Vinnie Potestivo - Big Conversations in Small Media

Welcome to the Real People Real Business Show. My name is Stephanie Hayes, and I'm a business strategist who loves to speak with like-minded entrepreneurs to share their real stories and the gritty details on building their businesses. On this show, you won't hear about the glamorized entrepreneurship journeys that you can see online. You won't be told how to make six figures in six weeks. Instead, you can expect to hear the real, vulnerable and inspiring stories you can relate to that have helped create the foundation for each of our guests businesses. Goodbye, boss Babes. Hello, real life entrepreneurs today. I'm so excited to welcome Vinnie Potestivo. Vinny is an Emmy award-winning media advisor and creator economist who helps clients leverage their media and content to make more impact. He's the founding creator of I have a podcast host of its podcast and the editor in chief of I have a podcast.com, a verified Google News platform for independent podcasters. As a network executive at MTV Networks, he helped discover talent and develop new ways to support their goals pioneering how brands and business owners could contribute to their public narrative. He helped make them stars and producers of their own television series. And those hits included punked, the Osborne's, TRL, Eighth and Ocean, Wild and Out, and Laguna Beach, The Hills, The Challenge. I have watched a bunch of those. Yes. Since then, he and his team at VPETV have continued to be well trusted connectors who develop and distribute original content across all media platforms, and especially podcasts. Welcome to the show, Vinnie. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your story today. Yes. Are you kidding? What a return on energy. Thank you for giving me hours of view time in your teen years. . You know, I like, I, I read the And I actually had to cut some stuff out, but I'm like, oh, I, I have to, I have to say it. So gimme the goods. Like how did you end up here? So we went from M T V to podcast. Yeah, it actually was the step that I took in 2006, uh, MTV to podcasting. Uh, I found a podcast called Man and Wife. Um, it was, uh, fat Man Scoop had access to a, a, a at then. It was really about access to a microphone, to be really honest. My podcasting in 2006. So, um, a lot of people adjacent to the music were in the music or radio, you know, uh, industry. Were sort of early podcasters. Uh, certainly we hear about Mark Curry from mtv. His impact in podcasting. So I was always close to the format, uh, but M t v as a network wasn't interested in the podcast format. Uh, there's sort of two things that happened, unfortunately, a legal issue that sort of put, made it taboo within the halls, uh, you know, of M T V. And then also the industry wasn't looking at at podcast as like the next wave. Media. They were, they were already trying to process social media. They could not fathom r s s podcasting. Um, so I took this, uh, this, this show man, uh, a podcast man and wife and I, I went and met with Fat Man Scoop and his then wife, and I said, this feels like it could be like, recorded in your room. Like you have access to my, I wanna hear it like in your bedroom. Like, I wanna hear, like, I don't want to hear, uh, action . I wanna hear closeness. I wanna hear the springs bounce. You know, like, I don't want, I don't, this, this shouldn't be in a radio. Sterile radio booth that kind of felt like Doc, a doctor version of, of, of talking about love and sex. And I kind of watched Love Line as a teen and there was already a version of that show on mtv. I thought this was a really cool opportunity and long story short, I, I ended up getting, uh, mtv.com and New Business to invest in buy into the construction of the website. Behind man and wife because of who the talent flow was going to be because of what the programming looked like and our access to talent. So we were able to get M T V to invest on the backend of buying, uh, of. Of creating the infrastructure for what would ultimately be there, our community. And then I went to development and said, well, we've got this great idea and here's what I've already been able to do within the network. And hey, no pressure. You don't gotta buy it. We don't gotta be the people who do it, but someone's gonna, cuz M t v just paid for it. So is it, who's it gonna be? US views mtv, vh1, B E. Oh, is it gonna be us? Oh, okay. If you say so. And if you want to own the relationship and conversation that we're about to have and, and, and be a leader and maybe sex ed from a different perspective. Especially not to be honest too. Uh, uh, men in their forties talk joking and, and talking about sex and from a very, um, patriarchal sort of perspective, uh, at a time where information was new to us. And, and I got to be part of the gatekeeping at M T V I got to work with the talent that came through that wanted to leverage television as a platform to, to, to make sure their story was seen and heard by people. That's where change happens is when your story is, it's not, it's not in the recording, as we know as us, you know, business owners who create social media. The, the perception of reality doesn't shift when we create the content. It