TBF 119 | Kid PodcasterTBF 119 | Kid Podcaster

 

The best way to start living your dream is always now. Kid podcaster, Benjamin Wong, has always had his mind on helping kids create their own entrepreneurial opportunities. At the age of 14, Ben has managed to get three podcasts off the ground and up in the air and grow a community of over 1000 kidpreneurs. Ben sits with Tracy Hazzard to talk about what it’s like being the CEO of Kid CEO Media, a youth-run communications company dedicated to uplifting the growing community of young entrepreneurs. Tune in to learn how Ben continues to successfully empower today’s youth through his podcast shows, YoungTrep with Benjamin Wong, Kid CEO Podcast, and 2 Kids On the Block with Kamea LaFontaine.

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This Kid Podcaster Can Teach You A Thing Or Two About Being An Entrepreneur With Kid CEO Benjamin Wong

I have a young podcaster and he is full of energy. I have a fourteen-year-old podcaster who has got multiple shows. Doesn’t that put you all to shame out there. You are thinking, “I’m having so much trouble getting my show off the ground and this fourteen-year-old gets three off the ground in a couple of years.” He is amazing. I can’t wait for you to hear from him.

Benjamin Wong is the CEO of Kid CEO Media, a youth-run communications company dedicated to uplifting the growing community of young entrepreneurs. He is also the host of the podcast YoungTrep with Benjamin Wong, where he interviews renowned entrepreneurs and experts on topics ranging from sleep health to career acceleration.

He is the host of the Kids CEO Podcast and the cohost of 2 Kids on the Block. By that, he means blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs and some cool topics that he is getting into, and his first cohosted podcast. This is so much fun. I loved meeting Ben. He was introduced to me by Mark Herschberg, who is one of my favorite guests because he was a serial guest. He didn’t have his own show but guested on so many shows. A lot of times when he comes across a podcaster that wows him, he has to introduce them to me and Ben was one of those. It took us a while to get our schedules coordinated and get this episode going. I’m so glad we did because we have so much to learn from that young generation. Let’s hear from a nice young podcaster tearing up the podcast world.

I have a young podcaster and he is full of energy. I have a fourteen-year-old podcaster who has got multiple shows. Doesn’t that put you all to shame out there. You are thinking, “I’m having so much trouble getting my show off the ground and this fourteen-year-old gets three off the ground in a couple of years.” He is amazing. I can’t wait for you to hear from him.

Benjamin Wong is the CEO of Kid CEO Media, a youth-run communications company dedicated to uplifting the growing community of young entrepreneurs. He is also the host of the podcast YoungTrep with Benjamin Wong, where he interviews renowned entrepreneurs and experts on topics ranging from sleep health to career acceleration.

He is the host of the Kids CEO Podcast and the cohost of 2 Kids on the Block. By that, he means blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs and some cool topics that he is getting into, and his first cohosted podcast. This is so much fun. I loved meeting Ben. He was introduced to me by Mark Herschberg, who is one of my favorite guests because he was a serial guest. He didn’t have his own show but guested on so many shows. A lot of times when he comes across a podcaster that wows him, he has to introduce them to me and Ben was one of those. It took us a while to get our schedules coordinated and get this episode going. I’m so glad we did because we have so much to learn from that young generation. Let’s hear from a nice young podcaster tearing up the podcast world.

About The Kids CEO Podcast Host Benjamin Wong

TBF 119 | Kid PodcasterBenjamin Wong is the CEO of Kid CEO Media, a youth-run communications company dedicated to uplifting the growing community of young entrepreneurs.

Ben is also the host of the podcast YoungTrep with Benjamin Wong, where he interviews renowned entrepreneurs and experts on topics ranging from sleep health to career acceleration.

Additionally, Ben is the host of the Kid CEO Podcast and co-host of 2 Kids on the Block.

Follow Benjamin Wong on Social:

Social: LinkedIn | Podcast | Facebook | Instagram

Ben, I have been waiting to talk to you for quite some time since Mark Herschberg introduced us. I loved the idea of talking to a kid CEO and podcaster. You are on your third show, which is amazing. How did you got kicked off doing this podcasting thing? What inspired you?

