AMY PORTERFIELD: Hey there, Amy Porterfield here. Welcome to another episode of The Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast. I’m thrilled to have you here so, as always, thanks so much for tuning in.
Today, on this podcast we are talking about podcasting. I have a special guest, John Lee Dumas, who definitely knows a thing or two about podcasting.
John was on my show in Episode #22, one of my most popular podcast episodes I have ever done and I am having John back on the show because I want to talk about podcasting in a different way. I want to talk about podcasting for somebody who already has a platform.
Maybe you already have a business with a blog, possibly an online training program or course, or maybe you are a coach or consultant. You have some things going on but have been thinking the podcast thing is not going away and seems to be growing even bigger. You are right, it is. You may be thinking you want to get into the podcasting game as well.
You probably already know it is a lot of work. It can be streamlined, for sure, but it’s a lot of work. You may not be sure if you are cut out for it. You don’t know if you can afford all of the equipment that’s needed and you may not even really be sure the kind of content you would deliver or if you even have time for it.
If you’ve been thinking about podcasting and you want to make sure it is right for your business, that’s what this episode is all about. I’m really excited to share it with you because we talk about content repurposing and we talk about what podcasting can do for your business if you already have a platform.
We also dive into some really great specific strategies and details that John is going to share with you to help you get going right away if that’s what you think is right for your business.
Before we get there and before I tell you more about John, as you likely know, this podcast is brought to you by Lead Pages. It is the tool I can’t live without when it comes to growing my email list by hundreds of quality leads every single week.
John and I are actually going to talk about email marketing and how important it is for your podcast as well. John also uses Lead Pages so we are both in the same camp. We both love Lead Pages so much.
I have created a free workshop called Four Steps to Quickly Grow Your List Without Spending All o f Y our Time on Mark eting. Just go t o http:// amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/newleads to get free access to this master class right away. I think you are going to love it.
Jumping back to podcasting and John Lee Dumas, you likely already know about John and the empire that he has built. But just in case, let me give the guy the recognition he deserves. He has the website, EntrepreneurOnFire.com, where you can learn all about what he has created with his partner, Kate. They have done some pretty amazing things focused on podcasting but also about becoming an entrepreneur and building your business.
My favorite thing on their website is the income report. They publish it every single month and I don’t know about you but as an entrepreneur I love going behind the scenes and seeing how other successful business are run. That is exactly what he does in the income report.
He tells you everything he spent and everything he has earned. It really paints a picture of his business as a whole. It is really insightful.
In addition, he has a podcast by the same name, EntrepreneurOnFire. This podcast is a seven-day-a-week podcast. I can’t even imagine doing seven days a week. But, not only has he done it, he has done it well. He has recorded over 1,000 episodes already and he was actually given the recognition as Best of iTunes.
This guy has definitely created something pretty amazing. If you haven’t listened yet, definitely check out his podcast.
As you know, for every episode I do I always do some kind of really valuable free giveaway that complements what we teach on the podcast. In this case I have actually already recorded the interview and usually when I do my intros (like I am doing now) I like to do them after the interview just to make sure I know exactly what we talked about.
Let me tell you, we talked about some really cool stuff. One thing that is going to help you take all of everything you learn in this episode and apply it is a free workshop that John has offered. If you go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/freepodcast it will take you to a page where John actually does live workshops and helps you build your podcast, get it up and running, and then optimize it.
It is such a cool workshop he does. It is at http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/ freepodcast. That is the free giveaway for today and after you hear John in just a minute you are going to rush to that URL because it is so very valuable. I can promise you that.
I won’t make you wait any longer, let’s go ahead and jump in.
Amy: John, thanks so much for being here with me today. I am so excited to have you back.
John: Amy, I am fired up beyond belief.
Amy: You always are though. This is what I said to him when he first got on Skype, “When are you not fired up? Ever?”
John: Never.
Amy: That is an amazingly great thing. I am really excited to have you here and I want to dive right in. As you know we are turning this little interview into a mini training so we are making it really actionable for whoever is listening right now.
