Ep 112: Edward Sturm ~ Secrets of Digital Success ~ Tools, Tech & Tenacity

Edward is highly active in a world I know almost nothing about - and I find him and his story absolutely fascinating!  His extraordinary creativity, consistency and imagination are legendary - really inspiring.   Edward’s perspective is truly fresh, alive and thought provoking.

Ever wondered how digital expert Edward Sturm built his impressive online presence? In this episode, we unravel the potent forces behind his extraordinary growth. From creating viral videos on TikTok to running a daily podcast, Edward’s journey is a testament to the power of consistency and energy transfer. Throughout our conversation, he emphasizes the importance of persistence and shares how it can lead to exponential growth in any field.

Next, we venture into Edward’s toolbox, specifically Descript, the game-changing editing tool he credits for his podcast and video success. He doesn't just understand his niche and its audience; he's mastered the art of efficiency, leveraging the right tools to excel in his work. We also get a glimpse into Edward’s time in Ukraine before the war, where he began to truly engage with the power of consistent content creation. This experience underscores his belief in the 'Content Inc method' - four variables including niche, spin on the niche, platform, and content type.

As we wrap up our discussion, Edward shares his thoughts on the importance of grounding activities such as meditation and journaling. He passionately advocates for their positive impacts on decision-making and stress management. A true believer in the 'Curious Learner Bias,' Edward discusses how this unconscious human tendency can be harnessed to establish oneself as an expert in a particular field. Tune into this lively chat with Edward Sturm for an enlightening exploration of digital success, grounded mindfulness, and the power of genuine curiosity.

Where to find Edward:
https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
Edward's daily podcast

Chapters

• 0:02 The Power of Consistency and Energy
• 10:45 Consistency and Efficient Tools
• 18:24 The Power of Consistent Content Creation
• 26:10 Consistency and Content Creation's Power
• 39:23 The Importance of Meditation and Journaling
• 50:06 Curious Learner Bias
• 56:13 Edward Show Interview Appreciation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Truth and Transcendence, brought to you by being Space with Katherine Llewellyn. Truth and Transcendence, episode 112, with special guest Edward Stern. Now, if you haven't come across Edward before, he is host of the Edward Show, a daily podcast about founder and go-to-market stories through the lens of a world-class marketer. So a few things about Edward. He was an early viral video creator on YouTube. He has over 50,000 followers on TikTok and counting. He's innovation consultant to Forbes, live SEO consultant for Microsoft, procter Gamble, adp, time Inc and others. He has a monthly in-person digital marketing class with 70 to 100 attendees per class. He's the co-founder of a remote communication tool with over 1 million users. He's co-founder of the first Play to Earn game, also named the top blockchain game in 2018 and 2019.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Edward ran the biggest blockchain meet-up in the world. He has 300 million plus views with viral videos and images and multiple media appearances, including 2020, good Morning America, the Today Show, forbes, the Huffington Post, the Verge, the Daily Mail and RF's blog. He spent three years working in New York City Nightlife and four years as a digital nomad. So Edward is highly active in a world I know almost nothing about and I find him and his story absolutely fascinating. His extraordinary creativity, consistency and imagination are legendary and really inspiring. So Edward's perspective is truly fresh, alive and thought-provoking and if he says things on this podcast today but I don't understand, I probably won't be surprised by that, because a lot of this really is very foreign to me.

Speaker 1: 2:26

So, edward, thank you so much for coming. On Truth and Transcendence.

Speaker 2: 2:29

Thank you for having me. This is going to be a fun episode.

Speaker 1: 2:33

Absolutely so. When we spoke before we talked about normally I only have one theme for a podcast, but today we're going to have two themes, which are consistency and energy transference.

Speaker 2: 2:49

You're breaking the rules for me.

Speaker 1: 2:51

You're breaking the rules for me.

Speaker 2: 2:52

I'm so lucky.

Speaker 1: 2:53

You are so lucky? Well, it's because you're so interesting, edward. This is why. So I'm just going to say a little bit about why I actually think those two things are important. I think consistency is an underrated and under-recognized source of power for people, I think, something we could all think about much more, and I don't mean about getting in a rut consistency and getting in a rut and not the same thing and energy transference I think anyone who knows me at all will know that energy transference is something I'm really into, because we all have energy, we all transfer energy, we receive energy. It's what's going on around us and behind us all the time. So when you said that those were two things that were really interesting to you, edward, I thought fantastic, I can't choose between the two. Let's do both. So here we are. So let me ask you first off, if I may Ask me, it's starting with consistency. Has consistency always been something that you've known was important? No, no.

Speaker 1: 4:06

So when did it first register for you?

Speaker 2: 4:07

I wish I did. Oh my God, I love being interviewed. It's so much easier than having my own daily show here. Let me give a speech on consistency. I have a daily podcast. I started it today. It's going to be my 50th episode when I record it later today. Started it 50 days ago, have not missed a day of posting.

