Episode 19

Nate Garrison of The EXTRAordinary Podcast

This week on Podcaster Stories, I sit down with Nate Garrison of The EXTRAordinary Podcast.

The EXTRAordinary Podcast profiles ordinary people living extraordinary lives, who adhere to a lifestyle by design mindset.

Topics up for discussion this week include:

  • how Nate's show evolved from being a co-hosted show into a solo host
  • how the show came about from a personal development program that Nate created, the 8 Keys 2 Great
  • how Covid changed the way he records and plans his show
  • how he used to identify cities and advertise he was coming that way, to find guests for his show
  • how Nate identifies what he feels would make an interesting guest for his show and listeners
  • why he adheres to a lifestyle by design mindset
  • why Covid has seen both a positive and negative change in personal behaviours
  • how our lives have the chance to be redefined post-Covid
  • what the 18 month rule is for podcasting, and why he uses it
  • the two episodes that stand out for him
  • how his endurance sports lifestyle prepares him for handling disappointment in life
  • the moment he found he needed to step away from corporate life
  • why you should judge success by how your life meets your actual needs, versus your material successes
  • how his goal is to gain something from every guest he interviews
  • his plans for scaling his podcast, and why he's looking forward to getting back to in-person interviews
  • why he has no interest in interviewing celebrities and uber-successful people
  • why meaningful conversations make for the best podcasts
  • why his biggest piece of advice for podcasters is to be consistent
  • why his parents are his heroes

Settle back for an enlightening talk about making and living by your own rules.

Connect with Nate:

Contact me: danny@podcasterstories.com

My equipment:

Recommended resources:



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Transcript
Speaker:

You know, it's really not so much about the, the

Speaker:

money. The success success is very important because I think

Speaker:

success leaves characteristics and traits that are very important. But

Speaker:

when it's so tied up into money into the financial

Speaker:

side of it, then there's these other things to get

Speaker:

neglected. These are the things that get removed. And when

Speaker:

you can see when you can realize your success based

Speaker:

on the lifestyle that you're able to craft, when you're

Speaker:

able to value success on how you spend your day.

Speaker:

Okay, well now we're onto something that we can kinda

Speaker:

say, okay, well, let's Kraft a lifestyle that allows me

Speaker:

to have the day.

Speaker:

Did I want to have a hi and welcome to

Speaker:

Podcast the Stories each episode, we will have a conversation

Speaker:

with Podcast is from across the globe and share their

Speaker:

story. What motivates them, why they start to do to

Speaker:

show how they grew up in Moore will also talk

Speaker:

about their personal lives. And some of the things that

Speaker:

have happened with the dam, the person you are today,

Speaker:

and now here's your host. Danny Brown. Hi, and welcome

Speaker:

to another episode of Podcaster. Stories where we talk to

Speaker:

the people behind the voices of the shows we were

Speaker:

listening to this week. I'm speaking with Nate Garrison is

Speaker:

host of The EXTRAordinary Podcast profiles, ordinary people living extraordinary

Speaker:

lives. Nate welcome to the show.

Speaker:

I really appreciate you joining us today. How about you?

Speaker:

Tell me a little bit about yourself and the shot.

Speaker:

Thanks, Danny. I appreciate you having me. All right, man.

Speaker:

This is really exciting. A big fan of this show.

Speaker:

I really love listening to it and yeah, so I'm

Speaker:

a fellow Podcaster so we're all in this together. And

Speaker:

my podcast is called the EXTRAordinary podcast and basically very

Speaker:

similar to yours. We profile ordinary people, living extra ordinary

Speaker:

lives and above and beyond that, my primary goal, a

Speaker:

goal as the host is to share stories, stories, and

Speaker:

experiences that shaped your life that had an impact that

Speaker:

a left some kind of meaning or, or, or moral

Speaker:

or something that made an impact in your life. And

Speaker:

so, yeah, that's what I've been fortunate enough to know

Speaker:

some really neat people.

Speaker:

And they've been kind enough to grace me with some

Speaker:

of their time and, and I've just had to share

Speaker:

their message and share their story.

Speaker:

No, no. I was looking at you show up at

Speaker:

night and less than catch up on some of the

Speaker:

episodes. And, and as you mentioned, you've got a wide

Speaker:

variety. It meant a lot of people on the show

Speaker:

honor, and a wide variety of experiences of the stories.

Speaker:

And I know yourself has got your own story that

Speaker:

will be talking about a relater and the changes you

Speaker:

made. So how do you come up with the show

Speaker:

idea? Is that based on your experiences yourself or was

Speaker:

it something you always want to do it anyway?

Speaker:

Yeah, it was kind of an evolution, to be honest

Speaker:

with you and I, and full disclosure, I will say

Speaker:

this, the original plan for this show was to be

Speaker:

a, a co-hosted show with a buddy of mine. And

Speaker:

he's the one who actually came up with the name

Speaker:

They EXTRAordinary Podcast. And, and so if we were rolling

Speaker:

with it and as it got down to brass tacks

Speaker:

and really ready to execute, he didn't really want to

Speaker:

do it anymore. He kind of backed out and said,

Speaker:

know you take it and run with it. So, so

Speaker:

that's where the name came from, but the premise behind

Speaker:

the show, it was really about two years ago, I

Speaker:

came up with the idea of a personal development program

Speaker:

and, and I, and it was through some of the

Speaker:

things that I was going on are some of the

Speaker:

things that were going on in my own life.

Speaker:

And that kind of lead to that. But through the

Speaker:

process, I came up with this or through this self

Speaker:

development process that I was going through. I came up

Speaker:

with this idea of the Eight Keys to great. And

Speaker:

what it was was I've got a construction background I'm

Speaker:

way more comfortable swinging a hammer than I am behind

Speaker:

the Microphone, as you can tell, by the way I

Speaker:

talk. But so what I did was I took the

Speaker:

way that you had remodel your home and applied that

Speaker:

to how you would remodel your life. And I broke

Speaker:

it down into these Eight Keys to, there is a

Speaker:

lot of principals and, and a lot of background that

Speaker:

goes into developing this Eight case. And so what I

Speaker:

wanted to try to do is find people that were

Speaker:

exhibiting some of the aspects of those Eight Keys to,

Speaker:

and then profile them, find out where they got the

Speaker:

ideas from what's working.

