In today’s episode, we have the incredible Danny Miranda joining us to share his wealth of knowledge on building a content engine, maintaining consistency, and navigating the highs and lows of podcasting and startup life.
Video Overview:
Join us as we dive deep into the strategies that can transform your brand and content creation process. Learn how to adopt a daily commitment mindset, similar to making a habit out of brushing your teeth, and apply it to your podcasting journey for unparalleled consistency and success.
Key Topics Covered:
- Building a Content Engine: Discover the essentials of creating a robust content engine to enhance your brand’s presence and drive business success.
- The Power of Consistency: Learn how adopting a daily commitment mindset can revolutionize your podcasting journey.
- Navigating the Highs and Lows: Explore the world of startups and podcasting, learning how to maintain balance through the highs and lows.
- Mastering the Art of Interviewing: Uncover the secrets to conducting captivating interviews and creating meaningful conversations.
- Strategic Content Distribution: Gain insights into the comprehensive process of podcasting, from preparation to strategic distribution.
🎤 About Danny Miranda:
Danny Miranda is a seasoned podcaster and entrepreneur, with extensive experience in creating engaging content and building successful brands. He brings a unique perspective to the table, sharing valuable lessons from his journey and providing actionable strategies for growth and consistency.
Connect with Danny Miranda:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DannyMiranda
- Podcast: https://dannymiranda.com/podcast
📢 Stay Connected with Us:
Don't forget to subscribe for more inspiring interviews and startup stories.
- Follow me on X (Formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/andymewborn
- Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amewborn
- Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy.mewborn
📩 Feedback & Contact:
We value your feedback and questions! Leave us a comment below or reach out at: andy@distribute.so
Andy Mewborn:
I host a run. I just started hosting a run every Tuesday morning and about 30 people showed up to the first one yesterday. And what I said when I was given an introduction speech was like, go meet someone you haven't met because that's going to change the interaction of the run and that's going to make more people connect to more people.
Andy Mewborn:
Literally my strategy is like I want to find interesting people and like that I find interesting. I don't care how big they are. Like I really like sure there's Noah Kagan. He's coming up. I find them interesting, right?
Danny Miranda:
I'm known for the research. So I'm coming at it with usually like 5 to 20 hours of research per guest.
Andy Mewborn:
What? 5 to 20 hours? Dude. Danny Miranda.
Andy Mewborn:
Oh my gosh. The legend is on the line everyone. The Nardwar of podcasting. That is how I would describe Danny Moran. Do you know who Nardwar is, dude? Do you know who Nardwar is?
Danny Miranda:
Do I know who Nardwar is? Yes, yeah. Dude, he's a legend.
Andy Mewborn:
He's a living legend. Dude, you are the Nardwar of podcasting, man. Feel free to use me as a testimonial. And here's why I say this, is because you do come up with some, you find out interesting things about people, right? And like, it's the Nardwar effect, dude. That's what I call it. It's like that. Hey, for those who don't know, right, Nardwuar is basically, how would you describe him? A character on YouTube or that interviews musicians mostly and famous people. Very, what's the word for him? Charismatic? Is maybe how I'll describe him. He's quirky. Very quirky, very quirky. But like people just love having interviews with him because he finds out stuff that like they, even the people he's talking to forgot about themselves, right? Childhood memories, like, I don't even know, how do you think he gets that info? Does he like call their mom or like, what is, what do you think he does?
Danny Miranda:
My guess is it is all public and that people probably say a lot more in old interviews than what they remember. Because, I mean, I sometimes do like five hours of research for a guest and I'll be like, I didn't spend that much time with this, but this person is still shocked. that I learned something about them. And I'm like, wow, it's really not that hard. If, let's say you give me, I don't know, two weeks to prepare for someone like Jay-Z, I bet I could bring something to him that he hadn't remembered about himself. And so, I mean, maybe me and Nardwar are particularly gifted at research, but I just think we just spend a lot of time doing it and people put way more out there than what they realize.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, shoot, I wouldn't want to go back and see my shit from who knows, six years ago, like random podcasts. I'd probably cringe, you know, because I actually did have a podcast back in 2014 or 13. Me and my buddy, we called it the Yumas podcast. I think we randomly shut it down because We had to do all the old hosting stuff. We had to set it up the old school way. There wasn't Transistor. There wasn't Riverside like this. There wasn't any of that. And we thought we were late to the game in 2013. That just... It's crazy, man. It's crazy.
Danny Miranda:
People think they're late to the game right now. I'm like, dude, this is the printing press for audio and video. And we are less than 20 years into it. And it's the same as publishing a book in 1460 after the printing press was invented in 1440. Do you realize what's happening? This is way bigger than what you can see. You're not late. You're just so early. You don't even know. We haven't even started with this whole thing yet.
Andy Mewborn:
It's I, I know it is crazy right like and that goes for everything man like you think you're late to Twitter you think you're late to LinkedIn like we all have this feeling like we're late to stuff in like you're really not man like perfect timing always always yeah that's the mindset to have right and I'm looking at your podcast page right now. You're on episode 420. Yeah. Well, what a number for the podcast on this podcast. 420. Dude, how's it feel? Like you've done 420 podcast episodes.
Danny Miranda:
Feels incredible. Feels great. It felt incredible when I did 42 podcast episodes. It felt great when I did, you know, 120. It felt great. It just feels great to connect and speak to human beings and to be able to show them who I view them as in this moment based on their previous past, but also looking at their soul and trying to get that out of them. That feels great. So whether I do one or I do 420 or I do 4,200, like it all feels great, you know?
