For creative entrepreneurs, there’s always a tension between the creative projects we want to undertake, and the need to make it easy for people to understand the niche we fit into. It doesn’t make sense for us to be everything to everyone, but niching down is challenging because it feels like we’re giving up our creative fulfillment. Can we niche down and still have room for creativity? How do we know we’re on the right track when it comes to finding the right niche? In this episode, I’m joined by business and mindset coach, and the founder and CEO of The Ambitious Introvert, Emma-Louise Parkes. She shares how to shift the way we present ourselves in the market, and why it’s such a valuable exercise. 3 Things You’ll Learn From Emma-Louise Parkes;Why we have to accept pivoting and changing niches without self-judgment The struggle creatives have with niching down Why she deletes work-related apps off her phone every nightGuest BioEmma Louise-Parkes is a business and mindset coach, and the founder and CEO of The Ambitious Introvert. She helps high-level introverts, empaths and HSPs create the strategy & mindset for massive success. Emma-Louise is an 86% introverted INFJ-A who is passionate about helping ambitious introverts, empaths & HSPs build successful, sustainable businesses they love. Listen to Emma-Louise’s podcast, The Ambitious Introvert here and join The Ambitious Introvert Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/introvertnetwork/.

Joe Rogan is the exception that proves the rule.For every 3 hour episode of Joe Rogan, there's a podcast that is shortening up their average episode.And rightfully so, I think.We're going on 10+ years of long-form interview podcasts, and the format itself is no longer rare and valuable.So either your topic must be incredibly rare and valuable, or it's time to shorten your average episode to deal with shrinking attention spans.Here are my 3 best tips to shorten your average episode, starting with Guest episodes.1. Set Expectations before hitting Record.I let my guests know that my goal is to have a fun, fast-paced 30 minute chat that covers a few compelling topics. We spend enough time before hitting Record that I know roughly what topics we'll start with, so I can tease those for the audience right away.Then as I spot juicier, more interesting topics, we might go off on a tangent. But I try not to cram too many topics in, that's where you get into 45 minute-plus conversations.I remember being on a podcast as a guest a couple years ago.We were recording within 5 minutes of jumping on the Zoom session. As a guest, it feels super weird and you have no idea where you stand. Am I taking too long to answer each question? Should this be relaxed and slow-paced, or should this be rapid fire? Am I giving the host what the audience will want?It was like flying blind, and you never want to make your guests feel like that.So set good expectations, and most guests will try to give you exactly what you ask for.2. Open Strong. One thing that keeps your average episode long is asking the guest about their background too soon.This invitation to share their background slows down the pace and tends to start at the very beginning of their story. We've all heard it."Well, it started on a dark and stormy night at the hospital in 1957. I was a strapping 11 lb 4 oz baby boy, and I took my time coming. "No one wants that. Think of a Bond movie like Casino Royale or Spectre. You want to start with an action scene.Then you reset and slow down, go back to the beginning.Depending on what kind of podcast you're running, you can start strong in different ways.If you run a business podcast where people expect actionable tips and tactics, start with that. Invite the guest to share something actionable as soon as possible.If you run a podcast more focused on inspiring stories, start with a question about one specific anecdote from their life. Something that hooks the audience's attention, builds the guest's credibility and sets up the audience to be interested in hearing the rest of their story.Managing the guest's expectations and helping them start strong will go a long way toward producing fast-paced guest episodes that hold your audience's attention.That brings us to the last way to shorten up your average episode...3. Publish solo episodes. Just you talking directly to your audience.I'm a big advocate of solo episodes, at one point this podcast was ALL solo episodes, nothing but me teaching and sharing.I'm mixing it up more now, but I encourage all my clients to include at least one or more solo episodes per month. That's part of my Weekly Podcast Formula. Especially if you're in coaching or consulting, you are selling YOU.In order to sell access and proximity to you, your audience has to trust you and come around to the way you see the world.They can...

As introverts, it often feels like other people can’t relate to our inner experience. We feel awkward in social situations, and work really hard not to convey that awkwardness to others. Our extrovert counterparts can perceive our behavior as stuck up and antisocial, and advice to just “be ourselves” feels rich coming from naturally gregarious people. But what if more people share this experience than we believe, and what if there was a way to change our mindset and create the motivation to put ourselves out there? In today’s episode, I’m joined by Monica Parkin, the author of "Overcoming Awkward, an Introvert's Guide to Networking, Marketing and Sales." She shares why putting ourselves out there as introverts is a lot easier than we think.Things You’ll Learn from Monica Parkin; The surprising feedback she got from extroverts about the book How to take part in speaking engagements without taxing yourself The introvert super power we don’t tap into enough The interesting science-backed distinction between introverts and extroverts Guest BioMonica Parkin is an international speaker, podcast host, mortgage broker and author of "Overcoming Awkward, an Introvert's Guide to Networking, Marketing and Sales." The book is written to free introverts from the crippling social constraints that come with launching and growing their businesses and careers. For more information and to buy the book, head over to https://www.monicaparkin.ca/. 

This might be an odd thing for me to talk about.I spend all my time helping entrepreneurs and experts become MicroFamous. So what do I know?Yet there are some really critical lessons we can all take from Rogan’s history.There is no original reporting or investigative journalism or exclusive interview here.But I am going to tie together the 4 big cultural waves that propelled Joe Rogan to being mega-famous.That way we can be on the lookout for similar opportunities in our own world, big or small.Let’s start with a rough timeline.You’ve got Rogan’s childhood scattered, where among other things, he picks up tae kwon do and ends up winning a US Open Championship and doing some martial arts teaching.He gets started in stand up comedy in the late 80s going into the 90s. He moves to LA, gets picked up by Disney on a development deal and ends up on a sitcom called Newsradio. You might remember that as the last thing Phil Hartman did before his unfortunate death. Newsradio runs from 1995-99. This whole time he’s followed the UFC from almost the very first event. The live event UFC 5 takes place about a month after the first episode of Newsradio airs.In 1997, while Newsradio is still on TV, Rogan starts doing backstage and post-fight interviews, does that for a couple years but leaves and doesn’t reconnect with UFC till after 2001.So Newsradio ends in 99, Rogan is working on a sitcom loosely based on him, when the opportunity comes to host Fear Factor instead. Fear Factor was NBC’s answer to Survivor, which launched earlier in 2001.Fear Factor does really well for a few years before it starts to lose steam. By this time Rogan is working with the UFC again, now partially under Dana White, and is doing color commentary.UFC starts to explode in the mid-2000s, that’s when even I was paying attention. All the UFC names I remember were active around this time. Georges St Pierre, Anderson Silva, Frank Mir, Rich Franklin, Ken Shamrock, BJ Penn, Tito Ortiz. Around the time Fear Factor is on the way out, the UFC launches its own reality TV show, The Ultimate Fighter. It went a long way toward helping the UFC hit a mainstream audience. I remember talking over the fighters with guys in the office I worked in at the time.So Rogan is doing color commentary for UFC as it’s exploding in popularity, this is mid-2000s. This is the period where Chuck Liddell hits the cover of ESPN magazine. UFC goes mainstream and Rogan is there for that ride.Then we come to 2009 when Rogan launches his podcast, and by August 2010 it hits the iTunes Top 100, and the rest is history.Now, let’s dive into what happened and all the things that had to come together for Rogan to become mega-famous.1. Rogan got into stand up comedy at the tail end of the 80s stand up boom. That boom turned to bust by the mid-90s, which is when Rogan pivoted to Newsradio.2. Newsradio catches the 90s sitcom boom, launching less than a year after Friends. In fact, the lead in show for Newsradio when it launched was Wings, to give you an idea of how good of a head start it was given.3. Meanwhile, a few years later as Newsradio is losing steam, reality TV is starting its boom. The Real World was well known, but reality TV as we think of it today started more with shows like American Idol and Survivor.That’s when Fear Factor comes along, and Rogan is able to ride the wave of reality TV in the early 2000s.4. The UFC wave really gets going in the mid-2000s with Rogan doing color commentary and cracking jokes in front of millions of...

In today’s media landscape, it’s no surprise that all roads lead to video. It’s what we consume. It’s the beating drum of content marketing, and its platform agnostic because it applies to every industry including coaching and consulting. What is surprising though, is the kind of video content people are consuming and what drives them to take action. In lieu of advertising, organic, value-driven content has made a real comeback, and it’s centered around stories more than ever before. This even applies to people whose services exist to solve a particular, niche problem. The question is: how do we make our content more magnetic in this landscape? In this episode, I’m joined by a special guest, the founder of FeedStories, Bob Regnerus. He talks about what’s happening in video marketing, and how we can implement it in our own businesses. 3 Things We Learned From Bob Regnerus The current state of paid online advertising Why there’s more demand for solutions-based organic content right now How to back up ideals and big ideas with magnetic storiesGuest BioBob Regnerus is the founder of FeedStories and the author of 5 books, including The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Ads, which sold out on its first day. His gift and passion is to help you promote yourself and your business. Throughout his career and working with clients in over 105 markets since 1998, he helps clients promote a powerful message to the marketplace, and target specific customers to deliver that message through Paid Advertising. Bob gets results for his clients through Facebook Advertising Management and Consulting. Bob has had the opportunity to work with a number of remarkable individuals and companies over the years, and spoken to crowds from 20 to 2000 all over the country. For more information, and to find out more about Bob’s work, visit https://feedstories.com/. 

One of my friends in the coaching space forwarded me Sam Ovens’ video on how he’s spent the last 2 years breaking down and rebuilding his business.If you don’t know, Ovens started a business that became Consulting.com, which helped beginner experts and course creators turn their expertise into courses and productizable consulting.At one point he was doing $30 million a year in revenue.However, in remaking the business he decided to discontinue Consulting Accelerator, their signature program for beginners.Turns out it was more headache than it was worth, at least for Ovens. And I can completely relate. In our podcast agency, I’d rather work with those with genuine and deep expertise in their space. They may be new to the coaching or consulting space, but they already have skills and expertise, the only question is how to best position them for ideal clients.So all this got me thinking of the question I see lots of my friends and clients wrestling with, “Should I sell to beginners?”I think we all struggle with this question at some point because that’s where the biggest businesses are.There’s simply more beginners than intermediate or experts. So there’s more people to buy from us if we make something for beginners.Think about ClickFunnels. If Russell Brunson only sold that software to advanced course creators, there wouldn’t be enough customers to make a profit, therefore the product could never get better.So we need brands who sell to beginners, and brands who cater to the more advanced.The big question for any coach or consultant is, Which will you be?Putting it in terms we can better relate to, will you be the Mercedes-Benz of your market, or the Toyota Corolla? If you want big sales numbers and a huge brand, get ready to sell to beginners. That’s where you’ll find big markets and big opportunities. Yet beginners come with a lot of frustration, and I wanted to flesh out *why* and what can be done about it.So first let’s get into the 3 things that hold beginners back from getting results and creates headaches for those who sell to them.Foundation of PerformanceBeginners often lack a basic foundation of methodical, consistent action in their lives. So when you try to help them take action, there’s no foundation of consistent action to build on. There’s no ongoing action for you to tweak and improve. They have no history of successfully building new habits or making uncomfortable changes.As a personal trainer, it’s much easier to work with someone who is active and has already made some basic diet changes, than to work with someone who’s never hit the gym in their life.I asked a mentor one time if I should go to a Tony Robbins event. He said I might get something out of it, because I had the foundation of performance to handle it. But he had seen many who didn’t have that foundation, and once they came back from a transformative experience, and they couldn’t translate that experience into action, it actually had a terrible, negative effect.Some even slipped into a major depression after they came home, and he had to help them pick up the emotional pieces and get back on track.So working with beginners often means working with folks who don’t know how to break old habits and build new ones, which makes coaching them extremely difficult.ClarityIt’s impossible to take bold, confident action when you’re unclear on what you want.Yet beginners are looking for programs and courses to give them the clarity they can’t get on their own.They simply don’t know what they don’t know.If they knew exactly what they wanted, they’d probably be well on their way to having it.The dirty secret of selling coaching programs to beginners is that...

When I hear coaches and consultants talk about partnering, my ears perk up.Not because I’m a big believer in partnerships (as you’re about to see). It’s because I’m listening for the real reasons they want a partner.Most of the time I hear things like:We would have a lot of fun building something togetherWe have complementary skill setsWe have similar audiencesThen in podcasting, there’s this one, We want to start a podcast together, so we need a way to monetize it.And there’s nothing wrong with any of those impulses.I started my first podcast with a partner, and we weren’t sure how we would monetize it. Now it makes us 6 figures a year. However, partnerships are tough to sustain over the long run.It’s really hard for two partners to put in the same amount of effort, energy and focus into a project for years and years.At some point, one partner will feel like they’re putting in more than the other partner. Sometimes even both partners feel this way. That’s why in partnerships like law firms, profit goes into a pie and the pie gets split along the lines of seniority or billable hours. Dividing the pie “fairly” is really hard - even for firms who have decades of experience.In one of my favorite books of all time, Managing the Professional Service Firm, consulting legend David Maister devotes 50 pages of the book to partnership issues.It’s all the nitty gritty stuff people don’t think about until they’re already in a partnership, like…Partner performance counseling (year end appraisals, self-evaluations & feedback)Partner compensation (billable hours, seniority, rainmaker vs. operations activities)Strategic decision making, goal setting and aligning incentives with strategyPartner relationships (partner archetypes, managing partners, division of powers)In other words, making a partnership work is complicated.In fact, Maister said that it was fairly common for a firm to bring him in for consulting, and the result was one or more partners leaving.One of my clients says having a business partner is like getting married (except you don’t get to make out with them). So there’s a lot of potential for friction.So here are 3 questions to help you make good decisions on partnerships…1. Do I really have to give up equity to build this business?Look for ways to hire people, and where you can’t hire a skillset, create joint ventures, revshare or commission agreements with pre-agreed caps, all in writing.2. Could I pay for the skills and expertise instead of partnering up?Partners are permanent, so make sure their skills are permanently needed. Chances are, you only need a certain skill set for a short time. Think about Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. One was a visionary marketing genius, the other was the tech genius who actually made stuff work in real life. They needed each other. But even the tech genius was a skill that could be hired out. Steve Wozniak was crucial in the early days, but it was Jobs’ drive and vision that made Apple a trillion-dollar company. 3. Could I create a sense of mission and camaraderie within my team, instead of with partners?Entrepreneurship is lonely. Part of the draw of partnership is the sense of community and shared mission.The good news is, you can still have that without giving up equity.Look for ways to create that sense of community and shared mission by building a team of contractors or employees. Get them fired up about your mission and their role in creating a new future for themselves and others. Everything that is truly valuable to others takes energy, effort and...

On a consultation recently I found myself explaining something that I hadn’t quite articulated before.So I wanted to lay it out here in writing. Writing helps to get my thinking clear and integrates new concepts into my whole Point of View.I was speaking to a coach who is in a growing niche, with a good (yet limited) sphere of influence. They have a big decision to make, where do they choose to reach new people?Put another way, what ecosystem will they invest time and energy into to attract new clients?Before we get to that, let’s set the scene for why this question is so important.I have a key belief from experience and observing lots of coaches and consultants, and it’s controversial but hear me out.Sales come easiest from your sphere of influence.Now you’re probably thinking “Yeah, no kidding, we all knew that.”Yet in the world of coaches and consultants, we forget that all the time.I see experts make major decisions on program launches or where they invest their time and energy, based on the sales numbers that come from their sphere of influence.They expect those same sales numbers and percentages to hold true even as they sell more and more programs.It’s easy to forget that once we have sold to our sphere of influence, we have to start selling to new people. People who don’t yet know, like or trust us.So the sales don’t come as easy.(I did a whole episode about this concept, so if you want to dive deeper, check out this episode)But if you’re with me so far, we’re setting the scene with this basic principle:Sales come easiest from your sphere of influence, therefore once you’ve exhausted your sphere of influence, sales will start to get harder.Most coaches and consultants find this out the hard way.When the sales start to get harder, they look for solutions, which leads them to look for ways to grow and reach new people.This leads them to the question we started with. What ecosystem will they invest time and energy into to attract new clients?So we have the big 3 right now, social media, podcasting and traditional thought leadership.Social media is where most of the attention goes because it’s sexy.On the other hand, you can still go the traditional route, get a book publisher, do a TED talk, get booked on stages, get on the Today Show, hire a PR agency. Some of it works, most of it’s a complete crapshoot these days.Which brings us to the world of online content and more specifically podcasting.Podcasting is where most coaches and consultants who are drawn to the MicroFamous approach will fit in the best. It’s definitely where introverts will fit the best.Why?Because social media has become mostly a playground for extroverts.And traditional thought leadership relies heavily on public speaking, which is incredibly draining for true introverts because of all the obligations and travel that goes along with speaking.On top of that, traditional thought leadership has high barriers to entry. It’s expensive, high-risk and high-reward. You can drop $20k on a PR agency and get nothing, or they might get you on national TV three times a week. Total crapshoot.To me, podcasting is the sweet spot where coaches and consultants can thrive by dominating a very focused, fast-growing niche.A niche where there is buzz, maybe a counter-cultural trend, or there’s just a group of people who feel overlooked and underserved by the...

