Homes.com vs. Zillow: What the $1B Portal War Means for Agents

[00:00:00] Speaker 2: Testing one, two. Now you might be able to hear me. Wow. I hope that you were able to hear that whole thing. Um, if not, that's okay. We will, uh, we'll keep rolling as we, uh, as, so again, I just wanted to, um. Check in and, and I'll, I'll re-say it again for the, uh, for the recording. My name is Hector Sania.

[00:00:33] Speaker 2: Esteban, and I've spent much of the last decade here on this earth trying to figure out how to start, launch and grow not only a successful but also a profitable podcast. And I have dedicated much of the last, uh, decade to trying to figure that out. Um, we've produced over probably close to 1500 episodes, we've done millions of downloads.

[00:00:57] Speaker 2: And I think what I'm most proud of though is that we have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars, potentially even millions of dollars in revenue for the businesses that we are doing, uh, these shows for. And I think that that's probably what is, uh, what is most important. And so. Let's just hop in and, uh, and talk about why this is so valuable and as I was thinking about the topics for today, yes.

[00:01:24] Speaker 2: Am I biased? Yes. Do I, uh, hope that one day you work with us to start and launch a podcast of your own? Um, absolutely. And also I've realized that whether you utilize a podcast or whether you utilize some other method, which we'll talk about today, what those are, what that other method is. It's important for you to be top of mind.

[00:01:43] Speaker 2: It's important for you to be in front of your audience. There is hundreds of thousands of, of pieces of content, of posts, uh, that are constantly flying past your prospects, right? If we think about what a prospect's day looks like, they are scrolling through hundreds or thousands of posts. They are flipping through maybe dozens of videos or tiktoks or Instagram reels, and they are probably listening to a.

[00:02:10] Speaker 2: A piece of content, some sort of media. And so that's a, that's a lot of things that people are consuming. And also what's great is that it gives you a lot of opportunities to be able to, to get in there. And I think another thing that's probably worth talking about right now is that there's really been this sort of democratization of content.

[00:02:31] Speaker 2: I, I remember back in, um. Actually, I did my very first live stream back in 2015, right about 10 years ago, maybe 2016, right around there, almost a decade ago. And I remember that it was this, uh, it was really this opportunity to like, to start talking. And then what was fantastic is that like people would listen and maybe there's someone on the other side watching this right now, but it was the first time and in, in sort of the, the world of business where you didn't have to pay.

[00:02:59] Speaker 2: For distribution, you didn't have to pay for advertising, you didn't have to pay for marketing. I remember, uh, when I, you know, first started, my, my very first business was a, was a sales and recruiting business. And one of the ways that we would market our services is we would send out hundreds, or excuse me, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe mailers, uh, throughout the country, right.

[00:03:23] Speaker 2: And my, my recruiting, you know, operation was targeted towards a smaller area. And so. Even in, in the city of Los Angeles, I would still spend, you know, tens almost. Yeah. Over, I think one year, the last year I was there, I spent, uh, close to $15,000 in mail. Right. That I had to pay in order for them to be able to get it in their mailbox.

[00:03:45] Speaker 2: And then obviously that that was, you know, back in the day, that was 2013, 2014. Um, before, you know, social media had really taken over and that was what you had to do in order to get in front of people. Now, did it work? Yes. Was it worth it? Was it profitable? Uh, yes, probably. Um, it was one of our, one of our best advertising methods and it was a very much a pay to play sort of situation.

[00:04:11] Speaker 2: And so when I got into the world of content, when I got into the world of social media and I all of a sudden said, Hey, if I just. Post, if I just put myself out there, if I just create in content, if I just publish, people will start to notice. And this really helped me when I was starting my online business because I had, well, I didn't have a large budget.

[00:04:31] Speaker 2: I didn't have a large marketing budget. I didn't have a huge runway, uh, or resources or really any. I needed to go out there and I need to start making sales fast. And at the time, no one really knew who I was or what I did or any of the value that I might be able to provide. And so I just started talking.

[00:04:48] Speaker 2: I just started talking. And what was interesting is at the beginning, and even today, this is my first live stream in a while. At the beginning it was hard, it was clunky, it was weird. It was, um, there was a lot of, uh, emotions, a lot of fear, a lot of who am I? A lot of, a lot of those things. Which, um, which.

[00:05:10] Speaker 2: Are difficult, right? They're, they're challenging. And I, and I can't tell you how many times I would sit at the, like, sit in front of the camera back from that and we had to run it off of our phone. We didn't have these sort of, you know, we couldn't do it off of our computer. And so I would stare at my phone for like, the whole hour.

[00:05:27] Speaker 2: I gave myself an hour to be able to, to record and stream and, and prep. And then that whole hour would go by. 'cause I would just be staring at the camera. I would just be looking at it, trying to. Psych myself up, right? But what was going through in my head was all of the imposter syndrome. The who am I, what am I, what, like all of these things to actually that, that prevented me from feeling comfortable even hitting the recorder, the, you know, the live button.

[00:05:53] Speaker 2: And so I get all that and. On the other side of that is an incredible opportunity that if you can get past that, if you can get over that, that what do they think of me? How do I look, how do I sound? All of that sort of step, if you can get past that, on the other side of it, is an opportunity for people to, to notice you, to recognize you.

