Preface

Did You Have a Lemonade Stand?

I grew up poor (I know the taste of government cheese). When I was a seven-year-old freckle-faced kid, I remember my first lemonade stand. While other kids collected G.I. Joe dolls, I collected toy banks. In junior high (before there were vending machines in schools) I would go to the local corner store and buy a pack of gum and then sell it by the piece to my friends. It was somewhat humiliating (one step above begging). I always felt like the odd man out. But I saw supply and demand, and you do what you must do. I was the only person willing to sell gum in school, and the profit margins were huge.

I would help my friend with his paper route before getting my own. All through my life, when the doors were closed, I found a way to open them. When my parents struggled financially, I found a way to chip in. I never gave up. I might want to, but I never did.

I found that the bar for excellent service was set low, and when you delivered value (you will hear that word a lot) and created relationships (get comfortable with that word as well), your audience/customers could support you. How else does a sixteen-year-old kid support a car (buying his gas, insurance, etc.) with a paper route? With my paper route I made triple what the kid before me did in tips because I would take the extra four steps to make sure your paper was dry when it was raining out. Why? Because it’s hard to read a paper when the ink is all smeared, and my customers appreciated it.

You must be willing to do the other little things that others aren’t willing to do. I didn’t know it then, but I was an entrepreneur. It wasn’t easy. When I got my first “real” job bagging groceries, I got fired for not talking to customers. Being the “poor” kid, I didn’t have a ton of confidence (and by that, I mean none), and I was the poster child for introverts. The sixteen-year-old me would laugh if I told him I would grow up making a living talking to groups of people—but it’s true. You do those little things step by step, and you get to where you want to go.

Are you like me? You’re willing to do the extra work, slightly obsessing over the goal in front of you (I saved months for my first real guitar). You’re willing to sacrifice and give up watching reruns of Seinfeld or Friends on TV. You realize life is a classroom, and you like to learn something new every day, and then apply it the next day.

If that’s you, and you have a podcast, then you’ve found the right book. Starting a podcast is not hard. Starting a good podcast takes planning, focus, dedication, and time (lots of time). Zig Ziglar said, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great.”

One last thing, as I write this, it’s February 2020. Things may change by the time you read this. Please keep that in mind.