We don’t often feature guests on the show, but when we do, it’s to spotlight authors, coaches and leaders who dive into introversion and why it’s not a deviation from the norm or a handicap - even in the world of coaching. There are many natural advantages to being an introvert, but they often get lost in the misconceptions, misidentifications and baggage people have about the word. How do we break out of the misconceptions and embrace the strengths of being an introvert? How do we build our schedules and priorities around how we are, instead of how we wish we were or think we need to be? In this episode, creator of QuietandStrong.com and author of “Minding Your Time: Time Management, Productivity, and Success, Especially for Introverts”, David Hall shares how we can understand our introversion and use it to our advantage. Three things we learned from David Hall; Why an introvert’s natural ability to think deeply helps us as leaders and expertsThe huge misconception about introverts and podcasting How to manage our time, schedules and energy according to our personalities Guest Bio- David Hall, M.Ed., is the creator of QuietandStrong.com. He is an author, blogger, podcaster and speaker on a mission to help introverts find success by discovering their strengths and honoring their needs. David has also spent 20+ years working in higher education, and has given many workshops, trainings, and presentations on personality, strengths, and introversion/extroversion.His book, “Minding Your Time: Time Management, Productivity, and Success, Especially for Introverts”, helps readers understand themselves and their introversion to be more successful in managing their time and productivity.For more information, and to listen to the podcast head over to http://quietandstrong.com/. 

There are two ways to find easy sales.One is a good long-term strategy, the other is a trap.Now we know from Richard Koch's work on the 80/20 Principle and his book the Star Principle...that the most likely way to build a sustainable, profitable business is to identify a niche with 10% yearly growth potential...Then build the #1 business in that niche.Just about every successful business can be boiled down to those two elements.NOW, if we start from there, that reveals a couple very interesting things about what's really going on when sales come easy.There are two ways initial sales come easy:1. You sell something easy to understand in an established niche. You might call this the Fast Follower Strategy.I see this a lot in the real estate space, where even new, inexperienced agents can generate sales because consumers' expectations are low and competition is mostly part-timers who don't treat it like a business.However, I also see this in real estate COACHING, where the same lack of seriousness makes it easy for a successful high-achievers to get 5 or 10 coaching clients if they speak at a few events or go on a few podcasts.The market is established, agents know what a real estate coach is, they may have people even telling them to hire a coach. So initial sales can come easy if you have good content and you're likable and trustworthy.Now let's look at the 2nd case where sales can come easy...2. You sell something new and different to early adopters who are looking for something new and different. You might call this the Trailblazer Strategy. That's what almost all big businesses do in the early days. The early adopters are looking for something new and different, so when we come along and give that to them, they're at least open to hearing it. If you're likable and trustworthy, you can pick up some easy sales in the beginning, even with something new and different as long as you're going to the early adopters. The problem is there aren't enough early adopters in most niches to build a long-term business.So when we look for easy sales, it can be misleading. Let's take the scenario where you sell something in an established space.When you're a fast follower, most of the time the best case scenario is you become Pepsi to someone else's Coke. The Samsung Galaxy to the iPhone. Amazon Fire to the iPad. That's why looking for easy sales can be a trap. They can lead you right into a position where you get stuck behind a leader you can never overtake. They are already #1 in that niche, so you're mostly hoping they make a mistake or give up their position.Building a business that takes off and gets popular, whether it's online or not, comes down to creating something remarkable. Something that raises people's social status when they buy it and especially when they talk about it.And that rarely happens when we're the Fast Follower. So when we seek easy sales, remember that one path leads to dominating your niche, the other is a trap that leads to 2nd place. The harder road of selling something new and different, creating a new niche, and going from early adopters to the mainstream, that's the path to a REAL sustainable, profitable business.And that takes leadership. Stepping up and claiming a leadership position in a niche that doesn't exist yet. It takes courage and a lot of hard thinking and interacting with the market to give them something new and different they are willing to try.Steve Jobs and the iPad is a great example. The category of tablet computers basically didn't exist until he created it. The tech was getting close, but he had the vision and Apple had the team that executed that idea. And they created a new niche that Apple continues to dominate.So here's the big takeaway. Easy sales...

Let's start with a little thought experiment: What is draining your time and energy right now?Not all tasks are equally draining. That leads us into our first big idea.1) Go after the things that drain the most energy first, not necessarily the most time.Chances are, your business only needs a few key skills from you. And of all the other things in your business that you do, some of those things aren't a big deal, and some drain your energy.If you're like me and it hurts your soul to check your email, create a simple system and hire someone to handle your email immediately. A few years ago I realized that my podcast agency only needed 3 things from me, and they were the things I was highly skilled at and enjoyed doing.Everything else I ruthlessly started to get off my plate.So how do you get everything else off your plate?2) Systems first, People second.We're living in a massive labor shortage. A-players are hard to come by. A-Salespeople and high-level integrators always have been hard to come by and always will be.If you focus on rockstar systems, you don't need A players all the time to have a great business. The better your systems, the better your baseline level of performance in your business.Rockstar systems means you can hire good, smart, capable people, and still get rockstar results. So what happens when you have an A player? Squeeze them for everything their worth by having them upgrade your systems while they're with you. Plan on them to outgrow the role and probably leave.I hired an A-player in the middle of last year, and together we built a great system inside my agency. He even documented the whole system step-by-step and helped hire and train the 2 people it took to replace him. So when he got an opportunity with an awesome startup, he was able to turn over the keys of the system to the people he'd trained and I wasn't left scrambling. I was actually better off for him being with me for a year.So I don't plan on retaining rockstar people for my business to work. If you're building a lifestyle team, at some point you're going to hit a business sweet spot, where you're not looking to just grow for its own sake. And at that point you have to be honest with yourself and the people on your team. You may not be able to retain all your A people by giving them a vision within your team. Their vision may take them out of your team, so you may as well plan for it.McKinsey Consulting is the best example. They've known for decades that they'll retain 1 out of every 5 people they hire, because they only keep the best of the best.That creates the famous "Up-or-Out'' structure McKinsey is known for, and creates an international fraternity of former McKinsey types who weren't retained but ended up at other companies. They then turn around and recommend their companies hire McKinsey, so often the candidates that didn't make the cut end up being McKinsey's best clients.And McKinsey gets the best out of all their people while they're there.We can all do the same thing by having an informal "Up-or-Out" policy. You only retain the best, those who can make you a lot of money or save you a lot of money. Everyone else will "outgrow" their role and move out of your team at some point, and you support them in that journey.That brings us to one of the biggest challenges in building a team: Losing too many good people, especially A players. Rainmakers and founders tend to burn through good people, and some do it over and over again for years.I have a client who made 1.3 million last year in billings all by himself.That means he is worth $650 an hour, every single working hour a week for 50 weeks a year. If he paid a VA $650 a week, all they'd have to save him is one hour of work to be worth it.Yet he's the classic rainmaker. He's burned through so many people...

I spotted a question from an expert in a mastermind group and wanted to address it because it's a common one. Mostly I get this question from folks who've been on a few podcasts, know they enjoy being a guest, and can see the potential for their own show.Ultimately, I want coaches and consultants doing both. Guesting and hosting podcasts work together for best results. Guesting on other podcasts is the #1 way to get more podcast listeners. And hosting your own podcast is your best lead conversion tool, and it's the place where you have 100% control of the message.So in no particular order, here are 3 key questions that will help you make this critical decision.#Question 1: How many podcasts have you been on?If the answer is fewer than 5, I'd recommend spending more time being a guest. By all means, start working on your podcast idea behind the scenes.Yet I recommend spending more time interacting with the audience, attracting people to you, and testing your Point of View and Bold Opinions.Even though our agency produces podcasts, I advise folks to guest on podcasts first. Do as many shows as possible and get a feel for what you like and don't like.That lays the foundation and starts putting your Point of View into the world, attracting people to you and building an audience who can help you refine your podcast idea before it even launches.That's the real secret to launching a great podcast - finding a fast growth niche where people are seeking content, conversation, connection and community. A group of people who feel neglected, passed over or overlooked by the content that's already out there. #Question 2: Have you identified a fast-growing niche where you can become the first or only expert? Emphasis on 'first or only.'When I say a fast-growing niche, you might not know. But if I asked you, Where is all the *buzz* and energy in your space right now, that might spur some thoughts. The best way to grow anything, from a podcast to your entire business, is to position yourself where the buzz and energy and growth already are, and then become the "first or only" in that space. Many coaches and consultants I see are not operating in fast-growing niches, and yet they're beating themselves up for slow growth. I also see this a lot in coaches and consultants who've become well known in one niche and then want to keep growing, but they've essentially outgrown their original niche and haven't chosen a good strategy for their next niche.I've been heavily influenced by the work of Richard Koch, who wrote the 80/20 Principle. What you might not know is that he also wrote a book called the Star Principle, in which he shared the secret of a "star" business, which goes back to Bruce Henderson's work at Boston Consulting.A "star" business is the #1 brand in a niche that's growing 10% a year or more.If the niche you're in isn't growing at 10% a year or more, then even dominating in that niche won't lead to big growth. As coaches and consultants we tend to compare ourselves to other experts and influencers without taking the niche into consideration.When I work with clients especially on their podcast launches, that's one of the key things I'm looking to identify. What's the niche, and is that (or could it become) a fast-growing niche?That was the big secret of the Team Building Podcast that I launched with Jeff Cohn. Within the residential real estate space, team building was the new hot trend. We positioned the podcast as the "first and only" podcast in that space, and he's maintained that position for the last 5 years, getting 10k downloads a month in a space where there's maybe 15k...

A client asked me the other day about hiring a social media agency. An agency promising to get far more engagement on her content.The idea is for them to push out content across multiple pages and platforms. Lots of pushing. It’s a very appealing idea, too. Your content…everywhere. Who doesn’t want to be everywhere?Yet I think the days of pushing content on people are over, at least for the time being.And agencies are still selling the dream, mostly based on success stories from 3+ years ago.Why does this matter? Because it affects everything about how you approach growing your podcast or marketing your business.Here’s the big idea for today: There was a sweet spot in social media where you could “push” your content out to people. That sweet spot is over.For organic content, that sweet spot lasted around 10 years. The front end of that period was roughly marked by the launch of Gary Vee’s book “Crush It” in 2009 and Grant Cardone’s book “10X” in 2011. Those books are now 10+ years old.Since then, social media companies have continued to tweak their algorithm. Their mission is to keep eyes on the platform which they can monetize with ads.So we saw things start to change with organic social content. Anything that sent people off-platform or got “low engagement” was downplayed or even punished.YouTube videos stopped playing natively inside Facebook. When you tried to post a YouTube video or podcast episode to Facebook, you got these boring looking posts that got low engagement. The post basically guaranteed you had no shot at going viral.Facebook devalued their Business pages with algorithm changes. Guaranteeing that most people don’t see business page content. It just wasn’t as engaging as Facebook wanted.Inside of Facebook Groups, we saw opinion posts do far better, while teaching posts get buried by the algorithm.So now, organic content has to get instant engagement…or your post dies. I saw one coach online talking about how they loved their podcast agency because they put up these “beautiful clips of their podcast” on places like Instagram.When I went to her Instagram profile, I found that those “beautiful posts” averaged under 100 views and had minimal engagement compared to posts that were more authentic and off-the-cuff.(Of course, there’s a role for an agency to post for you, but that role has changed over the years. More on that below.)Social media companies like Facebook have set the standard for the type of content they want. Content that is… created by you in real-timeon their platformusing in-app toolsexclusively and custom tailored to their platformthat generates instant engagement (which skews toward negative emotions)So the landscape has shifted away from the “10X” approach. Creating one piece of content and pushing it out to every platform doesn’t work the way it used to.Those posts didn’t get the right kind of engagement, so those posts now are mostly seen by you - the account owner - along with the 150 people you engage with the most. Those are probably people you already know.So to you, you might see all this content going out everywhere. But most of your followers never see that content, because the social media companies bury it with the algorithm. Now what does all this have to do with push and pull?The challenge in growing a podcast or even your company has...

Inside our podcast production agency, one of my big pushes over the last couple years was to convert to Scrum-style project management so that we could be working on 2-3 service improvement projects at any given time. So I wanted to give you a glimpse into that system and the projects we’ve run this year to improve our podcast service. If you’re a current client you’ll recognize some or all of these projects (not all applies to every client) and if you’re looking to launch a podcast this gives you insight into what it takes to keep up in the world of podcasting. Here are the bigger service improvement projects we’ve run just in 2021. Headline and subject line optimization We started using a headline optimizer first (we use this one) and then added the email subject line optimizer later. The goal was to raise the quality of our average episode title, and this site helped us gamify the process by scoring each title. Not only did we find ourselves writing better episode titles, but we also shared and celebrated when we wrote high-scoring titles. Milestone Episode Notifications  Milestone episodes are your 50th, 100th episode, or hitting a milestone in download numbers like 100,000.  Watching for milestone episodes has helped us to get clients thinking early about special episodes, new ideas or ways to get more promotional juice out of that milestone. That led to special strategy calls, creative episode ideas, and even me guest hosting on Lars Hedenborg’s 450th episode.   Client Update Email improvements  We wanted to make the email more useful for gauging audience growth and decision making on topics. So we added a new Weekly Stats Graph that’s more readable and actionable than other graphs (in my opinion) and gives a better sense of where audience growth is going. We also changed up one of the stats included in our email to include top episodes of the last 90 days, rather than all-time. That gives you a better sense of what the best topics are and removes the all-time episodes which change less frequently. Leveraging opportunities to put clients on podcasts we produce For clients in real estate that meant looking for ways to put them on Real Estate Uncensored. So it’s now part of our weekly meeting to ask the question, “What client should be putting on other shows we produce?” We also added certain clients into our BusDev system to specifically look for ways to introduce them to podcasters we connect with. Since we don’t offer podcast booking as part of our service (with good reason), this gives us a way to systematically get our clients more exposure. I always want to look beyond having good intentions, and build things into our systems to solve problems once and for all. Weekly questions are a good way to ensure that things stay on your radar. Highlight Clips going out the same day as an episode release  We used to have Highlight Clips go out the following week to point back to the episode and drive new traffic to it. Nothing wrong with that, but as our production process got even better and we got raw episodes from clients further in advance, we were able to move this up.  This one is a little subjective, as I can see a case for Highlight Clips going out at various times, but all the feedback we got from clients on this change was...

Years ago I caught an Uber and it was a nice newer black Infiniti sedan. Along the way, the driver explains that his day job is a financial advisor and he drives for Uber on the side for extra cash because he’s newer in the business.Now ask yourself, In that moment, was he an influential financial advisor to me?No, because I had already put him in the category of Uber driver. He couldn’t market and sell himself to me as both an Uber driver AND a financial advisor. In my mind, there’s only room for him in one category.But we’re making this same mistake every day, and that’s the topic of this episode.One of the missions of the podcast is to break down things that are confusing and frustrating so we can be less critical of ourselves and move forward with more calm, confidence and clarity.  So I want to dive into a common frustration we have with branding and marketing, which is how do we market ourselves when we sell more than one thing?In my opinion anyone can become MicroFamous, yet we have to be strategic, focused and consistent to get there. To reach the level of being famously influential.It’s hard to be strategic, focused and consistent when our energy is pulled in a bunch of different directions. Not to mention the fact that people automatically put us into one category. “Jeff is a business coach, Linda is a consultant, Jay is an author, etc.”Because people have a really hard time putting us into more than one category, it’s hard to become famously influential for more than one thing to the same people.And when we’re talking about different offers and services to the same people, that’s basically what we’re doing. We end up confusing people.And if you think everyone but you has their s#%t together, think again. Even big companies who know better do this kind of thing all the time.The best example I’ve seen lately are the hilariously terrible Bud Light Seltzer ads. Have you seen these?So here’s the backstory.Bud Light’s parent company tries to get into the hard seltzer space with a new brand and it flops.So they come back with a brilliant idea to market hard seltzer under the Bud Light brand.You can see how screwed up this idea is in their own commercials.One of their TV ads starts this way: “The Bud Light logo makes people think our seltzer is a beer, so we hired recruited retired NFL players Nick Mangold to Block It Out!Now it’s a mildly amusing commercial, but it’s less funny when we realize we’re doing the same thing when we’re selling a bunch of different things. We basically have to go around saying, “Hey I know you think I sell ABC, but I actually do XYZ! Surprise!”Of course, we know we’re confusing people, we just don’t know what to do about it.So we start asking ourselves questions like:How can I be more clear with my brand and my message?Could I put everything under the same brand? Can I find one brand that allows me to do all the things I want to do under the same brand?I call that the Search for the Magic Umbrella.A Magic Umbrella is a brand or an idea that acts as an umbrella we can put over just about anything we want to do or create or sell.And I see people twisting themselves into pretzels trying to find it. It’s a very noisy, cluttered world out there. Especially online.One of the core principles of the MicroFamous system is that in order to cut through the noise, we have to deliver a Clear & Compelling...

