Short Podcasts with PhD-Level Marketing Tips from Professor Pete

Episode Transcript
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Tiffany Youngren (00:00):
Hey there, I'm Tiffany Youngren host of Next Up
Nation where we help podcastersand YouTubers with vision become
preeminent thought leaders intheir industries. You're about
to have the incredibleopportunity to listen as we dig
into the why, who and what of apodcaster show. Then at the end,
we will identify one powerfulhow one action that he can take

(00:21):
for results in the next 30 days.Today, I am very excited to
welcome Professor Pete Alexanderhost of Winning at Business and
at Life. Hey, Professor Pete.

Professor Pete Alexander (00:31):
Hey, Tiffany, thank you for having me
on the show. And I reallyappreciate your listeners time
as well.

Oh, you are so welcome. Thanks for being here.
Well, Professor Pete hasreleased 309 episodes from
February of 2020. Until the dayof this recording, which is
September 21 2021. ProfessorPete Alexander inspires hard
driving leaders and otherworking professionals with over
100 innovative and effectivestress relief strategies that

(00:57):
help overcome their self imposedobstacles and barriers to
success. Pete also hosts hispopular seven minute podcast and
has been a frequent guest onother podcasts and radio shows.
So Pete, why did you startWinning at Business and Life?

Well, what I was looking for Tiffany
at the big round the end of 2019was, I was on LinkedIn. And I
had a good set of contacts, butI wasn't really cultivating
that. And I thought, well, whatcan I do to provide additional
value? And so I thought aboutit, and I thought, well, what

(01:36):
the heck, I'll go ahead and I'llstart a podcast, see how that
goes. And not only did I get tomake connections with some
wonderful people, and extend myconnections with some of my, my,
my peers, but I also found alove for the broadcast booth
again, because that was myoriginal major when I went to

(01:59):
college back in the stone age.So it was, I kind of gave myself
almost like paying homage to myinner child by going back and
and doing the podcast so manyyears later.

Oh, I love it. So So you took classes in
college? Had you done anythingelse with broadcasts since then?

No, not at all. You know, I did the
classes for a couple of years.And the reason I switched from
broadcasting and went over tobusiness was because at that
time, it would have required meto move every three months to a
bigger and bigger market. And Ihad done a lot of moving as a
kid and I was so burned outabout it that I thought now I'll

(02:41):
do something where I can stay ina particular location longer.

I don't blame you. So now you could have done
really a show about anythingconsidering that you wanted to
start your show to sounds liketo build relationships, and then
also to, you know, then you fellin love with it again. Why this
topic?

Well, there were a couple things. One
was I wanted to focus on b2bbecause that's that's really
where my experienc is, my careerhas been almost exclusively in
the b2b area. And secondarily,because I was finding that being
able to communicate on LinkedInprimary as the primary platform,

(03:24):
that I was able to have realpositive conversations with
people a little less than whatwe might see on Facebook with
some some pretty questionablecontent. And so, so I thought,
Okay, well, what can I do? Youknow, LinkedIn is primarily a
business platform. And so Ithought, Okay, so let's, what,

(03:46):
what can I do from a valuestandpoint, and people, everyone
who's in business has someexperience that they can share
that others can learn from. AndI thought, okay, let's do that.
And the format being that it'sroughly seven minutes, I wanted
to respect the listeners time tobe able to get them in and out,

(04:07):
get a get a nugget ofinformation that they could use,
and that they could run with.

I love it. And that's one thing. You know, we
mentioned it in the, in the bioearly on, when we introduced you
that these are seven minuteepisodes, which hats off to you,
I'm sorry.

It's so- the range, the range is
actually so the shortest one wasa little less than four minutes.
That guy was just, you know,answers your words. And I mean,
even though I tried to get moreout of them, and then my longest
one was 22 minutes. So I had onethat was 22 minutes, I had

(04:46):
another one that went 16 minutesand both of those episodes I I
said, you know, six questions,seven minutes plus bonus
episodes.

That's awesome. That is So good. Well,
I still think that that's,that's so interesting. And
everybody talks about it, youknow how I mean, it's true
business, people are really,really busy. So I think that's
really good. And then kind ofreally digging, you know, right
now I'm really digging into thewhy of your show. And I like
that your show. If you have aclear, you know, target

(05:21):
audience, which is the who,which we'll get into in a
minute. But also, you know,anywhere I go on your site, like
I went and looked at yourwebsite, and it's clear that you
have some knowledge of and somecare about helping people reduce
stress, is that does that haveanything? does that play into

(05:42):
your show at all? Or?

Yeah, so actually, so when I, when I
actually started doing my stressrelief work, one of the things
that I found was that those ofus who are in business who are
stressed and, you know, time isa huge component of that. And so
the book that I wrote, It hasover 100, quick and easy stress

(06:08):
relief tips that you can do injust a few minutes. So it
doesn't take a lot of time totry it. And then I thought, Aha,
wouldn't it make sense to havethe podcast have something like
that as well, because onceagain, people are strapped for
time. And if they can getsomething of value in a short

(06:28):
amount of time, then they, they,they're more likely to
subscribe. And so that's, that'swhere the stress relief stuff
actually gave me some of theformat that I decided on on the
show. But it also gave me theopportunity in several of my
interviews, where when,depending on what my guests are

(06:49):
sharing, we'll talk about okay,is that how does that either
reduce, reduce your stressbecause of the insight that
they're sharing or their theideas that they're giving? So
that gave me some fodder that Icould could to further enhance
the conversation I was havingwith my guests?

And it seems like I mean, my, my assumption
is that that could have evenbeen inspiration for some of
your questions, because I knowyou ask, one of your questions
is like, what makes you laugh atwork? And we all know, that's a
good stress relief. So you gotit. Have you kept it kind of
subtle, then so you're not like,bumping people over the head
with like, I want you to relieveyour stress, you're more like

(07:33):
going to do it not really talkabout it so much, or am I
missing? Did I miss where youtalked about it?

No, no, no. So So you're right about
that? The second question beingwhat makes you either laugh and
or smile about work in yourindustry? The usually the stress
relief question will come eitherin the third or the fourth
question, when I'm asking them,you know, what chapter of the
Book of a fictitious book theywould recommend, or what insight

(08:00):
Do you want to share? Anddepending on what they say, what
they're sharing, you know, Iwill I, you know, I will be more
inquisitive. And I'll saysomething like, you know, if
they say that, you got to havetrust. And so if you have trust

(08:21):
is that, you know, obviously,that reduces the stress, you
know, there's this level oftrust, etc. So it opens the
conversation for a little bitmore, because, you know, I'm
always curious if somebody hasan idea that about stress
relief, that that, then I canhelp promote for them so

Okay, that's awesome. Okay, so now, I this
season, I'm like challengingmyself to ask the obvious
questions. And I feel like inthe hot seat, I've, you know,
already asked for permission toput you in the hot seat,
although I love my my guests becomfortable. So I don't, by any
stretch, want this to beuncomfortable. But I have there
are three questions that I justfeel like I have to ask. Number

(09:00):
one. Are you a professor?

Yes, I am. I'm a real professor. I have
my PhD in marketing. And Itaught I taught classes for a
little over 10 years, closer to11. And I'm actually going back
and teaching a class for AntiochCollege and I'm currently
writing so so yes, yes, I am.

Love it. Okay. And then. So what is your
background in stress relief?

So that actually started? Well, if
you say background, it's it's alifelong

Don't we all have a background in stress
relief, if I feel exactly right.Is there some tests we could
take?

Exactly?

I mean like you wrote the book on it. So I'm
kind of getting I want to get asense of your authority in this
space.

Yeah. So basically, you know,
obviously, we all have thatstress and I had from the
dysfunctional childhood onforward to my adulthood, but the
stress that I noticed actuallystarted back in 2008, when a
perfect storm of stressfulactivities culminated in my
diagnosis of stress induceddiabetes. Now, what happened is,

(10:12):
is that in 2008, I didn't listento my body about what stress was
doing to it. And instead, likemany people do, I continue to
burn the candle at both ends foranother 10 years. And I ended up
in the emergency room one hourfor being comatose with a severe
case of diabetic ketoacidosis.And for your listeners who may

(10:33):
not know what that is,basically, my body was eating
itself alive because of mystress. And here is the crazy
thing. So you would think Iwould have learned at that
point? No. I was transferred toafter the ER, I was transferred
to ICU for the very first timeever in my life. And on my

(10:56):
second day, in ICU, I wasworking for a medical device
company at the time, I get atext from my boss, my
micromanager boss, and the textsays, you have a webinar you
need to run at eight o'clock.This was at 6am. Roughly, what
are you going to do about it?Now mind you, my boss knew that

(11:17):
I was in the hospital. Oh, myGod. And so what did I do?
Instead of saying, you know,forget you. What I did was I
picked up my phone because whata surprise, I didn't have my
laptop with me. And I startedtrying to reschedule this
webinar using my phone pushingthe boundaries of the
capabilities. And the nurse onstaff at the time came over to

(11:41):
check my blood they would do itover every about an hour. And
when I was first admitted, mysugar's were so high that the
medical grade glucometers couldnot read, it just said hi. So
they estimated was eight to 10times higher than normal. She
checks my blood and the priorcheck. And the ones that

(12:01):
previously all finally came backinto more reasonable numbers,
they were still high, but theywere more reasonable. All of a
sudden, after I started tryingto reschedule the webinar, boom,
like a 90 degree angle, my num,my glucose numbers started
skyrocketing again. And she saysto me, this is a complete

(12:21):
stranger. She says to me, yourealize that's what put you in
this hospital bed in the firstplace. And it was like, oh, and
that was the epiphany moment Ineeded to hear. I knew other
people that told me I wasstressing myself out. But this
was the first person who I forwhatever reason I listened to.