The first question I have for you is this: Your podcast is all about interviewing other entrepreneurs for insights on growing a business. But, for someone who has a business already and they just want to use a podcast to possibly grow their brand, what could podcasting do for them? What is the goal of a podcast and how will they know that they are actually being successful at it?
John: What I love about podcasting is it can truly be your soul focus or it can be a complement to grow your business. Specifically, to a lot of your listeners Amy, they have businesses. But, what are we all doing as entrepreneurs who have businesses?
We are looking for other avenues to grow our audience. We love Facebook, we love Instagram, we love email marketing, we love website blogs, and all of this great stuff. We love all of this stuff but how can we use the content we are currently using and repurpose it in other ways.
That is what I am really excited to talk about today because there are amazing opportunities in the podcasting sphere to use what you are already creating. You aren’t even creating much more work. We are repurposing it into these massive directories. We have iTunes with 525 million active subscribers.
You are a person who is maximizing that. Awesome. You are often a top 20 ranked business podcast and people are finding you every single day because they are saying, “online marketing made easy, sign me up pleases.” Now they are getting introduced to you, your brand, and your voice.
Sound Cloud and Stitcher Radio are two massive directories. I know you are dialed in Amy. I don’t know how dialed in you are with podcasting but the biggest announcement that is all the buzz right now, Spotify has just now entered the podcasting game and they are taking it very seriously and they have a massive obsessed user and listener base that they are now going to be making podcasting a major part of.
Amy: That’s exciting news. I didn’t even know about this. You always know the stuff that I don’t know about podcasting. So that is exciting. Since you are talking about this audience, these people that are listening to podcasts, are they different than people who are reading blogs or watching videos?
I have to tell you, I still worry that having my business already and then getting into the podcasting world, when I email my list about my latest podcast that came out I am missing a bunch of people because they might not listen to podcasts.
What do you do about something like that?
John: That’s a great question. It has been a struggle for the eternity of podcasting.
Amy: So I’m not alone?
John: No, you aren’t alone. Since 2004 this has definitely been a struggle. But the reality is this, with podcasting you have people that love consuming content via audio when they are on the go in cars, running on the beach in sunny San Diego, folding laundry, walking their dog.
They are able to consume audio content and they love it because they don’t have to say, “no” to something else like driving or running while saying, “yes” to podcasting. They can say, “yes” and “yes.”
You can’t do that while reading a blog and you can’t do that while watching videos. You have to commit to those type of actions. That’s fine. But you are going to have different types of people.
What I love, and I’ve seen this so often, people who love blog posts and going to amyporterfield.com, will say they love reading this content but they have to run off to work. Then they remember you have a podcast. They will download the audio and listen to it as they go to work.
Maybe they will get halfway to work then they will get to work, go to their cubicle and read the rest of it in the show notes and the transcript. They will have gotten a full dose of Amy Porterfield where before they would have had to take the block to get lost in Miley Cyrus. And who really wants to get lost in Miley Cyrus? I don’t know.
Amy: I don’t know.
John: What you are doing, Amy, is giving your audience the opportunity to choose how, where, and when they want to listen to you. As both you and I know with podcasting, it is on demand, it is targeted, and it is free content. All you are doing is adding value to your audience as an existing audience.
Plus, you are getting the opportunity of people going to iTunes who have never heard of Amy Porterfield before, which is sad but true, and they are searching for online marketing. They are searching in the iTunes search bar (by the way, it gets 45 million
searches per month) and guess who is coming up in online marketing? Amy Porterfield is.
People are saying that the podcast looks cool and now they are checking you out. Now 1) you are serving your current audience in an even better capacity, and 2) you are organically growing your audience by being where other people are now finding you in these massive directories.
Amy: I am so glad you brought this up. I just had an experience where we just finished The Profit Lab launch in the spring and it was the best launch we have ever done. My partner and I were talking about it and he said, “Amy, I know part of the success had to come from you starting to podcast every single week because people are finding us that we would have never had access to before.”