[00:06:12] Speaker 2: And, uh, I've, I, I don't say this as a, necessarily, as a badge of honor and, and that it is the only way to do it. And also I'm very. Proud of the fact that I was able, that I built my business. We've done, you know, over our time, probably close to a million dollars in revenue, you know for sure. Coming up on that mark.

[00:06:36] Speaker 2: And all of that was done without advertising. Right. And it was all done through, through marketing, right? It was done through content marketing and um. It's, it's free, right? It just takes your time. It just takes your attention. It takes your energy and it takes your consistency. And if you can do that, and if you can do it consistently, what we've seen is after we start working with clients, people, they have people coming up to them saying, Hey, I see you everywhere.

[00:07:03] Speaker 2: Like, I'm seeing you everywhere. And they are top of mind with not only their network, their context, but eventually if you do this consistently enough, you become, you eventually start to become top of mind with your entire market as, uh, as well. Um, so let's, uh, let's keep going, right? We, um, we've got some good stuff to cover today.

[00:07:26] Speaker 2: So the first thing that we're gonna talk about is our parking spot. And I find that a lot of people. When they're getting into this world, when they're either thinking about starting a podcast or creating a newsletter or starting to get into content, they're like, what do I say? What do I even talk about?

[00:07:42] Speaker 2: And even if I know what to talk about, who am I to even talk? Be able, like who am I to even feel worthy about talking about that, right? Or who am I for? For someone to, to listen to me, right? There's, there's all these things that sort of bubble up in our head, and I've realized that if we can identify our parking spot and we can figure out what our parking spot is in the ecosystem in the market, well all of a sudden, a lot of those questions, a lot of those concerns, a lot of those, like all of those things start to go away.

[00:08:11] Speaker 2: And I learned the parking spot from, uh, a concept from my, um, one of my mentors, Jeff Hoffman. And, uh, he wrote a book called Scale, and he talks about it in there. What he talks about is that, you know, even in a crowded parking lot, right, even in a crowded parking lot, everybody has their own spot. It's not like you go into a parking lot and you go, oh my goodness, there's already 30 cars here.

[00:08:32] Speaker 2: There's already 50 cars here. I mean, there might be a lot. It might be full. You might have to work hard to find the spot for you. And also each car. Occupies its own spot. And because one person is in one spot, it doesn't mean that that takes away anything necessarily from someone who is in another spot.

[00:08:53] Speaker 2: And so if we can start to see that branding, that positioning is less about being the just best, right? It's not just about being the best, but it's about being the best for that client. It's about being the right person for that client. In the world of social media, in the world of 2025, in the world of AI and in the world where we are constantly, you know, bludgeoned with all of this content and marketing and offers and all these sorts of things, being able to find the person that is right for us, that we feel is right for us is what's gonna make the client feel comfortable going to somebody or paying more to work with somebody in particular.

[00:09:36] Speaker 2: All right. I want to check in on the stream, see how it, it's doing. Um, looks like my stream metrics say that we're doing okay. If you guys are catching this, um, in any sort of, uh, capacity, uh, you can hear me, let me know. But, uh, it looks like we're, we're picking up. Okay, so, so let's keep rolling. So we've got our, uh.

[00:09:59] Speaker 2: We've got our parking spot. Now, the way that I've helped people identify what their parking spot is, is through sort of a, a triangulation. And I know that's like a really nerdy way of saying, there's this intersection of three things that if you can find this intersection, it is oftentimes completely unique to you.

[00:10:16] Speaker 2: And there are 8 billion people in the world and all, you know what's nice is that yes you are. You are. Probably unique, right? I'm gonna go out and say, and say, probably unique, especially in three areas. The first is your experience, right? Well, actually let's talk, let's talk about your enthusiasm. And I try and make these, you know, uh, these like three E's here, but enthusiasm, experience, and expertise.

[00:10:39] Speaker 2: So when we think about enthusiasm, this is just a really fun way of saying like, what are you excited about? What are the things that you are passionate about? This also. Plays into like the personality and your, your vibe. Some people are, you know, very outgoing and energetic and fun and bubbly, and some people are much more stern and slower and stoic and calculated and meticulous.

[00:11:05] Speaker 2: And some people are mixing between. Some people are, you know, they're the, the rabble-rouser, right? They are sort of the, uh, the contrarian. Some people are the, um. You know, sort of the, the, the, the navigator, if you will, the facilitator. They're the ones that keep things on track, keep things guided, um, but figure out like what, what it is that you like, what, what you get excited about.

[00:11:31] Speaker 2: And then also I would encourage you to think about how do you get excited about. Do you get really nerdy about it and get really detailed and get really into, you know, frameworks or facts or research. Do you get really into the, the people and the stories behind it? Like, what do you get excited about?

[00:11:50] Speaker 2: What do you get passionate about? That's gonna be the thing that, uh, is gonna resonate. Because if you're passionate about it even, and you're excited about it, even if someone else isn't passionate or excited about it. Your passion and excitement can be sort of this, um, this trigger, right? That can, that can inspire that interest in them, right?

[00:12:13] Speaker 2: So they may not be as enthusiastic about that particular thing or seeing it in that particular way, but because you bring that enthusiasm and you also bring that, um, authenticity. It's really, uh, it goes hand in hand and, and people gravitate towards that, right? They, they really do gravitate towards authenticity, especially in a setting like today where there are, um, you know, opportunities for people to spend 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, two, three hours even with you, um, through your content.

