The Art of Authenticity: Kurtis Goodwolf on Finding Your True Voice Behind the Mic

Ep 12 Maria: [00:00:00] I’ve been wanting to ask my friend and podcast producer this question for a long time. What is authenticity? Because he always comes back to it when we talk about podcasts, when we are talking about singing from a stage, when we talk about sound, And in this episode, I have the honor of introducing Curtis Goodwolf, who is a well renowned podcast producer. Also a musician, But in this episode, we are going to talk about authenticity, sound, podcasting, how to challenge yourself, how to grow as a person. And Curtis is a person that always challenges me. And that’s something that I really appreciate. And I look forward to sharing his insights with you. ​ Maria: [00:01:00] Curtis, what is authenticity? Kurtis: Authenticity to me is, is digging deep. It is Taking many moments throughout the day to step back from what I’m thinking and asking myself, is this truly how I think, uh, is this truly how I believe, is this truly what I believe, is this truly the way that I act, or is this a developed act or a developed way of dealing with a person, place, or thing. And. I can say that now after spending [00:02:00] a lot of time practicing those things and I’m not saying that I’m perfect and I will never be perfect. Thank God. Um, but it really is going deep into yourself and being lucky enough to, to realize that majority of your habits, majority of the way you speak, uh, think and act is not even you. It’s not you at all. It can come from schooling. You can come from societal pressures. It can come from things like the law of Yanta, which you spoke about. I can’t believe about that. That’s just crazy. Um, it can come from parenting. It can come from, especially now social media in a world where we’re constantly told to look at, think a certain way. Authenticity is. doing the work, doing the work, um, to get yourself to a place where you can tell [00:03:00] if you are following your own narrative or following the narrative that is set out for you since birth. Maria: Wow. That’s deep. I got, you got me thinking so much. I don’t have a question. Follow up with this. No, I’ll, I’ll know what I’ll say. So I’ve gotten to know you as a singer songwriter and a friend and as a podcast producer, amazing all of them. And one of the things I found was that you say the word authenticity like so often. So I, I had to ask you this question about what it really is. And, and what this is one of the things that connects to things that you’re doing, of course, everything has to do with sound. It has to do with like, getting the voice out. And I, I always find it fascinating when I perform on the stage and I’m practicing that. And you always ask me like, how, how did it feel? And did you feel like you were you? And did you allow yourself to be you? And I get it. It’s like, Hmm, that’s really, [00:04:00] really good questions to ask because it’s, it’s sometimes that’s something I do. And I noticed also when I was a speaker before I sometimes go up on stage and I kind of do the thing. But when I came, when I come down from stage, when I, I wasn’t connected to myself and I wasn’t, of course, when I wasn’t connected to myself, I was not connected to anyone else either. So, but one of the things that I, I admire with you is when you go up and sing, you, you, you always like you. There’s so much of you coming out that I can’t, I very often cry and people that listen to the show know, but, but I, there’s something touching about letting yourself come out. So, so how are these things connected for you? Kurtis: thank you for that really, really kind Well, many kinds of comments. Uh, the thing about me performing on the stage is that I do my best to tap into the, the emotion of the song. And to do that, I have to remember certain people, places, or things that remind me to feel that [00:05:00] emotion. You know, actors do it, musicians do it, artists do it, people like you, you do it on the stage. Um, so that is, it’s, it’s really. Taking your own perspective and your own, and your own experience in life and applying it to whatever it is that you’re doing. And that creates authenticity because then people actually believe what you’re talking about. for example, and I don’t mean to say anything negative here about counsellors. You know, I, I, I regularly go to counselling meetings because it’s a great, you know, it’s a great Bored to, to bounce ideas off. And I think that that’s one thing that as a culture we’ve lost. And as a society we’ve lost because everybody needs some kind of a council of elders. That’s why we look for mentors. It’s the same thing. It’s like now everyone’s just making money off it. so that’s one thing I like to do, but. Am I going to choose a counselor who has lived the type of life that I have, or am I going to choose a counselor that’s just at a university that’s read a book about hypothetical situations that they may or may not [00:06:00] be able