The Vault Unlocked - How to Use a Local Podcast to Build Authority, Network with Influencers, and Win Clients

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Most founders chase attention in crowded markets and wonder why nobody notices them.   The smarter move is smaller.   In this episode, we break down the overlooked strategy that quietly builds authority, relationships, and clients without ads, cold pitching, or a massive audience: becoming the center of gravity in your local market.   Because the fastest way to get access to influential people isn't chasing their stage. It's building your own.   This conversation with Ben Albert explores how a simple local podcast can turn into a powerful business engine.   Ben started during the pandemic with no business experience, no audience, and no plan beyond learning from local entrepreneurs. One conversation at a time, that podcast became a gateway to relationships, mentorship, and opportunities that most founders spend years trying to reach.   The strategy is deceptively simple: Invite local leaders onto your platform, build genuine relationships, turn conversations into a network, turn that network into trust, and let the ecosystem grow from there.   What starts as a small local podcast can evolve into a powerful authority platform, a community, and a steady flow of business relationships that compound over time.   This episode pulls back the curtain on the exact process that makes it work.   Who This Episode Is For   This episode is for:   • Founders building service businesses • Consultants, marketers, and operators who rely on relationships • Entrepreneurs trying to stand out in crowded markets • Independent thinkers who want influence without chasing social media virality   If your business depends on trust, relationships, and reputation, this conversation will land.   Modern business growth is shifting.   Buyers are overwhelmed by ads, automation, and AI-generated content. What cuts through today is trust, credibility, and real relationships.   A podcast, blog, or collaboration platform gives you something most entrepreneurs never build: a reason for influential people to talk to you.   Instead of cold outreach, you're offering visibility. Instead of pitching, you're creating conversations. Instead of chasing authority, you're building it.   Over time, that platform becomes a relationship engine that drives referrals, partnerships, community, and long-term clients.   And the best part?   You don't need a big audience. You need the right conversations.   Topics Covered   • Why starting local creates faster authority than chasing global reach • The "center of gravity" strategy for building influence • How podcasts open doors to influential entrepreneurs and leaders • The exact outreach message that gets guests to say yes • Turning podcast guests into long-term relationships and business opportunities • Why niche podcasts with small audiences can outperform large shows • How community, trust, and platform-building drive modern business growth • Why authority compounds through relationships, not followers   If you want to build authority without chasing attention, this episode shows a different path.   Start smaller. Build the platform. Become the center of gravity.   And let the relationships do the rest.   Looking to dive deeper into these conversations and connect with our host and guest? Follow Ben Albert: Instagram Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Real Business Connections  We All Grow Together   Follow Kayvon: Instagram Facebook LinkedIn TikTok     Want to go deeper with Kayvon? Subscribe to the newsletter Book a discovery call Get your Revenue Engine Scorecard™️ Hire the right salespeople  

Welcome back to another episode of The Vault Unlocked. Today we're diving into a strategy most entrepreneurs completely overlook. How to use a local podcast as a business building machine. Not just for downloads, not for vanity metrics, but to build real relationships, real authority, and real clients in your own community. And to break this down, I've brought on someone who's been doing exactly that. Ben Albert is a podcaster, entrepreneur, and the creator of real business connections. Over the past several years, he's helped business owners turn simple conversations into powerful networks and into real business growth.

In this episode, we're talking about how anyone, even with zero audience and zero podcast experience, can start a local podcast and turn it into a client-generating platform. Let's unlock it. I'm excited to have Ben here as a podcaster, as someone who's an expert in really helping people, whether they have experience or not, starting their podcast and, local communities. I'm excited to jump right on in. Ben, for those people that don't know who you are, tell us a little bit about you. What's up, brother? This is going to be fun, excited for the conversation. I wear many hats, but the goal is to get the knowledge, the wisdom, the info from the people who have it to the people who need it. And I am in the needed category a lot of the time. I'm not some guru that has every answer to every single question. But as you mentioned with like starting a podcast, when I