Speaker:

What's not, and, and then they can showcase them through

Speaker:

the Podcast and then you use their stories and their

Speaker:

experiences to then validate a lot of the program that

Speaker:

I was trying to put together. And so that was

Speaker:

kind of the impetus for it. And it's just, quite

Speaker:

honestly, the podcast has gone into a lot more than

Speaker:

they are Keys are still coming along and there, it,

Speaker:

like, we were just talking before we started recording we're

Speaker:

in beta testing now, which is extremely exciting, but, but

Speaker:

the podcast has since kind of taken off a little

Speaker:

bit

Speaker:

And speaking to the podcast that you mentioned there, it

Speaker:

was originally going to be a co-host had shopped so

Speaker:

right away, I mean, you've jumped down and you have

Speaker:

done it yourself, all right away with a lot more

Speaker:

of a challenge there what's been the biggest challenge. Have,

Speaker:

you know, since the evolution of your show, since you

Speaker:

started at it and how, how have you can do

Speaker:

to overcome that?

Speaker:

I think COVID was a real kick and the teeth.

Speaker:

So for me, audio quality was something that was very

Speaker:

important to me. I'm not an audio file and I

Speaker:

have no background with this, but as a Podcast fan,

Speaker:

and I would have, I would struggle to enjoy podcasts

Speaker:

that you could tell they were divorced. They have a

Speaker:

recording, or they were, you know, they were, they were

Speaker:

not live or in person did the quality of the

Speaker:

audio just really turned me off. So one of the

Speaker:

deal's for me was when I started this podcast, it

Speaker:

was all going to be in person. And of course

Speaker:

that was great and amazing. And again, I had some

Speaker:

really neat friends that I was able to corner and

Speaker:

get to interview with me, but then COVID hit. And

Speaker:

that obviously changed the game for everybody and for what

Speaker:

its worth as the podcast was progressing.

Speaker:

I also saw before COVID hit that, you know, the

Speaker:

in person interview wasn't going to necessarily be sustainable. And

Speaker:

of course at that same time, I was blessed with

Speaker:

this gift of SquadCast that you and I are both

Speaker:

recording on today. And that also changed the game for

Speaker:

me because it allows me to get in person quality

Speaker:

audio, but do it remotely. So overcoming that challenge was

Speaker:

huge for me. And it opened up at a whole

Speaker:

plethora of different guests that I'd never considered before a,

Speaker:

and opened up a lot of new windows of opportunity,

Speaker:

but one that never would have happened if it weren't

Speaker:

for those circumstances.

Speaker:

And of course, as you mentioned, it was going to

Speaker:

be an in-person Podcast eye and you, you, you said

Speaker:

it yourself and that there was, I guess, has a

Speaker:

finite, a finite amount of people that you can do

Speaker:

in your location and your geographical, you know, like circle

Speaker:

of you like to do in person interviews. So what

Speaker:

was your plan before a squad SquadCast or before a

Speaker:

remote record and et cetera, what would your plan to

Speaker:

continue to add to maybe the scale that then we

Speaker:

have the impact

Speaker:

And interviewing well for what it's worth? I have traveled

Speaker:

with it. I took it on the road. I basically

Speaker:

my new, my plan originally was to identify a city

Speaker:

and then go to that city and get as many

Speaker:

interviews there as I could. And so the first trip

Speaker:

was out to Denver, Colorado, and I was able to

Speaker:

line up some really neat guests and, and knocked out

Speaker:

about a half a dozen the first day or the

Speaker:

first two days. And then it got a couple of

Speaker:

more than just stumbled into my lap. As a result

Speaker:

of me letting the world know, Hey, I'm going to

Speaker:

be in Colorado doing these podcast interviews. And, but, so

Speaker:

that was my first experience. And it worked out really

Speaker:

well and a better than expected quite honestly.

Speaker:

And then it became this thing where I was like,

Speaker:

started identifying these, all the towns I wanted to go

Speaker:

to and who could I get while I was there

Speaker:

and said the next one was to salt Lake city.

Speaker:

And Well just to really the state of Utah, because

Speaker:

I ended up putting in about 800 miles of my

Speaker:

rental car in a few days. So just bouncing around

Speaker:

this state catching interview's, and again, I've got to stay

Speaker:

with friends. I was able to do it really inexpensively

Speaker:

on a, on a, on a really cheap time and

Speaker:

the experience and the memories from it were amazing. So

Speaker:

it was like, well, that's a model I could follow.

Speaker:

I can get into this. This can be a lot

Speaker:

of fun. And then again, like I said, COVID hit.

Speaker:

So it changed things, but I was, I was really,

Speaker:

and for what it's worth, I have intentions in an

Speaker:

hour and still on the process of getting back to

Speaker:

that format as well.

Speaker:

Look out in new Orleans here I come on. No

Speaker:

worries.

Speaker:

So that would be a good protocol. And you get

Speaker:

some really good vibes behind you that when you were

Speaker:

a card and now for sure. Oh, no, definitely. That's

Speaker:

one of the things I find call about your show

Speaker:

that you had mentioned that when you were doing the

Speaker:

same person is especially, you were saying that you are

Speaker:

gonna have a steady up and, you know, let's do

Speaker:

a podcast for example, and you're sure has a huge

Speaker:

variety of guests. I mean, once a week you might

Speaker:

be T speaking to craft brewer, for example, and the

Speaker:

next you're talking to someone it's just like putting your

Speaker:

body through how we have a tough motto of course,

Speaker:

and you know, somewhere in June and say programs and

Speaker:

courses and triathlons, et cetera. So is it a formula

Speaker:

for who you think would be a good guest for

Speaker:

the show and for your listeners, or is that sort

Speaker:

of evolved as a team come by as well?

Speaker:

Well, I've definitely had an and still have to this

Speaker:

day. I keep a running list of guests that I

Speaker:

think would be interesting or our guests. I think they're

Speaker:

a good fit for the show, but at the end

Speaker:

of the day for me, well, and so it started

Speaker:

off with, alright, well, who do you know, who do

Speaker:

you know that it has an interesting story and as

Speaker:

luck would have it, it was really interesting. I happened

Speaker:

to have gone to high school with some really some

Speaker:

people that have gone on to do some really neat

Speaker:

things. And some people that were quite honestly weren't that

Speaker:

interesting or, or becoming in high school, they have now

Speaker:

gone on to achieve some, some re and to do

Speaker:

some really neat project. So that was number one that

Speaker:

was really cool to kind of go through and connect

Speaker:

with people that I hadn't seen for a long time.

