Knowing Yourself
For Army veteran Paul Tokgozoglu serving as an Army Officer was not an easy path. After suffering from some unique challenges in the workplace, he sought the help of some medical providers for answers. After they diagnosed him as being on the autism spectrum, everything began to make sense. His Army work environment wasn't the best for him so he transitioned out and set off to blaze his own trail. Paul share his story and how he helps others get into podcasting. Along his journey Paul has working in the digital space and also shares how businesses can operate knowing who they are and spread their messages in the most impactful way.
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Transcript from Episode 39 with Paul Tokgozoglu:
Keith McKeever 0:06
Buddy with Keith McKeever. Welcome back battle buddies. I have another guest with me today. And we're going to talk about a little bit about transition a little bit about some small business and marketing kind of in the digital space. So, without further ado, I got Paul taka Zulu. Hopefully I pronounced that right this time. Welcome to the show, Paul.
Paul Tokgozoglue 0:31
Thank you, Keith. Thanks for having me, man.
Keith McKeever 0:35
So Paul, what's tell us a bit about your story? You know, what, what got young Paul to join the military? What do you do? Why did you do it? What was your What was your journey there?
Paul Tokgozoglue 0:46
Man? Well, thanks for thanks for having me on the show again. And so when I was about 19 years old, I had just graduated from high school, I went into community college for two years to kind of get some of my education and started that way for for cheaper costs. And I didn't really know what to do. I had no clue about what I wanted to do with my life. And it was feeling like it was about that time to make that decision about like, what is it that I'm actually going to, you know, do here and I didn't really have any real passions in school. Like, there wasn't any particular subject that called me like, oh, I want to be a biologist, or hey, you know, I love history. I love love history, I kind of am interested in every, honestly. So if I didn't have any particular calling there, and I went on a study abroad trip to Scotland, and while we were there, we visited the Scottish war memorial at Edinburgh. And it just really called to me and I realized I was like, oh, man, this is something that is greater than me, like, I'm looking for this greater purpose or greater mission to be of service to the world and kind of find my calling. And it kind of clicked for me as I was walking around this beautiful memorial in Edinburgh. If you ever get a chance to go to Edinburgh, it's absolutely amazing. It's inside, on the top of the mountain.
Keith McKeever 2:09
It's probably half a half the people in the world that sounds like an amazing trip.
Paul Tokgozoglue 2:16
It was fantastic. So really beautiful Memorial, and it kind of like clicked for me on that moment. I was like, Aha, this could be a you know, like this. This is that purpose. Like what a great tradition. And you know, a military is wonderful and great way to serve. And this that the other thing, so I got I got it in my head, like, oh, man, this is that, you know, this is the thing that I'm going to go out there and do. And it just for some reason, just called to me, you know, like this is this is what you got to do. And so I did ROTC I went to, went to college and did ROTC for three years. And then I commissioned as an officer in the military police corps on active duty. And I went to training and then I got stationed in bola and Germany, excuse me overseas. And, and pretty much right away, I realized like, oh, man, I don't think this is actually like, I don't know if this is actually what I'm supposed to be doing. And I was really grateful for the experience. Like I learned so much, especially about leadership and about myself and about mental toughness, and, you know, all the great stuff that you get from being in the military, but it was pretty clear to me once I got on active duty, like, Ah, man, I don't know if this is my, what I'm supposed to do forever, you know, and it kind of, just because I, you know, just didn't seem like my lifestyle. Just wasn't, wasn't as into it as everyone else, I guess you could say like, once I actually got into the, into the grind, so to speak. And pretty soon like after, as the months rolled by, I started to have a lot of issue, I started to have a lot of kind of mental health problems that a lot of my peers weren't having. And for some reason, it just, I just couldn't really be in the environments that Pete that we were working in, like it was always so loud for me, or it just seemed really overwhelming. And I started to have panic attacks almost every single day before I would go to work. And we weren't doing anything particularly stressful. Like anyone who's been worked at s3 shop will tell you it's not the most stressful not the most stressful stuff you can do in the military by any stretch of the imagination. Definitely not when you know, when you're not, you're especially when you're not deployed near and Garrison, like we worked long hours and there's definitely you know, a lot to do but it wasn't like traumatic or stressful, you know? And so I was like, Man, why am I having all these issues? Why is it so hard for me to just go to work and function like everyone else? So I got some help. And I went and got into therapy. And I worked with someone who specializes in helping adults kind of figure out what it is that you know, they're working, what what it is they're working through. And she helped me realize that I'm on I'm on the autism spectrum, and I I have very sensitive to like my environment very sensitive to the world around me. And this person was a civilian therapist. So it wasn't through the military that I got this diagnosis, it was on the civilian side. And, and yeah, got, she diagnosed me as on the autism spectrum. And really, I worked with her for a couple years and kind of learned some coping mechanisms and kind of figured out that, you know, maybe this just isn't the right career path for me, because I'm obviously a bit higher functioning. But yeah, when you're having panic attacks every day, though, you definitely don't feel so high functioning. So she kind of helped me to, to learn some coping mechanisms, and I really kind of doubled down on self care, and taking good care of myself and the panic attack stopped. But I realized, like, you know, it's probably isn't the career for me. If loud noises caused me to go into a shutdown state, then working around guns all the time might not be the best career path, you know, and, and honestly, just working in a work in an office, I found like, like, for example, if other people are talking near me, like, like, right now I'm in this room alone. But if someone were like, over there talk in or on the computer, I wouldn't be able to have this conversation. It's like, it's so loud, like, I would have to ask them to stop, you know, like, if someone else's work in the same room as me, and they're, they're typing or they're talking on the phone, like, I just can't, can't function. I