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah. And that's what I want to talk to you about because less than I would say, I don't know the exact number, but less than what 0.1% of people who have ever started a podcast have gotten to more than a hundred episodes, right. Or 50 episodes or maybe even 10 episodes. I think there's a stat out there, right. That like most podcasts don't get past 10 episodes or something. And so I want to, what I want to focus on and chat with you, man, because I'm starting my own pod, right. And luckily I have some distribution to get it going and all that. so i'm kind of learning in public per se right i want to talk to you like you just released a course as well like the art of interviewing right pretty much that which is awesome for those listening go check it out uh i just awesome awesome and so you're kind of become a podcast pro right so i just want to like steal all your knowledge man and go through all that stuff um and let's go through it man like you're at 420 so You started at one. How long ago did you start at one? Let's see. We can scroll back. September 2020. September 2020. So dude, tell like, what have you learned? And I'm sure this will take, this could take the whole hour, but like in the, in the, in this, these 420 episodes, almost three, four years, what did you learn, man, that like you wish you knew when you started podcasting?
Danny Miranda:
Yeah, first of all, I just want to say like, dude, I feel your energy from across the screen and I just feel your curiosity and just like this want to learn and this excitement for life. I feel all of that by speaking to you for five minutes and 48 seconds. I just want to throw that out there. Yeah, thank you. I mean, what have I learned from doing the podcast for the past three years and doing it at the clip that I've done is the most important thing for me is to have belief. I've seen periods of the podcast where it's worked, and I've seen periods of the podcast when it hasn't worked. I mean, I haven't enjoyed it as much, the audience hasn't come, and it hasn't felt as good. And the periods where it felt really good, were the periods where I really believed that I could get something out of the guest, that I could have a unique skill, that people would enjoy spending time, that I believed in the product that I was putting out. Belief is everything, was everything, is everything for me. And I've learned that the more belief I have, the better I will feel about the podcast. And belief is closely tied to the work. So like if I do a lot of work for a guest and really do a lot of research for them and I'm really excited about the episode and I feel a great connection to them because I did the work, because I built the connection with myself, then I feel really excited to tell people about the episode. Then I tell people about the episode, it leads to more and more guests wanting to come on. It's like this crazy process of belief.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah it almost sounds like anything with a lot of things that you start like the highs can be super high and the lows can be super low right and it and it's almost like with anything that belief process for me that belief process whether it's like training for iron mans or like doing new things it's always like how do you stay kind of in the middle all the time? That's kind of what I try and optimize for, right? It's like, yes, I get excited, but I'm just naturally excited, right? But how do I always kind of like maintain like that feeling of like being in the middle where I don't get too low, but I also don't get so excited where I kind of like overlook a lot of things and like start to like maybe make some naive moves or something like that, which that can help you in some ways, but maybe that can hurt you in some ways, right? So that's, that's something interesting that I tried to do. Right. And that also comes from, I think my background, just like starting companies and like that kind of startup life, like that's the highest highs and that's the lowest lows. I mean, starting a podcast is almost like starting a company. Right. And so you almost have to like, when there's problems, when there's things happening at the high, you know, a low has to come at some point in the future. It's not always going to get. So, yeah, man. And I think the thing here is consistency, right? Like we can get really deep into this. That's what helped me stay consistent. But for you, 420 and I'm sure when you first started this, you're at episode three. You wanted to stop, right?
Danny Miranda:
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no So at 125, I realized I was playing the mental model in my head of do 100. Do 100 of this podcast and then figure out if it's for you, if you'll enjoy it. And I was starting the podcast with that. But at around the 125 mark, I realized this podcast, there's not enough momentum. It's not exciting. I did it a hundred times. Where's the audience? Where are the people listening? What's going on? How come this isn't going as fast as I expected it to? I thought if I did it a hundred times, then that's more than way more people. I should it should work after that, but it didn't and that upset me and and then it wasn't until Really episode 228 if I want to like tell the story Is like I do an in-person episode for the first time where it's like not virtual for the first 227 it's all virtual and then I see the way the questions impact Noah Kagan And I was like, all right, I love this. This is my thing. This is what I'm supposed to do. And that to me was an interesting moment of losing belief because I had a faulty mental model in my head and then gaining it back after doing it in person.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah.
Danny Miranda:
Dude, so for the first three episodes, I said I was going to do one podcast episode a week. The podcast started because I put out on Twitter, who wants to talk on the phone and don't have such amazing phone conversations with people that I was like, I got to record these. These are amazing.
Andy Mewborn:
Just for my own sake. You just asked to talk on the phone with people? Just like, hey, what's up?
