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Stop Overthinking Everything (with Andy Storch) · The Daily Writer

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, welcome to episode 106 of the Born to Create Podcast.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Kent Sanders, and this is the show where we explore the mindset, habits, and skills to help you make a bigger impact in your creative work.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: One of the many benefits of doing a podcast is that you get to talk to a lot of amazing people.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I learn something from every single guest, honestly.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I come away from every interview grateful for having the chance to talk to that person.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: However, I occasionally have a guest who not only teaches me something new, but they inspire me in such a powerful way that I look at everything I'm doing business-wise in a new way.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And today's guest is exactly that type of person.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: His name is Andy Storch, and he is a talent development consultant, a speaker, creator of the Talent Development Think Tank Conference, which is happening in January 2020.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And last but not least, he is also the host of not one, but two podcasts.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: The Andy Storch Show and also the Talent Development Hot Seat.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: As you can see, Andy is a mover and a shaker, and you'll definitely see that side of him in this interview.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I've titled this episode Stop Overthinking Everything because Andy will encourage you to take action and not get hung up on overthinking all of your decisions.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: In this conversation, he talks about his involvement in the talent development industry, the impact of podcasting on his business, and why it's important to pursue talent development in your business or company.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: He also talks about why using LinkedIn is so important.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look in Andy's LinkedIn profile, which there will be a link to that in the show notes, you will see that he's really active on LinkedIn and you can learn a lot simply from what he's sharing there and how he approaches connecting with people there on LinkedIn.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you might want to get out of pen and paper because you're going to be taking a lot of notes as you listen to Andy's wisdom on this podcast.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Check out the show notes at Kent Sanders.net slash 106 for all the links and resources that we mentioned in this interview.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And without further ado, let's get right to the conversation with Andy Storch.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Andy, it's really great to have you on the show.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've been looking forward to this conversation for a while now, so thank you so much for making time to do this.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Kent Sanders, it's an honor to be on.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: When you reached out, I was uh I was pleasantly surprised and humbled and honored, and I'm excited to be here.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm gonna confess my ignorance about something.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I was looking at your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles a little while back, because you know, we have a mutual friend, Vincent Puglisi, and I always find out what are people about, what do they do.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw that you were in the talent development space, and I confess that I had no idea what that actually was.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing that came to my mind, to be honest with you, because I come from sort of an arts and performing and music background, is I thought, yeah, okay, he must work for some type of agency that does something with like performance or theater people or something.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: I really had no idea.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then I came coming to find out it was something totally different.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: So can you give us kind of a rundown?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: What is talent development and how did you get into it?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it may be something that's not that familiar to a lot of your audience if they're creatives, a lot of people working on their own or in the creative uh area.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm sure you're very familiar with the idea of personal development.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: I know you've been into that sort of thing for a long time, having been in Dan Miller's group and doing a lot of, I can see a giant bookcase of books behind you.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I know you're into reading and learning and personal development for yourself.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um I work with big companies for the most part.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: So most big corporations have, obviously, they have an HR department, people know that.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but most of them will also have someone in charge of talent development or learning and development.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And they are primarily, you know, um, their objective or their responsibility is to help the people in that organization develop, get better, whether it's um developing their skills as a manager, um, it could be technical skills, understanding finance better, getting better at sales, um, whatever those things are, they want to give their people opportunities to continue to improve because the company relies on people continuously improving.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And frankly, these days, people uh more than ever are really demanding that, especially the younger generations, that they are getting some type of talent development, some type of uh career development, that when they take a job in a company, they know there will be opportunities for them to continue to learn, grow, and improve, and they won't stagnate.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, otherwise, they might go somewhere else.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of companies are investing that in some way or other.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: The most progressive companies are investing a lot in developing their people.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And the the role or the department that's usually in charge of that is often either referred to as talent development or learning and development or sometimes organizational development, um, or it could be you know people development, whatever it is.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's usually referred to by different names.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: I settled on talent development when I went into this um a couple of years ago and launched my podcast, which is called the Talent Development Hot Seat.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I interview a lot of um leaders of talent development who are you know overseeing all of this.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: How do we make our people better?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: How do we get them aligned to strategy and culture and um keep, you know, help the business accelerate its strategy and its growth?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: That totally makes sense because uh in the academic world, sorry, I've got three or four uh thoughts going to my head at once, and when that happens, sometimes I'm like, uh, what do I go and go to next?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: But in the academic world, we call that professional development.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that totally makes sense.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, the way that you explain it is uh it totally makes sense.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And particularly from a younger por person's point of view, they really do want opportunities to grow and learn and develop.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think you find that more the younger that you go, because you know, people sort of my age and older, we haven't really grown up in the work world with those opportunities.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: So for that to be more of an emphasis these days is kind of a new thing.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it is so much.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I talked to a lot of people in those roles and they'll tell you that I mean, you know, people always want to learn to get better, but quite frankly, if you look at baby boomers and Gen X, on average, people were satisfied with, you know, doing their job, collecting their paycheck, and going home and being okay with that.