Last Updated on: 5th May 2025, 11:25 am
In a recent episode of the Simply Be Found Huddle, hosts Rob and Dean sat down with Roy Coughlan, who shared his remarkable journey from facing $5 million in debt to becoming a podcast success story. Roy’s story is one of resilience, reinvention, and finding your voice in the digital world.
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This Huddle’s Special Guest
Roy Coughlan is a podcasting pro and resilient entrepreneur who’s turned adversity into a platform for purpose. After losing his real estate company, Polera, during the 2008 financial crash and facing $5 million in debt, Roy didn’t just bounce back—he completely rebuilt himself. By facing his fear of public speaking head-on, he discovered podcasting and never looked back.
Today, Roy runs six different podcasts, each one serving a unique audience and mission:
- His Polish-language show has earned over 1.5 million views on YouTube and 1.3 million audio downloads
- The Awakening podcast—dedicated to exposing fraud and corruption—has racked up 400,000+ views on BitChute
- His first show on public speaking has been going strong for over seven years
- And he’s since launched additional shows focused on cryptocurrency, sovereignty, and common law
Roy’s story is more than just a comeback—it’s a powerful reminder that transformation is possible when we use our voice with courage and purpose.
A huge thank-you to Roy for joining us and sharing his journey with the Simply Be Found community. We hope to have him back soon! If you’d like to connect with Roy, you can find him on the following platforms:
Key Takeaways From This Huddle
Roy’s entrepreneurial journey began in Poland with a promising real estate business, Polera—an homage to both Poland and his Irish roots. He quickly scaled: 14 employees, 200 managed properties, and multiple commercial investments.
But when the 2008 financial crisis hit Europe, his world turned upside down. Investors pulled out, banks refused to cooperate, and Roy discovered the hard way that in Poland, company presidents were personally liable for business debts. “It was like having a crying baby,” Roy said. “Everybody disappears, and I was caught holding the baby.”
Rock Bottom Became a New Beginning
Facing over 100 court cases and navigating massive personal debt, Roy could’ve stopped there. Instead, he found a new mission—exposing the corruption he had experienced firsthand. His problem? Public speaking terrified him. But he didn’t let that stop him. Roy leaned into discomfort, joined multiple Toastmasters clubs, founded the Toastmasters Club for International Entrepreneurs, and took every speaking opportunity he could find. Eventually, he gave a TEDx talk and even tried stand-up comedy. The confidence he gained would become the fuel for his podcast success.
Podcasting Became the Turning Point
After attending a podcast workshop, Roy realized, “I can do this.” He launched his first show focused on public speaking—and that decision changed everything. Today, Roy hosts six different podcasts covering topics from fraud to crypto to sovereignty.
One of his shows has surpassed 1.5 million YouTube views and 1.3 million audio downloads. His journey from breakdown to podcast success is a case study in resilience, reinvention, and knowing your voice matters.
Roy’s take on gear and production? Keep it simple. He uses Zoom, Audio Technica headphones and mic, a direct USB connection, and Adobe for sound enhancement. No expensive mixers or studio rentals. “It’s not about the tools—it’s about showing up consistently,” he says.
Creating Content That Builds Podcast Success
For Roy, podcast success is rooted in authenticity. He avoids long intros and generic scripts, encouraging natural conversation instead. “People fast-forward through music. Skip it. Get to the value.” He tracks performance analytics closely to learn what resonates with his audience and uses that data to shape future episodes. If sound or lighting quality isn’t up to par, he’s not afraid to pause and restart. Quality matters—but being real matters more.
Roy understands that nervous guests can lead to stiff conversations. His solution? Treat every episode like a one-on-one chat. “We’re just having a conversation. Forget the audience. That’s how you get the best out of people,” he says.
Distributing for Reach, Not Just Vanity Metrics
Roy doesn’t just publish and pray. His strategy includes multiple platforms—YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Bitshoot, Rumble—and short-form content with strong branding. He shares content in targeted communities rather than blasting it everywhere. He also communicates clearly with his audience, especially during breaks: “If you disappear without saying anything, they assume you gave up.”
Roy is clear—podcast success isn’t only about audience size. It’s about impact. “You can have 20 views per episode and still close six-figure deals,” he explains. For coaches, consultants, and business owners, a podcast becomes a powerful tool to start meaningful conversations with potential high-ticket clients. “You’re not cold calling—you’re building relationships through real dialogue.”
Yours Could Be The Next Success Story
Becoming a success story isn’t easy in the world of business. With the help of Dean, Rob, and the Simply Be Found community, that’s going to be more possible. Check out our membership benefits and see how we can help you out.
Transcript
- 00:00 | Welcome to the Huddle
- 00:07 | Meet Roy Coughlan: From $5M in Debt to Podcast Power
- 00:41 | The Financial Collapse That Changed Everything
- 01:54 | How Roy Launched a Real Estate Company in Poland
- 03:01 | When the Crash Hit and Everything Fell Apart
- 04:13 | Over 100 Court Cases and Personal Liability
- 04:55 | The Turning Point: A Quest for Purpose
- 05:50 | Conquering the Fear of Public Speaking
- 07:10 | Toastmasters, TEDx, and the Start of Podcasting
- 09:03 | Building Confidence Through Speaking Competitions
- 10:13 | Why Podcasting Became Roy’s Voice
- 11:00 | The Power of Long-Form Content in the Digital World
- 12:00 | Helping Others Get on Podcasts — Even as Newbies
- 13:12 | Multi-Channel Strategy: Audio, Video & Visibility
- 14:03 | Podcast SEO, Blogs & Distribution Hacks
- 15:00 | Attention-Grabbing Content that Converts
- 16:12 | Podcasting as a Sales Tool for Business Owners
- 17:06 | How to Start a Podcast Without Technical Overload
- 18:11 | Recommended Tools & Software Stack
- 20:10 | Why Roy Prefers Raw, Unedited Podcasting
- 22:00 | Lessons From Analytics: What Listeners Really Want
- 23:36 | The ROI of Realness: No Scripts, Just Value
- 25:02 | How Podcast Guests Can Make or Break an Episode
- 26:47 | Let Your Audience Know When You Take Breaks
- 28:00 | Don’t Confuse a Job Title with Personal Relevance
- 29:18 | What It Really Takes to Launch a Podcast
- 30:30 | How to Invite Guests and Get Them Comfortable
- 31:14 | Growing Podcast Engagement with Strategy
- 33:06 | Sharing Content in the Right Communities
- 34:00 | Repurposing Content to Maximize SEO Value
- 35:21 | How to Increase Conversion Through Shorts
- 37:10 | The Real Impact of Asking for the Sale
- 39:15 | Be Authentic — Don’t Fake Personality for Views
- 40:32 | Using Visual Formats to Hook Your Audience
- 42:04 | Roy’s Content Creation Flow & Mistakes to Avoid
- 44:00 | Should You Pre-Record and Stream as “Live”?
- 45:47 | Co-Hosting Dynamics & Building a Real Podcast
- 47:17 | Final Reflections & How to Find Roy Coughlan
00:00 | Welcome to the Huddle
Rob (00:01): Welcome to the Simply Be Found Huddle. You have Dean, you have Rob, and we have our guest Roy today. Roy, I want to talk about this because if I read your stuff right, correct me if I’m wrong, you went from $5 million in debt to then getting into podcasting and pulled yourself out of it. Am I reading that right for your past?
