Dan Mott: [00:00:00] A and welcome to the very first episode of just another LinkedIn live the show where we sit down with other, so entrepreneurs to learn about the tactics and strategies they use in their business. So we can steal their ideas and apply them ourselves. I’m your host, Dan Mont. And today I’m hanging out with my friend, Ryan Sullivan.
Ryan R. Sullivan: Thanks for being here, Ryan. Thank you so much for doing this, man. I’m excited to dive in today on the first iteration man. First episode, let’s go. Let’s do it, man. Yeah.
Dan Mott: I know Ryan was telling me behind the scenes that, um, he’s like typically one of the first guests on most people shows .
Ryan R. Sullivan: Yeah. And if I’m not, I get really mad at them and I don’t like them anymore, so yeah,
Dan Mott: just it or watch it.
You’re
Ryan R. Sullivan: gonna. Friends now, Dan, because of
Dan Mott: that that’s, that’s part of the strategy. If you’re gonna, if you’re gonna start a podcast, you’re gonna start a live show, whatever you’re doing, make sure Ryan’s
Ryan R. Sullivan: your first guest. Yeah. I mean, Hey, listen. It’s if you wanna just add a little bit, you know, I’m 23. I’ve haven’t experienced that much stuff, but Hey, it’s all good, man.
We’re we’re doing it. We’re all doing it out here. I always say the podcast gets, I think people have this weird. um, idea of what a podcast guest is, um, and like what they should be, right. Maybe like people will look at, oh, he has a Ted talk. He has a book, he has a title. He has an XYZ. Yep. It’s just about, can you have a solid conversation at the end of the day?
You know, so that’s kind of how I look at it. Um, but Hey, this is the first for you. Maybe this LinkedIn live, but. This is gonna be hundreds of episodes, Dan. So I can’t even fathom the, you know, kind of level of guess you’re gonna be able to have on the conversations, man. You’re perfect for it too. Cuz you guys did power hour and you know, I think this is prime medium for.
Yeah,
Dan Mott: exactly. I, yeah, I it’s, it’s actually been a while since I’ve gone live, so I’m like really excited to get back into it. Um, and I I’ve been planning on it. I’ve just had so much shit on my plate that I’ve just been like, all right, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do it. I was like, I got, it was funny. We were talking and like, we set up a call, like, was that a week or two ago?
Um, we were DMing and I was just like, I was, we were talking about this stuff and I was just like, I just gotta do it. I pull this trigger. Show up, be my guest [00:02:00] and, and like, boom, that was it. And it was done. I had it
Ryan R. Sullivan: on the calendar. So most people, the thing is, and I’m in this game, man, and we’re gonna talk about it, but I talk to so many people that they might have an amazing idea, but they’ll never start it.
Right. Or they don’t have the idea, but they have the drive, but they, then they’re lost on the idea side. Or it’s just, there’s always something that kind. There’s always a barrier to cross, whether it’s the idea, the execution, the delegation, the promotion, I mean, there’s a million, a hundred things that go into this.
Um, so I’m glad that you, you did your approach is the approach that, you know, our clients take and the people that we work with that just go ahead and be like, listen, the time. I’m not gonna have more time in three months, right? Yeah, exactly. It’s just the facts, man. Makes sense.
Dan Mott: Awesome, man. So, so before we dive into it, uh, just give us a little, right.
Just for context purposes. Tell us a little bit about what you do. What’s your pitch. Yeah,
Ryan R. Sullivan: sure. So we help people launch podcasts without wasting time. Um, I say that because I spent, um, four years building my show. I’m still building it right now.Uh, it’s called Bob. We have another podcast, too, creatively name, podcast principles.
Um, and we’ll, we could talk about that and dive in there, but I basically just sat in my room in my parents’ garage and just tried to figure. How to make a podcast? I didn’t even really know I was doing it when I was doing it. I was just watching YouTube videos. I was figuring out audio. Um, I was a music producer before made hundreds of songs and things like that.
So I was kind of into, I was always into music, always into audio, but I really wanted to figure out how. To make a podcast. And on episode three, I met somebody who made six figures on the stock market in a year who was 21 years old, actually used his ups job to get them to pay for his college. Then he quit.
So he had this amazing, like just how did you do this man? Right? Yeah. And so episode three, I made it in interview show, but, and I thought that I was set, right. I’m like, oh, I’m gonna interview people. It’s less work or whatever. Obviously not the case. And I’ve really spent the last four years building that podcast and March, 2020 hit, I’ll give you the cliff notes of this and we could dive in into any of these details, but I left a startup marketing job.
I built a podcast for them. They didn’t. Um, believe or understand content. Um, they were sending 3000 cold emails a week, then they only use LinkedIn for InMail. And, um, yeah, basically at that point, March 20, 20 pandemic hits people start asking me, um, Hey man, uh, can you maybe help on my podcast? Or how do you launch a podcast or can you edit some audio?
And that’s kind of how the business was born, but, um, that’s kind of the context. On how I got into this and why it’s helped you launch a podcast without wasting time, because there is so many ways when you type in how to launch a podcast, you get a billion results, right. So how are you supposed to know what to actually do?
And that’s where paralysis by analysis comes in, where you go, there’s a hundred different ways to do this, which one is the way for me and we help you simplify that. So that’s kind of the, the, the business model there.
Dan Mott: Yeah. That’s fricking awesome. I love that. I think that’s so important, right? Because.
There’s every, everyone has a different style. Everyone has a different business, a different market, right? Like every business is completely different. So to say that there’s one size fits all approach to, to literally anything is such a backwards, like response to that. And you just, you just can’t go that path.
So,
Ryan R. Sullivan: yeah. Um, agree.
Dan Mott: You’ve been doing the podcast now for four years. Uh, so, so how long have you been running your business now?
Ryan R. Sullivan: Yeah, so I started freelancing in 2019 and then, like I said, I worked for a startup marketing company, but I was technically a freelancer for them, but it was basically part-time and full-time yeah.
Um, it was just, full-time like without benefits and just hour by hour. Um, but this has been really two years of podcast principles, like being like an entity, right. Um, something beyond Ryan Sullivan, Lance. So, yeah, basically like two years and then the last year to 18 months incorporating Jack who you’re familiar with.
