James Brackin IV - How to land your podcast in one of the top 1% popular shows in the world!

My father and uncle both passed away at 37 years old, and my grandfather passed a few months before his retirement. So seeing it happen was just like this realization of I don't want to do something that I'm not excited to wake up to. I don't want to do something that doesn't give me purpose, doesn't give me fulfillment, doesn't give me impact in the world. And so I realized that really young. I'm grateful that it happened. I definitely had to grow up really young, but that's essentially why I got into the work that I'm doing and why I took this path.

Welcome to the Undefeated Underdogs Podcast. Where I unpack and narrate stories of ambitious people who turn obstacles into opportunities. My goal for this podcast is to create a platform to narrate underdog stories and maybe play a small, teeny tiny role in inspiring you. I intend to highlight the underdog mentality and make authentic conversations with people who play the long game, take action with a chip on their shoulder, and convert obstacles into opportunities. Buckle up as I'll be bringing some authentic founders, VCs, community builders, and content creators who got underestimated their whole lives, and yet they beat all the odds to become insanely successful. Now today I want to tell you a little bit about our awesome sponsor acquire.com. Selling a business is as tough as building a business. As someone who went through this process once, selling my own startup, I know the pain it takes to get to the end zone. This is where our sponsor shines. Imagine this. You're a founder who's built a solid SaaS product, acquired customers, and generating consistent monthly revenue. The problem is you're not growing forever for whatever reason, lack of focus, lack of skill, or just plain lack of interest. And you feel stuck. What should you do? The story I'd like to hear is you buckle down, somehow reignited the fire, get past yourself. And the clichés and start working on your business rather than just in the business. You start building an audience, move out of your comfort zone to do sales and marketing, and in 6 months you triple your revenue. The reality isn't as simple. Situations may be different from every founder facing these crossroads, but too many times the story ends up being one of inaction and stagnation until the become business— the business becomes less valuable or worse, worthless. If you find yourself here or your story is likely headed down a similar road, I offer you a third option. Consider selling your business on acquire.com. Capitalizing on the value of your time is a smart move. Acquire.com is free to list and they've helped hundreds of founders already. Go to try.acquire.com/sharath and see for yourself if this is the right option for you. Now let's get into today's episode. All right. Ever imagine that a 20-year-old made a podcast that ended up being top 1% in the whole world? Well, my next guest did it and he's killing it. So I'm stoked. I'm pumped to actually bring James Bracken IV, the host of You Can Do Podcast. Welcome, James. How are you feeling today?

I am doing well, man. I appreciate you having me on. I'm excited to dive into all different kinds of topics, man. I'm grateful to be here.

Yes, I know. I'm excited. I'm pumped because one thing I was telling you before we hit record is that I'm one of the persons who actually truly believe in this philosophy of age is just a number and it's not something that actually stops you to learn something. Right. So I am so impressed by everything you did with the podcast. And for folks who are listening, it's amazing. It's phenomenal. It's mind-boggling that You Can Do Podcast hosted by James. He covered people like Seth Godin, Derek Sivers, even Carmichael. I can go on and on. The list is massive, right? And you've shipped more than I think 200 episodes, which is Mind-boggling too. I'm in my, I think around 40. I have like other 2 podcasts, but I know how difficult, how much time it takes for a podcast to record, prep, and then put it out live and then create content around it. So all in all, I'm massively impressed and I'm here to learn. And so as I think, I believe, I hope our listeners too. Right off the bat, you can too. That's a very interesting name. It's so simple. It's kind of like it's self-explanatory. It's reassuring. It's inspiring. Why that name? And would you want to tell about how it all started?

Yeah, absolutely. My journey has started. I started my podcast 3 years ago now, which is crazy to think about. About like 230 episodes in or something like that. Recorded one yesterday, got one today. It's definitely a long journey and I'm excited I get, yes, you're kind of in the same place of podcasting is such an amazing avenue to go down. You get so much from it. You learn, you build a brand, you just connect with people you wouldn't otherwise connect with. The mindset of You Can Too came to me really growing up in general. I grew up in upstate New York and just a small town, small environment, not many people that thought big. Mm-hmm. And growing up, you see people do profound things in the world. And I think one thing that was just common was they believed that they could. And that sounds so minuscule, but when you really put it into perspective, belief drives behavior, behavior drives results, and results go right back into the belief that it's possible. And for many of us, the biggest thing that holds us back from achieving anything in life is believing that it's possible. I mean, even think of a lot of the guests that I've been able to get on my show. I have so many people reach out to me asking how I've got the guests on my show. And I think, well, have you even reached out to the person? And usually the answer is no, because they don't believe that they can get the person on the show. And so just going back to the overarching idea that many of us have to unlearn the beliefs that hold us back, and that's essentially the emphasis of the podcast, is helping people unlearn the beliefs that hold them back from creating a life that they're capable of creating for themselves by breaking down stories of profound people that have started somewhere and got to somewhere where they didn't even think was possible. So that's kind of the emphasis of the podcast.

