You Can’t Make an Impact If Nobody Can Find You: The Authority & Visibility Playbook

Welcome to the Amazing Authorities Podcast, where game changers, visionaries, and category leaders share how they built their brands, platforms, and global influence. Your host is Mitch Carson, international speaker, media strategist, and creator of the instant authority system. If you're ready to learn from those who've done it and want to become the go-to expert in your space, you're in the right place. Hello and welcome. Today's episode is a little different because my guest isn't just an experienced media personality, podcaster, radio host, television host, speaker and copywriter. He's someone I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to learn from as I begin my own podcasting journey. As someone who is still relatively new to podcasting, I thought it would be valuable to sit down with an experienced media professional and ask the questions that many aspiring podcasters, authors, coaches and speakers are probably asking themselves. If you've ever wanted to start a podcast or share your message or build your personal brand or increase your visibility or make a bigger impact, but you just didn't know where to begin, then this conversation today is just for you. Today we'll explore what it takes to get started, overcome self-doubt and build confidence behind the microphone. Let's get started. My guest today is Mitch Carson. Mitch is an experienced media professional, podcaster, radio host, television host, speaker and copywriter. Wow. He has spent decades helping entrepreneurs, authors, coaches and business owners communicate their message and build their visibility. Now, throughout his career, he has interviewed countless people, worked across multiple media platforms and gained valuable insights into what it takes to connect with an audience and build credibility through media. I've had the opportunity to learn from Mitch as I've begun my own podcasting journey and I've come to appreciate both his experience and his practical approach to teaching. Today I'm looking forward to exploring what every new podcaster, author, coach and speaker should know before stepping behind a microphone. Mitch, welcome to the podcast. Well Colleen, thank you so much for having me here. I'm delighted and what an intro. My gosh. Who is that person you're talking about? You're a busy man. Well, you have been over your time and still are. Well, that's true. I think keeping busy is part of the process because the people that aren't busy lose visibility and visibility takes commitment. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Well, let's start with your story. How did you first get involved in media and what led you to become someone who now teaches a mentor's other people? My media goes back to, I was in manufacturing. I got recruited by an uncle to fill in on a seemingly temporary basis. I was a salesperson on Wall Street in America, which is I was a stockbroker. Financial consultant is the more modern term used for a big bank called Merrill Lynch and I was asked to come in and help my uncle who ran a manufacturing operation. Couldn't be more boring called injection molding, which is where the molded parts come together and parts and products that were created household products were then sold into the big box retailers in the United States. It was all domestic, so nothing got exported because the shipping was too much on products like that. So it was strictly in the United States in that market. And I found that we weren't that busy and people would come to my plant that I was running in Los Angeles with ideas for their inventions. I went to an inventor's conference in Los Angeles and these people are crazy as can be because they're so passionate about their products and oftentimes they'll mortgage their homes to get behind their dream product. But they have no distribution and or no way to manufacture it. They just put together in their garage something that they think is going to solve a problem because that's the mother of invention. What problem can you solve and they're selling the solution? Well we were a manufacturing facility and had distribution and one particular product came to me or two products came to me within the same month, hey we need this manufactured and we notice you have some distribution, can you help? And one of them was what was called a bug stick. It collected bugs off the ceiling or off the floor, spiders or cockroaches that nobody wanted to touch in a tissue because that squishy sound or feeling of guts of a bug, mostly disgusting to people. I don't like doing it. I've had to play that manly role or I wouldn't be considered a man but I had to do it but I never liked it. This bug stick solved that problem. You picked bugs up from a distance and I saw that product and I said to the inventor, I said this is worthy of television. This needs to be demonstrated on TV in a dramatic way and my TV pitchman career began. I got out of manufacturing, I got into the world of marketing. This is going back in the 90s and I then brought it to a channel called Home Shopping Network which at that time had about five million viewers for each of the segments so it was a big market. I believe you had a home shopping