From Chaos to Creative Power | Stories With Traction Podcast

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode, Matt Zaun sits down with Steve Schmidt, Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Owner of Magnetic, as well as Co-Owner and Creative Lead at Spotlight Sioux Falls, to explore how creative content and radical authenticity shape modern business success. From building a $5M company in one year to facing rock bottom and rebuilding both his life and career, Steve offers a brutally honest look at what it really takes to lead and why vulnerability might just be the ultimate business superpower.

In addition, they talk about:

✅ Rhythm, consistency, and predictability: business lessons from the drummer’s seat

✅ Steve’s powerful sobriety journey and how it reshaped his leadership approach

✅ How to creatively break through content saturation (with actual examples)

✅ The role of emotional regulation and why sometimes the smartest move is just to walk away

…and much more!

BIOS:

Steven Schmidt is the Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Owner of Magnetic, a creative content agency helping companies craft compelling media strategies that scale. He’s also the Co-Owner and Creative Oversight at Spotlight Sioux Falls, a rapidly growing local media platform. A former touring musician, seasoned entrepreneur, and advocate for mental health and sobriety, Steve brings a unique blend of grit, creativity, and real-world leadership to every conversation.

Matt Zaun is an award-winning speaker and storyteller who shows business leaders how to inspire action and drive results through the power of strategic storytelling. With a track record of catalyzing significant sales growth for over 300 organizations across industries—from financial services to health and wellness—Matt’s approach has been proven to deliver measurable impact.

 

*Below is an AI-generated transcript, which may contain errors

 

Matt Zaun 

I'm so excited for this episode because today I'm joined by Steve Schmidt. He is the Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Owner of Magnetic, and also the Co-Owner and Creative Oversight at Spotlight Sioux Falls.

 

Steven Schmidt 

Welcome to the show, Steve. Matt, hi. Good morning. Welcome to Sioux Falls, everybody. Appreciate you spending some time with me this morning.

 

Matt Zaun 

And tell us a little bit about... Sioux Falls, since you mentioned it, because I don't think a lot of people around the country, I think the image that they have of South Dakota might not actually be reality.

 

Steven Schmidt

So tell us a little bit about Sioux Falls. Sioux Falls, so South Dakota is, I heard a stat that was really wild last night, and it was about the world, global, like go macro on it.

And half of everybody who's ever been alive is alive right now. 700 million people, there's only, or 350, you know, are alive right now.

There's only been 700 million people ever in the existence of the earth. So let's start with that thought. That's wild.

And if you drill down, like Sioux Falls is only 264,000 of those people. So like the amount of population is irrelevant.

Like it doesn't even blip on the map. Total states above, you know, 1.2 million, right? A lot of cities have that in their perimeter.

So I think for us, South Dakota is where I grew up. You know, I moved back here, fell in love with a girl.

And she is now the CEO of Magnetic, but there's some story between there because. It was a very bumpy road and kind of, you know, getting to where we are and continues to be a little bumpy, but it's, it's, it's a story worth diving into.

We'll get to that for sure.

 

Matt Zaun

Sure. I love Sioux Falls. I mentioned to you, I've been there, incredibly walkable area. Gorgeous. was stunningly beautiful while I was there.

So tell us a little bit about what you do.

 

Steven Schmidt 

So at magnetic, take us through your day to day. Some of the things you do for your clients. Yeah.

Magnetic is at scale, a content agency to simplify things. We have white labeled a software because we feel that content such as this episode is a great way to get long form content.

Nevergreen. And that's usually where the problem starts. It used to be that you didn't have content. Now, once you have too much of the wrong kind, you have no idea what you should be doing.

And I think what you do and what we're trying to do is really what it is. Storytelling. How do we get people to be authentic?

Kind of cut the BS, you know, because it's not believable and it's not real. And if it was. Nobody wants to hear about it because that's not the life they're living unless you're trying to show them exactly how to do it for themselves.

So I think what we've really done is try to get our clients to turn the lens and get off of the mic and start looking out to the audience.

So whether that's outbound sequences in the language we use, it's always driving back to content and always driving back to what we perceive to be what people care about solving within that little segment of audience.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah. So you mentioned almost too much content. It's interesting because a few years ago, there were a lot of companies, they were starving for content, very little content.

