The Grit and Grow Podcast
The Grit and Grow Podcast delivers in-depth, unfiltered interviews featuring emerging entrepreneurs and start-up founders. Join us as we dive into their vision for change, explore their sources of motivation, confront their fears and failures, and uncover the pivotal moments that propelled their ideas into reality.
The Grit and Grow Podcast
Tech Enthusiast Turned Podcasting Powerhouse: Zeke Rempel's Tale of Resilience and the Art of Entrepreneurial Balance | #gritandgrowpodcast Ep37
Ever feel like the universe is nudging you toward an unexpected path? Zeke Rempel, the visionary behind XYZ Media, joins us to unravel his own twist of fate, transforming from a tech enthusiast to a podcasting powerhouse. In a candid conversation, Zeke invites us into his world, detailing the delicate art of juggling the inception of a business with major life events such as tying the knot and stepping into fatherhood. His experiences illuminate the intricate dance between personal evolution and professional ambition, offering a hearty dose of inspiration for all you dreamers and doers looking to pivot your passion into a livelihood.
Zeke's narrative is a masterclass in resilience, underscored by the intimate tales of overcoming self-doubt while catapulting into the realm of entrepreneurship. As a creative soul first, he had to navigate the often turbulent waters of business management, learning to sport the multiple hats of a CEO. His openness about the challenges faced—be it the fight against imposter syndrome or the endeavor of rebranding—provides an unvarnished glimpse into the real grind behind the glamor of owning a successful company. Listen in and find the nudge you need to embrace the fluidity of your journey and the courage to step out as the face of your own brand.
Our exploration doesn't stop there, as Zeke and I dissect the mechanics of podcasting as a tool for authentic networking and business growth. We exchange thoughts on why podcasting is more than just a platform—it's a bridge connecting real stories to real people, fostering a sense of community and trust in an increasingly digital age. With Zeke's personal blueprint on expanding a podcast production business, and our musings on the strategic pivot of 'The Jay and Brian Show' to a more purpose-driven podcast, this episode is chock-full of actionable wisdom. So, come share a moment with us, and let's grow together in this adventure called life, paved with grit and illuminated by the raw, unedited tales of those who dare to lead.
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Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to the Grit and Grow podcast, the show where we deep dive with awesome entrepreneurs and we kind of get to what their fears are, their concerns are, their visions for change, ultimately, what motivated their pursuit to turn their ideas into reality. We are your hosts. I'm Jay. I'm Jay, I'm Brian, and welcome to the show. You might notice that we're on a different set today. More on that in just a little bit. We've got a really, really cool guest. He's a great friend of ours today. His name is Zeke Rempel. He is founder and CEO of XYZ Media, which is a podcast business. He knows this business, cole. He's been doing it for quite a while, right out of ASU. He went into. It was film editing and animation, I think I saw as well. He managed the broadcasting for a church for a little while as well. I won't hold the ASU thing against you, by the way.
Speaker 2:I come from a family of podcasting selves, but Zeke's an awesome guy. He's one of those people that we've met along the way. That's really kind of enriched our show, the Grit and Grow podcast, we've learned a lot from, and so, zeke, thanks for being on the show. We're going to talk a little about podcasting, because that's what you do. It's a passion of ours, obviously, and thanks for having us.
Speaker 3:Perfect. Thank you for having me on the show. I feel like you know me better than I know me. I went through my background. I was like oh yeah, I did do all those things.
Speaker 2:We try to do our research.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you did. No one's ever done the research on me before, so it was actually funny to hear that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, you know, normally I we open the show letting everybody know that our podcast is brought to you by my City Lender Home Loans and my City Office A little different since we're not in our home studio, but this is a beautiful studio. Thanks for having us. We're apparently also brought to you by Ghost Energy Really good drinks if you're in the market for it.
Speaker 3:It's very sweet.
Speaker 1:I am wound up. I will tell you that right now, and I am not even halfway through this baby.
Speaker 2:So I mean coming right out of school, you went right into film production. What pointed you in that direction?
Speaker 3:So I actually went to school thinking I wanted to code, okay.
Speaker 3:A lot of people told me I should probably be coding because that's kind of, you know, before AI was. Ai before this was like building apps and software. That's kind of what everybody that was in the creative space that I looked up to were like I wish I just would have coded and I would be fine. So I thought I wanted to go to school and work for Intel which Intel was in my backyard, ryan Chandler and just make a good salary and slowly as I went through college, my. I didn't think I had a creative bone in my body, because my brother is a musician, now worship leader, writes music Awesome. My dad is a writer, actor, many things, loves to do all kinds of stuff. He's an incredible pastor.
Speaker 3:Incredible pastor. Now I'd say he's just very creative altogether, does all kinds of things, and so watching them growing up I was like, um, don't think I'm creative. I was more of a techie, so I was like I just like to understand tech and knew how it worked. But when I was in high school I did really like graphic design and video editing, which was some of the classes that I took, and I just thought there was like the crossover of like maybe my brother, my, my dad kind of in me and learning the tech stuff. So as I was going through college, I noticed that I hated everything that was coding.
Speaker 3:I just I learned Java, I learned Swift, which you guys, if you, if you know what that is, it's like the Apple language and eventually I was like I'm going to make a change because I am not liking this. And so, luckily, I was in digital culture major at the time, which I still don't know what digital culture is, I still don't know what it stands for, which is funny because my thesis project was to make a video for them marketing and I still had no idea what digital culture was, and so. But what I let you do is to kind of pick a concentration of of the tech industry and kind of learn the theory of it as kind of what their basis was. So I got to take some classes in the film school as well as the coding classes. So I was always like the one kid that was like, or the one student that was in film classes but actually wasn't in film school. So they're all talking about, like their final thesis of, like what documentary are they filming? And I had to go into my other classes and like what is this technological thing I'm building for my thesis? Because that's what I was doing on the other class. So that's when I realized I wanted to do that.
