#45: Solomon Daniels - Starting a Podcast Studio, Integrating Systems, and Advice for Solopreneurs - One Thousand Gurus Podcast

Episode Transcript
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J.R. (00:00):
Hello, my wonderful listeners, and welcome back to
another fun episode of 1000Gurus with me, your host, jr
Yonacruz.
Today's guest is SolomonDaniels from Podcast Place.
As owner of Podcast Place inLong Beach, california, solomon
is privileged to help empowerthe creative journeys of people
from all walks of life.
A car stereo installer by trade, his own journey to this point
has taken him from dashboards toboardrooms, from San Francisco

(00:22):
to Sweden and from second son tofather of two, now in his 50s.
This latest endeavor lets himcontinue helping others in the
most fulfilling way possible,one person at a time.
So this was such a fantasticepisode.
I was excited and happy tofinally have the producer of
this show and owner of podcastplace, solomon Daniels, on the
show.
As I've mentioned, he's one ofthe few people who have listened
to every episode of this show,so he probably knows more about

(00:46):
the essence of what this is allabout than anyone else besides
me.
Even though Solomon has neverbeen featured on a podcast
before he hit it out of the parkwith this one, I think, and he
was such a wealth of informationon everything we talked about.
We get into his background andlong tenured career journey,
from working at McDonald's tobeing the editor of a magazine
and eventually a marketingexpert and now a podcast studio

(01:07):
owner.
We chat about the evolvingstory of Podcast Place, all of
the lessons he's learned andadvice he has for business
owners hoping to grow, startscale or find balance as a
solopreneur.
Solomon was also a fantasticguest because, after having
helped me produce over 40episodes of this show and all of
our chats behind the scenes andafter recording, we definitely

(01:29):
have really good chemistry oncamera, so hopefully that shows
to you guys.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoyed this episode with
Solomon Daniels.
Hello and welcome back to 1000Gurus.
Please welcome my very specialguest, solomon.
Should I give myself a applause?
You should To 1,000 Gurus.
Please welcome my very specialguest, solomon.
Should I give?

Solomon (01:44):
myself a applause, you should.
There we go.

J.R. (01:45):
Please give yourself a applause.
There you go, nice, okay,solomon, I am excited to finally
have you officially on the show, even though our viewers might
know that you are a part ofevery production and we are five
seasons in episode five ofseason five.
Yeah, it's pretty exciting.
How do you feel?

Solomon (02:04):
I feel good.
I feel like it's been coolwatching you do this and go
through and interviewinteresting people.
And you're right, you do learnsomething from everybody, no
matter how mundane you thinktheir job is or whatever,
there's always something you canlearn.
It's been a cool experiencewatching you.

J.R. (02:18):
Yeah, I appreciate it.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I mean, you're kind of forcedto listen to every episode, but
I do appreciate it, so I'm gladyou like the show.
I mentioned this on my mom'sepisode, but I think probably
the only people who havelistened to every episode is me,
my mom and Solomon.
So I think that's a very tightcircle, that's true.

Solomon (02:36):
Nice.

J.R. (02:37):
As I was saying before, I've been teasing to this behind
the scenes with Solomon, but tostart off, I have a pop quiz
for him.
Yeah, so this is actually youknow what.
We'll tease that a little bitlonger, so let me just go into
how I know you first.
But, as I mentioned, I waslooking for a podcast studio to
record this in last year aroundmaybe September or something
like that, and then I wastouring around and looking at

(02:59):
the available options and then Icame across podcast place,
which you are the owner of andyou run this whole shop, and
then I came across Podcast Place, which you are the owner of and
you run this whole shop and Ithink it was like a clear best
option for me in terms ofservices.
I think Solomon's Place is headand shoulders above all the
other places that are offered inmy area and the location is
convenient.
It's like down the street fromwhere I live and, yeah, we took

(03:20):
a tour.
The rest is history, and then45 episodes.
In here we are 45 episodes.

Solomon (03:25):
Yeah.

J.R. (03:26):
And Solomon is no stranger to having a lot of experience
and wisdom that we can learnfrom.
I think you've had severalbusinesses right.
I think you said you have atattoo.

Solomon (03:35):
Yeah, I've done several things and I've had several
businesses, but I've also hadseveral businesses that didn't
either they failed or theydidn't get off the ground.

J.R. (03:50):
And I look at those experience points and that's why
you see my my yeah, is it mytattoo?

Solomon (03:54):
that one little um tally marks?
Yeah, I can turn my arm there.
You go right here.

J.R. (03:56):
So it's just an experience thing I, okay, I guess I do
have a quick question.
Yeah, or I don't want to saywhat your favorite podcast is,
but I want to ask how's yourexperience been?
You're the only person I knowwho runs a podcast studio.
Okay, yeah, not to get into ittoo deep, but I'm just curious
at a surface level, like how'sit been these last?
Was it three years-ish?

Solomon (04:16):
Yeah, yeah to 2001,.

J.R. (04:19):
I think, 2001,.
Okay, yeah, so like four years.
Yeah, so like four years, yeah.
So how's it been Like?
You've produced a lot ofdifferent shows.
You've been a part of differentproductions and you've heard so
many different guests and hostsand topics and stuff like that.

Solomon (04:29):
Yeah.

J.R. (04:29):
I don't know what's the general vibe of someone like in
your position.

Solomon (04:33):
Well, the cool thing is you're doing it because you're
helping create these dreams for,like, people who want to really
just come and do something andyou're taking away all of the
hard stuff, right, so they canjust come in and they can just
be creative and they can do that, and so you're seeing people
realize their dreams.
And sometimes, even when I'mdoing this, I don't realize how

(04:55):
much it means to them.
You know what I mean and theysay things like I appreciate it
and I go well, you paid, sowhatever, but it really does
mean something because they say,without you I couldn't have
done this or I wouldn't havedone this, and so that's always
good.
So I've probably produced Iwould probably say, 1,500
episodes of podcasts, hundredsof shows and some of the shows

(05:18):
people they start them and thenfor one reason or another, they
can't continue or whatever, andthey drop off, but others they
keep going.
So it's been a cool experienceto see it, and Long Beach is a
vibrant community of all thesedifferent kinds of creators, so
you have all these differentkinds of podcasts and stuff too.
So it's really cool to be partof people's creative journey.
I think that's the most funpart for me.

J.R. (05:40):
Yeah, that's cool to hear and I echo that sentiment too.
I think Solomon is a large partof where this podcast is today.
I know it maybe eventuallywould have taken off, but I
think him being here and theservice that he offers in
Podcast Place is a big part ofwhy 1000 Gurus is the way it is
right now.
So definitely appreciate youand this space for that.
I guess my I had something else, but I think I forgot.

(06:02):
Yeah, no, I think we'll getinto running a studio and your
whole journey in a bit.
So now let's go into the popquiz.
Oh, okay, so this one should beeasy for Solomon.
So it's a two-parter One's themain question and one's the
extra credit.
So the first question that I'vebeen teasing Solomon for for
like months now is what is myfavorite anime?

Solomon (06:26):
Oh, I know that one.
And why is the name slipping mymind?
One Piece, yes, correct,correct.

J.R. (06:30):
Yay, okay, so here's the bonus question who is my
favorite character in One Piece?

Solomon (06:37):
Oh, that one.
I don't know if I heard you sayit, but it's the little boy
right.
I don't know his name.

J.R. (06:42):
Yeah, can you describe what he looks like or what your
impression of him is?
He has a hat like that.
Oh, so you mean luffy this one?

Solomon (06:52):
yeah, that's the one I'm thinking no it's not him,
okay, well then, I would I don'tknow the characters.

J.R. (06:57):
It's all good.
Yeah, no, I.
That's why this one's a bonusquestion, because I figured you
may or may not get it.
It's zoro, it's the middle, themiddle guy.

Solomon (07:03):
Oh, so he's the one, he's the swordsman he has.

J.R. (07:06):
He's, his color scheme is green, all right, and his whole
thing is that he does threesword style, so one sword in
each hand and one in his mouth,and he holds it like this oh,
and so that's his thing.
Really, he's like the onlythree sword style person, but
he's so badass and like I'vementioned it before on the
podcast, so I was like okay, Imight not get this one.

