Team Solo Cast Part 3

For Part 3 of Team Solo Cast, we have Jaff Virtucio, Julie Houston’s right-hand man for more than ten years. Joining Julie, as well as Matt Palmquist and Melanie Davidson, he talks about his responsibilities in podcast production, mainly in booking guests and publishing content. Jaff also shares his best advice for those people who want to start their own podcast.

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Team Solo Cast Part 3

We are doing something a little bit different. Instead of having some guests from other places, we are going to be interviewing people on my team who are experts at various things. I am excited because my number one right-hand man has worked with me for probably ten years. Jaff, welcome to the show. I’m excited to finally have you on this show instead of behind the scenes.

I’m excited.

We are excited. The whole team is here. I want to introduce Melanie and Matt as well.

What’s up, Jaff? All these years, you have been managing the show and booking them, and making sure the content gets out there correctly and timely. How do you feel?

It is scary. It is different from doing it from the backend. I have been organizing podcasts for 8 or 10 years with Julie. We have produced thousands of episodes with different clients with high-end and popular guests out there in different industries doing different fields. It feels great to be here with Julie and all of you guys.

I wanted to tell the audience out there. You have listened to podcasts. You have seen the edited part of the podcast. It is all furnished and finished. Edits are done, but all of the hard work is done on the backend, processing it, getting the guests, and reaching out to them. Most of the difficult part of doing a podcast is inviting a guest. You can invite different people, but it is hard getting people to come in when you have a target. If you are a realtor, you want to target people that are within your scope of where you’re focused. I learned everything from Julie. She taught me everything. It was one hell of a ride, Julie. It was years of experience. You have taught me everything. Now, here we are.

You are one of my main managers too. Jaff is considered a US-based team member and gets paid as a US-salaried employee because he is a part of the team and has been for so long.

Jaff is moving to the US one of these days.

We have done a lot with the show. We have probably booked, between you and me together, over 10,000 shows easily for people. Getting the guest is part of the struggle, getting their information and everything you need, like headshots and bios. There are several different items that you need. That can be a challenging part. What do you do with all that information once you get it? How do you utilize that?

We will be needing all of that information from our guests. There is a lot of stuff that you can do for the show. First of all, there are a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs out there that might be lazy enough, but they are scared to go on a different strategy because technology is progressing from time to time. One of the most effective ways to put yourself out there, market yourself, or advertise yourself, and it might be your company, is doing a podcast. You might be a regular person, a business owner, or a blogger. One of the best ways is podcasts. There are a lot of things you can do about it. You can monetize podcasts on a level that you can’t imagine. That is what we are doing on the backend. I don’t know if I can share this, Julie.

Don’t give away the recipe, Jaff.

What I’m trying to say is we are cooking something. It is going to be something they might want to get themselves involved with. It is going to be our Podcast Masterclass Pro. It is coming soon, guys. I wanted to let you know that it is going to be worth it. I want you to follow our website and our show to make sure you are updated with our recent products and services, especially for our Podcast Masterclass Pro. That will be helping and teach you how to start your own podcast, manage it, and monetize it. There is going to be a lot of stuff in there.

There are multiple ways to monetize a podcast that most people don’t even know, know how to do, or would think of. It is endless how much you can earn from having the guests on. On our show, particularly, Jaff vets everyone for me. He knows the criteria. I host another show that has different criteria. Jaff is familiar with clients’ avatars, demographics, what would be a good fit for them, and what would not be a good fit. Jaff has connected with many people one-on-one in this job because he runs the whole show behind the scenes. Jaff has a team too.

It is not a team. It is a family for us, Julie. We have a family working with us, helping with all of the tasks that we have daily, making sure that everything is going smoothly and that it is going as planned. Though we have some problems along the way, that is natural. The strategy here is how we deal with those problems. That is the key. When we are talking about the course we are cooking. Teaching you how to monetize stuff that you are not aware of is going to be the golden nugget in there.

I like to tell people to follow our updates and keep checking our social media platforms for updates. Once that is out, we have limited seats. We can cater for a specific number of months because that is going to be a course. We wanted to make sure that we have enough people that we can cater to, and teach them the strategies that we have, not more than what we want because we want to make sure that they can apply this to their company and themselves if they want to manage a podcast or they have a team that they want to know how to manage a podcast. It is important.

We have trained a few teams in the past.

I don’t know if you can name them, but we have.

You can name them.

We have one for the Smart Real Estate Podcast.

It was Chris Prefontaine. We hired his team and trained them.

We have one on our team that is doing great. We had a call with one prospect with a good offer. We might be doing a podcast. That is how quick it is. It is just a snap of a finger. When you have the experience, and you know what you are talking about when it comes to podcasts, that is how fast you can get a guest to come in with a good offer.

You know how to leverage it. That is a lot of value.

The good thing about this course is we will be teaching them how to do that. We want the skills, strategies, and knowledge to reproduce to their team if they come into the course.

The podcast not only gives you exposure and visibility. It builds incredible relationships with people because you get to meet them one-on-one. You get to do even more things in the future that might not be on a show. There are many things that can come from that. Matt and Melanie co-host our show. Matt, from your experience on the shows that you have gotten to interview with, what is your experience and feedback for being the host and meeting this person for the first time?

I have been blessed to cohost several shows. Let me start with the backend. The way it is run, produced, and organized is all credit to Jaff. It makes the host or the cohost’s job that much easier because we are given the information prior. We are spoiled. Shout out to Gracie. She is awesome. From the sense of the backend and what Jaff and his team handle, we are spoiled. It is first class. From the front end, when we are on the show and it is rolled out and published, it is an amazing experience. It is knowledgeable.

