Fake Internet Fame vs. Real Growth: A Trader's Take

We reflect on the journey of podcasting and content creation, comparing it to gardening where growth happens invisibly at first but eventually blossoms with patience and persistence.

• Recently reached milestone of 25 podcast episodes
• Importance of properly crediting sources in podcast content
• Growth in podcasting takes time, just like plants need weeks to emerge from soil
• Most "overnight successes" like Joe Rogan actually had years of brand-building first
• Much of viral internet content uses fake engagement from click farms
• Creating content with purpose is more sustainable than chasing algorithm rewards
• Episodes can gain traction months later when keywords become relevant

Keep planting your seeds and recording your episodes.

From Article: 
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/plant-seeds-even-you-dont-see-growth-yet-gary-jones-dkcle

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Trading Post Episode 25
• 1:22 Sourcing and Crediting Information Properly
• 2:37 New Playset Purchase for Kids
• 6:02 Podcast Growth Takes Time
• 9:12 Fake Content and Click Farming
• 10:41 Gardens and Content: Seeds of Growth
• 14:23 Creating Content with Purpose
• 16:00 Episode Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Trading Post. I am your host, trader Stu. Holy crap, where does the time go. Remember June, june was here. That was a cool month, holy crap.

Speaker 1: 0:15

Anyway, this episode is sponsored by the Michigan Renaissance Festival, metro Trading Association and Networking with Kids, and let's get right into it. I want to mention something here about when you do podcasts, the reason why I am not advertising it. I'm still learning things, so I kind of thought that doing a drop of where I get my information from, you know, when I talk about things I'll say, hey, I got it from Buzzsprout or I got it from this article I read on Gary Jones' LinkedIn thing or whatever. I follow his. He sends out these articles At any rate. I thought that name dropping was enough and apparently I got to still put them in the podcast description. So that's what I'm working on right now to make sure I don't get hit for plagiarism, not trying to plagiarize them. Being straight up front, I tell you guys, you know I read this article and from LinkedIn, this guy, gary Jones, whatever and Grow Radio is is. He has a podcast and honestly, I don't even listen to it. I like his articles, though he's got a cool blog. At any rate, he's in Great Britain and I just I like I'll mention things and I'll go through it. And yeah, so that's what I'm working on today Going through and making sure I name drop him and all of the articles working on today, going through and making sure I name drop him and all of the articles that you know. I think I honestly have only ever used his articles twice, maybe three times, so it won't be that much work. I just got to find the podcast. But what I'm getting at is, when you're using information, make sure name drop and then I'll just put the link to the article. I think that's enough, at any rate. So what else we're getting into?

Speaker 1: 2:13

July 4th weekend, weekday 4 day, weekday for me and this is Trade Tuesday and I forgot to. I didn't forget. I'm going to just be honest. I got busy. So what happened was I bought the Kids a Play set and we spent a lot of time researching that. There is just a ton of options out there and we have a 9-year-old, almost 10-year-old, and we have a 2-year-old. We were trying to find like the perfect mesh of entertainment options and venues, for that would be enjoyed by both for years to come. I'd say, if we get at least five years out of this thing, I'd say that's pretty good investment, that they stay entertained for five summers. I don't know that puts a 10-year-old at 15. He won't care anyway. Hopefully by then he'll be into I don't know cars and girls, and then the other one will be seven, right, so it goes by quick, all right. So where else? Oh, you know what? I forgot the other guy too. No, I mentioned Buzzsprout.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Anyway, I wanted to get into this one that I was reading, wanted to get into this one that I was reading, and it just talks about growing. You know, using your podcast for seeds of growth is basically what it was. I'll put the link in here. And, uh, it just talks about. You know, you may not see immediate growth right now, but you will maybe in the future if you keep. This is my 25th podcast or 25th episode. Oh yeah, holy crap, that went by fast. So, yeah, happy 25th episode to me. I guess I'm going to get a little achievement award on Buzzsprout. They give you these stamps if you're not on Buzzsprout. And thinking about doing it, it's kind of like I think YouTube does the same thing. And thinking about doing it. It's kind of like I think YouTube does the same thing, but basically every so many downloads you get and every so many uploads that you provide, you get these different achievement levels. So, yeah, anyway, what he talks about is planting the seeds, because you may not see immediate growth, but you will in the future.

