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Celebrate good conversation Hey, there you are listening to the dream big and kick ass Podcast. I'm Mandy, your host and I'm so glad you're here. If you want encouragement, inspiration, support empowerment. Then join me as we talk about finding and following your purpose, overcoming adversity and living out our dreams. If you believe Life's too short to be caught up in insecurities, fear and feeling defeated, let's hang out in the dream big and kick ass podcast. Hey friends, I have got an awesome new guest with me today. His name is Ryan Estus and he is a multi business owner of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter and an experienced podcast host who lives eats and breathes podcasts. Ryan co founded Kitt caster, which is a podcast booking agency that connects top business owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs to top podcasts. So Ryan, thank you so much for being here today.
Absolutely. My pleasure, man. Thanks for having me on.
You betcha. You want to add anything to your creds there? You want to owe anybody? A little bit more about yourself.
I'm more of a Brazilian jujitsu lover than fighter. Oh.
I have questions about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Do you know how many times I had to practice saying that just
I wouldn't. It's a mouthful for sure.
Are there other types of jiu jitsu besides Brazilian?
Yeah, absolutely originated as a Japanese martial art in kind of as a ground function of judo. So if you know, Judo is like kind of like wrestling in the fact that it's all takedowns. Karate is like stand up and striking. And then jujitsu was largely what was happening on the ground. But maybe 100 years ago, there was a man who brought that style to Brazil. And the Gracie family kind of took that style and really made it their own, which is kind of what Brazilian jujitsu is today. Okay, well, yeah,
I'm completely have no knowledge about that the realm of martial arts. Not not the best to be discussing it. But like, yeah, I was just really curious, like, other types of jujitsu, besides Brazilian. There are and there's
even more it's really growing as an art form. But you know, I think for most folks that maybe don't know about this particular martial art is it's a grappling martial art. So as opposed to like, punching and kicking, this is like, kind of submissions, joint locks and strangulation. Oh, you know, fun stuff,
you know. Thank you. Yeah. Like so matter of fact. Oh, god. Okay. So let's get to switch over to podcasting a little bit. How long have you been podcasting? And have you been doing it before it was popular or whatever?
I don't know. I've been podcasting for like, 10 years. Yeah. Seems pretty weird. But you know what? When I first started listening to podcasts, I was like, literally downloading the episode from the computer to my old iPod, where it had like a little spin deal. You know, I listened to it there. And I remember I had like, kind of a I think it was an iPhone two. And I realized that like, I could stream a podcast as opposed to like downloading into the phone. And it was like, That was over. Then it was all podcasts from then on out.
Yeah, absolutely. So what do you like the most about it
about podcasting? Yeah. You know, I think what initially got me into it was kind of like a cure for loneliness. Like, I took this job that was about, you know, an hour and 20 minutes from my house. And so I kind of ran through my playlist pretty quick. And at the time, I had two small children. I had a brand new business that I had started, my first foray into entrepreneurship had failed. And so I took this job because I had children. I ended my music career. So I found myself pretty isolated. I had kind of gone all in on this first business, and we rented out our house and I was living with my mother in law. So through a series of intentional choices, I found myself kind of isolated and alone and feeling the blues a little bit. And what was great about podcasting, the first podcast I really stumbled upon was a podcast called field of weeds. It was just a series of essays that were written by this expat Korean Zen monk about his time of being like a working in construction in LA struck the Perfect Note in of like Zen. So I really liked that. And I was like, What's this podcasting stuff and then I found some comedy podcasts. And it was like it put me right back into like band practice, just kind of goofing around with my buddies, which, aside from music, that's what I really missed. I missed kind of the camaraderie of being with a group of guys and just having fun. So it was kind of transformative where I was like, Wow, this this podcasting thing, I could do a podcast and get all my band buddies to do a podcast instead of playing music. Yeah. So I started doing that, you know, it was probably 10 years ago and just started this ridiculous podcast and it's iterated into various shows over the years. So Right.
So cool. Okay, so I want to talk about the music part. I didn't know you were into music, too, or playing music and you write and stuff too.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was kind of a former life. But I released three records and did kind of the college radio thing. And we play around, you know, we're in Denver. So it's kind of a land island. So you're kind of eight hours from anywhere. But we were really fortunate that you know, Denver's got a really strong music community. So we played a bunch I did that probably for, I don't know seven, eight years and in love day was my whole life. And now you know, my daughter's she's, she's gonna be a freshman in high school. So now I'm teaching her how to play guitar. So cool. That kindling of music is. Yeah, you're like, back as like, sweetheart. Come on, hurry up and do this. So you can play bass. I'll play guitar. We'll hit the road. Let's go. I'm only half joking.
