Intro: Broadcasting live from our flagship studio in Atlanta, Georgia. This is scaling in public. The next 100 Business RadioX markets, featuring founders Lee Kantor and Stone Payton, along with some of America’s top coaches, helping them grow the network with real strategy, real lessons, and real accountability all shared in public. To learn more about the proven system that turns podcast interviews into a perpetual prospecting pipeline through generosity, not gimmicks, go to brxhq.com And download the free Business RadioX playbook. Now here’s your host.

Adam Walker: That was a great intro, I love that. All right, so, uh, I think maybe we should start by talking about why why we’re talking about video. And so I know why Sanjay and I are very pro videos, so. So Lee and Stone, like, I’m wondering, like, if you could explore, like, why why are we even having this conversation? Is it because you think there might that might be an avenue to growth or what are your thoughts on that?

Stone Payton: So I absolutely think it might be an avenue for growth. One of the challenges, and I don’t think we’ve just created this as a perceived challenge for ourselves. I think it’s genuine. It’s one thing to be in a local market where you have people come into your studio and you get to meet them face to face. You see the body language, you create that relationship and that model is very well baked. It works. It always works. It never doesn’t work. If you run a local studio, you’re going to help people and make money. Now Lee and I have taken on the, the, the challenge of trying to get other people to do what we’re doing here in metro Atlanta and a few other communities across the country. You know, to get someone in a market where we’re not like a Memphis or Pittsburgh or San Diego, and I feel like. And I think Lee’s beginning to feel the same way. It’s almost we can use all of our tools and strategy to get to meet those people, begin to build a relationship. We can invite them on a show, but we’ve been audio only for so many years, and it’s it’s not the same experience. So as they begin their experience with Business RadioX, it’s not really the thing that I want them to do, right? It’s a zoom audio recording, and I’ve used this analogy before, but I’ll share it here again. I almost feel sometimes that I’m jumping in a rowboat, rolling out to the middle of the bay, and then trying to sell somebody an outboard motor. And so you know what I mean. So yeah, I do think there is very likely a place for video, maybe even at the local community studio level, but certainly in this scaling effort. Lee. Mm.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. That’s I mean that’s been our experience. We’ve had we’ve been doing audio. We’ve been doing in-studio work for so long. Um, and that’s worked for us since the pandemic and we transitioned to more video. Um, we just haven’t leaned into the video aspect of, of doing what we’re doing. And obviously you can execute this through technology in a variety of ways. Um, but in our work in a studio, having headphones in a place where we’re all there, intimately connected, it creates this bubble of intimacy. That is, we just haven’t been able to replicate using video.

Adam Walker: Mm.

Sanjay Parekh: You know, one of the things that kind of strikes me, um, in terms of the business that you’re in is I think you’ve said it a couple of times now is building relationships, right? It’s all about building relationships. And to me, and I think to Adam as well, uh, one of the things that video does is allow you to build those relationships, because one of the challenges when you’re listening to somebody’s audio only. And I have this challenge all the time. You know, you’re listening to, you know, NPR or whatever it is, and then you actually see the person and you’re like, the picture of the person doesn’t match up with what the image is in your head. And because of that, if you’re seeing them outside in the real world, you wouldn’t think that this person is the person that you’ve been listening to. But when you’re being able to see video of them all the time, like this happens to me, I think, Adam, it’s happened to you as well. People will come up to us because they know us from the things that we’ve done. They’ve seen us. Um, and then they compare the things that we’ve said and then what we look like, and then know when we’re out in public and be able to talk to us.

Sanjay Parekh: And really that helps build those relationships. And so the thing that you said there, Lee, about, you know, these, these communities and, and building those relationships, I think video is actually one of the, the strongest tools that you have in terms of helping that happen. And so I think one of the things that both of you have said before, uh, to us is that there’s like this hesitancy, uh, in terms of doing video like what’s like the core of that. Why the hesitancy? Well, it’s a bias. And it goes to what you said, the you’re focused on how the audience sees you and strangers come up to you because they’ve seen your video and they think they know you or whatever. In our world, the guest is the most important person. So the person that I’m interacting with in person, I am seeing face to face across the table as opposed to like we’re doing now, uh, across a video screen. So that relationship, I believe, um, becomes deeper, faster in person than it does, uh, via Zoom or Riverside or whatever platform you’re using.

Adam Walker: Yeah, I think that’s a good argument, but this kind of like it’s kind of the similar argument of like, we can only have good company culture if we’re all in the same building in an open workspace. And so I think, I think it’s a similar kind of argument. And so I think my response to that would just be that I think you can still build high quality relationships via video, and I think you can do it via video like interview like this. But it has to be there has to be like a lot of intentionality baked into it, because otherwise you miss out on the chit chat or you miss out on the follow up, or you miss out on the, you know, whatever. Um, so yeah, I think I think you can create a formula that would make that work. It just takes a lot of intentionality.

Lee Kantor: But I think I think you’re exactly right, Adam. I think that that’s a perfect analogy is that a lot of businesses want to go back to office because they want to create that serendipity and all those kind of watercooler moments that are difficult to replicate, you know, virtually. So what would be your recommendation if we were to go into video on how to create kind of those deeper relationships without it seeming like every other podcast video, podcast interview where the person jumps into a waiting room in one of these platforms and then, you know, you go five, four, three, two, one, and now you’re off, and then it ends and you go, thank you. Bye. So how would you recommend building that intentionality in those meaningful moments using video?

Adam Walker: Well, I mean, what I’ve done before and some of you may have a different opinion on this from from some of your experience in hosting. Um, so what I’ve done before is I’ve done like a pre-interview call, like just a, just to get to know you call and use that as an opportunity to better understand their story, better understand sort of what they’re about, and then create and craft questions around that for the interview.

Lee Kantor: When you say call are you saying call like a video call or.

Adam Walker: Yeah, like a zoom call. Yeah. Just yeah. Just to get to know you like, oh, tell me your story. Let’s talk about that sort of zoom call and then that can sort of pre inform the actual interview itself. But then suddenly, I mean, I know you do a lot of like pre chit chat on one of our podcasts. Like maybe you could talk about that too, because I think that that’s a slightly different approach but has the same effect. Yeah, I so.

Sanjay Parekh: I tend to do it uh during the, the recording. So before we actually hit record, um, I’ll start talking to them, you know, just to understand a little bit about their story, but really, uh, it’s kind of a multiple purpose one, uh, for some of the folks that don’t come on these shows often, it’s to get them comfortable, uh, and kind of loose and just, you know, chit chat and laugh about stuff or whatever. I just recently had somebody on, uh, who was originally from New Hampshire and I mentioned, you know, like, I remember the New Hampshire quarter, uh, and the old man in the, in the, uh, the Stone or something. I don’t know exactly what it was, but basically the New Hampshire quarter had that. So I started asking him questions about that. Um, and so he went into this long kind of conversation about this, and it kind of loosened him up. Um, but it also gave us this kind of common connection, um, that, hey, you know, like we’re friendly or whatever before we leaped into it. One of the things I did want to kind of mention and kind of talk about and dig into, is that the way we’re kind of framing this is that it’s an either or right, in-person or online video, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be right.

Sanjay Parekh: The in-person can still have video. You can still develop that that that content, that relationship and everything else in person. And then kind of the second order of this, I think the place that this adds a lot of value, not just for y’all, but also for the other people that are running Business RadioX, um, affiliates, is that the guests that are coming on will find value in this, because they’ll have the opportunity to kind of share this video and kind of spread it around. Like there’s there’s added value for them as well. And so I think for some of your folks that are affiliates to be able to, to attract these guests that they want on the show, um, this becomes another kind of quiver, uh, in the, uh, what is that thing called? Arrow in the quiver? Arrow in the quiver? The thing is the quiver. The arrows inside. Arrow in the quiver. Yeah. Thoughts on that?

Lee Kantor: Well, I, I agree that it’s an and not an Or, and we just have to figure out the best way to kind of leverage, um, video to achieve our objectives.

Adam Walker: Yeah. So what. So so so the objective is 100 Business RadioX by the end of the year. Right. So I wonder if you can take just a moment and explain, like why Business RadioX like why like like why would someone start a Business RadioX in their location?

Lee Kantor: Um, Stone you want to take that?