Speaker:

But the, again, the original premise was who do I

Speaker:

know that are exemplifying a lifestyle by design. And that

Speaker:

is really kind of a key for the H that

Speaker:

that's the backbone of the Eight Keys to Great and

Speaker:

it's really has become a big theme for the show.

Speaker:

It's how are you crafting your lifestyle? Like you talked

Speaker:

about for you, for example, you guys decided to get

Speaker:

out of the big city and move to a location

Speaker:

that gave your kids a better environment for there, for

Speaker:

them to grow up in. And for me, that's a

Speaker:

huge aspect that I feel like we've gotten away from.

Speaker:

I think that we've gotten so focused on money and

Speaker:

fortune and success, which I think success is an important

Speaker:

part of the equation, but we forgotten about some of

Speaker:

that lifestyle aspects that are so important.

Speaker:

So it really, with my guest is like, what, how

Speaker:

are they living in an amazing lifestyle? And if they're

Speaker:

living a lifestyle by design by their own design, then

Speaker:

there is somebody I want to talk to.

Speaker:

Hm. And it's interesting, you mention about the fact that

Speaker:

I have, so my family move to a quiet place.

Speaker:

I know you make some big changes for the life

Speaker:

that you guys are living. Do you think there with

Speaker:

COVID obviously is having a major impact on a hope,

Speaker:

hope people work. There are a lot of companies that

Speaker:

are making people stay at home, et cetera. Do you

Speaker:

think it's allowing people the time to sort of breathe

Speaker:

a bit and take stock and they may even changed

Speaker:

their own approaches to how they want to live posts.

Speaker:

I mean, there's not going to be a post COVID

Speaker:

if you like, but once see a vaccine as a

Speaker:

widespread, et cetera. And, and what can we get back

Speaker:

to the seminar morality? Do you think it's like, it's

Speaker:

a big opportunity for people to reset their lives at

Speaker:

this stage?

Speaker:

Well, I think there's a tremendous amount of opportunity is

Speaker:

coming from all of this. But unfortunately I think we've

Speaker:

seen a lot of negative consequences in that it's been

Speaker:

a real easy for us and myself included. I mean,

Speaker:

I'll put myself at the top of the list to,

Speaker:

you know, dive heavy into a social media and to

Speaker:

spend more time on Netflix maybe than we normally would,

Speaker:

and to get into some unproductive behaviors. And I think

Speaker:

really, particularly at first, for myself personally, I found myself

Speaker:

falling into that trap quite a bit. And, and for

Speaker:

what it's worth, you know, We are, I just was

Speaker:

lucky enough to start crafting this lifestyle design idea in

Speaker:

concept about a year, a year and a half before

Speaker:

this hit.

Speaker:

So I feel incredibly blessed and lucky that I was

Speaker:

already kind of laying the groundwork for this when all

Speaker:

of this hit. And it sounds like that was the

Speaker:

same case for you, but you guys, so you had

Speaker:

fortunately been kind of taking steps to get right before

Speaker:

all this happened. And then when this happened, you would

Speaker:

then be better prepared for that. And I think for

Speaker:

myself as well, we were very fortunate that that was

Speaker:

the case, but for a lot of people that was

Speaker:

not the case. A lot of the first that this

Speaker:

caught us with our pants down, you know, we just

Speaker:

were really caught off guard, but now that it's, there

Speaker:

is opportunity. We were, were seeing our, our, our work

Speaker:

be redefined, were seeing our job descriptions be redefined, were

Speaker:

seeing our day to day activities be redefined.

Speaker:

And I think that provides opportunity to really begin to

Speaker:

craft our lifestyle. This is the really an eye-opening slap

Speaker:

in the face, if you will to say, okay, what

Speaker:

is your lifestyle look like? What am I doing every

Speaker:

day? How, what has my life turned into as a

Speaker:

result of COVID? Has it gotten better? Has it gotten

Speaker:

worse? And if so, what am I going to do

Speaker:

about that? And so I think its given us all

Speaker:

of the big, kind of a bit of a reality

Speaker:

check.

Speaker:

So you mentioned earlier on the shore has really taken

Speaker:

off. Umm, and even though you got to study flip

Speaker:

that a little bit of from it and person interviews

Speaker:

to get them up state, it still continues to grow

Speaker:

at, has really taken off a nice lift for you.

Speaker:

And it's been gone it's for about what is it?

Speaker:

18 months? No, I think it was at the last

Speaker:

me when, when you publish it, have there been any

Speaker:

episodes that have certainly stood out for you all over

Speaker:

the other is not for any better reasons or whatever

Speaker:

bit there just for whatever reason connected with you and

Speaker:

if so, why that one and why do you show

Speaker:

us in particular?

Speaker:

Yeah, I'll give you a good one and a bad

Speaker:

one. But before I do that, there is something to

Speaker:

be said about that 18 month rule. And I'm really

Speaker:

glad that you brought that up because as podcasters or,

Speaker:

and again, I'll just speak for myself as a Podcast

Speaker:

or you know, that first year I felt like I

Speaker:

was really putting out some great content and nobody's listening

Speaker:

man, and it's crickets out there and you and he

Speaker:

and I could get, I used limps and which provides

Speaker:

a tremendous amount of information, background demographics and all this

Speaker:

kind of stuff, which is great when you have people

Speaker:

that are listening, but it's incredibly depressing when you don't.

Speaker:

And, and I like many people thought of podcasting as

Speaker:

this, this growth curve would be a diagonal line where

Speaker:

you had, you know, it just gradually start to build,

Speaker:

start to grow and whatnot, but I'll listen to a

Speaker:

Justin Schneck has a podcast and really smart guy.

