Posts

Rob Greenlee: Podcasting for Everyone? – Why It’s Easier than Ever to Start Making a Podcast (AoL 122)

A lot of creatives want to have a podcast. In the past, it took a lot of work to get one off the ground – especially when you’re talking about post production.

However, we’re in 2018 and a lot has changed since the mid 2000’s. Including the introduction and evolution of handheld digital devices – particularly phones and tablets.

In today’s chat with Spreaker’s Rob Greenlee, we reflect on what he had to do early in his career as a podcaster and how that has changed to today.

This is a conversation you don’t want to miss if you are on the fence about starting your own podcast or already have one and want to know where the industry is going.

Enjoy!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How did Rob first get started in podcasting before the word “podcasting” even existed? 10:05
  • Did he always see himself as “made for radio”? 14:16
  • How has podcasting becoming more accessible been key to it’s development? 16:40
  • What’s some of things podcasters should be aware of in the future of the industry? 22:08
  • Should people be focused on using podcasting as a marketing tool or an actual way to make an income? 26:44
  • What’s the ideal podcast length when getting started? 32:34
  • Is mobile podcasting or live broadcasting something that new folks should try? 36:25
  • Is there any specific equipment that someone would need if they chose to do Live Recording or Broadcasting? 39:16
  • What’s Rob looking forward to in the future? 44:35
  • Who are 3 influencers who’ve helped him to where he’s at today? 47:12
  • What’s something he’s currently learning about? 49:24
  • What’s the smallest decision he’s made that’s had the largest impact on his life? 51:30
  • What’s the meaning of living a life of abundance? 51:58

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

 

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Creating Live Broadcasts at School

Booming Business of Podcasting

In an Age of On Demand – Is Live Worth It?

Ask the Podcast Coach Dave Jackson w/ Rob


Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on CastboxiTunesStitcherSoundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

Break the Cycle: Using Corrective Actions to Overcome Bad Habits and Mental Blocks

It’s true what they say. A person who is convinced that they can or can not do something is right.

Even when we’ve figured out what our personal mission is or our next steps in life are, many times we’ll find ourselves still in a place where we might think “Well, the ideal me might be able to do this or have that – but I’ll never get to that point. I have these problems to deal with.”

If you have that kind of perspective, then you need to break the cycle.

Why?

Because this is the mindset of a victim. Victims blame others or their situation in life for their shortcomings. If you pay attention to the media, there’s a lot of this going around.

Unfortunately, a victim is just one of 4 internal saboteurs that can affect our ability to actually achieve what we want to do.

The others include the child, whose entirely naive and innocent. They focus on family and fun.

There’s the drama queen, who just feeds on drama and being the center of attention.

Then there’s the prostitute, who might say “I have these standards and I’d never do… <fill in the bank>”, but as soon as as a large enough reward enters the situation, they throw their standards out the window.

Personally, I can recall being one or more of these at different points in my life. 3 of the 4 I used quite regularly when I was in college. (I don’t remember ever trying to be a drama queen. Video games kept me from being in everyone’s business.)

It’s no wonder that I didn’t feel like my life was going anywhere!

Eventually I was able to stop the vicious cycle, and hopefully what I learned can help you too!

 

Building Your Awareness

Don’t Aim For Perfection – Go for Mastery!

Being more aware of your surroundings, or simply being more present, I feel is the biggest ingredient in getting out of your own head.

What do I mean by this?

Well, when you think about your time in school, if you were a good student, you might have been focusing on doing everything perfectly.

However, in life, we can’t be perfect. In fact, trying to be perfect before we actually take action only prohibits our eventual success.

Have you heard that an entrepreneur doesn’t go “ready, aim, fire” but instead goes “ready, fire, aim” when they’re starting a business?

That’s what I’m talking about.

Entrepreneurs have to be aware of their situation and read it for what it is. Why? If anything clouds that perception, then their product or service won’t do as well as they’d like. They could build the perfect solution to a problem they believe their market wants, but if they’re not actually getting feedback, then they’re not really building what the market wants.

 

Check Your Outdated Caveman Firmware

Another thing that clouds our perception of reality is our antiquated feeling of fear. On his podcast, Jordan Harbinger regularly has guests on that talk about how many of our bad habits are from outdated caveman habits – fear is one of them (jealousy is another).

Back in caveman days, it made sense to have a decent amount of fear. They had a ton of threats to deal with in their day to day lives. Some of these threats included large animals – some that wanted to eat them for lunch.

So the more fearful they were, the more likely they’d stay alive.