Speaker 3:So, on my own time, I started learning more and more about animation, vfx, which I thought I wanted to do that first, and then I just started applying for jobs. I literally remember applying in one of my last classes, so I got you kind of you may know this but I got married, had my honeymoon, graduated college and my wife got pregnant all within the span of like three months. I just life just sped up for me and I got my first job right there. I remember applying in one of my last classes and I actually didn't walk cause I started that week, um so, and then I started my job and it was a podcast company, and so that started my journey into realizing that podcasting was something I could relearn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so creative for sure. Technician for sure creative for sure, technician for sure, absolutely. But being a creative and a technician is very different, totally different topic from being an entrepreneur like very different starting your own thing, so, and that's what our, what our, what our show is all about. And what we want to really kind of understand is how did you make, why did you decide to go that route?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I was working at Rensselaer Media, which is the company I got hired at, for I would say I graduated college in 2019. And so I was with them up until like around COVID time. My boss started to go through some issues, some private stuff, and there was this big meeting with all the employees and slowly I was like the last editor left. All the editors either got fired or quitting. One of my brothers always jokes around that I was like sabotaging everybody else so I could become the lead editor, but that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, I wasn't behind the scenes.
Speaker 3:I wasn't doing anything. I was just the most stable person. I think is what it was. And so I was the last person left, really with this other manager, and they just wanted the company to fold. They wanted to go find new things to do and I basically said, well, I mean, I like servicing my clients. Can I just take the clients and go do my own thing? And so then I made a deal with my old boss to basically take all the existing clients without you know cut ties pretty much, and I got to take the social media accounts, some of the resources, which were some of the cameras, some of the furniture, and kind of go my own way. And I guess that's how I became an entrepreneur, because I just didn't want my clients to find anybody else. You know, I basically was their video editor for some of my clients. First day I started on the job was when two of my clients signed on, and two of those clients have been with me ever since, so I've been editing their so you found, though, that you were.
Speaker 1:you found a passion in podcasting. Yes, first of all.
Speaker 3:First, of all yes.
Speaker 1:But then what was the switch? What happened that? You said, okay, well, I'm passionate about this, but now I want to kind of take it and open this to the public, because you could have just kept almost an internal referral base from your existing clientele. But then now you're marketing, you're promoting, you've got a whole nother element to what you're doing today. That's different than when you got hired on with Rensselaer Media.
Speaker 3:Yes. So what was that? Probably that switch happened when I realized the existing company was going down and the roof of where I could grow stopped. I mean, like there was, I hit the ceiling and I knew now that I had a young child at this point, or on the way, whatever. I think it was all around the same time Maybe I was having my second around this time that I needed to make a change, or else I was going to have to just go find a job somewhere else and I had been given so much freedom at that job that I didn't realize I had until it was going to be swept under my feet Because, basically, at this point my boss wasn't around at all, it was just me managing everything. I was the only person going into the studio, I was the only person talking to clients, while my boss dealt with stuff, and so what switched was not only did I love to work with podcasts I think there was a clear action that like, hey, this is where content is going.
Speaker 3:It can be a real game changer for a lot of people but I also knew that I wanted to lift that ceiling and be able to provide for my family and achieve goals that I think if I just stayed like I think about, if I went and worked at Intel coding wise and just did the W2 thing, I'd you know you can get raises, but like what can? There's no more outside of that than achieving you know, getting those races or maybe getting promotions or whatnot. And I wanted to be able to be more creative with what I was doing and be like hey, I could you know if I had a great year I could make a lot of money. And then if some years, if I just wanted to not work, flexibility was great and so I didn't want to lose that.
Speaker 3:I think it was what and more of the fear I think, kind of turned me to be like I should look at this entrepreneur thing. I remember I went to a small group at my church that was just starting up talking about entrepreneurs and they're like hey, zeke, it says that you're a vice president at your company, should come hang out. I was like I'm the vice president, is that what it says on LinkedIn? So then I went and I told them my situation and they're all like, oh, you need to start your own company. And I was like, are you sure? And then at that point. Then I was like okay, maybe I should be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:So, up until like six months before I did it, I didn't know. Well, I got to stop you for just a second, like I. What I want to say is that so, when we first met, which was maybe seven, eight, nine years ago somewhere in there, uh, when we met, when I met Zeke, zeke was uh, he was a student and he was a club soccer coach.
Speaker 1:Yes, I was so you have gone like 180 degrees in a different direction and all I can say is I'm really proud of you and what you've accomplished. I think young people need to hear this and they need to see this like the heart and the spirit that you have to kind of go out and forge your own way and make your own path Like kudos man. I think you're doing an awesome job, thank you.
Speaker 3:Cause sometimes I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:We're proud of you, so it's awesome, proud to know you.
Speaker 3:Thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Um, it's so it's. It's fascinating to me and I and I think it's it's one of the things we really want to explore on this show with entrepreneurs. I think a lot of entrepreneurs sort of become that either by choice or because they have to, but it's an interesting thing when you're a creative and you're passionate about the content, especially when it comes to, like, youtube videos and podcasting. But then adding that layer of business owner on top, yes, and so I'd love to explore that a little bit more like how, how adding that business owner side to it is going for you. How has it affected family life and you know where is your business today?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so adding that business like layer to the cake was extremely hard for me. Like I said, I liked flexibility. I like to be able to kind of work on things I want to work on. And I had a lot of freedom at my previous job, so when I took over and started doing my own thing, I thought it was gonna be the same thing, cause I'm like I already was running everything.
