70 - Content Automation

Note: This transcript was auto generated then some poor soul sat and listened to it, and followed through correcting any mistakes they spotted. Please however expect human error and shout if you spot an issue. Email: lee [fancy curly symbol] trailblazer.fm.

Verbatim text

Lee Matthew Jackson
Welcome to the WP Innovator Podcast, the podcast for web designers and design agencies exploring the world of WordPress and online business. And now your host, Lee Jackson. Hi and welcome to episode number 70 of the WP Innovator Podcast. This is Lee, and before we carry on, can I just encourage you to head on over to YouTube and cheque out our channel. We’ve just cranked out 2 videos with our nice new video camera. Quality is, we’re still working on the quality, we’ve still gotta get there, you know, it’s hit and miss, but hey, we wanted to get the content out there, so go on over to anglecrown.com/youtube and cheque out our YouTube channel. Please do like and subscribe, as they say, all that kind of stuff on YouTube. It’s really good. And apparently, you know, my face isn’t that bad. It kind of works on camera, so hey, we’re all happy. Some great content over there. That’s agiledcrown.com/youtube. All right, with that little pitch out of the way, in today’s episode we have Hani Mourra, and he’s going to be talking about his product repurpose.io and the beauty of automation. But also, we’re just going to be asking him deep and searching questions, and he’s just going to come back with Mr. Miyagi style comments and just blows my mind.

Lee Matthew Jackson
So sit back, relax, enjoy the ride. Good morning, good evening, and good night. This is Lee, and today with me I have—

Hani Mourra
you’re going to tell us who you are?

Lee Matthew Jackson
Hani Mourra! Yeah, that was brilliant. That is the best intro ever. We could never script that one either. That was just, that was immense. Hani, mate, how are you doing?

Hani Mourra
I’m well, I’m doing very well. How are you, Lee? It’s been a while.

Lee Matthew Jackson
It has been a while. Well, last time we like really properly spoke was in the days of Blab. So I feel we should have like a minute’s silence for Blab, but I guess I have kind of got over it now. So I think the nation has. Um, but Hani, if you don’t remember, was last on this podcast in episode 2, which was way back in December. The 6th of 2015, if you can remember that far back. It was a different world then, pre-Trump, all that sort of thing. Everything, the future was bright. Anyway, I’m messing, guys. But Hani, mate, what have you been up to the last year and a half?

Hani Mourra
Ah, just cranking away, man, cranking away, building more tools and just integrating myself in the podcasting and live streaming community and just having a good time and enjoying the ride.

Lee Matthew Jackson
So for people who don’t know who Hani is, can you just give us a bit of a background of who— well, obviously who you are, but what it is you do as well, what you’re all about?

Hani Mourra
Yeah, I’m— I call myself softwarepreneur because I use software to solve problems. And the kind of problems I like to solve are based on podcasting, live streaming. And basically the whole point is to automate, kind of automate the content going from your podcast, from your live stream to your website. That was initial focus. So my idea is Focus on content creation and let the software and tools automate the rest of distribution for you.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Now, if you’re wondering what sort of tools Hani builds, then if you think of Simple Podcast Press, that was one we talked about back in episode 2 all those years ago. Um, the idea behind that was that you, you’re publishing your podcast via wherever your feed is, and then Simple Podcast Press is just going to grab that down and put it on your website for you, etc. So, um, since that episode, mate. Can you just give us a bit of a coverage of what other problems you have been solving in the world of automation since episode 2?

Hani Mourra
Ah, for sure. Um, you mentioned Blab. So when Blab came out a couple years ago, yeah, I built a tool that publishes your Blabs to your WordPress site. Now obviously Blab is no longer allowed around these days, but rest in peace, it was a great platform. Um, so Facebook Live kind of became the hot thing and And it still is the hot thing now to get your— do your live broadcast, connect with your audience in a live way on Facebook. So since then I’ve built a WordPress plugin that does that for you. It takes all your Facebook Lives and automatically publish them to your website along with all the comments as well. So you get a, you know, a new blog post, you get a video for longer engagement on your site, and you get comments for a little bit of SEO boost. All automatically as soon as you’re done your Facebook Lives.

