Episode 13
Susan Diaz and Will Lamont of The 4AM Report
In episode 13 of Podcaster Stories, I sit down with Susan Diaz and Will Lamont, business partners at c+p digital, and co-hosts of The 4AM Report.
The show combines marketing discussions, societal issues, wacky lessons from marketing mishaps, and more. Having just celebrated the one year anniversary of the show, Susan and Will dropped in to talk about the experience so far.
Topics up for discussion this week include:
- how their love of asking people questions, and going with the flow, resulted in the podcast
- how the 4am hook came from being up at 4am in the morning as agency owners, worrying about clients, work projects, etc
- whether they would have a live show at 4am in the morning
- how they use bonus content in the 4pm show, Thirsty Thursday
- how they became comfortable with controversial topics on their show
- why marketing should be fun, and how they’re using their show to promote that
- why brands need to be be consistent when talking about their values around societal issues
- how Will’s behind the scenes experience has helped the podcast overall
- why having a co-host helps drive the efficiency of their own podcast, and those they produce for others
- why they’re particularly proud of their episode that talked about a scandal the Canadian Prime Minister was involved in
- why you need to learn to be okay with being uncomfortable to bring the best show
- why you need to look beyond the vanity metrics of your show to see the true impact
- why getting over their imposter syndrome has helped get high visibility guests
- why podcasting is the perfect medium to keep your networking opportunities live during the pandemic
- how your podcast can drive multiple arms of your content strategy
- how Will found himself travelling with Canadian cheese across country
Connect with Susan and Will:
Contact me: danny@podcasterstories.com
My equipment:
- Samson Q2U Mic
- Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen Audio Interface
- TRITON AUDIO Fethead In-Line Microphone Preamp
- Denon DJ HP-1100 Over Ear Headphones
- RockJam MS050 Adjustable Mic Suspension Boom
- Dragonpad Pop Filter
Recommended resources:
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Transcript
As a podcast or on the podcast is only the
Speaker:start of it. It's like how you take that information
Speaker:and make it available to, to other other people in
Speaker:other formats, like whether you're writing out of it or
Speaker:whether you are breaking it up into like smaller pieces
Speaker:of audio so people can get the key message quickly,
Speaker:or even like, you know, visuals like will said we
Speaker:took those wacky pictures. And when we invested in that
Speaker:photo shoot, I don't think we can say we were
Speaker:talking about giving an extra bit of royalty to the
Speaker:photographer because that dill pickle chips and those, and those,
Speaker:you know, like I patches is the gift that keeps
Speaker:giving is you really have to think about how you
Speaker:visually translate.
Speaker:I'm like, can we said we were a slightly self-deprecating
Speaker:or you were a slightly funny and where we don't,
Speaker:we we're slightly on afraid to go wherever you, you
Speaker:want us to go. And that comes through in other,
Speaker:other formats.
Speaker:Hi, and welcome to Podcaster Stories each week we'll have
Speaker:a conversation with podcasts across all mediums and share their
Speaker:story. What motivates them, why they started their show, how
Speaker:they grew in the show and more pause to talk
Speaker:about the personal life. And some other things have happened
Speaker:have made them the person who you are today. And
Speaker:now here's your host Danny Brown Hey guys. And welcome
Speaker:to another episode of Podcaster Stories where we meet the
Speaker:people behind the voices of the show is to listen
Speaker:to this week. I've got Susan Diaz and Will Lamont
Speaker:of The plus P digital and co-hosts of the 40
Speaker:AM Report podcast. So Susan Well or welcome to the
Speaker:show. I appreciate your being here.
Speaker:How about a handover to you guys? Tell us all
Speaker:a little bit about the podcast and you yourself know
Speaker:what you do, et cetera. Okay.
Speaker:Okay. Sure. Thank you for having us Danny I wanted
Speaker:to start with a little story of how you and
Speaker:I met years ago. Actually, I feel like it was
Speaker:in a university of Toronto guest speaking engagement that you
Speaker:wear out, and then you, some of the stuff that
Speaker:you said that stood out for me, especially to do
Speaker:with like how you don't always have to create, you
Speaker:have to interact with other people and repurpose and stuff
Speaker:that made a big difference. And I remember chatting with
Speaker:you after, so this is kind of cool,
Speaker:But that's also with that, we have been eating sport
Speaker:X course or, you know,
Speaker:And it was, it was Andrew Jenkins.
Speaker:Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I know Andrew. I used to work
Speaker:with Andrew actually at a startup tech startup.
Speaker:All right. And then as I say, everything is like
Speaker:two degrees of separation in our lives.
Speaker:Well, thank you. That's awesome.
Speaker:So yes, about us. My name is Susan Diaz and
Speaker:I'm like you said, the, the, the sort of CEO
Speaker:and founder of C plus P digital, we are like
Speaker:a small digital agency we're in Toronto. And so we
Speaker:started as content creators and along the way, we started
Speaker:to sort of spread our wings more and more. And
Speaker:podcasting is sort of the, the level of our lives.