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: But if you look at millennials, especially younger millennials and Gen Z, which is just coming into the workforce right now, 22, 23-year-olds, they see um career development as an imperative.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like I need that.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I need to know what the the values and the purpose are of the organization.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: I need to know how I connect to that.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: I need to know how I'm gonna grow and where am I gonna go?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: Do I have an opportunity to move up, to try different things, to learn, to travel, all that stuff.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: People are just being more vocal about wanting those than they have maybe have been in the past.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that that really totally makes sense.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: How did you get into talent development?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like what was the career path that led you into that field?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, like with a lot of people, it it certainly wasn't a straight path.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's not something I set out to do um, you know, early on.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: I started out kind of in general business after I got my um my bachelor's degree from the University of Florida, fighting gators.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: I uh decided I wanted to go into entrepreneurship and I I worked for a couple startups, I started my own company, um, nothing that worked out, and I ended up getting into insurance.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I worked for a couple big insurance companies, and I got my MBA from the University of Southern California in LA, and I was working in insurance.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was a great company and industry, but it was just it wasn't really like the right fit for me.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um, one day, like with a lot of things, and I think most opportunities in my life have come from relationships and networking, so I'm a big fan of that.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I reached out to a friend of mine and said, Hey, I'm not really happy with what I'm doing.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm looking to get into something more sales related.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: I know you have a sales background.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: What do you suggest?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and he said, Well, I just started this cool consulting company called BTS, you should come check it out.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And he got me an interview.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they flew me up to San Francisco.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: I nailed the case interview and ended up getting hired there.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I had never heard of this company, no idea what they did.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um turned out that BTS, which is, I ended up working there for seven years, and they're still one of my biggest partners, big on strategy alignment, strategy execution, making um business simulations for companies to help their people understand strategy, learn the business, um, teach finance business acumen, and um give them the capabilities to go out and execute.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of that is um come falls under the Department of Talent Development.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I started getting to know a lot of clients in that space, in the talent development space.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so a couple of years ago, I felt this pull to go back into entrepreneurship and you know, kind of run my own business, own more of the relationships I had and everything that was going on.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so I made this move to go out on my own, um, affiliated with a company now called Advantaged Performance Group, which is uh, you know, it's it's a company, but I work as a 1099 independent consultant.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And um so I decided at that point, like I could be working with um executives like the CFO, or I could be working with talent development, and I'm just gonna focus in on this world of talent development because I think there's a big opportunity there and make that my niche.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you've been in this world for a while.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: They always tell you the riches are in the niches, you need to refine, like, you know, who is your target client.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I was all over the place.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: I would kind of be like, oh, I could look, I could work with anybody.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then nobody knows who to refer you to, right?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I decided I'm gonna I'm gonna really hone in on talent development.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And as part of that, I I had already had a podcast about uh entrepreneurship that I had started uh a year or so before.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I found out in starting that podcast, the same thing that you've probably learned in having a podcast, that it opens up a whole new world of connections.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: You get to have conversations with people that you wouldn't normally get to have a conversation with because you either are not connected with them or they might not make the time for you, or whatever it is.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I saw how beautifully that was working out for me.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I had people like Dan Miller on my podcast, and you know, Dan Miller's a nice guy.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: You can meet him at a conference, but if I just said, hey, would you do a call with me?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Probably probably never would have happened, right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: So meeting a lot of people like that, and I said, why don't I do that in the talent development space?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so I started a podcast about talent development and started using it to network with these talent development leaders, these prospective clients, um, would-be clients of mine.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, it's just been a fantastic journey over those 18 months of not only meeting those people, finding clients, making friends, growing my network, um, but I also learned a ton about that space and developed a passion around it as well, so that I get really excited about these things.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love working with those people.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the podcast has continued to grow.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hosting my first conference later this year uh about talent development as well.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And now, because of all that, I become uh, you know, kind of a an authority in that space and be known as that, so that, you know, going back to that whole point about niches, you one day meet someone who's head of talent development at a big company, and hopefully you say, Oh, I need to introduce you to my friend Andy Stewart because he is the guy in talent development.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I starting, I'm starting to get that more and more.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm kind of like telling the story in a form of teaching a lesson for anybody listening, this thinking about going out into a niche because I mean, I'm still in the middle of this journey, but it has been just fantastic what it has done for me and my business and my personal brand as I continue to go more into that niche of talent development and really, you know, keep creating content there and networking with people.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I'm really enjoying it too, which you know is important.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's kind of how I got there.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Can you speak to the people listening for a second on this topic a little bit more of niching down and choosing one thing, kind of picking your lane?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of creative types, a lot of artists really struggle with this.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: They want to create their own business, they want to create freedom in their life, and they can do a variety of things.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I, in fact, I wouldn't put myself in that category as well.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you can do a lot of different things and you've had success in a bunch of different things, but you're not you're not really great at like one thing.