HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
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Tips on how to start a successful podcast with Justin Schenck
- Your friends always support you, but they don’t support you publicly until the public supports you.
- If you post a video on Facebook, your average view is nine seconds, but here we are turning out 30 minutes, 40-minute episodes and my audience are listening to everything single word.
- Podcasting is “long-form” engaging content
- Podcast listening audiences are usually more highly educated, their attention span is longer, and after they listen to you for so long, it’s like you’re building your relationship with them.
- I encourage anybody who at least wants to explore getting into podcasting to take that first step and start doing it, I guarantee they’ll fall in love with it.
- If somebody came to me and said I wanna start a podcast about jelly beans, I’d be like, “Cool, since somebody actually wants to do that. there’s probably a listenership there.”
- The live event was something that I wanted to do before I even had the podcast.
- There are other ways you can utilize your show to help your business whether it is podcasting, marketing, or whatever.
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HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
If you post a video on Facebook, your average view is nine seconds, but here we are turning out 30 minutes, 40-minute episodes and my audience are listening to everything single word.
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Doug: Well, welcome back. Well, it’s just another of episode of Real Marketing Real Fast. Today in the studio, I’ve got joining me a friend and a fellow podcaster Justin Schenck and I met Justin at the New Media Summit in San Diego just about a year ago. We connected, we kind of hit it off, he’s a pretty sharp guy. He’s got some great ideas. He’s a successful entrepreneur. But in addition to that, he’s not only a podcaster, but he has a podcast production and coaching business and he also has a Mastermind, which I am part of as a client with him.
So in today’s episode, we’re gonna talk about podcasting and podcasting is a long game and how to monetize it and monetization doesn’t necessarily mean advertising. There are lots of ways to monetize a podcast, to grow your business and see significant growth in your business and both to realize your vision. And so Justin’s gonna share a bit how he got started, how this work and how he went from the beginning as a podcaster. Now to creating and hosting a live event with all sort of celebrity speakers and millionaires and billionaires in the room.
So stay tuned, turn up your speaker, sit back and listen and enjoy as I welcome Justin Schenck to the Real Marketing Real Fast Podcast. So welcome to the Real Marketing Real Fast Podcast. I’m super excited to connect with you today Justin.
Justin Schenck: Yeah, Doug, I’m excited about the conversation. We’ve built rapport over the last … I don’t know even how many months and I’m just really excited to be a part of the show man.
Doug: Well, it’s interesting, I mean, we met at the New Media Summit and that was the first time I’d been there and you’d been there before. And one of the things I thought was interesting was we there with 40 icons, which I was one of the newest guys there. And it seemed like you were the only one out of the entire group that actually took advantage of the year before and actually leveraged that for your brand and to grow your business.
Justin Schenck: Yeah. I don’t think I ever had like a cool title before that event. And when I was told I was an icon of influence in the new media space, I was like, “That sounds really amazing. I’m gonna run with this.” And what I ended up doing was I’ve gotten speaking gigs because of it, you know obviously the podcast has grown because of it. ‘Cause the one thing that I noticed and I’ve shared this with you before Doug, is that I know that your friends always support you, but they don’t support you publicly until the public supports you.
So if you’re able to throw out some fancy name like an icon of influence, your friends all of a sudden bug up and be like, “Yeah, I’ve been listening to your show since the beginning,” and then they’ll start telling other people about it. And that’s actually how a lot of the organic growth for my show actually really started.
Doug: Oh, it’s amazing. I mean, yeah, it was really cool to hang out with you guys and it’s great to be part of your Mastermind.
Justin Schenck: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. I think it’s a cool little group of people and hopefully, the ultimate goal is for us to help individuals with their podcasts, help it grow, help them utilize it in so many ways, shape or form. I kind of mentioned before we hit record, is it like, “When I started podcasting, I didn’t realize how much of a tool it could be for businesses.” And obviously, over the last two and a half years it’s become my business and I teach other people how to use it in their business. And the Mastermind was something that I was like, “Well, how can I create a small group of people that are like minded and are trying to reach a similar goal,” and it’s taken off. And I’m just glad you’re a part of it.
Doug: Yeah, I know it’s been a lot of fun. On my 100th episode, I really threw down the challenge for people that are … you know, I said, “If you wanna start a podcast, if you wanna write a book just, get started and don’t worry about the details, you’ll find them. People will be attracted, you’ll learn as you go. But don’t use the excuse I can’t put that on goal sheet ’cause I don’t know how to get started.”
Justin Schenck: Yeah, that’s so true. So when I started podcasting I bought like a $70 course online ’cause I didn’t know anything about it. And all I really learned from the $70 course was how to edit the show. But other than that, I was just like, “I’m just gonna try and see what happens.” And obviously, there was some nervousness there. I think sometimes people more than, “I don’t know how to do that,” the real reason is they’re a little afraid. They’re afraid to put something out. “What if somebody judges me. What if they make fun of me. What if it’s horrible.” The reality is when I started my podcast, it was horrible, but you get better as you go.