Speaker:

And he talked about its an exponential curve. It's not

Speaker:

a straight line. And really when he said he's got

Speaker:

that 18 month rule where he says around that 18

Speaker:

months around that, you know, 60, 75 episode Mark is

Speaker:

when you begin to, if you've got a good product,

Speaker:

you begin see some are some things take off and

Speaker:

you begin to see some growth and some sustainability and

Speaker:

you know, knock on wood. That was appears to be

Speaker:

what is the case for me? And I hate to

Speaker:

even say it out loud because having lived in the

Speaker:

dark for so long, I'm so scared every day that

Speaker:

is going to go back to that. You just never

Speaker:

know. But, but as far as episodes go, the, the

Speaker:

episode, I have an episode called three habits in 30

Speaker:

minutes and for what it's worth, I have done a

Speaker:

quite a bit of promoting of that episode.

Speaker:

And it's also one of my shortest. So you don't

Speaker:

know what that tells you, but I'm that episode has

Speaker:

really done. Well, it's done substantially better than any of

Speaker:

our other episodes by far leaps and bounds. And I

Speaker:

don't know why, and I don't care, but again, like

Speaker:

I said, I do promote that one because it's a,

Speaker:

it's a short self-help tool that helps us establish a

Speaker:

morning routine, but that episode has taken off and its

Speaker:

been that episode is given me the confidence to really

Speaker:

move forward with my Eight Keys to Great. But I'll

Speaker:

tell you the opposite of that. Write about that same

Speaker:

time or shortly thereafter. I did an episode with a

Speaker:

Grammy award winning artist speech from arrested development.

Speaker:

He's a hip hop guy. He's he's old school. You

Speaker:

know, I give you that he is from my generation

Speaker:

and kind of nineties hip hop and, and what not.

Speaker:

But to me the guy won two or three Grammys,

Speaker:

a rest of the vault Mami. There is still, their

Speaker:

music is still relevant. It's still being played. They played

Speaker:

it at some of the Falcons game. So I mean

Speaker:

it's, there, there, there are somewhat relevant. And I, and

Speaker:

I did a really great job preparing for this interview,

Speaker:

spent a lot of time getting ready and met them

Speaker:

down at this place. We videotaped it in 4k high

Speaker:

definition and it was this amazing experience. He had a

Speaker:

blast, it went way longer than what he had allotted

Speaker:

for, but he like, I kept trying to end it

Speaker:

and he kept it going. So I'm like, man, this

Speaker:

is a mess. And then at the, and he was

Speaker:

like, man, we should do this again.

Speaker:

I'm like, Oh it was so great. And then I

Speaker:

go back and listen and it felt like the interview

Speaker:

went great. I just thought I'd knocked it out. And

Speaker:

I'm like, okay, validation. This is my thing. I'm ah,

Speaker:

yes. You know, finally and I publish it like a

Speaker:

couple of weeks later

Speaker:

And one of my worst episodes. Wow,

Speaker:

No, no body like, especially right out of the gate.

Speaker:

No. I mean, did you talk about Cricket's? I mean,

Speaker:

I, I was shocked. I mean, because my podcast has

Speaker:

kinda been building a little bit of momentum at that

Speaker:

point. And so I'm really thinking that the, the concept

Speaker:

is working and I've got this amazing guest to go

Speaker:

with the Great concept and it tanked man and the

Speaker:

whole podcast for the next couple of weeks did not

Speaker:

do very well. And so it was like, man, that

Speaker:

was a tough time. It was really what you started

Speaker:

to question and why is this what I'm supposed to

Speaker:

be here?

Speaker:

But now we know you like you were into definitely

Speaker:

like endurance sports, you know, you know, you had a

Speaker:

triathlons Marfa and stuff, a moderate, et cetera. Does that

Speaker:

help you when you mentioning like an episode like that,

Speaker:

for example, you think, you know what? I've got it

Speaker:

here. This is a golden ticket, so to speak and

Speaker:

were going to knock out of the park and I'm

Speaker:

gonna grab a knife. Those are the new subscribers overnight.

Speaker:

And then it tanks like you see an end, it

Speaker:

still, it still platters with that side of the law

Speaker:

audience number. Does that kind of you, or does the

Speaker:

stamina you need and then doing this, do you need

Speaker:

for your physical life transport over to the Podcast when

Speaker:

you see stuff like that, they keep you going?

Speaker:

Definitely, definitely. I mean, I'm obviously a big fan of

Speaker:

endurance sports and one of my motto is a one

Speaker:

of my little things. And if you go to the

Speaker:

website, I actually have a challenge and it's called running

Speaker:

a marathon challenge. And it's just how to walk someone

Speaker:

through training and completing a marathon. And I think, and

Speaker:

I believe that everyone should go through either that experience

Speaker:

or something like that because in the marathon you hit

Speaker:

this classic thing called a wall where the wheels fall

Speaker:

off, everything goes astray. You feel like your broken, most

Speaker:

people assume its an injury. Oh, I just broke my

Speaker:

it band or I tore my ACL or I mean

Speaker:

like literally they think that they're, you know, on death's

Speaker:

doorstep and if you can keep going, if you learn

Speaker:

how to push through that wall and most of the

Speaker:

time you're just walking at that point.

Speaker:

So it's not even like your, you know, going in,

Speaker:

you know, but having this big aha moment at the

Speaker:

end. But if you're just persevere and see that through,

Speaker:

it gives you this mental toughness, it gives you this

Speaker:

edge that you learned that you're capable of more than

Speaker:

what you thought you were. And I think that once

Speaker:

you do that, it's like it's an extra bullet in

Speaker:

your, in your holster. You know, it's an extra little

Speaker:

something that, you know, it's an extra ACEP, your sleep.

Speaker:

And I think that that serves you well when it

Speaker:

comes to any kind of business or podcasting or anything,

Speaker:

that's going to be hard or difficult to work to

Speaker:

achieve.

Speaker:

And if you do that enough time than you realize,

Speaker:

man there who are capable of some really amazing thing.

