Binge Factor Media

Want to experience extraordinary success in business and life? Take the first step by tuning in to today’s show. Our guest, Andy McDowell, the owner of Generate Your Value, shares his insights about generating your value. Having spent 22 years with the Boeing Company, Andy has developed a keen sense for applying business concepts to life coaching and life coaching concepts to business. This is on-air coaching, so tune in to learn more value-based coaching and strategies.

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How Value Content Can Grow Your Podcast And Reach More Coaching Clients With Andy McDowell Of Generate Your Value Podcast

Let’s talk about value. How about generate your value. Doesn’t that sound like a great show name? It’s Andy McDowell’s show, and Generate Your Value is what it says it’s going to be. It’s a whole value-based show and I love that someone can hone in and focus on that. Let me tell you a little bit about Andy. He is an engineer by trade and a creative by nature. He spent 22 years with Boeing, where he felt like a life coach rather than a boss. In 2002, he began his journey into entrepreneurship within the corporation when he was asked to develop an aerospace design consulting business from scratch that would serve as a global government market.

He’s got a Bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State. Naturally, his aviation work took them from around the world and enabled them to work on high-profile projects, such as preparing the Beijing and Sochi Airports for the respectable Olympic Games. He has built Generate Your Value podcast and it helps you with your personal and your professional life. He has a keen sense for applying business concepts to life coaching and life coaching concepts to business. He loves that crossover.

I had so much fun with my conversation with Andy about Generate Your Value, how it came about and how it works. The thing that I want you to pay the most attention to is the fact that this is on-air coaching. This is a way to demonstrate gore value in the process. That’s what he’s doing there. He talks about things in the show about how creativity impacts value and how business tools improve things. He’s sharing all of that generously through his show as well and giving you an on-air view of what it’s like to work with him. That’s an unusual model that not everyone does well, but I think Andy does. That’s why I brought him on the show. We’re going to talk about Generate Your Value with Andy McDowell.

About Generate Your Value Podcast Host Andy McDowell

Andy is an engineer by trade and a creative by nature. He spent 22 years with the Boeing Company, where he
always felt more like a life coach than a boss. In 2002, he began his journey into entrepreneurship within a
Corporation when he was asked to develop an Airspace Design Consulting business from scratch that would serve the global government market. Andy has a Bachelor’s Degree from Georgia Tech in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State. Naturally, his aviation work took him around the world and enabled him to work on high-profile projects – such as preparing the Beijing and Sochi Airports for their respective Olympic Games.

Andy would love to have a conversation with you about how he might be able to use his strategic skills developed from his years with the Boeing Company to Generate Your Value in your personal and professional life. He has a keen sense for applying business concepts into life coaching, and life coaching concepts into business.

Andy, thank you so much for being on the show. I’m excited to talk about Generate Your Value because I’m all about value podcasting here. What I want to hear is that starting story. When did you decide that it was going to be valuable for you to podcast?

I thought I had a lot to offer in terms of life and business experiences. It’s all about finding your tribe. If you don’t put your message out there with a wide net and gather your tribe and your community around the show, then you’re not truly adding value to the world and people or individuals. It’s all about the opportunity and showing up with my opportunity with the show and putting my light up like the Statue of Liberty to say, “I’m here.” Hopefully, gather some people around and have a conversation that brings value to their life. That’s why I did it.

Your show dynamic is interesting because you have a co-host, Zach Levy, and you guys have a conversation between the two of you sometimes, which are topic-based, and both of your viewpoints on things. Also, you have your interviews with your guests as well. In those topic shows, are you finding that they’re doing better, and do you enjoy them more?