Speaker 1: 4:26

So, uh oh, wrong username, not me, what? Oh, let me go in here and try this again. Here we go, for some reason. You know what I should just do is put LinkedIn on my phone For some reason. You know what I should just do is put LinkedIn on my phone. I try not to, because I'm like I'm not going to work when I'm not like logged in not logged in, but at the office. So I took LinkedIn off, thinking that it would do me a favor, and left Alignable on it, because I am an ambassador on Alignable. So I figured I should at least dedicate myself and I don't Once I'm home with the kids that it I don't. Speaking of that, what would you do?

Speaker 1: 5:10

So this uh play set that we bought, it's from kid craft, it's the odyssey, it's the biggest, baddest, most like you know, inclusive of all the neat things that the kids want and didn't, and the advertisement says didn't know they want. It's like all the cool things that your kids and kids' friends want and then including things that they don't want, because this thing has everything, it's fully loaded. It's like better than going to one of our parks and we're in Clinton Township. We have awesome parks. As a matter of fact, my wife was like I don't want, I want a place that I'm like. No, as a matter of fact, my wife was like I don't want, I want a play set. I'm like no way go to one of the parks we have, like you know, quarter million dollar, half million dollar parks that they tell you how much they put in these things.

Speaker 1: 5:50

And, by the way, what's going on with this inclusive, all-inclusive playgrounds for wheelchair accessible? I've never seen a wheelchair on it. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm saying maybe, maybe one park per city, that's probably enough. They probably get, I don't know. I guess that's funding no-transcript. Phenomenal parks, dude. The one they just built by the library in clinton township is wild. It's got like the zip line thing, it's got this climbing tower rope thing and it's got a wheelchair ramp which I've said I've never seen anybody on there. We go there a lot. I've never seen one wheelchair even in the vicinity and they built this quarter million dollar park for wheelchair folks and and even have like rides for the wheelchair kids, kids in wheelchairs or whatever, I don't know. Anyway, I know they got a grant for it because they tell you, because it's by the city, so you can see where it's coming. I divert, I'm not going to get into it, never mind, I'm not going to get into it, never mind.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Let's see, basically, what Gary is talking about in his podcast. It talks about how it takes time for flowers channel to starting a small business. And why do I do that? Because I was talking to, I deal with businesses every day, right, and Metro Trading Association and I actually also sponsored kind of by Metro Trading Association too, by the way, because I work for them and uh, yeah, anyway. So you know it takes what three to five years, I think they say, to start seeing profits, uh, from a business. And so it does podcasting.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Sure, you hear about these people who are like overnight I guess, celebrities, but really they're not, because you know a lot of people might have already had a following from like wherever I don't know, insert social media platform here, or TV show or radio or modeling or whatever. They start a podcast and everyone subscribes, right? Joel Rogan was kind of like that, but you people forget he was in Fear Factor. He was an MMA fighter, mma announcer, comedian, all kinds of stuff, right. So he wasn't just like a millionaire from starting a podcast. That's not how that works. So it takes, takes years, and he had years back I think a decade or more invested into his like brand before he launched a podcast and uh.

Speaker 1: 8:50

So you got to remember that not everything you see. Well, actually I got into that the other day, yesterday. Um, usually I'll watch YouTube and I'll have, like you know, a lunch or something like that, and I'm not even into YouTube. No more, man, I hate it because everything is so fake and scripted. Everything's these little skits that these people do and they rent these stages, like I don't know people on aircraft that get kicked off or whatever. Right'm just over over it. I can't even watch any of my fear-mongering shows anymore because it's starting to loop. I used to like the prepping and you know, uh, getting things ready for whatever, but eventually it just loops on itself and I'm just burned out. So which is a good thing, because it gets me outside more in the garage and doing things that I should be doing other than watching youtube. But anyway, um, those all take, those are all algorithms too, by bots that are put together that when you see, why does this girl got, you know, 20 000 comments? It's because it was all on a click farm or whatever they call them. And uh, it's all fake, right, there's no way. If you have to question it like I don't understand why they got this many comments and likes, it's because it's all bull crap, man. Anyway, I again I get on these tangents.

