493 Margy Feldhuhn:

These days it seems like everyone has one. And if you don’t everyone is asking you when the big day will be. That’s right. I’m talking about your podcast.

MELINDA

I’m Melinda Wittstock and today on Wings of Inspired Business we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who knows the power of podcasting to grow our businesses.

Margy Feldhuhn is the co-owner of Interview Connections, the first and leading podcast booking agency. Margy and her business partner Jessica lead an in-house team of 20 employees in their Rhode Island office, and have successfully scaled the agency to 7 figures.

Margy Feldhuhn’s world was turned upside down when she lost her father. The tragedy sparked her entrepreneurial DNA and before long she became a co-owner in a company she’d originally joined as a contractor. At Interview Connections, the podcast guest placement service company, Margy has helped to quickly scale the business by designing and implementing systems to increase revenue, streamline operations and achieve the highest quality client experience. Margy has taken on a creative role in the agency as well, co-hosting and producing podcast and video content for the company.

Margy Feldhuhn is the co-owner of Interview Connections, getting business owners and thought leaders placed on podcasts as guest interviewees. Today we talk about the power of podcasting to grow your business, whether you host a podcast or appear on podcasts as a guest, why mindset is the biggest predictor of your success, plus what it takes to scale your business.

Margy is a fan of true crime podcasts, and she’s also active in animal rescue, organizing a yearly fundraiser called Art for Animals. In 2019 she was recognized for her efforts with a “Humane Heroes” award.

Let’s put on our Wings to fly with Margy Feldhuhn.

Melinda Wittstock:         Margy, welcome to Wings.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Melinda, thank you so much for having me.

Melinda Wittstock:         I’m excited to talk to you, of course, because obviously, I love all things podcasting, with this podcast on the podcast network that I’m building. What attracted you to podcasting and getting all these amazing guests placed all over the place?

Margy Feldhuhn:             So I have sort of an unusual entrepreneurial journey story. So my business partner, Jessica Rhodes, actually founded Interview Connections in 2013, and I came on board in 2016, first as a virtual contractor booking clients. At that time, my dad had passed away the year before. I was deep in grief. It almost was like a rock bottom time for me. By listening to my clients, who I was pitching and booking on podcasts, I was listening to their interviews, and it really opened up my mind to what was possible to hear these entrepreneurs who were creating these incredible lives and these incredible businesses in so many different industries. And I was like, “This is what I want, This is who I am. Like, I’m an entrepreneur.”

Margy Feldhuhn:             I went from being a contractor living below the poverty line in 2016 to becoming the first employee of the business in 2017, and then by the beginning of 2018 a 50% co-owner. So it’s sort of a different story than a founder story, but I really know firsthand the power of entrepreneurs sharing their story on podcasts and the incredible impact it has on the listeners.

Melinda Wittstock:         When you were younger, did you ever think that you would be entrepreneurial or this literally just came to you from listening to podcasts?

Margy Feldhuhn:             Looking back now, it makes total sense. My mom is not surprised at all that I own a business, because I’ve always hated being told what to do. My first phrases were like, “You’re not the boss of me,” and I was constantly hustling. Once I came home with $5. When I was probably three or four, my parents were like, “Why do you have money?” And I was like, “Oh, no problem. Someone in my class just wanted to know something and I knew it, so for $5, I told them.” And they were like, “Oh my God, she’s selling secrets.” And they were horrified. So it makes a lot of sense.

Margy Feldhuhn:             And then I had also hated being an employee. Every job I got, I would learn the job really fast, get as far as I could really fast to be the top performer, and then within about two or three months, I would be so bored that I would quit. So I had a terrible looking resume because it’s a total red flag when you see, as someone hiring, that someone’s jumped from place to place. I moved from place to place. I didn’t like being an employee, I didn’t like staying still, and I felt like that was a problem. I felt really bad about that because I was like, how am I going to be successful if I can’t stick with something, and it looks like other people are able to work nine to five or go to grad school and be happy? What’s wrong with me? And then listening to entrepreneurs, I was like, “Oh, I get it.”

Melinda Wittstock:         Mm. Yeah. We often joke on this podcast, and I know this is true of myself, that I’m like virtually unemployable.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right? Because you get used to, as an entrepreneur, especially in the early stages of startup, doing kind of all parts of the process. And yeah, like just what you said, you master different things and then you hire and behind and you know all that kind of stuff. Every day is different, which is great.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes, I love it.

