From Rock Bottom to Reinvention – Tamara Thompson’s Turning Point

Back again, back again for another episode of like it says in the opening, man, the show that gets you from where you are to where you want to be. And today in studio, I have a, it's kind of a crazy story. It really is. But this is a person who, again, is an entrepreneur that bootstrapped up from nothing into a massive business dealing with some of the biggest players in the world, showing them how to broadcast their authority through her company, Broadcast Your Authority. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the program. This is Tamara Thompson. Tamara. Thanks for having me, John. I'm really grateful to be here. Happy to have you. And dude, it has been a wonderful collab with you today, by the way. It has been, this is my, just so you know, and I, the most podcasts I've ever done in one day is two. That is the most I have ever done. I feel honored that we're able to collaborate. This is my, Tamara's like, and I have this person and I have this person and I have this person. This is my sixth podcast today. I'm proud of you. Yeah, dude. I think the most I've done is 22 in one day. How? How do you do, how would you possibly do 22 podcasts in bed? Well, we go through this whole like batch recording method for an entire season, right? Oh my gosh. We do like three days of full on, like sometimes it'll be like 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. But we have it where they can help my energy because we give back and have co-hosts on our show. Yeah. So it's not just myself. So if I'm literally like, hey, John, I'm like, I want you to introduce the next guest. And it like helps me stay through the day. I have a little bit of protein, a little bit of caffeine. Yeah. They kind of prop you up in the back like Weekend at Bernie's and they're pulling the strings and you're doing your thing. I love that movie. Yeah. No, dude, it's, yeah, it's been a long day. I mean, it's been a great day. One of the good things about recording in Vegas is kind of everybody gets here eventually, right? They come here to speak at events. They come here to do events. They come here. So it's a great place to record a podcast. You know, I don't know how people could possibly do this living in like Kentucky. Like. No, or Arkansas. Yeah, you'd have to, you'd have to like travel constantly to interview people. And it's, it's, it's a, it's a blessing. And we're so grateful. So we're just grateful for the opportunity to bring these like amazing individuals that are humble. Like half the time, if I just send somebody a message, I'm like, hey, we got this great opportunity. Will you come meet us in Vegas? Because I built the relationship. Right. And they're like, I'm in. When do you need me at this point? But that took building relationships over the year and connecting the dots and then people becoming clients and some people power partners, you know. And so it's just like in Vegas, it's kind of one of those spots where people are like, yeah, I can come out there. There's a lot to do. I can do a show. We have people that were like, okay, yeah. Like one gal is coming in tomorrow. She's like, we got tickets to go to the sphere. We're going over to the Cirque du Soleil. You know, we're going to this. And I'm like, cool. Oh, there's, they're going to a concert. So I was like, yeah, you can make a thing out of it. Right. Just come to us first. Like, it's funny. Yeah. I did tell her that. Yeah. Well, when you live here and do business here as we do, right. Cause our, my primary business, as you all know, is definitely real estate. And we coach our agents, this very important thing you have got to do. when you schedule an appointment from somebody that is coming to Vegas to, to look at real estate, whatever they are, you've got to tie them down in this fashion. And what I mean by this is the last thing we always say to people as we're getting off the phone with them is, are you good about keeping appointments? Cause I want someone to verbalize that like, yeah, yeah. 10 o'clock. Yeah. I'm good about keeping appointments. Cause when it's like one 30 and they're at the crap stable on a heater and they're hammered, that little voice is going to creep in and go, you said you were good about keeping appointments. You said you were good. and it gets them here sometimes. Well, I think the worst part of that though, with doing the extensive matchmaking that we do, we literally two days ago had a person just be like, I can't come because I'm sick, right? So we have to re-match, right? Even last night we had a gentleman, it's like, I changed my flight. I even spoke to Gidget. I was like, we have this gentleman that wants to go for, you know, it's like trying to accommodate, but like, cause you know, they're traveling and then like, let's match make, but let's play Tetris. I can vouch for this because my wife was like, my wife was, it was our son's birthday and we're doing this and my wife is literally typing with you at 5.30. I felt so bad. I'm like, no, it's okay. But I was finally like, just tell her, we're opening the whole day for her. It does not matter what the schedule is. Just let us know when it's firmed up. When it's firmed up. That's it, it doesn't even matter. Like the back and forth is irrelevant. I'm clearing my calendar for Tamara today. Don't worry about it. Just let us know when we're going to be here. And it's worked out. splendidly today. So thanks for that. But it's cool though, that you brought so many people in and now we're finishing the day kind of telling your story and how that was. Cause there's a lot of people out there that, um, you know, struggle with different things that maybe don't see a way out or don't see, uh, you know, that light at the end of the tunnel that I think your story is going to motivate them to hopefully overcome some of their own, maybe demons or personal limitations to have some success in their lives. So I, you know, obviously we don't have to go back to like when you were a kid, but I, something you said earlier when we were just chatting that I think is probably a good place to start is let's talk about when you were doing a real life imitation of Lindsay Lohan. That's probably a good time to start. