Podcast Storytelling with Spencer Lodge

In This Episode

• [00:48] – Stephan exchanges podcasting experiences and tips with his guest, Spencer Lodge, a fellow podcaster, co-founder and chairman of The Blue Sky Thinking Group, and serial entrepreneur.
• [01:39] – Stephan is interested to know how Spencer and his team handle the intro and outro of each podcast episode. 
• [03:25] – Spencer expresses his view of his sponsors and explains how he chooses his guests in his podcast.
• [05:34] – In his interviews on the podcast, whose story is best, and what story changed Spencer’s perspective and overall character?
• [10:24] – While Stephan is curious if Spencer has ever encountered miracles, he shares an experience with Sheila Gillette in an episode of his Get Yourself Optimized podcast.
• [17:45] – Spencer discusses how he manages his TV show and podcasts separately. He describes the most significant benefits he received from podcasting.
• [24:29] – Stephan and Spencer bring up podcasts and podcasters they enjoy.
• [35:25] – Stephan mentions Sam Harris, a successful podcaster and owner of the Waking Up app, as an example of how a podcaster can turn their podcast into a business.
• [38:36] – Spencer mentions a book that teaches us to look within for solutions, which leads Stephan to his spiritual awakening with a Oneness monk at a Tony Robbins event.
• [43:08] – Spencer advises anyone interested in starting a podcast.
• [51:10] – In what way did Spencer get Tony Robbins to be a guest on his podcast?
• [55:55] – To learn more or work with Spencer Lodge, check out his website and get inspiration from his The Spencer Lodge Podcast.

Jump to Links and Resources

Spencer, it’s so great to have you on the show.

That sounds really big. It picks me up a bit, doesn’t it? I shouldn’t share that with people. Thank you for having me, Stephan. I appreciate being here. 

Now, you’re a podcaster yourself. I’m curious, how do you handle the beginning intro of your podcast? Are you reading their bio? Are you coming up with something after the fact that’s some of the best sound bites from the episode? Do you just sample some amazing wisdom bomb from the middle of the episode and start that way? How do you start with a bang, like with a hook or something?

So the team gives me this bio thing like you’ve just read, and so I read that, and then I tear that up, put that in the bin, and then I consume more of the content as a guest because invariably, it’s me that selects who the guests are going to be. And then I riff about my feelings about this person and why they’re good. I have a couple of bullet points I’ll stick to, and then I go. The outro at the end is where I really am sharing my thoughts and lessons learned through the episode. But yeah, that’s what I do.

It’s awesome. When you’re sharing those lessons, is that something you’ve recorded later after contemplating those lessons and the best stuff from the episode or do you just riff right then and there at the end of the episode?

Generally, it’s right then and there at the end of the episode. I mean, through the episode, I’ve made a couple of notes along the way. If they said something that resonated with me, I kind of riffed there. I have to deal with this bit with sponsors and stuff as well. So I have to go into a sponsor bit, another sponsor bit, so that has to come out. I like to do that originally each time rather than just do a pre-recorded bit because I think the sponsors are worth more than that, you know.

Yeah. And if somebody hears the same bit multiple times, they tune out to it, and they get a sort of banner blindness but the listening equivalent, I guess.

Yeah, and you know what, I like my sponsors. I chose them specifically for what they did. There’s value behind what they’re trying to do. For me, it’s just like, I want people to really engage with them. I think they’re good people and they do good work.

I’m looking for people I think have a really good story that I can tell and be intrigued about.

You said that you’re mostly the one selecting who your guests are going to be. Does that mean that somebody pitching your show out of the blue, you’ve never heard of them is unlikely to get a yes from you?

Man, I get these people all the time. These emails come through from this person. I’ve got the best guest in the whole wide world to come on to your show. He’s a billion-dollar and all this kind of stuff. I ignore it because I’m looking for who I know will resonate with my audience, but also, more importantly, I’m looking for people that I think have a really good story that I can tell, and that I can be intrigued about. 

Because if you’ve done plenty of episodes like you have, you’ll know as I do, it’s actually not always how well known they are. It’s not necessarily how successful they are. It’s the story and how I connect with that story. So for me, it’s looking for people like that. 

I mean, the last two guests, one guy was a guy that was in Afghanistan. His legs and one of his arms were blown off by an IED, but he has raised four and a half million pounds for charity. He’s very matter-of-fact and cool about what happened. I said I remember I was conscious. I remember picking my shoe up. As I picked my shoe up, my foot was inside it. He was open about it.

And then the other person I interviewed a couple of days ago was a lady called Jacqueline Gold. Jacqueline is one of the most successful business ladies in the UK ever. She’s 61 years old but in the sex toy business. That was an interesting conversation piece, to be honest with you, and it took me back to when I was a kid and embarrassed about all that kind of stuff when she first started in the business. 

Okay, awesome. 

That’s always a conversation stopper. People listen to that and go, what do I say to that?

I have no idea, but yeah, let’s talk about you. Your best story on this marketing podcast, let’s not talk about sex.

The best story I had on my show was about Nick Yarris. It’s not fair. It’s not the best. It was the first episode we did live, and nobody said a word for 45 minutes as he told us a story about how he was jailed and sent to death row in Pennsylvania for a crime he didn’t commit and he was in jail for 12 years until he got out with DNA evidence. 

The way he narrated the story just had us literally gripped by the story all the way through—shock, horror, and awe. It reminded me then that great storytellers are worth so much, aren’t they? They can change the mood and the scene. They can make you live the experience with them. That was a fantastic interview to have.  

But man, there’s been nearly 200 of them. Tony Robbins was everything and more live in the studio. Everyone thought he’d come and go. Instead, he sat around for two hours after the show, just spending time with everybody in the studio, giving them what they wanted one to one. He was a beautiful human being to be around. There were a lot of really wonderful people.