Yeah, I know. My dad was a musician. And growing up, I just remember being in a band practice in the garage and neighbors coming out looking what looking down the street, like what's going on down there. You know, because it's so loud. And you're just enjoying the music and enjoying the live the live music. He always I sang. So he really dug that he really got excited about that. But I was always so I don't know, intimidated and shy and stuff, when it came to singing in front of people. But I ended up singing at church and leaving praise and worship and doing things like that, too. So I don't know. It's kind of a crazy, crazy time to think about that as long time ago. But yeah, my dad, I can tell that you probably Yeah. Would be a lot like my dad was with me, you know, wanting to Yeah. Let's take the show on the road.
One for fathers do this. Yeah, there's a great, I know, Bobby McFerrin he plays with his daughter. There's a great blues musician up in Boulder named Otis Taylor. He plays with his daughter. Yeah. So one day, you know, one day we'll make this.
Yeah. On a family tradition. That's super cool. I love that.
Yeah. We'll see if we get there. I hope you do. I owe sets it.
Okay, so before you co founded kit caster, you owned a media and marketing business, right? That's correct. What made you pivot is or is that the one that didn't go? So? Well? I'm not sure.
No, that was a great business. So you know, a 10 year business, you know, kind of after this period, you know, that I just described of having the job. And I had that wasn't working for me. So I wanted to go pro in the internet in some capacity. And so I started a Social Media Marketing Agency. This was before that was so commonplace. So there was no Facebook business manager, Instagram didn't exist, building websites on the side for musician, friends, and helping them at the time with MySpace pages and promoting shows and stuff. And I was like, you know, I think there's a business in this. So I started doing that. That was a business called Talk launch. And I did that business for 10 years. wife has a master's in education. And at some point, we brought her over to the agency. And she and I ran the agency, you know, we had, I don't know, dozens of clients, pretty small, lean staff, you know, we probably swelled up to five or six, and we use some contractors to get stuff done. And then, soon enough, you know, my wife, Heidi, she'd kind of took over the reins of agency and I began validating different products, kind of diversify revenue and kind of follow my weird ideas. So she kind of ran the agency and I started doing that. So maybe, let's say two and a half years ago, colleague of mine, Brandy Whalen. We were having breakfast, and she was like, let's do a project together. And I was like, Yeah, let's do it. We want to do and we'd met through podcasting, and like, let's do some with podcasting. So we kind of were chewing through some different ideas and podcasting, and the idea of a podcast booking agency kind of came up and is like, well, this is interesting. You know, this is a way that we would like build a culture and then have staff and kind of scale in old school kind of handshakes and phone calls kind of agency. So we set to work on it. We put a pilot program together that went really well wrapped a brand around it that became Kitt caster and officially launched September 6, of 2019. So we just turned two. And at that point, I was like, wow, this is going really good. I had kind of bookmarked March 2020 is to kind of be my exit from our agency. My wife was kind of changing as well, so I was basically going to, you know, seal up talk launch and send it on down the river. Yeah, well, January, February comes around and talk launch is making some nice money. It's a little harder to do that. I mean, my heart wasn't into it. But you know, it's, it's kind of hard to, like, say no to when it's grain. Absolutely. So I was kind of like, you know, Castro was growing. And I was like, yeah, maybe I can do both for a little while longer. Well, 2020, we get hit with COVID. Right. And the agency was really leveraged in like hospitality, and food and beverage heavily. So we lost just about our entire book of business. Wow, in a week. Which is pretty scary. Yeah. So I was like, Well, I guess I will be doing Castro full time now. So kind of just dove into that. Both brandy and I like really sunk your teeth into it. And it took off since then. I think we've hired maybe 1213 people since March 2020. And that's kind of what brings us here today.
Yeah, absolutely. That's the reason why we got connected is through through your business. Yeah. So tell my listeners about like, how does this podcast booking agency work? How does it pan out? How does that work?
