Jeremy Ryan Slate: Co-Founder & CEO of Command Your Brand

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be I want to be, you just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked down knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control. Hi, everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi, everyone. And welcome back to the Kara Goldin show today. I’m absolutely thrilled to have my next guest here we have Jeremy Ryan slate, who is the co founder of command your brand. And he’s an entrepreneur and an expert in harnessing the power of podcasting as well and media to shape personal and brand narratives. So, so smart. He’s also the host of the acclaimed command your brand podcast that you definitely definitely have to listen to. But Jeremy is also an author and a best selling books, you may have seen them hopefully read them called unremarkable to extraordinary, and also command your brand. So whether you’re an entrepreneur, or someone passionate about personal development, Jeremy’s journey from the academic world to media is super, super interesting and inspiring. And I can’t wait to dive in and actually talk to him more about it. So welcome, Jeremy.

Jeremy Ryan Slate 1:42
Hey, thank you so much for having me, Karen. I’ve been grateful to get to tell your story in my book, as well as you have an awesome story. And I’m just grateful to get to spend some time on your show. Well,

Kara Goldin 1:52
thank you, super excited to have you here. So you are an entrepreneur, you’re actually doing a lot of other things. But I view you as somebody who, you know, has started things you and your wife have, have co founded some things together too. But let’s go back a little bit what initially drew you into this life that you’re living now, especially after a background in academia and also theology. So

Jeremy Ryan Slate 2:21
I didn’t intend to be here at all. And it’s funny, because when I look at my story, actually, like earlier in life, and I actually don’t talk about this much at all, I had a newspaper route from the time I was 11 until the time I was 19. And I grew it from 50 customers to 250. And I used to make like five grand at Christmas time every year is like a 15 year old, which was pretty awesome. And then I it’s I just kind of put that part of me away because it My parents always my dad didn’t finish high school. He was he tried to play professional baseball, he had an injury that kind of deterred him. My mom, her dad had cancer, her senior high school, so she ended up not going to college. So for them going to college was like the ultimate thing you had to do. So I put away this idea of building something or doing something cool and just went in to be a teacher. That was my real goal to be a college professor. So I studied at Seton Hall University, and I got my undergrad degree in Catholic theology and Judaism. I was a double major. And then I did I literature program at New College, Oxford, came back and got my master’s in the Roman Empire, which I didn’t think was gonna be a thing until a tick tock trend happened not too long ago. And I ended up teaching at a Catholic school for a couple of years. And I’m almost 40 now. So you can imagine like how young I looked in my early 20s, like those kids had me for lunch because I had sophomores and in high school, I burnt out really, really fast. My mom had a stroke in 2012. And it really just set my whole life on a tailspin. She’s still very disabled to this day. But you know, I’ve had my mom around to see me get married and see me have children. So like, that’s been a really great thing. But it made me look at a lot of the stuff I was doing in my life. I quit my teaching job on a whim. I tried network marketing, I tried life insurance sales. I tried selling stuff on Amazon, and I ended up a podcasting just because I’ve always loved it. I’ve been a fan of Adam Curry’s daily source code back from the first days when podcasting came about. And we had 10,000 listens in our first month and I knew we had something here and that’s kind of where the, the podcasts and the whole company came out of. That’s

Kara Goldin 4:26
amazing. So which came first your PR agency or podcasting, what were you doing? So you love teaching?

Jeremy Ryan Slate 4:32
So for me, I love teaching and I had tried like a number of different things. And I started a podcast literally just on a whim because I just loved podcasts. And I was actually working at a friend’s marketing agency. I had taught myself how to write code from reading blogs and watching YouTube videos. So I was doing I was building websites. And I was building the old school way though, by the way, too, with with Dreamweaver and all that fun stuff. And this podcast took off and I did it for about a year. err, and I don’t know, I had this weird viewpoint on it, like, you know, this is my artwork, and I can’t make money. And I like kind of was like a forcibly making myself a starving artist for a little bit. And I had people start asking me for help. And that’s actually where the company came from. We started as a podcast production company first. And technology has changed so dramatically over the years, it was a lot harder to do in 2014, when we started doing that, and it became the PR firm later, when what we’re actually doing because my wife’s backgrounds in PR, as we were launching these new shows, we were getting our clients and other podcasts to tell people about them. And a lot of our clients were busy CEOs and founders were like, you know, having the show is great. But I’d love to just go on podcast, we got rid of the 80% that they didn’t like and kept the 20 they did. And really just focusing on that has been a big deal, because we’ve been able to grow a really cool niche brand.

