122 | The Content Strategy That Can 10X Your Reach with Nathan Gwilliam

Patrick: [00:00:00] What if one of the most powerful growth tools for your business is something you know you should be doing, but it just feels too complicated to start. A lot of entrepreneurs know a podcast can build authority, create opportunities, and expand their reach. Once they start looking at the tech, the editing, the distribution and the marketing, it quickly becomes overwhelming.
So the question becomes, is there a better way to turn your ideas into influence without it taking over your schedule? Welcome back to another episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast. I’m your host, Patrick Lonnergan, and on this show we explore the strategies that help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and protect their wealth and build a life on their terms.
Today I’m joined by Nathan Gwilliams. A serial entrepreneur who has created and sold three digital ventures. His most recent exit was adoption.com, which became the most visited adoption website in the world. After that exit, Nathan launched a podcast focused on digital monetization and published more than 350 [00:01:00] episodes.
But along the way, he realized something, producing a podcast in a traditional way required more than 30 different tools. Nearly $2,000 per month in software and hours every day just to distribute the content. So he did decided to solve the problem. Nathan built PO up an all in one podcasting platform, powered by AI with more than 50 tools designed to help entrepreneurs create, grow, and monetize a podcast without all the complexity.
And through his agency pod allies, his team can even handle the production and marketing, so businesses can focus on sharing their ideas. In this episode, we talk about how entrepreneurs can leverage podcasting to build authority, why most people make it far more complicated than it needs to be, and how the right systems can turn your content into a powerful growth engine for your business.
And before we jump in, if you’re looking for more strategies to help you grow your business and build long-term wealth, head over to vital wealth.com/resources. We’ve built a vault of tools, strategies, and guides specifically for entrepreneurs [00:02:00] who want to operate smarter and build real wealth. And if you enjoy these episodes, leave a quick review.
Help us reach more entrepreneurs who are looking for better strategies. Alright, let’s dive into the conversation with Nathan. William, I’m excited about our conversation today. We’ve got Nathan, William on the show and uh, Nathan has done a number of things. He’s been a successful entrepreneur and also. Uh, is the founder of Pod Up.
Uh, he has some amazing tools that help entrepreneurs, uh, launch and edit and make a podcast really easy. And I, I do this podcast, uh, because I think it matters getting our, our, our content out there in the world. I think almost all entrepreneurs should do the same. So Nathan, thank you so much for joining us here today.
Nathan: Yeah, thanks for having me on today, Patrick.
Patrick: Yeah, so I’m looking at this in a, it’s, it’s interesting just thinking about. Uh, the challenges that, that entrepreneurs face when they start doing a podcast. And I, I am, I’m thinking back to when I started and between the idea of having a podcast and when my first episode [00:03:00] got out into the world, I think it was well over 12 months, and there was, there was lots of, uh, inertia in the way for me.
Uh, you know, body at rest stays in rest. It’s a physics concept or body emotion stays in motion. And I was at rest. And, uh, it was, it was hard getting, getting things going, but, uh. I think about the recording, editing, publishing, you know, the video clips, the blog posts, the social media, distribution, emails, web hosting, like all that just sounds overwhelming to me.
And, uh, I think it does to most, most listeners. And then generally just feeling frustrated because I, I know a podcast can be a powerful tool for my business, but I don’t have the time, uh, to become a media company. Right. And, um, and then philosophically, uh, entrepreneurs shouldn’t be. Uh, held back from, from sharing their, their insights and their, their valuable ideas, um, simply because the technology is, is fragmented and inefficient.
So I’m looking forward to, to getting into our, our discussion today to, uh, solve some of those problems. [00:04:00] But before we do, can we get a little bit of your background? I’d like to hear just, uh, about your entrepreneurial journey.
Nathan: Sure. I am an incurable creator and I, when I went to college, I studied entrepreneurship and.
Um, after my first year in college, I, I decided I wanted to be a missionary for a couple of years. I wanted to leave and go do some volunteer service work, and, and so I went to Brazil for two years and before my mission, I, I never had heard of the internet one time. And while I was, while I was there in Brazil from 1993 to 1995, the internet exploded.
When I came back, it was, it felt like the gold rush. Right? And, and so I, as an entrepreneurial student, I had to do a thesis, um, as part of one of the programs. I was in this honors program I was doing. And so for my thesis, I wrote a business plan on how to help the, [00:05:00] help children, um, find loving permanent homes through adoption.
And when I was in Brazil, I had fallen in love with all these street kids that would mm-hmm. Constantly come ask me for money. Uh, the, the change in my pocket pockets quickly ran out as a volunteer missionary, and, and I, I vowed when I got back to do something to make a meaningful difference in their lives.
So I, I saw the internet as my opportunity to do that and, and I wrote a business plan and it won a couple of business plan competitions and I started adoption com and mm-hmm. I had the immense privilege of, of working with adoption for, for decades, and. It kind of felt like living in a, in a Hallmark movie.
Um, I just, I loved being able to help create families and help children find homes and, um, mm-hmm. You know, help make a social impact and also make a profit and provide for my family. So that was my first venture. Um, I’ve done a variety of other Ven ventures. I’ve, I’ve built [00:06:00] and sold three, um, and I’ve helped other people.
I’ve done a lot of consulting work where I’ve helped other people build ventures too. Um. One venture that I did, I, I helped Paul, um, Allen, so not the Microsoft Paul Allen, but the Paul Allen that did ancestry.com. Mm-hmm. So I helped him do a venture called Family Link, and together with a very talented development team, they, they built an app that, that, uh, reached 90 million app installs.