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is the value of niching down and picking one thing?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can do a variety of things well, how do you know which thing to pick for your career?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that's a tough question.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think I am a great and terrible person to ask that question too.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: So first I'll tell you that the reason why it's a why I'm a terrible person to ask, and that's because I am one of those people that has a million ideas, a lot of different skills.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: I know a little bit about a lot of things, and I love bouncing around.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: And quite honestly, um, there are a lot of experts out there that give the uh the advice that uh and you should be uh an inch wide and a mile deep instead of the opposite.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't like that.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: I like to be, I like to be an inch deep and a mile wide and a lot of things.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's just the way I like to operate.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm a great person to ask because I've also learned about the importance of having that niche.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's for what I've mentioned with talent development.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think the easiest way to think about it and the importance of it is in having your friends and people in your network refer you.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, how will they know when to refer someone to you?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you decide I want to be a coach, and this is my favorite example, right?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, I'm gonna be a coach.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I know a lot of people that want to be a coach, and I've done a little bit of coaching.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you just say to your friends, hey Kent, who do you know that needs a coach?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: There could be a million people, and nobody ever goes around in their friends and says, like, hey, I really need a coach.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Who do you know that is a coach, right?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: A coach on what?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: You're coach of what?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: You're never gonna get a referral, right?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: But if if I said, Hey, Kent, I am developing my expertise and I specifically coach professors at small universities, professors at small Christian universities in the United States.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know anyone who could I could benefit from talking to?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: You probably know some people.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there's a lot of people listening who think, I don't know anybody other than Kent Sanders who's who fits that bill, right?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: But one day you're gonna meet somebody, and as soon as you meet them, you're gonna go, Oh, I know who you need to talk to, because you've got it in your mind that you're the guy for X.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it might be that you are an accountant for dentists.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like when you're just an accountant, everybody needs an accountant, how do you get a referral?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're an accountant for dentists, when someone meets a dentist and says, you know, you talk to your dentist, hey, you're having trouble with money or whatever, I know an accountant who works with dentists.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's so much easier to make that referral.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I know it's scary to niche down.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: The fear is if I decide that I'm only a graphic artist who works with attorneys, that I will now not get work from anybody else.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: But it's simply not the case.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like you might still do work with other people, you're gonna meet them along the way, and just because you market yourself as one thing doesn't mean that other people are gonna be repelled by that.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: And my own personal experience is that what is when I did decide that I wanted to get into coaching, I decided specifically that I wanted to be a coach for men, specifically fathers, because that's my own situation, right?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: And help fathers get better at, you know, performing better and living their best life.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then I went to a conference, it was the first time I invested in a my a personal development conference, my own money.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like a you know corporate conference or whatever.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was uh Hal Elrod's best year ever event in San Diego.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I met a woman who was an entrepreneur who had no children, and we hit it off and she hired me as her coach.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a man or a father or even a parent, and she hired me, and we had a great coaching relationship, and I think I helped her with her business.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that wasn't my my defined niche, but I still met her and she still hired me despite that.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I think you can still find clients in other spaces, but having that niche and really like becoming known for that allows people, more people to refer you know, people to you when they meet theirs.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's the easiest way I think about it.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the reality is that people are going to put us in a box.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like to think it's people putting us in a box, but we only have so much emotional space for a finite number of close relationships in our life.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, even like you and I, I mean, we don't know each other that well, just kind of from online interaction and that kinds of things, but you know, you have lots more things going on in your life than just your podcast or talent development.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: But when I think of you, I think talent development because you've done an amazing job of branding yourself that way.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: So people are gonna put you in a box one way or the other, so why not pick the box that you want to be put in?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and so I already right, I looked at your profile when we connected and I saw, you know, professor and ghostwriter.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm thinking, okay, this guy's a writer.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now at least I know that, and I can refer you, and you could niche down more, right?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: And say, Well, I'm a ghostwriter for attorneys.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's easy, easier to refer you when I meet an attorney who's like, man, I really need to get a blog going.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have the patience for this.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I could say, well, not only do I know a writer, but he actually specializes in working with attorneys.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like he speaks your lingo, he knows you know how attorneys work and like some of the regulations, like certain things you can't write about, you can write about.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you have that, then it becomes a lot more attractive to people in that niche.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like, say if you're a writer for financial advisors, they have a ton of regulations on what they can and cannot share on social media.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: So if you can come in and say, that's my niche, I know how to write for financial advisors to get their blog going, you have a lot of credibility coming into that situation.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we've mentioned LinkedIn a couple times here.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Can you give us uh because I know you're very active on LinkedIn and you do an amazing job of building of having built your presence there and connecting with people.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: What are some tips for those of us who are on Facebook and maybe Twitter a lot more?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: What are some tips for using LinkedIn to its full potential?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I and I'm on all platforms.