How to create valuable content when you're not an expert with Felix Thea

You are listening to episode number 42, How to Create Valuable Content When You're Not Yet an Expert.

If you're someone who wants to make major changes in their life, someone who wants to achieve their goals, or maybe you're someone who knows this is not as good as it gets, but you have no idea where to start, on the Reinvent You Podcast, we explore different types of people. Their successes and failures, and how they reinvented themselves to create the life they love. It's our hope that from hearing their stories, that you too may have more insight into what it takes to build a life that you envision for yourself. Here to help you do that is performance and life coach Travia Steward.

So ladies and gentlemen, you are going to want to take some notes for this episode. And because my guest today is— he is the founder of Podcasting Secrets and Shopify Masters Podcast. And he is the host of this podcast and it has over 5 million downloads. Felix is a wealth of information. And on today's podcast, we're going to talk about how to package the content in a way that people actually want to consume it, how to ask good questions, what separates a good interviewer from a bad interviewer, and you know, how to have the finish line in mind. So ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my conversation with Mr. Felix Thea. All right, my man Felix. So for my Reinvent You audience, you know, thank you so much for being on the show today, gifting us with your expertise. Tell us, put a little context, a little context to who Felix is and why we should actually care what he has to say today, because I think you've done some great things.

Sure, yes, so thank you for having me on the show. So yeah, we went through the world podcasting and I began my kind of career on this, my path on this in the podcasting world all back about 6 or 7 years ago when I first started my Shopify Masters podcast, which I've been running since then. And it really began because I was looking for a place to, I had this desire to create, create some kind of value, create some kind of content, create something that somebody would listen to, right? So that's what I really wanted back then. But that came in the forms of websites, YouTube videos, podcasts to some degree, and also I had a background as a software developer and I was building apps. So I was really interested in building, creating something of value in the world. And when it came to the Shopify community, and if anyone does not know what that is, it's basically a platform for lots of small businesses, usually independent businesses, to launch brands on there. And I created applications for the Shopify merchants, but when I launched my applications, my apps for them, to them, I didn't have an audience. So no one bought it, no one consumed it. And that's when I realized not only the importance, but the almost like the need for you to have an audience if you truly do want to create value in the world, right? And Travia, you and I speak about this, which is that you could have the best content in the world, you can have the most value in the world, but if no one's coming to consume it, consume it, it's basically worthless. You know, to me, that was how I felt, like the content was worthless because it wasn't reaching the ears or reaching the people that needed it. So I decided at that point that, okay, I need to create an audience if I ever want anything to create value in the world. And that's when I started the podcast Shopify Masters. And yeah, really took off from there and been running for about 6, 7 years now. And I had mentioned, um, uh, or, or it's hit basically about 7 to 8 million downloads since then. And in 2020, we hit 1.5 million downloads in that year. And And you have to really create a community around this niche.

That's so incredible. So what was the research like for you to decide that I'm going to create this content? This is someplace that's not, you know, no one's in this category right now. What was that process? Did you do like research and you're like, did you have this idea? Tell us, walk us through a little bit of a process of how you figured out this is it.

Yeah. So I wish I could say that it was more thought out than it was. I had mentioned that I tried a bunch of different things in the past. In the past to build an audience, websites, YouTube, other podcasts, writing books, writing books even, and it ended up getting me nowhere. And when I look back on it and think to myself, why was it that the podcast, specifically the Shopify Masters podcast, why did that one take off? Again, I didn't think about this ahead of time, but when I look back on it, if I were to start a podcast today, the key ingredients that allowed it to take off was first, the spread through word of mouth is so, so vital. There are clearly lots of marketing channels out there to promote anything, but word of mouth is the one that will get you, I believe, the most genuine audience and also will get you the most stickiest audience. People that recommend things to their friends are much more likely for that friend to hang on to it, to take value in that suggestion, that recommendation. So it spread through word of mouth, and the reason I believe it spread through word of mouth was because I found a group of people that had a specific goal in mind. In my case, they were all Shopify merchants and they were all looking to launch businesses and build an income, build a lifestyle from that business. But they all on this path, this journey towards that goal of building this business, they were all going to encounter specific problems, right? Around marketing, around logistics, around shipping, around creating their products. And there was no one out there creating content specifically for this journey. There was no guide, there was no guidebook, there's no map along the way. And when I create the podcast to be that guide, be that map, by bringing on experts and giving my own opinions as well, it really, really established itself as a, a place of refuge almost, where people come in and learn what needs to be learned for them on this journey. So if I were to give, uh, you know, kind of one piece of advice for anyone that is thinking about starting a podcast and wondering what is the topic or the niche they should be in, it should be those two things. One is that you need to find a group of people that have a specific goal in mind. Doesn't matter their demographics, doesn't matter where they are, where they're from. All that matters is that they have the same goal in mind and that there's no one really out there that is creating a centralized place for them to have as a way to hold their hand on this path, on this journey towards that goal. And having that combination is a really strong kind of long-term, long-term duo to make sure that you have a podcast that grows quickly and then also stays for a long term.