And I was in charge of monetization and I added $5 million of revenue, um, in the first 12 months on that app. So that’s an example. Another example of consulting is with, uh, Desiree Digital Media. Um, they bought one of my companies and, and I went to work for them. And I built a, with, together with an incredibly talented team.
Um, my, my team and I built a network of family related websites in different languages and countries. And those reach 280 [00:07:00] million monthly uniques with 40 million. Monthly comments, likes, and shares with 130 million social follows. So this is what I do. All of my different ventures have been around building these digital platforms, and that’s kind of my expertise.
So when I was selling my last venture, um, back in 2019, I was doing a, a coaching program with Russell Brunson, and he made me a promise. He said that if I would publish every day for a year, I would be financially free. And so I took him at his word and I started a show and I did audio and video and social and, you know, all of those different pieces and newsletters and blogs and, and uh, and I did, I published every day for a year.
But oh my goodness, it kicked my butt. It was so hard. Um, after about three months, I realized that I needed more than 30 different technologies. ’cause I wasn’t just building a simple podcast. I was trying to build a venture around a podcast. [00:08:00] Uh, those technologies cost almost $2,000 a month, and they didn’t integrate hardly at all together.
I felt like I was duct taping them.
Patrick: Yeah.
Nathan: And, and, uh, one day in frustration, um, I had seen what, what, what Shopify had done, where they brought together a hundred different technologies and made it possible so that an entrepreneur could create a venture around e-commerce. And I could just see that somebody was going to, someone needed to do that same thing around.
Podcasting and bring all these technologies together. And I, I knew someone was gonna make a billion dollars doing that, and that was my aha moment. So, um, I went and hired a bunch of talented developers about six years ago, and we started building this. We’ve put about $6 million into POD up and it now has 74 tools that are integrated.
There’s 18 AI tools, there’s 10 monetization tools, um, all these different tools that help you record and edit and. And, um, repurpose and publish and syndicate and market and monetize [00:09:00] your, your, uh, podcast and turn it into a, into a venture. And, uh, then we started having customers, businesses that came to us and said, okay, love your tool.
Um, and I know I need a podcast, but I just don’t have time. Can I just pay you to do it for me? And so we op open an office in India, we have, we have about 40 team members there. We have a, a, a business called Pod Allies. And it’s an agency Yeah. Where businesses come to us and the businesses record the episodes, but we do about 40 different things for them.
We book their guests and edit their videos and write their blog posts, publish and syndicate, and run their ads and book ’em on other shows and help ’em develop their monetization streams and, uh, help businesses to, to be successful, uh, in their podcasting journeys.
Patrick: Wow, this is, this is incredible. And I’m frustrated.
You know, going back to one of my initial comments was, you know, the, the [00:10:00] inertia, the getting started, uh, I, I remember when I first just trying to make, you know, the, the recording software, my microphone and all these things like work together. I think it took me an hour to like get it all plugged in and, and like I could hear myself through my headphones and it was, it was all working, uh, correctly.
And so. The fact that you’ve brought all these tools and, and that’s just one sort of set of that, you know, you start adding in, you know, editing softwares and all these other things. It can be, it can be really overwhelming. So the fact that you’ve done this and brought it all together is, uh, is, is really incredible.
Nathan: And so to, to illustrate what, what we do related to that specific example where, where people normally have to go find all this, the equipment and research it and pick what’s best and then order it and try to figure it out and set it up. Instead with us, we send you our favorite equipment that we’ve already tested, we’ve already vetted.
Um, once you get it, we help you set it up, and we help you test it and do a test recording. I mean, it takes, we try [00:11:00] to make it take as, as little time as possible for you.
Patrick: Nathan, I’m, I’m kind of mad, but, uh, I didn’t meet you about four or five years ago because I think when the, the podcast became a, a, an idea and then.
It took me a couple years of, you know, thinking about it going, yeah, that’d be fun to do. I don’t have time for that to, uh, you know, the thing that sort of kicked it all off was like, I hired a, an executive assistant and I’m like, all right, here’s your job. Get this podcast off the ground. We’re just going to get it going.
Uh, you know, once I invested some dollars, it, uh, it helped me move, but it was a very expensive way to go. ’cause I was also hired a podcast consultant and, you know, it was like, geez. Um, I’m sure one month of that podcast retainer would’ve paid for, you know, uh, all of my pot up startup cost, you know, and, uh, got me, got me rolling.
So, but, you know, uh, I think the, the moral of the story is, you know, people that are listening to this, like, um, you know, it’s not as hard as it used to be to, uh,
Nathan: that’s [00:12:00] right.
Patrick: Get started with podcasts. So, um,
Nathan: yeah.
Patrick: Yeah. This is, this is incredible. Go ahead.
Nathan: Yeah. With, with our 70 plus tools that are integrated together.
And with a, our team in India that’s incredibly talented. Um, I think, I think what we can do for podcasters, it, I don’t think they could do for minimum wage what we can do for them. I, I don’t think, I’m not aware of anyone else that can do what we can do for the quality. You know, the scope. The depth of what, of what we can offer.
Patrick: Yeah, and I’m, I’m really interested in pod allies and what, what you have going on there with the team in, in India. So can you, can you dig into that a little bit more? Maybe give us a little bit of a case study like where, where you know, somebody’s coming to you and they’ve got this certain, uh, situation and they’re like, I’m excited about a podcast, but I don’t know how to, you know, fitted into my life with everything else I’ve got going on.
Nathan: Yeah, yeah. We hear that all the time from CEOs. In fact, we have far more cli, we have more clients. Um, we would generate far more revenue [00:13:00] from CEOs that, that need help than we do from, you know, just everyday people licensing the software. It’s incredibly common. Most CEOs feel that way. They, they know they need a podcast.