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: I spend a lot of time on Facebook and Instagram, but I spend the most time on LinkedIn.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the big reason, biggest reason for that for me, selfishly, is I'm in B2B, right?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: And and people in the corporate world are, excuse me, are on LinkedIn.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: But I think more and more everybody is on LinkedIn.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: It continues to grow, especially since it got acquired by Microsoft.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know all the numbers, um, but I can tell you that it's more than just a place to store your resume these days.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the the newsfeed has gotten much more engaging and dynamic.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: There are people posting interesting content there every day.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they introduced video a couple years ago, and a lot of people are taking advantage of that.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: They just started live video, um, which I got just was granted access to, but I haven't done it yet.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I see it as a great way to connect with people, especially if you kind of want to know what they do, if you're targeting a certain niche, right?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like let's say you're the ghostwriter for attorneys and you want to find attorneys.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how you search for and find attorneys on Facebook, right?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: You just get introduced to people and find people.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: But on LinkedIn, especially if you pay for the premium services like I do, you can use the filters and you can find attorneys in, you know, the St.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Louis area and start connecting with those people and messaging with them and building relationships and find out who may need your services.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I like it really for understanding like who people are, what they do professionally, and being able to target them based on that.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you're someone who's trying to build a business in a certain niche or a certain geographic area, right?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like my friend Ken Carfagno, who you might know, uh runs a cleaning business.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: He just moved from upstate New York to the Philadelphia area.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's using LinkedIn to target small business owners around his geographic region who might need his cleaning services or property managers or people like that.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you can look up the role and the geography where they are, and then you can start targeting those people.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as far as tips of like what you should do, how you should do LinkedIn, um, number one, first and foremost, you've got to optimize your profile because people will, as soon as they connect with you or come across you, whether it's through LinkedIn or not, I always go look people up on LinkedIn because I want to know what they've what they do for work, where have they worked, uh, where did they go to school.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason for that is because I'm big on networking, building relationships.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if I can look you up and see that we went to the same university or you worked somewhere with one of my friends at the same time, or we might have lived in the same city at some point, or there's just some type of point, something that we have in common that we can build a relationship off of, right?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: You just need that one little thing to start a conversation from.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would optimize your profile, make sure the important things are there, make sure you're telling a great story.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you are not that familiar with LinkedIn or not that good at that, you can um go look at other people's profiles, go look at my profile.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm come I'm optimizing it all the time and steal with pride.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: And go look at my profile and steal everything on there and make it your own.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Or you can hire someone.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't do this, but I know there are people out there that for like a hundred bucks or something will optimize your profile.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: And great story on that, by the way.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: My friend John Venermulen, uh, who's in my mastermind group, you might know through Vincent as well, uh, he is uh an Amazon seller, so he works with companies to help them sell things on Amazon.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: He paid one of those people$100 to optimize his LinkedIn profile.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: And within like a week, he got uh someone reaching out to him from a large company asking um if they said, Oh, I see that you, you know, you work with companies to help them with Amazon.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's cool.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now he might have got a little lucky there, but it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't optimized his profile first to make it look really attractive.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: So um I and he just signed that contract, by the way.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was one of the best ROIs on a hundred bucks because it's probably gonna make him probably gonna make him thousands of dollars.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so really a hundred bucks well spent.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I would do something like that.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then start connecting with people.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Start start with people that you already know in your network, people you went to school with, and then use those search filters to find people that fit your target niche.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like for me, it's talent development, right?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: I want to connect with everybody and anybody in talent development, especially in the United States, but even around the world, in that role in a large company, because I primarily work with people in large companies, at least a thousand employees, right?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I start networking, looking for those people, sending them connection requests.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you get a connection, start a conversation, right?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, look for something relevant.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you're looking for example.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Examples, there's a there's a guy named John Nemo who's like a LinkedIn expert who teaches this, and he's got a great free webinar that teaches all this stuff.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then of course you can pay him for his like premium services or whatever.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: But he talks about you know leveraging things that you see in there that you know that you can bring up a conversation with.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: If maybe it's something you have in common, maybe it's just that you see that they went to the University of Michigan and you follow football and you you can reach out and say, you know, say something about how the football team's doing this year or whatever, just something relevant that you can start a conversation with, and then hopefully they're gonna check you out and see what you're doing, and then you can start asking them questions.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just don't jump in like too salesy right away with like you connect, you see a lot of people doing this, they connect and then they just start pitching you.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: It happens on Facebook too, but it happens even more on LinkedIn, and they just start pitching you right away.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, I just kind of ignore most of those people.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I've tried some of that stuff, but for the most part, I try to you know build genuine relationships, really interact with people, you know, get to know them, see where they are.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: And LinkedIn is a great platform for that, and it's it's getting better all the time.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for the encouragement.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: It it sounds very doable, and I think a lot of people who are used to Facebook are just kind of intimidated by LinkedIn.