Having worked with thousands of business owners to create a podcast for their business, I’ve created The Recurring Results Roadmap for Podcasters™.
It’s a step-by-step guide to growing your business to 7+ figures using your podcast.
Importantly, it removes the guesswork so you know exactly what to focus on at all times to generate that recurring revenue.
The best part? It’s personalised, free and it lets you get started straight away.
Download The Recurring Results Roadmap for Podcasters™ here.
If this is your first time here, this is Should I Start A Podcast. I’m Ronsley Vaz. Each week you’ll hear me, and a star-studded guest lineup, dig deep into the podcasting process. We’ll bring you tactics, tips and tricks to use in your own podcasting journey. We’ll teach you how to build an audience. And we’ll show you how to keep them coming back, show after show.
So if you want to start a podcast, or expand your current audience, this is the show for you.
Coming up in this Should I Start A Podcast episode …
As business owners, our main goal is profit. And the more profit we have the more we can do with that profit. Like scale. Want to know just how to use your podcast to make a profit? To scale your income without scaling your workload? Listen to this conversation with business owner podcasters that use their podcasts in various unique ways to make partnerships and joint ventures in their business.
In this episode you will:
- Learn how business owners use their podcasts to create partnerships in their business
- Understand the difference between joint ventures and partners
- Hear the misconceptions about asking the guests you interview to share your podcast
- Take a deeper look at “Centers of Influence”. What it means and how you create them.
- Rethink how you interact with partners and how to craft a good “ask”
- Understand what is the #1 question to focus on when asking for what you want
- Hear us talk about how to ask better and be vulnerable in the asking process
- Learn the underlying psychological phenomenon of being worthy
- Think differently about using audio messages in your daily routine
All this and more, on this week’s episode of Should I Start A Podcast.
Psst … make sure you listen to the end … I’ll break down this episode to give you 3 small steps you can execute right now to help you take this listening experience into execution experience. Enjoy the show.
After you listen to this episode I would love you to do 3 small steps that will help you make money from your podcast:
- I spoke about this on the last podcast. But it is valuable here too, so if you listened and haven’t done it … here is your sign to do it … so here it is. If all your previous guests asked you this one question, are you prepared with an answer? “What is the 1 thing I can help you with to grow your business?” – spend 20 minutes thinking about that and write down 3-4 things you could say the next time someone asks you this.
- Think about the guests you’ve already interviewed. And categorise them. Can some of them help you with being seen more because they have an audience? Can someone help you with being seen as more credible because their brand is a valuable one? Some could bring more clients, more partners, and more content. Group them.
- Think about 3 high profile people you would like to have a conversation with in the next year. And, who are the people you would have to interview before asking them to be on your podcast? Spend 20 minutes on this.
These are 3 small steps that if you execute, irrespective of where you are at in your business and podcasting journey will make a huge impact on your making your podcast more profitable & more impactful.
If this is the first episode you’ve listened to all the way to the end or if you are a regular, thank you … I love that you are here. Check out our back catalog on ShouldIStartAPodcast.com, subscribe to the show and give me a review and rating, it really helps us get found more.
If you are a business owner podcaster and want to join others just like you in a group where we share tactics & ideas on what’s working (or not) for us when it comes to using our podcast in the best possible way. For more on that go to wearepodcast.com/group … its free.
We Are Podcast 2022 – It is happening this year. For the latest announcements on Australia’s first podcasting conference for business owners, join the free group wearepodcast.com/group
Stay tuned next week when we going to cover how you can get your next 1000 listeners. This includes some pretty nifty ideas and out of the box thinking. So, don’t forget to subscribe to the show to get that episode as soon it gets released. Until then, much love.
If you’ve never heard of our work before, there are 3 things that I think you would benefit from right now…
1. Listen to this playlist of How to Podcast for Business.
2. Get the the Recurring Results Roadmap (if you haven’t already).
3. Check out this video about a business builder who is closing high-ticket clients with his podcast.
Here is the transcript of the entire episode for those who like to read …
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
podcast, people, business, connected, james, guests, partnerships, conversation, hear, person, message, result, feel, relationship, introduction, audio, worthiness, friends, interview, ron
SPEAKERS
James Whittaker, Ronsley Vaz, Shawn W, Anna Vocino, Sandy Waters
Ronsley Vaz 00:11
indicator one, this is launch control. Please advise when pre flight checklist is complete, it is complete.
Anna Vocino 00:24
This is should I start a podcast, a show for business owners looking for tips, tricks and ingenious hacks when it comes to growing a business using their podcast. This is your host Ronsley. He’s interviewed more than 1400 people and has been listened to over 5 million times in 133 countries, a TED speaker, author and a podcast purist who believes that we can use our voices to grow our business and our influence, you know, because every conversion in any business always happens in a conversation. And now Ronsley.
