Transforming Your Local Community Through This Content Strategy with Suzie Becker

[00:00:00] You ever find it funny that the dumbest people are shameless about saying the dumbest things?

[00:00:06] Yes.

[00:00:07] But the smartest people are always sort of sitting quietly in the background listening.

[00:00:11] Why are they never speaking up as much as the dumb people?

[00:00:14] Thank you for putting your message out there and connecting people to opportunities.

[00:00:18] Where was that fire born?

[00:00:20] The more stories I heard, the more I wanted to hear because I realized that was how we connect as humans.

[00:00:26] It's in listening to the stories of other people.

[00:00:28] I have my finger on the pulse of what's happening.

[00:00:30] I have an instinct for what's upcoming.

[00:00:32] I can tell you who the people are that you want to engage with and how and where they're making a maximum impact.

[00:00:39] And so people are saying, can you be my project manager?

[00:00:42] More often than not, people don't really remember what got said, but they will remember how you made them feel.

[00:00:50] So how do you do that with your stories? How do you craft them?

[00:00:55] That is a good question actually because...

[00:01:03] Guys, welcome back to Gunthin's Prophet.

[00:01:05] We are back in the studio after a hectic weekend.

[00:01:07] We had the birthday party of the kids.

[00:01:09] It wasn't hectic, it was fun.

[00:01:11] Fonzie killed it in the bouncy house.

[00:01:13] Let's go!

[00:01:15] Was he the bouncer of the bouncy house?

[00:01:17] No, he was actually inside of the bouncy house.

[00:01:19] You're three years old, you cannot come in.

[00:01:21] You got out of here.

[00:01:23] Throwing the kids out of it.

[00:01:25] Today we have a special guest here in the studio.

[00:01:27] We met her as we met all her people that come to record here in the studio.

[00:01:31] And what a surprise it was.

[00:01:33] We did not know the hurricane of positiveness.

[00:01:35] Is that it?

[00:01:39] Crazy note of positivity, so much energy.

[00:01:43] She's absolutely amazing.

[00:01:45] And also a force for the community and what she's done and what she shared with us.

[00:01:48] It's incredible.

[00:01:50] So we're like, Suzie, you need to come to the show.

[00:01:52] So now officially let's get this show started.

[00:01:55] Here we go.

[00:01:57] Hey, I'm Luis.

[00:01:59] And this is Luis.

[00:02:01] And welcome to the Content Is Profit podcast.

[00:02:03] In here you're going to get the insight, accountability and drive to create consistently and increase revenue.

[00:02:09] You'll hear from top entrepreneurs, creators and anything and everything you need to know about content all this while having a good time.

[00:02:15] The goal of this podcast is simple.

[00:02:17] Entertain, educate and turn your content into profit.

[00:02:20] Kachin, kachin, kachin.

[00:02:22] Hey, Suzie, welcome to the show.

[00:02:24] Hi Luis and Luis.

[00:02:26] Thank you for having me.

[00:02:28] Yes, we're honored.

[00:02:30] And every time you come into the studio, we just get to talking about the things that you're doing this week and next week and in the future.

[00:02:36] And you tell us all these wonderful things.

[00:02:38] And the word that comes to mind is authenticity.

[00:02:42] And also the change that you've been able to do not only with your show but with your relationships.

[00:02:46] I'm like, every time you come in, you tell me this massive news.

[00:02:48] Something new happens.

[00:02:50] Amazing is happening.

[00:02:52] Oh yeah, there's tons of stuff happening here.

[00:02:54] We live in like the land of milk and honey.

[00:02:56] Right? The fourth fastest growing city in Florida right now.

[00:03:01] In one of the fastest growing states in the country right now.

[00:03:05] So I think that it's exciting when you find any opportunity and then you can utilize it for benefiting yourself, your family, your community, your city, your state, the world.

[00:03:17] Yeah, absolutely. For context, Susie hosts a show here at the studio and she brings so many cool people from the community.

[00:03:26] And every time she interviews them, apparently they go on and realize their dreams.

[00:03:32] They get hired in amazing places.

[00:03:34] Have you seen the movie Good Luck Chuck?

[00:03:37] You're like the good luck chuck of Jacksonville.

[00:03:39] Oh, I am so flattered.

[00:03:42] Let me lick your spoon and cough on you.

[00:03:44] Yes please.

[00:03:45] Exactly.

[00:03:46] You guys have been doing dynamic things as well for as long.

[00:03:49] So let me just back up a second.

[00:03:50] I love how you say like you met me.

[00:03:52] No, I came with the studio.

[00:03:54] I was here first and I met you.

[00:03:57] True. That is true.

[00:03:59] That's right. And I don't know if you got a warning about me or not.

[00:04:02] We got several warnings.

[00:04:04] We have a couple people you have to look out for, you know, look forward to.

[00:04:09] Look forward.

[00:04:11] Whatever words.

[00:04:12] But honestly, you are literally the type of people that we love to work with, collaborate with.

[00:04:19] It's because mainly I think your energy drives a lot of it.

[00:04:22] The impact that you're creating.

[00:04:23] This is why we do what we do.

[00:04:25] We provide the vehicle.

[00:04:26] We just talk about this for people to put their message out there

[00:04:29] whether that's online in their house, here in the studio.

[00:04:32] And I was a little heartbroken when you said season two is over.

[00:04:36] And I was like no, we're not going to season two ever again.

[00:04:38] And you came back.

[00:04:39] And we're like now with stronger than ever.

[00:04:42] And it's so wonderful to see that.

[00:04:44] So thank you for putting your message out there and connecting people to opportunities, to messages.

[00:04:49] And it's so good.

[00:04:50] So for you, where was that fire born?

[00:04:54] Because we deal with a lot of entrepreneurs and people that are publishing all over.

[00:04:58] And it's hard to see, I think.

[00:05:00] It's been just a few people that we've been able to spot that do it so well and so consistently like you do.

[00:05:07] So did it come natural or was it something that you had to develop over time?

[00:05:11] That's such a good question.

[00:05:13] By the way, people are trained to say that to buy themselves a little time to formulate a response.

[00:05:20] Wow, way to crush my dreams.

[00:05:23] That was not a good question.

[00:05:25] I got to add context.

[00:05:26] Can I give you more time to think about it?

[00:05:28] Because it seems like you might need some time to think about it.