I enjoy it more. Our first season was strictly Zach and I am talking. I set up the show to be an example of what time spent with me as a coach would be like. I specifically went after Zach because he’s a young small business owner. He’s an old soul and very wise for his age. To be able to have these topics or conversations about a particular topic, much like a coach would have a conversation with a guest or a client on a specific topic that we were working on together. To model that with the hopes that if a listener hears that, sees that dynamic, they have an interest, and they come in on as a client, they already know what to expect. In terms of my demeanor and the way I approach things, my philosophies about life, business, and so forth. It’s a little more comforting to already have some exposure to that, as opposed to coming in blind. It was all very intentional about the way I set it up when a co-host.

Your interactions with Zach have gotten deeper and deeper over time. I listened to some of the early episodes and some of the recent ones. Now, it feels like Zach is more of a contributor. You come into this model where you’re co-creating in a way.

Zach’s family even says that about me. He just got promoted to regional vice president within his organization. They had a big celebration. He stood up and said that to about 25 people in the room. Andy’s not blood, but he’s family. That’s why he’s here from that perspective. The whole way it got started is, Zach and I were in the same closed networking group. He was the very first person I met in the group. We found ourselves getting together on my back porch over a glass of bourbon. He and his wife, Megan, who he’s in business with. We effectually start calling them B&P sessions for business and bourbon.

His wife’s from Kentucky and she’s educated me so much on bourbon. I’m Irish, so whiskey comes naturally to me. I’m a big believer in love versus fear. We were having a discussion at one B&B session about fears, so I straight asked Zach, “What’s one fear that you have that you’d like to work on?” I’d already had in my head thinking about starting a podcast. He said, “I’ve always had a dream of starting a podcast, and I haven’t pulled the trigger. It might be something I’d like to work on.”

I was like, “The universe is working here.” I ask, “I want to start a podcast. How would you like to join me in this adventure?” As we say, the rest is history from that standpoint. As you said, spending more and more time together and being aligned in terms of our thoughts about life and so forth from our own work and life experiences. It’s been a great partnership.

I’m curious as to whether or not doing the podcast has shifted the way that you work with your clients because you discovered things that are working in a different way.

In some ways, Zach is a test subject for me from that perspective. Sometimes, conversations that I have with Zach in the podcast are thinking out loud, in a way, through the podcast and you make a mental note like, “There’s an idea I hadn’t thought about that.” It popped in my head from the podcast and I’ll try it out on a client. Usually, it works.

It’s an interesting dynamic because a lot of coaching is listening and this is talking. It’s a little bit of a different model. You had to modify your coaching method essentially.

With a podcast, it goes around the world. You may never even have the opportunity to have a lot of people as a client. You’re trying to distribute some knowledge, some golden nuggets as I call it, that they might be able to take and integrate into their own life. Get some value out of it and improve their life in some way or in some area of their life. You’ve got to speak to it. You got to speak to the concepts and so forth in that effort. It’s the opposite. It’s a lot of talking versus listening, but in some respects, I have to listen to Zach.

That’s why I say that lately, it sounds more like co-creating because there is such an interchange between the two of you. When you first started, Zach says, “I’ve had this idea and you had this idea.” What was the most difficult part about starting your show?

It’s never having done it before. I’ve had to edit the audio and never bought equipment.

You went in the whole do-it-yourself model.

The early ones that you may have listened to, back behind me as a granite kitchen counter that I was attaching mics to. I got hardwood floors and the sound was bouncing everywhere.

You sound much better as you go along, which is the case for almost every show.

I invested in a portable table that I put the mics to. I put some sound-deadening material on top of the table. We do it now over a top of a shag rug. The sound quality is so much better, and it’s trial and error. It’s trying things and having a continuous improvement mindset. “How can I do this a little bit better?” I switched up music in season two and so forth. It’s a learning curve. You got to see it as a journey and grow as you go along the journey.

You did something interesting that I want everyone who’s reading out there to go check out Generate Your Value because what you guys do is a co-introduction. Usually, when there are co-hosts, they have voiceover artists because that will mention and introduce both of you, but you each introduce yourselves. I think it’s a great model because I now can associate the person with the voice, which is good, because otherwise, you tend to forget to remind people who you are when it is.