Ronsley Vaz 01:06
I’m very excited about today’s conversation, especially because I believe that podcasting is not a one person game, you don’t have to believe that you’ve got to make it, do it all yourself. And business is not a one person game as well. And what tends to happen within businesses that there is a tendency to think that he can have to do all yourself. And when you start to ask people for help, it starts to become like, can you help me with my goal, as opposed to can we partner with purpose? So James, I want to get you to talk about this, because I know that you’ve done so many things. And you’re very passionate about partnerships, especially the how about you give us a quick intro as to what you’ve done, because you’ve written so many books, and you’ve done so many amazing things. And then how about comment on partnerships and joint ventures?
James Whittaker 01:45
Thanks, Ron. So yeah, I’ve written three best selling books that have been translated in more than 10 languages. Now, around the world. I’ve had my podcast now for about two and a half years and been featured on more than it’s about 600 other podcasts, radio and TV shows at this point. And literally every single success in quotation marks that I’ve ever had in my life is as a result of relationships and those relationships that lead to partnerships, and so many other things like an example of something that I’ve got coming up this week, is a national television show that’s going out to what’s the population of the US, it’s on a major network now to be accessible by 350 million people in the US, there’s been so many amazing things that have happened throughout that. And it’s just the latest in a long stream of things that have happened as a result of relationships. So I’m intensely passionate about as Ron knows about relationships and partnerships, and all of that. So basically, one of the main fundamental principles of that whole relationship side is give before you get and if you focus on that, and then do that really, really well. It’s what massively opens up the floodgates to be able to receiving so many things come back. That’s the difference between a long term relationship and true transformation, rather than people who want that transactional relationship and very much about that short term. And a lot of people think what ifs, especially when I launch a podcast, it’s like, oh, what happens if no one listens to my show? Whatever it might be. We all have those lingering doubts, but runs and I prefer to, to really reframe that mindset to all come back to one question, an example of a good question, if you’re launching a podcast show might be, what do I need to do to make sure I launched with 500 listeners. And that’s what gets you to work on a plan to be able to make that happen. It’s very, very different. But a simple shift in mindset to be able to make that happen.
Ronsley Vaz 03:24
One of the things that happens with partnerships is that we land up in this partnership zone where we kind of ask everyone for help with my goal, can you help me with my goal and kind of expect everyone to just join and jump on the bandwagon. And it’s not as simple as that. And I feel like it sometimes comes across as very, like achy and labored and not normal. And also, when we get into partnerships or joint ventures, we don’t know what collaboration looks like. And we don’t know what success looks like all around. So I am keen to hear and what your thoughts are and then maybe let’s get into some tactics after that. So and a quick intro, and then maybe your thoughts on partnerships and joint ventures for podcasting in business. And then let’s talk about some tactics to get some partnering done with purpose. Hi,
Anna Vocino 04:09
thank you so much for having me. It’s an it’s you know, here I am a podcaster fellow podcaster. I’ve been doing some form of podcasting for, like 1314 years now. But I’m currently the co host of the fitness confidential podcast. I’ve been doing that for almost 10 years, with Vinnie, torta rich, and I’ve turned that podcast into two bestselling cookbooks and now sued brand and an online presence. I don’t know if you would call that whatever in the low carb space. And let me ask you this runs are you guys talking about partnerships, joint ventures in the respect of like partnering up and actually being on Mike talent together, partnering up in another way? All of the above? Ah, interesting. Well, I can speak from experience and that is, I come from the world of entertainment. I’m a comic and a voice actor. And I’ve worked on camera for years before I started podcasting. And so I will say that a lot of the Create your own content thing really stems from people wanting to get together and people really jiving with each other, which is good because that energy needs to carry you forward through a lot of drudgery and consistent podcasting together. But I also am a huge fan of getting everything in writing as soon as possible. I did not do that when I was younger. And I do that now almost immediately, I just email my lawyer and say, Hey, I’m doing this new venture, we’re doing this that the other thing and what do we do, and she sets it all up with a Deal Memo, it can be just one page and everything is subject to change. You can change it as you grow as you move along. But just to have things in writing from the beginning is very important. Vinny, and I, when we started, we didn’t know each other that well, he had trained me, and I was a food blogger and an actor and a comic. And I didn’t really know how I would fit into some guy’s fitness podcast. And we found out really quickly that I was the food component to what his message was. So our joint venture started with a verbal agreement and went really quickly to a written agreement. And we’ve since revised that a couple of times. So I’m a big fan of just communicating everything. But that’s kind of my initial thoughts. But usually, the creative part of it springs out of, you know, Hey, we should do this, you know, that thing that kids do when they’re like, Hey, let’s put on a show in your dad’s garage. All right, I’ll bring the lights, you bring the wigs and we’ll do it. It kind of is that same energy when you’re starting pockets, even for business? But get it get the business stuff taken care of along with it?