That’s amazing. Has there been a story that changed you?

Well, I’m currently making a documentary about human trafficking, and that documentary is being made for Netflix at the moment. That came from the podcast. It started with a guy who had a TV show on Netflix called The Kindness Diaries. He’s an English guy who lives in the states, and he travels around the world relying on the kindness of others. He couldn’t take money but could take fuel, gas, food, and shelter. 

Whenever he saw an extreme act of kindness, he repaid it with a life-changing gift. This documentary series that he made, I mean, I sat with a box of tissues for the first series. It was just so beautiful. So anyway, at the end of the interview, I told him I’m a bit jealous of you that you’ve got a TV show and I don’t. He just looked straight back at me and said, why don’t you? I had no words. He got me there. 

He said, “Look, I’ll tell you what, if you need some help with that, I’ll help you. We’ll have an hour every weekend, every Saturday morning after I run. We’ll have an hour while I eat breakfast and we’ll brainstorm for a few weeks and see what we can come up with.” That was the start of the TV show. 

The guests on the podcast have included the CIA, Homeland Security, the police in the UK, and victims of human trafficking from different parts of the world. All these stories came together to form the basis of the documentary as it’s being made now. That’s one of the big benefits that have come from it. When you hear about the stories and lives that some people have led, you just feel extremely lucky and grateful to be in the position you’re in regardless because people have been through some horrific experiences, sadly.

This documentary, the nonprofit, how are you seeing this shape you over the next few years? What do you see the outcome being for you personally, maybe your family? I know you want to change the world, but when you change the world, you also change yourself.

Yeah. I think that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 that want to be achieved, a lot of them really resonate with me. Having the opportunity to create this episode will be one in a bunch of episodes all about the issues such as climate change, water, and other UN sustainable development goals and objectives. I kind of think that this is my first step on that journey.

On your graves’ headstone, you have the date of when you were born and died. The tiny dash between the two dates is your life - make that dash mean something to the people in your community. Share on X

Now, there’s obviously risk involved, and human trafficking is a big business worldwide. Five hundred thousand kids go missing in the states every single year. Big numbers of stuff that goes on. It changes how you think about the world, and how you see the world. Some parts of me feel very sad for the world, but also, there are people out there doing heroic things, incredible human beings doing things that are just so amazing, and they’re putting that before everything else in their lives.

That makes you think long and hard about what you do and your contribution to the world. A lot of people, like me in the past, it’s all about career, money, success, family getting a great education, and yada yada yada—the stereotypical things. But there’s a lot going on in the world, and so to be able to acknowledge that, identify, or be exposed to it in some small way makes you reassess how you want to leave this planet. 

I’m 52, and I want to have made a difference in some way, and I want to be recognized for something because on the headstone on our grave, you have that date that you were born and the day you die, and there’s this tiny dash in between the two dates. Well, that’s your life. That tiny dash is your life, and I want that dash to mean something to the people that are part of my community.

It’s beautiful. Do you have a story that maybe for you created a miracle? I’m going to give you a quick example of that so I can provide some context around this. 

I recorded an interview with Sheila Gillette for my other podcast, Get Yourself Optimized. In preparation for that interview, I watched a video of her talking about her near-death experience, how she had just given birth. She had complications, pulmonary embolism, and she was on her deathbed. She was not going to make it. There was no way. 

She’s on her deathbed praying to God, please let me stay on this planet. Let me raise my kids, just give me a job. Please, give me a job. I’ll do anything. And then a miracle happens. Jesus shows up at the base of her bed smiling, warm energy flows into her crown chakra, top of her head. She is instantaneously healed to the astonishment of all the doctors, and then she develops these psychic abilities. 

She’s been doing this for decades now. This happened in 1969, and she channels 12 Archangels. She got Esther Hicks started, if you’re familiar with Esther Hicks. Abraham who she channels. It’s just incredible what Sheila has accomplished, and it all started with a request, just give me a job.

A few months after the interview, I just spontaneously am inspired to pray for a job and then the matrix is revealed. The veils are thin and I’m able to see. I don’t know what better word to use other than simulation. It changed my life and then I developed psychic abilities and stuff. People who just know me as an SEO guy—he has the big book on SEO—are pretty taken aback by that. Who is this guy and is this even real, or what’s he been smoking? 

But for me, it’s undeniable. It’s changed my life. My podcast has changed my life in a way that I was not expecting, and it was one particular guest. Her story, we didn’t even get into it in the interview itself, but it was actually prior to the interview and my research on her that shifted everything for me. I’m curious, do you have a miracle that you want to share that came about because of your podcast or somebody’s story in an interview, something that clearly was heavenly, heaven-sent, divine, or whatever your terminology is?

In simple terms, no, I don’t think I’ve had a miracle. I started the podcast three years ago. If you just said to me, if you follow your heart with the podcast as you grow it and you choose guests based around what you’re interested in, it will lead to you being able to create a television so the people can learn from and maybe take action themselves from, then I will say you’re mad, that will never happen.

There’s only really been one miracle in my life period, and that one miracle was a miracle on the very day that I was about to commit suicide back about 10 years ago. My father lives about 250 miles away from me, from my home in the UK. I’d been through some dark times. I’ve been depressed and stuff like that and just decided to call it a day and so I planned it all out. 

I think when you get into a dark depression, what happens is if you are ready to kill yourself, you become very calm. There’s no more emotion involved in it, and so I came back to do that. My dad, he never comes to my house. My dad, I go to my dad’s. I get in the car and go see my dad. He doesn’t come to me. He’s much older, but it just would be very unusual. 

Great storytellers are worth so much. They can change the mood and scene and make you live the experience with them. Share on X

I had flown back from Dubai into London, took a cab back to my house, and my dad’s car was in my driveway. What on earth is my dad doing here? And not only was his car on the driveway, he was inside my house, but there was no one at the house. I go in the front door, my dad’s inside. I’m like, how did you get here? He’s like, the housekeeper let me in. 