Speaker 1:But how do you take, how do you take passion and turn it into profit?
Speaker 3:That was now that I knew, knew the numbers now that I knew how much money that the company was losing. Now looking at the behind the scenes and figuring out tax situation. There was a huge tax situation when I took over the company. That needed to be figured out.
Speaker 1:Um and then rebranding it rebranding. It was a whole nother thing which I kind of liked rebranding I do want to actually get into that a little bit too, because I love the branding of it too. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got to rebrand it, which branding is one of those things I thought. I wanted to be a graphic designer too, to an extent which I think what.
Speaker 3:I do. We can go further down, but like designing thumbnails and all that, it kind of encompasses all the talents that I think I've kind of learned over my years. But anyways, adding that business layer was really hard for me, because then imposter syndrome is a really hard thing to deal with because, again, I was a creative I would just. At that point I just I feel like I just mastered being a video editor, a podcast producer, doing all these cool things. Now I have to learn how to do sales calls with people and convince them to come into my studio and manage a business manage accounting and managing accounting managing editors was a whole nother thing.
Speaker 3:Communicating Um this is how I want to see it, and knowing that some of these kids that I'm managing don't wake up to like one in the afternoon and edit to like two in the morning, and that was a whole nother ballgame that I had to manage. I'd say the first year of my business was me just trying to figure out. What am I, what is my business, what do I want to do? I still feel like I'm still figuring that out a little bit to an extent now, but I at least have a clear direction of what I know works, and I'm just now at that point where I'm scaling in that direction, but that's just it right.
Speaker 2:As an entrepreneur, I mean. One of the driving forces of starting your own business is being able to foster your own vision, your own culture, your own direction, and it seems like that's you know. You're really on a good pathway to accomplish that.
Speaker 1:Congratulations again. It's limitless. What you're doing is limitless.
Speaker 2:And you know I think you made a point earlier which is also a recurring theme on our show is that you recognize that as a business owner and an entrepreneur, you're sealing. Yes, you can make a great living as a coder, but you're sealing both financially, I think, and from a joy and fulfillment standpoint is much higher when you do get to build your own thing but it doesn't come out. A lot of anxiety, a lot of fear, um, a lot financial ups and downs, um. So talk to us about that a little bit. So how, how has this venture been for you financially?
Speaker 3:So I'll just be real. I mean, like when I first started the business, I told my boss I was like I can't do this without a little bit of help, and so I did sell a bit of my company when I did start out to get a cash investment, so that basically what that did is it gave me a salary during the pregnancy of my second child, cause when he told me he's like I can either help you find a new job or you can take this business, but I'm gonna have to take a percentage of it with a bit of a cash influx. So that's very much what happened, and that first year I pretty much just lived off that salary by figuring out the studio when that money was gone. That was really scary because at that point, you know, I had to get things going and there was obviously months when, you know, I didn't get paid and that was a bit disheartening.
Speaker 3:And you know, when it comes to dealing with finances, I feel like the thing that I had to keep in check the most was my confidence, cause it could just, you know, if you just judge it based off of that, you know it's hard, and so I'd come home at night and be like well, I don't know if I'm going to get that second paycheck this month, and then I then I get stressed about it. And then you said family. You know, almost like we talked about this, maybe in a different conversation, but we mentioned that they just want you home, they just want you there, and when you bring that weight into the room with them, they sense it?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker 3:That almost like they take on exactly the what is it? The energy that you have, and so the good thing to do, the right thing to do, is to not you're not shielding it from them. You do have to put on a bit of a like, a filter filter, things will be all right, because you want.
Speaker 3:You also want the family to be good and to recharge you and to be happy and then. But you also have to deal with those internal feelings of like, yeah, I'm a little stressed right now, you know I'm bitten a fish out of water. But I'm gonna have to deal with those internal feelings of like, yeah, I'm a little stressed right now, I'm a bit in fish out of water, but I'm going to have to figure this out, but I will. The thing that you have to again your confidence. You've got to be confident to go in the next day that I'm going to be able to figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Awesome, Switching gears a little bit, because one of the reasons we were so excited to do the show is because you are a podcasting pro and we we have a an extreme passion for podcasting, obviously, Um, talk a little bit about the direction of podcasting, Like, what, um, what, what, what should people? What should? Either people who are thinking of starting a podcast show or somebody who's who's getting into the podcasting business? Where, where is this? Where's this going? What, what is, what are the trends in in the podcasting world?
Speaker 3:I love that. I love that question because when I first got hired, my my studio was only doing audio only, okay, so I mainly got hired to be the video person attached to it, because video podcasts were just now kind of becoming introduced as a concept it was back in 2019. And they also were editing YouTube videos for other people, so they were kind of combining the two and I'm thankful they did that, because I started to see the benefits of having a video podcast and I think at that time short form video was just becoming a thing, TikTok was just coming onto the scene through 2020, 2020, to the COVID, and what I started noticing was that a lot of successful content need to be authentic.
Speaker 3:I'm also an editor, so highly edited stuff is great. You got Mr Beast with all these different retention breakers throughout the video. They're great, they're good at what they do, but you lose a bit of authenticity. I don't know what Mr Beast is on a personal side. I don't know who really does, but that's not his brand. But for businesses, you need to be authentic because you need to be able to buy from them.
Speaker 1:That's great and know them. Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 3:And what I noticed with podcasting it literally just documents. You're flying the wall in a conversation of somebody and what it did a really good job was capturing it in an hour-long conversation. But what that gave potential to do was content redistribution and you could get as many short-form clips and you could even grab YouTube chapters as your videos, which Joe Roken does. He does his 10-minute clips and this just opened the door of. I kind of opened my brain up. I'm like why isn't everybody doing this? This is really easy, not easy. It's easier than making YouTube videos and doing these highly edit produced stuff.
