In Ep #3 we're going to examine a practical example of giving value?
Before I ever heard of the Value 4 Value model I was reviewing random podcasts and leaving them a nice message. This was influenced by a kind message I received during my first 3 months of podcasting and was an opportunity for me to pay that forward. I eventually turned this into a strategic way to create a community and I ended up receiving rewards for this in totally unexpected manners. So this is an encouragement (and example) from my own story on how to give value to a random person and how this will help make you a better person!
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Welcome my fellow traveler toepisode three of the value for value podcast, I wanted to startoff this intro by announcing that the value for value is nowchapter and link enabled. So, in essence, if you want to get thefull benefit of this, I would suggest going to a couple ofthese podcast players as I will be including pictures and linksfor most of the chapters. So right off the top of my head,and when you testing out these would be anytime podcast player,podcast addict, pod friend, curio caster, maybe hypercatcher I have don't have an iOS phone, so I can't do that. Andif you use iv.fm, on the desktop, you can kind of see iton there. But I wouldn't particularly recommend thattoday's episode is giving value a case study. So this is goingto be an exploration of how I actually was giving back valuewithout even realizing it, doing it in a sort of value for valuemodel sense. But my particular way of doing it, and just reallyshowcasing how it doesn't need to be about money. So I want tostart with a little story from myself. And this was back when Iwas just first starting podcasting. So this was inSeptember of 2019. And Juan and I have my co host of theMere Mortals podcast, we were releasing one episode a week wedid, we're just starting it off.
For the first time, we werenervous, we had no idea what we're doing. So we're just goingto try it out, see what happens. And we're about 14 episodes in.So this was roughly three months, with a weekly episodebeing produced. And we got a random review from someone inthe United States we'd never interacted with him before. Andit was reads as follows. Excellent show keeps meinterested. Real simple, real short to the point. But man didthis make a big difference to me and left an indelible impressionon my mind. Because this was the first time I actually knew Whoa,this is someone not one of my friends or family who wasactually listening to the podcast. And they went out oftheir way to deliver us, you know, a nice little snippet,they left me 12345 words. And it really, really brightened myday. So this was actually by someone called hello and no. Soif they have listened again, thank you very much Hello, no.But it really got me thinking how often does one get anoutsized opportunity to create joy. So they did something realreally simple.
They went to iTunes or Applepodcasts, they left five words, and it absolutely brighten myday. And you know, here I am, a year and a half later, a yearand three quarters later, still talking about it. So it got methinking, you know, not long after this, I wanted to startdoing something similar, I realized, Hey, this is actuallya really nice way I can give back value to someone withminimal effort on my part. And I could absolutely brighten theirday like they brighten mine. So I started do this by leavingcomments and reviewing other people's podcast. And this wasreally nice for a period until I realized, you know what, I couldbe doing this in a better way.
And so it really got methinking, there's a way to give value back strategically aswell. So there are a couple of considerations you need to have,because you can give value. But if you're just doing it in a waywhere no one knows about it, it almost is like, are you actuallygiving value? You're going back to the Zen koan, if a tree fallsin the in the forest, and no one's there to hear it, did itactually fall like did it actually make a noise, that sortof thing. So I want to list my process of what I was doing. Sofor a time I was finding a new podcast, and then I would go onto iTunes, leave them a review.
