Decoding Success with Matt LeBris

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► Tell us about you and your podcast

Matt LeBris launched The Decoding Success Podcast in December 2018. After working with Daymond John of Shark Tank for numerous years, Matt was inspired to make an impact in a similar fashion to how he'd watched Daymond, his boss, and mentor, for the past few years of his life. While Matt would speak from state to state, he'd notice one thing in common, millennials weren't defining success for themselves -- himself included. All of these high-performing millennials he'd meet, who are absolutely crushing it in their ventures, endeavors, and everything in between, but why? This led Matt to a path of self-discovery for himself but he wanted to take others along for the ride -- in comes Decoding Success.
 

► Why & how did you start this podcast? 

After being urged by his former intern turned co-worker while working with Daymond John to launch a podcast, when he left his job, he needed something to do. The lightbulb turned on: start the podcast you've been being urged to start for months on end. The question was: how? Matt had worked on Daymond's podcast but never to the extent of an A to Z finish -- not to take away from his contributions to the project. As someone that had to commute 30 minutes into his office daily, Matt had found himself diving into The School of Greatness by Lewis Howes rather often. It was a bank of wisdom and actionable advice -- a platform he truly feels inspired by. So, upon launch, Matt wanted to be that for his high-performing millennial community. Upon starting the podcast, Matt admits that he really just wanted to give himself some purpose now that he had parted ways with his full-time job with no plan outside of podcasting in sight. And, he knew he had access to a vast Rolodex of highly influential people in the personal development space, amongst others, to help him make an impact on the show. His goal was simple: impact one (1) person daily. Just one. With the first episode being recorded in December of 2018, it released shortly after and The Decoding Success Podcast was born.
 

► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?

Upon launching the show, Matt had to figure out the best way to release. To be honest, as a creator, Matt believes you need to test the waters to find your sweet spot. And, furthermore, you have to be open to your sweet spot changing depending on the season of life you're in. There's nothing wrong with that -- unless you're adamant on being concrete. So, with that in mind, when the show first launched, Matt had started with two episodes per week. One of the episodes would be an interview with someone Matt wanted to decode the success of with the other episode being a solo rant where Matt would sound off on something he was learning, has learned or wants to learn. This eventually transitioned into one episode per week, which is where the show is currently. At the beginning of the podcasting journey, production was solely on Matt and it definitely was time-consuming. As someone that wasn't an audio editor, he had to attend YouTube University, which is where he learned graphic design and video editing as well. Ultimately, episodes would take roughly an hour and a half, if not more. Now, Matt has been fortunate enough to hire hands to take his time back and put it into the tasks only he can do -- interview his guests. Currently, Matt hosts with Libsyn, which is roughly $30 per month. On top of that, he currently advertises the show on numerous podcasting platforms, which can vary between $300 - $900/mo. To that point, there are also other expenses that come up, which are all funded by Matt. These expenses include in-person studio recordings, equipment, potential guesting fees, and more.
 

► What do you gain from podcasting?        

Matt says the number one thing he gains from podcasting is simple: fulfillment. While you can't pay the bills with fulfillment, you sure can feed your soul. There's no better feeling than when you see someone sharing your podcast with their followers on social media. Or, when they message you and state all of the takeaways they had from an episode. Even receiving a comment on your promotional material -- it goes such a long way for a creator. This fuel keeps you going to the point where you can bring in a monetary reward outside of the fulfillment that has already been mentioned. The Decoding Success Podcast has taken in sponsorship in the past with brands such as Audible, ChatterBoss, Tiege Hanley, Wisdom App, Acadium, and more. The first sponsorship opportunity came about when we had numerous successful affiliate marketing campaigns to show brands that our platform has not only grown, but our community is interested in a certain set of tools. Currently, there are numerous tools to help you find brands that are open to sponsoring shows such as Podcorn and Podcast Delivery. Podcorn, not to be confused with popcorn, is essentially a job board but for podcast sponsorships. You can create an account on their platform and see which brands are open, which generally include target demographics, budget, and more relevant info. On the flip side, Podcast Delivery will provide you with a list of the top 100 brands that are currently sponsoring podcast episodes. So, with that information, you'll have to do your own digging to find the correct contact at the brand and pitch them, but this opens the door to generating revenue. Lastly, Matt has mentioned that podcasting is slightly selfish in a sense because he gets to interview some of the world's most brilliant minds and learn from them first hand. It's essentially a 1-on-1 mentoring session that he gets to amplify to the world.
 