Melinda Wittstock:         So I want to talk to you a little bit about podcasting because podcasting, has been around for a while, but it has suddenly really taken off, gone mainstream. It’s the fastest growing media of all media. It’s amazing for entrepreneurs to have their own podcast because it just leads to a wonderful, in a marketing sense, that “know, like, trust”, because it’s such an intimate medium, and podcasting helps grow a lot of businesses. What do you think are the major trends that are driving this? Obviously, there’s one right now, coronavirus, right? We’re all stuck in our homes just listening to podcasts. But apart from that, what do you think is the real power of podcasting?

Margy Feldhuhn:             There’s so much. The know, like, and trust, that aspect of feeling like you’re listening in on a personal conversation, people just love it. And then it being on demand is huge. People will not consume things that aren’t on demand anymore basically. With Netflix and everything, we are now accustomed to a certain way of consumption, which is on our own time. We can pause it and come back to it. And then with podcasts also, you can be consuming information and learning and teaching yourself all this different stuff while you’re doing something else you can multitask, which I think makes it really, really appealing as well.

Melinda Wittstock:         I think for myself as a podcaster, it was this passion project, it was just a thing I really wanted to affirm and acclaim the journeys of female founders just because of what I had been through as a serial entrepreneur. There was so much that came from what I regarded as this give forward, promoting really, essentially, other women’s businesses. It opened so many doors for me, monetarily and otherwise, but every time I come on and do an interview like this, I find I always learn something. So it’s like a personal mastermind for me at the same time.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes, and I think the best podcast hosts, and you are a great host, you have a great podcast, they really are in it, first and foremost for the passion and the giving, and then it ends up generating revenue and stuff like that. That’s true for Ali Brown as well. She is our mentor, and she has an incredible show called Glambition Radio that she really started just because she wanted to do something creative. It really was for the art of it, and then ended up generating… So many of her clients for her premier group and her VIP come from listeners of Glambition. That’s how we started working with her, is hearing her podcast. So I think when people go into it like you did and like she did, really wanting to enjoy it and for the art of it, that’s when magic happens.

Melinda Wittstock:         I absolutely agree like there’s a wonderful Dharma and give forward. I have a lot of clients too that I helped them launch their podcasts, and the folks that don’t do so well are the folks that want an immediate transactional reward, like right off the bat. Like, bottom line, instantly, when do I make money? You can make money from podcasting, but it tends to be a little bit more gradual.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes, it’s absolutely a long-term strategy, and it’s the same for guesting. When we book our clients on shows, we talk to them so much about mindset, and it has to be about serving and giving value. Podcasts are not infomercials. It’s not, what can I get? You need to go on every show. How can I serve this host? How can I serve this audience? And that’s the only way to see success. If you’re looking at, what can I get, what can I take from them, is this show worth my time, that’s going to come through, and it’s really going to hurt your results.

Melinda Wittstock:         Wow. I couldn’t agree with you more. So how many clients do you now have, placing them on how many podcasts?

Margy Feldhuhn:             We work with about 150 entrepreneurs who are mostly seven and eight figure, some multi six figure entrepreneurs. We book them on generally four shows per month, so about a show a week is what we recommend for a pace to keep the momentum up on the strategy.

Melinda Wittstock:         So, did it take a while to build this or was the demand just there for you? Because a lot of people want to be on podcasts.

Margy Feldhuhn:             It was really good timing on it. So in 2013 when my business partner founded the business, it really just came from a desire to work from home. She had a new baby, and her dad is a business coach, Jim Palmer. Jim really saw the opportunity in podcasting back in 2013 before it got really popular, and… So she started a VA business, and one of the tasks she was doing for her dad, who was her first client, was booking him on podcasts, because he had a podcast really early on, and he saw the value of getting in front of other people’s audiences and building those relationships. And he said, “You should niche this down.”

