Why This Cyber Expert Knows Purposeful Commitment is the Heart of Podcast Success - Advice from All In with Rick Jordan

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 back to the Binge Factor. I'm Tracy Hazzard and I am interviewing successful podcasters. And this one that I have for you today is someone that I'm in a mastermind group with. And I just couldn't resist bringing him on because, well, he's got a tremendously impressive show, number one, but he's got a great background in media already and he's just built such an authoritative brand that you got to check this out. So I have Rick Jordan from All in with Rick Jordan. He is a nationally recognized voice on cybersecurity, business and ethics. And he appears nationwide as an expert on abc, NBC, CBS, and Fox. And he's the founder and CEO of reachout Technology, one of the best cybersecurity and IT management firms in the country. And he's a consultant to the White House. Rick and I have not actually been in person together. Like I've seen him at an event and I've been virtual. So we haven't gotten this chance to connect. So this is our first opportunity to do that. And you know when there's a shared history of some kind, when you've met someone at an event or you have some kind of just a shared connection of some kind, you gotta listen for the dynamic that happens between us. We really had like a two to three minute break, pre call kind of thing and then we got started recording. You're going to hear how that can really work. And when you go listen to all in with Rick Jordan, you're going to hear how he does it again and again with his interviews and the rapport that he builds with his guests. So let's go to Rick Jordan.

Rick, welcome to the show. So glad to have you here.

Hey, what's shaking? It's good to be here.

I love this setup. If you're only listening, you got to come check it out. He's got a great virtual setup going on. Lots of color standing out. It looks so good.

Awesome. Thank you. I'm a very visual person and even in business because my primary business is cybersecurity but then I'm a podcast host, you know, that's in 36 countries now, and it's pretty awesome. But even with cybersecurity or podcasting, it doesn't matter. I'm a musician, too. Everything is designed by intention. You have to make it look the part.

And so nobody knows where you are.

Oh, I'm in Chicago, Illinois. Yeah.

But nobody has to know based on.

The way you set that up. Yeah, Right on. There's like, three feet of snow outside right now, but in here, it's fantastic, right? Yeah. There you go. I love it.

You've been podcasting a while?

Yeah, a little over two years now, I think. Two years this month. February. Yeah. Wow.

How's it feel to get to that point?

It feels pretty crazy because when we passed the 100th episode, I was like, all right. I didn't really feel much until, you know, I started looking back and it's like, man, you know, how did we get here? Because we even took a couple months off during the first year, just trying to get the rhythm, you know? And I think when I started, it's straight up. I'm going to tell you exactly why I started. I hired a branding agency, and I was telling them where I wanted to go, and they're like, oh, you need a podcast. Like, all right, I guess I need a podcast. Let's go down this road.

So there are telltale signs that you hired a branding agency. That doesn't surprise me.

Yeah, that was the first one. Yeah, I bet.

I could tell. Because there are three things that happen with branding agencies. Really short names that are very similar to lots of other podcasters to the show. And your picture on your cover. That's always a branding agency or advisor indicator. Yep, right there. And this is one that I'm wondering about. Did they advise you to start at number 21 instead of start at number.

One for the episodes?

Yeah.

Are you talking YouTube or a different platform? Because we did start at number 21.

No, just straight on the podcast. Because your episode numbers start at 21.

Then there must be a glitch or something somewhere, because they were at number one. Yeah. Okay.

Because I thought that's a kind of a thing. I've heard from some branding agencies before. So that was my other, like, telltale sign is because they do this thing like, oh, we don't want to appear like, we're new to this, so we're going to number them.

Yeah, no, we started right at the beginning. Right at number one. I remember episode two or three was My Burn the Net episode, and that's still one of my favorite ones to this date, I'm gonna have to go look back because it's missing.

Because I definitely didn't see that. That one would have caught my eye and I would have checked that one out. So your 1 through 20 are missing, so we'll have to find them for you.

