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What's going on guys? My name is Thomas Carney and this is the Pursuit of Calling podcast.

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In this episode, I got to sit down with John Stange where we talked about how to grow,

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monetize and launch your online platform. That's what he's passionate about. That's

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part of his calling is to help other people with their message based platforms. And we

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talked about what message based platform means in the episode. So definitely go ahead and

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give it a listen. John talks about his life as a pastor where he's been a pastor for the

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last 26 years. And he talks about how that wasn't the only thing that God was calling

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him to do. There's so many things now that he does there. We talked about how to practically

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and ethically get some financial gain through your calling, through launching your online

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platform. So if you guys are interested in that, definitely give it a listen. It's exciting.

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It's fun. See you in there.

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All right. How's it going guys? Welcome. You already heard in the intro, you already read

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the title of the episode that we have a new guest that many of you may or may not have

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heard of, but I'm very excited to have him on today. And so just to give a little bit

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of intro from my own perspective. So he currently is a lead pastor at the Corcree Community

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Church. He has three faith based podcasts and a fourth called Platform Launchers. And

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I was personally introduced to him through a mutual friend, Michelle Croyle, who is part

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of his online group and program. He was having an open house Zoom call and where anybody

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could come on. And I was invited. I said, yeah, it was a lot of fun. It's really cool.

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I got to learn some stuff. And that's where I got the advice to do the rebrand to the

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Pursuit of Calling. So this is the guy. And at the end, I actually was able to win one

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of one of his books and a little raffle they did called the podcast, his playbook. I believe

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I talked about it before on this podcast and I read it to cover it to cover twice. So implemented

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some stuff pretty quickly after that. So this is Pat for John Stongi. And yeah, John, I

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appreciate you being on.

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Hey, it's great to be with you. Thanks for having me.

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Yeah. I, like I was telling you before the recording, I'm really excited for today. I'm

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really just really excited for this because I was thinking about it. Man, it feels like

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I'm, it feels like I'm making it a little bit. Whenever I reached out and reached out

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to somebody and reached out to somebody that I don't have like a direct personal connection

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with and they said yes to be on the podcast. I was like, that's pretty cool. So again,

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I said already, but thank you for your yes. I appreciate it. And let's see here. So yeah,

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I usually have, you know, I have people, I give a little bit of intro and below. Why

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don't you like, who is John Stongi? Who would you say you are?

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Well, the theological answer that ultimately I believe is I'm a new person, a new creation

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in Jesus Christ, someone who desires to glorify God with my life. And I do that in a variety

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of ways. Most of the things that I do involve some level of communication and teaching.

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So I create podcasts. Like you said, I've got four different podcasts. I write books.

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I pastor at church. I also serve as a professor at Cairn University and I teach a variety

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of media classes and theology classes. And so I get to do a variety of things like that.

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My wife and I have been married for 26 plus years. The Lord's blessed us with four kids

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and all four of them are adults now. Our youngest just turned 18. So get ready world, because

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now she's able to vote, you know, it's kind of, kind of interesting when your, your youngest

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reaches that level as well. But we're super proud of all of the kids and super excited

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to be able to be here with you today. But I would say primarily the way that the Lord

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seems to be utilizing my life tends to be in various ways of communication, maybe leadership

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development, discipleship, things like that. And I'm really grateful for the opportunities

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He's given me to serve in those ways.

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Great. I really like, I kind of prepared, I decided that's what I was going to do initially

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was like front load a lot of your podcasts. And I have my podcast queue and I've been

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listening to your daily Bible a day. I've been listening to that every, every day. And

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then also your platform laundry is one is one is two is huge. I honestly really, I love

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that podcast because it's not, it's different than any other like podcast about business

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I listened to because as you say in your books and you've said in your podcast before, you

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don't do a whole bunch of social media, which is not something you hear about a lot. And

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I say, you don't really talk about it a lot. So that reams or leaves room for other topics.