Margy Feldhuhn:             In the beginning it really… people didn’t get it, and hosts were getting pitches and they were delighted. They were like, “Oh wow, you’re pitching my show to be a guest? Okay.” And as you, I’m sure, know, as a podcast host, it is not novel to be pitched to guests now. A lot of hosts are getting 10 or more pitches every-

Melinda Wittstock:         I get something like 30 pitches a day. I get so many pitches.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yeah. Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         What I appreciate though are pitches from people who’ve actually listened to the podcast. Like, you’d be surprised how many pitches I get pitching dudes. And I’m like, “Have you listened to this podcast?” Like, we’re like by the time this airs, 500 plus episodes in, and there’s not been one man on my podcast.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. We have a podcast as well, and our podcast is about podcasting, and we get pitches all the time that make no sense. Because our show is about podcasting, and it’s really just a two page email about their new book, nothing to do with podcasting. So we always reply out of respect and just say that it’s not a good fit, also because we don’t want them to keep following up. Often, we’ll post those in our Slack channel internally for our team to show them what not to do, because it is frustrating to get pitches from people who clearly didn’t even read the description of your show, let alone listen to an episode.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. It’s so true. I get asked this often, I always find myself saying, just know the audience. Know the audience, serve the audience if you want to be on a podcast.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes, absolutely. Service and really understanding who your target audience is, like who is going to benefit from what you’re sharing and who is your ideal client. Because if you’re throwing spaghetti on a wall and just pitching yourself at random to shows that are not talking to your target audience, not only is it not probably a great use of your time, you don’t have value to offer that audience. You need to focus on where you can really give something.

Melinda Wittstock:         So, where do you see podcasting going and evolving and growing over the next few years?

Margy Feldhuhn:             That’s a great question, and honestly, a month or two ago, I might’ve had a different answer, because everything that has been going on right now with coronavirus and people being in their houses indefinitely at this point has changed the landscape. Podcast guesting has gone from a great strategy that I would have said will absolutely continue to grow, because podcast listenership has grown year over year predictably. At this point though, if you’re not out there speaking on podcasts, you need to be, because the in-person speaking is gone. The thought leadership that you need to have is going to be achieved through virtual speaking, and podcasting is the best way to do that. So I think we’re going to see it continue to predictably grow and even explode at this point, because we have so many talented leaders who now cannot do in-person events.

Melinda Wittstock:         What’s so interesting, don’t you find though, about podcasting for all its growth? I’m still stunned to see that only… I’m still stunned that 85% of podcasters still don’t make any money from podcasting. Why do you think that’s the case?

Margy Feldhuhn:             I think that’s the case because it is at its core free content. So the people that we see really making money are more people who have a business behind it and they’re generating revenue with their podcast, but it’s not the only revenue source. I think it can be difficult to monetize a podcast with a small niche audience, but we find some of the best shows that we book our clients on where they have a great experience, they get clients from it, are midsize shows. They’re not these huge millions of downloads shows who are at that point, the podcast itself is a business, they’re getting huge results from these smaller shows. So I think partly, people don’t know how to monetize these smaller audiences, and they just don’t have the back end business set up to really make the most of it.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s why I founded Podopolo, and one of the things that was frustrating to me as a podcaster was not really knowing anything about my audience. Sure, I got download data, but the download data didn’t really tell me anything about who’s listening. I know from all the other media and ad tech and social media businesses that I’ve built over the years, that if you know exactly who’s listening and you can prove to a sponsor or an advertiser that those folks are actually qualified for their offer, and even when podcasters are their own sponsor in effect, that’s the way to actually make money. You see all these sponsors and advertisers demanding at least 10,000 downloads per episode. There’s only about 2% of podcasters that get those kinds of numbers.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Absolutely. Yeah. The audiences are so niche. We tell our clients what to expect from audience sizes. It’s about a hundred to maybe a few thousand on these mid-range shows, downloads per episode, and a lot of them, if they especially come out of traditional PR, are shocked by that, because they’re like, how is it effective if the reach isn’t huge? But it’s because they’re so targeted that for a lot of them they convert into more business than traditional news appearances, which maybe get them in front of more people, but it’s not their targeted people.

