From Quitting a Job to Building a Fortune: The Journey of Elevate Media’s Founder Chris Anderson

00;00;24;04 – 00;00;47;20
Speaker 2
Welcome, everyone, to the Firing the podcast. On today’s episode, we are joined by Chris Anderson, the founder and CEO of Elevate Media, a full service podcast production agency for six and seven figure business owners. In 2020, Chris fired the man to build a life he loved and has been able to do just that since Chris and his team helped these businesses elevate through video podcasting.

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00;00;47;22 – 00;01;09;05
Speaker 2
They helped these businesses launch, produce and grow their podcasts into top 10% and hire globally without all the extra work. He has worked on projects in tandem with Fortune 500 companies such as Apple, Amazon, Bose, Rolls-Royce and many more. He is also the host of Elevate Media, a top 2% globally. Listen to show. Welcome to the show, Chris.

00;01;09;06 – 00;01;11;28
Speaker 3
Thanks for having me, guys. Super excited to be here and have a conversation with you.

00;01;11;29 – 00;01;18;27
Speaker 2
Absolutely. So to start things off, can you get us up to speed on your path to starting Elevate Media?

00;01;19;01 – 00;01;43;18
Speaker 3
Yeah. How how long you want me to go now? It can be a very long story, but I’ll try to keep it brief. Busy. Back in 2020. There are a lot of things that led up to the moment of me quitting my job to start pursuing entrepreneurship. You know, lost a lot of loved ones in a short amount of time, you know, covered with kind of start to trickle it in in the world and just saw the frailty of life and the brevity of life.

00;01;43;21 – 00;02;02;17
Speaker 3
And it just got to the point where I got tired of someone else telling me what my time was worth and where my time could go. Bill, listen to a lot of, you know, individuals in the world of personal development, business development, entrepreneurship. And I saw the possibility. I knew that there is something out there I could do to build a life.

00;02;02;17 – 00;02;25;10
Speaker 3
I wanted build a life I loved and dictate my own time. And so 2020th April 2020, COVID hit in Indiana. And at the same time, I decided to quit my job. I actually gave them four weeks notice, which was April. Halfway through that, I got furloughed and sent home because of COVID. And so my journey started there. And now if you’re seen the video, if not, you can edit that out.

00;02;25;10 – 00;02;46;09
Speaker 3
But Kenny has a poster behind him and says, Burn the boats and burn the boats was kind of my motto. I had read a book and I want to say McGregor was his last name. I can’t remember. But the last Arrow was what? The title of the book was called. And in there he told the story of, you know, the the general who told us, people, hey, we’re going to this island, we’re going to fight, but we’re burning the boats when we get there because it’s either win or die.

00;02;46;09 – 00;03;00;20
Speaker 3
And there’s no turning back. And so that was my motto. Now, burn the boats gone after this. I felt led to do it and not going to look back. I’m going to take it one step at a time. And so that’s kind of I kind of jumped into it. I don’t necessarily tell people to do that. It’s not really the easiest thing.

00;03;00;21 – 00;03;21;05
Speaker 3
Entrepreneurship is already hard as when you quit your job cold turkey with no money coming in from anything with no business background, it’s it’s not for the faint of heart. And so did that. And I’d had my podcast going since 2019. It was a different name previously, and I was just learning from entrepreneurs. I was inviting six successful entrepreneurs on the show, learning from them and in sharing with other people.

00;03;21;05 – 00;03;40;04
Speaker 3
And so now in 2020 I was like, Oh yeah, okay, I’ve learned enough. I’m going to help other people grow their business. And the problem is I hadn’t done it yet. And so there is this that misalignment. I think internally, I didn’t really want to sell that because I knew that I hadn’t done it. And so there was like kind of like that battle because I’d seen so many other successful entrepreneurs doing that.

00;03;40;04 – 00;03;59;16
Speaker 3
And I was like, okay, that’s where I should head towards. So I went through 2020, you know, our savings was dwindling. My wife’s just a teacher, so she’s not making a whole lot. 2021 comes around and I have people started asking me, Hey, how’s your podcast growing? Like, how are you becoming successful at it? All these different questions, technical questions, how you find gas, all these things, how do you start a podcast?

00;03;59;17 – 00;04;19;29
Speaker 3
And so I kind of was like, Hey, well, I need some money coming in. So I leaned into that a little bit and started taking on clients on how to do that, how to launch podcast successfully, and you know, that was doing well. But I still wanted to do, you know, the original idea I had and it got to the end of 2021 where we kind of had that road, you know, let’s see in the road where you have to decide.

00;04;19;29 – 00;04;37;28
Speaker 3
And I kept getting these questions and people coming about podcasts and my ego and my pride said, No, I don’t want to do that. I want to, you know, do this thing and you’ll figure it out eventually. It took me a little bit to just sit and still and quiet and kind of listen. And I heard, like, get out of the way, move yourself out of the way and look what’s being given to you.