to help their client solve? And it’s the same, it’s the exact same principle. sound, you mentioned sound and sound is very important because how can you tell what you sound like if you can’t hear yourself properly? And one of the biggest tells for me. And one of the best ways to get a client, say in a podcasting perspective, to hear themselves is get them to buy a proper microphone and get them to buy a proper pair of headphones and record them properly and get them to listen to themselves backward. And we see, and I see a lot of podcasters stop podcasting because they listen back to themselves and they don’t believe themselves. And then they start to realize, what am I saying? Because they can hear the tones and they can understand that they can hear a tone in their voice that doesn’t sound themselves. So then they say, well, why don’t I sound myself? And then they start thinking, am I myself? Is anything that I’m saying right now really me? Maria: And Kurtis: [00:07:00] I think that that is one of the quickest ways to start that work to your audience. To get to a baseline of who the fuck am I, what do I really believe in? What do I really, really stand for all the money aside, all the famous side, all the accolades aside, all the titles, who am I? And to, to do that, you really need to dig deep and you really need to hear yourself. And that’s one of the biggest things that I try and get, you know, even in the courses that I saw, it’s like, you I found that because a lot of these big podcasters, they never got a chance to hear their own voice, or maybe they did. Maybe they did many, many years ago, but now there’s a big machine built up around them. And I can guarantee you that most of these big CEOs or leaders or thought leaders, nobody asked them, who are you? Because they already have an identity push out into the world. So nobody wants to know who they are because they think that they already know who they are. So that’s one of the things that we do with, with our With our crew is that [00:08:00] we get people to sit down with a pen and paper and I was, I had a client call recently and you know, this guy, James, brilliant guy, a fantastic idea for a show, which we’re going to, which we’re going to launch soon. And I said, I’ve got homework for you. And he said, Oh, great. Are you going to email it to me? And I was like, no. And I picked up a note and a notepad and a pen. And he was like, what do you want me to do with that? And I was like, I want you to write in three questions. Who are you? What do you do? And what value can you bring to the world? And he was like, really? And I was like, yeah, he was like, wow. Nobody’s actually asked me to write down anything in quite a while. And that’s one of the things you got to do. You got to go old school. You got to turn off your social media. You got to turn off your phone. You got to turn off your devices. You got to put that time aside on a daily basis and really think about who are Maria: when you talk, I’m, I’m, I’m thinking about Who am I? the question is super interesting because the answer is changing. And I think for me, there’s something when you say the word authenticity, which you do like quite often, that, that is [00:09:00] really triggering me in a good way to investigate and get curious on who I am and what I stand for and why I’m here. And, and what I really want, what message I really want to convey to the world. And that It’s so interesting because I find myself like I, I always thought about myself as an almost person. Like I, I share things that I’m not good at. I share when I fail, I share when I fall, like I cry. I do a lot of kind of weird stuff and, and. So I like to identify myself as an authentic person, but still, there’s always like a new depth to it. There’s always more to it. There’s always parts of me, or that’s what I found out in this process. When I, when I’m trying to sing, when I’m trying to not trying to, when I am singing, when I am producing a podcast, like what is my deeper level of even more authentic message? And I think that’s it. I think this is a super, super Cool way of doing a podcast. So, so for those that are listening, that didn’t know Peter, I can, I [00:10:00] started the podcast before, but it was very kind of technical. And we went into our teaching role. Like it was like, we were trying to do a webinar every week and it was really exhausting because we, we, we put ourselves into this, into this. this teaching role and having to say something smart and just talking about like very specific subjects. But you are challenging us like consistently on, on what are some things where you don’t agree on things and you can have a discussion and what are the topics that you don’t talk about so often, but you’re really passionate about and how can we bring that out and how can we bring kind of more your whole life to this? So I remember when you started talking about some of the podcasts you had produced before, and you said, for one of them, like, this