Speaker 2: 4:28

I go on rants. My job with the podcast is to go on rants every day, every single day, to check in, to go on crazy rants with consistency. And the reason I love being interviewed and having these prompts is because if I knew how valuable consistency is and what it could do to anybody's life, if they were just consistent with something, I wouldn't have bounced around trying so many different things for the last many years. I have a lot of very cool flash in the pan successes. That was a long bio that you gave me. I've done some cool things, for sure. It's a lot of different cool things all over the place. I actually think what would have been cooler if I just found something and stuck with it, but I didn't understand that. And now I do, and now that I do, life is so much crazier, especially now I don't know. So there's something called an exponential curve, which is when you go for people who can't see. It feels like you're plateauing, it feels like you're not moving, but you're doing this every day. And then you hit a point where your learning and your audience and your rate of compounding kind of takes off and all of a sudden you're just skyrocketing up and before you know it, that's happening to you and that's happening to me right now, because when I started my TikTok on November 1st, I said I'm just going to make a video every day and see what happens. I know I'll improve, I'm going to see what happens. I said I was going to do it for 30 days. I committed to 30 days. After 30 days I kept doing it because I found it to be fun and a lot. For the last, oh man, for the last two months I was plateauing, I wasn't growing, and now for the last several for the last month actually, so maybe for the know, for the last, from May to July to mid-July, from May to mid-July I wasn't really growing, and then something shifted in the middle of July and I kind of got it. I kind of got it and now not only am I growing, a ton and all these people are reaching out. I'm having repeat like thousands of repeat viewers to my videos and it's because I just didn't quit. I literally recorded a podcast about this yesterday.

Speaker 2: 6:59

The most successful people on the planet say that the ones who really win are the ones who are the most persistent, the ones who are like I'm not going to quit, no matter what. Now there is one caveat. There is one caveat, and the caveat is if you are persistent and you don't quit, but you're also in the dark and you don't tell anybody about what you're doing, then you will lose. You need to go at something for a long time and be vocal with it to open up the opportunities. People need to know you for whatever it is that you do, you need to be vocal because that's how you open the opportunities. The longer that you are vocal for about a specific niche, the more opportunities come your way, the longer surface area for luck expands. So more people know you, more people know you, more people know you. And then all at once, when it rains, it pours, everything just seems like it's coming at you at once, and that's results of consistency over time plus vocality.

Speaker 2: 7:53

I believe it's the most important thing. People understood. This is something that Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator, the greatest accelerator for startups, says if people understood the value that could be created if they were only consistent, people would go so far out of their way to stay consistent. And that's what I do. When I'm hanging out with somebody and it's fun and I haven't recorded, I say sorry, I got to go, I got to go home, I got to make a video and I got to put up a podcast. Because now, after so many years, now I understand it and I understand what can be achieved and I am going so far out of my way to stay consistent, and this past week especially, has been extremely insane. I love consistency. I'm consistent with my habits. I have crazy habits which I've been doing for decades. Yeah, okay, that's end of my first rant. I'm sure I'll have more.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Thank you very much. Wonderful Question what is surface area? For luck, I think you said what is that Surface area for luck.

Speaker 2: 9:03

That is and feel free to interrupt me if you're confused about anything, I don't mind Surface area for luck is, imagine, okay. So surface area, it's like you expand, how much room there is for luck to hit you. Luck comes your way, luck is coming your way, it's coming. It sounds like I know to a lot of people this might sound like just like standard self-help, self-empowerment, but I actually think there's mathematical proof behind this. We are all all the time being offered opportunities that we can't, one, understand and, two, maybe we're not able to capitalize on them. But if you are consistent, you get more opportunities because people know you for that, for one thing that you are consistent with, so you get more opportunities. The area that you can get opportunities with it expands. More and more people start to know you and start to remember you. They start to remember you for what you're doing. So that's kind of what surface area for luck is, and you get better at recognizing those opportunities and capitalizing on them. I mean that's why you will be forgiven for all of your mistakes if you are just consistent with something. But people make the most mistakes when they get started and then they get demoralized and they quit. Isn't that silly? How silly is that? But that's what people do. That's what people do and I'm so lucky that I realize that now Part of me I've been writing a lot about this.

Speaker 2: 10:45

I think the enemy of being happy is comparing yourself to other people. A lot of other people have said that it really is the most soul-sapping thing to compare yourself to other people, and part of me compares myself to other people who are influential in the sphere that I'm becoming influential in, and they're 10 years younger than I am and I look at them and I feel so bad, but I'm still pretty young and I'm really lucky to be realizing this now. I am so grateful to be realizing this now. Consistency is the most important thing. Now let me say the last thing. The last part is people underestimate what they can do in a year or two years. Everyone overestimates what they can do in a month or a week, but long-term people completely underestimate it.

Speaker 2: 11:45

I started my TikTok November 1st. I started my TikTok. I said I'm gonna make videos every day and I would kind of grow in steps. I would kind of grow in bursts, bursts, bursts, bursts. And now I'm a lot more consistent in growth because I have a much better understanding of what people want within my niche as well. And then I started the podcast and it took me. Okay, it's August 24th, so I started November 1st last year. How many months is that? Is that 10 months?

Speaker 1: 12:20

Nine months, nine and a half.

Speaker 2: 12:25

Okay, so nine and a half posting every day how much time do you actually like? You told me how you're editing. I would totally recommend to you checking out Descript. That's how I edit my podcasts. First of all, it does what your two tools do and it does it in one and it's very cheap. Like you press, I use this religiously. It is what has allowed me partly what has allowed me to grow so much over the last month is I switched this tool. I want to tell you about it. I'm not like there's no affiliate code attached to this I wish they would pay me but like I'm a power user of this tool. It's amazing when you go from not using it to using it.