00;04;37;29 – 00;05;02;08
Speaker 3
Like, look what path is opening up, if you would just take it. And so the end of 2021, I think it was October ended up doing a DBA, doing business as created WL Media Group and and really went full into that. And the next month I think it was the next month or the same month that we did that got my first reoccurring monthly client and it just has been growing sense and yeah, so that’s kind of a condensed quick version, if you can believe it now.

00;05;02;08 – 00;05;19;26
Speaker 4
Absolutely. And thanks for sharing your story. It’s pretty it’s pretty amazing. I love hearing stories like that, why we love doing this podcast, buying the man. And so if we can take a few steps back, we always and I always get this question from listeners. It’s like, you know, what was quitting your job like with no revenue? What was I mean, did you have a plan?

00;05;19;26 – 00;05;28;25
Speaker 4
Did you burn the BOJ without a plan? Like what does that look like for the listeners that are contemplating this or thinking about, you know, doing that in the future?

00;05;28;25 – 00;05;46;04
Speaker 3
Yeah, it was definitely a burn the boat kind of thing. I had an idea, but the idea was the original idea that I wasn’t prepared for that I hadn’t had the experience of doing. And so we really just my wife and I, so, so face to face is a big part of my my story and just my life.

00;05;46;04 – 00;06;03;10
Speaker 3
And it was previous to quit my job where I brought the idea to her. And she’s a math teacher, very analytical, and she said, Yeah, no, no way that that’s going to happen. So this she had a an A-plus, B or C, So you see C down here. But where’s A and B, I got to see those two and I said, okay, I get it, no problem.

00;06;03;10 – 00;06;17;27
Speaker 3
Like, I was like, if this is what we’re supposed to do and this is what God wants us to do, you’ll be on board because that’s what I believe. And I believe you’ll keep us on the same page with that. So eventually she did, and that’s what led to me going to my job. And there wasn’t a real plan, but the plan was figure it out as we go.

00;06;17;27 – 00;06;32;14
Speaker 3
You know, the kind of the Indiana Jones last crusade, I don’t know, making this up as I go. I’ll just winging it. And again, just taking everything I’ve learned from the guests I had previously on the show, from those I was listening to on other podcast and really just nosed down to the grants now trying to figure it out.

00;06;32;15 – 00;06;37;18
Speaker 3
So there was really no plan, really no plan. Just burn those boats and figure it out as fast as you can.

00;06;37;21 – 00;06;56;04
Speaker 4
Okay? Awesome. I like that. I think that’s so your risk tolerance is very, very high now. I think it’s great, you know, And, you know, I mean, it sounds like you had a backup plan and everything, but. But you went off, you went all in. And so sometimes that it kind of closes off that little voice in the head of like, oh, are you really going to do this?

00;06;56;04 – 00;07;04;08
Speaker 4
Or you’re not Like when you go all in, there is no voice back there saying no. It’s like you, you have one option, it’s forward. And so I really like that.

00;07;04;08 – 00;07;15;13
Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s kind of like that’s, I guess our jump in there. But that’s kind of like how I approach a lot of things. Like I, well, I, we were talking about the other day and I kind of thought about it and, you know, I run marathons and I had previously at least, you know, this is 2023 right now.

00;07;15;13 – 00;07;32;29
Speaker 3
We’ll see the future. But previously I would run marathons. It like little to no training, just go out and run in. You know, I’ve been a runner all my life and things like that and been decent shape but 26.2 miles, you know, I was just like, yeah, I’ll sign up for this race and race. They come around. I said, Well, well, as long as I finish, has all that crossed the finish line, that’s all it matters.

00;07;32;29 – 00;07;48;04
Speaker 3
Like I’m not going to try to beat everybody and, you know, be first or anything like that. I just want to finish and do my best. And that’s kind of has become now like a mental challenge, a physical challenge that I push myself to do. I’m doing one this coming October, and I think I signed up like three months ago and I ran like twice since I signed up.

00;07;48;04 – 00;08;04;15
Speaker 3
But we’ll see how much more I run till then. But yeah, I think it’s just kind of my nature for sure. And I’ve learned and the big thing is like I’ve learned that, but I’ve also learned how to make a little bit better. Calculated risks along the way. Because then, you know, I’ve taken some sort of, you know, come back to bite me or, you know, haven’t been the best outcome.

00;08;04;15 – 00;08;13;14
Speaker 3
But I’ve learned from them and moved on with my life is very anti risk tolerant and she wants to, you know, have the exact plan. And so we kind of balance each other in that way. But yeah, that’s awesome.

00;08;13;14 – 00;08;15;17
Speaker 4
It sounds like you deliver under pressure.

00;08;15;20 – 00;08;17;10
Speaker 3
Yeah. Tried to at least most of the time.

00;08;17;13 – 00;08;17;26
Speaker 4
Awesome.

00;08;17;26 – 00;08;34;20
Speaker 2
I know there’s a lot of people listening to this show that are probably still working a full time job and it’s on their mind. I want to fire the man. I want to do my own thing. So my question to you is what advice would you give to them or what advice would you give to yourself if you could do it all over again?

