Catching big fishes with Patreon in a Micro Niche, with Isaac Daly
Episode 1, Season 2 – Isaac Daly

 

Welcome to the first episode of the second season of The Micro Niche Mastery Podcast.

Our guest for today is Isaac “Shrek” Daly, the Chief Noob at Noob Spearo who saves lives through his podcast about spearfishing.  

If you want to go to places while enjoying your hobby and practicing your favorite sport, this story will inspire you to go ALL IN on podcasting in a micro niche.

• Curious about the meaning of Noob Spearo? Listen to the first 6 minutes of the episode to know more
  
• Isaac explains the different ways of fishing, apart for spearfishing
  
• An episode about dealing with sharks in other parts of the world helped Noob Spearo become a lifesaver and gain followers for life
  
• Patreons are a good source of income for Isaac. Learn Isaac’s other source of income in the second part of today’s episode 
  
• Isaac’s shared how his book 99 Tips to Get Better at Spearfishing helped him increase his authority and visibility by delivering people a lot of value
  
• Isaac’ vision for Noob Spearo Podcast is to grow the community and make it a better place for tribe
  
• Isaac works full-time while producing his podcast. How does he manage it? Find out now!
  
• “Everyone starts somewhere, and I’ve left a huge trail of awesome stuff behind me. Like, and I’m proud of that. Yeah. I haven’t always been perfect, but it’s a good legacy. It feels good.” – Isaac Daly
  
• Find this episode interesting? Spread the vibes by sharing this podcast with a friend
  

Important Links:

 

noobspearo.com

www.youtube.com/NoobSpearoSpearfishing

dailycookie. co

Transcript:

Click Below to see the full transcript of this episode

Open Transcript

Welcome to the micro-niche mastery podcast, where we help you establish yourself in the perfect micro niche. So you will get noticed and grow your business faster. And now your host, he wrote his first long form copy at the age of 16, and hasn’t stopped writing since, Ziv Raviv.

 

Ziv:

Hello, and welcome back to the micro niche mastery podcast. This is season two, episode one I’m meeting now Isaac Daily, all the way from Brisbane, Australia, and he is the podcaster behind the brand, the Noob Spearo Podcast. Hello Isaac, how are you?

Isaac:

Thanks for inviting me. I love your energy.

Ziv:

Thank you. And you chose to pay at this side hustle is now forming a business these days and he’s making money like significant money. And that you seen a very micro niche noob spearo. What is the actual meaning of these words?

Isaac:

Noob is like borrowed from gaming, which I think originally borrowed it from the military, which means that a newbie now like a person who’s brand new and something, they know nothing. And there’s obviously some stigma attached to being a noob. And Spearo is short for a spear Fisher person that loves spear fishing and freedive spearfishing in particular. So holding your breath, diving down and shooting fish, bringing them home, cooking them up, feeding your family basically.

Ziv:

And that’s something that just spear phishing, right? It’s so visual. It’s so specific. It’s like how many ways are there in fishing that are not spearfishing?

Isaac:

There’s like there must be 20 different types of line. Angling is low there’s jigs is soft. Plastics is, you know, there’s all these different types of bait fishing and spinning and spear fishing is relatively simple. There’s only really two ways to do it. You can do it with the Hawaiian sling or you can do it with the speed again as be against it, generally powered by rubber bands a little bit like a Slingshot, but sort of cross with a crossbow and then, but kind of not as well. And then, yeah, Paul SPI is similar, but you pull like an elastic band and you hold the spear in your hand and it’s a single length. Whereas the spear gun shoots as steel shaft into the fish and it’s sort of tethered to the gun.

Ziv:

It’s like a, it’s the underwater Crossbow podcast.

Isaac:

I like it. Yeah, we can do that. Yep. There’s hunting stigma attached to crossbows as well though. Like people that use a Longbow when they hunt on land, really disliked crossbows, it’s like a form of cheating. So I think spearfishing doesn’t want to be associated with crossbows either. So, but in either way I get it.

 

Ziv:

It’s like you Spearos guys, you like to use the spear manually. You like to do make the hunting of the fish with a spear by yourself with your hands. And so, when you decide to fish fishes with spears, like I’m not sure is there available for that.