Right. And so in doing that, you know, like the wheels are turning in my head right now because, you know, when you start a podcast, it's because, you know, you have content, you have a mission, you have a voice that you want to sort of get out there. And so where do you draw the line between, well, this is what I like to talk about, about and finding those people. It's like finding the demographic, you know, what is that straight arrow to finding those people? Because, you know, even I, I'm, I'm still, I know my podcast is early, it's still in its infancy, you know, but I feel like I'm still struggling to find my people who were actually going to consume it. What would be your advice to what is a better avenue, a better path to finding those people?

Yeah, so, so one of the key things I teach people to when they're launching a podcast is the— yes, word of mouth is important, but word of mouth, traditionally a lot of people think about word of mouth meaning that one friend tells another friend. There's no reason why you should be growing a podcast one person at a time, one listener at a time, one subscriber at a time. You can easily get in front of thousands of hundreds at least of people that are interested in your content. And the way that I recommend doing that is what I call borrowing other people's audiences. So rather than you going out yourself. And you know, the one thing that I see, one of the pieces of advice I see often that I wholeheartedly disagree with is that people say spend a lot of time in the communities that your audience is in and spend a lot of time just answering questions. While that's noble, it's useful, it's helpful, it doesn't fulfill your goal of reaching more people because you're literally talking into one person's ear at a time when there could be another person that has a lectern with a microphone and a podium that you could step up to and talk to a crowd of people, right? So when we're talking about how much, how you can generate a lot of value in a community and an audience, I believe in numbers. I believe in quantity of people that you can reach, right? So you can spend time in a community answering one person's question at a time, or you get in front of a big audience answering everyone's question. Because the thing is, like, no one ever— they might think they do, but no one ever really has one specific unique problem, right? One answer to one person's problem is going to reach many people. So what I recommend you doing is look for people that already have the audience that you want to get in front of and get in front of their audience. You know, the best way to do that, the best fit really, is to find other podcasters in your specific niche. But it doesn't have to stop there. You could certainly go into the communities that your audience is in, right? Let's say a Facebook group. But if you're coming from a position of, I want to be a leader, I want to be a person that's creating value as a leader, Don't spend your time being a normal average member of the community, right? You want to position, position yourself as a leader. Come in and interview the admin, talk to the admin of the Facebook group and ask them, hey, if I were to do an interview or create content, can I post a video? Can it be pinned to the top of your page? Or really come into it from a position of I want to be a leader, I want to be a thought leader, I want to be able to create content. And don't do that one by one, don't do that one person at a time. Look for opportunities to get in front of large crowds.

Wow. Yeah, that's, that's incredible because I know that's something that I'm still in the phase of struggling with that because, you know, a lot of times we allow the how to keep us from taking action and I'm guilty of that myself. And so what is your best advice as to how to do that? How do you get— I mean, do you just invite yourself on someone else's show? What is that process like and how do you do that?

Yeah. So it's definitely a numbers game. It's a numbers game. Specifically early on, and over time becomes less and less of a numbers game, and the tables kind of turn at a certain point where people start asking you to come on podcasts, right? Begging you to come on, begging you to come on their show, or them begging to come on your show, right? The tables turn eventually, but certainly at the beginning is very uphill, and you've got to start a little bit of time. And it's a little bit of game of leapfrogging where you start off with this, or more of a game of dominoes maybe, where you start off with this smaller domino, you knock that one down, and you get on bigger and bigger shows. It's easier to get on bigger and bigger shows. The first thing I recommend for anyone out there that has never been on a podcast before, is brand new, is just to kind of break the ice by being interviewed, getting on any show. Could have no audience at all, could have one listener, could be, you know, the host's like mom or something. That's perfectly fine. It's just about breaking this mindset, right, of like, I'm not a person that gets interviewed, I'm not a person that sits on the other side. Like, breaking that identity is, is so key because then you realize, wow, I can kind of provide content from this side of the table and opens you up to way more— opens you up to look for more opportunities. So start small. It's definitely gonna be a small thing. You know, if you're looking at numbers, I think when I first started out, you got to reach out to like 10 people for one to say yes, which is still not bad, right? It's not hard to find 10 people and get anyone to tune in, to get anyone to agree, because the key is to build almost like a resume, a portfolio of shows you've been on.