person is really, really, really authentic. And for this other podcast, like this person isn’t not is not so authentic. So what is the difference? How do you tell? Kurtis: I tell because I can listen to them on a daily basis. I tell because I just know I can hear the subtleties in their voice. I can hear the nuances and the tones, which is really, really important. [00:11:00] I mean, there are some shows that I work on and have worked on that I feel it’s just a marketing tool. And that’s all it is. It’s not, it’s nothing any deeper. I can, I can pretty much guarantee that they select their guests based on how many Instagram followers they have, what their email subscription is and how much they will pay to, to get on the show, to promote their new book, you know, but then there are other shows that I’ve worked on and I know that the reason why there are certain guests on that show is because the host is genuinely interested in learning more. Not just for themselves, but for the greater good of their listenership. I don’t work on this particular show. I wish I did, but the diary of a CEO with Stephen Bartlett is a perfect example. Because if you take your time to listen to that show and watch the video. And nowadays it is about watching video because you can [00:12:00] tell if someone’s been genuine or not. You can see that his questions. He really gets into his questions and he really gets into the answers and you’ll often, you’ll often see, I don’t know who, who does the editing for that show, but good work. Uh, but you often see the camera pans back to Steven and Steven is just like, he’s hanging on every word that the guest is saying. And then you look at other shows and it’s just like, okay, there’s a script gone out here. The six questions I want you to ask me about this, this, this, this, this. Um, It’s completely scripted. It’s watching a, it’s watching a TV show, you know, and we have enough of that. We have enough of that. And I guess I have an insight because of the fact that I work in the industry and I’ve seen how these players operate. And now I’m able to take that knowledge and give it to others and be like, do you really want to go down this road or do you want to go down this road? And usually, usually they choose the road of. [00:13:00] Completely organic and honesty, because it’s not just about podcasting or vodcasting, it’s about bettering yourself as a human being. And if you can get out there and create a network and create a community around you of people that support you, not followers, you’re not a guru, but of people that support you and, and listen to your show because they’re being educated and because they feel that they’re being inspired. Then that’s the way to go. I don’t think it’s a case of, you know, needing to send out questionnaires to each and every guest so that they have a scripted response so that they have a scripted way of doing things, because that’s just breeding more of what we have, which is fake content. Maria: So you are a sound engineer. And I know that like how things sound is crazy important to you And because I’ve also seen you like set up the the mics and the and the [00:14:00] stuff I don’t even know what all the things is called like adjusting the mixer for for Live performances and you’re really really really into that And and I have this is for personal curiosity as a person that wants to Be on stage more sing more um, but I know that You I haven’t practiced enough to be really good yet. so sometimes, and they, this may be my inner judge instead of something external, but sometimes I, I think like you as a professional performer, I’ve done it for so many years. What, what are your thoughts when beginners go and sing a song and it sounds bad? Kurtis: When it sounds bad. I mean, what is bad? I really don’t care how it sounds. What matters is if the person gets on the stage or not. That’s, that’s what really matters. Uh, Megan Walker is, is probably one of the best hosts I’ve ever heard, uh, and her show impact, which I was lucky enough to work on. And, you know, she describes how those people that are say at an open mic or an [00:15:00] event, they’re at the top of the, the stadium and they’re looking down and they’re judging the people that are in the ring. Right. Maria: Yeah. Kurtis: I don’t care what their opinions are. What I do care is about the person that gets on the stage or gets in the ring because getting in the ring and I know maybe this is not the best analogy. Yeah. To use because getting in the ring means fighting. And I think maybe we need to change that. But getting on the stage with the other people that are putting themselves out there, that’s the important part, that step from the ground, that little six inches that puts you on the stage. That’s the step. It’s not about how you sing. It’s not about how you play. It’s the step that you take to get up and put yourself in a place where many people. Dare not to go. I’ve heard plenty of people and I was that