We are only in control of our actions. So setting goals around things like podcast downloads are pointless because we don't have direct control over them. Let's set the scene with a couple stories to illustrate the core challenge when setting goals.A couple years ago a client of mine hired an outside marketing agency to run their whole marketing program. They came up with a social media strategy based on benchmarking and best practices, which is a corporate way of saying they'll copy what other companies in the space are doing.That led to this agency creating all these lovely Powerpoint slides with projections of how the client's podcast would grow now that this agency would be doing all this marketing "stuff" alongside the podcast. It all looked great on Powerpoint and my clients got really excited cause they love numbers and metrics. And who doesn't love a chart that just goes up and to the right?Unfortunately, the agency had no direct control over any of those metrics and their brilliant strategy of copying what everyone else was doing in the space did nothing for the client. After over a year of spinning wheels and lots of presentations, the client ended up firing the agency.I've seen that scenario play out enough over the years to see it coming, and it stems from the same root cause.Now let's look at a story that shows the other side of goal-setting.I have a good friend and mentor in the executive recruiting space, which is like hand-to-hand combat sales. Lots of phone calls, lots of hand-holding, lots of babysitting deals and last-second negotiation to get these deals to close. It's a very fascinating industry.So my mentor, who is obsessed with metrics and goal-setting, was sharing with me his approach to coaching someone on goal-setting. In his view, there were 10 different elements of goal-setting and each required care and dedication to master.I looked at that list and agreed that all those things were 100% correct, with one caveat. You had to be in an environment where the relationship between performance and result was a direct, straight line and all the numbers were already known. In other words, X number of phone calls produces X appointments which leads to X deals.If you're in an environment where those numbers are unknown or changing, you can't set goals in the same way. That led to a discussion to produce the key insight I want to share here on the show. There is a difference between Outcome Goals and Performance Goals.Outcome Goals are things we want to see happen, like more podcast downloads or more sales calls. But we can't control those things directly.No matter how much we focus our intention or energy, we can't simply produce more podcast downloads or sales calls. And no amount of putting them down as goals on paper or creating slick-looking Powerpoint slides will change that fact.That's where Performance Goals come in.Performance Goals are what we DO to produce the Outcome Goals we hope for.Performance Goals are the actions we take.Performance Goals are where we can focus our effort and energy to get better results.And in uncertain environments, where things are unknown or ever-changing, that's all we can focus on.So rather than setting Outcome Goals for things like downloads, subscribers or email opt-ins, focus on setting Performance Goals.What are the actions you believe will have a positive effect and lead to the outcomes you want?How do those actions translate into new commitments?And what kind of metric can you assign to those commitments?That's where you can focus on holding yourself accountable to the things you control rather than things you can't control. For example, let's say you want more podcast downloads this year.There are a few...

As lead gen costs continue to go up, and social media algorithms are optimized for rapid rising, negative emotional responses, it gets more and more difficult to put any kind of a direct response call-to-action in front of people on social media.That goes for whether you pay to play or not.I'll give you an example. Let's rewind to February 2020, the MicroFamous book just launched, got great feedback and reviews. So my idea was to run the free+shipping offer to build the email list, and I built a whole 90-day email nurture system to follow up and convert those book buyers into true believers in the MicroFamous message.But the ads just were ridiculously expensive, despite us doing all the latest, greatest, micro-testing techniques.Then I found out why.The guy helping me with ads checked with his network around May of 2020 and heard that it was starting to cost $40-50 in ads to get one conversion on a $7 free+shipping book offer. What that told me is that the people doing it are spending a warchest to build their email list. They probably have a complex set of backend follow up and a mix of offers to try to recapture all that ad spend and hopefully make a profit. And who knows if it's working or how long they're waiting to actually profit. Just because people are doing things doesn't mean it's working or that it's sustainable.So I pulled back that offer.My observation is that over the long run, lead gen costs will continue going up, regardless of short-term issues like iOS14 or variations in the market or by niche.The more the big companies start shifting ad budgets away from TV and radio into social media, it just drives up everyone's cost. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.I've talked to some Facebook ad agency folks over the last year, and they're proud of getting their clients leads at $5-10. When they first start running ads, opt-ins can be $15, $20 or more. Now, you might say, what about the folks who are running ads and selling programs and courses in the millions? The Russell Brunsons, Russ Rufinos, Amy Porterfields, etc.I have no doubt that the top 1-5% of info-marketers are still making money.Whether that's with free+shipping funnels. Or running ads to webinars with a whole series of upsells and cross-sells and complicated, trigger-driven email campaigns.Or maybe they're running ads to call-funnels and hard-selling with a phone team. I'm sure it all still works to a degree. But to make the math work now, in an environment of $5-10 lead costs, the game has changed. Your backend has to be fine tuned.It reminds me of a story one of my mentors, Frank Klesitz, told on this podcast in the episode on puffery and copywriting. The story goes that he was at a Dan Kennedy event years ago, and one of the guest speakers was a top info-marketer.And to show his autoresponder campaign in all of its glory, he took a 6-foot tall roll of paper with his entire campaign sketched out. When the paper was rolled out, it ran across the width of the entire stage and needed several people just to hold it up.On seeing that, Frank decided that was not where he wanted to compete.So is the biggest challenge facing us just an issue of optimizing ads? In other words, if we just became better info-marketers, does that solve the problem?I don't think so.Let's say the top 5% of info-marketers can still scale up using social media ads and a complex backend of funnels and triggers and upsells and cross-sells. Do you WANT to put in the work to reach the top 5% of info-marketers? Do you have the rare set of skills and mentality and engineering ability to get there?Do you have the internal values that drive you to extract maximum value from someone regardless of whether it's in their best interest? I don't know

Guests not sharing their episodes is one of the biggest frustrations of running a podcast.But is it the guest's fault?Not always.In this episode of MicroFamous we dive into 3 key mistakes podcasters are making right now that keep guests from even wanting to share their episode. And of course, we talk about how to avoid those mistakes and create an episode that guests are excited to share.Let's jump in!Mistake #1: We presented the guest in a way that adds nothing to their reputation or their level of influence.This could be in how we introduce them, how we phrase their accomplishments, how we describe or promote their offer, or even the picture we use in the graphics we create. There are SO many opportunities to screw this up.When my staff selects the headshot to use in our graphics, we're always looking for what the GUEST has already chosen as their primary headshot, from places like their website or LinkedIn profile. If we can't find something that is obviously their favorite, or all their stuff is low quality, we reach out to ask for a high-quality headshot. Even something as simple as the wrong headshot can cause some folks to not share your episode.It could even rise to the level of a flat-out screw up, as I mentioned in the case of the podcaster who featured me on an episode which was released last week. They got the name of my company wrong, even right in the graphic they wanted me to share.I wanted to share their episode, I tried to share it, but I wasn't comfortable sending people to their Show Notes page because of how badly they screwed it up. And I couldn't even send folks to the episode using their graphic because even that was screwed up.Stick around to the end for my best quick tip on how to present someone in a powerful way.Mistake #2: We interview rather than having a conversation.When you've been a guest on a bunch of podcasts, you want a conversation, not an interrogation. That's why I refer to my guest episodes as conversation episodes, not interviews.I try to drill it into all my client's heads, These are not interviews. You are not an interviewer. You are an expert and influencer in your own right. No matter how big the guest is, this is a dialogue between two experts who each have their own perspective and value to bring to the episode.Remember to be thoughtful and respectful of your guest. I'm not talking going overboard and playing devil's advocate, trying to create Gotcha moments or running roughshod over them with your own opinions. We're talking about a real conversation between two experts who each have well thought out opinions on an interesting topic that is super important to a group of people. That's why people show up for business podcasts.Plus you get a nice bonus, since treating a guest episode as a conversation between two experts also puts you on a more even playing field and boosts your level of influence with your own audience. There's something about your audience hearing you have a smart, thoughtful conversation with someone they respect. It raises their level of respect for you. I've experienced that with my journey, and it's an incredible thing to feel.Mistake #3: We covered the same topics they share on every other podcast, we failed to draw anything unique and compelling out of them. Some podcasters ask roughly the same questions every time, and in the right setting that can work.But many big name guests have been on a bunch of podcasts and have shared on their signature topic many, many times. It's critical to draw something out of them that they haven't shared before.You can do this with well-researched questions, like Tim Ferris.You can do this by

A lot of the frustration I see in the expert/thought leader space has one root cause.So I want to give you some common examples of failure, and I'll build up the big reveal - the root cause and some potential cures for this horrible ailment.And if you think you're wrong in launching something that eventually failed, think again.Notice how many iterations of programs like Seth Godin's AltMBA, or Sam Ovens Consulting Accelerator, or Amy Porterfield's Courses That Convert.I've read various accounts that each of them are on their 4th, 5th, 6th or more MAJOR iteration of their program. And it's not just about continuous improvement. It's that they didn't get it right the first time. Either it didn't work the way they wanted it to, it didn't sell the way they wanted it to, or it didn't scale the way they wanted it to.So if those major players in those spaces didn't get it right the first time with their flagship programs, it shouldn't surprise us if we don't get something right the first time.Especially in the world of group coaching programs or online courses.Yet we have this weird expectation that we should get it right straight out of the gate, and this leads to the root cause I'll get into later.But first, let's get into the examples.Example 1: Going from individual client work directly to online products.Turns out it's fairly easy to create something that works when you're involved and hand-holding. But does the DIY version get people the results they want? It's also easy to create something you feel like people need, yet it's not the kind of thing they want to BUY.Or it just doesn't scale because it costs so much to bring in the right buyers to your world that at best you break even on the whole thing. All these failures become more likely when you go straight from individual client work to creating programs.Example 2: Offering a "harvest product" without building the foundation of demand to harvest.I went deeper on this in the episode on paid content and Substack, so I'll just give a quick overview of the idea. There’s a big difference between a program that helps you build demand for you, versus a program that harvests demand that already exists.Paid subscriptions, paid premium content, and even monthly memberships are all good examples of products and programs that "harvest" demand that already exists rather than helping you create new demand.In other words, they work great for people who already have an audience demanding more from them. Not so great for folks who are still in the audience and demand-building phase. The planting seeds phase. If you remember when Radiohead offered their album direct to fans at a pay-what-you-think-is-fair model.It was supposed to break the industry, but of course it hasn't.Because it only works for those with established audiences who are demanding more from the band than they already get. It took piles of record label money and years of touring and radio play to build that level of demand.Example 3: Building something that's scalable to deliver, but not scalable to market and sell.With the rise of ad costs and the fact that reaching people on social media organically is more time consuming than ever, it's not enough to build something that is scalable to deliver. Scalable marketing also has to be baked in for it to be truly scalable.Let's say you run a monthly membership for $19. But it costs you $50-100 or more to get a new member. That membership has to be amazing enough for them to stick around for 3-6 months. Not to make a profit off them...just to break even.That's why most of the folks offering membership programs, you find out their real offer is almost always some high-ticket...

Coaches, consultants and thought leaders can get a lot out of building relationships with fellow experts whether you’re joining a formal mastermind, or starting your own informal peer advisory group. The question is - how do we approach masterminds so that we get the most value out of them, and how do we contribute to these relationships so that we’re also making the engagement worthwhile for other members? In today’s episode, I’m joined by the CEO of Profitable Relationships, Dov Gordon. Dov is also the founder of JVMM, a curated, high-caliber community of 100+ leaders in the world of small business, entrepreneurship, consulting, and coaching, and today he shares the thought process behind his mastermind. Three things we learned from Dov Gordon;Why being an introvert has heavily informed his approach to building an expertise-based business. The one rule that should govern how we approach our mastermind groups.How to prioritize mastermind groups without expecting an immediate payoff from them. Guest Bio- Dov Gordon is the CEO of Profitable Relationships. He helps consultants use “backwards” networking to reach their ideal clients, consistently. Experienced consultants know that the best clients come from referrals and relationships. But referrals are unpredictable.  And relationships take lots of time. Instead, Dov helps you become an “under-the-radar leader” in your industry. It gets better, because Dov shows you how to leverage the relationship marketing you’ve been doing for free - into a six figure revenue stream. For more information visit https://www.profitablerelationships.com/ and email dov@profitablerelationships.com. To find out more about Dov’s JVMM mastermind, head over to https://www.profitablerelationships.com/jvmm. 

So I’ve been thinking a lot about the biggest challenge for us in the coaching/consulting space.I’m curious if you’d agree, but here’s how I’d describe it:If we don’t want to follow the Gary Vee model and chase free attention on social media, what’s the best alternative medium to put our content in front of people who don’t know us?There’s no easy answer, but when I look at the landscape of content marketing, a few things are high on the listPodcasts (both as host and as guest)YouTubeSubstack(Of course, platforms like Pinterest or Twitter might be better if you have the right niche audience.)Since I already have podcasting pretty much on autopilot, I’m experimenting with YouTube and Substack.Here’s how I’m thinking it’s going to work.I’m launching an official MicroFamous YouTube channel, where I’ll cover shorter topics related to turning your expertise into a lifestyle business without spending all day on social mediaI’m launching an additional podcast featuring conversations around life-changing books. Podcast episodes will mostly have guests, a mix of emerging thought leaders and some names you’ll knowI’ll follow up those podcast episodes with shorter “piggyback” videos on YouTube where I pull out my takeaways. I’ll sprinkle in 1-2 clips from the original podcast episode to highlight the podcast.ALL my content gets published on Substack, from stand-alone articles to podcast episode summaries.That allows me to publish several times a week to Substack for people who want to hear from me more, without hitting people in my list who didn’t sign up for that frequency.You can see the Substack blog in its current form here: https://microfamous.substack.com/I’m liking what I see so far from Substack on it’s customization options and how clean and readable the posts are when put into email form.Now let’s turn to YouTube... Why YouTube?Well, first, YouTube was part of my original success with Real Estate Uncensored.We got great traction from YouTube between 2015 to around 2018 when we shifted the live show over to Facebook for good. We put about 4000 emails into our list for free based off of people finding our search-optimized videos and clicking over to a simple lead magnet page. Now, whether I can reproduce that level of success in today’s environment, and use YouTube to build the podcast audience for MicroFamous as well, remains to be seen.But the discoverability and optimization tools available on YouTube are just too good not to explore.And being there allows me to keep experimenting with building a cross-platform “show” - where certain forms of content go to YouTube and other forms of content go to the audio podcast.That might be the near-term future of podcasting, at least until Apple and Spotify get their act together and catch up to YouTube in their analytics and insights.Now this is just my answer to a set of questions I’ve been asking myself, and they might be helpful to you too.So here are the key questions:If my business grew from the systems I already have in place, what sort of content would I produce just for the fun and enjoyment of it?What are the platforms where I could put my content in front of new people in an authentic and sustainable way?What platforms allow me to pay to promote my content, so I’m not forced to rely on social media to drive traffic or reach new people?What platforms allow me to...

We’ve all heard the quote, If one person can do something, anyone can learn to do it.It might be a helpful belief, but that doesn’t make it objectively true.Especially when it comes to marketing.I had a client ask me if she should focus on Instagram, because a friend of hers grew a following of 100k in just 6 months.Of course it turns out their friend is a massive extrovert with a huge personality who loves social media.Once we identified that, it became clear that my client didn’t have those attributes that contributed to that success.What does this have to do with the 80/20 Principle?  Everything.Do you know Perry Marshall? He’s the author of 80/20 Sales & Marketing, one of my favorite marketing books of all time.He points out that the 80/20 principle isn’t just a handy rule of thumb for economics, or a way to use our time better.The 80/20 principle is a universal law of cause and effect.The vast majority of actions don’t produce much in the way of results. Some might even backfire.A few actions get huge results. And that makes people *really* uncomfortable.The 80/20 principle messes with our perception of fairness at a very deep level.There is nothing equitable or fair about the 80/20 principle.It doesn’t care who you are, it doesn’t care how much effort you put in, it doesn’t care how much you want it.Especially when it comes to marketing.On my podcast Real Estate Uncensored, we’re coming up on 700 episodes and 2 million downloads.Would we get that if we launched the same exact podcast today? Maybe, maybe not.We got in and built an audience when the podcast space in real estate was still relatively uncrowded.We also got a huge boost from YouTube that would be hard to reproduce in the same way today.On the other hand, there are podcasters who’ve put out far less content on their podcast and have millions upon millions of downloads.Is that fair? Maybe not, but that’s the 80/20 principle in action.Their actions produced a completely different level of results.In marketing and in life, there’s no guarantee that just because we put in the same level of effort as someone else, or model their success and do the same things they did, that we’ll achieve the same level of success.The 80/20 principle tells us that out of 100 actions, maybe 20 will produce measurable results, and only 5 of those actions will produce huge results.Over time, you’ll tend to see this in your content, where a few podcast episodes go gangbusters and get tons of downloads for unexplainable reasons.You’ll notice this in your guest appearances on other podcasts.One will just hit the right audience at the right time and you’ll get a ton of leads and sales. Like one of our clients, who went on Pat Flynn’s podcast and Entrepreneurs on Fire in the same year. The Pat Flynn episode went gangbusters and ended up making her 6 figures in revenue. EoFire did absolutely nothing.So when it comes to starting a marketing platform like a podcast, you need other metrics of success other than how many views and downloads you get.And I’m preaching to the choir here, too. I deal with this just as much as anyone, even though I choose smaller target markets and don’t need millions of views.To get to where you can leverage the 80/20 principle to get better results, you have to go through the period of throwing a...

With Apple releasing paid and freemium podcast subscriptions, there’s a lot of talk in the podcast world about this new option for monetizing podcasts.So this is a perfect opportunity to cover an idea I’ve talked about behind the scenes but isn’t in the MicroFamous book (at least, not this current version).There’s a big difference between a product that helps you build demand for you, versus a product that harvests demand that already exists.Let’s give a couple examples.Dan Kennedy tells a story of him taking his personal swipe file and offering it to his email list and making a quick 6 figures, then offering it out through affiliates and making another quick 6 figures.What gets left out of that story is all the years he spent investing in that email list. Sending out high-value content.Making promises and then keeping them.Building trust over time.Then he can release a product that capitalizes on the demand and trust that already exists.If no one knew who Dan Kennedy was, no one cares about his swipe file and he doesn’t make multiple 6 figures off that product.Let’s look at another example, the rise of Substack and alternative journalism.Take someone like Glenn Greenwald, now an independent journalist, but in the past someone who contributed to big name outlets like the Guardian and the Washington Post, where he won a Pulitzer Prize, then went out to found the Intercept.Now he publishes on Substack, a platform for paid newsletters.Estimates are that he has 20k-40k subscribers each paying at least $5 a month, which puts his yearly earnings around 2 million. With podcasting opening up the option for paid subscriptions, we’re going to see some similar success stories in that space.Here’s my opinion: Paid subscriptions capitalize on existing demand. They don’t carry the heavy lifting of creating new demand.So should an expert - like a coach, consultant or business book author - jump into the world of paid subscriptions?It depends on whether you have an existing audience or not.What we forget about folks like Glenn Greenwald is that they spent years writing for big name publications, going on TV, writing books or speaking. They spent years, maybe even decades building their influence, creating trust, gaining notoriety, attracting attention, getting their content in front of thousands, maybe even millions.So unless you have already done that, remember that the economics of paid subscriptions may not be in your favor.In my point of view, paid subscriptions are like harvesting a crop you’ve been growing all season.But it doesn’t plant new seeds.So the success stories we’re about to hear in paid subscriptions will probably be those who already had an audience.They are “harvesting” from the crop of fame, influence and demand they built over years.Demand is how much of YOU people want. When there’s more demand for you than supply, you can harvest that demand in different ways.You can launch a book or an online membership.You can raise your speaking fees or your coaching fees.You can launch certifications or group coaching where your involvement is minimalWhy?...

