2018 was amazing and tough at the same time.
I'm sure pretty much everyone can relate. There was some amazing highs and many momentum-stopping lows.
All said and done, Joe and I had our best year ever financially while simultaneously having one of our roughest years emotionally.
In today's post, I'm going to break down the highlights, including our top 10 most downloaded episodes, our popular social media posts, our popular affiliate promotions and more.
Let's start with the podcast…
This show is our baby. We've said it over and over again that, if you took everything away in our business, the one thing we'd demand that we keep is our podcast. If someone would pay us to do nothing but podcast, we'd jump at the opportunity in a heartbeat.
That's why it's probably no surprise that one of our big, audacious, goals for 2019 is to actually break into the top 200 on all of iTunes. I'm not talking about the top in marketing or the top in business… We've already done that a few times. I'm talking about becoming a top podcast on ALL of iTunes.
It's insanely tough and super competitive but we believe we can do it. If you want to help us achieve that goal, the one thing you can do for us is go here and click subscribe in iTunes. Subscribers equals show growth in iTunes eyes. We love reviews and we love downloads but it's all about subscribers in iTunes. If you've appreciated what we've taught or what we've given away for free, our one ask of you is to help us out by subscribing.
You'll be a part of making a big dream of 2019 a reality for us and we'll make it worth your time by consistently improving the show, consistently giving with no expectations, and consistently passing on what we learn with you.
Now… enough asking for stuff… Here's our top 10 episodes of 2018, based on the number of downloads. If you're new to the show, these are a great place to start!
10. The Essential Elements of Great Hooks And Sales Copy – Kevin Rogers
Kevin Rogers is a storyteller. There's no surprise he made it into the top 10. When you can grab people's attention and hold on to it in the way that a standup comedian and copywriter can, you're going to have people taking notice and wanting share what you have to say. Kevin breaks down some of his best advice for both writing copy as well as hiring world-class talent to write copy for you.
9. How This Successful Stoner Built A Blog That Earns 6-Figures Per Month – Caitlin Pyle
Caitlin Johanna build a massive business teaching aspiring entrepreneurs how to proofread for a living. Her high energy and passion cause people to gravitate to her and her simple systems help them create new income in their lives. We explore how Caitlin built this powerhouse business as well as how marijuana has changed her life for the better. It's a fun and wide-ranging conversation.
8. How To Build Highly Leveraged Businesses And Create Lifestyle Freedom – James Schramko
This was one of two “simulcast” episodes that we did in 2018. We recorded this episode with James and we both released it on our respective podcasts. We discuss how podcasting drives our businesses, how to earn affiliate revenue, how to leverage team members and systems, and much much more that help you work less and make more. Funny enough, this episode landed at #8 on James's list of top 10 most downloaded episodes for his show as well.
7. YouTube Ad Strategies From Someone Who Worked At Google – John Belcher
John Belcher worked at Google and left to teach people how to be better at running Google Ads. In this episode, we specifically talk about his strategies to achieve major business growth through YouTube ads. John breaks down, in step-by-step detail, exactly what Google and YouTube want to see from you and even provides templates on how to get the best results. John will definitely be back for a round 2 in the near future!
6. The Clockwork System To Create A Business That Runs Without You – Mike Michalowicz
Mike Michalowics wrote one of our favorite books ever on managing your finances (Profit First). In this episode, he joined us to talk about his newest book, Clockwork, our new favorite book on systematization. He breaks down the strategies needed to completely back yourself out of your business and take month long vacations. In my opinion, it's a more modern “E-Myth” with real world tactics that you can implement starting now.
5. How A Simple New Habit Will Change Your Life And Reduce Your Stress – David Allen
David Allen is the bestselling author of Getting Things Done, probably the most read and well-respected books on the topic of time management. Joe and I use David's system for our own productivity and time management. We had him on the show to breakdown the intricacies and modern day applications of his systems. Despite a few connection issues here and there, David brought the goods and became one of our most downloaded episodes ever.
4. How To Create And Launch A New Product In 4 Days – Ben Adkins
What can I say about Ben Adkins? We love this guy. He has to be one of the friendliest, most humble, and smartest marketers we've ever chatted with. One thing that's always blown me away about Ben is how quickly and, seemingly, effortlessly he creates and launches new products. On this episode, we learned that his entire process, from idea to launch, takes only 4-days! And he broke down the entire strategy for us and for you to enjoy.
3. Unique Facebook Ad Strategies That Are Making People Rich – Curt Maly
Curt Maly ran all the Facebook ads for us when I ran LearnToBlog.com. He's my go-to ninja on everything Facebook. We actually hired him to consult with us on our current Facebook ad strategies. In this episode, Curt goes into great detail on the exact strategies that are making people millions with Facebook ads… It isn't the common wisdom you hear all the time either. He has a very unique strategy for being everywhere and scaling pretty much any offer. This single episode probably had a bigger impact on how we're currently operating in our business than any other episode that we've released. Don't sleep on this one!
2. A Step-By-Step System To Decide Which Opportunities To Pursue – Roland Frasier
Roland Frasier is a co-founder at Digital Marketer and Traffic & Conversion Summit. He's behind a lot of the major success of the T&C event. In this episode, we got a lot of the backstory and behind the scenes of Digital Marketer and the evolution of the Traffic & Conversion Summit. We also dove deep into a step-by-step system to figure out what ideas and opportunities to pursue in your business. This was the #1 most downloaded episode for most of 2018. It's THAT good!
