From Podcasting to the United Nations - Dylan Welch on Media, Leadership & Impact

This is the beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Ross. Dylan, welcome to the show. Hey, what's up, Sebastian? How are you? I'm doing well, man. Good to see you again. I know that we met at Summit at Sea. For those of you listening have no idea what that is. That's 2,000 wild and crazy founders, entrepreneurs, business owners. Very much a conscious, aware community. Lots of yoga, lots of breath work. But Dylan and I found ourselves on that ship for four days, and it was a good time, wasn't it? Yeah, it was a blast. You meet a lot of people, but, you know, I enjoyed meeting you. And we kept, like, running into each other and just kind of became friends from that, and I'm glad we're able to continue the conversation and friendship after summit and have this conversation right now. I. I'm grateful to be on the show. Yeah, I mean, I'm grateful to have you here. And thanks for taking some time out of your data to. To hang out. Had I not gone to that speed networking event on the ship, we wouldn't have met. And I was kind of like, I don't know, there's a lot of people in here. Maybe not. And I left and came back a couple times. And then one of the first conversations I had was with you. And we immediately found a common denominator of. Of podcasting. And you said, you know, I'm on this ship because of my podcast. I interviewed the. The new CEO and invited me to be on it. And I thought, you know, podcasting continues to kick doors open. Doesn't really does. Yeah, I mean, I'm a huge advocate for business owners, or not even business owners. Anyone with an interesting hobby that wants to be creative and get themselves out there or just have someone, you know, fun conversations to start a podcast. It opens up so many doors. It opened up literally the door for me to get onto Summit for free, which was great. They hooked it up. And that's one of the perks, is you build relationships, you can trade, you can make money off of it, you can learn from people. And here we are having this conversation. So if I never started this podcast, never would have, would have, or a podcast never would have been on Summit, never would have met you, never would have been having this conversation. Yeah, I slipped on that one. I should have interviewed him. I got on the ship, saved myself 10 grand. My goodness. So I love telling people stories on this show and for context for our listeners, I like going back to the beginning of the story. Now the Beginning's different for everybody. So you decide where the beginning point was for you. But bring us back for a minute from, to when you first got started and what really brought you to, to, to present day. And of course, we'll, we'll chat about the podcast as well. Well, it all started with my parents meeting back. No, I'm just kidding. I'll start with the, I'll start with like the media world. So I've always been very fascinated about media, about communications, how it connects us, how we can learn from it, how we can influence people, how you can, you know, build billion dollar companies from it, and how quickly it's rapidly changing with technology. So I studied that in college. I got a job in California working as a television producer. I'm kind of like a business tech finance talk show. And at the time it was great, but we were streaming, not even streaming. We're airing on like 8am local news time. And I kind of was trying to pitch to the owners of the company. I was like, you know, we got to be more digital. No one's tuning in at 7am to watch a TV show. Like, people are on their phones scrolling and they were making money at the time, they were pretty complacent. I was like the young ambitious guy. And so I just saw this opportunity to go out on my own and start a digital media consulting company. And so I started getting clients. I'd help them, you know, build up an online presence. And I realized that I was doing it for all these other clients, but I wasn't really doing it for myself. And so I started my podcast and I really started it as a way to open up doors for new potential clients. Like, if you just cold call a company or you cold email a CEO, they get a million of those a day. No one's going to answer you back. That's what I quickly realized. I was like, I got to come up with a better idea of how I can do this. So when I started my podcast, even though it didn't have a ton of episodes or a ton of reach, just having it switched that power dynamic. When I would reach out to a company I wanted to work with or a CEO I wanted to build a relationship with. And I said, hey, I'm the host of this show. I want to invite you to come and be a guest. They would say yes, more often than not. So now all of a sudden, I'm opening these doors, having these conversations, and I just kind of went all in on the media channel that I built and slowly kind of faded out, the media consulting because there's just so much more scalability, opportunity to build your own personal brand. And then over time, you know, things have changed. As an entrepreneur, you, you know, try to forecast trends, you change things, you mix it up, you try things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I ended up selling my previous media company about a year and a half, two years ago. I took on a full time job for about six months, realized that wasn't really what I enjoyed doing, and went back to my podcast, my media channel, and now I'm doing that pretty much full time now. Love it, Love it. So for those of you listening, podcasting can be a job. It is, yeah, it can be. It is, yeah, it's, it's a fun job. It's like, you know, it's something that can make you money, but it also, you get to have really interesting conversations. You learn new skills while you're doing it. So I kind of look at it as like I'm getting paid to talk to people that I would literally pay to talk to. So it is a job, but it's also a fun job. There's had a