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00:00:01
200th Episode
170 Plays2 years ago
As the Uncommon Wealth Podcast hits a monumental 200 episodes, we're treating you to a reflective and behind-the-scenes look at the heart and evolution of the show. Bringing in special guest Ben Fust, we dive into the making of this influential platform and its impact on both the audience and hosts alike.
The episode begins with a celebration and quickly transitions into a thoughtful examination of the show's progression. The discussion revolves around the increased frequency of episodes, the intention behind content shifts, and the delicate balance of influence versus the personal toll of consistently producing a podcast. Central themes include the intrinsic rewards of podcasting, adapting content to match capacity, and maintaining influence without overwhelming personal commitments or expectations.
Key Takeaways:
- The significance of reaching 200 podcast episodes and the personal fulfillment gained from producing the show.
- The importance and challenges of podcast consistency and the impact of changes in episode frequency and structure.
- Insights on the effect of transitioning team dynamics on podcast content and delivery.
- The realization that podcast listener numbers, while informative, don't always capture the full value of content creation.
- The encouragement for entrepreneurs and content creators to find joy in the process rather than base success solely on outcomes.
Notable Quotes:
- "Influence tends to require a level of consistency."
- "Measuring the right things is important. Numbers isn't necessarily. It's an indicator. It tells you something. But it doesn't mean it tells you everything."
- "If your sphere of influence is, you're able to hold x number of folks that you could actually sustain influencing, and you got XY back...Like, you can't actually even support that number of people who, like, listen to the show."
- "Being faithful in the means because, like, the ends are delayed, your expectations are different."
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Transcript
Podcast Mission and Milestones
00:00:00
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life, and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello there in your ears. Do not deceive you. You do not recognize the voices coming through. That's because my name has been foosed. You've met me maybe a couple of times before on previous episodes of the uncommon wealth podcast. They bring me in for special occasions. Uh, I'm less likely to cause any trouble over the air. And so that's what I'm doing here. I'm the chief knob Turner here at the uncommon wealth podcast. And we are celebrating the 200th episode of the uncommon wealth podcast fellas. Congratulations.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you. It's all Philip. Well, it's all kind of Ben. It's all because of you. OK. I see no one's prepared in acceptance speech. Nope. No, we haven't. So we're going to kick off with, I don't know, just maybe a few interesting anecdotes about what it means to get to 200 podcasts. I'd like to know that. So we're talking about how long
Podcast Evolution: Schedule and Consistency
00:01:16
Speaker
does it take. And I think just before the show started, we said it's five full years, but you're rolling into year six.
00:01:22
Speaker
Okay. So 2018 January we started Exactly right. So like you put five, six years into something put in 200 episodes now that accelerated because over time, how often you were releasing podcasts has changed has shifted. As a matter of fact, not only are we talking going from what was was every other week, I think before was it
00:01:44
Speaker
Yeah, every week before. So now you're at every week plus there's a series of kind of these bonus episodes. And I want to get some of the intention behind that stuff as we go through the conversation. But like, what was the what was the catalyst to podcasting more often?
00:02:00
Speaker
Well, I think that we felt like we had a lot in queue at that time. I think we were running about five or six months in queue, and we were like, we can kick this up a notch. And then Ben, my good friend Ben, you said, you got to keep feeding that beast. Once you turn this dial up, you don't turn this dial back down. You sure? And I'm like, well, let's do it.
00:02:22
Speaker
And so we got we got to every week and I think that was going well until like you said it started eating us up Yeah, and so then we started changing the cadence of it to like doing some of these simple steps. Yeah more application How do we just get quick get in get out Muhammad Ali, you know?
00:02:39
Speaker
fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee kind of thing. And then that helped too. So, and then Aaron, I would say kudos to Aaron for getting awesome guests. He does a great job with that. Oh yeah, wide variety of folks coming in. Pretty cool, like interesting people, all kinds of interesting stories in the way that their uncommon path shows up. Like it's interesting to look at the diversity.
00:03:00
Speaker
of the different folks who are benefiting from what is a both common view of looking at something, but it's uncommon in and of itself. It's been super cool. So yeah, I want to get to, I want to talk a little bit about some of those changes in content, but the reason I bring it up because I think for this audience,
00:03:19
Speaker
It's actually, it's a common thing to run into whether you're podcasting or not. Anytime you're trying to take some level of influence in life, whether you're going to do blog posts, social media stuff, podcasts or whatever, the minute that you try to use your voice in that way to influence, it does set an expectation in someone's mind.
00:03:38
Speaker
Yeah. Influence doesn't tend to be the person that drops by your table, says hello, and then sees you again eating breakfast six months later. Like that's not influence, that's interruption. Yeah. Right? And so influence tends to require a level of consistency. And I think it's, and maybe you guys are running into this, but it feels like it's a common struggle among entrepreneurs or people who are not only
00:03:59
Speaker
Kind of cutting their own trail, but they're trying to influence other people or draw people in to the way of looking at that and so like I guess have you have you seen that with people that you work with or in other ways of which you've tried to create influence where there's kind of a tension between starting to try to influence people but then frankly the amount of commitment and effort it takes to persist in it.
Emotional Journey and Community Support
00:04:21
Speaker
Oh yeah, go ahead, I'll let you go first. Oh, thanks. I don't know, I guess are you asking like in the cinema our own industry or just overall that we're seeing? Yeah, in general, like it feels like for people who are doing entrepreneurial type of work, some of it's you're trying to get people to engage in whatever your business is, but a lot of times it's frame of mind stuff. Yeah, I'll go and then you can go. Okay. Because I feel like I get to interact with a lot of business owners.