Roy (00:21): Yeah, that’s correct. Yeah, that’s exactly what happened.
Rob (00:23): That’s pretty awesome, right? So was that 5 million US or was that in one of… in different count…?
Roy (00:27): No, no, it was about 20 million Polish lottery. So depending on what time of the year you’re asking, it can be 5 million euro or $5 million, but it was a lot of money.
Rob (00:38): So it was one of those things where you had the restless nights and everything else to come with it?
00:41 | The Financial Collapse That Changed Everything
Roy (00:41): Exactly, exactly.
Rob (00:46): So how did you pull out by doing podcasting? I’m curious, what’s your story?
Roy (00:54): Okay, so I ended up moving to Poland because I started dating a Polish girl. Wasn’t planning on moving there full-time, but saw the property was cheap. At that stage I had three properties in Ireland, and I was like, “Okay, it’s very cheap here. Let’s start getting a few properties.” And I saw an opportunity, so I set up a company and the company I called was Polera. Polish and ERA is the Irish for Ireland, and that was the name of the company.
And I started getting… it was originally for Irish investors, so I got to like a BNI meeting to kind of meet people and, you know, get people to come across. And I started working well. I got syndicates. I released equity in my properties to get into a syndicate because what I found is if I was putting skin in the game, people said, “All right, if he’s putting his own money in the game, we’re on board.” And I got a lot of people. I was getting English clients, American clients as well.
And the relationship broke, and I would have lost everything at that stage because basically the person I was with kind of said, “Hey, I’ve set up my own company and I can look after you.” And I would have lost because I was after putting in so much money in each development, and I knew I had the experience. I worked in construction for all my life. I studied construction economics and management, so I knew I was a kind of better person to be doing this.
01:54 | How Roy Launched a Real Estate Company in Poland
Roy (01:57): And in the end, they only got one out of 50 clients. I got the rest of them, and I kind of built up and built up a business, had about 14 people working with me. Everything was going very well. Then the crash happened in the States in around 2008, took a bit longer to go across.
And I was doing very well because I was managing like 200 properties. I was doing loads of renovations, built 30 apartments, you know, was managing a big commercial that I par owned as well. And then my investors started getting into… and they were like… I was the small boy. I was worth maybe a million at that stage, and they were worth like 5 million, 10 million, even more. And they started losing everything, and I was thinking, “Now, this will come right.”
So say the commercial, I said, “Look, I put in the money, and if you can’t pay me by the end of the year, I’ll charge a 10% interest, or else I’ll increase my share.” So I was being fair with them because they had put in their trust with me. And it never came right, and eventually kind of everything started kind of closing in on me.
03:01 | When the Crash Hit and Everything Fell Apart
Roy (03:01): And I went to the banks and I said, “Hey, can I have, you know, interest only for the commercial in Poland?” And they were like, “No.” I said, “Look, I split it up, I got planning permission, I sell it in different things.” And I was like, “No.”
The Irish properties, they were on interest only, and they changed it to repayment. So instead, it went from cash positive to being like a thousand quid extra per property. So I was getting kicked in all directions, and eventually it fell down.
And usually when you have a limited liability company, it’s kind of like, “Ah, lesson learned, let’s start again.” And nobody told me in Poland that when you’re the president of a company, you’re personally liable. Hence why I had all these debts that just came to me. And all the investor… it was like having a crying baby. Everybody disappears, and I was caught holding the baby. So I had to kind of navigate that.
04:13 | Over 100 Court Cases and Personal Liability
Roy (04:13): And through that, had over 100 court cases. But I saw so much corruption. I was like corruption, bailiffs working with the banks, valuers working with the banks, people bailiffs bribing people in the rooms to get their own cronies to buy the properties. And I’m liable for the excess debt. And I was just kind of… I eventually sorted it out and dealt with it.
And went to an event, and the event was “What’s your quest?” And I was like, “All right, I need to expose this,” because I think most people would know somebody that’s thrown in the towel when they go through this kind of thing. Like even in the states, like what frustrates me is through health, so many people go bankrupt through just health. I mean, it’s bad enough if you’re going, say, through cancer or something like that, and then you lose everything.
So it was like, this is all orchestrated. So I wanted to expose everything. But I also at the time did not like public speaking.
04:55 | The Turning Point: A Quest for Purpose
Roy (04:55): Even though I was running big jobs for a company in Ireland up to when I moved across, it was never something I was comfortable with. You know, I’d kind of be sitting with 20 people, architect… I was doing jobs for Johnson & Johnson. We were the mechanical contractors, like 10 million euro size, you know, big projects. But it was my time that I hated, you know, like the day before I was just kind of not being able to sleep, just wasn’t my thing.
And I realized I need to become a better speaker to get my message out. So when I came back, I joined the Toastmasters. I joined another Toastmasters. I became… I formed the Toastmasters Club International Entrepreneurs. I became a coach to a Finnish company, and I entered every competition, done an open TEDx, done open comedy, and got into the final five countries. So I went from one extreme to the other.
And during that time then, there was another event, and the guy done like how to podcast. I was like, “I’ll go to this,” and it was a few hours. I said, “Oh, I can do this.” And I always kind of was thinking about the exposure, but I said, “I know I’m going to be attacked for doing this. So let’s learn the trade.”
05:50 | Conquering the Fear of Public Speaking
Roy (05:52): So I did the speaking one first. The speaking podcast was my very first one. It’s like seven years now. And because of all the competitions all over Europe, I was able to invite plenty of people to be a guest and just kind of from there then built everything.
Rob (05:59): Oh, that sounds awesome. That’s great. Now, the big question, Roy, that you didn’t… that you didn’t address in there is, did you keep the girl that you went there for originally?
Roy (06:11): No, no, that… the reason I actually moved is I went… I went with her, and then it broke up. And then I had a choice of, you know, do I… do I… but I have a beautiful son. My… my… my English… he’s… he’s 11, from a Polish woman. I got married at one… age, but it didn’t work out with different girl, but I have the most incredible child ever. And I have equal custody, and I’m actually one of these people that doesn’t fight with their ex. We get on very well, which I wish everybody could do instead of, you know, just tearing each other with a brush.
Rob (06:44): Well, definitely. I mean, it’s one of those things to where going and having that much stress and being able to figure out how you’re going to pivot your life is a huge spot. I mean, I’ve started companies with absolutely nothing, built them up, lost it. I’ve done it a couple of times in my career. Dean, I think you have… you’ve had a couple things that…
Dean (06:58): Yeah, I’ve had a couple… I’ve had a couple of those failures that you learn from, but we’ve all… I think all entrepreneurs go through that at some point. They… they do really well, and then they have failures or… or things that just basically crumble on them. So what makes a true entrepreneur?
07:10 | Toastmasters, TEDx, and the Start of Podcasting
Dean (07:10): So you found podcasting, you… you had the fear of going and talking. Did I hear you say that?
Roy (07:18): Yeah, yeah.
Dean (07:19): So how did you get over that fear? What was your process there? What do you think happened there?