However, that fear today prohibits us from stepping out of our comfort zone. In our conversation with Marti MacEwan, we chatted a bit about how this fear gets in the way of us becoming public speakers. (Here’s a bit more on the topic from Dr. Dave Guin if video is more your thing.)

In both the case of running from predators and public speaking, what you’ll find out is that this fear can be totally rational. The trick is to be aware enough to understand why that fear is there in the first place. What could have triggered that feeling? If nothing presents itself as a trigger (for example, the audience isn’t going to laugh at you) – then you should proceed.

The more you do this, the more you can harness it as somewhat of a “Spidey Sense” to tell you if a certain situation is wrong or not.

 

Instances Where Action-Correction is Useful

As I previously said, a real entrepreneur doesn’t go “ready, aim, FIRE!”. Instead they’re all about “ready, FIRE, aim!”. As veteran Andrew O’Brien said in his interview, being an entrepreneur isn’t about being a sniper. It’s about seeing where the bullet lands and adjusting!

But entrepreneurship isn’t the only instance where this cycle can be used. Here’s a few others:

  • Personal Spending (Use cash if your spending is out of control!)
  • Health and Wellness (Count your caloric intake!)
  • Investing (What works, what doesn’t?)
  • Relationships (Learn to care what your significant other cares about so you can help them get what they want when you get what you want and visa versa.)
  • Fun and Entertainment (Get out there and give it a shot! Don’t knock it until you try it! Want to learn to dance? Then dance!)

 

Action Steps

Ok, so your next step here really depends on how you’re planning on using this new information. In most instances, it probably would help if you have someone external to give you feedback – so get an accountability buddy.

Another thing that would help is to have a journal. Why? Because you don’t want to keep all these thoughts and ideas about your learning about in your head all the time! Perhaps that journal takes the form of a blog. Maybe it takes the form of a calorie counter app on your phone. Heck, maybe it’s a financial statement.

Just keep track of whatever you’re trying to improve. Doing so will allow you to make better judgements in how you can adjust your game!

6 Steps to Reinvent Yourself

In my quest to find my true self over the last 10+ years, I’ve realized that there is a TON of self help courses, books, and even “big events”… that could be considered fluff.

People (including myself) buy into these programs thinking that they’ll get the exact same results as the thought leader.

If that thought leader regularly travels the world, they’ll get that opportunity if they blindly follow their advice. Sounds, good, right?

Well, maybe.

On top of finding your personal mission (where you’re at) you need to do a real study of where you want to be, as well.

You don’t want to try and obtain something you don’t want, right?

I mean, can you imagine changing your life for “the better” only to realize that the place you’ve arrived in life is nothing like you thought it was going to be?

I can’t imagine it’d be too easy to go back to your “old life” at that point.

So after you’ve spent the time figuring out who are and the options you have – how do you actually choose a path that won’t be a complete waste of your time?

How to Reinvent Yourself

Once you have your personal mission figured out (which is like finding out where you are on a map), you need to find out where you want to be in life (your destination). The catch is that this destination needs to be a place that you’re committing yourself to not only arrive at, but live at.

Why? Because once you put in the work to become that new person and you’re actually successful – it’s hard to go back to your old comfortable self.

So that said, just like you might consider spending a vacation to get to know a new locale, you might want to spend some time seeing if this new big work and life change is what you really want to do.

 

1. Connect with those who are already doing what you want to do.

In the 9 to 5 job world, it’s easy for us to see ourselves moving up. We see what our supervisors do and think “I could do that better than them!”.

In the entrepreneurial space, however, it’s a bit harder to imagine yourself in that space because we don’t have that regular connection with people who are already doing something.

Seek these folks out.

 

2. Get some time with these folks and ask Useful Questions

It’s well known that if you want to make a change in the 9 to 5 world, you want to get some time with someone who works where you want to be. You wouldn’t ask them, “how do I start working for XYZ Company?”. Instead, you’d say, “I’m thinking about a career change and I was wondering about a few things when it comes to working for XYZ. For one, do I start from the ground up or should I develop my skills elsewhere?”, “What’s it like working there?”, etc.

Likewise, if you’re looking to start a fitness coach business, for example, you should find 3 or 4 people who are already successful fitness coaches. Then ask them a list of questions that are important to you.

Find out what their daily routine is. How do they meet with their clients? How long did it take to get to their level of success?

Heck, if it’s someone you know, you might even ask them how they came to the rates they charge their clients.

 

3. Don’t Go for the Feel Good Answers

When you’re asking these questions, you need to be going for the right answers. Don’t let your thoughts and emotions cloud your perspective of the truth.

Also, if the people you’re talking to can’t answer the questions you have on your list, then you might need to find another person or two to ask.

