05 Building Community: A Conversation With Jerod Morris

Steve Seid:
Hey everyone, welcome to The Whole Truth. This is an important episode and I'll admit I was a little bit of a fanboy on this one.

Kurt Dupuis:
Little bit?

Steve Seid:
A little bit, yeah.

Kurt Dupuis:
Little bit? Understatement of the century.

Steve Seid:
That's fair. That's fair. But Jerod Morris joins us for an interview. He's an expert in the world of podcasting and digital marketing, and he really was a huge inspiration for this show. So why is this an important episode? Because it gets to the heart of what our show is. Listen for the part where Jerod discusses being willing to step up and lead the conversation.

Kurt Dupuis:
Yeah, so remember, our goal for this show is to build a community. We want you to be involved in conversations like this as we collectively build this show together. In addition to the discussion around building our show, we get into several marketing concepts that'll be useful for you all. And without further ado, here's our conversation with Jerod Morris.

Disclosure:
The views expressed herein are those of the participants and not those of Touchstone Investments.

Steve Seid:
Welcome to The Whole Truth everybody. Steve Seid here with my partner as always Kurt Dupuis. Kurt, how are you today sir?

Kurt Dupuis:
I'm doing good. I'm really excited about what we're throwing down today.

Steve Seid:
This is going to be a very, very special episode. We plan to do this for a long, long time, do a lot of episodes. And I think no matter what, this will always be a really special episode because the gentlemen that's joining us today, this podcast would not exist without him. And we're really, really excited to have him. He's Jerod Morris. Jerod, Welcome.

Jerod Morris:
Thank you. Thank you. It is an honor to be here for this show. I'm really excited about what you guys are doing, so excited to join you.

Steve Seid:
Yeah, I'll give you a little bit of the backstory here. So I'm a humongous Indiana Hoosiers basketball fan. I think anyone who's an Indiana Hoosiers fan pretty much would describe themselves as humongous. We've got a pretty rabid fan base. Is that fair to say Jerod?

Jerod Morris:
I would say so. Yeah.

Steve Seid:
Yeah, and Jerod runs a couple of incredible podcasts, The Assembly Call and Podcast on the Brink. And that's how I started listening to his work. And I'll pause here, Jerod, because I want you to share everything you're doing because you have so much going on, Kurt and I were researching this. Can you just summarize your background and what you're working on for our audience?

Jerod Morris:
Yeah. So, The Assembly Call and Podcast on the Brink, like you said, are a couple of Indiana basketball podcasts that really started out more as kind of fun side projects and have grown into a little bit more than that, because The Assembly Call is now nine years old, which is crazy to think about. And so I have those going on kind of on the side. And then for my main job, I work for basically a website called Unemployable and we run a podcast called 7-Figure Small and then we have basically an online community for freelancers and solopreneurs. And really I've spent the last decade basically helping people build audiences and build businesses online, worked for Copyblogger, before that Rainmaker Digital. That's where I started The Showrunner podcast, which was all about helping people start podcasts and launch successful podcasts. And then also helped run a community called Digital Commerce Institute that was all about helping people develop businesses built around digital commerce. So have really, like I said, basically spent the last decade, helping people build audiences and then also use those audiences to then build a business, whether it's a full time business or something on the side. And so that's what I'm really passionate about and it's kind of what I do myself and what I like helping people do.

Kurt Dupuis:
Solopreneur, I'm already learning new words. I did not know as much about Jerod before we reached out, which Steve will get into. I just know that he has a Wikipedia page. And anybody that has a Wikipedia page is like a real person. So I feel like we're in the presence of a famous guy, although I don't think you're verified on Twitter. You have any comments about that?

Jerod Morris:
Yeah, I don't know. I have no comment. My co-host Ryan on The Assembly Call is verified on Twitter, which he likes to hold over our heads.

Kurt Dupuis:
Oh, dang.

Jerod Morris:
I don't know. I've submitted for the verification and have been denied.