started my first ever show, it was a business podcast. I knew nothing about running a business, but by being a student, by learning every single day and getting the knowledge from the people who have it to the people that were looking for it, I got to grow. We all got to grow together. And like, it's five years since the pandemic, which blows my mind, man. But like, I wouldn't have done anything differently. Things have been, been beautiful and blessed. So I'm going to assume because you said five years since the pandemic, you started this kind of journey during the pandemic? Yeah, I was in a sales role. I was in corporate. We were doing generally a lot of video, but like full service marketing all across the states. I mean, I had just started in a new

role. So last one in, first one out, pandemic hits, no travel, no video, no sales, no moving around the states. So at the time, I was a huge music advocate on the side, had a music podcast. I was still a big music fan, but music promoter Ben was broke, unemployed, and non-essential. So the pandemic required me to create business, Ben, who just happened to be an entrepreneur, didn't know what I was doing, but we learn every single day. And that's why podcasts like this are great. I love that. I love even how you call them two different Ben's, two different identities, right? One, one was fun. One didn't serve, you know, the profits in the, in the bottom line. The one served another, you know, your passion or whatever it is. But so what, I mean, what got you to say,

okay, I'm just going to jump into a podcast? And you specifically mentioned earlier to me, like local podcast. So tell me the difference between, you know, someone who's like a podcast, local podcast. What's the difference between those two? I mean, well, first and foremost, most people don't have kale that tastes like peanut butter cups. If you've got kale that's healthy and tastes like peanut butter cups everybody's going to want your stuff you could be a jerk you can be a good market none of it matters you got the best product

of all time most of us are kind of commodities there's a lot of people that do something similar to us maybe even get the exact same results as us now everyone's different we have a unique fingerprint but most of us are commodities in a sense

so you're a minnow in an ocean of sameness so when you talk about local at least you're entering a smaller pond. I did not think I could be a top rated business podcaster with no experience in business overnight. But there wasn't a, I had a local music podcast in Rochester, New York. So I said, let's start a local business show.

I called it Rochester Business Connections for two reasons. One, a friend request on LinkedIn is a connection request, and that's where I was connecting with people. And two, I needed connections. So, hey, let's attract connections by having a connection podcast. And then one conversation at a time basically achieved way more than I had even. I didn't have some lofty goal. I just wanted to figure out even what a CRM was at the time.

But I achieved way more than I could ever imagine. But I was a minnow in a tiny pond. And then as I grew, you can find bigger oceans. but that's why you start local or you start hyper niche because if your own local community doesn't like you or your product, if you scale a turd, what do you get? You scale a turd, you get a larger turd. Yeah, well, in my sales process, right, I always say shit in shit and shit out. It doesn't matter how good it is.

No matter how good the funnel is, no matter how good the marketing is, if the top is not doing the job, it just disrupts the entire process all the way down to the salespeople. So I get that. So, I mean, that's interesting. Because I took a, just funny, because I myself, I took a different approach. I live in Canada. And I'm a shame to say, but, you know, it was in, I was probably 28 or 29 at this time. And someone had just told me that the state of California at that time had more people in Canada.

Sorry, California had more people than Canada. And I, wow. What? Really? It is impossible. And then my brain went to. So. If I just went to California in that one little state, it'd be equivalent to trying to get the attention of all of Canada.

I'm like, it kind of put perspective of how big the U.S. and how big the kind of the world is to me. Right? Yes. Yeah. And I did the opposite. I'm like, screw Canada. I'm going to the state. Like, I'm going to go, you know, I'm going to go try to be number one in California, which evidently, you know, would be number one in America, which evidently, right, would then Canada would probably find me type of thing.

But I love the other way around. I like how you said just go small because you're right. Like the small populace isn't going to connect with you. What makes you think like any other populace kind of will, right? So not to just not to just like massage your back here, but like you already had a ton of skills. You already had a framework. You already had success.

A lot of people don't have that luxury when they start. And they try to win all of Canada or all of California. and they fall on their face, a lot of us don't have that luxury. If you're already kicking butt, you can think bigger from day one. If you're not, you do need to take smaller steps a lot of the time.