(12:43):
And so I basically spent therest of that day and the next
day, really contemplating that.And I realized that for so many
years, I had been trading myhealth for my career. And that's
a really bad trade. So after Igot out of the hospital, the day

(13:05):
after that, I decided to resign.And I focused on just getting my
health back. And so I startedexperimenting with different
stress relief tools andtechniques. And what I noticed
was that not only did my stressgo down, my glucose numbers, as
a diabetic went down, my weightwent down, and my energy level

(13:29):
went way, way up. It was like Ihad discovered a fountain of
youth. And here's the crazything, Tiffany, if you saw a
picture of me 13 years ago, in2008, when I first was diagnosed
with stress induced diabetes,and you look at me now, with the
exception of the gray hair, Ilook younger than I did thirteen

(13:52):
years ago. And so my, my youknow, my friends, my former co
workers family said I'll callyou if you want to write a book
about it. And so I wrote thebook, and then started coaching
others on how to reduce theirstress as well. And it's been
very gratifying.

Oh, man, that is an incredible story. Well,
thank you for sharing that.

You bet.

I will say to anybody who's listening right
now and you're like, Man, I justwant to know more about, you
know, Professor Pete.petealexander.com. I know on the
about page, you talk more aboutyour story too. So because
there's more to it than justthat too. Yeah, exactly. So
awesome. Awesome. Well, Iappreciate that. And so now

(14:33):
also, okay, so my third questionwas, Is this show like part of
growing a business are youtrying to sell books or what? Is
there a monetary, monetary sideto this or what?

So originally when I did, I was
trying, you know, as when Ifirst started talking to some of
my my network, that they werereferring other people to me,
and I started thinking, Well,you know, maybe I could do Get
some inroads into othercompanies maybe that I could
provide some stress relief to.But what I found was, I had a

(15:08):
particular question that triedto tee that up. And quite
honestly, I never felt like Iwas being true to myself. And I
didn't feel like I was beingauthentic. And so when I, when I
removed that, and I just wasmyself and I had no expectation

(15:31):
to get something from the guest.That's when the show the the
conversation, my my level ofexcitement with it went way, way
up.

Okay, yeah, I totally can relate to that.
Okay, that's awesome. That'sawesome. Okay, so let's kind of
move into the who, so your idealaudience, their business owners,
is that right? Or business?

So what are their business
entrepreneurs. And what are themajority of the audience the
demographics of it, they'reearly in their career. So let's
say late 20s, maybe early 30s.And it makes sense, because the
guests that I have on the showare sharing a business insight

(16:21):
that they learned. And so theseyounger entrepreneurs are
benefiting from thatinformation, what can they do to
be more successful and learnfrom other people's mistakes and
successes?

Okay, I love it. And so one thing that I was
really curious about as I waslistening to it, so what problem
are you solving for thelistener? Like, I get a really
strong sense of who you'retalking to, but not really like,
what's the transformation thatthey can expect by listening?

Sure. So what happens is in just a
very short amount of time, theycan get a business insight that
is, clearly it could be verynovel, or it could be more
generic, it really depends onthe guest. But if you want to
look at somebody who has isreally delivering on, you know,
their business, they'resuccessful, and you want to get

(17:15):
a little bit of behind thescenes of what makes them
successful. But you don't haveto interview them. That's what
you have the opportunity bylistening to the show, you get
you find out okay, what has madethem successful, what is
something that they are proudof? That they can say, Yes, this
is something that works. And itwas interesting, because early

(17:36):
in on the show, I used to askonly one insight question. And
then I realized that there weresome people that wanted to have
more than one insight that theycould share. And so I have two
questions now. And so a lot ofthe the interviews, if if a
listener listens to it, they'regoing to get two different

(17:57):
distinct ideas, that they canimplement it fairly quickly, in
order to improve their business.

Okay, awesome. So, and then, and I, I'm so bad
when I scroll, I don't do datemath very well. So are you once
a week? Or do you? Is itmultiple times a week? Twice a
week? Twice a week? Okay.

It was three times a week, and it just
became a lot. Yes, a week now.

Awesome. Awesome. And so do you right now
with as you're putting outcontent, because you've had over
300 episodes that you'vereleased? Or how do you evaluate
whether your content isresonating with your target
audience? And have you madeadjustments based on what you've
seen?

Yes. So, you know, obviously,
evaluating the number ofsubscribers, number of
downloads, that's somethingthat's just regular analytics
that I look at. What I have doneover the, over the year and a
half, almost two years that I'vebeen doing this is that I first
I changed some of the questions.You know, just finding that

(19:12):
okay, what depending on how theywere answering when I started
hearing similar answers frompeople, I thought, this is not
adding value. So, so I did, Ichanged around a few of the
questions. And I also changed upthe branding of the show as
well. So I started you know, Ihad a green and white design

(19:35):
before and now I have the blackand purple kind of more more
kind of coloring to go with it.I also for the YouTube version,
the video version of it. Istarted doing an intro and an
outro animation with it withmusic and then more recently

(19:59):
within last couple of months, Istarted finding that because
LinkedIn is one of the primaryplaces that I promote it.
LinkedIn had a limit of 10.Past, I should say, a limit of
10 minutes on videos. But abouttwo months ago, roughly, I

(20:19):
noticed that if it's, let's say,in seven or an eight minute
video, it took forever. For itto upload, it was like LinkedIn
was saying, Now, we will take a1010 minute video, but we're
going to make it very difficultfor you. And so what I decided
to do was I started taking justone question from my interviews,

(20:39):
and using that as a video andthen linking to the entire
episode on on LinkedIn. So I'msorry, on YouTube. So that that
has been a way that people canconsume if the if they're
looking just for one quick bitof insight. They don't have to
listen to the entire episode,they can just listen to a one

(21:00):
one and a half minute video.

That's awesome. That's awesome. And so
did now when you I'm justcurious, actually, this isn't
even usually on it. But so whenyou changed your, your, when you
add an intro and outro to yourYouTube, did you see any changes
in the duration of the watchesor the number of downloads?

Not significantly, I would have
hoped that it would have had abigger, bigger impact than it
did, but it really didn't. Buthere's another one that I
learned for your listeners thatwas actually quite shocking to
me. So I, I experimented withtranscription of each of my

(21:46):
episodes. And that's a lot ofwork, especially, you know,
because even the besttranscription software is going
to only be between 85 and 90%.Accurate. So you still have to
read through all of it. Yeah.And so I found so but I was, you
know, everything that I had readsaid that, okay, if you have

(22:09):
transcription on your videos,that it will increase, you know,
your your viewers, yoursubscribers, etc, blah, blah,
blah. I did not see one iotadifference. Wow. And I did this
for about six weeks. And eachone of my episodes, even though

(22:32):
it was the episodes are anywherefrom most of them seven to 10
minutes, that transcriptionadded a good 2025 minutes of
work, at least. And I found thatit wasn't worth it, because I
did not see any additionalYouTube or LinkedIn video views

(22:56):
as a by doing that. So you know,YouTube has their own automated
one that they that they use. Andquite frankly, you know, it's
probably from what I've lookedat, it's 65 to 70% accurate. And
that's good enough, especiallyfor you know, people that are

(23:16):
listening to it in a differentlanguage, because YouTube will
allow them to transcribe it in adifferent language. So the you
know, unless you've got anunlimited amount of time, or you
have a great budget to spend tolet somebody else do it just
because you want to do it. Thatto me was an eye opener that I
can say went against everythingI had heard read etc.

Well, and it's funny too, because if you have a
show that's, you know, a half anhour or 20 minutes even you
couldn't put all the transcript,all the transcription into it
anyway, and you're 20 minutesturns into you know, and I we
calculate based on, so what wedo is we put our audio into
otter.ai. And then I have ahuman person who goes through it

(24:05):
and while they're listening,they, they they document start
and end times of clips that wewant to use at the same time.
And we and the way that webudget for that is it takes two
and a half times the amount oftime of the recording. So if
it's a 30 minute recording,it'll take what's an hour and 15
minutes for that person to gothrough it. And that's after

(24:27):
Otter has gone through it soright so you're right it does in
it and it goes up the longerthat your show is and most
people will do have shows thatare longer than seven minutes.

Exactly. Well one thing that I did do and
I use otter two for now with theone one question video, that one
I do a transcription of becausein most cases it's going to be a
minute minute and a half at themost and that in that I can you
know I can look and read throughit in a few minutes and I think

(24:56):
your your your timing is aboutRight, you know, so it's a
minute and a half, it's gonnatake me three, four minutes to
read it and edit it.

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, let's talk a
little bit about what let's talkabout some of the things that
you're doing. And we've touchedon some of them and things that
you're doing that are working.What what do you think has been
the most effective way, or maybea couple of ways that you've
attracted listeners and viewersso far?