For Tom Hazzard and me, it’s easy because I’m the female voice. It’s hard to figure out who is who when you have two male voices, “Which one’s Andy? Which one’s Zach? I want to know,” but by introducing yourself, you eliminated the need for that. It’s nice. Zach always says something nice about his wife in that intro. It’s nicely done. It’s personal and it invites everyone in. Because you’re this on-air coaching model, it makes for a better style of an introduction than the more formal one that’s typical with podcasts.

I enjoy it and even though it’s under my company’s moniker and it deals with the things that I directly deal with as opposed to his financial services business, I still wanted him to feel like he was a partner in this. One way that I could get him to feel that way is, “I maybe more in age, life experience, and job experience. It’s under my moniker but I know it’s an investment in time in your busy schedule to drive down to my place and do this once a week, so I want you to feel like you’re a partner in this.”

You have nice co-billing. It’s a really smart choice, and it’s not the choice that everyone would make. I applaud you for that. It was a good choice for both of you.

We enjoy it.

You also do a preamble at the beginning. You have a clip from something that you said and now that I know that you’re editing your own show, how do you decide what the most impactful clip is? Do you have criteria for yourself?

I put some thought after the conversation and the recording into what I thought was the main a-ha moment or that tweetable moment that’s in the show. I try to keep it around a minute. I try to grab the audio that’s around that nugget that can fit into a minute and throw it in the beginning as a hook or catch to draw you into the show. Maybe you’ll be looking for it in the show as the main part plays through the context around that one minute in that discussion.

They often say if you’re a person who forgets people’s names easily when you first meet them. If you go into a cocktail party, a party, or a meeting, you introduce me to some people and you say, “I’m Andy. It’s nice to meet you. What’s your name?” “My name is Tracy.” If you’re one of those persons, fifteen seconds later, you’re like, “What was her name again?”

Generate Value: When people say they’re not creative, that isn’t true. They’re just not exercising that muscle.

They teach you that trick of trying and incorporate that person’s name in a sentence 2 or 3 times so that it gets ingrained in your head and you don’t forget the rest of the conversation. If it’s the main item and you’re playing it twice, you are reemphasizing it and it’s the main point they’re going to remember more hopefully than anything else. If they only take one item away from it, it’s that main a-ha moment and that’s why.

Are you repurposing that? Are you using it on social or are you using it when you share it with your audience?

Not at the moment, but I probably should be.

One-minute clips or 30-second clips are ideal for repurposing. Look at TikTok videos. You can use them as audio grams if you don’t have video files and I think that’s a great plan because you already have your message selected.

That’s in the plans for 2022 to get more involved in these little snippets of video out on my social media. It would just be myself talking about my platform, ideas, and what makes me special.

I hope you’re going to be doing that on LinkedIn because I think that’s where you’ll generate the most value. Let me do the three questions that I ask everyone here on the show. The first one is about getting great guests, and you’ve only just started getting guests on the show. It was not since the very beginning, but you’ve been doing that, and you have interesting guests with very different backgrounds. I’m curious about how you get them and how you decide if they’re going to be of value to the show.

It’s been interesting. Being a season and a half to three quarters into this journey, putting enough content out there, all of a sudden, I’ve got people approaching me.

They’ve been coming to you.

Not all of them are that way, but one of the interesting ones that I did was with a young gentleman who’s now turned into a rapper but was an entrepreneur before that. His PR team approached me out of the blue, and I said to myself, “Why did you pick us?” He’s got such a tremendous story because usually, it’s a flip-flop that you have people that go out there, become musicians, and make your money that way.

They then decide to take that money and go invest it in businesses, start businesses or invest in an existing business. He was the exact opposite. He has a tremendous story. I took him on as a guest and had a great experience with him. That’s one way. I’ve been working with a company to help me get on other podcasts and I’ve actually been drawing from their other customers.

