Crafting Connections Through Audio

Season 3 Episode 1 dives into the transformative journey of podcasting, emphasizing the importance of overcoming fear, establishing consistency, and engaging with an audience through storytelling. Listeners learn about structuring podcasts into seasons, leveraging personal experiences for business growth, and the unexpected benefits of sharing their voice.

• Overcoming the fear of sharing your voice
• Utilizing seasons as categories instead of time
• Season 1 will focus on trade and membership in trade groups
• Emphasizing networking in season 2
• Leveraging podcasts for business growth in season 3
• Including camping and prepping gear reviews in season 4
• The importance of authenticity in podcasting
• Practical strategies for improving audience engagement

“Whistles In The West” was written, recorded, and produced by Durracell, exclusively for use with Trader Stu’s platform, always rocking the cowboy hat. The track is protected under U.S. Copyright rights to use have been granted specifically to Trader Stu for content and promotional use related to his brand and media presence.

contact:
 📧 durracellmusic@gmail.com
🌐 www.durracell.com

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The thoughts and views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and do not reflect the official policy or position of Metro Trading Association. Although the host is an employee of Metro Trading, this podcast is intended to educate entrepreneurs on the benefits of professional trading, regardless of their location. Additionally, the host reviews various pieces of camping gear due to the association of trade, barter, and prepping.

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Structure for Business Education
• 7:16 Business Growth Through Networking and Podcasting
• 16:51 Starting a Podcast
• 23:31 Simplicity and Benefits of Podcasting

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Hello from the Trading Post. This is Trader Stu. Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I've done a recording. I wanted to mention I don't know if you heard the last couple episodes or whatever so what I did was I was trying to get over the humps. I always tell people, you know, just hit record, don't worry about it, upload it and get yourself out in the ether. And I had two episodes that I did early on this is back in October I think and I took them down and unpublished them. They didn't have you know many downloads several or whatever and the fact is that I re-uploaded them, not thinking about I already kind of fixed it. I rerecorded them anyway.

Speaker 1: 1:09

So I was trying to just play with the numbers on Buzzsprout and the episodes and the uploads and all that stuff Right, and get over, kind of like they say, the hump of the fear factor. So I was trying to just help somebody out the other day and get them over that fact of they're going to have their voice out there, right. So I was kind of like, you know, I got some stuff out there on mine that I took off and I'm going to re-upload them just to show that I kind of like so what you know. And anyway, I went back and I was going through all my episodes and I was like, wow, this is redundant. I already redid that. So if you heard those, it was just because I was playing with Buzzsprout and then also helping another fellow member of our group set up theirs, their podcast, and so just trying to get them over the hump and I'm going to talk about that in a little bit because this episode or season so I'm going to do. Then actually I'm going to kind of go through my idea that was given to me through people on Alignable, kind of through the networking thing anyways, as ideas on how to organize things.

Speaker 1: 2:30

And we were talking about seasons on one of the groups and you know I don't really need a season. I guess the whole idea of this was just to record every Monday and then that didn't happen because you know weeks go by so fast and then things don't happen. And then I'm like you know what I'll do Tuesdays. The whole idea was Monday record, upload on Tuesday for Trade Tuesdays. But I think just the way, because weeks play out and how they are going and I can't stay consistent with uploads and this is one of the things you need to kind of look at when you're doing your podcast, because this is all about how to get your business to do podcasting or get yourself to do podcasting for your business, or however you want to look at it. However many employees you have, or if you can dedicate somebody to do that for you, then just take that, however you're looking at it. But anyway, so I'm going to do seasons instead of episodes, kind of, so I'm going to categorize everything by season. So the idea is let me get my calendar out of the way here. I kind of made some notes. There's an idea for you when you do your podcast and say you have something like this, like my idea.