Lee Matthew Jackson
That is so cool. Isn’t— am I right in saying this also publishes to YouTube, or is that something else that I saw, or have you got a video plugin as well?

Hani Mourra
Yeah, so right now, um, that Facebook Live is a WordPress plugin. It’s called Simple Social Press. Okay. And that one takes your Facebook Lives to your WordPress site. That was about a year ago since we talked, and, uh, now a few months ago, in early 2017, I decided to expand further. A, to help people who don’t have a WordPress site, and B, to help get your content beyond your website. So not getting only your content to your website automatically, but also getting it to other channels like YouTube. So that was— that’s my, my latest baby. It’s called Repurpose, repurpose.io. And the whole premise is You know, it automatically takes your content, whether it’s a podcast or a Facebook Live— that’s what we support right now— and automatically convert it and distribute it to other platforms like YouTube and SoundCloud. And we’re actually adding more and more platforms as we go.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I think, I think you described it when we were chatting the other day, uh, good old email, as the Zapier for content creators.

Hani Mourra
Yes, it’s exactly that. It’s, it’s exactly that. It’s not sharing You know, it’s not retweeting or, you know, posting on Facebook. It’s actually taking your content, your actual video or your audio. Let’s take a podcast, for example. Take your audio, you’ll make a beautiful video out of it with a beautiful animated waveform. It puts the title of the episode, everything’s fully automated, makes a beautiful video, and it pushes that as a native video to YouTube. Obviously it uploads it to YouTube, and you can do your Facebook Lives as well. You do a Facebook Live and within 15-20 minutes it will go as a video on your YouTube channel. Fully automatic. You don’t even need to log in. You set it once and you forget it.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Set it and forget it. That’s that line I’ve heard from you so many times. I love that.

Hani Mourra
The set it and forget it. Yeah, focus on content. Focus on creating. Focus on making the podcast. Focus on sharing awesome value with your audience on Facebook Live. Don’t worry about downloading it, converting it to an audio, uploading it, and saving a copy to YouTube. Don’t worry about that. That’s what Repurpose is for.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Well, that’s one thing I’ve been doing recently is some of the videos I’ve been doing on YouTube because I’ve just launched the YouTube channel and then I’ve been popping copies of it in different places as well for people like on Facebook, etc. So just trying to find that one source, you know, one way to record and push out is definitely of interest to me. I have not actually though signed up for repurpose.io, I will confess. But then you’re still in— aren’t you still in the beta phase at the moment?

Hani Mourra
Yeah, it’s available to the public. We have a free trial right now, so you can try it out for free. You can publish at the moment 4 episodes. And so whether they’re Facebook Lives or podcasts, totally up to you. So you can get a feel for what it’s all about and It’s really as simple as logging in, going to the connexions page and say, hey, connect my podcast, connect my YouTube channel, connect my Facebook, whatever your inputs and your outputs are. And then you set a rule. You say, every time I do a podcast, convert it to a video and publish it to YouTube.

Lee Matthew Jackson
And I guess the difference here as well is this is not a WordPress product. This is actually software as a service.

Hani Mourra
Yes, totally. Yes. You log into repurpose.io and it’s just an online— it’s an online app, online software. No WordPress site required. If you have one, you know, the WordPress plugins are perfect for you to push the content to your website. This tool is designed to push your content across different platforms.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah. So how come— I mean, you are a— I can’t say it. You, you make a lot of WordPress plugins.

Hani Mourra
There you go.

Lee Matthew Jackson
What, how, how come, uh, how come you went for a software as a service solution instead?

Hani Mourra
Well, kind of two reasons. One, I’ve, over the past 3, 3 and a half years, uh, being in the WordPress space, I love WordPress. I’m a WordPress guy.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Amen.