It's so amazing that the things you're talking to me in the last couple minutes. It's not— again, at your age, kids are playing video games and they're having fun. They're kind of definitely not stretching their boundaries. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. They don't have the maturity that you have right now, which you literally said in the last few minutes about breaking the barriers, breaking the beliefs, unlearning. That's like the biggest thing that you can learn. is to unlearn what you've been trained by the society, by the parents, like whatever it is that the system, and really take control back so that you can really do what you want to do and become what you want to become. So these things, they come out either from adversity, right? Like they pop out because you were so down, you were like hit rock bottom or whatever it is, that situation that happened in your life. And then you realize, you know what, it's time to change this. Either that or you're genuinely naturally— the trait comes within yourself. Like some people, they're born like that. They want to inspire others. So which one in your case, which one is yours? What happened really that made you all mature and choose the path not to play video games and date or like do silly, silly, funny, funny, which is— I'm not saying that those are all bad. I'm saying it's a choice, right? So what made you choose this path?

Yeah, we all choose our path, right? Whether we're conscious of it or not. Mine, uh, the pain definitely turned to purpose, man. Uh, I'll tell you, this podcast started in my car. I did 100 episodes solo, not any kind of interviews, just because I wanted to get in the habit of creating a podcast. And that was the most difficult part, was getting started, believing that You know, so many people just don't do anything that they want to do in their life because they think of other people's opinions. And that was a big thing for me, was just overcoming that and just releasing, releasing, releasing. COVID happened. I'm in high school at this point and I tore my labrum. I knew that I wasn't going to go to college for baseball. I didn't know the path I wanted to go down. I ended up investing into a coaching program. To make a long story short, invested more money than I had and just committed. I think there's a big difference between being interested in something and being committed to something. And I'm someone that once I commit to it, I fully commit to it. And that's what's happened with the podcast, with my coaching business, with pretty much everything that I've done. And so I went through a lot of anxiety, depression. My father and uncle both passed away at 37 years old, and my grandfather passed a few months before his retirement. So seeing it happen was just like this realization of, I don't want to do something that I'm not excited to wake up to. I don't want to do something that doesn't give me purpose, doesn't give me fulfillment, doesn't give me impact in the world. And so I realized that really young. I'm grateful that it happened. I definitely had to grow up really young, but that's essentially why I got into the work that I'm doing and why I took this path instead of, like you said, playing video games. I mean, I used to have a TV on my wall and when I first got into this space, I took the TV off my wall, I put my video games under my bed and I haven't seen 'em since 'cause I've just been so committed and really intentional about the impact I want to have.

And who inspired you? Inspiration. I think you have motivation for sure, right? You were intentional because you had to go through something, adversity in this case, and part of you wanted to change that. And who inspired you? Who's your role model? Who were you modeling that? Okay, this is where I want to be, or this is who I want to become. Right. Not saying that we all have our role models, not to replicate them or be them. It's just that, okay, the path is there. You just have to take steps one step at a time. 1,000, 10,000, a million, and so on and so forth. So who inspired you to be the James right now I'm talking to?

That's something people ask me often, and I always go back to when I first got started, I wasn't thinking about any role models. It was just more so I don't want the life that I'm living. Um, and so a lot of people, like, it's, you think of it like if there was a, a tiger running after you, you're gonna run a lot faster if something's running after you rather than if you have something to move. Like motivation from fear is a lot more motivating than motivation for, uh, an inspiring future. And so that was kind of the, the, that's what resonated with me when I first got started was like, I just know that the path that I see everyone else go down is not the path I want to go down. And that scared me more than any, any kind of motivation of any role model could ever bring to me. Mm-hmm. Of course, along this journey, there's a lot of people that have inspired me. I think of Lewis Howes, I think of Chris Williamson, these podcasters that as I've got more into podcasting, I admire their tenacity and everything that they've been able to build. But when I first got started, man, there wasn't really anything. It was just more so, I don't want this.

Right. Wow, that's amazing. It's kind of like you're self-driven, right? And podcasting, the space, let's talk about some tactics, some technicality around podcasting because I think it's still early. I think what, there are like 7 million shows around the world?

Yeah.

