#61: 2025 Recap - Reflections and Lessons Learned from 50 Episodes of OTG

One Thousand Gurus 2025 Recap: Reflections, Gratitude, and Future Goals

In this special episode of One Thousand Gurus, host J.R. Yonocruz reflects on the journey of the podcast from its inception in 2018 to its launch in 2024, inspired by Tim Ferriss. Celebrating the New Year and new season, J.R. reviews the past year’s milestones, shares gratitude for those who supported him, and discusses lessons learned. Listeners will gain insights into the podcast's origin, development process, and the host’s long-term vision. J.R. also outlines future plans, including new formats, possible collaborations, Patreon initiatives, and a call to action for potential team members.

Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to the 2025 Recap Episode
00:49 The Origin Story of One Thousand Gurus
05:44 Launching the Podcast: Challenges and Solutions
17:07 The First Season: Lessons and Gratitude
33:09 Future Plans and Goals
39:13 Closing Remarks and Call to Action

Links/resources:

• 80/20 rule aka Pareto principle (concept - Wikipedia)
• Podcast Place (podcast studio - website)
• Sam Laliberte (podcast launch coach - website)

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the 2025 Recap Episode
• 0:49 The Origin Story of One Thousand Gurus
• 5:44 Launching the Podcast: Challenges and Solutions
• 17:07 The First Season: Lessons and Gratitude
• 33:10 Future Plans and Goals
• 39:13 Closing Remarks and Call to Action

Transcript

J.R.: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of One Thousand Gurus with me, your host, J.R. Yonocruz. So today's episode is a very special episode. I've been wanting to do this episode for a while and. This, when this episode goes live, it will be the very first episode of the New Year and the new season.

J.R.: So this is the 1000 Gurus 2025 recap episode. So there's no guest on here. It'll just be me yapping into my mic and kind of doing an overview of how the year went, but also maybe some backstory for some of you guys who don't know the story of this podcast and how it. Went from idea to launch, so I just wanted to kind of go over that, but also to recap some gratitude I had for this overall year and some of the lessons learned.

J.R.: So I guess I'll go into the overview, but basically, I wanna start with the origin story of 1000 Gurus. For people who don't really know how this podcast got started, for many of my viewers or [00:01:00] listeners, they might have come across this page from a guest that I had on the show, and it's their networks or their followers and whatnot, or friends of mine who don't really know the full story.

J.R.: For those of you don't know, I had this idea back in 2018. Actually, I had the idea of a podcast maybe years before that, but it was an actual solidified idea in 2018. And so I sat on it for a while and then finally launched it in 2024 when the universe aligned all the stars.

J.R.: Going into the story of the launch, gratitude, and then learnings that I had, that'll be at the very end of the episode. So just wanted to give that sort of brief overview. It's kind of like a recap for myself. I think it's always good to put a keystone on things after having committed to 50 episodes in 2025.

J.R.: This will be episode 61, so I would've had 60 episodes under my belt and published by then, which I'm pretty proud of actually. And it's been quite a fun journey.

J.R.: But anyways, let's go [00:02:00] into the origin of 1000 Gurus. So for those of you who don't know, I had this idea.

J.R.: That I learned from Tim Ferris, the author of the Four Hour Work Week, and quite literally like the founding guru of my endeavor into podcasting. His is like quite literally one of the only podcasts I listen to religiously pretty much every week. Every time I go to the gym.

J.R.: I figured that I really love what he does with his podcast. It's just a show about him learning from these top performers from different fields around the world. And because he has high visibility and a great network, he's able to do that with some of the most famous athletes business minds, actors and whatnot.

J.R.: And so I was like, Hey, I kind of like what he does. I would love to do that myself. And so a lot of my show is modeled after him, just like the rapid fire sections. And so I don't have any illusions of grandeur to do it at the level he does, but I figured that might as well do something that I'm interested in and pursue it and see how it goes.[00:03:00] 

J.R.: And so from Tim Ferriss, I learned of this idea that was in my head, which was going back and looking at your year when you do these yearly retrospectives and you look at your life and how it went. Kind of optimizing your life by looking back at the 80 20 rule of the 20% of activities that account for 80% of your happiness and fulfillment.

J.R.: It's the Pareto's principle or the power law, something like that. I'll kind of link a Wiki page at the end of this to explain that. If you guys have never heard of Pareto's principle or the power law or things like that, but basically it's 80 20. 80% of the results come from 20% of the actions, or 20% of the people account for 80% of the results.