can't. It's really tough. So, so I basically kind of had this epiphany like, oh, man, I gotta gotta do something else with my life where it's kind of a better suit a better fit for me a better fit for my mental health. And so I eventually got out of the army again, I did. I did kind of learn some coping mechanisms. And I was able to last another few years, but I transitioned out because I realized, like, I need something that's better for my mental health for kind of who I am and what I'm supposed to be doing. So I found out about online entrepreneurship, and digital marketing, and podcasting. And I was really into Tim Ferriss, and Joe Rogan's podcasts, I still love those guys. And, you know, it really inspired me with podcasting. And I was just always listening to podcasts, I was just constantly binging them trying to gain all this information that I could to help me figure out like, what is it that I'm supposed to actually be doing in the world? And how can I do that? And how can I create a better life, and yeah, led me towards starting my own podcast. And going off from there. So I got out of the army back in 2020. And ever since then, I've been working and helping people, launch podcasts, produce them, grow them through advertising, and grow their business around them. And for the most part, other than whenever we meet up and maybe do like a live math, surmised, or something. It's been 100% online, and just been way better fit for my mental health and my family. And yeah, everything's gotten better. You know, I moved out to the middle of nowhere, here in Missouri, and pretty much live off grid these days. And that's a lot better for my mental health is what I found is living in the forest kind of surrounded by nature. Been a lot longer. So no, yeah. Oh, yeah. Milk. terrier was great. And I'm super grateful for the experience, like I learned so much. But ultimately, you know, not for me, but what I learned is that pretty much any office job probably not for for someone like me. So yeah, really passionate about, you know, did Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship. And, yes, that was a little long winded. But I hope that kind of gives a background and Amin what I've been up to and how I've been trying to help people the last couple years. Actually, there's
Keith McKeever 8:49
a there's actually a few similarities in our story, because I was, I started my podcast after being somebody who had listened to him all the time, is a realtor, I'd be on the road for 20 minutes here, 40 minutes there. And, I mean, I've always liked music, but at some point in time, it just kind of switched with me. And I was like, Oh, I'm gonna start listening to podcasts. Right? Right, about the time that I started getting unlimited streaming through my phone, it wasn't gonna cost an arm and a leg for all those extra extra data. But so I started listening to it, listening to all kinds of different podcasts. And when kind of the pandemic hit, it was like, I just idea the seed in the back of my mind. And I was like, You know what, I'm just gonna start one, I'm gonna go buy a microphone and a webcam. I want to figure this out in some way, shape, or form. And here we are, you know, two years later, but you know, so I'm kind of curious on the on the career choice, because I don't know how that goes for officers. Did you get a much or any choice in what career you ended up in? Or was that just luck because I could see that. You could have ended up in the army, potentially doing something else with tanks, artillery, something like that. I could that could have been a wildly different areas for you?
Paul Tokgozoglue 10:03
Yep, yeah, no, I picked it, I actually signed on for a little longer on my contract. So I could be a military police officer is getting into the weeds a little bit. But back then I had it in my head that like maybe a great career choice for me, after the military would be like, the FBI, or some sort of federal law enforcement. And just because that's what my dad did, my dad's worked for the Department of Defense my whole life. So I was like, you know, I want to kind of continue that tradition or continue that legacy. And we're not working on that guy, you know? Yeah, I mean, it seemed like a good safe career sort of thing. And, but again, you know, once I got into it, and once I started working in that office environment, you know, it's pretty clear to me, like, I know, I'm meant to do something completely different meant to do something more entrepreneurial. And again, you know, online, that kind of live in the living wherever I want work in my own hours. And so I abandoned that pretty quick. But that's why I chose Military Police was because I was thinking FBI or, you know, something like that. So I wanted something that would give me some sort of law enforcement experience. And, you know, I thought that would carry over well into kind of whatever I did next. But, uh, I ended up doing something else. But experience was great. Oh, yeah. So, I learned a lot about leadership, though. I mean, as an officer, especially when I was a platoon leader, learned a lot about leadership, made a shit ton of mistakes, for sure, you know, definitely had some great talks with the commander, or, you know, the higher ups about ways to improve myself. Great. It was, uh, oh, yeah. But uh, but it was, they were like, in the moment, obviously, if the commander calls you in your office, your, your, your, your fear in the worst, and sometimes you do get whipped upside the head, but at the end of the day, all of those chats are all of those things that happened to me. You know, they're great in hindsight, like, they're all really good learning experiences. But again, the big learning experience for me overall was that, hey, the military, probably not the best career for me. You know, probably see better suited for something else. But, uh, but I really did learn a lot about leadership, and definitely learned a lot about what not to do in leadership, I would say, and both of my own actions and also, yep, yep, definitely, from my own actions, but also having people above me that may not have had my best interests at heart. So I learned a lot about what not to do. And, and I, I, you know, I've applied that now to when we're running companies are helping people build teams. And, you know, it's invaluable experience. So at the end of the day, I'm super grateful for it. And, you know, here I am today doing something else.
Keith McKeever 12:54
Well also provided a lot of I'm sure a lot of reflection and perspective in your life, especially with the diagnosis of being on autism spectrum. And entrepreneurship is, would seem like it'd be a great fit for that, because you can kind of have a little bit of control in your environment. And what you do, because there's so many infinite ways, different things you can do in the entrepreneurship world. But what was that? What was that transition process? Like, because they had to be different for you. We're trying to figure out like, what's next? What can fit with my diagnosis and what's not going to give me problems and stuff like that. Additional things on top of what maybe other people have for transition.
