IAM946- Growth Enthusiast Make Things Grow

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today Kyler Johnson of the “Nobody Asked,” podcast, Kyler it is awesome to have you on the show.

Kyler Johnson 0:40

Thank you so much for having me. Like I said earlier, I'm excited to be invading another podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:45

Exactly. Yeah, I feel that you invaded as I said offline as long as I can keep the podcast and you're not taking over. That's more than happy to do so. So what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Kyler. So you're gonna hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Kyler Johnson is not your typical Nebraskan. He's an advertising and journalism student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the host of a comedy fiction podcast called “Nobody Asked,”, and an iced coffee addict. Kyler, Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Kyler Johnson 1:17

I am more than ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:19

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off. I wanted to hear a little bit more about your CEO story. And what led you to get started with the podcast?

Kyler Johnson 1:26

Yeah, absolutely. From a young age, I've always been the person who wanted to make a name for myself and stand out in my small little, I guess it's not so small anymore. But the city where I live is Lincoln, Nebraska. I am over halfway done with my college experience. So late last December, I decided I was like, okay, Kyler, you need to do something. So in February of this year, I launched my podcast, Nobody Asked. And since then, it's it's been a lot of fun. It's been growing steadily. It's been a big learning experience. And I'm even getting credit on my bachelor's degree for the podcast. So it's a win-win situation here.

Gresham Harkless 2:03

And that's a win. I wish that I had that same credit when I was in school and the podcasts were cool then. And then maybe I want to get some credit as well.

Kyler Johnson 2:12

See, that would be nice. I wish all colleges do that. Because I have other podcasters. I know from other states, and they're like, I can't do that in college. I'm like, well come to Nebraska, then.

Gresham Harkless 2:21

There you go. Next time. I know. So I know where to enroll in school if I need to take any more education. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about that the podcasts take us a little bit more about what it is, what exactly you have as guests, and what you're doing there.

Kyler Johnson 2:35

Yeah, so absolutely. When I started it in February, I focused on doing interviews with people who had, for lack of a better term, weird jobs, talents, and hobbies. And then about I think it was August of this year, I kind of switched the format to comedy fiction to where every Wednesday I just explore one of the what ifs in life. For example, I was like, what if Kim Kardashian becomes president? Or what happens if we all raid Area 51?

And I don't know if you stop people were got arrested last weekend and all that stuff. So I also explored, what if the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts. So some of the stuff's fun other stuff is serious. And that happens? So I think it's in our human nature to want to explore the unknown, the what ifs, and kind of prepare ourselves for the future.

Gresham Harkless 3:27

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Was there anything I guess, a big emphasis that made you decide that you wanted to pivot the podcast?

Kyler Johnson 3:35

When I was doing the interviews, you know, the feedback was good, but the audience wasn't growing. It was it was kind of staying pretty stagnant. And I was like, okay, the podcast is still young. And that's a key alert to me that something needs to change. So I switched the format. And now each week, it just keeps growing and growing. So I think I'm up to an average of 540. Some listeners compared to it were getting around 100. Before, so it's doing much better. And it's very exciting.

Gresham Harkless 4:03

Yeah, that's great to hear. I think that's one of the big things that we always kind of forget that we have the power to do is that if something isn't working, you get that opportunity to pivot. I think sometimes people just go straight down the path. But for one, well, there's a lot of lessons for one being able to do that for to also pay attention to those analytics and knowing that you're trying to do this on some level, for the audience and make sure you give them what they want.

Kyler Johnson 4:29

Absolutely. I tell people all the time, don't get complacent in life. There's always something new, you can switch or change and be even better. So that's a big thing.

Gresham Harkless 4:37

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm sure that we can congratulate you on finishing the first half of every school. I've always felt I wasn't a Journalism major, but I was an English major. And I always wanted to do Journalism. So I always feel like there's a great opportunity in that degree just because it's an industry that's kind of ripe for opportunity, in my opinion.

Kyler Johnson 4:59

Absolutely. We'd like some from starting college in 2017 to flash forward two years later till now, journalism's evolved even then. So it's a field that's evolving with technology, current climate with situations, it's, gonna be interesting to see how journalism continues to evolve.

Gresham Harkless 5:19

Yeah, it's great to hear. But I always say that and that's why I love your podcasts people always love the news, they always have these questions about certain things, certain scenarios, which you get to explore in your podcast. And I think that will never go away. Just I guess, how people are taking in content and exploring that content is always evolving.

Kyler Johnson 5:38
Exactly. I don't think I've met a single human being who has not asked a what-if question, like, if someone was always asking well, what if blank happens? Or what if so, and so everyone asks, what if questions, so that's what my podcasting series.