[00:05:31] Go ahead.

[00:05:32] So for context, before we started the interview, we were like, yeah, Susie, don't worry about it.

[00:05:36] This is a curiosity based show.

[00:05:38] And she's like, all right, it's all about the questions.

[00:05:40] I like this and don't worry about it.

[00:05:42] We get plenty of people that tells us, wow, that's such a good question.

[00:05:46] That's why we're laughing about it right now.

[00:05:48] I can't.

[00:05:49] Luis is like, oh, people tell me all the time.

[00:05:51] I have such great questions.

[00:05:53] They just try to understand your accent.

[00:05:54] That's what it is.

[00:05:55] I know.

[00:05:56] Now I know they're just looking for time to think.

[00:05:58] So that's a really is a good question.

[00:06:01] So if you look on my wrist, I have a tattoo that says purpose.

[00:06:05] And what had happened was that the podcast kind of came in the midst of this transition from being somebody who worked in an administrative space and then an education space.

[00:06:21] And then COVID came and all of these worlds sort of transitioned.

[00:06:27] And I realized I had a lot of opportunities to listen to a lot of voices on a podcast.

[00:06:34] And I was listening to them in my car or on my air pods.

[00:06:39] And it was a personal relationship that I was developing with people.

[00:06:43] And I had this opportunity to hear stories.

[00:06:48] And the more stories I heard, the more I wanted to hear because I realized that was how we connect as humans.

[00:06:55] It's in listening to the stories of other people.

[00:06:58] And people don't often have that right today.

[00:07:00] Everything has gone so digital and even Instacard or when you check out of the shopping, it's now, you know, cash free.

[00:07:08] Yeah.

[00:07:09] You're not interacting with people.

[00:07:11] So if you really want to hone in on people's thoughts, podcasts became the new way.

[00:07:19] And somebody said to me at the time, you know, there's this message that we want to put out.

[00:07:24] We would love for you to make an investment and donate to us and we'll do that.

[00:07:29] And I thought to myself like, I'm a good soca.

[00:07:34] Why can't I share whatever the message is, which is how I decided to start the podcast?

[00:07:40] And it was building the plane as I was flying it.

[00:07:42] I looked for a place that had the best quality studio.

[00:07:46] That was number one.

[00:07:48] Most people are looking at their business cards.

[00:07:50] They're looking at their branding.

[00:07:51] They're looking at their logo.

[00:07:52] They're looking.

[00:07:53] I knew I was going to be schmooze with Suze because I've been schmooze with Suze my whole life, except in college when I was schmoozing with Susan.

[00:08:00] It was more formal.

[00:08:01] I thought it was important.

[00:08:03] But I knew who I was.

[00:08:05] I knew I was schmooze with Suze.

[00:08:07] Now I knew that the most important part of this was it couldn't be some kind of like hack job because you only get one chance to make a good first impression.

[00:08:16] And so launching out of the gate, I knew I wanted my message to be strong and I knew that it was going to be something that was community impact.

[00:08:27] So the purpose was that I wanted to be the change I wish to see in the world.

[00:08:34] We started this when I said, what do you want to be when you grow up?

[00:08:36] And Luis, you said you want to be a good dad.

[00:08:38] So I really want to be a good mom.

[00:08:40] And I didn't know what that meant.

[00:08:42] I just knew that you had to model that behavior.

[00:08:45] And if I said it out loud and I put it out into the universe, there's accountability.

[00:08:50] So like you said, authenticity.

[00:08:52] I can't change who I am every time I come in or you hit play.

[00:08:58] It comes out of my mouth.

[00:09:00] And and it comes with the word coffee and the accent.

[00:09:04] Right. So when you laughed about the accent before, to me, an accent means you speak another language, which means that you've had to acclimate.

[00:09:12] You've had to adapt.

[00:09:14] That means that you've had to learn to think in two different cultures.

[00:09:18] It's something I think is a huge talent and skill.

[00:09:21] And so I realized that podcasting was a way to get all of that stuff out there on the vehicle, on the vessel to share messages of people.

[00:09:31] Yeah, I love that.

[00:09:33] I want to I'm going to put a little tab in there for later because I want to talk about your creative process and your storytelling.

[00:09:40] Your story thing is really, really good.

[00:09:42] When I'm editing the episodes, you always have like a story segment at the very beginning to introduce the topic, what you're going to talk about.

[00:09:49] Right. And I love how you always says, and that's what we're going to talk about today.

[00:09:53] Right. We should actually think it.

[00:09:55] We missed that opportunity.

[00:09:56] We should have done that.

[00:09:57] Yeah. We should do that in honor of you.

[00:10:00] Right.

[00:10:01] But regardless, I want to talk about stories a little bit later on.

[00:10:04] But I'm curious, like, have you always been a good communicator?

[00:10:08] Because a lot of people when they started look at projects like this are like, oh, I want to start a podcast.

[00:10:11] I want to do something.

[00:10:13] And as soon as you press record, imposter syndrome, they stop.

[00:10:16] They cannot communicate even if they're great communicators outside of the camera.

[00:10:21] So I'm curious about your experience when you decided to take the leap, start your podcast.

[00:10:26] What were some of those challenges that you had in there?

[00:10:29] Was it your personality shining through the camera?

[00:10:32] Because you are as authentic on camera as you are off camera.

[00:10:35] Right. And some people's personality actually change when the camera starts rolling.

[00:10:39] So I'm curious on your end, how did that look like?

[00:10:42] Excellent. Excellent point.

[00:10:44] So when I decided I wanted to have a podcast, the previous owner of this studio, I looked it up.

[00:10:50] I came in, I checked it out and I said, I want to rent a couple of hours and I want to test it out.

[00:10:54] And I came in and I listened to myself.

[00:10:57] I wanted to see if because what's your podcast?

[00:11:01] Like you said, what's the programming?

[00:11:04] What's the setup? What's the structure?

[00:11:06] It's not just a kind of wing it.

[00:11:08] Like I always say that I'm building the plane as I'm flying it.

[00:11:11] And I am what I mean by that is that I formulated how I want to navigate the process.

[00:11:17] So it was sitting in this room and first seeing if I could for a half hour, 30 minutes talk.

[00:11:27] Could I talk comfortably uninterrupted?

[00:11:30] Just, you know, when you imagine when people say like that, you just kind of write your train of thought.