I’m asking them for referrals. I say, “Pick my podcast just like you do with hundreds of others that you’re looking at. Look at my podcast and where you think they’re good fits. Let’s bring them on.” Networking folks and the folks that are in my network who I think have interesting stories. I’m about the story of entrepreneurship, and that’s what interests me.

There are millions of ways to skin the cat, as they say, and become an entrepreneur. There are so many flavors of being an entrepreneur that I want to get people excited about it and not say, “I have to be an Elon Musk. I have to fit in this box, otherwise, entrepreneurship is not available to me. I want to cry.” Nope.

Let’s talk about the different ways that you become an entrepreneur.

Not at all. It’s like when people tell me they’re not creative, I’m like, “Nope. You’re just not exercising that muscle.” You’ve got fears or whatever else stopping you in the way but every human being is creative. It’s about you exercising that muscle and I’ve got great examples in my own life that I could share with them, but I want to tell the story. That’s what I’m looking for the good stories that we might be able to pull little nuggets out of in terms of the concepts and the things that Zach and I talked about.

When you do the interviews, do you tend to t have your next follow-up discussion the topic-based, where you dive deeper into something that was mentioned? One of the golden nuggets you got out of it. Do you do that frequently?

If I feel like it’s a subject that we haven’t talked a whole lot about, there are certain subjects like love and fear that we’ve talked a lot about. I’m not going to go do another episode about it, but if there’s something that maybe we’ve only done one or only touched a little bit about it, then yes. We’ll go do the topic and use the example that the guests told us in that episode.

You’re trying your episodes together. That’s always a good model.

As much as you can connect the dots, the more I think you’re going to keep an audience around and follow you on a journey. Zach and I say that all the time on our podcast, and you may have heard it where we say, “Hit that button. It’s labeled subscribe,” but for us, it’s the follow button. “Follow us on this journey of the podcast, conversation, and the guests.” Hit your buggy to our train. Let’s all go on a journey and see where we end up.

Let’s talk about that because the next question I always ask is about how you engage your community, enlarge your community, increase listeners and, eventually, clients. That’s the ultimate goal there. How do you do that? You set out to build a community, put out a wide net as you put it before, and now that you’re getting some people, how do you engage them more? How do you get them to go deeper in conversations with you?

I think that’s where we’re falling down the most in that piece. Both Zach and I are on all the major platforms in terms of LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. At least I’m on Twitter. I don’t think Zach is on Twitter. We’re trying to get engaged and get people’s ideas. I’m toying around with doing some kind of Facebook community page or something to get more engagement and more conversation in these areas. Our next level of growth is how we get engagement beyond people just booting up their computer or their iPhone and listening to a podcast episode.

If I can make a suggestion to you, your audience is probably more on LinkedIn, as I mentioned earlier. I bet that you probably get more clients through any interactions, postings, messaging, introductions, and referrals on LinkedIn, right?

Yes.

Try a LinkedIn Newsletter and a LinkedIn Group. They’re both highly underutilized, so there’s not as much competition for that. There are millions of Facebook groups and pages and it’s to the point where most people who are going to be the kind of person who would become your client are too busy to even scroll through and accept or not accept the group notifications. It’s not working over on Facebook for everyone, but the LinkedIn ones seemed to work well. Especially if they interact once within the group, they seem to get more information.

There are a lot of ways to invite people into the group right through the model without having to do that sort of formal invite process. You can comment, tag someone, and invite them in. I think there’s a little bit more robustness to it that might work better for you. There are a lot of personal branding experts who are on Facebook but not on LinkedIn, and you could do better there. It’s a little on-air coaching.

My target audience is those that are thinking about starting a business or want somebody in their corner. The biggest challenge I face in my business is the thought that, “I have to go hire a coach means that I’m in the ditch and I need somebody to help pull me out of the ditch,” as opposed to, “I’ve got a partner in this that is going to help me get to the next level.”