Speaker 2: 13:08

Most people they edit. Like you, they edit in the timeline. They have a timeline, they listen to it, they cut things out, they look at the timeline, they look at the timeline. Descript automatically transcribes everything. So instead of editing in the timeline, you edit the transcript kind of like a Word document, Like it's a. When you cut something out from the transcripts, from the transcript, it automatically reflects it in the timeline. That's number one. Number two they have a setting. This is a game changer, especially for you when you have on guests who don't sound that great. It's a single button and you click that button and it is enable studio sound. It's a single button, enable studio sound and it makes anybody with a room tone or low volume or peaking sound nice and it works so incredibly well. You can watch. You can watch it on YouTube. That is the power feature. That was the reason I started using it in the first place. It sounds so good. But editing in the transcript oh, the third one. The third one, oh my God, Game changer.

Speaker 2: 14:12

Like before I had to edit, I had to record my videos and record them shot by shot by shot. Now I just record everything on one take. I go on a rant, Maybe I get confused, and there's like a two minute pause between what I said and what I'm saying. Next they have a feature to shorten word gaps. So you can take a word gap that is over, let's say, like half a second, and you can just cut any word gap that is over half a second, make it zero, or you can make the minimum word gap point five seconds or one second.

Speaker 2: 14:46

So in all of my podcasts my podcasts are fast paced. The Edward Show, Amazing Show, that's my show. It's fast paced, just like how I'm talking now. My goal with the podcast is to get into hypnotizing rants like I am in right now. That is my goal with the podcast, and I have the setting on the shortened word gap thing set to 0.75 seconds. That's three quarters of a second. So there is no gap in my podcast. That is one second or more. Everything is under that and so it's fast paced and you can set things like that and it's so easy and it works so well and it has, oh my God, and it's changed my video as well. I record a video, I go on, I just talk, I talk to the camera, I switch it, I record my screen, Everything is transcribed. Editing with the transcript is just. I can't believe I didn't have this. I've wasted our days, months, months of time, time that was not saved because I wasn't switching to Descript and I knew about Descript years ago.

Speaker 1: 16:04

So it's very inexpensive the time that you yeah, I am actually familiar with Descript, but I think the thing that you're saying that's probably relevant to everybody listening. You may not have a podcast.

Speaker 2: 16:18

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Finding I got carried away. I apologize to everybody who doesn't have a podcast.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Yeah, but it's like if you find a tool that helps you do what you're doing and which helps you to be consistent. I think you said it's helped you be consistent because it's made it all that much easier and more efficient for you, and I think that can be true. Whatever people are doing, what is the thing that makes it easier to be consistent? Having a vacuum cleaner is easier than sweeping everything with a dustpan and brush if you want to keep the place clean, and the same with whatever it is that you're doing. So you're round about Descript. If we took out Descript and put in whatever the tool is or whatever the functionality is, that would help any of the listeners with the thing that they're.

Speaker 2: 17:08

That's the thing about consistency is, if I didn't commit to being consistent, I wouldn't have discovered a tool that would save me so much time and made it so much easier and made my videos and my podcasts so much better. And that's part of the reason why you get better, because the reality about being a human is every achievement gets old and then you want a new achievement, and so you're always getting better because of that. And when people will get bored with something because that achievement gets old and instead of trying to get a new personal best, they'll move on to something else and lose all the benefit that they would have gotten if they stuck with something.

Speaker 1: 17:47

That's a very good point. So you're saying that a thing that can cause people to stop being consistent is if they get bored. But the fact that they've got bored means that they've reached that level and actually the next thing is to now choose the next level to go to, exactly, and you're really just drop it and go start somewhere else. Because I've done the same thing as you where I've gone okay, I'm bored, now I'm going to go and do something else but I've also done the other thing you're saying where I've said, okay, I'm bored at this level, how do I take it to the next level? So I know exactly the difference you're talking about.

Speaker 2: 18:22

You want to hear something. You want to hear something. The reason I'm growing so much in the last month is because I got bored. I got bored, I was plateauing and I wasn't satisfied and I started. I was just looking everywhere thinking how do I take this to the next level? And so I think I've done that and I'll probably get bored again.

Speaker 1: 18:46

But what was it that made you suddenly realize that consistency was so important?

Speaker 2: 18:55

So in this was 2021, I didn't tell you this story on our pre-call. This is a good story. It was 2021 and a company that I thought was going to be successful hadn't been successful that by that point, and there was some drama with somebody that I was working with. I can't really go more into detail than that, but I was really in pain and a lot of pain, sleepless nights, all this pain. I was living in Kiev. I was living in Ukraine, which I actually.

Speaker 2: 19:30

I'm from Brooklyn, new York, but I feel homesick for Kiev because I spent two years living there. I've missed that city so much. The most beautiful city, incredible city that I've lived in, and I had a lease that I started a month and a half before the war and I left 10 days before the war started. The airport that I flew out of was hit by a missile 10 days after I left and I've missed that city so much. But so this is February or March of 2021. I'm living in Kiev.

Speaker 2: 20:03

I'm pretty despondent and I say you know, I got to take a hard look at my life, I got to take a hard look at my life, and so I go to a cafe nearby, near where I live and I sit there with I think it was a croissant and an Americano that was always what I love to get and I just typed. I just typed for two hours. I just wrote and journaled and just journaled stream of consciousness, journaling and what I did is I looked at every endeavor that I had and I asked myself why did this fail? And what would this have turned into had I not given up? And every single thing that I did I could have seen it turning into something huge. And then I realized, oh my God, like it wasn't the complete crystallization at that point, but I realized that everything I did would have turned into something huge. And then I think I really came to this realization, actually, like I started really internalizing it and vocalizing it.

