Mastering the Art Of Influence Growth Podcasting with Jordan Paris of the Growth Mindset University Podcast

Wish you were one of those influencers with raving fans who binge on your every word, consume all your content, buy everything you have to sell, and demand even more. Then stay tuned while Authority magazine columnist and buzzfeed contributor Tracy Hazzard shares strategies, tips and tactics from top videocasters, podcasters, authors and social influencers on creating that bingeable factor. Now let's join Tracy as she explores how to rise above all noise with the binge factor.

Hey everyone, welcome to Feed you'd brand center of Influence and I have a really cool influencer to talk with you today. Jordan Paris Jordan is a 21 year old author, web developer, podcast host and former college athlete. Seen in Men's Health, Yahoo. Finance and Nasdaq as the beacon of light for inspiring people from all walks of life. Jordan's podcast Growth Mindset University was ranked number three in iTunes training category and is consistently in the top 10 on the show. He interviews young up and comers and the most successful people like Kevin Rudolph, David Meltzer, Mark Manson, Rachel Starr, and Dan Lok. Jordan is also the founder of the WordPress Rocketeer. Going to want to talk about that. Where he focuses on developing engaging websites to launch his clients dreams. And he approaches life and business as simple yet powerful as mantra. Don't make a living. Design a life. I love designing life. I love that. With this creator's mentality, Jordan has been able to produce outstanding results for himself and challenge others to rise above circumstances and take control of their lives. Welcome Jordan.

Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here, Tracy.

So I'm super excited to talk with you about the success that you've had because we don't get a lot of, I'm going to call it young podcasters. So there's a gap. There's kind of a gap of young entrepreneurs not taking to podcasts, but they're huge podcast listeners. So why is it that you decided a podcast was for you?

People ask me this question all the time. Probably one of the most asked questions and I don't have an answer. There's no sexy story behind it. There was never a moment I cannot recall for the life of me when I that moment that I decided to start the show or even why I decided to start the show. All I know is this, Tracy, is that episode number one came out on April 17th of 2018. That's all I know. It's like I was in a coma or something.

You woke and you were a podcaster.

Yeah, that's what happened. So that's the answer to your question.

Well, what are some of the most interesting or funny things that have happened to you since you started podcasting?

I mean, just the whole journey has been really cool. Whenever I'm reading a book, I end up reaching out to that author. Even if I'm, like, listening to music. Something got me on. I was listening to Kevin Rudolph and I was, like, listening to Let It Rock and all those songs, and I was like, wow, I forgot about him, you know, like, and I was really feeling it, and it was making me feel really good. And I was in the pool and just had my headphones, my Bluetooth headphones on in the pool, and I was loving it. And I was like, huh, I should reach out to him. So I got up and did a little bit of searching, not a ton. It was incredibly easy to find his email and had a response within an hour and a half. And he's a real cool guy. And we'll be in Miami next week getting together.

Wow. I think that's a really good, important point that you're making, that most people just don't reach out. And having the podcast gives you quite a bit of reach, gives you quite a bit of authority to be able to ask, because you're giving them publicity. Who doesn't want that?

That's right. That's exactly what you're giving them. You have something to offer them. It's much different than as to, hey, man, let's talk on the phone. Let's. Let's connect.

They're going to think you're selling them something, right?

Yeah, that, and it's like there's nothing really of value for offer them. So podcast is a great way to. It's a great excuse to connect with and be friends with the most successful people out there, build a relationship, right?

Absolutely. So now I'm sure your setup and getting started podcasting didn't go smoothly, especially if you can't remember how you even got started. So what were some of the big mistakes you made early on?

Yeah, I always wish that I knew what I was doing in the beginning, like, now, knowing that there's like this small window for you to get in new and noteworthy on Apple podcasts. I had no idea about that until months later when it was far too late. It's like, what am I gonna do? Start another podcast? No, I'm not.

You can still be noteworthy.

I can still be noteworthy.

You don't have to be new. You could still be noteworthy. So you could still use that opportunity.

Well, yes, of course, but so Many things. I was, you know, in the beginning I was on anchor of all things and eventually switched to something far better now. And I use simplecast currently. I think we've talked about that before. I know you have a brilliant hosting platform as well. And you know, I just. Even the technology it took me, I've got this box below me of all my in person interview equipment and it just took me 10 months to figure out what technology to use. It's just, you know, it's crazy how we have to like trial and error.

