What's going on guys? My name is Thomas Carney and this is the Pursuit of Calling podcast.
In this episode, I got to sit down with John Stange where we talked about how to grow,
monetize and launch your online platform. That's what he's passionate about. That's
part of his calling is to help other people with their message based platforms. And we
talked about what message based platform means in the episode. So definitely go ahead and
give it a listen. John talks about his life as a pastor where he's been a pastor for the
last 26 years. And he talks about how that wasn't the only thing that God was calling
him to do. There's so many things now that he does there. We talked about how to practically
and ethically get some financial gain through your calling, through launching your online
platform. So if you guys are interested in that, definitely give it a listen. It's exciting.
It's fun. See you in there.
All right. How's it going guys? Welcome. You already heard in the intro, you already read
the title of the episode that we have a new guest that many of you may or may not have
heard of, but I'm very excited to have him on today. And so just to give a little bit
of intro from my own perspective. So he currently is a lead pastor at the Corcree Community
Church. He has three faith based podcasts and a fourth called Platform Launchers. And
I was personally introduced to him through a mutual friend, Michelle Croyle, who is part
of his online group and program. He was having an open house Zoom call and where anybody
could come on. And I was invited. I said, yeah, it was a lot of fun. It's really cool.
I got to learn some stuff. And that's where I got the advice to do the rebrand to the
Pursuit of Calling. So this is the guy. And at the end, I actually was able to win one
of one of his books and a little raffle they did called the podcast, his playbook. I believe
I talked about it before on this podcast and I read it to cover it to cover twice. So implemented
some stuff pretty quickly after that. So this is Pat for John Stongi. And yeah, John, I
appreciate you being on.
Hey, it's great to be with you. Thanks for having me.
Yeah. I, like I was telling you before the recording, I'm really excited for today. I'm
really just really excited for this because I was thinking about it. Man, it feels like
I'm, it feels like I'm making it a little bit. Whenever I reached out and reached out
to somebody and reached out to somebody that I don't have like a direct personal connection
with and they said yes to be on the podcast. I was like, that's pretty cool. So again,
I said already, but thank you for your yes. I appreciate it. And let's see here. So yeah,
I usually have, you know, I have people, I give a little bit of intro and below. Why
don't you like, who is John Stongi? Who would you say you are?
Well, the theological answer that ultimately I believe is I'm a new person, a new creation
in Jesus Christ, someone who desires to glorify God with my life. And I do that in a variety
of ways. Most of the things that I do involve some level of communication and teaching.
So I create podcasts. Like you said, I've got four different podcasts. I write books.
I pastor at church. I also serve as a professor at Cairn University and I teach a variety
of media classes and theology classes. And so I get to do a variety of things like that.
My wife and I have been married for 26 plus years. The Lord's blessed us with four kids
and all four of them are adults now. Our youngest just turned 18. So get ready world, because
now she's able to vote, you know, it's kind of, kind of interesting when your, your youngest
reaches that level as well. But we're super proud of all of the kids and super excited
to be able to be here with you today. But I would say primarily the way that the Lord
seems to be utilizing my life tends to be in various ways of communication, maybe leadership
development, discipleship, things like that. And I'm really grateful for the opportunities
He's given me to serve in those ways.
Great. I really like, I kind of prepared, I decided that's what I was going to do initially
was like front load a lot of your podcasts. And I have my podcast queue and I've been
listening to your daily Bible a day. I've been listening to that every, every day. And
then also your platform laundry is one is one is two is huge. I honestly really, I love
that podcast because it's not, it's different than any other like podcast about business
I listened to because as you say in your books and you've said in your podcast before, you
don't do a whole bunch of social media, which is not something you hear about a lot. And
I say, you don't really talk about it a lot. So that reams or leaves room for other topics.
And I really liked the episode in the section in the book about what could you talk about
for three years. And I like hit, I think I'm on episode like 53 or something like that
53 54. I just podcast and I'm like, I'm like, I think I can see, I can let you think I got
another at least another two in me. So it's a really like, I like, I like the different
mindset that you bring to like the entrepreneurial table, I guess. But the with this podcast
itself being called the pursuit of calling, I wanted to specifically talk about yours.
If you like, if you could like define what your calling is, like what would you say?