Hani Mourra
Um, but I just found that some people are, are not using WordPress, right? Um, so to help those people, this software as a service is a better way to go. But also you don’t want to— I didn’t want to design it so that it’s adding any additional work or load. It’s a lot of heavy loading, heavy lifting going on, converting the audios to videos, taking your Facebook videos and uploading to YouTube. There’s a lot of kind of server-intensive work. So decided the easiest, cleanest way is to keep that totally on our servers. So our servers will do all the work. You just log in, you set the rules, and it takes over based on what you do, based on what you publish to your podcast or you publish to your Facebook Live.

Lee Matthew Jackson
So there’s people listening, and one of the common conversations— I mean, a chap brought up the conversation just the other day in the Facebook group, angledcrown.com/group, if you want to be a part of that, by the way, guys. And also repurpose.io if you want to cheque out what we’ve been chatting about. But anyway, back to the question. A little plug there. I feel like I should have had a jingle in the background as well. But, um, you know, people get ideas for products and, um, you know, want to go about doing it. You are, you are one of the only people I know that when you get an idea, you go for it and you get it, you know, you get it launched. For this, I’m intrigued to find out more about how you’ve gone about getting this live because you hit the nail on the head earlier. Being able to do something in WordPress of this ilk, if that’s right, would require a pretty damn good server. I, you know, you’ve had to put a lot of work in. How long has this taken you for a start off? And, um, you know, are you able to— have you been— and if— feel free to be as candid or coy as you want, but like, have you had to put absolutely tonnes of money into this and massive server architecture, et cetera?

Lee Matthew Jackson
Or have you somehow been able to create this, you know, without breaking the bank? I mean, talk to me, tell me how, how the hell do you do this?

Hani Mourra
Yeah. Well, to be honest, uh, let’s start from the back. Let’s start kind of roll back a bit. I’ve had this idea for probably a year and a half in my head. It took me like 6 months to finally put it down into some kind of document, like write it down, make it real, right? So once it became real, and just a little side note, when I launched the Blab plugin, I guess about a year and a half ago maybe it’s been, and just, I just saw the response that people love the idea of automation. So that combined with my other plugin, I just knew like people love automation. Right? People who very kind of love automation. And it just gave me a lot of motivation. I said, you know what, let’s— I, at that time is when I started really making this idea come to life. So, um, about a year and a half ago. But I didn’t actually— like, I, I work with the teams. I don’t do the development myself. I do more of the architecture. But long storey short, um, I did hire a small team to work on it initially.

Hani Mourra
It wasn’t progressing the way I wanted. I had to I kind of pulled the plug, put things on hold because I was doing my other Facebook— my Facebook Live plugin came out and I was heavily involved in that. But fast forward to a few months ago, like back in November towards the end of 2016, I just said, “I need to make this happen and what is the fastest way to make this happen?” So I’m always about focusing on the outcome. I don’t want to be cliché, but it’s just what the minimum— people say the minimum viable product and the MVP. That’s— you gotta— you really gotta strip down the functionality and say, what is the bare bones that I need? They need to get out there to prove that there’s an audience for this before you continue building. I know it’s, you know, you read it in all the startup, startup magazines and books and whatnot, but it’s true. You don’t want to invest a lot of money into something that you don’t know if people are willing to pay for it. So it was around November, I said, I’m gonna do this, I’m going to just get a proper team.

Hani Mourra
So I had to hire a different team, okay, to take the code that we started with and really productize it. It was really primitive and it didn’t work. Anyways, I picked a set of functions, take for pod and take an audio podcast, convert to YouTube. That was kind of the first goal I wanted to achieve with this repurpose. And anyway, it took about a month. It was in half-decent shape, and I started promoting. I started saying— and in the meanwhile, I built an email list of people. Actually, over the past year, I built an email list of people interested in this product. I had a simple page. Hey guys, interested in this product? I talked about, you know, podcast to YouTube, and sign up to get notified. You know, that kind of deal. And, um, anyway, long storey short, I just said, all right, I’m gonna pre-sell it. I asked people, are you willing to pay money now and get it 3 months later or 2 and a half months later? And we had about 25 people pay upfront. And to me, that was just kind of validation, saying, all right, this is, this is an idea people are willing to pay for, they’re excited about.

