Latest / AI for Founders with Ryan Estes / Founder’s guide to 10x visibility

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Founder’s guide to 10x visibility · AI for Founders with Ryan Estes

0:00
Welcome back to AI for Founders. I'm Ryan Estes and today we sit
0:03
down with Dave Polykoff, the founder of Zenpost, a content
0:07
engine helping founders, consultants and service
0:09
providers turn 1 video shoot into a month of high converting
0:13
content. Dave breaks down how we build
0:16
Zenpost into a systematized growth machine that scales
0:19
personal brands, the frameworks behind consistent visibility and
0:22
how AI is transforming content creation at speed and scale.
0:27
If you're a founder or marketing looking to grow your brand,
0:30
streamline your content pipeline, and actually generate
0:32
leads from what you post, this episode is your road map.
0:36
And here. If you love conversations like
0:38
this, you're going to love AI for Founders newsletter.
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It's where curiosity meets conversion.
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Every week, we breakdown founder frameworks, AI workflows, and
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Join thousands of founders already getting smarter and
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Shine stars Computer light AII Take the flight in the globe
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with me on Brian. Yeah, I think that the Stones
2:56
had a song about that. It's like I see a white office
2:58
and I want it painted black. So this is just what we have to
3:02
do. Yeah, I mean, it's probably cost
3:04
me more money and and paint than it did for these panels, but you
3:07
know, it was worth it. Amazing.
3:10
Cool. I'm excited to have this
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conversation about personal branding too.
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For an introduction to our audience, give us a little
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introduction to your company, Zenpost.
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For sure. So yeah, Dave Polykoff, founder
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of Zenpost, essentially we help hidden experts become your
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industry's next chosen professional.
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And largely what we see is many experts come from corporate,
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whether it be that they got laid off or chose to leave during the
3:42
pandemic and ventured off into their own kind of
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solopreneurship journey. And they're great at what they
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do. They can get results for their
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clients, but they're really terrible at explaining what they
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do to other people, especially translating that into content
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that other people consume and then trust and, and want to work
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with you. And so that's the gap that we
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fill. We work with these hidden
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experts to translate their expertise in the content and
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their content into clients. And we do this by helping them
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create a content strategy, helping them prepare, you know,
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the studio setup as we're talking about here with how to
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record content. And then we even schedule a
4:23
monthly video call with them where we actually ask them
4:26
certain questions, capture their, their answers, translate
4:30
that into professional video, and then even publish it for
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them. So we know you're busy, we know
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you have expertise, but you don't know how to actually find
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the time and, and know how to create content.
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So that's where we come in. Amazing.
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Yeah. And it's kind of a staggering
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how well kind of podcast content, podcast snippets
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perform in social media. We're short video right now,
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right? Well, I think one of the key
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things is, and I actually put out a post I thought this the
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other day, where just repurposing podcast clips is not
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a full content strategy. And largely, if you're a
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professional like yourself who understands the podcasting
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space, understands content, you have a better eye for these
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things. Then I would say a lot of guests
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that might come on and get the raw footage from your podcast
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episode and they might just throw it into like Opus Clip or
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some of these like AI tools, take whatever is given to them
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and then throw it up there because they think content is
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content. You know, at least I'm
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publishing something. But I think there is a lot more
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to it in the sense of making sure that you're really finding
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the right stories to be told, finding the elements or the
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those moments within a podcast that are worth sharing and then
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editing in such a way that actually captures attention
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early on when people are scrolling.
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So I agree that podcast clips can be really great for a
5:55
content strategy, but it's just you need to really think about
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what the the editing style and what you're actually cutting
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from that podcast so it can perform well. 100% it's probably
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kind of varies your personal brand kind of what are the
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attributes kind of how polished and professional you are or want
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to be. You know, for some people just
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kind of throwing it out there works it largely I've seen for
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with for people that are physically really attractive,
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it's like, well, you're smoking hot.
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So anything you do is. Is because that's your hook.
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That is your hook. Being attractive is your hook,
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and I'm sorry to say it, it works in the favor of women
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creators. If you're a attractive woman
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creator, a lot of times that that can be your hook.
6:44
So yeah, I would say that's something to consider.
6:48
Yeah, it absolutely, you know, and I, I, ever since I started
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really doing a lot of video content, probably what, 2-3
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years ago when podcast content really went to video pretty
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predominantly boy, I never really kind of related to women,
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you know, until then, like how hard it is to like presentable
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on camera for me. It's really hard.
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So, you know, women, you know, they, they have to, well, we
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just put it like this in my shower.
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I got to borrow soap and, you know, that's for my face, my
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body, my hair, everything comes off that bar of soap.
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But my wife has at least, I don't know, six or seven
7:23
different shampoos depending on what the humidity it is plus,
7:27
you know, make up all that plus the moisturizer in the in the
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routines, you know, So it just, it's like, yeah, be be
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attractive is one thing, but man, it takes a lot of work now
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that you would not notice any work that went into this
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whatsoever. This is me actually trying
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pretty hard honestly. It's funny, you know, I, I have
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a, a skin care routine and I, I moisturize and such.
