SHOW TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.  Any errors or omissions are unintentional.

[00:00:05] Jeff Sieh: Hello folks. Welcome to Social Media News Live. I’m Jeff Sieh and you’re not.

[00:00:08] Conor Brown: And I’m Connor Brown. And this is the show that keeps you up to date on what’s happening in the world of social media and more.

[00:00:15] Jeff Sieh: Have you ever wondered what it takes to successfully navigate the journey of a solopreneur? Are you eager to uncover the keys to transforming your passion into a thriving business? Or maybe you’re on the lookout for practical advice to turn your dream job into a reality. If those questions sound familiar, you’re in the right place.

[00:00:34] Today we have an exciting guest who has mastered this journey. He has turned his love for helping others into a comprehensive guide for solopreneurs. Lou Mangiello will be sharing his insights, his story, and his tips for achieving solopreneur success. So sit back, clear your schedule, clear your mind, and get ready for this week’s episode of Social Media News Live.

[00:00:54] Lou, how are you doing today?

[00:00:56] Lou Mongello: Good to see you. Thanks for having me back.

[00:00:58] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, this is gonna be exciting because, uh, this is gonna be so much fun. We got, we’ve got our friends already popping in the house. Rich Watts is saying, Good morning, Jeff, Lou, and Connor. Lay some knowledge on me. Oh, we will not disappoint you today, Rich. Thank you for, uh, popping by.

[00:00:58] Gary is in the house as well saying, Good morning, you lovely people. Thanks, Gary. Uh, and by the way, here’s, uh, Castahead saying, uh, Dr. Sieh. Castahead. net. Go check him out. Chris Stone, amazing new website. Uh, Andrea is here as well saying hello. Hello to you as well. So this is gonna be a fun show. So! We’re going to, you know, start it off.

[00:00:58] We’re going to be talking about what it takes to be a entrepreneur, uh, as a solopreneur by yourself. Lew has done that and we’re going to talk about his brand new course, The Blueprint for Solopreneur Success. You can find it at lewmongelo. com. Make sure you go check that out there. I think there’s a pop up that comes right up on the, on the screen there, but it’s only 7.

[00:01:24] It’s amazing. It’s got some worksheets. So, make sure you guys go check that out at loumangelo. com, and Lou, uh, I want to ask you,

[00:01:35] Lou Mongello: Well, to be honest,

[00:01:37] Jeff, um, this course is like 10 years in the making. Not that it

[00:01:41] took me 10 years to develop a course, but finally took me 10 years to wrap my mind around. like, I always knew that I needed to

[00:01:47] do a course for courses, but. Um, you know, I think especially for those of us who are, are solo entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs and creators, like things have to just happen for you at the right time.

[00:01:56] And it took me a long time to sort of wrap my head around, not just what I wanted to do, but the way I wanted to do it. And so this is sort of the first iteration of something that’s going to let me hopefully Reach and help a lot of people, um, a little bit more at, a little bit more at scale.

[00:02:11] Conor Brown: That’s probably for the best. If we’re all honest with ourselves here, uh, Lou, I already signed up for it. I loved it. I love how, um, It’s not overwhelming, right? Like it’s intentionally set up over, over a course of a number of days. So you just get one email each day and all your job is, is to open the email each day and, and kind of follow along with that.

[00:02:27] You’re not overwhelmed with so much information all at once. So I like how it’s, it’s spread out like that, but can you kind of walk through just the structure of the course and, and what participants can kind of expect to learn each day with each new email that they get?

[00:02:42] Lou Mongello: Yeah. And thank you for the, for the feedback. I really appreciate it. Cause honestly, kind of, this is sort of me dipping my toe into the course creation water. So this is not just a learning experience that I want to have for others, but a learning experience for myself as well. So as a creator, I didn’t want to overwhelm myself building my first course.

[00:02:58] And for somebody who was taking it, I think we’ve all probably signed up for courses and you’re just inundated with, you 20 lessons, 30 hours of video lessons, like the, the course completion percentage is often relatively low because it is overwhelming and you sort of have to, you, you know, feel like you have to sort of eat the whole elephant.

[00:03:17] So by trick, trickling it out day by day. You’re right. You don’t feel overwhelmed. And it’s, it’s more than just meant to be sort of a roadmap to help you ideate and create, and then launch whatever your thing is, right. You’re passionate, your profession, but I want to sort of give you like Lego building blocks to help you sort of build a foundation off of that.

[00:03:39] So it’s about figuring out what your passion is, right. To use a Disney ism, like what’s your little one, One little spark of inspiration. And then what sets you apart? What is your differentiator? What’s your mission statement? Like what, what is your, why, why are you doing this? What’s your story? And then we’ve worked on things like.

[00:03:57] I your strategy and building your foundation and then actually launching whatever that thing is, whether it is a product, a service, a book, a course, uh, account, whatever it might be.

[00:04:07] Jeff Sieh: So, um, one of the things that I wanted to dive into is the, when you said, you know, identifying one’s why, like, how does, how did, I know you have with this course, like, I think every day has a worksheet that you go download and you, and you work on, um, how does identifying that why that you just talked about play that crucial role in the success of a solopreneur?

[00:04:29] Like, what, how I mean, because my why seems to change sometimes, like, I mean, you know, like, let’s dig into that a little bit, because, like, how does your course help kind of nail that down for people?

[00:04:40] Lou Mongello: Well, I think your why is important for a lot of reasons, right? Because we don’t want this to be a job, right? We want to do something that we love, but I think it’s, it’s, let me take a step back. What we do. And it’s all about like, the connection to the past. And then it’s all about, like, the past is not just about like a kid playing a game in his house, but it’s a conversation.

[00:05:01] I’m not a kid asking my mom to marry me. It’s a conversation about the past, right? And you can say, Oh, I’m in the past and I don’t know what tomorrow will be like to me, or I’m in the present, or that’s how I’m going to be. Yes, the future is coming. And that’s what we’re trying to do right now. Like the thing that you’re good at and then brainstorming what sort of business idea can come from it.

[00:05:18] Because if you’re trying to just follow a trend or do what’s popular or do what you think is going to be, you know, quick road to making money, like those are bad whys, like that should not be like, your why

[00:05:30] should be like, you know what, man? Cause I fricking love Disney world. Like that’s, that’s

[00:05:33] like, that’s my why.

[00:05:35] Like that is my why.

[00:05:37] Jeff Sieh: So, I want to I want to keep digging down this for a little bit, because, do you get tired of Disney? Like, my thing is, is like, you know, find your why, find your passion. If, once you do your passion, you’ll never work another day in your life. And sometimes that can be Like like this what we’re doing now didn’t exist you know, 10, 20 years ago.

[00:05:55] in high school, I didn’t say, you know, I want to be a live streamer and a marketer. you know, that just didn’t, wasn’t there. So do you dive into what you like to do and then kind of navigate that current inside of your why? Is that, Kind of what you’re, when you’re talking about finding your why, because it’s like, I want to be, you know, a YouTuber really isn’t a why, I guess, is what

[00:06:14] Conor Brown: How do you not let your why alienate

[00:06:18] your passion too? Cause I think so often, you know, sometimes you find what you love and you do, you’ll never work a day in your life, but you also kind of want to make sure that also, you know, don’t make the thing that you love

[00:06:31] feel like work and alienated by that.