As you know, I use Facebook ads all the time. I think it is one of the most powerful tools you can use in your marketing arsenal. But to me using Facebook ads and finding that audience on Facebook and then being on iTunes and all of these other places you have mentioned, like Spotify coming up, to me I have reached an audience that was never even accessible to me in the beginning.
With that, when we are talking about people that already have a business and maybe they are just getting started but they have a product out there and they have their blog and are moving along and questioning whether they should start a podcast or not, to me the number one reason to do it is to expand your reach.
What are some other reasons you think are really good for someone already with a platform to actually add on podcasting.
John: I love this question on so many levels. First and foremost, congrats on your massive launch.
Amy: Thank you!
John: You killed it. I am so proud of you. California is happy that we are residents, by the way, let’s just be honest about that.
Amy: That’s a good way to put it.
John: Goodness. But listen, if you already have a platform this is one thing you as a platform owner, someone that is growing your audience, needs to think about. How can you deliver more free valuable and consistent content to your audience.
Amy: Yes.
John: How can you do that? The reason I love podcasting, and I want to give a specific example with Podcaster’s Paradise, I knew I needed to find a way that I could say if you want to join Paradise it’s $1,200 to get in. That’s not the way you build the right targeted type of audience.
I asked what I could do to up my game to create free, valuable, consistent content. I think what is going to be really valuable about this talk here, Amy, is I didn’t commit to starting a podcast that will continue forever. I said I would create a season of a podcast must like Michael Hyatt does, by the way. He does a great job of that.
I said I would start free podcast course podcasts. That is kind of a mouthful but it gets the point across and it is clear. It is a free podcast course and a podcast. It is just 20 episodes where I deliver value during those actual episodes about how to create, grow, and monetize your podcast.
The really huge thing about that is that now I am being discovered when people type in free podcast course or podcasting course in iTunes. They point out a podcast on a podcast course and if you want to learn how to podcast it’s just 20 episodes. It is just 20 episodes that I recorded in one week. It is done and it is now out there evergreen. And what is that doing?
It is consistently driving traffic through that podcast to my free podcast course, to my live workshops, and then to Podcaster’s Paradise. So now I have created one season of episodes, 20 episodes, that is living in eternity evergreen in iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, and Sound Cloud that people can find, consume, and then enter my funnel.
One thing you talk about so well on your shows is that you know marketing and how we can improve the beginning parts of our funnel to get more people into our email marketing world and continue to deliver a advice to them on that level as well. That has been massive for us.
We have now had over 13,000 people who have subscribed to this free podcast course, which is an email course, that has been the reason why we just had our
biggest month of May where we did over 500k in revenue. Almost 75% of that revenue came from that 13,000-person email list that was from that free podcast course podcast that started everything.
Amy: Okay, time out. We need to break this down. This is the kind of stuff I absolutely love. My audience is probably eating this up because a lot of people that listen to my podcast are creating info products or they have info products like training courses and all that and they want to sell more and they want to create these funnels. You are speaking to us right now so I need to break this down a bit.
I know you have Podcaster’s Paradise which is your how-to-create-and-monetize-and- optimize a podcast, right?
John: Right. It’s a paid community with the Facebook group and all that stuff.
Amy: It’s your big shebang. That is your big program. But you also have a podcast, and I love the season idea, where it is 20 podcast episodes about how to start a podcast. Is that right?
John: Correct.
Amy: Before I get to the email part of that, this is a question that I get all the time, how much of that podcast episode about podcasting can be found in the paid product? People are so scared of overlap in their products. They question what they should make for free because it is already in their product. This is an angst people feel. Can you kind of talk to me about how you decided what to put in the free podcast podcasts?
John: I give away all of my free stuff. That is a mouth full, I warned you, free podcast course podcast. I give it all away. I am all about just overloading.
I want people to say, “John’s free podcast course is so gosh darn good that I am going to have my mind blown by his community.”
That is the keyword here, community. That is what Podcaster’s Paradise is. I am very specific about that. People can take my free podcast course podcast and they can just launch their podcast and be off to the races and God bless them. I love them all. There are over 13,000 people who have subscribed to this course and in Paradise there are only 2,500.
