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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, this weekend my son and I went t-shirt shopping so we’d have a fresh batch to wear for Dragon Con, and I believe if you are learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I talk about lessons I’ve learned by asking the right questions.
Today’s Fun Fact of the Day: Today is Pluto Demoted Day! You may be like me and grew up in a solar system that had 9 planets. However, in 2006 Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet and our solar system suddenly had only 8 planets.
Here are some facts about the planet I now affectionately call Gimli.
- Pluto was first discovered by Clyde Tombaugh on February 18, 1930
- The Disney dog Pluto was named after the newly discovered planet to capitalize on the excitement surrounding the discovery of a new planet.
- Pluto is 1,473 miles in diameter which makes it smaller than Earth’s moon. The moon’s diameter is 2,159 miles.
- 151 Pluto’s will fit inside Earth.
- In case you’re wondering, 1,793 Pluto’s will fit inside Uranus.
What I leaned yesterday.
I want to start today’s episode by taking a moment to thank all of you who have sent me feedback via email or Facebook messages about the last couple of Monday episodes. It’s hard for me to express how I am positively impacted when I know that I am positively impacting you. To hear that “Musings of a Misfit” and “Taking the Plunge” positively impacted many of you is wonderful to hear. I’ve also heard from some of you that your favorite episodes are the ones where I share insights from my career in the corporate world.
Today’s episode isn’t about my life in the corporate world per se, but it does touch on my experience in leaving that world. Today’s episode topic is important. It’s so important to me, that it was one of the first topics I discussed back in episode 14, “You Do Not Have Because You Do Not Ask.” Mark also touched on this topic in episode 248, “Ask and You Shall Receive.”
What is today’s topic? Asking.
While there are several moments in my life that I can look back on and see how the simple act of asking had a profoundly positive impact, I want to focus on three of them today.
The first example is the story that I shared in episode 14. I’ll briefly retell it.
In the fall of 2012 I was miserable at my job and I wanted out. I wanted to be able to quit my job and focus on podcasting full-time, but I couldn’t do that financially. After spending some time in prayer one day, I got an email from my friend Cliff Ravenscraft. Cliff’s email introduced me to a man named Stuart Crane and TV Talk. Stuart was looking for people to host podcasts on his upcoming network. I saw that Stuart would need someone to produce and edit all the podcasts so I asked him if I could do that job. I then met with Stuart and he offered me the job of producing the TV Talk podcasts. That one question and subsequent opportunity gave me the income I needed to save up enough money and quit my job just 6 months later.
The next important question came in the spring of 2014. By this time I was approaching the 1 year anniversary of when I quit my job. TV Talk had been a tremendous blessing and provided plenty of work and income for that first year. However, TV Talk had not been able to pick up the sponsors it needed to cover expenses, and it was looking like it was not going be able to continue operating. This made me really nervous.
Honestly, I had been nervous about it from the beginning. While it was fantastic to have a steady stream of work and income, I did not like having so much of my work and income coming in from a single client. At one point, TV Talk represented 90% of my income. If Stuart were to get hit by a bus or shut down operations, I knew I’d be in trouble.
The problem was that I was so busy with TV Talk work, I didn’t know how I could possibly take on any other clients. Fortunately for me, TV Talk did not shut down operations over night. Instead, TV Talk shut down a few shows at a time and tapered off. As shows were shut down I had more time. Sure, it was hard to lose some income, but it was a lot better than losing all my income.
I finally reached a point where I felt like I could take on a few more clients. I started putting feelers out for new clients but knew it would not be an easy task. And then I had an idea for a question to ask and I knew who I could ask it to.
Once again I turned to my good friend Cliff Ravenscraft. I sent him an email and told him that I was looking to add more clients. Cliff was already very aware of my skills and how I was serving the podcast community. However, I knew that Cliff had a lot of people coming to him for podcasting advice and various podcasting needs. I knew that Cliff had a lot of great people in his referral network, but I wasn’t sure if he had anyone to refer people to when they were looking for audio editing or other services that I provided.
So I asked Cliff if I could be a part of his referral network and wondered if he ever got requests that I could help him with.
