Super Joe Pardo and INDIE POD CON 2020!

Transcript Below:

Jamie: Hey everybody. It’s Jamie here and I am with the one and only super Joe Pardot. Joe, welcome to the show. 

Joe: Thank you so much for having me, Jamie. It’s a pleasure to be here. Of course. 

Jamie: I’m super excited to talk to you today because you have a super cool, super awesome, super amazing conference coming up. Right. 

Joe: I do. I do September 12th. It’s it’s, it’s a, it’s our annual indie podcast or conference. It’s our sixth annual at that. But, but also this time virtually and sadly 

Jamie: New level of challenges, I’m sure right. 

Joe: It is. It is. Uh, cause you know, we’ve been doing these virtual, these free virtual conferences since March when the, when the virus hit, uh, we did eight of them. And when I keep saying we might, I mean, I have a team, but it was, they had their own stuff to worry about. So I was like, you know what, I’ll just, I’ll just shoulder. This, I’ll take it and ran with it. So, you know, running these, these virtual conferences inside of our Facebook group has been awesome. Like it was free. You all need to do is join the group and you get the watch and you know, we’d have thousand plus views and on each of them and uh, we did nine of them in 18 weeks and it was awesome. Um, this one is going to be face to face. So we’re going to use zoom instead of streaming into the Facebook group to do this one. And because we want to be able to like separate people into different, you know, networking rooms, workshop rooms. Yeah. Like things like that. So, um, plus I, you know, it’s, it’s got a theme this year, which we’ve never done. We never really did a theme in the past and this one is the eighties. So, uh, everyone should be getting dressed up. And probably, I assume, you know, PowerPoints will be tailored as such and it should be a good time Back presenters to have big hair and dress like they’re from the eighties. I mean, I don’t have big hair. Clearly somebody, somebody I imagined, I know Ross brand will be bringing some hair cause he hasn’t had a haircut in like six months 

Jamie: For our listeners who don’t know anything about you Tell us a little bit about yourself. 

Joe: Yeah. So, uh, I’ve been podcasting since 2014 when I left my family’s a hundred million dollar company. Uh, I was the director of operations there and the it director at the S at the same time, uh, and juggled those. And when I decided to leave, it was not a welcomed, uh, it was not welcomed at all. Um, so I left, it ended in a fist fight between me and my dad. Uh, you know, but sometimes you got to get the push, right? You can’t, you gotta burn the ship. And that was metaphorically burning a ship, um, subconsciously, uh, to, to push it to that point so that I got the heck out. Um, and, and I started up my own podcast about a month later called the dreamers podcast on a plane, uh, to Disney world with a friend of mine. And, you know, by the time the plane landed, I read there, pulled out my phone and I’m registering the domain name, the Twitter handle the Facebook page before we got to the rental car. 

And then I’ve reached out to my good, my good friend, my good man, my good friend, Al Kessel, who was my mr. Voice and helped me get a couple of pointers is as far as what I needed to put together. Like from technology speaking, um, I’m a, I’m a DJ. If you, you can see my turntables in the back’s already had the recording background and obviously the it background. So I had a computer background. So two weeks later I had my first podcast episode out. Then I went to three episodes a week, then five episodes a week. And I started to gain a pretty decent following, uh, people who, uh, wanted to figure out like what it is that they wanted to do with their life next. Like what’s the next chapter. And I was trying to figure it out too. Cause like I didn’t, you know, I don’t have a degree. 

I didn’t really know what I was going to go do. I’m 27 years old. So it’s like too young to go do what I did in most places without degrees and certifications and things of that nature. Um, and you know, so it really worked out in my favor. I started getting this, uh, business coaching clients and, you know, working on their processes and all that. And, and then I was like, all right, I’m going to write books and speak. And they started to speak. And I started to, you know, I wrote four books in four years. I think it was four years, five years. It was either four or five years. Um, and yeah, so it’s been this incredible journey about, uh, eight months into the journey in December of 2014. I got this idea. I was down at a comp a podcasting conference in Florida of as a one day event. 

And I was like, Hey, I’m gonna, um, you know, I could do this. I’ve been around events all my life. I’ve done, you know, growing up my family’s business, we had these some vendor nights where a thousand people would come through all these vendor boosts and then go to the free buffet and the open bar. Um, so running, running the, you know, being at those as a kid all the way up to being an adult and running those events, um, and plus, you know, land parties, local area network parties, where we gain we’d have up to 512 people at one event before, you know, it was, it was huge, um, and raves as well. So like, and other conventions that I, you know, worked in and volunteered at. So for me, like I just love bringing people together. So I was like, I can bring people together. 

I love podcasting. This is, this is great. I have a lot of friends that are in podcasts and because I’m in podcasting now, uh, let’s put together an event. And one year later we had the first ever it used to be called the middle Atlantic podcast conference. We held it in a school gymnasium. Uh, it was very, it was like 40 or 50 of us just, uh, gathering. And then we watched the Floyd Mayweather and Mackey, uh, uh, Manny Pacquiao fight at back, hit my house. After the fact we even bought pizzas and it was a great time. Um, so, you know, it’s, it grew out of that. And then we went from being in that school gymnasium to go into like a hotel. And, and every year over year we kept growing and growing. Um, but this past year in September, which is when we hold the event every year, um, I decided to have a name change. 