As you’re getting these answers, you should be coming up with a clearer picture of what it would be like to be in this new role. The more research you do, the more you’ll find out if it’s right or wrong for you. Be transparent with yourself.

 

4. Know the length of your runway.

Once you’ve determined that you’re ok with this new role and everything that goes with it, you’ll need to start thinking about the transition time. It could take you 6 months to ramp up, it could take you 3 years.

How much are your expenses per month? If you’re floating under $2000/mo budget to pay your bills, do you have the 12 grand you need for the six months? Maybe you’re on the larger side of that. How can you allocate $72k for next 3 years?

 

5. Make a Plan

Once you’ve done the research in figuring if you want the life and how you’re going to arrive there, actually write it down. Write it in a way as if you were telling someone else. You want a ton of details.

If you do it this way, you’ll have more checkpoints, but you’ll have a better chance of arriving where you want to go.

Also, don’t worry about all the fluff that people say you should have. This means vision boards, business plans, mission statements, etc.

If you really need them, they can come later. Right now you need to focus on the step-by-step method of how you’re going to reach your next level.

 

6. Get Accountability

For the most part, if we want to change something in our lives, most of us need external motivation to keep things going. Chances are, you’ll eventually deviate from our intended path.

However, if you have that person that helps you keep your times lines and projects in check, you’ll significantly improve your ability to achieve them.

You don’t see professional athletes having success without a small army of support. So why would you want to try something you’ve not achieved by yourself?

 

Action Steps

So if you haven’t already, the first thing you should consider doing is finding out what your personal mission is. Luckily I have a resource for you to do just that.

After you spend the time to go through it and do the exercises in it, you’re ready to start talking to people in the field you want to be on.

Best place for that, of course, is social media. LinkedIn used to be the only place to connect with people who could help you like this. But, if Facebook is where your network is, use it!

Then, as you let them know what you’re thinking of doing, see if they’d be willing to talk to you about how they got to where they are. You can ask them for a specific online meeting OR you can just ask them through messages over time. Personally, I’m a fan of actually talking with someone.

Also, be sure to check out Damion Lupo and Christofer Ashby’s book Reinvented Life, and my upcoming interview with Damion himself if you want more information on this subject!

Kate St Hilaire – Being Introvertedly Bold: Unlocking the Magic of Introverted Intuition (AoL 121)

Introverts are said to be geeks, lonely, and awkwardly shy. At least that’s what society would have us all believe. Many of us use that stereotype as a means to stay in our comfort zone.

In fact, we trick ourselves to think that extroverts are the only people who can make a big impact in the world. I mean, they’re people-people, right?

Actually that’s not totally the case. Some of the most influential figures in tech, art, and business have been and are introverts.

So how do we embrace our introversion and use it as a superpower?

That’s what today’s guest, Kate St Hilaire, helps members of her Facebook community with.

Join us as we talk about how she found herself in this business and how you can use your leverage your intuition as a super power!

Enjoy!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • When did Kate realize there was a big difference between introverts and extroverts? 8:05
  • Why did she pursue studying Psychology in school? 9:14
  • How’d she came to the realization she could make her interest in introversion as a business? 11:05
  • What can happen if people can “get over” their introversion? 27:42
  • What are some specific tools that someone can use to change their mindset or get out of their limiting beliefs? 31:04
  • What’s Kate looking forward to in the future? 35:48
  • What are 3 of Kate’s top favorite books? 41:39
  • What’s a gift she loves giving others? 42:36
  • Smallest decision she’s made that has had the largest impact on her life? 43:30
  • What is something Kate has learned to say no to? 44:54
  • What’s the secret to achieving personal freedom? 46:21

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

 

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

#BeBoldGoLive Challenge 1

#BeBoldGoLive Challenge 2

You Don’t Want to Bother Anyone?

Put yourself out there to make more impact!

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunesStitcherSoundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

The 5 Levels of Leadership: A Way to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

You guys know that I’m a big student of leadership. Heck, I even got my masters in the subject! As such, one of my favorite influencers is John Maxwell, and I once heard this really interesting lesson of his.

He called it the 5 Levels of Leadership.

Since the time I’ve learned about these levels of leadership (and posting this post on December 19, 2010), it’s helped me put a few things in perspective when it comes to not only seeing my progression, but recognizing where other influencers are at in their journey. By using this simple tool, among others, I keep myself from comparing where I’m at in my journey to where they’re at.

If you find yourself comparing your level of influence to others on social media and it bums you out, then you should definitely consider changing this habit!

