How Podcasting Becomes a Powerful Lead Generation Tool (Even If You’re Just Starting Out)

Welcome to Inside the Speakeasy Podcast, the private room where today's sharpest founders, innovators, and renegade thinkers come to trade the ideas that move industries. This show is brought to you by HighLevel, the AI-driven business operating system trusted by over 2 million businesses to help automate, scale, and create real leverage. HighLevel isn't just a tool, it's the engine behind some of the most agile and high-performing teams on the planet. If you're ready to streamline everything, amplify your reach, and actually build a business that works for you, you're in the right place. Visit www.gohighlevel.com/speakeasy-mastermind-promo to get an exclusive 30-day trial for being a listener of the Inside the Speakeasy podcast.

Enjoy the show. Have you ever thought about doing a podcast and been scared? Well, today's episode, you're going to learn from Armando out of New Orleans and how he absolutely crushes it with podcasts and how you can use podcasts podcasting as a huge strategy for generating leads no matter where you are in business, what you're doing, and it's guaranteed success. You've got to listen to these amazing tips. Plus, if you're already running podcasts, how to do it better, how to level up. And we're going to get into so much more about production and acting and how to combat imposter syndrome. And we're going to hit all sorts of topics today ranging around podcasting, getting lead gen through podcasting, what you need to learn about podcasting as far as should I do it, should I not do it? And if you are doing it, you can do it better. And it goes beyond podcasting. We're talking entertainment, baby. We're talking getting some cool things because Armando is the man. He's actually produced our Speakeasy Mastermind events too. And everywhere I'm going to events, I want Armando behind me as the producer director and just get in his brain. Welcome to the show, buddy.

Hey, thank you, man. Thank you for having me. You guys got an amazing brand. We could talk about the Speakeasy Mastermind too a little bit. I definitely want to drop some testimonials as far as Speakeasy Mastermind Mastermind and what it's been like for me.

So, well, I appreciate that. Well, I mean, the other thing we're going to cover, we didn't talk about that in the intro here, is imposter syndrome. We all have it. And you actually talk a lot about that. In fact, you were just saying you came off a huge event talking about that. I love— before we get into the world of podcasting and all the stuff you learned that and entertainment, everything else, and you're acting too, you're an actor. I got— how did this all start? You know, was there imposter syndrome buried into that? Walk me through that a little bit.

I think we all, as actors, I'm gonna say actors, have this constant just drive to get validation from people. That's why we love getting on stage because we get the applause and we're just constantly chasing the validation. And because of childhood trauma, I guess, you know, people, they have a lot of head trash and a lot of trauma regarding putting themselves out there, right? Whether it's getting made fun of, whether it's all of the things that are stopping them from taking action. All that is wrapped up into what I call imposter syndrome, stage fright, whatever it is that you want to call it. And I was asked to speak at an 8-figure firm conference about imposter syndrome specifically. And as I was putting it all together and trying to figure out, okay, what is, what's a common thread with all of my clients and how have they been able to make the jump? right? I know you work with a lot of celebrities that already are, you know, 100 stages past that. We work with a lot of people that have high reputations. They're high-level attorneys that have been in their field for years, right? Sometimes decades. But you get them in front of a camera and then they clam up. And so we're going, okay, how are we taking somebody that is an expert at what they do and put them in front of a camera and make them feel natural. And are you familiar with Theodore Roosevelt's Man in the Arena?

No, I've heard of it.

Yeah.

Great.

Right. So basically the speech was, it is not the critic who counts. It is not the man who points at the strongman stumbling. The credit belongs to the man that's actually in the arena, the one whose face is marred by dust, sweat, and blood. Because that's the guy, right? Or that's the girl, the ones that are in there doing it. And so what I learned is if you can give yourself stage time, and what does stage time mean? Either actual stage where you're speaking in front of people, social media is a stage now, right? So not just creating content and leaving it in a Google Drive, but creating content and putting it out and podcasting, right? Like this is a stage. And so as we're going through, What I've noticed is that the more stage time you get, the more confident you get because all of it's inside you. And I bring it to the 3 rules of improv. The 3 rules. Have you ever done improv?

Nope.

It's amazing. Such a releasing experience, right? You're scared. You should absolutely do it.

Yeah, I heard all the time. I heard that's actually good for to, you know, people get through their improv to help with speaking and everything else out there.

It is because what it does is it helps you realize that All of the authenticity that you have is within you, right?

Yeah.

You just have to be comfortable letting it out and showing it off to everybody. And so the 3 rules of improv are say yes and, which we're doing right now. We're yes anding, right? You're giving me a platform. You're saying yes and you're building. I'm saying yes and I'm building and we're building a story together because this is not scripted, right? Like you didn't send me a script before this podcast.