Right?

Right. We've got augmented reality, virtual reality, all this stuff like that's super advanced. But audio equipment I feel like is stuck in the 90s. Like this Zoom H5 is like a really expensive piece of equipment.

So Tom just did a whole recap of all the equipment out there. The microphones mostly, the kind of microphones that are like this where you're just handheld or on a mount that you would have in your office. Not necessarily ones you take on the road because you might still use these types of mics, but you plug them into the Zoom devices. But he was reviewing them and the real issue is that what we found was that the equipment was designed for studio use. And when you don't have a studio, you really overpay for what you're getting for what doesn't work because it picks up so much ambient sound, because it's really creating rich sound in a studio and it's not serving you well. So actually what we found was the more expensive equipment, the worse the outcome in a general environment.

That makes so much sense now.

It makes sense. Right. So when you use those same microphones, you think you need better and you need better and you're out in the field, you actually are making it worse for yourself. And so that's where you're making more work for you on the editing side is really what happens because as you know, when you start going, it's the resulting sound file that's the problem, not the recording of it. That none of that is noticeable in the field, but that you're carrying around this ugly looking device.

Yeah. And a lot of like adapters and all sorts of stuff. And I guess it makes sense. I mean, because the microphones I use are $29 Audio Technica lav mics on there and it's. They are. I cannot believe how good they are.

Right. The cheaper the better.

They are unreal. I just have so much good to say about them now. They have a 20 foot long cord and that could be a Blessing and curse. And I can't tell you the exact model if you just go to. I have a blog post up with all the equipment that I use. Jordanparis.com pu we'll make sure you get to there.

See? Yeah, but that's exactly the same issue. And so that's why Tom and I invented a new microphone that's going to come out soon. It's going to come out this summer on Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Because I was like, it was the cords and cables and missing interviews because the equipment failed that drove me to say we have to have a better solution. So these equipment fails are definitely early on. Big mistakes that happen and lessons that you learn.

Yeah. So yesterday you should have seen my setup. I was a one man crew yesterday giving a lecture at a university and I had, I love this iPhone XS Max for video, especially when like, I don't want to deal with more complicated stuff. But like I had a USB camera adapter in here plugged into this iPhone and then it like that camera adapter was like going to my Zoom H5 and iPhone was on a tripod. And then of course the 20 foot wires coming out of my Zoom H5 for my audio Technica microphone. It was just this long chain of connecting wires and it was ridiculous. But the reason I did that is because like now I had to do zero post production and matching of like the audio and video. It just went right to my phone and it's all like, it's perfect. And it just so it was pretty wild and complicated and stressful yesterday.

That's what I think. Part of the reason why we started our business the way that we did was because there were such tech challenges to doing it that it kept people from doing what was really great, like inviting great guests and just getting into the content and doing what you do best. So let's talk a little bit about that. What drove you to build this podcast and is it building your business in the way that you expect it?

Well, absolutely, because, I mean, right now I've got this new sort of thing going on where you and I had talked about it a couple of weeks ago. It's a full service marketing agency for serious podcasters and I'm still building it, but I have people reach out to me all day on LinkedIn because that's where my presence is. That's really where it happens for me. And I post these videos and they get tens of thousands of views. I post promo short little snippets of the podcast, people asking Me all day. I wake up with 85 messages. Jordan, how did you create this video? Jordan, how did you create that video? Jordan, what are you using? Jordan, how did you do this? How did you do that in the beginning? What about this graphic?

Now they want to know all about the how to.

I love it, right? Exactly. But even when I tell them how to do it, I mean, they can't do it 1/10 as good as we do it.

Yeah. You know, that's a huge problem. That's kind of why I've always been reluctant about teaching. I'm actually doing a bootcamp on Friday, and I've been pushed into it because so many people just were like, we just really need a low cost. And I was like, but I'm going to teach you, and then you're not going to be successful. So I finally figured out a way where I can make them do it while they're in the bootcamp with me, because then I know I can make sure they're successful because that's. I didn't want them to come away and not be able to do it right.