There are 6x more people who have taken my free podcast course than are in Paradise. That is phenomenal. It hasn’t stopped us from generating just under $3 million for Podcaster’s Paradise because, specifically, I give them all the technical stuff they need.
Then, when it gets to the end of the free course, I say, “Listen guys, you just saw what you saw. That’s what it is. Now, this is how Paradise is more than that.”
I talk about the onboarding process where we match people up with an accountability partner when they first join. We have a full-time member, Lisa from New Jersey, who will take you and match you up with an accountability partner within the first week of you joining paradise.
You then have access to a private Facebook group that has over 2,000 members in it with 24/7 support guidance like IT. We do monthly webinars. Amy, you have been a past guest. Tim Ferriss, Michael Hyatt, James Altucher, are all past guests of these exclusive webinars. And I do a monthly Q&A.
I give so much more in Paradise that it is a no brainer that people who want to really take it seriously are going to join that paid community. But those that can’t or, for whatever reason, don’t want to are off to the races with their podcasts with the free course. Again, on the technical side, I give it all away.
Amy: Okay. So this is what I love. This is such a good lesson for anybody listening that is creating content whether it be free or paid, you have more people that have downloaded or have accessed this free podcasting course and what you teach in there will get them results whether they spent a dollar with you or not. But, the stuff that you teach in that free podcasting course can be found in Podcaster’s Paradise but then a million times more.
John: Exactly.
Amy: That is so important for people to hear, that you weren’t afraid to give some of that paid stuff away for free. Here’s what everyone really needs to understand, John lives in San Diego so we see each other.
Every time I go over to his place he has all of this memorabilia or whatever you call it from these crazy fans that absolutely love him. They love you and Kate and what you are doing and I think that speaks to the fact that you give away so much great free stuff and you really care that they get results whether they spend money with you or not.
John: Absolutely. Amy, you know first hand about the rating fans. Our mutual friend in San Diego, Pat Flynn, has his wall of fans because that’s what we are focused on. We are focused on getting so much free valuable content that a certain percentage of people are always going to want more and we are happy to serve them and we do.
But, for the majority we have just created fans for life who are going to refer our free courses to their friends and sometimes it’s those friends that will jump into our paid or investing community, so to speak. That is where the value lies.
Amy: Yes. There is revenue, there is always enough revenue when you are giving away a lot of free stuff. That is just a cool way to look at it.
I need to go back. Let me see if I can get this right, you have this podcasting course podcast.
John: Right. Free podcast course podcast.
Amy: Free podcast course podcast. I couldn’t even say that five times fast. But, where does the email part come in? The email course?
John: Great question. I am all about really getting that email side of it dialed in. You and I both use Infusionsoft for our CRM. It is an amazing platform for what I am about to explain.
On the iTunes platform, I usually refer to iTunes because they are the mother ship, that’s where 85% of my downloads and pretty close for you too, Amy, come from at this time. With other directories coming in that will change a little bit, but within iTunes a lot of people are finding my free podcast course podcast.
I am giving them 20 episodes of audio only. But, guess what I am saying? I am saying, “Hey my friends, this is completely free. This is a podcast. I am going to walk you through this step by step in these 20 episodes all about a different topic.”
However, I have created all of these into video tutorials and they are waiting for you. They are also 100% free, just go to the website where you can sign up for the free podcast course. And once you sign up for that you will get 15 emails in 15 days each with a different lesson and a different video tutorial.
That is where they subscribe to the course. It is an email course where every single day for 15 days they get another email with another step, another module in that process. That’s where I took people from the actual podcast and brought them into my email course. Again, this is also free and now has over 13,000 people.
Then, for instance, when the beginning of May came and I left for the Philippines we decided we were going to train some new staff when we got back in late May so we decided to close Paradise down for the month. We let the audience know they could get in for the next four days and the doors would be closed for revamping and then open back up in June.
We brought in 254 people during those four days at $335k for those four days into Podcaster’s Paradise; 75% of those people came from that 13,000-person list. That was the value of the free podcast into the free email course, and then into Paradise.
