Come join me as I talk a little about why you and everyone else should start a podcast and why there should be no reservations about it.

In this snippet of LiveTime with Alec…

• You should start a podcast
• The content can be multitude of other content
• If you’ve ever done a zoom meeting then you’ve done a podcast
• There is an audience for every subject make sure you are passionate about it.

Episode Transcribe

– What’s up everybody?

 Welcome to LiveTime with Alec.

 I’m Alec, sorry for the yelling we see if I can fix this background here. The teeth turn purple. This is how you know you are messing up with stuff. What’s up everybody? Yeah, green screen. Dorking out it’s not working well screaming is gonna get better at it but we’ll play, we’ll play. Dude fun topic today, Podcasting. Whoo, I am such a proponent of people starting the podcast, I cannot tell you how important a podcast can be for all of you. And many people even the comments before we got live today, were telling me that they were scared of it, super scared of it or didn’t understand it or don’t have time for it, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So let me break down the power of podcast and why you should be doing it, but maybe not doing it the way you think. So don’t overthink this when I talk about it here. Let’s just dive into what is the purpose of a podcast, okay? Think about it for a second. What’s the purpose? Why would you put out content? Why is podcasting one of the most listened to mediums in the world today? Always, John Farrell, this guy, best one of the best radiators in the country continues to just, you know, speak the truth of what everyone feels. So why is podcasting such a great medium? Why? Do why? It’s obvious, but you should know why. It’s authentic. Yes, it can be produced and scripted and blah, blah, but it’s like real humans, guys out we’re so tired of the marketing bullshit, aren’t we? We’re so tired of it. We don’t want it anymore. So people gravitate toward podcasts because we like to listen to things we like, how many guys listen to things in the background while you’re doing work? Yes, I know, so many of you listen to it. And it’s such a great medium. Okay, so we recognize it’s authentic. It’s raw. Everyone’s listening to something. There’s an opportunity for you to dive into the space. So before we get into this question Shaun, cause everyone overthinks it. Let me break down some basic basic stuff for you guys right now. I joked about this on the in my text. But have you been on a Zoom call? Do how to hit the Record button on a Zoom call? Do you know after you’re done recording the Zoom call, not only do you have a video file, but you also have an audio file. Which means, you’re done, you just made a podcast. You sent somebody a link they clicked it. You had a conversation on record. We’re gonna get this Shaun right now. I’m telling you right now, okay? Here’s how you run a podcast. Here’s how you do a podcast right now technically, technically. You download Zoom into your computer. You invite people into that Zoom to have a conversation with you. What I recommend, according to John, is absolutely, we’ll get into what the podcast should be about. But let me show you what a good example is. You bring on somebody into the Zoom, you have a conversation, maybe you bring them on for five minutes, 10 minutes before you hit Record to kind of prep the conversation. You have a conversation with that person. At the end after you’ve hit Record, a screen pops up, guess what’s on it? An audio file and a video file. You now have a vlog video, whatever, a video podcast, a vlog, cast, whatever and you have the audio cast. Now look at this. Look at this, I’m gonna share my screen. Let’s do this. I’m gonna show you how to do it like right now. I’m totally cheating. Okay let’s make sure you can see this. Excellent. So this is I’ll trick myself. This is what I use guys. This is simple cast, okay? You can see right here my analytics in the last seven days. I’ve had 242 podcasts. Here’s my latest podcast. This is not complicated. You go to Add Episode right here, boop, boop Add Episode, Title. Drag your audio file right there where it says Audio File that you got from Zoom. Fill out the rest of the information. Put a summary. Add a picture I guess if you care, don’t worry about it and hit Save and Post. Inside here guys, right here, Show Distribution. You can pick where to distribute your podcast. So many people are like “I don’t have the right microphone.” I’m like “Shut up with your stupid excuses.” You have Zoom, you have Simplecast that cost like 300 bucks a year, you can put it, sorry to take you up I love you bro. And then you have a podcast now on Apple podcasts. Stop making excuses for the love of the Lord. Don’t, it’s just like you’re just, now you see