What are you doing here? He’s like, you’ve just been on a long flight. Go grab a shower. I’ll make you some coffee and some breakfast and we’ll catch up. So I went and had a shower, still wondering what he was there for. While we were downstairs, I had coffee with him and some breakfast. He said, I’ve got a buddy of mine I’d like to introduce you to, would you come with me? 

We jumped in the car and we drove to a mental health clinic in England called the Priory. He introduced me to a psychiatrist and just said, I think you need to spend a bit of time with this guy, I think he might be able to help you. I had not discussed any of this with my dad. My dad didn’t know how I was feeling, my emotions. I think it was divine and a miracle that he was there knowing there was something really wrong with me and taking some action in a way that he would never have normally done. 

That one action alone did two things. It took my bond with my father from great to off the charts and how beautiful that was, and also stopped me doing something that would have been a massive regret and my kids would have suffered terribly because of it.

Wow. Amazing. Thank you for sharing that. Clearly, that was a miracle. We’re all connected. We’re all connected and we also get these hints and nudges. Thank goodness your father followed the one that he was given. 

Spontaneously you get woken up in the middle of the night and your kid will be about to get strangled or something by the blanket. This actually happened. My first wife woke up in the middle of the night for seemingly no reason, went to go check on our third child who was an infant at that time. This was in the ’90s. We didn’t know not to put blankets in there. 

It was wrapped around her neck and she had turned blue. If my wife at the time had not woken up at that moment, our daughter would have died. 

Wow. I have no words for that. Thank goodness.

This has taken a different turn than I was anticipating. This is a marketing show. Let’s talk about how you see the podcast evolving over the course of time as the TV show takes off and you’re maybe spending more time with the TV show. Does the podcast become just a rebroadcast of the TV show or do you do these independently? Are they tied together somehow?

Okay, it makes sense. So no, the TV is done separately, and also, because we’re filming around the world, you don’t film all the time. We leave in June to go to Bangladesh and to Nepal to film there. And then I think in September in the states filming there, that’ll be the third leg. It’s taking guests from the podcast that have been able to help us research and create this show. 

A lot of people might think it’s great making a TV show. It doesn’t compare to how great it is making a podcast. A TV show is a lot of sitting around and a lot of waiting. They have to get cameras set up everywhere you go. We were moving between cities in Europe when we were filming and just the camera equipment, I think was 11 suitcases. You’re moving that stuff around. The director of photography, we’re like, are you ready? No, we’re not ready. The director’s like, you’re not ready. There’s a lot more to it. 

I remember in Dubai, we filmed for three days in Dubai at the beginning of the whole series, and that was for two minutes worth of content at the start of the show. I was like, what, that’s nuts. We’re filming for three days for two minutes of content. My podcast is very real and very raw. It involves me having really honest conversations, and I think people misunderstand podcasts. 

I think the people that do it like me and you know what it can do for us, but I think a lot of people don’t understand the benefit of a podcast. They misunderstand if you’re selling something. Why don’t you invite the CEO of every company you ever want to do business with and have a chat with him for an hour because after an hour, you’ll have their phone number and you get to message them for a coffee anytime you like. 

One of the greatest things about podcasts is therapy.

It’s a great prospecting tool. It’s a great brand-building and marketing tool to build your brand awareness of whatever brand you are. It also increases the size of your database if you want to do that. But also, one of the greatest things about podcasts is therapy. It’s such great therapy. I don’t know if you experienced the same thing, but I get a chance to learn about somebody, learn about their story, and debate certain issues with them. It’s not just about me asking questions. 

I don’t often leave a podcast episode flat. Nearly every episode I leave it in a better place than I was when I sat down at the chair, and that for me means a lot, you know?

Yeah. And think of the lives you’re changing for the people who are listening or watching, if you also publish on YouTube. Do you do that? Do you publish your episodes on YouTube as well?

Yeah, we publish on YouTube. We use it more as a base for the content more than we use it to promote in. There are only 8000-10,000 subscribers to the channel, so we don’t put up any effort into that really or haven’t yet. 

I think a lot of podcasters make the content based around how they consume content. I listen to podcasts every day, but invariably, it’s either when I’m running or when I’m in the car. If I’m at home in the evening, I can’t just sit and listen to a podcast. I can’t concentrate. I need to be doing something either driving, running, or something mundane. If I was mowing the lawn, something, it means that my brain is free to be able to concentrate on the content. That’s what I feel.

I do something similar with my podcast in terms of how I treat YouTube. It’s not my primary channel for getting the podcast out there. But there are some episodes that have really taken off. For example, the Marisa Peer episode, she’s phenomenal. You should totally have her on your show.

We’ve had her. We had her ages ago.

I remember you said. Awesome. That was a very successful episode, very well-watched episode, which funny enough is audio-only with a still image and yet many tens of thousands of views of that. And then we started doing video episodes where we recorded the video and used that for the YouTube channel. 

One standout episode that’s gotten a lot of watch time is Dr. Joseph Mercola. He pulled a lot of content off the web after a lot of pressure. He’s not that visible online if you do search him, so my interview of him has gotten a lot of play like hundreds of thousands of views. Who knows how many lives it’s helped or maybe even saved. 

It’s amazing when you create a show that can actually save people’s lives, not just help them with whatever their business challenges can literally save somebody’s life. That’s a great occupation.

I did something recently on LinkedIn and Instagram where I posted—it was written, it wasn’t audio. It was written with a photo of me just talking about mental health, the challenges that I experienced, and I was just really open about it. I’ve never had so many people message me saying, you don’t know how important it is. You were brave to share that, but that’s how I feel or have felt. I’m glad that someone who appears to be as successful as you go through those types of pains as well. It makes me feel a little bit better about myself and stuff like that. 