Amy: That is so very, very cool. We will put a link to all of this stuff in the show notes so that people can check out that podcast and all the good stuff that you are talking about. We will definitely hook you guys up at http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/63.
Here’s a question for you, speaking of content, sometimes because I have a very specific topic (I talk about Facebook but also list building and email marketing) and I don’t know everything, I sometimes feel stuck about what to talk about. I feel for you, you have done such a great job, you are interviewing entrepreneurs and you are just crazy about finding the greatest people and getting them on your show.
But for me I don’t do tons of interviews. A lot of people are listening and don’t want to do tons of interviews, they want to do solo shows on their podcasts. What do you say to people that are struggling with finding things to talk about?
John: This is what’s great. Right now we are really focused on the entrepreneur that is listening who has a platform and a business. Here is where Kate is a great example. Kate has been behind the scenes for a while. As she has been crushing it and learning the ropes as an entrepreneur over the past couple of years she decided about a year ago to come out with her voice.
She wanted to start a podcast. She had been writing blog posts for a long time and had a lot of stuff in her head but didn’t know what to podcast about.
I told her she completely stumbled upon it. I told her she would launch Kate’s Take, the Entrepreneur On Fire audio blog. I told her to go back to all of her best blog posts that she had written with the best engagement and the best content and just look at them and turn them into a bullet point flow, turn on the microphone, and just talk. Talk about that episode. Talk about some comments that happened with it. Talk about that blog post and what resonated with people, what you liked about it, and then just talk about the content itself.
Turn that into an audio blog post. You already have the content. Many of the people listening to my voice right now are sitting on years and years of content that can simply be repurposed into the audio form. Now you are here listening to Amy Porterfield’s podcast so you are brilliant. And she is more brilliant than anybody I have seen. She has a unique value giveaway for every single episode. That is where you can say, “Hey guys, this blog post is what it is. This is my audio blog repurposing of the contents. Oh by the way, I have the PDF upgrade for you back on my site and we will talk some more details later about specific tactics.”
I am sure people could already see that if you are creating content in any form right now it can be repurposed in an incredibly valuable way. Now that you are leveraging these massive directories out there, when people are going to business podcasts or health podcasts or whatever niche you want to be in and they are searching for your key words that you want to rank for, they are finding you.
Amy: I am such a fan of repurposing. I think every smart, strategic marketer is repurposing their content in one way or another so I am really glad you brought that up. I think Kate’s way of doing it is so very doable for so many people that are listening. That’s a great example.
My other struggle, I am just always having struggles and I talk about them on the show so sometimes I get stuck with what the heck I am going to talk about because I want to make sure I really know the content before I talk about it. The other thing is batching. It is something I have been really focused on but just haven’t really nailed it yet.
You, my friend, are the king of batching. Remind me again, is it like eight episodes back to back? Is that what you do?
John: Batch processing is one of my favorite topics. But you know, even before I go into that I do want to point back to Amy. If, after your launch, you are having struggles I want some of those struggles. Give me some of those struggles.
Amy: Good way to look at it.
John: Let’s talk about batch processing because when I first started, a mutual friend of ours, Jaime Tardy, was my mentor. A mutual friend of ours, Cliff Ravenscraft, the podcast answer man, was my mastermind leader. Both of them were amazing. They are the reason why I am where I am today. There is no doubt about it. They were amazing.
Both of them, without a doubt, said, “John, you cannot do a seven-day-a-week podcast.”
They told me
- I would get burned out,
- My listeners would get burnt out,
- You will never be able to find enough guests. They gave me all of these obstacles why it would not work.
Amy: So I was not the only one that thought you were crazy!
John: You were in the 99.9% majority. I was the 0.1%. Even talking to you today before we hit record I told you about what I have already done today. You told me I live in bazaar land and that I have already done more today than most people will do this week.
Amy: Exactly. It’s so true.
John: But I know myself. I knew me. I knew if I sat down and created a system and if I was disciplined and regimented I could do a seven-day-a-week podcast. Fast forward to Episode 1024 that I have recorded. Episode 1000 actually goes out on July 18 with a little cameo from Amy Porterfield.