Melinda Wittstock:         Exactly. So in the targeting… There’s real money to be made there, and that’s one of the reasons why we think we’re kind of revolutionizing podcasting with Podopolo, because it’s the first ever socially networked and gamified mobile platform whereas people engage in all these different challenges, whether it’s commenting on content or putting learning into action, something from a podcast or engaging in all kinds of mission driven initiatives. We learn a lot about that audience. So we were the first to actually share that kind of deep audience data with podcasters and actually be able to target ads and sponsorship for a lot of those smaller or mid-tier people, because we can prove that the people listening are actually qualified for the offer, and we think that’s likely to really change the game. From all the sponsors and advertisers we talked to, this is certainly the case.

Margy Feldhuhn:             That is so cool. I cannot wait to see that. I love what you’re doing so much, and that you really are filling a gap right now that no one else has seemed to be able to figure out.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s so funny, because people say to me, “Hey, what, this doesn’t exist?” It’s like, no, it doesn’t exist. So if you’ve listened to this podcast, you know a little bit about my background, I’m this recovering journalist, a TV anchor and a host for the BBC and MSNBC and CNBC and ABC and all of this, and then started creating my own shows and my own businesses around media and media tech. Along the way, I’ve proven out all these different aspects of what I’m doing now with Podopolo. So people say, “How come this doesn’t exist?” It’s because you haven’t met me yet.

Melinda Wittstock:         The really interesting aspect of this is the way traditional media has always operated, as you know, Margy, is that they keep the data for themselves. They make money off the podcast or audience data. If you own your audience, you can make money from it. If you don’t own the audience, you have no daylight into the data and you can’t… it’s much more difficult to make money. It’s, in fact, impossible for many. Right? So that’s why we’re going to be very transparent and share the data, which is totally disruptive.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. I love that. I love that podcasters own their own platform. I think it’s so powerful in terms of them being able to be authentic and share whatever they want and not have someone else controlling it. But you’re right, that knowing that data is missing, and that’s very exciting.

Melinda Wittstock:         I think also, a lot of people struggle to be found. Apart from monetization, which has been a struggle for podcasters, what are some of the other… You’re coming at it from the guest perspective, but you’re working with a lot of podcasts. What are their biggest struggles?

Margy Feldhuhn:             I think for people just starting a podcast, one of the biggest struggles is sticking with it. If they don’t have that intrinsic motivation like you did and actually enjoy it and just want to give value, they burn out pretty quickly, and we call it pod fading.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. I know, there’s a lot of pod fades.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. We see it pretty predictably before 20 episodes. Usually, once people pass 20, they’re in it a bit more long-term. But we see a lot of people, 10, maybe 15 episodes, and then you just see the show stop, because it is a lot of work, and it is so incredibly long-term that if you’re looking for instant gratification or just a way to make money in your business but you don’t really care about giving value, you’re probably going to burn out on it.

Melinda Wittstock:         When we work with people to launch their podcasts, a lot of our effort goes into making sure that the podcast itself is designed around their lifestyle, designed around their business or career objectives, designed around their time commitment, with really strict SOPs or standard operating procedures, a lot of things automated, like once perfected, it gets automated, where all those systems are in place. So literally, all you do as a podcast host is show up and do the interview and pretty much that. Because you can take a lot of the process out of this, replicate those. But then again, I come at it as an entrepreneur. Right? I think of a podcast as a business.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. I really think that thinking about it like a business is a big part in being able to monetize it, because people just are in their basement with terrible sound quality talking to their friends and thinking that it’s going to be Joe Rogan, and they’re not approaching it and really being realistic about the systems and how they’re blocking out what they’re doing and all of that stuff that you really need to know if you want something to be sustainable.

Melinda Wittstock:         So, what are some of the things that you’ve learned becoming a co-owner of a business and growing that business? What are the biggest lessons? From that time you took that co-ownership, how did things change for you, and what were the biggest lessons that you learned along the way?

Margy Feldhuhn:             Things changed a lot, although I felt… Before I was officially a co-owner, my now business partner and I really were partners, and that’s why I was able to get equity, because I was already so all in on the business and on growing and scaling the business that it didn’t feel as different to be a co-owner from being an employee, because I was looking at being the first employee as being an owner already. But things did change a lot, especially over the past couple of years, just having more skin in the game. I like it. I think it’s exciting, because I like that, as an entrepreneur, you really have say over your own fate. No one is controlling your future except for you, and I really like that.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Things have changed a lot as we’ve evolved. We went from a contractor model in 2016 where we had 1099 contractors who were all over the world booking our clients and then switched over in 2017 to using only in-house employees. That was the biggest shift and an incredible learning experience, because as we’ve built this team of in-house employees, we now have 18 full-time in-house employees…. Of course, they’re not in-house now, they’re working virtually. But developing as leaders really was the next step. Because first, it was all about selling and serving and scaling, and then we hit a certain point where really, it was about leading the team, because it wasn’t sustainable to do everything ourselves.