person. I was that person full of ego that wanted to get on the stage. That’s why I wanted the stage. I wanted to fulfill some kind of a [00:16:00] need. And it was my ego. And I sounded terrible when I first got on. Because all I knew how to do was sing loudly. Because I was a busker on the streets in Dublin. So I had to like get my voice really, really loud so everyone could hear it. And so when I first got on the stage and used the microphone, I’m pretty sure everybody in the audience just went, he’s a bit loud, but I still did it and you still do it and it’s repetition, it’s repetition and repetition and repetition and the thing is. You get better when you listen to yourself, you don’t get better just by everybody in your peer circle or friendship circle coming around and patting you on the back saying that was very good. I don’t like people come up to me all the time and they say, Oh, that was great. That was great. That was great. I was like, thanks very much. Thanks very much. Thanks very much. And you take the politeness. But the thing is, You need to listen to yourself and you need to ask yourself, did that sound good enough? And if you’re constantly saying, no, no, [00:17:00] no, you need to investigate the question. Why, why am I saying that this isn’t good enough? Is it because there’s something in the back of my head that doesn’t want me to be good enough? Or is it because I want to improve? So they’re really valuable questions to ask when you get off the stage. That’s why I asked them. Maria: So I got a bit emotional while you were talking. And for me, that’s because I, um, when I go up and sing, I’m really challenging myself. Like I’m really challenging myself. And that’s why I feel super vulnerable. And I think it’s so interesting because I I had this conversation with our friend, Luke, he was saying, but Maria, you have your own voice. Like, don’t compare yourself to others. find your motivation for doing it. Like, why are you up there? Have fun being in the moment. And, and it’s so interesting because I, I said to Luke, I say this to my clients all the time. It’s the exact same thing that I’m saying to them, because when I’m You We put ourselves on a new stage or a new type of like arena. It is. Very often, very [00:18:00] uncomfortable. So, so for everyone that is starting a podcast or they’re creating a course or they’re doing a webinar or something that, that we can teach them, that there will come up all of some of these fears. And, and the reason why I wanted to ask you the question, to be honest with you, is that sometimes I, I think of you as, as like you have very strict rules for how things should be. So sometimes I think maybe you’re a judgmental person. Kurtis: I appreciate your honesty there. Uh, you can’t, you can’t get better by staying the same. You have to get uncomfortable. You know, David Bowie has a great quote saying, if you’re comfortable, there’s something wrong. You have to stay on that, that edge of being uncomfortable, constantly moving forward. in regard to me being super judgmental or super critical, it’s, it’s a very, It’s a very strict policy. I have the sound engineer has a responsibility to the musician and the musician has a responsibility to the sound engineer. there was an event that I did a couple of months ago where the sound engineer was on his phone about halfway through the [00:19:00] gig, I stopped and I walked over to him. I said, listen, it’s as simple as this. I’m here because you’re here. You’re here because I’m here and we both need to work together. If one of us doesn’t work, the gig doesn’t work. Do you understand? And no one had ever said that to him because no one ever respected him enough to go over to him and say, Hey, listen, you’re equally as important as I am because the engineer is the engineer is just as important as the musician. The crowd is just as important as the engineer. Those three things work together and they have to work together because if one fails, they all fail. So what I appreciate, it looks like. Judgment or being critical. It’s quite simple. I perform better when I can hear myself. And most musicians, if you look at them on a big stage, they’re constantly doing this, doing this, doing this because they want to feel the energy of the music to push it out, to give it to the crowd and then the crowd reciprocate by giving it [00:20:00] back. But I don’t want a crowd that are going, I can’t really hear that. I can’t really hear that. I don’t want a musician as an engineer. I don’t want a musician who’s going, I can’t really hear myself. I can’t really hear myself because that’s constantly in the back of their head. And if it’s constantly in the back of their head, then it’s taking away from their performance. And I want to be able to give people complete concentration on their skill, whatever it is, whether it’s podcasting, whether it’s music, whether it’s being a sound engineer, The crowd deserve a hundred percent of them. So as an engineer, we need to