the benefits of podcasting

Andrew is the Aussie bloke living in the U.S., Heather is the American gal living in Australia; together they travel the world sharing strategies on how to put your business on Autopilot. Doing business online is no longer about having a website. To get more clients and take care of the ones you have, you’ll need a map. They’ve got it. So sit back and relax, and welcome aboard. This flight is bound to AutoPilot Your Business.

Andrew McCauley: In today’s podcast we are talking about the benefits of podcasting.

MC: Have you picked up our online survival guide yet? Get prepped for the future of online marketing by going to www.aybguide.com.

Andrew McCauley: Hey everybody, this is Andrew McCauley. Welcome to podcast number 56. 56 podcasts and we are talking about podcasting. Are you podcasting? Are you doing anything with podcasts? Are you even thinking about podcasts?

Today, joined all the way from sunny Sydney, Heather Porter. Hey, H!

Heather Porter: Hello Andrew! Hello everybody! I wish I could say it was sunny, but it’s hot.

Andrew McCauley: Hot and cloudy Sydney.

Heather Porter: Ah, Sydney, humid. Anyway, but no, I love that this is the episode we’re doing because there’s quite a buzz around it. I’m seeing it in all the people’s blogs and websites – why podcasting is so amazing – and we’re going to take a little bit of a different spin on it and actually share with you guys the benefits that we have gotten from our podcast because we think it’s going to not only surprise you but also probably really get you excited about the potential of having your own show. So…

Hey, Andrew, I have a question for you.

Andrew McCauley: Oh, let me guess. Do I like podcasting? Heather Porter: Uh, yep… No. What did you learn?

Andrew McCauley: What did I learn this week? You know, I was playing around on Facebook actually the other day and something is about to come out which I’m really happy about, and that is the fact that, if you have a page – a business page or a fan page, same thing – and you have a number of people that are admins to that page. Like, we manage pages for other people so we’re an admin for their page. They have their own staff who run those pages as well and, you know, sometimes there’ll be something posted and no one knows who posted it. “Who’s responsible? Who’s responsible?”

So, Facebook are rolling out the fact that you’ll be able to see which admin posted which post. So, if anyone posts something dodgy, or something that wasn’t supposed to happen, or if somebody posted a really good post and you want to reward them,

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then you will be able to find out exactly who that person is. So, rolling that out across the board for Facebook pretty soon. So, that’s what I learned this week and I’m excited about it because, as I said, we often have many people involved with a page and sometimes we have a marketing plan and a strategy around what we’re trying to post, and somebody decides to come out of nowhere and post something, we’re like, “Whoa! What happened there?” So, now we can find out who it was. So, that’s what I learned this week.

Heather Porter: From a training perspective, how cool is that? Because, like, as you grow quickly as a business and you’re having different people helping with your marketing, it helps you just tighten up if you know that you’ve trained your team well as well.

Andrew McCauley: Exactly, exactly. Now, what about you, Heather Porter? What did you learn this week?

Heather Porter: Well, we have just done our second episode of Make It Simple TV.

Andrew McCauley: We have.

Heather Porter: And we did that yesterday which is really cool. This is our new Google Hangouts where we’re having a chat with our inner circle of contacts all over the world and we did a great little interview with a guy named Dave Diggle who works with elite athletes with their mindset and performance, and he brought something which is really cool which is a bit of a theme for our week – I guess, our week as well as we’re growing our business – and he said that it’s so incredibly important to have a fresh set of eyes on what you’re doing in your business because you get so trapped into your own sort of systems and day-to-day on the rat race and, you know, the hamster wheel and I have to put out fires. “I want to be proactive but I can’t! I have to put out fires!” and you’re sitting there, you almost get into a habit of how you’re operating your business. And what I love that he said is that, you know, get somebody who’s an expert, get somebody that can sit there and look neutrally at what’s going on and give you suggestions.

Just like an athlete. Well-known athletes and athletes on the rise get a coach because they can’t see their own blind spot. A business owner should have somebody as well.