Speaker:We discovered, we kept saying it was 10 years too
Speaker:late when we started. Mmm. But you know, it doesn't
Speaker:matter. This is it. So we really leaned into the
Speaker:fact that we like to ask people questions and then
Speaker:see what they have to say and go with the
Speaker:flow. And I think that sort of let us to,
Speaker:to coming up with the idea of podcasting a year
Speaker:ago, and then we, I think Will should tell this
Speaker:story because he tells it best is how we came
Speaker:up with like, sort of the hook of it and
Speaker:why we felt like we only had to do this.
Speaker:Yeah. So yeah, my name is Will and I am
Speaker:co-hosts of the four AM Report with Susan. We've been
Speaker:doing it for over a year. Now we had, we
Speaker:were, we were ready to do a big celebration right.
Speaker:In the middle of the pandemic. And then, you know,
Speaker:that the, the anti-racism movement who was going full-on. So
Speaker:we pared back our celebratory, you know, heralding for a
Speaker:little bit, but we were very proud that we did
Speaker:that one year Mark by doing, you know, consistently every
Speaker:Thursday at 4:00 AM. We put out a new episode
Speaker:of the four AM Report. If you are actually up
Speaker:at 4:00 AM listening than, you know, I do feel
Speaker:bad for you, but the, the, the idea of the
Speaker:four AM Report came about from you now I'd be
Speaker:chatting with Susan about how I woke up at 4:00
Speaker:AM last night, thinking about some random work thing that
Speaker:likely wasn't even that important, you know, like maybe a
Speaker:subject line for an email that I was regretting, or,
Speaker:you know, sometimes it was actually a big stress is
Speaker:that we're keeping this up.
Speaker:So we kept having these conversations about waking up and
Speaker:worrying about this and being stressed out about this. And
Speaker:then as we were starting to put together our idea
Speaker:for the podcast and try to niche it down a
Speaker:little bit, we thought, why not talk about those things
Speaker:that keep marketers? And it's evolved to kind of business
Speaker:owners, founders, those people up at night, what's keeping you
Speaker:up at night. And that, that calling card question became
Speaker:very, very appropriate, especially for our clients and colleagues during
Speaker:what we've gone through the past few months, by asking
Speaker:him, you know, what's keeping you up at night, what
Speaker:is stressing you up? Or what is stressing you out?
Speaker:And yeah, that, that's the hook that's really worked well
Speaker:for us. And we thought that were known for,
Speaker:And you mentioned a, is that came from us and
Speaker:we're at 40, I'm thinking of what they do. Know
Speaker:what I would never get that off, or I need
Speaker:to do this next week, et cetera, have you, and
Speaker:you may have done this. So I apologize if you
Speaker:have, have you ever considered doing a 40 on a
Speaker:live stream on Facebook or something like that to see
Speaker:some of your fellow, you know, we are contracted,
Speaker:We are crazy enough to actually we are those crazy
Speaker:people who have talked about it. We haven't done it
Speaker:yet, but we've, we've talked about it. We did some,
Speaker:some promo shots where we were, you know, late at
Speaker:night kind of what would we be doing in a
Speaker:more comedic way if we were actually up at 4:00
Speaker:AM. And we took a series of promotional photos where
Speaker:it was Susan and I are in a bathrobe or
Speaker:pajamas, I've got a mug of coffee, but really in
Speaker:pouring wine into it. And we had those under-eye de
Speaker:puffing patches on, or you looking stressed out in front
Speaker:of a, a laptop eating a bag of chips binge-eating
Speaker:in the middle of the night. So we've, we've, we've
Speaker:leaned in to that for our promotional material, but we
Speaker:haven't actually taken the steps to do the live Suzan.
Speaker:What are you thinking?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, honestly, when might as well, and this
Speaker:is what we have done though, Danny is like, we
Speaker:extended out a little bit to what we call. We've
Speaker:only been doing this a month or so on, and
Speaker:it's so much fun. I haven't really looked at how
Speaker:many people are listening. We do what we call the
Speaker:4:00 PM. Report after the show and it's on Thursday's
Speaker:at 4:00 PM and we drink what we do it.
Speaker:So we call it Thirsty Thursday and, you know, it's
Speaker:like, it's a little bit of the, the stories that
Speaker:are happening. We're both big fans of the pop culture
Speaker:and drawing those metaphors from it. So it gives us
Speaker:a chance to sort of be on ourselves. And I
Speaker:guess the inspiration is just, you know, the great broadcasters
Speaker:of all the time who do so well by doing
Speaker:these small snippets and behind the scenes that, that attracted
Speaker:us.
Speaker:And we are at this point, just sort of following
Speaker:where that goes.
Speaker:Okay. That's cool. And I like the idea of the
Speaker:Thirsty Thursday and that ties in perfectly to you, you
Speaker:know, I was getting towards the end or the week.