Now there's a sea of content. So I want you to talk about that. Where do you see content going, especially with AI and people now having more of an ability to put out subpar content?

The great content creators out there, how do they stay relevant with all the noise?

 

Steven Schmidt 

I love that you said that. We just have a new episode. You just named the episode for me. We have a golfer, a coach.

For example, who knows his audience is on LinkedIn, knows it's on Facebook and Instagram, a lot of golfers, right?

And so for him, the concept was, I think he just named it Subpar Golf, right? I love that. But they want to call it Golf Arrested, right?

And so we're getting out and actually saying, today, we got a submission. This person says their buddy Hank has a terrible hook or slice, and we go to Hank's workplace.

We literally come in dressed as police, and we arrest him. And then we take him in the car. And so imagine on the way there, we're saying, okay, here's who we're going to today.

And the crew's sitting in a limo. And then we get there, and everybody runs out, right? Because it has to be entertaining.

It has to be fun. And at the end of the day, he's still, A, getting content out, B, showing what he really wants to, which is that he's a golf coach, but most importantly, has a really big golf line.

He has bags, this, that. So he's got a million or $2 million e-com company that he's now trying to stand up with.

And so that's the creative way we're trying to tell that story because it's about the people, not the guy with the podcast.

So that's like our effort and what we're trying to do. And that definitely takes us off of call it like this style of interview.

But I think for people, especially starting out, like just get out there and show people what you do.

 

Matt Zaun 

And we're finding a lot of success in that. So I hear you saying that people are going to need to be way more creative.

They're going to not only think outside the box, but do outside the box. So for companies that might have dipped their toe into content, they started different things.

Give them some ideas of where to look for creativity.

 

Steven Schmidt

I use a tool called VidIQ. It's very simple when I look to see like, how do I find what my competition is doing?

That's extremely relevant because you want to find out what people are, what people are talking about. Right from there, the tools can serve you up some basic, okay, pretty vanilla scores.

What we found is our YouTube thumbnail. Those titles and descriptions that score the lowest perform the best. So like right there, you can say like throw the tool out the window and just use it for research.

And then ultimately, we want to find out like, okay, if the problem we're solving is more revenue, good luck, right?

So when you're going on YouTube, like there's a lot of people in B2B who are competing for telling you what to do on LinkedIn.

Like, so if you want to get in that space right now, I'd say barrier entry says very difficult. Stay out, right?

Oh, I want to be an AI consultant. Okay, let's do some research. What are people making content about when they're trying to pitch themselves as AI consultants?

That's a big thing right now, right? So how do you differentiate yourself? Because everybody needs it and everybody's selling it.

So how do you become that conduit that says, I'm the education wheel, not the person trying to sell you that?

I think that, Matt, the easier you can get people out of shorts into playlists onto YouTube and then into your website in that order.

Like that's the content move now. And I think that's the thing where everybody goes, what? What do you mean?

What I got to get this content to be performed, and I got to measure it. And all the things that Chris Walker said three years ago are now not true.

I need attribution. I'd say, okay, let's back up. If you're using Chris Walker in your small business, you're probably looking at the wrong person for what your influence is.

Chris is brilliant at a scale of a $50 to $100 million SaaS company in a lot of instances. Not all, in a lot.

Here, that doesn't apply. You don't have a 10K, 20K budget for ads. Like, you're looking at $1,000 maybe a month, $2,500.

And that is, how do you take that post? And on LinkedIn, this is the move that we've been seeing, right, is now you just got to boost it.

They're not going to give you the algorithm. So you've got to be able to budget. In addition to your post, and this is kind of a wake-up call for everybody out there.

I'm not telling you this is the way. This is the way we've been successful. Is using that post organically and then using the ones that perform okay and then putting money behind it immediately as a personal post.

And then hyper-segmenting down because you can say no. I only want 4,000 views to these specific people only, and followers lookalike lists go down it.

That's where the money is being made right now, and that's where we're seeing the biggest click-to-lead conversion, which is what everybody wants.

 

Matt Zaun 

Thanks for breaking that down for us. I really appreciate it because I feel like a lot of people, they understand the importance of content getting out there, personal branding, but then there's no intentionality.

There's no strategy behind that. So I really appreciate you breaking that down. So speaking of strategy, I am interested to know a little bit about your background.

What positioned you to get to where you are today? But let's backtrack. Let's rewind and go back in time.