Speaker 3:I was like more people need to be educated on why podcasting is such a great thing and a great strategy. So what I kind of went on this journey was like I need to either start a business helping people with this, which I kind of did. I kind of went in that direction and I also need to help people continue their journey into podcasting, because people get disheartened pretty easily when it comes to looking at numbers and because podcasts are judged a little bit differently. They're not so based on views and it's downloads, it's audio and videos just a little bit different and, plus, a lot of businesses doing podcasts need to judge it based on leads and conversions.
Speaker 1:Networking has been huge for us.
Speaker 3:Networking is a great, great thing that I always talk about and it pretty much people just love being interviewed, I mean you're interviewing me and I love it.
Speaker 1:It's like the unintended consequence of podcasting is networking. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 3:Networking is one of those pillars I always talk about. That's great for podcasting. I'd say authenticity networking and then the amount of content you're able to capture. I I love the concept that podcasting is the most. What's the word? I can't, I'm trying to think of intimate way of marketing.
Speaker 2:It's the most intimate way of marketing, because you're literally able to have it.
Speaker 3:I mean you literally are hearing everything about a person through all their podcasts and yeah like hear their life story and all the podcasts I listen to, I learn more and more about this person because they were real different parts of their life, when discussing with the guest or what's going on with their life, and you figure so many things out and you're and all of a sudden you're like I really relate with this person. I want to buy a house. I'm going to connect with that realtor because I really connect with them. Or I want a business coach. This person is exactly who I think I need to hire, so you get to know them a lot more and I'd say, if you're a good person, podcasting is just going to be successful for you.
Speaker 2:If you're a bad person, I mean, it's not going to be obvious. It's going to be obvious. I think one of the reasons why podcasting resonates so much with Jay and I is that we're in the relationship business Exactly. We're in the business of getting a little bit below the surface and understanding who you are as a person.
Speaker 2:But we're also I think both of us share this of us because we're able to be genuine not only together, but with you or with our guests, and I think it is probably the primary reason why podcasts, why the genre is growing quite a bit, is because, unlike the highly produced you know, mr Beast videos out there, podcasting it's, it's you're, it's like a real person, you know, and we don't say every single word exactly correct and sometimes fumble through our introductions and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I, you know, we, we, jay and I had a conversation on a previous show about, about nerves in front of the camera and for some dang reason I always get a little nervy when I'm about to introduce the show, but then once we get into it, it's like it's easy, it's awesome. Once you get going, yeah, but that's one of the reasons I love podcasting is because I feel like and enjoy other podcasts because it is, it's just, it's a real person. You get to see their genuine side a lot more than on a highly polished, highly produced YouTube video. Exactly, youtube does have a place for disseminating your podcast and reaching more people, especially with YouTube music really coming online um, recently moving from Google podcasts to music, but um let's go back to a little bit on the uh like taking your passion, turning it into profit.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think, um, we could elaborate a little bit more on that. Sure, because I think there's a lot of people that think they want to do something, especially when it comes to business, when you turn a hobby. Let's say I can relate to this. Years ago I used to own and operate a mobile electronics like a car audio shop. This was back in the mid-90s, the late 90s and early 2000s, when it was the mid nineties to late nineties and early two thousands. When it was, you know, everybody had a bump in sound system and the car was laid out and dropped and on airbags and all this stuff.
Speaker 1:And that was really really popular back in the day, um, but one of my fears about taking my passion for car audio and custom cars and turning that into a business was that I was about to kind of muddy the water and mix these two things that you know one one thing that I loved doing and I was really passionate about it and it was really more of a hobby for me than anything else and then turn it into this. Now I've got to, like I've got to make this business make money doing what I love, like is this going to be possible? And it was. It was a trial for that time in my life, for sure. But you know, how does that relate to your experience with what you've created here? Cause this is really, really awesome.
Speaker 3:I'd say that was a big struggle for me because I'm being more from the creative side. Editing is definitely. You have to have creative juices, I say, to make a good product. So I'd edit two or three videos a day. That third video of the day probably wasn't as creative as the first one because you only have so much in a day. I always say You'd have to get like refreshers, go on a walk, hang out. I'd hang out with my wife.
Speaker 1:You'd get tired Watch movies. Your eyes get tired.
Speaker 3:Exactly. You need to consistently be inspired, and now I'm handling more of the business side of things. I definitely would get burnt out when I'd edit three videos a day and it made me not like it as much I would say. Now, from a side of maybe managing people that do it for me or educating a little bit on how to do it, I'd say my love for it is still there, it's just different. It's still, it just looks a little bit different.
Speaker 1:So are you more attracted to the business side of it now or the creative side of it now? Probably the business side.
Speaker 3:Right Because, because you've discovered this now through the process You've touched on it, I would never go back from being an entrepreneur now.
Speaker 1:I can't, I I opened the window. I can't, I can't, I haven't covered the curtain, so to say.
Speaker 3:I can't go back because I the power of it. There's so much more power to think, cause you get to have more control over the abilities and where things are going and finish products. You have more influence. And so the reason I say my love for it has changed is because I actually get to see the end results of it and actually, like I've been a part of so many of my clients that have been building podcasts or YouTube channels and now that's like they get to work for themselves too, because they did it and I help them do it. You know, like they started coaching businesses. They get to sell digital products. They get to do all these things because I helped them do something. Now, if I just stayed behind the curtain and was just their editor, maybe I became salary-based with them.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't really care because I'm like I'm just helping you build your vision, you know but, now that I'm more in control and have more say and, like you, did this because some of the knowledge that I added into it Now.
