Episode Summary
People are so different and their vision of success varies widely. So, when you look at your professional career, how do you want your legacy defined? In the latest episode of Recorded Content, Justin Brown talks with Galem Girmay, Co-founder of RevGenius and the producer of the What Is Your Legacy podcast. Galem’s show explores how professionals define their personal legacy and how it can change over the duration of their career.
Although Galem’s show features conversations with her colleagues, she touches on topics most other podcasts don’t. Sometimes approaching conversations about death and other deep emotions.
Galem points out how important it is to find the right motivation and to stay consistent with the production of episodes. She mentions how it’s important to focus on sustaining the release of your podcast episodes in lieu of striving for perfection.
Guest Profile
Name: Galem Girmay
What she does: Produces What Is Your Legacy podcast and is the Co-Founder of RevGenius
Company: RevGenius
Noteworthy: Galem feels the impact of community helps educate, empower, and inspire revenue lead.
Key Insights
- Silence can improve podcast quality. Galem says the most valuable things in podcasts are stories and unique perspectives people share. “I look forward to each conversation. I love when people have to take a pause and be like, ‘Hold on, I need a moment to think,’ and some have been like, ‘Oh, you can edit this out.’ And I’m like, ‘Absolutely not. We need silence to fill the room because it brings a different level to the conversation when you truly think and feel about their answers.’ I think the topic of legacy, it’s such a heavy topic to talk with someone about.”
- The sense of community. “I saw a few people recording their podcasts on Clubhouse because that’s a different audience from any of the other social platforms. I thought, ‘Well, what if I just had a room?’ This was before I created my club in the Clubhouse. I just had weekly rooms every Tuesday. I have kept these consistent now for a couple of months since I started. I think I missed one Tuesday and I had a few people being like, ‘What’s happening? Why aren’t you here? What’s going on? Is everything okay?’ I’m like, ‘It’s all good. I just needed a day.’”
- Joining communities to build relationships. “Meaningful relationships are what life is all about, both on a professional and personal level. When I’m a part of different communities, it’s for the purpose of building relationships and connections with people. I’m not there to sell any one of my solutions. That is not the purpose. That is not the mission to why I’m there. I’m looking for a place where I feel welcomed. I’m looking for a place where I feel appreciated and I’m looking for a place where I feel loved. I feel like I belong here. I have a place here. That’s why I go to communities. That’s why I go to certain groups of people.”
Episode Highlights
Creating a podcast requires dedication and inspiration
“I knew I wanted to start some podcast for probably, I want to say, between three to five years before I started it. It was something that I had thought about. I would love to have my podcast because I have so many thoughts with me. But I didn’t want to start a podcast for the sake of starting a podcast.”
“When I started my podcast, it wasn’t perfect. It’s not where it’s today and I’m nowhere close to perfect, nowhere close to done with this. It keeps expanding into different spaces because circumstances are changing. I’m just focusing on the present and I think that’s what I’m learning. I’m learning so much from my podcast by talking with other people.”
“It reminds me that I need to live in the moment. What is happening right now is important. That’s what’s going to help create the future that I desire for myself and the people around me. You do need to have a reason for starting something. Unless you’re like this huge celebrity who people like to hear talking about nothing.”
Don’t get carried away with perfectionism
“I am somewhat of a perfectionist but I have learned in many different areas of my life that I cannot be that person if I want to achieve bigger things in life. That doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention to details. Absolutely, I do as much as I possibly can but I don’t let the idea of doing something perfectly stop me from doing anything at all.”
“I think that’s important to understand is if you are that person who’s like, ‘Yes, I’m the type of person that likes to be in control. I’m a perfectionist.’ If those are like the labels that you’re putting on yourself, I think you need to reevaluate why you’re putting those labels on yourself and what you can do to change that.”
Promote, communicate, take your time, enjoy
“I sometimes do those short clips, just audio clips, and that’s pretty much it. Then I put the content out on social like LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter. There’s so much more that I will be doing and that I want to be doing. It’s just a matter of figuring out. When you are one person on a team alone, there’s only so much you can do. I have a full-time job during the day. I have the podcast that I do with the conversation itself. It takes an hour. Then I have a Clubhouse room every Tuesday for 45 minutes. I have the editing piece of the podcast, the audio, the video. It’s a lot of time spent creating something.”
“You go into this world of creating a podcast and have a strategy. Part of my strategy with Clubhouse was this beautiful moment of being a part of the community on the Clubhouse and just listening to different conversations.”
Helping women in sales by getting together
“I have an interest and desire to help anyone who’s in sales, whichever gender you are or whoever you identify with. But specifically right now, I’m focusing on helping women in sales. I’ve had women reaching out to me on LinkedIn asking me specific questions. Then I would talk to them about that. Somebody would come and say, ‘I notice you do a lot of videos and I have this video diary that I’m doing now every single day.’ And people start asking me questions about that. The most recent thing is women coming to me asking me about sales. They’re asking me specific questions around prospecting.”
“I’ve had women recently coming to me asking me, ‘How did you start it? Where do you begin? I have a desire to do this too but I feel overwhelmed.’ What I ended up doing was I said, ‘All right, I’m having five, six different women here from all around the world. Half of them are in the US, the other half were here in Europe and I said, ‘Let’s just get together.’”