Speaker 1: 3:43

So the whole thing with the trading post was supposed to educate business owners, entrepreneurs, on the benefits, perks of trade and the whole thing was going to be just three episodes, that's it. Not even publish this thing out into the ether and just have a platform that I can have a podcast on as low bit rate to send in an email. So most of my job is educating people on what trade is and then all of a sudden, you know, once a business owner understands it, generally they want to sign up right, but the whole point is trying to get people to understand it first, and then, once they understand, we're good to go. Well, it's not so easy to explain, sometimes over the phone or they're busy or they're running around, you know. So I was like here, here's a podcast, here's a link to the podcast. Just listen to these three episodes or whatever, and then hopefully you'll understand it. You know at that point, and then I'll follow up with you or you can call me back or text me back or email me back or whatever like that if you're interested or not, back or email me back or whatever like that, if you're interested or not. That was the whole premise of it. It was never meant to be what it's becoming. This is an accidental and now I know what some of these people on YouTube talk about like an accidental success. I'm not saying I'm successful yet per se, because I'm not really making money with the podcast, but also, at the same time, I guess I am successful because, inadvertently, the podcast is becoming known.

Speaker 1: 5:11

So when you do a podcast for your business, you don't look at it as a money generating feature. We're going to monetize it, you're going to get exhausted and ran down and you won't get past seven episodes. I think they say I mentioned it in one of my episodes Most podcasts fail, I think, after three episodes. I think they say I mentioned it in one of my episodes most podcasts fail, I think, after three episodes. And I get it because after three, if you're doing one a week, that's a month, you know. And they're on their fourth one, that's a month. And you usually lose steam by that point in time.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Think about if you are a fitness buff or whatever and you're in a gym, like I used to be, every day and I just wouldn't go to the gym for the first two weeks of January. Right, it would be swamped, it's packed and you're waiting for machines and you got these New Year's resolutioners coming in and kind of ruining the gym for you and what you got going on and you're like you know what, whatever, I'm going to take two weeks off and they'll be gone by end of January and for the most part I was always right and I get that. It's with anything. It's not just podcasting, it's fitness, it's, you know, a new routine or a new promise to yourself or whatever you want to do, and some things just don't last or make it, and that just goes true with anything. So don't get frustrated, keep pushing on, keep hitting record and go for it. So, anyway, I have digressed Back to the structure that I'm trying to do for the podcast and an idea to help you organize yours. So my season one. I'm going to do four seasons just to try and keep it. You know, I like the four seasons of Michigan and also anything more than that. It just seems to get crazy in your head and too hard to organize. So I've whittled this down from seven seasons originally down into four. So season one is education, about trade, and having members being interviewed is the whole idea right. And having members being interviewed is the whole idea right. So discussions on the fundamentals of the trade and barter system and then the guest appearances. That's season one.

Speaker 1: 7:16

Season 2, networking. I am getting pretty heavy back into networking again. It took a while to spin up into it and hit all the chambers and events and things of that nature. I'm finding more and more on Eventbrite. Now I'm looking to host my own networking events in the area, in the Metro Detroit area. If you're in Michigan or Southeast Michigan and want to uh, check it out, I will announce it once it gets launched. But right now I'm going through other preliminary things and planning and things of that nature to try and get it going and basically it's going to be networking for kids or with kids, rather. Uh. So I a lot of chamber events are after work, you know, and I'd rather be home or hanging out with my kid than I would be out networking.

Speaker 1: 8:05

So I thought, well, hey, my grandpa used to bring me to his networking events back in Frankenmuth chamber events and Lions Club and VFW and Legion and all that, and I always thought it was so cool, so I'd like to do the same for my son. So here we are. It was so cool, so I'd like to do the same for my son. So here we are. So season two is about networking and highlighting the events that I've attended and tell you about them and maybe you will find interest in it and go to one, maybe even tips and strategies for effective networking. I got a couple of ideas right away that I can think of that I could talk about. I've been networking for God. Well, I mean, if you don't include my grandpa and hanging out with him at Frankie Muth when I was a child like probably seven, you know, 10 years old or whatever. I've been at it since I worked for ADT Security and that was back in 2009, I believe it was, or 2010, maybe, and I was the vice president of BNI group that I was in and you know chamber events and all that stuff. Right, it's back in my twenties. So, anyway, I'll talk about that and then maybe interview interviews with contacts and partners I've met through networking. I could even do something like that too, which, my God, that'd be, that'd be, that'd be an endless amount of episodes right there, cause I have so many people I've met through networking through the years.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Anyway, uh, season three I would do about leveraging the podcast for growth, and this is this one. Right here, I'm going to make label this episode as season three. Uh, episode one, and it's because this episode is about that. It's about, you know, people wanting to start a podcast to leverage their growth in their business and make them the industry expert and talk about what they do. And no better way than, you know, podcasting, about talking about what you do, and it automatically makes you an industry expert, from what I've already kind of noticed, and actually people want to talk to you more about your podcast than they do about your business, which is really fun as well. It's a nice ice breaker and I'll get to that in a minute.