So we changed it from the middle lane podcast conversation, independent podcast conference, or indie pod con, or icon for short. And it just has grown exponentially. Like our Facebook group has grown. Our email list has grown because more people are saying yes to that then before where people would send me emails every year and say, is this is this for me? I don’t like, I don’t know. Can I, can I attend this? I live in California and it’s like, yes, this is just where it’s held. It’s always, it’s always going to be held here, uh, because it’s like eight miles from my house. So yeah. 

Jamie: Yeah. That’s super cool. So you, I didn’t realize you had such a background with events. 

Joe: Yeah, yeah. It’s um, it’s, I just love, you know, again, bringing people together. So from, like I said, land parties to raves, to working at big, like anime conventions. And I never, I’m not a big animated person or big nerd like that, but I, the people, I appreciate it again. I love bringing people together and it’s fun. Um, and, and yeah, so for me, you know, bringing podcasters together, the amount of impact that we have in that room, cause one of the ways, one of the things that makes us different, or it’s a couple of things that makes us different from these other podcasts conferences, uh, one is we’re one room or one track. And the reason is, is it builds a community and a family like experience, uh, much faster because everybody’s getting those inside jokes throughout the day. And it’s building on top of each other as you go through the day, you’re, you’re rubbing elbows of like people like Jamie Palmer all day. 

Like, you know, it’s like, Oh, I, you know, I like, I saw her online, but now she’s right there and she’s there all day. It’s not like, Oh, she’s jetting off to this room or that room, or, you know, off this event. So, um, it creates, like I said, it creates a different kind of atmosphere by having everybody in one room in it and that’s, and I, and I host it. Um, I hosted, I vlog about it. Uh, you can watch the behind the scenes logs that, so like, I’m up on stage, I’m doing this and, and I’m introducing the people at the same time and then getting the slide shows ready. And my team now is like, Joe, you need to offload some of these things so we can, you know, do it more effectively. I’m like, all right. All right. All right. You know, I’ll, I’ll concede, I’ll conceive. It’s, it’s good to have some help, you know, I so will. So it’s, it’s been, it’s definitely been helpful, especially for bouncing ideas off of and, and like, and things of that nature. But, um, but yeah, just the idea that you’re Oh, so the other thing that makes us different is we always feed you, which we’re not going to get to do this year. So you’ll, there will be a lunch break, which is different from our free virtual events. 

Jamie: You’re not gonna send me Uber eats at my house during your event. So disappointed, 

Joe: You know, if we could sell enough tickets, if we sell enough tickets, I, you know, I thought about sending out care packages for this one, but when I kept coming up, what I kept coming up against was what could I send that we could incorporate into the event to make sense, like, and have enough time to do it? Cause we have over 30 plus speakers for this event. So it’s, it’s an all like, like we’re going to be, we’re going to be in it most of the day. Right. 

Jamie: And what happens if I buy my ticket on like the Friday before the conference, because it’s virtual so I can write, like you could decide last minute, then how do you get the care package to that person the next 

Jamie: so that’s a fair, that’s the thing thing, that’s a great point as well. Right. So, um, you know, so I had, I had my wife go on a bit of a scavenger hunt for some eighties theme things that I could like work in diverse, incorporating, but ultimately decided that like, um, you know, we have, uh, we have stickers that we’ll be giving away. So I’ll, I’ll get addresses and send stickers out after the fact for like trivia music, questions, um, things of that nature. So we’ll, we’ll have time to incorporate more things into it. Um, one of the things we also do differently is, um, we usually have a, a, a, it’s like a cotton Frisbee. So it’s a, it’s a Frisbee made of cotton. And we would throw it into like, into the room and when people catch it, they would introduce themselves to the entire room. 

So you’re, you’re getting this mix of people, uh, throughout the event that are, that are getting introduced themselves to like a hundred plus people in a room. So it, you know, and again, the impact that that room has like the amount of view or, um, followers and subscribers and everything that’s in that room. So powerful. Yeah. It really is like we, uh, was, uh, max, max Ivey, who is, uh, he’s blind, took the Amtrak from Texas to, to Jersey or Philly, and then over to Jersey, uh, to be here and the Amtrak lost his bag. And they were like, Oh, well, you know, we got it and we can bring it to you or no, we won’t bring it to you. We’ll just, um, we’ll just hold it here for you. And I’m like, dude is means he’s got to take a taxi over there, back to the train station, pay the, you know, and then come back. So ultimately we started tweeting at Amtrak and like within minutes, because you had a room of like a hundred people tweeting at Amtrak, we got a response and a shout out to Karen Yankovich for, uh, for handling that for us. And, and they, they ended up Ubering her, his bag to, to his, to his room. 

Jamie: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So how are you? And I know this year, you and I were talking, I don’t know, a couple of weeks ago, your, it was a hard decision to bring it virtual. 

