When Hustle Isn’t Sustainable, Systems Are

We share what worked and what didn’t while prepping and hosting a trade show, plus why we shipped a flawed audio episode to keep momentum. We dig into pay-per-appointment cold calling, LinkedIn access risks, and how to scale outreach without burning trust.

• choosing cadence over perfect audio to keep growth
• trade show highlights and why paying for setup wins
• real-world barter value from fridges to golf balls
• new member sign-up via event proof and energy
• testing pay-per-appointment cold callers with SLAs
• guarding brand by avoiding shared logins on LinkedIn
• list hygiene and auditing activity for quality control
• building resilience with flexible part-time teaching
• stacking systems to reduce grind and increase leverage
• voice acting cameo in a new beta video game

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Thanks for listening to The Trading Post Podcast!

Find all our important links— https://linktr.ee/traderstu

This episode of The Trading Post is proudly sponsored by Press X 2 Play Games, Metro Trading Association, and the Michigan Renaissance Festival. Exciting news—I’m featured as The Trader at the Trading Post in Press X 2 Play’s upcoming video game! Learn more about Press X 2 Play at pressx2play.games, discover how Metro Trading Association helps businesses grow through barter and trade, and explore the magic of the Michigan Renaissance Festival.

Questions or guest suggestions? Email us at [e-mail]

“Whistles In The West” was written, recorded, and produced by Durracell, exclusively for use with Trader Stu’s platform.
The track is protected under U.S. Copyright (filed and registered), and rights to use have been granted specifically to Trader Stu for content and promotional use related to his brand and media presence.
For additional licensing, custom audio, or to inquire about future collaborations and performances, contact:
📧 [e-mail]
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© 2025 The Trading Post Podcast. All rights reserved.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to the Trading Post Podcast, where
we unlock the secrets ofbusiness-to-business trade, dive
into powerful networkingstrategies, and share my
exciting journey of using apodcast to market my business
instead of relying on SEO.
I'm your host, Trader Stew.

(00:24):
Hello everyone, and welcome backto the Trading Post.
I am your host, of course,TraderStu.
And it's been, I was trying tolook, I didn't even bother
opening a computer right now.
I think it's been a week or two,I think two weeks since my last
upload.
And it was an unintentionalhiatus.
We had our trade show this lastweek, actually, on the 15th.

(00:46):
And it it takes a lot to get itready.
So everything else got pushedaside, including, you know, of
course, uploading podcasts,because the whole point of the
podcast is to help assist thebusiness, not to be the
business, of course.
So and then I also noticed thatthe I think it was the last
upload I did for all of y'allout there that are looking to

(01:09):
utilize podcasting for yourbusiness to advertise and
promote it and uh things likethat.
I noticed that the audio wasless than desirable.
And that was because I up Iuploaded or you I used my mic at
my office and it's attached tomy laptop.

(01:29):
The I reason why I do that isbecause the mic has a pop filter
on it, the pop screen, it hasthe phone housing on it, it's
got an audio vox, whatever likethat.
Awesome, you know, USB mic.
Here's the problem is that whenI was using it, I didn't check
to make sure that the input wasthat mic and not the laptop

(01:50):
microphone, which of coursesucks.
So I used digital enhancement totry and make it listenable, and
I noticed that it sounded prettyokay, like on my phone or my
laptop, whatever when I playedit back, but when I when I tried
the the car or uh evenheadphones, whatever like that,

(02:12):
it it sounded tinny.
And so sorry about that.
It goes to one of those thingsto where do you re-record a
20-30 minute, you know, spiel,or do you just rock it and
satisfy the algorithm by notbeing late and doing the one

(02:33):
week, you know, per or one auditupload per week to you know keep
the algorithm alive for you.
So I don't know, catch 22.
It's not like I have millions oflisteners, right?
It's not like that.
So I have dozens or whatever youwant to call it, hundreds, I
guess.
But yeah, it's it's I don'tknow.