What would you say to that? The big word, I think that really defines my calling, it
usually involves some level of teaching. I've discovered that that's really where it seems
like the Lord opens up doors for me to serve and really seems to be the way in which He's
gifted me to operate. So I mean, in my role as a local church pastor, one of the main
my responsibilities I have is a teaching responsibility. There are other responsibilities, obviously
as well, but the area that I feel most equipped for and certainly receive, I would say the
most joy serving in is when I have the opportunity to teach. So in that context, I'm teaching
the scriptures, I'm helping people grow as followers of Christ and I get really excited
about that. I love that. On a day to day basis, in addition to that, I have the opportunity
to serve as a professor, which I mentioned, and I get to teach in that context as well.
Even in the business world, with the books that I write and the platform launchers podcast
and the different things I'm doing on platform launchers, I get to mentor people, I get to
teach people, I get to create courses that I deliver online, and a lot of these things
really come back to that teaching component. I guess I was probably a teenager when it
started to dawn on me that teaching was something I really, really enjoyed doing. And when you
look at the different ways that the Lord gifts us all, He gives us all in different ways,
and I've come to realize over time, partly just by observing my own life and seeing where
the Lord's been directing me, but also the feedback that I've received from others, that
teaching seems to be right where the Lord wants to use me and I'm happy to be used in
that capacity. And so, communicating, teaching, all of that, it really does go hand in hand
and I'm grateful to be able to do so.
Great. I think it's really interesting because like, you have your role as a lead pastor
and that came first, right? That was before…
Yep. Before the online media, the podcasts, all that. Yeah. I've been serving as a pastor
for 26 plus years and the media has really been over the past 10.
So, like, what in that sense, like, I think a lot of people would think, oh, you're the
lead pastor, that must be what you're called to do. What kind of led you, like, what was
that turning point where it was like, oh, this isn't… Being a lead pastor isn't the
only thing that God's calling me towards. How do those all kind of interact?
Yeah, I used to get, I would say, like, kind of a sense of discontent with the fact that
frequently I was producing content that was helpful in the context of our local congregation,
whether it be, you know, something that I'd prepared to teach or whatever it may be. And
I felt like it wasn't good stewardship, the fact that it did not have a second life beyond
that moment. So, if you were there to experience it live, then you got to hear it. But other
than that, the content just went into a file and it dawned on me somewhere along the way
that it'd be better stewardship of some of the things that I'd been working on and spending
so much time preparing if, at least initially, I put some books together. And I started writing
books based on some of the things that I was teaching. And when they were warmly received
and people started utilizing them, I thought, oh, well, this is great, I'll produce more.
And then in the midst of that, I started listening to a lot of podcasts. And I do have a background
in radio. I used to be a radio announcer and I do voiceover work and things like that.
So I have, you know, I had a good mic, I had the ability to record, I knew how to edit
audio recordings and all that from my time at the radio station. And after listening
to podcasts for a while, I thought, you know, maybe I should try my hand at this. And so
at first I created a leadership podcast and I had a lot of fun doing that. But then that
segued into the idea that I had to create the Chapter a Day Audio Bible podcast. And
when I started offering that, I realized people were really looking for something like that.
That podcast has been downloaded millions of times at this point. And it became very
clear to me that that was something that people just in general, not just in my region of
the world, but all throughout the world were looking for a podcast of that nature. And
so I started creating that. And then that led into me creating the Dwell on These Things
podcast that includes sermon content. And then I started creating Daily Devotions with
Pastor John, which is another daily podcast. And then after a while, people started asking
me not even so much about the podcasts, but they started asking me about the process of
creating the content I was creating. They saw that I had a blog on my website. They
saw that I was writing books. They saw that I was creating multiple shows. And people
started asking me for advice on how to do that. And I realized that a lot of the questions
that I was getting were really about online platform development. And that gave me the
idea to begin platform launchers, which I started back in 2021, so about three years
ago. And since then, I've been also communicating how to build, grow and monetize online platforms
that help people directly communicate the message that they feel most passionate about.
So it was kind of a gradual progression of learning to do these things. But it's been
very interesting to watch how they've developed and how people have started utilizing the
content.
Wow. Yeah, it's... Man, that was a really fleshed out answer. That's really good. But
you can tell this is something you're... You've talked about a lot, obviously, but there...
You said that you were... I just wanted to just a quick note. The first time you said
that you used to do radio, I wasn't surprised at all. You have the voice for it.
The radio voice?
Yeah. I heard it the first time on... Whenever, I think, Michelle Croyle told me about you.
And I was like, okay, I'll look up this podcast and stuff. And I was like, sounds like a show
host. It's cool. I just want to shout that out. But I want to dive a little bit more
into the... I don't know if I would say practicals, but there's... A lot of people who listen
to this podcast, they're like... I generally get... I've seen 18 to even mid-30s. And most
of the time, mostly guys, some girls, but mostly guys. But people that are younger and...