Um, and they usually tell us that, I know I need a podcast. I just don’t have time. And, and so we’ve tried to kind of be this end-to-end solution for them. Obviously there’s a few things they have to do, right? We’ll, we’ll book their guests for ’em, book the guests they want, and schedule it. And we’ll write the show notes and give them the bio and the headshot and the, and and the questions to ask, you know, a list of questions, but they still have to show up and have the conversation.
Um mm-hmm. And, and then we’ll go book them on other shows, you know, to help promote their show. And they’ve gotta show up and have those conversations. But, um, and they’ve gotta maybe show up at meetings and answer some questions and. And make some decisions and share their subject matter expertise. But other than that, we do almost everything for them.
And, and, um, it’s like there, there’s this gap. Um, [00:14:00] most podcasts, pod fade, most CEOs pod fade. Mm-hmm. And, and what happens is it, it ends up costing a lot of money. And taking a lot of time and consuming a lot of resources, that’s this line. And then mm-hmm. For those that first year or two, they’re, they’re not getting a lot of benefit and so this gap between the benefit and, and the resources that it’s taking.
What causes pod fade, right? Mm-hmm. And so what we’ve tried to do is get rid of that pod fade. We’ve tried to reduce the time that it takes. You minimize that time and minimize that cost. And then we, we have 10 different monetization tools built into pod up, and we can help pod, we can help CEOs launch over 20 different monetization strategies.
And so that helps ’em make money a lot faster. And we do a lot of marketing for them and help ’em grow a lot faster. We even we’re. We’ve gotten so good at this that we’ll even guarantee how much traffic we’re gonna give them. Well, our packages generally range from between 5,000 and 50,000 guaranteed [00:15:00] views, uh, per month.
So we don’t just do advertising, we guarantee the results. So with, with that increased traffic, with that guaranteed traffic, with help us helping ’em roll out monetization streams, um, it, it becomes worth it. Right? And, and you get rid of that pod fade gap, um mm-hmm. A lot faster.
Patrick: Yeah, this is fascinating.
’cause one of the things you, you talk about is, um, you know, getting a year or two in and not seeing the, the, the fruit of all the labor that comes out. But I, I think when you start looking at podcast data, the number of podcasts and the number of episodes, like people will get started and they don’t make it a year or two, they make it
Nathan: eight
Patrick: episodes.
Four or five Yeah. In episodes, right? Yep. Yeah. It’s, uh, it’s a pretty, pretty low number. And, and I think one thing that as, as somebody that. Now has built some systems and processes. I am, uh, I’m not a, a pod up, you know, subscriber yet, or Pod allies subscriber yet, but I’m, uh, [00:16:00] you’ve really got my attention here.
Um, one of the, one of the things that I, I think about now that I makes the podcast so easy is we’ve got the systems and processes in place where all I have to do is show up and do the interview and, and do a little bit of the prep to make sure that. I know who my guest is, or I know, you know the podcast that I’m going on.
What, what direction they, they’re gonna like the conversation to go. But that’s the easy part for me. You know, uh, then I’m done and I’m done. Right. And magically, and I’m not even sure how it all happens, but it, it then goes out every single week with all the show notes and all the, all the stuff that, uh, is, is put together.
And I think that once you get into that rhythm,
Nathan: yeah,
Patrick: it’s really nice, but it, it did. It doesn’t just happen overnight, uh, unless you’re utilizing some of the tools that you’re talking about here. So,
Nathan: yeah, I remember the first show that I did, um, every episode had 22 different steps, right? Mm-hmm. And from scheduling the guest to recording the guest, to editing the [00:17:00] video, right?
And, um, it’s so easy to just miss one step and you miss one step. Mm-hmm. And you miss the whole episode. You lose, you know, it slips through the crack. So what you’re saying is right, you gotta have that system and that process, and. Get it worked out.
Patrick: Yeah. And it, podcasting is awfully, uh, when I first started listening to podcast, it was on the, the podcast app.
Uh, actually it was through iTunes, you know, and on my iPod, you know, it wasn’t even on my phone. Uh, I’ve been a long time, uh, audio book and podcast junkie. Yeah. But, um, now the formats are changing, right? Uh, YouTube is a very, very popular podcast, uh, platform and. Uh, I, I see how podcasts are being sliced and diced into social media and all of that sounds overwhelming to me.
Uh, can you talk about the different platforms and, uh, how podcasts are, are expanding beyond just something people listen to? Yeah. You know, [00:18:00] I think Joe Rogan just kind of blown that up with, uh, you know, his, his video podcast. But yeah, I’m, I’m curious your perspective on that.
Nathan: Yeah, that, that is a great point.
’cause a lot of people, when they hear the term podcast, they, they still think audio. And podcasts today, at least when they’re done right and someone’s trying to turn ’em into a venture, they’re a lot more than just audio. Um, great podcasts today usually are audio. They usually start with a video recording and then they get repurposed.
That’s the term. And people usually turn them into eight or 12 or more pieces of content, right? So you usually have audio, usually have long form video, maybe a 30 minute interview or 45 minute interview or something. You then have maybe several short form, uh, video forms, several, um, 60 to 92nd video clips you can put out on social media.
And, you know, uh, the, the short form formats, um, it, it often becomes a blog. It often becomes show notes that get put, put out there with a transcript. It often becomes a [00:19:00] newsletter. It often becomes several forms of con of social content that goes out there. Um, mm-hmm. And, uh, and then once you’ve repurposed it.
