Blaze Your Own Trail - From Facing Major Jail Time to Building a Content Marketing Powerhouse With Tamara Thompson

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Tamara Thompson shares her inspiring journey from early entrepreneurship and overcoming personal challenges to building a successful content marketing agency. Discover her insights on leveraging YouTube and podcasts for business growth, negotiation skills, and resilience. Key Topics Early entrepreneurial spirit and lessons learned Overcoming personal challenges and addiction recovery Building a successful content marketing agency Strategies for YouTube and podcast growth Negotiation and resilience in business Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Tamara Thompson 01:14 Early Entrepreneurial Spirit 04:01 Lessons from Adversity 07:26 Turning Point: From Athlete to Entrepreneur 10:07 Negotiation and Resilience in Recovery 16:03 Building a Business from Experience 18:54 The Power of Asking and Networking 24:14 Lessons from Basketball to Business 26:49 Building the Right Team 28:35 The Evolution of Podcasting in Business 33:10 Leveraging Events for Business Growth 37:47 The Importance of Targeted Marketing 38:52 Strategies for YouTube Success Connect with Tamara:  Website: https://broadcastyourauthority.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/broadcastyourauthority/   Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host, and I've got a very special guest today. Her name is Tamara Thompson, and I'm going to have her tell you a little bit about who she is and what she does today. Yeah, so, yeah, like you said, Tamara Thompson, earn raised in Seattle currently reside in Arizona. I'm a founder of a content marketing agency that focuses on YouTube and podcast marketing growth. on that side. I'm an investor in 33 companies now and just enjoying, enjoying life and the entrepreneurial journey. So that's good to be here. Thanks for having you, Jordan. Yeah, my pleasure.

I'm excited to get into your story and journey. And honestly, that's my favorite part of the show because it's really easy to look at people on the outside and to see where they're at. But I love to get into the roots of like, where were they made? What are they made of? What have they been through that's gotten them to today. I think that's super important context. So let's go ahead and rewind and share it the audience, you know, where were you born and raised? And then what kind of kid were you would you get into in the early adolescent years, like elementary middle to high school years? Yeah. So born and raised in Seattle, Washington area, more on the east side, I grew in Bawthel, Washington, graduated from Bofle High School. My early age, I was actually an entrepreneur by age nine. My

mom was an entrepreneur. She had a Victorian decor crafting business where she hosted bazaars. She ran them. She rented the booths out, the bazaars, all that stuff. So she was the person operating and selling the spots and taking the commission off the other people, like selling their items and stuff. And she was always a part of this one show every year that was about three weeks around Christmas called the Victorian Christmas. And she always won the booth award out of like 800 booths. Like she was very detailed, very professional, just very very elegant. She's a very elegant woman. And one year she was like, Tamara, she's like, I want you to think of an item or product that you can sell that can match the Victorian decor that I have. And so we started kind of, you know, that's before Google and everything was out there. So we're like, well, what do we do? You know? So I started getting some ideas. And I was looking at other bazaars and crafting things like that. And I was like, well, what if we created these little candy rolls? So like we had all the neighbors collect candy or toilet. the paper rolls, really. So we're like, calling up the neighbors. Like, can you just like, they're like,

why do you want to, you'll collect toilet paper rolls? I'm like, oh, and you'll see. So I would, so at a young age, I learned the concept of what it took to produce a certain amount of candy rolls where I'd buy the cellophane, which I would buy the Victorian decor wrapping paper. I bought a 65 pound box of Hershey Kisses, ribbons, everything to design these elegant table placements, but you could also use them for stocking stuffers. So I sold them in $1.50 a pop, and I would create as many as I could with the amount of the 65 pound box of her she guesses. And at the time, it only took me about $93 to produce up to a profit of $3,000. And so I learned very fast.

One year I went back to the show, and I was like, Mom, where are my candy rolls? And she was like, Tamara, I'm sorry to say, but you still. sold out. And this is like before the three weeks ended, right? So, but yeah, so it taught me at a young age to put work, work in and be creative and help support my mom's business where I ended up every year saving that cash flow to buy my own first car. I paid for my own college. I utilized that stuff. My mom instilled that my brother and I. We still went out and got jobs at age 15 so that we would pay for everything ourselves, basically. So that was like how I was raised. in, but that was my early, like, journey.

I don't know how I'm going to lead into some other path. Yeah, no, of course. Well, it's, it's very cool that, you know, you had, a, an example of somebody that was doing business, but doing it at a very high level. So you got to really kind of learn that through osmosis, it sounds like, watching her operate, seeing her, seeing her take command.