7:52
And there's, there's times where I will record in the morning
7:54
after I've done the skin care routine, But I, I guess I'd
7:58
haven't really gotten down the full effect of like, or if you
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moisturize too much, your face will look too oily and all that
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stuff. So I've, I've recorded videos
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after like putting on a moisturizer and then I published
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the videos and then I got like random people commenting on my
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videos being like, man, are you like sweaty or like, you know,
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you look so oily and I'm like, ah, I didn't even think about
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this kind of stuff. So yeah, it's you.
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You try to take some steps towards your personal hygiene
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and, and trying to look look presentable.
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But yeah, now you have to really fix the hair, fix the skin, make
8:33
sure you brush off all the pet hair before you record and all
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that. Yeah, absolutely.
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I mean, this important conversation for men to talk
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about their skin care routines because, you know, what I like
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for moisturizer is Shea butter. And that's largely because when
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I was 19, I took this great African history class and it was
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talking about the routines of Shaka Zulu in South Africa was
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like a famous warrior. And he was also famous for like
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being very regimented about his morning routines.
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And so he would go down to the river and bathe every single
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morning and then cover his entire body with Shea butter.
9:08
And so I thought, you know what, if it's good enough for Shaka
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Zulu, it's good enough for me. So ever since I've been using
9:14
Shea butter. Now you got to be really careful
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because to your point, I mean, I'm feeling a little
9:18
self-conscious look a little shiny right now, but I'll put
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too much Shea butter on it. Like literally looks like I I
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dumped my head in butter you. Know that's why I was asking.
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Like women, women know they'll put the moisturizer on, but then
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I feel like they have some other things that they put on to kind
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of balance it. And these are all things, you
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know, now that we're on video, we're we got to Start learning
9:38
ourselves here. Yeah, totally.
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I'm looking at in my my wife's side of the bathroom.
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I'm like, hey, what what's that concealer?
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Me again. Like what does that do?
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Is that like Spackle? You know, I was, I was ready to
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record the other day and I had a little, you know, little
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blemish, little, you know, pimple coming in and I'm like, I
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don't know if I can record today.
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I don't want this to I don't want this to be on on, on film.
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So yeah, we're, we're going to have to start, you know, asking
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some. You know, it, it's, it's funny
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to poke fun at, but it's also real, you know, and all of us
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have like a certain amount of insecurity and you you have to
10:19
overcome some of that when you're committing to content.
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You know, if you're like, OK, you know, the first thing you're
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going to notice is, oh, man, does my face really look like
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that? And then you're going to listen
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back. You're like, Oh my God, does my
10:29
voice sound like that? And there's this kind of like
10:33
Cliff of expectation you fall off that you have to kind of
10:37
gather yourself at the bottom and be like, hey, man, let's
10:41
trust the process. Let's let's go through it.
10:42
We can always do a little bit something better with the
10:44
studio. There's always going to be a
10:46
little bit better of a hair day that you have plus or minus.
10:50
You know, you're always going to look back and be like, man, I
10:53
looked younger or whatever it is.
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Like it's never going to be perfect, but I feel like
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wrestling with this inside internal voice and doing it
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anyway in itself is a win. Yeah, it's always a process.
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You know, if I look back at the videos I made two years ago,
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there's a million things I could point out and say, oh man, I
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can't believe, you know, I made that decision.
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And then every, it's like the 1% rule.
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Every video, you just kind of find one thing to continuously
11:19
tweak and get better at, and eventually you find your rhythm.
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I think what's kind of interesting is like we're
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talking about I, I, I want it to be so polished and perfect.
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And one of the, you know, an AI podcast, one of the big kind of
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waves that I'm seeing now where people are starting to just make
11:37
AI avatars of themselves and mix that in with some strategic
11:41
editing styles. And so in that case, you can
11:45
always have a perfect hair day, you can always have the perfect
11:48
clothes on and all that kind of stuff.
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But it's, it's an interesting conversation to have because it
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helps you avoid all these, these pitfalls that we're talking
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about or these worries that you have.
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But in my opinion, I'd I'd steer clear of just kind of becoming
12:02
the the AI avatar account on Instagram.
12:09
I mean, that's a a good point too, that like we'll be able to
12:13
customize our appearance however we want, you know it.
12:17
First, it'll happen in digital form.
12:19
And then I'm sure through CRISPR and some kind of gene
12:21
technology, in 15 or 20 years we'll be able to start rewiring.
12:26
And I go, you want blue hair? Yeah, no problem.
12:28
Take this pill. Right.
12:29
You know. With peptides and stuff, I mean,
12:31
it's we're, we're, it's going to get really squirrely.