Hani Mourra
And, you know, I sold it over a webinar back in December, and I had my early founders. And we went from December, January into February, really like full throttle with the development team. And we got it into the hands of the people in February, the early founders. So I’m not sure if that answered your— it was a long-winded answer, but—

Lee Matthew Jackson
No, that was really good because you’ve kind of given us the, you know, the from inception idea. You sat on the idea for 6 months. well, not sat on it, but kind of evolved the idea, thought about it. You started to try, didn’t quite go well with one team, so you started with a new team, which is a brave decision because a lot of people end up being stuck in a relationship, don’t they? And they just keep going and keep going, end up making do with something when actually, really, the best plan is actually just either start over or start with a new team of people. So you’ve done that, you’ve tested the proof of concept, I think, is what you’ve done rather than the MVP. The proof of concept was you did something. Can we do it? Yes, we can. Great. Let’s pre-sell this and get some cash in. Exactly what you’ve done. You’ve got founder members. We see that all the time. Uh, and that’s such a great way of validating. Do people even want this? Um, yes they do. They’re willing to part with money. Brilliant. Let’s keep going and also put some cash in the bank, which is awesome.

Lee Matthew Jackson
And then you went ahead and you launched. Now you’re growing the products and already they’re available to the public. repurpose.io. That’s, it’s, it’s a beautiful storey and I feel like you, you’ve launched so many products now, mate, that you should probably have a course on how to take a product from the— that idea in your head to paper, to getting a team involved, to getting the thing either pre-sold or at least getting some exposure, because you’re so good at building up lists. I remember with Simple Life Press, you, you had, you had like, I don’t know, I think you sold 100 or something ridiculous on the first week. Of that product. And I’ve only ever sold one of a one plugin that I’ve ever made. I sold two, I refunded it to one person. So I’m classing it as one sale. So you could, you could make a course on this. Have you ever thought about that? No, she’s going to tell me.

Hani Mourra
I think we’ve talked about that, you and I, like way back in the day.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I’m saying it again, man.

Hani Mourra
You know what, you know what it is? I might have to do that. I might be interested in doing that at this stage of the game. I just love I love creating right now. I’m in the creation stage. But one big tip, one big tip that really helps— then you read all these storeys and, you know, people have started email lists, but the key to me was the— was the— my first product, the Simple Podcast Press. That was the starter. I got started, nobody knew who I was in the podcasting space. Um, I got to know the people in the space, uh, built a built the software and, and just, I put my heart and soul into that product. Like, that was my go-to product. Like, that was, and it’s still it. Like, it’s one of my top products right now, the Simple Podcast Grid. But the point being is, because I’ve had the audience and I had a good— I’ve worked hard, I supported customers like crazy, built features, you know, I just, you know, poured my heart and soul into in the beginning. Not scalable, but I just knew that I just had to, to kind of build a, build a name for myself in the industry.

Hani Mourra
And once I did that, every other product that I launched, I’ve built, you know, partnerships and relationships with people in the space. So that helped me when I launched another product, the Blab plugin. A lot of customers were repeat. I’ve had customers say, hey, whatever Hani’s selling, I want to buy it, whatever it is. I don’t even know what it is, but I want to buy it. Like, people had a great experience the first time around. So if you’re building a product for the first time, really put your heart into it, support the heck out of it. Do things that big companies wouldn’t be able to do. Just be really personal with your customers. Really build a name for yourself and it comes easier when you launch a second product and a third and a fourth. This is my fifth product, I think. Fourth, fifth? I lost track.