Speaker:No one wants to go in to work on Friday
Speaker:anyway. So I don't know. I think there's any, you
Speaker:know, prefix that you could give to that, like a
Speaker:three to the mic is as good as that, but
Speaker:that's cool. And how, how has that taken out? And
Speaker:you mentioned it's just ruthless, it started, but it's a
Speaker:little bit to, to the alley for analytics and stuff
Speaker:like that. But how have you found that yourselves from
Speaker:a production point of view and a content unit point
Speaker:of view and the uptake that you've had, maybe some
Speaker:feedback from people on, on these extra bonus episodes?
Speaker:I think people are into it when we first started
Speaker:it, it was intended to be an Instagram live property.
Speaker:And we would just sort of like taking it a
Speaker:little bit beyond the usual reach. And then what happened
Speaker:was all of the, you know, Facebook drama that went
Speaker:down and we asked ourselves a few questions and I
Speaker:think we we're like, you know what we've done? Facebook
Speaker:has never done a whole lot for us. And if
Speaker:you're a boy coding Facebook, you kind of need to
Speaker:remember that Instagram is a part of the package. And
Speaker:so we were like, okay, let's not invest in this
Speaker:country. So we can, we consider this and, you know,
Speaker:come to a decision a little bit later. So for
Speaker:now we are like, focus, let's focus, lets just focus
Speaker:on the property itself. It doesn't matter what the platform
Speaker:is.
Speaker:And so right now we prerecord and put it out
Speaker:at 4:00 PM on LinkedIn, but that there's a lot
Speaker:of energy when its not like I think, but what
Speaker:it is cool is that, you know, some people have
Speaker:resonated with like the Thirsty Thursday it's like come on
Speaker:and we all know what that means. And so I
Speaker:think that's working, we've got more of the one-on-one conversation
Speaker:is going from the existing network that thinks it's cool.
Speaker:I think its a little early yet to be like
Speaker:what is going to be the reach of it now?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I think two, I think two M you know, the
Speaker:four AM Report podcast, when we started at a year
Speaker:ago, it was all about kind of really doing now
Speaker:an outline, almost scripting out what we want to talk
Speaker:about. We were new to podcasting and we really didn't
Speaker:want to be talking too much off the cuff about
Speaker:news. We want it to keep things evergreen. And then
Speaker:as we've gone along and especially with the pandemic hit
Speaker:and, and everything, we started jumping in and commenting on
Speaker:the news cycle and what was going on and that
Speaker:sort of thing, and became a lot more comfortable at,
Speaker:at sharing our actual opinions about controversial subjects. And to
Speaker:me, this, this now LinkedIn for PM, after a show,
Speaker:we get to dive even further into that. We review
Speaker:what we talked about on our podcast, but then we
Speaker:talk about, you know, who's being to Thirsty on the
Speaker:internet or, you know, we talked about recently there's a
Speaker:Calgary brewery that created a line of earth, created a
Speaker:new beer called the Karen sour.
Speaker:So its a sour beer and they're calling it the
Speaker:Karen Sauer. And how do they have these posters saying,
Speaker:you know, th to promote, it can talk to your
Speaker:manager type posters. So we talked about, you know, that's
Speaker:and, and just those things that are happening that people
Speaker:are interested in. We've been talked about this free Brittany
Speaker:Spears, a movement against the BRC that she was being
Speaker:kept out of the way we kind of go everywhere.
Speaker:It's a little more gossipy and fun where our podcast,
Speaker:we do bring our personality, but we, we focus more
Speaker:on those marketing topics.
Speaker:All right. And, and you mentioned you, you want a
Speaker:three to tackle some of the bigger topics that, you
Speaker:know, like the societal topics, et cetera, do you can
Speaker:see, are you concerned at, at all? I know for
Speaker:some business owners, the, the, the step away from say
Speaker:politics or society, issues like that because they don't want
Speaker:to potentially put off partners, a new employees, a new
Speaker:clients, et cetera. Is that something you consider as what's
Speaker:your take on that?