Melinda Wittstock:         Absolutely. Yeah. No, The scale is a really challenging thing for a lot of people because you were saying earlier in the interview that you’d master something, you’d get bored and you’d want to move on. So that’s actually a good trait for someone who needs to scale a business, because who you’re being at an early stage necessarily has to change who you’re being when you’re in that growth and scaling stage. The best metaphor I can think of is being on a trapeze, where you literally have to let go of what you just mastered and then let go of that and then grab the next thing and not fall. That requires the sort of mindset that easily accepts and loves change.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. I love that you said who you’re being, because that is who it is. People think, who am I? Am I someone who could do this? Am I someone who could do this? You can become anything, because it’s never who you are, it’s who you’re being, and you have a choice in who you’re being and how you’re showing up every single day. So I love that you phrased it that way.

Melinda Wittstock:         Well, the thing that I see business owners, and particularly women, where they falter is trying to do everything themselves and literally wanting to be in control and not letting go. So there’s a certain point where you have to delegate, you have to hire. A lot of women hire too late. Right? Hiring, to me, is not an expense, it’s an investment.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. Yeah. Looking at employees and team in a way that makes them profitable, I think is so important, because then they really aren’t an expense for you.

Melinda Wittstock:         Exactly right. If you’re really busy in your business, checking the links in your website or a building the auto-responders are just doing all those sorts of things, all the doing, rather than working on your business, your business is going to stay small. You’ve got to delegate those things out. One of my mentors once took me through this really interesting exercise for me. He said, “What’s the value of your time if you’re doing entries into QuickBooks?” Because you could get someone to do that for like 20, 30, 40 bucks an hour, as opposed to you creating a whole new business line or landing a strategic partnership or whatever, right? Is the value of your time then $1,000 bucks an hour, $10,000 an hour, right? In terms of the value it’s going to take into your business. So knowing how to use your time to get the highest possible leverage. That’s working on your business.

Melinda Wittstock:         You can end up as a founder being the highest paid, laundry person in the world. When somebody else is doing that for you, it’s going to be a better investment in the success of your business. So when you look at interview connections and how you guys are scaling… How big is your team right now, and who are the sort of people that you’re hiring?

Margy Feldhuhn:             In addition to my partner and myself, we have 18 full-time employees. We have primarily employees who are our agents, so they’re representing our clients and working with them, and then we have a leadership within the agent side. We have lead agents who are leading pods, and then a manager, Matt, who is overseeing the team, overseeing the service delivery, and then we have two sales and marketing people, and we have a billing and admin person, who does all the QuickBooks stuff. She’s like the most organized person, she really keeps us grounded, because that is not our strength.

Melinda Wittstock:         Team really is everything in business. This can be an interesting one too, because entrepreneurs are kind of like, “I want to be my own boss. I want to control everything.” But as you have a team, you… The control thing is an interesting… It’s a subtle thing in a way. Like, you have the control in terms of who you’re being, in terms of setting the culture of the company and enabling other people to be the best. But there’s an element of loss of control there too.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. You absolutely have to let go of control and empower people to lead, because you don’t just need a team, you need other leaders. That is scary, but it is huge in not going crazy and also continuing to grow.

Melinda Wittstock:         So you mentioned the loss of your father, and I’m so sorry for that. That’s so hard. There’s a lot of people right now with coronavirus who are losing people, who know people, a family member or just someone they know… There’s a lot of grief and a lot of loss right now. How did that affect you and affect your entrepreneurial journey?

Margy Feldhuhn:             So my dad was… we were very close. I’m an only child, so I’m very close with both parents. I was living in Taiwan as an English teacher in 2015, I had been there for two years, and my mom called me and told me that my dad had died, and that he had taken his own life. So there were two levels of shock there because I didn’t… He was 57, I didn’t expect him to suddenly die, especially a few months before I was due to come home. There was really no warning about a suicide. My life really did fall apart. Similar to what people are experiencing now, all that stuff that you thought was [uncancellable 00:30:21] is canceled in a second.

