Peter Shankman is a very successful entrepreneur in the media industry who currently hosts the #1 ADHD podcast on iTunes.

Last Friday, my marketing media class at MSU was given the opportunity to have a live video chat with him on Skype. During this video session he was able to tell us his story and we were able to ask him questions. A few things/ take aways stood out to me.

One of the things Peter said that stood out to me was, “don’t build an app; build your audience.” This is important because many people who are trying to create a product will be so focused on the product that they’re creating that they aren’t focusing on the audience that the product is for. In the end this can end up hurting you, because if there is no audience then you’ve wasted your time creating another useless product.

Another point that he made which was probably one of the best things I got out of the session was that, “If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough.” I agree with this 100% because I’ve never heard a success story from someone that doesn’t involve failing at some point in the process whether it be in the beginning or later on in the process.

With any career I believe you need to fail at some point because learning from your mistakes only makes you better at what you do and will benefit you in the end. Once you get to the successful part of your career, you’ll look back at the hardships/ failures you had to go through and be thankful for them because without them you wouldn’t be where you are.

Peter Shankman also touched on the fact that you should give your audience a reason to trust you so that when your product starts to benefit them, they’ll start to like you. It’s important to want to get your audience to trust you because if they trust you and like you, you’ll be more likely to have a set audience that will support you endlessly. That also goes hand in hand with another point he made which was to earn your audience. Many people who create products don’t want to put in the work to gain their own audience and will instead try to create something that will be beneficial to another company instead that’s already successful.

A big piece of advice that he also gave us is how important it is to take care of yourself physically and mentally. This is something that I think is extremely important because if you’re not taking care of yourself in the process of your career then it’s almost pointless to continue because you won’t be happy, you won’t give it your all and you’ll possibly risk not being around long enough to see your business/ product grow. He also shared with us that it’s important that we make sure no matter what we do in life with our careers that we make sure to do what love and to love what we do or else we’ll be miserable.

One thing to admire about Shankman is his hard work and dedication for his work that he loves. Something about him that stands out is that when he’s working on something, he’ll purchase a roundtrip flight somewhere just so he can work on it because he works better on flights. Another thing to admire about Shankman is how protective and caring he is for his pets and how they’re a big part of the reason he’s where he is today. He’s someone who’s figured out what works best for him and is using it to his advantage and it’s working out for him as he has a very successful career.

Not only did Peter Shankman give out good advice, but he was also very open about his past experiences, his story to how he got to be as successful as he is and not to mention he’s also funny. What I really liked about Peter Shankman’s story was his ability to overcome having ADHD and not letting that stop him when it could have been a roadblock that kept him from pursuing his dreams. He even shared how he’s exceeded expectations that previous teachers/ people set for him and how he now laughs because he wishes he could find them and wishes they could see his bank account.

Peter Shankman is a mogul in the making who is overcoming obstacles while owning his own business and is on his way to obtaining his own empire. He’s made a pretty good name for himself and is very dedicated to his work and it shows as it’s paid off and continuing to pay off. To read more on Peter Shankman and what he does you can read all about him on his official website or listen to his ‘Faster Than Normal‘ podcast.