how easy this is. It’s that easy. And by the way, go watch this again on YouTube. If you didn’t take notes fast enough, this will be, you can just do it again. And you’re set. So, the question is isn’t should you start a podcast? The answer is yes. And if you want more information on this, I just did a social media co lab for three and a half hours, I put myself in a seat and brought on experts. You see some links in there to like talk to my bot or if you’re on my Facebook business page, type in Hashtag podcast, Hashtag podcast and go watch my 30-minute interview with Phil Treadwell who’s run a podcast for two years. And just watch how it changed his whole career, how he got more control of his business. So click on the Talk to my Bob link, if you’re watching this on YouTube, or on LinkedIn, or if you’re on my business Facebook, type in Hashtag podcast and go watch this thing. And realize, oh my God you’re missing an opportunity now. Now that I’ve stripped away all the bullshit that it’s so easy to do. This is so easy to do. Let’s go and talk about what you should do it about, okay? I’m telling you you just start with Zoom and upload the audio recording to simple cast, podcast done. Now if you’re like, get up mic like my mic is down by the ground by the way, I’m so sorry. Oh my gosh, why didn’t you tell me my audio sucked? You know, you’re supposed to be my friends and you didn’t tell me that my mic is on the ground. So now I’m disappointed in you. Shame. Yes, watch later and if you’re watching this later, I hope you’re getting how easy this is. Do a Zoom call with somebody, have a conversation for 30 to 45 minutes, take the audio, uploaded to simple cast and it sends it out to all the places you’ve selected. Spotify Apple podcasts great, now you have a podcast, congratulations. Now you go to fiverr.com, fiverr.com, you go to a podcast, cover, podcast cover and you pay someone $5 to take a picture of you and make it look like a podcast cover with like a cartoon or you could be like, podcasts with Alec. I don’t care, whatever it is. And now you have a cool graphic on top of your podcast and it cost you $5 from Zoom’s and so yes, it’s that easy. Now what should it be about? Okay, for the rest of this conversation, what should it be about? Anything that you are passionate about, that there is a community of other people that is also passionate about this. I’ll show also passionate about this? Okay, let me say that again. Your podcast should be about anything that you are passionate about, where there is also a community of people that you want to influence that are passionate about the same thing. I know, I know, if you’re a loan professional and you’re like I need to make it about mortgages. No you don’t, no you don’t, you can, you for sure can. You can make it about sales which connects to tons of people who are in sales. But you don’t have to make it about mortgage. No one’s, I don’t, if you’re not on fire about mortgage topics. Like you just wake up burning light out of the eyes, by the way I have my light out of the eyes one, where is it? Hold on. Yes, if you don’t wake up like this every day to talk about mortgages. Don’t do it about mortgages. Okay, it does not, again, I’m gonna point to one of our great loan officers up in Seattle who’s doing a podcast about adult baseball leagues. Adults that played baseball in leagues. It’s called the comebacker. Yes, everyone knows he does mortgages. Yes, everyone knows he’s amazing. But do they care about adult baseball leagues? He’s bringing on refs and other people and teammates and talking about this and guess what’s happening? He’s creating human connection at scale across the country cause podcasts don’t have geography limitations. Anyone can listen anywhere in the world especially in the country. He’s making an impact. Guys, I’ve told this before, but I’ll say it again. You could do a podcast about your city. Interviewing the great business owners and politicians and small business owners that run around your community. You could bring on your favorite restaurant having talk about why they started a business and what hurdles are they overcoming and how can the community help them during COVID? You can be the digital Mayor with a podcast, by the way, you wanna know how to pro tip? I’m gonna bring the mic right here cause it’s super pro tip. Ready? Are you ready? Everyone wants to talk about themselves. I know. I know. I know. It’s incredible. So you go to somebody and you say, “Hey, would you like to talk about yourself? For 30 to 45 minutes?” They say yes to Phil. If you again, click the link and talk to my bot and go watch this 30-minute video with Phil Treadwell or type in Hashtag podcast if you’re watching this on my Facebook business page, and holy crap, he would just invite random people that were power players