[00:06:35] Lou Mongello: Well, I think sometimes our, our why we define it one way. And then as time goes on. We come to, I think, to a little bit more clarity. So if you would have asked me 19 years ago, when I started this, what is your why? Well, cause I love Disney world, right? When I help people have a better Disney vacation, if you ask me now, right.

[00:06:54] And sort of with hindsight being 2020 and because of, of where I am in terms of what I do on the Disney stuff and the business stuff, I think my why is like, I just genuinely like helping people. Right. And, and on the Disney side, it’s funny. Cause I’ll have conversations with people like, what’s your exit strategy?

[00:07:08] I’m like, I don’t know, death, like I don’t have an exit, but the day it stops being fun guys is the day I stopped doing it. Like that’s my exit strategy. So I genuinely love what I do. I love helping people. And I want, the reason why I’m doing the courses and momentum and all this kind of thing is because I want to help people feel the same way that I do.

[00:07:27] When I get up in the morning about the work that I’m doing and the thing that keeps me up late at

[00:07:32] night on. You know, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, like every night of the week because I just genuinely

[00:07:38] enjoy it.

[00:07:39] Conor Brown: Yeah, I think that’s awesome. It’s like almost at the beginning of the year, you should re evaluate your why, right? And just

[00:07:47] as you tweak it just a little bit here there that sets you up

[00:07:51] for how you’re gonna focus that year, You know, and I also think like your why

[00:07:55] is good for when you do say Why? Why? right When you’re frustrated and you’re down and you’re working hard and you’re like, why? What’s the point? When you say that and go, well,

[00:08:05] this is why this is, this is what it is. Gary, um, has a great comment here. He says the guy who invented MySpace, Tom, I believe I was a friend with him on MySpace. I don’t know if

[00:08:15] any, everyone else was with him, but I definitely was. Sold it for 570 million

[00:08:19] and retired so he could devote his

[00:08:21] time to his passion for So it’s kind of like this thing of, are you

[00:08:26] getting into something to get you to your passion or are you

[00:08:29] doing something so that you continue your, your passion for forever? I think that that’s A question everyone has to ask yourself, but it of course starts with how you start.

[00:08:40] So Lou, you know, what are some common challenges

[00:08:44] that So many people have an idea, um, but they might not know how to

[00:08:51] take it to market or how to market

[00:08:53] it or sell it or set up the processes that, that need

[00:08:56] to occur for that. So what are some just common challenges they face when they’re starting

[00:09:00] out?

[00:09:01] Right when they’re starting out?

[00:09:02] and then also talk a little bit about how your course helps

[00:09:05] those people navigate those types of challenges. I

[00:09:10] Lou Mongello: in, in identifying not just your own why and answering your own why

[00:09:14] for yourself, I think you

[00:09:15] also, one of the next logical questions in my opinion is why you right? We are in a, a

[00:09:20] very crowded space where we all

[00:09:23] have the blessing of anybody can be a publisher, anybody can be a creator, anybody can be a YouTuber, a podcast, whatever it might

[00:09:28] be.

[00:09:29] So, what is it that sets you apart? Right. Why should I choose you over

[00:09:35] tens, hundreds of thousands of other people that are maybe doing something similar to what you do? And that’s why figuring out. Okay, who am I serving? You know, why me? What is the value? Like you have to advance the question. I do X for these people so that they can Y.

[00:09:52] Like once you’re able to fill in those blanks, you have a very sort of clear mission statement, not just for yourself, but for the people that you are trying to serve from that, you build out what your story is, figure out who your target audience is, and then start to make it a more concrete. You know, business model and structured plan.

[00:10:13] Jeff Sieh: Well, I know, I mentioned that there’s, like, worksheets that go with it, and they’re not just like, You know, you see some of those courses where they, they’re making a worksheet just to make a worksheet. These are some deep stuff that you just don’t sit there and scribble out. Like, you work through them, you, you know, you go, you take some thought.

[00:10:29] Like, you’re gonna be like, oh crap, there’s another email tomorrow. I gotta get this done. I mean, but I mean, it’s, it’s good stuff. There’s a lot of things that I’ve seen from going to Momentum, where we have a really thick workbook that you have distilled and really, you know, built upon. to help us get focused on this part of the business.

[00:10:46] So I think it’s really, really, really cool. And by the way, I’ll just mention it one more time that you guys, you guys can go to lumangelo. com and it’s, uh, it’s seven bucks. I mean, it’s, it’s a five day course and it’s really, really, really cool.

[00:10:58] Um, so I would highly suggest you guys go check that out at lumangelo.

[00:11:02] com. on that note, so this is like, what is it? The second month of this course you started it last, last month. Do you have any, good success stories or feedback that you’ve gotten from people who, uh, that you’ve helped with this course? Have you got people going like, hey, Lou, you helped me do this, this, and this?

[00:11:19] Lou Mongello: Yeah. Like there’s nothing like I’m not in this for the 7, right. And it’s not about this, but when you get somebody who emails me and it was like, this is life changing, this is just the thing that I needed at just the right time. And I have, I’ve bought other courses before and I just can’t get through all of it.

[00:11:36] We’re here. It is accessible. I have a specific goal in mind that I know I’m going to reach in like, I, it’s the reason why I do it that way guys is, is so that. You don’t have to sort of get overwhelmed by sort of opening up this big book. You get these sort of bite sized lessons and then these worksheets that you can and should do, like, I don’t want you, I mean, you can, if you want to, but I don’t want you to sort of look at all five days right at the beginning, right?

[00:11:58] There’s a logical process that I want to take you through and you’re right. The, the, the worksheets are meant to really be very thought provoking and, and have you take the time because it is, each one is going to be again, that Lego, Brick that you build the foundation of the next step on snack,

[00:12:14] Jeff Sieh: It is, like I said, it’s, I, I, I love the idea of an email course. I think they’re really cool. They’re, everybody has an email inbox, so it’s really easy. They don’t have to go and log in to, uh, Of course, you, don’t have to watch the video, but it’s, it’s there, it’s got the, the resources, so I once again, highly recommend it really, really cool.

[00:12:29] By the way, I forgot to mention, at the, beginning of the show, this show is brought to you by our friends over at Ecamm. You can find out more about them at ecamm. com forward slash Jeff. By the way, they have. their summer sale going on right now. If you use the code 24July30, that’s 24July30, you can get 30 percent off your first payment, uh, with that promo code.

[00:12:52] So ecamm. com forward slash Jeff, 30 percent off, 24July30. Make sure you do that. And also we’ve got this really cool thing called Crater Camp coming up. Uh, Lou is gonna be there. Connor’s gonna be there. I’m gonna be speaking there along with my pal Ian Anderson. Great, I am. I’m gonna be there. Um, but it is unfortunately sold out But the thing is, uh, there is a contest where you can have a chance to win A ticket to Creator Camp. If you go to jeffsieh. com forward slash win, you can enter to win a ticket to this amazing camp jeffsieh. com forward slash win. I’m going to be giving away a secret code at the end of the show for even more entries, so stay tuned for that.

[00:13:31] Alrighty, so let’s jump into this next section because I want to talk about, I mean, entrepreneur is one thing, solopreneur is a totally different thing, which is, Doing it all yourself, which sometimes is not recommended. You should build a team, I think. Even Lou will say he gets help for some things. But I have seen Lou’s slide at Momentum about all the different places where money comes in and how he has all these projects.

[00:13:55] Uh, and that can be overwhelming when you first. make the leap into being a solopreneur. There’s a lot of stuff you’ve got to do So I wanted to, talk about some of the key strategies and tools for solopreneurs. So, I asked this question inside of actually Lou’s private group for Momentum, The Hub, And Lindsay asked, Lou, if you only had one hour a day to work on your business. what would you do during that hour?

