm I'm in it. Same.
• 1:03:57
  Yeah. So back to your business.
• 1:04:01
  Yeah. Have you had that moment yet?
• 1:04:02
  Because you're how long in now? July 1st started.
• 1:04:05
  So have you had that moment? I know you talked about a little
• 1:04:07
  bit in the beginning, but have you had a couple moments now
• 1:04:09
  where you're like, what am I doing?
• 1:04:12
  Yeah, I just had a. Moment this morning, Did I make
• 1:04:14
  the wrong decision? No, I haven't had the wrong
• 1:04:16
  decision one, but I just I had a moment this morning as I'm
• 1:04:20
  racking up money on the company credit card for equipment and
• 1:04:24
  building out a kick ass studio and I'm going, oh God, mom and
• 1:04:28
  dad, like please shine down on me now because I'm in now.
• 1:04:33
  I will tell you this and you know this when you're working
• 1:04:36
  for somebody else. I, I, I would I've been called
• 1:04:40
  this. I've been called a grunt loyal
• 1:04:44
  to a fault. You asked me to do something.
• 1:04:46
  I'm going to do it and probably go a little bit further.
• 1:04:49
  Even if it's kind of a crazy request, you need somebody to
• 1:04:53
  talk to, stand up in front of 400 people and deliver a good
• 1:04:56
  message or a bad one. I'll do all the stuff like I do
• 1:04:59
  all the stuff in the cracks where nobody else wants to do
• 1:05:02
  that. I'm that guy.
• 1:05:03
  So I would probably be like the special teams wedge breaker, you
• 1:05:07
  know what I mean? Like that's kind of the guy that
• 1:05:09
  I've been. And what I noticed is like when
• 1:05:12
  you're working for somebody else, even though I have a
• 1:05:15
  willingness to do those things, it does become tiresome.
• 1:05:19
  It wears on you. And you do have a tendency to be
• 1:05:22
  like, you know what? I don't know if I'm going to
• 1:05:24
  give it my all today. Like I'm this guy.
• 1:05:27
  I'm not giving him everything I got today.
• 1:05:28
  Like I'm, I'm tired. I haven't, I'm, I'm shocked that
• 1:05:33
  I haven't had that moment yet. And it's almost scares me
• 1:05:38
  because I'm like, this is 24/7 and.
• 1:05:43
  Like and you have a hard time shutting off though I can't, I
• 1:05:46
  can't shut it off and. But I find myself now laying in
• 1:05:52
  bed, walking through each show and each client, one by one in
• 1:05:58
  my head. Were they taken care of today?
• 1:06:01
  Did I love them enough? Did I do right by them?
• 1:06:03
  Did I earn my pay today? I find myself doing that and I
• 1:06:08
  wake up the next morning and it's the first thing in my mind
• 1:06:10
  because it was the last thing before I went to bed.
• 1:06:13
  And I find myself then remembering that and going, I
• 1:06:16
  got to give them a little more, more love today.
• 1:06:20
  And so that's been really interesting for me because I'm
• 1:06:23
  like, is that sustainable? Like how do you do that?
• 1:06:26
  If that's if you have 50 clients, let's say at some point
• 1:06:28
  like how do you love every one of the babies?
• 1:06:33
  Have you thought? About it from a scaling
• 1:06:34
  standpoint, do you think you'll hire people 1099?
• 1:06:37
  It's already starting to do that.
• 1:06:38
  What do you, what do you got going on?
• 1:06:40
  So multiple editors, 3 different editors and overseas here, 1
• 1:06:46
  here, 2 overseas. Yep, smart.
• 1:06:50
  And those are helping you with post production, right, for the
• 1:06:52
  podcast that you're doing? And the gentleman here will
• 1:06:56
  start coming with me to each recording because what I'm doing
• 1:06:58
  is I'm going to, I have a studio in Elgin where people could come
• 1:07:02
  and record at. I was going to ask you, OK, so
• 1:07:04
  that's where you're building and all the equipment.
• 1:07:05
  Stuff in one of my clients buildings.
• 1:07:08
  Oh that's cool. Space to lease.
• 1:07:09
  So we launched their podcast in January.
