Sam Liebowitz has a vision to be a true alternative to the world of broadcast talk radio. Talking Alternative Broadcasting, Sam’s station, reaches people from over 110 countries around the world with empowering, uplifting, and educational content, while helping the show hosts raise their brand awareness and get their message out in an engaging and professional manner. Sam is also the host of The Conscious Consultant show.
Jane: Hi, Sam, I’m looking forward to our conversation.
Sam: Hi, Jane. Yes, I am too.
Jane: How did you come to be known as the Conscious Consultant?
Sam: I have been an entrepreneur since 1993. I was a businessman in several different businesses in different industries – everything from IT, multi-media, video, aerospace to real estate. Through a series of events, I started taking workshops and seminars on healing, health, and different healing techniques.
I started taking these workshops mostly for my own internal healing, to heal emotional wounds from my past. In these workshops, typically, they would talk about the process, you would learn the process, and then you’d practice on each other.
During many of these workshops I found that I kept getting paired up with some of the most difficult people to process or to work with, and I would ask the instructors, I’m like, “Is there a reason why I get all the tough cases?” Usually I would get a smile, a twinkle in the eye, and they’d say, “Yes”, and that would be all I’d hear.
Then, in one particular workshop, I worked with a woman who had congestion in her lungs and felt like she was coming down with the flu. I used this one particular method for just five minutes working with her, and at the end she was amazed at how clear her lungs were. In the course of conversation I found out that she had had bronchitis since she was six years old and that she hadn’t been able to breath this well since she was a child.
Suddenly, it dawned on me that all of these healing techniques I had been learning for myself and for my own healing, I could use these principles and concepts and techniques to help other people.
I had always considered myself a business consultant of sorts and, being a good entrepreneur, my thought was, “Wow. I have this amazing ability and technique. I have to use it to help people. How do I help people with this?”
Then, in conversation over dinner with my wife, I realized that I’m still a consultant. I’m just now a different type of consultant and now one who works more with energy and consciousness and spirit. That’s how the idea of the Conscious Consultant was born.
Jane: Great. What kind of people do you work with?
Sam: I work with two groups of people primarily. First, I work with other alternative health and healing practitioners who are looking to be better business people. They may be amazing healers, they may have incredible skills and be great at what they do, but they find that they’re lacking. Their business isn’t where it should be; they’re having problems with money, with all kinds of things.
I work with those people because I understand their world very well. I work with them to help to educate them on basic, solid business principles and help them to treat their practice as more of a real business, as opposed to just something they do to help people.
The other group of people I work with is business people who are a little more aware of the new, more popular things that are coming up in the world of consciousness, of meditation, who want to bring a greater awareness to what they do. I say it this way, “I help conscious people be better business people, and I help business people be more conscious.”
Jane: Great. The Talking Alternative Broadcast and your on-line radio station are unique. Can you tell us about it and how you got started with it?
Sam: Well, As my whole life has become something of an example of what happens when you live a more conscious life, I really had no intention of running a radio station or getting into broadcasting. I was at a party in a friend’s house and a mutual friend of ours brought this guy in front of me and said, “Sam, you need to talk to my friend, Giorgio.” After speaking with Giorgio for a few minutes, I found out that he had decided to become a Buddhist monk and was selling off all his worldly possessions, including his business.
At first, I thought I would just help him to sell his business. After talking with him about the radio station, about what he had created as a foundation, I saw such tremendous potential with it to help people, as well as a business opportunity, I decided to buy the business from him instead of helping him to sell it.
Jane: Why not just go with podcasting? You distinguish yourself as an on-line radio station.
Sam: Yes. I often get this question from people who don’t quite understand really what I do. Podcasting typically is somebody who will record something and then post it afterwards. There’s no real interaction really with the audience. It’s designed to be just an informational one-way tool.
Whereas, with Talking Alternative, we’re really a hybrid between your traditional terrestrial broadcasting station and an on-line station. The reason why I call it on-line radio and not podcasting is because all of our programs air live, which means our hosts can actually connect and talk with their following while they’re doing their show.
We have a couple of call-in phone lines where people call in and ask questions. People can email questions to the hosts or post on social media and the host can respond right there during the show. We also record the shows so the “podcast” version is available afterwards, but that is only one piece of the overall equation.
Jane: Got it. For your host, you offer so much more than simply the radio platform. Was this part of the initial plan or did it evolve as you saw a need for it?
Sam: It really evolved over time. At first, running Talking Alternative was a bit of a challenge. It was new, it was very unknown to me, but as I began to work with more and more of the hosts that came to the station, I learned a tremendous amount over time.
It actually took me quite awhile to realize that one of the biggest benefits that my hosts received from working with me is the knowledge and the experience that I’ve accumulated over the last five plus years in how they can actually use the radio show to help build their business, their brand, and their reputation.
I realized that the guidance I give them and the ideas and the brainstorming that we do together is actually as valuable, if not more valuable, than the actual technology and platform that they associate with me.
Jane: I think you just answered my next question, which is can you explain why you feel this is so critical to their success?
Sam: The reason why I feel this is critical for somebody for their success is because with an on-line talk radio program you’re able to connect with your following in a more emotional way. Almost everybody now knows that they need to be engaged in social media, and blogging, and posting updates to their following.
When someone hears your voice, your tone, your inflection, and hears you interviewing other people, or just talking yourself, there is a visceral connection that we make that we don’t make when we’re just reading words on a screen.
As somebody learns to use a radio program to provide amazingly valuable content for people, and doing it on a consistent basis, that is what builds trust with their following, as well as builds their reputation in their industry. It’s a very versatile tool that someone can use to connect with their audience and be seen as an expert in their field.
Jane: What kind of experiences and benefits do your hosts have after they begin broadcasting their show?
Sam: I guess this relates to the answer of the last question. The real benefit is building their reputation and connecting to their following.
Here’s an examples of some one of the things one of my hosts have achieved after working with me. I have one host who is a non-profit consultant who was named twice in two different non-profit industry blogs as one of the top thought leaders to follow for non-profits, this year. They named him this specifically because of his radio show on my station.
Another small story just happened the other day; a woman stopped by the studio out of the blue who told me she was visiting New York City from Stuttgart, Germany.
She told me she listens to the station all the time and loves our programming and loves what we do and just wanted to stop by to say thank you. It totally opened my heart that this woman was probably here in New York City on vacation, took the time to find us, to locate our address, come to the studio to say that to me; it meant so much to me.
That is, to me, the epitome of what is possible with an on-line radio show because you can reach people from around the world and you have no idea how you are affecting somebody’s life who you may never meet. For every person who might send us an email, or stop by the studio, or drop us a note saying thank you, there are hundreds, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people out there who feel the same way who never even let us know.
Jane: Those are great, great examples. What is the best thing about running Talking Alternative Broadcasting, Sam?
Sam: I guess one of the best things for me is when my hosts come in and they tell me that this is the most fun part of their week – coming in to do their radio show. Or, this is what they look forward to all week long, and that I know I am providing a service for them that’s really helping to build their business and their reputation, and they’re having fun and enjoying it in the process.
Jane: That’s awesome. Thank you, Sam.