► How does your podcasting process look like? 

As the podcasting process has developed over time, the current stack used at Decoding Success is as simplified as can be. All remote recordings take place over Riverside, which is a premiere service for virtual recordings. It's a major upgrade from Zoom, which was previously used. Those files (audio and video) are transferred over to Dropbox, which is where all of the content is stored. From there, the content is assigned on Asana to the team that will move forward with editing. The editing process will produce an edited audio file, a full-length edited video for distribution on YouTube, as well as numerous social snippets for organic sharing purposes. To edit audio, the team uses Descript, which is a super simple tool that a couple of tutorial videos will make you feel like an audio master! While the video team generally edits on Adobe Premiere, you can simply use Riverside as your audio editing tool to help you clip meaningful sharables. To add captions to the videos, you can utilize the Captions App, which can be found in your app store. When Matt is prepping for an episode, he does more of less. He comes to each episode as a student and only hosts individuals he is already familiarized with. So, this allows him to bring a genuine curiosity and there is no need to feel like you have to ask something already listed on a prep sheet. One thing Matt insists every podcaster should do is the following: (1) make sure you know how you're opening your show. This might be the same question each time or specific to the guest. (2) have filler questions in case you have a brain fart and aren't sure what to ask (Matt has 4 of these!) (3) know how you're going to end your show.
 

► How do you market your show?

Since day 1 of the show's launch, Matt has consistently used organic marketing channels to share with his ever-growing community. For him, the main channel of promotion has been Instagram. Matt is a believer that you should lock down one system before moving on to the next, so for The Decoding Success Podcast, this meant finding a way to ensure that promotional content was being produced and cataloged for Instagram before moving on to the next channel. Eventually, YouTube came into the picture with email marketing, events, and more. There are also other great ways that you can go about having individuals find your show such as being a guest on other podcasts, which again, is organic. And, how about being featured in great articles like this one here on ListenNotes.com?! The most useful channels for marketing have been social. In addition, paid initiatives have also been beneficial, too. Decoding Success has been advertised on Overcast, Podcast Addict, and other channels.
 

► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?

The best advice to give aspiring podcasters is this: (1) know your intention for getting in the podcasting space. Are you doing this for fun? Are you doing this to promote your business? Are you doing this to just say you did it? Whatever the intention is, just be clear on what and why. (2) know who you're targeting with your audience. Without being cliche, this is truly a game changer as it will lead you to have conversations specifically for these individuals. (3) be as prepared as once can be. If you're working a full time job, it can be really easy to put podcasting on the back burner because you're tired when you get home, you have other obligations, etc. This is all a reality of life. We've all been there. But, how can we alleviate that? Carve out time on the weekend to go head down into your podcasting. Ensure you have numerous episodes stored before you launch so you don't feel unwanted pressure. Proper prior planning prevents poor performance... and alleviates unwanted pressure! (4) Surround yourself with individuals that are slightly ahead of you in the game. As one of Matt's guests, James Altucher says, "You should be surrounded by 3 people in life - a plus, a minus, and an equal. A plus is someone that has done something you want to do, a minus is someone who's a little behind you in that area (or an area), and an equal is someone that's starting something with you." (5) Have fun with it. Matt mentions often how podcasting isn't a job for him, it's his life. He loves to do it every single day.
 

► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?

To learn more about Matt, you can check out his website: https://mattlebris.com/. Furthermore, if you prefer to connect on social media, he is most active on Instagram, which you can find him via his handle: @matt_LeBris or head over to this link: https://www.instagram.com/matt_lebris/