SFR 60: How I Create My Podcast - Power Of Publishing Pt. 1

"Steve, how do you come up with content?" Well, here it is!

Hey what's going on everyone. This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to a special segment of sales funnel radio. Now, a lot of you have asked, "Hey Steven how do I set up a podcast? or how to publish or how do you come up with things to say every single time? How do you get consistent with this? What's your routine? What kind of mic do you use? How do what to say? How do how you should say it?" and all those different aspects. And I'm excited for this episode.

I think you guys are gonna enjoy it because I've had a lot of questions and I'm going to drop some answers here.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

All right you guys are really, really excited for this. Now, right off the bat I'll tell you, this episode, I'm calling it the power of publishing and I'm going to ... I've talked about this before in the past. I've talked about how publishing is power. It helps you with so many things but I don't want to think is ... My podcast is growing like crazy. It's definitely not the top podcast out there. I know it's not. But my podcast is really only 10 months old. I mean, really?

Maybe, actually, not even that. The first month I had, I think, 1,100 downloads and it was all organic. 1,100 downloads than 1,400 downloads, then went to 3,000 and 4,000 then jumped up to 5,000 in a month, and then it did this massive spike and went to 8,000 a month and over 9,000. And we're not even halfway through this month as it is, and I can tell we're going to blow past this previous month as well. And it's been a lot of fun.

And so please don't think that I'm saying, "Oh my gosh. I am the expert. I'm the guru." But I have figured out a few things of how sales works and it's been working for me, it's working great.

So, and the followings been exploding and you guys have been great.

So, I want to show you guys, and beg you and urge you that in your personal business, and in the things that you're doing, whether it's a business or you just feel a need to podcast, or publish, or whatever, video, audio, anything, written. I don't really like to write that much unless it's a sales letter, or sales copy. But some people like that. Whatever it is, choose some kind of platform and just stick to it. The weirdest things begin to happen, the coolest things begin to happen. You become an authority figure you become somebody ... You start to build a tribe.

I think one of the coolest aspects of this, and why I've enjoyed it so much is because I have perfected my own craft far more. And selfishly, it's one of the major reasons I wanted to do the podcast in the first place. And it's worked. Holy crap, it's worked.

It's worked really, really well. I helped do the fulfillment for Russell Brunson's Two Comma Club Coaching program, and once a week for about four hours every week we jump on and I do a four hour Q&A call, and we dive into people's businesses and help them create products that will ... We're trying to them make a million dollars with that product. And it's really cool. Super unique offer.

But after six or seven times, I turned to Russell and I was like, "Dude one of the coolest aspects of this is that I'm getting better at my own craft. I already knew the material but the depth and how it fits, and all these extra scenarios is just so amazing." And he's like, "Yeah, it's one of the coolest reasons."

And it's funny because I remember way back in the day, it's probably what? Two years ago, three years ago, I decided I knew I needed to start publishing but I did not want to do it. There was so much mental ... huge mental block for me in publishing because it was like "What do I come up with every single time I do it? How often do I do it? How does it work? How does the tech work? What do I say? How do I say it?"

And those are all the big questions that I had and I've got a lot of those questions recently from you. So I'm excited for this episode and how to do it. It's funny, one lady reached out to me shortly after I started this podcast, and she was like, "Stephen were you a radio announcer?"

And I was like, "No." She's like, "It sounds like you got a radio style voice. I expect to hear your kind of voice on the radio." And I was like, "Aw, I appreciate that." She's like, "Keep going with that. That's awesome."

That's one of the first little wins that I had. It was shortly after I started the podcast and it kept me going, and I'm like, "Oh my gosh. it's so cool." But even before I started this, I had a periscope channel. A lot of you guys probably don't know that about me. I had a periscope channel.

I was following Russell Brunson. He had no idea who I was and we were ridiculously poor, and it was ... This was a story I was not planning on telling you guys. But I was in a period of college where I was in the middle of my marketing degree and the things that I was learning on my own was dancing circles around what I was learning in my marketing degree. I was learning from guys like Russell. I was learning from guys like ... all over the place. Ryan Levac, Jeff Walker, all over the place, all these people and I was doing it. I wasn't just learning it.