And I mean, it's a marathon, obviously. So you get there. It's just not always as amplified and you're not injecting steroids in it the same way other people can. So how, like, you know, what are,

let's talk about that. Like, what are some of the steps that people can take when, when thinking, and okay, before we even get to the podcast, like thinking about, okay, I'm in my local market. I want to generate business or I'm looking to do something different. They're listening to the call right now.

They listen to this podcast right now and hearing that we're saying, you know, create a local podcast. Yeah. They have no idea what is going on. They have like the thought of even having a podcast doesn't even resonate with them. Like what are the steps that they can take to even start even having a conversation or even thinking about if this is the right thing for them? Yeah, let's do a couple things here.

First off, I want to be descriptive, not prescriptive. I'm not going to tell them exactly what they need to do because their area is different, their business is different, their skill sets different. So I'll describe what I did, but I'll also kind of give the bird's eye view because it doesn't have to be a podcast. Podcast is just the case study. So where I start is the concept of becoming the center of gravity. You want people coming to you.

you want them, it's more permission-based marketing. You want people coming to you, them attracted to you. You want your mentors, your peers, your audience that are spending money with you coming to you. If you want a seat at the table, it's easier just to bring your own table than to try to get a seat at a table that you've been working to get at forever. If you want to speak on the mic, maybe you just bring your own mic. So if you want to win friends and influence people, you need to find a way to be influential. So a podcast is a way to platform yourself. If you want a platform, maybe you platform yourself.

And that'll be the case study, but it can be a blog where you have collaborations and maybe you get guest mentors to speak on your blog. Maybe you have clients speak on your blog. Maybe you have prospects instead of saying, hey, do you want to spend money on me? You say, hey, can I feature you as a roofing industry leader in Rochester, New York? and then at the tail end of them just filling out a forum using chat GPT to create the blog post on the tail end you go you know can I talk to you a little bit about business so you call them hey I'd love to feature you versus hey I'd love to sell you something so it's a way to become the center of gravity and a podcast is just a great way to do it because it's a way to get in the door with influential people and spend significant times with them and they want to spend that time with you. you. It's not a pitch. It's not really a cold call. And you can do some discovery. You can build some rapport. And you can, in my case, like, I didn't know how to run a business. I was better than

probably 90% of marketers, but I wasn't the best marketer on earth at the time. So I'm better than most marketers and I don't know how to run a business. But I'm better than 99% of business owners at marketing. So let's just start a business owner podcast in Rochester, New York, learn how to run a business from the people. And on the back end, maybe I can help you. And if not, I'm very confident you might know another business owner that I can't help. So as a sales guy, you're nodding. You get the strategy. It's very tactical. But it's one conversation and one relationship at a time because if you're just doing it to make money you might have some ick factor i did it to learn and then all the clients and all the prestige kind of came on the back end

just by being the center of gravity and starting a podcast and and being the center of gravity i'd say would you would you add a consistency on that as well a hundred percent i mean it depends but like november 2020 is when i started my show i did 22 episodes in a month So that's an episode a day, five days a week, Monday through Friday, 22 in a month. Then I went to three. Then I eventually went to two. Now I do one, but there's a lot of reason behind all that. But in one month, and I had already, the reason I did 22 in a month is because I just had so many interviews.

I didn't have any clients, and I wasn't lazy, and it was a pandemic. So I was just having anybody on, and I was having conversations with business and owners. We did 22 in a month because I already had like 30 recorded. So in 30 to 45 days, I met 30 business owners. And I didn't learn this from day one, but I learned it over time. And I started to do it over time. I'd ask them to nominate other business owners. Hey, I love this interview as a kick-ass leader in our local city.