[00:12:44] Speaker 2: And so authenticity and your, your being true to yourself is so important. I see a lot of people being like fake. Um, and, and sometimes they can be fake in the way that they think that they are. Like a lot of times they're trying to do what? What they think they're supposed to do or they're trying to act or sound or talk like they think they're supposed to act, sound or talk.

[00:13:09] Speaker 2: And the challenge is, and, and that may have worked for a long period of time, right? You know, prior to the social media age and prior to the internet age and like the podcasting sort of, you know, landscape, you sort of had to fit a box, right? It was like all of the news anchors, all of the late night hosts, all of the, you know, previous traditional legacy media characters.

[00:13:30] Speaker 2: They all sort of fit like the similar type of a box, right? They were, you know, pretty conventional. They stayed toward the middle, right? They were like, like they had, and that was because they had to create this vanilla appeal to everybody. And the challenge with vanilla appeal is that like, yeah, vanilla is cool because people will like, they'll take it and it's like, fine, okay, you give me a few options.

[00:13:55] Speaker 2: Alright, I'll take vanilla. And also, most people, if they have their options right, and they have their, their ideal choice, most people would not pick vanilla. Like, like there are some people, but even then they're like, they want the, the honey bean vanilla, or they want some, you know, vanilla. Although it may appeal or it may be, you know, uh, acceptable.

[00:14:21] Speaker 2: In, in sort of the widespread, it is not, um, it's not right for most people when I say right, like it's not, it is not the thing for the individual. And when we're talking about content today, we're talking about podcasts, we're talking about media newsletters. However it is that you're trying to reach out, you're going to have to be willing to be different.

[00:14:42] Speaker 2: If so, nothing else. They can know how you are different than your competitors, right? And so many. People I see are afraid to differentiate themselves because in the past that was looked down upon in the past, maybe that wasn't the best thing to do. And I'm not telling you, you know, to go out there and, you know, get dreads or, you know, on your hair or have face tattoos or all these things that really, um, you know, seem to like, like people have, have big, strong, visceral first reactions to, uh, and also.

[00:15:18] Speaker 2: I would encourage you to, to be yourself, be more of yourself, uh, be more of your authentic self or the self that is authentic, um, in that sort of situation, right? I mean, I think that we can all be authentic in sort of a professional environment and that may look different than authentic in a, you know, social, maybe even degenerative environment, right?

[00:15:37] Speaker 2: Um, so enthusiasm. First thing, which is like your personality, how like your, your character, and, and I don't mean by like your integrity or your values, I mean like the character that you play. Uh, one of the other things that we talk about with our clients is, is, is understanding, acknowledging, being aware of that character and then even embodying it, right?

[00:15:58] Speaker 2: If you think about a lot of, uh, famous shows, sitcoms, or even like the, you know, you could, you could extend it to. Boy bands or, or uh, you know, TV shows, things like that. There is different characters and all of those different characters have unique personalities and people gravitate and identify and relate more with one over the other.

[00:16:24] Speaker 2: And so by creating this sort of. By kind of veering off of the middle, you actually stand out and you actually align yourself more. Um, and so that's, uh, that's just a huge thing to, to take into consideration. Alright, let me hop back in here and just acknowledge the, the live streamers for a second. Um, I appreciate you guys being here.

[00:16:48] Speaker 2: If you guys don't know who I am and you somehow ended up here, my name is Hector Santi. Esteban, and for much of the, I have been helping. Business owners launch and start, um, profitable podcast. And, um, they topic all about helping you save mind with your audience. Um, alright, let's hop back in. Looks like the screen, the stream is doing okay.

[00:17:14] Speaker 2: Um, if we have issues or you can't hear me, please let me. So the next thing that we're gonna talk about here is your experience. And this is when we talk about what do we, what do we talk about here? What do we, what are we, what is our platform? Why are people listening to us? Your experience is so valuable, and I don't think that your experience can be.

[00:17:36] Speaker 2: Overstated. Now, when I say experience, I mean things like, uh, in specific industries with specific clients. Like, these are the things that you actually have done. I don't mean just like, you know, oh, you worked here for a, you know, a certain amount of time and then you did this job for a certain time. Yes, that's a part of it, but it's like what stories, what skills?

[00:17:55] Speaker 2: Um, and, and less of skills, but what, what stories, what wisdom, what insight, what do you now know based off of living through all those things? Based off of going through all those things that now you go, okay, I've lived through that. I've made those mistakes, I've had those successes, and now I'm going to, I'm gonna do it this way because of this.

[00:18:15] Speaker 2: Like that, that is experience. Uh, it's one thing to learn something in a book. It's one thing to, you know, have, uh. Get cursory knowledge on, on, on stuff or, or even have facts or even have like this intellectual knowledge. Very valid, very helpful. And also that is not yet quite experienced because you haven't been forced to do anything with it.

[00:18:35] Speaker 2: Right? I could tell you how to host a podcast. I could tell you what it's gonna be like to, to run your first interview or to do your first episode or your first live stream. I could, I could do all, I could tell you all those things. It's only when you actually experience them then that do you know what to do, right?