You bet. So we work almost exclusively with funded startup founders, entrepreneurs with exits, and C suite executives. And we book them on the world's top podcasts, probably what they all have in common are these are Type A insanely busy people. So So our job is to kind of weave these podcast interviews into their work schedule. So kind of to do that we have kind of a three step process. You know, one, we take a real deep dive into the audience that they want to speak to end what they want to talk about, and ultimately, what are the outcomes you want to get from podcasting, everybody wants more prospects, of course, some folks want help recruiting, and they're using podcasts for that some folks are looking for runway. So they're looking for relationships with Angel investors, and venture capitalists and things like that. So we drill that down, we build their media kit, it's kind of the second step. And then the third step is just what we do every day, you know, is qualifying great podcast, pitching them working on the pre production, and putting them essentially on podcast tour. So if our job is done really well, which it is, because I believe we're the best in the world at this. Yeah. Then our clients, all they need to do is open their calendar, click the link and have great conversation. Awesome.
Yeah. So then what sets you apart from because you said you're the best. So what sets you apart from the other booking agencies
in no disrespect to any of my competitors. I'm glad they're out there, because it helps normalize this weird job we have. And this is going to be a career for my staff for many of them, or perhaps a step onto a great direction, but we take it really seriously. I think we're kind of we found our lane is really in the startup community. Both my co founder and I, that's where we come from, is building brands, helping them find traction in scaling them, particularly, you know, b2b, SaaS companies and tech have all kind of suppose yeah, so that's really our focus, we take it to heart to be really, really good at it. So it's, it's gonna be impossible for somebody to beat us. I want someone to try because I'm competitive. And
I like, yeah. And then it just, it just makes you level up even more. Exactly. Competition. Exactly. You mentioned earlier, something about validating products. What does that entail?
A thick skin, and tears. You know, you get better at it as you go. But one thing I do with the agency a lot was I would help them on crowdfunding campaigns, crowdfunding, I think maybe there's a little fatigue of it now. But you know, 70 years ago, Kickstarter, before Indiegogo, these were like really big communities and a great way to finance projects, particularly art projects, or goods. And I launched I don't know, more than a dozen campaigns for folks raised, I think, 4 million plus do these campaigns and the successful ones and also turned away a lot of business in working with kind of early stage entrepreneurs, people that have an idea. And they're trying to figure out, if they're going to bring it to market. Well, let's just say it this way, if they're trying to figure out if they're going to bring it to market, they're in a good place. Yeah. But what happens a lot of times, particularly with first time entrepreneurs, is they become obsessed with the idea and kind of bury their head in the sand and just start working on this thing, sometimes dumping tons of money down this hole, and even more importantly, dump dumping tons of time down this hole and they have no idea if people want it. And so they'd come to me and be like, Hey, I got this idea. I spent a quarter million dollars I want to put on Kickstarter. I'm like yo does it Anybody want this? Like, I don't know, I'm like, oh, man, that's a huge investment to not find it out. So I had the benefit, before I kind of started Validating my own products of seeing success and failure with other entrepreneurs and seeing people fail in a good way, was really advantageous to me. So when I kind of set out on a project, you know, I have a certain amount of diligence I'm going to do on something, it's got to meet kind of a tight criteria for me to even consider it that is, it has to be fun to do, otherwise, I won't do it. It's got, it's got to be of service, because I want my life to mean something. And it has to make money. So we'll get through those three things, you know, first, does this have an opportunity to make money now the way I figure that out, is I'm going to have 100 phone calls with people to sell something that doesn't exist yet, and see if I can get them to buy. If it doesn't happen, you got to kill the idea.
That's hard, isn't it?
It's really hard. That's really hard, you get really your identity gets wrapped around these kinds of things, especially if you get through those 100 calls. And like you have a tight pitch and you see the end product, and it's just like you got to step back and say, wow, people don't want this. So now what do we do? And now you now the clock is ticking? Is it going to take you six months, 18 months to kill this thing? I've done that I've gone 18 months into an idea past the point, I knew it wasn't gonna win. And so you get better at being faster at kind of killing your babies, so to speak. Yeah, you know, and then the final validation is likely to get through the 100 itself. It's working, there's a little traction here, there's an opportunity, and then you just ask yourself, you know, am I the right person, right now to do this? And again, it's like, if you're not, then you gotta kill it entirely. And get out of there, get out and move on to the next I try something else. Yeah. So it's tough. And it's a merciless process. But nonetheless, I have to be pretty rigid with my attention. Because man, life is short.