So I'm setting up this marketing agency for serious podcasters. And what I had mentioned earlier with my lead magnet, which is podcast university. Jordan paris.com pu and it like, you know, yes, it's a blog post and it's completely free, but you have to put in your email. And it pretty much what it does is, like, it solves for all the unknown variables of podcasting, like, literally everything and people that, like, a lot of times, sometimes I'll post, for example, the time to start a podcast is now or never. Next line. There are over 700,000 podcasts as of 2019. See more. Which is what happens on LinkedIn. You have to click See More to see the rest of the post. And it's a video of me talking about the statistics of podcasting. And it got 19,000 views. And you know what? There's a call to action at the end of it. If you want to start your own podcast, reach out to me and I'll help you. I got so many leads from a video that got 19,000 views, all about podcasts. I sent them to Podcast University. And so every single turn, I am creating customers. And I haven't even started yet. And I got three people now waiting to pay me big money. So it's exciting. It's not done yet. We're building that right now. Hiring. I know you know all about it. Preaching to the choir here.

So that's okay. Yeah, absolutely.

It has absolutely changed. It has absolutely changed my life. My friend was saying to me last night, jordan, I am literally jealous as to how easy it's going to be for you to market this. It's just going to be so natural and how easy it is for you. It's going to be for you to get clients. And I was like, yeah, I know, right?

Absolutely. And so, you know, that's one of the benefits of being early in on it because you, you know, you were saying 700,000, but the reality is that there are only about 300,000 that are active.

That's right.

And so somewhere we're estimated 300 to 500. I think it's on the low side based on the numbers I've seen. So if you've only got that many active, then they're really looking for people who have answers. So let's do some lessons then. So in your experience becoming a center of influence in podcasting, what are some of the best ways to book great guests?

Oh, this is. This is a loaded question. This was part of a huge chunk of my 55 minute lecture yesterday was like, on this, right?

You could go on and on, right? Because it's such a. It's such a big topic. Well, give us a good sound bite here. Give us something that, you know is one of your favorite ways to book a great guest.

Okay. Before you reach out to them, it's called digging the well before you're thirsty, build rapport with them before you go in for any sort of ask the ask. Being thirsty and building the rapport being digging the well. So dig the well before you're thirsty. And I mean, comments on all of their stuff on LinkedIn, on Twitter, Instagram, whatever. They're on LinkedIn, I think. I mean, that's my favorite tool. If they're on LinkedIn and they're relatively active on LinkedIn, then you've got it made and it's really, really easy to talk to them. And, you know, I love LinkedIn too.

It's my thing. Always been my number one platform.

Number one. Yeah. So, you know, start replying to your comments, liking your comments, even if they don't. Fine. You know, send a message, though, you know, without even going in for an ask, without asking them to, like, get on the phone, without. Just don't ask them for anything. And don't gush either. Yeah, don't, don't gush. I mean, you can, because, yeah, being.

A fanboy, fan girl, that's not going.

To help you if you're a fan. Then they're going. I mean, the natural inclination, I mean, needy is creepy. Even relationships, if someone's needy, our natural inclination is to swatch it away like a fly, push you away and run away. So, you know, you can engage them with a light compliment and express how grateful that you are to be connected with them. Gosh, I mean, it's truly relatively simple. But you know, then I have this email, I have this email template and I hate to say the word template, you know, I used to get people on LinkedIn. That's what I'm talking about, LinkedIn. And now that I've kind of like gravitated away and like, I really want, like, I am going for a rock star guest now. Like now I'm like getting away from, migrating away from LinkedIn. I have this template, I hate to call it a template because it's really not, because highly personalized and it goes, gosh, I'm so like hesitant to share it. But if you look up Tim Ferriss Alex Benayan email template, you will find pretty much a. The rough outline of it somewhere in the Google searches there.

And you know, we share ours really freely too. But you're right, because the template part is not the important part. The important part is where you personalize it, right where you search the information. You've done a little research on them, you've gotten to know them better. That's the important part of it, not actually the format of it. Although the format does help right now.