So, Andrew, we’re really excited because we’ve been looking at sort of a new head of operations for our business and that’s the idea is that we get somebody that comes in that can see the broken bits, and also the good bits, and help us go to the next level.

Andrew McCauley: Yes, very good. So, it’s good to, you know, refocus. Both you and I have got some fresh energy around that sort of thing, too.

Heather Porter: Yeah.

Andrew McCauley: Because it’s like, “Wow! Now we’ve got someone who can take that ball and run with it, and get to where we want to get to, and help us get there quicker than we would just doing it by ourselves.”





Heather Porter: I think the thing is you just can never be too precious about yourself and your own business. You’ve really got to say, “It’s a business! That’s all it is. It’s not me as a human being but, from a business perspective, just tear me apart. You know, tell me where my weaknesses are,” and you need to be willing to do that as well so you’re really listening to feedback, too.

Andrew McCauley: Yeah, you’re willing to accept the feedback, too.

Heather Porter: Yeah, absolutely.

Andrew McCauley: Cool. So, today we’re going to be talking about podcasting. Now, we’ve done 55 episodes. This is our 56th episode. Let me ask you off the bat without even warning you about this question. What have you enjoyed about doing podcasting?

Heather Porter: You know what I like? I like that it is an intimate, fun way of connecting with the very person right now that is listening at the end of the line. With writing, you can’t get that connection and I think video is cool too but video’s more you’re just watching it on your computer. I think podcasting is a really intimate thing. It’s where people are cooking dinner and listening to you, or they’re in the commute or whatever it is. I feel like, with podcasting, you and I have been able to really reach out to people in a way we’ve never been able to before.

Andrew McCauley: Yes. You know, that’s another thing too. I like that people are doing all sorts of things. There’s probably somebody sitting on a train right now.

Heather Porter: Yeah, exactly. Andrew McCauley: Yes, you, sitting on the train. Yes, I’m talking to you. I want you to look at that person just in front of you and give them a smile.

Heather Porter: Maybe it’s the person with the Siri-enabled car that said, “Siri, put on Autopilot Your Business Podcast.” Andrew McCauley: Yes, or someone’s on a plane going from one place to another and they are listening to us on a plane.

Heather Porter: I know!

Andrew McCauley: Hey, hit that Call button and order yourself a drink right now. Go and do it. Do it. But you’re right; we get feedback all other from people saying, “Oh, I listen to it in the car when I travel,” “I listen to it on a Sunday morning when I’m sitting on the couch,” sort of thing. It’s fascinating to find people’s listening habits at these sort of things too so I think that’s been one of the great things – just getting feedback from all over the place about people listening to us and saying, “Oh, yeah, we heard your podcast. We love it!” and that sort of thing. So, that’s really, really good that we’re giving information that people are enjoying.

Heather Porter: It is, and you know what else I’ve enjoyed as well? The fact that we’ve actually gotten work from doing this show. We’ve had people actually seek us





out and pursue us. They’ve used this show as almost like a test to see if you and I really know what we’re talking about.

Andrew McCauley: Yeah, really.

Heather Porter: And then have pursued us for work.

Andrew McCauley: Now, you and I have both done some other podcasts as well.


Andrew McCauley: Involved with some other people’s podcasts and some of them have had a little bit of a different format and that sort of thing. So, the great thing about podcasts is that you can create your own format. You don’t have to have a specific format. You know, if you’re thinking about doing a podcast, you can do it by yourself – you can just sit there and have a chat with yourself. You can do an interview style. There are some really, really known podcasts out there that do an interview – very popular podcasts that do an interview with other people and they ask the same questions over and over again. But they’re getting some fabulous results. And then, there’s things like us. We’re doing a chat here and there, we do a couple of interviews with different people to break it up a bit.

So, whatever your format is, just know that there is an audience for you generally.

Anyway, let’s dig in and talk about that. Do we want to dig in now or do you want to add something else to that piece?

