Binge Factor Media

By sharing the stories of those who have succeeded and embracing different views, we can create a better future for all and empower and inspire others to achieve their dreams. In this episode, we have John Mendez, a young podcaster and founder of Walk 2 Wealth, to share different perspectives and his project of empowering people to succeed in life. With his podcast, John aims to create a platform for diverse voices and experiences to be heard, and to inspire others to pursue their dreams and goals. John shares his personal story and the challenges he’s overcome to achieve success at a young age. From practical tips for building wealth and financial literacy, to personal development and entrepreneurship, John offers a wealth of knowledge and inspiration for people who want to do well in life. Tune in to learn from one of the rising stars in the podcasting world and discover how you too can walk the path to success.

—

Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Different Perspectives: How This Young Podcaster Empowers People To Succeed In Life With John Mendez Of Walk 2 Wealth

I’m excited to bring you this episode. John Mendez, who is my guest is one of the most different podcasters I’ve brought on in a long time. He has such a different perspective. I love it when I get to talk to someone young because they have a different perspective on the technology pieces, how they handle it, and how they intended to use it. They have a different viewpoint.

John points this out as we’re talking because he comes from a world where social media was there from the day he put a phone in his hand and automatically already had social media. That’s a different viewpoint of the world where I started my career and got email pretty close to the first few years that I would’ve been in business, but it wasn’t an immediate thing. It started out in an older model.

There are a lot of us out there, and that could mean we’re tech challenged. I’m not personally tech-challenged. That’s my gift. I embrace it, and I love tech. John’s perspective for those who are in a different place, maybe those who are struggling to figure out what their path might be, who don’t have a perspective on anything is where he’s taking them. He calls it Walk 2 Wealth. I am enjoying the model that he created because when you’re walking the walk, other people want to go along with you. That’s exactly what John’s built here. Let me tell you a little bit more about John.

He is a serial entrepreneur, realtor, investor, podcast host, and social media expert. John Mendez is deeply passionate about helping other like-minded individuals achieve a life of abundance. Through the power of the mind and social media, John Mendez is empowering others to obtain financial freedom and build the lives they’ve always dreamed of living. This is the thing about John that you’re going to enjoy. This is a man who does not stop. He is going to get where he wants to go, and then he is going to find that next goalpost and get there too. If he can bring you along, get you running alongside him, and not just walk in, he’s going to do it. You’re going to want to read this episode and the energy and passion that John brings.

John, thank you much for joining me, Walk 2 Wealth. Wouldn’t it be great if we could talk our way to wealth right here on our show?

That would be amazing, but you got to put the work in too.

The thing is it is still a walk. You have to put some activity in action into it.

It came to me out of the blue. I procrastinated and started my show for a while because I couldn’t think of anything at all, but it hit like an eighteen-wheeler because of the whole story behind the show. The quote that came is, “It’s a long walk to wealth, but despite that, some people may walk fast than others, but what could be sprinting to the finish line if you pass out when you cross it.” We have this hustle culture that’s, “Run. We got to get it now. We got to start our business now. We got to do everything now, today, and yesterday,” but it’s a journey. You got to be okay in the process and with just walking there because at least you’ll be good to go and enjoy it when you finally cross that line.

That’s the thing I find many aren’t enjoying it. They’re not doing the celebration at the end or at the milestone marker either. We’re just not enjoying the process, and that’s what I love about podcasting. I love the process, but what about you? What have you found to be your favorite part about podcasting?

It’s because I’m an extrovert, so it’s to be expected. I love connecting with people. It’s crazy. We were talking about how small of a world it is. There’s a guy whose podcast I hopped on. He’s in London. He’s a guy that I’m having on my summit in March 2023, who also only even on my show that I met through TikTok because his content was amazing for some reason. The guy who interviewed me is a coach. He is still an active coaching client. People I never met from all these different places, I was somehow intertwined a little bit and meeting all these amazing people, having these amazing conversations. The pre and post-recording conversations, too, is where the money is. That’s where the gold is.