Ronsley Vaz 06:15
Yeah. Yeah, thanks, Anna. And I think the different parts of partnering and doing joint ventures with people, it starts with that excitement. And it starts with that initial conversation. And I believe all your guests are your partners in a lot of ways because they’re kind of lending the credibility of their brand and their thought leadership and the ideas to your podcast. And if you’ve created the podcasts in a template that allows you to attract listeners to your business, then all your guests are contributing with their credibility and their brand to making that sound great. So yeah, thanks, Anna. Let’s talk about this. I’m sure James has something to say about this. Because partnering with a purpose, and finding a win win scenario is something that you do regularly. James, you do that often, especially with guests that you interview on your podcast, I’d love if you could give us a rundown on how that happens. Because it seems like it’s effortless to you.
James Whittaker 07:04
Yeah, FOS after a long amount of time of trial and error. So back in a in a past life, I was actually in charge of getting centers of influence for a financial services company that I was a part of. So that was finding professions that were a complement to the services that we provided in financial planning. So that was mortgage brokers, accountants, solicitors, those types of people. So all of that goes back to looking for a win win, which is a really big theme of this. But I believe the best way to demonstrate trust and value through that is by giving a lot of stuff first, rather than trying to keep score of what the other person has done. And we you know, working on that I work with a lot of podcasters. When we hear so often that people they complain that their guests never share their episode with their audience, if you’re not getting the result on the partnership side and the relationship side is because you have not incentivized your audience and those relationships to be able to do that. And a lot of people that are so quick to blame the guests and can get very emotional and very, very angry. But it’s actually your fault, not that other person’s fault if you haven’t done that the right way. So anyone who comes on my show, ideally, it will come through a personal introduction. So if there’s a friend, I’m always looking for personal contact, rather than doing cold outreach, cold outreach is fine. But it’s not the greatest way to start off the relationship, doing a massive amount of preparation behind the scenes, because it means that when that interview starts, they know immediately through the questions you ask and the conversation that you’re having, that you are a person of substance who has taken the time to really value, the effort and the energy and the time that they are giving to you that day. So that’s the first part of transformation I’m trying to give before we begin had our, our contact, and then asking those things about what you can do to really support their mission. I really can’t stress enough how much the you conduct yourself during the podcast, how critical that is to be able to initiate and create some type of long term relationship with these people. It’s absolutely critical. And it’s where 99% of podcasters go wrong in my experience. And then after that is saying to them again, like what else can I do? You know, I love the mission and everything that you’re doing, what else can I do to help you or what else you working on right now that I can do? And wait to hear what they say there might be an opportunity there? And if they say nothing, you can say, Well, look, I’ve recently connected with these one or two or three people do you think they would be a good fit? Because I think they might be a great fit to help you with your mission. And if you do that enough, all that does is set up a question for them to turn around and say to you, what can I do to help you? That only happens really, when you have given so much value to those people reinforced with trust and really shown that you’re willing to go above and beyond to help them. And when they say what can I do to help you? You better have a good answer. Otherwise you are leaving so much opportunity on the table. This is a very authentic, organic way of being able to create a foundation for massive relationships that not only gets the person to share the show because they want to, which is a very big difference when a lot of people booked guests on their show. They say tick a box to say that you’re going to share the episode with your audience. If I don’t even know you. Why would I share your point? have cast with my audience. So become friends with people give as much as you possibly can be very specific about what you can do to help. And then make sure when if you’ve done that the right way they turn around and ask what can I do to help you make sure that you have got something specific for them to be able to help you with last time
Ronsley Vaz 10:15
we had this really good conversation about not being able to ask the or having asked, ask or even ask for help, or even kind of like, we get asked this a lot in terms of how what can I do to help you and I will I get asked this a lot. And I really don’t have a great answer. We’re talking about podcasting for business, obviously. But we’re talking about joint ventures and partners and creating long lasting relationships. So if you have anything to add to that conversation, and I’m curious to hear your thoughts on on what James said, Everything James
Anna Vocino 10:39
said was spot on. I mean, having guests on the day are they’re kind of like your temporary partner for that week, or that episode. And I will say, as somebody who’s guests it on a lot of podcasts, I always appreciate receiving assets to help me promote that episode, unless it was like an ungodly, hideous interview, which maybe there’s one or two of those ever, I’m always apt to help promote things to my audience, you know, I always need things, I might have to time it out with stuff that I’m already currently promoting. But I like receiving those assets. I remember being on a podcast recently that I loved the interview, had a great time, and then they didn’t send any acid. So I had, I wanted to promote that conversation, because it’s stuff that I hadn’t talked about before. And so it was I had to kind of chase them down. So it’s part of the whole being thorough thing and being a good host to them and, and giving them the tools that that they need, not just a link, but pictures or whatever it quote, something that you said on the interview in a infographic or social media assets, it’s always very helpful to throw that in there. What tends
Ronsley Vaz 11:40
to happen with James and when James went down that path of the Give, give, how can I support you sort of scenario and supporting the guests. There’s a lot of stories about how people just feel like they’re giving a lot and not receiving anything back. And I think that tends to happen. Because when they ask us, what can we do to help we don’t have a great ask. And I wonder whether we can talk about some good ass because I think that just coming up with some stuff. And I think sometimes we feel like the ask is too big sometimes think the ask is too small. I’m curious to hear from James even 10. Do Alana Well, there’s some good ass, especially when it comes to guests first, then we can talk about audience next. But there’s some good asks when it comes to interviewing a guest, and you’re having this really great conversation and you have this connection. And when there’s this conversation about giving and receiving, everyone gets a bit uncomfortable and probably brushes the conversation aside,