Heather Porter: Yeah, I know. I guess about that piece, I mean, the key thing to think of it is a chance for you to show off what you know, and you can do that as an interviewer because it’s through your questioning and also your network. As the interviewer, you’re bringing in your network to the listeners and so you’re automatically validating yourself as an expert that way. Or, if talking, you know, you’re sharing your knowledge. So, no matter how you do it, it is a chance for you to expand your network and really show off what you know and who you know, more importantly as well.

Andrew McCauley: Definitely, and everyone loves being on a podcast. You know, it doesn’t matter how famous they are – well, it does – but a lot of people will still take the time to get out and be found on podcasts.

So, yeah, let’s dig in and talk about some of this stuff. What are some of the things you want to cover about this podcasting business?

Heather Porter: Podcasting benefits. Well, let’s see. So, let’s talk about when you film – I should say, “when you record your podcast,” – where else can you put it online? So, let’s talk about the different places we’ve listed in, how it sits on different websites, how we’re promoting it because, obviously, when you create a piece of content, a lot of people think, “Ah, I’ll just stick it in iTunes,” but the benefits of having a podcast are so much bigger. The places you can put it are so much more. So, you know, what we have, we have a website – of course, we have the





AutopilotYourBusiness.com/podcast – and all that website is, it’s a sub-site of our main AutopilotYourBusiness.com. But in there, all you see are our podcasts. That’s it. So, we have our episodes in there where you can stream, and download, and get show notes, and get resource links and, you know, opt-in and sign up for our weekly updates. There’s so much more going on there than we could ever accomplish just through iTunes or just wherever you’re actually listening to the show. So, you know, that’s one place that we have it.

Where are some of the directories, Andrew, that we’ve put it as well?

Andrew McCauley: Okay. So, just like YouTube, you know, people think that YouTube is the only video housing site out there. There’s a whole bunch of other video housing sites. iTunes is not the only audio site that’s out there either. So, there’s places like Stitcher – Stitcher Radio. There’s a thing called Spreaker. We’ll put all of these in the resources section of our website, too. There is iHeartRadio that you can actually put your podcast on if you want to do it there as well. There is SoundCloud. And now, these are all places that you can freely put these things up. There’s things called Podcast Alley and Podcast Pickle, I think it’s called. There’s another one that I’m missing which is a new one that we’ve just put on. What was that one again, H?

Heather Porter: Gosh, I wish I could remember. So many of those!

Andrew McCauley: We’ve got Stitcher, Spreaker, SoundCloud – they all start with S – iHeartRadio.

Heather Porter: We have it on Blubrry as well. We use a plug-in in our website for WordPress called Blubrry. It’s really cool because it allows you to automatically sync your blog posts as your show notes into iTunes, and it also comes with its own community so it’s not just what the plug-in is on your website but it’s a whole community of people using this plug-in which is where our podcast show is listed as well.

Andrew McCauley: PodOmatic was the one I was trying to think of.

Heather Porter: Thank you, yeah. I knew that, if I gave you a little bit of time there to think about it, you’d come up with it.

Andrew McCauley: Yeah, PodOmatic. So, they’re our places that we put them out on. Like anything though, we don’t just go and create an empty profile. We want to make sure that our profile is filled with information so that, if people are searching for us, we want to get found everywhere. We want to get found in as many places as we can.

And so, essentially, what happens with our podcast is we record it and we’ll upload it to our Blubrry or our website, our WordPress website. It’ll automatically go and suck it into iTunes and then we grab that audio file and we’ll go and add it to those various different podcasting channels for us. We’ve been getting some really, really good results. There is communities out there who live on those sites rather than iTunes because some people are against those big corporations like Apple so they want to go





and find their own little community. We’re getting some great results on these different communities out there, too.

Heather Porter: Oh, it’s amazing. Suddenly we have all these listeners coming in and liking or following our actual profiles in these different directories, and who would have thought? You know, when we first got started, we were just thinking, “We’ll test this and we’ll put it on iTunes,” and now suddenly there’s full-blown communities – almost like their own little social media sites where you can engage and talk back and forth and share files. It's cool. So, we’ve really been branching out into these different directories for podcasting.