And, um, my other partner, Aaron, um, now we have a few editors on the team. So the last year has been like building the business side, but the last two years has been like conceptually podcast principles existing [00:06:00] on its own. Gotcha.
Dan Mott: Okay. Awesome. So two years in, um, you know, we kind of even just like building a show, building a business is always the same thing.
Right? It’s just. The hardest part is getting started, but then going through it, there’s always iteration after iteration. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pivoted my business. How many times I’ve changed, you know, like changed things or changed direction or priorities have changed? Um, I mean the market changes, we change as individuals.
So we have to kind keep up to speed with that. So I know you and I talked a couple weeks ago and, uh, one of the biggest things for you was just like, alright, how can I tactically improve my sales and marketing strategy to be able to drive more revenue growth? So I think, you know, that was, that was something that, you know, we talked about.
And then I love like two weeks later, right? Like not even. You come in, you’re like, yo, we messaged 200 people and we’re already starting to see like start, see things turn around in two weeks. So tell us more about that. Right? Like right now, um, taking a more proactive approach to, to sales has been the top priority for you.
So break it down for me. Like since that conversation, like what have you guys [00:07:00] implemented and what have you been doing to. What does that outreach strategy look like? And, and what has that done for you in your
Ryan R. Sullivan: business? Yeah. Yeah. Great question. And, um, by the way, just to preface, you did really plant a seed too, um, and really give us really great context on kind of allowing us to put it into perspective on what we could do.
Um, to take that next step. So I wanna thank you for that, Dan. And exactly. I have been following also like yourself, I’ve been following these other entrepreneurs, uh, Alex or mosey being one of them who I read his book about creating offers. So the last like two and a half months for me was really learning and now has been the execution, um, which has been crazy to me.
So, number one, which you might, which I don’t know if anybody else is in this position. Um, but I have like, whatever, 5,000 connections now, I probably. I probably have messaged half of those people. So I probably have a couple thousand conversations going on, which is not scale. I don’t even think if you have a VA, it’s probably not even scalable.
Right. So what we did was we went back, we went back, we meaning Jack, my partner, Jack, shout out to him for being like the, uh, you know, one third of this entire thing. Yeah. Um, he went back and just went through. Hundreds of conversations. Hey, this person said they were gonna launch in 20, 22. What did they launch?
Okay. Let’s reach back out. Right. And I had this mine that I could just start slowly going into and just asking people questions like, Hey, did you launch that show? Hey, are you still interested in podcasts? Is that still part of your strategy? Just asking the questions and developing, um, the relationship again.
And this happens on LinkedIn all the time, right? It’s like we connect with somebody. We. Connection request. We have a little bit of messaging. One of us goes off and does something and, and you kind of forget about it. I have changed and we have changed. I think it’s really, and I’m gonna tie this in, um, towards the end of, of what I’m saying here in terms of mindset.
Cause I think that is a big piece of it, but I had, what I would do, Dan, is I would kind of come in and be like, they would say, ah, no, not really something I’m thinking about. And then that would really. Now, I just want to know why now I’m like, why, why is that not something you want to do? Well, it’s gonna take too much time.
Well, what are you actually doing with that time? Right. And going down this avenue where me, if I was on the other side of this, if somebody was selling me something on LinkedIn, I’d want them to start asking me questions. So I, they can find the holes for me, right? Yeah. I’m really, I really have started to number one, do go through that mind of messages, right?
The people we already have in the network. Right. I always say we overestimate the power of more people. We underestimate the power of the people who we already have. Um, you can build, we have clients who have built a top 2.5% in the world podcast. With zero paid promotion at all, just their own network.
So the power of it, it’s a hundred percent possible. Um, whether it’s a podcast or a business. So we started there with the, with kind of the debt, direct messaging, restarting these conversations, um, and great response. Some people are like, oh yeah, like the time’s way be timing’s way better. Now my business is.
Is grown or no, I’m not really, I didn’t haven’t thought about it since last [00:10:00] year, but what’s the worst thing we could do hop on a call like 30 minutes to know if it’s right for you or not. Um, so definitely the, the direct messages and then the starting the cold outreach too. Um, so that’s probably the second piece of this where we, I have, I actually cold, cold called um, some people the other day.
I thought these people were gonna hate me, dude. I cold called like, like realtors in my area, like New Jersey realtors. Both calls. They were like, yeah, man, send me more information. This sounds great. I’d love to learn. The one guy goes, Hey man. Yeah. I’m putting a podcast studio in my new office in, in July.
Why don’t you reach back out to me? Like right. If I never just picked up the phone and dude I’m nervous to sell, I have the recordings of these calls. Like I was so nervous for really like no reason. Right? Cause they’re just people like they’re they’re this group. They’re realtors, man. They answer the.
All day, but so that they have, they literally have to as part of their job. So which that’s a good avenue to go down if you wanna have somebody that has to answer their sales guys. Right? Yeah. Um, but, but, so I did that [00:11:00] too, so that not much of it, not much of it, for sure, but like my first five or 10 calls were.
Basically all positive or I’d get an assistant on the phone and they, and they’re like, no, we’re not interested. Cool. I’ll go to the next. But it’s like, oh wait, people don’t hate me for calling them. they’re actually interested and I’m not trying to sell them. I’m just trying to ask them questions. Right?
Like, is this something you think is cool? No, I have no idea. Like the one guy was like, honestly, I thought Joe Rogan. I’m like, it’s not really. What I’m talking about. Like, I love Joe, right? But that’s what people have in their mind. So the DMS, the cold outreach, and then the system, right. My assistant can come in and hit those new connection requests and start messaging, engaging in conversation.
Then we can have Jack come in and start keeping those conversations down the line. Then we can get, you know, anybody who’s actually interested. We can talk to them on a call. So that’s kind of the entirety of this new system, Dan. And. We’re just that in the infancy of the execution. Um, but like I said, I think overall total, we’ve talked to a couple hundred people probably in the last month or so.
