How to Make Your Best Content and Give Your Greatest Interview with Quddus: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. are brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Talking Too Loud. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down how to make your best content and give your greatest interview ever. To drop these value bombs, we are brought Caduce into EO Fire Studios. Caduce is an acclaimed TV host, celebrity interviewer, and media coach. As the founder of Media Mastery Academy, Q helps leaders own their voice and share their story.

0:33In today's Foundation will talk about how you are exactly enough as you are. There's nothing else you need to do, how to be authentic and clear in connecting with your audience and why that matters, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Q and our sponsors. Marketing Made Simple, hosted by my friend, Dr. JJ Peterson, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Marketing Made Simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing easy, and more importantly, make it work. A recent episode all about how Liquid IV is using marketing to shake up the beverage world, dives deep into the strategies that have propelled Liquid IV to remarkable success.

1:10A must listen. Listen to Marketing Makes Simple wherever you get your podcasts. Caduce, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, Fire Nation? So the thing that might be a bit controversial about my belief around success is that it absolutely ought to change over time. So a lot of people set goals and then they get really rigid around those goals. I think we get to be flexible because along the way we discover who we really are in the process and what we really want. I love that because flexibility has always been how I've grown my business.

1:47When I ask my audience, hey, what are you struggling with Fire Nation? You tell me, I have no idea what you're going to say, but then I create the solution around that because I'm flexible and I can make those things happen. And that Fire Nation is the flexibility key. And wow, we're having a fantastic conversation today, Q, about how to make your best content and give your greatest interview, which is a little bit of pressure on you, brother, that in the title, we have give your greatest interview. So here we are interviewing. Starting something called Media Mastery Academy is a surefire way to lose more sleep.

2:20Love it for all of those reasons. And let's just dive into the meat and potatoes of today's conversation. Why the heck does your brand story even matter? And Fire Nation's needs to know why their brand story matters. Talk to us about this. Well, it seems like a lot of people skip to the service or the product, right? They focus on exactly what it's going to do in the marketplace. And then we forget about the why sometimes. And Simon Sinek said it well in his TED Talk about the why. And so going even deeper on that and understanding that I want to hear a hero's journey from the people I work with.

2:57I want to know all of the blood, sweat and tears that went into what it is that I'm buying into, because there's a lot of other options in the marketplace. So I've found with coaching hundreds of people around exactly what their origin story is, that those that find the pain to purpose journey are the ones that stand out the most. And I remember sitting there with Lewis Howes back in the day, as we were talking about the school of greatness, which is now this multi-million dollar empire he's built. And at the time, Lewis hadn't really been vulnerable with his audience about exactly how he became the voice that he is.

3:31And so there was like this missing piece in the puzzle. And once he shared about his why in a vulnerable way, and he shared about this issue he had in childhood and all of it tied together the human for people in a way that cut through that perfection that can be so easy to buy into when we see a guy like Lewis has doing his thing. And then all of a sudden he's an actual human that people can relate to. And I think that's the opportunity everybody has, even though some people discount their struggles and they don't think that it's enough to make a hero's journey. I would, I would assert that most people have something, some kind of a painful moment.

4:07That is probably the reason why they're so passionate about what they do and offer the world. Q, let's be honest. There's a lot of noise out there in this world today. And if we want to make the kind of impact that we all want to make in this world. We need to break through this noise. So how do we do that with our brand story? Like what makes specifically a breakthrough brand story? Well, it's being really authentic and so clear in connecting with an audience about why it matters, why they ought to do the thing that they're suggesting they do. And that usually requires someone to take down the veil of perfection so that we can see the person behind it.

4:49But that's the scariest thing for most entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs walk around thinking they got to have it all together and they got to be so crisp and polished when they get on camera. And I'm telling you right now, that is the biggest misconception that most people have when they make content. And they come off as these people that are not necessarily the type of person that we spend time with. We see them and it's like they're up on a pedestal and that unrelatability becomes a wall for people when push comes to shove. When they see the two products on the shelf, they know the origin story of one founder and the struggle that they went through versus the other product.