Speaker 1: 10:13

So the episodes could be on how to use a podcast to promote and grow your business, and then personal success stories or struggles and that's kind of like what I like talking about. I love struggle stories and going through the pains and I think that'd be kind of fun just to document all of that in the podcast. And normally no one really does that. I guess Everyone always just wants to project their success and then people think they're an overnight success or overnight millionaire, when in fact they got hundreds or thousands of hours or episodes or years in 5, 7, 10 years, whatever, into becoming the overnight success and you don't see the last decade that they poured into it. You know and you don't. You don't see the last decade that they poured into it. And then also on season three, practical advice on the podcast production, marketing, audience engagement, equipment, maybe even and time, and you know, just kind of go through everything on what it takes to have a podcast for business growth, because if you're on YouTube, as I I am, I'm looking at it all the time about marketing and growing a business. They just talk. Everyone talks about. Yeah, you should start a podcast and that'll help you grow your business, because there's only I think this last stat was 350,000 podcasts worldwide, as opposed to I believe it's YouTube channels, or 7 million YouTube channels worldwide. So you get a much greater chance of getting an audience on a podcast than you do on getting it to YouTube.

Speaker 1: 11:47

Season four I want to do more reviews maybe. Even so, camping and prepping gear and the reason why this just happened to be something inadvertent. That happened on an alignable chat room that I was on, and they have these breakout sessions and it's like speed networking, and when I set them in trade, I always say trade slash, barter, because it depends on who you're talking to. They're like oh, yeah, I'm a prepper too, or I love prepping, or I don't know. Yeah, that's cool, you're a prepper. I'm like, okay, well, I mean kind of, I guess I don't think I'm that much of a prepper. I guess I'm a prepper a little bit. I mean I have, you know, a cabinet of food, you know. If that makes me a prepper, then so be it, but I mean I guess a little bit.

Speaker 1: 14:28

So, anyway, I'd like to hopefully one day get sponsored by maybe some camping and prepping gear, because really this is a trade and barter, you know, podcast, it's a the trading post and what cooler way to get funding to help me and advertise. But then to, you know, do that for camping and prepping and I'm not even get paid for it. But really if I use something cause we camp in the summertime, and then just kind of talk about it and if it's worth it or not, you know, I've always been kind of a reviewer. Anyway, back in my YouTube days, and that was actually one of my channels I was going to do was reviewing things, and it never took off, because most things, well, they don't, because YouTube is a hard, tough racket to get into and so well, hey, I'll add that on to Season 4 at the very end, and so I could talk about the reviews and various prepping and camping gear.

Speaker 1: 15:20

I guess that's the same thing, camping and prepping gear. Really it's used interchangeably. As a matter of fact, that's how my wife got me to start camping again, because she was like, oh, wouldn't it be great if you got to like, try out and use your prepping things that you have and then use it for camping and then actually get some hands-on experience with it and try it before the lights go out. I'm like, yeah, you know what? I guess you're right. So, by the way, I used to say up, down, swear, left and right, that I would never, ever camp again, because I've had multiple deployments, you know, in the Air Force. I was in the Air Force, I was in SEER school, so you think I would love camping because I'm SEER certified or SEER trained. But honestly, that was enough for me. It was, I guess, at the time.

