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The Easiest Way to Start Conversations on LinkedIn (That Lead to Sales)
23 Plays17 days ago
In this episode, Ken Freire talks with podcast producer Jake Doberenz (Theophany Media) about how he fell into podcasting, why the medium is still one of the best “authenticity engines” for building trust, and what it takes to avoid becoming another dead show in the podcast graveyard. Jake also shares how niching down (especially for nonprofits and mission-driven orgs) and relationship-first LinkedIn outreach have helped him grow a lean, specialized production business—plus a quick “fast five” on what he’s testing and where podcasting is headed.
Resources Mentioned
• Theophany Media — https://www.theophanymedia.com/
• Jake Doberenz (LinkedIn) — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-doberenz
• Own The Show — https://ownthe.show/
Timestamps
• 00:00–03:52 — Jake’s origin story: discovering podcasts in a boring archives job and launching his first show
• 03:52–06:24 — From personal podcasts to building Theophany Media (and why podcasting became the main channel)
• 06:24–11:12 — Core benefits: low barrier to entry + the “age of authenticity” and parasocial trust
• 11:16–16:28 — Core downsides: the podcast graveyard, rising quality expectations, and fighting for a listener’s “top 3”
• 17:02–21:17 — Stand-out strategy: “the riches are in the niches” (narrow focus opens doors and PR)
• 22:26–27:00 — Growing the business: getting clear on the XYZ sentence + specializing in nonprofits/faith-based orgs
• 27:02–35:17 — LinkedIn relationship-first outreach + Fast Five (video investment, seasonality, lead-gen podcast, industry shift to video, desired legacy)
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:00
Ken Freire
Welcome to another episode of SoloScale. This podcast is brought to you by the AI-driven marketer, and I am your host, Ken Freire. And today am here with Jake Dobrens. He has his own podcast production studio. So we're competition, Jake.
00:00:18
Ken Freire
No, I'm just kidding. We're not competition.
00:00:19
Jake Doberenz
Uh-huh.
00:00:21
Ken Freire
I'm excited to hear from your story, man, and just like how you've grown it because you've had business. It's gone up and down. It's been great. But we'd love to hear what you're doing these days, man. So before we dig into the actual business, just kind of walk us through the origin.
00:00:36
Ken Freire
Like what made you decide to start podcast production company?
00:00:41
Jake Doberenz
Yeah, you know, I think like most people, just started out of extreme boredom. Well, I don't know if that's most people, but because I discovered podcasts. You have to go back to the beginning of when did I discover podcasts? And, you know, podcasting reached a moment in our culture. Almost mainstream, you have TV shows like Only Murders in the Building that feature podcasters. So it's kind of like having a moment, right?
00:01:18
Jake Doberenz
You know, in front, like newspaper clippings from the 1990s, the basketball team did this.
00:01:24
Jake Doberenz
So put it in the right, you know, this is the 1998 folder for what the basketball team did. Just boring stuff. Losing my mind, but yeah.
00:01:33
Ken Freire
I'm slowly dying.
00:01:35
Jake Doberenz
Yeah, I started listening to podcasts because I'm up in this climate controlled room, no windows, just me. And, you know, like, I don't know if I don't think ghosts are real, but like this is the place where they would hang out, like just so is archives. And so I started listening to podcasts to keep me sane. And I started getting hooked on podcasts and the podcast or listen to were all entrepreneurial stuff.
00:02:01
Jake Doberenz
They're all about growing your business and online business and... all the different millions of ways you can make money from sketchy to less sketchy kind of ways. Like this was, this was 10 years ago. some of the advice, probably not great, but that's what I was getting in my ears podcast.
00:02:24
Ken Freire
Thank
00:02:30
Jake Doberenz
And so, I mean, I suppose it was destiny that like one day I was going to create my own podcast. And I did. did it in 2020 for my first podcast. But always let people know was doing it before it was cool because...
00:02:44
Jake Doberenz
Everybody and their mom and their dog started a podcast in 2020. I did it just before all the lockdown stuff, like just right before all of that. I started, I was planning this for months.
00:03:02
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:03:05
Jake Doberenz
And so we got pot, you know, got me doing a podcast where I'm absorbing every other people's information, but of course, learning and failing bajillion times myself and realizing that it's not possible. This applies to all areas of business, right? It's not build it and they will come.
