How To Use Cold Email To Get Booked On Podcasts: Brad Axelrad - Face Your Dragons

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian F.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Brad, welcome to the show. I'm uh I'm happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Let's very curious what we're gonna talk about today. Me too. That makes two of us. So uh we were just chatting before the interview and trying to figure out where we connected. Isn't it wild that in this digital landscape we have absolutely no fucking clue where we meet people these days? It's just fantastic, isn't it? And then you made an Orange County reference. I'm like, yep, spent a decade out there. Could have been that in an event, social media, Facebook. It, you know, it could have been a plethora of things. But uh, we reconnected recently. Uh you had uh commented on one of my posts. Uh, we're getting ready to roll out a new podcast guesting solution. And you said, I don't need a solution, because I've actually been booking myself on a podcast several over the past couple of months, and it works really well. And I casually said, well, let's get you on the podcast, pun intended, uh to talk about that. So I definitely want to um chat about what you've done and and what what success you've found with that. Let's back up a little bit just for some context, help our listeners better understand a little bit more about you and your backstory.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Uh, well, I mean, I I started, I went to the Hoffman process. If you guys don't know what that is, it's really a powerful transformational eight-day and now seven-day transformational retreat. And I loved it so much that I raised my hand to start the Orange County graduate gatherings to keep it in my life. And I was really in service uh producing these small gatherings of the Hoffman process. And I wanted to start having conversations outside of just their work, their body of work. You know, other things were coming into my consciousness. And so started producing gatherings. And within eight weeks of starting this small gathering, we were on NBC Nightly News, PBS Television, USC News did a piece on us, LA Times, Orange County Register, like became this media magnet and started producing events from there. Once we, once we really caught stride, we kind of caught this bane and caught fire. Um, maybe you can relate to this, like you were saying before before we got on this. Once you let everything else go, do you know where you're supposed to be and you're in your lane, everything works. And that's what was really happening for me. All that said, fast forward, produced a couple hundred live events since then, sold my owner, owner, owner, uh, owner interest in a biohacking community we're building in Orange County. Currently in Mexico, doing marketing, high-ticket uh group coaching and one-on-one consulting. Um, that's it in a nutshell. I could go on, but that's probably good. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

So um what have what have you been trying to get on podcast uh to talk about?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah, so I I launched my own podcast a couple years ago. Guest number one was Don McGuell Ruiz of the Four Agreements, Hendricks. You guys probably know some of these folks, JP Sears, you know, Ariel Ford, all these cool celebrity thought leaders. And I launched my podcast. I did a season one and uh got pulled into a really big blockchain uh play that pulled me out of the podcast world. But now I'm jumping back in or podcast production world. Now I'm now I'm here, I'm settled. And I thought, what better way to get my message out, other than to get on other people's podcasts? They've got the audiences. I don't need to build my own audience. I'll jump on their podcast. So, with that said, being a marketer for 20 years, an entrepreneur since 19, I'm 50 now. Um, I can sometimes get pretty smart with some things. And I caught fire with something, and I've just put myself on 20 in the last month. So, what that looks like, yeah, what that looks like is this there's a tool called Podseeker. Maybe you've heard of that, but it's an aggregator, and I've been looking for months trying to find where somebody has aggregated all the podcast posts so I could essentially spam them. So, what spam looks like to me is using woodpecker.co. It's a cold email outreach email sending service. And uh, I had one of my team members dig through Podseeker to uh find any relevant podcasts that would be good for me. And they were about, you know, like a B plus as far as her work. And uh we got a thousand fifty some odd podcasts, loaded it into a woodpecker and created a cold email sequence that basically looks like it's coming from me. It's a very casual email. Hey, here's me. I'd love to be on your show. A couple days later, another nudge. A couple days after that, another simple nudge. Hey, did you see the email? Hey, it's 12 days later. The case you didn't see what I'm requesting, schedule a call. Let's talk. So just this cold, spammy, uh uh very casual, outbound outreach uh using first name and email from that list and pod seeker.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

So, you know, most people don't understand how that whole world works as a marketer. I definitely understand how how that guy works. So there's a little bit of legwork involved with that process. You've got to have the software, you've got to go establish and create the list, you've got to create the flow, the outreach, et cetera. So, would you say this is geared more towards marketers that would do this, or could any business really take advantage of this?

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Yeah, a really good question. I uh I I have experience doing this during the pandemic with PPE. I created a really big outbound outreach for to hospitals. So I had I had some experience coming in doing exactly what we're saying. I had teams, teams finding the data and then loading it into the software. So I'm a little more advanced in that regard, but it's really pretty simple. If you can figure out where to find the podcast shows that you want to be on, uh well, the short answer is I think a beginner to an intermediate could pull this off with what I'm explaining. Okay. Um, if you can find the shows, which was that was the hardest part because I had teams aggregating them. They'd spend weeks and months trying to figure out how to find all the shows. But once we found Podseeker on App Sumo, uh, that made it very easy. And then you just, you know, you got to go through the grunt work of either you were an assistant going through the grunt work of finding of finding the right shows, getting the emails and the first names, and then figuring out Woodpecker. Woodpecker's not very hard. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

And so what kind of opportunities are you being able to establish based on being a guest on other podcasts?