12:33
Yeah. But I think what it what it also
12:35
does. I mean, we and we've had plastic
12:37
surgery that's gotten better and better for years and years,
12:40
which is fine for people that want to do it, but you know, I
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feel like for, for someone like me who's like, hey, I want to
12:46
put content out. I realize I'm not going to be
12:49
the hot shark at the gym. I'm not going to get those kind
12:52
of views, but I do feel like I can.
12:54
I've made unbelievably profound relationships with people that
12:57
have been from either creating content or distributing content.
13:01
Now you, you look at, at the landscape, we're going to have
13:04
like AI enhanced features and everything else.
13:07
I think for just like regular looking people is going to
13:09
become like almost like its own kind of attraction in a way, you
13:15
know, you're we're going to get bored with perfection, you know?
13:18
Oh, you think, OK, so you're thinking, at what point is
13:22
everyone just a perfect model on Instagram?
13:24
And so it evens the playing field, if you will.
13:27
Yeah, totally. You people will be looking at
13:29
other people like oh, look at those love handles.
13:31
Got some stretch marks, right? The pension.
13:32
Will swing swing back the other way, right?
13:36
Yeah, or. It's like it reminds me of what
13:38
was her name, The red woman in Game of Thrones, you know?
13:44
She was like. Super hot, you know, redhead.
13:48
No, no, no, not Khaleesi. She was, she was like a witch.
13:52
Oh, no, I know you're talking about.
13:53
Yeah. And then she, she was the she
13:55
took the necklace off, and she became this old lady.
13:58
Yeah, she was just like this wretched kind of demonic looking
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thing, you know, which is kind of interesting because we're
14:04
starting to enter that phase of like, we'll, we'll be able to
14:07
have the power if we go to wearables, you know, and
14:09
everyone has glasses and has the ability to throw filters on
14:12
everything. So it'd be like, you know,
14:14
instead of maybe your preferred pronouns, you'd be like, hey, I
14:19
prefer you to use my personal filter, you know, so people
14:23
could look at me and my personal filter would be like a giraffe
14:26
and you'd see a giraffe talking to you.
14:28
And I'm just like, hey, that's my personal preference.
14:30
It's. Kind of like you take that off
14:33
like Fortnite skins but in real life in a way.
14:37
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that seems like it'd be
14:40
really easy right now. You and I know startups are
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I mean, I would imagine to the at some point you get to the
16:52
extent where like AI cuz you know, Meta just came out there,
16:57
AI glasses which basically can just kind of like show you text
17:02
messages and directions and stuff like that through just
17:06
normal glasses. But I imagine, you know, in the
17:10
future that's going to be to the extent where it can actually
17:13
recognize a person and then change their features to, you
17:17
know, fully as well. But yeah, it's, it's some things
17:22
are cool and some things feel like it takes away from the
17:26
human side of things that make us sane.
17:28
And, you know, it's going to be an interesting ballpark to to
17:31
play in in the future and see, you know, how much we get.
17:38
Yeah, I say in the future, things are moving quick.
17:40
So who knows? I am, it's almost here now.
17:42
I mean, we're basically in Black Mirror territory.
17:45
So we'll see how that pans out. Now I want to talk a little bit
17:48
deeper about personal branding for founders because just about
17:52
the entire audience of this podcast are founders.
17:56
I'd say probably a third of them are venture backed, you know,
17:58
which is to say that what, what my message is that if you're not
18:03
doing personal branding and you're not using your online
18:08
image, whatever these terms are to sell your product as a
18:12
founder, you don't even deserve to be at the top.
18:15
You should pass the CEO title or whatever title to somebody else.
18:19
Because honestly, like there's the kind of stakes in the kind
18:23
of cash and the kind of time that's involved in building
18:26
these companies, it really requires someone who at least
18:29
has the bravery to try. And if you're like, I'm a behind
18:33
the scenes guy, I'm a technical guy, I don't care.
18:36
You know, you should look yourself in the mirror and be
18:38
like, do I even deserve to have a position and a company and
18:42
opportunities like this if I'm not willing to go all in and
18:45
really put myself on the line? Because otherwise, in my
18:49
opinion, you don't. So assuming that the stakes are
18:53
very high for all founders, but particularly venture backed
18:55
people, particularly, you know, you got 100 miles to feed, you
18:58
got 100, a hundred desks in cubicles that are all looking to
19:01
you for like, hey man, you know, everything's changing so fast,
19:04
so rapidly quarter to quarter. We need to have like very clear
19:08
leadership right now on a quarterly basis.
19:11
So what I'd like you to do is if that's the the bowl case for
19:15
personal branding, let's play devil's advocate.
19:19
What's the bare case for personal branding for a founder?
19:23
Why shouldn't somebody do it? One arena, One reason that you
19:30
may want to not be as involved with personal branding for
19:35
certain startups or those who are on their path trying to get
19:39
acquired is that sometimes a founder LED business where the
19:47
founders so associated with the the brand itself that that makes
19:53
much of the value of the business.
19:56
And so when they go to get another round of funding or go
19:59
to get acquired, there is some hesitation or stickiness when it
20:05
comes to like, OK, well you are the face of this brand and so
20:10
what's going to happen after we acquire you or what happens if?