[00:18:53] Speaker 2: Similar to driving a car, it can tell you how to drive a car, but until it doesn't actually matter, until you know what to do, when to do it right, which I think is the real root of experience or the real value of experience, is that now you are able to make, uh, you're able to, to assess situations and then based on your wisdom and your insight, make the right decision moving forward.

[00:19:17] Speaker 2: That often comes because you've had multiple experiences, right? And so that can't be shortchanged. The next thing is the, is expertise. And I realize that I've, we've, we've been belaboring for a little bit and so, um, we'll, we'll try and go through a little faster. Uh, but expertise is, is another thing to not discount or your expertise is another thing to really highlight in your content.

[00:19:45] Speaker 2: And again. People have different skills and I would encourage you to, to really get as nerdy and as niche with your expertise as you can. And what I mean by that is can you think about the skill? Like right, if you want to do, if you're like a video editor, video editing is great, but can you video edit it for certain clients or certain types of projects, or you're really good at certain types of things, you know, for a very long time.

[00:20:11] Speaker 2: And, and I don't know that it's the exact same now, but. Visual effects artists could like, get away with, with being like a one trick pony sort of, right? Like they were the person or the team or the agency to do like fire and they just, they nailed fire. And that was like, that was their expertise. And so they talked about it.

[00:20:31] Speaker 2: And I have, I have made the mistake in the past of going very wide with my, with my expertise and, and both with what I've been. What I'm learning and then also what I, you know, what I share. Um, and I don't know that that was the right decision. And what I mean by that, it was like, okay, when I got into internet marketing, it was like, all right, I need to learn how to do websites and I need to learn how to make funnels and I need to learn how to do ads, and I need to learn how to do, you know, branding and I need to learn how to do, um, you know, follow up sequences and I need to learn how to do social media marketing, and I need to learn how to do live.

[00:21:08] Speaker 2: And there was like all of these things which. You know, I know how to do them now. And I think that I made it work because it, it came together, um, eventually into some sort of cohesive package. And also looking back on it, I probably could have gotten much further, much faster if I would've really dove deep into one of those skills instead of hopping around trying to learn, you know, all these different ones.

[00:21:37] Speaker 2: And so now. That's really been my focus is getting as narrow and, and getting as great at, you know, we do podcasts, right? But all the other stuff around it. Staying top of mind content, like, like really nailing podcasts and really knowing all the ins and outs about podcasts and, and I'm, you know, I'm grateful that that's sort of, that that's happened and also.

[00:22:02] Speaker 2: I know that I need to continue to get better in, within the podcasting realm. And so the video's becoming a big thing. Streaming. What's that? You know, how do we monetize all these things that you, you know, continue to, um, you continue to, to hone and develop your, your skills? That's what you wanna be talking about.

[00:22:20] Speaker 2: It's the, it's the combination of your enthusiasm, what you're, you're excited about, your experience, what you've done, and your expertise, your skills that you have right now. Those three things are oftentimes. Unique. I mean, unless you don't have very much of any of those. Right. Um, which I guess is, is a, is is perhaps the, the case.

[00:22:43] Speaker 2: But if you're watching this, chances are you're pretty enthusiastic or you're excited about something, chances are you have some sort of experience that you've been doing something and that you have acquired some sort of expertise or skillset. And now it's about applying it. It's about sharing it. Um, and uh, and so those are the three.

[00:23:02] Speaker 2: One other thing that's probably helpful to talk about in this, in this section is the, um, like what to do if you are just starting out, or what if you feel like, man, you don't have a ton of experience and you don't have a ton of expertise, but you have a ton of enthusiasm about a particular subject or topic or niche, what do you do then?

[00:23:20] Speaker 2: Can you still get started? Yes, absolutely. And there's two methods to it. The first, uh, was popularized by, you know, Gary V and cogs. And called document don't create. I think that's fantastic. That's great. Um, if you can do that works for some people. And basically they, you know, they build in public, they document what they're doing.

[00:23:41] Speaker 2: Here's what I'm doing today, here's how it's going. I don't know what it, what's going on with it, but here's, here's how it, here's how it's happening. Here's, here's the things that are playing out. That's great. Uh, because it gives people sort of an over shoulder, over the shoulder look and they're able to follow along with someone who is not at the top of the mountain.

[00:24:00] Speaker 2: They're able to follow along and sort of be side by side as they climb this mountain. They can sort of do that with you and that's fantastic. Right. Um, requires a, a ton of humility to be able to say, Hey, I'm, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just doing this, I wanna share it with you because I think that the sharing of it will be cool and, and we can share in this experience together, but there is a ton of humility that's required because a lot of times they're sharing failures, they're sharing doubts, they're, they're sharing things that don't work.

[00:24:31] Speaker 2: And, and that's not always easy on, that's not always easy to do on, on social media. So, um, documenting is, is definitely one option. The second option, which I favor more, and this is just because it's, it's, you know, different strokes for different folks, but I favor more of the, the journalists or the investigator role.

[00:24:52] Speaker 2: And whenever I came into a new niche, or whenever I came into a new industry, naturally I'm curious and so this worked for me, but I just hopped in and just started talking and asking questions from all of the people who were the most successful at it. When I first started getting into like the personal development and business state, I just started interviewing people and I got a chance to interview people like Robert Kiyosaki and, you know.

