S2 Ep5: Nate Garrison of The EXTRAOrdinary Podcast

In episode 5 of season 2 of Podcaster Stories, I sit down with Nate Garrison of The EXTRAordinary Podcast.

The EXTRAordinary Podcast profiles ordinary people living extraordinary lives, who adhere to a lifestyle by design mindset.

Topics up for discussion this week include:

• how Nate’s show evolved from being a co-hosted show into a solo host
• how the show came about from a personal development program that Nate created, the 8 Keys 2 Great
• how Covid changed the way he records and plans his show
• how he used to identify cities and advertise he was coming that way, to find guests for his show
• how Nate identifies what he feels would make an interesting guest for his show and listeners
• why he adheres to a lifestyle by design mindset
• why Covid has seen both a positive and negative change in personal behaviours
• how our lives have the chance to be redefined post-Covid
• what the 18 month rule is for podcasting, and why he uses it
• the two episodes that stand out for him
• how his endurance sports lifestyle prepares him for handling disappointment in life
• the moment he found he needed to step away from corporate life
• why you should judge success by how your life meets your actual needs, versus your material successes
• how his goal is to gain something from every guest he interviews
• his plans for scaling his podcast, and why he’s looking forward to getting back to in-person interviews
• why he has no interest in interviewing celebrities and uber-successful people
• why meaningful conversations make for the best podcasts
• why his biggest piece of advice for podcasters is to be consistent
• why his parents are his heroes

Settle back for an enlightening talk about making and living by your own rules.

Connect with Nate:

• Eight Keys to Great
• The EXTRAordinary Podcast
• Failures, Adventures, and Funny Stories
• Instagram

Contact me: danny@podcasterstories.com

My equipment:

• Samson Q2U Mic
• Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen Audio Interface
• TRITON AUDIO Fethead In-Line Microphone Preamp
• Denon DJ HP-1100 Over Ear Headphones
• RockJam MS050 Adjustable Mic Suspension Boom
• Dragonpad Pop Filter

Recommended resources:

• Captivate.fm
• Aweber email marketing
• SquadCast remote interviewing

Transcript

The following transcript has been created using an automated service, so may not be 100% accurate.

Nate (0s):
You know, it’s really not so much about the, the money. The success success is very important because I think success leaves characteristics and traits that are very important. But when it’s so tied up into money into the financial side of it, then there’s these other things to get neglected. These are the things that get removed. And when you can see when you can realize your success based on the lifestyle that you’re able to craft, when you’re able to value success on how you spend your day. Okay, well now we’re onto something that we can kinda say, okay, well, let’s Kraft a lifestyle that allows me to have the day.

Danny (38s):
Did I want to have a hi and welcome to Podcast the Stories each episode, we will have a conversation with Podcast is from across the globe and share their story. What motivates them, why they start to do to show how they grew up in Moore will also talk about their personal lives. And some of the things that have happened with the dam, the person you are today, and now here’s your host. Danny Brown. Hi, and welcome to another episode of Podcaster. Stories where we talk to the people behind the voices of the shows we were listening to this week. I’m speaking with Nate Garrison is host of The EXTRAordinary Podcast profiles, ordinary people living extraordinary lives. Nate welcome to the show.

Danny (1m 19s):
I really appreciate you joining us today. How about you? Tell me a little bit about yourself and the shot.

Nate (1m 24s):
Thanks, Danny. I appreciate you having me. All right, man. This is really exciting. A big fan of this show. I really love listening to it and yeah, so I’m a fellow Podcaster so we’re all in this together. And my podcast is called the EXTRAordinary podcast and basically very similar to yours. We profile ordinary people, living extra ordinary lives and above and beyond that, my primary goal, a goal as the host is to share stories, stories, and experiences that shaped your life that had an impact that a left some kind of meaning or, or, or moral or something that made an impact in your life. And so, yeah, that’s what I’ve been fortunate enough to know some really neat people.

Nate (2m 7s):
And they’ve been kind enough to grace me with some of their time and, and I’ve just had to share their message and share their story.

Danny (2m 14s):
No, no. I was looking at you show up at night and less than catch up on some of the episodes. And, and as you mentioned, you’ve got a wide variety. It meant a lot of people on the show honor, and a wide variety of experiences of the stories. And I know yourself has got your own story that will be talking about a relater and the changes you made. So how do you come up with the show idea? Is that based on your experiences yourself or was it something you always want to do it anyway?

Nate (2m 36s):
Yeah, it was kind of an evolution, to be honest with you and I, and full disclosure, I will say this, the original plan for this show was to be a, a co-hosted show with a buddy of mine. And he’s the one who actually came up with the name They EXTRAordinary Podcast. And, and so if we were rolling with it and as it got down to brass tacks and really ready to execute, he didn’t really want to do it anymore. He kind of backed out and said, know you take it and run with it. So, so that’s where the name came from, but the premise behind the show, it was really about two years ago, I came up with the idea of a personal development program and, and I, and it was through some of the things that I was going on are some of the things that were going on in my own life.