00;08;34;22 – 00;08;50;17
Speaker 3
Yeah, I’d probably say my job a little bit longer if I could. I know. Make sure if you are going to quit your job. I mean, if that’s the step you’re going to take, make sure you have some sort of savings. We had some and again we we it’s crazy store but like we burnt through it on what we needed to and got to the point where we had to make money.

00;08;50;17 – 00;09;06;03
Speaker 3
And that’s kind of when all they happened. It all just happened at once. But yeah, that’s a hard one because you’ve got to know when to burn the belt. You got to know when to take that leap, because I know people who are successful in their business, but still the 9 to 5, you’re battling that time commitment between the two.

00;09;06;03 – 00;09;34;12
Speaker 3
So you’ve got to know when, if you have bigger goals, when is it time to cut ties with the 9 to 5 and goal and on your business to get that next level because you only have so much time your job, the 9 to 5 takes a lot of it. You could do so much more without it. But if you’re just starting out and you’re not at that point, I would just say continue to grind, continue to hone in your message of your business or your brand or what you’re, you know, who you’re helping with, the product you have, and just narrow that in and get it as lean, as simple as possible and just

00;09;34;12 – 00;09;40;11
Speaker 3
get reps until you’re at a certain threshold that you feel comfortable being able to step away from that 9 to 5.

00;09;40;12 – 00;09;55;11
Speaker 4
Yeah, I like that. So Chris, podcasting was get into podcasting a bit through your audio podcasting video, podcasting. And I know you’re an expert on these. What are your thoughts of audio versus video? What’s what’s the future look like? What’s what’s what should people be focusing on?

00;09;55;16 – 00;10;20;02
Speaker 3
Yeah, for sure. So video podcasts is what you should be focusing on if you’re going to spend any time doing it. And that’s because where we are right now with social media, with online presence, with now I that you have to start competing against because you can do an avatar and a voice video is going to cut through a lot of that because eventually people are going to want people and not avatars.

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00;10;20;02 – 00;10;44;12
Speaker 3
It’s going to be a direct connection prior where we are right now. Video set you apart from all the just video or just all the audio only shows and you’re able to connect better online on social media with video because people are going to be like, See, your mannerisms are going to go see your face as they hear your voice, which just builds a better connection, a little bit easier than if they were just to hear, you know, you speaking.

00;10;44;13 – 00;10;59;27
Speaker 3
So it’s a great marketing tool, it’s a great connection, is a great audience builder. It’s a great community builder, which is the video because of that, that bridge, you can kind of gap, even though you’re not a person that can at least still see you and pick up on things that way. So video is definitely the priority.

00;11;00;04 – 00;11;10;10
Speaker 2
Very nice. Now to somebody who’s listening that may only be recording audio. What’s step one to get them into video? Like what would be a logical first step?

00;11;10;11 – 00;11;25;04
Speaker 3
Yeah, for sure. The first step, make sure your audio is on target. Obviously you want to have the best audio, so if you haven’t got that yet, that would be the first thing to focus on because even if you have video in your audio, audio quality is not very good. It’s going to it’s going to turn people away still.

00;11;25;04 – 00;11;40;05
Speaker 3
So that’s where you want to really start. But once you have that audio down, you’ve invested in a decent mike. That’s going to sound good. The next step is just getting on camera somehow. You don’t have to start with some huge fancy set up. You know, we’ve got a DSLR we use, we have multiple that we can set up.

00;11;40;05 – 00;11;58;10
Speaker 3
You don’t have to have that you can start with. You can also honestly start with the webcam on your computer. As always, you have good audio starting with the webcam and you just make sure you have the right lighting. You don’t have to buy a bunch of tech to start with video. So yeah, that’s where I would say as I make sure your audio is on point and then you can start deciding on your video.

00;11;58;10 – 00;12;15;08
Speaker 3
Do you want to invest in a little bit of lighting to just use your webcam or would you like to invest into the next levels? You know, webcams that are only a couple hundred dollars, you know, then your DSLR is, you know, thousand, 2000, and then the excuse me, the big fancy cameras that are, you know, multiple, multiple thousands that you can get when you’re ready for it.

00;12;15;08 – 00;12;21;12
Speaker 3
So audio, make sure you have good lighting to use for your video and then you can upgrade your camera after that.

00;12;21;13 – 00;12;42;04
Speaker 2
You mentioned lighting and for those tuning in on audio, this may be a challenging thing to describe. But but for those of you tuning in on YouTube, what would be some kind of lighting for beginners? I am taking note of your lighting. Seems very professional. You have an accent light behind you. What is what is lighting for beginners look like?

00;12;42;04 – 00;12;59;11
Speaker 3
Yeah. So really what you want to make sure is your face is illuminated. You don’t want a bunch of shadows, especially on like a talking head kind of like this. Now, if you’re doing more cinematic than that, the whole different story with shadows and things. But to start, you’re doing video podcasts, you’re talking to someone, you’re going to want your face to be fairly illuminated.

