December 2, 2025 • 32 mins
We share how a simple, audio-only podcast outpaced SEO, educated prospects on B2B trade, and opened doors to sponsors and even a video game cameo. The workflow stays light, the topics align with real searches, and distribution meets listeners where they already network.
• origin story of Trader Stew and early businesses
• why podcasting over SEO for educating prospects
• how trade credits and fees work in a curated network
• audio-only setup and minimal-edit workflow
• building authority through consistent publishing
• seasons used as chapters for navigation
• trend-led topics and AI-assisted outlines
• distribution via LinkedIn and Alignable for reach
• Buzzsprout hosting, leveling, and monetization metrics
• practical gear options from phone mics to wireless kits
• avoiding podfade by lowering friction to ship
• turning collaborations into sponsorships and evergreen placements
Be good or be good at it
Thanks for listening to The Trading Post Podcast!
Find all our important links— https://linktr.ee/traderstu
This episode of The Trading Post is proudly sponsored by Press X 2 Play Games, Metro Trading Association, and the Michigan Renaissance Festival. Exciting news—I’m featured as The Trader at the Trading Post in Press X 2 Play’s upcoming video game! Learn more about Press X 2 Play at pressx2play.games, discover how Metro Trading Association helps businesses grow through barter and trade, and explore the magic of the Michigan Renaissance Festival.
Questions or guest suggestions? Email us at thetradingpostwithtraderstu@gmail.com
“Whistles In The West” was written, recorded, and produced by Durracell, exclusively for use with Trader Stu’s platform.
The track is protected under U.S. Copyright (filed and registered), and rights to use have been granted specifically to Trader Stu for content and promotional use related to his brand and media presence.
For additional licensing, custom audio, or to inquire about future collaborations and performances, contact:
📧 durracellmusic@gmail.com
🌐 www.durracell.com
© 2025 The Trading Post Podcast. All rights reserved.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to the Trading Post Podcast, where
we unlock the secrets ofbusiness-to-business trade, dive
into powerful networkingstrategies, and share my
exciting journey of using apodcast to market my business
instead of relying on SEO.
I'm your host, Trader Stew.
(00:24):
Hello, everyone, and welcomeback to the Trading Post
Podcast.
I got something a little bitdifferent uh scheduled for
today.
Over the last week, I wasscheduled to speak at the
American Business Women'sAssociation or the ABWA at their
monthly meeting and talk aboutthe benefits of using a podcast
(00:46):
as a platform for advertising ormarketing of business and the
ins and outs of using a podcastand doing a podcast and the
equipment needed and you know,et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And I recorded myself during it,and so I wanted to upload it for
you because I mean why not?
I asked if I could, and theysaid it was all right, and I I
(01:08):
figured, you know what, even theaudio is gonna be a little, I
think, uh sketchy.
Well, I don't know.
I use the same microphone asusual, however, there's gonna be
some background noise, uh, somemaybe some chatter.
I was at the what do you callit, arcade out there, Dave and
Busters.
So there's some background noisewith that, maybe some arcade
(01:30):
games, definitely dishes andplates and silverware because I
was speaking while everyone waseating, so to speak, you know,
one of those things, like it waslike a dinner conversation.
So I was real laid back, realchill, and I tried to just do
mostly questions and answersbecause I mean I can talk at or
to anybody through the podcast.
(01:51):
I wanted to make it more on apersonal level and answer any
and all questions that they hadthere.
So I'm gonna keep this introshort and basically that's it.
I'm gonna just un-edited theupload, and it's about looks
like 30 minutes long, maybe.
And I'll go through, maybe dosome rough edits and maybe some
pauses, but you're here andthere.
But really, it's just gonna beraw, uncut, unedited footage, so
(02:15):
or recording, I guess you couldsay.
So that's it.
That's enough of me talking.
I'm gonna go ahead and uploadthat and connect that here, and
we'll see you in the next week,next show.
Thank you.
Be good or be good at it.
Sounds weird saying it rightafter the intro.
Good evening, Stuart Aldridge.
Or gotta go by trader Stu aswell for the podcast.
It's just a fun little gimmickthat I started made up to have
(02:38):
fun with it.
I'm also the sales and marketingmanager from Metro Trading
Association and of course theTrading Post Podcast.
So thank you, of course, forhaving me.
And then also to Janet whoinvited me.
I met her at the Velocity Centerin Sterling Heights, and then
again the one million cupsnetworking thing.
And then she actually came toone of my events.
I started networking with kidsthing where my wife and I were
(03:01):
trying to kind of make makefriends with other parents, but
they're also maybe businesspeople or entrepreneurs or
whatever.
So I had a networking event atJungle Java, and then that way
the kids could play in thetunnels and the parents could
hand out business cards, youknow.
So we did that for a littlewhile.
And now, actually, Dr.
(03:21):
Mary, if you don't know her,okay, yeah.
She started, she's uh at the uhmove on Mound Road or Van Dyke,
I think it is.
Yep, and uh so she's doing thenetworking event there now.
Right, so right before she doesthe bag stuffing on the second
Monday of the month, she's nowhosting what was networking with
kids.
Now it's called the RippleEffect, and it's at her location
now.
(03:42):
So, and uh anyway.
So, who am I?
I guess, and like you know,where where do I come from?
What my I guess roots.
So I grew up in Frankenmouth,Michigan, and my parents started
several businesses.
We had J.R.
RickyCons, which was a uh pizzaplace, and we did donuts and
bread out of a house.
We moved to Main Street Tavern,which is right on the road there
(04:04):
on uh on top of the hill, rightnext to my grandpa's place,
which was Sato Drugstore.
He owned that, and then webought the Blue Dolphin and then
turned that into Harry's Bistro.
And all along I was workingsince I was this big, probably I
don't know, first grade,whatever the hell that is, doing
bar back, running, you know, thebeer for the for the uh
(04:25):
bartenders, and then I waswashing dishes and helping, you
know, kind of getting in likewell, not other meetings, but
helping with you know thebookwork or stuff like that, and
watching my mom and my dad doit, and then you know, you know,
on phone calls and conferencecalls and things like that.
So I've been kind of in thebusiness mindset since I can
remember, and so that's where Icome from with that.
(04:47):
And I kind of got out of the outof the last one was Frank and
Miss Franklin Moose CigarCompany.
I I just said no more familybusinesses, so and I left that.
So no more, I didn't do cigars,but I did I was in New York City
just trying to be an actor, andso I did door-to-door sales in
all five boroughs in New York,so the Bronx, Manhattan, you
know, Brooklyn, Queens,literally door knocking and
(05:09):
doing sales there, and then ofcourse I done the MLM stuff with
EcoQuest.
I tried that, and then after allthat, I started an aerial
photography business withdrones, and then COVID hit, and
then no more gatherings, so nomore photography for gatherings
and weddings and graduations.
So to get my money back on thedrone, I was like, Well, I could
(05:30):
do gutter cleaning, so it woulddo the inspections with the
drone and do the gutterinspection and show them the
before and after the guttercleaning.
So I did that until my shoulderscouldn't handle that no more and
sold all that stuff.
So, but I got my money back inthe drone, that's all that
matters.
So I spent top of the money onthe drone.
So, what else?
So, yeah, that's um I'm gonnabasically kind of walk you
(05:53):
through how I got intopodcasting and why and the kind
of the road that it took me on.
So, what happened was is I waswith Metro Trading Association
in 2013, and then I became asales manager 2014, 2015 time
frame.
Then I had my own kind of crew,and uh we were I was in Genesee
County area, and I had I thinksix sales reps, and we were
(06:17):
doing really well, and then acompany came along and
headhunted me essentially andoffered me an amount of money
that I couldn't refuse,essentially.