Margy Feldhuhn:             I had to plan this international move, I had to go home to Rhode Island and process everything that had happened. And then also, he was a brilliant lawyer, he was so funny, he was so kind, but he was also a hoarder. It was something that people who knew him outside of the house wouldn’t have guessed, because he was always impeccably dressed in a suit and perfectly white teeth and laughing and smiling. But the state of the house had gotten really out of control, and it was a gigantic six bedroom house. So before he even died, I had planned to come home from Taiwan and clean the house. I was like, “I’m going to overcome this.” I was using law of attraction, and I was journaling about cleaning the house every single day for two years in Taiwan.

Margy Feldhuhn:             I got home, and I continued the plan and the project, and I found and hired the right people to help me, I got a dumpster. I spent five and a half months, deep in grief, tackling this gigantic project. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that really was my first business, because the scrappiness it took, the mindset stuff that it took to keep going… Challenges kept coming up, people kept telling me I could not do it. It was such a big job, and I kept going and I figured out how to hire the right people to help me. By doing that, I really got all the skills I needed tactically and mindset wise that I could apply to scaling a business.

Melinda Wittstock:         Isn’t it interesting that the best businesses and the best entrepreneurs… We all have some story of loss, grief, challenge, something really bad that’s happened to us, and with time, it’s interesting how we can reframe that into, that it happened for us-

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         … in a way. I think entrepreneurs are alchemists.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. And I think that’s an important thing for everybody to remember right now, because everyone, collectively, as a planet for the first time is to be experiencing grief and probably already is. It can feel like when you’re putting… Especially if you’re doing mindset work, like I was with law of attraction and putting it out there to accomplish these incredible things and all the success, and then everything falls apart and you’re like, “Well, this isn’t what I asked for.” Consider that is what you asked for and that it is the path to what you actually want.

Melinda Wittstock:         Mentioning mindset and law of attraction and these things, this is a really big part of Wings of Inspired Business. The word inspired is literally about that. Every single woman that I interview on here who’s had seven, eight and nine and even 10 figure success has worked very hard on their own mindset and their own personal development, and it’s a constant challenge. If you want therapy, be an entrepreneur, because there’s so many things that are going to be thrown your way. It’s how you react and who you’re being in that and how you can leverage it that is, I think, the big is single predictor of your success.

Melinda Wittstock:         So here we are in coronavirus, and the virus kind of has a message for all of us. I think it is like, look within, get into alignment, figure out what your purpose is here right now on the planet in your earth suit and do it. There’s no excuse. It reminds us the time is short, it reminds us that we’re at our best when we’re collaborating and connecting with people, and that when we’re doing good in the world, when we really have that mission… How do you see coronavirus reshaping, really, the business landscape?

Margy Feldhuhn:             At this point, I think it’s hard to predict with any real accuracy. This is the first time in my lifetime, I think in most people’s lifetime, maybe ever, where every world leader, every scientist, every medical expert is kind of shrugging. It’s kind of like the shrug-

Melinda Wittstock:         Nobody-

Margy Feldhuhn:             … emoji.

Melinda Wittstock:         Nobody knows, right?

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         Nobody knows. So what’s really interesting to me is I’ve just noticed that the difference between the entrepreneurs I know and the non-entrepreneurs, so the entrepreneurs are the busiest they’ve ever been.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         Because we go in search of problems [inaudible 00:35:03] go solve, right? So we’re all super busy. And then we also have the discipline and the ways to just… It’s part of our DNA to be self-starters and just to get things done and be able to be in a routine of our own making. Other people, though, are like, “Oh my God, what do I do? Like, when do I eat lunch?” It’s such an interesting diversion in a way. So there’s an opportunity now. I think so many habits are changing, so many things that there’s an opportunity people, as they find that alignment, to really create, out of whole cloth now, who they’re going to be.

