Why Coaches Who Start Podcasts Must Do It Well or Not at All
Here’s something nobody tells you about starting a podcast as a coach: the biggest mistake isn’t picking the wrong equipment or choosing the wrong topic. It’s starting without full commitment.
Dave Rodriguez, founder of Destiny Works, recently launched the Vitality Journey podcast. Within 10 days of his first episode going live, two potential clients reached out asking for coaching. But the journey to get there required him to wrestle with a critical question that every coach considering podcasting must answer: Are you willing to do this well, or should you not do it at all?
This isn’t about perfectionism. It’s about understanding what it actually takes to make podcasting work for your coaching business.
The Real Cost of Half-Hearted Podcasting
Most coaches approach podcasting with enthusiasm but without strategy. They see other successful coaches with podcasts and think, “I should do that too.” They record a few episodes, post them inconsistently, and wonder why nothing happens.
The truth? A podcast done halfway is worse than no podcast at all. It creates the illusion of marketing activity while draining your time and energy without producing results. As Dave discovered, “If you don’t have a level of commitment to having a good product, you’ll stop. You won’t keep doing it because it’s too costly time-wise.”
The cost isn’t just time. It’s opportunity cost, the mental burden of another unfinished project, and the damage to your credibility when potential clients find a dormant podcast that hasn’t been updated in months.
What “Doing It Well” Actually Means
Doing podcasting well doesn’t necessarily mean expensive equipment or a fancy studio. It means three things:
Making It Part of Your Business Strategy
Your podcast can’t be a side hobby. It must serve a strategic purpose in your business. For Dave, the podcast became “a massive new tool in our arsenal” that both introduces new people to his work and resources existing clients. He even pitches it during workshops: “If you’re interested in vitality journey, tune into our podcast. Everything I just talked about in the last two hours, you can get in bits and pieces going forward.”
When podcasting is integrated into your business strategy, every episode serves multiple purposes. It attracts new clients, nurtures existing relationships, provides ongoing value to your community, and positions you as a thought leader.
Choosing the Right Production Approach for You
Dave could have gone the DIY route. His daughter runs a successful podcast shot at her desk with virtual guests. But he knew that approach wasn’t right for him. “I wanted something that was produced and looked good and felt good to fit,” he explained.
This self-awareness is crucial. Some coaches thrive with a casual, conversational setup. Others need a more produced environment to feel confident. Neither is wrong, but you must be honest about what you’ll actually maintain. Dave admitted, “After you and I met, I realized okay, maybe I should set up my camera and go for it. And then I realized, I won’t. I just won’t.”
Managing the Emotional Reality
Even successful coaches struggle with self-worth when they start podcasting. Dave captured this perfectly: “All coaches, no matter how confident we are and how we know our material, like everyone else, we’re dealing with self-worth issues. And you throw yourself out into the internet with a podcast and that’s all kinds of issues with self-worth.”
The resistance never fully disappears. You’ll always wonder if anyone wants to hear what you have to say. The key is building systems and support that help you show up anyway. For Dave, this meant partnering with a production team and having honest conversations with his wife about the conflicting emotions of excitement and fear.
The Two Emotions Every Coach Must Navigate
Dave described the emotional reality perfectly: “I had two conflicting emotions. On one hand there’s let’s go. And the other was, what have I done?”
These emotions don’t represent a problem to solve. They represent the normal human experience of doing meaningful work. As Dave noted, “It’ll get easier to do the thing. You sit down with your script or questions, you sit down in front of the microphone, that gets easier. But what does not get easier is how it relates to who you are and how you see yourself in the process.”
The coaches who succeed with podcasting aren’t the ones who eliminate fear. They’re the ones who build structures that support them through the fear.
Common Mistakes That Kill Coach Podcasts
Treating It Like a Hobby Instead of a Business Asset
If your podcast isn’t driving business results, it’s just an expensive hobby. Dave was clear on this: “It has to drive business results in some way or form. Or it’s just a hobby.”
Underestimating the Life Integration Required
A podcast becomes part of your life. Not just recording episodes, but planning content, managing distribution, engaging with listeners, and integrating it into your other business activities. Dave noted, “When you wake up tomorrow, you still got a podcast.”
Going It Alone When You Need Support
Many coaches assume they should figure it out themselves. But Dave recognized, “I wouldn’t have done it. I wouldn’t have launched, I wouldn’t have done the DIY route.” He needed partners who could handle production while he focused on coaching.
The Surprising Benefits Beyond Client Acquisition
While Dave landed two potential clients in his first 10 days, he discovered an unexpected win: “It’s actually made me more passionate about the things I’m passionate about. It’s raised my level of engagement even with my own material.”