With 7 billion people on the planet. So there's a massive opportunity for here. But at the same time, there is also the other thought of people not starting because they think that it's too much, too much work, too much production, like whatever it is that they stop. Like, there is no equipment for me, there is no camera, good camera, and all that shit, right? How did you overcome that? imposter or how did you be like, okay, you know what, I want to start somewhere. And you said about recording the solo episodes, what was it like in the beginning, like that 100 episodes? Talk to me. How was the journey like?

Wasn't easy. It still isn't easy. You know that. Yeah, it's a long game. I tell people all the time that if you do not want to be in podcasting for like 10 years plus, don't get into podcasting. Because from the beginning, like I thought, I'm not thinking about where I'm going to be in a year from now. I don't even think 2 years from now. I'm thinking 10 years from now because it really is a long time horizon. It's playing infinite games. Like that's what's so exciting about podcasting is if you— I think of podcasting and relate it to life. Like if you want to get to X goal in the future, you're missing out on speaking with an amazing person every single week. Like why would you want to get to the end of a podcast when the whole purpose is to have a podcast all the time, right? So that was the emphasis of what helped me propel and continue to move forward. But when I first got started, what encouraged me and allowed me to just show up and get past that imposter syndrome was investing in myself. Like I said, man, I invested into a coaching program to become a coach before I even started the podcast. And in it, not even really knowing it, because I wanted to become a podcaster, coaching was something that helped me become an even better podcaster because it helped me be more intentional about the questions that I ask. That's what I'm doing with clients. And so investing in myself, investing more money than I had Was like, okay, if I'm investing in this and I have to post social media content to get my brand out there and start working with clients, might as well start the podcast too, because that's something I've always wanted to do. And

so, Right.

I don't think— I know that if I never invested into myself and never like put my back against the wall and say, okay, like I invested more money than I had in my bank. So like to even pay off the investment, I needed to make more money to pay off the investment because I didn't even have that. And so that was just like this motivating factor. And granted, you know, podcasting isn't definitely something to make money in, especially in the beginning phases. So it wasn't anything like that. It was, again, thinking much longer term than anyone else is thinking and just investing in myself. I was like, okay, I'm committed to coaching. Let me fully commit myself to podcasting. And that's what allowed me to show up.

I think in a way it's kind of like a byproduct of what you actually want to do. It looks like You Can Too is more of like a baby that came out of your passion towards coaching. So talk to me about it. Like coaching, There are like different styles, right? Like, what is your style? How do you approach entrepreneurs, founders? What do you do? What is the most frequent thing that comes to you about, like, okay, I have this problem, or I'm facing this block or obstacle, and how do you turn that obstacle into an opportunity for them?

Yeah, absolutely. Like you said in the beginning of this, we are all living by beliefs that society programmed us with, right? And so The challenge with that is many people aren't even aware of those beliefs. And so if you're not aware of what's holding you back, you can't overcome what's holding you back. The example I always like to use is procrastination. A lot of people think procrastination's a problem when that's not really the problem. It's a symptom to a problem. For example, if someone is procrastinating on starting a new business, starting a podcast, starting anything in any, in any way, the reason that they're doing it is because of fear. There's some kind of fear that's present, whether it's a fear of success, which a lot of people don't think that they have, but they likely do if they come from a scarcity mindset. Um, a fear of failure, which a lot of people, you can relate that to judgment, rejection, whatever that comes down to. There's so many fears that show up for us that we may not even be aware are present in our life, and they hold us back in so many ways. And again, like I said, if, if you're not aware of the fear that's there, if you're not able to go to the bottom, the root of the challenge that's there, then you're always facing the surface level of challenges, which is procrastination, um, uh, anything in that realm. You're just going to delay what you could do because you're not aware of what's holding you back from doing it. And so that's what I kind of work with clients through is I, I bring up the awareness to begin with to understand what's holding you back and then work in tactics, strategies, habits, all that other kind of stuff to actually help you implement. Because the information, you can have the knowledge of why you're getting in your own way, but if you're not able to actually implement the things that will help you get out of your own way, it doesn't matter at

all. It looks like it's a tailor-made program or strategy for every individual because every individual has their own beliefs that they want to break, right? Like the self-doubts and whatnot. It also looks like you ask a lot, then know about what they're going through and then solve it in a way. So how should one learn about asking insightful, deep questions? I'm not talking about interview style. I'm not talking about podcasting, even to themselves, right? Like, where will they find that? gas in themselves that, okay, I need to stop and I have to ask questions. So if they can't afford a coach like you, life coach, so how do people come up with insightful questions for themselves? What is your secret?