do our best to eliminate any kind of issue so they can completely focus on their craft. So you as a podcaster can focus on your craft and not have to worry about that. And so that the audience can focus on what they’re listening to and not have any sort of distraction. So while some might see it as being critical or hypercritical, I’m seeing it okay, doesn’t do doing things on okay, or it’ll be fine. It doesn’t work. Because if you want an [00:21:00] incredible results, it needs to be incredible. You’re not going to get an incredible results by being okay, or it’s fine, or it’ll do. Maria: So now what you say makes me think you’re just really detail about quality or like that, that’s super important. And for me, that’s, that’s a good skill. But does that also kind of Go to yourself when you’re performing, for example, if you’re singing, and if you’re having a bad day, or you feel like something is off, how do you like, how do you handle that? Because I think that’s something that people will, will identify with, like, we can’t all have a good great day at work. Of course, we can do everything we can to set up for a great day at work. And we can, like, try to be as authentic as we can. But some days we aren’t just performing our best. So how do you handle that for yourself? Kurtis: Try not to blame anybody else. the bad workman blames his tools. And I’ve gone through the motions of blaming myself, blaming the engineer, blaming the crowd, blaming this, blaming that, blaming the podcaster, blaming the blaming zoom, we can all blame zoom. Zoom is terrible. I hate [00:22:00] zoom. Stay off zoom if you’re a podcaster. Um, but you have to accept the fact that you cannot control everything. You know, and I used to be a major, major control freak. It was the way I had to live my life. I had to survive, you know, I, as, as you know, I left home when I was 16 and I had to develop this, this skillset where I needed to control everything around me. Otherwise I felt I was gonna get swallowed up. I carried that to some degree onto my. onto my stages, I guess. And yeah, we can all have bad days, that’s fine, but you gotta pull through the bad days the same way that you would pull through a bad day in real life when you’re just doing your normal job or your normal tasks. And it’s like if you’re operating at 50% except that you’re operating at 50% and give it 50%, but the second you start to like as a performer on stage, the second I start to. Overdo it or try and overdo it. I’m stepping completely [00:23:00] away from who I am and I’m faking it. And I found that when I do that, I get a way worse result than just being me and maybe dialing it back a little bit, Just accepting the fact that you’re at a certain place and just being okay with that place and that negative self talk that, oh, they want more, they want more, they want more. You don’t know what they’re thinking. I’ve walked into a lot of events and done a lot of gigs where I have a room full of people could be hundreds of people and to the entire gig, they would talk the entire gig. And I’m sitting there and after every song, I’m like, why the fuck am I here? What am I doing? No one likes this, but I go through it. I do the entire gig. And at the end, when I finish, they all stand up and they all start applauding and I can barely get out the door quick enough everyone is stopping me to pick out a particular song and tell me they liked my version of that.[00:24:00] The fact is you don’t, you don’t know what they’re thinking as an artist or as a podcaster, your job is to be you. There is somebody else involved in the process of getting your, getting your music or your audio, whatever it is out there. It’s not your job to do that. Your job is to remain the artist and your job is to make sure that you don’t try and interpret the crowd. You don’t try and think, you know what they’re doing, or you don’t try and think you just do your best to give the best version of you that you can on the day. Maria: So one of the things you said to us when we were starting this podcast was that we have to be quite broad with our, with our topic, because we will, we want to have something where we can actually keep going and continue to deliver content and, and we share from different parts of our lives. But a person that is, is listening or watching, they will, they will ask themselves, like, how do I find my content that is authentic, that is also kind of broad enough and, and, and narrow enough so that I can mark it. So, so you have any input [00:25:00] on that? How to find the best content. Kurtis: You know, when you’re having a conversation with somebody and, and you come up with this great idea and you say the idea and everyone goes, wow, that’s a great idea. And they’ll, they’ll laugh, but then you move on. That’s probably the authentic version of you. Because a lot of the time, when you get that great idea, you start thinking, Oh, but, Oh, but that’s not going to work because you’re applying it to certain things