In this empowering episode, Dominic Forth, CEO of Thought Leaders America, shares how early-stage founders can build credible visibility and turn media into real revenue. If you feel stuck because no one trusts you enough to buy yet, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
– What to do with media appearances so they become revenue-generating assets
– Why your revenue problem is often a trust problem, not just a lead problem
– How to use podcasts to gain visibility and real-time feedback without waiting for perfection
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a founder. I’m your host, as always, Scott Ritzheimer, and most solo or even early level founders think that their revenue problem is a lead problem, when often nobody trusts them enough to buy yet, especially those who are in this startup entrepreneur stage, and that can be infuriating because there’s this trap that we feel like we’re stuck in between a rock and a hard place. Of well, if nobody knows about me, then how can I prove that they should know about me? And if they don’t know, it’s just it’s so frustrating for founders, and I’ve found that it has a nasty habit of poking on that imposter syndrome thing that we deal with as founders.
Well, today’s guest helps founders get credible visibility and fast. Dominic Fourth is the CEO of Thought Leaders America, and he’s creator of the Media Millionaire Method. After 20 years inside the world’s biggest newsrooms, he relocated from the UK to the US. He built a seven-figure business generating over a million dollars in under two years, using media as his sole growth channel. Even before establishing a traditional sales funnel, he’s placed hundreds of clients across 200 U.S. TV stations and helped founders and CEOs turn a single three-minute interview into a revenue-generating asset. After a near fatal rafting accident on the Zambezi River, when multiple Iron Man finishes have shaped him to help him with calm, clarity, courage in his leadership framework, which he uses to help leaders stop being the best-kept secret in their market. He’s here with us today, Dominic. Welcome to the show. So excited to have you here because this is it. I mean, like every founder goes through this, regardless of how much publicity we’re going after. There’s this frustration of needing to be known but not being known yet. How do you help founders to to start taking steps in that direction to solve for that problem while they go about all the other things that they have to do to build their business?
Dominic Forth
Yeah, Scott, thanks for having me. And this is a topic I love discussing because I’ve been through it personally myself. In fact, I was once described as the Phantom, which in a nice way because I was always behind the scenes booking other people on TV and podcasts and everything else, and yet I secretly wanted to be on the spotlight myself. But again, like even though I book so many people, like how do you break through and take that first step? And so I’m really excited for our conversation today and to talk through it.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s fantastic! It’s fantastic. So that that’s really what this is about. Because again, for folks that are listening that are in that level two, you know, there’s various degrees of success, but it’s early on for just about everyone, and and one of the one of the challenges in this level is it’s so hard. It’s so much harder than we thought, and and feels like everything is hard, and and so it would be one thing if we had this successful business and we had clients and everything was great, and we went to do a PR campaign and it flopped a little bit. So what? Who cares? But in level two, when when you don’t have all those other things established, it feels really vulnerable to put yourself out there. How how do you help coach folks through, especially those first early interactions, and and maybe even the first couple knows?
Dominic Forth
Yeah. So you know the old saying that you can’t see yourself in the picture when you’re in the frame, I think one of the best things is to get a coach and get some or someone from outside, and that could be someone in your organization that can give you feedback. But what I’ve seen really help found is is podcasts, and I’ll tell you why. Because sometimes press releases, written articles, they can be so manufactured. Not all of them, but they can be so manufactured. All there’s such limited contribution that is actually maybe it’s a quote or a few lines. Does that is that going to move the needle from a business outcome? But what I love about podcasts is number one, you get time with the hosts, and often the questions and the curiosity from the host will create these little aha moments as you’re talking, and often hosts have interviewed hundreds, if not 1000s, of guests.