Well, I think that being able to make
the background moreprofessional, is been something
that makes it look like I'mmore, you know, I'm more legit.
So I think that that has beenvery helpful. So any of your
listeners who are doing video,make sure that your lighting is
good, make sure that it looksprofessional, I mean, like, for

(25:42):
example, with you, Tiffany,you've got beautiful lighting,
you know, it's, it's, you know,you're well framed, I can't tell
you how many times I've talkedto people on my show, where I
have to sit for the first 15minutes and try and get them,
you know, positioned right,because I want them, you know,
the whole, the whole, the wholething for me as a host, is to
let the guest be the star. Andso part of my job is to make

(26:05):
sure that they they, they theylook and sound good. So making
sure you know, upgrading myequipment making it looks
professional from from a visualstandpoint, from an audio
standpoint, it has beensomething that has certainly
made a difference. And the otherone that I started noticing a
difference on to which has beenkind of interesting. Is I

(26:27):
mentioned earlier abouttranscribing the one question.
Well, what's nice about that isby putting, you know, in the
description of the show, youhave a limited amount of
characters that you can put, ifI put the transcription of that
one question in the body, thedescription of the of the show,

(26:50):
that helps Google especiallywhen you put it on YouTube, as
well, as it helps Google indexit so that if somebody's looking
for a particular, you know,keyword phrase, and you're the
answer, the guests answer hasthat in there, it's more likely
to be found and greater exposurefor the for the show. So that's

(27:13):
been been a good one as well.

Awesome. So do you have anything that you know
that you've done that you'veseen an uptick? Because earlier,
you mentioned that the way thatyou determine whether or not
you're getting more listeners orviewers is the number of
downloads, you know, or thenumber of subscribers? Has there
been anything that you've donethat you've recognized? Like,
Oh, I did that, and then thenumbers went up? Is there

(27:37):
anything that's happened likethat?

Yeah, anytime that you can get your
show on another distributionchannel, then you're going to
see, obviously, numbers go up.It's temporary, most cases, but
it is exciting to see becauseanytime that you're on a new
network, you're gonna see a biguptick, and you know, just a big

(28:01):
blip on on listeners, becausethe network is downloading it to
have it archived on their site.So that's something if you're
looking for it. Another one thatI find is beneficial, that can
give an uptick is if you can bea guest on another show that is
targeting a similar audience,then you're gonna find an uptick

(28:24):
as well. And I saw that as well.

Okay. Okay. And then if you were to pull,
like 20 people from your showright now, what do you think has
driven most of them to yourshow?

Referrals? Yeah, so. So people, you there
are, you know, oh, gosh, what isit doing? Are there 2 million
podcast shows out there? No,it's something of some amazing
number like that. And in myexperience, being a guest, I
would say, of the well over 100shows that I've done, there is

(29:02):
easily easily 25% of them, who Iwould say they should not be
doing a show, because they'renot. They're just not organized.
They're not prepared. They're,you know, and it's it's like
you're on the show, and it'skind of like it's all over the

(29:26):
place. And so why I get so manyreferrals to my show is because
my guests know, is that they'regoing to have a, you know, a
professional, fun experience.

And that's one thing in fact, I wrote this down
before I even got on the Zoomcall with you is one thing that
I think you're doing really wellis literally on your show, you
ask people to refer a guest toyour show, and it's in a really
good way to so and we'll talkabout that here in a little bit.
But so let me rephrase that lastquestion. I asked if you were to

(30:01):
pull 20 people who listened toyour show. Where do you think?
Yeah, where do you think most ofthem? Got their?

Oh, okay. I apologize. I thought no,
no, it was guest. So

Always blame the host, you always blame them.
I always blame myself. I'm like,I'm the host. It's my job I tell
you to trust me. I gotta takeyou to the right.

Exactly.

So go ahead for that. That was me. Go ahead.

So the most of them, if the 20 out of
20, I would probably say 14 ofthem. So two thirds roughly have
come from LinkedIn.

Okay, as listeners, they do so. So you
think it's the posting of theone minute, like they're seeing
one minute thing? And thenthey're going, Okay. Love it.
Okay, so that is awesome. Thatis gold. So I have to, you know,
as you can tell, I take notesthrough this whole thing. So
sometimes I'm like, okay, okay.And usually, it's like I'm

(30:58):
writing it. And it's like, Isthis in the right spot? So this
one I put in red and bolded?Because, honestly, I feel like
we have and I do this too. Andthat's, I'm just obsessed with
this whole concept. But a lot oftimes we make assumptions. And
so we say, Well, I think thatthis is what it would be. And I
think that this is how peopleget here. But ultimately, if

(31:19):
you're you know how many peopleare clicking on those links and
getting to your show, and sothere is data that actually you
could that would support whatyou just said, a lot of those
other things. I feel likesometimes we get and I do the
same thing. But we're we'relike, you know, I did this, and
then it helped us like, well, dowe see numbers? Well, no, but
I'm pretty sure it was a goodidea, you know? So when we get

(31:40):
to something where I'm like, Iknow, like, I believe what you
just said like I bet that if youwent and you looked at your
clicks, that that would supportwhat you just said. So I think
that that's gold. So anyway, Idon't think everything comes
from data every time. Usually,yes. But because I, first of

(32:01):
all, podcast data isn't super,like, it's just not unless you
have a whole person to work onattribution, and all these
different tricks that we can dobehind the scenes to make it
happen. But dude, we're tryingto do a show be better at our
craft, we're trying to, youknow, promote it. So by the time
we're doing attributions, wehave enough numbers to warrant

(32:23):
doing attribution, you know, so,so usually when we're right
here, it's like, how do I getthat momentum? Up. And so, so
part of it is not always lookingat the downloads. But if we see
an uptick in downloads, it'slike what just happened, like,
and then going and finding thatsupporting information, you
know, if you start doing avideo, and if you start doing

(32:47):
the one minute videos thatyou're not one, I always say one
minute or one question videos,and you're transcribing them and
putting them on LinkedIn. Andthen all of a sudden, you notice
an uptick. That's enough, youknow, you know that that's where
it's coming from. And even whenwe're working with a little
numbers, a lot of times, it'slike, well, you need six figures
to really be able to know if thedata is supported, but it's

(33:10):
like, whatever, like, this iswhat I have, I need to look at
something. Exactly. Or even ifmy daughter's like, Oh, I saw
that you posted that. That's thefirst time I click that link.
Okay, I'm doing more of that.You know, I mean, sometimes it's
like, it's more of a case study,and oh, gosh, what do you call
it when you have like a roomfulof four people or like 10

(33:31):
people, and they're trying outyour product and focus, focus?
Focus Group? Yes. So when youhave a small show, just you're
we're looking more at a focusgroup than we are at solid data.
So I'm, you know, probablyslipping when I say data, but
it's we need some kind ofverifiable information. That
That does it. So I love I lovethat. That was super helpful.

(33:55):
And then now, my next questionhas to do with brand identity
and I love I didn't see the logobefore or the or the branding. I
love what it is. Now it standsout even if I like when, okay,
here's behind the scenes forTiffany Youngren is when I do
these, a lot of times you'll seethe lighting change because it
has to do with if I'm looking ata document, or if I'm you know,

(34:17):
like on like, I just went tofull camera, so I don't even see
my document. Because Can you sayCan you say hello? Hello. Okay,
awesome. So I just want toverify what I was about to say,
because I wanted your picture upbig online. But one thing I did
notice, I can notice thebranding without seeing the
words. And so I feel like that'sreally good. And it's not even

(34:40):
about the shape, like the shapekind of I can't see when it's
little, but I I can tell what itis. So I think it's really
fantastic. Thank you. But withthat said, did you notice or did
you get feedback regarding thatbranding change because and the
reason I asked this is a lot ofpodcasters that I've had in the
hot seat, they're like, mybranding makes no difference.

(35:03):
But I don't like I don'tsubscribe. But I want to see
like have have you seen adifference, whether it's
feedback or whether it'sdownloads in that branding
change.

So the downloads, I don't I can't
attribute directly to it. But Iabsolutely on the feedback, it
really was because and I, Ididn't do anything like, hey,
check out the new branding, whatI did was I just started
publishing with the new brandingand my audience who were just
saying, I am digging the newlook. And it just because it is

(35:39):
there, the coloring it stoodout. And, you know, it just made
made for a much, much betterpresence. And so, you know, it
just goes back to theprofessionalism of it. And so it
they basically the feedback,they were saying, as the
coloring is fantastic. And itlooks like you have you've,

(36:00):
you're taking this seriously.

Right. Okay, that's awesome. I agree. I think
it's really, really good. Andthen. So your- you do. My next
question is do you have a socialmedia strategy? So I've heard
that you do the one questionpostings on LinkedIn. Do you
like do you have a strategy andyou follow it consistently?

(36:24):
Maybe not every time a podcastreleases, but generally, when a
podcast releases, you followthis specific strategy?

Yes, yes. So the only thing that's
changed is I started publishingalso to, to Instagram more
recently, but with Twitter, withFacebook, with YouTube, with
LinkedIn very consistently,because I wanted to make sure

(36:52):
that it got the mostdistribution it could. And so
LinkedIn was my primary. That'swhere I focus, probably 80% of
my effort on and so that onegets the one question that one
gets the link to the YouTubevideo, I also distribute the
episode or the one questionposting in a whole bunch of

(37:17):
groups. So it gets exposure, youknow, basically in mostly in
sales and marketing groups thatwould get an appreciation for
this, because you have to targetthat as well. And, and then with
LinkedIn, I'm sorry, withFacebook, Twitter and Instagram,
that it's basically I'm justpointing to the YouTube channel

(37:40):
with with the regular posting,and I'll answer you know, I'll
respond right away to any postsor any comments and stuff like
that to those those postings,but most of the activity is
coming off of LinkedIn.