It's like leadership. There's so many different examples she probably showed you. And so why would you think that you couldn't? You know, like, why would you have a thought that you couldn't do it when you're literally seeing an executor and an action taker and a person generating revenue like every single day? So I love the fact that you saw it and you go, and she gives you this idea of like, what can you do?

And then you go with it and then the margins are just insane. Insane profit margins. Yeah, from back in like 1988, 1988, 1988. Yeah. And in the 80s, like just insane. doing better than like people today, like that's more revenue than some people make today. And you're doing that in the 80s. And like a week, a weekend for a nine-year-old.

I was like, that's right. No, I was super grateful. I learned a lot. I always worked like I helped my dad with like paper routes. Like I was just always doing stuff. I wanted to get allowances. I wanted to get stuff and buy stuff that I wanted or earn stuff. So she always put that mentality in my brother and I as young kids.

And gratefully, we've both grown up to be rather successful in the, business side. My brother is now a co-founder of a very successful company. They generate about 69 million a year at this point. He's out in Boston and we do well with our agency as well. But yeah, it's cool. She instilled that in this in a young age. But we didn't come from anything either though. Like we didn't have things passed down to us. We didn't just give us money. It was always like learned and earned basically. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. And that's the best way to do it, right, is to put yourself in it because the value that you get in actually doing is way better than theory. It's way better than in any book.

You know, when you're actually in the field and you're actually executing and seeing it, like, because that's what the real world is like, you know? So you were doing really, really, like, business stuff at a very young age. And so I'm sure for you, it just became second nature. So, like, after high school was, did you decide to go to college? Did you say, why would I do that? Like, I could just start a business. Like, I'd love to know what route you decide to take.

Yeah, so here jumps in the cool deep story. So I was actually a creative, obviously. And at the time that at high school, all my friends were applying for universities and four-year colleges. And I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do yet. All I wanted to do was actually play basketball in the WNBA. And I got a basketball scholarship to go to a community college in Washington. And so I was like, I'd rather go play basketball for a couple years, late teens, early 20s.

And so I did that not knowing where I wanted to go as a career because I really wanted to be in the WNBA with like Lisa Leslie and Rebecca Lobo. Like those were my girls, you know. So then, yeah, and then some things happened where I was one hit by a car at age 23. And so I was knocked out of commission. I was hit, knocked out for about 27 hours. It was a hit and run. And I was at the time I was in the bus trip of my life. And then I ended up becoming very stagnant injuries, things like that.

And I ended up getting 85 pounds in one year. And I went through a major depression piece. So one, I couldn't do what I loved anymore, which is basketball. Two, on the side in my career, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I was actually a personal trainer at the time because I was like, well, I'm just, you can do fitness. right you know whatever wasn't ever passionate about it and um starting to feel like a fraud because I was a personal trainer but I was starting to gain all this weight and I couldn't be mobile anymore either and so I became unhappy and depressed and by the time I was 24 I started to drink a lot

drink like for a good six years of my life from 24 to 30 and drank and I drank and I drank and drove I that was like all I did I was the highlight of knowing people at the bars and all sorts of stuff like that. It was like, it was like, cheers. Everyone knew your name. They were like, hey, Cliff, hey, Norm, hey Tamara. You know, I was like, I was just there. Like, it wasn't out Monday through Friday. It was like Sunday through Saturday. I was just like unhappy. I didn't know what I wanted do in life. Just kept going through the motions. It got to the point where I was pulled over multiple times. Like, I was pulled over three times, I think, in the first month where I ended up getting back-to-backed DUIs. I got a reckless driving ticket. And within a six-year period, I ended up getting

five DUIs in Washington State where I lived was very strict. It was probably number two on the strict list at that point. And I won't go into like all the details of it, but like I was known as like the miracle child in the courtroom the first few DUIs, which it wasn't in my favor at the time because I was getting slaps on the wrist. I was getting a night in jail. I was getting a deferred prosecution, which basically is like a get out of jail free card. And I started still doing the same things. Like I still was going through these processes, not happy drinking and driving, just like, oh, whatever. God's watching over me. I'm not even hurt anybody, right? So I'm fine. And so by the last time I was pulled over, I knew in that moment that things were going to change. I knew that that was

my last straw. I literally was being pulled over on the exit right next to my house. I could see my house up the hill. And I was like, I'm going to be put away for a while. Like, I knew that intuitively. And I was like, I just messed up for the last time. And I knew I had to make a change. And so at that point, I took everything more seriously. I took my treatment there. It was my third time into treatment center. Finally, sobered up, actually sobered up at age 30. And one of the things that helped change my life in my mindset was actually my treatment center counselor. She recommended the book the Four Agreements, which is a very simple book, if you think about it. Always do your best, be impeccable to your word, don't make assumptions, and don't take things personally. And so