This renewed passion came from paying attention to his message in a new way and thinking about delivering it in a different context. The podcast didn’t just market his services—it reignited his love for his work.
Your Decision Point
If you’re considering starting a podcast, you have a choice to make. You can either commit to doing it well—integrating it into your business strategy, choosing the right production approach for your personality, and building support systems for the emotional journey—or you can choose not to do it at all.
Both are valid choices. What doesn’t work is the middle ground of half-hearted effort.
Dave’s advice is simple but powerful: “If you’re going to do it, do it well. Because if you don’t do it well and if you don’t have a level of commitment to having a good product, you’ll stop.”
The question isn’t whether you can start a podcast. The question is whether you’re ready to do what it takes to make it work. Your potential clients are waiting for the answer.
Full Transcript
Darren: Well, welcome back to another Coaching with Content podcast. My name is Darren. It’s good to have you here. And normally we have our good friend Dustin Pead on, but not today, not Dustin. We gave him the week off and we have our client and good friend, Dave Rodriguez. Dave, thank you so much for taking some time to chat with us today.
Dave: Thanks, Darren. Looking forward to it.
Darren: Yeah. So Dave, you recently launched the Vitality Journey, right? A podcast to kind of go along with the business and what you’re doing with your coaching and consulting within Destiny Works. And so where I want to start today is the vitality journey. What is it? Why is that important? And why is it important to live a life of vitality?
Dave: Well, when we launched the company a number of years ago, our prime focus for years was mostly around what I call vocational health, like is what I’m doing in my work meaningful, which leads to the conversation of a calling and purpose. And so we designed our personal coaching and our workshops for groups around that idea. So there’s a story where the Vitality Journey was launched and that was I had a client, I sat down with him for a follow-up conversation and the process we walk people through is called the calling quilt. So I took him through the calling quilt. He got an idea of his purpose, knew what he was here for, but I walked in for a follow-up conversation and I walk into the coffee shop, elbows are on his knees and his hands are holding his head and I’m like, oh no.
And so the conversation went like this. He said, thanks, the calling quilt was great. I have an idea what I want to do with my life, but. And then he started to go down and talk about his physical health, his financial health, all of these things were suspect, or they were hurting, relational health, behavioral health, I mean it was just like a litany. And I thought, okay, we focused on his calling and his purpose, but I don’t know what to do now. I could pat him on the back and say, I wish the best for you, or I could dive in. And like I said, his financial health wasn’t that great, so there wasn’t gonna be, it wasn’t gonna be lucrative by any stretch of imagination. So I thought, I cared about him. So at that point I said, let’s get together and start addressing these health factors in your life and see if we can come up with a strategy to…
So the vitality journey was built on the fly with him. At any rate, fast forward, it has become very important to us at Destiny Works. So much so that we decided, we wanna be able to take this idea of vitality, living with a level of energy and passion, health span as Dr. Peter Attia calls it. We wanna be able to help people do that. And so the vitality journey is address helping people come up with a strategy for the six health factors of their life. And then we thought, let’s, you know what, maybe a podcast would help launch this. That’s we got to where we are. That’s where we’re at.
Darren: And so I’d love to dig in a little bit more on that because it’s super interesting to me. I’m somebody that loves the idea of, I hate to use the term self-help, but the idea of making life better. There’s things that we can do that actually enrich our lives. And so you talked about the Vitality Quilt, is that what?
Dave: No, the Calling Quilt is what we use for, to help people work on purpose, or calling. And that’s where it started, right? That’s where the whole thing, because our overall vibe is we’re a mentoring organization. We do coaching and workshops, but we like to come alongside, what’s the phrase, come alongside people and help them figure out their next steps in their life. The vitality journey is more holistic, looking at all the health factors of their life and helping them come up with an actual working plan to address each area.
Darren: Yes, yes. So walk me through the six.
Dave: Well, there’s physical health. There is relational health, emotional health, which is all the inside stuff. Behavioral health. Financial health. And vocational health.
Darren: I put you on the spot to list all six of those real quick like that.
Dave: Fortunately I was able to.
Darren: Well done. Well done. I would have totally lost it at four. I would have been like, I can’t remember. But no, that’s interesting because I think what I think of in my own life is there might be times that I’m focusing on vocational health or physical health obviously is a big one. We’re recording this in January, so everybody’s focusing on the physical side. But you’re talking about emotional and you’re talking about financial and there’s other things. All of those woven together really kind of create that whole journey for somebody.
Dave: Well, and you can even have a person that’s crushing it in five of those. And one of those areas and their overall vitality plummets because one of the areas is really suffering. So, but generally speaking, when I talk to people, I ask them to give themselves, this is all very subjective on a scale of one to 10, where are you physically? Where are you relationally? It’s fascinating. And then I ask more specific questions and they realize, you know what, I need to pay attention to this.