Speaker:Oh, flagrantly ignore that kind of thing. You're like, you've
Speaker:gotta be able to really embrace. Yeah. I mean, people
Speaker:talk about values and these power points and you know,
Speaker:they sort of like forget that that's really what drives
Speaker:most of the stuff. So as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker:it's like you're in a, in a time where its
Speaker:no longer impossible to remain neutral about things or I'd
Speaker:be like, that's not my problem and move away from
Speaker:it. And we are communicators. If we stay out of
Speaker:the politics and the religion or whatever it is, you
Speaker:really, you don't stay out of the other things. How
Speaker:come we're staying out of this. Right. So for me,
Speaker:it's an easy decision. It's like going back to, like
Speaker:I said, I think some things are not cool. And
Speaker:I'm going to tell you, if you asked me, am
Speaker:I going to go join random conversations and control you
Speaker:and tell you what I think you are doing is
Speaker:wrong.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah. And, and I think to, and so what we
Speaker:were saying to clients who didn't know what they want
Speaker:to say, it was kind of like, you know, take
Speaker:a minute, think about what you do want to say
Speaker:and know that 30% of the people might not agree
Speaker:with you, but do you really want to be working
Speaker:with those 30% of the people? Right. You know, this
Speaker:is a way for you to find your likeminded people
Speaker:and you know, as Susan and I always say this
Speaker:all the time at this stage in our career, like
Speaker:if you don't like us, if you don't like what
Speaker:we have to say, if you think the fact that
Speaker:we might swear on our podcast is inappropriate, then guess
Speaker:what? We probably are going to work well together. So,
Speaker:you know, it's a, it's, it's finding those like minded
Speaker:people, you'll find your people.
Speaker:And it's an interesting point that you made earlier as
Speaker:Susan at the start they are and where you are
Speaker:talking about the values. And there is a case just
Speaker:over in our case, sort of a Facebook post went
Speaker:up. The date on Twitter is a post that I
Speaker:caught. We have an employee that posted our employee have
Speaker:whole foods and some are in the U S had
Speaker:posted in their, on this feedback for them, for his
Speaker:Citi, that whole foods who is meant to be standing
Speaker:up for the, the BLM BLM movement and trying to,
Speaker:you know, to be more of a educational, more loud
Speaker:and etc, or on the whole movement, the told an
Speaker:employee that would be a BLM face mask to go
Speaker:home and take it off and go home. So is
Speaker:it values only when it suits you and you sit
Speaker:at your organization's pocket or is it 24 seven values?
Speaker:And I think that's a key point that you, that
Speaker:you raised there about that.
Speaker:Yeah, I think so is like, you know what? People
Speaker:were like lauding Nike at the start of this, but
Speaker:coming out with like a quick things to say, ah,
Speaker:but you know, As this rolled out and became, what
Speaker:exactly are you doing towards that? Like how is this
Speaker:reflected in your daily actions? It's not about changing the
Speaker:colors of your logo to something or putting out a
Speaker:black school where a certain time of year. It really
Speaker:is about like how to dig down and be where's
Speaker:the equity in this whole thing. Right. So I think
Speaker:we've enjoyed being, becoming comfortable with those conversations. It's not
Speaker:that we didn't have the thoughts or the opinions. It
Speaker:was just easier when you practiced it for someone else.
Speaker:Like when you worked for someone And and then it
Speaker:was your job to have the company key messaging down
Speaker:pack.
Speaker:So that's a whole other thing, you know, to being
Speaker:like here, I'm a little old Susan and here's what
Speaker:I believe and to begin with I'm self-critical as heck.
Speaker:And I like to, like, you know, when I say
Speaker:to Will sometimes and like any video, any bad gas
Speaker:we have, we've got problems. We're like you, I said
Speaker:the wrong word or I, you know, I wish you
Speaker:had to said that better. I'll look at my voice.
Speaker:It was a tinny. Or I could see my wrinkles
Speaker:in the video or, you know, it's like when you're
Speaker:self critical and somehow this whole podcasting process over the
Speaker:last year, and we were like fanatically consistent about the
Speaker:way the 55 episodes. And in Europe, you know, we
Speaker:said Thursday at 4:00 AM is Thursday at 4:00 AM
Speaker:not Thursday and not flourish.
Speaker:Right. And, and, and that really made us feel like,
Speaker:well, that's enough episode. So for me to believe in
Speaker:myself,
Speaker:And you mentioned also, you have just bypass the 15
Speaker:plus episodes. Now you have 54, you just mentioned. Yeah,
Speaker:I'm celebrate the first year. So looking back at that,
Speaker:what's been the biggest challenge you think, ah, as you
Speaker:have reached that milestone either back to the early days
Speaker:or maybe pivot, and you mentioned that earlier, as well
Speaker:as the pivot from just marketing Podcaster type to more
Speaker:business owners, entrepreneurs, et cetera, what's been the biggest challenges
Speaker:that you've overcome.
Speaker:I think at first it was the, again, as I
Speaker:said earlier, like I very much was a behind the
Speaker:scenes guy throughout most of my career, like making other
Speaker:people look good, planning the events, you know, I used
Speaker:to do media tours and take spokespeople around and things
Speaker:like that. I was always the behind the scenes person.
Speaker:So putting the spotlight on me and being comfortable with
Speaker:that has been a journey, which, you know, just by
Speaker:doing it consistently, like Susan said, every, every week you
Speaker:do become more and more comfortable. You flex them and
Speaker:train that muscle. But I think at first too, it
Speaker:was a matter of how do we have time to
Speaker:take this on, you know, what kind of expenses is
Speaker:going to be? You know, how are we going to
Speaker:stand out? Are we going to make an impact? You
Speaker:know, that those are all of those things were things
Speaker:that were, I think, barriers to us starting it.