And you know as you are … if you’re writing a book as you had mentioned, you get better. As you’re writing, you become a better writer. And then the nice part is in writing, you have editors. And then hopefully, they can make you look better.
Doug: The same with podcasts, you have editors although I try not to edit. I mean, that’s been one of the challenges for me. Is I like to do everything just right and I decided when I do the podcast that we’re gonna leave in as much as we could and not edit it because people aren’t perfect and they don’t always get a, “Let’s do another take. Let’s do another take.” When you’re out in the marketplace, and out speaking in business, in life, it’s just it is the way it is.
Justin Schenck: And it’s funny you bring that up because I don’t edit my show because I believe that … I’m trying to be an example of like, “If Justin can do it. I can do it.” And part of my backstory is the whole least likely to succeed in high school, had a 1.7 GPA, my mom battled a 20-year-opioid addiction, my dad spent time in jail. I’m the last person that should have a top-ranked podcast. I’m the last person that should be holding a live event with celebrity speakers. So, I leave in my ums and ahs on purpose to let people know that you don’t have to be perfect to make an impact. But I own a podcast production company where I edit other people’s shows.
Because you know everybody has a different reason to do these things. And what I’ve found was that 78% of podcasts that start, don’t make it past their first 7 episodes. And the reason being is people don’t realize the amount of work that goes into it. So, I give my clients the ability to focus on content, whereas I’d handle all the backend work. And so since I don’t edit my own, there’s still plenty of editing in my life as I edit other people’s podcast.
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HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
If you post a video on Facebook, your average view is nine seconds, but here we are turning out 30 minutes, 40-minute episodes and my audience are listening to everything single word.
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Doug: Well I never would have made it to my 100th episode, if I had to edit them myself.
Justin Schenck: Yeah, I mean it’s very, very time consuming if done the right way.
Doug: Yeah, I mean I just thought I’d outsource that and even my outsourcing has changed and grown as the podcast has grown. But it’s been a learning curve, I figured that my responsibility really was to find a track and talk to great guests and let somebody else do all the rest.
Justin Schenck: Yeah, for sure. And that’s smart. Like you said you started with that idea in mind of like, “I’m gonna connect with great people and then kind of evolve as you go from there.” You know I had a mind, I was like, “Oh, have some cool conversations and maybe I’ll inspire one or two people.” Never did I think that my show would get played in 100 countries every single week, and I’d be ranked in like the top 15% in the world. That’s kind of mind-blowing to me. But it took a long time to figure that out. There’s a learning curve in anything. When I started podcasting, I was like, “Oh, yeah, this will be fun” And now, I’ve realized the power of it. This is the only long-form medium that people pay attention to.
If you post a video on Facebook, your average view is nine seconds, nine seconds, but here we are turning out 30 minutes, 40-minute episodes and my audience are listening to everything single word.
Doug: It is amazing. So, I wanna talk a little bit about your backstory. Because we come from somewhat similar backgrounds. I mean both my parents before they died were raging alcoholics and died of the disease. So I didn’t grow up at a household that you would say was entrepreneurial. My dad was a union guy all his life till that day that he died. My mom was a stay-at-home mom, but in spite of that I decided to move forward and you’ve done that same thing. So why don’t you share a bit of your backstory and kind of where you started and then move us through the process to where you are today with your Growth Movement Now Live Event or your Grow Now Live Event?
Justin Schenck: Yeah, so, it’s a long story but I had touched on it briefly earlier. So growing up I wasn’t ever a good student, but around the middle of my high school journey, my dad ended up going to jail and my mom was in the middle of a really tough opioid addiction. And so I didn’t really care for school, I didn’t wanna be there and therefore it tagged me with a 1.7 GPA in my junior year of high school. And my guidance counselor, Joyce [Trycomey 00:07:55] had to convince the principal to pass me, ’cause she said, “If you don’t pass him, I’m afraid he won’t come back.”
And so they passed me when they didn’t want to, and I went to my senior year, and I did better my senior year. But it would definitely … if there was a senior superlative for least likely to succeed, I would have taken home that trophy. And all signs pointed to, “Nothing’s gonna work out for this kid.”
And when I was 19 years old, I was in community college, not liking it at all and I got this direct sales job and I ended up doing really, really well in the direct sales job, became a manager with the company. And when I was a manager, I had somebody come up to me and said, “You know Justin, if I worked at McDonald’s this summer, I probably would have made more money. But because of you, I now have a direction in my life and I know where I’m going.”
And at that moment I was like, “That’s it. I have to figure out a way to do that.” ‘Cause I just had this insanely overwhelming feeling of like, “That’s my purpose.” Through the journey, and the path of that to the podcast and a number of failed businesses that I tried that just didn’t work out. Then I ended up back in the corporate world and I was a manager for a medical device company doing really well and just something was missing and so I decided to launch the podcast, which originally had a cohost.
And for the first year and a half, he was there, but the audience wasn’t really growing and so I asked him to take a step back and I relaunched as just me. Then everything kind of organically started to grow and then ink.com listed me as a top A-podcast to follow. And then a podcast company launched from there just organically. So, I’m kind of like an accidental entrepreneur at this point. But the last word in my podcast which is Growth Now Movement.