Darren: Well, it’s something that we don’t think about often. Even in you saying, oh, thinking about the relational health, obviously with my kids and my wife, I think about that, but what does that look like in the whole being that I’m becoming, right?
Dave: Yeah, let me see if you’d agree with this. I do think we think about these things, but not deep enough to do anything.
Darren: Yes, that’s a good way of putting it.
Dave: Like, I feel bad or I feel like this isn’t working. So we can tell you, we’re aware of these health factors. We just don’t stop and say, all right, what are the steps to address it? Like get down to the, what are the habits that need to institute that will actually move the needle on these health factors?
Darren: Yeah, that’s beautiful. And I know that we’ve been working together here the last couple of months and you’ve recently launched this podcast, but I was sitting in the last production where you and your cohost, Demetri walked through some of these things.
Dave: Yeah, we kind of walked each other through. We got like coached each other.
Darren: Yeah. Oh, and it was so beautiful to see because I think what you’re saying is, yeah, you can all kind of think about it, but we don’t stop and go deep enough to give ourselves that number, right. And then to really dig into and go, is that the actual number? And then step in and having a conversation with somebody like yourself to really bring it to life is just, man, watching that live was just so beautiful to see the work in action of what you guys do with your clients. It’s so cool, so cool.
All right, so that brings us to, this is a Coaching with Content podcast, talking to a lot of coaches and consultants out there. One of our big things that we believe around here, obviously you’ve heard me say this at nauseum at this point, is that a long-form video podcast is the greatest way to get your information, your frameworks, the way you think out into the world. And so recently we’ve dove into this endeavor of launching your podcast, Vitality Journey. And so I just wanna talk a little bit about your experience, some of the things beforehand, some of the things right now currently, because there might be somebody out there listening that’s going, I think I wanna start it, but I don’t know what I don’t know. And so we’re gonna kinda, you as somebody starting the journey, kinda have those conversations. So.
Dave: Yeah, I’m glad you said what I don’t know, because when you and I first sat down, I knew nothing, zero. So my starting point of podcasting was you couldn’t get much lower than where I was. I didn’t know anything. I mean, I watched a few podcasts.
Darren: Sure.
Dave: But that’s where I started.
Darren: Yeah, but to actually implement it into a business strategy or what you were doing was not, you were like, not on your radar at that point.
Dave: No, several months ago. I mean, the key question for our company is, like a lot of coaches, how do I increase our clients? The number of clients. How do we take this thing which we believe in so deeply and get other people to consider it and say, you know what, I’m interested in that too. And so it was about, at its core, it was about how we increase our clients. That’s where it started.
Darren: That’s kind of the first catalyst, right? You’re going, what do I do? And then you see things out there. People are creating content. Do we do short form content? Do we write blogs more? Or do we do YouTube series? Like there’s all kinds of ideas out there.
Dave: Well, and so secondarily, so yes, there are all kinds of ideas. I also realized as I was considering this is I do enjoy the content creation part. So a long form podcast fit me and for my career up to this point, there’s a lot of content creation, writing, speaking, those kind of things. So the podcast, not only we were hoping it would increase our clients, we’ll see, and number two, it afforded me the opportunity to say some things that I believed in that I think is worthy of people taking in.
Darren: That’s really good and I want to dig in a little bit there on that because that’s what we say right now. We’re, we find ourselves in this trust recession. Everybody’s a little bit skeptical of everything going on. And, and now you sit down and you and Demetri, your cohost can have a long form conversation around these ideas and it, it just allows you to share those thoughts, those opinions. And then as the viewer, right, we can, we, kind of get to be the fly on the wall and watch you work and hear your perspective and go, I like that, I align with that. I see the way that you see the world and I want to work more with somebody like that and that’s the importance of what we’re trying to do with a long form video podcasting.
So talk to me then about, you and I had a couple of meetings, pitched some ideas as far as what this could look like. It seemed like a good idea for you. Walk me through just what you were thinking before you said, hey, yes, let’s do this. Obviously, like you said, trying to get clients in the door, trying to figure out how to grow the business. Like when you kind of went, this might be a good fit for me. What were some of those emotions and things that you were wrestling with?
Dave: Well, the emotions were clear. I mean, this is maybe an overstatement, but I was like, okay, there’s some hope. I’ve got a little hope here. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on you, Darren, but there was a, there was like, okay, maybe we could, maybe this will work. And you know, talking with you, I realized, yeah, podcasting right now seems to be a form that makes sense for this time. The other thing I would say, my relationship with social media is fraught, okay? So.
Darren: A lot of us probably feel the same way too.