It’s great to talk to you. It all started around 2015 or 2016. My entrepreneurial journey as a whole started with avocados. I would sell avocados on the street to buy things like Funko Pops. On my eleventh birthday, I got into stock trading. From there, I went around to all my friends bragging about how I owned Nike and Disney because I had one share of Disney stock that my uncle gave me. I made a few good moves. There were $20 gains. For an eleven-year-old, making $20 out of nowhere sounded cool. I would brag around to all my friends, “I got all these huge profits that I made out of nowhere from the stock market.” I was talking to my mom about this and my mom was like, “You can start a podcast.” 2018 wasn’t the beginning of podcast, but it was a little bit before.

That was still pretty early on. You could get ahead of the game there.

The podcast took off in 2018 but I never got to it until about 2019. The idea was Kid CEO Podcast, creating entrepreneurial opportunities. It was about entrepreneurship in general but also about investing. In the first five episodes, I interviewed my mom as an entrepreneur. That was my first ever interview. I talked about stocks, mutual funds and all that good stuff. I did that in 2019 October. I took a pause there after 5 or 6 episodes. When quarantine came around in March 2020, that was when I got back to it because I had all this free time.

You had extra time at home so you got into it. I love that you were doing that. You got 48 episodes in Kid CEO. You got the YoungTrep podcast which has 35. You got a third one which is in blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs and all those cool hot topics called 2 Kids on the Block with a co-host. You got all the shows going. Are they all going at once or are you tapering one and starting another? How is that going for you?

They are tapered. With YoungTrep, I’m on a little bit of a hiatus to record a bunch of episodes, but we are trying to get that back up in February 2022. 2 Kids on the Block, we record that every week. That one is with NFT stuff so it’s a reoccurring thing talking about news. Kid CEO, I haven’t touched that one in a little bit, but there is a bunch of content there. I’m looking to get that one back up and rolling.

You have to balance them all. I have seven shows myself so I know that they need to go. They ebb and flow. There will be times when you don’t do them. It is so great that you are still finding time to do it though and seeing things are a little bit back in the swing here. What I want to talk about is a little bit of this multi-show dynamic. How did it happen that YoungTrep came about and why do multiple shows? What benefit did you see in that?

This is an interesting story. I have never talked about this. Up until the point, I release a podcast episode on Kid CEO almost every single week from late March of 2020 until December. Over the summer, me and my neighbor/friend Noah, wanted to take what we did with Kid CEO. Kid CEO is very niche. It was for entrepreneur kids. It was a minority. The idea was that we could have multiple shows talking about different things. The first time I ever did two podcasts was when we had another show called Fireflies. That was a kid debate show. The idea was even though we are small, we have bright lights like fireflies.

Networks are more valuable than most people recognize. These are what get you the opportunities that create more opportunities for you. Click To Tweet

That was the first time I ever did two podcasts. The Fireflies was a limited thing. We did 7, 8, 9 episodes and that was that. I did the Kid CEO Podcast solely until January of 2021 and then I did a summit for that podcast. At the summit, I was approached to create a new podcast in partnership with Entrepreneurs.org and the Toren Brothers that was a little bit more actionable advice-based. Whereas Kid CEO was a lot about stories. Whatever I felt that week, we put it up.

I love that you got actionable advice on YoungTrep. That is the one that I listen the most too. When you interview other kids who are entrepreneurs there, you are getting them to give advice. That is critical because you can listen to a lot of entrepreneur podcasts from a lot of us adults out there. It is not how you are going to do it. It is not how it’s going to work for you. I can give you all this advice but I got a team of 100 people because it is not going to work for you on your show. You need to come up with ways in which you can get it at your level. Kidpreneur Academy did a smart thing by choosing to sponsor you.

Something that we all have to think about when we are out in the business world is partnerships. Maybe we are not always the best person to reach our audience. Maybe it is someone right in the middle of everything like you. I love that you took that approach. You have got this little podcasting empire going on but how is it doing? What kind of measurements do you look at to say, “This is working successfully, I’m going to keep doing it.”

That is an interesting thing that I have learned or more of a revelation. By traditional metrics, YoungTrep is doing well. Looking back on it, Kid CEO was always doing better but by traditional metrics, it wasn’t amazing by any means.

It’s not your Rogan numbers, but who has that?

What I found interesting was though Kid CEO didn’t become a Joe Rogan podcast, it opened up so many doors that would never have been possible without it.

That is a measurement in and of itself.

TBF 119 | Kid Podcaster

Kid Podcaster: The business world is like partnerships, and you have to think that maybe you’re not always the best person to reach our audience. Maybe it’s someone who’s right in the middle of everything.