Roy (07:25): I think it was a mental shift, and it’s… it’s a thing that I kind of question everything now, because I had told myself a story. I’m not good at public speaking. That’s not me. And I… because of all the people I bring on the show for, say, the speaking podcast of the first couple of hundred people, I was always asking them your story. So many people that came from school, and what happens is that you’re learning a language, the learn… language of English, and they’re going around the class making you read. So you’re stumbling and you’re stuttering and you’re panicking, and like you don’t understand what’s going on five people before you, and everyone laughs at you. So then that’s the memory you have, so you just fear standing up.
And I’m convinced that’s what it was like. No, that… that’s the reason that I didn’t enjoy standing in public, because every… it’s the same with most people. Like I think the Americans are a lot better at that. You kind of encourage that, and most people aren’t afraid to stand in public and speak, compared to the rest of the Europe.
Rob (08:20): I don’t… I would disagree with you on that. Most Americans are scared to really put it out there. I mean, you do… but I… I think overall, I don’t think everybody’s that comfortable with it because of the same reasons. They’re scared of ridicule. They’re scared of what other people are thinking. They’re scared of what they’re thinking about themselves, you know. And I… I fall under that same guys. I mean, Rob couldn’t get me in front of a camera until he started the podcast thing, and I’m getting… I’m doing better. I still struggle a little bit, still a little self-conscious, but… but no, it’s a great story that… what you said on the recovery piece.
09:03 | Building Confidence Through Speaking Competitions
Dean (09:03): And so then you… you learned how to… you went through Toastmasters to… to help yourself speak better. And that’s when you started the podcast is after you became more comfortable with speaking. Is that how you did that?
Roy (09:09): Yeah, and like I… because Toastmasters, before… like now it’s a thing called Pathways, it’s a bit different. But before, when I was doing it, you had like a book of 10 speeches. So I do communication. I done one specifically. So we’d have speeches where somebody’s interviewing me or I’m interviewing them in front of a room full of people, but they’re friends. So you… it’s not as bad as if you just went into… when you start speaking in front of a couple of hundred people that you don’t know. But it gets you to overcome that fear.
And I also… I started reading a lot of books, watching TEDx speech… speeches, TEDx books, you know, Kennedy books on how to speak. And it was just trying to learn different… plus getting the people on, and I was just constantly learning from the people coming on and preparing.
And like what I’ve learned is it’s all about the message that… ‘cuz a lot of the speakers have an ego. But for me, it was always about bring a story, let people walk away better than when they came into the room. And what shocked me was there was one time that somebody came along, you know, not everyone would join. And about two years later, they came along again, and they started telling me about a speech I had done. I mean, I totally forgot about it, but I was like, “Wow, you have an impact on somebody that they can remember exactly what you said two years ago.”
10:13 | Why Podcasting Became Roy’s Voice
Roy (10:13): And then from that moment, it was like making sure that you’re really… it’s never about you. It’s always about what can I do in this room to help the people. And same with a podcast. Like it’s not… like it’s always about what we can do to actually… somebody to take away some information, and that they’ll kind of go, “I feel better now.” And that’s what it’s about. And that’s the type of person then that will share it or will come back, and you always think… think like that.
Rob (10:36): Well, I think when it comes to marketing anything inside of there and how the internet kind of works, no matter if you’re talking podcast, if you’re talking blogs, if you’re talking about, you know, video marketing, so anything on YouTube or anything like that, you have that whole entire piece that… what I love about it, and I’ve talked about this on a couple podcasts recently, but what I love about it most is…
11:00 | The Power of Long-Form Content in the Digital World
Rob (11:01): You can record it today, have zero listens, and… or maybe have five or six, just really low numbers, and then one day it just takes off. And you help all those people that are inside of there because you never know when it’s going to go. And I think that’s a big part of everything inside of this world.
And I love it because even if it doesn’t re… resonate today, it might resonate tomorrow. You never know when someone’s going to search for that information to help them out. And a lot of… because I help people go on shows as well, and a lot of times people would say, “Oh, it’s a new show. I don’t want to go on.” They want to go on the established one. And I’m like, “No, this is a great time,” because usually people come in and they’ll go back to the first few episodes if they like it. And they… because you probably see it. Like I mean, a lot of my podcasts I have six. A lot of them, like the first 10 are massive. They just keep going up.
And it’s people go back and listen. So if you’re in the top 10 shows, you have a massive chance that people will be constantly listening. If you’ve got some service and you… you’ll be like, “Where were all these leads coming from?” So if you’re not asking… but they could come from a show that you were an early guest on.
12:00 | Helping Others Get on Podcasts — Even as Newbies
Dean (12:03): Yeah. So… so, I know Rob was talking about marketing, and we use… uh, this format, excuse me, which is the audio where we, you know, and the… and the visual kind of thing. And we use it for content to help us create information out there to talk about, you know, to help us get our message out. Is that how you kind of approach it as well? Do you… are you just strictly audio, or do you do the… the… the video as well?
Roy (12:29): I do both. And I’m on Bitshoot and Rumble. I know there’s Odyssey in different ones. But with, say, the Awakening, that’s one where I’m exposing fraud and corruption. I got removed from YouTube. And what I did is I took a screenshot and used it to have on Bitshoot. And now that one has over 400,000 views just that on Bitshoot alone. And, you know, you just kind of…
13:12 | Multi-Channel Strategy: Audio, Video & Visibility
Roy (13:12): If you’re on one only, they have control, whereas the audio… and you never know. ‘Cuz sometimes, like, I’ve got one, say, on YouTube, it could get 20,000, and the audio mightn’t do that well. And other times it can be the other way around, you know. You just don’t know. It’s like you don’t know what way it’s going to do.
So the best thing is to put it out there and just make sure that you’ve got the link so people can find you. And like on the website as well that I use, you know, it’s got all the different options, whether it’s Spotify, Apple, or the video. At least people then, when they find it, they go in, and then they can look in the… or listen whatever way they prefer.
Rob (13:28): Well, I think that’s a… I think it’s a huge piece. And I think it… when I was going through and I was reviewing some of our stuff of how we’re currently doing it, I think we’re missing the boat on that because I picture it as making sure the videos inside of the blog after you do a podcast, having a blog wrote about that podcast, but then having a bar…
14:03 | Podcast SEO, Blogs & Distribution Hacks
Rob (14:03): And I’m putting this over to the team today to have this bar underneath the video that says “Listen on” and have each of the different networks, because someone might have Spotify, someone might have YouTube, somebody might be over here. You never know where they’re going to listen at. And that’s… that’s what I love about that whole piece.
But then being able to create those back links, have the author in or have our guest inside of there, and have it be a spotlight that I think is going to have a lot of SEO value to it as well when it comes to the marketing side. And it’s… that’ll benefit the guest that’s on, and it will also benefit us as a company, which is absolutely awesome.
Roy (14:22): And like what I like about what you’re doing, I mean, I said prior to recording, like, I… I haven’t seen this kind of setup before. I think it’s fantastic because one, you give the option when you’re logging in, you know, the name and whether you have… you know, I mean, that’s something I just used anyway. I always do the myname.com because it’s kind of… no matter where you are, it kind of makes it easy for people.
