Episode 024 - A Conversation with Dustin Polyinnovator

A lot of times people create content after they have a business or a career or they're in a profession. Today's guest actually created content in preparation for his multiple careers that he wants to have in his life. It's Dustin Pauly Innovator, and I had a great conversation with him today about his content, his journey, and how he views the world coming up with content and even social media. Here, let's take a listen.

Welcome to the Content Amplification Podcast, where you will gain insight into real-life tactical and strategic elements to help you scale and grow your business. Now let's get started with today's episode.

Hey, welcome to this episode of the Content Amplification Podcast. I am delighted to be joined by Dustin Polly Innovator. On this episode. Dustin, thank you very much for taking some time out of your day to talk to me.

Thank you, Shaun. I'm really excited for this. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Me too, me too. I know you sent over some information in the pre-information collection phase of the show, but I want to get our audience to understand a bit more about what this word Poly Innovator is before we get into the content topics that we're going to talk about.

For sure. So, Poly Innovator is my personal brand that I developed to be the foundation for all the future careers that I wanted to do. And the kind of keyword there is careers, as in multiple. And growing up, I always loved doing many different things. I was always very divergent in my interests and kind of this jack-of-all-trades approach. And I realized that my hero growing up, it was Leonardo da Vinci, who was a polymath. So, I really attached to this idea of being a polymath. And I really wanted to work in these innovation fields such as smart cities or innovating education, which is my goal at this point, and then this kind of combination of those two ideas, polymath and innovation. So, polymath of innovation became Poly Innovator.

Very cool. Very cool. Where are you located so our listeners know?

I am in the Midwest of the USA. So, it's pretty bland and boring out here.

Well, let's not make the show that way. Let's make it exciting. Oh, yeah. And give people a lot of great resources. So as you know, and, and our listeners know, we're all about content, helping people get ideas for, for how to do their content more effectively, what tools, resources that are out there. You really started to focus on content first. Talk about that journey.

So first and foremost, I just wanted to say I really love strategy and going into the nuances of like how to do things best. So I like, I looked at Gary Vee content model, for example, which talks about doing 30 posts out of one big pillar piece. And I expanded upon that and tried to find my own ways of doing it. And I started doing blogging actually back in around 2011, 2012, where I was able to create content. I started learning about SEO and social media marketing way back then. So, 8 years ago when things were still kind of small. Uh, social media still was basically in its teenage years or infancy at that point, I guess even. And so, I was learning about all of this, but I didn't have much of a goal with that particular brand that I was building. Even though I had an idea in mind of where I wanted to go, I didn't have concrete metrics or KPIs or anything like that. But I learned the skills and I realized that I personally wasn't good enough to really pursue that business endeavor that I was trying to create. I was trying to build this hub of innovation, if you will. And I realized, okay, cool. If I'm not able to do this just yet, that's fine. What do I need to do in order to become that better person? Well, I pursued self-growth and education. And then I started doing this document over create kind of idea from Gary Vee again about documenting my journey through this education endeavor that I called the Modular Degree. And that became my kind of calling card for Poly Innovator for a long time. And then I just started creating content from that.

Excellent. So, I mean, starting doing blogging way back, you said in 2011, obviously things have evolved in the blogging world. Are there any elements to blogging that you would say have been consistent throughout that entire journey that you still see that beneficial today?

The biggest thing is doing good content. So like actually going out of your way to make a good piece of work. And I don't think you have to make it super SEO optimized. Like, sure, that's super important. Sure, that's something that you want to do, but it's more about the quality inherently. And people are going to find it no matter what, as long as you know how to market it elsewhere. SEO is super important, but if you're trying to stuff in a whole bunch of keywords, that's not going to be the biggest deal. However, if you can make a strong piece of writing, then you could take that. I actually take my writings and turn them into videos. You could take that writing, use tools like speechkit.io, and make it an audio post. So that way, if someone is blind, they can listen to your post. So as long as it's good inherently, that's what's really key.