Gresham Harkless 5:52

Yeah, absolutely. And we especially did it as kids. So if you didn't do it, you didn't have a childhood. That's, that's what I believe. So you drove your parents crazy. So I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And it could be for you or your podcasts. But what do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

Kyler Johnson 6:10

I think the big thing that makes me unique is the fact I'm a gay college student from the Midwest. And I'm, you know, here in Lincoln, Nebraska, we're kind of in the heart of Silicon Prairie. And that's still a term not a lot of people are aware of, but the city of Lincoln as well as Omaha, and Kansas City, the cities are growing like crazy. And there are so many entrepreneurs and go-getters out there. So it's such a vibrant, fun community to be a part of the future is going to be very bright here. So I think that kind of sets me apart. And there's a lot of good connections you can build here.

Gresham Harkless 6:44
Yeah, I hadn't ever heard of that either, Silicon Prairie. That's what you call it. Yeah. So there's a great amount of like entrepreneurship and ventures and everything that are going on in that area.

Kyler Johnson 6:55

Yeah. So for example, here in Lincoln, we have the big company I don't know if you've heard of Blue Box that was started here. And then the athletic-like software thing Huddle, that was started here. And then even my sister has her motion design studio called Pixel Bakery. So there are just so many entrepreneurs and go-getters here. I love it.

Gresham Harkless 7:18

Yeah, definitely. I mean, that's a great place to be and allows you to explore and like you said, yet to explore things from your perspective as well, too, which is why I think one of the biggest benefits of all these different memes, we have to kind of express ourselves, we can do it in our unique way and show who we are and not have to be cookie cutter, so to speak.

Kyler Johnson 7:38

Exactly. I know that's a big thing. A lot of people want to just do a desk job nine to five and like, no, life's too short. And you need to just go out there and do something different for sure.

Gresham Harkless 7:48

Exactly. So I appreciate you for doing that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an app, a book, or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Kyler Johnson 8:02

There's this book, I bought a while back, and it's called A Three Thousand Question on The Future. And it's just that it's a book full of 3000 questions. But the book itself, all of those questions, they make you think and ask you things that might happen 5-10 or 15 years down the road. And that's such an important thing, to me as someone who is a futurist and constantly worried about the future, but just for business people and entrepreneurs out there, it's so vital to not yes, you live in the moment, but you need to be aware of time future as well, because you got to stay on top of things be ahead of the game.

Gresham Harkless 8:41

Yeah, I always say that. And I think it might have been last week, I was talking to somebody. And we were talking about, I was talking about maybe when I was younger, I would go and rent movies and I would go to Blockbuster to rent movies. But they didn't evolve. They didn't think about the future they thought they would always be around and now my kids will probably not even know what blockbuster is or laugh at me when I talk about blockbusters. But at the same time, it's kind of case in point to what you're saying where you have to be able to evolve, you have to understand that yesterday is today. But also I have to think about 5-10 years down the line as well.

Kyler Johnson 9:15

Definitely and that was an example I was going to touch on is the whole blockbuster thing, because they had the opportunity to purchase Netflix and they're like nope, not gonna do it. And where's Blockbuster today?

Gresham Harkless 9:27

Exactly. They're gone. Never know. Yes. The dust is settled. So that makes perfect sense. So it is that what you were going to touch on for your CEO hack. Now I want to ask you for a CEO nugget, it is your word of wisdom or piece of advice? Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell to your younger business self?

Kyler Johnson 9:46

Yeah, I'd say the biggest piece of advice I had to have was to just be your true self. Life's too short not to be your true self. And one thing that I've learned is to trust your guts. That's something I haven't done in certain situations and that's come out to burn me in the long run, but trust your gut, and then entrepreneurs and business people need to remind themselves that success doesn't just happen overnight. It's something that takes time. So just push yourself don't give up and good things will eventually come.

Gresham Harkless 10:16

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's one of the things that we always struggle with, especially when we're talking about being futuristic. And of course, you're exploring and your podcasts about a lot of what-if scenarios, but I think it's sometimes hard to be able to tap into that ability to be an innovator to try something new, and then still trust it, because it can be scary, nobody wants to fail, even though that's part of the process a lot of times, but it could be really hard to do that.

Kyler Johnson 10:45

That's for sure. And that was part of the reason that took me because last August is when someone got the idea to create a podcast that they put it in my head, I was in Chicago, and I thought about as like, No, I don't know if that's my thing. And I was like, Well, why not try it? You don't know till you try it. So that's, that's a big thing in life is if you don't know till you try it.