[00:14:22] Lou Mongello: probably snack,

[00:14:24] Jeff Sieh: Lots of high calorie snacks, yes. Yeah.

[00:14:30] Lou Mongello: Well, I think that’s, it’s very, it’s interesting. It’s interesting question. And I’m happy actually

[00:14:35] that you brought up that I love with every event, I think a lot of it is just like, I’m going to set the bar,

[00:14:41] I’m going to set the bar, but I’m going to set the bar. Because I’m going to

[00:14:46] point? If I’m going to drive to the U, I’m

[00:14:49] not going to go to the

[00:14:50] U. You got to get it. Plus I’m going to use it

[00:14:54] to me. You got to get

[00:14:55] it. Who you are, who you serve, the thing that you’re good

[00:15:02] at and going sort of all in on that one thing, the idea of sort of being everywhere doesn’t, I don’t think flies anymore because there are too many places to be and there’s the attention is spread too thin. So I would figure out the one thing that I would want to work on it, which would probably be my podcast, right?

[00:15:21] The podcast is still the podcast and the community are the heart and soul respectively of what I do. And that’s what I would spend my time on.

[00:15:28] Conor Brown: In the immortal words of one of my heroes, Ron Swanson, he says, don’t half ass two things, whole ass one thing. And I live by that. And it’s so easy, especially I think for solopreneurs, solopreneurs so often start out, With having a day job, with having a full family life that they have to balance with, having all this personal stuff that they have to deal with.

[00:15:54] So they’re fitting in this kind of business, whatever it might be into that life that’s already established. So having that one hour is really, really crucial and you have to capitalize on it. You don’t want to be pulled in a million things because you’re not going to really focus on, on anything at all.

[00:16:11] So I love that advice. And Lindsey asks another great question in the hub. She says, If you, Lou, were starting from scratch right now, no following, nothing, what would you do? How would you start? What social media platform would you start on? And what products would you start to build? So if you’re going from scratch, what are you doing?

[00:16:34] Lou Mongello: I still think. That’s podcasting has the greatest potential for not just building community and building relationships. And I think growing a follow, I think it, I think it’s easy is the wrong word. I think there’s greater opportunity to be a bigger fish in a small pond in the podcasting space. Then I’m going to start a YouTube channel and hopefully people can find me out of the 7 billion other YouTube channels that are out there.

[00:17:05] Um, so I would. build a podcast, I would create a community around it and my email list, all of which are directly connected to one Those are the three I, I very much let me hide my phone so nobody’s listening. Like I, I hate, you know, the building our houses on rented land and being, um, having to, you know, Try and navigate ever changing algorithms on whatever platform it is.

[00:17:28] Find your platform where your people are. Uh, like I love Facebook because I love having a Facebook group because that’s where my community lives. I love Instagram for different reasons. I like LinkedIn for the reasons, but I think finding the one, maybe the two platforms that speak to where your audience is about the things that you’re talking about is better than trying to, again, shotgun approach to, uh, Facebook.

[00:17:49] Every social platform out there.

[00:17:51] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I love that. So one of the things, and you know, Doing research on you, which is a little creepy, but I did it anyway. we see the Lu Mongiello as the, the big OG podcaster who has been doing it for years. And I love because that’s, and I, I think this is important for solopreneurs to understand.

[00:18:06] There’s usually for those people who are successful, the one kind of pillar product that they have. Which for Lou is podcasting, and then stuff flows out from that. Like, that’s just kind of the way it works if you look at most people. Like, even Pat Flynn started as a podcast, and then he’s grown his industry from that.

[00:18:25] But you don’t do it all at once. And a lot of times we look at people like you, Lou, and like, oh my gosh, he’s got a gajillion downloads, and he’s sitting down with Kevin Feige, the, the president of Marvel, and he’s got all these famous people calling him on the phone, and he’s getting all these free trips, and yadda yadda yadda.

[00:18:39] but it didn’t start that way. Like, you went, the podcasting wasn’t even first. You started with a book, Right. And then, you went to a podcast, and, uh, what, book, website, uh, And that’s a process. And we want to jump in line, but a lot of times we can’t do that. And I think that’s one thing that I would like you know, you to talk about a little bit about having that pillar product.

[00:19:03] And you mentioned focusing on one thing, but that it’s, it doesn’t happen overnight. Like, you know, I think Chris Brogan said, like, I was an overnight success and it only took me 15 years or something like that. So, I mean. do is do you struggle when you get up in front and talk and talk to people about starting your own business?

[00:19:19] That, to getting across it, it, it doesn’t, it takes time. Like you didn’t jump ship and start, you know, leave your law practice after, until after you wrote the book and you saw some success. You didn’t just quit and go, I’m going to Disney. Right. You saw the,

[00:19:33] Lou Mongello: No, I literally said, I quit and I said, I’m going to Disney, but

[00:19:35] Jeff Sieh: really, okay. Well, but you don’t advise that

[00:19:39] Lou Mongello: right,

[00:19:40] Jeff Sieh: saying.

[00:19:41] Lou Mongello: right. It, you take a leap of faith, but make sure you have a parachute. You know, it’s funny if, if like at momentum and like events, like I always have stuff to give away. Right. I

[00:19:50] always have like little like stuff to give away. And usually at the end of momentum, I have something that represents the, for me, the overarching theme.

[00:19:58] I

[00:19:58] think this year I’m going to give away like blinders, like horse

[00:20:01] blinders. Because that’s really what you need to have on because we are so

[00:20:05] sometimes distracted with the apparent success or progress of where other people are, that we measure ourselves

[00:20:13] against it. And

[00:20:14] we shouldn’t, their journey is one vastly different than yours.

[00:20:17] Even if you’re in the same

[00:20:18] space to the timing might

[00:20:20] be different. Like they may have started 20

[00:20:23] years ago and you might just be starting now.

[00:20:25] And it is a process and it’s a grind, man. Like you guys know this, like,

[00:20:29] you know, we work.

[00:20:30] Yeah. What’s the saying? We work 80 hours a week, so we don’t have to work 40 hours a week.

[00:20:33] Like I work 100 hours a week, so I don’t have to work 40 hours

[00:20:36] a week. I, I love it. If we start looking at where other people are,

[00:20:42] all of a sudden these, this,

[00:20:44] this, the questioning starts to come in. Well, what am I doing wrong? Do people not like me? The

[00:20:48] imposter syndrome, you know, starts to say, maybe I should do something else.

[00:20:51] Maybe I should start

[00:20:52] a cupcake blog because cupcakes are really

[00:20:53] popular. Like you have to sort of stay very, Hyper-focused. Like do your one thing, like

[00:20:59] what is the thing that you want to be

[00:21:01] known for? That’s the question you have to ask yourself. What do I wanna be known for? Focus on that one thing, like

[00:21:07] laser focus and go down that path. It

[00:21:10] may be somewhat

[00:21:11] circuitous, but if you start with that, with your why behind you and know that thing you wanna be

[00:21:15] known for. It’ll help sort

[00:21:17] of keep some of the other distractions and people who could be distractions out of the way.

[00:21:21] Conor Brown: It’s your guiding light. And I think the biggest thing

[00:21:24] that Especially

[00:21:25] social media brings to is is trying to compare your chapter to somebody else’s chapter Where you don’t know how far in the book they are how far you are in the book the president of my college a guy Named Nito Cobain. He had this

[00:21:38] quote that said Your present circumstances don’t dictate where you will end up.