[00:11:36] If I was going to have 30 minutes and I had no guests, right?

[00:11:41] Because your dream is to have a guest.

[00:11:43] What if you don't get a guest?

[00:11:45] Can you still carry a show?

[00:11:46] And so I booked the time and I did two separate episodes and I listened to them afterwards.

[00:11:53] And it sounded like it was such a good story.

[00:11:57] And then afterwards, I listened to them like two or three times and I thought, who cares?

[00:12:03] What's the point?

[00:12:04] What am I trying to get across over there?

[00:12:06] So I sat with that episode and now I knew I could talk into a microphone.

[00:12:10] Right?

[00:12:11] I overcame that obstacle.

[00:12:13] That red light is on.

[00:12:14] I taped myself.

[00:12:15] I recorded.

[00:12:16] I saw what I looked like.

[00:12:17] So first it was just me.

[00:12:19] I'm the first public opinion that I had to come up against.

[00:12:22] And then I knew the next time around, I wanted to have it more structured.

[00:12:25] And I wanted, like you said, an intro.

[00:12:27] My intro had to be something that was going to tie me to my guest and to the topic.

[00:12:33] What makes this personal?

[00:12:35] And then it was finding out that what my goal is ultimately, character development, community building, capacity building.

[00:12:46] How can I get to those goals?

[00:12:49] So the storytelling was the easy part.

[00:12:52] The communicating was the easy part.

[00:12:54] Not rambling.

[00:12:56] That's less easy.

[00:12:58] Being boring.

[00:12:59] And nobody telling you you're boring because your friends like you.

[00:13:02] If you give someone your podcast to listen to, people don't tell me it sucks.

[00:13:07] Even if my podcast does suck, I've yet to hear any negative feedback.

[00:13:11] Oh, that's not true.

[00:13:12] One lady came over to me and she gave me feedback.

[00:13:14] She goes, I love it.

[00:13:15] I have two notes.

[00:13:16] She said when you do your intro, you say the kids, colleagues and those countless committees and you sound like you hate the committees.

[00:13:28] And she was right.

[00:13:29] When I taped my first intro, I was on three committees and every one of them was dysfunctional.

[00:13:35] And because of it, you could hear it in my voice.

[00:13:38] But I took the note and I went back and I retract the intro because I didn't want that to come across.

[00:13:44] It shifted my perspective.

[00:13:46] So can I communicate?

[00:13:48] Yes.

[00:13:49] Can I communicate well?

[00:13:50] Yes.

[00:13:51] Does anyone want to hear me talk?

[00:13:53] I don't know.

[00:13:54] That was the next question.

[00:13:56] I love the, sorry real quick because I think there's a big lesson here for the listener which is intentionality in what you're doing.

[00:14:03] And at first, a lot of people just start and go and kind of like that blank page process where it's like, all right, go, go, go.

[00:14:09] But they forget to look back.

[00:14:10] They forget to reflect into what they're doing.

[00:14:13] Listening to it.

[00:14:14] See, oh, is my tonality good?

[00:14:16] Is my cadence good?

[00:14:17] All these things.

[00:14:18] It's the emotion that I'm portraying on the message, the right emotion that I want to portray.

[00:14:24] I think a lot of people miss this and we talked about it often.

[00:14:28] The CPR method, we call it, right?

[00:14:30] Which is create, produce, reflect.

[00:14:33] Create something and end by going back into it, listen to a little bit of it and then ask yourself how can I make it better?

[00:14:39] How can I improve this?

[00:14:41] And that over time is how you actually get to improve as a creator, right?

[00:14:46] In front of the microphone, in front of the camera, whatever it is, you're a medium, right?

[00:14:49] In creating stories.

[00:14:51] I find really curious that does that process came naturally to you or was that something that you were doing before in your professional life?

[00:14:58] Whether it was a different project, right?

[00:15:00] Like hey, we have this started project and we'll do a face of it and then we adapt through it.

[00:15:05] As I reflect back in our own journey when we first published, we had our first show, Bruise and Bros, right?

[00:15:11] And we share the story many times for people that want to start publishing whatever platform it is, YouTube, podcast, social.

[00:15:17] And we recorded five episodes with two cameras in Fonzie's room.

[00:15:20] It took an hour to do the setup and after those five episodes, we're like there's no way we're going to be able to sustain this to what we want to do, which is at that point was once a week, right?

[00:15:29] So then when we decided to launch Content Profit a year later, we said let's remove all the friction.

[00:15:35] Let's learn from that experience, right?

[00:15:37] But it took us a year to do that, right?

[00:15:39] And it was horrible.

[00:15:40] Like it was a long time and we struggled a lot as a business at that point.

[00:15:42] We were freelancing.

[00:15:44] We had jobs here and there and it was just like a crazy time, right?

[00:15:48] And then when we decided to launch without that friction as in execution mode, production was probably very low in our list at that point where we were like we just need to get the message out.

[00:16:00] Right.

[00:16:01] That for us was like a little bit of the difference, right?

[00:16:03] And then we were improving after each episode.

[00:16:06] We were like oh maybe we can do the setup here.

[00:16:07] Maybe we can bring this camera in.

[00:16:09] Maybe we can invest in these microphones.

[00:16:10] So you were tweaking, but you were already talking about what's the most, what is your job?

[00:16:16] What is your, what are you selling?

[00:16:18] You're selling your voice.

[00:16:20] You're selling your platform.

[00:16:22] So that's exactly right.

[00:16:25] What are we focusing our attention on?

[00:16:27] For some people I find that they spend all of their time focusing on, you know, what's going to be the arc of the season.

[00:16:37] And they need like a five year business plan.

[00:16:39] Right?

[00:16:41] If I tell you I can't have a five year business plan for my five year business plan, it's never going to happen.

[00:16:46] I decided that this was something I needed to do.

[00:16:49] So I said okay let me start with the first two people that I know that I can call in a favor.

[00:16:54] They're high enough up.

[00:16:56] They're more important.

[00:16:57] People want to hear what they want to say.

[00:16:59] As long as the quality is.

[00:17:01] And I think that kind of gives you a little bit of a, you get lucky when you have a good system.

[00:17:06] And that's something you really should share.

[00:17:08] The significance of the quality because when a podcast sounds terrible the first time, even if moving along the way it sounds better.