in Australia as well. I know that you pay had their version which came after the Americans proved out the concept. And then I started selling one product after the other after I got pretty good at learning how to be effective on camera, live on the spot, selling solutions. Is that's what it is? You focus on the problem, you sell the solution and why they need it and how their life will be better with this product. And it went from one to the next to the next and I was terrible at it in the beginning but I really enjoyed it because you're solving problems who doesn't like to solve problems and to make profit with it at the same time. There's no shame in making money when you're helping people and that was my version using marketing sales and I felt ethical business practices because I'm helping people. They're making money, I'm making money and the problem is solved. So I learned that formula and it all came back to and then I got back, I was in advertising sold that business and then I got into the business with my uncle that I mentioned in the manufacturer and I did that for a few years and I was a little bit bored. So I missed the whole marketing world that I had been in and I went back to that with him and I went to help him for a short period of time and then I left and went back into marketing and sales full time. And I had a radio show in Los Angeles on CBS radio, what did I do, listen to the sales that came through with the sponsored national advertising talking about a problem, providing a solution. So it's problem, agitate the problem, have the solution, give me money. That's marketing in a nutshell. That sales 101, you know, using a dirty old mop that has broken and people are holding their back, think about the mop that you do to clean your floor and you're pushing it and pushing it and you show the the woman is like, oh my back is hurting from this. And then you show now it's easier than ever before. We've got the super mop and it's cleaner, faster, picks up things and it's and it's easy on your back. Faster, easier, takes away the pain that you're experiencing with that big ugly mop that isn't cleaning properly and doesn't pick everything up. And the new super mop does it. That's sales 101, agitate the pain, show the lady holding her back, produce this easier solution which costs less money, saves time, takes away your back pain and you have a cleaner floor. Hello, hello, that's it. That's a formula for selling just about anything. Life insurance. Let's take life insurance as an example. What are you doing there? People don't want to face their own mortality. It's a reality. But then you have the picture of Bill, the provider. Let's say Bill, the husband is there and he's and he's approached by the life insurance salesperson and she comes in and says, Bill, don't you want to take care of your family? Yeah, but I'm only 40 years old. I'm going to live a long time. Now he's fatter than a cow. He's 50 kilos overweight and he's got a beer on his hand, dirt under his fingernails because he was under the sink cleaning pipes. And he's right there doing what he's doing and says, I'm going to live there. And then she shows a picture of a funeral. What would happen if little Jimmy and little Judy and your wife Sarah are alone? And they're all dressed in black. People are crying. They don't have life insurance. They're going to be on the street. Family doesn't want them. They have no room in their apartment. the house is so beautiful. sold, the parents are elderly, the grandparents are elderly, and poor little Jimmy. And Sarah are crying and you're not there to provide for them because you didn't have life insurance. Don't you want to look after your family and transfer the risk of what could happen. We never know heart attack and strike, cancer can strike, car accident can strike. If you don't take care of your family, don't you want your legacy to be intact? To remember dad as a provider, as the head of the household, someone that looks after his family, soup to nuts, isn't that you Bill? Or do you want to be spit on if your photo when you're gone? Do you want to be revered, the legacy is intact, and your family is happy. Your kids get to go to the university of their choice because you've looked after them. Does that sound better Bill? Where do I sign? Just get good sign. All right. And then he goes back to his beer and his footy, all is good. Let there's another example of the intangible of what you can do with the power of sales and the power of using media, the media in that case was the photos. In some cases, good sales people, good marketing is sending in the old way where people would sell oftentimes with household products is using a VHS tape. Remember the old VHS recorders? Yes, and that was after cassettes. So VHS, you slide it into the VCR, and that was the recording for anybody that's under 50. It does listen to this. That was the recording device that populated and was showcased on your TV, your television. Oh my gosh, I said it, television set, and it then broadcasts this commercial. And it could be a canned, beautifully designed problem, agitate the problem, solution, give me money. Scenario, it's time to take care of your family. Because people focus on legacy, family, time, safe