Solomon (07:25):
I missed that one.

J.R. (07:25):
No, no it's all good.
That's why it's the bonusquestion.

Solomon (07:27):
I'm like all right.
Well, at least I got one rightexactly you got the main one
right.

J.R. (07:30):
I knew you would get one piece right, but I was like
we'll see if he gets his oralright, yeah, yeah.
So anyways, good job, good job.
Okay, we'll go into our regulartopics now.
So the first one is alwaysorigin, story, background, main
influences, career aspirations.
So, solomon, where did you growup and what's your overall
background?

Solomon (07:48):
Well, believe it or not , I was born in the Bay oh,
really, well, not in the Bay,stockton, oh, stockton.
But I didn't grow up there.
I was there in the first fewyears and then we, I think in
the fourth grade, my dad movedus down to LA, so I grew up in
what's now called Koreatown.

(08:08):
I went to school there, went tohigh school in Belmont High
School, which is near downtownLA, mostly Hispanic school, and
from there I got out of highschool and I was going to go to
college.
My mom worked at USC and so wewere supposed to get a free ride
.
But she worked for the headcoach of the football team.
She was his secretary.
So then what happened was hewent to the Rams, he got hired

(08:30):
by the Rams and so she went withhim.
So there went the free ride, ohdang.
Basically, I ended up getting ajob at McDonald's and I worked
there for a number of years andI had a kid young, had a
daughter young, and thenbasically, basically, it was
just living life at that point,just growing up and doing what
you had to do.
I went to LACC for a while,city College, and from there I

(08:54):
moved up in McDonald's.
I was a manager and all thatstuff.
And let's see, I'm trying tothink that's what.
I'm saying it's a lot of decades.
Eventually I got into to thinkthat's what I'm saying, it's a
lot of decades.
Eventually I got into carstereo.
My dad a long time ago hadtaught me how to put two wires

(09:15):
together and tape them, and thatreally formed this interest in
car audio, and so I've alwaysbeen self-taught, so I taught
myself how to put things in carsand stuff like that.
And so I went to Radio Shackwith a bunch of cards one day
and said, hey, you havecustomers who want to get their
stuff installed that they buyfrom here, that I can do it.
And they called me.
I go to their house and Iinstall radios and car phones

(09:36):
and stuff like that.
And so I got reasonably good atit and I got a job at a place
called the Good Guys and theyhad that up north, I believe for
a while they're no longer inbusiness.
It was basically like a circuitcity, yeah, like that.
So I did that for a number ofyears in sales and then I ran
the installation bay and thatjust moved me into other aspects

(09:57):
of the career.
So I went from there and Iworked for a company that sold
car alarms and they had anoffice in Irvine.
So I worked there and then theywere like we're going to close
our office in Irvine, so theyoffered me to move to Michigan,
to their home base, and so Imoved to Michigan and that was a
real different way of life.
There here in California we'relike you know, people want to

(10:20):
aspire to do things right, theywant to aspire to be better.
But there are people it seemedlike people just wanted to grow
up, marry the girl next door,get a job at one of the big
three and just work and retire,and that was just all they
wanted out of life, and thelifestyle was just a real big
culture shock for me.
And so after about three yearsI wanted to get back to
California.
So I came back and I got a jobat a magazine that covered the

(10:43):
car stereo industry and theyhired me as editor, even though
I didn't have any editorexperience, but it was based on
the fact that I had a lot ofindustry experience.
I did that job for a goodnumber of years, probably eight
years.
In 2008, I decided to open uplike a marketing agency and
there I was helping companiesthat would advertise in the

(11:05):
magazine.
I was helping them get incontact with their customers and
retain these relationships andstuff like that, and so I did
that for a while, and then themagazine got sold and the new
owners asked me to come back anddo that, so now I was doing
both.
I did that up until probably2010.

J.R. (11:25):
Oh like, come back and still be an editor.

Solomon (11:28):
Yeah, come back and be an editor.
So I was editor of the magazineand then I was still doing
marketing on the site.
So, yeah, I did that all theway, not 2010, I did it all the
way up to 2020.
And then COVID hit and all ofthe clients that I was working
with I had lost and the magazinedecided to go digital.
So basically it's like now,time for a pivot.

(11:49):
What are you going to do?
And I was in this space at thetime, but it was obviously more
just like an office space.
Right, but I had been messingaround with the idea of doing
like a podcast studio type, andmainly it was because I can have
clients come in and they canshoot their open box opening
what do you call it?
Unboxing, unboxing, thank you,their unboxings and stuff like

(12:12):
that.
And and then just walkingaround the neighborhood, you
hear people talk about I wouldlove to do a podcast, but this
and this and that, right.
So I actually started settingit up.
I bought the URL cost, cost melike a thousand dollars podcast
place and built the website, putin the financial system where
people could pay for episodesand stuff like that.
But then I just let it sitbecause COVID started.

(12:33):
So then, coming out of COVID, Iwas like, well, I need to
figure out something to do.
I don't know about this podcastthing.
I haven't done it, so I think Ishould put my energy into
trying to regain some of mymarketing clients.
So in the process of doing that,one day I got a call and I said
hello.
And he said, hey, I just wantedto make sure my session's on

(12:54):
for tomorrow.
And I'm like who is this?
And it was some kid out ofMoreno Valley.
And he goes yeah, I signed upon the website and everything to
do my podcast tomorrow.
And I'm like you did.
And so I went and looked at thewebsite and it said, sure
enough, there was $99 that hadbeen sitting in there, or
whatever it was.
At the time I think I wascharging 69 bucks and so that
forced me to start it, because Iwas actually thinking, let me

(13:16):
just take this stuff down, it'sa waste of time, or whatever.
And so that forced me to startit.
So that next day that kid camein and I wasn't really prepared
and I remember I recorded itusing Zoom.
I'm thinking, well, zoom iseasy, that's easy to record, but
not thinking that Zoom recordsin the lowest quality because
there are concerns withbandwidth and all of that.

(13:36):
But so it was a learningexperience from there.
And my next clients were thesefour kids who lived locally.
They all went to.
They went to three differenthigh schools in the area and
they wanted to do a podcast onseniors being seniors, going
through COVID, dealing with themental health issue and all of
that stuff.
But they didn't have that muchmoney, so they were like, well,

(13:57):
we can pay you $10 a piece.
So it was like $40.
I said, okay, well, I'm goingto make some mistakes because
I'm still learning stuff.
And I said, okay, well, I'mgoing to make some mistakes
because I'm still learning stuff.
And so we came to an agreementand they did their podcast for
that whole year until theygraduated.
And in that time you learn alot because you think, oh, okay,
I've got this table I want toput here.
Oh, but when you put it infront of camera it doesn't

(14:18):
really work, and so you learnfrom doing it.
And that experience with themgave me a lot of the experience
to change things and add thingsthe way it needed to be or the
way it is now, and I've gonethrough a lot of iterations, and
I think I've told you the storyof how I have the two sets
right.
This is set A for small stuff,and I was doing everything on

(14:38):
this side.
So when four people wanted to doa podcast, I put a table
lengthwise and two people sit oneither side, and one day these
samoan guys came in and theysaid we want to do our podcast
here, and they were all like six, five, six, six.
Our guests are going to beother samoan guys because we're
promoting the community andthey're all big guys.

(14:59):
I'm like, okay, they're notgoing to fit here.
So then that that made me takemy side, which was previously
seating for clients and stufffrom the marketing business, and
I turned that into set B, andso that'll sit five people or
three or four really big people,and so it just gave me space to
do both, and so it was just aprocess of now taking everything

(15:20):
that I had made with all thecameras and all of that stuff,
and making it work for bothsides.
So that that was a process, butthat was probably the funnest
part for me, though building,building, everything.
But yeah, that's the basicstart of it.

J.R. (15:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's a that's.
That was such a wild journeythat you get to TLDR of your own
entire like career path.
That's cool, yeah.
What I like about, what Iadmire about you, Solomon, is
that since I've known you andit's only been less than a year
it seems like you're the type ofperson who likes to iterate,
adapt, see what you can improveand make it better.

Solomon (15:54):
Yeah.