5:26I will guarantee you they will buy that other product that they know that founders struggled to put on the shelf every single time. I mean, I'm over here taking furious notes, Fire Nation. If you're not, please check your pulse. I mean, here's a few things I've been writing down. be authentic and clear about why it matters about why it matters and i loved this quote that you shared take down the veil of perfection take down that veil of perfection and something that i'll add to this is fire nation fake it till you make it is the worst advice you will ever get people want to connect with a human being a flawed human being be that flawed human being because we all are flawed human beings.

6:09So stop the faking till you make an end. Be genuine, authentic, be true to yourself. And Q, before we move on, is there one or two examples you can share about how somebody that you know, or maybe even you, who knows, like is doing it right? Well, I always like to start with our own journey. I told Lewis's story earlier, and that felt like a little bit of an adjacent example to what I think is really important in actually modeling what it is that I'm talking about, which is sharing my journey to starting Media Mastery Academy, because I essentially looked around the media training landscape. I remember when I started at MTV, there was really nothing that supported me to feel better in my own skin.

6:49I felt so fraudulent being on that stage at MTV because I did not feel like the cool person that they hired. I felt like I was inadequate. I wasn't smart enough. I wasn't cool enough. I those things. Imposter syndrome was raging in my mind. And there was nothing around me that supported me to dismantle those limited beliefs in such a way where I could step on stage and feel as good as I looked. And so I decided years later when I still didn't see anyone in the marketplace solving for that inside out issue, when people get on camera, get on clubhouse or whatever medium we're using to feel more real and feel like we can be in flow state and we can be truly accepted and celebrated for who we really are, not what we think we should be, I decided I needed to do that because I had a nervous breakdown at the beginning of my MTV career.

7:44Backstage, I literally fainted in front of my new colleagues my first summer on the job. Devastating. It was traumatic. And I don't want anyone to feel like that ever again. And so that's why I created Media Mastery Academy because I know there's people listening right now that have been turning themselves inside out trying to be perfect on camera or on the microphone or on clubhouse and they clench up every time they get tagged into a conversation live and then they put on what they think we want to hear or see and that does not work not only for the audience watching but for ourselves then we stop trusting ourselves and our integrity goes out of the freaking window and we wonder why we can't sleep at night that is my origin story to creating media mastery academy I mean, where we can actually have a safe place to explore our voice, find our voice, own our story, and share it in a powerful way that makes a difference for people.

8:35Fire Nation, I hope you're seeing why Q's had the type of success that he's had. I mean, here he is being open and honest and flawed with you right now. And I mean, you know, we can all step back and look at him and all the accolades he's had and everything he's done and who he's met and be like, this guy has it all. He knows exactly what he's doing. He's perfect. But hey, he's willing to open up his kimono and share the truth. I actually am wearing something like a kimono over here. That's very intuitive of you. I'm literally walking the streets of Boulder, Colorado in yoga pants. I kid you not.

9:05It's freezing freaking cold. People look at me like a lunatic, but I'm comfortable. Let me tell you. You do 3 ,000 of these interviews, you start to kind of be intuitive about who's on the other side of the mic. So I have just this full picture of you right now, Q, and I won't go into any more details, but it's amazing. And Fire Nation, we have so much more that we're going to be talking about that you need to be taking as furious of notes as I'm taking right now as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. There are plenty of things to worry about when trying to grow your business. Don't let tech be one of them.

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10:54This is a big reason why we originally got into hosting. We know what it's like to travel and want to have a place to call home. So we figured why not create that feeling for others. Next month, we'll be traveling to meet up with friends on the West Coast and knowing how easy it is to host on Airbnb. We're considering putting our own home up on Airbnb while we're away to earn some additional income. Maybe you have an upcoming trip planned as well. While you're away, your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. So Q, we're back and I want to talk right now about making content because again, we want to share our voice, our message, our mission, maybe our face with the world.