Paul Tokgozoglue 13:37
So I started it years before I ever actually left the military. So I started my first podcast in 2016, when I was in Poland, working at a at NATO, and which was a fun experience. But I had a lot of free time working at NATO. And so I I started a podcast during that period. And it was the first show that I did was about Brazilian jujitsu because I've been involved in the martial arts since I was a kid really passionate about it. So I was like, you know, don't know what to talk about mine as we'll talk about martial arts and Jiu Jitsu. So that was the first time Oh, yeah. And I interviewed a lot of people in the jujitsu world. It was really fun. Like Dean Lister was probably the most notable person I had on the show, and got to meet a lot of my jujitsu heroes and stuff like that and talk them on the podcast. And I did that for about a year, year and a half. And during that time, I was using social media marketing to grow the podcast and again, I was still in the military at the time, I was still I was just starting my platoon leader time at this at this moment. So I was real busy. And I had a lot going on, but I learned the basics of social media marketing to help me promote the show, and helped me to grow what I was doing with the podcast. And then one of my friends who I didn't interviewed on the podcast before, he asked me if I wanted to do that for his brand. And he had a yoga company yoga for BJJ that does online yoga videos for jujitsu people, and still their yoga for BJJ dotnet, you can check it out and shout out to my friend Sebastian. And he was my first client, you know, to hire me for social media marketing. And he basically said, he was like, Hey, man, I've been watching what you do on social media, I really like it, why don't you come do that for me, and just post for our, our brand, you know, once a day on Facebook and Instagram. So it's really simple. And I got paid, like, 350 a month, like, so it wasn't, it wasn't much at all. But uh, but it was the start, it was my first real gig. And it was really fun. And I learned a lot. So I worked with him for a little over a year, just running their social media pages and kind of learning the basics of that. And I really learned a lot through that. And then I got from there, I got into running kind of bigger social media platforms where I was posting maybe, you know, three or four times a day on multiple different platform, firms, stuff like that, for other companies, obviously, getting paid more for that. And I also got into advertising. And I learned all about Facebook, Facebook ads, and Instagram ads, and Reddit ads, and all these different ways to run advertising. And I started also offering that to people. And all the people that I met, through, you know, all the people who are hiring for for, excuse me, for hiring me for these things. I met them all through the podcast is what I was trying to say. So these were all people that I interviewed on the podcast, they seen what I did on social media to promote my own stuff. And, you know, I just maybe was playing around with Facebook ads for myself, and I was publishing some of the results that I was getting. And then people would just reach out and say, Hey, can you help me out with that, you know, like, like, what you're doing for yourself. And that's how I got my first kind of handful of clients. And again, I was still a platoon leader. At this time, I was still working full time in the military. And I was doing this a few hours, like nights and weekends. So it's definitely a bit of a grind, and definitely a very, very steep learning curve. But I also kind of volunteered at one at the the jujitsu school where I was practicing. And I helped them build their website, I helped them do some basic advertising, and, you know, kind of help them as well. So I was doing a lot of free work to build a portfolio and just to get experience, like, if you read the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, he talks about how entrepreneur ears work for free, especially when they're getting started. And that is 100% true. So in the beginning, you got to just work for free, basically, like an intern, or work for, you know, lower amount of money, because you just need some experience. So it's really just like, whatever you can get to help you build a portfolio and kind of get those first couple clients under your belt like, you know, do do basically whatever it takes, obviously, you know, within integrity, you don't want to do anything, do whatever it takes to get the first few clients, that sounds a little sketchy. But you know, do do whatever you need to do.
Paul Tokgozoglue 18:08
Do whatever you need to do to kind of get those first like three to five clients. And from there, once you kind of have that experience and you have a portfolio, then it's going to be a lot easier for you to quit your job and go out and do bigger and better things and get paid, you know, the market price, so to speak on, you know, for these services, like social media marketing, or advertising, you can charge 1000 to 2000 a month for just doing the service, obviously, depends, depends a lot, though, on how good you are, and what sorts of results you've gotten in the past. Because if you suck, no one's gonna pay you that. But if you're good at what you do, and you can actually get results, you know, you might only need three or four clients to replace your active duty incomes. That was my case, I didn't need too many clients, I only needed, you know, for people paying me that amount of money to to transition out of the military. But I guess what I'm trying to say is you have I had to put in a lot of work and a lot of hours, nights and weekends while I was still working full time to get that experience and also to to go through that learning curve. Because there's a huge learning curve when it comes to social media, or building funnels, or podcasting, or just anything related to entrepreneurship, honestly, like there's gonna be a learning curve, if you're doing it yourself. I mean, if you have the money to invest in yourself, then you can hire a coach or you can hire someone to do it for you. But when you're just getting started, probably not going to have an extra, you know, 2000 a month to throw at a coach or a service provider because you're probably going to need that money to pay your bills and, you know, get yourself get your own business kind of off the ground. So So I guess I wanted to kind of take you I wanted to take you on that journey just to show that like it's not an overnight thing. It's not like I decided, Oh, I'm gonna be an entrepreneur and then next week I got out of the military It was like, years before I got out of the army, I had made the decision that this is what I wanted to do. And then it took years to build up the experience and the, I guess the the clout that I needed to kind of get out and do something else. And but really, it's the skill set, you know, I had to develop the skill set that I needed to make me valuable enough that I could go out there and charge a real price for my services. So basically, just kind of waited until I got to that point where I could actually do that. And then I got out and, you know, wait, it didn't, didn't, didn't sign back up, basically. And then I got out. And then here I am, you know, doing that. And it was definitely a especially because I got out right before the pandemic. And everyone was a little short on cash, like it was definitely an uphill battle. But, uh, yeah, you know, with, as they say, with hard work and willpower, like you can do whatever. So you just got to work, put in the hours and fucking not give up just like anything else. Yeah.
Keith McKeever 21:05
And, you know, you told me that before that you got out right for the pandemic? And that was a question I was gonna ask is, what kind of unique challenges do you think that presented to you? And, or somebody who's been, you know, got out in these last couple years? It's got to be a wildly different experience.