[00:17:17] If I pick it up at the beginning and it's no good and I drop it because it sounds quality, I don't pick it up again.

[00:17:22] If I didn't pick you up at the beginning and I missed that whole thing and you've tweaked enough along the way that you decide now I feel good enough to promote myself.

[00:17:29] And that's the second part of it.

[00:17:31] The first part is actually what am I doing?

[00:17:33] Do I need to promote myself the second I open my mouth?

[00:17:36] Was my first season worthy of me promoting it to people?

[00:17:41] I don't know, not from the first four episodes that I put out.

[00:17:44] Then I realized that I have to think of how my system is.

[00:17:47] What you said is you want to put out an episode every week, right?

[00:17:49] Do you have the opportunity to sit every week in a studio?

[00:17:53] I do not.

[00:17:55] So I realized I needed to do my front loading on my guests.

[00:18:00] I wanted a set up like you said.

[00:18:03] It was like is this sustainable?

[00:18:05] Being in a studio once a week is not sustainable.

[00:18:08] Sitting in a studio two days a week for three hours at a time for two weeks.

[00:18:15] That gives me how many guests, right?

[00:18:18] That's 12 guests.

[00:18:20] That's essentially a season.

[00:18:22] And that's the third piece that I came into.

[00:18:24] So the first was the production quality.

[00:18:26] The second was the sustainability.

[00:18:28] And the third is how long do I want to do this for?

[00:18:32] And will I burn out and how can I prevent that?

[00:18:36] I realized I was going to do it seasonally.

[00:18:39] That meant I didn't have to do it every single week, 52 weeks.

[00:18:43] Never take a break.

[00:18:45] Run repeats.

[00:18:46] That's a lot of work for someone who doesn't have, by the way, a content calendar.

[00:18:51] I don't have a, I have them set up.

[00:18:53] I have a few of them set up.

[00:18:55] I forget to use them.

[00:18:57] And so it meant that I needed to just know that I care so much about my guests and their message that everyone needs to hear what they're saying.

[00:19:07] Yeah.

[00:19:08] So.

[00:19:09] I love this.

[00:19:10] This resonates a lot with what we teach and preach, which is find your own how.

[00:19:16] Right?

[00:19:17] I love how people blasting their own system, what works for them.

[00:19:20] But that doesn't necessarily means that it's going to work for you.

[00:19:23] The person listening.

[00:19:24] Right?

[00:19:25] Doesn't necessarily means that because they can create every single day, you're going to be able to do the same.

[00:19:29] They have different resources.

[00:19:31] They have recent, you know, very different time availability, all these things.

[00:19:37] And I love how you organically started finding your own and developing the process that works for you.

[00:19:44] So that is actually a recommendation for you listening.

[00:19:46] If you're thinking about, you know, or actually if you have found yourself in a situation where you have created and stop.

[00:19:53] Right.

[00:19:54] Kind of like start, stop, start, stop.

[00:19:56] That is probably because you are not taking into consideration your own resources, your times.

[00:20:00] Right.

[00:20:01] Your own sustainability.

[00:20:03] How can I make this?

[00:20:04] It's time to recalibrate.

[00:20:05] Recalibrate.

[00:20:06] You don't have to throw it all out the window.

[00:20:09] You have to remember to give yourself grace.

[00:20:12] I think that's what happens a lot of times is we beat ourselves up with the time, effort and energy that we already invested.

[00:20:19] And so we're so like unhappy with.

[00:20:22] OK.

[00:20:23] Recalibrate.

[00:20:24] Recalibrate.

[00:20:25] Yeah.

[00:20:26] Stuff happens.

[00:20:27] Yeah.

[00:20:28] And this applies for any publishing platform and for any product.

[00:20:32] Right.

[00:20:33] Just recently I was like there's MKBHD.

[00:20:35] Right.

[00:20:36] It's like this YouTuber that does tech reviews, for example.

[00:20:38] And there's a whole movement that one of his reviews because of his reach can ruin a company.

[00:20:43] Right.

[00:20:44] Or bankrupt a company.

[00:20:45] And there's like just one that he just did that it was a very negative review.

[00:20:48] Right.

[00:20:49] And he's defending his position as a creator because like look I'm trying to be objective at the end of the day.

[00:20:53] Right.

[00:20:54] So here's what's happening.

[00:20:55] Critics go into that but there's a product that was not well designed and now they're filing for bankruptcy.

[00:21:01] Same scenario happened with a different product.

[00:21:03] Right.

[00:21:04] And he gave feedback.

[00:21:05] Like this is the thing that needs to be changed.

[00:21:07] The company changed that, improved on the product or the process of the thing and they released a second version that was better.

[00:21:13] Right.

[00:21:14] And it changed the experience.

[00:21:15] So this is something to bring it back to content.

[00:21:17] It's like our content is our product in a sense when you're a creator.

[00:21:21] Right.

[00:21:22] Yeah.

[00:21:23] And that needs to be marketed.

[00:21:24] That needs to be produced consistently depending on like what your cadence.

[00:21:27] You decided to be your consistency.

[00:21:29] You decided to be.

[00:21:30] But at the same time it's like those that feedback that review could be internal could be from the audience feedback.

[00:21:36] Could be the comments on YouTube.

[00:21:37] Could be that people review in your podcast publicly.

[00:21:39] Right.

[00:21:40] Yeah.

[00:21:41] Take that and take it to the next level.

[00:21:42] I remember when we had the Hustbutt Network came in it's like we don't like your background music.

[00:21:46] You know I think it's a little distracting.

[00:21:47] We used to have like that song that play at the very beginning throughout the entire episode.

[00:21:50] OK.

[00:21:51] Because that's like one of the radio shows that we used to listen to or I used to listen to.

[00:21:54] I was like oh that's my reference.

[00:21:56] I want to do it that way.

[00:21:57] But it's distracting the audience from the actual message.

[00:22:00] Perfect.

[00:22:01] I didn't like the feedback but we took it.

[00:22:03] And at the end of the day he made the show better because he showed on the people listening and the numbers on the back end.

[00:22:08] Right.

[00:22:09] So to your point you know 100 percent we have to be continuously with that critical eye.

[00:22:14] Right.

[00:22:15] Revisiting what's happening.

[00:22:16] Now do you do you have a final plan for how do you connect our content to your opportunities and your money and that thing.

