No Fat Cats - A Podcast for Creative Teams

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 50 episodes.  That seems like a big number.  It’s time to reflect on how far I have come and what I have learned with the podcast.

When I started off my goal was to get good at podcasting.  I didn’t really have a very clearly defined strategy.  I knew I liked creativity, strategy and leadership.  I knew that I wanted to talk about storytelling and filming.

It was a lot of fun and while I didn’t directly monetize off of the podcast, because I produced one, it gave me the confidence to tell other people that I could produce a podcast.  That in turn led to me producing a podcast for USAID that was a great opportunity in many ways.

Along the way I have learned about launch and podcast and how hard it is actually to get podcast downloads.  In part because it's not that easy to find a podcast.

It’s a lot easier to see content on social media or see podcast excerpts posted on social than it is to download a podcast.

Perhaps the best way to actually grow a podcast is to appear on other people’s podcasts.  Because if someone listens to a podcast already, then they are more likely to listen to another podcast.

When it comes to growing an audience, you are best off really niching down so that you speak directly to one particular audience.  In the US there are tons of podcasts on leadership, video business, creativity and productivity.  At this stage of the game, you probably aren’t going to stand out unless you bring a unique voice on one particular topic.

Which has led me to make the decision to refocus the podcast.  I’ve realized that I have loved episodes that deal with Cross-cultural Creative issues.  And while I would love to talk about leadership and productivity, it’s just too crowded of a space.  However if you limit the issues so that they all deal with things through a cross-cultural lens, all of a sudden you are talking to a much more specific crowd.

So for now Episode 50 is going to be my last of the No Fat Cats while I rework my new podcast and relaunch.  In part I made my decision because No Fat Cats doesn’t translate well cross-culturally and I need something that people can get across different cultures.

Gabe Petersen was bored and at home scrolling through LinkedIn when he realized that he had a lot of connections.  It was towards the beginning of COVID-19 people didn’t have anywhere to go and were happy to jump on zoom calls, especially if it meant they would get to be on a podcast.

And that is what Gabe did.  With his background in real estate, he started The Real Estate Investing Club Podcast where he has produced over 40 episodes within the span of four months.

What Gabe found worked the best for promoting his podcast was when he created all of the additional content and sent it to his guests as a package that could easily be distributed to everyone and shared on social media.

Referenced Links

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Gabe’s editing software: www.movavi.com

Sellmymobilehomeparks.com

https://www.therealestateinvestingclub.com

Contact Gabe:

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram @gabrielwpetersen

Linked In 

Eric Thayne started filming super hero videos as a kid with his friends in his backyard using Hi8 tapes.  He has always loved filming and producing beautiful looking images.

He continued pursuing his passion and love of filming and turned it into a business where he started off shooting anything people would pay him to do.  But he had this passion and desire to get better and produce more cinematic pieces.

Eventually he was ready to take the next big step and spent about $10K on a Canon C100mkii and the original Ronin gimbal.  He went out with the camera, expecting it to look great, but was quickly disappointed.

The images didn’t look particularly cinematic.  He even sent the camera back to Canon, because he thought it was broken.  Canon sent it back saying it was fine.

It was then that he realized that it’s not just the camera that makes something look cinematic, it’s how you light everything you are filming that matters most.

He learned how to improve his skill set by learning from other producers and DPs who were doing the kind of work that he aspired to be doing.

Then he realized that other people were struggling to produce cinematic images as well.  Plenty of people had good cameras, but weren’t getting the look they wanted.

That’s where Cinema Mastery was born.  However mastering cameras and light are one thing, but managing SEO, email sequences and marketing a business is another.

At that point Eric brought on a mentor who had done what he wanted to do to help him grow his business.  And over the years that is what he credits with his success.  It’s the thousands of dollars he has spent on courses, business mentors and coaches that has led to having over 13,000 people take his online courses or sign up for some type of coaching from him.

Check his story out!

Referenced Links

www.cinemamastery.com

Eric Thayne on Instagram @ericthayne

“In 2020, every story is a COVID story.”

For many nonprofits the season between Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and December 31st is traditionally a big time for giving.  It's an important time for ensuring that the nonprofit can continue to work the following year. During this time being able to communicate the impact of your work is crucial.

When COVID-19 first hit the US, everyone wondered if it was going to be a season, but it’s clear that for those who work globally, this is going to stretch well into the year and into 2021.  The challenge facing everyone right now is how to connect with their audience and tell engaging stories of people triumphing and escaping adversity, while addressing COVID.

Beth Allen, who is the Communications Senior Manager at Food for the Hungry, dives into how they are doing just that.  How do you keep people safe without compromising someone's life just trying to get a story?  If you work around the world, how do you get people to send you content?  How do you adjust your layouts when the quality of your content isn't as good?

Along the way we also talk about what it means to have informed consent for people when you are gathering stories and how to think through the complications of talking about someone’s story without revealing that someone actually had COVID-19 and the stigma that might bring.