On.

And if you go into a bigger podcaster that has, let's say, you know, thousands, a thousand listeners, and you went on a show that had, you know, 10 listeners, they're not going to ask how many people listen to that podcast. They just want to see that you have the chops to be interviewed, right? And that comes with practice too, right? You get better and better at being interviewed over time. You get better, better at creating your message over time. So basically the gist of it is it's a numbers game. Start small. As you start small, you'll be able to kind of leapfrog and go for bigger and bigger, you know, bigger and bigger podcasters as you get on more and more shows.

Right. Why do you think podcasting is so popular right now? Like everybody has a podcast, every actor, every movie director. Why do you think that is?

Yeah, so I think that's a two-part question. I think the first thing is why is podcasting popular to listen to? And why is podcasting popular for people to create. So I think it's just, so the first part I answer is why is podcasting so popular for creating? So I actually don't think that it's so popular in terms of where people are going to create content. There are lots of obstacles that people would think they need to overcome, like technical obstacles. I think what they said, someone said that the number one fear people, number two fear people have is death, number one is public speaking. So I actually don't think that a lot of people feel comfortable at all getting on a podcast. But once you do it, or if you're inclined to do it, if it's natural for you, there's no more direct— in my opinion, there's no more direct way to get your thoughts out than to speak them out. So I think for anyone that is interested in starting a podcast and you like the idea of talking, it's a very easy medium to create, right? You and I can sit down for, you know, 45 minutes to talk, and that's like a 10,000-word blog post. When you, when you put a print, print out the transcript, imagine how long— I've done it before, I've created 10,000-word blog posts. It took me weeks, and I, and I would, you know, pour over and make sure everything was right. I think with, with podcasting, uh, it's way easier because you create the content, and you also kind of give yourself a little bit more leeway as a creator and as a listener to make sure to, to emphasize more about authenticity rather than perfection. Right? When it comes to blogs or written mediums, people focus so much on perfection rather than the authentic, you know, words straight from the mouth. So that's why I believe it's, which I don't believe is popular, but it is if someone like a celebrity, right? Obviously they don't have a problem with public speaking, so they're inclined to go with a medium of communication that's easy, which I think is podcasting, is speaking. So there's that piece. And then I think podcasting is really taking off right now for, for, because it's, it fills a gap in people's lives, right? There's times in life where, in your day rather, that you just don't have access to other mediums, right? There's audio, visual, and I guess, I don't know, reading a blog or something. Visual mean like a video, audio being podcasting, and, you know, reading a blog. So you're not at your desk all the time. There's going to be commuting, the gym, walking outside, um, you know, there's time doing your chores, doing your laundry. There times where you don't have access to a YouTube video or access to reading a blog post. And those opportunities exist right now with not that much content out there that is filling it, right? Because there's plenty of YouTube videos, plenty of TV shows, plenty of blog articles, but compared to those, podcasting is not— doesn't have that much content. And that is, I think, why a lot of people that are looking to fill those gaps with entertainment or education are looking at podcasting.

Got it. Got it. So I know it's hard to feel like you have value, like, immediately, but my goodness, you grew your podcast so quickly. Did you— have you always felt like you had something to talk about that was of value, that you were going to be the best at giving that information to the audience, or did you kind of feel your way through that?

Yeah, no, I mean, it took me a while, even when the podcast was successful, even when I was hitting, you know, 10,000 downloads a month, it took me a while to realize that there is value in being a journalist, basically a reporter, because again, back when I first started, I was a no-namer in the industry. I didn't have, I was not an expert on Shopify, I was not an expert on e-commerce or even marketing at the time. I was not an expert in those things, but I had a genuine curiosity for, I had questions, I had genuine curiosity to find out the answers to those questions. Questions. And there is value in being a conduit, a, a representative of the, the beginner community or the community out there that you're serving. There's a value in being that person because the thing is, a lot of people have questions and they just stop there. They don't go and look for answers, you know, or it's— they don't have time to look for answers. And there's value in that kind of convenience, that kind of organization that you can provide by being someone that runs a podcast. So I didn't have— I didn't believe I had value because I didn't have the knowledge inside me, inside my own head, but I was good at finding the answers. And there's a lot of value in that. So if you, if you are interested, genuinely interested in a topic but you're not expert in it and you feel like it disqualifies you from having a podcast, I'd really challenge you to think about it differently, because there's really no better way than to learn straight from masters, right? What opportunity would you get to speak to so many people for 45 minutes, an hour, and however long you want to about a specific topic that you don't know much about, right? Being a beginner, being so— being beginner, being someone that has genuine interest in learning more about topic is really the, the only criteria I believe there that exists for being a great podcaster. Because you are now going out there asking the right questions, you're going out there seeking answers, and you are, you know, basically seeking answers and then documenting it for other people to listen to. So I didn't believe I had value to begin with, but then over time I found that there's value in being the representative of a community that has questions and me being the answer seeker.