It is short. Absolutely. When you talk about taking making those 100 calls, who do you target? Who do you decide who to call?
You know, I'll start with kind of what I would do is start with clients. I start with friends and family. These are people who know me like me. They know I'm always got some weird idea. And they like to hear about it. Yeah, you know, and if there was like, Okay, what do you think they're like, Oh, that's great idea. Like, cool. Would you buy it? And they're like, Sure. And then you like, here's a link, and then are they gonna buy or not? Right? Let's say they do buy, it's like, okay, cool friends and family clients, they're gonna buy it, you know, so then it's about validating it with people who don't know me, but who kind of fall within, like, kind of a targeted demographic can ask them the same question. Hey, what do you think about this idea? You know, can you save me a lot of time right now? You're saving money, for sure. But you didn't save me a lot of time. If you're really honest with me. What do you think? Do you like it? Sure. Okay, cool. Can I send you a demo? Can I send you a free one shot? I'd love that. That'd be great. And then you follow up? And like, do you want to buy it? And they're like, Yeah. And they like, well, here's a link to buy it. And they doubt. So yeah, kind of having that double blind PLACEBO prospect test, to see, to see if you really got something that's, that's the big one. That was when I knew, you know, with with kick caster, we kind of had idea of this product as a booking service. I called five clients in signed up three in an hour. Oh, wow. So I was like, Oh, wow, that was fast. Yeah, that was that was a fast, fast validation. But of course, it had to go to the next step. Yeah. So I use early on this app called shaper, which is like, LinkedIn meets Tinder, I suppose. So Wow. swipe left, swipe right for like, entrepreneurial kind of connections. Yeah. And was just there. Just to pitch, kick Castor. So I pitched it pitch to pitch it probably after about four or five days, you know, it was probably a conversation 20 or 30. I'm like, Cool. We're getting towards my 100 things. And I'm not going to try and make a judgment call or have any affinity to that 100 Call only because I fall in love with everything. And yeah, I don't I don't want to kill it, if I love it. So yeah, after three or four days, I had sold one to somebody I just met on an app that I got him into a call and sold it and then a couple days later, I sold another one. I was like, okay, okay, I can build systems and processes around this. Let's see if we can deliver and we did. So we got through those validation points of like, does it work? Yes, it does. And then it gets to the point of like, okay, well, am I the right person, right now to do this? And that was an easy one for me with Kid caster because this is a dream job for me. Yeah, I bet. I love podcasting. So we have this really cool opportunity to kind of put magic into the world, which is like these conversations. Our mission is simple. We celebrate good conversation. And that's it. So to be a facilitator, particularly with people that we work with, who are incredibly passionate about their work, allow them to connect with people that are incredibly curious about their work is super meaningful and really fun.
Yeah, it absolutely is. And it's not jacked up with algorithms and crap like that. Like, if you are a podcast person, you want to go to listen to podcasts, you're going to find it, and you're going to be able to listen without having to worry about other things getting in your way. So yeah, it's been really fun for me, I like I've only been doing this a year. And the conversations that I've been able to have with people are just so, so meaningful to me and so important to me that, especially early on, I just got friends, family, former co workers, former students, things like that, and was able to connect with them. And I'm like, you have a story to tell. And so many of them were like, I don't have anything to talk about. I'm like, You gotta be kidding me right now. I know, you and I know what you've been through. And I know what you've overcome, and trying to convince people making recognize that you do have something to share with the world. That is beneficial. Yeah, this has been really neat, neat adventure, for sure. Wow.
I mean, it's incredible. Plus, I mean, as our attention becomes ever more fragmented, like podcasting gives us a chance to like sit down phones away tabs, or close, like, let's have a conversation and see what happens. I mean, how often does that happen? Not so rare.
It is rare? Even in your own home. It's rare to have a conversation like that. Yeah,
totally. They got an Apple Watch on their watch. It's like you got a text or something? I thought we were talking here. What do you do looking at your watch? Never Ends, you know, so it's fun to do these podcasts interviews, and there's something innately human, I think that makes it just unbelievably sticky, you know, as a platform. Yeah,
absolutely. So how can entrepreneurs use podcasts to benefit their personal and professional brands?