Correct.

So congratulations. You're already improvising. We improvise on a daily basis.

Right?

On how we talk to people, right? Yes, and. Second rule is make your partner look like a rock star. So you've given me an opportunity to speak on your platform. You're making me feel good about it. You have edified me at the very beginning. So I'm already in a state where I feel like I can share my truth with you. Not only that, because we're live or not live, but because we're recording this, you're not going to let me fall on my face, right? You're gonna treat me like a rock star. Because the more you treat me like a rock star, the more I'm going to talk, the more I'm going to feel comfortable sharing my story with you. And so you make your partner look like a rock star. That's two. And then the third thing is say the first thing that comes to your head. But we're so quick to bring in the editor, right? Everybody's so quick to bring in the inner critic to edit something before it exists. And I'm saying, why don't you just create right at the very beginning? Like, if you've never done social media content, you're going to suck. If you've never done a podcast, you're gonna suck. If you've never spoken on stage, you're gonna suck. If you've never been on stage singing or whatever, whenever you're starting something new, you're gonna suck at it. But the more you do it, the better you get. I sang on Bourbon Street for 8 years.

Wow.

I was the lead singer of the band. Okay. And when I first got approached, I was an MC and I would sing along to the music and I would just keep the party going, right? That was my job on Bourbon Street. And then I got approached to say, hey, you got a good voice. Would you like to be a lead singer in this band? And I was like, absolutely not. But I did it anyway.

Right.

And they're like, look, we'll give you, you know, the lyrics on paper, you know, and you can just read the lyrics while the song's going on. And we'll, you know, we'll practice a few times. You already know Don't Stop Believin'. You already know Billie Jean. You already know these songs, right? You just got to get more stage time. And so I got up there and, you know, the first week I was just reading off the paper and looking and super awkward, you know, but you did it right. And the more I did it, the more creative I got, the less I cared. And the more I got into the creative end of things.

And you had fun with it. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, what you said earlier, just to kind of go back, I think a lot of it is, and I think we all, I mean, not just this, but in a lot of things we do, you're so afraid of what if we don't get started. And I think in your, what you're saying is, I mean, just mindset. Look, no, you're not going to be great at it, but you also know that you're never going to get to there if you don't start. So you got to throw yourself in there. I mean, isn't it, aren't you playing a lot of the, you know, what's the worst case that can happen kind of thing too? Like, how do you get through that, that fear people have? Oh my God, I'm going to be judged. I'm going to suck.

Yeah. You know, part of what we do, and I've got consultants that have acting backgrounds that have directing backgrounds. So a lot of our consultations are bringing them through acting exercises and doing role-playing stuff and giving them opportunities to do the thing before they go and do the thing. Right? And as a result, they'd be like, did you die? No, you didn't die. Great. So let's move on. Right? Like, you're going to survive this and we're going to hold your hand through the process. But more importantly, we're going to coach you through it and sort of be the bird that kicks you out of the nest that, you know, will show you that you will fly no matter what.

So wrapping through just the imposter syndrome in general. So what's the biggest thing then? The biggest technique is just go. Just do it.

The thing is, if you want to get over it, I would start, go to AI, ask whatever it is that your avatar, ask it, give you like 20 Q&A questions that you can answer, grab your phone, and then just look at it and answer those questions. You know, 20 of them. And then here's the most important thing, put it out, like actually post it.

Right. And just get it going, get the momentum. Love that.

This role. Yes.

I love that. So let's go back to earlier days. So Armando, what— take us through just— you're obviously a successful entrepreneur, done acting, all that. Where did little Armando start? How did this all happen? How'd you get to where you are today?

Man. So I was— I played trumpet when I was in middle school. And then throughout high school, I was just kind of trying to figure it out, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And a friend of mine, told me that there were auditions for Grease, the show, the high school musical when I was in high school. Uh, it was my last year. It was my last semester and I auditioned and it changed my life. I got the lead role and I joined a barbershop quartet.

I mean, going back right there, I mean, you just said, shit, I'll do it. That was imposter syndrome. You went there. I was probably one of your big, the confidence, I'm sure, went way the hell up. Is this at New Orleans, by the way, too?