J.R.: It's just an 80 20 rule like a law. And so this applies in a lot of things in nature. He gave this great idea about if you want to maximize your happiness and fulfillment, identify that small percentage or small fraction of the things that you do each year that give you the most happiness. And so when I led with that idea, I had [00:04:00] known that I wanted to start a podcast because all of my favorite interactions and memories with people were always when we sat down one-on-one and just talked for hours. Like three, four, sometimes even 6, 7, 8 hours would just fly by just yapping and talking and connecting and reflecting. Reflecting on our challenges, wins, lessons learned, et cetera.

J.R.: My only regret was that those conversations were not recorded mostly for myself to re-listen to, of course, but also it was an opportunity to share those musings and lessons learned with other people.

J.R.: So that idea was solidified in 2018, and I sat on it for years, like I mentioned. But the idea and the name of this podcast actually had not changed since 2018. So it was like 1000 gurus, and this icon that we settled on today was very similar to what it was in 2018. Up until the time I launched last June, 2024.

J.R.: And I figured that if the creative [00:05:00] idea did not change and the name did not change, then the universe must be saying it must be a good idea. And so that's what we ended up settling on and I kind of liked it. And I also ran it by the owner of Podcast Place, Solomon, who I'll mention later on too.

J.R.: And it, that it was still just an idea. I had not launched, I had not solidified anything. So I could still step back at that point and kind of, not go all in because I didn't commit to anything yet. It wasn't out there on the internet.

J.R.: He's like, what's your podcast called? And I'm like, oh, it's called 1000 Gurus. And that was the first time I had said it to someone who wasn't like a close friend of mine. And he's like, oh, I like that name. And so it was the first kind of feedback into the wild of the podcast name. Because my friends will be like, oh yeah, I like the idea and the name sounds cool, but you know, those are friends. So you kinda have to weigh those, that sort of feedback in a different way. But when I got that from a stranger, I was like, okay, that must be a sign.

J.R.: And so the idea was there, sat on it. And there are a few reasons why this podcast did not get off the ground [00:06:00] initially in 2018.

J.R.: The first point is that one, I had no clarity on how to even launch a podcast, even though it seems relatively straightforward and even for some people don't, who don't know, like I never intended this podcast to be a video podcast. I was always way more curious and drawn to audio, only because less editing, less overhead, less having to deal with these digital assets and large files and whatnot.

J.R.: And I knew I wanted it to be long form, just like, the Tim Ferra show, the podcast I was referring to. And so I like the idea of it being audio because it's easier to edit smaller files and I can basically do it anywhere without having to worry about filming, lighting, background, et cetera. And it's just much easier to produce audio only.

J.R.: But ultimately I decided that, okay, well it's not too much of a heavy lift to just throw in video as well. And so I guess I'm kind of jumping the gun here. But decided to just, okay, we'll do video and audio because I also need those reels, those short form clips to throw up on social media [00:07:00] for, visibility and um, findability, I guess, of the podcast because it kind of doesn't make any sense to not put short form snippets on social media like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram for the findability.

J.R.: Because it's probably almost impossible to find just a podcast unless you're just that type of person who browses podcasts to listen to. I think for findability, having short form and leading to my main channels is kind of key. So I'm like, okay, whatever. We'll do that. Anyways, going back, I had no clarity in how to launch a podcast, but I knew the general idea.

J.R.: I knew that when you clicked onto one of these platforms, like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you need a name, a category description and cover art. But I'm not really designer and I didn't really know how to design cover arts. I could ask friends, I kind of just sat on it.

J.R.: I knew that you host it somewhere and then from that hosting where you host the audio, it shoots it out, RSS feed to these other platforms and possibly YouTube. So I had a general idea, but I didn't really have clarity. And so that [00:08:00] lack of clarity stopped me.

J.R.: Two, it was also a lower priority 'cause I had a lot of other stuff going on during those last few years, like for example.

J.R.: I just got outta a long-term relationship in 2018. But that wasn't really a huge hindrance. But it was mostly because I joined Koreos at the beginning of 2019. Auditioned for the end of 2018 and I was also actively teaching K-Pop dances weekly. So aside from my job and my social life and dating life, and then now my dance life dramatically decreased my capacity, increased my commitments.

J.R.: Soon after that, the next year the pandemic hit. And we started building out a social media channel with my girlfriend and I J.R. and Blessie. And we found our niche and that was kind of ticking off. So for the next couple years we were focusing on that. And then of course, always my priorities are my career, health and finances. Those three sort of main buckets.

J.R.: With all that being said, doing a completely new thing that I had no idea of how to start and what to do with such a low priority. So I was like, eh, it'll still be there. And then finally 2024, [00:09:00] I figured out exactly what I needed. And I don't know what spur this idea, but I was like, okay, I need a coach.