Yeah, that's my whole analogy, how I approach life. You know, people say, you know, burn the bridge when you cross it, when you go across it, you know, that way you don't go back. But my thing that I always find with it, whether it's an entrepreneur, just anybody in general, is that there's always the hesitation to take action in the first place. It has nothing to do with not going back. It has everything to do with going forward, is where the fear starts.

So I take it you didn't have much fear because you got a little bit of media background, as you mentioned already. So you didn't have much fear about doing the podcasting thing?

No, not at all. I've been speaking from stages, geez, for 20, 25 years. Even as semi pro musician in the church world. You know, I've played in front of groups of 5,000 before, so it's nothing new to me to be in front of people. I'll tell you what though, the difference, because it started out just audio, you know, and then we're recording video only to use on socials for social clips, and everything was just posted on audio. I just started really YouTubing everything about six months ago, you know, so around episode 75 or something like that, I think. But at the very beginning I was trying to pull from my experience just speaking from stage and everything else, but I found that talking to a camera. I found this out too when I was going on TV because I've been on ABC, CBS and NBC, Fox, every place you can imagine, top 10 markets. And the same skill set you have to talk into this microphone here is not. Or from stage is not the same skill set as being in front of a TV camera or even in a podcast studio like this. It's totally different. And I look back on my first TV appearance, which was like two and a half years ago. Now I'm like, geez, I sucked. Look at this.

It is very different. That's what people think, that there's a great transfer with video. This is what I find is you've got the energy, the motion, like we're talking to each other and it's flipping back and forth between the two of us on the way the video is editing, you know, like, all of that is there, and there's a dynamic ness of that, but with the audio, you can't have dead air. You can't have. You know, so you gotta have a good editor. Like, it's a little bit different. You've gotta keep the energy in that voice and what you're doing. It's like trying to hold everybody's attention on the stage when they all have their phones out.

It is. Oh, my God. Yeah. No joke about that. Yeah.

There's tips and tricks to use on stage, too. But just like that, there's things you can incorporate in tools in your toolbox you can use on a camera like this. I mean, even like what I just did. Right. Taking up the whole frame with my hands. Right? Yeah. So I've been around the block a little while. I've learned a few things, but now it's all natural.

Take the frame.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, you know what? But the stage has probably really informed you. Well, because, I mean, this is the thing. Have to assume that their attention is elsewhere when we're recording our podcast, because so many podcast listeners, the number was extremely high in the last study. Over 60% of people listen to podcasts from their home, which means that they're probably doing something else. Laundry, dishes. You know, I do mine. I listen to my podcast. I had listened to you this morning while I put my makeup on and fixed my hair. So you're multitasking when you're doing it. So the capturing of attention is very similar to trying to make sure that that audience is looking at you.

Yeah. No doubts. No doubt. You did really good on your makeup today.

Thank you.

It was great to be in the bathroom. Yeah. There you go. Yeah.

And it's late in the day. It lasted. We're good.

I love it. Yeah, mine's pretty solid, too.

Yeah, you look great. So how's that start? So you got a branding agency, brought them in. You got started. Like, was there anything you found that kind of tripped you up, made you hesitate, like, thinking, is this for me?

It was really the rhythm, I guess, because in this rhythm lasted for a while because I didn't have the studio that you see right now and getting to a point to where I could still be comfortable and still do, because I don't even monetize my podcast in a traditional sense. I don't have sponsors, you know, the reason why it still exists today is really, for one, credibility. Two, it's freaking fun as hell, and I get to Meet so many amazing people as I bring guests on. And it's really caught on, too. And, you know, it's steamrolled over the course of the past two years, which is cool. But then the last part is really to actually reach a specific target audience now. So it sort of evolves over the years. But that's the reason why I've evolved my setup from the things that tripped me up at the beginning. I would fly out to Vegas at first, you know, Bradley dropping bombs. He's a friend of mine. I started batching in his studios at LightSpeed VT, and then from there I would go to my branding agency in Seattle, Washington, where they had their offices and they built out a studio, and I was traveling there once a month, you know, and it just got to be kind of a grind. And then even back in this studio, when we first built it, we were just scheduling. My team was scheduling just whenever, and I felt like it's like, crap. All I feel like I'm doing is fricking dropping podcast episodes. Like it. Like, mentally.