Dave: Yeah, and it’s like. The thing I was scared about was, okay, podcast, we could do that, we can create content, but how to get that into the world? And the beauty, honestly, what you offered was let us help you do this, create the content, the packages, the clips, and so it made it much easier for a social media novice like me to say, I think this is going to work.
Darren: Yeah. Well, and that’s what we, what we try to do across the board. And what we talked about early on was the fact that what we want to make happen for you is you’re really good at coaching. You’re really good at teaching. You’re really good at walking people through this process. And the minute that you put a podcast on the minute that you put social media on and now you’re carrying the weight of that, it’s, it’s just, you become like, almost slave to that thing, right? And so for us, we’re like, man, how can we walk alongside of you to relieve that pressure to allow you to do what you do best, which is coaching, which is the whole purpose of coaching with content, this whole podcast idea is you coach with your content, and we just walk alongside of you and help you get those things in the way that’s necessary. Now.
Dave: To be honest, you serve it on a platter to us, which is, we still have to go strategically decide how are we, what are we gonna do with this on social media? Now fortunately I’ve got two younger coaches who work with me who are more digital native than I am. But I don’t wanna pretend that it’s easy because if I was doing this myself, and right now this is a, we’re two episodes in, we’re gonna shoot our third today. But I still feel a little bit of that pressure because we haven’t yet really hit the ground running on our social media presence. We’ll get there, but that’s still something we have to.
Darren: And that’s a good point to bring out, Dave, is the fact that it’s not necessarily easy now. You still have to put work into it. You still have to show up every day and do the thing, right? But ultimately we get you as far as we can. And you do, it’s brilliant what you offer.
Dave: So I don’t want to undersell that. It’s brilliant. Like I said, it’s given us hope.
Darren: It’s good.
Dave: But what it’s done, Darren, is it’s made me look at what we do, how we do what we do differently. We’ve now inserted a podcast into the whole system. We just have to work differently now. I’m enjoying it, but we have to work differently.
Darren: Yeah, yeah. And I like how you said that, into the system. And that’s really our hope is that this doesn’t become just a fun little side project to do, but ultimately, you’re doing it to grow your business. And that’s why we put in all of the work to make sure that those assets are working for you and not just something cool that you go, hey look, I’m on YouTube now. Look mom, I’m on YouTube.
Dave: That’s not enough of a motivation for me, I gotta tell you. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy doing the podcast and having Demetri as a co-host. He’s a great conversationalist, so it’s easy to do it. But it’s work. It’s work and it’s important work.
Darren: Yeah, and that’s the thing to remember is the important work because much like, you know, I love what you guys are doing at Destiny Works in the sense of the vocational side of things, kind of where it started for you is just helping you realize your calling and your purpose, right? That’s really good. And then stepping into this whole vitality journey of the whole person, like to us, I was telling the team the other day, said it to them, said, guys, you see that the work that we do every day gets to impact so many because we help you impact so many. So we get to have that almost secondary hit because of us helping you and you help the masses, if you will.
Dave: We’ve just been out a week and a half or two weeks now with the first episode. And just yesterday, picked two people, reached out and said, I want that, I want that coaching. And I did a workshop for an organization here with the Vitality Journey. And so, yeah, you’re not just vicariously experiencing what’s happening in their life, you’re what you guys are doing for us. You’re part of the pipeline of changing those people’s lives. I was with 45 people yesterday who I guarantee you now that they’ve gone through the workshop on Vitality Journey, they’re gonna tune into the podcast. And their lives will continue to change. And that’s so meaningful to us, and I hope you know that too, as we continue.
Darren: We’re invested in it just as much at that point, right? We wanna see the people impacted and the lives changed and to hear the stories. We’ll have different coaches or different companies we’re working with, share different things that have happened. And much like what you just said, standing in front of 45 people, they’re gonna take in this content. And I know that their lives will be different because of it. And it’s just, it’s so, it’s so, beautiful. It’s so, beautiful.
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Let’s go back then. OK, so. At first you’re like, hey, I got a little bit of hope. There’s some things I see the way that this could play out. It is a little bit of work to get it plugged in. So you reached out, said, hey, let’s do this. What was that moment there that you said, you know what, this is it. I think this is the thing that we gotta try to make happen.
Dave: Well, was, you know, after you and I first talked about it, I sat down with my team, sat down with my board. It does cost something. So it’s not like, you know, we’re going to have to, this is an investment. But the first emotion was, I had two conflicting, two, and my wife and I were just talking about this yesterday, two conflicting emotions. On one hand there’s let’s go. And the other was, what have I done? And they battle. They battle on any given day. So the let’s go is, I see the potential in this. I’m excited about the possibility. I mean, the jury will be out for a while. Will this increase our clients? But there’s something about that. And my personality is such that I always love the next hill. What’s the next hill? Let’s go. That’s me. But then there’s the dude that’s been doing this for many decades going, what have I done? So those are the conflicting emotions.