So, excuse me, after eightyears, I got laid off from
there, and then I stayed incontact with Mike and Lois, the
owners of Metro TradingAssociation, always on good
terms, and I even had one of mybusinesses the the photography
(06:39):
drone uh gutter cleaning withMetro Trade as well.
So I've been kind of like theaccount management membership
sign up, and also I have my ownbusiness in it as well.
So I really believe in trade.
And so when I came back, I raninto some issues where I had
another complication when Iexplained trade and barter and
how it works and business andbusiness barter that people
(07:01):
thought I was in crypto nowbecause you know that was
nowadays, right?
So back then I was competing andwith the whole trade, like I
don't you know, trade one forone or bartering, or I need cash
and all of those usual problemsthat I would run into.
Now I had all that plus thecrypto thing.
So uh Mike Mercier, the owner ofMetro Trading Association, was
(07:25):
like, why don't you go onpodcasts?
And that's the new thing nowthat everyone's doing, and kind
of explain that, be interviewed,and explain it on how what trade
is because it you're not gettingany traction right now.
So I was all right.
So I looked around in thechamber of commerce, and then I
met somebody who did GoodNeighbor Podcast.
(07:46):
Good neighbor podcast is afranchise, so sweet her last
name is Sweeney.
She would do the Rochester one,and then I would, you know, I
was it was uploaded, and Ididn't really get anything for
marketing-wise for me, but itwas at least exposure, and then
gave me the idea to be like,well, that was easy.
Why don't I just start my ownpodcast?
(08:07):
Because I was a YouTuber aswell, so I kind of already had
some traction in the game towhere podcasting was definitely
easier for me because there's novideo, I don't do video.
Uh there's video podcasts, likeJoe Rogan and stuff like that,
but I'm audio only because it'sso much more editing to do
video, and you have to make surethe lighting's right, you're
(08:29):
wearing the right stuff, you gotthe shadows, you know, and the
background, and it's just a lot,a lot more work.
And then you got when you do theedit of the video and the audio,
you gotta clip the same things,it's just a mess.
So I said audio only, minimalprocessing, minimal editing was
my idea, and and just see whathappens.
So when I talk to people on thephone and I try and explain
(08:52):
trade, they you know want moreinformation, usually, right?
So instead of sending them abrochure or a flyer or an email
or my website that links them toMetro Trade, and by the way,
we've been around since 1978, soit's not like exactly a new
deal, right?
But but new business ownersdon't know.
They just it's not in college,it's not in entrepreneur, you
(09:12):
know, schools and things likethat.
So I was like, why don't I justmake three episodes with of a
podcast just to explain it, justto give them a link, check it
out.
Here's what it is, here's whathere's what the Metro Trade is,
and then you know, listen to itwhen you pick up the kids or
whatever, and then let me knowwhat you think.
And that's how it kind ofstarted.
(09:34):
Because when you are, if youdon't know, I guess I'll give
you a background real quick ontrade.
Business to business barter ortrade is a credit system, so
it's like a Visa, MasterCard,Metro trade.
But the the difference is thatyou're in a group with members
who are gonna go out of theirway and try and do business with
you first before they go outsidein the open market.
(09:56):
So it's like joining a chamberof commerce or whatever, a BI
group, but you get a guaranteedresult.
So, like a membership fee is 400bucks, but if you don't get$400
in business the first year, wegive you your money back minus
the difference of whatever wegot for you.
So if I got you$300 in business,you get$100 back, whatever,
right?
So that's the guarantee.
(10:18):
And a lot of times for bigrestaurants, I just let them let
them in because they're gonna dosuch high volume that uh, you
know, it's okay for me to uhwaive my commission and bring
them in the group because allthe members are gonna love the
new restaurant.
So now the restaurant, let'sjust say it's a restaurant, you
go there for$100 and trade.
They now have 100 trade creditsin their system to spend with
(10:39):
whoever they want in the system.
So it's not a one-to-one barter,it's not like you're trading
furs for jerky anymore.
It's you know it goes into acredit base so you can store the
wealth, and then the only feereally is that point is a 12%
transaction fee for us doing allthe marketing, the emailing, the
phone calls, so you have brokersthat put deals together, all
(11:02):
that is not really paid foruntil you do the transaction.
So it's joining a membershipgroup that you don't pay for
until you get results.
It's a you know, so it's reallynice that way.
Um, and then we do the monthlyfee, 19 bucks a month, but
that's after the first year.
So you literally get a wholeyear to try us out basically for
no charge.
So, but it's hard to explainthat on the phone or even in
(11:25):
person.
So the podcast came out.
So, what I did with that was Idid three the three episodes,
and then I started gettinglisteners all over the world
without me even marketing itthat way.
Because with AI now, there'slike the SEO.
If you do your descriptionsright, it'll crawl for keywords,
(11:46):
and then you'll be a hit on asearch result for somebody in my
case, like Australia and GreatBritain, and then Germany.
And I was just like, Whoa,what's going on here?
You know, I was like, Well,maybe I'll just keep doing it
and I'll just keep uploadingaudio.
I mean, it doesn't cost menothing.
The microphone I'm wearing rightnow, I think was 250 bucks.
And I have another mic that Idon't use because this is fine,
(12:09):
this is great.
I do it in my car, I do it in myoffice or my basement.
I started off in my sauna in thebasement.
I bought a house with a sauna init, and I turned it into a sauna
studio because we never use itfor anything else, so it's just
dead space sitting there.
So I was like, Oh, this isgreat.
I use it for a studio, you know.
So you can do it anywhere youwant, and you don't have to have
the best, you know, equipment.
And with the cameras, it becomesanother issue, but you can have
(12:31):
your camera on your iPhone, it'sjust as good as anything else
anymore.
So you can do it that way aswell.
So the benefit is where I kindof and got a lot of traction, I
guess you could say, was thatwhen I was doing all of the
podcasting, now you become kindof a professional or a guru in
(12:52):
your in your field.
So now when you're at chamberevents, people come to you and
they say, Hey, I heard you'reyou have a podcast and they want
to talk to you, and you know,what do you know, and things
like that.
So now you become people come toyou instead of you having to go
to them.
So it marketed it that way forme.
So the reason why I did it asthe trading post podcast is
(13:13):
because, of course, trade andbarter, you know, it just kind
of made sense.
I was like the trading post, thetrading post in the old west is
where you came to do all yourcommerce, it's where you came to
bring your goods and do all yourtransactions, and that's kind of
what Metro Trading Associationis.
So, and then I did it under myown brand.
That way I don't have to askpermission for things when I
(13:34):
when I want to market, yeah,whatever, right?
So Metro Trade sponsors me andthey get all the logo and
everything that I have, andyeah, I'm also part of Metro
Trade, but they are just youknow an icon or whatever a
sponsorship in in the uh Metrotrade or in the trading post.
And then I was in a lineable,and then I got sponsored by
(13:55):
Michigan Renaissance Festival,so it's kind of cool to where I
was like, man, it'd be cool.
Before that, I was like, why whydon't I try and make it so
instead of paying foradvertising, I get paid to
advertise.
That's fun.
So, you know, I'm not gettingpaid by Michigan Renaissance
Festival.
We traded tickets like they doon radio stations in exchange
(14:17):
for mentions, but it's a start,you know.
One day maybe I'll get a realsponsorship where I'm getting
paid money, or I'll get enoughdownloads to where I'll get
monetization for just uploadinga podcast and getting all the
listenership that they'll get.
I'll get kickbacks for that.
Or even if I get uh productsponsorships, you get kickbacks
(14:38):
on that as well at commissions.
So that's it, was kind of likewow, that that happened quick.
I think I had the idea, and aweek or later, they she texted
me or was on alignable.
Lucy from Michigan RenaissanceFestival wanted me, wanted to
sponsor me, and then I realizedsomething really cool that
happened with the podcast.
I talked to somebody else onalignable, and she owns Press X
(15:01):
to play games, and she got afunding by Epic Games.