Well, if they, you know, we'll kind of start with a three month term, and we'll put them on 10 podcasts. If you own 10 podcasts in this prop, maybe 10 hours, you know, it's been eight or 910 hours of conversation, and you see no benefit professionally or personally. Well, there's something wrong with the product. I mean, if you're the founder, and nothing happens to you, or your business. Yeah, you might want to have that validation conference, right? Validation. Yeah, truly, because it will work. There's kind of three areas, I like to kind of think about return one just being professional development. With podcasts, you get to come on and tell your story from a different angle each time depending on what's the context of the conversation that in itself is incredibly useful. Because like you said, actually, if you ask anybody, you know, what's your story? I mean, you asked me, it's like, oh, I go blank. And suddenly, I don't know my middle name, I don't know where I'm from. I was like, I don't know nothing. I'm boring. I mean, I was talking to a client, and he's like, oh, man, I don't have a store. I'm just one of those, you know, guys, who shows up in California with a briefcase and 20 bucks, and 10 years later, he's got a $10 million company, I was like,
Oh, just one of those guys.
You've been in San Francisco too long, man, that is not common. You know, so So getting your personal narrative like sharpened is really important. Plus, when you go on a podcast, they all publish to like an RSS feed, which gets picked up everywhere. So you're going to get a ton of traffic on the link, not only that, that link will have great SEO juice. So from just a pure traffic, top of funnel marketing kind of play, podcasting is incredibly beneficial, then you have all this content. So if you're feeding the top of funnel, with just the published and maybe the audience of that podcast, you'll have all this bulk of content that you can repurpose in different ways for different people, for people who are in different portions of your sales cycle, and spoon feed them exactly what they want when they need to hear it, which increases your conversion rates and just fills up your sales pipeline. So podcasts don't fit conveniently into spreadsheets, obviously, like a pay per click campaign does. But I think the benefits often are more dramatic and much more personal, and also gives CEOs and founders an opportunity to lead you're at a certain level and you've raised a couple million bucks to launch your product. You got your marketing people, you got your sales people, you have your fulfillment people, you got your QC people this like, well, what am I doing what's left for me, aside from working 80 hours a week doing everything. But here's an opportunity for me to lead and maybe have some of the staff who don't really know the story of the company. They don't know my story to be able to put that into the world and get really good at telling that story. Yeah, so all of those are fantastic outcomes that come to everybody we work with no matter what the product is. Awesome.
So the big questions that I always get are like, are you making money on that podcast in the number of lists? There's a number of downloads and things like that. So is there any easy answer to those big questions of how do you get more listeners? And how do you monetize your podcast?
How do you monetize your podcast? Well, funny you should ask. You can have affiliate sponsorship. So kik caster, has I think, probably 70 or 80 podcasts that we sponsor, our affiliate sponsorship works basically by lead. So every podcast that we sponsor has their own landing page, that if they share that a lead comes through, we pay them a certain amount, if that lead becomes business for us, we pay them a much greater amount. So affiliate sponsorships, which are performance based sponsorships are fantastic for podcasts that are on their way up the podcast that are finding their niche speaking to their people. Because you know, like the Spartans, it's like, you only need 300 people to fight that person army. But if you're really finding your people, then there's opportunities to sell to them, you know, and if a podcast can make a commission off that sale, it's a great way to monetize podcasting. Yeah. Now, once you get into kind of the 10,000, monthly download area, now you're opened up for all kinds of advertising opportunities, you get to 20,000 downloads, now you're looking at big brands that will want to sponsor your podcast. So going from zero to 10,000. downloads is tough. Yeah. And if you can find a surefire way to do it, boy put that together. And I'll let you know, a package and sell that. But yeah, so there's different ways to monetize podcasts. But if you're starting out, you're considering do five of them. If you're in it to just for the money, you should probably get out, right? It's not gonna happen. Yeah, do something else. It's just so much work. You know, it is a lot of work. And then there's ways that I made money off my podcast indirectly. So my podcast, the kind of flagship show that became talk launch was called the Denver business podcast. And I would go and get conversations with founders of brands admire it from Denver, and then figure out, you know, hey, where are the holes in your business? And if they tell me, and then after the podcast is over, I'm like, awesome, you know, would be a great fix for those holes in your business. Yeah, me, it turns out, it turns out, and so I made, I attribute like a million bucks of revenue to that just podcast guests. And even better than that is, like, lifelong friendships now, because you do get opportunity to connect with people on a podcast and get to know them really quickly, at least enough to know like, I think this is pretty cool person. Like, I want to keep them around. Yeah. So that's a great way to and that's just really a networking thing. So you know, what, what can I do with this network that I'm building based around the show? Yeah, so monetizing podcast, there's a million creative ways to do it. Getting listeners, that's, that's also challenging. Yeah, the best way I've seen it done is have a very niche show for a very specific person and then advertise to them. You know? Yeah. And if you can get a listener for a Buck Buck listener, probably money well spent.