Like, do you know any other leaders that would be a good fit for the show? And then they would open up their role. or nowadays, it's a cell phone, and send an email with eight people on it, and I'd one by one meet eight more business owners just in that conversation. And because it was local, because it was small, because they aren't a celebrity on a 50 podcast tour, it was the first podcast they had done all year, and they were excited to nominate other people for the show because it was, and there was this, like, sex appeal of the fact to a small and local that you actually don't get from talking to celebrities on a big show.

And that's how I built my business. It was just meeting people one conversation at a time. And, you know, marketing, I could get better at that pretty quickly. But a big part is I learned how to be a leader. I learned how to run a business. I learned what a CRM was. Like a lot came in that, you know? Absolutely.

I love it because you said it wasn't tactical, but that was quite a good. tactical. I'm just trying to think of this, that person that's sitting there going, yeah, I bought the yeah, but the yeah, but people who were saying, yeah, but how did you even, how do you even get guests? Like, what happens when you're starting new and you don't even have people? You know, you don't even know where to get gas. There's, there's websites to get gas. I'll tell, again, descriptive, not prescriptive, but I guarantee it works. I literally guarantee it works. Local podcast, I went to SUNY Brockport, State University, New York. Brockport. So I'm a Sunni Brockport alumni. I go on LinkedIn, search features, Sunni Brockport,

business owners, Rochester, New York. Hey Kavon, I see you went to Sunni Brockport as well. Congrats on making it big time. That's the message. If they connect, great. If they don't, whoopty-do. I can send a thousand of those messages. So if they connect great, if they don't, whoop-de-do. When they connect, I say, dude, I'd love to feature, I literally had not even started it yet, but I'd love to feature you on Rochester Business Connections. It's a business podcast for local leaders. Would you be interested in sharing your story and inspiring our audience? Love it.

I love it. And if someone was listening, really listening to what you said, you only need to do that one time. It's two messages. And then you're getting introductions after the interview. That's what I said. have to do that one time because if you're good on the podcast at the end of that podcast, you already said it. Who else do you know in the community that would love to be and featured in here? And you do that every time you're using other people's networks. So simple. And I would do

both. I wouldn't just do it. I would do both because here's what happens. Like lots of opportunities mean, wow, like I, it's weird to say this, but I'm so bucked out that I actually don't have space on the show yet, but I'd love to continue the conversation. So the, more people I talk to, the better, and then I can bring the right people on the podcast, this or that, or you could do a panel discussion. You could have three people on the show at a time, meet three people at a time. There's so much you could do there. But what's beautiful is most people said yes. Success rate, if they reply, some people don't reply. Who cares? Maybe they don't even read it. The success rate of the replies was like 90% plus. And for the ones that say no, they're probably

just shy and that's okay. But no one's going to say no to the hey, can I feature you, platform you, market you, make intros for you and all you got to do is talk about yourself. It's like the easiest pitch of all time.

That's why I said SUNY Brockport, I said LinkedIn. Part of why I like LinkedIn is it's less crowded than like Instagram. It's easier to get through people's DMs. But if you take that and you just apply your industry, your podcast, or maybe you're starting a blog or something else, and your school,

you could just do the exact same thing, just rinse and repeat and just fill in the blanks for yourself. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I love it because you just take it something that most people would assume is so complicated. And it is quite simple and easy if you just follow those simple steps. And then one thing leads to another. So for you, when did you see that like it started cracking a little bit? where you're like, okay, there's momentum here.

Ooh, I'm starting to get some traction. Oh, you know, things are churning around. Like when did that start happening? And what was it that started that? Yeah, I mean, is a reminder, I'm starting in November of 2020. So it's a pandemic. Everyone's cooped up at home. But like the certainty came in waves.