20:14
You get hit by a bus or whatever, you know, the, the,
20:16
the value of that business could potentially go down.
20:20
You know, we've seen that with like what is it?
20:23
How I made my first million newsletter.
20:30
Other businesses were just essentially you build up your
20:34
personal brand which attracts attention into your business and
20:38
that becomes if that's like your main lead generation or brand
20:42
equity that's just tied to the founder.
20:46
What was their my first million at?
20:48
Was that Sam Parson? Yeah, Sam Parson.
20:49
Yeah. Yeah, when he like left, that
20:53
did it like did their viewership.
20:54
Well, I think they they brought they can because I think HubSpot
20:57
had brought that bought them and they I think he he had stayed on
21:03
for that reason. But it was one of those
21:05
instances where like really, you kind of saw him like he was like
21:08
the face, right? Because if you're especially if
21:10
you're, if you are a podcast or something where the like, for
21:17
example, like a diary of Aceo, Steve Bartlett, you know, he, he
21:23
is that, that brand, that that company essentially, you know,
21:28
God forbid if something was to happen to him or they would get
21:31
acquired and he takes a backseat.
21:33
How successful is that media company now?
21:37
So in that, in those cases that I think that's kind of maybe the
21:40
the thing to think about is building, investing into your
21:43
personal brand is a necessity for everyone, but tying it too
21:48
much to your business where if it's the only way people are,
21:54
it's the only funnel into your business.
21:58
You know, you might see some issues with evaluations and or
22:03
valuations and acquisitions because they're going to worry,
22:07
right, If we acquire you, then you have to come on as an ACT,
22:09
you hire and you know, make this transition and all that kind of
22:12
stuff. So I think that's maybe one use
22:14
case of, you know, just at least being a bit more strategic with
22:17
your personal brand. It's a really good one, you
22:21
know, and it's probably a double sided sword because if you know,
22:26
your personal brand is so big that it's it's creating a a
22:29
significant valuation in the company, that means you're
22:32
famous, you've done something very right, you know what I
22:36
mean? And there probably does become a
22:39
leverage situation where it's like, OK, yeah, well, maybe it's
22:42
not an accuhire as much as it is like I am the official
22:45
spokesperson for this brand moving forward.
22:48
Now there are certain situations where is 100% right.
22:51
If the brand is called Dave Pauly and you're trying to say
22:54
sell Dave Pauly, they're like, bro, like the product is you,
22:57
you know, or if you know within a service or product industry,
23:02
the that founders involvement with the clients is so great.
23:06
You see this a lot in agencies where they might have two or
23:10
three humongous clients that do like 90% of their revenue and
23:14
that personal relationship they have with the founder is
23:17
actually what feeds the entire organization.
23:20
That's a tough one too. That's a tough situation where
23:23
now you're you're kind of bound by the commitment you have, but
23:27
you aren't famous, you know, so those those can be hairy twos in
23:30
it. You probably have to think about
23:32
that early on. But that's less of a personal
23:34
brand, but rather kind of a fulfillment thing on the
23:36
backside that are you going to, you know, bring people in with
23:40
that personal touch and then you're immediately delegating it
23:44
to a team that's running through a process.
23:46
So the connection is always with the outcome of the service, not
23:49
necessarily the attention from the founder.
23:51
But it that's a really important point because especially if
23:54
you're talking about consultants, you're talking
23:56
about people that have that charisma.
23:58
That's a potential downside. Yeah.
24:01
I mean, largely personal branding is a for most of the
24:05
time is a gateway into some sort of offer.
24:11
That's how you're monetizing your personal brand
24:13
traditionally, otherwise, you know other personal brand types,
24:18
authors, speakers where you are also the offer on the back end.
24:24
So I'm a personal brand. I'm going to be a speaker.
24:28
I'm hyping myself up and promoting myself as an expert
24:32
and a thought leader so that conferences and panels want to
24:36
come hire me for their events. I am the offer on the back end.
24:41
You're hiring me. Otherwise it's, you know, for
24:46
Mosey is trying to build himself up as a thought leader and and
24:51
guru in the how to build your business space so that he can
24:55
funnel businesses into his acquisition.com service.
25:01
And so that's one of those other instances where like when you
25:03
think of her Mosey, you think of acquisition.com.
25:06
So if acquisition.com was to be acquired, you know, could that
25:11
be a point of of contention there where people are like,
25:14
well, are we still going to get new businesses in if for Mosey
25:20
stops posting about it? But also I think one key thing
25:26
is when we look at ourselves, we have to think of ourselves as
25:29
our own kind of umbrella company where we're not just one thing.