[00:22:26] Because we see a lot of people coming into the space of content creation in general.

[00:22:29] Does have to be a podcast with stretched expectations I'll say.

[00:22:36] And they might not have the systems on the back end or they might not have like an idea of like what comes after the content after we put it out consistently you know the what was the scenario for you.

[00:22:46] For us was we literally built the plane as it was going and we found relationships to be the number one driver right for those opportunities.

[00:22:54] You have that in mind or you are like I'm just going to like pour myself into the stories into these people that come to me.

[00:23:00] And then I'll also figure out.

[00:23:02] Yeah.

[00:23:03] What's it a if you build a del com approach or was it a more intentional approach of like you talked about I have this big connections that I want to bring the you intended to leverage those connections you know on purpose as way to connect with the community and all that.

[00:23:20] Initially yes initially when you're starting out.

[00:23:25] I think okay let's back it up I think for a lot of people they think that monetizing means advertising.

[00:23:31] And because I like to say that I'm not an expert I shmoose the experts and get their thoughts why because I'm never the smartest girl in any room.

[00:23:43] I pride myself on being surrounded by people who are smarter than me in whatever it is that they're doing.

[00:23:49] The expectation is that I used to do marketing public relations advertising educating social media whatever it is.

[00:24:02] That's not what this is.

[00:24:05] What was I trying to do right.

[00:24:08] What was my platform.

[00:24:10] So if advertising what what am I advertising when I can get like band aids to sell while I'm talking about social needs and community impact.

[00:24:22] I realize that that's not really what my goal is my goal is that what I do is like you said connect people I create relationships.

[00:24:31] And so what started off with me asking for a favor would you come be on my show because I volunteer at your agency became a different relationship that I was able to then offer people in terms of philanthropy.

[00:24:49] And their opportunities so for example when I decide to bring on a guest and I'm high on the list.

[00:25:00] I'm a guest and I'm highlighting what it is they're doing.

[00:25:03] I'm attaching the links to whatever sponsorship availabilities are there or what their upcoming events or philanthropic goals are.

[00:25:13] And the driving force behind that is.

[00:25:18] Advertainment right and advertising and I'm entertaining.

[00:25:24] And time I'm also informing you about what's happening.

[00:25:27] And so people would say like how do you know everything about everything.

[00:25:32] Can you help me find out everything about everything.

[00:25:35] And now that you're helping me can I pay you to help navigate these types of relationships for me.

[00:25:44] Can you the way you create a podcast.

[00:25:46] Can you help me create a podcast.

[00:25:49] And so people would come and ask me if I could help them to start their podcast right.

[00:25:54] Like you said before people have this idea that it's like this long drawn out process and I would say like well what do you want to do.

[00:26:00] What's your dream what's your goal.

[00:26:02] And they would tell me that their goal is to talk about this.

[00:26:05] Okay so now let's sit down and we'll talk about who you know already that can talk about this because you can't be that person.

[00:26:11] Right. You're not an expert unless you are an expert in which case you should be a guest on other people's podcasts.

[00:26:17] But it was how can I use this to achieve opportunities for me in those spaces that I want to make an impact.

[00:26:30] So I'm developing relationships.

[00:26:33] I'm sharing out publicly all of what I've learned that I believe in growth mindset that I can connect the people the tools the projects the places and that every time I have a guest on a year later.

[00:26:49] I'm showing you that I had an instinct because now here we are season four year later those guests from season one those projects that I saw and I felt were going to make it.

[00:27:03] They have now made it.

[00:27:05] So now I'm proving to people that I have my finger on the pulse of what's happening.

[00:27:09] I have an instinct for what's upcoming.

[00:27:11] I can tell you who the people are that you want to engage with and how and where they're making a maximum impact.

[00:27:18] And so people are saying like can you be my project manager because I'm only working here twice a week for four weeks once a season right.

[00:27:31] The freeze up a lot of time.

[00:27:33] Yeah.

[00:27:34] So we have this concept that again I came out of the podcast and our experience we call it pipeline platforms which is pretty much how to use your platform regardless whether it's a podcast or something else to build your network right.

[00:27:50] And then in some sort of way monetize that network as well.

[00:27:55] And that is what you just shared in here in a sense right.

[00:27:59] You are a super connector.

[00:28:02] We just went to an event that was hosted by a super connector right.

[00:28:06] Last week on Thursday and the whole event was hot seed mastermind where every business owner that was there would would share what they do and who they want to work with.

[00:28:19] And everybody else in the room would drop names of who are the people that they're going to introduce them to write.

[00:28:24] That was the whole event.

[00:28:25] It was absolutely amazing.

[00:28:26] So when we were developing this pipeline platforms we came up you know we started relating thoughts and points sort of you are the average of the five people you know you spend your time with.

[00:28:38] So I was like all right well if I'm the average why don't increase the value of the people I spend my time with.

[00:28:44] How can we do that?

[00:28:45] Through the show we can invite you know very impactful people.

[00:28:49] And then if we increase the value for network maybe that can lead to increasing the value for net worth as well.

[00:28:57] So I see that that's what I'm seeing with you.

[00:29:00] You're bringing people in the community like you say you have a pulse in everything that is happening in here.

[00:29:05] You're being the super connector somebody needs help here or there.

[00:29:08] You're connecting them with those people so when others it's kind of like the law of reciprocity right.

[00:29:15] They feel in a way that they owe you something you know because of your goodwill that you're given and providing right.

[00:29:22] You clearly believe in abundance.

[00:29:24] Yes.

[00:29:25] And you know when they need something they're like you know what I think Susie she's very connected right.

[00:29:30] She's that super connector maybe she has something or when they need help when they want to hire someone let's talk to Susie first right.

[00:29:35] And you become that go to person that authority right for all the community here in Jacksonville.

[00:29:41] Is that the effect that you've been feeling.

[00:29:43] Something like that it becomes a yeah like you're developing social capital.

[00:29:48] That's what it becomes social capital social capital sometimes is something different than you can invest into a business or an opportunity more than actual financial capital right.

[00:29:59] Years ago I remember my father was a partner in his first business and everybody else had money to invest in.

[00:30:08] My father was the working partner right.

[00:30:11] He managed the property because he didn't have the money to invest.

[00:30:15] He would get a salary for that but he got points he got percentage and over time that investment had profit and that profit translated into income and then he could leverage that to his next opportunity.

