Why It’s NOT Too Late to Start a Podcast w/Justin Colby
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I can't tell you how many times people will come into my coaching and they'll say, man, you were the first person I started listening to on Apple. And I'm like, so when did that happen? They're like, six years ago. I was like, it took you six years to hire me as a coach? Six years. What I think people don't love about podcasts, which I'm trying to help people understand this,

there's a longer tail to it. - Yeah. - So I would just tell people, just as a piece of advice, follow the wave. You might feel like you're late, you might feel like it's already past you. Don't. The wave is still going, right? The money is still pouring into it. Donald Trump is getting on podcasts. It's working, it's happening.

My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life.

What's up guys? Welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life. Today, my friend Justin's joining us here in the office and we're going to dive into the world of podcasting and monetizing and building a brand from podcasts. He has two of the top 10 podcasts in the world in his categories and we're going to talk about how you're using that to grow a massive coaching community and brand behind it. So what's up? Welcome to the show. I'm excited to be here. I already love the vibe of the studio. This is great, dude.

Yeah, it's like hidden gem on Miami Beach, right? You walk in this old building and then boom, this is it. That's literally what I was like. I don't think I'm at the right building texting you. And then it is. And you're like, oh.

home. Got it. Yeah, yeah. Everyone says that because actually off topic, but the Miami law is they can't change because it's all protected buildings. So it's like all super old school and then you walk into this like red explosion. Oh yeah, it's good. But let's dive into you. So if people don't know who you are, obviously a lot of people will, but you've got a massive real estate background and we're here talking about podcasts and the coaching, but you mind just doing a one minute overview? Yeah. So I've been around the entrepreneur space. I'd never had a W2 job is kind of

fun part i graduated ucla so i went and got the degree never used it total waste of money and time had some fun but uh never used it went directly into sales at a college which landed me into i went door-to-door sales which best experience hardest experience it is right like sales as a kid is so great oh man i landed in boston okay during the winter going door-to-door i'm a california boy so it was

It was challenging. But that challenge led me to understand the art of salesmanship and persuasion and helping to deal with people, which led me into real estate because I had an opportunity to build a brokerage. And that happened in 2006. Well, when the world crumbled in 2007, 8, 9, I crumbled with it. So I had to start over and I leaned more into not just retail real estate. I leaned into real estate investing. And just like all the shows that all of you guys are aware of,

That is what I've done for the last 18 years. So from there though, I started a podcast about 11 years ago called The Science of Flipping Podcast. Shocker, I was flipping homes. And what that led to was the creation of a brand. And that's what I just, I give a lot of credit to,

Even though I didn't know what I was doing then, the podcast world specifically allowed me to create a brand now that, you know, little things, and you know this about me, but I launched a book at the beginning of this year, and within 14 days, 10 days, it hit number one bestseller on Amazon. Not because I bought the books. Because my brand and my following, I would post about it,

and they would immediately the day it came out would go buy books right and those are the little things and we'll go deeper but like that all started with the original podcast which created a coaching company which then recently created another podcast called the entrepreneur dna which i can't wait to have you on um

And we talk all about business, but those two things then has led to so many opportunities and scalability and revenue and income and people. So I love the power of a podcast. Yeah. So people listening, I think the first question is when's the right time to start a podcast?

when's the right time to plant a tree, right? It's the same thing. Yesterday was, so it's not yesterday, it's today. Go get started. I tell everyone the same thing. Just start. Because if you go back and genuinely listen to my first one,

Not ideal, right? But I just started without... Yeah, yeah. I think it's that perfectionist syndrome thing, right? Like, I mean, you can have the $30,000 studio and the editing team, or you can film it remotely, get started, get a guy on Upwork or Fiverr to edit it for $100 an episode and get started, right? It's why I relate so much to Gary Vee, right? If you look at his first work, it is...

less than impressive. And he likes to repost it too, right? Like he shows you. And it's true. And you and I were just talking about you wish you started a podcast sooner. I mean, it just leads to so much great stuff. Yeah. And what I teach my audience too is you can also just...

Now with ChatGPT, I mean, even if you launch it and no one ever listens, you do all your content for the week because you can take it, have ChatGPT in a VA, turn it into email, social content, cut it down into a bunch of reels. So it's like even if you don't have a bunch of subscribers to start, just use it as a content production machine.