00:04:49
Speaker
and serving other people and pouring your life to other people is exhausting at times. It's also encouraging. It's almost kind of like parenting, we've said, like it's the hardest thing you've ever had to do, but it's also the most rewarding. So it's refining. It's also developing grit.
00:05:06
Speaker
But like these people who are on this path of creating something have this emotional roller coaster that just wears on you over time. And I would say that it wears on me. Like I'm not opposed from that or I'm not like. You're not exempt. I'm not exempt at all. And so it's great to have Aaron on board, but it's also great to have the community around us that we are striving to be that beacon of hope for people who have never
00:05:32
Speaker
experience this or are just starting this path or even the people who have well experienced in the path. It's nice to have a common group of people that are uncommon that look at this world in an uncommon way that are creating, but they're also serving other people in it. It's super helpful. So I want to be the beacon for those people.
00:05:50
Speaker
Yes, that's right. And I think maybe to the point, then, is that it does require a level of consistency. And you don't always get to see the response to it. Podcasting, especially, is a very lonely proposition. You're talking and you guys aren't in the room here. But we're at a table. There's a few lamps in here and a half-drunken bottle of can of Coke.
00:06:09
Speaker
It just feels like three fellows in a room. Yeah. And so you don't, you don't know who it's going to hit in what way it's going to hit them. You don't even know. It's hard to even tell whether people are listening. Podcast statistics are a little bit difficult to get to. Right. And so does the thing I said mean anything or resonate with anybody? Right. Yeah, right. It doesn't even matter. So let me go back because so every episode we try to make that episode resonate with us.
00:06:31
Speaker
Does that make sense? It's almost a therapeutic session for us and Aaron and I, that's why we started kind of this bonus content of like, if I was a guest on somebody's show, it would be so fun to be able to be a fly in the wall of what did you just take out of that time? I probably wouldn't go back and listen to the interview of myself. I was in the room. Yeah.
00:06:51
Speaker
But I would go and listen to the interview of those two people that interviewed me and hear what they had to take away. And so that was the reason why we did that. One, because every episode that we have, I feel like I have kind of this aha moment or I need to hear that moment. And it was encouraging to me and so that kind of second podcast is something that we do. But I'd say even in our single or our dual cast as we call them, there's always something like I needed to hear that today.
00:07:17
Speaker
There's a lot from that. I get a lot out of interviewing people. You get jazz and you just get excited just hearing their story. I needed that.
Influence and Persistence in Podcasting
00:07:25
Speaker
But to your answer though, I think you see a lot of business owners and people that are trying to be influencers. And even before I came to uncommon, I thought, I'll start podcasts.
00:07:36
Speaker
And as you know, I am not the voice of this podcast. I do not have a podcast voice. If you see me in person, I'm more charismatic with my body instead of my voice. And so, people trying to, everybody wants to be an influencer of some sort. If you're passionate about something, you want to go serve people. It's like I want to help people, influence people in a positive way, especially more than ever today with social media, Facebook. But then you find out you just don't have the skin.
00:08:06
Speaker
You don't have what it takes to do that, which is fine. You're not blessed with everything that you have. But maybe you do and maybe there's a learning curve.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, you know, one of the things that I would say that I've learned over time is that you don't have to posture beyond who you are or what your capabilities are. There is something that is in there about persistence. So people can trust you. If you're a voice that's trying to help them see something uncommon,
00:08:37
Speaker
they have to hear you speak, or read the things that you're doing, right? That influence does have to be there, and you're dependable when you're there, which is why I think the amount of times that you guys are podcasting, or folks who are listening, if you think about your blogging or your attempts to, when I say influence, I don't mean try to point to yourself from a grandiose perspective, but you feel like you have something to offer. But that influence does cost time, it does cost effort, and sometimes it does cost, I don't know whether this is doing anything,
00:09:08
Speaker
It's lonely. It is often lonely. But you don't get that influence if you don't persist. That's true. But you don't have to be a person who blogs four or five times a day. If your capacity is twice a month and it's thoughtful, or you can put on, like with the podcast that we're talking about here, could you do
00:09:30
Speaker
four to six full episodes, super thoughtful podcasts from Uncommon Wealth in a month, probably not. You need the buffer of, hey, what's the simple thing that we know that we've learned over time and we can give them that doesn't actually even require an extended commitment from someone so that they can get wisdom and you can share it.
00:09:49
Speaker
Um, that doesn't carry the same burden as, you know, if you're going to prepare to talk to somebody and make sure that their, their wisdom gets comes out well in a podcast, right? And say that the dual casts are even a different level of effort. That's right. Load. That's right. Then interviewing someone else. Cause you want, it's not that you don't care about each other, but like the honoring that you want to do for someone who's willing to share their time and space with you is different than a comfortable room of which you can be fallible and it won't, you won't notice it. So let me,
00:10:16
Speaker
articulate that in a different light. Like we want to be Yoda when somebody else that we're interviewing. We want them to be Luke Skywalker. But then in the duo cast, now we have to somewhat be Luke Skywalker a little bit. Like we have something to say and we want to say it. So it does take a different level of bandwidth and it does take a different level of intention, which I think a lot of people, or like I really envy those people who are a single solo podcast, like how in the world?