Okay, so Facebook and say you point at
YouTube for LinkedIn, do yousend people directly to the
episode

on YouTube? But I upload I upload
an original video of the onequestion.

Okay. So you optimize for video. So you're
like, I'm on YouTube, but I alsopush it out to podcasts. Is that

Yes, yes. So I've got I've got it on
all the major podcast channels.Okay. That is nice, though.
That's automated from my I usemegaphone for my, for my
distribution.

Okay. All righty. And then also now, you
mentioned posting in groups, doyou ever go into groups and like
build your brand, just likehaving conversations about
things with people? Or is itjust pretty much like, Hey,
here's my latest episode.

So I will have separate
conversations, you know, when itwhen an episode publishes, I
will publish it to certaingroups, but I'm also very active
in groups that, you know, ifthey're having a conversation or
something that is of interest tome, or, you know, I will go
ahead and they'll have aconversation there. And many
times, I have actually referredeither a guest specifically or

(39:10):
the episode specifically becausesomebody asked a question that
was answered on my show.

Awesome that that was the magic answer what
you just said, that was theideal answer. So I love it. I
love that you're doing that. Solet me just make a real quick
note of that too, because Ithink it just it's so
overlooked. Rarely do I get thatanswer. So I'm really excited
that you said that. So and let'ssee. Now. Also you have a blog.

(39:40):
Do your episodes get publishedon that blog?

Not that I actually know. So one did
one did because I talked abouttrust. And so usually I keep the
Uh, the podcasts excuse meseparate from the blog. And but
there was one that I talkedabout trust and I did refer to

(40:08):
the to the episode there. So myblogs for the most part though
isn't promoting the podcast butwhat one thing that I would
recommend to your your listenersthat has worked for me too slow,
you know, organically is mypodcast link is part of my

(40:30):
signature on my email.

Oh that's awesome. Um, so it's part of and
so your when you say podcastlink, is it like what you gave
me where it's like the podcastpage on your website? Right?
Okay. And then, if I remembercorrect, I'm just gonna look at
it real quick. I'm pretty suredon't you have you have embedded
the podcast? Do you? But I don'tsee the videos in there.

Does that. So if you scroll, if you
scroll down a little bit, you'llsee all the channels I published

Okay. Embedding the content.

Yeah, I didn't. And the reason being
is because the player is ableto, you know, the podcast player
embeds, and then itautomatically updates. If I
publish the video, I have to goin there every time to publish
the most recent episode. And sothat's extra work I didn't want
to do. Right.

Okay, perfect. And so Okay, in social media,
just to confirm, everythinglinks to this. Like, if you're
talking about one episode, itlinks to that YouTube video
specifically. Awesome. And sowhere is it that you see

(41:45):
yourself taking your podcast?Like we're What do you want to
get out of it?

Well, it's interesting. I you know,
what, what I get out of it rightnow is personal branding. That
is, what the biggest benefit isright now. I imagine, as I think
about what I want to do withthis podcast in the future, I'm
reconsidering, formatting itdifferently, I'm reconsidering.

(42:14):
You know how many episodes Iwant to do per per per week. But
what I would love to do is I'dlove to have one where the
audience, I'm not after agigantic audience that I'm just,
you know, the same thing foreverybody. I want to find a
niche that really is a loyalniche of listeners where they

(42:38):
just say immediately that, okay,if you want to talk about this
particular topic, it's ProfessorPete's podcast, that's the one.
So if I can get to a brand wherethat is in the minds of my
audience, where they say, Yeah,this is a can't miss this, this
is the podcast for thisparticular niche. I think that

(42:59):
would be where I would, I wouldfind is my apex of where I'd
love to take the show.

So your podcast, how would you finish
that sentence?

My podcast how I would finish that
sentence?

Yeah. So like, cuz you said that, you know, I
want them to be able to say thispodcast is the perfect podcast,
listen to in this niche. So whatwould that be?

So currently, I would say for
entrepreneurs, this podcast,this podcast is the best one to
get, you know, nuggets ofinsight in a short amount of

Of probably business insights.
time,

Business insight, correct. Actually,
it's, it's not necessarily thatit's, it's winning at business
and life. And so several of myguests have talked about what
they do, personally, to takecare of themselves, you know,
self care, or maybe prioritizingfamily or something important to

(43:57):
them versus their business, thathas been, you know, things that
they've done. So it would beprimarily business, but not
every time.

So it'd be nuggets of insight to help
entrepreneurs and however, Ilook okay. And then, let's see,
actually, we're done a couplemore questions. So would you say
that your podcast is on brandwith your website? And what is
it that you're trying to getfrom your website? Like, what's
this whole thing look like foryou?

Yeah, so the podcast is actually a
little more colorful than mywebsite, my websites, this kind
of warm brown because I didresearch before I did the
website and at the brownish goldis a comfortable, soothing kind

(44:49):
of color, that it works reallywell for stress relief. When I
worked with the designer on therebrand of the podcast. It was
they they say, Oh, it needs topop a little bit more so. So
they, you know, it's it, it's alittle bit more stand out. But

(45:15):
it blends well with the websitebecause I have it on its own
particular page. So people thatgo to the podcast page versus
any other page, don't go and go,Oh, my God, this is totally
different. But it is a lot morecolorful versus

And we're talking about I'm sorry, go
ahead. Sure. Versus the-. Andwe're talking about message,
like, you have your website, andI guess I'm trying to connect
like you. What do you like I'veseen the wherever you've been
seen, you have this blog post,everything's really amazing, the
contents really great. But whatare you trying to accomplish

(45:53):
with your website? And thenwould you say that your podcast
is part of accomplishing that?

Okay. So, you know, I put the website,
that page on every episodethat's distributed throughout
the podcast, the megaphonepodcast distribution, and my
hope there, the website is thereto let people know that, you
know, it's not just podcastingthat I do. And so if they land

(46:20):
on that page, you know, theyhave the main navigation right
there if they're curious aboutclicking and finding something
else. So the website is, is kindof like, for me is the catch all
for everything. And you know,whether they come to my website
to learn about a particular blogpost on reducing stress, and

(46:41):
then they go, Oh, he's got apodcast, too, okay. Or vice
versa, they come and they listento a podcast episode. And they
go, Oh, we met? What is thisabout a book? Or what is this
about, you know, learning moreabout stress relief? So those
are the kinds of things that thewebsite does for me, it's kind
of you know, I hate to say catchall because it doesn't sound
like it's, that's that'ssophisticated marketing. But it

(47:04):
really is it you know, when Isee the analytics and see where
people are coming from theoptimization that I've done,
there is definitely given mebenefit.

So it's helping drive traffic to
awareness, for sure. Absolutely.Awesome. Awesome. And I'm, so
when you're looking at yourpodcasts now, and you see your
vision of being known, well,first of all, I guess I'm
jumping, this is an assumption,your vision right now of wanting

(47:36):
of your podcasts becoming thethe go to the place to get
nuggets of insight and help forentrepreneurs. You know,
beforehand, we did talk aboutyou taking a break, and you're
regrouping and you're doing someother things, and I'm taking a
hot second, because you know,you have done over 300 episodes,
do you when you come back andreturn? Do you anticipate that

(47:57):
that is still going to be yourvision? Or what do you think the
new and revised vision wouldlook like?

I haven't given it enough thought
to, to clarify succinctly that.But what I have found is that
the feedback has been that theshort timeframe is really good,
that they appreciate thatinformation. And what I part of

(48:27):
what I would like to do is, I'vethe what if I was going to say
one drawback to the format thatI have, is that I've had
probably, let's say 15% of myguests who have been so
commercial, that it really, Ithought about and I thought you

(48:50):
know, if I was the network news,I wouldn't be publishing this.
It just they, they they theywere promoting themselves too
much. And so the way that Iwould be looking at it is making
sure that that the chance ofthat happening was minimized.
Fortunately 85% of the guestsI've had have been really good

(49:14):
about it with their insight andand share it sharing it you
know, because I do I think mostof your podcast hosts will will
know that, you know, guests wantto be able to let people know
how to get in touch with them.And so I you know, I have that
question at the end to let thempromote themselves where they
can best be found. But I've hadsome guests on the show where

(49:40):
the they weren't clearly clearlypushing either a book or you
know, something to do with apromotion that they were were
having and honestly it you know,in those that those guests it
was it was like a It was more ofa used car salesman. And so I

(50:04):
want to minimize that. And Iwant to meet you, instead of
saying, Okay, listen to a, youknow, 85% of these interviews.
Now, I'd like you to listen to100% of these interviews,
because you're not going to geta commercial on any of them.

Okay, so that was such an awesome insight.
Also, just to kind of circleback around. Would you say that,
by improving that opportunitywith your guest is still
ultimately what you're trying todo is to help entrepreneurs
improve their lives?