 

The YoungTrep podcast, the only reason why I was able to find and connect with them was because I did a podcast. Some of my closest friends who are also entrepreneurs and philanthropists who are my age live across the country. The only way I would have met them was by being able to reach out to them, interview them on my show and put that bond. I didn’t realize it at the time but some of those people that I interviewed way back when are opening up to so many business opportunities for me.

You have built this giant network that is across the country. You’ve got opportunities that kept coming your way. I like to call them authority because your authority within the industry creates these opportunities, and then you have a network going for you too. You have two great things that you didn’t leverage and couldn’t have paid to leverage because you can afford that in your young entrepreneur days. Those are great things that you were able to access from podcasting. Anything else?

Those are the main ones. I want to stay on that route because a lot of podcasters, myself included, worry a lot about the numbers. It’s hard to quantify these other things. The only thing you see is the amount of followers and listeners you have. These are very numerical numbers, but they don’t always translate to the true consequences of your show, which are things like networking and meeting people. Who knows one day, that person you met on your show might turn out to be your best friend or a business partner. These are secondary results, but then they are so important.

Publicity results. You also get to be on my show because of the network you created. There was a guest on your show who recommended you to me. That is how that works. You get other opportunities that create more opportunities for you. Especially when you are starting out or on a low budget, finding ways in which you can create those opportunities and networks are more valuable than most people recognize. I am very amazed that you were able to realize that so early in your journey, which shouldn’t surprise me because you have been on an accelerated path since you were eleven.

I love that that is where you are going. I want to comment on a couple of things because a lot of times I’ll review somebody’s show and I’ll check some things out. There are a couple of things that we noticed in them that they shouldn’t have done that I’ll say again and again in evaluating a show. One of them is putting your face on the cover art. In your particular case, you need it. I need to know that you truly are this young entrepreneur. I need to see it visually for myself. It is critical that you did that. It is not the best choice for a lot of other shows out there but it is the best choice for your show.

I want to point that out. It is also striking, especially your YoungTrep. It’s super bright yellow in the background. It has nice contrast. It stands out among the other shows and that is important. One of the things that I noticed in the marketplace, and I hear this a lot from networks, is that there is a growing youth audience and not enough shows for that. Even on your shows that you are not diving in and doing weekly or you are not as diligent about, are you still seeing listener growth?

Yes, for sure. All the shows are gradually increasing in the amount of listeners. Compared to a few years back, there are so many more kids who are open to listening to podcasts. The podcast has almost become a little cooler to listen to and stuff like that. It has been a huge help because podcasts are so much more accessible. A lot of these celebrities and people they look up to have their podcasts. It’s cool listening to podcasts, and being able to have podcasts run by kids because a lot of the guests on our show don’t normally talk to kids like Evan Carmichael who we had on the show. He is a huge motivation and a YouTuber. The 99.5% of his audience are adult entrepreneurs. Being able to have these world-class experts talking about advice for you is a rare thing. Being a kid when the youth audience for podcasts has grown and being a kid podcaster who has a podcast for kids had been a tremendous combination.

Chemistry builds up over time. Click To Tweet

This is something that a lot of people don’t get an opportunity to be a part of. Niches are growing, but are you in a growth niche? That is where you are. You are in a growth area that is only going to take off more over time. When you were saying you didn’t start at the beginning of podcasting, the reality is that you started at the height of youth joining podcasting. You are an early adopter and that’s good. You and all your shows are going to benefit more from it.

I have a couple of shows that ran their course. I did 150 episodes of Product Launch Hazzards, and WTFFF?! which is about 3D printing. We did 650 episodes for that and that was our first show. We started that one back in 2015. We were early on there, but that one still have listeners every single month. It shocks me in the growth area because there is still a gap in the marketplace and the niche that they are in. That is what I think is going to happen to you. There is a larger growth amount of young listeners, but there is also a lot of growth in young entrepreneur listeners. We are starting to see a lot of that because you are the generation who is coming to see disruption in the workplace.

What are you going to take away and what are you going to bring with you? I have two young daughters and they think it is cool that mom talks on their microphone all day and they would like to be on their microphone talking all day, but they don’t want to do a podcast. I keep hoping they will because I think they would be great at it, but we will see. Do you get a lot of kids coming to you asking for advice and saying, “How did you start your show? What did you do? What should I do?”