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And I really liked the episode in the section in the book about what could you talk about

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for three years. And I like hit, I think I'm on episode like 53 or something like that

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53 54. I just podcast and I'm like, I'm like, I think I can see, I can let you think I got

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another at least another two in me. So it's a really like, I like, I like the different

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mindset that you bring to like the entrepreneurial table, I guess. But the with this podcast

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itself being called the pursuit of calling, I wanted to specifically talk about yours.

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If you like, if you could like define what your calling is, like what would you say?

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What would you say to that? The big word, I think that really defines my calling, it

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usually involves some level of teaching. I've discovered that that's really where it seems

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like the Lord opens up doors for me to serve and really seems to be the way in which He's

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gifted me to operate. So I mean, in my role as a local church pastor, one of the main

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my responsibilities I have is a teaching responsibility. There are other responsibilities, obviously

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as well, but the area that I feel most equipped for and certainly receive, I would say the

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most joy serving in is when I have the opportunity to teach. So in that context, I'm teaching

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the scriptures, I'm helping people grow as followers of Christ and I get really excited

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about that. I love that. On a day to day basis, in addition to that, I have the opportunity

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to serve as a professor, which I mentioned, and I get to teach in that context as well.

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Even in the business world, with the books that I write and the platform launchers podcast

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and the different things I'm doing on platform launchers, I get to mentor people, I get to

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teach people, I get to create courses that I deliver online, and a lot of these things

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really come back to that teaching component. I guess I was probably a teenager when it

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started to dawn on me that teaching was something I really, really enjoyed doing. And when you

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look at the different ways that the Lord gifts us all, He gives us all in different ways,

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and I've come to realize over time, partly just by observing my own life and seeing where

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the Lord's been directing me, but also the feedback that I've received from others, that

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teaching seems to be right where the Lord wants to use me and I'm happy to be used in

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that capacity. And so, communicating, teaching, all of that, it really does go hand in hand

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and I'm grateful to be able to do so.

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Great. I think it's really interesting because like, you have your role as a lead pastor

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and that came first, right? That was before…

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Yep. Before the online media, the podcasts, all that. Yeah. I've been serving as a pastor

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for 26 plus years and the media has really been over the past 10.

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So, like, what in that sense, like, I think a lot of people would think, oh, you're the

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lead pastor, that must be what you're called to do. What kind of led you, like, what was

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that turning point where it was like, oh, this isn't… Being a lead pastor isn't the

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only thing that God's calling me towards. How do those all kind of interact?

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Yeah, I used to get, I would say, like, kind of a sense of discontent with the fact that

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frequently I was producing content that was helpful in the context of our local congregation,

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whether it be, you know, something that I'd prepared to teach or whatever it may be. And

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I felt like it wasn't good stewardship, the fact that it did not have a second life beyond

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that moment. So, if you were there to experience it live, then you got to hear it. But other

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than that, the content just went into a file and it dawned on me somewhere along the way

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that it'd be better stewardship of some of the things that I'd been working on and spending

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so much time preparing if, at least initially, I put some books together. And I started writing

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books based on some of the things that I was teaching. And when they were warmly received

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and people started utilizing them, I thought, oh, well, this is great, I'll produce more.

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And then in the midst of that, I started listening to a lot of podcasts. And I do have a background

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in radio. I used to be a radio announcer and I do voiceover work and things like that.

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So I have, you know, I had a good mic, I had the ability to record, I knew how to edit

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audio recordings and all that from my time at the radio station. And after listening

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to podcasts for a while, I thought, you know, maybe I should try my hand at this. And so

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at first I created a leadership podcast and I had a lot of fun doing that. But then that

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segued into the idea that I had to create the Chapter a Day Audio Bible podcast. And

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when I started offering that, I realized people were really looking for something like that.