Okay. I love that, especially how you use the word conduit, you know, like a reporter. I love that. And so in the beginning, so you're that reporter until you build your audience, build your audience, then you're like, okay, I can stand on both my two legs. On my own because now I feel like I have value. Did you cross, cross that threshold?

There's certainly always going to be an element of imposter syndrome throughout this entire journey. I think you have more evidence that is not true along the way. So you start seeing patterns, I think is the best thing about being so immersed in a specific topic. You see patterns in advice that you hear from from guests that come on your show. You know, I think the important thing is that at the end of the day, what you're creating is either— in my case, it's a combination of motivation, inspiration, but also information that we're creating. At the end of the day, the audience, if they truly want to take that and, you know, change their lives, they still have to take the action. So for me, I'm consuming— I'm creating a lot of content, I'm learning and consuming it, um, Do I believe that that positions me in a better spot to take action on it, to actually like run an e-commerce business? I think so. So I think that that gives me more value and allows me to believe in myself more in terms of my understanding, my grasp of the topics I cover on my show. But in the day, I still see more— I still see myself more as a reporter. And as long as I am have an ear to my audience in terms of the things that matter to them, the questions that they have. I think that's where I focus more my value than anywhere else.

And so cool. Thank you so much for sharing that. So when it comes down to packaging your content, you know, because I, you know, working with you, I played around with, OK, what is the format of the show? How do you— and like, what are the parameters and rules that you use that you think aids in people wanting to consume your podcast? Like they don't just start it for the first 90 seconds and go, "Ah, boom, we're off, you know, done with that." How do you package it in a way that people want to consume your information?

Yeah, so I think it's important to identify that there are two, you know, for a large part, two different types of podcasts that exist out there. And you see this in any medium. It's either entertainment or informational/educational. Sometimes you see some, you know, bridge the gap between the two, but usually people come listen to a podcast because they want to unwind or be entertained. For example, a comedy podcast or sports podcast, or they're here because they want to use the opportunity to learn about something, to— they have some kind of problem that they're trying to solve, and that's more educational and more on the informational side. So I can only really speak to the educational informational side in terms of packaging, right? Because that's where packaging is most important. And we talk about packaging What I think you and I are talking about here is how do you create your content in a way that is digestible and consumable by the audience. And I told this story before about how I have a dog who's about 8 years old now and he has so many problems. And you know, when we first, my wife and I first went to the animal shelter, you know, we said that we were just gonna take a look, which is like the worst word, like the famous last words of anyone that goes to animal shelter. And when we got there, they brought out a dog and they told us that this dog this dog is the last one in this litter. All his brothers and sisters have been adopted out already, so we're like, we can't send them back, so we'll take him with us. So took him home, and then we quickly realized over the years why he was the last one. He was like the runts of the litter, so many medical problems. And currently his issue right now is, uh, his, his— he, he has like, um, eye issues that he requires medicine. The pill is basically for the rest of his life that he has to take, and he doesn't take him, he loses his eyesight. Right? So obviously very valuable medicine, right? But he doesn't take it because it's bitter tasting. So what we have to do every day is I slather in peanut butter and he eats it right up with no questions asked, right? So this is very valuable stuff for him, but he doesn't take it unless I package it up in a way that is something that he really wants. And same thing with podcast content. You can have great content, but a lot of times because you're an expert, the way you deliver it can sometimes be bitter. It sometimes is just— you're way more interested in it, I think, oftentimes, than your audiences. So how do you package in a way that's kind of entertaining to them, or at least more desirable to them than just kind of raw information? And I think one key thing to keep in mind when you're thinking about how to do this is really about simplification and try to make it tangible. What I mean by that is that I always tell, uh, you know, students and clients that if you want to start a podcast, your episodes have to solve one problem at a I think there's this tendency to just say, okay, my podcasts are gonna be half an hour or an hour, and then just try to fill that time rather than being more kind of intentional with it. So, okay, what is the specific problem that I want to solve my audience? Like, what is a problem that they'll face along this journey that they're on to reach their goal? And one problem at a time, and then with one solution at a time. Now that solution could be a process, step-by-step thing, but the idea is that you match a problem to a solution. And what I always like to do is always give it a name. Give them something to leave with, something tangible so they know that it's the Travia Technique or Travia Solution so they can remember in the back of their minds and take it with them. So simplify it down into a process, simplify the podcast episodes down to one problem at a time. The thing you gotta remember is that Nobody's sitting down and just consuming your podcast from front to back. They're probably shopping like on a menu. They look at, especially new listeners, they'll kind of look around and see what's a podcast episode that might be relevant to them. And if you have an episode that says, you know, we saw PTSD, anxiety, you know, depression, and marital issues all in one episode, they might be like, all I got is anxiety, I'm not gonna listen to this episode. There's like 5 things on here that's not relevant. To me, right? So you got to treat like a menu and treat your podcast in a way that makes it much more digestible.