Speaker:But we were talking earlier what made us both to
Speaker:do it and do it consistently is we had each
Speaker:other. We had, we had the wing man, when I
Speaker:wasn't into it one week they were Susan encouraging us
Speaker:when Susan was not into it. It was, it was
Speaker:me saying, okay, we've got to get this done. We've
Speaker:got to get this edited and we've come up with
Speaker:so many efficiencies. We've learned so much that we now
Speaker:actually are producing podcast for other people. And it's been
Speaker:quite the uptake in, in skills and learning and this
Speaker:whole year, but its been an amazing experience.
Speaker:And what's been some of your favorite episodes over the
Speaker:54 shows and why these particular episodes,
Speaker:There's a few that come to mind and in the
Speaker:spirit of if not avoiding the politics, I think one
Speaker:of the bravest episodes that we did that stood out
Speaker:from me was at the time when the, the picture
Speaker:of Justin Trudeau in Brown phase made it circles And
Speaker:and I was like, okay, we'll ask you some questions.
Speaker:And I was like, I have answered those questions. And
Speaker:then he was like, should we talk this out on
Speaker:the podcast? And our first instinct was Nope, Nope, never.
Speaker:And then we did it and I was like, Oh,
Speaker:that was, that. That was brave. I don't know if
Speaker:we've made any sense. I don't know what I said
Speaker:at the time. It was just a lot of just
Speaker:when we did that and we were like, no, these
Speaker:were taken the top off this glass ceiling.
Speaker:We said a set for ourselves. And I felt like
Speaker:that made it possible to pretty much go anyway. We
Speaker:didn't want him to.
Speaker:Yeah, that was, that was our first, I think the
Speaker:first step we made into going away from Topics about
Speaker:know marketing and actually talking about more controversial subjects in
Speaker:the news cycle. I know I was very uncomfortable to
Speaker:have it, but that's something else that I've learned along
Speaker:this, this journey as well as being okay, to be
Speaker:uncomfortable and, and you know, that's something that we have
Speaker:to get used to, to make change happen. We've got
Speaker:to talk about the uncomfortable things. So that was our
Speaker:first foray in and yeah, I would agree with Susan.
Speaker:I was really proud of that episode. Just the fact
Speaker:that we actually did it.
Speaker:Okay. And how was he the feedback on that? What
Speaker:we see, because I am guessing it'll be a, a,
Speaker:a kind of a, a, a big change from your
Speaker:normal topics that we have discussed on the show. Did
Speaker:you receive any feedback about the change, et cetera, or
Speaker:We did. Yeah. We keep saying often that it's an
Speaker:iceberg situation on a domino situation. And in terms of
Speaker:like looking at your numbers or your vanity metrics versus
Speaker:the real impact of some of the stuff that's happening,
Speaker:and this was a real example of it. I had
Speaker:so many personal messages that came through at that time.
Speaker:It was like we had a couple of guests come
Speaker:on and ask to speak about diversity and inclusivity and
Speaker:you know, pretty much there is this sort of being
Speaker:okay with saying what we think like we'll have started
Speaker:over there. And I think that was, it was great
Speaker:feedback in terms of numbers itself. Like, I don't think
Speaker:that episode had any more lessons, but this takes me
Speaker:to, to like a point where it's like, as a
Speaker:podcast or on the podcast is only the start of
Speaker:it.
Speaker:It's like how you take that information and make it
Speaker:available to, to other other people in other formats, like
Speaker:whether you're writing out of it or whether you are
Speaker:breaking it up into like smaller pieces of audio so
Speaker:people can get the key message quickly, or even like,
Speaker:you know, the visuals like will said we took those
Speaker:wacky pictures. And when we invest in, in that photo
Speaker:shoot, I don't think we could have, we were talking
Speaker:about giving an extra bit of royalty to the photographer
Speaker:because that builds pickle chips and those, and those are,
Speaker:you know, like I patches is the gift that keeps
Speaker:giving. It's like, you really have to think about how
Speaker:you visually translate. I'm like we said, we're in a
Speaker:slightly self-deprecating or you were a slightly funny, were we
Speaker:don't, we're slightly on afraid to go wherever you, you
Speaker:want us to go.
Speaker:And that comes through in other, other formats.