Lee Matthew Jackson
You always know when you’re an avid content creator, mate, when you lose track of how many you’ve done.

Hani Mourra
But the point is, you know, get the audience in the beginning with your first product. You really got to work hard for it. Build that trust with them. That’s my biggest tip. Without the first product, without the audience, without the solid relationship, without going to the conferences and meeting the people in person, I wouldn’t have that kind of exposure with all my new products that I release. And the other thing is stick to the same industry. Yeah, I’m not making a product for podcasting and the next day I’m making a product for medicine or, or personal training. I’m in the same space— content creators, podcasters, live streamers. This— it’s the same audience that I’m building more and more tools for. So if you have a niche, stick with it.

Lee Matthew Jackson
That’s good advice, uh, stick in that niche. Don’t try and do multiple for multiple agencies, multiple areas. It’s a mistake I definitely used, and people have heard me tell the storey so many times I won’t tell it again. But yeah, I’ve definitely tried to serve multiple industries and it just does not work. Although in theory I’m doing that because I have actually have a business in a different industry, but there are other people involved, so I think we’re okay.

Hani Mourra
Yeah, no, it’s tough in the beginning. It’s tough, but once you build that first set of fans, like people who like you or trust you, it just gets easier when you build the next product and the next product.

Lee Matthew Jackson
One thing that kind of piqued my interest a little bit when you said attend conferences and that, how How much of an influence does going to meetups, i.e., conferences, events like that, how much does that help influence and connect you with the right people to get the exposure for your products? Is it just a very small part or has it been quite pivotal?

Hani Mourra
I think for me it was pivotal because I went to the first podcasting conference. Happened to, happened to be the Podcast Movement. It’s one of the first ones I’ve attended in person, and it came out the same time as my plugin came out, my Simple Podcast Press. And at the time, like, nobody knew who I was in the podcasting space. This guy, you just see this guy launching a WordPress plugin for podcasting, they’re like, oh, who the heck is this guy? And then I got invited by the conference organiser to say, hey, this is the perfect opportunity to come and you know, demo your product in front of real people. And I showed up to this conference. I don’t go to conferences usually. I’m very shy, like an introvert. Yeah, I show up, I don’t know anybody. I know people by name, like I see them in the Facebook groups, and I’m just like a fly on the wall. Like, I’m just sitting there like, I don’t know anybody here. This is— I’m really shy, so I don’t really talk to people. But, um, slowly, slowly, I had a chance to do a demo, and people came up to me after and started talking to me.

Hani Mourra
Uh, long storey short, Um, I don’t, I don’t say conferences will help me make sales, at least not direct sales, but it helps you build a relationship with your customers or your potential customers or your business partners in that space. So people got to see the guys and they see that, they see me, the person behind the product, and, uh, just, you know, we build like a friendship, a lot of friendships with customers and with, um, business partners. So I think People always ask me, now, like, now when I go to conferences, I’m always a sponsor. I like to sponsor, get a booth.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah.

Hani Mourra
And do all that stuff. And people ask me, hey, is it worth it, uh, spend the money? Because now it’s every year it gets more and more expensive, especially the Podcast Movement conference. It gets bigger and bigger. And say, hey, do you make a lot of sales? I say, not— I don’t say directly. I can’t trace it back to, hey, you know, I made X number of sales because I showed up. But by showing up, people see the person behind the product. And to me, that’s vital. You build these relationships, you meet the people who are buying your products or people who are helping you promote your products. You just, you just, your presence is very important in person.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I like that. It’s something that Kim Doyle impressed on me very early on in, in building this, well, in building our own brand up. What was the phrase? Just show up. I just love that. Showing up, being physically present with people, show up online. Livestreams and all those sorts of things, they’re good, but also showing up physically at events. And I mean, people will or may not know, I’m actually someone who suffers from anxiety and I’ve struggled with depression, etc. So that a lot of the time I do find it really difficult to go out to some of these big events. And yet every time I do go to those events, I meet people that I would never have dreamed of meeting and make friendships that, well, so far are lasting a lifetime and also have been very profitable friendships, not on purpose, just quite accidentally, but You know, every time I do show up, good things happen regardless of my inner freakout.