Some of my clients were like Paul Mitchell. Some of his hair schools, a billion dollar company really, really ... It's awesome stuff, really unique for a college student and I totally get that. And all along I kept hearing Russell say, "You got to start publishing. Got to start publishing." That's what he was saying when he would publish. And I was like, "I don't want to do that. That's crap. No, I don't want to do that. You know what? I'll do it ... I know better."

That was kind of the attitude I had, a little bit. And one day I was like, "Fine. The dude said to do it. I'm going to start publishing regularly." And so what it did is I took out my phone and I didn't even know what I was going to say. I just hit go, and I planned out some stuff, I put some things together as far as like the look in the feel. And I was looking at graphics, and I was heavily into ...

I never did any sports in high school or anything like that.

I was always in theater. I was on stage a lot. Actually, you guys probably don't know this about me either, I sang a lot, from 4th grade all the way through halfway through college, I sang a lot.

And so I took the lead in a lot of musicals and stuff like that, a lot of stage time, and I was a head editor for yearbook, doing a lot of layout design, and got a lot of Colorado state awards for my layouts designs and things like that. It was really, really fun, super cool. I enjoyed what I did, I do regret that I didn't do a sport.

But, honestly, it's really helped with all the things I've been doing, though. And fast forward, when it came time for me to actually start publishing, I was scared to death. And I had to lean on a lot of the other talents I had developed over the time to try and deliver stuff that's interesting that people could listen to. And you've probably thought that.

And if you're listening to this podcast right now, you've probably thought that before, you're like, "Aw, I should probably podcast," you know what I mean?

So one of the things I love is it just helps you get more and more clear on your craft itself. The inner action is insane. And honestly, as I was reading, I was just writing out a list of the benefits of publishing frequently. And really, though, what it boiled down to, was two separate things. And I guarantee you will always need these things, you are never done with them.

And the first thing that you need, is that you've got to find your voice. You have to find your voice. I remember, it's so funny, it was probably like two or three months ago, I was listening back to some of my first episodes ever on this podcast, and I was like, "Ugh." Like, "Ugh, crap, that's what I sounded like? Gosh. That was not a good story," or whatever.

And I leaned over to Russell, I was like, "Dude, I think I'm gonna delete the first few episodes of my podcast, they're not very good." And very seldomly does Russell turn with this level of fervor. And he turned to me, I still remember this, and he goes, "No!" He goes, "Don't delete it!" He's like, "That is part of your story! You need to leave it on there, that's part of your journey, man. People want to know that about you, that oh my gosh, he didn't turn out with this, whatever- he wasn't born perfect, he wasn't born in a suit! And you become real, and you become vulnerable."

And I was like, "Okay, that makes sense, that makes sense." And super helpful. So that's the number one true benefit, I believe, of publishing frequently, is that you find your voice. You figure out your own personality, you get really, really comfortable with who you are and what you say and how you say it.

And the stories you tell, and the analogies and the principles behind there. And the way you start and the way you end and the way you address your audience, the way they interact with you back and forth. It is so incredibly important because in the future, when you decide you need to go sell something, you know how to do it, and they have heard you do it before, right? They've heard your voice, it's not new. You get past the croc brain easier, you know?

All right, so that's number one. Second thing is distribution, you create a following. And like I said, it's really, really fun. This podcast now is at a time where the moment I publish it, within the first day or two, there are already four or 500 people who have downloaded it.

And I know that's not huge or whatever, but it's not ... It's not small either, and I know it's growing a lot and it's been a lot of fun too, so super cool.

So to me, when I think about publishing and I think about specifically podcasting, for me. It has become this therapeutic thing, I didn't want to do it and several years ago I went to Russell's Funnel Hacking Live event and he was like, "You gotta publish, you gotta publish, start a podcast, start publishing."