But it’s… it’s really nice you’ve got the name, and then you got what you’re doing on it. And then if that’s on the different channels, it’s like people go, “That looks interesting,” as opposed to sometimes this… the square and the different people, or just the split screen, or the speaker only. It’s not… but this would grab someone’s attention. They said, “There’s something going on there. I need to find this out.” And it’s all about that. It’s all about grabbing their attention.
15:00 | Attention-Grabbing Content that Converts
Roy (15:00): And like I mean, marketing is… is really important. But at… at the start, I had a guy, he’s like Craig Maga. And he’s really kind of international with it. He’s very popular in Poland on TV and everything. So he came to my house, and we were doing it. And I set up the tripod, and I said, “Choke me.” And he’s looking at me like… and he’s going, “What?” And I said, “Nobody’s going to care if we’re standing next to each other and we take a picture. Choke me.” And that took off because people were like, “Why is he choke?” And you just have to be crazy.
And I put that in my forms. If you’ve got a crazy picture, send it to me. And sometimes people send something, they’re sitting on a unicorn and all this. And you’re going, “Oh, but I know that’s what’s going to grab your attention,” because everyone just has the picture just like that. Who cares? You know, like, you know, you might think, “Oh, I look nice in that picture.” It’s not. It’s about… like if you have something crazy, that’s what people are… “There’s something going on here.” And you just grab their attention. You always have to grab their attention.
Rob (15:51): Well, I think… I like that idea. You know, Rob and I have a picture on ours where we’re standing back to back, and we say, “We’ve got your back.” Maybe I need to be choking the living crap out of you, Rob. You know, who knows? I like that. I’ll try anything once.
Rob (16:05): Dean, I’ll try anything once. It’s like… any… anything’s edible once, right?
Dean (16:12): Right.
16:12 | Podcasting as a Sales Tool for Business Owners
Dean (16:12): But no, so… so, Roy, do you work with small businesses as well, try to get… help them get podcast started? Or are you more just an information guy where you try to get people to talk to you? With… tell us a little bit about what… how you think it helps small businesses with the podcast situation.
Roy (16:32): So it’s like I mean, in… if I say the niche, because like anyone could start a podcast. So no matter who is listening, it’s like, it’s easy. You don’t need to be tech to do it. But for me, the ideal is like, say, a coach, somebody that’s a coach that’s looking for client or a business owner.
And sometimes… say, “Well, who’d be listening to me?” And one of the niches that you can do is like, if you have a certain business and you… you kind of get high ticket clients, you can then invite them in, and you’re having a decent conversation. And they’ll say, “I’d like to work with Dean there.” And so you have a way better chance of moving this forward as opposed to… through getting through to the gatekeeper to make a phone call. And it rarely happens.
17:06 | How to Start a Podcast Without Technical Overload
Roy (17:06): So by… even it… it doesn’t matter even if you get 20 views per episode. You could actually get, you know, six figures from a client just by doing that. So a lot of people, they kind of realize, “Okay.” And same with touring, you know. You can go around… like I… I tell people sometimes, “Do a tour.”
And one, it’s like to overcome the fear because, you know, like you mentioned, you know, you’re not comfortable. You can actually get comfortable by just going on and just saying, “No, it’s okay. I’ll… I’ll just do it. You get out there, but you’re also learning from all the different podcasters, because every single podcaster’s got a different system. They’ve got their different, you know, like… like this. I mean, I haven’t seen this before. So I learned from that, and I thought, “Hey, this is really good. This is professional.” And it’s another thing to put into your belt to help other people. And it’s all about that. It’s just kind of looking, “How can I make things?”
So for… for the… someone that’s going to start, I… I encourage them, if… if they… they’re not feeling that comfortable to do it, and then they’re looking at the different kind of setups and like using Streamyard, using, you know, Zoom, using the different ones, and then realizing it.
18:11 | Recommended Tools & Software Stack
Roy (18:11): And when they do it, then they’re comfortable. Plus they’ve built up a few relationships, so they can invite a few of the people that have had them on their shows. So it’s not as nerve-wracking. And then once you do a few, then it’s grand. And you… you know, like when you… I mean, I’ve done a lot of the live ones. I remember the first few, like you’re kind of terrified. But then after that, it’s nothing to… like, I mean, the main thing is you’re prepared, you know. Once you’re prepared, it’s… it’s grand. And it… it… it’s… it’s… it’s simple. And I just teach all the different people that I work with that… that… that’s the way they should be doing it.
Rob (18:42): What I’m curious, what is your usual software stack? So what… what do you… what are you recording in? And how are you distributing out?
Roy (18:50): Well, I use Zoom. And I use Audio Technics, the earphones and the mic. And the reason being is I’m not that technical either. And I like a USB straight into the thing. I mean, some people have got the mixers and all this. Every time I deal with somebody with a mixer, unless they’re a technical person, something goes wrong. And they just go into panic mode, and you have to reschedule it.
And I tell people, “Keep it simple.” I mean, the quality is good. Like I have a spare one just in case. This is going for seven years, and it’s it… serves me. I use Adobe for enhancing the sound. So before I used to use Audible, go in and… not Audible, Audacity, sorry. Audacity. And I go in, you take out the… the pauses and all this, but that’s a lot of work. And… and know the fact that I have six, I like… I got out 10 plus per… per week. So that’s a lot of editing. And I just said, “This is…” And I prefer just having it as it is.
20:10 | Why Roy Prefers Raw, Unedited Podcasting
Roy (20:10): So kind of the journey of learning, before I used to do inserts and outserts, and I’d have the bit of music. And I was like, “No, I look at the… the… the tracking.” “Okay, people are dropping off at the start; they’re just fast forward.” And at the end, they’re dropping off. So that’s not… so then I just mention it as I’m doing it. So it’s live, and I go, “Hey, you can find me here. Scan the QR code. Boom, boom, boom.” And it’s like 20 seconds, and then I’m introducing the guest, and we’re going through it. And that helps.
So it’s like paying attention to all the different things. You just constantly evolve, because sometimes people, they’ll do something, and they just… they listen to someone else. And like, for example, a lot of people, they do the music and everything.
At one stage on my Polish podcast, I had a beatboxer. So I met him through Toastmasters. He was only 16. I was impressed because you have to be 18 to join, but he done it through his dad. And I was just like impressed with how he was doing. So I got him on as… and it… that’s actually like one of the top in the speaking podcast. I mean, I’ve had David… like, I’ve had really famous people on different podcasts, but his one… So it just shows because he was so excited, he was sharing it a lot.
Sometimes people think you get the big boy and you get massive numbers that ne… necessarily, because they’re not going to be sharing it for you. Like, they’re more interested in you sharing it so that they get more people coming in. Some people think you go… you get the big boy, and you’re going to get millions of downloads. And then your podcast becomes famous, and you then have millions from then on. And then you get a reality check. Like, so just be aware of that.
And sometimes it can be somebody that has never been on a podcast. I’ve had another one on the crypto. The guy, he sent me the script, and I was like, “What’s going on here?” He’s like, “I’m going to say this; you’re going to say that.” And… and then he came on, and I said, “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” And then he was like, “We’re doing video as well.” And he was really panicking.