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That podcast has been downloaded millions of times at this point. And it became very

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clear to me that that was something that people just in general, not just in my region of

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the world, but all throughout the world were looking for a podcast of that nature. And

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so I started creating that. And then that led into me creating the Dwell on These Things

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podcast that includes sermon content. And then I started creating Daily Devotions with

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Pastor John, which is another daily podcast. And then after a while, people started asking

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me not even so much about the podcasts, but they started asking me about the process of

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creating the content I was creating. They saw that I had a blog on my website. They

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saw that I was writing books. They saw that I was creating multiple shows. And people

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started asking me for advice on how to do that. And I realized that a lot of the questions

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that I was getting were really about online platform development. And that gave me the

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idea to begin platform launchers, which I started back in 2021, so about three years

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ago. And since then, I've been also communicating how to build, grow and monetize online platforms

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that help people directly communicate the message that they feel most passionate about.

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So it was kind of a gradual progression of learning to do these things. But it's been

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very interesting to watch how they've developed and how people have started utilizing the

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content.

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Wow. Yeah, it's... Man, that was a really fleshed out answer. That's really good. But

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you can tell this is something you're... You've talked about a lot, obviously, but there...

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You said that you were... I just wanted to just a quick note. The first time you said

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that you used to do radio, I wasn't surprised at all. You have the voice for it.

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The radio voice?

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Yeah. I heard it the first time on... Whenever, I think, Michelle Croyle told me about you.

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And I was like, okay, I'll look up this podcast and stuff. And I was like, sounds like a show

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host. It's cool. I just want to shout that out. But I want to dive a little bit more

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into the... I don't know if I would say practicals, but there's... A lot of people who listen

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to this podcast, they're like... I generally get... I've seen 18 to even mid-30s. And most

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of the time, mostly guys, some girls, but mostly guys. But people that are younger and...

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For people that... What is some advice you can give to someone who wants to, or is currently

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working towards... They're launching that online platform. They're trying to discover

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what they should be doing. Or maybe it would be like, what is something you wish you knew

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before you started?

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I guess I wish I knew that it was a process that requires consistency. So you've got to

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be consistent. The people that succeed at anything in this world are people that are

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consistent. They don't quit easily. They stick with it. They hone their craft. They get good

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at it. But if somebody really has it in mind to develop a message-based online platform,

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the first thing they need to do is discover their message. They have to figure out what's

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the thing that they could talk about with great enthusiasm for 30 minutes with no prep

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whatsoever that falls in line with the type of questions people actually ask them. Is

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there something like that, that seems to be their signature message or their primary message?

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And I think it's important to hone that down or figure that out. What that's going to be,

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because everything they build is going to be connected to that particular message. If

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they build an online message-based platform, they just want to be really clear about what

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that message is. And I usually ask people to tell me, what do people ask you questions

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about? And then after that, what do you like talking about that you can just talk about

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enthusiastically with no prep, because it's something that you actually really enjoy thinking

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about and talking about all the time. From there, I encourage people to figure out how

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they want to deliver that, because there's different ways to deliver it. They might be

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primarily someone who writes, or maybe they like to record audio, or maybe they prefer

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to record video. There's different ways to deliver their message, and maybe they could

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utilize all three and maybe even several others. But the point being, they have to figure that

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out because the consistency gets tested when you have to commit yourself to delivering

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regular pieces of content. And the people that deliver regular pieces of content with

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consistency tend to get ahead. From there, I encourage people to develop the tribe that

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they're serving. So make connections with the people that you're actually trying to

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serve, and then put a team together. So I usually phrase that as deploy a team, bring

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some people alongside of you that are going to help you do this. And then typically, for

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people to last in the space where they're creating content, eventually many people start

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asking the question, is there a way I can ethically make a living from doing this? Is

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there a way I can earn an income from what may be a hobby? But typically what happens

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is if you can earn an income, you can upgrade your equipment, and maybe you could dedicate

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more time to what you're doing. And so I encourage people, if they can ethically do so, figure

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out some ways that they could start deriving an income from what they're doing, because

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it's going to free up some of their time to be able to do it more, and maybe even allow

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them to invest in maybe a better computer, or a better microphone, or whatever it is

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that they need to be able to do it more. And that's kind of the process that I encourage

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people to walk through. I think it's a very logical process. But I typically start with

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discovering your message. You got to start with that message, because everything else

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you do is going to be built off of that.