If Epic is like a big to-do ofvideo games, to create a uh it's
called Get Prepped, the videogame.
She's designing a video game,and she asked if I wanted to be
in a video game as the trader atthe trading post for the
post-apocalyptic video game, andthen within the game, there's
(15:25):
all the people that walk around,they get real-time
advertisements.
So, like I got a QR code behindme in the trading post.
The Metro Trade will probably bein there as an advertisement in
the trading post.
So, and that's evergreencontent.
There's I think they said 35million video game players
worldwide, and they're not justlike the 14-year-old in the
(15:46):
basement anymore.
These gamers are, you know, 30,40 years old that are doctors
and lawyers, and they go andplay video games to defrag from
the stresses of life and checkout.
So that's huge money online towhere this is gonna be a whole
new deal, to where people aregonna do all of their networking
and shopping and walking aroundin real life, virtual real life,
(16:08):
real life in these these games.
So she's selling ad space forlike twenty thousand dollars
within the video game to whereif like David Busters would pay
for their slot, then DavidBusters would be the hub for
coming in to exchange, I don'tknow, food and weapons or
whatever the game's about, youknow.
(16:29):
So they're evergreen in thevideo game.
It's kind of cool.
So I got a free slot in there intheir video game, and that just
happened because I had a pot apodcast and I was using it to
advertise Metro Trade.
I was like, wow, okay, that'slike three three wall breaks,
you know.
I didn't expect that to happen.
And and like I said, evergreencontent because an average video
(16:53):
game's lifespan is six years,and then they'll do upgrades if
it's a good game and make it goeight or ten years.
And and Disney World, I guess,sponsored their own island in a
video game and spent, I think,30 million dollars for this
video for this island and thevideo game, a virtual video
game.
So it's it's it's a way to thinkabout outside the box on how to
(17:16):
market yourselves for thefuture.
And gaming is the future, youknow, with the meta quest and
all that stuff in virtualreality.
It's here, so that just kind ofhappened within the last the
game's not launched yet.
This winter, I think it's a betatest, and I think it's
officially launched in thespring.
It's called Get Prepped andpretty cool.
I'm excited for it.
(17:37):
I always wanted to be in a videogame, you know.
When I was young, I was like,man, it'd be cool is to be like
the guy walking around in thevideo game, and now I get to be
that guy, but I didn't voice myown character.
I had somebody, she's she hadsomebody else, a professional
voice actor, voice me, but Isent her pictures, so she's
gonna do like my likeness withthe hat and the vest, you know,
walking around this tradingpost.
(17:58):
Kind of cool, so yeah.
What else?
One thing I am doing differentif you're looking at doing a
podcast, is because I come fromthe YouTube world that I used
seasons as uh chapters.
So with my seasons, I do like aseason one, I'm looking for it
(18:18):
right now, is a trade educationand member spotlights.
That's like what I talk about inseason one.
But I could do like a seasonthree today and then do a season
one next Tuesday when I upload,because I have no, I'm not using
seasons as a sequential order ofevents like everybody else in
the podcast realm.
I'm using it as chapters.
(18:40):
So if you know, think outsidethe box, maybe something like
that too.
If you're looking at doingthings and you want to educate
people on your product, do itmaybe something like that.
It's I'm trying it, I don't knowif it's gonna work or not.
40, 50 episodes into it.
I've been doing it for a year,and so you know there's uh
something that might catch on.
And then season two for me issales and marketing and
(19:02):
networking, and then seasonthree is promoting or my journey
on promoting a business viapodcasting because uh people
will talk about oh, podcastingis the way the future to market
businesses, and you need tostart a podcast to be a good
marketer, but then no one talksabout you know, 47% of podcasts
fail before before they get thethird upload on.
(19:24):
Um, and I think most don't getuh um 50 uploads or something
like that.
It's like 99% fail rate, butbecause they overthink it, you
know, you just gotta like hitrecord, as you know.
I used to do P90X back in theday, and Tony Hoitner always say
just push play, just push playand do what you can, and then
forget the rest.
With podcasting, it's the samething, just hit record, don't
(19:47):
edit too much, you're gonnastress yourself out and hit
upload and uh don't worry aboutwho's listening or who isn't
gonna listen because your first10 podcasts, unless you market
them to like LinkedIn oralignable, you probably won't
get any listens, anyways.
So don't stress too much aboutmaking the perfect audio, the
perfect everything, and perfectcuts and perfect editing.
(20:09):
Because it's you know thereality is is there's I think 20
million podcasts worldwide.
So unless you have really goodSEO or someone's really looking
for your content to learn from,you probably won't get a
listener unless you market toLinkedIn.
Then when you put it onLinkedIn, people listen.
That's how I get all my mylisteners.
I just do a quick upload, aquick, I guess, a synopsis of
(20:32):
the episode, and boom, I get Iget listeners that night, you
know.
But if I don't, it's likecrickets.
So you you have to market alsoon LinkedIn or alignable.
That's what I do.
If you're not on a lineable,it's like business to business.
You kind of skip the middlemanand you get right to the
entrepreneurs, and there's nolike salesy people on there
(20:52):
trying to promote you things onlike they do on LinkedIn.
But it's just a lineable cutsall that stuff out.
It's like uh Facebook forbusiness owners or salespeople,
so it's kind of nice for that.
Not that it's a plug forLinable, but what else?
How much time I have left?
Three minutes.
Cool.
Let's see.
I I always think of like uh TEDtalk, you know.
You they get they time you, Ithink it's 15 minutes you get.
(21:15):
What else?
Yeah, you know what?
I hit everything.
Is there any questions in thelast three minutes before I wrap
up here?
Because I was trying to justthink think of things that I
could talk about to where itwouldn't just be on my podcast.
I talk about a lot of things onhow to promote and use uh use
(21:35):
the podcast.
So I was just gonna, you know,open it up for that.
But basically that's it.
Barter builds partnerships,podcasting educates in markets,
and new media expands reach.
I always say turn challenges andopportunities and trade what you
have to get what you need.
So that's it.
Thank you very much.
Go on.
SPEAKER_01 (21:56):
Um equipment.
What equipment do you need to doa podcast?
SPEAKER_00 (22:00):
This is it.
I got the uh DJI, it's called aDJI, uh DJ uh J as in Joker, I
as an India microphone, it'swireless.
You get uh mine.
I got two of these wirelessmics.
This is the receiver, that's it.
Or you can just use the yourphone.
(22:21):
Well, I wouldn't use just yourphone like this, it would sound
terrible, but I would use thephone records the podcast.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It just plugs in my phone.
Yeah, and you can use an Appleor Android, it don't matter.
It's got an adapter for both.
And or you could if just to getstarted, just use the thing that
comes with your phone, theearbud with the microphone.
I've seen people do that onYouTube.
(22:41):
Just talk into your mic, youknow, with the wire, and just
try it.
And you know, just get get thebutterflies out and just do an
upload and get past the firstthree before you invest any
money in it.
That's what I always say.
SPEAKER_02 (22:55):
Yeah, there's actually not a big preacher,
like microphone.
SPEAKER_00 (23:00):
I have one of those.
I use this.
I have one of those at work.
It's got some the really goodmicrophone with a USB, it's got
it's called an audio vox, it'sgot the compression microphone.
I bought the foam thing for itwith the pop filter that goes
over like a what's called a popscreen to get rid of all that
pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
(23:21):
When you when you talk into amic, it gets rid of all that, so
you just talk it on the side.
And I you I've used it, but inthe bottom line, this is just so
much easier to pop out.
And from the time she wasannouncing me to get up here, it
was all done.
SPEAKER_02 (23:36):
You know, for your podcast, primarily you use what
what we see in front of us,right?
SPEAKER_00 (23:40):
This is it.
This is what I use for apodcast, yeah.