Speaker:

And, and speaking to that, you are sure, obviously it

Speaker:

pulls from your experiences and a guest that you have

Speaker:

on it, you know, a loose your own experiences and

Speaker:

moving from corporate and to the life that you and

Speaker:

your family have known that you plant for you and

Speaker:

your family. And as you mentioned that it keeps it

Speaker:

a great program and, and everything that is attached to

Speaker:

that, what was the moment you pivoted? And then you

Speaker:

realize that, you know what this, because you don't have

Speaker:

a real successful corporate life, you know, a corporate background

Speaker:

and you were, you, you mentioned success early are in

Speaker:

it and where, you know, success is important, but, but

Speaker:

you step away from that sort of speaker. You step

Speaker:

away from that success to a new success. So what

Speaker:

was a moment that, that, that suddenly blight went off,

Speaker:

you just saw what I'm doing this and this is

Speaker:

why,

Speaker:

Well, its funny, cause I've actually had a couple of

Speaker:

those, but I mean, I have been, I feel incredibly

Speaker:

blessed in an incredibly fortunate because so many of the

Speaker:

opportunities that I've gotten have I have just stumbled upon

Speaker:

for what it's worth. I mean, I, I feel like

Speaker:

I do have a pretty good plan and vision now,

Speaker:

but most of my life has certainly was not the

Speaker:

case, but a lot of these opportunities that were a

Speaker:

lot of it was just being in the right time

Speaker:

and the right place. And, and a lot of times

Speaker:

just knowing the right people every time I was reflecting

Speaker:

back on this, as I was trying to write some

Speaker:

for this book and get some of this work done

Speaker:

and, and trying to 'cause when I would go in

Speaker:

through the ranks.

Speaker:

And as you're in the moment, you don't always have

Speaker:

time to reflect back on what you've been able to

Speaker:

achieve or, or where you're at at, at this stage

Speaker:

in your life or things you've done well or even

Speaker:

things you've done bad. So it wasn't until I got

Speaker:

into this stage of this podcast and this personal development

Speaker:

thing that did some of that reflection and what I

Speaker:

thought going into it, I was going to be, I

Speaker:

felt a little disappointed, like a Well, you know, maybe

Speaker:

we haven't had all of the financial success that some

Speaker:

people have not this multimillionaire live in, you know, I

Speaker:

don't have the boat and the mansion on the Hill

Speaker:

and all that kind of stuff, because that was my

Speaker:

mindset, you know, but then as I started going through

Speaker:

this personal development process and really identifying, okay, well, what

Speaker:

do you want your life to look like in 10

Speaker:

years?

Speaker:

What are the things that you want to have in

Speaker:

it? What are those material possessions? If you could have

Speaker:

anything that you want and through going through developing the

Speaker:

process of, of determining that, I realized that I didn't

Speaker:

put a lot of value on some of these material

Speaker:

things, my values and what our placed importance was on

Speaker:

family and like being at my kid's soccer game and

Speaker:

like, or like be more potent, being able to be

Speaker:

the coach for my kids soccer team. And you, you

Speaker:

know, some of those, all of these different again, when

Speaker:

I started realizing, well, you know, it's really not so

Speaker:

much about the, the money, the success success is very

Speaker:

important because I think success leaves characteristics and traits that

Speaker:

are very important.

Speaker:

But when it's so tied up into money into the

Speaker:

financial side of it, then there's these other things to

Speaker:

get neglected. These are the things that get removed. And

Speaker:

when you can see, when you can realize your success

Speaker:

based on the lifestyle that you're able to craft, when

Speaker:

you're able to value success on how you spend your

Speaker:

day, okay, well now we're on to something. Now we

Speaker:

can kinda say, okay, well let's Kraft a lifestyle that

Speaker:

allows me to have the day that I want to

Speaker:

have that every day, day now, you know, the, I

Speaker:

want to live on a beach and drink pina coladas.

Speaker:

Okay, well that's a fantasy and that's going to be

Speaker:

fun for about a month until your 500 pounds in

Speaker:

a drunk, but you know, and we with a sunburn,

Speaker:

but how do you want to spend that everyday day?

Speaker:

And I think that that's, what's really fascinating to me

Speaker:

about you is that you guys began crafting that with

Speaker:

your move out to the it's getting out of the

Speaker:

city and saying like, Oh, because I'm a big believer

Speaker:

like that, connecting with nature, that getting back to your

Speaker:

roots, like walking, just walking the woods, you know, just

Speaker:

hearing the birds chirp and the little squirrel digging around

Speaker:

in the dirt and whatever it seems stupid. But I

Speaker:

think there's meaning in that. I think there's purpose in

Speaker:

it. And I think that having that as part of

Speaker:

our lives as necessary for our overall health. So for

Speaker:

me, that's what it is, what it came down to

Speaker:

as all right, well, how can I craft my life

Speaker:

and my everyday activities to do what do I love,

Speaker:

what I love and what I really enjoy so that

Speaker:

when it came down to, okay, well, what do I

Speaker:

love?

Speaker:

What do I enjoy? How am I going to spend

Speaker:

my day? And that takes a little bit of thought.

Speaker:

And that takes a little bit of time because for

Speaker:

what I thought was gonna make me happy with it,

Speaker:

I thought it was how I want to spend my

Speaker:

day was an accurate, and it wasn't through continual morning

Speaker:

meditation and affirmations going through this, some of this process

Speaker:

of figuring some of that out, that, okay, now I've

Speaker:

gotten some clarity to what that needs to look like.

Speaker:

And so now I spend everyday trying to visualize that,

Speaker:

make it happen.

Speaker:

I know what you mean. My wife and she suffers

Speaker:

from anxiety, my assurance like a mental health blog too,

Speaker:

to speak about her experiences. And a lot of the

Speaker:

things she did when we moved down here at As,

Speaker:

she really started listening to a lot of Jim quick.

Speaker:

And that, that guy

Speaker:

Before you said that what's the name of her blog

Speaker:

is a mental health on me. And tell me her

Speaker:

name because I didn't catch it.

Speaker:

Oh, her name is Jacqueline, Jacqueline Jacqueline. So yeah, she,

Speaker:

she take a break over the study. We went and

Speaker:

while we were doing the movie and everything, but she

Speaker:

was getting back into that, throw a podcast for a

Speaker:

long enough, or I have no idea of where that

Speaker:

idea would have come from. So yeah, I completely agreed

Speaker:

that the movie or made all the difference with just

Speaker:

being in a week and up one morning and say,

Speaker:

dear, what a cross like the backyards, you know, what,

Speaker:

where did that come from? I mean, he is, and

Speaker:

I know it's a pleasure to see beautiful, like a

Speaker:

dedicated father man, where we were speaking earlier about your

Speaker:

kids. And, you know, you mentioned there about, you know,

Speaker:

you want it to be there, the coach for the

Speaker:

soccer team and being involved in your kids' lives and

Speaker:

making sure that you're there for them with the shore

Speaker:

and, and the Podcast get in so many different insights

Speaker:

from people live in lives, on their own rules or

Speaker:

by their own rules as you, like, how has that

Speaker:

helped you achieve then state and site and say to

Speaker:

even have the helped you be more apart of the

Speaker:

family for want of a better description of your phone

Speaker:

out of you, if you're always been the, the, the,

Speaker:

the, the farmer person?