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Well, you know, it's uh we can build our own audience or we can go where the the puck is going, essentially. We'll go just just put yourself in front of the traffic. And uh both are both are great tactics. Uh, but man, you're getting in front of the right audience. And my thinking is this just the big game, the the end game is this. This will explain your question, answer your question more uh proficiently. The end game is this. I'm gonna start pumping out all these shows that I've been on, and some of them are gonna be smaller, some will be bigger, some are gonna be very big. But but with me pumping all this out regularly, being interviewed all the time and getting this laundry list of media outlets that I've been on, both traditional and new media, it's gonna get other people interested. Bigger podcasts are gonna get interested. Say, why is this guy getting interviewed five times a week, six times a week? What's going on? Maybe we should look into him and have him on our show. That's the end game. Has that happened at all? This just started. I'd only done like seven or eight interviews in the last couple of weeks here. That's so they're booked out all through August and into September. So I've just started to get them. I I don't even have any back from the shows I've done yet. So, but that that's the goal. So momentum, momentum begets momentum. You know that. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

So you know the goal is is for you know just more touch points and more opportunities to get out there and and uh and and share your message. It's not necessarily to sell a product, a service, or an event, or is it kind of that that happens by default? By osmosis, that happens exactly. Yeah. And and so is this something that's part of the game plan, you know, moving forward from here on out?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Well, we'll see. Maybe, maybe I'll exhaust that list which has come up. It's like, you know, it's like, how do I go back and and revive the list of the people that didn't actually respond? It's like, do we resend all the ones that I didn't respond? So we got to kind of think that through. It may be a one and done thing. We might get me on 30 podcasts, and then this this tactic may be exhausted. That happens too, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Sure. Well, you know, it only takes one person reaching out and saying, hey, I heard you on that podcast. I'd love to chat with you about fill in the blank. I've had that happen uh more times than not. And needless to say, I mean, I'm a little biased being a podcaster in the podcasting world. Um, but it is a very, very effective strategy. I think it's going to continue to be as well. If we look at it today's modern day radio interview with less red tape and logistics, and oh, by the way, you don't have to go anywhere. Uh so there's there's obviously some some some benefit there. Exactly. Have you been had you previously done podcast interviews before you started doing this? Oh, yeah, I've probably probably been on uh 30 30 podcasts. Yeah. And what do you what what are some things you recommend people do as a guest on a podcast? Because there's a lot of shitty guests out there, too. Um I think by default it's it's you know, that's of course, you know, I did a I did an okay job. And most people don't understand um, you know, there there is a certain art to being able to facilitate a productive interview um as the guest. What what in your experience would have been some things that you've seen work really well?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Well, you know, I've been on both sides of that, both as interviewer, interviewing all the big named celebrity thought leaders on red carpets, just like yourself, you know, like at Drake Reed's event back in the day. I mean, I've done a lot of interviewing and being interviewed. And what I've really taken away that seems to work best is being media trained in the sense that you're able to communicate short, quick, abrupt, powerful things. Even I'll get lost sometimes in my own story and I'm you know rambling on. And it's like, how can you be succinct, powerful, clear, high energy, excited, you know, using shit. What I talk a lot a lot about at face your dragon, which is my brand, face your dragon.com. It's like that basing your fears and leveraging your fears into your great work in the world. So if you're nervous on camera, you want to use that energy to your advantage. Like right now, even I'm excited, but or nervous and fearful, but that's excitement. It's just so so turn it into excitement. Make it make it your your your high energy, you know, power. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Well, I'm very intimidating, so it makes sense while you're uh I'm uh yeah. Be afraid, be very afraid, Brad. Afraid. Yeah. Um you mentioned something earlier. It doesn't really correlate that much to podcast guesting, but you you said that you went through a a course that that altered your path uh for for the for the better um forever. And I I I did a similar thing in 2016. And no, it wasn't ayahuasca. Um uh and uh went through a course, learned how to love myself, take full accountability for my life. Nice. Two things that most people I think take for granted or don't recognize need to be done and and recognizing patterns and uh addressing them and taking ownership for them, past, present, future, wh whatever it may be. And it it wasn't until I I thought what I was I thought the work that I was doing I thought, well maybe I just hate the work. You know, you and I were talking before the interview about my MC event event days. And what I found, Brad, is that when I went through all of that and started to tap into Sebastian a little bit more, I didn't hate the work I was doing, I hated me. Yeah, if you hate yourself, you're gonna hate everything else around. Most most people that are strongly dislike themselves are pretty shitty to other people because they don't know any better from that. So based on that experience, and I heard a quote last week that I had never heard it like that before. Maybe you've heard it, but I had never heard it like that before. And it said something, and I'm paraphrasing because I forgot exactly what she said, but it said that something that pertains to your your your level of success will only equal the level of trauma you've been willing to heal in your life. And I thought, huh? Wow, have I not been living that out? And you know, I I get to do a lot of really cool stuff through, you know, my speaking and comedy and helping people start a podcast. But on the starting a podcast side of things, I'm what I'm finding is that I'm I'm bringing back to the podcast table a lot of what I've learned that's actually worked for me and the language and you know, awareness provides a lot. Um sometimes this day and age awareness, you know, can kind of be to our disadvantage because we see and feel so much or the lack that is that is out there uh in the world. But at the same time, help the guy you used to be, right? Um so so bringing it back to the process of you know the inner critic and the that that you know the you know how we talk to ourselves and how we uh a lot of that comes into create you know marketing and and and creating on here. I just wanted to touch on you know your comment earlier about you know about that. What what would you say is the biggest thing that's happened for you since that shift happened and since you went through that experience?