[00:21:44] They merely dictate Where you start. And that’s all it is, right? It’s just, you’re starting right now. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to get to the end where you’re gonna, where you want to be. It just means this is where you’re going to start. And you know, another great one, the, uh, Disney, Walt Disney said, thinking, quit talking, start doing right.

[00:22:04] Jeff Sieh: it. I have it on my, the challenge coin, right. here. See? I was gonna bring that up. Yeah.

[00:22:04] Conor Brown: Rich asked a great question too, um, talking about bringing people on. So he’s basically saying, you know, does bringing others, meaning like, someone to help you to, to alleviate tasks, to, uh, uh, uh, give them things to do. Does bringing others into the fold to maintain your day to day business allow you to invest energy on the forward direction of the business and thus sustain your passion?

[00:22:26] So it’s kind of like, You have this passion, the little kind of day to day things might be wearing you down, is bringing someone in to do that really just so that you can continue on your passion and sustain your energy.

[00:22:38] Lou Mongello: So I’m going to qualify this. Cause if somebody is watching who knows me, like do as I say, not as I do, right? Like, you know, I, I preach all the time, get help, do the things that you are uniquely qualified to do and the things that you freaking love to, like, if it’s not hell, yes, it should be hell. No, like do the things that you love to do and that are good at doing, and you can.

[00:22:59] Offload some of the other tasks. And sometimes you’re like, well, I don’t have the money. I’m not generating revenue. That’s why if you build good community, like you can find people who want to help you because they want to be part of what you’re doing. Like if this is obviously on a much greater, if Kevin Feige was like, Hey Lou, would you, do you want to come to the set of the next movie and just help like grab coffee?

[00:23:19] Like, of course I would. Like I would do, I would pay to do it. Your audience, again, if you have a, a. True meaningfully, like good community, they would want to do that for you. So maybe you need somebody to help you with social media stuff or writing articles, you’d be surprised how many people would want to volunteer.

[00:23:35] Do what you are good at, do the things that you love doing. So that frees you up to like, focus on the things that are gonna move the business forward while. all so much, have a great rest of your day, see you soon. Reluctant to let some of those things go. Well, it’s just easier if I do it myself. The time it would take me to explain it to so and so, I could just get it done easy myself.

[00:24:12] We have to sort of get out of that mindset and get out of our own way because otherwise we will plateau. We could only scale ourselves so large before we need help from others.

[00:24:24] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, the best thing that I have ever done. Well, first of all, I’ve been in a mastermind set. It’s changed everything. It’s amazing. The second one is um, I hired Shannon Hernandez to help me with my podcasting clients. And then I just recently, last year, hired my daughter to do a lot of the stuff.

[00:24:39] And you’re Right. it’s a lot of it’s like, ah, I gotta take time to train and it, But once you do it, you’re like, why didn’t I do this before? Because she’s taken care of a lot of the repurposing that we’re doing. She’s doing a great job. She’s able to travel with me and, and be able to do stuff together.

[00:24:52] I mean, it’s, I, I’m So, I just wish I would have done it earlier. Of course, she would have been in, you know, younger, and that would have been weird taking her out of school. but it’s just, it’s, it’s so much a blessing to have that and, and have that person that I can hand off stuff to do that I can trust to take care of it. So it’s very, very cool. we got to cut

[00:25:08] Lou Mongello: word. Trust is the big

[00:25:09] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, Yeah, yeah, I know. finding those people that you really trust. Like Shannon’s been doing the podcast for me for over three years. And like, just I don’t even think about it. Like, in that is such a another blessing that like, once you have those people hold on to do what you need to, to

[00:25:25] work with them And keep them going with you.

[00:25:27] So, um,

[00:25:27] Lou Mongello: Like, start with little projects. Like, start with little things and then see how it works.

[00:25:31] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Lou, start with those projects and just you know, see what happens. Um, so, Ian Harrison Gray says, Comparison is the thief of joy and it takes, it likes to rear its ugly head at the strangest of times. So true, Ian, that is very, very true. And, uh, Katie really liked, uh, what do I want to be known for?

[00:25:50] That’s something that a lot of people, uh, What do you want to, you know, need to think about? like what do you want to be known for? I don’t really want to. be known For a live streamer. I would love to be, I love doing this show. I want to be known for, like, engaging people in the comments. that’s what I like to do. it’s just fun to me. And speaking of that uh, Mr. Fred. Hey there, Lou. If there, was one thing that has your attention to keep an eye on for opportunities, what would it be?

[00:26:14] Lou Mongello: One thing that has my attention to keep my eye on for opportunity. So I’m, I’m actually going to go back. I’m going to lean, um, I’m going to lean back into podcasting again. And, and I know podcasting has a sort of weird cycle of it’s the next big hot thing, and then nobody’s listening to podcasting. And then all of a sudden, you know, you hear about all this advertising

[00:26:29] dollars going to podcasting. I still believe that. It is not just the most intimate medium, right? I

[00:26:37] talk about all the time that I think we’re in the relationship business. I think podcasting is a great way to make one on one relationships with your audience at scale because of the intimacy of it, right? When you’re talking to the one person that’s listening, I mean, hopefully one more than one person listening, but metaphorically, the one person that’s listening to your show.

[00:26:53] So I still think that there is great opportunity there. So to

[00:26:58] build a platform, gain reputation, gain exposure, build community, monetize through podcasting, especially now. I mean, pretty much all the podcasting platforms now have monetization options built in. So you don’t have to worry about, you know, literally and metaphorically knocking on doors to try and find sponsors.

[00:27:16] They will help do it for you. Um, so I do, I think there’s great, and especially now with, you don’t have to do it, but if you’re, you know, podcast, getting the exposure via YouTube and other platforms as well.

[00:27:26] Conor Brown: I want to ask a follow up question around that because you’ve always said, you know, for years, it’s, it’s the most intimate medium, you know, you’re, you’re, Putting headphones in to listen to someone. I totally agree with that, but as podcasts kind of transitions or evolves into this incorporating video more and more and more, and so many podcasts out there are video first podcasts that also have an audio component.

[00:27:51] How do you see that changing? The podcast landscape, and I, I know you’ve dabbled a little bit in, in using video as a promotional tool, not necessarily recording the entirety of it to, to watch as a podcast, but how do you, I guess Lou, see where it’s going with video and podcasting and how do you balance that fine line from, from where you’ve been as an audio first podcast?

[00:28:16] Lou Mongello: Yeah, depending on what statistics you read and believe, you know, some people say that YouTube is the number one podcast consumption platform. Um, that may or may not be true, but whatever it is, it is, you know, it is the 800 pound gorilla in the mix. And I think what this does is two fold. I think it presents opportunity, Right.

[00:28:35] So if you want to record video, you have an opportunity for people to, if, look, if you’re not a podcast consumer, it is very hard to be like, Oh, I have a podcast. You should start listening to podcasts because maybe that’s not the way you consume content. You don’t listen in your headphones as you’re walking or on the treadmill or.

[00:28:53] At the gym or, or in your car. So if you don’t listen to podcasts that way, there’s a good chance if you’re audio only, people might not find you. What YouTube does is opens the door to a completely new audience that they might not sit there and watch, you know, talking heads or whatever it might be for however long your show is, but they put it on the living room TV or in the kitchen and they listen in the background while they’re doing other things, you become part of the routine as podcasting does.