Steve Seid:
Well, the backstory is, so I started listening to a lot of podcasts, I think a lot of folks have, over the past, call it half decade. And The Assembly Call, I don't think I've missed an episode in God, four years at least. And what struck me as I listened to his show over and over again is it felt less like radio to me and more like a community. And that's what kind of, in my head, started to think about, okay, maybe our industry and Jerod you know we're in the financial services industry and the investment business, and our clients are financial advisors. Maybe we could build a community around a medium like this because our industry has been doing a lot of the same things for 20, 30 years. And so, doing anything different it sort of seems like shocking, but I did think it was possible.

Steve Seid:
And I wonder how that strikes you because I was listening to The Showrunner and you did a episode called, 8 Ideas to Help You Develop Rabid, Loyal Audience Members. And you started that episode and you said, "We have this thing that we do with The Assembly Call and we have people come on and they say over and over again that they feel part of the show." That's what I felt. So that's when the idea came to me and that's when I reached out to you and I just couldn't believe you wrote back to me.

Jerod Morris:
I'm glad that you say that, I'm happy that you say that because I think when we first launched The Assembly Call, a big part of it was, okay, my three co-hosts and I, none of us lived in Indiana and we would watch games and we kind of wanted a place to hang out and talk about games afterwards. And there wasn't a place. So it's like, let's create one. So it was about analyzing the team and doing that kind of thing. But I think we quickly learned that our niche and the way that we were going to actually build something, wasn't just to provide the best analysis on the team. It was to build a community and to me, I really feel like that's what we do, like that is our purpose with The Assembly Call.

Jerod Morris:
Like, yes, we do post game analysis. We come on, on Thursday nights and do analysis of the team and obviously that has to be good. Like if that wasn't good, people wouldn't come to listen to us. But I think the bigger part and the reason why we've succeeded is because it is a community. And because we take the time to connect with people, one-on-one, like with you and with other listeners, and we have things like live chats that people can participate in and we really care. And I think people can sense that. And I think nowadays, that's what people are really hungry for, is connection. We live in a disconnected society and people want to feel that connection. And so, whenever you're creating a podcast or any type of online content, like yes, the content that you create is very important. But you take it to the next level and you build something special when you actually focus on connection and focus on community.

Jerod Morris:
And that's what can separate a show, because 10 years ago you could just start a podcast and build an audience because there weren't very many of them. Now there's a ton of them. So what's that extra thing that gets people to continue listening when they have so many other choices. It's the connection that they have with you, the connection that they build with other audience members through a community. It's where they don't want to miss because they don't want to miss an inside joke or they don't want to miss something that gets talked about. And you don't just develop that by accident. I think it's something that you have to be intentional about. But boy, when you do it, it really is a special thing. And it then not only creates a special connection for the audience, but I think as a content creator, it gives you a real feeling of purpose behind what you're doing.

Kurt Dupuis:
One of the things that we think about is, like Steve said, there's been so little change in so many aspects of the financial services industry, I think we're probably pretty early on this, which is good because I think we can screw up for a little while and no one will really notice. But because the problems are almost ubiquitous, I mean, we go around and talk to financial advisors all day, the same problems come up over and over again. So if we can, over time, put really actionable solutions around those and create that emotional connection with people out there, that's what we're hoping to build over time.

Jerod Morris:
I think you hit on a key part there. Whenever you're trying to build an audience, it's so important to be able to relate with that audience. And one of the best ways is just to be a member of the audience that you're trying to serve. I think for us, one of the fundamental reasons why the shows about Indiana basketball have worked is I've been a part of that audience for 35 years, like I get the context, I know the issues, like I know what makes people excited, the memories. There's that shared experience there. And same thing with Showrunner, like I've run different podcasts. And so I think when you come from the audience, but you just step up and you say, "Hey, I'm willing to lead the conversation, come with me," I think that gives you such a leg up in just being able to really connect with people in an authentic way. Because you're only going to be able to fake it for so long. And so when you're actually genuinely there and you care about the people you're serving and you've had similar experiences to them, that's going to come across, and that makes that connection so much stronger.