Danny Miranda:
I just had such energy and love for life that I wanted to give that, similar to you. I just wanted to give the energy to people and I just wanted to learn from people. And it was during July 2020, so lockdowns, all this stuff. And so I started recording these episodes. Episode 1, 2, 3, I did 20 episodes in 30 days. And I was like, oh, I love this. Like, this is amazing. It was such an internal gain that I wasn't even thinking about anyone. I was like, yeah, I'm going to put this out there because I want people to get value from it if they want to. But I don't expect anyone to listen. And I don't have any expectations. So I'm on episode three, I'm like, all right, episode four, five, six, and I had 20 in the backlog before I released a single episode. And I'm like, I got to put out three a week because if I put this out 20 weeks from now, the person's not even going to be the same 20 weeks from now that I interviewed at the last one. So that was kind of like the brief start of it. I mean, people do things with such expectations these days. And I do things with expectations. As you rise and as things are successful, then you kind of expect other things that you start to be successful. But I was coming at it from the perspective like, I've never done anything successful. So, I imagine this could be successful, but I don't have any expectations and no one is expecting anything from me. That's a very powerful place to be. If you're just starting out, if you're in college or You haven't had any professional success. There's a burden people feel sometimes after they have a win, where it's like, oh, I don't want to do podcasting after I sold my company because, well, what if my friends think I'm a loser because no one listens to my podcast? I was like, I don't care about my college friends. I don't care about anything. I love having these conversations. People make me feel so good. So like, and I help people make people feel good in some way. So to me, that, that's the start. And that's an important thing to note.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah. And you always mentioned energy, like when you, when you're chatting, which is interesting. And I went to a, uh, in it's people, you know, that like love life know that like the root of everything is like, how do I optimize myself for having energy? You know, I feel like that is like, like I don't eat well to have a six pack because I don't know what it is, man. I'm a dad, like just naturally born with a dad, but I'll run 30 miles and still have like a little belly. Like it's all good. You know, like, like, I don't know, man, I'm just not blessed with the six pack jeans. But what I will say is I still eat healthy and I still do the things that I know are going to give me energy. Right. People and where I learned this and actually about flow is it five, six years ago, I went to a Tony Robbins And I was like, it was so funny. I was what, 25 at the time or something. And I was like, hey, this is like woo woo. Like I'm not, you know, but my like work sent me and one of my executives who was the right hand man for Tony Robbins for a bit. And I was like, he's like, just go. He's like, I'll pay for you to go. He's like, the number one rule is that you can't sit next to anyone you know. And I go, and I go, interesting. And I asked him why? And he goes, because you're not going to play full out if you sit next to someone you know. And I go, what do you mean by play full out? And he goes, you're not going to give it your all and you're not going to open up all the way because there's some biases that that person is going to have and you're going to know that. Don't sit by anyone, you know, that's come that I'm sending also from the company. And I got interesting because naturally you'd want to do that. Right. And so, man, that was the best advice I ever got, like for going to an event like that, because you have to force yourself to kind of open up, give yourself the energy. Right. Do all that.
Andy Mewborn:
Anyways.
Andy Mewborn:
Going back to energy.
Danny Miranda:
Yeah. I have a couple of points on that. So the first is I host a run. I just started hosting a run every morning and every Tuesday morning rather. And about 30 people showed up to the first one yesterday. And that was the second one. And what I said when I was given an introduction speech was like, go meet someone you haven't met because that's going to change the interaction of the run. And that's going to make more people connected to more people.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah, that is the secret, man. And I think like the any event I'm like, I think I'll put on in the future, like or any future thing that that's gonna be my real to is like, talk to someone you don't know to get out of your little clique. You know what I'm saying? Like, go go like, see what someone else has to say, you know, like do that. And so I'm sure people feel fired up after that, too.
Danny Miranda:
Yes, and it's also related to the idea of like your family doesn't see you as you are in this moment. They see you as who you were. And sometimes it can be hard to show people close to you because they have so much history with you about your past and what they project onto you. it's hard for them to see you as you are in this moment, which is an important thing to keep in mind as people who are into growth and development and change. It's like your parents are still seeing you as the three-year-old kid who couldn't clean up his own diapers, you know?
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah, yeah. Well, it's funny you say that. Going on that topic I think like, even like the workplace right something that that I suffered from, and that was like very difficult is like, you know, I started at this high growth, you know company I got lucky, I, you know, it was a tiny startup I was one of the first employees, it blew up, right? And it's like, you know, unicorn, blah, blah, blah, whatever. So I got lucky, you know, I was there early, et cetera. But like, even, like, I started at the bottom, right? But even as like, I would, like, do the best, like, I would crush every role, I would do everything right, you know, even when I was at the, every time I got a promotion, the people at the top that were executives that, you know, had lots of experience, a little bit older, were like, they were like, well, I don't know if he's ready. And I would be like, dude, I've crushed everything I've ever done here. Why am I not ready? You know, like, well, what am I doing wrong here? What else do I need to do? Like whatever. And they would say, I don't know. He's just like, and they would still see me as like this, like younger kid, you know, and I just, I do have a young energy and I'm always going to have that. Like, and I'm not going to apologize for it. Right. Because I think. You people think that that might not be cool as they get a little bit older than when you get when you get really old, people say, Damn, I wish I had that energy. So you know what I'm saying? So like, I would in that would frustrate the hell out of me. Anyways, these people that I don't know, he's still like this little young guy that just joined and didn't really know anything. And I'm like, what the fuck, man, like, and I would still have to prove him wrong every single time. Right. And it kind of shows you that bias that like people have towards you. They see this kid in like, so it is hard to break that mold, right? Like, even if you know yourself, you have grown and other people may not have grown themselves to see, hey, maybe this other person has grown, right? Like, let me check myself. Anyways, just something interesting that like, that I've experienced because of that, you know?
Danny Miranda:
Yeah, it's so true. And it's worth keeping in mind for people that we meet and people who are growing, it's like sometimes we can't even see it. And it's important to check ourselves. I can't think of any scenarios off the top of my head, but I know that it's present in my own life. If we're talking about all these people have all these things, I'm like, how am I exhibiting this behavior in some way? And it's probably blind to us. Like it probably was blind To the executives who weren't giving you enough credit, you know, so yeah, it's important for for me to keep my how am I doing that? You know?