25:33
So for him, for a Mosey, he also invested heavily into school.com
25:37
and then just by his personal brand was able to, as soon as he
25:42
attached himself to school.com, their membership shot up, you
25:48
know, like a hockey stick because now he's bringing over
25:50
an entire community of people that fit so well into
25:53
school.com. So he's not just tied to one
25:56
thing, but it's kind of the reverse where the benefit his
26:01
personal brand benefited a new company that he joined versus
26:05
the personal brand maybe devaluing a company because
26:10
that's the only way people know it.
26:14
Yeah, Alex and Leila are just the most incredible example of
26:20
ways that people of success with personal branding that nobody
26:24
can duplicate. They are so talented and so good
26:28
in so many different ways. They were an early client of
26:31
mine right before they are bringing Gym Launch to sale.
26:35
So we were booking them on podcasts right as they were kind
26:38
of like Gym Launch was really hockey sticking.
26:41
And it was funny because he was with us probably six months and
26:44
then started, you know, just blew up, you know.
26:48
But he did a YouTube video where he was literally describing like
26:52
how he uses agencies to like learn best practices, develop
26:56
SOP's and then just bring it in house.
26:57
And it was like literally like right after he did it to me.
27:00
Is that he? He did it.
27:01
He did the same thing for you. Yeah, it's, it's, but you know
27:05
what I mean? That's The thing is that like,
27:07
if you got a service agency, ultimately it's about the
27:10
execution. The barrier of entry is very low
27:12
for service, which is great if you're completely obsessed with
27:16
that service because you can excel.
27:18
And if you can excel, you'll do just fine, you know?
27:21
But that's always the thing. It's like, hey, people will
27:23
learn, they'll steal from you. And then again, you're just
27:25
going to be like, all right, well, can you do it better than
27:26
me? And in Alex and Leela's case,
27:28
it's like, wow, boy, can you ever like those guys are are
27:31
just so such a force. Yeah, incredible.
27:34
Yeah, That's why I mean, you typically outsource certain
27:39
things because you don't want to have to learn a new skill or
27:45
hire resources and manage a new department and you just go
27:49
listen, you know the SO PS you have the talent, you have the
27:52
know how and experience. I'm going to pay a premium for
27:55
you just to figure it out. But for some just absolute
28:00
beasts like them, they're like, we know how to operationalize,
28:05
we know how to hire talent, we know how to build.
28:09
So as soon as we like know the playbook, we're OK with building
28:13
that out. But that is certainly not for
28:14
everyone, I would say. Yeah, I mean, for me, it's very
28:18
helpful to have a ritual, to have a place I'd go to have kind
28:21
of a notes. I have to have a little bit of
28:23
structure that I can operate in. What if I'm making content?
28:27
You know, if you're Alex and Leela, basically you're just
28:30
walking with a camera in your face 24/7 and they just spit
28:34
jewels like nonstop. You know, it's like I got a tank
28:38
top, a flannel and my little nose piece.
28:41
Let's go. I'm always ready.
28:43
And it's and it's very high level, great stuff.
28:47
You know, I'm, I'm so impressed by them.
28:48
That's where I'll I'll kind of make a connection of content
28:52
strategy and people think that they need to like I'll, I'll
28:55
hire AD rock, you know, for, you know, Gary Vee's instance where
29:00
he had that, you know, a camera guy just follows him around.
29:04
He's to and from in an Uber and he's just spitting out gems and
29:07
and you know, clip worthy moments at all times.
29:11
And same thing with, you know, Alex and Layla and these people
29:14
have just they they live and breathe content and they just
29:18
learn the gift of the gab. People don't typically speak in
29:25
sound bites. So not everyone should just go
29:28
hire a videographer just to follow them around.
29:31
Like Dan, was it Dan Miller? Same way like you just no one
29:38
speaks in these kind of clip worthy moments.
29:41
And to a degree that's partly why I also mentioned podcast
29:46
clipping is great. But as long as you can speak in
29:50
a very succinct, you know, clip worthy moment and you really
29:54
nail what you're trying to say and you you start with a strong
29:57
hook, you know, to lead in and all that kind of stuff.
30:00
Unless you really nail that moment, it's more difficult to
30:03
like be able to clip that out later and have that be something
30:06
that is going to perform well. So that's typically not to like
30:12
tie in services or anything, but that's typically why my clients
30:16
enjoy the process we do a bit more is because we lead into the
30:19
conversation with prepping them on.
30:22
Here's the points we're going to talk about.
30:23
Here's some notes that you can mention in your response.
30:26
Here's a hook to to include. And so when you go to create
30:29
content, you kind of already have the CHEAT SHEET in front of
30:34
you. You have the answers and so you
30:36
can get that solid sound bite. Otherwise, yeah, you kind of
30:40
have to like practice your boilerplate responses and get
30:43
the gift of the gab in order to like really be on the ball with
30:47
getting a solid sound bite you. Have to practice.
30:52
You know, that's the thing too, is I, I, I talked to folks a
30:54
lot, a lot of times and they're like, they want to go straight
30:57
to the top. You know, they're like, I want
30:59
to be Alex Hermazi, you know, and it's like, well, dude, that
31:02
dude just ground the phone into a pulp doing sales calls for
31:07
years and years and years to learn and to get as good as he
31:10
is. You know, it's it's like if a
31:13
kid, you know, you pick up a saxophone for the first time,
31:16
you're like, oh, I want to play like John Coltrane.