Kara Goldin 5:51
So interesting. So command your brand. What, what does it mean to you? How would you describe it to people where it is today?

Jeremy Ryan Slate 6:00
Well, I think it’s changed a lot over the years. Because when I look at it, you know, initially it was just you know, we’re going on podcasts or having conversations. And I think this is a great way to communicate people, hey, it’s like radio. And I think with where we’re at now, we’re kind of at the birth of something brand new that hasn’t really existed before. And it’s really this whole new media sphere. And you’re seeing places like YouTube and rumble and audio podcasts. So it’s to me it’s become more about creating this brand new medium as we’re seeing legacy media kind of fall away. And I don’t think I don’t think it’s exactly dying. But I think it’s losing a lot of relevance. And this is the place that big conversations are having now. So I look at what I what I’m doing. It’s about facilitating conversations that need to happen. Sometimes people are told that these conversations shouldn’t even happen, right. And I think that’s what we’re really help people to do is have conversations that need to be had. Because we need to get to better ideas. And the only the only do that by having better conversations.

Kara Goldin 6:53
So interesting. So you just mentioned YouTube, like how are people using YouTube for podcasting today versus maybe a few years ago when it was like a whole different space? Not that it wasn’t a relevant space. But more and more people are using YouTube today to kind of get their messaging out there and their podcast out there too.

Jeremy Ryan Slate 7:15
Well, I think it’s changed. First of all, I think there’s a lot of podcasts purists like I was for a very long time, you know, don’t get me wrong, like I was so into the audio of it. And so into the proper sound. And I think there’s a lot of people in the podcast world that are having the same change I’m having. When you look at YouTube, it’s like the number two search engine out there after Google. So if you’re not doing a video podcast, even if people aren’t listening to you on that video podcast, I still use the native Apple podcast app on my phone. It’s just how I listen to podcasts. But it’s how people discover and find you. So if you’re not there, you’re hurting yourself. And I think what used to happen is a lot of people would do kind of the static image with the audio behind it and call it a YouTube video when it’s not right. It’s not a video podcast. So I think what’s happened is, people have started to do more on YouTube and a lot of AI tools now to have made this more attainable because for us, we’ve cut about 80% of what it actually costs us to produce a podcast out by I think we use five or six AI tools to help us do that. So it’s become a lot more attainable. It’s a big search engine. And in January of this year, YouTube actually added the ability now through YouTube music, to have an RSS feed directly to podcasts. So they’re really pushing hard to get people into this world. And I think, you know, the video aspect is important because it is how a lot of people maybe they’re not, they don’t care about the best quality video, but they want to be able to see people’s reactions, see what the conversation looks like. And it’s just the discoverability aspects are incredible. What

Kara Goldin 8:44
do you do? Are you actually taking your entire each episode and putting it on? Are you doing clips through AI and etc.

Jeremy Ryan Slate 8:52
So we’re doing both like and number one, we’re live streaming them as well, because we find that even if they’re just as a premiere right there, so the premiere versus a live stream. So a live stream is you’re actually doing it live or as a premiere is you’re posting a video at the same same a certain time. And they’re playing it as if it’s alive. So it’s a similar type of experience. So we’re finding that our audience comes to our channel at the exact same time every day to see a video. So typically, we’re going to have at nine o’clock every night, we’re going to have a brand new episode is going to come out. So it is changing where people are actually putting you into their schedule. And I think I think that’s kind of important. But I think the other aspect of it as well is your giving people more ways to find you. We’re not doing a lot of short form content, because what we’ve actually found is YouTube looks at at a channel and they’ll say this is a short channel versus a long form channel. So if we’re doing shorts, we’re doing like maybe one a day at the most because you can get categorized and you can see your view duration start to go down. But we’re doing really the full episode and then just some short form stuff to create discoverability for the full episode. And frankly when I’m looking at my show We’re really focusing on YouTube as our main platform now, because we’re pushing video really hard because I find it’s easier to grow than audio podcasts.