Yes, I listened to all 3 hours of this episode so you don’t have to.However, there are so many fantastic nuggets, I still highly recommend it to any podcaster.We align on virtually everything, from his simple approach to gear, to handling guests and prepping for episodes.But like you, I was most curious on how Tim’s brilliance had been applied to growing his show. In some areas I was surprised, and I’ll give you my overall conclusions at the end, but for now let’s dig into the nitty gritty. Here are the Tim Ferris Top Tactics for Podcast Growth….Podcast interviews Meaning you being a guest on other podcasts, which is foundational to the MicroFamous system.Tim’s best advice here was to be explicit in sending people to your podcast. “If you don't, there's not an automatically high conversion rate.”It’s easy to forget that, and end up plugging a book or a lead magnet. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But if your goal is to grow your podcast by giving interviews on other podcasts, don’t send people to 5 other things.Send them to your podcast and make it clear that’s the best way to connect with you. Now, if you’re really good at getting people off podcasts and into your email list, keep doing that. Over the long haul, I believe an email subscriber is worth more than a podcast subscriber, because an email subscriber will get your podcast episode via email and have plenty of chances to subscribe to your podcast.So I think there are 2 lessons here.First is not to forget to send people to your podcast in the quest to give them a bunch of options to connect with you. Second is to sprinkle in mentions of your podcast naturally into any conversations you have on other podcasts. So people know about your podcast even before you get to the end where you can give a call-to-action. Email & Newsletters This one surprised me a little, but as Tim put it, “They’re only one link click away from the action you want them to take.” So email is still incredibly powerful and if you have a podcast, make sure to incorporate your podcast into your email strategy. Tim obviously came into podcasting with a large and engaged email list he’d built up for years, which is a great advantage.But all of us have an email list of some kind, and it still remains one of the best ways to promote our podcast, so don’t neglect it.Yes that means sending new episodes to your list, but it can also mean tactics like:- adding your podcast episodes into your initial follow up sequences- recording certain podcast episodes specifically for your email list or email follow up system- creating special short-run podcast series which can then be offered to your email list on top of your normal level of communication with your list. Andre Chaperon and Digital Marketer are both good at this, where they offer a certain email series with a specific goal. Each email is numbered and has a set limit so people know exactly what to expect, and it’s delivered on top of normal communication with their list.Now I’ll interject that with all the inbox filtering going on, the more authentic and personal your emails are, the better. Dean Jackson and Andre Chaperon are my personal email heroes, and inside our agency we’ve nudged our clients in the direction of super personal, less branded emails. Big Name Guests Tim has a big...

I came across a really interesting video the other day and I wanted to share a short clip and some thoughts.The gentleman you’re about to hear is Jaron Lanier, he’s known now as a sort of Silicon Valley philosopher and futurist, with a background as both an entrepreneur in virtual reality in the 80s, to working at Microsoft as an interdisciplinary scientist. He's also a composer and musician, so a super interesting guy and clearly a very deep thinker.So I want to play you this clip, and it’s in response to the question: “Why does social media have an effect on politics, is it because of the way people respond to things on social media?”Here’s they key part of Jaron’s response that jumped out to me:YouTube link: https://youtu.be/kc_Jq42Og7Q?t=672Here are 3 lessons I take away from Jaron’s perspective.1. To be successful on social media today, you must tap into emotions that rise quickly and generate quick, impulsive responses. Controversial opinion posts can do this. There are copywriters I’ve stumbled across on Facebook who are really good at this.That’s also why opinion posts work so well. Especially when they are short, easily readable, or offer a few preset options people can choose from without thinking. It’s also why social media experts tell you to talk about random things and talk about your business only a tiny bit. In fact, the more randomness, the better in terms of getting engagement.2. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook Doesn’t Work AnymoreYou are in an artificial space, very different from a typical public square. It isn’t just about who shouts the loudest or most often. There is an algorithm that stands between your content and your audience. And that algorithm is looking for very specific, fast, impulsive responses.If it doesn’t see that kind of response, your post doesn’t go very far.Which changes the game. When Gary Vee’s book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook came out, the algorithm was much less sophisticated.You could post value, value, value and then post an ask, and roughly the same people would see each post. So it makes perfect sense.Now that has completely changed. A very small portion of your audience will see a post, and if it doesn’t get the right kind of engagement the algorithm is looking for, your post doesn’t go beyond that small portion. And because business oriented content isn’t going to outperform most personal and social content on a social platform, guess which posts are the most likely to get squashed down by the algorithm?It’s your right hooks. The posts where you expect people to see your call-to-action for your business.So what happens when you give value, value, value and then when you go post something about your business a call-to-action, the algorithm squashes THAT post?It’s like a boxer who does the jab, jab, jab and whenever he goes in for the right hook, the referee holds his arm back. I wouldn’t box under those circumstances, I’d get my butt kicked. 3. To actually deliver the “right hook,” you have to pay to play.The social media companies have figured out this genius business model.They let you build an audience, they let you get a taste of reaching them for free.Then they pull the rug out from under you, cranking your reach down to 1-5% of your audience and asking you to pay to reach the rest of them.So there’s no free lunch when it comes to social media.And as Jaron Lanier pointed out,...

For experts like coaches and consultants, it’s easy to get trapped in a business that doesn’t fit us. In the real estate business, Mike Ferry is still going out and speaking to live audiences and real estate offices in his 80’s. That’s the lifestyle he wants, but it’s not what I want.On the flip side, some experts set the goal of a business that runs without them and throws off a high profit that allows them to essentially retire. Richard Koch is a great example of this. He works a few hours in the morning in communication with leaders of the companies he’s invested in. That leaves the rest of the day to think, write, ride his book or tool around his property in South Africa. He does no 1-on-1 coaching or mentoring, it’s all through the books he writes and interviews he gives.For me, I want something in the middle.I genuinely enjoy the client work of helping people figure out their marketing strategy, their messaging, their ideal client they want to attract, the Point of View they want to put into the world, the big, valuable problem they want to solve. That’s where I get the sense of fulfillment and impact.So my ideal business doesn’t take me out of that work, it just adds a ton of leverage.(Side note: if you’re on the introverted side like me, we need leverage. We don’t get energy back from all of our social interactions, so we need to get more out of each interaction. That’s leverage.)So the question for this episode is, What do you REALLY want?

As a newer coach or consultant, there are two paths people tend to choose from, and one path they get stuck on.Now, what do I mean by newer?That could mean you're just launching your coaching or consulting business, but it could also mean you're jumping into a new niche. Maybe you're well known in your real estate space, but you're jumping into a much bigger space like personal development. Or you've been involved in big companies with big brands, but you were behind the scenes. So you have credibility, but not a lot of name recognition.These are all very common scenarios, and I love the strategy decisions at this stage.So here are the two paths in terms of what you offer and how big of an audience you try to build.You can either go big audience and small prices, or small audience and big prices.Those are the best two options, but the absolute worst option is the path where people often get stuck - small audience and small prices. That's a recipe for frustration.So which of the paths is better for you? Should you go for building a big audience and sell them a digital program or course? Or should you go straight to the most valuable slice of the market and cater to them?

When you sell something that is a “necessary evil,” like accounting, insurance, mortgage, and even real estate to an extent, I haven’t seen a lot of evidence that people are interested in long-form audio content.HGTV shows with pretty homes and pretty hosts? Absolutely, people vacuum it up.But notice what’s happening. In shows like House Hunters, the hard parts of the transaction are glossed over. The emphasis is on the homes and the fun of speculating what home these idiots are going to pick and yelling at the TV about how dumb they are.Then you have flipping shows, which actually do show the hard parts, but play them up for drama and in the end, the house still ends up selling and they usually turn a profit. So if I’m advising someone who is selling a professional service to the consumer, check the search traffic on Google and YouTube for the content you want to put out.Which brings me to a good rule of thumb I just made up:If you can’t find evidence that people are actively searching for the content you want to put out, then long-form podcast content on the subject probably won’t be a winner.

This comes from one of our newest clients who’s in that fantastic position right now, and it’s time for her to scale up her influence and impact without taking more time and energy.When you take on most of your clients through relationships, referrals, speaking engagements, etc they can come easy, but they’re coming for the relationship with YOU. They don’t want leverage, they don’t want something scaled.So the key to breaking out of that and taking on clients who are willing to get less of you but still enthusiastically sign up is about way more than just lowering the price.Your level of influence has to go up. Podcasting builds real, enduring influence. In the book I break down the 3 elements of influence, which are authority, visibility and relationships, and there’s a lot I could say on how podcasting works for each of those elements.But a story is best. Jay Campbell is a perfect example. He’s one of just a few influencers and experts in the men’s hormone optimization space, and he’s approaching 300 episodes of his podcast, which we’ve produced for over 5 years. He has a ton of men reaching out to him asking to work with him personally.Of course he doesn’t have time to take on all those, so he partnered up with another influencer in the space and built a multi-6 figure group program in just a couple months.How is this possible? It’s because his level of influence allowed him to channel that demand for him into a scalable program people wanted, even though they don’t get a 1-on-1 coaching relationship with him. People’s willingness to settle for a scalable, group program is directly related to your level of influence in your space. Not just your visibility, it’s about real, enduring influence. You have to channel some of the demand for you into demand for your system. Podcasting gives you the control over your messaging, and the quality time with your audience to do exactly that. Lars Hedenborg is a great example here, because he’s so good at building systems in his coaching business that he’s removed himself from the day to day. He can spend as little as 4 hours a week inside his coaching business.But more than that, the way he markets his coaching puts more of an emphasis on his system - his tools, methodology, than on personal access to him.So by the content he puts out there on his podcast, yes he’s building influence and creating demand, but it’s not just demand for time with him, he’s creating demand for his system. And that system can be coached by people other than Lars himself.That’s the secret to being able to bring in staff coaches. The demand has to be for your system, not for YOU personally, your time, your creative problem solving, your hand holding.Now if both of these things we’ve talked about are happening, your level of influence is building, demand for you is growing, you’re channelling that demand into your scalable group program, what happens next?Podcasting frees you up to spend more of your time in marketing mode, rather than client service mode. And this is the key to making big leaps in your influence.You have the time to go write for Entrepreneur.com, or fly out and appear on the Today Show like one of our clients just did, or write a book like most of our clients have, or go after speaking engagements and podcast appearances that put you in front of larger audiences. Many of those opportunities just don’t show up in your life until you’ve created white space on your calendar and mental space in your...

Today’s topic is deeply personal to me, but I’m going to pull out lessons that are really applicable to anyone in the thought leadership game. When I think about the thought leaders I look up to, admire and respect the most, these are the top 5 who have impacted and influenced me in various ways. Tim Ferris - He thinks like no one else I know, and his engineer/architect approach has heavily impacted how I think and approach problems. Derek Sivers - He popularized the concept “if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no”. He has an ability to pierce right to the heart of a challenge and come up with a simple rule of thumb to deal with it. Richard Koch - He went from consultant to half billionaire through just a handful of key investments, and he spends his days almost exactly like I do - mornings are for work, afternoons are for walks and reading and thinking. Seth Godin - He understands the philosophy of marketing at a deep level and I love that. Mark Sisson - He’s one of the OG's of ancestral health, he consistently publishes on his blog and has built a huge audience around his Primal Blueprint.Lessons learned:They can't help but teach, train and lead. Listen to Mark Sisson on Rogan, he's a great example. He didn't perfectly promote his book, in fact he said flat out it's all the same principles he's been teaching for 20 years just in a format that's more accessibleThey design their life to suit themselves and their personality, not the demands of others. Seth Godin selects speaking gigs based on proximity to NYC and the travel logistics. He doesn't say yes easily. Tim Ferris shows up at the events that are strategic and otherwise focuses on the podcast and writing books. Richard Koch spends a good chunk of his days writing, thinking, and managing his investments.None of them appear to be driven by the latest marketing trends. They have all found a way to build an audience that suits them and stuck with it. Tim Ferris and Seth Godin both have their blog and their podcasts. The others use podcast Guest Interviews to reach more people and promote books, where I'd love to see them start their own. These folks that are extremely influential in their spaces have found the marketing form that works for them and have stuck with it for the long haul. There’s a bunch of other thought leaders that could have made this list, but those are the ones that stuck out to me for the way that they run their life, their impulse to teach, train, lead, and the fact that they don’t just on the latest marketing trends and yet they still do fantastically well.

This episode is brought to you by the magic of YouTube recommendations.I was watching some videos of fun facts, and came across a video about Bob Ross and went down a Bob Ross rabbit hole.Apparently not much is known, as Bob himself was fairly private, and now his estate keeps things pretty close to the vest, too.But we know the basics of the story, and for our purposes, there are 3 lessons I pulled out of Bob Ross's story that we can dig into. So let's review the story and fill in some details I didn’t know growing up…. Bob had a background in the military and apparently took up painting as a way to distance himself from the drill sergeant persona he was forced to project in the military. In a quest to further his painting skills he ended up seeking out a mentor, and got good enough to start a small teaching business. He conducted live classes where he would show how to paint in his style, and talked people through the process.Then he met someone who helped him pitch the concept as a TV show PBS, which said yes and launched the Joy of Painting.It was very closely modeled on an already successful PBS show from the 70s hosted by his mentor.So there was a somewhat proven format to base the show on.His quirky, lovable show started to get traction and found an audience, as we all know.But Bob didn't launch the show to make money directly off the show.Behind the scenes, Bob was just looking for ways to promote his teaching business, where he traveled and taught classes and lessons. For anyone in coaching, this is probably starting to sound really familiar.So the PBS show gave him an audience, which raised demand for his teaching business and built a brand he could leverage in other ways.He started putting out books and sold a few paintings, but at first the show mainly served as an infomercial for his teaching business.Eventually he launched a line of branded art supplies, which drove millions in revenue and still drives revenue to his estate. I’ve come across estimates online that say he sold somewhere north of $15 million in merchandise, and died with an estate worth 1.3 million.So to sum things up: His show was the media vehicle that built his audience, and he monetized through other things sold on the backend.

As introverts, we must protect our energy. Otherwise we don't show up in social situations as our best selves. We’re all different, but introverts definitely have a social capacity - a limit on how much energy we have to be social. Because for an introvert, being social draws our energy down, and being alone fills that energy tank back up.You probably know the feeling when you run out of energy. You’re “done” being social, and you can’t be as engaging, enthusiastic and relaxed in a social setting. I call it “hitting the wall.” Similar to an endurance athlete who drops to such a low energy level that they need to eat something to refuel, introverts need to step away from social interactions and refuel with some alone time.  The word “introvert” carries negative baggage for some people, sadly even some introverts have negative baggage with that word.Why is that?I think that the negative baggage has a lot to do with our social capacity and lack of boundaries.When we over-commit, beyond our social capacity, we put ourselves in situations where we “hit the wall” but can’t leave. So we try to power through.I don’t think that’s a great strategy, so I want to share some ideas for boundaries you can install in your life or business.Boundaries that allow you to commit to being social without over-committing yourself and being forced to power through.

Back in 2015, I formed my first coaching/training partnership and we launched a podcast to support it.18 months later we were hosting a standing-room only session at a major industry event. I know what it’s like to launch a venture with no name recognition. It’s not easy, but thanks to developments in podcasting and online marketing, it’s easier than ever. The big challenge for any new coach or consultant is this: What big name people do NOW isn’t what got them there.We look at them running ads and putting on big events and think that must be why they succeeded. Often the real story is that they’re losing money on their events, losing money on their ads, breaking even on their books or low-priced digital products, and their real money comes from things you can’t see. For Gary Vee, it’s VaynerMedia, his agency that sells marketing services to huge companies. For Grant Cardone, it’s his sales training for companies and now his real estate investments.For many coaching companies, their events are lead generators. They break even on the events and only make money on coaching packages sold at the event or shortly after, often through boiler rooms of salespeople using high-pressure tactics.So before you imitate what you see others doing, I wanted to share a plan that would work for any new coach or consultant, regardless of your name recognition in your space. Let’s start with some basic assumptions about you…You have a skillset that is both rare and valuableYou can apply that skillset to solve a big, valuable problem for a particular kind of personYou have some capital, let's say $5kYou have an assistant or the ability to hire oneIf you have those things in your favor, here’s a controversial opinion: Don’t worry about a website and setting up a bunch of social media accounts. Just get started.For a website, maybe set up one-page at most, but odds are it may be completely unnecessary.Same for social media accounts. Things have changed so radically in the last couple years, it now takes a TON of time and effort to build a new account from scratch, especially if you sell in the B2B space.For both of these, the time and resources you’d invest in building a website, a new social media account (or hiring people to help) is much better invested in actual conversations that will lead to business.So here’s what I’d recommend to any new coach or consultant if you want to hit the ground running, generate revenue and get profitable as quickly as possible, and set yourself up for a wide range of options in your first year.