James Whittaker 12:31
really, really great. And really important question I think it’s important to think about, imagine that people that you’re closest with your entire life, think about your absolute best friends, there should be people in your life that you could text or call or send an audio message or talk to, and ask them for damage or anything, and they would do it. That’s why I’ve tried to approach all this stuff is to try and get as many of those people in my life as possible. Where anything that you need, you’ve got a very, very, very large and growing group of people who are desperate to help you because you’ve been able to give so much value to them along the way, and never really asked them for anything. It’s only when they turn around and say what can I do to help you? That’s where you can say, well, since you asked, here’s what I’m after. So comes right back down to the intent of your podcast. If we’re talking about podcasting, specifically, so is the intent of your show to help you grow? Like do you want to get higher profile guests so you can increase your own development? Or is the intent to get them to share their audience so you can build your audience? Or is it so you can increase your network by being around more and more influential people. And your ask is going to ultimately depend on the intention that you have for that. So if you can see that a guest that you’ve got coming up on your show had previously featured someone who’s even more influential, and someone that you would love to be connected with giving the person that you’re with now and amazing experience and having a very genuine meaningful way of asking if only if they feel comfortable doing so would they provide an introduction to that other person that you know, that they’re friends with, can really, really go a long way to getting that result. And that’s just one example. And the spot where I think most people fall down is that they don’t take the time to follow up. They might ask the question at the end of the podcast, and all of a sudden get annoyed when a few days later, they haven’t heard of anything. Well, those people are going to be very, very busy. Send a follow up email immediately after the podcast to say thank you so much for for coming on the show. You mentioned wanting this, here are the steps that I’ve taken to get that underway or I’ve already sent you a separate email to connect you with Anna who I know you wanted to be connected with. You mentioned also that you’d be willing to provide introduction to this person. Let me know if there’s any information you need from me to be able to make this happen. That’s one follow up and then I would do it five or seven days later, follow up again, I know you’re super busy. Just wanted to move this to the top of your inbox. As always, if there’s anything I can do to help you just let me know. And that is a way that you can get some specific ask and really get a great result rather than always wondering why people are never getting back to
Sandy Waters 14:48
you know something and I don’t know if James already said this, but something that when I way back in the day interview James the very first time there was something you said James that really resonated and stuck with me that you made mention of genuinely following and commenting and helping that person that guess that whoever you want to connect, you know, promoting their stuff often going to their page and commenting or liking or sharing. And then over time, they start to notice you and then the relationship will flourish from there. And then when you do approach them for another interview, or whatever it is, they feel like it’s more genuine, because you’ve already made that connection. And that is proven to work when I’ve tried it.
James Whittaker 15:32
Absolutely Sandy. It’s like when people in your network we mentioned, like the people who are closest to you, most people are desperate to help you like I’m desperate to help every single person who’s in my phone and people that I’m connected with. But if I don’t know what you need, if I don’t know the help that you’re after, then I can’t help you, and I won’t. But if you’ve got a very specific thing that I can do, and you’ve, you’ve laid the foundation perfectly, it’s a really great way to be able to amplify your influence and impact and everything else that you’re that you’re doing.
Ronsley Vaz 15:58
It’s the bit that that you spoke about, that really hits home all the time is about the ask and not having something to ask. But what tends to happen is that we probably go in not knowing what success looks like, or we have all these varied ways of what success looks like. So we don’t really know necessarily what to ask. And then the promise of our show gets convoluted as a result. This is really great quote, and I think I read it in a Dan Priestley book, and the quote goes, like you get what you paid for, and you’re always pitching. That’s the first principle of how to actually ask for something or ask for your business and how to put that all down.
Anna Vocino 16:31
I was just thinking, as you were saying that Ronsley and saying that quote, and just in general making the ask, by the way, I was a political consultant for eight years back in my early my late 20s and early 30s. And I was in charge of campaign finance reporting for us members of the House and Senate. And I’m constantly talking to the Finance Directors who are the ones who are responsible for getting their candidate to sit down and make phone calls to the donors to get them to donate money. And all the candidates hated making the ask a hate it hate it. And it would be like herding kittens to try to get them to sit down and do it. And I feel like I’m not that much different than that. I think we all have our spots where we’re not making the ask as much as we could probably increase that a few years, we make a few more asks every day make a few more. But also not just to get out of the comfort zone of being comfortable of asking that but also to see where like, because when you think of somebody that you’re asking something for thinking to like, what value am I offering them? And so it’s like, you’re almost How do I say that like rehearsing the reciprocation in your head, but you are, you’re practicing it, you’re constantly practicing it, and connecting with more people and making it so that like, okay, you know what, I always think that like, I don’t know how to grow my podcast, but have I actually sat down and written three people a day for 10 days straight. I haven’t, like if I’m being honest with myself. So I really feel like there’s things that we can all do to kind of like that fire under our butts. Just want to put that out there. Yes, so
James Whittaker 17:57
good. And imagine how everyone on here, imagine how your life would change. If each day you sent three audio messages to people in your network, just to check in with them just wanted to see how you were doing. As always, if there’s anything I can do to help just let me know, it’s life changing for less than a minute.