Steve Seid:
I'm so glad that he just said that. What he just described of we're going to lead the conversation, but we're doing this with a group of people, like, that is the show. That is exactly what we're trying to do. What we're trying to do is yeah, okay, out of the gate, we're going to come up with topics that I think that we've spent some time on and we've worked on and we've got some expertise, but then what we're looking to do is for the audience, to feed us stuff and for us to do the work on behalf of this community, for the community to be a part. I mean, we're going to interview folks in our audience and hopefully in ways that are helpful to them and we're going to explore topics that are interesting to them. So I was just so struck by what you just said, because that's exactly what we're doing.

Jerod Morris:
That's great. I mean, that's a good formula for it working. I think sometimes people are reticent to start a show or put content out there because it's like they feel like they've got to be the super expert, and you don't. You just have to be willing to lead the conversation. But that also requires a certain amount of humility because sometimes people start a show or start content and it's like, "I know everything. I have all the answers, let me put them out there." And that's fine. You'll attract a certain amount of people who just want to get the answers. And if you are really competent and you have a lot of expertise, you can build an audience that way. But you don't really build a connection that way.

Steve Seid:
Yeah.

Jerod Morris:
And so that's why I try and look at it, not as, on any of the shows, like I have the answers and I'm just trying to give you my expertise. I just want to lead the conversation that people interested in this topic want to be a part of. And that I think makes it an inviting feeling for people to want to come in and be a part of it.

Steve Seid:
I've heard you say something similar to that. And it gave me a lot of peace of mind knowing that we didn't have to be experts on what we're talking about. And I think you made the comment, you just got to be a couple steps ahead. And because we do this everyday, we're not experts in a lot of the topics that we're talking about, but we're at least a step or two ahead that we can have a somewhat intelligent conversation about that. That's one of the things that gave me the confidence that we could do this, that we didn't have to come in with a PhD in any of this.

Jerod Morris:
Yeah. I think there's a balance, like you got to know what you're talking about. You do have to know your stuff and you can't say things that are wrong and people need to be able to learn that they can trust your analysis. But you don't have to have all the answers because maybe if there's something that you don't necessarily know, you can bring in a guest expert. But if you've developed that authority to where the audience knows, okay, they're going to explain the stuff that they know and they'll bring in other people that they don't, and they'll be candid where it's something that maybe they don't know that well, that's how you build that trust.

Jerod Morris:
And that's what is so important because I never want to take a short term view with the audience where it's like, "Okay, I feel insecure, whatever, so I'm going to lie about an experience here," like try to act like I have this or that answer there because the audience is going to know that and that's going to hurt you trying to build that longterm connection with them. It's always better to just be candid, be open and allow that trust to build in a natural way. Because any type of podcast, any type of content thing, you can go out and get quick, short term results, but they don't really mean much. Where you really get something special is over the longterm and you have to be committed to it over the long term if you really want to get the most out of it.

Steve Seid:
Can I ask you a question regarding that? One of your episodes on Showrunner that was particularly impactful was he was either 100 or 101, but you talked about pillars, authenticity, usefulness, sustainability, profitability, pillars for building an audience for building a podcast. And so the idea of sustainability. So I don't think there's anything like what we want to bring to the internet world today, but I've probably found five or six different financial advisors that have podcasts. And of those five or six, there's only one that is continuing to put out episodes. Most do it for six to 18 months with some level of regularity, and then they fizzle out. So sustainability, what does that mean and why do people fizzle out so much?

Jerod Morris:
Sustainability, the way that we basically break it down is you've got to show up and then you've got to show up reliably. So, on some kind of regular schedule that people know, and then you've got to show up reliably over time. So if you just show up once, like that's great, that episode can be out there and people can find it, but you're not really going to build a following that way. But if you show up reliably, you're showing up maybe every week, now people start to get into a rhythm of listening to you. And podcast listening is very much a habit. And so you want to make sure that you give people that habit as much as possible.

Jerod Morris:
Now it might not always be possible, like the absolute best that you can do might be episodes kind of randomly every couple of weeks and you just can't do it better than that. And if that's the case, that's better than nothing. But what's really ideal is every Tuesday at noon, our episode comes out. Because now, I kind of get used to it as a listener and I'm ready for it. With The Assembly Call, people know that as soon as the game ends, we're going to go live if they want to watch us live and they know that the podcast will be posted about a half hour after that. And we never deviate from that because we always want people to know that schedule, and people just get comfortable with it. And so showing up reliably allows people to get into the habit of listening to you, but then show up reliably over time. You just have to build that time. People who have been listening to us with The Assembly Call, they've developed a relationship with us, some people over nine years.