That has been a great consequence of creating the podcast and doing everything I do on social media. A lot of kids ask me, “How do I create my podcast? How do I create content like you?” I have tried to hone in on that little more. I do these quote images for my social media and people say, “This is so cool.” I have been trying to make it a lot relatable and make it yourself. I post DIYs on how I made this image so anyone can then be like, “I like that.” They can go and make something similar or use that concept and do something. In terms of podcast like my YoungTrep, one of my video editors is twelve. He still does video editing for YoungTrep. He is starting his podcast.

He got inspired. He was like, “If Ben can do it, I can do it.”

He is starting his podcast about politics.

A kids’ show on politics, that is awesome. What advice do you usually give them at first?

TBF 119 | Kid Podcaster

Kid Podcaster: A lot of podcasters worry a lot about the numbers and listeners, but these don’t always translate to the true consequences of your show, which are the things like networking and meeting people.

 

There are a lot of pieces of advice, but the greatest thing I ever learned originated from Guy Raz. His quotes were a lot of things, but podcasting especially. That is, “Focus on the small percentage of your engaged listeners.” When you have a podcast, there is a portion of listeners that are the super listeners.

We call them binge listeners here. That’s why it’s The Binge Factor.

There are the binge listeners. They are a small percentage. I was talking to my mom about how this applies to my social media because I have had followers and there are about twenty of them that are super engaged. They DM me and go to my weekly Kid CEO calls. 5% was about the number and a few other influencers. I’m going to call it the 5% rule. The 5% are the binge listeners, the super-engaged ones, the ones that are subscribing, giving you reviews and sharing your stuff on Twitter or Instagram. Instead of spending a lot of your time trying to market, you can still spend time marketing, but try to engage those 5%.

Sometimes we call them sneezers in the entrepreneur world, which is awful in a viral world. That is what we used to call them. They are super sharers. That is where you benefit from. First off, you are in their ear so constantly that they quote you, mention you, and share you with their friends. That super engaged group is the group that is going to help get the word out for you. I love that you took and give that advice because that is extremely valuable. Too often, we focus on the tactical like how to start your show. Do you have someone to talk to and will they be super engaged when you talk to them? That is probably more important.

If I tell you to listen to the ABC show because I love the host, Jonathan, and I love what they do, you should go listen to the ABC show. That is worth so much more than if the ABC show did a Facebook campaign and they got 50 other people. That 5%, the binge listeners, are the superheroes of your show. If you can engage with them, which is making better content and finding ways to interact with them, that is way more impactful than running a bunch of Instagram ads and everything like that.

You have a show with a cohost regularly. Do you find it different? Is it harder? How does it feel and what kind of tactics do you use that are different?

It has been a nice change. I initially started talking about myself like monologue style. I would talk for 45 minutes about stocks. I have a script. I did some non-scripted and some scripted. I initially started there like a monologue. Me and my closet with clothes around me and an iPad. I was talking into it for 20, 30, 40 minutes reading a script. That’s what I did at first, monologue style. I then did an interview style and then I tried out the co-hosting style.

Everyone out there has something to share, whether it's a piece of advice or a topic that they're very passionate about. Click To Tweet

Being with a cohost is a different ballgame. It’s nice because Kamea, my cohost, is very different from me. He is very analytical. If you listen to the show, he talks a lot about explaining things like what is the blockchain concepts, how Ethereum works, and all that good stuff. Whereas I’m more of the opposite of analytical.

You are more of that passion people.

It’s the qualitative stuff. Whereas he talks about what is Bitcoin and how does the blockchain work? For me it’s more, “Here is a project that I like and my prediction for this is this will do this because of these things.” They are not as stat-based. They are more of human psychology behavior-based.

You are balancing each other nicely out. Is it hard to record with a cohost? It is pretty simple by yourself.

I’m still working on it. I don’t consider myself a master of cohosting yet. The biggest thing for me because a lot of times in podcasts, we want to talk a lot. We want to be the ones that talk. I’m trying to work on listening a lot more.

Are you in the same space when you record or separate over Zoom?

Over Zoom. He is in Canada.

TBF 119 | Kid Podcaster

Kid Podcaster: In podcasting, focus on the small percentage of really engaged listeners and try to engage them because they tend to be the sneezers, and that’s where you benefit the most from.