I want to create a movement, I wanna create a movement of people who understand that it doesn’t matter where you come from, it doesn’t even matter where you are today. What matters are the decisions you make today to move forward and that is really kind of what the live event’s all about. It’s about building that community and bringing people together to empower them, to teach them, to give them the skills they need to live a better happier life.
And I’m bringing in celebrity speakers. It would be one of those things that is like a one in a lifetime opportunity. So we have Fabio Viviani from America’s Top Chef coming in, we have … I’m blanking right now … Sarah Centrella, who’s like the manifestation Vision Board expert, Albie Manzo from Real Housewives of New Jersey and these people are speaking on a stage and really diving into this event and really giving their all.
And that’s really what’s this is about. I think anybody can grow a movement, anybody can create something great as long as it’s their true purpose. So from that least likely to succeed kid to hanging out with and working with celebrities and billionaires, it’s been a whirlwind of a life man.
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HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
If you post a video on Facebook, your average view is nine seconds, but here we are turning out 30 minutes, 40-minute episodes and my audience are listening to everything single word.
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Doug: Well, I mean that’s so inspiring. Because, I think whether you’re an entrepreneur or whether you’re working for somebody else, there’s just more to life than putting in your hours. I mean, you need to find fulfillment and opportunity to grow and expand and I get not everybody is wired to be an entrepreneur. But I mean there’s some life lessons here that you don’t have to settle for the status-quo and you don’t have to go, “Well, you know, I can’t do this because you don’t know where I came from. You don’t know my background, you don’t know my education.” That doesn’t matter.
Justin Schenck: Yeah, 100% it doesn’t. All that matters, honestly Doug is the decisions we’re making right now. The past is the past, you can’t change them. What matters are, what are the things I’m doing right now to grow personally and professionally, to grow my relationships, to get better at certain things.” But like we were mentioning before, you just gotta start. And once you start, you can figure out how to fix it and get better.
Doug: Yeah, I think Brené Brown said that in terms of your past, you need to own your past and if you own your past and bring that into today, you get to write the ending.
Justin Schenck: 100%, and part of the journey of me was being very open and vulnerable about everything. And so as part of this journey, five months before I launched the podcast, my mom passed away from the addiction. And it was one of those things where it was like an aha moment of, you know, “I need to embrace this. I need to make this part of my journey so I can impact other people’s lives.” The podcasts originally were supposed to be an entrepreneurial podcast only about business and it organically morphed into self-love, overcoming adversity. Like you said, “Writing your own story and embracing the fact that this is part of my life.” I believe that life is happening for you and not to you.
And so often people look at like, “Oh, well it was me, this is happening to me,” and they carry this burden. But I go, “Okay this happened. Why did it happen and how can I utilize that to create a better future for myself and others?”
Doug: Yeah, I think there is this common belief that life is supposed to be easy for some reason. So, I don’t know where that came from, but-
Justin Schenck: That is something that’s lost on me. But honestly, I’m grateful for the hardships. I wouldn’t be who I am without them. You know?
Doug: Yeah, absolutely. So, let’s talk about podcasting specifically. So our listeners who are saying, “Okay, Justin started with a very meek background and transformed that into working with billionaires and running events.” What are some of the things that you did to set you up for success or maybe give us some case studies or examples of a client that you helped transition through setting up and using this media?
Justin Schenck: Yeah. So, I mean I think we’ll take a step back and realize what podcasting is, right? I had mentioned before, it’s the only long-form medium where people pay attention. 80% of shows out there are doing 100 downloads or less an episode, that’s the reality of it.
And so what I say to people is, “Hey, if you only are doing a 100 downloads an episode, why are you being discouraged? If you are a public speaker, and I guaranteed you have a room full of 100 people every single week, would you show up? The answer is yes.” So I think setting the right expectations is number one, but number two is to really understand who the podcast listener is.
We create these things that are geared towards us and who we are, which is fine, that’s part of your vision, that’s part of your purpose. But you also have to understand who your audience or your customer is, right? So as a podcast host, you wanna grow your audience, you have to understand them. And so they have a number of habits that I have found over research and doing this for two and a half years, you have to get to where they are.
And so me being on your show, that’s a way for me. I’m guaranteed to be in front of podcast listeners because they’re listening to this podcast right now. And hopefully I say something that resonates with one or two of them and they listen to my show. So, what I do is I teach individuals how to get in front of other podcasters or of podcast listeners, and so that’s why guesting on shows, that’s guest blogging, ’cause I found that podcast listeners read blogs a lot.
And honestly, the number one way to grow your show right now is word of mouth. So, sometimes we have to toot our own horn, like I said, use the title of an Icon of Influence in the new media space to have other people share that out. Because then they feel like they should be proud of you as a friend or somebody they are listening to. There’s a lot of closet-podcast listeners out there. So, how do you get them to start talking about you? And that’s really by tooting your own horn.