31:19
It's like, no, dude, you're going to have to practice.
31:22
You know, you pick up a skateboard.
31:24
You think you can kick flip. No, you can't.
31:25
You can't skateboard like Tony Hawk.
31:27
Like, what do you think? You know, you have to get the
31:30
reps in, you know, ultimately to be really good at it.
31:33
Now there's going to be people that are talented, but even
31:35
usually the people that are talented are just doing it all
31:38
the time. And that's one thing that I
31:40
really love about this, this kind of communication is that I
31:43
believe there is a virtuosity at the end of it.
31:46
There is the, the John Coltrane of podcasting.
31:49
There is the, you know, Jimi Hendrix of like clips.
31:53
It could be done, you know what I mean?
31:55
But it really takes getting reps and practicing, which again,
31:58
just comes back to being brave and ultimately, like taking
32:01
responsibility for yourself that like, hey, I've got to get out
32:04
there and do that. In fact, it's a, it's a moral
32:06
imperative, you know, because on one side, perhaps that's going
32:11
to, if your personal brand is too tied into the brand and now
32:15
you're kind of losing valuation, perhaps at an exit.
32:18
Think about it the other way. What if it's you don't have a
32:20
personal brand at all and you get acquired and now what are
32:23
you going to do? Start over at complete 0?
32:26
You've been building up this brand for so long, but you never
32:28
took the time to build up yourself, You know, So now
32:31
nobody knows who you are. You don't have an audience.
32:33
You don't have anything. You're starting at 0 again.
32:35
And then then you find yourself in a situation like, well, I
32:38
guess I have to start building my personal brand.
32:39
I mean, it's like, I think Confucius said it, you know, the
32:43
best time to build your personal brand was 20 years ago.
32:47
The second best time is today. Maybe that was about treat.
32:50
It was. About personal branding that
32:52
you're either way it all relates.
32:57
Yeah, no, 100%. And that the other benefit
33:01
'cause that, you know, I have AI host a podcast myself and you
33:05
know, after the the show, we always kind of do a, a post pod
33:10
recap. And it always comes down to they
33:15
love when I ask questions that they've never been asked before
33:18
because it allows them to kind of think about their business in
33:22
a new way or kind of come up with a new way of, of marketing
33:26
or, or messaging their business that they haven't thought about
33:30
before. And that the only way that they
33:32
had gotten that was they needed to be asked that question that
33:36
they've never been asked before. And that happens through just
33:39
interviews. You know, there's questions that
33:41
you're asking me today, you know, I haven't really thought
33:43
about and, and how to kind of come up with on the spot.
33:46
And so now I'm kind of like puts me in a new kind of messaging
33:49
mindset. And then there's times where you
33:51
get asked the same question over and over and over again.
33:53
And that's when you continue to, you know, iron sharpens iron
33:58
type of thing where you continue to, you know, figure out the
34:01
best way to give that answer. And then all of a sudden, you
34:04
know, it's like, it's like actors going on their movie
34:08
press tour and they get asked the same 15 questions all the
34:11
time. And they have like their their
34:12
responses. And then over time you kind of
34:15
tweak some things. You got a better reaction when
34:17
you said it certain way and all that kind of stuff.
34:19
And by the end of like, you know, a press or a, you know, a,
34:23
a podcast tour, if you will. And throughout 1/4, you now have
34:27
like refined messaging at the end of that quarter that you can
34:30
update your marketing materials, your website, you can turn that
34:33
into content. It's yeah, it's beneficial.
34:38
And it's it, it you do get very strong, you know, with, for
34:40
example, of like your introduction, tell me who you
34:42
are about 90 seconds. You, you, you start to get your
34:45
beats. I have my dumb jokes that I tell
34:48
every single time because they get little laughs.
34:50
You know, you know, what do you do?
34:52
You know, you get really good at telling that story.
34:54
What's a, what's a great call to action?
34:56
You get really good at telling that story.
34:58
So, you know, you're practicing here doing podcasts and stuff
35:01
like that. But then you end up at a
35:02
networking event, which for me, I kind of get clammed up and
35:05
like, I don't know what to, but you're rehearsed.
35:08
So you've got your like quick 62nd intros, got a couple of
35:11
beats, couple of jokes, and you can flip it back over.
35:13
Oh, what do you do? You know, So you end up feeling
35:16
really charismatic when really the fact of the matter is you've
35:18
just been practicing all your like little chuckle stuff.
35:22
I want to talk a little bit about some just the metrics of
35:26
your business and kind of how you're running things.
35:28
So let's start with, you know, price point, what is kind of
35:31
your core offer, how much does it cost and who's the best
35:35
customer that you like to work with?