when she told me, she's like, when you start to live by these things, even though they seem so simple, you'll start to recognize them with your mindset. And that book actually helped me lead into entrepreneurship later where I was like, I would think faster and think quicker. I was like, oh, I totally just took that personally. Or I'm totally making an assumption on something. I'm sure they're just having a bad day. Like I just started to step back instead of being a reactor to every situation in life and business later on that book like changed my life. I'm not a big reader and they always say readers are leaders, but I was like, I'm definitely a leader and not a reader. And so what's unique about this situation though was I was pulled over for the last time and I also turned into a major

negotiator. And this is what has been really valuable in life and business as well, is I was in the treatment center on night and these people in my group were talking about how they were going on work release in the King County court system in Seattle, Washington. And I was like, well, what's that? And they're like, well, it's not offered to you because you're down south and they don't have that in that court system. I was like, well, why not? They're like, they just don't. And so I was like, well, I'm going to ask. And they're like, they laughed basically. They laughed at me. They're like, good luck, you know, like they're not going to change for you, right? And so I stepped in the courtroom for the last time. And for all the other, all the other experiences that I went through, my attorney had just

told me to be quiet, let him do the talking, and we'll get in and out, right? This time I told him, I was like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to ask for this work release. I want to create a new system and program through this system, this county. And he was like, he kind of laughed too. He was like, good luck, you know. And at the time, I had just actually went back to film school. I had started, YouTube came out, and this kind of ties into my overall journey. So YouTube came out. And, I went back to film school because I wanted to start a career. I wanted to find something that I was passionate about. And video had always been with me.

My dad bought a camcorder when I was in age seven. I started doing silly YouTube videos when YouTube came out previously right before that. So I wanted to figure out this YouTube thing, but I wanted to do a career out of it. And so I had gone back to film school. I was a nanny at the time and didn't want to lose my job. I started going to treatment, started going to AA, started doing all the things, got a sponsor. like Gus was getting straight A's in the college and I was like that I was still at that, you know, drinking and driving and all the stuff. So I was functional and there was a moment where I was pulled over and my mom came to pick me up and the officer said, ma'am, I just want you to know I'm worried about your daughter. She's what we call a functioning alcoholic. She passed all the tests. She can walk a straight line. She can keep a conversation. But she's a 1.8 over double the legal limit. And she has like, you know, alcohol containers all in her back seat. Like she's just fully functioning, but she reeks of

alcohol. And so this was told by many of the people, because I could hold a lot of liquor by that point. But yeah, to fast forward, I went back to the courtroom the last time, and I said, I'm going to approach the judge. And I said, sir, I was like, I know I've messed up. I know I need help. I am working towards these things. Here, I showed him, I was doing well in school. I didn't want to stop school. I didn't want to lose my job. And I was doing the things to try to stay sober this time. And so I showed him all my documents. He looked down. He looked up. He looked down, looked up. He said, Ms. Thompson? He's like, nobody's ever negotiated, let alone, let alone try to suggest an offer in my courtroom. I suggested they start a work release program so I can

keep my job. I could still go to school. And I was like, I will pay my own way. You tell me what that cost is. And I will cover it. And if I mess up, you can throw the keys away and throw me back in jail. And he was like, huh. He's like, I will honor that. Basically, at the time, you know, for a nanny, like at the time I wasn't making much money. But he was like, he's like, I'm going to charge you 3,300 a month to live in jail. We will release you. So for 120 days, you live in jail. You sleep in jail. You're in there every weekend. We'll let you out three days a week to work and go to school and you have to come directly back. If you mess up, we're going to lock you up for a longer time. So we went through that process and started the first work release program at a women's jail in that county. And so I started that movement. And then from there, he also put me on house arrest for nine months. So for over a year, I was basically locked up in the confinement of my own home as well, but I was able to work and have work release for school and things like that. So I started this trend and then to fast forward through that like that, I applied to business later in life

because that was my rock bottom moment and everything that I apply now in life and business, like nothing phases me. Like nothing's hard. Like there's challenges and you just go through them and you deal with them. But that was like my rock bottom where I went through these processes. I had like $50,000 in legal fees. I had to pay for the interlock on my car for five years, the little blowy device, like thousands and thousands of dollars. I've spent over six figures in everything going through the court systems over the years. And I just was like, you know what?