Those connection points may not seem like they’re logical. You wouldn’t have made that path yourself, but it is logical because there is synergy there that is happening without you.

You could tell it. It’s something intimate for having a conversation where you can dive into depth at length in some of these ideas and get these new perspectives. I’ve always been one of those guys. Even growing up, before I knew it, I always loved being curious and seeing other people’s perspectives, and figuring out why people tick. In middle school, we had this thing called philosophical chairs. We would split up the room, and it’s like, “What’s the best dessert or snack? Ice cream or pizza?”

Everyone would choose pizza, and I love pizza myself, but sometimes. Sometimes, depending on which side had more people, I would go to the ice cream side to figure out why someone would make an argument for this. Now that I’m podcasting, I get to see all these different perspectives, ideas, and viewpoints and turned myself into this melting pot of tons of perspectives while I live and experienced my life and figure it out on my own self, I’m also hearing from all these people and trying to piece things together.

You’re finding out what’s resonating with you. I want to dive into your binge factor because this is what I found to be the best part about your show and the reason why someone’s going to listen to it, go back to the beginning, listen to all of them, and subscribe. That is when you are talking with your guest, you are generating your ideas live. You’re thinking about what your business model might shift to, what audience you can serve, or how you can change something up.

You’re like, “I can see your brain working and thinking that through,” and talking about that as if you’re already planning to do it. That person’s energy and ideas are getting synthesized by you. That’s beautiful and brilliant because this is what happens when we listen to a show, but it can seem more passive, and you’ve turned it into something active on your show, and your audience is coming right along with you. I want to know what your idea and takeaway are.

It’s something that it’s hard to put your finger on because, for me, I grew up playing football and basketball. It’s like almost that couple seconds before kickoff where the adrenaline is now kicking in and you’re starting to enter into that flow or state where you go blank and you’re not thinking at all.

It’s muscle memory.

You are in that flow state, and the thoughts come up. Sometimes I go back. If you were to ask me after a football game about what happened during a game, I could probably recall 3 or 4 plays out of the entire game. It’s the same thing with podcasting. If you ask me what I said when I was talking, I can’t remember what I said because I’m so in that conversation. I’m deeply involved in the conversation and trying to figure out where I go next. I usually don’t prep conversations. I know where I want to go with something. As something comes up, I dive deeper into that. It’s that genuine curiosity that I have expressed in real-time while I’m having this dance with this other person.

That’s the case because as we were talking beforehand, I had listened to your episode with Drew Donaldson. You said something about wanting to do this, and I was asking you if you did. You were like, “What did I say?” It’s that exact model of it. It’s good because it’s teaching your audience to be more than passive listening, active in their listening and thinking things through. That’s a spawn for purpose and thought leadership. That’s what I want to shift to and talk with about you because you are going to be giving a talk before this interview, but it will happen after this.

Chances are my audience didn’t make it there. I want to make sure that they can read what you were talking about. Four Steps To Finding Your Purpose is the title of your talk. It is interesting because we struggle sometimes. Some people think of their podcasts as complete experiments, and I applaud that. It’s a great experiment, but have a plan for finding its model and purpose. What are your recommendations and what are you going to talk about?

This concept is called Ikigai. It’s a Japanese concept and a little bit of context just so you know how I came to this. If you read my bio, I have someone on fire to write. It sounds super fancy, and it’s like, “Serial law entrepreneur, real estate agent investor, podcast social media,” and it has all these different titles. 2022 is the year of the squirrel. During the Chinese New Year, the squirrel was my Shiny Object syndrome because I was trying to do everything at the same time.

This is the year of the rabbit. Let’s hope we multiply.

I was chasing everything like a squirrel. I was trying to do real estate and had a podcast on the side. In my real estate, I was getting leads. I wasn’t following up and wasn’t closing any deals. I closed a couple of rentals. Around September 2022, I read a book called The Purpose Factor. That’s a story for another day, but it got me thinking as to what is this idea of purpose. I always like and love the philosophical way of getting into deep thought of the world and figuring out why it is that we are here and stuff like that.