11:33But you know, if we're going to do that, we need to make content that's going to rise above the fray that people are actually going to see here and hopefully adhere to. How the heck do we do that? I don't want to be reductive about it, but it is truly about sharing our story. Because if we have an authentic origin story that is the why behind what it is that we're selling the world, then sharing that with pieces of content, no matter what the medium, is going to make the content sticky. It's going to have people understand that why constantly. And I think some people think, oh, I'll make one post about my origin story.

12:07Uh-uh. No, no, no. I think we want to reiterate that origin story in all the ways we can because there probably are multitudes of moments that led to why you're doing what you're doing, right? So I want you to think about all those moments and think about all the content you can make with that. You can write about it. You can shoot a video about it. You can host a conversation on Clubhouse about it. But really mine that story and you'll find that there's something that's – it's almost like you create a mythic experience of yourself because people start to realize exactly what went into it and all of the journey.

12:44And it feels kind of like when you watch Lord of the Rings and you relate to Frodo by the end of it. You're like, man, I would die for Frodo. And that's exactly what one creates when they come from that place with their content. You create advocates. Never mind customers. You create advocates. People buy into what you're doing. Like it's a movement when you do that. There are multitudes of moments that make up your story. I mean, Fire Nation really absorbed those words, really understand these words that Q is breaking down for you. There are multitudes of moments that make up your story. Your story is not one moment in time.

13:18It's the multitudes of moments that make up you, your story. And I love that you've actually mentioned Clubhouse a couple of times now. You obviously personally love the platform. So let's kind of divert here for a second and talk about Clubhouse. What do you like about it? How are you using it? What kind of success are you having? Tell us all. Well, I think it's that thing that reveals who's actually real. Because when we get into a live conversation, we get to see what people are made of. And there's a different sort of a texture and aesthetic to it. And we're in it. We're actually having a conversation.

13:49We're not just looking at a post that's been carefully crafted by a social media team. And so that really feels amazing because especially in a pandemic when we haven't gotten to connect nearly as much as we used to, it's also creating a really cool ability to bump into people and have those moments of serendipity even within a platform like that. So it's been magic. And I've found that because people can hear exactly my inflection, my energy, my passion as I'm speaking on there, they are so much more apt to click through to my Instagram, click through to the DMs. Like, yo, what are you up to?

14:25I want to connect. I mean, I've had so many people make that transition within 10 minutes of listening to me. They'll be into my Instagram and so deep into advocacy around what I'm doing. So it's been incredible. It's probably the most powerful conversion I've seen any conversation online. Well, I just followed you. So I'm now one of Caduceus followers and Fire Nation. That's Q-U-D-D-U-S. So I will be a part of your future clubhouse conversations. And I'm definitely having a lot of fun there as well. I mean, it is just a place that for me just immediately clicks. I mean, I'm not going to lie. Everybody's like, JLD, you got to get on TikTok.

15:02TikTok is amazing. There's so much awesome stuff going on. And I know there is, and I'm sure there is. It's just not my type of platform for reasons we won't go into. because it's not important right now. But when I start Clubhouse, I'm like, I've been doing audio-only interviews for literally a decade. I've done 3 ,000 audio-only interviews where I'm live with my guests. But one thing that is kind of missing is I'm not live with anybody else. I love interacting with multitudes of people and being able to answer questions on the spot, et cetera. And man, Clubhouse is a fantastic place to do this.

15:33So Fire Nation, if you haven't checked it out yet, make sure you follow Caduce. Make sure you follow JLD. Like surprisingly, John Lee Dumas is my name there. So go over there, get in and enjoy. And I want to talk as we kind of come to an end of our conversation here, Q. How the heck can we make marketing fun and transformational at the same time? I mean, it's easy to make marketing fun or transformational. I want to make it fun and transformational. Break that down for us. The thing that most people do is we sit there and we strategize and we try to calculate what the audience will resonate with.