Get into conversations with people you know you’re resonating with and touching in some small way.

If there’s anything I can ever do for anyone on that kind of stuff, that’s a serious issue. I don’t ever want anybody to get to a place I got into. Again, you just get into conversations with people that you know you’re resonating with and you’re touching in some small way.

Yeah, that’s amazing. You really can touch people’s souls and it just doesn’t seem like that many podcasters are talking about that. If it’s a show that’s trying to get business deals, leads, or whatever, there’s a lot of talk about how to market the podcast, how to get great guests, how to do outreach, and the more tactical stuff. Maybe even strategy as well, but the soul-level stuff, I don’t hear a lot of discussion about. I don’t know about you.

How many podcasts are there, 75,500 or 7 million? I don’t remember the number now, but it’s an outrageous number.

It’s in the millions.

Yeah, okay. I’m sure there are. It’s not easy to find them. You and I, there are probably the most beautiful and most amazing podcasts out there that you and I have never heard of that if we listen to will touch our souls and our hearts. You get into your groove, you have your top five favorite podcasts and you sit in that one. 

Every now and then you dabble outside, someone will say something, or they will say they were on a podcast or they will say, did you listen to this podcast? I’ll go, no, I never heard of that one, and I’ll go and download it and listen to an episode. But you often kind of stay in your lane, I think. Who’s your favorite podcast?

That’s a tough one. Well, I’m a little biased, but my wife Orion has an incredible podcast. Her podcast is called Stellar Life. She’s got some life-changing episodes on her show. But you know, I’m biased. And then Luke Storey. His Life Stylist Podcast is amazing. He gets into a lot of spiritual stuff as well as biohacking. 

It’s interesting, a lot of biohackers are big into spirituality, and spirituality folks tend to spill over into the biohacking space too. So yeah, it’s another great show. It’s hard to pick one particular show. I don’t listen religiously to one particular show, so I dabble. How about you? What’s a standout podcast that you love to listen to?

I really like Steven Bartlett. He’s got The Diary of A CEO. He’s one of the sharks from Shark Tank or we call it Dragons’ Den in the UK. That’s something I really enjoy. I’m just going to have a look here. Dr. Rangan Chatterjee does something called Feel Better, Live More and he’s recently written a book called Happy Mind, Happy Life. But he’s phenomenal, what a guy. I had him in London recently on the show, great speaker. Giant of a man. He’s like 6′ 7″. I had no idea from the podcast. He walked into the studio and he nearly hit the ceiling, I couldn’t believe it. 

He’s a successful podcaster as well, a British doctor, and had a BBC TV show. I like Rangan Chatterjee, I like Steven Bartlett. I listened to most of their episodes. Patrick Bet-David I listened to from time to time. Then I’ve got this one in Australia called Forging Excalibur. That’s Michael Lauria. He’s a really, really good guy. He talks about the issues that men have, particularly as they move into their midlife, the challenges they face, and what you do to deal with them. 

There’s something called the High Performance podcast with Jake Humphrey in the UK. I’ve got a couple of my guests. There’s a lady called Dame Evelyn Glennie and she’s a percussionist, but like a Grammy Award-winning percussionist. She went to school as a kid and when she was seven years old, she was put into music and her friend was put into art. But Dame Evelyn Glennie was deaf and they put her into music. They taught her to understand music by vibrations.

What should have happened is that the deaf kid should have gone into art and the blind kid should have gone into music because that’s typically what would happen if that decision has to be made, but they put her into music and she learned to understand music through her feet and with her eyes. She went on to win I think three Grammy Awards. She’s now a dame so she’s been acknowledged by the Queen in the UK. 

She has an incredible story of what happened and the journey she went on. She’s a highly intelligent lady. She was on the High Performance podcast and I got her on the show, she blew me away. Those are the podcasts that I listened to on a regular basis.

What an amazing story. The blind kid being put into art and the deaf kid being put into music. These are not coincidences. There are no coincidences. Tony Robbins says that there are no coincidences. 

Until I had my spiritual awakening, I just thought, wow, that’s a really cool way to look at things. It’s kind of a great bumper sticker. I like it, but it didn’t hit home until I had my awakening and then I’m like, wow, there really are no coincidences. There are absolutely no coincidences. Everything is divinely precisely orchestrated. Yeah, that’s a game changer.

The teacher that made that decision one day, the teacher of the school. You got two eight-year-old kids and you go, you know what, I’m going to mix this up. I’m going to do something I don’t normally do. The outcome obviously is beautiful.

A lot is going on in the world. The ability to acknowledge, identify, or expose that in some small way makes you reassess how you want to leave this planet. Share on X

Yeah. Well, it’s like what I alluded to earlier about these nudges. Your father was nudged to get in his car and drive 250 miles to see you out of the blue.

You talk as if you’re quite religious. Are you religious?

I’m not. In fact, I was agnostic up until age 42.

So what are you now?

Spiritual. My understanding is there’s no religion on the other side of the veil. All the dogma, all the rules, on the other side of the veil it’s just love. In fact, as far as I understand this simulation, the only thing that exists is love. It’s just you and God essentially at some level. Everything’s an opportunity to learn, grow, evolve, share, and create. We’re going through a really powerful, historic time right now. 

Ten years from now, if you look back at what happened over this current decade that we’re in, your mind will be blown. 

You said you’re not religious.

I was not interested in religion at all because I was raised by grandparents for a chunk of my childhood who were diametrically opposed to each other. My grandmother and one side was a Jehovah’s Witness and my grandfather was a converted Catholic. They didn’t get along and they didn’t see eye to eye on anything. I just thought, this is all bunk and I went through my whole life like that up until age 42.