Yeah. Okay. Good to know, keeping it all up right here. You've probably touched on this a little bit earlier. But what role do you feel podcasts play in our culture?
I think they're a healing force. For our culture. Our culture has so many terrible flaws, inequities, inequalities, and then we have these new tools, online tools that seemed to make it worse. Yeah, you know, social media seems to like give people opportunity to find the extremity of their opinions, and experiment with them. It's kind of dangerous to be at some polar end of what you might think and just act like you are just to, like, get engagement and find clicks and interviews and stuff. I don't think that's necessarily brings out our best qualities and characteristics as people, right. I think I think what you find if you're, you're at a cocktail party is like, you end up talking to somebody that you had no business talking to, you had nothing in common with them. You know, but but you'll have this awkward dance in the conversation to find common ground. So like, my shoe laces, like, Oh, my daughter gave me these shoe laces. You're like, Oh, cool. I have a daughter too, ma'am. There you go. It's there's a gravity to find common ground. Yeah, people. I mean, it's, it's in our biology. That's why a Neanderthals are gone. That's why, you know, we've evolved to this point. Well, if that's true, maybe we just killed all the Neanderthals. But the reason we're still around is because we are social creatures, you know, it is in us to connect with each other, regardless of language barriers, religious barriers. I mean, you know what, I'm kind of going on a limb there, actually, there. It's both. I think we've evolved because we've been able to collaborate and we've also have Because we can dominate I think both of those spirits are alive in us. And I think maybe the the social media aspect plays to that domineering type characteristic that we have, like, I want to not only be the best, but I want to eradicate my opponents on the face of the earth. Whereas like podcasting represents this collaborative thing, which is like, hey, you know what, maybe we don't agree on the extremities of our opinions, but I want you to exist. Yeah, you know, so what can we do now? How can we exist now? So I think podcasting naturally feeds that that collaborative, empathetic kind of qualities that we have as human beings.
Yeah. I like that. I like that. So tell me what, who are, who are what motivates you? And inspires you?
Who are motivates me? Oh, boy. You know, the real answer is just I have this like, horrible drill coach jerk inside my head. That is the one who really motivates me. I'm trying to figure out a new motivation. But this is a horrible voice I have inside of my head, tell him call me unspeakable things all the time is the one that really gets things done.
Well, I mean, you know, if it makes it happen, I guess it's alright.
I don't think it is. I don't think it I don't think it's okay to be made yourself. Even if you get the outcomes you want. You know, and that's just what it is. It's like, the alarm goes off. Am I gonna go to the gym? It's like, there's voices, like, you know, Ron, you've been working really hard. Maybe she's sleeping a little bit of a break. Yeah, we'll make waffles later, it'd be it'd be cool. And then there's another one, like, oh, you again, oh, you know what you're gonna get up, you know. And then I'm like, alright, that's a good point, I am going to get up. So I'm trying to figure out how to get the results that I like, without that voice. So what I've been doing recently is, is really mapping out everything I want, in life in in different kinds of domains, figuring out how I can pair those things together to get multiple outcomes, and then everything that I want to do have a place on the calendar, where it's going to happen. I'm a fairly regimented systems process guy. Sounds like, discipline is a big thing for me. So you know, through creating, you know, what I just call an experiment. That's what really is motivating me right now.
Okay, that's interesting. I like that. Okay, so can you talk about any big obstacles that you've overcome in your life and how you did that?