This was in Harlem, Georgia. So ended up doing that and got an agent and started doing, you know, a ton of theater, you know, learned a lot, learned from some amazing people that took me, you know, took me under their wing and mentored me through that process. And, you know, and they were like, you just got, you got to work on it. You got to do the craft. You got to have a craft for acting and you got to pay attention to the work and instead of the destination, but I didn't really understand that in my 20s too much. Right. I was just, always wanting to get there, always wanting to get there. And I did a— there was an awesome transformational art exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art that I still remember in 2012 called Lifelike. And all of the artists in there had the mindset that it was just about the art form, not necessarily the result, right? So they were recreating these everyday objects out of For instance, there was a trash bag, a hefty trash bag overflowing, and it was just right there on the ground and it was made of marble. Like, you looked at it and it looked like a hefty— it looked like a plastic bag, but the guy painstakingly recreated a hefty trash bag out of marble for just the art's sake, right? Like, he wasn't selling it. It wasn't— this guy recreated his childhood home and painstakingly took 2 years to find the exact refrigerator, to find the exact wallpaper, to find the dining room table and the chairs and the linoleum floor. And you walk through it like you walk through his house in the exhibit.

Oh my gosh.

And it was mind-blowing to me because I was like, I was so end result driven. I was like, and there was like, no, man, are you missing the whole point of it? Like, the journey is the point. Like, aren't we here for the journey? Like, you're trying to get to the end, right? And so that sort of changed it for me. And so I started getting really into the study of acting. And that's when I, like, I took all kinds of acting techniques and that's when I got involved in improv and, you know, improv changed my life too. I did, you know, Upright Citizens Brigade in LA, you know, National Comedy Company, Comedy Sports and things like that. It was just transformational for me. So anyway, like it just, stage time for me, like changed my life, you know? And so that's what I'm preaching these days is just like, you know, get outta your comfort zone. Fastest way to do that is get yourself some stage time, especially coaches, consultants, and, you know, these professionals, they want to, you know, they want to step out and step into their power. And when I'm like, I'll help them out.

Yep. Love it. So I know you do, you help in all those areas and you're great at it, but you know, ultimately the biggest thing that you do a lot of, and I know you do in the niche of the attorney niche, because that's just a niche that you're having a lot of success with. And we can go down that a little bit. Cause I want to talk about what you do there. Is obviously podcasting. I mean, get your stage time and I could see, you know, talk to me first about the bridge between all you learned in acting and just getting out there into why you got so passionate about the world of podcasting.

Podcasting changed my life in 2020 during COVID Okay. I was kind of sitting around just like everybody else trying to figure out what it is that I'm gonna do with my life. A friend of mine who I went to high school with, Louis, was super successful with a PI firm, a personal injury firm. In Atlanta, Georgia called Bader Scott. I think they were pulling in $40 mil a year. And I was just like, hey man, like, let's sit and have a conversation about how you got successful. I think it was not a podcast. It was just a Zoom call, me and him. And I was just asking him questions. And then 3 months later, he calls me up and he's like, hey, I just started this company called 8 Figure Firm. It's a consulting firm for attorneys on how to scale. Will you come and shoot content for me? And I was like, sure. Yeah, I would love to. Right? Because he knew I had a production company. But at the time I wasn't shooting like volume of content for people. So I learned about like, you know, creating a batch of content for everybody. And then he started hiring me for other attorneys. That's how I got into the legal space. And what I noticed is that, man, one person can change the whole game. I mean, he just him alone, him and his company and our embedded partnership has been 7 multi-seven figures in revenue off of one person.

Right.

And so that's why I'm like, man, at now what I'm preaching to people on podcasting is like, okay, sure. Use your podcasting for viewership. Sure. Use your podcasting to get your personal brand out there. But for me, more importantly is who are the people I want to connect with? Who are the people that if I had a connection with them, that we could maybe create some sort of embedded partnership or they introduced me to somebody else, which is how I'm talking to you right now.

Right.

Whitney Lee, who was on my podcast, introduced me to Jasmine Jonte, who introduced me to Glenn Ledwell, who got me into Flight Club. I met you at Flight Club. This whole Speakeasy Mastermind opened up to me that I didn't even know about right now. I'm going to Antarctica on Saturday as a result, joined Flow as a result. And so I'm meeting all of these people through my podcast, not because I'm trying to build a viewership. I'm just like trying to create connections. And so the more connections I'm making, the more opportunities I'm getting.

Love it. Okay. So you're actually sort of teasing a little bit of the strategy because I know we talk a lot about how to leverage podcasts for lead gen. There's so many questions I have in the world of podcasts. I mean, you know, first, I mean, I guess we could start with the basics, you know, what to do to start, how do we get going about it? And you're talking about using podcasting as strategy to generate new leads. So maybe we cover like all of those. If somebody that's sitting down listening to this, Let's start with a person who doesn't have a podcast yet, and then we'll kind of lead into, you know, strategies for those that have a podcast may not be thinking about right now. So starting with those that don't, what would you sit down with them and say why they should be getting one and how it's going to help and generate leads?