And I mean, if you if you'reoutside, there's a uh a filter,
like a fuzzy thing you put onthe mic so it pop it breaks the
wind.
It's got a magnet that comeswith it, or I use the clip
mostly, but this has this littlemagnet that pops right off.
You just put it like that if youwant and clip it on.
(24:02):
Yeah, or I see a lot of um Iwatch uh a YouTuber, he puts it
on his hat right here, and thatway you don't worry about your
clothes rubbing or nothing likethat, and you can do that as
well.
Yeah, so so with oh sorry.
SPEAKER_02 (24:19):
Oh god.
No, I'm just gonna in terms ofcontent, do you do you make it
like very structured or if youprefer to just do it sort of
just whatever comes to yourmind, you just talk through it?
Like what's that look like?
SPEAKER_00 (24:31):
Yeah, yeah.
So throughout the week,whatever's kind of happening
around the world, because I'm inthe business sector of
everything and trade, whatever.
So I talk about business a lot.
So I'll usually try and gear itto whatever kind of current
events are happening becausepeople are already searching for
that on Google, and then I'lllook at Google Analytics and
I'll look at the top maybe 10keywords that are being searched
(24:52):
for within the last 72 hours,and then I'll try and gear a
podcast on that.
So then that way I get uh clicksand SEO, search engine
optimization if you all SEOs tofor them to automatically find
my podcast without having tomarket it too much, you know,
and I'll use AI to help me builda script.
So I'll I'll ask AI.
I use Perplexity, it's not I Ijust like perplexity because it
(25:14):
uses like seven different AIs inone, and it finds the best one
to utilize for whatever contentyou're generating.
So anyway, Perplexity will tellme, I'll say, hey, create
content based upon the tariffsand how it affects small
businesses in the food, theseafood sector, importing
lobsters out, something likethat.
(25:36):
And then hey, I will and make it20 minutes done.
And then it gives me all thekeynotes, the bullet points, and
everything.
And I print it out or whateverfor my phone and and I read from
that basically.
SPEAKER_02 (25:48):
So what is the 23?
You said 23 minutes is themagic.
What is like why?
Like what is that 23 minutes?
SPEAKER_00 (25:54):
So I use uh the podcast platform I use is called
Buzzsprout, and it's what itwhat that is, is that that's
your main hub to that you uploadyour podcast to, and there's
others, but I use Buzzsproutbecause I was familiar with it.
And then what that does is itgenerates what's called an RSS
feed, and then when you uploadto Buzzprout, it automatically
(26:16):
goes to every every podcastplatform that there is, and
there's ones I've never heardof, like PodNet, Pod This, and
of course there's Spotify, andthere's Apple Podcasts, and they
do it does all of them.
So then if you want to getmonetized, which is where, like,
let's say Favon Busters wants toadvertise in the local area and
(26:37):
they want to hit podcasts,they'll look, they'll contact
Bus Route, and they'll say,Okay, who's in the this area,
Shelby Township area, whatever,that is a podcast that talks
business, that whatever.
And then they'll say, Oh, wehave one right here that has the
average of 23 minutes that theyhave a thousand downloads in the
(26:57):
last 20 days, and they I forgotthere's a third one, third
metric that you have to pass.
I think get the three uploads,but you're gonna get that
anyways after a thousanddownloads.
So that 23 minutes is what BuzzSprout needs for them to make
you a good viable source for acompany to want to sponsor, not
sponsored you, but pay for adson your bid hole.
(27:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:21):
So is is do you have to subscribe to you as the
business, subscribe to BuzzSprout, or what is that?
SPEAKER_00 (27:27):
You don't have to.
Buzzprout is free.
The problem with the freemembership of BuzzRout is you
lose your uploads after I thinkit's 90 days, three months, it
disappears.
So I pay 12 bucks a month.
Okay, and then they maintain itindefinitely as long as I pay
membership.
But really, I pay, I think it'slike 24 or 28, something like
(27:51):
that a month, because I also payfor their AI, which is eight
dollars, that auto auto-levelsmy volume for me.
So I'm gonna have to edit inCamtasia or Garage Van on my
phone to make sure my intro andmy mid-rolls and my body of the
podcast, and then the conclusionare all on the same level of
(28:14):
audio.
I don't know if you ever listento like like you know, like in
commercials, even on TV forever.
You listen to you're watchingsomething, and all of a sudden
the commercial comes on and it'slike, whoa, you turn it down,
it's sold out.
Well, this program makes thatadvertisement or whoever in my
mid-roll all even.
So don't get your ears blown outwhen you're listening to a
(28:34):
podcast.
There's usually 90% of peoplelisten to podcasts with earbuds
on or something like that.
And then the other 10 is intheir car, some weird metric
like that.
So that pay for that, and thenthe other$6 that equals the
$20-ish dollars I pay.
Um, it auto generates the thebody of my podcast to where
(28:55):
it'll do the description for meall by itself and listening to
it.
It also creates the tags for me,and it also creates the the when
you do a post on LinkedIn, itgives you three options to
choose from to upload for youautomatically.
So you do no work.
I when you pay the extra six oreight dollars, I do no work.
I don't the only thing I edit isthe beginning.
(29:17):
If I I'm wrestling with my mic,and I'll maybe cut off the
conclusion of it.
And I have somethingpre-recorded that I had a guy do
for me at I met him at VelocityCenter.
He did my intro role, thewhistling intro.
He we traded him for that.
I gave him membership in theMetro trade, and he did that
whistling intro for me, and nowhe gets exposure on my podcast
(29:39):
because every episode he gets uha blurb about his link, who he
is, what he does.
And he did a whistling intro forme, and it's in every episode
that I have.
And then um, that's it.
So I do pretty much I do maybefour minutes of actual work when
I do a podcast.
(30:00):
Other than the 23 minutes oftalking.
Yeah.
And that's an average 23minutes, not 23 minutes per
episode.
Some of my episodes are like 15minutes, some are 40 minutes,
some are seven minutes.
It's just whatever I want totalk about.
I just do it.
But the average has to be 23minutes for you to be a good
podcast to market for puck.
(30:20):
And I'm not getting paid yet.
Thousand downloads in 90 days isno joke.
That's a lot of downloads.
I know people have beenpodcasting that aren't even
close.
So yeah.
Anything else?
Anyone?
No.
It's good information.
SPEAKER_01 (30:35):
Thank you.
Yeah, I learned a lot, like awhole new language.
SPEAKER_00 (30:38):
Yeah, I know.
It's kind of like the lines comedown.
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (30:42):
Your buzz, whatever.
I heard Buzz Sprout.
Spell it.
SPEAKER_00 (30:45):
Buzz a B U Z.
A sprout.
SPEAKER_01 (30:48):
S-P-R-O-U-T.
SPEAKER_00 (30:49):
S P R U T.
SPEAKER_01 (30:50):
Because I heard Buzz Brow and a few other things.
So it's a frou and yours or buzzsprout.
SPEAKER_00 (30:55):
Yeah, buzzsprout.com is the uh is the podcasting
platform.
And you can use there's I thinkhalf buzz out there.
But I I forgot how I came acrossBuzzBrow.
I think I was looking for it andI saw a YouTube video on it, and
they'd be easy to use.
And I was like, okay, you know,but I don't know anybody with
podcasts, you know.
And I was, like I said, aYouTuber, and I went through
(31:17):
probably three or four channelson YouTubing, and then I kind of
gave up on that.
I did a gardening one.
I did one where I was doingstuff in the Detroit, I was host
doing the D.
And then I did another one, Iforgot, like something
homesteading or something.
Yeah, I was all over the place,you know.
So, but this is way easier.
I have to actually stuff withpodcasts.
SPEAKER_01 (31:36):
So once you find your niche, you just go with it.
SPEAKER_00 (31:38):
Yeah, yeah, you gotta try it.
