Brad Post, Create the Movement, host
Dr. Steve Greene, publisher and author at Charisma Ministry, guest
Introduction
Brad Post, Create the Movement, host: Welcome back to Create the Movement podcast. I’m extremely honored and excited today to be speaking to Dr. Steve Greene. Dr. Greene is a publisher at Charisma Ministry Today, Spirit-Led Woman, and Christian Retailing. He’s also started a podcast network at cpnshows.com. He’s just authored a brand new book called ‘Love Leads’ and that’s loveleadsbook.com. Dr. Steve Greene, how are you doing today, sir?
Dr. Steve Greene, publisher and author at Charisma Ministry, guest: Brad, I’m doing great. Thanks so much for being on your show. It’s an honor to be on. Glad to see great people in Tulsa developing a good product.
BP: Absolutely. We miss you in Tulsa and Bixby, by the way, Dr. Greene.
SG: Thanks, Brad. I miss it too. I miss it every day. I’ve really missed my students at ORU, and, of course, I miss my church. God led me here and I’m not going to complain.
BP: Yeah, you’re doing some amazing stuff. I don’t know how you do it all, Dr. Greene. It’s exciting to follow you.
SG: I know. I get to work at 5 AM; I leave about 7 PM.
BP: Wow, okay.
SG: Crazy.
‘Love Leads’ and the Charisma Podcast Network
BP: That’s how you do it then. I wanted to touch base, first, on a few things. I wanted to talk about ‘Love Leads’ book and also the podcast network. But let’s start off with loveleadsbook.com. You’ve got a great website. You’ve got an explainer video that you guys do a great a job at. Tell me a little bit about that book.
SG: The book is a very spiritual download for me. A lot of my friends in Tulsa kept asking me when are you going to write a book? And this is that book, but it’s not the book they expected. Everybody expected that I would write in marketing – I write every day in marketing. I’m just podcasting more now and I’m doing so many different things. So, I felt like this was a book straight from the heart of God that I wish I had could have led this way my entire career. I learned late, the proper way to lead, and obviously, still leading. I’ve got a large staff of people that I work with now, so I felt like it was imperative for me to write what I felt like I was learning.
I’ll give you a quick download: the very first sentence in Chapter One is “If God is love, and I have not loved, how then am I supposed to lead?” I think we all agree that God is love.
BP: Absolutely.
SG: I haven’t had a lot of leaders that really that really understood leading and love the way God does – so, that’s the premise of the book. I’ve used a lot of Bible characters to deliver the message that they heard as they were leading in their time on earth. They way they led and what they learned from it. And I think leadership’s a work in process for all of us, Brad.
BP: Absolutely, I agree completely. You said before the call you’ve got 260,000 total downloads from the podcast network that you set up. It’s cpnshows.com and Dr. Greene has ‘Greene Lines.’ And it’s G-R-E-E-N-E Lines, correct?
SG: Yes.
BP: And you podcast often there and you’ve got a wide network of people that are podcasting, as well. Correct?
SG: Yes, sir. I have a person that has three podcasts up that are doing well. My strategy when I got here Brad, it might interest your listeners a little bit, is different. A lot of guys start with one podcast and they just try to grow that podcast. They get up on iTunes, they get it posted, they get some momentum going. But what we did right from the beginning was we launched five shows on Day One.
I’ve got a built in advantage because I have an audience that comes to our website. So, basically, I’ve found that Christian readers, hungry people that want to read more about how to live their life in pleasing The Lord. I think they’re easy to reach – one network feeds the other one.
So, we opened up, it seems like, to me, I had 2000 downloads in the first week. And then, we went to 5, and then 10, we average 30-35,000 downloads a week over about five shows.
BP: Wow.
SG: That’s not bad. Some of the major ones that are available like ‘The American Life’ or some of those – they’ll get 25,000 a show.
BP: Right.
SG: When you’re trying to build an audience and aggregate an audience and bring them in. We’ve only been doing it 15-16 months and not promoting it heavily and not promoting it off the site at all. We haven’t run ads anywhere. [] using our own information and trying to cross-pollinate. But we know that we have an avid listener. If we put a new show up we’ll get a new audience. We’ll average 2000 a day with some of our shows. That’s not bad – that’s just in one day.
One of the things you and I know about a podcast is that they’re evergreen. I’ll go to download page and I’ll still see today double-digit downloads of Episode One eighteen months ago of my show ‘Greene Lines.’ And that’s not anything to brag about, but it’s something to say that we’re connecting still, we’re still growing, people are still finding us and I think that’s great.
BP: That is. That’s exciting.
SG: The takeaway, if I were a listener, is I would really consider a network – your own network. We’ve got plans for this network. When I started it I knew that I would be able to attract pastors and book writers and other Christians who have stories to tell. They don’t have the time or the desire to build it. We’ll just do what you and I are doing now and talk on the phone and allow them to build and operate their own podcast that way. They don’t have to have microphones that have post edits and all of that. We’ll just set them up and do the work for them.