And you just do two a week still?

Yeah, I do. You got it. Yeah. So then we shifted probably about five months ago to batching Hardcore once a month, and we do that two days, the first or second week of the month, just back to back, five episodes a day.

Five is a lot. So you got some stamina going there.

Thanks. I didn't start that way. No, you have to build up to that. Exactly. And that's why, even in that case, there's opportunity now, because I've made two movies now, you know, and even possibly being on Joe Rogan coming up, that's out there along with Blaze tv. But those can be longer shows, too. So now it's like, I can do those because I'm already going for about nine hours a day with doing five episodes, because mine's not short form either. It's not like the five or 10 minutes. It's anywhere.

Yours is like 30 to 45.

And, yeah, typically, you got it. And sometimes the good ones will go hour, hour and 10 minutes, you know, so it doesn't matter much to me as far as the length now.

And it doesn't matter to your listeners either. So you hit that.

Right. That's awesome, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I love that. It's interesting you were talking about the people that are doing something else, right. Because I switched branding agencies, and now it's more of a larger PR firm that we're using, and they're incredible, but they listen to the show to My show All in and five of them in the company listen to it and they play it in the background just like they listen to any other show. And then they try to track when they check out, you know, and I remember them saying this. It's like, you know, we checked out in one episode about 12 minutes in and another one was about 25 minutes in. So there's been changes since then.

You have a harsh critic agency. Good for you.

Well, I want it to be the best possible for real, you know, because at first it was just, I'm doing this because literally my branding agency told me I needed it and then I caught onto it and I just started loving it. And then it ended up grabbing a product purpose to it after that point, you know, so is this transition about not really knowing why I'm doing it except somebody told me I needed to, and then going into where it actually started to become something fun for me, like really, really fun. And then it transitioned into having an actual purpose and now it's being polished. It's in the process of being extremely polished. That way we can reach as many.

So, you know, there's an interesting dynamic you have, Rick, between your core business, which is really cool, by the way. You know, you're a cybersecurity IT expert. You're, you know, you've all that going on in your core business, and then the podcast all in is much more general, more entrepreneurial. Have you found, because this is a hesitation, I think, for a lot of podcasters out there, is that they feel like they either need to do one that's completely within their niche or they're doing completely one that's only like personal brand authority speaking building. And it sounds like your speaking career is going just great. Maybe you don't need to put that much work into your. Into your podcast, you know. So how did you find that there was. Was there a dovetail between the two pieces?

A little bit, you know, And I fell into a trap kind of early on too, especially when I hired the branding agency. And even though my core is cybersecurity, I'm also a very philanthropic guy. I'm a very motivational guy. When I speak from stage, I love seeing people go from point A to B, because 12 years ago, I mean, this is like the self motivation part of it, right? I was broke. You know, I've told the story on the show a couple times too, and from stage all the time. I don't want to see other people have those struggles or if they're having those struggles I want to help them get out of it. So that's where the all in mentality came from. Because I've never been anything but that. And that's why the show is that. I mean, I'll go like five episodes a day, right? It doesn't matter. I get it done, whatever I have to do. We're in the midst of cybersecurity companies going public here in about 60 days. It's been a 14 month process.

Wow. And you can still fit podcasting in.

Amazing.

I'm so, I'm in awe, Rick, because I can't tell you how many, many podcasters, something big in their business like that trips them up and you've got it still going good for you.