comes when people see the content, and I got to be at mtv. And work with Sharon Osborne and realize her dreams. And I was there when Ashton Kutcher stood up and pitched a show so that he could prove to the industry he wasn't just someone who could perform in content, but he, he had his finger on the pulse. And if you can prove, you have the finger on the pulse, if you can prove. That you understand the emotional provoked, the, the, you know, what, what is coming next. That, that could be tremendous insight for big business. And, and I, not to give all the credit to punked, I give all the credit to Ashton for elevating a conversation, but I was there when that happened. Um, Jessica Simpson, who went on to become a billionaire, I can go on and on, um, in a non-sexy way about how these celebrities really collaborated with us. And, and in a vulnerable way and in a, in a controlling way. And I'd love to share that even too, how much ownership they had in their actions since the one difference between us and them is that we, especially you own your show, Stephanie, they don't own their shows. This is the biggest difference between developing content now and 25 years ago, and that that's why I'm helping business owners, whether. Personal brands or founder led businesses create content that they own forever, cuz I can help them distribute it, amplify it, aggregate it, syndicate it, get it more visibility, make it more shareable. That's the part that I, I've had to do my entire career to get these people. To become Housewives and hosts and Emmy Award-winning and, and Tony Award-winning, you know, performers. And, um, it's been a blast. But I'm here to save you thousands and thousands of dollars and hours. Don't get it twisted. . So I, you know, what I love so much about media right now and content right now is just how much it's democratizing business and democratizing the a, a brand, right? And so you look at something like TikTok and. TikTok came to me because I have teenage kids and they, like, they're glued to it. And at first I was like, this is goofy. And my, my, you know, drunk friends and I tried to make a TikTok video and my daughter was like, don't ever do that again. Ever. Because first of all, you posted it sideways and blah, blah, blah. But now you know, here we are three, four years later. And you've got these incredibly talented people who are just people who are starting to build audiences and platforms and brands just because they're really fricking good at something or they're really talented, or they have something that would never be consumed by a larger. Company that would give them the bandwidth, right? Yeah. So I think that this whole democratization of content and, and audience is becoming really interesting. Yeah. I agree. I, I, the democratization is fascinating as long as there's ownership. Yeah. It, it's great to, to be able to reach out to new audiences. I have to say, the thing I learned from. Uh, Mandy Moore, for example. Jessica Simpson. Ashley Simpson, some of the, the singers that I've worked with is they knew that these platforms that they're on, the shows, the networks, the TV shows, the radio, it's all a pass through. They own none of it. All they can do is try to create moments of visibility so that you ha I can literally point out how celebrities do it and relate to how we could be doing it too. With annual conferences or, or annualized awards? Business awards. You know, we, we have, have, uh, awards set for, uh, uh, you know, best performance and best sales celebrities have awards. For ultimately performance and box office sales or TV sales, they're, it's an annualized circuit. You don't have one shot in life to win these awards. You have usually, you got once a year to win these awards. And when you realize the pattern that they create, the, the, the success patterns that come from, from diversification of project and, and, and not just winning a, winning an award, but uniquely being able to leverage that award into the next process. And I, I like this part of what I've learned. From people who knew that they had to have their own websites, by the way, like mandy moore.com, like these, these are artists had their websites because that's where we would go to subscribe to their newsletters. I have to be honest, as a, as a teen, I was probably on artist newsletters. I think, to be honest, I feel like that was like the only type of newsletter really. There was no info newsletters, you know, back then yet, or at least I hadn't. I hadn't figured that. And it's interesting to think of these artists back then who had to create their own music, finance, their own music, and then put it out and let, let people, you know, grow it. That we have so much in common with that system of, of being able to have a thought. Create a short form piece of core content. I'm not even saying more than 3000 words, but a short form piece of content that's simple and clear that I can then take and, and talk to on podcast and create social media content with, and create newsletter opportunities with, and have that be part of my, my contents, uh, my content strategy where I don't have to get tripped up. in the content piece of my content strategy, cuz I just try to live it. You