Leslie Samuel on Choosing Your Platform: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Marketing Made Simple. Today, we're pulling a timeless EO Fire episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down choosing your platform. To drop these value bombs, I brought Leslie Samuel into EO Fire Studios. Leslie teaches creators like you how to use your passion to create the future you want to see. He is a host of the Leslie Samuel Show and creator of the audio series from idea to blog. And today at Fire Nation, we'll talk about considering your audience and your strength, choosing a platform where you can show your strength, paying attention where your audience is spending their time, identifying the type of content they are consuming, and finding out what your strengths are, and so much more.

0:50And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Leslie and our sponsors. The Gold Digger Podcast, hosted by my good friend, Jenna Kuchar, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Gold Digger podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business hacks, inspirational stories, and so much more. A must-listen episode is one of Jenna's recents on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts. Belay is passionate about helping your business succeed with their simple, flexible staffing solutions.

1:26Download Belay's Bulletproof budget template for free, which is the exact budget template that they use to grow from a small startup to one of Inc. 5000's fastest growing companies for nine straight years. Today, just text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E, to 55123. Leslie, you went from being a high school teacher, you tried a few things out in the affiliate marketing world, and then you decided to choose blogging as like your first all-in real platform. So kind of talk us through that process. What made you choose blogging as your main focus platform at the start? Yeah, so it's something that I stumbled into because I had been doing some of the affiliate marketing thing.

2:12I had been using a forum in order to kind of get in front of people and then get them to complete some of the offers that I had and so on. And what I noticed was in order for me to continue getting people to do business with me. I had to constantly be in the forums and answering questions. And if I stopped for a little while, then my business went down. And I remember at that time, I stumbled onto an ebook about blogging and learning how people were creating these blogs and creating content and putting it out there in a way that Google would start indexing their content and people would start finding them, that sounded like a more attractive option to me.

2:53So I decided, you know what, I'm going to do my own blog. I'm going to create content. I'm going to answer the questions that my potential audience, the things that they are asking, the things that they are searching for so that they can, you know, over time, as my blog grows in authority, they can start finding me. And from there, it's, I mean, it's been a game changer for me now that I have my own platform and have been doing it for all these years, people find me. And as a result of that, they do business with me and my business continues to grow as a result. And I love the whole concept of like owning your sandbox.

3:26Like - Absolutely. What you do, brother, you own it. Like that can't be taken away. That's what I love about podcasting. And, you know, social media is great. Hey, that should be part of your plan in some levels, Fire Nation, when you get down the road. But at the same time, you gotta remember, that's not your sandbox. That's Mark's sandbox, or that is Phil in the Blank's sandbox. So things to keep in mind for sure. And one thing, Leslie, that I tell my audience over and over again is focus. Follow one course until success. So talk to us about the significance of, you know, at the beginning, or we're going to get into what you've done afterwards, obviously, but at the beginning of really just going all in on that one platform blogging, that focus.

4:05So when I started, I was a high school science and math teacher. I don't know if you know anything about teaching at a high school, but it's not always a walk in a park. And it was a boarding academy. So the students lived there. We were their teachers. We were their parents. We were their proxy parents. So it was a whole lot going on there. I knew that if I didn't focus, if I tried this and that and that, it just wouldn't happen. Right? I like to use the analogy. I used to teach physics at the high school. And if you take your fist, right? And I take my fist and I hit my thigh. Okay, it might hurt.

4:47But if I take my fist and I do the same thing, but instead of hitting my thigh, I take a little needle and I put it on my thigh and I do the same thing. I guarantee you, I'm going to scream. And the reason for that is because I'm taking the same amount of force, the same amount of effort, and applying it over a much smaller area. And because that area of focus is so small, the pressure, the impact of that is so much greater. For me as a busy high school science and math teacher, I couldn't spread my effort out everywhere. I needed to focus it on a smaller area so that I can have more impact. and that's exactly what I was able to accomplish as a result of focusing on blogging.

5:30I love that analogy. For the record, I'm going to use it going forward in the future. I'm going to give you credit. No, the first two times I use it, I will give you credit, but then it's mine forever. I think it's the first two. Then it's mine forever. So once you built that foundation, Leslie, and you were rocking and rolling with your blog, you just started adding some things. You started adding an email newsletter, a podcast, a YouTube channel. So talk to us about the process of adding additional platforms to support your main one once it's gotten rocking and rolling. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, for me, adding those different platforms gives me the opportunity to be where people are and leverage those platforms to bring them to where I want them to be.

6:14So I remember one of the first things that I started was my podcast. And of course, you start your podcast. It's in the iTunes directory. It's in all of these different directories. You can then do interviews on other people's podcasts. I did an interview on your podcast, which is awesome. And as a result of that, people listen to your podcast. And when they listen to your podcast, now they head on over to your blog. And when they head on over to your blog, they join your email newsletter and so on. So for me, by adding these platforms in one at a time strategically, it just puts me where people are so that I can get them where I want them to be.

6:52And then we can continue that relationship on that way. So I did the podcasting thing. I did the YouTube thing. And YouTube has been great as well. You put content out there and people find you in the YouTube search. And then they check out your stuff. And if they like your stuff, they come and check out your other stuff. For me, that's what it's all about. I have my main hub. And I use all of these different platforms to point people to my main hub to continue growing my business. It's like the spokes on the wheel, Fire Nation. I do the exact same thing, except for me, it's the podcast. All of the spokes on my wheel point to my podcast.