Well, thank you. Thank you. And this is where I think that some other podcasters would probably get tripped up, because I didn't go into this thinking I'm going to be this Internet guy or this coach guru, you know, or this Instagram God, you know, that just sort of came about because I had something like I enjoy calling a real business, you know, that's, you know, so the podcast part of it is now it's, it's funny because you're like, hey, you're a little broad right now. And what I fell into at first is I let my branding agency really tell me everything. And their background was in this Internet guy, coach, Instagram guru area. And that's sort of how it just went for a year or so until I started asking questions. And it's like, you know, I had this other stuff, but there is an allure to it. And that's another place where I got tripped up at the beginning because you start to see, okay, for me, the allure was I can actually go out and help a lot of people. It doesn't matter about my industry that I'm in, I can help anybody because I see the strategy. It's a gift that I have and I could just dive in. And I've talked to so many amazing people and I've picked up all this other knowledge. I can just pour it into them. I'm like, yeah, let's go do it. But then it's like, wait a second, that's not making me any money because the other deal over here, so that was the second year of the show, is trying to figure out how to meld all these things. And now, because you said we're broad, it's interesting because just in a couple months, we're going to do kind of a relaunch because we're Doing two episodes a week right now, as you said. And one of them is going to be completely, you know, broad and entrepreneurial and motivational and aspects of that and business related. And the other one's going to be completely cyber security.

Oh, I'm so glad to hear that. Because I was like, I want to hear more about this. I'm so curious. And there's so much, like, there's so many documentaries. I want to hear from someone that I trust. And because I know you from a group that we belong to together, I'm like, I want to hear from Rick. I want to hear what Rick has to say about this. I think this is such a good time for you to pivot the show because you've got so much under your belt already. There's just so much credibility built in that you're shifting it now to make it continue to work for you, but to really work for your audience too.

Yeah, you got it. That's exactly it. And it has to fit into the grand scheme of things because we've had the discussions internally, you know, we're. I'm just being raw. I hope you don't mind.

No, that's what we want here.

Good. I mean, there's been discussions, you know, probably three times over the past year or so. It's like, do we keep doing the show? You know, and of course that's inside of me. It's like, I love doing it, you know, and everybody that's listening, it's like I almost feel an obligation to them now just because there's so many to keep things going. But then it's like, it's got to fit what I'm doing too. And how do we connect all the dots?

It's a really hard choice, but I'm glad you asked yourself that question frequently because that in and of itself keeps the show really on point. It keeps it going within the right direction. If you're constantly asking yourself that, because I think that you're after this stage of your show, your listeners are there because they want you.

Right.

And they want to see where you're going to go. And when they hear your company's going public, they're going to want to know more. They're going to want to dive into the space with you.

That's exciting to me too. I appreciate the encouragement on that also, because the way that we're going public is we're going to acquire other IT and cybersecurity firms. That's the whole reason for going public in business. It's called A roll up. We are doing a roll up strategy.

I love it. We're not doing it in a public forum, though.

I love the public side of this too, because it's almost like a for the people, buy the people thing.

It fits your industry better than it does mine.

Yeah, for sure. But that's the other reason for kind of reskinning the show as well, is just because we want to appeal to that audience. And even though there's a lot in my industry that listen now, I still want to make something that's a little more targeted because in the business world, I'm building a huge company now and everything that I do has to tie together somehow. There can't be any, like, orphaned projects that exist.

Well, that's true. Because your time is really valuable and you have a whole lot of people expecting you to make sure that every hour you spend, it's very valuable. So you got that pressure. But you also have a spokesman, spokesperson pressure. Right. So you have to be careful of what you're saying out there, how you're curating that. And being in control of that is a whole lot easier than having it out there in the media. Controlling the media yourself is a better way to go.

You got it. You make the press. That's right, you make it.

So have you considered that you had binge listeners? Because this is a binge factor, after all, and I want to make sure we touch on that.

Yeah, I have. And that's another thing that's interesting to me too, because even in just the last two batches or show, these episodes might not even be published yet. Because we batch now with the new PR firm, we batch about two months in advance, sometimes three months. So anything that's right now, and then we'll shift the publishing schedule around sometimes. Like the other day I had a huge bitcoin expert on. And of course that's crazy and relevant right now.

Yeah, we want to hear about that today, not three months from now.