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah. Yeah. No, truly. And like. I, it's taught me a lesson, right? Exactly. Like when I look at someone like, Oh no, they were just, you know, in a support role or whatever. It's like, it doesn't matter, man. Like the people that are going to do well, I think like the A plus generalists, in my opinion, are going to do well at anything. Like the people with the drive, the people with the energy going back to that, right. The people that like have that figured out mentality, like fuck around and find out, you know, in a good way. Um, so yes, man. Um, so just so interesting back to energy. Okay. That Tony Robbins event coming full circle now here, you know, I didn't sit next to anyone I knew. Uh, I, I let, I let my heart out, man. Like I, it was amazing. Like, cause guess what? These people didn't know me anyways. I could be whoever I wanted. And I was like, well, let me just be my authentic me. no judgments on what I say. They're not, I'm not going to see him in the office later and they're going to think something different, you know? And so, holy crap, that was amazing. And I feel like I had this at one point you're yelling and you're, you know, you're just yelling off the top of your lungs and people are next to you. Like, they don't know me who gives a shit. I'm just going to yell at the top of my lungs. Right. And you yell and dude, you honestly, and again, I was total like against Tony Robbins events before this, but like, I was like on cloud nine at one point, I felt like I was on drugs or something. What did you release? What did I release? I mean, she is serotonin I don't know like you know like it was What did I release at the event? That's a great question. What was it that really came out? I think I just felt like I could do anything. There's always going to be problems and I'm just going to jump over it. I'm going to love the process of jumping over it. That was the feeling I had. I felt like a huge piece of anxiety was just released. There was no like, Oh shit, there's this problem coming. What do I do? It was like, no, fuck that. There's this problem coming. I'm going to jump over it and I'm going to be fine. Maybe, you know, like. I'm going to be just fine no matter what hits me in life. And I think that feeling was, you know, I would want to go back to that event just to experience that because like I try and get in that mode again and like I've tried multiple things, but it was just the environment that set that tone, right? Like you yelling and doing all that. So I'm like, shit, maybe I like close my office door and just yell at the top of my lungs and like tell my wife so she doesn't think I'm dying or something. I don't know. And shit, maybe I do that again. I don't know, man. But to recreate that moment, I've tried a couple things except screaming it all out. And like, maybe that's the trick. Maybe that is the trick, you know?
Danny Miranda:
Yeah, it's interesting how like we can't be our full selves. Like, we are, we are confined, like our full selves would probably be naked and just roaming around and just like, like just going based on our every primal desire. And like, that's probably great for safety and prosperity, but like we are giving up something in that process that we don't often think about. So that's like a great way to get back to that place of like screaming your heart out. Like I wouldn't do on this podcast, but I would do if I was in the middle of a jungle, no problem.
Andy Mewborn:
so oh hell yeah dude i would just yes man yes like the in you know danny just don't join a nudist camp on me man and duty miranda i'm calling to you from the nudist camp in palm springs california episode 4
Andy Mewborn:
Narnware podcasting is now doing it naked, everyone. Please, YouTube is banned.
Andy Mewborn:
Uh, so yeah, man, uh, but dude, um, let's get into some podcasting. Like what my, what I hope people get out of this is one, that energy conversation was amazing, but two, like shit, I think there's a lot of people that want to start a podcast. They know it's the future. Right. And they know like, it's a good segue for one building relationships. But for two, if they own a business like myself, like I think it's a great way to like put out content, build a brand and like all the business stuff that gives you basically helps you build a content engine. Right. And let's talk about for you, like you hit episode one, twenty one, twenty one, twenty five, twenty five. And you're like, shit, like where are the people what's happening? What did you do from a distribution strategy at that point? Like, did you change something in the way you distributed or what was that kind of inflection point there?
Danny Miranda:
I don't know, man. It's been a lot of little inflection points that are like the inflection points really come when their big guests come on. Like you could see a clear inflection point with like Alex Formosy coming on. You could see an inflection point with Andy Fursella coming on. And so, yeah, those are the inflection points. I think about the inflection points in my own soul though. And those inflection points in my own soul was being episode 227, 228 and being going to Noah Kagan's house and saying to myself, dude, this is crazy. I followed this guy for so long and he's inviting me to his house to interview him. This is the coolest thing in the world. So my soul was just full of love and energy. And I was like, that's an inflection point whether or not anyone listens to that episode or not. And I know most people don't get into podcasting because they're like, I want to light up my soul and I just want to connect with human beings. Maybe that's part of it. But to me, that's the purest expression. And to me, that's what happens with the people who do it the longest. Like Tim Ferriss was doing it 2014. That's almost 10 years ago. Rogan, he's doing it 13 years ago he started. He's doing it for the love of the game. And that's kind of what I'm pushing. I'm like, I've done 420 episodes. That's a lot for a lot of people. That's nothing for people who have done it for decade plus, right?