Speaker:Yeah. Now obviously it's, the podcast is a year old
Speaker:now, what are your goals for the next 12 months
Speaker:and the next five years, if you want to look
Speaker:at that long of a head once that goes with
Speaker:the podcast, and obviously you pivoted from your earlier days
Speaker:and two expand on the audience in a topic you
Speaker:talk about. And as far as we've been discussing, you
Speaker:are not really afraid to take on that, that the
Speaker:more hard punching topics and discussions are there other, you
Speaker:know, agency owners may be afraid to take are business
Speaker:owners. So if you go to the next day at
Speaker:12 months and beyond Well,
Speaker:Well, I would say definitely Each we kind of do
Speaker:these in mini CT seasons or a series of about
Speaker:10 episodes. I'm a season and then will kind of
Speaker:give us a little bit of a leveling up, so
Speaker:to speak. And so we've been constantly doing that. And
Speaker:I know being quick to, you know, we're still doing
Speaker:an episode every Thursday at 4:00 AM, but you know,
Speaker:if something happens on the Monday, we're gonna hop on
Speaker:the Mic record, something, just throw in the night without
Speaker:a guest, get that off to our audio guy, get
Speaker:our writers writing and get ready to put it out
Speaker:that evening. If we can note that, that, that, that
Speaker:next morning, because we want to, we want to have
Speaker:those evergreen teaching episodes. We want to still have lots
Speaker:of great interactions with guests, but also becoming those thought
Speaker:leaders that aren't afraid to step up and speak out.
Speaker:And, you know, especially because again, during the, when the
Speaker:pandemic pandemic first hit, every one of our clients was
Speaker:like, what do I do? What do I do? I
Speaker:have this plan, this plan, and this plan and realizing
Speaker:how are these people relying on us? Because most of
Speaker:us have some experience with crisis communications in our past
Speaker:as well. And you know, it was, it was really,
Speaker:really gratifying to see that we did have this impact
Speaker:in people's lives when we did help them with those
Speaker:controversial subjects and those tough decisions. So for me, continuing
Speaker:to do that, I think is key. So a mix
Speaker:of are the episode's we do as well as these
Speaker:kinds of off the cuff last minute, but equally as
Speaker:important episodes, I'd really liked to continue doing that too.
Speaker:What about you, Susan?
Speaker:Yeah, I think I am, I'm totally in to that
Speaker:as well. I think some, some of our imposter syndrome
Speaker:has disappeared, so that has allowed us to be like,
Speaker:you know what, to like, we pitch all kinds of
Speaker:people for other people's podcasts. Like we, we get an
Speaker:Uber and Twitter, the bill and Melinda Gates foundation and
Speaker:stuff to go on podcasts that we work on. So
Speaker:why don't we like being, you know, so modest about
Speaker:our own. So, so now I think we've reached a
Speaker:bit further and we're like, you know what, let's go
Speaker:on to that person. This is one of two answers.
Speaker:Yes or no. Yes. And you know, and it's really,
Speaker:it's gratifying because its very rarely, no.
Speaker:Okay. Well that's great. And, and that, that leads me
Speaker:to, to my next question actually, because now that you've
Speaker:got the year behind you with your own podcast and
Speaker:as you just mentioned, a few of these awesome named
Speaker:jobs there and that's like, you know, obviously you've got
Speaker:the experience now four, you know, your clients in the
Speaker:other other podcast show is et cetera. So for a
Speaker:new Podcaster and that once you get in a space,
Speaker:either let yourself and agency or a marketer, etc, or
Speaker:someone, or even just like me, like a kid or
Speaker:a hobbyist stoke or whatever. And what from your learning
Speaker:from the last sort of 12 months from your podcasts
Speaker:and, and the work that you do with others, what
Speaker:would be the one piece advice you can share to
Speaker:someone who is looking to get to the space, either
Speaker:as Mark and podcast hope this podcast?
Speaker:What if we can postcard podcasts, they are looking to
Speaker:start.
Speaker:I can go and say that for me, it's a
Speaker:sort of a mindset answer. It's like, you know, really
Speaker:paying attention to the fact that in some way, if
Speaker:this medium or this way of sharing your voice attracts
Speaker:you like pay attention to that because you know, there's
Speaker:got to be something that's drawing you to it. It
Speaker:is a really, I mean on the, on the logical
Speaker:side of it, there's, there's reasons why it's a fairly
Speaker:good investment and you know, it's not that expensive to
Speaker:produce. It's low, low pressure. You don't have to show
Speaker:up on video all the time, for example. And you
Speaker:know, so that works on the other hand, it's like,
Speaker:you know, how do you really get comfortable with it?
Speaker:Like you mentioned earlier that wing man idea. We, we
Speaker:joke often that between us, we are one visible human
Speaker:as evidenced by both of us being a guest here.
Speaker:You know? So sometimes that that's what you need. We
Speaker:paid attention to it because I have a background in
Speaker:radio, we'll have a background in like pitching people for
Speaker:media. So it was like a sort of a natural
Speaker:coming together of are our abilities as well. We do
Speaker:need something signatures at this point to standout from the
Speaker:noise, have everything. We feel more comfortable with that being
Speaker:an editorial thing, if you will, rather than being like
Speaker:a go-to to your own horn. So this helps you
Speaker:like to, to me and therefore to a new podcast
Speaker:has to be like, really think about what draws you
Speaker:there and why you were attracted to this. And then
Speaker:just find that person who helps you make it happen.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And and think about it right now. How, when will
Speaker:we be doing in person networking event? You know, when
Speaker:will that all start up again? This is just a
Speaker:piece of infrastructure to help you continue to communicate and
Speaker:network like again, having, having guests come on our, our
Speaker:podcast every week has been amazing at expanding our network.