 

I gave this advice to someone in our office because it’s the first time he cohosted with someone else over Zoom. I was listening in and trying to evaluate it. There was a lag time on Zoom too, which makes it difficult. If you are recording, you need to have the video on because you need to see each other’s faces. That is essential because you need to read the other person. If they are getting antsy, excited and want to say something, you can see it in their body language. You have to pay attention to those visual cues and it’s a lot harder. I have cohosted almost all of my podcasts except for this show.

It’s cohosted with my partner and husband, but we know each other well. We have been together for many years. It’s not that hard to read the body language. It’s easy. Normally, we record sitting next to each other. There is also the touch cue. I can touch his arm and he will wrap it up and give it to me. These are things that you will discover over time. I’m sure it will get better. It is harder when you are in that distance world and you got to navigate Zoom.

I don’t think we will ever have that same chemistry as you and your husband. We’re slowly building that bond. I got a lot closer to him. I sent him a Christmas present and he got that in the mail.

Chemistry builds over time. You get better at podcasting, cohosting and all of these things. It takes diving in and doing it. Do you think that holds a lot of people back? They are intimidated because you are doing so well, “You have been doing this longer than me.” Do you think that happens to a lot of kids?

Yes, for sure. There is that fear side of it of entering this new scary world. That impacted me even now, especially at the beginning of every show. In our first episodes of 2 Kids in the Block, I liked them but I had just met the guy two weeks ago so the chemistry wasn’t as much there. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do about that yet because we just met each other. A big thing for me was being okay with not perfecting it and just releasing it. Also, understanding that the core important information and content is there.

Over time, we will get better at communicating it and hopefully, people stick by us. That is a big challenge for a lot of kids and adults in the podcast world. Something that I’m still working on is being a little less perfectionist and being more okay with releasing content that isn’t perfect yet but still as valuable and being able to get that out to people.

I’m going to ask for some more advice because I’m going to hit my three questions. I’m always trying to be transparent with my audience because this is a show for podcasters to learn things and to get some success tactics out of it. In transparency, I use these three questions on social media. These are part of our social media plan and strategy. We use video clips from them on TikTok, YouTube shorts and Instagram stories. We use them all over the place. That is why this is the only repetitive section of the show that I use with every guest I have. We do this for a reason. It used to be five things, now we only do three because we discovered it was too much content to share on social media. The three things that I ask everyone are how do you get great guests? How do you decide that someone is going to be a great guest?

There's a lot of growth in young entrepreneurial listeners because they are the generation who's coming to see total disruption in the workplace. Click To Tweet

A big part of getting great guests is the host. I believe that everyone out there has something, whether it’s a piece of advice or a topic that they are super passionate about. First of all, you can find a guest and there are so many guides out there about how to find guests on those websites. The key to getting a guest and producing a great episode with them relies more on the host being able to extract that flame topic, whether interviewing a kid entrepreneur and what they are most passionate and talk about the most.

They get excited when they talk about how they got started. Maybe more than their actionable advice, they are passionate and good at storytelling. It is up to me as a host to capitalize on that. If they love talking about their story, it’s a good story and they are a great storyteller, being able to understand that as a host and then stay on there. I use my curiosity and let it go.

What I want to do is point out what you did there shows a great guest. What you did was you took my question, which is a generic question. You turned it into something that you felt you could answer uniquely because you can answer that in any which way. It can be about how I vet guests and how I go about doing it. I can answer it tactically. In your case, you were tying it into what you are passionate about, which is making great content for your listeners. How you tie the two things together to make that guest a great episode, you tie that together beautifully.

I want to share that with the audience because sometimes when you are a new host, you don’t do that well enough. If you get a great guest on who does it for you, that is fantastic. You are lucky. The kind of thing you want to get out of a guest is what Ben just did there. He is not only a great host but a great guest too. Let’s go on to the number two thing. It’s one of the hardest things for every podcaster I have talked to. It’s how they get to increase and get more engaged listeners. How do they encourage that with their show?

I’m going to go the opposite direction and answer this one directly. Creating engagement with your listeners is a lot easier now than ever before. You could go to the direction of creating a Discord channel or a Facebook group where people can react and ask questions that you can answer. Most podcasters release content about the episode. They are probably going to release a video clip of this and put it out there. There will be a few people who leave comments and then engage with them in the comments. That is a pretty direct answer to that question. You could start a Discord or a Facebook group. Every morning you’re like, “Good morning, everyone. Tracy here. What did you guys think of last night’s episode with Ben? Do you have any questions for him?”