18:15
Hey, this is Elizabeth McIntyre. I’m the CEO of think brick Australia, host of our podcast and leader of amazing humans, I’m on the inside of we are podcast members, or as we like to call it the family. If you are thinking about growing that business using your podcast and your online presence. Come join us on the inside. I would love to meet you, James and RONZI coaches to get those recurring results in our business. If you want that roadmap, which we all follow to get those recurring results, you can download [email protected] are podcast.com. Now back to the show.
Ronsley Vaz 18:54
I wonder how much of this asking bit comes to worthiness. But I wonder how much of us not being able to ask for what we want to even put that intention out there. It comes down to the worthiness aspect 100%
Anna Vocino 19:05
of it. And I think that asking for things asking for participation, asking for help, as well as even volunteering your services. You’re putting yourself out there, you’re making yourself vulnerable. And in order to feel vulnerable, you have to feel worthy of being vulnerable, that somebody’s gonna take you up on it. I have found to from running businesses, that is people, whatever their hang ups are obviously on a personal level, you’re going to bring it into your business. So I have found like where I have no problem negotiating a rate. Let’s say, I have no problem doing that. Sometimes that’s a trigger for people and they disappear and I don’t even realize what’s happened. Well, they’ve been triggered and they’re gone. And so wherever we can be aware of that if it’s an unworthiness thing that’s making us not want to ask like, oh, maybe my podcast isn’t well developed enough. Or maybe I don’t have the numbers to support it. Or I have no business emailing the marketing director of this brand to become a sponsor because I’m sure they have bigger podcast. They have bigger fish to fry like we all have those messages in our heads running All the time that we have to constantly go, how much? Do I have to make myself struggle and pay for my unworthiness before I will just get out of my head and start asking,
Ronsley Vaz 20:10
it’s such a interesting conversation around worthiness because there’s so many different layers and deep layers to, to to being worthy. And I wonder how much of this conversation needs to go down that path. Because when you are an entrepreneur, and you start podcasting for business, and you start creating a, you have a voice for what you do and collect money, and you have clients and put your work out there, the worthiness piece comes up more often than we care to admit.
James Whittaker 20:36
Yeah, I’m happy to jump in on that, to me, a lot of this unworthiness can be overridden by making something a purposeful habit. Like, the more you do it, it’s easier for you to override those feelings. And that doubt, you get it done almost like you’ve got that muscle memory from just getting out there. And, and doing it. Like it’s just second nature for me in every email and every audio message and things that I sent. And now with that, as always, if there’s anything I can do to help you just let me know. And that is what has overridden those feelings that Anna mentioned before, which I still feel it just doesn’t stop me from taking action. Whereas for a lot of other people that it takes action and Sandy, you’ve got a lot more experience in the broadcasting game than all of us help you do. So I’d love to hear if you’ve got any thoughts on that?
Sandy Waters 21:19
No, I think I struggled with the ask. So I just I love to learn from you and Ronsley Because sometimes I feel like it. I don’t know how many other people in the room feel this where I’m like, okay, so if I give them the blanket, and I would do anything, anything you need, let me know. But that’s such a generic phrase that I don’t know, like, What can I offer? Do you need to be more specific at times, like, Hey, this is what my expertise is. In, if you ever feel like you need me reach out to me or I don’t know, I’m very uncomfortable with that too. Because I feel like I the worthiness thing like what you guys are talking about right now I think I struggle with as well.
Anna Vocino 21:55
You know, that’s interesting, that’s a really good observation about how something that might feel too vague, doesn’t have a boundary in it, maybe that’s why it feels uncomfortable. And I like that idea. For me, I made a New Year’s resolution this year, one of my things was to call two friends a week that I haven’t heard from in a while. And also because I do business with a lot of friends. That’s just I’m in like a relationship business, that sometimes it’s just purely on a personal level. But then other times just from checking in with somebody who I haven’t talked to in a while, who I love and I dearly miss, we get to some business stuff after having that personal check in. So for me, it’s that’s my version of what James is doing. Because that’s what makes me comfortable. I want to check in and maybe it’s a female thing, like I just want to connect with somebody that I haven’t connected with in a little while. And I don’t know, I just wanted to put that out there. Like you get to define what it is. Because if you don’t know, it’s just saying how can I help you reach out for anything? That’s not always true for me. It’s not I James probably would do anything because he’s a good guy. I’m 20% As good as James be honestly, I’m not that good person. And so I’m like, I want to I do want to help and I want to do but then there’s sometimes I just feel overwhelmed and overworked and so I’m scared to make that offer because what if somebody actually takes me up on it. And I feel like I’m about to like, beat my head against the wall because I’ve over committed myself. So that’s I get that is all I’m saying.