Speaker:

Well, yes. So for what its worth, I have to

Speaker:

have a total of five kids. My two oldest boys

Speaker:

who are our, I call them adults'. Now when I

Speaker:

was halfway through college or the other one is finished

Speaker:

college, and he's out doing his own thing live in

Speaker:

his own life. So yes, to, to your point, I

Speaker:

have always been a bit of a family man, and,

Speaker:

and families always been something that's very important to me.

Speaker:

Now I'm also half way through my second divorce. So

Speaker:

for what its worth it, I've also had some struggles

Speaker:

in that area as well, but it certainly is something

Speaker:

that's very important to me. I, I try to steal

Speaker:

something from every guest. I talk to them and I

Speaker:

know that every person that I talked to you, whether

Speaker:

they're a guest on the show or not, they have

Speaker:

some kind of value to bring to the table.

Speaker:

They have some knowledge that I can take from that.

Speaker:

They have something that I can benefit from. So that

Speaker:

is a big goal of each of each interview that

Speaker:

I have is to extrapolate the things that they are

Speaker:

doing. And so, yeah, to have a man, every single

Speaker:

person I interview and I'm gaining all kind of information

Speaker:

from, you know, is it Jim Rowan has got a

Speaker:

really great quote that says, you're the average of the

Speaker:

five people that you spend the most time with Well.

Speaker:

So if I'm spending my time with all these brilliant

Speaker:

people in all of these amazing guests than hopefully some

Speaker:

of that stuff's rubbing off on me a little bit,

Speaker:

I know you'd mentioned obviously your goal for the show

Speaker:

is to extrapolate, you know, and site or something from

Speaker:

at least one thing from every guest. So what's that

Speaker:

mean? Why should you go to the show you're 18

Speaker:

months then you were, you know, we're at a nice

Speaker:

part of a period of you're like, so what are

Speaker:

your plans to do to scale that out and expand

Speaker:

either of, you know, once in person interviews back in

Speaker:

the lane again, or, or, or whatever.

Speaker:

Yeah. So we've been fortunate to get back to some

Speaker:

in person interviews. My, he had a recent are not

Speaker:

the one that's out right now, but the one before

Speaker:

that was with Eric nine, who is a local Atlanta

Speaker:

artist, amazing talent. We got to do our interview in

Speaker:

person. I have another really interesting one coming up with

Speaker:

Nathan rough, and he's got a fascinating business and the

Speaker:

kid's 27 years old and just got the world at

Speaker:

his feet. And so that's a good when we get

Speaker:

to do in person, I'm really excited to get that

Speaker:

one out there. But as far as scaling it, I'd

Speaker:

like the fact that its opened me up to interviewing

Speaker:

more than just who I can get in person.

Speaker:

The neatest thing about the Covid thing for me has

Speaker:

been the international guests. I've spent more time in the

Speaker:

Australian times though in the past month that I have

Speaker:

in my entire life. And I've, I've got to interview

Speaker:

guests in Japan, Spain I've been interviewed in Spain. I

Speaker:

was interviewed in London. Yeah. So like this, this thing

Speaker:

went international kind of overnight and that's been a tremendously

Speaker:

exciting, umm, so I hope to continue with that. And

Speaker:

as far as the future of the show, I think

Speaker:

it's ultimately going to go into a couple of different

Speaker:

directions. I hope to continue to get higher profile guests,

Speaker:

kinda like the Ryan holiday's and the, the Tim Ferriss

Speaker:

of the world that are still within this vein, but

Speaker:

living in an interesting lifestyle or, or, or still fit

Speaker:

within my parameters.

Speaker:

One thing I'm not interested in doing is interviewing celebrity

Speaker:

or going after celebrity status or startup or anything like

Speaker:

that because I've done or, or, or quite frankly, Uber

Speaker:

successful like the billionaire types. And primarily because that, what

Speaker:

I've found is those types of people don't fit my

Speaker:

profile. They don't fit my definition of what success and

Speaker:

lifestyle design looks like. So I don't have much of

Speaker:

a desire to go that direction. The desire that I

Speaker:

had started to go down or the, the path that

Speaker:

I started to go down to aside from the getting

Speaker:

bigger and more exciting guests as, or more high profile

Speaker:

guests rather is, I've also been getting some people that

Speaker:

I didn't know.

Speaker:

So it kind of going the opposite way. So the

Speaker:

more of that ordinary person trying to craft a lifestyle

Speaker:

by design through some of the coaching that I'm doing

Speaker:

and that the self-help development program it's given me access

Speaker:

to a lot of people that have a lot of

Speaker:

potential and have their own cool little story to share.

Speaker:

And as I've interviewed them, I've gotten some really neat

Speaker:

take-aways and insights on number one, how to provide a

Speaker:

better personal development program, but two things that I've been

Speaker:

missing from doing some of these higher profile interview. So

Speaker:

it's been really neat to add that into the mix

Speaker:

as well. So I'm hoping to kind of a theme,

Speaker:

some of those at a little bit as we continue

Speaker:

to grow

Speaker:

Cool. And then all of us have that will tie

Speaker:

into your program. And as you mentioned, and then maybe

Speaker:

I was like a sub train on and off of

Speaker:

there, but it seems to it, I find it a

Speaker:

lot of times, which is pretty cool. I got a

Speaker:

podcast is a great ideation place for so many other

Speaker:

cool things to happen. And it comes as you mentioned,

Speaker:

because you have a guest that sparks something you heard

Speaker:

from a good man. I really want to try that

Speaker:

and all that sort of a really cool

Speaker:

What's the coolest part about these experiences is like when

Speaker:

you have meaningful conversations and its not just a, you

Speaker:

know, a diatribe, if somebody just spewing out their book

Speaker:

topic or whatever the case is, where you can actually

Speaker:

have a good conversation, it's amazing how that comes from

Speaker:

it. My buddy Walker, NIR has a really cool show

Speaker:

called the wok show podcast. And the conversations that he

Speaker:

gets into with guests are so engaged that we have

Speaker:

reminds me of a ton of the whole Joe Rogan

Speaker:

thing, but it's really, it's really engaging for the listener

Speaker:

to see where they go with it. And I, I

Speaker:

really find that appealing.