I never dove into it that much. After that, I was like, “Maybe real estate is not my calling.” At that time, I was teaching social media classes already. I was like, “Maybe I have to turn the social media thing into an actual agency and run with that.” In my first client, I was creating content for him, and I was like, “I already create content for myself. I don’t want to do this for anyone else. It’s a lot more work.”

Around that time in December, I found this concept called Ikigai. It stands for, “Your reason for being.” If you have a pen and paper, it’s an easy exercise anyone can go through to start getting a little more clarity as to where it is that they should pivot and focus on. This helped me gain a lot of clarity and shed a lot of light on the opportunity calls. Sometimes there are multiple phones ringing and trying to figure out which phone to call to pick up and have that conversation. It’s very difficult. Instead of trying to gain clarity, I was trying to pick up every phone at the same time. That did not work. I highly do not recommend it.

What I did was, in the four steps, I pretty much start off by listing out, “What do you love to do?” It’s everything that you would do for the rest of your life if no one ever paid you a single penny from it. List it out. Is it writing, reading a book, creating courses, or speaking at conventions? Whatever it may be, list that out. Once you finish that, go on to the next step, which is, “What does the world need?” What are all the problems that you see need fixing that you feel compelled to fix? Make sure you feel compelled to fix them. For example, I chose financial literacy and an abundance mindset mainly because I grew up in the projects and didn’t grow up around money.

Fortunately, I had friends that lived in the Hamptons. One time, I went on a trip in my eighth-grade year. I got to see what real wealth and prosperity look like. Also, I grew up and got to see the opposite side of the fence and what things would turn into if you lead a life of poverty and scarcity and go down that path to the extreme.

Write down all the problems you feel compelled to solve. Once you finish that step, you go on to what you can be rewarded for. A lot of times, we get a lot of fulfillment and joy from some of these things. Maybe it’s volunteering at the soup kitchen. It might be building houses in South America for people in third-world countries, and maybe volunteering at the local shelter for cats and dogs or whatever it may be. We still have to keep the lights on and put food on the table. Especially if you have a family, you still have to take care of yours.

Once you start listing that out, the final step is, “What are you good at?” or I like to say, “Do you have the aptitude to be good at?” I’m very extroverted to talk. This is my thing. If you were someone that’s shy and introverted, maybe public speaking isn’t your wheelhouse, or maybe it could be, but you know you’ll be treading against the grain. What are you good at? If someone whose skills haven’t developed yet, what do you have the aptitude to be good at? Once you finish those four lists, hopefully, you have something that intersects across all four. If not, start with what’s on the list and start crossing things out until you find the one.

This is important. Sometimes we don’t always know, especially the younger audience. Maybe they haven’t found something that’s rewarding for them yet that trying the other three on the list and then coming up with something that has a commonality, you might find that as the most rewarding thing.

One thing I’ve realized, especially for that last circle about what we are good at, sometimes things that come second nature to us that we think aren’t regular or easy are extremely valuable to someone else. For example, for me, it’s the story of how I taught my first social media class. I was in the gym. I am on this mastermind call at the Clubhouse. It’s like 6:30 to 7:00 AM, Monday through Friday. I’m always on there, at least I used to be when I was focused on real estate. I was listening to them, and they were talking on social media. At that time, I wasn’t making reels. I wasn’t using social media strategically at all. I knew it from growing up socially with it.

I made a quick Facebook post on five simple easy tips, or at least what I thought were simply easy, then one of the hosts of the mastermind was like, “Do you mind teaching a class on this?” Instead of saying yes, I said, “No, I never taught a class before.” I panicked. Right after that, she responded with, “Let us know when you want it scheduled.”

After that, I couldn’t say no again. Something I didn’t realize was a skill she’s seen in me. I was able to cultivate that and grow from there. Sometimes it’s like things that we might think are second nature that we don’t value, but someone else may be willing to take an hour or two out of their day to hear you talk, teach, and present on a certain subject. Don’t overlook the things that you naturally find easy.