You might not even do your firstpodcast, your first 10, it might
not even be what you what youlove and want to talk about.
You gotta find something you cantalk about indefinitely.
You know, that's the kind ofscary part.
But the problem is you can'tbrainstorm and think about it,
you gotta just start recordingand figure it out as you go
along.
That's the only way to do it.
(31:59):
So if you're like theembroidery, like you were
talking about, you can talkabout embroidery, but talk about
like maybe the machines and thisand that, you know, and then
what you can make with it.
So you gotta I do three or fourdifferent things to think about
and stuff like that.
So thank you.
Oh, I love you.
Yeah, well, because I got thatbanana sponsors left and all
(32:20):
they compare.
SPEAKER_01 (32:23):
Thank you.
That one that was veryinteresting.
SPEAKER_00 (32:26):
Um definitely connected me on LinkedIn or
Linable.
If you have more questions, I'dlove to help you out.
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
That's the charging base, andthat slips right in that.
Hello and welcome to the Trading Post Podcast, where
we unlock the secrets ofbusiness-to-business trade, dive
into powerful networkingstrategies, and share my
exciting journey of using apodcast to market my business
instead of relying on SEO.
I'm your host, Trader Stew.
(00:24):
Hello, everyone, and welcomeback to the Trading Post
Podcast.
I got something a little bitdifferent uh scheduled for
today.
Over the last week, I wasscheduled to speak at the
American Business Women'sAssociation or the ABWA at their
monthly meeting and talk aboutthe benefits of using a podcast
(00:46):
as a platform for advertising ormarketing of business and the
ins and outs of using a podcastand doing a podcast and the
equipment needed and you know,et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And I recorded myself during it,and so I wanted to upload it for
you because I mean why not?
I asked if I could, and theysaid it was all right, and I I
(01:08):
figured, you know what, even theaudio is gonna be a little, I
think, uh sketchy.
Well, I don't know.
I use the same microphone asusual, however, there's gonna be
some background noise, uh, somemaybe some chatter.
I was at the what do you callit, arcade out there, Dave and
Busters.
So there's some background noisewith that, maybe some arcade
(01:30):
games, definitely dishes andplates and silverware because I
was speaking while everyone waseating, so to speak, you know,
one of those things, like it waslike a dinner conversation.
So I was real laid back, realchill, and I tried to just do
mostly questions and answersbecause I mean I can talk at or
to anybody through the podcast.
(01:51):
I wanted to make it more on apersonal level and answer any
and all questions that they hadthere.
So I'm gonna keep this introshort and basically that's it.
I'm gonna just un-edited theupload, and it's about looks
like 30 minutes long, maybe.
And I'll go through, maybe dosome rough edits and maybe some
pauses, but you're here andthere.
But really, it's just gonna beraw, uncut, unedited footage, so
(02:15):
or recording, I guess you couldsay.
So that's it.
That's enough of me talking.
I'm gonna go ahead and uploadthat and connect that here, and
we'll see you in the next week,next show.
Thank you.
Be good or be good at it.
Sounds weird saying it rightafter the intro.
Good evening, Stuart Aldridge.
Or gotta go by trader Stu aswell for the podcast.
It's just a fun little gimmickthat I started made up to have
(02:38):
fun with it.
I'm also the sales and marketingmanager from Metro Trading
Association and of course theTrading Post Podcast.
So thank you, of course, forhaving me.
And then also to Janet whoinvited me.
I met her at the Velocity Centerin Sterling Heights, and then
again the one million cupsnetworking thing.
And then she actually came toone of my events.
I started networking with kidsthing where my wife and I were
(03:01):
trying to kind of make makefriends with other parents, but
they're also maybe businesspeople or entrepreneurs or
whatever.
So I had a networking event atJungle Java, and then that way
the kids could play in thetunnels and the parents could
hand out business cards, youknow.
So we did that for a littlewhile.
And now, actually, Dr.
(03:21):
Mary, if you don't know her,okay, yeah.
She started, she's uh at the uhmove on Mound Road or Van Dyke,
I think it is.
Yep, and uh so she's doing thenetworking event there now.
Right, so right before she doesthe bag stuffing on the second
Monday of the month, she's nowhosting what was networking with
kids.
Now it's called the RippleEffect, and it's at her location
now.
(03:42):
So, and uh anyway.
So, who am I?
I guess, and like you know,where where do I come from?
What my I guess roots.
So I grew up in Frankenmouth,Michigan, and my parents started
several businesses.
We had J.R.
RickyCons, which was a uh pizzaplace, and we did donuts and
bread out of a house.
We moved to Main Street Tavern,which is right on the road there
(04:04):
on uh on top of the hill, rightnext to my grandpa's place,
which was Sato Drugstore.
He owned that, and then webought the Blue Dolphin and then
turned that into Harry's Bistro.
And all along I was workingsince I was this big, probably I
don't know, first grade,whatever the hell that is, doing
bar back, running, you know, thebeer for the for the uh
(04:25):
bartenders, and then I waswashing dishes and helping, you
know, kind of getting in likewell, not other meetings, but
helping with you know thebookwork or stuff like that, and
watching my mom and my dad doit, and then you know, you know,
on phone calls and conferencecalls and things like that.
So I've been kind of in thebusiness mindset since I can
remember, and so that's where Icome from with that.
(04:47):
And I kind of got out of the outof the last one was Frank and
Miss Franklin Moose CigarCompany.
I I just said no more familybusinesses, so and I left that.
So no more, I didn't do cigars,but I did I was in New York City
just trying to be an actor, andso I did door-to-door sales in
all five boroughs in New York,so the Bronx, Manhattan, you
know, Brooklyn, Queens,literally door knocking and
(05:09):
doing sales there, and then ofcourse I done the MLM stuff with
EcoQuest.
I tried that, and then after allthat, I started an aerial
photography business withdrones, and then COVID hit, and
then no more gatherings, so nomore photography for gatherings
and weddings and graduations.
So to get my money back on thedrone, I was like, Well, I could
(05:30):
do gutter cleaning, so it woulddo the inspections with the
drone and do the gutterinspection and show them the
before and after the guttercleaning.
So I did that until my shoulderscouldn't handle that no more and
sold all that stuff.
So, but I got my money back inthe drone, that's all that
matters.
So I spent top of the money onthe drone.
So, what else?
So, yeah, that's um I'm gonnabasically kind of walk you
(05:53):
through how I got intopodcasting and why and the kind
of the road that it took me on.
So, what happened was is I waswith Metro Trading Association
in 2013, and then I became asales manager 2014, 2015 time
frame.
Then I had my own kind of crew,and uh we were I was in Genesee
County area, and I had I thinksix sales reps, and we were
(06:17):
doing really well, and then acompany came along and
headhunted me essentially andoffered me an amount of money
that I couldn't refuse,essentially.
So, excuse me, after eightyears, I got laid off from
there, and then I stayed incontact with Mike and Lois, the
owners of Metro TradingAssociation, always on good
terms, and I even had one of mybusinesses the the photography
(06:39):
drone uh gutter cleaning withMetro Trade as well.
So I've been kind of like theaccount management membership
sign up, and also I have my ownbusiness in it as well.
So I really believe in trade.
And so when I came back, I raninto some issues where I had
another complication when Iexplained trade and barter and
how it works and business andbusiness barter that people
(07:01):
thought I was in crypto nowbecause you know that was
nowadays, right?
So back then I was competing andwith the whole trade, like I
don't you know, trade one forone or bartering, or I need cash
and all of those usual problemsthat I would run into.
Now I had all that plus thecrypto thing.
So uh Mike Mercier, the owner ofMetro Trading Association, was
(07:25):
like, why don't you go onpodcasts?
And that's the new thing nowthat everyone's doing, and kind
of explain that, be interviewed,and explain it on how what trade
is because it you're not gettingany traction right now.
