#115: Find Your True Calling with Jeremy Ryan Slate

[00:00:00] Hala Taha: You're listening to YAP! Young and profiting podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Hala Taha, and on young and profiting podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life.

[00:00:24] No matter your age, profession, or industry, there's no fluff on this podcast and that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value from my guests. By doing the proper research and asking the right questions. If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of ex FBI agents, real estate moguls, self-made billionaires CEOs, and bestselling authors.

[00:00:46] Our subject matter ranges from enhancing productivity, how to gain, influence the art of entrepreneurship and more, if you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button because you'll love it here. At young [00:01:00] and profiting podcast, this begun yap. We're chatting with Jeremy Ryan slate.

[00:01:05] The founder of the number one business podcast create your own life, which studies the highest performers in the world and has been downloaded over 2.5 million times. Jeremy's podcast was named one of the top podcasts for entrepreneurs by CIO and Inc magazine. Jeremy is a former high school teacher and champion powerlifter trend, new media entrepreneur.

[00:01:26] He was named one of the top millennial influencers to follow in 2018 by Buzzfeed, after his success in podcasting, Jeremy and his wife founded command your brand, a top PR firm for the podcasting space, helping visionary founders use the power of podcasts to change the world. In this episode, we talk about how Jeremy started out in his career in a multitude of jobs and how he stacked his skills to land on his current and flourishing career in podcasting.

[00:01:52] We'll also discuss Jeremy's best podcast, interview and monetization tips and his guidance for commanding your brand. [00:02:00] Hey Jeremy, welcome to young and profiting podcast.

[00:02:03] Jeremy Ryan Slate: Hey, thanks so much for having me. I'm really stoked to be here and chat with you. I know like you were on my show, not too long ago and my audience was thrilled. So I'm excited to kind of repay the favor here, I guess.

[00:02:12] Hala Taha: Yeah, I'm super excited for this conversation. Actually. I think we have a lot in common that we actually didn't really talk about the last time we had this conversation. So Jeremy is a host of a really popular number one business podcast. It's called create your own life.

[00:02:27] And we had a great conversation. So if you guys want to check me out on that podcast, definitely go check out his podcast, subscribe to it. And it turns out we are both from New Jersey, small towns in New Jersey, actually. So tell us about where you grew up.

[00:02:41] Jeremy Ryan Slate: I grew up in Hamburg, New Jersey, like New Jersey is kind of like a point we're right here, right below high point mountains.

[00:02:45] So I grew up in a small town, five days of mile and size. I now live in Morris county, but we just bought a house and I'm moving back to Stillwater in Sussex county. So, I guess it's still a small town living for me. Yeah. So I'm in Watchung, New Jersey. I grew up [00:03:00] in New Jersey. Yeah. And so all over weird New Jersey about the guy that like jumps off the tower and the Watchung park and all that. I was very into weird New Jersey growing out.

[00:03:08] Hala Taha: It's like a haunted place, like lots of ancient Indian type of things. Yeah. It was a fun town to grow up in because on Halloween we would always go do like creepy things. But yeah, I'm back in Watchung because of COVID but soon I'll be back in Brooklyn, but it's great to have a fellow in New Jersey and on the podcast.

[00:03:24] I think you're only, I think you're the second person from New Jersey I ever interviewed, which is funny enough. And we're probably the two, one of the two most successful podcasters from New Jersey. Here at the same time,

[00:03:35] Jeremy Ryan Slate: but the important question is it Taylor ham or poor roll? That really is the debate

[00:03:39] Hala Taha: Taylor ham.

[00:03:40] Jeremy Ryan Slate: Okay. Thank God. That's what you say. Okay. I'm getting some coffee. My wife's family's from Philly. So like they're close enough that they call it poor call and I'm like, no, that's sacrilege. What are you talking about?

[00:03:51] Hala Taha: The other thing that people from New Jersey do, and I'm surprised you didn't ask me, this is what exit are you off of?

[00:03:57] Jeremy Ryan Slate: Oh, it's cause I hate that. It's cause I hate the word exit [00:04:00] question. Cause like I'm in Northwest New Jersey, like the garden state Parkway, if I want to get to it, it's like 45 minutes. So like I'm not an exit we're so far we're like route 80 is 20 minutes from my house. No, we don't count. We don't we're almost Pennsylvania.

[00:04:13] Hala Taha: Yeah. And so you went to Seton hall and I think we are really around, relatively the same age, so that's cool. Yep. So we're around the same age could have been in the same high school, I think. So that's pretty cool. Nice to meet you. Nice to have you on the show. Okay. So let's talk about your career journey.

[00:04:30] You've had a really extraordinary career journey. You've had several jobs and from my understanding, you studied religion at Seton hall and it was pretty difficult for you to get a job right out of college with that degree. So talk to us about why you picked that degree and kind of what happened after college picking a degree that wasn't so business oriented.

[00:04:51] Well, it's interesting too. Cause I don't know. I just feel like the way college is set up and I love Seton hall. It was a great experience, but I think the way college is set up, like really isn't set up for people to go out and get a [00:05:00] job and create a business and things like that.

[00:05:01] So for me and I don't know what my parents were thinking. I just really was. Going after things that interested me, I was a double major in in Catholic theology and also Torah. I'm not Jewish, but I found it interesting. And I have my master's in early Roman empire propaganda, not a very like applicable skill in the world of getting a job.

[00:05:18] So yeah. For me, it was just going after things that, really made me curious and really made me interested in things like that. Not really with the plan of, what am I going to do with this after school? Now the original plan though, was to be a college professor. And I, the thing is, I don't know if I didn't want it bad enough if it wasn't because it wasn't my dream.

[00:05:36] It was really my parents' dream that I really didn't pursue it hard. I applied to one school, which is an NYU. And when you're applying to a PhD program, you really want to, get a graduate assistant job because that is the real way it's going to work. And I didn't get an NYU, I didn't get a grad assistant job.

[00:05:51] So that was kind of the end of the road. And I didn't really fight harder for it. Right. It was just the end of it. So, so when I got out of that was 2011. So it was [00:06:00] not too long after the 2008 crash. So the economy was like really weird for getting a job. And when you get out with a degree, with a master's in history, What do you, do?

[00:06:08] You know what I mean? Like I also studied literature at new college, Oxford. Like I had all these things that were interesting, but not really like usable. Right. So I actually ended up working for a friend that was an old school house painter. And I would work with him from six 30 in the morning, till five o'clock in the afternoon, every day.

[00:06:23] And when I say old school like those old houses in Morristown that were like painted like three different colors because of the old Victorians, we did those by hand, scraping hand painting 40 foot ladders. And that was my day. And I would come home at night. I'd have 40 minutes to eat dinner and I'd go I managed the gym at night.

[00:06:40] I work at the gym from six until 11. Luckily my manager would let me work on the job, which was nice. And then I'd get up and do the same thing the next morning. So I did that for really about nine months, nine months to a year or somewhere around that, right after school. And then I actually ran into a priest friend of my family.