James Whittaker 23:14
That can certainly happen in a lot, Keith Ferrazzi, who wrote Never Eat Alone, and a bunch of other books, New York Times bestsellers, who’s very much the modern day, Dale Carnegie, he has a team who runs his contacts, he actually uses Salesforce to be able to keep track of all those different things. So it can, it can really get overwhelming. And as Sandy mentioned earlier, when it comes to things like social media engagement, people are much more likely to engage with you, if they have seen you in person or heard your voice recently, people start to wean off of just having those conversations with people, whether you’re sending out audio messages, or whatever you’re doing, even during a pandemic, that is a way that you can have those touch points with a lot of people recently, without having to see people in person so you can boost your social media engagement because people have heard your voice, even if they haven’t seen your face seeing people in person. But that’s why if you go and have dinner with someone, and on Monday you see their posts on Instagram, you’re like, Wow, that’s awesome, because you remember those recent feelings and emotions of being with them. So try and replicate those feelings, to be able to create more social media engagement for you.
Ronsley Vaz 24:15
The part that I want to come back to which I find important is the vagueness of the ask in terms of like, if there’s anything I can do to help you please don’t hesitate to ask me and I feel that being so generic, this just happened recently. I recently lost a friend and I was having a conversation with her sister. And I wanted to say the same thing and I wanted to say is anything I can do to help which I did say in the end please please don’t hesitate to ask. But while I was thinking of that, I was thinking I’m not being very helpful here because I am giving her the onus to come up with stuff to give me so that I can help and I’m just saying the right thing to say to say hey, you know if you need anything i I’m here to help. So I was caught in that because I remember having this this was like Last week, so it probably happens in general. And I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this. Because sometimes we do get asked for something that we can’t deliver on. Because the ask is not, we’re not able to fulfill the ask, for example, we got asked to make an introduction to someone and that person didn’t want the introduction. So we had to politely decline, the person that needed the introduction. So it was really fascinating how that all went down. James, you asked this question a lot? Do you get people asking you stuff that you can’t deliver on? Or do you? How do you deal with that? And maybe he’s more specific ask?
James Whittaker 25:33
Yeah, a lot of the tasks that have been worked out really well for me and have been enormously valuable for other people, our relationships by being able to say here is someone that you would potentially get along with or be a great fit for. That’s what’s worked exceptionally well. And it’s funny. Ron is the example that you mentioned before. That was an example of two super high level people that runs and I were connected with. And when one of these people said No, I’m okay for the introduction right now that this other person had asked us for, we thought it was a joke. At the start, it was like, Oh, wow, this is quite awkward. Now that that has manifested. So and the example that you mentioned before Ron’s about there’s someone who was grieving going through that process, just reaching out to them and being there, and offering that is about probably all that they could handle anyway, now, if there were other things where if you were on site with them, where you could say, look, for example, you want me to go and handle some of the funeral arrangements, or reach out to any people or go and get something printed, like whatever it might be, that’s the type of thing that you can suggest an example of a relationship that worked out really good for me. And sorry, just to go back to Ron’s to what you specifically asked, if someone asked me for something that I can’t fulfill, and the biggest one right now is time, like, if someone reaches out to me, and it’s gonna require enormous amount of my time, I’m just like, look, just send me an audio message, I’ll get back to you in an audio message that way, in a space of about two minutes, they can get a pretty good idea of what they need help with. But as much as possible, I’m trying to refer them to specific programs or services that I or other people might have, that’s going to give them a much more comprehensive result. Because through the process that it takes, it’s going to start with a much more comprehensive idea of the problem that they’re facing. There’s someone called Gabby Reese, who was a former volleyball player doing amazing things in the in the fitness world. And I was able to connect her with the sleep doctor, a guy had been on Dr. Oz 40 times I thought this was a match made in heaven. So it was able to put those people in touch. And the sleep doctor had said to me, we were out at dinner. And he said, I still haven’t heard back from Gabby. And I said, Well, you will she’s super busy and split a time in America and, and Hawaii. And next time I caught up with the sleep doctor, he was over there as a facilitator for the X PT training, and it worked out amazingly well. So Gabby was super happy that I was able to put her in touch with someone that was very, very valuable, and able to provide a lot of service to her community, and also be on a podcast and the sleep doctor was super happy because that was someone he’d want to be connected with. Because he had some cool things he was hoping to test out with that group. So it was a match made in heaven. And they’re both very grateful to me for that introduction. So now if I was to reach out to those people, which I haven’t, but if I were to reach out to them right now, and send an audio message with something specific that I wanted, maybe someone influential high profile who they’ve either had on their podcast, or I know that they’re connected with my chances of getting a yes, or even a response are much greater than they would have been if I wasn’t able to provide them some type of value, like being able to connect them with someone who could be a good fit, to be able to further their mission. So every person who comes on my podcast, I asked them this question like What’s one thing on your bucket list and as much as possible, I try and remember that, like there’s a guy Mike McCalla wits I had on my show, and an example of his bucket list goal was to appear as a guest on you know, a guest host on Saturday Night Live, that’s just embedded in my brain, there’s an opportunity now where if I’m ever in a position to be able to make that happen, because I could be amazing for that, then I would reach out to him out of the blue and say, Here, I’ve been able to set this up for you. You mentioned that was a bucket list goal. That’s something that would completely change his life, he would be blown away. So as many of those things you can embed on your mind, but the relationship piece, who do you know, as you continue to level up your network, that you can connect with other people, if there’s a legit fit there, based on how well you know all the people involved? That’s a really great way of being able to advance everyone’s interest.