In today’s episode, we have a very special conversation with fellow podcaster and introvert, Barry Karch. Barry is a 35+ year real estate veteran, and host of the Real Estate Unsalesperson Podcast. On the surface, the world of real estate is dominated by extroverts. People don’t commonly expect introverts to be successful agents, but according to Barry, introverts have the characteristics that make them the best Realtors, and there are more introverted top agents than we’re led to believe.  Being an introvert isn’t automatically a drawback, it can actually be a strength, and introverts can have a long-lasting career in an industry like real estate if we reframe the way we view our introversion, and set boundaries that allow us to show up as our best selves. Barry also shared;The hump every new real estate market needs to overcome if they are an introvertWhy introverts are better at selling without being salesy How to overcome your own internal baggage and negative connotations about being an introvert Introvert traits that make us great real estate agents Guest Bio- Barry Karch has always considered himself an unlikely Realtor - quiet, introverted, unsalesy, not your prototypical formula for success! Yet, Barry has been a top selling Realtor for 36 years, selling as many as 100 homes per year. He has come to realize that being an introvert in real estate gives him many advantages over his more extroverted colleagues. He has created a podcast called The Real Estate UnSalesperson to encourage and inspire his fellow introverted Realtors and has just launched the UnSalesperson community. His mission is to teach introverts that they have what it takes to succeed in real estate.Listen to The Real Estate UnSalesperson on your podcast platform of choice. To learn more about Barry’s community for introverted Realtors patreon.com/unsalesperson. 

If the purpose of your podcast is to create demand for your coaching/consulting business, doing interview podcasts without some Solo Episodes makes it hard for the audience to get to know you. Not having Solo Episodes is like running a church and never doing a Sunday sermon.Solo episode are where the audience gets to know your POV, belief system, methods and your system, but what do you talk about in these episodes? In this episode, I’m going to share how to immediately come up with 5 topics for your Solo Episodes.  Questions from clientsQuestions from prospectsQuestions you see asked in Facebook groupsTopics from your guest episodesPiggyback Solo EpisodesInsights from booksRevisit your Point of View - especially your Buying Beliefs

Introverts need more time to recharge. That’s just a fact.We can try to be someone else.We can try to convince ourselves that we’re ambiverts.We can try to work up the energy with Tony Robbins state change methods.But at the end of the day, none of that is sustainable.Introverts need alone time to recharge, so it’s even more critical that introverted coaches and consultants learn to manage our energy. So what happens when introverts try to run our business like an extrovert? Here are 5 signs along with an action you can take right now to break the cycle and build a coaching or consulting business that fits your personality.

Here’s the big idea of this episode: not everyone needs thought leadership to get the growth they want.If you have a very simple, direct offer that people are already receptive to, and they don’t need to be converted to a new point of view in order to buy, then you may not need a lot of thought leadership.A perfect example is right in my own home turf of real estate.We’ve launched a ton of podcasts in the real estate space, but we don’t launch real estate podcasts aimed at the general public. We only work with the coaches and consultants, so the podcast listeners are the agents themselves.Why is that?Because I learned that the general public is not looking for podcasts from real estate agents. The agency I came out of years ago launched video blogs for hundreds of top agents across the country. Despite every video being available as a podcast episode, the general public doesn’t know those episodes exist because they’re not looking for them and didn’t take advantage of them when offered that option.It’s just not the content they’re looking for. So for most agents and teams, the answer to more growth is simply to put more money into lead generation and conversion. Thought leadership isn’t necessary to scale up.So where is thought leadership essential, where does it actually move the needle?Thought leadership is essential in a business where you…Sell something intangible - like professional services (Marvin Bower has a good quote for this)Have a message - in other words, you have something to say, not just something to sell. You are mission-driven and have a unique perspective on the world that you are driven to share (Michael Michalowisz mission to end entrepreneurial poverty)Want to create a following, a tribe or a community around your message - if you can’t help but get “ranty” when you talk about your industry, that’s a sign you are a thought leader (Boss Mom)Need to change hearts and minds in order to sell - you need converts to your belief system in order to grow your business (Marc Benioff)Need people to agree with you and take your advice in order to get them results - this applies to basically every business coach and consultant - (Bain consultants embedding themselves at every level of the company to get buy-in)So how do you use your podcast to change hearts and minds?Build Trust Through Consistency - Selling something intangible takes trust, which is built by publishing relevant content over long periods of time. You can’t be seen as constantly pivoting, shifting and changing your offer and your target market. Sharpen the Language of your Message - Look at the language you’re using, test that language against conversations with your ideal clients as well as research. (YouTube search results for “create a podcast” versus “launch a podcast”Reward Your Tribe with Time and Attention - While I don’t agree with Gary Vee on his approach to social for introverts, when people do choose to reach out to us, we should make every effort to respond and build that connection. Just as pastors mingle with the congregation after their sermon, build your tribe through connection, conversation and communityGet Clear about the Change You Want to Make - Step away from the ego-driven goals of business growth and focus on the people you want to serve. Think deeply about what change you want to make in their lives and in the world as a result of your work. Get down to the root of why you want to make those changes. The more clarity you have,...

1. Your Podcast drives home your C&C Idea Your Clear & Compelling Idea is the living, beating heart of your business. It’s the idea that creates demand for your coaching by communicating your value and who benefits the most from that value. Take BMW for example. Their Clear & Compelling Idea is the Ultimate Driving Machine.That Idea sets that brand apart AND speaks deeply to car buyers who care about the driving experience. That Idea also repels those who care more about other things, like Tesla drivers for example. Your Clear & Compelling Idea sets your coaching apart from other coaches and attracts the right people while repelling everyone else.In a perfect world, even the title and tagline of your podcast communicates your Clear & Compelling Idea, so people are exposed to that idea just by coming across your podcast. Beyond that, you can use the guests you feature, the solo episodes you record and the success stories you share, all together in a strategic push to communicate your Clear & Compelling Idea. All the content revolves around that one idea and drives it home from a thousand different angles. It’s the way you look at the world, and no form of marketing allows people to spend as much time with you as podcasting, so it’s a perfect place to communicate more information and drive home one idea from a variety of different angles.  2. Podcasting gives you complete control of your messageUnlike being a guest, or doing speaking engagements or other forms of marketing, you are in complete control of every element of your podcast. There’s no one standing between you and your audience. Want to deliver some hard truths or unpopular opinions? Your podcast is the perfect place, because you can share your reasoning behind it and not get muzzled or shouted down by people who disagree. Want to build credibility and authority? Bring on influential experts in your space and focus on topics that reinforce your message. Dana Malstaff’s Boss Mom podcast is a great example, where she brings on people like Amy Porterfield to share how Amy’s program fits into the Boss Mom approach.Want to build anticipation for the book you’re launching? Record solo episodes where you read excerpts or entire chapters, like Mark Divine is doing on the Unbeatable Mind podcast. Whatever message you want to deliver to your audience at any given time, your podcast gives you complete control to put a message in front of your audience based on the needs of your business at the time.3. Podcasting is Scalable (Unlike Your Sales Skills)Relying on your sales skills to grow your coaching business keeps you trapped trading time for dollars. You can only talk to so many people one-on-one.Could you close more sales if you get more people on the phone? Of course. But how many sales calls do you want to do? Can you double that number and still take all the calls yourself? As any of my clients can tell you, sales calls are great in the first couple of years, and once you’ve done enough, they all start to blend together and you get tired of them. Same thing applies to speaking gigs.Could you get more clients by doing more speaking gigs? Of course. But can you double the number of speaking gigs you do in a year? Most of my clients can’t. Certainly not without putting their family life at major risk.Yet your podcast can double in listeners, and double again, and again, without zero additional time from you. So of course, leverage your skills. But why not put more time into your podcast where you can double your audience without taking up any more of your time?4. Podcasting creates converts When the right people hear a Clear...

We can throw money at our marketing all day long with high-end production and pricey bells and whistles, but Dan Kennedy’s success with a $15,000 infomercial proves that low tech can be wildly effective. Once you’ve met the minimum quality expectations, you’re better off investing in your content, getting to know your audience, and adjusting your message accordingly. Stop throwing money at the problem, and start being obsessed with the quality of your messaging.

Clubhouse is the latest example of the rise of live audio platforms. As sales and networking forums, they work, but as a marketing medium for introverts, are they sustainable? Introverts need leverage in their communication because we don’t have the energy to be our own sales reps, and still deliver a high quality level of service to our clients.  Live audio doesn’t fit that bill. It will never build influence to the same degree, and it will never be eternally discoverable and searchable. Every communication with our audience needs some element of leverage and this is where podcasting wins.

Introverts are constantly labeled incorrectly, and associated with a ton of negative perceptions - from being gruff, irritable and dismissive, to hating people and abhorring any type of social situation. To sum it up, introverts are accused of being total a-holes, not being able to handle people and being poor communicators, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. How do we combat and overcome these misperceptions?  We have to understand ourselves, set boundaries around our limits, observe the things that cause us to hit our energy wall sooner and mitigate our exposure.  In business and marketing, we don’t have to be defined by the negative connotations of being an introvert. We can build systems around us that work with our personalities and allow us to achieve the success we want without changing who we are. In today’s episode, I talk about how to practically avoid being misjudged and misperceived as an introvert.

Behind the success of any high growth coach and consultant, there are 3 ingredients that show up over and over again. Their ability to get massive traction isn’t about doubling down, it also hinges on taking advantage of specific external factors, catching a wave and riding it all the way to influence. In this episode, I talk about 3 important external elements that lead to high growth, and how to tap into them. Let’s get into it!

You'll meet some amazing people through podcasting. People who might become mentors, referral partners, even lifelong friends. I know I have.That's a big part of why podcasting changed my life. It isn't just the level of influence built, it's the relationships I formed along the way.So in this solo episode, I cover a handful of tactics to turn influencers into personal friends through podcasting and personal, human follow up.Let's jump in!Have a deep, meaningful conversationGet them sharing their opinions by asking good questions, even if you're the guestAsk the Strategic Intro questionFollow up with something thoughtful - a thank you note, a gift, an actual introductionConnect on social media, reach out periodically with a simple, personal messageComment on their stuff, make them feel specialThese are very simple things we can do to make the business more human. And the results can be life-changing. One of my most important mentors came into my life through podcasting, he followed up by sending me a book, and we had a deep, meaningful conversation that turned into an ongoing relationship.

It’s easy to get caught up in the chase for attention, and the world we live in is very geared toward getting attention. That includes almost all the marketing advice we get today.So I hope this episode is a counterweight to that obsessive focus on attention at the expense of real, enduring influence.We’ll explore 3 areas in coaching/consulting businesses where influence makes everything easier, and if you’ve wondered how to get to the next level, make sure to check out #3 because I give a couple specific examples from the world of thought leaders and influencers.Let’s jump in!SalesInfluence can completely eliminate any trust issues. If you’re known as THE go-to person for the problem you solve, or if you have a controversial point of view on the problem that the right people agree with, it’s assumed that you have the best solution to that problem.Influence is a different way to bridge the gap without relying on your sales skills.Because skills don’t scale. Influence scales. Influence makes it easier to persuade on a mass level, or persuade from a distance.Any good salesperson can sell face to face, others are better at groups than one-on-one, some sell better from stage, but it’s all face-to-face. When you shift to marketing and selling online, it’s a different game. Influence allows you to persuade from a distance, without having to be there presenting, building trust and answering objections face to face.The reason people will go out and buy the latest Simon Sinek, Brene Brown or Seth Godin book is because they’re famously influential. They’ve worked hard to build influence and become known in their spaces.MarketingWhen the goal shifts from vague goals like “exposure” or “getting your name out there” to becoming famously influential, it makes your decisions easier. Decisions about where to focus, what to promote, what to say, how to say it.Without knowing that the goal is building influence, it’s easy to get serious shiny object syndrome and spend our time tinkering. But moving from thing to tactic to tactic doesn’t build influence. Unless tinkering with tactics is part of your brand, all that tinkering can actually lower people’s respect for you and lower your level of influence.When you have influence, you can even reach people with a clear, but less-than-compelling message. Look at Tony Robbins. He hasn’t had to change his core idea of personal transformation since the 80s. What was once a startling, new idea - that you can change in an instant - isn’t so new and startling anymore. But he’s built enough influence in the space that he doesn’t need it to be new and startling, he just has to be CLEAR.Clear and straightforward messaging is a luxury of those who have already built influence. They’re not struggling to cut through the noise as much, because they already have influence. They’re already known. People give them the benefit of the doubt, because there’s already a level of trust.Next Level OpportunitiesOften, what separates us from the next level is not an accumulation of small things, but catching some new wave, some new opportunity that comes at the right time.Tony Robbins is a great example, as his level of influence created an opportunity in a new category called infomercials, right when infomercials were poised to explode.Another example is Jenna Kutcher, who built her influence on Instagram. Now that she has an audience and has enough influence with them that they listen to her recommendations and take them seriously, she can be one of the top affiliates for folks like Amy Porterfield.Once we are famously influential in our space, even if it’s a small space, it creates new opportunities. So influence...

This week's episode is in response to a question from one of our email subscribers, "If I am on a podcast or doing a virtual presentation - how do I get people to identify themselves as leads? In other words - how do I leverage that event for lead generation?"It's such a great question because it gets right to the heart of our marketing system - our message, our point of view and our offer.So we'll go deep into those 3 categories, pull some examples from folks like Tim Ferris, and hopefully you'll come away with some aha moments and tangible things to work on!A Clear & Compelling Idea that speaks deeply to the right people. The best guests know who they serve, the problem they solve and exactly why the right person should work with them. So on the receiving end of that message, the right person is saying to themselves, “Wow, that’s me! I have that exact problem!”Look at Tim Ferris. He has an amazing post where he and one of his team breaks down the launch plan for the 4 Hour Body. He talks about his guest posting strategy, which often featured content written specifically for that blog that wasn’t included in the book, but was consistent with the Clear & Compelling Idea of the book.Tim understands his core audience and the many sub-groups within that audience. He will write specific chapters of his books with specific sub-groups of his audience in mind, and then use those chapters to market to that subgroup with laser focus. But it all serves one idea - the Clear & Compelling Idea of the book. It’s not just random content thrown in to get attention. It all leads to the same place.Unique and sometimes controversial point of view on the problem. As Chris Lochhead says, if you can reframe the problem - describing the problem in a new and different way, it’s assumed that you have the solution. For anyone who now sees the problem the way you do, you are now the natural choice for the solution to the problem.But if you describe the problem in the same way everyone else does, you’re starting from a disadvantage. You have to work uphill to establish that your solution is different, because it comes from the same foundation as everyone else, the same perspective on the problem.Work to uncover and refine your opinions until they become razor sharp and positively polarizing, then build your interviews and presentations around those opinions. They lead to your Buying Beliefs, and the more Buying Beliefs people agree with you on, the closer they are to becoming an ideal client.What does it mean to be positively polarizing? A good example is a client, Lars Hedenborg, who coaches real estate team leaders. They are often overworked and feel underpaid, and many have teams that actually take profit out of their pocket while adding work, but they’re trapped by the ego drive of the top line numbers that their team does.Lars has a polarizing message, which is to focus on the bottom line, including the actual lifestyle you’re living as a team leader, and rebuild the business on a model that’s actually scalable and sustainable. We’re playing with the messaging right now, but we’re tentatively calling it the Scalable Team, a new model for how teams are built and structured to maximize both profit and lifestyle of the team leader.Now that could come across as a very negative message - especially if he put all his focus on the smoke and mirrors and ego in the team world. But in the end, any message, no matter how negative, can ultimately be a positive message, because it’s not about trashing everything that’s out there now.Lars is on a mission to help team leaders create a better lifestyle and more profit. It just happens that letting go of the ego is one of the first steps in building...

The algorithm has changed the rules of the game so drastically on social media that we’re literally playing a new game. But our mindset towards social media has not caught up to the new game.Followers and friends have become vanity metrics, and it skews all of our decisions in our marketing. We need to adopt a new mindset and treat social media according to the reach they’re actually giving us, not the vanity metrics.There are 2 directions we can go.Give the social media companies what fits their ever-changing description of “engaging content” - even if it means pretending to be something we’re not.Focus on other forms of marketing where there is no algorithm OR where the description of engaging content fits our personality better. 

The biggest fear in launching a podcast is that it fails to attract an audience and falls flat.In this episode I’m going to pull back the curtain and share the biggest mistakes I’ve uncovered in 5 years of launching podcasts for super niche business coaches and consultants.There’s no theory here, just real mistakes real people make in launching their podcasts and how to avoid them. Enjoy!