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been on there some.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: I have not done nearly as much as I should have.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate the good tips.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is uh some really, really good stuff.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: One other thing on there, you can I always recommend creating some content too, and it might just be sharing interesting articles that you're reading, um, you know, or or other stuff that you're coming across.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to create your own uh, you know, unique or own content all the time, but you can share almost anything on there.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I would say overall the engagement level is much lower than say Facebook.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: So don't get discouraged if you post things and you only get one or two likes.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: People are still seeing it, right?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it's still it's still something that people can easily go look up later and see, okay, what content has um Kent created, what kind of articles has he written, things like that.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it'll always be out there sort of you know, evergreen as they call it.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: What are your thoughts on people posting their podcast episodes and blog posts on LinkedIn?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um well, I do it all the time, so uh I'm gonna say yes.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I assume, but I I don't know.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, there's I think I err on the side of like more content is better than than less because it's just people seeing your name more.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I try to find ways to make it engaging, you know, posting in ways of a question or trying to start a conversation around it.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um but in general, just posting it out there, letting people see it, and and maybe it's something interesting to them.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I'll post about my podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't use Twitter.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: I probably should.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: I know there's benefits to that, but you know, there's only so much time in the world.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's very true.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can't be on every single social media platform.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about speaking of your podcasts for just a moment.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you host two podcasts, which I immensely respect.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Doing one podcast is hard enough.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: What are the what would you say are the main differences between your two shows for those who have not listened to it?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you have the Andy Storch show and then you have the talent development hot seat.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: If someone is in the talent development space, what would they get from the Andy Storch show that they would not get from the talent development hot seat?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, and I hope nobody out there has listened to my shows, that's an opportunity for new.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, they I mentioned I had a uh a podcast about entrepreneurship.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: It used to be called the entrepreneur hot seat.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then about a year ago, I shifted that uh and changed the name to the Andy Stores show because I was I didn't want to just talk about entrepreneurship.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm interested in a lot of personal development topics, not just business, all kinds of different things.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted the show just to kind of share some of my journey and interview all kinds of different people about different things.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're in the talent development space, I mean, by far, talent development is the place to go.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Or sorry, the talent development hot seat, the podcast I run on that, is the place to go for all things talent development.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: If someone were in that space and they also wanted to start listening to Andy Storch show, I think it would be I think it would just be because they're more interested in me as a person.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um maybe they're getting interested in personal development as well, because that's the Andy Store Show is more about personal development.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's about overcoming fear and you know, achieving goals, things like that.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, they might be I and I honestly don't know how many people because it's hard to know, right?
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's not really the true analytics on this, like how many people are listening to both.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: I have no idea.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: But it reminds me of a great lesson going back to your question about niches.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: I started the talent development podcast about a year and a half ago, well after I started the first podcast, and it is already much bigger because people are searching for that particular niche in iTunes or wherever they listen to podcasts and they're finding it that way.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, versus something more broad.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, the Andy Store show, you're not going to find that unless you hear me and you're just like, I really like that guy.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm not going to show up in any other kind of search.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm okay with that.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't need it to be big.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's really my personal thing to do whatever I want with.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um but the talent development hot seat has grown much bigger and continues to grow.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it is because it is a specific niche that people are searching for and will find and start listening to.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then they will get to know me after they find it because of the topic.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I have really considered with this show that people are listening to now of niching down even further because you know, creativity is a pretty broad topic, honestly.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people are searching for creativity.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's tons of great podcasts on this topic that my show's on.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: But then if I'm taking my business in more of a ghostwriting direction, that's that's a difficult topic to do a show about because just because of the nature of what it is.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I've thought about just transitioning this into a strictly writing type show, but there's gobs of writing podcasts out there.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes it's hard for people to know like, what do I do on my podcast?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Should I make it really specific or broad?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or and there's so many different kinds of successful shows that I think a lot of people don't start a show because they struggle with what do I do a show about?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it depends on what do you want to get out of the show.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you really want to use it, say, to get clients, like I was doing with the talent development hot seat, I again I would go back to what niche are you trying to connect with and do a show for them?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like I would do a show for like writing for attorneys.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's scary to say, like, oh, I'm only gonna do a show about writing for attorneys.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how many people am I gonna get listening to that?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's never gonna be as big as uh, you know, some of those big shows out there.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: But guess what?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Every person that does listen to that show cares deeply about that niche and is a prospective client for you, right?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you'd rather have a much smaller, more engaged audience than a massive audience that, you know, they they they're like it, but they're not um really that engaged.