Andrew McCauley: Yeah, definitely, definitely. Heather Porter: Now, another thing that we have done which, as you listen to this, you’ll notice that there’s like an intro – you know, “Andrew who’s the Aussie bloke, blah blah blah.” The ending bit where, you know, “Let’s take off,” and it has airplane sounds and we have little segues or little ad breaks that are in-between. Why we do that, again, is because you listening to this right now, we want you to come and hang out with us online in different areas, and the only way to do that is to give you opportunities or tell you about what else we have going on. So, what’s cool about podcasting, a big benefit is, if you use your links and you talk about where people can come and hang out with you in different areas then you are building a community away from podcasting as well. You’re actually moving your listeners into a whole other area. We now have people, Andrew, in our VIP Lounge which is we have loads of tutorials and how-to’s and what-not-to-do’s and things like that for traffic and content and social media. And we have people in there now that I believe their first introduction to us was our podcast.

Andrew McCauley: Really, yes. I think you’re right there. You know, it’s pretty awesome how a community can build around a podcast, especially when you’re giving great information to people. It’s pretty awesome. We’ve had a few shout-outs but we’ve had even some of our listeners – and I wonder if they’re listening now – have helped us redesign our logo for our iTunes store.

Heather Porter: Yeah, how cool is that?

Andrew McCauley: Totally.

Heather Porter: So, I think the thing is a benefit is the community that you build. It’s really bringing the listener into your other world, into your other space online, whether it’s social media or, you know, private communities, or just coming over and reading your blogs or watching your videos, you know? There’s such a fun, huge potential of really just creating that content that they can carry with them and then they decide how and when to engage with that content – the podcast and what else you have to offer.

Andrew McCauley: Yeah, yeah, definitely.

How hard was it to get those bumpers and stuff made for our podcast?





Heather Porter: So amazingly easy. You can go to Fiverr. You know, for $5.00 you can get voiceover artists. I know that now they’re charging a little bit more sometimes if you have your little intro or outro script a little bit longer. But still, we’re talking like, you know, $25.00, $30.00. Elance, you can find voiceover artists on Elance which is now combining to be with oDesk. You know, you can go to premium royalty free sites where you can get really pumping, cool, pop-sounding, you know, Top 40 music for $40.00 a track that you can actually then put and edit underneath the voiceover artist. So, not hard at all, not hard at all.

And now, Andrew, another thing too. A benefit of the podcast that I’ve found is just the fact that it kind of has lifted us up as experts. I mean, I know that when I have my speaking gigs, they’ll introduce me – the MC will introduce me as co-host of a podcast that’s in 70 countries because ours is just over 70 which is pretty cool.

Andrew McCauley: Awesome. Heather Porter: So, you know, when I first heard that introduction last year when I was going up on stage, she got up and she goes, “Ah, Heather Porter’s coming up! Amongst all these other things, she has a podcast in over 70 countries,” and I thought, “Wow! That’s kind of impressive.” So, you know, that was not necessarily our intention but hearing it talked in that way, it is a tool that you can use to build your business and yourself up as a bit of an expert in the space.

Andrew McCauley: Totally, totally, yeah. Here’s the thing. Okay, we’ve been downloaded in 70 countries because we’ve been doing this for a little while, but even at the start, I mean, to have a podcast on different channels, it’s still very impressive that you’ve been able to go and do that. You know, all we’re doing right now is we’re talking on like a phone line, we’re recording what we’re doing, and then we’re uploading it so it’s not as if it’s a very high technical challenging aspect.

Also, it doesn’t cost us anything. You know, we’re doing this for free. We’re using Skype call right now to do this podcast. It’s not costing us any money to do this, adding it up there. So, your reputation can be established relatively cheaply. Heather Porter: Absolutely.