1. How To Build A Recognizable Brand Using $1 Ads – Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is the most downloaded episode on our show ever… Not just 2018. We had the opportunity of meeting Dennis in person at a small event that he put on in San Diego. After hearing him speak, we knew we had to get him on the show. He broke down his $1 per day Facebook ad strategy to consistently drive super cheap traffic to your site day in and day out. Dennis's tactics make Facebook ads approachable for anyone because they require minimal budget and can be easily duplicated over and over again. To this day, Dennis's episode still gets loads of downloads every single day.
(Click here to see last year's top 10)
Going beyond the Top 10…
There are a few episodes that didn't make the most downloaded list but I feel really should have…
Here's a list of a few “sleeper” episodes that really blew us and our listeners away:
- How To Use Video And Strategic Advertising To Be Everywhere – Billy Gene Shaw
- How To Scale Your Business Using Google Ads – Mike Rhodes
- Passive Income Hacks & The Legalities Of Running An Online Business – Dana Robinson
- How To Find Stocks That Are Undervalued And Create Financial Freedom – Phil Town
- The PR Blueprint – How To Get Into Any Media Publication – Andrew O'Brien
I also mentioned that we've had a lot of struggles this year and lessons learned from them.
We did some episodes, without any guests, to discuss these struggles and the lessons:
- Therapy Sessions – Getting Real On What We Struggle With
- The Biggest Lessons Learned Growing A Podcast
These podcasts are literally the most valuable content that we've ever released. We don't plan on slowing down in 2019 either. We're going to go bigger with everything! Bigger guests, better production quality, deeper dives with the most popular guests, getting on more shows to spread the word, bigger contests, bigger benefits to tune in… Everything is going to improve in 2019 and we're all about this show.
Moving on beyond the podcast…
We did a TON on social media this year. We routinely hear “I see you guys everywhere!”
That's because we take a lot of the advice that we received from guests and put it into action.
Here are our top 3 most watched videos on Facebook for 2018:
- How to build a thriving membership site
- The KAD strategy to systematize anything
- The biggest lessons learned growing a podcast
We haven't posted to YouTube as much as we'd like to. We've had a TON of YouTube experts on the show too. Hopefully we'll get that game dialed in as well.
Although we haven't posted a ton, here are our top 2 most watched videos of 2018:
- An in-depth Walkthrough of Thrivecart
- How to earn with Thrivecart without a product to sell (my beard was gnarly in this one) 😛
As you know, we earn most of our income by promoting affiliate products…
Here are our top 5 product promotions of 2018:
- Thrivecart – Our favorite cart platform
- Designrr – Easily create PDFs
- EasyWebinar – A simple webinar platform
- ConvertBox – Our favorite opt-in plugin
- GenM – Hire apprentices for $50/month
Alright… Wrapping up, here are some things we accomplished and are extremely proud of from 2018:
- We doubled the download numbers of our podcast almost every single month last year.
- We acquired a company with a partner, Brad Costanzo, in the home brew niche.
- We joined multiple masterminds with big name guys like Roland Frasier, Darren Hardy, the creators of the Optimal Living Daily podcast, Travis Houston, Bob Serling, and other world-renowned entrepreneurs.
- We generated over 7-figures through promoting affiliate products
- We created and launched a course and community around learning traffic strategies
- We generated another 6-figures teaching our traffic course
- We were featured on 18 different podcasts as guests, including the Profit First Podcast, Funnel Hacker Radio, Super Fast Business, and Optimal Business Daily.
- We spoke at 3 different live events, including New Media Summit and Get Clear Marketing (and lined up more for 2019, including PodFest)
- We hired an operations manager to help us better systematize everything and a VA to help us keep up with emails and support.
- We brought in 3 different apprentices to help write our shownotes, do our SEO, and manage our social media.
- We managed to interview some of our entrepreneurial heroes on the podcast… Guys like Mike Michalowicz, Roland Frasier, David Allen, Mike Filsaime, Dennis Yu, Phil Town, Tucker Max, James Schramko, and Dave Woodward (amongst many others).
Some of things that we plan on focusing on in 2019:
- Grow our podcast into the top 200 in all of iTunes.
- Get many more of our entrepreneurial heroes on the show.
- Speak on at least 4 live stages (we have 2 booked already)
- Get featured on another 20 podcasts (we have 5 booked already)
- Get in “earned media” – Featured in places like Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, Success, etc.
- Ramp up the home brew business and prep. to sell
- Launch a software that makes “traffic-gettin'” easier (more details on this to come)
- Launch another premium course (likely around podcasting and podcast monetization)
- Run a free 14-day challenge to help people add affiliate income to their business
- Add one new cash-flowing revenue stream to our business per month (likely in the form of affiliate promos, business investments, and real estate)
- Grow our team to a point where we only focus on podcasting, outreach, and the bigger vision of the business
- Spread the wealth generated to our company across deserving team members and charitable programs that we're passionate about
- Spend only 3-days per week at a computer (work less / make more)
- Focus more time on supporting our community than we do trying to bring more people into the community
I'm sure there's many big goals that I'm missing but I'll stop there for now.
We've had a TON of struggle as well. We outline it all in our “therapy session” episode.
2019 is going to be a huge year for our business and we want you along for the journey! We want to share everything we test, everything that's working, everything that's not working, and how to have fun along the way.
Stick with us and our network will become your network. Our lessons will become your lessons. Be sure to subscribe to the show and pay attention to our emails. We've got a ton in store for you this year!