Jerod Morris:
They've seen me get married, they've seen me have a kid, they've seen us get sick. They've seen us go through like life changes all while talking about Indiana basketball. People feel like they know you and you get to know them, if you have that kind of interaction. And now it's more than just listening to these three guys talk about IU basketball. It's like, I'm going to go hang out with my friends after the game. I mean, that's really the way that it feels. But you only get that over time when you've really given a chance for people to get to know you, you've let people in and that relationship builds. And so the sustainability part of any podcast is by far the easiest one to like explain, the easiest one to figure, okay, show up, show up reliably over time, fine.

Jerod Morris:
That is all very, very simple and it is absolutely the hardest one to actually execute. But it pays so many dividends and there's just no way that you can recreate the compounding power of doing it for a year or five years or whatever it is. You can't fast forward through that, no matter what you do. And so you've just got to understand that every episode that you put out, especially if it's at a reliable time, you're just laying bricks and laying bricks and laying bricks. But the power of that really compounds over time.

Steve Seid:
That's excellent. Well, we're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back with more with Jerod Morris. This is The Whole Truth, stick with us.

Steve Seid:
Welcome back everyone. We're still here with Jerod Morris. And what we're going to do here is get into some of the topics that he's talked about over various platforms, whether it's a podcast, you heard all the things that he's involved with. And we'll start with this one. You talked about, in the Showrunner, the idea of unfair advantages. And I should've mentioned upfront, Jerod touches some of these amazing topics. And I want our industry to think about, I love bringing ideas, concepts from other industries into our industry and rethink things and turn things upside down because we're so highly regulated things get stale and they do the same thing. So we're going to shake up ideas on the show for sure. So why don't you talk a little bit about unfair advantages?

Jerod Morris:
We talked earlier about, if you're going to start a show, right, be part of the audience, but be the one that's willing to raise their hand and say, "I'll lead the conversation." Well, what are some of the reasons why you should be the one to lead the conversation? Well, some of those may be because have some unfair advantages that allow you to do it better than other people. And so when I look back when we launched The Assembly Call, some of the reasons why that worked, my dad was a football coach at Indiana. And so actually I kind of like grew up going to football games, going to basketball games, sitting right behind the bench. My dad would pick me up from lunch and elementary school and we'd go play basketball at Assembly Hall with the other football coaches.

Jerod Morris:
I got to have some experiences early on as a kid that were really, really cool and kind of built those emotional connections. That plus just following the team so in depth, as I had over many, many years, there was a certain advantage just in depth of knowledge and experience. But at the same time, when we launched the show, we had actually founded our own hosting company. And so I was able to basically host the show for free and a lot of the things that people would have had to pay for, I didn't have to pay for. Got those free, was able to get help from my partner, who was much more technical than I was. I was kind of more of a content guy. And as I went through with that show, because my job was based around content marketing and teaching people how to build audiences online, I could use The Assembly Call as a sandbox to try new things, to use as examples, to use as a case study.

Jerod Morris:
So I could actually do it during the day and justify it while I was getting paid by my company, because I was using it as a case study. Whereas, someone else, if they're working at maybe a more regular job, they would have had to do it all on the side. So there were some unfair advantages based on my background, based on kind of my job situation at the time, that I was able to leverage that allowed me to invest maybe more time in it and do some more things without having to pay for them that other people might've had. And that was an unfair advantage that we had, that someone else wouldn't have had. Same thing for you guys, like what you told me about the buy in that you got from your CEO and the support you're going to have from marketing and the editing support that you're going to have.

