The Most Dwanderful Real Estate Podcast Ever!

Boosting Your Business with Podcasts: A Conversation with Elzie Flenard, Mayor of Podcast Town

• Dwan Bent-Twyford and Elzie Flenard • Season 3 • Episode 336

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Do you ever wonder how to grow your business through podcasting? Join me as I chat with Elzie Flenard, the charismatic Mayor of Podcast Town, and unravel the secrets of leveraging podcasting to boost revenue. We delve into some stimulating discussions around the importance of conversion rates over sheer download numbers, and how Elzie creates a thriving community by treating every client as a resident of Podcast Town.

Our conversation takes a meaningful dip into the journey of starting and growing a podcast. Learn how Elzie navigated a 30-day course mastering podcasting basics and rose to the challenge of consistent content creation. Listen to our insights on the evolution of podcasting in the last half-decade, and discover how Elzie stands out by using his show to build relationships in this highly saturated world of podcasts. 

The third part of our chat revolves around Elzie's personal life - his early ambitions, the joys and challenges of being a young mother and entrepreneur, and her love for Marvel movies. We talk about tapping into the superhero within by recognizing our unique skillsets and applying them to our passions. This episode is a treasure trove for anyone interested in podcasting, entrepreneurship, and personal growth. Tune in and embark on this journey of discovery with us!

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Make it a Dwanderful Day!

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Hey everybody, welcome to the most wonderful real estate podcast ever. I'm your host, Dwan Bent-Twyford. I'm America's most sought after real estate investor. I am so excited that you are here with me today. Our motto at Dwanderful is people before profits, so if there's something that resonates with you, you're at the right place. I'm your girl and I got a great guest for you today. If you'd like to receive some free eBooks, go to Dwanderful - D-W-A-N-D-E-R-F-U-L - Dwanderful dot com and opt in, and I have four free eBooks for you. But, as you can see, today I have a guest. So we like to call this session inside the minds of today's millionaires and we just get in and meet people and pick their brain and find out what's happening, and hopefully they can share a little golden nugget that could help you advance your career as well. So today you are my wicked smart man, so I have Elzie Flenard. So how are you today? Elzie, Elzie,,love it.

Elzie Flenard:

I'm fantastic, I'm super excited to be here.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So today, you're the wicked, smart man, you're the man of the hour.

Elzie Flenard:

All right, you know, one thing that I love is the camera, so I'm good I got on my stuff, got on my lines.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love being on film, and so what we like to do is we start off where we just have a toast, just like, you know, welcoming, as we were sitting around together having a drink. So I am drinking the most exciting water today.

Elzie Flenard:

Got it. Yeah, same, I just got a nice little Cheers.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Thanks to you, cheers, nice to meet you and everybody listening. Just take deep breath, shake off whatever you got so that you can open your mind and your ears and your heart to hearing what we have to talk about today. So, elvie, what we like to do is have you tell us in a brief summary, like two or three sentences, on who you are, what you do and how we can get in touch with you, and I'm just going to ask you a bunch of questions and find out how you became Elzie Flanard Cool.

Elzie Flenard:

So I'll try to be a good guest here and give you this in three sentences. So my name is Elzie Flanard, I am the mayor of Podcast Town and what I do is I help business owners grow revenue through podcasting, and to reach me is pretty easy LinkedIn is my number one platform or you can email me at mayorofpodcasttown dot net. I know I just said last night.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So you are the mayor of Podcast Town.

Elzie Flenard:

Yes.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I actually. I gotta tell you I love it. It's all the last one I thought mayor of Podcast Town like is that a town?

Elzie Flenard:

Yes, it actually is and the way we build our business is. We call our clients residents, so we don't call them clients or accounts. They're residents and we treat them like residents. We look out for them, we help them grow their business, we help them grow their show and it's a really cool marketing play, but it's really at the heart of who we are as an organization. We really try to partner with our residents to make sure that they are served well.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I feel like I want to be a resident of the Podcast Town because then I can say, hey, I know the mayor, like, you know the mayor, like when I get a key to the city.

Elzie Flenard:

I don't know. We keep those for special, special residents.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh Lord, now the pressure's on. I have to become the most specials I can get a key to the city Ah, that's funny, so I like that. So, mayor of Podcast Town. So you work with people like me that are building their shows and building their podcasts. So now you probably have a lot of really great ideas and things for just any kind of entrepreneur or any kind of an investor and things that can help them take their business to the next level. So one of the reasons I like to interview so many diverse type of people is my podcast is about real estate investing, but if it's always just that thing, there's so many more to being an entrepreneur than just that one thing. So I bring on all kinds of guests. People never know what they're going to get when they when they tune in on Thursdays, and so I am excited to have you here today. So first of all, tell me how old are you?

Elzie Flenard:

I am. Let's see, I'm 41. I'm 42 this year 41.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Well, you look amazing. I appreciate that Everyone's so young these days, it's like I just turned 64. It's like what happened. It's like what happened here. So, all right, and you are in, would you say, minnesota.