I got to change my life. And so I did. I sobered up, went through the process, did that. And then I graduated film school after sobering up for two years, then graduated, then started a production company. During the time I started the production company, I ended up also working for a corporate company, which I was not happy with, but they called me the troubleshooter Tamara because I saved them thousands and thousands of dollars for troubleshooting different scenarios that happened with their

footage, like corrupted files to missing footage to all sorts of stuff. But the company didn't value myself. It was very male dominated. I mean, no offense to you all the other. It was not. They didn't follow through on their promises for different things and options. And I told myself as soon as I get my first contract on the freelance level that can replace this income and I get a year-long contract that I will weave corporate for good and never look back. And that's what I did. I end up getting a multi-six figure contract with one corporation where I became their video marketing manager did the things, but I only had to go to their office like twice a month. Like I've worked remotely. So I started working remotely. And I'm very detailed, organized and productive. So

that luckily allowed me to grow and scale remotely through that company. And then through that process, I also started the production company, which evolved into broadcaster authority, which is now our content marketing firm. To add to that story, the reason why we do what we do now is because of the production company I started in Seattle, we had viral content takeoff. It was the same system that we do now, short form content to long form content. But back then, there were one-off projects. And I knew that in order to scale, we had to do it more effectively through high-end subscription models. And so we shifted years back, but originally what inspired Broadcaster Authority, our current agency, was the fact that we saw this teaser video, trailer video, go viral. It had 888,000

views in the matter of like less than 10 days. And it led back to a documentary film that I directed, and that went viral. Then we consulted with YouTube, and I was like, I've got to learn this stuff, right. And so we applied it to all of our clients that led back to all of their documentary films. And then all of a sudden, IndieFlex found us and was like, we'd like to acquire your films. And so that really spiraled into what we do today with Broadcast Your Authority. Because we have the same system, we amplify through different areas from organic to paid advertisements, but it's short form content, to long form content consistently with weekly podcasts. And so we shift and we go with the trends and we update with AI and we do all the things,

you know, to shift with the terms. We still originated from that experience. And so everything that tied in with my life all just kind of went went in from my spirals to my alcoholism to going back to film school to entrepreneurship, to resilience, to negotiation. And that's really where, you know, we evolved into what we do today. Yeah, I love it. First off, congratulations on sobriety. I know a lot of folks that have gone through that, and my stepdad has been sober for over 30 years now and seeing the person he was before and then the person after, I mean, you've seen it in yourself, but it's just completely like night and day. So I just want to say congratulations on that journey in itself is a journey. Thank you. And then kudos to you for being able to install something into a day. institution that nobody thought was possible to do, but bringing on a program that directly benefited not only yourself, but I'm sure countless women in the future that have been

able to take advantage that and maintain careers or school or that have children and, you know, things of that nature. And then I just love how you've just kind of taken everything along the journey, kind of iterated it to whatever it is that you're building, knowing that the systems work, knowing that the frameworks work. And I think that's a lesson for a lot of people because sometimes we just got to get back to the basics. We got to get back to knowing what works and then going and doing that very, very well and then repeating that model over and over again. Yeah. No, I think, yeah, from the, yeah, so now over 15 years sober, learning through that, like being able to apply that and then having the sense of like, yeah, the negotiation factor. And I always

tell people, like, you don't know unless you ask, and it's always, like, the power of, like, the follow-up in business, like, and the persistence piece, like, I'm extremely resilient. Like, I can take massive risks, make massive investments and just be like, you know, people are always like, how do you do that? Or, like, how do you, like, I'm just like, I'm going to do it. We're going to see what happens, you know, keep my fingers crossed that this large investment will pay off, if it's now or over time or different things like that. this, you know, I've been able to just do the things that were fearful to me. And so, like, things don't, maybe, like, jumping out of a plane or swimming with sharks or those things are kind of

like, give me a little nervous. But, you know, it's like I would do them, you know, like, it's just one of those things is, I think the power of asking and when stepping in that courtroom that day and just asking, say, asking for help and asking for an opportunity that, of course, there's consequences if I don't follow through and it's on my own dime. And if I don't pay, then it's on me anyways. So it's like they didn't have much risk for themselves other than putting me out of the street, potentially drinking and driving again, which I was like, oh, heck no. You know, like I knew and I removed everybody out of my life during that year that literally had nothing to,

that didn't support me or didn't support that journey. And I actually removed my Facebook as well. And so I actually created a brand new Facebook. a year or two later and then after I started my production company, all I did was add entrepreneurs. And I started to build a network based on what I started being targeted by online, joining mastermind groups, going to events. And then I saw how passionate I was about business and connecting with other business people than anything else I'd ever done in life.

I'd never felt connected to other people as much in any other industry. And so the passion started to come through there. And then I had like-minded people to talk to things from challenges to business deals to offers to scaling to hiring mentors. And I found my path. All of that stuff allowed me to find my path and myself and my passion. And it's opened up several doors through the process. They call me the intentional connector behind the scenes because I intentionally connect people together that makes sense. Like, I'm not going to just be like, oh, you should know so on and so because they're cool.