Jerod Morris:
I mean, those are big time unfair advantages when you're getting ready to launch a podcast, because a lot of people might not have those. And that really gives you guys the opportunity to focus on building your chemistry and building your show and just focusing on the content. So, I always think it's important to look for those and look where you can leverage those unfair advantages, but also just to be self aware that you have them. I think one of the biggest things that anybody hosting a show or leading an audience can have is humility. And that's one of the things that can really help you maintain that humility where it's not just like, "Man, look at me and look at what I've built. I am awesome." It's like, "Okay, no, I had this experience. I had this help. This reason helped me out." Like remembering that just helps to ground you. Which again, I think is one of the most important things that you can have longterm for really developing an authentic relationship with an audience.

Steve Seid:
Yeah. Didn't you come up with a word, a combination of confidence and humility.

Jerod Morris:
Yeah, primility. Yeah.

Steve Seid:
Primility, that's what it was.

Jerod Morris:
Yeah, because you don't want to be too humble because if you're too humble, then you won't actually remember, "Hey, but I have something to say too. So yeah, I had some help along the way, but I also worked really hard and had a lot to do with this too." So it's that combination of pride and humility that's the sweet spot, I think.

Steve Seid:
Pride and humility. I knew I was close on that. I think about the idea of unfair advantages and I think that's pretty amazing to share about what Kurt and I have. But for financial advisors, so it can be pretty easy to look around and say, "Okay, well there's so many different financial advisors out there and everyone's focused on fees and lower fees and there's no value." It's like, no, take a step back and think about like, what is your unfair advantages? What is it that really makes you special in the role? And I think that's just so important in a world where people are saying, "Oh, fees got to go lower," and that kind of thing. I just think our industry could use more of that.

Jerod Morris:
Yeah. I think I just saw a stat today that there are 900,000 podcasts in Apple podcasts, I think.

Steve Seid:
Wow.

Jerod Morris:
So there's tons of podcasts, there's tons of content. There's tons of everything out there. So if you're trying to build any type of audience, in a lot of ways, being different is better than just being better. You've got to actually be different, and those unfair advantages are some of those differences. Those can be some of those things that set you apart. And I think it is essential when you're going out there to build anything that you know specifically what makes you different, because you have to really be able to position yourself with that and be able to articulate it to an audience so that they know what makes you different. Because they've got tons of stuff to choose and look for, and being different is going to help separate you in a landscape now, where you really have to try to find separation.

Kurt Dupuis:
So one of the things that I think we want to, to give the audience is some of your expertise, that's pertinent for financial advisors. Not to put you on the spot, but first question, do you have a financial advisor and what does that relationship look like? Do you have any backstory there?

Jerod Morris:
I do not have a financial advisor, probably should. My wife and I have talked about doing that. We did go and meet with one like four or five years ago, but then never followed through on it.

Kurt Dupuis:
So great. Not having a financial advisor, what would you look for if someone wanted to woo you as a client, what types of venues would it be? Online referrals? Would it be word of mouth? What do you think would eventually drive you in your selection process?

Jerod Morris:
The number one thing would be the recommendation of someone I trust, a friend, a family member, or some type of online authority whose opinion I really trusted, even if I didn't know them. That would be the most important thing. Someone who I know and I know that they probably have a similar type background to what I do, if they made a recommendation. I mean, that would just go so much further than any web copy or anything out there. That word of mouth is so powerful in that way.

Steve Seid:
And it's interesting that you said it's something like I do. And that gets that idea of niches, right?

Jerod Morris:
Yeah.

Steve Seid:
So the advisors that I see that are having the most success are the resource for a very specific niche, right? So imagine if you and all the folks that are in your industry, there's a few folks that supported that. I think that gets to that idea of unfair advantages if you become the resource for a particular niche.

Jerod Morris:
Yeah. No, that's a really good point. That's a really, really good point. I mean probably the number one thing that both my wife and I would look at is someone that has experience doing financial advising for young families, and setting up college funds and doing all of that kind of stuff. That would probably be the number one thing for us. And so yeah, someone who specialized in that or had experience in that, that would be huge.

Steve Seid:
So I want to transition to a couple of other topics and again, we'll relate it to our industry. You had something, an episode called Shaking Up Your Experience. And I know that that had to do with podcast episodes. And I want to hear your comment, but I also think about it in terms of financial advisors and their client base and things have been the exact same and maybe things are fine. But I just think you should always be looking to raise your game and shake things up and make things better. So maybe comment that what you meant by that, and then if you had any thoughts on what I mentioned for our industry.