J.R. (15:54):
Every time I come in, you usually have something that
you're tinkering with or wantingto improve.
Even since October, you'veimproved a lot and, going
through your story, it seemslike you're no stranger to
pivoting and going into newopportunities and learning and
growing, which I think is greatand then it seems like even just
opening up the space.
It was trial and error, but itwas all.

(16:15):
Everything was created by ademand, meaning a problem came
in and then you created thesolution.
As opposed to just preemptivelyplanning everything out, You're
just going with the flow andbuilding on it, right?

Solomon (16:26):
Yeah, and that's how it is sometimes, because you go in
with an idea of what you thinkwill work, right.
I'll give you a good example.
I put a conference room tablein the conference room there,
right, it's a glass table andeverything.
And I thought, oh, this is cool.
And so a guy came in and he satat the table and he's a big guy
and he put his arms in thetable and the table slid, oh.
And so I'm like oh, I need toput some things there to keep

(16:48):
the.
So you put these pads under,and so it keeps the table in one
spot.
So it's just little things likethat.
And even in this area here,originally I had a big flat
table like this, and then whentwo people talk to each other,
it's very awkward.
So then that's why I said, letme get a half round table so
they can sit at either sides andthey can still face the camera
but still be able to look ateach other.

(17:09):
And so it's little things likethat that you just constantly
evolve, right, like the lightsused to face all front, but then
they would glare too much onthe screens and now you put them
off to the side and put them atangles and you just experiment
with it.
And one of the things that I Itell people is, when I recently
started this, the thing that Iwanted to really have was the

(17:29):
ability to have the multi cameraswitching Cause a lot of
podcast studios they said theywould, they would promote,
they've got this super dupercamera but they only had one.
You know what I mean.
And so I wanted to have that.
But I couldn't afford that.
So actually I started with allwebcams and so it's all webcams
in here and eventually I slowlylike, like when people like,

(17:49):
when you said okay, I want to beable to zoom.
You can't zoom with a webcam,at least not when keep the
resolution.
So then it was a matter of okay, how do I do it?
Well, I went and bought a bunchof Sony a6000s off of offer, up
one by one, and eventually justswapped them all out, and so
now you get better picturequality, you get the ability to
zoom and just really create abetter visual experience.

(18:12):
But you're right, it's stillevolving.
I think right now I've got itto a point where I'm very happy
with the ability to produce goodcontent, but I'm sure there's
some more evolving that's goingto come along.

J.R. (18:22):
Yeah.
Are there any things on yourmore immediate to-do hit list
for what you want to improve onor evolve your business?

Solomon (18:31):
Right now, I think I need to focus on the social
media aspect of it.
You know, one of the things Iwant to do is create a video
that walks people through theexperience of being here.
Right, like a virtual tour yeah, because I do studio tours, but
I want something where it'sonline and it's more than just
the space, because, if you thinkabout it, people view this like

(18:53):
a music studio.
The first question is how muchper hour?
As if all of them are the same,and my big thing is well, this
is a whole different experience.
So, if I can go online and tellpeople and a lot of and a lot of
that, that, too, has come fromjust listening to people, right,
the things that they think areimportant.
Right, like, you'll hear peoplecome in and sit down and go oh,
I can see myself while werecord.
Or, oh, you can give memessages on the screen.

(19:16):
Oh, I can talk to talk to you.
It's all these little things,right.
And so these are things that Iprobably didn't value, because
I'm subjectively involved inthis.
I'm building and I'm like, well, yeah, duh, but to them it's a
big deal, and so now I want tocreate something that shows
these experiences that, yeah,you can't come in there, there
are drink trays by your thing,that you can customize your set

(19:37):
All of these things, includingnow we have the green room with
a whole vanity set foreverything with everything you
need.
So if I can do that, put thatout on social media.
I would feel like I'm doing mybusiness a service by helping
promote it the way it should beand differentiating me from
competitors and other things.
Things like that.

J.R. (19:57):
I see, I see that makes a lot of sense.
I think that would definitelybe a huge value add.
It'd be crazy to see howpodcast place was like years ago
just based on the story andagain, even just my experience
being here starting in october,yeah, until now, seeing how much
has changed, just to see howmuch it really changed from the
beginning oh, yeah, yeah.

Solomon (20:16):
Well, I still have a couple of those webcams, if I
use them here to to to recordthe buttons I press, so that I
can put it on the screen, so Ican just look up like this
instead of looking down, andstill see the buttons that I
want to press.
But yeah, that it was.
It was experiment, a lot ofexperimentation going on with
lighting, with everything.
I'll dig some pictures of itfor you if you want to see it,

(20:37):
with everything.
I'll dig some pictures for youif you want to see it.

J.R. (20:38):
Definitely.
I'm curious to know if youcould redo everything from the
beginning, whatever year thatyou started, with the lessons
you've learned now, what do youthink you would do differently
if you were to go back to squareone?

Solomon (20:51):
Now you're talking about with the podcast, With the
podcast studio.
yeah Well, it would probablyevolve the same way, though,
because I mean like I said, you,you think you go by what you
think you know, and then youraudience it's like with anything
right, you go by what you thinkyou know.
Your audience tells you whatit's going to be right.
And I tell people that whenthey start their podcast too,
you might think it's going to bethis, but wait till your

(21:13):
audience chimes in.
And I think the process was isabout same.
The thing is, I really enjoybuilding and I think if I had to
say people say well, what doyou really enjoy?
I think I really enjoy theprocess of integrating things
and making them work together.
That's always been somethingthat I get something out of.

(21:33):
So if you look at the value ofthe stuff here, yeah, there's
some stream decks here, buteverything has a price on it.
Nothing's overly expensive.
The computers are used, themonitors are used and all this
stuff, but it's how they're puttogether and how they work
together.
That's what makes it reallyvaluable.
That's the whole ip, I guessyou could say in it.
So it will still be anevolution process.

(21:55):
And now if you said I had to godo this, go build another
studio somewhere else, uh, Iguess obviously I would take
what I know here.
But the fun part of this alsois you got to have some
limitations, right?
Somebody just said well, moneyis no object, get whatever you
want, there's no fun in that.

J.R. (22:11):
Right right, right.
The constraints are what makesthe game Right yeah.

Solomon (22:15):
Right.
And so when they say, when yousay, okay, I got 700 square feet
of space and you wanted to haveall of these capabilities and
then not feel crowded forsomeone walking in here, then
that's a challenge right.
I've showed you the mini studiowe have right here in the
little closet area.
It's a challenge to buildsomething functional with
limited space or limitedresources.

(22:36):
That's the fun part.

J.R. (22:38):
Okay, two questions then.
So, for that experiment.
If you were to start a newstudio, what would be the first
few things that you focus on asyou build it out?
And the second thing is as abusiness owner, entrepreneur,
manager of the studio, what aresome of the core values or
focuses do you have whenbuilding a business?

Solomon (22:58):
Well, the biggest thing for me is I can answer the
second one.
First, I think, is the customerexperience, and that's
something that I always focusedon, and one of the things I told
myself is I'm not going to makerules until I need to, and so
when you come in, you don't seeany signs that say you're being
filmed, know this, know that.

(23:18):
And I felt like I'm not goingto really put these things in
place until I need to, because Iwant to create that good
experience, right?
So I tell people don't come inhere with more than two people
who aren't going to be on camera.
But I've had people come inhere with 15 people, right?
And so what do you do?
You offer them all water andyou make them feel at home.
You find them seats, you say,hey, you want to watch.

(23:38):
You still want to give themthat good experience.
But that was a big thing, justthe experience of coming in here
.
I want everybody to feel likeit's this guy's coming.
Oh, it's like Disneyland, Idon't want to leave because you
got all this equipment and stuffgoing on, and women feel
comfortable because the processof creating and I tell people
this is even though it's you'recreating something for thousands

(24:02):
of people, hopefully.
Right, the process is still anintimate process.
It's still you're sitting herewatching someone bare their soul
or do or step out of their boxor do something that they've
never done before, and so youhave to make them comfortable
during that process, and sothat's always been the first
thing for me.

