Vernon Foster II is the founder of the podcasting company Pod Parrot and former host of the Live by the Beat and Event Supremacy podcasts. In this episode he talks about knowing when to quit, visualizing your future, and pivoting his way into a podcasting company.

• launched Live by the Beat podcast in 2013 talking to music producers and DJs, lasted 2 months
• threw live events at the same time as the podcast
• launched second podcast Event Supremacy with a set strategy, lasted around a year
• used podcast as an opportunity to meet people
• previous podcast because he tried the John Lee Dumas strategy of 7 days a week
• saw that others were probably having the same struggles and started Pod Parrot
• people started coming to him as the podcast guy, had to decide between Event Supremacy and Pod Parrot
• made Pod Parrot his priority, made videos and targeted in a specific audience – small business, authors, speakers, and coaches
• chose clients that had a sustainable income and revenue
• DJed for ten years starting in 2004, was a turntablist like Qbert & DJ Craze
• put himself through college by DJing
• was working full time in real estate, and asked himself if it was the lifestyle he wanted
• walked into his boss’s office and quit
• Florida Music Festival – event for Indie Music Bands & UCF
• created party called Ignition, planned in three months
• first night had 1,500 people and sold out without a headliner
• the worst thing you can do to figure out if you should pursue your dreams is ask other people because they don’t want to see you struggle

“You have to get real honest with yourself. Take a couple of days and ask yourself what you want out of life.”

• what do you want your life to look like one, three, five years from now
• Jason Womack – Your Best Just Got Better, Get Momentum Program
• what does your ideal look like
• Steps: ask yourself what you want, write it down, reverse engineer it

“There’s going to be some sacrifices. It’s not going to be easy.”

• you’re not going to have as many luxuries many people enjoy
• cut out things you want and put them in a book

“I own my morning. I don’t let anybody control my morning. I Don’t check my e-mail. I don’t check my phone.”

• dedicate first hour of day solely for meditation, vision book, reading something to get mind in positive state, and write three things in gratitude journal

• I believe the universe will give you what you want if you ask.
• lived in Guatamala for a month, had pictures in his vision book of going to Ibiza
• met girl who was from Ibiza in Guatamala, she came to visit him in the US later, saw his vision book and recognized her home
• book started as a vision board, got sick of it so he put it in a book so he could travel with it
• Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich
• quit on DJing  because he DJed wedding and botched a song
• played Elvis remix instead of original song, switched songs randomly, but it ended up being father daughter dance
• music is one of the most powerful things in life, you don’t need to know the language to understand it, it has the power to change the world
• DJing pushed him to get creative and think about new opportunities, skills he had, and how he can charge for it
• it’s okay to pivot and make moves as long as you know why you’re doing it

• when you do the work, you find out what you don’t want to do
• when he is having trouble as an entrepreneur, he thinks back to all the bad jobs he had and remembers that he’s in charge
• quit his job without having anything lined up
• works with people who have a message that they want to get out there
• podcasting can be listened to anywhere without interrupting daily schedule, it’s on demand
• John Lee Dumas and Pat Flynn, Jared Easely and Dan Franks Podcast Movement
• at the forefront of helping small businesses
• Pod Parrot helps people launch and do back-end work, clients just record audio and send to them
• we grow as the need of our customers grow, we are small for a reason, wants to use people as a testimony of what company can do
• making money means solving more problems for clients
• downloads/New & Noteworthy vs. making money/giving value
• being the Lamborghini of the industry vs. the Volkwagen
• entrepreneurs couldn’t afford services, so they turned to small businesses
• what are the needs of your customers?
• podcasts are an innovative way of keeping the conversation going, makes for a great business card
• look to see where the holes are in the market, what the problems are, and solving those problems

“No one wants to hire someone to do something. They are hiring to solve a problem.”

“We want to revolutionize the way small businesses communicate with their customers.”

• a lot of people don’t know who they’re talking to, how are you reaching people?

“A podcast is out there forever. How would you like to have a billboard that never comes down?”

• speaker client made $12k within 30 days of launching podcast because he had a product and people heard his podcast
• people were on the fence about buying course, but listened to podcast and pulled the trigger
• real estate podcaster had 50-60% of revenue and 70-80% referrals come from podcast
• the struggle of being a business vs. being an artist
• your mission is to connect with people and change their lives
• if you can’t eat, you’re doing it all wrong, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t charge people what you’re worth, you’re stealing from yourself
• you need to be solving problems
• Pat Flynn and Andrew Warner of Mixergy got him started looking into podcasting
• you have to go where you’re in flow, that’s when you know you’re doing your calling
• unlike traditional business world, where it’s dog eat dog, everyone in podcast community is open
• one thing about podcasts that’s great for creatives is, you can do what you want, there’s no template
• Facebook Podcasting groups: Podcast Movement, Podcaster’s World, Podcaster’s Hangout
• many podcasters will help you without expecting anything in exchange
• Vernon’s article about launching a podcast in four hours
• action separates haves from have not’s
• interview with Madd Illz
• Jared Easely’s Starve the Doubts, Virtual Tag Team, Natalie Sisson’s Suitcase Entrepreneur, Radiolab, Moth, Story Jam Theatre, Tropical MBA, Tao of Inbound
• Alex Hanse – Foolies Limited Clothing – motivation into t-shirt company, Dream Without Limits Radio

“Creativity is being able to create something out of nothing and be able to charge people money for it and make a living out of it.”

“Back yourself into a situation where you’re forced to figure it out.”

• to increase creativity, travel, go to music festivals, listen to music
• Meditations from the Mat by Rolf Gates
• don’t base your success on anybody else
• reading good books and surrounding himself with good people are the way to have more things in life
• The 50th Law – 50 Cent & Robert Greene – 50 Cent’s story of how he took his environment and used it to build his businesses, how to hustle on the streets
• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz – conscious living, how to live a good life
• On the Shortness of Life by Seneca – don’t be preocupied with work because you will die one day

Vernon on Instagram / Twitter/ Facebook/ Pod Parrot