Hani Mourra
Yeah, I’m very shy. I mean, I don’t— I can’t say I, you know, I can feel— I can relate to you in a certain— to a certain degree. I’m very shy and I don’t really approach people to talk to them. But just by showing up and having opportunity to speak and give a little demo the first year of the conference just opened the door to people coming to me and I’m talking to. I think it’s just, just being there, because when you sell a product or a service, people are really buying you. Like, they find the person behind it. I mean, the product has to be good, obviously, but if the person behind it is just mean and nasty or not approachable, then just, you don’t get that same vibe. So, you know, you’re— you or your team is a big part of your product, so just keep that in mind.

Lee Matthew Jackson
That’s good. You or your team— and your team are a big part of the product. I think that’s why as well I’ve been making sure so often to mention the people in our team and keep them on social media as well, so people know who, who is involved in Angle Crown or Lee Jackson Dev. Hey, if you weren’t aware, we, we renamed AngleCrown.com. It’s not Lee Jackson Dev anymore. People are sad about that. Are you sad about that, honey, or are you happy about the new name with the pink I’m indifferent. You’re indifferent. You’re just a polite Canadian. That’s the problem.

Hani Mourra
I just, yeah, go with the flow, man.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Although the A counter is currently at zero.

Hani Mourra
Oh, is it? Yeah.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Oh, it just went up one. That’s phenomenal. Here’s a good question. So I was chatting with a friend of mine in Australia and he or she, I will not tell you the name. Sometimes, you know, Australia is very far away and all the action seems to be happening in California. Um, you’re based up in, you’re based up in, uh, I’m, I seem to be tempted to say Toronto-ish area.

Hani Mourra
Ish. Yeah. Just outside.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah.

Hani Mourra
Yeah.

Lee Matthew Jackson
So, uh, let’s face it. I mean, that’s Canada. You’re like miles away from California or anything else that’s happening. How, I mean, other than going to some events though, how do you stay prevalent or, uh, in people’s minds? And do you ever feel a little bit lonely up there in good old Toronto?

Hani Mourra
To be honest, not really. Conferences, I only attend one per year and it’s usually the Podcast Movement. So, I’m not big on conferences, but I do show up kind of when it counts, like the big ones for my space, my industry. But to be honest, being online, A, I have, you know, an email list of customers and followers and I connect with a lot of people on Facebook. And, you know, just being interviewed on podcasts, kind of like for example this podcast here, it just kind of— it just puts my name out there. And I don’t know, I just feel— I don’t feel disconnected at all with the internet now and Facebook Live and video in general. And just so many ways to communicate with people. I get people messaging me all the time on Facebook, uh, sometimes for support issues, even though, you know, they know how to reach me, they just message me on Facebook. Yeah, we’re very connected. Like, I don’t feel isolated at all. And in terms of learning and kind of stay on top of what trends are in the software space or strategies, it’s— to me, it’s podcasts. I listen to podcasts and that keeps me connected to what’s going on in the industry.

Lee Matthew Jackson
That is one thing I love about podcasts is you do feel like you even know the person without conversing with them. I gotta admit though, I mean, I agree with my friend with regards to that sometimes, that feeling of isolation. I mean, I’ve got my team around me. I you know, I’m on the podcast interviewing someone every week, which is great, and get to talk to people. But I do see some really cool stuff going on in like California, or everyone’s meeting, you know, there’s a big meeting up in San Diego or in Florida. You just see all these people all together and you’re like, I want to be there.

Hani Mourra
Yeah, like social media marketing, social media marketing.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah, that happened this week, last week. It looked amazing.