35:37
Yeah. So we have a few different
35:40
offers. One is the Fully done for you
35:43
service and that's where it's people who are just handing over
35:46
the keys essentially and going, I don't want to have to worry
35:49
about content strategy, recording content, editing
35:52
content, all that kind of stuff, posting it.
35:55
And that's the full done for you service.
35:57
And that starts at 997 and then goes up to $2500 a month based
36:03
on how much content are we actually creating and editing
36:06
and publishing for you. And then there are those who are
36:09
like, you know what, I'll, you know, I'll, I'll work with a
36:14
video editor and I'll kind of take it over, but I don't
36:17
understand the whole content strategy thing.
36:19
Help me kind of point the direction of the ship and, and
36:23
tell me where to go. And so that's the Zenpost
36:26
accelerator where we're just working with you to help you get
36:29
set up in content strategy, help you professionalize your video
36:33
style, create your video editing style, and even bring in a video
36:37
editor. And then from there you're able
36:40
to kind of like take over the the ship.
36:43
And that's $2500 just for that. And then we have people who are
36:47
just like, you know, I kind of want to piece meal this one by
36:50
one and kind of learn some things at my own pace.
36:53
And so we have Zenpost Academy, which is a community and that's
36:57
a bunch of just kind of mini courses around how to set up
37:01
your content strategy, how to set up a studio at your house,
37:04
how to edit content, how to publish it on social media
37:08
accounts, hooks, scripting, all that kind of stuff.
37:12
So really just at any kind of pricing level or at any
37:17
professional level, there's kind of a solution there for you to
37:20
help you figure out what you need to do and then sometimes
37:24
even do it for you. Brilliant.
37:26
So done for you, done with you do it yourself offers.
37:29
I love that. How many clients currently you
37:32
got on kind of the done for you? We have 10 clients on the done
37:35
for you. Nice.
37:38
And then how big's the team? It's small, largely led by me,
37:42
and then we have contractors. Part of it is also run by
37:46
content automation and AI, but we're nimble in the sense of
37:50
really it's the content strategy, recording and then
37:55
editing and publishing, which really just requires a few
37:58
specialized staff in the background.
38:00
Amazing. And what what's your biggest
38:03
driver for new customers? Right now it's my personal
38:08
brand, so we're talking about that.
38:11
We have a podcast personal brand blueprint.
38:14
I invite on experts, they talk about their expertise.
38:18
Some of those turn into clients. Otherwise we also kind of
38:22
promote Zen post through that. So it's kind of our
38:24
distribution. They distribute the podcast and
38:27
that brings eyeballs back to Zen Post as well.
38:31
You know, my social accounts on LinkedIn and Instagram largely
38:36
and starting to kind of this isn't anything right now, but
38:39
starting to get into more of Co marketing experiences.
38:46
So kind of evolving the podcast into more like a Co branded
38:49
workshop and then kind of tapping into the podcast
38:55
audience. So bringing people into like a
38:57
live webinar workshop type of event that's like Co branded by
39:01
Zenpost and then using that to using the replay to be put
39:08
behind a landing page. So people want to watch the
39:12
replay that didn't attend the live event, opting in to the to
39:16
the replay and then kind of remarketing that way.
39:20
Amazing. Where can people hear the
39:22
podcast? It's on YouTube and all major
39:25
streaming services. Again, it's personal brand
39:28
Blueprint, so that's on YouTube and Spotify, Apple, etcetera.
39:34
But yeah, it's right now it's largely bringing guests on and
39:38
talk about their expertise. But I'm actually starting to do
39:40
some breakdowns of top creators. So I'm going to take their their
39:48
Instagram accounts, their social accounts, scrape out their
39:52
content, use some content automation that I've built that
39:55
actually looks for their top performing posts, transcribes
40:00
those posts and then uses AI to analyze them and then go through
40:04
and actually. Breakdown what topics they
40:07
cover, the formats of their videos, what hooks are they
40:10
using, what's their content funnel?
40:12
What are the landing pages that lead that you're led to what
40:16
their call to actions and their giveaways and all that.
40:18
And so that's going to be a kind of a new version of the podcast
40:21
coming out soon as well where you'll be able to take top
40:24
creators and kind of see what their content strategies and and
40:27
content conversion strategies are.
40:32
This episode is brought to you by Moeburst, the AI first growth
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42:48
Now back to the show. I love it.
42:50
OK, I want to do QuickTime with slime.
42:52
You ready for a little game? Sure.
42:55
Here's the rules. It's either this or that.
42:59
If you say both or neither, you have to hit yourself in the head
43:01
with a hammer. So you have to pick one of the.
43:03
I was not informed that I needed to bring a hammer to this.
43:09
If you need a hammer, a hammer will be provided.
43:11
Yeah. OK, here we go.
43:14
Consistency or virality? What should you pay more
43:16
attention to? Consistency.
43:20
Particular reason. Virality doesn't equate to
43:24
dollars, so I would rather have 100 views and $100,000 in my
43:30
account versus 100,000 views and $100 in my account.