Doug: Yeah. I mean it’s funny who listens to podcasts. I was at an event, I was invited to this opening Of this new real estate office, and one of the guys I was talking to is the Canadian rep for a product called Louis the 13, which is a very high-end cognac. And he was asking me what I did, and I give him my business card, he goes, “Oh you’re a podcaster, I love podcasts.” He said, “I barely listen to the radio.” So, there’s is a great example. So a very prestigious company, very high-end product, they sell one-to-one. And he said he spends most of his time listening to podcasts to help him grow his business and understand the sales and marketing stuff as well.
Justin Schenck: Yeah, I mean the podcast listening audiences are usually more highly educated, their attention span is longer, and after they listen to you for so long, it’s like you’re building your relationship with them. And that’s something that took me a really long time to figure out, and it didn’t hit me until probably about three months ago, I was speaking at an event in Utah. And somebody came up to me and they go, “Yeah, I really like that time you shared the X,” and it was something super-personal that I forgot that I even shared, and I was like, “How do you know that about me?” And it almost freaked me out, because I forgot I talked about it. And he is like, “I listen to your podcast,” and then it was in that moment that these people hold onto every single word we say.
So, when you buy a product or you invest in something, you wanna do that with somebody you trust, and podcasting is that great medium. Plus it helps that it’s the more affluential, more educated individuals in the United States, or in the world really, you’re a Canadian.
Doug: Yeah, I’m not gonna go there. So, what do you say to people who say it’s too late?
Justin Schenck: Oh, no, absolutely not. I think this is still just the beginning. So yes, there’s a lot of podcasts. so I do people niche down. Somebody says to me, conversating, they go, “I wanna do a self-help podcast.” “Okay cool, well there’s a lot of those, let’s niche down. Self-help for who, who is your target audience? Let’s talk about that and let’s target that.” I think gone are the days of the next person who is randomly just gonna do a million downloads an episode unless they are a celebrity. But there are different ways you can utilize the medium obviously, but it is just the beginning of listenership growing.
Two years ago, 14% of … it’s American stats, I’m sorry. 14% of Americans listened to a podcast on a regular basis, this year 28%. So in two years, the listenership has doubled, right? And then as we grow, you’ll start to see different monetization tactics, I think you’re gonna see different networks popping up.
So, for instance, you have television, right? You have ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, and all these other networks. It’s like a channel that holds different shows, you’re gonna start to see that in the podcast space, I believe in the next year or two. Where it might be a company like CBS coming in and starting their own network. Comedy Central, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have it already if they’re planning on having their own show, just comedians absolutely killing the space.
So this is just the beginning for podcasting, but it’s really about going in with the right expectations, finding your niche market, and then sticking with that and delivering a true honest clear message to them.
Doug: Well, it’s funny you mentioned how people niche down. I made a business mastermind with Tom who we met in San Diego, and one of the other guys a podcast for the NHL. And it’s a podcast just about hockey.
Justin Schenck: Yeah, I mean it’s about anything. Like if somebody came to me and said I wanna start a podcast about jelly beans, I’d be like, “Cool, since somebody actually wants to do that. there’s probably a listenership there.” Think about your weirdest thing, there’s a lot of other people who would like that weird thing. You know what I mean? And so you’re able to start that, you find the right audience and they’ll listen. I mean Hockey is not a good example for something weird, but you can literally start a podcast about any topic you want.
Doug: So, what advice would you give? So for people that are listening saying, “Okay, that’s really cool, I either work for a company or I have my own business,” where do you get started?
Justin Schenck: In podcasting?
Doug: In podcasting.
Justin Schenck: Yeah I mean they can definitely … as you know you’re part of our mastermind group, they can go and learn how to do it the right way by signing up from our mastermind which is free the first thirty days, which is launchfixgrow.com, I always mix up the order and Adam gets mad at me. So it’s launchfixgrow.com.
But honestly here is the thing. If you can buy a cheap microphone on eBay, okay? I use a $90 microphone, or eBay or Amazon or whatever. Buy a microphone and start recording. What I found is, so often people just think about doing podcasts. Like you can probably test this, somebody says to you, “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about doing a podcast for the last year and a half.” “Why have you been thinking about it for so long? Just do it.”
I think that imperfect action is better than no action. So if you’re able to just start recording and then obviously buy a course or join the mastermind, and learn how to do the uploading, the editing all that stuff, you’re well on your way.
Doug: Well, and I’d say there are two sides to that. Yes, there’s imperfect action, but if you haven’t taken action, give yourself some grace, and just accept it and move on. I shared that I had bought my gear, and I’m not the CFO of the company, I’m the marketing guy, so admittedly I went out and bought the very best of everything, but it sat in my office for two years. And it was the “I need to get around to that.” Then one day I thought, “I’m just gonna start it, and I know I’m gonna make mistakes, but I’m just gonna set it up and run it.”
So I had someone come over, show me how to plug everything in, and I just started recording episodes. And once we had a bunch of them, we launched, and that’s how I got started.
