The Tim Stodz Podcast Tim Stoddart

I’ve always been too scared to advertise. There are a few reasons for this.  I don’t fully trust Facebook or other digital ad networks. (Does anyone?) They have pulled the rug out from under me so many times that I feel foolish giving them money.  I don’t know what I’m doing, and therefore don’t want to burn cash.  What’s funny is that my team has processed millions of dollars of ad budget for our clients and have had great success. But when it comes to my own money, I’ve always been too chicken.  Here’s why it’s different for me now.  For Copyblogger and for TimStodz, it’s obvious to me that the best way for me to serve my audience is by writing high level newsletters. I never imagined I would be in the newsletter business, but I’m surprisingly good at it and best of all, I LOVE doing it.  Copyblogger makes about $8000 a week if I sell out of sponsorships for all three issues. TimStodz makes about $400 a week since it’s only 1 issue a week and the email list is just over 8000 people.  The point is, if I am able to earn email subscribers for $5 a pop or less, than I can continue building up the revenue and growing the list into a monster.  For Copyblogger, I want to get 1,000,000 subscribers. For TimStodz, my short term goal is 100,000.  It’s a good plan … I think?  Follow along at https://www.timstodz.com/

You should start a podcast. Here are 3 reasons why.   1. There is plenty of room in the podcasting space.  There's a false narrative that podcasts are over crowded.  It's true that there are a lot of podcasts out there, but it's also true that only a small fraction of podcasts survive long enough to make it past 100 episodes. Most podcasts haven't published a new episode in weeks. Hardly any podcast publishers publish their content consistently over time.   2. Podcasts are easy to create.  All you have to do is go to anchor.fm and you can create a free account. After that, it will take you a few minutes to get you podcasts hooked up to apple podcasts and Spotify, but the technical trouble is nothing compared to building a website.  In addition, if you have ear buds, you can record and publish a podcast with decent sound quality. There are lots of podcasts with millions of views where the hosts record directly from their cell phone.  3. Podcasts are great networking tools. When I first started my podcast, it was a great opportunity to meet people and get networked with other professionals. Till this day, it's one of the most valuable resources I have at my disposal and a lot of my closest business relationships started with my podcast.   Sign up for my newsletter at https://www.timstodz.com/

In today’s episode, we speak with the founder of Creative Elements, Jay Clouse.
 
Jay is a writer, a podcaster. and a community manager. 
 
Jay’s podcast, Creative Elements, explores how remarkable creators found creative independence. Through narrative interviews, Jay dives into the nitty-gritty of how the world's best creators make a living from their art and creativity.
 
In this episode, we talk about how Jay works with entrepreneurs and how he uses creativity as a secret weapon that gives them a distinct advantage.
 
We also go back and forth in a brainstorming session to try and find a title for one of my products, which was a fun exercise.
 
Lastly, we talk about Jay’s framework for managing a successful membership site. Jay is the manager of the Smart Passive Income membership, and his advice to me was so helpful that I immediately took advantage and applied it to our own membership site, Copyblogger Pro.
 
I loved this chat and I know you will too. Please help me welcome Jay Clouse. 

In this week’s episode, I speak with @Thomas Bevan.
 
Thomas is a writer and a crypto enthusiast. He writes a weekly column on The Commonplace.
 
So much of the crypto world is built around hype, FOMO, and excitement. Yet, much is unknown about how crypto will impact our world and our digital economies.
 
Thomas writes a weekly article speculating what he thinks may happen, and how these changes are going to affect those of us who live in the creator economy.
 
Thomas makes a great comparison of this decade to the “roaring twenties.” There are many similarities.
 
In the roaring twenties (by that I mean the 1920’s) the United States was on the back end of the Spanish flu pandemic and was on the tail end of World War I. As a partial result, we found ourselves in a rebellious new decade where art, finances, and capital was permeating the entire society.
 
In our conversation, Thomas and I speak about the similarities, and how crypto could lead to a similar decade, which he calls “The Soaring Twenties.”
 
History doesn’t repeat itself, but

In today’s episode, we speak with Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story.
 
Story story has huge huge success over the last few years, and Pat credits most of that success to good SEO that leverages user-generated content. Pat’s brand and his method in creating his business are one of a kind.
 
One of the things I love about Pat is that he is a scrappy entrepreneur. In this episode, we talk a lot about the mistakes he has made along the way, the experiments he has done, and the lessons he has learned.
 
We also talk about how he has built a team of employees and also contractors that fulfill the roles needed at the time.
 
Finally, we finish the conversation talking about Pats revenue models. It was really cool to listen to the evolution of the business and to learn about the trial and error process that Pat leaned into that ultimately generates the most money and delivers the most value.
 
Pat was a great guest and I’m happy we got to talk.
 
Now please help me welcome, Pat Walls.

A few months ago, I stumbled across the work of Eric Jorgenson. Eric had recently published his best-selling book, entitled “The Almanac of Naval Ravikant.
 
In his book, Eric breaks down and articulately conceptualizes the business concepts of leverage, which were introduced to him by a very popular Twitter thread, written by Naval Ravikant. 
 
Leverage is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but how do you actually define this concept? More importantly, how do you use leverage to generate massive scale in your business?
 
These days, it’s not uncommon for a one-person business to generate a million dollars of revenue. It’s not uncommon for billion-dollar companies to only have 10-15 employees. How is this possible?
 
In this episode, Eric gives us an in-depth master class on leverage. In addition, we went through some of the specific modules in his course, and he gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the material he teaches. It’s a special privilege given to you as a member of the Copyblogger community.
 
Eric is great. He’s generous, kind, and easy to talk to.
 
Check out his course at https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage. The link to his course is in the show notes of the podca