J.R.: And so I ended up finding one and I'll shout her out later on, but I found a coach on this website and she seemed to have all the credentials. She's launched dozens and dozens of other podcasts. She had her own successful podcasts, and it clearly outlined what she would help to do for an aspiring podcast host like myself, like how to launch it.

J.R.: And so it's okay, let me put my money where my mouth is. I have the funds saved up. I have a savings fund of fun investments or projects that I wanna work on. And I'm like, okay, I have a small amount of funds that I can just throw at this and see how it goes.

J.R.: So I went through that coaching and it was basically just one session on a Zoom call. And she kind of just gave me the entire roadmap of what to do, like step by step. She walked me through like how to refine the description of the podcast.

J.R.: And I trusted her. She seemed like she knew she was doing and. Then I was off to the races. It was pretty straightforward after that, it was like, okay, find a designer. Here's the name. List [00:10:00] it here. I recommend this site. So I ended up going with Buzzsprout for hosting and it was very simple and easy to follow, and so I just kinda went down that path.

J.R.: She suggested doing seasons. I would always wanted to have how the Tim Ferris show does it, which is like episode number 118 colon then the name of the guest and then the title of what they covered. So I wanted to cover that model, but she recommended doing seasons so I could break them up into these sort of sprints and then pause if I need to and iterate and adapt each season.

J.R.: And I kind of like that idea of just breaking them up even though I'm continuously committing to like one episode per week. And then. 10 episodes per season, and then five seasons per year, so 50 episodes per year. And then I'll have a few weeks break in between to just kind of catch up and recuperate.

J.R.: And so initially she, I think her clients mostly do it remotely, but I wanted to see what my options were for in studio. So I knew for one, I didn't have the space at my place to create a podcast studio. So I was [00:11:00] like, okay, I'm sure there are people online who host studios. And there were. I went on Facebook Marketplace and other places where they're like, oh yeah, here's a studio. We do music here, but we also have a little corner with a couch set up and mics. And if you want an audio engineer to listen and make sure the sound is all good, that'd be extra.

J.R.: But essentially this is what it is. And so after scoping out a handful of different places. I came across Podcast Place and that was just from like a Google search. They had a website and it seemed like a more turnkey service, like a full built out studio in Long Beach, which is close to where I live.

J.R.: So I'm like, okay, it's close by. The prices were actually very comparable for the level of service and the sort of quote unquote amenities and what they give out to you. Because these other places were like, oh yeah, here you get the space, it's per hour. But that's pretty much it. But Podcast Place was like, yeah, we'll give you files like the video file, the audio file, we'll make sure everything's clean.

J.R.: You have a nice studio space, high quality cameras, et cetera. And he does a little bit of producing, active producing. So if you want to [00:12:00] throw up like images live while you're doing the recording and things like that, it's a great service. And the crazy part was the prices were basically comparable to none of those amenities or services at the place I was looking at.

J.R.: So I was like, okay, great. And so I ended up committing to he sells them in packages, so 10, 10 session packages and that made it even a better deal. And so I was like, okay, this is clearly the superior choice out of all of my options. So I went with that lemme just commit to 10 seasons anyways.

J.R.: And my commitment was to do one season. So 10 episodes by the end of 2024. I was planning to launch in October, had the coaching in the summer plan on starting in October. The idea was to do 10 episodes as an experiment to see how it goes, and if anything else, if it turned out, not really good, I can always just cut the cord and just be done with it.

J.R.: But by the end of those 10 episodes, I found the entire process very enjoyable. The act of sitting down and recording in a studio and talking to a guest and going through this whole thing, even though I wasn't good at it at first, and I was floundering and doing the [00:13:00] best I could, it gave me a lot of energy.

J.R.: The overall process of producing it in combination with the podcast place for the technical side. But then once I got the files, editing it, putting it online, hosting it, and then creating short form and throwing it up on Instagram and everything like that. The whole process was very straightforward and easy.

J.R.: And even though I was kind of learning as I go, it was very fun. And even with my limited experience, it was not hard. And so the biggest question I wanted to answer was would this be sustainable? And the answer was yes. So then I committed to doing, I basically kind of went all in. I was like, F it.

J.R.: 10 years, five seasons per year, 50 50 episodes per year. Essentially, I'm committing to doing these for 10 years because inherently my goals were the following. One, I knew that a long-term commitment to refining my craft will almost guarantee I'll develop some sort of decent level of skill with this artistry called podcasting.

J.R.: And I could choose to do any other skill to develop, but I found that if I enjoyed doing [00:14:00] podcasting and I got some benefit out of it, like what I'll mention in a bit why would I not do this for 10 years? There's basically a no lose situation aside from the costs and the time to do it. But if you know the times it's gonna go by anyways. I might as well do something I enjoy. And I found out that I enjoyed producing 10 episodes. So I was like, okay, great. It's sustainable and I'll commit to it. Second, each episode is an instant win because I'll always be learning. That's the whole point of the show, is I'm trying to talk with the guests, learn their story, and learn what they learned on their story.