Speaker:Right? We get introduced to someone, they refer us to
Speaker:someone else either, or, Oh, we get a guest through
Speaker:them or maybe it leads to a new business opportunity.
Speaker:So even just inviting those interesting people, those guests, those,
Speaker:you know, corporate leads and, and business owners onto our
Speaker:podcast has just opened up so many doors for us.
Speaker:And the one thing that I would say to you,
Speaker:to people who may be things they don't have the
Speaker:time to add one more thing into their marketing mix.
Speaker:Our podcast is really consolidated a lot of our marketing
Speaker:because that system was saying, you know, if we record
Speaker:the AUDIO, we get the transcripts that becomes a blog
Speaker:post, several series of social posts.
Speaker:We repurpose in like Roundup emails, maybe a group of
Speaker:podcasts get grouped together. We have the transcripts that becomes
Speaker:an e-book or a white paper on a topic, you
Speaker:know, were all about the, how can we make this
Speaker:efficient to do less work, to get more content?
Speaker:That's a great piece of advice. I really, I had
Speaker:noticed more podcasts as we are now, which is asking
Speaker:me to see 'cause as you say, it can, you
Speaker:know, is not different from say created a video are
Speaker:Krone and Hebrew for a white paper. There are so
Speaker:many ways you can repurpose it and read about it
Speaker:afterwards. So, you know, I really appreciate that, that kind
Speaker:of advice there now, no, just to the foot that
Speaker:a little bit of the, the podcast or a little
Speaker:bit for people that may not know you, that Well,
Speaker:or even to, you know, you're a bit, you know,
Speaker:maybe not as well as they are the things they
Speaker:do or what would be one thing that would surprise
Speaker:them about, you know,
Speaker:Oh, this is a, this is, this is a good
Speaker:question. Danny one of the things that I think would
Speaker:surprise a lot of people actually did surprise me more
Speaker:than many is that I'm a pretty disciplined as a
Speaker:human I've discovered, especially through this pandemic. And then I
Speaker:was thinking back to like, what's making this happen. Cause
Speaker:I always liked to call myself not, you know, and
Speaker:never stop to it. But then at 4:00 AM every
Speaker:week, like we send to the podcast that shows you
Speaker:some things about yourself. And I realized that I wasn't
Speaker:there in the, in the pre Armie in India when
Speaker:I was in university. And I'm really good at following
Speaker:instructions. If someone gives me marching orders, I'll do it
Speaker:and dropping, give me 20 minutes to do it.
Speaker:You know? So it's, it's interesting like how I've seen
Speaker:this in the last little while and people pointed out
Speaker:to me now and because I've put it away at
Speaker:my phone and I won't look at it after a
Speaker:certain time. I'm like, dude, I'm disciplined apparently. And I'm
Speaker:into it. Wow.
Speaker:Yup. Yup. And then I would say, I was trying
Speaker:to think, cause I knew that were going to ask
Speaker:a question like this Danny and at first I was
Speaker:going to try to appeal to, to your Scottish background
Speaker:is that I've played the bagpipes as a kid in
Speaker:a, in an attempt to win my Scottish father's approval,
Speaker:not being good at soccer. I turn to the bagpipes
Speaker:and I was like, watch me, dad. Of course, that
Speaker:was awful. I didn't practice. But another thing was, I
Speaker:used to do these crazy cross country media tours for,
Speaker:for clients. We knew back when traditional media was King
Speaker:right up, we'd go to those mornings shows are the
Speaker:lifestyle TV shows or to promote. I worked for a
Speaker:dairy farmers of Canada. And as they were one of
Speaker:our clients and cheese promoting Canadian cheese after this big
Speaker:event called the Canadian cheese grumpy, like the Oscars of
Speaker:the Canadian cheese industry, you can imagine, and it's all
Speaker:the best, most smelly, but delicious cheese in, in, in
Speaker:Canada that's produced.
Speaker:I would have to because I was the behind the
Speaker:scenes guy who organized it all. I would bubble wrap
Speaker:ice pack, all of these expensive, awful smelling Cheese's in
Speaker:suitcases and wheeled them through airports to get to hotels,
Speaker:have to unwrap, put them in fridges, then wrap them
Speaker:up, take them to studios. And I would do this
Speaker:every, every year, once every year I'd have to do
Speaker:this. And I knew what I was going to have
Speaker:to throw out. The clothes I carried with are at
Speaker:war for that whole media tour. After, by the end
Speaker:of the media, to where I'd be rolling into a
Speaker:hotel. And she's ripens as, as it goes, is that
Speaker:the good cheese I'd be rolling into a hotel and
Speaker:people are given me the most awful looks like you
Speaker:stink. And I'd have to say, I called ahead. I
Speaker:I'm the guy with the cheese. So it was a
Speaker:running joke with my friends and it was, it was
Speaker:all about getting the job done, right?