So I was all right.
So I looked around in thechamber of commerce, and then I
met somebody who did GoodNeighbor Podcast.
(07:46):
Good neighbor podcast is afranchise, so sweet her last
name is Sweeney.
She would do the Rochester one,and then I would, you know, I
was it was uploaded, and Ididn't really get anything for
marketing-wise for me, but itwas at least exposure, and then
gave me the idea to be like,well, that was easy.
Why don't I just start my ownpodcast?
(08:07):
Because I was a YouTuber aswell, so I kind of already had
some traction in the game towhere podcasting was definitely
easier for me because there's novideo, I don't do video.
Uh there's video podcasts, likeJoe Rogan and stuff like that,
but I'm audio only because it'sso much more editing to do
video, and you have to make surethe lighting's right, you're
(08:29):
wearing the right stuff, you gotthe shadows, you know, and the
background, and it's just a lot,a lot more work.
And then you got when you do theedit of the video and the audio,
you gotta clip the same things,it's just a mess.
So I said audio only, minimalprocessing, minimal editing was
my idea, and and just see whathappens.
So when I talk to people on thephone and I try and explain
(08:52):
trade, they you know want moreinformation, usually, right?
So instead of sending them abrochure or a flyer or an email
or my website that links them toMetro Trade, and by the way,
we've been around since 1978, soit's not like exactly a new
deal, right?
But but new business ownersdon't know.
They just it's not in college,it's not in entrepreneur, you
(09:12):
know, schools and things likethat.
So I was like, why don't I justmake three episodes with of a
podcast just to explain it, justto give them a link, check it
out.
Here's what it is, here's whathere's what the Metro Trade is,
and then you know, listen to itwhen you pick up the kids or
whatever, and then let me knowwhat you think.
And that's how it kind ofstarted.
(09:34):
Because when you are, if youdon't know, I guess I'll give
you a background real quick ontrade.
Business to business barter ortrade is a credit system, so
it's like a Visa, MasterCard,Metro trade.
But the the difference is thatyou're in a group with members
who are gonna go out of theirway and try and do business with
you first before they go outsidein the open market.
(09:56):
So it's like joining a chamberof commerce or whatever, a BI
group, but you get a guaranteedresult.
So, like a membership fee is 400bucks, but if you don't get$400
in business the first year, wegive you your money back minus
the difference of whatever wegot for you.
So if I got you$300 in business,you get$100 back, whatever,
right?
So that's the guarantee.
(10:18):
And a lot of times for bigrestaurants, I just let them let
them in because they're gonna dosuch high volume that uh, you
know, it's okay for me to uhwaive my commission and bring
them in the group because allthe members are gonna love the
new restaurant.
So now the restaurant, let'sjust say it's a restaurant, you
go there for$100 and trade.
They now have 100 trade creditsin their system to spend with
(10:39):
whoever they want in the system.
So it's not a one-to-one barter,it's not like you're trading
furs for jerky anymore.
It's you know it goes into acredit base so you can store the
wealth, and then the only feereally is that point is a 12%
transaction fee for us doing allthe marketing, the emailing, the
phone calls, so you have brokersthat put deals together, all
(11:02):
that is not really paid foruntil you do the transaction.
So it's joining a membershipgroup that you don't pay for
until you get results.
It's a you know, so it's reallynice that way.
Um, and then we do the monthlyfee, 19 bucks a month, but
that's after the first year.
So you literally get a wholeyear to try us out basically for
no charge.
So, but it's hard to explainthat on the phone or even in
(11:25):
person.
So the podcast came out.
So, what I did with that was Idid three the three episodes,
and then I started gettinglisteners all over the world
without me even marketing itthat way.
Because with AI now, there'slike the SEO.
If you do your descriptionsright, it'll crawl for keywords,
(11:46):
and then you'll be a hit on asearch result for somebody in my
case, like Australia and GreatBritain, and then Germany.
And I was just like, Whoa,what's going on here?
You know, I was like, Well,maybe I'll just keep doing it
and I'll just keep uploadingaudio.
I mean, it doesn't cost menothing.
The microphone I'm wearing rightnow, I think was 250 bucks.
And I have another mic that Idon't use because this is fine,
(12:09):
this is great.
I do it in my car, I do it in myoffice or my basement.
I started off in my sauna in thebasement.
I bought a house with a sauna init, and I turned it into a sauna
studio because we never use itfor anything else, so it's just
dead space sitting there.
So I was like, Oh, this isgreat.
I use it for a studio, you know.
So you can do it anywhere youwant, and you don't have to have
the best, you know, equipment.
And with the cameras, it becomesanother issue, but you can have
(12:31):
your camera on your iPhone, it'sjust as good as anything else
anymore.
So you can do it that way aswell.
So the benefit is where I kindof and got a lot of traction, I
guess you could say, was thatwhen I was doing all of the
podcasting, now you become kindof a professional or a guru in
(12:52):
your in your field.
So now when you're at chamberevents, people come to you and
they say, Hey, I heard you'reyou have a podcast and they want
to talk to you, and you know,what do you know, and things
like that.
So now you become people come toyou instead of you having to go
to them.
So it marketed it that way forme.
So the reason why I did it asthe trading post podcast is
(13:13):
because, of course, trade andbarter, you know, it just kind
of made sense.
I was like the trading post, thetrading post in the old west is
where you came to do all yourcommerce, it's where you came to
bring your goods and do all yourtransactions, and that's kind of
what Metro Trading Associationis.
So, and then I did it under myown brand.
That way I don't have to askpermission for things when I
(13:34):
when I want to market, yeah,whatever, right?
So Metro Trade sponsors me andthey get all the logo and
everything that I have, andyeah, I'm also part of Metro
Trade, but they are just youknow an icon or whatever a
sponsorship in in the uh Metrotrade or in the trading post.
And then I was in a lineable,and then I got sponsored by
(13:55):
Michigan Renaissance Festival,so it's kind of cool to where I
was like, man, it'd be cool.
Before that, I was like, why whydon't I try and make it so
instead of paying foradvertising, I get paid to
advertise.
That's fun.
So, you know, I'm not gettingpaid by Michigan Renaissance
Festival.
We traded tickets like they doon radio stations in exchange
(14:17):
for mentions, but it's a start,you know.
One day maybe I'll get a realsponsorship where I'm getting
paid money, or I'll get enoughdownloads to where I'll get
monetization for just uploadinga podcast and getting all the
listenership that they'll get.
I'll get kickbacks for that.
Or even if I get uh productsponsorships, you get kickbacks
(14:38):
on that as well at commissions.
So that's it, was kind of likewow, that that happened quick.
I think I had the idea, and aweek or later, they she texted
me or was on alignable.
Lucy from Michigan RenaissanceFestival wanted me, wanted to
sponsor me, and then I realizedsomething really cool that
happened with the podcast.
I talked to somebody else onalignable, and she owns Press X
(15:01):
to play games, and she got afunding by Epic Games.
If Epic is like a big to-do ofvideo games, to create a uh it's
called Get Prepped, the videogame.
She's designing a video game,and she asked if I wanted to be
in a video game as the trader atthe trading post for the
post-apocalyptic video game, andthen within the game, there's
(15:25):
all the people that walk around,they get real-time
advertisements.
So, like I got a QR code behindme in the trading post.
The Metro Trade will probably bein there as an advertisement in
the trading post.
So, and that's evergreencontent.
There's I think they said 35million video game players
worldwide, and they're not justlike the 14-year-old in the
(15:46):
basement anymore.
These gamers are, you know, 30,40 years old that are doctors
and lawyers, and they go andplay video games to defrag from
the stresses of life and checkout.
So that's huge money online towhere this is gonna be a whole
new deal, to where people aregonna do all of their networking
and shopping and walking aroundin real life, virtual real life,
(16:08):
real life in these these games.
