Coming up, I’m going to share the greatest hack of all time for business and life in general. It’s the strategy that has allowed me to turn my entrepreneurial spirit into becoming a real entrepreneur, being considered an “expert”, having a multiple six figure business and so many more opportunities.
Transcript:
What is up App Nation? It is Steve P Young, founder of appmasters.com, the place you go for all your action packed app marketing content. In this video I want to share the greatest hack of all time. Now this is fresh, fresh off coming – having a client be featured on TechCrunch. And I said to my wife – I was very ecstatic about it, I was very happy that we got him on TechCrunch. I said, “Honey this is the greatest hack of all time.”
It’s unbelievable to me, I have to pinch myself that when I started this podcast in 2013 – I started a podcast. Didn’t know anything about the app space. Frankly didn’t know anyone in the app space, but I knew 2 things. 1, that I love talking to people. So I just love interacting, talking with people, picking their brain and making them feel like they’re the focal point. Because they are the focal point.
And 2, I knew that I wanted to become an entrepreneur. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I sold cassette tapes when I was 12 years old. And so I knew one day I wanted to become an entrepreneur, I just didn’t know how that was going to happen. So I started this podcast, and I said, “Okay, I’m just going to interview the people I really admire in the app space.” So I did. That has helped me become an entrepreneur. That’s helped me be considered an app expert, just because I talk to so many people.
And lastly, like really having a great business that I can run with the comfort of actually having a work/life balance. I don’t have to work 80 hour weeks. I can just hang out with my daughter, which I did today in the morning – and also run this business. So I love what I do, and it all started – and the hack, if you haven’t figured that out – is interviewing people.
It’s a complete win/win for everybody, right? For the interviewee, you give them exposure – even if it’s small. You give them exposure. I remember when I first reached out to my first big time guest, was Chris Barton, co-founder of Shazam. And I found him on LinkedIn, I cold emailed him. Said, “Chris, can I interview you?” And I said, “Hey, I’ve got this podcast.” We got on a call. He said, “How many downloads do you have?” And I said, “Oh, 300.” I said, “3 to 600,” right? Per episode. And it was small, right, at the time – but he said yes. And that started it.
That felt so great, ’cause now I had leverage. I could say – and I went to Yahoo Weather actually. So this is the exact story. I went to the developer at Yahoo Weather, who I got connected through a mutual friend. And I say, “Hey, Chris Barton from Shazam said yes, would you want to come on?” And those 2 brand names gave me the leverage to go out to Tweetbot, Clear. All these favorite well known apps, I went out to them and finally got them on board. To now where, I’ve had the biggest apps on my podcast. And it all started with just interviewing them.
‘Cause you know what? Like if I went to Chris, and said, “Chris, can I grab some coffee with you?” He’d probably say, “No, who are you? You’re just some schmuck, right? Who are you?” But because I said, “Can I interview you, I’m able to still ask him the same very questions that I might have had during the coffee, but now he gets exposure. Now it’s not just a 1 on 1 conversation, it’s now exposure to hundreds at the time, to now thousands – couple of, few thousands at the time. For now, right?
So that’s why it’s a win for the interviewee. And it’s a win for me, obviously, because I get to talk to these amazing people – 1. 2, I get to build an audience – get the heck out of here. And 3, I get to actually run a business based on this, right? The audience came to me to actually hire me for app marketing help. Past guests have come to me for app marketing help. That’s amazing to me. That I get to do all this, just because I like talking to people and I interview them.
So if you’ve always wanted to do your own podcast or your own TV show – whatever type of – it doesn’t even have to be for a podcast, or it doesn’t have to be for YouTube. It can be written for crying out loud, right? And you can write for some major publications. If you already write for them, you can pitch them. “Look, I’ve interviewed this person, and I’ve already digested all the great information.” So like, could be 7 Greatest App Marketing Tips from the experts. And you can pitch that to The Next Web, or all these major publications, right?
And so, it’s so awesome to be able to do that and get all this exposure. So what I want to do is give you some interviewing tips that I sort of developed through the years, and learned through other people.
So number 1, and I’ll attribute this to Andrew Warner of Mixer G, he gave me this tip. And he says, “I actually – before I start off any interview for the podcast, I say, ‘How do I make sure that this is a win for you?'” And I say that besides talking about your app or your company, how do I make sure that this is a win for you? And I think it really sets the tone for the interview. It shows the interviewee that I’m here for you. I’m here to make you look good. I’m not here to just have a trashy show, and make you look bad. I really want to make you look good. So I set the tone right there. And I think that’s really beneficial to do, right?
And the second one is, you have to really become a great listener. Look, a lot of us – our natural abilities – we want to talk, right? We want to be the center of attention – most of us, for the most part, right? And so we always want to come into the conversation and give our insights on it. And I try to just listen, and be a really good listener. And I don’t try to – after a question’s been answered, I don’t try to put my own thoughts into it, right? Most of the time, it’s just, “What’s the next question?” And I really listen to the key little elements that they may have glossed over.
So for instance, if an interviewee says, “You know what, we tried Facebook ads, we tried Google ads – and then finally Twitter ads made our business blossom, and that’s really what started it all. We’ve – able to double our business here and here.” And he she is moving on, right? But to gloss over that one little thing – that Twitter strategy. So I said, “What did you do on Twitter that really made it a success,” right? So you’ve got to really, really listen. And pay attention to every single word, ’cause you want to find the key little nuggets that they might gloss over – that you know could be beneficial to you, and also to your audience.
And lastly, this is my favorite, favorite little tip. Is always be curious. ABC – always be curious. Like I said, it’s about asking the questions. It’s not always about putting your 2 cents in, talking about a particular topic which other interviewers do all the time. They go, “Oh yeah, that’s great.” And they go on and they talk about it, right? I’m curious about the person on the other side always. So I try to follow up with as many questions as possible, to keep them talking. And most of the time, you read any of these rapport books, you find that people love talking.
And people love talking about themselves. So I’m always curious about them, I’ll let them do that. And usually you find that they say, “Wow, that was a great conversation,” when they dominated the conversation 85% of the time. Which I’m completely fine with, right? I’ve actually used this strategy, just having lunch or dinner with people. I’ll always be curious. I’ll always be asking questions. Rather than being the person that answers questions, I’ll always be curious about the other side. So definitely, always be curious. There’s always life lessons.
Oh and last thing I’ll leave with is that I think that everybody can teach somewhere, right? I always think, no matter where you are in life or in business, I always think there’s something that I can learn from you. So it’s that approach that I always go into it. Just because you don’t have an app business, I could say, “Well what are you good at?” And then they can teach me that, right? So I don’t always think about, “Oh you’re just starting out, what would you know?” I always think, “Okay, what can you teach me that I don’t already know?” And I always go into each and every single conversation thinking, “What can you teach me? What can I teach you, and what can you teach me?” Because I don’t think – whatever level you’re at, I don’t care. I think everybody can teach everybody. That’s my belief, alright.
So go out there, if you’ve been considering it – please, please, please go do it. I’ve been able to do so much just because of the connections I have, and it all started with interviewing people. Interviewing my heroes. That’s what I did. I interviewed the people in the app space that I really admired. And these were the – all tech companies, right? So it’s go out there, start talking to people. Start interviewing them, make them the focal point, and hopefully that turns into something great for you, as it has for me.
Oh and by the way, I don’t edit this stuff. So if you hear me mumble or whatever, you’re going to hear it. I don’t care. I want to keep this as authentic as possible. Alright guys, till next time, I’ll see you on the next video. Go out there, and start interviewing some people. Bye.