Darren: Yeah. So how do you, how do you handle that? What does that look like for you?
Dave: Well, I’m mission focused enough to say those that’s going to come with the ride. That’s the ride we’re on. And if we’re going to accomplish it, we’ve got to work through that. The conflict on those. Or not the conflict. It’s not a conflict between those. It’s just, it is just the reality of, of life. You know, it’s there’s some power and joy and let’s forward motion and then there’s the, my gosh, I gotta manage my life around this. What the heck have I done? So it’s just life management. And for me, this is just me and this is just me being coachy here I suppose. I think whenever we have life conflicts like this, the more we say it out loud, put it on the table in front of us and look at it, especially with the people who matter, the better we’re going to. So my wife and I, we talk about this all the time. And so there are days she commiserates with me and there’s other days she kicks me in the butt. And there’s other days she’s saying, stop, you know, that’s how we have to, that’s how I manage these emotions.
Darren: Yeah. Well, and that’s, that’s really good because I think I help people start podcasts for a living. Now we’re on quote unquote my podcast and I freak out every time, right? Like I have the same emotions of what am I doing? Do I know what I’m talking about? Like all of the things that you’re talking about happen to me too. And so when, whatever I’ve told clients, just get on camera and just go do it, you know? It’s like, it sounds so easy. And I’m like, trust me, I do it as well. It does freak you out a little bit. So yeah, that’s that’s good to notice.
Dave: That perpetual feeling like no one wants to hear what I say. You know, nobody, you know, where, you know, and yeah. So that, that’s a constant, that’s a constant management because again, sorry, I’m going to go off here for some.
Darren: Please do.
Dave: All coaches, no matter how confident we are consultants, how confident we are and how we know our material, like everyone else, we’re dealing with self-worth issues. And you throw yourself out into the internet with a podcast and it’s, that’s all kinds of issues with self-worth. Then you’re going, well, how many, how many views, how many, how many subs, you know, subscribers and those kind of things stuck in the data really stuck in the data and you just get stuck in the image. Like, does anyone even like me? Like, you know, it, is the real struggle of doing what we do.
Darren: Yeah. And that’s a, that’s a good point to remember because as you, somebody that’s just starting this process and getting out and, you know, you kick fear in the face and you said, let’s go for it. And now those emotions still rise. It doesn’t mean it goes away. It doesn’t mean that it’s easy tomorrow just because you decided to do it. It means that the resistance still shows up.
Dave: Yeah. And it always will. I can’t imagine it. I mean, it’ll get easier to do the thing.
Darren: Sure.
Dave: You sit down with your script or what are your questions? You sit down in front of the microphone, that gets easier. But what does not get easier is how it relates to who you are and how you see yourself in the process. And that’s, that’ll never go away.
Darren: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s beautiful to think of it that way only because it makes, it makes everybody realize that they’re not alone in that.
Dave: Not at all.
Darren: Yeah. The coaching community, I’m sure it’s interesting. I think we all feel the same thing. We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t care about people. Right? That’s why you, that’s why you do coach, why you do coaching consulting. You care about the process, but at the same time we have to manage us too.
Dave: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Darren: Oh man, that’s, that’s good. And thank you for coaching us through that because man, knowing that you’re not alone is a beautiful, is a beautiful thing. And so let’s talk a little bit here about you said it a minute ago. We’re a week and a half ish into releasing this thing. The podcast episodes are out in the world and can, and are scheduled to be out in the world. Now what, what surprised you the most after now that it’s out and in the world, any, any kind of thing that just went, oh, I didn’t see that one.
Dave: Well, it surprised me how fast it became a thing. I don’t know how to say that. All of a sudden, wait, we have a YouTube channel. Wait, that’s our pictures. Oh my gosh. We have, and how many people have looked at it? And all of a sudden it’s a thing. It’s not fear anymore. So I don’t know how to describe what that means, but that’s essentially what happened early on. And then the other thing was, oh, and I got to go in next week and shoot another one. So boy, here we go. Here we go. So that was, and I don’t know if that’s a big surprise. It’s just, it’s just a reality.
Darren: Yeah. I think that, emotion of, you know, we now have, it’s a thing. Like it was an idea here three months ago and now it’s a thing that’s in the world that people can consume. And that, that is, there’s an emotional piece there, right? There’s an emotional like, oh man, it is a thing. And, and that’s, that’s really, really cool to think of it that way in the sense that three months ago there wasn’t anything and now we have something. I can see where that’s a little bit of a surprising.