That is what most people don’t do. They put out their podcasts passively. That is what you have done. By focusing on those super listeners, you are focusing on making sure that you are engaging with them. That back and forth thing that you are doing with them is creating a better community that is going to serve you well. Other people are going to be watching you comment back and forth and say something. They want to be seen and heard on social. They want you to comment back. They don’t want to just hit a like button and it’s passive.

If you have 1,000 listeners, 1,000 people aren’t going to wish you good morning every day, but the 5% will. They will listen to this episode and ask questions. Every single person leaves you comments and asks something every single episode. There is a sub-niche of those binge listeners that are going to be asking you those questions. One time, it was late at night and I released a piece of content about NFTs and what they were. There was a kid from India or Africa. He was asking me. We went for ten replies. I replied to him and he replied to me.

TBF 119 | Kid Podcaster

Kid Podcaster: If you can engage people by making better content and finding ways to interact with them, that’s more impactful than running a bunch of Instagram ads.

 

You were having a whole conversation over at social. I love it when that happens and when you are there for them and you answer questions. It was the key to our 3D print podcast taking off because we could answer those questions. When we answered them, we didn’t just give a casual answer. We took them seriously. If we miss something in our interview, we would say, “We are going to find someone for you.” We would go ahead and do that. We would go find the next expert for them. That is a way to take the engagement and the feedback and do something with it. It does inspire more listening because if that guy only listens to one episode, he is likely to listen to your others because you offered him the opportunity to get some other details.

I never met him before. He probably listened to a few episodes of probably 2 Kids on the Block because it was about NFTs. Maybe he listened to YoungTrep or Kid CEO. He commented once and then I responded to him and then we went a few times. Now, he comments on every single thing I do.

You created a super fan.

I have a Discord. Again, about 5% of the people who follow me are in the Discord. The Discord is made up almost entirely of people who have listened to the show or seen my content who then leave a comment or DM me. One guy DM-ed me and he wanted to interview me for his podcast. He was just starting out. I said yes to it. Now he is also a lifelong listener and fan and a few more people with that same recipe. With engagement, it’s relatively simple. Either start up a Discord or keep your existing content and engage with every single person in your comment section. That is the easiest way to do it.

It is such great advice. I’m so glad you said that. The third question I ask everybody is about monetization. You are an entrepreneur. You want to make some money here. It’s not always a clear path as you know because you might not have the tens of thousands and twenties of thousands of listeners that are required to make money off of advertising. There are alternative ways to look at that. You got to be thinking a little bit of, “How am I making money and where am I going to make money in the future?” Where do you think that is for you? It may not be today. It might be a year from now, but where do you think that is going to be?

I have always had a very untraditional approach to podcast monetization. This doesn’t work for everyone. My biggest thing was taking all the podcasts that I do. They all have a niche of people like kids who are interested in these outside techie-type things like entrepreneur-ism or STEM. All these podcasts are targeting that niche of people. My idea was to take that niche and in addition to podcasting, creating social media. They could officially see your Instagram, website, blog, events and the Discord. My entire idea with podcasting was not monetizing those episodes.

I know that YoungTrep has a preroll from Kidpreneurs but other than that, I’m not doing outside monetization. Instead, I make ad-free content. This formula doesn’t work for everyone. Create ad-free content that is a great content and then take those listeners and funnel them into a larger community. From there, being able to do outside things, maybe merchandise, it’s something more all these kid entrepreneurs also want to get their habits inside.

There’s this fear in entering a new scary world. But you have to learn to be okay with not perfecting things right away and just releasing it and understanding that the core content is there. Click To Tweet

What if I could create an oatmeal pack that is Kid CEO oatmeal? You pay $5 a day and you get this oatmeal that is jam-packed with all these vitamins. Instead of directly monetizing those listeners, I can go to this community that is going to buy all this oatmeal that is going to help them a lot. It’s a lot more effective.

We call that a platform and that is what you would have created here. What I love about what you said and is the key, which most people don’t recognize is that you didn’t keep all your eggs in the podcasting basket. You didn’t put it all on Instagram, YouTube or in one place. You have blog, website, Discord, Instagram and podcast going, and it’s all feeding off each other and creating engagement all around wherever those people want to live and hang out. You have created a space for them and a way to interact and engage with them. I love that is your model. You can’t advertise to kids that easily.

Kids have buying power.

They only have the right buying power number one. We see it on YouTube. It feels pushy to the parents too. It is much more authentic for you to stay ad-free and do what you think is the best. That way, when you finally offer things, they feel much more purposeful.