know, like I don't, I'm not one of those people who, who tries to, um, Change the words at the end to seo. I, my headline, no, I'm, I live my SEO life. Like I live the inspire, ignite, you know, impact. Those are words that I use so that you use them. By the way, that's where the power in using these words are is, is when you discover, you know, if we're lucky enough to be discovered next to such words, you know, especially in this competitive world of search that that. Uh, inspired impact not just, uh, use of the algorithm because that's no offense, but Google's it now, but there's gonna be a point in, something's gonna, there's gonna be something So you went from the the NT M T V machine. and now you work independently with business owners, with, um, content producers. And how did that transition go? I mean, it must have been a little bit Yeah. Shock, right? Um, well let me, so just to back up, just, um, two years before M T V in 98 from my, um, From my dorm room, I launched my company, uh, VI Pat CVO Entertainment. I launched it by taking out an ad on something called Backstage, which is where you look for, um, non-union talent. Talent that don't, you know, actors, musicians, comedians that don't have representation. Now that has expanded that list of talent, um, and a database. I'm an Excel guy. I was like a Microsoft Access Computer Center programmer. I was a compliance offer at Credit Suis First Boston. I have a, I have a data and background, if anything, but what I was able to do was meet people and organize that information. That started my company working with Fox News, um, food Network and then MTV News. MTV was at the point in 99 looking to create a talent development department. They didn't. Casting expert. They needed someone who can come in and organize thousands of data points on people that are coming in or even understand how to edit. This is funny to say, but I had, I had a technical skill. I could wire two VCRs together and I can edit. You know right at my tv Wait, wait, wait. You're showing our age. . And, and so this is the brilliant part about, about for me, cuz I, I graduated in 99. From 95 to 99 when I was at school, in college working late night at the computer center. That's when the floppy disc came and went. That's when hard drives expanded. That's when. Internet started getting into our dorm rooms. Don't even think about like wifi signals on cell phones or anything. But I had a cell phone cuz I was an ra of course I was the president of the computer club. So anyone who needed access should be able to page me. I I was already starting to get very tech heavy. Um, The talent develop and, and, and wiring two VCRs together. When I got to mtv, that was like one of the most impressive. They walked me around. I remember they, Hey, this is Vinny. He's gonna be the coordinator in talent development. If you ever need two VCRs to edit something, if you want your assistant to edit here without needing to go down and spend $1,500 an hour at the bay down on the 13th floor, then he can just rig your, your VCRs together and he'll show you how to. I didn't even realize it, but like V VPs, I mean the PE people who created the network, um, in their offices. Talk about No, no, no, no. Uh, imposter syndrome. Cause I didn't know what I didn't know. I mean, just the room was full of ego and what I thought was limitless knowledge. And it was some of those tech skills that got me into M T V. It is the same ones that got me out. Um, uh, in 2007 I tried to do this like talent showcase with podcasters. Uh, M T V wasn't having it. Uh, we were looking to recast TRL, our total request live. I really wanted to look at podcasting. They really felt it should come from YouTube. Um, the secret sauce I felt like to. We got to create from a talent perspective at M T V in the late nineties and early two thousands wasn't, uh, the best of the best, the coolest of the coolest, uh, the it people. We, we watched all of those people become that and slowly even more. So it's cool to see Carson Daley, Vanessa Leche, even now, who's like killing it literally in N C I S Hawaii and like it's cool to see Mandy Moore, some of these big names. Gone on to be like larger than life. That, um, that all started at M T v at a point where, where there was focus, we had a platform, we had youth culture, you know, making moves, coming from our by, by what was being put on the network. And these, these people I worked with had. Goals. You know, M T V was never a part of it. Having a reality show was never Jessica Simpson's goal, like Ashley Simpson would always ha I would never forget that the, the TV shows were always, uh, a sort of pass through. It wasn't until I worked on Housewives where I realized that some of these people want to be here forever. And I actually saw. The, the dog tale we say sort of in media, like the longevity of, of, um, story driven franchises. It was this bravo that really blew that out of the order. Mtv, we were great at formats, wild and out, a comedy format, dating formats like that was something that I can find a host for and guide you through. You know, I love that piece and it's powerful. It's powerful what being a storyteller, even reality, even, even realities are