J.R.: And so, I'm committing to the ethos of everyone has something to learn if we listen. So it's kind of a reminder to myself to always be a student. Third, it was giving me the opportunity to reconnect with and deepen existing relationships, which is always a good thing. And it opens up the possibility to expand my current network, which is always a high leverage endeavor to improving the quality of life and opportunities that I open up myself to as I build this platform out and as I connect with people and keep my mind [00:15:00] open to the possibilities of what people are doing and what I can learn from them.

J.R.: And so building this platform to almost use it as like a mechanism to network and have them on the show and learn from them and share that with other people. It's kinda like a triple win. They win, they get to share their story, and maybe they like to teach and share. I get to learn and then my audience gets to learn.

J.R.: And fourth, my fourth goal was potentially this being a business or an additional revenue stream in three to five years as I refine my craft and focus on adding value to my audience. And so I knew right away that I'm not going to be focused on making money from this as I don't want that desire to need to create revenue from this to be influencing the direction of my podcast, if that makes sense.

J.R.: I think the essence of this podcast, or my focus was always for me to learn, but also the audience to learn and then get inspired by my guests. And I can't do that if I'm focused on trying to make money from it and if I'm trying to get good at this craft. [00:16:00] Right? So basically focusing on the craft first, enjoying the process and the journey along the way.

J.R.: And I know eventually if I keep doing those things and I develop enough of a skill level of it, eventually the money will come. So I faith in that. And I'm also very fortunate and lucky enough that my finances are good, my career is good. I don't need this to work. I know for other people that might be more of a winning strategy of quote unquote burning the boats, burning the ships so that you have to make this work and then you learn faster because of that need and desire.

J.R.: But I never wanted this podcast to be fueled by that need to make money and make it my living. And so I'm grateful and fortunate, and lucky to be able to be more chill and let this podcast be essentially what it's meant to be, which is like a passion project that potentially can be a business venture, but it's still focused on just the spirit of learning and sharing and growing.

J.R.: And so hence the 10 year commitment because I knew that if I focus on the craft, the money will follow because. I'm allowing my skills over time to compound for the long term. And when that skill compounds over the long [00:17:00] term, eventually it'll be a quote unquote overnight success. Right?

J.R.: And even if that never happens, I have no illusions of grandeur that I'll become this super famous podcaster. But if I focus on just enjoying the process and learning and growing, even just this fraction of percent each episode, I know that I'll never lose and it'll always be worth my time.

J.R.: That was kind of the overview of what 1000 Gurus is, and now I kinda wanna go into gratitude again, a key focus of this show.

J.R.: I'm grateful that this vision came to life. It's always so satisfying when you have a vision for yourself or something you wanna do, or build or grow, something to happen, a goal that you set for yourself, and then it comes to life, and then you get to see a year's worth of results and commitments to that.

J.R.: It's such a gratifying feeling, and I'm sure some of you guys can relate to that when you've ever focused on achieving something and it happens and you're like, wow that happiness from that achievement is unparalleled, right? So some people that helped me along the way that I'm grateful for, again, my podcast launch Coach Sam La Liberte.

J.R.: I'm not really [00:18:00] sure. Libert. However you wanna pronounce it. I don't remember. I apologize. But I'll link to her website in the show description. She was amazing. Again, I only really talked to her for. 50 minutes, but that 50 minutes was pivotal in me launching this podcast 'cause it helped.

J.R.: Solomon and Podcast Place. I always give him his shoutouts and his businesses shoutouts. But without podcast place for these first six seasons, I, the show would not be where it is today. And even though we're moving to more remote format because of flexibility. Being on Riverside and doing this virtual format is way more flexible for my guests. And it's obviously more cost effective, but it's mostly just the scheduling thing. I can have more flexibility with timing as well, meaning that I'm not time blocked by one hour, which I'm grateful for because that one hour forced me to be creative and work within those constraints and develop my show format. But now that I've developed 60 episodes of that and I can really hone in and work on the flow of my conversation and leading the conversation and having some sort of [00:19:00] structure, but also freestyle. Now I can take that and open it up to even longer than one episode.

J.R.: So I've had episodes that were an hour and a half, two hours, two and a half hours. If it weren't for that one hour constraint, I wouldn't have learned how to be good enough to handle a two hour show, if that makes sense. And not go totally off the rails.