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, rewind back like 20 plus years. So I was, uh, I was unhappy in my career in the fitness industry. Um, and my family, this was when YouTube was starting to come out and we're like, what would you do with YouTube? There's like parkour videos and silly cat videos and vlogging. I was like dancing around with a hairbrush, singing 80s music. I'm like, what do you do? But yeah, I was an alcoholic. I was unhappy in my career. There's a lot of things going on in my life and just accepting myself. And so I went through this basically experience where I was dumped from my first love, which happened to actually be a woman. And so I went through the process of really coming out of the closet, which was one of the things that I really had to find out about myself. So I hid that for quite a while. And I went through this spiral of alcoholism. So for about six years, I was pulled over like five different times. I was locked up. I was actually, they called me the miracle worker in there and the negotiator in the jail system in Seattle for a while, which this attorney that I hired, he always told me to be quiet, right, in the courtroom. And so I remember I was pulled over the last time I was pulled over back in 2010. And I literally was like, oh my gosh, I made a huge mistake. I'm going to be locked away. Like they're just going to throw out the key and I'm not going to be able to be let out. I just knew it. My gut and my intuition, which I follow very dear now, my inner sense of knowing I'm an empath as well. And I was like, this is it, Tamara, like smack across the face. I said, hey, you know, I've figured out myself, but I've also been depressed and I know I need help. Well, I want to ask you a question a little bit because you glanced over a pretty major life event there, which was, you know, obviously coming to grips with your sexuality and coming out to your parents or whatever that was, or your family or however that was. Yes. was, was it not well received, which caused you to turn, become an alcoholic? Or was it, was, did you build it up in your mind that it was not going to be well received, which caused you to be an alcoholic? Which, which kind of way was that? I think it was because of not that it wasn't, it wasn't as accepted as much as it is now. Um, that back then it was, it was 20 years ago. Yeah. And so like 20, yeah, 20 plus years. But what really happened was I didn't feel like I had people to talk to, even though when my mom did find out, she literally was like, why couldn't you tell me? I was like, because I didn't want to be gay. Like, I didn't want to because of the way. So you were asking about your own identity in that point. Yes. And I'm very confident who I am now. Yeah, sure. And so, but that whole process is because I was dumped and I couldn't tell anyone because everyone saw that person as my best friend. And they're like, why aren't you friends anymore? ah so it was hiding a my first love my real relationship for about three years where it really hurt um and I went this is kind of crazy so the day after I was dumped I went running and jogging and like hardcore jogging like earbuds in like I was in the best shape of my life back then um I wasn't like fully paying attention but this gentleman failed to stop at a stop sign knocked me out I was knocked out for 27 hours that year I spiral spiraled into gaining weight I started feeling like a fraud because I was a personal trainer. Right. And I was unhappy. And then it went into this whole thing that I was like, I feel like a fraud. I don't want to do this anymore. And all of a sudden I started drinking. And the only place I felt OK was in the LGBT community. So I started to go out to meet people who were my so-called friends, which really weren't. They weren't really helping me. And so, again, fast forward, spiraled into alcoholism and drinking over and over and over again. and kept getting pulled over, slapped on the wrist. I had these miracles happen. They weren't really miracles. They were just like letting me slide by. And then the last time. How many times you get pulled over drunk? Five. Five? Five. A couple of those days, you go? The first time I actually got pulled over, I was completely trashed, but they didn't know I was trashed because I didn't fit the mold of a DUI. Most people, they think they drive too slow and they hug the line. And this girl, 102 across the freeway, like, I just got to get home. Straight in between the lines. Wasn't swerving anything. But I had, like, open containers in the back of the car. And I reeked of alcohol. But this guy was, like, reckless driving. Check. See you later. Go home. Two weeks later. Pulled over in the same spot. Thank you, God. Literally was like, boom, first DUI. Two weeks later. Boom. Three weeks later. Boom. Second DUI. Oh, man. So it was like, okay, Tamara. It's real slow to learn there. A little slow learner. Took me a good six years. So I've got a crazy story. Like, so I built the resilience of things because the way that I think about life and business now, like nothing like phases me. I'm actually, you were talking in a recent episode about your disc test. I'm exactly the same as you. Like 99% D, I, I, I. Yeah, I, I. That's Michael, you know, it's like, that's considered the Michael Jordan of disc tests. Like less than 3% of the public has it, right? No, for sales. It's like the Michael Jordan disc. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. So high five. There you go. High five for the high D high. Good job. So, so, but to fast forward there. So the last time I got pulled over, I was like, holy crap. Like this is just like going to be a crazy shit show basically. And, um, yeah, I started going through these processes and I started getting actual help and I started sobering up and going to treatment and stuff like that. And I had this, this woman that was like, Hey, she was a counselor. She said, I want you to read this book. And I don't like to read. I'm just, I just too slow. Yes. I'm like, I can't just sit there and be like, I need to read that again. So she gave me the four agreements, which is, you know, great book. Great book. It's a small enough book for me to read in my brain. And she was like, just read it and let me know what you think. And that book actually changed my life through the sobriety process. But before that, before I had to actually go to court, there was these people in my treatment center. They're like, we're going to do work release through the King County jail. And I was like, what's that? And they're like, it's not offered where you were pulled over. I was like, I was like, what? I'm like, well, why not? So I went into the court system and rent in, rent in Washington. Like, it was like, whatever. And I went to the judge and I told, told my attorney at the time I said, I'm going to propose work release. And they just, he was just like, what? Yeah, work release. Work release. They're not going to let you have that. They're not going to have that. So I go in there and this was the first time I actually spoke up to the judge because the guy was always like, don't don't say anything. I'll just, you know, the best, best term. And I literally I broke down and I was like, I had just gone back to college, basically film school, my late 20s because I was unhappy. I was starting to get like straight A's. I had just sobered up, of course, before the court. It was going to meetings, doing the thing, got a sponsor, doing all the things I was supposed to be doing. And I literally was like I don want this I want to try to ask for help I want to ask for something And I came up and I proposed to the judge I was like I will do can you create a work release program? I was