Isaac:

Spear?

Ziv:

So, you, when you spear fishes, do you usually also do other things to fish or is it like a group of people that insist on only doing the spear way?

Isaac:

Lots of people that Spear fish, they go surfing and kite surfing and they, they might fish with a line or a rod as well. A lot of most spearfishing people are just, they love the water in particular. We love getting in it and getting, holding your breath and going down and hunting and finding efficient stuff. But it can be used as in combination with a whole bunch of other sports as well. Just generally people that love the water and fish.

Ziv:

How many years have you been spearfishing before you started a podcast?

Isaac:

Before I started the podcast? Probably only like three or four years. So, but the podcasts been going seven years now, so quite a long time.

Ziv:

So you started the podcast before you started spearfishing?

Isaac:

I, sorry. I’ve been spearfishing 11 years total now and going for seven.

Ziv:

Yeah, that’s clear. So, what are some of the responses you got from the podcast?

Isaac:

People love it. Like it can be quite a risky sport, so saved people’s lives. I was just reading an email before from a guy, we did an episode about how to deal with sharks in different parts of the world. Sharks can be quite prevalent and learning how to manage them to the best of your ability is definitely some skill. So we did an episode just focusing on how to deal with sharks. And this guy sent me an email just saying, Hey, I use so many of your tips and you know, helped me fend off some sharks and scare couple away. And you know what I mean? And he was really grateful and he didn’t stop the problem that he had some problems with them, but he was grateful that he had listened to the episode and learned a couple of chips and tricks. And that happens pretty often now because we’ve been going so long. Like a lot of people just they’ve listened to it over years and the content just continues to be downloaded forever. So it’s awesome.

Ziv:

How many episodes did you produce in the podcast?

Isaac:

So far? 160, I think.

Ziv:

Right. Do you go straight? Like weekly for a while for a season

Isaac:

It’s bi-weekly for the most part, but I tried to be fairly consistent, but every now and then I might be able to do one a week for a month and then, but then it falls back to biweekly. My patreon pays like per episode? So I don’t want to make them pay too much if I drop too many episodes as well, but I’m quite clear and upfront about how the patreon membership works.

Ziv:

So how many years did you, like at what point did you open up the patreon?

Isaac:

Probably any three or four years ago. So maybe not even that maybe only three years ago, patreons are a good source of income, I use the money to predominantly fund trips where I get to go to different parts of the country and world and go spear fishing and just hang out with listeners and do live interviews. So nearly all of the money that I raised through Patreon is used for that purpose. And that’s kind of the value proposition to the audiences. Like they want to support me and, you know, like I get to come out and meet some of them and go spear fishing with them. So it’s kind of the part of the value proposition because I don’t offer a lot of extra benefits to the people that are patreons, to be honest,

Ziv:

Basically by creating this micro niche show, you’ve got to meet people that appreciate you and that you saved the lifestyle honestly. And they fly you around and get you to enjoy your hobby and your sports.

Isaac:

Oh yeah. A hundred percent.

Ziv:

But you’re also working on some money-making stuff for this. So can you tell me a little bit about your plans and what you do except for the patreon?

Isaac:

Okay, cool. So the first serious money-making initiative was we decided to, I had an, originally I had a co-host that I invited onto the show with me. We did more or less the first a hundred episodes together. And we wrote a book together called 99 tips to get better at spear fishing. And we just, a lot of the book is just tips that we learned in the first 40 interviews we did on the podcast. And then we turn that into a book. We got it, graphically illustrated, and then went up as an ebook on Amazon. Then we did a full whole hog and raised $15,000 on Kickstarter and sold a whole bunch of copies. And it was pretty cool. And then we did another book and that’s on Amazon too. Now I’ve got a third book that I’m working on right now. So we’re going to be live by the end of the year, but books are kind of a low ticket, low value item.

Isaac:

They do increase your authority and your visibility, and they deliver people a lot of value, but they’re not really a high ticket item. So they don’t deliver a hell of a lot of income, to be honest, a great for building community and your audience and all that, but not really a significant revenue on it. And the background at the moment, I’m currently building a video course offering. So that will be a lot more comprehensive. Hopefully obviously raise some, it should solve bigger problems for people where therefore they’ll be willing to pay a bit more money. So that’s also a lot of work involved, so yeah.