Elzie Flenard:

Right outside of Milwaukee oh.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Milwaukee. It's outside of Milwaukee. I have to write down, so I take a lot of notes, so this way I can kind of find out like I have my little note with all my little questions. So, if so, being the mayor of podcast town, tell us a little bit about like someone like me. I have a podcast. I'd like my podcast to be bigger. How would you help? Just you will use myself as an example today how would you help me grow my business?

Elzie Flenard:

Your business or grow your podcast. Those aren't necessarily the same thing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Podcast.

Elzie Flenard:

Your podcast specifically. What we do is we're a little bit different. Some people think that the more downloads they get, the more their podcast will yield business results. Not always the case. We kind of approach it from the conversion perspective, right. So I would rather you have a thousand downloads and 50% of those people become clients or on your email list or engage with you on social, than just a thousand people that download but never do anything. So a lot of the work that I do is really helping reset that mindset from people thinking that especially B2B, right, people who are in business thinking that they need downloads. Really what you need is conversions. So once you figure out that conversion method and you nail that down and you and it's really efficient, predictable and you can calculate, then you scale right as opposed to how do I get more downloads, it's really how do I get more conversions?

Elzie Flenard:

and then figure out how that happened and then do that again, if that is actually.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

that is a really good way to think about, because I do look at my downloads every single day and there's nothing wrong with it.

Elzie Flenard:

I don't need to say that there's anything wrong with it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But you're right, because it's like with any business If you're having all kinds of people come to your website or listen to your podcast or come to anything and they don't opt in or become, it's someone like a customer, a person, a client in your database, so you can't let them know about the products or the programs or the show or whatever you have. So that is really a good point, because I know all kinds of people in the real estate investing world. They're like you know, people see my website, they see this is it, but they're like they don't opt in or they don't do this, or like people like me that like have a podcast and I see, oh, wow, I got all these downloads but I didn't get people opting into my website, so I had there must be a missing link and I think you can share that with us today.

Elzie Flenard:

Well, that's what, that's where. That's where I usually start, right with that mindset. And then what we do is we just work backwards. We say, okay, well, how do you know that you have a listener? And then most people say, well, I don't know. And then we say, okay, well, first let's figure out how to figure out how many listeners you have, right, so, because downloads doesn't really tell you that.

Elzie Flenard:

And so what we help people with is that that process, right? We say, okay, well, if you have 100 people on your email list, send an email to them after every episode assuming that that's something that you do and you and you have a link in your email somewhere and 50 people click the link and you got 50 downloads that episode, it's reasonable to deduce that you probably have about 50 listeners that are listening to your podcast. And so we start there. We say, okay, well, we know that this works for these 50 people. How do we get them deeper into your world, into your ecosystem? Is there an opt-in? I heard you mentioned you have free ebooks, free ebooks yeah.

Elzie Flenard:

Is that something that we could give them that will entice them to not only continue to open your emails and click on your link, but to engage with you? Are you connected with these 50 people on social media? If not, why not? Do you engage with these 50 people on social media? So all of those things that?

Elzie Flenard:

That's the work of really growing an audience and not necessarily looking at just the downloads. And then you just take your actions and you say, okay, I did this for a month and my listeners drew by 100%. So now I have 100 listeners. Now you take that data and you do stuff with that data. You say, okay, well, I know, I have 100 opt-ins. What's the next step in the funnel? What do I want them to do next? And then you just continue to build that out.

Elzie Flenard:

I always tell people we like to do that first before you launch a podcast. But I realized that most people they don't do that. First they launch the podcast and then they figure out how to monetize it later. We always teach folks how to think about how you're going to monetize it first, that customer journey, what actions you want people to take, what's that path? Then you launch your show. You build it to fit that path. So, to answer your overarching question, really the answer to that is you really get intentional about understanding the behavior and you want to build your show to actions. So you want people to engage and act.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I like it. That would really apply to anyone in any kind of business. It's all about customers. I always tell people all the time I don't know how to get customers. I'm like listen, if you buy anything online, if you go to a radio, go anywhere, you get emails, take a survey. How was this? How was that? How was customer service? They engage to get you in. Especially, I buy a lot of clothes online. I get 5,000 things afterwards. Here's a $10 coupon, here's a five-dollar, here's 20% off. How was this? How was that? It's like they do. They engage the heck out of you because they want you to buy more clothes. I think a lot of business people, whether they're real estate trainers or they're podcasters or they're just local real estate investors they don't really engage and always really get their customers engaged with them so that when the customer is like, hey, I need to up my podcast or I want to listen to a podcaster, I want to work with this person, you want to kind of get yourself in the forefront, I think, of people's minds.