Nate (3m 16s):
And that kind of lead to that. But through the process, I came up with this or through this self development process that I was going through. I came up with this idea of the Eight Keys to great. And what it was was I’ve got a construction background I’m way more comfortable swinging a hammer than I am behind the Microphone, as you can tell, by the way I talk. But so what I did was I took the way that you had remodel your home and applied that to how you would remodel your life. And I broke it down into these Eight Keys to, there is a lot of principals and, and a lot of background that goes into developing this Eight case. And so what I wanted to try to do is find people that were exhibiting some of the aspects of those Eight Keys to, and then profile them, find out where they got the ideas from what’s working.

Nate (4m 4s):
What’s not, and, and then they can showcase them through the Podcast and then you use their stories and their experiences to then validate a lot of the program that I was trying to put together. And so that was kind of the impetus for it. And it’s just, quite honestly, the podcast has gone into a lot more than they are Keys are still coming along and there, it, like, we were just talking before we started recording we’re in beta testing now, which is extremely exciting, but, but the podcast has since kind of taken off a little bit

Danny (4m 34s):
And speaking to the podcast that you mentioned there, it was originally going to be a co-host had shopped so right away, I mean, you’ve jumped down and you have done it yourself, all right away with a lot more of a challenge there what’s been the biggest challenge. Have, you know, since the evolution of your show, since you started at it and how, how have you can do to overcome that?

Nate (4m 51s):
I think COVID was a real kick and the teeth. So for me, audio quality was something that was very important to me. I’m not an audio file and I have no background with this, but as a Podcast fan, and I would have, I would struggle to enjoy podcasts that you could tell they were divorced. They have a recording, or they were, you know, they were, they were not live or in person did the quality of the audio just really turned me off. So one of the deal’s for me was when I started this podcast, it was all going to be in person. And of course that was great and amazing. And again, I had some really neat friends that I was able to corner and get to interview with me, but then COVID hit. And that obviously changed the game for everybody and for what its worth as the podcast was progressing.

Nate (5m 37s):
I also saw before COVID hit that, you know, the in person interview wasn’t going to necessarily be sustainable. And of course at that same time, I was blessed with this gift of SquadCast that you and I are both recording on today. And that also changed the game for me because it allows me to get in person quality audio, but do it remotely. So overcoming that challenge was huge for me. And it opened up at a whole plethora of different guests that I’d never considered before a, and opened up a lot of new windows of opportunity, but one that never would have happened if it weren’t for those circumstances.

Danny (6m 17s):
And of course, as you mentioned, it was going to be an in-person Podcast eye and you, you, you said it yourself and that there was, I guess, has a finite, a finite amount of people that you can do in your location and your geographical, you know, like circle of you like to do in person interviews. So what was your plan before a squad SquadCast or before a remote record and et cetera, what would your plan to continue to add to maybe the scale that then we have the impact

Nate (6m 43s):
And interviewing well for what it’s worth? I have traveled with it. I took it on the road. I basically my new, my plan originally was to identify a city and then go to that city and get as many interviews there as I could. And so the first trip was out to Denver, Colorado, and I was able to line up some really neat guests and, and knocked out about a half a dozen the first day or the first two days. And then it got a couple of more than just stumbled into my lap. As a result of me letting the world know, Hey, I’m going to be in Colorado doing these podcast interviews. And, but, so that was my first experience. And it worked out really well and a better than expected quite honestly.

Nate (7m 25s):
And then it became this thing where I was like, started identifying these, all the towns I wanted to go to and who could I get while I was there and said the next one was to salt Lake city. And Well just to really the state of Utah, because I ended up putting in about 800 miles of my rental car in a few days. So just bouncing around this state catching interview’s, and again, I’ve got to stay with friends. I was able to do it really inexpensively on a, on a, on a really cheap time and the experience and the memories from it were amazing. So it was like, well, that’s a model I could follow. I can get into this. This can be a lot of fun. And then again, like I said, COVID hit. So it changed things, but I was, I was really, and for what it’s worth, I have intentions in an hour and still on the process of getting back to that format as well.

Nate (8m 11s):
Look out in new Orleans here I come on. No worries.