Kara Goldin 10:06
So interesting. And then you’re actually you’re using a different RSS feed into YouTube.

Jeremy Ryan Slate 10:12
So that’s if people want to subscribe to it that way, you know, really what I’m just doing is promoting my channel. And I do the same thing for Rumble is, you know, we’re promoting youtube.com/you know, whatever the channel might be. So it does change the way you talk about it a little bit. I’m not personally promoting the RSS feed. I know other people may be on their shows, but it is a newer feature that YouTube added in January this year. That’s

Kara Goldin 10:32
awesome. I noticed on you and I are both using Riverside, I noticed that they’re now streaming as well, if you started, I think it’s just in beta, right? They’re just starting to use that.

Jeremy Ryan Slate 10:44
So I’m not using Riverside for streaming, we’re still I still use stream yard for streaming. And I use Riverside for recording because what I’ve found and I’m hoping they change this in the future, is you still have to like for every individual broadcast, you have to reconnect it to the to the correct YouTube channel and reconnect it to your correct Rundle channel. Whereas if I go to streaming, right, I just do a little tick box. I’m good to go. So for ease of use, we’re still using stream yard for for streaming as we’re using Riverside for recording. Interesting.

Kara Goldin 11:11
Well, hopefully Riverside. Have you seen that on Riverside yet? I just started seeing it in the last couple of days.

Jeremy Ryan Slate 11:18
So I connected it and gave it a try. And I haven’t exactly. You know, it’s not quite there yet, I guess is what I found. But I’m sure it’ll get better.

Kara Goldin 11:27
Yeah, over time. So you mentioned AI. And obviously, that’s the hot topic for everybody, including people who don’t know anything about it. I think that it’s it’s this mystery of, you know, what should I be doing with it? Obviously, people, I think there’s, there’s people that are afraid of it. There’s people who are, you know, it’s thinking that it’s going to take over the world. And then there’s other people who are somewhere in between that I feel like there’s some good aspects of it. There’s some tools that can be taken, certainly for podcasting, and social content and research and all of those areas for sure. There’s some benefits there. But you mentioned tools like five tools that you use, what are those five that you find really, really useful that are out there?

Jeremy Ryan Slate 12:18
So I will say first of all, I don’t think we’re headed towards an AI apocalypse, I think people go a little over the top, and less my computer at some point tells me to get get them John Connor, then I don’t think we’re really in trouble. But I think when we look at AI, I think that there’s some people that have been really lazy with it. I heard about somebody recently that got themselves disbarred, because they tried to use chat GPT to write case law that didn’t actually exist. And they got in a whole bunch of trouble around that. But what I think you’re going to find is, you’re going to find that people are going to use AI to become more productive, and people that are already good at something are going to use AI to become better, right? I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s a massive leap forward for people that aren’t willing to put in the work and put in the time. So I think it’s for people that are already working hard at something to make your time more productive. And I think to the thing that’s interesting is I feel like it’s kind of like when the crypto craze hit the world, people are trying to use the buzzword AI for things that aren’t even AI, because there’s a lot of algorithms and other things out there that aren’t exactly AI but like, Hey, if you say it has made people believe you know, when you look at podcasting, for us, there’s a couple tools that we really use, and some of them may be AI and some of them may not be but one of them that I absolutely love is called Auto pod. And auto pod is a plugin for Premiere Pro that we can actually run. And what we do is we take a video and this is why we use Riverside, we use a video of the host video, the guests, and then a side by side of the guests and hosts. And if you put all three of those tracks in the auto pod and have them trimmed to the same length, it’ll actually take them to make a interview that goes back and forth between the guests, the host a side by side, depending on who’s talking. And it’s really cool because it feels more like a television broadcast. Now, there’s another tool that I really love, too, because sometimes, and I’ve done this before Kara, I don’t know if you’ve done this, I’ve recorded an entire podcast episode with my mic disconnected. So then I’m basically recording on my computer microphone, which sounds terrible, and didn’t realize it till I got to the end. So Adobe has a great tool, and it’s in beta, but it’s really good. It’s called Adobe enhance. And it’s in their podcast solver, suite of tools. And you can actually put in a file that wasn’t recorded on Mike. And it’ll make it sound almost like it was recorded on Mike. It’s a really, really useful tool for bad audio. Another one that we use after we’ve gotten the editing done in auto pod is we run all of our videos through video.ai. And what that does is that figures out what are the shorts, what are the reels? What are the segments, because I think the thing that’s cool too is you know, we do full episodes we do short but there’s also kind of those five to 10 minute segment pieces that people really like on YouTube that are on a certain topic. So this will find those that are more like the chapter size and we can use those too. So that’s been a really, really good one. Video bolt is another great one. It’s not really an AI I tool, but it’s something we use to make a lot of our overlays our video intros and outros, and you kind of put those together really fast. And then the one we also use the most. And even if we use a an image in Photoshop, we still run it through the new version of Canva. As well, the new version of Canva is incredible. The ability to edit text that’s within an image, or to fully erase something from a photo. So we use that a lot. If we’re even going to prepare a file to go in Photoshop or run it in Canva. First to do certain things to it that we can’t do in Photoshop.