that you’ve been trained to learn or certain things you’ve been trained to think of as a negative. So it’s usually that spark, that idea that comes to you, that you’re like, wow, that will be incredible to do. I don’t know if I can do it. I probably can’t do it. It’s probably impossible. No one else is doing it. It’s going against the algorithm. It’s going against what Tony Robbins said. It’s going against what Maria or Curtis said. That’s probably the thing to do. Maria: Mm. Kurtis: The one that’s the disruptor. Mm. The one that goes against everything. Everybody else is doing. The, the one that aligns complete with your values because it just [00:26:00] came to you. It’s not a case of you sat down and you said, I’m going to make an authenticity plan , to make myself be authentic or sound authentic. You don’t make a plan, you just are, you know, so you’ve got to scrape away and clear away the wreckage and the debris left behind from years of just saying yes to things, not saying no and listening to that inner critic and knowing where that critic comes from and asking the question, where does that critic come from? I have an idea. I want to do it. Okay. What are the negatives? What are the positives? But where’s my critic coming from? Is it coming from a course I did? Is it coming from looking at my particular favorite shows and I noticing they don’t do that, to take an idea and run with it, that’s the best version of yourself and pre prepared to fail. But what’s, what’s the next stage after that failure, which is going to be [00:27:00] the best lesson that you’ve ever learned. It’s like, okay, that doesn’t work. But guess what? This works. Oh, okay. And maybe that’ll fail. Oh, guess what? This works. I mean, when we sat down, you know, the three of us sat down, you told me that you were automatically gotten on the screen of the camera and the microphone and turned into coach mode, you know? Maria: Yes. Kurtis: And you didn’t enjoy it. So what do you enjoy? Pathetic. What do you enjoy, Maria? Oh, I like talking about this. I like talking about that. Do you really enjoy it? Yes. Okay. Let’s do that then. You know, and. The one thing that we noticed and the one thing that we all want to do together is we wanted to inspire people to do better across, not just 10 X in your business. Uh, it was, it was about 10 X in your life. Um, and I don’t like to use 10 X that much, but you know, it was about improving your life. Uh, and the ramifications of how building a successful business. Also [00:28:00] requires building a genuinely authentic, successful you. So we had to work out what we really wanted to talk about in regards to topics and what direction that we wanted to go. And if I had listened to other people about what we were doing, they would say, you need to niche. It’s too broad. You need to niche. I’m like, who, who, what, how is that not a niche? How is talking. And speaking to entrepreneurs who want to have a better quality of life, a better quality of business and live location independent, how is that not a niche? I know for a fact, if I talk to other podcast producers, they’ll be like, Oh, that’s too broad. It’s too broad. That’s their opinion. But the fact is that you believe in it. Patrick believes in it. I believe in it. We don’t know the result that we’re going to get, you know, we, some people want to, to, to build a podcast, to make money. The second they say that I’m like, I’m not the guy for you. if they want to build a community, I’m the guy for you. If they want to get [00:29:00] themselves on more stages, I’m the guy for you. The idea of storytelling and the fact of telling stories to inspire others to do better, whether it be in their business or in their brand or in their, in, in, in their personal lives that has been now turned into a tool to make money and solely to make money. How do we create this narrative to turn it into profit, which I think is a horrible place to go with, with, with all this. Maria: And what I also loved about what you said was, was Or what I was thinking was that you because you talked earlier about David Bovey or who said that that it needs to be uncomfortable and for me, sometimes the podcast ideas are uncomfortable. And for me, that’s actually a good sign. If I am a bit fearful, then it means I’m challenging myself to talk about something I haven’t talked about before or it’s deeper or it’s it’s more meaningful to me or and that’s why I super often get emotional on these on these shows is because I’m, I’m talking about things that are so important to me. And I’m not. So used to talk about them and that’s [00:30:00] why it’s challenging and that’s why I get emotional. So I think I think just just Knowing what you are passionate about and ask yourself that question. What? What am I thinking about these days? Like what are what is going on in my life? And what is what is it that I want to share and where do I want to challenge other people? And and how can I inspire people around me? I think