- That's what I look at it as is because obviously both of our videographers are here, like it becomes an ecosystem. - Yeah, yeah. - Great, you have a million people on Instagram. Well, this podcast will create clips that you're gonna put as reels, they're gonna be stories, they're gonna be, right? So it becomes an ecosystem, great. Maybe a longer version goes over to YouTube and maybe the shorts on YouTube.

So to me, it's just a great way to be able to create the authority. I'm really leaning into this because of what's happened to me and you are the master at this, right? So I can't wait to have you on. But the credibility and influence and then authority that comes with it because people start to see the ecosystem and they think I'm everywhere and I'm doing all these things and really it's just...

I'm strategically just creating content and being able to put it in all these different places. Well, and I also mean in line with that, podcasts are now super respected. So like five years ago, it was like podcasts, like a YouTuber. But now it's like, because Joe Rogan and these big podcasts and now presidents are going on there and it's shifting election patterns. It's like,

Even in two years, I've noticed like, oh, wow, you have a top 10 podcast. And they say as much as like, wow, you have an Amazon TV show. And in my head, I'm like, they're worlds apart. But like podcasts are getting more and more respected, I feel. So it's like... I'm excited about it because of that, right? And I think there's going to be this layer...

that like it'll be harder to break in. I mean, you'll be able to do it. But because people thought, and by the way, when I started 11 years ago, I already kind of thought I was late to the game. Yeah. And I was like, I guess. Which is so early to me. Like 11 years ago is when I started listening to podcasts. That's right. Right. And so I would tell everyone to go do it. Yeah. But there will be some kind of threshold. Yeah. Right. I still think now because I,

of what's happened in the last two years and how big Joe Rogan and stuff have gone, the elections, it's now probably going to start hitting its peak. - You see every athlete now has a podcast all of a sudden. So I would just tell people, just as a piece of advice, follow the wave. You might feel like you're late, you might feel like it's already past you, don't. The wave is still going, right? The money is still pouring into it. Donald Trump is getting on podcasts.

It's working, it's happening. And a lot of my audience too, when I look at their business, it's like, maybe it's saturated in like our world more, the entrepreneur world, right? But a lot of my audience, they might own like a chocolate company. And it's like, there's not many chocolate product owners that own a podcast on chocolate, right? So there's still a lot of subcategories where it's probably not as saturated as we see in the entrepreneur space. Because, because

because we're obviously content creators at heart, but someone that owns a hair accessory line, there's probably not millions of big hair accessory podcasts. So it's probably easier for people listening to start than they think. And they maybe judge like me and you and Gary V is like, oh, there's no way I can compete with them. But actually you don't need to because your industry isn't that. Right.

- Yeah. - Right? - It's interesting that, and the reason why it's so powerful to me is I can't tell you how many times people will come into my coaching, real estate coaching or mastermind or whatever, and they'll say, "Man, you were the first person I started listening to on Apple." - That's cool. - And I'm like, "So when did that happen?" They're like, "Oh, six years ago."

It took you six years to hire me as a coach? Six years? Jokingly, I say that to them. But that's the reality is the long tail. What I think people don't love about podcasts, which I'm trying to help people understand this,

there's a longer tail to it. It is not as like you've run, dude, you're running $300,000 a day in ads. It is a literal KPI that day. I spent 300 grand. How many people paid us to come into our community, right? That is not this. It is the furthest thing from this.

So if you stay consistent, you're going to reap the financial rewards. Yeah. And you want both because I've been an ads guy for 12 years and ads, I think, are so key for a business, but they're really hard work because it's cold traffic and you're paying to get someone to take an action and it's kind of like you're like

pushing them down the road. That's right. Right? Whereas a podcast, you're rolling out the red carpet and saying, hey, come down anytime in the next nine years, I'll be here. Right? So they come much warmer. They're, you know, from our podcast and all my clients, those are the clients that will pay you the 20 grand in full and be a great client and be a super fan and refer people. Right? That's right.

a cold traffic buyer, like you do need them, but they saw an ad, made a decision and they're the ones seven days later that say, oh, I don't know if it's for me, maybe I should get a refund, right? - Because they put up their money before they even knew who you were. So I just say, I use the word indoctrination.