(24:22):
The second thing is to deliver aquality experience right.
Give people more than they paidfor, and a lot of that comes
from, like I said, anybody canlist a bunch of equipment on a
website or whatever, and that'swhy I don't list my equipment,
because it's not about theequipment, it's about how you
use it and how it's put togetherto create that unique
experience.
So those are the importantthings for me.

(24:45):
What was the first one?
Again?

J.R. (24:46):
First one was the thought experiment of if you had to
start another studio what wouldbe the first things or main
things you focus on orprioritize.

Solomon (24:53):
Yeah, and I guess it would be the same.
I guess, obviously, we couldbypass a lot of the evolution
steps, but depending on thatspot.
But for this kind of work, thefirst thing you want to think
about is noise, though.
Right, Because you want it tobe reasonably quiet.
Here we're lucky to be threestories up.
We get the occasional policesiren, but beyond that it's a

(25:16):
perfect space to record.
That would be the first thingin'm in looking at a location,
and then after that it would bewhat you want the space to do.
You got to look at who are thepotential customers.
So is it going to be like here?
We have the two seating, whichis interview style, or do you
want to do a table?
Do you want to do a largerthing?
And then do you want to?
How versatile do you want tomake it?

(25:36):
So it would be designing thespace and just being able to
keep the same values wherepeople can come in and make it
theirs.
It's not about our branding.
Just keep that versatility.
I think I'd want to do that.

J.R. (25:48):
I see, yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
So location obviously is thebiggest thing, but you're going
to be focused, as usual, on thewhole user experience, the UX of
it all and delivering thequality service, like you said.
I think that makes a lot ofsense.
So I know we talked a lot aboutbusiness.
I'm curious if you don't minddigging into personal life just

(26:10):
to let's humanize you.
I think we all know whatSolomon's about.
He's an amazing dude.
I'm not human, yeah, he's nothuman, he's just a robot.
So you have kids, right.
You have two kids, yeah, andyou're married.
And you said your wife isFilipino, right?
Yes, okay.
So that's something that I waslike.
Oh well, you know this.

Solomon (26:26):
A lot of my podcast guests are like I know that's
what qualified me to be yeah,exactly Because you're Filipino,
so you check one of my oldestdaughter.

J.R. (26:32):
She's 37.
Yeah, and my youngest is 20.

Solomon (26:43):
And yeah, she goes to Berkeley.
My oldest daughter works in theveterinary field.
She runs a hospital.

J.R. (26:47):
So what was it like being married to a Filipino woman?
Because I'm sure you have somefamiliarity with the nuances of
Filipino culture.

Solomon (26:56):
Yeah, well, my mom was half Filipino, oh, okay.

J.R. (27:00):
Well, that's more lower than I'm learning then oh yeah.
Yeah, so you're a quarterFilipino then.
Yes, okay, and then you marrieda Filipino woman.

Solomon (27:05):
Yeah, oh, okay, but she didn't really practice any of
that.
The only only real Filipinoperson I knew in our family was
her father and his name wasGeorge Ramirez Galvin.
I don't know where, where fromthe Philippines he came from.
I guess I could look one day.
But marrying a Filipino womanshe came here when she was about
14, to the US, and so she waspretty Americanized.

(27:28):
I guess already when she camefrom, she said everybody there
speaks English and all that.
So it's been cool.
I wouldn't say she wastraditional, she didn't cook
dinner and all that stuff.
I mean we ate out pretty much.
I guess we eat out a lot, butshe will go to the filipino
place and get the best stuff andall of that.
But yeah, it's been all right.
I'm trying to think if there'sanything uniquely filipino about

(27:50):
right, about her, but yeah, hermother's very filipino.
Oh, I see we had to do a lot ofthe, a lot of that, like I go
over there and help her putstuff together and fix her
computer and do things like that.

J.R. (28:02):
Do they have like a big family on her side?

Solomon (28:04):
No, they don't.
Actually.
They came here.
She has a brother and he livesup north in San Francisco and
the father passed away.
So it's a small family here andso maybe that's why it's not
the traditional Filipino bigfamily.
That's maybe that's why it'snot the traditional.

J.R. (28:18):
Filipino big family, because I was going to ask if
you've been to like Filipinoparties, where it's like a bunch
of people and everyone tellsyou to eat and you have to eat
all this food, because Now Ihave, but not because of that.

Solomon (28:29):
That was before I was married.
I used to go to this church,iglesia Ni Cristo, and if you're
from the Philippines, that'sone of the larger churches and
so there, of course, most peopleare Filipino.
And yeah, the Philippines,that's one of the larger
churches, okay, and so there, ofcourse, most people are
Filipino and, yeah, you get alot of brother eat more, and so
it's like you can't just go homeafter church.
It becomes this whole dayprocess because people are
eating and you're doingdifferent things and being part

(28:49):
of the community.
So that was really fun.
That was really fun yeah, it'sinteresting.

J.R. (28:55):
So now, yeah, you're part of the Filipino.
We accept you Filipino culture.
Okay, let's see.
We went over your career kindof journey.
Did you have any aspirations?
I know you were doing a lot ofthings and evolved over time,
but when you were younger, maybein high school, did you have
any sort of aspirations thatstuck out to you?

Solomon (29:14):
Well, I had the thing that most kids do, where the
teachers say, what do you wantto be, and you say something
that impresses them.

J.R. (29:24):
Oh, yeah, so I think.
What did you say that?
I told him I wanted to be anaerospace engineer, but there
wasn't anything about aerospaceengineering Space.

Solomon (29:29):
I mean the word space was in it.
That was it for me.
I'm a sci-fi nut, so I'm alwaysmy head's always in the clouds.
I'm always listening to anaudio book about space travel or
military sci-fi or somethinglike that, but my aspirations, I
think, came after high school,just even when I was working at
McDonald's.
It was always about just tryingto get in someplace and prove

(29:52):
that you can be better, right,and a lot of that comes from
being black.
In this country, though, becauseyou go into places and people
think you can't do something,and so you always feel like you
have to prove yourself just tostart at the starting point of
everybody else, right, and soyou find yourself in a lot of
spaces where you're the onlyblack person in the office area

(30:14):
or the only black person doingthis or that, and so it's always
that it's a cultural gap andit's just people don't
understand that it's harder foryou because there, whether
people believe it or not, thereis, there are limitations to you
.
People try to place limitationson what you can do, and so, for
me, that's always been likesomething that pushed me a lot,

(30:36):
and even in starting a business,it's not just starting and it's
making it the best, making it aunique experience, and so
that's.
That's still there.
It's always going to be there.
You just understand whereyou're at culturally in this
country and you just try to makethe best of it.
You try to do the best you can.

J.R. (30:53):
Yeah.
So if you, I'm curious if youwere to go back to high school,
the thought experiments, rightyeah.
And now, knowing what you knowand knowing your personality,
your self-awareness, if youcould choose a major and pursue
a sort of different careerengineering or actual aerospace
engineering or somethingdifferent what do you think you
would want to do or what do youthink you'd be good at Coming?

Solomon (31:14):
out of high school.
I think I would go to college,because I didn't, I would
definitely do that.

J.R. (31:19):
Do you know for what you might be curious in studying?

Solomon (31:22):
It would probably have something to do with electronics
or aerospace engineering, justbecause that was really my
interest in terms of just thewhole idea of going to space and
being part of that wholemovement.
It would probably be that.
But I think too I would kissthe girl, laurie, who I had a
crush on oh, yeah, you go backto that kiss the girl, and then

(31:45):
also maybe engineering.

J.R. (31:46):
Yeah, if I had to do it all again, I would.

Solomon (31:48):
I would.
I would show some guts and telllaurie something.
But anyway.

J.R. (31:52):
um, I think you say that like wanting to go to space and
maybe aerospace engineering orsomething like that, being an
astronaut, and strangely enough,I feel like that vibe fits.
You built this whole place.
You're like a tech guyelectronics and whatnot.
I feel like you would be one ofthose in that sci-fi space
movie and then part of the crew,and you're like the technician
sort of guy who wires everythingand makes sure everything's

(32:14):
like kosher.
I feel like you would fit thatrole really well.