Justin Schenck: And that’s the one thing. The one thing I say to everybody is that day one, and the reason I know this is because I didn’t do this. But when you launch, you wanna launch with multiple episodes day one. Because podcast listeners are creatures of habit, but they’re also binge listeners. So if they find you in the first week and there’s only one episode, they’re probably not coming back.
So, you want to give them a big taste of what you’re going to be offering going forward. So you wanna release four or five episodes that kind of gives them a variety of the types of guests you’re gonna have, or the types of topics you’re gonna discuss, that way when they find you, hopefully at least one of those episodes resonates with them, and then click that subscribe button, and then that’s really what you want. Because once they click that subscribe button, they get a notification on the phone every single time you release an episode. And if something is intriguing, they’ll hit play.
So, definitely, that’s the thing like you said you had recorded a handful of them before you launched. You have to be ahead of the curve all the time, you have to be … Like right now, you’re interviewing me, this might not come out for a number of weeks or however that works. Usually, batch record and then you have a ton of them, and then you’re good for a couple of weeks. But yeah so you wanna launch with multiple episodes and be ready to release after that as well.
Doug: And then realize it’s not gonna be perfect. I mean I took a break last year, for about two months, I was overwhelmed with work. And I didn’t have my team doing 100% of it. I still had a fair bit of responsibility in the podcast, so I just went, “Well, that’s the way it is,” right? Is that ideal? No, but that’s a reality, so we’ll just shelf it for a couple of months and then we’ll come back and we’ll just relaunch and carry on.
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HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
If you post a video on Facebook, your average view is nine seconds, but here we are turning out 30 minutes, 40-minute episodes and my audience are listening to everything single word.
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Justin Schenck: Yeah. And I’m sure your audience was super excited when you came back. When I asked my co-host to take a step back, I took a very thought-out break. So I ended a season one and I took a couple of months off, and that’s when the show shifted. And so sometimes when you make a change, it’s okay to take a step back, and it’s like you’re almost re-introducing a new product. But so you don’t lose your subscribers, don’t actually change where you’re hosting it.
So, just take a couple of months or a couple of weeks off to say, “Okay cool, we’re taking a breather, end of season one, coming back with something new, get excited,” and then you hype it and you go. You know for me, other than that break, I have released an episode every single Tuesday for two and a half years. And it’s been a journey, and it’s been a lot of ups and downs, but at the same time, it’s something that I love doing.
I love connecting with people, I love growing a community, I love the business that I’ve built from it, and I feel blessed every single day to do what I do. So, I encourage anybody who at least wants to explore getting into podcasting to take that first step and start doing it, I guarantee they’ll fall in love with it.
Doug: Well, and the other thing of starting out without knowing all the answers was, I didn’t know that doing two episodes a week was gonna be a lot. And if I hired somebody, they probably would have said, “Don’t do that.” But here we are, a year in, a hundred episodes later going like, “Yeah, okay, no big deal.” It’s just it is what it is.
Justin Schenck: Yeah. You Know it’s funny. I have people that have come to me. And I had one client, a coaching client who came to me and he was doing five episodes a week, then he goes, “My show is not growing, I don’t know why.” And he had great content. And I go, “Well, the first thing we’re gonna do is, we’re backing you down to three days a week.” And he is like, “Why?” I go, “Because here is the thing. If the Notification goes off every single day, they’re gonna be like, “Oh, I’ll get to the next one, ’cause it’s gonna pop up tomorrow.” And then they get overwhelmed with the amount of content that you give them. And so when we actually dialed him back from five to three, his listenership per episode doubled.
Doug: Wow, that’s really amazing.
Justin Schenck: But I have two episodes a week, which are different formats. One is a long format interview and then the other one is a short form. And that’s for me to build my own brand, to show that I’m not knowledgeable as well, it’s not just my guests. So, you know, you have to be strategic and smart about it, but sometimes we think more is more, but a lot of the times less is more.
Doug: So, let’s shift gears and talk about opportunities. You talked about guesting as one opportunity. So let’s talk about if you’ve got a podcast, how do you leverage that to go beyond the podcast. Because for some people, this is what they wanna do full-time, but for myself I mean this is one day a week. And I have the business that I run, so what tips or advice would you give, or how did you leverage what you’re doing to grow from your business and podcasting and now to running live events?
Justin Schenck: Yeah. So, the live event was something that I wanted to do before I even had the podcast. You know it’s something that invigorates me and excites me, and the podcast became the vehicle to do that. So, what you find when you’re doing podcasting, you’re doing it well, is you’ll get invited to events, your community will start to grow, you’ll be speaking because you become the expert. And how I transitioned was taking these relationships that I started to build through the podcasts.
So, all my speakers who have been guests on my show. And they are people that I’ve become good friends with. And I was like, “Well, I have these relationships, I wanna do this live event, why not just ask?” So, I asked them, “Hey, I’m thinking about doing this thing, what are your thoughts?” And they all said, “I would love to be a part of it, let me know what you need me to do.” And so the event has really kind of … it was a vision before I had the podcast, but I had to get to a certain point before I could actually do it.