Exactly. But I say the bubble burst. If it is a bubble. You know, people are speculating whether it is or not, but that happens next week, all of a sudden. We don't want to trash the episode either. It has to be relevant immediately. But even in the past, you know, 20 or so episodes. And I say 20 episodes because that's like a year for some people. For me it's like 10 weeks. Me too. So I get that. Yeah. So even in the past 20 episodes, which actually, now that I think about it's kind of cool because we publish so frequently we can pivot really fast, too. And if something needs to be changed, we can shift it and it happens next to immediately or relatively soon. But as far as a binge scenario, I started looking at other podcasters too. And it's like, you know, I always used to take my intros a little bit softer when I would start talking to the guests because I'm such a personable dude that I love getting into the personal side of things and trying to find questions and making the individual human. Because if I have, like, Sir Ronald Cohen on the show the other day, who ran finances for the UK while they were president of the G8, I mean, the guy is a mogul. He's a knight in Great Britain. And I'm talking to him. It's like, what's the human side of you? Let's make this relatable. That's the question I always ask for these huge experts, you know. But now I'm introducing everybody with a bio at the very beginning of the show because it's trying to capture the listeners, especially for the binge listeners, to say, this is what you're going to hear, you know, And I never go back because it's so tight in time for how much I produce. And I'm sure you know this too, that I usually don't go back to try to record an intro after or anything like that. It's like what we drop is what we drop.

Are you recording your. Some of them you use. You know, I spot listen through because I gotta prep for our interview here. I can't listen to every episode, but I spot listen through. And for some of the ones that I listen to, you introduce the guests with them there on the air.

Yeah, for sure. You got it. Yeah.

Is that still your process, even though you're doing a much more, I'm going to say, longer bio.

Yeah, it is. Absolutely. It is. So now it's, I mean, even turning, because I've done a lot of TV appearances, right, And I look at that for inspiration, too, and how they work, because we're really producing this as a top quality show. You can see the studio, you know, everything. There's nothing that we're skimping on as far as quality. But I'll even turn to the side because it's three cameras in here and I'll turn to the side and I'll look at a different camera with a prompter and I'll read the bio just like they would a Today show or something like that, or the Tonight Show. That's exactly how I'm doing it now.

Ah, nice. But you know, I think that's an interesting way to go about. So when I looked at your binge factor. So when I'm analyzing this, when I'm really looking at a show and says this has bingeable features, and when it has bingeable features, what that just means simply is that people are going to listen to most of your episodes. They're going to go through it, there's going to be a few they skip. You know, it always happens, you know, someone they didn't like, who you have it as a guest or an irrelevant topic to them. But for the most part they're going to want to consume and hear where you're going, hear who you've got on next and keep going.

Right.

So there has to be some reason that they say, okay, I want more. And what is that? What is that factor? What is that binge factor that keeps people wanting more? And the way that you introduced those guests with an energy that is, I mean, out of the gate sharp, right? You've got this like power energy at the beginning that sets a tone. So many of them have a slow roll beginning because.

And you know, and so I've guessed it on a lot of shows too. And I don't know, you know what I'm saying?

And so this like hits them right into it and rolls them into it. But you don't always do like the whole bio. You do little bits and pieces, you welcome them in, then you do a little more bio.

Right.

And so that in a way I think is actually what draws them in. And then once they're in, it really is your professional style, the way you ask questions and your relatability. I can tell that you, I mean, I do this for a living, obviously, and I've done thousands of interviews myself. I can tell that there are some people you don't know when you've gone to interview them, but it is really hard to tell that you're not friends with them.

Oh, awesome. Thank you.

That's why I believe people are binging on your show.

That's so fun. Thanks.

You're welcome.

I have to make it that way. I love meeting people anyways in person or, you know, on remote shows. I do say this, I really, really do miss the in person guests. We're set up obviously in a pro studio, but at the same time, I mean right over here. Because this studio that we built here actually has four different sets, you know, but we can just attach right over here and I can have A fantastic conversation. The last in person one I did was a pastor on Christmas Day for a Christmas episode of 2020. Just feeling the energy.

You're lucky you could do a live one then right as everything was shut.

Down all over the place, I was so excited, you know, just said, hey, is this.

There's another person in here that is getting really hard. Well, I want to touch on the five things because this sort of the way you interact with your guest ties into our five things that we ask every podcaster who comes on the show. And so the first of the five things is how do you get great guests? And in your case, I know you're using a firm, so how do you decide that they're going to be a great guest?