[00:29:19] But I also think that sometimes intimidates people. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Like. I like podcasting because, you know, look at my face. I don’t want to like, I don’t want to do video. You don’t have to, I think it’s, it’s important to be clear. Like while yes, video podcasting is huge and is only going to continue to grow.

[00:29:38] It should not be a barrier to you entering the podcast space. If you want to do audio only. Do audio only, like you don’t have to do one in order to do the other

[00:29:48] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I have a face for Photoshop. So, um, that’s what I always tell people. But, but I’ve always done video first, but podcasting has always been a component of it. Like even back in the, here we go, Chris Stone, Google Plus days, I started that and I was always as a podcast. And in fact, you can even go back and listen to mainly Pinterest tips podcast show back in the day.

[00:30:09] But, um, I just like it because it’s like you said, Lou, it’s another place to. For people to do content, but some people will never, ever be comfortable with video, and that’s okay. I think it’s perfectly, you know, you need to have that pillar piece of content that you’re putting out there, and that’s

[00:30:25] Lou Mongello: And I think, I think video too is intimidating. Like, oh, I don’t wanna start editing video. And I don’t have the technology, I don’t have the camera, I don’t have the lighting. You don’t need that. So for example, for me, like most of my shows, I’ll record here like. In the home studio and I’ll have people on video and I’ll be able to take clips But I do like pre and post stuff and like trivia stuff secondary to that so I can’t necessarily Produce a video to upload all of the podcast platforms.

[00:30:51] Now, you can upload audio And it will push it out to YouTube. So you’ll have a video podcast with a static image, but people can still find like, it’s a great discovery tool. They can find you there. They can put it up on the TV and listen in the background. So again, don’t let the fear of video from either a.

[00:31:10] Face perspective or a technology perspective make you feel like you can’t do it.

[00:31:16] Jeff Sieh: Spotify just came out with some new stats about video podcasting, and that’s growing, and I think. everybody has access to it now. So, it’s just, yeah, like you said, it’s continuing to grow. I just do it because it’s easy and it’s another piece of content, because that’s the way we’ve done it. But, don’t be me.

[00:31:32] Conor Brown: Well, I was just gonna say, Gary says I have a face for radio, as my mother, uh, would say. I’ve been told that I too have a face for radio, but I

[00:31:38] also have a voice for newspaper. Which I’m not sure

[00:31:43] Jeff Sieh: but you also have a podcast at Vacation Kingdoms, Right.

[00:31:47] Conor Brown: I

[00:31:47] do, right. And I’ve, since I’ve relaunched it,

[00:31:49] I’ve done it as a

[00:31:51] video podcast as well, because I found

[00:31:53] that how’s it going to

[00:31:54] be the easiest for me? And for that, it’s firing up this, this web camera that

[00:31:59] I’m looking into right now, recording right into it using Ecamm’s record

[00:32:03] feature, and then editing

[00:32:05] it.

[00:32:05] Video first, and then just taking the audio file

[00:32:08] from that, uh, and, and uploading it, um, as audio and to YouTube. So it’s kind of like,

[00:32:13] what is going to,

[00:32:15] one, work best for you that you’re comfortable with, but also, two, how’s it going to be easy? What is going to be

[00:32:22] the process that has the

[00:32:23] least amount of barriers that, Uh, uh, uh, help you to not just say, I’ll do it later, you know,

[00:32:30] I’ll do it

[00:32:30] later to

[00:32:31] procrastinate something as usually when it’s super time consuming, when there’s a lot

[00:32:35] of effort involved in it.

[00:32:36] I try to make it just as simple as possible so that I can remain as consistent as possible doing something. Um, I know we’ve talked a lot about bringing people on to help take off some of the, the smaller kind of tasks that you might have so that you can focus on more strategy and things around that.

[00:32:53] We’ve talked a lot about, uh, um, the things that you have to do every single day. Cassie brought up a great point. She said, you know, documenting processes as you build them, SOPs, so Standard Operating Procedures, it helps you offload more efficiently. I love a good SOP, so I love that Cassie brought this up because you might build up muscle memory, right?

[00:33:14] And then it’s just in your head things that you have to do and that’s what’s the challenging part when you’re trying to onboard someone to help you with these tasks. But if you just put SOP and then give it to someone, it’s almost like. You there are training them in the form of a document, but Lou, when people are starting out, maybe they haven’t, you know, even gotten to an SOP kind of standard, right?

[00:33:38] They haven’t started at all. What are some tools that, that solopreneurs should really just start looking into when they start? Tools and resources just to get started. Do you have any

[00:33:49] suggestions around those?

[00:33:50] Lou Mongello: I can’t even spell

[00:33:51] SOP, let alone know what it’s

[00:33:52] like. I’ve been doing this 20 years. I have no SOP. It’s funny,

[00:33:56] like I’ll do, I’ll do interviews. People like, so how long, like, do you plan for your shows in advance?

[00:34:02] Like how many weeks out do you have, like your shows

[00:34:05] recorded? And I’m like, well, usually on Sunday, I’m running

[00:34:07] around trying to figure out what I’m going to talk about that night and seeing who’s available

[00:34:11] to come in as a guest and record. Because

[00:34:14] I’m, I’m

[00:34:15] spinning so many plates at once. I don’t, you know, my standard is that I don’t have a standard operating procedure. And I think, I think to your question, Connor,

[00:34:21] about the tools and things like that. I think sometimes you have to

[00:34:25] be careful because I think we get caught

[00:34:27] up too much on looking for the silver bullet, the magic wand, the thing that’s going to like,

[00:34:33] Oh, if I, learn how to use notion, everything’s going to be perfect.

[00:34:37] Like, and

[00:34:38] I see people that sort of bounce from tool to tool to tool. They go through the process, they learn it, they move all their stuff from Evernote to Notion, they move from Notion to Trello, and now they’ve spent like three months just basically moving their data from

[00:34:51] place to place, but they haven’t moved their business forward at

[00:34:53] all. Like, and it’s

[00:34:54] this. We have the perception that we’re busy, but we’re really not

[00:34:59] getting anything done. And I think we sometimes are fooling ourselves either purposefully or subconsciously. Just because you’re busy, it doesn’t mean that you are advancing in your business. So I actually, like, I don’t think that that tools are necessarily the most Important thing in the world.

[00:35:18] Like I have very few tools in my tool belt that I feel are like critical. Like, so for me, my life lives on Evernote. I know people love notion. They love. I’ve been using Evernote since it very first came out. It works for me. I don’t need to spend the time to learn something else. Right. Look, I’m, I am an Ecamm evangelist because the same thing.

[00:35:39] Like I love Ecamm. I love Riverside. So the very, the, I think for The fewer, more powerful tools you have in your tool belt, the better, rather than saying, well, look, look, here’s all the 30 different tools I use to run my business. No, you’re using these tools to just use the tools and your business isn’t necessarily moving forward.

[00:35:58] Sometimes the best way you can get is, is somebody else to help you.

[00:36:01] Jeff Sieh: Right. The only reason I moved from Evernote is because Bending Spoons bought them, and they destroy companies. So that’s why I

[00:36:08] Lou Mongello: you say it to me all the time and you’re freaking me

[00:36:11] out, man. you can export out, of Evernote into Notion, I’m just saying. um, Cassie, they’re gonna, they, And they just bought StreamYard. That, that’ll tell you something.