Kara Goldin 15:32
That’s a great way to use it as well. I just find like AI, too, I think you have to certainly be careful about, you know, how you’re using, you know, chat GPT in general. But I think that if you’re curious about something, it’s almost like having a conversation with somebody ahead of time, right, that you’re, you know, sort of looking at a few different I’ve taken transcripts from other shows, and really tried to figure out, you know, different areas where there was a lot of content. So in order to sort of have a conversation with somebody based on a topic that I’ve found that they’ve been able to talk about. So again, like I think that there’s stuff that I found through chat GPT that would take me hours and hours and hours, even just a few years ago to do research on people compiling multiple pieces where you can put them all into chat GPT and really see that there’s kind of a story that’s telling there. And I think like that’s the other piece too, that you know, if you can bring up topics, if you can drill into things that content where people have not heard before, they’re more likely to be able to keep coming back to your show, whether it’s on YouTube, or whether it’s, you know, an audio version on Apple or whatever it is.

Jeremy Ryan Slate 16:52
Well, I think the character limit on chat TPT has been one limitation. So there’s actually a tool that we use that’s around that. So you have to have an open AI account, but it’s called GPT, for works for work. So it’s GPT for sheets and Docs. And what this says is it uses chat GBT and a Google Doc. And what I’ve been able to do is take a and the cut off somewhere around 45 minutes, I’ve kind of found like, past that the file is too big. Because chat GPT is only like 500 words that can look at at a time, what I’ve been able to to do is take a transcript that’s up to 45 minutes and say, All right, summarize this transcript for me into 10 talking points, or based on this transcript, write a really good headline for me. Or another way that we’ve really used it as like, let’s say we get a client that comes on board. And they don’t have an executive summary of their book, which if you’re trying to promote somebody that can be a pain in the book. So we’ll say okay, chapter by chapter, right mean executive summary of this book. So you’ve been, we’ve been able to do a lot of really cool things to kind of speed up things that will be hours and hours and hours, to give us some really useful data using GPT. For

Kara Goldin 17:56
work. So interesting. So what are your you’re just putting in the links to all of these different transcripts, and then it will. So

Jeremy Ryan Slate 18:03
what it is, is the plugin for Google Drive, so you have to have it, you know, integrated in Google Drive. And then what you can do is like, for example, in Riverside, when it gives you the transcript of and add an end of an interview, we’ll download that as a txt file, copy and paste the text file into the Google Doc. And then you can write the prompt right in the Google Doc. And it’ll basically spit out the data you’re looking for. So

Kara Goldin 18:23
interesting. So how about like, SEO today? What are your thoughts on SEO? I’ve heard people going back and forth on this like that. It’s not very useful for people finding content. I mean, you just talked about YouTube, and how people are using it more and more research. I mean, like, where do you think people should be focusing on especially if they want to command their brand, whether it’s their own, you know, brand, or a company brand? What are your thoughts on SEO today?