Danny (8m 13s):
So that would be a good protocol. And you get some really good vibes behind you that when you were a card and now for sure. Oh, no, definitely. That’s one of the things I find call about your show that you had mentioned that when you were doing the same person is especially, you were saying that you are gonna have a steady up and, you know, let’s do a podcast for example, and you’re sure has a huge variety of guests. I mean, once a week you might be T speaking to craft brewer, for example, and the next you’re talking to someone it’s just like putting your body through how we have a tough motto of course, and you know, somewhere in June and say programs and courses and triathlons, et cetera. So is it a formula for who you think would be a good guest for the show and for your listeners, or is that sort of evolved as a team come by as well?

Nate (8m 54s):
Well, I’ve definitely had an and still have to this day. I keep a running list of guests that I think would be interesting or our guests. I think they’re a good fit for the show, but at the end of the day for me, well, and so it started off with, alright, well, who do you know, who do you know that it has an interesting story and as luck would have it, it was really interesting. I happened to have gone to high school with some really some people that have gone on to do some really neat things. And some people that were quite honestly weren’t that interesting or, or becoming in high school, they have now gone on to achieve some, some re and to do some really neat project. So that was number one that was really cool to kind of go through and connect with people that I hadn’t seen for a long time.

Nate (9m 37s):
But the, again, the original premise was who do I know that are exemplifying a lifestyle by design. And that is really kind of a key for the H that that’s the backbone of the Eight Keys to Great and it’s really has become a big theme for the show. It’s how are you crafting your lifestyle? Like you talked about for you, for example, you guys decided to get out of the big city and move to a location that gave your kids a better environment for there, for them to grow up in. And for me, that’s a huge aspect that I feel like we’ve gotten away from. I think that we’ve gotten so focused on money and fortune and success, which I think success is an important part of the equation, but we forgotten about some of that lifestyle aspects that are so important.

Nate (10m 29s):
So it really, with my guest is like, what, how are they living in an amazing lifestyle? And if they’re living a lifestyle by design by their own design, then there is somebody I want to talk to.

Danny (10m 40s):
Hm. And it’s interesting, you mention about the fact that I have, so my family move to a quiet place. I know you make some big changes for the life that you guys are living. Do you think there with COVID obviously is having a major impact on a hope, hope people work. There are a lot of companies that are making people stay at home, et cetera. Do you think it’s allowing people the time to sort of breathe a bit and take stock and they may even changed their own approaches to how they want to live posts. I mean, there’s not going to be a post COVID if you like, but once see a vaccine as a widespread, et cetera. And, and what can we get back to the seminar morality? Do you think it’s like, it’s a big opportunity for people to reset their lives at this stage?

Nate (11m 18s):
Well, I think there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity is coming from all of this. But unfortunately I think we’ve seen a lot of negative consequences in that it’s been a real easy for us and myself included. I mean, I’ll put myself at the top of the list to, you know, dive heavy into a social media and to spend more time on Netflix maybe than we normally would, and to get into some unproductive behaviors. And I think really, particularly at first, for myself personally, I found myself falling into that trap quite a bit. And, and for what it’s worth, you know, We are, I just was lucky enough to start crafting this lifestyle design idea in concept about a year, a year and a half before this hit.

Nate (12m 3s):
So I feel incredibly blessed and lucky that I was already kind of laying the groundwork for this when all of this hit. And it sounds like that was the same case for you, but you guys, so you had fortunately been kind of taking steps to get right before all this happened. And then when this happened, you would then be better prepared for that. And I think for myself as well, we were very fortunate that that was the case, but for a lot of people that was not the case. A lot of the first that this caught us with our pants down, you know, we just were really caught off guard, but now that it’s, there is opportunity. We were, were seeing our, our, our work be redefined, were seeing our job descriptions be redefined, were seeing our day to day activities be redefined.

Nate (12m 45s):
And I think that provides opportunity to really begin to craft our lifestyle. This is the really an eye-opening slap in the face, if you will to say, okay, what is your lifestyle look like? What am I doing every day? How, what has my life turned into as a result of COVID? Has it gotten better? Has it gotten worse? And if so, what am I going to do about that? And so I think its given us all of the big, kind of a bit of a reality check.

Danny (13m 11s):
So you mentioned earlier on the shore has really taken off. Umm, and even though you got to study flip that a little bit of from it and person interviews to get them up state, it still continues to grow at, has really taken off a nice lift for you. And it’s been gone it’s for about what is it? 18 months? No, I think it was at the last me when, when you publish it, have there been any episodes that have certainly stood out for you all over the other is not for any better reasons or whatever bit there just for whatever reason connected with you and if so, why that one and why do you show us in particular?