I knew I could do a seven-day-a-week podcast despite what both Jaime and Cliff, who I respect greatly, said. Fast forward to today, not only do I do a seven-day-a-week podcast, I do a seven-day-a-week podcast one day a week.
Amy: Okay, so let’s talk about that. How the heck do you prepare for something like that?
John: It all starts with scheduling. Scheduling can be an absolute nightmare for people. People are very scared about scheduling. But the reality is you need to own your schedule from Day 1. The way I own my schedule is an amazing tool called Schedule Once.
I use that to schedule everything. I have six different links and each of those links takes people to a different opportunity to book themselves on my calendar. The keywords are “my calendar.” This is my agenda because this is my show.
Granted, when I first started and before I launched I did ask, Amy, to schedule a spot on my calendar. I asked you to pick the time and dates and I would be ready with my record button going. But, once I got going and once I got some legitimacy I set a schedule.
Every single Tuesday starting at 9 a.m. on the hour, every hour, for eight hours, I book a guest from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. That is eight guests, eight hours back to back. I started reaching out to awesome entrepreneurs. It was a quantity thing. I booked them out and before I knew it I was booked out for months.
As we speak now I am booked until October for people to be a guest on Entrepreneur On Fire. That is what I have now grown to. It did take time but it all started with scheduling and getting control of my agenda.
Today is Wednesday. Yesterday was Tuesday. I had eight interviews. I’m not saying it was easy, Amy. It was eight back-to-back legitimately detailed conversations that I do for my show. But I know it is one day a week. I can wake up, I can drink my bulletproof coffee and I can focus for eight hours on eight awesome interviews. Then I am done for the week on that side of the business.
That was so critical. If you are listening and you want to start with a weekly podcast that’s one day a month for four to six hours, especially if you are going audio blog post wise. Block that time off and just be absolutely adamant that that is the only thing you are doing during that time. It’s all about batch processing because it takes time to set up your audio, it takes time to get into the mindset, it takes time to breakdown. Do it all at once.
Amy: This is huge. Anything we are creating in our business, if you can block the time and really just put that dedicated focus there you will be so much more productive. Sometimes it is easier said than done but you are proof that it is very doable.
A lot of people listening have listened to your podcast as well. You have a template of specific questions you ask people. Is that correct?
John: Absolutely.
Amy: I, of course, don’t. I don’t do a lot of interviews. I just recorded the episode that is going to come out before this one and it probably took me a good 2½ hours to prepare for it. It was a mini training and then when I recorded it, it probably took me a good hour because it was a longer one. So right there we have 3 to 3½ hours. I am definitely different from you but for somebody that is just starting out, do you think the template type of show is the way to go?
John: Absolutely, to start. I love the free-flowing shows. If you can get to the comfort level behind the mike that you, Amy, are at right now, that is a great place, to say you are going to be able to get a little more of your personality in there. Let’s turn the “way back” machine on. I have been a listener of your podcast from Day 1. You put it out to your fans and asked what they liked about your show and what they didn’t like. You got a lot of feedback that said, “Amy, you are a little too scripted. We want more natural.”
That was a really big influence for you.
Amy: It was.
John: Having the public speaking ability that you have, because you were already amazing on stage, you just needed to translate that into your podcasts. You were able to do that. You are a teacher at heart and you were able to turn the microphone on and have much more free flow.
But a lot of people, myself included, when I started I had zero broadcasting experience. I had never been on stage. I had never been behind the mike. I had never done anything that had to do with interviewing or audio or communications period. I also had no online presence. Those are two things going really against me from the beginning.
But I knew if I could interview successful entrepreneurs and really add value to their lives I could build relationships that would matter down the line and then I could also improve my own interview skills and my own voice skills to find my voice.
To the people that are listening, I would say this, “Use a format at the beginning.” It will help you find your voice. Once you have started to find that voice start to take away some of those crutches and some of those tricycle wheels. Start to go at it on your own a little bit and focus.