Andy Mewborn:
And so,
Danny Miranda:
I think about that and I think about it's inevitable for it to work if you just don't stop doing it and you enjoy doing it. If those two things are true, it will work out. And so I've gotten on that ethos and I forgot that episode 125 and re-remembered that episode 227 or 228. And yeah, I mean, the inflection point, get big guests, an inflection point for people to think about if their goal is to grow the show, which my goal hasn't been to do that, surprisingly. What to do is to find a unique way of either delivering the message or a unique way of doing the podcast or speaking to a unique group of people in a real differentiated way. And like my friend David Perel just launched a podcast and he launched it on writing. Like he loves writing. It's all he thinks about. It's all he talks about. And he has access now to some of the greatest writers in the world by virtue of him putting out Twitter content on writing for the past, what, six, seven years. His unique angle was, this is a writing podcast. I'm going to talk to writers about writing. That doesn't exist. surprisingly in today's day and age. And so what I would encourage people to do who are focused on growth and want to grow, what is the unique angle, what is the unique way you, or the unique group of people you're talking to and really make it easy for someone to share it in the sense of like, okay, David Peral, that's the writing podcast, right? Like if I'm writing and I want to learn about podcasts, if I want to learn about writing through a podcast, I'm going to go to David Peral's, um, YouTube videos or podcasts. So I think that's worth considering for people who are just starting out.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah. Yeah. And you know what's funny, I'm, I'm, I'm like, The way I'm thinking about it, and let's like, you know, we can hash this out too. It's like, let's do it. I literally, my strategy is like, I want to find interesting people and like that I find interesting. I don't care how big they are. Like. I, I really like sure there's no cake and he's coming up. I find him interesting. Right. He was early at Facebook. Like he happens to have a big name too. And so I'm trying to find people not that are like, or Mosey would be great. Cause I follow him. I find him interesting. Right. But for me, it's like finding interesting people now for that, this is where it can maybe get a little dangerous because it's not niche. Right. It's not like David Prell's just specific writers or how they write or whatever. So that's what I'm trying to figure out, right? Is like, shoot, should I make, right now it's just gonna, it's just called Andy's pod. Like it's just me talking to people like Joe Rogan, you know, whatever. And so I'm wondering like, shoot, is that, is that going to make it fall flat? I don't know. But like, am I interesting enough? Maybe do I have enough energy? Shit. Who knows, you know, like we'll figure it out. Like, I don't know. And that's that going back is like, For me, I just love it though. Like, even though I'm talking to you, I'm like, shit, I get to make friends that are cool doing cool shit that are like-minded. Awesome.
Andy Mewborn:
You know? Yes.
Andy Mewborn:
And so, yeah, yeah. That's how I viewed it. Yeah. And so, going back to your niche thing, it makes sense, right? Like, niching down, right? Like, on writing. My wife listens to some podcasts. I'm like, parenting and shit now, you know, like these moms, you know, that like, talk about like, hey, here's how I dealt with my husband, like not putting the toasty down or something, you know, like, so, you know, that that's one interesting thing there. So, you know, maybe I should talk more to dads, I would probably be sick, like dad founders that I think are interesting, right? I don't know, like, that could be cool. Are you a dad yet, Danny?
Danny Miranda:
No, but I mean, the question is like, what are you optimizing for? Right? I said all that to say like, if you're optimizing for growth, it doesn't make sense to call it Andy's pod. If you're optimizing for, I want to talk to amazing people and cool people. And I just want to enjoy the process of doing it. Andy's Pod is an amazing name and amazing way to go about doing it. I basically did the same thing. This is Danny's Pod and I'm just talking to people I find interesting and compelling because I know that if I did it the other way, I wouldn't be able to stick with it long enough. And if I don't stick with it, there's no point in doing it. So I'm optimizing for literally, I said to myself, a commitment. 2020, I'm going to do this podcast for 10 years. At 2030, I can stop if I don't want to. But at some point, I realized that this is way bigger or way longer than just the quick growth hack or whatever, which I have no problem with. Some people are motivated by the growth. Some people are motivated by the connection. The question for you to figure out is how much am I motivated by the growth? How much am I motivated by the connection? And what percentage is it? Because it's not one or the other. It's what's the sliding scale of it?
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah, dude, you know what my dream would be like, like, okay, this is this is what my dream would be for this podcast. So two things. The first thing I'll say is, whenever I start something new and dive in, I have a rule. And my rule is, this is a super weird rule, man. But it's can I do it every day, like brushing my teeth for the next year? I love that so much. That's my rule. Like if I start anything, can I commit to doing this every day, like brushing my teeth for next year? In podcasts, I don't really do every day. I had like two or three this week. Sure. But like, you know what I mean? It's that mindset of like, that's how I think about consistency. right and that's good that is the way i think about it and it might be this weird thing because i grew up when my mom was in the dental industry and like i was obsessed with brushing my teeth and shit so like maybe that's it you know like i don't know uh that could be the weird thing but like that's how it is man like that that's that's my model
Danny Miranda:
Yeah, it's how can I make this easy? So many people are going into things wanting it to be hard, wanting it to be difficult, wanting them to put so much into it for them to feel like it's worth it. And for them to put so much hard work into it, like it's worth it. Someone said to me yesterday, they were looking at my podcast for the first time and they're like, 419 episodes, that looks like a lot of work. And I'm like, that looks like a lot of play. Yeah. And that in the moment clearly just was like, Oh, I, I chose the right thing for me because this is, this is fun. This is brushing my teeth. This is just going to the gym three times for my mind every week, you know? So that's how I view it. And because if you view it that way, you get, you have fun when you have fun, you do it longer. When you do it longer, you get better. When you get better, you have fun.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah. Yeah. Let's go.