[00:06:55] That's Hey, the Catholic school I teach at is looking for teachers. You don't really need a degree. So I ended up [00:07:00] actually doing that, but I'll tell you what, I didn't have a lot of. Training, right. I couldn't manage 40 kids, but they threw me in a classroom, said good luck. And that was kind of the end of it.

[00:07:07] And I hated my life. It just was not very happy doing it. And then in 2012, my mom that I've ended up having a really bad stroke. And that was a lot of, I guess, what kind of spun me out, yeah. And so this is a key point of us having things in common. So my dad passed away last may from COVID it's.

[00:07:25] Okay. And since he passed away, I started a business. I quit my corporate job. My podcast grew 2000% and essentially it just lit a fire under my ass. And I realized that life has a limit, we're all going to die, and it's do I want to be, working this corporate job at Disney for the rest of my life, working for somebody else's dream, or do I want to go all in on, some of the things that I had started, which was young and profiting podcast and try to make it work.

[00:07:50] And all of a sudden these opportunities that I was blind to started to appear. So talk to us about how the S your mother's stroke, and she's still with you, I think, [00:08:00] right. Pretty disabled at this time, she has learned to walk in a non-traditional fashion, but she's lost the use of the right side of her body.

[00:08:08] She has something called acute global aphasia, which means that she can take all the communication in the world in, but she can't get it out. Like it kind of gets jumbled on the way out. So, like we still have her with us, which, like my mom saw me get married. My mom saw me have two beautiful daughters.

[00:08:21] So it's that part of it is really incredible that it has been difficult in the family and in a lot of ways. But to me, it really made me see. The finiteness of life, right? Because, at 19 I had a knee surgery go wrong and I got last rights and everything else, and nothing changed.

[00:08:37] Like I've always been a health nut my whole life. So I woke up and I just wanted to tell her ham sandwich. It just wasn't, it wasn't anything that changed my life, but when it was my mom, I think it was because it was something outside of myself and not myself. Cause I think we're young, we're selfish.

[00:08:48] Right. It really made me look for something different. And honestly, I was just like a lot of people, I had fear, I had anxiety, I had all these different things and that was 2012. That was March. I didn't make any sort of [00:09:00] move until June of 2013. That's almost a year. And my wife was presented a network marketing opportunity, which I didn't know what that was.

[00:09:07] So I saw this presentation. I like, I thought I was going to get like an employee handbook, like all those kind of stuff and I quit my job. I called the principal. I said, Hey, I'm leaving. And he actually laughed me off the phone. And that was kind of the end of that. So I did that for about two years and it was fun.

[00:09:21] You didn't have much on the line. Cause that salary was like 20 grand or something ridiculous. Right? Like you, you cause you work 80 to a hundred hours a week and you're making like nothing. So I went back, it's impossible as a teacher to make 20 something grand, not in the teacher's union. Right. That's you make money because you're going to teacher's union in a private school.

[00:09:39] You don't, it's like working at burger king. So you know what I mean? It's crazy. And they always want more out of you. So it's, in some ways I hadn't invested a lot of like in an education career because like I went to school to be the ultimate student and I thought I was going to be a teacher.

[00:09:52] So to me, it was kind of realizing this thing. Isn't what I wanted it to be. Because first of all, as I said, I didn't pursue the original version of it, which is being a college [00:10:00] professor and. I quit my job. And I went, full-time in network marketing, which was stupid because then I tried everything that I could to make this thing work.

[00:10:08] Like I started at home personal training company where I was knocking on people's doors and doing surveys with them and convincing the B clients. So I could then sell them products and things like that. So I really tried about two years to make this thing go. Right. And it just didn't. And when you say network marketing, what does that exactly like they give you products and then for free, when you have to sell them and give them a cut of the products.

[00:10:28] So, so you ha you initially buy in, like you buy like a starter box of products to get started, and then you try to sell those people, try to recruit other people to do it, but like you kind of realize the only way you actually make money is by recruiting other people. So eventually it's like a Ponzi scheme and becomes like a Ponzi scheme.

[00:10:44] And eventually I dunno, it ruins your social interactions. Cause you're like how I heard you. Don't like your life and your career. I have this thing. Like you find it kind of going into every conversation you're having and that's, and it just became weird for me. So I actually ended up just eventually leaving that and going into selling [00:11:00] life insurance, which I was actually good at it.

[00:11:01] I made a really decent amount of money selling life insurance, but eventually getting up every day and having conversations with people about death was, it just wasn't the most pleasant thing out there. So I did that for, bout six months and I actually, I made more in those six months than I made in two years teaching combined, but I wasn't happy.

[00:11:18] And I went from there to then I had heard this podcast with Ryan Moran. It was called freedom Fastlane back in the day. And I was like, oh, you can sell products on Amazon. Great. So I like learned how to do that. And I bought like 250 products from China. And one of the things you do when you launch a product is you sell it for a dollar.

[00:11:33] Like you get a promo code, you get a bunch of people, to buy it so that the sales volume goes up. Well, I left the promo code on my listening and lost all my products in the first 20 minutes to one address in Maryland. I guess somebody figured me out. And that was like, that was the end of it.

[00:11:46] Right? So so my entrepreneurial career was very quickly. Three things did not work out. And I was just like, all right, I give up, I quit. So I actually ended up working at a friend's marketing firm and that was one of the best experiences in my life because I, [00:12:00] it was the apprenticeship I was missing in my life.

[00:12:02] I learned how to build websites. I learned how to, how do you actually charge a client? How do you run a business? And I just started the podcast is like a creative outlet for me. And that's a lot of, what's motivated what I'm doing now. So right now you have a podcast, you also have command your brand media agency.

[00:12:18] Talk to us about what you do today. And then I have some questions in terms of like how you connected the dots. Our company is called command your brand. And we look at ourselves as the PR firm for the podcast space. Cause there's a lot of people that like quote, book podcasts. But I like to say my wife is the smartest person.

[00:12:33] I know she's been in PR for gosh, like 12 plus years now. I'm really her creation a lot of ways. And we came together as co-founders of this company and we've really tried to take what I know about podcasting and what she knows about PR and do an incredible job, positioning clients, getting them booked on the right shows, but also like at the same time, as a podcast or the thing I really don't like is people that come in and try to, disrupt the integrity of your show.

[00:12:56] So that's a lot of what we're trying to keep going, what we do at command your brand. And we've grown [00:13:00] a lot over the years. We've got a team of 17 and we're really trying to make a big impact in the world. Oh, that's amazing. So you get authors and celebrities on other podcasts and you work with other podcasts to help fill their lineup.

[00:13:13]That's really what we do. We don't work as much, like from the booking side, though, we know exactly what shows we're looking for. Cause we run this massive database of Hey, if you get X, Y, Z, I'm looking for it. Let me know. And then when we try to actually pitch, people's what they're looking for.

[00:13:26] Really cool. Yeah. I can't wait to talk to you about that because I think that there's some synergies I was telling you with my agency and yours and we could probably make some money together. So let's talk about it later. Okay. Cool. So let's talk about skill stacking. This is something that I talk about a lot on my podcast, and I feel like one of the reasons that I'm successful is I also had many different working experiences.