Nate (13m 41s):
Yeah, I’ll give you a good one and a bad one. But before I do that, there is something to be said about that 18 month rule. And I’m really glad that you brought that up because as podcasters or, and again, I’ll just speak for myself as a Podcast or you know, that first year I felt like I was really putting out some great content and nobody’s listening man, and it’s crickets out there and you and he and I could get, I used limps and which provides a tremendous amount of information, background demographics and all this kind of stuff, which is great when you have people that are listening, but it’s incredibly depressing when you don’t. And, and I like many people thought of podcasting as this, this growth curve would be a diagonal line where you had, you know, it just gradually start to build, start to grow and whatnot, but I’ll listen to a Justin Schneck has a podcast and really smart guy.

Nate (14m 32s):
And he talked about its an exponential curve. It’s not a straight line. And really when he said he’s got that 18 month rule where he says around that 18 months around that, you know, 60, 75 episode Mark is when you begin to, if you’ve got a good product, you begin see some are some things take off and you begin to see some growth and some sustainability and you know, knock on wood. That was appears to be what is the case for me? And I hate to even say it out loud because having lived in the dark for so long, I’m so scared every day that is going to go back to that. You just never know. But, but as far as episodes go, the, the episode, I have an episode called three habits in 30 minutes and for what it’s worth, I have done a quite a bit of promoting of that episode.

Nate (15m 21s):
And it’s also one of my shortest. So you don’t know what that tells you, but I’m that episode has really done. Well, it’s done substantially better than any of our other episodes by far leaps and bounds. And I don’t know why, and I don’t care, but again, like I said, I do promote that one because it’s a, it’s a short self-help tool that helps us establish a morning routine, but that episode has taken off and its been that episode is given me the confidence to really move forward with my Eight Keys to Great. But I’ll tell you the opposite of that. Write about that same time or shortly thereafter. I did an episode with a Grammy award winning artist speech from arrested development.

Nate (16m 5s):
He’s a hip hop guy. He’s he’s old school. You know, I give you that he is from my generation and kind of nineties hip hop and, and what not. But to me the guy won two or three Grammys, a rest of the vault Mami. There is still, their music is still relevant. It’s still being played. They played it at some of the Falcons game. So I mean it’s, there, there, there are somewhat relevant. And I, and I did a really great job preparing for this interview, spent a lot of time getting ready and met them down at this place. We videotaped it in 4k high definition and it was this amazing experience. He had a blast, it went way longer than what he had allotted for, but he like, I kept trying to end it and he kept it going. So I’m like, man, this is a mess. And then at the, and he was like, man, we should do this again.

Nate (16m 47s):
I’m like, Oh it was so great. And then I go back and listen and it felt like the interview went great. I just thought I’d knocked it out. And I’m like, okay, validation. This is my thing. I’m ah, yes. You know, finally and I publish it like a couple of weeks later

Danny (17m 3s):
And one of my worst episodes. Wow,

Nate (17m 6s):
No, no body like, especially right out of the gate. No. I mean, did you talk about Cricket’s? I mean, I, I was shocked. I mean, because my podcast has kinda been building a little bit of momentum at that point. And so I’m really thinking that the, the concept is working and I’ve got this amazing guest to go with the Great concept and it tanked man and the whole podcast for the next couple of weeks did not do very well. And so it was like, man, that was a tough time. It was really what you started to question and why is this what I’m supposed to be here?

Danny (17m 39s):
But now we know you like you were into definitely like endurance sports, you know, you know, you had a triathlons Marfa and stuff, a moderate, et cetera. Does that help you when you mentioning like an episode like that, for example, you think, you know what? I’ve got it here. This is a golden ticket, so to speak and were going to knock out of the park and I’m gonna grab a knife. Those are the new subscribers overnight. And then it tanks like you see an end, it still, it still platters with that side of the law audience number. Does that kind of you, or does the stamina you need and then doing this, do you need for your physical life transport over to the Podcast when you see stuff like that, they keep you going?

Nate (18m 13s):
Definitely, definitely. I mean, I’m obviously a big fan of endurance sports and one of my motto is a one of my little things. And if you go to the website, I actually have a challenge and it’s called running a marathon challenge. And it’s just how to walk someone through training and completing a marathon. And I think, and I believe that everyone should go through either that experience or something like that because in the marathon you hit this classic thing called a wall where the wheels fall off, everything goes astray. You feel like your broken, most people assume its an injury. Oh, I just broke my it band or I tore my ACL or I mean like literally they think that they’re, you know, on death’s doorstep and if you can keep going, if you learn how to push through that wall and most of the time you’re just walking at that point.

Nate (19m 7s):
So it’s not even like your, you know, going in, you know, but having this big aha moment at the end. But if you’re just persevere and see that through, it gives you this mental toughness, it gives you this edge that you learned that you’re capable of more than what you thought you were. And I think that once you do that, it’s like it’s an extra bullet in your, in your holster. You know, it’s an extra little something that, you know, it’s an extra ACEP, your sleep. And I think that that serves you well when it comes to any kind of business or podcasting or anything, that’s going to be hard or difficult to work to achieve.