[00:25:12] Speaker 2: Um, he's probably the, the biggest one, but there are a bunch of other, you know, great authors and, and, and thought leaders that, um, you know, got, kind of got me into the, to the space right when I got into, um, you know, into the different niches and industries that we were in for our podcasting company. Same thing when I, when I started like podcasting as our services.

[00:25:35] Speaker 2: I once again didn't come in saying like, Hey, I have all the answers. It was like, Hey, I'm gonna go talk to as many people who are doing well, and I'm gonna try and find all the answers. And what was great about, it's because I was naturally curious because that was sort of who I was. I was trying to get the answers all on my own.

[00:25:51] Speaker 2: It was just great that we were able to record it and then publish it by association. There's something that happens, right, where like, you know, they see you next to someone you know, who's doing well and all of a sudden there's that, that, that, uh, that association sort of thing. And if you do that enough times, hopefully.

[00:26:08] Speaker 2: You'll actually get the answers right. Hopefully you'll be paying attention. You'll be listening, you'll be taking notes and you'll be implementing and integrating it into, into your life or your business. Uh, but if nothing else, at least they will see that you have been talking to all of these really smart or successful people, and they will, um,

[00:26:28] Speaker 2: at least associate you with their expertise, skillset, knowledge, and such, right? I would encourage you to actually, you know, be authentic and real. And also just talking to the people, just like being in the same room. There's something that happens when someone sees you in a picture or a video or something alongside someone else.

[00:26:44] Speaker 2: Um, all of a sudden their, their, their idea of who you are and the value that you can provide, uh, just changes simply by the people that you are talking to. So that's another really, I think, uh, helpful. Strategy for when, when someone's getting started and they don't feel like, man, I, I don't know if I have all the answers to come in and just say, you know, here's what to do.

[00:27:07] Speaker 2: Um, you can also get the answers. Find, you know, ask the questions that people want to know. Okay. Now, once you've figured that out, right? Hopefully what we've kind of. Done over the first, geez, took us 28 minutes to get there. But hopefully what we've done is we've established why is someone going to listen to you, why are you worth listening to?

[00:27:31] Speaker 2: And, uh, hopefully I've, I've sort of convinced you that you have something worth saying. The next thing though is, okay, where do we actually say it? Where do we actually go out and put that stuff? And so in here I have, uh, platforms. Now I, I could have called it a social media channel. I could have called it, you know, a list.

[00:27:49] Speaker 2: There's a, a. Number of different things that I could have called it, but I thought calling it a platform was really important, uh, first, because you can see here, I've got my three Ps here, so I love my literation. And also I think that just thinking about it as social media or just thinking about it like a podcast or just thinking about it, you know, and sort of this, um, simplified form is really damaging to, to a lot of people.

[00:28:18] Speaker 2: When I was coming up, uh, one of the first books that I read when I got into marketing was, uh, called Platform by My Hyatt. And one of the reasons I like this word, but one of the things that he talked about was that a platform, um, you know, sort of these things when we think about like influencers or we think about, um, yeah.

[00:28:37] Speaker 2: You know, influencers these days. It, it seems like it's sort of a new phenomenon. And influencers have been around, you know, forever. Before it was, you know, social media influencers, it was pop and music influencers and, you know, movies and television influencers. And before that, you know, it was, um, there was poets and there was, you know, it was theater and it was like, it was all these, there's for forever people have been creating these platforms to share their message, to tell their stories, and.

[00:29:13] Speaker 2: Back in the old days. Right. The, the, you know, when I think about, I think of like, you know, continental times or, you know, even revolutionary civil war times for sure. Before, you know, pre, pre-internet, pre electricity, uh, pre microphones. When people, what they would do is they would literally stand up, like on a, on a platform.

[00:29:31] Speaker 2: They would like scan a box or like a stump. Then they would just yell at people, right? I mean they more than yelling, but that's essentially what they were doing is they would just stand on this thing and start talking to people. And what would happen is that as they started to talk, we started to gather people, people started to come in.

[00:29:47] Speaker 2: They started to, to attract their audience. They started to attract the people. That were resonating with what they were saying. And so that is really what a platform is, is a platform, is is a, a place where people can start to come together, right? To hear you, to, uh, listen to you, to learn from you. And then ultimately, what's nice about this is that if you do it the right way, those people start talking to each other, engaging with each other, communicating with each other.

[00:30:17] Speaker 2: And now you've got a community. Now you go from a platform to a community. You go from a platform to a community and so much more opportunity opens up from that, right? Because now it's not just a one-to-one sort of thing, but you have a one to many and you have a many to many sort of effect that's going on as well.

[00:30:36] Speaker 2: So I think that it's really important to, to think about, okay, if that's, if that's our business, how are we bringing people? How are we bringing prospects to our, um. To our business, right? How are we bringing them to our platform so that we can move them down the funnel, move them down the pipeline, uh, whatever it is that we're looking to do in order to turn them into a happy client.

[00:31:03] Speaker 2: So when it comes to platforms, I think there's a couple of things to think about, right? I wrote down, owned, borrowed, and paid. And I think that this is, uh, we're gonna put paid up here just because we're not gonna talk about it as much, but owned and borrowed are things that, um. Have been around, you know, marketing and media for forever.