like, I will pay for it out of my own pocket. Like I, I'm like a nanny right at that point. I'm like part-time nanny college girl in my late twenties. I'm like, I was messed up and I knew I needed help. And so that, that moment I stepped into the court and I just like, I provided everything. I was like, my straight A's back in college, my sobriety, my AA slip, all of it. And I just said, I want to be able to keep my job too. I had an ankle bracelet on here. I was literally like Lindsay Lohan. You know, I had to be back at this point. I even had a blown machine in my house at 8am and 8pm. So it was just, it was, it was a lot. Right. And so I presented it. The guy looked at, looked at my stuff, looked up, looked down, looked up. He's like, Ms. Thompson, never had anyone step in my courtroom and negotiate ever. And he's like, that takes mad guts. And I'm actually going to accept this. But if you, for any reason, don't follow through on anything that you said. Yeah. Then it's a real problem. Real problem. We're going to send you out to, gosh, I don't even know the name of the city. It was like 45 minutes out this little bumpkin town jail where I had to sleep in a facility with 10 other women uh you know at 2 a.m they'd have like drug meth addicts coming in off the street waking you up you had to share a bathroom that didn't have a door all the things right um and I became the girl in there that nobody messed with but I was kind at the same time so I protected all the women in there anytime a new woman that came in that was feisty but yeah so he accepted it and allowed me to be on work release for about 120 days. And they said, but the rest of the year, you're going to be on house arrest. And so he's like, you're going to have a term that's just, if you do the year and you don't mess up, we'll give you a year. Otherwise we're going to go over that and we're going to lock you up for a long time. So it was just this moment where I was like, holy crap. And just by living in there and going through this process, you know, sobering up and the things that happened in there, I was like, okay, that was my rock bottom story. People come to me now and like life and business. They're like, Oh, how do you deal with this in business? I'm like, that's nothing. Yeah. You're like, dude, I didn't ankle monitor on. Yeah. Like I was like, I had this, this thing. And so was there anything in your life more shameful than had when people noticed the ankle monitor on your, on your ankle? I mean, I just, I just really well with like jeans. Yeah, but I'm still just thinking like that. There's got to be like, what is this? The interlock device. So I had to have it on my car for five years. That's the thing where you blow in the tube, right? And it was so dangerous, John, like so dangerous. Like it would go off and you had like 30 seconds to blow, blow correctly. If you missed up, it would be like beep, beep, beep. So one time this was the most embarrassing part of it. I, you know, I would zone out because you're sobering up. If I had my music on too loud, I wouldn't hear the beep. Right. and it's attached to your horn. So it starts honking your horn. All of a sudden I'm on the freeway and I'm like blasting like 80s music or something one morning and I'm like driving to work and all of a sudden I hear honk, honk and everybody on the freeway just goes whoop, eyes on camera. And I was like, what is that? And I looked, I'm like, oh shit. The same time though, if you miss it, it dings it and it goes back to your probation officer. And they say, why did you miss this blow? I'm sorry I was rocking out to 80s music and zoning out on my way to work where I was unhappy in my career. But I think that was probably the most embarrassing thing other than being pulled over and people just seeing it over time, like walking the line, like, oh, you don't take the test. Oh, man. Yeah, that's like, I'm not, look, for somebody who gets 5G wise, no offense. I'm not saying that stuff's not, I'm not saying that stuff is not warranted. I'm just saying it's got to be, and especially it sucks because, you know, something like that where you're really being driven by that disease. And then as soon as you're in recovery from it and you're not doing it, all of a sudden you still are walking around with the scarlet letter of it, of the ankle monitor and the blower thing and all that stuff. Well, let's talk about Broadcaster Authority. Let's talk about your company. So how did the company come about? That's a great question. So, you know, after sobriety came into play, went back, you know, finished film school, basically started a production company. But when I started a production company, I also had to like I wanted to make sure that I had enough clientele where I didn't have to have a corporate job, too. So when I graduated, this is kind of crazy. So I graduated and I was like, OK, cool. I got a degree. You know, I'm like 30. Well, is my oyster now? Yeah. And why is the phone ringing? So I went out and put applications out. I was offered a position for $12 an hour. This is back in like 2012. That you could have got without the degree, just walking off the street. And my brother at the same time, so we're about seven years apart, but he was going through the process. Even though he's seven years younger, this was like me going back to school. And he gets a job at Amazon for just a flat $88,000, like out of the gate, right, as a developer. And I was like, I was just offered $12 an hour. I was making more than that at the gym. So I went back and I negotiated. And so I bought that up to like $20 an hour, which was not much. I worked my way up through that company. And they were like, oh, well, you're going to get this. You're going to get stock. You're going to become a partner and stuff. It was, it was male driven. Here's the big carrot. We're going to dangle funny. I'm going to think this is driving me crazy. Oh, please. No time. Because it looks like it's coming off. Oh, see what goes on. We keep talking. No worries. So yeah. So fast forward. I was like I was thinking that oh I've got this degree I'm gonna get a job but yeah so I started doing freelance work on the side I was unhappy in this company I started working up but I was only making like 35,000 a year or something something really low or 40 and then I literally was like I need to do something different and I need a new direction in my life then YouTube came out started a production company and I was like what can we do but my whole focus around Broadcast your authority was to help people. I knew I had an impactful story that I could share with others, but the, the idea was to also help other people share the message. And so we had content that took off and went viral because I started directing documentary films because I was really passionate about the stories and stuff like that, but they were all one-off projects. And so it didn't even click. Well, I guess it did kind of click a little bit later on about what we do at broadcast