Yes, the listeners, I want to get
listeners to improve theirlives, if they're looking at
different ways that they can besuccessful. Whether it's in
their in their business, ormaybe just in life in general.
That is, what if, if the contentthat is being shared on the show
can provide them value that I'vemade a difference, and that that

(51:00):
that would be ultimately what Iwould like to be able to
provide. And, you know, like Isaid, in probably 85% of the
episodes, there is somethingreally good in it. And whether
it's the insight that theyshared, or the first job that
maybe they had, something thatyou learn from that experience,

(51:21):
is when when you can look back,and you can say, this is what I
learned from it. And this iswhat I took from that. And this
is what has helped me. Okay, soyou know, a listener is going to
take that and say, Okay, did Ilearn something from it? If so,
let me let me apply it if if itdoesn't resonate, then that's
okay. You didn't spend a lot oftime. And hopefully the next

(51:45):
episode will be you'll connectwith the with the guests more.

That is, that's awesome. So I have to
ask, is this podcast part ofyour day job? Or do you have a
different job that's unrelatedto the podcast,

totally unrelated to the podcast. So my
day job is I run a lamp interiorlandscaping business. And so
that is my I'm the president ofOffice plants by everything
grows. And so that is my dayjob. And I also help coach
people in stress relief as aside gig. And and then the

(52:22):
podcast is a side gig as well.

So do you view the helping people with stress
and the podcasts as completelyseparate side gigs? Or do you
think that the podcasts couldsupport like, not support, like,
monetize, so that it can pay forstuff, but support it in a way
of helping the coaching ro?

It could. So if I was, like I
mentioned before about the Iused to have a question that was
specific to stress relief. Andif I, if I could set it up so
that I didn't feel like I wasfishing for clients, potential
clients, then I think that itwould be really good because the

(53:09):
podcast could help promoteopportunities for me on the
stress relief side, certainly.And the stress relief, it has
actually gotten a few people, afew new subscribers. And that
was primarily because theconversation just came up. And
then and, and, you know, andmost of the people that I coach,

(53:32):
with, on the stress relief areentrepreneurs.

Okay, that's awesome. So one more question,
and then I'll see if you haveany questions, and then we're
gonna move into that next phasethat I told you about, but um,
so when when you're looking atyour life, and your you've got
your business that you own, andthat you run, and then you've
got your coaching that you helppeople with stress relief? Would
you call your business withwhere you coach people and help

(54:00):
them relieve stress? Like yourpassion project? Or is it just a
side gig? Does that make sense?I can do

it. It does. I have a lot of passion
for it. It is the kind of thingyou know, I wish I could say
that I made tons of money fromit. I don't. And the reason I
don't is because it's the kindof thing that needs to be out
there. i It's more for me to beable to help people not end up

(54:29):
what happened to me. And toomany of us are putting our
health aside because we don'tknow any better. Or we always
think that we'll get you know,we'll always have time for our
health but the fact of thematter is without our health,
nothing else matters. And so, Ikind of I was what I like to do

(54:50):
is I always look at you knowwhen it comes time for me to be
done on this earth, and I lookat it and I've always said I
want I want to make make apositive difference. And if
making the if my positivedifference was to communicate to
others to be careful, don't takeyour health for granted. And

(55:12):
make sure that you do somethingto help reduce your stress that
then I've made a huge impactthat you know, even if it's on,
you know, one or a few people.So it's a passion project. It's
a, you know, side gig is I callit side gig, because people
always ask, what's your primarything. So my primary thing is,

(55:33):
of course, the business that Ihave. But the business allows me
to have the opportunity to helpothers. And, you know, by doing
this stress relief work, thereis, you know, even if I if, if
when I do these one hourwebinars, and I have a group of

(55:54):
people in there, the fact thatsome people just say, Oh, my
gosh, I, you know, something yousaid just resonated so much with
me, that made all the differencein the world, I can't tell you
about how many people who Italked to afterwards with said,
you know, I, I started doingsomething different, and I can't

(56:14):
thank you enough. That's thekind of stuff that you know,
there's there's no monetarymonetary value on that. But that
is what drives me, it's, it'swhat used to drive me when I was
a college professor, because youknow, you don't make a big money
as a college professor. But whenyou can have an impact on
students, then that's, that'sthe gratification that I'm

(56:36):
looking for. And that's whatI've been doing with the stress
relief work.

I love it. I love it. That's so great. And,
you know, honestly, we, myhusband and I, we work together.
And we're always talking aboutredefining retirement, you know,
we want to be doing the thingsthat we love, you know, and I
and I probably shouldn't evencall it a passion project,
because of course, you'repassionate about it. But, but
these things where we love doingit, you know, it's just

(57:01):
enjoyable when when i i couldseriously be looking at a task
that I have to act on it. Okay,this is real, like, I get real
on the show. So, literally,there's never been an interview
where I haven't gotten aninterview to do like, never, I'm
always like, but I also likethat, like, oh, I have to get
ready to go to Belize. Like I amjust like that, like I just have

(57:22):
that moment where I'm like, Oh,do I really have to go do this.
I just want to like curl up inmy little ball and not go
anywhere and not talk toanybody. And that's that's the
opposite of what's about tohappen. And but then every time
when I do it, like this one, I'mlike, Oh my gosh, we're gonna do
this in our 15 It's me noproblem. And it's like, yeah,
but then I get so excited aboutit, I actually care and I get it

(57:44):
into this space. And, and so Ifeel like if I had a magic wand,
and everybody could, that's howthey feel when they do their
work. It feels like retirement,like I imagined that that's what
a retirement is gonna feel like,I mean, you know, yeah, I would
rather be in warmer weather, butmy family doesn't live. You
know, the thing is, is like, andso that's really what I'm trying

(58:06):
to get down to is like,podcasting is awesome. But as a
host, it can, it can really dragif you're not into the topic,
you know, in the end, like,you'll look at my show, and it's
like, you know, it's next stepnation. But yeah, there was the
masterclass series, and thenthere was the true stories from

(58:29):
real podcasters. And then nowwe're doing the hot seat. You
know, the next one, I think isgoing to be called, I'm not
going to tell it. I'm not goingto release that yet. But, but I
have like this whole notheridea, because it just gets
boring. It's like I've alreadytold everybody to start a blog,
I've already told everybodylike, you're gonna hear stuff
that everybody listen to theshows and be like, Oh, yep, I
already know what she's gonnasay, you know, and the thing is,

(58:50):
is like, but everybody needsthat. But there's a way we can
repackage it. You know what I'msaying? So it's not like, it's
the same topic. We talked aboutthe same exact things. I'm still
gonna say like, everybody needsa blog, you know. But the bottom
line is, is if we're loving whatwe're doing, it's okay that it
supports what feeds us, you knowwhat I mean? And has, we all

(59:11):
have to make money. And at theend of the day, you want loyal
listeners. So I'm hearing yousay, it's not about getting a
million people. Listen, it'sabout I want it to matter, the
people who are listening, I wantit to matter to them. And I and
they are in turn going to matterto me. And I'm going to have a
vested interest in what they'regetting out of my show. So if

(59:33):
you imagine that kind oflistener, they're going to want
to know what that next step is.You know what I'm saying? If you
have a podcast, so this is mydisconnect, and why I keep
bringing it up not to like, Ihope this totally makes sense to
you. But if you have a show, andit's completely disconnected to
everything else you're doing,there's always going to be this

(59:54):
little bit of a like, why willthis one cog won't catch, you
know, it's like we were runningand then everyone will see I'm
like, Ah, this isn't quitecatching. And it's weird when
there's a monetization piece. Solike, yeah, sometimes when
people come on my show, theybecome clients, but I don't
really want to say it becausethat sounds weird. I found a
sound like a sales guy and I wasin a hospital because I ended up

(01:00:17):
in a job like that. I don't wantto have flashbacks, you know.
And so, but we have to put ourdifferent hat on about like,
this is really about connectingwith people they know like and
trust you they want to knowlike, what do you recommend for
me now, you know, that kind ofthing. So. So that's why I feel
like, my first sense is to thinklike, I really would love to see

(01:00:40):
your show more connected to yourproject of helping people out of
stress. And it seems like thatcould be done in just a couple
of weeks. So that gets us intothe next phase. So before we do,
is there anything else that youwant to share with me? Before I
start more of what you just saw?We're talking about what I love

(01:01:01):
what you're doing in areas ofopportunity? Is there anything
else that you want to share?That maybe you feel like you
haven't gotten to articulateabout your show?

Professor Pete Alexander (01:01:08):
Sure. It's interesting that you said
about, oh, that it gets boringtalking about this or that? And,
you know, I've been asked thatabout my show where, you know,
you ask the same six questions.Isn't that boring? And, you
know, here's, here's the thingthat why it never got boring for
me. Because A, I knew that eachperson was going to answer it

(01:01:30):
differently. But be, I alwaysthought that this is going to be
the opportunity for me to make anew friend. And I would say that
of all the 310 because there'llbe one tomorrow 310 episodes
that I've done. The I would saythat probably, you know, 50% of

(01:01:55):
them were, you know, just good,good conversation, nice person
certainly would talk to themagain, in the future 15% of that
were at 65% were forgettable,and I never would would talk
with them again. And the other35% were people that I actually

(01:02:17):
call friends. And only because Ihad them on the show. And so
that kept it going for me whereI wouldn't get bored. Because
you know what? This is somebodynew that's talking about
something and I'm either goingto learn something or I'm going
and or I'm going to establish afriendship, we're going to have
a laugh together, whatever ithappens to be so so that that

(01:02:41):
that helped me to get my mindaround the fact that yeah, I'm
asking the same questions, buteach show is different.