And I was like, "I don't want to! I'm not gonna do it!" And then I was like, "Fine. Gah. I guess he has more money than I do, I should probably listen to him." And I got really, "Fine, whatever, I'm gonna do it." And it was almost out of annoyance, I was like, "Gah, let me put this podcast together, freaking thing." And I put it together and I was like, "Crap, what do I do? How do I actually execute something, how do I execute publishing in general, let alone a podcast?"

I remember, I just started thinking of stories, I was like, "Okay, what does every publisher, someone who regularly publishes, what's a blog post? Okay, usually there's a story and there's some kind of principle in there. Okay, I'll kind of follow that format." And then it got more and more in-depth, and more and more in depth, and what I put into the podcast and how I structured them. And sometimes they're just ad lib.

I know there's stuff on my mind and I've got to get it out. And sometimes they're more for me than it is for you, and then other times I plan the whole thing out and I get it going.

Like, this episode right here, it's a full page of notes, I've got a lot of cool tips for you guys on how to publish podcasts and publish in general and I'm excited to jump into it here, it's taking a little bit. What's funny though is that I was so nervous, this is going to happen to you. If you've not ever published before, it's going to happen to you.

I was so scared that what I was going to put out there wasn't good enough, that I confused action with success. I confused action with progress, and so what I did is, I must have had 13, 14 episodes done and ready and still, I had not launched the podcast.

There was that much mental angst for me, I was just like, "Am I good enough, is this good enough? I think these are really good, what I'm saying in there is real, maybe my delivery is not polished enough yet, maybe I'm not the best at it yet, but I know this thing right here works, I should talk about it here on a podcast."

But I was so afraid, I wouldn't launch it for a really long time. I remember, I think there was two dates I set. I was like, "Okay. Okay, coming up, I'm gonna launch this podcast, it's gonna be awesome, it's gonna be so good. Okay, here's the date, I'm gonna do it on this date, here it comes, " and I had to psych myself up about it.

And the date came, and here it was ... and the date went. And the date left, and I didn't launch the podcast. I was like, "Okay, this is ridiculous, why am I so scared. What am I going to do, what am I going to say, so what, okay. Okay."

And then I went and then published the podcast and I put three of them out at once because iTunes cares how many episodes people are listening to, and so if someone listens to the first episode and they like it and there's not a second one for them to listen to, you're already shoot yourself in the foot, right?

And so I was like, "Okay, I'm going to launch with three episodes. I'll tell a story. You know what, honestly? I don't know that I'm good enough, and so what I'm gonna do is I'm just going to go interview other people." And that's what I did.

And I lined up, I think it was probably nine interviews. So if you listen to the first 20 episodes of the podcast, about eight or nine of them are interviews. And I thought, "You know what-" And this is not true at all, every single one of you have got something that is awesome inside of you that can bless somebody else's life, I'm telling you that that belief that I had before, that I had nothing of value to give, was false.

And it's false for you, if you believe that. It's not true. You have something that is worth to humanity, okay, to your market. And I'm so sad that I had that belief and I didn't launch it with more gusto, but it was just something I had to get over internally.

What I did is I just started interviewing other people around the subject of sales funnels. That is literally why I did those interviews in the beginning of this podcast. And some of you guys have asked, "Okay, well Stephen, why haven't you done interviews since?"

Well what was funny is when I started learning the pattern of how to publish and how to put value in the marketplace, and how to pull people together, and how to speak, and how to have confidence and all that stuff. I always reference this, but Robert Kiyosaki says, and it's always stuck with me, "The moment you move down the path of entrepreneurship, your character flaws blow up in your face."

Well, it's no different for any kind of publishing either. And I had to get over myself, you know. I went and I launched all these different episodes, and I was like, "Wow. Sweet. People are liking it, that's really cool."

And iTunes has 42 days for you to get on the new and noteworthy section, and I was like, "Cool, let me get out there." And there's a few people that say if you don't hit new and noteworthy section, that you should just abandon the podcast and I do not agree with that.

Now, it depends on the podcast and the purpose of the podcast. For me, this is me sharing with you tricks and tips that I am using to build cool sales funnels. I've built over 170 of them in the last year alone, working for Russell Brunson. And I have my own clients and I kind of left that path so I could focus on you guys with this podcast and specifically working with click funnels and with Russell Brunson as his funnel builder.