Solomon (32:17):
Yeah, maybe.
Of course, course, I want to bethe captain, though.
Okay, yeah, a captain with alot of technical knowledge and
people skills, right?
Yeah, well, that's how I alwaysfeel, like even in here, like
if, like, I could show you howto operate this, because it's
designed to be simple, but youhave to design it first and know
everything about it before youpass it on other people, right?

(32:37):
So that's how I put thingstogether.
Yeah, I'm a spaceship captain.
I probably built half the shipat that point.

J.R. (32:43):
I can see that because you do have it seems like you are
that mix of technical knowledgebut also the people skills that
I feel like are important for acaptain.

Solomon (32:50):
Yeah.

J.R. (32:51):
Okay, so we covered a lot so far, but I guess just to
refocus on being a businessowner because I have some
pre-written questions here Okay,what are some of the toughest
challenges that you facedrunning a business and what do
you feel like has helped you themost along?

Solomon (33:07):
the way.
Well, I think the toughestchallenge is number one is
knowing where your resources are, because for the most part
anybody who gets into anentrepreneurial space that
they're not taking over fromsomebody else you're going in
with more emotion than anythingand more something.
You want to do this thing, butyou're not going in with a lot
of business knowledge, right.

(33:27):
And so you go through the basicsteps and later you find out,
oh, I should probably hire anaccountant or I should have a
tax guy or whatever this is.
But yeah, you're starting withjust a lot of your emotion and
your excitement to do it andthen you got to backfill that
now with the actual knowledge torun a structural business right
, and a lot of that includescustomer service things and

(33:49):
things like that.
But another challenge, as forbeing a business owner, is your
time, time management.
It can suck your whole life.
It can take your whole lifebecause, if you think about it
every time you wake up, ifyou've got a regular job at nine
to five, right.
If you know you've got to be atwork at nine, you know you can
get up at five, you can go tothe gym, you can do this stuff
right.
But when you're a businessowner and you wake up at that

(34:11):
five o'clock, you go there'ssomething I could be doing there
, there's something I could bechanging, fixing, improving,
whatever.
And it's always that right yourtime on weekends, where you'd
be home Sunday just relaxing infront of the TV You're thinking,
wow, I could go fix that thingat work or I could go program
this to do that, and so thenyou're always here, or your mind

(34:33):
is always here, and so if youdon't control that, you find
that you really have no life, oryou've lost a lot of
opportunities in your life thattime with your kids, time with
your spouse or whatever.
And then you get the complaintsand you get all these other
aspects of your life that thenbegin to stress you out, which
make you then spend more time atwork because you don't want to
deal with that, and so you canreally.

(34:54):
It can really throw off yourwork-life balance.
And I will say this, thoughthere's times when you need to
do that when you're firststarting a business, you need to
put your all into it, but therejust needs to be a time limit
to it or a spot where you gookay, I've got it to this point,
now I need to scale back right,like, for instance, when I

(35:14):
first started this business, Ididn't schedule any days off.
It was like you could come inand pick any days, any day you
want.
And then you get to a point,though, where, okay, now I've
built enough business, okay, nowI need to have at least one day
off.
And so now I take two stays off, right, and eventually I want
to get to a point where I cantake two days off in a row.
But but I enjoyed just doing it.

(35:35):
Like this People's like oh well, do you want a bigger space?
Well, no, you need to hire abunch of employees?
Well, not really.
I enjoy the business, I enjoythe personal interactions with
the creators, I enjoy being partof your story.
But yeah, I got off a littletangent.
But yeah, I think timemanagement is one of the biggest
things.

J.R. (35:53):
Yeah, what do you feel like has helped you to scale
back that and balance your timemore?

Solomon (36:02):
effectively as a business owner, now that you
have it where it's at.
Well, I think the biggest thingis time in business, right,
because there are some thingsthat happen, naturally, when
you're in one location for awhile, people start to notice
you, right, because, number one,you're there and you become
dependable in the neighborhood,even if they haven't looked at
your services, right?

(36:24):
So then what happens is peoplesay, oh, this guy's been around
for a while and so you startgetting organic business that
way.
Right, so that helps.
So more business now helps meto the point where, financially,
I can say, okay, I can affordto take this day off and do that
.
You're still taking a chance,of course, and that's the thing
with a small business of owningyour own thing.
You're always taking a chance.
People think it's glamorous.
It's not glamorous, it's a lotof work.

(36:46):
Like I saw somebody say, you'retrading a nine to five to a
five to nine.
It's like that.
You're just constantly working,or constantly, because,
especially when you're asolopreneur, as they call it,
like me, like you're thevisionary, but you're also the
guy who has to implementeverything, and then you're the
guy who has to sweep the floorsat night and refill the

(37:08):
refrigerator with water bottlesand put Reese's in the thing.
All of these things you'd haveto do all of these pieces, and
so a lot of times it's likewearing many hats, right.
And one of the things that'sreally difficult is, let's say,
I plan to do like a social mediapost twice a day for the next
week, right, and so that's myplan and I'm going to be the one

(37:29):
to implement that plan.
But then something happens.
Let's say a client who wassupposed to pay.
You didn't come through, orwhatever.
Now you're worried about howyou're going to pay the rent
this month, or what do you gotto do this?
So that throws off everythingbecause you just now you're not
in the right mental headspace,whereas if you had an employee,
you tell the employee do thisthing.
Now, no matter what happens toyou, the employee is still going

(37:49):
to do that thing Right.
And so that's one of thedifficulties, too, when you're
working by yourself is justkeeping your mental headspace
right so that you can get thethings accomplished that you
want to accomplish, and most ofthe time it's a triage process.
Like I don't consider thesocial media things that
important, but you know, if it'ssomething that affects my

(38:09):
ability to record or processfiles for clients.
I prioritize that, no matterhow I feel.
So it's still a work inprogress.
It's still something that I'mworking on, trying to be able to
say, okay, no, I need toprioritize this and I need to do
it no matter what, but it'sjust an ongoing thing.

J.R. (38:26):
I see.
So I kind of know an idea ofthe answer for the next one.
But I know that you mentionedthat you like the scale of where
you're at now, right that youjust said it's an intimate
process and you're kind ofinvolved in a part of a lot of
stuff.
Would you see a future where youdo scale up to that one next
level, where you do have anemployee, how to handle some of

(38:46):
that smaller stuff or just tounload some of that work so that
you free up more time to focuson other things?

Solomon (38:52):
The answer is yes, because then that gives you the
ability to do things like takevacations and stuff like that,
right.
But I guess what I mean by thatis and this is something that
you find when you get later onin life is the word fulfillment
becomes more important.
When you get later on in life,is the word fulfillment becomes
more important?
Right, it becomes moreimportant to you.

(39:13):
It's not about success, it'snot about money, it's just about
fulfillment.
And fulfillment to me is whenyou can feel good about what you
do, and I feel good about whatI do.
You know what I mean, and soyou hope that you can do
something that is fulfilling butthen also pays the bills, right
.
And so, if I can get to a point, so yeah, the answer is yes.
If I can get to a point where Ican still get fulfillment out

(39:35):
of the job, maybe that's takingon working directly with clients
that I like and someone elsedoes some other things, or
someone, like you said, doessome of the background stuff.
Yeah, I would be happy withthat, because that shows that
the business has grown.
And then also part of thatfulfillment is that now you're
creating a living, helpingsomebody else make a living for
their family, and that would bea cool thing to do.

J.R. (39:57):
Okay, do you think that, as you see it now, how much do
you think you would want toscale your business?

Solomon (40:05):
Well, I don't think I'd want to do a thing like
multiple locations and stufflike that.
I think what I'd like to do isget the most I can out of this
location, and so from that it'slike reaching out to.
There's a few different ways ofgoing about it.
Of course, you always want tofill the schedule right, but you
can also do things like createprograms for people who podcast

(40:29):
at home and just coming off assort of like an industry expert
saying, ok, here's a series ofvideos or workshops on how to
create your own thing, orwhatever.
So there's ways to make moneyin that.
I've thought of a podcast that Iwant to do here, and it's a
podcast about podcasting, youknow, and so I have some ideas
there as well.
And then, of course, you canhave people who can help you

(40:51):
with that kind of stuff.
But it's making the most out ofwhat you've already built.
And when you proceed in life,you'll find that that's where
all your best opportunities aregoing to come, with leveraging
what you already know, theexperiences you've already had,
the people you've already met.
That's where all youropportunity is going to come to
grow when you have to start over.
That's crazy, yeah.