formula. Oh, sure. Well, yeah. Well now they are because, you know, , it's unfortunate, uh, unscripted TV was already cheaper than, you know, scripted television for a lot of different reasons, but tremendously cheaper. And also it's finite. There's, there's a dog tale to fees that come from working with unionized talent and unscripted, you know, there's not. And then what happened is those networks wanted to make it cheaper and cheaper and cheaper than, cheaper than, you know, scripted. Um, they squeeze a lot of hours in a day, so every, in, every minute they shoot matters. I remember shooting how, uh, uh, Osborne's, I remember someone saying it was over 2 million in episode, in season one, just because they shot everyth. Even Laguna Beach. I remember in season one they shot everything and then they would come back and then they would ask Lauren to do all the voiceovers. Then they would pick who the person was that even, even when we recorded it in season two on Laguna Beach, it wasn't clear that Lauren was going to continue to be Lauren Conrad was gonna continue to be the voice. I remember there were conversations about like, we don't know what's gonna happen. Like let's just see, and then we'll figure. What Central voice makes the most sense to, to be, you know, the na. At some points it almost might have been. That podcast is so good. By the way, shout out to back to the Beach if, if you know what I'm talking about. If Laguna Beach, the hills, the city, if any of these are trigger words to your, oh, orange County. Yes. You gotta go back on Newport Beach. We tried . Yeah, we tried with Newport Beach and I'll never forget, I'll never forget when Bravo came out with with the Housewives of OC and I was like, I don't get it. It's just literally Laguna Beach. But the mom. I just don't understand, like I couldn't understand how that was little bit like, but this is the best part about the industry is that it got so much bigger, which meant the point of view shifted. And that's what I like most about my job. Um, I'm an enhancer. I'm here to help you. Not, not necessarily gain more visibility, but in the visibility, I can help you gain, be more shareable. I can help you be more economical in that visibility, so you're more discoverable. What you don't need is to be seen everywhere where everyone thinks. That their neighbors have access to you. You know, there's a little bit of ego involved in discovery, and you have to play into that. Uh, that's what makes it fun for people to share you is that they, they found you. You have to give people that it says something about them. Yeah. To share you, right, like that This is part of. Mine as a person, right? Yeah. Even if I'm just a person, I still have a brand, right? And it could be on so many, I mean, it could be as an artist, oh honey, you're gonna listen to this song. You need to hear this song to get you through this breakup. Or, you know, it can be sharing as an experience. It could be sharing a contact, you know, uh, you got a tooth pain, I got a great dentist. I'll give you Exactly. It can be a shit that's a very valuable share. Um, and, and that share by, by the way, for me, people ask for, uh, lawyer le uh, I don't know why actually, cuz I work in development so I get a lot of questions about like entertainment law, like can you help me find a lawyer? So in some of the lawyers that I, I share, I have like a little extra version of their address in the address field, like in the notes of my section. Cause I know that's the part I just wanna quickly copy and paste to send. I made it easier to share the people that I find rewarding and I know I get rewarded when someone has a good experience using those people. So I made it easier for me to share. Sharing is sharing. If there was one metric I had to look at for the rest of my life, it would be share more than likes than anything else. This is one of the things I talked to about, talked to with my clients about is that, listen, if you do nothing else and no other marketing in your business, just go and connect with the people who are adjacent to the people that you actually want to work with, right? Because those are the people. That are going to get you where you need to be. Yeah, absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And so, so fast forward to today. Mm-hmm. , tell me more about who you're working with today. Uh, my brands are brands that you'd see on like qvc, perhaps, uh, uh, talent brands, founder led businesses, um, non-profits, lawyers, um, uh, accountants, pe people who have a service that. Specifically known for, um, usually they're able to finance some type of humanitarian impact. I don't even know how to say that, but like usually they've exceeded so well and excelled so well in their career. They're at a point where they know that their moves matter. They know that the who they're helping matters. And this is something I can relate to, you know, I. At mtv, I got sensitive about who we let pass through those gates when I realized the giant stars that were being launched from this network that, you know, you know, that I, I had somehow figured out a way to keep the door open to a certain type of talent, which is so cool. Um, and I, I just started my inner circle. So