00:03:25
Jake Doberenz
Turns out crazy. Like you have to like do work to make it something people want to listen to, to make it found in the worldwide web, like all this stuff. So failing doing that,
00:03:38
Jake Doberenz
And that's actually when I started this company, when I started my company, Theophany Media. At the time, podcast was one of the many things I wanted to do because I like doing all the things. So we were going to publish books and, you know, get into all these other different spaces. And I just wanted to have a home for all my creative endeavors. And podcasting was just one of those endeavors. Yeah.
00:04:02
Jake Doberenz
My background is in biblical studies and theology. So a lot of that were kind more that religious Christian adjacent kind of in that sphere, in that space.
00:04:17
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:04:18
Jake Doberenz
And the first one eventually died. the second one, I eventually sold that off to another company. And then I started a third podcast and started really realizing that like,
00:04:30
Jake Doberenz
Of all the different creative endeavors in the world, podcasting is pretty cool, pretty fun. There's a lot of advantages. Doesn't mean it just, it's easy, but there's some really unique advantages to the podcasting space that I'm like, I can't quite get this same...
00:04:48
Jake Doberenz
can't quite get the same buzz, but also can't get the quite same benefits from like going all in on whatever channel.
00:04:49
Ken Freire
Thank
00:04:55
Jake Doberenz
And, and Ken, to be honest, I'm not dancing on Tik TOK. I'm just not going to do that. So, you know, it's, it's me on podcasts instead. Like that's my outlet to, to, to have influence, to, to get a message out to people and things of that nature.
00:05:10
Ken Freire
You know, what's so funny, Jake, is that I'm very similar. was like, I do not want to do TikTok dancing.
00:05:17
Ken Freire
That's why we started. I started podcasting probably in 2019 or somewhere around there.
00:05:22
Jake Doberenz
Mm-hmm.
00:05:32
Jake Doberenz
There you go.
00:05:37
Ken Freire
We coach people on creating podcasts. You help them and manage it and stuff like that. We're always trying to convince people to start a podcast. And you said something very interesting earlier. You're like, hey, there are so many benefits to it.
00:05:50
Ken Freire
I want to talk about the benefits and the cons and how have you mitigated the cons. But let's talk about the benefits first.
00:05:55
Jake Doberenz
Yeah.
00:05:55
Ken Freire
What are the benefits that you have found to podcasting?
00:06:00
Jake Doberenz
Yeah. So, I mean the benefits, one of the biggest benefits of podcasting is the barrier of entry is low. It's relatively easy to get going, to get out there.
00:06:09
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:06:13
Jake Doberenz
There's a lot of things in the world that have, various artificial or natural kind of barriers to it. If you and I were like, we want to go make a big budget Hollywood movie. Well, we're going to run into some roadblocks. That's not, that's not easy. Yeah. You know, we could go get a couple camcorders and run out and run a gun in and shoot our own film. But like,
00:06:38
Jake Doberenz
There's a lot of barriers to making a movie or to doing a TV show or in some cases to writing a book, although that's another area where the barriers have gone down a lot.
00:06:40
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:06:47
Jake Doberenz
But podcasting, like, you know, the very, very basic version of it is... find a software that can record and then record you saying something. And then you put out in the world.
00:07:01
Jake Doberenz
The podcast players are free. the apps don't have the same kind of algorithms that, you know, Twitter or your Instagram will have that kind of show some stuff and hide some others. Like podcast apps are a little more democratic in that way. You're not paying them anything.
00:07:22
Jake Doberenz
you know, there, there's just a, there's that lower barrier of entry. And so like anybody can do it. And if you work hard, like, yeah, it's, it's kind of that nice. There's that, there's a lot of success stories of, yeah, people can make a big or people can, whatever their goal actually is with the show. Yeah. That's doable. That's possible. Yeah.
00:07:45
Jake Doberenz
And I don't recommend people, I don't think you do either, of just press record and just start blabbing. But technically, you could start there. The old joke about, oh, it's the guy who has a podcast in his mom's basement or something.
00:07:53
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:07:57
Jake Doberenz
Like, yeah, okay, I guess you could do that. You probably shouldn't, but you could. And so it's one of the really nice benefits just that it's just easy to get into. And the second one I'll highlight is just is the word that I just find myself using constantly, and that's authenticity.