No secret, man. I think one thing that I'll just give you the example of the one question that changed my life. And it sounds like, right, like the one question that changed your life. Like, yeah, right. But it really genuinely changed the direction of my life. So I grew up, like I lost a lot of family members. I lost just, uh, just grew up feeling like a victim. Most people grow up feeling like a victim cuz they're not aware of the victim mindset. And so I always ask myself, why is this happening to me? I'm gonna get an answer. The thing I always tell clients is like, it's, if you ask your, your brain a question, it's like ChatGPT, it's gonna give you an answer. The challenge is most people are asking the wrong questions, right? And so if you're able to ask a different question, you're gonna get a different answer. The question that I changed it to was, how is this happening for me? Brain gives me an answer, but it's a much better answer because it's gonna help me think future-focused instead of present-focused or even past-focused. Mm-hmm. And so that question in itself will change everything. 'Cause if you look through that lens in every challenge that comes your way, it's not a problem anymore. It's just a challenge. When you see it as a problem, it's, it consumes you. When you see it as a, even like a preference, like, of course I would, I would like it to be warmer outside. That's not a problem. It's more of a preference. Most of the things that we have in life are preferences rather than problems. And so when we're able to see it through a different lens, we're able to overcome it and not see it as such a— it's like it's a hurdle. It's not like a— it's not a wall in between you, but it's more of a hurdle. Like, it's going to be challenging to overcome it, but you can overcome it. And again, it goes back to the belief aspect of things. If you don't believe you can, you're not going to take the action to do

it. I love that, man. What an insightful thing you said. It's the lens that we need to change. I think we all have Very few problems, actual problems, you know, if you put it that way, right? Everything else is more of like a preference. I don't like my situation. It's a preference.

Mm-hmm.

I don't like my lifestyle. It's a preference and a choice. So I really like the way you're kind of framing things, you know, and it looks like you have a, you have a grip of what you're talking about. So I'm very curious about how do you develop that kind of skill set in terms of speaking? It almost feels like public speaking, right? Like, the way you frame things are unusual and captivating. So talk to me about the skill that you're just displaying to me right now. How does one— I think it's a coach thing, and I can clearly see that. So talk to me about that.

Yeah, I wouldn't even say it's a coaching thing, funny enough, because one thing that I think a lot of people, um, mistake when it comes to coaching is that we have the answers. And the thing that I always tell people is like, I don't have the answers, I have the questions. I'm gonna ask you really insightful questions, but I'm just gonna reflect what you're asking. Like, if you give me an answer, I'm gonna ask you the same question back. It's like that. It, it is that simple because I don't have the answers. None. No coach has the answers. You might give you pointers and tips and help you see it through a different lens, but that's usually through questions. I think when it comes to how I speak, I mean, dude, I released 105 solo episodes before I released any kind of interview. And so I almost seen it as like a public journal. Like I have to be concise in the way that I'm speaking about things. People need to understand this in such a way because we don't teach, we don't get taught this in school, which we should, but we're not. No one knows how to understand this kind of stuff. I was 17 years old getting started in my car. Like I had to make it so straightforward for people to understand, for me to even understand it. And so for me to explain it to other people, and this is what is so awesome with podcasting too, is When you have a guest on your show and you're doing research for that guest, at least through my lens, I do a lot of research before guests come on the show so that when they get on the show, it's like I'm almost learning it double. Like I do so much, like so much research that when I get on the show, it's like, say I read a book that they wrote and they come on the show and I, I have all the questions I want to ask about the book. It's like I'm learning it twice. Mm-hmm. And so, um, that's one way that's really cool to learn. But that's the same thing for, uh, doing solo episodes. It was like a public journal. Like I have to make this so concise for people to understand. And I'm learning it twice. I learned something, now I have to explain it to people. That's going to require me to understand it even deeper.

It looks like you've practiced. 100 episodes are practice. Yeah. And I was actually, as a matter of fact, I'm driving. I just dropped my son to daycare and I'm driving back. I'm listening to the First Million, My First Million podcast with

Tony

Robbins.

Yeah.

And that guy is a legend, right? Like, he's my dream guest. Definitely manifesting that we both should interview him at some point in the next 10 years. But he literally dropped this insight about practice of how Steph does practice shots versus the shots you take in the game, which is like 0.1% of the 1% shots. took in his whole career, which is close to like 2.52 million, which is ridiculous. Like you said, I think the 100 episodes is just practice. And now once you put into reps, I think we're still putting into reps, right? That's not stopping. That won't go away. I see that in your podcast. You do interview style episodes and you also do solo episodes too in the meanwhile, right? So you still are putting reps.

Putting reps out, yeah.

And talk to me about it, like putting reps. Everybody has their own take on it. What's your take? What's your take on practice?