[00:36:19] Jeff Sieh: so Cassie says this, it’s really easy to turn, with AI now, to turn podcast content into blog posts, social content. Lots of work up front, but goes a long way. Right. I think, you, know, there’s, there’s some tools we’re going to have to have. Like, we’re going to have to have, if you’re doing live video, you’ve got to have some sort of way to do that right?

[00:36:35] If you’re doing a podcast, you’ve got to have one of the editing tools to edit the, the show with. Um, I think it’s going to be, you’re going to have to have an AI thing to help you split up clips. Like, if you’re going to repurpose. and like I know you mentioned, Riverside does that. Descript does that for me.

[00:36:48] Opus Clips is another one that a lot of people use. So, it’s not so much an exact tool, but I think it’s going to be, a thing that you’ll need to help market your show. Just like, you know, you have to have an editor for doing audio. and I think sticking with that tool, like, you were saying, Lou, I am very guilty of like, oh, maybe this will make me be more productive, you know, And then, you know, So I’m in my old age, I’m trying to pull back and like stick like, okay, yes, that’s new, but this is going to have it eventually.

[00:37:19] I can, you know, not just be bouncing around.

[00:37:22] Lou Mongello: And that’s what I mean. Sometimes the tool is a person. And what I mean by that is when you realize, Hey, I want to do stuff, more stuff with. You know, cutting up clips and editing video and doing transcription. Maybe instead of you saying, all right, well, I need to now sit down and figure out how to use Descript, which is amazing, but it’s a bit of a beast, right?

[00:37:43] There’s a lot to it. Maybe you don’t want to become a video editor. Maybe you’re not a copywriter or a marketer or don’t know how to run a Facebook ad. Like you shouldn’t sit for me. I don’t want to take a course on how to run a Facebook ad. I’d rather find somebody who’s really good at running Facebook ads.

[00:37:58] Cassie is a a great example. Like like Cassie is, is a, has, has helped me with a lot of different things that have helped me move from like square zero to like completion. Rather than me trying to figure out how to

[00:38:11] do all the things that Cassie is really good at doing, she has been able to actually get on and forgive me for sort of.

[00:38:17] You know, calling out by name, but you don’t necessarily have to have a ton of people, a huge team, huge expense, or a ton of time to learn all of these different tools and platforms. It’s a matter of getting help in the way that you are most comfortable receiving or using it.

[00:38:34] Jeff Sieh: And this is, this is kind of a preview to what we’ll talk about next, but one of the things that helped me was, like, going to Momentum and being able to meet Paul Gouder and Connor, and I’m like, crud, I need to do my email. Like, I mean, like, I, I mean, I had a list and it was just whatever, and then I started using AI, and then I’m like, you know what, everyone’s using AI, I need to quit using AI and actually write it myself, and started doing that this year.

[00:38:58] And it skyrocketed because of Paul. So sometimes it’s like a tool is even a conference or a person that you meet that comes and becomes, gets in your corner and helps you out. So don’t, don’t be scared to go to those things and use those as opportunities. Just don’t go there and take notes and don’t, and don’t do anything with it.

[00:39:18] Like, I mean, I, Paul and I hit it off and like, he helped me so much. And Connor is the same way, got on the show. And so don’t be scared to use and find. People in your space and ask for help, because that’s the only thing that’s helped me is, I somehow I can talk people into doing things for me. Um, Mike, says this, this is a great question.

[00:39:39] What’s a tip to help filter out so much of the negativity from others who actually want to see you fail when you’re starting out? Yeah.

[00:39:49] Lou Mongello: going to, I’m going to tell you the three words that I have basically lived by since I started this, um, and forgive the, the ignore the idiots, like ignore the idiots. Um, I don’t pay attention to that, to one, to people that don’t know who you are, that don’t know what you’re doing, that maybe are jealous or envious of what you are, like surround yourself by people that lift you up, like I’m friends with, I mean, I think I’m friends with Jeff and Connor because they say nice things about me.

[00:40:14] Like, that’s it. I mean, it’s really very self serving. But it also helps me filter out all of the negativity. And you’re like, well, wait, Lou, like you talk about Disney, everybody’s happy and positive. Really? Go check out Disney on, on X, you might see a very different side. And it’s hard, right? Because we take these things very personally and you’re like, well, wait, if this one person doesn’t like what I’m doing, maybe there’s other persons, You can’t like focus on the positive, right?

[00:40:39] It’s why community is so important because it does help you like weed out all that stuff. Cause sometimes they’re just out there to bring you down. Like people don’t necessarily want to see you succeed because maybe you’re doing something that they can’t do or don’t know how to do, or for one reason or another are just jealous of what you were doing.

[00:40:57] So, um, it’s sometimes easier said than done, but you have to just tune it out. And don’t respond. Do not respond because that’s exactly, as soon as you respond, you lose, because that’s what they want, right? As soon as they, as soon as you respond, they know that they’ve got you because they’ve gotten under your skin, which is all they want.

[00:41:14] And you’re, you’re arguing in, in something that you just can’t win because you’ve lost already just by engaging them.

[00:41:20] Jeff Sieh: once

[00:41:20] Conor Brown: my friend and I,

[00:41:21] Lou Mongello: that’s why, I don’t respond to Conor’s text messages

[00:41:24] Jeff Sieh: One of the things is, is that, um, having, and I keep harping on this, but it has made such a difference, is having those people around you, that when you hear those lies that you can go to and go, man, this guy just said this, I know it’s not true, but it’s bothering me. Like, I’ve done that with Ian, like, three days ago, like, and so, he’s a guy I can go to, and he’s like, no, that’s just, he’s being an idiot, like, don’t worry about it.

[00:41:45] And sometimes that’s all you need to move on. So I’m telling you, go to these events, find your masterminds, find your people, and it makes a huge difference in your business that you sometimes you don’t even think about. Go

[00:41:56] Lou Mongello: and surround yourself by people who are smarter than you,

[00:41:58] Jeff Sieh: Exactly. That’s, that’s

[00:42:00] Lou Mongello: which is easy, which is very easy for the three of us. So

[00:42:04] Jeff Sieh: Low bar. Yeah. Um, yeah.

[00:42:08] Conor Brown: He’s like, when it comes to the haters or the, the people that want to see you

[00:42:11] fail or people who, who aren’t using your business or saying that’ll never

[00:42:16] work, let them. Just think of that. Let them. And it doesn’t matter, right?

[00:42:21] If you just say,

[00:42:22] let them do it. Who cares? Right? And it’s almost like you need some sort of

[00:42:26] mantra when you do see, you know, something that tries to get under your

[00:42:31] skin. Just say, let them, and you let it pass. It comes over you like a wash. So I’ve been starting to do that. Anytime I see that, I’m Like,

[00:42:37] you know Let them, who cares, uh, worry about

[00:42:40] something else because God knows I have plenty of other things to worry about

[00:42:44] Lou Mongello: I think if you have haters, you’re doing something right.

[00:42:47] If you have haters, because it means that they’re paying attention to you.

[00:42:49] Conor Brown: Embrace your haters.

[00:42:52] Jeff Sieh: Hug your haters is what Jay Baer says. Hug

[00:42:54] Conor Brown: Hug your haters. So what about like, you know, sustaining yourself and and also growing a solopreneur business? Um, when it comes to that, I would assume that passion plays a huge role

[00:43:06] in it. Like you said, Lou, you know, I’m You work 80, 100 hours a week, so you don’t have to work 40 hours a week. And that’s probably all majority, a majority of it backed

[00:43:15] by passion.