Um, and [00:12:00] we’ve gotten, you know, 3, 5, 10 leads, um, from that. So it’s just, that’s really been what we’ve been working on and how. We kind of pivoted this, this part of the business, because I was running off referrals, man. I was running off like a, I said two years, two years, you can just float by and like, just whatever man.
Cool. Like people just come in. They’re like, you know, and then you get to the point where if referrals slow down and that’s your whole business, something needs to change. Right. Yeah. So that’s
Dan Mott: kinda where we’re referrals. Referrals are great, but you’re at the mercy of them being referred to you, right?
Like you, you have no control over the process, which is why I love being proactive. And I think that, right, like, did you stepping up and taking your direct outreach strategy is, is really critical. And I think it’s so awesome. What you guys are doing. Two things really stood out to me. Right. Like the fact that you’re going back and having conversations with existing connections, right?
Like people, a lot of outreach strategy is like, right. I’m gonna set up automated messages, I’m going new connections. Right. Like, and that just [00:13:00] doesn’t work. I mean, we all see like the pitch that we get, right? Like, I mean, scroll anyone, scroll, please scroll through your, your inbox and tell me. What is the ratio of like good conversations to you just getting pitched out by, by people, like in the first message.
So, so like having that, that strategy going back and revisiting conversations and talking to people that you’ve already spoken with, that’s, that’s amazing right there. Right. Continuing the conversation. And then the second one is taking the like, right. You’re you’re moving from sales to market research.
You’re going in you’re. You’re following up with good questions, which like not only advances the conversation for you in a, in a more human way, which is really good, but it’s also teaching you directly what your market needs wants, and will actually be willing to have a conversation with you about which is super fricking cool.
So I
Ryan R. Sullivan: love that. Yeah, man. I it’s like, I know I, it’s more valuable to me why you wouldn’t do this rather than why you would like, I can name you all the reasons why you would start a podcast, but why you [00:14:00] wouldn’t start one and maybe do something instead. I’m very curious about that. And also at the end of the day, Dan, you know, the deal, um, somebody can come to us and wanna start one and we just might not be the right fit.
Yeah. Like they might not vibe with my personality. I don’t think you should work with somebody you don’t really vibe with. Right. So that’s kind of the orientation that I’m taking now where I’m like, Hey, I’m an expert in this one thing. Like I’m not an expert in a hundred things. Like I do know this thing pretty intimately.
If you need help there. Great. Then let’s see what we can do. Okay. You also need help there and we’re a good fit and we have the same values. Okay. Then maybe we’ll work together. Right. But it’s, it’s like you’re saying with the pitch slap, um, you know, me and Jack had a guy yesterday, who’s like, like one objection and he’s already like, all right, bro, it’s your business dude, whatever, like cool.
You know, and. Imagine on the first, and this is what Jack said too, which is, and I’m referring to Jack Alger, if you wanna connect with him in LinkedIn for people watching. But, um, he, you know, it’s like, imagine on the first objection, just being like pissed off at the person, you know? Yeah. The way I look at [00:15:00] objection, I’m like, that’s actually, you actually do have six businesses.
I don’t know if you could launch a podcast right now, you know? Right. So it’s like, I’m not here. I don’t think all businesses should have podcasts. I don’t think all people should have podcasts. Like, like you said, and alluded to in the beginning, Every business is different, every person’s different. Um, but I think this, um, I’ve made a really big that really big mindset shift and, and, uh, something that a, um, a mentor said.
Was also the fact that if you’re at a certain point in your business, whatever six figures and beyond, you probably have a way to pull lever and make leads happen, right? Like that’s what we didn’t have. And now we’re realizing we actually don’t need to do like sales sales. Like I literally just need to talk to people like this is a different thing.
I’m just having conversations. And I don’t think I’m the guy, if I’m not the, the guy, you know, and I think that’s like been such a big kind of mindset shift for.
Dan Mott: Yeah, I, I love that you said that too, right? I think that’s so important, right? Like I just need to start a conversation and I think that’s what, like, especially when [00:16:00] it comes to direct outreach, right?
Like more so than like. It’s a lot easier to have a conversation when it’s inbound. Right? Like, Hey, I wanna learn more about your services. Like that’s a super easy conversation to have. Okay, cool. Yeah. I can talk about that all day. Right? Like that’s, I, I, I think and breathe and love this stuff. Like cool.
No problem. When you’re reaching out to someone cold, right? Like, especially too, like also kudos, like for you actually picking up the phone and doing cold calling you look at your face right now. I can feel the nervousness like coming out, like, but I think that. It’s it’s crazy, right? Like that’s, that’s so impactful to, to be able to go out there, have those conversations with people and, and not be driven by the sales, but to be driven by like the market research, the curiosity, and the fact that you just wanna start a conversation and network with people to get to know
Ryan R. Sullivan: them, to understand, like, can
Dan Mott: I even help you?
Right. Like, I, I get people all day who pitch me and just like, you don’t even know if I need your help or you don’t even know. If I did need the help that you could actually help me, like don’t waste my time or yours. Like, I, I always say that, [00:17:00] right? Like stop wasting. If you’re the one like actively pro um, like reaching out to people, don’t waste your time with people that you can’t help.
Right? Like go in, ask questions, figure out can I actually help this person? If cool. Here’s what? That, that looks. Right. Like, it’s, it’s a super easy conversation. It, it doesn’t have to be this overcomplicated. Like, here’s my story. And here is my experience and here’s how I’ve helped all these people. And here’s why I think I can help you.
Right. Like before that person’s even responded to you once,
Ryan R. Sullivan: it’s just, it’s crazy. That’s what we got from you too. Dan, after that conversation, we put together. Who will we reach out to? And who will we not, if you don’t, if you’re not creating content on at least one platform every day or every week, if you’re not creating videos, um, you know, maybe if you’re doing text, then you can graduate to videos.
Right. But like there’s now these variables where I go, I can actually know basically. Beforehand that I’m not, if I’m not, if I’m gonna waste your time or not. Um, and so that’s, that’s another one where I think, yeah. And also the fact that what you [00:18:00] just mentioned, if you get pitch slapped or something, you already ruined the entire, like I’ll never buy from you then.