00:08:15
Jake Doberenz
I believe we are in the age of authenticity, where more than ever, we want to see people that are human and relatable and flawed who have personalities. We like to buy from, you know, companies and businesses and we like to donate to organizations that,
00:08:50
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:08:53
Jake Doberenz
you know, the, the, the next words I'm saying, didn't script, don't think you scripted a lot of this. Like we're, we're, we're raw here. We're just talking about stuff.
00:09:02
Jake Doberenz
And that's really cool about podcasts because as I often say, like we all kind of think that our favorite podcast hosts are our friends. They're that parasocial relationship kind of thing, because we know things about their life.
00:09:15
Jake Doberenz
The guys or girls that are in our ears all the time, We probably know, maybe we know their wife's name. We know how many kids they have. We know their favorite things. So they went on that trip to Italy last year. Like we start thinking they're our friends.
00:09:28
Jake Doberenz
We don't know them from Adam, but we build a relationship with them.
00:09:30
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:09:33
Jake Doberenz
And, you know, if so-and-so runs the, the AI marketing show and I'm like, I need some help in this area. I think of the person who I know and I like, and I trust. And so podcasting is great for building that authenticity. You can do that on social media and stuff. You can do, there's other platforms. You can do that. Not the only place in town to be authentic, but it's just a really nice one. And, and, you know, I, I do polish my episodes. I want them to sound good.
00:10:05
Jake Doberenz
But at the same time, I want them to know I'm a human being and, you know, make mistakes sometimes. I say, I stumble over my words.
00:10:16
Jake Doberenz
I ramble on like I am doing right now. Hey, I'm just like you. Like I'm a normal person who I happen to know some things about some topics, but, you know, we're not too different and podcasts are really good about creating that environment.
00:10:29
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:10:32
Ken Freire
Yeah. And that's what I have found to be so great, where most people are always trying to do like red ocean strategies, like Instagram, like for example, they're like, hey, let's pursue Instagram and try to grow our Instagram. Man, Instagram is so hard to grow.
00:10:47
Ken Freire
Whereas like for podcasting, man, if you get to like 10, 20 episodes, you're technically like in the top 10% of podcasts at that point, because most people have quit by then.
00:10:55
Jake Doberenz
exactly 100% oh yeah
00:10:58
Ken Freire
You know, so it's a lot of fun do it.
00:11:02
Ken Freire
And I love how you talked about the age of authenticity, not to do a shameless plug, but my business partner and I just created a, wrote a book called Own the Show. It's all about becoming an authentic authority in the age of AI.
00:11:13
Jake Doberenz
Beautiful.
00:11:13
Ken Freire
And the whole book is like a pitch for for for podcasting and how we use AI with podcasting. But Jake, I'm curious. We always talk about the benefits of podcasting, but there's also cons, right? Like we can't act like there's not cons to podcasting. What have you found to be the cons and how have you mitigated those cons?
00:11:34
Jake Doberenz
Yeah, well, You touched on it briefly. There is opportunity in the podcasting space, but we also have we have podcast apps littered, littered with bad and dead podcasts. Like there's a lot of not great stuff out there. And as much as that gives us an opportunity that also,
00:12:00
Jake Doberenz
means like we got to be careful with not just becoming another, a part of the podcast graveyard of the ones that didn't make it to 10 episodes, the, or the podcast that is perpetually stuck at, you know, 21 downloads. And one of those is probably your mom.
00:12:18
Jake Doberenz
There is, unfortunately, lot of bad podcasts in the world. It is something about 50% of podcasts don't get more than about 30 listens per episode in the first seven days.
00:12:31
Jake Doberenz
Which means... I have a top 25% show in the world, and people are like, wow, that's so impressive. And I say, mean, yeah, kind of. But also, it means there's so many other people that are really, really bad. Because I don't have any kind of Netflix deals, or Spotify hasn't picked me up. I'm not the biggest show in town.
00:13:00
Ken Freire
Thank
00:13:11
Jake Doberenz
and as more people enter the space, guess what? The, uh, the expectations for the quality is going to increase.
00:13:21
Jake Doberenz
We're not going to accept you, your, uh, computer laptop microphone. know, we're going to want you to have some kind of structure.
00:13:30
Jake Doberenz
don't know. there's a lot of podcasts that used to be just two guys talking and I'm not saying those aren't popular anymore, but we're also like, okay, but what's the point of this episode?