Stone Payton: I do, but I wonder if it wouldn’t even be more powerful for why you started the first one. And then I’m happy to share why I think someone in San Diego ought to get one tomorrow.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. So the reason Business Radio X exists is because I didn’t like doing networking. That was really at the heart of it. Um, Business RadioX exists because I did not want to go to another networking meeting and stand up and tell them why they should hire me to be a copywriter at the time. And so, um, I’m like, there has to be a better way to do this. I’m an introvert. I don’t like to go. I’m uncomfortable in that situation to begin with. And now I have to go every week, and I have to stand up there and say the same thing to the same folks. So what I did was I, um, I had been doing podcasting, um, for a show called Doctor Fitness and the fat Guy and, uh, I’m like, I wonder if I can use the same platform as a way to meet the people I want to meet. So instead of having a show called Doctor Fitness and the Fat Guy, I had a show called Atlanta Business Radio, and on that show I was interviewing business people, and it worked the same way as Doctor Fitness worked, because I could invite people and they would say yes, and they would come on the show and they’d come in the studio. And at the time we were this was at the beginning of podcasting. So there wasn’t. You had explained that you didn’t need an iPod to do, you know, to come on the show. And, you know, we’re having kind of different types of explanations that you’re having now, but they would come on the show and we’d have several guests at a time, and there was just this energy in the room that became a mini networking meeting.

Lee Kantor: Everybody got to learn about each other, and we did it in a manner that was very conversational and it was very intimate. And everybody had headphones were in a room all together. They couldn’t multitask, they couldn’t go on their phone, they had to listen. So everybody was forced to kind of learn about each other. And in that environment, a lot of people were like, oh, I didn’t know you did that, or I didn’t know this or that. And they were able to interact. And then a lot of folks kind of said, hey, I want to know more. And they’d go off and learn more about each other, or I would get clients like, how do how do I get a show so I can do the same thing for my, you know, my business? And it became evident, it was obvious because they saw it happen. It was visceral. Um, and that was something that, um, you know, led to one client to another and another. And, you know, all of a sudden I had a studio full of clients, of which Stone became one of them. And then it became, okay, can we take this same thing and move it to other places and do the same activity and help other people do what I’m doing, just in a different markets?

Adam Walker: I love that. All right. So Stone, why would somebody, you know, put one in, I don’t know, Miami or something like that. Give us more on that.

Stone Payton: Sure. Happy to. And I think I’ll start with why I did it. And I was invited as a guest. I was very impressed with the whole experience was very different than the traditional. You know, I’m a smart CPA. Saturday afternoon FM show that I was doing. I self-published a book back then and I had my, you know, I had all my little notes. I had that one joke that always landed. It was all but it was a much more superficial exchange. Those kinds of interviews on cable access and those FM afternoon shows. Man, I walked into this studio and, you know, the the clouds parted, the angels saying that the doves flew. It was it was just a very different experience. We had real, authentic conversation about me and the work and the why behind the work and where I was taking it and what I had learned from it. And I built genuine relationships in the space of, you know, 45 minutes, you know, an hour with I think it was like three other small business people and Lee and Amy, the two people that were hosting the show. So, I mean, I, I just had a marvelous experience and I couldn’t figure out how Lee was making money because he didn’t charge me to be on the show. He didn’t run any commercials? I stayed after he explained that to me. I probably not that day, but within a couple of days I wrote a check and and he helped me build my own show. And then, you know, it wasn’t 90 days before I wrote a bigger check and bought myself a different career and, uh, and became partners with Lee. But the the real motivation behind it all, if you look under the hood a little bit, is I’m anything but an introvert.

Stone Payton: If you’re not picking up on on that already. Uh, but I also, I like very much being the guy who knows the guy, and I absolutely detest and will never be that person that says, please, baby, please. You know, can we please have a cup of coffee? And I explain what I do and, you know, will you please take my call? I always wanted to be positioned, and I was fortunate in an earlier career, uh, that that we already were wasn’t because of what I was doing. Always positioned that people saw us and me out. And so and so here in Woodstock. I run one of the studios here in Woodstock as well. I mean, I’m the social mayor. Everybody knows me. I’m the cool guy in town. You know, I help support and celebrate everybody from the fire chief and and the police chief to the local business leaders and, you know, Stones, the cool guy in town that everybody that everybody likes. And as a business, I can help other people who want to build real relationships real fast with this platform and our methodology. I can help them do do that. I can help them do it, you know, with a great deal less energy and a lot more fun. And so if you’re in the professional services arena, you’re a coach or a consultant, you’re a fractional exec. It’s just a heck of a lot easier and a lot more fun to use this platform as a way to build real relationships than any other strategy or tactic that I’m aware of.

Adam Walker: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So so then it strikes me that there’s there’s kind of two, two components to this conversation for you. All right. One is can video build the type of relationships that you’re looking to build? So can you bring in the guests? Can you build that rapport? Can you create those networks. Can you do that through video? And then the second is can video help you in terms of Business RadioX expand your reach to get in front of more audiences in order to hit your goal to get 100 locations by the end of 2026. I mean, is that is that a reasonable way to sort of frame up the conversation?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think so. I think what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to get to 100 by any means necessary. And this is a tactic to do that. I mean, yeah, this is one of several tactics that we’re willing to explore. And we there’s a saying, Jimmy Johnson says that you are what your record says you are. So we we we don’t have ten yet. So we’ve been doing this for 20 years and we don’t have ten, so whatever we’re doing is not working. So everything is on the table to, um, to get to 100. So this is definitely one of the things on the table.

Sanjay Parekh: So there’s an interesting kind of point here. And I think in some of this. So we keep talking about locations, right? Locations. It’s a place where people come uh, this you know, going virtual like this opens up the opportunity where it’s not really a location anymore. Right? It’s a person interviewing, um, and they’re developing relationships. Now that I’m, like, thinking about what you’re talking about. I think this does open up a whole new avenue for y’all. Because right now, you’ve been focused on people that want to develop relationships that are local to them. Right? Because that person’s going to come into the studio and all that. Doing something like this, where everything is virtual, potentially now opens up the opportunities for people that want to develop relationships that are not necessarily local, right? They want to develop relationships across an industry, across a vertical, whatever it is. Uh, and I think then this actually breaks you out of this, uh, kind of constraint where you’re probably thinking, we haven’t talked about this yet. You’re probably thinking that these 100 are inside of the US, whereas if it’s all virtual, then it doesn’t necessarily need to be. And the buy in cost I think is a lot less. Right. Any kind of thoughts on that and feedback on that?

Stone Payton: Well, for me personally.

Lee Kantor: Go ahead, Stone.

Stone Payton: For me personally, I haven’t gone as far down that into the continuum as you’re describing, like having this entire virtual model. But I have, through our other coaching sessions, has lent itself to this big begun to broaden my definition of what a studio partner is. And maybe we ought to call them something else to to the extent that I’m even recommending do what I did. When I came to Cherokee, we moved from East Cobb. I went ahead and did a dozen interviews virtually. So by the time I got to to Woodstock and before I became social mayor, I had I had a, you know, I had some traction. And there are some distinct benefits that I’ve experienced in having those local people there and getting those local clients and all that. But I am definitely opening my mind to a broader definition of what a studio partner is, and that there’s very likely a place there for virtual programing. And for all I know, it ought to be the lead place, I don’t know. So yes, I’m leaning in that direction some. Sanjay.

Lee Kantor: I’m not leaning in that direction as far as Stone is or as you described. I think that what makes us unique and different is that there is a local element to this. And, um, and I’m not constrained by the United States as the only place these things can happen. I I think they can happen anywhere in the world, but I think the value of having a third place where people go physically and meet in person, face to face, I think there’s a place for that and those stories to be told in that manner locally that would benefit entrepreneurs that kind of lean into our methodology and our mission of being the place where these stories are told for the business community to support and celebrate local business. I think that that there is a business model that can support that and that we can help them achieve that. Um, you know, if if the target becomes anybody that has access to Riverside or, or any type of internet technology and they want to just build their, um, community, wherever that is, they can do that within that. Like that doesn’t discourage them from doing that. It’s an and not an or in our model, obviously the technology lets you interview anybody anywhere. So they can do that and still serve, you know, Memphis.

Adam Walker: Yeah. I mean I think there can be a local component and a non-local. I think to me, what it opens up is that if your model right now is all studio based, you’re limited to have people purchase locations that are only wanting to network locally. And I think there’s a pretty large number of professionals that want to network locally and beyond that. And so that would be.

Lee Kantor: The the target would be I would want the ideal the avatar for the ideal client would be somebody who wants to make an impact locally if they don’t want to make an impact locally, and they just, you know, the world is their oyster, that probably is not the right fit for our ideal prospect. Got it. Uh, even though obviously there’s more of those people on the planet, I think the person we’re looking for is the person that wants to say, you know what? I live here in town. I want to be the place where these stories are told. I think it’s important for these stories to be told, and I want to be the one who tells those stories.

Adam Walker: Got it.