(02:54):
I'm gonna I might do it again ormight not, I guess.
It's one of those things.
Anyway, keep that in mind.
If you screw up, you got to makea decision call.
I didn't have time or the desireor need or want to upload again.
I didn't I was like I said I wasgetting ready for the trade
show.
So it was either I upload it orI get nothing at all for almost

(03:14):
a month, you know.
I mean, so you just have to makethat kind of decision.
Anyway, what else is going on?
Ah, yes.
So the trade show.
I was actually gonna make anupload uh at the trade show and
go around and intervieweverybody, but you know, when
you're a host of something likethat, you get pulled in about a
dozen different angles, and Ijust didn't have time to go out

(03:35):
and grab a microphone and goaround booth-booth and start
talking to people.
So I in my head it sounded coolall the way up until the point
to where I didn't even have timeto sit at my designated station
and do the registration foreverybody that came in.
I was actually just runningaround and and you know, I was I

(03:55):
had a lot of my members thatshowed up, so it was nice.
I had to talk to everybody, seeeverybody, and I liked it.
I mean, it was at a great time.
This was the best year for meever to do the trade show.
I've done probably half dozen orso, and including when I was
here before.
And I gotta tell you, paying forthings to get done is the way to

(04:17):
go.
Like this year, we paid for pipeand drape to get be put up by
one of our new members, and Iactually brought them on for the
trade show.
And wow, that saved like sixhours of work or something like
that, and a lot of labor and alot of setup and a lot of
decisions that didn't have to bemade.
So some things are worth payingfor.
What else?
Uh oh, you know, the trade showis nice too, is that I always

(04:42):
say I had a new sign-up show up,and uh actually she signed up at
the show.
It was a referral, and it's alot of excitement.
So people don't reallyunderstand trade or you know
what it how benefit the benefitof it.
So until they go to maybe anevent like that, and then you
get to see how people you knowbuy and sell their trade, right?

(05:07):
So we had everything fromrefrigerators there, like$2,500
refrigerators.
I helped a guy carry in all theway to golf balls, you know, for
a couple bucks a ball, whatever.
He it's a cool uh he doesre-what do you call it, like
rein reinstatement orrefurbished, refurbished golf
balls where they find them inponds, you know, and they clean

(05:27):
them up and then resell them.
So they might have only been hitmaybe one time.
Actually, probably that ismostly the case because they all
looked brand new to me.
But yeah, absolute golf.
And uh what else?
Oh, yeah.
So the what was gonna say?
Ah, I forgot, doesn't matter.

(05:47):
Oh, this week is starts mytraining for substitute
teaching.
I'm gonna do part-time.
And the reason I'm doing that isbecause with all the crap that's
going on in the world today, Iit's called CYA, right?
The one thing that didn't shutdown, or I guess several things
that didn't shut down during thelast shutdown, was schools.

(06:08):
So I figure being a substituteteacher gives me the
flexibility.
I can make my own schedule, Ican work when I want, whatever.
You know what, you know, I guessthat's three different ways of
saying the same thing, but it'salso kind of different anyway.
And so yeah, I don't plan ondoing it in full time,
obviously, because I still amgonna be here at Metro Trade.
And that leads me down the otherrabbit hole that I'm going down,

(06:31):
and that's trying to interviewpeople to do my cold calling for
me.
I plan on paying, I guess, outof my own pocket to have my cold
calls done for me, myappointment setting.
So I'd ideally like a personthat'll sit here and crank out
some phone calls for me and setappointments.
Now, I happened upon Fiverr lastweek and then let kind of the

(06:57):
request brew over the weekend.
And I had two or three real goodcandidates to where I can
probably pay somebody, one guywas$75 per appointment set,
which you know satisfied the howdo you make sure they're
working?
So me, me and the owner weretalking about this, and she's
like, How do you how do yougauge?

(07:17):
How do you tell that they'reworking?
Do they send your reports?
So, how do you know you're notjust smoking your money, you
know, every week, and thenthey're just gonna sit there in
Bangladesh or Pakistan orwhatever and just take your
money and not do anything aboutit.
So I like the whole, I don't getpaid until they set a solid
appointment.
So, and that's a great way to doit because if I call them and

(07:39):
say, hey, I had my appointmentsetter guy, you know, say you're
expecting my call, and then ifthey tell me I don't know what
you're talking about, or no, Ididn't, you know, so now you
know that that was a garbageappointment set, and that
they're probably not a goodperson to keep paying, which is
cool because you can stop payingthem without the pay
unemployment, of course, becausethey're a contractor.