I think it's a requirement. Even not just solo episodes I've released. If you look on my socials like TikTok or Instagram or anything like that, like you're gonna see 1,000 pieces of short-form content. In just a few years, like every, almost every single day for multiple years straight. It's just, it's there. I think it's a requirement. Like you said, you noticed something about my speaking and pointed it out and I sometimes I don't even notice it. And so like I've never, I don't even, I think I spoke in public a few times, but nothing extraordinary that makes me more concise in the way that I speak. It's just doing it every single day. And I think the best skill that you can, you can develop in life is to be a better communicator. I say that to podcasters a lot. It's like even if your podcast were to never grow to where you want it to be, You're still becoming a better communicator and connecting with people you wouldn't otherwise connect with. So I think it's a necessity for sure.

Love that. I want to also— let's talk about podcasting in the next 10 minutes or so, but I want to wrap up the coaching segment of the interview. So what is like the most interesting and most difficult client you had? in your experience as a coach? I don't want any details, but I just want to learn the experience. Or if you can express, how did you start? When did you feel like, oh my God, this is going beyond my reach, but you still cracked it and the client was super happy? Do you want to share an example?

Yeah, absolutely. The one that I talk frequently about is one of my first clients that I ever worked with. She was a More than double my age, had a massive business, massive ATM business, lived in California, had a Ferrari, all this kind of stuff. And my imposter syndrome was like, what the hell? How am I in this position? I'm 18 years old at the time. How am I, how can I even speak to this person that has been in business longer than I've been alive? Probably. And we start working together. And the first time we connected, uh, she was interested in it, but wasn't fully committed to it. So I followed up in a little bit and we ended up starting to work together. Essentially what we wanted to do was she had an idea of a book for about almost a decade, about 8 to 9 years, but she never took action on it. And there was so much fear that was inside of her, fear of success. What happens if this succeeds and I have to do more work? Because I'm already in the position where I can retire if I want to. Is this really what I want to do? I feel passionate about it, but I don't really know if this is the thing I want to do. And something that was funny, and funny enough, was a lot of it was breaking down a lot of childhood trauma. Realistically, um, like, why are the fears there? What's present there for you? What are the things that you're not even aware of? And that comes down to, again, asking a lot of the questions and holding— just holding people accountable. Something I think a lot of people don't put enough emphasis on is the small things you do every day build up who you are. And I think we don't put enough emphasis on it, whether it's going to the gym or meditating or going on a walk without headphones. Like, the small stuff that we don't put enough emphasis on that allows us to be with ourselves and build our relationship with ourselves. I say this all the time, is that all that matters is how you feel about yourself when you're by yourself. I think a lot of the clients that I work with are people that when they're by theirself, they feel like they should be working more. When they're by theirself, they feel like they're incompetent. When they're by theirself, they're feeling like, I should be further along. That should be mindset, or I'm supposed to be here when I'm not there, puts us all in a position of lack and scarcity, which puts us in a position to not take the action on the things that we wanna take action on. And so a lot of it was, was just really breaking down Why? Because this was someone that was afraid of success more than anything else. I mean, there was a lot of fear of judgment and stuff there as well, but she was more afraid of success more than anything. And for granted, good reason. I mean, she was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in just a few months of us working together. So that required her to show up more. I mean, we were in Barnes& Noble and doing a bunch of different other stuff that required her to show up at a level that at a time she didn't think that she really wanted to show up for. She didn't want all of the extra work and effort that it was going to take, but she knew she had a purpose on this earth and now she's on her second book. And so, a lot of us get in our own way. Again, going back to the fears that we're not even aware of and breaking down, she didn't think that the reason that she didn't want to write the book was because of childhood trauma. Who would think that, right? Mm-hmm. Like you're thinking maybe I'm just, I don't have the prep. I've never done this before. I'm fearful. But a lot of it was just going back to how did you feel when you were in high school? Like, like who did you see yourself as? Because a lot of us, Live through the life, uh, or live through the idea of ourself. We have this narrative story that we tell ourselves of who we are and where we're supposed to be and everything else. And that puts us in a position of lack most times because our idea of ourself is always limiting, right? Like, like, that's why if you've ever seen someone believe, see something in you that you can't see in yourself, that's exactly why. It's because you're identifying with a story. And a lot of working together with people is just breaking them out of the story that they're, they're identifying with so that they can take the action on the things that they want to take action on.

I think it's breaking the script. You know, we run a script in our minds that constantly there's a chatterbox that never stops. And I don't know, for some reason, like, you know, I think the most successful people, everybody has that chatterbox. It's just that they don't know— they know how to not listen to them and they focus on the other things, right? And very interesting. I love the framing again, like, you know, the approach you're bringing to the table here. One thing, so you talked about lack. How do one experience abundance and where do one start?