Well, that's good. Yeah, I, you know, I think we've talked about that before, but I can think back on some of my podcast episodes where I covered like so much, you know, and so breaking it down to such a minutia of a thought, and it's like, just saw that. Exactly.

Okay.

What's your process for, like, when you're interviewing someone, how much prep work do you do before that interview so that you can ensure that you ask good questions?

Yeah, so prep work is definitely important. I think it's much more important early on when you kind of don't know all the paths that an episode can take. What I mean by that is you enter a conversation on a topic that you you don't have a great grasp on, you don't really know what questions exist out there. So I think it's really important early on when you don't have a good grasp of the topic to find out what questions your community is asking, right? Find out what are the big asks inside these Facebook groups or inside different forums, and what are the questions that people have about that topic. Over time, you develop an intuition, but you will be a part of the community enough, or you have a good idea of like the paths that a conversation can and you know, the way to think about questions is a question is not like interrogation. A question is to guide the content creation from the guest. Okay, so like you're asking questions to kind of not course correct, but like guide them into to be able to tell their entire story. So questions are tools to help you do that, and if you don't have a good grasp of the tools, then you can't really guide the conversation. But once you have you have, you know, good grasp of the tools, you have a good grasp of the direction of conversation you can take on a specific topic, then I actually don't spend that much time preparing. And the reason why I think I, I don't spend that much time preparing is because you— I believe that the more time I spend preparing, the more I can be burnt out from genuine interest. So if I spend a lot of time spending all this research on a specific topic for getting on, I do— I make two mistakes. One is that I I might not be interested as much before because I've satisfied a lot of my curiosity by doing all this research. And number 2, I kind of do disservice to my audience because I've learned so much now that I might skip over asking questions that my audience would have had because they're, you know, beginners. So I think that's important is that you don't want to do so much research that you're too far ahead of your audience. And if you do so, then you might, you know, leave your audience kind of lost.

Oh yeah, I'm totally with that because generally the questions that I want to ask, that I ask in an interview are questions that I generally want the answer to. And so I think if I want to know the answer to that, then surely my audience wants to know the answer to that. So very cool. Felix, what do you think is your biggest characteristic that separates you from other podcasters? What do you think is your it factor? With podcasting?

Yeah, I think the big one is, um, similar to the answer to the last question, which is that you have to kind of be unashamed of what you know and don't know. It's more specific what you don't know. I think a lot of people create podcasts to demonstrate their understanding or demonstrate their, their, their expertise, and that's That's fine. I mean, you should definitely, if you have knowledge in a space, you should definitely share it with your audience. But you should never shy away from a question because it makes you look like a beginner, right? I think you're obviously doing a big disservice to your audience who are, you know, 99% of the time they know way less than you about any topic because this is your world, right? So you have to be really unashamed about your— not unashamed, that doesn't mean the right word. You have to be proud of of, uh, your questions. You'll be proud of having questions and having the desire to, to get these answers. So I think a lot of times I will— the podcast that I usually would shy away from is when I start finding or hearing that the, the guest, or sorry, the host specifically, the podcaster, is here to show off, I guess, and not so much to create valuable answers for, for their audience. So I think the big one for me, which came naturally because again, back when I first started this thing, I really did— I really wasn't I really was a beginner. So if you're a beginner, you kind of have that luxury of having lots of questions. But when you're more of an expert, you really got to kind of put away that a little bit of ego that wants to demonstrate expertise. You can obviously do that, but then I guess let it guide you to know what kind of content to create. Don't use it to, you know, drop jargon or words or talk about anything complex that that, you know, your audience might, might not, might not, might, might miss.

Right. And where do you draw that line? Because as you, you answer this question, I'm going, but what if they don't think I know what I'm talking about? Because I'm, you know, I'm so unashamed of what I don't know. How do you— where do you draw the line between that and, you know, the expertise of, this is why you should listen to my podcast?

Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. So I think you should definitely, if you know something, you know the answers to questions, definitely share it with your audience. I think the part, I think there's a chance where there is this opportunity to share something valuable with the audience through a question that you then shy away from. So let's say that someone has a question about how to recover from a relationship of infidelity right, and you know a specific technique that works well, you should certainly talk about it and explain it and explain why it works, why it doesn't work. But let's say you didn't know the answer and you had a guest on your show that was an expert on relationships. You, you, if you were, if you didn't know the answer but you know they didn't, they knew the answer, you shouldn't shy away from asking the question to get them to provide it. So I think that's a big thing is like Certainly provide your expertise where, where, where it can fit in. But when you don't have the expertise, you know, don't discredit, don't do disservice to the audience by not trying to get the answers to it by asking the questions.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I get that. Because yeah, sometimes I find myself second-guessing, should I admit that I don't know that, which I know is totally fine. But, you know, I know for a fact that I'm always seeking external validation, which is why I'm like, you know, staying in the belief of that it will happen. It takes time. I get that. And I understand that. And people do like to feel that you're human and that you can be vulnerable as well. I still have a hard time of balancing that line.

I see what you're saying. Yeah, I think, um, I think I think what you can do is if you're in a situation where, I mean, I think if you can, when does this come up? Like during an interview or when it comes up during a conversation or does it come up when you're preparing to create content? Because if you're preparing to create content, you kind of try to map this out ahead of time and know what avenues it'll take.

Yeah, I would say in the preparation. Yeah. And so, you know, because I know that I do solo episodes as well. And so I generally steered towards what is it that I'm confident that I know, and I can speak on that.

Yeah. So I think the thing here is similar issues, similar concerns I had early on, which was about if I don't have the answers inside my own head, if I don't have the hands-on experience myself, then I don't deserve to create content about that at all. I have to somehow be the one that created this out of the blue or somehow suffered it myself, right? So it— I mean, I guess I could certainly see why that someone would be hesitant to, you know, talk about something that they learned somewhere else. But again, there's value in that, right? Like, for example, people pay, you know, $50,000 a semester to go to Harvard to learn entrepreneurship from people that have never started businesses because there's still value in someone that has that can teach, that can take information and disseminate it, take information, process it, and then teach in a way that is, again, consumable, digestible to their audience. So if you don't know the answer and you found it from somewhere else, there's value in having— especially if you're in your position where you're starting a podcast as a coach, as someone that has clients working with them, that that come from their podcast, you want to be seen as someone that can, is always constantly learning, right? And constantly learning, constantly getting them the relevant information. You know, at the end of the day, people, I think, care less about did Travia come up with this, did this information come from Travia's head or did it come from a book that was read, right? So I think it's important to understand that the real value isn't that they got the information the, the, the valuable content, not so much like where they come from.

Right. Okay. That makes sense. Thank you for sharing that. So in your prep, like, what are some of the key things that you focus on so that you can like shortcut, like it's not an arduous process? How have you learned to speed up your prep, the recording and the editing? Yeah.

I mean, at the end of the day, if you want a successful podcast, you have to serve the audience in a way where you're getting them answers to their questions. So the fastest way is to go find out questions that people are already asking. And the best place to find out questions people are already asking is to look for content that's similar to the ones that you're creating and see what people are asking, right? Are they— are there questions that the piece of content, the YouTube video, the other podcast, the blog post, did they miss something that you can now add ask. Also look at the content that they're creating themselves. And I think there's a tendency for us, probably similarly related to imposter syndrome, where we will encounter— we'll read information, read a suggestion or advice, and we sometimes have a gut reaction to it that is wrong or that is actually a little bit off, but we don't follow that intuition. We're We rather, you know, rehash the same advice that we read somewhere else. But there's a lot of value in finding information, especially often repeated information, right, that people say over and over again that you disagree with. Definitely talk about those things. You know, I think I talk about that there's power in— I think the real reasons why people come back to a podcast is around exclusivity. What I mean by that is that that if they can get your content somewhere else, they'll get it somewhere else, right? There's this saying I've heard before where they said that it's foolish to think that your audience is monogamous. They're not only coming to you, they're going to get their information from everywhere, right? So how to get them coming back to you? It's through exclusivity. You have something they cannot get somewhere else, and you're rehashing the same information over and over again without your own twist, your own opinion, your own your own experience flavored onto it, then you're not really doing anything. You're just kind of being an echo chamber. You're just kind of being a Google search away from being irrelevant. You know, people can find it somewhere else. So I think it's important that you're able to find this exclusivity and look for content that— you know, look elsewhere for what kind of content people are creating, but then think to yourself, like, what do you not agree with? And how can you talk about this on a podcast?