Elzie Flenard:

Yes, yeah, I think the other thing is, especially in the B2B world, you're running a business, the podcast becomes, if you do it well, it becomes a part of that business. But again, going back to that mindset piece, is you have to approach it as if it's a part of your business development strategy, because if you don't, then it's just another thing to do, Right, and you know what happens when things get busy, the things that are just things to do tend to get done last, and so always try to tell people make it a part of your business development strategy. That way it makes it real and it makes it an investment and not an expense.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I like it. Okay, how long ago did you start your podcast?

Elzie Flenard:

I started technically in 2015. I launched the first episode in 2016. I'm a planner. It took me a while to hit go. So coming up on seven years now.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So mine's on five. So I was. I feel like now I was a little bit behind the curve because I was getting asked to be guests on all these shows all the time. Like I did like a hundred. Like when are you gonna hit me on yours? I'm like I don't have one. But you know what I did? I found a lot of people online but I found a guy specifically. I think his name is Colin and it's sad I can't remember Call him somebody.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I need to have like a 30 day how to start your podcast course and I thought, oh, you know what I'll do that I offer people real estate investing course. Now I tell people, if you'll follow the course, you'll make money. So I signed up for this class and it's 30 days. It's like 30 classes in 30 days and it was homework. So every night I'm on my thing. My house is like what are you doing? I'm like I'm doing my podcast homework. I said I signed up for a class.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm not going to be like a typical student who signs up for a class and then does three days of the homework and then get busy with their kids and then never finish and then never do it. So every day, I'm sitting there and working in my house and I'm like what are you doing? I'm like, dude, I already told you I'm doing a 30 day class. I got 30s with the home, I got a ride, bunch of crap. I'm doing my thing and so every day, you didn't do the whole thing. It's like I am going to do the whole thing because I try to teach people.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

If you want to do whatever, find out who does it. It was already doing it. Learn from them, take the class, buy the course, whatever it is, but you got to do it. You have to implement it. And then you got to take action and you got to do all the stuff. So I did all of the whole class and then I was like, okay, I need a camera, I need a mic, I need this, I need that. I got all the stuff ready and I made my little questions and my outlines and did all my different things and I started it and I was like super excited because when I started, I felt like I was prepared. But what I need is I need to grow it to the next level, which is where I think you come in. Thank you.

Elzie Flenard:

Yeah, I think podcast gets changed. In the past five to six years it used to be when I would go to networking meetings. I would go to these business meetings and they would say you know you stand up and you say what you do. I would stand up and I would say you know, my name is Elsie At the time I had my only show was Enterprise. Now say you know, I'm the host of the Enterprise, now show a podcast. And they would say what is the podcast? You know? Now every it seems like everybody has a podcast. It's not this novel, you so unique thing. Now.

Elzie Flenard:

And so you do a little bit more now in order to stand out and grow, and so part of it is again just really understanding your unique method, your unique thing that makes you you and really honing in on that and using your show as a relationship builder and as a way to display or to expand on your not only your business, but who you are as a business owner and entrepreneur.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

How many podcasts do you think there are right now?

Elzie Flenard:

Well, I could tell you with a degree of certainty, there is there about four million. But of those four, million.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I thought it was five.

Elzie Flenard:

There's four million four, four point two, four point three ish I'm going to ask you a little thing about that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's so many and I want mine to be number one, but think about this. There's four million. You'd be happy if you're in the top thousand. Like no, I want to be number one.

Elzie Flenard:

But think about this, think about this the one in comparison to blogs and YouTube channels. It's not even close. The ratio of saturation of those four point two we'll call it four point three million podcasts, only 60% of them are active, and of the 60% that are active now, certain percentage of those are not very good, so it's not as crowded as it seems. I would say, and I think you know I'll use the analogy.

Elzie Flenard:

When I graduated college, I went to school for electronics and when I graduated there were hundreds of thousands of other people who graduated with the exact same degree that I had, and never once did I think. Well, there's so many people graduating with this degree, how am I going to get a job? It never crossed my mind because I knew nobody's going to go to the same city that I'm going to go to. Nobody has the same personality that I have, nobody approaches it like I do. And so same thing with your podcast, especially if you're a business owner. You know, you already know your customers, you know what they like. They like you for a reason, and so that's your tribe.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

They like me because I'm Dwanderful.

Elzie Flenard:

Exactly.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Ah, good though. Four, point two wow, that's a lot, I was thinking it was a little bit higher. 60% are active, so active would mean, in your mind, people that are regularly putting out content.

Elzie Flenard:

Correct yeah Because.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I know so many people that go oh, I did five podcasts with a lot of work. I quit. Yes, so many, there's a lot of those. So so, so many right.

