Todd Kennedy is a podcast host and successful entrepreneur. Upon graduating from Thomas High School in Webster, New York, Todd started his career by enlisting as a soldier in the United States Army. After being discharged, he set about working on his undergraduate degree at Defiance College, which he completed in 1993. He then enrolled in a postgraduate program studying Social Work at Roberts Wesleyan College, eventually earning a Master’s degree in 1998.
Todd Kennedy worked in many different settings until 2003, when he opened his own private practice. Recently, Todd has turned most of his attention to creating a YouTube-based podcast called The Emily and Todd Podcast, where he and his co-host Emily King discuss issues relating to dating and maintaining healthy romantic relationships in the modern world. The podcast tackles a wide variety of contemporary topics, such as the body positivity movement, the overall decline in marriage, hookup culture, and the pros and cons of smartphone-based dating apps, among many others.
Where did the idea for your career come from?
During a period where I had a chance to take stock of myself and my professional situation, I reached out to a female colleague of mine for advice. She, being a well-known and acclaimed TikTok artist, offered the idea that my time and energy could be used to start a podcast. In the end, we decided that we could collaborate and start this venture of ours on YouTube. It’s a good platform for long-form podcasting, and even though we started a new show from scratch, we managed to make some initial headway because of her existing social media reach.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
I prefer to exercise in the morning to get my head in the right space. Then, after breakfast, I usually have a meeting with my creative collaborators where we discuss ideas for podcast episodes or how to address editing already-made podcasts. We make two episodes of the podcast per week, along with two TikToks per day. I think people might be surprised at how much work goes into it.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Typically, I bring ideas to life through brainstorming with my podcast partner about current events and trends. When we first started to work together, we wrote out an extensive list of ideas for content. Since I watch a lot of YouTube content, that helps to stimulate other ideas. We conduct extensive research, and often bring in outside experts and personalities to add to our discussions, as well.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Well, the content we create revolves around dating and relationships from a men’s point of view. In many ways, it’s a difficult time for men in the dating and relationship space, right now. So, we’re advocating for solutions to this current state of affairs. We want to help men navigate dating and relationships not only for themselves, but for their partners as well. I feel really optimistic that the effort and energy we put into these podcast episodes is doing some good, and helping the men who watch our channel no matter what stage of life they happen to be in.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
My productivity is largely dependent on being disciplined and keeping a consistent schedule, which are habits I recommend to everyone. It can start with something as mundane as going to bed at the same time each night and waking up at the same time every morning. Since the podcast recording sessions are scheduled every week at the same time, I often spend the interval editing our episodes or creating TikToks derived from the longer-form content. In the end, it’s being consistent and disciplined that has helped me maintain productivity more than anything else.
What advice would you give your younger self?
My productivity is largely dependent on being disciplined and keeping a consistent schedule, which are habits I recommend to everyone. It can start with something as mundane as going to bed at the same time each night and waking up at the same time every morning. Since the podcast recording sessions are scheduled every week at the same time, I often spend the interval editing our episodes or creating TikToks derived from the longer-form content. In the end, it’s being consistent and disciplined that has helped me maintain productivity more than anything else.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
Dating and relationship maintenance are skills like any others. They can be learned with time, patience, and open-mindedness.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Something I try to do with each new venture I undertake is assemble a really good team of people that I trust and communicate well with in terms of achieving my objectives. I wholeheartedly advise any entrepreneur to do the same at the outset of a new project.x
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
As far as the podcast goes, the first strategy we employ is providing content that’s valuable to a certain demographic. The second strategy, which is more important, is collaborating with other creators who have been around longer and are willing to contribute to our content. That helped our growth tremendously. In that respect, networking helps us get out there and speak with people about joining our podcast in a guest capacity. The worst that they can say is no, and it’s not the end of the world if that happens. As the old saying goes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
When it came to learning the podcast business, we had to go through a lot of trial and error. When you launch a new show, you don’t know what kind of content is going to be received well and what isn’t, so you have to learn how to adapt and evolve; to metaphorically steer the ship as it goes along. Especially when it came to replicating content, we had to learn to keep detailed records of subjects that we’ve already covered so as to not repeat ourselves.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I think the first step any would-be entrepreneur has to take is to be honest with themselves in performing a self-evaluation. Do you have a specific skill or service that you can offer people? If you do and it seems like there’s a demand for it, it’s probably something that can be monetized. After that, it’s a question of assembling a team of the right people and giving it a shot. Typically, the advice I give people who are trying to start a new business as a side-gig is just to keep at it. If it works out—meaning, if it makes money and it grows—you can potentially drop your full-time job to part-time. If it becomes totally financially sustainable, you can quit your regular job altogether and pursue it as a career.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Without naming any specific brands, I use video editing software a great deal. It seems daunting at first, but once you understand the ins and outs, it becomes much easier to create professional-grade content.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. The author does a really good job helping people understand how the world works and how to navigate other people in a business context.
What’s your favorite quote?
“Fortune favors the bold.”
Key learnings
- Surround yourself with reliable, talented, and trustworthy people.
- Be honest with yourself when performing self-evaluations.
- In the podcasting world, as in virtually all other sectors of business, collaboration is an important component in achieving positive results.
Steve (Stefan) Junge hails from Germany and helps with the day-to-day publishing of interviews on IdeaMensch. While he and Mario don’t share a favorite soccer club, their enthusiasm to help entrepreneurs is a shared passion.