And like, yeah, it was to an advantage that people were cooped up at home and bored and a little lonely. But like, people wanted to grab coffee or a beer. And it's like, yeah, you got to. follow the rules, but like, people wanted to meet with me. The kid who has never ran a business doesn't know what he's doing. They liked me and wanted to meet with me from day one. And that to me was an immediate sign that maybe we have something here. And still to this day, like I sound arrogant, but it's just the reality. It's really easy to get a meeting with

anyone I want. And it's just because of the platform I've built. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I can, I can to test to that. Like with this, this podcast as well, you know, we kind of reach out. And when you start building that platform, people will be on it. And even like the B level people come on and then you get the A level, right? You just, you just got to stay in the game. Where is it now? Like, tell us about what's going on right now for you. Like, what are you working on now? Like, how is this podcast taking to that next level? How are you using this to grow the business to impact more people? Yeah, I mean, it's behind me real business connections. What was once just Rochester, New York is now international. We do always pay homage, and I have a local segment called Rochester Business Connections, but now we're international. And it actually wasn't until recently, and people had to basically smack me upside the head. Like, I had been podcasting originally in music, but since 2016,

and I completely built my business and my brand just by platforming my. myself and building the relationships. So it was only until recently that I was like, oh, I can just do this for other people. So some B-list people, not huge names, but some pretty big names, I'm behind the scenes, doing their marketing, doing their podcasting, their YouTube. And then in front of the scenes, I have a community called Grow Getters Only at we allgrowtogether.com, where we put on free events. and we have an inner circle mastermind. And a common question is, how do you get such good people in your mastermind?

Well, I had them on the podcast first. So it's all like an ecosystem to me. Interview people on the show. I interview people I want to learn from, so that's easy-peasy. And the best of the best, that maybe they share the episode, maybe we have rapport,

the people that just didn't treat me as a channel, like they actually were in it for the community, they're the ones that I invite to speak at the mastermind. So everyone, every step of the way is winning. And that's, I don't know, that's the way I like to do business. I love it. So you just leveraged, I just absolutely love it. You leverage the guests on the podcast and then the right guest, the ones that there's,

there's a real connection there and that, you know, have the value that you're looking for. You then invite them to be a guest speaker in your master. mastermind where most people don't get to have access to this guess and access to this knowledge. And you're just using other people's knowledge is on your platform and helping other people get, you know, the information and access to people. Like I said, that typically you wouldn't, you'd have to pay a lot of dollars for you'd see from behind the, you know, from 20 seats back all the way in the nosebleeds. And to put a little icing on the cake, I found asking someone to give a keynote is a bigger ask, especially when they get paid for their time.

So in the mastermind, it's literally the best of every world. Asking someone for a keynote, like they want to be comped for that. The audience in my mastermind preferred the interaction anyways. They didn't want to at least virtually see a talking head the whole time. So what we do is we do is ask me anythings. So if you're in the room, we do and ask me anything. and then I release it like three months later as a podcast episode. There we go.

Which is content that shows people what it looks like to be in the mastermind. Yeah. It's everything all at once. Yeah, man. So you're, there is a master plan. There's a strategy here. It took me five years. But, you know, every day I chip away and I integrate different plans, see what works and get better every day, you know.

And marketing, I mean, it's, I, even I've been in this industry for a while and I've seen it changing so much. And right now I feel like we're really in a authentic trust era of buyers. So how have you seen with, I see you're shaking your head. So I think you agree with me on that. How have you seen the marketing change? And what are, what are you doing now to, to, to adopt and to change with the, the times? Yeah. So first off, it definitely depends on what you sell. I'm literally at a point where like if I feel inflammation, I'll get on chat GPT, talk to chat GPT about it, give them the stack of the neutropics or vitamins I'm currently taking, ask them their thoughts. And I'll make a purchase based on chat GPT suggestion. I do it all the time. I'm looking for discounts on Black Friday, Cyber Monday. I'm always asking. I'm asking chat GPT for discounts. Let's say I'm in a new city. I'm asking chat GPT. These are what I let. You already know everything about me, bro. Give me some suggestions of what I can do.

So that's a whole other discussion for another day, but optimizing your marketing to be found on search for the chat bots. But that's a certain kind of service. Like I'm a restaurant. I want people in the door. Like I'm going to look at chat GPT for restaurant suggestions. Yeah. When you're doing something that's high ticket, high trust, and a long term kind of book of business kind of service, like in theory, I can hire any insurance agent, but I'd rather like them.