The podcast had to grow to a certain point and I did that by guesting on other shows. And being featured on Inc, and all these other things. But at the same time, it was more like an organic, “Okay, here is the next step,” more than transitioning the audio podcast into a live event if that makes sense at all.
Doug: Yeah. So you had had this vision before you started a podcast.
Justin Schenck: Yeah. And I think that we always have end-goals, we always have a place that we wanna go. But sometimes you have to build other things before you get there. You don’t just jump into something like that. I needed a vehicle to position myself to be able to be able to do something like that and that vehicle happened to be podcasting. For somebody else, it might be something different. Obviously, it’s funny ’cause my whole entire business is built around podcasting, but that doesn’t mean … like my podcast, I don’t sell advertising, so I don’t make any money from that standpoint. The reason I don’t do that is that I made a decision before I launched that I didn’t want to, but the podcast has made me a lot of money, right?
So there are other ways you can utilize the show to help your business whether it is in podcasting or in marketing or in whatever.
Doug: Well, and I think the message here listeners is that this is a long game. I mean I decided up front that I wouldn’t sell advertising in my podcasting, because I didn’t want to, that wasn’t my business model. My business model was similar to you is I wanted to meet and connect with the very smartest, brightest, best people around the world and have them as guests, so I could start to develop a relationship. And like with you and I, end up doing business together. So I look at this as a really high-end way to interview prospective suppliers that I can use for my business and my clients.
Justin Schenck: Oh, 100%. It’s really the greatest tool as a lead-generation thing, right? So, like if I reach out to a CEO of an organization I say, “Hey, I wanna sell you something.” He is probably not gonna respond, but if I reach out and say, “Hey, I love what you’re doing, I would love to interview you on my podcast.” The likelihood of that of them responding is great.
And then here you are, you have a 45-minute conversation with this person you think would be a perfect client for you, and you know you can really help out. It’s almost a no-brainer that you end up working with those people on the back-end.
Doug: Yup. And then on the other side, it gives me a chance to see, is this someone that I would like to work with, like how responsive were they? How professional were they? Because I’m giving them something, I’m not asking them for anything. I’m helping them to get their message out to the world. And if they’re really great to work with, if they’re really responsive, I’m very likely that I’m gonna do work with them and I’ll be their client.
Justin Schenck: Yeah, 100%. I’ve interviewed people and then I’ve hired them. I’ve hired them, I’ve used their services, and there are people that I’ve interviewed that have hired me and used my services. It’s just something that happened organically ’cause I think that it’s an art form to truly build great relationships. And if it’s something that you focus on, it will pay off in the long-run for anybody.
Doug: Well, so I think if you’re looking for a short-term, I mean short-term sales are really simple to spend money on advertising. But if you’re looking for long-term in relationships like you’ve done, this seems to be the way.
I was at an event close to where we are, and I’m not gonna mention the event, but the event really sucked for the organizer, right? The organizer worked really hard, had a budget, spent a bunch of money, rented a big convention center, brought in a bunch of speakers. So, they did all the things that you do for an event. And they’re only two things that were missing were outstanding speakers. There were some speakers that were good and not some so good. But what was more important, was there was no one in the audience. So, they didn’t have that relationship, hadn’t built the credibility in advance, so really couldn’t ask people to show up.
Justin Schenck: Yeah. And that’s exactly the point, right? Like you said it’s a long-term game. I think podcasting, in general, is long-term. There are people that are finding my podcast to this day, and they go, “Wow, this guy is 170 episodes in, cool. He must have a good product here, he must have something good.” 170 episodes, like 190 reviews or something like that. And so it’s one of the things that when people find me now, I already have that legitimacy. And they can quickly get to know me, ’cause they can just binge listen to all 170 episodes if they want.
And so it’s a great tool long-term. And like you said if you wanna do some short-term stuff, use advertising, make cold calls, do all that kind of thing. But I’m in this whole life thing as a long-term game, I plan to live forever, it’s a weird thing that I keep saying. I’ll be the first one to sign up when they find out how to do artificial everything inside your body, that’s the goal. So, I’m in the long-term game.
Doug: Well, I have to change my goal, I kept saying I was gonna live to 100, but now I’m thinking I set my goal too low, I need to move it up by 25 years or maybe 125.
Justin Schenck: Let’s do it. And then I’ll live forever, and then be like, “Damn, I wish Doug set the goal to live forever. I miss my friend.”
Doug: That’s funny. So why don’t you share with us what you are most excited about right now in the next 6 to 12 months? So what’s got you sleepless at night thinking about it?
Justin Schenck: Yeah, I mean it’s definitely a live event. I mean it’s something that is truly coming together, the speakers that I visualized to be at the event are gonna be there. Just everything is really falling into place, and that’s the thing that I’m excited about every single morning when I wake up. It’s the thing that I’m excited about that’s … like you said, keeping me up at night.
