Latest / Marci talks money (and life) / Creating Opportunities Through Podcasting: Networking, Learning, and Growth with Azan
Transcript
- Marci Grossman (00:15) Hello, I am MoneyMarci. My guest today is Azan, the host of the Lights of Wisdom podcast on YouTube, which has been sharing educational podcasts for almost a year. By the time you hear this, it will be over a year. And Az is a very interesting young man. At this point in time, I guess he's trying to find himself. He loves volunteering and working to spread knowledge in the community. and I am so excited to share him with you. Welcome Azan. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (00:44) Hey, thank you so much for the kind introduction. Really glad to be here. Marci Grossman (00:48) Well, I'm thrilled to have you here. So we were talking moments before I hit the button. So I know all of his secrets and you know none of them yet. Azan started a podcast a year ago, never having been a guest, he just decided it was where his next steps were. So what made you start your podcast? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (01:09) Yeah, that's a good question. I think with anything in life, know, you always, ⁓ I guess for most people, you want to have some experience. As you mentioned, I've never been a guest before. Podcasting was never really on my mind. And then it wasn't until, yeah, really about last year when I decided to, you know, just do something different with my life. I was not employed. And so, you know, obviously with time comes, what's your next biggest plan? So I'd always been a fan of traveling and always been a fan of networking. I just kind of wanted to combine those two. literally last August after a trip to New York, I picked up the phone, called my friend and told him exactly what I wanted to do. Within the next week, the first week of September, which happens to be this coming Thursday, is going to be our year anniversary of our first episode releasing. Picked up the laptop, recorded with a friend of mine and that was our first episode. from there, it just snowballed into something different, something I guess we love doing and we hope just to continue with it for as long as we can. Marci Grossman (02:11) your podcast talks to different people about what they do for a living or life's journey or interesting things they've done. So it's really educational. And when you started doing this, did you say, we're going to be educational? Or did you say we're going to talk to people and see where it goes? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (02:23) Thanks, More of like the talking to people, seeing where it goes. I did know that, you know, with kind of anything you share it can become some sort of educational. You know, there can be some stuff you can take away from it, which is what we also expected because obviously everyone's journey, everyone's, line of work is different and, know, you can pick up just one thing. And I would say that is something that you've learned. So it was kind of both like coincided with each other in the sense that, you know, yeah, it was a bit of like. educational and then a bit of just, you know, kind of seeing where it went from from when we started. Marci Grossman (03:00) Now that you've done a year, you've done how many podcast episodes? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (03:03) about 60 in season one. And then right now we've just recorded about 11 episodes for season two, which are yet to be released, but hoping to release those in October. Marci Grossman (03:13) So you're recording more than one a week, or you're releasing more than one a week. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (03:16) Yeah, I was recording more than one a week, but now I think we're going back to about one or two times a week because it can pile up. We both know, you know, ⁓ it can be a lot. So we kind of want to enjoy the process. And as we have more people that are interested in coming on the show, I think kind of giving ourselves a break and not really pushing so much is going to be probably the best path forward for us. yeah, it was right now at least three times a week where our episodes are released. Marci Grossman (03:45) How did you find your guests initially? How are you finding them now and how did that evolve? Because when you're starting out and you really don't know what your niche is gonna be, it's different than as you've defined yourself moving forward. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (04:00) Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. For me personally, ⁓ it started with, so I deleted social media before I actually started this, which I don't recommend to anybody who wants to start something because social media can be your best friend. But I took a gamble, deleted all my social media, like at least my personal accounts and WhatsApp was my best friend. I had met my, actually at the time, my best friend and my Kind of cohost before he had to take a break, Amaris who I've had the great pleasure of working with. He actually introduced me to our current editor from there. We kind of formed a team of 3 and essentially we had like, always agreed about what we wanted to do the kind of guests we wanted to have on. So all I had to do was basically just jump on Facebook groups, even like people that we had already had in contact, just kind of curate. you the guest or the guest talent that we wanted to have on. So it was made easy by like having the three of us kind of work side by side together to kind of determine that. And then over time, we relied heavily on Facebook groups like you and I met, I believe on a Facebook group. And, you know, those are kind of the ways that we find our guests now. Marci Grossman (05:06) Do you ever have to turn guests down because they contact you, they see you and you're like, yeah, that's not really in alignment or I've had so many guests already talk about that. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (05:16) Yeah, yeah, in a way, not so much about talking about a certain topic, but there are just some things which, you know, in the realm of we've had some people who want to talk about politics, you know, that's just not something we do at this or talk about at this time. ⁓ And also religion, because that's something we did. That's something I did before personally, and that didn't really go so well. So, yeah, those are kind of the only main two things, really. But other than that. We're pretty flexible. If we feel like the content is going to fit the audience and it's something that we find interesting, we're not really strict per se, but yeah, there is kind of a little bit of a fine line of kind of what we're looking for. Marci Grossman (05:54) You know, I think it's fascinating and that you started with a team because you know as I've said before I'm a one-woman show at this point in time. I don't like releasing my edits to someone else because I want to make sure that things stay the way they are supposed to stay, and that in the edits of clearing it up and trying to make us both look smarter. that we don't lose any of meaning of what we discuss. Is it still a three-person team or are there more than three at this point? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (06:22) Yeah, so it's growing probably to about a dozen people. Thankfully, knock on wood, I've been very blessed, very lucky that everybody works really hard. ⁓ I have one guy right now who basically edits within the same week. And also he's new at editing too, so whatever he's making, which people can check out on our channel, is all brand new. He's not done this before and the quality of work that he's pushing out has just been really amazing. And he's actually someone that I ran something with before starting this, which is something we remind ourselves every day of like, you know, this is something that's better. This is something that's kind of taught us so much more than I guess when we were in our early 20s. So yeah, I've been very lucky to have a team that kind of supports this whole thing and really wants to just see this grow and blossom into what we all hope is something big and beautiful. Marci Grossman (07:15) but you're always the front man. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (07:17) Exactly. For now at least. Marci Grossman (07:18) are the Do you always have a guest? I didn't go through everything. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (07:28) Yeah, we try to have a guest on. I think that's something where we've had our most successes through these collaborations, through these net, like, kind of, you you could call it like a network where we have a guest on, but, ⁓ you know, sometimes it is just like, Amaris and I attempted to do one episode, which is a two of us. And we found that people like that a lot better because it kind of creates that, more. ⁓ personal connection and it's just about us and actually we just did our first live stream last week in Myanmar so we're kind of still ⁓ figuring out like how we want to move forward like we do want to have a guest on at least once a week or at least you know once every two weeks so that is a tradition that we hope to continue and then we've recently added some more team members that are kind of going to be hosting with either myself or Amaris or a few other people So just seeing what that looks like and yeah, we're going to probably be doing recordings with them too. So it'll be more personal and more, you know, without a guest rather than just in-house with a bunch of us. Marci Grossman (08:33) Are there professionals or professions or somebody that you really want to get on your show that this is something, wow, I really want to explore the world of law or the world of museum curatorship or whatever it is. Is there something that's on your wish list? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (08:50) Yeah, that's a great question. I think for me personally, I would say there's two areas, definitely more AI and fintech kind of leaders. And then I want personally like hospitality. I don't know why, but I've always been interested in like hospitality. So those are kind of like the main two areas of kind of people that I'm looking for on the show. Marci Grossman (09:10) There's a lot of both of them out there. Those are big industries. If anyone out there listening is in those industries, he would love to talk to you. I'm going to have contact information in the show notes. If you want to check out his podcast or see about being a guest, it's available there. You guys are all in your 20s, your whole team? Some of you work and some of you are between gigs. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (09:14) Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Marci Grossman (09:37) but your podcast is not a full-time job yet. So what kind of professions are you guys in or leaning toward or trying to work toward at this point in time? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (09:41) Exactly. Yeah, I mean, everyone's kind of so spread out, like, have people that work at Costco, have people that work five different jobs, like my first ever editor, who Amaris introduced me to, he works at these five different jobs, like, as far as I know, so he's a very busy guy, always on the go, always, you know, creating big things and just doing his thing. My current editor, like I said, works at Costco. I have a co-host that works at a school. So he's a teacher. just they range from from different jobs, different careers for myself personally. I'm hoping I can take this to a full time gig. I have a lot of plans for for what I'm trying to do outside of the channel. So those are kind of my goals in terms of what my next steps are. yeah. Marci Grossman (10:36) I think that's so amazing. mean, that here you are, young guys just starting in your career, and this is a great opportunity for you to network with professionals You're in Canada. Are all of your team spread out through Canada or are any of them not local? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (11:17) Some of them, I would say majority of us are in Canada and then some of them are spread out in the US, Europe and then like as far away as like South Africa and Africa. So we've got quite a big team. That's like spread out. Marci Grossman (11:31) That's awesome. I mean, that's so incredible. My whole team lives here, like in my house. So I think it's great that you made contact and you made connection with that. And here you are. You are interviewing people, I assume, around the world as well. technology has made us a global community, you could not be doing what you're doing ten years ago. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (11:52) Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, it's been super fun. Like you said, right? Like we've had people from, thankfully all over the world, like from all different corners. And it's just been so fun to, you know, kind of just hear people's whys, hear people's experiences. And it's so cool. Like when it all comes together. You don't actually realize it until you're doing it. And then even after the fact, know, when you go back and you watch episodes or you, you know, go back and you connect with people. You know, this is, like as you said, right, the power that social media and that kind of like that online, connection has is that you can really talk to anybody and really make connection and hopefully turn it into something that is beautiful, as the world of, I guess, podcasting and, you know, yeah. Marci Grossman (12:35) Way back at the beginning you talked about networking and really what you're doing is you've created this powerful network of individuals and of information and I am just so impressed with what you're doing. I wouldn't have thought about podcasting. Well, I couldn't have when I was your age because it didn't exist then but It was something that was thrown onto me after I was doing all the other things that I was doing and someone was like, if you really want to move forward, what you have to do next is podcast. And here you are, you've taken it and really created this opportunity for your team. You now all have things you can put on your resumes. If you want to move forward on this, you've got your demo reel if you want to be interviewing people. or they've got resumes about editing. Well, I never edited before, but I am now a professional editor. I mean, this is... It's amazing what can be created. Would you have expected this when you started? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (13:38) Definitely not. mean, yeah, if you would have asked me when we first started, ⁓ this was the path I was going to be on, I would have. It's just all coming at me as ⁓ a surprise and every day is just something different. know, someone new pops up, know, a new kind of idea comes into comes into the world of, know, I guess this whole journey. So, you know, every day has just been something new. And yeah, I would have I would have never predicted this at all. So it's been really fun. Marci Grossman (14:05) You post video as well since you post on YouTube. Have you ever been recognized? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (14:09) Yeah, correct. I have actually. It's funny, I told somebody this the other day. I was on public transit on the bus and somebody actually came up to me and I had my earplugs on so I'm like, who's gonna bother me when I'm listening to music and then doing my thing? Somebody comes and taps me and I thought the bus broke down or maybe I missed my stop or it could be so many different things. He says, are you a Light of Wisdom? I'm thinking to myself, like, who is this? Like, I've never met this guy before. It's my first encounter getting on, like, I haven't taken the bus in a while, but I had to take the bus to go somewhere. And this guy's asking me if I'm Light of Wisdom. And I'm like, how do you know that? And he's like, I love the stuff that you guys are doing. And I'm like, you have no idea what the impact that you're making until kind of an encounter like that happens. So