So you might as well just be a person because then I might like, you have to get it. So I want to be friends with you and talk to you and buy from you. like, that’s the, yeah, exactly. Not, not that I want to go. Your stuff is so cool. I. It’s it’s the personal thing. So, yeah. And, and back in the day, when I worked for that marketing company, that’s what they taught me to do.
They taught me to go into LinkedIn InMail and just InMail people. And do you think it didn’t work? They, they went bankrupt, so it really didn’t work, but I’ve never sent an InMail in my life. Yeah, no. No, I think it keeps telling me I can, I don’t even have premium, but it keeps telling me that I can. So I guess it gives you some free ones.
Like I haven’t free have not even used the free ones, man. So
Dan Mott: I don’t want take them back. Yeah, man, Claire says, ah, cold calling,
Ryan R. Sullivan: you know, and even if you. Personality too. It’s like, [00:19:00] it just, I, it was just a great exercise almost like, regardless of, I, I didn’t care about follow. Like obviously I followed up with him, but like, I didn’t care about selling right there.
I just was like, I’m gonna call, I made a list of a hundred people and I just started going down and it was just, it was crazy man, but, uh, good experience. I I’d like to continue it, but uh, wow. People who do that all day. Wow. That’s a job, man. That, that is
Dan Mott: yeah. Um, I used to do like, so my first job at a college was multilevel marketing.
I used to walk down main street. I’d be assigned a zip code and like have to go hard close, but. I, I, I learned to love sales very early in my career. let me tell you
Ryan R. Sullivan: that. Was it Amway? Was it Amway or no,
Dan Mott: it wasn’t. I can’t even remember the name of the company. It was, um, it was like, you know, like more of an offshoot, like it wasn’t.
Um, but, uh, I was, I was doing Quill office supplies at first. So like Quill hired this company who I worked for, and then we went and did. And then we switched over to energy and literally like there’s scams [00:20:00] around this, right? Like selling like, oh, you can buy like your gas and electric for cheaper.
Literally I had the cops called on me twice and I was like, dude, I’m I need to quit. Like I’m
Ryan R. Sullivan: done with this. Yeah. Or you get the there’s that. And then where you get the roof guys, who would be like, yeah, man, that’s an insurance job right there. Or let me get up on your roof. And yeah. It’s like there’s but you did MLM, but in person, like everybody’s doing it online.
You know, that’s the real, when cops are getting called and you’re knocking on door knocking, man, I’m calling from a phone. I could just hang up, like, yeah, you’re right there. If that guy doesn’t like you and he’s aggressive, we don’t know it’s gonna happen. You know? Yeah. I definitely have some aggressive people.
Dan Mott: So I know you’ve only been doing this for like two weeks now. Um, but. Moving forward, right? Like what are your initial thoughts based on the results that you’ve seen, uh, based on the conversations that you’ve had, like, what is the next iteration of this for you and Jack? Like, how do you guys see like evolving this strategy?
How do you think you can improve it? How do you think you can, you can [00:21:00] build on it from here. Yeah. Or just incorporate into the other things that you’re doing.
Ryan R. Sullivan: Right. Yeah, I see. Um, definitely. I think we ha I, I haven’t even gone through all the DMS, so there’s that right? Like , we’re probably trying to play catch up.
Yeah. Trying to play we’re playing catch up. Um, so definitely focused on that currently, but in terms of where it’s gonna go, um, I see it being the system really being, and now we can talk about content a little bit too. Um, which is the inbound from like the referrals in the inbound is it’s not poll ever.
Discovery calls happen. Like it’s just, you’re releasing posts and people are booking or they’re not booking, but there’s no way you can facilitate that. Right. So that’s just happening right there. And then you have, um, this outreach that’s gonna begin. So the cold calls, maybe the outreach, the, I didn’t, I didn’t even let me see what we got here.
Yeah, there we go. Um, no, like, and trust, you know it Claire. So we have the inbound, then we have the. [00:22:00] From the content and we can talk about content too. Then we have the, I think I’m gonna, I don’t know. I’m see how cold calls work, man, who knows. I mean, maybe I’ll continue to do that. Um, and then we have my thing is that you’re recording
Dan Mott: them.
Um, I’d love to hear those recordings. Let’s sit down. Like I haven’t done much cold calling, but I know a good amount of strategy on it. So, um, got some hacks that
Ryan R. Sullivan: my, my first line, just to give you that is I help people decide if they should launch a podcast. That’s what I’ve been saying. And that’s what has.
Nice. They they’re like, oh, cool. Like, great. I don’t. So that like that I didn’t realize there was even a strategy that you can use, you know? Yeah. Um, so I’ve just been like throwing my line out. I don’t have the right bait. I’m just seeing, I got like, who knows the, what fish are in the water. So that’s kind of that, but yeah, in terms of the biggest thing I
Dan Mott: will say is, um, I’ve heard a lot of people say, don’t worry, this is not a sales call, which is the biggest red flag to indicate to someone that, Hey, this is a sales.
Do not ever say that
Ryan R. Sullivan: I, I just, I just use the car warranty thing. Like your warranty’s [00:23:00] actually good on your, on your car. So I’m not calling about that and you just have some kind nice. That’s a good icebreaker. That’s awesome. Yeah. Like the icebreaker, like, or like the upfront, like I think mine is just upfront.
Like I just, I help people decide if they should launch a podcast. That’s it. I’m not I’m I don’t help. Like, I’m not saying I help you launch one. I’m not saying I’m gonna help you or fix you or work for. Just that’s my job. My job is I’m here to make you buy from me right now, today right now. Yeah. And that, but honestly, that might work for some people.
Like, it’s just, you, you can have your strategy. So I’d love to talk about that off call too, in terms of the cold calling stuff. But I see that happening. Um, I see geographically the cold calls being good and in terms of like honing in on certain areas, um, and then the LinkedIn connection request, that’s gonna be like, I explain that system.
That’s gonna just continue. So those 10, 15, 20 50 connection requests a. We’re gonna start having conversations with those people, cuz they connected for a reason. It’s not that they wanted to buy. It’s just, they were interested in something. So that’s way that’s warmer than, than anything cold. Um, [00:24:00] obviously, so that’s kind of how I look at it, man.