in his world to come on a podcast to spread knowledge. And even though they were like, “Who are you and what do you do? And what’s this podcast you’re doing?” They’re like, “Yeah, I’d love to come talk about myself for an hour. How can I do tomorrow? Like right away?” Guys, It is so easy. And then yes, after you get going, after you get excited, after you realize the power of connecting humans and the influence it gives you you can talk about getting a road caster 9,000 and this $300 shoe Mikes, you can be Joe Rogan and then you can go all in. Sure, but everyone’s frozen. They’re like, I gotta get the right gear and I gotta have a caster and I gotta have a producer and how do I get this thing? Go to Zoom, record yourself talking to somebody else, download the audio portion, upload it to simple cast and it will distribute it for you. All that’s done for like less than 400 bucks a year. Scott, this is what I’m talking about. This is 1,000% what I’m talking about. Check it out. So, my podcasts that are now live, right? I do live podcast every Thursday, there’s not this there’s because there’s a holiday but every Thursday and then I have, you know, 30 to 50 to sometimes when Anthony shake him on, 100 some plus people watching live and then guess what? I take the audio and I re-release it as a podcast. Scott, absolutely, your weekly act series with Sam is absolutely now a podcast, you always had one. You always had one. You just weren’t publishing it. I don’t know how else to say this. It is so freaking easy. And if you are excited about what you’re talking about, you can absolutely have a space in the world to create community and with community comes influence with influence comes opportunity. Start a fricking podcast and have fun with it. Like, don’t you wanna have fun in your business wanna go to your home, like doing about something you’re passionate about. It’s about entrepreneurship, great. Do about that and bring on entrepreneurs and get connected into their sphere. I joke about this but think a picture for yourself. Like if you’re gonna do it about your city, in town that you love and you live there for a long time and your favorite restaurant or bar is down the street. And you go to the owner, you go, “Look, I wanna host you on my podcast.” The owner says, “Who are you and what are you doing?” You say, “I’m starting a city-based podcast, I want you to be my first guest. And I want to share stories from successful businesses and business owners.” And let them talk to the community. I’m passionate about this. By the way, I have a database of 2,000 people I’ve done loan for in the city. I’m gonna send this to all of them. They’re all there know about how amazing your restaurant is. And I’m also going to post it on my social channels and here’s my reach. I have this many Facebook friends, this many LinkedIn connections, this many people on Instagram, and I’m gonna send all this out and share about your restaurant. That owner is gonna say, “Absofrickinlutely, do it right now, do it live, put it on there.” You send them a Zoom link, you spent 10 minutes talking about what questions you’re gonna ask. You can even send them the questions before like, why’d you start your restaurant? What’s your favorite food here? What hurdles did you overcome? Where are you going next? And then you end it with how can we help you as your community in this time of COVID? Not only can you send that out to everybody, but he is gonna send it out to his entire community. And yes, you’re sitting there as a loan professional, you don’t need to show it off. You don’t need to have a commercial brought to you by Alec Hanson from loan depot and I’m the best in loans. You could just share it freely, openly, create influence, great opportunity. He’s gonna do the same thing as the restaurant owner, you’re gonna get massive influence opportunity. And you’re gonna realize, holy crap, untapped opportunity here and you’re gonna go all in. By the way, for those of you scared about having a podcast, guess what? You don’t have to talk the whole time. You don’t even have to talk most of the time. You can introduce your guests and then ask questions and sit there and be like, so what do you think. And they’ll talk. Dramatic pause for the sad frustration of I have it’s so many of you that are watching this are not gonna do shit. No more silence. But how many of you are already doing stuff like Scott now you realize, holy crap, I have a podcast I’ve been doing the whole time. Scott, go back to your other episodes you’ve already done pull the audio. You got a library now dude. That’s so cool. That’s power. This is a no brainer. It’s a no fricking brainer. Do it about something you like. As long as there’s other people that like that thing too. If you’re so niched, you’re never gonna get there. But if