I sent out an email asking for some tough questions for the podcast, and I got some amazing ones. I wanted to answer a great one today in the show. The question comes from Jim, “How can I be recognized and paid as an expert, without calling myself an expert, guru, genius or other nonsense.”So I want to give some practical examples where it’s easy to stray into puffery and hype without even realizing it, because we see so much of this everyday in the coaching and consulting world.When it comes to puffery, I learned a great rule of thumb from Frank, my mentor at my last agency, who I had on the show last week.Here’s the Rule: Make Zero Claims the Reader Could Disagree With.This means we drop any adjectives or other types of language that don’t keep the reader shaking their head Yes as they read. Anything that makes them go, “I don’t know about that..” needs to be examined and potentially removed.As Seth Godin says, the web is incredibly distrustful. People don’t know what or who to believe. So showing up and claiming that you’re more of an expert or guru than others isn’t helping you like you might think. It’s creating resistance and raising suspicion because you’re saying something they can’t verify. Why are you having to talk yourself up?I want to give you some examples because this can be hard to grasp at first, but once you see this kind of puffery, you’ll see it everywhere. Let’s look at John Maxwell’s site, where he is described as “#1 New York Times bestselling author and world-renowned leadership expert.”Sounds fine at first, but look closer.Out of the 3 elements in that statement, only ONE is a verifiable fact. The other two elements are opinions at best, and one is definitely puffery.What does “world-renowned'' mean, and whose opinion is that? What about leadership “expert.” Certainly if you know John Maxwell and have read his books on leadership, you’d agree that he’s a leadership expert. But if you hadn’t heard of him and were reading this for the first time, would you nod your head along in agreement? Of course not.So if we do this in our marketing, especially in the things people see when they come across us for the first time, we’re just creating resistance.So what would I put on the website if I were in charge of John Maxwell’s marketing?“#1 New York Times bestselling author and International Speaker on the Subject of Leadership”You could also say something like “America’s Leadership Expert” as long as there were other forms of proof nearby. We’ll touch on that later. The point here is that John Maxwell gets paid for what he IS, not what he claims to be.One way I follow through on this is that I call myself an author, not a “bestselling” author.What does best-selling even mean? Best-selling according to who?That’s become so abused in this space that I don’t use it. I call myself an author. I have a book on Amazon, you can literally see a picture of the big on the front page of my website. It’s not something a reader can disagree with. Now, if you hit #1 on the New York Times best-seller list, feel free to tell us. That’s a verifiable fact, and it leads us to another rule of thumb.If You Must Make a Claim that the Reader Could Disagree With, Let Someone Else Say It. When the New York Times says you’re a best-seller, people say, “wow that’s impressive.” It’s a credible third party saying you are a best-selling author, not an unverifiable claim coming from you.Another example of this is with expert or ninja...

The best and most effective copywriting is good because it’s authentic, genuine and extremely one-to-one personal and effortlessly generates trust. It’s completely different from what comes from copywriters selling information products online, who rely on cheap tactics like puffery and hype. There’s a big difference between the psychology of selling products and marketing professional services. Using the wrong techniques and tactics is costing us sales every single day. Sales pages, emails and follow up campaigns that use puffery might actually be turning off the very people you are most driven to serve. How do we eliminate puffery from our messaging, and craft an approach to marketing rooted in consultative selling? In today’s special episode of MicroFamous, I’m joined by CEO of Vyral Marketing and one of the best copywriters I know, Frank Klesitz. He shares what makes his approach to copywriting so unique and effective. 3 Things We Learned from Frank KlesitzThe deep psychological place where puffery comes from and how we fight the urge to use it How to generate authentic urgency without using time-based incentives that have no basis in reality when you’re selling infinite info products The psychological difference between selling services and products 

Getting pitched on podcasts is the foundation of the MicroFamous system, and the key to becoming famously influential to the right people. Podcast hosts are flooded with pitches every single day, and anything that’s poorly written, researched and executed will be ignored. By pitching yourself, you’re asking to be featured in a very valuable slot on a podcast. If you add any friction to the pitching process, you hurt your ability to get featured on podcasts that could make a huge impact on your business.What questions do you need to ask yourself before you go out there and get someone to start pitching you? What level of quality are podcasters looking for? I surveyed some of the best people I know in the business podcast space and asked for their pet peeves when it comes to the pitches they’re getting right now, they didn’t hold back. Here are 9 pet peeves of podcasts hosts, and how to make your pitch an easy yes. 

You have a podcast, you're in a rhythm, you're consistent, you have a small but established base of listeners, but you want to take it to the next level. Where do you look for podcast growth?There are several broad areas where we can look for growth, starting with the MicroFamous system itself.Are you being featured as a guest on other podcasts in your space? How consistently?Are you pulling out clips of your guest appearances and podcasts for social media? If so, are you paying to boost them to target audiences? (cold and warm)Is your email list growing by other means? If so, could the podcast be incorporated better into your email nurture system especially in the first 7 days after someone joins your list?Industry PR - Are you writing for trade magazines and online publications? Are you giving speaking presentations (in person or virtual), webinars, masterminds or other types of events that make you visible to new people?Co-Marketing - This is where the biggest leverage and biggest opportunities lie, but under very specific circumstances. The ideal co-marketing relationship for a coach/consultant would be a SaaS or product company that has a big list but is bad at creating content and has no in-house thought leader.Straight paid traffic strategy - This is where you go directly to Facebook, Instagram or YouTube and run ads designed to grow your email list.As always, I recommend that you have your MicroFamous system in place before moving on to home run potentials like co-marketing or paid traffic strategies.Your MicroFamous system is where you have complete control, and it's the foundation of your influence. If you have influence in your space, it sets the stage for bigger things. But if you skip the influence building, you'll end up with co-marketing agreements that don't last, and paid traffic that's too expensive to be viable.Many have found that out the hard way and started podcasts to build their influence. Don't make that same mistake. Make sure you're using the MicroFamous system first, then look at taking big swings at big opportunities.

One of my good friends, a fellow agency owner, said something really interesting to me the other day. “The way you’ve niched down sounds terrifying to me.” I’m very clear on who I can serve at a high level and who I can’t. And I don’t say Yes to people who aren’t a good fit.But his comment caught me off guard, even though I know that it bothers people to choose a niche and stick with it, I think I take for granted how scary that choice can be.So I want to address a few of those fears and how we can deal with them.First, a niche isn’t some abstract thing. It’s a group of people who feel under-served by the options in the market right now.So the first step toward conquering the fear of choosing the right niche is to focus on the people. Then you can move on to the next part, validating the niche.When you’re validating a niche, think about what it would look if you dominated that space.Finally, understand your responsibility to the people you serve. As a coach, consultant, author, speaker and thought leader, you have a responsibility greater than merely selling something. You have a responsibility to get people results.Taking on clients in a bunch of different niches means you’re constantly outside of your depth, working in industry niches you don’t know very well, taking a lot of guesses on what’s going to work and what won’t.When you really internalize that reality, it helps offset the fear of choosing to work with one group of people first. Focus on attracting the people you can serve at a high level and establishing a leadership position in that space. 

Once you hit the 6 figure mark, getting to the next level is often based on focus, not opportunism.Doing less, not more.Which means saying NO.Saying NO allows us to focus relentlessly on the right things, and avoid the shiny object syndrome that keeps so many people trapped at their current level of success.Saying NO requires us to accept the pain of turning away a check now from the wrong people, so we can do amazing work for the right people.  In order to make this strategy work for you, I want to encourage you to; Say NO to grow Build systems that make tomorrow easier.Protect and manage your energy

Thanks to a social media landscape built around extroverts, it’s been drilled into our heads that attention is the goal and that it automatically converts into sales. But attention doesn’t magically translate into a demand for our services. Many people who generate tons of attention can’t figure out how to get people to buy from them. Attention should not be the desired outcome of our marketing. What we should be after is being influential to the right people...without being glued to our phones.1. Understand How Influence is Built. Authority, Visibility and Relationships are the building blocks of influence, the basics of the system we are engineering.One of the core beliefs of MicroFamous is that attention does not convert into sales automatically. There is a gap and most people try to fill that gap with skills. That leads them to more work, more complexity, more commitments.So why build influence instead of more skills? 2. Uncover a Clear & Compelling IdeaTo engineer influence online, we must start with a Clear & Compelling Idea. Our Clear & Compelling Idea is what we will become known for. It's what we do and why we're different, expressed in a way that's razor-sharp clear to the right people and compels them to take action. 3. Publish content aimed at the 3 building blocks of influence, Authority, Visibility and Relationships. Our content must be designed to attract an audience, build trust and change our audience's beliefs over time.We need to publish content consistently, methodically, relentlessly...but without being glued to social media all the time.Why? Because to engineer influence, we need leverage. Our system can't be based on trading time for money with endless live videos, or Stories that disappear in 24 hours, or being engaged in 5 different places online.We need a system that allows us to create long-form content, that's easy to create, which can then be broken up into chunks for social media. MicroFamous is that system. 4. Optimize the system - Resist the pressure to turn our newfound free time into new commitments, especially to new social media tactics.Focus on tweaking the system. Create space to think strategically and make small tweaks that can deliver big results.The goal at this point is to just keep improving the system that's putting your Clear & Compelling Idea in front of the right people. If you have the right Idea for the right people, you will cut through the Noise, you will draw people into your audience, you will change their beliefs, and you will become known for your Clear & Compelling Idea.That's how you engineer influence in the online world, without being glued to your phone.

We all want to close sales faster, but in this cluttered, distrustful online world, that's getting harder. People who are selling things online are having to lean HARD into credibility indicators to build trust quickly. Getting results for people is critical, but there's another way to build trust and shorten the sales cycle - launch a podcast. Podcasting can make you MicroFamous in your niche, it demonstrates your commitment and consistency, builds a relationship with the audience, and attracts the right people and repels everyone else. Ultimately, podcasting can destroy objections before you ever show up to a sales call and it.In the absence of good marketing, these are all hurdles you have to overcome in the sales process.You have to change the initial perception of you, create rapport, build trust, demonstrate credibility and commitment to solving their problem, handle objections and THEN try to close the sale.Imagine if 90% of that work was done before you ever showed up to a sales call?Podcasting takes care of steps in the sales cycle you'd normally have to handle on calls. That's the power of podcasting to shorten sales cycles.

The social media environment we’re in today favors extreme extroverts, and the clear message introverts are getting is that you have to change who you are to succeed. If you're not an extrovert, better start changing yourself, otherwise you'll be left behind!This message seems to be hitting us from every direction.We hear it from the social companies, in the content they promote, to the big name influencers shouting at us to jump on Tik Tok or Clubhouse, to the latest apps and features, which are all geared at real time content and engagement. It's a false choice, there's a third option. Don't change who you are as an introvert, just build a system around you to reach people online.A system that leverages your strengths, makes up for your weaknesses and allows you to be who you are.That's what I've done with MicroFamous.Whatever is going on with online marketing, introverts don't need to change, we don't need to become more extroverted.Right now, podcasting is an ecosystem that operates completely different from social media. That's why every introverted coach, consultant, speaker or author needs to have a podcast.If you're an expert in your field, but you're not a social butterfly online, you don't need to change.You just need a marketing system that's designed for you. You can either build that from scratch, or use our shortcuts to get there.But either way, don't buy into the false choice that if you don't become an extrovert, you'll become irrelevant.

For introverted experts, a podcast can be the powerful foundation of a marketing plan that helps you establish your brand in the market, and build an email list that gets you more clients. These outcomes are only possible if we’re actually focusing on the things that really matter and push the needle. There is so much noise in the marketing world, and it can be hard to separate what drives results and makes all the difference from the smaller things that don’t actually make an impact. If we want a podcast that drives results to our expert business, we have to focus on the key things that matter, and ignore everything else.In this episode, I discuss what matters when it comes to launching a podcast, and how those key things play into the success of your podcast. 

Interview podcasts have become a dime a dozen and standing out requires consistent evolution and experimentation. Repeat guest, Adam King has rebranded and relaunched his podcast as a hot seat with multiple guests, featuring real questions from real people in his audience.  With whatever podcast format we take, the key is understanding our belief system and point of view so well that an interview podcast ties back into our Big Idea.  On this special interview episode, founder of Think Like a Fish and host of the B2B Growth Think Tank Podcast, Adam King shares the reason behind his rebrand, the execution, and what he’s seeing in the world of podcasting. 

Freedom is my #1 value. I want introverted experts to have freedom from guilt, frustration, peer pressure and the hamster wheel of social media. Why do I say hamster wheel? Because as soon as you take a break, it stops working.Social media companies are rewarding real time content and real time engagement, which favors the extroverts.For an extrovert, being social is energizing. For an introvert, it requires us to use energy and then recharge through alone time. That combination doesn’t work well with today’s social media which is now a hamster wheel you can never get off of.So what’s the way out? A marketing system that’s designed for introverted experts. With the right system around us, we don’t need to change, and we don’t need to pretend to be an extrovert.If we want freedom, we need a system that’s designed to leverage our strengths as introverts, rather than making us feel guilty and frustrated for not being more social.In this episode, I share why the MicroFamous system is the perfect way to back out of the hamster wheel of social media and find freedom. 

Being MicroFamous means becoming famously influential to the right people - being someone who leads people to new beliefs, actions and results.  In order to reach that destination, we need a clear message that cuts through the noise in a way that’s compelling and sustainable, and we need to focus on having clarity in our message.Who should we go after? This is the critical decision we need to make before we do anything else. Without this decision, we’re left chasing attention without really knowing who we’re trying to reach and resonate with. For introverts, it is especially important to narrow our focus or else we’ll burn out. Going after the maximum eyeballs on our content leads us away from the things that will actually get us the sustainable, profitable, simple and enjoyable business we all want. When we get clarity on who the right people are, it gives us massive power and sets us up for success. In this episode, I share the first question we need to ask ourselves in the journey to becoming MicroFamous, why introverts shouldn’t approach marketing the way extroverts do, and how to build a profitable and rewarding business by narrowing our focus. 

In a world of no competitors, we could offer something that’s easy for us to deliver, and because it’s rare and valuable, it’s easy to market and sell.Sadly, we don’t live in that world.In a world of competitors, something must be hard in order for us to have a profitable business. Let’s look at 3 companies, Starbucks, GoDaddy and Apple.Starbucks did no TV advertising, and very little advertising in general, until it was already the Starbucks we know today. It grew almost entirely by word of mouth because they did the hard work of creating a service experience that was totally unique and compelling. Then they did more hard work, the really really hard work, of delivering that experience consistently, day after day, all around the world. They didn’t need a big breakthrough in their sales or marketing strategy, people did the talking for them.They’re an example of doing the hard work on the service, the thing they’re selling.GoDaddy is an example of the exact opposite.They sell domains, something that a bunch of other companies do or could have done.The service is relatively easy to deliver, and they have a truckload of competition.What stands out about GoDaddy is their marketing. They’ve built this fun, outrageous brand on the back of outlandish, loud, colorful ads chock full of beautiful celebrities like Danica Patrick.They had a service that was easy for them to deliver, but hard to market and sell.So they did a very hard thing - they took a commodity business and gave it a personality. That’s a marketing breakthrough. They did the hard work in their marketing.If you want to be really, really successful, do both. That’s why Apple is so successful.Apple did the hard work of creating a handful of amazing, world-changing products that people absolutely go nuts for. Then they followed that up with a marketing strategy that gave their brand a fun, memorable, hip, young, rebellious personality. They created a brand that people wanted to identify with.They did two hard things - they created something almost impossible for other companies to replicate, then followed it up with brilliant marketing that created one of the most powerful and influential brands of all time.Here’s the lesson for experts. If we want to be profitable for any length of time, we need to do something hard.Either create something - a product or service - that’s nearly impossible for others to copy. OR create a breakthrough in sales and marketing that’s nearly impossible for others to copy.They can both be done, but what we CAN’T do is offer something that was easy for us to create, and then expect it to also market and sell easily.IF we have something that was easy for us to create, then we probably have competition and it won’t be easy to market and sell.That’s great news because most of our competitors aren’t willing to do that. It leaves a great opportunity for those of us willing to do something hard.If you have an idea for a show and you're not sure if it works best as a podcast or a YouTube channel, grab a brainstorm call with us. In 15 minutes we can brainstorm your idea, your potential topics and help determine which platform is best for you.

The online space will continue to get more crowded, not less. You’ll never have fewer competitors, people’s attention spans will keep shrinking, and everything is going to keep getting more cluttered, fractured, and fragmented. As an introverted expert, how do you cut through all this noise without being bombastic, personality-driven or showing up louder and more frequently than your competitors?  The answer is showing up with an idea that’s so Clear and Compelling that when the right person hears it, they can’t unhear it. We have to continue to refine our idea until the only response we get is “Wow! How can I learn more?” In this episode, I talk about the 3 questions we need to ask if we want to sharpen our message. 1) “WHO are your right people?”Make the critical decision before you do anything else. If you don’t know who you're speaking too, or you’re speaking to too many different types of people, you’ll never be able to uncover a Clear & Compelling Idea that speaks deeply to them.2) “What’s the core idea of my business - in 1-2 sentences of plain English?”Cut out any puffery, ego or hard-hitting, fancy words. Go for clarity first, then see if what you have is compelling. If you find yourself adding in emotionally compelling, interesting, cool-sounding words, cut them out.3) “What happens when people hear my idea in its plainest form?If the idea itself, expressed in plain English, doesn’t grab the attention of your right person, then go back to the drawing board. The reaction we’re going for is, “WOW, I didn’t know that was even an option, tell me more!”If you have an idea for a show and you're not sure if it works best as a podcast or a YouTube channel, grab a brainstorm call with us. In 15 minutes we can brainstorm your idea, your potential topics and help determine which platform is best for you.

Can both podcasting and YouTube work for introverts?This question has come up several times in the last few days, with both clients and new prospects.My answer is absolutely! Both platforms work well for introverts.However, the one you choose to focus on depends on your goals, and there are big pitfalls to getting it wrong (listen to the full episode for more on that). Let's start with 3 things podcasting and YouTube have in common.Time-shifted - Content can be recorded, edited and published weeks or even months apartOptimizable - The final product can be broken down into small pieces and optimized one piece at a time - every part doesn’t have to be perfect in real timeLong shelf life - Both podcasts and YouTube videos get found months and years later.In the episode we also share 4 reasons for video podcasting even if you don't intend to grow a YouTube channel, and we finish by answering the question, "Can a podcast and YouTube channel co-exist?"If you have an idea for a show and you're not sure if it works best as a podcast or a YouTube channel, grab a brainstorm call with us. In 15 minutes we can brainstorm your idea, your potential topics and help determine which platform is best for you.