Joe: Yeah. You know, I was, so I was torn. I wanted to do a half virtual half live thing here, my backyard, um, you know, we have plenty of space here, you know, we could get port-a-potties and, and, you know, hand sanitizer. And I was like, so I started like, okay, let’s, let’s figure out how we could do like 50 people here. But as time went on, like from when they announced a happen, I started looking like, okay, some people are like, there’s still people that are like, I’m going to be there no matter what. And then, but then, but as time went on, I was like, there’s not as many people buying the 50 tickets that I thought were going to buy it. So I’m like, alright, let’s, let’s pump the brakes here. Because when I started pricing out, like port-a-potties intense, it was, it was not going to be cheap because tens are in high demand. 

And so we’re, port-a-potties at this point. So I, you know, I’m part of me felt kind of felt bad. Like, I don’t want to take a tent away from a place that might actually need a tent, like a restaurant, especially given that we’re going to be heading into fall and winter and we’re in the Northeast. And like, it’s not going to be fun to be out in those tents, uh, come maybe October, November, December. So, yeah. So I’m like, you know what, I don’t want to take away a weekend from somebody who actually needs it to make it, make it work for them. 

Jamie: Yeah. So you’re taking, which I’m sure is no small feat to take an in person event and you’re bringing it completely virtual. And then you’re also trying to make sure that you carry that community. 

Joe: That was going to be difficult. That was going to be difficult here. Right. Because I wasn’t going to have a team of people with me. So like, I would have been again, onstage blogging, running the tech, running the audio and making sure that the comments that are coming in from the people who paid online, people paid for the online, like the online ticket, but it was only a couple of people that were like all in to like, I’m going to be there. It, you know, and it’s like, okay, well now, you know, what if we only have like 10 people, do we still need a tent? Well, what if it’s not, what if it’s super sunny that day? What if it’s, you know, really hot that day variables. Right. And it’s just me. And then on top of that, like I said, I got to make sure that the people online feel like they’re being taken care of, because not only like it’s not the F one of our free events where everybody’s online, it’s flipped. 

So, you know, after thinking about it and having, uh, my good friend, uh, Samantha Riley, you know, kind of beat it into my head a little bit and maybe think about it. I’m like, yeah, maybe, maybe you’re right. Maybe we need to just figure out how to just do it all virtual and go from there. And of course the response has been awesome. You know, I said, we have over 30 plus speakers, and now it’s a two day event instead of a one day event, which I was like, I just want it to be, well, let’s just go one day. Because today, when we first did that back in March was, it was a lot, it was a lot. But, uh, but this, this, this is, and this is different too, because, uh, when, when I would do those events over like Facebook, I would get off camera for a while. Yeah. So like, you know, like, Oh, Jamie, you’re speaking. Like, alright, great.

Jamie: I just did my business ecosystem builders event. And let me tell ya, I added the second day last minute. Cause we had so many, um, I just had too many speakers and I had so many people. I like, I literally had asked, I don’t know, like 20 or 30 people, 16 or 17 said, yes, I didn’t expect all the people to say yes when I sent that email. So I was like, Oh God, I gotta re rolling another day, the second day I was like, totally toast. But I feel you, because there were several people who were clients of mine. They’re like, Jamie, I love the conversations that we have. So I want you to be on with me. And it just so happened. They were like three in a row of those people. And you’re like, Oh my goodness. Like, this is a lot 40 minutes each. So we know it’s 120 minutes of you being on camera more than that, because there’s like a little time between each one. So, you know?

Joe: Yeah. It’s, it is a lot. And I think I’ve, you know, when we were doing our virtual ones, I think there was only a couple of people who asked for me to stay on, to stay on the talk. And so I didn’t run into the three in a row, but like getting during that time, like I was adamantly getting this studio that I’m sitting in right now, like set up. So, um, I was doing things in between like cleaning out the garage next door so that I can move stuff up and then cleaning out the addicts. So like there was at one point I’m like I have the, the stairs, like my desk was way in the back there and the stairs were right next to it. So like every time it was getting time to, you know, low sounded like they were wrapping up, I got a rundown, the rundown. So I was putting the steps up cause otherwise they’re going to see it like right next to me. Um, and, and it’s not that I wasn’t listening or paying attention. I just wasn’t in front. Cause I’m like, I’m trying to use this time because it’s already dedicated time to being out here on a Saturday. 

Jamie: I’m going to shift gears just for a second because I would love for you to speak to because you, do you have your podcast stuff that you do and then you have some business stuff that you help people with in terms of like systems and operations and all that sort of stuff. Correct. Yep. And then you, um, I’m, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I’m assuming you did all these virtual conferences in the, for free as a way to help build your business. Is that correct? 

Joe: Yes. So, so yeah, that was the idea was, um, if we host this event, cause a lot of people are like, Oh, why don’t you charge for the, for these, you know, virtual conferences and things. And I’m like, because my whole goal was to grow our group. Our group, our Facebook group was about 400 and like 25 people back in September and today it’s almost 1,850 people. So yeah. So we’ve had a pretty explosive amount of growth and, and even just changing the name of the group, it was, he was seeing like two, three, four people a day join just by, I guess, just by finding it. Um, but for the most part, so we had like this huge spike during the first one. And then every, every other one that we did was constantly like, it wasn’t as big of a spike as the first one, but it was cause they were more niched. 