[00:13:48] I worked at a hair salon. I worked at the mall. I worked as a marketing in corporate marketing. I had a website, I was an entrepreneur. I was an event planner. I worked at a water company. You name it, [00:14:00] the guy had a million jobs and all that, those jobs gave me something each time that I kind of stacked together.

[00:14:07] And now I'm really fulfilling my destiny with younger profiting podcasts. Yet media, everything is coming full circle and it's because I stocked so many different skills together. To provide this unique offering to the world. So tell us is there something from the painting experience that you're using in podcasting?

[00:14:24] Is there something from what you studied in school, that's helping you now walk us through how you stack your skills to become your, one of the most successful podcasters out there. So how did you do it? It's really interesting because I do feel like I kind of mentioned this earlier. I think education, the way it's set up, like really isn't helping us.

[00:14:40] Cause we don't learn a lot of these hard skills. A lot of these ideas, a lot of things like that, like there are certain careers, like if you're a doctor, I do not want you touching me if you haven't went to school. But like there, there are certain things that really we learned from experience and, and I think we have this weird thing about failure in society too. Like when you fail, it doesn't work out. But everything, I failed that I've learned something from, working with customers. And like, when I work with [00:15:00] the painter, right, he would actually, after he painted somebody's house, I never seen someone do this before he would clean their house.

[00:15:05] Jeremy Ryan Slate: [00:15:05] I was like, that is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. But because of that, he would get incredible referrals because of how he always serviced the customer with more than what they were looking for, so they would always want to tell people about this painter that just cleaned my house and, did an incredible job doing that.

[00:15:17] So like he would get all these referrals, it allowed them to charge double whatever other people charge and things like that. So, there's that aspect of it. But I also, as somebody that was very into history, the most incredible skill I've learned is I can research like nobody else's business.

[00:15:32] Right. I'm very good at that. I also, like the thing is, well, and I was talking to my wife about this morning is like just my understanding of language, because, if taking Latin for 12 years of doing these things like that. So it allows me to keep up conversations with a lot of different people and different perspectives, different cultures and things like that because I'm not an expert at anything, but I have enough understanding of different things that I can at least hold my weight in a conversation.

[00:15:54] So it's really helped me as a conversationalist. So there's definitely like I could go on and on, but there's so many [00:16:00] different things that I've learned from each one of these things that had I not done them. I would not be doing what I'm doing now.

[00:16:05] Hala Taha: [00:16:05] Yeah. And I think it's just a lesson to all the people listening out there, go out and try different things, get different experiences, fear, failure.

[00:16:14] I think too many people fear failure because we're told it's this bad thing. But if you look at lots of successful people, we were talking about Jayson Waller earlier, you look at how many times that dude has failed and what he's doing now. It gets incredible. And I think though, that is our greatest teacher.

[00:16:28] Yeah, by the way, Jayson Waller, he is the CEO of power home solar, one of my clients, and literally a billionaire he's the richest most successful guy that I know he is a baller. So yeah. Skill stacking is super important, making sure that you don't just because you went to school for something does not mean you have to stay in that lane forever.

[00:16:47] You can pivot and make a lot more money than what signed up for when you were 17 years old and you didn't know what the hell you were doing with your life, where you didn't know, what it was like to be in the real world.

[00:16:57] Jeremy Ryan Slate: [00:16:57] Well, and it's knowledge versus application. Right? I think [00:17:00] that's the biggest thing is we've had this idea of knowledge, but if you never have application you're never going to, achieve something, right.

[00:17:05] Because here's the scary part. Right? How many kids go to school for, what do we go to school for? Like 12 years, 14 years or something like that? Right? Like 12 years that leave, they get out. They do a job for a year and oh dear God, this is not what I wanted to do. So does that mean your whole life is messed up?

[00:17:20] So I think at the same time, you have to look at, there needs to be some sort of idea of apprenticeships or something, where people get experience, then maybe go to college after that, like that there has to be something more.

[00:17:30] Hala Taha: [00:17:30] Yeah, I totally agree. Things needs to change. And since it's not embedded in the school system, I would recommend anyone who's listening.

[00:17:36] Who's in high school, go get a job, just start working. Even if your parents don't want you to, I promise it's going to help you out in the future. If you're in college, get a part-time job, get an internship, get 10 internships. If you can. That is how you will. Stand out when you actually graduate and get a job?

[00:17:54] Jeremy Ryan Slate: Well, like for me, I got a, I had a newspaper route from the time I was 11. My parents always thought it was really [00:18:00] important to do so, like not to toot my own horn, but I was like newspaper of the year, like eight years in a row and a rooster carrier of the year, eight years in a row here in Jersey.

[00:18:06]But like that was one of the best experiences I learned because like I learned how to handle customers. I learned how to handle complaints. I learned how to handle all these different things. And when you learned that at a young age, that is so invaluable because it's going to change how you approach everything.

[00:18:19] It really does.

[00:18:20] Hala Taha: I have a funny story. When I was in college, I worked at a clothing store called art and B and it was commission-based and I would get 25% of whatever I sold. That is crazy. I was making so much money at 19 years old, wearing all these hot outfits, and then I'd get all these rich ladies to buy the same outfits I was wearing.

[00:18:41] Jeremy Ryan Slate: And I learned how to hustle like that taught me such good sales skills, the first car, because of all the tips I got at Christmas time, like people are really generous. Can you newspaper carriers at Christmas time, I'd bring in 2 to 5k every Christmas. So I bought my first car cash because I had made it, from newspaper carrying.

[00:18:57] Hala Taha: That's absolutely amazing. So I heard you on John Lee [00:19:00] Dumas, this podcast, which by the way, congrats. Thank you. What an amazing too. I know the research here too. So I listened to that podcast and you mentioned Cal Newport and one of his books is your favorite books. It's called so good. They can't ignore you.

[00:19:15] And in it, he discusses why, it's more important to focus on talent and skills rather than your passion. And then it's actually really dangerous to go ahead and follow your passion. And I think you saw that firsthand, you were interested in religion and all that kind of stuff. And then you followed your passion and then there was no jobs.

[00:19:31] Jeremy Ryan Slate: Right? And so talk to us about that and what should we do instead if we're not following our passion. Well, and I appreciate you mentioning that because this is the book. I literally, I buy everyone and recommend to everyone because it, Cal talks about finding something you're good at and continuing to work at it and work at it and work at it.

[00:19:47] And you become passionate about something when it becomes effortless and you're good at it. So I think that's what you really need to focus on is, what do you like, what are your skills aligned with what produces money? Because I think too often people look at it and they're like, okay, well I love, basket [00:20:00] weaving, but I don't want to know what to do with that.

[00:20:01] So you have to figure out what do you like that produces money that you could do every day. So I think it's really important to focus on those skills. And can you build those skills and become the best at that? And then. The people, the heart where people mess up is they don't document their skills.