Let me actually, I'm going to pull up my email if you give me two seconds to, for example, Kevin Rudolph. Cool. Subject line is Kevin, comma, love your music. No evidence of an ask there. These people are getting asked stuff all day long. You don't want to be grouped in with that. I said, dear Kevin, next line. I'm sure you receive quite the abundance of emails, so this will be quick. Next line. I love your music and really resonate with it. I've been listening to you since I was 11. Next line. I'm 21 years old and have interviewed Rachel Starr, David Meltzer, John Lee Dumas, and I have Mark Manson, Dan Locke, Evan Carmichael and Jordan Harbinger coming up soon on my schedule. That's before I interviewed them. I'd love to add you to this mix and create something truly special. Plus, I hear you have a new single coming out, which is of course implying that we could promote it.

We did a little research. There you go.

Right? And fast forward. His new single has come out and we helped promote it and I Absolutely love it. His new song next line. My show Growth Mindset University which is linked to Apple podcasts and if he were to click it, he would see that we have over 180 ratings. I mean 193 as of this current moment. My show Growth Mindset University is all about learning the lessons we should have learned in school but didn't. The honor would be entirely mine to host you. Next line. Are you opposed getting to a no first before I get to a yes? Sometimes people are reluctant to say yes. Next line. Again, totally get how busy you are. So even a short reply would be great. I kind of guilt trip people to be honest. Next line. Cheers to manufacturing. Amazing Jordan. And then a social proof filled email signature with all my socials website. Like an actual signature like me. My written cursive signature there, my jp, even a. There's even like a collage. There's like this an effect in Photoshop called like painter fly or painterly or something. So there's this really cool graphic of me. So I'm not. I'm no longer a faceless email. There's my face right there. He can see it. And then seen in Men's Health, like the graphic of all those logos there. So that's not sent from my iPhone as the signature. So that's it. I hope you appreciate me bearing and sharing all their.

No, no, that's wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing that. I really appreciate that.

And it works because I reach out to the highest level individuals and I'll get 4 out of 10 replying and giving me a yes. That's a huge number in my opinion when you're reaching out to such high level individuals.

So yeah, I've never had, I've never been turned down. That's never happened in anything. We've had trouble scheduling some of my really top level celebrity style guests, but I've never been turned down. And so, you know, so that's what happens. The more you go into it, the longer you do it. Mine is usually because I have an ink column associated with my name as well. So it's not just the podcast. I have an extra level of authority with. And so their PR firms are not tight with the gate at that point because it's a double. It's a double publicity for them.

Right. There's a point. That's a good point. I mean there was a point too where I'd never been. It was like the end of 2018, only I'd never been turned down. But I wasn't really reaching out to.

Weren'T going as high.

Yeah, I love it. That's right. And you know, the thing is, is it's. You're not turned down necessarily. They just don't usually answer like you're not getting to them. Because this team, there's a lot of team involved and so that's always an issue. It's like understanding how they're structured. You don't know. It's almost impossible to understand it unless you have an insider like, oh, here's their publicity firm or here's their manager. Here's how this works. It's really hard to find that out.

Right. It's so funny. I mean, you mentioned going to the manager and like, sometimes you just need an inside man. Somebody who has been trying to get James Altucher for. Apparently he commented on my post because him and I are doing and we had talked about this a long time ago, but it's now two days away, doing an in person interview in New York City in front of a live audience. And I just posted something about it yesterday. And my friend who has a podcast, I've been trying to get him for, for five months, Congrats, dude. And I was like, damn, that just fell into my lap. I did not even have to do a single thing. I had an inside man that heard someone, he owns like part of this comedy club in New York City and his chief of staff there happened to read my book and listen to me on another podcast and commented on someone else's Instagram post of me saying GMU is legit. And I was like, I read the book, love the podcast. And I'm, I'm like, thanks, dude. And he goes, yeah, next time you're in New York City, you have to do a book signing at Stand Up New York and perhaps do an interview with Altucher. And I'm like, okay, okay.

So I messaged him, I'm there, I'm there.

So I'm supposed to be in New York anyway this weekend.

You know that happened to me though is like when you have someone else who says this is legit, this is a good podcast, this is the thing. And they're insiders, they trust them. That really makes a difference. So one of my podcasters had sought out and got an interview with Mike Michalowicz, Profit first. He's amazing lecturer. He's got a new book out called Clockwork, which I absolutely love. I'm a fan. I've listened to him for a long time. He has Entrepreneurship Elevated is his podcast. It used to be called Profit first podcast, but they've morphed it over time. And so she said, I've got a contact there. Would you like it? And I said, yes, please. And so she made an introduction for me and I scooped her, evidently because of my authority level with the column and offering to write an article, not just do the podcast. I got in a month before he's actually scheduled on her show. And she was like, how'd you do that? And I was like, well, it helps when you have that extra level of either insider introduction or authority. So good for you. Well, let's go on and do some more of our tips here. So what are some lessons, tips for increasing listeners?