Tiffany Youngren (01:02:51):
Absolutely. I love that. Well, and I'm such a
fan of relationships are firstwhen it comes to podcasting. And
one thing I've noticed with youas you're very focused on the
guest, so much so that likethat, it seems like that's your
first thought is like, whatabout the guests, the guests,
which is I guy after my ownheart, like I feel the same way.

(01:03:13):
You know, I've learned tobalance that, like there are
people listening that might beable to be helped, but, but
those relationships that webuild with guests are so
valuable. So I completely I lovewhat you just said, so. So with
that can't do have yourpermission to move into the next
phase. And we'll talk aboutokay, awesome, awesome. So
before I do, I always like tostart with the four P's of

(01:03:38):
podcasting. So, before the show,which we talked about the two
things, I promised one, I wouldbe prepared. And the other is
that I would give you oneactionable step that would get
you results in 30 days. So withthose recommendations, I just
feel like the four peas are soimportant because they they
interconnect and if one is notaddressed, then it affects all

(01:04:00):
the rest somehow. So sometimesit's okay and sometimes it's
not. Number one is to know yourpurpose, which is why we talked
about your y at the beginning,because it keeps us excited like
what we just saw you talkingabout talking to guests and
things like that. Number two isto know your people who are your
guests and who are your audiencei i started recently I started

(01:04:21):
saying like those are your twonew best friends, right? So I
always think of them as twopeople. They're faceless until I
actually have a guest and thenthey get to have these smiling
happy faces. But but but theguest, you know, we've got a
promise to them and then ouraudience and we need to have a
promise with them. So it's likethere's three of you and
everybody's super, superimportant. Number three is the

(01:04:43):
promotion. So getting it outthere. You don't want to be the
best kept secret, right? You'vegot this great show that nobody
knows about. We're not helpinganybody. And then also the
proceeds like whether it comesfrom being underwritten by a
business or whether you'remaking money on your show. The
fact of the matter is, is theThere's always some costs
involved. And as time, you know,I know for myself as I even if

(01:05:05):
I'm making, you know, we investin real estate, so if I'm the
one producing the show, but thenI'm not getting a multimillion
dollars, somehow the mathdoesn't work. And so it's like,
we have to understand that moneyplays a plays a part in this and
that with more of it, it buysmore time, it also buys more
promotion, because we're able todo more with that side of it.

(01:05:28):
So, so four P sound good. Anyquestions about that before we
go on? No. Okay, awesome. Ialways want to have that.
Honestly, I don't even think Isay that for anybody. But
myself, because I'm like, Okay,now remember, keep the main
thing, the main thing. Because Iget all I get all excited about,
about what I do. I know, it'samazing that I even brought up
that I ever don't look forwardto this part. I just love, I

(01:05:50):
just love this. So every podcastis different. And so you're
gonna hear about the blog,

you and you know, sharing that that
brings, you know, that littlebit of vulnerability is it just
makes you connect with youraudience more.

Well, thank you, thank you. And for all my
guests, I love you. Like I wouldsay probably there's like a 95%
that I could pick up the phoneand call any one of them. Like I
love I love my guests so much.So and I appreciate the time,
like I just value it so much.So. Okay, so first, we're going
to talk about three things,we're gonna talk about what I
feel you're really strong atwith your show, just some of

(01:06:25):
them, because there's a lot,there's things I'm gonna miss,
I'm sure. And then some areas ofopportunity, not all of them. In
fact, most of them just look atas just feedback someday, maybe.
And then I'm going to share onething that I think will have the
most impact with the leastamount of effort based on what
you're already doing, whereyou're already strong at some
good. Sounds good. So somethings, some of these things

(01:06:49):
will be repetitive, because I'vementioned it earlier. Number
one, I love that you asked forreferrals on your actual show.
So in the way that you do it isbeautiful, because you're like,
Hey, who do you think and you'lllike, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna
get the words exactly right. Butthis is my perspective of what I
heard. But and memory is, yousay something like, you know,
who do you think could you youknow, deserves a shout out and

(01:07:13):
could would be a good, you know,would be a good fit to be on our
show, or however you asked, Ijust love it. It just sounds so
it is thoughtful. It's like thisopportunity for that person to
come on. And do that. And I'mjust gonna be honest, again,
like one of them. I waslistening to their shorts, I got
to listen to more than I do mostof the time for the show. But
one of them clear pitch factory,like it was just constant like

(01:07:36):
my book, my book, my book, mybook, my book, but then it was
like, Okay, so who would youlike to give a shout out to and
it was, that was I liked I likedthat person the most at that
moment. Because it was like, allof a sudden, they were like,
giving right it was like all ofa sudden someone else. And so I
was like wow, not only did thatother person get a shout out,
you have a referral for yourshow. But you also just made

(01:07:59):
your guests look good. And Ifeel like as hosts. I mean, for
me, that's my number one thinglike, like I say, like, when I'm
coaching somebody on how to be agood host, like we have a group
called Toastmasters. And Ialways say like, it's our job to
make the guests to make the showrun. So if you're complaining
about the guests, usually it'ssomething we need to tweak. And

(01:08:20):
anyway, so I just love that Ithought, wow, that's brilliant.
You just made that guy lookgood. And he did not. Remember
what he was saying? I think Idon't know, I do a lot of times
I do it when I'm getting ready.And so I space out and think
about something else whenthey're just pitching too much.
So I love that. And then also Ilove that you do things subtly,
the fact that I had so manyquestions about what your

(01:08:41):
motives were behind a lot of thequestions, I think really speaks
to the fact that you weren'thitting people over the head,
like I am trying to reduce yourstress right now, you know,
because I almost feel like ifsomeone was like, Oh, this is
stress reduction. Okay, do you,you know, like, show me what you
got? Whereas the way that youdid it was like it literally was
like, wow, why are you askingthat? Let's let's jump on

(01:09:03):
question. So you have verythoughtful questions. So it's
not like you have sevenquestions you have it probably a
lot of it. I'm, I'm imposing myassumptions on you. But I'm
assuming it has to do with thefact you have a strong marketing
background, you have salesexperience, but also you truly
feel you've been in that spot.So um, and but the biggest thing

(01:09:25):
it shows is that you've done agood job of adjusting your
questions based on answers thatyou've gotten, so that you're
getting a more open endedquestion. So you're getting
different answers each timebecause I noticed that too, like
as I'm listening to your show,I'm like, wow, those are
different answers. So those arevery well constructed question.
So and then groups I alreadywent, I already you know, went

(01:09:48):
gooey about how awesome that wasthat you're doing a great job
with groups and consistency.That's the other thing like
you've stuck with it. You know,there's a couple things that
we're gonna talk about areas ofopportunity that is so unusual
that, in fact, I'll just say oneof the areas of opportunity that
I, that I think is just having amore clear what you want out of

(01:10:08):
your show. Like, I like that,you know, you want to meet
people. And, you know, one timeI interviewed when I was 19, I
interviewed for AmericanAirlines, they flew me out to
Dallas to do like a full oninterview to be a flight
attendant. And they literallytold every single one of us that
if you say that you want to be aflight attendant, because you
like people, or you want totravel, you will be sent home

(01:10:29):
immediately. Like, those are thetwo things like Get out right
now. And so I feel like,
I'm don't know where I was goingwith that. But number one is
just knowing you know why youwant to do it, don't just do it,
because oh, that's what I was,don't assume because you want to
get to know people. I mean, doit for that, but have another

(01:10:50):
reason, like have another onethat you're reaching a little
bit harder. Because if we don'tget a payoff, we quit. That's
the thing that I've done. Andthat's why I wanted to
transition into opportunities.Because when I'm hearing your
why, and then I look at over 300episodes, I'm like, wow, I don't
know how you did that. Like,that's amazing. You have, that's

(01:11:11):
why consistency made it to thatlist, and like, you just have
like, you just get stuff done.You know? I mean, does that make
sense? What I was just saying atall.

And it's and that's part of what
what I'm going to be looking atis figuring out what the true
purpose is that you know, sothat everything, everything is
aligned to that purpose. It'skind of like that North Star I
think is what I would call it,

and the payback. Like you need to know
what your payoff is, you know,you need in addition to wanting
to meet people, and, you know,scratching your itch to be in
broadcasting, what is it thatyour show is giving to you? And
that's not a selfish question.It's just a fact, like, we do
everything that we do, there's apayoff. And we just have to know

(01:11:56):
what that is. And why do youneed to know people on LinkedIn?
If it's not part of yourbusiness? You know what I mean?
Like, that was my big questionwas like, Yeah, but like, you
could do anything and, you know,so then what? Where do you take
them from there, and, and theywant that to from the
relationship that like, I mean,it's great to know you, but
what, what next, I trust you so.So again, I just challenge you

(01:12:18):
to really understand what yourshow is, what your payoff is,
from your show, as well. Andthen also, I would say,
especially since you're takingsome time, you're gonna be
looking at your why you're gonnabe looking at at these things,
is really lean into your story,if you feel comfortable to do so
like you have it on yourwebsite. And seven minutes is

(01:12:39):
hard, you can't really, youknow, do everything in the seven
minutes. But even if people justgot to see a little more of you
every episode, and maybe Ididn't listen to the right ones,
like maybe you've done that alot, and other episodes, but
from the ones that I waslistening to, I just didn't, I
didn't get a sense of the depthof where you're coming from. And