It’s really for me, it’s about growing that community, and how many lives can I impact? And there’s nothing like a live event for people to attend and connect with people and learn and grow. And I’m just glad that I can facilitate something like that for so many people. And that’s something that for me, this is a long-term game. Like the first year, I expect 150 people there, and then the second year, I expect 300.
And we have an arena here in Redding, where something like concerts are and comedians come. And it probably holds about 6,000 people, and my goal is to fill that arena one day with my event. And so it’s the thing that drives me every single day. And like I said, I just feel blessed and honored to have the speakers I do and have made the connections through the podcast.
Doug: So looking back on kind of your journey, what advice would you give people that are listening?
Justin Schenck: About life?
Doug: About life. So you’ve been through some life, I’ve been through some life, and we don’t do everything right. And there are times that we pause, we hesitate or we don’t act because of fear. So, what advice would you, looking back at your life, would you share with somebody that’s listening that says, “That sounds great, I would like to have a live event,” or, “I would like to start podcasting, or I’d like to start my own business.”?
Justin Schenck: Yeah, so, I’ll share a story really quick that leads to the advice. I have failed in multiple businesses. And the funny thing is about me being excited about this live event. One was a business that I created where I put together seminars and expos that focused on personal and professional growth. We’re doing well, and we put all the money into one big event, we paid a speaker a lot of money to come to speak. We literally emptied out the business bank account to do this, and we ended up selling three tickets to the event, and it was through Groupon by-the-way.
And if you know how Groupon works, you have to cut the rate by 50%, then you only get paid 50% of that. So we made $90 after spending about 20 grand. And it was one of those like, “Man, I can’t do anything right moments, it’s like nothing ever works for me, I’m a failure.” And I called my mom who … even though she had her own personal demons, my mom was my rock and my best friend. And I called her and said, “We just canceled the event, we’re probably gonna shut down the business.”
And my mom said to me, “Justin, you know that you’re already pointed in the right direction, keep your head up and keep moving forward.” And it didn’t hit me until years later how powerful that statement was. And I realized that as long as our intention and our purpose is on point, all we have to do is keep moving forward. It’s not about the massive winds, it’s about every single day.
Because, here’s the thing, if you set a huge goal and you get there. And then all of a sudden that’s past. What’s next? We have to enjoy the journey. And so if people are listening and they’re like, “Yeah, life has been hard, yes, I keep failing.” Well, keep failing, keep moving forward though. You must fail forward and you must keep your head up and I promise you something is going to land at the right moment and the right time for you.
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HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
If you post a video on Facebook, your average view is nine seconds, but here we are turning out 30 minutes, 40-minute episodes and my audience are listening to everything single word.
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Doug: Yeah, I mean that’s so true. I think if we had someone tell us in advance what it was gonna take to get from where we started to where we are. I probably would have chosen a different path. So, I can deal with the day by day, but if I knew back then and that this is what it’s gonna take us. Like, “No, you know what …” And you graduate from school, before you to college you go, “Yeah, I’m gonna be a millionaire by the time I’m 20, I’m gonna have a Ferrari, I’m gonna have all these things.” And then the reality of life sets in. And you’re going like, “Yeah, that’s a lot of work and that’s a lot of money and that’s not gonna happen by the time I’m 20.”
Justin Schenck: Yeah, Doug, I’m 34 years old now and how I plan my life, I was married with three kids and I’m a millionaire multiple times over. Well, none of that is true. So, sometimes you just have to find happiness in the journey and I could tell you right now, once I figured that out, I’ve been the happiest person you could ever meet. Like even when times are tough, and I’m struggling with things, and things aren’t going my way I’m still happy and that’s the ultimate goal I think.
Doug: Yeah, I mean, if you’re working on your purpose in line with that, it’s obviously easier to get up the days that things aren’t going well, and just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Like you said, “Keep your head high and know where you’re going.”
Justin Schenck: Exactly.
Doug: And I think one guy, even though I don’t agree with 100% of what he says that talks about that a lot, is Gary Vaynerchuk.
Justin Schenck: He does. I think his new quote is like, “If you’re happy, you’ve already won.” That’s the new quote he’s thrown out, which I don’t watch Gary anymore. Before this business took off, I watched a lot of Gary and then I realized when you’re actually doing, you don’t have time to watch Gary. So his audience is a different audience than what I am now. But I’ll still see his posts on Instagram. And the new one was, “If you’re happy, you’ve already won.” And I was like, “That’s brilliant.” But I’ve been talking about happiness longer than Gary has been talking about it. I’m just saying.
Doug: Okay, we’ll make a note of that. So what is some of the bad advice you hear? What’s the stuff that makes the hair in the back of your neck stand up when you’re out in the business world and you hear people talking about say, podcasting for example?
Justin Schenck: There are not too many bad things about podcasting. I think that I talk-
Doug: I’m not saying about what’s bad. I’m saying what’s the bad advice you hear other people giving about it?
Justin Schenck: Oh. Yeah. So, bad advise on podcasting is that everybody should have a podcast. I think everybody could have a podcast, it’s the should that matters. There’s a lot of bad podcast hosts. I think because anybody can do it, it’s become a flooded market. So, I would just say self-reflect a little bit before you make the decision because it’s not for everyone.