J.R. (41:11):
Yeah, I was going to ask you if you ever had any plans or
an idea to start your ownpodcast.
You have the infrastructure forit, but I wasn't sure if you
were like interested at all.

Solomon (41:19):
Well, it's funny because I always say what can I
say to people that would?
Because I feel like I'm a jackof all trades but I'm not really
a master of anything.
But at the end of the day, I amconsidered a podcast producer,
I am considered a podcastprofessional, I produce
thousands of podcasts.
Right, I guess I could takethat and then put that together

(41:40):
and find basically, follow yourmodel.
Right, there's somethingsomeone can learn from what I
have from my experience, and sothe idea is a podcast called
podcast engineering in which Ishow people the behind the
scenes of how I produce podcastsand just have it start from
there so that sounds interestingyeah, and so I.

(42:02):
It's one of the things.
I put all the pieces together,I just need to launch it.

J.R. (42:05):
I just need to launch it, I just need to do it.
Yeah, I mean, if anyone's in aposition to launch a podcast.

Solomon (42:10):
Well, yeah, I mean right, it's not like I'd have to
pay for anything.

J.R. (42:13):
Right and you know exactly how to do it.
Yeah, the thing.
It's always, though, like Idon't make a lot of commitments
in my life, because when I makea commitment, so I just need to

(42:33):
be able to be sure that I'mgoing to be able to fulfill that
commitment once I start,perfect, okay.
Last question on this topic isdo you have any general or
specific advice for otherwannabe business owners,
entrepreneurs, who want to getinto the field?
You have a lot of experiencefrom very different, various
different fields and areas, andyour own life.

Solomon (42:44):
Yeah.
Anything you want to pass alongas advice different fields and
areas and your own life Anythingyou want to pass along as
advice.
Well, if you're starting abusiness, I would probably say
the first thing well, one of thefirst things to do is get
somebody to help you manage yourfinances and just make sure you
have a really good bookkeeper,somebody who can help get you
online, because a lot ofbusinesses run into trouble
because they don't prioritizethat part early on.

(43:07):
And I ran into the same troubleand the next thing you know is
a year down the line.
You owe the state $800 becauseyou didn't know you have to pay
them every year.
If you have a corporation,there's all these little things
you didn't know and rather thanyou spending time to do all of
that because then that takes youout of what you're good at you
find somebody who knows thatstuff.
That tells you, okay, you needto do this, you need to

(43:28):
prioritize this, and they stayon top of all of that for you.
And it's just one less headacheyou deal with when you go into
growing the business and buyingequipment and things like that.
It also helps you just reallystay like within your means,
what your capabilities are andgrowth You're not just out of
control going well.
I made a hundred bucks.
Today I can spend 90 on thisnew piece of equipment Because,

(43:51):
again, a lot of entrepreneursare driven by just the
excitement of being in thebusiness and they're not really
thinking about that.
So I would always say that'sthe first step for anybody.

J.R. (44:01):
It's good advice asking for a friend, but do you have
any resources or where peoplecan start if you're looking for
bookkeeper or someone to helpwith their accounting or finance
to set it up?

Solomon (44:10):
recommendations I can tell you where I failed.
I've.
I failed at craigslist.
Okay, I'm sure there, I'm surethere's some resources out there
.
I don't know if angie's listcovers that kind of stuff, but
what I would do is look aroundthe neighborhood because Someone
local yeah, because they're,because number one you're going
to want, you're going to want tocreate that relationship with

(44:33):
somebody.
So I don't necessarily like theonline stuff.
I'll go, I'll look around theneighborhood and find somebody
and interview them, get in thereand just ask them about things.
It's so funny.
You can pick up on littlethings.
Like if a guy's office is justsloppy and there's stuff
everywhere, it's probably notthe guy you want to work with.

J.R. (44:48):
To work with your finances ?

Solomon (44:49):
Yeah, You've got pizza on his tie and things like that,
and this is that.
That really happened.
Yeah, I also had a guy whopromised a lot of stuff but
didn't deliver.
So sometimes it's the processof finding the right person, but
don't be afraid to move on.
Just find somebody that you cantrust because you want it to be
a long-term relationship thathelps you and helps your
business.

J.R. (45:09):
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, I ask that justpersonally because there are a
couple of businesses that I'mlooking to launch in the next
few years and finances.
I've been watching a bunch ofYouTube videos on bookkeeping
for solo businesses, like soloproprietorships and whatnot,
just to make sure that at leastI have a general knowledge so
that when I look for someone tohelp with the finance side at
least I'm not being sidelined orsideswiped with something that

(45:32):
I don't really know anythingabout you know what I mean.
So, yeah, I've been that processof, yeah, I have the idea, I
know what I'm going to doinfrastructure wise, but I do
want to get the finance piecedown from the beginning.

Solomon (45:42):
And that reminds me of another tip for people is when
you start a business, you wantto focus on the things that
you're good at, and the thingsthat you're not good at you want
to let somebody else do itRight.
So if I'm doing this and Ibuilt my own website and people
go, oh well, can you build mywebsite Right?
And they say I'll pay you thisor that or whatever, it's a good

(46:05):
idea for you just to stick tothe things that you're good at
and just let you know what.
I got a friend who buildswebsites, blah, blah, blah, and
just send that off.
So just stay focused on thethings you're really good at.
I would tell people that.

J.R. (46:17):
Right, it's good advice.
Okay, solomon, it's time forrapid fire.
Are you ready?

Solomon (46:21):
What I got through the interview.

J.R. (46:24):
huh, you did, you did.
We are at 50 minutes now, soit's about that time.

Solomon (46:29):
All right.

J.R. (46:30):
Is there anything else that you want to throw in there?

Solomon (46:32):
No, no, I think we're good, we flew by.

J.R. (46:35):
I was like wow, we're already at time, oh wow.

Solomon (46:38):
Look at that.

J.R. (46:38):
Yeah, I know, and I barely looked at the questions.
I was just going with it.
Okay, rapid fire.
Then First question.
You know it's coming Billboardquestion.
If you could put up a sign formillions of people to see, what
would it say metaphorically?

Solomon (46:50):
I know not sit up straight, which was the best one
, oh yeah, that was really good,yeah, yeah, I would say believe
in yourself.
And I know it sounds corny andcliche, but I would say that
Believe in yourself.

J.R. (47:04):
Do you feel like that's the most important thing people
need to hear?

Solomon (47:08):
Yeah, I think so, because I think nowadays too,
especially with things going on,people need a sense of
self-empowerment.
I think people are tooconcerned about what's being
taken away or what they can andcan't do, or what they're being
allowed to do, and I think itstarts with believing in
yourself.
And I didn't come from a poor,poor family, but we didn't have
many opportunities either, and alot of what I had I had to

(47:30):
create for myself, and so I feellike if I can do it, anybody
can do it.

J.R. (47:35):
What is one of the hardest challenges you faced in your
life and what did you learn fromit?
Hardest challenges Peoplestealing your Reese's or your
dog bowls oh yeah people comingin.

Solomon (47:46):
I think they think your Reese's or your dog bowls oh
yeah, people coming in, theythink the Reese's is a snack
where they can just eat them all.
I think a lot of challenges arein starting this business, and
just what I mentioned about thefinancial side of it.
I didn't prioritize that and soit caused me problems later on.
It caused me opportunitieslater on where you can go out
and get business loans, thingslike that.
If you don't have that stufflined up right, it can hurt you

(48:09):
later on in business when you'retrying to grow.

J.R. (48:12):
Makes sense, self-inflicted wound?
Do you have a story aboutsomething that's gone wrong in
your life and it's your ownfault and you can't blame anyone
else.

Solomon (48:20):
Ooh Well, I could say the same thing, but I'm going to
see if I can have somethingdifferent.
I would say not going tocollege.
I think that closed a lot ofdoors for me, and the thing that
I'm seeing is you hear aboutall of these guys who went to
college for a year or two orwhatever.
They started a company, and allthis it's not just finishing,
it's the relationships you cancreate while you're there, the

(48:41):
people you meet who are in thesame alignment.
So I think that's one thingthat I could have done, but I
didn't do.