money, and if you tick those boxes, wallets open, wide, wallets open, money just flies out of it. And you provide the perfect solution. Because if you can agitate the problem enough, people will be seeking for pain relief. Because it's we either, I mean, as human beings, and I think this is universal all across, we run from pain and seek pleasure, pleasure can also be defined solution. Solution. We seek the solution to that pain, the answer to, where is the temporary aspirin? Where's that Tylenol right now? So my headache goes away. I don't want to, I don't want to wait and drink water. Some people say it takes water and within an hour, no, I want relief right now. When the dentist is called, it's not because you're calling, oh, I'm so good. I'm just, do you think I can look at and maybe you can check my mouth for a checkup? Now we call one, we're in pain. When we're in pain. If you answer the phone as a dentist, you're going to get that business. They're rarely going to shop you. If they're in pain, you pick up the phone. If Penelope answers the phone and says, Dr. Smith's office, can I help you? Yeah, I'm in pain. Can you get me in? Sure. Come in in an hour. We'll take care of the pain. Do you think price matters? Unlikely. When you're in dental pain and you're screaming, and with some of the most severe pain that we experience as humans, you know, it can hurt. I've got a lot of dental pain. I think I paid for my dentist, Yacht, in America, is, you know, you go and take care of it. So it's all based on how much pain is somebody in. If you can provide that quick solution, you're in and that covers all media. I know that was a long-winded answer. I wanted to give that importance because it applies to any category of business. Great. Thank you, Mitch. And I'm just thinking along that lines of legacy and people being in pain. There's a lot of people currently are finding incomes aren't providing enough what they want to buy for their household things. The world's changed a lot. And so people are looking at other ways of earning income. So podcasting might be one way that they might be considering. So what sort of qualities and characteristics do you think people might need to try podcasting? And what sort of fears might they need to overcome to actually go ahead and have a go? Well, I think it's, it's a, there are a couple, a couple of criterion, or the criteria is the plural. There are criteria we must look at. One, do you have subject matter expertise? I, for example, would not be a good person selling plumbing solutions. I know nothing about plumbing, other than I hire the guy and get to see him come and do his work. Pay him gladly. That's a problem. Pay the solution. You got to have subject matter expertise and you got to be passionate about it. You got to be passionate about it. I love what I do. Colleen, I'm in the right vertical because I know media very, very well. I've earned my stripes, earned my status and I love it. I love being able to help people find their particular vertical of passion, competence and here's the biggie, biggie, biggie. When you're selling something, does somebody have the capacity to pay? If you're selling Mercedes-Benz and someone's on a fixed income of $2,000 a month, they ain't your target. Sell it to people who have the capacity to pay because they have the same desires that anybody else does. You can't sell Mercedes to 12 year old kids. You want a 45 year old that's at the top of their income and wants that status and prestige associated with a fine German automobile. If someone isn't making enough money today, how is podcasting that solution? Your competence, your passion and helping others in your niche solve their problems. If I were to pick a niche, challenge me and I'll be happy to come up with a solution. Yeah, we're doing this on the fly, Colleen, you didn't know where but pick a niche. Physical trainer. Fitness trainer. Fitness trainer? All right. Yes, thank you. Okay, so the fitness trainers changed a lot. We had something called COVID a few years back. It's not too far in our rearview mirror. We went through a life changing, defining event for our lives during that time. Nobody knew what was going on except for the people that created it. Fitness trainers had to go from, in order to survive and they have to eat as well, fitness trainers had to embrace a camera, an online camera, or they would sink into the abyss of, okay, I can't touch my clients anymore and move them. I need to do this on camera. I need to evolve and use zoom, zoom, zoom. The platform went on, you know, exploded worldwide to accommodate everybody's needs. There was a need for people to manage the boredom. Remember, managing the pain, answer the pain is like, I'm getting fat, sitting in the house eating and watching television all day, I got to start moving, but I can't go outside. So what's the solution? Fitness trainer online, okay. So fitness trainer online, Canberra. And if they did that, put in that search term or fitness trainer near me and all the sudden Canberra, the person is looking up in their geospecific to Canberra, Australia and they find, okay, there's Christine down the road. She used to work at the XYZ Fitness Center, well she's got an online fitness class that goes live in an