Yeah, well, I mean, I post the snippet of the podcast on LinkedIn, a very compelling snippet of the show, very like, almost like something very fast paced. And I will edit stuff out and make it really, like perfect, the snippet at least, and put that into a video form and write a nice long post about it and get 10,000 views. And that's. And that's great, you know. And you know, of course at the end of the post it's like, oh, and by the way, you want to hear more of this conversation? Yeah. Here it is. Content marketing, I guess you would call it. You know, another thing too is, and this is a much longer game, but just Facebook dollar a day ad strategy there. And you know, you take your greatest hits there and you amplify them even more. The dollar a day is almost like an experiment, still gets you a little bit of reach. And it's an experiment. You take your, take your most successful ads and you, you boost the heck out of them. That's another way to do it as well.

So now you're doing a lot of production yourself. So how do you produce it in a professional way?

Yeah, some of these tools are highlighted in Podcast University. But there's. I know we're on Zoom right now. Like, I used to use Zoom for the first 65 episodes and I switched to something called Squadcast, which is the audio tracks are recorded locally for each guest. So you get two lossless wav files that are recorded locally for each guest at the end of it. So, like, if you talk over each other or if someone's making noise while the other person's talking, you can, you can edit it out.

So yeah, two track recording is available on Zoom now. It wasn't.

Oh, really, is it? Does it record locally? That's crazy.

Yes, it records locally. We used to use Zencastr and Squadcast. But it was too much tech for my clients, so we were so grateful that Zoom offered it. And I think they only offer it at their 1499 level. Like, you know, so it's. It's not on the free level of Zoom. So if you had a totally free account, they don't allow that. But on the 1499, which is not much per month to spend for that. And it's only been in, I think, the last year that it's happened, and almost nobody knew it happened.

I had no idea. I switched about four months ago, so it must have been within then. But, you know, I'm gonna have to look into that. But squadcast is pretty much what I use to Seamless.

Yeah, it's a really good program. A lot of people use it, and they have great success with it. But it is a little tech challenging for your average person who just isn't comfortable with everything.

I don't think so. Maybe I'm wrong.

I know, but you're more techy than others. I mean, you're a web developer. You've got more skills than some of my speakers and authors. So, you know, you got to think about it from that way. But you really edit those two tracks into a better recording. And that's the thing. So what do you use to edit?

I keep it simple. I just use Audacity to be honest. You know, nothing crazy. It gets the job done for me. I will never, no matter what, you know, I say this now, but we'll see what happens. You know, delegation is really important, but I will never delegate the editing because there are certain things. I mean, people don't think. Think like me. They don't.

Yeah, there's a lot of creative and editorial choices that happen in the editing.

I mean. Yes, that too, but it's not even that. It's like when I listen, I say stupid stuff. I say. I say I have my crutches. I have. Sometimes instead of. I'll say. And, like, I'll stretch out the. And. And I. I hate the way it sounds. And people know that. And people just. Yeah, like, oh, I don't like that breath there. I don't like the way I was running around my words there. And that's the stuff I want to edit out. So as soon as I'm done, right here where I'm sitting right now, I sit down and I just. And listen. I don't have to listen to the entire thing back. Like, I'm taking notes as I'm recording. Like, edit at 27 minutes and 42 seconds. And I kind of just know, like instead of editing it three weeks later, I'd have to listen. Re listen to the entire thing. I just listened to it. I was in the conversation.

It does take longer after and that's what most people don't know. So how long does it typically take you to edit?

5, 10 minutes. But also you go to this website, a u p h O-N-I c.com auphonic or however you say it.com and it's this automatic post production. It levels out all the audio, brings it to the level of loudness that podcasts are supposed to be at. It does all the noise and hum reduction. If it's like an in person one and it works really well, you can even do multi track production. It's just like, it's really a really great tool. You can attach your intro and outro to it and it'll mix it all up together. You can overlay them and it's such a simple tool to use and it makes the podcast sound primo. Like it's just really good.