For people that... What is some advice you can give to someone who wants to, or is currently
working towards... They're launching that online platform. They're trying to discover
what they should be doing. Or maybe it would be like, what is something you wish you knew
before you started?
I guess I wish I knew that it was a process that requires consistency. So you've got to
be consistent. The people that succeed at anything in this world are people that are
consistent. They don't quit easily. They stick with it. They hone their craft. They get good
at it. But if somebody really has it in mind to develop a message-based online platform,
the first thing they need to do is discover their message. They have to figure out what's
the thing that they could talk about with great enthusiasm for 30 minutes with no prep
whatsoever that falls in line with the type of questions people actually ask them. Is
there something like that, that seems to be their signature message or their primary message?
And I think it's important to hone that down or figure that out. What that's going to be,
because everything they build is going to be connected to that particular message. If
they build an online message-based platform, they just want to be really clear about what
that message is. And I usually ask people to tell me, what do people ask you questions
about? And then after that, what do you like talking about that you can just talk about
enthusiastically with no prep, because it's something that you actually really enjoy thinking
about and talking about all the time. From there, I encourage people to figure out how
they want to deliver that, because there's different ways to deliver it. They might be
primarily someone who writes, or maybe they like to record audio, or maybe they prefer
to record video. There's different ways to deliver their message, and maybe they could
utilize all three and maybe even several others. But the point being, they have to figure that
out because the consistency gets tested when you have to commit yourself to delivering
regular pieces of content. And the people that deliver regular pieces of content with
consistency tend to get ahead. From there, I encourage people to develop the tribe that
they're serving. So make connections with the people that you're actually trying to
serve, and then put a team together. So I usually phrase that as deploy a team, bring
some people alongside of you that are going to help you do this. And then typically, for
people to last in the space where they're creating content, eventually many people start
asking the question, is there a way I can ethically make a living from doing this? Is
there a way I can earn an income from what may be a hobby? But typically what happens
is if you can earn an income, you can upgrade your equipment, and maybe you could dedicate
more time to what you're doing. And so I encourage people, if they can ethically do so, figure
out some ways that they could start deriving an income from what they're doing, because
it's going to free up some of their time to be able to do it more, and maybe even allow
them to invest in maybe a better computer, or a better microphone, or whatever it is
that they need to be able to do it more. And that's kind of the process that I encourage
people to walk through. I think it's a very logical process. But I typically start with
discovering your message. You got to start with that message, because everything else
you do is going to be built off of that.
That's really good. I think the two main points I got from that, it's like, you want to start
with consistency and clarity. Consistency and clarity on what your message is actually
going to be. And I wonder if you could clarify more of like, what would you mean whenever
you say a message-based online platform? Like, what are you talking about when you say that?
Well, meaning, put it this way, I'll answer that with two examples. So I have two primary
online platforms. One is a faith-based platform, one is a business-based platform. The faith-based
platform is at BibleStudyHeadquarters.com. And at Bible Study Headquarters, the message
of that platform is I want to help people learn the Scriptures. I want to help them
learn the Bible so that they can grow in their walk with Christ. So that's the message there.
The message I'm trying to convey is learn the Scriptures, it will help you grow in Christ.
Here are some resources to help you do that.
For PlatformLaunchers.com, that's my other online presence, my other online platform,
the message there is I teach people how to build, grow, and monetize online platforms.
And sometimes I also say it this way, I tell people how to take their passion, turn it
into a platform, and earn a paycheck from doing so. And so when I say a message-based
platform, I usually ask people to just kind of boil down what that message is, and then
build their platform or their online content around that. I'll give you even a third example.
It's not an example from me, but it's an example from someone that I'm friends with and working
with, Velma Knowles. She has LeadersPathway.com as her platform. And she talks about her tagline
there is where leaders go to grow. And so it's all about helping leaders grow in self-leadership,
in business leadership, and various things like that. So when I talk about a message-based
online platform, it's just there's got to be a message that you're passionate about
communicating and you use the online tools that are available to us to get that message
out there.
Okay. Yeah. See, that makes a lot of sense. And I wanted to clarify that because I know
sometimes I can think, from the Christian standpoint, you think message and I think
more of like, whenever somebody gives a message on a Sunday. And so when I think message-based,
I think the clarity there is really nice. Because I think a lot of people maybe will
say like a vision or like what is your, be clear on your vision, be clear on the people
that you're aiming to serve. I appreciate that bit of clarity there.
Let's see here, what else did I have? So what if like somebody doesn't really know what
their calling is, right? Like what they're being called to do, they're kind of, maybe
they don't know if they even have one. What would you say to them?