It gives you the ability to indoctrinate people in a great format that has more utility because what we talked about the ecosystem and then they can essentially invest in you over time because you've delivered. I see too many people though, and I forget the status of noxious, but it's like 99% of podcasters stop before their 10th episode or something. - I saw 10, yeah, I think it's 10.

fascinating how like it's like so obnoxious like why didn't you even start like what's going on right it's funny um so yeah i think so if someone's listening how let's you know let's assume we all start today how do they pick a topic and a theme how would you advise that i think it goes into what you're most passionate about and i know that's a generic right like oh follow your passion and it'll make you more money you'll never work again listen i'm

i'm from california but i don't necessarily always buy into the most woo woo stuff right like

I think in podcasts, the reason why I would suggest follow your passion is because you'll be able to create a lot of fucking content. And enjoy talking about it. And you'll like it. And you'll be able to have guests on that you genuinely have like a liking towards. Yeah. And you're not forcing it. And so, you know, my world and your world, yours is much more marketing and business is what you built over your career, right? For me, it started in real estate and now has led to building businesses and I own multiple businesses and they're not all in real estate. And so that passion of growth

But start today, again, you used, whether it's hair extensions or it's muffins or whatever, like start it on the passion. Maybe you're a bakery. So start your podcast about baking goods, right? And then that could translate into business and how do you account for materials and product and how many employees do you have to hire and how are you, like you can scale out that topic. It doesn't have to be about like,

do you like chocolate muffins more than blueberry? Right. Yeah. There's so many ways to go. I think so. Yeah. And I think again, it's people get held up with the perfectionist syndrome, right? Like, especially when you're in that beginner phase, if you are like pay attention, cause I've seen it a thousand times, like you overanalyze everything. So it's like, okay, I finally decided to start a podcast cause Rudy and Justin said to, but now I'm going to spend eight weeks thinking about the name of the podcast.

right right well and then the imposter syndrome yeah right like oh i'm not really that successful yet or i'm not really that person yet well you damn sure won't become that person if you don't get started right and so i think you guys got to limit this competitive like comparison to rudy or justin and realize like i'm doing this for me it's authentic to who i am what i want to put out there in the world i want to create value in the bakery baking space yeah

and just be you. And talk about what you love, like you said, right? And it will always come back around. And my last suggestion to that is that long tail, like be patient with whatever you are

hoping you get from it. I have five laws of success and the fifth law of success is removing any time expectation on the result you want. - That's good. - And so if you're gonna start a podcast or anything, if you're gonna become an influencer, Instagram, TikTok, it doesn't matter. I don't even know if TikTok's around anymore, but

Remove your expectation of when you're going to achieve the result, right? That's how I actually launched mine eventually. I just said, I'm launching it, having all my big friends on here, celebrities, talk about my stuff. And it's like not linked to anything because I already know from being in the industry 10 years that it's going to help a bunch. A bunch. Yeah. Right. I mean, we are going to literally get off this podcast and talk business. Yep.

And it's because of all this, right? We were together at Grant Cardone's office a year ago or so. We were just on a boat with Dan Flatt. I mean,

things happen, you just don't always know when. And if you remove your expectation of when that thing's gonna happen, making more money, growing your business, being more famous, whatever the intention is, and you just start going, you will ultimately be able to look back and say, "Holy shit, look how far I've come. "I did not even know I made it this far." That will happen to you. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - And it has for me. So 11 years of podcasting,

the better part of call it nine and a half of them, I didn't really directly make any money. I just kept podcasting. Now you probably would have been like, bro, why aren't you selling more? You would have been like, Justin, wake up. But I just kept doing my thing. And now podcast has created a massive stream of revenue for me, more than I ever would have thought. And it was because I just didn't give up.

And again, that 10 years, there's not a lot of people that would have been podcasting without a direct site. But because I knew the value I was providing the marketplace was so good for that marketplace, it was bound to happen. And it did. Well, and I mean, obviously, these results aren't typical. But one of my friends I spoke to yesterday, a client actually, he got his podcast to one of the top in a category in the world, million downloads a month. And he makes 170 grand a month now just from ads and podcasts.

placement so they're in downloads yeah but there is like good like when you get it big there's like big money in it too so it's like yeah you can monetize it for your own products and coaching products but he's now getting like major deals with like sirius and all those things and he's like making real money just from the ad placement too which right and i i've never done ads in my podcast but i have friends making 20 30 grand a month just from ad placements and i just started ad placements because they made me a financial offer i'm like

