Overview
On this episode of Build Your Network, Host Travis Chappell interviews Dan Franks, the co-founder and co-organizer of Podcast Movement.
Topics Discussed:
- About Dan Franks
- Spent his 20’s as a pro-wrestler.
- He now runs live events for a living, but never expected to do that.
- His background is a CPA, doing taxes.
- How long were you a professional wrestler and how did that come about?
- He never grew out of his love of pro-wrestling, he knew he wanted to do that when he grew up.
- In college he gave it a go and travelled for about 10 years wrestling professionally.
- When he got to college, he trained to be a wrestler and did that on the weekends.
- When he graduated he kept wrestling, but then started doing taxes.
- He wrestled and did taxes at the same time.
- When he showed up at tax meetings with black eyes and other pro-wrestling marks, he knew something had to go.
- At this point he stopped wrestling.
- From CPA to event organizer
- He was listening to a lot of podcasts at work doing a lot of busy work.
- One of his co-workers listened to a lot of the same podcasts.
- Then he and his co-worker started a podcast about business and entrepreneurship.
- This lead them to go to some conferences that included podcasters.
- These were more generic conferences that included blogging and more.
- He realized that there weren’t a lot of places that were just for podcasters.
- A few people at those conferences got together to start their own podcasting event.
- The first Podcast Movement Event
- They figured out that putting on the event would be really expensive.
- They started crowdfunding on Kickstarter when it was a new thing.
- They called it the first dedicated national podcasting conference.
- They shared the page with their friends.
- They presold tickets to the event on Kickstarter.
- This was the first step to put the event together.
- What did finding speakers for Podcast Movement look like?
- People were really excited about the event and interested in speaking.
- It was a combination of reaching out to a lot of friends and people they had met at other conferences.
- The bigger named people were a little more hesitant, because they had to guard their time a little more.
- Now pretty much everyone who turned them down, has since speak at the event.
- They’d asked John Lee Dumas for the first year, and he let them know that he didn’t have time, but he wished them good luck.
- They decided not to take no for an answer, so they asked John if he would just come.
- They finally got to the point where John agreed to moderate a panel at the event.
- This turned into a relationship where John has taken part every year.
- Some people say no the first time to everyone, and then start vetting people on the second attempt.
- Do you believe that what you know or who you know is more important and why?
- It has to be who you know.
- A lot of what you know comes from who you know.
- In what Dan has done, everything has started with a person.
- He’s in the fake it ‘til you make it camp.
- The easiest way to learn something is to dive into the deep end.
- Tell us about a time in your life where a connection lead to a big moment of success.
- A project he’s working on now came from a suggestion from someone very high up in the podcast space.
- He felt there was a need that Dan and his partner would be a great fit for.
- People they know are starting to bring us things that are based on those relationships they’ve built with them.
- A project he’s working on now came from a suggestion from someone very high up in the podcast space.
- Why do you think that people neglect to network?
- It’s hard, most people are introverted in nature.
- There are a lot of online interactions and people don’t know how to cross over to a more personal type of relationship.
- The digital divide keeps relationships from happening.
- He loves live events because you can use them to bring people together and have real conversations.
- How do you deal with the fear of rejection?
- You have to ask yourself “what’s the worst that could happen?”
- They still have people turn them down even when it really makes sense.
- Every year Audio Technica turns them down for sponsorship, even though it makes a lot of sense.
- The worst case scenario would happen anyway if you don’t ask.
- If you had to narrow networking down to one tip, what would it be?
- Make connections online first.
- Find facebook groups and Twitter handles related to the events you’re going to go to.
- If you’ve tweeted with someone before or commented on their blog posts, you can go up to them and bring up the time you had a conversation with someone.
- What do you think about business cards?
- Bring them, or have them, but don’t give it unless you’re asked for it.
- The conference he runs has people from every age range.
- Some people only know how to do networking with business cards.
- He personally would want to have a business card to give, but wouldn’t necessarily want to throw them around on his own.
- Of everyone you’ve met, who is the best networker that you know?
- Dan says he’s not great at it naturally, but luckily his business partner Jared Easley is a master networker.
- He’s great at connecting with people on Facebook and following up with them.
- It has to be who you know.
The Random Round:
- What profession other than your own do you think it would be fun to attempt?
- Professional Wrestling again
- If you could sit on a park bench for any hour with anyone past or present, who would it be?
- Mark Cuban, he’s local to Dallas and they’re seeing everything he does from both a business and a personal perspective.
- How do you like to learn best, books, blogs, podcasts or video?
- Podcasts/audio
- One of your favorite podcasts.
- Something to Wrestle – newer podcast hosted by Brother Love.
- Raised by TV – newer podcast by two comedians about 90’s TV.
- Give us a glimpse of your morning routine:
- Wake up around 5am
- Get ready and do crossfit
- Come home, eat breakfast, get to work
- What is your go-to pump up song:
- Listens to podcasts, not music
- What are you not very good at?
- Networking, cooking
- Find him on Twitter @DMFranks or his personal site DanFranks.me
Tweetable Quotes:
- The easiest way to learn something is to dive into the deep end.
- The worst case scenario would happen anyway if you don’t ask.
Resources Mentioned:
Buildyournetwork.com – Podcast website
DanFranks.me – Dan’s personal site
Podcast Movement – Podcasting Conference
Audio Technica – Audio Equipment Company
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