Referenced Links

Food for the Hungry

FH.org

FH on Insta

Beth Allen

Beth on LinkedIn

Getting a lot of likes may feel good, but they don’t pay the bills.  If you want to be able to actually make money online eventually you need to bring online followers into a sales process.

Nicki Friis started off doing modeling work and enjoyed all of the attention and likes, but it led to eventually dealing with a bit of depression.  After working through it, he reached a healthy balance where he was able to get back into marketing, but not attach his self worth to the number of likes of his personal content.

In this episode Nicki dives into his current sales funnel and how he attracts potential clients.

We also dive into differences between Scandonavian vs American audiences.  The sales process of having a funnel works the same in both Denmark and the US, but there are differences in how you communicate your offer.

Part of this is probably do to how Danish people compare themselves to others vs how Americans would.  We dive into cultural differences between Denmark with a socialist background and America being more individualistic and capitalist.

However based on Nicki’s observations, he believes that social media is changing culture for the younger generation as they become more comfortable trying to stand out from the crowd and that communications styles are starting to merge in some ways.

Referenced Links:

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/nicki-friis/ivrkstter-podcast

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickifriis/

https://www.nicqi.com

http://outofgrowth.com

“Every day that you decide not to take action, who suffers the most and why?  The more specific you are about the person who is suffering about your inability to take action the easier it will be for you to take action.”

In this episode with Brenden who runs the MasterTalk YouTube channel, we dive into what it was like for him to be committed to creating his own content related to public speaking. But guess what, Brenden doesn’t even like the filming or editing process.

However he knows that somewhere there is a 16 girl named, “Julia” who is afraid of public speaking, and that if he doesn’t produce his videos with helpful tips she will never improve as a public speaker.

If you have struggled with finding your niche, which I definitely have, listening to this episode will motivate you as a creator, for sure!

Referenced Links

YouTube: Master Talk

When he was in high school Erik was a self described “C” student who didn’t really like school.  He had undiagnosed ADHD which meant that he had a hard time focusing on the right things.

Then when he realized that if he set up systems, rules and productivity workflows that he would be able to get the right work done, he became a lifelong learner of the topic.

He started the podcast Beyond the to Do List back in 2012 and has produced over 330 episodes.

In this episode we talk about he focuses, the journey in starting his podcast and how he is intentional about scheduling social media time.  When was the last time that you made a list before you went on social media?  He recommends doing that, so that you can connect with people you care about but don’t get stuck in the never ending scroll.

Referenced Links

https://beyondthetodolist.com/brainfm

https://twitter.com/erikjfisher

Welcome to a special edition of No Fat Cats, where we are going to take a break from our normal programming to honor someone who very much embodies so many values that our country needs today, Representative John Lewis.  I have the privilege of filming the video and audio of an interview with him back on May 6th, 2014 as a part of a team from the US Institute of Peace.

Representative John Lewis is know as one of the big six leaders of the Civil Rights Movements.  He was arrested and beaten over 40 times, but still stayed true to his principles of nonviolence.  To quote from the website JohnLewis.house.gov he is often called quote, "one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced” John Lewis has dedicated his life to protecting human rights, securing civil liberties, and building what he calls "The Beloved Community” in America.   His dedication to the highest ethical standards and moral principles has won him the admiration of many of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the United States Congress.

With his passing I felt that it was appropriate to release his full interview in audio format to honor his legacy.

Here is the interview that George Lopez conducted with Congressman John Lewis.  You will hear his voice off the main mic.

 Thanks to the team that made this trip possible which included,

Anne Hingeley,

Laurie Schultz Heim,

George Lopez

Daryn Cambridge

Dominic Kiraly

Bill Fitzpatrick

You can check out the finished product from that interview here: https://vimeo.com/132440072

Evan is the Founder of Caffeine Marketing and small business investor. Caffeine Marketing makes profitable marketing easy for small companies. As an investor Evan helps small companies double and sometimes even triple their bottom line.

If you haven’t heard about StoryBrand, you gotta check them out as they are one of my go to resources for marketing tips.  But before you do, listen through this episode with Evan.  He really brings some great great advice by walking through elements of StoryBrand.  We dive into tips for using social media and making sure your content stands how to develop a sales funnel.

If you work at all in any kind of sales, recruitment or fundraising, you need to have a sales funnel.  You need a process of engaging your audience, building a relationship with them and eventually asking them to commit.

Referenced Links:

https://evanknox.com/

https://caffeine.marketing/

What if your company’s most valuable asset is being underused? What if listening and collaboration is actually key to unlocking the brilliant ideas hidden under the surface?

In this episode, Lauren Green, a professional graphic facilitator and the founder of Dancing with Markers, talks about the power of using unorthodox methods and engaging the people around you to foster creativity. With the Covid-19 pandemic still raging on, she gives some essential tips for facilitating collaborative creativity on Zoom.

Lauren also gives insight into how real leaders, in both big conferences and board room meetings, facilitate conversation between others to get the best and most creative results. Though it takes humility, if leaders can acknowledge they don’t have all the answers and listen for the best ideas, then they can compile them and move forward with confidence.

Referenced Links:

www.dancingwithmarkers.com