Doug: Yeah, fair comment. Yeah, it’s nice to think everybody can do it. But you are right, not everybody can and it’s not their business style, or it might not be their timeline or there’s a variety of reasons why it wouldn’t make sense.
Justin Schenck: Yeah, I mean I have a client. I won’t say who they are, but he shouldn’t be a podcast host, but he is.
Doug: I hope that’s not me.
Justin Schenck: No, no, it’s not you.
Doug: Oh, good. Well, thank you for that.
Justin Schenck: It’s one of my production clients.
Doug: So, where is the best place for people to track you down and get a hold of you? What’s your favorite place to connect?
Justin Schenck: Yeah, I love Instagram. That’s the best place. I reply to all the messages that I get which are @GNMPodcast and then also if they’re interested in the live event or learning more about it, they can go to gnmlive.com and then get all that information there. The best way to reach out if you wanna work with me from a podcast coach in a production standpoint is just email me, justin@growthnowmovement.com.
Doug: Awesome. So who’s … and this is my tough question that stamps all my guests. Let’s see how you do with it. Ready?
Justin Schenck: I’m ready.
Doug: Who’s one guest I have to have on my podcast?
Justin Schenck: Wow. That’s a great question. I mean, obviously, you can say Gary Vaynerchuk, if you haven’t had him already. But you know who I really, really enjoy who would be good on your show, would be like an Andy Frisella.
Doug: Excellent. I’ll follow-up with you and get his contact details. Yeah Gary B doesn’t … I don’t think he’s gonna add anything to my audience. He doesn’t need my amplification that’s gonna be such a small drop in the ocean. I’m really looking to connect with people that are the best of the game, but maybe don’t have that recognition. Because there’s a chance to help them and help my listeners as well. I mean, we can talk about Gary, but none of my listeners are gonna be able to phone Gary and say, “Hey Gary, I wanna hire VaynerMedia.” It’s not just gonna happen.
Justin Schenck: Yeah that’s true. Taking it from that angle, I actually have a dear friend named Michael Hudson.
Doug: Oh, yeah, I’ve seen Micheal’s stuff.
Justin Schenck: He would actually serve your audience very, very well. He talks about like getting your message heard. It’s really good.
Doug: Well, excellent. So, well plans for this year, and then when is your next event? Have you got the second event scheduled already?
Justin Schenck: No. I mean, I’m still six months out from my event now. So that’s May of 2019, and then the next one will probably be April or May of 2020. So it’s just gonna be once a year in a big centralized hub here in Reading, Pennsylvania. And it’s funny ’cause Reading … you’re like, “Justin, why you’re holding in Reading, your podcast gets played in 100 countries every single week?” But everything I do, it has to be a win, win, win. So, I know that it’s gonna be a win for my audience because the speakers and the people there are going to be incredible. I know it’s gonna be a win for a number of the vendors that I’m working with from a reach standpoint.
And it’s going to be a win for the city of Reading. Because this is an incredible place, it’s a little bit harder to get to. But I promise you when you get here, you will fall in love with this town. You will fall in love with its energy and you will fall in love with the people that I’m putting in the room. So, May 2019, here in Reading, PA and then it will be here every single year from there.
Doug: Now you make me afraid, I mean I travel a fair bit in the U.S. and I’ve fallen in love with the number of cities.
Justin Schenck: This city is a very cool interesting town that gets a bad rap in the newspapers. But it’s not what the newspapers say.
Doug: Hey, who listens to that fake news anyhow.
Justin Schenck: Yeah, right exactly.
Doug: Well, hey, thanks so much for taking time today. I know you’re a super busy guy. I really appreciate you. I appreciate your energy. It’s just great to connect with you here and share you with my audience. The episode will definitely be out, end of this month or early next month. So, we’ll make sure that we put out the links for your event as well.
Justin Schenck: Awesome Doug. Thank you so much, man. I always appreciate the conversation. I’m excited to have you on my show as well. So, we’ll get that schedule and we’ll go from there.
Doug: Hey that sounds so good. Have an awesome day. So thanks to listeners, thanks for tuning to Real Marketing Real Fast. We’re gonna wind up this episode and we’ll make sure the show notes are transcribed. I’ll give you all the links to what Justin is doing, where to find him, where to hunt him down and if you wanna join us and connect with him and I just come along for the ride because I’m part of his Mastermind. We’ll see you in the Facebook Group. So thanks for tuning in and we look forward to serving you on our next episode.
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HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
If you post a video on Facebook, your average view is nine seconds, but here we are turning out 30 minutes, 40-minute episodes and my audience are listening to everything single word.
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Get in touch with Justin:
- Web – Growth Now Movement Podcast
- Web – Growth Now Movement Live
- Email – justin@growthnowmovement.com
Find out more about Justin:
Links to other related podcasts and or blog posts:
CELEBRATING SUCCESS – EPISODE 100
GROW YOUR BUSINESS WHEN YOU PODCAST WITH PURPOSE