It doesn’t mean somebody who’s making money and making a profit who couldn’t benefit from a coach, either from an accountability standpoint, refining leadership styles, or anything that’s going to help you take you to the next level. I’m trying to overcome that mindset by saying, “If I have a coach, it’s like going to the therapist.”

Generate Value: There are millions of ways to skin the cat, as they say, and there are so many flavors of being an entrepreneur.

It’s like a repair situation, not a proactive situation.

I don’t want that stigma like, “You’ve got to coach. What’s going wrong?”

We were talking before that you were right there where the Atlanta Falcons have their practices and other things. That’s what a real coach is. A real coach has plays in their playbook that they can suggest. They help you with your fitness regime. You could imagine that’s a better coaching model. I don’t know why we have a stigma in entrepreneurship that coaches are in this negative way when coaches everywhere else are positive and a must-have.

I was a pretty good leader within Boeing, but then I got an executive coach and she took me to the next level. That’s not to say I was in a ditch. It was about tweaking certain things, having an understanding of a 360-view of how I was perceived and what my brand was like. It took me to the next level, in my opinion. She was a life-changer for me. I was looking too much in the rear view mirror and she’s like, “No. You got to be looking forward. You got to have a growth mindset and let’s go.”

We’re on the last of the three questions about monetization and value. You set out to make this a model for how you work so that others would see that. Have you found value in that outcome? Have you seen clients close faster because they have the podcast as an example, or have you seen them reach out to you where you had no clue that they were out there listening to you?

Mostly, my clients in the past have been through referrals and networking, but it’s starting. We have enough content and exposure. I’m starting to get some inquiries coming from the podcast.

You’re right about the right amount of content. You’re over 50 episodes. You’ve tipped over that point where they trust that you’ve been around enough. You’ve got enough for them to search through and get a feel for. You’re right at that point where it should be happening more and more.

They’re taking us seriously. This is not a fly-by-night in the garage. This is an important program within my messaging and what value I feel like I have to offer as well as Zach’s offer to the world. We’re serious about this. There are major things that have to happen in life and business. The world is in a crazy place right now, and I think the two of us have something to offer around that. I don’t care if I’m down to my last penny. I’m going to keep doing this if I feel that I can offer value to the world.

You were talking about that windshield versus the rear view mirror idea. Let’s look at it from this perspective. What would you like to see happen on your show as an outcome in terms of generating value for you and your business in the next year?

I’m all about joy, happiness, success, and for people to figure out what that is for themselves and then go after it. To have enough introspection, take some time on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee or cup of tea or whatever it is, get quiet, and figure out what that is for yourself. Also, putting a life strategy together to go after it. That’s what I want out of my whole program. I’m in the middle of writing a book. I’ve got the podcast. I’m doing the coaching. I hope to get on video here soon and whatever to keep pounding the different channels and ways that people soak up information.

To put it out there, it’s a relationship. You, the listener, have to show up too. I can sit here and put content all day, but if you don’t have the proper mindset and the desire to go after it in terms of joy, happiness, and success in life, there’s no reason for me in your life. If that’s something you want for yourself, then show up. Let’s have a relationship, a conversation, and see if we can make it happen for you. That’s why I do what I do.

Intentional, you talk a lot about that on the show, and a part of your message is having your mindset and actions also in place so that it’s not just like, “I’m thinking about this. I’m doing something to make this happen.” That’s the intention side of it.

You may not have listened to this episode, but in one of the topic episodes that Zach and I did, I talked a lot about the analogy of the rubber dinghy versus the motorboat. If life is an ocean, are you in a rubber dinghy where you are just letting life push you around? You’re not being introspective or not thinking about things. You’re going with the flow with whatever life pushes me. That’s where I’ll end up, or are you being intentional about your life? Are you thinking about what defines your joy, happiness, and success in life, and you’re developing a strategy?