Dave: Well, and it’s a whole, for us in our business, which has spent most of our time either standing in front of people talking or sitting across from person talking, now we’re sitting in front of a microphone. That’s a whole thing. That’s you know and that I guess that’s the newest thing, I realize this is now part of my life. I, to be honest with you, I think I prepared for that, that this was now a part of my life, but now I’m realizing, well, it is, it’s a part of my life now. At least we know why we do it, this is who we are, so we have to work our lives around it.
Darren: Yeah, yeah, and that’s a really good thing to think through because, I think a lot of coaches and consultants, even a lot of people out there have said, man, it would be fun to start a podcast. It’d be cool to do. Maybe one day I will. But ultimately sitting down and even if you have a team of folks like you do to come around side of you, it’s still part of life and you have to think through it and you have to strategically plan and we hopefully help as best as we can to lay that framework and that groundwork for you. But ultimately, yeah, it’s when you wake up tomorrow, you still got a podcast and it’s thing that.
Dave: Yes, is it fun? It is fun. Is it energizing? Yes. Do I have a sense of anticipation? Yes. Is it work? Heck yes. You can’t skate through this. This is who you are now.
Darren: Yeah. And I would even say that anything worthwhile doing probably comes with a little bit of elbow grease that you got to put into it.
Dave: Absolutely. There’s nothing out there that’s just a easy peasy.
Darren: No. Sailing now. No?
Dave: Yeah. I agree with that.
Darren: Yeah. Well, that’s good. I love that point that you brought out there. Now let’s talk a little bit about, you could have, there’s a road that you could have gone down. You could have gone the DIY route with this. You know, we could add a few conversations. You could have said, this is really good information. I got all that I need now. I’m going to go start a podcast and do it on my own. Many people do that. You chose a path of partnering with us, allowing us to help kind of bring that, that foundation for you to do the production, to do the delivery, to do the content repurpose, all of that. So I guess why did you choose that?
Dave: Yeah, that’s a great question. First of all, I wouldn’t have done it. I wouldn’t have launched, I wouldn’t have done the DIY route.
Darren: I’m sorry. It would have just stayed an idea.
Dave: Yeah. And I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t, there’s two things. No, I wouldn’t have done it because I wouldn’t know where to start. It would just taken, yeah, it would have played into my insecurities about how we show up in the social media world. The second, the second thing, and this is, I know I’m curious what you think about this. My daughter has a podcast and it is a shot, at their desk, at home, it’s all virtual. I would say it’s more DIY. Although her partner, her guest, her host with her, she knows a little bit more about editing and all those kind of things. But it’s more typical what I had heard before I talked with you, that what people want is just open up your phone and talking to your phone. You don’t need to be fancy about it. And I realized those, great. I it works for my daughter. I think it’s a good, and she’s got a really cool podcast, but that’s not me. And I wanted something honestly that was produced and looked good and felt good to fit. Not that the others, I mean, they look great. You’re not dogging that.
Darren: No, I’m not. That’s just not.
Dave: What I felt I wanted was something that looked more what you’ve helped create in our podcast. Both of them are great. They’re both great forms. One feels very relaxed, the other feels, and honestly what we do is a little more produced. I like that. So.
Darren: And that speaks to that not only are there many ways, because we have clients that do the digital version as well. And you can still make that look very, very good. But you’re saying, in my personality and the things that I wanted to see a little bit more of a studio set, little bit more of something like this that kind of feels different than that set. And again, not right or wrong.
Dave: No, there’s no right or wrong. And they’re both can be very effective as we know.
Darren: For sure.
Dave: I’ve, I’ve, I watch podcasts that are both, both kinds and I find them engaging, but, but I had to decide for me, what is it? Because yeah, after you and I met, I realized, okay, maybe I should set up my camera and go for it. And then I realized, I won’t. I just won’t for the reasons I said. I need help.
Darren: Yeah. Well, and that’s a good place to be because it sounds like you just said, look, this is what I would enjoy and what I would want to see me create. And then I don’t know how to do that. So let’s find the partners that can allow us to do that.
Dave: Yeah. And then we’re off to the races. You know, and so that’s exactly what happened.
Darren: Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s cool. So now that you’ve created content, you know, we’ve created this podcast, you know, how, how has it, you mentioned it a little bit earlier, but I want to take this angle again. How has it changed the way you view your message, the way you view your coaching, the way that you view what you do?