Jeremy Ryan Slate 18:54
Well, I think, you know, number one, SEO is something that’s changed a lot. You know, if you look back at, you know, the early 2000s, you could put a word 50 times in the background and have it in white. So it looks like it’s part of the background and be like, Oh, it’s this many times on the page. So you could rank high on a page. But I think the thing that’s changed now is number one, the authority of your site, you know, is your site giving good authoritative content? And then how are people actually using this data? I think that’s what’s important. When people have looked at tools like chat, GPT and other AI tools, they’re trying to, you know, write blog posts, and do content and do things that aren’t useful. And that’s why Google has gotten really smart about this. They’re looking at what’s a good authoritative piece that’s going to help somebody. So I think when you are putting together content or doing things online, and you want to get found, you have to number one, it has to be human, because you could get in a lot of trouble now with a lot of the changes that are changing in Google where they could, I don’t know if they’re actually going to blacklist your site, but they’re going to down rank you, you know, if you’re using a lot of AI texts in order to rank. So it still goes back to the human touch, you know, good quality content. And how does Google look at it? They look at it, is it authoritative? Is it useful and how are people using it? So if you can create content that that that’s that way, you’re going to have legs. And I think as well, the people that concentrate more on this are going to win even more. Because other people are getting lazy with trying to make everything AI or not write as much or, you know, do things in a different way. So if you really double down on good, authoritative content that helps people, and also answers questions, I think that’s one of the number one things you should be doing is, what are the FAQs that come up frequently about my business? And those are the things you should be writing content around to help people. And when you do that Google is going to classify you in the right way? If you don’t, you know, I think that’s you’re really looking at at SEO the wrong way.

Kara Goldin 20:36
So when you are building that out, where are you doing that? I mean, where where do you think they’re gonna grab that information from? Is there any specific place? Or do you think it’s everywhere? I mean, in lots of different locations.

Jeremy Ryan Slate 20:52
It’s a mix of different places, I think one, it used to be called Help a Reporter, I don’t know what they changed the name to now, but they just changed it recently. But basically, it’s media sources, looking to write about people and looking for authoritative sources. So that’s one thing you should always be doing is contributing in different places in different niches that have to do with your brand. You know, whether it’s writing for publications, whether it’s writing for company blogs, you know, maybe it’s you’re writing for Mind Body green, or something like that, whatever it might be. That’s one part of it. How are you dealing with content in your niche? But then you have to think about when people are coming to your site, what are they learning from you. So the other part is education on your own site, and having really good quality content in your own site. And then another leg of it as well is, are you going on other media sources, whether that’s podcasts, whether that’s television shows, whether that’s, you know, guest posting, another part of that is what type of content you contribute on other platforms. To me, all of these things combined to create a good footprint. It’s not just one thing. And I think far too often people want to have, you know, this good paid media placement program, or, you know, just the right SEO person, when you look at it, it’s actually a mix of having the right stuff. There isn’t a shortcut, you know, it’s contributing to blogs and sites within your niche, writing good content on your own site, but then also doing the right media appearances. So you have to be doing all of those things.

Kara Goldin 22:12
Yeah, no, I think that’s so key. I feel like it’s going back to sort of the the old days of of purchasing media, I guess, I way long ago, I worked at CNN. And so I was used to hearing about reach and frequency. But I think to some extent, it’s kind of the same thing that you’re talking about, because you have to be in lots of different locations where people are going to see it. And it’s not just about focusing on, you know, one platform or one audience.

Jeremy Ryan Slate 22:42
What I think people have gotten too stuck in like, alright, well, I did this one media appearance, and I didn’t get any leads, or I didn’t get any sales, whatever it might be. And you have to understand you’re building an ecosystem. And when you’re building an ecosystem, you’re appearing in a lot of right places. So then when you also do your marketing, people are aware of you, they know who you are saying that your marketing is more effective. And you’re actually going to see a bigger effect from it. But I think far too often people want to make everything. And I don’t know, I don’t know what’s changed their viewpoint on this, or maybe they always had this viewpoint. But I think people think that everything they do has to turn into a lead, when a lot of it is helping people to make mind shifts, changing the playing field you’re playing on and then playing the game. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 23:21
definitely. So I’ve heard you talk about common misconceptions about podcasting. I’ve had so many people say to me, like, I don’t even know what the podcasts that are out there that people should be on. I mean, maybe I shouldn’t even do it. I think it’s for anybody trying to build their own brand, or get better known, I guess, is another way to look at it. But also get your company better known and, and hear kind of real talk about what you care about. And you know, it’s like long form conversation versus maybe sort of other media channels out there. But what do you think people think podcasting is and kind of the misconceptions that are out there? But