Sanjay Parekh: Okay, so the I think there’s an interesting path here in terms of, um, business progression, right? So I think that’s an important thing that you highlighted there that it’s about the local. So it’s a good distinction to have to know that, okay, we’re about helping build up local businesses. Yes. There’s a maybe a remote option because hey every now and again we want to build bring in an expert that’s not local and this is how we do it. But Stone, you actually made the comment earlier that before you moved over, uh, you used these virtual opportunities to start building up the case for this. So is this maybe the right way for you to develop these affiliates to say, like, look, your first six months are are virtual so that you don’t have to go all in and buy, you know, all of this equipment and and spend all this with, with the hope and a dream that it’s all going to work out and that there’s a less expensive option. And in those six months, you figure out where that physical location is going to be based on what you see happen in those six months, and then you transition to a in-person and virtual opportunity. Is that something that makes sense in terms of the business?

Stone Payton: I think that’s an idea that has a lot of merit, and I could see doing that. And even the half step being you’re a pop up studio in the middle, you know, now with all these co-working spaces and all that, get the Business RadioX remote kit. That’s your second level of certification. You know, all that stuff. And then you show up, you know, every Friday at the local co-working thing and do your pop up. Uh, not that we’re doing that, but, I mean, it makes sense to me.

Adam Walker: That’s what we used to do with TikTok, y’all. We had a little pop up studio we’d arrange every every Friday. So.

Stone Payton: But I don’t want to While I want to be completely open minded to all of this, I want to make sure I underscore and I don’t want to dismiss the the sheer magic that happened. I’m at the house right now, but a mile down the road, I’m in a coworking space with a ten by 13 studio. That is a magical place, and you can make a very comfortable living a couple afternoons a week, running down there and giving people a chance to share their story and promote their work. So I don’t want to dismiss that at all. But yeah.

Sanjay Parekh: Yeah, but it’s more about the on ramp, right? Like how do you make it easy to people getting to that point? Because maybe they’re not convinced, but this might be an easier way. Lee did you have thoughts as well?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Well I don’t want to dismiss like the person, the aspiring person that wants to be an authority in their community and they want to be kind of known as I know everybody or I’m this connector and I’m this really important cog in the ecosystem by partnering with us. This is almost a cheat code because like my studio in Atlanta is in the Chamber of Commerce for the Greater Perimeter chamber. So like they invited me to put a studio in their office, literally in their office. So when they have a mixer, I can broadcast from there mixer because I’m down the hall, you know, where I’m in the same room as them. So some of our partners have offices inside of businesses, like one person has an office in a bank, one of them has an office in a coworking space. Um, like multiple people have them in coworking spaces. But chambers of commerce are very interested in having the ability to have storytellers in their building. That’s a that’s a win win. So it’s not like, oh, it’s hard to get space or I’m going to have to pay a fortune for space. A lot of our people don’t pay anything for rent, and a lot of them get super discounted deals because they have partnerships with the businesses that they’re located in.

Sanjay Parekh: So that’s an interesting kind of concept that you’ve hit upon there. I don’t remember if it’s been discussed in previous episodes, but is that actually maybe your sales channel of talking to Chambers of Commerce and convincing them that they need a Business RadioX not hosted by them, but empower them to go out and find the person that would run it there and have them be basically your sales agent. You know, this is not going kind of far afield of what we were starting to talk about, which is doing video. But let’s talk about the business, because video is really just a matter of empowering the business, right? Spreading the word, um, giving a reason for people to come onto the show. But I think you just hit upon something super interesting that maybe should be the kind of point of this whole effort, right? The reason why you’ve only got in ten is maybe you’re not talking to the chambers of commerce, which is who you need to talk to.

Lee Kantor: The Chambers of Commerce historically have been willing partners. They haven’t been willing check writers, um, they’re not. Um, so far, we haven’t been able to convince any to my knowledge of saying, okay, here’s X number of dollars you can be here, but they are willing to, um, kind of co-brand shows they’re willing to distribute content. They’re willing to, um, have us appear, um, and to offer us, uh, like in my chamber that I’m in, in the Greater Perimeter Chamber of Commerce, that is a chamber that focuses on the top end of the perimeter from 75 to 85, along 285 in Atlanta. So they had multiple offices that they were leasing, and they wanted us to be in, in there. Uh, that was they saw that as a value to their members, to themselves, and they wanted access to our platform. So we were able to work something out there. And they’re a big fan of ours. They they like the fact that we’re there. It’s definitely an asset. And, um, those types of opportunities are available. Um, chamber leaders are open to having conversations with people who have a platform that can help tell their member stories. Let’s put it that way.

Adam Walker: Yeah, yeah.

Lee Kantor: That’s not a big ask. That’s not a big lift from a chamber standpoint to to say, oh, I can invite my members onto your show like that. Yeah, that’s no brainer. That’s an easy yes.

Stone Payton: But but, Lee, and what if we asked them to lift a little more and we framed it up? If what we brought to them was more than what you described? And we do have several examples of that, and we really did in our mind, uh, frame it up as sales agents. I like that terminology. I would love to have the president of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce actively be looking for someone to be our studio partner and be willing to collaborate with them. They would get all those benefits that our chambers have been getting, but they’d also get us our person, or at least help them.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I mean, we haven’t been able to pull that off, but I mean, the chamber knows a lot of people and a lot of people want more, um, visibility within their membership. And our platform allows that.

Adam Walker: So. So I wonder if I can pivot there back to video for a second and kind of frame it up this way. So we talked about sort of in-person versus virtual. And it was kind of implied that in-person is not video and virtual is video, but that’s not necessarily the case. Right. You can do in-person and video as well. So I don’t want I don’t want to miss that. And I guess I guess what I’d love to pivot to is what video brings to the table in terms of opportunity. And I think, I think I would frame it up in a couple of ways, right? In terms of opportunity to build relationships, because I think video can do that both in-person and virtual. I think it also can help from a networking perspective in terms of if you create video assets that the person you’re interviewing then shares on their networks, you’re now expanding into their network in a meaningful way. And then I think the third thing is it also can create video assets that you can then share and expose yourself on these other networks, like TikTok shorts or reels, where it doesn’t really matter how many followers you have, it matters how good your video is, and you can have ten followers and have a video that hits a million views and that gets a lot of exposure to your brand in general. So. So I wonder if we can sort of, sort of pivot in that direction. Does that sound okay like a good topic?

Stone Payton: It does to me because I have some specific questions about doing video in a studio that may be more.

Adam Walker: Start there. What are your what are your questions about.

Stone Payton: If that’s not too, too tactical? So you guys clearly know what you’re doing with video even even virtually. But I suspect in a in a real environment if we.

Adam Walker: Were we’ve done real setups as well. Yeah.

Stone Payton: So we were if we were at your place or in my studio, I’m sure it would come out looking great. I’m also reasonably sure that if I tried to go to the studio this afternoon and video, uh, you know, the session, it’s not going to look too great. And so how how big and hairy is that to get it where, where it looks good. So that’s one tactical question. And then the other one is Lee and I both have been hesitant, probably for psychological reasons too, but but our, our, uh, our overt reason that we have articulated over the years is it’s so magical in there. I can’t emphasize that enough. The last thing I want to do is add any friction to that, that that set of intimate moments. So I don’t want the lady worried about her makeup or the guy worried about the mustard on his shirt, or the guy making sure he’s sitting up straight. Whereas in the way, I would do an interview this afternoon? Yeah, they’re a little nervous at first, but pretty soon, man, the microphone melts away, and and they can refer to their notes. And, um, so I’m, I would I would love to get to the place where I felt like, yeah, we can do video. Um, we can capture it properly, we can produce it properly, and it’s going to look good when we get done. And it’s not going to add too much friction to the, the, the dynamic that we’ve had so much fun and success with today.

Adam Walker: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so, uh, were you going to start Sanjay or.

Sanjay Parekh: You know, you go ahead.

Adam Walker: Well, so I would answer in reverse order, right. I think I think the video camera melts away the same way that the microphone melts away. It may take a minute longer. Uh, but it’s been our experience that once you’re going, people get into it and there’s no problem there. Um, the other thing is just, I mean, it’s just gear. I mean, it’s just gear and proper setup. So there’s various levels of gear as, as, you know, there’s expensive and, you know, in cheap, um, we do a three camera setup when we, you know, go out and about. We do a three camera set up in two simple lights kind of coming down.

Sanjay Parekh: Well, that’s for when we have two people, right? Oh, yeah.

Adam Walker: Yeah. If we have two people.

Sanjay Parekh: Okay. Y’all have more usually. So yeah, it might be a little bit more than that.

Adam Walker: Yeah. Um, but I mean, but still, you can do it. You could probably still capture everybody pretty well with the three camera setup. So I mean, it’s just a question of, of a basic setup, kind of, you know, semi-circle cameras facing forward, lights coming in from the top. Everybody’s miked up. Um, we typically use lav mics for that just because it’s easier and cleaner. Um, but there’s a lot of options for that as well. So it’s not a bad.

Lee Kantor: Post-production that that’s like in for us. We record, send the audio off, it gets turned around pretty quickly and it’s pretty, um, economical. What is like a three camera setup, um, require from a post-production standpoint?