Another thing, let’s talk about repurposing. So, we’re big believers in repurposing content and that our podcast is a really big pivotal leverage point for us to not only create new concepts that we repurpose later but to also repurpose content we already have. So, I always like to refer to the automation series that we’ve done which I know we’ve talked a little bit about before but might as well quickly revisit it. So, you know, gosh, we had a webinar, a series of webinars where we actually taught automation tools in everything from staffing to time management to marketing, sales, then we actually took that content and we did blog posts and videos, but we also did a podcast show. So, we have a series of automation podcasts that’s on our website – there’s a little banner in the right-hand side that says it’s our automation series, if you click on that, you can hear all of them. But we were able to then re-use all this research because we spend a bit of time looking for these tools and concepts and we were able to re-use them in a different way and share them to an audience.





So, if you’re thinking in terms of quality content which is what all of you should be thinking in terms of what you’re creating these days, it takes time to do quality content – you’ve got to do research and you’ve got to look into it, spend the time to create it. So, why not branch out into other spaces like podcasting where you can re-use all the hard work you’ve done for other places? Andrew McCauley: Yeah, definitely, definitely. I agree 100 per cent. I mean, it’s not that hard to go and repurpose this sort of stuff.

Heather Porter: No. Andrew McCauley: And when you sort of think about it a little bit, you can really repurpose one thing so many different ways. It becomes a game, almost. I love the repurposing aspect of all of this stuff that we’re doing.

Heather Porter: Yeah, because some people that are listening to this now are not going to be interested in our YouTube channel. You know, some are not going to be interested in reading our blog posts, and vice versa, and maybe some people are and we all know that we learn best when we actually listen a few different times, a few different ways. It just sinks into your mind better. So then you have that opportunity as well because whether we’re doing it here or in a video, we’re always going to have slight differences that come out on the spot based on what we’re talking about. So, it’s a pretty cool tool for that as well.

So, look, credibility and I guess the last thing that I’ve noticed with creating this sort of stuff is that it makes it easier to approach other experts in your space – or externally of your space, people you look up to – to ask them for that interview because once you have the website and/or the directory set up and you have your podcast, you have something legitimate and tangible where you can go and say, “Hey! I want you on my show!”

Andrew McCauley: Yep, definitely. And, as I said in the start, people love being an expert and interviewed on a show. They’re not going to know how many people you do or you don’t have, you know? So, go and get an expert in your field and industry and ask them a few questions.

By the way, people ask, “Well, how long does a podcast have to be?” I’ve seen podcasts that go for 30 seconds.

Heather Porter: Wow! Andrew McCauley: And I’ve seen podcasts that go for a couple of hours.

Heather Porter: Yeah. Andrew McCauley: So, somewhere in the middle there, you can find your nice sweet spot. You don’t have to go longer than you need to. Well, don’t go longer than you need to. Just go as long as you need to.






Andrew McCauley: You don’t need to fluff it out to a half an hour if you can deliver your message in 15 minutes.

Heather Porter: Exactly.

Andrew McCauley: So, if you look at the times on our podcast, they go anywhere from, you know, 30 minutes to I think we did an hour almost once – depending on what the topic was.

So, yeah, don’t get stuck on other people’s rules. It’s your little podcast. Do what you want with it. It can be done any way you like.

Heather Porter: So, Andrew, do you have anything else that is coming up to mind right now that are really big benefits? Something that’s really changed for you or that’s come into your path as a result of having this show?