00:10:43
Speaker
I've done it. It is the weirdest feeling in the world to be brutal. I usually have three or four people in a room, but I've done it twice where I was just a guy talking and you think about the talking head political folks. Wow. They're just sitting there chatting away for an hour. It is the oddest feeling. How do you do it? No, I couldn't do it. No.
00:11:01
Speaker
Because there's that guy, that scientist guy, that has one of the number one podcasts or something. And he does it. He just sort of talks about a subject. And I would just, one, I would stutter all the time in my thought process, because then you're legitimately in my mind. And I, yeah. And then you also have to know your strengths and weaknesses. Like, my strengths are not probably prepping.
00:11:24
Speaker
Like my weaknesses are probably like, well, give me the microphone. Let's see what we have to say. And surrounding myself with people who have their own opinions to be able to comment off of those opinions. And in that, that will kind of snowball down the mountain and we're going to have somewhat of a snowball at the end of this thing. But to me, like the intentionality of writing out an outline, following the outline is almost like you're kind of on stage and you're giving a presentation.
00:11:49
Speaker
It's not really what our podcast is. And so I'm super grateful to have Aaron do the duo cast with me because it's just something that we can bounce ideas off of each other now. Yeah. Yeah. And so if there's an encouragement, I think in some of this for the folks who are listening, like there's a, there's a difference between frequency and consistency.
Unexpected Reach and Marketing Insights
00:12:06
Speaker
Consistency does buy you influence, which we want, want your brilliance to shine into the world and shade people and, and help them out. Um, but that doesn't mean it overburdens you to the extent that like you end up hating
00:12:16
Speaker
podcasting or blogging or whatever, because it overtook the things that you're otherwise passionate about. And again, I brought that up because I thought the way that you've structured this podcast has allowed you to do that. It's allowed you actually increase your frequency with the after-interview stuff and with some of the smaller ones without, I can't believe I got
00:12:36
Speaker
Simple step. Simple step. There we go. There it is. Without otherwise quadrupling the burden to be able to produce it. So I think there's encouragement in there from this example from you guys. Because I don't know if we would got to our 100th if we were just like, we have to keep doing as long as we can dual cast and guests.
00:12:54
Speaker
It's just hard after a while. There's a learning curve too, because when I first came on having guests on, I remember Phil being like, okay, you're getting it now for the guests.
00:13:08
Speaker
I mean, cause not everybody has like an amazing story, you know, to tell. And not that everyone's story is amazing in their own way, but to impact and like do our, to reach our goal of the podcast. Yeah. Sometimes stories are more engaging than others. And then when I ask people to come on, there's usually a specific thing that I'm trying to pull out.
00:13:28
Speaker
And you were doing a great job of getting people in, but it was like, but what are we pulling out of these people? And Aaron's like, no, no, they just have a really cool story. And I'm like, well, I don't know this story, so let's go see how it goes. And so, you know, there's a learning curve in inviting people in to the show.
00:13:44
Speaker
Although I will say it's super nice to have a show to be able to ask somebody like, hey, I have a podcast. I'd love to unpack your story. That's a fun thing to do. And I just interviewed the guy who did the bear hunt, Brad Meckley. I just had a coffee with him yesterday. And he was like, from that podcast, I'm getting more and more excitement about telling other people about the bear hunt and how excited they're getting. And I'm like, yeah, buddy, that's great. Yeah, exactly right.
00:14:10
Speaker
So interestingly enough, over 200 episodes combined as of this morning, we're gonna say it's roughly about 74,000 listens across content, right?
00:14:21
Speaker
It sounds amazing, but really, when you break that down, I don't think it's going to be that much. Aaron is like 38,000 of them. He listens to the program over and over. I do. My parents and the other probably 30,000. To jazz the numbers. Interesting question, just to see if you've... I'm sure you've put a lot of thought into this, but if you had to guess where your show was most popular, either Russia or Egypt,
00:14:42
Speaker
Which would have been all day long. This is a slam dunk. Please don't say Russia because we could be getting hacked. I don't know. I'm just going to say Russia now because you told me not to. Okay, I am into Aaron's personality. You said I couldn't say Russia. Russia is correct.
00:15:01
Speaker
Russia. Oh, no. This is right. You're internationally known to the tune of 16 listens in Russia and six in Egypt. So if you're popular in Egypt, maybe my mistake. We did get an email one time we were like trending up in Belgium.
00:15:16
Speaker
But that's not the case anymore? Lost them. They dipped their tool in and decided... It ain't for us. There's fresher water somewhere else. But interesting is we think about podcast listens. And I think this goes even to a little bit of the conversation we were just having on a weekly basis.
00:15:33
Speaker
The show averages about 60 to 70 listens on the core episodes, and maybe between 50 and 60 when you talk about, well, the simple steps are about the same. The after the bonus episodes end up being between 50 and 60. And so 74,000 listens sounds awesome. International sounds awesome. And then you look at weekly and you go 60 to 70. I don't know that hits you. I also run a podcast, but you think, I don't know.
00:15:56
Speaker
Yeah, what are we doing here? Because I was hoping for thousands. And you're looking at 60, 70. And so maybe my question to you is, how does that number hit you, recognizing that in and of itself, that's probably the wrong question. But let's start with it. Because it is a piece of information that's available to you.