• 1:07:12
  I've got a space they sell. By the way, shout out to Reiki
• 1:07:16
  Interiors. If you need office interiors,
• 1:07:19
  there is nobody better. I can hook you up with Colleen
• 1:07:23
  and Colleen and Melissa, but yeah, I'm going to have a studio
• 1:07:26
  in there, so that'd be really cool to bring people out.
• 1:07:29
  So it's. Going to be your theme of your
• 1:07:31
  show. I know we talked a little bit
• 1:07:32
  about off air, but. So I'm calling it the
• 1:07:34
  multipliers and I was called this and I prior to that I heard
• 1:07:43
  a talk about it. I think it might have been at we
• 1:07:46
  went through like a Rockefeller School of Business kind of
• 1:07:50
  training. And it was talking about like
• 1:07:52
  don't be, don't just have a job. Don't just do your role, be a
• 1:07:56
  multiplier and like. I've heard that before.
• 1:07:59
  So we started to think about this in the way of recruiting,
• 1:08:03
  like what personality types become multipliers?
• 1:08:08
  So, so I started thinking about like, how does that apply to me?
• 1:08:15
  And I've always thought that the podcasting process is a
• 1:08:18
  multiplier. Definitely.
• 1:08:21
  I bring you in, you meet the whole crew.
• 1:08:25
  That inspires the crew. So just the fact that I had you
• 1:08:29
  in the building as a guest to be on the show and you walk through
• 1:08:32
  the building, everyone gets a little pep in their stuff.
• 1:08:36
  So there's a multiplier right then I have you on the show and
• 1:08:40
  I promote you and make you feel like 1,000,000 bucks.
• 1:08:43
  I just, I just multiplied your energy level a little bit so and
• 1:08:47
  then. You've got the content on the
• 1:08:48
  back end, and that multiplies and scales them.
• 1:08:50
  Yeah, yeah. So my thought process is I'm
• 1:08:53
  gonna have on two to three executives, owners, founders,
• 1:08:59
  C-Suite, you know, people that are doing some stuff,
• 1:09:01
  innovators, authors, whatever. Might be an athlete, you might
• 1:09:04
  show up one day and that Chicago Bear is there, right?
• 1:09:08
  And you're on the same show. So I'm going to have two to
• 1:09:11
  three people. So 4, anywhere from three to
• 1:09:14
  four people on the show, I'll be hosting it.
• 1:09:16
  And they're not going to know who they're on the show with
• 1:09:21
  until they get there. So I might have the CEO of a
• 1:09:23
  trucking company, the CEO of a warehouse company, and the CEO
• 1:09:29
  of a drone company. Right by Nolan.
• 1:09:32
  So do I. Well, so you interviewed
• 1:09:34
  software. Oh, Ryan.
• 1:09:35
  Yeah. Ryan Walls, another shut out.
• 1:09:37
  That's right. So good, dude.
• 1:09:39
  Imagine now the trucking company CEO sitting there and this
• 1:09:46
  wholesale warehouse guy is like on point and just killing it.
• 1:09:54
  And that trucking company CEO is like, man, I really like this
• 1:09:57
  guy. Well, guess what?
• 1:09:59
  They're going to leave that experience and go, we should
• 1:10:03
  figure out a way to do business together.
• 1:10:06
  So now I became the nucleus, the source of them meeting,
• 1:10:10
  collaborating and potentially partnering.
• 1:10:13
  And meanwhile, that drone company is going, hey, look, you
• 1:10:18
  know, I do videos and I can do this and I can do that.
• 1:10:21
  And the trucking companies trying to increase their
• 1:10:23
  marketing play and they need video and the the warehouse guy
• 1:10:27
  wants an in in warehouse drone fly over to put on their
• 1:10:32
  website. So I just found opportunity for
• 1:10:34
  them. Meanwhile, I'm sitting back
• 1:10:36
  watching these beautiful people collaborate and talk about how
• 1:10:40
  they build brands and how they've done in these amazing
• 1:10:42
  things and how outstanding it is.
• 1:10:44
  So they're teaching the marketplace becoming
• 1:10:46
  multipliers, but now they've got this relationship with each
• 1:10:49
  other. And when they do business
• 1:10:51
  together and it works out well, they will always remember that I
• 1:10:57
  brought them together. So the content goes outward, the
• 1:11:02
  partnership comes inward and it it, it, it just, it grows and
• 1:11:08
  multiplies. That's going.
• 1:11:10
  To be love it, man, you're going to have some interesting shows.