I want to talk about teenage Steve. So when you were a teenager, what did you want? When you thought of a potential job or career path or an idea of what you'd be doing in the future, what did that look like?

 

Steven Schmidt 

I think when I was in high school, I took drumming very seriously. And so I want... It's become the best drummer in the world.

And I would practice and practice and practice. Now looking back, really what it was, you know, I became very good at drums because it was a way for me to deal with life.

Like I didn't realize at the time, like, oh, this thing's really helping me because I'm through some , you know, like a lot of people, like my dad left, I was sad about it.

I started drumming and kind of hiding my emotions a little bit, but like that got me through it. And then like being really good at that, kind of looked up and I was like, oh, well, you practice at something, you're really good at it.

You can, you can get to the top. Right. But for me is the top was the next thing. Like, how do I get really good here?

And it was never enough. Right. And so I'd get like, I get a full ride music scholarship to a school and two weeks in a quit, you know, I'd say it's not for me, you know?

And so I had a lot of those false starts of I'd say, if anything, I had, I had a poor lens of, I was looking at the freeze frame moment in life of saying, how do I get to that?

I want to climb. That Everest and get that feeling, and then I win, right? I've had so many of those, man.

We've gone tour with Limp Bizkit in Cypress Hill, played concerts in of 10,000 people, started company. Like, did all the things that should make you feel a certain way.

None of it would work, you know? So ultimately, it was an ism. I got sober seven and a half years ago.

So, like, if I had to say, like, my teen years and college years were filled with a lot of, you know, me kind of building up what I thought life should be.

And my 30s were, like, kicking me in the , saying this is exactly how life is. Shut up and listen.

And my 40s have been, like, dealing with the reality of that and trying to say the freeze-frame moment isn't how you measure it.

If that indeed is how you kind of were fueled, how do you now be fueled by consistency, quality, and things that don't bring the big impact moments but provide a lot of impact over time.

So I think, you know, says, a lot of times I find. Just looking back and saying, man, life is really good the first 25, 30 years.

I think ultimately, as a teenager, like what I dreamt of was to be the best at everything because I needed that validation.

And now I've learned that I need to and continue to look for other sources, spiritual sources for validation. I try to every day because that makes it so much easier when I'm not looking at myself and how my content and me, me, me is doing.

And the second I took the spotlight off myself, which I've had it on myself since age zero, me, me, me, and turned the mic around to other people on the camera and said we should tell their story.

Their story is for these 40,000 people. It's not about me. It's become effortless. The content performs, and I want to watch it because it's not about me.

So it's more of a channeling, I think, what was built with other pretenses to now use it for the right reasons.

 

Matt Zaun 

Wow. Well, thanks so much. I appreciate your. Vulnerability with that for sure. So a lot to unpack with what you said.

 

Steven Schmidt 

So a few things. So you had mentioned drumming.

 

Matt Zaun 

There's a lot of elements of stage dynamics as it pertains to musicians. So there's three in particular that I always think about from a stage dynamics perspective, Freddie Mercury, Beyonce, and Taylor Swift, right?

Three individuals that can dominate a stage, right? And what's interesting to me, when people study these individuals, there's so much intentionality and purpose with movement.

Understanding you hold the mic a certain way, you look a certain way, you go to the stage here, you reach out here, there's going to prompt an action, a response in that audience.

 

Steven Schmidt 

So from a stage dynamics perspective, when you were drumming, especially the physicality of drumming, do you think that prepared you to understand the nuances of capturing the attention of an audience today?

I love that question. There is yes, yes, and yes, and yes. The drummer sets the foundation. And the sort of mood.

And then you have to frame it up for everybody. But if it's not meant for everybody else to then be filling in the pocket, it's a terrible sound.

You know, they call it like drumming , right? People are like, you know, you just can't stop playing. And so I think what I did learn over time is like the best drummers are the one who sit in the pocket and allow Freddie Mercury to do his thing, which is an incredible thing, right?

Taylor Swift, no one's talking about their drummer, right? But their drums are amazing in Taylor Swift's live show. And I think for me, it really allowed me to find predictability, right?

And everybody's looking for like a rhythm and consistency. And I think, you know, in my life, I didn't have any consistency.