So that was the, that was the thing. It was like after the first one where it was just a generalized event, I was like, all right, well, let’s make some niches. Right. And I did one for entrepreneurs too. The second one I did was for entrepreneurs. It was the super entrepreneur conference sec. And that went really, really well. In fact, they had more views than any other podcasting, one that we had, I almost a thousand extra views, which was, yeah, it was crazy. And, and what’s crazy is I haven’t taken the time to go back and do another one in the same vein. Um, I will, at some point I just, you know, to me, I was getting it. I saw the growth in the community and I was like, you know, I think I need to like capitalize on this. And about two months into this whole pandemic thing, I was like, you know, I think I’m going to take the conference and go from being like a branch of my business, uh, to being its own sustainable business. And so it’s been a goal it’s been, I don’t know how many months now. So like three months, um, it’s not quite there yet, but it is on track to make more money than it’s ever made before, which we were profitable every well every year. But the first and the fifth year, the first, the fifth year we broke even. Cause we moved to Atlantic city and it was like, Whoa, we’re going to have this great, it’s going to be awesome. 

That’d be great. And like we, I was busy working on my TV show called the top was super Joe Pardo. And then it was like, Oh no, we’d like, we got, I got like two months and the conference is happening and like ticket sales aren’t there sponsors, you know, I have a handful of sponsors, but not enough. And we basically broke even on like a $10,000 bid of, you know, uh, uh, event. Um, and the first year I lost like $3,000, but I made it back on the second year. And then from that then on, was always profitable and came up with some other little ways to make money in between. But it was always kind of just like this, this roller coaster ride, like leading up to the event and then after the event, it kind of Peters off and just that’s it. And um, so it was like, okay, so if I’m going to do that, like I started putting together the revenue streams and putting together like, okay, how am I gonna make, make more money from this? 

Cause like the sponsors for these virtual events was actually really good, like, you know, and make three, four or $5,000 in event. Um, but it, but it still wasn’t enough money to be like, Oh, like let’s just do this. You know, let’s ride that train forever because as time went on, it was getting harder to keep going back to even to gain new sponsors, but also to keep going back to the well of the same sponsors over, not that they weren’t getting, you know, recognition and, and, and sign ups and stuff, but it wasn’t pouring it. You know what I mean? It wasn’t like a poor name. It’s like, Oh dude, I’ll give you a thousand dollars. Cause that thousand dollars it’s going to turn into 20 new clients for me and it’s going to be awesome. Um, you know, maybe they get three or four or five or six or seven clients, but you know, you just don’t know. 

Um, so yeah, so it’s like, okay, so, so, you know, what’s it, what’s it mean to become its own business and then trying to, at the same time it was like, okay, well I ended up putting my, my business coaching on pause cause I was just so focused on like, okay, let’s just grow the community. Cause it’s, it’s growing and naturally anyway, every day, um, let’s, you know, let’s see what we can, where we can take it. And it’s, it’s been, it’s been fun. Um, I definitely have enjoyed it. Um, so we’ll, we’ll see. I, I, I’m starting to, I’m starting to like put the groundwork back in place for after this conference in September to, to like get back into, okay. Where’s here’s the baseline now for, for indie pod and I got it worked out, uh, now go, go back to like getting some more business clients and working with morbid because I love helping businesses cause I love helping people. Right. And that’s one of the best ways I know is to help people through helping their business. Right. Pulling more people create, say, you know, saving, create jobs. It’s that’s what I’m there to do. Yeah. So how do this is a big question for you? Cause I personally, um, Should I write it down? Am I going to forget it halfway there? 

Jamie: No, this is a big question because I know for me personally and you and I haven’t known each other probably what, four months now, three months now, something like that. Yeah. Not super long, but last year. So I had my agency arm of my business and then I had my coaching consulting strategy arm of my business. And last year was like the year that I’m like, alright, I’m going to do, because everything before last year was literally just done for you agency model. Right? So this year or last year I was trying to move both these huge initiatives forward. And I will say while I made the most money I’ve ever made last year, it was also the least profitable year that I ever had because I had employees and we were overhead and my marketing efforts were split because I was trying to move these things forward. 

And I always, personally never felt like I was giving my best on either aspect of the business. And this year I’ve just been like, Nope, not doing the agency thing. Um, and it’s coaching and strategy and programs. And then I, I will handpick somebody if I think they might potentially be a good fit for my agency, but I’ve almost whittled my agency down to like next to nothing. Like I’m so super selective about who I work with because I want to whatever. So for you, you’ve got your podcast stuff that you do and you have your podcast membership program, correct? 

Joe: Yeah. The Indy pod university, your icon, you for sure that, uh, yeah, sorry, go ahead. 

Jamie: And you’ve got your business coaching. So how do you see all those things come together? Cause like, like how do you do the, all that? 

Joe: Well, not super effectively in some case to be perfectly honest, 

Jamie: I ask because most of the listeners in my PA on my podcast they’re entrepreneurs, right. They’re making six figures in their business and they’re trying to track like they’re trading dollars for hours, but they’re trying to go to that next level. Right. And getting that next level requires you to add another layer of complexity to your business. Oftentimes. So I’m just curious, like how do you do it all? 