Adam Walker: I mean, same, uh, you know, we’ve got an editor that knows what’s coming and we’ve, you know, we’ve arranged a pretty decent rate with him, and, um, and he pulls it all in and, you know, takes a couple days to edit it and it comes back and it’s fantastic. So, I mean.

Lee Kantor: It’s it requires a human to edit it.

Adam Walker: We. Yeah, we I mean, when we do, I mean, for our podcast and for, uh, for, I mean, for in-person or virtual, we have a human. Yeah. An editor.

Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. We we don’t do the AI thing. Um, so, yeah, I mean, there’s AI augmentation and some of it we can use, uh, if we want to. But one of the things I was going to mention there, so the video and the audio editing is done all at the same time. Right. So all of that is pulled in. So it’s not like it’s a somebody doing audio and somebody else is doing video. Everything’s done all at the same time. They’ve got editors that allow you to see all of it. Uh, and so you’re, you’re piecing it all together all at the same time. Uh, so it’s not like you’re doing two different streams of, of production at that point.

Adam Walker: Yeah. Yeah. It’s not too bad I didn’t.

Stone Payton: One other question. We don’t have to address it right now. But what occurs to me is, um, you know, you were describing some of the barriers or perceived barriers for let’s take that person in San Diego like, oh, I got to go get the space. So I’m then I’m thinking, okay, now not only do you got to learn our methodology and our hosting mechanics and all that and our fairly simple method of getting, you know, getting the material to us to produce. But now you got to you got to learn the video thing, you know, is that is that or do we price everything appropriately so that they really don’t have to do much? And then we just take on the video production in-house?

Adam Walker: Probably the second one is what I would do. I mean, so so if it were me, I would create some kind of of simplified video kit for, for whatever price point you think your, your, your typical, uh, client. I’m a franchisee. I don’t know how.

Stone Payton: Studio partner is.

Adam Walker: Studio partner.

Stone Payton: That’s what we’re calling them today. When this publishes, I don’t know, we’ll probably come up with a cooler name. Yeah.

Adam Walker: I mean, so whatever’s tolerable for them and create a kit and send it out and have a have a video showing them how to set it up and, and then, you know, I mean, it’s it’s all, it’s all just following basic instructions and then file delivery. So I mean most most every professional should be able to handle that pretty well if it’s clear.

Sanjay Parekh: I mean I think you’re almost in a situation here where you’ve got three essential tiers that you could do with somebody that’s a studio partner, right? A basic where it’s video only over the internet. Right. That’s they’re getting started the, the regular, which is what you’re doing now where they actually have a space. Um, and maybe you build it so that, hey, the, the basic one where you’re only doing online, you’re only allowed to do that for a certain number of months. That’s, you know, getting your feet wet, figuring out where your space is going to be, whatever. Then that middle section is look audio only in a studio. And then the pro version is, hey, you get video, you do the all this stuff and you kind of pile that on, and that’s for the people that, look, we really want to do something serious. We really want to help out people. We want to give them video assets so that it’s not just people that are listening to the podcast, it’s people that are, uh, you know, just flicking through Instagram or whatever and stumble upon, hey, this really cool business that happens to be in town, right? So I think you might be in a situation where you could set up these multiple tiers and have people graduate from just getting their feet wet to be all in.

Lee Kantor: And then it’s the from a video production standpoint, is it possible that the video element is kind of doesn’t require much of them once it’s set up? Or is it something that, okay, there’s I you know, I have three people, so I gotta move cameras like is it can it all be done in kind of a, a simplified manner or is it something that okay, now I gotta get into the video production business. So I got to learn how to light people. I gotta learn how to capture audio. Like. Like how much of do do I as a, you know. Because remember, this person is an accountant. Yeah. And now yeah this person. So it’s not like they’re a videographers. They’re just they have a day job that they’re using this to help their day job.

Adam Walker: So yeah. Yeah.

Sanjay Parekh: Well I think the great benefit you’ve got here with, uh, the studio partners is that they do have a space, right? That’s their space. That’s this studio all the time. They’re not setting up equipment and tearing it down every single time. So because of that, um, I think you could probably set this up. You know, you’d probably do cameras that are a little bit wider, not fully cropped in with the person. Uh, and then you could set them up that way. So that way if the guest is, you know, shifted a little bit left or right, it’s okay because the video editor can then crop in, uh, and be the right way. So that way, all of that stuff really all then is, is, hey, you gotta turn on all the cameras, uh, and, uh, have them all.

Lee Kantor: There is a way to make it a simplified as possible.

Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they’re all sitting basically in the same spot. Come, come onto your show before and it’s the setup. You’re not doing.

Lee Kantor: Cartwheels down the right hall. Right. So it’s a different type of content capture. So yeah that is a dream that could come true. We could make a kind of a set where it’s like everybody, this is where you sit. This is how it works. If you want to do video.

Adam Walker: Yeah, I think so. Yeah I think everybody’s studio.

Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Everybody’s studio might be a little bit different because the orientation might be a little bit different. But once they set it up I think they should be good. Yeah. Right.

Stone Payton: I like the tiered idea to back to that ramp. Right. I like I like that a lot. Right.

Adam Walker: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. So this is great.

Adam Walker: Well and then and then so so focusing on the assets side. Right. So so can we do video. Absolutely. Can we make it you know relatively straightforward. Absolutely. But then on the asset side it gives you and it gives the person you interview access to so many more assets that they can then share across so many more different channels. And and to me, that’s probably the most powerful component because, I mean, if if you’re if I’m an accountant, right. And I, I, I don’t know, I bring a lawyer in to, to my new show, for example, and interview the lawyer on basic, I don’t know, copywriting law or something like that. Um, I can then hand that person a ton of assets that then they can about their own profession, their own expertise, and then they can go share on LinkedIn and look like a hero. And now they love me way more than they did before, because they look so good in the content I’ve just given them. Right?

Lee Kantor: Right.

Sanjay Parekh: This to me, is also kind of like what um, Ted has done, right? They’ve got Ted, the main Ted, and then they’ve got Ted. They’ve got all these affiliates everywhere. Right? Yeah, those affiliates really are obviously about, uh, kind of uplifting people that are doing interesting things locally. But the video assets that they get from all of those, right? Some of them end up really, really shining. And I think for for the two of you, what it creates an opportunity for is actually having Business RadioX kind of main social handles, then that uplift some of these video assets that end up really taking off locally. Right. Like you find, hey, you know, in in the middle of nowhere, there’s this really interesting business or they had a really interesting video. And to be able to share that on the main Business RadioX channels, for them to be seen even more and even further. Right. That’s a lot of value, I think, for somebody like that to to then have their kind of story be told much more broadly than just somewhere locally.

Adam Walker: Yeah, I love that.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. No, that sounds good. And you guys have done a great job. I think that your persuasion has has really worked on both Stone and I.

Sanjay Parekh: Have we hammered you into submission now at this point. So, so then based on that, then, um, and I know you’ve done this in other episodes, uh, what are you all committing to in terms of, of this and like, how are we going to move forward?

Lee Kantor: I mean, I think we’re definitely going to test, um, sharing videos. Um, and I think that we’re going to definitely explore how to create a tiered approach and what that would look like kind of financially, because part of what makes our platform attractive to partners is it’s it’s not super expensive. It’s super affordable. So what does this mean? If they add a video tier, you know, what’s how is that going to change the pricing. Um, and what are they going to get for it? And how are we going to be able to execute and deliver on that? Um, so we have to kind of research that a bit. Um, but that’s I mean, that’s all doable. And I don’t think there’s any harm in in creating that tier and seeing, you know, what the market will will do with that.

Stone Payton: So I’m going to throw my hat over the fence, as is my style. And this afternoon I’m going to talk about our tiered system. Not in any great detail, but my part of my safety net is if I feel like we get going down that road and it is just too far outside our lane, then I think we go back to one of our core best practices, and we figure out a way to partner with best in class in that lane to help us execute on the gaps that we cannot or don’t want to try to fill. And I don’t know if you guys know anybody with expertise in that arena, but they if you do, they might be a good, good collaborators in some fashion going forward.

Adam Walker: You can call he likes to wear plaid shirts. He’s, uh.

Sanjay Parekh: I know this guy that always wears hats. I’ve never seen the top of his head before. There’s always a hat on there. I don’t know, doesn’t exist.

Adam Walker: There is no top of the head.

Sanjay Parekh: So.

Stone Payton: Hey, uh, and then there may be more to talk about, but I don’t want to miss this. What is the best way for someone to set up a conversation with you guys? If they’d like to talk with what you guys do at Edgewise Media?

Adam Walker: Yeah, I mean, just Edgewise Media. Edgewise Dot media is the website. And there’s a there’s a form on there to fill out and just, you know, book book it. We’ll book a time and have a chat. We give lots of free advice and sometimes it turns into something else and other times it doesn’t, which is fine.