In theory, I'd hire any marketer, but I'd rather like them, not just get results. And in theory, I might be kind of lonely, and I want someone that I feel like trusted and connected to. and there's no better way in an AI marketing world with lots of noise to build trust than to build community around what you do? Because not only do they get to learn from you, they get to learn from everyone else involved. It's a great way to sell yourself without talking about how great you are. You just let your results speak for yourselves. So again, like if I'm a beauty salon and I want travelers to come by because I'm on a strip,

I'm going to market differently. But if I'm selling a product that nets me an average $30,000 per client, and I want them every year, do trust is the name of the game because they can hire anybody for that product. So how do you build trust? I mean, how do you build trust nowadays? Because that's what I said. Trust is the name of the game. People want they want trust and they want authenticity.

But how are you using those angles in marketing today that you're saying. seeing that there's a lift with your clients. Because I know you said you run, you know, you do a lot of marketing as well. So as, as this is, you know, in the marketing section as well, I just, I'm interested to understand how you take these tactics, which I love, right? Have a, have a podcast, take that podcast, create the relationship, serve that person, take the same relationship, get them into a community to help them get them exposed as well, right? And then use that same, you know, that same expert you just did a podcast with, reload that as an episode as well. Like, these are all great things. How do you market and

build the trust around all these things so people start to actually connect, feel the authenticity, and start to build that trust before they actually ever speak to you? So there's lots of nuances, but you kind of answered the question in the question. Because in that process, so much trust is built. Let's imagine this. I have someone as a guest on my show. I reached out to them randomly out of the blue. But what I did in the reach out is I already knew.

So I'll use Jordan Harbinger an example. And I'll just use you as an example. So I already know that they've been on Jordan show and they've been on Kvon's show. So I go, hey, I just listen to you on Kvon show. Also saw you on Jordan. He's been on my podcast a couple of times. great guy. I thought you'd be a good fit for my show as well.

Are you open to me, like, letting you know about it, or is there an EA that I can send some information to? So just in that, I built trust through the name association that I'm not just some random person reaching out to them. I've done my research. I'm a fan. I want to support them. That's a little micro thing right there.

Then when they come on the show, I show up on time. I give a good interview. Like, there's a lot of nuanced things that. It's easier said than done, but you do a good job at your job. You do a good job. You market it well. You go, hey, can I introduce you to any other podcasters? Is that valuable for you?

You make introductions. A few months down the road, the episode goes out. You promote the heck out of them. Then a few months after that, you go, wow, my audience really received this well. When you come speak at the mastermind, people in the mastermind spend money on it. them like I do all of this because I want to help people and I want to learn but it's not beyond me that this human being I'm describing could become my client and knows people that could become my client and by giving them a great experience with they didn't lift the arm they didn't spend a penny

I have showed them what it looks like to have someone advocate for them so if they're going to hire a marketing professional, don't they want to hire a advocate? Now, you have to apply this to anything you do in the business realm, but how can you give so much value and such a good experience? Whether people are spending money or not, you need to understand your worth, but whether they're spending money or not, are you a consultant where someone asks a question and you snarl? Or you go, you know, I only have 45 seconds, but let me solve this issue for you because I care about helping people. Which one are you? Because to me, me trust and value isn't a strategy or a tactic it's a way of being and if you just live that

way shit works out for you i don't want to oversimplify it but yeah i love it you're also talking about a law in childini's book right the law of respirosity i think you're talking about that as you're doing this stuff but uh i i think there's some merit here to go deeper into all of those things that you just said because there's something underlining to make those things, I believe, successful. And it's where you're coming from while doing those things. Are you coming from a place of I'm trying to win, I'm trying to gain? Or you actually come on from a place of service where there is no win or gain for me. I just, how can I help you?

How can I support you? And there is that little nuance, as you know, that a lot of people missed. You can smell it on them that will actually disrupt that entire process. You can do all the same things. But you get that little energy off, just a millimeter off. It will break that entire. I'm going to call it a funnel button process. No, I'm with you.