Elzie Flenard:

Yeah so many.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So I was just like, yeah, we'll just, you know, keep going. Like I'm coming into my fifth year and I still do it all the time. And you know, I mean sometimes you know things do get happening and you miss them. I've missed a month here and there, but always because of like a medical issue or something. I had a surgery, like a couple of things like that. But now I've been just like I'm just like I'm going to hang in there until I'm number one so you can help me get there. I always tell everyone on my show listen. Like, hey, do me a favor. If you like the show today, if you learned anything, if you laughed, you had a good time subscribe, share it with some friends, like follow, give me a five-star review. So I'm always encouraging people to do all that stuff because I do want them to stay engaged with me and I want them to keep coming back and falling in love with my wonderful brand and all my funness.

Elzie Flenard:

Mm-hmm.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And it's funny because when I was trying to think of a podcast name, I was like, well, my name was Dwan and I thought you know how do I do a play on my name? So then I was like, so I don't even know. I was talking to someone trying to like, like, like, make something off my name. So I thought I could take like Dwan and wonderful and be Dwanderful. And then, like on TikTok, I my handle over there is OfficialRealEstateGuru, like you know, fantastic. And then, like my students, I call them Dwandonaires instead of millionaires. So I was like I made this little whole vocabulary off my name. I said I wonder if people are going to think like, how conceited is this woman got a whole thing just based off her name. I was like, well, why not? Someone has to recognize. You know, name recognition, branding, it's all part of the deal. She got my flamingos and all my fun stuff, got my hair and I was like I'm just going to just go all about my name.

Elzie Flenard:

Yeah, no, I love it, I love it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And then you can put it into Dwanderful on Google and there's like just pages, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages. It's like that was a good idea. That was the hardest part was coming up with a name and coming up coming up with like from my should go here at the end I do a little sign off, like a little phrase I say at the end of every show. And the two hardest things with the whole thing was thinking of a name and thinking of a sign off, which probably to most people is like that was what you were. Like, dude, I've been investing for 30 years. I have a wealth of knowledge on real estate investing. Those are the things that was stuck on and that funny it's like. But now I did it. I was like, yeah, there you go, there you go, girl, just do your stuff, all right. So you so when you were younger, like when you were like 12, 13, what was that Elzie doing?

Elzie Flenard:

12, 13,. I was big into sports, played a lot of sports. I loved music at that time, so I was making music and performing it and let's see 13. Wow, I had, at that point in life I had met my would be wife, so I was following-.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You already met your wife.

Elzie Flenard:

Following her around. Yeah, just being your typical 13 year old kid.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Were you working earning money doing side jobs?

Elzie Flenard:

Not yet. I started my first job when I was 14, I believe, what was your first job?

Elzie Flenard:

I worked at a drug distribution company. They did like prescription jokes with my mom and I remember because that summer I was saving up for some music equipment. I wanted a karaoke machine and a keyboard and she didn't buy it for me. She said that I had to work and earn the money and buy it. So I worked with her that summer and then in the summer I was able to buy my microphone, my keyboard and karaoke machine and all that good stuff.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Your karaoke machines. They're cute, though that is cute, it's interesting to always see what people were doing like when they were young, Cause a lot of people already at that young age they were already ambitious. And I find that when I interviewed lots of different people and lots of different, you know genres of things and successful people, almost all of them, even at that young age, were already thinking about like, hey, I really like this, whatever it is, and they were working towards something even at a young age. And you know, a lot of men that I interviewed were all into sports. What kind of sports were you into?

Elzie Flenard:

I do basketball and cross-country.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Wow. So I'm 5'10 and I was in high school in the 70s. So they put me on the girl's basketball team but I was not really that super coordinated and not that good, but I was. I was actually at one point I was the tallest person in the entire high school and I know that 5'10 doesn't seem like tall, but in the 70s that was super tall, especially for a girl. Every school picture I'm in the back row with the guys. So there was like a minute I was the tallest person in my grade and I was in basketball and I'm like, oh my God, I'm tall and gangly. I'm awkward, I'm in basketball.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It's like, why would anyone think this is a good idea? But I got good at it and I got. You know, I got good at all the stuff. But yeah, I was just like you're gonna be on the girl's basketball team. I was like, no, I don't wanna play sports. I'm not athletic. I'm gonna sing or dance or act or something, but not that. So I also play basketball, but it was really good for me. It was good for me. So do you have like a favorite memory of that, like 12, 13, 14? Do you have like one thing that you look back and you're like that was such a great thing.

Elzie Flenard:

Yeah, I would say the first time I performed in front of people, just because it was one of those moments where it was like, okay, yeah, Microphone me talking in it, that's my jam.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, and what did you perform? So you sang.

Elzie Flenard:

So I went from I was a rapper and then I was a singer, and then I did both and then I went back to singing. So I've kind of done a little bit of both over the years.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So your first performance did you rap?

Elzie Flenard:

Yeah, it was a rap performance.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh my God, that's so much fun. Well, what did you rap?

Elzie Flenard:

Oh, I can't. I couldn't tell you. If that was a really long time ago, I have no clue.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's so fun. Did you write your own stuff, or you?