00;12;59;17 – 00;13;17;13
Speaker 3
You might be, See if you are watching over on my my left side is a little bit blue. There’s a little bit blue, too. We actually have a LED bar light here and you’ll see on my hand as I get closer, just putting a little bit of color. And again, that’s just cinema effect and you want to have a big thing with lighting is obviously no shadows on the face.

00;13;17;13 – 00;13;43;27
Speaker 3
So you want to have maybe a couple fill lights out at an angle in front of you about maybe 30 degrees off to each side, just slightly above, you know, your eye level coming in. So that’s where you could start. So start with those fill lights and then make sure that they’re not too harsh. So when you see those those big photo lights that have the big white boxes, those diffusers on them, that diffuser helps spread the light out to make it softer and less harsh.

00;13;43;27 – 00;14;09;23
Speaker 3
So it feels better. So you wanna make sure you have at least some diffusers already on your lights? We have two elgato key lights here in this studio. They’re pretty non expensive. They just go on stands, they come with their own diffuser. You can actually use an app to increase the brightness or the hue because if you want warm light or if you want a cooler light, depending on your situation based on, you know, the lighting around you, those are good ones ago, but you could start with those fill lights.

00;14;09;25 – 00;14;27;10
Speaker 3
So there’s no shadow on your front, but just make sure they’re not overbearing where they wash everything out. So start there again. Not not expensive, you know, maybe a 100. Couple hundred, I think. I can’t remember for these. And then the next step you’d want to think about is the depth. So the more depth you can have in your video.

00;14;27;10 – 00;14;45;27
Speaker 3
So there’s a gap between me, between me and the wall behind me, a decent size gap, probably five feet. If I could do more, that’d be good. But that that worked for us. So that that depth separates you from the background allows the light to come on you and then depending on your camera or settings, you can kind of have that little blurry background.

00;14;45;28 – 00;15;00;26
Speaker 3
Now, when you do this, you know, if you’re watching the video, if you’re listening, though, I have a lamp off to my right shoulder in the back and that’s called a hair light that comes and kind of just illuminates the back of the head and the shoulder a little bit. It separates me from my background. So again, that’s another little tip.

00;15;00;26 – 00;15;12;29
Speaker 3
You can just use a lamp, you know, and that’s kind of the simplest to fill lights in front of you or even just wondering, like if you have just one is making sure you’re illuminated and then you separate yourself from the background, whether that be from a lamp or something like that.

00;15;13;02 – 00;15;18;04
Speaker 4
That’s incredible. David, I don’t know about you, but I’m taking the monumental notes. I’ve got some improvements to do over here.

00;15;18;04 – 00;15;33;11
Speaker 2
I agree. I’m looking at all the shadows, my face from the light that I have directly above me. And so, yeah, no, that’s really good tips. And in the way you explained them, you don’t need to be a Hollywood lighting guy to to figure that out. Well, you often things that you may have at your house like a lamp.

00;15;33;17 – 00;15;35;03
Speaker 2
So. No, I really like that.

00;15;35;09 – 00;15;52;12
Speaker 3
You can get crazy with it. You can get really cool with it. Like we have two LED hue led bars behind on the ground, kind of putting some color up just up a little bit. Just again, to separate that background, give a little different sense and we try to match it with this LED bar light over here that just puts a little bit of glow on the face.

00;15;52;13 – 00;16;08;10
Speaker 3
All are changeable. So you can change the colors or whatever you want. I mean, there’s obviously the LED, you know, rope lights or string lights that you could put under and around things. So, yeah, there’s a there’s a lot you can do. I mean, you can obsess. We have, you know, $800 cameras, $600 or excuse me, lights, basil, whatever your need is.

00;16;08;10 – 00;16;18;27
Speaker 3
But like a smaller, you know, ten by eight section here that we’re in, it doesn’t need those big feel lights. Whereas if you’re in a bigger, more open area, you’d want those bigger wattage lights.

00;16;18;27 – 00;16;36;15
Speaker 4
Yeah, that’s awesome. So for anybody listening, if you’re driving, don’t do this now. But when you get home, go to our YouTube channel. We’ll have some clips up on our YouTube channel. But Chris is set up for for podcasting videos. It’s pretty slick. It’s got all about accent lighting. And so, yeah, I would recommend anybody listening. Go go take a look at that and yeah, get some tips.

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00;16;36;15 – 00;16;58;08
Speaker 4
So I know, I know I’ve got some notes here and so I’m going to I’m going to upgrade my set up. So Chris, one thing that you probably get this all the time, I know we get it a lot is entrepreneurs. And if everybody everybody has fears, right? And so what do you tell people that what you’re recommending video podcasting and so maybe someone is comfortable with their voice, but maybe they’re not comfortable being on video.

