Rise From The Ashes
"Burnout to Brilliance: Great CEOs, No Burnout"
Leadership is tough. Burnout makes it tougher.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Rise From The Ashes is the ultimate podcast for visionary CEOs and executives who refuse to let burnout rob them of their brilliance, legacy, and impact.
Hosted by Baz Porter, this show isn’t just about surviving leadership it’s about transforming it. Each week, we delve deep into the art and science of thriving at the top, combining actionable strategies, spiritual alignment, and raw truths that reignite your purpose and optimize your energy.
Here’s what you’ll get:
- Bold Frameworks: Learn the exact steps to conquer decision fatigue, streamline your mental energy, and reclaim control of your leadership.
- Spiritual Awakenings: Explore the intersection of purpose, alignment, and success to lead with clarity and connection.
- Transformational Insights: Hear unfiltered stories and practical wisdom from world-class leaders who’ve turned their burnout into brilliance.
This isn’t just a podcast it’s a revolution for leaders ready to rise, inspire, and leave a legacy that outlasts them.
Rise From The Ashes
He taught America to listen, but none of them knew his pain
Success can be the loneliest prison of all. Royce Blake's voice reached millions across America's biggest radio markets for 30 years. Phoenix. San Diego. Portland. Kansas City. Everywhere he went, audiences fell in love with his authenticity, his ability to connect, his gift for making strangers feel heard.
But here's what they never knew: He was living out of a U-Haul truck.
Every few years, another station would flip formats or get sold. "Guess what guys? We're going country" or "They don't need voices anymore." And Royce would pack up his life again, leaving behind favorite doctors, mechanics, restaurants - and the few people who were starting to know the man behind the microphone.
He belonged to what he calls "the U-Haul Million Milers Club" - constantly moving, constantly starting over, constantly performing connection while living in complete disconnection. The master of making others feel heard who could never stay anywhere long enough for anyone to truly hear him.
Discover how the man who taught America to listen learned that being successful and being seen are two completely different things. And why his greatest lesson isn't about communication - it's about finally stopping the performance and letting people see your pain.
Timestamps:
[02:30] The U-Haul Million Milers Club - why he could never stay
[05:45] "We're going country" - the crushing cycle of starting over
[09:20] Making strangers feel heard while living in isolation
[14:10] The difference between being successful and being seen
[18:40] Why authenticity means showing your cracks, not your polish
If You’ve Been Hooked on These Episodes… This Is for You
If this podcast has been landing deep… if each story feels like it’s peeling back something raw and real in you… then don’t ignore that.
Every guest you’ve heard made the same decision: to stop performing and start healing.
Now it’s your turn.
Take the Silent Collapse Diagnostic. It’s not a quiz. It’s a wake-up tool for women who are done pretending they’re fine.
No fluff. No journaling prompts. Just a straight-up mirror into where you’re silently collapsing behind the mask of success.
If you're serious about reclaiming your energy, your clarity, your life start there.
Because breakthrough doesn’t begin with doing more. It begins with finally seeing what’s been stealing your power.
Learn more about Baz Porter at www.bazporter.com
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Rise from the Ashes podcast. I'm your host, baz Porter, and I'm joined today by quite a legend in the field. Really, his name is Royce Blake and he had a 30-year major market radio personality. He turned market strategist and empowers podcasters. Hosts, sharpen the interview skills, boosting their on air professionalism and also growing the audience. With over 20 years experience in market content and content marketing and copywriting, his expertise is second to none. Royce helps podcasters unlock their true excellence. Royce, welcome to the show and it's a pleasure to have you here. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, baz. It's an honor to be here. I appreciate it and I'm doing fabulous.
Speaker 1:The honor is mine and it's always a privilege to speak to legends like you. You've been around a bit, haven't you?
Speaker 2:in the world and in the country.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how did that career start?
Speaker 2:seasoned old, whatever you prefer, yes, seasoned is cool.
Speaker 1:How did that career start originally? How did you get into the radio side of things?
Speaker 2:I walked into a radio station during a school trip in high school. They take you out around to different businesses and let people see how they work. I'd gone into a radio station and there was a guy with his feet up on the control board, music jamming in the background. He's sitting there reading the newspaper and I just looked at him and I said you get paid for this? And he just looked at me. I said you get paid for this. And he just looked at me. He said crazy huh. And I knew right then I'm like man, I want this job, just listen to music all day and do nothing.
Speaker 2:And that was back when I was 16. And I technically got my first job in radio at 17 in Los Angeles at a big radio station in Los Angeles not on the air, they were calling me the music librarian. This is back when we had records, for those of you that remember that and I would just file records and help out with the other disc jockeys. But I always say yes, I started in LA and I've worked my way down ever since. So that's yeah, it was a great. Some great disc jockey names I could throw out, but a lot of them have passed away at this point, so I don't think many people would get it, but incredible experience.
Speaker 1:Starting from the top and working down is incredible, but you've had other challenges along the way You've been through traveling across the country. We were speaking before the air. How did traveling affect not just you but your whole life?