But because of the Toastmasters and I was in, you know, a mentor for a lot of… I was able to get him to… it got thousands of views. And then he shared it because he realized, you know, how… how good it was and the content.
And the other thing is sometimes there’s a lot of agencies. And what happens is the agencies just do cut and paste. And I always said, “Please, you fill it out because I would be writing what’s current in my life.” Now, they’re not even thinking of that, or there could be one question kind of quirky that would be very good for a start. Mark, sometimes they might ask you something, and you just fill it in. And that could end up… it can go on a tangent. You could have a list of stuff that we’re going to discuss, and you just go on a tangent. But when it’s an agent, they just cut and paste. And I always say, “Don’t do that.”
22:00 | Lessons From Analytics: What Listeners Really Want
Roy (22:01): And it’s kind of… because what happens is if… if you were going on 20 or 100 podcasts, and everything is the exact same… you have a different host, but it’s the exact same podcast. So you don’t have much content. You can’t create charts that’s totally different. Whereas when you’re doing it differently, you get and that’s why then people are like, “Oh, this help.” So you have to kind of think outside of the box and start doing different things and take control as well.
Because what I found is that a lot of times, I mean, there’s one guy, he had over 80 books. And I could hear a fan. And I’ll stop it if I know that the quality isn’t great. I’ll stop it straight away. If the lighting is bad, because I know that’s affecting me. And I want to serve the listeners. And sometimes people are afraid to do that because it might be a high-end person who’s got massive numbers and everything. No, it’s your show. It’s just… take it as if it’s a radio show or it’s a TV show. And you’re putting it out to the public, and you’re the producer. And don’t make sure that you’re doing it… don’t wing it. Don’t just throw it out. If something happens and it’s crappy sound or whatever… like, you learn that, you know? Make sure that you take full control. And by doing that, then the listeners come back.
Rob (23:03): Yeah, I think some of the best stuff that’s ever been out there on video or audio has been live because you can’t plan for some of the things that happen. And I think I… I agree with you that the… the non-scripted stuff, I think, is… is better. You can have an idea of where you’re going to go, but you don’t have to follow it because… Rob, I’m… I’m horrible doing that. I’ll… I’ll… I make Rob do that.
23:36 | The ROI of Realness: No Scripts, Just Value
Rob (23:32): I have him go down a rabbit hole, and I’m doing it right now to him. And… but… but that’s… that’s the joy and the… the fun of doing it live and raw and unedited like we do. And I think going live and going raw and unedited is something that people are looking for, because you can polish yourself. I mean, I can put myself out there polished 100% as an AI agent at this point and a duplicate of yourself. No, that’s not real.
And I think there’s… we’ve had a lot of different guests that have been on the show that have been kind of taken back by the raw and unedited piece, because they’re like, “Really, we’re just gonna have a conversation? We’re not going to have an outline?” No, just have a conversation. And I think it means a lot.
And I think there’s a lot of editors out there that want to put that music behind you. They want to make everything really polished and take out the ums and the a’s. Well, that’s what makes you real inside of there. So I… I’m a big believer in keeping it the real true facts because the brain does a better job at understanding those facts than all the BS and the marketing that it’s constantly having to work through.
Because in today’s world, there’s so much that’s happening that you’re being marketed to that your brain is constantly on defense. So the minute you have it to where this is real, it takes some of that part down in my opinion.
Roy (24:50): And I’m into ones that I look at, like I… Joe Rogan. Know not all of his kind of the comedy ones… not really, I… I’ve never laughed at it. So I don’t… or the MMA, not really into that that much.
25:02 | How Podcast Guests Can Make or Break an Episode
Roy (25:02): But he’s had something like Graeme Hancock, different people. But if he just goes straight into it, and he’s just talking. And then like Patrick Beth David, you know, the show, just the way they do it, goes out as it is. And I think you look… look at the top ones and just, what are they doing? And, you know, the bells and whistles and the music and all that…
Like the Polish one, so that I forgot to finish. I’m not actually… so the guy had the beatbox, and I got him to do a beatbox intro. And it was like… it sounded good, and it was great. Nobody said anything. And after a while, a few years, I kind of thought, “Yeah, I think I’ll take this out.” About 20 people wrote to me thanking me because they said it was wrecking their head, but they never told me beforehand.
You can make assumptions with the thing. And another mistake that I made was with the speaking. At one stage, I kind of said, “I’ll take Christmas off. I’ll take a bit of time.” And it ended up being two months. But I never told my listeners. And I came back thinking they’re all waiting for me in the room, that I’ll just put out the next episode. And no, it dropped off, and I had to build it up again.
26:47 | Let Your Audience Know When You Take Breaks
Roy (26:47): So it’s like, you can take seasons, but let the listeners know you’re… what you’re doing, because then they’ll expect you to come back, and they’re waiting for you to come back. But if you say nothing, they think you’ve just thrown in the towel.
Dean (27:01): They do. And… and they forget about you. I… there was a recent podcast I was talking to someone about this. I think of that, or I was thinking about it the other day. I mean, my mother-in-law was an oncology nurse for years. And she thought that, you know, when she was going to go to retire, since she did all these trainings and did all this stuff, she thought that, “Okay, when I retire, they’re going to miss me,” like, “This all has to be done. All this has to be completed before I leave,” and all this different stuff that just was eating her alive.
And she… in her mind, I’m pretty sure she thought that they were going to need to call her to be able to go over some stuff because she was that important. But she learned really quickly is all of a sudden it got new training materials, all of a sudden that all of it kind of just flipped overnight and naturally just continued down the road.
And people do the same thing within… with podcasts or anybody they’re following. If they don’t put out any content, they’re going to forget about it. Hell, we do it with seasons on TV shows, and then it comes back, and you’re like, “Oh, look, it’s back. I’ll watch it now.” But if you didn’t touch them and didn’t have that touch point inside of there, you’re not going to trigger the spot for them to come back and rewatch you. And that’s why email lists are so important for a lot of podcasters, in my opinion.
28:00 | Don’t Confuse a Job Title with Personal Relevance
Roy (28:00): And like what… what you said there about your mother-in-law, sometimes people, they’re working for a corporation, and they’re important. They could have a high-end position. And then they decide to go out on their own, and they think everyone is going to serve them because they were important. And they get a reality check. People don’t take their phone calls because they are only talking to you because they want to get the business that you’re working in. And I’ve come across so many different people that… that was such a shock to their system to realize that you’re… you’re… that title is only… it’s not about you. It’s the title that you’ve got that they want to connect with.
Rob (28:05): Right. I mean, that’s a… that’s a huge… that’s a huge piece for a lot of business. You know, it’s kind of like people that go… I… I ran into a guy the other day that, and I’ve talked about this a few times now, but he was talking about… he started a business, and he started business because he didn’t want to work so hard. Well, I… I’ve never started a business and not to work my ass off.
It’s not… it’s not going to be the… I mean, yeah, there’s some business owners that get to go on vacation, could go do all this different stuff and not worry about it. But they had to work their ass off at some point, unless it was all given to them. And podcasts are kind of the same way. If you’re starting a podcast, it takes a little bit of work to get it going. And it’s not a just a overnight boom, you’re ready to rock and roll kind of piece. You have to get your software stack right. You have to make sure all that’s there to make sure that it goes through.