00:13:43
Jake Doberenz
there are, there are plenty of opportunities again, but also we're now have more, we have a lot of competition. and a recent study I read a couple months ago said like, uh, the, the, the, the average Americans that listen to podcasts are,
00:13:59
Jake Doberenz
pretty much only pay attention to like three main podcasts a week. They have their three main ones and those are their go-to ones. So like guys, it's, it's kind of hard to creep into that slot. even let's just say, let's make somebody's top five podcasts. You got to fight hard for that.
00:14:20
Jake Doberenz
You're going to tell people you're worth it to get there. And and, you know, what what's going to make you stand out against, you know, this comedians podcast or these two reality TV stars that are talking about their dating life? Like what makes yours the indispensable podcast? We. We got to be careful there because it is hard. And yes, there's less podcast than there are YouTube videos or music or something like that. So in that sense, the space is less crowded.
00:14:54
Jake Doberenz
people don't have necessarily the same bandwidth to listen to all the podcasts. Like I said, three seems to be that kind of average. And then there are people like me that, you know, mean, when I have my most free time, I'm probably kind of going to 10 different shows a week or something like that.
00:15:14
Jake Doberenz
And then the busy weeks, it probably is like, what are my three shows that I have to listen their episodes?
00:15:17
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:15:20
Jake Doberenz
And then other shows I'm like, eh, I don't have to listen this one. So.
00:15:23
Ken Freire
Yeah. You know, my wife and I joke around that whenever I'm remodeling a house, there's several books that I go through. And then that's when I catch up to all my podcasts. But you're right. Most people only have like three to five that they rotate through.
00:15:33
Jake Doberenz
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh-huh.
00:15:36
Ken Freire
And you got to kind of become that top five person. So I'm curious, what strategies do you use? Because you got clients that you have. What are strategies that you do to get people to that? Like, hey, I'm going to be in the top five of podcasts for for someone to listen to. Yeah.
00:15:54
Jake Doberenz
Well, so one thing I probably should have said little more clearly earlier, you know, you've joked a couple of times about being competition. I'm working mostly with nonprofits and with religious organizations. Like that's kind of my, that's mostly who I'm working with. I'm not necessarily working everybody when it comes to podcasting. So yeah,
00:16:15
Jake Doberenz
I have podcasts. I'm working with podcasts that are in very unique spaces. They're either religious or like there's some kind of social good organization, you know, nonprofit ministry. There's there, there's something that they're, they're doing.
00:16:32
Jake Doberenz
And those organizations have all kinds of unique challenges, but there's a lot of applicable lessons for everybody. And the thing I preach the most probably is the riches are in the niches.
00:16:45
Jake Doberenz
And I have to pronounce it niches.
00:16:46
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:16:47
Jake Doberenz
Some people say niche, but then the phrase doesn't work. And so whatever. can get mad at me later. Yeah. The riches are in the niches. And this is something that I have struggled with so much. We've already touched on it. I'm Mr. I want to kind of do everything in the world. But the thing like when it comes to being the best podcast that somebody listens to often, think to it's so much easier to be the best podcast in the very narrow area than it is to be the best podcast in a very broad area, right? If, if you are having a, a home improvement podcast, that's your thing to be the, just the home improvement podcast, man, so much other competition. this guy over here is probably has a, uh, you know, an, a,
00:17:34
Jake Doberenz
HGTV contract. And so they're, they have all this money to pour into it. You can't beat them. But if you're the best home improvement show in Oklahoma or for renters or whatever it is, like, like narrow that down, add a modifier there.
00:17:50
Jake Doberenz
I think we can suddenly become the go-to person for that. You know, there's a lot of people that, you know, I do a lot of networking and things.
00:18:02
Jake Doberenz
And if somebody says, I need a plumber, like my mind probably kind of blanks. Like, I think I know some plumbers. Like, let me think about that. But if they're, I don't know, the plumber was a bad example.
00:18:14
Jake Doberenz
But like, if they need a plumber for, you know, their apartment complex or something like that, then I might be, oh, know a person that comes to mind there. If you're,
00:18:22
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:18:23
Jake Doberenz
if you have a couple of keywords in your specialty, I just think it's easier to become the top one, easier to get found on Apple or Spotify when somebody is searching something in the little search bar there. It's easier to be top of mind when you're the expert in your little space.