00:16:17
Speaker
How do you think about, hey, we reached 60, 70 people on a new episode, and are we happy? Are we hesitant? What do you think? OK. OK, so I'll answer honestly, because that's who I am. I'm like, that's discouraging. But then I think of like, but I'm doing this for myself, and I'm getting something out of it. So I'm grateful for those 60 to be a fly in the wall for the things I'm learning.
00:16:43
Speaker
So, I'll try to spin it in the positive light. It's Friday, I'm feeling pretty good. It's shocking, I'm competitive, so, you know, I know we've talked about it, like, well, how much do we have to, and I just asked before we started the podcast, like, how many do you have to have, like, to, like, start, like, maybe making money, and then you just throw out the number, I'm like, huh, we're a long ways from that. What girl ways? But, just because I wanted to know, but, like, in the same sense, I mean, I got into this business to help people, and we can only manage so many people's books, and so if we get help, 60 more people,
00:17:12
Speaker
through our podcast, I'm like, that's awesome. And then, honestly, the podcast, like I've mentioned before, I'm not the most amazing voice on the podcast, but I get long-winded so much in things, and this has really helped me shorten it down. Just in my off-life, not in the podcast even.
00:17:31
Speaker
because they don't fill up really those shorts, those simple steps. Yep. I'll say this too, because I, I'm just trying to make myself feel better. Um, we have done zero marketing, zero marketing. And so I know a lot of those shows do a lot more marketing that are getting more and more listens.
00:17:52
Speaker
And so the fact that we're still trending at like 60 or 70 is actually kind of a big deal. And I feel like if I could have more time to promote the podcast, I think that we could do better. Now that's probably me and my prideful mind saying that if I just worked on it a little bit more, I could get better results. There was more of me in this. That's right. So I will say that I think that's nice because we haven't really marketed this at all.
00:18:17
Speaker
I do think it is super healthy to ask the question is like, well, what am I wanting to get out of it? Aaron, I think is a very salient point is if your sphere of influence is, you're able to hold X number of folks that you could actually sustain influencing and you got X, Y back.
00:18:37
Speaker
You can't actually even support that number of people who listen to the show, providing you feedback, asking you questions, want to talk to you. You know what I'm saying? You can have positive problems. You couldn't even bear it. I don't want to say there's an ego in it, but there is an A. Let's say you got 10,000 listeners.
00:18:58
Speaker
What are you gonna do then? And we've never pointed them to anything. Does that make sense? Like our podcast is literally like we hope that you go on your uncommon journey and take some of this advice and use it. Go do it, create something, we're gonna love it. But we haven't ever pointed any of our content into like, and now you're a client. So I kind of am happy about that and I'm not that smart anyway to figure it out. So I'll just keep saying words in a microphone and see what happens.
00:19:27
Speaker
And like, and again, you know, measuring the right types of things what I heard, what I heard you say was, it allows some the ability to pursue some unique relationships or circumstances hey can you come on the podcast and share your story, it allows you, it's something that you benefit from both in personal and work lives, and allows you to not only learn from other people but
00:19:46
Speaker
be able to share, like you've provided a medium. It's not like 10,000 people couldn't listen to it tomorrow. It's not going anywhere. There's persistence to it. Something we don't have to recreate. Exactly. I recreate a lot of things. Continues to create value. And so, again, encouragement to folks listening, you know, whether it's a podcast or, you know, something like that, measuring the right things is important, right? Numbers isn't necessarily, like, it's an indicator. It tells you something, but it doesn't mean it tells you everything. Right.
00:20:16
Speaker
So yeah, okay.
Content Creation: Simple Steps and Ownership Changes
00:20:18
Speaker
Let's talk about those simple step episodes. So the goal is five minutes.
00:20:27
Speaker
I mean, you're close. You're close. I usually put a timer on. Yeah. It's pretty close. Here's the thing. It's amusing. I think you fellas are after about five minutes and then you're chit-chatting. Sometimes I can't figure out, this is a little behind the scenes. Is this a time? The broadcast is over. Yeah. It'll sound like it was summed up and then someone else can say something else and someone else is going to resum it up and say something else.
00:20:50
Speaker
It feels like we might be reaching for a catchphrase. It could be feedback. That's feedback right there. You're about six and a half minutes by the time this rabble is going on. Yep. That's Aaron trying to learn how to compact something. Because we get talking, I get excited, and I got something else I want to say. I love it. So I do think they're super helpful. And I think the things that you guys are pointing out, what seeds that? Are these common things that you're seeing among folks you're working with, things that are in your personal life, all of the above? Yeah.
00:21:19
Speaker
I'm just gonna be honest, those are the hardest ones to come up with. Because you gotta come up with a subject you can talk about, what we're trying, five minutes. So, because I remember one of the first ones we did was financial infidelity. Oh, yeah. Yeah, scandal. Yeah, and then I threw out some verbiage and Phillips was like, what? No, can't say that. That's like a whole 45 minute podcast. I'm like, dang it. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
00:21:48
Speaker
Yeah, so a lot of times like I like just in and out, just boom, boom, boom. But it'll be things that either I've witnessed from another client or something that I'm learning or something that I feel like God's trying to teach me. So those are the three kind of recipes. I think the fun thing that we've been doing is like, I don't tell Aaron, especially when I have a good one. I'm like, buddy, just hang on. Like you're going to love it.