(08:00):
Beautiful thing.
And the other one was they payyou have to supply them a cold
call list, and they make about110 to 150 calls a day, which if
you don't know anything aboutcold calling, that is cranking,
man.
That is hustling, dude.

(08:20):
So 40 a day, maybe is what I do,right?
40 is solid, dude.
That's a good including lunchand all that other crap.
It's that's uh it fills your dayup, and so I would say it's
worth it if they're settingappointments for you, though.
You know, I mean it's one ofthose things you gotta try it

(08:41):
and before you have to buy it,and you can't test it other any
other way.
So the only thing I don't likeis I had two fellows say that
they won't do cold calling, butthey will do appointment setting
for me over LinkedIn.
And what was the other one?
WhatsApp or what or Snapchat?
I don't know how that's gonnawork, but you know, they want my

(09:03):
login for for Salesforce.
I'm like, no, that just soundslike fishy and sketchy.
And I'm gonna give some guy inBangladesh my login for LinkedIn
and then spam people for me outof my account with my name and
logo on it.
That just is a that's not a goodidea.
I I don't think.
Has anybody ever done thatbefore?

(09:24):
If you've done that, let meknow.
Like, you know, comment or or orsend me a direct message or
whatever, because it's I don't Ijust don't know.
I I think the only thing thatmight that might work for that
if is if I did sales navigatorand then made them a rep, maybe
I'm not sure how that would workeither.
But I don't know.

(09:46):
The the thing is is I'm alreadydoing that.
I'm already doing appointmentsetting, I guess, through
messages, you know, or whatever.
I I don't know, it's so hard todo because it's like do you pay
someone to do your dirty workfor you, so to speak, and then
hope that it's kind of thosethings that you hope they don't

(10:07):
recall your current members andoffend people that are already
members because there's no wayfor them to know.
They don't know unless you getunless you find some way to
scrub a list that like maybe AIcould go through all the members
in MetroTrade and then make surethat they're not recalled again.

unknown (10:28):
I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_00 (10:30):
It's just one of those things where it's been
over a year since I've beenback, and the grind, the hustle,
and the the daily co-calling islike not, it's just not
sustainable.
So, but I love the job.
Like I like being a part-timebroker.
I like the job because I'm apart-time broker, part-time
sales rep, part-time salesmanager, part-time marketing,

(10:50):
part-time social media manager,part-time networker, part-time
god, I don't know, errands, kindof like errand boy.
I do accounts receivable.
It's fun.
Like it's a I'm a jack of alltrades, and I I have to have
that in a job.
Like, that's cool.
That works for me.

(11:11):
But the uh the cold calling'sgotta, something's gotta happen
with that.
That's all.
I mean, that's it.
I mean, and I can might be ableto like get that done for me,
you know.
I mean, so that's cool too.
But what else?
I think that's pretty much it.
I'm not gonna like keep itdragging on just to make to fill
time because you know it's beena hot minute, but I just want to
like kind of check in.
I don't know, am I still uhsponsored by Michigan

(11:34):
Renaissance Festival if they'reno longer open?
I don't know how that works.
I would probably say not,because the contract was to
mention them every time, youknow, every for every weekend,
but now that they're closed,because it's the end of the
season, I think that's up.
But anyway, thanks to MetroTrading Association for enabling
me to do this.
And uh what else?

(11:55):
Press X to play.
I just talked with the owner,and she said that the get
prepped game is up and run, notup and running, but like they
have their first beta testrelease for the video game I'm
gonna be in.
My voices are done, and uh yeah,so I'm excited to see what I
look like and how I act and talkand all that stuff in a video

(12:16):
game, and be definitely buyingit when it gets released.
I mean, why not?
And I've always wanted to be ina video game, I thought it'd be
so cool.
So, yeah, check out the tradingpost, the trader.
I'm the trader, of course.
And yeah, so that's it.
All right, we'll see you nexttime.
Be good or be good at it.