So like drumming gave me extreme discipline and consistency and predictability and honestly, like control, right? So if I'm really looking at like that, a drummer can control everything, the tempo, the dynamic.

And I think for me, that created this area to say like, wow, like I can make this happen. Look at this.

I can cause a reaction. I can make the audience jump, you know, and I started to sing and I took the mic and got off the drums and our last six years was on the microphone.

And ultimately, you know, I'll share some footage with you. can share it or not. We were looking, there's 10,000 people in this crowd and we didn't have any footage because this is pre-internet.

And we finally like dug out the VHS tapes from 1999 and looked at it. And I was just like, wow, you know, we would, we got to a point where we kind of knew the choreography of like, if you could prompt the audience, even with just the look, like they knew it was coming.

then all of a sudden every 10,000 people at once, you know, hit the floor. It's, that is a freeze frame moment.

I'm going to keep that one in my heart forever.

 

Matt Zaun 

That's amazing. You know, it's, it's interesting. You mentioned three things, rhythm, consistency, and predictability.

 

Steven Schmidt 

And isn't it amazing? That's what every business leader wants, right?

 

Matt Zaun

They want all three of those things. So it is interesting that even as a teen, you were setting the stage for your future today.

I also want to mention and highlight, you had mentioned seven years of sobriety.

 

Steven Schmidt

Congratulations on that.

 

Matt Zaun 

That's exceptional. A lot of kudos to you with that. I'm very early on in my journey as it pertains to that.

 

Steven Schmidt 

I'm assuming you're referring to alcoholism. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah. Alcoholism and benzos and cocaine, all of it.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah. So for me, alcohol, I'm two months in to nixing alcohol. So very early on, on and off, on and off, on and off for many, many years.

It is astounding what happens when you nix alcohol. learning. My sleep has improved. My skin has improved. I lost a ton of weight, more energy.

It's just absolutely incredible.

 

Steven Schmidt

you, man.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, thanks. I appreciate that. And I want to bring that up because there are so many individuals out there that are doing exceptional work.

They're highly, highly successful. But behind the scenes, they're struggling with something. And they might... Not be full-blown alcoholics. They might be abusing alcohol.

So I want to speak to that. Anyone listening out there that would never refer to themselves as an alcoholic, they've never even thought about getting help, but they know that they have been abusing alcohol.

 

Steven Schmidt 

What would you say to that individual? I would say the same thing I say to my brother, right? He's struggling with alcohol, and he's struggled for 20 years.

I would just say that the other side is waiting for you. It is beautiful. You're just in your own way right now.

You've got to get out of it. There isn't anybody hurting you actively. You're the only one hurting yourself, and when you can finally look up and see that and take the lens off of poor me, all of a sudden you go like, oh, my God.

What was I doing? Am I insane? And the answer is like, yes. Yes, you are. But the other side is tough.

It's not super easy, but when you get to it, life is something that you can deal with. And right now, if that's the state you're in, I think you would agree that it's probably unmanageable.

And for me, know, it just got to ultra unmanagement. So don't get there. I'm sure Matt, you would give the same advice.

But if you, you know, it's okay. You will ultimately be the one to decide, like, is this too much?

Is this affecting it? And there is thousands and thousands of people on LinkedIn and other places who I was really surprised, Matt, by the amount of, like you mentioned, sobriety.

Yourself, me, we're on this Zoom call. You know, there's so many people that if you just say, I'm struggling with this or I've struggled with this, who will be there to help you and probably do business with you because of, you know, shared value systems or things that they've done in the past that line up with that.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, appreciate you mentioning that. You know, for me personally, I had to make it a point to say never again.

 

Steven Schmidt 

Like, I couldn't, I couldn't give the door open to going back. And that was my...

 

Matt Zaun 

Big challenge was I'd say, all right, I'll give up alcohol for two weeks, and then I'd go back in full force.

And then I'd give it up for a month, and I'd go back. And it wasn't until I texted all of my close friends that I regularly have dinner with, I regularly go out with, where I text them, I said, never again.

If you ever see an alcoholic beverage in my hand again, you need to question me, because never, ever again.

 

Steven Schmidt 

And it's been, again, really early on my journey, but it's been really, really good so far. Amen. Well, here's, you know, I've never told this story, and I think it's kind of, you know, will be quick, but I think I don't have it all together, you know, and so, like, I got to be careful.