Elzie Flenard:

Yeah, it was an original song. We were in a group, my name was Fresh, it was my nickname, and so we performed it. It was at a school dance and I remember, like after everybody kind of running up to us and just kind of supporting it, it was just again one of those moments. It was just like okay, I kind of like this. That's so much fun, though. Think about it Like one of your great memories is performing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

yeah, my people would never get on the stage and find the people.

Elzie Flenard:

Yeah, For you to have the courage.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, even at a young age.

Elzie Flenard:

I mean I absolutely love like I tell people all the time my passions all involve a microphone and me talking into it, whether it's podcasting, speaking, singing, you know I just it's home, it's my comfort zone. That is so much fun.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Gosh at 14,. I was so shy in high school I couldn't imagine being up on the stage trying to sing or anything at that age. I was so shy. That's why I think on like basketball, I was like, oh my God, everyone's staring at me on the court. That is so funny. So then when you're a little bit old excuse me, let's say you're like 21, 22, 23,. Where did it? Where's your mind at now? Like, where are you thinking about going in your world at that point? Yeah, by that time.

Elzie Flenard:

So two things when I was young, I always knew I wanted to be a father a husband and a father, and I knew I wanted to own my own business. And my plan, my strategy, was I knew I needed to go to college and I knew that I wanted to do it long enough so that I could do my own thing. So by 20, I was married already 2021, and I was working toward doing my own thing and doing side gigs. At that time, I believe I had a record label. We did a record label.

Elzie Flenard:

We did a lot of different things over the years but, if I remember correctly, around that time that's what I was doing. I was still kind of in the music space, being again trying to be the best husband I could be. I hadn't had kids yet, but I was just kind of out there going to school being a husband and trying to figure out this entrepreneur business on her thing. That is so cool. How old were you?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

when you got married? 20. 20. How many kids do you have?

Elzie Flenard:

Two.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Two, oh, my god, there's so I love kids. How old are your kids?

Elzie Flenard:

My daughter's 16, and my son is eight. Oh, what's the little space between kids right?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

there. Yeah, I love kids.

Elzie Flenard:

I've got grandkids.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I've got four grandbabies. It's like, oh, my god, my world, they melt my soul. All those teachers that say if I knew grandkids it was so much fun, I would have had them first. I'm like that is so true, Because they're so cute, they just worship you because you're there. Mimi is like oh, it's like. Oh, my own kids didn't worship me like that the grandkids do, though. That's such a cool, that's a really. I've had those kids. I can tell you. I've had these kids for a week. I've had them for a whole week since the spring break.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I took them home last night and I was like I am so tired, I am past that like hey, all day long, 24-7. I was like at 64, I'm like you know what, two, three days go home, couple days go home, but now like seven whole days, and I had three of them and I took one back so I couldn't take it. He's a little, he's a boy and he's wild. And then I kept the girls. Yeah, I'm exhausted. I always say, you know, when you're in a child-rearing year, I think God gives you grace for the energy and what you need to do and be raising kids. But then when you go a long time, all of a sudden there's little ones. You're like, yeah, two or three days at a time. I'm good, that's it. That's funny.

Elzie Flenard:

So I love that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So you were like wanting to be a dad and a husband, really young, which is really nice to see.

Elzie Flenard:

Yeah, no, for me it was because it was something I didn't have and I promised myself that I would do the best I could to provide that to my kids, and so you know it was again. It was one of those things where it was like, okay, this is, this is what it is right and what I can do is the best I can do when it's my turn. It was my turn at best.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I was. I mean I you know not to brag about myself, but I was a good mom because I was like the Girl Scout mom, the Brownie mom, the homeroom mom, the field trip mom, had all the kids at my house every week and with the disco ball and like all the fun stuff. Because I really wanted to be like that really fun mom. But I also wanted all the kids at my house so I could watch what was happening. So it's like no, y'all aren't going to go for weekends someplace else, everybody's going to come here because I can see what's going on, because you have to get a little older and all the crazy stuff that goes on.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Now it's like you can't trust your kids with anybody anymore, which is a shame that it's come to that. But it was kind of maybe getting that way a little bit in the 80s. I had my daughter in 88, I think. So over the 90s people were starting to get a little bit more like, ah, the internet's out there, read my oldest crazy stuff, so I keep my kids close. So I was like no, I'm just going to help my house and be the fun mom. And now I'm the fun Mimi, because I still have disco balls, we have dance parties like same thing. My kids are like. I was like no, I was that way with you guys too, but I was straight. I was a strict parent. If these are the rules, these are the curfews, you do these things, and if you don't, there's going to be going to have some talks about that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So I don't mind kids on SASS, they don't back talk, they're like raise with respect and it's still that way. I'm sorry, I love that about that. Ok, so now so can you give like an actionable tip? So anyone that's listening to me, if they have their own podcast, if they have their own business, what's an actionable tip someone could take to like OK, I want to like you, I want to get into entrepreneurship side of things, but I don't really know where to start or what to do, where my mind is supposed to be. Like what's the tip for someone that wants to become entrepreneurial?

