Image credit Rob Dial

The host of “The Mindset Mentor” podcast, Rob Dial, joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Austin, TX. He brings some incredible insight into how you can live a better life, the things you can do every day to help yourself develop a better mindset, the tools, and tactics he used to grow his podcast to the top of the Apple charts, his favorite books, why everyone should have a mentor and much more!

On what he does and how he got started:

“That’s really hard. If someone has just met me and I don’t want to get into long conversation, I just say I have a social media company. If someone wants to go in more detail, I say I teach people how to overcome their mental barriers by changing their mindset. There’s a lot of different hats that I wear. I started my podcast 5 and a half years ago, and people didn’t know what a podcast was. So I stared making social media videos, because that’s where everyone was at the time. I had to figure out how to put my podcast content into a social media video, and how to make that video go viral. I spent years figuring out how to make videos go viral. I was known as the social media guy after that, because we got 1.5 billion followers on Facebook. I got a lot of followers from that, and transferred them over to the podcast. I also teach people who are coaches how to grow their businesses.

Five years ago, Facebook was the thing before Instagram was the thing. When I started seeing videos going viral, I would get thousands more followers from that. I was still working at another company, but I hadn’t fully left yet. I was undecided on whether this is going to be my thing or not, and invest a lot of money into it. If one of my videos went viral, the only costs were production costs. I just try to give as much content as possible. My podcast are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We also just started Thursdays. I’m announcing this exclusively for you, we are going to be adding a Tuesday podcast. So there will be podcasts 5 days a week. We post on Facebook 12 times a day. We post on Instagram 4 times a day. I’m trying to combat all the negative things on social media with positive stuff. I’m trying to put as much positivity out there as possible. Some people think I might be posting too much, but I’m trying to fill their newsfeeds with positive stuff. We are trying to get them out of the mindset that the world is going to sh*t.”

On where he gets his ideas from:

“There’s a part of your brain called the reticular activating system. An example is if you buy a particular car, you start to see that car everywhere. At one point on time, I realized I was not just a person, I was a production company. When that switch flipped in my head, it was like ideas started to come in. I overhear people and I hear them say something, and I take little notes. I have hundreds of notes in my phone. We are almost 900 episodes in on the podcast. I have hundreds that I haven’t even done. That’s where the ideas come from. I’ll talk to some of my clients and think that’s a great idea, that should be a podcast episode. I overhear my friends talking, and constantly my head is thinking. There’s never a shortage of content.”

On how he beat the computer algorithms:

“That was the reason why I started doing 3 podcasts a week. Everything is run by computers and algorithms. I look at the algorithm and think how can I give these computers what they want? For example, if someone is putting out 1 episode a week and I’m putting out 3 episodes a week, the computer sees I’m getting 3 times as many downloads. Even if we are getting the same number of downloads per episode. The result is I am rising up in the rankings, so more people can see the podcast.”

On his first hit:

“The first video that went crazy was called “You’re being brainwashed,” which was about how the news brainwashes you with negativity. The human brain is wired to spot what is bad. This is because it cares about you staying alive, so you seek the negativity and solve it to keep alive. The news understands this. The more negativity they put out, the more people will see it. From this, the news gets more money from advertising. I explained this in a video where I said the world is getting safer. The world isn’t perfect, but it’s not as bad as it is made out to be. Within the first 24 hours, that video did 17 million views. When 200,000 followers came within 7 days, I realized I might be onto something. Every week I try to put out a video where I get as much information as possible in about 3 and a half minutes.”

On how human psychology is linked to his videos:

“Psychology has always been a big thing for me. I thought I wanted to be a psychology major, but then I found sales. I can make more money, I don’t have to get a degree and I can drop out right now. So I got in sales, and the psychology of sales was really interesting to me. Everything I do, I understand that there is phycology as well as computers. I’m trying to give everyone a movie in 3 and a half minutes. I’m always trying to think of the person that’s listening or watching. I don’t to just put stuff out for the sake of it. I try to figure out how to shift peoples mindset and how it can impact them in a positive way. If they do, they are more likely to share it.”

