The First 1 Million Podcast Downloads : How A Podcast With Influence Will Launch Your Career

We overestimate the power of getting guests or, like, other people's stories, but ultimately we reduce our own. Unless there's some sort of new insight that gets shared in the context of who the host is and where they're going.

I was thinking about. We've talked about this, how you originally grew Freedom Fast Lane in the first three, four years before.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I guess I was just wondering if you could share some tips or. That journey. I know you got to a moment where you felt like the passion was lost and you wanted to reconnect with that, but.

Yeah.

Is there something I don't know or something that might be useful to the audience about? Like, how did you initially grow.

Free.

And fast Lane before you had a media team, a videographer? Like, any of that stuff? You're just putting out podcasts?

That's a great question. That's a great question.

When I started Freedom Fast Lane, the podcast, it was all about the journey I was on and me just sharing openly and honestly. And I just took the idea that I would share what I wanted and whoever resonated with that would show up. I had no monetization plan. I had no goal except to grow it. And as a result of me calling in favors for people to share the podcast and emailing to the list, we hit new and noteworthy, started to climb the charts and got a little bit of an audience, and it was enough to start to grow. And based on what I shared there, small speaking gigs started to open up small.

Spots on other people's podcasts, and I just said yes to all of them. All of them. All of them. It's taken us five years now to be in the place where now we're starting to get back to saying yes a lot to me doing that because we built a company around it, but I just kept saying yes to the audience. Yes, yes, yes. And sharing what I had to share. And sometimes I had no idea what I was gonna. And my goal for the first year was to find my voice, to find my talking points. And I started to. And I started to dial it into more of a structure and a thought process that people resonated with, and I started talking more about the things that people resonated with. And that focused me around Amazon and E Commerce and me sharing that journey. And it really started to get shared in that community, and that became where the niche was. I no longer enjoy just talking about that. I enjoy talking about it. But if I'm only talking about that, I lose the magic that built it in the first place, which is why we made the pivot that we made a few months ago. And so now I'm. I'm back in the, like, experimental sharing part, where we'll find new talking points. There's some that are greatest hits, if you will, but there's some. There's some. There's some new greatest hits in us somewhere that are just going to come from the result of a lot of content, a lot of saying, yes, like, I'm probably producing 20% of the content that I want to be producing right now.

And as a result, we'll have those few points that really, really connect. Like. Like the When I Was a Kid video, All I Wanted to be was a millionaire. That video. Those types of greatest hits.

Come.

From just continuing to share the journey. And so I'm back in that point where what's exciting now is now I think we know the empire we're building, and so we can share the full documentation of that journey and document the story ofCapitalism on capitalism.com, which I find very, very polite.

You used to do income reports. You almost do, like, business reports.

That's a good idea.

That's an interesting idea.

Updates.

File that away. File. Pump that over to Drew. If once a month he interviews me and transcribes it and turns it. That's a good idea, Chris. And then I do a podcast about it.

That's good.

It's a good idea.

I'd listen to that. I guess it just sounded like you were going. It sounds like, so cliche. I just, like, be honest and authentic with your journey. Like, a lot of people, they try to talk above where they are. They try to impress people, or they try to have the biggest named guests. But it sounds like you had the biggest success with when you were just being, like, really open.

Oh, dude, that's a great point, Chris. So I saw someone post on Facebook years ago. I'm getting tired of hearing the same people interviewed on podcasts. And I was like, I am, too. Why are all of these podcasters trying to get the exact same people, the exact same guests?

Like.

Mike Dillard, buddy of mine.

I.

Heard.

What'S his name, Seth Godin, on his podcast, Phenomenal podcast, Phenomenal episode, Right? Go listen to it. Google it. But I'm not more or less likely to listen to Mike as a result of him getting Seth Godin. Right? Then he booked Grant Cardone, and I texted him, and I was like, I have to disavow you publicly now.

I can't. I can't listen anymore. And I have to tell everybody that I. That I'm not gonna listen to your show anymore. Right, but. But. And that's a half joke. My whole point being guests don't move it. Right. Everybody wanted to be John Lee Dumas because he was an early mover in the interview world.

But ultimately, I want to hear Mike. Like, I want to hear Mike talk about his skill set, his journey. And.

I think we over.

We overestimate the power of getting guests or like other people's stories.

But ultimately we reduce our own unless there's some sort of new insight that gets shared in the context of who the host is and where they're going. It's like.