Elzie Flenard:

Yeah, I would say the best way to to build and start a business is to find a problem, and it's almost like if you take this concentric circles right, you find the problem and you find where your skill set can meet and or solve that problem, or you put together a team that can solve that problem. That's always the best place to start. I know a lot of people say, well, follow your passion. That's decent advice. Unless your passion does not, the market won't pay you for your passion. Then you're just going to be really passionate and broke. So I always say just make sure that the market is willing to pay you for where that passion is.

Elzie Flenard:

But but really being observant and recognizing opportunity, understanding what where the need is and feeling that need. Really entrepreneurship is as simple as that. You know, I bought water. Water is free. So somebody somewhere figured out that if you package it in a certain way and make it convenient and accessible, people will pay for water, something that they could otherwise find for free. So who's always as simple as, again, finding a problem or challenge and providing a solution to that challenge.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, it's so funny about that, because I grew up in a country and we I mean, we drank out of the garden hose and tap water. And now I'm just like, oh, I don't want tap water, I have to have my water. And it's true I spend so much money on bottled water. But it is true you find a problem. But you know, I like to think what you said about finding a problem and a skill set to solve it, because, I mean, I listen to a lot of motivational speakers and like find your passion, you can do anything.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And I feel like that's not really good advice, because you can't do anything. Like if I say, hey, I want to be a world class basketball player on the men's team, that's my deepest desire of my soul. That's not going to happen. I'm a woman, first of all, and I'm not that tall and, at this point, of course, too old. But if I'm like, oh, I want to be a singer and my voice isn't that great, like you can't always, you're right, I, and I feel like when you just say you can do anything, you can do anything, you can't really do anything. You and I agree Find something that you like, that you're passionate about, and that's a good idea. Find out what is a problem that you can solve with your skill set, and then I think that will become like that becomes your thing.

Elzie Flenard:

I think, too, I've gotten better over the years of, through trial and error, of understanding that sometimes it's not. I don't have to always be the doer right. In some of my businesses I'm not even involved, like I'm not the person. That's not my skill set. My skill set is identifying the problem, building the team, getting the funds to pay the team, give them the resources that they need to solve the problem. So so some of it is really just being honest with yourself. Like, you may not be able to be a world-class basketball player on the men's team, but maybe you can start a team that is in the men's so, so there's always a way to find the thread of where that passion is. So I would say it's not that you can't do anything, it's just that sometimes what it ends up looking like might be different than what you thought.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I really like that. Yeah, finding the thread because you, I really like that. That is like one of those things, that that's like a really, that's like one of those profound things to me, because you can find a thread of what it is that you do like and you can turn it into something You're right. That is really good. That is like great advice. I love that great advice. So let me ask you this who's your favorite band of all time?

Elzie Flenard:

Favorite band of all time. Does it have to be a band, or can it just be a band? Oh, that's a good one. Favorite band.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Then you can tell me your favorite person of all time. But I like to hear what your band is. Everybody's got a band.

Elzie Flenard:

Well, can it just be an artist and not a band? Band.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, who's your favorite artist of all time?

Elzie Flenard:

My favorite artist of all time is Alicia Keys.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh man, I love her. I tell you what, when Alicia Keys, I mean, I still love her now when she first came out, that whole song with that fallin' in love, it's like, oh my God, this woman has a voice. She's like an angel. I love Alicia Keys. I've loved her since I don't even know how long she's been out now like decades 15 years.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I still love her. I see her. I'm just like she's so great she's never lost her juju about singing and her music and her words. I love Alicia Keys too. That's awesome. What's your favorite food?

Elzie Flenard:

Hamburger.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

A hamburger. You know what I am down for a good hamburger. That's probably one of my go-to things. I always have hamburger meat so I'm like I'm not sure what I want to eat. I always make hamburger. I don't know if I said good things, but I read meat as I do. I was like a hamburger, kind of like stalls, everything. What is your favorite part? Do you have a favorite part of the day?

Elzie Flenard:

I love mornings, I love beginnings. I love the freshness and the newness of it. You get to start over. Even when yesterday didn't go the way you thought it would, you get to do it again the next day.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I like that. What's your favorite thing to do with your kids?

Elzie Flenard:

Oh man. So with my son we have a thing it's just your age-old wrestling, we call it warring. So he'll be like his own country, and then I'm in a country and then we'll battle. So I love to do that with him, my daughter. We have a thing where every Marvel movie we go together and check it out. So we have the way that we do it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

We are moving at a time, the Marvel movies. Is that what you said, oh?

Elzie Flenard:

yeah, that's what the Marvel movie my daughter and I, we check those out.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love that. So you're starting to do warring, so you're like countries. So does this include actual wrestling? Do you guys have a game? Do you have tools and subjects? What do you have? That sounds like a really fun thing.