Speaker:That was my job. No job was too big or
Speaker:small. I was the guy who, who transported the cheese.
Speaker:So that's one thing I think that people usually enjoy
Speaker:hearing that little weird story. Like I once had that
Speaker:my, the suitcase was to go to full heavy of
Speaker:cheese. So I have to take some she's out in
Speaker:the airport when he was checking and put it in
Speaker:my personal backpack. Then that went through the security scan
Speaker:and I saw the woman stopping it and looking. And
Speaker:I was like, it's a wheel of Gouda. Trust me,
Speaker:it's a wheel of Gouda. And they took it out
Speaker:in swab, did it in front of everyone to make
Speaker:sure it wasn't that much containing explosives. So, you know,
Speaker:the things we do for our clients is I guess
Speaker:the message there.
Speaker:All right. Now, where are you still a fan of
Speaker:cheese today? Or is that put you off
Speaker:After, after, after traveling with the best of the best
Speaker:cheese, all I wanted was that crapy orange crackle barrel
Speaker:Jetter, or, you know, 'cause like, of course I loved
Speaker:the amazing cheese, but after travelling with it and smelling
Speaker:like that cheese, you're kind of repulsed for a little
Speaker:while.
Speaker:Okay. I can imagine. Okay guys, well, this has been
Speaker:really fun having you on and I really enjoyed our
Speaker:chat and reviewed. Umm, and I know like When, I've
Speaker:been listened to some of your past shows and I'm
Speaker:catching up slowly as they do have a warm, a
Speaker:gas, like a catch up slowly by Duke catchup. And
Speaker:I know people who really enjoy the, the, the, the
Speaker:fun vibe, but you have on the shore for people
Speaker:that want to connect with you guys, either two, you
Speaker:know, learn more about your podcast and services or even
Speaker:the podcast itself is just to listen to the podcast.
Speaker:Where's the best place to connect with you at all?
Speaker:Ah, I'm a LinkedIn person. So, you know, LinkedIn is
Speaker:probably a great place for a podcast itself is on
Speaker:in all the usual places, Apple and Spotify, the poor
Speaker:AM Report. And I think that our website has CP
Speaker:Don digital. We struggled so hard, man. I just say
Speaker:Danny by making that choice of.digital, because we thought it
Speaker:was cool at the time and you know, nothing accepts
Speaker:more than three characters. And, but now it's, you know,
Speaker:at least people remember it@cb.digital.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. And we're, and we're every month we do
Speaker:do masterclasses on podcasts and we take what we've learned.
Speaker:So for people who are curious about wanting to dip
Speaker:their toe in the podcasting pool, they can, if they
Speaker:go to C p.digital, you can sign up for the
Speaker:next master class there. So that's something we're doing on
Speaker:an ongoing basis.
Speaker:Okay. Awesome. And that will be continuing through obviously the
Speaker:pandemic and beyond the last Martin. It was that that
Speaker:happened before the pandemic kicked in. Then
Speaker:I want to say at roughly at the same time
Speaker:we plan the master class, we are going to do
Speaker:it at once or twice. And then there was some,
Speaker:you know, some value to it as well as like
Speaker:where honestly, sometimes I think we are lazy, whatever feels
Speaker:easy. We do a lot of, so this felt easy
Speaker:and it felt good because, you know, it's a teaching
Speaker:thing. Like I said, we're always lean towards that. Over
Speaker:like during our own horn. So that felt easy to,
Speaker:we just kept doing it for right now. I think
Speaker:we were roughly doing it once every five or six
Speaker:weeks.
Speaker:Okay. And we'll be sure to drop the, there are
Speaker:the links to all these on the show notes. If
Speaker:you listen in on your favorite podcast app, makes sure
Speaker:you check on the show notes and I will link
Speaker:where you can find Well and Susan and the podcasts,
Speaker:et cetera in there. So as I say, guys, I
Speaker:really appreciate coming on. It's been a fun blast chop
Speaker:for a Friday afternoon, I guess, to ease in at
Speaker:the weekend. So thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Speaker:Thank you. Thank you for having us. Okay guys. Well,
Speaker:this has been a lot of another episode of Podcaster
Speaker:Stories have you enjoyed this week show, be sure to,
Speaker:you know, leave a review in iTunes so other people
Speaker:could find the show too, and you can find each
Speaker:episode on your favorite podcast app include in Apple podcasts,
Speaker:Google podcasts, and Spotify in the door, or hop on
Speaker:over to Podcaster Stories dot com, where you find the
Speaker:latest episode and you can catch up on the newsletter.
Speaker:If you want to do that until the next team
Speaker:days, take care, stay safe and I will speak. So.