We’re gonna have the connection request. We have the inbounds doing its thing. We have the referral, we have a referral program now. So we’re incentivizing. We have a public referral and a client only referral program. So we have two of those. Make money doing stuff you’re already doing. You don’t have to do any extra work.
Um, and then, yeah, I’m just excited. I have no plan for like, I have no like concrete plan for this new outreach stuff. Like I’m gonna, it’s still new. Yeah. It’s still really new. So I’m gonna see where it goes. But I see those kind of being the, uh, different variables in terms of, of kind of how the, how the system’s gonna, at least the pieces of it.
We’ll see how it kind of comes together in the next few months. Yeah, that’s awesome.
Dan Mott: I love that. Especially too, like the connection request stuff. Right. I think that. Right. Like, I, I, I feel like a lot of people always see like outbound versus inbound, as opposed to being like, how, how do you do those together?
Right? Like how do you make those part of the same strategy as opposed to completely disparate strategies or choosing one over the other? And that’s why I always say like, and you know, this we’ve talked about this bunch of times, right? Like I like to outbound my inbound. Right? Like I don’t wait for people [00:25:00] to show up and say, I’m interested in learning more about your services.
I look at the soft hand raises, right? Like people sending me connection requests, people viewing my profile, people engaging on my content. Naturally and producing content that aligns to my services. Right? So use that as an opportunity again, to simply start the conversation. And because they’re the first ones taking the action by doing one of those three things, they’re actually technically the ones starting the conversation.
So it’s so much easier for me to send a message that’s actually.
Ryan R. Sullivan: Yeah, good point. Good point. Yeah, it it’s. And that’s what my major flaw here was just not using what I already had. Like not U seeing soft hand raises and taking advantage, not going through the comments of, I should, I might start this next year and then making a note to reach back out to that person, right?
Yep. Like not using a CRM. Didn’t have one, right? So things that are literally free, the CRM I use is free. I don’t need a hundred dollars HubSpot. I use Zoho Soho. Nice. Yeah, it was free. I mean, HubSpots is a similar, I don’t really know who know turns out. Doesn’t matter at all. [00:26:00] Nope. As long as gets the job done, man, Google sheet long as it gets the job done.
We have, I, I, I have it all. Contacts connections or whatever. Right. We have it segmented. We have, um, follow ups, all that stuff. That’s all I need. That’s just stuff that I just wasn’t doing. Yeah. So I think most of it, and for anybody who has a business or anybody who is doing this online, like I love LinkedIn.
Like I’m on LinkedIn to meet people and connect to have fun, but it’s like, I was almost just treating it too much, like passively. I was just, Hey, it’s cool to know you. I actually have a business and bills to pay and people to pay and pay and stuff like that. So I really made the shift of like, no, I’m gonna go after it.
And, um, you know, just try to do it the right way, you know? Yeah.
Dan Mott: We put so much effort into creating content and into enabling and empowering our network by doing all of these things. And then. Not taking the fi right? Like we’re, we’re, we’re like bringing them up to like here and not taking that final step to actually right.[00:27:00]
Don’t say this selling, like, don’t try to, like, I’m trying to close you and haha, I’m gonna take your mind. Right? Like you’re trying to help people. That’s like, that is what we’re doing here. If you are not carrying them over the finish line to, to prove to them, to show them how you can help them and how you can significantly improve their lives and their business.
You’re doing both yourself and them, your potential client disservice, right? Like you’re there to help them. You have to get them to the point where they can actually say like, yes, I need the help. Let’s do this.
Ryan R. Sullivan: I want people to reach out to. And say, and start having conversation with me about, I want, like, if I didn’t know, you I’d want Dan ma to go, I requested him to go, what are you doing in terms of outreach?
And I’m like, honestly, nothing, two months ago. Right. And then you’re like, well, let’s talk about it. That’s kind of how our conversation started too, you know, because, and we’re friends, but like, I don’t, I want the person to reach out to me six months later, once I tell them to reach out to me, six months later, I had a VA company reach out to me eight times.
I’m not mad at them. I respect. They’re doing that’s their job, you know? So it’s, that’s like, when I look at it on myself, I’m like, I want you to want me, you know, it’s [00:28:00] like a relationship, you know?
Dan Mott: Yeah, exactly. That’s why I say in my town invite, I like, I’m like, uh, what for intro calls or catch up calls.
I’m like, what kind? I do a little Winky face. I say, what kind of relationship are you looking for? And I say like, just networking, content collaboration, or I need help. Right? Like you tell me what you need. Like, what do you want outta this relationship? What do you wanna expect outta this relationship?
Someone tells me that they don’t need my help. Cool. I’m not gonna talk about my services. There’s no. Let’s figure out other ways that we can work together, help each other out. Maybe I can make an introduction. Maybe I can. Um, right. Like we find an opportunity to, to, to create content together. Exactly.
Like we’re doing right now. So. Could be anything, so, alright. You, you, you you’ve taken this, this direct outreach strategy. I know you said like one of the next steps is really kind of like incorporating it into your overall just sales and marketing process. Right. Which I know how you got started and is definitely gonna be a key part of your strategy is around podcasting itself.
Right? So you help other people launch their podcast. You’ve been doing it now for four years. So you are like at the master level. So, so not what you do for your clients, but how do you [00:29:00] actually implement podcasting strategy into your own business to help it generate revenue, to help your clients more and to do all the things that are gonna actually elevate
Ryan R. Sullivan: your own business?
Yeah. So I, and I’ll preface this with the context on, I. My podcast was completely separate from my business. I don’t even promote to this day, my personal podcast that I have built for four years. I’m not in my own sponsor. Right. Because, and I’ll say this it’s, there are people who would be interested in stuff like that, but it is a different, I have a different audience.
I’m a rapper. Like I perform on stage. I’m a DJ. Like I have a whole different kind of side to that. And I didn’t want to be like, Hey guys, I’m also selling here too. Yeah. So, and that’s kind of a fine line for people. And I. You see people, not that they sell out, but like, if I’m gonna make money on that, I’m gonna get sponsors that I know my audience wants.