Speaker 2: 21:14

It was a year ago and I was back in New York City. I spent the last year abroad, but a year ago I was back here in New York City. I listened to this book called Content Inc and I think this book is really what did it? So the author. It's a tremendous book about how to grow by making content, how to make a living making content, how to make millions of dollars honestly, and I believe everything that he says and this is basically the Content Inc method you have four variables. The first variable is your niche. What is your niche? I'm gonna ask you, catherine, what is your niche?

Speaker 1: 21:55

I have no idea. I think that's a fact.

Speaker 2: 21:59

Okay, so we're not gonna do this for Catherine, but I'm gonna still tell you the Content Inc method, cause it really helped me. The Content Inc method is first variable what is your niche? The second variable is like or define a niche. The second is by the way, you can discover yourself as you go. But if you just pick something, I actually understand this now If you literally just pick something and stick with that, if it's something that you have interests in, like interior design or paintings or a certain style of paintings, like it really works. It really works well. It's like so guaranteed to work, but it's okay. Let me, before I tell you why it's guaranteed to work. I'm just gonna tell you what it is Four variables niche what is your niche?

Speaker 2: 22:52

Then spin on the niche. So, narrow in a bit more. Your spin could be like you're a doctor who's talking about interior design that reminds you of the human body, like something that makes it more specific. That's a spin on the niche. And then you have your platform. So what platform are you most active on? In my case, that's TikTok. And then, what is your content type? Is it short form? Is it like a blog? Is it writing? Is it an email newsletter Is it? In my case it's short form mobile video and it actually my platform is everywhere I use this tool. It's called reusevideocom. It makes it so. Whenever I put out a TikTok, it comes out on every other platform without the TikTok watermark and it comes out simultaneously automatically. So whenever I put out a TikTok, I grow on all platforms amazing tool.

Speaker 2: 23:49

And so my niche is it's founder, basically like founder and go-to-market stories Stories about founders who have overcome adversity, who have discovered things to become successful and go-to-market, like how they found customers. I think finding customers anybody can come up with a business plan. A lot of people can build stuff. Very few people can actually find customers. If you start with your customers and then make your product from there, you're a lot more likely to be successful. In fact, you're very, very likely to be successful. But most people go the other way because it's more fun to build and finding customers is what's harder for most people. And so my niche is, yeah, founder and go-to-market stories, my spin from the lens of a world-class marketer. I think I'm one of the best marketers that I know and that's really my spin. I'm also a digital nomad who is from Brooklyn, new York Also makes it a kind of interesting spin and then other spins. I'm great at speaking, I think I am. That's why I have a daily show and I make some nice TikTok sometimes.

Speaker 2: 25:01

Okay, and then I told you my platform, my primary platform, is TikTok, and then the content type is short-form video. And so basically the thesis is, if you define these things and the more narrow you can get, so let's just think of something on the spot, maybe your niche is, let's say, your niche is paintings, and then let's say your spin is water color paintings about the human body, and let's say, and then, okay, let's make your platform, let's make your platform. I don't think like an audio podcast about that would work very well. So let's make your platform TikTok and you're using the tricks or your videos come out everywhere and your content type is short-form videos. And basically the whole thesis is, if you just every day, you try to put out one piece of content about your niche with your spin and one piece of content like in the content type, if you do that every day, you get better over time and then opportunities come your way. And that's what content basically says.

Speaker 2: 26:10

And I listened to this book and it was something that was like. It was like floating around my brain in a transparent mist. But it was there, this semi-transparent mist, and it was floating around. And when I listened to the audio book of Content Inc and when I listened to this, it became crystallized and it just all clumped together. And then I'm like, yes, this is what I was trying to articulate. And when I listened to this book a year ago, I didn't immediately act on it. And the way that I came to act on it was I was living in Barcelona on November 1st and I created this TikTok to promote my startups Reverb and Commit Club.

Speaker 2: 26:54

And then, when I started making videos on TikTok every day, eventually I'm like I can't talk about my startups on every video, so I wanna do something else. And I started just exploring the platform, exploring the medium of short form mobile video. I found it very fun. I started improving, learning what I like, sharing what I don't like, sharing defining a niche, defining a spin. And now I'm hitting a point of momentum and that's basically what Content Inc says. That's where consistency I kind of realized consistency. I realized that during Content Inc I didn't act on it immediately, it wasn't completely crystallized. And then I think then, once I started getting I got like early momentum in February I started November 1st. I started going viral a little bit in February when I was living in Warsaw. I left Barcelona, then I was living in Warsaw, poland, and I'm like, and then I started getting some momentum and then I'm like I think maybe I could actually do this and turn this into something. And now I really have, like, I think, a solid understanding of consistency.

Speaker 2: 28:04

The other thing that I'll say is involving other people in your journeys is very dangerous. That was a realization that I didn't again. That was something that didn't crystallize until recently. But I personally like having a brand that I am fully in control of, because other people, most people, cannot operate under uncertainty, and the thing about the Content Inc method is it requires this is a word of caution this method that I just described requires uncertainty because you have to operate for months, learning, becoming better at making content and getting better and growing.