What do you think is your exclusivity? Like, what is the card that I'm carrying when I want to listen to Shopify Masters?

Yeah, I think it's a combination of— I think, I think the, the, the, what I see in the kind of e-commerce or business or marketing world when it comes to podcasts is that it's heavily, heavily focused on inspiration and motivation, right? They want to hear the story of of how can we be inspired. Mine, I focus specifically on— I want people— my dream scenario is for people to listen to the podcast with a pen and paper in hand and take notes about what things they're going to take and be able to implement today. Like, that's always the background on my mind. How can I ask questions? How can I get content pulled out where someone can use advice today or tomorrow or this week at the latest, right? I want to be actionable. Actionable. So actionable is always the, the main focus of my podcast. And we really try to focus on— that's probably the biggest thing. And the second thing is we really try to focus on finding the intimacy, intimate details of a, of a, of a business, right? Simple, like, simple things. Like, we always ask them about the app, the apps, the gears, the tools that they use to run their business. Because it really helps you kind of piece together— in my world, that is— it helps really piece together what's required, what's involved in running a business of a certain magnitude. So a lot of people actually tune into my podcast where we'll mention whenever we skip over a question like that, one day when we forget to ask our guests, you know, what kind of apps they use, that kind of stuff matters to them. So I think actionable, and then try to give them an intimate look at the almost like the behind the scenes of a— like, ideally, I want people to be able to picture themselves spending a day with this, you know, business owner behind the scenes. Not like what you would see, you know, at the front of the store, but like what's going on in the back rooms.

Got it. I love that. Wow, very cool. So you kind of hit on it a little bit in the very beginning about, you know, if you were to do it all over again, if you were to start a new podcast, like, Like, take us through a fast, you know, timeline of if you were starting something today and no one who knew, who knew, and no one knew who Felix was, what would your process be as far as bringing it to market? Boom, boom, boom. You're growing. You have your downloads, all of that stuff. What is your quick timeline to doing that?

Um, yeah. First thing is go after big name guests as quickly as possible. And when I say big name, like, you don't, you don't have to go after like A-list celebrities, but find people out there that already have an audience and try to get them on your show. Get them on your show because you want to find as many opportunities for you to share the same interests as people that have— I'm going to explain what this means. Share the same interests as people that already have an audience. Meaning you want to align your interests with people that already have an audience. Okay? So you want to be— one easy way to do that is create content with them. Because you create content with them, their interests are now aligned with you in that they want that content out there. Okay, so now when they want the content out there, they're going to look to see, how do I do that? Well, they have an existing audience. So that's the idea. Go after people that have an audience already, partner with them, work with them to get them on your show. So your numbers came off the bat. I would start off small. I would go after people that have a following of, you know, thousands of people that maybe they're not podcasters, maybe they've never been on a podcast before,, but just start looking for these kind of smaller influencers in your space and get them on your show, partner with them so now they have an interest in starting a podcast, in sharing your podcast content. Now one thing I didn't talk about early on was that one other big key to my success early on was very similar to this where I would go and look for businesses and vendors that had my audience. So these are people that were already, you know, had email lists and, and to some degree social media followings of Shopify store owners, AKA my ideal audience. So they already had this built-in audience, and what I did was I went out to them and reached out to them and asked them, hey, you know, I have a podcast, I'm starting a podcast, and I would love to interview some of your best clients, you know, we'll talk about your product on the show, and we'll obviously talk about other things too, but the idea, the pitch was that I'll talk about about their service. So they gave me a roster of their clients, I interviewed them on my show, and then I told them, hey, you know, the interview is live. Now if they have a podcast out there that has one of their clients giving a testimonial essentially about their business, they're likely to share. So back in line, back, basically another example of how you can look for other people that once you create content with them, they now have an aligned interest with you to share that content. The easiest way is to influencers in your space, businesses in your space that will want to get the word out once there's content created with them or about them.

Nice, I like that. Yeah, I've never— that's never crossed my mind to create content with them.

Yeah, it's like you're creating like a— you're kind of a baby with them. Now they want to see that baby flourish, right? So like, get them to create the baby with you, and now they have an incentive to make sure that, that, that, that, you know, sees daylight.

Perfect. I love that. Felix, you know, it's January, it's early. What would you say are like a couple of goals that you have for 2021? Because, you know, how do you just, and how do you keep wanting to grow your podcast even more? So if you could just break that down and share like some goals and your why.