Elzie Flenard:

All the above. We have little action figures and sometimes it breaks out into a physical confrontation between him and I. We have Nerf guns, that sometimes it's like an active thing. So it's a good time. It's a good time.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That sounds like a lot of fun. I used to love to laser tag with my daughter. We'd be outside and we'd be like getting on the ground rolling under the bushes, hiding around the house. I was like people are like what are you doing? I'm like I'm a laser tag Outside, like in the dirt and the mud. You know what.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It's really important, though. I mean a lot of parents, I mean I don't know A lot of people I know that are parents. They just don't have like a thing with each one of their kids. I think that's part of the joy of having different kids is their personalities are so different and to have a thing that like that's your thing, and when they grow up, that will be the thing we talk about. My dad and I did this and this and this and this, and then they'll take that with them. When they get to be my age, they'll be like, oh, I'm going to do this and that with my dad or my mom and that becomes the thing. I love that. And my little grandkids are young, my oldest ones eight. So we're just now. So we're.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I am the queen of the unicorns and she is the princess of the unicorns, so we have this whole unicorn life and world and we talk and we read and we do movies Like we have this whole thing. I was like it has. My hair is pink, so whenever I go to her party she tells her friend she's like my Mimi is secretly a unicorn but she has to stay in disguise of the human. But her pink mane she can't keep. It put away.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So her way to walk up to me and go can I touch your hair? Like, oh my God, are you really a unicorn? Yes, I really am. So it's just so cute Like we have this whole little world. I mean she is like I'll say goodbye my princess. She's like goodbye my queen. It's so cute, like, oh my God, my heart can't take it it is so cute. But kids remember.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I remember that kind of stuff with my parents too, you know. So it is really important and so it's like, oh, it's all about do something as a family all the time. Kids need that one on one and they need special moments with their moms and their dads. So I love that. I love that I have like countries, we have flags and everything. Oh my gosh.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I think it's a good thing to do with my grandson. He is just like tell me what that kid is like nothing but boy. It sounds like a good thing to do with him. That's funny. That is funny. So now people reach you on LinkedIn, so they just go. They find Elsie Flanard on LinkedIn, are you?

Elzie Flenard:

on, yeah, mom. And the name of your podcast is Enterprise now, yeah, so if you just search Elsie Flanard, there's not too many of us out there. I'll pop right up and that's my main platform. We're on Facebook as well, but LinkedIn is my main platform.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, and your podcast is just called enterprise.

Elzie Flenard:

Enterprise now.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Enterprise now. Okay, I love that. Now do you work with other entrepreneurs or just podcast people?

Elzie Flenard:

Most of my clients are residents, are B2B, so these are business owners, entrepreneurs who have businesses but want to leverage podcasts to grow their business and business development.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, I love it. I love it. And okay so LinkedIn. Okay, so I write, I take notes and I kind of go back and do a little bit of a review, because I like to call this session inside the minds of today's millionaires, because you know, there's all kinds of successful people and all kinds of genres of the world, but everyone that's successful they always is a little bit of a common thread and one of the things I find like when you were young and you wanted to buy your musical system and you wanted to get out and perform and do things, everyone that I talked to, like every single person over the last five years that I've interviewed, no one was like oh yeah, I was sitting home playing video games all day when I was a kid.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

They were all actively doing something that led to who they became as an adult. So that is definitely a common thread of every single person that I've interviewed. So I'm like I'm waiting for someone to just say oh yeah, I just sat around and drank beer, smoked weed, played video games and decided one day to do something.

Elzie Flenard:

No, not really Let me know if you ever meet that person.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I know it's like I think those people maybe did not go down the success path, but it is interesting. That's why I like to find out what people were doing like 12, 13, 14, because it seems like right in there, people are already thinking about a way to make money or a way to do something Like all of the people that I've interviewed and I have like three or something shows at this point and everybody was getting creative and thinking about like how do I do this for myself at around that age. That's why I like to ask that question. Okay, so Elsie Flanard, enterprise Knowledge of Podcasts, you are the mayor of Podcast Town, so I'm super excited to know it's a mayor Mostly available on LinkedIn. Your customers are your residents and I love that too and you're based out of Milwaukee. Is that where you were raised also was in Milwaukee?