It's more like, hey, you should meet Jordan because he does XYZ and paying attention to what people do because I think there's a strong alignment and could be a power partner or a client or things like that. And so with Broadcastry Authority, we've leveraged that skill of mine to be able to open up doors for people, power partners, clients, networks. And we've got thousands of people at our broadcast your authority network at this point in the business space around podcasting. And so it's cool to say that I built something, you know, with a strong team behind it. It's not me. But, you know, it's just like I started it from the ground up. And my partner, Danielle, joined in.

And then we just kind of went together. I've been on this path together for a long time. And it just, it feels good at this point. Just being able to help serve people, but live a life where I can pick up tomorrow and travel if I wanted to. And I do things like that. I'm like, hey, let's go a combo tomorrow. You know, like, I can do that. Like I didn't come from anything, too, either.

I didn't get by a silver platter. But there was a point where I was broke and I had $4 to my account. I was like, I can't even buy a Starbucks, you know, back in my early 30s right after I sobered up. I didn't know what I was doing. But, you know, didn't have the best job there with that corporation until I got the larger client and so on. So then things started to change, you know. But I was like, I like this entrepreneur thing. So, yeah.

Love it. So one thing that my audience knows about me is I'm a big sports fan. love watching sports. I love playing sports. So basketball every Wednesday, every Friday, every Saturday I'm playing basketball. Outdoor, indoor. I break dance. I love sports. I'll play you now. That'd be fun. Yeah, that'd be fun. So I know that being an athlete yourself and playing basketball for as long as you did, there's got to be some lessons you extracted from basketball in general. And there's got to be some that probably even translate into the business this space. So I'd love for you to kind of like dive into, you put your basketball hat on and

what are some things that you learned from being part of a team, you're having great coaches, you know, being athletic and wanting to win, you know, that translate to business today. That's a great question. So my experience with basketball, it was pretty good like growing up. It got to be a point where when I got older college was great, but high school was actually horrible. I had like middle school and high school was horrible because the girls of my team were not team players. They were more like, I was on the starting five, and I learned through that. I, it's funny, it took guts to do what I did. I approached the coach, and he wanted me in the starting five, but because they would never pass me the ball or they had like their cliques,

basically, right? So there's clicks in life and business, right? There's bullies. So I was actually bullied in middle school. And I actually asked the coach, I said, I would like to be put on the bench and I want to be the second lineup through each rotation because I feel like I can shine better and have a better team set with the girls on the second center roster than the girls on the starting five. So I asked to be put set aside from the starting five and that year that I did end up being one of the star players when they rotated me with the other four girls. I would average 22 points a game. I was a 90% free throw shooter. There was no stress on the court and all those things, I think, comes from the standpoint of being a strong

leader because you have to think about, like, how, one, you can be a strong leader. I was able to help support those other girls that support me on the team versus the starting girls that had egos and clicks and stuff like that. But things like that happen in life and business as well. And so I think being able to step back and be a true leader helped support in the business side too, because we always support our team, team and business, like team culture. We have our Wednesday win meetings. Like you want to celebrate the team always and make sure that the people that are on your team are the right fit because when we hire for our company, hire fast, fire fast. They always say like hire slow. I'm like, we actually hire fast fire fast. Like it's if it doesn't make sense and it doesn't

feel aligned, you know very quickly on that side. So people have different takes on that. But like this week alone, we had team. So we had one one team member that is leaving us after working with us for over four years. We had another team member that we had to let go of. It just wasn't a right fit anymore. We hired three other people. We just brought back an old team member that was looking for additional work. We're like, yeah, we enjoyed working with you.

You can come back. So it's like, it's the same thing with a team, like a team with a company and sports. I think that's one of the things that I learned is just being able to evolve and pay attention to people and put them in the right spots with the right people. The skilled people go in their areas and you pay attention to their strengths. And that's what I think I would. Yeah, I love it. All great takes and all super important things to be able to reflect on. And remember, and there's so much value in being on a team, right?

You see good examples. You see bad examples. You see good coaches. You see bad coaches. And it's up to us to be self-aware enough to take in the things that are good and filter out the things that are bad and add those good things to our arsenal and know exactly how we don't want to do certain things. So I appreciate you sharing your takes there. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, starting your agency. So you have, you go to film school, you get that degree, you start this project.

The project was successful. And then you say, you know what? I think we can replicate this. And so what was it about podcasters that stuck out? You know, I've been podcasting now for six years prior to it. I really didn't know a thing about it. And now it's like it's the best thing out there. I help clients start the shows.

I help them grow and monetize because I'm so passionate. And I know the value that when you have a platform, what that can do to grow a business. So A, talk a little bit about starting that venture. And then B, what was it about podcasts that kind of stuck out to you or maybe you saw the growth, the future growth in the marketplace? Yeah, no, that's a great question, Jordan. And so what I never really thought that it would fall into podcasting, actually. So like we always just wanted, I wouldn't even say like we work with podcasters.