I love it. Cause I think I have this conversation at least 5 times a day. Yeah. Cause everybody's, everybody's mindset when it comes to podcasts is that it's saturated market. Yeah. Who's going to listen to my podcast? What's the point? Right? Like all of the, just the head trash of why I shouldn't be doing it. And then I come in and go, look, number one, I have a client. Her name is Audrey. She's an accent coach for A-list celebrities. Right? And she, uh, Daniel Kaluuya, who, who was in Get Out, the lead actor in that, he won the Academy Award for his role in the Malcolm X movie. She coached him on that accent.

Okay.

All this to say that I helped her launch her podcast. And she can't even get viewership. Imagine this person that's working with A-list actors can't get viewership, right? Because she just has to get it going. She has to get it off the ground. I keep telling her, I was like, don't— you, you can't expect it to start hitting after just 10 episodes, right? It's just, it's a long game. I told her, I was like, guys, your— the point of the podcast is to connect with the people that you want to connect with, right? So for her, she wants producers to hire her, she wants production companies to hire her, agents, people like that. So I'm like, bring those people on. Don't worry about the celebrities. Yeah, bring in the celebrities to create the credibility for your show. But for me, if I'm trying to build the book of business, then the people that I want to connect with are the people that already have connections to my avatar. And we learned about this through Flight Club too, right? Like with the joint ventures and things like that. It's like the, these people already have hundreds, if not thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people in their organization already. That, and they have the clout. And so with one email, they can go, hey, I think you should work with so-and-so. Boom. All of a sudden can change your life.

Yeah.

Right. Yep. With one email. So those are the people that I'm sitting going, okay, who do I need to meet? Which is why I niche down to attorneys because this works really well if you niche down. If you're telling me that, hey, I want to work with entrepreneurs that are like $3 to $5 million in revenue, how many people do you know what their revenue is in their business? Like, I don't, right? If you tell me, hey, I'm looking for PI attorneys, great, I know PI attorneys. If you're telling me I'm looking for dentists, or I'm looking for coaches and consultants, or I'm looking for so-and-so, then I can tell you, hey, I know where those people are hanging out. They're hanging out at conferences, they're hanging out in Facebook groups, they're hanging out in school groups, LinkedIn groups. And so what I'm doing is I'm going straight to the source. I'm going to the conference organizer, I'm talking to the speakers, I'm talking to the exhibitors. Because all of those people are serious, right? Conference organizers are serious. People that are speaking on stage are serious. And the people that are spending money to be at that conference, they're also serious.

That's right. That's right.

Well, those are the people that I go after. Legal vendors, conference organizers. We did— we just came back from LautiGrom in San Diego, right? Huge legal conference. And we did 50 podcasts in 2.5 days.

Oh my God. You must have been fine. Holy smoke.

It was insane. But we cleaned up. Like, we were so busy after that conference, I had to hire 3 new people, right? And like, I'm, I still have a backlog of people that want to work with me.

So let's go more granular, because if you're listening to this, they might want to make sure that everybody really follows what you're doing here. So, so you're obviously in the legal niche. You're going to a legal conference. You were able to set yourself up as the podcast guy within there, clearly. You know, you obviously did some work to get there because I know you're podcasting different lawyers. So I imagine you already had a relationship with the organizer of Mardi Gras to get that role, right?

I did, because guess where I brought him?

You brought him into a podcast.

I brought him to my podcast.

And then he's doing like, hey, why don't you come to my conference? And you probably suggested, hey, why don't I be there? I could do podcasts, everybody, get everybody on the show. So he sets a podcast room for you. You're now talking.

No, I did it right there on the floor. And I paid to be there, right? Like I wasn't, I wasn't asking for a handout. I was just like, hey, I'm going to buy a booth. And I'm going to set up at the booth and it was loud and noisy and people were walking by. But because of that, I had the conference organizer, I had speakers that were on stage, I had the top exhibitors come to my booth. And then obviously other attorneys are coming by going, what are you guys doing? Oh yeah, come on in. We're talking about this. This is what we do. You don't have to have a podcast company to have a podcast, right? Like whatever. If you had an AI company that services lawyers, You should have a podcast at that conference talking to them about AI, right? And bringing them into that conversation super easily.

Now you're generally, I mean, look, as an interviewer, again, you know, we both play that game, you know, you're generally interested in the topic. You have to, you know, you have to be listening, engaging in the conversation. We all know one-on-one, this goes back way to the days of winning friends and influencing others and all that. I mean, you're generally interested with what you are. Obviously, you know, people then like you, they're like, okay. This Armando guy is pretty cool. Thanks for having me on the show. Then what? And then are they asking you like, how do I, you know, you're like, yeah, you should create a podcast for your law firm. What are you selling to your lawyers? Cause I want to understand the end game and how it works. Is it a podcast?