Speaker 1:you're kind of like a valuable business partner.
Speaker 3:Exactly. That's kind of how I like to see it, as I'm a bit more.
Speaker 1:This is kind of where we're all going together, is that not? Only are we collaborating on these shows, but now we're going to be collaborating on a business level. That we're as a partnership it's good. It's actually going to only just help everything that we're working on together grow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly that was probably. That was actually one of the first things I learned. How to pitch my company was like we can be your editor and you can just pay us a flat fee, sure, but you're not going to use us to your full capability. If you, you let us partner with you, be a little more invested with us, we, your success will be our success. And when we want to be able to post you on our Instagram, say like, look at the success, numbers, numbers, we want to be able to refer you business if anybody needs, um, your services or products. You know we want to be alongside you and I think that this podcast is great. I mean being able to come on your show and to collaborate a little bit more and I get to meet, maybe some of your people that are a part of your network and your show and listening on a constant engagement.
Speaker 3:I think that'd be really cool. Yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:It's been great on so many levels to do this show. I mean, you know, interviewing entrepreneurs on the surface Yep, it's awesome. We love learning from other entrepreneurs about how they approach things, what their perspectives are, and then and then finding business partnerships with them as well has been great. I'll do a little commercial break right here on behalf of Zeke. So, as we mentioned earlier, zeke owns XYZ Media and he's got just a beautiful, professionally built podcast studio here.
Speaker 2:We're going to have links to reach out to Zeke down in the description. Whether you're just starting out you have no clue what you're going to do with your podcast, or you're an experienced podcaster, but you're looking for a fresh set or a nicer set to do your show and you've got to reach out to Zeke. He can come alongside you, help you produce it, help you in the post-production. So look for that link down below and Zeke's your guy. So but and and getting to again, I've said this probably three times on this podcast because I was so excited to come on the show to interview a podcaster who's also a pro pod.
Speaker 2:He, you know, runs a professional studio.
Speaker 1:This is very unique.
Speaker 2:It's awesome and and again. One of the great things that have come out of podcasting is just the people we've met and the, the perspectives that we've we've picked up from it that we apply to our business and our daily lives, absolutely yeah. So what nuggets can you what, what? What advice do you have for for people out there that might be wanting to start their own podcast studio business?
Speaker 3:Ooh, that's a great question. I've actually thought about where I want to go next with my business, and that was one of the things that I considered. I think I like being a little more on the ground level with podcasters, but I have some great notes for people that are thinking about as a like a gig that they want or a business they want to start.
Speaker 2:What's the first thing? What's the first thing, what's the most important thing they should keep in mind as they're getting it started.
Speaker 3:Don't start it in your house.
Speaker 2:I'd say OK uh, why is that?
Speaker 3:I would say a lot of people build out their studios in their home, which is great, you know. And if you can find people in your network that can like to come to your house, and you know, it's great. You can tax write-offs and all this amazing things. Yep, it's in your house, you're already paying for it. But when you're not in a professional state uh, or professional or professional manner of like a business, there's definitely a, like a what's the word I want to look for?
Speaker 2:I know where you're going with this, because we believe the exact same thing when it comes to whether it's our mortgage business or the purpose for my city office, for example.
Speaker 3:Perfect yeah, absolutely Professional.
Speaker 1:Professionalism yeah.
Speaker 3:And when you walk into a studio, it's all an experience.
Speaker 2:A lot of things about podcasting. It's an experience Absolutely Totally.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'd say that for many, even being loan officers, and people come to meet with you and ask you for advice, you want it to be a nice experience. When you go into someone's, like not only are you going to a home address that they always have, now they can keep in the record book if they get mad at you or anything they I mean like your business. You know where you live. Yeah, they know where you live, but you're a little protected. But at the same time you walk in. You just from a professional standpoint, I think your business is way more marketable from a podcast studio perspective if you're in a commercial space versus a home, because also, like your home, is your home. Like if you want to have a family and all that, like they're going to be on the other part of the house doing something, or your wife is going to be somewhere or wherever it may be. You got kids somewhere, maybe they're at daycare or whatnot, but like all their stuff's going to be there.
Speaker 3:So like there's only so many things. It won't feel homey. It'll feel homey. You don't want it to feel homey, you want to feel like a studio. Yeah, so I would say that would probably be my biggest thing, and I think a couple other podcast studios that I've talked to would absolutely agree. And I think you guys already kind of mentioned you do too, yep.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, what are your, uh, what are your biggest pain points right now? Or concerns going forward as a, as a business owner, as a podcaster?
Speaker 3:as a podcaster. As a podcaster, I would say, just finding the time to edit marketing stuff within my client stuff I think it's the biggest thing taking time to. I always feel guilty when I put resources into myself over my clients, when in reality I think my stuff is what's going to generate more business than just making my client stuff look better and tweaking with it, even though I I love my clients and I've always thankful for to have them and that their finances and their you know it's probably taking care of me. But the business can't grow unless I pour into it, and so for me, pouring into it, I have, I have to do some more stuff. I always feel guilty about that. I think that's a struggle that I didn't realize I would have.
Speaker 1:Like you feel guilty that you need to make more content.
Speaker 3:Like starting my own podcast, for example, when I had you guys on it. The reason why I pushed it off so much from starting my company is because I'm like I'd rather just build my client's podcast the best they can be, because I feel like my time is better spent there. But I learned the hard way that they can just walk away, yeah, and you know all that success like, yeah, I helped build them. It's like seeing an editor on a resume like you edited for mr beast like five years ago. It's like are you what part of this, what stage of their growth were you at? Were you a centerpiece? Were you not? You don't know. Yeah, so I learned pretty quickly that I need to be doing something to document my company doing good things, and I think having a social media presence and maybe editing my clients and in our marketing work is also.