And before the call, like, and checking out your show, like, you want to go deep on a specific topic. And I'm thinking the best way I can serve is to mechanically give the audience exactly what the playbook looks like. but in the process of this playbook, I did not have a playbook. This is me telling you what I learned. I just wanted to learn from people. I just wanted to help people. I was an underdog who had no clue what he was doing and humbled every single day that people will put their chips on me.

And that is the mindset and energy I brought to every conversation. I still do my best to do. Like I'm more confident now, but I understand that everyone I meet knows 999 things that I don't. So I learned from everybody. So I'm giving like the tactical process, but it was never about the exact tactics. It was about the education and the relationships I got to build along the way. That was really the beauty in it all. And relationships from all I'm going to assume like all walks of life.

So what I'm just trying to think of just. story time I call it story time you know of if you can think back of all the relationships you've built and you know you've you as you follow this process is there any one relation that stands out the most where you thought where if i said to you in 2020 you're going to have a relationship with this person you'd think that i was absolutely crazy that's an interesting question that if at 2020 makes it interesting because you know it's at a point where i was listening to listening to podcast since 2014. I was a little bit of an early bird on it.

And actually a good example is Jordan Harbinger. Because in 2014, I was just out of college. I was single. And I was kind of like socially awkward, also a party animal, music scene. And like, I wanted to like learn how to be more charismatic and like meet girls and all these things that you do when you're younger. And Jordan Harbinger had a podcast called The Art of Charm, which at one point was called the pickup podcast, but he kind of grew out of that.

It was more like the Chodani kind of stuff, the subtle persuasion, how to be charismatic, this and that. And Jordan honestly got bored of that world for the same reason I did because he settled down. He was sick of the gimmicks in the games per se. And he started to get interested in crimes and colts and psychology and neuroscience. And at the same time, him and his team members or his co-founders, rather, had a bit of a dispute. That's Jordan's story, not mine.

But they had a bit of a dispute. So he left the podcast, but he had a brand built. He had an audience built. And he started the Jordan Harbinger show and scaled it to be a larger listenership. than the other show he had worked on for a decade in just a year. And when I see it, the reason I tell a story like that, and it's grown, that was like 2019 that I think he did that. It's grown even since then.

The best brand, the best business, the best thought leader, their audience will evolve with them. The last thing I want to do is tell the same tips and tricks for the next 10 years of my life. I want my audience to evolve with me. So as I grow, they grow. As my interests change, their interests are going to change. And maybe they go somewhere else, which is quite all right.

And there's a long-winded way of looking at. I didn't think this dude that I was talking about Jordan Harbinger would come to my podcast and speak in my mastermind. Like, I was just trying to learn dating tips in 2013, 2014. But as he evolved and as he mentored me from afar, I got to a place where I actually could make the ask. I had the audience. He said yes.

And now I hope I get to do what Jordan did for me, for other folks that are going through that similar kind of journey and process. So I hope that makes sense. No, I love it. And what's the main thing I think Tony says too? we overestimate what we can do in one year and we underestimate what we can do in five years. And here's a testament five years later after COVID. I mean, it sounds like you got mastermind, you got a top performing podcast.

You've had multiple A-listers on your show. Business opportunities coming everywhere, which way for you? Living an abundant life, I'm sure, very different than the party and music scene, which was fun at one point and great at one point, but not where I'm sure you would want to be today. So I mean, congratulations on all that, all that success.

I just really want to make sure it's so clear because if anything, you even showed me about how clear this process is and you don't need to overcomplicate it. It's like start your local podcast. You do not need to be an expert. In fact, it's better if you're not an expert.

go get the experts and learn from them. Create a great relationship with these people out of service. Don't expect anything back. Then eventually you'll create the relationship with them where you can invite them into your community. Use the same content for more podcasts and just let the system go and just trust the process. I think our work here is done, man.