hour. I'm going to tune in. And she's teaching to a group of people and she also offers one-on-ones according to her landing page or slash website. So I'm going to go under her live cast at 4pm today. And she's out there. Hi, I'm Christine. You're local. Hello, mates. You know, she uses local Australian vernacular. Hello, mates. I'm here and I'm Christine and I'm fitness and we're going to get you off the, off the sofa and start moving. We're experiencing this, this bloody COVID, but we're going to work through it, aren't we mates? Okay. That was my best Australian invitation. Sorry. But you got you off the sofa. You're moving and doing that. Hey, and also, I'm available for one-on-ones if you need some personal attention and your problem, you believe your situation is different. Here's my number. You can call me straight away. Here's my WhatsApp. Here's my email. Here's where we can get on a live chat and we'll set you up and get you moving right away. know that you're bored, but we'll. Hansel will handle the boredom right today. Don't delay. Start today. My name is Christine, your fitness professional mates. And I'm ready to go. Let's get going. Okay. That was just off the cuff pitch. But there's this Christine. She's got a big smile. She already paid for her veneers. So they're very really white. And she looks good. She's got this fit body. We all want because she's fit. We want to be fit. We're feeling a bit sluggish because of what was going on with COVID. And that was a new direction for fitness trainers, physical therapists. You call them physiotherapists there, I think. Okay. Same thing. Physiotherapists went that route. Why? Because I paid one. I had some problems with a with an injury. And where am I going to go for physical therapy? Well, I found somebody online. He assessed me through a camera and said, you need to do this. He demonstrated. I followed. He didn't need to be there and touch me. You he adapted and pivoted because of what was going on in the world at that time. Fitness. The fitness explosion. Machines went through sales. People were buying treadmills. People were buying those walkers. You know, you go back and forth and use the arms. You know, all of these things because you couldn't go outside. You weren't permitted to go outside. Except for special services like going to the market or whatever. You just couldn't go for a walk down the street. People would throw a Roxy. Oh, you're spread the disease. You know, it was crazy. You remember those times? Sure was as crazy in Australia as it was. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I had some very nasty aspects in people I found. But anyway, oh my god, people fighting over toilet paper at the moment. Worldwide. Who would have thought? Oh my god. It's like. Mitch may ask, please, with people out there, they do have valuable experiences, expertise and so forth. But how do they get the confidence? What do they need to do to be able to break free of that being scared? I suppose the fear factor and actually get out there and have a go at something to try and improve their Pepsi income status or even their confidence. All right. The think about and there's so many good metaphors. Think about the first time you rode a bike as a kid. Your parents probably installed training wheels on either side of the bike to stabilize you because getting that motion down, we all had balance issues. At least I did. I think most of us did. We got on our bicycle. What are we? Five, six or whatever when we start. I don't remember the exact age. But at some point, you get your balance down. But the key is to get on the bicycle. You got to pedal the bike. You got to use that. You call it a push bike. Push the bike forward. Push the pedals and move forward. You take one wheel off at a time, training wheels. You take one off. I think was the method. So you can balance on two of them. And then the other one comes off. But the key, the key, the key. And this is, of course, applies to many aspects of our lives. Do it. Just do it. We're doing this interview. You've done, you'll be doing more interviews. Everybody gets better with doing it. You can't get big biceps without putting in the wraps. Ladies and gentlemen, hell, you've got to do the wraps. And it isn't one day to do 8,000 reps. It's to do 10 reps, 80 days in a row. And then all of a sudden, you're going to look in the mirror and think, oh my gosh, I'm a sex symbol. Before you know it, the unconscious competence comes into play with everything, with everything. All of a sudden, I mean, if we can go back, I can't remember exactly. I have a rough visual movie of when the training wheels came off on my bike as a little boy. You might have a similar experience. And it was an emotional, like, glee, that is true glee in a kid is when you're able to do that. And you've probably lived that through your own kids and grandkids to see them off the training wheels. That's a big milestone and an emotional milestone, one that we can reflect on. So it's you just do it. And then you validate and memorialize that achievement. By the happiness of your parents, your peers, your children, whomever are seeing you do this. And then when you see your ratings go up as a podcaster, then you see more people wanting to apply