Jeremy Ryan Slate 24:06
I think number one, I think everybody thinks they’re gonna be Joe Rogan in like a week, right? Like, they’re gonna have these long conversations with a bunch of inside jokes, and everybody’s going to want to listen to and I think for 99.9% of people, that’s not going to be the way I think when you’re looking at what is a podcast do I think sometimes a podcast in itself can be a business, but for most people, it’s not going to be it’s the front end trust vehicle for what you’re already doing. You know, it creates that know like and trust factor. And it works different ways for different brands. I know Trader Joe’s does a really great job with doing a show that covers different products, which I love to shop at Trader Joe’s so I want to know what they have and what their products are like. But then if you look at other shows, you know, maybe they’re interviewing CEOs and founders because you want to learn more about people in that sphere. So different brands are doing it different ways. And there’s no right way or wrong way. And I think that’s a really important thing thing to learn as long as it services the end listener But I think far too often, you know, people think they’re going to start this podcast is going to be huge in a couple of weeks, you know, whether it’s a guest or host. So I think you have to understand this as a, something you’re committing to, whether it’s six months, or whether it’s a year, and you’re really going to get out there and educate people, because it’s podcasts are primarily an education platform. And I know the fight between PR and marketing has been like, kind of since the beginning of time. But and maybe this is, because I’m a PR person, I think that podcasts are primarily a PR vehicle, you’re getting people to have certain thoughts, ideas and beliefs about your brand. And you’re making them a better educated consumer, whether they’re ever going to work with you, or they’re going to tell other people about you. So I think when you’re looking at podcasts, that is the number one thing people don’t understand, is it’s kind of this trust and PR vehicle for business you already have, so that people are either better qualified to work with you, or better qualified to tell others about you. And you shouldn’t be, you know, primarily an educator.

Kara Goldin 25:57
Yeah. Well, and also if they’re a guest, too, I think that a lot of what you said it, it applies as well. I mean, what do you want to get out there for people that maybe you’re not going to be able to do in a typical, I don’t know, New York Times business section, where somebody else’s writing it to, right, like,

Jeremy Ryan Slate 26:18
that’s really important point, because I think when you look at it, like traditional media has always been like, you know, 600 words, or a three minute media spot. And I think that the thing that’s really cool about podcasting, especially if you’re going on shows, is really having long form conversations where you can have your ideas challenged, and have to defend ideas, and you’ll hopefully develop better ideas, and really become the educator. Because I think when you do that, when you become the educator, and this is why I’ve been telling my my employees the last three years, like we are first and foremost an education company, because if we are helping people to be more effective and more causative, well, maybe they’re not going to do business with us personally. But there enough people will know us that they will want to do business with us. So

Kara Goldin 27:00
you’ve experienced significant pivots and in your career, even changing your podcast, you went from having a very successful podcast and then decided to break it into two different podcasts. You and I were talking about that. But can you share a moment when you thought, Okay, I’ve got to make the shift now. And you know, maybe you have to share this with your team around the reasons to why you have to adapt, and maybe market conditions are changing. Or maybe you see this point where it’s like, it’s time, right? We’re like that inflection point where you’ve got to make that shift. Can you talk a little bit about that? Like, when? When is the right time to do that?

Jeremy Ryan Slate 27:45
Well, I think too, it’s understanding how the media cycle works, right? Sometimes when a media cycle opportunity pops up, you have to jump on it, right? Because, you know, when you look at getting big media places, placements, a lot of times it’s about really big, really big and really timely ideas. You can have a big idea at the wrong time, or you can be at the right time and have the you not have a big enough idea. And I think that’s been kind of the thing. So for us, this thing popped up. And I’ve done a lot of podcasts. I’ve had a lot of conversations, but I’m doing some of the biggest, you know, conversations I’ve ever had now in the last couple of months. And that’s because this thing popped up on Tik Tok. How often do men think about the Roman Empire? And number one, it was figuring out? How do we get placements like this? Right? So initially, I was making a lot of these pitches myself, and we started to have a lot of like tier one media hits from from men thinking about the Roman Empire. But then we had the problem of, well, how do we number one? How do I teach my team to communicate about this? Because, you know, they don’t understand how Rome works versus America. And they didn’t take Latin for 13 years and stuff like that. And we got that handled, but then you run into the problem of okay, cool. We’ve got it going. We’ve got it moving. Now, how do we make this relevant to our business? And I think too often people want to have the business conversation first, which you know, sure you’re running a business you want to, but sometimes you have to take the motion, figure out how to use the motion, and then figure out how to twist the motion to yourself. And that’s been kind of the interesting thing. So what we’ve ended up talking in a lot of podcasts is talking about Rome, we talk about America, and now we’re talking about, well, how do you command your empire, right and commanding your empire brings you into commanding your brand. But I think too often people want to have the softball thrown up there of like, hey, somebody wants to talk to you about your business? Well, that’s great. But that’s not how the media cycle works. You have to find something in the media cycle, grab that opportunity. And if it’s a fit for you, it might not be a fit for you, you run with it. And then you figure out how to use that motion to benefit yourself.

