Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where
we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five
Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders
and experts who will share not just their expertise,
but the milestone moments that have reshaped
their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in
the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome
to Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership.
I'm your host, Sheila Slick. And today, my special
guest is Tom Fox. Tom is the number one voice
of compliance. having founded the only podcast
network in compliance, the award -winning Compliance
Podcast Network. It currently has over 60 podcasts.
Tom has won 28 awards, maybe even more, for podcast
hosting and producing, and he has been honored
with awards for podcast series as diverse as
Looking Back on 9 -11, Understanding Lyme Disease,
and Trial of the Century, the Enron Trial. He
is also the co -founder of the Texas Hill Country
Podcast Network. Welcome to the show, Tom. Sheila,
I'm thrilled to be here with you today. Well,
thank you for joining me. So the word compliance
means adherence to laws, to guidelines, standards.
and ethical principles that can apply to a company
or an organization. It's a very serious word.
And if I had a compliance department, I would
probably view it as like the department of no,
right? It just goes hand in hand with the word.
Permission, all rules, all restrictions. So what
was the pivotal moment when you realized compliance
could not just be a topic but a vehicle for podcasts?
Well, it was really a natural extension of my
marketing efforts. In 2010, I had retired or
my job went away because my company was sold.
And I went off on this great adventure of racing
bicycles. for a year until on a training ride,
I got taken out by a Hummer. That ended my cycling
career. And so I, after convalescing a few months,
I had enough energy to get on my walker and toddle
into my office at home. I decided I wanted to
work in the compliance arena. I'd done that in
my prior job. And so I had, the only thing I
had on my hands was time. So I started exploring
social media and I had always written a lot.
I'm a lawyer by professional background. So I
started blogging. Well, the podcast was simply
a natural extension of blogging. It was just
blogging, but verbally. So I started podcasting
in 2012. And in 2017, I got the idea that there
should be a network dedicated to podcasts in
the compliance space. There were three trade
organizations in compliance. So I went around
to them and said, look, let's form a joint venture.
We'll create a podcast network and we will put
all of our assets in the podcast format in the
network. It will not take away from anything
you're doing. It will not supplement or rather
replace anything you're doing. It will simply
supplement what you're already doing. And I could
get zero interest. The first question was, what's
a podcast? And then the second was, oh, we're
not interested. So I just said, bleep it, I'll
do it myself. So I did. And it's been a decade.
And in that decade, you've been called the number
one voice of compliance. That title represents
both expertise and influence. But even with that,
I know that every leader faces moments of doubt
or obstacles that'll test your commitment. After
hearing your story at the beginning, obviously
you have mastered these comebacks because that
was a serious injury that you described previously.
Strong man. So can you take us back to a time
when building the Compliance Podcast Network
felt like that uphill battle when you got those
no's? What kept you going? In 2017, the magic
number to get advertising dollars was 30 ,000
downloads a month. And I knew I was never going
to have a compliance podcast that got 30 ,000
downloads a month, but I might have 10 podcasts
that got 3 ,000 downloads a month. So my goal
was to get as many podcasts on the network as
I could. But I had to beg, borrow, plead, pay,
bribe, do lots of different things to get people
to come on my podcast. I even made my daughter
do a podcast. And so I did that for a couple
of years. And in 2019, I realized or I decided
that I either had to fully commit to podcasting
as a business or I had to move it back to hobby
status. So I quit practicing law on all the cool
toys that you see, built a huge network. And
I mean, huge network, huge infrastructure. And
at the end of the year, I made about $10 ,000.
And I felt well. That was an interesting experiment.
Guess I'll have to go back to practicing law.
And towards the end of that year, I got pretty
depressed because nothing seemed to be working.
And a person you'll meet at PodFest, the founder
of PodFest Expo is a guy named Chris Kremitos.
And I remember I was at another podcast conference
and I was so depressed I left early. And he calls
me Tommy. He and my mother are the only people
that call me Tommy. He put his arm around me.
He said, Tommy, you just keep doing what you're
doing. It's going to work out. And so what happened
was I went back to Praxilon 2020. And as we all
know, the country shut down about March 15th.
So all legal work ended and we tried to figure
out what was going to happen. Well, on about
May 15th of that year, literally every product
provider in the compliance space. called me with
the same question, which was, how long to get
access to your network? Because even by then,
I had the largest social media presence in compliance.
So I have a huge social media network. And I
had a very anomalous situation of people with
money to spend and nowhere to spend it. Because
back then in the compliance realm, almost all
marketing was done in person. conferences, trade
shows, breakfast roundtables, dinners, all of
those sorts of things that we used to do in business.