I wasn’t a huge fan of podcasts prior to joining the team. I would listen every once in a while to the different shows. What I have shared with Melanie, the information that you gained from the weekly host, it was like, “What?” If you go on YouTube or Spotify, I have a library of knowledge that if I want to learn about investing in real estate or digital marketing and running Facebook ads as we did with Oscar Garcia, it is a plethora of information. It is amazing.

Kudos does go to Jaff. None of this would be possible if we did not have Jaff. Thanks, Jaff. Going back to Matt, do you also find that having that one-on-one time with them and getting to know them before you even hit record opens the door for a relationship with that person you have as a guest? What your experience be?

I got an email from Colonel Ann. She was the first episode that I was blessed to host. I was thrown into the fire, and now I’m hosting this show. That is a whole other story. Ann was there. There was a synergy. You can talk before we hit the record. You form these relationships. The saying is, “Your network is your net worth.” By doing this show, you are introduced to many other people that are like-minded, but they are in different verticals. They are all entrepreneurs. They want to achieve. They are successful. Light attracts light. It is an amazing experience. Anybody that has the opportunity to hop on the show, I guarantee you, you don’t want to pass it up.

Thanks for that, Matt. I got to go back to Matt for one second. I could have sworn you hosted one show. The guy went nuts, but you became friendly with him. You are building a relationship with him.

It was an episode that I cohosted. He was on the show. We had Killing It In Commercial Real Estate With Joe Killinger. We interviewed him, Melanie and me. Two weeks later, he invited me to the show. I was on his show, and it was a great episode. He lives in LA right up the road. He invited me to play basketball up in LA. He is a great guy. Shout out to Joe. You form relationships and networks.

I wanted to show the example from the front-end perspective that if what Jaff didn’t do was possible, we wouldn’t even have this opportunity to meet these incredible entrepreneurs and business owners. Jaff is the running man that even picks and selects the guests for our show.

Jaff is the background. He does many things besides being the manager. I know that is his title, but he does many things. All four of us know it. We see it internally. What he does goes beyond measure. It makes all of our lives easier because Jaff and Gracie are organized. We are spoiled.

I started with both of them over ten years ago. They are exceptional. Not only do they have that podcast knowledge These guys are fully trained in Infusionsoft, redirects pages and landing pages. They are beyond your basic podcast team.

They will learn that on the course that we are cooking right now. Don’t forget that after the podcast, it doesn’t end there. This is where Melanie comes in. We have to maintain the relationship and the connection. Melanie takes care of the client’s relationship. Melanie, can you tell our audience more about you, what you do, and how you help the Fuller Wallet Media team to maintain our relationship with all of the clients that we have?

I function in a role after all of you guys. I’m the one that’s supposed to make sure that everyone stays happy. It is not always easy to do. That is where the anger, frustration, and things trickle down toward my role. At the same time, I love it because I love overcoming a challenge. That is what it takes to keep the customer happy and make sure that we continuously have roles to fill on the show and all our businesses.

When it comes to sales, more than anything, you have to take it from the start, and you have to maintain that relationship. That is the part that, in some ways, is a simple process, mainly because you have to figure out what that person wants and needs. They might not be focused on their needs. They may be more focused on their wants.

You have to figure out what is the most beneficial for them to proceed in that role, whatever their goal is to do, or what they are seeking from us because they are not all cookie-cutter. Everyone is different. That is the way that you have to treat them to maintain that customer and client relationship because you have to always do what is best for your client. That is where many people will fall short because they don’t do it that way. The easiest thing is to hit everyone the same, and you can’t do that.

You are co-hosting with Julie and Math during our show as well, Melanie. How is that experience with you as well?

I learn so much, and it is so much fun because half the time, I want to sit back, listen, and let them keep talking. You can’t do that. Even if it was the guest like a guest we had where Julie and I both paused because it was one of those statements that triggered many different thoughts and options of what you can do. We both looked dumbfounded but in your mind, it is going like, “You can do this.” It almost seemed like we didn’t know what to say or speak because, in some ways, there were many options.

It is very informative. You got to keep that on a one-hour show.

Part of the other thing is that you only want to ask questions within your timeframe. That is the other part that makes it more difficult because the guests are the same way. They could talk about it all day, which is great, and why we have them on because they are experts.

Jaff, I got to ask you before we close out on this interview. What are your top three things you would suggest to anybody that either wants to start a podcast or even has a podcast? What three tips would you tell them or give away?

If they want to start their own podcast, play it safe because when you are on a podcast, you have to know what you are talking about. On your first episode, you can stay in your safe zone. What I mean by that is you can talk more or invite guests within your specialty or on what you focus on. You have to have connections. That would be your second. After the podcast, that is when you start building a relationship with them.

What is more important about that is the connections. Those people might also connect you with their connections, and eventually, you will become your guest. That is how you build your list of connections of people who can help market you for free. What I’m saying by free is when you have published your podcast, you don’t need to pay someone to follow them or post this because they will be posting that or showing that on their friends, families, or their social media platforms.

Lastly, it would be having someone who helps you that knows what they are doing. You can’t do it all by yourself. You might be and you can, but it is going to be hard because you also have to maintain your business. You have your daily life. If you are married, you have a family to take care of. You might need someone, or you have to have someone that can help you with your daily task.

Thank you so much, Jaff. That was great feedback. I’m happy you came to the show with us. For everybody here, this is Jaff. He is my right-hand guy. He is the podcast expert manager and has many other things under his belt. He wears many hats. He is the leading expert on my team because without him, we wouldn’t have a show.

Thank you, Julie. Thank you, guys, for having me on.

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