I'd start by just being honest about how they're shaped, what they seem to be good at, what
they seem to have a desire to be involved in, what they're curious about. And I always
encourage people, if you really want the answers to that, that really needs to involve a lot
of prayer, where you ask the Lord to help make that clear to you. And I do believe that
He can make that clear in a variety of ways. I know for me, one of the things that He has
frequently done is He has used other people that are in my life to help give me clarity
about things that I'm called to do. And sometimes the way that'll happen is people will ask
me for specific kinds of help or specific kinds of information. And because of that,
I've started to realize that there are certain ways that I really enjoy helping other people.
And it starts to become clear as people give you feedback that this very well may be what
God has called me to do, as you're observing the kind of questions people ask and the help
that they seek from you. So typically through prayer, through the conviction of the Holy
Spirit as I've been praying, the Lord has clarified that to me. And He's also used people
that have come alongside of me asking for those specific pieces of advice or aspects
of help that they feel like I'm somehow uniquely equipped to offer them. That really does help
clarify a calling. And I'd encourage others to begin with some of those same metrics.
Start with prayer and then look at what people in your life are actually asking you to help
with and then think about some of the feedback they give you. If there's something that people
have noticed that you do particularly well, then that's certainly something that should
get your attention.
I think like the one personal example I can think of is… they weren't asking me questions.
They were… there was two people that in different contexts like unprompted said I
should start a podcast. And one was Michelle Croyle. That was a while ago. And another
one was Pastor Ed who's leading Pastor Amplified Church. And his was a completely different
idea of what I'm doing. He was like more of a laid back, like he just wanted he could
sit back and laugh to. And it was me and my old roommate who we did the podcast with previously
and we're just completely different people. So it was fun.
But now it's turned into something… after I heard the second time, it was like in my
mind for a while. It was like that seed was planted and then I was like, okay, I think
that's what I'm supposed to be doing. And now it's over a year. So I can definitely
say like you keep hearing something over and over again. Typically it's something you
want to listen to for sure. And now I think I also think like I've heard you say that
before you said it earlier in the episode that people like listen to what people question
that people ask you. And that's something I think is honestly I think is a huge oversight
that people don't really… that's something I never I didn't think about because like
it's something that you like I would like the things whenever people ask me certain
questions that you kind of get that spark and you get kind of light up whenever they
ask you a particular question, can you get excited to answer? And like just the other
just like like yesterday I had like only Sunday I had a friend of mine, Chris, I say he was
going to start podcast soon asked him what he asked me like what software he should use.
And I was like oh Riverside. I was like yeah I knew you know. I was like man that's pretty
cool. And like so yeah it's just like it's definitely something like I think also with
the podcast and having other people listen to it out I know they start to know who I
am and the things that I'm growing in and like the kind of vision behind this podcast.
And I say it's the goal of the podcast where what you said the message is to provide people
with the tools and resources to successfully pursue their God-given calling. And what discover
and pursue I like to say. But it's the…
It's a good message.
It's like something that like I just I know I'm extremely passionate about and it's just
like something that came across like with the beginning of the podcast is something
that happened as time went on. Whenever Sean and I did the podcast whenever Sean and I
were doing technically short we just kept going and eventually that eventually it became
like I eventually that's what it became that became the tagline that we kind of came
up with. And that's kind of how I came up with the pursuit of calling later on. I was
like I love talking about the concept of excellence, concepts of the pursuit and like just purpose.
We did a whole series on purpose him and I and I was like that was my favorite time in
the world and so I was like I feel like I could do a whole… I feel sure I was like
I could do talk about this all the time but I think for this podcast we can move on and
then eventually this is what I'm doing now. So it's just like it's and yeah I don't
know I think what you're saying is huge and that's something a lot of people can think
about when they're trying to discover what they're calling is. And I think one thing
that you mentioned earlier how people like the hardest the hardest thing I think especially
for me because I like my goal is to eventually be a coach to be like a life coach and the
hardest thing for me I did it before for a little bit of time right. I did it before
for a little bit of time and it and the hardest thing was charging people. So and I do have
a couple more questions I think I know you have to go soon so I'm going to maybe ask
this one then I'll have two final wrap up questions after that. And so like you kind
of touched on it and I know so maybe you can quickly run over like how do you like how
do you really start like making a living in your with your calling if it's through a
platform or I mean if that's something that you think it's like in the playing for you.