Dave: A great question. And I have to think about the, has it changed our message? The message is the same, I’m realizing that I’m, what I realize is that the message that we’re the podcast now will be an additional tool. It’ll do two things. It will introduce people to the, to the idea, for example, of the vitality journey. So we’ll draw people in, but we’ll also resource people who have been our clients and are interested in further exploring the vitality journey. So it becomes, I mean, this is too light saying it too lightly. It’s just a massive new tool in our arsenal. That’s what it is. It’s what we can pull out. I even said this to the group I was speaking to yesterday. I said, by the way, it’s been good to be with you, but we have resources for you. If you’re interested in vitality journey, if you tune into our podcast, everything I just talked about in the last two hours, you can get in bits and pieces going forward.
Darren: That’s so good. And I love the fact that you not only remembered, but also did pitch that to the people that you’re standing in front of, right? If you’re coaching business, you’re consulting business, allows you to be in front of multiple people, you say, this is a tool, something that I’ve created to help you in this journey to go deeper, to have your own. And that’s so good because I think sometimes people often forget that that’s the purpose of this whole thing, right? It’s not just to find new people, it will, but ultimately it’s to help those that have come in contact with you and someone. And even if someone doesn’t even consider being a client.
Dave: Where I hope and our desire is that each podcast is beneficial to anyone who watches it. So it’s, it really truly is another, I would even say it’s another dimension of our coaching. It would, it would be coaching at a distance in for people who, so that’s the way I see it.
Darren: Dave, I don’t know if you realize that we named the podcast coaching with content because of that reality right there. You know, is because we strongly believe in that reality that you can coach when you’re sleeping at night. When somebody’s driving down the road, listening to your voice, getting the help that they need, changing their life, you’re at home sleeping, you know? And I love the fact that you even pointed out, coaches, you get into the business because you want to help people, right? And so what you even said is like, yeah, even if they don’t become a client, which we hope they do, but if they don’t, their life will be a better because they came in contact with the content that you create.
Dave: Similarly, you could do that by writing a book or publishing too. And I am doing that. There’s going to be Vitality Journey book. So this is like the podcast is like a book. It’s like introducing a chapter a week is what it is. It has relevance to what we’re publishing book wise too. And give a little bit more context too, right? Like, you know, you might write this chapter in a certain way and you kind of fill in some of the things that might’ve got put on the cutting room floor.
Darren: Right? It’s even more engaging.
Dave: Yeah. You know, because you have somebody pushing back and asking questions and it’s more, you know, dialogue. It’s more dialogue than monologue.
Darren: Yeah, that’s good. That’s good. Well then as we wrap up here, what’s, what’s, what’s been the biggest win for you in this process? Maybe personally or business wise, something that you’ve seen as a win?
Dave: Well, just yesterday when I had two potential new clients come as a result of this, this, we’re just starting. Okay. So I’m going to call that because that’s our prime focus. I’m going to call that a win. I would say on a more emotive side of things, it’s a win because it’s, it’s allowed. How do I say this? It’s actually made me more passionate about the things I’m passionate about. It’s raised my level of engagement even with my own material. And I’m not sure I could explain that except that I’m paying more attention to it and thinking about delivering it in another context. And so I’m actually more excited about what we do than I was before the podcast.
Darren: Dave, that’s very much a secondary, you know, that’s not the first thing that would be on the marketing material, if you will, right? But that is a secondary underlining thing that I didn’t even see as something that was potential. Basically, you’re saying, man, I’m now more passionate, more engaged, more alive, more aware of what it is that I’m teaching than I ever have before because I decided to sit down and start a podcast that becomes the engine to all the things that I do.
Dave: Yeah, absolutely. And I’ve just got started. So I’m, I will see that will probably grow.
Darren: Yeah. That’s, that’s a really good point that I, man, I never, never even thought of that. So that’s really good. And then you said a couple of new potential clients, right? You haven’t, you haven’t inked the deal by any means, but you’re what episode at the time of this recording episode one is released with a segment that we have.
Dave: Yeah. 10 days since we hit hit the world and you had somebody go, I need that. I had two clients in 10 days.
Darren: Those are powerful wins out there may seem not seem like much to me. That’s pretty cool.
Dave: Yeah. Yeah. I mean somebody raising their hand saying that’s interesting to me enough to engage. And now, now you have that ability to open the conversation with them. That’s really beautiful.
Darren: So couple of clients engaging and then seeing your content in new and fresh ways that kind of lit you up again. That’s really, really cool. That’s really cool. Last question here. Any other thoughts, any other thing as far as your experience with starting a podcast, you’re new to the journey, something that you might share with everybody that would be helpful to them if they’re out there going, should I do this? Should I not? Any, that comes to mind?