you just have something like, this is low hanging fruit, guys, this is origination strategy, this is influence building. You’re gonna have a lot of fun with it. You’re gonna have a lot of fun with it, trust me. It’s gonna be something you look forward to. Not something you’re afraid of. Now the last piece of this the real opportunity, Phil dives into this, and again, if you’re watching this on my Facebook business page hit Hashtag podcast. Or if you’re on Facebook in general, my friend Facebook, my YouTube. Keegan, I’m gonna answer this for you, dude. I’m gonna answer this. If you’re on YouTube click the link that says talk to my bot, go watch the video with Phil Treadwell. Because here’s the crazy power a 30 to 45 minute to an hour podcast. Inside that podcast. It’s called pillar content. And Shaun if you hit Hashtag bypass, but you’re watching on my personal Facebook, is probably not going to work, you’re gonna have to find the link up there. But if you’re, it’s called pillar content. Pillar content is long form content that you can take and snip up into smaller pieces of content, smaller pieces of content. Holy crap. Let me give you an example of something crazy and where this can go. I said this 1,000 times, let’s say you produce a two-minute video talking about how much down payment you need to buy a house as a first time home buyer, a two-minute video. That’s a great topic lots of first time home buyers don’t know how much down payment they need two minutes, you bust it out, you put the video out. you go to rev.com, r-e-v.com. It takes $2 for every two minutes for every minute, $1 a minute, two minutes is two minutes, they’ll transcribe your two minute video, they will give you back the text, you fix it a little bit, check it out. Now all of a sudden, you’ve got an article to post on LinkedIn or Facebook. Then you can take that two-minute video, condense it down to three sentences and now you have a tweet, you can take a picture of that tweet, and now you have an Instagram post. On a two-minute video, I just created four to five if you’re created pieces of content. On a two-minute video we just created right here, four to five pieces of content that you can post across multiple mediums. Now guess what? You just filmed a 45-minute video and audio podcast, how many pieces of content can you create from that? There’s a great comment at the very beginning. And I’m getting calls he gets red phone this one, Matt I don’t even know if he’s watching but he wrote when I posted I’m gonna be talking about this is I can’t even commit to watching the podcast and I said, “hey, it’s listening but I hear you.” And I can’t pay attention that long. And I’m joking. I’m going yeah, you’re right, you’re right. Not everybody. Your podcasts not gonna be that fucking amazing. I’m sorry. I try not use the F word. It’s like too much. I’m super sorry. I get fired up on this. They’re not gonna watch it. They’re not gonna watch it. Your podcast is not gonna be that amazing. But what’s gonna happen over time is you’re gonna build community and people will be like, “yes, I resonate with this.” I see this person keeps showing up so you can continue to post pieces of your podcast. Snippets. Like I did a podcast with Rene Rodriguez this guy he’s incredible, thought leader, this guy’s amazing. I did a 45-minute podcast with him. So many nuggets dropped throughout the entire show. I had my guy writing down, like and I wrote, I walked back and like, wrote down. And then I’ve been releasing clips and snippets from Rene because he dropped all this knowledge. So do I expect someone listen to all 45 minutes? Kind of, yes, I do. Yes, I do, but I know they’re not. And so I continue to share it. And now I have more things to talk about over time, because I made a long piece of content. All of you can do this. You’re all doing right now, yes, I apologize, I am sorry, I’m sorry. I just you’re just not doing it. And it makes me mad cause I wasn’t doing it either. And now that I realized that it’s the power of this, I’m like, I’m on fire because you could be doing it too. Dude, that skip the ready for remodel show is a podcast. There’s just not being put out on the podcast channels. Here’s another, not excuse this is not gonna be excuse, but my son is gonna bust in here. This is a good question. Because, son I’m on a live show right now. I’m sorry. By the way this is gonna sound I’m gonna nerd myself out here he’s looking all sad. I’m not good at Dungeons and Dragons I don’t, I’ve never played it I don’t know what it is really except that you make up stories and then you play and I’ve been playing with my kids in a made up way and now I’m literally the dungeon master and I don’t even know what I’m doing. So if you played Dungeons and Dragons please help me cause I don’t know what I’m doing. But let’s go