Immediately? Yeah. That I see you're doing a podcast, but what is it? Why? What do you do? You know, and then we roll into a conversation super easily about what we do, how we help. And it's not a hard sell, right? Have you thought about building a personal brand? Have you thought about You know, doing social media content and podcasts. I always thought about that, but I never knew where to start. We can help you with that. We do that all the time.

So the lawyers, the sell to them is, look, you're just a regular, you know, why don't you get yourself out there more? As you said earlier, throw yourself out there, get on stage. That's going to build credibility to you and the law firm. People doing research, Google, whatever else are out there. They see that, wow, this guy's legit or gal's legit because of the podcast.

Yeah. But here's the thing with. Podcast Legal specifically is I'm inviting other attorneys in their space or other referral partners that can refer them business. For instance, I have a, a workers' comp lawyer in Fort Lauderdale. They just do workers' comp. They don't do personal injury. They don't do anything else. So a lot of their referral partners are personal injury attorneys. And so I'm like, well, let's start a podcast and invite those personal injury attorneys to your podcast. You'll create a relationship. Now you can open up those referral partnerships. You get PI cases, they get work injury cases. So we've been doing that for the last year and they've, I mean, they passed dozens of cases that are 6, you know, high 6 figures in value, right? Yeah. All because of the relationship that they built on a podcast, which is what I'm saying. You know, if you're an estate planning attorney, bring in financial advisors, family law attorneys, other, you know, other people that you can Do that with immigration, same deal. Nonprofits, other personal injury attorneys that don't do immigration, you know, all these other— you can get cases galore.

Love it.

All while just building relationships and building your personal brand at the same time and building content.

Got it. So again, I know we're going to the rabbit hole of legal, but for anybody watching/listening, think about your niche. I mean, I mean, how can you— I mean, certainly you could take what you're doing in your industry, your niche, Same concept. That's great. So just do it, get out there, start it. So let's talk about that, managing expectations. You know, I'm somebody myself, you know, 5, 6 months in, you know, going on that. What do you tell people who are just like, well, it's not like snap your fingers and you're going to have all this business. What do you advise on what it's going to take to build something when they can start expecting a little bit of ROI for their time?

I mean, if you really understand the power of follow-up. I know Glenn had posted something on Facebook a few days ago, which I thought was super powerful because he was like, it's not about the first call. It's about the second call. It's that second follow-up call that lets that person know, oh, this person, it wasn't just a, it wasn't just a one-night stand. They actually want to have a relationship with me. Right. We forget because we're just so focused on ads and bringing in new business and bringing new business. That we forget about actually creating relationships with people on a human level, you know, and I know AI is pervasive through everything. So people are looking for connection more and more often. So you're asking me how quickly can somebody see return? It could happen just like it happened for me off of the first one, right? Like you invite somebody on, they connect with you, they're a good referral partner for you. All of a sudden they're all like, hey, yeah, let's create an embedded partnership here. I love what you're doing.

So let me carefully explain the win you're saying in there. We oftentimes think, and I'm not saying, I'm just saying in general, we think, oh, podcast, I'm only going to get business because of the thousands of, you know, the listeners that I hope listen to it one day. And maybe there's only 5, 10 listeners. And what you're getting me to rethink the obvious is in front of me. It's not so much the listeners. They will come over time. It's the person you're interviewing who is, you've deepened a relationship with. They know, like, and trust you more, they might be bringing you business.

That's it.

I'd say, okay, so that's a really good reframe for those of us that are hesitant and worried about how much time and energy to get going there. Now, the other side, I assume that's just a matter of everything's different, I imagine, right? So if you're interviewing some people and some people have huge lists and they promote it, you're going to get more traffic. You may get momentum. You may not. Either way, I think what you're arguing is that sort of, or maybe you're saying maybe not, I'm sort of reading into it. That if you're doing it right, interviewing the right people, the followers from your podcast is sometimes the gravy, but the real action's in the person you're interviewing. Is that a big part of what you're saying?

1,000%. I don't really care if anybody listens to the podcast, to tell you the truth, right? Because it's just a recorded one-on-one. You know, it's just in a heightened state. I know, you know, I know that because it's a podcast, Eric is going to show up, you know, to bring his A-game. Armando is also going to show up to bring his A-game, right? Because we're being recorded. So this one-on-one is a heightened connection.