I think it starts in your mind. I don't think we put enough emphasis on imagination. As we get older, our imagination gets smaller almost because we feel like, I can't imagine more. Like, let's be realistic. But the people that are crazy enough to think outside of the box are the people that are able to achieve things outside of the box. That's again, going back to the you can too. It's like unlearning these beliefs that hold us back. She didn't think she could write a book that would be a Pulitzer Prize nomination. And it happened simply because she just showed up enough times to make it happen. And so a lot of lack comes down to letting go of how life has been to make room for what life can become. And that's gonna allow you to feel as though, and not just think about it, but feel as though you're already where you want to be. Joe Dispenza is someone that I, I talk a lot about because his work has been so impactful for me. I have his book right behind me. Uh, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself is a book I recommend to every single person I know, 'cause it will— I feel like if everyone read that book instead of going to school, they would gain more from that. I genuinely believe that. And I mean that because a big part of it is how quantum physics works and how neuroscience and a bunch of other stuff that I won't get into, but essentially If you hold a picture in your mind as though you get crystal clear on where you want to go, the kind of person that you want to become, how do they react to stress? How do they react to anxieties? How do they react to the things that's happening in your life? And almost feel as though you are that person. That idea of fake it till you make it is, is real. You have to provide yourself proof, but you have to fake it until you make it because otherwise you're never going to get anywhere. You're never going to be able to put yourself in positions to create more opportunity for yourself if you don't believe you're the kind of person that can. And so, so much of it comes down to imagining who's the person you want to be. want to become and then almost work backwards from that.

I think I listened to Steve Barrett in one of the episodes, or I don't know where I consumed this. This reminded me about being delusional is good.

Delusional optimism. Yep.

It's ridiculously underestimated because the word itself is negative or pessimist, but Like you said, fake it till you make it. You just have to be so delusional in believing yourself that people think that you're mad or you're crazy, man. I love that. You have so much, James. You got so much juice in your mind, in your heart. Appreciate you for sharing that. Couple of things about podcasting. How the hell you ended up being top 1%? What is like— I don't want to talk about the gimmicks. I think you're someone I can get a sense that you just want to do it for yourself and just put it out for people to— people like you, like, you know, for facing these things and who wants to come out of it. But it's super hard. Again, 7 million podcasts or so getting into top 1% is no joke, right? So yeah, what was it like? First of all, how are you feeling about it? How are you feeling about being on top 1% and how'd you get there?

I'll say that when it happened the day I noticed it, because I was on, I don't remember what platform you look on to find out what percent you are, but I was on that platform like every day for a good,

I

don't know, a couple weeks. 'Cause I was at top 1.5 for like a couple months and I got to 1% and I was like, this is awesome. And after 10 minutes it went away. 'Cause it's not, I don't see it as such a big deal 'cause I'm really playing infinite games here, man. There's no, regardless of what the position that I get to, of how many downloads I get or how many views I get on YouTube or how many subscribers I get, all that kind of stuff is so arbitrary. I love it and it's great. But it's something that I've realized too. Do you know who Zooby is on Twitter? No.

No.

He has about 1.2 million followers. I'll give this as just, uh, because I was speaking with him yesterday and this makes me think of something. We overemphasize how many people are impacting and don't put enough emphasis on how much we impact those people. So if you were to think of it through the lens of, I'd rather have 50,000 people that are truly engaged than a million people that aren't engaged at all. And so I just say that to say that like, No matter the arbitrary goal that you're going towards, that's why it's so important to play infinite games. Like, I don't attach myself to the achievement. I attach myself to the action. So I show up, I show up every single week for 3 years straight. Granted, it makes sense that I get to the top 1%. Every single week you're seeing an episode. And I have 170 5-star reviews on Apple or 170+ right now.

Mm-hmm.

Because for the first 100 episodes, every single time, the first thing that I said was, please leave a rating and review if this resonated. If you got something from this, share this with someone that needs to see it. all of that kind of stuff. And so that was a big part for sure, but I'm just getting started, man. I really feel like I've come so far, but I'm so early in this game and I'm just getting started. So there's not— that's kind of the paradox I see it through.

Yeah. Let's talk about like a little bit about the technicality of distribution, right? It's one of the things. So at least I can speak for myself and I'm at a point where I can record these type of episodes without preparation because it's, again, reps. I've done 100+ episodes over 3 podcasts. Now I can hold a conversation, pay attention to what the guest is talking about. So there are some things that I've learned along the way, and I can develop a question that's thought-provoking and all that. But the point I want to make is Producing a podcast, in my opinion, is easy, at least at this point.

Yeah.

What I'm kind of exploring is how to distribute it, like so many others. Right. So for the 7 million people who are hosting podcasts, what advice do you give about distribution? What really worked for you to become that top 1%? How did you distribute the content? What didn't work? What worked really well? Uh, would love to know.