Speaker 2:Yes, I like to joke that I belong to the U-Haul Million Milers Club because radio is very fickle, like all of the entertainment industry, and I've never been personally fired. It's always been guess what guys we're going country, or they sold the station and it's becoming beautiful music and they don't need voice anymore, or something like that. And when you're in a market you only have two choices. Really, there's only so many stations and you, let's say you're playing rock music, there's only three of those. So you have to wait for somebody to leave or get a new program director or something like that, or you can move to another market and unless you have the funds to wait around for six months or a year, hopefully somebody leaves. Then you got to move and so I've worked in a lot of different markets and luckily my talent and that sounds a little egotistical but it's gotten me to some major markets.
Speaker 2:I did morning radio in Phoenix, five years in San Diego, I was in Portland, I was in Kansas City, I've worked in Salt Lake City, spent a lot of time there. So it's great on one hand but just like anytime someone moves, you have a favorite doctor, a favorite mechanic, favorite restaurant they're all gone. You have to find new ones in new cities. And it's got its ups too, because every city I've been in they have some secret jewel. Right In Kansas City it was barbecue. In Portland it was seafood you could buy salmon fresh salmon caught yesterday for a dollar a pound or whatever it was. And of course, san Diego has everything. There are some ups to it, and, being on the radio for so long, I've gotten to do some amazing things. I've flown with the Navy Blue Angels, I broadcast the Olympics live from Norway, free week-long vacations to Jamaica, things like that. So there are some ups, for sure.
Speaker 1:But that's life experience and I think that's lacking in today's world when it comes to different forms of broadcasting. People go. Oh, some people who do it haven't even left the country. You have a wealth of experience traveling, which gives you more talking points and more collaboration points when you're having these conversations, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, and it's not just the places but it's the people. Obviously, on big radio stations too, you meet a lot of celebrities, and I've interviewed over 200 celebrities, from gosh, paul McCartney to Springsteen to Billy Joel to Richard Simmons, and just strange, a lot of strange people too, people that were. We had one lady who had we were doing weird addictions and she liked to lick the dust off window blinds. Try sitting down with someone like that for a few minutes and see what they have to say Interesting conversation?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, it's that growth has been amazing. I don't know. Of course everybody remembers Bob Barker. The great host of the Price is Right, we became friends. He finally gave me his home phone number because he loved being on our show, because I had done the research on him. And it's the same thing I tell podcasters Find a question they've never been asked. Because if you're on the radio and a celebrity comes on to promote a book or a movie, odds are they're on a press junket, which means they've done 10 radio stations before you and they're getting the same questions over and over again. If you do enough research you'll find something. We had Mike Tyson on and everybody was talking about the ear bite or some strength thing. Guess what I found out. You know what Mike Tyson loves to do race pigeons. And I asked him about that and man, he lit up and just went on for three minutes straight about pigeon racing and they'd never, no one ever, asked him that before so now I've got a question for you.
Speaker 1:When you're racing pigeons, what did you learn from like this? Just phenomenal? I'm just blowing my mind.
Speaker 2:You had a conversation like I still have no idea what the rules are or anything like that, but man did, he go off on the different breeds and he had names for all his pigeons and just jumping into the species characteristics and he loved it. And I don't do impressions, but you can imagine Mike Tyson talking about pigeons. So there were a lot of, let's say, voice affectations involved. That's incredible.
Speaker 1:What's one of your passions that you don't normally talk about, but is a secret, like you keep dormant from the whole world?
Speaker 2:It's hard, especially because at my core, I'm still a marketer and I love human psychology, and I think too many of us use the word I too much. Everybody likes to, which is fine, especially if you're interviewing someone. That's the idea get them to talk about themselves. But as far as I go, people don't know that I hold a black belt in Shaito-ryu karate. I am a brown belt in judo. I have my private pilot's license.
Speaker 2:So just weird, weird things. That does not matter to them, and that is my basic core of all marketing. Every human asks the question what's in it for me? And that decides. That makes the decision for you whether you're going to watch that YouTube video, whether you're going to read that article, whether you're going to watch that TV show. You think there for sometimes as little as a millisecond eh, I don't like, this is not for me, and so that's the secret of marketing.
Speaker 2:If you get to somebody and realize this is valuable to them, then you're on the right track and that's everything to do. Same with podcasting, same with anything you're putting out in the world. You have to answer that question. That's the first thing I ask. A new client is who is this for? Because you're going to write to lawyers a whole lot different than you're going to write to the barbecue competition coming up on Sunday. That's vital, and so many people just. I love when clients say who's this for Everybody? Everybody will love this. Sorry, man, they won't. That's not how this works, especially these days in such splintered noise that we get as far as inputs, from streaming to gosh, even email to hey, pick a platform Right.
Speaker 1:We're being inundated. You're 100% correct. We're bombarded with so much information all of the time and it's all marketing for something. It's all to get us to do what the other person is in front of us trying to get us to do, whether it be click on a link, sign up to do this, and it's all overwhelming. But I love what you said there. It's about understanding who you're speaking to, and that's been a concept that you have and you've perfected over a longer period of time about speaking to people you can't see, and that's an art.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, not only that, especially on a radio, you're live, there's no editing involved. The other downside of that is, once you did something incredible guess what, baz? It's gone instantly. It's gone forever. You'll never get it back. It's created and consumed instantly at the same time. So it's a totally different mindset, and especially on radio and you see this obviously on like TV shows with teases or cliffhangers, you have to leave them wanting a little more. Hang on to the commercials. This is coming up whatever. So that's always important too.