I don't want to preach. You know, when I was sick with alcoholism, it looked like, you know, I was going to go to an art show with a friend, and I was with my kid, you know, and I'd say, well, got to Uber there, because I got to have three drinks beforehand, and then I got to sneak a line of cocaine in, and then I got to puke up a bunch of blood.

three drinks beforehand. Then I got to go to this art show and act like I'm a human being. That was early alcoholism for me.

When it became an eight ball in a day and things like that, and I'd go to work and run into tables when I'm drinking, that's phase two.

Phase three, we're not even there. It just gets worse. You just fill in the blanks. And so I share that now where I used to be like, oh, I don't want anybody to know that or use it against me.

It's okay. It's okay because I realize it sounds insane because it is. And that's it. If you can relate to those stories, just know that it will get worse because it just does.

It doesn't get better ever.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah. I appreciate you sharing that.

 

Steven Schmidt 

Yeah.

 

Matt Zaun 

You know, it is amazing to me, people that I talk to, that they do find sobriety. They become wildly successful.

Is that because they're trying to make up for the dopamine depletion that they used to get through drugs?

 

Steven Schmidt 

Drugs and alcohol that they're pouring into their business?

 

Matt Zaun 

that part of it?

 

Steven Schmidt 

Yeah. So I've struggled with the workism, you know, and I'm not going to talk about hours a week. It's just always on my mind.

And so when I sold, what happened was, you know, I had a lead generation company. We started in 2022.

My ism was kind of redirected there. And then the isms of people liking it and, you know, building this machine from zero to 5 million and 40 employees in one year.

And we sold that company to a VC out of Israel. And that $7.2 million cash did not check or whatever.

It didn't work. Money wasn't there the next day. They let go of everybody. Half of the people, you know, rioted and said, you're the worst person ever, Steve.

And, you know, I kind of think they're right. You know, in that moment was like, it was a very good chance for me to look and say, like, what are you doing this for?

Because that was simply for the money, the freeze frame moment, right? So everything that happened after that, I got a divorce from.

Melissa and moved out across town. That was two years ago and started magnetic. And that was in the basement of a, you know, between sessions of sobbing, essentially, and saying like, I'm so sick of myself.

I don't know how I got to a basement of a townhome in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when I had this big life plan, you know?

And so it was, it was that it, there was, there was no escape. Thank God. It was just me walking through cornfields and every day and being like, I don't want to see anybody.

And then ultimately, like, I was like, I went to YouTube and I was like, I want my, I want to talk.

I want my wife back. I, it just dawned on me that like, this is not the right thing. And so it was about eight more months, but ultimately I found a coach on YouTube and he helped me become a better person and continues to today.

And so the power of content, like I've fixed my life and myself with people I've never met before and paid money.

And they hold me accountable, you know, and I'm a part of the community with other men who are just like me, who have been back into their relationship with their wife and Melissa and I are together.

She's the CEO of Magnetic. And I've kind of gotten out of my own way and let her do that.

And we're, you know, together again, planning to get married. So I think that the bridge there is like, it doesn't stop after alcohol.

Like I was still trying to really screw things up, but I still am. But I just got to get down on my knees every morning, get on my own way.

And then it works out pretty well. For sure.

 

Matt Zaun 

Wow. That's a powerful story. Congrats. That's absolutely amazing.

 

Steven Schmidt 

Thanks, man. Yeah, it's nuts. And she said, you know, she's not the kind of person who would ever want to talk to anybody again who's wronged her.

So I think, you know, that transformation is palpable. It has to be though, you know, at this point.

 

Matt Zaun 

Do you think that you have developed a pattern of self-sabotage in your life?

 

Steven Schmidt 

No, absolutely. Yeah, that is the pattern.

 

Matt Zaun 

Where do you think that comes from?

 

Steven Schmidt 

So what I've learned through a lot of therapy is, yes, self-sabotage, build something up, run away. Build something up, run away.

Businesses, my first marriage, tried to with this marriage. I think it comes from when I was young, whatever I did to cope with my emotions said, this isn't great, I can do great things, but I'm not deserving of the next stage because it's too hard, right?

Because now I've to sit around and sustain a relationship through good and bad, and I only want a good.

I didn't want any more bad. So that is not the healthy behavior, but it is the one that I dealt with.