So she's selling ad space forlike twenty thousand dollars
within the video game to whereif like David Busters would pay
for their slot, then DavidBusters would be the hub for
coming in to exchange, I don'tknow, food and weapons or
whatever the game's about, youknow.
(16:29):
So they're evergreen in thevideo game.
It's kind of cool.
So I got a free slot in there intheir video game, and that just
happened because I had a pot apodcast and I was using it to
advertise Metro Trade.
I was like, wow, okay, that'slike three three wall breaks,
you know.
I didn't expect that to happen.
And and like I said, evergreencontent because an average video
(16:53):
game's lifespan is six years,and then they'll do upgrades if
it's a good game and make it goeight or ten years.
And and Disney World, I guess,sponsored their own island in a
video game and spent, I think,30 million dollars for this
video for this island and thevideo game, a virtual video
game.
So it's it's it's a way to thinkabout outside the box on how to
(17:16):
market yourselves for thefuture.
And gaming is the future, youknow, with the meta quest and
all that stuff in virtualreality.
It's here, so that just kind ofhappened within the last the
game's not launched yet.
This winter, I think it's a betatest, and I think it's
officially launched in thespring.
It's called Get Prepped andpretty cool.
I'm excited for it.
(17:37):
I always wanted to be in a videogame, you know.
When I was young, I was like,man, it'd be cool is to be like
the guy walking around in thevideo game, and now I get to be
that guy, but I didn't voice myown character.
I had somebody, she's she hadsomebody else, a professional
voice actor, voice me, but Isent her pictures, so she's
gonna do like my likeness withthe hat and the vest, you know,
walking around this tradingpost.
(17:58):
Kind of cool, so yeah.
What else?
One thing I am doing differentif you're looking at doing a
podcast, is because I come fromthe YouTube world that I used
seasons as uh chapters.
So with my seasons, I do like aseason one, I'm looking for it
(18:18):
right now, is a trade educationand member spotlights.
That's like what I talk about inseason one.
But I could do like a seasonthree today and then do a season
one next Tuesday when I upload,because I have no, I'm not using
seasons as a sequential order ofevents like everybody else in
the podcast realm.
I'm using it as chapters.
(18:40):
So if you know, think outsidethe box, maybe something like
that too.
If you're looking at doingthings and you want to educate
people on your product, do itmaybe something like that.
It's I'm trying it, I don't knowif it's gonna work or not.
40, 50 episodes into it.
I've been doing it for a year,and so you know there's uh
something that might catch on.
And then season two for me issales and marketing and
(19:02):
networking, and then seasonthree is promoting or my journey
on promoting a business viapodcasting because uh people
will talk about oh, podcastingis the way the future to market
businesses, and you need tostart a podcast to be a good
marketer, but then no one talksabout you know, 47% of podcasts
fail before before they get thethird upload on.
(19:24):
Um, and I think most don't getuh um 50 uploads or something
like that.
It's like 99% fail rate, butbecause they overthink it, you
know, you just gotta like hitrecord, as you know.
I used to do P90X back in theday, and Tony Hoitner always say
just push play, just push playand do what you can, and then
forget the rest.
With podcasting, it's the samething, just hit record, don't
(19:47):
edit too much, you're gonnastress yourself out and hit
upload and uh don't worry aboutwho's listening or who isn't
gonna listen because your first10 podcasts, unless you market
them to like LinkedIn oralignable, you probably won't
get any listens, anyways.
So don't stress too much aboutmaking the perfect audio, the
perfect everything, and perfectcuts and perfect editing.
(20:09):
Because it's you know thereality is is there's I think 20
million podcasts worldwide.
So unless you have really goodSEO or someone's really looking
for your content to learn from,you probably won't get a
listener unless you market toLinkedIn.
Then when you put it onLinkedIn, people listen.
That's how I get all my mylisteners.
I just do a quick upload, aquick, I guess, a synopsis of
(20:32):
the episode, and boom, I get Iget listeners that night, you
know.
But if I don't, it's likecrickets.
So you you have to market alsoon LinkedIn or alignable.
That's what I do.
If you're not on a lineable,it's like business to business.
You kind of skip the middlemanand you get right to the
entrepreneurs, and there's nolike salesy people on there
(20:52):
trying to promote you things onlike they do on LinkedIn.
But it's just a lineable cutsall that stuff out.
It's like uh Facebook forbusiness owners or salespeople,
so it's kind of nice for that.
Not that it's a plug forLinable, but what else?
How much time I have left?
Three minutes.
Cool.
Let's see.
I I always think of like uh TEDtalk, you know.
You they get they time you, Ithink it's 15 minutes you get.
(21:15):
What else?
Yeah, you know what?
I hit everything.
Is there any questions in thelast three minutes before I wrap
up here?
Because I was trying to justthink think of things that I
could talk about to where itwouldn't just be on my podcast.
I talk about a lot of things onhow to promote and use uh use
(21:35):
the podcast.
So I was just gonna, you know,open it up for that.
But basically that's it.
Barter builds partnerships,podcasting educates in markets,
and new media expands reach.
I always say turn challenges andopportunities and trade what you
have to get what you need.
So that's it.
Thank you very much.
Go on.
SPEAKER_01 (21:56):
Um equipment.
What equipment do you need to doa podcast?
SPEAKER_00 (22:00):
This is it.
I got the uh DJI, it's called aDJI, uh DJ uh J as in Joker, I
as an India microphone, it'swireless.
You get uh mine.
I got two of these wirelessmics.
This is the receiver, that's it.
Or you can just use the yourphone.
(22:21):
Well, I wouldn't use just yourphone like this, it would sound
terrible, but I would use thephone records the podcast.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It just plugs in my phone.
Yeah, and you can use an Appleor Android, it don't matter.
It's got an adapter for both.
And or you could if just to getstarted, just use the thing that
comes with your phone, theearbud with the microphone.
I've seen people do that onYouTube.
(22:41):
Just talk into your mic, youknow, with the wire, and just
try it.
And you know, just get get thebutterflies out and just do an
upload and get past the firstthree before you invest any
money in it.
That's what I always say.
SPEAKER_02 (22:55):
Yeah, there's actually not a big preacher,
like microphone.
SPEAKER_00 (23:00):
I have one of those.
I use this.
I have one of those at work.
It's got some the really goodmicrophone with a USB, it's got
it's called an audio vox, it'sgot the compression microphone.
I bought the foam thing for itwith the pop filter that goes
over like a what's called a popscreen to get rid of all that
pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
(23:21):
When you when you talk into amic, it gets rid of all that, so
you just talk it on the side.
And I you I've used it, but inthe bottom line, this is just so
much easier to pop out.
And from the time she wasannouncing me to get up here, it
was all done.
SPEAKER_02 (23:36):
You know, for your podcast, primarily you use what
what we see in front of us,right?
SPEAKER_00 (23:40):
This is it.
This is what I use for apodcast, yeah.
And I mean, if you if you'reoutside, there's a uh a filter,
like a fuzzy thing you put onthe mic so it pop it breaks the
wind.
It's got a magnet that comeswith it, or I use the clip
mostly, but this has this littlemagnet that pops right off.
You just put it like that if youwant and clip it on.
(24:02):
Yeah, or I see a lot of um Iwatch uh a YouTuber, he puts it
on his hat right here, and thatway you don't worry about your
clothes rubbing or nothing likethat, and you can do that as
well.
Yeah, so so with oh sorry.
SPEAKER_02 (24:19):
Oh god.
No, I'm just gonna in terms ofcontent, do you do you make it
like very structured or if youprefer to just do it sort of
just whatever comes to yourmind, you just talk through it?
Like what's that look like?
SPEAKER_00 (24:31):
Yeah, yeah.
So throughout the week,whatever's kind of happening
around the world, because I'm inthe business sector of
everything and trade, whatever.
So I talk about business a lot.