You then you then syndicate it. So, um, the top podcasters usually have their own website. So you gotta own your own platform. Don’t just be reliant upon other people’s platforms and their algorithm to surface you. Right? Um, you gotta have your own website and so then you publish everything originally to your website, the, the video and the audio and the blog and the social and you know, all that.
And then, um. You, you syndicate it out and, and syndicating. You can go out to audio platforms. I think we go out to 13 or 14 audio platforms right now. Um, you can go out to blog platforms, you can go out to social platforms. Um, you can go out to video platforms and there’s different kinds of video platforms.
There’s the long form and the short form video platforms. And then you can go [00:20:00] out to live stream platforms if you do live streaming, um, we have a cool feature in Po Up. When you record, you can choose to live stream. And that’s not abnormal. But when most, when most, um, when most podcasters go live, they go live on one channel.
They’ll go live on Instagram or they’ll go live on YouTube or something. Mm-hmm. So we allow you, you can go live on, um, you can go live on your channel, but you can go live on all of your top channels simultaneously. And we call that multi streaming. Then you can invite your guest and if your guest gives you permission, you can also go live simultaneously on all of their top social channels as well.
So it’s a great way to suck traffic in, um, from the audiences of your guests.
Patrick: Yeah, this is, this is fantastic. I think one of the things that we’re, we’re talking about here is, is building an audience, right? Mm-hmm. And, and the more connected I can, I can be to. People that are trying to [00:21:00] find my message, right, uh, that are, that are interested in my topic, the, the better.
And I think all the things you just highlighted were, uh, fantastic ways to do that. And, and I, I think about podcasting and I think it’s good to, let’s step up a level for a second and just talk about why, uh, why different businesses would have a podcast. And, and I’m gonna go through some of the, the, um, the reasons that I’ve, uh.
I’ve, I’ve been interacted with a, a podcast and then become a client of, of that and, and I think of it in a few different, uh, avenues. Uh, you mentioned Russell Brunson.
Nathan: Yes.
Patrick: I, I I love Russell’s. Yeah, me too. Uh, content. Um, you know, I also, I see some, you know, your, your podcasting secrets podcast, uh, is, uh, been great, great resource I mentioned before we started recording.
Just thank you for putting that, that, that information out there. I think it’s, it’s great. I also, it’s very, very kind of
Nathan: you. Thank you.
Patrick: Yeah. Um, I’ve also thought about some, [00:22:00] uh, some marketing people that I’ve engaged with and, uh, it’s so interesting after I listen to their podcast, you know, I’ll, I’ll go back and binge like all the episodes and there’s just so much value that I take away and I’m like, okay, uh, and this, this is maybe a Russell Brunson concept that, okay, he’s given me the framework, but now I need somebody to walk alongside me or execute for me.
And so now I’m gonna call and engage. Uh, but it’s just a great way to. Get people the content they need. And then, then I feel like I know the person. Yeah. You know? That’s right. I know what’s, what they think about. I know what they believe. I, I like the way they approach the world and, uh, pursue, you know, uh, the, the opportunity that’s in front of ’em.
And so, yeah. I, I’m curious where you’re seeing, uh, opportunities for the entrepreneur or the CEO to, to start publishing, uh, podcast and, and how it. Can expand their, their business. ’cause that’s in general, most people are doing it for, um, to expand their [00:23:00] opportunities. Not just put some
Nathan: That’s
Patrick: right. Full content out the world.
Nathan: That’s right. It’s that gap, right? If we put a lot of effort in and we don’t get enough benefit, we end up pod fading. So we, we’ve gotta reduce the effort. We gotta increase the benefit. Okay. So, so you talked about a great benefit, you know, the, the, the value that we can give to our audience before they ever have to buy something, right?
They can get to know us and like us and trust us. First, that’s a great strategy, right? Similar to like when, when you were dating and uh, let’s say you went to an event and you saw a really pretty girl and you just walked up to her and you asked her to marry you. Right? What did you have zero chance of, of being successful in that?
Yeah. But, but so many businesses, they get a lead and they immediately go for a sale, right? And, and they wonder why they have a 0.03%, you know, open rate on their emails and, uh. So, so when we flip the script and we try to give ’em value first, um, so they can know us likes and trusts before they have to make a sale, that’s enormously valuable.
So that’s number one.
Patrick: Mm-hmm. [00:24:00]
Nathan: An another really important strategy is, um, or value benefit comes from the guests. So just before this interview, I was talking to a, to someone who runs a business, A CEO, who, um, is wanting to do a podcast and he’s, he’s selling consulting services and. One of the greatest values that, that I was explaining to him that he’s gonna get is he find, he needs to find who his ideal customer is.
These, these entrepreneurs, CEOs, and mm-hmm. Invite them to be the guests on his show. Then instead of trying to do a cold outreach to these people, he, he invites ’em on and gives ’em value, tries to promote them, promotes whatever they care about, gets them to know him like him and trust him. And then most of them are probably gonna say, now tell me about what you do.
And he probably will convert a very significant percentage of those. When you’re small and if you sell a high ticket product like consulting or coaching or something, that’s a [00:25:00] very effective strategy is to invite your potential, your potential clients is the guests on your podcast. One of the next best benefits that I think CEOs get from the show, from having a show is, um, they get invited on a whole bunch of other shows and to speak at a bunch of other events.
So. Almost every CEO out there would love more influencers to promote their products. They would love to be on more podcasts. They would love to get invited to speak at more industry events, and they apply and they don’t get accepted, or they just get accepted to a few of them, right? And they don’t understand why.
So the, the reality is, when you’re a successful podcaster, you get 50 people requesting to be a guest on your show every month or more, right?
Patrick: Mm-hmm.