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're not interested in hiring you for anything.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I I go more and more towards that.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I've even thought about I may change the Andy Store show again if I decide that I want to go all in on a certain niche in the personal development space, which I'm thinking about.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I may change it again.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and that's the other thing, another lesson from this for anybody listening.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like, one of the things that served me well throughout this journey is just being able to pivot and be flexible.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when you decide to go out on your own, or you decide to start a podcast, or you decide to do something creative like that, and you have a lot of creatives listening, so they probably already know this.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you can change it later.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a big deal.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you're not married to it.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's not set in stone, right?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: I might change the name of the show again and I may change it back.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: And whatever, it's my show.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: So on your talent development show, how do you do you have a specific process you go through for selecting your guest?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Is it is it basically, hey, I think this would be an interesting guest to talk to.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think they would be a great interview and a great connection, and maybe there's some opportunity for client work down the road.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or is it more, hey, they've pitched me and they have a specific expertise on a topic.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: How do you think about that process?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I get a lot of pitches.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: I say no to like 95% of them.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's not who I'm interested in.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure they have great things to say.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but uh I have been primarily starting out, I was on LinkedIn, hunting away, as I do, right?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: And using the the um search parameters, the filters, and looking for my ideal clients who I know are also have a lot to say about the talent development.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: They're probably the head of talent development or chief learning officer, would be one of the titles on LinkedIn, and reaching out to them and inviting them to come on for an interview.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, going back to my original point about uh you know using that to build my network and get in with people, there were multiple people who I had reached out to and asked them if they would have a conversation with me in a sales capacity, and they either ignored me or said no.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then when I invited them to come on the podcast, they said, yes, definitely.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I love that.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then we get on Zoom, like you and I are on right now, face to face, we build a relationship.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: And now I'm friends with a lot of these people.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: I have sales opportunities with a lot of these people, some of them are clients, um, because we built that rapport, build that relationship.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I was primarily using, I primarily used LinkedIn to target those ideal clients, um, people that I think would provide a lot of value.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then once I got that ball rolling with the first 10, 15, 20 guests, um, I also started asking each of them for a recommendation referral to other people who would make a great guest.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I started getting a lot of introductions.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, some people make none, some people make one or two.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: Every now and then you get the that connected person.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um for me, the first one was this woman named Jessica Amordigi, uh, who was at Logitech and now she works at LinkedIn.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: She introduced me to like 15 people and they were all amazing.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: And all almost all of them became guests, and then it just kind of skyrocketed from there.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: And now I've done well over a hundred interviews.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm always way ahead in terms of content because I keep getting these introductions.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: I did uh two, three interviews this morning before this one.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: This is my fourth podcast of the day.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: First one where I'm being interviewed, the first three I was interviewing.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: And if I think about those three, uh the first two were introductions from uh the first one was an introduction from a past guest.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: The second one was an introduction from a friend of mine who had uh her on his podcast.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, she was not on my radar, and we talked and uncovered some major opportunities to work together.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: It was fantastic.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I owe this friend a beer or two uh later on if that works out.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then and then um the third one was a woman that I connected with on LinkedIn, you know, a couple years ago, and we've kept in touch, and then she was like, Hey, can I come on your podcast?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: And uh she fit the bill, so I said yes.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, a lot of times I'll say no if I don't think they're someone that people really want to listen to.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta be careful with that as well.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is that is so true.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: And there's so many ways that people can become a guest on a podcast that sometimes it's hard to filter those opportunities out.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess ultimately it's uh it's kind of a crapshoot at the end of the day, because you don't really know until you interview somebody.
• 32:30
  unknown: True.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's why networking and building relationships are so important.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you got introduced to me, you we got introduced through Vincent, who we both respect greatly.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: So if he introduces us, it's a no-brainer that that person will be a good guest, right?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know you've been they've been vetted by a good person um versus the the random, um, which I was taking a chance, right?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Connecting these people on LinkedIn and just forgetting on an every with them.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: Most of the time it's been it's been pretty good.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted a relationship with them either way, but I would say 80, 90% of the time, it's been pretty good interview.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's been a couple duds, but not not many.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um but going back to networking and building relationships, just very relevant to this.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, last night a friend of mine who hosts a podcast uh messaged me and he said, Hey, I'm trying to grow my reach.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: I want to get on some other podcasts.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have any that you suggest?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, I'll think about it because I know his niche and I'm I recommended one.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, I said I'll ask him about it.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I said, hey, you know, just so you know, I go to a lot of podcast conferences.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: I go to both Podcast Movement and Podfest, and I meet a lot of podcasters, and we build a relationship, and they know I'm a great guy and they want to have me on the podcast.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Do you go to any conferences?