Speaker 2: 28:53

It's the exponential curve. It's very hard to see what's in front of you and then, once it's there, you feel it, but it's very hard to see that, and so you have to operate under extreme uncertainty and really just belief in the process, and most people cannot do that. And so if you try to do an endeavor with somebody else, it is very likely that somebody else will let you down, because when the going get tough, like I mean, most people quit. Most people quit, and the going is always tough at the beginning. So you have to have belief in the process. More than anything and that's what basically happened to me at the beginning of this year is I started really just believing in the process because I had seen it work before in my life. With various things that I've done, it's learned. Anything can be learned. Anybody can get good at anything.

Speaker 2: 29:49

And then the other thing is I started listening to a lot of interviews with Mr Beast, and Mr Beast is the most popular YouTuber and also maybe the most popular TikToker, and this guy made videos I wouldn't say every day, but like every week and then every day and then every week again, like he basically was just active for years and he just said I'm. He just said I love this, I'm gonna figure it out. And he started when he was young. And if you watch his content at the beginning, some people are naturally gifted. The reason I love Mr Beast's story is some people are naturally gifted making content, and this guy was not, and he liked the puzzle of figuring it out.

Speaker 2: 30:33

And now he is the most famous YouTuber in the world. He's like he's gonna be. He's becoming a billionaire, if he's not already. He spends four and a half million dollars on each video and he puts them out once a week. Each one of his videos gets more views than the Super Bowl. That's how popular this guy is, and he's only he's 23.

Speaker 2: 30:58

He started 10 years ago and you can watch his journey because he left his videos up. It's a treasure. He left his videos up and you can see when he hit a thousand subscribers and like how even that video, how bad it was, but he just didn't give up. And so, yeah, like consistency, you can see it in all these people, and I talked about this with somebody else and he said that, oh, this is just survivorship bias. No, it's a real thing. Consistency like the other thing. Okay, fine, there's what I'll say. If you. The other thing is, if you are not vocal about what you're doing, there is no guarantee that you will be successful. But if you are vocal about what you're doing, then the opportunities will come your way.

Speaker 1: 31:49

I just thank you so much for that rant Brilliant. It just reminded me of something that happened to me very, very, very early in my career. I wanted to become I knew all my life. I wanted to work with other people as a someone to help people be happy, be the most they can be, whatever. And so and my early, my first step on that path was to become a trainer. And I spoke to my mentor and said look, I wanna become a trainer, I wanna get good as a trainer. What do I do? He said just teach people to do things All the time. Anybody who wants to learn anything, teach them to do things. Just teach someone how to open a door, you know. Show somebody how to walk across a room, just anything. Just keep doing that.

Speaker 1: 32:34

I mean, obviously don't annoy people, but you know, just keep doing it, and a bit like your guy when I first started training. I was not good, I was terrible, but I just kept doing it and kept going, and kept going, and kept going, and kept going.

Speaker 1: 32:49

And now and then people started to think I was a natural. I wasn't natural, but but and there was this thing people used when I was younger there was a whole myth about stars, you know, film stars and pop stars, music stars just sort of suddenly being discovered and suddenly being really famous. But when you actually look back at them and look at what they've done, they were practicing five hours a day for 15 years. You know they had bleeding fingers. They were like missing time outside with their friends.

Speaker 2: 33:23

they were just consistently here's what I want to say, though, because we describe it like Mr Beast kept at it every day for years. The film stars, the musicians they practice for five hours a day. Yeah, you this is what I've also realized. You don't like we. I'm sure you have listeners from all over, in all different walks of life. You don't have to put in that level of dedication at the beginning. All you need to say is you're going to do it every day and try to do it. Pick something you like so you can tell people about it. You want to just do it every day and tell. So if you have a full time job, you can still take 30 minutes and try to make a TikTok.

Speaker 2: 34:02

And then if you can't I don't know what to say. I can't really give commentary there, but most people have 30 minutes to spare. There's even if you're taking the bus you can try to. You can, you can make a video of you speaking and just put it up and and and. If you do something, it's like we said, if you do it long enough, you naturally will improve. So, like, people with full time jobs can do this too, and they don't because they don't understand the value that can come from it, and so you don't need the five hours. What I'm trying to say is it's very easy to look at the people who made it, who were practiced all day long, and and, and then be like I can't do that, I don't have that time, you don't need that time. What you need is a long time. So 30 minutes a day and you, you take that out over years and then you've done, you're going to do it, you will do it. Yeah, fantastic.

Speaker 1: 34:56

Well, we don't have very much time left. I don't think with you. So would you like to switch to talking about energy transference, Because I know you said that was something that energy transference.

Speaker 2: 35:07

That's what I just did. That's what I just did. I got, I got in the zone on that rant. I was in the zone and a good and good content, and now I'm in the zone. I might record a podcast myself after this because, because I'm in the zone, good content is you being in the zone and then sharing it, like sharing that with other people. People can feel that the content that does the best. This is what I learned. Like you said, I was an early viral video producer on YouTube and very early on, I was making lots of videos and the videos that did the best were always the videos that I personally was excited to make, always, always, always, always, because it's energy transference and yeah, and so, if you were someone, that was something else that I realized. I talked about this on a podcast.

