Today we will be deconstructing the TGI strategies that Moby Hayat uses. Moby recently appeared on TGI 18. Moby is the host of the Fire Show Podcast and founder of the 2weekcontent bootcamp, where he gives you everything need to know about creating content that can attract the right customers for creative businesses. He has volunteered his time over the last 2+ years to help put on events like SXSW, Outliers podcast festival, podcast movement, just to name a few.He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Texas in Austin, and a MS in Technology Commercialization from the same school. 

Traction: Moby started his journey with the Austin Fire Show, where he learned how to get a podcast up and running, testing out different interview styles — what not to do, the finer points about interviewing, and ultimately what he wanted to focus on. Moby started the show because he realized he couldn’t start a business while waiting for his green card in the United States, but what he realized he could do was start a podcast, and it took him purchasing a booth at a startup crawl in Austin, TX, to start the podcast. That first year, he found that what gave him the most traction while trying to let people know about his show was simply asking questions to people that walked by his booth. He would ask them how they were, and generally try to be helpful before even talking about his podcast. By leading with value, he was able to get to a point where people would ask about him and be genuinely curious. At that point, they were listening, whereas he had previously only tried to pitch people on his podcast. He opted to wait for the right person to tell his podcast about, because he knew that it wouldn’t be for everyone. As a follow-up to conversations, prior to them asking about what his podcast was about, Moby would often offer useful episodes that would help solve problems of people that he spoke with. He led with value and helped to solve problems, up front. By making the mental shift of providing value up front, there was less pressure on Moby to sell, which made him more relatable and likeable. 

Growth: Now that Moby has reached a point where he has achieved traction with his podcast, the Fire Show, and gained a presence in the community, his definition of growth is building systems so that he can insulate himself from the mundane, and prioritize creating. In order to do that, he has started outsourcing editing, uploading, blog posts, social media, and any other task that does not require his expertise. Once has has taken care of those tasks with systems, he has given himself permission to grow creatively and explore different possibilities. Thinking about ways of how he can experiment to learn is part of the growth process for him. As he irons out his podcast systems, he is also growing his content bootcamp. In order to achieve growth on that end, he has gotten out in his local community and piggy-backed off of free events to help promote his course. For example, he hosted a meetup on how to create content from your phone, a 2-hour free event. At the end, he added that he also had a paid content bootcamp course. As a result, he converted 66% of attendees into paid customers for his course. 

Income: For the longest time, Moby was very intentional about not making money from his creative passions. Why? He was waiting for his green card, and prior to receiving that, it was unlawful for him to make any money outside of the visa related employer that he had. In his case, that was Dell. In August 2019, he obtained his green card and turned his focus onto monetization and finally building his business, after patiently waiting for years. The beauty of waiting for years is that he produced a podcast without sponsorships for 2 years, meaning that he had grown the trust and listenership of his podcast audience during that period of time. As he grew the audience, he also grew his email list. When it finally came time for him to monetize, he established clout and authority with his listeners and readers. They knew him and trusted him. When he came out with his course, he had finally given them an opportunity to support his past creative works. In the beginning, it was a trickle of purchases, but as time went on, he was surprised by how many purchases he obtained. Given that the content bootcamp just came out, the initial income garnered is very promising. The great thing about content, too, is that he can continue selling and earning passive income from that content for months and years to come — as long as that content stays relevant to current technology. 

If you are considering making courses like Moby, I have a few recommendations for you. As you build your site, you may look for tools that can help you automate the hosting and ordering of your videos. I would recommend that you look into platforms like Kajabi or Mighty Networks. From those courses, you could start consulting based on that knowledge, while offering your courses as a passive income stream. You could insert a quick line about you being available for consulting. You could get up and running instantly by sending bills through a Freshbooks invoice creator and you would look very professional, and your operation would be very smooth. Others that have come on the show have started by offering consulting for free, and then charging once they have enough customer testimonials.

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