J.R. (48:47):
I think that's true because they say college,
especially graduate programs,not the highly technical ones
that you need like medicalschool, right, but the value in
that, like going to Stanford,for example it's in the network.
It's not necessarily in whatyou learn.
You can learn anything, anytime, anywhere, but it's the
networks of saying I'm in thisalumni network or whatever, and

(49:11):
those connections andexperiences, like you said right
yeah, makes a lot of sense.

Solomon (49:13):
If you could redo one thing, what would you do
differently?
Anything we didn't mentionalready?
I can redo one thing.
Oh, I think I would spend moretime with my mom.
I think perfect answer, yeah, Imean.
Yeah, she bet and I felt like Idid well by my mom, but I feel
like now that I look back, Iwish I had been there more, a
little bit more.

J.R. (49:30):
Yeah, reminder to everyone spend time with your mom or any
family members.
If you could give your youngerself advice, what would it be
now?

Solomon (49:38):
Things were tough with me because I grew up I had these
scars right here that I gotfrom a car accident when I was
young.
Oh dang, and so your formativeyears.
You grow up but all the kidscall you ugly and names and
things like that.
Or they still call you ugly,like for me, just kidding.
I think I would tell myselfyou're loved, you're loved, and

(50:02):
that's just insecure peoplebeing insecure.
So that's what I would say.

J.R. (50:06):
In the last few years, what new belief, behavior or
habit has improved your life?

Solomon (50:10):
Belief behavior, Like I talked about with time
management.
That's something I recentlystarted in the last six months,
where, let's say, for instance,it's Thursday and I see nobody's
booked on a Saturday, I'llblock the Saturday off and take
that time for myself.
Things like that where youcan't be afraid that you're
going to miss out on money orwhatever.

(50:30):
It's like I said, everything isa chance, right, but you got to
do some things that say youknow what?
I have value, my business hasvalue, and if people don't, if
people see it, then they'll wait, They'll come back.
Another thing I did is I raisedmy prices, and that's something
I've done recently too, becauseand that was a big step because
you always feel like, oh mygosh, I'm going to lose clients

(50:52):
or whatever.
But then when you think aboutit, you say okay, for the value
I offer and it's.
It takes a lot of believing inyourself to do that.
So that's a step.
That was scary, but I did itand so far it's working out Nice
.

J.R. (51:05):
When was the last time you've increased your prices at
all?

Solomon (51:07):
Or, if you have, Well, it's funny, when I started the
business, I was at $69 perepisode and then I went up.
Two years later I went up to$99.
But I included some things,okay, and so it's been about two
years since I last raised myprice Okay, so it was the
starting rates, and then it wastwo years after that, and then
now.

J.R. (51:28):
Yeah, okay, the averaging about two issues or something
like that.
Yeah, I'm just doing the mathin my head Like yeah, but I
don't think it's somethingyou're not thinking of it like
two years Right?

Solomon (51:38):
Yeah, cause I think you gotta understand where your
clients are at and all that itmakes Makes sense.

J.R. (51:43):
How do you define success?

Solomon (51:46):
Enjoying the journey really and I know we talked
about that, but I success to mesounds like you're sitting on a
mountaintop and now you're justcomplacent because you got
nothing else to do.
And to me, the journey isalways there and I that's one of
the things I pride myself on.
I'm 57 years old and I'm stilllike.
I feel like I'm still evolving,I'm still trying to learn new

(52:07):
things and make this placebetter or whatever it is.
And yeah, just making sureyou're getting fulfillment out
of the journey I think issuccessful to me.

J.R. (52:17):
If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you try or what
would you be doing right now?

Solomon (52:21):
Oh, if I couldn't fail?
Yeah, you know, every time Ihear you ask this question, I
never really understand it.
It's like what would you if youcouldn't fail?

J.R. (52:31):
you could do anything I guess it's.
If I were to rephrase it youremove the chance of not
succeeding at a task you set outto do.

Solomon (52:39):
Oh, because that's what stops people right.
Fun is that though.

J.R. (52:42):
Yeah, no, I get what you're saying no constraints, no
risk right, it's not fun right,it's for the people who, like
fear, stops them from doinganything.

Solomon (52:48):
Oh, they're only choosing safe options.

J.R. (52:50):
Yeah, I don't know Astronaut.

Solomon (52:54):
I mean probably probably not astronaut.
I would probably be.
I would probably be an author.
I'd probably write a book,which I probably will do anyway.
Yeah, what do you want to writea book about?
Some element of my experience Ihaven't really worked it out
yet no, just some element of mylife experience in a way, not in
a biographical way, but just ina practical way that can help

(53:17):
people.

J.R. (53:17):
Maybe like a half-half sort of thing.
Some people do that.

Solomon (53:20):
It's not really a memoir, but it's like a life
lessons but then it's focused on, like a topic or areas or
insights, but right, thebiographical part is like the
examples of exactly it's.
Here's what I learned and thisis how I learned it from my
story yeah, so I think it wouldbe somewhere along the lines of
10 ways to get the most out oflife or something like that.

J.R. (53:38):
It makes sense yeah, if you knew you would absolutely
fail, what would you do anyway?
Oh, I'd probably do this.
Okay, I'm starting to feel thatthat's like the normal answer.

Solomon (53:49):
Well, I just love the.
I mean cause it's the challenge.
It's like.
That's what makes it fun.
Anything else besides this Well.

J.R. (53:58):
I would fail at it.
You fail, but you'll do itanyways, cause you just feel
like you want to do it.

Solomon (54:02):
Yeah, like I said, just anything that allows me to just
integrate things and put thingstogether to make them work a
certain way for somebody.
I think that would be it.
I don't know if I started acompany, I don't know what I
call the integrators, orsomething.

J.R. (54:15):
Oh, I see, I see.

Solomon (54:16):
Yeah, so I think that's what I just get the most
enjoyment out of just makingthings work.
I like that.

J.R. (54:23):
What is something you've been pondering a lot recently,
or deeply.

Solomon (54:28):
What is something you've been pondering a lot
recently, or deeply Well, to behonest, you can't help but
ponder the whole political thingright now.
That's going on.
It's like you're trying tobalance what's right for the
country with what's decent forthe humanity in the country.
But I think there's no middleground right now.

(54:48):
People are just on one side orthe other side of that and it's
hard to see.
You want your country to begood and safe and all of that,
but at the same time you have tounderstand where you're at
today and you can't just say,well, we're just going to make
it this way and just think youcan just rip everything down,
rip everything apart.
You have to gradually worktoward that and I think there's

(55:11):
a certain level of sensitivitythat needs to be had by the
people in charge right now.
But that's what's been on mymind lately.

J.R. (55:18):
Yeah, do you have any favorite hot takes?
Not about necessarily aboutpolitics, it could be about
anything One piece.
No, wow, be about anything Onepiece.
Suck, whoa Canceled Scrappingthis episode immediately.

Solomon (55:35):
Hmm, hot takes.
Yeah.
Now, that means something that.

J.R. (55:38):
That you think maybe most people won't agree with and
necessarily think is true, butyou think is true.
Oh, that's how I phrase it.

Solomon (55:45):
Okay.

J.R. (55:50):
Star Trek was one of the best TV series ever.
Really, you think people don'tthink so.

Solomon (55:52):
I don't think I think a lot of people look at it as
campy or whatever, but yeah, tome it's just like I grew up.
Captain kirk was like my dad.
Yeah, and it's amazing, though,when you look back and think it
only ran five seasons.

J.R. (56:05):
Really, yeah, In my head it's been.
It ran for like decades orsomething.
Yeah, it was five seasons.

Solomon (56:10):
Why does it feel like it's been longer?
Because the Star Trek marathonsused to come on the
Thanksgiving.
Oh, but yeah, that includes thedifferent captains, no, just
the Star Trek show.
The first, the original GotchaWith William Shatner.

J.R. (56:29):
That's Captain Kirk with william shatner, and then that's
captain kirk okay, and then sothe other ones you're.