[00:20:15] So when they do build a company, they can't bring other people on, like how you bring people into your organization is vital. Like we write step by step, every process in our company, we video every process in our company because you want people to be able to do things just like you did them.

[00:20:30] Cause if you figured out the secrets and how things work. Why should you leave it up to chance that somebody else is going to understand that? So find what you're good at continuing to get better at it, and then figure out how you're going to expand in that and make a bigger impact. To me, that is the biggest thing that you should be looking at, not following your passion.

[00:20:45] Like I just, and I feel like internet marketing has ruined us for this. And I was talking to a really awesome woman last week about this, her name's Stephanie Mallock. And we were talking, oh, I love Stephanie. She isn't, she's one of my favorite people. I was on the phone with her that day. But we were talking [00:21:00] about this idea that because of internet marketing, we have this idea of buy this course, buy this product, buy this coaching program.

[00:21:05] And everything's just going to work out. And it's not that way it's experienced, built unexperienced built on experience and it's hard and it takes time, but that is how you get there. There is no excuse for hard work and there's no, there's nothing else. Like it. Yeah, 100%. Couldn't agree more. I love how you brought in the fact that scaling your operations is equally as important for success.

[00:21:26] I've seen so many podcasts or build a prison for yourself if you don't. I know, and you just stunt your growth. And I see a lot of people burn out because they don't know how to delegate and scale their business. And actually have a bunch of podcasters that like last year we were all on the same level and most of them have fizzled out while.

[00:21:45] I feel like I've succeeded because I grew a team and it's so important. The hell also have, and you're talking about podcasters fizzling out. I'm sorry to take you off topic, but they also, at the same time, they have the wrong idea on it as well, because everybody out there wants to be Joe Rogan or wants to be Joe Budden or like one of these shows out there.

[00:22:01] But like the thing they have to understand is less than 1% of podcasters will ever be those people. So you have to figure out how, what you're building is going to support everything else you're doing, not just build something, get a CPM up and hopefully get some ads. That's just, it's not going to support most people.

[00:22:14] So you have to figure out how you can use this to create JVs, how you can use a CIN network, how you can use this to create more trust for your business. That's where you're going to see the most effort, less than 1% of people are ever gonna make money off, big money off ads. 100% agree. I think you need to know your priorities when it comes to podcasting.

[00:22:30] So let's talk about your podcasting journey because it is interesting. I think you started with one podcast and it failed and then you launched another one. So talk to us about your journey and how did you crack the code when it comes to podcasts? So the first version of my podcast was called rock your life.

[00:22:45] I launched it in. June of 2014, pretty early, by the way that's pretty damn early second that like second wave, because I think oh, eight oh nine and then that's when Jordan harbinger or Lewis Howes all came out and then you are second wave. [00:23:00] So then so I started this one called rock your life.

[00:23:02] And it was just bad. Cause people that know me personally know I am the least like life coachy person, like you could ever meet people, tell me their problems. I'm like, all right, get over it. What are we gonna do about it? But like this show was not that it was like, you can achieve your dreams and you can.

[00:23:16] I feel like it was that movie blades of glory. I am Jimmy and you can do it. It just was not very good. It was a solo show or it was a solo show. I had an interview sprinkled in and I would usually record these things the night before, without a microphone on my old I book G4. So it was just, it was.

[00:23:33] Bad am I only listing? I believe was my mom. Literally it was literally that bad. And I just remember I was engaged at that time and not married yet. And I remember arguing with my wife the night before she was like, what are you doing? I'm like my fans, they need me. She's not to be rude, but you don't have fans.

[00:23:49]You know what I mean? So I was really weird about this whole thing and it just was not very good. So I quit about 60 days in. And I had went to, I went to Peru and I did a [00:24:00] trip with rotary international, which is really great experience. And I came back and I'm kind of like, all right, what am I going to do with my life?

[00:24:06] I got married in September of that year. I was working at the friend's marketing firm, doing all right, making 20, 20 bucks an hour, which is, it's decent, but it's not a living. So I started the podcast really just as a hobby, which became create your own life. And it took off because I approached it more as a professional, right?

[00:24:21] Like professionalism is the biggest thing missing in podcasting. And that doesn't mean you have to have the super expensive mic, but have a decent one and things like that. And really approaching like, how can I do this as a professional? What does good design look like? What people does my audience do?

[00:24:35] My audience want to learn from, do my audience really want to learn from me and not like this weird vision of myself I had created. So I think that's the thing as well. So I started with a list of the top 100 people. I most admired, reached out to them. First person I reached out to was actually Seth Goden and he was super nice, but he said, when you get to 400, let me know.

[00:24:51] So he was episode 400, but like you, you really need to really aim at getting the right people on your show and really having the right conversations and adding [00:25:00] value. So we had 10,000 listens in our first 30 days. And really from there, the rest was history. This episode of yap is sponsored by LinkedIn learning everyone's career is different and reaching your goals takes time.

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[00:28:42] That's really good, 10,000 listens in the first 30 days. And some less than that, I want to just point out to my listeners is your first rodeo might not be your breakout show, your breakout business, whatever it is like for me, younger profiting podcast is technically like my fifth show. I had a YouTube show.

[00:28:59] I had a Facebook [00:29:00] show. I had, well, you had radio experience. So yeah, I had radio experience online radio shows. So it's you gotta get your reps in. So essentially your first show was a way for you to like, get practiced on the mic, understand how to do audio editing, understand how to launch a podcast.

[00:29:15] Then your second go around, you went in it with so much more knowledge. And that's my favorite saying is when you start from failure, you don't start from scratch. You start from experience. And that is a game changer. Well, and there's also iterations of that as well, right? Because we've been doing this for.

[00:29:31] Gosh, like five and a half years or something like now at this point. So even like how I have conversations now versus how I had conversations then are different. Like I would over-prepare and I'd have 35 questions for an interview, which made it more like a jail cell interrogation. Like it wasn't very good for, the person listening or the person being interviewed.

[00:29:49] So I really tried to focus on those soft skills because those are the things that are gonna make you better. So I looked at who do I think is a great interviewer. And there was two people I really focused on. Cause I think they're really the [00:30:00] best at what they do. One being Larry King, the other being Oprah Winfrey.

[00:30:03] And I was actually shocked by the way. Cause I think people Oprah doesn't get enough credit because she asks people some really good questions. You like. Damn Oprah. Where'd that come from? So I've really focused on like, how do the job of interviewing, how do good people interview? And I've learned, and you've probably seen this as, as well.

[00:30:19] Holla the question you asked first is not the most important one, but if the follow-up that comes after that. So I learned how to do really good follow up questions because you're just setting somebody up to open up the conversation. So, and continuing to work on that and work on that and work on that.

[00:30:31] And it took hundreds of interviews. So I felt good about it. Yeah. Is there any other like little interview hacks that you can tell us about that, that you've learned along the way? This is going to sound crazy, but literally just having a notepaper next to me, because one of the biggest things that happens is a guest says something I'm like, oh my God, that's brilliant.