If Barbara Walters, one of the most celebrated interviewers of all time, makes a recommendation for a product, do you care? No, but Oprah stands for something, represents something. And because of that, she moves a hell of a lot of books and Weight Watchers memberships and that kind of stuff. Tim Ferriss exactly the same. If Tim Ferriss.

If Tim Ferriss recommends something, they sell out. And that's because he. He stands for something. People resonate with him. He does solo casts, he writes books. They're after him. And then the people coming on the platform are his guest, not the platform. And most people are waiting for other people to be the platform. Do you know what I'm saying? And so one of the things that I did well from the get go was it was my journey. It was my. My platform. And then people started to say, like, you ask really what good questions. I think you should just, I would like to hear you more. And I just kept hearing that, and so I started sharing. Now I think more than half of our episodes are just me. Same thing with, like. Same thing with, like, the two podcasts I listen to most right now are Gary Vee and Scott Adams. And when they have an interview, I'm kind of annoyed. Like, I don't want to hear the other people. I want to hear them. Right. I can't think of. Let me see. Are there any Mike Dillard's I used to listen to before he had Grant on? He's an interview show. Is there anybody? Well, that's weird. Sam Harris changed his podcast title. Oh, really? Okay. I don't like it. So Sam Harris I listened to. So that's kind of. That's an interview show, but still he's got the platform, right? I was sold on Sam before I was sold on. Before I was sold on any of his guests. What else? Russell Brunson I listen to occasionally, but that's almost all him. Aubrey I listen to occasionally, but I was sold on him before I was sold on the guest.

Dave Asprey. I don't listen to very much because I don't really know what Dave stands for anymore. It's not a knock on Dave. I love Dave.

It's more. I don't get enough of Dave's philosophy on the podcast anymore. So I don't know listen to it that much. So yeah.

I think that pretty much sums it up. My take on it is that people who want to have an audience and grow a platform have to take a stand for something or at least be open about the fact that they're finding out what they stand for. You need to build the platform. You can't wait for interviewers or whatever guests to be the platform. That doesn't make you influential. It just makes you another. Another person that other people want to take advantage of by being on your platform.

Yeah, that's a good distinction. I mean that's really strong with Aubrey and Tim Ferriss is like when he has a guest on. They're fitting within the thesis of the show of like hacking the habits and routines of the world's most successful people.

Yeah.

And it's so it is about them, but it's within a certain context.

Yeah, of course. Yeah, great. Within a certain context. And ultimately if we remember that people who are listening or reading or watching, they're on their own journey in their own context and they're seeing your context as a guide on their own. And if you don't provide that for them, they don't know how to place you and they don't know what they're going to you for anymore. So staying very clear on our context so we know who to bring into that world and help in that world, that gives us a map for what type of guests we bring on of what type of content to create. And that is now we have a world that other people can step into rather than just being open ended publishing house. Now for some people, they want to do that because that's what they like. Cool. Go for it. For me, I have a more specific goal and that is to create. Is to create the audience that lights other fires is to be influential, not famous. I don't get. Okay, here's a secret. You might not know this. I don't want to be famous.

You know what? One of my happiest moments like I remember feeling like this is there was a moment I was like, I feel the most like I have ever made it in this moment. And it was.

Last year at capitalism conference. So 2017. Capitalism conference, December of 2017. And we were at the pre party the night before.

And I'm running, like, we're running around, we're seeing our community. I'm hugging people, I'm kissing people. We're high fiving, I'm meeting people. It's great.

I was asked to go on stage and talk for 10 minutes. I was like, okay. I grabbed the mic. Everybody was like, oh. I said. Apparently what I said was really inspirational. I only remember like one or two sentences from it. I quoted Tim Ferriss because we had just had dinner together. He was talking about. I remember asking Tim, I said, do you ever feel like it's not worth it? And he said, there are plenty of things not worth pursuing, but the pursuit is. Is worth it. And I was like, oh. And I said that. And everybody thought it was inspirational. It was great. It was a great night. But then I walked out the doors, I turned right on South Congress, and no one knew who I was.

That's what I want.

That's what I want. That's a perfect level of fame. It's like when you can be influential to a community, which is what I want. Which is what we're doing. And then you turn right and no one knows who you are. That's what I want. So I don't want to be famous. I want to be influential. And they're different.

Sounds good.

And the difference is one look at me, the other lights a fire.

That's a good distinction too.

Everyone on Instagram trying to get famous these days.