Gresham Harkless 11:06

Absolutely. And I think that a lot of times when we do try things, we kind of take your say, we're not going to do that, or this is something I like but then we like it, we try it and we like it. And it's something that becomes our thing. So I think it's important to kind of remember that and keep that in mind. Whether you're running a company, you're starting a podcast or a blog, whatever that might be, try it, it doesn't hurt to do that.

Kyler Johnson 11:29

Absolutely. I 100% agree.

Gresham Harkless 11:32
Nice. Well, I now want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So Kyler, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Kyler Johnson 11:44

Being a CEO, to me, means being someone who is someone who's being a visionary looking ahead to the future, I can talk about being futuristic all day. But you've got to it just an example of a blockbuster. If you're not thinking ahead, they didn't think that internet streaming would be as big as it is today, you've got to be what is fastest things are evolving, and you've got to just be looking ahead and not only looking out for yourself and your business, but if you have employees and stuff, you need to care about their future, yes, you might be comfortable as CEO making some money here, but you have to look out for the other people too because they're the people that kind of build you up. So that's a big thing. Being a visionary. Some companies don't hire CEOs who are visionaries. And they're kind of struggling today. And I'm just kind of sitting and waiting to see what's going to happen with them.

Gresham Harkless 12:36

Exactly, yeah, everything kind of comes to roost, so to speak. So if you're not thinking ahead you might have difficulty down the line if you're not kind of taking care of those things. Let me ask you this. So do you find or how do you find the best way to balance both I know you have to have that present-day mindset. But you also have to have that futuristic, you have to understand the trends and things that are coming and make those kinds of decisions today, based on five years from now.

Kyler Johnson 13:05

That's a really good question. And that's something I don't know if I'd be an expert to answer because I find myself a lot being almost more in the future than I am in the present. So that's something I need to work on. It's kind of doing a 50-50 split there. But I think a lot of people, it helps if you kind of just sit for a little bit, you know, have a morning cup of coffee, instead of reading the newspaper, maybe journal write down, hey, this is what happened yesterday and relive and go over the present and then start forming and building your mind to start thinking about the future. Some people are better at thinking in the present.

And some are, in my case, I'm usually better at thinking of the future. So it's something like I said, I still need to work on. So I wish I had an exact answer for that. But I do some journaling to make sure I'm going back over the present. And then I'm just always a daydreamer. So future is always on my mind.

Gresham Harkless 13:57

Now that's a great thing. And I feel like that was a great answer, just because a lot of times, you have to know who you are. First and foremost, I think that's the biggest thing. And understand where your strengths and weaknesses lie, and maybe know how to balance yourself at certain times. There are different things you can do to make that happen. Because as you said, if you're never looking towards the future, maybe instead of taking that coffee and writing about the present, you're going to write more about where you see yourself 5-10 years down the line, versus somebody who's more future based might talk about, hey, what do I see in front of me that I enjoy? And I think that's a great answer.

Kyler Johnson 14:33

Well, thank you.

Gresham Harkless 14:35

You're welcome. So Kyler I truly appreciate your time and all the awesome things you're doing. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get a hold of you and subscribe to the podcast.

Kyler Johnson 14:49

Absolutely. Well, one thing I'd like to add is networking is such an important thing. And I know it can be nerve-wracking to just throw yourself out there to people. But one thing that I've noticed in life is the people that you least expect are the ones who end up helping you the most. So don't be afraid to make connections. Get on LinkedIn that is such a big platform. So get on LinkedIn, just cold email, people, just whatever it takes, just get to know people.

And hopefully one day, they'll help you get your foot in the door. And so you can grow and whatnot. If you want to listen to the podcast, you can head on over to nobodyaskedpod.com. It's on Spotify, Apple podcasts, it's on pretty much every platform. So you can usually find that's for sure. If you want to get in contact with me, my Instagram username is KylerJohnson21. The same goes for Twitter. So you can tweet me, you can DM me on Instagram on the social media junkie. So I'll see it if you send me something.

Gresham Harkless 15:47

Awesome. We will make sure to have those links in that information in the show notes. And as Kyler said, you know, anywhere you're listening to the podcast, if you're listening to this podcast, you just have to search for it there. And you can find it there as well. But definitely, I appreciate you, for taking some time out for all the awesome things you're doing to remind us of the power of networking because a lot of times you never know who knows who.

And it may not be a network connection that you made today that turns into something it might be five or 10 years down the line. But that's part of the future thinking that you've been talking about during this podcast, so I appreciate you for reminding us of that and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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