You shouldn’t feel like you’re in a competition with them. Instead, you should use them for inspiration. Chances are good that they’ve had a longer journey and during that journey have had to go through each one of these checkpoints.

What’s great is that you can too!


As you all know, I’m a fan of John Maxwell. A really REALLY big fan. And I believe the main reason why is that I’ve always been interested in what makes a successful leader successful.

One of the key things to note about being a leader is that, according to Dr. Maxwell, leadership and the ability to influence others are basically the same thing. So in many, if not all, of his talks and writings, he will say that leadership IS influence.

With that said, it’s pretty obvious why one would want to be a leader. Just think, the more you lead, the more people that will agree with what you believe (for their own reasons)!! So really, your ability to influence others is a huge part of being successful not only in life, but also in business.

So how does one become a leader? Well, you can definitely wing it as many people do. You can have natural charisma (or any other leadership traits) and just get by OR, like anything else, you can learn to be one – A great one.

For me, I have had to relearn to be one – a real one. Not a guy who simply manipulates people to do what he wants them to do. Neigh, I mean a real leader who leads by example. A leader who pulls people with him and not pushes them. (Side note: people who push people where they don’t necessarily want to be often lose those people because they have pushed them too far.)

So answering the question… one becomes a leader by understanding key principles of leadership and practicing them. It’s as simple as that. Part of those key principles is the 5 Levels of Leadership. A note about these levels is that they are somewhat linear. Many times you must lead someone through level 1 before they are really in level 2 or 5 for that matter. However, this is not always the case.

5 Levels of Leadership:

Level 1.) Leadership from Position

This leadership level is the most basic. Many times it is usually not earned. One person has a title that another person does not. And because of this, one person reports to the other person. An example of this would be two people working at a restaurant. One has title of manager, the other has the title of line member. More often than not, the line member reports to the manager what they need to know and that’s it – without much feedback. Often with this level, there is minimum rapport because the person.

Level 2.) Leadership From Respect

This leadership level is just a notch higher than positional leadership. This level is where people start following another because they actually want to! The key to this position in leadership is that the leader shows that they care before the followers are interested in what the leader knows. You can begin to grow professionally as an organization when people follow you on their own.

Level 3.) Leadership from Results

People follow you not only because they want to, but also because of what you have accomplished.  Your group/organization will start to see what’s possible because you’ve actually accomplished a few things! And guess what? As a result, morale will rise even further than it was at the respect level.

Level 4.) Leadership from People Development

At this level of leadership, people follow you because of what you, as the leader, have done for them personally. Loyalty is key. At this point, the leadership has not only lead the organization to better things, but it has lead to the people themselves growing as leaders. Also, successful leadership at all levels is has an underscored by a win-win philosophy.

Level 5.) Leadership from Mentorship

At this point the leader is definitely respected. He has spent years developing other people and the organization. As a leader you are bigger than life and your success is shown through a life of accomplishment. Because not many people get to this level, people seek your knowledge for the success of other organizations.

In the end, success in leadership can be accomplished by any one. Something that is important to note is that the higher up in the levels a leader is, the longer it takes for that leader to get their own results and the more important it is for them to be aware of the leadership levels themselves.

If you’d like to know more about Leadership in general, for a starting point I highly recommend checking out John Maxwell’s Book – Becoming a Person of Influence.


Actions Steps

So where do you fall? How do you think you could get to the next level?

Even if you’re not actively comparing yourself with other influencers online, this is still a good way to measure where you’re at on that leader journey. As I’ve said in the past, all of us creators who have a message, product, or service that we want to give to the world… we’re eventually going to be leaders. It’s those of us who are aware that influence is leadership who will make the most impact.

So, have it. Let us know where you’re at in your journey below!

Self Fulfillment: The Secret to True Success

In our world today, we’re often seen as doing the right thing when we’re seeking success. I mean, why not? On the surface, success seems like the perfect way to measure someone’s value to society. The more success someone has had at doing a particular thing, the more likely they’ll be able to teach someone else to do the same thing.

Right?

Well, perhaps.

See when I think of the word success, I think of it more as a label coming from external sources. Someone else has told me I’m successful. Whether by a simple compliment or by getting my degrees in college, it’s been someone else telling me that I’m a success.

On that same note, I’d really only say I’m successful when I achieve goals that I set for myself.

However, as much of a good feeling I had when I got my Masters, it was short lived.

The hard reality set in that I hadn’t been really setting my own goals. Others had put emphasize on what I should be pursuing. When I achieved that, I asked “What now?”.

It took me a good several years to truly figure out the answer to that.

Here’s what I’ve realized.

 

Modern Success is Superficial

Since our success is usually measured by other people, it’s probably not the best measurement for ourselves and navigating our own personal journey.