00:18:44
Jake Doberenz
And so that's hard for the clients that I work with, things like nonprofits, but it's like, are you going to be the best nonprofit in the, you know, homeless ministry space? Well, I don't know. I mean,
00:18:55
Jake Doberenz
I don't know what the landscape looks like, but that's probably tough. But I say, you know, be the best homeless ministry in Oklahoma podcast or in Oklahoma city. You know, we can, we can go even more specific like that. I did help a nonprofit start a show that's specifically focused on Oklahoma city and, and some of the, and the leadership things they're doing there.
00:19:18
Jake Doberenz
Easy peasy. And what that leads to is, especially if you're doing that, that the niche, you could have certain news organizations are more interested in covering you.
00:19:19
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:19:29
Jake Doberenz
Like if there is a home improvement, Oklahoma magazine, I don't know. They're going to cover your podcast because it's home improvement Oklahoma. Yeah. that's a story. You just got free publicity or the leadership in Oklahoma city podcast.
00:19:52
Jake Doberenz
whatever.
00:19:54
Jake Doberenz
all kinds of doors open up when you kind of narrow down. So that's the big one that I preach a lot.
00:19:58
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:20:00
Jake Doberenz
Yeah.
00:20:01
Ken Freire
And that is huge because, you know, and sometimes people get stuck. They're like, well, how narrow do I go? Is there enough people? Like if you want it to be a business that, for example, going back to your homeless ministry one, right?
00:20:14
Jake Doberenz
Yeah.
00:20:15
Ken Freire
If you're a business that you're like, I'm only going to work with homeless ministries in Oklahoma City. And you're like, well, Oklahoma City only has three homeless ministries. Okay. That's probably too narrow because you're
00:20:27
Jake Doberenz
Sure.
00:20:27
Ken Freire
You've won the market. You've gotten all three. The way I like to think about it is, can you get a thousand people to listen to this podcast?
00:20:35
Jake Doberenz
Mm-hmm. That's great.
00:20:36
Ken Freire
Is there a thousand people that if you put a lot of work into you do the work, there's going to be like, yeah, I'm excited for this market that you're in.
00:20:47
Ken Freire
But for you, Jake, I'm curious, as you've been growing your business, right, want to get a little bit more practical here. I've got a few more questions before we wrap up. But what's been the biggest strategy that you've used to help grow your business?
00:21:00
Jake Doberenz
Well, I try to occasionally practice what I preach crazy enough. And figuring out that target audience has been really beneficial to me. And it's a journey that I'm constantly on because when I shifted from making my own podcast to helping other people make their podcasts, at first I was kind of for everybody.
00:21:21
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:21:22
Jake Doberenz
in, in fact, like, like in some cases you just got to take where the money is.
00:21:27
Jake Doberenz
Like I had one client who he could throw around some dollar bills and I was like, I'll take you. Well, I can help you out. You have the money. I can help you out. And I did. and, and then over time I realized though, like,
00:21:50
Jake Doberenz
Most people can't come up with that. So maybe I would be top of mind for it. But it helps you stick out more when I am the blank business for blank people so that they can blank.
00:21:59
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:22:03
Jake Doberenz
Like once you start filling in that, I've heard it called different things. I kind of refer to as your XYZ sentence. I'm doing this for this so that this. Once I started filling that out, I think that really made a big difference for me. So I started realizing that One, my name, Theophany Media, the name my company, is already kind of a religious term. Theophany means the appearance of God in the world, like a burning bush or a cloud in the sky. That's a theophany, little academic term for you. And so I was already interested in specifically working with religious clients, and I wanted to work with clients that were doing some good in the world.
00:22:40
Jake Doberenz
And then I realized very quickly, they have unique problems because a software company that comes to me and says, oh, we want to make a podcast. And the of podcast is so that people will buy our software. Like we have, that's a very like, okay, I can help you design a podcast that get people interested in your product. There's some steps there that make sense.
00:23:02
Jake Doberenz
But then you have a nonprofit and it's like, but I, the goal this is, yeah, I want people to give money. I want people to know our story. I want them to share. want it starts getting a little chaotic.
00:23:12
Jake Doberenz
And so there wasn't anybody there's trying to do so many things, for good reason.
00:23:12
Ken Freire
because they're trying to do so many things.
00:23:17
Jake Doberenz
I hesitated to, to go into the nonprofit market because, you know, nonprofit, was afraid I was going to be nonprofitable. and that's still little bit of a, of a concern here and there.