that’s a great place to start Kurtis: telling stories Is one of the most vital things you can do in your life When people go for therapy, they tell stories, they tell stories in their head that puts them in a place where they need to go to therapy. We all tell stories to each other in person. It creates tears, laughter, joy, sadness, anger, frustration, and evokes emotional responses, And what a lot of people don’t realize, and I’ve seen More of my clients realize this is that podcasting, vodcasting, the art of telling a story into a microphone on a screen [00:31:00] is not just beneficial for the community that they’re trying to reach, but it’s beneficial to them because it’s putting them into a place, like you said, where they’re feeling uncomfortable, they feel like they don’t know you’re an expert at what you do. I’m an expert at what I do. I’m comfortable. But when I put myself into a place where I don’t know. How it’s going to work out. That’s where we need to be. Maria: So he said that the starting point for a podcast shouldn’t be a goal of like making more money. So what, what would the benefits or the goals be that would be good goals when you start a podcast? Kurtis: You ask yourself why, I’m working with a guy in Sweden now. Uh, and he, he just knew he’s like, I know I want to start the podcast. That’s the worst Swedish accent I could ever come up with. But anyway, uh, I know I want to start a podcast. That’s great. You know, so now we’re going to sit down and iron out what it is that you want to talk about. And he has a coaching business and I was like, perfect. It’s because, I think the [00:32:00] days of the days of having a resume and sending out your resume and that are kind of over, I was working with a show called beneath the waves and it was some of the crew from, from shark week that work, uh, work with this discovery channel, and their show is fantastic because never had I heard I’ve never heard what it was like to live aboard a boat, investigating the movements of sharks off the, the coast of Bermuda. It was, it was just an incredible, incredible scenario to paint a picture in my head when I was listening to their show. But what their show did was their show attracted sponsors, and funders to their ocean conservation cause, you know, and it was because these people that wanted to philanthropists or whoever wanted to check out who these people are and what’s the best way to check out who they are, talk to them. And if you can’t talk to them, you can listen to them and you can listen to them via podcast. So that was one, that was [00:33:00] one way where people were. We’re starting to realize that they could attract investors because they had a podcast and a vodcast, whatever you want to call it. I can’t, I just can’t explain how valuable a podcast is to a person for building their themselves. Number one, their brand, their message or their business, because it’s a complete, and you’re going to love this. It’s a complete funnel. It is a funnel. If you are the brand and we are looking at a world where micro brands, mini influencers, micro influencers, the person is the brand, that’s, that’s where we are now. And it’s just going to get bigger and bigger. you couple that with training AI, what’s the best way to train AI? Feed it your audio, feed it your video, but garbage in, garbage out. So if you don’t have that A, that capital A of being yourself. Everything that AI comes out with is going to be garbage. It’s not going to be you. So you have to start at authenticity. You have to start there and you have to do the work to do that. [00:34:00] And the value that a podcast brings is that you can create any kind of content. You want any kind of content for any social media channel, for any blog post, for any subscription email, that’s just the content side of a thing. But you get to be the expert. You get to do the research because you’re putting yourself out there in a situation where. Oh shit. Do I know enough to be the host? If I don’t, then I got to go learn. You start getting uncomfortable again. You also get to ask questions. You get to build a network. Say if you like, if you like glasses, okay. You want to set a podcast about glasses. You get to build a network of glass experts, glasses, experts all around the world. You have to research the questions. You have to ask the questions of, of topics that you don’t know the answers to. And I further again. Brings you back to your authentic self being inquisitive. So a podcast just ticks off all the boxes. It’s just one of the most perfect ways to better yourself, better your business, better your brand, and better the community around you. [00:35:00] Thank you so much for listening to this episode. To dig deeper, visit awesome. com forward slash scaling light. That’s A W E S M dot com forward slash scaling light. You’ll find show notes, resources and links. mentioned in this episode, as well as links to our socials. 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