[00:30:27] Same thing happens with these types of relationships.

[00:30:30] You're again here's the thing.

[00:30:32] The thing is when we talk going back to the beginning of authenticity.

[00:30:35] So are my relationships transactional.

[00:30:39] No they're really not transactional.

[00:30:42] I don't really seek to gain anything from it.

[00:30:45] Everything that I'm doing is with the hope that I can provide some value for somebody else.

[00:30:51] I never thought of this like and that was the problem.

[00:30:53] That was why I sucked at the beginning because I thought that I was supposed to be getting advertising dollars.

[00:30:58] The thing is that I wasn't trying to make any money for me.

[00:31:01] It was never my goal.

[00:31:03] My goal was the purpose.

[00:31:04] The purpose was to leave this planet better than I found it.

[00:31:08] And so I didn't see the income as being as important as the outcome.

[00:31:14] So I wasn't really looking for advertisers and when advertisers came to me and this is the secret your guests are going to your listeners are going to be so annoyed.

[00:31:25] When advertisers came to me and said can we advertise on your show I was like that's like do you ever see that meme like I girl bossed myself too hard and now I have a real job.

[00:31:37] That's what happened when people wanted to come to me to advertise.

[00:31:41] I was like no no no that's not my business model anymore because somebody offered me a contract position.

[00:31:47] Somebody offered me a project to manage that wasn't going to take away from my being able to contribute time talent and treasure back to my community.

[00:31:57] Yeah I'm curious though.

[00:31:59] Do you think there is a model there somewhere that you can still have the time for the impact but at the same time monetize the podcast.

[00:32:09] Are there brands that align with what you're trying to do.

[00:32:12] Yes and yes.

[00:32:15] So here's the thing you have to be very honest about what you're good at and what you're not good at.

[00:32:21] I am very good at communicating.

[00:32:23] I am a super communicator.

[00:32:25] I can read minds.

[00:32:27] I can read people.

[00:32:29] I can gauge an interest and I can work the crowd.

[00:32:33] What I'm not good at is something that I should hire someone else to do that's quicker faster better cheaper in the long run.

[00:32:40] And so if theoretically I were to get a virtual assistant or I were to hire someone as a third party to do the back end operations and do that content calendar because in order for me to monetize this.

[00:32:56] I need to give my advertisers what they want which isn't just me saying once a week.

[00:33:01] What I'm saying I need to be able to put those clips out three times a week.

[00:33:05] Right so for right now I get my daily messaging out with my Instagram stories.

[00:33:11] People are following me they're following me for my thoughts on whatever is happening or but when it comes to the podcast I don't want to dilute the integrity of that platform.

[00:33:23] So when and if I do become ready that would mean that I have to level up.

[00:33:29] So again building the plane as I'm flying it I started with one story home.

[00:33:34] If I'm ready to go to the next level which means I'm no longer a business unto myself that owes nobody nothing.

[00:33:40] Now I work for other people so when you work for other people you better believe your integrity better be twice as good as it was when you were just working for yourself.

[00:33:50] So I would hire people that are better than me who are more responsible than me who are more effective and trained to give them what they deserve.

[00:34:01] So good. Very powerful.

[00:34:05] I think this has been the theme of this year on the show like a lot of like the relationship side and like the opportunities that might come from that.

[00:34:14] And I think it's because well obviously first hand we've seen it right like the fact that we're sitting here in this studio as one of them like we met Gary like two years before that almost three years.

[00:34:24] Did you tell them did you tell them that I was trying to buy this Gary and franchise did not tell us but you know he didn't tell you.

[00:34:32] He actually told us once as somebody somebody.

[00:34:35] Somebody.

[00:34:37] That's hilarious.

[00:34:38] That's okay Susie the options are still open.

[00:34:40] I'm not leaving I'm still here I'm still here one day you're going to want to branch out God willing and you'll reach out and you know who knows there's always opportunities to level up.

[00:34:50] Just before this interview right we were talking about opportunities here even Jacksonville with different spaces and the connections right and I think what you are like that super connector you know some people might see it as a superpower.

[00:35:02] But at the end of the day you can boil it down to the outcome that you want it right and your purpose and the thing at the end of the day it's like we shift that focus to like I'm giving I'm just giving right.

[00:35:14] And we to be completely honest we've fought with those thoughts, many times in our industry because there's a lot of information there's a lot of education right and then there's like these processes and things that like and we're like as entrepreneurs to sharing their message.

[00:35:29] You come to this point where like do I share everything do I you know what where is the line between the sharing and then or the service or like IP for example right like there's like this thing.

[00:35:42] And I've noticed with a lot of the people I come to show including you.

[00:35:47] You guys are pouring everything out and it comes back tenfold right like when you came back and you told us about the opportunities that you were doing the people that you were meeting because of those opportunities and like the amount of.

[00:35:59] People that you've been able to help that has been the constant and then for the first years of our business we struggle a lot with giving right and it boils down to our internal beliefs and our internal things and battles that we've been able to fight.

[00:36:16] You know and continue to do that but as a creator when if you're a part of a company or if you're building a company that can be really scary right.

[00:36:25] Yeah.

[00:36:26] What on the given side were you always convinced it was like I'm giving everything and I just trust you know the universe my God whoever you believe in that is going to come back to me because I found when we launched the show for example it was a Hail Mary man.

[00:36:45] It was like 60 days of money in the bank and that was exactly when COVID happened.

[00:36:50] We lost every single person because they closed their business.

[00:36:53] Luca was just being born Katie did not know that we invested half of the personal loan that we got into a mastermind that I was running out of money like there like it was like a really tough moment in our life like I freaked out once he grabbed me.

[00:37:09] You see those white hairs.

[00:37:11] That's exactly when it happened the time stamped and when we launched the show it was like the first time that we were like you know what we're going to share everything that we're doing we're going to ask whoever we want to be on the show we're going to be ourselves we're going to be you know we're going to wear our sweatshirts, phones, we're going to wear arsenals stuff.

[00:37:29] Nobody you know I remember you telling us sweatpants every day and we're like yes sweatpants every day and it was like the first time that we committed to just being ourselves.

[00:37:36] Do not care about the accent do not care about X Y Z and we're going to put out there and that was a moment that the balance shifted for us but it took a really hard moment for us to like shift that energy.