00:22:09
Speaker
And you usually do. Yeah, I do, and it's great. I think it makes it really hard for the five-minute thing, because then I get all, halfway through, I'm like, oh, I got my thinking process on now. So it's like, we've got to re-wrap it up. But yeah, it's been helped. It helps to make it way more authentic. Yeah, authentic is a good one. Authentic. There we go. That's the word. Yep, yep. So I want to say a little over halfway to 200 episodes, starting at episode 100. You got 20 or 30 podcasts in, and then you had
00:22:38
Speaker
a major shift in your business. Yeah, we did. Major shift in the personnel and in some ways how the business is running. In what ways do you feel like that was reflected in the stuff that you were covering from a podcast perspective and to a certain extent, was there any catharsis in it?
00:22:58
Speaker
Mm, good. That's a good question. So what you're talking about is the ownership change that Brian Dewhurst is no longer an owner on Commonwealth Partners. Or a guy on the podcast, right? Because one of the impacts was Brian was on most of the podcast episodes. Oh, yeah. Right. So he's no longer in the company. Yep.
00:23:17
Speaker
And he was more of the technical things that we would talk and so absolutely the podcast changed The fun thing about this is like we leaned into it like we were just like buffaloes going into a storm You know like we're going straight into this thing and then now we have to make it about What we wanted it to make it like it kind of was like you said cathartic in well What do you want to make it here?
00:23:39
Speaker
And I knew that we couldn't be fake and try to be technical, like that's just not probably where we're at, or it's going to take us too long, or we're not going to articulate it very well. And so, well, what are we now going to talk about with this uncommon journey and this uncommon wealth? And that's where I feel like God has helped us kind of map this course of where we're at now, but I do think it changed.
00:24:02
Speaker
Probably some people didn't like the change, right? That's that's fine, too Yeah, I'm not for everybody and neither is Aaron Yeah, right and sort of knowing that just like well we have to be ourselves Yeah, or we just have to shut it down which I don't know if that was what we wanted to do obviously not So I think it's a good question. I think that's probably something that numbers could show us what that looks like So, I don't know. I just kind of keep going. I'm kind of like a termite
00:24:25
Speaker
Just keep living. Just eat in the wood. Eat in the wood, man. Eat in the wood. Aaron, did you feel kind of walking into that situation? I don't want to say filling a chair, but it felt like it. How did that hit you? Is that something that made you nervous? Something that you were excited about?
00:24:43
Speaker
I mean, a little nervous, because Brian was really good with his words, like articulating really smart things. I mean, I've said this on the podcast before, like, I'm just dyslexic, and things like, so me and words, we don't get along. Aaron's done a really good job, because in interviews I get hyped up, and I know the next question I want to ask.
00:25:04
Speaker
And so Aaron's had to really challenge himself of like, well, I have a question now. I need to just jump in there. Cause if not, Philip's going to ask another question and Aaron's going to be on the back, just kind of having a great front row seat to this great interview. Um, so you've done a really good job of asking these good questions because there's sometimes where he'll ask the technical questions to our guests. And I'm like, Oh, that's a perfect question to ask this. Like it was almost like a question, like a more technical person would have asked.
00:25:29
Speaker
Right? And so that I'm super grateful for. And I'm thankful for his courageousness of like, sometimes you just need to cut me off. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, that was better than what question I had. Yeah, that flows nice. And so there is something about having two people interviewing that you can have two different thought processes that I appreciate. Yeah. Yep. That makes sense. If you guys think about if there's somebody listening who or entrepreneur otherwise who thinks, you know, I'm thinking about starting a podcast,
00:25:57
Speaker
What would be your reaction, advice, warnings, I don't know.
Advice for Aspiring Podcasters
00:26:03
Speaker
Yeah, Aaron Kramer everyone. Oh my gosh, like yes, because I have noticed when I've, they, you and Brian first interviewed me, like when I came on, I even listened to it. I was like, that's not so bad. You know, like, okay.
00:26:15
Speaker
And then when you gotta be the interviewee, that changed. Because now you have to be really good at your questions, like repping off questions, and we are taught as people to be very engaged in a conversation. And I have found myself being like listening, and then they answer the question, and then they stop, and you're not thinking about the next question. Because you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, you're engaged and really listening. So if you're thinking about starting one,
00:26:41
Speaker
Do the hardest thing, listen to what you sound like on recorded, that's hard. And then also, how good are you at interviewing people? It is a distinct skill, I will tell you this, and this is gonna sound odd and slightly ironic given the situation that we're in.
00:26:58
Speaker
So I've been podcasting for over a decade. I'm not a particularly good interviewer. Like, some people are really good, like insightful questions. They're good at kind of putting a couple of different things together and getting into some core details. I would say, Phillip, to a certain extent, we're similar in that, like, I'm interested in kind of the parlay of it. And like, we can keep a conversation going. But the Charles Keralt or the Tom Brokaw, I am not that at all. Yeah.
00:27:26
Speaker
But I think to recognize, though, that it is a skill. It's a practice skill. I have not gotten better, but you can. You can get better. But it is distinct from, hey, I like people. Hey, I'm good with people. Hey, I know things. None of those three things necessarily mean. Add up your podcast. Yes, exactly.
00:27:46
Speaker
So one more thing is like, also, whatever your podcast ideas, start just asking people if they'd be interested in being on the podcast, because you might be shocked about who will be on the podcast or not. I was thrown way off in the beginning, asking some people, are we gonna be on the podcast? And it seemed to be very outgoing people. And they're like, no, that seems scary. And it was like,
00:28:09
Speaker
Oh. Yeah, so your pool might be smaller than you think it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You told me, say, well, 60 people listen. It's not that risky. Yeah, that's right. That's right, baby. I'm going to hang that thing like a banner. OK, so my advice to anybody who wants to get into podcasting, shoot 20 episodes before you launch and just see if you can get done. My daughter and her friends wanted a podcast. And I was like, I got the equipment. Let's go.