Nate (19m 47s):
And if you do that enough time than you realize, man there who are capable of some really amazing thing.

Danny (19m 53s):
And, and speaking to that, you are sure, obviously it pulls from your experiences and a guest that you have on it, you know, a loose your own experiences and moving from corporate and to the life that you and your family have known that you plant for you and your family. And as you mentioned that it keeps it a great program and, and everything that is attached to that, what was the moment you pivoted? And then you realize that, you know what this, because you don’t have a real successful corporate life, you know, a corporate background and you were, you, you mentioned success early are in it and where, you know, success is important, but, but you step away from that sort of speaker. You step away from that success to a new success. So what was a moment that, that, that suddenly blight went off, you just saw what I’m doing this and this is why,

Nate (20m 34s):
Well, its funny, cause I’ve actually had a couple of those, but I mean, I have been, I feel incredibly blessed in an incredibly fortunate because so many of the opportunities that I’ve gotten have I have just stumbled upon for what it’s worth. I mean, I, I feel like I do have a pretty good plan and vision now, but most of my life has certainly was not the case, but a lot of these opportunities that were a lot of it was just being in the right time and the right place. And, and a lot of times just knowing the right people every time I was reflecting back on this, as I was trying to write some for this book and get some of this work done and, and trying to ’cause when I would go in through the ranks.

Nate (21m 17s):
And as you’re in the moment, you don’t always have time to reflect back on what you’ve been able to achieve or, or where you’re at at, at this stage in your life or things you’ve done well or even things you’ve done bad. So it wasn’t until I got into this stage of this podcast and this personal development thing that did some of that reflection and what I thought going into it, I was going to be, I felt a little disappointed, like a Well, you know, maybe we haven’t had all of the financial success that some people have not this multimillionaire live in, you know, I don’t have the boat and the mansion on the Hill and all that kind of stuff, because that was my mindset, you know, but then as I started going through this personal development process and really identifying, okay, well, what do you want your life to look like in 10 years?

Nate (22m 2s):
What are the things that you want to have in it? What are those material possessions? If you could have anything that you want and through going through developing the process of, of determining that, I realized that I didn’t put a lot of value on some of these material things, my values and what our placed importance was on family and like being at my kid’s soccer game and like, or like be more potent, being able to be the coach for my kids soccer team. And you, you know, some of those, all of these different again, when I started realizing, well, you know, it’s really not so much about the, the money, the success success is very important because I think success leaves characteristics and traits that are very important.

Nate (22m 45s):
But when it’s so tied up into money into the financial side of it, then there’s these other things to get neglected. These are the things that get removed. And when you can see, when you can realize your success based on the lifestyle that you’re able to craft, when you’re able to value success on how you spend your day, okay, well now we’re on to something. Now we can kinda say, okay, well let’s Kraft a lifestyle that allows me to have the day that I want to have that every day, day now, you know, the, I want to live on a beach and drink pina coladas. Okay, well that’s a fantasy and that’s going to be fun for about a month until your 500 pounds in a drunk, but you know, and we with a sunburn, but how do you want to spend that everyday day?

Nate (23m 29s):
And I think that that’s, what’s really fascinating to me about you is that you guys began crafting that with your move out to the it’s getting out of the city and saying like, Oh, because I’m a big believer like that, connecting with nature, that getting back to your roots, like walking, just walking the woods, you know, just hearing the birds chirp and the little squirrel digging around in the dirt and whatever it seems stupid. But I think there’s meaning in that. I think there’s purpose in it. And I think that having that as part of our lives as necessary for our overall health. So for me, that’s what it is, what it came down to as all right, well, how can I craft my life and my everyday activities to do what do I love, what I love and what I really enjoy so that when it came down to, okay, well, what do I love?

Nate (24m 15s):
What do I enjoy? How am I going to spend my day? And that takes a little bit of thought. And that takes a little bit of time because for what I thought was gonna make me happy with it, I thought it was how I want to spend my day was an accurate, and it wasn’t through continual morning meditation and affirmations going through this, some of this process of figuring some of that out, that, okay, now I’ve gotten some clarity to what that needs to look like. And so now I spend everyday trying to visualize that, make it happen.

Danny (24m 45s):
I know what you mean. My wife and she suffers from anxiety, my assurance like a mental health blog too, to speak about her experiences. And a lot of the things she did when we moved down here at As, she really started listening to a lot of Jim quick. And that, that guy

Nate (25m 0s):
Before you said that what’s the name of her blog is a mental health on me. And tell me her name because I didn’t catch it.