Speaker:

No, no, no. And speaking of that, you are, you've

Speaker:

got to show that it's being gone for 18 months

Speaker:

now and you've got ideas as to where you want

Speaker:

it to go up and up over the next 18

Speaker:

months, for an example, for someone who is thinking of

Speaker:

coming in to the podcast in industry, either, you know,

Speaker:

within your niche or just like in podcasts in general,

Speaker:

what would be your one piece of advice you would

Speaker:

give them?

Speaker:

I gave this advice out con quite a bit on

Speaker:

the Facebook groups and in some of the forums and

Speaker:

it's consistency show up at the same time, this same

Speaker:

day, always weather that's. If your, if you decide its

Speaker:

once a week, then due once a week, if its

Speaker:

once every two weeks and do it once every two

Speaker:

weeks, if its once a day or do it once

Speaker:

a day, but whatever you do stick to that. And,

Speaker:

and for me I've been really good about the weekly

Speaker:

being very consistent and making sure that I got something

Speaker:

out every week, but where I got off was the

Speaker:

timing. Like I would make sure that we go off

Speaker:

that week, but sometimes it would be Monday at noon.

Speaker:

Other times it would be Sunday at midnight. And so

Speaker:

there was some flexibility there and I got off track

Speaker:

there and I think it, that hindered the growth of

Speaker:

my podcast.

Speaker:

And so what I encourage everyone is to think about

Speaker:

it like a television show. You know, if you're from

Speaker:

an older generation like me, you remember, you know, Hey

Speaker:

Thursday night, eight o'clock, you know, Seinfeld's coming on or

Speaker:

whatever your show of choice was at that particular day

Speaker:

in time and you showed up for it. And when

Speaker:

you can do that for your listeners, they'll keep showing

Speaker:

up. Now they'll show up every day and they'll hear

Speaker:

what you have to say. And if your stuff is

Speaker:

good, they'll keep listening. Know if it's not good, they'll

Speaker:

tune you out eventually. But, but they will listen if

Speaker:

you show up every single day or if you show

Speaker:

up consistently, if you don't and that first time you

Speaker:

Ms. Mann, you feel it and you see it in

Speaker:

the numbers and every time every listener you lose, I

Speaker:

question if you'll ever get them back and, and the

Speaker:

thought of losing a listener when they're so precious to

Speaker:

me, that's terrifying.

Speaker:

The point you made about T V though, like on

Speaker:

a Sunday night air clock, you always knew what she

Speaker:

was coming on. As we would sit down and you

Speaker:

would get your popcorn, what are you doing?

Speaker:

It was game of Thrones or Seinfeld back in my

Speaker:

day, you would, you still showed up, you know?

Speaker:

Exactly. And, and the fact that Podcast has to be

Speaker:

accessible, you know, you get that a lot of enough

Speaker:

to get notifications late on your phones to say, Hey,

Speaker:

a new podcast just dropped a new episode, just dropped.

Speaker:

So I really like that. You don't have that consistency,

Speaker:

but not just for the regular weekly an event, but

Speaker:

the time of the day at the time. But it

Speaker:

all builds at the whole brand of the podcast app.

Speaker:

And to think about this, when you were watching that

Speaker:

TV show, you only had, let's say you had an

Speaker:

extended package cable of a, a a hundred pack, a

Speaker:

a hundred other channels to choose from. They have 350,000

Speaker:

other podcasts. They can go listen to you. So don't

Speaker:

think for a second that somebody else isn't going to

Speaker:

snatch them up.

Speaker:

No, for sure. You've had a, a, as you mentioned

Speaker:

out of that, you've had a, a great line up

Speaker:

of different guests. You know, throw them, you know, are

Speaker:

certainly Sammy celebrities, I, and others that are celebrities, obviously

Speaker:

to people coming through the ranks of your life, but

Speaker:

all have these cool stories and, and your own life

Speaker:

is, has been shaped in various ways because of, you

Speaker:

know, experiences you've had. So if you were to name

Speaker:

one passion and it stands up, it was a hero

Speaker:

for you, a personal hero in our fitness here off,

Speaker:

and you want to say it or whatever, who would

Speaker:

it be and why that person,

Speaker:

It would probably be on my parents as much as

Speaker:

this is kind of a cheesy And answers. That is,

Speaker:

umm, I have been blessed to come from Great stock

Speaker:

I'm and you talk about some of the interesting guests

Speaker:

I have had on the show. Several of those guests

Speaker:

have been a result of the relationship with my parents

Speaker:

as opposed to a relationship that I had. And they

Speaker:

were kind enough to, to set those opportunities up for

Speaker:

me. And you talk about me being into endurance sports.

Speaker:

Well, that seed was planted very early on with my

Speaker:

parents. They both have were active marathon runners with me

Speaker:

growing up, they've always been into athletics and as triathlon

Speaker:

became a sport in grew into a popular sport, they

Speaker:

grew right along with that.

Speaker:

And for any physical accomplishment that I've done, they have

Speaker:

done that 20 years older. And then some of you,

Speaker:

like I said, like, anything that I've done is the

Speaker:

slightest bit impressive. I say, go take a look at

Speaker:

my, my mother, for example, you know, I was fortunate

Speaker:

enough to be able to do a couple of iron

Speaker:

man triathlons. That's a 140 plus miles or whatever. And

Speaker:

that's a, that's a feat in of itself. But doing

Speaker:

those, if you, if you qualify a few plays high

Speaker:

enough than you qualify to go to the world championships

Speaker:

in Kona, Hawaii, and that's the one you see on

Speaker:

TV, it's a real big deal. And like for somebody

Speaker:

like me, I mean, I, there's no chance of me

Speaker:

ever getting that.