Speaker 1: 16:03

But now that I got kids, the kids love going to campgrounds. And so here I am, doing what I swore I'd never do again, and I love it though. I mean it is fun, the kids love it. I didn't even see my oldest, the stepson. He's gone. The campgrounds have a rule as long as you're over eight years old, you can run the grounds without parental supervision around, and as soon as we get in the gates, he's gone. He takes off. He's like can I get out of the van and I'll meet you guys. What you know? What spot are you guys in? We'll tell them the number that we're in and and that's it. He'll either meet us there or we'll see him later or whatever, but he loves the freedom at the campgrounds. So, and my other son, he's way too young, yeah, he's a toddler, but he already loves it because he loves being outside and the fact that we're outside with him all day, all night, all day, all night. He is just like into it. He loves it.

Speaker 1: 16:51

So here I am, camping again, uh, anyway, and I get to use my gear and I get to futz around. I love futzing. So, um, you know, playing with fire, I've always been a fire bug. So there, there it is. You know, maybe that's one of the first things I'll talk about. I got this thing from, uh, uh, what's the? It's a camp stove. It uses a little fan blower, so you can, you know, use like pine cones and twigs and basically you can boil water with very little. It's really really cool to use. I used it the other day. It was fun.

Speaker 1: 17:21

Anyway, and you know, to get tips for the right gear and making the most of it in season four for camping and prepping gear reviews. So I did them in the order of what I thought was the most to least order of importance. I guess is the only way I could really think about it, you know not. Season one, education and trade. Season two, networking. Season three, leveraging a podcast for business growth. And then season four, camping and Prepping, gear Reviews, all right, so let me get a bit more into other ideas I had.

Speaker 1: 17:58

So the Alignable if you're not on it yet, by the way great platform. It's like aspect of LinkedIn, but you don't get people asking for jobs like you do on LinkedIn or all the all the busyness, all the. You know you can get sidetracked on LinkedIn as you can in Facebook, so it gets rid of all that. And alignable is all about business owners, entrepreneurs, sales folk helping people out, and then it's like the giver's gain. So they say you know you put 10% out and you'll get 10 times back or 100% back, whatever, like that right. So you help someone out, they remember you, they drop you a referral, basically kind of a thing, and then suddenly, by the time you know it, you know you're getting sales unalignable and it just comes, comes like almost inadvertently. It's really fun. You learn a lot. I use it for a learning platform because they have the breakout rooms, like I mentioned, and you meet people from all over the country.

Speaker 1: 19:09

And the whole premise of Alignable started out, though, as a local networking only, so you can like LinkedIn. I don't think you can really do this. You can narrow down where you want to find connections at. So if I'm just a, you know, metro Trading Association I'm the sales and marketing manager for them I only really care really to work with the Great Lakes region, right, because I I mean, trade is only good, as good as the local people in the local economy. It's all about buying local right? So I, even though I can kind of help maybe work with somebody in Florida, it's really hard to find a reciprocal, mutual beneficial situation with that business owner. So I mean, even though they might be able to sell because they're a, you know, online e-commerce, uh, how can I get them to spend? And they're only, you know, businesses are only as good as they can spend and sell, um, so that's why I like Alignable is, I can narrow it down to just Michigan, ohio, even Indiana, illinois. So there's that Um and I wanted to also get into. They have a podcasting groups on there as well to help you out.

Speaker 1: 20:20

But you know, people think that just because you're a podcaster, you kind of like know it all or whatever I guess, which is kind of fun and cool because you get to be the expert. So I was literally called up and messaged the other day to help one of my members that's in Metro Trading, to help set him up with a podcast. And I'm like it's really easy, man. You just you know, log in, buzzsprout, walks you through it, done, deal. And he was just like I don't really got time to deal with that or, you know, I don't want to figure it out. You know, could you help me out? I'm like, well, I'll stop by and walk you over how to do everything. I just sat up and I was there for probably I don't know 15, 20 minutes. He really appreciated it and he's off to the races now. All he's got to do now is record. I've got to set him up with all the different ways to listen to his podcast and all that stuff. To me it was easy. I went through it to him. He didn't want to deal with it and you know it's all done now, so it's cool. So I hope he does well with it. He does security for computers, virus, antivirus and things of that nature, so all right.