[00:31:23] Speaker 2: Really the challenge was, is that own media just used to be really expensive and own media used to be really hard to, to to create. Right. You know, you used to have, there was a lot of gatekeepers. It was, you know, own media. Used to be the CNN's, the New York Times, the, the, the newspaper. Right? That was the own media.

[00:31:42] Speaker 2: And in order to start a newspaper in order to start, uh, you know, A CNN, uh, you know, these sort of things. Acquired a lot of capital, acquired a lot of investment, a lot of time, and, uh, and there also weren't these sort of built in distribution, uh, platforms and networks that allowed people to see it. And so what did they do?

[00:32:01] Speaker 2: They looked to, to borrow, right? They looked to get, um, featured on different segments, you know, or I remember growing up getting on like a, like a, a news show was like. You were like a celebrity, right? Like if you could get on a news show and you can get on the morning news and talk about, you know, your business or something like that.

[00:32:23] Speaker 2: Like that would be a really, that would be a really effective way to drive clients, right? To drive marketing, drive, uh, your audience. Uh, the challenge is though, is that once you went on their show, you didn't have anything, you know, it was there, right? You were essentially. Using their platform, using their audience to sell your stuff.

[00:32:48] Speaker 2: And today, essentially that is the, the same thing that's happening with social media. And so, uh, let's see here. Put these here. So borrow media. These are like social media channels, right? Social media. You've got, you know, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. Even YouTube, Spotify, right? All of these, all of these bar platforms and these are great, right?

[00:33:18] Speaker 2: I'm gonna just delete social media. 'cause we put Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, you know, we could even put LinkedIn, Instagram, right? All those things are fantastic. And also if one day LinkedIn or Instagram or whoever it is, decided that all that they didn't like what you were saying. Or they had an error, an administrator error, or something happened to your account or your page, or who knows?

[00:33:40] Speaker 2: The list can go on and on. But if that happens, well, you are on their, you're on their land, right? You're, you're essentially, you know, crop sharing on their, on their land. And so of course you can utilize it while you have it, but if you don't actually have any owned media, then when you're, you're essentially at the whims of you're, you're essentially at the whims of.

[00:34:05] Speaker 2: All these platforms. And so what we suggest is kind of doing a little bit of both, right? So borrowed media is great and it's there, and what's awesome is that it's free own media is yours and you can take it and you can keep it and you can do sort of, not whatever you like with it, but um, you have much more ability to do what you like with it and own media.

[00:34:31] Speaker 2: These are things like podcasts. These are things like. Uh, an email newsletter. Um, I might venture to say that that's probably, that's like it right now, right? In terms of owned media. And what's nice about podcasts is that you have an RSS feed. And so that RSS feed, um, you know, is even if, even if Apple or Spotify decided one day they don't like your show, well you are still on an RSS feed.

[00:35:03] Speaker 2: They can, your, your listeners can go out there and grab it from wherever. Um, and so that is another great thing and another reason why podcasts have kind of become this really, it started out with, with the influence, right? This bastion of, of influence, but then also it's this great place for businesses to create sort of this archive of, of value, right?

[00:35:26] Speaker 2: And especially over time, it's something that can compound over. So I might put over here. Um, a blog, right? If you've got a blog, like a website blog, that would also be own media. But all of these really start to be, um, places that you can build over the long term. And they may not prove immediately fruitful.

[00:35:48] Speaker 2: They may not turn into, you know, uh, they may not have the audience or the built-in audience that something like an Instagram or a Facebook or TikTok, uh, presents you with. And also. Once you develop this, you have a much more intimate relationship with them. You have a much more, uh, close connection and obviously a direct connection to them that isn't, um, isn't hindered by anybody.

[00:36:12] Speaker 2: You know, I was just thinking about like LinkedIn and some of the posts that, uh, that I had that post recently. And it's just interesting to note that certain content with certain words does better than other content with other words. And so. It's like you're playing, you're playing a slot machine game all the time over here with borrowed media.

[00:36:33] Speaker 2: And when you can start to develop this audience of people who are coming and looking for your stuff on a regular basis, well now you're not subject to the wins of a, an Instagram ban or a TikTok, whatever, uh, because you have the, you have the platform and you own it. Um, I'm gonna check in on the stream here, see how we're doing.

[00:36:59] Speaker 2: Hopefully, uh, you guys can still hear me. Um, I'm gonna create a poll and I'm gonna say, can you hear me? Uh, if you guys could let me know, that would be great. 'cause I have done entire live streams without any audio. So, uh, it happened.

[00:37:25] Speaker: All good.

[00:37:29] Speaker: Let's hop into our live here. Oh, more topics. Maybe we'll save the processes more for last, uh, for another day.

[00:37:41] Speaker 2: So let's talk about the content here now. Okay. We've established what we're gonna say. We have figured out where we're gonna say it. Okay, well how do we do it in a way that is actually, um, sustainable, right?

[00:37:57] Speaker 2: How do we do it in a way that actually creates traction, right? That doesn't feel like it's this, this, like, I'm just spinning my wheels. 'cause that can also be another thing that happens a lot with, uh, content creators, is that. You can put out a lot of activity and you can do a lot of things, but unless it is sort of organized, it's cohesive, it's scalable, it builds on each other, then it's going to be, um, it's going to be very hard to, to continue doing it, uh, for, for a prolonged period of time.