Now, you’re in a motorboat. You’re going to a port of call. You know where you’re going. You’ve got a map in front of you, and you’ve got a motor that’s going to propel you in that direction. By the way, halfway in that journey, you decide you want to tweak that definition and go to a slightly different port of call. It’s not a problem. You are already heading in basically the same direction. You make a little tweak in your navigation in the boat and you end up at that port of call.

It’s not to say, “Here’s my strategy and I’m going to follow it all my years to get to that point.” Some people may do that but don’t feel like it’s set in stone and I can’t tweak it and adjust it as I learn new things about yourself, the world, your community, or your family. Whatever it may be, you might do certain tweaks. The week between Christmas and New Year’s, I always do that introspective moment. I pull out my life plan. I do those tweaks. What did I learn about myself in the world this year and how do I want to tweak this thing going forward for the years to come?

I don’t look at it like setting resolutions or anything. I look at it as a reflection period and what worked and what didn’t. It’s decision time and I’m going to cut some things out and grasp onto some new things to take action on. Before I touch on your binge factor, I want to ask you this question. You set your mind, so you both were going to start a podcast.

What are some of the first actions you took? I’m always asking, “Give some advice for aspiring podcasts,” and almost everybody says, “Just get started.” I’d love to know what some of the first actions you took. What did the first things that you educated yourself on when you were getting started with podcasting, if you can remember back now?

You’re talking to a Georgia Tech Electrical Engineer. The first part was all about the equipment. What do I need in terms of mics, speakers, computer, and mixers? How do I technically get this done first? I was absolutely shocked at how low the cost was. I have a pretty good software-based mixer platform and that was my most expensive item. I probably came in at around $750.

You can do it for under $100 too. When you’ve got co-hosts though, I recommend what you’re doing, which is a slight lever with the mixing board because it’s a little hard, especially when you’re in person together. It’s a little bit different if you’re doing virtual co-hosting, but in person, it’s harder. You do need a little more equipment.

We’re doing out-of-town interviews now with other folks. We’re doing a little bit more of the Zoom calling piece between Zach and me. I still prefer it in person. The sound quality is much better. That’s where I started and the second part was watching a lot of YouTube videos about content and how to decide how the format was going to be.

The first year, I put very detailed outlines together and I was handing them to Zach because I do all the content work for the show. It’s under my moniker and it sounded a little formulistic, I thought, after season one. Now, we just do 4 or 5 bullets of topics and we go with the flow like, “Here are the topics.” Maybe a little banter about some key points of those topics to hit, but it’s much more conversational in nature this season.

Conversational, that’s the way I would say that. When it’s just the two of you, your topic is definitely very conversational. Your interviews are that as well, but it’s more common to expect that from an interview situation because you don’t know what the other person’s going to say. I think this is where your binge factor comes in. On Generate Your Value, the value lies in the fact that you are having a conversation model of how it is to work with you, but you’re doing it in a way that is pulling out the stories, the golden nuggets, as you put them, at the right moment.

Because if you just went in week after week and were spouting your formula, it wouldn’t work. The fact that you pull out of your repertoire of all these amazing things of experiences, stories, models of business, branding, or creating value, or you pull them all out at the right moment, they mean more and land more. Zach is getting value from that, and we hear that value.

We hear the light bulb go off in his head and that’s brilliant because that says to me as a listener, if I work with Andy, I’m going to get value, and this is how it works. That’s a brilliant model for podcasting, but it’s a brilliant model for content production in general. The best value that can be brought by content is making me feel like, “If I work with you, I can do this.”

One of my favorite moments is not on my podcast. I went on somebody else’s podcast which is a common friend of ours, that’s based in Nashville. Like you have your 3 questions, he has his 5 instead of 3 questions. I was driving up to Nashville, thinking about the questions. I was all prepped for the answer. We got in the room and did the one-hour interview, but the questions never showed up.