And I never, you I found my dad dead in a hotel, you know, when I was 30, one month after I found my son.

So there's plenty of instances. For me to say, oh, like, that's the reason why, or that's the reason why.

But, you know, ultimately, I chose the path to drink my first drink of scotch the day I found my dad dead in a hotel with bottles of scotch everywhere.

And so, you know, the loop is the consistency of that pattern is, you know, trying to escape, but never knowing the next step.

Because it isn't an escape. It's a thing. Like, you're building a thing. It's not an escape. Other people depend on you, and I think that's been the gift, for sure, is that lesson.

 

Matt Zaun 

Wow. You had mentioned emotions, and I do find it interesting that from a business perspective, especially with a lot of businesses being male-dominated, a lot of men are not willing to connect with their emotions, talk about emotions, understand emotions, and to their detriment.

Because you and I both know, if you have a tremendous amount of anger under the surface, Eventually, that anger is going to come out in very destructive ways.

 

Steven Schmidt 

So what would be some ways that you've learned how to connect with your emotions? Oh, . Well, disassociation is the easiest path, but it's the worst one.

I'd say connecting with my emotions is to walk away from them. I struggle with the immediate reaction to be filled with hot red blood, and I just want to throw it in my head.

Like, it feels like it's a dizzying reaction. So I need to learn how to walk away, how to tell people I need to think about this.

I'm very lucky for Melissa because she knows it, right? She knows that she'll say, do you need a minute?

And it used to be like, oh, you're a dead, you know? So it's like, now that we know how to work with each other, works extremely well.

Now, do I walk away when I need to? That's the next thing that, like... I will be honest with you.

I told my therapist the other day, I said, you know, business... Works out really well, but sometimes, you know, the rumination of that, can walk away, but then how do I get it off my mind?

She says, yeah, pray about it. And I was like, oh, gosh, this prayer thing again. And she's like, well, pray for the person, pray for you, pray that they get, you know, pray for them to get better, pray for the best outcome.

She goes, what's wrong with that? What's wrong about that? And I said, you're right. I'm making it a problem.

I'm like, gosh, dang it, it's me again. Like, they're the enemy in my head. They're not paying me today because they want my life to be bad.

That's my story. So I think when you stop telling yourself the stories, it gets easier because you don't approach every conversation defensively.

And that's the, I mean, you got to change yourself because I've learned that I'm the one who's causing the conversation that causes the reaction.

So I wish I could say I meditate and pray every day. I don't. I'm not that disciplined. don't. don't.

I'm not disciplined. But that's a good step. Take a walk.

 

Matt Zaun 

I appreciate the physicality of that, right? Take a walk. For me, push-ups have been a thing. I mean, I do push-ups to exercise, but in this case, when I get incredibly frustrated, often with my young children, I found it best to walk into another room, do five push-ups, get myself out of that mental state of anger, and just transition into, okay, I'm here.

What do I do next? And one of the things that I learned, pointing and calling, I believe it's what is referred to in the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, where you're literally speaking it out.

So for me, doing a couple push-ups and then speaking out what is taking place. For instance, I have three little kids, 11, 9, and 6, and my 6-year-old can really get under my skin quite often.

So I'll go in the other room. After I get done a few push-ups, I'll speak. I know who's going to say.

Kind of really weird, but it was so impactful to me in the book Atomic Habits, where I'm speaking out what I'm going to do, and then I realize what I want to do is not steeped in wisdom.

So I'll say something like, my six-year-old is really taking me off. I'm going to go in the next room, and I'm going to yell my head off at him.

I'm literally going to get in his face, and I'm going to shout at him, because I want him to be prompted with fear, recognizing what he's doing is not right.

And then after I say that, I recognize to myself, wait a second, why am I going to do that?

He's doing an age-appropriate thing right now. He's doing something that any six-year-old on the planet would probably do. So I need to rework this in my mind.

So then I start saying to myself, you know what? I'm going to go in the other room. I'm going to get down on one knee.

I'm going to hold his hands and say, buddy, I really love you. But what you're doing right now, it could cause harm to you.

You can't be jumping on top of the table trying to swing from the chandelier, right? That's not, that's not going to work to your son though.

 

Steven Schmidt 

Right. You're, you're, you are now as a man, as a person changing, attempting to change so much about yourself that his life, your child's life will now be forever different and their children and their children.