00;16;58;08 – 00;17;08;09
Speaker 4
And I know a lot of people that they’re like, Yeah, we’ve invited guest on the show before. They’re like, No, I don’t want to do video. And so what do you what do you recommend to people that are that have that fear?

00;17;08;11 – 00;17;26;15
Speaker 3
Yeah, first obviously where is that fear coming from? Why why is that a fear for you? Obviously, that’s got to be where we start because you need to be on video or at least someone maybe you have someone a partner within your business or brand that’s less fearful of it. Someone needs to be, you know, the face. You’ve got to have somebody on video.

00;17;26;18 – 00;17;47;00
Speaker 3
So I would say, you know, figure out where that fear is coming. What’s it what’s causing that? Is it just because you feel like you are going to like you or whatever it is, figure that out and then, you know, just take it one step at a time and start getting like, I didn’t like getting on camera. And still sometimes I’m like, Oh, you know, on camera, especially if it’s like just a phone thing and I’m doing something like a story or a video.

00;17;47;00 – 00;18;05;19
Speaker 3
Mike or. Hannah Well, I want to do it because I want to, you know, share message, I want to help and whatever it is. And so, you know, doesn’t always go away. I require added drama in high school and still getting on stage. You still get butterflies. You still get kind of that nervous, you know, not exhibit nervous energy kind of excitement when you go up there.

00;18;05;19 – 00;18;19;11
Speaker 3
And so it’s just being able to take those steps and walk that walk despite all of that. But it’s definitely I mean, was where we are in the world, in society, in social media, you know, you got to get on video or someone at least does for your brand or business.

00;18;19;16 – 00;18;20;06
Speaker 4
Absolutely.

00;18;20;13 – 00;18;47;08
Speaker 2
So question for you that relates to people that are thinking about starting a podcast. Can I’ve been in podcast game since 2019 and we’ve talked to a lot of people with podcasts, and it seems that there’s traditionally two routes or two motivations for people to go into podcasting. One is this is going to be fun or there’s a social cause or there’s a non-monetary benefit, and then there’s a separate camp of people that get into it with the goal of producing an income.

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00;18;47;08 – 00;18;57;16
Speaker 2
And so for that second group of people, can you maybe set expectations or talk about what is possible or what is realistic from an income producing standpoint.

00;18;57;17 – 00;19;26;09
Speaker 3
As far as what’s plausible, Like what they could actually make on average kind of thing is what you’re asking. Yeah, Yeah. It’s based on, you know, a lot of things. Your audience, your demographic yourself is I mean similarly do doable to make money directly from your show. You’ve got to figure out what that looks like for you. We you know, a lot of our clients, we consult on how to make money indirectly through the show, using their show as that platform that sends their audience, you know, to their product or service and just adding a whole bunch of value within the show.

00;19;26;09 – 00;19;44;20
Speaker 3
But the show itself can directly make you money. And a lot of times people are thinking sponsorships and, you know, that’s what they always hear about how can I get sponsors? And that would be the last one. I would say, Look, if you’re trying to make money from your show, I would again start with just pushing your your product to service or at least directing people to that through your show to make more that way.

00;19;44;20 – 00;20;01;18
Speaker 3
But then as you grow and as you build an audience that you know is consistently there and you’ve, you know, done hundreds and hundreds of episodes and, you know, you stuck with it to show like this is a good deal and then you can start there’s different ways to do it, but you can start charging guests to be on the show.

00;20;01;23 – 00;20;19;22
Speaker 3
You can start having maybe those sponsors come to you, or if you’ve made those connections, those are all ways. Affiliates are a great way and maybe already use a service that you love email, CRM or something, and they have an affiliate program and you become affiliate you can just share, Hey, this is what I use. I love it because this, this it could help you in this if you’re interested.

00;20;19;22 – 00;20;41;21
Speaker 3
I’m an affiliate. Here’s my link. You know, more or less you can make it and tailor how you want, but affiliates is another good one to get kind of revenue coming in. But if you’re thinking your podcast is going to make you really big buck, it can. It’s going to take a while, but you’re more it’ll be better for you if you spend more your energy using it as just a value loaded tool and lead magnet to drag people towards the thing you actually are selling or doing.

00;20;41;22 – 00;21;00;10
Speaker 2
Got it. That makes sense. That makes sense. At one point I want to highlight is that sponsorships is probably the lowest thing on your list, and I think that’s something that people go into right out of the gate thinking about. I know when we started that was something that we were thinking about right out of the gate and have since pivoted to more of the affiliates and things like that.

00;21;00;10 – 00;21;25;06
Speaker 3
So if you have a super, super, super niche show, like super specific, maybe it’s a hyperlocal like for your city or something specific like that, then that’s a different that’s a different ballgame with sponsors because of your hyper local show, your show about Indianapolis, and even that might be too big. So if your show about just north of us, Carmel, Indiana, maybe it’s just a show just about Carmel, now you have the opportunity to say, Hey, we’ve had we have this show about Carmel.