Nathan: And, and, um. You can only, if you have four episodes, you can only invite a few of those people on your show. And so you’re gonna invite the people that have the most reach, that have the most audience that can promote your show back.
Right? That’s who’s gonna get picked. And the people that don’t have a show aren’t gonna get picked. And so [00:26:00] instead of being a big business that’s just begging to get on these shows and is getting rejected, if you do a show. You become a peer with those podcasters and then you can trade and you can go be a guest on their show and have them be a guest on your show.
And then they get to know you, like you and trust you, and then they can become an affiliate of your show. So if you wanna be on more shows, the secret is have a show, right?
Patrick: Yeah.
Nathan: If you wanna get invited to speak at more events, the events are gonna invite the speakers that can, that can sell more tickets, get more people to their events.
So if you wanna get invited to speak at more trade shows, have a show. If you want more influencers to promote, you have a show because you’re gonna invite the influencers to be the guest on your show. So it just opens so many doors and so many opportunities for reach far outside of your podcast.
Patrick: If you’re listening to this episode and thinking about how to build your business more strategically, one of the biggest opportunities most entrepreneurs miss is [00:27:00] simply having the right tools and frameworks in place. That’s exactly why we built a vault of resources for entrepreneurs who want to grow their business, minimize taxes, and build real long-term wealth.
Inside you’ll find guides, tools, and strategies designed specifically for business owners who want to operate smarter and keep more of what they earn. You can access everything for free at vital wealth.com/resources. Again, that’s vital wealth.com/resources where you can explore the strategies we’re using with entrepreneurs every day to help them grow, protect, and optimize their wealth.
And, and Nathan, you talked about this earlier, but you, you talked about the importance of having your own website and sort of syndicating out. Um, and, and one of the reasons you, you mentioned was, you know, the algorithms can change and so you like to have some control over that. Um, one of the, the questions I have is, is there, is there thoughts around, you know, whether it’s capturing, [00:28:00] uh, email addresses or getting people to follow you on other channels?
’cause I, I, I’ve been to some, um, podcasting conferences and I’ve heard people say that are running like top 10 podcasts. Like, Hey, um. They changed the, the, the rules on us a little bit and we fell off and that was frustrating. And so we wanted to get people on channels that we can control. Yep. Uh, that, that, that, uh, we didn’t have to worry about that anymore.
So how important is that in this, this process?
Nathan: It’s critically important. The way I explain that is I say you don’t wanna build a skyscraper on someone else’s land. Mm-hmm. You’ve gotta build, if you’re gonna spend all that time and money building a skyscraper, you wanna build it on land that you own. So what are, what are those platforms that you can own as a podcaster?
Right? It’s your email list, getting ’em on your email list. It’s your website, it’s a membership site. Uh, it’s a community, right? There’s these different things you can build where you can, um, you can, you can still use all those other [00:29:00] channels and you can push your content out to those other platforms, but then in every episode, you wanna suck people from those other channels back into platforms that you own.
You do that through lead magnets, you know, you give away a ebook or a, a course or a, um, you know, something that you give away for free and offer that for free at the end of your episodes. And then a cheat sheet, a checklist, something like that. And, and when they come and download that, they join your list, right?
And you’re bringing ’em into your platform. Then you start sending out an email newsletter. You start pushing out your episodes to these people. You start giving value to them directly instead of having to go through a, a third party. Uh, critically important, I’ve seen this over and over again, businesses that build their whole business on someone else’s platform that they don’t own, and then that business changes the rules to be in the best interest of their shareholders and not in the best interest of their content creators and their business dies, so, mm-hmm.
Patrick: Yeah. No, that’s, that’s so true. And like, we had a really interesting [00:30:00] example. We had a, a client that came to us that sold solely on Instagram. Uh, it was like a, a beauty product. I don’t, I don’t know what it was, and made a couple million dollars a year, and then all of a sudden her, her page, I’ll call it, got shut down.
And there was nobody to call. That’s right. There was nobody, she had no
Nathan: contact information. She had nothing. Right,
Patrick: right. She was interacting with. Instagram chatbots and FAQ pages trying to get her, uh, multimillion dollar business back online. And it’s like,
Nathan: yep.
Patrick: Uh, that’s, that’s just a, uh, awfully important lesson to be like, uh, the platform.
I, I can’t build my skyscraper on somebody else’s land. I, I need to start taking those people that, that come in through the platform and transition them to something that, uh. That I can control. So
Nathan: can I tell you a great story, another story about that
Patrick: please, please.
Nathan: So when I was at Family Link, the story I was telling you, there was an intern that was there named John Rampton, and he was a really smart guy and he ended up leaving [00:31:00] Family Link and he, he created this little product called the Scrap Trap.
The scrap trap was a little plastic device you put on your kitchen counter. You cut up your fruits and vegetables, scrape ’em in, and then you use it to throw away your, your scrap. So it’s a real simple device. He was selling this on Amazon and he was making $97 million a year selling this little plastic device on Amazon.
Patrick: Yeah.
Nathan: So what do you think Amazon did when they realized that, that this little, this young kid was making $97 million a year selling a little plastic device on their platform?
Patrick: Right. They made the Amazon version of that
Nathan: product. They did, and then they put it on Amazon. And then what do you think they did after they had that product live?
Patrick: Uh, their product probably started ranking higher than his in search terms. I’m, I’m guessing
Nathan: it, it did. And they completely removed his product from Amazon.
Yes.
Nathan: So he lost $97 million a year because he built his business completely, almost completely on platforms that he [00:32:00] didn’t own.
Patrick: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it’s, and, and I think we’ve, we’ve got clients that, um.