29:18 | What It Really Takes to Launch a Podcast
Rob (29:18): So when we were kind of talking about this setup, our setup is we run Streamyard, by the way. Then we run Opus. And then we run one other AI tool. I can’t remember what it’s called off the top of my head. I’d have to look it up. And… and do something like that. And then we run… Descript. And then we put everything out by RSS.
But I mean, we cut shorts off of all of our longs. We cut… we get a blog post off of everything. But everything kind of stacks. So inside of our world, we talk about that as being part of the tree. So at the very bottom, you have all your listings and all your organization. And that’s just your whole piece there, your website, which is your trunk. And then you have your branches.
Well, podcast is a major piece on that branch. And it could be br… and it connects and it touches every little piece of everything you do because you can bring it into your marketing. And that’s what I love probably most about podcast. And I kind of went a couple different directions there. Sorry. I’m gonna blame the allergy med, but it probably isn’t that. It’s probably just my…
Dean (29:49): You’re… you’re the new rabbit hole guy today, by that one there, Rob.
Rob (30:00): So, how about that? I’d rather blame whiskey than I would allergy med, but that’s… that’s not…
Dean (30:07): There you go. So… so, Roy, you said you got potential customers or existing clients to come on podcasts. What’s the secret of getting people there? I mean, if I mean, because… people don’t like… people like to talk about themselves like if you’re one-on-one, like we’re in a room together. You love to tell me about your business and everything about it. But you try to get people to say, “Let’s go on a podcast. Let’s talk about it.” And they all… they… they don’t want to do it. And what’s your…
30:30 | How to Invite Guests and Get Them Comfortable
Dean (30:31): Secret to… to trying to convince people to… to come on and get comfortable and talk about their… their situation?
Roy (30:39): It’s a… kind of one that I’m putting them in the right ones. So you’re finding the niche. Like I’ve had medical people, and they’re getting into where they would find customers. ‘Cuz sometimes people are just going on the different one. But two, just making them relaxed.
It’s like all I say is like… like this. There could be a million people listening to this, or there could be three. It doesn’t matter. But we’re just having a conversation. And it’s like, don’t… don’t think about the people out there, because you just think about the two people. We’re chatting. I’m talking to Dean, and I’m talking to Robert. And that’s what it’s about, just having the convers… and don’t even be worried about… because if you start thinking about, “Oh, who’s listening and what they say” and all this, don’t just…
31:14 | Growing Podcast Engagement with Strategy
Roy (31:14): And once you get them relaxed, that’s the most important thing. And then I kind of strategize about who… who’s the best one. It’s a… kind of minefield out there because with all the numbers and the stats and everything. And I… I heard a previous… I… I forget the… the Jake, uh, Jake…
Dean (31:31): Jake, previous episode, so he was even saying tracking as well with…
Rob (31:38): It’s another podcast guy that was on.
Roy (31:38): Yeah, because like, I… I see even in PodMatch and loads of different things. I look… sometimes it’s way down to what I’m actually getting. Before, it was way up. I was like, “Where are they getting these figures?” I mean, nobody like Apple and Spotify, they’re competitors. So the reality is you need every single person to give the information to get an accurate.
So I even sometimes I go, and I look at different ones. Like I’ve got PodBean with the Polish one. And then I can see my stats for followers on all my other podcasts. But I don’t log that. I just go to the big ones. So there… there’s hundreds of platforms out there, you know, like the Amazon. You never… like, so I’m a podcaster for seven years. I can’t even do it. I mean, eventually, there’ll probably be an AI that can go out and track everything.
But a lot of times they’re saying, “Oh, we can’t check websites. We can’t do this. We can’t do that.” So it’s like, just track the big ones. And I… I do it not for an ego basis. It’s just that I… I… I have an Excel sheet the way I do it. And I just try to grow it by… like, I have a color system. Yellow is half a percent, green is 1%. And I go purple for 2%. And I just try to grow followers, numbers, and everything.
And then as I’m looking, I go, “Something’s up. Why is this off?” And you go, “I didn’t put it on Bitshoot.” I didn’t… and you know, “Putting it on Facebook” and everything. Do I enjoy that? No. Does anyone? No. But it… it’s unfortunately, we have to do it. So you can outsource. You can get somebody that’s doing it for you, creating the shorts and everything. But to get the message out and just track everything.
33:06 | Sharing Content in the Right Communities
Roy (33:06): Then you know, and like, don’t let the numbers get you… like, I remember after 3 weeks, I was trying to get to 100 downloads. And I was going to everybody in the talk, “Did you listen yet? Did you listen?” And it was like such a big thing. And then later it was like a thousand.
And I remember when I hit a million with a few of them combined, it was kind of like, it didn’t really matter. No, it’s like… like the Polish one has got millions. It’s like the… the YouTube is like one and a half million, and the audio is 1.2 or 1.3, like massive number. But it doesn’t matter. It’s just making sure that the content is good. And… and I’m not tracking it to go, “Oh, I’ve got X amount of millions.” It’s just to make sure that I’m keeping my systems going and making sure I’m doing all the different things, putting out the TikTok.
Like I put my shorts on the TikTok because… and then I give the link. And I put… like on my shorts, I put my website. I put my… my name.com because a lot of times people bought the shorts and people, they… they assume someone’s going to like it, and they’re going to go out of their way to find you. No, you have to make it easy. And anywhere… maybe the first comment, where the episode is.
34:00 | Repurposing Content to Maximize SEO Value
Dean (34:00): Roy, have you seen how we do our shorts?
Roy (34:11): I haven’t seen your shorts. No, I… I was looking the… the videos is what I was looking at, your stuff.
Dean (34:17): So at the very top, it says, that, you know, “Check comments or description for full episode,” when it’s a podcast one. And it has our website address also inside of there. But it also directs them to do that because when you’re going through your phone, you watch it, you go, “Okay, do… do I want to take action on that? Yeah, I might do it.”
So then you’re like, “Oh, squirrel.” And next thing you know, you’re on that next video, and you totally forgot about what happened just back there. So you have to be able to figure out how to be able to have a call to action inside of there to where they know to where to find the big… if… if they’re like, “Well, [ __ ], there wasn’t enough information inside of this actual episode, you know, of that clip,” because that’s how it goes most of the time, “I want to listen to the whole thing.” They’ll go, and they’ll listen to the whole thing.
Or if you’re trying to get them to convert to be able to be… buy a product, you want them to know where to go for it. If you don’t ask for the sale or don’t… don’t direct them to the main… main goal of what you’re marketing to, you’ll never get where you’re going. That’s kind of like barely going and just hoping for the best. That’s like the field the dreams types of stuff.
35:21 | How to Increase Conversion Through Shorts
Roy (35:21): But very few do that. I mean, that’s brilliant you’re doing it. But there’s so many people don’t do that. And they just assume people are coming back, and they’ll subscribe, and they’ll get it. And it’s like, no, they’re… as you say, the squirrel or the bunny, whatever.
Dean (35:40): But I do that too. I… I’ll be watching something. I’ll… I’ll watch a short, and I’ll go, “Oh, that sounds really interesting.” And the next one, like Rob said, comes on. And then I go, “What… what was that one I had before?” And then you can’t find it. So you… you’ve lost that opportunity when that happens. So that’s… that’s a great point, Roy.