Jerod Morris:
So I believe, I have not listened back to that episode in a while, but I believe what we were talking about there is trying something new. And like you said, raising your game, trying to bring something new to the audience because it's weird. Building an audience, you want to have, with any type of show or really anything you're doing, the way that I look at it, and it's kind of a really weird metaphor, but when people listen to shows that I do, I want them to feel like they're putting on their most comfortable clothes. Which like I said, is a weird metaphor, but it's like they know what to expect.

Steve Seid:
Kind of is.

Jerod Morris:
They know what to expect. It's comfortable. The intro is the same and they know kind of what the segments are going to be. It's comfortable, it's warm, it's what they're used to. And yet, you can't just do the same thing over and over again. You've got to try and shake it up a little bit. So whether that's trying a different segment topic here or doing a little bit of something different, you don't want to make wholesale changes, but within that kind of those comfortable confines, trying something a little bit new as an experiment, and then seeing what people like.

Jerod Morris:
We've tried that with The Assembly Call, different segment types. And sometimes they totally bomb and sometimes people really like them and it's you take it as feedback, as data. And it's like, "Okay, that didn't work, we will never do that again." Or "Okay, there was something there and we can kind of work on that a little bit." Even outside of the context of just trying to build an audience or create content, I think you can try and do that, try to push yourself out of your own comfort zone and try to offer something a little bit different. But always be mindful that it's an experiment, not a certainty, and really try to take the feedback that you get and then figure out if it's something to double down on or get rid of, which sometimes it may be.

Steve Seid:
Yeah. And I think people sometimes are really scared to fail, especially when you have clients. But taking a risk is where you find something special sometimes. So one of the things that you've written about recently, which I think is so relevant to our industry, and everyone, is the idea of protecting your attention. Can you talk about that?

Jerod Morris:
Oh boy.

Steve Seid:
Yeah.

Jerod Morris:
I mean, I think everybody experiences this now, where it feels like there's a constant war for your attention. Whether it's notifications on your phone or emails constantly popping up or whatever, just different options for content. New podcasts are out, there's new shows, there are just so many different things, it feels like, that we could focus our attention on in any given moment. Protecting that and making sure that we're actually focusing it on our priorities and the things that we should be focusing on, and then once we make that choice, being able to maintain it is, I mean, it is probably one of the most important skills people can have now that you don't even talk about. Because people who can protect their attention are going to be able to get more meaningful work done.

Jerod Morris:
And even if they're maybe not quite as competent as somebody else, if they're just stacking more of those bricks than the other person is, they're going to get ahead. And so, whether that's being extremely meticulous with what notifications you allow on your phone, or how much time you're going to give to social media or whatever it is, protecting your attention is one of the most important keys to actually being able to get important work done. And for any of us, that's going to determine how far we go in our given field, is how much meaningful work can you get done? Not just busy work, pushing emails in and out or responding on social media, that kind of thing, but how much deep, meaningful work can you get done that really pushes the ball forward? And you can't do that if you're not really focused.

Steve Seid:
Yeah. It's so relevant because the day of a financial advisor is here, she comes in, they're bombarded by emails and phone calls, not important phone calls, phone calls they've got things the firms are trying to get them to do to keep them busy. And it's this nonstop cycle that they can get caught into. And so what I always try to advise, particularly around the important things like business building and client services, dedicate some time directly for that, where unless there's a complete emergency, unless the coronavirus outbreak in your office or you need to run away, dedicate that time. You listed a bunch of things like turn the phone off, make sure that that time is completely protected. And I just thought that was so important to everybody, but definitely our audience as well.