So I'll usually try and gear itto whatever kind of current
events are happening becausepeople are already searching for
that on Google, and then I'lllook at Google Analytics and
I'll look at the top maybe 10keywords that are being searched
(24:52):
for within the last 72 hours,and then I'll try and gear a
podcast on that.
So then that way I get uh clicksand SEO, search engine
optimization if you all SEOs tofor them to automatically find
my podcast without having tomarket it too much, you know,
and I'll use AI to help me builda script.
So I'll I'll ask AI.
I use Perplexity, it's not I Ijust like perplexity because it
(25:14):
uses like seven different AIs inone, and it finds the best one
to utilize for whatever contentyou're generating.
So anyway, Perplexity will tellme, I'll say, hey, create
content based upon the tariffsand how it affects small
businesses in the food, theseafood sector, importing
lobsters out, something likethat.
(25:36):
And then hey, I will and make it20 minutes done.
And then it gives me all thekeynotes, the bullet points, and
everything.
And I print it out or whateverfor my phone and and I read from
that basically.
SPEAKER_02 (25:48):
So what is the 23?
You said 23 minutes is themagic.
What is like why?
Like what is that 23 minutes?
SPEAKER_00 (25:54):
So I use uh the podcast platform I use is called
Buzzsprout, and it's what itwhat that is, is that that's
your main hub to that you uploadyour podcast to, and there's
others, but I use Buzzsproutbecause I was familiar with it.
And then what that does is itgenerates what's called an RSS
feed, and then when you uploadto Buzzprout, it automatically
(26:16):
goes to every every podcastplatform that there is, and
there's ones I've never heardof, like PodNet, Pod This, and
of course there's Spotify, andthere's Apple Podcasts, and they
do it does all of them.
So then if you want to getmonetized, which is where, like,
let's say Favon Busters wants toadvertise in the local area and
(26:37):
they want to hit podcasts,they'll look, they'll contact
Bus Route, and they'll say,Okay, who's in the this area,
Shelby Township area, whatever,that is a podcast that talks
business, that whatever.
And then they'll say, Oh, wehave one right here that has the
average of 23 minutes that theyhave a thousand downloads in the
(26:57):
last 20 days, and they I forgotthere's a third one, third
metric that you have to pass.
I think get the three uploads,but you're gonna get that
anyways after a thousanddownloads.
So that 23 minutes is what BuzzSprout needs for them to make
you a good viable source for acompany to want to sponsor, not
sponsored you, but pay for adson your bid hole.
(27:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:21):
So is is do you have to subscribe to you as the
business, subscribe to BuzzSprout, or what is that?
SPEAKER_00 (27:27):
You don't have to.
Buzzprout is free.
The problem with the freemembership of BuzzRout is you
lose your uploads after I thinkit's 90 days, three months, it
disappears.
So I pay 12 bucks a month.
Okay, and then they maintain itindefinitely as long as I pay
membership.
But really, I pay, I think it'slike 24 or 28, something like
(27:51):
that a month, because I also payfor their AI, which is eight
dollars, that auto auto-levelsmy volume for me.
So I'm gonna have to edit inCamtasia or Garage Van on my
phone to make sure my intro andmy mid-rolls and my body of the
podcast, and then the conclusionare all on the same level of
(28:14):
audio.
I don't know if you ever listento like like you know, like in
commercials, even on TV forever.
You listen to you're watchingsomething, and all of a sudden
the commercial comes on and it'slike, whoa, you turn it down,
it's sold out.
Well, this program makes thatadvertisement or whoever in my
mid-roll all even.
So don't get your ears blown outwhen you're listening to a
(28:34):
podcast.
There's usually 90% of peoplelisten to podcasts with earbuds
on or something like that.
And then the other 10 is intheir car, some weird metric
like that.
So that pay for that, and thenthe other$6 that equals the
$20-ish dollars I pay.
Um, it auto generates the thebody of my podcast to where
(28:55):
it'll do the description for meall by itself and listening to
it.
It also creates the tags for me,and it also creates the the when
you do a post on LinkedIn, itgives you three options to
choose from to upload for youautomatically.
So you do no work.
I when you pay the extra six oreight dollars, I do no work.
I don't the only thing I edit isthe beginning.
(29:17):
If I I'm wrestling with my mic,and I'll maybe cut off the
conclusion of it.
And I have somethingpre-recorded that I had a guy do
for me at I met him at VelocityCenter.
He did my intro role, thewhistling intro.
He we traded him for that.
I gave him membership in theMetro trade, and he did that
whistling intro for me, and nowhe gets exposure on my podcast
(29:39):
because every episode he gets uha blurb about his link, who he
is, what he does.
And he did a whistling intro forme, and it's in every episode
that I have.
And then um, that's it.
So I do pretty much I do maybefour minutes of actual work when
I do a podcast.
(30:00):
Other than the 23 minutes oftalking.
Yeah.
And that's an average 23minutes, not 23 minutes per
episode.
Some of my episodes are like 15minutes, some are 40 minutes,
some are seven minutes.
It's just whatever I want totalk about.
I just do it.
But the average has to be 23minutes for you to be a good
podcast to market for puck.
(30:20):
And I'm not getting paid yet.
Thousand downloads in 90 days isno joke.
That's a lot of downloads.
I know people have beenpodcasting that aren't even
close.
So yeah.
Anything else?
Anyone?
No.
It's good information.
SPEAKER_01 (30:35):
Thank you.
Yeah, I learned a lot, like awhole new language.
SPEAKER_00 (30:38):
Yeah, I know.
It's kind of like the lines comedown.
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (30:42):
Your buzz, whatever.
I heard Buzz Sprout.
Spell it.
SPEAKER_00 (30:45):
Buzz a B U Z.
A sprout.
SPEAKER_01 (30:48):
S-P-R-O-U-T.
SPEAKER_00 (30:49):
S P R U T.
SPEAKER_01 (30:50):
Because I heard Buzz Brow and a few other things.
So it's a frou and yours or buzzsprout.
SPEAKER_00 (30:55):
Yeah, buzzsprout.com is the uh is the podcasting
platform.
And you can use there's I thinkhalf buzz out there.
But I I forgot how I came acrossBuzzBrow.
I think I was looking for it andI saw a YouTube video on it, and
they'd be easy to use.
And I was like, okay, you know,but I don't know anybody with
podcasts, you know.
And I was, like I said, aYouTuber, and I went through
(31:17):
probably three or four channelson YouTubing, and then I kind of
gave up on that.
I did a gardening one.
I did one where I was doingstuff in the Detroit, I was host
doing the D.
And then I did another one, Iforgot, like something
homesteading or something.
Yeah, I was all over the place,you know.
So, but this is way easier.
I have to actually stuff withpodcasts.
SPEAKER_01 (31:36):
So once you find your niche, you just go with it.
SPEAKER_00 (31:38):
Yeah, yeah, you gotta try it.
You might not even do your firstpodcast, your first 10, it might
not even be what you what youlove and want to talk about.
You gotta find something you cantalk about indefinitely.
You know, that's the kind ofscary part.
But the problem is you can'tbrainstorm and think about it,
you gotta just start recordingand figure it out as you go
along.
That's the only way to do it.
(31:59):
So if you're like theembroidery, like you were
talking about, you can talkabout embroidery, but talk about
like maybe the machines and thisand that, you know, and then
what you can make with it.
So you gotta I do three or fourdifferent things to think about
and stuff like that.
So thank you.
Oh, I love you.
Yeah, well, because I got thatbanana sponsors left and all
(32:20):
they compare.
SPEAKER_01 (32:23):
Thank you.
That one that was veryinteresting.
SPEAKER_00 (32:26):
Um definitely connected me on LinkedIn or
Linable.
If you have more questions, I'dlove to help you out.
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
That's the charging base, andthat slips right in that.
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