Speaker 1:And your stuff is great. By the way, yeah, thank you. And entertaining, yeah, work is also.
Speaker 3:So your stuff is great, by the way, yeah, thank you and entertaining. Yeah, I noticed that I needed to not only document my client's stuff that we were doing for them in a creative manner, which takes editing and time, but I also need to do stuff for me so that maybe I can be pushing the boundaries of what my clients and future clients could be doing and it's also kind of a model like.
Speaker 1:It's like yeah exactly you. This is an example of what the type of content we can create for you.
Speaker 3:And plus, if I'm successful, then it's only works in my favor. It completely adds credibility.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there's the marketing side of it, I can see for sure. But but also it's kind of like I'm thinking of the concept of self-care that my my wife talks about on her podcast, where if you're not immersing yourself in what your clients are experiencing, a you're going to be able to improve it probably much better because you're aware of what they're experiencing, and then again it does build the credibility.
Speaker 1:I was going to say that credibility is huge.
Speaker 2:You know I'm not just good behind the camera and I'm sure you know that's really important to your clients coming in here, that you can manage this whole process for them and produce something that looks and sounds amazing. But if you're successful on the camera as well, to me that would take credibility to a whole other level.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I'd say that's probably the next hardest thing about doing it. I'd say, walk into that next part of your question, which was running the business. It's being the focal point of your business. I'm so used to being behind the scenes and even like working for a church, like I'm the broadcast producer. I just do that behind the scenes. No one ever sees me. I'm always wearing all black, so like if I come out to fix a camera or whatnot, I'm like a ghost. You don't know that I'm there Right.
Speaker 3:But now doing conversations like that, I listened to my podcast over and over and over again cause I want to make sure that I'm like I'm saying uh too much or I started over my words, I get too excited here, I need to slow it down. But then also looking at, uh, you know, I said oh, right there. I say you think about it. You know I said oh, right there. I'd say you think about it. You start to think about being the focal point and how you need to improve and that's a whole nother like pressure that I didn't realize would be kind of hard to do.
Speaker 1:I think you'll find this too, and, brian, I think you probably would agree with me on this is that our the marketability of our studio. A lot of it has to do with us actually hosting, like, this is the home of the grit and grow podcast, and so the marketability of it, I think, is heightened because it's it's the home of the grit and grow podcast, right?
Speaker 3:you know, you just made a good point, because I think when people ask about my studio, they say, oh, what podcasts are in your studio? They always ask me it's the xyz podcast yeah, and now I can say it's the home of it's the home of the xyz podcast, because there's some other podcasts that are explicit that I can't quite advertise that recording here and I'm like I can't really market that. So but you can market your show, I can sure can market mine, that's for sure, it's family friendly, it's clean yeah.
Speaker 1:So getting back into the rebranding of the company, rebranding for marketing purposes, I think this is also a really important topic to cover. How did you come up with the XYZ Media name and branding? Because the branding is really cool too.
Speaker 3:That's funny. So we were thinking about I was actually. This is one of the times that my boss added a lot of influence on me. We had a meeting and this is kind of the times that my boss added a lot of influence on me. We had a meeting and this is kind of the same meeting. We realized that I was an entrepreneur, kind of. We realized, like you, your decision to take the client tells me you should just have your own business.
Speaker 2:You could be doing this on your own. Yeah, you could be doing this. He kind of encouraged me a little bit, that's cool.
Speaker 3:And so he kind of was like, well, here's some company. He just some company. He just started writing on a whiteboard with me and he wrote my name down. He goes zeke media, he's like rample media, and he started playing with all his names and he and he goes your social handle should be xyz. And then, and then I was like what about xyz media? And he goes oh, that's perfect, and that's how I started there it is, but I still can't have xyz. It's totally taken on social media but that's okay, I'll maybe I'll it someday or something.
Speaker 3:I'll buy it off somebody if I get too famous.
Speaker 1:So we're telling people, like we're telling our podcast clients now that you know we're going to introduce you to Zeke Rempel, he's going to take you from A to Zeke. Yeah, there you go, and it sticks.
Speaker 3:You know, it's funny when I, it's easy to sell when I have conversations with people and they're always like just do the X Y. When I have conversations with people and they're always like, just do the XYZ in the background brain I'm like that's my company.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what I. It's hard for me. You're always that like go-to. Yeah, like that's my company names.
Speaker 3:You know that it's always a plug.
Speaker 1:XYZ business, so yeah.
Speaker 3:XYZ media is the brand, that's the main brand, but I'm figuring out that I can't really market that because it has a podcast in its name or it doesn't have XYZ YouTube channel or anything like that. So I'm actually kind of in the middle of shaping that. Xyz Media is kind of like my parent company, which is like the company that services everything, which is not only the studio which is a part of it, it's also educational products that I'm going to sell, which I am selling. I'm doing programs. Some people on YouTube and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:And then also it's going to be where my podcast is kind of home to, to help people. Yep, like the XYZ podcast. It's kind of under that umbrella too. So the podcast studio is actually called XYZ podcast studio. Now, that's what the Instagram handle is, okay. So people just like, just want to know about the studio. It's so much easier to find xyz podcast studio yep, and I actually found that my marketing has like skyrocketed since I've done that change.
Speaker 3:I've gotten so much more interaction with people, people interested to come in, because it's in the name because it's in the name and people know what it is. And I've also been more active with like doing stories about what I'm doing and that's a whole nother ballgame, just being more active on on instagram.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was another change we made.