We do overlook it and its value of it, for sure. I’ve been having some discussions with some other podcasters and community managers who have large youth audiences. They’re seeing different attitudes, but also a difference in learning styles. What do you find there as a way that you are working hard to make sure that you’re engaging your community? I think that’s the hardest piece for each of us. It is to engage our community. Because you’re dealing with that youth, hopefully, it will help all of us understand that.

For me, it is still being technically in my target demographic age. I knew that people my age have a tendency to not want to listen or be receptive to information coming from someone that’s older than them for the simple fact that they believe that they can’t understand or can’t resonate with that person because they’re much older than them.

I knew that was going to be my angle into the podcasting space because a lot of people are talking about personal finance, wealth building, and all that jazz, but a lot of people are either 1) They’re successful that they feel there’s too far away to even reach, or 2) They’re a lot older. The younger generation feels like, “They don’t know what they’re talking about. They have money, but they don’t know what I’m going through.”

It’s too far along.

All my friends are still in college and are still my age. Although I stopped spending a lot of time with a lot of people my age because as you get into this entrepreneurial world and you start going to conferences and start self-improving, the gap starts to expand a bit in terms of mentality, mindset, and trajectories of where we’re headed. For me, still being at this age, it wasn’t until I got clarity as to who my ideal avatar is and going in-depth. People say, “Create your avatar. You want to talk to marketing purposes.” Know who you want to reach, what they like to do, what their pastimes are, what they enjoy doing when they’re free, and when they listen or check in with your stuff.

I was very fortunate because I drew up my ideal avatar. I happened to have a guy named Darren. I played football with him, grew up, and went to the same schools growing up. He is someone that didn’t want to finish college. He wanted to go the entrepreneurial route. He wanted us to make his own business and take life into his own hands. He fit out my ideal avatar perfectly.

One day, it clicked. It’s like, “This person that I drew out is Darren. Let me ask Darren for everything. Is this a good idea? Do you like this? What do you think about this episode? What do you like about my titles?” This could be applied to anything, but having that idea avatar for me being Darren, he’s a year younger than me, he’s twenty. I ask him and run all my ideas by him. You would’ve thought he was my executive assistant or something because of the amount of times I call him up and ask for his opinion and feedback.

That’s a big success strategy of big companies. Amazon does that. When they start a project team on a project that’s going to be coming out, they assign a profile of the ideal buyer, consumer, or user of it. They outline all kinds of things like, “What are their buying habits? What kinds of things do they do on Amazon already?” It’s all of these things. They give them a name. Why not do with what you know?

When we started our very first podcast on 3D printing, we would do that. We would give shoutouts to members of the audience who asked us a question to reward them for asking it. Because it helped put a picture in our mind of who we were talking to and serving best, pretty quickly, we were able to put real names and faces to that.

The amount of clarity that comes from that exercise is insane. I happen to be fortunate that I know Darren as a person. I could have an idea. It’s like, “This episode wouldn’t be a good fit. This whatever may not be a good fit insert whatever it is that you’re selling or serving.” When you know your ideal avatar and the more you get to know that person, hopefully, it’s someone that exists because the more you get to know them, the more clarity you’ll have in terms of the direction you go with whatever you want to do. For me, having that Shiny Object syndrome and then finally getting clarity, now I have a clear direction like if it doesn’t meet Darren, then it doesn’t get put out.

Young Podcaster: When you know your ideal avatar, the more you get to know that person, the more clarity you’ll have in terms of the direction you go with whatever you want to do.

That is good. I’m glad you’re curating in that model of it because it serves you well in the long run. It’s too easy for us to make our show generic as we go forward and lose our purpose in that model.

I almost lost myself. This is what I’ve been thinking about. The show is called Walk 2 Wealth. It was supposed to be like a medium where I share my story. I’ve had 5 or 6 episodes where I go in the first 6 and then maybe a couple of 2 or 3 after where I talk about my story and what I’m doing. It had mainly been an interview. It gets easy to get carried away with interviews because it’s a lot easier on the editing side and things like that. My girlfriend told me a while ago, but I read a book, and she was like, “You have to show up. You have to be more consistent. Instead of doing one a week, you should do one a day.” I can’t do that yet.