Big obstacles? You know, I think probably the biggest obstacle for me was, you know, talking about this voice in my head, maybe that being oblivious to that negative self talk, maybe not knowing that the tail was wagging the dog a little bit. I feel like when I discovered that there was an alternative to just basically being reactive, not only to my environment, but also to my thoughts. That was a big turnaround for me, that provided me some space, I think, in some comfort for myself, you know, maybe a little love and kindness for myself in a pathway to be able to bring that into the world in kind of a systematized kind of way. You know, so the obstacle for me, unfortunately, you know, I'm just a cisgendered white dude. You know, I've had a lot of obstacles. Not to say that I haven't suffered. So actually kind of working through that suffering. And dealing with the pain is probably been the best tools for me.
Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. Sometimes I talked to a lot of women obviously, that deal with the whole talking, harsh talk towards themselves and like beating themselves up about things or whatever. So it's interesting to hear a man's perspective to see to know that that's not just a woman thing that we don't just, we're not the only ones that beat ourselves up or the mean to ourselves or whatever, to try to get ourselves to do things. So,
no, it's a human thing. I found out recently that either sex either gender, some people don't have an inner narrator. Like there's the lights not on upstairs. I don't know what that means. I don't
understand that. Was narration going on? Oh,
it's all the time. What am I gonna say next? What should I said? Yeah. Why did I do that? Why am I still mad at that guy in from third grade for cutting in line from them?
Why did I punch that kid and face it kindergarten? Yeah. Apparently, some people don't have that. Like, what is? Yeah, I
don't get that. I don't know. I wonder if it's kind of like the ignorance is bliss kind of thing. Maybe they're a lot more peace
than we are. I don't know. You know, and not to be disrespectful. Maybe it is actually true. That is true, but maybe they just haven't noticed that voice yet. Which is also like, what a blessing. It's, it's like cool. Don't fish around in there. Like, just if you're enjoying that hot dog and drinking a beer and watching the game. Do that for the rest of your life.
Keep at it. Yeah, do that. I don't know. So tell us about a mistake that you made or about a time when you hadn't No idea what you're doing and how did it pan out? What did you learn from it?
Oh boy, I do that all the time. She has run in, figure out on the fly. Yeah, a mistake. Okay, one of the products I was validating was actually it was to begin a line of cosmetics that my wife was interested in. She saw kind of a opening in the market for kind of a natural deodorant product. That didn't suck. That actually worked. Right, that actually worked. Yeah. So she started kind of compounding different things, to see what worked experimented with it, and, and found a pretty great formula. And I was like, awesome, you know, like, like, this is my thing. Let me help you. And so by help help her, I completely took the whole thing over, rebranded it and started selling it. And then she kind of drifted away from it. I was like, oh, cool, I think this is gonna be great. Bah, bah, bah, bah, blah, and went way far. And we were doing some demo, and kind of had a big blowout fight. Oh, and, you know, I realized that like, it's like, oh, this wasn't about like, creating a business. This is your thing, not your thing. You're having fun doing it. And I sucked the joy out of this project and destroyed it. So I that was another validation for me to shelve the project, and let it go, you know, even though we had some success there. So it's a pretty big mistake and blind spot for me because I am relatively, I suppose, manic I guess, not in a pathological way. But, but like, I'm a doer. So I want to get something done. I'm going to do it. Right. You know, there's a lot of folks that throw ideas around, but like I, I make it stick, you know, alright, let's do it. Let's do it. And those later hours we can right now. So, that kind of movement and that speed. It'll get you into trouble in all kinds of different ways. But most different ways. I'm comfortable with dealing with ramifications. But like, there's a problem over the dinner table. I don't want that I want my home no matter what, you know. So does a pretty major mistake. But fortunately, we work that out. That's good.
That's a good day. Yeah, so talk about your family a little bit. What do you guys like to do for vacation or just hanging out or whatever?
You bet. We're big sportsman people like hunting and fishing is is what I just That's all I want to do. Really? My wife that
you're podcasting studio there on the lake while you're fishing, but that work? Oh, I've
done it. I've done hunting and fishing podcasts in the in the field itself fun. On the spring. You whispering as podcasts? Yeah, pretty exciting. So we like to do that. We martial arts family. You know, I train jujitsu and I do a cup of water with my daughter. She's really really good at it. Okay, what's that? So kappa what is another Brazilian martial art? Okay, this one's from a different vein, as opposed from coming over from Japan. This one has its origins in Africa. A lot of the movement is from Africa through Brazil. So kind of, you know, unfortunately, during slavery days, they were trained this kind of musical dance in fighting technique called capital letter that was basically made a legal cap, what a few different times because they didn't want slaves, unfortunately, fighting, learn how to fight and revolt. And so it carries with it this tradition of music of movement of striking, and a deep kind of cultural, Brazilian art form. Yeah, that's incredible. And it's, it's possibly the most fun thing that I do. And in my opinion, it's, it's a complete art. So we do that my daughter's live. She's amazing. She's really good at it. And it's something that we can do together. So we'd like to do that. You know, we're we're Colorado people. I should be wearing a flannel shirt here. I got a I got a truck and you know, whatever. Yeah, I from Oklahoma.