On how mentors helped his success:

“It was a big difference. I hired my first mentor when I was 19. I hired them for $500. I was lucky, because mine was really good. His name is Hal Elrod, the author of The Miracle Morning. I hired him and his best friend to coach me every week. It was a lot of money for me back then. I paid $350 a month for rent and $500 for the coaches. The one thing I remember is that I was really good at partying and making excuses. I grew up in a town with a lot of drugs and alcohol. I know 8 people that have dies from overdoses. I saw my life going in that direction, but then I saw the opportunity to go in a different direction and be successful. In the beginning I was late and coming up with excuses for why I wasn’t hitting my goals. My mentor said “If a business fails who’s fault is it?” I said “the CEO.” He then asked me “if you don’t achieve what you want at the end of your life whose fault is it?” I said “it’s my fault.” I wasn’t treating my life like I was the CEO of it. From there it all clicked. I stopped making excuses. This was back in 2006. Everyone should get a mentor, the average millionaire has had 7 mentors before they make it. A mentor could be paid or unpaid, just someone who adds value being around you.”

On his podcast name evolution:

“It was originally MWF Motivation. It came out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and it was a motivational podcast. It was that way for about 3 years. I didn’t like the MWF branding, people didn’t understand it. I hate being called a motivational speaker, I’m not a high five, well done. I’m more telling it like it is and get you sh*t together type of guy. I thought that mindset was what the key is. The Mindset Mentor flows, and I believe that everyone should have a mentor in their lives. It stuck, I trademarked it, because I wanted to be the mindset guy.”

On people’s different mindsets:

“The fixed mindset says the world is happening to me. The “woe is me, why is this happening to me?” type of mindset. the growth mindset is how can I learn and grow from what has happened? A lot of people want change but they don’t want to change themselves. If they are that change, they can inspire others to make that change. If I lose weight, people will come to me and ask how I did it. But I go up to someone and talk to them about weight loss, they won’t want that advice. My dad died when I was 16, that was the catalyst for me to make the change.”

On how he grew his podcast listeners:

“I’m hardcore into gorilla marketing. In my old job at Cutco, we would give out 10,000 business cards to try and get people to apply. I got into this, I’m going to get my message out there no matter what. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I had a massive list of all these Facebook groups. I would reach out to the organizer and say this is my podcast, how can I add value to your group? Instead of spamming, I would have a relationship with them and make their groups better. I would answer questions, but post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday that a new episode was live. I would then reach out to all the new and noteworthy podcasts. I would leave reviews, and ask them to do the same for me. About 40% of those did. I was then climbing up the charts, and getting more ratings and reviews. I didn’t want to invest any money, so I was working my ass off without spending anything. I fully believed in what I was doing, so I put it out there as much as I could possibly could. If I just made a podcast and put it out there, no one would find me.”

On how he makes money from his podcast and advice for new starters:

“There is no advertising at the start. We have mid-roll ads. For 4 and a half years, I didn’t have any podcast advertising at all. Instead, in the podcast I would tell everyone about all the things I was doing. I have all my programmes, whether it’s advanced mindset stuff or other parts of my program. When you start a podcast, do it on what you love. I looked at yours Chris before we started. You have a lot of wrestling content on there. But you are so passionate about it. I bet you could talk about wrestling all day. Because you love it, you want to do it. People see a podcast as a way to drive business revenue. For me, it’s how much stuff can I put out that I love. If someone wants to start a podcast, make it how you want to make it. My podcasts are bite-sized. My work is only 20 minutes away, and I couldn’t finish the podcast I was on. So I tailored it around my personality. Make it something you have loved, and it won’t feel like work.”

On how he defines success:

“I think success is different for everyone. It’s not just monetary, it’s also freedom. The freedom to do what we want, when we want with who we want. I think that freedom is what everyone is working for. I don’t want to be unfulfilled in what I do. A lot of people will make millions of dollars, but they won’t feel fulfilled. When you do something you love, you don’t have to make millions. If you could make $70,000 and have a podcast about your passion, that is success in my mind.

On 3 steps people can take to have a better mindset:

“Firstly, become more self aware. Secondly, find someone’s whose message you love. Thirdly, take the time to do these things every day.”

On his favourite books:

“Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and The ONE thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan.”

On 3 things he is grateful for right now:

“For you Chris for having me, for the fact the internet exists and my health.”

Full podcast audio can be found below:

More information can be found on Rob Dial here.

Rob Dial can be found on Twitter here, on Instagram here and Facebook here.

His YouTube channel can be found here.