Paul Tokgozoglue 21:24
Yep. So it was really just that again, like I had the clout, I had the experience, you know, I had had clients pay me maybe 2500 a month to be managing their accounts, like beforehand, or something like that. So again, like if, you know, inside of the military, I was making like, I don't know, like, 5500 a month or 6000 a month? I don't actually, I don't have a, it would vary depending on where you live, because in Germany, you get more anywhere around like, yeah, around 5500 a month, something like that. So I really only, you know, going off of like the market value, if I'm getting paid 2500 a month, I only need like, you know, two people to to replace that income, right? Well, after the pandemic, everyone was short on cash, everyone was saving away for the apocalypse, everyone was trying to be be stingy and kind of hold on to everything because no one knew what was. Right. And yeah, everyone's hoarding toilet paper. And basically, every non essential service was suffering. So one of my mentors, Alex scharffen, he put it so well, during the the pandemic, he was saying, like, if you're not an essential business, you're going to suffer. That's, you know, the longest short of it, because people can't afford anything except what's essential right now. So in other words, if you're in the insurance business, that's an essential thing, you're probably not going to be hurting. But if you're a digital marketer, or a social media marketer, like, that's not exactly an essential service that people like are required to have, you know, so what it worked out to was a just wasn't able to charge enough for my services, like everyone that I talked to, was strapped for cash. And it might have just been me, like, maybe I wasn't networking in the right circles, or maybe I wasn't, I don't know, but whatever was happening was, I wasn't able to connect with the right people that had the money, like I was used to, you know, so I was charging a fraction of what I normally would charge, you know, so whereas normally, I would charge maybe 1000 bucks for something, now, I could only charge 500, because that's literally all they had budgeted for this, you know, so it was, I was still able to make a living, I was still able to pay the bills, thankfully, thanks to a lot of goodwill, and a lot of wonderful people that helped me out and, you know, hired me for some work and, and included me in their budget, I guess, you could say, is the way to think about it. And, but I had to take on, you know, three or four times as much work as, as I might have had to, you know, as otherwise. So, just a lot of hours, you know, again, like when right after the pandemic, like I get done with work every day, or like seven or 8pm, you know, working on my computer, because I just had a lot of clients, it was managing like five or six different accounts and trying to do stuff for a bunch of different people. So just wasn't sustainable, you know. So I ended up linking up with Zack Babcock, who's my business partner now. And we I started out helping him with his business. And that basically developed into a full time gig, where now we work together, we run the business together. And we've also got another business partner in the mix. Now, Tim Holloway and we've grown podcast powertrain over the last two years. And yeah, we've helped about over 300 people with launching podcasts. And that's kind of where I've, I've dove in the last couple years is just kind of all into the podcasting space. And it's a lot better because then I only have you know, one thing to focus on rather than five or six. So I was able to find that one relationship that makes The big difference, which was the relationship with Zack, and, you know, ever since then I've been been squared away.
Keith McKeever 25:07
Yeah, there's nothing he kind of said back there, you know, around the business and kind of people affording different things, I think for a lot of people was you, they got to put their money into those necessities, right. And toilet paper was a necessity when there was like hardly any on the shelf. And paying your light bill, your water bill, like those are necessities. And they a lot of small businesses, even big businesses, got caught in a position where they were not prepared for a pandemic, of course, nobody was prepared for it, but had no systems in place to really deal with this. It has turned everything upside down. And I certainly hope that a lot of entrepreneurs or even big businesses, learn from these last couple years and say, Alright, if it's happened, now, it could happen again, we better plan for this accordingly, both policy and procedures for things, but financially, we need to be able to position ourselves strategically to be able to handle a better, you know, because I don't know about you, but where I'm from, I've seen a lot of restaurants, a lot of small mom and pop shops, they've closed up doors in the last couple years, they just could not hang on. Some of these were businesses that have been around for 5060 years. And, you know, they built quite a reputation quite a brand. And they just could not sustain it, especially during the height of the pandemic when nobody was, you know, allowed to go sit down and eat in a restaurant. Some of these places didn't have the facilities to, to do carry out as effectively as others and a lot of problems. You know, that's just one one business type example. But the I'm sure there's some opportunities in there, if you see anything over these last couple years as you kind of navigated this transition process and all the podcasting stuff that you think is an opportunity for people.
Paul Tokgozoglue 27:01
Yeah, I mean, I'd say definitely podcasting, honestly, and starting your own platform like that's where everything is moving. Is all of us are a media company. So this podcast that I'm you know, guesting on right now, this is your media channel, in the same way that CNN is the government's media channel to spew out all their baloney and, but you get to have your own platform here inside of the digital space, where you can say whatever you want, you know, your freedom of speech is it can be exercised here. And that's something I'm super passionate about, especially right now is, uh, enabling people to express themselves enabling people to exercise their freedom of speech, because I think that that is something that is under attack right now. And a lot of people getting triggered by the truth that's getting dropped everywhere. And people are trying to censor these opinions and having a podcast or having a blog, or having a YouTube channel or having something that's your own platform, like it bullet proofs you against where everything is where the future is headed. And it helps you to have your own platform where you can network, you can create things. And you can ultimately start your own business and build a dominant brand, around this platform that you're creating around this media channel that you've created here, in the same way that Netflix is a media platform. So you got to kind of switch into that mindset of saying like, Hey, I'm going to have an online platform that people can listen to anywhere in the world, that's going to empower them, it's going to build a community, it's going to create a network and build a build a tribe really build some sort of online community where people can have their, they can meet up with other people like them, they can coordinate and communicate with each other. That's a big reason why we launched Alpha podcasters, which is the link that's scrolling right now, at alpha podcasters. Calm, it's a mighty network, there's not hosted on on Facebook, or Twitter or LinkedIn, because those platforms, their their algorithm inherently censors a lot of this information. And that's why we switched over to mighty networks because they don't have an algorithm. So it's kind of a censorship free platform where people can converse, they can talk about whatever they want, they can hang out and they don't have to worry about some social media algorithm, hiding posts from them because it's might be controversial, or it might have some word that triggers the, the secret robot to come in and, you know, delete that post or hide it from the masses or some some craziness. So it's about and I Yeah, exactly. It's stupid. So we're real passionate about mighty networks and getting people off of social media, getting them to listen to podcasts, or you know, something like that, because I think that is the big opportunity right now is starting your own platform, you know, in the online world, because well for one you can You can then create that in the physical world. So if you have a giant audience like, like what we're doing, we're gonna be having a live event here in April, we're gonna be doing probably another one over this summer. And, you know, to to meet up with our community in person. That's something we did last year, too, is we had some masterminds where we met up with with elite podcasters, in different places like Florida, or Arizona, or Austin, Texas, and it was a lot of fun is really rewarding to meet up in person and kind of build that community and build that, that tribe because that's, that's what society needs right now is we need community, we need to get back to meeting up in person and having live events. And we need to get over everything that's been happening in the last couple of years and kind of move on and, you know, progress as a species, really. And we all
Keith McKeever 30:48
like, long past all this, for sure.