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That's really good. I think the two main points I got from that, it's like, you want to start

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with consistency and clarity. Consistency and clarity on what your message is actually

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going to be. And I wonder if you could clarify more of like, what would you mean whenever

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you say a message-based online platform? Like, what are you talking about when you say that?

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Well, meaning, put it this way, I'll answer that with two examples. So I have two primary

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online platforms. One is a faith-based platform, one is a business-based platform. The faith-based

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platform is at BibleStudyHeadquarters.com. And at Bible Study Headquarters, the message

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of that platform is I want to help people learn the Scriptures. I want to help them

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learn the Bible so that they can grow in their walk with Christ. So that's the message there.

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The message I'm trying to convey is learn the Scriptures, it will help you grow in Christ.

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Here are some resources to help you do that.

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For PlatformLaunchers.com, that's my other online presence, my other online platform,

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the message there is I teach people how to build, grow, and monetize online platforms.

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And sometimes I also say it this way, I tell people how to take their passion, turn it

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into a platform, and earn a paycheck from doing so. And so when I say a message-based

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platform, I usually ask people to just kind of boil down what that message is, and then

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build their platform or their online content around that. I'll give you even a third example.

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It's not an example from me, but it's an example from someone that I'm friends with and working

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with, Velma Knowles. She has LeadersPathway.com as her platform. And she talks about her tagline

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there is where leaders go to grow. And so it's all about helping leaders grow in self-leadership,

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in business leadership, and various things like that. So when I talk about a message-based

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online platform, it's just there's got to be a message that you're passionate about

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communicating and you use the online tools that are available to us to get that message

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out there.

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Okay. Yeah. See, that makes a lot of sense. And I wanted to clarify that because I know

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sometimes I can think, from the Christian standpoint, you think message and I think

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more of like, whenever somebody gives a message on a Sunday. And so when I think message-based,

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I think the clarity there is really nice. Because I think a lot of people maybe will

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say like a vision or like what is your, be clear on your vision, be clear on the people

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that you're aiming to serve. I appreciate that bit of clarity there.

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Let's see here, what else did I have? So what if like somebody doesn't really know what

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their calling is, right? Like what they're being called to do, they're kind of, maybe

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they don't know if they even have one. What would you say to them?

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I'd start by just being honest about how they're shaped, what they seem to be good at, what

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they seem to have a desire to be involved in, what they're curious about. And I always

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encourage people, if you really want the answers to that, that really needs to involve a lot

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of prayer, where you ask the Lord to help make that clear to you. And I do believe that

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He can make that clear in a variety of ways. I know for me, one of the things that He has

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frequently done is He has used other people that are in my life to help give me clarity

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about things that I'm called to do. And sometimes the way that'll happen is people will ask

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me for specific kinds of help or specific kinds of information. And because of that,

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I've started to realize that there are certain ways that I really enjoy helping other people.

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And it starts to become clear as people give you feedback that this very well may be what

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God has called me to do, as you're observing the kind of questions people ask and the help

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that they seek from you. So typically through prayer, through the conviction of the Holy

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Spirit as I've been praying, the Lord has clarified that to me. And He's also used people

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that have come alongside of me asking for those specific pieces of advice or aspects

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of help that they feel like I'm somehow uniquely equipped to offer them. That really does help

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clarify a calling. And I'd encourage others to begin with some of those same metrics.

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Start with prayer and then look at what people in your life are actually asking you to help

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with and then think about some of the feedback they give you. If there's something that people

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have noticed that you do particularly well, then that's certainly something that should

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get your attention.

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I think like the one personal example I can think of is… they weren't asking me questions.