[00:37:49] How do you recommend people that are going through something similar or like they're in like that limbo right to finally commit to do something like what you're doing right to be fully authentic that the other side is brighter than the side that they might be on the show.

[00:38:06] So when I launched the podcast it was a very challenging time here in Jacksonville where I'm raising my family.

[00:38:19] At that time there was, I'm Jewish and there was a lot of anti-Semitism publicly here.

[00:38:26] It was the Florida Georgia football game which is very famous.

[00:38:31] I don't know if you guys noticed that every year like it becomes and then and there was these swastikas that were being shown and yeah there were planes that were flying with banners of swastikas.

[00:38:42] It was right after Kanye West was saying all these horrible things people in the I-95 overpass were holding swastikas Hitler was right.

[00:38:51] It was really scary here somebody flashed it on the CSX building.

[00:38:55] All this was happening in this city that I never even heard of 10 years ago.

[00:39:01] So to think that this was going on that people who are so hate-filled have no problem being loud and proud.

[00:39:12] It was like this this this expression like you're oddly a Simone like this like it light bulb went off and I was like wait a minute.

[00:39:21] You ever find it funny that the dumbest people are shameless about saying the dumbest things.

[00:39:27] But the smartest people are always sort of sitting quietly in the background listening.

[00:39:32] Why are they never speaking up as much as the dumb people and that was when it shifted.

[00:39:38] So that's my message for a lot of people right at the time I was a lot of a watcher at the time you know I have this big belief in giving back right.

[00:39:49] I said it's not about the income it's about the outcome although you should always make a paycheck and you should never live in debt.

[00:39:54] But it was about time talent and treasure right.

[00:39:58] How can I contribute to my community.

[00:40:00] So first it was time I could volunteer I would go to places I would volunteer for organizations and then it was talent.

[00:40:07] So if it was for example if you're a podcaster and you have skills you have a time that you can give to an organization to talk about their platform and it fits what you're doing.

[00:40:19] That's a donation because to sit in a space like this is expensive for a nonprofit that doesn't have that extra money.

[00:40:27] If you have the ability to edit or to do the stuff that I can't do right creative and you're donating that to a cause.

[00:40:36] That's talent.

[00:40:37] And then once that happened I was able to donate treasure.

[00:40:40] What did that mean?

[00:40:41] My logo schmooze with Sue's started to become on those organizations that were speaking out and speaking on the messages that I believed in right.

[00:40:51] So now I'm not just donating my time as a volunteer I'm donating my talent by bringing their CEO and executive director on to talk about their organization.

[00:41:01] But now I'm a sponsor.

[00:41:03] I'm spending my money.

[00:41:06] If I trust that everybody who I am backing is going to say things publicly out loud I want to make sure that my message doesn't get lost somewhere right.

[00:41:18] Do you ever see like there's that met that the positions or perspectives that you see do not reflect those of this station or this whatever.

[00:41:29] I want to make sure that my point my position is very much reflected and so I knew I had to come out the gate very authentic and very true to myself.

[00:41:39] Because if I wanted to do my goal my purpose was to de-silo community.

[00:41:44] I know that me being Jewish experiencing anti-Semitism I'm not the only person that's experienced trauma or tragedy.

[00:41:52] Every marginalized community every immigrant every refugee everybody from a BIPOC community LGBTQIA everybody everywhere has experienced bullying at some point somewhere.

[00:42:06] What you're going to do are you going to be an upstander or bystander.

[00:42:10] So a bystander doesn't say anything what does an upstander do.

[00:42:15] You go and talk.

[00:42:17] You talk. But how do I listen to an upstander.

[00:42:20] I have to believe you.

[00:42:22] How can I believe you.

[00:42:23] Well you have to be transparent because transparency builds trust.

[00:42:27] So the more authentic you are the more you give them the more they give you back which means that what started off as my like little Instagram with a little you know podcast grew.

[00:42:41] And the people that were listening and were saying hey can you come and speak out loud like in front of a room full of people.

[00:42:48] Would you host an event where you can because they knew there was no surprises.

[00:42:54] Everything that you see and you hear is what you get.

[00:42:59] Unfortunately for my husband he gets this until he falls asleep and puts a CPAP on his machine and he drowns me out.

[00:43:06] But part of knowing that I'm part of this community I'm part of my living experience here that I was doing this so I could make it better for my kids was knowing that I had to do it all and you had to do it with me.

[00:43:21] So if I want you to share your story and how we can achieve this together.

[00:43:26] Right.

[00:43:27] Yeah.

[00:43:29] You've purpose that's the word that comes to mind right.

[00:43:33] You are full of it.

[00:43:35] That is for sure something that's full of purpose and very passionate about what you are upstanding you know you're talking about.

[00:43:46] And definitely your guest they can feel that you transmit that and we say it a lot.

[00:43:52] Content in a way is that you know inner changing of energy and your listeners can feel that as well.

[00:44:01] So thank you.

[00:44:02] That's been so amazing.

[00:44:03] I know I don't know if you have more questions around this.

[00:44:05] I put a bookmark at the very beginning to talk about stories because I'm curious on how you craft those if you have a process if you get inspired you know you have coffee coffee before it.

[00:44:18] But you know stories are important.

[00:44:20] That's how a lot of people connect and stories have emotional value and emotions are the ones that create memories as well.

[00:44:29] More often than not people don't really remember what God said you know but they will remember how you made them feel right.

[00:44:38] So how do you do that with your stories.

[00:44:41] How do you craft them because they are really really good.

[00:44:44] And I've seen you.

[00:44:45] Thank you.

[00:44:46] A lot of times most of the times I've seen you write them but I've seen some episodes that you're like I'm feeling the inspiration right now and you go off without anything rarely.

[00:44:57] But it's still really rarely.

[00:45:00] It's interesting that you say that.

[00:45:02] Right. That's a good question.

[00:45:03] Appreciate that.

[00:45:04] That is a good question actually because I can't make it up.

[00:45:11] I can't make it up.

[00:45:12] You know how some people have to like have things done a long time in advance and they have to have not me.

[00:45:18] It literally happens the night before or the morning of before my guest comes in because I know what they're about.

[00:45:25] I know what they're generally talking about.

[00:45:27] My show is not a question based show right.

[00:45:31] I do have guests who ask me about like what are the questions you're going to ask.