• 1:11:12
  I mean, curious to see how it goes.
• 1:11:13
  Yeah, and you know, it's tough to host just one to one dude.
• 1:11:16
  You're going to have some. Interesting shows this is going
• 1:11:17
  to be this is going to be interesting because I feel like
• 1:11:20
  I'm just going to be like, all right, here's the questions and
• 1:11:24
  they're just going to like they're going to be going after.
• 1:11:26
  And you'll figure it out and you may pivot a couple different
• 1:11:29
  ways and add stuff take away like you'll figure it out, you
• 1:11:32
  know, but it's something different I.
• 1:11:33
  Like it will be different because my last two shows of an
• 1:11:35
  origin story shows who are you? What's your why?
• 1:11:38
  What have you been all about 1 to one?
• 1:11:41
  Let me really dig in and get to know you and really pick your
• 1:11:44
  brain and share that knowledge and really promote you and, and
• 1:11:48
  I and I love that. And I'll continue to do that
• 1:11:51
  with the Golf with Jamo Show. Oh, so you'll still have that?
• 1:11:54
  Oh yeah, the Golf with Jamo show will be where I do the the
• 1:11:58
  intimate origin story while entertaining.
• 1:12:00
  Yeah, that's you and your element man.
• 1:12:02
  I love that. So that'll be the one where I
• 1:12:04
  really promote an executive while entertaining, but this
• 1:12:08
  will be more of a show where it's like, you know, some some
• 1:12:13
  real value will get kicked around.
• 1:12:15
  But it also will become the ultimate model for all of my
• 1:12:17
  clients that like look at the possibilities of what you can
• 1:12:21
  build your show out to be where you could bring in one current
• 1:12:24
  customer with two prospective customers and the one current
• 1:12:28
  customer is so impressive that it influences the two potential
• 1:12:33
  customers to become your customer.
• 1:12:37
  John, what is, what is one thing in your business right now that
• 1:12:41
  you know you need to do, but that you're a little worried to
• 1:12:44
  do or you've got some type of fear around or insecurity
• 1:12:47
  around? What's the one thing that you're
• 1:12:48
  like? I know, I know I need to do this
• 1:12:50
  thing, but I've got some fear around doing it.
• 1:12:56
  OK, so I think you could tell from from knowing me and from
• 1:13:01
  our interactions that I have vision and I can communicate and
• 1:13:06
  I'm kind of all over the place. Imagine trying to get this on
• 1:13:12
  paper. It's almost scary for me because
• 1:13:19
  I feel like a mad scientist when I'm thinking about this
• 1:13:22
  sometimes because it's so like there's so many layers to this
• 1:13:25
  when you really start to dig into it, it could turn into a
• 1:13:28
  freaking manual this big. And so, but I know there has to
• 1:13:33
  be process and procedure. I know that there has to be SO
• 1:13:36
  PS and standards of performance and there has to be a
• 1:13:40
  standardized deliverable and an expectation and all these
• 1:13:43
  different things. And you know, you can't just do
• 1:13:45
  a proposal and go, well, here's what it is and then just get
• 1:13:49
  into it like so I have been spending the last few days and
• 1:13:56
  I've, I've connected with a fractional CEO.
• 1:13:59
  We're going to barter services. Nice.
• 1:14:03
  And I had a similar conversation about like, here's all the
• 1:14:07
  things, right? And he's like, dude, we got to
• 1:14:10
  get this on paper. So that scares me.
• 1:14:13
  I know it's necessary, but it's going to be daunting.
• 1:14:16
  I mean, it's, it's, it's a lot because there are so many layers
• 1:14:21
  to this because I'm not just doing the podcast.
• 1:14:25
  I'm also managing LinkedIn pages and Instagram pages and creating
• 1:14:30
  clips for every single podcast that I'm managing and then
• 1:14:35
  posting all of the clips and writing all the copy for them on
• 1:14:38
  all of their channels. So that's it's a lot I have to
• 1:14:44
  take on the brand I. Got it done for you and got into
• 1:14:47
  the do it with you. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a lot.