[00:38:30] Speaker 2: Creating content is, excuse me, creating content can be a grind just because of the nature of it. And so, obviously, you know. VAs and obviously editors and, and having someone that can help and support with the actual editing and the videos and all that stuff is super valuable and super helpful. And also, if you don't have the right systems and you don't have the right sort of, uh, let's call it architecture, then you could be putting out tons of content, which does actually get you top of mind.

[00:39:06] Speaker 2: But if it's not done the right way. That's all that it is, is just awareness and it doesn't actually turn into sales and it doesn't actually turn into business. And so some of these other parts of it, right, and, and specifically some of the parts of the processes really make sure that you turn that into, um, into real business.

[00:39:27] Speaker 2: So what are the types of content that are worth creating today? There's really two of 'em. Uh, the first is a newsletter, uh, which might be like akin to like a blog, you know? Uh, and the second is a podcast. Those are the really the two, the two options, right? And I put in here, where does that come from? You can either write or you can create video.

[00:39:46] Speaker 2: Those are the two. It used to be that you can create audio challenge with that is there's too many video platforms and there's too many people who are doing video and so you, it, it would just benefit your business. For them to see your, your face, right? And, and for them to be able to create that connection and that relationship, even if it's one sided, uh, with you, with your face, with your tone, like, like being able to see you helps with the sales process, uh, helps with that trust, helps with that authenticity.

[00:40:14] Speaker 2: And so I, I would encourage that if you're going to do a podcast, you should probably do a video if you're trying to, um, do it for your business, right? If it's just a, a hobby or passion project like. That's not really what we're talking about. Um, but if you're creating a podcast for your business, uh, I would definitely recommend making sure that you include video.

[00:40:36] Speaker 2: But some people, they don't like to do that. They don't like to record, they don't like to be on camera. They don't like any of that. Uh, that's fine. Those people are usually much better writers. There's usually those people are usually able to, to put their thoughts and their ideas into some sort of cohesive.

[00:40:52] Speaker 2: Cohesive. Something that people can read. Now you'll notice here I've been ranting and rambling for 42 minutes. I, there is like, if I tried to put whatever came out of my head into some sort of, into something that someone could read and not get to the end of it and be like, what the heck was that? Um. I can't, I can't do that.

[00:41:14] Speaker 2: So that's why I come here and I talk it out and even I've got these things to keep me on track. And, and even after that, you know, part of what we'll talk about on the, the last one or the next step is like the processing. Even after that, I'll take this, I'll go through, chop up pieces of it, find the best clips, rewrite some of the stuff, turn those into text.

[00:41:33] Speaker 2: So what's nice about being able to verbally process and verbally articulate a lot of these things. Is that you can now take that with AI and then you can mix and chop and, and cut and create all of these sorts of things, right from that, from that transcript. So these are the two that I would, I would really encourage you to, uh, to pursue, um, knowing that when we call 'em pillar content, they're called that because you can break off splinters and that's what becomes your LinkedIn post.

[00:42:03] Speaker 2: That's what becomes your, your substack post. That's what, like you take these. This large piece of content and then you can break it down into smaller pieces and bits and pieces. Because what we've found is that yes, people are going to listen to your show, whether, or, or, or watch your show or read your your newsletter article.

[00:42:26] Speaker 2: And also more people are gonna catch and consume the splintered pieces of content, even if they don't consume at the depth to which they might get it. From a full episode or reading the full blog once again, what are we, we're optimizing for top of mind, right? We're optimizing for top of mind. And so yes, writing that one long, great piece for the blog is huge.

[00:42:54] Speaker 2: Yes. Creating that, that podcast for, you know, the episode for your podcast is great and what's going to get it seen by most, the most amount of people is taking it. Chopping it up, repurposing it, YouTube shorts, tiktoks, right? Like you guys know the system. Um, you guys have seen it. It's just a matter of, uh, frankly, it's a matter of, of do you have the right processes that allow it to be sustainable?

[00:43:20] Speaker 2: And I gotta tell you, I have a full team that is devoted to this and it's still like, ma'am, I, I feel like I needed, I need to constantly improve our systems. Like we need to constantly improve our processes to make things. To make things easier. So a couple of things, uh, when it comes to making this simple, uh, two, two concepts that I think are helpful are, are to either batch record or interval record.

[00:43:50] Speaker 2: And I found that different people, it works for different, you know, different strategies, work for different people. Batch recording is where you take, you know, once a month, you take half a day, a full day, whatever you need to do. You sit down and you bang out as many episodes, as much content, as much writing, as much recording as you can in that half day or that one day.

[00:44:09] Speaker 2: So if you could take that half day, uh, and you could turn that into, you know, half day four hours. So if you can turn that into four, four episodes right now, you've got a full month of content recorded, at least if you've got a team or something like that to do the editing. Obviously then it's, it's sort of done from there.

[00:44:29] Speaker 2: But now you've got these batched recordings, so over the next month you don't necessarily have to keep recording again in order to have, have stuff to put out. So a lot of people like to do this. We've even done it where we've done like a. A whole, a whole day, and we try and get eight to 10, you know, 12 even episodes or even over a two day sort of shoot because now we've got a full core, we've got three months of content and we can really focus on the editing, we can focus on the, the scheduling part.