Andy Mewborn:
That's what we do. You need to make it.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah. I love that man. And, and that is, it has to feel like play. Right. And like when it feels like play, that's when, you know, that's, and a lot of people talk about that, but I agree. Like for me, I think I'm an extrovert. Like I'm like half introvert, half extrovert. Like if I'm like working on something, like not talking to someone, like I zone out, like my friends call it candy land. Actually, they're like, they'll ask me a question and I won't respond for 10 minutes, right? But that's just like my focus sometimes. So I kind of have to be like all the way into something if I'm doing it, you know? um but my dream would be is like I want this to be about play and and I want this to be fun for me which is why I'm like why I'm like looking to bring people on that I think I could like shoot the shit with and this goes to my dream which is like imagine a podcast studio we have tacos that we're eating in this studio the best fucking tacos you can get And I don't drink right now, but like if you were drinking, we have little sips of tequila or like a Mexican Coke, right? Coca-Cola. And it's sitting right there. We eat some tacos and we shoot the shit. You know, that is like the kind of vibe I would love to have because it's authentic. It's raw. You know, people are going to be like stuffing their face. You know, it's almost like hot ones, but like, I don't know the Mexican version because I'm Mexican. So we can do like, you know, hot sauce on tacos or something, who knows, but like, that's my vibe, man. Like, I want that to be it. So you can get the real raw version of someone versus like the, Hey, I'm Mr. CEO and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like, dude, people don't connect with that, man. Like, you know, people want to connect with like you, like on your runs, I'm sure people, They're out of work mode, you know what I'm saying? They probably are like in this mode of like, yeah, we're outside or we're playing. We're having a good time. That's what I kind of want it to be like. So we'll see if we make a studio like that eventually. That would be sick. Maybe when it gets to episode 420, we'll have something that we can do.
Danny Miranda:
Well, I still don't have something like that.
Andy Mewborn:
I'm trying to think about that right now. Oh, are you? Yeah. So what are you doing? Because I do see you in like studios sometimes. So like, what do you work? Like, what do you, are you renting it? Like, what's that look like?
Danny Miranda:
Yeah. Rent the studios out now. Yeah. But I'm like, I want something that's more me. You know, like how you described the taco vision of like tacos and Coca-Cola. I'm like, that's like my vibe. I want something that's my vibe. And right now that's like a generic cookie cutter box. Anyone can create that or do a podcast in that studio. Yeah. I want something that's me and that feels like me. And I'm honestly figuring that out right now. Like, you know, part of this podcast has been about discovering myself. And in the process of doing it, I found who I really am. It's like a really deep thing to realize and think about. It's like, imagine you started something at 25 and then at 26 or 27, you're like, you know what? By doing this thing, I really understood that I love tacos and Mexican Coca-Cola. You'd be like, oh my God, this thing is amazing. And so for me, that's the podcast.
Andy Mewborn:
No. We need to get you a studio, Dan. We need to get you a studio, man. Now, I do see you in the studio. That's in Austin. I'm guessing that you do that. Now, okay. What's your research process looking like? Because I'm sure everyone wants to know this question. Cause you're good at this and everyone's like, preaches like, damn, Danny's good at asking good questions. Alex Hermosi himself said like one of the best interviews he had was with you, right? Something like that. Cause Danny like actually did good questions. So like, what did that process look like? And let's get specific about what did it look like for Homozy? Because you knew that was going to be a big guest, right? You knew that this could be a, let's call it an inflection point externally, right? An external inflection point. What did that look like?
Danny Miranda:
Yeah, it's a great question. It required me doing a few different things. One is I went through the previous podcast that he has put out. So I probably listened to in that week leading up to it. five episodes of him on previous guest appearances. And how I picked those episodes was I was like, who's the interview? How many interviews have they done? And how long ago was this interview? Okay, so there's a few things to break down there. The interviewer, I know the gamut of people. I know how prepared they are for the episode. That's one thing. Then I also look for how long ago it was. So how long ago it was means he's going to forget that he said this. And if he forgets that he says this, then when I bring it back up to him, that's a benefit. And then there's the episode number. The episode number basically tells you how much the host knows what they're doing.
Andy Mewborn:
Okay, so I don't know shit is what you're saying, because this is probably episode seven, so I don't know shit. Okay, got it, got it, got it.
Danny Miranda:
No, but from a perspective of they know where they're going, they know how to lead the guests to the place that they want to take them, and they have a greater sense of the show's character. It's like you're walking for seven times, like this is your seven time walking. Now imagine after you've walked for a hundred times, you know the direction, you know the path, you know the steps. So, those three things are what I'm looking at when I'm doing the Hormozy research. Then I'm going through his Twitter account and I'm looking, okay, which one of his tweets right here really hit me? What do they make me feel? When I go through these, what is insightful? What's interesting? What can I bring up? And one of his tweets, I read him and I was like, what is that all about? And he's like, that's the perfect question, right? So it was just because that tweet hit me and that tweet felt like that was an important thing that got his ethos in a short little 280 character thing. So it's the Twitter, it's the podcast, and then it's going through Google. And how you go through Google is if you have someone like Alex Ramosi, you go through Alex Ramosi Vanderbilt, because he went to Vanderbilt, I believe. And instead of just saying Alex Ramosi, because Alex Ramosi Vanderbilt is going to show him at a previous time in his life. So just like we were talking about, people who are covering Alex Hermosi today are viewing him as like, that is a absolute legend of business. When he went to Vanderbilt, they weren't saying he was a legend of business. They were saying, who's this guy? Who's this fraternity dude who's messing up the whole place or whatever it is. So I think you get a sense for who someone was when you type in their college or their hometown in addition to their name.