Joe: Yeah. Yeah. So I, well, when it comes, so like I said, not always the most effectively, um, because I, you know, I don’t have a team for my, in my business. Like the team that I have for icon is, uh, all volunteer right now and I’d like to pay them, which is one of the reasons I want to get, uh, you know, indie pod con to get to a level where we can have, you know, people be paid for the services and stuff that they’re doing. Uh it’s so that’s a, that’s a very real goal to me. Um, from the, from the business, uh, coaching standpoint, you know, to me, it’s, it’s hard, right? Growing up, um, growing up with, with a family that had a very strong philosophy against the whole coaching and consulting business, is, is it plays, mind tricks on you about what you, what you can or what you should do or, or why anybody should hire a consultant? 

Cause I remember, I mean, I very clearly remember my grandfather saying many times, like never do that, never do that. That’s not, you know, but the fact that matters like you might be the best bread maker, but that doesn’t mean that you’re the best at like the numbers to make it work or the best, you know what I mean? There were the processes or training people so that they actually have a good idea of what they’re doing versus just kinda like, well, I, you know, I watched and kinda did, you know, fumbled my way through it. Um, so, so what I do is I, I mean, I’m a big believer in using my calendar as much as possible and, and trying to like, you know, utilize blocks that way. Uh, I use Trello so that I have the, to do lists for all the different things that I’m doing and then moving them from like in progress, like I have like wishlist, uh, and then like actually need to do and then, um, in progress and then complete. 

And one thing I started doing two weeks ago that has kind of helped is, uh, instead of just archiving the tasks after I’m done, I create a list of what is like for that week of what’s been completed. So then I can like compare like last week to like, I know last week I did not get as much done as I did the previous week. Cause like I could just look at the list and I’m like, yeah, I checked a lot more things off my thing last week, um, than I did that or two weeks ago than I did last week. So my goal this week is the get more, you know, more done. Um, but I, you know, I think time management, I think always looking at like what moves the needle the most and, and weighing out that and prioritizing things, um, is it’s really, really important. 

It’s imperative, especially when you only have so much time and you are limiting the amount of time that you have. Cause one of my goals here is to like, is to be able to be available for my kids and my wife and um, and really, you know, so, so cause there’s a lot of opportunities too that come along. Right. So I do a lot of film like filming and video and work and stuff like that. So like my sister, she owns a photography business. So she’s like, Oh, you know, we can do this wedding and you can do the video. And I’m like, alright, well this is how much it’s going to cost. And she’s like, well, I don’t think they’re going to go for them. Well then they don’t leave my video. 

I’m like giving you eight hours of my Saturday. Hey, so that, you know, especially if it’s a, what if it’s a nice Saturday, you know, like I’m going to miss out on a nice out of that could be out on the swing set with the kids to go film somebody else’s thing for a cut rate, then I’m still gonna have to go and edit the footage. Like yeah, no thanks. Yeah, because now, well now is the, um, and so she’s been texting me a bunch and it does, I mean, whatever, but so she’s been texting me cause she’s like, Oh, these, these, these brides, they want, they want us to live stream their, their weddings. And she’s trying to beat me down in the price that my sister of like, well, you know, we should charge like 700 and I was like, no, it’s 1500. Like, and that’s the like, that’s like the base, like there’s other things I can add to that. But like I’m not, I’m not coming out for less than 1500. I was like, I’m talking, I’m bringing like two laptops, two internet connections, uh, you know, cameras, uh, you know, potentially a gimbal to like live stream that like I can do all of these things by myself with the software that I have and what the equipment that I have. But like for 500 bucks, like, no, thank you.That eight hours you can spend doing something. Well it’s one hour, it’s one hour. This is just the ceremony. 

Jamie: Now one hour you can make more in your business. Right. And that, that, how can you be leveraging your time better? Right? Like in one hour in your business, what can you get done versus, 

Joe: And that is, that is part of the problem though, right. Is because like I can make, and this is a real struggle that I’ve had myself right in, in the last couple of weeks where it’s like, so should I, should I be spending so much time on the indie pod university and indie pod community because am I making as much money? Am I going, am I, is the potential for that one hour of work enough money to justify it, like to justify it versus like going out and getting a couple of business clients that could pay five, 10, $15,000 for services 

Jamie: No, but that’s why I asked that because it’s something that I ran into for my business. Right? Like, am I social made simple program, right? Which we sell for, it’s like four 97 for the course. And then if you want continued access after you can pay the $67 a month, right. Just to get access to the calls, then I have my signature bed program. Right. Which is 7,500 bucks for the year. And then you can coach with me one-on-one and I’ve got other, like one-off under a hundred dollars products that I sell. Right. And my train of thought last year was like, well, I’ve got, I can drive everybody through this client journey. They buy a social, made simple, they go to BEB. Then they, you know, become a one on one client or they don’t stay with me and they move on. Right. And what was happening was the people who were in my lower entry program. 