00:28:38
Speaker
They did one podcast and then it was like we can't find time to get the next one now Who knows what will happen in the future and they can always use my stuff, but they haven't gotten their second one It's been about three months. So okay get 20 under your belt and record them and get ready to launch them. Mm-hmm
00:28:54
Speaker
But then I think, you know, my good old buddy Ben Foust giving me that advice of like, once you start, you got to keep feeding that beast. You got to keep going. And there is a consistency that once you're seven listeners or 60, for this example, get used to the listen and the cadence of your show.
00:29:10
Speaker
they start getting used to that and getting that content. So if something happens and there's not that episode, there's automatically this question of like, well, are they stopping or whatever? So that's great advice. The consistency is one, but then also get a queue of call of podcasts together for yourself and also for your future. If you want to keep doing it. Yeah.
00:29:29
Speaker
I think it's good to test it out. I mean, this is true for all kinds of different things. Like if you think you got something you want to go try, I mean, there's no reason not to go try it. But give it a few cuts to see whether it fits before you go. You don't have to go all in yet. And I will say, and I think you guys would vouch for this, some of the perceived technical stuff is hardest.
00:29:51
Speaker
when it comes to a podcast. Again, none of the things we talked about that might even make you a good podcaster doesn't even touch stuff that feels like it's difficult. It's getting easier to get into totally.
00:30:04
Speaker
three microphones in one room. I didn't think you'd need a college degree to do it. You do. And then like our sounding in this room is not the best, but to even know what to do with that, like I'd have to have been, you come over on some Saturday and like my wife doesn't want any part of it. You know, like it'll just look not aesthetically pleasing. So the podcast is what you're going to get. But that stuff was way harder than I ever thought it would be. Yeah.
00:30:27
Speaker
Yeah, and there's layers of it too, not to overindulge on the technical piece, but like, one might, you gotta have a podcast by yourself in the room like that one fella, it's gonna be relatively straightforward. Even two, not bad, soon as you hit three, soon as you wanna do the video at the same time and marry the two, your lovely sounding voice in your video, like, things just got...
00:30:47
Speaker
They're trickier. They're totally doable, but it becomes harder to step in. Buried entry. Yep, totally. Any particular interviews or shows stick out? I know it's hard if I said the last 100, because we were together on this 100th episode. But even maybe over the last few months where you're like, something stuck with you, a conversation, a particular interview longer than you expected. Yeah, I wish you would have gave us a list of ours, but what do you do?
00:31:14
Speaker
You said the bear hunt's in. The bear hunt is in. I do think the conversation that we had with Scott and James about business owning and then selling the business and then them having a panic attack. Yeah. That was fascinating to me. And I don't, I'm pretty sure I probably said this in the bonus episode, but the thing I took most out of that was I'm super grateful that I don't have this huge amount of money in my bank account for me to understand like, am I doing okay? I might not be doing great. Like I'm doing horrible to this, like, well, I'm going to,
00:31:44
Speaker
hopefully I can do the same thing I did yesterday, you know, today. And so that was kind of my key takeaway of that is like, man, I'm super grateful that God has brought me to where we're at now. And the trial that we have to go through and the people we get to go through it with that
00:31:59
Speaker
I don't really have the option at this point to tap out. Like this is, this is where I'm at. And I need to be joyful in that, which also brings me to what I'm kind of learning this year is like, just focus on the input and let God handle the output, but be joyful in that input. And then also make that input sustainable. You don't want to overwork yourself and then you burn yourself out. So that was probably the episode that I was like, ah, I really needed to hear.
00:32:24
Speaker
Because these two people are high capacity, they created something, they sold something, and then that's when they frizzed out. Like, whoa, and they're even like baffled like how it was. And so to be able to unpack that with people, with them, particularly the words, encouraging for me. Yep, yep. Aaron, how about you? Mine would be a few of them.
00:32:45
Speaker
Um, you know, like even Paige Whitties and then Nick darlings that we just shot not too long ago. Yeah Those two I think
00:32:56
Speaker
Ones like that, and those ones right now being put on the spot to ask, those ones that are the ones that stick out, because they're the ones that really show if you just keep pounding the stone, success happens. Because this is the thing, we interview a lot of business owners, and we're gonna meet a lot of business owners, and I've always really enjoyed talking to business owners because they know what it means to just grind it.
00:33:17
Speaker
very few of them ever have success right off the bat. And the ones that do are, they are usually not the ones you want to be friends with kind of, you know, absolutely. I mean, not all the time, but just like the ones that really know the grind. And then like, it just, it's a nice reminder. Just like keep pounding the stone and wherever you're at. But then like, I've been on the other one would have been
00:33:38
Speaker
It was my uncle and it was my second cousin. I learned a lot, I'm not in the business, and so hearing what they've had to do and knowing how they had to grow up and really make things work is always super encouraging. Yeah, there's an endurance that comes from being a business owner.