You have increased your pace, I noticed.

That’s just interviews. I was backed up with many interviews, I have to get them out. It’s still relevant at the time. Also, dropping a five-minute episode where I go slowly but surely share different parts of my story because it’s a little more entrepreneurial focused, but there are parts where for example, attachment styles and learning about psychology. That played a big role in my personal development in high school and figuring that stuff out.

It’s sharing the nitty-gritty of how I got to where I’m at mentally, what influenced me, what factors played a big role in my life, and getting even more in-depth as to my walk because I want people to feel as if they’re not only are they living out this journey with me but hopefully that me sharing mine and being a lot rawer with it will then inspire them to also be vulnerable with me and share with me so I can then know to be who to serve and how to better serve them as well.

You don’t mind a little on-air coaching multiple times right here. You may not realize you’re doing it. You’re extremely well-read. I figured that out from listening to your show and from our conversation right now. Five minutes on what book you’re reading, I would be fascinated by it. Your audience might be too. It doesn’t have to be a big promo about the book or anything like that. It’s like, “I picked up this book, and this is something that fascinates me about it.” That’s it. You don’t have to say more than that, but what’s on your reading list would be valuable to your audience. They want to grow too.

I made an episode about my Top Three Books, and that episode did well way back when I got into interviews.

Spread it out a little.

I’m planning on getting it back into it because the little quick solo episodes give people a feel for who’s John. Most of the time, as I said, “I’m also in real-time gathering thoughts together while I’m interviewing.” For the most part, I like to consider myself like the conversation guide. I don’t ever get to put in my perspective as much or go into depth on my thoughts because if I’m interviewing someone, I’m there to see what I can learn from them and how could know I challenge them in a way to get even better thoughts. Some of the times, when we’re having this conversation, I come up with different metaphors that I’ve never even thought of before on the spot, and it’s like, “I got to save that. I got to add that to my repertoire.”

It’s a good thing that you have it documented on your podcast. You can clip that and save it for later. I want to touch on one of the things that I noticed in the sense we think that the youth is only interested in the 5-minute or 30-second in the short run, but your show is one hour long in the interviews. You are covering that as well. That defies the odds and helps you stand out.

“People are heavily oversaturated with content and starving for wisdom,” is a quote that I heard. People want to learn, grow, and not just be fed info. They want things that are going to change them. You can’t do it in a 30-second reel.

You can’t do it in a sound bite.

You have to get in-depth on some of these things. If you want to spark a change and ignite a flame in someone, you have to get in-depth on some of these ideas. Also, you have to stay ahead of the trend. One thing no one’s talking about is sooner or later, and I don’t know when because I don’t have a magic ball, but people are going to get short-term video fatigue. Eventually, they’re going to start wanting to consume longer forms of content. Because podcasters have been doing this for a while, we’ve been not as appreciated in the marketing world.

Young Podcaster: People are going to get short-term video fatigue, and eventually they’re going to start wanting to consume longer forms of content. And because podcasters have been doing this for a while, they have not been as appreciated in the marketing world.

We’re like the middle child that forgets people forget about. Once people get that short-form video fatigue, that’s when it’s going to raise all the boats because we’ve been put putting out long-form content for so long. Once the short-form wave is over, everyone’s going to come swimming to get what people are trying are searching for.

What people don’t understand about our long-form content is we have so much short forms we can create from it. We have endless amounts of a short forms. My team was like, “Could we get you to go on TikTok?” I was like, “Why? Do you create a 30-second clip of all these things that I’ve said over time? You’ve probably got thousands of them.” Do you need me to take the time to like go on? If it’s a benefit I’ll do it, but I don’t know why.