00;21;25;07 – 00;21;45;23
Speaker 3
You have a decent following that live in Carmel that want to know about Carmel, obviously, specifically Carmel, because that’s what the show’s about. Go to local businesses, say, Hey, look, this is what we have. Would you like to, you know, be a sponsor for X amount of episodes or whatever it is A hyperlocal or a super niched in show has more possibility to getting sponsors earlier than, you know, a show like mine.

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00;21;45;23 – 00;21;52;24
Speaker 3
It’s just helping entrepreneurs grow is not as super hyperlocal or hyper niched as those can be. So that’s something to think about too.

00;21;52;27 – 00;22;10;16
Speaker 4
No, that’s excellent. Next question I have is and you know, it’s kind of it’s our job to, like, bring out all the nuts and bolts. What are the order of that? What are the best things that you have? Right when we interview people? And so as David alluded to in the intro, you’ve built the Elevate Media podcast into like a top 2% globally.

00;22;10;16 – 00;22;21;24
Speaker 4
Listen to show to provide maximum value. What are is, let’s say, the top three things that people can focus on, whether it’s their brand, a podcast, anything top three things to focus on that that helped you grow.

00;22;21;25 – 00;22;49;08
Speaker 3
The first one is being a little bit more specific on your message, what what your episodes are about. You know, you’d be all over the place and you know, I’m blessed. Elevate has grown like it has because we are a little bit more broad. You know, we’re talking about, you know, elevate your brand through the stories of successful entrepreneurs and, you know, the episodes I share solo and so that the first one would be know your message and know who you’re talking to those kind of together, because that will help you keep on track and keep dev sounds, you know, relevant to those listening.

00;22;49;08 – 00;23;05;06
Speaker 3
And that’s a big one. So no one who who and what you’re talking about. The second would be consistency. It’s funny, I’ve talked to a lot of a lot of podcasters who are like, Hey, you know, exact same question. How did you get the top 2% globally? Like how did you get charted things like that? Because we want to do the same thing.

00;23;05;07 – 00;23;25;10
Speaker 3
So, okay, well, how, how often you releasing an episode? Oh, you know, we’re pretty consistent. Like, okay, what’s consistent? And, you know, we do one a month. Okay, that’s not going to work. I hate to tell you, like if that’s your cadence, that’s just it’s going to be you pursue personal growth. It’s like, what if you’re watching Netflix and you got a show coming out, You know, right now, secret agents on Marvel on Disney.

00;23;25;10 – 00;23;44;14
Speaker 3
Plus, what if an episode came out, you know, one Wednesday and yet we’re all another month before the next one in this you’re going to get bored. Are you going to move on to something else? Assemble your episode. You need at least five weekly once a week. And again, that comes from my mind frame of it being something more than just a hobby, something for fun that just kind of takes up time because I have a purpose for the show, and I think most of your listener would too.

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00;23;44;14 – 00;24;00;20
Speaker 3
So you’ve got to treat it as part of, you know, your business main crucial piece. And so having that consistent weekly cadence is going to keep people, you know, on board. I mean, okay, every week I hear, you know, something that’s going to be a value. Help me move forward. So that that consistency is crucial in that cadence.

00;24;00;20 – 00;24;15;25
Speaker 3
At least once a week. We do three a week now, but I started four with one a week for a long time. So just doing that and staying with it, you got to get over it. You got to do more than seven episodes and think you’re going to be Joe Rowe and you got to do way more episodes to have any success.

00;24;15;25 – 00;24;35;12
Speaker 3
It just that’s just part of it. We’re kind of up on 300 or over 300. I mean, nowhere honestly, on numbers, but I just keep moving, keep, keep that consistency. That’s the second one. And then the third always keep improving and be open to advice and feedback from your guest, from your listeners. So always be learning and in and innovating because there’s always something we could do better.

00;24;35;12 – 00;24;51;16
Speaker 3
I can do something better here. I can always improve that. I can improve my topics. I’m definitely still trying to improve on being a better speaker and so there’s always things we can do to to grow and improve. And, you know, feedback from guests are great. Hey, you ask a lot of questions, you talk too much. Well, a lot like anything.

00;24;51;16 – 00;25;06;15
Speaker 3
Just take it with a grain of salt and take it as positive feedback so you can grow and improve. Same with your audience. Look your reviews, if you’re happy or if they’re not, they’ll say it and say, okay, can I do something better to reach more people so that would be the third is, you know, just continue to grow and innovate and keep moving forward.

00;25;06;15 – 00;25;27;16
Speaker 4
That’s excellent. And just to kind of recap, essentially, Chris, you you mentioned fundamentals, right? Being open to constructive feedback and consistency and have a simple message. What is this? What are they where are you going to delivering value and what are you going to speak to? And so I excellent. One follow up question is like you had mentioned, you did one show for a while and now you’re at three.

00;25;27;16 – 00;25;42;07
Speaker 4
For anybody looking to grow, what was your when you switch from one, do you go from 1 to 2 or from 1 to 3? And what was the impact that it did it like? Was it did it correlate to the amount of your stat, I guess your download, your stats or charting? And did it correlate to the amount of episodes that you generated.

