• Changing Direction with my Newsletter in 2025

    I had a friend who would always announce they’re “about” to do “something,” without ever saying what it was. But before they did it, they’d announce something different, repeating the cycle of announcing and never doing.

    They’d just be thrashing, hoping to find something that worked before it even had a shot at working.

    Every so often I worry I do this — change directions too often, before a strategy can really take root to determine if it works.

    But I’m conflicted because I also don’t want to keep doing the same thing if it’s not working.

    In reflecting on 2024, I realized that I’ve done a poor job at positioning myself in a way that I can truly help solopreneurs who have podcasts.

    Part of it is that I was thrashing a little bit. I was offering too many products and services that fit the bill of, “Sure, I can help you” vs. “This is the thing I really want to be known for.”

    This worked out OK for my bottom line, but inhibited my growth.

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    Build Your Email List with Relevant Content

    Visit any major city, and you’re likely to be met with street vendors who are trying to peddle their wares…likely at a price that is…well you wouldn’t pay Porche prices for a Ford Fiesta.

    When my wife and I were on our honeymoon, we were constantly approached by these folks, some of whom were just begging, some who has these fast talking presentations to try to trick you into paying for a trinket. 

  • Iterating to Grow Your Podcast: Next Steps for How I Built It

    I often talk about how course creation is not passive income, which I think is an increasingly less common misconception. What’s generally not a misconception is, “podcasting is passive income.” For one, podcasting is something you need to show up regularly to do well. Second, most people aren’t making money podcasting. But still, growing complicit in your podcast format and process can really stifle your podcast’s growth. You need to iterate.

    With that in mind, here’s what I’m doing to continue growing my podcast, How I Built It.

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    I’ve Been Hiring A Lot

    My aspirations of being self-employed full time have always been about me running my own little business. I never figured I’d be hiring anyone to help me – employee or contractor. I like to say that when you’re a younger business owner (or person, I suppose), your surplus is time. I never wanted to buy premium software if I could make it work myself. I never wanted to hire anyone if I could figure it out.

    As you (or your business) grows, you have more responsibilities. More clients or oveerhead. Maybe you have a family or other obligations. Time becomes a premium, and hopefully money is the surplus. Even if it’s not money, it’s value. And lately I’ve been seeing the value in hiring people so I can be more effective with my time.

    It Started As an Experiment

    My first hire was someone off of Fiverr to edit my podcast for me. Yes it was a side gig but editing took way too much time for me. I had a day job, and only limited time for my side work. The value proposition made hiring an editor an easy win: for $15-25 he’d edit my episodes. This task took me over an hour, and would cost me over $100. Like I said – easy win.

    It Started to Grow

    While I’ve left that first editor, I’ve moved on to another I’m very happy with and things are pumping on all cylinders. Since then I also hired 2-3 transcribers, depending on the project and needs.

    This was another easy win for me because I was using Rev, and my transcribers were more affordable and integrate right into my process. It’s nice to be in contact with a single person who works with you long term.

    Now both editor and transcriber work together thanks to mypodcast process automation. New episode goes in Dropbox. Editor edits and re-uploads. Transcriber transcribes.

    Hiring a Video Editor

    The next contractor I hired was for something I’m fully capable of doing. In-fact, people hire me to do it. But when it comes to creating my own courses, the most time consuming part thatI don’t have to dois editing the videos.

    Editing was always a barrier to finishing the projects too. I’d be pretty spent after writing and recording hours of video content, just to need to spend more hours editing. Plus, if my tired eyes are the only ones watching, I was more prone to error.

    LinkedIn Learning Showed Me the Way

    When I started making courses for LinkedIn Learning, I got first-hand experience of just being able to focus on the content, and handing off the editing to someone else. It was liberating.

    So for my more recent course releases, I decided to hire a video editor who recommended. As a bonus, he has experience editing for Treehouse, so he’s used to working on similar content.

    This means great communication, and needing to explain fewer things. As soon as it makes sense, I’ll likely have him edit myYouTubevideos too.

    Up Next: A Virtual Assistant

    That brings us to today, and my next hire: a virtual assistant (VA). This is something I’ve been turning over in my mind for at least 2 years, but I’ve never been able to pull the trigger.

    When the pandemic hit and I was working fewer hours – my daughter’s daycare shut down – I made a list of all thing things I did that I didn’t need to do, but couldn’t automate. The list was long.

    But I was still able to get work done for at least 2 hours per day, during my daughter’s nap and various times when she had the iPad. That all changed when my son was born.

    My wife went back to work in October and we’re keeping the kids out of daycare for now, so I have virtual no time to get work down, save for 30-45 minutes when they are both napping at the same time. What pushed me to finally hire a VA was frantically trying to do data entry while both of my kids napped.

    I thought, “Why am I stressing to get work I don’t need to do, done?”

    The Process So Far

    The process so far has been:

    1. Make a list of all the things I’d want my VA to do
    2. Look for good places to hire a VA
    3. Sign up and look at candidates that fit the bill
    4. Send a list of questions
    5. Review applications

    I still have some applications out and will definitely go more into depth once I make a hire I’m happy with, but I’m thankful for friends who’ve been through the process before.

    Side Note: Documenting What I Do

    One side note I wanted to mention was I’m also going through and documenting what I do, mostly with quick explainer videos. This should ease the on-boarding process.

    However, I’ve also read that having a VA can help you define your processes, so I’m keeping an open mind.

    Any advice or pitfalls? Let me know in the comments!

  • Why You Should Start A Podcast Right Now

    In 2018, both Seth Godin and Pat Flynn stated they believe podcasting is the new blogging. It feels a lot like that too. Back around 2004, when blogging really exploded, we saw a number of tools come out to make publishing easier for those who aren’t tech-savvy. Blogger, Live Journal, WordPress, and Moveable Type all set out to do something that hadn’t been done before: allow people who know nothing about website development to set up their own websites.

    Now, we’re seeing the same thing with podcasting. But if you can, should you? Here’s why you should start a podcast.

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