J.R.: My podcast, inspiration and or Hero, Tim Ferriss. I think one of my goals is to obviously have him on the show and or be on his show. Dunno if it'll ever happen, but again, it's like my princess dream to be like, dang, Tim Ferriss has inspired me since I read the four hour work week and changed my life about how I see, creating time and money, freedom and optimizing my life, productivity, et cetera. And now I'm following his footsteps with this podcast. And so I, give him his flowers 'cause he's a huge inspiration for the show.

J.R.: My friend Shasia, who is also a guest, but also helps me schedule and review edits for my short form. For those of you who don't know, once I go through the episode and edit it, I'll go through and find anywhere from three to five short form, one minute or less reels or short form contents that will be cross posted [00:20:00] on YouTube, Instagram, and, tikTok. And then she just kind of looks over it for any errors. We'll kind of adjust spacing or layout and whatnot, and then we'll schedule it on those platforms for me. So I'm really grateful for her for that to work with her because, I highly trust her and her skill level, but also we have good rapport and we work well together working on our dance team Koreos.

J.R.: All the people who inspired me with their conversations over the years. So not limited to and including my little brother who he's episode 59, if I'm not mistaking this. So his episode would've been out. Jacob Kanunu Potts. Some of my other guests who have been on the show such as Julie, Aeden, Justin, Shasia, my parents, other friends that I've had really deep and intellectual, vulnerable conversations with. Definitely the inspiration for me wanting to do more of that and make it into a podcast.

J.R.: My friends who cheered me on when this podcast was just an idea, and they supported me every step of the way for the last 15 months. As this idea was coming along and I was getting more clarity in how to approach launching a [00:21:00] podcast, they were always cheering me on, being like, yeah, oh, I love that idea. I'm so excited for you. I can't wait for you to do it. I'm gonna subscribe and listen to episodes and whatnot. And so just appreciate that sort of initial support, even when it's just an idea.

J.R.: Next, i'm grateful for all of my guests, especially my season one and season two guests who took a chance on me without even a proof of concept. I'm just like, Hey, I'm launching this podcast. It's called 1000 Gurus. I'll send you an email. Time location, et cetera. And they're just so down. So I'm so grateful that without even having a show, they were just gracious enough to come on and donate their time. I mentioned this in some of the episodes, but 90% of my guests have never done this before. Especially talking on a long form format and on camera, and maybe they don't feel like they should or deserve to be on a platform or platform, but I'm grateful that they were gracious enough to step out of their comfort zone. And also of course, letting me use our conversations as content to share with the world. 'cause again, not everyone wants to put their face and their voice out there for the internet, and most people are fine with it. But again I understand that people have different [00:22:00] levels of comfort for that. So I really appreciate 'em for that.

J.R.: All of the topics and vulnerable conversations that we've had over these last 60 episodes. Again, it's one of those things where it's not really a normal thing most people do is share some vulnerable stories and their lessons learned with other people. So I'm very grateful that they were open enough to share.

J.R.: Letting me hone and refine my craft on them and cut my teeth on podcasting. So again, this is for all of my guests. By them being on the show, it's allowed me to learn and be a better podcast host and conversation facilitator. I'm grateful to all the people of the internet who just enjoy and engage with my content, whether they be followers of my guests, followers of my show, or they just stumble upon it. If it inspires them or gives them some sort of insight in some way, that's the whole point of this podcast really. I'm not trying to change the world necessarily, but I think just telling stories and passing along lessons is valuable and enough to make this endeavor worth it.

J.R.: Arguably most important connecting with my guests. I'm grateful to be able to connect with them. Some of my guests were old friends who I haven't talked to in years, [00:23:00] and I was able to connect with them, catch up with them, and have this moments, this one hour or so period of recorded time. And then also, once it's recorded, we can look back on it and listen to it. So it's kind of like a really nice memento of this gift that we can look back on, this conversation, this recording, in a format that they can share with their friends and family.

J.R.: And I think it's such a great thing. Again, it's one of those like double, triple wins where there's no losing in that point. Some of my guests who are newer friends or acquaintances. It was nice to get to know them and their backstory a little bit more deeply. Of course, not all my guests, I'm close friends with. In fact, some of 'em I've talked to once. Some of 'em I never really talked to. And when I reached out, they were gracious enough to be like, yeah, I'm so totally down to do this. I may or may not have ever done this before. So their generosity to come onto the show. I really appreciate that.

J.R.: And of course some of these guests, I'm also very aware that I may never talk to some of these people again for many more years or even ever. That's always a possibility. We never know what life has in store, [00:24:00] but I'm still grateful to have spent the quality time together and connect with them and learn from them and their story.

J.R.: And lastly, connecting you to them. I'm very grateful that I'm able to connect these stories and lessons with you guys who are listening, as I wholeheartedly believe that every episode you can learn something from them. And hopefully my actions speak louder than words. As long as you take the time to listen, you always have something to learn from people.