And that was about it. And thething is, with doing that there, I'm not really being able to seeand know, hey, is this actually going to leave that joy, thatimpression that I got from this? Because once again, you sort ofjust doing it, and it's going out there into the ether, andyou're never really sure. So I changed my process a little bitto, to reflect this, because, one, I wanted to do it and knowif it was actually having an impression. So how will theyknow. And then also, you know, there is a point to be madeabout, nothing we do is is altruistic to the nth degree,there is always an element of you wanting to interact withanother person, because if you're just doing something, andit's not having an effect on the world, well, hey, you won'tactually know if that's happening. So my process was, Iwould go onto Instagram, and I would listen to a couple ofepisodes of a new person's podcast. And I would find thispodcast by going on into Instagram and adding randompeople with a podcast or finding a podcast page on there and thenlooking through their followers and whatnot, people theyinteract with and then you're going to find another bunch ofpodcasts is because it's sort of a almost an incestuousrelationship and they're in a way a community you you findother podcasters and you listen to other podcasts and hey,that's, that's super cool. So My process was I would listen, Iwould then leave a review on iTunes or Apple. And then Iwould go and give them a shout out on my Instagram story. Andthen also send them a message, a direct message. And this did abunch of things, it really helped me create a community formyself because I was actually getting to interact with thesepeople now. So not only was I, you know, getting theopportunity to give something out to them to give them somevalue, you know, unasked for I did this randomly by findingrandom people, but it was serving myself as well in a way.And so that's the one of the things with with giving value.And you hear this all the time with giving is better thanreceiving because one of the things is it actually does endup coming back to you in some weird and funny ways. So I'llget on to that in a little bit.
The thing though, is you'llyou'll also find that you can have an evolution doing this aswell. So as I talked about the case study for myself, what washappening was I was starting to do this with just randompodcasts, and then I'd go hey, you know what, I'm a nosypodcaster I'd like to know more obviously. podcasters Are therepeople doing podcasts in Brisbane? Are they doing it inthe Gold Coast? Are they doing it in Perth, Western Australia,so I would start to go out. And then I would exclusively do thisfor Ozzy podcasters. Now I've come around to another sense ofcommunity and had been diving into the podcasting 2.0 worldand all the people that are in there. And it's like, oh, well,I've found a new community I can start giving value back to Sonowadays, I'm doing a similar sort of thing, but throughbooster gram messages, for example. So I'm sending peopleeven more value in the sense that holy crap, I just got 50cents worth of bitcoin from a random person. How cool is that?And they sent me a message. So I knew if someone was actuallylistening, not only were they actually listening, but they puttheir money where their mouth was and said, Hey, I actuallygot something from this. So that was my experience, I supposedoing the value for value and giving back in a way. And I wantto just go on a couple of lessons that I learned fromthis. So first of all, you will get back outsized value as well.So funnily enough, even though I would just send a simple messageto some people leave a simple review, much like that, hello,and no did for me right back when I first started podcasting,I would start getting random things, people would send mesome stickers in the mail, they'd go, Hey, thank you fordoing this. Here's some stickers. So we have abunch of stickers now on the wall in this very room of peoplewho I connected with unprompted, we got some notes attached withthose, you know, lovely handwritten notes, the sort ofpeople the things that you're you would dream of from yourgrandma and whatnot, they they send through those sorts ofthings, the pod appearances, you know, people would ask me to beon their podcast just unannounced, you know, justrandomly. Hey, you seem cool. Do you want to come on my podcast?Hell, yeah. So one of the things is you just have this gradualaccumulation of a community and it's a really, really nicefeeling. And when you're the one giving value, it comes back atyou like, it's almost guaranteed it's call it karma, if you want,but you going out unprompted and doing these things, it will comeback to you, and it will, I would say it's made me a betterperson, as well as made me more generous, because I nowregularly will, will try and find other ways I can do this inmy life. And whether that be, you know, giving blood or doingsomething as simple as picking up the litter from the placethat I, I work out. And when you start getting into this mindset,better things just start to happen. Another feeling or alearning I came from this was you do have to mean it. So Italked about it almost strategically, in a way. But theproblem is if you start doing this, and you start thinking,I'm going to do this, for this reason, I'm going to get thisvalue back out of it. Like I said, you will get it in return.But if you start expecting and demanding it of in return,that's when you can get into some weird areas. So I noticedfor myself that at one point, it was almost becoming forced, Iwas like, I have to find another podcast for today and listen tothat, and then send them a message, forgetting that thewhole point of this was, I really enjoyed just going toother people's podcasts and sending them a random messageand hopefully brightening up their day. So you do have to becareful with that. And I think the the critical point is whenyou're giving value, you can't expect to demand it sort of youhave to be very comfortable with the fact that lots of peoplearen't going to reply at all.