Stone Payton: So fantastic. Well, don’t let me cut you short, I just, but I wanted to make sure we did that, and I wanted you guys to know how valuable I have have found this time together. Yeah, yeah.

Adam Walker: Well, I guess I guess the last thing that, uh, that might be helpful is to just chat for just a second about, uh, not because we’ve talked about capturing video and we talked about building relationships through video. And we and I think we assumed the power of video in marketing. But I wonder if we should explicitly say, like what all you can do with video and why it’s important. I mean, is that is it worth chatting about that for a second?

Stone Payton: Absolutely.

Adam Walker: Okay. Uh, so I’ll jump in, I’ll dive in and then suddenly interrupt wherever you want. Um, so I think to me, the power of video is that we’ve shifted from a social media connected economy or space into an attention space. And what that means is what I said earlier, where you can jump on TikTok today, have two followers and publish a video. And if that video is good enough quality, it can get a million views. And that’s and I’m not exaggerating. Like that is completely doable today. And that’s true to some degree for reels. And that’s true to some degree for shorts. But TikTok in particular that’s very true for. And so, um, and the way it works is when you publish a new video, it kind of shops it around to like a small group of people. And if that small group of people engage with that video, then it goes, oh, this is pretty good. Let me give it to a bigger group of people, and if that big group of people engaged with it goes, oh, this is pretty good, let me give it to a big group of people. And so a great example of that is our podcast, Tech Talk y’all. You know, we have a limited number of listeners, probably a thousand 2000 listeners somewhere in there. And we’ve got videos on reels and on TikTok.

Adam Walker: I think we’ve got a reels video that’s had over a million views on TikTok videos. Yeah, that have hit, you know, several hundred thousand views. Right. And it just gets more exposure for us and gets more exposure for the podcast in general and expands our audience. And so I think that’s the power of video. The other power of video is YouTube, where you can create longer format videos, maybe not full length, but but longer segments. And then you found on the YouTube search engine, which is, as everybody knows, the second biggest search engine in the world. And so it just gives you, again, more exposure for people that are looking for whatever it is that you do. And I think for hyper local people, it actually becomes even more powerful because if you think about it, there’s not very many accounts. I live in Lilburn, there’s not very many accountants in Lilburn where if I’m on YouTube and I type in like Lilburn accountant, you know, for business. There’s not gonna be any videos on YouTube for that. But if somebody did what you did and put it on you, they’d be there. Um, I don’t know what the search capacity is for that or the the, you know, I’m trying to say, but it’s there. So anything to add to that? Sanjay I miss anything?

Sanjay Parekh: No, I think you covered a lot of it. I think the the opportunity to have something go viral like this is a lot stronger, uh, on some of these platforms, uh, you know, we just obviously we do audio as well. We do, you know, distribute the podcast or Spotify and Apple Podcasts and all that stuff. There’s just not that opportunity to go viral on on a place like that. And so the videos is really where that opportunity lies. Uh, and so a lot of value is created there. And that kind of exposure, the whole thing that we’re talking about, uh, in all of this conversation is exposure for small businesses, right? Exposure for these people so that they can be successful in the things that they’re doing. And so why not leverage one of the best mechanisms that we have right now, uh, to do that?

Adam Walker: Yeah. So that’s that’s the pitch. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: I think I mean, we’re definitely game on trying. So. Yeah. Yeah.

Sanjay Parekh: I got I think we hammered them into submission a while ago. Yeah. Now, now we just bludgeoned to death from this.

Adam Walker: We’ll create some assets for for you all. And you can use them however you however you prefer. But we’ll make sure you’ve got assets in your hands ready to go and, uh, and we’ll see how they perform and we’ll create some for ourselves as well.

Sanjay Parekh: Do we need to do, uh, make Stone and Lee do like a TikTok video right now or something so that you can do that?

Adam Walker: Yeah. I mean, you want to see him up for a couple of a couple of, like, quick TikTok? Yeah, let’s do that. That sounds great. What’s the hook? Hook?

Sanjay Parekh: I think Lee’s about to pretend like his camera’s gonna fail. That’s what I’m saying. Yeah.

Adam Walker: This camera’s flickering. It’s flickering out.

Stone Payton: So.

Sanjay Parekh: Uh. Okay, we should probably wrap this up. Uh, but, uh, Lee Stone, thanks so much for having Adam and myself on. Uh, this has been a lot of fun hanging out with y’all. Um, hopefully it was helpful for y’all. Uh, but as always, we’re always here to help for for anything you all need.

Stone Payton: Well, I know you are, and this has been a tremendous help already. And I know it will be as this effort continues to unfold. Gentlemen, thank you so much. And, uh, sounds like we’ll be talking again soon.

Outro: Thanks for listening to scaling in Public the next Business RadioX 100 markets. Are you ready to enjoy a steady stream of discovery calls? And finally, stop being a best kept secret? It’s time to step out of the shadows and watch your coaching business grow. Let’s fill your calendar ten discovery calls in a month, guaranteed. Go to Birr to download the free Business RadioX playbook.

Intro: Broadcasting live from our flagship studio in Atlanta, Georgia. This is scaling in public. The next 100 Business RadioX markets, featuring founders Lee Kantor and Stone Payton, along with some of America’s top coaches, helping them grow the network with real strategy, real lessons, and real accountability all shared in public. To learn more about the proven system that turns podcast interviews into a perpetual prospecting pipeline through generosity, not gimmicks, go to brx.com And download the free Business RadioX playbook. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Scaling in Public. Stone Payton, Lee Kantor here with you. Please join me in welcoming back to the Business RadioX microphone. Our lead, our mentor in this project, coach Trisha Stetzel. How are you?

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh, Stone, I’m so excited. And you know, it’s been a few weeks. You had a couple other coaches come in and I can’t wait to hear how things are going. It’s fantastic to be back with you guys today.

Stone Payton: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. You guys ready? Absolutely. I know we only have a limited amount of time together, so before we jump in, uh, I’m gonna set some. Just a simple container for today and what that looks like. So we’re 30 days in, and this is a 90 day plan, right? This is our first season of this. Uh, I’ll call it experiment. Right. This fun thing that we’re doing in the background, scaling in public. Um, so this session isn’t about new strategy. It’s about reflection and course correction, or looking ahead to the actions that you want to take in the next 60 days, because we’re 30 days in. So the goal is really to gain some clarity on how you see the next 60 days going. I like to call this in my coaching practice the stop and reassess session. So we’re really just going to kind of stop, reflect and then look forward if that’s cool with you guys. Um, so why don’t we start with reflecting on the first 30 days when you think back to where you were 30 days ago, what feels different now?

Lee Kantor: Stone, you want to take that?

Stone Payton: Well, for me, what feels the most different? And there are a few things, but the most different is just a a renewed degree of focus on this objective. It’s real easy for me and maybe some others who are listening to get really excited about something. And then. And then a nice shiny object pops up over here and you forget about this. But I personally feel like I’ve had more direct focus, more consistent energy toward a specific set of objectives than I have in a long time. So it’s helped me achieve some clarity and focus. That’s the biggest shift I see for me personally.

Trisha Stetzel: Nice. Thank you Stone. Lee?

Lee Kantor: And for me, I think, um, it’s just honing in on activities that are that we’re trying and we’re actually executing and we’re tweaking. So we’re doing more activities and we’re getting more data, and then we’re adjusting based on what we’re learning from the data. So I’m excited about that moving forward of just more kind of focused activity. That’s it feels like it’s moving the needle.

Trisha Stetzel: I really? You guys are using coaching language? This is so much fun. I’m like, yes, this sounds amazing.

Lee Kantor: We hang out with a lot of coaches. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: So I love this. So you talked about, uh, Stone, the renewed focus and Lee for you, it’s the execution, right. And it’s not like giant things. It’s really looking at what you’re doing and making those small adjustments. So the execution is getting closer to where you want to be. What about this. So that’s thinking what about the actual decision making or the prioritizing. Do you feel like the conversations that you’ve had are creeping into how you’re making decisions or even prioritizing those activities you’re focused on?