So that jumpstarts you and gets you moving there. So now what's the best way to encourage engagement? How do you get people to talk back with you? How do you get them to send ratings and reviews? Because that's engagement as well. So how do you do that?

People act like it's so hard to do. Holy crap. Geez. The first thing that I thought of when you said engagement was I just started thinking about my social posts and this works on LinkedIn. It's not really tried and true on other platforms, but I'll use an elaborate double binding question where I give people the illusion of choice. People want control, I give them an illusion of choice where both outcomes though actually result in a favorable outcome for me. So I pose a question almost, not every post, but almost every single post that I make. And gosh, it's hard to give an example because it's different for every single post. I'll just say I talk about a certain topic and discuss at the beginning and the end of the post. I'll pose the question and I'll say like, do you think X or do you think it's better to do Y? So rather than what are your thoughts? Question mark, you give them, it's too open ended.

You're giving them something more specific.

You're giving an elaborate double binding question where your brain automatically just starts thinking, oh, I prefer that. And it's like, so okay, why not just, why not just say it? It's a great tool that I use in all forms of communication. I use it with my friends in text when I want to make plans. I use it all the time. I learned it from behavioral analysis. Chase Hughes wrote a book called Ellipsis Manual, the Analysis and Engineering of Human Behavior. Guy's a very smart man. This right here is a whole behavioral table of elements instead of a periodic table of elements. Really intense. He's a good friend of mine and he introduced me to some very, very cool people. But, yeah, you know, in terms of, like, the podcast, so getting ratings and reviews, I mean, okay, I actually ran a contest on LinkedIn where, I mean, because the social proof on my show, everyone wants to be on. Everyone wants to be on my show. Like, I get question. I get requests all day. Like, some of them are annoying, but some of them are like, like, okay, you know, I get it. I appreciate you, but I'm still not accepting it. Right. But, you know, some people are very inconsiderate with it. Like, and entitled it. I'm just like, no. But I opened it up one time. I was giving away a slot on the podcast. All you had to do was leave a review and take a screenshot of that review from Apple Podcasts before you hit submit and comment it on the post.

Yeah, great.

So that was effective.

That's good.

Of course. I mean, gosh. I mean, just create a good podcast, too.

Yeah. Have a good show to begin with. Right?

Yeah. So you've done how many shows now you're on?

102 came out today. But we've got.

So you just surpassed 100. Congratulations. Surpassing the magic 100, Mark. So did you do a big splash at 100?

No. You know, it's funny. Well, Mark manson was episode 99. And, you know, I started this new series called Follow Up Friday, and it's where I talk about the interviews. You know, what I learned from the week. We just kind of get into a huddle before we go out and crush it again next week, you know, and draw up a nice play for next week. And I give them a little preview to who's coming next week. And just really what I'm reading, what I'm having fun with, it's really to develop the relationship with the audience. And my episode 100 was follow up Friday about five days ago, and I forgot.

Oh, no. Did anyone say anything to you? That's when you know you really got it when your fans are like, where the heck were you?

Yeah, you know, that's funny, too. It's like Gosh, it's good because it happened today where, like, I messed up, like the podcast came out, but the blog post with the player and the show notes that went with it just wasn't. I scheduled it for like later today. Like, I just, I just messed up.

I put PM instead of. Am.

I done that before?

Yeah, I've done it now twice in the past four weeks. It's kind of a problem. And, and, but people have told me. So that's good. But.

Oops, I can fix that.

Yeah, right, right. I'm mortified.

So you're doing about two a week.

Right now it's three. It was two.

That was three. So you've amped it up even more. Wow, that's great.

I mean, the third one on Friday is like 10 minutes.

But so, okay, so the last one for a bit of advice here is are you monetizing your show and if so, what's the best way to monetize it or what's the best plan for monetization?

Yeah, at the current moment, I'm not really monetizing it. I mean, I am in a sense that, yes, my lead magnet is front and center. I actually like just added that into the new intro recently. You know, Podcast University. And I also mention it in the outro. I mean, like, it's not like direct monetization, but it's, but it's made, you know, it's. Maybe money is taking me places. It's really incredible. It's a very long story. But I've had a couple of people approach me on sponsorships. I've had a couple of people approach me on just like making a LinkedIn video and paying me to do that because I get great reach there, you know, nothing crazy. At the current moment, I'm not the, not the monetization king right now. So it's a long game.