Andy Mewborn:
How was that? Interesting. That was, that was good. That was good. Very tactical stuff. The one I really like, but it was the last two, well, you know, scouring previous podcasts, very interesting. Like, but going back, going deep, you know what I'm saying? Like, okay, what stuff he might be caught his eye a while ago that he doesn't remember. That was the first thing, right? Other one going through old tweets, right? That one I think is my favorite. Cause you can actually use what you could actually do to is you could use, this is getting very freaking tactical, but you can use TweetHunter or Twimix. I'm sure you know that. And you can go look at their top tweets of all time. And then most recent ones. And then you can see, Ooh, which one's got a lot of engagement. And then you can actually play off of those. Right. And say like, Ooh, cause you know, if they blew up, they know about that tweet as well. Right. They're like, Ooh, this one blew up. So you can ask them, and they're most likely going to be excited about it because they're like oh yeah that one blew up you know so like oh you know um yeah that one that's a great one and then i like the the one i've never heard of is like typing like their name in college shit i would be scared for people to do that for me Uh, don't do that. Anyone do not put Andy Mewborn, Andrew Mewborn, uh, college. I'm scared. Um, yeah, I'm a different me. So hopefully I'm going to do that. Oh, shoot, man. Seattle university. Go ahead. Uh, I was actually a good boy in college, but if we go back to middle school and stuff, luckily the internet didn't exist. So that's good. Cause I did some really dumb shit. Um, I've always been a rebel but like You know, now I know how to like use that for like good stuff to be a rebel, like build shit when people say that's not a good idea versus like, you know, skateboard and and say the mean things to police when they don't want to skateboard at something, you know. Yeah, we were little skater kids, you know, that were like getting kicked out of places, skating where we weren't supposed to, like just ruining curbs and, you know, rails and all this stuff. So anyways, long story short. Yeah, man, that's interesting. I like that. And so, okay, that's your pre-production process. We went through that and you do that. How many hours do you spend on average or is that like it depends on the guest and how much is out there or do you have kind of like a rule of thumb?
Danny Miranda:
It depends on the guest. I mean, I'm known for the research so I'm coming at it with usually like 5 to 20 hours of research per guest. What?
Andy Mewborn:
5 to 20 hours?
Danny Miranda:
Dude! Yeah, I'm unusual, right? And that's how you get to be narwhal or get referred to as narwhal. My goal was not to be narwhal. My goal was to, how can I light up the guest? How can I get them excited and to get them really here and like trust me really quickly? That was my goal, just so people can understand that. And that is my goal to this day when I'm doing research. I don't care about like comparisons to anyone else. But yeah, it's usually five to 20 hours. And for Hermosi, I'd spend so, I don't know, I probably spent, you know, 50 hours with Hermosi from his content, just from watching and listening to his stuff previously, like before the podcast. Yeah. Because I have an awful memory. I don't think about, like, I don't count that time. Like if I listen to a bunch of his episodes eight months ago, that counts in some sense, because I'll remember some things, but it won't, It won't be like fresh in my head and I won't count that as part of the research.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dang, man. Like that is crazy. And so for like going back to like people wanting to start a podcast, you don't need to start with five to 20 hours unless you feel called to do it.
Danny Miranda:
It's in my nature to do it. You know? Yeah.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah.
Danny Miranda:
Like my dad will go home and we'll talk about someone and he'll instantly like type them into Google and like have like 10 bullet points on them. And I'm like, what the, like, it's just part of me to do that.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's your, like, it's, it's like your curiosity. It's your thing, right? Like, that's your play part of it right figuring out like hey how do I make this great yeah so that makes sense to do it like that if it's your calling and then two like if you think about it you probably have followed some of the people for a while that you interview so you kind of already have some context to what it is they do, how they think, what they're against, what they're for, and like what might light them up, right? And so by that you're kind of like just constantly as you're scrolling the feed already getting a sense for this person as you go, which I guess can count as research, right, for those Um, like I've followed you on Twitter for what, like the past year or something, I think. Right. So when I got in here, yeah, like I already knew, I was like, okay, I have a sense of who Danny is. He's doing his morning runs. He's, uh, he's had like Hormozy on just from like remembering in the past. Right. Um, he's, he's got a course that he's doing on the art of interviewing. And so I can go into this knowing I'm not like putting on a tie, right? It kind of vibe. More tacos and tequila vibe, which is what I'm going for, you know? And so I can go into this knowing I'm not putting on a tie, right? It kind of vibe. More tacos and tequila vibe, which is what I'm going for, you know? Um, so yeah, man, that's interesting though. And so five to 20 hours, you're doing Google, you're doing tweets, you're doing, uh, schooling. Now let's move to the post production process, because as we know, at least in my opinion, products are great, but products are nothing without distribution. Right. Um, and so. What is your process look like? Like after this, say we were done recording and you were hosting me, right? What does that look like from there? Like what are you doing to make sure like this hits the right channels, this gets some traction, we get it out?
Danny Miranda:
How I think about it is I'm helping people start a conversation with someone that they love. Here's what I mean by this. I kind of just went ahead to after this episode is uploaded because there's a whole process from after the episode's done to the episode being uploaded, but we'll put that to the side for one second. With the distribution of it, because that's what you asked about, I'm thinking about how can I start a conversation and how can I help someone start a conversation with someone they love? Think about content from that perspective.