J.R.: All right, and now learning. Fast experiments with season one. I knew that I wanted to, like I mentioned, make this a fast and quick experiments with season one to see if I could do it, to see if I liked it, and if I could commit to a year 50 episodes. Turns out I could. I did it. It was challenging, but still very doable and I know I can replicate this for the next 10 years, and in fact, I imagine it'll get easier along the way as I streamline this process and within the next year or two years or so as I onboard some people to help me produce this podcast, whether I hire virtual assistants or editing assistants or people to help with the contents in general. I know it'll get easier. [00:25:00] But I will cross that threshold once it becomes revenue generating and I can make money or have this podcast sustain itself through Patreon, which I just created and open, and I'll start to develop that out over the course of the year.

J.R.: So that it can sustain itself and possibly help with producing . And it'll free up my time to be able to do some other projects that I wanna do while still committing to my 50 episodes a year.

J.R.: What else did I learn? I also learned what my verbal ticks are, which is very obvious when I'm editing every single second of every single podcast episode that are one hour plus.

J.R.: And because I'm listening to myself give these ums, uhs, and likes, I'm so hyper aware of them as I talk now. And so I think I've reduced them dramatically and I'm working on slowing down thinking and clarifying my thoughts and being more concise and clear with my language. So that is a win.

J.R.: I also learned how to guide conversations more effectively and ask better questions at the right times via deeper listening and kind of being more [00:26:00] engaged in the podcast. But also I am multitasking because I'm keeping track of time. I'm guiding the conversation. I'm facilitating deeper thoughts, listening and contributing, and thinking of follow up questions. I'm doing like multiple things at once. I'm like captaining the ship and also doing all the roles while also trying to engage and ask good questions so that I'm sitting in for the audience and making sure we hit all the points that makes the most sense, and answering questions that might be lingering. But it's been fun though to have to develop that skillset.

J.R.: I learned how to help my guests feel more comfortable in warming them up earlier in the conversation. And ideally beforehand, like if we have a pre-meeting at a Starbucks that we go to that's close by to the studio or just talking before the recording, if it's virtual to facilitate a better interview and conversation with small talk and then easing their worries and anxiety which happens to be most of my guests.

J.R.: They all understandably are very nervous and anxious coming onto a show and having to speak and be interviewed. And so I've developed that skill of building that [00:27:00] rapport, warming them up. Getting the juices flowing, the brain juices and also the process of questioning.

J.R.: I learned that you kind of had to start with the easier questions, just kinda like facts, like where did you grow up and, how was this? And then go into opinions on what they think of things and their story, and then go into those deeper reflections. You kind of have to go in that order. If you try to go straight into deeper reflections. It's kind of a hard sell and their brains aren't really warmed up yet to get to that point. And I found that the more effective I do that the better answers and the better interview they'll be.

J.R.: Guiding conversations and interviewing. As I've, done this podcast, I'm also very hyper aware when I watch other interviews and how the masters do it.

J.R.: All the people that came before me and do at such a high level. I know that each type of platform and interview, they're all different. Interviewing for a one hour podcast is different than a 20 minute podcast than like a news segment or like a comedy show or things like that. Like they're all different formats, but I think there's always something to learn from those styles of interviews and conversations, which is great.

J.R.: I also learned freestyling and improv [00:28:00] during the convo, which is something that I've developed over time over the years in general. Being really good with one-on-one conversations.

J.R.: I've been decent with this, but I've definitely been getting better because sometimes as you're listening and engaging, you kind of have to freestyle and improv the questions and facilitating and guiding the right direction, the most fruitful direction, right? Reading the room developing my own style.

J.R.: So my style, if you're a listener of the show, I'm very intellectually curious. Kind of lighthearted and fun. I like to find where the possibilities for pockets of humor are, and the right timing, obviously not too out of pocket or anything. But also always being willing to dig deeper and facilitate a safe environment for my guests to go into those vulnerable topics, I think is a very important nuance or skillset to develop as well.

J.R.: I learned how to edit short form podcast content with practicing three to five short form reel, short form content per episode. Which is looking [00:29:00] at the timing, the pacing, finding the best content out of the one hour's worth of recording. Editing to emphasize the main point of that, less than one minute clip, and then cutting out the fluff. As well as we've slightly improved the look and feel of the short form over time. Like the font, the color, the style of the captions and the header text and what it looks like. And as I do these virtual recordings and I can kind of adjust the camera sizing and spacing or the cropping. And so learning that has been fun.