So they’ve they’ve got a whole range of benchmarks, and so putting yourself as a founder onto a podcast suddenly you’re being asked questions where you’re thinking, “Huh, that’s the third time I’ve been asked on a show about that question. I hadn’t thought about that. Maybe there’s something there in our own client or customer journey that we should start putting into marketing, and so some of your best podcast interviews can become really great marketing, you know, projects in a way because you’re getting real time feedback from a host without the pressure of a sales. Because often prospects, I mean, talking to sale, like being on sales calls, is is huge. But prospects always have the guard up; they don’t always tell you the truth. Whereas being a guest on podcast is phenomenal because you have those kind of the you know the sleeves roll up, you have those real conversations. So that would be the number one place to start. And two, the other reason why is it’s very forgiving. So on TV, you’ve got three to five minutes, and if you don’t quite nail that sound bite, you’re like, oh, and it’s over in a flash. But a podcast host suddenly tell me more. Well, why do you think that way? So that’s the starting place I’d start with.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. I love that. And one of the one of the things about that or or this world in general is there are a lot of people who reach out to me. I think everyone gets this, but you know they’re they’re really you know if not spam themselves close to it. But there’s this like we’ll get you on all these shows, we’ll do this, and you can buy your way into a lot of Opportunities, but I think what I love about what you’re sharing with podcasts is the real opportunity is not necessarily just getting onto those, but it’s what you learn and and how how you develop and change. Would you say that’s true?
Dominic Forth
Absolutely. So my Zambezi River story I kept very private because it was quite traumatic, and I don’t even know. It came up on a podcast one time, and I was just describing the story, and the host was like, “Wait, what? You almost drowned in the Zambezi River? How did you feel? And I said, “Well, it took me three attempts to resurface. Like three attempts, yeah, and like, but the first time I was quite calm, like really, I was like, yeah, it was so strange because I wasn’t expecting to be calm. The second time I went to resurface, though, my head just went very clear. Like I’m going down the river with the raft on top of me. I’m not getting out anytime soon.
I got to do the complete opposite and fight like you know as hard as I can to get free from this raft, and so had this courage, and this all came from discovery on a podcast interview. And next thing you know, I was thinking about it that night. I was like, “Huh, that was a really, you know, I’m going to start talking more about this. And it’s the same with client case studies, and you learn in real time what lands and what doesn’t land. And the best part is, sometimes people have sort of an imposter syndrome. Like, well, I’m not ready yet. You know, I’ll I’ll share my story when it’s ready. But you’re getting this this feedback in real time, and it’s it’s honestly like some of the best feedback that you can get.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that because I think one of the one of the things that we have a tendency to do, especially for the more thinking oriented founders, is we kind of want to think our way out of every problem. We we want to like perfect it all in in the background, and we think that we’ll be more confident as we get more competent. But I think the thing that drives more confidence than anything is just reps, just time doing it and sharing it. And I love, I love the approach for that reason and others. The other thing I want to switch gears just a little bit because the other thing that I really like about your approach, and you’ve already alluded to this a little bit, is just the focus on business outcomes. Because for a founder, especially in level two, like PR is useless unless it produces outcomes, right? And and so like you just don’t have money to to to waste in that environment. It’s like it has to produce something, but what like what what are those outcomes? How and and how do you approach PR publicity or or these different purchases or strategies from a business outcome based approach?
Dominic Forth
Yeah, yeah. Start with the end in mind. So, what is the end goal? If the goal is to write more six figure contracts, how are we going to get the attention of those decision makers? And so, it’s using media as an asset. So the interview is just the beginning, and then how do you build the infrastructure so that media can be used as an asset? So a great example: there’s a interview that happens. There’s a really strong clip of you making a point that’s directly relevant to a pain point of your ideal client, and then you use that as part of an email campaign to connect with the founder and saying, “Hey, not sure if you’ve seen this. We were just featured by X, and these are these three pain points. Are you feeling something similar? Or if it’s a sometimes if it’s a higher profile placement, sometimes it’s like, “Hey, I was just featured on ABC last night. Thought you might enjoy this. I’ve worked with companies where we’ve-I say we-where they’ve generate. I don’t want to take credit for it.
I just do the media part, but help them with the rest. But they have closed five-figure deals off a simple email that’s just reignited something that’s stored in the pipeline. So you know, it’s just a great excuse to reach out to someone. You they had a proposal six months ago, and they went cold on you. They started ghosting you. Suddenly, you’re back in their inbox. Like, hey, I was on ABC. Hey, check out this podcast. Hey, here’s a great article I thought you might like. But it’s the founder of the company saying it. It really helps to reengage that way. And then the other way, which I love as well, is getting the founders booked on stages once they’re ready, because when you’re booked on stage, you can command a booking fee, and sometimes one speaking engagement pays for an entire three months of retainers. You know, if it’s the right event.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, and one of the again, one of the things I like about this is because one of the reasons why deals, especially in that category, so if you’re a coach or a consultant or any kind of like high ticket personal service type offer, trust is such a big part of that. And with as much noise as is going on, just more emails with more text. What’s that really going to accomplish, right? But being able to to give more than that, to have you know the recognition of an ABC or something that speaks directly to their problem, but from this third party source feels so much more trustworthy than just me saying more about myself. Would you agree?