You might not need those training wheels anymore. Just kind of go forward and all of the sudden you will have recorded an entire episode free flowing and that is a great feeling. I do those on other shows but with Entrepreneur On Fire, this is my perfect avatar. I know my perfect listener and what he wants when he presses the play button. My avatar happens to be a guy.
That is why I created the format of Entrepreneur On Fire. I have stuck to that because it works. But for other shows I think that free flowing works. I even love those variety shows, Amy, which you are one of. You have your interviews, you have topics, and they are mixed in. Now your guests and listeners are able to get value from your guests. Your listeners are getting value in the podcasting realm from me today, from Ray Edwards, about copy in the past. They are getting great value from your guests on some episodes.
But then they are getting Amy Porterfield content, value from you, and they are getting to know you even better because you are being open and real and honest. You are providing the authority and credibility. That mix of variety shows is awesome. So anybody that is thinking they have to choose one or the other, don’t. Do both.
Amy: That is so good. I think that allows everyone to breathe just a little bit easier. There are some options here. It doesn’t have to be incredibly stressful or overwhelming or anything like that. I appreciate you sharing that.
One thing that made me think about was the equipment. What kind of equipment? People get really stressed out with that. But we aren’t going to go there right now because 1) we went there in our last episode (I talked about that in the intro), and 2) you have a pretty amazing free online workshop that you do live a couple of times a month and you get into all of that.
I just want to give a shout out. We aren’t done yet because I have two more quick questions for you. But real quick, if you go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/ freepodcast (because it is a free podcast workshop that John does) you can get even more of John’s tips and strategies and a how-to in a free workshop. I am going to have John talk about that in a moment. But, before we go there I do have another question for you.
You talk a lot about voice and the power of voice. You say some really cool things about why podcasting is so valuable in terms of the voice. Talk to me a little bit about that.
John: I’ll never forget when I was walking around the streets of Prague not too long ago, I was looking for an actual podcast walking tour. I found Rick Steves. This guy is a great travel guru. He did a walking tour of Prague.
I popped in my ear buds on a rainy day in Prague and stood at Wenceslas Square where the walking tour started. It was a two-hour walking tour with just me and him. By the end he said he hoped I enjoyed it and that it was great hanging out with me today. I thought, “Dude, it was great hanging out with you today.”
He recorded that episode years ago but I went on a walking tour with the guy. He was in my ear buds. His voice was talking to me. It was speaking to me and I felt, by the end of that episode, that I knew Rick Steves. I felt like I was his buddy. I wanted to go and friend him on Facebook.
If I had one of his books and was trying to walk around and read and look at the same time I never would have had that connection on any level. I have done that before and it has never happened. But, hearing his voice and hearing him talk about this place, the um’s and uh’s and mistakes were awesome. He was human, thank God. That’s fine.
By the end of it I felt this was why podcasting is so powerful and why voice is so powerful. Amy, you have had this happen. I have had this happen. People have come up to us at conferences and say, “John, this is going to sound weird and maybe a little creepy, but I feel like I know you.”
Amy: Yes.
John: “You are with me in the shower!”
Amy: Whoa!
John: Oh yea, and I’m like, “You know, I’m picturing you naked.”
And they say, “You are with me when I am walking dogs. You are with me when I am driving to work. You are with me when I am falling asleep at night.”
These are intimate alone times for people. I tell these people they are not creepy, to be honest, because I know what they are talking about. That is the way I felt when I was listening to Pat Flynn, David Siteman Garland, Andrew Warner.
Amy: Totally.
John: When I was getting into it I felt I knew them.
Amy: I had that experience. Over the last year and a half Michael Hyatt and I have become dear friends. When I first started hanging out with him in a social setting I would hear his voice and it would just take me back to all of his podcasts. It was an eerie feeling but I also felt like I already knew him.
I think we became such fast friends because I felt like I was already his friend through his podcast. This was that distinct voice. So I totally agree with you. It’s a really cool thing.
If anybody’s thinking about podcasting, the way you get to connect with your audience is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced. It is truly the coolest thing I do in my business and I absolutely love it. So that’s why I wanted to do this show.