And I’m also gonna start a Patreon for the dedicated diehard fans who want premium content. Right. So I, and I didn’t. And what happened was I stopped my podcast during the pandemic as an in person show. That’s a great excuse, right? When you can’t have people in person zoom exists, dummy, just do zoom . So I, Dan, I woke up one morning, dude, March.
2021. And I said, oh my God. Like, I haven’t released my podcast in like seven months, man. And so I just went after it and we’re at 68 or 69 weeks in a row or something like that now. Um, and I changed, like I listen to every second of every episode, doesn’t matter, it’s two or three hours long. Yeah. Um, and I am now my.
How I incorporate and, well, I have another podcast that I’ll talk about, but how I incorporate, like I said, I’m not even a sponsor of my own show. Yeah. But I take the time to really focus on every single detail. I spend three hours editing the audio in every episode. Right, right. Because I know if one, if one person goes to that podcast and they listen and they’re like, even if they’re like this, isn’t my vibe.
You can’t deny quality. Right. So that’s an advertisement for. The way [00:31:00] that I wasn’t looking at it like that before Dan, I was like, ah, this is my own show. Cool. Just whatever happens happens. I gotta do my own thing. Yeah. Like it was just separate, like, and it was separate people didn’t find me to work with me from my podcast.
Never. Yeah. Right. So, and I didn’t design it that way. So then this last year
Dan Mott: you started that podcast before you started the business,
Ryan R. Sullivan: so, oh yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it’s just it own thing. Um, We’re back. Um, so what we did was, uh, we planned this at the end of 2021 to start a new podcast. Um, Jack and I, my partner pod called podcast principles, breaking down the principles of podcasting, like what you need to know to create a podcast.
Right. And we, it was the most time consuming, most difficult, like arguments, like we should do this and let’s cha it. Dude. It was such a great learning experience. Like I honestly, I’ll be honest with you. Like, I don’t want, I don’t [00:32:00] need mass appeal on this show. It’s on, it’s on Spotify. It’s on YouTube. It’s it’s everywhere.
You can go look it up if you just yeah. Type it in. But, but it was an. Experience for us as a company, um, to actually do what we teach people to do. And I had done it before with my show, but never with somebody else. So it was, and never a co a scripted I’m talking every line is scripted. Right. And figuring out how do you infuse Hughes personality?
How do you cut the fluff? What fluff do we cut? So. That was as much a business exercise as it was a content exercise. And yeah, if you wanna know how well you work with your team, try to do podcasts with them. Right. And , that’s gonna let me know who’s you know, um, but yeah, man, so we did that. So we’re at episode we’re on episode 10 now we it’s like a monthly basis now we just release it.
And honestly it’s mostly repurposing. Um, yeah. And so I can go into the, and we talk about it before, like, Yeah. And we even talked about what you’re gonna do with this show. So if you go on podcast principles, [00:33:00] Instagram, or podcast principles, TikTok, you’ll see all of our clips. Um, we post clips on TikTok.
Instagram on, on reels, um, and take from the podcast itself. I also record content on its own too. Um, that goes on these platforms, but so we repurpose clips for those. Then we throw ’em on LinkedIn. My second post of the day, post second post, it’s gonna be a video from the pod. It’s gonna be a video of me on a podcast.
Um, and the guesting two has been a game changer. And so that’s kind of how we’re using podcasting in this business too, is we’re one able to. Um, you know, show people that we have a podcast as. And also show them the, and explain the hardships of podcasting. We don’t have a podcast company helping us with it, you know, , we’re doing it ourselves.
Yep. Then we were purposing. We hired ourselves to do it we hired ourselves to do it. And so it’s only us. Um, and then we ha we were repurposing these and putting them on TikTok and Instagram and building these other platforms slowly. Like we have a hundred or 50 followers on TikTok. We have like 500 likes or something like that.
Like, [00:34:00] yeah. We’re just doing it. Like, we’re just seeing what’s four posts a week what’s happening there, right? Yeah. Like we kind of got LinkedIn. Let’s see is TikTok, will it work? Will it not what’s happening? Um, so it’s allowing us to expand. It’s bringing in, it will also bring in people from these platforms too.
Right. Once we dial it in, like we did with LinkedIn, um, and we have a show, like we have something that can educate. So when I’m in the DMS, Dan, and they’re like, Yeah, but like, get, like, how do I be a guest turns out we did a whole episode on it. Here you go. Yeah. So it’s not just the posting and repurposing.
It’s also just being able to send that resource for somebody and they can get a video. That’s no fluff. So that’s how we’re incorporating podcasting, starting with my own show. Um, really improving that and then doing this podcast principles thing that we’re now kind of just like, like I said, it’s. Really for, um, anything specific, it’s really a business thing.
It’s a growth opportunity. And then, Hey, we get a ton of clips and it’s educational for, for, you know, [00:35:00] prospects or, or audience too. Yeah.
Dan Mott: I think, I think that’s really important, right? Like the, the fact that you had the sense to know that like, Hey. For, for your personal podcast, right? My audience is not going to care about this, right?
Like I’m not going to sponsor it. I’m not going to align my calls to action, to, to sell my services, to sell my business to them because they’re not gonna, like, they’re not gonna be interested. Like that is not what I want this show to be. And to like, to have that insight, I think is extremely powerful, which.
To go and then create all this additional work to now build an, a whole nother podcast, right? Like in order to do this, which is now aligned to your ICP, who you want to target and making sure that you’re given, you’re providing the content that they actually wanna hear that closely aligns to your business to be able to then upsell your services from there.
Right. Like that’s super smart. I think that’s you well done before that, like that that’s awesome. I think too, like the fact that, right, like, thank you. We, we talked about this before and, and you said it too, like the, the fact. You’re putting in [00:36:00] so much effort to this. And I think this is, this is a problem, right?
Especially around content creation. People have been in so much effort around creating content, like putting together a, like a scripted and well, well, edited show a podcast and then not doing anything with it. Right? Like the fact that you are, how many clips do you like out of, out of a, like on average, right?
Like if you do one episode, how many social eclipse do you get outta that?
Ryan R. Sullivan: Depends. Like, are you talking the 10 minute, the podcast principles or like my personal, like Bob,
Dan Mott: uh, podcast principles, like turning that con like for your business, your ICP, you do like your big, your big chunk of content, right?