00:33:57
Speaker
and almost like the same question like how long you've been married 48 years you're like oh boy he's he knows you know how long you've been a business owner you know like oh okay you know and there's this instant like who you've been able to come through some hard things yeah well and then i think that aligns with where you were coming from which is um like grinding something out having grit through product through
00:34:18
Speaker
extended amounts of time trying to build a business is being faithful in the means because the ends are delayed. Your expectations are different. How quickly you're going to see the results. It's not just, even if you think of doing work that isn't entrepreneurial work, like I put in effort, people give me money. That's an easy expectation. That isn't your life. That's an entrepreneur.
00:34:40
Speaker
And recognizing that and being able to have joy in that process, you better be doing it for joy's sake. The same reason we're podcasting for the value of the relationships and the continuation of being able to build a set of wisdom and knowledge that otherwise people can react to. The number of folks, it's a running gag on the 60, but that's the candy.
00:35:03
Speaker
That's the thing that you also get if we're measuring the thing right. As an entrepreneurial endeavor, do you enjoy the work that you're doing? Do you find value? Are you encouraged? Are you energized for the way that what you offer to the world is being accepted and used? You've got to feed your family for sure, but oftentimes the thing that is the ideal output
00:35:26
Speaker
it's either gonna be delayed or gone. Like it's not gonna happen the way you expect it to, and so you have to be able to find joy in that process. Which frankly, is an opportunity, like you can do that anywhere, but even as an entrepreneur, you actually have a little bit more control on your ability to find joy in your day-to-day processes, whereas like, you know, you're cranking out widgets somewhere, like you don't control the widgets, you don't control the things they gave you to process the widget, like you're just gonna, it's less in your hands, and so,
00:35:55
Speaker
I think that's a super wise encouragement and something that I mean everybody in the room benefits from.
Entrepreneurial Challenges and Lessons Learned
00:36:00
Speaker
Yeah, I've been getting a lot of like so I've been kind of getting around more and more business owners which is life-giving but my question to them is like if you came in with 15 million dollars what would you do?
00:36:11
Speaker
And you know, my favorite people are the people who would be like, all right, this is how I would impact my business. This is how like, because they're in the right spot, the people who are like, I would so quickly get out of here. Like I would drop what I'm doing. Yeah. I'm like, Oh boy. Like, I don't know if you're in it for the right reasons, you know, like, and, and maybe this, the grind of it is just wearing you down to nothing and you're just in a tired state that that could be it. But then we have something to talk about.
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, there's probably times if I got asked that or you got asked that on a certain day, on a certain hour, you'd be like, I'm out. But yeah, because with you, I love asking other advisors that because my tale for advisor, if people come first, every advisor is going to tell you people come first, right?
00:37:01
Speaker
But like, it came with one of my good friends, and we talked about this a while back. It was interesting, I was like, well, if you won the lottery, what would you do? He's like, oh, I would still work, I would just work for free. And I'm like, you truly just want to help me. I love what you do. I was like, this is amazing. He's uncommon. Yeah. So, yeah, it's good. It's interesting.
00:37:24
Speaker
Well, so I've got a final question for you. Okay. And so, but you're going to have a, I'm going to give you a break so that you got a chance to think about it in the plane. The question that you're going to have to answer is, um, let's say we're on the road to 300, 300 episodes that we want under our belt. Um, what neat, what would be, what do you want to be true about those, the next hundred episodes from the uncommon wealth podcast? Now, while you ponder that,
00:37:48
Speaker
and maybe a short restroom break or diet coke. I'm gonna encourage, so you guys that are listening to the podcast, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna offer you something that you can offer back to us. That's exactly what I was after, great. So we've been talking about the ability, the folks that listen and does this even,
00:38:08
Speaker
Does it matter? Actually, one of the things that I thought was really cool as I was thinking about the post episodes, the after the interview, it is such a gift to be able to see your life and your situation articulated through someone else's eyes.
00:38:22
Speaker
So not just like summary of the, hey, I can summarize the podcast totally, but like to have not only you be able, it's not like you're submitting to him for examination, but like sometimes people have a way of seeing you, your work, your effort, your words, your influence in a way that either you don't see or they just said it. Like some people can just say things in such a way as like, wow, I don't know if I would have thought about myself or my situation in that way. And it's so encouraging.
00:38:52
Speaker
Super encouraging and so I'm gonna encourage you to be that for other folks like some like speaking being able to speak into someone's situation to their life not This is where people can get this wrong I'm not saying go in and just start like judging their life and telling them what you think about everything they do but like There is something it takes so little encouragement to keep people floating
00:39:12
Speaker
Yes, did you have no idea? Yeah, it's just so that I so This is all leading up to the thing I'm gonna ask you to do But so we've had a I've had a podcast again for over a decade. You guys have heard me before I was on the show Oh you were yes, it's the episode called sounds right it did very well, but it's because I kept clicking and refreshing Yeah, I'm running the clicks up on my own episode guys. I'm the analytics man, and I know how it works
00:39:37
Speaker
But one of the things after we podcast for so long, similar situation, you know, we might be better than 75% of podcasts, which this one is from a listenership perspective. But you're like, I don't, it feels like you're talking into the ether.
00:39:51
Speaker
Does it even matter? And so we put up a complaint line because that was funny. Like most people we're going to call are probably going to be upset with the show. This seemed right for us. We put up a life in the path complaint line. And what I've found is that like probably once every, sometimes it comes in and like a river, but like once every two to three months,
00:40:10
Speaker
Someone's going to mention something on some back show that we've long since forgotten about that made some significant difference in what they're doing. They'll say, you know, we listened to the show and it really helped guide a conversation we had at my house this week.