Dominic Forth
Absolutely, and that’s the power of PR: is that third-party credibility, where you’re not self-promoting a verified third party, a credible third party is saying this is a great company to work for, this is a great person, you need to listen to this person and trust them. That’s the goal.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, Dominic. There’s this question I want to make sure we have some time for it because it’s a question I ask all my guests, and it is this: What is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish every founder watching or listening today knew?
Dominic Forth
So you don’t have to be famous to be worth listening to. Everyone has a story, and I like to think of two blacksmiths. So there’s one that he’s working on. It’s you know he’s building a sword, and he has his door closed. He’s like, “I’ll talk when I’m ready. And then in the same village, there’s another blacksmith, and he has his door open. He knows it’s not finished yet. He knows it’s not ready, but people are coming by. They’re seeing how the progress is being made. They’re looking at how things are going, and you can guess which one people are more relatable to, who people start to follow, whose people really start to trust. It’s the one with the door open. So there’s an invisible tax on silence, and often waiting for till something’s perfect, you’re taxing yourself, and so you don’t have to be famous to be worth listening to. People will advocate for you and support you just by sharing the journey, sharing the failures, sharing the challenges, and then sharing the successes as well. Hopefully,
Scott Ritzheimer
yeah. Wow, not what I expected, and it was fantastic. I I love that, and I love the illustration because I I know I’m guilty of that. Is like, hey, close the doors, let me get this thing sorted, and then let’s get back out there. So I think we can all relate to that. Speaking of relating to it, Dominic, I know there’s folks that are listening to this that you know it’s just exactly where they are, you know the the nature of being unknown, that desire to be seen and to be trusted, to do great work for their clients. If someone wants to know more about the work that you and your team do, how could they reach out to you? What what would a next step be?
Dominic Forth
Yep. So our website’s thoughtleadersamerica.com, and then we also have a newsletter called the Authority Brief, and that is at authoritybrief.com. And we talk all about press and just ways to get featured, do’s and don’ts, some of the mistakes that I’ve made personally, and then just some of the patterns and trends that I’m seeing as well. So authoritybrief.com
Scott Ritzheimer
fantastic. Authoritybrief.com. We’ll get links to both of those in the show notes for you all, so you don’t have to go looking for it. With that, Dominic, thank you so much for being on the show today. Really, really privilege having you on. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. Thank you so much. And for those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Scott Ritzheimer
Hey everyone, Scott Ritzheimer here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you exactly what you need for the level you’re in right now. If you want to discover what level you’re in, take our 10 question Founders Evolution Quiz for free at foundersquiz.com. That’s foundersquiz.com. It’ll pinpoint exactly where you are and give you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next level in your journey as a founder. If you got something out of today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe. Rate or review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let’s be honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible guests. So keep starting, scaling, and succeeding, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
Contact Dominic Forth
Dominic Forth is the CEO of Thought Leaders America and creator of the Media Millionaire Method. After 20 years inside the world’s biggest newsrooms, he relocated from the UK to the US. He built a 7-figure business—generating over $1M in under two years using media as his sole growth channel, before even establishing a traditional sales funnel. He has placed hundreds of clients across 200 US TV stations and helped founders and CEOs turn a single 3-minute interview into a revenue-generating asset. A near-fatal rafting accident on the Zambezi River and multiple Ironman finishes shaped his Calm, Clarity, Courage leadership framework, which he uses to help leaders stop being the best-kept secret in their market.
Want to learn more about Dominic Forth’s work at Thought Leaders America? Check out his website at http://www.thoughtleadersamerica.com/
Connect with Dominic Forth through his LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-forth/
Subscribe to Dominic Forth’s newsletter Authority Brief at https://www.authoritybrief.com/