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For our 100th episode, we celebrated by inviting Peter Galante — a giant in the language industry — back on the podcast. Peter is the founder of Innovative Language, a company of podcasts, YouTube channels, and apps available for 34 languages. But while Peter’s company dominates YouTube with free content for learning languages, he’s also a person who genuinely likes and wants to help other creators along their journeys.
What you’ll learn in this interview:
- The value of structure for your business and products
- Why business growth is the key
- How to deal with haters
- Why you should connect with your competitors
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Peter’s story
Peter Galante grew up in New York but now lives in Tokyo, where he co-leads the marketing and development for Innovative Language and is the driving force behind all its content development. When he started Japanese Pod 101 in 2004, there was nothing like it in the podcasting world. Jump ahead 15 years, and he now co-leads a company with 70 full-time employees plus part-timers and freelancers worldwide.
Grow with the flow
Podcasting was the new kid on the block when Peter started Japanese Pod 101, and he had no idea of its business potential. As the podcast grew, Peter focused on immediate goals — i.e. getting the daily episode out and catching the last train home. He says it’s hard to get past that stage, but it’s essential to take time out of your busyness to look at the bigger picture.
When you do that, don’t be surprised to find things are changing fast. The Innovative Language team created their first business plan and mission statement in response to enquiries from investors. A year later, they were amazed to find that their plans had radically changed.
So, Peter says, it’s not crucial to have your next three years perfectly mapped out, but you do need a concise plan for growth. What will your next product be? How many newsletter subscribers will you aim for? These are the smaller goals that will eventually snowball into bigger things.
“Focus on smaller goals more relevant to your current business, and think about getting dollars in the door now to fund the next thing you want to accomplish. That’s probably where the priorities should be.”
Concentrating on those goals enabled Peter’s company to fund their development, so they’ve never needed those outside investors for growth.
Business growth involves many learning curves
There is so much to learn when you start on your own. A video creator, for example, must learn how to speak in front of a camera, film the video, edit, market, set up a website… and that’s just the beginning.
Some people have the capacity for many learning curves, and after a while, creators tend to overload themselves.
Peter says the problem lies with believing that you have to do it all yourself, that no one can do it better than you in the business you’ve created from scratch. The problem is, you turn into a ‘jack of all trades and master of none.’ And, while you must understand how everything in your business works, there comes a time when it becomes too much. You risk burnout if you’re working 24/7.
One mistake Peter made many times was putting the business ahead of important life events. You can’t go back to those events, but now he knows to put life ahead of his business. He’s made that possible by hiring a team.
The importance of hiring a team
“I think that everyone should try to build a team, whether building a team is right for you or not at least give it a shot. A wise person once told me ‘you should try everything once,’ and I think a more interesting approach is try everything twice.”
When you hire the right people, you soon discover that they have the skills to perform their jobs faster and more skillfully than you can. That can be a humbling experience, but it frees you up to focus on the essentials that only you can do. If you’re the face of the business, that’s your focus, and you need a team working behind the scenes.
More team members facilitate growth with new ideas
Peter says the risk of doing it alone — or keeping it small and steady — inhibits your business because new team members bring in new ideas and skills. Companies are constantly evolving, and adding people to your team helps you keep up with the changing times.
As you delegate tasks, it also frees you up for big picture thinking, strategic planning, and to learn new skills. Peter says: “It comes down to personal choice but I think you should always be challenging yourself to bring people on, and it’s going to help you grow. Can you manage effectively? If you can’t, why?” Get some feedback from a coach or mentor so you can identify the management skills you need to learn next.
The value of structure
When you first start creating content, it tends to be inconsistent. The videos or podcasts may wildly differ in length; you may not have a style guide, so each blog post looks slightly different.
Standardizing your offerings is vital because:
- It gives a clear message about your brand
- Free content should always lead to a product
- Your business looks professional and polished
“By thinking about the ultimate product that you want these bits of content to flow into can really help reshape the way your content creation process is done.”
Consistent structure allows you to map a path for your content to decide the best platforms to use. Peter says that you should start with a concept and a piece of paper. Brainstorm and map out how the content could fit into different channels.
If your base creation is an eight-minute YouTube video, then a snippet could go to Instagram, and another to TikTok. You can choose what you want to create based on that map. If you’re not sure, reach out to a mentor to see if you’re on the right track or to help you brainstorm further.
Mapping and structuring your creations helps them stand out from the mass of other quality free content available. Peter says every creator should know where their content is heading. Everything you create should pool into a product in the future.
If you’re publishing a word of the day on Instagram, where could that lead? A calendar? A helpful infographic that other creators share and credit back to you? Everything should lead to growing a mailing list or creating/selling products.
There is a mass of excellent free content available nowadays. People pay you for organization, testing, tutoring and personal attention.
Peter’s advice on coping with haters
Often people just want to be heard, and their viewpoint acknowledged, so if you feel you can engage with them, it’s worth trying. Sometimes that person will later turn into a fan just because you’ve taken that time with them.
However, there’s a subset of haters that, no matter what you do, they’ll find a way to twist it against you.
Cultivate a positive mindset and see criticism as feedback to improve. But remember, you can only control what’s in your ability to control.
If you’re mentally tough enough, it’s going to make you stronger and improve you, but it’s not easy or fun to go through at the time. Don’t let it make you quit.
Connect with your competitors
Reach out to other people.
When you haven’t been creating for long, you sometimes underestimate your star power. Other people will notice what you’re doing, and it never hurts to reach out. They’ll often be happy to give an interview, join a collaboration or help you with a problem.
The struggle is real — other entrepreneurs get that!
Peter says that entrepreneurs are highly competitive and motivated but can often find themselves locked into the business even when they’re supposed to be having some down time. It’s incredibly helpful to have a group of people who understand your struggles and offer advice and help.
They’ll have your back when haters strike.
If you sincerely cultivate good relationships with other players in your industry, then they’ll often defend you against unjustified criticism.
Friendship is fun!
It brings happiness, people to visit when you travel, and a positive mindset. But your motivation should always come from a place of service, sincerity and the desire to do the right thing.
Contact Peter Galante
Innovative Language Website
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