I love it. I love it. And that's the same thing that I preach, is amplifying your efforts, taking that main piece of content that for most people is in their main wheelhouse. I know there are people that love to write, stick to that, right? I mean, that's your main part to get your ideas out. There are others that video's their focal point. Taking that and leveraging it so you don't have to like, you don't have to write a blog post and then come up with new ideas for a video. You're able to then cross-use that content and I think that's what you're getting across here.

[Speaker] Yeah, I actually made a note to explain this idea too. One of your episodes was talking about consistency, and one of the biggest things is you can gain consistency through repurposing. And I tried to actually do a little bit of repurposing in my past, but then I didn't realize how much I needed to do it and how much easier it is once you actually plan with repurposing in mind. So I actually changed my content strategy around this idea of repurposing. So my main series is called the Omni Content, where I kind of based it off the idea of being omnichannel, being everywhere, omnipresent. And how do you go about that? Especially as a solopreneur? Well, you do it with automation, repurposing, and strategy in mind. Those 3 pillars there. And the biggest thing was, since my medium was writing, some people like video, so they start with video, some people like you are doing audio and video, but like it's one of those things where you had a background in TV, from what I recall. And so it's one of those things, you had video and audio. For me, it was audio and writing. So I start with a writing blog post, then I turn that into a video, and I cut out the audio and I make my podcast. So I have 3 pillar pieces just from one episode essentially. That's awesome.

That's awesome. And you know what? And I think you're the only guest that I've spoken to that's done that much research on who I am. That's pretty impressive.

Well, I will say your birthday's coming up, so happy early birthday.

Wow. Wow. Do you know what, what, what color shoes I'm wearing today too? Like, this is pretty impressive. That's right. So, um, you know, I checked out your, your, your website, uh, polyinnovator.space is the one that I've been looking at., and it mentions the content on there. And I'm going to purposely say this so that you can explain it. You don't have a podcast for what we call a podcast. You call it something different. And explain to our listeners why you do that.

For one, I don't like Apple, and the word podcast originated from iPod because when they had audiocasts in the early 2000s, it wasn't as common then, and iPod really made it more common. And We have to be grateful to Apple's products for that reason. But I never liked the ecosystem of Apple personally. And on top of that too, I never thought podcasts really worked for my show. And so, what I did was I called it a Polycast. So, this idea of polymath or polyinnovator, I took that poly, which means much or many in ancient Greek, and going into that idea of many different topics, many different kinds of guests, and many different series on the show. So, I have short-form, medium, and long-form content on this Polymath Polycast, as I call it. And so, that way I can— basically cater to all different kinds of audiences as well.

That's a really cool, cool spin on it and way to take it. Now, your Polycast is in Season 4, from what I can tell.

Yeah.

I guess, how has that evolved? I mean, when you started that, you know, knowing that you started blogging in 2011 and you didn't really have a goal in mind with it, but now when you started this, you know, more recently, you obviously probably took it on with goals and purposes in mind. What would you give to our listeners as insight into if you wanted to start doing a polycast or what others call a podcast or an audio piece of content that they could learn from? How would you approach that?

So it's interesting. I technically did have a goal, but it was just too ambitious when it came to the previous endeavor. I actually started podcasting with the old endeavor. I called it— the old endeavor was called United Living Construct, meant to be a hub of innovation. So I wanted to find a way to appeal to people. So I created a podcast with it. And I didn't, like I said, I didn't like that term. I didn't really like how it was going. And it was really kind of short. But I got started with that. And that was the real key thing there is I got started with audio. And I think the biggest thing is just getting comfortable hearing your own voice. So a little tip I always tell people is that when you hear your own voice recorded, it sounds different. The reason being is that when you speak, you hear the vibrations and the bone conduction of your jaw. And so it sounds deeper in your head when you hear your own voice. But when you hear a recording, you no longer hear the vibrations, which makes it sound higher pitch, which is why most people don't like hearing their own voice. Absolutely.