[00:43:16] So in your course, according to your

[00:43:18] course, what can people kind of learn from it when it comes to sustaining themselves, growing their business, and also avoiding that burnout?

[00:43:27] Lou Mongello: You know, that’s, that’s the hard part, right? All the things you said are 100 percent true. And, and passion over the last few years, I think has become sort of a marketing buzzword, right? It’s, it’s become, you know, and there’s courses on finding your passion. And like, I think you should know, like you, to a certain degree, like we should know what our passion is.

[00:43:43] And like, I oftentimes will give people like very simple exercises, like just writing down some of the stuff that they love doing, right? So and then Looking at the things that you can imagine yourself doing every single day, because you want that, that intersection of the things that you love and the things that you’re good at.

[00:43:57] And hopefully there’s an intersection of things that people actually want for you. Like you might be the best, you know, whittler in the world, but maybe there’s not a big market for whittled. I’m trying to think of something that Jeff does like, but whatever that thing is, um, it’s true, man, because otherwise it ends up being a job again, right?

[00:44:17] It ends up, it ends up feeling like work and you’re right back to square one, except now that you’re the captain of your own ship and you’re spinning all these plates and trying to figure out how to like feed your family a couple times a week. So. It does have to be your, your why and your passion has to be like, if you want to get out of doing your nine to five job for whatever reason, and you want to build your own business, the only way I

[00:44:38] think you’re going to be successful is if there’s a true, like sincere, like authentic passion for the thing that, that you love, that, you want to turn into a business.

[00:44:47] Conor Brown: That’s so funny that you, you talk about, you know, wanting to leave

[00:44:50] your nine to five. Cause Lindsay asks another great question here too, that I think a lot of people struggle with,

[00:44:56] especially with being a solopreneur and starting

[00:44:59] something. She says, can you talk about having

[00:45:01] the confidence to go all in on your business and

[00:45:04] leaving your full time job? What do you, what do you got Lou? Give us some wisdom around this.

[00:45:10] Lou Mongello: Right. So I was just talking to somebody yesterday about, you know, the whole imposter syndrome, right? There’s, there’s imposter syndrome. There’s the fear of failure.

[00:45:17] There’s the, you know, the risks of taking a leap of faith,

[00:45:20] whether you are a true solo solopreneur, solopreneur that has other mouths to feed and other

[00:45:26] bills to pay.

[00:45:27] Um, I talk about taking the leap of faith, but making sure you have, you know, uh, a parachute. Maybe like when I decided to give this Disney thing a go and sold my house and brought money to my closing and. Move to a rented house in Florida that I had never even seen before. Like that was a massive leap of faith where I said, all right, if I want to give this a true shot, and again, this is a bit of an extreme measure, but the point I’m trying to make is you have to be willing.

[00:45:56] you ask me then and ask me now, what do I do for a living? The answer I’m going to give you is whatever it takes. And it’s not like a BS answer. Like I knew that if I would, you know, when I, when I moved out to Florida, I had a few months cushion of money saved up so I could truly devote my time and attention to trying to build this business as a business.

[00:46:16] And look, if it didn’t work. And if the bills are dry, like I would do whatever I had to do and not to take anything away. Like I was ready to go work at Best Buy or go sweep floors or whatever it is to make sure I can still try and build this business, but that my family could eat and the rent got paid.

[00:46:31] And I think that you have to be willing to do those things and make those sacrifices and take very calculated, um, risks and leap of faith in order to sort of get your business and eventually your life to, The next level,

[00:46:43] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, that’s, um, and sometimes you’re doing that, you can work on your business and like have clients and still be working, you know, that’s still not what you want to do. Like, you can still be like, I’m doing this work right now until I can get enough people buying my course or doing whatever. So there, there’s different flavors, I think, of being a solopreneur slash entrepreneurs because, you know, You know, some people maybe have to take those clients before they can go in.

[00:47:09] There’s, there’s a lot of people that I’ve talked to and interviewed where they, they built it up. Like, you know, I, they were a podcast editor for so long until they sold their podcasting software or something that they were building that whole time. So, uh,

[00:47:23] Lou Mongello: I was practicing law and had an IT consulting company going on at the exact same time when I first started this Disney side of my business. So

[00:47:31] Jeff Sieh: it can be,

[00:47:31] done. So. Uh, there’s a couple questions, uh, first I’ll do some comments from, uh, Sean says, I, I never have comfortable on video and yet I keep going and I’m enjoying the learning curve for shooting and editing video. That is awesome. and David asked this

[00:47:46] Lou Mongello: I know Sean is a great job by the way.

[00:47:48] Sean’s doing good stuff. Yeah.

[00:47:49] Jeff Sieh: That’s cool. Uh, David says, Suggestions to break through crowded spaces where other podcasters are talking about the same things or the same genres.

[00:47:59] That’s awesome.

[00:47:59] Lou Mongello: It’s why you, right. So why do you look, you know, use Disney. I mean, Disney is now a very crowded space in the podcasting. Don’t worry about what anybody else is doing. Don’t pay attention to what anybody else is doing. Don’t base what you’re doing based on one of the, so I’ve said this, and this is for 20 years, I don’t listen to any of the Disney podcasts.

[00:48:21] I don’t, it’s not because I don’t like a lot of those people and respect them and think it’s one. I don’t have time to, if I am listening to podcasts, I’m usually listening to something that’s like business related. And three, I never want to be influenced by what somebody else is doing or have

[00:48:35] anybody else say, Hey, you just copied that idea from so and so I can’t, because I don’t listen, it’s the blinders, Dave.

[00:48:40] It’s the blinders. Don’t worry about what anybody else

[00:48:44] is doing. Figure out what makes you different. Answer the question. Why should I listen to

[00:48:48] you as opposed to the 8, 000 other Disney podcasts that are out

[00:48:53] there? And I think, especially for podcasting,

[00:48:55] it’s like, it’s like the

[00:48:55] five o’clock news, right? There’s a lot of stations

[00:48:55] talking about. That they want to listen to,

[00:48:55] right? The, what you want people to fall in love, not with your brand, but with you individually. And I think that’s the thing that you’ve got to concentrate on most.

[00:49:02] Jeff Sieh: One of the things that, um, I wanted to bring up too when we were talking about, um, getting past the people who don’t believe in you or have, negative comments. I love this. and Eden’s coming on, the show in a couple of, of weeks. She goes, I love saying, this show is sponsored by the haters. And then Chris said, it’s fueled by haterade. So, I love those. and this next comment from Mr. Fred is going to be a perfect, uh, way we wrap up the show. Because I want to, talk about Momentum. And, uh, He goes, uh, Momentum has become that place, my corner, uh, when we were talking about the people supporting us. And he says, Momentum has been that place.

[00:49:37] Mr. Fred, uh, met him at, uh, Momentum as well. So, let’s talk. And this, these final minutes, Lew, about Momentum and, you know, what it is, how people can go, you know when is it, all the things, so tell us about Momentum and what makes it unique.

[00:49:53] Lou Mongello: So very quickly, Momentum is a three day, one room, one track, 50 person event where I think unlike other conferences, it’s not just about coming in there. And taking notes and then hopefully going back and then figuring out what to do with all the knowledge that you received. It’s about doing the work in the room, right?

[00:50:11] Every session is a workshop. There’s ways that we have built in to help you find your people and network with other people. Get your questions and challenges and answers solved. And I want you to, you, you come out of momentum different on Sunday night than when you entered in on Friday. It takes place in the fall every year.