Kara Goldin 29:35
Hmm, no, that’s, that’s so true. So the two podcasts that you have now you touched on this, but can you share a little bit more about the the focus on on each of them and how they’re really different? Yeah,

Jeremy Ryan Slate 29:50
well, I look at it for myself, like I’ve always been like somebody into history and politics and culture. And I’ve wanted to have a lot of those conversations and I found my original audience, they were Like me, but they weren’t as interested in those conversations. And they still wanted to have those, you know, branding and Business Growth conversations with me. And when I looked at that, number one, for years, I’ve called My show create your own life. And my audience never called it that because they always just remembered my name. And so we went with shifting to just calling the show my name, but then we about a year ago broke off a different show called the command your brand show, where I get to have these business growth conversations, these big idea conversations, which it is a different audience, but you know, you don’t you want to give people what they want, not forced them to give them something else, because they’re gonna leave. So for me, it was figuring out how to have the conversations I want to have, but give people the place where they could experience just those conversations. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 30:43
no, it’s, it’s really, really great. So I think about this question as a as my, my kids are a little bit older than yours, yours are, and we’ve been having many conversations, as I have a few graduates from college now and trying to figure out what they’re going to do with their life, as well as one who’s still in college. And I think back I find myself, I should say, thinking back a lot on sort of things that and opinions I have today that I didn’t have back then Right? You know, it’s my favorite one is, you know, when I was graduating from college, I was a journalism major with a finance minor. And so and I thought, just like you were, you know, I’m gonna go into a job. And then that’s going to be it. Right, I couldn’t see beyond that point. And I think today, most of the most interesting, I would go as far as to say happiest people I know, are ones that have actually made pivots and shifts along the way, and really are in touch with sort of what they wanted to do when they woke up every single day. And that’s something that I’ve really been pushing on my own kids and any of their friends that will listen to me as they start to think about, you know, what they’re going to do with their career. But what kind of advice would you give to people today, sort of knowing what you know about your journey, when you think back on, you know, those, those, you know, moments where you were thinking, Okay, I’ve got to go do this? Because I’m, you know, I’ve got this education I’ve got, I’ve been doing this for a long time. So of course, I’ve got to keep doing it. But what what do you know about Jeremy today that maybe you didn’t know, and what’s worked for you? So

Jeremy Ryan Slate 32:29
I think the thing that’s interesting is number one, like, I don’t put as much valid value on college as I used to, because I think when you look at, like even a lot of the careers that work that exists nowadays, like you can’t go to school for a lot of the careers that exist now. But I think so I think my perspective on college, this is coming from somebody with an advanced degree, like, it doesn’t matter as much as it used to. Because if you look at it, I think one of the biggest things missing in the work world nowadays and is apprenticeships, not an internship and apprenticeship, they still do it in trades. But in a lot of places, you would work under somebody for a period of time, and it served the same purpose as the seminary did, you know, number one, to either do that thing or have the discernment to not do that thing. So I think getting a job that maybe doesn’t require college, and you can get some real life skills and experience to me, I think has a ton of value. But at the same time, I look at all the things that have failed at Kara. And I’ve learned something from each one of those things. So I don’t think they’re necessarily a failure. So when you look at that, I think you have to be okay with failing, but you have to fail fast and figure out what you’re going to learn from that and figure out how to move on I think far too long, far, far too many times. We stick with something that is failing. We know it’s failing. We know we can’t change it. But we for some reason have identified with this thing. And we have to fail with it. I think you have to look look at something for what can you learn from it? What can you get out of it? And if it’s not going well, like sure it doesn’t mean you should quit on things. But if it’s not going well and you don’t see a future in it, well you figure out how to pivot from that. I think, to me, that’s one of the most vital things I’ve learned.