Oh, I actually have nothing to do with that personally. And that's. Yeah, isn't that fun?

Did you give them criteria? Because they seem to really fit your mission.

They do. And we did not actually even start using the PR firm for guests until maybe a month ago. And that's all done internally too. I have a number one, I call her my number one. She's first officer, right. And her name is Ashley Kedra and she goes out and vets all of these guests.

Well, Ashley's got your number because she's got it down right for you. Because it's really great that you have such a great. I mean, no, not everyone is name recognition, right?

But of course, but they're interesting people, really interesting people. Right.

They've got that all in mentality that you're trying to talk about. So you're doing something really right there. So then let's tie into the second part of the question. So how do you prep for that interview?

There's a process internally that we've developed over the past year or so and there's some sheets that are handed to me. We've gotten better at getting them to me about a week in advance now. But there's always bios that they submit. There's an intake form I know of as well that they submit their own PR stuff. But then a lot of times, I mean, we even have assistance that will go out and scour the Internet for more information from them. Because I'll tell you, when you bring on guests, they have their nice polished stuff that they think is interesting that they submit to you in their bio.

And that's not the stuff, right?

No, it's not the stuff at all. You know, so I had a guest on the other day and I was so I'm like, so what happened when you were 17, when you had this life altering experience when you almost died. And he was like, that's not in my bio. I'm like, I know that happened to me.

I got to interview someone and I got to ask him about when his partner was killed by the mob. And he was like, how'd you know that? And I was like, your son actually told me because I pre interviewed him. But, you know, it was one of those things. Well, that's so interesting.

There's a whole team, I mean, there's about six people that go into every single episode from production and research. And that when I put it out there, I'm like, I want to know the stuff that people are really going to be interested in, you know, and I need three questions that I can ask all the time that they did not give us anywhere in their bio or any in their media sheet, their press kit, anything. We need to find the stuff that is actually going to cause listeners to want to just hang on every single word.

So listeners out there, podcasters out there, take a listen to this. Because when you hear his show, when you hear Rick do all in and do his interviews, you're hearing that professionalism come through because you're also doing a great job of flowing that it's not like you look down at your sheet and go, what was my next question? It doesn't happen like that at all because you spent the time to read this information, get to know them, understand why those questions are there, and then as you're talking, you're just really great on the fly. So you know when that next question's appropriate, when you can get into that one they haven't heard before.

You got it. And that on the fly stuff doesn't come right off the bat either. That's another thing I'd love to tell everybody listening now too, that that just takes time. You get better at the conversation as you keep doing it. So don't stop at episode 7 like I hear most podcasters do. You know, we're into 120something now after two years, and it sounds way different now than it did at episode three.

That's right. That's why I went to your beginning.

Right.

And I told you I hit your episode 21 because I wanted to hit from the beginning to check that out.

So.

Okay, well, the next one that we do is increase listeners. So what are you and your team doing to increase the listenership? Because you've got a really decent base here.

Yeah, guesting on other shows is probably the biggest thing that you can do. And now we've become a little more selective because of time, you know. But at the beginning, especially probably even in year two, I would take an invitation to guests on any show. I didn't even care if it was a brand new show. I would just do it just because again it's that I've been through it and I want to help others too. Now I have to be a little more selective on time just because I'm crunched in a lot of areas. But still, if there's an opportunity to. I'll sit down and I'll just talk to anybody.

We had an in. But you know, I'm glad to get you on my show. I feel so privileged.

Well, no, I mean it's. But my team knows that too, you know, who schedule these things for me and they. I understand it and just put into action my mindset on these things just because I'd love to, you know. And they're good just with the guests, the same as the guests. They are really good at me guesting on other shows as far as vetting those as well, you know, because I've done some things, you know, some shows that it's like. But then there's other ones that you might think might be a little more controversial or not really. With me, I remember one from July 4th last year and I was in the middle of producing Liberty Lockdown, which could be. It was a documentary on government overreach during the pandemic. It could be considered conservative leaning, you know. But I went on a show, a podcast that there was an awesome black dude and awesome Hispanic dude that were on there. We just had real talk, you know, and their show is as big as mine is and we just had real talk about whatever. And it was probably one of the best shows I've ever been on. Just because it was just straight up. So it's things like that. It's like I'll go on anybody's show for the most part.