And of course, none of us could do that because
the country was shut down. So my little world
just blew up. And I went from 120 ,000 downloads
across the network in May of 2020 to 250 ,000
in August. And my income blew up. So what I've
tried to do really since then is just consolidate
the growth, the explosion of growth I had. And
I don't know if I could have built a network
out while trying to input all of these new customers,
but I don't have to answer that question because
all of that work I'd done in 2019, it was just
when they called me and I said, I had the same
answer to every question of how long it took
because it was the same, 24 hours. Because it
was just a plug and play or a drop and drag,
and they were ready to go. And so I had a platform
where people could get their marketing message
out that no one else had. And so since that time,
like I said, I've just tried to consolidate the
growth I had and expand on that. And it is your
full -time business. You're now practicing law.
Right. Oh, so it all worked out beautifully.
It did. So what advice would you give to an entrepreneur
or a podcaster who's at a crossroad where they
have achieved success in one venture, for example,
your law firm, and deciding whether to replicate
the model or try something entirely new? How
do you know when it's time to expand that vision?
Well, let me go back to the injury I had and
then changing sort of focus in 2010. I'd always
known that when the universe closes one door,
it opens another. But what I didn't realize until
I had that injury is you have to have the courage
to walk through that door. So if you're down,
if you think things aren't going well, if you
think opportunities closed off, just look around.
The universe is going to open another door for
you. But you have to have the courage to walk
through that door. And once you walk through
that door, then opportunities are going to open
up for you. So the first thing is find the door,
walk through it. It doesn't mean it's going to
be easy. And my journey certainly was not easy
those first couple of years. And I was very depressed
in 2019 when I didn't seem to be getting any
traction. But what happened to me was when preparation
meets opportunity, luck occurs. So the pandemic
hits, people needed a place to market, and I
had it. And whether you want to call that luck
or whether you want to call it I was ready to
go, it doesn't really matter. So be ready when
the opportunity strikes. And when that opportunity
strikes, just grab it. And literally what I've
tried to do since then is first year I tried
to just ride the tiger because it was crazy.
Then consolidate that growth and bring a value
to your customers that they can't get internally
or in -house or do it at a method or cost that's
below other things they can do. So product providers
in the compliance space, they certainly want
to come on the podcast, but they also need. marketing
material so i create 15 pieces of social media
marketing content per podcast so i can give them
the content they can then use to market their
products goods and services in social media linkedin
twitter facebook youtube etc instagram not a
tiktok guy but maybe you can do it on tiktok
uh so it's really a package of assets that every
product provider in the compliance space wants
and needs. So what is your next milestone? Well,
my next milestone is actually in a very different
direction. I live in part of Texas, the part
of Texas that sustained a major flood on July
4th. They killed 140 people, and I'm writing
a book about that flood. Mystic, like Camp Mystic?
Just like. You know, that was an eye -opener.
It just, for someone that doesn't understand
until they see how quickly the water can rise,
it just. So I know you're from Florida, so I
know you know about hurricanes, and I'm from
the Gulf Coast, so I knew about hurricanes. I'd
lived through hurricanes in Houston, lived through
Harvey, and certainly knew what flooding was
about. But I had no appreciation of a flash flood
and the power of not simply the rise in height,
but the velocity and speed of water and what
that can do to people, to cars, to structures,
all of that. So you're right. It's been a huge
learning experience. And that comes from somebody
who thought he knew what flooding was about.
So not only do I live in Florida and I know hurricanes,
I... can see the river, the intercoastal from
my office right here. And when I saw what you
just described, I too was like, wait a minute,
this is completely different than just getting
flooded, right? The force that that came with
and the way it would just take everything. So
what's your goal with the book? Actually, I decided
to write the book. to help work through all the
grief I was feeling. And it really struck me
very deeply, and it actually bothered me more
than 9 -11 did, which I didn't think anything
could bother me more than 9 -11. But I knew,
I tell people it's a big county, but it's a small
town. Everybody knew somebody who died. I had
people on my podcast who died. So it was very
personal to me, and it's allowing me to... to
work through that grief and tell the story of
not only honoring those who did unfortunately
pass away, but the resilience of the community
and how it's now trying to dig its way out and
actually make a comeback from this terrible tragedy.
Well, I look forward to staying in touch and
hearing about the book once it's published. Maybe
we can have you come back and give us more tidbits
and where we could buy it and so forth. I'd love
to read it. Looking forward to it. And I look
forward to meeting you in person at PodFest.
It's an event for podcasters and authors, I believe
both. And with my new project, Pod2Book AI, we
are actually sponsoring it. And so I'm very excited
to meet you in person and meet other people that
are also in this space. I appreciate your time
today. Thank you so much, Sheila. And thank you
all for tuning in to another episode of Milestone
Moments in Business and Leadership.