Day 37: Get the Crowd First (Then Sell)

As I think about where to take my podcast An Interview with Melissa Llarena, I decided to listen to Cal Fussman’s Tim Ferriss interview.

Cal recently launched his podcast, “Big Questions” and his first guest was Tim.

At first I was a skeptic, it felt as though I was listening two highly qualified men explain how they knew one another and disclose some of their “who’s who” sort of friends and professional acquaintances.

I was thinking to myself what value could I extract from a conversation between two men who appear to be from completely different worlds than myself.

In full transparency, I haven’t done a complete background check on either Tim nor Cal. Instead, that was my initial gut instinct as I listened in to the episode’s first few minutes.

Thus, take this article with a grain of salt from me, Mel.

So here we go, what did I distill from this chat between two gentlemen:

1. Teaching and selling differ — I’d like to think of myself as an excellent teacher of the art of interviewing…selling is a different ballgame…I totally agree
2. Find the crowd and then sell the offering — Tim found the potential customers for a sports nutrition solution, makes me think perhaps I should find the crowd for my next product before I draft its content — this would be a new way of working for me
3. Your birth story could affect your entire life — well my birth story was that I was pulled out with clamps thus giving me a dent in my skull…can’t extrapolate anything there since this dent is hidden and hasn’t change my life outlook at all
4. Cal taught Tim how to ask better questions — I visited Cal’s website because here I am knowing in my heart that asking questions is my core skill and so now I want to learn from Cal — that’s it nothing more insightful to share YET
5. Pay attention to the ads that sell you — Tim would collect ads that compelled him and garnered insights from his collection to his benefit
6. Some goods things can happen at 3 am — Tim learned from infomercials so see mom something good can happen at night
7. Podcasts are a great way to get your thoughts out there — Cal and Tim were swapping ideas, I want to hear others swap more ideas perhaps us Latinas — this gives me something to explore
8. Tim didn’t enjoy writing — yes, neither do I! Woo hoo yet I’m going to keep writing until I reach my 100 day challenge here on Medium
9. Cal is ahead of the game that I would love to play — Cal is known for his curiosity and gift of asking smart questions…Cal I want to learn from you
10. Zip Recruiter is the smartest way to hire — nothing like having ads on your first podcast episode — now that’s a smart way to monetize a podcast — if Quidad is interested I’d be game to be their curly-haired audio queen

In conclusion, my weekend Medium articles are the toughest to write as part of my 100 day challenge. My six-year old wants to play now that my twin sons are asleep and so off I go to play with my little Batman.

Gary Vaynerchuk — #GaryVeeandJamesIStarted

James Altucher — #GaryVeeandJamesIStarted

I’m #documenting my podcast journey and now recent quest to have Gary on episode #3 and James on episode #4.

Stay tuned to An Interview with Melissa Llarena

“An Interview with Melissa Llarena” is the podcast for executives who go after what they want with curiosity, creativity, and courage.

Hi, I’m Melissa. I’m a career strategist. I want to help you shift YOUR focus from landing a job at a Fortune 500 company to finally figuring out how you can build YOUR own billion-dollar career.

A billion-dollar career is one where you are in control of your destiny rather than one where an employer limits your career decisions. A career that let’s you explore your potential — fully. Sounds good? Then select any episode…