in 2023, I'm starting an inner circle for creators, um, where I'm helping them do things. For example, uh, if you have a podcast, it's, I'm all about sharing right here, like ways to help you be more shareable. And one of those ways is if you have a podcast and you write blogs about each episode, I would recommend you take that blog RSS and you go to publisher center.google.com and you, you. Get your r your blog RSS verified by Google News, and what this will do is it'll get you very as a source, it'll allow other people who go through Google News to find you as a verified source from Google News and pull your content. The future of media and content right now is search. Right now we're kind of, we feel okay. We, we shouldn't, but we feel okay with the, the search results that come up. Even though Google only gives you the information that benefits Google and Amazon only gives you the information am that benefits Amazon. So this decentralized world of searches coming. But more important is the source from where we're pulling. Our, our, our videos, our news, our podcast, that that source, this RSS is important and it takes about a week and a half. If you're writing five blogs a month, that's gonna definitely get you into the system. It's where you wanna be, just, just to be on. On a news distribution system like Google News. And the benefit to that is then you go over to Bing, pub Hub, Yahoo News, uh, flip book, and you can go ahead and add that RSS to other places. RSS is how people can share your content evergreen eternally, overnight. We talk about those overnight actions. Um, and I also take that blog. And there's a thing called blog aggregators. Maybe you might know one as, uh, q u uu.co is one. It's a free one. You can go there and say, I. Blogs about, I want articles about podcast marketing and when I go there, I want to, I'm expecting this AI to pull blogs for me to quickly read, share, read and share, or just share and try to, you know, be adjacent to, like you're saying, be adjacent to people who are creating content already in the field. Be, be like aligned with like-minded content. And what I like to do is get people in that. So if, if I can help you get discovered, if I can make you visible at a point in time where someone's looking for you as opposed to trying to make you stand out on Instagram, and I mean, I'm competing with Disney and , I don't even know how to say like Disney and Twitter and. Kind like e every jarring word you can imagine where, where they're pulling for our attention. Versus at a point in time when you're sitting down, you have 10 minutes, you're looking to read a blog. And what I can do with this blog is help you get discovered without. The thumbnail and the artwork and all the, the stuff that we do on top of the episode, so to speak, from a co, from a podcast perspective, to get discovered, like social media. It's not about the quotes, it's about the core piece of content and being discovered at a point in time. This is what I'm changing, is changing the, you know, you say it's all about timing. I'm changing the point in time that someone actually discovers you, and this is gonna help you be more shareable. Thousands of shares I'm getting now through aggregators. Nice. And so I, I sign up to work with Vinnie. Mm-hmm. . And what does an engagement look like? Like what are we doing together? Um, some of it is, uh, digital representation. So some, some of discoverability lies in search. So, for example, um, I'll come up with, uh, I have a list of awards. I have a list of over a hundred awards that are merited, credited. That giant brands, publicly traded brands and personal brands are applying for? Uh, I personally have an Emmy. I went out last year, worked really hard, tried really hard to win that. I was a very targeted Emmy. I knew exactly what category, I knew, what territory I knew with whom I wanted to win it with. I actually also was mindful of winning something and knowing that I would be tied to this win. So it needed to be me. And what I do is I help people find these meaningful projects that tie them to wins. They can be personal accomplishment, they can be creative endeavors, awards can be given, um, for best podcast, by the way, has best podcast guest. You don't even need to own a podcast. To qualify for best podcast guest, if you are a business owner who doesn't have time to create or interest in hosting your own podcast, I'm actually recommending people do what I'm doing right here. This is my favorite thing. You wanna know the truth being a guest. I love it. I'm the oldest son of like six. I love coming home and adding value to the table, making sure the conversation, you know, moves well, but also respectfully being in someone else's space. I love collaborating with people where they have the advantage and in their space. Maybe that's where that celebrity piece comes from. So, so I look for ways to make you stand out. Some of that is in awards. Um, again, marketing awards, content awards, podcast awards. There's lots of ways that we leverage that. And then it's in the. It's in the press release, it's in how we position that in your one sheet, how we're using and leveraging that win for the next step. I think one of the, the important