But before that, before I ever worked for Russel, before any of the others, I had my own clientele and it was awesome and that's how I broke into the industry. That's the purpose for this podcast, and so I don't think that by you missing new and noteworthy section that you should abandon the entire project.

I think you're still going to find the voice, you're still going to create a distribution channel, you're still going to go and make your own craft more perfect by you learning how to teach it and coach other people through it.

What I wanted to jump into here real quick now ... So all I was trying to say in the past, is just have some courage with it and just know you will always have haters no matter what. I am blown away at the number of people who take the time out of their freaking day to come tell me that they didn't like something I did. And I was like, "What on earth?" You've just got to be prepared, okay?

Here's the metrics, okay? Ten percent of your following are going to be slimy thieves who just take crap from you and never want to pay for anything and think that you owe them everything, that's just how it works. Just plan on that when you start in any entrepreneurship, 10% of them are going to be the slime balls.

And I don't care calling them out that way because I put a lot of sweat and tears- not tears, they're man-tears, right? But I put a lot of time and a lot of effort into things that I produce and I know that they're good. And if someone comes to me and says, "Hey, that's not good, I think I should steal it."

Russell told me once, "If people are willing to steal your stuff, it means that you did it right because there's so much desire to have it." And I was like, "Okay. All right, 10%, you dirtbags, go take it," you know what I mean? You just need to know, when you start publishing, people are going to steal your crap. So that's one of the metrics.

The other metric is that 10% of your following is going to become your raving fans. They're going to share your stuff, they're going to go on Facebook when you post things and they're going to re-share them and post them.

They're going to talk about you, they're going to do shout-outs, they're going to go and they're going to say, "Oh my gosh, Stephen, that was amazing, I absolutely loved what you did, this last thing helped me here, here, and here." And it is fuel. And you've got to learn to love that, and you've got to learn to attach yourself to it.

It's such a good feeling, it's so cool...

It's fun to know and legitimately know that there are people's lives that have changed because I started this podcast. And it's going to be the same exact thing for you when you decide to consistently start publishing, on no matter what. And as long as you're consistent with it and you are honestly trying to solve legitimate problems and help people out, it's going to be a great experience. It's this side benefit I was just not expecting, to be honest.

And there's just been times that I just fall asleep at night, I'm just like, "Oh my gosh ... man. That last episode was so good." And sure enough, people will come reach out to you and they'll be like, "Oh man, that was so sweet! Thanks so much, that helped a lot, it helped me do X, Y, and Z."

And it's this cool community that you have the ability to create as the entrepreneur and the marketer and the leader and guru or whatever. And it's very, very exciting.

Anyway. I was not meaning on having this be a rant of what it's been so far. My notes are completely different on what it is that I'm talking to you guys about right now, but it's all these side things that just have been really, really fun as I've learned how to do all this stuff, and it's been a lot of fun.

So with that, let me jump in here real quick to a few quick things. I usually try and keep my podcasts no longer than thirty minutes, which to some people is way too long, but eh, whatever, it' my style, you know what I mean? You can choose your own.

The biggest question that I get from people is, "Hey, Stephen, how on earth-" and I'm not trying to pat myself on the back, but they'll say, "Hey, you've got great content, how do you come up with it all the time." Have you ever felt that way? I'm sure you have, especially if you listen to this podcast, my podcast is all about how to sell stuff. And teaching how we are doing it, how I'm doing it. Part of that is marketing, and what's marketing?

Marketing is education and belief re-building.

That's basically it...

You're basically re-building belief patterns by educating.

That's what marketing is, that's what sales is in the long run, and so I'm sure you've had that kind of question.

So what I do to actually come up with my podcasts, or come up with any kind of content creation piece, whether it's an email or whatever, is I'll sit back and I've got to get passionate about something. And I've got to collect my thoughts. And what I do is I go back and I think of, it's either a story or an experience or some ridiculous tip that has really helped or increased the bottom line or whatever, increased conversions or something like that.