I say we work with businesses, businesses, corporations, business leaders because you can say the word podcaster, but they might be like a hobbyist or, you know, doing something for fun. You know, like we specifically work with business leaders that have built success. And this is just another way to amplify their message through a platform. And the reason that we actually leveraged it was because somebody approached us to actually be our first client in a high-level mastermind group years back. This woman came up to us. She was a sales coach. And she said, you know, I'm working with these two gentlemen in the mastermind group on my podcast.

But they only do the audio piece. And I love what you ladies are doing over here with YouTube. She was like, I strongly believe with what you're showing me here that you can amplify the same system but with YouTube to leverage a video podcast. And so we were always in the video space, the video marketing space, the YouTube space. That was always the focus. And so we weren't looking it as like, we're going into podcasting. It was more like we were going into video content marketing with the focus of podcasting being the medium.

Right. And so from there, she was our first client on that space. And then we had success. And then other people through the mastermind saw. And then it kind of became like a referral piece in the beginning, leveraging people throughout our mastermind groups and people hiring us that way before we stepping into pay. ads or sponsorship of events or speaking of events or all the other things that that leverage to bring in new clientele. And so it was just like that moment where we're like, yeah, let's do it.

Like we can do this. Like we're going to take this system, but leverage it with podcasts. And then back in like 2017, when we started hosting our first, um, Broadcast Your Authority series and events, uh, we turned around and provided an offer basically from the stage. And so we're like, okay, let's see if this is valuable. Let's see how we can market it. And with a two-day experience, we ended up generating over a quarter million in sales in two days. So we proved that the concept was likable and people wanted it. And we have clients that work with us still today that were in that room that signed up for the very first event. So if that says something, like we have a really high retention rate with the clients that keep coming back for our services.

as we've evolved them over the years. But it was always video first, like positioning and visibility first with YouTube and then podcasting being the word. So, but it's really like a one-stop shop for content marketing, SEO, omnipresence, everything. We have the paid ad amplification piece of it

through YouTube and Google ads. For a specific approach to leverage microcontent from the podcast, to lead back to your core offers, your opt-ins, your tripwires, whatever that looks like. so you can get more traction from that content, not just on the organic front. And so that's really like where we've evolved on that side and then consulting people as well, like how to leverage your podcast. We've consulted many like med spas and health care and universities and the coaches

and different leadership cybersecurity companies. We've basically consulted on how to leverage their podcast to go back into their specific offers, their experiences, their power partnerships, their affiliate programs, their influencer marketing, programs. Like there's so many ways that you can leverage a podcast, but what we do is so much more than being like, we do your podcast. You know, it's just like, it's everything there. Like, the only thing our clients do is record the content, we do the rest from giving the direction of SEO-based topic titles to the production, to the post-production, to the optimization, to the distribution, to the paid ads to the social media posting. It's all there. And so that's really like

what we focus on. But that's how it really started. It was from this one woman that believed in us enough that thought, hey, we could use this and not just do audio, but let's do it a video because you guys love the YouTube part. So that's really how it started. Yeah, I love it. I love when you get, when someone says, hey, could you do this or you should do this or you should try this? It's always interesting, right? Because there's some points in our lives, and I'm sure this happened to you before in the audience where we don't take. We're like, yeah, it could, but, you know, that's someone else's problem. But I love the fact where you go, let's try it.

Like, let's try it. Let's test it for you. Let's get the beta going. Right? You never know, right? And then let's go now, sell it from stage. Let's see if there's any biters because that's your MVP right there. And then you approved it and then it's off to the races because all you have to do then is

optimize, tweak, iterate, enhance. Make sure they get. And make sure they get. A hundred percent. The value, the ROI has got to be there, which I'm sure you have. made sure it was there before you went to stage because that's super important to have that to where she's like, wow, I'm seeing the results. I'm seeing the opt-ins. I'm seeing the value. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. No, I love what we do and provide it as like a service and just building

relationships with our network and being able to even matchmake them with other shows too because we've got that whole system that when we also have our matchmaking department for podcast booking tours. So building relationships with other hosts and other networks that we can say, Hey, Jordan, we've got these great guests that have these great, like, blazing trail stories that I think that would be good for your show. You know, would be, would you be open to an introduction. Building partnerships with people like yourself, that we can also make those cool introductions for people that have those amazing stories that match your show, though. They have to make sure that it is in alignment with what you share. Yeah, and that's super important.

to get, you know, contextually relevant people that match the contextually relevant content, because then it's probably the contextually relevant audience. And as you know, Tamara, that's so important for conversions. Like you've got to be speaking to the right people. You could go speak to an audience of 100,000 and get zero sales. Or you could go speak to an audience of 1,000 in Git 50 sales, right? So that context is super important. And I'd love your take on that.