00;25;42;07 – 00;25;58;23
Speaker 3
From one straight to three? Because I, I got the point. It was actually just this year that I decided that to do that with the show because, you know, I’ve been interviewing successful entrepreneurs every week, you know, since two years. And it and I was like, okay, now, like we’re building something. I’ve had success. I want to share what I’ve learned.

00;25;58;24 – 00;26;13;29
Speaker 3
I want to share, you know, and show my expertise as well, because it’s all part of the bigger business picture as well. But I was like, I have stuff, I have stories I can share, you know, and get that out there and motivate and inspire, hopefully, and people can hear me, you know, explain and teach and approach these different topics.

00;26;13;29 – 00;26;29;26
Speaker 3
And so that’s one reason I wanted to do it. But will, from 1 to 3 with money being the interviews we do, and then Wednesday and Friday I do a solo or I release a solo each week and it was it and it was also another it was a stretch moment to is like, okay, we’ve been doing this for the podcast for, you know, two years, three years, what’s next?

00;26;29;27 – 00;26;44;09
Speaker 3
How are we going to grow, How are we going to innovate, how are we going to improve? And that was the next step to push me kind of a little bit more out of my comfort zone of coming up with topics and getting topics to speak on and speaking solo for episodes. So that kind of was the reasoning behind it.

00;26;44;09 – 00;27;03;00
Speaker 3
As far as like, do we see any change? Funny enough, I don’t really look at metrics a whole lot. By metrics just come obviously with the business side of things. So downloads, I think we just guess we could just continue to consistently grow. I have noticed weekly downloads have increased and yeah, I’ve had a lot more people I guess, reach out to be on the show, which has been it’s been a cool thing.

00;27;03;00 – 00;27;17;09
Speaker 3
We’ve actually that’s one reason we started to charge when people reach out because we’ve done a lot of work with show, we do a lot of marketing, we built the network, the audience, and so a lot of people want to push their thing or whatnot anyways. So we do a, you know, a small thing and it’s been going well with that.

00;27;17;09 – 00;27;32;02
Speaker 3
But yeah, it’s just been, you know, just consistent growth and that’s what a lot of people need to look at. They want to see their numbers jump. You know, you have thousands per week or per episode right away and it takes time. I think. I think the last time I the average download per episode was 75. It’s nothing crazy.

00;27;32;02 – 00;27;50;07
Speaker 3
You we just all see those outliers of Joe Rogan and things like that. All these celebrities, you’ve already done the work to build a huge audience they put on our show and they’re going to get those numbers. So yeah, the thing about that too, like don’t don’t worry too much about that. As long as you’re continually growing, speaking to your audience, being in know what they need and you’re having consistent growth, like things will happen.

00;27;50;07 – 00;27;50;18
Speaker 3
So.

00;27;50;20 – 00;28;11;18
Speaker 2
So as we sit here talking in 2023, for those of our listeners that may already have a podcast and they’ve got the fundamentals down right, they have good audio, they’re consistently posting, maybe they have a YouTube presence with video, but they, they’ve seen their downloads kind of plateau. What are some strategies or tactics to continue to build that audience yet?

00;28;11;18 – 00;28;26;18
Speaker 3
Ask them what are they doing right now to connect with their audience? What are they doing to advertise the show? Are they just posting it once, once a week? You know, exact same thing? Like are they posting on social media once a week? That’s not enough anymore. You know, some people say, oh, you just need to post once or twice a week.

00;28;26;18 – 00;28;42;00
Speaker 3
It’s okay, really. You got to post once a day. And that might seem daunting this hour, but you’ve got to think who else is in your market who like how can you set yourself apart? So showing up more and and leading people to the show more, Don’t be scared to say, hey, go check out the show. The most of my posts at the end.

00;28;42;00 – 00;28;58;04
Speaker 3
Hey, this was from Elevate your podcast. Or go check out this topic on the Elevate your podcast. And you know, I’m just big about pushing it out there and letting people know about it. That would be one way. Just make sure you’re getting it out there more in front of people. The second way is get on other people’s shows, share your value.

00;28;58;04 – 00;29;15;04
Speaker 3
Share that topic to other audiences that have been built and share your knowledge, share your stories, share your excitement, or whatever it is to a show that has a similar audience. Not at all be the exact same thing. There’s going to be people who say, That sounds like a great show. Am I going to learn something? And then they’re going to go to subscribe and listen to something.

00;29;15;06 – 00;29;21;15
Speaker 3
So that’s a that’s a second big way, you know, organically without necessarily having to pay anything. And then, of course, there’s ads. Do you want to look into those.

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00;29;21;15 – 00;29;29;11
Speaker 4
Before we get into the fire around? I wanted to ask, Chris, is are there any other messages or anything else that we didn’t cover that you think could be helpful to the audience?