[00:30:47] That's gonna be the follow-up I ask. And a lot of people, what happens is when you do that, you're trying to remember that thought and you stop listening. So what I do is when I get it, I just write it down and regurgitate it. And it's kind of like. Weird to look at my own chicken scratch and figure it out, but it [00:31:00] makes it so that I can actually be present and listening to the person and, continue to have a conversation with them because you may find that thing you wanted to ask really distracts from where it ended up.

[00:31:09] So you need to figure out how to use that better. So that's one thing. Another thing is, well, and this is something that I know your team is really good at. Is doing the right kind of prep before an interview. So my method on it is I like to find, one or two interviews that they've done with people I really admire and I'll listen to not the whole thing, but maybe like half of it, because there's some things you want to look for their tone, like how they communicate when they answer things.

[00:31:32] Are they long? Are they short? Do they need longer questions? They need shorter questions. You also want to know are there certain things for them that are no NGOs, are there certain questions that annoy them? Like I had Kelly Earnhardt Miller on the show. She's the. Daughter of the race car driver, the late Dale Earnhardt.

[00:31:46] And the question she hates the most is being asked, what's it like being a woman in racing? Cause she goes I've been here for a long time. I've earned my stripes. Why are people asking me that question? So for me it was more like, what's it like in a sport that's growing and in a sport that [00:32:00] most of America doesn't understand.

[00:32:01] So that's an interesting question for her. Like you don't want to ask people things that annoy them cause they don't want to talk to you anymore. Yeah. And then the whole mood of the conversation, I think part of our jobs as podcasters is to keep the mood like super positive and make somebody feel welcome, open that you're interested and not being able to listen and active listening, I think is so underrated when it comes to podcasting.

[00:32:25] I think listening is one of the most important things and I feel like my worst interviews are when I'm not listening enough. And I'm like too absorbed with my notes or my questions. No, absolutely. Because and also, I don't know if you've seen this, but this is weird too, because the number of times I've done it I know you had Matthew McConaughey on the show and you've had a lot of like big names in the show.

[00:32:44] Like for me, like people I really admire I actually have to go take a walk before those interviews. Cause I still stress myself out to this day before big interviews. So like at the same time, like I find you have to chill yourself out. So you can also be present like we had former Eagles' hall of Famer, Brian Dawkins on the show, not too long ago.

[00:32:58] And B doc is one of the [00:33:00] coolest guys I've ever seen playing football. Like I was stressed. I had to go for a walk. So sometimes you also have to realize like, how do you have to handle yourself so you can be present? Yeah, 100% from me to my best way of not stressing out over a big interview is listening to a hundred of their interviews.

[00:33:14] So I literally feel like I know everything about their life and like I can just pay attention. I think that's really the key for me is just over prepping so I could just feel comfortable to pay attention. Okay. So let's talk about your book, God of branding. What made you write this book? And then let's talk about some tactical advice when it comes to personal branding.

[00:33:33] Well, cause I think the thing I want people to understand is personal branding applies absolutely everywhere. And it was kind of the oldest trick in the book. If you look at the propaganda that Augustus Caesar used to convince people, he was, God, it's not far from the same that, people are trying to convince people how cool their lives are on social media now.

[00:33:49] So I've just wanted people to understand that the concepts that have been used for many years and passed down from generations are not different, just the mediums and the ways we use them are different. So I, the thing I really want people to get [00:34:00] is that these are tactics that don't the strategy doesn't change the tactics do.

[00:34:03] Cause I think people get really confused between strategy and tactics. If Instagram changes something, that's a tactic, your strategy overall should be the same. Okay. So I have a great story that I want you to share that I think is going to set up some context for this. So you used an ancient example of how Palm bay, the great positioned and branded himself as a God to reach an audience.

[00:34:24] Can you share that story of us? Yeah, so Pompey the great he was a really interesting character. So him and Julius Caesar were basically competing to decide like who, and this wasn't like an actual, like competition people knew about, but it was continuous to these guys, like who Rome was going to value more.

[00:34:38] And what he did is he realized that people really liked Alexander the great, and they really venerated Alexander the great, so he said, okay, how am I going to show people? I'm the new Alexander? So the biggest thing that Alexander did is he conquered what was called the known world at that time, which would have been Europe, Africa, and Asia.

[00:34:53] So he goes, okay, cool. I'm going to figure out how I can conquer people in Europe, Africa, and Asia. And I'm going to have the same type of, there, the parades were called Roman triumph. [00:35:00] They were these big, beautiful parade. So he did that. He also realized that he had to get the people on his side.

[00:35:05] Right. He had to get people to really like him and. That was what was really effective. And then what Caesar did is he goes, okay, I'm just going to connect myself to the guys and show people and God that way and what it really didn't work out because it was more of this like top down approach rather than a bottom up approach.

[00:35:18] Think things work a lot better when they come from people rather than when they're being pushed on people. So that's why it was really effective. What other tips can you give us for personal branding? Like where should somebody start and end? I always say this, you have a personal brand, whether you like it or not, because everything's on the internet.

[00:35:32] Now, if you Google your name, that's your personal brand. So it's up to you to like kind of shape it the way that you want. So what do you suggest like where people start, if they feel like they've never proactively tried to create a personal, well, the first thing is like figuring out what's out there first because that's vital and.

[00:35:48] It's, the same reason that I use three names. It's not because I enjoy people calling me like, my middle name, which was the only one my mom used to call me when I was in trouble. But it's because my parents named me after a cowboy actor. So I couldn't rank in Google forever. So you have to [00:36:00] figure out like what's already out there and what already exists, because it may not even be about you.

[00:36:03] Like one of my good friends, his name is Kyle Gray, which is also the name of a psychic. So he had a lot of trouble getting found. So you have to find out first and foremost, what's out there and how can you separate yourself from that? So that's why I started using my middle name. The other thing as well is when the people that you want to have an impact on who are their influencers, who are the people they look to.

[00:36:22] And I always give the example of the financial space, right? If you look at, Dave Ramsey versus Susie Orman, People are on different sides, listening to both these people. So they had a very different type of listener and very different type of person that's going to like those people. So that's going to give you a better idea of what they like, who they follow, what positioning you're trying to get.

[00:36:39] And when you go from there, you're then going to have a good blueprint of how did it work for them? Where did they go? What did they do? And then you can start writing an industry, publications, industry, podcasts, stuff like that, but it really starts with understanding what's out there, how you can be different and then, putting yourself out there.

[00:36:56] Okay. So I know that you have another book coming out. [00:37:00] It is called extraordinary, overcome extreme adversity and create your best life. What is that book about? So for me, this is the thing I've wanted to write for years and years. And I've always told myself the time was never correct. And. We were hoping to get it out in the fall, but, just due to the crazy year it's had and some of the awesome guests we actually have that are coming on to be a part of it, we're going to be moving into the launch to the spring.

[00:37:21]But it's really the seven characteristics I've seen in people that are extraordinary. One being, we've talked about a lot here in the idea of adversity and how it kind of makes you grow another being that not letting other people define your success. And at the same time like that, people that are extraordinary know that, following your passion may not be the best way.