Take, for example, your typical “successful” professional athlete. On the outside, they seem to have it all. Many have a job that pays super well (the low end is $100k/yr for NFL players), and because of that, they should have a cushy lifestyle compared with the rest of us.

They should be set for life.

As we know, this isn’t always the case. For some people who go the professional athlete route, their money goes as quick as it comes in. Or they get injured on the job and are unable to perform at the same level. For those folks, they’re not considered any more a success in life when they end their career vs when they got started.

So maybe there’s another way to measure success?

Well, in professional sports, we can say that a player has had a successful career if they have had great stats over a certain amount of time.

But, from their perspective, good players tend to not really care about padding stats. They simply want to be considered great at what they do. It just so happens that good stats in professional sports usually means someone’s really at their craft – playing their sport.

Thing is, not all professions have these measurements of greatness built in. In fact, most don’t.

So, the question is, how do we measure our greatness?

 

Greatness comes through Mastery

Those professional athletes could not have the stats that they had without seeking mastery in their craft. If you have two people with the same level of talent, who will come out ahead? The one who works on their craft day in and day out? Or the one who just tries to wing it?

In sports, we see this time and again. The players who study film and go through the reps in practice are going to be more successful than those who don’t.

Same is true about the rest of us.

Those of us who improve in our craft a little more each day are going to eventually get better than those who just do the same thing as a hobby.

As we work towards this mastery, the better we get at something, the more we’ll be fulfilled.

So, if that’s the case, the more fulfillment we get from doing something, the more potential we have to be great at something. If we don’t get fulfillment from doing something, then there’s most certainly going to be a cap in how great we’ll be able to make ourselves at it.

 

Action Steps

So as you’re thinking about this new definition of “success” and how importance true fulfillment is, perhaps we can think of it in simple terms. Here are a few questions to ask yourself.

How many things are you currently doing or have done because you wanted the reward at the end? Compare that to the activities you do because you truly want to get better at that particular craft or process. Which percentage is higher?

If money or stuff wasn’t a measurement of true success (because it isn’t), what would you be doing as a career? Are you currently at your job because it pays the bills? If so, it might be time to consider a change.

And finally, since we measure true success by the fulfillment we get out of what we put our effort into (and not through the view of others), are there any specific ways you can measure your current fulfillment – whether it’s in your work or through making yourself a better person?

Personally, knowing how many people I’ve helped live a better life helps gives me fulfillment.

Perhaps you can measure your success through that scale?

Or maybe, you can track your success based on something completely different – such as how well you can play an instrument or how much you’ve improved your health over time. Heck, maybe it’s something like how well you can speak a language.

 

Dave Sanderson – Moments Matter: Why Being Certain about an Uncertain Future is Necessary to Your Success (AoL 120)

It’s been said that real leaders step up in challenging moments. In fact, that’s one trait that professional sports players have to possess in order to win close games. Even us creatives need to be able to give clients what they need when they need it. We also need to be able to do well under fire during negotiations as well.

Unfortunately, life can be a little more complicated than playing games and making business deals. In today’s world, we’ve become all too familiar with crisis. And those that can help cope with these traumatic times, can quite possibly save lives.

That’s exactly what today’s guest, Dave Sanderson did.

In this interview with Dave, we find out what he’s learned from the Miracle on the Hudson and how he’s using that to empower people around the world.

Enjoy!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Who was Dave before the “Miracle on the Hudson”? 8:37
  • How does a sales guy become the head of security for someone like Tony Robbins? 9:54
  • Where did Dave get the skill set to handle the plane crash? 11:47
  • How did the plane crash affect him emotionally? 13:34
  • What made Dave that he should write a book after the event? 15:05
  • How does the lesson Dave learned on the Hudson about leadership translate to everyday entrepreneurs? 17:38
  • What are a few common traits that Dave sees in successful people he meets around the world? 20:30
  • How can someone “do the right thing” when they’re not a decision maker in an organization? 24:09
  • How did Dave finally get over his fear when it came to doing his own thing? 27:18
  • What kind of individuals is Dave currently working with who deal with PTSD? 30:15
  • What’s he looking forward to in the future? 5:05
  • 3 Influencers who have helped get to where he’s at today? 36:52
  • What’s the best advice that he’s ever received? 37:26
  • What’s something that more people should be talking about? 37:49
  • How can people be a difference maker in their community? 38:23

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

KMTV “The Morning Blend” Interview

Tony Robbins Giving Props to Dave

Dave’s TEDx talk

Titania Jordan Interview

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunesStitcherSoundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!