Wow. My story is not the same but similar. On my dad’s side, my grandparents were missionaries in the Second World War. They were Seventh Day Adventists, deeply religious people. On my mother’s side not at all, but I was forced to go to Sunday school, read the Bible, and stuff like that. It was just like, no, this isn’t for me and so I walked away from it much to their disgust for a while and then just came away from anything. 

I don’t use the word agnostic. I use the word atheist because I don’t believe in anything. It’s not like I don’t believe in being spiritual. I just don’t believe in any religions. I see the harm that religions do. I live in an Islamic state as well. I live in a Muslim country and so we’re here in the Middle East and people are extreme with their views. They’re extreme with their belief that their God, in any religion, that God is better than every other God. Every other God should be damned, and I’m not.

I’m just like, you know what, if you believe something and it makes you feel happy, then great. Every time I’ve taken time to read any of the Quran, any of the Bible, anything from Buddhism, the books all kind of say the same thing. It’s kind of like be a good person, be kind, don’t treat people badly, and don’t steal. It’s kind of like all the behaviors that everyone or anyone that knows how to behave well would follow. 

I just don’t understand why everything has to be so extreme. The Jews have to be so extreme, the Catholics. It causes more problems than it needs to, so for me, if I don’t get involved in that in my life, I don’t get sucked into that or a conversation around it because I don’t believe in any of it, then I’m probably going to have less to think about and less to worry about. 

When it comes to being spiritual, that comes down to my interpretation is do you believe that there is something else out there or do you believe just science? If it’s not the word God, is there a higher being? 

When I was living in Asia years ago, they really believe in life after death and reincarnation, they really believe in that. I kind of like that, but as long as I can choose what I come back as. If I get to choose then maybe that’s not the one for me. Do I believe there’s something out there, well, just look out the window, there must be something. Whatever it is, I don’t know, but there must be something. 

Like the stories that you and I are telling each other right now, there are clear signals of someone trying to tell us something. I just don’t believe it’s got anything to do with Jerusalem, Bethlehem, or any of those other places.

I interviewed for this again on my other show because that’s where I get all woo-woo. I interviewed a guy who lost his son and wrote a book about it because his son started communicating to him on the other side. In this book and in the interview, he spoke about something he calls thin spots. These are places where the veil is thin. By the way, this was fascinating to learn. Apocalypse doesn’t mean the end of the world. I know we’re getting really off topic here, but it’s from the Greek—

Your poor audience is going to be left wondering what this is all about.

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Apokalypsis means thinning of the veils. In this guest, I can’t remember his name at the moment but an elderly gentleman, he turned his son’s room into his office where he does his work and where he communicates with his son in the middle of the night. He also has not just a thin spot being in that room, but there are thin spots on the earth. And there are thin times like 3 AM, he’ll wake up in the middle of the night to communicate with his son because that’s the best time where the signal is the most boosted, so there really are thin spots.

Again, if you take all the rules and dogma out of it and just say, well, where’s the juice? You mentioned Jerusalem, I’ve been to Jerusalem and wow, the energy there is palpable. It is incredible. In fact, the second spiritual awakening I had was in Israel a little over a year ago because I was living there for nine months. My wife is Israeli. 

I don’t speak the language or anything, so I kind of keep to myself, but it definitely contributed to the holy energy of that part of the world. It definitely played something in this awakening, the second one that I had where I prayed to God for a job.

I think it has to do with this thing, with these thin spots. Some metaphysical folks will talk about ley lines, they’ll talk about portals, vortexes. People go to Sedona, I was just in Sedona with my wife and two-year-old son a few months ago. It is palpable. The energy there is palpable. It does feel like you’re sucked into some other dimension or something if you really tune in. If you are kind of oblivious to it, then you may not feel it, but there’s something there.

Let me move us a little back on track here. Another podcaster I think very highly of, he just came to me a few minutes ago, is Sam Harris. I don’t regularly listen to his show.

What’s it called?

Waking Up Conversations. I think he actually has multiple shows, but he has an app that I pay for called the Waking Up app. He’s a very famous, very successful podcaster and he has a lot of people on his app paying to access the lessons, the training, the meditations, and so forth.

If I remember correctly, he’s an atheist. But some of the most powerful lessons in that app for somebody who’s deeply spiritual like, wow, this is deep powerful stuff. There’s contemplation or a lesson for six minutes on death. I learned about this actually from Joe Polish who is a past guest on this podcast. He’s the founder of Genius Network. Great guy. He started one of the Genius Network meetings with that six-minute lesson. Whoa, what a way to start a two-day meeting with 70-80 people to listen to six minutes of contemplation about death. All right, guys, let’s talk marketing. It was amazing. I’ve actually played that for a couple of my daughters. I have three grown daughters. 

It says making sense. Is that it, Making Sense with Sam Harris?

I don’t know if that’s the name of his current podcast or his second podcast, but the app is called Waking Up.

The app is called Waking Up.

His podcast used to be called The Waking Up podcast, Waking Up with Sam Harris, or something along those lines. Like I said, I don’t listen regularly to the show. It’s been a long time since I’ve listened, but the app is amazing. To the point where I pay whatever it is per month to Sam for access to that app, even though I don’t listen regularly to the lessons or the views, the meditations that often. It’s totally worth it. I just want to share that, check that out. 

I guess from a business standpoint, it’s a great example of how a podcaster can make a business out of their podcast. He does well with his app. I’m sure he has sponsors and so forth as well to help with monetization, but yeah, he does really, really well. You can forge your own path. You could just say, I’m done with 9–5, I’m going to start a podcast, and I’m going to make it a viable business. The universe conspires to make it happen for you, I believe.

If you put the work in, agreed.

Speaking of which, this was a big theme in the book I just recently listened to called The Alchemist. Have you ever read that book?

Paulo Coelho. 