I've only been to Colorado a couple of times, but definitely want to go on vacation. And
we're just passing some flowers. Just pass this for like 400 miles.
It's good. Oh, is there anything else that you like one thing that you would want to leave with my listeners that something that keeps you going or you know, some kind of valuable lesson or word or a quote or joke or something like that?
Oh, man, I'm always busting out these quotes. I'm so annoying like that. I love quotes. Yeah, you know, the one I've been thinking about a lot is, if I had 10 hours to cut down a tree, I'd spend nine sharpening the blade. I like that one. Because as a person who I'm addicted to action, I like to move and I like to move quickly. This is one that to make sure that that effort is in the right direction. You know that like what's gonna do the most right now. It's not always the most dramatic thing but like, you know, how do we make sure that in the beginning, like we're setting ourselves up to be successful as opposed to going too far biting off more We can chew and now we didn't get a win. So yeah, that was my I don't know who said that. Was that like, George Washington or something? I don't know. I have to look it up Abraham Lincoln, one of those guys.
So it's like the planning the preparation, the thinking things through the that kind of thing before you jump into the action.
Yeah, exactly that how putting effort in the right place? Yeah, to get the desired result?
Yeah. Awesome. Well, Ryan, how can everybody get ahold of you? How can they connect with you?
You know, they can reach out through the website, which is kit caster.com. There's an application there. If you think you'd be a great, have great qualifications for our service. I'd love to speak to you there. You want to talk to me about podcasting or anything else? You can just email me direct Brian at kick caster.com is my email address. You want to chat podcasting stuff or anything else? projects come up any of those things. It was Abraham Lincoln that that quote?
Get the credit is due.
That's a good place to find me. And aside from that, I really enjoy talking to you, man. I appreciate your time.
I appreciate you. And I appreciate the while your cast her because that's how I found her how we found each other how we got connected. So it's obviously doing a good job.
And shout out to Riley.
I think she's who Yeah, Sean has been Yes, she's the one I've corresponded with. So yeah, Riley, thank you. Okay. Well, I appreciate you being here. Thank you so much, Ryan. And I hope to talk to you again at some point in time.
Yeah, let's do it. Absolutely. And, yeah, I really enjoyed it. Thanks, Mandy. You're welcome.
So just a quick heads up for you. I am going to put the podcast on pause for the month of December 2021, just to get a break and to regroup. And I will be back in January. I've been trucking along with this podcast since August of 2020. And though I have added an editor to the mix, I do not have a whole team of people helping me with it. So and it does take time and energy and planning and promo and all that stuff. So the beauty of hosting your own podcast is that you are the boss and you can decide how and when to take a break and regroup and pivot and whatever you need to do. And given that there are almost 70 episodes now there's plenty of content for you to devour, and even to revisit if needed. So again, I'll be taking a break from the podcast in December of 2021. We will be back in January with more guests. I have plenty of guests already in the queue and plenty that are ready to schedule. So anyway, so thank you so much for understanding that if you are enjoying this podcast and getting inspiration and encouragement, then please please please subscribe, leave a positive review and share it with three of your friends who need a boost of hope and motivation to dream big. Also, it does cost money to make this podcast happen. So there are monthly fees for recording software and for Buzzsprout, the podcast platform that I use, and for my editor, so if you would like to help defer some of what it costs to help keep it going. Then you can click the Buy me a copy link in the show notes or on my website at May desire.com/podcast. Also, if you need to delegate some virtual tasks that are bogging you down and keeping you from moving forward in your business, check out my virtual assistant services on my website Mady, Sawyer comm and schedule a free consultation call with me. I love to help you out during a VIP day where I'll focus only on tackling your tasks so that you have more time to shine in your zone of genius. Thank you so much for listening. And remember to dream big and kick ass