that to me was just. absolutely like blew my mind away because I just I didn't I didn't know like what kind of impact I would be making but when you when you have this kind of encounter it just kind of you know solidifies that this is this is kind of your path forward and something that you should be continuing doing like you said right like podcasting is I think something that you know has changed the world and will continue to for years to come so Marci Grossman (15:24) Absolutely, absolutely. And since I do mine audio only, people aren't going to necessarily recognize me from that. I had been doing Instagram and TikTok with visual, obviously. There were a couple of times that I was recognized, but it was neighbors who hadn't known I was going to be doing it. And they were like, hey, I saw you on TikTok or Instagram or whatever else. and that was weird and these were people who already knew me. I haven't been blind recognized like that. So that would be weird. You're a movie star. Next thing you know you're going to be on one of these reality show things because you're going to be an influencer of note that they're going to want to have. Are you ready for your your entree into Dancing with the Stars or a celebrity edition of some game show? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (16:13) Hey, why not? Marci Grossman (16:14) The world is changing so fast. You're at a perfect place. You're at a perfect age to really take advantage of what's going on right now. And the fact that you're already building this team is incredible. It speaks to the power of networking. It speaks to the power of what you're putting out there. I love seeing all these different careers. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (16:23) That's it. Marci Grossman (16:41) It's kind of similar to what I'm doing, though mine is focused to some point on the financial aspect of it. But you have to remember that the things we do in life build to our future financial opportunities. If I talk to you five years from now... Azan -Light Of Wisdom (16:54) Exactly. Marci Grossman (16:57) you're going to say, well, this one is now a professional editor and he's won these awards and this one, you know, and you can see me on my podcast with 10 gazillion followers and, you know, and I won the whatever trophy it is for Dancing with the Stars. I love it. I mean, I just, I just love what I see as this future for you. ⁓ or in hospitality. Who knows? Someone's going to say, this is the guy we want as the maitre d' as the front face or creating the social media and awareness of what our product does. You're going to be the guy that interviews people for a hotel chain and they're going to fly you around the world to give a tour of all of their various vacation homes. I don't know. I'm just... I'm just pulling at straws here. What has been the biggest surprise for you as you've moved forward with this? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (17:54) Yeah, that's a good one. I would have to say most definitely like the over mounting, like, you know, pouring of just, you know, love and just support from everybody that I've come in contact with, everybody that has been on the show or even just people who watch the show ⁓ who watch each episode, you know, the encounters that that I've been able to make have been this truly like I said before, like just unthinkable. ⁓ And I think for me personally, like one that really stands out is, you know, my parents, they support me every step of the way. They've been my biggest support of doing this. And they're always pushing me to do better at this and you know, making me, allowing me to like move one step further than I'm at right now. So I would say, yeah, one of the biggest things for me has been my parents support. Because without that, I don't think I've been doing this at all. They've been like absolutely the rock of my life and they've been so accommodating letting me do this like on weekends or even weekdays at nights and mornings. They know that this is my little space. I mean, I'm in my basement. I record in my basement at all times. So yeah, I would say that's been my kind of biggest thing so far. Marci Grossman (19:11) Having people support you when you're doing it. ⁓ I have to do that with my family. Okay, by the way guys, right now everyone's out. No one's talking because we're recording. ⁓ Yeah, right, right. What has been the hardest challenge for you as you've created this? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (19:24) Exactly. Yeah, I think the hardest challenge for me has been. So I kind of want to take it into a little bit of a. Like a business direction obviously I do want to make some profit from this. So I think my biggest challenge has been. Kind of taking this into a footing that. Is able to make some financial, you know, prosperity or gain, whatever you want to call it. ⁓ So that's kind of been my biggest challenge. have put out some emails for like potential sponsors or, you know, the other day I had a... Like I had a proposal of a deal that came through, but I'm still kind of on the fence about it because, obviously I don't have my thing branded yet. I haven't really paid for any lawyers, nothing like that. you know, just kind of learning these little things as I go has kind of been, I guess you could say like my biggest learnings or my biggest challenges is, as I continue to go through this process, there will be, you know, that kind of question that pops up of, you know, what is a big goal here and, you know, how can we essentially, mentioned right with with jobs and stuff like that how can you know we kind of turn this into into a profitable business. Marci Grossman (20:38) And do you only post on YouTube at this point? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (20:40) YouTube and then recently on Spotify as well. And then we're looking at possibly Apple, I believe Apple Podcasts or Apple Music. I forgot the name off ahead, but. Marci Grossman (20:50) Okay. I like that you're always thinking forward. You're always planning that next step. And yet, you're fully present in where you are because you have to be or you can't get it done. It's spinning plates. It's spinning plates and there's always a few more plates to spin. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (21:04) Exactly. Exactly, 100%. I think what I've also learned from this too is, like you said, right, like you always have to stay, I think, one step ahead. ⁓ I think, like, the world of podcasting is ever-changing, and if it's not you, it's somebody else that's beating you to it. And it's, you know, kind of that question of how can you put yourself in the best possible position to succeed? Because it's easy to do a podcast, easy to hop on a call and, you know, just have a conversation. But I think the big question I've always asked myself is, you what is this going to lead towards? What's the kind of big focus? Because podcasts can range from any kind of topic, any kind of discussion that you want to have. But if you do things that fit your niche, that fit your brand and like, as you mentioned, in your area, it's to do with kind of finance and then outside of finance with life, because they go hand in hand. So that's like a niche that people have to kind of figure out. And that's what we're That's what we're trying to do as we go along this journey, which we've been pretty good at. Marci Grossman (22:08) Is it easier to be a guest or to be the host? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (22:11) I would say definitely to be the guest. It definitely takes a few of my, I don't have ⁓ a lot of weight on my shoulder being a host, but being a guest is really chill. So I'm enjoying being a guest a lot more than I am hosting, but I like it from both sides because it gives you a little bit of perspective of how different hosts do things and you kind of can pick up stuff and kind of learn from the experiences that you've had being a guest versus being a host. Marci Grossman (22:39) Are there any questions you prepared for that I haven't asked? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (22:42) No, honestly, I can't think of anything off top of my head, but honestly, this has been so much fun and all the questions you asked were amazing and I'm really glad I got to touch upon them. Marci Grossman (22:52) Well, what about anything you want to discuss that there isn't really a question for but something you'd just like to share? Azan -Light Of Wisdom (22:58) Yeah, I think. ⁓ You know, as you said at the beginning, you know, definitely reach out to us if you're interested in, you know, being a guest or if you have any advice, you know, like we are a year in, so we are still young and there's a lot we're learning. So if you have any tips, any, any kind of suggestions, do reach out to us because we're always trying to improve and do things better. So, you know, we've always believed that it takes a village to kind of, you know, create something beautiful as cliche as that sounds. But it's true, you know, it really does take a team. does take a village to accomplish big things and you know we're hoping to just continue on this journey that we're on it and you know see where it goes from here but ⁓ we're hopeful that you know we know that this is just the beginning for us and whatever happens after that is just a blessing in disguise. Marci Grossman (23:43) and maybe not that well disguised. You guys are putting in the effort. You're certainly earning everything that you're getting moving forward. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (23:52) so much. Marci Grossman (23:52) Well, I want to thank you for taking your time and sharing with us this morning. we'll keep in contact because I want to see where you're at in a few years from now or maybe even one year. Azan -Light Of Wisdom (24:03) Absolutely, absolutely. We'll always be in contact. I'm really happy that I've had this opportunity and yeah, definitely. ⁓ We'll keep you all updated and hopefully won't post too much to people's annoyance. If anybody's out there being like, it's that Light of Wisdom again, always posting. But, you know, we like it that way because we want to engage and we want to build this community in the right way and just continue to meet amazing people every single day. Marci Grossman (24:28) Well, thank you very much for spending time with us. To my listeners, I will be sharing a link to Azan's Light of Wisdom podcast in the show notes. Please check him out. He shares a lot of interesting information and interesting guests, And don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and stay tuned. I'll see you next time. This has been MoneyMarci on Marci Talks Money (and Life). You got this. See ya.