J.R.: Learning new softwares and getting more experience with older ones like Final Cut Pro, descrip Riverside, buzz Sprout. They've all been helpful. And there's these built-in AI tools that really, really, really, really help out a lot with cleaning up the audio and helping me find those parts. And just overall editing too. These softwares make it so, so much easier than it would've been if I tried to do any of this without that.

J.R.: One of the biggest challenges that I always tell people when they ask me about the podcast is scheduling. Scheduling is the bane of my existence. And it's because [00:30:00] understandably people have different lives and scheduling and the time capacities and abilities to go on a podcast. And the constraint of doing it in studio in Long Beach was always a big hindrance because obviously a lot of my potential guests do not live in the area, and having them carve out a one and a half hour time block of their week of their day to do this is always very difficult and so very understandable. But it's always such a headache. Because it's like they might want to go but they just don't have the capacity, or they're just booked for the next three months.

J.R.: So I've learned how to solve for this by having a huge booking list. So I have a backlog of eight to 10 guests at any point in time. Trying to space them out each week for the recording and booking out months in advance, like two, three months sometimes in advance, which sounds kind of crazy. But that's just kind of what you have to deal with when people are just so busy and, or they have other priorities so they can't just jump on a podcast.

J.R.: So I do have friends, shout out Yerson, who really pulls [00:31:00] through when I'm like, Hey, I need a guest. My backlog is getting kind of light. Can you jump on the show? I said yeah I'm free in two days. We can schedule this, so I'm really grateful for people like him or Aeden who can just jump on when I need to. But yeah, dealing with sporadic availability and trying to learn and adapt and make the most of that time slot. 'cause I've obviously had guests who run late and so I kind of have to adapt with the time that we have left when we are in studio. And so those are some of the biggest challenges.

J.R.: I think the first thing that I want to outsource when I do get an assistant for this podcast to help produce the show is definitely to handle scheduling because just the back and forth for some of these the scheduling conflicts and just communicating with people. Sometimes we have guests who just are so busy they can't respond for a week, two weeks, a month sometimes. And they just keep pushing it back and it's like it's fine that we have to reschedule, but just that act of scheduling is just the hardest part of doing a podcast, honestly.

J.R.: But it's kind of the pick your poison. When I chose to do interview-based guest format podcast, I have, I'm signing up to have to deal with [00:32:00] scheduling conflicts, right? So I think the backlog thing really helped so that I always have six to eight episodes already scheduled and ready, so I don't have to scramble to get guests. But I also have a backlog of bookings lined up, anywhere from six to 10 scheduled guests in the future. And that alleviates the need to have to scramble and find guests last minute.

J.R.: Another thing I learned is how to quote unquote, look better on camera in terms of like my body posture and facial expressions. This is more prevalent in studio when it's like we have full body shots, but when I'm doing it at home and we are recording virtually, it's just, torso, right? It's just head and shoulders and whatnot. So it's not really much, but you kind of learn how to be more aware of how you're looking and everything, especially in person.

J.R.: And the last thing is formatting my intro for each episode. If you listen to the audio, if you listen to the video and you just listen to the raw video, you're never gonna hear this.

J.R.: But I do have intros with cool little intro music and outro music, but basically just learning how to deliver that intro in a more energetic kind of [00:33:00] compact way with more personality, sounding more natural, and learning what beats to hit. My first few seasons, it was just reading it off. But as I've got more comfortable with recording the intro, it sounds a little bit more natural, and I learned my cadence of how I wanna speak and then hitting the right ideas, topics, and summaries and thoughts that I wanna say at the front of the episode.

J.R.: Now just to wrap it up now, visions and goals for the future. I think I want to expand into different formats, not just the standard guru interview or a random show, which I'll have once in a while, but like topic specific random shows. An idea I have for an upcoming episode with my friend Kan, is anime discussions.

J.R.: I think with the thesis of the show, you can always learn something from someone and we're the essence of learning. One of my passions and hobbies is anime, manga, and one of the reasons why I love anime is because sometimes the protagonists or characters are just so compelling, and even though. They can have their flaws and the stories and what it's narrative driven. I think what I love most about my favorite anime [00:34:00] protagonists is that there's so much to learn and aspire to be when I look at them. For example, Zorro from one piece, my favorite character in one piece. He's such an aspirational character because he inspires you to want to be better. And I wanted to have those discussions because yeah, I can talk to people in person about their stories too. But I think a lot of these things that we can learn from people that we can learn from also exist in fictional worlds too. 'cause they might not be real people, but the essence of that person is definitely something we can all learn from.

J.R.: I also want to do book focused episodes. For those of you don't know, I have a book summary website. I've been reading two to three books a month for the last 10 years, and I've been also writing up summaries and posting them online, which have been doing well because now their website sustains and funds itself through donations and whatnot.