to be on your show. You've arrived. You've arrived. And it comes through implementation. You simply take the first step. You can't learn how to swim through a video. You do it. You get in the water. Is it shockingly cold at times? Yeah. And get over at mate. Okay. Get over at buddy for my American listeners. Get over it. Jump in the water. Start swimming. You won't sink if you've got the right support around you. You won't drown if you have learned and you've got somebody else to help you and pull you by the hand. Say you got to stroke a little bit. You got a dog paddle. Here's what a dog he does. Throw your dog in the pool instinctively. They know how to swim, don't they? No, they put their snout out and they're even kangaroos. Bitch, I'd like to tell you they can swim as well, which is amazing. Okay. I believe it. They're just dogs with a longer tail up in their back, back legs. So speak. But they it's it's instinct. It's instinct. And people survive animal survive. We can learn from them. They instinctively. Isn't it? Yeah. Well, I mean, a dog will naturally dog paddle. That's why it's called the dog paddle, isn't it? They won't. I mean, you throw a puppy in. It's not going to sink. It's going. You know, you may feel bad, but it'll and then you pick it out. Same holds for humans and just get them through that. But be there in support. Pull them out of the water. But show them. You could show them the dog paddle, the crawl, what have you? I think swimming is the best. You won't sink if you have the right mentorship. If you have the right coach, that'll take you through the process. And ensure you're reaching the other side of the pool will ensure that you'll be able to do it on your own eventually through some coaching sessions. And that's how it works. When was the first time you swam? I mean, you're Australian. Of course, you swam, right? Do you remember? Was this very young or I mean that? Well, your parents dropped. I mean, Aussies are known to be swimmers. I mean, you guys have won so many Olympic medals and you're relatively small country population wise. But you are born swimmers almost. No, you had to learn it. You're not you're not aquatic. You're not amphibians. But you certainly can pretend to be because you're great in the pool. And it's just part of your culture. So everybody got into the water very early on. And it's your thought of swimming today would I don't you know, just let me put the cap on maybe if you didn't want to get your hair wet. Who knows? And I'm going to go in and give it a go wouldn't you? I grew up on the coast as well. So I was a swimmer. I mean, I learned to swim as a little boy. And and my grandpa dropped me in the pool. It said swim boy. Great. Great. He was he was brutal, man. He was more one veteran. And he said swim boy. Yeah, get out of it. Yeah, get loud. And oh, I just took to it. And I think sometimes you just got to jump in with good guidance and support. I don't think you want to drop your puppy in the pool much less your kid. My grandpa. He was brutal. But here you are today. You did survive. Yeah. Mitch, I want to thank you so much for sharing your things that you've learned through your diverse work experience. And I'm starting from stop-breaking and television and radio and podcasting. And I know you do other things as well. It's not just your your limit of things that you've done. So I want to thank you so much for what you've shared today. That's been fantastic. And I just want to know, is there a place where people listeners can actually learn more about you and connect with you place? You have data. Very simple. Yeah. My name is Mitch Carson. M-I-T-C-A-R-S-O-N dot com is where my website is. And there I have a an authority assessment that I'm putting together as my new giveaway for guests where they can look because now we have to include what people find through LLM's the language learning models that are out there. Chatchy PT perplexity which is quad and you are and Gemini where people search for you on Google today and and those LLMs you know the AI search engines and where do you fall? Are you being found? Are you discoverable on or talked about on Reddit? Are you discoverable and found on LinkedIn? Do you have a podcast which is also ranking highly and when they look for calling Mc you know McAvoy you're going to come up and that it takes a little bit to get there within 60 days you're usually live and referred to and that's an important price. So if you want this assessment go to mitchcarson.com and we will be able to show you where you stands. You'll have a snapshot. What's the reality? Am I found or am I invisible? - Well, that sounds like a really great tool. I have to get onto that one, Mitch. Okay, well thank you so much. I really appreciate your time and sharing what you've shared today. It's been fantastic. And listen, so I hope you've enjoyed the program too and all the best to everybody. Bye-bye for now. - Thanks for tuning into the amazing authorities podcast. - If today's episode inspired you, take a moment to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. It helps more experts like you rise to the top. For behind-the-scenes access and free resources to boost your authority, head to MitchCarson.com. Until next time, stay amazing.