And it's a long game. Right, that, and so that's maybe the plan. The plan is to have a long game. And if it's rewarding your business, your core business, or the business that you're working towards, why not? That's monetization. Clients and leads are monetization too.

That's right. Like, okay, so guests on the show, several of them have become high paying clients.

What makes your podcast really unique? Because there's a lot of podcasts in the growth business and mindset. There's a lot of them in just business growth in general. It's a huge category. So what makes it unique and makes it binge listenable, that makes people Just go from the beginning and listen to all 102.

You could argue that, yes, I do an interview show, like so many people and whatever. Okay. But I put a little education to it on it because my life's cause is education. I think formal education is a gigantic, tragic criminal scam. There's a lot that goes into that. I absolutely despise the system. Posted about it again today, post about it. Every now and then, those posts kind of blow up, and they do very well because it's a controversial issue. Yeah. So really it's. And listen, I turn a lot of people off, but I alienate a lot of people very intentionally to really find my tribe. That's how you do it. You got to alienate some people. Someone asked me that the other day, like, oh, should I do a show about this or a show about this? I'm afraid if I do it about this, it's going to alienate a bunch of people. And I'm like, are you kidding me? That's what you want.

You want to have a position, right? You want to have a. You know, I was just talking, as I mentioned, I interviewed Mike Michalowicz, and he mentioned that specifically, he said having a slant, having an angle on what you do is extremely important. That having my bias come through is important because it. It helps people understand the value of listening again and again, that you're what they're going to get from you that they don't get from someone else.

Here's the principle. Draw your line in the sand and choose a side. Okay? And I think about that all the time. And sometimes I even dramatize things, and very intentionally, very intentionally. And I get on podcasts like this, and I tell people like, this is exactly what I do, and this, I'm drawing my line, and this is why I do it. And people still get riled up because the people that get route up don't end up hearing that message. They're just ignorant. But anyway, it's all about learning the lessons that we should have learned in school, but did not. And each episode features a brand new lesson, and I extract those lessons. One of the questions on the form that the guests have to fill out is, what skill or lesson can you teach? I need to know that, and I need to extract it and show it and make it actionable throughout the interview. And, you know, part of it too is, you know, learning from the people we should have learned from in school but didn't, you know, because a lot of times these teachers are just reading from generic McGraw Hill, PowerPoints.

You know, I interviewed Dr. Larry Sanger, who is one of the co founders of Wikipedia, and he's working on a new blockchain program called everipedia. So it's like flipping what's going on in learning encyclopedias in the world. And he's a doctor of philosophy, right? PhD. And one of the things he said was just exactly that. We are supposed to be able to count our textbooks and our news and our information like facts, but they're not neutral. And if they're not neutral, then where are we going to get neutrality? Where are we going to get information and how are we going to go about doing that? And that's what he's striving to build there. And that's why he came on board with the Everpedia group, to try to build a better, more neutral information base. And I was like, that's such a. Like to think you got a philosopher on your staff. That's a really cool plan for a business.

Yeah. Well, to wrap that up, like, what makes it binge listenable? Listen, it's really good. And I do so many hours of homework for everyone. You know, like, I'm going into James Altucher on Friday, and I know everything about him. I am, as far as I'm concerned, you know, for the past month, I've been James Altucher. Okay. People can tell that I do my homework and I actually care. That's why I don't take requests, because I need to be absolutely thirsty.

You're right. Sure. It's right.

Learn from them and. Right. Yeah.

So, yeah, that's what I like. If I'm curious, if I'm interested, then I'm going to take the interview. I'm going to ask for it, or I'm going to take it if someone offers it to me. But it piques my curiosity of something that I'm passionate about or interested in. I'll definitely do that. But, you know, this is the thing is what I think that Jordan has hit on. And one of the things that I think makes Growth Mindset University, such a great podcast is truly that. That you are a podcast listener. There's a lot of podcast hosts who are not that I have come across. They are not listeners. And it makes a difference because you understand your listener mindset more and you're a fan of the people who you invite on your show and you've done deep research, you've done interview prep. So many people do not do any prep at all. Right. And so they've never listened to Your show, they don't know anything about you. Right. And so that's where it really starts to fall apart in the show itself and its success.