Um, in that course weren’t necessarily showing up for the calls. So when they weren’t showing up for the calls, then how are they gonna move into the next step? And so for me, that’s where I was just like, well, I’m not going to push this. Right. Like once I grow my email list to 10,000, and once I grow my following to a hundred thousand, then I’ll promote that. Cause there’s enough volume to make it worth that what I’m finding. And I’m seeing this as a trend more and more in the online space, because that’s primarily where I work is that those lower entry programs people don’t necessarily participate in. And so when you think of it from a client journey perspective, they don’t move to that next place in the journey because they never start with the first one. Um, and for me, the, most of the people that want to work with me, they’re like, I need more help than just with social media. So they jump in, typically jumped straight into the business ecosystem builders program. And so for you, like, I would think like, who is that ideal client, right? Like who is your human that you want to work with? And then when you can identify that, that’s when you can say like, yes, this podcast stuff makes sense if I gear it towards these people, you know what I mean? 

Joe: Well, yeah. So, I mean, I I’ve run my own show too. Right. The super Joe part show, it’s a business, you know, business lessons, show it’s our business meets life. Um, which was the dreamers podcasts. It evolved into the superhero part of the show. And uh, so like, and yeah, and that’s been a real thought of like, how, how can I utilize indie pod to get more opportunities for the, you know, the business consulting to the businesses it’s called two, three, four solutions that’s LLC, but nobody really knows that. Um, so cause I don’t, I don’t use it as a brand. Like I don’t, I don’t use that as a brand. I just it’s the super Joe Pardot. Right. And, and, and Jamie Palmer, it’s, it’s our name. So, you know, I, uh, it is difficult and I, and I, and I I’m seeing it now with the people that, um, bought into the indie pod university at the lower, like when it was, cause originally it was like $10. 

I had like a two tier thing going on. So it was like, yeah, the Indy pod university that was purely just the video overs, recordings of past events and the virtual events and, and tutorials and stuff. And that was $10 a month. And then I had the, like the group coaching calls and stuff that was, um, starting at, it was going to be $99 a month. Well, after like two months to beat my head and get nowhere with almost either. Cause I had a couple of people buy into to each, um, I was like, you know what, I’m just going to combine both into indie pod. You, it makes it more simple to understand from a branding perspective. And then, uh, I’m going to raise the price from $10 all the way up to a hundred dollars. So, you know, now I’m trying to get these, these group coaching calls go in and, and like I’m D I’m on these calls for like 10, 15 minutes, myself just talking about topic, like a topic each week basically. And you know, and people aren’t coming, but like, I will, we’ll get there. You gotta, I gotta keep digging at it. 

Jamie: See though, it’s consistency. Right. Like I know when I was on your show last week and I’ve been, I’ve been referencing this a lot is like you asked me about consistency and you were like, hold on a second. You just said you were consistent for three or four years. Like, let’s talk about consistency there for a second. So it’s the same thing with that. Like the more that you stick with it, the more that people get known for you get known for you for it. But I always say in my programs, focus, follow one course until successful. So pick one thing you, that one thing for one year, and if it’s not where you want it to be after a year, you have to look at like, is this profitable? And I have a business coach and I’m my family. My dad is surprisingly similar to some of the things that I’ve heard you say about your family, like corporate guy tech, corporate tech guy. Right. Do you know, supply chain management type stuff. And I will be like, yeah, like business is going great. I got another info product out. And he’s like, yeah, good luck with that in your business, sell in like more than one of whatever. And it’s like you seriously, after 17 years still don’t understand what I do. 

But you’re like my business coach. The reason why I bring that up though is, is my business coach always says, if you have a product in your business and your goal is to build a big business, right? Like seven figure business, each product should make, should generate at least a hundred thousand dollars. And if it doesn’t, you either need to kill it or think about how you could incorporate it into something else. And I was like, that’s a really solid way to look at it. 

Joe: Yeah, yeah, no, I, it is, um, you know, going back like, uh, thinking about the, the vendor nights that we would have every year as a, um, at the, in the truck company was the, uh, how we utilized that thing, that costs a ton of money. Right? Cause you have a thousand people coming through, you’re running this big, um, this big space and catering it and open bar that’s free. Um, and how we utilized it to actually turn a profit every year, year over year, uh, not necessarily a hundred thousand, but easily between like 40 to $80,000 every year between like product that we would get special deals that cause all the, all the reps are there. Right. Some of the presidents of these companies would fly in to be there. So it was like, you’re doing all this networking at your own show, you know, and showing the force of like, you know, all the people that come in and, and are there every year. So, um, you know, well here, here’s the thing that I initially never really planned for indie pod con to be a biz, like to be its own business 

Jamie: Crazy. How it just kind of became its own thing. Like I’ve watched your evolution. Cause Steven introduced me to you like in March and I’d think I joined the group back in like March when he was speaking at like, I think your first event and it really, it has taken its own life of its own. 

Joe: It has. And it, and like I said, it is, it is growing. I just, I don’t know if maybe it’s too soon to like really go in. And like I said, I’m, I’m, I’m still kind of trying to do that balancing act and, and I, and I think I’m going to give myself that permission to get to at least the, this past this event, because I, I wanted to go off really well. I know I can make it off really well. Um, and once we get past that event, then I think I’ll, you know, I’m doing some new, uh, some exploratory things with, with, uh, the super Joe Pardot show and like trying to figure out like how I want to market it. And, and I want to go more into like LinkedIn, cause that’s, I think that’s one thing, like, you know, full disclosure, like I, I had never really taken LinkedIn super seriously. And I, and I paid the work with a LinkedIn coach, um, not that long ago. And, and now my, my profile is getting a lot more traffic. So I’m like, okay, so now maybe I should take that this, this time to like start rerecording some of my content that I have years and years and years of business content at this point, but rerecording some of it, because a lot of it was shot as like a vlog. And it’s not really in context of the people that I’m trying to work with. 