00:23:30
Jake Doberenz
But there are unique challenges that they face. So you know what? They're going to want to work with the person that understands their unique challenges. I have ran a nonprofit. I've worked as director of operations and marketing for a nonprofit. I've worked for churches. I've worked in and out of that space. So I know their space.
00:23:49
Jake Doberenz
And I know specifically podcasting. So like I am the person that can help them and things of that nature. And so that's helped.
00:23:59
Ken Freire
Thank you.
00:24:00
Jake Doberenz
Before I even typed out a message, before I even did any ads or any kind of like traditional marketing, getting that clear was really important for me.
00:24:11
Jake Doberenz
and then the next strategy that's worked has honest to goodness, just been LinkedIn. that is the platform where I've been able to create connections and community, and slide into people's DMS. Like, I don't know.
00:24:25
Jake Doberenz
It's different. Like if I, if I sent a Facebook message to, know, some CEO or whatever, who I really wanted to get a business from, or I really wanted to connect with, They're not going to say yes.
00:24:35
Jake Doberenz
But on LinkedIn, I'm like, I am talking to some pretty successful people. That's pretty cool. And sometimes they say yes.
00:24:43
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:24:45
Jake Doberenz
And, you know, there's a large podcasting organization. And I saw the founder. He was in Oklahoma City, where I'm from. That's why I mentioned Oklahoma several times.
00:25:04
Jake Doberenz
do like in-person networking to be clear, but LinkedIn is really fun. And that leads to some of the in-person networking, like I said, coffee, and then you know somebody and you recommend a blah, blah, blah.
00:25:16
Jake Doberenz
Business happens.
00:25:18
Ken Freire
How do you, how do you, this is the last question and then we'll wrap up to the fast five that I talked you about beforehand. But with LinkedIn, I know a lot of people hate when people slide into the DMs because it can be so generic, right? Where it's like, hey, want to just grab coffee or hey, want to connect or hey, can I pitch you my services?
00:25:36
Ken Freire
What have you found that works best for you?
00:25:39
Jake Doberenz
I have found to not slide into the DMs cold most of the time. I cannot say I always do that. But without building some kind relationship, without anything, I always thank people for connections, though.
00:25:54
Jake Doberenz
LinkedIn is an algorithm, from what I understand, if you are...
00:25:55
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:25:59
Jake Doberenz
If you have messaged each other in your DMs, LinkedIn assumes you like this person you know them. So they're going push your content in front of them more often. So I still say thanks for connecting or whatever, but I don't ask anything. I don't do anything.
00:26:14
Jake Doberenz
But my favorite method is probably me bringing them value for free without having to sell them or pitch them anything. And so I'll say, like, what I'm doing right now is I'm developing a podcast that will feature...
00:26:32
Jake Doberenz
Oklahoma city area nonprofit leaders. So what I'm saying is I want to talk to you about getting you on that podcast. I'm not selling them a thing. We're going to have a conversation. We're going to how I can help them.
00:26:45
Jake Doberenz
And it's going to come up of what I do. And maybe the organization says, yeah, we want a podcast. But I am first and foremost sending them value. Or I say, hey, I know somebody that needs help with this or that. Or I saw somebody looking for a job in this. I am sending them value. I'm sending them something. That starts a conversation as I'm not a sleazy salesman. value first and then comes the sales pitch later. That's what I find works.
00:27:17
Ken Freire
Yeah, that's awesome, man. Well, Jake, as we wrap up our conversation here, definitely want to do the fast five. Like I mentioned and I mentioned all the time is I'm working on a trend report, talking to as many faith based entrepreneurs for 2026 and just asking them like, hey, what are you doing that's working and what are you doing that's not working? So here are the fast five questions.
00:27:37
Ken Freire
Super quick. I am not going to ask. I'm not going to give any feedback. But question number one is what's something in your business you're experimenting with right now?
00:27:47
Jake Doberenz
I'm experimenting with how much I should invest in video.
00:27:53
Ken Freire
Oh, OK. Right now, your podcast are audio or video.
00:27:56
Jake Doberenz
My podcasts are audio and video, but I'm talking more on the marketing side of things. Should I leave my LinkedIn posts? They're mostly text. Should I show up on video more? You know, I don't know. I'm just trying to figure out where that fits into things.
00:28:13
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:28:13
Jake Doberenz
Yeah.
00:28:14
Ken Freire
Cool. Question number two, which part of your business feels the most influx or you're like, you're like, this is the weakest part of my business right now.