Sandy Waters 29:13
So did that just work for you gradually, James, because I mean, you are so well connected. But for some of us who are not as connected as you, was it just a gradual? Hey, let’s just start from the people that I do know. And then it just builds and grows from there.
James Whittaker 29:27
It’s a really great question, Sandy. So I think anyone who’s thinking about that needs to think about what medium do they have of being able to reach out to these people who could potentially be just an awesome person to have in their network. So for me, I started off I had a social media brand that built up almost half a million followers back in the day. And as part of that, I was interviewing mainly athletes like very, very successful people who I’m still connected with today, because that was an opportunity for me to share them on this platform that I was able to slowly build up based on a lot of those things. So making sure that you’ve got some type of forum that’s why I post cost is so great. Last week, Holly mentioned that nothing keeps the door open like a podcast. And I really believe that I had a guy on my show last week who’s doing $120 million a year in annual recurring revenue for his business, do you think I would have been able to get a one on one coaching session with him? Absolutely not. Or it might have been 100 grand if not more, but the two of us were able to catch up in the studio for an hour where I could ask him anything that I wanted to ask about how to scale a business. And now we’re in each other’s phones and connected. And that’s a great way of doing that. So on the condition that you’ve got a medium, if your goal is to expand your network, tap into your the people that you’re already connected with to say, who are the most influential people get a list of those people. And then it’s really important that you have a good reason as to why that that introduction should take place. For example, look, my mission for the next 12 months is to ABC because of XYZ, I know that you’re connected with this person, would you feel open to making an introduction? As always, what can I do to help you doing something like that even if 50% of the people get back to you, or even 25% of the people, it just becomes a numbers game because you’re just out there. And that’s the process of doing that now, like I moved to America, right where I didn’t know anyone. And now I’ve got a much better network in America than I do in Australia. So it takes a lot of time, you need a medium to be able to do that which anyone can start anyone can launch a podcast. And to start off with make sure that you tap into the people that you know already start where you are. You don’t need to wait to start where you are with the people that you’ve got, and you can make it happen from
Anna Vocino 31:28
oh my god, James. First of all, this is why I say James is a better human than the rest of us because he remembers that a guy said that he wants to be a guest host on SNL and James will probably find a way to like, make that referral. Good egg. I couldn’t agree more with like using your personal network that sounds using your personal network guy sound like an asshole. I’m like one of those la holes. But let me give an example. So early on, when Vinnie and I were first podcasting, one of my good friends, her name is Jessica and she’s very well connected with a lot of different worlds the blogger world with the radio world with the Adam Carolla people, also somebody I was connected with from a long time ago was Dr. Drew because he loved the show that I was on because he thought it represented but the early days of radio were like, and so I was correct, because he liked the show and great. And Vinny would ask me early on, call everybody you know, get get get Jessica, I’ll get Dr. Drew, get these people going. And I would say, Hold on, like, it’s not that I was putting on the brakes for any reason, other than I wanted to make sure we had the momentum. And we were ready to call on all these things. Because when you’re ready to call on that network, people will generally especially your very menchi people at all dimensions in your life will want to help you. I know I’m the exact same way when and then now I will tell people to if they come to me for help, I will say, hey, yes, let’s do this, I’ll make an intro to so and so. So so and so so or I’ll say You know what, get more ready, you’re not ready yet. Let’s you need to get ready. And then we’re going to you because you get one shot with some of these people. And so I just wanted to put that out there that I agree with tapping into your personal network, because there are those people in there who really want to help. And then of course, you just got to be ready for the opportunity.