You know, and the same thing reigns true with, with visuals. I mean, I've, you know, over the years in, in working in marketing, I spent a lot of time taking photos of, you know, high-level CEOs. And one of the tips that a photographer taught me years ago was anytime you take a, a photograph of somebody who is a Type A personality, high decision maker, you always flip the image. Um, And the reason for that is they really are used to looking at themselves in the mirror because appearance is a big part, and the mirror is a flipped image. So a photograph is not. So if you give them an image that, you know, has a mole on the left side of their face and they're used to seeing it on the right side in a reflection, it's not going to seem right to them.

You got to kind of appeal to their ego.

That's right. Right. Same type of thing. Now, getting back to your, your podcast here, I'm just looking through the episodes. I know when you asked me before we started how long the show goes, most of your episodes are over an hour in length, but you also have interspersed here these fireside micro-podcasts. Talk about that and why those are in there.

So that's kind of the point I was making earlier, is that I have multiple different series. In fact, you've only seen two of them because in the past season and a half or so, or season, the third season, fourth season, there were mainly interviews and I actually have my Medium episodes as well. And those were like my main series as I called it the Omni Content earlier. So, what happened was, I'll start with the Omni Content. The Omni Content's anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes. And these are like kind of medium form episodes where I try to get, kind of teach you about a certain idea or topic. And since it's a video, I try to make it contextual for video and audio. But I try to talk about a certain thing like whether it's Polymath, Articulation, that kind of thing. And I have a regular Polycast as I call it, which don't happen. More Than This a few times, basically at this point. And I don't really talk about that much because it's just there. But the Micro PolyCast is interesting because I actually started it separately from the main show. And so I had, when I started moving to my new podcast host, I had just a couple episodes for the PolyCast. And I was like, okay, well, I'm going to start doing interviews this past year. What am I going to do with just 2 episodes? People are going to see that and think I'm not very consistent or not very doing it for very long. But at that point, I had been doing it for 2 years. And so, I actually started doing at the beginning of summer this Fireside Micro-Podcast, which is some of these personal rants or ideas that I wanted to share with people. Like one day I had the idea about the future of social media and how that might work. And I really wanted to get that off my chest. So, I made about 15 episodes of that. I was trying to go for like a daily upload sort of thing. And I kind of failed at that, but it was an interesting experiment. And I had around 15 of the United Living Construct Podcast. 2 Polycasts, and then a couple other things I was throwing together. And I realized I have all this content backlog, why don't I put it all together into one? And it took me a while to kind of convince myself to do it because they are separate in a way. But I realized this is all me, they're all around the same kind of topic, let's put it in there. And at the end of it, I realized I have about 42 episodes, and it's a special number for those who are aware. And so I was like, okay, this is gonna be my first season. And actually right after then, I had my first guest and I was able to have interviews. And this is because of matchmaker.fm, which is how we met. And since Since then, I've done 80 interviews, and this is since May, essentially. That's great.

That's great. Now, obviously, you mentioned some tools in there. One of the ones that you shared with me before we started recording is Riverside.fm. And tell our listeners about that. I know when you were talking about your podcast, sorry, I almost called it a podcast again. You said, you know, most of them are video. This platform is different. We're recording this one on Zencastr, which is audio only. But what's Riverside?

So I want to be appealing to all different kinds of audiences and basically people who are consuming the content. Some people like to see our faces. Like right now, I'm looking at the camera just because I'm so used to it. And that way, like if someone were to watch this, they'd see me in the eyes. But since it's audio only, it's mainly just me having gestures and these gestures will help my voice project better or something like that. But Riverside is really interesting because it does native audio and video on both sides. So the double-ender method essentially, and that way Basically, if someone has a 720 or 1080p camera, it's recording at native 1080 or highest quality it can on their side on the computer, and then it uploads at the end. So that way, even if you get disconnected, it's still actually having the file there and you won't lose it per se. And it's really cool because it's a newer tool, came out about last year, and they were working with me and I was talking to them and they're even doing some live streaming stuff too, which is pretty cool. But I love how it's native. And it's one of those things where like Zencaster is kind of the same way with audio, but their beta, I've been in the beta I think since like summertime last year to try to get into the video for Zencaster and yet I still haven't heard anything about it. So I was like, okay, let's try Riverside.