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: He said, No, I don't.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, there's an opportunity for you, right?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: I meet all kinds of people and I go to conferences and they get to know me and then they want to have me on because I'm a great person, right?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm fun to talk to.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: I know that.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, same thing with I meet a lot of people and I am at conferences or other places, and I invite them to come on my podcast.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you got to get out there and network.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to go to conferences.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: You could do it virtually, right?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: Connect with people on Facebook, get on Zoom calls, get on the phone, you know, connect with people, but you've got to be out there building relationships, giving to people, not just asking.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you find more opportunities that way.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, one more question, uh, and then we'll wrap this up.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know you've got another interview here in a few minutes.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm curious for those who are listening, um, you know, we've been talking a lot about podcasting.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I love about your show is that you actually do two kinds of episodes.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: You have interview episodes, and I'm Tier, I'm talking about the Andy Store show.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you also have episodes where those are solo shows.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're teaching your, you're talking about a topic.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: What is your thought process behind having those two different kinds of episodes?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: And is that something that you recommend for others to do as well?
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yes, and yes.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think um you got to think about what is your at the end of the day, what is your objective for the podcast, right?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: Would you is it to build a network?
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: Is it to teach something?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Is it to connect with clients?
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, whatever it is.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: And with both of my shows, I do probably like 70% interviews and like 30% are solo episodes, right?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I I don't even know if that's the ideal mix, it's just the way it comes out right now.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I love the interviews because it allow it it's how I build my network with important people, right?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: I connect with people, I get to know them, and I get to share their knowledge and wisdom with others.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: I get to absorb some of that knowledge, so I get to learn things, and I get to um grow my authority because I'm now associated with them, right?
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: If I put out a podcast at an interview with someone that is pretty well known, like uh Dan Miller or whatever, I'm now associated with them because they were on my podcast.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: So there's there's benefits to that.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: The benefits to the solo episode is that people really get to know you, right?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: They get to listen to you, get to know your personality, see what you're what you're good at.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, maybe they want to hire you or they just want to get to know you better, um, whatever it may be.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: And you get practice kind of teaching things, especially if you want to become a speaker, um, something I aspire to do.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: I've been looking more speaking gigs recently and want to do more of that.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you get practice with that.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: The the tough thing is um, you know, the the challenge with that is A, you got to come up with your own content, right?
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: Versus just asking somebody questions.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and B, uh you've got to get past major imposter syndrome, which I went through and a lot of people probably go through, which is that um, yeah, I interview these other people that people want to listen to.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants to listen to me.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's you know, that uh they don't really care what I have to say.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it was hard for me to start doing that because I really didn't think that I had much of anything interesting to say.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: But because I've talked to so many people and I've started a practice with it, like it doesn't, I don't deal with that anymore.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like this morning I decided, oh, I'm gonna do a podcast episode, and you know what, I'll go live on Facebook at the same time and I'll just put it on Facebook and I'll put this podcast out there.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you realize, like, you know, you you come up with good ideas, you talk about it, you try to make it succinct enough, and people can listen to it or they could not.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if you're listening to this, you probably listen to at least 15 different podcasts.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: If you look at your your carousel of podcasts, right?
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you look at titles and you decided this one was interesting.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but some other one you ignored because it wasn't that interesting.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not like I think we think when we put stuff out there that's like, oh my God, it has to be perfect.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, but exactly.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: And if they don't like it, they'll give up.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like maybe someone's quitting right now because they're like, this is not for me, right?
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: Someone else is someone else is riveted, right?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, you want to try to create, make it as valuable as possible, but it doesn't have to be perfect.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but to go back to answer your question, uh, for me, I love the interviews for networking.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I'll ever stop that, but I aspire to do more of the solo episodes because I think that it uh shows people more of who I am, my personality, uh, puts me more out there as a quote expert.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: I will never call myself an expert because I'm always I'm always learning.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, people start to see you as an authority, like wow, he's talking by himself about certain things, right?