That was a great summary, man. I mean, that's all it. It is. You don't need to learn about, you don't have to worry about how to upload it. You don't have to worry about any of that. Just get, most people don't even realize that. Like, you said this, I didn't jump on it, is you don't even need the podcast live to start this.

You are starting the fastest growing local business podcast and you're looking for the first 10 experts in, you know, in your local area to be on. Like, it's just, it's so, it's, it reminds me. because, you know, from a sales guy, I talk to so many people that do want to do like, you know, start home services and stuff. Like I'm like, I hope you understand when I say this. Do not set up a business. Do not buy a thing.

Do not market. Do not do anything until you go knocking 10 doors and you get that first job. Then when you get that first job, you say, I'll be here next week. And then you take that money and you go buy the materials for that job. You do not need all this stuff, aka all this stuff to. to start a podcast. I had a sound, dude,

I had a SoundCloud, SoundCloud membership. I think it was like $12.99 a month. There you go. And I was using I movie from my MacBook with zero edits to add the inch. I spent like $100, intro, and I would just post it.

And y'all can go look at the podcast. It looks terrible. Yeah. But the podcast really wasn't the tool. It was the building of the relationships. That was the tool. And all I had to do is build relationships. I didn't need a perfect podcast.

And then I love the last thing or one thing you said twice was like, you want a microphone or you have a voice, you have a message and you want people to give you the microphone. Well, how about you go build your own? And when you do that indirectly, you'll see, right? As you know, as a podcast host,

people right after the call, what's the first thing they say? Do you want to come online? It's very simple. And it's so easy. So I'm just, I love this podcast because I think it's, honestly, every business owner that wants to do lead generation that has a unique or what, you know, even a little bit of a niche, do, like should be doing a podcast. In fact, I spoke to someone yesterday.

I couldn't, he helped, like, how niche could this be? He helps business owners who just started their Christmas light business. So they make up a $100,000 in two months and do nothing. And then teaches those specific people how to create a business selling everyday lights so they can have a, you know, 365 year business. And he has a podcast specifically around that. And what does he do? He builds the relationship. He builds the business.

So that podcast doesn't need, it only needs like 20 listens an episode too. Yeah, you don't, exactly. Right. You can get, you can get bogged down by all the big podcasts out there. But like there are in each podcast that are not having the conversations that you probably might, that you can have that your audience needs. So I'm just going to say that again,

it is actually very simple. You do not need to be an expert in it. You just need to make that first move and start. Most said. Is there anything last? thing you like to say to the audience before you get to tell them where to find you.

Yeah, man. I just remind them, blog, I'd actually think a blog's an easier strategy. So everything we said, apply it to a blog. Reach out to business owners. You can have a private interview on a call if you really want to build rapport or send them a Google

form. Have them fill it out. Then you publish it. Then them in their entire workforce is sharing your stuff on social media, you get traffic to your page, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The point of me adding that is today we talked about the podcast, but if you take these nuts and bolts, you can apply it to hosting events. You can apply it to a blog. You can apply it to an Instagram channel with collaboration posts.

Like the sky is the limit, my friends. The sky is the limit. And those collaboration posts on Instagram would have a better chance going viral than just you alone. Exactly, dude. It's so simple. It's so simple. I love it. I really do love it. And people, people want a platform. They want to be seen and they love to be heard, right? They love to hear themselves. So again, I love it. Ben, thanks so much for coming on and taking the time. If someone wants to use you for your services, maybe want to help understand more of how to start the very first podcast. Where can they find you? A good hub is, well, first, subscribe to this thing, if you haven't yet. Click five stars if you haven't yet. If you're on YouTube, leave a comment

or something. Like none of this would be possible without this homeboy and his team making it possible. You can find this wherever you found my podcast, where you found this. So just type in the words real business connections or Google it or go to real business connections.com. And if you do want to be surrounded by other entrepreneurs that are growing together, the communities that we all grow together.com. So I give you three steps. Show some love on this show. Type in real business connections and then type in we we all grow together.com and those are the only three I could ask for. I love it. Ben, thank you so much. Thanks, Ben.