[00:37:37] So it's interesting because I feel like this is the thing that really embodies everything. I find myself talking about every single day, and it goes through a lot of the stories that we've had, in the book from, the former CIA director to gold medal athletes to hall of Famers.

[00:37:50] And it really takes a look at what are those things and shows you how in a lot of ways, they're just like you, but what they did to become extraordinary and how that's really open to any of us. That's [00:38:00] really exciting. And so you said that's coming out in the spring. We're definitely going to have you come back on, share more about that book.

[00:38:06]So I want to circle back to the podcast because we were talking about how a lot of podcasts, their goal is to make money by ads. And that's actually a real big, long shot. Like you said, not many podcasters are going to ever get the amount of downloads that they need to actually get a decent amount of money from CPMs or cost per 1000 downloads by advertisers.

[00:38:28] Now I see me and you both in the podcast apps doing media buying and stuff like that. So we've got a little, strategies ourselves to make sure that we do get the downloads, but from my understanding, you monetized in a completely different way, at least at first. So talk to us about how you first monetize your podcast.

[00:38:44] So there, there was two different things I was doing early on. One of those being I found affiliate offers for things that I really liked and that's something people can do from day one. Like we've used audible forever because I think the it's changed a little bit. It used to be, they give you 15 bucks for every free book you gave away.

[00:38:59] I think it's 10 bucks [00:39:00] now. But that's been really good because I just tell the audience what I'm reading every day and we still do this one quite a bit to this day. And then they go grab the book for free and, they get paid for it, which is great. And I get paid for it, which is great. So like we've done a lot of affiliate offers with products.

[00:39:13] I really like, and I've really liked to use and things like that. The other thing as well is flat rate advertising because as you mentioned, ads, are they try to do podcasts ads, like they've done radio ads and they try to do a cost per thousand, which is anywhere from 15 to twenty-five bucks, sometimes on the higher end.

[00:39:29] So. If you get a thousand downloads, you make 25 bucks that sucks. That's not fun. So especially for all the work you put in and everything else. So what I've told people to do, and I've seen it be very effectful effective is flat rate advertising. Maybe initially you can charge a hundred bucks for a 62nd spot or a thousand bucks for 62nd spot because it is all who finds it valuable and who finds it worthwhile because very niche podcasts in my mind are way more valuable than the big broad ones, because they're going to get people in front of the right type of audiences.

[00:39:57] So I tell people, find out, what an advertising spot and your show [00:40:00] feels like it's worth you to disrupt the flow of your show because it does, it is disruptive to a certain standpoint. And then once you're good with that, you can start selling spots for that rate, if it works. And I've seen shows do very well with doing small advertising deals like that, and it allows them to fund more traffic to fund different things so they can get up to an area where they can find a more supportive.

[00:40:18] So to me, that's the way for most podcasters to go is affiliate offers, flat rate advertising, and also. As well, a lot of your guests will have high ticket items and you could also be an affiliate on some of those as well. So there's a lot of ways to make money. If you have your eyes open to it, you're not just thinking, okay, we're going to build it up.

[00:40:34] We're going to get ads and, that's it because that's a very effective viewpoint, right? You're waiting for things to happen to you rather than seeing how can I be more causative over the situation? And I love the idea of flat rate sponsorships. I talk about this a lot too. I do podcast office hours on clubhouse, and I always tell people like, listen, if you're not getting like 5,000 downloads, an episode, figure out what other communities and things that you can offer and then bundle all of that in, into a flat [00:41:00] rate sponsorship.

[00:41:00] So let's say you have 5,000 Instagram followers and you have maybe 10,000 on LinkedIn. Bundling social media posts. And then all of a sudden your offering as a whole has a lot more value because it's more oppression. So, you'll have better luck. I think selling that than anything else that's you look at I'm gonna use the radio example.

[00:41:18] Again, you look at a lot like a lot of what networks do Westwood one, like ABC radio, like all these different things, what are they doing? They're selling advertising spots on all the shows in their network as a whole and combining those numbers. So if you can figure out how to do that and how to bundle, you're going to make your offer look a lot better.

[00:41:32]I've even had seen friends that have decided, okay, I'm going to build my own networks for the sake of selling advertising. That's a brilliant idea as well. So how can you really set it up? So it's more valuable to the person buying from you, but also valuable to you as well. And you must be using it as a lead generation tool for your podcast booking agency.

[00:41:50] Is that correct? Absolutely. Because a lot of the people that we interview are people that we would want to have as clients, right? High level achievers that are doing really big things. So I think that's [00:42:00] something to think about as well is how can I interview people that are gonna be my perfect client, because naturally that relationship should really work off of that.

[00:42:08] But I find too often, people just aren't thinking with those things. So it's really a, it's a change in viewpoint from being effective, what you're doing to being causative of what you're doing. Okay, how can I make this happen? And when you're doing these different things you're able to make it happen rather than waiting for life to happen to you.

[00:42:21] I love that. And honestly, I think the reason why young and profiting podcast has become so successful is because I realized that most of the people who come on my show are people that I could offer marketing to their best selling authors, they're celebrities. They might have their own podcasts. So I started a marketing agency and a lot of the people came on.

[00:42:41] My show, ended up being my clients. Then all of a sudden I had all this money to invest back into my podcast, into media buying and all that, to grow the downloads and then monetize the downloads. So it's it's all being creative and not just thinking that there's one way to make money. And that goes for any business.

[00:42:58] It doesn't just have to be podcasting [00:43:00] it's, but you know, a lot of people think the only way to make. Money on podcasting is ads and that's just not true. It's not true. And just to go back to the idea of any business, like honestly the way to grow any business and the way to fix problems in any business is more sales, right?

[00:43:12]If you're understaffed, okay. Sell more stuff so you can hire more people. So I think that's the biggest thing is figuring out how can I get money in the door so that I can upgrade what I'm doing? You know what I mean? But you can't just do it with nothing. So I know you talk about sales funnels a lot, and I'd love for you to kind of share your sales funnel and some of the tools or tips that you have in regards to building a sales funnel.

[00:43:35] So one of the things that, and this is, this has changed quite a bit over the years, but I find that. The sales funnel that we use is coming from podcast, right? Because a lot of what I'm doing is going on podcasts. So I have kind of this idea. I look at an interview. Every interview is going to have really three parts, and they're going to be a little bit different in every show you're on, but it's really story message and call to action.

[00:43:54] So, the years personal story ties into what you're teaching ties into, what your people want people to do at the end. So what you're giving away [00:44:00] is going to be something that's a usable tool, so that people actually go to get it. They get a win with you, and if they want to work with you, great.

[00:44:06] But then what they should be doing then is on that landing page. You're giving away the tool. There should be two separate pieces of code on that landing page. One is my absolute favorite thing. That's doubled our email list in size from a year ago, it's called get emails.com. They have a massive database of people that have opted in for different offers and things like that.