This has happened to me moretimes than I care to count. So I've been doing this for a yearand a half pretty solidly now. So that's probably you know, I'dbe getting into the hundreds of podcasts that I've I've randomlylistened to and sent messages to plenty of them have notresponded back and then also just getting a feeling that youYou know what, sometimes it is just gonna go into the ether.It's not that they're being mean, or that they don't care,it's maybe they didn't even get that chance to see that message.There's plenty of times on Instagram where it'll go to aweird random folder, or they're not following you, and etcetera, et cetera. So that was a good learning for myself, justto remind myself and see that little slippery slope that canhappen where if you're giving value and expecting or demandingit in return, that is probably an unhealthy mindset and anunhealthy process to get yourself trapped in.
The other one is you gainknowledge. So for example, for me, it's not just me givingvalue and doing it. And I'm not getting it returned. Becausethere is something to be gained. By listening to hundreds ofpodcasts, I've definitely taken little bits and snippets thatI've noticed other people doing, I've learned of the importanceof audio, for example, I've learned of the importance ofreally cutting down on the arms and legs and ORs, and you get afeeling of what a good podcast is, and what a good podcastisn't when you listen to so many, because you'll find awhole bunch that are really good, a whole bunch of they'rereally bad, and a whole bunch that are in the middle as well.So even though it might feel like you're just givingsomething out, and you're not getting it in return in themoment, you actually are learning some different thingsas well. So I learned a lot about how to use socials, forexamples how people can do some cool little things intoconnecting their podcast with their Instagram, or with theirTwitter or Facebook and things like this, and how they connectwith other people in the community as well. So if youreally wanted to go to it, I have actually seen some peoplewho will do podcast reviews. And so I think it might be DaveJackson. But someone else in that sort of realm will say,Hey, if you want me to review a podcast, I'll do it live on theair with someone else. And, you know, if you insert X amount ofdollars, and to get this service, I can really help youimprove your podcast almost turning into a consultingbusiness of sorts. So my, I guess, like finalrecommendation, my, my takeaway here is just be a bit moregenerous. If you're, if you're listening to a bunch of otherpodcasters, or you're a audience member, or you're a podcasteryourself, there's so many things that you can do to brighten upsomeone's day to give a bit of joy to give back some value. Itdoesn't need to be in a monetary form, even though that ispossible nowadays with the whole value for value model and all ofthese cool apps where you're able to stream Satoshis and sendboostagrams and all these sorts of things. But a simplekind message or a bit of feedback that's constructive,can make a world of difference for someone starting out, andeven those who are maybe at the top of their game, and they justneed a simple reminder of hey, you know what, I really enjoyedthis podcast. Thanks. Thanks for creating this. So that is mylittle case study for today of giving value. I wanted to sharethat, as I have mentioned that a couple of times and somedifferent areas and a recommendation for other peopleto do that as well. Now, this is a value for value podcast, thisis enabled. So if you got some value from this, Hey, I wouldreally appreciate if you would go on to breeze or one of theseapps where you can stream Satoshis or like I was justsaying send me a message on Instagram. You can find me atMere Mortals podcast, or there are a myriad of other ways thatyou can decide on how to give value back maybe you want toshare it out. Maybe you want to give a shout out. Maybe you wantto add a note, you could send me a note if you really wantthere's all sorts of ways so I would really appreciate that.And if you do send a booster gram you will almost you willdefinitely be getting on a mention and a highlighting onthis show, for example. So that is it for today. I really wantto thank you for listening to this point and I really hopeyou're having a fantastic day wherever you are in the world.Kyrin out