And I'm sure that's really what you strategically focus on with your clients. Yeah. No, we learned over the years actually hosting events ourselves that we wanted to make sure that our marketing was fresh on point, though. And the verbiage, the pain points, the benefits, the solutions that we've marketed to the right individuals. Because we would rather have, you know, I think during that one event that we had in that room, the two or quarter million in sales. I think there was 16, 16 sales, and then there were, there were 77 people in the room. So we'd rather have a small event, even last year. We went back and hosted an event. We did quite, quite well. There were, there were less people in the room

because we were like, we want to have the ones that are, we can help, we can serve. They're at specific niches, their specific qualification rights, and we did well in that event too, but we had like 50 people in the room, but it's more about having the qualified people that you can help that are in specific niches on that side. So I'd rather speak to the more qualified, intimate side where you can have time to spend and educate people with versus speaking to the masses. Because I have spoken at events that was like 2,500 people in the room. And there were maybe three people became a client. because it wasn't like it was a mishmash of business owners, small business owners, newbies, solopreneurs.

Like they might not have been the right people for that type of offer. So it was interesting to see that. I'm like, that's like not a good conversion rate, of course. So that's why we realized like let's just focus on hosting smaller intimate workshops or do like high level workshops where people, they already have skin in the game. Let's say it's like a $5,000 workshop to come out for two days. they've got skin in the game now leverage what they've already paid to apply a part of it towards your other offers. So they're like, okay, you know it. We know that they've already

invested $5,000. Let's apply some of that towards an upgraded experience. Like if they're already here for a reason, then help apply that so they see more value on that as well. So it's easier to enroll in higher level programs when people are already invested at a higher level through those experiences too. And just have less people in the room so you can really cater to each of those people too and be able to answer their questions. So I enjoy that more over than like the thousands of people. You know, finding me at like Tony Robbins and like jumping up and down with like 30,000 people. It's just not me. I did go to one, but it just wasn't me. But that's what works for myself and our business. Yep. No, and that's a great model. You know, I've always found that, you know,

if someone's investing already leveraging that to credit towards something else, it's always a smart move, you know, and it shows the value that you believe in them. You're like, hey, you've already invested. So we want to make sure that we can add more value to you. You need this other stuff. This stuff will actually enhance everything you're doing. So it just makes sense. So I'd love for you to share for the for the listeners out there that are frustrated with YouTube. There's a lot of people. They're like, man, you know what? I've been on YouTube forever. I just can't crack the code on this platform. Can you share maybe two or three things that might shift their mindset or perspective that they probably haven't thought about doing with YouTube?

Yeah, and that's a great question. So that many people come in and just think that, you know, they have this expectation or they want to go viral or they think that they're going to get like views right away or, you know, it's like you have to, you have to test the data to it. And when you have like specific niches and you can go in and see what people are actually searching for on YouTube and Google, one of the tricks that we do is when we work with a client that has similar content to somebody else on the complex. petition side where they could easily speak about that similar content, you can find what we call

a gateway video. A gateway video is primarily a video that takes off that the channel gets more views on that video than they have subscribers. So let's say so we have 50,000 subscribers and we had a video with a gentleman that had a thousand views to his video, right? So that became a what you could consider a gateway video so somebody could come in and take that exact title and try to optimize it exactly like we did so it would be pulling off the data for this content that's still being pushed out and suggested to YouTube so you could do it with like solo content different things like that what YouTube states is that honestly people that are starting YouTube channels from scratch have to be patient because it's a marathon not a sprint and the average individual actually

that just does everything organically and does what YouTube says they state that that that average person doesn't hit their first thousand subscribers until about 18 months in. So, but when you watch the data more frequently and you have a team backing you in different ways, on average, a lot of our clients will hit their first thousand subscribers if they're starting from scratch within the first six months. So we're taking away two-thirds wait time than the average individual, because we're going in there, we're doing the data stuff because people are trying to do something themselves unless they have a team backing. And then we always say like the fastest way, though, is obviously through amplification and paid ads at this point.

So that's the fastest way to do it because what happens is when you, one, release the video organically for the first 24 hours, then you can run real paid ads, set up your Google Ads account and actually run real traffic versus using a third party. You can track that piece of it too. So let's say like an average, we say on average, like, I love it when you see like a client get like a one cent per view. Like that happens when the content's really cool and like very niched. But we see like on average like two to five cents per view if you're like trying to do like

YouTube viewership ads, right? But the stronger way to actually position it is to run ads to the top performing shorts. And so that's what we do with our clients is top performing shorts. Like this video has 1,000 views. This one has 10,000 views. Which one are we going to use? This one because it already resonated with the audience. Where can we lead them?