The reason introverts struggle with networking has nothing to do with not being extroverted enough. The key to success in networking is having a system for dominating a room and fostering relationships by leaning into who we are. Sharpening our messaging, our storytelling and our ability to connect with people allows us to dominate both in networking situations and in online marketing. What mistakes do experts make when we explain what we do in networking situations? How do we perfect our storytelling so we can draw people in? How do we leverage podcasts to get our ideal clients to chase us online? In this episode, internationally-recognized consultant, speaker, coach, author of The Introvert’s Edge and The Introvert’s Edge to Networking, Matthew Pollard returns. He talks about his new book, and how introverts can win the networking game. 

I am the least likely entrepreneur ever. Mindset issues.Didn't go to college.No intention to start a business before my mid-20'sSo how did I end up as an entrepreneur in the marketing world? How did I succeed in spite of limiting beliefs and mindset issues from my past? How did I build a life and business I love, that gives me all the freedom I want?The answer is podcasting.Podcasting changed my life, and it can do the same for you.We always hear: "You'll never succeed until you can visualize it and you're 100% convinced it's going to come true."Compare that to Bill Walsh, who won a Super Bowl in his 3rd year. He flat out said he had no ambitions or expectations to get to the Super Bowl that year, he believed they were at least a year, maybe 2 away from being ready.One of the most critical decisions of my life was to set all my mindset issues aside and just take methodical action. Do what successful people do, and see what happens.I focused on leveraging podcasting to build my business, and along the way, I built great systems and hired great people to run them. If you think you need to fix all your mindset issues in order to succeed, I'm living proof that you don't.In this episode I dive into my story, the mindset issues, the critical decisions, and then the "how did I get here" moments that started to happen as I became MicroFamous.

Being an introvert comes with a ton of labels and misconceptions that can be harmful to us in business. We can break away from those labels by the way we present ourselves, interact with people, build relationships, and operate within our marketing system. The MicroFamous system takes care of the biggest myths around being an introvert. It protects us from the harmful labels that can be used to define us in a negative way.In this episode, I share 3 myths that are particularly harmful to selling our expertise, along with practical things we can do to bust those myths.

As we come into a new year and we’re thinking of what to do to grow our businesses, there’s one urge we need to resist at all costs, Monkey See, Monkey Do Marketing.  A lot of people base their marketing on what they see other people doing, without questioning if those tactics actually work for them, and if they fit seamlessly with the rest of their marketing.  What they end up with is a marketing strategy made up of bolted on pieces that don’t fit or work well together. This is evident in many marketing strategies we see, and even in sport. When we jump onto every marketing bandwagon, we end up with a playbook of stuff that doesn’t fit together, a grab bag of tactics. We end up on the hamster wheel of constantly trying new things, failing and moving onto something else. Monkey see, Monkey Do Marketing tactics don’t last, and they take us away from what matters, staying focused on our Clear and Compelling Idea.  The goal in marketing should be having a cohesive, integrated system where everything has a purpose and fits into a whole. The best marketing systems and offensive systems in football and basketball have this in common.In this episode, I share examples of Monkey See, Monkey Do Marketing, and why we it’s a trap we have to resist. 

There's a lot of talk about pivoting, and as I've started talking more to introverts, people can come away with the impression that I'm pivoting.Nothing could be further from the truth.Instead of pivoting, I’m speaking to a smaller group of people with stronger elements in common. Rather than competing with every other marketing guru and agency out there for the same broad range of people, I kept drilling down and looking for ways to speak more deeply to a smaller group of people.In the MicroFamous book, I call this Shrinking the Battlefield.By Shrinking the Battlefield and tailoring my message for introverts, it frees me up to speak to their needs, challenges, fears and problems on a much deeper level.So if you've been paying attention to the MicroFamous podcast or my emails and you're wondering if me speaking to introverts is a pivot, it's actually Shrinking the Battlefield.I'm sacrificing speaking to everyone, so I can deliver a message to half the audience that's even more razor-sharp, Clear & Compelling.

For many people, marketing and social media are now the same thing, and their entire marketing plan is based around creating content and engaging in real time. It’s like they live every day hoping a big social media company will put them in front of more people for free.I recommend a very different approach, especially if you’re on the introvert side.Starting in 2015, I put podcasting front and center of my marketing, and social media was last on my priority list.With the growth of my first podcast came attention on social media in the most authentic way possible - word-of-mouth.What makes podcasting a better marketing channel than any social media platform?  You’re not subject to an algorithm just to get seen. Many people have seen their effectiveness on social media platforms get wiped out virtually overnight by algorithm changes.  Podcasts are available on multiple platforms, so your risk of getting de-platformed, shadow-banned or squashed in the algorithm is low. Podcasting has a very long shelf life. Episodes are searchable, discoverable and shareable long after they are created. Social media posts, on the other hand, have a much shorter shelf life, yet we’re expected to put time and energy into them as if they had a long shelf life.Ultimately, social media companies want us on our devices, creating new content and engaging in real-time, for hours and hours a day. Extroverts might be able to do it over the long run, but it burns introverts out.I don’t want to base the success of my business on real-time content and engagement, and always chasing that slight edge to get some temporary attention for free.Podcasting helps build the ultimate asset of any expert business, the audience. It allows you to reach new people online, develop a deeper long-term relationship with them, and convert them into ideal clients over time.This is why you have to put podcasting first in your marketing, especially if you want to enjoy life as an introvert and still grow your business!

When growth in your businesses feels sluggish, and your message is spreading slowly and not bringing in new clients, most people think their niche is too small. They are tempted to expand, and talk to more people, but in the process, they dilute the very thing that could make them very compelling to the right people.When you aren’t growing the way you want, resist the temptation to expand. Shrink the Battlefield. The problem is not the size of the niche, it’s the strength of the marketing. Instead of expanding, talk to fewer people, get more specific, and exclude the people you aren't the MOST passionate about serving.It’s really hard to get into a niche so small that you can’t reach your goals. If you truly have a Clear & Compelling Idea that speaks deeply to an audience of 5-10k people who can afford a high-ticket offer, you can run a mid-6 to 7-figure business.Is it ever possible to niche down too far? What does a lack of growth actually point to? In this episode, I talk about the importance of Shrinking the Battlefield, and getting on to the path that will lead you to your Clear & Compelling Idea, and the audience of people who will take action on your marketing. 

One of my friends has an amazing office space. It has beer taps and coffee in the kitchen, flat screens everywhere, booths and workstations for all his staff.It looks awesome, but to an introvert, it looks VERY people-ey. Introverts don’t have unlimited energy to be social, and that’s why I have a team where everyone works from home. I built a system around what allows me to be myself, while still leading my team effectively and getting results for clients. Here are the keys I’ve found to managing a team as an introvert.Weekly MeetingsWe are relentless about our weekly meetings. I’ve talked to my Head of Content in South Africa nearly every week for 3+ years. She also runs the weekly meeting, so if I’m traveling the meetings roll on without me. Numbers are reported, contingencies are planned for, systems are improved, all due to the weekly meetings.VoxerAll key staff on this simple walkie-talkie app, it makes communication super fast. (And yes, we’ve tried Slack. Not a fan.) We try to limit email use to communicating with clients, not each other.Clear lines of commandThis comes straight out of Extreme Ownership. No one has two bosses. It’s crystal clear who reports to who. Our key team members are also directly involved in the hiring process, even some going so far as to train their replacement so they can take on new roles.Metrics-based expectationsEverything in the agency is either a system or a project. And once something is a system, I can put a metric on it. Team members know the one key metric they are responsible for, or supporting the rest of the team to hit.That’s how I protect my energy so I can put it where it matters most - marketing. 

When it comes to hitting our goals in our thought leadership business, enduring authority, influence and visibility come from long-term, consistent, relentless, and methodical effort.  A big trap I see us fall into is thinking that a flurry of marketing activity will make up for that long-term effort, and help us achieve these goals in less time.  No amount of activity can outpace consistent methodical action. To achieve our goals, we have to build a foundation of effort that’s sustainable in the long run, instead of relying on short-term bursts of activity. How does putting too much reliance on the Magical Flurry of Activity get in the way of building influence and our ability to nurture ideal clients? Why is it so critical for us to operate at a level that feels sustainable? In this episode, I talk about why we can’t get results from a flurry of activity, and what we should be doing instead.  

If you’re coaching or consulting, you’re going to run into client limiting beliefs. We’re going to run into the things our clients believe about the world, business in general, themselves and what’s possible for them. While we can’t deal with ALL limiting beliefs before a client signs up, we have to choose which limiting beliefs are the most important to break.The question is when do you want to deal with limiting beliefs, after they’ve started the client relationship, or before? I would rather deal with them before. The content we put out to our audience is a great opportunity to break those limiting beliefs before they ever show up on our doorstep for a sales call.In this episode, I give you 3 examples of limiting beliefs, how they can be dealt with by the content we produce, and how that helps us create ideal clients. We’ll deal with one example from 3 industries, business coaching, business consulting, and podcasting.

When I work with clients to launch their podcast, one of the areas we spend the most time on is their Clear & Compelling Idea. The Clear & Compelling Idea grabs attention, compels action and attracts people who are primed and ready to become our clients right away.Our podcasts can also appeal to the people who would be ideal clients if they were exposed to the right content over time. A podcast built on the foundation of our Clear & Compelling Idea converts people to our Point of View. Every story, interview, solo episode, and client case study is an opportunity to drive our Clear & Compelling Idea home, and in the process, grow an audience of people who have bought into how we see the world. Once they take that step, buying what we sell is a natural progression. What are the 3 ways podcasts help us create ideal clients? How does a podcast built on our Clear & Compelling Idea become a pipeline for clients? In this episode, I talk about how to build a podcast that creates ideal clients and I share examples of podcasts with good Clear & Compelling Ideas we can learn from. 

A thought leader is someone who has the drive to teach, train and lead with ideas and concepts that change the way people think and act so that they can get better results. What sets thought leaders apart and allows them to have simple profitable businesses is their Clear and Compelling Idea. But in the early stages of building a thought leadership business, not all us have uncovered that positively polarizing, razor-sharp idea. That doesn’t mean we can’t get out there and start getting featured. In fact, the clarity and breakthroughs that uncover our Clear and Compelling Idea take place when we’re out sharing our point of view with the world. It’s tempting to retreat into our own internal thought process to identify and refine our message, but being a hermit genius actually holds us back.How does external feedback actually help us arrive at our Clear and Compelling Idea? What can we talk about when we don’t have that Idea yet? What can Napoleon’s military strategy teach us about freedom of movement and why it’s a big advantage for thought leaders? In this episode, I share what we can do while we’re in the process of finding our Clear and Compelling Idea, and why we shouldn’t do the process of refining our message internally.  

If we want a simple, profitable thought leadership business, our sole focus should be on finding the Clear & Compelling Idea that speaks deeply to our ideal client. To cut through the Noise, we need a message that’s razor sharp, crystal clear and positively polarizing. We need something our competitors would disagree with, something that would cause a stir if we spoke up at an industry event.Your belief system is like a pyramid. At the top is your Clear & Compelling Idea. Right under that are your Buying Beliefs, the handful of beliefs that support your Clear & Compelling Idea and determine if someone is your “right person.” Under that is your foundation of supporting beliefs, values and opinions, including your Bold Opinions - the beliefs that are controversial and polarizing.Every one of those supporting beliefs, values and opinions are potential podcast topics, book topics, speaking topics, podcast interview topics. If you’re in the early stages of your thought leadership business, and you’re trying to clarify your message and what you stand for, one of the best exercises is to map out your Point of View.By mapping out our beliefs, values and opinions, we push ourselves to uncover the supporting evidence, events, and life experiences that have shaped us. How does this process clarify our beliefs and help us uncover an Idea that can be sharpened and refined into our Clear & Compelling Idea? In this episode, you’ll learn about what it takes to cut through the Noise.  

You will never hear about the failures - Every time you hear a success story of someone succeeding on social media platform, remind yourself that you will never hear about the failures. Only the success stories.Everything works for SOMEONE. Doesn’t mean it will work for YOU. And even if it could work for you, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a distraction from your other efforts in places that are proven to work. Social platforms also play to specific strengths. If you’re not a light-hearted person who easily sings and dances in your everyday life, LinkedIn will probably work better for you than TicToc.It’s only a matter of time till you’ll have to pay to reach the audience you’ve built. Your energy is not unlimited. It is a finite resource that has to be invested wisely and renewed. The more energy you put into a social platform, the less energy you have to give to other marketing channels. Unless you are intentionally committing to invest more energy into that new platform, in which case you better account for where that additional energy is going to come from. Are you taking it from your personal life? Hobbies? Family and friends? Do you have a plan to replenish that energy?

This is a really interesting question I've heard a few times since the book came out.I love it because I have some great personal experience in this area.First, the space that I came up in, residential real estate coaching, I have multiple clients who run 7 figure businesses in a market where the total universe of people who can pay $500 a month or more for any kind of service is around 10k. MAYBE 15k in a good year.Very small market.Then there's a great example I give in the MicroFamous book. Brandiose is a branding and design agency that specialized in major league baseball. In the last couple of years, they just started expanding to other minor league sports based on the rock-solid reputation they built.Because they were so focused on their target market, they came up with a brilliant idea, what I would call a Clear & Compelling Idea, that spoke deeply to those minor league sports teams. But that idea doesn't apply to any other business that might want branding and design.But the founders of Brandiose knew who they wanted to work with, targeted them specifically, and as a result, we're able to uncover a Clear & Compelling Idea that spoke deeply to those ideal clients. In a world of agencies that build websites and do design and branding, can you how painful it would be for most agencies owners to limit themselves to one type of client? But it worked.I think we wildly over-estimate how big a market we need to build a 6 or 7 figure business.So let's dig into 3 questions and 3 benefits of going Micro.

Starting a thought leadership and building influence is like trying to push a rock up a hill. At first, it takes a lot of effort on our part to get our message out to the market. As we shift from getting noticed to being known, it gets easier. When we reach that tipping point, and that rock starts to roll downhill, we unlock massive momentum and start to reap the benefits of being MicroFamous. What does influence look like practically in our businesses and in how the market sees us? How does the tipping point reveal new opportunities? In this episode, I share the 3 things that happen when we tip into influence. 

There’s one thing that can really frustrate you when coaching or consulting, especially if you’re a strategic thinker. The people we serve are often more interested in tactics than in strategy.They want to know what they can DO, before they care about the WHY behind it. That frustrated me for a long time, until I came across something really interesting in a music magazine.Music teachers experience the same frustration when students want to skip over the foundational stuff and learn the cool bits and pieces first. But the truth is, you can’t get a music student to focus on the music theory until they learn to play a bunch of different bits and pieces. Similarly in the world of coaching and consulting, it’s hard to get someone to focus on strategy first if they don’t see the NEED yet. Tactics create the demand for strategy. Why do tactics create demand for strategy? In this episode, I share how we can work with our clients’ impulse to start with tactics. 

In this temporary world of zero-live events, thought leaders who usually have the benefit of in-person energy and enthusiasm can’t rely on that to convert clients. With everything shifting online, how we appeal to an online audience has become even more important than before. Without a Clear & Compelling Idea, we are going to confuse our audience, and because we can't see that audience in person, we don't see where we're losing them. We only see the effects - the sluggish and inconsistent growth in our business. Our Clear & Compelling Idea has to be sharpened and refined to meet the demand for an online audience. If we don’t carefully craft it, we won’t be able to create demand for our service. What lesson can we learn about clarity from A1 Steak Sauce? How can speakers remain effective signing up clients outside of live events? In this episode, I share the one thing that makes thought leaders struggle to transition from selling at live events to selling online.

There’s a lot of chaos in the world right now, and it’s massively helpful to keep things in our businesses as simple as possible. When it comes to lead gen and marketing, the more systematic we can make it, the more consistently we’ll be able to do it, and the easier it will be to create a healthy pipeline of incoming relationships. What are the 3 activities I focus on in my business, and why are they so impactful? What is a performance floor and how do I use it to maintain consistent momentum in my lead generating activities. In this episode, I share the 3 simple ways I’m able to create a pipeline, and how I make it easy to be consistent without putting too much on my plate.

Interview podcasts can do great things for our brands and our networks, but they can also be a trap that keeps us at a certain level.Barbara Walters is one of the best interviewers of all time, but you wouldn't hire her for business coaching. Her interviews created demand for one thing - more interviews. That’s because her interviews are 100% focused on the guest, their Point of View, their experiences, their beliefs, and their actions.When the spotlight is 100% on the guests, the audience might be entertained, informed and inspired, but they aren’t converted to a new Point of View. The same thing often happens with other interview podcasts. Remember that for coaches, consultants and thought leaders, the goal of our podcast isn't just to create good content or stay top of mind, it’s to convert people to our Point of View over time. How do we escape the Podcast Interview Trap? How can we create podcast content that gives the audience a window into our minds and how we see things? In this episode, I talk about why interview podcasts don't automatically create demand or drive sales.

In today’s world of social media marketing, attention doesn’t automatically turn into sales. Many people have bought into the fallacy that being everywhere, all the time on social media channels will translate into demand for our services. To move the needle, we need to deliver a clear compelling idea that attracts ideal clients through a vehicle that can help us cut through the noise. Getting featured on podcasts consistently as an expert thought leader is one of the most powerful ways to connect with people who are looking to solve their problems. The good news is, there’s a way to get featured consistently, without taking time away from your business. What are the things you need to have in place to start pitching yourself to hosts? How can we develop a good story hook? In this bonus episode, I talk about The MicroFamous Fast Track, and how it can simplify the process of getting featured on podcasts.  

The MicroFamous Roadmap is a system that works 27/4 to help us build authority, visibility and relationships. It allows us to start the journey to being known for our Clear and Compelling Idea, and take advantage of the 4 most effective forms of online media. Podcast interviews, hosting our own podcast, micro content for sales and micro-content for social media are the 4 pillars of the New Media Machine that will create a vision of success, build trust, destroy objections and create demand. What are the next steps we need to take with our New Media Machine? Why should our content strategy start with podcasting? In this final episode of the Roadmap series we talk about next steps.