So genius at the same time. I freaking love that. You're so dead on. You're right. Just the fact that there might be one person besides you and I listening to this conversation, we have to be on our A-game and we have to put on a good show, or at least, you know, be focused and paying attention and not multitasking and doing the shit that we do sometimes.

100%.

Love it.

Yeah. I mean, what people remember, I think in The Ultimate Sales Machine, they say people remember about 17% of a conversation. And that's if they're paying attention. Wow. We're not getting on the phone and email and distractions and yada, yada, yada. But yeah, for sure. I'm like totally engaged. You're totally engaged.

Yeah.

Right. And that's what I'm saying. Like I've built massive relationships with people just because we're on a podcast together and I'm like actually learning about them and there's connection like, holy shit, I actually do like this guy or actually do like this girl. We should totally do some stuff together.

So a real-time strategy pivot. Live on the podcast here. I've been, and I know you're going to tell me, but when we launched Speakeasy, I think this is interview like number 30 something, I believe. My focus has been, let me just go talk to everybody in the community. And for, so I mean, for a couple of reasons, one is I selfishly get to know people more, which allows me to help serve them in other ways and vice versa. I also know subconsciously it does some things you talk about, you know, they're going to maybe, you know, continue to say good things about our relationship, Speakeasy, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm hoping other people in the community get to know more about them. What I've sort of put a line over, at least fuzzy line, and I haven't let it go yet, is people outside of Speakeasy. And you're going to say, Eric, you're missing the boat here. You should be interviewing a lot of people outside the Speakeasy to get them, you know, to obviously share members, all that. And I think I've been blindly thinking, well, I think the members are more interested in meeting other members versus they just want good content from people. I'm guessing, I don't know. What's your take on that? Would you suggest that I should stop lift up the curtain and say, hey, I can, I should just interview anybody who's obviously, who's got good content, could share stuff of value to the community. So you would argue?

I would have both for sure. Right? Like one, have the Speakeasy Mastermind members talk about what they do, obviously. Two, they should obviously talk about Speakeasy in a good way. That way you can also get testimonial in video form from it, right? Where they can just, you you know, talk to me about what Speakeasy Mastermind means to you and what kind of experience you've had and why do you keep showing up. And, you know, I told you in November I'm going to use this strategy to bring more people into the Speakeasy Mastermind for New Orleans. I think I already have 5 new people coming to the event in December.

Amazing.

Yeah. And it's just all from the podcast. And here's the deal. It's not even me. I'm not even the one doing the podcast. I have a whole another podcast called Partnership for Profit, where I have 3 podcast hosts. And so we're doing 10, 15 podcasts a week. So I have my VA going, all right, who are the top marketing agencies in New Orleans or Baton Rouge, surrounding areas, whether social media, web design, you know, whatever. And then if they're ranking at the top, they're obviously spending money and doing something right. So we'll go to their contact us page. Hey, we'd love to have you on the podcast. We bring them to the podcast, we interview them. It's another weeding out process too. And then from there I'm like, hey, I think you'd really love this group called Speakeasy Mastermind Mastermind.

Take a look.

No, you know, we're meeting on, on December 4th. You should come by, check it out. Some really cool people in there.

Yep.

You know, and it's a super, yeah. Tell me more about that. Would love to. I would love to come in.

Great.

Wow.

Genius. Well, geez, here's how we solve this problem and we do what we teach on the podcast. I love it. Brilliant. Okay. I mean, this is obviously, I hope everybody's learning. Like I'm sitting here in real time saying, okay, I'm going to change my strategy here. So thank you for that. Those that you are seeing podcasts and you're obviously observing and watching, what are maybe 2 or 3 things that you're seeing? I mean, for one, I already got one big takeaway, which is just, you know, the guest and thinking about the guests and how to like reposition your mind. These guests could be relationship builders and people that can connect you to leads, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe other tips for people that already have podcasts, things that you say commonly they're not doing a good job over, they should be doing this or that.

I don't know if they're super engaged in the conversation. Did you ever read Ray Edwards' How to Write Copy That Sells?

God, that was so long ago.