(01:13:00):
then when I learn, like what youwent through to bring this to
people, I'm like, oh, okay, nowI'm really ready to hear what
you have to say, you know, andso just kind of share a little,
I would just lean a little bitmore into your story if you're
comfortable doing so. And thenalso just a small thing is and
so this is like a super easything is it and again, maybe

(01:13:21):
this has to do with the ones Ilistened to. But when I listened
to Spotify, when I prep forshows, I also listened to Apple,
but for for this purpose, Ialways listened to Spotify. Just
make sure you've got those linksin the description. So as you're
doing the description, I lovethat you have a system a
systematic way to create yourdescription, but also include

(01:13:44):
the links, like, if you wouldlike to, you know, watch us on
because sometimes things show upon video that aren't on audio.
So even if, personally, I wouldalways link to your website,
because then I would say thenext step that I would say on
this areas of opportunity isthat optimizing your website for
a next step would be a bigthing. Because if people are

(01:14:06):
showing up to your websitebecause of content from your
podcast, you know you what's thenext thing like? Yes, there are
links, but you know how visualpeople are. So if someone wants
to watch you on YouTube, maybejust have an episode on there
that you just leave on. It'syour favorite one. It epitomizes
everything you're trying to do.Boom, that's the one that you

(01:14:27):
have on there. You don't have tochange it ever again. Or you can
although I'm going to talk aboutblog posts and then but that
adds work. So I don't know howviable it is. But so links in
description lean into your storynumber. Another thing would be
to win. I know you optimize yoursocial media for LinkedIn, and

(01:14:48):
now you're adding Instagram,which Instagram posts are so
different from everybody else.So it's awesome. You know, sort
of clearly there are twodifferent kinds of posts. You
know, if there's a way toautomate just pushing those
links Then posts out to otherthings. I mean, can you get more
out of social media? If youoptimize a Twitter post for
Twitter? Yes. However, gettingthe links out on to Twitter is

(01:15:11):
really valuable also, and ithelps with the SEO because
you've got those backlinks. Theother thing is like when I moved
to Billings, I moved to Billingsalmost 10 years ago, and nobody
was on Twitter. And I didcontent marketing. And I was
like, okay, so this is my secretsauce, you have a blog post. And
then you push little micropieces of the content out onto
the internet. And you say, Hey,if you want more of these tips,

(01:15:32):
and it was always like what yousaid, like the answers to the
questions, like you put themeaty stuff out on social, so
that you're like, hey, there'smore, and then you bring him
back. So, and I was always,like, all my clients were like,
we live in Billings, nobody's onTwitter, and, but I would show
him the data. And I'm like,people are clicking on your
links, like, that's what you'repaying me is getting people to

(01:15:52):
your website, and they're comingto your website. So even though
we're, it's probably less thanif you love Twitter, but you
don't love Twitter. So why doit. So just as one more thing,
if there was a way, you know,maybe a free subscription to
like one of those free socialmedia posting tools or
something, so you're doing theLinkedIn, and then you just push

(01:16:13):
it out to everything else, it'lltake a little bit of time, but,
and then also the audiencepromise. So we talked about,
like, knowing what you want outof your show, just being more
clear about, you know, you saidat the beginning, your show,
these are seven minutes long,because business people are
busy, we need to keep the timeshort, however, they still won't

(01:16:35):
put seven minutes into it, ifthey don't feel like it's
valuable. And while listeningthrough the whole seven minutes,
they're gonna get it, they'regonna be like, Okay, I did get
something out of it. However, ifyou don't give them a clear
audience promise at thebeginning, and what I mean by
that is, from the salesperspective, it's the same thing
where it's like, this is howthis might change, you know,
this is going to how your, yourday is gonna be changed. Like,

(01:16:58):
if you listen to my show for amonth, you're gonna have at
least, you know, five or six,easy to implement things, it's
just going to tweak your life,and it's going to improve what's
happening. But just somethingwhere they know, this is what
you're gonna get out of my show,by listening to it. And I'm
giving you so many big things,I'm not gonna I wouldn't even

(01:17:18):
say that. I mean, it is like, ifyou're thinking, since you're
thinking about things, I wouldjust add that to your plate, as
far as like, just know what youraudience is going to get out of
it, because that's your otherbest friend. And they deserve to
know how their next sevenminutes is gonna be spent. And
then also, just a small thing isjust training your guests to
focus on the audience. And Ithink as you're crafting your

(01:17:41):
audience promise, you're goingto be setting that example that
the audience is that third bestfriend. And so by talking to
your guest, and I wouldn't eventalk to him, it would be like,
you know, my email sequencegetting onto my show, like,
there's all these like, theseare ways that you can improve
your experience. And, you know,this is how to make the
opportunity better. That's justlike, if I had a problem with my

(01:18:05):
guest pitching, I would 100%have an email, in that email of
tips. And I think I actually dosay something about that, where
it's like, I'm gonna make youlook great. But you need to not
talk about your stuff till theend, like, so I don't know, I
would just craft some reallynice gentle way to be like, you

(01:18:25):
know, we all want you to, wewant people to want to look you
up afterwards. So part of thatis not pitching during the show.
But you know how to word thingsor something to that effect. And
then, yeah, yeah, so those arethe areas of opportunity. So I
haven't told you my if I wereBOSS OF THE WORLD thing yet, but

(01:18:47):
do you have any questions orcomments about that firehose
that I just pointed at? You

know, they're really good. And and
I've wrote down each one ofthem. I'm curious. So one of the
things that I did, you know, asyou were saying, like,
especially with like that lastone about no pitching that I'm
certainly going to edit there.But what I found was that and

(01:19:12):
what was recommended as Icontinued to further refine the
show, was one of the mostfrustrating things I found from
some guests, is that they reallylooked great. They were awesome
on the show. And then I publishit, and they don't even like or
share it, or comment, and I'mthinking to myself, Oh, my God,

(01:19:34):
you have lost the opportunity toengage with a new audience. And
it's, why did you bother takingthe time to do this? And so what
I did was, as part of mysequence, I added the fact that
you're, that they're going toagree to, you know, comment and

(01:19:55):
share and then I you know, I dofollow ups with the links to the
different channels and thingshow'd they do that? And that had
no effect on getting them toshare. So I'm curious with
asking, like, for example,guests know, pitching and stuff,
do you? Do you think thatthey'll actually read that,
because the people that I foundthat do the pitching are usually

(01:20:18):
the ones that have assistants.And that that that actually is
another thing that I found isbeen a red flag when an
assistant reaches out to me tobe on the show, I tend to be a
lot more I would say, a lot morechallenging to get on the show,

(01:20:45):
because I they have to prove tome that it's actually I'm going
to talk, you know, I'm going tobe interacting with them, and
not an assistant for most ofthis experience.

Yeah. Okay. So we're really getting into what
it's really like to be a host,right, where you're the one
paying for everything, you'rethe one taking all the time out,
you're doing all this researchon how to make this great show
hosts get on, and then theycomplain, because they don't get
to pitch their stuff enough.They're not shared enough. Like
there's this big tug of war,right back and forth. The

(01:21:16):
biggest thing that number onewith the whole promotion, I It's
a pet peeve of mine, too. But Ihave seen a lot of success from
number one. Number one, theyhave to feel like the value that
they're getting out of it isgreat. You know what I'm saying?
Like, for example, with the hotseat series, I would say that

(01:21:39):
the cross promotion from peoplethat have actually shocked me
that they promoted it, becauseI've been doing this a long
time. And usually nobodypromotes it. But now I'm
interviewing podcasters. So Ihad this expectation like, Oh,
they're gonna promote it more inthe beginning, no, not so much.
Unless they're really goodfriends of mine. And then then
of course, they would do it. Andprobably your 35% hopefully

more like, 50%

Okay, then that's really actually that's
statistically it's really good,but I'm like you, I'm like,
everybody should love this, likethis amazing, they get to get
all this great exposure. A lotof them especially when they
have assistants, they're on somany shows that I think it's
kind of back to the same as if apodcasters just pushing out
content, not promoting it, Ithink it's a similar kind of

(01:22:25):
approach. Uh, one thing that wedo, and it does take some extra
effort is that we have contentthat will give to them. So like,
we create cool graphics. So it'slike brilliant things that they
say, I actually have like adropbox folder that I create and
give him a shareable link to itis literally the content that I

(01:22:45):
share. So it's like, here's thecontent, you can share it will
share it. And you know, and thenand that's helped a lot. Do they
always do that? No. But becauseI've done that, they see that
all this, they're just it's theperception of value. It's
similar to when you build awebsite, and you have a lead
magnet, if you're going to askfor the email address and the

(01:23:06):
name and the phone number. Thatlead magnet that giveaway better
be really, really good, right?Of course, it's an even bigger
ask to say, hey, guest, couldyou share this like that's a you
know, if you imagine it in thelevels of cross promotion, get
someone giving you their emailaddress name, and phone number

(01:23:27):
on a website is a lighter askthan a hey, influencer, will you
please share or not influencedby influence or not like person
who's on who likes promotingthings? So I would just say
number, you know, number one iswhat level of value do they
perceive that they've gotten outof the show? Number two, you

(01:23:48):
know, giving them content helps.One thing that I've noticed too
is the longer that I waitbetween the time of the episode
and the time of the release, thelonger it is, the less likely
they are to share, too. Yeah,