Speaker:

At least not for the next 20 years anyway, of

Speaker:

getting an opportunity to be fast enough to go do

Speaker:

that. Well, she qualified to go do that at 69

Speaker:

years old, I believe she was. And, and, and went

Speaker:

to Hawaii, did Kona, which has one of the toughest

Speaker:

Ironman races out there. And three weeks later, three weeks

Speaker:

later was back in Florida doing the race with me

Speaker:

and my sister and her brother So. So you talk

Speaker:

about heroes. You talk about an example. I like to

Speaker:

toot my own horn. I like to think I'm something

Speaker:

special, but all I've got to do is take a

Speaker:

look down in Orlando, Florida to get humbled real quick.

Speaker:

So the goal is for you yourself, when you were

Speaker:

like six to nine, seven a year or so,

Speaker:

I've got 20 more years of doing this before I

Speaker:

can even come close to doing what they're doing. So

Speaker:

yeah, I've got my work cut out for me.

Speaker:

Oh, that's the last time I, I couldn't imagine, you

Speaker:

know, I, when I was reading the, there, the stuff

Speaker:

that you do passionately, I couldn't imagine being 17 in

Speaker:

doing that are six to nine, so on. And so

Speaker:

in doing that stuff as well, I was like, wow,

Speaker:

really? That's, that's incredible

Speaker:

Is pretty amazing. And they're a while. And then what

Speaker:

I like about their story is that it just shows

Speaker:

you what's possible. It just shows you how much of

Speaker:

our day to day lives is. We live in that

Speaker:

limited mindset. A lot of what we don't have, what

Speaker:

we think is not possible. My mother just got done

Speaker:

with the reconstructive knee surgery. It made it had the

Speaker:

entire knee replaced so she can keep running. And then

Speaker:

now she's closer to 75, you know, and, but she

Speaker:

had that surgery done because she still in shape because

Speaker:

she was still active and wants to be able to

Speaker:

continue to do that. And when you do that for

Speaker:

a year after year, decade after decade and you and

Speaker:

I get to look and see the result of that

Speaker:

long-term lifestyle, I mean, why, how could I not come

Speaker:

up with a program that is about lifestyle design?

Speaker:

You know?

Speaker:

No, no for sure. Exactly. So now this has been

Speaker:

an absolute blast. I really enjoy chatting with you today

Speaker:

for people that want to check out your podcast or

Speaker:

your Eight Keys to a great program, or even if

Speaker:

they want to find out how to run a monofin

Speaker:

and start to doing it for a matter of fact,

Speaker:

where is the best people can find you and connect

Speaker:

with you online?

Speaker:

Well, it's the EXTRAordinary, Podcast M and it's a giant

Speaker:

X or logo, or this isn't a video, a recording,

Speaker:

but if you can see my shirt, you could see

Speaker:

the logo. There is a giant black and white XO,

Speaker:

so it's real hard to miss. And you can find

Speaker:

that on all the major platforms, iTunes, Spotify. That is

Speaker:

my, that is that we have got an Instagram page

Speaker:

as well. If you want to go to Eight Keys

Speaker:

to Great dot com, that's the number Eight Keys to

Speaker:

the number two Great dot com or.net. Either one that

Speaker:

will take you to our primary site. We also have

Speaker:

an EXTRAordinary podcast.net site, but the Eight Keys to Great

Speaker:

site has everything.

Speaker:

It's got the marathon challenge. It's got some what I

Speaker:

think a pretty good blog posts. I'm pretty funny. The

Speaker:

way you talk about stories, there are some pretty good

Speaker:

stories on some of those blog posts. Then you can

Speaker:

find that all of the podcast episodes there, and if

Speaker:

you want to go through the Eight Keys to a

Speaker:

great program, its 100% free and it's all accessible on

Speaker:

the website. The only way that you can see the

Speaker:

entire program is number one, you have to give me

Speaker:

your email and then you can only see the next

Speaker:

step by completing the first step or the next key

Speaker:

until you complete the key that you're on. So you

Speaker:

can just see the whole thing at a glance. You

Speaker:

actually have to do the work in order to gain

Speaker:

access, but it's free. There's no financial obligation in the,

Speaker:

in the email is just simply so that I can

Speaker:

send emails and blogs posts and, and new podcast when

Speaker:

they come out.

Speaker:

So thank you. Danny so much for having me. This

Speaker:

was amazing. And I felt like I've done way too

Speaker:

much talking.

Speaker:

No, no, not at Dell. And I'll be sure to

Speaker:

leave all the links to the website. They are our

Speaker:

social channels, etcetera, where they can find a program in

Speaker:

the show notes. So you are listening to the show

Speaker:

on your favorite podcast app, be sure to check out

Speaker:

the power of the show notes as usual. And you'll

Speaker:

find all the links for the needs to have a

Speaker:

web site in details there so that you can mention

Speaker:

that. Thanks a lot for appeared. And I really appreciate

Speaker:

it today.

Speaker:

Yeah. And I'll be sure to plug your podcast on

Speaker:

all of my stuff and will keep that circle. Go

Speaker:

ahead, man. Keep doing what you're doing this thing. And

Speaker:

this kind of stuff is so important, man. And I

Speaker:

love the direction that you're headed and grateful to be

Speaker:

a part of.

Speaker:

I love it. Awesome. Thank you. All right. So this

Speaker:

has been another episode of Podcaster Stories if you enjoy

Speaker:

this week's show and be sure to share it with

Speaker:

some of you might find, you know, who might find

Speaker:

that useful and do you know, you can check it

Speaker:

out on all the main podcast channels, Google podcasts have

Speaker:

a podcast, Spotify and more, or just hop over to

Speaker:

Podcast stories.com and you could find a lot of this

Speaker:

episode now until the next thing is they say and

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Podcaster Stories
Podcaster Stories
We listen to our favourite podcasts, but don’t always get to know the stories of the people behind these voices. Podcaster Stories looks to change that.

About your host

Profile picture for Danny Brown

Danny Brown

Danny Brown is the host of One Minute Podcast Tips, the show that helps you be a better podcaster in just a minute a week. He's also hosted, and co-hosted, several other podcasts - if you called him a serial podcaster, you wouldn't be wrong! He's been in the podcasting space for over 10 years, and has the scars to prove it.

He's the Head of Podcaster Support and Experience at Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast hosting, distribution, analytics, and monetization platform for the serious indie podcaster.

He lives in beautiful Muskoka, Ontario, Canada with his wife and two kids, where he spends winters in front of a cozy fire and summers by the lake. Well, when he finds time away from podcasting, of course...