Much to my surprise Cliff responded and said that he gets requests like that with some frequency. He said that he had just received an email from someone who was looking for someone to help with production, and Cliff needed someone he could trust to send it to. Since that time Cliff has had hundreds of emails come in from podcasters seeking help, and dozens of them have been sent to me as a referral. Many of the clients I get to work with and now consider friends are because I reached out to Cliff and asked him if I could help him out. Furthermore, I don’t know if I would have been able to stay in business after TV Talk shut down if it had not been for the work that came as a result of asking this question.
The last story I want to share with you does not yet have an ending. Because it does not yet have an ending, I wondered whether or not I should share it yet. However, I thought it might be good to share this story while it’s still unfolding, and come back with a follow up story when the time is right.
This story involves another prominent podcaster by the name of John Lee Dumas. I don’t know John extremely well, but I have a lot of respect for him. He and I have not known each other as long as Cliff and I have, but I’ve been a member of his Podcasters’ Paradise community since January of 2014.
A few of months ago John was looking for someone to update the Audacity tutorials that he offers members of Podcasters’ Paradise and I volunteered to help. It was the first chance I’d had to work on a project directly for John and I was excited to be able to add value to his community. John liked the videos so much he gave me a video and written endorsement for my website, and allowed me to use his endorsement on my booth that I had made for Podcast Movement.
As I began the drive home from Podcast Movement I filled the time by listening to podcasts. I fired up an episode of The Solopreneur Hour with Michael O’Neal, and was surprised to hear John on the podcast. It turned out to be an episode that they were doing jointly and would be releasing to each of their podcast feeds.
About halfway through the podcast they began to talk about a new training project they were offering called Podmastery. Podmastery is a one-day event taking place in San Diego on September 5th. Michael makes hundreds of thousands of dollars each year with his podcast and John makes hundreds of thousands of dollars each month with his.
Obviously these two guys know a thing or two about creating a successful business and how a podcast can play a significant role in that. As they began to unveil the details of Podmastery I found myself getting excited and nervous. Before they ever mentioned any of the 6 topics they’d be covering, I knew this was going to be a big deal if they could manage to cover all the necessary points.
Here are the topics:
- Show Strategy
- Brand Strategy
- Launch Strategy
- Gear Selection and Use
- Mailing List, Lead Magnet
- Sales Funnel, Email Strategy
When they finished describing the event I was amazed. These two men had managed to put together a near perfect training event. I also knew that they type of people who would be interested in this type of event and able to afford it would also be the type of people that are my most typical and ideal client.
However, I saw a hole in their plan.
There was no mention of how to edit and publish the great content that each person would be creating. I knew this was a need I could fill.
I pulled off the highway at the next town and found the nearest parking lot. I pulled out my phone and sent an email to John telling him that I loved the idea of Podmastery but I felt it lacked support for editing and publishing. I then asked John if I could partner with them and offer that service to the Podmastery graduates.
John emailed me back and we began talking about how I could specifically help them. I am thrilled to say that Pro Podcast Solutions is now going to play a part in the event!
Here’s what I learned.
What opportunities do we miss out on in life because we never get up the courage to ask? In each of these situations I could have allowed myself to cower in the face of fear or doubt and talked myself out of asking the question.
But here’s the thing…and it’s important.
In each of these situations, if I had not asked, not only would I have robbed myself of a life changing opportunity, each of these men would have been left with a need.
What would Stuart have done for a producer if I hadn’t asked him if I could do it? Would he have found someone else? Sure. But he would have had to spend valuable time and resources trying to find that person.
What if I’d never asked Cliff about joining his referral network and help out folks who come to him for help? Would he have been able to send those folks elsewhere? Honestly, I’m not sure. The person he sent me that first day could not have been the first person that had sought Cliff out for that type of need so I’m not sure what Cliff offered them before I came along. I do know that Cliff is able to much better serve his community through me today than he was before.
Lastly, what would John and Michael have done if I had not asked to help? I don’t know. What I am quite certain of is that some of the people who graduate Podmastery would have become frustrated podcasters if I had not offered my skills and services to help them.
So this brings me to the core lesson of today.
If you have the ability to help someone, to serve someone, to enrich someone’s life and by doing so receive those same things back onto yourself, don’t wait to be asked. Waiting to ask will only be a disservice to them and you. They will be glad you asked because you’re helping them and making their life better.
So look for ways to help people and offer your skills. The odds will be greatly in your favor.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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