I found that too. And I so I

unavoidable like, me. I'd love to do
everything for everybody all thetime. But unfortunately, we have
to make choices sometimes. Sobut it okay. And I will say too.
So I have, for the most partavoided being on other people's
shows, probably because of mywhole weirdness. Like I've just
weird. So I just get, like, Iagree to something. I try to say

(01:24:27):
yes. Because I know that thingsare good for me. And then, I
mean, I don't know how manytimes I've told my husband,
thank you for making me go tothat. Like, we go to a dinner
and I'm like, I don't want to goto that dinner. And then he
makes me go and then I'm like,Well, that was the funnest thing
I've ever done, and I can'tbelieve it. So that's just my
personality. I do it all thetime, every time. And so because
of that, I haven't been on a lotof people's shows. However, if

(01:24:49):
they ask me, I always say yes,but I typically don't go out and
be on other people's showsbecause I just am like, I've got
a system to get myself onpeople's shows but I just Don't
use it. However, I was on a showrecently. And they keep asking
me to promote it, which I wantto do. But I have number one not
seen it at all on any of theirstuff. So I don't have anything

(01:25:12):
to share. Number two, I have nomedia like, what am I supposed
to say? You know what I mean?And so that comes down to you
have successful people on yourshow, make it as easy as you
possibly can for them to share?If you tell them, I am going to
share this, will you pleaseclick Share? No, or, or even on

(01:25:33):
LinkedIn? All you got to do iscomment, you know, yeah, I would
I would just be saying you don'twant to share it fine. Could you
just comment on mine? When I tagyou, you know, and you because
you can't automate, automatetagging either on LinkedIn, you
have to like, that's a lot ofeffort. So I think,

Yeah, you would think that and that's
what it's really surprising me,because I actually have done
this. When I send them theconfirmation that everything has
been published. And pleaseshare, comment and share to
expand, you know, the reach, Igive them the links to it, and I
actually give them a nicegraphic.

Do you do? Do you do all of that at once?

I do it the day that it publishes?
Yeah.

Okay. So if if, if, if it's really important
that you get there in them doingsomething one time, I would be
like, Here's a graphic watch forit. I'm also going to do it
because you please comment,like, and then that's it? And
then if nothing, and then ofcourse, for me, I don't have
time. So I was built automationsfor all this stuff. But then it

(01:26:37):
would be the next sequence wouldbe like, hey, you know, this was
such a great episode, we're soexcited about, you know,
whatever, it actually wouldn'teven automate that, because I
want to say something for real.Like, this is really what I
loved about it. And then I wouldsay, could you please just go
comment on it. I know you'rebusy. But you know, because you
just, you know, that kind ofthing, where it's like, they

(01:26:58):
only have one thing to thinkabout. And if someone if someone
emailed me, I'm trying to evenjust thinking of the last show I
was on because it was like aproduced show. So it was
amazing. And I just thought, youknow, even now I'm thinking, you
know, if if they had sent mesomething first to say, hey,
we're gonna post it. Could youcomment? Also, here's a graphic,

(01:27:19):
I would have shared the graphic.And I would and I always
comment, if someone tags me init, I always comment, save it,
then. But then if I got anotheremail the next time that said,
Hey, could you just go commenton it? I would do it. Like, if I
had forgotten the guy, sometimesI forget. So I would see that as
a help. Versus a nag. You knowwhat I mean? So a lot of times
is we're sending emails to wehave to kind of release

(01:27:40):
ourselves from this thinkingthat we're nagging at people.
But really, we're trying to doit out of a helpfulness, because
it's going to help them to like,if they comment on LinkedIn that
shows up on their feed, it showsup on our feed, like, it looks
good for everybody. And theydon't have to do much. And so
they're busy. And so you couldstructure the email like that,
like, I know, you're super busy.And, you know, so I just thought

(01:28:02):
I'd help out and make this aseasy as possible. But you know,
it's going to show up on yourfeed, it'll show up on my feed,
it boosts both of our algorithm,you know, so. So I'm sure with
all the busyness it's probablyhard to see. And if you're doing
it manually, even just a link tothat post, even and just make
it. But when you're talkingabout busy people, and they make

(01:28:24):
the best guess I just would sayit's the more important that it
is to the more I be hands onmaking it one option, as easy as
possible. So they're not havingto make any decisions. Because
you think about it, especiallypeople who accomplish a lot.
They have to make decisions allthe time. And so the last thing
they want to do is like sobecause they're probably
thinking like, which do youwant, like do you want because

(01:28:46):
that's what I always think I'mlike, Well, do you want me to do
the graphic? Or do you? And thenI'm like, a confused mind says
no, so I go past the email, andyou know, so anyway, so that
those would be some ideas that Iwould say, would be helpful. Any
other questions or comments?

Oh, no. You answered me there. I
mean, take, you know, I never,never did that as a follow up. I
kind of just went with like,whatever.

Yeah. And then that's kind of the result you
get to because you do have 50%,which is really good. So I would
say if on your whatever phase,you're getting 50% It's really,
really good. But if you want toif you want to up that number, I
just know that that would be oneway to make it really also that
perception of value can commandrequirement that the principal

(01:29:37):
has to fill out the applicationso when you are on my show, what
does it say? It's like yourassistant can't fill this out.
Because you know what happens onthis show is assistant does it
and then they're like oh,hotseat what? And I'm like,
exactly, seriously, like, it'sbad enough that guests don't
listen to the show. But ifyou're literally going to not
even know what the format is,it's the most frustrating thing

(01:29:59):
that I run into. So it's like,clearly, there are a lot of good
assistants out there. So I'm nottrying to cast aspersions, but
it just drives me crazy. It'slike they should see. There's
just needs to be somecommunication, slow down people.
But anyway, so that does, thatdoes help. I have seen a much. I

(01:30:20):
mean, I get fewer applications,but but as podcasters part of
our job is to, I mean, it'sreally a way of self filtering,
right. So it's like, if they'retoo busy to even know what the
format is, I don't want them onmy show, you know, honestly,
and, and especially for youwhere it's like, you know,
you're doing this just out oflike a desire to do this, you

(01:30:41):
want to talk to these people youwant to meet him, I would just
say I give you permission, likejust doing once a week and not
have to mess with all thatthose, you know, that experience
of people not, you know, readingstuff or respecting what you're
doing. So? I don't know. Yeah,that's a good question.

It is, it is. And I think, you know,
it's, it's interesting, Istarted really filtering a lot
of the guests, and it helps. SoI've only, you know, in the last
couple of months, I've only hadone or two that I was like, but
so it is it's it's really goodfor that.

Excuse me. Awesome. Okay, so I'll share my
if I was Basa the world? Andwhat's the one thing that that I
would have? You do? Yeah, I tryto keep it to something where
you're kind of already doing it.But you know, here's something
that you can tweak, that wouldhelp, I would say that I'm just

(01:31:40):
kind of looking through thelist, because one of them that's
really, I think, really easy,would be leaning into your story
more, because you could foldthat in, just like you do with,
you know, wanting to have stressrelievers, and you're not really
saying it, I would just do itthat same way where you're like,
able to say something about,about your own story. And then.

(01:32:03):
But at the end of the day, Ithink the thing that's a little
bit, so that's the easy one, butI'm gonna give you also a little
bit of a harder one. And that isyour audience promise, I just
think that if you're just reallyclear, and the first because
you're good at just getting tothe point. And if part of that
point was a succinct explanationof like, Hey, you're here,
because you're a busyentrepreneur. And just a before

(01:32:27):
and after. So like, you know,you're probably stressed out,
you just need a good idea, butyou don't have a half an hour,
boom, this is what you're gonnaget, you know, so, but you do a
good job of explaining what theshow is. So that's not you know,
it's just a nuance again, so,but I think that the nuance is

(01:32:48):
going to just leaning it moretowards the audience and what
you're promising them versus howyou're gonna get there. Like, I
like that you say, hey, nobody'sgot that kind of time. But you
also want to use you know, tellthem that without telling them
that you're using it really,really well. Is that helpful?

It does. It's good. That's really,
really good. And, and such greatfeedback. I'd greatly appreciate
that. Yeah, yeah.

Well, awesome. Well, Pete, thanks again, so
much for being on the show.Before we go, though, I just
want everybody to know where tofind you. I know you've got your
website, petealexander.com. Andthen if they want to go right to
your podcast, slash podcast,where else can they find you?
And who do you think would bejust couldn't that would just
get the most out of your show?

Sure. So they can find me also on
LinkedIn, that's my primarysocial media. Professor Pete
Alexander. And it would it mostthe, the audience that would
most likely benefit from the,from the program are those that
are early in their careerstartup kind of thing with a
with a business that they'retrying to get off the ground or

(01:33:56):
early stages of it and and wantsome ideas on how to really
build that business more. Soprobably somebody in their I
would guess, late 20s, early30s.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, I know I've kept
you so long. I thought, man,we're gonna just nail this super
quick and it was a little biteven on the longer side. But
before we go, is there anythingelse that you'd like to add
before we wrap?

Sure, I would just remind everyone
who's listening, you know,whether you're a podcaster, you
know, business person or both,etc. Be very careful about your
health. Don't trade your healthfor your career or other
responsibilities, because that'sa very bad trade.

That is very good advice. Very good advice.
Well, hey, to everybody who'slistening, don't be average, be
brave, take action and makemagic happen. Thank you so much
for listening.

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