We’re headed in that direction – for any of us. This industry is so wide open that good thinkers with good content, Brad it still comes down to that. Good content’s what sells it. We may not be good content for half of America, or maybe two-thirds of America, but I don’t need them all. We just need to reach the people that write to. We write to Christians who want a better way of living who are trying to grow, trying to figure it out. We write to them – and that’s good enough for us.
BP: That’s awesome. You guys are doing some amazing things. I think you moved down there two, three years ago. Correct?
SG: We’ve been here two and a half years now. I can’t believe it’s past that quickly.
BP: Right, right.
SG: It seems like yesterday I was preaching at Bixby Community Church.
BP: Absolutely. It seemed like yesterday we were having lunch at Applebee’s.
SG: Yes, sir. I remember it.
BP: A few questions for questions for you that our listeners always enjoy hearing.
SG: Okay.
BP: What would you say, if you could narrow it down to one thing, what would be the most exciting thing to you about business right now? Or, the most exciting thing in your business?
SG: Obviously, it’s content generation. I’m pretty excited about what I’m learning in marketing. I’m still a marketer – I was raised a marketer and went to school. I’ve done nothing in my life but that and I still see so much new on the horizon. The new virtual reality and how we’re engaging with that. What would you say to me if you’re a Christian and really care about learning more and I could put you in Israel and take you on a virtual reality tour of all the sites that Jesus visited?
I’m excited about that. I feel like there’s legs there, there’s possibilities. It’s very deliverable when a lot of folks will never be able to get on an airplane and travel over there, but they’d love to see the sites. And it’s so different from the DVD experience. It’s very real. That excites. Things like that, Brad, where there’s new digital. We’re still figuring out podcasting.
“Content is King”
SG: Believe it or not, I’m going old-school and going back to video on my internet sites. Trying to add more eyeballs to the site by just adding more YouTube videos. We don’t have to worry about fancy equipment and lighting and all of those things we did when I was growing up in media and that I worried about in broadcasting. Now, all I’ve got to do is deliver good content. It doesn’t matter what we talk about today, I’ll probably say that more times that you want me to say it, content is king. And those words are so trite, all most. Everybody says it. But, if everybody says it, why isn’t everybody doing it?
BP: Right.
SG: Because they don’t understand [] need. You understand what your listeners want to hear and you deliver that to them. We understand how to write to our audience and we deliver what they want. That’s why we’re growing. If we don’t deliver they’re not going listen, they’re not going to download.
BP: I totally agree. That’s one of the reasons we started the podcast – to get more content. Sometimes it takes an hour to write a 350-word blog post when you can have a 15-fifteen minute conversation and get 2000 words.
SG: That, plus you can spin off of it. Again, we’re looking for every way we can cross-pollinate. To ‘re purpose’ is another name for it: use this content here, and that content there, and change it up and turn it into a video with the same content. There’s so many ways.
Ultimately, consumers, our audience, will know if we do that, so we try to stay fresh everywhere but we don’t have to stay fresh everywhere.
That’s what’s exciting, Brad. Doing new things, keep coming up with new ideas and new ways. That’s what I want to do more of.
The Best Business Advice Ever Received
BP: That’s awesome. I love it. What would you say is the best business advice you’ve ever received? Or, I should say, ever given.
SG: Something that really made a difference, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Jay Abraham? He’s a pretty strong marketer. He calls himself a marketing genius, and I think he probably is. He’s had a lot of really good things. But I was in a meeting with him, of course I’ve read a lot of his books, I’ve attended his seminars. He’s retired, I think, now. I don’t think he’s doing much. His fees are like $25,000 for an hour.
But one of the things I got from him was the concept of leverage. Here it is in a nutshell: if I’ve got a good story and I change the headline on it and I pick up 80% more viewers or more sales, then I’ve leveraged the ad. So, Jay’s always challenged me. In my mind, I keep hearing him say, “What’s the leverage point? How are you leveraging that story?” Of course, you and I leverage content. But he’s saying it about everything we do in our entire business, “What can we do to get more out of it without necessarily spending more money?”
Doing a little bit of a tweak here, a tweak there, and all of a sudden you can generate a lot more revenue. It’s [] things that Jay would come in, look a what a guy’s doing, “You’re not spending more money. Do this, this, and this. Repurpose it a little bit.” And he then creates revenue in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
BP: Wow.
SG: So, I look for that every day. I write about it, I look for it, I want to leverage my time better, I want to get more out of everything. If I’m going to do it, how can I get more out of that ‘doing’ it? Rather than trying to find something new to do, find another way. If you were trying to leverage this podcast, you’d find another show to put it on, a guy with another audience where you can leverage it. Do trades – Tuesday/Thursday carry your show.
Lots of thinking can be done. Joint ventures are a leverage. There’s a lot of ways of talking about, but the issue is ‘think this way.’ “What can I change to increase sales, if I can change one thing internally: change copy, change the illustration, change the offer?” Try a new offer and watch what happens. That’s leverage.
Dr. Greene’s Recommend Books and Podcasts
BP: I love it. That’s great. One thing I miss about you Dr. Greene is when you were doing The Breakfast for Champions. Usually, you would cover a book that read for the week. This is a tough question because I know you’re an avid reader, but what books would you recommend to our listeners? If you could narrow it down to maybe two or three.