The question we have to ask at the end of the day is whether we got all we need. It doesn’t matter what format is going to come out. This is a real big thing for you. You cannot do an hour-long show and not bring some thought leadership to it. Whether it is your thought process and the ongoing of it, your grouping together ideas, or referring to another guest you had to help the audience see the synergies that are happening, you’re doing that. That’s thought leadership in its formation. No AI, none of those things in the future are going to be able to do that in the way that you can.

They try to say that they’re they could train and program it, but it’s something that we have. You can connect to someone. I like to say that I’m not the most successful 21-year-old in terms of monetary wise, but I happen to find my voice a lot sooner than most. The way I’ve been able to grow up, not having a role model allowed me to gain an open mind and a natural curiosity and search for all these different perspectives. It’s put my perspective a very unique seasoning to it. When I start whipping up the pot and having these conversations, it’s a nice exquisite cuisine that you get fed when you hop onto the show.

It’s all your own flavors. That’s what’s beautiful. I love how you said that you found your voice sooner than others. It’s not only that you found your voice, but you found the power of using that voice and the impact that it has is lending that purpose to your life, that reward. That all ties together in a wonderful way.

There’s this question I love asking people, especially when they try to figure out what it is that they want to do. If you won the Powerball, you got $1 billion. You never have to work a thing in your life. What is it that you would want to do? There are a couple of questions I ask to go a little bit deeper. Ask yourself, what would you do? For me, what I would do if I won $1 billion is I would probably hire people to help me create the greatest message that I can, then from there, put literally the entire rest of it into marketing costs and ads so that everyone could hear the message. Spend a good chunk of time putting everything that I had put together.

We’re now at a $1 billion lottery limit, but it used to be, “If I had $1 million, what would I do?” Million is too small now. The idea is that you would do the same thing. You just do it in a bigger magnitude.

Amplify it to the max.

That’s beautiful because it says that you’re sitting in your purpose. I wouldn’t retire. I was like, “What would I do with that?” It came up in conversation. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law have an opportunity because they’re teachers to have this retirement program. I was like, “That never even occurred to me, and I’m older than they are. Why would I retire?” It’s not something that I want to look at.

I would be totally remiss and my audience would be mad at me if I didn’t take the time to tap your expertise and brain on the three things that I go over every podcaster with. Your perspective on them is going to be very different. What I would love to know is how you find great guests because you’re finding someone interesting to you. What’s that path for you?

What it looks like for me is I’ve used PodMatch for a while, and then it got to the point where I found out about PodMatch, Matchmaker.fm, and Guestio. I got a couple of people from Guestio, but mainly PodMatch and Matchmaker. There’s this website called Podcast Guests. I send them an initial question as, “What is the one problem that you could solve if you were to make an appearance? Is that applicable to young adults aged 18 to 22?” I always ask that because people come on, and it’s like, “Here are the five steps to use a syndication deal to make a $1 million investment.” It’s like, “Cool, but we’re in college.”

I always ask that. That’s also the first round of elimination. Some people never even respond back, which is insane to me. The second round is I always do a pre-show call with any guests unless I know them personally or I follow their content so I already have a feel for who they are and what they can speak on. I always do a pre-show call to break the ice. I’ll use you as an example. We hopped on a call even before we hit record and started talking. For some people, you could have that. There’s synergy, and then we’re in alignment. That’s step number two.

Assuming we’re still in alignment after the pre-show call, I tell them to schedule a podcast interview. From there, I know what they’re on. In my onboarding form that I have, I ask a couple of questions to guide the conversation and look into them a little bit. From there, I try to ask them questions in their kind of zone of genius because I feel like people are more passionate about things that are in their zone of genius, but also maybe seeing things that I may be more interested in pivoting in making a conversation.

What I think is fascinating about the way that you ask questions and I think it works well is that you may be asking me something no one’s ever asked me before, or you’re going into that perspective that I haven’t heard. I have heard it on a couple of the shows that I listened to. I only spot-listened to three episodes, so I didn’t get to listen to the whole catalog. When I listened to it, what I heard was you asking for a more nitty-gritty view of things like, “How can I get started in this?” That’s important because, so often, a lot of these experts that come in talks at a level that’s above where you might be, and that’s not good. You bring them back down to where you need them to start. That is powerful.

