In late 2014 I decided to start a podcast.
Originally I wanted it to be a financial show that covered the economy and stock market.
But I quickly realized I wouldn’t be able to untangle my thoughts on politics from the economics.
So after 3 months of playing around with the formatting I pivoted into a show that promoted Libertarian ideas and Austrian economics.
There was no reason for me to start a podcast. I’d already built a multi-million-dollar business as one of the top trading educators on earth.
I wasn’t famous in the classic sense. I was what you call ‘niche famous’. And that's all you need to make a great living.
Yet in the back of my mind I always wondered if it was a fluke. Did I just get lucky? Or could I build another million-dollar brand?
That’s why I started the podcast. To see if I could recreate the kind of niche celebrity I had in the trading education world.
A year later things weren’t going well.
I’d been broadcasting 5 days a week but only managed to grow the show to 300 listeners.
I was trying to be some combination of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck but it wasn’t working.
I remember thinking, “I don’t know how much longer I can do a show that nobody listens to.”
But we were headed into an election year and I knew there would be a huge audience looking for an alternative perspective.
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Fast forward to the end of 2016.
My show is the biggest libertarian podcast on earth. With 35,000 listeners a day.
I had sponsorship deals with some of the biggest brands on earth.
And the show was making me $12,000 - $15,000 per month on sponsorships alone.
So what happened? What changed?
I clarified 2 things.