Paul Tokgozoglue 30:52
Oh, yeah, man. Yeah, man. So I, you know, I'm super passionate about that, I think that that's really the big opportunity for people as again, like use the internet, use this new kind of movement into the digital space, to build your platform to get your voice out there through a podcast, and then use that podcast to them build community, and gather those people somewhere like mighty networks, where you can, you know, host your own community, and then start to meet up in person start to facilitate live events, or put together a mastermind, or maybe a workshop or something, just anything, where you're meeting up with people, maybe in your city, or in your region or something like that, you know, like that's where people need to be moving right now.
Keith McKeever 31:38
It's a good place to position yourself for business to because everybody should pretty much be aware that audio and video is ruling the direction everything's going. It's not just me saying it, Gary Vaynerchuk. And many other people are out there been screaming from the mountaintops for years that you need to be doing one or both like, and that's how you build your brand is by letting people know who you are, you know, and you can do that through podcasting. You could do it through a blog, you could do it through just to Facebook Lives. If there's so many different ways you can do it. But you just got to you got to do that. Because you got to be where people's attention is. And that kind of leads to the next question, because you've been in the business development and social media. And so marketing, branding, advertisements, they're all different, but they're all intermingle, right. They're in the same thing, web of sorts. So what kind of advice would you have on those people who do have a small business or, you know, budding entrepreneurs, for keeping their their message consistent across those?
Paul Tokgozoglue 32:44
I think you've got to be real clear on who you're talking to. So it's all about knowing everything there is to know about your ideal avatar, as we say, so, for example, this podcast here, you're speaking to a very specific kind of person. I mean, even just with the name, the battle buddy podcast, like it's pretty clear to anyone in the military, this shows probably for military members, or veterans because battle buddy is in our vernacular, right? Like someone who's never been in the military, they are not gonna resonate with that phrase, they might not even have ever heard it before. So someone who's in the military, they're like, Oh, the battle buddy podcast, got it. Like, for military people, you know, you got the flag, you got everything behind you. You got all your, the, you know, what's it called the certificates. Everything that I'm looking at mind you in the video, like, you know, it's very clear to anyone who's watching or listening, like, this is a podcast for military members, for veterans, like you're super clear on who you're speaking to, you know, there's a lot of podcasts, where they're not very clear, they're not very, they're not very focused on who they're talking to. Or there's a lot of small businesses out there that are serving everyone, like they're trying to please everyone they're trying to market to every single person. And that's just not going to work. You got to be super clear on who this is for who you're trying to reach. And because then when you get into that you can start to adjust your marketing message for those people's psychology specifically. So one of the big things that you want to identify is where are they at emotionally when they encounter your information? And where are you going to take them so ruffle ruffle Russell Brunson calls this the epiphany bridge, you got to build an epiphany bridge for your audience, where you're going to help them have an epiphany through your marketing message that's going to illuminate for them that they need to listen to you that you've got the answers that you understand them, and you just help them have this big epiphany for their situation. So for example, for me, you know, on our podcast that we do podcast powertrain, we got a podcast about podcasting. We call it the most meta podcast in the world. But it's all about how to build a dominant brand with a podcast. So on the podcast, powertrain podcast we were talking about, you know how the podcasts building that creating that that the epiphany that we want people to have. It's like, oh, I'm trying to start a business, I'm trying to grow the business, trying to grow my network, trying to make more money. I'm trying to build influence, like, what's the thing I'm supposed to do? We come in and we say, oh, it's starting a podcast. That's what you need to do. That's the epiphany that we're trying to help people have. So then they have that epiphany, through storytelling through listening to us through us communicating our story and our message, because that's what happened to me, that was the missing link for me is I needed to start a podcast. So if we can get people to realize and believe that one thing that they need to start a podcast in order to build a dominant brand, then we can then take them with us on the journey, then we can start to say, Okay, here's how you set it up. Here's how you record your first step episode, here's how you make a lead magnet, here's how you set up your interview stuff. Here's how you get guests booked on your podcast. Like, we can't get in any of that stuff, though, if we haven't first convinced you that you need to start a podcast, you know, it'd be the same thing, if we were trying to do this, maybe if I'd started a YouTube channel, and I was passionate about YouTube channels, then, you know, it might be a similar sort of thing. But that's the pivot. That's what every business needs to be creating. So going back to like a mom and pop business real quick, like, let's say that you're a, you're a mom and pop restaurant in a small city, and you're trying to differentiate people. You're trying to differentiate yourself and your local community, you need to have something about you that is unique and different, and appeals to a certain segment of the people in your community. And you need to help them have this epiphany of how coming to your restaurant and eating where you are, and having that experience. Like maybe you have live music or something like that, you know, why are people going out to eat, they're trying to have a good time, they're trying to connect with people, they're probably gonna bring some friends or family with them. They're, they're trying to have a good time. So you need to help them see, why should they come to you? Why should they come to your restaurant and spend their time there, maybe you have live music, maybe you have some special thing that you do at the restaurant, maybe, I don't know, maybe a certain kind of people hang out at your restaurant, maybe there's a cover fee to get in. And it's a exclusive sort of thing. Like, there are ways to do this need to,
Keith McKeever 37:27
you know, like, know exactly how you really like pizza joints, like my town is probably got seven pizza joints in it. You know, we want pizza? It's like, okay, where do we order from? Well, it's usually what are the other items that you get with it, that will determine which direction we go. You know, because most of them are carried out, they don't have dining, and there's no live music, like, you know, to your point, like, they have to differentiate themselves in one way, shape, or form and appeal to that to the consumer. To pay early,
Paul Tokgozoglue 37:59
got that man? No, that's it, man. And it's all about, you know, how do you separate yourself in the marketplace? What epiphany Are you trying to help people have? And who is your ideal customer? Or client or listener?