7:28And Leslie is going to give you direct specific advice for getting ready to choose your platform, Fire Nation. When we get back from thanking our sponsors. Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic this year. Even if you're not using it, you've likely heard about the many benefits it can provide, like helping you save time, brainstorm ideas, and tackle your to-do list. But how do you put this into practice? If you find yourself spending hours each day on content creation, then I've got a tool that will help you do just that. Meet HubSpot's new AI-powered Campaign Assistant, a totally free-to-use AI tool tailored for the marketers and business builders who spend hours each day on content creation.

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10:27This is the exact budget template that Belay used to grow from a small startup to one of Inc. 5000's fastest growing companies for nine straight years. text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E, to 55123 to download the Bulletproof Budget Template and streamline your business with Belay today. All right, Leslie, we are back. And as I kind of teased before the break, Fire Nation wants to know, give us some specific advice. If they're at the beginning part of their journey and they're at the specific step in this 17-step roadmap that I created with your help, creating this step-by-step chronological roadmap, and they're that's a part about choosing their platform.

11:05What specific advice do you have for them going forward? Yeah. So there are a few things that you want to consider. You want to consider your audience. Where are they spending time? And the other thing you want to consider is your strengths. Like, what are you really good at? I'll give you an example. And this is from a second blog that I did, but the concept applies here very much. I wanted to start a biology blog with what I had been learning about the stuff that we're talking about and what I'd been teaching. And when I wanted to start a biology blog, I knew I was going to deal with very advanced topics in biology.

11:43And I knew that for the person that I'm targeting, they need to see it to understand it. And because they need to see it to understand it, I'm not going to start a podcast explaining to them how the sodium ions travel across the channel and the membranes. They'd be like, what are you talking about? I needed to show it to them. So I chose a platform that allowed me to show it to them and that leveraged my strengths. I love being on video. I love to communicate with people. So YouTube seemed like it would be the perfect platform for me and for my audience. So I chose that platform And I went semi all in on that platform to get people to my main platform, which is my blog.

12:27So I looked at where they spend their time and how they consume content and how they would want to consume content for my topic. And I also looked at what I was good at. And based on those two factors, YouTube seemed like a no-brainer for me. You have the search and you have the ability to communicate and show people. It just made sense. So what I recommend is pay attention to your audience, where they're spending their time, what kind of content they're consuming, and what your strengths are. If you're really good at talking and asking people deep questions, well, maybe you should consider doing a podcast where you're interviewing entrepreneurs or whatever the case might be, depending on your niche, and then leverage that to grow whatever it is, your main platform that you are doing.

13:16This is some fantastic advice, Fire Nation. I mean, you've got to say, you know, hey, what are my strengths? What do I actually enjoy doing? Like, what am I going to like waking up doing every single day? Some people are scared of video. Well, if that's the case, like, don't force it. Like, this should, you know, be something that comes natural to you. And I will also say at the same time, you know, it's not like you have to be great at it at the beginning. Because by the way, I was a terrible podcast host when I started. I didn't know what I was doing. And I became better over time because I put in the reps.

13:43But it was something that I wanted to get better at that I had passion and excitement to do to have great conversations with people like Leslie. I mean, who wouldn't want to hang out and chat with Leslie? I mean, this guy, his vibe, his energy is fantastic. And this is part of the process. This is part of the 17-step roadmap. And when I was kind of going through your contribution to this section, Leslie, I pulled out a quote. I'm going to read it to you and just bring it home for us. So your quote that I just loved, which is, by the way, Fire Nation, and obviously just a part of his amazing, thorough contribution on this topic about choosing your platform is it all starts with creating content on my blog, providing value to my audience and helping them on their entrepreneurial journey.

14:31So Leslie, bring it home. What do you really want Fire Nation to take away from that, but even from our whole conversation today? Because then we'll say goodbye. For me, the main focus of my business is how do I best serve my audience? What are they looking for? What are they struggling with? Because if I can be the person, if you can be the person to show up, to answer their questions, to help them overcome whatever it is they are struggling with, what's going to happen is they're going to come to know, like, and trust you. And if they now have a decision that they need to make on taking it to the next level and they see that you offer a service, you have a product, you have something else of more value that you charge for, who are they going to go to?

15:25Are they going to go to some random Joe Schmoe that posted something on Facebook? Or are they going to come to the guy or the gal that has become their own personal trusted expert? They're going to come to you. So you show up, you serve your audience, you do that day in, day out, and you will be amazed what happens as a result. Byron Nation, you can see why Leslie was the person to talk about this topic and of course, his contribution in the book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success. If you're hearing our voices right now and it's before March 23rd, there is still time to pre-order the book. And believe me, you want to pre-order the book.

16:07Do not wait because with the pre-orders, I have five amazing bonuses that are coming along with it. Just one of those bonuses, I'm shipping all three of my journals, the Freedom Mastery and Podcast Journal to your door for free with a pre-order. There's four other amazing bonuses. They all disappear the day the book launches on March 23rd. So why would you wait? Lock in and out, get these bonuses, find out about the other four over at UncommonSuccessBook.com. Get your pre-orders in Fire Nation, UncommonSuccessBook.com. Leslie, Thank you, brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today.

16:49For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks for having me. The Gold Digger Podcast, hosted by my good friend, Jenna Kuchar, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Gold Digger Podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business hacks, inspirational stories, and so much more. A must-listen episode is one of Jenna's recents on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts. Belay is passionate about helping your business succeed with their simple, flexible staffing solutions.

17:25Download Belay's Bulletproof Budget Template for free, which is the exact budget template they use to grow from a small startup to one of Inc. 5000's fastest-growing companies for nine straight years. today. Just text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E, to 55123.