If you are thinking about it and you don’t know if this is right for you, I will say that John Lee Dumas is the guy to go to. He is your go-to guy. I am going to do a little cliffhanger here because another question that I think comes up a lot, and I’m not going to let you answer it, is, “What if I start a podcast how do I get it out there? How will people know I am even out there and how will I compete with all of the other podcasts?”
I know this is something you address in your free workshop. You do, right?
John: Absolutely.
Amy: Okay, so I’m not even going to let you answer it. I do want people to experience what you have created. It is absolutely outstanding. This free workshop you do all about podcasting can be found at http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/freepodcast. Everything you need to do to get started with your podcast is included.
But, give them a few other hints of what they will learn when they go live with you.
John: There are a couple of things. You just have to make a really strong call to action. We talked about a lot of awesome free content that I have that is out there today. Guys, to see where that is and to subscribe to the podcast and to the free course just go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/63. She will be linking up all of these things we are talking about, I know for a fact, on her show notes page.
That is where you will see where all of this free great content is. The free podcast workshop, again, as Amy said, is at http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/freepodcast for that. What is amazing is that some people are going to be listening to this in 2015. Some people will be listening to this in late 2015 or early 2016 and, who knows, maybe it is 2020 right now. Is there a hovercraft? I want to know. I hope so.
Amy: It is crazy to even think about that.
John: But, I do want to say that is what I love about podcasting. Whenever people are listening to this they can go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/freepodcast and you can sign up for my next live podcast workshop. I am always doing live podcast workshops. At the time of this recording I am doing two a month so you are not far away. I am doing one every two weeks. You are not far away from my next free live podcast workshop whenever you are listening to this.
If you go to that link it will show you when my next live podcast workshop is. In this podcast workshop we do so many things and these are all just teasers because I can’t take up too much more of Amy’s time. But I start off by busting some serious podcasting myths.
Teaser alert on that one, yes I know everybody hates their voice. Even the gorgeous, beautiful voice of Amy Porterfield…
Amy: I don’t want to hear it at all.
John: Right. And I have never heard more people compliment a voice than they compliment Amy Porterfield. So, if anybody is going to prove to you that it is normal to not like your voice there you go. Believe me. We bust that myth at the top. We bust a couple of more massive myths about cost, about time, about XYZ.
I take you through how to find your podcast topic, that perfect topic, how to find that perfect avatar that you create, that perfect listener. I teach you how to launch your actual podcast. This is a video training, the eighth step, under three minutes. I show you live how to record, edit, add the intro, outro, upload it to your media host, schedule it, submit it to iTunes. I show you the entire step process in under three minutes.
We take you into the top five ways to grow your podcasting audience, the top five ways to monetize your actual podcast. In another live training I show two super hacks that, by the way, if you are currently podcasting right now you are not doing this and it is hurting you big time, period. We show you that.
Of course we end with a bang. That’s what the free podcast workshop is all about. I do one every two weeks. Again, it’s at http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/freepodcast.
Amy: Fantastic! It’s really worth it guys. So definitely check it out. Plus, I have to say a side note, John’s really good at live webinars. So, if you ever want to become a student at really great live webinars John is a great example of that as well so check it out.
John, thank you so much. This has been ultimately one of my favorite interviews I’ve done. I love that we prepared in advance. We made it really, really valuable for those listening and it is just a testament to how much you care about the people you serve. So thank you so much.
John: Amy, don’t tell Pat but you’re my second favorite person in San Diego.
Amy: Okay, we won’t say a word. Thanks, again, for everything. I appreciate you being here.
John: Amy, it was a blast. Thank you.
Amy: Take care.
There you have it. I hope you have enjoyed this interview as much as I have. I thought it was really insightful. There were so many great tips and strategies. And, if you’ve been thinking about a podcast maybe now is the time to dive a little bit deeper and see if it is going to be right for your business.
Make sure to go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/freepodcast to get that workshop of John’s and then, remember, all of the links we talked about and all of the details about this episode can be found at http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/63.
I’ll see you over on the blog and I can’t wait to connect with you again next week. Take care.