Speaker 2: 35:56

I went to some Mastercard event a few days, a few weeks ago. It was thrown at the Mastercard offices here in New York and the people that I met there were boring. Oh my God, we're boring. There was no passion. There was no passion, and what I realized is like you want to, you want to find something that you really want to find something that you are passionate about. And then if you were, if you think most people they're, either they either a don't have anything that they're actually passionate about, or two are just too excited, are just too embarrassed to talk about it. They do have something maybe it's a TV show and they're embarrassed to talk about it. Don't be embarrassed. Passion about anything is people like that. The worst people are the people who are not passionate. The person I told you before this I had a guest on my show. I'm not going to be able to use this person because he was an interesting person. Lack the passion, lacked that passion.

Speaker 2: 36:50

My show, my show, the Edward show it is about passion. It is about it is about people who are doing crazy things, who are also passionate and who are like going so hard that they're finding these crazy hacks and they can share it. I want the energy transfer. I want, every one of my shows, you to listen and to be like, oh my God, what a great way to start my day. Or like, because I want that's what other podcasts give to me. I want to give that to people and passion, energy transference. That's what I believe. With energy transference, I can tell you're a good trainer because of the way that you listen and you ask questions and the way that you say yeah. You say it in this whispery way. I'm like this is someone who is very good at relating with people. I used to think I was a good trainer. I don't anymore because I'm not patient like you are. I think you're probably a very patient person.

Speaker 1: 37:46

Well, I have my moments.

Speaker 2: 37:49

I can be patient, I can be impatient, but I'm genuinely interested in people.

Speaker 1: 37:55

I remember there was point when I suddenly realized that if I really really listened to somebody, I was going to be taken on a journey into Wonderland, you know, the Wonderland of their experience, which was be completely different from mine and unique.

Speaker 1: 38:11

And from that moment on it's always been very easy for me to listen because it's just fascinating. I mean listening to you, your whole vibration and the way you speak and everything you're into is unique and very interesting to me and fascinating. And as I'm listening, I'm partly trying to imagine what it's like to be you. You know, and I'm thinking, god, that must be a really interesting place to be, where you are with all these things in your mind that you're playing around with and the way you're working with your energy. And that thing you said just now I really liked where you said this is me doing energy transference. I'm in the zone and I'm transferring energy and this is why this is good content and that just knitted together the whole thing for me, you know, between the consistency, the content, the being vocal and the energy transference. So you're embodying something altogether and that's what keeps it interesting, that's what keeps it moving along and I imagine that's what draws your listeners in.

Speaker 2: 39:12

Yeah, I don't know, I got the. I got the pizzazz. Yeah, I got I got the pizzazz. No, I mean, I think I'm very introspective. I journal all the time, pretty much every day. I journal every day. Not, pretty much I do, I journal every day. I have been meditating since 2011, daily. Now I have two types of meditation that I do.

Speaker 2: 39:38

I try to keep a proper diet. I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. I mean, I eat everything and the meditation and the journaling is the biggest thing. That is the biggest. Like, diet is important for sure, you can't eat crap and expect to feel good but the journaling and the and the meditation. That is why I am able to. That is partly why I am able to undertake like stress and uncertainty to the level that I take it. Yeah, and yeah, it's meditation.

Speaker 2: 40:13

Journaling is so important. Oh my gosh, journaling is so important. That was something else I was. I was doing for the last 12 years. I was journaling, but I wasn't journaling in the way that I started journaling Several years ago, which is stream of consciousness. Journaling is very different than like writing out your day. I only was really writing out my day, chronic, chronicling my life, but I wasn't stream of consciousness journaling. When you stream of consciousness journal, it's kind of like having a therapist, except the therapist is on demand, and it's just like that's what it is. Therapist is on demand, you're bouncing ideas off yourself. That's what happens when you stream of conscious journal and I'm a huge believer in it. I think it's so important.

Speaker 1: 40:57

Fantastic. Yes, I completely agree. I journal every day as well. So is there something? Because obviously one of the purposes of this podcast is to try to give something helpful for people who are trying to be a good leader at the moment and some of those people are just trying to be a good leader in their own lives, let alone running a corporation or what they might be doing Is there something you'd like to say to those people who are trying to be good leaders today in the world, with everything is going on?

Speaker 2: 41:26

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:26

From you to them I would say meditate.

Speaker 2: 41:29

That's my biggest, I'd say, daily meditation is the. A lot of people now meditate, a lot more people than like when I started meditating. I'm not, I don't want to be like you know, I was doing it for everybody else, but there weren't that many people who are doing it and people thought that I was like crazy, even even in 2011, and now it's a lot more common meditation, daily meditation Also, people think it has to be like like you have to do some professional lotus position meditation. I just sit in front of a wall, in front of a blank wall, and stare at the wall for 20 minutes. That really helps me. But the meditation like consistency the more you do it, the more calm you get and the more you're able to make better decisions and handle stress.

Speaker 2: 42:24

And, yeah, I love, I love meditation, meditation and journaling. It's like here's what you could do if you had like look, not everyone is trying to be a content creator and yeah, so so, but here's what, what could you be consistent with? That would make a tremendous impact on your life. Meditate every day for 20 minutes and then, actually, no, do this, do this, do 10 minutes, stream of consciousness, journaling, do that every other day and then every day do 20 minutes of meditation. Yeah and yeah, I think that would actually really help a lot of people. I think the world would be a better place if everybody did that.

Speaker 1: 43:05

Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2: 43:06

And it's so interesting. What do you think?