I love that. That's a really great strategy out there for all of you listeners. Increasing listeners. That is one of my top go to advice that I give to people. So you obviously produce this like a pro already. You've got this sort of, you know, TV background. What from your background really helped you set up this professional production. And what do you think is the most key?

Oh, completely my church media experience, you know, because being a musician and being a semi pro musician. I was just talking about this this morning. My mind always goes to the. Designing everything first, you know. We design first when it comes to audio, whatever it is. But the visual is huge. And you have to have that at least sketched out where you want to be ahead of time and put all of your effort into that. Because I would always get a little bit anal in a venue, in a live venue that I was going to perform in, about lighting, about the sound quality, about everything else, because I believe in creating an atmosphere. And that atmosphere has to be conducive to getting your message across to everyone that's watching or listening.

But you didn't get caught up in the sort of perfectionist model because you've said it, you've honed it over time, for sure.

And that should not stop you from just going out and doing it either. You're right on about that. You can upgrade all. I mean, we've got new cameras coming in in a couple weeks or so, just because these are great. I mean, I know they look really good, but there's better stuff. It's like, we could do this too, but this would up the show just another notch, you know, so you get a little geeky over that stuff. But still, the main goal is to create that atmosphere where listeners will be able to latch on and take something from that. And I call it the one thing in some segments. It's a recurring segment in the show. If you had one thing today to take out of the show, here's what it is. I give them one thing when I do that, but I always ask the listeners too. It's like pick out one thing that you can take from the day. And that's what I would say, even in answer to this question, is trying to create the atmosphere so that it can produce that one thing.

I love that. Do you encourage engagement? Are you working personally on the engagement of your community and your listeners?

Personally right now? I do go to my DMs, I do go on Instagram. I just like almost anybody does. So the answer is yes, I do have a team that also works on engagement because there's just way too much for me to handle there.

So is. Right?

Yeah, there's a lot. Oh, my gosh. Plus, when we started doing celebrity collaborations just a little while ago, and also doing giveaways of our own on Instagram. Specifically, we give away $100 every single week on Instagram on a contest. So I'll go on there. I'll reply to comments, I'll answer DMs, I'll add to my stories. I love doing that because the messages that I hear and this is about that creating atmosphere. And the messages that I get sometimes, especially from these giveaways is, oh, my gosh, you have no idea how much this helps. My mom just got a medical bill last week that she couldn't pay. And this $100 that you just gave me that you just gifted to me because I won the contest, is going to cover that bill. That's why I do this. Who cares? You know, it's 100 bucks every single week, but it's something. Of course it has a business purpose behind it, but why can't it also help people at the same time? Of course it can.

That's right. So, yeah, you know, that's really. I prefer that kind of engagement. And I think this is what I've noticed in, you know, we're connected on social media, but I've noticed that your engagement hat is purposeful.

It is. You got it. Yeah.

I think that's a really great way to hone that social media presence over time. So you said before you don't really monetize your show, but I think you might be a little. Let's not look at it as you're not making ad dollars, but you are definitely profiting from the professionalism, from the authority, from the influence that you've created by having this show. What are some things that have turned into that for you?

Some opportunities, without a doubt, Clients, targets for acquisition when we go public. Influence within my industry space. Influence within, outside my industry space. It's because of my presence and my brand that I was actually in the White House four months ago too, you know, specifically for my industry. I mean, if they go out and see that, even when I was in the White House, because I was there to kind of lay the smackdown, the nsa, the CIA and all the other guys in the room, just to bring it from the human aspect that I was talking about. And I started out my speech in there after I heard all this bs, right? Because you look at my Instagram, it's cybersecurity motivation. No BS that's in the bio. Right. I just, I'm like, I'm just a guy that, you know, goes on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, speaks at Harvard, NASDAQ, has a podcast in 36 countries. That's why I'm in the room. So when you talk about. I haven't monetized it directly. Not quite directly, but very much so indirectly in a lot of ways. Yeah.