Yeah. If you don't give a you know what, why would anyone else give a you know what? I can think of people distinctly in my mind right now who do not care at all.

So, Jordan, before we wrap up, I have a good circulation. We also have a PR team who pushes this out. Authority magazine has a high circulation rate. So who would you like on your show? Who's your big ask? And can we tag them here and maybe make that happen for you?

Yeah, that's such a great question. Wow.

I'm sure you can ask them yourself, but why not put it out there? Right?

Yeah.

Maybe we can make it easier.

I'll tell you what. There's been some controversy with Tony Robbins in the past week, but, yep, for.

Those who don't know, there's been a big buzzfeed expose on Tony Robbins, and it's quite controversial because a lot of his inside fans are like, this is not the way it works. And yet there are people going on record. So it's pretty controversial. Right?

Yeah. Listen, I. I don't know that I quite buy it, and I love him, but, however, if he's done something wrong, then I'm open to him being wrong. Like, okay, but, you know, he.

People aren't flawless. They aren't without mistakes. Right.

But however, you know, he was the pinnacle. Right now it's kind of in limbo. I'm trying to think, you know, Joe Rogan's at the top of my list. Tom Billy is at the top of my list. There's. Oh, Tim Ferriss. I'm looking up. I've already interviewed my favorite author, Mark Manson. That's good.

Yeah. Yeah. You have a bias to authors. I love that. What you're not seeing is, like, in front of me, there are, like, four bookcases full of books. And so. Yeah, I see. Oh, wow. Yeah, you definitely have a lot of books there. If you're listening to the podcast, you can't see the video, but you can go to the blog post for this episode and take a look at the book library. You've got the Millionaire Next Door, the Millionaire Minds. You've got a, you know, TedX. You've got. And then, of course, you have Stel Silverstein mixed in there, which really pleases me.

Oh, you see that? Yeah.

That is, like, one of my favorites from childhood. And my daughter just up. You got Rich dad of. Yeah, she can't get better than that. So. Yeah, so you got a bunch of great books there. I love it.

There's more floating shelves, there's more everywhere.

Yeah, I have a whole entire like bookshelf bookcases downstairs. And it doesn't really reflect because I did after a while, out of convenience for space, started to shift to a Kindle. And so like I have thousands of, I swear I have thousands of titles on my Kindle right now. And so, yeah, at all times. So I, you know, I used to fly to China all the time and that would give me 13 hours to read. And so it was awesome for me. And then you'd get there and you'd be exhausted and you could sleep all night and then you'd be able to work the next day. So like that's how I did it. But I couldn't carry enough books on the airplane because that I read really fast. So that would like be 13 hours to be like 13 books. And so that would just be way too many books to carry with you. So. And I had started like leaving them in hotel rooms and places but you know that I was like, that's enough. That's how I caved and got a Kindle for the first time.

Well, anyway, well, so glad to have you on the show. So glad you are so well read. So glad you are sharing your knowledge. So glad that you are out there pushing growth, mindset, university and really helping others jump on board and flip the switch and start thinking about new ways to look at the world, new ways to develop their own mindset and having a creator's mentality. Jordan, that is what has impressed me the most about you. You're out there cranking and creating and that makes for a great show and a great host.

Well, thank you very much for the kind words. I do appreciate them.

So everyone you can find Jordan. We'll have all the links to him. We'll have everything about his bio, we'll have links that he's referred to in the show, we'll have that in the show notes for this episode @feedyourbrand co so you'll be able to connect directly with him from there. And if you'd like to read the follow up Authority magazine post on him that will also be linked in there once it's live, which usually follows this podcast. So you want to check back again after you've already read it. So thanks everyone for listening. This has been Tracee Hazard on the center of Influence from Feed you'd brand.

You'Ve been listening to The Binge Factor Podcast for more information on podcasting and videocasting success tips and tactics, please go to thebingefactor.com and be sure to listen to our other show for podcasters called Feed you'd brand. If you'd like to be interviewed on this show as well as featured in Tracy's column, please go to thebingefactor.com guest and apply.