Speaker 1: 43:08

I completely agree, 100%. I mean I meditate and journal as well, and I, in my life, dealing with uncertainty and not knowing what's going to happen is a very big part of my life and I've chosen it that way, and doing all of those things that really ground me and bring me some equanimity and clear mind allows me to do it, and it allows me to do all the things that I do, including podcasting, for example, which could be a really nerve wracking thing to do, but actually I love it and one of the reasons I'm able to really enjoy it is because of those practices, exactly as you're saying, and you know, walking in the fresh air and all of the other things that really, really work. So, yeah, walking in the fresh air.

Speaker 2: 43:55

I love that too. That's why I admit, that's why I feel so homesick for Kia, because when I was there I was living next to, like some of the best parks in the city and the area that I lived in it was in the center. But the center is so beautiful in that city and I would do these Pomodoro sessions and I would work for two hours with these breaks in between sessions, and I had this crazy apartment. I lived in this huge apartment with three balconies and I was eating the best food, because Ukraine is a pretty agricultural society.

Speaker 2: 44:26

So I was getting fresh, fresh produce just straight from people's gardens and farms, and produce and meat insane, just tastes everything so good and doing work that I really believed in. And then, in between the work, I would go on these walks and these lovely parks were right next door and oh Mesh, oh, my gosh, yeah. And then the cafes and the coffee I've been getting. I said this to my friend, to my friend Yuri, and I'm like, oh man, I'm homesick, and he's like you are out of my home, is here in Brooklyn, but I love, yeah, I don't know, I talk about it. I think it's an interesting subject to talk about it about. But, yeah, I mean meditation, oh, going on walks, yeah, going on walks, the fresh air. I do that in Brooklyn, the area that I live in, that's for sure, beautiful.

Speaker 1: 45:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:24

I'm getting. Actually, I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I'm sorry. As a host, I want your honest opinion. My like, what I try to do on my show is I try to basically go on rants and then get sidetracked and just tell story after story after story and every story layers into another story and to the point where I'm like what was I talking about again? I don't know, Is this entertaining?

Speaker 1: 45:55

I haven't listened to your podcast, I will admit. No, that's fine, but when you've done this sort of what you've been doing today, yeah, where you sort of run off on something and then something else comes in.

Speaker 2: 46:05

Yes.

Speaker 1: 46:06

I personally enjoy that.

Speaker 2: 46:08

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 46:10

So, but that's me, you know, and I do think it's interesting. And when I do solo episodes, I do something a bit like that, where I'll have a sort of an idea for a topic and I'll just talk around it and go off in all directions on that topic for like 10, 15, 20, 25 minutes, and so I sort of interspersed those in between the guest episodes, and some people really love those, some people prefer the guest episodes.

Speaker 1: 46:40

So it's kind of different way of being, because when I'm talking to you, I can't just ignore you and go off on a complete rant as if you're not there, you know.

Speaker 2: 46:50

I mean, I did it.

Speaker 1: 46:52

Yeah, but you're the guest, right.

Speaker 2: 46:54

I know, I know, I know.

Speaker 1: 46:57

But if I'm a guest on someone else's podcast, sometimes I will go off on a bit of a rant and they have to pull me back in.

Speaker 2: 47:04

I'll say this though I was, I was listening. I don't listen to a lot of Joe Rogan. I used to listen to more of him, but now there's so many other podcasts that I listened to. But he had he has on this. This is an older episode he had on this author who I really like His name is Ryan Holiday. Ryan Holiday wrote Trust Me, I'm Lying and he wrote many books about stoicism, many very popular bestsellers about stoicism, and so he had on Ryan Holiday. So I'm halfway through this episode. So you know he does these three hour episodes episodes. And I did notice how Joe Rogan goes on rants even when he has guests on the show. He doesn't care and maybe that's like a strong point. I think people like the rants. I think like what that's? Rants are great, rants are hypnotizing. That's what we want when we listen to a show.

Speaker 1: 47:56

We want to be hypnotized. I also think it's really important to be prepared to kind of lose control of what you're talking about sometimes, because if we're always trying to be in control of what we're saying to people, then we're keeping it limited within what we know makes sense and then nothing new ever gets said. So I think it is really important to be prepared to just go over the edge of whatever we might have thought of saying before, and sometimes the only way to do that is to rant like that. The only kind of ranting I don't like is angry ranting. You know, if someone is ranting and it feels like they're criticizing everybody, you know that to me I don't enjoy.

Speaker 1: 48:41

But that's just then blowing off steam. Maybe they need to do that, but the kind of ranting, that just imaginative free flow, you know, like a dance, you know where everything, the energy is moving and what's going to happen next, I think that can be incredibly creative and fascinating.

Speaker 2: 48:59

Yeah, no one wants, no one wants the bad vibes from an anger rant, the you want the inspired. I'm ranting because I am inspired about this topic, because it's all, it's all about energy transference. You don't want to, you don't want to listen to something and feel sad or angry. That's why, that's why I I I'm so limiting with having on people. I'm afraid of wasting my time, I'm afraid of wasting their time, because the truth is like, if they're nervous to speak and and I'm sorry, but like if it's, if it's not going to be, if not, if the energy is not there, unless the subject matter is really strong, unless the subject matter is really strong, then it's just not worth it. Yeah, it's not, it's not worth it. I want people to feel good.

Speaker 1: 49:50

Yeah, absolutely Well, yeah, absolutely Well. I'm sure your episode is fantastic, because just listening to you today has been well.