It's a while ago. We'll see. It's so good though. It's such a good book. Anyway, the framework on how he creates the video sales letters is PASTOR, right? Who are the people you serve? What are the problems and pain points that they have? How do you amplify that pain? Stories of people you've helped, transformations, offer, and resolve, right? So that's the framework. When I'm teaching my podcast hosts how to do podcast interviews, I do it through that framework. Hey Eric, tell me about the people you help. Well, we help entrepreneurs meet other entrepreneurs in this environment, yada yada. What's some of their pain points? Pain points is, you know, entrepreneurship is hard. We're oftentimes alone and we don't really have many people to talk to. And then A stands for amplify, amplify the pain. So what happens if they don't have other people to talk to, right? Burnout. You know what I mean? They're gonna continue, uh, maybe not learning the things that they need to learn, right? Tell me about a story of somebody that, that you've helped. Well, you know, Armando over here, he joined the Speakeasy Mastermind, met amazing people. All of a sudden, you know, made some connections, added another 6 figures to his bank account. You know, but more importantly, he's learning and he's taking the tips that he's learned through Speakeasy Mastermind and applying it to his life and business. Right?

Right. Awesome.

That's what's transformation. Transformation is, you know, now he's living a more fulfilled life and knows that he has a community that he can count on.

Right? That's awesome. All right.

And then offer. What's your offer, Eric? Oh, offer is, you know, people can come to the first event for free. We also have an annual event. We have a circle group, yada, yada, yada.

Yada.

R is the resolve. What's the call to action? Speakeasy Mastermind, yada yada. Right? And so that's the framework that I, we use to ask questions. Not that we can't ask other questions here and there. We just, that's the framework that we use to question things.

Yep. What are you gonna say? So I was gonna say, you feel like the biggest thing you've seen that people are missing out on, they're just a little bit all over the place. They don't follow a good framework and therefore the content isn't harder to digest and watch/listen to.

Yeah, I think because they also don't really care.

You know what I mean?

Like you could tell if somebody cares and they're engaged or they're off thinking about something else and like, okay, you know, like it's not a— you're saying it's not easy to sit and listen to somebody attentively these days because we're so ADD, right? And it's like, all right, what's the next thing? Especially for us that, that we're in the legal industry and we're having to interview PIs, attorneys over and over and over again. Or immigration, like how many times do I need to hear and be super engaged about, you know, a dog bite, you know, or an Uber accident.

And Monte, you probably have your legal degree already. You probably go to pass that exam pretty quickly at this point. Well, all these lawyers you talk to. No, I mean, I still go back to how the hell you did 50 interviews in 3 days. Like, it just boggles my mind. I'm like dying. If I got a day in my calendar, I have 2 on the day. I'm just like, oh my God, this is going to be tough. But yeah. Good on you for that.

Wow. Yeah. But here's the thing too, right? Like, I know your time is valuable. I know your time is valuable. So the fact that you're allowing me a platform to talk about myself also creates this connection and bond, right? Because I'm like, dude, this dude could be doing so many other things, but he decided that I am important enough to spend, you know, 30, 45 minutes to talk about me. And my expertise. Of course I'm going to be bonded to you. Of course that's going to make me feel good.

Right. It's true. No, you nailed it. All right. So that was very helpful on the podcasting. And then the other love, I mean, I mean, obviously, hopefully you're enjoying hearing from Armando here, but you know, other things that you're doing right now. I mean, you're, in fact, we were just talking in the quote green room through all the connections that you are going to Antarctica this next weekend and you get opportunities to film. You've done our events, our big Speakeasy events. I've seen you at a Flight Club events. You love producing the big event. Yeah, we're wearing many hats. So that's, so tell me a little bit more about that. And what are any takeaways you have from the production side, the filming and the video of these big events? What do you love to do there? That's kind of a lot of questions built into one.

I love the producing end of things, right? Like I'm all about the delegate to elevate and the who, not how, right? Like Gary, who's my head videographer, has been a godsend because he just, He cares, he loves it, he's into it. And that just goes into a good hiring process, right? And just making sure that you understand what it is that you need, what is, you know, clearly define the KPIs of the role. And so for me these days, it's more about finding the right whos and not the hows. That way I can be present at Flight Club and Flow and all these other conferences where I can just, you know, be on the producing end, meet people, you know, be engaged. And then, you know, my team is doing their thing.

Love it. Similar. I mean, you and I follow similar philosophy. It's like, how can you as fast as possible find the who to allow yourself to do all these things that you're doing? What kind of events, for those that don't know, what kind of events do you like to produce? And tell me a little bit more about what the, what your key things you're doing are.

I mean, we've been doing, so a lot of masterminds as of late, Flow, Flight Club, 8 Figure Firm, 7 Figure Agency. Speakeasy Mastermind. And 2026, I'm going really hard into like legal conferences, but then also talking to some of the members that are in Speakeasy Mastermind and Flight Club about them going to the conferences and starting a podcast at the conference. Cause it was so such a successful endeavor for us that like they're, you know, people are spending thousands to go to these conferences to sit in a booth. And they think that the booth is going to attract people and it's not, right? Like it might, but like candy in a bowl is not going to get people to sign up, right? Or want to listen to your thing. But if you had a podcast right there and there, you know, and you're inviting people like every 20 minutes to come and have a conversation with you that are other vendors in the space and speakers and conference organizers and actual avatars that you want to talk to. Right.