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Yeah, and by first of all, I'm happy to hear you've been through something that deep and um still in it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Seven years later, still in it.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

So, so patterns, fears, all these things, they never really go away. It's like that we we learn to some of them can go away. Like when I say the Hoppman process, like we have a 100 triggers on the front of our body, and we're walking around, and people or things are triggering them all day long constantly. And like when you go do some work like that, you get rid of like 80 of them, and 20% are still around, and there's still like a level seven, and there's like two that are still a level nine, but most of them are gone. And it's it's your life's work to keep going in and peeling the onion, looking at the layers. It never really goes away. We can get rid of most of it, but but the work is there. Fear is always there for us. I talk about the five dragons, imposter. You said imposter, imposter, scarcity, value, unheard, and critics. Those are things I think we're all navigating as entrepreneurs or speakers. So kind of talk a little bit about those and dive deeper into those to really help understand that they can be our friends. We want to learn to ride facing ride our dragon. That's the power, right? It's like our our shadows, our power. It's not our it's not our enemy.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Yeah, I mean, who the fuck doesn't want to ride a dragon? Exactly. I'm not saying the the if you're paying attention when you're doing the work, which you should be, awareness, again, magic. Always said you'll find that when you go through an experience like that, it's not just that one experience. I made a commitment for the rest of my life that I am absolutely committed to the work. And some days I have to ask myself, okay, cool guy, what's the work look like? Just as a quick reminder, I I tell the story a lot that I s I finish every shower with a cold turning it on cold. I don't do the whole cold shower because you know I like my light. But at the end, I turn it on to cold and I remind myself that I'm committed to the work. And and when when we arrive at that place, it it it goes from I don't want to even say like victim modes out the window because you're aware. So there's no way you can be aware and a victim at the same time. I just think I mean maybe you can, but um so you know, your your your your commitment to to the work then starts to become your responsibility to now take that work back out into the world. It sounds like you've been able to do a lot of that as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah, it it it's it's yeah, the pain is our purpose. It's it's there's just so much opportunity in our pain. And I just remember wailing in in my hallway in Costa Mesa. I know you know where Costa Mesa is. Yeah, owned a place there for 12 years. And it was like, you know, wailing in the hallway after my dad died in 2005. And I was like, man, I don't want to die with my voice still in me, like my dad did. There's more for me to give, and self-indulgence doesn't serve anymore. Gotta have some like use me as a vessel of service to humanity. I'm fucking ready. Yeah. And when with that level of asking, things show up, that level of commitment to be in service. So we get to, you know, our pain can really drive us to want to help others. Uh we bring the elixir back and we we we serve the elixir to others. That's really, really what happens.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Absolutely. Absolutely. Brad, it's been great to reconnect with you, brother. And uh, thanks for sharing uh what you've found on the on the podcast guesting side of the fence, wishing nothing but ongoing success uh with that. That's not true. I hope it doesn't work out eventually, and you call me and hire us for our new service. Uh huh. That's the reality. Uh, and it's been great to chop it up about uh, you know, not everybody finds the the path of healing. I'm grateful to have found it, and I will do everything in my power to help other people understand that what what's available. We can't guide them to the path through our lives and our actions. People can can can see all that. So keep up the great work, man. Great to connect with you again. Any final thoughts for our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 17:58

I I'm I'm gonna say go to the Hoffmaninstitute.org if you're really ready. I'll just plug them. I'm not affiliated with them in any way. It's the deepest, most beautiful work I've ever ever experienced. So check that out. Amazing. Thanks again, Brad.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Thank you. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into 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. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.