I'm not currently doing it. Yeah, try it, right? Yeah. So let's talk about the other side just to finish the show today on how to actually turn money out of the podcast, right? So go in and focus on value first like you always should with content and building your brand. But you have...

growing a brand behind it, right? So what were some of the things you did to then like translate it to grow in the school community and the coaching program? So I've just recently over the last 60 days or so started two different schools, both immediately

and they're both paid by the way so school is a platform for education you can do free ones or you can do pay ones and i don't know if we set any records but for sure we got you know noticed in the top three with uh hermosi yep at three hundred dollars a month over 600 people joined in under 45 days right and so flew out to la the whole thing and i say that only because

That was after I built the brand. And so the reason why you want to start today is because over time, when you do something like launch a school, an education platform. Well, and subscription is really hard to grow if you're listening. Super hard. It's not like selling 600 e-books. It's much harder. It's much harder, right? But then you create so much value in the marketplace that when you're ready to launch that subscription, when you're ready to launch the thing,

people take you up on it. As long as you're reasonable, right? It's a $300, not 30,000. I charge 30,000 for coaching. This is $300 a month, right? And they're like, and I'm going to have access to you. So you immediately get an adoption for it. So that's the indoctrination part. But what you would have probably advised me, which I learned later on in my years is

is to be able to have your own basically advertisements within your podcast. - Yeah, yeah, call to actions. - Hey, you know, this episode is great. In fact, I'm gonna have a small group intensive this Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you are in Charlotte, North Carolina, please go to justincolbycoaching.com, fill out the application, and if you can fit into that group, I would love to have you. Well, that group might be $2,500 for the day, and it's an advertisement in your own episode.

Now, I didn't do that very early on, but that's a way to monetize it. Just don't always do it in every episode. And that's so powerful, too, because someone just listened to 30 minutes, which doesn't sound a lot, but most people are listening to a minute of an ad or 30 minutes of a podcast. They're 30 times warmer now. That's right.

- Right, and that's if they only listen to that one. If they've been a guest for a year, following you for a year, they've listened to 20 hours of content. - Totally. - They're much more likely to buy. So they're super, what we call in the marketing world, they're super warm. - They are, and that's why that indoctrination of if you can just keep going. - Yeah. - Because listen, I'll reference this probably to the day I die, and I'm sure you'd still love it, but Gary V's first book, "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook." That's it.

Just give, give, give, give, ask. And so it's not like every single episode, in my opinion, would I go out and say, hey, and here's another thing I can sell you. In every episode, there's this thing. It's...

I'm going to give you four incredible episodes and on the fifth episode, I'm going to have an offer to whether it's an intensive, a mastermind, one-on-one coaching, a day in the office, whatever. Make it up. Or I say, hey, I'm going to go two months and I'm going to talk about something really cool coming, really cool coming, and I'm going to set the table. And on the, you know,

whatever it is, seventh episode, I'm gonna announce a school program and I'll say, get over to reilive.co, it's live, it's real, let's go, get a part of it. So I set the table for seven episodes. I know it sounds maybe intimidating for some people who are maybe less marketer than you and I,

But it really is as simple as that. But even if you don't sell, you actually have to understand you're selling every time you talk because you're selling how great you are and your personality and your authenticity and the reasoning behind your product brand, your mission, the underlying core principles of your product development or your coaching strategy. And that's all actually selling subconsciously because it's priming the buyer to understand you and connect with you and resonate with you.

Why you gotta start your podcast in a subject you love yeah all of that passion because everything that Rudy just said If you're incongruent with whatever the hell you're putting out there like if I go out or you're trying to script it right like you don't want that if I go out and wear all blue every day and only talk about marketing you'd be incongruent yeah right I wouldn't be Rudy although I'm trying to because I've been following Rudy's success yeah do that or if I try to talk about house flipping

I'd have to have notes here and go, "Today I'm gonna talk to you about maximizing the value of a flip." Whereas you can talk about that without any notes forever like I can talk about marketing. So yeah, I think if you, the monetization

can come directly from call to actions within it. Another way it can come that's more of a hybrid is like pushing them to opt-ins, right? Hey, if you, you know, today I talked about how to fix your Facebook ads. If you want all this in a one-page cheat sheet, you know, hit the notes in the show notes. And now you're collecting phone number. You should be collecting text message, SMS number two. And now with ChatGPT, you can literally take your transcript,