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They were… there was two people that in different contexts like unprompted said I

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should start a podcast. And one was Michelle Croyle. That was a while ago. And another

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one was Pastor Ed who's leading Pastor Amplified Church. And his was a completely different

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idea of what I'm doing. He was like more of a laid back, like he just wanted he could

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sit back and laugh to. And it was me and my old roommate who we did the podcast with previously

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and we're just completely different people. So it was fun.

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But now it's turned into something… after I heard the second time, it was like in my

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mind for a while. It was like that seed was planted and then I was like, okay, I think

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that's what I'm supposed to be doing. And now it's over a year. So I can definitely

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say like you keep hearing something over and over again. Typically it's something you

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want to listen to for sure. And now I think I also think like I've heard you say that

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before you said it earlier in the episode that people like listen to what people question

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that people ask you. And that's something I think is honestly I think is a huge oversight

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that people don't really… that's something I never I didn't think about because like

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it's something that you like I would like the things whenever people ask me certain

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questions that you kind of get that spark and you get kind of light up whenever they

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ask you a particular question, can you get excited to answer? And like just the other

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just like like yesterday I had like only Sunday I had a friend of mine, Chris, I say he was

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going to start podcast soon asked him what he asked me like what software he should use.

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And I was like oh Riverside. I was like yeah I knew you know. I was like man that's pretty

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cool. And like so yeah it's just like it's definitely something like I think also with

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the podcast and having other people listen to it out I know they start to know who I

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am and the things that I'm growing in and like the kind of vision behind this podcast.

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And I say it's the goal of the podcast where what you said the message is to provide people

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with the tools and resources to successfully pursue their God-given calling. And what discover

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and pursue I like to say. But it's the…

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It's a good message.

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It's like something that like I just I know I'm extremely passionate about and it's just

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like something that came across like with the beginning of the podcast is something

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that happened as time went on. Whenever Sean and I did the podcast whenever Sean and I

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were doing technically short we just kept going and eventually that eventually it became

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like I eventually that's what it became that became the tagline that we kind of came

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up with. And that's kind of how I came up with the pursuit of calling later on. I was

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like I love talking about the concept of excellence, concepts of the pursuit and like just purpose.

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We did a whole series on purpose him and I and I was like that was my favorite time in

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the world and so I was like I feel like I could do a whole… I feel sure I was like

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I could do talk about this all the time but I think for this podcast we can move on and

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then eventually this is what I'm doing now. So it's just like it's and yeah I don't

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know I think what you're saying is huge and that's something a lot of people can think

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about when they're trying to discover what they're calling is. And I think one thing

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that you mentioned earlier how people like the hardest the hardest thing I think especially

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for me because I like my goal is to eventually be a coach to be like a life coach and the

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hardest thing for me I did it before for a little bit of time right. I did it before

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for a little bit of time and it and the hardest thing was charging people. So and I do have

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a couple more questions I think I know you have to go soon so I'm going to maybe ask

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this one then I'll have two final wrap up questions after that. And so like you kind

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of touched on it and I know so maybe you can quickly run over like how do you like how

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do you really start like making a living in your with your calling if it's through a

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platform or I mean if that's something that you think it's like in the playing for you.

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The quickest way to make a living is to offer a service with your platform. So coaching

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thing things of that nature typically people offer some form of service with what they're

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doing before they offer content. Then there's other ways to you can you know yesterday I

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just received a part of a podcast network that does some advertising on my shows and

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so I receive commissions from those advertising you know from the advertisements on on my

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podcast or people that have paid for banner ads on my website. I also have affiliate links

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on on my website with different books and other products selling courses is another

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profitable thing that can be done. Times people will bring you in even just via webinar to

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speak on specific subjects or speaking fees whether in person or via webinar. There's

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a variety of ways but content is something that people tend to earn an income on second

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it's usually services that you can earn an income first from and then content as you

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build up your library of content then that can become something that you tend to earn

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income from. I host a membership community I sell books I do mentorship I do coaching

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all of these things are ways that that you know finances are contributed crowdfunding

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can be another thing you know someone's early in the process and they want to use something

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like Patreon or buy me a coffee or something like that that can be another way to ethically

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monetize what you're doing online and people that listen can contribute to you know just

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knowing that you've contributed time to this and you have expenses but there's really all

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kinds of ways I think a lot of people think that the only way to earn a living through

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an online platform might be just through advertising and the truth is there are many many other

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ways to earn a living and typically advertise typically the other things earn help you earn

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a bigger living than even the advertising will just in a normal day-to-day context.