Yeah. 

A good book. Have you read Man’s Search for Meaning with Viktor Frankl?

No, I have not. It’s on my reading list, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. Why do you ask?

Stop thinking that the solution is out there because everything is within.

It’s the most amazing book I’ve ever read. I mean, I’ve listened to it many times on my audiobooks. That got me through some tough times because he was obviously a psychologist that was in the concentration camps. He spent his time analyzing people there, the other prisoners there. It’s such a tragic story, but it’s such a beautiful story as well. It teaches you to stop thinking that the solution is out there because everything is within here.

Yeah. In fact, a great definition of intuition I recently read or listened to in an audiobook was teaching from within. That is intuition, teaching from within. Tony Robbins actually says this, everything you need is within you now. It’s one of his mantras, one of his incantations. 

Every day in every way my world gets better and better every day.

He changed my life. I met my wife because of him and the spiritual awakening I had, the first one actually, happened in India at a Tony Robbins Platinum Partnership when he arranged for these Oneness monks to arrive and give Deekshas, Oneness blessings to everybody there. One of them touched me on the head and gave me this Deeksha, this Oneness blessing, and then it was like a psychedelic trip. 

Everything was in technicolor like a cartoon and felt this deep sense of peace and connection. I was agnostic, almost atheist at that point in my life. It shifted everything. I have Tony Robbins to thank for that, and the Creator, of course, nothing is a coincidence. And then I met my wife two months later at another Tony Robbins event, Date with Destiny, where she was my Date with Destiny. 

I wrote up a relationship vision on a poster board that we were supposed to do and then I prayed to the Divine for her to show up right away, and 12 hours later, we were introduced by a mutual friend. I gave her a Deeksha because she hadn’t gotten touched that evening. When everybody went around and got Deekshas, blessing givers, I was one. I had learned how to do it in India. 

So 5-10 minutes into meeting her I give her a Deeksha and the more you want the divine grace to flow through you to the person, the more that does and I wanted it so much as if she was my soulmate. And so five minutes into meeting her I knew she was the one, so I got a ring. 

I proposed to her nine days after we met in a hot air balloon. She said no, or she said not yet, a very awkward 20 minutes descent back down to earth Nine months later I did re-propose and she said yes. We’re happily married to this day. It is, without question, a soul connection like a soulmate connection, and it’s incredible. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Edgar Cayce, a famous clairvoyant from 100 years ago. Amazing. He’s up there with Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce. He’s got a great definition of a soulmate. We’ve headed so far off topic. 

Hey, Spence. Come and join me on my marketing podcast where we talk all things marketing. Yeah, no way, Stephan. By the way, we’re talking nothing about marketing today, folks. You’re on the wrong show.

Okay, so this is Edgar Cayce talking about soulmates. “A soulmate is an ongoing connection with another individual that the soul picks up again in various times and places over lifetimes. We are attracted to another person at a soul level not because that person is our unique complement, but because by being with that individual, we are somehow provided with an impetus to become whole ourselves.” 

Amen. 

Amen. So back to podcasting, and if you could encapsulate into a few minutes some of the key lessons that you shared in the METAL conference recently where you spoke about podcasting, some of the benefits, some of the opportunities, strategic, and tactical tweaks that you can make. What would be the best sort of stuff that you want to share with our listeners right now?

I think for anyone starting out I think it’s don’t complicate it. It’s not difficult. What we’re on right now is something called riverside. You pay whatever it is bucks a month a year for it and it does a lot of the work for you, a lot of the heavy lifting for you. 

If you’re going to have a podcast, ask yourself why you want a podcast.

Don’t overthink microphones and fancy gadgets. It’s not time to get there for that. Mixing desks, which I’ve seen some people do. I think the important thing is to ask yourself, if you’re going to have a podcast why you want a podcast. If you don’t know where you want a podcast, have you researched the benefits of podcasts enough? If you haven’t, then you need to research them because you get the opportunity. 

Like I’ve said before, if you want to build a business and use podcasts as part of your media strategy along with socials and other stuff like that, then it can be done and it can be done very effectively. You don’t need an audience. People get wrapped up in needing an audience, who’s going to listen to my show, and all this kind of stuff. You’ll find the people with the excuses, I don’t have the time. You do have the time you just don’t want to find the time. It’s more about really understanding what you really want. 

The sad thing about life is that most people are what I call just ‘enoughers.’ They do just enough. They’re not out there living their life the way that they could. They’re watching other people live their lives and they’re getting bitter about that and trying to find reasons as to why they’ve not got it or they’re not winning in the same way. 

Experience the things you want to see in the world on your journey through life.

I don’t mean about making money. It’s not about making money. It’s about being a great parent, being a great husband, and experiencing the things you want to see in the world on your journey through life. Making a difference, having impact, and all this kind of stuff. 

We all know that when we serve others, we get so much more out of that. I just built a playground in an orphanage in Rwanda, and people go, that’s such a lovely thing you do, Spencer. It’s so nice. The kids must have been really, really happy with what you did. You and the guys went down. I’m like, make no bones about this, of course they are happy, but I think I’m the happiest because I just spent a week doing that and I come away I have no problems. There’s nothing in my life that’s a problem. My life is easy. 

When it comes to podcasts it’s understand, is it something that you like talking to people, you like learning from people, you like sharing your knowledge, you like inspiring people, you like building business content. What is it you’d like to do? And if you’d like to do any of those things, then this kind of podcast structure is good for you.

Write down a list of people you could learn from, bring value to you, educate and inspire you, and imagine you were able to sit and have a coffee with each of them.

If you don’t like to do it and you’d like to sit in a hole or just sit behind your computer all day playing computer games then hey, maybe it’s not for you. But for me, write down a list. If you could dream about anybody being on your show, the top 20 people. Write down a list of who those top 20 people would be that you could learn from, that could bring value to you, that could educate you, and inspire you, and imagine you were able to sit and have a coffee with each one of them. 