Stone Payton: Well, I don’t know about prioritizing, but I feel like we we’ve taken more action on more things a lot faster and in some cases not even necessarily consulting each other to the nth degree on it before we do something. You know, I’m real comfortable with what Lee’s doing. Lee’s comfortable with what I’m doing. And, um, but the way that is, um, kind of, uh, come to express itself like we’ve gotten one of the themes has been lean on people who have already benefited from being a part of this thing and get them to help you evangelize. And, uh, and, I mean, we jumped on that with all fours, and we’re seeing those results. We have people who are revitalized from the conversation, and they are reaching out and evangelizing for us and creating, you know, more opportunities to have these conversations. And that’s I mean, that’s real time. That’s real.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. I love that. Lee at thoughts around the decision making.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. So for me, what um, from each session we’ve kind of gleaned what we feel was an aha moment maybe. And then when we’ve kind of thought about it. We tried to create action around it and, um, and, and I feel like we’ve really made major strides in honing in on some of the topics that we covered in terms of ideal client and how to make us, uh, you know, make the sale easier and how to, um, communicate the value in a way that, uh, people are grasping faster. And, and every time we got that kind of aha moment, we just really took it seriously and tried to create operations or execution around it. Um, so that’s the part that has really got me excited. And it’s now it’s become so integrated as part of our kind of work week and our and our time that I look forward to these sessions, you know, to get that next aha moment so that we can just get closer and closer to systematizing everything so that we are getting kind of those predictable results based on, you know, activities that are generating those results in, you know, kind of over and over again.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Yes, I love this. And so shout out to Maggie Ishak and Mike Brunnick for those coaching sessions that they’ve had with you guys. I would love to. And I think it’s worth doing here if people are curious, like what is your experience been having uh, or being coached? I’ll call it live. Right. Uh, these coaches are coming in and they’re actually coaching you on their expertise or the thing that they do best in their own practice. For you guys, what has that experience been like? Because I remember way back when we started this project, you both said you were going to be coachable. So how has that experience been?

Stone Payton: I feel like we’ve lived into that. I feel like we’ve lived up to that promise so far. You may get a different perspective from the coaches, but I feel like that we have been very coachable and there’s so many of these aha moments. And because our antenna are up, sometimes things just reveal themselves that I don’t think would have made it through all the clutter. And like this idea of of removing risk. I really, you know, we wanted to we got the idea to sort of like, what can we do to lower the risk of teaming up with us, or at least exploring this. And it turns out with just turning a few dials, we can eliminate the risk and have people completely comfortable before they make a financial investment. And much of a time investment in exploring this further. And, you know, prior to this, I would have never even put that much energy into trying to lower the risk. And now we’ve we’ve all but removed the risk. I mean, it’s, you know, so to me that’s that’s just gold. Absolutely gold.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. So I’m going to spin it just a little bit different because you said in the beginning you like to be challenged. So as you reflect back on the coaching sessions, can you give us some examples on a couple of things that you’ve been challenged on that made you think differently?

Lee Kantor: Sure. Um, I think that, um, and I think this came up in Maggie’s when she said, can we make she said that it would have been great if Business RadioX was around when she started, because that would have helped her launch. And we were talking about how to create, um, the experience of Business RadioX kind of like a Sirius XM when you buy a new car, um, uh, where it’s just there. And then if you want to continue it, you just pay for it. Um, and that was something that we had never considered, um, even thought in that direction. And when she’s just brought it up, It was one of those things where I hadn’t thought about it. It hadn’t occurred to me at all. And then once I thought about it, it it kind of I was able to come up with. Okay, now I can see how that could work. And we just have to figure out how to make it work. And that was an area where it was out of the blue for me. Did not it didn’t occur to me. And um, and I was able to, I think, be coachable in the sense that I’m open to it and let’s see how to make it work. And then we landed on something that we felt pretty confident about moving forward, that we have now a way to make that work. So I don’t know. I mean, some people might think that’s kind of a like confrontationally challenge, but I think it’s just kind of thinking challenge where I’m something occurred that I wasn’t thinking about, and I was open to exploring it.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, the beauty of coaching. You know, I heard some things about you guys from the other coaches. You guys are great when it comes to being coachable, so you’re definitely living up to the promise that you gave me all those weeks ago, which is very exciting.

Lee Kantor: So did they say, because this is one of my things that I’m a paranoid of my own personality is I don’t want to be a defensive. Are they? Did you hear any feedback from that standpoint? Because that’s something I’m trying to work on.

Trisha Stetzel: No, not at all. And Lee, I have been on the other side of that as the coach in one of our early sessions. And you’re not you don’t come off as being defensive at all, just asking thoughtful questions. And that doesn’t make you defensive. It it really helps us as coaches realize you need more clarity around what it is that we’re talking about, and we appreciate that. I think it’s fantastic for you to come back at us and say, well, I’m not sure what what exactly does that mean or what might that look like? And then we talk through it. Right. I think it’s great.

Lee Kantor: All right. I just yeah, just working on that.

Trisha Stetzel: Any bad things yet? Now I’m gonna come back around after your 60 days and we’ll see. We’ll see. Uh, how about if it’s okay with, um, shifting from the thinking, reflection and the things that were happening and, um, some things that were very interesting to you. Let’s talk about actions or even non-actions. What kinds of things? And you’ve we’ve started this conversation already, but let’s dig a little deeper. What kinds of things came up that you’re taking action on that are a priority for you right now?

Lee Kantor: Um, I’ll go first. One of the big things that we’re taking action and this has been a dramatic shift, is that we are we’ve implemented a weekly email, uh, to the four constituents that were focused on coaches, associations, franchises and then kind of our general database. And we’re writing emails to each of those each week. Um, and then what I’m doing, I, you know, I’m, I like systems and I like process. So, uh, the system is I write them on Saturday. Um, my VA, um, sends them out on Monday. She reports back on some key metrics on Friday. I take those key metrics and I take the emails and I dump them into AI, and then it makes recommendations, and that allows me to iterate and adjust the, you know, kind of fine tune the, uh, the communication for my writing on Saturday. And then it’s kind of rinse and repeat. So, um, it’s really I’m excited because I like process and I’m excited because I get to use AI, and and AI loves data, so I’m able to give them kind of content and data. It helps with analysis and makes recommendations. And then we’re able to, you know, kind of do it again. And we’ve done it probably since the beginning of this project.

Stone Payton: So this is one that I bristled with, but only internally. I did not voice my concern partially to be coachable, but also I just chose not to voice my concern. But I have never been one to communicate very frequently using email, you know, and I get emails a lot and they don’t make me mad or anything. But I have never been one to say, okay, let’s do a weekly email, let’s do more email marketing. And Lee has for some time, and I bristled with it internally. I didn’t voice a thing, but it’s working. It is working. People are responding and like and Lee crafted. While I was gone, I was off playing in Ireland for a couple of weeks. He crafted another note that, I mean, it really looked like more like one of these marketing emails to me. And I looked at that and said, man, okay, I’m glad. I’m glad I saw this. And you know, that’ll help me respond. And that email is that it’s working and people are scheduling time to have a conversation with me. And I’m like, well, I’m really glad we’re doing that. But I would have never done it on my own in a million years, ever.

Trisha Stetzel: Owen says. No more spam in my inbox. Well, I will tell you guys, I’m on your mailing list and I love what I’m seeing. And I didn’t realize, Lee, until you just mentioned it, that it is something new and one showed up in my inbox recently that said, we fixed the things that was stopping you from booking and I love that email. I was just searching for it. I’m like, I know I have this really great email in my inbox. So by the way, if anyone’s listening and you want a piece of that, you should reach out to Lee and Stone to get on their mailing list and have a conversation with these gentlemen about the work that they’re doing, which is.

Lee Kantor: And and for me, the AI component of this has been instrumental. The the ability for AI to take the like. First it recommended to keep track of certain metrics. Then and then then the my VA keeps track of those metrics every week. And then to take that analysis and then kind of be able to then move it into creating the content and then be able to test and say, okay, well, how did we do like that? That the thing you’re referring to was we were getting a ton of people saying, I’m going to book. And then they never booked. And then the AI is like, let me see your booking page. And then so I submitted the booking page to the AI and they’re like, this is the problem, change your booking page. So now we’ve changed the booking page and we’ll see if that really makes a difference. But and it seems to because anecdotally Stone and I saw a couple people book now. Um, and I think that for people who are on the fence about AI, I think they really should do some experiments around it because it is very powerful and it’s able to to analyze and synthesize data that you may be missing just because you can’t kind of keep in your head the quantity of data that it can.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, coaches who are listening to this show, did you hear that Lee’s using AI and not replacing the coaching with AI. We are not being replaced by AI. For those of you who thought we were. Uh, it’s still very beneficial to have these types of conversations with human beings for the accountability piece. Right? And thinking outside of the box. But AI is the most amazing tool. Lee, I’m on board with you. I know you and I have, uh, done some work exchanging prompts and the results from those prompts over the course of getting this project launched as well. Um, stone, anything else bubbling up for you from an action that you committed to in the last 30 days through coaching?