Rob (35:58): So I was… I was… I was doing an experiment the other day, and I was going through shorts on YouTube, and I was just kind of tracking how many of them I actually watched the full amount on. I was tracking how many I wanted to go learn more about the product. And I was tracking how many people actually ask for the sale or direct you to where it needs to be inside of a comment, the description, or say it inside of the video.
And I… it was less than 0.5% of all the videos I watched that they even asked for a sale. And most of the… or asked for any kind of direction, might have been watching the full video, might have been taking some kind of action inside of there to take them to the next video. And most of them never asked for it, which is just… it blows my mind.
My wife came in when I was doing it. She goes, “What are… I thought you’re working.” I said, “I am.” She goes, “What are you on YouTube?” And I’m like, “I am. I’m looking at the human behavior, trying to figure out what makes somebody stop, what makes somebody talk, think about it, and how it works from an end user,” because sitting on this side of the camera, you don’t always see that side.
And what’s nice about YouTube shorts is it will put your own [ __ ] in there every once in a while. And it… you’re like, “Well, what would make me stay here?” So it then gets into that natural algorithm for what that ends up doing.
37:10 | The Real Impact of Asking for the Sale
Roy (37:10): I use like TubeBuddy, Vid IQ. And it’s something that I’m trying to now navigate and do better on the stuff. And I have my team that does the shorts. And so I edit every episode, so they’ll see all the show notes. So they know the time stamp of what they do it. So they just basically, when I upload it, they go and use click grab and get it. So there’s no sharing files. So I kind of compress all the time for… for doing that.
And it’s… one time they were putting up a video, and I’m looking out all the stats. And I’m like, “Jeez, I spend so much time doing hashtags, using the AI to get the title right.” It’s saying, “Oh, this is a high 90 or 92.” And thumbnail and all this. And it… like, get maybe get 20 views. And there, one them was getting like 700. I said, “What… what… what did…?” But we… we forgot to put in the hashtags and everything.
So, you know, you can go away and organize everything. And they just upload it, and it can… it can be just… you can be just lucky. And like, I’m doing a load of that now. I’m working on a different things. And I’ve got all the keyboard, everything. And sometimes it works, and other times it doesn’t. And it’s like, you know, don’t beat yourself up.
But there’s one thing that happened recently. I was showing one of my business partners on one of the businesses that we do. And I was saying the shorts, this guy has got his… channel’s just a year, and he’s got like millions of views already. But like, his shorts were like all, you know, like one and a half minutes, all the bells and explosions. And it’s like real entertainment. And he’s moving, and he’s like… and then I went into his YouTube channel. And he’s talking finance, Bitcoin and kind. And he’s like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.” And I was like, you know…
39:15 | Be Authentic — Don’t Fake Personality for Views
Roy (39:15): He’s… he’s grabbing their attention to bring them in because it’s like… but then when you go in, you’ve got somebody that’s boring and not entertaining, whereas you think you’re getting this type of character. That’s the… so I think even though you’ve got the numbers, I think you can do damage by doing that because there’s no point in faith… I mean, everyone can fake something and create this kind of thing. But the reality is, if someone is checking you out, they like that personality. And you’re better off being authentic. So when they come in, they go, “I like his style. I like the way he does things.” And I think by doing that, you’re doing the wrong thing.
Rob (39:32): Well, you can toss a lot of that stuff, bro, like in this… like you talked about for the… what our layout is around us. So there’s the three of us. You have called to actions inside of the screen. They know what that is. You don’t have to have stuff flashing on the screen to be able to hold engagement. If you’re having a good conversation, is everybody going to watch it from beginning to end? Hell no. It’s not going to happen.
But the people that are going to get value from… are going to do it. Now, in the finance world, if you want to be able to pull someone in, it wasn’t Wolf on Wall Street that did it. It was… where they… where the market was crashed. I can’t remember what it was called. But she’s in a… there’s a scene where she’s in the bathtub and talking about breaking down what finance really is. And there’s this like really hot girl inside of there.
I mean, that’s how you get someone’s attention for finance on a podcast, is you get some hot chick inside of a tub… someone that looks a lot better than, you know, I do, but, you know, hey…
Dean (40:28): Yeah, we’d have to call the… the whale extermination people to if we got the hot tub.
40:32 | Using Visual Formats to Hook Your Audience
Dean (40:32): I’ve joke… I’ve joked about doing a couple videos from the hot tub, but I just… I’ve got… I’ve got a big set on me, but I don’t have that big of a set. I’m comfortable in front of the camera, but not in that kind of way.
Roy (40:49): What I started doing, like I do a weekly show with a guy. And like, I look at all the stats and everything. And I’ve kind of done it in a way to grab their attention fast. So we have like a PowerPoint kind of thing showing, you know, we broke… break it into five different things: news, AI, good news, caravan. So positive things, health, and then any additional topics.
And I… I have my maybe 20 slides. So I’m saying, “This week, we’re going to talk about bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.” And it’s grab… and I’m seeing… ‘cuz I look at the analytics, like sometimes it’s staying at 100% because I’m grabbing them at the start.
And on the opposite end, there was one guy that I had on my show. And he… he was… it was kind of like a hot topic at one stage, was bugs, people eating the bugs, and bars, and bugs, and everything. I said, “Oh, this will be an interesting one. I just kind of find out about it.” And the guy, when he came on, he kind of… I was like, “Did he crawl out of bed, or is he about to crawl into bed?” Because he just didn’t bring any energy and everything. And I was like… and I… I… I kind of felt I didn’t enjoy it.
And I just put it out anyway. And it went down to 8%. And I was like, “Shame on me for just kind of compromising myself.” And I was like, after that, I was like, “No, don’t ever compromise.”
42:04 | Roy’s Content Creation Flow & Mistakes to Avoid
Roy (42:04): Like if you know it’s not… like, you know, you feel it, don’t… don’t spit it out there because it’s going to hurt you. And by actually looking at your analytics as well.
I mean, I… I… because of all the court cases I’ve had and everything, I learned a lot about sovereignty, common law, and things like that. So I started reading like 20 books on it. Then I got people on… on it. And I thought people are really interested in that topic. So then I do a weekly… a monthly one on that at least. And I get different guests coming in because I’m serving them. I’m looking at the numbers. I go, “Oh, these ones do really well.”
Whereas if you’re not tracking it, you don’t know. I mean, it’s different, obviously. Some shows have a different theme and stuff like that. But if you’ve got something that’s kind of exposing, and you go, “People really like this side of things.” Get more… start listening… see… see what’s working, and then feed that. Don’t be just because you like a certain side of things, right? And that way then, because you’ve got the right listeners, then they can become customers as well.
Rob (42:47): Well, I think that’s… I think that’s a huge aspect. And I think that I mean, we’ve talked about having another podcast that’s going to be coming out for us that will be more for having business owners come on and talk about their business, which that’ll be kind of a cool whole entire piece as well.
But when we do that, I was like, “Well, we might… I think that one we’re going to do as its own YouTube channel. We’re not going to put part of Simply Be Found.” But we will still have Simply Be Found in on it. But I mean, you have to be able to look and be able to section out because certain ones, you can do lots of different shows on and have it there.