43:34
Virality. A lot of times people are trying
43:37
to go viral, but they'll go viral for the wrong thing and
43:39
then bring in the wrong audience.
43:41
And these aren't buyers, they're just people who are interested
43:43
in that one video. How about depth long form
43:48
content or breadth frequent posts?
43:52
Depth, the long form content. Basically you want to bring your
43:59
audience from your short form content into your long form
44:02
content. Short form is for discovery,
44:04
long form is for relationship building, really demonstrating
44:08
your expertise. And yeah, YouTube podcasts,
44:13
these are the times to do that. People spend more than 8 minutes
44:17
with you, they're going to feel much more connected to you
44:19
rather than 30 seconds on Instagram or TikTok or whatnot.
44:26
So you know, the longer they spend with you, the the more
44:29
they're going to feel interested in your who you are and your
44:32
offer. Evergreen content or trend
44:37
chasing content? Evergreen content, it's kind of
44:39
goes back to the virality thing. I, I think Trend, I won't call
44:44
it trend chasing, but seeing a popular format that seems to be
44:50
performing well, we'll say definitely try that out.
44:54
That should be part of your content strategy.
44:57
I would not bucket that into trend chasing because if it
45:00
doesn't make sense for your brand and it doesn't add
45:02
credibility and value to your brand, don't do it.
45:05
But there is a time and place for seeing a new style of
45:09
content that could also perform well for you that also plays
45:15
into your content strategy. You should still do that, but
45:18
that should be a smaller percentage of the content you
45:21
put out. OK, nice.
45:24
And here's a last one for you. Just personal preference.
45:27
What do you enjoy more? Do you?
45:29
Do you like actually completing the done for you work for
45:34
clients, or do you like teaching people how to do it for
45:36
themselves? I like teaching people how to do
45:39
it, do it for themselves. I think, you know, any, any
45:44
case, being an artist, you create something for other
45:48
people. It's open to scrutiny and
45:50
nitpicking. And there's a collaboration
45:52
there that sometimes of the other people don't kind of see
45:56
your vision and you have to hear some back and forth there.
45:59
And there could be some friction in that, that type of process.
46:05
But being able to how to give the tools to other people and
46:08
allow them to empower them to be able to do it themselves and
46:11
build what they want to build, that just feels much more
46:15
freeing. And I feel like the the end
46:17
result is they're happy with it. And as long as it's benefiting
46:21
them and it's working, that's that's all that matters.
46:25
Amazing. Last question, Dave, this has
46:26
been so much fun. He's got a great business model.
46:30
He kind of solopreneur, built a strong team around you.
46:33
You got lots of clients but being a founder without like a
46:37
Co founder or team behind you can be lonely.
46:40
Like how do you kind of battle the loneliness?
46:44
It's that's a very good question and I think a lot of
46:46
solopreneurs can probably relate to this.
46:48
I work, like I said, I have a 2 bedroom apartment.
46:52
I work at home so my commute to my office is not very large.
46:56
I'm not passing people on the street on my way to work.
46:59
And one thing I've dedicated for myself in this year was to just
47:05
once a week connect with another founder for coffee or just
47:09
outside the office. And so that's one way just to
47:12
kind of get myself out and still feel like I'm out there next to
47:16
a water cooler, you know, catching up on on on life with
47:21
someone else. I also have weekly check
47:25
insurance with some other kind of accountability colleagues of
47:30
mine. It's virtual, but it is that
47:32
time where we can just kind of like shoot the shit and you
47:35
know, talk about whatever we want and not have to be too
47:38
businessy. So whether it's digital or
47:40
actual in person, I try to schedule time for myself to
47:45
still collaborate with other people.
47:47
And also too, I have my personal brand Blueprint podcast where I
47:51
have video calls with people all week long.
47:53
It's not the same as being, you know, live with someone, but I
47:57
still get to kind of just experience, you know, have some
48:00
business talk outside of just me and my cat at my apartment.
48:07
Amazingzenpost.com where you can check out Zenpost.
48:11
Dave, where's the best place people can connect with you
48:13
online? Yeah, best place would be
48:15
Instagram. It's Dave Polykoff as well as,
48:20
as I said, I have the community where I'm in there answering
48:23
questions as well. That's Zenpost Academy, and we
48:27
actually have a few mini courses in there, one of which is
48:30
getting started with Content Automation, which is typically a
48:34
paid course. But if you do come from this
48:38
podcast when you sign up, then we'll provide that to you for
48:42
free. Hey, appreciate that.
48:45
Say it again. So yeah, Zenpost Academy on
48:49
school.com S kool.com, we'll provide a link for the show
48:54
notes as well, but it'll be a special link.
48:57
So if you sign up to the free community using that link, we'll
49:00
see that and we will unlock the content automation course for
49:05
you for free. Appreciate that, Dave.
49:08
Thanks for coming on for. Sure.
49:09
Thanks for having me, Ryan. This is awesome.