He went to his outro, and I was like, “What happened to the five questions?” He said, “This conversation was just so juicy and so many nuggets in it that I threw it out the window. Let’s just rock and roll with the way this conversation is going.” I absolutely love that it can bring enough value to the conversation into the world that it’s a hook. It’s like, “Let’s keep rolling on it and pull it out.” Screw the scrip and let’s have at it. When people say, “I want one episode or one interview that you did on another podcast that talks about you, what you’re doing, and what your platform is.” I always point to that one. It’s even on my main webpage.

Generate Value: There’s so much that podcasting has to offer. Much of the conversation with the team that helps us get on those interviews is around the value you get in the green room.

Please tell us which one it is because we want to refer to it here.

It’s the Jason Duncan Show.

He’s a good interviewer.

He is a tremendous entrepreneur. We clicked a lot on our philosophies of life, and ultimately, it led to you and I meet.

That’s how we met. That’s what I love so much about the podcasting community is that it’s so generous. One host is like, “You’re going to be so great on Tracy’s show. You’ve got to come on.” We’re always sharing with other people that we know will be good for each other. That networking has at least 5X my business, if not more, just from that kind of referral network happening where I was introduced to people who became joint venture partners. I was introduced to people who not only were just a guest on my show but they connected me with five more guests. I think that the value of being able to dive into that and create that is one of the main values of podcasting, and you certainly tapped into it well.

I’ll add another one. I had a Zoom call with two gentlemen with who I was on their podcast interview, but we clicked so well on it that it’s now turning hopefully into a friendship that we want to stay connected with each other. Every 2 or 3 months, we’ll get on the Zoom call and check in on each other’s lives. They’re based in Boston. I’ll be up there in September 2022, and hopefully, we can connect physically for the first time. There’s so much that podcasting has to offer.

A lot of the conversation when the team that helps me get on those interviews is around the value you get in what they call the green room. It’s that time before and after the actual recording. The outcomes that could come from it from either them becoming a client of yours, a friendship develops, referrals through a network, or whatever. Don’t underestimate that piece of it from a podcasting perspective.

That’s where I find the ones that do that marketing model where they are trying to cram in as many interviews as possible. They do fifteen-minute interviews, and they’re missing out on it.

They absolutely are. My worst experience was with a gentleman. It was a 33-minute interview and he was throwing up lobs of questions from a marketing perspective for my business. There was no true content, no nugget-type conversations, or anything.

It feels like you’re being rented. That’s how I look at it. Doesn’t it feel like your name and likeness are being rented for their show to create more value for them, but there’s no reciprocal value in that? It makes it not fun and not as worthwhile to me.

I felt a little used. It’s like, “I want to use your life story, accomplishments, and everything to come on my show in hopes that it keeps people around.”

I always want my audience and myself to learn. My show is a curiosity podcast. What are you doing? What are you working on? Here’s what I want to know as we close and stop, Andy, is to generate your value. What is one message from your platform, business, or everything you talked about in creating the mindset and actions model that you think is applied to somebody who’s a podcaster that they can all benefit from?

I’ll go back to the creativity piece and your voice. You have something to offer to the world. Everybody has their own story and a teacher of others. I have a philosophy in life. I don’t care if you’re the checkout lady at the grocery store or the CEO of a company. I have something to learn from you. Get into podcasting, and offer up your gifts and talents to the world because the world needs them. It’s easier than you think. There are so many benefits that you get out of it, so don’t be afraid. Let love push you forward and not fear from that perspective. Just go for it.

Love conquers fear. I love that message that you’re sending out.

It’s the biggest component in any choice that you make, whether it’s, “Where do I go eat dinner tonight to who’s my spouse. What house am I going to buy or whatever?” It’s fundamentally in there. Are you looking at that piece and figuring out where those two things are playing in your head and in your emotions in that choice?

I’m blessed to be very loved in the world, and it gives you a place of confidence when you walk out into the world. If you can generate that for yourself or you can get yourself into a deeper place of love, you’re going to have more confidence in everything that you do definitely.