I had a couple of people that I interviewed that were talking about trading stocks. That can get easily get lost in the weeds in terms of jargon and terminology that most people don’t understand. They understand because they’re experts. If I know I’m not understanding it, I say, “What does that mean?” in the mid-interview. If I can’t understand it, I know for sure most people listening definitely can’t understand it.

It’s knowing and not trying to come off as the professional that you understand everything they say. It’s like, “No, if I don’t understand something, you need to turn it down a little bit because I’m not going to sit here and act like I do understand it to keep this conversation going,” because I know people out there, you might have lost them as well. I can’t have my listeners getting lost because I’m lost and I didn’t have the courage to say something and pivot the conversation.

It does take courage to interrupt someone who’s an expert. It does take that. You do that well, and it does serve your show well. I want to talk about increasing listeners because this is the hardest part for every podcaster. It’s always the one I ask them, and they’ll be like, “I don’t know, what do you suggest?” They need more help. You’ve been using Instagram pretty successfully to help build more audience and interest in your episodes. I’d love for you to touch on that. What do you think that you do that is working for you in growing that listener base and engagement?

I was doing a bunch of reels. I got to a point where I was almost doing three reels a day. I was getting tons of views, but it wasn’t leading to downloads. I did a little bit of an experiment. Mind you, this is also during the time when I was still doing real estate, social media, and all this other jazz on the side. What helped me get my listenership up was getting crystal clear clarity on what my ideal avatar is and who that is.

Up until that point, everything I did up to that was for pretty much almost no reason, then I stopped for a little bit in terms of posting. It didn’t have any effect on my downloads. I spent a lot more time figuring out who it was. Once I did, one ideal avatar person represents about 100 listeners. if you know that you can have everything you do to be good for that person, you can estimate about 100 other people will also love what you got going on.

They’ll refer them to other people like them. It probably directly over time that happens.

Even before you hop onto Instagram, get clarity because I was shotgun spraying and praying in getting views and likes but not getting anything. If I had to restart everything, my first answer is always I wouldn’t because I don’t know where that would lead to. Everything happens for a reason, but if I could change something, I would’ve spent more time getting crystal clear clarity on who my ideal avatar is before I started doing the reels because I would’ve known which reels I should have posted, should have not posted, and how I could have best engaged them instead of just posting random clips that I thought were interesting and not what did maybe my ideal avatar think is interesting.

My sister-in-law has a podcast on Weekend Crafting Adventures. It’s for women who are crafting on the weekends outside of their job. It’s a perfect thing. She’s been doing more Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and some other things. She had gotten advice from my daughter about adding music to it as she shares some of these videos. She was agonizing over the music.

My daughter gave her great advice. She said, “Pick the music that you’re interested in because of your audience profile similar to you.” She happened to pick a song. It was an older song. It was Upside Down by Donna Summer. There were a bunch of commercials and stuff with it out. It took off and she had 200,000 views of that reel. It was all because the song boosted it.

I want to add one more point about the mistake that I made. You are not your own ideal avatar.

Not normally.

The same reason you’re making your show isn’t the same reason why someone will tune in. You have to distinguish and separate that because that’s what I thought. I’m in my own target audience demographic in terms of age and things like that, but the same reason I’m making my show isn’t the reason why people will tune in. I’m making that distinction. It definitely will help.

Let’s talk about the future. You’re coming up on 100 episodes. I hope you’re going to celebrate, but you have to start thinking about whether maybe is this working for you. Are you getting a high return on investment? I use monetization loosely here because it could simply be a return on investment for you personally. What is that return on investment from your show, and are you going to shift things up going forward?

My main goal is to grow my audience and authority this 2023. I was distracted in 2022, so I didn’t give my all, but we hit the top 5% on Listen Notes. We’re starting to get some numbers growing and increasing. We are running with this traction. My main marketing strategy is podcast guesting. I’m speaking at Podcast Expo.