Danny (25m 6s):
Oh, her name is Jacqueline, Jacqueline Jacqueline. So yeah, she, she take a break over the study. We went and while we were doing the movie and everything, but she was getting back into that, throw a podcast for a long enough, or I have no idea of where that idea would have come from. So yeah, I completely agreed that the movie or made all the difference with just being in a week and up one morning and say, dear, what a cross like the backyards, you know, what, where did that come from? I mean, he is, and I know it’s a pleasure to see beautiful, like a dedicated father man, where we were speaking earlier about your kids. And, you know, you mentioned there about, you know, you want it to be there, the coach for the soccer team and being involved in your kids’ lives and making sure that you’re there for them with the shore and, and the Podcast get in so many different insights from people live in lives, on their own rules or by their own rules as you, like, how has that helped you achieve then state and site and say to even have the helped you be more apart of the family for want of a better description of your phone out of you, if you’re always been the, the, the, the, the farmer person?

Nate (26m 8s):
Well, yes. So for what its worth, I have to have a total of five kids. My two oldest boys who are our, I call them adults’. Now when I was halfway through college or the other one is finished college, and he’s out doing his own thing live in his own life. So yes, to, to your point, I have always been a bit of a family man, and, and families always been something that’s very important to me. Now I’m also half way through my second divorce. So for what its worth it, I’ve also had some struggles in that area as well, but it certainly is something that’s very important to me. I, I try to steal something from every guest. I talk to them and I know that every person that I talked to you, whether they’re a guest on the show or not, they have some kind of value to bring to the table.

Nate (26m 53s):
They have some knowledge that I can take from that. They have something that I can benefit from. So that is a big goal of each of each interview that I have is to extrapolate the things that they are doing. And so, yeah, to have a man, every single person I interview and I’m gaining all kind of information from, you know, is it Jim Rowan has got a really great quote that says, you’re the average of the five people that you spend the most time with Well. So if I’m spending my time with all these brilliant people in all of these amazing guests than hopefully some of that stuff’s rubbing off on me a little bit,

Danny (27m 29s):
I know you’d mentioned obviously your goal for the show is to extrapolate, you know, and site or something from at least one thing from every guest. So what’s that mean? Why should you go to the show you’re 18 months then you were, you know, we’re at a nice part of a period of you’re like, so what are your plans to do to scale that out and expand either of, you know, once in person interviews back in the lane again, or, or, or whatever.

Nate (27m 52s):
Yeah. So we’ve been fortunate to get back to some in person interviews. My, he had a recent are not the one that’s out right now, but the one before that was with Eric nine, who is a local Atlanta artist, amazing talent. We got to do our interview in person. I have another really interesting one coming up with Nathan rough, and he’s got a fascinating business and the kid’s 27 years old and just got the world at his feet. And so that’s a good when we get to do in person, I’m really excited to get that one out there. But as far as scaling it, I’d like the fact that its opened me up to interviewing more than just who I can get in person.

Nate (28m 33s):
The neatest thing about the Covid thing for me has been the international guests. I’ve spent more time in the Australian times though in the past month that I have in my entire life. And I’ve, I’ve got to interview guests in Japan, Spain I’ve been interviewed in Spain. I was interviewed in London. Yeah. So like this, this thing went international kind of overnight and that’s been a tremendously exciting, umm, so I hope to continue with that. And as far as the future of the show, I think it’s ultimately going to go into a couple of different directions. I hope to continue to get higher profile guests, kinda like the Ryan holiday’s and the, the Tim Ferriss of the world that are still within this vein, but living in an interesting lifestyle or, or, or still fit within my parameters.

Nate (29m 24s):
One thing I’m not interested in doing is interviewing celebrity or going after celebrity status or startup or anything like that because I’ve done or, or, or quite frankly, Uber successful like the billionaire types. And primarily because that, what I’ve found is those types of people don’t fit my profile. They don’t fit my definition of what success and lifestyle design looks like. So I don’t have much of a desire to go that direction. The desire that I had started to go down or the, the path that I started to go down to aside from the getting bigger and more exciting guests as, or more high profile guests rather is, I’ve also been getting some people that I didn’t know.