Yeah, man. I, I, I go back to the reps. It really is that like, truly, man, I think I hit top 1% before I even posted anything on YouTube. I, I could be wrong on that, but I definitely was at least in the top 1% or top 1.5% before I even went on YouTube.

So, wow.

I truly believe like if you just put in the reps, dude, you'll get to top 1% if you just release 200 episodes plus.

Wow.

Likely. Okay. Or you'll at least be around that range, whether you're 2.5 or whatever that looks like. Right. And you get a good amount of reviews. People really resonate with your work. You really don't have to have a million downloads. You don't have to have all of this kind of— they don't have to have a trillion views on YouTube, all that kind of stuff. I truly believe, like you said it, man, like I think most podcasts don't get past episode 7 or so. Maybe it's 7 or 10 or something around that realm.

Hmm.

So if you just don't stop, it's inevitable. I live by this mindset, both getting guests and for the podcast is like, Um, like I got Seth Godin on, right? And there's, and he's just one person that was a dream guest, right? But there's so many other dream guests. You talked about Stephen Barlett, someone I haven't been able to get on the show. I will get on the show. Notice how I said I will, right? Is this mindset of it's not if, but it's when. And so I've held that so closely to me with this podcast, with guests I want to get on, with how many subscribers I want to get, all of this and in between. Um, I'm working on a course right now to help people get guests on their show because that's what the number one question that I've had people come to me with is like, how have you been able to get these guests? Right. So I'm like, okay, let me release a course helping people with that. Something that I wish I had when I first got started. And that's part of the mindset module that I was literally recording right before this is you have to think of like, it's, it's when it's going to happen. It's not if. And if you hold that in your mind and you don't have any attachment to where you want to go, you just hold the attachment to showing up every week, dude, it's going to happen.

It's amazing. So I can't stop but ask, how did you get these guests?

Yeah, everyone's different. That's for sure. I think one thing that is really cool to think about is when are they promoting or releasing something? Like Seth Godin, when I had him on the show, he was releasing a book around that time. And so it was a perfect time to reach out to him. I knew that his threshold of how many episodes the person has to have to go on a show or to go on the show is 100. I had 100, whether they were solo or they were interviews, I had 100 episodes plus. So it gave me credibility. And he wanted to go on podcasts before his book so that he could promote his book. It was perfect timing. That's definitely one thing that people can do is like, think of when is someone promoting something that I, so I can have them come on that actually encourages them to go on. 'Cause a lot of people are busy. Like I have one today, um, with Mike Michalowicz. He wrote, uh, Profit First business book.

Hmm. One

of the bestselling books, uh, in business of all time, I believe. And he wrote plenty others, but I booked him 4 or 5 months ago. So it's like really, and he has another book coming out. So it's like just figuring out when someone has something to provide value. I think the one thing is like, how can you provide value to someone? For me, when I first got started, I know you said you don't do research, but I think for a lot of guests or a lot of people that are first getting into podcasts, doing research is like one of the best things you can do. And I say that because if you don't have the audience, if you don't have the, the, uh, distribution, if you don't have anything, if you don't have the episodes, what you do have is you can make the person feel seen. You can make them feel appreciated by having them come on. Like every single time I have a guest come on and we hop off the podcast, they are so much more, uh, like encouraging and want to like help me more than we did after the podcast than before, simply because they see that I did the research and I thought deeper about the questions that I asked.

Right.

Almost every podcast that I've been on, oh, a lot of them, I'm not gonna say everyone, but a lot of them have said it's either the best podcast they've ever been on or one of the best because I do my research and I think deeper about it. So I think That's one way of just thinking, how can you provide value to the person even if you don't have the audience?

Yeah, I do research too. I just had Noah Kagan yesterday.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah, I had Noah on the show. We had a great chat, hour-long episode. I think research is something not just to ask great questions. In my opinion, it really helps you empathize with what they are, who they are as an individual. And from there, I think you have a clear path to ask, like, to test your curiosity. Okay,

exactly.

I know this person. I've spent a good amount of like 10 hours or whatever it is that you want to spend on research. Now let's get even closer to it. So it's not— the research is not going to take you close. It takes you closer. Like, it almost like, you know, feels you that you're seeing them in the mirror. So that's why I believe in research. I haven't— there are like different styles, right? Like, you know, people do different styles of podcasts. So I think what I really love is doing research but having like a conversational episode so that it feels authentic. So I don't give my guests questions. Yeah, more organic. Yeah, more— there is no goal in this episode. Like, we're just jamming. Right, with 2 individuals who are interested in each other and kind of like in exploring what we can bring from a value standpoint to the table. Right. So

absolutely,

I love that. Couple of questions. I know we are kind of 5 minutes away. Okay, I have to ask this. Who's on the dream guest list of yours?