Jerod Morris:
One other tool that can be really helpful. There's a tool called Rescue Time, that actually runs in the background of your computer. And it basically tracks all the different websites that you go to. So, if you're kind of into data and into tracking, you can see, "Oh boy, I spent like six hours on social media this week." And you're able to classify what each thing is. For someone maybe being on LinkedIn is actually like productive time. That might not be a waste of time, so you can go classify it. But what's really nice is they have a focused work option. And so you can say like, "Okay, I'm going to get focused for 50 minutes," and all of the websites that you have classified as not productive or only mildly productive, they won't even let you go to them for those 50 minutes or 25 minutes or whatever you do.

Steve Seid:
Wow.

Jerod Morris:
Now you can get by it with like, there's like a whole you can click and put in passwords and do some different things, like if you really need to, but it really kind of puts up barriers. So it makes you think about it. I mean, I do this way too much. I'll just go pop open Twitter real quick, just to see if there's any news in between tasks. And now, if I do that, it makes it hard to do. And I actually have to think about, "Okay, do I actually want to do this or should I get back to work?" And usually, I'm like, "All right." It was like an instinct to do it, but I'm like, "All right, let me get back on task." And it can really be helpful just cutting down on the switching costs that can really add up throughout the day.

Steve Seid:
I want to summarize here because I can't tell you Jerod, how much I appreciate you doing this. For someone who listens to you hours and hours and hours and hours over the course of a year, this has been a surreal interview for me. So thank you very much for your time.

Jerod Morris:
No, man. You're welcome. And I mean, I really appreciate you asking me. I love talking about this stuff. I mean, the opportunities that we've had to talk on the phone and the opportunities to, it's always great when you put out a show and you know that a lot of people listen to it. It is so rewarding to actually be able to talk with the individual people and get to know them because it's one of those things. It helps hold you accountable as someone who's creating content or building an audience, because it's like, "All right, kind of not feeling like doing this today, but man, I know Steve really likes listening to the show and I know him." Like being able to know your audience members on a first name basis and not just be able to see their face in your mind, but have had conversations with them. Again, it takes that connection and community to the next level, which can sound really cheesy, especially if you've never done before. But once you have, it just makes it all mean so much more. So, I mean, I really do appreciate this opportunity and the opportunity to talk to your audience too.

Steve Seid:
Yeah, it's awesome. It's like I reached out to you and all of a sudden I found I just wanted to pick your brain about podcasting and what we're trying to do here. And then I realized you had this whole other podcast to teach people about podcasting. I was like, what a crazy turn of events. But thank you. So I want to do a sum up because with each of our episodes, we want to have clear takeaways. Our show is for our audience to get better. So I kind of want to share a couple of my takeaways talking to you and the first takeaway and probably the most important is, everyone should be reading and listening to Jerod's work. So from our audience, what's the best way outside of the IU podcast, which I think everyone should listen to anyway. But outside of that, for those non-IU fans, where can people read and hear your work?

Jerod Morris:
Probably the best place right now, obviously The Showrunner, we're not actually producing new episodes for that, but it is out there. And so if you're interested in learning more about podcasting, you can go to showrunner.fm. The website is there, you can search for The Showrunner and that is there. You can follow me on Twitter, if you want to connect individually Twitter, JerodMorris. And if you have folks in your audience who are running their own business, if they are solopreneurs, then what we have going on at Unemployable could really be valuable in the community that we have there. So I would recommend unemployable.com and then we have a podcast there and then you'll see the links for the community. But those are probably the best places.

Steve Seid:
Excellent. I'll have to check out Unemployable because I haven't gone down that as well. I'd love to dig into that. So here are a couple of my things. So one, he mentioned rescue time, protecting your attention and rescue time. That seems like a pretty good way to do it, but also think about blocking out periods of time in your day for activities that are most important for your business. And a lot of times, that's going to be client service and business building activities. The second thing I have written down is what are your unfair advantages? So you should know why you are different from all the other financial advisors that are out there.

Steve Seid:
And the last one, and I think this is a pretty cool one and this is why I'm here, and I think it's a good thing to think about in client services, shake up your experience. What could you be doing each and every year, each and every few months that just raises the bar, raises the game for your clients? And when you do those things, I think it'll be a big improvement. So I want to thank our guest again, Jerod Morris, thank you so much. And we'll see you next time on The Whole Truth. Signing off, thanks.

Jerod Morris:
Thank you.