“How to Become the Center of Influence Through Podcasting and Mastering the Interview” with Dustin Mathews of Get WealthFit!
We like to keep it simple. The goal is to give our listeners a taste of everything they never learned in school about money, investing & entrepreneurship.
As part of my series of interviews about “How podcasters can become a center of influence”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dustin Mathews is Co-Founder and Chief Education Officer of WealthFit.com — an online learning startup focused on teaching all the stuff you never learned in school about money, investing, & entrepreneurship. He’s also the host of the Get WealthFit! podcast, where he’s had the chance to “get inside the heads” of top investors & entrepreneurs like ‘Rich Dad’ Robert Kiyosaki, Racing Legend Danica Patrick, Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank, Marquis Jets’ Founder Jesse Itzler, 7x Olympic Medalist Shannon Miller, Seal Team Six Leader Rob O’Neill and many others.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about why or how you got started as a podcaster?
At my previous venture, I had always wanted to do a podcast and was close to pulling the trigger but then I exited. In my newest venture, I hadn’t thought about it, until my partners said, “We’re doing a podcast… actually you are doing it. You’ve got all that speaking experience.” I tried to explain it was different, I had no experience podcasting or interviewing people and whatever else I could think of, but they weren’t buying it. And here we are.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
Last minute, I heard about Ultimate Entrepreneur Camp, (a joint venture between Fortune Builders & Jesse Itzler), taking place in the woods, about an hour outside of San Antonio, Texas. I got my tickets, packed my bags and grabbed my portable recording studio. Upon arriving I discovered that the attendees were there to take part in a 4 hour race held from 8pm — midnight! Non-stop running in the dark at night, through an obstacle course that included army crawls, burpees, trekking through a cold river, carrying sandbags and more physical punishment! I was told that since I was here, I needed to run. The attendees had been training weeks for this. Me — nothing. Cold. But I did it, never having run more than maybe 3 miles at one time in my entire life. And on that night I ran, stumbled and crawled 15 miles… never stopping.
The next day I interviewed Jesse Itzler — former rapper, founder of MarquiJets (that sold to Warren Buffet) and partner in Zico Coconut Water (that sold to Coca Cola), Rob O’Neill — the Seal Team 6 leader who fired the shots that took down Osama Bin Laden & Terry Givens — a fitness expert famous for his water, salad and eating challenges. Truly an amazing and interesting 24 hour experience, that would not have taken place if I weren’t a podcaster, on the hunt for interviews!
Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I hit Danica Patrick on the back of the leg with a book!
I had reached out to her PR team as I noticed she had a new book out. I communicated that I would be at an event in NY (I live in San Diego) and I would love to help her/them get the word about the book, “Pretty Intense”. They said yes, so naturally I told our team and that added to the pressure. When I arrived, somehow wires were crossed and they didn’t remember our conversation. After some back and forth, I was given a 10 minute window in her green room before she went on stage to speak. It was an up and down “emotional” rollercoaster with the clock ticking and nervousness running through my body. Remember this is the most successful female professional race car driver of all time and she just hosted the ESPYs. One of my goals while there was to get her to sign her book so our social media team could give away. As I nervously went to grab it and hand it to her, it slipped out of my hand and in movie-like slow motion it hit her in the back of the leg. She turned around and said, “You just hit me with a book.” And somehow it popped into my head to say, “Just trying to keep you on your toes.” At that point the tension alleviated and the interview went smooth. She was incredibly gracious and an incredible person. And that’s how I hit Danica Patrick with a book.
How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?
Six months (since October 2018) and we just hit 100 episodes.
What are the main takeaways or lessons you want your listeners to walk away with?
We like to keep it simple. The goal is to give our listeners a taste of everything they never learned in school about money, investing & entrepreneurship.
The guests’ story married with real world tactical advice.
You are a very successful podcaster. Can you share with our readers the five things you need to know to create an extremely successful podcast?