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so you become that to certain people, and then you're more likely to maybe get hired for certain things, and you just get practice talking about stuff.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of benefits to it, um, to both.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I I always recommend people try doing both, but really it depends on what is your objective for your podcast.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what are you trying to do?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's what it really comes down to because at the end of the day, you don't have any other way to measure your success.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you have downloads, and if you're doing affiliate marketing or whatever, you know, there's different ways to measure it, but but really is it a is it helping to achieve an objective?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's not, if you don't even really know what it's for, then there's no way to measure.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then podcasting is so much work and time and effort that you're gonna get discouraged if you don't have a goal that you're shooting for.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: And one other thing on that too, don't feel like you have to have all the answers or be the expert.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, a lot of what I do with my solo shows is sharing my journey.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think people like being along for the journey a lot of times with people, even when they're right in the middle of doing whatever they're trying to do.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Andy, this has been a blast.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this really illustrates the reason why I do podcasting is you've actually given me some really great ideas for my own business and my own writing and podcasting.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I just love the opportunities that we have today to connect with people and to build relationships and connect with others and so forth.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for taking the time to do this.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I love your energy and all the value that you're putting out into the world.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you, Kent, for the opportunity.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate this and I love talking about this stuff because I'm on the other end all the time listening, and I'm always looking for ideas and advice, and I love sharing those uh and and trying to help other people.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's my mission in life is to fulfill my true potential and then help and inspire other people to do the same thing.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm always happy to get out there and share this stuff.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks so much.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: All right, thank you.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Andy Storch.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Here are my three biggest takeaways from our conversation.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, pick a passion and niche down.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Andy talked about the value of what we call niching down in the business world, which is exactly what I'm doing with this podcast.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be transitioning it to focus solely on business writing here in just a couple months.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a specific suggestion from Andy, by the way.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: So again, this is the value of podcasting where you have these conversations with awesome people, and sometimes they'll make what seems like just a really off-the-cuff suggestion that radically changes what you're doing in your business or your podcast or your blog or writing or whatever it is.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: But back to the point here, niching down is really, really helpful because the reality is that people are going to put you in a box.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: All of us have a variety of interests, we all have lots of things that we can do and lots of things that we're good at.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that for most of the people in our lives, we have to put them in some kind of container.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, here's Sam, this is what he does in his business.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Here's Julie, this is what she does in her business.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um here's Brett over here, he's a photographer, or Janice is um a computer programmer, or so-and-so is a ghostwriter, or a freelance author, or whatever it is.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: We all put people in boxes because that's the only way that we can really survive in this crazy world where we know so many people.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: Just for simplicity's sake, our brains are going to tend to put people in some type of box and put a simplistic label on them, for good or for bad.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: We all do it and we do it out of necessity.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: So knowing that the reality is that people are going to basically put you in one box, why not choose what that box is?
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do everything.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: So follow Andy's lead in choosing a very specific way you can serve others and become really good at that one thing.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he does a great job at this because, for example, he has the Talent Development Hot Seat Podcast, which is a very niche, very focused podcast, but it's exploded, and that has done some really, really great things for him because he has niched down and he's focused on one specific audience.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: So takeaway one is pick a passion and niche down.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: Takeaway number two is take advantage of the opportunities right in front of you.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to encourage you to not overthink things.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I feel so strongly about this point that preaching to myself, of course, I titled this episode Stop Overthinking Everything.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is where I get hung up.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy for me to overanalyze everything and try and figure out, well, which path should I go?
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of like Doctor Strange from the Marvel movies where he sees, you know, 14 million possible outcomes.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy for us to get hung up and paralyzed by all the possible things that could happen.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: And when we do that, we don't end up actually doing anything because we're just paralyzed by all the different options.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: So look at the opportunities right in front of you, pick the thing that makes the most sense and just get busy working on it.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Your action doesn't have to be perfect.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, your action is rarely going to be perfect.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: Just take action on it, get moving.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the principle here that that's driving all this is that the more action that you take, the more clearer the way will become.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get clarity until you take action.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got to just start doing some things and making some progress.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: And once you get that movement going, then you develop clarity.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Takeaway number three is simply get active on LinkedIn.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would describe Andy as a master of using LinkedIn.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's very, very good at it.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I recommend, again, that you check out his profile, which is really well done.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he also goes and comments on people's posts and he posts a lot of stuff himself.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're in the business space, which if you're listening to this podcast, you probably should be, you really need to be active on LinkedIn and be engaging with people there.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you before I start to wrap up this episode to check out both of Andy's podcasts.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: They are well worth your time.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're not in the talent development space, and again, I'm not in the talent development space specifically, I have found a ton of value specifically on his talent development hot seat podcast.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: He has a lot of great interviews and a lot of good solo shows as well.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, um the way that Andy does his podcast, where he alternates between solo episodes and interviews, really has been a model for what I'm going to be shifting this podcast toward.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, Andy, thank you so much for being uh a good friend and giving me lots of good suggestions and helping me so much, not just in this conversation, on this podcast episode, but just in general.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, friends, those are my thoughts, but I would love to hear what you think about this episode.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can do that by heading over to Apple Podcast and leaving a rating and a review, or you can leave a comment on this episode at Kent Sanders.net slash one zero six, where you'll also find all the show notes and the links and all that good stuff.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that you were born to create and designed to make a difference.