Oh, so genius. So simple. Yeah. So like, I imagine again, you know, you got the confidence, you don't have the problem. You'd like to talk to the people. You also understand the AV side of it. And I have a feeling people will put a lot of excuses in front of them why they couldn't do something less simple as that. And I imagine you're coaching people and teaching people how to do that. I imagine it ain't that complicated to make it, put it together. And oh my, it's like, you're literally sitting, I mean, this is one of the biggest gifts you're giving today. So I appreciate that. If anybody's listening and saying, wow, next time they go get a booth or I mean, this should motivate a lot of people to get a booth just to do what you're talking about and test it out and say, I'm going to get a ton of leads by doing this. Powerful, powerful. So please reach out to Armando if you have questions on that. I'm like, damn, come to Speakeasy Mastermind, our annual event, and get a booth and we'll have everybody doing podcasting. That would be funny. Competing corners. So Armando, what else? What did we miss that we didn't hit that you usually like to talk about in these, uh, I don't worry about a lot of things, but I think, I think I've overwhelmed and firehosed people enough.

I do have a show that I produce called Life on Bourbon. It's a comedy about New Orleans. And so I'm self-producing that and it's a grassroots project that, that I put together and it's a labor of love for sure. And I'm just trying to have a good time these days.

Love it. And if you are, I hope, I mean, everybody likes to get to New Orleans every once in a while. You now have a new friend. Reach out to Armando if you get out there. He knows everybody out there. You might be able to sing a song for you and bring you to something fun. And the last year, you already teased it throughout. So, I mean, but I'll have to ask it again in a more proper way because you kind of threaded it, but maybe top wins. What have you loved about Speakeasy so far?

I just, look, the people for sure. And we talk about that. That's the whole reason, right? That's the whole reason why we go to a mastermind. Like, sure. Is going to Austin fun and San Diego? Sure. Yes. Love it. Love that. Love that I can travel, but I travel so that I can go see my friend Eric and Glenn and Stephanie and all of these people, you know, to connect with them on, you know, one-to-one basis, flesh to flesh, looking them in the eye. And I'm like, wow, this is a powerful thing when you get a bunch of high vibrational beings together that are all driven and focused and motivated and want to grow and have that same mindset. When you're in that space with these people, you can't help but elevate. Like, it just happens naturally. You don't even have to think about it. You don't even have to, like, I would imagine if somebody was just like, I'm going to show up to this event with like the most negative attitude ever to not want to like be involved in anything. And that person would like just have, like, it would be so dissonant that they would either have to leave. Or match that energy.

That's right. Yeah.

And that's, that's what I noticed when I first went to Flight Club was my first mastermind thing that like was outside of like the legal space. Cause I had done Eight Figure Firm when I did that and I met you and you were telling me about, oh, you could do this, but at a local level. And I was like, oh, that's cool. I like that. Right. It was like, cool. Let me do that. Right. And so. We started the Speakeasy Mastermind New Orleans chapter, and I knew some guys that, you know, were heavy hitters in the marketing space. We never had an excuse, I guess, to get together to talk.

Yep.

And so this was like such a perfect excuse to do that. And because people were invested in it, it was a way for us to sit and talk about what are the wins and what are you learning? And not just in business, but personally and biohacking and, You know, AI in business. I mean, it would like the whole, the whole thing. And it's just like, wow, okay, so you got some people in here that you can count on that like have your back. That's been my experience with the New Orleans chapter. But then being able to plug into the Speakeasy Mastermind Global chapter, I've had several people on my podcast. We've connected, super smart people that, you know, and if you just go through the scroll through the circle, you You know, Circle App, it's just like, it's just a ton, a ton of value. Yeah. You know, so it's been, it's been transformational for me for sure.

Oh, well, thank you so much. Appreciate that. And we're better for it, much better for having people like you in the community, especially leaders like you that are leading charge in great cities. So appreciate everything you're doing and appreciate your time today coming in inside the Speakeasy Mastermind and dropping some amazing nuggets. So thank you so much, Armando. Look forward to hanging out with you soon. Appreciate it, man.

And that's a wrap from the Speakeasy Podcast.

If something sparked for you, don't keep it to yourself.

Share it, review it, and pass it to the one person who needs to hear this right now. Want in on the Real Mastermind?

Tap the link in the show notes to apply. Until next time, keep scaling, stay sharp, and don't be the smartest one in the room.