Jamie: Yeah. And the people at well, I’m not exactly sure. I’m assuming your business consulting clients are people who are similar to the work that you did with your family’s business 

Joe: Yeah. So, so a small to medium business, um, you know, is, is really the, is the goal. And the reason is cause I them to have enough inventory, I want them to have enough, uh, employees that they like, that we can actually make a difference. Right. And it’s not, 

Jamie: I sit there and watch you log they’re like, give me the information super Joe, 

Joe: You say that, but, well, well, no. Cause what I would do is, so for like a hundred days in a row, I did a daily vlog where I would talk about a business lesson throughout my day and I would relate it to something that was going on. So like when we were at the, uh, we’re at the Philadelphia zoo, the oldest zoo in America. Right. And uh, I was like, you know, looking at their map and they had the special, like ice thing going on. And I’m like, you look at the map and it doesn’t even promote the ice thing at all. Like there’s a little star on the map and that’s it like, so you know where it’s at, but there’s zero. Like there’s, you know, it’s this big pamphlet thing. And when you fold it out and like, there’s nothing about the special thing that’s going on right now to sell more tickets. 

Like they’re not promoting it in the park. Like they’re promoting it on TV, you see the ads all the time, but once you get there, like, you know, yeah, exactly. So, so things like that, like I, you know, go through different marketing things. The, I always focused on three, three specific areas, the team, the offer and the process, that’s where the top of super Joe Pardot comes on top. So, uh, which we might be actually rebranding that name to a small business rescue at some point in the near future. Um, and hopefully, you know, by next year we’ll be able to film some more episodes other than the we’ve recorded one so far. Um, we were supposed to record some in March, but we know how that ended up being, uh, so, uh, so yeah, so I, you know, I working with small to medium businesses that have enough going on that there’s enough things to fix. 

Like one of the clients I worked with is in, um, the air travel agency. So they have like, at the time they had, I think closest 70 agents, 60, 65, 70 agents across the country. And it was, you know, it was awesome. Like we’re, we’re working together. And like one of the biggest problems they had was they didn’t have the ability to trust somebody. So it’s a, it’s a husband, wife thing, you know, helming it. And, um, they, they tried to cut like two people and they kinda got gun shy on bringing somebody in to like work on some of the, like putting kits together to mail out the people or any kind of, any kind of administration thing. Um, and after working with them, they were able to like gain that, that trust and that ability to like go out, find somebody, and now they’re like taking vacations together and stuff. Now during this whole COVID thing, it was just in Cancun. Now they have a house down in Disney. Um, so they’re, they’re back, you know, back in Disney again, but they have the time and space to do that because we, we worked on figuring out the plans and the processes that they needed to take off their plate so that they could, uh, do, you know, go and do those things. Yeah. 

Jamie: Yeah. So, so to come full circle, right. Because we’re gonna, we’re gonna wrap up the show in few minutes. So you’ve got your podcast conference coming up, who who’s an ideal person to attend. Like, is it tell me about who this podcast conferences for. 

Joe: Yeah. So it’s for people who either don’t have a podcast yet, or have been podcasting, but are looking to either get into a community or learn more. Right. So if you don’t have a podcast yet there, I mean, there’s so many incredible speakers that we’ll be speaking to to that. Right. Um, and then on top of that, if you do have a podcast and you want to learn more, you want to get more in depth, you want to take it more seriously, like that’s, uh, excuse me, a good chunk of our, of our membership. Our, our community are people who want to take it more seriously than want to take it to the next level that want it to be something more than just them talking with their friends or, or something to that effect. Um, so they want to take it, they want to take it to the next level and, and potentially monetize it. And, and when they do, we have the icon university where they can go and learn to launch, grow and monetize their podcast. 

Jamie: Awesome. So, um, I ask every guest on the show, any Ninja tips you want to leave our listeners with 

Joe: Ninja tips. All right. So, uh, I’m a big proponent of running and sleeping. So self care and knowing what your like switches are to know like where you can hit those reset, the receipt recess, Oh man. Racy switches, they sound delicious, um, reset switches so that you can get back your head back in the game and, uh, and refocus. So, uh, like one of the things and, and, you know, consult a doctor obviously, but one of the things that I’ve done to get, so I could get back to sleep or waking up earlier. Cause I, I try to, the goal is always wake up before I am. It doesn’t always happen. Like I said, before this, I woke up at like nine 10 because I woke up at one 30 after going to bed at 1130. And next thing you know, I can’t go to bed back to bed till five 30 in the morning. 

