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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I have 3 stars on every level of Two Dots except number 138, 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 reflecting on the last year.
Today’s fun fact: When I was a kid we watched a lot of horror movies. I can’t imagine what my childhood would have been like without Freddy, Jason, zombies, vampires, demons, or haunted houses. Yesterday the film world lost a legend. Wes Craven was the genius behind the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, The Hills Have Eyes, Scream, and much, much more.
I first watched A Nightmare on Elm Street when I was 9 years old. Here are some fun facts about the movie that sparked one of the biggest franchises in movie history.
- The movie was filmed in 30 days at a cost of about $1.8 million. It earned that money back in just 3 days and went on to gross $25 million
- Wes Craven had written a happy ending for the movie that did not hint at a sequel. However, the head of New Line Cinema insisted on a different ending and they compromised in making the ending that made it into the final film.
- Without the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street, New Line Cinema would have gone bankrupt.
- Freddy Krueger only has 7 minutes of screen time in the original Elm Street movie.
What I leaned yesterday.
It’s hard to believe that a month has now passed since Podcast Movement. Shortly after I got back from PM15 I penned an episode called “Enjoying the Benefits of Breaks” where, among other things, I talked about how much work had gone into getting ready for that event. As I sit here now with the perspective of a month of days between me and the event, I thought I’d take a few minutes and share what I’ve learned.
First let me say that I’ve learned so much and I’m continuing to learn so much, that my perspective is still being shaped nearly every single day.
As I’ve mentioned before, Podcast Movement had an incredibly positive impact on my business. Before the event I was fortunate to have enough business to be able to pay all my bills and have enough left over to pad my savings account a tiny bit or do something fun. Before the event I launched about 1 new podcast at a time and sometimes had 2 launches overlap.
Since Podcast Movement I’ve been fortunate to add over half a dozen clients and I’m currently in the process of launching 5 podcasts all at the same time. In the last month Pro Podcast Solutions has produced nearly twice as many podcast episodes as we typically do in that time frame, and my email box is still being flooded with new leads nearly every day.
So now that I’ve had a month to think about it, would you like to know what it is that has lead to this rapid growth? Why don’t I break down a few things for you first. Is that okay?
It’s been almost 1 year since my family and I vacationed in Hawaii. When we returned I turned my focus on creating the company now known as Pro Podcast Solutions and pulling out all of my client based work from the Golden Spiral Media brand.
I spent a lot of time analyzing my business model, what I wanted to communicate to prospective clients, and the way that I wanted to communicate it. I researched website design, the way colors communicate to the human mind, the biggest problems that podcasters face, and what made me different from my competition.
I sought the advice of other successful entrepreneurs and learned from their experiences and mistakes.
I evaluated how I could best move my existing clients from the Golden Spiral Media brand and pricing structure over to the Pro Podcast Solutions brand and pricing structure.
I then worked feverishly to create a brand and a platform that encompassed all I had learned and rolled it out early last November. Once the new brand was in place, I saw immediate growth. For the first time in 8 months I did not have to pay bills out of my savings account. Kari and I were beyond relieved because we only had 1 more month of savings left before our account would run dry.
Over the next 6 months I saw steady growth. I was regularly adding new clients and I soon needed to add an additional audio editor to my team. At times it was overwhelming as I had more work that I felt like I could do, but not enough to add yet another member to my team.
At this same time I was already planning for Podcast Movement. In fact, it was back in January that I first reached out to the guys at Podcast Movement about possibly purchasing a booth space. I knew that it was something I wanted to do, but I needed to find out the costs.
I then spent the next 3 months planning my expenses, envisioning my marketing strategy, and determining how I would be able to afford a booth at Podcast Movement.
Fortunately my business kept growing and I was able to secure a Podcast Movement booth spot a few months later. Once that was done, I had to start putting all my ideas into tangible items.
I realized that everything I did needed to reflect the professionalism that our name communicates. I had to have a first class booth. I had to have professionally designed literature. I had to have branded clothing that wasn’t a t-shirt. I had to be ready to communicate one-on-one with people and instill professionalism and confidence.
After the event was over I moved into action once again. I sent follow up emails with everyone that stopped by our booth and left contact info. I gave everyone free content to help them with their podcast.
And then it happened. My email box started getting flooded with people looking to use Pro Podcast Solutions to help them with their podcast.
Some of those people, and some of the people that I met at the booth were still not sold on Pro Podcast Solutions. After all, anyone can buy a booth and have a shirt monogrammed. They wanted to know who I work with. They wanted the names of some of my clients. Most of my clients are listed on my website.
My longest standing client is Tales From the Cask, a great podcast about craft beer. We’ve been working together 2 ½ years now. My most recognizable client is the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. But most of my clients are folks that most people have never heard of but have great content and are enriching the lives of people all over the world with their podcasts that educate, inspire, motivate, and entertain.
So there’s a pretty good list of the things that led me to this point. Of course, contained within each of those steps are tons of other decisions and nuances.
Now I’ll ask you again. Which one of those things do you think caused my business to boom over the last month? Did one of them stick out?
If you guessed all of them, then you are correct!
Here’s what I learned.
The truth is, there isn’t just one thing that has led me to this point. All of the things I listed above along with several other things that I didn’t mention and very likely several things that I’m not aware of are what have led me to this point.
In fact, nearly half of the people I’ve spoken with since Podcast Movement did not hear about Pro Podcast Solutions from Podcast Movement. They found me via a Google search or word of mouth. When I look at the traffic statistics for my website, it’s actually down nearly 30% in the month since Podcast Movement as it was in the month prior to Podcast Movement.
So what does all of this mean? It means that everything we do matters. Now don’t let that freak you out. In fact, it should give you relief. Because everything we do matters, it means that it’s not likely that only one thing will ruin you.
It also means there are a thousand choices and a thousand steps to take to get to your goal. No, that’s not right. It’s more like tens of thousands. I’m no where near my goal yet. Have I met or exceeded most of my goals for this year? Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m anywhere close to reaching my ultimate goals.
Our goals are often far off and may seem impossible to reach. We can get bogged down in trying to figure out the best path. We can allow the fear of messing up paralyze us and keep us from taking a step.
But the fact of the matter is that we make our best decisions when we’re on the road. We often can’t see the path ahead more than one step at a time and we certainly can’t see the whole path.
The worst mistake we can make is failing to make a move.
A friend of mine named Mike quit his job last week. He was nervous. I know exactly how he feels. You see, he quit his job so he could become a full-time entrepreneur. He’s been doing it as a side job for a while and now he’s made the leap. That fear of letting go is real. But we can not move on to the next step if we refuse to let go of where we’re at.
I know some of you are listening to this and you’re scared. I know how you feel. My advice to you is to let go. Identify the next step, figure out how to get to that spot, and go for it!
Let me close today with this quote from Nora Roberts. “If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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