Excellent, I'll have to check it out. The podcast may go video in the near future. Me being a video guy, that's appealing to me. So in your previous answer, you mentioned about one of your pieces of content where you had a thought about the future of social media. Social media, as you know, big part of content delivery and engaging with people. I'd love to have your view on where you think social media is going.

It's going decentralized. That's the biggest thing because one of my favorite things to go into was decentralized social networks. So there's DTube, which is an alternative to YouTube. There is Hive.blog, which is an alternative to Medium and Reddit. It's kind of like a hybrid. And these platforms are built on the blockchain, which is a decentralized technology. And without going into too many details there, because I'm not an expert at blockchain, but it is interesting how these platforms are built for the people. And so there's not a central authority there, so there's no chance for like an adpocalypse to happen like we had on YouTube. And since that has this openness, this democratic nature, it's a very unique way of experiencing that platform. It's kind of like Reddit with upvotes. And so if something gets so many downvotes, it's not going to be shown anymore, that kind of thing. And it's interesting how these different platforms now are very kind of out there or esoteric kind of in a way. But I think in the future, Twitter even talked about going decentralized, for example. I think a lot of these platforms are gonna go decentralized and that's not gonna, it's almost gonna be like you're gonna be platform agnostic. So if you post an image, it's not going to Instagram particularly, it's going into like this decentralized image vault, basically, or database. And depending on what platform you choose, whether it's Pinterest or Instagram or whatever, that image will pop up. So instead of having to repost or cross-post or even repurpose content, you're gonna post to this kind of vault and then it's gonna show up and propagate in all these different platforms that you may want to prefer. That's what I think is gonna happen.

That's an interesting perspective on it. And I see where you can see that happening and moving that way. One other thing that I wanted to kind of add into that and get your view on just because you've got such a unique view on these things. Facebook is in the battles with Apple right now, your favorite company as we learned earlier on about their new update where people can opt out of being tracked in ads. Being a content creator myself in marketing, we rely heavily on online advertising for clients. What's your view on companies being able to track behaviors online of consumers?

I think data privacy is very important. And especially since I'm a techie too, I definitely have an ad blocker, I have stuff like that. But it's one of those things where you're signing away your privacy when you join these platforms. And it was kind of interesting. I had a friend the other day who I saw had a birthday coming up. And so I was like, like I said for you too, I was gonna mention it to them. And he's like, whoa, I only have one social platform and it doesn't say the birthday, how did you know about that? And I just have a knack for finding information like that, as you know, and it's just something I like to do 'cause it just helps make a connection with people. And it's funny 'cause he wanted to not have much of a social presence. I am the opposite, I wanna have multiple social presences. And it's just interesting how information's out there no matter what. And so finding that information out is not too difficult. But it's like, especially as a marketer or as an advertiser, We want that information there, but as a user, do we want our information to be out there? So it's an interesting dichotomy. I don't think I answered your question very well, but I think it's useful and I think that it's going to keep growing, but I think there's going to be some backlash more so than we've already seen.

Yeah. And I had a, I had a meeting this morning with a client and we had pretty much that same discussion. Uh, and he was saying how, you know, he finds it annoying that these companies are kind of following him all over the internet, you know, since just cause he's checked out a website, but yet we're also running ads for him and he loves the technology to be able to do that for his business. So it's a double-edged sword that way as well. One of the pieces of content or pages on your website that I came across initially was the idea of the Now page that was there. And I know you explained it in the video that's on the website, but let's, let's share that idea with our listeners as well.