here. Here’s another not excuse cause I kick it I don’t think he meant it that way. But I got before like, I don’t know the gear to use and I’m like stop using gear. Just use your camera and do Zoom. And then like, oh you take away my excuse. And then you’ve got this. Where do I get graphics? Guys, don’t worry about graphics yet. I told you go to fiverr.com and on fiverr.com you can pay anybody anything to make you anything. But if you wanna make your own graphics, like should you sort of like this graphic right here that I made this graphic. It’s not good. It’s not good. But I made it cause I don’t care and we’re just doing it because you got to play the game. And I did all this with Canva. C-A-N-V-A. And if you want, I can send you a full tutorial on how to use Canva to create your own podcast. It’s not hard. It’s not hard. You’re not not that Keegan is doing this cause I love that you’re asking but you can go to Fiverr and have someone created for you. You can learn Canva in two seconds. I’m not technically capable and I learned it. Should show you what’s going on. But like everybody’s making an excuse not to start. Keegan is not making excuse is asking a great question, but I’m telling you like, I don’t have the right gear, shut up. You don’t need it. You need a mic and Zoom. How do I get graphics? Fiverr.com or Learn on Canva. Does it bring more business? Yes, yes, the question is this is the question. This is the question. If you wanna know how it transformed Phil Tredwell’s career, go type in Hashtag podcast or scroll up on Facebook or YouTube and click the link that says ‘talk to my bot.’ I’ll take you to my 30-minute conversation with Phil on how his whole life was transformed by a podcast he started. I got my guy up in Seattle doing a podcast on Adult men’s baseball league. I asked him how much of your business is coming from your podcast now? He literally said “All of it.” And it’s the community he wants to be a part of. So it’s the other baseball leaguer’s that he’s doing loans for and look, I’ve heard so many people use the question I’ve seen so many loan officers say “I just don’t wanna bend the knee anymore to my realtor community.” And I have a couple questions on that or comments on that. Number one, my dad taught me early on one of the best, best pieces of advice. I was running around talking to realtors in my early origination days and I was so frustrated because some of them were so to me, by the way, I’m a 23 year old like recent grad. So I’m like these people are all entitled. They just want me to pay them or bring them cookies. Like I’m a college graduate. I have value. And I was getting all snotty. And I know some of you right now feel me on this. And my dad sat me down he said, “Son, I got an important lesson to teach you” cause I was complaining to him. He’s like, “Look, in business, in life, you gotta serve somebody.” And I was like, And I realized that I was being an egotistical little punk and you got to serve somebody. And so our great realtor partners that are out there, you can bend the knee and learn to serve them and the other side of service as wealth and opportunity. Or you can start a podcast and serve your community in a different way. Again, if it’s about you, you will fail. If it’s about others, you will dominate. And so my question is for you, Who do you wanna serve? Pick your poison. But whether it’s our real estate community partners or you wanna serve your community in a podcast or adult men’s baseball leagues or the Adult Dungeons and Dragons community that apparently have to join, I don’t care. Just find the one that you connect with and that you’re passionate about and where there is a passionate group of people. And Tammie it will bring you unbelievable opportunity. It’s not about being a social media influencer per se. I mean, I know I talked a lot about influence, but there are social media influencers, right? That’s a thing. Like it’s gross, but like it’s a thing. I’m not talking about that type of influence. I’m not talking about cute selfie picture with an ice cream cone and like, you know, at the beach, I’m talking about you being in a place of influence as a connector of human beings. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what I’m talking about, you feel me? That’s what influence is about. My slack is exploding right now. So I got to close it cause it’s just, can you all hear the beeping at the end? Yeah, goodbye. Huh! Does this makes sense team? Like is this accessible? Do you get how, how obvious this is? This is so good, Mike. I’m buying property with a couple of avocado trees and I don’t know anything about growing avocado trees. Would you listen to a podcast about me learning how to grow avocados? No, cause I don’t care about avocado trees. Are there other people that do? Find the community of people that do. No Stacy this is the class This is the class on starting a podcast. Or you can scroll up a little bit since you’re on LinkedIn. And you can go to the talk to my bot link and you can go watch a 30-minute how to podcast with me and the podcast Master, Phil Treadwell, the guy is amazing and you can learn exactly how to do a podcast. But this is my point Mike. Like if there is a passion a community that you are also passionate about. Now you have a podcast. Now you have a podcast. You will absolutely be killing it. podcast topic right here Shaun, Guac is extra. Mike you’re welcome. You can see I’ll send you an invoice for the amazing consulting you just got. Guy’s team. This is so accessible. It’s so accessible. You do not need the crazy gear. You do not need all of the mixer boards and all the noise and all the stuff. You just need to find a topic you’re passionate about. Oh, this is it. This is it Tammy. This is the question everyone is gonna have right now. Where they are gonna freeze up and me and not that you’re doing this to me, but it’s a great place for everybody to kinda come into. Every time I talk about going live or doing a podcast. It all comes back to this every time guys, I have had podcasts where I have zero people watching live zero people. What sucks is there’s a little eyeball up here and I can see who’s watching. And then it changes. And it’ll go from like, like right now we’re at 14 people, 14 people up 13 tickets. It doesn’t matter. We’re such a like culture like I didn’t even have like setting enough engagement. Stop. Stop judging. You have to ask yourself two questions. If you’re not getting any engagement if no one’s watching, first of all, they’re gonna watch later. Like I got a comment here by a good friend of mine who I know watches a bunch of my stuff. And he goes Alec, I have a conference call with a client but will watch this on YouTube later love yah. That’s the truth there. People are busy. You’re busy. I don’t expect everyone to be like, holy crap, Alex live, I need to, I gotta stop all my stuff. And just immediately, you know, Gosh, please guys do you understand you’re not the center of the universe. I’m not the center of the universe, Understand that. And then that frees you up to just be you and share and contribute. And you’re missing out on the, they’re gonna watch it later on their time. And the second question you have to ask is, do I have it? Have I worked hard enough to build a community? Have I worked hard enough to build a community? If you have two Facebook friends then no one’s gonna watch. If you have 5,000 that you’ve worked really, really hard on in connecting and engaging and commenting and making it a two-way street. I joke about this all the time. Your podcast that is your video. If it’s about you and if you’re not engaging with other people, then they’re not gonna engage back. Period. That’s also why podcasts are so powerful because it isn’t about you the whole time. You’re interviewing somebody. You’re having a conversation in a dialogue, it’s not a monologue. And a dialogue creates more opportunity, more connection. It is so powerful. I have no doubt you will absolutely kill it. You just got to let go. You got to let go of the result. You got to have a posture of hands open. And you got to keep driving forward. Once you realize that’s the power, you realize, oh my gosh, here we go. Once you realize that, am I engaging enough with other people? Is this a two-way conversation or is it all about my content? As soon as you realize it’s a two-way conversation the power starts to flow back toward you. Guys, my encouragement for all of you today right now. Should you start a podcast? 1,000% yes. It’s so easy. You don’t need good gear. You need a mic, camera, light, basics. You need zoom. And you can pay 300 bucks a year for simple cast. And now you can push out your audio part of your Zoom to all the platforms you can go to fiverr.com. They can make you a cool graphic, for your cover page of your podcast and you’re done. Just focus on what you care about. And make sure there’s a community that cares about it too. That’s it. Love you guys. Appreciate you hanging out me today for almost 30 minutes. Again, if you want to watch the podcast with Phil Treadwell, we crush it he’s a you learn everything about podcasting. It’s so inspired. I’m telling you, type in Hashtag podcast if you’re watching this on my Facebook business page, if you’re watching on my personal page, I love you. If you’re watching on YouTube or LinkedIn. You gotta find that the the comment I put in it says talk to my bot. Click that and he will take you to my 30-minute conversation with Phil Treadwell on the power of podcast. It’s gonna blow your mind. No more excuses. I’ll see you on the podcast network. Have a great day everybody.