And that's the hard part. Cause I think to me, that's so important. Um, because I, my dad was adopted.

Like, I don't know where his chain comes from. Right. But I know that I can break some of that and say, I'm, um, like you, I mean, used to, God, everything pissed me off.

Like everything was just like, stop doing that. Like, why are you being so loud? Like, but now I go, stop.

You know, and then I'm like, I love you. You are being too loud. And so I'm not as smooth as you, but I think they see the effort and they see, I love that you got down on one knee because you're meeting them where they're at.

And that's the biggest thing is, is, you know, you looking in the eye and saying like, Hey, dah, dah, dah.

And every time, they will lock in and engage with you, for sure. I love that. You're a good dad.

 

Matt Zaun

Thanks. appreciate that. appreciate that. And I really appreciate your vulnerability on this episode. I mean that sincerely. What prompted you to get to that point where you just got to the stage of being authentic and putting it all out there?

Was there a certain moment in your life, or was it more of a transition?

 

Steven Schmidt 

Well, it's always been a thing for me to be saying the right thing. think the key thing to what you said is, when did I stop caring about the image?

And I think that was loosely a rocky road of more and more over last five years. The more vulnerable I was, the more life gave me the lessons that kicked my , and I came out better the other end.

So I'm just like, okay, this is how you roll. When I say cocaine, people say, well, you got to leave that out.

I'm like, well, why? Because I want someone to be able to hear that and go, oh, I'm not insane.

insane. Um, cause otherwise you think, oh, I am insane. No one's like me. You know, I couldn't find anybody, you know, and now with content, if I can share that story and someone says, yeah, he did cocaine eight years ago and he talked about it online.

I don't want to hire him. I'd say, cool. Like literally like we're cool. Like I'm not mad at you or anything.

I'd say you, that's a decision that you can make. And, and at least we're being honest, you know, instead of trying to pretend.

And, um, I can't believe that I used to do that. It's insane to me today, but at the time sobriety seemed insane to me.

So I think, um, I think we just have to keep doing the same thing and sharing the story. I think the more you do it, they'd rather hear about that than content anyways, I think.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, that's a really good point. And one of the things I found fascinating, well, a few things. So one is my, my background is the political arena.

 

Steven Schmidt

I was a political speech writer for quite some time.

 

Matt Zaun 

was involved in the politics for well over a decade. And when I made the transition, I I Transition from politics to business.

I was stunned with the amount of humility a lot of successful business people have, which I wasn't used to in the political arena.

 

Steven Schmidt 

Because in politics, there's a lot of politicians that their egos are so big they wouldn't fit in this room, right?

 

Matt Zaun

And then I transitioned to business. And I can't tell you how many times I'll be in a company, I'll be shaking hands and someone will come up to me saying, do you know who that was?

That was the owner of the company, a multi-billion dollar company. That was the owner. I wouldn't know this person from a janitor in the room, right?

Because they're so humble. So that was one thing that was really interesting to me. And then the second thing was, regardless of who I meet from a success perspective, and I've worked with some wildly successful people around the country.

 

Steven Schmidt 

I have a goal of speaking in all 50 states. I'm at 25 now. Hey, get out to South Dakota.

 

Matt Zaun 

Come on, man. Yeah, I've been there. I've spoken in South Dakota. That's right.

 

Steven Schmidt 

Well, we're going to do it again by 25. Come through on the way to North Dakota.

 

Matt Zaun

Yeah, there you go.

 

Steven Schmidt 

I'll be in Fargo, North Dakota in two months.

 

Matt Zaun 

I'm excited about that for sure. But so I have a goal of hitting 50. I'm halfway there. A lot of people that I've met with, incredibly successful people.

what is shocking to me is every single person on the planet, doesn't matter what level of success they've reached, they have some form of an inferiority complex.

Something deep within, they don't think that they have value in some area, right? So they may be really successful as a C-suite executive of their company, but there's something in their life that they feel they're inferior with.

And I mention that because, Steve, as you're sharing these different things, as far as from a vulnerability perspective, I found the more vulnerable I am, it almost like reciprocity kicks in and someone's willing to be vulnerable back with me.

Regardless of who that is. from a connection perspective, I think you're spot on. There's a lot of people out there that have so much fear about sharing different things with others, but it's amazing what happens when we do that, the connectivity that happens, whether it's our family or our team, or even from a content perspective in general.