[00:50:31] In Walt Disney World, yes, it’s touring food and wine festival, just saying, uh, September 27th through the 29th. It’s Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There’s an optional

[00:50:38] eight person mastermind day on Monday. If you want to do a much deeper dive into you and your business and your life and your goals and

[00:50:45] your plans and things like that.

[00:50:47] But as somebody who continues to attend and I love going to conferences, but I hate leaving.

[00:50:51] We’re just the notebook full of ideas.

[00:50:53] I really want people to do the work in a

[00:50:55] very concentrated, warm, welcoming, friendly environment with learning

[00:51:00] from people like you guys, um, who

[00:51:02] have walked the walk and are so generous with your time in, in terms of wanting to help other people Advance what they’re doing as well.

[00:51:10] Conor Brown: I absolutely love Momentum. It’s changed my life professionally, personally. I’ve met

[00:51:14] incredible people. Um, I recommend it to everyone. I’m, I will always be a

[00:51:18] Momentum evangelist and I kind of live my life by, Oh, that year was this Momentum. Oh, that year was this Momentum. It’s a, it’s a way to, to tell the time of sorts, but I always look forward to What you talk about every, each and every

[00:51:31] year, what’s going to be new.

[00:51:32] So Lou, do you have any like, uh, key topics or sessions you’re, you’re planning or working that you can tease for, for people to look forward to when it comes to momentum?

[00:51:42] Lou Mongello: I’m going to share,

[00:51:43] um, God willing, on Monday I’m gonna share like the full list of speakers and sessions. What I will

[00:51:48] tell you is that this year

[00:51:50] I am really hyper-focused on, look, this is a business, right? And

[00:51:55] you know, I remember like when podcasting first started, like you weren’t supposed to make money. so let’s just do it like for the love of the hobby. let’s be honest, like, you know, our family’s got to eat. I have two kids in college. Like it’s, so there’s a number of the sessions are going to be about like real, actual, you’re going to do the work in the room. That’s going to help you build something that by the time that you get out, you will be done or almost done to have.

[00:52:20] to have this service, to have something that

[00:52:22] you can start generating revenue from. Because I think everybody has some of these in them, whether it is a course, whether it is a book, whether it is other ways

[00:52:32] to monetize what you, do. There’s a lot of, every session is very practical, very tactical. There’s not a lot of, and I don’t

[00:52:41] mean this in a bad way, there’s not a lot of like, like woo woo type of stuff like at Momentum where you’re like, oh that was super inspiring, but I didn’t really learn anything.

[00:52:48] So Like I want you to learn in every single session and have something to take away. And it’s also very interactive to, um, momentum. You’re, you’re not, you’re not just going to sit there passively. I promise. And that’s, that’s not a bad thing.

[00:53:00] Jeff Sieh: And that’s hard not to do after you’ve been to food and wine, because you’re like, oof, you know. But, um, it, seriously, it’s like, if you’ve watched this show or you, you know, subscribed to the podcast and are listening to this, you know a lot of the guests. And people who I have on who are experts, I have either met or have they been speakers at Momentum.

[00:53:16] So, um, there’s two events that I’ll go to every year. It’s Ecamm’s Creator Camp, which the first one was last year. It was amazing. Um, and Momentum is, is, until they kick me out, I’ll be going to it. Uh, but it is, it is really that life changing. Once again, go to lumangello. com and Sign up for Momentum Camp. I mean, we’ve already got people here who have, uh, been saying, like Angela says, Momentum has pushed my business and confidence to levels I’ve never imagined. It’s on, uh, if it’s on your radar, you need to register as soon as possible. Um, Corey’s saying, Momentum is worth it from the very first minute. Uh, Rich is saying, highly recommend Momentum.

[00:53:50] The people, uh, it’s, it’s changed my trajectory in amazing ways. So, I mean, I didn’t pay them. No, I didn’t pay them.

[00:53:58] to, Oh Lou did. He paid them to say it. But really, it is that great of an event and, you know, I know Lou doesn’t make a ton of money off of it, um, but it’s in Florida and it does really help people.

[00:54:09] Even Cassie did a great one on doing a media kit last year that was awesome. So she says, fantastic event filled with game changing strategies and the best people ever. So anyway, don’t forget

[00:54:19] Lou Mongello: I can’t let me, I, let me, I, I will break news. I’ll break news right here. Um, I have two very special speakers. Coming in this year, um, after months and months of negotiation, like it was very, the riders, like, uh, for these two speaker agreements were just insane. I’m not talking about you guys. Oh, no, I am talking about you guys.

[00:54:38] Jeff and Connor are gonna be back again, um, presenting at Momentum. We’ve already started talking about, um, your guys topics, and we’ll share, like I said, on Monday. Um, so I’m, I’m on, look, Momentum doesn’t happen without you. I am just a very, I’m a facilitator, like, um, and you are such a big part of that. Um, and you know what?

[00:54:54] I just thought about this, and I can do it, like, as soon as we’re done. Um, I’m, you know, If you want Jeff, I could even make like a special super duper discount code for folks who are watching. Not for you, Connor, for everybody else other than Connor. So, uh, I’ll make a special code. If you use code Jeff 200, you can save 200 off of Momentum.

[00:55:13] Jeff Sieh: Jeff200, you’ve heard it there first, folks. And I’ll, I’ll push that to, um, by the way, sign up for my newsletter, because next week I’ll make sure that I drop that in. You can go to jeffsieh. com forward slash news. Uh, emails come out Tuesdays and Fridays, and, um, You can see how they’ve improved since I started listening to, uh, Paul Gowder, who spoke at Momentum and is a great email marketer, and Connor as well spoke on that topic.

[00:55:35] So, um, yeah, it’s amazing. You guys need to show up and be there. This has been awesome. Don’t forget about the amazing Creator Camp. And once again, you can go to jeffsieh. com forward slash win to register for the chance to win a ticket to Creator Camp. Make sure that you sign up for Lew’s course Let me take this, all these things off.

[00:55:55] I’ve got too many buttons. Um, launch your dream business in five days. The email, the, the blueprint for solopreneur success. It’s only 7. You get it at lumangelo. com. Make sure you check that out. And our friends at Ecamm are having that sale. Remember, I have so many buttons that I’m just going crazy. Um, make sure you go to ecamm.

[00:56:07] com for it. That’s Jeff. Use, uh, the code I mentioned earlier. That’ll get you 30 percent off. I’ll also put that in the email if you sign up for that. Ecamm. com forward slash Jeff. And the secret code for this week for the extra drawings is V8SOOK, V8SOOK, so go up, check that out. Connor, where can people find out about you?

[00:56:30] What do you have going on?

[00:56:33] Conor Brown: that was a very unpleasant code, by the

[00:56:35] way, I didn’t hear it at all. Yikes.

[00:56:38] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:56:39] Conor Brown: You can learn more about me at vacationkingdoms. com. We’ve relaunched the podcast, have a couple different shows on the Vacation Kingdoms Podcast Network. Check it out.

[00:56:48] Jeff Sieh: That’s Rich Coe’s, uh, Jeff200. Ironically, the same name as Jeff’s latest AI generated imaginary friend. That’s, I have so many of them, that’s why it was 200. Um, so, anyway, thank you, uh, everybody for watching. Thank you for tuning in. All your great questions. Thank you, Cassie, Rich, Fred, Corey, everybody who left amazing comments across the socials.

[00:57:07] We appreciate you, and we will see you next time. Bye, everybody.