Help people bring products to market, and Amazon’s definitely one of those, but it’s never the only option. They’re, they’re doing it through, uh, their own websites and it’s, um, for the exact reason you’re talking about that’s, uh, that’s, that’s so important. And it might be a whole nother discussion about, you know, patents and, you know, some of that technology that, that intellectual property that needs to be, uh, discussed to.
Because, you know, obviously they’re. There might have been some gaps there that, uh,
Nathan: but for example, what he, what John could have done is he could have built a little, like kitchen commu, did a kitchen app with recipes and cool kitchen advice and tips and tools. And on every box that he sold through Amazon, he had a little QR co code where he got people to download his little free kitchen community app.
Right? Yeah. And then he got turned all of those customers into. People on his [00:33:00] list, on his platform. Then even when Amazon went away, he still had those relationships he could sell to directly.
Patrick: Yeah. Yeah. This is, uh, this, this is so good. Um, Nathan, just thinking about pot up, um, one of the things that I, I, I generally see with marketing and that type of thing that, that can be frustrating is I’m, I’m throwing lots of money at this thing, but.
It’s not, not producing any results. You know, I don’t have anybody, you know, seeing my social media posts, that type of thing. Just thinking about, um, where are you at from with pot up on like listeners and is there, is there some level of like, if I engage with, uh, you and your team that I, I guaranteed some level of traffic that that comes to mind,
Nathan: my
podcast?
Nathan: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So. On, on pod up. If you just use the software, you do it yourself and there’s no guarantee, right? You just license the software. You can pay between 20 bucks or $150 a month and you can do it [00:34:00] yourself. Um, but if you hire pod allies, that’s our services team. We do a bunch of marketing for you, we, we do syndication for you.
We book great guests for you. We do paid advertising for you, and we even pay for the budget of the paid advertising from within what you pay us. You don’t have to pay extra for the paid ads. We book you on shows, we do SEO for you, right? We do a whole bunch of different things to help grow your audience.
We help get incoming links to you and, and we’ve gotten so good at this that we, we do offer guarantees. So, um, our lowest level package guarantees 5,000 engagements every month. So an engagement is like a video view, a blog view, an audio, listen, something like that. Yeah, sure. Where, where somebody’s doing it.
And we use true views. So like on video views, they have to watch at least 30 seconds. On YouTube for it to count as a video view. Um, and so I, we, we will guarantee as little as 5,000 guaranteed engagements a month to where our [00:35:00] top packages do 50,000 or, or even more guaranteed engagements a month.
Patrick: Yeah, that’s, that’s fantastic.
And I, I love that you stand behind your product. Uh, you know, we, we’ll guarantee that the, the content you’re putting out in the world is, uh. Is, is getting the views. So somebody’s listening to this and they’re like, this is incredible. Uh, I, I would love to get started. How does somebody get started with their, their podcast?
Where, where if, if, if you’re helping people get that, that process rolling, where, where, where should they go?
Nathan: Yeah. So if, if you wanna do it yourself, if you wanna just license the software and, and kind of DIY it, then you can go to pod up.com and you can go get a free 30 day trial of the software. You can get a a, we have a, a podcast launch course where we have 22 different video lessons we’ve done and it can kind of walk you through step by step and teach you a lot of these things.
Um, and or if you know you need help, um, go to pod allies.com. That’s [00:36:00] P-O-D-A-L-L-I-E s.com, and you can schedule a free podcast strategy call. And currently all those calls are with me. So if you book those calls, I’ll be on the other side of that and we’ll help you figure out your branding strategy, your marketing strategy, growth strategy, your, your monetization strategy, um, and all of that is free.
Even if you never use it, even if you go do it yourself, we’re happy to help you figure it out and get going.
Patrick: I, I, I love it. And one of the things that we, we talk a lot about on this podcast is finding a who in your life, not go figure out how to do it. Yes. Uh, because we’re, we have unique ability and, uh, we should lean into that and we should find people that are excellent at things like producing, uh, pushing the podcast out into the world.
So, uh, from, from my point of view. Pot up sounds amazing, but Pot Allies is probably the place that most of our listeners should start. They’re, they’re making healthy income and like you said, [00:37:00] um, to execute on your own, you’re making less than minimum wage. That’s right. Doing that. So you should absolutely leverage that, uh, that service.
’cause it, um, uh. I’m certain you can go generate more revenue, um, going out, uh, finding a new client, leaning into a current relationship, doing a speaking engagement, something along those lines that, uh, um, that’s great. Nathan, we’ve talked a lot about podcast, how to get started, uh, the value of the podcast, uh, how easy, uh, it’s now gotten with tools like Pot Up and PO Allies.
Anything else we should be talking about that we haven’t touched on on. Podcast in this universe?
Nathan: Um, I think I would, I would touch on it kind of a mindset. Um, sometimes people come into this and they think a podcast is a get rich quick scheme and they get three episodes in and they’re frustrated that they’re not selling, you know, $5,000 sponsorships.[00:38:00]
And it, it doesn’t work that way. If you need to make, sell a huge sponsorship by your third episode, don’t podcast. ’cause you won’t.
Patrick: Yeah.
Nathan: You won’t be there.
Patrick: Yeah.
Nathan: And, and
Patrick: this is, yep, go ahead,
Nathan: please. I was gonna say, what thoughts do you have on that?
Patrick: Yeah, I, I was gonna say, I, I think, I think you just highlighted a problem in America.
Okay. And, uh, I, I think we, we like a drive through breakthrough. You know, we like five minute abs, right? We, we, we don’t like showing up every day and putting in the work for a long period of time to get unreasonable. Yeah. And, uh, uh, I, and I think that’s the key, and I think that’s what most, most successful entrepreneurs have done.