It doesn’t matter how famous they are. It doesn’t matter how big they are in whatever industry they’re in. Just imagine if those 20 people you can sit down. 

Imagine if you could have an hour with Warren Buffett to talk about investing your money. Imagine if you could have that hour with Warren Buffett just for you, selfishly just for you to say, Warren, I’ve got this money. I’ve sold my house. I’ve got this $250,000 here right now. I don’t know what to do with it. Give me some advice. Imagine if that could happen, or marketing gurus for your business, medical professionals for your daughter’s illness, or whatever it may be. That’s what a podcast will give you access to. It gives you access to these kinds of people. 

The reason is that if you invite people to come onto a podcast and you approach them the right way, invariably they will say yes. If you say to somebody, come on my podcast, I really want to talk to you. I’ve got loads of questions for you, come on my podcast, come on my podcast, come on my podcast. Invariably there’s nothing in it for them. 

But if you approach people and say, look, I’ve got a podcast, I have an audience, and that audience will be so inspired by you, you have no idea. I’d love you to come and to share your story with that group of people so that you can inspire them even more. What invariably happens is that it feeds into somebody’s ego. Maybe I can inspire a few people. Maybe I can do that, not a problem. I can come along.

People are happy to be able to tell their story and know that they’re making a difference because if you’re inspiring people, then you know you’re making a difference.

What you’ll find is that people are happy to be able to tell their story and know that they’re making a difference because if you’re inspiring people, then you know you’re making a difference. Think about those people. Get those people to come and share their stories, you’ll find it’s not as difficult as you think. And then start to look at that podcast episode and the many others that you do and think about the value within that content.

Is there five minutes here, two minutes there, one minute there where they say something that’s really important or you say something that is really important? But that can then go and create your content for your Instagram, your Tik Tok, or whatever it is that you’re doing and it’s repurposing the same content. 

I described this to my dad the other day, this is exactly what happened. So my dad is 78 and this is exactly what he said to me two weeks ago in the UK. He said, Spence, how much money do you make out of YouTube? I was like, I don’t make any money, dad. I’ve only got about 8000, 9000 subscribers. Yeah, I’ve been studying social media. I didn’t think you were making any money out of YouTube. I was like, I use my other channels if I want to sell stuff, dad, the other channels that I have. He’s like, oh, right, okay.

I said, but you don’t understand it, do you? He’s like, well, I don’t get it. I don’t see the point of it. He said, tell it. We sat around the dining table right now, there’s six of us. Imagine you had the coolest, sexiest product that you’ve ever had in your life. 

My dad’s into 4x4s and stuff like that. Let’s imagine you had the sexiest, coolest 4×4 Off-Road D, drive it in the mud kind of thing. I’m no mechanical engineer so I don’t know that world. Right now there are six people who you could explain that product to and you can show them how it works and the value it might bring to them. 

One of those six people might be interested, so let’s say it’s my sister, Jade. Jade is interested and the rest of us are not. Is that right? I said, you’d potentially make one sale, don’t you? He’s like, yeah. 

So imagine being in the Staples Center or Wembley Stadium. There are 100,000 people in there and you’ve got this product, this sexy cool 4×4 blooming product thing. People know you, they trust you, they like you, and you say, who wants it? And only 1/6 of the people in that stadium said I’m interested. Well, you’re now sitting with 20,000, 24,000, or 18,000 people that are now interested in your product. Let’s make that comparison.

One person around the dining table, 18,000 people on a list that say I want to buy your products and service. Can you understand the importance of it now? He looked at me and he’s like, how do you know they’d be interested in the first place? He came up with his typical rebuttals. He’s an old guy, he doesn’t really understand it. 

But after about an hour and a half of just gently going through it with him, he started to get it. He’s like, I see. I’m like, dad, I have the podcast because of two reasons. (1) I love to learn about people’s stories. I’m naturally curious. But (2) I’m building a business and that business building has to include media, and I’ve got some choices. 

If I pull people towards me, I will build much stronger relationships with people who know, like, and trust me before they’ve even met me.

I can screw the media over and leave that, park that, and not do it again. I can go and get lists of names and numbers and I can start cold calling the world, which all of us hate. Or I can go back and get that social media going, that content that I’m creating, that podcast I’m creating, and I could pull people towards me. If I pull people towards me I’m going to build much stronger relationships with people that know, like, and trust me before they’ve even met me. That’s the power in my mind.

Yeah, well said. So a quick lightning round of a couple of questions here because I know we’re running out of time. How did you get Tony Robbins as a guest?

Interesting story, Stephan. You’ll like this one. It’s really interesting. I found his manager’s details. I sent her some flowers and I said, I’d like to have Tony on the show, would he come please? She sent one back, no chance. 

So I found his publicist. I sent her some flowers. I said, let’s have Tony on the show. She didn’t respond, nothing. Not even to say thank you, but no. I was like, “ohh, that’s a bit rude.” I then sent her some cupcakes, and when I sent the cupcakes she responded straightaway. She said, ah, you’re the guy that sent me the flowers. I’m like, yes. She goes, why did you send me flowers? I’m like, why just thought it might be a nice thing to do. She goes, I don’t like flowers, but I love cupcakes, so that’s how the conversation started. 

I said, I want Tony on the show, I don’t know how to do it. I know he’s going to be in Dubai. We’ve got studios. We’ve got this all available. We’d love to have him on the show. She says, I can’t promise anything but make me a video. So I made her a video and it literally was, Tony, you said it’s not about resources, it’s about resourcefulness. You told me this, Tony. I’m not going to let you get to Dubai and not come on the show.