There's a lot of built in good authority that way. That's absolutely for sure. Well, you know, and I also Think that in your particular industry, and especially with your model of acquisitions that's coming forward, is that it's essential that you're trustworthy. And by showing up for people week after week after week, that's an example of being trustworthy.

Yeah. Consistency. Trust everything. That is everything in this industry. You got it.

Yeah. So if someone's starting a podcast today, what's the one thing that they should consider and do?

Oh, just start publishing your episodes. I talk to people all the time that are saying, oh, yeah, you know, I'm gonna wait until I have six in the can or whatever. I'm like, screw that. As soon as you haven't recorded, get that crap out. Don't wait.

Build them up, though, so you. If you get busy. But yeah, but stop publishing.

Yeah. I was at a restaurant with someone the other night. You know, it was. They're college students and they started a podcast and they're like, yeah, you know, I recorded six of them. You know that, Rick. I'm like, I know that. Where are they?

They're gonna be irrelevant by the time you put them out.

Right on. So they think it's like, oh, I just want them to sound perfect and all this stuff. Like, they're never gonna sound perfect. Even when you've done 100 something episodes like mine, it's never gonna sound perfect. It can sound professional, but it will never sound perfect.

I want to touch on something called on your all in title and sort of your. I mean, your all in is really a big part of who you are in your mission. You know, all in isn't just, I'm going to say, a temporary thing. Right. So what's your version of All in in podcasting now?

Yeah, that's a fantastic question. As it relates to podcasting, it's some of what we talked about, but then it's also not stopping. So every time, like we talked about before, a little bit, you know, having that internal conversation of, you know, this even happened just two weeks ago where we had another one. It's like, should we stop? Because we got a lot going on right now. Should we stop until we relaunch? And the team came back to me and blasted me almost just because I asked the question, like, well, that's not really All In, Rick, is it? You know.

Good for them.

That's not all right.

Like, you're right. And that's why we don't stop. I mean, the conversation was over that quickly. And so when you start something, you have to see it through to the end. And that's the thing that the show doesn't have an end yet. Will it at some point? I don't know. You know, I could see it maybe transitioning into something else, maybe. But that could be next month. It could be 10 years from now. I have no idea. But you keep seeing it through that all in mentalities we're talking about. You see it through until it's done, until it's fulfilled its purpose, you know, and that doesn't have to be a finite amount of time either. It can be something that's ever evolving that you don't even know while you're in the process of it. And that's also okay.

Well, all of you out there, you have just heard some of the great reasons why you should pick up your phone, pick up your device, log into your favorite podcast app, and select Rick Jordan. All In.

Awesome. Thanks for having me on.

So wasn't that a lot of fun? Rick has some great insights to how hard it is to be a podcaster, how fun it is, how dedicated you need to be, and really how professional you may need to grow to really make your show work for you and your brand. I love that he's so raw and honest about all of that with you, because it really is the case for so many. So many try to do it themselves. And in the do it yourself process, you discover that you're just falling short on various things. That it's just so hard to find the right guests or to prep enough for those guests is that you really don't have time to do that all. And to have assembled a team to do the really essential professional things like Rick has done is going to really help you stay podcasting. Be consistent with it. Go all in with your podcast. And it's also going to really help your brand shine. So you get to do the things that you do best. So whatever you can do to start to structure those things or only take on bits and pieces and start to make it more professional as you go. That was great advice from Rick. He goes all in whenever he can, but that didn't mean it hung him up so that he didn't get started. So go ahead, go all in on podcasting and go check out Rick Jordan all in with Rick Jordan the podcast. Go check it out right now. So thanks everyone for listening to the Binge Factor. I'll be back next time. Looking forward to feature your show right here on the Binge Factor.

You've been listening to the Binge Factor Podcast for more information on podcasting and videocasting success tips and tactics, please 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.