One, back to the main video. Two, to your website. three to an opt-in or something that's email-captured based because they already are enjoying that content. So why not leverage the ones that performed best organically? And then put a little bit of ad spend to it. People are like, oh, I don't want to spend money on ads. Honestly, just start somewhere, even if it's like $50 a video, do a test. And make sure you put in the demographics and everything for targeting. So people like get this misconception that you have to spend thousands of dollars to try to gain leads or exposure and things like that.

You really can put like, take $500 a month and just like, let's test out the different strategies based on the top performing organic, but also lead back to viewership. Because after you said to go organic for a little bit, then run traffic, it actually helps YouTube turn it into a higher suggested content rate. So then it starts to push it out more organically after you've done the paid ads. So it's very interesting methods, but we always just keep up to date on that and just see like what's working, what's not working and test it with different sides. And so people are always open to seeing what works and what doesn't and just being transparent about it because it's not everybody's going to take off and go viral. And the main goal for us is to work with people that have a channel, they have a specific niche and have poor offers because our goal is not just to grow your channels, it's more to grow your businesses and your offerings and your client.

list or your lead list like that's our method like because people like I want to go viral like if that's all you want to do like you don't have to work with us like you just sure yeah you just go slap a bunch of videos out and one of them's going to take off eventually yeah that's what you're hoping for it's like it's being strategic optimized correctly very be very consistent because it wants to see lots of content go out there so at least one episode a week and then multiple shorts because most people find you through the shorts at this point yeah Yeah, the shorts are like the gateway drug to the long form, right? Like they consume a bunch of shorts and then they go,

let me go see this other video and see what that's all about. I love your strategies. I love the tips. I know that our audience is going to get a ton of value. I appreciate you coming on, sharing your story and your journey. You started as an entrepreneur and now you fast forward. There was obviously some stuff in the middle that you had to go through, but I would say you grew through that stuff.

It's helped make you a better person. to help kind of shape and mold who you are and giving you this upswing confidence to be able to negotiate from the courtrooms to the boardrooms, which is pretty fun. So I really appreciate you coming on today and Sharon, you're definitely continuing to blaze trails

and where's the one place you want the audience to go find you if they're interested in maybe engaging you in your services? Yeah, no, they can simply go to Broadcast Your Authority.com. They can book a discovery call with our team if they want to learn more about what we do, everything's listed there. If you want to connect with me personally, I love Instagram.

You could follow Tamara Thompson official on Instagram and all of our Broadcast Your Authority channels, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram is at Broadcast Your Authority. Check out our podcast where we just recorded season 10 where we also interview highly successful leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners that have blazed trails as well and have the cool success stories to, you know, give back and share value with our audience. too. That might resonate with your audience. I'm excited. I've got an invite. I know, and I've been a slacker. I know. I'm like, you're coming to our next one. Yeah, I'm excited to come on the show here soon. You're on my lineup for season 11.

Because we batch record like an entire like season. So yes, let's do it. Very cool. Yeah, I'm excited. Looking forward to that. Well, I appreciate your time today. Folks, if you have not heard yet, we have a group coaching community. I'm going to give you the website, which is B-Y-O-T group coaching.com. Now, if you're listening to sound of my voice,

It means you have access to the internet. And if you have access to the internet, anybody can join for free. So the only investment is your time. We do have tools, AI and business tools. So if you do want to upgrade for nominal fees to get access,

but I do have something special for the first 100 users. If you use code founding, F-O-U-N-D-I-N-D-G, founding 100, you'll get your first year completely free on me. come access the tools, try to break them, play around, have some fun.

If you like it, after 12 months, you can stay. If you don't, at least you had some fun. So make sure you check that out, B-Y-O-T groupcoaching.com. Tamara, thanks so much again for coming on the show. I know our listeners are going to get a ton of value from your story and journey. Any parting words for the audience? It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Just like I said, just take action, ask for help, negotiate, just do all the things. And I just keep trailblazing along. That's like really like how things work. Nothing is perfect. And it's one of those things where you just have to keep going. And it's not going to be easy-peasy by any means. And when people tell you a lot of the times about these stories, you and I and other people, we've all gone through something very deep.

Not everyone goes through like certain types of deepness. But I think it's just like those trailblazing stories are important to inspire other people that are listening to. Yeah. And your story is going to inspire so many. Remember folks, trailblazing isn't easy, but it is worth it. It's so worth it. So thank you so much again for coming on the show, Tamara. Have an awesome day. You too. Thank you.