So I did a bit of a crazy video, sent it to her, she then gave it to the flight attendant on his private jet and the flight attendant showed Tony on his flight. That’s how it happened because he then went, this guy’s nuts. Okay, let’s do it. That’s what happened and then the rest is history, he came on the show. So that’s how we got him.

That’s amazing. I love that. You are a go-getter. 

I don’t like flowers; I love cupcakes.

I don’t like flowers, I love cupcakes.

Words to live by. Last quick question, why Rwanda? How did that happen?

Okay. So the documentary that I’m making, my producer, her husband (good money), and she gives every penny that she earns to charity. That’s her deal. They’re both from Texas and she’s big into saving humanity. So she introduces me to this guy called Reza. 

Reza is Iranian and lives in Canada. He used to be one of these guys that flies those flying suits. Do you know those flying suits? Skydiving but with a flying suit on. Anyway, had an accident. 

Extremely dangerous. 

Yeah, crazy stuff. He had an accident, crashed into some tree, so did his buddy. Buddy died, he survived, and realized that this is crazy stuff like you and I just said. And then he went traveling South America. He sat on the streets in Bolivia one day and he was watching the kids on the streets. He just sat there for a couple of hours and it was sad. He’s like they’re not playing. Why are they not playing?

So he then went back to Canada doing construction work. He really wanted to find some meaning. He then went to Somalia and Africa to go find a refugee camp he’d been told about, and while he was there, if there’s something I could do to help to make a difference, what would it be? 

They brainstormed it and they say, well, if you can make a bit of a playground for the kids that’d be fantastic. I said, cool. I’m going to be here for the next month. I’ll do that. Let’s get some tools and I’ll get stuck in and do it. That started the journey. That experience of making that playground changed everything for him. And then he worked out that if you raised $20,000 as a nonprofit, $20,000 was enough to build the playground wherever they wanted to do so. 

So he’s worked with various organizations. Rwanda, again, he’s built one there before. He’s done 34 of these playgrounds now. He’d reached out to me in the past after the introduction. He said, would you be interested in donating some money? I said, yeah, but I don’t donate money that way. I don’t just give. I give, I need to get involved. I said, I’ll give you half the money on the condition that you let me come and help you build the playground. He was like, absolutely, no problem. And then that’s where the journey started. 

We then decided we’d help him by making some content for him while we were there. There was content that was made for him so that he could publicize what he did more. We went down and we built the playground there. We learned about the genocide in ’94, a million people were slayed in 100 days. That’s 1/6 of the population. It was just the most beautiful experience ever. It filled my cup to the top. I was very, very grateful to be there, so that’s how that happened.

The sad thing about life is that most people are just enoughers. They do just enough and are not out there living their life the way that they could. Share on X

Amazing. You’re the opposite of those just in offers. Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Spencer. You’re such an inspiration. I’m sure our listeners are leaving inspired. The ripple effect is huge, and it starts with you, so thank you.

Thank you so much for having me on the show. I really appreciate it.

How do folks follow you, learn from you, or work with you? Where should they go?

Well, it’s interesting, though. My name sounds like an older people’s home, so it’s quite easily remembered. Spencer Lodge. Where are you going to die, then? Yeah, I’m going to Spencer Lodge. My mom and my stepfather live in Cyprus and call Cyprus God’s waiting room. 

If you want to follow me, it’s @spencer.lodge on Instagram. Obviously, the podcast is called The Spencer Lodge Podcast. You can find me on LinkedIn as well as Spencer Lodge. Be careful, there are fake accounts out there as well. So @spencer.lodge is who I am on Instagram if that’s what you want to do to follow me. But I’d urge you all to go check out the podcast. If you’ve got any way of advising me, giving me your feedback, and telling me how to make it better, I’m all ears and always will be.

Do you prefer flowers or cupcakes to get on your show?

Pizza.

Awesome. All right, thank you, Spencer. Thank you, listeners. We’ll catch you in the next episode. In the meantime, make it a great week. Take care. 

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Your Checklist of Actions to Take

Book podcast guests I resonate with my audience and have a great story. My guest doesn’t have to be well-known or successful. It’s always about their story and how I connect with that story.

Always take notes during a podcast interview. This will allow me to consolidate all my thoughts and lessons I’ve learned from my guests. 

Write down a list of the top 20 people I could learn from. They are the ones that bring value, educate, and inspire me. 

Choose sponsors for my show that resonate with me and my audience. Make sure that they have value in what they are trying to do.

Focus on what’s good in my life and be grateful for what I have. Gratitude is pausing to notice and appreciate things I often take for granted.

Think long and hard about what I contribute to the world. A lot is going on in the world, and being able to acknowledge, identify, or expose that in some small way will make me reassess how I want to leave this planet. 

Be open to learning. Continuous learning is important because it helps me to feel happier and more fulfilled in my life and career and to maintain stronger cognitive functioning when I get older.

Keep things simple. Stop overcomplicating things. Find the easiest and simplest way to do things in my life.

Don’t be a “just enough.” Live my life the way I should. Don’t find reasons why I shouldn’t succeed in my endeavors.

Visit Spencer Lodge’s website to learn from him and work with him. Also, check out The Spencer Lodge podcast and follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

About Spencer Lodge

An internationally recognised serial entrepreneur, author and business expert, Spencer Lodge has almost three decades of experience with building startups across the world into 9-figure organisations. Spencer is the Co-Founder and Chairman of The Blue Sky Thinking Group, the parent company of three award-winning brands including Beneple, a SaaS based platform that manages HR administration, Finsbury Associates Wealth Management & Corporate Insurance Brokerage, and Safe Hands, a corporate health and wellness brand.

A working-class kid who became something from nothing, Spencer is driven to share his expertise through sales training, his book ‘Making It Happen: The Ultimate Guide to Selling’, The Spencer Lodge Podcast and his distinct style of inspirational and motivational seminars.