Put it in chat GPT get it to write a two-page worksheet and now you got the PDF done for you It's like it's easier than ever. Yeah, it really is and that's the cool part of where we are now. It's like 11 years ago when I launched the pod there was no yeah, you had to physically write the worksheet and build the opt-in header Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is as cool and it's easy and ever and you know Rudy like guys if you're watching this if you're listening to this go start one and

for the basic principle of people have a hard time finding content to put on other platforms. This is it. You just rip it out of the podcast form and you put it all over every other platform. I mean, it's simple basis of that. And that's the thing too. A lot of people go, well, that's not the best content. I'm like, dude, you're not posting at all right now. It's 80% better than zero. Is it a hundred percent as good as you had seven different types of content and they were all filmed with a viral intro? No, it's not as good as that, but it's,

80% better than the zero pose you're doing now, which is, you know, people always fall into that mistake. They're like, well, it's not as good. I heard you had to do real content like from the start and have a three second hook. I'm like, yeah, you do. But it's like, you're not doing anything right now. It's like going from couch potato to like, well, I got to train like an Olympic athlete. It's like, no, just go to the gym four times a week and walk every day and start. Go on a walk.

Yeah, start there and then go so that's so important to remember last last thing because we are out of time But I we kind of scanned over I want to hit it home and

Podcasts are also amazing to connect with really amazing people, probably people you would never get access to, but like it breaks, it opens a door when you get someone on your podcast, right? And the power of that to me is I lean into my superhuman power is people. It's because if you actually meet good people, there's opportunities within that relationship in one way or another, right? It could be as simple as a great example is like you have multiple studios. You're like, dude, if you ever need something, just text me.

I'm like, oh, that's actually kind of cool. Like, I have a studio, but it'd be great to bring some other people over here. And so there's just, there's a connective tissue within this podcast world that if you just ask, by the way, the funniest part is people are like, well, how do I get Rudy or Justin on my podcast?

It's amazing what happens when you just ask. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Because I remember when I started. I'm sure you did. Like, I'm not too big for my bridges. So I really encourage people to use it as a platform to break open new tables, right? A lot of us talk about how, like,

you know, it's about sitting around the right tables with the right people and sometimes you have to pay to sit at that table and all that kind of stuff. This gives you an opportunity to start sitting at tables without necessarily having to pay per se. - Yep. - And it just will create more and more opportunities and will open more business opportunities. - Yep. - We talked a lot about the business partnerships that you have and what's going on there.

It just is amazing how big the world can be when you just start having this as a platform to sit down and quote-unquote have dinner. And I want to emphasize that. I work with a lot of celebrities and famous people, and I've met a few people that are totally not famous

ultra successful, like not well known. And then like they have one of the celebrities I work with on their show. I'm like, how the hell did they get this person? And sometimes I'll ask them if I know them or the celeb. And it's just literally they reached out. And often it's like the celebs launching a new book or doing a new product or, you know, made a personal goal of going on 20 podcasts that month. So it's just like you got to just ask a lot.

I found right and 27 people say no but for wildly successful people will say yeah and then they'll stay friends with you forever and invite you to an event and then you'll meet 20 other famous people and it's like it's like that right that is one of the cooler part of the friendships really are genuine because yeah I'm not asking you for anything you're asking for me and that friendship starts to happen yeah I say maybe cool to have Justin's wife out to any text me and say hey let's go you know down to Mila for brunch yeah yeah I got a great

right? That starts happening and the coolness factor on that to me, it's just like unprecedented. - Yep, love it. So there you go guys, just one thing I didn't want to scan over 'cause I think that's actually probably the most powerful thing is the connection side of the podcast too. So last question, if someone wants to listen to your podcast or find you, where can they find them? - I'd encourage you to start just simply at Instagram 'cause it's usually everyone's favorite, the Justin Colby, but I have the Science of Flipping podcast on Apple.

I also have The Entrepreneur DNA on Apple. Usually you and I are right next to each other, so it won't be hard to find. And I think if you plug into social media in terms of Instagram for me, it's probably my heaviest platform. It is really me. If you have any questions about real estate or business or podcasting, please reach out. I'm happy to help you guys. But those are probably the two platforms that are easiest. Love it. There you go, guys. That's a wrap. Keep living the red life and I'll see you guys soon. Take care.

Bye.