Speaker 1: 21:32

So one more thing too if you're thinking about starting a podcast, don't try and be perfect with it, so it'll only disappoint you because your effort to downloads is really high in the beginning. Just like with anything a new job, you're going to have a huge upload cost of time and effort, maybe even a little bit of money that you have to invest into it before you really get rolling, that you get to invest into it before you really get rolling. I noticed that with the YouTube it's a lot more because, of course, you get the video aspect of it too, and everyone always asks me if I'm going to do video with the podcast and, honestly, if I could get away with just audio only, I will. I understand the marketing aspect, however, of uploading some video. Obviously, with the Joe Rogan show, I know he's, you know he's above, way above the standards, you know whatever he's $18 million an episode, I think he gets. So he. But I only really watch. I don't listen to his podcast, I don't. I see his hits on YouTube and they're funny or whatever interesting. I see his hits on YouTube and they're funny or whatever interesting, but it's only because of YouTube that I know of Joe Rogan, really because I don't listen to him on Spotify.

Speaker 1: 22:45

So, that being said, just hit the record button, get over that hump, like I mentioned earlier. Get your voice out there, get over your butterflies, get over the fear factor. Nobody's going to listen to it. Don't even advertise it if you don't want to Just record it and submit it. Publish it, get it out there and don't say anything and you're going to get a couple of listens and downloads or whatever, just through kind of an organic reach. Or maybe, if you've got good tags or you've got good keywords in your title or whatever, you're going to get found just by, you know, people searching. If you don't want to mention it on your Facebook page, then don't. I didn't, and because it wasn't supposed to be like what it is now anyway. So, get over that pump and just get it out there.

Speaker 1: 23:31

And you know, just talk about something and that's it. Like I said, at least it ain't YouTube. You know you have to deal with the lighting and the angles and the video editing and, uh, you know all. And then you got sound on top of it and all that, everything. So, uh, the podcasts are great because it's great for the busy business owner, because you have, you know, so much less to edit and honestly, I am trying to edit as little as possible, because the editing is what takes all the time that's.

Speaker 1: 24:01

I mean, when I was doing video editing for a job I was in, I figured about an almost an hour per minute, but I was doing a hands-on, educational, you know for the company, kind of. You know big, big, kind of big production, I guess you could say, or everyone's going to see it. So it was more time. You can probably narrow it down to maybe more like a 15 minutes of editing per minute of video, but even though that's still a lot of time, you got four minutes of video and that goes by so fast. That's an hour of just editing, you know, and that's it. You haven't done anything else to it yet, with all of the description and the tags and the marketing of it and everything like that, right. So it's a lot.

Speaker 1: 24:46

At least with podcasts, if you just, you know, get through it and upload it, you're good to go. I was just kind of reading through here. Oh yeah, I wanted to mention to the podcast when you're out networking just mentioned, you have a podcast and maybe put it in your on your business card and it's a great icebreaker when I'm out networking. I'm like you know, I'm a the sales guy or member application God, I'd think of a better name for sales and marketing manager. But anyway, you know, I work for Metro trading and I started a podcast and everyone's like Ooh, you know, wow, cool. I'm like really I didn't, I didn't think that was that big of a deal.

Speaker 1: 25:23

But I am fully aware getting more aware now that a lot of people wish they could or want, want to do something, and then they think about it and then when they meet somebody who's actually done it, you know it's kind of a it's a cool thing to see somebody do something that you, you want to do yourself. I guess it's kind of it's the only way I can think of it because I even though I did you know, I was in youtube and all that I deleted the channel and all that stuff because it was kind of distracting and kept coming back to it and it was just filling my time with nothingness and I was getting nothing out of it. And, uh, I got, you know, I think I was at it since 2017 and I changed the channel name several times and it was just, uh, I, yeah, it just kind of flamed out. It was over it. So, anyway, just start your podcast and get going with that and you know, see what happens. Um, and I guess that's it.