Like your, your one episode of podcast principles. And then how, how, how many, like social clips across all your platforms that you’re promoting on, do you like produce from that one episode?
Ryan R. Sullivan: We can I lost you for a second. We got, I
Dan Mott: think we’re so zero. Nice. Well done.
Ryan R. Sullivan: we don’t even [00:37:00] we’re out, dude. I don’t even, it’s not even my show. It’s all. It’s all I lied. Um, no, we probably, uh, short form dude, short form. As many as you want. I don’t know, from a five or 10 minute episode, we’ve, we’ve gotten five or 10 clips, um, like short form, 30 to 60 seconds.
And then, um, I think our longest episode’s like 13 minutes. I think I could probably grab at least five or six from that, you know, so if you did this and we don’t even do it on a weekly basis, like I said, I do a ton of text posts too, cuz I like writing, um, personally. And so what we are doing is like, even if we released it monthly, that clip that I posted.
Two months ago. I can just post again in two months. yeah, exactly. So different copy. Yeah. Repurposing is repurposing the repurposed content, right? Yep. So we can imagine a 10 minute episode, five tos, five, one minute clips. Okay. Yep. Five tos go out that week. Then the five, one minute clips that go on LinkedIn, they can all be repurposed two months down [00:38:00] the line too.
So it’s like, it never ends. And then you have a Justin Welsh kind of style thing where you’re just taking your own post and remixing them a little bit and just posting the same thing again, basically. And now there’s pros and cons of that. Um, but yeah, so I don’t know anywhere from. Five to 10, 15, 20 different clips.
Cuz you could also cut the first 20 seconds of the clip and that’s a whole new clip for TikTok. Yeah. Cause TikTok doesn’t know. Um, and you might have a clip that you just changed the first five seconds. It goes from a hundred views to 5,000 and we’re exp experimenting with that too. Um, but yeah man, it’s, it’s it’s as many as you want, it’s just depends how you wanna design.
Like now we design episodes for clips it’s for both it’s for education it’s freaking awesome.
Dan Mott: Yeah. I love that. That’s so cool. Right? Like you’re getting, you’re getting your main episode. You’re getting all the social content that comes out of it. Like you said before in the DMS, you can now drive people back to it.
Right? Like you’re repurposing it from that sense. Now it’s like more of a conversation starter and education piece, nurturing prospects in your pipeline. That’s fricking awesome. And [00:39:00] then two, right? Like you’re saying, you’re, you’re writing text posts. You can literally go take the transcription of your, your post and turn that now into a text post too.
Right? Like there’s, there’s so much content that you can, right? Like you’re putting in so much effort to those 10 to 13 minute episodes. And to not take that effort to then repurpose it, to turn it into other content and different, different styles of content, like is so critical. And I just love that you’re doing it, and I think you’re doing it so well.
So keep it up, man. No, thank
Ryan R. Sullivan: you. And, and, and honestly, the most success I’ve had was from my personal podcast, um, in terms of clips taking off. Nice. Um, I just had a clip do like 40,000 views on Instagram. It’s like my best clip in terms of. And it’s just because of the way I edited the clip. So you can, if I would’ve posted this clip, Dan on LinkedIn, it would’ve got like 20 likes or whatever.
The reason why it did well is because it was on the right platform. And, and nobody, it would’ve been who’s this guy. Right. But like it was on the right platform and it was edited the right way. So that’s something I interviewed a content [00:40:00] creator who quit his job as a banker to become a podcaster and learned, spent 20 hours a day.
18 hours, 20 hours a day, editing these videos and blew up all from the videos man, all from the short form. So whether you’re a brand or business, you can take that, that, um, approach and apply it to you. And the higher quality you have, like the more that you play to your platform, the more, the better results you’re gonna get.
And I’m not out there making new videos. I’m just creating an entirely new video from. Repurpose clip. Right? So that’s, that’s, that’s kind of the high level of it if you want to go there. But
Dan Mott: so Claire asked a really good question. Can you gimme an example of how you plan your episode for clips? Like how we talked about, like now I’m creating the content, knowing that I’m going to be repurposing it later.
Like, I, I know that too, man. Right? Like what do you think about in the planning process? Like, I’m creating my, my show, but I’m also thinking about like the future stream of repurposed content, right? Like how does [00:41:00] that come into play when creating like the, the large
Ryan R. Sullivan: piece of content? Yeah. Now this is a balance and I don’t wanna, I’m not gonna say that I’m, I’m like the best at it, but it is a balance because you’re trying to make the episode make sense on audio, make it make sense on video and then also repurpose for clips.
So what I will, the one thing that I think. The most important piece of this is, is, um, basically adding context, right? So say an episode on guessing it may, I’m gonna open the episode with, we’re talking about how to be the best podcast guest, but when I get to the section about how to pitch the sponsor, I’m gonna, um, I’m gonna basically rephrase what I said.
I’m gonna say the best way to pitch. The best way to pitch somebody to be on your podcast is X. Right. And I’m going to have that sentence there. So then when I pull that clip and I post it somewhere there’s context, right. It’s telling you what’s going on. So that’s one way to do it. I think you could basically the way when we format these sections, now, [00:42:00] the heading of the section is the start of a clip.
And now that’s the thing though. You have to go back through the script and make sure this makes sense. And. Just random saying a random sentence, just so you can make a clip, right? Like I’m saying it’s not easy to you’re it is more work to do this 100%, right? Yeah. Um, so, but that’s the one thing that we’ve done and they’re five to 10 minute episodes, so I can throw these little caveats in there.
Um, and these little sentences that make that clip make sense. So that’s what I would say. And thanks for question Claire. That’s what I would say to do in a conversational guest based show is probably it’s gonna be way more difficult to do this. I, I don’t even think you, if you have to sacrifice anything about the long form, don’t do this, but if you can not sacrifice or even make it the long form, make more sense by designing the episode for clips, then I think you should, you should go.
For sure. Yeah.
Dan Mott: I think that’s interesting. Right? Cause I think that works well because your show is scripted. So, but I think like, even, even in a show, right, right. Like I have like an intro and a, [00:43:00] and that everything else in between, it’s just like us just pure conversation. Right. So, but I think, right. Like I took a lot of, I asked you questions before you came on.