SG: I can. If you want to keep up with my reading I’m pretty transparent on Facebook or Twitter. I try to [] what I’m reading. I read three books over the weekend. That’s one of the things I should have said to you before: what am I excited about right now.
What I’m reading is challenging me. The last three haven’t been marketing, but I see marketing in them. I see a lot of really good things that are going to help the way I think. I’m always looking for that.
If I were to tell you the one book that’s made the most difference; I require every client to read, everyone that I work with, and that’s still the same. Steve Currington will tell you that’s where we started, and that’s where I want to start everyone, and that’s on ‘The E-Myth’ by Gerber. It’s a little older, but when I read it, once a year, it still feels like it’s freshly written. ‘The E-Myth Revisited’ – it’s an amazing book. Particularly for entrepreneurial people, or perhaps, you’re in a job where you’re intrapreneurial (you’re creating new ideas and things inside your company) – E-Myth will help you. You read it and say, “Is this guy hiding out in my closet? How does he know I’m going through this stuff? He nailed everything that I’m going through.” I hear that from almost everyone I give the book to. I’ve given away cases of it. I buy them by the caseload and give them away – such a great book.
BP: It is.
SG: Don’t get any of his advanced stuff, the books that came after that, ‘E-Myth Mastery’ and some of those. Just buy that little paperback ‘The E-Myth Revisited’ and you’ll have Gerber. He’s a former college professor, sold millions of copies of that book for a reason – it’s really good advice.
BP: That’s awesome. We read it as a staff this year. Our executive team went through the chapters together. It’s a great book.
SG: You may want to read Andy Stanley writes in leadership. He’s not a typical source for leadership that you might read – Maxwell, that type of guy. Andy’s younger, he’s got a real new look at leadership, he’s fresh. He doesn’t write the way I write. He didn’t go at it from a spiritual viewpoint, but Andy’s always spiritual. He’s got a way leadership that’s very practical whether you’re in the Christian-walk or not. It’s still a really good book on some of the things that Andy presents on leadership. I think that you’ll like it.
BP: Absolutely. I know that you record podcasts, would you have any that you would recommend to our listeners? Obviously, check out cpnshows.com. That’s where you have them all, correct?
SG: They’re all there. If you type in cpnshows.com you can pick and choose which one you want to listen to.
And again, without apologetics, they’re all spiritual.
BP: Right, absolutely.
SG: An athletic show from a spiritual viewpoint. We interview athletes who really give it all to God and talk about their success. Tim Tebow-types, you know? All the way into leadership. My marketing podcast is spiritual. It’s just information that people still need whatever door I go through – that’s CPN.
Here’s a couple of other ones that you may want to know about. I will lead with the ‘TED Radio Hour,’ TED Talks. The ‘TED Radio Hour’ is good for guys that want to listen to it on their phone while they’re driving. You can pick up a lot of good TED Talks and listen to it as a podcast. That’s helped me out.
I still like ‘This American Life.’ It’s still one of my favorites. I don’t listen to it as often as I want to because it’s not necessarily instructional. I don’t learn a lot from it, but it’s interesting and I like it.
I always listen to ‘Serial’ when it’s live.
One that I think is really good for you listeners, for this audience, and may have missed it – ‘Passive Amazon Income.’ It’s selling a little bit, but as a guy that made a whole lot of money in Year One just doing Amazon things. Creating passive income the way that Amazon teaches it. I’d direct you to that podcast, hang out with it, and you’re going to learn a lot. It may not be the kind of business you want to get into, but I like passive income. I’ve always taught my students to have multiple streams, and passive streams are good. Passive means they don’t have to work at it every day. Do a little bit on it, keep it going, you’ll make a little bit of money, spend a little bit. You won’t make a lot at first, then it will start to grow. You can make some serious money if you stay at it with a little bit of consistency every week, just a little bit. It’s not a ‘get rich quick scheme,’ I don’t propose it that way. I have nothing to do with it except I listen to it – ‘Passive Amazon Income’ – a great podcast you can find on iTunes.
BP: I haven’t heard of that one. I’ll definitely check that one out.
SG: I think you’ll like it. That’s what I brought to the table. I’ve got others that I listen too, but those are the good ones.
BP: Perfect. Thank you so much, Dr. Greene, for being on our podcast today.
SG: Brad, I always like hanging out with you. I’m proud of you and glad to see your growth. I’m happy for everyone that listens to your show because I know they’re learners. I’ll leave you that thought. I’m 64 and I still devour as much as did at 23. I changed my whole focus of life at age 23 by making a contract to read three books a week. There’s not many weeks of life that I have not. Sometimes it’s been a few less, sometimes a few more. I’ve always had a good intake valve. I really like all this digital stuff because it’s easy on an old guy. But I still love to curl up with a book – a good hardback book and read. So, I hope that’s helpful to you and I sure appreciate you inviting me and I wish the best for all of you and your listeners.
BP: Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Greene. Have a good day, sir.
SG: You too.