James Whittaker 33:02
That bit you said at the end there enter is so I can share a quick story here. So when I had moved to LA I was super connected after a while with people through that brand that I’ve mentioned previously. And there was a guy I was good friends with and I was meeting him at a cafe and Tim Ferriss walked past there was no one else around me and Tim Ferriss while I was waiting for a friend who was a mutual friend of Tim and me who was actually the guy that helped him with all the calisthenics stuff. And I’ve been a massive fan of Tim Ferriss for a long, long time and would have done anything to be able to, to have just some FaceTime with him. But I did not have a medium to be able to really connect with him. I could have met him like I could have said, Hey, Tim and stopped him in the street like a raving fan, but nothing and maybe got a photo and stuff. I’m sure Tim would have been fine with that. But nothing tangible from there would have happened. But if that exact same situation happened now, I’ve got multiple ways of being able to do that. So making sure that you when you know that you’ve got a good situation like you don’t want to blow it up by being too premature when you’re ready. So what you said no, there I thought was really important.
Anna Vocino 34:01
That’s awesome. And I forgot to say that the punchline of the whole thing is that because of that little tiny intro from Jessica, eventually when it was time to make that intro now Vinny is Adam curl is fitness guy and we have redirect a lot of traffic to our podcasts because of it and all the other things and, and reconnected with Dr. Drew when the time was right. So just wanted to put that out there but Yes, agreed.
Ronsley Vaz 34:21
So good. James, he could have taken a selfie. No, I’m joking. This is not like you saw and I’m keen to hear your voice and keen to hear your thoughts that you’ve been around probably since the start. So what’s up, man?
Shawn W 34:31
How are you? Thanks for having me. Ronsley I really enjoyed the conversation. James, Anna, Sandy. All great. Sounds like James his bucket list is getting Tim Ferriss on his podcast. So I’ll put that in my back pocket and if I can ever make that happen. I’ll go ahead and do that for you, James. To show him a seed is planted. I love it. You got to tell the universe I’m a big believer in podcasting. We’ve been doing it for our business for the last four years. We’re a barbecue media company, barbecue restaurant that became a media company. We’re about to launch our second podcast called restaurant influencers But I My question is for James, you keep talking about audio messages. Are you using me through Instagram? Or are you using audio messages in a typical smartphone? Voicemail pepper way?
James Whittaker 35:10
Yeah, great question. I do more. I use Facebook Messenger. I use text message and Instagram audio. It’s just, it’s so easy. It’s so fast. I want to be able to hear what the person saying. And also to send something back like think about I just hate the idea of texting because there’s so much like a whole bunch of people that you’re not super connected with to tech seems very laborious, but to send a quick audio message to someone where you can get sort of five times as deep in 1/5 of the time is great. So yeah, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and text message. Other ways that I send audio, have you tested video messages? Anything on video is very draining on my energy. I talked a bit about this actually, anything on audio, I feel like I could do for days. So when it comes to video, I’m usually quite exhausted. So yeah, I don’t do much video Ron’s has done a lot of great stuff with using loom videos, which is something that I learned from him, which is great. So being able to really share a personal connection about why that person is so important for something that you might need is very valuable through a three way video. So that is something that can be
Shawn W 36:10
upgraded. I appreciate that. And I’ll just leave the stage with a My favorite quote from the great philosopher Winnie the Pooh, we will be friends forever. Just you wait and see. Always add value first. I love I love the room. Great, great conversation, guys. Thank you.
Ronsley Vaz 36:23
Yeah, love, love Winnie, as the philosopher Sean, great to hear your voice. And for the loom like James, the question I get asked the most is, can you introduce me to someone and when I do make the introductions these days over the last couple of years, I don’t make email introductions. I mean, the medium is via email. But I make the introduction via loom in the sense that I am on the video and I say, Hey, James made Sandy Sandy made James James is amazing for these reasons. And Sandy is amazing for these reasons. And this is why I’m connecting you both, please feel free to take it from here. As opposed to sending that in an E, it goes in an email, but it’s a video and yeah, that’s just my new way of connecting people because I I do it less than James does for sure. And I only collect connect very specific people. So I use video maybe last 18 months, two years, this has been my experience. This has been such a great room and such a great conversation. Thank you, everyone for joining us. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing your voice and your thoughts and your ideas. And obviously, please join us we do this every week, same time, same bat channel, same bat time, if you’re in the future, like I am in the in Australia, it’s Tuesday mornings at 7am Brisbane time and if you’re in the past in North America, it is 2pm pacific time that we do this podcasting for business, we talk about different things and different topics around podcasting for business. So join us follow the club, and we will see you on the other side. Thanks. Thanks for being here. All right. So you still till the end, you found this useful, and you have a business. And, Paul, you have a podcast and a business. And you kind of want to make it work for you and grow your business using this podcast. Well, you know what, that’s something that I have helped 1000s of people do 1000s of businesses do in different forms, through an agency in a one on one fashion through a conference in a group and obviously courses and stuff. So please, I want to be able to give you something that you can use to get recurring results in your business using a podcast. We call it the recurring results roadmap. It is years of putting this in practice. It is the blueprint to get results and recurring results using a podcast if you’d like that, send me a message [email protected] I want to hear from you. I want to hear your voice or I want to hear from you. So if you’ve listened to this and you want that roadmap, please send me an email [email protected] I want to hear from you. Much love. I’ll see you in the next episode.
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