Stephen Barlett's definitely there. Tim Ferriss. I went to a Lewis Howes event not too long ago. He would be awesome. I can just look at all the books around me, man. And I just tell you all the authors that I've connected with. Chris Williamson's big on there. There's so many people. There's so many people. That's what's exciting about podcasting is like, there's never an end to it. There's always going to be someone else exciting to speak with. There's always gonna be another professor that I want to speak to from a different school. It's— there's always someone.

Awesome. What is like the— how do you like kind of handle rejection. Because as podcast hosts, last year, 2023, I've DM'd over 300 to 400 people.

Oh yeah.

Like constantly about, hey, we'd love to have you on the show. We can talk about this particular topic. We'd love to have you on the show. We would love to unpack this, that. And I think 30+ or 35+ people responded and they came on the show. So it's like kind of like the ratio is— the rejection ratio is too high.

Yeah.

So we all face rejection on a day-to-day basis because we are reaching out to people and we're interested in them. So talk to me about how do you handle that? And I have like one more question which is on the other side. Yeah.

Yeah. It's funny because that's a part of— that's another module I was really talking about this morning. Rejection is something that's inevitable. Like you said, it's going to happen. One thing that I think that people don't put into perspective, it's probably a good thing.

And

I'll use this in the perspective of My First Million. They were talking about this, I think, in a few podcasts ago. It's like, if you think about the first— if you were to release a podcast and the first episode that you release gets a million views, that sucks. Like, it's great. It's great. It's an amazing thing, but it sucks because now that's your threshold. Right. Now any episode that you release, is either gonna be over a million views, which is really hard to do.

Mm-hmm.

Or it's gonna be under that and you're gonna think, man, I got my, my threshold's so high. Like, how am I ever gonna reach that again? Right. Every time you're gonna feel like kind of like a failure, but you're not gonna feel like the best success cuz you didn't hit what you already hit. Right. And the same thing goes for guests. Like the way that I think about it is the if not when mindset or when not if mindset. But when you think of it through the podcast guests too, like think through that lens, but also think through the lens of If I get my dream guest now, there's only so many dream guests that you can really get, right? Like there's always many more people that you can get on the show that were exciting, but maybe they're not the dream guest. Like Noah Kagan was one of mine. He was on my top 100. I love his YouTube channel. I had him on a few weeks ago. It's great. It's awesome. But now I have to find other dream guests. And that's— Totally. It doesn't seem like a problem, but podcasting, especially when you're releasing a lot of episodes, it's really easy to go away from all the dream guests that you already had because you've reached out to them. Same 50, none of them said yes, and they have to go find other people. And so when you— I think it's a good thing to think like, man, it's probably a good thing. The Chris Williamson— Chris Williamson talks about this a little bit where we give too much emphasis on the achievement and not the anticipation. Like, if you think of dopamine, dopamine is what happens before achieving the thing. It's not achieving the thing. Like, you don't get dopamine when you're touching your phone. You're getting dopamine when you are about to open your phone. Right. And so when you think of that through podcast guests, it's like, it's great that you get the guests that you want, But then there's only so many that you can do, and it doesn't make it exciting to get the next guest that you want. Like, I want my dream guest to come in 2 years from now, not right now, because that just takes away from the excitement that I have for it.

I love that. I love the spin on it. Last thing, uh, what is the most ambitious thing you're chasing, you're dreaming, you're manifesting, you're visualizing, uh, in your life, James?

Most ambitious thing, man. I wouldn't say this is the most ambitious thing, but the one thing that I'm really wanting to put emphasis on this year is just doing in-person interviews. That's one thing that like, I love doing the online. I've met with a lot of amazing entrepreneurs in person. I had David Sutcliffe on my show, was in Hollywood for a bunch of years and now in somatic work. And I had him on the podcast on Zoom or on Riverside. And I went to Austin a few weeks ago and met with him in person. And it was just like, there's nothing like the in-person energy. We didn't record a podcast, but I would love to start doing that. So that's one thing that's just like that next step for podcasting for me.

Awesome. I know we're on time, so I want to respect that. This has been great. I love your mindset, your framing, your way of delivering things, your perspective, more importantly, how you look at things. And I hope people learn that from you. Any closing thoughts before we wrap up?

No, man, I appreciate you having me on. You're an awesome interviewer.

Thank you. Appreciate you. That's it, guys. Stay tuned. We have more awesome guests like James coming on the show. I'm excited. I'm pumped for 2024. For you, for me, for James, for everybody. Let's go get it. Cheers. Cheers.