Speaker 2:So for the grit and grow podcast it went from originally it was real talk with jay and brian, and then and then it went to not long, though it wasn't too long before we we went to the jay and brian show and then we we slowly too slowly in my opinion realized that that nobody really knows who jay and brian are and and we also didn't really have this amazing direction for our podcast. We were interviewing really cool people. We had Jim Reynolds on the show, major League Baseball umpire, and that was cool for me because I grew up playing baseball and I got to ask him all these questions. But once we realized that we were really passionate about entrepreneurialism and small business owners and wanting to also help promote small businesses in our community.
Speaker 1:Well, it seemed like that was our primary guest that we kept going back to was entrepreneurs and local communicators and influencers. It seemed like that was our direction.
Speaker 2:We wanted the podcast name to say to state out loud what is our show. And so we, through a lot of sort of trial and error and what's available and what's not, we landed on grit and grow podcast. It takes a lot of grit to be an entrepreneur and a small business owner and to to weather the ups and downs and to um. You know, anybody who's been an entrepreneur has experienced having the last 20 bucks in their wallet but still having that grit and that commitment to to push through and and see it, see it through, um, and. But we realized that we still needed to grit, and that's awesome and grow right. Every small business owner wants to grow, but we still want to say clearly who it is. We're actually who it's for, and so that's, it's the grit and grow and, in our logo, entrepreneur podcast, and we're hopeful that that that really does help us reach that next level that we think we can.
Speaker 3:I think. So I mean, you mentioned before this that YouTube kind of picked it up a little bit. You got kind of an influx from the managing channels on the back end. The right verbiage is very important and most people that I'd say there's an importance of personal branding and including your name on everything. But to get there to know that personal branding and including your name on everything, but to get there to know that to get to where your name means something, you have to use the right verbiage and to reach the right people.
Speaker 2:It's with Jay and Brian.
Speaker 3:still Make sure that stays as a hashtag, though, because you never know when people really want to deep dive into your content and let's say you well, and because it was, that was one of the hesitations that we had to get away from the name the Jay and Brian show was that it was the Jay and Brian show for three years you know, and so we have all this you know, brian mentioned, uh, jim Reynolds.
Speaker 1:Jim was great, uh, great guests Uh, but he announced his retirement from major league baseball on our show and so we got picked up. The J and Brian show got picked up from his announcement of his retirement across all these different like sports media giving the J and Brian show credit for plugging the J and. Brian show for.
Speaker 3:Jim announcing his retirement on our show.
Speaker 1:So I was really hesitant to like oh my gosh, we give up all this. You know this, you know indirect exposure. That we got you know through his announcement and anyway we decided that it was going to be best it was hard.
Speaker 2:It was hard but we, you know, we kind of had a you know for lack of a better term you know kind of a come to Jesus conversation about where we were at with our podcast and I think ultimately we really we looked at it and we said, you know, our podcast and I think ultimately we really we looked at it and we said you know, our, our, our subscriber base, our viewer base is really not crazy big yet and and we we can pivot and change, and I think this will.
Speaker 2:This will be a really positive change for us, because it really is what we want to do with our podcast, who we want to talk to, how we're going to deliver it.
Speaker 1:And it really is what our listeners and viewers expect from us. So it is our product and so all we've done is just kind of, you know, more, narrow it down, to make it more specific, and I think because of that, our, our channels, our influence, it'll just continue to grow.
Speaker 2:And it's a perfect example of of of Jay and I, and like our history of being entrepreneurs and like let we need to go in this direction now yeah, we need. We need to change this up.
Speaker 3:And I think that I think it goes for all businesses.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Even, I'd say even like content creators and doing anything. I mean, the more broad you are, the harder it is to actually, you know, make a footprint.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, that's. That's a, I think, a key and you're you're also an expert on this but to establishing a podcast, you want to be as specific as you possibly can in the beginning yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I think as you, which part of what I really do is I help content creators or people who have existing followings add a podcast to their strategy because they have become so, um successful in their niche.
Speaker 3:But to get to that level, they had to, they had to pick it like, add something that's going to really yes, like, find that audience that you can really connect with and pretty much provide for you in a way, if you really want to talk about it that way, and then, once you've achieved that, I offer that next step of like well, I can't do this for the next 20 years of my life, what am I going to do? So then? Adding a podcast to it just gets them to chase their curiosities a little bit more so they can have conversations a little bit outside of their boundaries but still talk about the stuff they know about.
Speaker 1:It just adds a lot more freedom and flexibility, and it's less two-dimensional too, because you've got the legacy of the content. These podcast shows are going to live on, probably forever.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and are going to live on probably forever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if it's on YouTube, it really is going to live on forever.
Speaker 3:I would say and YouTube is probably out of all the platforms, I think it's probably going to be around the longest. I mean, like I've had an influx of business from people on TikTok because of the fear that they're going to lose everything. So TikTok influencers have been starting to create podcasts and it's not like they can just, you know, they have to just leave their tiktok. You know strategy behind, because they can still post their clips from their podcast on tiktok and just, yeah, you're just adding more content and you can get like what four hours of your month that you do, you can get four episodes. Uh, that's just endless amounts of content, really. So, yeah, that was that's another part of my business. I help people kind of take that next step of like freedom to, kind of, because if you're in the content grind, you know I mean you guys kind of know this it's hard.
Speaker 1:Yes it is hard, it's a train of content that just never stops.
Speaker 2:It is hard. You got to keep putting it out there. Yeah, it doesn't stop. So what's next for XYZ Media?