Andrew McCauley: I think it’s opened, as you said, it’s opened so many doors to actually meeting people, too – meeting people that are important or industry experts. You know, to be able to go and say that I’ve got a podcast and this is what I do, that gives you that credibility as you’re saying and it opens the door to connecting with those people. You know, there’s people that are out there that we would never have connected with before but we’ve said, you know, “This is what we do. We’d love to maybe we’d be allowed to chat to you about some business. We’ve got a podcast. We teach this sort of information around the world. We’d love to have you on the podcast,” and then, all of a sudden, they’re like, “Yeah, we’d love to be part of it.” Whereas, previous to that, I’d be like, “Okay, I’ve got a website and a blog,” they’d be like, “Okay, yep, and…?” You know? Heather Porter: Yeah. It’s still kind of fresh and exciting. You know, it’s on that tipping point. I know it’s already tipped in America where more people are listening to podcasts than radio and satellite radio, but it’s going outside of the US now into other countries so it’s still that moment of time where you can still get in and you can still do it where websites now are the new business card and everyone has one. What else can you do to share your brand? And this is a really cool way of doing it. Andrew McCauley: Yeah, and in this day and age of people, the mobile phones now have taken over desktops so your mobile phones, your devices, your tablets are perfect for podcasts, for listening to podcasts as you’re walking around and traveling. So, people want to consume the information when they’re ready for it and podcasting is a perfect way to educate people. If they’re looking for education – and a lot of people are – they might be listening to your podcast.

Heather Porter: So, if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking, “Okay, yeah, I’m ready. You know, I’m ready,” – I hope this is what this show has done for those of you just on the edge and thinking, “Ah, gosh, sounds like a lot of work.” No, it’s not a lot of work when you get into the groove and you get the right tools and it is worth it. You know, we really love doing it. We love having you guys supporting us as our listeners. And if you’re interested, look, there’s so many resources online. You can just go and Google what’s the right microphone for podcasting.





You can go to the site we mentioned earlier, Blubrry, which is that plug-in and that podcasting community and there’s tutorials in there, you know, how to get started. They’ve just changed their plug-in so it’s so incredibly easy when you install it. It literally walks you through how to set up a podcast from inside of your Wordpress site, how to set up the feeds in iTunes, how to set up the images. Like, it has tutorial videos. They’ve done a really nice job so it holds your hand in setting up your podcast so there’s no more excuses, guys. If you want this, do it!

Andrew McCauley: Do it, do it, do it! That’s really cool. That’s really good.

So, you know, I’m happy. That’s the information I want to share today because I think that’s enough. I mean, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Heather Porter: No.

Andrew McCauley: We love doing it. We’re even thinking about kind of doing a second one in conjunction with our TV show too so keep your eye out for that as well.

Heather Porter: Exactly!

There you go! So, there you have it, and as always, we would love to hear what you think, and the best way to tell us that is by leaving us a review on iTunes or popping us in any of the multiple podcast directories we’ve shared. You can leave comments there or follow us. Or come to our website, AutopilotYourBusiness.com/podcast, and leave us a comment or get in touch by our contact form. We have a little voicemail box there as well, you can leave us a voice message and let us know. And, by the way, on the topic of interviews, if any of you thought, “I would like to be interviewed by Heather and Andrew, I have big business, I have lots to say,” then we would love to hear from you as well so come in to our website and drop us a line.

Andrew McCauley: Yes, definitely. Let us know. We love to find out from our listeners. We’d love to be interviewing our listeners. That’d be awesome.

Heather Porter: That’d be really cool.

All right. Well, I think that’s a wrap, yeah?

Andrew McCauley: That’s a wrap. Thanks guys! Look forward to seeing you on the next podcast, number 57, coming your way in the next week or so.

Heather Porter: Yes.

Andrew McCauley: Talk to you later, H. See you later. Have a good weekend!

Heather Porter: Bye guys!

MC: Make sure to grab out free business automation guide now and get access to other special bonuses. Head on over to AYB podcast dot com.





All passengers and cabin crew should now be seated with their seatbelt securely fastened. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first officer speaking. On behalf of your captains Andrew McCauley and Heather Porter, we would like to thank you for taking the journey with us to AutoPilot Your Business. You are now closer to putting your own business on autoPilot using the internet.

Of course, if you would like to rack up some frequent flyer points, visit our website www.AutoPilotYourBusiness.com or check us out on Facebook at Facebook.com/AutoPilotYourBusiness. These frequent flyer points are totally useless but the information is gold.

Until we fly again, happy travels!





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the benefits of podcasting

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