[00:44:56] Speaker 2: So we don't, we don't really have to worry about recording again. Um, you know, for a. That works for some people, uh, and also some people energetically like that does not work for me. Um, it can, but I would much rather do what I call interval recording, which is I just have a standing time that I'm a available to record or that I will record, you know, every week.

[00:45:21] Speaker 2: And some people they have a specific day and time where Tuesday's at 12:00 PM or Tuesday's at 3:00 PM that's their recording time. And so if you're gonna come on as a guest. You pick, you know, Tuesday, the, the 16th or the 23rd or the 30th, or like you just pick any of the, and, and you know, you as a host, you know that on Tuesdays, this is my recording day.

[00:45:41] Speaker 2: Um, I like that for people who are busy, people who have a lot of meetings, people who don't necessarily have the luxury to be able to take a full day to just devote to content. If you can create, uh, you know, these interval schedule and you can have just a standing meeting every single week on the calendar.

[00:46:01] Speaker 2: You will be so amazed at how much, or excuse me, you'll be amazed at how it compounds over time, right? Um, and how much content you can create to where you better have these next part, you know, these, this next part of the, of the system. Because if you do this the right way and you interval, you batch record the right way, you'll have a ton of content.

[00:46:28] Speaker 2: And I've even made the mistake where we've recorded a ton of content, but we didn't process it in time. And so then all of that content was just, it was stuck, right? Uh, good problem to have, I guess. And also, um, we needed to figure out how we work the content through and actually get the most out of it.

[00:46:46] Speaker 2: And so the process and the publishing part, um, is huge, right? When we talk about process, I don't just mean yes to editing, uh, but also. Taking that and repurposing. Right. The repurposing is such a, a, a huge part of the processing part because you wanna, you want to get the most squeeze out of that episode.

[00:47:08] Speaker 2: And the way that you're gonna do that is by taking, going back to that pillar concept and by creating a splinter, uh, pieces of content that are, you don't have to rethink, it's just more of repackaging and then publishing, and this is sort of different for each platform. It's different for. Uh,

[00:47:28] Speaker 2: different content types, um, but having some regularity for your publishing. Once a week, once a month, once a day, whatever it is, making sure that that's there and then that's simple. The part that I think is not paying enough attention to is this follow up because I used to think that I just put out content, great people will come to me, and that does happen sometimes.

[00:47:51] Speaker 2: Especially if your content is great and you're consistent and all that sort of stuff. What tends to be more effective is if, when I put out a piece of content, it's usually like a, it's like an invitation, right? It's like this, this thing that goes out to somebody and says, Hey, if you, if you like this, um.

[00:48:12] Speaker 2: You are probably someone that might benefit from Wes working together, right? Or some, you know, something to that regard where the people who engage, I know that if I reach out to them and I'm not gonna just try and sell them right away, right? You can make this follow up process as human and also as automated as possible or as you'd like.

[00:48:34] Speaker 2: It's something as simple as if they like your post, Hey, so and so. Thanks so much for, you know, engaging. Um, please let me know if you ever, you know, need help with expertise, right? It could be something as simple as that, and it's not, once again, it's not gonna happen overnight, or you're not gonna, maybe, maybe that turns into something right away, but if today you post and you get 10 people, you know, to engage, like, comment, whatever it is, and you just reach out and you follow up and you create, you know, a DM conversation with them out of those 10 today and then 10 tomorrow, and let's say, you know.

[00:49:08] Speaker 2: Let's be conservative and say you average five, um, for every post per week, you know, throughout the week. So you've got 25 people that have engaged on your posts. Not a, not a huge, like record breaking door, you know, shattering sort of number. And also if you follow up with those 25 people this week, and then you do it again next week and then you do it again.

[00:49:31] Speaker 2: The third week, and you do it again by the end of the month, there's a hundred people that you've just brought in, warm leads into your ecosystem. And I would imagine that, uh, the more defined that follow up process is, the better. But out of those a hundred, some of them are gonna start to turn into business.

[00:49:47] Speaker 2: And so this follow up process is so critical to gathering and capturing those, those people who are interested that have seen you, that you were top of mind with, and then actually creating a conversation with them. And again, you don't have to be salesy. Uh, I always love going in with value first. So, you know, um, hey, so and so here's a, we just created this free resource if you want it.

[00:50:10] Speaker 2: Here it is, you know, thought you would love it, that sort of thing. And so, uh, it can be that simple. And speaking of which, I'm running outta gas here 'cause I'm at about, just over 50 minutes. So thank you for anybody who's made it thus far, uh, even on the replay and, um. If you want our entire playbook for launching a podcast, it has something like, uh, 25 steps, um, a bunch of different assets that you need, along with, um, all of the, uh, steps that you need to produce, uh, each individual episode.

[00:50:44] Speaker 2: Um, we put it together in a nice notion template that you can get free. So if you want that, just leave a comment here and I'll follow up and send you that as well. If you have any questions about anything that I've talked about today. Feel free to, uh, let me know. Leave those in the comments or you can reach out and send me a message.

[00:51:03] Speaker 2: But, uh, again, my name is Dr. Santi Steon spent most of the last decade trying to figure out how to produce profitable podcasts. And, uh, I'm just so excited that, um, we get a chance to, to interact and, uh, co-create this future together. So, how a wonderful and amazing rest of your day and, uh, see you later.