And then it’s yeah. And then waking up at eight and then kind of sorta meandering through sleep till nine. But anyway, the goal, like having that goal there at 4:00 AM, so what I’ll, what I do is, um, when I get out of, out of sync for whatever, the reason vacation or whatever, I’ll, I’ll use a sleep aid to go to S to make sure I go to sleep at nine 30, 10 o’clock right. Yeah. Just, and then it’s only for a couple of nights, right? Once a month, I get my body into that routine. Like bam, I’m back, you know, I don’t need it cause I’m tired at that point at nine 30, 10, I’m usually tired at nine 30, 10 o’clock I’ve already pushed them through, but at least this way, it’s like, I don’t have it. Like I take the choice away from myself and I go to sleep so I can wake up early so I can get things done before the family gets up. Uh, and, and, you know, so things like that, right. Going and running, getting ideas, you know, some people say they get their ideas in the shower. Yeah. Sometimes I get that, but most of my ideas come while I’m running. So I’m figuring, thinking through problems and things and trying to think like, okay, would this make sense? Or does that make sense? Um, yeah. So the, those, those sleeping, running, uh, meditating that started doing that, not that long ago, it’s been been fun. Uh it’s it’s okay. Yeah. It, I it’s, it works. 

Jamie: We can do a whole, we could do a whole episode on the trials and tribulations of meditating as an entrepreneur, I’ll be like mid meditation. I’m like, Oh, yay. I got this awesome idea. Let me like, and then I’m like, before I know it, the whole, like, God darn it. Like DRO didn’t even do the meditation. I got so distracted. 

Joe: That idea could be so, so worthwhile. Right. And I, and I think also don’t discount your, um, you know, the failures that you’ve had and, and, you know, you’re always learning, right. Like failures or lessons and, um, but like really don’t discount those because like part of doing the, I, I like the icon university, right. Uh, I did a program way back in 2015 called your dream platform.com. It was a name like off of the dreamers podcast thing. And I built this online learning platform, um, which for very little money actually basically free. Um, and, and I took all those lessons that I learned. Cause it didn’t, I mean, I had a handful of people sign up, but it didn’t, it just wasn’t going. And I’m like, eh, you know, tutorials are hard to make any way. Ads are making like four or five of them like, ah, man, this is a lot of work. 

And then when the programs update or things change, I like, yeah, I am, I am totally, totally good. Um, on that front. So something like, you know what I, you know, I shut it down, but then I took all of that stuff and, and I place it in, you know, built the icon university out of it. So it’s, it’s not impossible to put things, you know, put one plus one together and get to a later like four or five years later down line. Me and my wife had tons of failed businesses that we try to get off the ground in the last six years. And, you know, w E every time I built like the websites out and everything, like I learned a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, and I’ve been building websites since like 90, we talked about support, like 97. So, um, you know, it helped in, in so many ways now, because I know of the plugins that I know of the techniques that I can use to like, get the achievement that I’m looking for. Right. 

Jamie: Don’t be afraid to iterate. Don’t be afraid to iterate. 

Joe: Yeah. And, you know, don’t be afraid to change things. Um, you know, people love the map on the AP. There was people that were legitimately sad and upset and, and very not wanting to talk to me after I did announce that this past event in September, that I was going to change the name to indie indie podcast, independent podcast conference. And I’m like, look, things aren’t changing. Like, it’s the same thing. We just want to make it more inclusive for people who don’t live here, because most of the people there don’t live in the middle Atlantic. Anyway, we have Australia this past year, you know, people from UK, West coast central, like all over the place. So, um, you know, so don’t be afraid to change the name. And don’t like, and to go back to, you know, indie pod university, right. Don’t be afraid to like, raise the price and, and play with. 

Cause like at the end of the day, everybody else has their own crap going on. Uh, they’re not really paying attention to your branding. And you want a reason to paying attention to other people’s brandings like Pepsi CocaCola or whatever the flavor of the week is, um, is because they are paying tons of money and investing tons of man hours into making it so that you can’t avoid it. Right. We, as, as, you know, six figure seven figure businesses don’t have that, that luxury, right. You even at eight figures, nine figures, like there’s, there’s still only so much you can do because you want to be able to hold on to some of the money, uh, you know, as you go. So, you know, don’t, don’t be a, don’t beat yourself up about stuff that people don’t, uh, don’t appreciate or don’t see, you know, don’t want or quite understand. So simplify, simplify, and simplify again. 

Jamie: Yeah. I love that, Joe, because I agree completely. So 

Joe: It’s coming from a place of value, so it’s all good. 

Jamie: this is the one and only super Joe Pardot. We will make sure all of the links and they, well, I’m speaking at the conference. I’m super excited. 

Joe: Okay. Wait, speaking on the 12th. 

Jamie: Yeah, the 12th. So we’re going to put the links in the show notes so you can easily grab your ticket and join us there. Like I’ve been to several of Joe’s free events. I can’t even imagine how value packs this paid for event is going to be. So I would love for you as our listeners to join us there. And Joe, thank you so much for coming on the show. I super appreciate it. Thank you, 

Joe: Thank You so much for having me, Jamie, thank you for speaking. Thank you for being a part of the community and thank you for being a friend then. Thank you. Thank you to Steven for introducing us. It’s been, it’s been an absolute pleasure. 

Jamie: Yeah. Agreed. So thank you so much for tuning in and we’ll talk to you all soon.