Keith McKeever 38:17
Absolutely. That's one good advice there. Where do you think, you know, in 2022, that these small businesses you know, all these veteran entrepreneurs out there, these small businesses, where do you think they can make their biggest impact in the digital marketing space?
Paul Tokgozoglue 38:38
I don't want to sound like a broken record. But really, it's all about, again, starting a platform, getting your message out there because here's the thing, you could throw money at advertising all day, but if you don't have a good brand message and you don't have an actual platform that you're driving people to, you're gonna I mean, you can do Yeah, exactly. If you don't have a basics of you know, storytelling and you know, you don't have the basics of just kind of getting your brand message out there. You know, you're you're not going to actually build a community you're not going to actually get people interested in you and what you're doing so any business out there can listen can start a podcast, can start a YouTube channel. If you're listening to this and the idea of speaking to people or start being on camera or being on audio if that terrifies you and you're just super uncomfortable, great start a blog, start a local blog, do writing you know, learn keyword research, learn how to get your your blog ranked on on Google. And, you know, blogging is an introvert best friend. So learn, you know, start a blog, whatever it is, start a platform, publish content regularly. Make it really good content, like put your heart and soul into this content, make it really freakin good because you got to obviously separate it from the marketplace because there's so many people out there who are doing this. And then if you're going to run advertising then you can run advertising direct to that to that resource. So if you make a podcast to help advertise your small business, you can then run advertising to that podcast, you can have a call to action on that podcast episode that then drives people to your business, you know, but at the end of the day, having a platform, it's going to allow you to network like crazy, it's going to help you get your message out there. And it's going to help you market and grow the business in the online space. There's definitely a place for for advertising as well, especially if you're, you know, a gym, or if you're, again, like a restaurant or something that's really kind of like, Hey, you want to work out, here's where you work out, you want to eat, here's a place to eat, like, so that's a place where you know, some Google Pay Per Click advertising, that might be super beneficial for you in your local area. So let's say that you're in St. Louis, and you've got a martial arts school might be really beneficial to invest, you know, a couple 100 bucks a month in, in advertising on Google. So that way, whenever someone searches, St. Louis martial arts school, you show up right at the top, like stuff like that is kind of super simple, just kind of the basics of Pay Per Click advertising. So you know, that's a little bit more direct than, than having a podcast and sending people there. So you can do both of those. But if we're talking about like, how are you going to impact the world? Like, how are you going to get outside of your local area and actually grow the business into something, you know, bigger than it is now, if you want to actually grow your influence and network like crazy, start a podcast or start a YouTube channel, or, again, start a blog, you know, use that as your vehicle to get this message and get your brand out there to the world. Build a community. And, you know, freakin go from there.
Keith McKeever 41:49
You know, because of that a second ago, landing page. And we kind of talked about call to action and stuff like that on ads. And it just kind of got me a little off my my questions script here. But I'm just curious, because I know where I stand on it. This may ruffle some feathers for those small business owners out there that that are this way. But what do you what are your thoughts on people starting a business in only using a Facebook page and calling it their website?
Paul Tokgozoglue 42:21
Yeah, it's no good, you got to definitely have a website, or else you're not going to get ranked on Google. And especially if you're a small business, you need to get ranked on Google, especially in your local area, because that's where people are searching for you. So you have to learn the basics of search engine optimization for your website, or hire someone who who does know that to build your website. But yeah, you got to have gotta have that, you know. Now, if you're just getting started out, and it's day one, and you're strapped for cash, and you don't have you know, money to pay for a website guy, cool. Build something on Squarespace, build something for free on WordPress, build something on one of these funnel building sites like Sam cart, or, you know, any of these other platforms that are out there where you can build a basic funnel or build a basic landing page. But you got to have something because especially if you're trying to get on Google, if you're, you know, if you're a local small business, you got to get on, on Google, you got to do the Google My Business where you can show up on Google Maps and all this stuff. And then they're gonna let you have a link to your website right there. So that way, you know, people that are searching in your local market can search on Google for again, like maybe martial arts schools in St. Louis, you show up there at the top, your website will show up there on the right hand side and the little square search area on Google. And you want to have the website right there where they can click and find out more information. So yeah, if you just got the Facebook page. Here's one one little hack, though, that, that I learned from one of my one of my mentors, Mike Stewart a couple of years ago, in the martial arts community, what Mike does, he's got multiple different gyms. He's got multiple jujitsu schools in in Maryland. And he makes a different social media page for each one. So he's got like four or five different gyms, each one of them has a social media page. And he also has a website. So if you Google, and if you search for martial arts schools in Maryland, he shows up not just with one website, but actually with five or six, because Facebook, what the Facebook pages, Instagram pages, they all rank on Google too. So you want to definitely have those. And actually, like I'm saying, if you have multiple locations, you want to have a different Facebook page for each one. Because it'll, it'll all rank on Google together. So that way, instead of just having the one thing on Google, you've got, you know, 10, or you've got 10 different pages there on Google when someone pulls it up. So that way, you just, you know, demolish the competition by taking over the first page of Google like, I remember this kind of sunk For me, when he showed me his his ranking on Google for his local area, he took like a screenshot of it. And literally, the whole front page of Google was just him, his competitors were nowhere to be seen. Because every he had so many different assets. You know, he had one website and like, 10 different social media pages. And if you looked up martial arts schools in Maryland, it was looked like it was just basically, even though there might be 10 Other schools around. So that's huge. So you definitely want to do both. But uh, yeah, you definitely want to not just have one Facebook page or one Instagram page, like that's, you know, that's nothing.