I’ve got close to 90 podcast interviews booked, some of which I’ve already recorded. The goal is to get 400. I’m applying to speak at PodFest Podcast Movement in August 2023. I’m building my audience and my authority. I have a virtual summit that I’m doing in March 2023 to do some things. I’m focusing on building my authority, building my audience, and providing that value because if you have attention, it is the most valuable currency.

After pouring in so much, by the time I figure out my offer and what my angle is, I’ll still teach the social media stuff on the side to get some income to keep me afloat. Fortunately, I still live with my grandparents. If you have to stick it out at living with your parents, grandparents, or whoever to save some money, definitely do in the entrepreneurs’ space when you’re starting off. That’s been keeping me afloat. I plan on making this podcast more than a weekly episode. I want to turn it into a movement. I want it to be something that people can stand behind.

The whole name itself tells a story, Walk 2 Wealth. I want people like, “I’m walking to wealth. I’m a wealth builder,” or something like that where it’s a movement because the ROI is infinite in terms of fulfillment and monetarily. It definitely could use some boost. Now, it’s mainly growing my audience and my listenership. I figure out where it is that I could best serve and help people transform. That will come eventually, but I’m in no rush because I’m still afloat for now. There’s a Zig Ziglar quote, “If you help enough people get what they want, eventually, you’ll get what you want.”

I’m providing that value and keeping it going. The virtual summit is definitely going to be a big audience booster. I’ll probably do a couple more of that. I might do a couple more throughout the rest of 2023. I’m focusing on growing because once I have that list, that audience of people that genuinely support what I have going on, then people will want me because I have the platform. I’ll figure it out as it comes. My main focus this 2023 is growing the show because I spent much time in 2022 distracted.

It is the year of the rabbit. That multiplier is going to apply this 2023. We’re going to have a multiplying of listeners. Thank you for doing more than talking the talk and blocking the walk here for people because your show is fantastic and necessary for this space.

Thank you so much for the opportunity. I genuinely love hopping on a conversation with people like you that I can connect with. You could tell my face how much I genuinely enjoyed this conversation. I suck at hiding my poker pace. My cheeks start packing up and smile. I start creeping in. I had a genuinely good time having this conversation.

Me too, John.

—

I got to take some classes from John about authority value on Instagram. How can you build that? He’s defying the odds of all kinds of things he’s doing with his podcast. He’s got length and all these longer shows that don’t exist in his generation. There isn’t anything entitled about the way John approaches the world, yet that’s what we think of the Gen Z and Millennial generations who are podcasting.

That’s not what he’s about at all. Everything about the way that he’s created this show has been truly him. That’s what’s beautiful and brilliant. He said, “Here’s how these other people are doing it. I see the success factor, but I’m going to harness that and turn it into something that’s my own. I’m going to learn from that, but I’m going to do my own thing with it.”

That’s where the true power is. Finding your binge factor and the resonance with your community and your audience is when you go deeper when you don’t just follow what everybody else is doing. That’s what I hope you’re going to do here on the show. When I bring you some of these podcasters, I bring them on so that they can inspire you, tell their story, give you their twist, how they change something up, and what they did differently to make it their own so that you are inspired to make it your own. I hope you’re going to take listen to Walk 2 Wealth. It’s a great show. I hope you’re going to follow John Mendez on social media.

Check out John, the shows, and all of his social channels. Check out how he’s doing things. I think you’re going to be surprised and enjoy the model that he’s created and find some things that you might want to add to your model as well. I cannot wait to bring you another guest who’s inspiring me as much as John. Thank you so much for reading. I’ll be back next time.

Important Links

• Walk 2 Wealth
• Drew Donaldson – Walk 2 Wealth Previous Episode
• Top 3 Books to Start Your Personal Finance Journey – Walk 2 Wealth Previous Episode
• Instagram – Walk 2 Wealth
• The Purpose Factor
• PodMatch
• Matchmaker.fm
• Guestio
• Podcast Guests

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

Join the Binge Factor community today:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• YouTube