• 1:14:50
  It's a lot. And I know that it's a great
• 1:14:53
  value prop and there's a market for the way that you're doing
• 1:14:57
  it. There's a certain type of client
• 1:14:59
  that needs to to have tried the other way and realized that,
• 1:15:05
  hey, look, you know, handing it off seems glamorous and nice,
• 1:15:11
  but I already tried that and I know that I need to commit to it
• 1:15:14
  and I need to be more like Alex. Many of my clients are more in
• 1:15:19
  the beginning stages of, look, we don't have a presence like we
• 1:15:23
  know that we need to just, we just need to have a presence.
• 1:15:27
  So can you get me started there? I know the evolution of that
• 1:15:31
  will be where you are. Remember, you're years ahead of
• 1:15:33
  me in this regard. The evolution of that will be,
• 1:15:37
  hey, look, I've got I've got it done for you, but I've also got
• 1:15:41
  a let's do it together because if your personal brand, I'm
• 1:15:45
  going to say this real close in the mic.
• 1:15:47
  Well, you got a big voice you don't even need to get.
• 1:15:49
  That close, if your personal brand is not running parallel to
• 1:15:53
  your corporate brand and your podcast brand, which should be a
• 1:15:57
  separate brand, you are missing where all of the leverage is
• 1:16:03
  going to come from. People will follow your company
• 1:16:06
  page, they'll follow your podcast page, but they really,
• 1:16:10
  really in depth will follow you as a person.
• 1:16:13
  You as a person need to be pushing everyone to those
• 1:16:18
  company pages, not the company page pushing to you.
• 1:16:22
  And that's where I think a lot of people have it confused.
• 1:16:24
  They want their company pages to be awesome.
• 1:16:27
  And I'm like, good luck. No, you need to be awesome and
• 1:16:30
  then that will drive people to the company page.
• 1:16:33
  But do you really even need a company page?
• 1:16:36
  Or the website, wherever, right? They got to go to a if they're
• 1:16:38
  going to buy from you, they got to go somewhere, right?
• 1:16:41
  But yeah, John, this has been an awesome conversation, man.
• 1:16:44
  I appreciate you coming on the show and maybe one day I can be
• 1:16:46
  on your show. And you can one day, you've
• 1:16:48
  already been on two. Well, I've been on.
• 1:16:49
  You're going to be on the golf show and the other.
• 1:16:51
  But this is like, you're right, I was on both, but this is like,
• 1:16:54
  really your show, you know, even though you ran the other ones
• 1:16:58
  and it was your show, to be fair.
• 1:17:00
  But this is like 100%. Yeah, John. 100% when I look at
• 1:17:05
  my credit card bill. It's 100%.
• 1:17:07
  My, that's right, that's right. So please, please tune in and
• 1:17:11
  check it out because I'm all in on this.
• 1:17:14
  I love it. Where can people find, connect?
• 1:17:16
  Learn more about what you're got going on and and what you do.
• 1:17:19
  Yeah, so to my point, follow me on LinkedIn.
• 1:17:24
  That's that's where I live and follow the Golf with J MO Show
• 1:17:28
  on YouTube. Little bit of a hiatus right now
• 1:17:30
  blew out my C6 in my neck. So we're getting a little
• 1:17:34
  therapy at Olympia over here across from Alexander's and
• 1:17:37
  Saint Charles. Another shout out to them.
• 1:17:40
  And so we'll be back filming the show probably in a couple
• 1:17:43
  months, hopefully indoor and then we'll get outdoor.
• 1:17:46
  But yeah, follow the golf with Jamo show.
• 1:17:47
  We got episodes up there and a bunch of content clips.
• 1:17:50
  I will be creating content from, you know, indoor golf facilities
• 1:17:53
  on little like how to hit a draw, how to hit a cut, how to
• 1:17:56
  hit it low, how to hit a high, stuff like that just to keep it
• 1:17:59
  fresh. But stay tuned.
• 1:18:02
  I don't know when this will air, but likely by the time it airs
• 1:18:06
  December. OK, perfect.
• 1:18:07
  Likely by the time it airs I will be in studio recording
• 1:18:10
  episode 1 of the of the the multipliers.
• 1:18:13
  Love it brother. Thanks for coming on.
• 1:18:15
  You know it's a pleasure for you.
• 1:18:16
  Always in your corner, man. Cheer and you want Love it.
• 1:18:18
  Cheers. Appreciate it.
• 1:18:19
  Thank you brother. Oh, you went for the?
• 1:18:20
  We did the Turkey, yeah.