Nate (30m 10s):
So it kind of going the opposite way. So the more of that ordinary person trying to craft a lifestyle by design through some of the coaching that I’m doing and that the self-help development program it’s given me access to a lot of people that have a lot of potential and have their own cool little story to share. And as I’ve interviewed them, I’ve gotten some really neat take-aways and insights on number one, how to provide a better personal development program, but two things that I’ve been missing from doing some of these higher profile interview. So it’s been really neat to add that into the mix as well. So I’m hoping to kind of a theme, some of those at a little bit as we continue to grow

Danny (30m 50s):
Cool. And then all of us have that will tie into your program. And as you mentioned, and then maybe I was like a sub train on and off of there, but it seems to it, I find it a lot of times, which is pretty cool. I got a podcast is a great ideation place for so many other cool things to happen. And it comes as you mentioned, because you have a guest that sparks something you heard from a good man. I really want to try that and all that sort of a really cool

Nate (31m 13s):
What’s the coolest part about these experiences is like when you have meaningful conversations and its not just a, you know, a diatribe, if somebody just spewing out their book topic or whatever the case is, where you can actually have a good conversation, it’s amazing how that comes from it. My buddy Walker, NIR has a really cool show called the wok show podcast. And the conversations that he gets into with guests are so engaged that we have reminds me of a ton of the whole Joe Rogan thing, but it’s really, it’s really engaging for the listener to see where they go with it. And I, I really find that appealing.

Danny (31m 46s):
No, no, no. And speaking of that, you are, you’ve got to show that it’s being gone for 18 months now and you’ve got ideas as to where you want it to go up and up over the next 18 months, for an example, for someone who is thinking of coming in to the podcast in industry, either, you know, within your niche or just like in podcasts in general, what would be your one piece of advice you would give them?

Nate (32m 6s):
I gave this advice out con quite a bit on the Facebook groups and in some of the forums and it’s consistency show up at the same time, this same day, always weather that’s. If your, if you decide its once a week, then due once a week, if its once every two weeks and do it once every two weeks, if its once a day or do it once a day, but whatever you do stick to that. And, and for me I’ve been really good about the weekly being very consistent and making sure that I got something out every week, but where I got off was the timing. Like I would make sure that we go off that week, but sometimes it would be Monday at noon. Other times it would be Sunday at midnight. And so there was some flexibility there and I got off track there and I think it, that hindered the growth of my podcast.

Nate (32m 54s):
And so what I encourage everyone is to think about it like a television show. You know, if you’re from an older generation like me, you remember, you know, Hey Thursday night, eight o’clock, you know, Seinfeld’s coming on or whatever your show of choice was at that particular day in time and you showed up for it. And when you can do that for your listeners, they’ll keep showing up. Now they’ll show up every day and they’ll hear what you have to say. And if your stuff is good, they’ll keep listening. Know if it’s not good, they’ll tune you out eventually. But, but they will listen if you show up every single day or if you show up consistently, if you don’t and that first time you Ms. Mann, you feel it and you see it in the numbers and every time every listener you lose, I question if you’ll ever get them back and, and the thought of losing a listener when they’re so precious to me, that’s terrifying.

Danny (33m 48s):
The point you made about T V though, like on a Sunday night air clock, you always knew what she was coming on. As we would sit down and you would get your popcorn, what are you doing?

Nate (33m 56s):
It was game of Thrones or Seinfeld back in my day, you would, you still showed up, you know?

Danny (34m 0s):
Exactly. And, and the fact that Podcast has to be accessible, you know, you get that a lot of enough to get notifications late on your phones to say, Hey, a new podcast just dropped a new episode, just dropped. So I really like that. You don’t have that consistency, but not just for the regular weekly an event, but the time of the day at the time. But it all builds at the whole brand of the podcast app.

Nate (34m 19s):
And to think about this, when you were watching that TV show, you only had, let’s say you had an extended package cable of a, a a hundred pack, a a hundred other channels to choose from. They have 350,000 other podcasts. They can go listen to you. So don’t think for a second that somebody else isn’t going to snatch them up.

Danny (34m 38s):
No, for sure. You’ve had a, a, as you mentioned out of that, you’ve had a, a great line up of different guests. You know, throw them, you know, are certainly Sammy celebrities, I, and others that are celebrities, obviously to people coming through the ranks of your life, but all have these cool stories and, and your own life is, has been shaped in various ways because of, you know, experiences you’ve had. So if you were to name one passion and it stands up, it was a hero for you, a personal hero in our fitness here off, and you want to say it or whatever, who would it be and why that person,

Nate (35m 12s):
It would probably be on my parents as much as this is kind of a cheesy And answers. That is, umm, I have been blessed to come from Great stock I’m and you talk about some of the interesting guests I have had on the show. Several of those guests have been a result of the relationship with my parents as opposed to a relationship that I had. And they were kind enough to, to set those opportunities up for me. And you talk about me being into endurance sports. Well, that seed was planted very early on with my parents. They both have were active marathon runners with me growing up, they’ve always been into athletics and as triathlon became a sport in grew into a popular sport, they grew right along with that.