Kara Goldin 33:59
Yeah, no, I think that’s that’s a really, really great advice. I still go back to I remember my dad when I moved to New York, right after college and and, you know, had an apartment and, and, you know, bought a couple peed, I think I bought a bed and a chair like I didn’t have that much furniture and I was like, Am I making the right decision? And, you know, my dad always viewed things as like, if you had to walk away tomorrow, if you had to go get a plane ticket and get out of there and you know, maybe break your lease or whatever, how much money are you really going to be out and can you recover? And only you can kind of answer that question. But if I think that’s the thing, like if you don’t really have that much anyway, and you’re taking a risk, and you’re gonna go and and just try something, try and figure out like what’s the worst that can happen? Yeah, Right. And it might be monetary it might be you wasted your time. But I think it’s it’s taking that chance. And, you know, trying to fail fast, I guess is is another piece of this. But I think that that is, you know, really the key thing that I think you and I have both seen in life and have had fun doing it. So can

Jeremy Ryan Slate 35:20
I add one more thing to that too? Because I think yeah, I think it’s important. Yeah, I think it’s also learning like, your only real security is in yourself and your own skill set and your own ability, right? economies will change, culture will change, relationships will change. But if you can continue to, you know, in your own ability to make decisions and your own ability to do that, make that the thing that you put attention on, I think you’re gonna win more than you’re gonna lose you then you’re gonna lose, you know?

Kara Goldin 35:47
Yeah, definitely. You obviously are, you know, very motivated. You’re constantly learning new things. Where’s your biggest new source today for things that are new and interesting for you? Like, where do you find yourself learning about, you know, things that you didn’t know about yesterday. So

Jeremy Ryan Slate 36:10
there’s three different places I spend way too much time on x. I listened to a lot of podcasts like I listen to a lot of podcasts. But I’m also a huge audible fan and I have been forever I am listening to audiobooks while I’m doing anything, like I built. I built a new I took a whole bunch of like pallets like he used to stack boxes on I built a pallet fence around my barn, it came out super cool. But I’ve been listening to a book about the Roman Empire. While I’ve been doing that, like to me, like, I’m always finding space to learn when I’m doing something else. And a lot of it comes from podcasts and a lot of it comes from audiobooks. You know, I spent a lot of time on Audible.

Kara Goldin 36:45
What’s your favorite podcast these days outside of yours and mine? So?

Jeremy Ryan Slate 36:50
Well, it depends on what I want to get information on. So like, Dan Jones has a really great one called This is history. There’s an I listened to Tim cast IRL, daily. It’s a very good show. I still listen to no agenda with the pod father himself, Adam curry 15 years in. So it’s, I have a few shows that I listen to often. And then a lot of times I go look for topics like hey, I’m looking for a podcast about Roman citizenship, or I’m looking for a podcast about the change from paganism to Christianity. So like, often I’ll look for topical things in addition to having my like, typical daily or by daily lessons,

Kara Goldin 37:27
is there any on AI if people really want to learn about things around AI that you’ve that you’ve found that you think is is relevant? So

Jeremy Ryan Slate 37:37
there’s actually a guy I follow on YouTube for that. His name is Dr. Jay Feldman. He’s got a channel called lead gen J. And he does so many different AI tools and stuff like that. So he’s one of my favorite ones to go see what’s Jay doing right now, because he’s just really ahead of the curve on things. He

Kara Goldin 37:51
I have watched that as well. And he’s really, really great. So it’s awesome. Well, thank you again, Jeremy. And command, your brand is super terrific. So everyone’s got to have a listen to that, but just overall, follow you. And we’ll have all the info in the show notes too. But thank you again, and thanks, everyone, for listening.

Jeremy Ryan Slate 38:12
Thank you so much for having me.

Kara Goldin 38:14
Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would, please give us a review. And feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit and of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin. I would love to hear from you too, so feel free to DM me. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book undaunted, where I share more about my journey including founding and building hint. We are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now.