Zach and I always end up our episodes with interviews where we ask the guests the question, “What do the words generate your value mean to you?” I’m curious, Tracy. What do those words mean to you?

I’m so glad you asked me that. Generate your value is not a one size fits all. I liked the word “your” in there because what you want out of the world and what you want out of value is a different things. For me, everything that I do to generate value in the world is a feedback loop to me. If I’m making you more successful on your show and you are adding value. I’m adding value to you and you’re adding value out to the world is the ripples of it that excite me.

That’s what I want. My generate value is to create this push off of the ripple and to be the impetus of that in some way, shape, or form. I got to drop those stones, those golden nuggets into the water, and then see what happens from there. That’s how I want to show up in the world and I feel that podcasting has given that to me tenfold easily. That’s my definition of generating value. It’s creating opportunities for others to create more value.

How much do you find it as a conversation starter for you? People ask me what I do and podcasting naturally comes up. Their eyes get big and like, “You’re a podcaster.” They think that podcasters are the Tom Cruise of the World, and they’ve got a big celebrity status. You can live down the street and be a podcaster.

Most of them started in their garages.

We get into a conversation about it and its benefits of it. It’s a great conversation starter.

There’s the flip of that. It’s like, “Everybody is a podcaster now.” That’s the other term I hear? I said, “Everybody is a podcaster, but so few are successful ones.” Those are the numbers I love to throw out.

I think about all the self-proclaimed actors and actresses out there that are still being waiters and waitresses.

That’s right, and I can say with absolute certainty that I definitely make a living off my shows. For those of us that do that and our podcasters, true podcasters at heart are generating value either for ourselves, our businesses, and the communities around us. That’s absolutely what you’re doing with your show. Andy, I’m so appreciative that you came to share that with us.

I greatly appreciate the invite and the tips.

—

I told you we’re going to get the value of this on-air model of how you do this. As you came to know through having read the interview, Zach Levy is his co-host, but it’s his client at the same time. You’re getting that model of what things feel like, and that’s the most important thing that we bring to our customers. When our customers can feel what it’s like to work with us. When they get a sense of what it’s like to be mentored, to be coached, to have conversations with us, to sit down and have coffee together, what we feel is not only are you accessible as a coach, but you are likely to bring value to me, the listener. I’m more likely to reach out and work with you.

This is the thing. I know this personally because that’s how this show is. Not only am I interviewing great podcasters, but I’m also on here mentoring them. There’s always some amount of ad that I make every single show where I say, “Have you considered doing this?” Whether or not they answer it that way, it is a way of coaching and mentoring. I’m making them think, “I haven’t added value there yet.” You know the questions that I ask every single week. Those three questions where I’m always asking them about their listeners, how they get great guests, and things like that.

I’m demonstrating that for you and building social media content around those topics and subjects because they’re the ones that matter most to podcasters. It’s helping me on a business side, but what it is doing is if they’re not good at one of those three things, and most often, they are not good at 1 to 2 of those 3 things, they question whether or not I have better insights because as they start to realize, she’s asking other people.

She asked me. I told her I’m not as good at increasing listeners as I would like to be. I wonder if she’s got better tips. Now, we have a continuing conversation afterward that is mentorship style. Now, they’re looking to me to help mentor them. When you hear these things or when you’re seeing this, this is what it’s like to work with me. That’s exactly the model that Andy is working on air so you can see it through his model because I’m a different personality.

You need to see people who work through this, who do these models, because this could be the best approach for you if you’re doing coaching, consulting, or any kind of long-tail. Where you need to have multiple conversations to get someone convinced to work with you, anything that you do that requires that this model of the podcast might be perfect for you. Take a listen to Andy. Take a listen to Generate Your Value and understand what this might look like for you. Thanks, everyone, for reading. I’ll be back with another bingeable podcaster coming up.

 Important Links

• Generate Your Value
• Jason Duncan Show – Develop the Skills of a Leader – The Root of All Success – Andy McDowell

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