Speaker 3:What should everybody know about where where xyz media is going? Yeah, so I kind of mentioned I'm kind of pivoting into more of the educational realm, okay, of helping people with their youtube channels or podcasts. I've launched my podcast to kind of talk about uh, which I had you guys on. I don't know if that will be up. We'll. We'll figure it out because of schedules.
Speaker 2:I don't know where they're at with their episodes.
Speaker 3:I don't know where they're at with their episodes. I don't know where I'm at with my episodes, but, uh, I started my podcast to kind of uh, give people a little bit more uh behind the curtain of, like, what's going on with, to get to the X, y, z, so to say. So, entrepreneurship is kind of along the line, along the lines, but I also want to interview people outside of entrepreneurship that maybe are just successful stay-at-home dads. You know, they figured out the xyz to be a great dad, you know, and so I like that term, xyz, because it's so universal. I could do it for podcasting, but I also can do it for the show, because what I'm really curious about is just how to be the best version of myself.
Speaker 3:And I think that asking those questions that you know, some of the conversations we've had on the show can have gotten a little emotional, like with my dad Talked about being adopted and, you know, figuring out where does he go from here, you know, and does he ask about his birth parents and all that. So asking those questions are really powerful. But then it's also on the fun side. It's like asking a content creator well, how did you get to like a million subscribers? What was that journey. Like you know what was that X, Y, z? Because it's just we're in a world of such so much finished product. Yeah, and Instagram. You see, you know finished bodies of going through gym transformations. You see people making so much money with their nice cars and then in 30 seconds, in 30 seconds, 60 seconds.
Speaker 3:And I think that's been around for social media for a long time but I think that my generation specifically needs a little bit more of a framework, because there's also people trying to sell everybody on education and all that, and I just want to have conversations like how did you get there? How did you acquire?
Speaker 3:knowledge and any of it and it's again, to be the best version of yourself doesn't mean you have to be a business owner. You could again, you could just be a dad, just wanting to be a better dad, and so some episodes will appeal to others, some episodes I'm starting kind of broad, which is probably what I'm telling people not not to do. But I also want to chase my curiosity and I'm more using it as a model, a model for my business. And if it goes somewhere, great, if I, you know, really get the data and say all my viewers are dads, then I'll produce more dads content, obviously, and I'll lean into it. But I think for now I just want to chase my curiosity. So I'm doing that.
Speaker 3:Xyz Media, again, is starting more educational products and the podcast studio. It's growing. I'm in this space for probably another two years. I'm in this space for probably another two years, but I'm hoping I'm at the growth rate where I'm probably going to outgrow this and need more sets, more individualized rooms so people can record at the same time. Right, I'll need more staff. So things are growing and if you want your studio, you want your podcast to be hosted in a studio, we can help you. And oh, also, I'm also launching one other thing. It's still in the works, uh, but it's actually a travel. We come to you and we're batch record your content oh cool. So we've had a lot of people ask what is the price to bring our studio to them wow, okay, so how do you go about this?
Speaker 2:so I've kind of mapped this out. There's a lot of moving parts. Yes, there are. There's a lot of moving parts to this.
Speaker 3:So I have a friend that's a wedding videographer. He goes all over the country, he's a high-end one and I kind of picked his brain a little bit. I'm like, how do you? Because his break is bigger than mine and I'm a podcast, he has more gear than I do. I picked his brain a little bit. So basically, my battle plan is how it would work is that I rent out Airbnb in that city that maybe is visually appealing, and I pretty much bring my team to the Airbnb and set up our studio in a controlled environment.
Speaker 3:Oh my, Awesome that sounds awesome, and then we schedule out the days to be hey, you can come in film as much content as you can. You can probably book out two or three days, come in batch record and you get maybe two or three months' worth of your episodes, and then we just have all your footage and we go home. That's kind of like the upper high-ticket offers that we're thinking about offering. We've had a couple of people ask us about it, but it's a lot of work to figure out.
Speaker 1:travel have you tested it yet.
Speaker 3:So there's, our test is coming up. Okay. Thinking about someone's interested in it, okay. The other caveat to that is that it's building people's studios and then going into their spaces and helping them build that a little bit. But, honestly, I'd rather educate somebody on how to do that themselves, because every space is different, and so maybe selling, like you know, some type of more education well, everybody has a different idea of what they want their studio to look like and feel like, and that I feel like capturing that would be a lot harder, yeah, whereas if we go to airbnb, we just set up something that they think they would like Most people, just at that level.
Speaker 3:People just want it done for them. They don't want to think about it. Yeah, so if you're building out your own studio, you should care. You're going to care a little bit more about what it looks like, and so I'd rather answer questions about what things they should buy, versus this is what you should do, yeah. So, yeah, I think that's kind of it Awesome, I mean.
Speaker 2:I this has been such a really cool car.
Speaker 2:I want to keep talking to Zeke because I feel like I'm, learning so much Um but um so great having you on the show and thank you again so much for welcoming us into your studio, from from a film editor to to broadcast producer to um, ultimately, podcast guru and and business owner Zeke. You've accomplished a lot. We really appreciate your time and thank you for being on the show. We're going to have, like we said, we're going to have links to XYZ Media down in our description. We really do hope you reach out to Zeke if you're thinking about a podcast. Really do hope you reach out to Zeke if you're thinking about a podcast.
Speaker 2:Again, you get creative services. You get strategizing for how to grow your podcast. It's not just point and shoot with Zeke and XYZ Media, it's really the whole package which matters so much when you're trying to plan out a podcast. So definitely check out what Zeke has to offer. And thank you guys so much for joining us again on another episode of the Grit and Grow podcast. We look forward to talking to you guys again someday soon. Thanks again.
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