Melinda Wittstock:         I think if we try and grab on to the old or just think it’s going to come back, everything being the same as it was, I think that’s probably the wrong assumption. There’s almost a blank canvas in a lot of ways to go and reinvent things, things that aren’t working, whether we look at government or media or all these different things here trust has been lost, institutions, supply chains that are broken, all this kind of stuff. There are so many different areas where there is the potential and the need for innovation. So it’s like calling all entrepreneurs or potential entrepreneurs, this is your time. Find your voice and go and solve stuff.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Definitely. The empty space. We really have empty space. We have no idea what’s going to happen. That’s where you can create possibilities. I’m not being flippant about the loss of life and the loss of businesses and the economic implications, but when I lost everything when my dad died, it did open up a space to create a possibility for a life that was not the course that I had previously been on.

Melinda Wittstock:         Exactly. I think it is a real opportunity, and we need to reframe this. I know there’s a lot of people in fear and anxiety, and the uncertainty can sometimes freeze people in place, hence the real need to look within. If you don’t meditate, start. Those sorts of things, because I think we all need to open ourselves up to more divine guidance and that kind of trust and even sort of a surrender in terms of… Sorry. Even we could say a surrender. Rather than being very willful or in our egos, there’s an opportunity now to just be very open minded and allow ourselves to take inspiration from places we may not have even seen it.

Melinda Wittstock:         So I always look for where is the silver lining in any particular challenge? That’s like just, I am such an optimist, I can’t help it. But again, it’s really hard when you’re bathing in news that’s just so depressing. So it’s kind of like, yeah, you got to stay informed, but you got to kind of turn that off too, or not live in it.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. Yeah, I totally agree. You have to be so mindful about… I’m consuming news, but I’m being mindful that I’m consuming more meditation and positive audio and video than I am news. So I think just being aware of that balance and keeping it on track is really helpful. You have to be relentless right now, and I think that’s what entrepreneurs have. They’re playing a long game and they’re relentless and they know that they could lose everything right now, but they also know that they’re not going to stop and they’re going to keep going, so that’s not going to be the end.

Melinda Wittstock:         Absolutely. I think of all the restaurant owners, for instance. So right now where I live, it’s really hard to get a delivery because they’ve furloughed or laid off staff or whatnot, so they have limited menu options, yet there’s this huge demand for restaurant delivery. So if I was a restauranteur, I would be changing my whole layout to be adding kitchen space [inaudible 00:39:26] ways and hiring a whole bunch of people on bicycles to go deliver and that kind of thing. So there are ways to just think differently about how this is all going to be.

Melinda Wittstock:         What an interesting time though, coming back to podcasting, that this is the new way, I think, that we’re really going to be learning, putting learning into action and also connecting. Again, that was the other reason why there is such a socially interactive element around Podopolo, where people can literally join together to put lessons learned from podcasts actually into action in their lives, or take challenges to go and… I don’t know, random acts of kindness challenges or going out and delivering food to elderly people or whatever it is. Because I think we connect as humans around content, and so content should be multidimensional and conversational. So I think there’s so much scope in this particular area to do some really innovative things.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. There’s so much opportunity in podcasting right now, and I think there’s also a responsibility for leaders who are not panicking, like yourself, to be getting out there and speaking, because the world needs you. We’ve seen over history that if there is a leadership vacuum, bad people can take over. People who are leaders, who are leading with compassion, who are not panicking, I truly believe, have a responsibility to be getting out there and speaking.

Melinda Wittstock:         I think that is really, really true. So everybody who’s listening to this podcast that has a business or has a mission or whatever, how can they connect with you so they can become clients and get on all these amazing podcasts?

Margy Feldhuhn:             Absolutely. So our website is interviewconnections.com, but the best place to connect with us, especially now, when we all need community, is our free Facebook group, The Guest Expert Profit Lab. It’s a group for multi six figure and above entrepreneurs who are interested in leveraging podcast guesting to grow their thought leadership. You can apply to join this free group by texting group 38470.

Melinda Wittstock:         Wonderful. That’s great. So I hope from this podcast, Margy, you’ll get a whole bunch of people coming on. I love guesting on podcasts, and I… It seems to sort of just land on my lap. I’ve never done it in an organized way, but you’re making me think I should do that too.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Yes. To be really consistently getting out on four or more shows per week, it really is incredible the momentum that you build and the possibilities that are created.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s amazing. Well, I want to thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us.

Margy Feldhuhn:             Thank you so much. This has been great.

Margy Feldhuhn
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