Solomon (56:32):
That extends beyond five seasons.
Yeah, those are like spin-offs,right?
Star trek, next generation and,oh okay, deep space nine.

J.R. (56:37):
Maybe that's why I feel like it's deeper, kind of like
star wars, where it's like thelore is deeper than just the
three original or something likethat, yeah, but star wars, well
yeah, you're right, becausestar wars it's the movies and
the new movies, and then it'sthe cartoons, and it's right and
then it's all the legends, likebooks and other media, comics
and everything.

Solomon (56:54):
Correct, yeah, yeah so I don't know, it might not be
that hot of a take, but I justhave people looking at star trek
why not star wars?

J.R. (57:04):
and like I see, I feel like I don't doubt that star
trek is beloved, I think, in myperspective, I think people who
just don't like it are just aremore just separated from it and
just don't know anything aboutit but people who know about it
I feel like they like it and I'mlike that's fair, I don't knock
you for liking it right, but Idon't know anything about it, so
that's why I don't right.
Yeah, but okay, that's fair.

(57:24):
I am.
I like Wars, but I don't thinkthose are the same thing, like
those are apples and oranges.
But I get why they're alwaysput in the same conversation.

Solomon (57:31):
Yeah, well, because they're both sci-fi, they both
have star and they both havecult followings.
Exactly.

J.R. (57:37):
Right.
What is one of the best or mostworthwhile investments you've
ever made in either time money,energy, etc.

Solomon (57:43):
Well, recently, the smartwatch, because most of the
time when I record I got to havemy phone on silent right and so
you get all your friends andfamily and everybody how come.
You never answered my phone callBecause I don't remember to
look at it.
I don't remember to take itback off silent and all of that,
so I just leave it there.
But with a watch, I can seewhen people text me.
I can see when somebody's atthe front door, I can let them

(58:05):
in from the watch.
So it's been a really practicalbenefit to having it.

J.R. (58:11):
Oh, what kind of smart watch do you have?
Well, I have a samsung phone,so I got the samsung watch.
Okay, okay, just curious, I aman android person nice okay, the
less investments.
But now the next one isfavorite recent purchase in the
50 to 100 range that hasimpacted your life the most
recently 50 to 100 relativelycheap, doesn't matter the price.
I know, let's see.
Looking around, he's like nah,everything I buy is expensive.

(58:34):
Oh no, it's not.

Solomon (58:35):
I just can't think of something that's impacted my
life well.
Oh, you know what the case forthis phone.
The cool thing about this is itallows me to keep the pen and
it has a stand so when I go toeat I can watch a TV show,
because it folds like this yeah,oh, that's cool.
Yeah, so the stand was lessthan 50 bucks and it was a real
life changer, because now Idon't have to ask for an extra

(58:56):
bottle of ketchup to put myphone against.

J.R. (58:59):
Yeah, no, I think phone cases, especially the really
functional ones, or ones thatwork for you.
I feel like are goodbye, yeah,and it's not anything good
looking.
I bought it purely for thefunction.
The functional, exactly.
I'm right there with you all.
Right last rapid fire.

Solomon (59:14):
Favorite books, movies, videos, articles or any media
that you share or recommend themost.
Well, I listen to a lot ofaudiobooks.
I can tell you, though, that Idon't do self-help at all.
My my thing with audiobooks,and even tv, for the most part,
is my escape, right, so it's myenjoyment, and so a lot of
sci-fi, a lot of thrillers andthings like that.
So I would just tell people ingeneral find something that lets

(59:36):
you break away for a while.
I think that's good.

J.R. (59:40):
Do you have any personal wrecks that you want to throw
out there?

Solomon (59:44):
Oh, in terms of a good audiobook.

J.R. (59:46):
Let's see Anything audiobook, media shows, whatever
.

Solomon (59:50):
Shows See, I like campy shows.
I'm watching this show calledNautilus right now.
Nautilus yeah it's about theactual submarine, the Nautilus,
by the story by Jules Verne, andit's just a modern take on it.
But they're authentic to thestory from the standpoint that
the captain is Indian and thereare a lot of Indian people
involved.
But it's like a campy show.

(01:00:11):
I just enjoy those types ofthings.

J.R. (01:00:13):
Anything else besides Nautilus or any audiobooks An
audiobook.

Solomon (01:00:17):
Let's see.
Well, I'm very post-apocalyptic.
So there's a series calledHelldivers which I would
recommend, and think of this.
The world has been destroyed bynuclear explosion, right, and
there's these constant stormsand everything and all these
mutated creatures that live onthe land, so people can't live
there.
So survivors live in theseairships and basically they dive

(01:00:41):
down to certain places to getsupplies and everything and then
go back up and of course, theyhave adventures because they're
running for their lives downthere, and so that's why it's
called hell divers, becausethey're diving into hell too so
that humanity can survive.
And so it's a series of bookswhere eventually they find land
and decent land and they'retrying to get earth back the way
it was and all of this otherstuff.

(01:01:02):
But yeah, just a really goodseries of books.

J.R. (01:01:04):
How many books in this series, and do you know the
author?
Oh, the.

Solomon (01:01:10):
I will, I can find the author, but you could just.
You can just google it.

J.R. (01:01:14):
Yeah, yeah, you know how many books it is I think I think
it was eight, eight.
Yeah, I think it was a but,yeah, I'll have to look that up,
okay, yeah.
Yeah, no worries, I'll link thefirst book in the series and
then you guys can check it out.
All right, solomon, that is itfor Rapid Fire.
You made it.
We got to the end Exciting, allright.

(01:01:34):
Well, let's go into anyquestions, as usual.
So gratitude Shout out to mymother who was here.
Solomon, what are you gratefulfor In?

Solomon (01:01:42):
San Cor, then Sound Corny.
I'm grateful for you, thank you.
I'm grateful for the people whohave come here and shared their
goals with me and let me bepart of their journeys.
I'm really grateful for that,nice.

J.R. (01:01:52):
Yeah, and do you have any final ask from the audience or
any final takeaways you'd likethem to have from this
conversation?

Solomon (01:01:58):
I would say don't let anything stop.
You have dreams, but be smartabout going about it.
Know the tools you need tosucceed, but the biggest thing
is just keep going.
You get a lot of thosemotivational messages on the
days like the days when thingsaren't going well and you're
going maybe I should stop thisand somebody sends you something
that says just keep going.

(01:02:18):
You see that goofy cartoonwhere the guy's digging a tunnel
and he's always at the end andhe gives up.

J.R. (01:02:25):
And the goal is just right there.

Solomon (01:02:26):
And so that always keeps me going, keep going,
don't let anything stop you.

J.R. (01:02:30):
Nice Okay.

Solomon (01:02:35):
Solomon, where can people find you or check out
what you're up to if they wantto connect?
I don't have a lot of.
I don't have personal socialmedia, but I do have Instagram
for the studio, and so that's atpodcast place.
At podcast place, just like, itis no underscores or anything
and, yeah, take a look there.
And then, of course, ourwebsite is podcastplacecom and,
like I said, I'm going to betrying to focus on this social
media.
I want to do this tour, and sojust stay tuned for some new

(01:02:59):
content that'll really give youthe insight of what it is, to
what it's like to have.
Do your podcast here, nice cool.

J.R. (01:03:06):
Well, I would just like to say, as the host of 1000 Gurus,
I highly recommend Solomon, andPodcast Place Obviously had
five seasons here, so if youguys are interested in checking
out what he has to offer and youwant to start your own podcast
and have a studio that's turnkeyand the entire service from A
to Z, this is the right place togo.
So just throwing it out there,cool.

(01:03:26):
All right, we have reached theend.
So thank you guys for beinghere.
I really appreciate it.
Be sure to like, follow,subscribe whatever you guys do.
Leave us some comments as well.
Give Solomon some love, checkout his Instagram and everything
.
Reminder to always be kind toother people, especially
yourself, and remember that youcan always learn something from
someone if you take the time tolisten.
So thanks for being here.

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#45: Solomon Daniels - Starting a Podcast Studio, Integrating Systems, and Advice for Solopreneurs

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#45: Solomon Daniels - Starting a Podcast Studio, Integrating Systems, and Advice for Solopreneurs