16:11And therein by, we basically outsource any bit of intuitive wisdom that we might have that had us get to the place where we're selling what we're selling in the first place. So I think that the first thing to make it transformational and really authentic is actually in the process of creating marketing, checking in with your ideal client for sure and with yourself and what you want to share about what it is there. So not getting to the point where the center of gravity is so much on the consumer listening that you're not even listening to yourself anymore, right? So that's the transformational piece is like owning that hero's journey that you are absolutely uniquely positioned to offer up and market this thing in a way that no one else can.

16:54So when we actually allow the center of gravity to come back to our seat, then it becomes an authority that then emerges with the content versus this sort of placating tap dancing. I see a lot online where I'm like, is this what they think I want to see? That ain't working. No, no, no. So I think it's that balance. It's considering one's audience but not going and castrating your own authenticity and your own voice in the process. and by owning that authority, by owning your journey and your story, it becomes transformational because guess what? Then you get to speak from the hero's journey and then you truly are that Frodo Baggins of your story to take it back to the Lord of the Rings and it's so powerful to sit in that seat and not flinch for a second about why you're there and your ability to convey what you need to convey and then the fun part is thinking about all the ways to tell that story.

17:46There's so many ways, especially now with Clubhouse, with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. There's all these different ways to do it. So think about what lights you up. Maybe you're not necessarily the video type that's going to jump on an Instagram live and feel great. Well, maybe you're more of a writer. So go ahead and sit and write that piece and allow yourself to luxuriate it and not think so much about the metrics on the other side, but like really truly enjoy the process. And that's obviously a really beautiful piece of wisdom for living life in general, which is let's not abandon the journey, the juice of really taking those steps and all the process involved in the thinking about the impact and then not enjoying the journey along the way.

18:25I'm sure I'm mangling the idea, but, you know, paraphrasing it will still convey the point, which is just, you know, let's really enjoy the process. Like every piece of content can be a celebration of how awesome it is that you get to give that service, that you make that product, that that person on the side of it's going to enjoy that, you know? So really enjoying it. I love that you've used the phrase, the hero's journey multiple times now. And Fire Nation, I want you to be thinking as you're listening to this episode, as you're hearing Q's words, like, what is your hero's journey? What does that look like?

18:58So you can really articulate it when it comes time to do just that. And Q, I really want you to step back now, take the mic, come up on stage, and really just share the one thing out of all the things we talked about here today that you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from our conversation. You are enough. You are enough exactly as you are. There is nothing else you need to do. You get to just sit in that perfection. There is no mistake that's ever happened in your life that is unredeemable in you luxuriating in exactly who you are. Because guess what? I've had a bunch of things in my past that I've regretted, that I've thought were wrong turns, bobbled balls.

19:40And guess what? Every one of them is now a story I get to tell. That hero's journey that I get to celebrate with everyone saying, God, I've been through a struggle like that before. And they connect with me that much more. And the same is true for all of us. There's no one listening right now that hasn't been through something that can be transmuted and translated into a powerful story. You are enough Fire Nation. Say that to yourself as many times as you need to until you start believing it because it is truth. And Q, how can Fire Nation connect with you? How can they learn more about what you have going on with media mastery and everything else that you're doing?

20:17Take it away. You can find me on Instagram at QUDDUS. I'm also on the Instagram adjacent experience of Facebook. I call it Instagram adjacent because Facebook is like a shell of itself now. It's like, but yeah, I'm on Facebook as well. And, uh, also on clubhouse and Twitter. And, uh, I also have a website caduce.co. So find me there too. Fire Nation, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with Q and JLD today. So let's keep up that heat. And if you head over to eofire.com and type Caduce in the search bar. His show notes page will pop up with everything we chatted about.

20:59Best show notes in the biz. Q, thank you, brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side. Thank you, brother. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Q and Fire Nation. Over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 3 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and fulfillment. I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk.

21:36And The Common Path to Uncommon Success, Fire Nation, is the step-by-step guidance you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit UncommonSuccessBook.com to learn more and order your copy today. I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side.

22:19Thank you.