Stone Payton: Well, there’s a couple I think that weren’t mentioning. One is AI. So to date I have dived into AI and asked it a ton of hunting, fishing and archery questions, but I haven’t and I really do all this. And what I need to do, I think, is when I’m having these conversations, you know, I get the zoom AI summary. I could even record some if I wanted to. When I’m. Then what I need to do is pour that into AI and say and say, you know, help me get better. What? What else should I be asking? What should I leave off the the table? And so one of the things I’m definitely going to do going forward is start using it more for business and not just make it, you know, leads thing, which is easy to do, right. Oh that’s leads thing. So, so that’s uh, that’s one also in terms of building relationships with coaches. You know, we we eat our own cooking. So we reach out and invite them to come on a show, invite them to have a conversation about coming on the on the show. And there was a point at which I told Angie, I said, I’m getting buried. Stop doing the Pre-call just put them on the show. And and what I found was one not as many books, but also it took that much longer to forge the relationship where, just like we preached, just like we have our clients do. There’s so much relationship building that can happen in that initial pre-call. I mean, it’s almost a discovery call if you’re in the coaching, right? And so that we turn that switch back on and that made a difference almost immediately. So those are two things that are on my brain to, you know, to put into action.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: Well and something you asked though earlier was what haven’t we done. And this is something that came up in the conversation we had right before we started recording. And I think that it’s important that we kind of do a better job in in its poll our existing partners and kind of, um, go back to them and start asking them questions like, you know, what can we learn from your actual experience using our platform? And we’re not getting that data. And I think that’s an important thing that we should be doing. You know, sooner than later is going to the partners out there and then, you know, asking them, okay, what’s working, what’s not, where are you seeing success, where, you know, any good stories of success or any challenges? And, um, you know, we don’t have that many, so it’s not impossible. But I think it’s something that we should be doing. Uh, because I’ll be honest, several of the coaches have asked about that and we haven’t done it.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, so it sounds like even though this was not an action taking coaching meeting today or session, uh, that there are some activities that are spawning up out of this conversation as well, which means we’re making great progress. So in that vein, that same vein, we some of the things that you’re not doing, what are some of the things that you may have talked about in some of the sessions that sound like a really great idea, but you’ve had to table them for now because it’s not a priority. It’s something that sounds good. You may want to look at it later, but what if you put to the side, at least for now, and thinking about something you want to circle back to later?

Lee Kantor: Well, the biggest thing is that. And the biggest aha. And the biggest lever we think for growth is to find a coaching organization to partner so we can pilot this idea that has come up on several of the coaches, and we haven’t done that yet. We haven’t reached out to any of the organizations yet to pilot anything. And that that to me has the greatest upside. And we haven’t done anything with it yet other than identify a bunch of coaching organizations, Identify, uh, some coaches within it that we have a relationship with, but we haven’t kind of, uh, you know, taken that last step. The the last mile and, you know, going up to them and saying, do you want to do this or not? And and that’s where I think the biggest opportunity in the next 60 days are we need to get more nos. You know, we need to get more people, um, saying no, you know, we have to ask for more business. And the more no’s we get, the more yeses we’ll get.

Trisha Stetzel: Uh, I love how. How did you know we were gonna flex into this? What are we doing for the next 60 days, Lee?

Lee Kantor: Well, I mean.

Trisha Stetzel: Read my mind.

Lee Kantor: Um, but, um. But that that’s to me, um, you know, and and the coaching has helped us kind of create this sense of urgency around doing that.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So it you have done something, you’ve taken action. You’ve made your list. You know that you want to go do this. So in thinking about moving that needle, if that is a priority for the two of you, or even just for you, Lee, what is the next first step you can take to get that ball moving down the hill?

Lee Kantor: Well, I mean, well, the two balls are the, you know, kind of pulling the existing coaches. So we have to do something where we’re having communication with them to ask them what we want to need and if they would be willing to share it. Uh, that has to happen. And then regarding the coaching organizations, the strategy that we kind of landed on is to identify champions within each of those coaching organizations. Uh, reach out to them, uh, create some sort of an opportunity for them to live into what we’re recommending and then have them go back to those coaching organizations are a part of in order to make that introduction to us. So to find a champion within it, that can be a bridge to us. And rather than us coming up kind of as a cold email or a cold relationship, to go in through somebody who’s already part of it. Um, and we have taken steps in that regard in 1 or 2 of the organizations.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Nice stone. What’s bubbling up for you?

Stone Payton: Well, you know, and maybe, maybe I’m a little too quick just to lean on what works at the local studio level. But to me, it makes perfect sense that somewhere in that equation, one of those steps could be that, you know, that coaches that coaches in that system has had a great experience getting to know us. We interviewed them all that stuff, and they tell the CEO or the CMO of XYZ credentialing organization or whatever that, and I have a call with them, and the first thing I’m doing with them is the first thing I do with everybody is just try to help them and and have the frame of helping them get ready to have a conversation about their organization, about the value of being credentialed about all of that, and be a little not be quite as cagey around and maybe communicate fairly early in that relationship when appropriate, that, hey, you know, we want to do this thing. We want to we want everything you’re experiencing and your coaches are telling you, we want to make it easy for you to provide that for your coaches. Here’s why it’d be good for you. Here’s why it’d be good for us.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, so the two big things, the two big themes that I’m hearing here are the two balls, rightly, as we talk about pushing them down the hill, not up the hill, down the hill, because that’s way easier. Uh, one is surveying your current. We’ll call we’ll call them current clients. Right? Your your studio partners on what they need and what are they getting back? And then two having conversations. So of those two things I get, we could run them in parallel. But if we’re talking about bandwidth and what comes first which one has priority in thinking about time? How much time do you need to invest in either one of those things? And can you push that ball halfway down the hill in the next couple of weeks? One of them.

Lee Kantor: Um, for sure, we can do the partner one. Um, I think we can figure that out. Uh, and that will get done. The second one is we are making some inroads, but, um, we haven’t gotten kind of the the buy in necessary for them to feel comfortable, um, for a variety of reasons. But, um, that one’s going to be harder, I think, to execute.

Stone Payton: But it’s the most important. It’s the one that’s going to provide the biggest return.

Lee Kantor: Right? That has the biggest upside 100%.

Trisha Stetzel: So I’m going to take my coach hat off and put on my collaborator hat, because we’ve been doing a lot of collaboration together. And I was just thinking about something outside of the box, sitting on the other side as a champion. Could you put together a. I’m going to call it a package. It’s not really. It’s probably an email where you take my show, the one that we recorded together, not one that I’m doing right, but the one where Lee and I had a conversation about my business. You put that in the email or however you want to deliver it, with a nice email that someone can just send to the person like you do all the work for us. So you send over, um, a request to me and you say, hey coach, I would love if you would share your show and some of the information about Business RadioX partnering with your organization. Would you be willing to do that? If we provide you with what you need to send? And I would say, of course. And so you build this nice piece of work, which is the interview. Maybe it’s not the whole interview, because whoever’s receiving it doesn’t want to hear the whole thing, but a link to the whole interview and a clip that they can watch quickly in less than two minutes with an email that I can just copy and paste directly to the people that we want to get it in front of in the first place. So using me as a champion, but you doing all the work for me. I’m just throwing it out there as a collaborative, um, thought, what do you guys think?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I mean, I’m for trying, so I want more no’s. So that’s I mean, I’m for trying pretty much anything that makes sense. So that makes sense. So, uh.

Trisha Stetzel: Well, I.

Lee Kantor: Don’t.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And I don’t know that it’s time intensive. Stone, what do you think?

Stone Payton: Well, I think enough of the idea that I’m writing it down, which means I want I want to do it. And then I think, you know. And this time, I won’t leave it all to Lee. But maybe Lee could start with telling AI we’re going to do this. You know, what should we say and like. And I like your idea. Make make the full length interview accessible. Maybe get a really strong clip, maybe even a clip that includes them talking about why they’re so glad that they’re part of XYZ organization. Right? So, you know, and they’ll enjoy that part. And then thinking through, okay, what do we want to say in the email. You know, we probably don’t want to pounce on them with all fours and say, and you know, we want to pilot this with 15 of your best coaches or 15 of your marginal coaches. I don’t know, it might be good to do give me five of your best and five that are going to leave if we don’t fix them. But, uh, no, I think it’s a fantastic idea. And I think once I think the energy is, is crafting the note, tweaking it and then but, I mean, we have the systems to get it to the people and I mean, everybody we’ve interviewed, I mean, this is why the thing works so well. They will they will do it. I mean, I’d be really surprised if nine out of ten we asked to do it won’t turn around and do it. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: And so many of us want to help, but it takes a whole lot of work for me to craft that note and for the next person to craft that note and the next person. If you guys are willing to do that for us, it makes it so much easier. Right. Uh, to, to just put our own little spin on it and then send it off instead of trying to craft it from scratch.

Stone Payton: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So I’m putting my coach hat back on. I’m glad that we got to collaborate on that. I, um, I’d love to hear from the two of you. What? What do the next 60 days look like? So I want you to reflect on the first 30. What kinds of. And I’m talking about the business, like closing business. So, Stone, I’m going to come to you first. What kinds of conversations have you had? How are you adjusting those and how are you going to get to more no’s so that we can get to the yeses?