your authority from the short form content, but the data driven focus first of like, what are people actually searching for on YouTube and Google for your show and your podcast? Is it because you have a big name on your show and they're highly searched? Is it a topic that somebody is searching for in real estate or whatever that looks like as an inspiring story? And so we had these films that took off and went viral. The teasers would go viral and then it would lead back to the documentary, the full length feature. And we had one that took often went viral is about women's stereotypes and from there all of a sudden i'm like well what did we do right and so we actually consulted with youtube i was like i i love data i love seeing that stuff you know and i was like how can we play this to all these other films that that i directed and i started winning awards they started going viral all of a sudden indie flicks found us it's like netflix but it was an awesome female founder in seattle and uh we went they were like we want acquire your films. And I was like, this is cool. Super grateful. Now what? Yeah. You're like, I actually made these and now someone wants to buy them. That's a kind of how it's supposed to work, but didn't think it was going to. There you go. And so I was like, well, how can we leverage telling more of these stories more often, these impactful stories? And then I joined a high level mastermind group. One of the first ones I joined, it was like 3,500 a month back then. I was like, you know, it's not cheap. It's not cheap for back then. And I was like, you know, I'm going to surround myself with these upper level individuals. And the sales coach came up to me and she said, you know what? She's like, I love what you guys are doing over here on the YouTube side of it. These two gentlemen I'm working with on my audio podcast and the mastermind, but they're only doing audio. And she's like, I feel like the system that you're doing over here that you told me all about could work for my podcast. I'll be your first client. And so she literally was our first client. This was years back. And we started using our YouTube methods. We did the weekly show, that consistent content. She batch recorded. She did her thing, taught sales coaching. And then we started selling those packages into entrepreneurships. I started doing multiple masterminds and then hosting events. So that's how we really started was the first offer that we ever put together was actually like a very short 90 day kind of package. And then we did a six month package. Now we do six month to year long packages to help people with their shows now. But because we created this whole data service system from giving them the direction for their show if desired, but paying attention to the data and helping them grow their YouTube channels. So really looking for YouTube. What does success look like on a YouTube channel for one of your clients? It could be a different example. We work with a guy that owns a med spa. So a doctor, he started with us at 101 subscribers on YouTube. They've been working with us about 11 months. They moved their med spa from Rhode Island to Florida. He now has 22,600 subscribers in about 11 months. All organic? All organic. So you guys do not promote at all? We do now. So that's one of the levels that you can work with us at. So you can, one, go to the organic side. At this point, there's a lot of competition. Of course we know. So we did, we did leverage over the years, utilizing Amplify through YouTube and Google ads, right? So viewership ads, subscriber ads, but the bigger picture on that is not just running those pieces, but to tie it in with your business. So we taught basically the doctor how to leverage different ways to build out the community. So he now has like a provider community, about 7,000 providers, which we taught them how to utilize a high-end workshop that led into a mastermind group so that they could do these trainings for these doctors, right, to help them show how to build success. What we do is we leverage the top performing shorts that are organic first. And so when you utilize those, you're like, okay, so let's say example for your show, right? Yeah. Okay. So you had Susie Batiste on your show, right? So you're like, okay, well, it's a possibility her content could take off because uh suzy batiste is searched 18 000 times a month right so we have the micro content go out to shorts right you're like okay this one only had a thousand views but this short had 10 000 views why right and so we like analyze that piece of it first and say like okay was it because of what suzy was wearing was it because of the hook was it emotional was it empowering was it was it john's clip you know whose clip was it um and then from there you want to leverage that clip back to paid ads. So, cause one, you already know that 10,000 people organically actually resonate with it. Right. But the way that we structure it is not just for the fact of like, oh, that's a really top performing clip. But a lot of the times for a business owner, if you're talking like real estate as an example, let's say you share some cool topic about real estate or success. Well, okay. Well, he talked just about exactly what he does and helps people with in real estate. Now let's actually drive the back to some kind of core offer or an opt-in or a lead magnet or something to build the list. Right. So it gives opportunities in different ways to build the CRM basically email list or give them back to an opt-in that goes into, or even a trip wire funnel, you know, where it's like a low end product. Here's $11 for my X, Y, Z. And then up the ladder you go. Exactly. So it's being strategic for the shows. A lot of people have like inspiring shows, but you can leverage it that way where you're like, okay, am I building, am I influence? Am I building my following? Or do I really want to focus on building my real estate business? Right. So we come in on different levels. And so people will now hire me as like their fractional CMO for their shows. Like how can we leverage this to lead them to new clientele, our mastermind group, our, you know, our event coming up. And that's something I struggle with right now, because I think as it especially is now, as you look like Gemini is pulling from shorts when it gives summary reviews on things or search reviews is pulling heavy on shorts right now. Yep. Which is. Well it's like 60, I think it might even be more than this month but like last month it was like 67 of new subscribers come from shorts Yeah it crazy right It crazy And you can reach a lot of people very quickly through them But like you look at somebody like me that I have so many different companies and so many different brands. I used to just run like this brand, like Escaping the Drift. Yeah. You know, I wrote a book and we have the book and all that stuff. And this was really it. But I just kind of ran this and this kind of all, it was all like one big melting pot. And