**An Interview with Austin Fabel, producer of The Science of Success on building his business and why Zirtual has become such an integral part.
What sparked the idea to create The Science Of Success, and how has it transformed since it began?**
The Science of Success was born after thousands of hours of research done by our host, Matt Bodnar. We’ve always been fascinated by decision-making, psychology, and how it all affects the world around you. Learning these ideas and tactics backed by research is extremely important and can help people live more fulfilling, successful and happy lives. The Science of Success was our way of being able to interact and continue to learn from these authors, professors, and experts. Our goal was not only to learn from these experts first-hand ourselves but also to share some of the insights that had changed our lives with a larger audience and help more people become better versions of themselves.
We launched and in just a few short months downloads began to skyrocket. We hit iTunes #1 New and Noteworthy and started showing up on lists of top podcasts. Since launching last year we’ve been featured in Entrepreneur, LifeHacker, and other online publications. Guests started reaching out to us to come on the show and the whole thing began to snowball in a good way. As of now we are a top 10 podcast in the Social Sciences category and are quickly approaching 1 million downloads.
What was the initial issue you ran into that made you realize you would like to work with Zirtual?
The growth was amazing, but with the growth however came additional responsibilities. We launched a website, a blog, had double the requests coming in, and continued to put out weekly episodes and it got to be too much work for our team. We are a lean operation and didn’t think hiring an additional employee was the right move so we needed to find quality help and someone we could rely on, quickly.
What made you choose Zirtual over other VA companies around the globe?
Matt had used a VA from other companies before. Some had been all right, others, not so much. With the podcast growing as it is we knew we had something that would be the right fit. We needed someone who was not only going to execute tasks and help us grow, but also be part of the team. The reviews were amazing. Not only did people rave about how great a help they were but also about how personal they were. Real people.
We signed up and were introduced to Lace, our VA. We assigned her to help with various tasks and she jumped right in and the effect was immediate.
What sort of processes and activities does Lace handle for your team?
Lace helps us with a little bit of everything. She updates our blog with new content when we send it to her after each interview. She helps add transcripts so that listeners can have a text copy of each guest’s lessons and teachings if they want to dive in deeper. She ensures that our entire teams calendars are aligned so that when we do book guests we know everyone is free and can play their part on the call. She even interacts with the guests themselves and their assistants providing them with everything and anything they need pre interview to feel relaxed and prepared when they are being interviewed, which can be quite a lot. Really, anything and everything we need help with!
What is your favorite part about working with Lace?
Not only has Lace provided extreme value to our team but also she is PART OF the team. She’s had to deal with some scheduling conflicts and even a few tense situations and handled them in stride. She gets tasks done quickly and efficiently but also, we goof around and have fun as well. We share inside jokes, laugh at times, and she’s truly been an amazing addition to our team and helps us accomplish our mission, to put out the best podcast possible and provide value to our listeners.
What would be your advice for other podcasts who are growing?
Whether you’re just starting your podcast, currently growing, or already have a large audience I cannot recommend using Zirtual enough. For podcasters the value they add is tremendous and allows you to focus on other aspects of your podcast that only you can take on such as overall direction. I would recommend Zirtual to every podcaster out there…. you just can’t have Lace. She’s on our team!