I know people thought we were crazy when we first came out, saying we were going to do five a week, which I mean, I… I… we have enough content that we could keep going on that for a while. Granted, we’re as far as guest being scheduled… just because I mean, this one will go out on Monday.
But one thing I… I’ve also considered inside of the podcast world, and where I was going to go with that is inside of Streamyard, you can have an episode go live, but it not be live. I’ve almost thought about moving our podcast launch time and have everything go out as a live podcast, and it’s a live episode even though it’s not recorded as live. What do you think on that?
44:00 | Should You Pre-Record and Stream as “Live”?
Roy (44:00): I’ve done that, and it actually works because one, it… it’s grand doing a live thing. But like, technology can fail us. And you don’t want… because some… sometimes someone’s internet can go down. Someone can bait the door down. You just don’t know. You can take that out and then put it out. And it looks better.
And sometimes, like we do a lot on Streamyard as well, but one of the kind of… there could be six of us sometimes on the show. But the person that makes it… harder, it… it is, but you see one person is engaging. So she’s doing the intro, and then she just steps back. And she’s doing all the moving stuff and like comments and things like that.
But you can’t… like, I can’t have… just say if I was having one of you on, and I’m talking away. If I’m checking the comments, I’m not present. And I… you could say goal to me, and it could just go straight over my head. Whereas if you put it out as live, the two of you could be present and start engaging with people. And I think that serves the people better because and one, you’re able to listen as well because you… you know yourself, like you know, you have a conversation.
But then when you’re listening yourself, it’s different because you’re not totally present in the conversation. You’re actually sitting as if you’re one of the listeners. And you enjoy… I mean, I love, you know, editing because I’m listening again. And I think by putting it out as post-live or whatever way you call it, I think it has massive advantage.
Rob (45:17): I think it does. I think it has a huge advantage to it, which I mean, it still works for the SEO side. You still have an access to YouTube, you can go live. I mean, no, we… I know… think we can do it through RSS as well, actually. I know we can. So we can even have it go out live to a lot of the podcast networks, which is kind of cool because people might be more apt to be able to do it.
One of the things I know for Simply We Found Huddle that we’ve talked about that we wish that it would be more like a radio show. And that’s always been kind of our goal, is to have it kind of just feel like that and be that natural conversation. I don’t know if we… I don’t know, Dean, do you think we’ve accomplished that?
45:47 | Co-Hosting Dynamics & Building a Real Podcast
Dean (45:47): I think we’re… we’re getting better. I mean, compared to our first podcast, this is so much better already. Yeah, just my com… just my comfort level and… and our engagement with our guests is so much better than it was at the beginning because we didn’t really know what we were going to expect on that whole thing.
And it’s been very lovely for us to have some people… we’ve had some people a little bit out there, a little bit that I relate to and Rob does it, and then vice versa. So that’s why the two… the two post kind of thing works really well because then if… if for some reason, like Roy, if you were just interviewing me and I wasn’t clicking, you kind of go, “Well, what do we, you know?” So… so Rob will jump in and interject, or I’ll interject. And… and it keeps the… the flow going a little better.
So I think it feels more radioish, if you will, American radioish. I’m not sure what the radio programs are like… morning shows in… in Europe are like, but they’re very entertaining because people are commuting to work in our country. They listen to radio in their cars. So I think… I think you have that on your side of the pond, don’t you?
Roy (47:00): I mean, I kind of listen to podcasts. So I… I find that when you’re listening on the radio, what happens is that it used to be on the hour, every hour, you’re listening to five minutes of depression. You know, they give you the news. There’s never anything positive. So you got to reach into turn off.
47:17 | Final Reflections & How to Find Roy Coughlan
Roy (47:17): I find podcasts are more… you know, I find something that… that I enjoy. And… and just going back to what you were saying, Dean, there, like you’ve got a very good dynamic because sometimes what happens is when there’s co-hosts, there’s people jumping in. I… you just do it very well. Like you kind of know when… when one is coming in and the other, and you just kind of… But that doesn’t always happen. Maybe it wasn’t like that at the start because I… I didn’t… the early one. But that’s something that you can iron out as well. And just kind of, you know, your styles and who… who’s going to be talking and who has the specialty for a certain thing. And that… not everyone can do that. But that… that… that’s actually working very well for you.
Dean (47:51): Well, every once in a while, Rob and I get step on each other because we both want… we both… something triggers. But it… overall, but we… we at first, we stepped on each other a lot more and kept going. But now we… we recognize that we’re doing it, and we stopped. So… so thank you for that comment because that… that makes me feel good that… that we’re queuing off each other well and making it work for everybody.
Rob (48:10): I… I just hate when Dean starts talking, and then I have a really good thing I want to say, and then I forget what the hell I was going to say, like I just did just now.
Dean (48:17): You got a comment. I just know…
Rob (48:23): No, I was thinking, “I’m going to cough,” is what I was thinking at that moment because it’s damn stupid allergy [ __ ], which if… if I get those flowering trees to go away in the front, they might be chopped down by the end of the year. I think that’s what’s causing it. But that’s a whole another topic.
But Roy, getting back to you and kind of what you do, how could people find you? And what… what… what’s kind of… what you do inside of there, just so they can come in and connect with you?
Roy (48:50): So my brain just had a big brain fart. And then I go… I thought… so like everything is my name, RoyCoughlan.com. They find everything and all my six podcasts. So I help people they want to start a podcast. I help existing podcasters that just kind of up their game and try to get… I mean, I’ve had all my six have been in the top 5% before, getting to the top half percent. And I get people on the show as well. I’ve got one guy on 250 podcasts. And just making sure that they’re relevant.
I also have a business called VA.World, virtual assistants. And we help kind of podcasters as well. But everything… so it’s like we do packages from 99 bucks, creating the shorts, but putting them on the different social media.
And just a little tip for yourself and for the listeners as well, like with, say, the Learn Polish. When you’re on, say, Facebook, sometimes people go, “Ah, doesn’t really work with the Polish.” I’m in something like 48-50 groups. I’m in foreigners in Poland, foreigners in Warsaw, foreigners… Polish in Ireland, Polish in the UK, Polish in Chicago, because they’re big, the Polish in New York. And then I’m sharing to them groups.
So what you do is you find out who, like business owners for what you’re providing, go into business owner groups, and just comment or post your show there. And that… where sometimes the people, they just blast it out, hoping for the best. And say Facebook doesn’t work. It works if you put it in the right place. And most of the social media is like that. You… you have to make sure you work it. And if you don’t work it, you’re not doing it, and you’re not making the most out of it.
I mean, you could do… you could take all your content from it. When you do a video, when you do a podcast, you have so much content that can come from it. You can have your social media, your blogs. But you have to be able to get it in front of people. Because if you’re not driving that traffic, that’s going to be a really, really bad part for you. So I agree there.
Rob (50:40): But thank you so much, Roy, for joining us today. I really enjoyed it.
Roy (50:44): Thank you very much, both. Totally enjoyed it. Appreciate it.
Dean (50:46): Awesome. Thank you so much.
Rob (50:46): All right.