Podcaster Influencer, Dustin Mathews of the Get WealthFit! Podcast shares the best ways to:
1) Get Great Guests: When we launched the show we were advised to show up with 25 episodes on launch day and then release one a business day for 7 consecutive weeks — and we did! To manage the craziness, we created a google doc of friends, acquaintances and “shoot for the moon” guests! We then had a virtual assistant research websites, email, social media — really any contact information. Then we just reached out. As we got more and more guests on the show, we would communicate who had been on in future ‘request for interview’ emails. Once we had enough we also create a sizzle reel to further build the excitement and to communicate why they should be on our show.
2) Increase Listeners: Create valuable, high-quality assets for guests to share. We make it easy by providing our guests with tools that they’d be proud to share such as custom episode graphics, quote cards and copy.
We did this with Danica Patrick and she shared on social media causing over 1,000 reactions, 37 comments and 73 shares.
To further increase listeners, we’ve embedded the show into our learning experience on WealthFit.com. When folks visit the site, they not only see our online courses, they see the newest articles we’ve published and the newest podcast episodes that have been released.
3) Professionally Produce: There are so many components to having a successful show. We’ve really benefitted from using professionals to produce and edit the show. This allows us to focus on what we believe are the highest value activities — getting great guests and prepping for incredible interviews.
4) Encourage Engagement: Consistency. We encourage listeners on every show to take action — act on the ideas they learned by leaving their biggest takeaway on social media and to share with someone they believe would benefit from the episode. In addition, we ask our tribe, what they would like to ask the guests on the show. And to make it even more lively, we giveaway autographed copies of our guests books.
5) Monetizing the Show: We believe that delaying monetization, leads to a much more valuable asset in the long term. We rolled out the show, without ads, to create a great listener experience (which led to the show’s rapid growth). Only recently have we introduced ads — which only feature our online courses at WealthFit. This is in alignment and a natural extension of the show, as the courses go deeper into detail compared to an interview.
From your vantage point what are some of the reasons why a person should consider creating a podcast series?
Three simple, yet powerful reasons:
1) Simple way to create value for your audience. (Now more than ever, you have to deliver value to create and maintain attention of your market.)
2) Open doors that not otherwise might not be available. (Influencers and people of authority are looking for the spotlight to talk about their message, mission or movement. Hosting a podcast, having a platform, allows for this.)
3) Build/grow relationships. (When you invest time in doing prep/research and then interviewing, you really get to know people which allows you to create deeper relationships.)
BONUS: Make you a better communicator ;-)
Nowadays it seems as if everyone is trying to jump on the podcast bandwagon. Are there people to whom you would advise to avoid podcasting and instead focus on another medium?
Quite simply the folks that aren’t looking at podcasting as a long-term play. Podcasting is content marketing, which generally ROIs over a 2 year time frame (if done right). This doesn’t mean you can’t benefit well before then (i.e. forming new relationships, gaining access to authorities, etc.)
How has your position as a podcast host and a person of high authority, impacted your business, sales, and/or increased your opportunities? Can you share a story with us?
We’ve benefitted in many different areas due to the Get WealthFit! Show…
1) VC firms and investors are approaching us as they appreciate that we’re building a rounded out online platform and business. Just recently, we’ve been invited to speak at an investment conference.
2) We recently spoke and represented the show and the brand at Podfest — a conference with over 1000 podcasters. At that conference we signed three new trainers, including one that is opening us up to the corporate world — which we anticipate be a new revenue channel in the seven to eight figure range.
3) Traditional (book) publishing companies are reaching out to book their authors on the show.
4) We’re able to meet and source trainers for our courses on our website.
What makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or the content itself?
We believe it’s all in the prep work. The more you get to know your guest ahead of time, the more powerful the questions and the more engaging your interview will be. This leads to the new stories being shared by guests, which makes for incredibly binge-worthy content!
We also give athletes, celebrities and influencers an opportunity to talk about topics they normally don’t get to — money, investing and entrepreneurship.
Where can our readers find you on Social Media?
WealthFit
Dustin Mathews
Some of the biggest names in Business, Marketing, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a specific high-value guest (obviously still living) that you would love to interview on your show, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them!
Kevin Hart — I think he’s the ultimate package — funny, smart, business savvy, self-aware, a marketer, a “reinventor” and willing to do whatever it takes.