[00:44:21] Jeremy Ryan Slate: [00:44:21] So totally white hat that can opt them into your list. So we've literally doubled in size from that last year. The other thing is your. Your Facebook pixel for retargeting, which is a little bit harder now, since they've changed, how targeting pixels and things like that are used recently. But it is something that should be on that landing page because I look at a landing page from a podcast is really like a leaky bucket, right?

[00:44:40] Where can I plug the holes in the bucket? So I'm not losing people cause you're gonna have a very small percentage of people are going to grab that offer and win with you. So you want to see how you can get more of a man. So yeah. Have the offer, have the get emails code, also have the retargeting pixel on there so that you can be hitting people on other places, but then once somebody's into your list, it's about building community with them in the way of [00:45:00] showing them the part or something.

[00:45:01] So I usually do a five to seven day, I think, a new one seven days, email sequence once they get in. Like an onboarding. Yeah. We're basically educated them about the biggest objections they would have to what we have, what we do. And I think far too often, people aren't talking about that and they're trying to handle it in a sales call and you're already in trouble then at that point.

[00:45:17] So what happens is when somebody comes to a sales call, they're already in, they're already ready to have the right type of conversation. And then, from there, people are just going through a series of emails and things like that. Our funnel it's gotten smaller over the years, but it's created better results.

[00:45:30] I find too often. People get really stuck, I guess. Cause they're used to how things work in. E-commerce on, oh, I need a one-time offer. I need an upsell offer. I need all these different things. And really, if it's simple, it's easier to fix. What's going wrong and you can control a lot more. Yeah.

[00:45:44] Hala Taha: [00:45:44] Because it's all about like slightly optimizing until you have this oiled machine.

[00:45:48] Very cool. Great tips. Yeah.

[00:45:49] Jeremy Ryan Slate: [00:45:49] And we've been doing great with Google ads too, by the way, that's been our largest traffic source. Like we've been crushing it with Google search ads and display ads and that's for command your brand the PR [00:46:00] agency or for your podcast for commander brand. Really cool.

[00:46:03] Really cool stuff. Yeah. For me, honestly, my podcast is number one, my lead generation tool and referrals. We don't even have a sales funnel. I need to get it together, but I mean, we're already like have her hands full kind of, but really cool stuff. The last question I want to ask you is growth tactics for your podcast because you really impressive podcasts.

[00:46:23] Hala Taha: [00:46:23] You've gotten a number of accolades. Weren't you like? Best of apple 2016 or some crazy stat,

[00:46:28] Jeremy Ryan Slate: [00:46:28] top podcasts for for Inc magazine for 2019. I wish I was best of apple. That would have been cool, but no, we were top podcasts for Inc in 2019.

[00:46:35] Hala Taha: [00:46:35] Really cool. I mean, that's still super impressive and I know you've hit number one and top 100, all of that.

[00:46:41] So what are your best strategies for actually growing a podcast?

[00:46:46] Jeremy Ryan Slate: [00:46:46] Well, I think first and foremost, it's finding out what's needed and wanted from the people that are listening to you. You know what I mean? You can't just force out there, you know what you want to have people, you got to find out what they need and want.

[00:46:55] So one of the things that serving your audience, what are they like where they not like things like that. So that's really vital. The other [00:47:00] thing as well is when you're creating content. And I, once again, I know you guys are really good at this is creating content. That's native for each platform you're on like not creating one piece and trying to use it everywhere because it's just not going to work like that.

[00:47:10] Like on LinkedIn, And it's interesting, cause I don't know if it's working the same way for you. It is for me, but I'm finding LinkedIn it's back to long form written content that's doing well. The video just isn't doing as well as it used to be. So we've been doing really well with using those 1300 characters to tell a story in long form written content.

[00:47:25]Instagram, we're focusing a lot on really good stories with the swipe up because it is going to get people to the episode. And then at the same time, like those headliner type clips on Instagram but with large captions, because you have to realize a lot of people that are viewing your content are probably viewing it on mute.

[00:47:39] So you want to realize that you have to get past that as well. So having the big, large captions, because the small ones are really hard to read where you're going to grab somebody's attention and actually get them to listen to it. So, so that's another thing at the same time as well, realizing that platforms hate links.

[00:47:53] And when, I mean, platforms I'm specifically mean. Facebook and LinkedIn. So how can you get creative to get people to an episode [00:48:00] without actually putting a link in the post? Because they're going to down rank it, nobody's gonna see it. Like I've had posts where I'll just take the link out of it and put it in the comments.

[00:48:07] And it does incredibly when the first 30 minutes it was up, we got nothing. So you really need to figure out how can I make this work for the individual platform and learn more about the platform rather than just putting one piece of content.

[00:48:17] Hala Taha: [00:48:17] I'd love to just chime in to some of these. This is like my language.

[00:48:21] I love talking about this stuff. So for LinkedIn, something that you have to realize with the videos is that they don't count the impressions in the same way. So when you see your video views, it literally means how many people saw the videos. It says views just like it would a graphic post, but that actually means how many people saw a certain amount of your video.

[00:48:41] Not necessarily impressions, like all the other posts, texts graphic. So you can basically times that by three to get a better idea of how many people actually saw that video. So the views are always going to seem really small and videos, even though they're not really, which is wild. I don't know if you saw this, like three years ago, you could put up like anything and get 50 to a [00:49:00] hundred thousand views easy.

[00:49:00] So I don't know if they've changed that algorithm since then, but it's wild. What they're doing now. Yeah, polls are crushing it on LinkedIn. Now I had a poll that had half a million views last week. It was freaking crazy ad 300,000, sorry, 30,000 votes or whatever. So polls are crushing it on LinkedIn and then graphics just poster sized graphics is what I'm calling them.

[00:49:20] So LinkedIn has this like bigger size graphic.

[00:49:23] Jeremy Ryan Slate: [00:49:23] Are these like the ones that you like flip through or is that the type you're talking about?

[00:49:27] Hala Taha: [00:49:27] So that's a slider they used to be doing really well, but like these bigger size graphics and videos have been crushing it on LinkedIn, check out my page. If you guys want to see what I'm talking about.

[00:49:36] And the external link thing is 100% true. We only put links in the comments. And then the other tip I have is retarget. The people who like, and comment on your posts. What I have my team do is when I put up like a micro content video of my podcast, anybody who likes her comments, we send them a DM. And we say, thank you so much for recently liking my, episode with Dr.

[00:49:57] Caroline leaf. If you want to actually check out the full [00:50:00] episode, here's the link, right? So it's all about direct messages to actually get them. And I love the story to the swipe up. That is absolutely the number one way to get listeners on Instagram, in my opinion.

[00:50:10] Jeremy Ryan Slate: [00:50:10] Yeah. And one of the things we do as well, I don't know if you do this too, but on our show notes page, I'm trying to remember what the name of the we use.

[00:50:16]I forgot the name of the player is we use, but it allows them. On our show notes page to go listen to that episode in Spotify, that episode in apple podcasts, that episode, and no, that's not, I mean, the embed player we use on our page, it's not the, it's not the typical one you use. I'd have to find out what the name of it was later, but it allows you to go directly to that episode.