Yeah. So I think the, the biggest focus for me with the podcast this year, is pushing the boundaries of questions. I think one thing I— what we talked early on about shying away from asking questions that expose your beginner's mind or your lack of knowledge, right? We talked about that, but it's also pushing the boundaries of kind of making the guests uncomfortable to some degree. I think that's the next level. Right? Next level where not so much that you're asking them— like, obviously, no, my podcasts are live, so if they don't want to answer a question, they can obviously say it. But asking more questions that— the reason why I'm saying to— I want to kind of optimize towards asking questions that make the guests uncomfortable is because it's going to push me in a realm where no one's asking these questions of them ever. So it goes back to the idea of exclusivity. How can I create content? How can I create a podcast that that differentiates myself. It's really pushing the boundaries of the kind of questions we're asking, right? Getting to more intimate details of their business that they typically don't share, not necessarily because they don't want to, but because most people are afraid to ask the question. So I think pushing the boundaries of that, and I think one thing that I had in mind was like, anytime I feel uncomfortable about having a question prepared, I'm going to push myself to ask it. So that's like the main thing this year is just really keeping that in mind to push the boundaries of like kind of content that can be created in this kind of space that I'm in.

Right. Nice. Nice. So Felix, as we wrap it up here, if someone wanted to work with you, how could they go about doing that?

The first thing is I put together a free training. It's over at podcastandprofit.com, specifically focused on coaches, consultants, experts, entrepreneurs that want to build more authority, want to use a podcast as a way to separate themselves from the crowd, land more clients through that process. So that's the free training. I would certainly start there. It will give you a good idea of whether we would be a good fit or not, and if I would have the kind of skill set that is what you're looking for. So I think that's probably the best place for people to start.

Okay. And would it just any Jane or John Doe who's interested in a podcast, like, do they have to meet a certain criteria? Do they have to have already started a podcast? Podcast, what is the starting gate for that?

I would certainly recommend people that— not so much that they have a podcast or not yet, that's something that can be overcome, that can be taken care of in a week, getting a podcast live. It's more so about do you have something to offer in terms of— because my focus is really around helping people that are, again, coaches, consultants, people that have existing products and services. How do we get them to get the clients that they deserve? Based on the kind of services that they provide. So if you don't have something to offer there yet, that's going to be really the— I would recommend that be your focus really for 2021, is to get a business like that off the ground where you have at least a couple clients, some understanding of the market that you're in, and then really supercharge it with the podcast. So that's really the kind of threshold, is that you have an existing business, you have some clients you're working with, and, and, you know, you have the way to fulfill on the product, but now you just need more eyeballs on it.

You know, Felix, I've always thought you were just so chock-full of knowledge. Like, I think, like, you are, you know, one of the people that completely knows what he's talking about. And like, I think I can ask you anything and you'll go down this road of just knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. So thank you so much for dropping so much knowledge for the audience today, because because, you know, growing from a place of, I want to be the only one doing this. I love to see other people. I love to be, you know, selfless as far as sharing what it is that I know. I think you're a valuable commodity. I think you're very knowledgeable and you've been a very, very great coach for me. So thank you for coming on the show today. Is there any last bit of information, like where your preferred method of people connecting with you? Where can they find you if they just want to follow you and hang out? Where might that be? Be?

Yeah, so I would recommend people check out my baby, Shopify Masters, get an idea of like the kind of content that I'm talking about. That's probably the best place for people to get a feel for, you know, what I mean, like my thought process around like what makes a podcast valuable to an audience. So it's gonna be different for everyone out there depending on the audience that you have, but anyone out there that is just thinking about starting a podcast and maybe you don't have a business behind it, you maybe just want to start something everything. Um, the challenges are not nearly as vast as you think exist. I think there's a lot of emphasis on getting the right equipment, getting, um, everything right before you get started. And I'm not sure where that came from, but it's not nearly as of a challenge as I think most people believe. So I'm not gonna go into how to start a podcast at the end of your podcast episode, but the point I'm trying to make is like, if that obstacle is inside your head about it's a lot to overcome. If you are already a child of the internet, you already use internet, it's not as hard as you think it is. Just, just start a podcast.

Perfect. Perfect. Thank you so much, Felix. This has been, you know, every time, you know, the two of us have a call, we converse, I always 100% of the time learn something valuable. So thank you for sharing your expertise with us today.

Thank you so much.

If you like what you're hearing, and perhaps you're interested in having a complimentary conversation with me. Click the link at the bottom of the show notes. Thank you so much for listening. If you even want to know more about what I'm up to, head over to traviestewart.com. And if you like seeing the videos of the podcast, every episode is on my YouTube channel. Take care, guys.