So I kind of knew what we’re gonna be talking about in the structure of the show. And like we’ve talked about it before we even hopped on in the pregame stuff like that. So, so technically I could realistically like plan out just. Boom three questions that I’m gonna ask you throughout the show, and then obviously fit them in where it makes sense in the conversation.
And then boom, like there, I have my clips ready to go. So that’s, that’s really interesting. I’m gonna have to mess around with that and, and
Ryan R. Sullivan: see like how that works. Yeah. Cause you could do a lot with, we’re starting to do this with shows that had been going on for a little while, like 10, 20, 30 episodes where we’re kind of figuring out like.
all right. Let’s do an extra 30 minutes of prep with these guests. Like let’s yeah, let’s send, let’s send them an email the day before on, Hey reminder, this is what we’re gonna go through, right? Yeah. And this is not what I do. Like I said, for my own podcast, it’s a conversational show. I, I prep on my end, but I it’s organic.
I just let it flow. That’s one way to do it. Um, but there’s another version of a podcast that you can [00:44:00] do. I’ve done. I think, three of these already where they don’t even interview you. They send you the questions and have you upload the audio and then they go in and post and ask the questions like it’s live, man.
Imagine. Yeah, it’s a, it turns out like if you produce it correctly, it’s like, nobody knows the difference. You’re waste your time. And then it’s on the guest to do the work like. Hey, you’re giving them the platform make ’em do some work. So that’s a great way to design it too. That’s cool too, because right.
Dan Mott: Like, you know, like if I’m answering your questions, like I’m under pressure when we’re live. And then I might just be like, ah, like I wish I had answered that better. Cool. Just rerecord your answer if you don’t like how you put it out there. So you’re actually giving the guest an opportunity to, to show up at their best and, and provide the answers like in the best way possible, which is really.
Yeah.
Ryan R. Sullivan: Yeah, no, I, I envy that model. I couldn’t do it. I’m too much of a people. I would get mad that they, they, I couldn’t tell them that their mic wasn’t on or something. Like I need to do it. I do in person. Right. Like, this is great, but I wouldn’t, I probably [00:45:00] wouldn’t do this like myself. I just love in person.
Um, so that’s just my thing. Like, I wouldn’t do it how these people do it, but they got it dialed and they’ve, I’ll, I’ll have one example. My friend, Justin yen, um, get your grind up. Um, declassified college podcast. 500,000 on TikTok. And he took one of the episode I did with him and made a TikTok out of it, got like 10, 20,000 views, you know, like, yeah, it works, man.
It’s just what works for you. You.
Dan Mott: That’s freaking awesome. Hey, I, I know you gotta go soon. So, um, and I know you’ve been talking a lot about, uh, guessing on podcast, how that’s been content for you. And I know that you, uh, you wanna leave these folks with an awesome resource that you have created for them.
Um, so tell us a little bit more about
Ryan R. Sullivan: that. Yeah. So this the podcast guessing guide, um, I made this about a year ago. Um, if you’re familiar with Jason Vanna, his team did the design. I did all the writing. And it’s a four step process. This is a beginner’s guide, this isn’t high level podcast guessing how to get on top 100 shows.
This is if you’ve never been on a podcast before, [00:46:00] or maybe you’ve just been on your friends podcast, um, and you didn’t have to pitch them. This is the resource for you. It’s on our website in the free resources section. Dan will have the link for you. Um, and this is the four step process. It really is just how to start, how to frame what you’re saying, right?
How so you can explain. On a podcast. So you don’t have to just go off on a tangent, maybe like I did today with Dan, even though, cause he’s my buddy and I like to go off a little bit but you know, you might be approaching like me and Dan are friends, right? Like you might be on a podcast with somebody you don’t really know.
Right? So this, this document here and this it’s 12 pages, but it’s super simple. It’s double space. It’s only four steps. And at the end, I’ve exact scripts that I’ve used to send emails that I’ve used to send to frame what you do in a way that’s undeni. So that host, so you fit the show so well that they have to book you on it.
So that’s the four step podcast guesting guide and, um, completely free up on the site there. And I would just say to anybody, who’s starting to guess, like it is a great tool, um, personally, in terms of skills as well. [00:47:00] And this is a gr the public speaking, like it’s a great way to get into public speaking, low pressure.
The host does all the work anyway, hop on there, have fun.
Dan Mott: Yeah, I love the templated approach, right? I think this is just the best way to get start you, you know, it’s proven, you know, it’s gonna work, just follow the guidelines and then build your strategy from there. Figure out what’s gonna work best for you.
Um, hop on Ryan’s, uh, website. Is it, uh, podcast principles.com. You got it. Uh, under the free resources page. Also post a link down in the comments. Uh, this is also going to be turned into a blog post where it’ll live there. Um, you can go click button and get easy access to it there. Um, Ryan. Freaking awesome conversation.
I always love talking to you. Thank you so much for being on the show. Thanks for being the first guest too, right? Like.
Ryan R. Sullivan: Appreciate it, man, run a killer show, man. I can’t wait to see what this becomes. I can’t wait for the, just another LinkedIn live podcast because that’s my, where the world I live in. And dude, it’s just, it’s.
It’s great to be here. I appreciate the connection and I will say this, this was a very New Jersey podcast. You’re gonna have to put this at half speed. Because [00:48:00] I don’t, I don’t know I was, I was caffeinated and I apologize. So, uh
Dan Mott: I watch everything at TwoX speed anyway, so like, um, yeah, sorry, we,
Ryan R. Sullivan: sorry guys.
Uh, half speed for, for the playback. Uh, if you’re not in the, uh, Northeast here, but, uh, thank you again so much, man. Appreciate it
Dan Mott: today. Awesome. So everyone was listening. Thank you so much for being here. Uh, if you were a solopreneur who is looking to talk business strategy, collabo. And find new opportunities with people like Ryan, myself and more, uh, join the conversation on slack membership is free and you can find the link to join right on my profile.
Um, be sure to send me a DM while you’re there. Thanks for joining and have a
Ryan R. Sullivan: peace.