[00:45:35] And I do I have a sample of a whole bunch of generic questions that I send them as though I'm going to ask them a single one.

[00:45:39] It's not I'm not going to ask a single one but you're inspired to think of the things that make you who you are.

[00:45:46] Yeah.

[00:45:47] OK. Not what you are but who you are because that's what we're going to tackle today.

[00:45:52] Who you are.

[00:45:54] I want to know the personal stories that lead to the public impact.

[00:45:59] And so when I think of that what was that movie I don't know the core memories with is that Inside Out the one with the inside our memory

[00:46:08] our memory unlocked every one of my episodes when I go back and I listen to them and I very rarely do because I don't love the sound of my own voice.

[00:46:18] Sounds great. It is amazing.

[00:46:20] I don't know. OK.

[00:46:22] Because it sounds like it's probably like nasal and very Brooklyn and every time I watch the show The Nanny I think I sound like her.

[00:46:31] So that's like the French.

[00:46:35] Exactly Janice.

[00:46:37] You don't sound like Janice.

[00:46:40] So every one of these is a core memory unlocked something in that guest in what they do who they represent how they came to be in the studio with me.

[00:46:55] I have a core memory that gets unlocked.

[00:46:59] What is it about you that I'm inspired by.

[00:47:03] But it's twofold right.

[00:47:05] It's not just enough to be inspired.

[00:47:08] You have to be inspiring.

[00:47:10] So I want to know where we're starting from my core memory that was unlocked but then we're going to level up.

[00:47:18] We're going to take the information in the story you tell me and I'm going to see how that core memory that I started with can evolve.

[00:47:26] Borrow my binoculars and let's transform that into where we are right now.

[00:47:32] I started in the nineteen hundreds as an immigrant child in Brooklyn right born to four Holocaust survivor grandparents.

[00:47:42] They never thought that they would get to this land.

[00:47:46] And so for me to be able to sit and tell these stories during a time of turmoil when things are scary.

[00:47:55] To say I'm going to use this opportunity.

[00:47:59] You know this is like there's this Bible verse in Esther 414 perhaps you were born for a time such as this.

[00:48:09] I think I've been crafting stories my entire life because I was raised by storytellers.

[00:48:16] They would tell me stories when they went to sleep.

[00:48:18] I thought they were the most heroic tales.

[00:48:21] I didn't realize that they were taking the horror that was their experiences and they were teaching me the lessons of grit of tenacity of survival.

[00:48:32] But they made it sound so good.

[00:48:36] And I realized that was the way I was going to teach teach the people I work with teach my children teach my community how we can be global citizens.

[00:48:46] It's not in the lessons.

[00:48:49] If I give you a list of bullet points like you said if I ask you to memorize it you might.

[00:48:55] But if you leave here and you know that you will feel better and you will make other people feel better by doing the following be authentic.

[00:49:05] Be happy be kind always do your best have faith in yourself have faith that your creator has faith in you before you even know you do have favorable judgment.

[00:49:17] That people don't want to suck.

[00:49:19] So there must be a reason that they're either having a bad day a bad life a bad experience bad luck.

[00:49:25] We don't know but I'm going to be very grateful for what I have and live with an abundance mindset right.

[00:49:34] So if I can take that and craft that into something that you will feel you can be inspired by and then inspiring from.

[00:49:46] Yeah I've done my job.

[00:49:49] Authenticity builds you mentioned as an authenticity builds trust transparency transparency builds trust correct.

[00:49:57] And now I'm relating these stories create or share transformation like a good story shares a transformation that creates some sort of emotion in the person that is listening.

[00:50:13] A good story should have a visceral impact.

[00:50:16] Yeah that's amazing.

[00:50:18] That is a guide to storytelling we might have to clip this break it down into a process and share it out to the world.

[00:50:25] The Susie storytelling process.

[00:50:27] Yeah.

[00:50:28] Thank you so much we're honored that you know we finally got you in this table as a guest.

[00:50:34] Thank you I've never been in this seat before.

[00:50:37] Thank you for having me it's a privilege.

[00:50:40] I appreciate it and I am very excited that you share your process the way that you do things and how.

[00:50:48] You are made it your own which is very refreshing to see we see people modeling and copying and all this and we have our own thoughts about that kind of stuff but you made it your own your own platform.

[00:50:59] And it's creating an incur positive impact in the city this world like we see it we experience it every time we come in is a breath of fresh air and energy like we don't need coffee today Susie's coming.

[00:51:11] When I was young I thought it was me I thought I knew everything remember you were young you were so smart you know everything you come in and you want to teach everyone everything that you learned and they look at you and they're like you don't have anything under your belt go back.

[00:51:23] And you know and then you realize that when you go out there and you do it for the outcome.

[00:51:28] Yeah not the income right away but the outcome.

[00:51:31] Yeah.

[00:51:32] You know you're going to be the superstar anyway.

[00:51:34] Yeah absolutely is there anything else that you want to share where can people find you where can people connect with you.

[00:51:40] What's on Instagram schmooze with Sue's that's the best best way because I love that platform above all the other ones I think it's the most interactive and I really like to engage with the people that listen to the show I take feedback very seriously if you have an honorable mench someone that's a person of integrity who makes this world a better place please make that right.

[00:52:04] I would like to make a recommendation if there's a guest you'd like me to reach out or you'd like to be a guest because you're really dynamic for sure schmooze with Sue's dot org and you can find me wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:52:18] We'll leave the links.

[00:52:19] So make sure you scroll down and tap him connect with Susie.

[00:52:23] Thank you.

[00:52:24] Fancy anything else.

[00:52:25] Just thank you.

[00:52:26] I love it.

[00:52:27] I love your energy.

[00:52:28] Thank you.

[00:52:29] I needed a little you know energy boost.

[00:52:32] Not that not quite that I already had two coffees before coming here.

[00:52:35] I was in focus mode so you just you know recharge my energy for the rest of the day.

[00:52:40] I really appreciate it.

[00:52:41] Guys with that said thank you so much for coming to the Contest Profit podcast go ahead and follow the show in your favorite podcasting platform and on social media at the Beats Burst Co.

[00:52:51] That is right.

[00:52:52] That is wow wow.

[00:52:54] That is true and if Susie here help you become more passionate and energetic please don't forget to share this episode and leave a five star review.

[00:53:02] See ya.

[00:53:03] Bye guys.