Keith McKeever 45:35
I see that a lot. And, and I would agree that in the beginning, yeah, you can set it up free, easy, easy to manage, Facebook page, maybe in Instagram, too. But at some point in time, if you're going to do any kind of ads, you need a website, you need to be able to put landing pages on there. And websites are not that difficult. My website, the battle buddy. podcast.net is Squarespace. My real estate one is on Squarespace. It's easy. It's click drag over, they have little pop up buttons to explain things to you, if you don't know it, but I can make tweaks in five minutes, you know, I mean, every single week, I go on on there, and I'm throwing the podcast videos on there every single Sunday, you know, or Wednesday, when they drop, I'll put them on there, I'll put the links, everything is easy. You set it up, and it's there, you just got to go and make you know, 510 minute tweaks, a couple times a week at different stuff to it. So it's easy. And you know, there's always YouTube, too. You could do YouTube, you could Google your questions. YouTube will walk you right through things. But that reminds me of another thing that you mentioned, like Google ranking, like, I don't know the exact order. But I don't think Facebook is going to be ranking in the top 10 Or maybe 15 or 20 search engines in the world, like Google and YouTube are right there wanting to nothing is gonna get you higher than then being there. On both of those platforms. Yep.
Paul Tokgozoglue 47:03
Yeah, you know, people do search on Facebook, but their search algorithm sucks. So, you know, you might show up, but really, Google is the king and your Google, your Facebook page, though, will show up on Google. But again, like you want to have that website, because the website is going to show up a lot better on Google. If that makes sense, you're gonna rank a lot higher, usually.
Keith McKeever 47:27
Yeah, one of my thoughts on on Facebook is that the page is a good kind of landing spot, you should have consistent information being posted, you should have good content, you should have all your contact information by all that stuff should be set. But really, you should be sharing stuff on your personal page. And if you're going to make Facebook work for you, I think you need to have your personal connections, referring you in other posts where somebody says, hey, I need a person that does X, Y, and Z. And they want people to think, Hey, my friend, John Doe, over there does XY and Z. And they start tagging your personal page in there, you know, and then you can carry on that conversation and be like, hey, if you'd like to know more about me, you know, here's my, here's my Facebook page, here's my website, whatever, or get a link tree or something along those lines, have all your links in it, you can be able to share it easily with people. But you know, that's, that's kind of my two cents on whole business things and things that I see out there. So I figured you'd have similar viewpoints. So speaking of messaging, wrap this up, but you have taken not only this podcasting thing, but just showing messages to a different level. And you mentioned CNN earlier, we've kind of mentioned news, and we know a lot of the stuff that's on the news, regardless of what side you Leanne, and I don't try and get political on here. But everybody has their opinions on both sides. One thing that is missing is positive news. And so you have started something with some positive news, can you can you share that with us what what you're doing there?
Paul Tokgozoglue 49:03
Absolutely. So I started a new podcast a couple of weeks ago called Trinity media news. And we just launched and we hit number 85 in the USA for Daily News, which was awesome. We also hit I think, like 103, in Canada, which was really encouraging. But the whole concept of the show is we're going around and sitting down with people and reporting on positive news stories from around the world. So anyone who's doing good and who's trying to make an impact and change their community, or maybe someone who's gone on a really wild journey, and they've gone on a lot of self development and we want to highlight them and kind of what they're doing like one of our members and alpha podcasters TJ Bell, just had him on the show, and to do a story about how he recovered from a lifetime of alcoholism. And he went on to launch a top rated podcast and he's now using his podcast to grow his network and start his business and change his whole life and really just wanted to highlight What he was doing because I know a lot of people were struggling with addiction right now. So wanted to kind of showcase that story of like, hey, look, here's someone that just got over all of that let you know last year is when he went down alcohol, like, I think he's almost a year sober. And, you know, just want to say like, Hey, look at what this guy's doing. He's starting a business, he's got a top rated podcast, he's using it to grow his network, like doing good stuff, like literally anything that is positive. Because what you find when you start to do this, when you start to look into stuff like this, you know, another story, just real quick is Gary Roberts, who is opening up treatment centers in South America to help people who who need access to psychedelic medicines to heal from PTSD. So there's all sorts of studies going out right now from Johns Hopkins talking about the effects of psilocybin or MDMA, to reverse the effects of PTSD. So you know, we did a story about Gary and what he's doing in South America, to open up therapy centers where people can go down there, and they can even get a sponsorship, you know, if they don't have the money to go, and they can get, get that healing, and get therapy to kind of help them integrate. So basically, anything again, what you do when we started going down this rabbit hole, is there's so much more good news that's happening than bad news, there's actually from where I'm sitting astronomically, more good news happening than bad news. And the mainstream media has a vested financial interest in getting you hooked on fear, like I call them like the fear report, basically. So what they do is they find whatever is the worst thing happening in the world today, and we're gonna shine a spotlight on that. So did someone gets shot in Baltimore, the two people get shot in a drive by shooting, that's gonna be breaking news. Meanwhile, there might be someone down the road or a couple blocks away, who again, just quit alcoholism, and now they're launching a business, you know, and, and they're changing their life around and they're impacting people, like, really sucks that those two people got shot, like, that really fucking stinks. But, you know, we can also talk about the 10 other great things that happen in that same area, you know, are these other people that are doing really good things. And I think if we just shift that viewpoint, you know, I think it'll, it'll change everything. So that's really what we're trying to do is change the narrative, and make it more about like shining a light on good stuff, and highlighting people doing good things. And gone from there, you know, and because honestly, the way we see it, man is the danger report over at mainstream media, like they got the bad news covered. So we don't really need to report on the bad news, like people already getting that, you know, hand over fist. So we're trying to just focus on the positive stuff and kind of go from there.