Ziv:

Yeah. And you have like any timeline for the launch of the course?

Isaac:

No, I don’t. The next book has kind of taken front and center and I like, you know, there’s that old saying, like the man who chases two rabbits catches none. Like, so I’m kind of focusing on this next book. The project timeline for the video course is probably somewhere around the middle of next year. And the other thing I do probably for revenue is sponsors on the podcast, which also helped to pay the bills. So I’ve got, I think 10 sponsors I’ve got in various different arrangements, so yeah.

Ziv:

Wow. In those sponsors, they contacted you to promote or did you contact them?

Isaac:

No, nearly all of them. I think people would have started contacting me now, but the problem is is that like you can only really have one sponsor from a certain type of business. Otherwise you’re, you’re potentially allowing the competition on the podcast as well. So you can only really sell a certain amount of space and it’s quite a lot of real estate on your podcast. So I’ve really only partnered with people that I really like him businesses that I actually believe in and shop with myself. So yeah. So I’ve, I’ve mostly approached him to be honest.

Ziv:

Do you sometimes get products that you need to review? Something like that?

Isaac:

Yeah. I get the same products. I get sent stuff a lot of the time I prefer to have people just send me stuff with no strings attached. I don’t get out and do enough spearfishing to be a serious product review guy. And they take so much effort like this high doing product reviews is an art unto itself and it’s a skill set, all of that stuff. You’re going to be good. And it seems like YouTube is probably the best platform for that.

Ziv :

So all of your episodes include an interview?

Isaac:

Nah, no I’ve done like documentary style ones, which is more like the NPR style ones, but it’s a lot more work and editing and all the rest of it and a lot more complexity and moving parts, but generally mostly interview podcasts. Yep.

Ziv:

Do you get any help with audio editing the website?

Isaac:

I do. I’ve got, I’ve outsourced nearly of what I’ve outsource all of my audio production. I have a pipeline, I train interns. Now I have a training suite now, an audio training suite, but I have a Capitol of professional editors and I’ve got another guy who publishes episodes now for me and does my show notes. I’ve got a virtual assistant, they house to my website. So this is a team because I have a full-time job as well. And yeah. So, yeah.

Ziv:

Sweet. Do you also collect people’s email addresses when they, how many emails do you have in your list

Isaac:

To, I think just shy of 2000 before I went through and had a big Cal because I was using MailChimp and they charge over 2000 and when you’re not getting a high enough open rate out of them and because I wasn’t delivering consistent enough emails and MailChimp seems to have a real terrible open native open rate in general, just due to the way that Gmail and outlook sort of their algorithm processes, MailChimp newsletters. I’m not a big fan of them, even though it’s free and I love their service. It’s just, I don’t know if it’s a great thing. So I think I’m back down to 1100 emails, but the open rates somewhere around 50% click through rates, probably around 15%. So like it’s a very, very active email list because I’ve called it so diligently. But having said that it should be probably a lot bigger for where I am.

Ziv:

Sometimes it’s better to have a similar list that is very active. My, I did my first launch of an online course on an email list of 400 people and it generated $11,000 on the first launch. So, your email list is great and yeah, I mean these people from all around the world?

Isaac:

Yeah, they are. But predominantly they sort of match my podcast listenership. So I hosted three lips and the stats are really good and it’s predominantly probably it was nearly like 38%, 38% USA and Australia and listeners, but UK and New Zealand have grown and Australian listeners now make up 45% and Americans are probably like 30 to 33%, something like that.

Ziv:

Yeah. Yeah. Those are the main countries for podcasters that in English that most of the people come from the Indians. So, what is your vision for the Noob Spearo podcast from your standpoint?

Isaac:

The vision’s never really changed. Like there’s a lot, like it’s really difficult to learn. There’s so many obstacles to overcome and it’s quite a risky sport. So always about saving lives, you know, like helping people to do it more safely, more effectively, but also to use the resource more intentionally and more sustainably, like think about how, you know, spearfishing is probably the most selective form of fishing because you only take what you want. So it’s just a matter of informing people about growth rates of fish and how prolific they are, their breeding cycles and, and just being aware of that being like I think most hunters are conservationists at heart. And so really just bringing out that mature mindset and people that are learning spearfishing from the start and, you know, just growing the community and making it a better place for everyone. I guess there’s a big vision.