Nate (35m 57s):
And for any physical accomplishment that I’ve done, they have done that 20 years older. And then some of you, like I said, like, anything that I’ve done is the slightest bit impressive. I say, go take a look at my, my mother, for example, you know, I was fortunate enough to be able to do a couple of iron man triathlons. That’s a 140 plus miles or whatever. And that’s a, that’s a feat in of itself. But doing those, if you, if you qualify a few plays high enough than you qualify to go to the world championships in Kona, Hawaii, and that’s the one you see on TV, it’s a real big deal. And like for somebody like me, I mean, I, there’s no chance of me ever getting that.

Nate (36m 39s):
At least not for the next 20 years anyway, of getting an opportunity to be fast enough to go do that. Well, she qualified to go do that at 69 years old, I believe she was. And, and, and went to Hawaii, did Kona, which has one of the toughest Ironman races out there. And three weeks later, three weeks later was back in Florida doing the race with me and my sister and her brother So. So you talk about heroes. You talk about an example. I like to toot my own horn. I like to think I’m something special, but all I’ve got to do is take a look down in Orlando, Florida to get humbled real quick.

Danny (37m 17s):
So the goal is for you yourself, when you were like six to nine, seven a year or so,

Nate (37m 21s):
I’ve got 20 more years of doing this before I can even come close to doing what they’re doing. So yeah, I’ve got my work cut out for me.

Danny (37m 28s):
Oh, that’s the last time I, I couldn’t imagine, you know, I, when I was reading the, there, the stuff that you do passionately, I couldn’t imagine being 17 in doing that are six to nine, so on. And so in doing that stuff as well, I was like, wow, really? That’s, that’s incredible

Nate (37m 40s):
Is pretty amazing. And they’re a while. And then what I like about their story is that it just shows you what’s possible. It just shows you how much of our day to day lives is. We live in that limited mindset. A lot of what we don’t have, what we think is not possible. My mother just got done with the reconstructive knee surgery. It made it had the entire knee replaced so she can keep running. And then now she’s closer to 75, you know, and, but she had that surgery done because she still in shape because she was still active and wants to be able to continue to do that. And when you do that for a year after year, decade after decade and you and I get to look and see the result of that long-term lifestyle, I mean, why, how could I not come up with a program that is about lifestyle design?

Nate (38m 32s):
You know?

Danny (38m 33s):
No, no for sure. Exactly. So now this has been an absolute blast. I really enjoy chatting with you today for people that want to check out your podcast or your Eight Keys to a great program, or even if they want to find out how to run a monofin and start to doing it for a matter of fact, where is the best people can find you and connect with you online?

Nate (38m 52s):
Well, it’s the EXTRAordinary, Podcast M and it’s a giant X or logo, or this isn’t a video, a recording, but if you can see my shirt, you could see the logo. There is a giant black and white XO, so it’s real hard to miss. And you can find that on all the major platforms, iTunes, Spotify. That is my, that is that we have got an Instagram page as well. If you want to go to Eight Keys to Great dot com, that’s the number Eight Keys to the number two Great dot com or.net. Either one that will take you to our primary site. We also have an EXTRAordinary podcast.net site, but the Eight Keys to Great site has everything.

Nate (39m 33s):
It’s got the marathon challenge. It’s got some what I think a pretty good blog posts. I’m pretty funny. The way you talk about stories, there are some pretty good stories on some of those blog posts. Then you can find that all of the podcast episodes there, and if you want to go through the Eight Keys to a great program, its 100% free and it’s all accessible on the website. The only way that you can see the entire program is number one, you have to give me your email and then you can only see the next step by completing the first step or the next key until you complete the key that you’re on. So you can just see the whole thing at a glance. You actually have to do the work in order to gain access, but it’s free. There’s no financial obligation in the, in the email is just simply so that I can send emails and blogs posts and, and new podcast when they come out.

Nate (40m 21s):
So thank you. Danny so much for having me. This was amazing. And I felt like I’ve done way too much talking.

Danny (40m 28s):
No, no, not at Dell. And I’ll be sure to leave all the links to the website. They are our social channels, etcetera, where they can find a program in the show notes. So you are listening to the show on your favorite podcast app, be sure to check out the power of the show notes as usual. And you’ll find all the links for the needs to have a web site in details there so that you can mention that. Thanks a lot for appeared. And I really appreciate it today.

Nate (40m 47s):
Yeah. And I’ll be sure to plug your podcast on all of my stuff and will keep that circle. Go ahead, man. Keep doing what you’re doing this thing. And this kind of stuff is so important, man. And I love the direction that you’re headed and grateful to be a part of.

Danny (41m 1s):
I love it. Awesome. Thank you. All right. So this has been another episode of Podcaster Stories if you enjoy this week’s show and be sure to share it with some of you might find, you know, who might find that useful and do you know, you can check it out on all the main podcast channels, Google podcasts have a podcast, Spotify and more, or just hop over to Podcast stories.com and you could find a lot of this episode now until the next thing is they say and take care of it.