Well, I haven't updated that in a while on the old site because I'm building a new one. And I definitely would like to go into that new site because I think it's really interesting what I'm trying to do with that there. But the Now page is actually concept by Derek Sivers, a really awesome author, and he's a very minimalist. If you go to his site, it's super simple, but he came up with this concept of a now page. What are you doing professionally and personally in life? And so every month or so you update it and you share what's happening in your life. And so people who care can go on that page and check it out. And I actually, I've tried almost all the different blogging platforms from Wix to WordPress.com, WordPress.org, Substack, Medium, and then now I moved everything to Ghost CMS. And on Ghost, it simplified the tags. And so what I did was I actually made my own taxonomy or category for the now page. And so now I have a history of now pages. And so what hap— what I think is really cool about this is that either me or one of my audience members, or maybe one of my future family members can go back and see what different happenings have gone through my life since I started tracking it down. It's almost kind of like a vlog that I've turned into. I also make videos, which is pretty unique. Most people just write it. I do a vlog and a written piece.

Very cool concept, and I can see a lot of people that are listening to this may incorporate that as well.

Steal it, steal it.

Yeah, that's right. So mainly you're making a lot of content with the goal to, you know, for your multiple careers like you mentioned in the beginning. What's the future look like for you? Like, what do you hope the next 5 years is going to bring to you?

First off, getting out of the Midwest, that'd be really great. But I think it's interesting because like I said, that new tool, the new CMS, I found that WordPress was very clunky and I'm trying not to go on a tangent here, but WordPress had a very old way of doing things. And so I kept getting caught up in the meta work and I never got actually content out there. So this past year or two, I've been kind of working on strategy and optimization and getting my content in a way that I feel comfortable. Presenting as well as doing it consistently, as we mentioned earlier, is very important. And so I learned a lot about repurposing. There's another tool I want to mention that I absolutely love. It's called repurpose.io, where you can take your videos or podcasts and chop it up into different chunks, and you can even do it automatically, but I'd like to do it manually so I can choose which clips. But it's a super cool tool that allows you to really do some interesting things.

That's— I love tools. I mean, if there's one thing that I can say about myself is the fact that You know, I'll sign up for tools just not only for my own use, but I want to know as much about as many tools out there because, you know, not as you know, not every tool is right for every use or every person. And, um, you know, to be able to recommend a tool because it fits a certain use case is very beneficial. So, um, I'm gonna ask you this last question before we close out the show. What is the coolest or best tool that has kind of changed your whole content journey since you started that you probably still use?

Yes, I have an answer for that and it relates to actually— I didn't think I answered your last question very well, so I wanted to go touch on that real quick because in the future I want to systematize all of my different content. So I have the OmniContent, I had the Polymath's Polycast, and now I've simplified my creation aspect. And so what I wanted to do is create this consistency layer so that I could build off of there and create subscription models. So in the future, I can do— Ghost has a subscription platform. There's also a tool called specialproject.io, which allows you to make your own Netflix. And so, I'm gonna make my own video platform like that as well. And the reason why I really love these kind of ideas, I can systematize it in Notion. That's the tool, that's the number one, that's the answer to your question there, notion.so, where you can create your own basically life operating system. And that's what I've been doing is combining everyone else's templates that they've made and make it a really unique organized system so that way I can have this automation in my life but also this kind kind of input and output. And I think that's really cool.

That's really, really cool. Well, Dustin, thank you so much for sharing this. I mean, I'm sure we could talk for hours on different tools and projects and all the different thoughts that you have on stuff, but we keep the show to this length. And is there anything that you want to add at the end here for our listeners or give them kind of an insight to where they can find out more about what you're doing?

I think that if you want to become a content creator that's prolific and really keep up with the big people out there is to find a way to systematize, automate in a very positive way, not in a scummy way, and then also have a good strategy involved. And when you can combine those three areas together, you can really become quite successful at creating tons of content. And so if you want to find more about me and the content I create, you can go to polyinnovator.space. I'm remaking the website with Ghost, and so it'll be changing here soon and have a lot better content on there as well. I actually consolidated all 180 blog posts that I've made over the past better half a decade onto this new site, as well as also the new stuff that I'm making. Other than that, you can find me at Polyinnovator on any platform. That is it.

Excellent. Well, thank you very much, Dustin, for, for talking with me today.

Thank you for having me, Shaun. Thanks for listening to the Content Amplification Podcast. If you have questions about how you can amplify your content strategy, go to AmplifyMyContent.com.