now I'm saying like, oh, wow, I should probably, I need to split this off into its own entity. It needs to be its own thing. I need my own personal branding stuff. I got to drive real estate stuff. I got to drive mortgage stuff. I got to tie. I mean, all these different companies we have kind of need their niche. It's got to get more niche. You can't be broad anymore like this and you can't have a one size fits all for what you do. But I have a question, which is, it was always a real challenge to move subscribers from audio podcasts into video. It was really, I've been doing this for four years and it's really difficult to move them from one platform to the other. And now it's a totally separate demographic. graphic. People who don't listen to audio podcasts don't go to YouTube. It's really weird. But what I found is now that you've got like Spotify adding video and Apple adding video and having that video podcast and now YouTube is coming the other way where these are podcasts now, there's really a blending of the two. So my question to you is as somebody that's doing this at a very high level, are you more concerned with, or do you think the future is more the video views or the audio? You think audio will die out or is the blending of the two or how, is there a way now to move one market to the other? One audience to the other? I think that, I think that it can actually come together because like you said, a lot of the platforms have the video component being added to those platforms like Spotify. Yes. But I do believe that video is the winner. I mean, I'm, I'm biased. Obviously video has been in my background, but the reason because I see that though, is because if you look on everything related to video, Netflix, Hulu, everything. All TV shows now have basically a podcast. That's all they promote. So you go, I don't know about your Netflix or Hulu, but every single section of a show that I literally am like, oh, this is a starred show. Oh, it has a podcast or the podcast populate. Netflix currently, I'm seeing a lot of like sports or celebrity shows, right? But over on Netflix, it's all podcasts which relate to the top shows. So they're pulling it in different directions. And if you see all the celebrities are doing podcasts at this point. So it's pulling the demographic and fans in a way that's like video, video, video. Um, even though maybe like over the years, like we've, cause we've got clients that have like 6 million downloads. Right. And that's on the audio podcast. We took one client this year, which I was super excited about the results that we got her. So we started working with her in September, but she did not focus on video. She actually had 11,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel were like, oh my gosh. I mean, she's, she's smart. She's, she's funny. She's pretty. I was like, why is she? I hate her. How about that? So, so yeah, so she had 11,100 subscribers on YouTube. This was in September and she had about 5 million audio podcast downloads. So we took over both and we said, you have to be on video. And luckily within the first month or so, she actually had one of the video podcast the first in the first three weeks took off so they leveraged our system because she has a format of solo content so it's all like positioning man that's really hard yeah but it was great so she now has for those of you never tried this i'm just gonna throw out there i used to do i used to do depends on how long you want them to be well no i know even even even 10 minutes even 12 minutes like 15 minutes like short like that give adhs yeah i do but the problem is is I found myself watching the clock more than I did watching the content, right? Because I do speak very quickly. Yeah, yeah. And it was like, I'm going to try to drag this out to hit my 12-minute mark. And I just found that, man, I would so much rather extrapolate good information from other people than try to come up with stuff to spill out everywhere. That's what my newsletter is for. I was like, you want to hear that? And we helped her map out. Do the newsletter. Yeah. We help our clients map out for the ones that want to do this. So it's not for everyone. That's hard. It's hard. It'll map out the content, the keywords, everything. So like, here's the topic title. Yeah. And then she'll pull out the bullet points. So this video took off and she was like, this is cool. We're like, okay, now create something very similar. You're going to use these keywords again. So it's almost like a part two. So it helped the channel. She's got almost 25,000 subscribers now. See, it's hard to do that in an interview. That was all organic side too. Yeah. But what I'm saying is it's very difficult to do the, see what's trending keywords. See what's trending. So you have a team that does it for you. Yeah. No, no, no. But then create that content in an interview space. It's very difficult because if you're, if you have organic conversations like I do, I don't know where they're going to go. I'm not planning this around keywords. Solopod. Yeah. You can absolutely script it out. You can build topics and go. It is. But when you have a show like mine, it's really hard to do that. So how do you do that with a show like mine? So typically a lot of the shows that we have, we've condensed them into shorter form shows instead of like an hour long, right? We're like, okay, John, we're going to look at the back of YouTube. what's your average length of your watch time on YouTube for the hour long, right? So if they're like, oh, your average watch time is 22 minutes, right? So like, well, honestly, YouTube's saying like, hey, your episode should actually be 22 minutes. Yeah, no kidding. And then like if it's at a 30% like viewing rate, then YouTube's going to reward you and be like, we're going to suggest you out to like 70%, right? So it's all about the watch time. And so that's why. Is it better on, so here's a question I'm going to ask you then. would it be better on super long form like this to cut it in half and do two 30 minutes two parts yes yes in my in my opinion yes so we've taught a lot of our clients do that so and then there's the clients that literally just record new every day yeah and that's why a lot of our clients like people come into our shows and they'll come in to when we record at sirius xm or other things too all the people are like why do you guys do 22 minutes i was like because we watch the data and we know that. Because that's what the mass says. Yeah, and they're like, well, and then we'll say like, oh, well, we had this really cool guest. Why did that one take off? Let's ask that person to come back for an encore. So that one could be like a good one of like a part two, right? So if that person's suggesting it out or accepts a YouTube collaboration or an Instagram collaboration, we just want to make sure that everyone. I don't get why people go on. Why do you want to put a podcast and then not accept the collaboration? Exactly. What is the point of even