I get annoyed when I see kid entrepreneurs whose entire social media profile is, “Buy this at 50% off. Here is the website.” They have reviews or testimonials, but half or 75% of the posts is, “Buy this necklace. Buy this bracelet.”

That is what a lot of Instagram is. I see that a lot on my daughter’s Instagram.

Without providing enough value. I don’t even know what you do. I don’t know who you are and you are asking me to buy this from you. There is nothing wrong with having this in the podcast if you provided that value in the first place.

The value needs to be there first. I love that advice. I’m going to do your bingeable factor. When I listen to shows and I listen to a lot of shows. In addition to helping launch over 1,000 shows, I probably listened to at least 1,000 more of other podcasters. My team does this all the time. We audit shows. We are always listening to them, checking them out, sharing them between us and finding out what people do. The interesting thing is that the binge factor isn’t the same from every show. Your binge factor is unique to you. In your particular case, it’s also unique to the age group you are serving.

You are providing some unusual views into a market area that those kids don’t have necessarily a view. You have carved out a space of which you have personal experience. You didn’t contrive it. You have personal experience as a young entrepreneur, a kid entrepreneur, a kid CEO. You are sharing it in addition to interviewing, finding experiences, curiosity and exploration out there. You’re not a full expert in it and you don’t need to be and that’s a comfortable place. That is what kids are responding to. There are a lot of adults of us who should listen to your show to understand that aspect of it because not enough adults do that well and you are doing it perfectly. You’ve got this wonderful blend of curiosity, experience and view that you are combining together to make a fabulous bingeable show.

I appreciate that. Thank you so much. It comes down to empathizing with every listener. I am the listener and the audience for the show. Now that I have access to these people, I’m putting myself in the position of other kid entrepreneurs around my age with similar interests. If they were put in my place, what questions would they ask? What do they want to know? Whenever I think about writing questions or asking questions on the spot, it goes back to that. As someone who would listen to the show, what are they looking for? How can I help myself? Which then translates to everyone else who is listening.

I’m so glad you came to the show and we finally connected up. I got to meet you and experience all that you bring to the world. You have inspired a lot of adults who are podcasting out there. I know you’re going to keep inspiring other kid entrepreneurs to podcasts. Thank you for doing that. All of you out there, don’t miss YoungTrep, Kid CEO, and 2 Kids on the Block. You are going to want to check them out.

Thank you so much, Tracy. This was amazing. All of you podcasters out there, go get it. I’m rooting for you.

I’m inspired. I’m going to have to do a little more exploration on Discord because Ben put me to shame when he was talking about Discord. I realized I know what it is but beyond that, I don’t know much about how it works. That is what I love about this show and getting to interview. That is why my favorite outside measurement as Ben called them, or my favorite alternative monetization or return on investment is getting tips and ideas like that, that I can utilize some way and go out there and explore something, and maybe find something so useful that I didn’t know I could adapt. That is where people who are outside of our reach or normal world or sphere of influence are so valuable to our show, to my readers and to me as the host.

I’m always learning something. There is so much that I learned here. I love the 5% rule. Those super-engaged fans that make our show so much more worthwhile to do, especially in the beginning when we don’t have those listener numbers and other monetization strategies working for us. They make it worth it and focusing on them makes it so valuable. My dedication to all of you super fans out there is to do what Ben is doing. Focus there, make sure I’m learning something so that you’re learning something. I’m going to bring you more great hosts like Benjamin Wong of Kids CEO, YoungTrep, and 2 Kids on the Block. You’re going to want to check those out.

I also want to make sure that you know that you have an opportunity to be on my show. If you’ve been sitting out there reading for a reason and you think you’re not successful enough, that doesn’t mean there’s something that you don’t have that you could teach me and our audience. We want to hear from you. Go ahead and go to TheBingeFactor.com and apply to the show. There is no harm in doing that. We can check out your show. Maybe we’ll give you some feedback if you are not right for our show that could be valuable to you to make sure that you are moving forward.

If you haven’t started your show, I want Benjamin Wong to put you to shame and get you going and inspire you. You need to take hold. Forget about all those perfectionist things holding you back and get your show started. Find those outside measurements and values that you can bring to your business, message and entrepreneurship. Why you’ve been sitting around thinking and tossing around this podcasting idea? Start doing something about it. Thanks, everyone. I’ll be back with more binge factors.

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