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That's good thank you for that and I want to be respectful of your time so I'm going

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to quickly get there's a couple questions I didn't I didn't send to you so I apologize

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there's I always ask at the end I always ask guests these two questions when it comes to

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like personal growth what's like maybe even the pursuit of calling and launching your

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platform like what's like the top resource that you typically recommend to people as

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far as launching an online platform yeah okay well one of my favorite resources that's kind

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of an all-in-one resource is something called Kajabi and I find it to be a useful resource

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for building websites hosting podcasts utilizing you know creating courses and hosting membership

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communities it's kind of like an all-in-one solution and it's not cheap but it's also

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not ridiculously expensive when you consider all the separate things it's doing it manages

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your email list it's basically like a business in a box and and you can truly run an entire

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online platform from it but if something like that wasn't quite as affordable if someone

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was new and they didn't really want to spend that kind of money which I would totally understand

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another great resource it's a bit more budget-friendly is utilizing Squarespace and some of the content

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or some of the ways in which they allow you to monetize content and things like that and

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produce content they have a lot of good options my favorite is Kajabi but I also have had

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really good experience using Squarespace and that's a bit more budget-friendly right I'm

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gonna be sorry sorry you're gonna Squarespace pretty soon yeah for a lot of stuff so that's

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definitely a great recommendation my last question would be who would you now that you've

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been on the podcast you kind of get a feel for what this what this is all about who would

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you recommend as a guest for the podcast who'd I recommend as a guest well let's see there

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are you mentioned Michelle Croyle has she been a guest on your show she hasn't no I

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think I'd start there because she's the one that's been plugging you into different things

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and she's done some really great things with with the people that she's serving online

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I would definitely recommend her she's always pleasant to talk to and just has a lot of

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wisdom and certainly the heart to help people and so that would certainly be somebody that

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I'd recommend connecting with and checking out and thankfully you already know her yeah

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great thank you I appreciate appreciate that something I should I think it was more of

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a remark I definitely a reminder to reach out and since you have your platforms I already

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I'm already gonna put platform launchers in the show notes they there any other areas

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that people can reach you at if you want if they're only out yeah I mean people can always

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message me via email John at platform launchers comm my the website is obviously platform

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launchers comm and if they're interested in building a message based online platform on

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the home page of platform launchers there's a free twenty one day platform development

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planning guide and I always encourage people to download it'll just help you figure out

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how to build the different elements of an online platform and I just I give it away

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for free it's right on the home page of the website and if people are interested in faith

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based content which I would assume that many of your listeners probably are they can head

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over to Bible study headquarters comm and I have lots of freebies over there as well

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one free gift that they would notice right on the home page at Bible study headquarters

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is a book I will I'll show it to you right here got it right here with me it's a book

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called walking in wisdom and it's an overview of the book of Proverbs just the idea of how

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to grow in godliness avoid costly mistakes and get ahead in life and if people want a

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free digital copy of my book walking in wisdom they can get that right at Biblestudyheadquarters.com

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 and that like I said is right at the home page and free to download they could

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have it instantly if that's something they'd be interested in reading that's that's great

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I'm probably gonna download that later I hope you enjoy it thank you um well thank you for

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being on again sorry I know we went a little over time good thank you yeah well thank you

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for being on I appreciate it and uh yeah yeah thanks you're welcome thanks for having me

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yeah guys thank you for listening to this episode of the pursuit of calling podcast

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if you liked it go ahead and give us a um subscribe follow review on any whatever platform

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you're listening to your podcast on and share it out on your social media platforms so alright

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guys see you next time