doing it? We're not like, yeah, we make sure everybody that comes in here is down to like, we're going to work together on this to make it as good as we possibly can. Well, and I love it because like when you've got the Instagram collaborations, but to YouTube does it now, too, it came out in November. You literally do the collaboration. And because we also manage so many shows and we do podcast booking tours as well. So people work with us at a couple of different capacities. Right. It's like you got the hybrid where we do like both. right so we can match people for your shows or match you on other people's shows um or we do like the full one-stop shop right for content marketing um and some people just start with us like oh i don't want a podcast this is like just like this is not my thing but i want to get on other people's shows and then once they do the podcast tour they're like actually that's kind of fun like you guys can teach me how to like batch record and like do it in time time make it easy because people are busy they're busy founders they're successful a lot of people come to us they built success. They want to build their personal brand at this point. So we're like, we'll batch record or come into the studio and record several with us at once. Or if you have your own studio, record with your, your in-house team and then pass it over to us and we'll do the rest. Right? Like, so it's really just like a convenience. So you guys are cutting the shorts. You guys are doing the editing. Optimizing, uh, editing, posting to social media, sending the collaborations, sending the deliverables, live links all to the guests, like doing all that stuff, even for the ones that have like management for like virtual guests, like the team will be like booking their calendars out. Just like we want people to be able to show up and that's all they have to do for their show. Amen. Amen. Yeah. So that, but yeah, it really just started from like us learning about YouTube and then being able to apply it into a system that was consistent on a weekly front versus like one-off projects. But always, they were always people that had a story to share or data or because people like yourself have these inspiring shows. like you said, you're like, well, how do you leverage it when you have these longer conversations? But that would be one point would be like, maybe split into two parts, like part one, part two, just to get that watch time down. But, but then also look in the back and be like, which of the episodes actually related the most? And was there something significant about those that did the best? Was it because it was a person? Was it because they both talked about a certain topic? Like, was it a success journey in real estate? Yeah. There's so many different There is. It's funny. I talked about this the other day. And I've got, you know, you do this long enough. You make a lot of friends that do it as well because we share guests and do stuff and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And it's the one thing I will refuse to do. And I've seen a lot of my friends do it is not going to just like go for shock value chasing clicks. I'm not going to do it. Like my number one shared YouTube or Instagram thing ever was Kelsey Sharon talking about self-assisted suicide in Canada. right and it was a part it was part of a much greater conversation and it was just a very yeah it was really it was really like whoa clip right like wow and that's my most watched thing and like the tendency would be to be like oh well let's go chase something that's shocking along those values along those lines to try to repeat that process and i'm like look that was a one-off that's not really what i talk about in here we're talking about you know motivating yourself and talk about business and entrepreneurship and so i didn't do that but i see the i see some of my friends that will get like some crazy person on their podcast that says something insane and it does very well. And they're like, oh, let me go find the next crazy person. And I think that one of my biggest problems with this country is I think we're going through this, I've ever seen the movie, of course you have your filmmaker, Idiocracy. Yes. Like I think we're living that. I think we're going through the dumbing down of America at a rapid, rapid rate. And anything I can do, I don't want to be part of that. I want to produce something that is thoughtful and helpful and educational and entertaining at the same time and not just shock value nonsense. Well, I think that's where, that's where other people come in. So I'm not saying, yes, we've, we've got success for people, but then there's other shows that like you want to pay attention to it. And that's when we do suggest the amplification through ads, right? Because not all channels are going to be like, Oh, I had a viral video or something, but you also want to drive people, drive traffic back to content that relates to what you do too. And so a lot of people, when they come to us, like not all of them go viral, but a lot of people stick with us on the consistency factor because we've also taught them how to generate money from the podcast. If it's a direct referral to their show, or if somebody found them because of their show, or, or we taught them to use amplified ads to go back to their offers. They're like, oh, how majority of people come back and be like, oh yeah, I found you through YouTube. And we're like, okay, well, what is that? So we have a whole system where we teach them basically to create the UTM links to track that. So it's like, where did it come from? And you could get so specific where it's like the UTM link for YouTube specifically, it could be Spotify, it could be Apple, things like that. Or you could be like, okay, it came from the podcast. And then that link basically not to like, you know, complicate, but some of them will do like high rows or triple whale and be like, let's track all the stuff. Right. So it depends on where you want to go with that. But the idea for us is to always say like, this is how you can, you can generate ROI. on that. Well, let's talk about that. So when you're talking, obviously to generate that, there's got to be a call to action that sends them somewhere. Is that better in the comments below? Could you coach your clients to have a CTA during the podcast? What do you do? All the above. So it really depends on your format, right? And you don't want to be like, I'm pitching like in the middle of my show and I have a guest, right? Some people have dropped ads. We just took over a show this last week. The guy's had a show for 12 years, but he's got a sales podcast, but he doesn't leverage it in the right way. And we're like so excited because we're like, oh my gosh, you got like 600,000 downloads last month. I was like, okay. And, but you're not getting like clients from this, you know, as this beautiful sales expert. Right. And so, but the whole idea though, is to strategize with the client