Dave: If you’re going to do it, do it well. Because if you don’t do it well, and if you don’t have a level of commitment to having a, I think a good product, you’ll, you’ll stop. You won’t do it, you know, and it’s gotta be a part of the business strategy. It’s this is part of our strategy going forward. Yes. And if it’s not part of that, if it’s some sort of, you won’t keep doing it. It’s too costly time-wise. So it needs to be part of the strategy.
Darren: Yeah, it has to drive business results in some way, or form. Or it’s just a hobby.
Dave: It’s just a hobby. You gotta make it something.
Darren: So that’s beautiful. Well, Dave, talk about, you know, pitch destiny works to us. Like, where can we find you guys? Where can we get more information? Tell us all that fun stuff.
Dave: Yeah, the easiest thing is to go to the website, which is destiny-works.com. Destiny is a dash between destiny and works. And there you’ll see that, you know, if anyone’s interested in the personal coaching we offer, some of it’s on the vocational purpose side and the others on the vitality journey side. We also do workshops for both. That’s our, those are our prime focuses right now. So go to the website, destiny-works.com. Yeah, all information is there.
Darren: And yeah, if you’re out there, you’re just trying to put that life together. You’re wrestling with the idea of it going, man, I’m created for more than what I feel like I’m doing. Head on over to destiny-works.com and just start the journey. And Dave, it’s been an absolute pleasure to bring this Vitality Journey podcast to life with you. It’s so beautiful. We’re about to record a couple of your episodes here after we finish this one. And I can’t wait to hear the content already from episode one and two. I know it’s changed my life just as the producer sitting in the producer seat. And so thank you for what you’re doing and thank you for being a part of the 1898 team.
Dave: Thanks, Darren. Enjoy partnering with you. I really do.
Darren: That’s awesome. Great. Awesome. Well, hey, before you go, I want you to remember something. I want you to remember that you are an artist and that your voice matters in this world and that you are loved more than you could ever, ever imagine. So go out and create your art and we’ll see you here next week on the Coaching with Content podcast.
And then Column F, the content buckets. We believe around here, every client that we work with from a podcast production side of things, we walk through and make sure that they have at least five buckets or five idea buckets that they could pull from so that you’re not always just going here, there, and everywhere, right? So for us, for an example, it could be something like podcast strategy, right? We talk a lot about podcast strategy around here. So if there’s something that pops up in that, let’s put it in that bucket, right? Maybe a production would be one. If you’re doing video production, if you will, in some way, shape, or form, we’re going to teach you something about video production. We will drop that in that bucket. What are those buckets for you?
Everybody should have at least five buckets of content types. You could have three, you could have four. Five is not necessarily, but that’s usually what we shoot for anywhere from three to five. Dustin, do you have any type of content bucket strategy that you use with the podcast that you produce?
Dustin: Yeah, a hundred percent. So mine is like, are we talking about a framework? Are we talking about creativity just in general? Is it something that drives creative and creativity? Are we talking about processes? Are we talking about a system? Are we talking about leadership? Those are kind of five to six buckets that as I’m planning mine out in my spreadsheet, I’m making sure what I really love about that, Darren, is it gives on back on that, you know, other tab, the release date and details. It really even here on your Story Vault as well to be able to kind of see, is there a content bucket that I have not enough of, or maybe it’s too heavy in one area, right? So that you can make sure like, hey, I thought you were supposed to be talking about lots of different things, but it seems like you’re really only talking about this on this podcast. Then if you start to see that trend on your Story Vault, your antenna can go up for the ones that you don’t have as much.
Darren: There it is. Yeah. And too, Dustin, if you play that out, you can begin to watch your data over time on your episodes to go, man, whenever I talk about leadership, it tends to pop off. And people are really digging those conversations. So it’s going to help you refine, right? And then you might go, well, let’s take this leadership bucket and break that into a couple of different buckets and pull those in and maybe drop a couple off that don’t make sense. Now it’s helping you move your podcast, your content forward with real data in real time. So that’s the importance of kind of having that bucket system in place. If you don’t have it, I believe we’ve done a podcast episode on it. If we haven’t, we will do one soon. But that’s the importance of having those content buckets put in place. And that’s something we walk all of our clients through.
Column G, very self-explanatory. Is it used? Yes or no? That way you’re not just always going back to the same stories, right? Oh yeah, I did use that one. Because again, we’re going to forget, right? We’re going to go grab that story again and go, oh I just did that two episodes ago and I didn’t realize that. Oops, you know, so make sure that you put just a simple yes or no on that.
And then Column H, very self-explanatory again, is like, you know, once the episode’s out, maybe drop that in. The reason that I put that there and again, it’s an optional column. But what I would like to do is if I go back to a story, I want to go, okay, it has been used and here’s the episode. How did I use it? What was the angle that I took on it? What was the way that I put it together? Then I can go, okay, could I repurpose it in another way or form.