Speaker 1: 10:21

So what Gary talks about is how nature reminds us of three things how seeds grow invisibly at first, so every episode is an investment in a future discovery. I did that myself. I have, like I said, the new toddler, and he's crazy, but I still feel like I had to plant something this year because I feel like I wasted a potential season to do something with all the space I have in the garden. I planted and right now it's just growing vines and weeds, right. So, except for the strawberries and raspberries, the kids love them, but they're low maintenance. So I planted a bunch of corn hopefully grows enough for them to run through it. And then you know pumpkins, cause the kids love growing their own pumpkins. Well, the one does, the other one doesn't know any better.

Speaker 1: 11:10

Yet these two, uh, we have watermelon and uh, winter squash and the sunflowers never came up and, uh, I think that's it, cantaloupe, maybe I can't remember, it doesn't matter, but I just planted stuff all around this area and just see if it grows, it grows. If it doesn't, it doesn't. I'm not watering it, I'm not doing anything, I'm not weeding, I'm just letting it go right, just let the vines take off. So, but it took, I think, a week or two before I saw any action, because I have a bunch of leaf mulch down that keeps the moisture levels down, so it's nice and I don't have to water it as much. But anyway, you can't see what's happening below that.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Now you've got to take a week or two for a plant and then expand on that for real life. For us human size time frame, it could take two or three years before you see any growth, as opposed to two or three weeks, right? So, uh, just kind of remember that kind of stuff. And then also it mentions uh, you never know who's listening. A podcast episode might impact someone tomorrow, and I've I'm a testament to that right. So I'll uh watch youtube and then, all of a sudden, I'll see that that was uploaded seven years ago, which is cool because it's evergreen content. And if that guy is monetized or girl or whatever is you know, they are getting money for that. I don't know how much money not much, but anyway they can still see that algorithm, that bar graph, move up.

Speaker 1: 12:39

And then this talks about how seasons matter. Sometimes your audience grows when you least expect it. I can honestly say I, when I was laid off and I was doing uploads of youtubes and I was going to try and just dedicate all the time I had into youtubing because I was laid off and had nothing else to do while the kid was sleeping, I would upload these stupid videos and they just rocketed in the shorts. I think one time I'm not going to mention what I was doing, it doesn't matter, but I got like 650 views in 15 minutes, which is unheard of, and it was the most ridiculous, most embarrassing, dumb, stupid thing, and I was rewarded for that, which told me a lot about, uh, the mentality of folks, I guess, and then also how YouTube is favoring that kind of content which was enlightening. So, uh, pretty much after that I deleted the channel.

Speaker 1: 13:39

I'm like you know what, I'm not contributing to this. I don't care if I have whatever I say is educational or helps people or whatever, and doesn't get the volume of things that like clicks or followers or views or listens, I don't care, I'm not doing, I'm no longer. Am I going to try and do it for the money? Because you eventually burn out with that. Because you know, once you make money then you burn out, or you, once you don't get enough money for what you think you're putting out, you burn out. So you might as well just do something that you don't mind doing or want to do or like to do, and if the money follows, as long as you're not like trying to. You know, pay, pay, rent, I guess, uh, then so what, let it be. I mean, right now I'm on my 25th episode, still not. You know, I don't say I'm still not monetized, but I'm not monetized. It's going to take a lot longer than that, but I don't care, I have a job and I'm not doing this to try and put stakes in the table. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 14:40

So there's, there's that, uh, so it's saying you know, just keep planning, keep recording, trust your efforts will blossom, and sometimes long after the mic is off. Well, that's true. I mean, sometimes I'll like all of a sudden see a spike in my downloads of something that I did a few weeks ago, a couple months ago or something like that, and it just depends on what the keywords were, either in the title or the tags or even in the description, because something could have popped off. And then people are looking for that keyword and then all of a sudden, you're coming up on the searches for that content because if something politically happened or newsworthy happened, natural disasters, insert. You know, whatever it is here.

Speaker 1: 15:28

So you just never know what's gonna happen. So that's why I say it doesn't matter, quit. It's like trying to follow a rainbow or catch a rainbow. It's just never gonna happen. So, all right, that's it. I just want to do a quick upload. Let you guys you know some insight on that, and it's a short. Wanted to do a quick upload. I'll let you guys you know get some insight on that, and it's a short one. All right, be good or be good at it.