specifically on what would actually work for their business model. So we do do like monthly, monthly strategy calls too. And certain capacities, these people will hire me to come in and be like, okay let look at the whole overall picture Cause you said like you said you have like your personal brand right You got the show you got real estate So what would that look like Would it be like you know your your personal brand for the YouTube channel Right. But I would say like, well, you want to have like different things under that. It's like your name, but here's escaping the drift. Here's stuff that relates to simply Vegas. You know, it's, it's good to create those different playlists and see what happens there. I think we need completely separate channels for, for a lot of what we do. um just a lot of it has just got to be sick because it's so different yeah um i think that's what happens when you i mean like you would never like you would never look for spacex and and and see tesla on that site exactly exactly it's got its own independent brand that's running so there's yes i just compared myself to elon musk that just happened yes it was a good good comparison yeah there it is there you go just compared but yeah but but it's very dialed into just learning more about the core offers that each individual has like do they have a med spa clinic are they in real estate? Are they a coach? Like what is it? Who's your demographic? Cause that all caters to the strategies that we put. And you guys help them build these funnels if they need them and all that stuff. We do. We actually, we're, we're an affiliate with high level too because we like we've built all of our stuff through everything. And so, but it's cool because you got everything from there from the landing pages to the CRM to the text message, to the newsletters, everything from the podcast tab. So all of it's all inclusive on that side. We do everything in high level. I love it. I love it. It's great. Like literally all of our companies. And we learned to add these types of elements in there after we had shown some sort of success, we would be able to come through and be like, okay, this is what we were able to do. I know that we could do this in this industry. Here's an example of what we've done. Here's a case study on that piece of it. So we'd come in and be like, hey, I know we can help you with this side. What is it your big goals are, right? So it's just matching that. Well, let's talk about scaling your company up. How many people do you have now that are running this thing? I think there's about 22 contractors right now. 22. Yes. You independent contract everything. Everything, except my partner and I, she's co-founded with me. She's also my wife, Danielle. You'll meet her tomorrow. And we are the only two employees through the whole company. Okay, smart. Because you can stretch and expand as you need to. Yes. Which is good. Yes. So we actually cut that down. We had more contractors, but we had hired this individual that he came in and strategized with us. He sold his company for about 70 mil. And we're like, we want to do what you did. He had a media buying agency. Yeah. And so he taught us different things with paid ads. And when we started using paid ads for our amplification process, and we're like, oh, why didn't we do this sooner? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So you guys are buying paid ads on behalf of your clients right now? We are now, yes. So we started leveraging paid ads the last few years to amplify through the channels. We were only doing it for ourselves first. We only go through anything for ourselves first. Then when we were able to scale it, then we're like, oh, I know how to do that for that. Well, I don't know if this is true. I just saw this the other day. I don't know if this is true. But like the years of racking up Amex points on your Google accounts and all those things. The whole like meta thing that just came out? Yeah, they're supposedly going to a billing deal on meta. I heard that this last week and I was like, is this true? So I haven't even had time to like dive into it as well. Which I'm a points junkie. So I'm like, no, I need my airline, you know, no, no, no, no, that, that would throw off the whole game because the majority of our clients use their Amex cards, you know, so do we. And so like, I've got like three over here, you know, like, right. I'm like, so if that was the case, I don't know how successful that they could actually do with actually controlling that type of aspect. I would go, I would go only over to YouTube and Google at that point. I have a buddy of mine that does a hundred million annually. That's amazing. And he literally can go anywhere in the world for free. I'd like to just living on it whenever he wants. It's crazy. And it's just like, I called him and I was like, Whoa, is this real? He goes, they're going to get to me last. And he goes, I promise you they'll get to me last. They're not going to be first. They're going to get to me. Yeah. Yeah. No, I want to dig deeper into that. so I haven't had a chance to like, but I'm like literally looking at it. Like if this is the case, like we're only going to go over to YouTube and Google. Like I'm not going to be able to do like messenger ads. We do a lot like any of that stuff. And we do grateful. The first time we ever did ads, which was kind of crazy. It doesn't happen for everybody. The first $7,000 we spent, we generated about 368,000 back in revenue for the first month. So we're like, okay, what did we just do? Right. That's a great, that's a great return on ad spend. geez. So it happened for a good, like few months, probably four months of a very similar return. And then all of a sudden it kind of like trickled down. And then the leads that were coming through the messenger ads were like, okay, these are not qualified or we're starting to get these different demographics that we weren't before. So then we went in the backend later and we're like, okay, what were the top performing ads? And it wasn't necessarily the top performing ads that actually drove the ones that were more qualified. So we had to do that digging too. So we're like, If you get more leads and they're not qualified, it just makes you have to sift harder. Exactly. That's a problem. So yeah, it's been quite the... It's a science. It really is a science. It's an art and a science, actually. The data, what is the profit? Is it profitable? And is it still working? Is that platform still for you? Or is it YouTube and Google? You have to constantly rotate those ads. You have to constantly update it because what works today gets burned. The lead line gets burned out. They started bringing in carousel posts again. Yeah. Now that's hot. Yep. Again. And that was like last year. I know. Now everybody's doing that. And because you know why? I think because they're so easy to generate with like Claude, like Nana Banana. It's so easy to generate good carousels that it just, it's easy to do. All right. Well, if they want to find you, how do they find you? Well, you can go to broadcastyourauthority.com. Broadcast Your Authority everywhere from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. And then me personally, I love Instagram. Tamra Thompson official is where you can find me. I actually run that. It's not an AI bot like our other ones. Yeah. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Not mine. I'm not on a bot. I'm not a bot. Yeah. I'm the guy that rejects all of your random general inquiries about having me help me rank on podcasts and get me downloads. I'm the guy that tells you no. Yeah, it's actually me telling you that. Dude, how many of those do you get a day? Oh, a lot. It's crazy. It's crazy. Too many to count. I'm like, nope. Next. It's crazy. Okay. Can we talk about it? Cause you're probably an expert in some of this. We're talking about funnels. I'm going to tell you what drives me crazy. What drives me crazy is the, cause you just brought it up before we jump off is the marketing on the messaging marketing on Facebook, where you get some really crappy comments about how inspired they are by what you do or something they said. And you just know the sales pitch is coming. 100%. I'm just like. I hate it. Hey, or some question like, hey, how long you been interested in the real estate biz, right? What do you, like, if you really looked at my profile for one second and even read it, you would know exactly what I do. I got a message the other day. It was literally like, hey, Tamara, I love the fact that you came out with the Women Unlocking Wealth book. And I was like, they're like, have you ever thought about starting a podcast? I was like, oh. Every day. Like read my bio. I was like, Women Unlocking Wealth is a podcast. It's not a book. If you were like, have you ever thought about having a book? I'm like, yeah, of course. I'm like, we're partners with many publishing companies. But yeah, that drives me nuts because I can tell right after my gut, my intuition, everything. Just even the way they approach it. Someone can pay a compliment and then or not pay a compliment and just go into the pitch. Yeah, it's like Eddie Haskell bot. where it's like, oh, you look lovely today. Can I sell you something? No, stop. Just stop it. Like I would rather have, here's what I can do. Here's what I think is going to work for you. Let me know if you're interested. That's it. Exactly. No, I'm a straight shooter. I'm an action taker. I take risks, more so calculated risks now over the years. Because like you said in a previous interview, your wife's an empath. I'm an empath. I learned that over the years too because there were some big deals that I was going into as well, where this one time I was just like, oh, my gosh, no, no, no, no. This guy was so pushy to get into our space and to speak at one of our events. And the guy came out to our event, spoke at the event. I had people leaving the room. Oh, it was terrible. I was like, this is so bad. And he didn't fulfill on his contract where I was going to speak at his event, so the integrity thing fell through. then this feeling happened again last year i was literally like what this this woman approached me and i was like oh this feels like that right back this thing that happened in 2017 yeah and all of a sudden i was like no no no no no glad i said no after i said no the next week this woman launched a book guess who she co-hosted it with oh no the gentleman from 2017. I was like, whoa, that intuition plays into, no. Like crazy stuff happens. My favorite story about the speaker influencer guy is there's a guy in Vegas who remained nameless who puts himself out there as a very successful guy. He lives in Vegas and he speaks a lot and he's always speaking somewhere about influence and whatever he talks about. I'm sure I know him. And you probably do. And he refinanced. So I get a call. Let me back up a little bit. I get a call. Hey, we have a little bit of a problem at one of our title JVs that we built with another broker chair. What's the problem? And the problem is they missed a loan on the payoff. So there's a $40,000 mistake on this. The guy was refinancing his house and got $40,000 too much. Now, keep in mind, when you do anything in a title company, they make you sign an agreement that states if there's anything that's missing from the title report, then, you know, you're going to have to pay it. It's just how it is. If there's a mistake, there's a mistake, right? Nobody's perfect. So it's going back and forth. They're trying to recoup the money, trying to recoup the money, trying to recoup the money. And then in a meeting like three days later, you know, this guy is being very difficult, blah, blah, blah. And at one point I heard his name. And I said, wait a second. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What was his name? They said his name again. I go, I know him. I said, okay, let me make a phone call. So I make it, I sent a text. Hey, person. I said, you know, this is what happened. Obviously, there was another payoff and it was a mistake. And here you go. And, you know, you owe us 40 grand. I just, how do you want to get that back to us? Obviously, you just got too much. Now, keep in mind, this was a person that perpetuates themselves in the marketplace as somebody that's very successful. They were doing a cash out refi on their primary residence, going from a 3% rate to like a 7% rate. That doesn't sound like somebody that's successful to me. That sounds like somebody that needs some damn money, right? That's scrambling, right? Yeah, it does. This dude then hires an attorney to try to sue us saying that he wouldn't have done the refi if he knew that that other loan existed. And now his attorney that was trying to sue us has now dropped it for non-payment. and now his, so now our insurance company is after him. And it's just, it's so insane. And yeah, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to say it on the air, but I've told a bunch of people that story in our circles that do speaking events. I've told a lot of people that story. And yeah, dude, just do the right thing. Don't be a scumbag. Exactly. Because it will get out if you're a scumbag. It absolutely will. So, thanks for coming in, dude. If they want to find just a broadcaster authority, obviously we talked about your socials. If you're interested in learning how to build a personal brand the easiest way, call Tamar. She's awesome. But I'm going to tell you something right now, why you should do this. Here's the simplest thing. There is no greater phrase that I hear from people that I am meeting for the first time in a business setting than this. I feel like I already know you. And they feel like they already know me because they see me all over the place with the podcast or YouTube or my Instagram, and they've watched so much of me or they've gotten an idea of who I am as a person, it makes everything business go easier. So call Tamra. We'll see you next week.