Uh, we, we’ve run across a few that have, um, hit some home runs. And, and I, I, I’ll admit to this too, I hit some home runs early on in my career, then I effectively went broke and then, uh, got it all back again. But it was, it was like, oh, that, that like [00:39:00] easy win was not. Sustainable. There actually wasn’t a lot of wisdom that was developed with that.
There was a lot of luck that that came along with it. And so, you know, again, it’s like anything that truly matters. I think about the most valuable things in life. Use my faith as an example. Showing up, spending time with spiritual disciplines on a regular basis is, uh, is where it happens. My marriage, the same thing.
I, I have to invest, I have to be intentional, uh, about my relationship with my wife, uh, parenting my health. My business like, it, it just takes showing up on a, on a regular basis to, uh, to see success. And, you know, I, I think about Russell’s challenge to you on produce every day for a year. Um, put something out into the world every single day.
And, um, most people won’t do it. They’ll, they’ll get to their eighth episode and be like, screw it. This is hard.
Nathan: Yeah.
Patrick: Uh, I’m not seeing the results that I want to see, you know? Um, [00:40:00] and so when I, when I think about what you just said, I think that’s where, that’s where people can distinguish themselves, is it doesn’t take a heroic effort.
It just takes showing up and doing the disciplines on a regular basis, even when you don’t feel like it, you know, our emotions will tell us, um, not today. You know, I don’t feel like it, uh, but we, we have to, we have to lean into the, the work and go, Nope, we’re gonna show up today. Even though I don’t feel like it and, and put it in, and eventually the results will come.
Uh, there’s a, there’s an old analogy about, um, you know, hitting the stone, right? And, and it’s not the first blow that breaks it. Um, it’s the, it’s the thousand that all combined, you know, break the stone apart. And, uh, you can’t skip any single one of those. And so the same thing happens here. It’s like you gotta just keep.
Putting in the work day after day, and then eventually you’ll be in a place where people will be like, wow, look at, look at that overnight success. And uh, one of my favorite phrases that, [00:41:00] uh, a mentor of mine said was, yeah, I’m 30 years into an overnight success. You know? And it’s like, yes, there’s, uh, there’s a lot of truth to that.
All of a sudden it just kind of pops off and people are like, look at how lucky that person is. And it’s like, no, they’ve been putting in the work for a long period of time and now, now we’re just starting to see the fruit of that. So. Uh, thank you for that comment. I think that, uh, for
Nathan: sure
Patrick: is, is critical.
Nathan: And, and by the way, that promise from Russell worked for me, right? I, I had millions and millions of dollars of net worth by the end of that 12 months, a new net worth that was directly attributable to, to that show. So when you find your mentor and they give you that advice and they know what they’re talking about, go, go do it.
Patrick: Yeah. I, I think this is great. So we’ll have links to the show notes to pot allies.com and po up.com. Uh, just fantastic resources and, uh, uh, I’m, I, I think I’ll be signing up for the strategy call here now that, uh, uh, I’m hearing about this, uh, uh, amazing opportunity again that, uh, I [00:42:00] need to, to lean into.
So, um, I, you know, I, I think about these things and, you know, the, the risks of not taking action, you know, we’re. Uh, we’re remaining on the outside. Uh, we’re sort of being passed by. We’re, uh, the, the, I’ll say our network. You know, you, you were talking about these speaking engagements and other podcasts and being a thought leader in your, your arena, like that doesn’t happen on accident.
And a podcast is, I would say similar, if not better than like a book, you know, because I can, I can create and sort of refine my thinking week after week, month after month, and, um. Uh, some people publish every day. Right? Uh, I, and I can do that on a regular basis, and I think it, it puts me in, in new territory.
Nathan: You, you find your voice. Yeah. Like you’re talking about, you’re asking about benefits to, to CEOs doing it. One of the big benefits is you find your voice. Like, I remember my first episodes that I recorded, I, I [00:43:00] scripted things and it was horrible. It was awful. But I wasn’t confident in myself and my messaging and, um, I was in a.
I, I was at a congregation, um, a new congregation, um, of, of our church and somebody knew me, was up on the stand and the speaker didn’t take the whole time. And, um, he called on me from the audience to come up. And, uh, and after having done podcasts for years now, I, I walked up. And I delivered a sermon with no prep time and, and I felt incredibly comfortable and I felt very good about the message that I delivered.
Mm-hmm. And being a, being able to find that inside of me to find my voice and my confidence and my ability to communicate. That’s been one of the greatest gifts that I’ve got from having a podcast.
Patrick: Yeah. Yeah, that’s, that’s fantastic. And I absolutely believe that’s true. We, we’ve just been able to refine our voice and, uh, public speaking has now become a, a much easier thing if I’m on a [00:44:00] platform presenting, uh, it’s easy because I’ve been doing it week in and week out for, for, uh, a long period of time now, you know, I’m also thinking about the stakes of missed opportunities.
You know, partnerships deal flow. And then allowing less experienced voices dominate the conversation in our industry, that’s just not right. I think that’s something that we should, uh, uh, somebody that’s excellent at the work they’re doing, they should, they should be at the top of the, uh, the food chain.
So you know, their, their expertise stay trapped inside their business. Yeah. Instead of multiplying its impact. And then I think about the flip side of that, taking action. The entrepreneur can build authority in their niche. Expand influence and reach. Yeah. Create new. Financial opportunities and channels and then, uh, create those high quality relationships, uh, and opportunities.