lot worse jobs, but like anything, you know, you have to put in a little bit of sweat equity, a little bit of energy to get something off the ground. But that's like any business, that's like anything that you want to build to represent you, you got to, you know, you got to start somewhere and you got to put in that time and that effort and you know, you're going to hit roadblocks, you're going to want to stop, but you power through those. And then eventually, you know, that moment momentum builds and builds and then it opens up new opportunities that you never would have imagined in the first place. What's the name of the show? My podcast is called the Intelligence Report and I interview global leaders trying to do positive things for the planet. Love it. And, and have you been able to monetize it? So I monetize my, my podcast a few different ways. So I also have a news website where we write articles. I have a social media channel where we post news and clips and things like that. And I also have an event that I do every year. So how I've kind of found the best way to monetize it is to stack all of those things together and offer these kind of like thought leadership packages. So I work with a select group of companies, they sponsor my event, they get to speak at my event throughout the year. They come on the podcast, we share those clips on social media. And we're pretty selective of who those companies are that we work with. So it's not just like anyone can come and do it. It has to kind of align with our mission, align with our brand. And we basically use our media channel to help them build their brand, build their business. And we provide them kind of that third party validation that says, hey, the CEO of this company is doing really great things. Let's share what they're working on, let's share their story. And if you know you're interested in working with them, great, here's their website. Go click it and support them as well. So that's how we've monetized it. And that's just come really through trial and error over time. Like obviously if you have, you know, the number one podcast in the world, you're going to get hit up all the time with potential sponsors and opportunities to monetize it. But when you're building it, you have to start somewhere. I mean, you want to start somewhere, you want to start monetizing it if you can. And that's how I've found is by kind of stacking those different things has allowed me to increase the amount of money I can charge because they're getting more value from what they're paying for versus just like a 30 second commercial in a podcast. They're getting this whole yearly package and we establish them as the best in their business. Yeah, I like how you stacked everything together and kind of integrated it as a, as a solution. Because not only is it, is it several different deliverables for the client, guest speaker, D all the above, but there's several different opportunities for exposure for them through what you're actually doing. You mentioned the newsletter, you got the podcast, you got the event out there. And I'd venture to, to assume that that then creates some interest around other people that want to be a guest on the show, that want to speak at the event. I know my ears perk up when I hear about opportunities like this because that's my world on where it's at. Has that, has that started to happen for you? Yeah, definitely. And that's what's really interesting about kind of like the marketing advertising world is when you're a business, you have to be so many places all the time. You have to have a good website, you have to be on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, you have to have, you know, do PR, you have to do speaking. And a lot of times for especially, you know, smaller to medium sized companies that's when you divide all that up and have all these different, you know, marketing and PR teams and people helping you. That adds up really quickly. So we found that this is like a very one stop shop solution. They basically come on for an hour a month and we handle the rest. But yeah, that's the also other great thing is it's mutually beneficial because the guest on the show, they're not just like putting content out themselves. I mean, like, look what I'm doing it all. That's kind of what PR does is it helps a third party person be like, look at what this company is doing. That's really great. They deserve to have the podcast shined on them. But then it also helps us because they're sharing our content to their network and we encourage that. We say, you know, hey, go on LinkedIn and share this clip to your network. Like that's how you're going to get value from it. If you share this and say, I was just on this podcast or I was interviewed on this website, or I'm speaking at this big event that is then going to get eyeballs on you and people are going to say, oh wow, you know, Bob Smith, that guy is really killing it in the, in his industry. And I've been thinking about, you know, working with someone who does that. I should reach out to Bob. So. And then, you know, that person that reached out to Bob sees us. So it's kind of like a. Yeah, it's, again, it's building that momentum. Flywheel. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's, it's pretty cool watching it all come together. Yeah. So what, let's talk about the event. What's, what's that all about and when do you host it? Yeah, so my, the, the full time job I worked and a little bit about my background is I do like policy work and I did some work with the un so my goal is like big picture. What I really want to accomplish with my life is try to do something positive for the planet while I can also like run a successful business at the same time. So my previous media company was all around sustainability and conservation. I was trying to educate people about how to live a little bit more environmentally friendly. And eventually I sold that and I kind of realized that to have like a huge impact nowadays in, you know, in our modern times, that comes from the world leaders, the policymakers, the giant corporations. And so rather than me using media to educate the masses, I was like, I'm going to go straight to the top and like try to influence and work with the best of the best. So the event that I have is called the Global Leadership Summit. It's taking place at the UN headquarters in September. We're bringing together policymakers, we're bringing together ultra high net worth individuals, we're bringing together C suite level executives, and then we're bringing together like startup and innovators and entrepreneurs and basically saying these four groups of people all have to work together to basically lead the next generation of positive impact on the planet. Love it, dude. Love it. And when does the event take place? That is September 21st and 22nd. Very cool, very cool. You doing any podcasting at the event? Well, as you know, you know, we've got photographers, we've got videographers, I'm doing some interviews on stage. So it's the same thing like leveraging that content. We will be, yeah, I'll be hosting some interviews, some panels. So we'll be recording that, that, sharing that all on our, our social media channels, on our podcast. And I do an event like this every year and it's great because the, the last time I did it I walked away with like 10 different interviews in over the course of two days. And so I just had months and months of content, podcast episodes, clips, pictures to share. So that's one of the cool things about in person events too is yes, I love being able, you know, we're having a conversation right now from halfway across the country. But those in real life relationships, which is how we met, go a very long way too. So I'm about that mix of both when it comes to the sort of media, podcasting, content world. It's like, yeah, it's great that we're able to have this conversation. It's great that you can post something and thousands or millions of people can see it. But those real world relationships go a long way too. And I'm about that, that mix of both. You need to have both in your life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Online and offline. I think the, with the onset of AI, I think that we, we crave that offline even more now. The, the in person opportunity to connect and meet new people and, and see people that we already know is, is I don't think that's going to slow down by any stretch of the imagination. If anything, it's going to just, it's going to speed up. I mean live events are back and as a speaker and, and comedian, that's, that's great news for, for, for me because it's, it's been a interesting road to navigate through over the past six years, you know. Yeah, exact. Within, within like five years. The in real life industry of like events is going to be about a trillion dollars. So as hopefully, you know, we start integrating AI into our lives. It saves us time so we're not stuck at our computer from the second we wake up to the second we go to bed. Maybe we implement a tool that takes two hours off of our, our work schedule and we use that time to go to a workout event or go to a comedy show or a networking event. So, yeah, I'm all about that. I like the, I like the real life stuff. I love going to comedy shows. It's good to get to meet, you know, and see people and have a laugh in real person. In real life. Yeah, it is making people laugh. That's why I started doing in the first place. So, you know, laughing, they're, they're laughing at you or with you. But the goal is, is, is a hybrid of both. Well, Dylan, man, I'm, I'm inspired and encouraged by your story. I love what you've built here. Want to encourage you to keep up the great work. You're clearly doing work that matters and work that is fulfilling to you. And I think lot of people miss that. And we're out there exchanging time for money and, you know, there's a clock ticking that none of us can see and we're just passing through here. So doing shit that matters is so, so very important. So keep up the great work. Dylan, any final thoughts for our listeners? Yeah, I would. Well, first off, thank you. I would say, you know, and I try to encourage this to people. Ten years ago, when I was working on a television show, it cut. We had a million dollar studio. Now I literally have a podcast, microphone, a camera and a light that I bought off Amazon. For under a couple hundred dollars. You can host a show. You can find software for 12 bucks a month to get it up on Spotify. And it has opened up so many opportunities and I also really enjoy it on a creative level. So if you're a person out there stuck in a rut, like, just go for it, start it. I have so much respect when I see someone starting out brand new and they have like 200 views or a couple comments, I think that's actually way more impressive to me than someone who has a million followers, because that's easy. It's so hard to get over that original first step and fear of putting yourself out there. But when you do, you'll realize that there's so many people that want to support you. There's so many people that can use, you know, getting their story out like this, and you'll attract those people that you want to attract in your life. So just get out there and do it. Whether that's starting a podcast, starting a business, starting a new hobby, painting, writing a book. Just go out there, put yourself out there, and it'll make your life a million times better. Do the thing right. Yes, exactly. Well, great. Final thoughts still, and thanks again for hanging out with me for a few minutes on here. Really enjoyed our conversation. Conversation. Look forward to staying in contact with you as well. Yeah, Sebastian, thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity. You got it, my brother. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the beyond the Story podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios we'll talk to you next time.