And the trick is that I've got to get myself in the same state that I was in when I had that story happen to me. Or when I experienced that tip.

And what I have to do, is I need to covey enough emotion and I need to dive into the feeling and I need to dive into enough of what was going on around me when I'm telling the story, that you start to get in the same state that I was in when I experienced it.

Russell literally calls this the "epiphany bridge." If you've ever read the book Expert Secrets, you know exactly what I'm talking about, it's one of the best books on how to sell that I've ever read in my life. And I'm not just saying that because I work there, it's true. I have two huge bookshelves next to me, just full of marketing books. And I've read and I've studied like crazy for someone my age and I know that, it's not normal, and it's still is one of the best books I've ever read in my life.

Anyway. So what I do is I literally think through, "I've got to come up with, number one: an epiphany bridge. I've got to come up with a story." So number one, the epiphany bridge/story, you know, what's the story? And then what's the lesson that is attached to that.

And then what I do is I sit down and the first thing that I do on the podcast is I try to tell the story first. I tell the story first, because I don't want to come right out of the gate and go, "Did you know you can increase conversion rates by changing your buttons from orange to red?" That's not true. But, you know what I mean? If I jumped right out the gate and I started telling you all this tech stuff, it's going to be really freaking annoying.

And so what I do is I've got to tell a story, there's got to be pattern interrupt, there's got to be things that I do. Every once in a while, I start the episode, I yell. And I get really, really loud and I get intense. And that's literally the entire reason why, is because I need a pattern interrupt, I need you to know that this is not like what's happened the rest of your day.

You know what I mean?

And so I think through a story, I think through some kind of pattern interrupt, certainly the main lesson or nugget. But if I just come out and tell you the nugget ... Everyone thinks that, "Oh, just give me the bullet points, just give me the main ideas." And I'm not like that. "I wish that you'd just give me the main point and I'll just walk away."

Okay, but everyone I ever just give the main points to, they never go do a dang thing with it. It's- story is powerful. You have to hear the story, it's part of the medicine, okay? It's like the spoon that holds the medicine.

The story is super important to the whole thing. I come up with a story, like I said, some kind of lesson with it, and a hook or some pattern interrupt whether it's the headline or whatever it is. And that's kind of it, honestly.

When my podcast started out, I had a few episodes, they were only like seven, eight minutes because I didn't know what else to say. But what I do is, as I'm reading books, and as I'm going through courses and as I'm studying other marketers and I'm sitting next to these brilliant minds- I will have my ear always perched towards what I could say in the podcast. That doesn't mean I steal idea, but if there's something that's applicable that I know you guys could benefit from, I sit down and I write it down.

I've got a big, big, big list of lessons just from Russell because I sit there next to him. And it's a huge list that I call Brunson-isms, and there's just tons and tons of these different lessons, that- he'll say stuff when he's on another interview, and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, that was amazing," and I'll write it down. I don't always use it, but sometimes they'll pop up and float into my head in the middle of a podcast episode, or while I'm on an interview with someone else on their podcast, or whatever it is.

And super, super fun, I really enjoy that a lot.

So that's how I come up with the episodes, I hope that helps. The easiest way to do it is for you ... This is one of my rules. One of my rules, as you guys are going around and you're studying marketing and you're trying to learn how to sell you product and you're doing all this stuff. One of the biggest rules that has changed my life, and I started it about 10 years ago, okay?

Wait ... when was it ... yeah, 10 years ago, it was 10 years ago, I remember it to the date.

There was a guy who was mentoring me, and I was trying to make some changes in my life and all the things I was doing, and he said, "You know what you need to do." He said, "Every time you learn something," now keep in mind, this guy changed my life, I'm fully convinced.

And it's a story for another time, but he saved my life. And there was a time, I was just trying to make changes in my life, I didn't like how I was living, I was trying to fix a whole bunch of stuff in my life, and he kind of was this heavy hand. He was kind of a hammer with a pillow around it, he was blunt, he was extremely forward with me.