Speaker 2: 49:59

My most recent episodes, I think, have been quite good the episodes up until like up until 4544. I was using not fully written scripts, but I had a lot of talking like a lot of like fully written out talking points, and I think the most recent ones are a lot better and fortunately they coincide with when my spike. So what I did is I learned this like crazy hack with Twitter ads I'm obsessed with Twitter ads now where I'm getting millions of impressions and thousands of clicks for like a few pennies. It's really crazy and I put up a tick talk about this. I most people, when they discover something like this, they keep it to themselves. I said I think I will get more value from this if I share it and if I share this like hack and it really is a hack, you're not there. Many reasons I won't get into, but I get into it on my own show. Many reasons why you're not supposed to be able to do something like this and I constantly think I'm going to be banned because it's so. It's really that crazy when you get like yesterday or two days ago, I got 100,000 impressions and 131 clicks for a penny, a single penny. That's like. That's like. That doesn't. It's just not supposed to happen.

Speaker 2: 51:14

And so what I did is I made a video on that and that video is up to 700 or 800,000 views now on tick talk. I've lost count. And at the end of the video I say if you want to hear exactly how I do this, go to Edwards podcom. I'm going to make a video explaining it. And Edwards podcom takes you to the page on my site for my podcast, for my daily podcast, and I in a single day, in that single day, all of my listeners, all of my cumulative listeners. I got all of my cumulative listeners in a single day. I doubled my entire listeners in a single day and now I'm still consistently getting a lot of listeners.

Speaker 2: 51:58

It's like five, four or five days later and it feels like I've been discovered or something. I don't know and I don't even remember I was actually going to go somewhere with this story. But that's also a result of just consistency. It's so easy to. It just makes me so angry when I see people who are giving up after three or four months doing something, or even like I see people who will give up after a year, and it just makes me so. This isn't an angry rant, but it's just like I actually don't really have the energy to be angry about other people anymore Because I'm so self-centered. Well, so you're pouring your energy into what you're doing, and I think that's what it is.

Speaker 1: 52:48

If we're being angry about other people. Could that energy be used? I?

Speaker 2: 52:52

don't? I actually think the people who get angry about other people. That should be a sign in your life that you need to I don't know have something that you're more passionate about.

Speaker 1: 53:04

I happen to agree with you, but that's just me. I tend to agree.

Speaker 2: 53:11

The most angry people that I know are the people who don't have things. They live boring lives of mediocrity and it doesn't really take. You don't need money to live an exciting, to live a passionate life. You really don't. Especially now you can try to write. You can write a page a day. Imagine what you would get out of life. So okay, this is what I could leave people with this. This is one of my favorite things in life.

Speaker 2: 53:49

Humans, we have a bias. This is one of those biases that goes untalked about because a lot of people don't know about it. They don't realize how powerful it is. We talk about the biases that cause us to make bad decisions. Those are the ones that people find most interesting, because then we're like how can we manipulate other people by exploiting these human biases? This is one where it's not manipulation, it's just true inspiration and it is a real bias.

Speaker 2: 54:15

Humans associate curious, enthusiastic learners with experts. I want to say this again we associate people who are learning something and who are curious and who are so enthusiastic about it that they talk about it all the time, and we think that those people are experts. When they are not. They are learners. They are learners who are just enthusiastic and very curious, and because that is a bias. If you try to learn about one specific topic every day and then you become vocal, talking about what you are learning, you are just sharing what you are learning. You take notes and you share those notes and you share them every day, over time you become seen as an expert in that space. What happens to somebody when they are seen as an expert? Opportunity comes to them, because when somebody thinks of something that is in that space, they say, oh, I'm going to turn to this person who I know to be an expert in this because they are always talking about it.

Speaker 2: 55:25

It's a curious learner bias. It is so powerful. It is why Content Inc works. It is why making daily podcasts, it was why sticking with anything for a long time works, as long as you stick with it. The curious learner bias is my favorite thing. This is a show for leaders, so you should be meditating. But if you want to be known for something, if you want to be really well-known in a specific field or niche and that's the curious learner bias there are so many ways to utilize that.

Speaker 1: 56:00

Brilliant. I love it. Honestly, Edward, I could quite happily sit and talk to you for hours and hours, because it's just all everything you've talked about. You could go off on another whole strand.

Speaker 2: 56:10

Easily.

Speaker 1: 56:11

But we're running out of time. Where would you like people to go if they want to find you?

Speaker 2: 56:16

I would love for people. If you like how I speak, I would love for you to check out my show. It's called the Edward Show. It's wherever you get your podcasts or you can go to edwardspodcom to find it.

Speaker 1: 56:29

Fantastic Edward. Has there been a favorite part of our conversation for you today?

Speaker 2: 56:38

I've loved pretty much the entirety of it. To be honest, I've been in the zone for this. It's been flow state. I like doing interviews because I get into flow state pretty easily.

Speaker 1: 56:49

Yes.

Speaker 2: 56:51

I will say it is a lot easier having someone interview you than it is doing a Daily Show yourself. Yes, I think my Daily Show is getting a lot better because I basically use my props as interview questions, but this has been nice. You are a tremendous interviewer. You're very good at listening, you have a great voice, you're an active listener and it's nice. Thank you Well, thank you for doing such a great interview.

Speaker 1: 57:24

Thank you so much, thank you.