things that I've learned about working with all of my clients who have to do this stuff is that there are, so, there are as many different ways to be comfortable creating content as there are, you know, personality types. Mm-hmm. and for me, I know I. Short form content just doesn't, like, I just, it's just not me. Like it doesn't excite me. It's not interesting to me. I can write something, but man, it's the, it's the long form, it's the deep discussions. It's this, this platform, it's this kind of content, and I think it's okay. For people to accept that they can do just the one thing or you know, a couple of things because everything can be leveraged. Sure. But you know, you need to, but then I have a client who would like absolutely slit her wrists. So she had to do what I'm doing, , and she would much rather show up in different ways. . And so we have to be very flexible and we have to be able to show up in the place where we're, where we're, where we're set up to be successful. Yeah. And to shine. Right. And so I'm assuming that you take that into consideration when you're working with your clients. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm basically le you know, my, my favorite thing about podcasting, it's the same thing. That was my favorite thing about being a network executive. Every production company works completely differently. it might look the same at the very, at the very, very last second when it finally hits air, it somehow starts to look cohesive. But ev, if I were to go back and talk to 20 of those production companies and I said, how are you making money right now in production? They'd all say something differently. And that's what we're doing in podcasting too. In fact some podcasters, like, how do you know? How do I, that question? I love answering that question. People say, I never have an answer. I have an answer. Put your name on the list. There's like lists. There's things called creator marketing platforms, uh, influencer, some of, some brands call them influencer marketing platforms. I hope they change them to creator marketing platforms because I think podcasters and, and business owners who create content on social media identify more as creators than influencers, even though we do all have influence. But that's a little, that's a, that's a mindset conversation. Um. I make a couple of hundred bucks to a couple of thousand bucks a month just because I put my name in a, in a list where small businesses and large businesses and publicly owned. I, I had meta as a client find me through one of these publicly, one of these, uh, marketing. All in one marketing platforms that basically say I'm a small micro influencer. I have a small audience, and know I, I need to be in a place where it's gonna make it easy for someone to discover me, to find me. I'm actually so small in the social verse that I don't think they're gonna find me just by looking for me. I actually had to go sign up for Maverick. Or four or, uh, there's so, so many of them. By the way, I have a list, um, over 50 of them, and I have them separated by categories too. Um, just in case you're curious about, uh, how they all sort of foreign into play. But for, for me, I know that I've gotta be in, you know, a small pond sometimes to stand out. I don't have. Thousands and millions of, of, of follow. I got the blue check, but that doesn't compare to the 30,000, 50,000, a hundred thousand mil, even the millions, you know, like my clients have. Um, but I know there's value. Am I 13 to 15,000? Cause I, I'm in it, I'm in that group. I, I see it and I preach it and I believe in it because I receive it. I actually, that was very sorry. That came across very religious, almost . I was like, I know, like I have never focused on, on building a big audience because I've never needed it. Right. And I think it, it's a bit of a reflection of who I am as an individual too. Like, I, I'm, when I look at relationships I like. One off, you know? Yeah. Really get to know you type of relationships and to just sort of, I've always had a lot of a big social network and, you know, gotten along with everybody, but it's, I think, I think we reflect that in the way that we build our audiences. But I've continued to, you know, run multiple six figure businesses without that. And I think that that's just, it's, it's good to have to, for people to understand that they. Be successful, whether they're creating like a massive audience or they're being very surgical about the audience that they're creating. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Like it took me, by the way, 20 years to create my audience. And, and what's funny is that I'm, I'm in this weird position in media and especially in the beginning of my career as casting, where you think, oh, the casting people, he is gotta know everybody. You know? It's like you gotta know talent. And I didn't. I didn't know anyone. . I got into casting because I didn't know anybody, so I got into casting so I could meet people. Like the weirdest result of wanting to meet people ended up being, I ended up being good at meeting. I got good, I got better. To be really honest at meeting people and then understanding, and I think this is something too, this is a mindset thing for me. I, I'm a great listener. I've always been. I'm six three and I'm a big guy. I have big presence, but if I can be quiet and I can be silent in the room. By the way, you don't, even on the Housewives of Jersey, you don't know when I'm off camera, just, just slightly underneath the the, I've been there. You have no clue. I'm even in the room. I can make myself small. Trust me, that's, uh, that's, we'll save that for a different episode. That's a different, that's a different skillset. I turned into a superpower, by the way. . . I'm not going there. . Um, but, and, and it's in that gigantic ness, right? Like that, that, that, um, you can get lost when you try to. Build a space for an audience larger, you know, in fact, I, I I, I've been playing with this idea that like, uh, I think like limiting beliefs, I confusion about what we do or not, not having clarity. I feel like some of that starts to, to creep in. In this space between like what I'm doing and what I, what I could be doing and what I am doing. And when that space gets too big, I start to realize am I being clear enough in what I'm doing? And I realize I'm starting to think about, you know, and that's, that helps me sort of, I don't see, I don't like nicheing down me, but Ning down a product or a message. I'm not happy to do that because I believe in. I'll, I'll do that and then I'll do it again and I'll do it again if I can niche, if nicheing means micro level conversation, if then think about this, podcasting is a narrow cast, broadcasting is a wider cast that if I can take. Podcasting and distribute it through broadcast the power and what we're about to do as podcasters. And by the way, think of this well, stopping Bravo or Walgreens or c v s or, or, or the Jets or the Giants or Yankees from opening up a podcast directory. They don't have to have a podcast network, just a space where maybe fans can go and upload their rss and maybe that will be a smaller community that I might get, you know, be able to stand out in. I can see a future of Dwayne Reeds c v s. I can see a future of Bravo, the lifestyle TV network. On my television because, because watching podcasts on YouTube, on my computer, on my phone, or on my screen, it's all the same thing as like watching M T V in the eighties and nineties. You don't need to be in the room to know what's on tv. You hear it, you trust it. Yeah. I think that what's missing, what's missing is the vision. Right? And then some one, we need a leader to, to, uh, make it happen. Right. What's the big hope for your clients? Like what's the, what's the big thing you want for. Um, to be honest, to be successful in their, their goals to make impact. They, they have very specific goals to make impact, um, that are humanitarian and, and life changing and role changing and, and often, uh, impact laws and, and livelihoods. Um, I think I had a lot of fun being a creator in the early twenties and even in my thirties, uh, showing people what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes and, and, and letting you in, in a certain lifestyle or a world that maybe you would not have believed. Was out there, this idea of believability. And also in my thirties, I think I was obsessed with like, um, being understood, unfortunately. So like I cared so much that you understood me. And I think now this part that I'm in is, I don't, I don't, it's, I appreciate if you understand me, if you do, There's, now I have a structure in the inner circle and I have a structure for people who understand me, but for the majority where, where I can just make sure they understand the message where, where I'm not getting lost in sh in sharing strategy, I'm more about tactics. You know, I believe strategies could be successful. Even the worst ones if they're implemented. Tremendously well with, with vigor and with inspiring action. I think that tactics are, are probably to blame more so than lack of Strat. Well, lack of strategy is always the blame, but poor strategy, let's put it that way. And I think that that's what I like to do is make sure they have a sharp, that people have a sharp. Uh, toolkit, you know, so to speak, sharp, sharper tools than their toolkit. Um, to be successful earlier, especially as a creator, to understand the power in getting credits right now. IMDB is a place where film and TV used to be, where we can go and see our, you know, who's in the movies and who, who directed our favorite shows as podcasters, we now get credit on imdb and how that talks to Google. The, the amount of link backs and SEO that that does for our visibility. Ridiculous. So you have all the secrets. You've got all the secrets for execution. That I think, I mean, that's, that's a, a bit of a g a gap right out in the market. There are a lot of strategists, there are a lot of people who will tell you what to do, but you've got the how. Yeah, I like that part. I write that, you know what, at M T V I wrote the SOPs. Yeah. I had to figure it out myself. The first time I did that, years before I started sharing with people how to be successful, especially at a, at a level of tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars in, in, in spend creative or in ads. Um, About seven years ago, I, I took the jump. I was head of social media. I helped Peter Thomas Roth, uh, the skincare brand, get an Instagram account. I helped them, you know, get a larger presence, earn more hours on QVC by increasing their perceived perception and the digital imprint and how, how we're able to leverage that. I, I love my access and background in mass media. It means nothing if I can't leverage that with social media and personal media. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . That's the part where I think I. Really excel. Yeah. We're coming up on time and I just wanted to ask you if you could share with the, um, listeners where they can find you and learn more about, you know, the, the amazing things that you've done and, um, some of the services that you do provide. Oh, thanks. Yeah, I'm on link. I'm on LinkedIn a whole lot, so if you wanna start a conversation with me, LinkedIn is a great place to do it. Uh, v p.tv is my website, v p.tv. Um, as I said, I, I have something, a section there called the Creator Hub. Um, that's where all the documentation for everything I talked about will be there. Um, if you wanna know the 99 awards worthy of Winning Creator marketing platforms that pay, um, I actually. Did, did a deep, uh, research list and found about 50 podcast, um, platforms that I think in 2023 you're gonna want to be on, that are just brand new based on, on how this grow market is growing. And, and I, I'm such a fan of helping people get credits on imdb. I have a literal checklist, a walkthrough. You don't need to. I'm gonna be very clear. Everything I just mentioned, none of that requires money. All of it is like, I've done it, I figured it out, I've done it again and again and again, some of this for 20 years, and I'm finally at a point where I can share it. I'm organized where, and, and, and prepared to be able to share it and, and podcasting has helped me do that. Being a guest on podcast, like, I gotta you and you're a, it's, thank you. It's a strategy. Yeah. It's a huge strategy that nobody is, well, not nobody, but I think people are just sort of waking up to, it's not just about, well, I got some exposure, but I mean, I've, I've had guests who have. Discovered something about themselves during an interview. Yeah. And they've said, oh my gosh, that question you asked me actually changed all the decisions I'm making in my business. Or, you know, vice versa. As a, as a host, sometimes a guest will come on and I'll be like, wow, that is a totally new way of thinking about something. Or even just articulating it myself. Changes the whole trajectory of my own business. So I'm, I. Podcast changes become quite magical. These, these conversations change the alchemy in what I'm creating next. And I agree with you. It, there's unconscious bias that comes with talking and conversating and asking questions to ask a question. We have to start from someplace cuz we're, we're asking you to start from someplace. It's a hard, it's a hard place to be. It's kind of why I love this space the most and, and what I described my strategy was at M T V 25 years ago. I just wanna meet people. It's not about the projects, it's not about this episode, it's about the people. And I love being surrounded by people who are like top putters, podcasters are, are we research and there's scheduling and there's compliance and collaboration and legality and publishing. And that's my. So like , if that's your skillset, that's my language. We can, we can be high frequency. I'm down with that. Thanks. And we, and, and you know, it's my level of nerding out too that I, I love to, to get into with people. Thank you so much for all of those links. We're gonna post them in the show notes and I would say go check out. Vinnie's site, and I'm certainly gonna go and, and look through all of those resources because you're such a, you're such a, a wealth of knowledge and all of the experience that you've had in broader media I think is really valuable to bring to these, to like little media too, which is really where these podcasts are. It's coming. It's, we might as well get there before they look, look, if we wait for them to tell us what they want to do with. That's a whole different conversation. We own our content. We have so much control. I'm so inspired by this convo. Stephanie, thank you so much for this . Well, and I, I think that, you know, the next episode for us to talk about something Yeah. Is web three, but we'll leave that. Yes, yes. That's a whole other ball of wax. We'll have to come back and we'll have a conversation. Nobody owns podcasting. I can't wait to talk about this. Okay. Alright, well we're gonna wrap it up. I'm so happy that we had the opportunity to chat with Vinnie today to hear more about how his business came to be, his experiences, his wealth of experiences along the way, and what the future for the business entails. And thanks so much for tuning into this episode of The Real People Real Business Show, where we can get the real entrepreneurial stories and journeys that you can relate to. The show notes, resources, and links from this episode are available on my website and social media platforms. And thank you again for joining us today. 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