But what he did is he would sit me down, he would say ... You guys know I'm religious, okay. And so what he would do is he would sit me down and he would make me read scripture out loud and he made me put a shirt and tie on. And he was a strength trainer for the Denver Broncos football team. Big, big, big dude, this guy was massive, and he would put a thousand pounds on his back and carry it until his nose bled, that's not a joke.

He just won the strongest man competition for his weight class in America, ridiculously strong man. And I was super fortunate to have him as a mentor for things other than hi physical training, which was really, really cool.

And this is the lesson he taught me that's changed my life forever, and is one of the reasons why I'm able to, I think, come up with what I think are pretty good episodes for this podcast. He said, "Here's the rule. Learn for two." That's it. That's the secret, you guys, to content creation in my opinion and and how I come up with these podcasts. It becomes the foundation for everything. Learn for two, learn for two people.

Meaning, when I'm reading a book, when I'm going through a video course, when I'm attending a seminar, when I'm talking to somebody, any time I'm doing anything and I'm trying to learn, or even when I'm not. My ears are perked open and I'm learning for the next guy I'm going to teach it to.

I literally envision myself teaching this from stage. A lot of times, you guys don't know this because it's audio, I have my eyes closed when I'm doing my podcast, envisioning that I'm standing on a stage. Because I know that I was learning it, envisioning that I would teach it on a stage.

Does that make sense?

And so what I would do, is I'd go read through all these books and I'd go through all these courses and I would think through myself, and go, "Okay. How would I teach it to the next guy, how'd I teach it to the next guy," and I'm convinced that's one of the reasons I sit next to Russell Brunson.

Because in college and way back in the day when I was doing door-to-door sales, all these things, I literally was thinking to myself, it was a conscious thought. "How do I teach the next guy what I'm learning right now?"

You know the depth you begin to learn when you do that? It's amazing. The depth is insane because you're learning it with this, almost like a mantle that gets placed on you. You have this responsibility to teach it to the other guy. Now is that always true? No, but if you act like it is, and I learn for two, then I'm constantly in pursuit of what I can share with other people that is of value.

I have quotes all over my wall, I literally write them on legal piece of paper and I thumb tack them to the wall, and when I was in high school I did that too and I'd cover my walls, literally, so you couldn't see the wall, of just quotes. And I can't remember where the quote is, I'm looking at my wall right now. I can't find it, but one of the quotes is that basically any time you open and you communicate, you're either taking up space or you're adding value.

And that's the key, that if you want to add value, you have got to start learning for two. Well how do you come up with consistent, awesome content? It's not like things come to you all the time, you've got to dig the well before you're thirsty, you've got to put stuff in the well, so start learning for two. That is one of the biggest tips I can tell you for content creation, ever.

When Russell Brunson hired me, when they called and I couldn't believe it, they were like, "Hey, we want to offer you the job." And I was like, "Oh my gosh, are you kidding me?" I made a conscious choice right after that phone call, I remember this. I was like, "How am I going to make the most of this opportunity that is just insane? Well, I'm going to learn for two."

And I remember that went into my head, I was driving my car, I was going back home after the interview, and I had that conscious thought: "I'm going to learn for two." And doing that put more responsibility on my shoulders, but it also helped me formulate ideas and put pieces of things together. "Okay, this guru over here, they said this, and this guru over here, they said this and it pulled this together."

And some of you guys have come out and you've said, "Stephen, how come you can quote so many other people and their books?" Well, that's why. Learn for two. Okay? Anyways, that's not in my notes. Again, ad lib. but that's been a huge piece for me.

So now that you guys know how I come up with my content itself, what I want to do is I'm actually going to take a break here for just a second, and on the next episode, I'm going to share with you guys how I actually put it together.

I want to tell you guys how I actually- what kind of mic I use, how I actually get it transcribed, how I get it published to like 15 different places with a single click. Really, really cool and powerful stuff. For the fear of this being an extremely long podcast, I'm going to break it into two episodes here.

Stay tuned to the next podcast here, I'm going to push it out at the same time of this one. I just want to make sure I break it up here.

All right guys.

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