Elzie Flenard:

No, I'm originally from Southern Illinois, which is about seven and a half hours south of here. We landed in Wisconsin after college for work.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, and let's see, you've had a podcast for since about 2015. Once you were like trying school. That's really cool. When you were young, you were in a sports, basketball, music. You wanted to be a wife and a husband. I'm not a wife and a husband. You wanted to be a husband and nowadays you can be a wife or a husband. You wanted to be a husband and have kids, which I love, that Married at 20, which is so cool. And business dad, husband.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And I like the thing you said about finding the thread, like whatever your dream is. It might be like this giant thing that maybe it's not really physically possible for you to do this thing, but you can pull a thread out of that and you can weave that into something that is still like where your heart's at. I really like that. I'm going to use that. And you said, for entrepreneurs, that's finding a problem, a skill set that will help solve that problem. And then, okay, okay, Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Recognizing I wrote this so fast that I can't read my writing Recognizing something oh, application to it. You like Alicia Keys hamburgers the mornings, because everything is fresh and new, and you do warring games with your son, which is so fun, and Marvel movies with your daughter, which is so. Does she, like, want to be Wonder Woman or something?

Elzie Flenard:

No, she just she was a late adopter. I've been working on her for years to get her into the Marvel Universe, but then one summer she binged and just caught up with everything. So she just want to be the superhero. She just loves watching the movies and the storyline.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So which superhero would you be?

Elzie Flenard:

That's a good question I think I would have. If you asked me that question five years ago. I would have said Superman, but nowadays I'm feeling like a Black Panther kind of guy.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh yeah, that was a good movie. I like Marvel movies too. My husband's like my husband just does not watch any of that, I don't know like superhero stuff. I like those kind of movies. I watch the Walking Dead, I watch all the dystopian things and he's just like so, not there with any of that stuff. So I'll be talking about a show or the only thing I think he watched I'm not even sure 100% is a Marvel was all the Tony Stark things, iron man he did watch all those because he loves Robert Down Jr. So I can take that and then look at all these other movies and all like it's so cool and he's just not with it. So anything like that. I go see, I go with my kids, and when my grandkids get just a smidge older I'll start doing that with them too. I love all of those things like that. It's fun to think about like superheroes and all the people. I feel like all of us are a little bit of a superhero in our own way, you think.

Elzie Flenard:

Yeah, for sure. I think the thing that I love about, especially the way that Marvel does it, is they're human, but they have this thing, this it factor about them that makes them go over and beyond, and it reminds me of that thing that entrepreneurs have it's a different gear, it's a different motivation, it's a different driver that makes us, you know, not better, not worse, just different, and it's something wire different with, you know, in entrepreneurs that keeps us passionate, keeps us moving forward, even when it doesn't make sense. So so I think, again, that's the thing about superheroes that really I connect with is that that thing that makes them want to serve and to help other people and help other people get to be their best.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And they all do serve, unless they're on the dark side. So what is your superpower?

Elzie Flenard:

My superpower is connect. I love connecting people, I love seeing things in people that they don't see in themselves and providing those resources and setting them up for success right. So again, I don't necessarily need to have all the answers, but I know folks who got the answers. I know people who have had the program or who has the service of the product. That's why I enjoy what I do so much, because I get to meet so many different people and I get to help people succeed in what they do.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love it. That is a good superpower, that's your it factor. You're the connecting, that's it, okay. So again, folks, ld Flanard, find him on LinkedIn and find this podcast enterprise now. And also, both of us have a podcast and our podcasts grow when you like and you subscribe and you share and you tell other people say, hey, this is really great podcast, you need to listen in.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So if you loved anything today, you laughed at a good time. When should you go? Leave me a five star review. And I also want you to find my enterprise now and also leave a five star review. And if you want to share it with your friends, if you like a free book on how to get started with real estate investing, called flipping your way to a fortune, go to do wonderfulcom and opt in and I'm on all the stuff Facebook and Sir, and LinkedIn, tic Tac, I'm on all the stuff. So just put in to wonderful and you'll find me. So I want to thank you for being a guest today. You're super fun and I did not know that you were the mayor podcast. Oh my gosh, I have so many questions, so I do like all of our guests to leave us with a parting word of wisdom, but it has to just be a single word.

Elzie Flenard:

That's tough. One single word.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I know it's hard right.

Elzie Flenard:

Go.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Go. I'm the first person that ever used that word. What does go mean to you?

Elzie Flenard:

So go means we talked about, you know, finding that thread, we talked about passion, we talked about, you know, entrepreneurship and superheroes and all that stuff, and the one thing that happens and in all of that is you go when you don't feel like it, you go when you're not sure. Go when you're, you know, discouraged, go. So that's what it means Just go.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love it. All right, guys, that is your word for the week, go. He gave you what his idea of the word go means. So use the word, think about what else you said about it and maybe put your own son on what the word go means to you, because we have a word of the week, so that is the word of the week. Everybody is go. So first of all, I want to thank you so much for being on the show. I really enjoyed getting to know you and talking to you, and I'm excited I'm going to be on his show too, so you all need to look for me over there on that show and we're going to have a good time over there today and I really enjoyed you. I love your heart, I love your spirit and I think you're just like one of the coolest guys I've met.

Elzie Flenard:

Thank you so much for having me. It was a good time.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Thank you, alright, everyone. We'll see you next week, same bat time, same bat channel. And remember that the truth is in the red letters. Bye.