00:40:23
Speaker
Wow. Or something we'd heard recently, which is interesting because like Phillip and I were meeting and then like I got something where someone had called into our complaint line and it was some sort of appreciation for like, there aren't a lot of places to have substantive Christian conversation. Like either people are talking out at you or you're trying to go by some sort of like book or set of guidelines, but people are really kind of tease apart the places where, how does this faith and what we believe to be true permeate into our lives and the depths of the things that we're,
00:40:51
Speaker
trying to do with our eyebrows and elbows to change the world. And it was a great encouragement. And like we get, if I got two of those a year, I go, this is creating value for the people that are in the room doing the podcast and at least two people and totally worth it and totally worth it. And so the uncommon wealth podcast,
00:41:13
Speaker
There it is. Has got a feedback line. There it is. All right. I'm presuming fewer complaints, more feedback in this podcast than mine. So here, I want you to write it down. I'm going to give you three seconds. Go ahead. OK, very good. I don't know if that was a full three. That's my head count. I feel like it was. It was. OK, here's the number. 515-446-8158. 515-446-8158. You can call or you can text that number.
00:41:42
Speaker
and provide some feedback on the own Commonwealth Podcast. Maybe you think it's great and you want to share it with everybody. Maybe you're super disappointed in this episode. You say, this feels really self-indulgent and like we get it. And you want to text us that. Go ahead. 515-446-8158. It helps everybody get better at the things that we're doing. And if the content or the topics or how they're approaching things has hit you in any way that you feel like it's worth sharing, we'd just love to hear from you. So call, text. No one's going to pick it up.
00:42:12
Speaker
Okay, so you don't have to worry if you're if it makes you nervous that like Aaron's gonna pick up the phone It's not gonna happen and it should if you're gonna give us bad feedback. That's right What you want? I actually lower Aaron's voice down like five steps. So he sounds super intimidated So anyway, don't lose it put it in your phone right now. Oh
00:42:32
Speaker
And we'll talk about that every, you know, cause I think one of my goals for next year, if we'd think about the next a hundred, let's say, is that we would have at least four or five people give us feedback on that phone. That would be great. Because like you said, we're just talking into a microphone, into the ether, what's going to happen? And our listeners need to know, like with us being entrepreneurs, like we love feedback. We have thick skin.
00:42:56
Speaker
You know, you can tell us that, oh, you sucked. It's like, oh, please just tell me why, though. Don't just tell me I suck. But you can if you want to. And I take it I'm a big boy. So let's go back to the question.
Future Aspirations and Listener Engagement
00:43:10
Speaker
What do you want in the next 100? What would you want to be true of the next 100 episodes?
00:43:15
Speaker
that people listen to this and they really feel like, okay, I have an idea that I want to now take a step towards. I want this podcast to encourage at least one or two people in the next hundred that says, you know what? I can do that.
00:43:33
Speaker
Or if they hear a podcast like, you know, if they can do it, I can do it. Like that's basically the reason why we started this podcast. And then throughout that interviewing people and just hearing their stories has been encouraging to me. And so that's what I hope the next 100 is, but that somebody takes that and now applies it. Yep. Yep.
00:43:52
Speaker
Yeah, bam, Aaron. If I really want to look at it well in the next 100, I want to find more unique individuals like Mike Burtos, you know we did, for Power Center. I'm going to get more people out there that we don't have connections with. I'm just going to hit people up and be like, hey, be on our podcast. I want to hear your story. Because I think that
00:44:14
Speaker
to me, that's super encouraging. It's encouraging to myself. Like just to hear people, guy was just, you know, living in, I don't know, a small town somewhere, you know, do big things. An everyday joke can do something big. Like you just got to take the leap. And I want to hear more of those stories because selfishly, I really like hearing them. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's super encouraging too. Like it's, it,
00:44:35
Speaker
the variety of stories of which people go from one situation to another. We tend to get boxed in by we believe there's a path to go do something. And unless I know how to walk that path, it's not going to go, you know, you can't make the change. But they're like, just all stripes and all kinds of folks are living
00:44:55
Speaker
uncommon lives and getting there in uncommon ways. And I think at the very least, even if you don't resonate with anybody's particular story, it continues to remind you that there are a myriad of stories. There's a million ways to go after the life that you want to go live. And you're seeing other people do it and stuff that like, you don't have to be bound by what you thought of, kinds of people doing all kinds of cool stuff. And the more you're open to hearing it, the more your mind then can start taking in opportunities that you may not have previously seen.
00:45:21
Speaker
And also to understand like you're not, you don't have to be a Jeff Benzo to like be Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos. Somewhere Jeff Benzo was like, I don't know. I do all right. Yeah.
00:45:31
Speaker
But until you start your own, do your own path. Just starting a path is successful, taking the leap. You're gonna learn something. Yeah, for sure. All right, man. You've been listening to the 200th with an asterisk because of those extra bonus episodes. It's probably over, but we're gonna call it the 200th episode of the Uncommon Wealth podcast. Congratulations, fellas.
00:45:54
Speaker
I think everything that you're trying to do is coming through. I'm super excited to hear the next hundred that come out. And super excited to hear some feedback from the folks. That's really exciting. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you guys so much again. Five one five four four six eight one five eight on that uncommon wealth feedback line. Thanks for hanging out with us on this 200th episode extravaganza. And we hope to see you down the podcast lane.
00:46:21
Speaker
That's all for this episode brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.