And we, we talk regularly about, uh, don’t be beige, like plant your flag and stand for something. Yeah. And you will attract people like that. And so, uh, you’ll get to work with the people that are going, yes, I want to, I want to connect with that person because they think just like ideo. So, [00:45:00] yeah. Um, I, I think it, it becomes a strategic business asset if we.
Take action on these things.
Nathan: So I think we haven’t even talked about the best one yet. I think the greatest benefit of having a podcast, we’ve touched on it a little bit, but um, what it lacks in not being a get rich quick scheme, it has as an asset. When you have a podcast and you build an audience over time that gets to know you, like you and trust you, it, it makes up for that in.
Being a long-term retirement strategy or it can be if you do that right. And, um, as you, as you build a following and you have these thousands of people that know you and like you and trust you and come to you for advice on certain topics, those people that get to that spot, they just go find different products and services that they love and then they just recommend them into that audience and they’ve got this long-term ability to generate revenue from, from that trusted following.
Patrick: Yeah. [00:46:00] That’s great. I, I think of Seth Godin. I was reading Seth Godin’s blog before I understood what a blog was in the early two thousands. And, uh, Seth talks about, uh, permission marketing and having that permission asset. Mm-hmm. And, and what’s happened with what happens with a podcast is they give you permission every single episode to speak into their lives.
Right In, in. When you recommend a product or highlight a new opportunity, they’re gonna go, man, I, I trust what Nathan’s saying and I’m gonna go get some of that. So I think you’re, you’re absolutely right. And, and then once you’ve built that, you’ve got that trust that is so hard to do in today’s day and age.
Uh, ’cause everybody’s, you know, uh, wants to be entertained in, in a short period of time. And so we, we’ve built this, we’ve got something that we can leverage over a long period of time. And I think it’s, uh, it’s, it’s wonderful. Good. Anything else we should be touching on before we, before we wrap up? This has been great.
Nathan: Um, [00:47:00] the last concept that I would talk about would be mm-hmm. What I call passion marketing. And, um, in, in today’s world, our audience has way too many things to choose from. With every extra hour they have, they have hundreds of thousands of videos, they could. Watch on streaming, plus all the YouTube and social videos they could watch.
They with every extra dollar they have, there’s millions of products that they could buy. And uh, I remember when I started my first business, people would create a good product or service and then they would go advertise and tell the worldwide. It’s so awesome and, uh, and that doesn’t work very well anymore.
Um, being good is not good enough anymore. And so one of the most effective strategies that that really helps you have a successful show is find the le what, what I call the level 10 passion of your target audience. Find what really drives their [00:48:00] lives, and then build everything around that. Don’t, don’t build it around your level 10 passion.
Build it around the level 10 passion of your target audience. And, um, you’re gonna be wild. You’re probably gonna be wildly successful, you’re gonna look like a genius and, and you’re just. Focusing on what really matters to them.
Patrick: Yeah.
Nathan: So, so many people miss that.
Patrick: Yeah, that’s, that’s brilliant. Uh, I, I’ve heard a great conversationalist.
Um, people will consider somebody a great conversationalist when all they do is ask questions, you know? Uh, and people get to talk about themselves. And I think you’re highlighting a very important point when we speak to what’s important to people. Uh, they, they love what we have to say. And so I, I think we, uh, we have an opportunity out there as, as marketers and entrepreneurs to, uh, really think about that.
What is that, that level 10 interest of my listener, my, my ideal client, my ideal avatar, and let’s, let’s just like nail that day in and day out. And, [00:49:00] uh, we’ll have a, uh, a list of raving fans that, uh, can’t wait to, uh. Listen to our next opportunity, uh, and see what we have going on out there in the world.
So,
Nathan: perfect.
Patrick: Um, great, Nathan, this has been, uh, this has been incredible. Again, uh, everybody should go check out pot up.com and pod allies.com and we’ll have links to that in the show notes. But, uh, uh, this has been wonderful, uh, so insight insightful and, uh, I appreciate, uh, all your time and efforts
Nathan: and if you’ve loved this show and it’s provided value to you.
The way that you can say thank you, uh, to this amazing host who’s put this together for you is go to Apple Podcasts or go to shop, uh, Spotify. Go to YouTube. Wherever you consume it, go find vital strategies and subscribe, comment, like it.
Patrick: Mm-hmm.
Nathan: Um, that’s, that’s your way to say thank you. That’s your way to give back a little bit.
And, and then it helps a lot more people to find this great content that [00:50:00] he’s creating.
Patrick: Wonderful, Nathan, I so appreciate that. You have a great day.
Nathan: Thanks Patrick.
Patrick: Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategist Podcast. I hope you found real value in this conversation with Nathan and picked up a few ideas you can apply in your business right away.
If you did enjoy the episode, I’d encourage you to share it with another entrepreneur who could benefit from this information. If you haven’t already, leave a quick review. It helps us reach more business owners who are looking for better strategies to grow, build, and operate at a higher level. Before you go, make sure to visit vital wealth.com/resources.
We’ve created a vault of tools, guides, and strategies designed specifically for the entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses, minimize taxes and build long-term wealth. Again, that’s vital wealth.com/resources. So you can dive into those resources and start putting them to work in your business.
And remember, you’re a vital entrepreneur. You’re vital because you’re the backbone of our economy, creating opportunities, driving growth, making an impact. You’re vital to your family, creating abundance in every aspect of life. And you’re [00:51:00] vital to me because you’re committed to growing your wealth, leading with purpose, and creating something truly.
Thank you for being a part of this incredible community of vital entrepreneurs. I appreciate you and I look forward to having you back here next week on the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, where we help entrepreneurs minimize their taxes, master wealth, and optimize their lives.
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