Ziv:

Love it. Do you have any like aspirations one day to make this into your main source of income or something of that sort?

Isaac:

Yeah, I’m I’m, I am, I’m quite serious about this video. Of course, doing it for me. And I’m possibly looking at early to make she going part-time in my work. Cause at the moment I work 50 to 60 hours a week in my normal job and then the podcasts on top of it. So if I could scale that back and just work 24, 36 hours a week at work, and then I’d have a lot more time and energy to work on Noob Spearo. And it’s a lot, it’s very rewarding. Like building your own thing. I love looking behind me and seeing a track record of, you know, like sometimes making content is like such hard work, but when you look behind you, yeah. Sometimes you look at the stuff you, when you made when you started and it’s not that good, but this, everyone starts somewhere and like I’ve left a huge trail of, of awesome stuff behind me. Like, and I’m proud of that. Yeah. I haven’t always been perfect, but like it’s a good legacy. It feels good.

Ziv:

I totally relate to that. You went into a niche in my corner and you just listened to the problems and started to solve them one episode at a time and one resource at a time. And you get to the point where suddenly people contact you and tell you, Hey, you saved my life. And it’s all about the details. It’s all about the fact that every single niche have so many problems that are unique to that niche. So you just go in and dissolve them. It’s so simple and pure of heart. Yeah. This is so cool. You are progressing organically. You’re growing, you’re learning. How long did it take you before you started to delegate and have a team?

Isaac:

Well, I don’t want to talk too disparagingly about my form of chaos, but unfortunately like made some partnership issues. And so almost couldn’t pay myself a wage out of some of the income that was coming. So, but I could really pay it to other people. Probably two years ago, I started to be honest episode 19. We started with an intern audio producer and we trained him up, but he was very good. And I think by the time he had done 10 or 15 episodes for us, we’d started to pay him apathetic, summer money, money, but over the years and over the episodes it’s progressed to now where he’s paying, being paid, probably what he should be. And so that’s been awesome. I’ve brought a VA on about 12 or 18 months ago and she’s just been a lifesaver. And I’ve got another guy now who started as an intern for me helping her social media because social media is just a joint thing, you know? And it’s sometimes you’ve just got too many hats to wear and he came on three months ago. So now I’ve got three people helping me in various ways.

Ziv:

That’s amazing. How do you find them the online helpers? How do you find them though? How do you find them? Where did you find?

Isaac:

And I find them, oh, awkward stories. I guess I put together an internship advert to the local like media schools because there’s too many people graduating from these media academies where they learn like high-definition film production and audio production and they never get to use it in an actual context. So basically, we were just trying to help these people build out and give them resume experience while we got some help with their audio. And over time I’ve built like a training suite. So they actually get proper training. Now, the first guy, he didn’t really get any he was more or less self-taught and he just came on board and, and helped me really build out what I’ve got now. And I was able to do that with social media and using some of the other systems as well with the recent intern who I now pay.

Isaac:

And he started off, I just put out a call through my own community and he’s a young spear fishermen in South Africa and Cape town and shout out to Brandon. And he came on as an intern for three months. And then after which we negotiated some paid work and in a way he’s gone. My virtual assistant was a friend of mine who was moving overseas. She was managing an English school here. She moved overseas to move into virtual work and she’s just so capable and talented. I initially started offering her a minimal amount of work just to help her start her virtual work practice, but also to give me a hand and get some stuff. And she was so helpful that I’ve just offloaded more, more and more tasks. And now she does like, I think 20, 30 hours a month for me. So

Ziv:

How awesome is that? Well, thank you. This is all we have time for today. This has been great Isaac Daily. Where can people go and hear your podcasts and learn more about you?

Isaac

noobspearocom. N-O-O-B-S-P-E-A-R-0.com. And yeah, enjoy it. If you, especially, if you’re interested in spearfishing, I think you’ll like it.

Ziv :

And we’ll put a link for that in the show notes. Thank you so much. See you guys next week in the Micro Niche Mastery Podcast,

Voice over:

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