Some of those powerful videos, podcasts that I've shared have come from imperfection, from the mess, right? And I think a lot of powerful stories come from messes, from that struggle-victory type perspective.

 

Steven Schmidt

So I really appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, thanks for letting me in. I think it's awesome that you are, I think your background, and I got to back up.

I didn't mention that when I was an elementary kid, I did think about that. I was like, oh, I want to be a political speech writer.

And I probably had to go back to like, oh, want to control the narrative, right? And I think that's important is.

To say what you said is everybody's insecure and inferior, and the only thing I can think of to not do that is to take the lens off yourself because you're never thinking about yourself when you're talking about making other people's life better.

And I think when we think about growing our business, let me get business-y for a second here when we wrap up.

I have tried to grow businesses hard. I've built four really successful companies, two complete fests, you know? And I think that the one thing I would say is when you are authentic and intentional from the beginning and you are engaging in a consistent way, it isn't hard.

And people will connect with you. And what you said is dead on. It's kind of like the AI sniffer.

People have so – they don't have time for anything. And so when you're producing your content, just remember that because then if it's not going

Great. Don't make it. You get out of this thought that I got to produce a post every day. The only people that created that is the people who are charging you to write a post every day.

Believe me, I'm one of them. And then we look at it and go, well, why do we got to do it every day?

To be consistent. Great. Well, consistency can look different. So you don't have to do anything every day. I think what you need to do is just be consistent, be honest, because when you're not honest and authentic, your story shifts all the time and people don't know what you are or what you're trying to be because they can smell it and nobody will do business with you.

And you go, why aren't people buying from me? And you go, huh. And you just point the finger at yourself, get out of your way and create a product that people actually want versus trying to sell the thing you are so great at doing.

Nobody gives a about that anymore. Everybody can be great at things. have AI. So that's my focus is relationships and the analog became so much more important for me the last 6 to 12 months, Matt.

 

Matt Zaun 

Powerful stuff. Thank you. I appreciate it, Sharon.

 

Steven Schmidt

I appreciate your time today. Yeah, brother.

 

Matt Zaun 

There's three specific things I'm going to take from a takeaway perspective from our conversation. One is one of the first things you mentioned was vidIQ.

I had never heard of that before, so I'm going to look into that.

 

Steven Schmidt 

mentioned find out what people are talking about. VidIQ.

 

Matt Zaun 

Oh, VidIQ.

 

Steven Schmidt 

Yep.

 

Matt Zaun 

Okay, VidIQ. Finding out what people are talking about for research purposes. VidIQ. Definitely going to check that out. The second thing was you mentioned rhythm, consistency, and predictability based on you drumming.

And as soon as you said that, I was thinking in my background, in my life, what might have positioned me for those three things.

It's interesting that a lot of what we do now here in the present is part of our past, a lot of from our early childhood, which is really interesting.

And then the third and final piece, I really appreciate you mentioning walk away, the physicality of when you do get angry to add some physical element to that.

It's simple but powerful, and I think there's a lot of wisdom in that because a lot of times… They see people get angry, and it just bubbles over, and bad things happen.

So something as simple as understanding you're angry, understanding that emotion, and then getting up and literally walking away, creating a physical space to calm yourself and then make a rational, wise decision.

I think that that is a lot of wisdom, and I appreciate that. appreciate those three things.

 

Steven Schmidt 

So, Steve, if there's a way people can get in touch with you, they want to get more information on what you do, where's the best place they can go to get You can go to two places.

First is, I'll direct you to the websites. It's probably easier than that, magnetic.services. It's a really funky name. That is our content engine for large software companies, users, consultancies.

then spotlight.suefalls.com is the local podcast that we've been privileged to roll out, it's getting 20K views a day across channels, and it's just a really fun place.

place. It's So if you head on over there, you're always going to see the latest episodes and see what's shaking in Sioux Falls.

 

Matt Zaun 

Perfect. I'll include that in the show notes. People could just click and go from there.

 

Steven Schmidt

Thanks, brother. I really appreciate you. do content well, and you're a great storyteller.

 

Matt Zaun 

Thank you. I appreciate your time today, Steve.

 

Steven Schmidt 

Thanks, Matt.