J.R.: But, there's a lot to be learned from books. The whole theme of my life is learning and teaching. And so bringing in some of my favorite books and authors onto the show. I still dunno what the format will be, but I know it might be either [00:35:00] topic focused or just book focused in general.

J.R.: Whether it's just me yapping into the mic for, maybe 30 minutes or something like that, just to focus on a certain book, my takeaways and lessons and highlights and whatnot. And hopefully there been no problems with that, or if I wanna bring on someone else to talk about these books with me, I still have yet to figure out, potential guests for that.

J.R.: And then also recap summary, highlight episodes for the month or season. I think as I start to build out this library, I can go back into the library and find my favorite snippets of each episode and post that up as like a recap or summary or highlight episode for the season or the month or something like that, which I think would be super fun.

J.R.: Also, I mentioned Patreon. So I'm been, I've been brainstorming content that I can do for Patreon, since that's what a lot of other podcasts platforms will do. So some ideas that I've had are like early access to episodes, since I have a backlog of six to 10 episodes at any point in time. Access to the recording schedule, member outs, exclusive [00:36:00] episodes, live audience q and a, 30 second voicemails at the end of each episode.

J.R.: I think some of those will be really fun. We'll see what kind of works and what people wanna do. But since I have this virtual format, it's possible to have people come on and be kind of like a live audience or submit q and as as we record these episodes. So that should be really fun if that's something people wanna do.

J.R.: I have been doing blog summary recaps of each 1000 gurus episode on my main website. So this is already in progress. By the time this episode launches, I'll probably have 20 plus episodes in blog format on my main website, marloyonocruz.com. And it kind of just gives the highlights of each episode, a link to the audio version and a link to the Instagram post that shows the marketing photo of the guests. So you can kind of click into it and see what it's all about.

J.R.: Possible collabs and sponsorships, if it makes sense. So again, I wasn't really planning on making money off of this platform for the next, two to three to five years once I really honed my craft. But I think I am still looking long term.

J.R.: And so just exploring [00:37:00] those opportunities for possible collabs and sponsorships. I already know that I'm committing to only partnering up with sponsors that I really resonate with, like whose products and services I already actively use or really believe in. And not really just these random sponsorships that don't really mean anything to me. I want to only advertise and put my name behind products, companies, and services that I really believe in and that I'm a customer of myself. So that when people listen to my promotional content, they will know that I'm fully endorsing it, and it's not just because of a paycheck.

J.R.: And lastly, one of my goals is to scale up my team by expanding it with editors, content managers, virtual assistants for scheduling, as I mentioned, and episode research. And possibly someone to help with outreach for collabs and sponsorships. And so this is a call to action if you have any of those skill sets, if you're interested in working with my platform. Again, it doesn't make any money, so it might just be for the experience. Or if you just really have a passion [00:38:00] and want to work on something and add that to your resume. Or if you just like the thesis of the show and want to grow with it. And as the show starts to make money, then you'll be on the ground level of that and then we can hopefully turn this into something. But yeah, call to action if you wanna be a part of the show, if you wanna help out, if you have any skill sets that the show needs and are just interested in, generally in the show, just reach out to me.

J.R.: That's what we got going on for the rest of 1000 gurus. So grateful for this last year, 60 episodes in. All of my guests were amazing. The learnings. I listened to every episode at least four or five times.

J.R.: I'm excited for the future and just generally looking forward to everything else that this has in store. Be on the lookout for more episodes, different formats and things like that. I might start plugging some side projects that I have going on too. I'm really vamping up on relationship coaching.

J.R.: I recently launched an online digital product store with learning guides and audio books. Right now it's financial literacy, so I have, three guides on how to [00:39:00] learn about personal finance and really just get you in the right direction. Something I really believe in, it was a side passion project that I've been working on for the last few weeks. And it's now live so go check that out on my website, marloyonocruz.com. Click on guides. Or it's on my stan account. stan.store/marloyonoc ruz. You'll find it in one of my links if you just go to my website. Check that out. Highly recommend it. I'll be creating more guides on relationships, productivity, et cetera.

J.R.: Alright, so that is it. That's all I have planned for this episode. As we wind to close, I wanna thank you guys for being here, for listening as usual.

J.R.: Make sure to like, subscribe, follow, let me know what you want to hear more of. Leave me love in the comments if you'd like to. That's totally cool. It'll make me happy. What kind of guests, if you have any guest referrals, if you have any ideas or topics that you want me to cover, things like that, just let me know.

J.R.: Anywhere in the comments. I'm sure I'll see it. And reminder to always be kind to other people, especially yourself. And remember that you can always learn something from someone if you take the time to listen. So thank you [00:40:00] guys for being here.