Stone Payton: So I am adjusting with a little more attention toward, you know, let’s it all sounds great. I love the idea. I do think we would all win in this equation. And, you know, I don’t know about you. This is me just talking quotes. You know, I’m a little bit risk averse. So I think let’s do everything we can. Let’s just take the risk out of it for right now and just let’s validate some assumptions and some things that I’m sharing with you that work, and then actually have them engage in some of those key activities, like inviting people to be on Saint Louis Business radio or just say, you know, I’m working with Business Radio, get them on the High Velocity Radio show. And so that they can see firsthand and do it in such a way that if they don’t end up pulling the trigger, they’re still in a good light, they still tried to help somebody out. And then and because because I think we’ll find out first, you know, if they’re not, if they won’t go out and invite a dozen people, you know, then they’re not ready and they’re not that interested anyway. If they invite a dozen people, that’s just a nice thing somebody’s trying to do. So we can we can design the language. We have the language, you know? Hey, I’m teaming up with Business RadioX to, you know, you know, just a couple of sentences. Be delighted, you know, and just just set that up and see you just get the interest level when they see when the vast, the vast majority will have success if they do it. When they see that, I think that’ll really take the risk down for them and they’ll benefit regardless.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Lee, how about you? Have you, um, adjusted the way that you’re interfacing with people who could be potential studio partners?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, along the lines of kind of piggyback on what Stone was saying, something that we had talked about and that, um, was to, to make the, um, like when Stone’s talking to a person, like, let me pick your brain for a second here. Um, Stone’s having this kind of follow up conversation with somebody who’s gone through a show and, um, kind of explains in a general manner how this could work. Usually we say something along the lines in that conversation, You know, you don’t just test it like go send a note to ten people, like Stone said. 12 people about being a guest. See who responds. So instead of just kind of leaving it open ended like that, but to challenge them to say, okay, how about open your LinkedIn right now? I’ll drop in the chat the note, send it to five people right now, and then, you know, in a day or so, let us know if anybody kind of responds back and just make them do it right now. Like don’t wait for them to do it when the mood strikes them. But just say, here, I’ll drop it in the chat. Send this note. We know the note that works. See what happens. Five people just go through your LinkedIn about let’s share screens. Let’s drop five of these right now. And I think if people do that they’re going to see how this can work without thinking too much and just doing. And then even if if they don’t want to work with us, we’ll still interview them. They’re never, you know, there’s no risk. That’s what we’re talking about, of removing the risk. So if we do that relentlessly with coaches and just have them when we have a follow up, do that five times, they’re going to see that this could work. They’re going to get enough data in those five to say, oh, what if I did 20? What if I did 50? What if I did 100? Then they’re going to they’re going to be closer to giving us a yes or a no.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And they’ll actually see it working real time.

Lee Kantor: Right. So I mean, you talk to people after your shows, you tell me if you had an activity like that, how many would say, all right, I’ll do that. I’ll drop five notes. What do I have to lose? Like there’s no risk. It takes a minute to send those five notes. I’m going to just drop it in the chat. Just cut and paste it into your thing and send it five times. Let’s go. Yeah. You know, people will do that, right?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Most most of nine out of ten. Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: A lot of people would do it. And then, you know what’s going to happen when they do that? Because you’ve sent that note.

Trisha Stetzel: I people will respond, yeah, that sounds amazing. You want to hear all about me? Of course I do.

Lee Kantor: Right? So that’s the thing where we feel we’re closer to having the system in place to be able to kind of execute at scale. If we just get more people to have that conversation, more people to take that action, more people will see how it works and that it does work and that we’re not just another one of these people that are saying, you want more leads, you know?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I’ll just drop a little testimonial in here, in my experience. And I shared something with you guys earlier today that’s happened, which is really amazing. And it’s, you know, the what do they call that seven seven relationships removed from Kevin Bacon I don’t know. Anyway, I had, um, an amazing coach and yes, by the way, I’m a coach. For those of you who don’t know me, I had an amazing coach, uh, leadership coach on my show, uh, the Houston Business radio show last spring, and she just dropped a note in my inbox introducing me to someone who is interviewing coaches for a giant project. I would first. I would have never met her had I not reached out. Like what Lee was talking about, saying, hey, would you like to be on my show? And two, I created so much trust with her during the process that she introduced me to someone that she trusts, and then I automatically have more credibility with that person that she introduced me to. And I’m in the process and it’s really cool. So, um, there is so much less friction when you can invite someone to have a conversation and it’s all about them and they, they don’t feel like they’re being sold to. That’s just the bottom line, right? We’re highlighting these amazing people and they for with and they have this content that they can use forever. All right. I’m off my soapbox. Thank you for the opportunity. All right, so as we close, we talked about a lot of things today. And I know I said at the beginning this was not actually about action, but we did talk about some of those actions or activities. So I would love to hear from both of you. Uh, between now and your next session. We’re doing these every week. So over the next week, what is one action or activity that you can either do or at least start before the next session next week? Who’d like to go first?

Stone Payton: Well, we just had another one of those where this idea of having them do it right then and there is, is a little more frontal than my typical approach with people. I’m usually a little slower, so it feels assertive and it feels like a little more salesy right, than I’m used to. And I’m going to do it, you know what I mean?

Trisha Stetzel: Okay.

Stone Payton: I’m not gonna not do it. I am going to do it. I’m gonna do it right there when they’re on the thing. And, you know, look, if I get a whole bunch of pushback, then we might reevaluate. But if it’s like what’s been happening recently, it’s going to work, and I’m going to be glad that I did it. But I’m just acknowledging to you right up front, it feels a little assertive, right? Like a just like the email did.

Lee Kantor: I mean, let’s get Tricia’s. Does it feel assertive to you. Like does that feel can you is there a way that you could, um, frame what I described in your conversations with people after the fact? Uh, after they’ve kind of, if they’re curious as a way to take that action without feeling salesy.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. It’s the language that you use. Look, I, I’m, I want to help you. And so if we do this little activity together, I really feel like you’ll understand how powerful this process is. So bear with me. I have a little activity. Can I get your buy in? And they’re going to go, well, maybe. What is it? Right. Most people. Well, what is it? Well, I’m just going to ask you to send five direct messages to people that you know, not people that you don’t know know. Or maybe you want them to message people that you they don’t know, whatever that is. Right? But give them some direction and say, here’s the message. You can make it your own. And I just want you to copy and paste it five times to five people. And then I’m going to check back in with you in a couple days and see what kind of response you got. That to me and the way that I’m bringing it to you, hopefully it doesn’t feel salesy at all.

Stone Payton: It didn’t feel salesy to me when you said it. So, see, so I have like this preconceived notion that it’s all sales. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Right. But for me it has to be in they have to do it. Let’s do it together. Now. I want it to be. Let’s share screens and let me see your LinkedIn together. Let’s pick five. And here’s the note. And I want to see them send it five times like that. So we got to get to that. Be the activity in a way that’s elegant.

Trisha Stetzel: And, you know, you have to use the language that you’re comfortable with. And another thing that you could do, you know, there is such a thing as a three way DM. You could have them three way the message and you could be copied on it instead of screen sharing, because there’s some people who are uncomfortable with that. Right? It could just be send it three way I got your back. Let’s see what happens. Now. I’m writing along with you. Now I’ve taken even more risk off your plate because I’m willing to be there with you. It’s all in the way you present it, right? It’s all in the way that you present it. Okay, so Stone is getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. I like it, this is good. Okay. And, Lee, what about you?

Lee Kantor: Um, I’m gonna come up with a way to survey the coaches that we. I mean, the partners that we have so that we can get the information that we need in order, um, to kind of number one, to nurture who we have and doing what they’re doing, but also to learn from what’s working, what’s not, uh, to be able to take from some, some of those learnings away, um, from them. So that will happen this week.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. Okay. How was this for you guys?

Stone Payton: Fantastic.

Lee Kantor: It’s always great. I always feel energized. And I’m so appreciative that you, um, are being so generous with us to kind of quarterback this, um, this series. And, uh, so I can’t thank you enough for all that you’re doing to help us.

Trisha Stetzel: Uh, I learn every time I get on the call with you guys, whether it’s through this project and coaching or the weekly check ins that we have together. It is, um, a very, not just a meaningful project that we’ve been working on but also relationship and I we all, I hope, have that kind of trust with each other where you know I got your back. How about that.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And we have yours.

Trisha Stetzel: I know you do. All right, gentlemen, thank you again for your time today. I appreciate it and look forward to hearing your next coaching session.

Stone Payton: Thank you Trisha. We will keep you posted.

Speaker1: Thanks for listening to Scaling in Public the next Business RadioX 100 markets. Are you ready to enjoy a steady stream of discovery calls? And finally, stop being a best kept secret? It’s time to step out of the shadows and watch your coaching business grow. Let’s fill your calendar ten discovery calls in a month, guaranteed. Go to Birr to download the free Business RadioX playbook.