[00:50:32] So then we can use the show notes page as the link to swipe up and then people can choose what platform they want to listen to it on. That's a really big deal. I love that. I think that's a great idea. Or you could just like swipe up to a link tree, really cool stuff, Jeremy, it was such a pleasure to speak with you today.

[00:50:48] The last question I ask all my guests is what is your secret to profiting in life? To me, it's really realizing what my priorities are and putting them first because I find it, at least for me, when I was younger, one of the [00:51:00] things that I did as far too often been to, this person wants that from me or this person wants this from me.

[00:51:05] And I find that you have to get better at saying no, because you'll commit to things where you're not very happy doing it. So you're just going to do a bad job or you're not going to do it at all. So then nobody's happy. So it's really finding out what your priorities are and realizing that when you say no more often than yes, your yes has really matter.

[00:51:21] And they're really a good thing. And that's going to help you be more successful in everything else you're doing.

[00:51:25] Hala Taha: [00:51:25] I totally agree. Priorities are so important. And where can our listeners go to learn more about you and everything that you do?

[00:51:31] Jeremy Ryan Slate: [00:51:31] Absolutely. So if they want to check out everything we're doing at command your brand, I put together a really awesome piece for them on how they can, find out more of the things they don't know about not getting featured in the favorite podcast.

[00:51:40] So it's called the seven reasons you're not getting featured in your favorite podcasts, and that is over at command. Your brand.com/seven reasons. And the word seven or the number seven work for that. Perfect. We'll stick that link in the show notes and make sure that we support Ryan. Thank you so much.

[00:51:56] It was such a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for listening [00:52:00] to young and profiting podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Jeremy Ryan slate. Jeremy's career shows so much strength and preserve arrogance, and it's really important to have a great personal brand in this digital age that we live in really a digital brand.

[00:52:16] These days can be comparable as having a good first impression. So when you meet somebody in person that takes about 30 seconds for them to make an impression. Have you, and it's very hard to change that initial impression. Even if you meet that person over and over again and have multiple interactions with them, they're always going to remember you by that first 30 seconds that they met you.

[00:52:38] It's just in our human nature. And so your digital brand reminds me of that a lot because people will be searching for you on Google for 30 seconds. And whatever they find about you in that 30 seconds is what they think of you as, especially if you never meet in person. So it's like they do a quick search and then they've kind of judged who you are and you could be a top expert in your field.

[00:52:59] You could [00:53:00] be at the top of your field, but if you have no digital presence in someone's search for you. You could get passed up for opportunities for someone who is less experienced than you, just because you don't have a digital brand. So you have a digital brand, whether you like it or not. And it's just really up to you, what you want people to see.

[00:53:16] And so every day gets more and more important to start your digital brand. The other takeaway I had for this episode was when we discussed how we should focus on our purpose, instead of just our passions, we always need to be reflecting inward so that we can understand our strengths and all the value that we bring to the table.

[00:53:33] And we also need to remember that life is so short to just coast through it. I mean, after Jeremy's mom's accident, she had a stroke and then he had the motivation to find something he was actually good at. And that circumstance that his mom went through really fueled him because he felt he has one life to live and he's got to control his life.

[00:53:51] And that led him to becoming the master podcaster that he is today. And most of you guys probably know that I can relate since my dad's passing. Yap has [00:54:00] literally grown 2000%. My downloads have grown 2000%. I grew company from basically no employees to 40 employees since he passed away last may. And it was because it gave me that fire under my butt that I really needed.

[00:54:15] And I really just want everybody to remember that you need to embrace new opportunities, take as many experiences as you can. Don't waste time and energy on things that don't make you happy. And in order to profit, you have to push through fear and realize that taking action, even when we're 100% not ready.

[00:54:32] And when things are 100% not perfect is the best way to go. And the only way we can truly grow. So remember just take that messy action, get those experiences, stack those skills. So that one day you can find a career that you truly flourish in. If you want to learn more about how we can find our true purpose, check out episode number 98, design your dream career with Ashley Stahl.

[00:54:56] Here's the clip from that episode

[00:54:59] Ashley Stahl: [00:54:59] yeah. I [00:55:00] mean, there's a lot of three worded tirades that feel really good when people say them, but you don't really know what to do with them and follow your passion, do what you love and the money will follow. All of those things feel good in theory, but I think they leave us a little bit more lost than we even started with.

[00:55:14] Because if we're being completely honest with ourselves, we can be passionate and even interested in a lot of different things. But there's a big difference between being a consumer of something and a creator or a producer of that thing. So in my case, I love fashion. I love cupcakes. I would be a horrible fashion designer.

[00:55:33] I would be a horrible cupcake baker. They just, because I have an interest or passion in something, it doesn't equate to a skillset in it. And so my biggest advice, I would say for career advisors and anybody in their career right now is to upgrade the quality of questions that you're asking yourself to get clarity in your career.

[00:55:50] And that starts with, instead of asking yourself, what industry do I want to be in? What am I passionate about? Those are good questions, but what a great question is to me is what is my best [00:56:00] core skillset? When have people seen me at my best, again, if you want to avoid being misled by overused mantras, follow your passion checkout number at 98, design your dream career with Ashley stall.

[00:56:12] If you haven't subscribed to young and profiting podcast, please make sure you do so that you can be alerted every time we drop a new episode. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please drop us a review or comment on apple podcasts, Castbox Podbean or wherever you listen to these podcasts. I want to shout out two reviews this week.

[00:56:30] Hala Taha: [00:56:30] The first one is from Julio Velon Suela who listens on Castbox. Yap is a super awesome powerhouse for cultivating pearls of wisdom from subject matter experts. I listened to this podcast to learn the latest of the greatest scoop on how to enhance productivity, influencer and side hustle skills. I highly recommend listening to Hala Taha and her fabulous guests while Julio, what a sweet review.

[00:56:54] Thank you so much. And the next review is from T-Mac 1986, young and profiting [00:57:00] interview with Dr. Caroline leaf. The show with Dr. Caroline was awesome. So much great information. Still have a lot to take in, but very informative. You are a great interviewer. Whoa, great job Hala for those interested in the episode, T Mac is referencing it's episode number 114 with Dr.

[00:57:18] Caroline leaf. And she also recently joined me on a clubhouse. Panel called the gap, live conquering invisible enemies, a mental health masterclass presented by Talkspace. If you guys enjoyed the episode with Dr. Caroline, definitely check out the yap live that we had with her. And if you haven't checked out, either of them, I would highly encourage you to do so.

[00:57:38] Dr. Caroline leaf is absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much guys, for your reviews. And if you would like to be featured on young and profiting podcasts like T Mac and like Julio, make sure you drop us a review. You can drop us a review on your favorite platform. And it is the number one way to thank us here at young profit podcast, we are so grateful for all of our listeners and all of your [00:58:00] support.

[00:58:00] You can find me and connect with me on Instagram at @yapwithhala or LinkedIn, just search for my name, Hala Taha. And I'm also on clubhouse. I host events in there almost every single day. You can follow me there  @halataha and big thanks to the yap team as always.