00:28:22
Jake Doberenz
the my business has shaped out is I have a lot of seasonality to things with my clients.
00:28:30
Jake Doberenz
People will contract me for a six-episode arc, and then they're done, or something like that.
00:28:31
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:28:36
Jake Doberenz
And so what's constantly in flux is the income, because there's not as many people willing to do really long-term projects, contracts, that I'm finding in my particular business.
00:28:51
Jake Doberenz
And so lot of influx is just that. Who knows how I'll get paid this month? Well, not exactly like that, but just that having to constantly get new clients and things of that nature in order to make the bills.
00:29:05
Ken Freire
Yeah. Okay. Question number three. What's a goal you're building toward this year that you're really excited about?
00:29:14
Jake Doberenz
Yeah, well, I mentioned all my personal podcasts have been more what I would call personal projects, but now I am building podcast that will directly lead to clients for my podcasting business. So, uh, that is a, something building. That's going be really exciting. I'm going to focus again on nonprofits in Oklahoma city, very narrow, uh,
00:29:38
Jake Doberenz
but I'm going to get some leaders on there. We're going to tell some stories. We're going to talk to them. And at the end of the day, I'm going to know all the nonprofit leaders, my target audience. I'm going to know all of them in Oklahoma city pretty much, or, or know somebody that knows somebody.
00:29:53
Jake Doberenz
And then I will be top of mind for everybody when it comes to podcasting. That's the hope. That's the plan. So stay tuned.
00:30:00
Ken Freire
Sweet. Love it, man. When you look at the podcasting industry, what do you see industry shifting or where do you see the industry shifting and how are you preparing for it?
00:30:11
Jake Doberenz
Yeah, that's a really interesting one. Speaking of video, I think the industry is shifting towards more and more video. I actually don't know if the actual listeners want that.
00:30:24
Jake Doberenz
Even though about 50% listen on a podcast app and 50% listen on YouTube, all the stats I've seen about the YouTube, the people that are watching on YouTube, most of them have it in the background and are not looking into your eyeballs. And so it kind of ends being about 25% of people on YouTube, or sorry, 50% of people on YouTube listen and 50% actually watch and care about the video.
00:30:50
Jake Doberenz
All that to say, though, is the industry is going to expect more video, and I think maybe people will want more video. Spotify is doing video in their app and all of that kind of stuff.
00:31:01
Jake Doberenz
So when it comes to the industry, I think it's going to be tough to remain an audio-only show and get any kind of real traction because the players are going to start to...
00:31:01
Ken Freire
I
00:31:12
Jake Doberenz
Not be as friendly to that is my guess. Spotify already a little bit is a little bit nicer to those that have video is what I have seen.
00:31:20
Ken Freire
agree. I agree. All right. Last question. What type of legacy do you want to leave behind?
00:31:26
Jake Doberenz
Yeah, you know, I am literally in the business of telling good transformative stories. That is ultimately the podcast that I help create. And I would just like more transformative stories that uplift people and change people's lives and show that there is some good in the world. Like, yeah, there's some not great in the world. 100%.
00:31:48
Jake Doberenz
There's also a lot of great good in the world. There's a lot of cool things happening, sometimes behind the scenes. Sometimes we ignore because something terrible happens in the news.
00:31:58
Jake Doberenz
But I would like my legacy to be, yeah, there's good happening in the world. These and these stories, if you hear them, they can change your life for the better.
00:32:07
Ken Freire
Jake, thank you so much, man, for being on the pod. If people are interested in connecting with you, either A, learning from you or working with you, what's the best way to reach out to you?
00:32:17
Jake Doberenz
Yeah, LinkedIn. It's fun. Dip your toes in it. I think it's fun.
00:32:23
Jake Doberenz
I've already started off 2026 getting too addicted to LinkedIn, which is terrible for me, and I'm going to try not to be addicted. But I'm on LinkedIn at Jake Dobrin's as well as Theophany Media.
00:32:35
Jake Doberenz
That's really the best way. We have a website, theophanymedia.com. But if you want to talk to me, go to LinkedIn and let's chat. And then if you're in Oklahoma or Oklahoma city, we can chat in real life because that's really cool too.
00:32:49
Ken Freire
Absolutely. Jake, thank you so much, man. appreciate your honesty. I appreciate your authenticity. And for those of you who are listening, and if you're a nonprofit, go check them out. Hope guys have a great day. God bless.