Getting featured on podcast interviews is an important and powerful step in building authority and becoming known for our Clear and Compelling Idea, but we still need something that we own and control. This is where launching our own podcasts comes into play. Our podcast is our own online home for branded long-form content, and a medium that has the potential to grow fast. The question is, when is the right time to launch a podcast, and what is the ideal format? In this episode, I talk about the function of having your own podcast and why it’s an important part of your New Media Machine.

Building a New Media Machine in our businesses is critical to generating real enduring influence and demand for what we do. While there are thousands of ways to reach people online, nothing introduces us as an authority as much as getting featured podcast interviews. A strategy built around being a guest on podcasts is massively beneficial on multiple levels, including putting us in front of new people consistently and systematically; and connecting with enthusiastic like-minded listeners. Why should we consider the time investment of podcast interviews, even when we’re still in the process of building our businesses? What are the other strategic benefits of podcast interviews? On this episode, I share the simple first step we can take to building our own New Media Machines.

In order to build a highly profitable thought leadership business, we have to go beyond working with anybody who is willing to pay us and start serving our ideal clients. If we’re not working with ideal clients, we risk working with people who don’t take necessary actions, to get the results that we deliver. This in turn diminishes the results they get and affects the impact that we make with the work we do. What makes someone an ideal client? What is the experience of working with an ideal client and not just anyone who is willing to pay us? In this episode, I share why we need to raise the standards of who we go after.

Over the last decade, we bought into the idea that attention can and will create demand for our services. This is what drives much of our content creation, the idea that if our content gets enough attention, that will translate into sales. The problem is, we will inevitably stall and hit a ceiling because attention often only creates demand for more content. How do we bridge the gap between attention and demand? What action can we take when the content we’re creating is attracting attention and not sales? In this episode, I share why content and attention alone can’t generate sales if we don’t have influence. 

Thought leaders, coaches and consultants have an internal set of beliefs about what gets results and what’s important. These beliefs form a specific point of view. In fact, we can draw a line from our point of view to the results our clients experience. Without this point of view, it’s impossible to create a Clear and Compelling offer, to formulate powerful content and to compel people to take action. What does a point of view do for us and the relationship we have with our audience and clients? Why does our point of draw people in? In this episode, we talk about setting our direction with a powerful point of view.

In the world of coaching, consulting, and speaking, attracting attention and building an audience isn’t enough to build a simple profitable business. The true deciding factor is our ability to create demand and drive sales. Without influence, people might pay attention to us but they don’t give their trust and they won’t take action. The goal is to become known to the right group of people; we don’t need to be famous everywhere to make a big impact. What are the 3 stages of building influence and how do we build on each to create demand for what we do? In this episode, we talk about how to gain influence within the MicroFamous strategy.

When you’re obsessed with getting people results, you start to build strategies that appeal to a wide audience. But from a marketing perspective, that doesn’t make them our ideal client, or the people that will respond to our Clear and Compelling offer. It becomes critical to become more specific about who we work with, and decide between serving the few or serving the masses. Why is the decision between the few and the many so necessary? In this episode, we talk about the importance of selecting who to serve.

Every business is based on an idea; a guiding principle and a vision for what the world should be. Business leaders set out for an idea that attracts customers and fuels growth, but very often they don’t go far enough in fleshing out their idea. We can easily end up with a magic umbrella, a general and ultimately meaningless idea that doesn’t cut through the noise in any way. What does cut through the noise, attract attention and generate demand for your service is a Clear and Compelling idea, something that instantly sparks interest when it’s communicated to the right group of people.  How do you know when you have that kind of idea and when you don’t? In this episode, I share the earmarks of a Clear and Compelling idea, and the impact it has on your business.

People don’t know who we are and why they should work with us because there’s so much noise and competition. In order to get noticed, we have to battle for attention and influence. What determines whose idea is spread and who makes the biggest impact is the attention and influence they can have. But to get any results, we have to cut through the noise in a way that converts attention into real influence. In the thought leadership world, there are two main strategies at play for garnering attention and gaining influence. Microfamous is an alternative to both. How does this strategy help us cut through the noise effectively? In this episode I discuss the elements of attention for thought leadership business in today’s media environment.

Creating a podcast that can help you grow your coach/consultant business comes down to a number of key factors. When you have an idea or a flash of insight about what could be a great podcast, it’s important to ask ourselves whether it’s the right idea and the right time for the idea. I recently revisited a decision making matrix from David Maister’s book Managing the Professional Service Firm, and I was interested in how well it could be applied to the decision of starting a podcast. How do you know if the idea suits your vision and has the ability to endure? In this episode, I run through 8 thought provoking questions to lead you through determining how solid your podcast idea is, and how to avoid falling into the traps many coaches and consultants find themselves in.

Today we're reading an excerpt from the MicroFamous book, along with some director's cut commentary. Get your copy at MicroFamousBook.com, where we'll cover the book if you cover the shipping.Here is the text of the chapter we covered, Turn Attention into Demand.For many thought leaders, there is a key point where we stall out. We’re sharing good content, and we’re getting lots of encouragement, but we aren’t getting sales. Unfortunately, this is more common than we’d like to admit, especially in the world of podcasting.There are many “influencers” who can attract attention but can’t create sales.How is this possible? How can we attract attention without creating sales? 

In the last episode, I had a conversation with Jay Campbell who shared how he built his authority in a specialized niche, and is now pivoting that authority into a larger space. There’s a ton of lessons we can learn from Jay’s experience and apply to our MicroFamous strategy. How does an engaged and savvy audience help us ramp up our authority? What do we do when the thing we are currently known for won’t take us to the next level? How do we determine the language around what we want to be known for next? In this episode, I talk about the key takeaways from my conversation with Jay Campbell and how we can implement them in our businesses. 

How do we cut through the noise when it seems like everyone is stepping up their content efforts?In this solo episode we talk through 3 things you can do right now to cut through the noise, stay in front of the right people, and deliver a compelling and memorable message.Focus on the right people - You don't need to please everyone. Shrink the battlefield do you're not spreading your resources thin.Focus on being visible - but remember you don't need to be everywhere. Get on podcasts and maybe get some basic ads running so all your visibility doesn't depend on YOU organically posting daily.Focus on your C&C Idea - You can't afford to confuse the market right now. Deliver your message. Tell people what you stand for clearly and repeatedly. Be positively polarizing and give people an idea they can rally around.Housekeeping- starting next week we will be resuming releasing interview episodes carefully selected for how they apply in this time. I'll be recording custom introductions that put them in context.Have you grabbed a copy of MicroFamous?If not, go to MicroFamousBook.com and order your copy, it's free + shipping. We don't make a dime off the books, we just want to get them into the hands of the right people.Thanks for listening to the MicroFamous podcast!

In this time of uncertainty, it's more important than ever to build real, enduring influence with the right people.Here are 3 reasons this is so important right NOW.The larger and more general the audience, the harder it is to come up with a Clear & Compelling Idea. People want to follow leaders who deeply understand them and their problems. So they naturally gravitate towards leaders who speak more specifically and offer more specific solutions. To find a Clear & Compelling Idea with mass appeal, it must be both authentic to you AND right for the times. Aligned with the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times. That's a very tall order and few people pull it off. Even fewer find an idea with mass appeal that doesn't end up being a fad. Example: for every Tom Peters who writes a book like In Search of Excellence which ends up being a business buzzword for 30+ years, there are dozens or hundreds of other consultants who wrote books that were forgotten as soon as they were published.The larger the audience you try to speak to, the harder it is to hit the tipping point of influence. It takes 7-15 exposures to a new brand name for people to even remember the brand name. If I was constantly speaking to a bunch of different types of people across many social platforms, promoting different messages and ideas and concepts, I would never get the repetition necessary for people to see me, notice me and link me to MicroFamous. Example: Aaron Ross, author of Predictable Revenue. That book was a landmark book in some B2B circles. But what if he tried to bring that approach to entrepreneurs and individual salespeople all at the same time? He would have had to massively water down the content of his books, removing many of the concepts and examples that made the book so great. The result would have been a book that lacked a clear and Compelling Idea for a very specific group of readers. But because he didn't water it down, he was able to build a successful 7 figure consulting business off a sales book that wasn't aimed at salespeople.Attention doesn't translate to sales automatically. So even if I attracted millions of followers, if I gave them a call to action, and they ignored me and went about their business, what impact have I really made? I'd rather be well known and well respected within a limited group of people, but when I give a call to action, people listen and take action. That's real enduring influence. Example: the podcast host who does nothing but interviews and then tries to sell business coaching when they haven't built a successful business themselves, they're just good at attracting attention. So they struggle to turn that attention into sales.

Lead People Visibly Examples: Go live on social media dailyOffer a webinar or live Zoom callRelease solo episodes of your podcast to deliver your message straight to your audienceKey Question: How can I visibly lead my audience to better RESULTS in this time?The mentality you’re going for is that you put your clients first, and your primary concern is their RESULTS.Not their comfort or their emotions or their fear- they’re getting enough of that from friends, family, TV and social media. You are the voice that speaks for their RESULTS.When their best option for results is to buy from you, say so honestly.Provided that when the best option is NOT to buy from you, you are JUST as honest.You are the voice that speaks for their RESULTS.Maximize the People Already in Your WorldExample: Reconnect with the influencers, thought leaders and referral partners who can send you clientsLook for opportunities for strategic introductionsOffer quick connect calls with people to learn more about their needs and learn about their goals for this yearKey Question: How can I strengthen and maximize existing relationships to increase referrals and repeat business?Maximize Your Existing BusinessExample: Look for ways to squeeze out costs and inefficiencies that build up in the good times - make your business model more scalableDocument the systems that make up your Unique Process and intellectual capitalRevisit every commitment - Now is a great time to reevaluate all your commitments inside your business and reduce down to the things you truly care deeply about. Key Question: What have I been putting off in the business?Maximize Your Sales ProcessExample: Create sales micro-content - Videos, podcast episodes, lead magnets and giveaways, success stories and case studiesRevisit your Ideal Client - do you have a client avatar?Create an FAQ page - include questions and objections that will come up in the next 2-3 monthsKey Question: What content could I create that would overcome objections, build trust and draw leads closer to making a decision to buy?Experiment with Ways to Combine Productivity and ActivityExamples: Shift some video calls to phone calls and Walk-and-Talk. Get some sunshine.Try out different workspaces for different purposesTake a walk and listen to business or personal development podcastsKey Question: What am I experimenting with today that could make me more productive well after things go back to normal?

What makes a podcast an incubator for ideal clients?I believe a podcast has much more potential than simply attracting attention or keeping us visible. Those are merely low hanging fruit.In fact, if we are visible and attract attention by talking about all kinds of different and unrelated things, we actually undercut demand for our service by confusing the market. So all visibility is not equal. All visibility does not build influence or cultivate ideal clients.So in this stripped-down solo episode of the podcast, we cover three critical elements to turn our podcast into an incubator for ideal clients.If you're a coach, consultant or thought leader, and you're looking to launch a podcast, we'd love to talk. We offer a complete done-for-you service which includes everything from booking influential guests all the way to email and social media promotion, completely turnkey.

The prospects in any market we sell to break down in different ways. Most of the time, it breaks down into the Many and the Few, the 80% and the 20%, the average and the extraordinary; and most importantly, the early adopters and the mainstream. This directly affects the potential success of any thought leader, business coach or consultant. As coaches and consultants, we have to CHOOSE who we're going to sell to, because it dictates how we talk to people and how we structure our service. What are the differences between the opportunities we get when we sell to the Few and when we sell to the Many? Why is selling to the Few a better strategy? On this episode, you’ll learn why we shouldn’t be aiming to sell to everyone if we want to run a successful Rockstar Business. 

The "accidental split test" occurred by launching two different podcasts in the same market the same year, but with two very different strategies.Real Estate Uncensored - 1.5 million downloads and counting, aimed at a mainstream audience of real estate agentsvsThe Team Building Podcast - Much smaller download and social media numbers, aimed at a niche audience of real estate team leaders, owners and independent brokers.The result?The Team Building Podcast had far fewer downloads and accolades but was MUCH easier to monetize.The Team Building Podcast helped build a multi-6 figure coaching/consulting business in just a couple years, now over 100 monthly group coaching clients and events that are drawing 100+ highly targeted people to Omaha each of it's first two years with over 70% of attendees hearing about the events through the podcast.Here's what we did differently with The Team Building Podcast:Skipped the Many and went straight to the FewTargeted the most valuable slice of the marketGave them very deep, advanced content- both strategic and tactical - that they were looking for and not finding in other areasGot the host featured on other podcasts to reach more people and pull them into our audienceTurned podcasting into speaking opportunitiesKept the brand flexible so we had Freedom of MovementAll those things ended up sending me down the path that led me to write the MicroFamous book.I saw so many people coming in and interested in launching a podcast and making the same mistake I did with my first podcast- going after a mainstream audience too early.It's not that you CAN'T go after a mainstream audience, it's just better to go after a smaller, more valuable slice of the market first.That's what Tesla did with electric cars.Starbucks did the same thing with coffee.Apple did it with the iPhone and iPad.Small, valuable slice of the market first, mainstream later.So if you're drive to teach, train and lead, and you want to execute that type of strategy in your business, you'll want to check out the MicroFamous book.It's live on Kindle today, so you can grab it for FREE. yes 100% free, for only a couple days and it goes up to the paid version on Kindle or the paperback.Just go to MicroFamousBook.com and that points to the Kindle page for the book.In the book I lay out the strategy for becoming famously influential to the right people.No more trying to be everything to everyone, or hopping on every new social media app.No more feeling guilty for not being glued to your phone or taking selfies every 5 minutes.No more sitting on the sidelines while others get the clients you want to work with, get featured on the podcasts you listen to, or speak at the events you want to speak at.It's time to become MicroFamous, so go grab the Kindle version for free today and get ready for a radical shift in the way you look at growing your thought leader business!

Once we understand how influence is built, and we set out to go through the 3 Stages of Influence, our challenge is to select the ONE thing we want to be known for. The companies we admire most are based on ideas we admire, ideas we believe in, ideas we want to support and champion. At the heart of each of those businesses lives a Clear & Compelling Idea, often a guiding principle or a vision of how the world should be. A north star that guides the company, its strategy, products and services. Every business owner wants to follow in the footsteps of these businesses, but very often, the search for their own Clear & Compelling goes off the rails. Why should we avoid getting confusing a seemingly meaningful slogan with an Idea? What does a Clear & Compelling Idea look like in the world of influencers? On this episode, we're going to talk about one of the core concepts of MicroFamous, the Clear & Compelling Idea,  why it’s a force multiplier, and how it helps us become MicroFamous faster.

As thought leaders, we bounce between 2 states, being glued to our phones, and<br />feeling guilty for not being glued to our phones. We live under constant pressure to be constantly visible on social media. But the truth is, being successful on social media doesn’t necessarily mean being successful in our actual businesses. There are thousands of influencers who dominate on social media but don't directly monetize their audience. How can we set ourselves free from social media guilt? On this episode, I talk about why we don’t need to be posting 24/7 to run a successful rockstar business.

For a lot of people, even successful ones, there’s a feeling that never goes away. It’s imposter syndrome, not feeling like the true expert that you are. For years, I let that feeling hold me back from getting featured on podcasts or launching my first solo podcast. The conventional advice didn't work for me. I never bought the idea that if I just knew a little more than my clients, I was now an "expert." But I remembered something from my musician background that really helped me. What lesson can we learn from the most talented musicians, and how can we apply it to business? Why is that the people with the highest skill level, the biggest bag of tricks, are the most humble?<br /><br /><br /><br />The best musicians in the world are often the most humble. Why is that the people with the highest skill level, the biggest bag of tricks, are the most humble? How can we balance humility, and confidence? What does WHO we serve have to do with imposter syndrome? On this episode, I talk about how to overcome imposter syndrome, the power of skipping the many to connect to the FEW, and why the twinge of imposter syndrome is only temporary. <br />

Not sure if you're ready to be pitched as a podcast guest? You'd be surprised to find that even super successful coaches, consultants and speakers feel the same way.<br /><br />In this short, content-packed episode we share the perspective of the podcast host, the difference between "name" and "content" guests and how to know which one you are, plus 3 tactics to make yourself more pitch-able. So podcast hosts can easily say YES to you!

A lot of podcast hosts today are successful business owners, experts, coaches, consultants and thought leaders in their own right. That makes them great people to be connected with. They can help us build powerful relationships, send us a stream of clients, and get more people interested in what we do. How do we turn the interviews we get featured on from one-time conversations into lasting relationships? On this episode, you’ll learn about 4 insider tactics for turning podcast interviews into opportunities and relationships with high level people.

Getting featured on podcasts is a great way for us to gain exposure and get in front of more of the right people. What systems do we need to have in place in order to potentially turn the people listening to the interview into clients? On this episode, you’ll learn about 3 insider tactics that will create a direct and straight line from you being on an interview to someone in the listening audience reaching out or buying our product or service.

Welcome back to MicroFamous podcast!<br /><br />We're talking today about influence.<br /><br />After all, that's what leadership is - influence.<br /><br />And MicroFamous is about being famously influential to the right people.<br /><br />So I want to dig into HOW that level of influence is built.<br /><br />I believe it happens in 3 stages.<br /><br />Get seen.<br />Get noticed.<br />Get KNOWN.<br /><br />Here’s what these stages looks like in real life.<br /><br />First, we start by being seen. We put ourselves and our message into the world by talking about the problem we solve and by sharing what we’re learning and doing along the way. We share personal experiences, stories and anecdotes, focusing on the frustrations of our ideal clients.