Speaker 1:No, a hundred percent. But you've got a lot of success. But there's been some challenges as well on the way. You mentioned earlier the experience with your late partner who had Alzheimer's. That's horrific to live with, do you mind?
Speaker 2:Yes, my wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about seven years ago and of course it was hard because we were together for decades and she used to run a law office with three lawyers by herself and towards the end for those of you who deal with Alzheimer's or any kind of dementia you realize it's an insidious disease. At the end she was wondering what a doorknob was for, and it's heartbreaking, it's crushing. So that has been, and of course you still have to put on the happy face, especially talking to clients or being on a program or whatever, because guess what? Nobody cares. All they care about is themselves. It's human nature. We can't change it. It always gets back to what's in it for me. So, just especially years later, yeah, occasionally Time doesn't heal all the wound, but it certainly lessens it.
Speaker 2:I still get an occasional call from an old friend how's Lisa? And it depends on the person. Radio people, by the way, are not the most politically correct, believe it or not. I found the same with TV, that nice TV weatherman too, because I've done a little TV too. Behind the scenes, a lot of these guys are somewhat crazy, and after my wife passed on I used to get calls from former radio guys I'd work with and they would say things like why couldn't it have been you? That's the kind of humor we're dealing with. Why didn't you die instead of lisa man?
Speaker 1:thanks for that um give me two minutes no, I'm used to it, believe me, yeah but you're right, people do things for their own gratification and satisfaction.
Speaker 1:But that's the world of, that's the world of conditioning that we live in, and I love people like you who are very humble when you speak. You have a way about you that's not just professional but it's heart-centered and that's why I like people like you who really want to give your expertise in such a way to other people. And you've got a wealth of knowledge through radio, advertising, tv, all this corporate stuff and that message, this expertise, needs to be aired, it needs to be consumed. People like you, they're like Thatchers. You know that artwork cannot be passed on unless you actually have done the work, and you've done the work.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that and I think here's some good news for everyone In this age of AI that we're entering and it's here to stay. It's getting better every day. I think the pendulum is swinging and it's swinging back to real. So people soon are going to. On the one hand, yes, we have AI influencers that are already making money, as in fake avatars, fake people selling you things that look entirely real but don't exist. So that's on the way. But the pendulum swinging the other way, where people want real, they want you to make mistakes. They want you to screw up on the air or on a podcast or in an event. If something goes wrong, that's usually what they remember. Let's embrace real and guess what? It's a lot easier to be real than to put on an act and try to remember it.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. I love that the reality of the world has been lost in consumption from the, and there is a place for agentic AI and systems and automations. There always will be, because it's the process that helps us rest and not work 24 hours a day. But equally, there's a fear around speaking people's truth, and you've got a different concept with trolls, haven't you?
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, I guess I say I'm lucky, but a lot of psychologists don't think of it this way. But a lot of psychologists don't think of it this way because back in the old days when radio stations you could actually call for those of you under I don't know I don't want to pick a number, but you'll get this, baz that you could actually call a radio station and request a song and actually talk to the disc jockey live free. And after so many years on the air I have had so many requests, I tell people just answer the request line for a half an hour and you'll never be worried about trolls again. You'll never worry about bad comments. Bad comments make me laugh. Here's a trick, by the way. Bad comments, bad comments make me laugh. Here's a trick, by the way.
Speaker 2:No matter what platform you're on, if somebody flames you, they write a bad comment request line somebody. They would hang on hold for 30 minutes just to yell into the phone you suck. And I would always answer with hey, thanks for listening. And it drives them nuts. Same online. You thank them for the reach. Go, hey, thanks a lot, baz. I appreciate the boost in the reach, and that'll drive them crazy After answering. I've had people explain how they were going to assault my sister and I don't even have a sister, so it's just anything you can my brain exploding, everything you can possibly imagine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I love what you've just said. It's completely. I've had that, I've been through something very similar and it's loving the haters and they can't.
Speaker 2:there's no comeback from that, my greatest line I think that I've ever heard was an old, grumpy old newscaster and he used to just every day at the end of his newscasts he would have an opinion right. He'd have a little short opinion piece and some of them were really controversial. And I asked him. I said, john, you know what? Don't people just get upset at you? And he turned and gave me this phrase. He said Royce, I don't care if they hate me as long as they hate me every day. And I'm like that's it, I'm stealing that one man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. But myself and Royce, we're going to wrap it up for this episode, but join us next time where we go into something a bit different with Royce For myself and Royce. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure and it's an honor For my listeners. Please share, like and comment. You will change someone's life and the intellect and experience from Royce can possibly change yours. I suggest you go and research who he is, click on the link and have a little conversation with him. From myself, thank you very much for listening. I'm Baz. This is Royce. Have an amazing day on purpose and I'll see you very soon.
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