Keith McKeever 52:47
And there's more than enough people out there that are doing some good positive things. And, you know, I'll say largely, a lot of them, it just goes unnoticed. Just just people doing good things out of the kindness of their heart, or overcoming things. And, you know, it's, it's good to see somebody have a little light shine on them for, for doing the right thing, or, you know, succeeding. So, that's awesome stuff. That was, uh, that was Trinity media. network.org. Is that your website for that?
Paul Tokgozoglue 53:16
Yep. Trinity media. network.org is the website and the podcast is called Trinity media news. So you can look it up on Apple, or Spotify. And, yeah, again, alpha podcasters. Calm is the community where you can join for free and learn about how to start your podcast and network with other podcast creators. And you know, if you got a question just posted in there, and we'll help you out.
Keith McKeever 53:41
That's a cool platform. After we talked, I think about a week ago, I went in there and signed up. And I was just talking to a guy was telling you this before we started recording, and I was talking to a guy, he put something in here, but things he talks about, and I thought, hey, this could be a great guest for my show, you know, we've been collaborating back and forth. And, you know, in just a week, I found a lot of value in that already. And, quite honestly, I probably only spent 2025 minutes in there. So, you know, basically setting up my profile and then engaging one or two conversations and connecting with some people. So if you're in podcasting space, I highly recommend that you go check that out, and see if you can, you know, be a value to you. And once again, Paul, I appreciate you coming on here and being a battle buddy and sharing your story and your message. And hopefully that inspires or educate somebody to you know, maybe pick up a microphone and hit record and start sharing their story or whatever, whatever it is in their heart or their brain. They want to, they want to talk about so there's there's a lot of power to it. And you kind of mentioned earlier like networking, it's incredible. For anybody's thinking about being a podcaster definitely reach out to Paul, get an alpha podcasters you know, get his expertise on it. But you know, if you ever want to have a conversation with me, you know about my thoughts or opinions or little tips and tricks that kind of helped. I'd be more than happy to kind of share my knowledge So I'll be honest, I don't have it all figured out yet. But it's a learning process as we go through it. So I just say, do it, you know, that's the best thing to do is just start. So any any last words, Paul?
Paul Tokgozoglue 55:16
Yeah, just I want to highlight more what you said, like just start, you know, whatever it is, and what we found man, working with hundreds of podcasters and content creators, the number one thing that holds people back is a limiting belief of putting themselves out there, people don't are scared that other people aren't gonna like them, or that they're gonna sound stupid, or no one's gonna listen, or they're not going to be able to get any guests or find other people or they're not going to know what to do. And it's all just different forms of thinking that you're not good enough for whatever it is you're trying to do. So you just got to know like, you are good enough, you can do it. Put, especially if you're listening to this, and you're in the military, like anything that we did in the military is way harder and more mentally challenging that starting a podcast. At the end of the day, you know, public speaking is everyone one of everyone's secret, worst fears is you know, getting up in crowds in front of a crowd and speaking. And if you're doing a YouTube channel or a podcast, like that's the same fear that you're tapping into the fear of kind of getting up in front of people and sharing yourself. So yeah, don't let it stop you, you know, just know that everyone goes through it. And at the end of the day, you do have a lot to put out there, you do have a message to share. And there are a lot of people who could be helped. And, and go from there, you know, and again, like if you just fucking can't stand it, write it or recording yourself, and you just can't stand being in front of a video, cool, do a blog, there's lots of blogs out there that get millions and millions of readers every day that made millions of dollars for their owners, you know, so don't let it stop. You don't make excuses. You know, if you can't stand being on a mic or video cool, like start a blog, you know, there's no excuses out there anymore. And, and you just got to do it.
Keith McKeever 57:04
How this went on for size, cuz I don't remember where I heard this bass stuck with me through the whole process. Because I had a little bit of a fear of that. But at the end of the day, it's like, okay, this has just been me you haven't a conversation, right? So has the other 30, something almost 40 Something podcast episodes, but nothing somewhere. makes so much sense. And I'm not saying who it is because I don't think like that. But your worst episode you've ever produced, is out there. And if you think about that, and you have a growth mindset of learn from every other episode that you've done, and pushed me just a little bit better, tried trying new things, experiment, but if you keep talking about your mind of like, you know what, the worst episode I've ever done is out there. Now who knows what that is? Or who knows who it's worth? Or while it's the worst? Maybe you just had a bad hair day? Or maybe maybe you just look like a mess on camera? Who knows? Or maybe you you know, we're stuttering all over the place. I don't know, you know, if you kind of keep that in the back of your mind. And you're like, what's, what's the harm? I mean, just just get it recorded? Do it have the conversation? And, you know, I don't know. To me, it kind of keeps you on the right path, just realizing that, you know, just to slowly get better over time.
Paul Tokgozoglue 58:29
Yep, that's it, man. 1% better every day.
Keith McKeever 58:33
Absolutely. So only way to go. So anyway, Paul, I appreciate you being here. I'm gonna, I'll say once again, before we leave, connect with Paul, his, his links and everything will be in the show notes and they'll be on YouTube. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel. Go might like my Facebook page. My website is on the ending screen and I'll show here in a second. It's battle buddy podcast.net all those links. Once again, it'll be in the show notes. But most importantly, if you are having a hard time the the suicide prevention number will be on the screen here. It'll be posted in the show notes as well. It's also on the website. There's lots places you can find it so if you are having those kinds of thoughts, please reach out get some help because we want you we want to we want our battle buddies here tomorrow. So go ahead and play this ending screen here.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