Andy Mewborn:
It's like with someone they love. So let's break that down. A friend, a friend, a friend, a friend or a loved one. So like me, how could they send it to someone and be like, Hey man, like this is actually a good point. Right. Yes. Like that.
Danny Miranda:
Correct. So like, I don't know, maybe like when we talked about the Tony Robbins and energy, I'd be thinking like, okay, like there's something there to make a tweet about energy, or there's something there to create an Instagram clip around energy in some way, or to shout out Tony Robbins. And that way, one, he could potentially see it. The people who don't like Tony Robbins could potentially comment like Tony Robbins is a scam. The people who do like it could defend him and be like, Tony Robbins is amazing. I went to an event. What do you mean? And then people who are on the fence could send it to their friends. Do you understand how the content that you are posting, these clips, are serve as conversation starters for people in their day-to-day lives. And it serves as their way of connecting with another human being. So that's like something I've realized in the last 100 episodes. Nice. If you want to go from what actually happens after the podcast is over to posting it, that's like a whole other thing. Um, for the first 300 episodes, I, I edited everything myself. I had my hands on everything first 300. Now you have to keep in mind. I'm like, I've never done anything in my life. Like I'm, I haven't had any business success. None of it. You know what I mean? Like I haven't sold companies. I haven't been involved in unicorns like Mr. Andy over here, but But what I'm saying is that it's like, I was just grinding. I was like in that beginning grind phase. And because of that, that was two years of 300 episodes. Episode 300, around episode 300 comes around and this guy sends me, starts sending me one clip a day from my show because he loves listening to it. And I'm like, this man is invested. This man knows what I'm all about. This man loves the podcast. And he's an amazing editor. And he's got work ethic. And me and Video King Pablo have created this synergy.
Andy Mewborn:
Wait, wait, wait, wait. Video King Pablo is his name. You heard it here first. Oh my God. This guy Dude, he, this guy was perfect for the tacos and tequila. Like, Oh my God. That is the best name I've ever, is that his Twitter handle?
Danny Miranda:
No, no, that was a name that I've put on there.
Andy Mewborn:
Like Nardwuar Danny. All right, we've got names going. All right. OK, I cut you off, man. I'm so sorry. Video King Pablo, I freaking love it. OK, sorry.
Danny Miranda:
Video King Pablo is coming with us for tacos and Mexican cola. Yes, yes. And what he does is I send him the raw files, like my file and the guest file.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah.
Danny Miranda:
and the audio as well. I upload that to Google Drive and he spits out the final edit. And then I review the final edit at 2x speed, go through timestamps, say like, you can cut this part or add a graphic here. And then we post it every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And that's the process.
Andy Mewborn:
Wow. Okay. Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And then is he making short clips too? Like short video edit clips of like the high, uh, what do you call it? High engaging moments or like key moments or something like that. Nice. And then you're doing that and then you're going on Twitter and then you're, you're just focused on Twitter. That's basically where you built the whole, your whole brand, right? Is Twitter.
Danny Miranda:
I love Twitter more than anywhere else, but I've also put out a bunch of clips on Instagram. I have over a thousand posts there. So that's pretty cool. And that's gained credibility for a lot of people because when I have 85,000 followers, then it goes to the top of the inbox for different people. And people see it and they're like, Oh, this is legit. Or, Oh, we like this. So that's been what I've built as well. But it's been slowly over time. And if I had thought about it, really, if I'd really been smart about it, I would have just focused on, let me get a hundred thousand followers on one platform and then just let it go wherever it's supposed to go and then go to the next platform. So that's kind of what I regret doing in some sense.
Andy Mewborn:
What's amazing about this as chatting man was when energy levels match and like, you know, there's like this symbiotic, let's call it like, but there's like this, holy shit, like we can sit and chat for hours, you know, and just shoot the shit. There's no feeling like that, right? There's really no feeling like that, where sometimes interviews can be a little like, You're like forcing it a little bit, you know, and like, uh, you're like, should I say this next or this next, this one? I didn't ask that one time. So it's been awesome. Yeah.
Danny Miranda:
Um, it won't feel like that for everyone, but when it does just enjoy it, you know, because it's like, those are the, those are the good ones.
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah, man. Well, we'll wrap this up here, man. We got a minute. Dude, it's been freaking awesome. Two things. One, everyone go check out Danny's new course on the art of interviewing because he is amazing at this. Obviously, he knows how to do his research. He has his processes. He has his systems. Go get all that. Second thing I want to ask you, Danny, is who's another person you think I should interview whose energy I would match with?
Danny Miranda:
Oh, the energy. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you got to interview my boy, Bob A. He's, uh, Austin base comes to the runs and just like a ball of energy like us.
Andy Mewborn:
Okay. Bobby. All right, Bobby. I'll send you stuff. Okay. Yeah. Send me your stuff. Send me. I love it. I just, just the fact that his name is Bobby. I love actually Bobby or is it Bobby? It's Bobby, but he goes by Bobby.
Andy Mewborn:
Oh, okay.
Andy Mewborn:
Yes, I'm in, Bob A. My name's Bob A, but my friends call me Bob A. All right, let's do it. Okay, I love it, man.
Danny Miranda:
See, now, like, I wanna create this clip and send it to him, you know?
Andy Mewborn:
Yeah, dude, there we go, there we go. Dude, Bob A, he's already a legend just by dropping that. I'm Andy, but I go by Andy A, dude. That's gonna be my mix-up. That's gonna be mine, dude. It's French, dude, it's French, all right? You're a legend bro.