00;29;29;12 – 00;29;50;19
Speaker 3
I think, you know, don’t get discouraged. I think that’s a big one. On entrepreneurship. You know, podcasting just don’t get discouraged, you know, play the long game. If you can play the long game. And that’s that’s the most important thing. These short term hopes and dreams, instant gratification type stuff like that. You’re you’re just not going to make it if if you can’t play the long game.

00;29;50;19 – 00;30;02;22
Speaker 3
So that’d be one thing I just remind people don’t don’t focus on the downloads as much. Don’t even focus on the charts and stuff as much. Just focus on adding value, connecting with an audience, and just keeping things streamlined and simple as possible.

00;30;02;23 – 00;30;22;06
Speaker 4
Excellent advice. Yeah. One thing that David and I have done is kind of tried to create the podcasting experience where we enjoy it, and so it’s like a passion project for us and it’s not like, Hey, we’re chasing this and chasing that. So I think I think that that advice is excellent. Okay, So Chris, we we run all of our guests through the ringer, and it’s called The Fire Around.

00;30;22;06 – 00;30;22;11
Speaker 4
Are you.

00;30;22;11 – 00;30;25;28
Speaker 3
Ready? I think so. What is your favorite book, Lord of the Rings?

00;30;26;04 – 00;30;27;22
Speaker 4
Awesome. What are your hobbies?

00;30;27;23 – 00;30;34;19
Speaker 3
The lesser. You have any specific hobbies? I love to travel or being outside around animals. We have a mini farm and then working out.

00;30;34;23 – 00;30;43;25
Speaker 4
Okay, excellent. In the random marathon, right? Yeah. Yeah. What is what is one thing that you do not miss about working for the man?

00;30;43;29 – 00;30;50;00
Speaker 3
I do not miss having someone tell me what my time is worth, where my time can go, and how much money I can make.

00;30;50;00 – 00;30;56;23
Speaker 4
Absolutely. Last one. What do you think sets apart successful entrepreneurs from those who give up, fail or never get started?

00;30;56;23 – 00;31;17;07
Speaker 3
Yeah, I think it’s the fortitude to endure. I think having the courage to battle through all the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, I think for those who have started, that’s that’s a big one. They can have the fortitude to endure. They can do anything because entrepreneurship, it is a marathon. It’s it’s climbing a mountain and then going down the valleys and it’s everything.

00;31;17;12 – 00;31;34;14
Speaker 3
If you haven’t started it thinking about starting a business and entrepreneurship, very get ready because it’s going to test you, it’s going to stretch you, it’s going to beat you down a lot. It sounds terrible and it is. Sometimes it’s hard. You can make it simple, which is good, but it’s always it will be hard. It’s not going to be easy.

00;31;34;16 – 00;31;50;23
Speaker 3
And it’s funny, I just talked to a friend of mine the other day. We were talking about it and, you know, hey, how’s life, how’s business at home? I said, It feels like I’m going through a refinery right now. I’ve been doing this, you know, 12, 19, 20, 21 with everyday. And right now I feel like I’m in another really, really refinery type era.

00;31;50;23 – 00;32;10;07
Speaker 3
I just feel like I’m being smelted down, beat, molded, shaved and just, you know, going through this process again, which all of this sounds terrible, but it’s all for good. So I’m leaving parts of me that I don’t need anymore, habits that I don’t need anymore. I’m going through this process, but within that, it’s uncomfortable, it’s painful, it hurts.

00;32;10;07 – 00;32;33;03
Speaker 3
But on the other side, coming out, tools, swords, a lot of things only are made going through this refinery. And so you’re going to go from, you know, a solid object to solid, you know, state of matter to be created into something even more beneficial and more deadly or strong going through this refinery period. So you’ve got to be able to have the fortitude to endure all of the challenges that are going to come your way.

00;32;33;03 – 00;32;36;15
Speaker 4
That’s that’s an excellent analogy, and I really like it.

00;32;36;15 – 00;32;43;07
Speaker 2
So for our listeners, if they’re interested in working with Elevate Media, what would be the best way to get in touch with you?

00;32;43;09 – 00;33;07;28
Speaker 3
Yeah, you can either email us at support at Elevate Dash Media Dash group dot com or you can just reach out to me on Instagram at Chris Daugherty Dot Anderson I still personally respond to messages there so you’ll be getting me will begin in a bot or I or an assistant or anything like that. I still you know go and answer those messages in open answer any questions do I love I love that.

00;33;07;28 – 00;33;17;00
Speaker 3
So if you have any entrepreneurship questions, video, podcast questions, anything, shoot them over. To me, I just love helping and I given you know, where I can sell those, be the best places.

00;33;17;00 – 00;33;24;15
Speaker 2
Awesome. Or we will post links to that in the show notes. Chris, I want to thank you for being a guest on the Firing main podcast and looking forward to staying in touch.

00;33;24;21 – 00;33;25;28
Speaker 3
Thank you both for having me. I appreciate it.

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