The quickest way to make a living is to offer a service with your platform. So coaching
thing things of that nature typically people offer some form of service with what they're
doing before they offer content. Then there's other ways to you can you know yesterday I
just received a part of a podcast network that does some advertising on my shows and
so I receive commissions from those advertising you know from the advertisements on on my
podcast or people that have paid for banner ads on my website. I also have affiliate links
on on my website with different books and other products selling courses is another
profitable thing that can be done. Times people will bring you in even just via webinar to
speak on specific subjects or speaking fees whether in person or via webinar. There's
a variety of ways but content is something that people tend to earn an income on second
it's usually services that you can earn an income first from and then content as you
build up your library of content then that can become something that you tend to earn
income from. I host a membership community I sell books I do mentorship I do coaching
all of these things are ways that that you know finances are contributed crowdfunding
can be another thing you know someone's early in the process and they want to use something
like Patreon or buy me a coffee or something like that that can be another way to ethically
monetize what you're doing online and people that listen can contribute to you know just
knowing that you've contributed time to this and you have expenses but there's really all
kinds of ways I think a lot of people think that the only way to earn a living through
an online platform might be just through advertising and the truth is there are many many other
ways to earn a living and typically advertise typically the other things earn help you earn
a bigger living than even the advertising will just in a normal day-to-day context.
That's good thank you for that and I want to be respectful of your time so I'm going
to quickly get there's a couple questions I didn't I didn't send to you so I apologize
there's I always ask at the end I always ask guests these two questions when it comes to
like personal growth what's like maybe even the pursuit of calling and launching your
platform like what's like the top resource that you typically recommend to people as
far as launching an online platform yeah okay well one of my favorite resources that's kind
of an all-in-one resource is something called Kajabi and I find it to be a useful resource
for building websites hosting podcasts utilizing you know creating courses and hosting membership
communities it's kind of like an all-in-one solution and it's not cheap but it's also
not ridiculously expensive when you consider all the separate things it's doing it manages
your email list it's basically like a business in a box and and you can truly run an entire
online platform from it but if something like that wasn't quite as affordable if someone
was new and they didn't really want to spend that kind of money which I would totally understand
another great resource it's a bit more budget-friendly is utilizing Squarespace and some of the content
or some of the ways in which they allow you to monetize content and things like that and
produce content they have a lot of good options my favorite is Kajabi but I also have had
really good experience using Squarespace and that's a bit more budget-friendly right I'm
gonna be sorry sorry you're gonna Squarespace pretty soon yeah for a lot of stuff so that's
definitely a great recommendation my last question would be who would you now that you've
been on the podcast you kind of get a feel for what this what this is all about who would
you recommend as a guest for the podcast who'd I recommend as a guest well let's see there
are you mentioned Michelle Croyle has she been a guest on your show she hasn't no I
think I'd start there because she's the one that's been plugging you into different things
and she's done some really great things with with the people that she's serving online
I would definitely recommend her she's always pleasant to talk to and just has a lot of
wisdom and certainly the heart to help people and so that would certainly be somebody that
I'd recommend connecting with and checking out and thankfully you already know her yeah
great thank you I appreciate appreciate that something I should I think it was more of
a remark I definitely a reminder to reach out and since you have your platforms I already
I'm already gonna put platform launchers in the show notes they there any other areas
that people can reach you at if you want if they're only out yeah I mean people can always
message me via email John at platform launchers comm my the website is obviously platform
launchers comm and if they're interested in building a message based online platform on
the home page of platform launchers there's a free twenty one day platform development
planning guide and I always encourage people to download it'll just help you figure out
how to build the different elements of an online platform and I just I give it away
for free it's right on the home page of the website and if people are interested in faith
based content which I would assume that many of your listeners probably are they can head
over to Bible study headquarters comm and I have lots of freebies over there as well
one free gift that they would notice right on the home page at Bible study headquarters
is a book I will I'll show it to you right here got it right here with me it's a book
called walking in wisdom and it's an overview of the book of Proverbs just the idea of how
to grow in godliness avoid costly mistakes and get ahead in life and if people want a
free digital copy of my book walking in wisdom they can get that right at Biblestudyheadquarters.com
and that like I said is right at the home page and free to download they could
have it instantly if that's something they'd be interested in reading that's that's great
I'm probably gonna download that later I hope you enjoy it thank you um well thank you for
being on again sorry I know we went a little over time good thank you yeah well thank you
for being on I appreciate it and uh yeah yeah thanks you're welcome thanks for having me
yeah guys thank you for listening to this episode of the pursuit of calling podcast
if you liked it go ahead and give us a um subscribe follow review on any whatever platform
you're listening to your podcast on and share it out on your social media platforms so alright
guys see you next time