Hani Mourra
Yeah, it looked like— yeah, I do miss it. Yeah, I do wish I was there and I wish I can attend conferences. It just— you just— I don’t know, like, I feel you got to show up, but don’t overdo it because it’s not— it’s not cheap, especially if you’re coming from a long distance. It’s not cheap. So you don’t have to feel like you need to be at every single conference, uh, kind of promoting yourself. But you get— you just pick one or two and just show up there and, and like be involved there. Don’t just show up and be a fly on the wall like I was the first year. But, um, no, nowadays I’m just— I’m a lot more social. I feel like I feel like they’re friends. Like, I don’t feel like they’re customers. I feel like everybody there is a friend.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I think what, what I’m pulling from here as well, mate, is that you are, um, you’re going to the same event regularly, you’re building up lasting, you know, those lasting friendships. And I like what you said about taking part. Like, I’ve attended conferences, but I’ve always found, um, much more value when I offer to volunteer as well. Like, I’ll go and hand badges out, you know, because obviously a lot of event companies can’t afford just an unending army of staff, and they do rely on people volunteering. And you get a bit of a discount on your ticket sometimes, or you don’t, depends. But, you know, just volunteering and being a part of the conference, you actually build up friendships with the other people that are volunteering or taking part as well. And it’s a real good atmosphere. How did you actually get the speaking gig then initially?

Hani Mourra
I applied. They had an application, and the first year The first year I got invited to give a demo was very small, first podcast movement, and it was the first one ever, so they were trying to get more people in. So anyway, I was a sponsor in the sense that I got to get a 30-minute slot to give a demo. And the following year, I invited to be speaker— I, I didn’t— not invited, I applied to be a speaker. I didn’t get it. I was a little bummed. I was looking forward to speaking. And then the third year, and I applied again and I actually got accepted. I was ecstatic. I felt like, this is awesome. But I was nervous as heck too.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I bet you were.

Hani Mourra
But I also have a booth as well. I always intend to kind of give back to the conference.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah.

Hani Mourra
I’m always very grateful for this conference. To me, it was very key getting me started and getting me connected with the industry. So I always, you know, fork out the money and get a booth, even a very small booth, but just to have a presence. you know, in the, in the booth area. Yeah, so that’s, that’s what I did last year. I had a booth and I’m— and I spoke, I gave a talk on automation, of course.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah.

Hani Mourra
And then this year again I’m actually going, and I just found out that I’ll be also not speaking, but I’ll be leading a, uh, a group discussion.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Sweet.

Hani Mourra
And I’ll have a booth there as well. So yeah, I never miss this conference. Podcast— if you’re into podcasting, it’s definitely a the go-to conference, and it’s in Anaheim this year, which is—

Lee Matthew Jackson
I know, I saw it. I wanted to go because it’s right near Disneyland. I’m like, oh, I love Disney.

Hani Mourra
Yeah, we’re taking the kids. I’m gonna probably go a week early and take the kids. That’s a good idea. And then, uh, do the conference thing.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah, it’s, uh, August 23rd through the 25th, 2017. Guys, if you do want to get there or you’re in the area, Podcast Movement I imagine you kind of have to register quickly. Uh, in fact, I’m looking at the website, 5 days until the price goes up. Boo! I hate it when they do that. Makes me want to go ahead and buy. Uh, that’s podcastmovement.com. Um, just switching gears a second then, uh, mate. I mean, it’s brilliant finding out your storey and finding what’s going on. Now, I remember that when we— I could be wrong, but when we chatted kind of a year and a half ago, I think you were still working and creating products. Is that still the case?

Hani Mourra
Yes, I’m actually still the case right now. Yeah, so that’s why the team is key. If you have a team that’s, um, can support you, uh, you can get a lot more done. So especially with this, with this, uh, software, it’s an online software. I’m not as experienced, you know. I can get in the code and mess it up very easily. I do, and the guys hate me for it, but I’m trying to make be more and more conscious of staying away from the code and focusing on, uh, you know, reaching out to customers and, and, you know, getting more customers in the door and just giving them more value, more training videos, that kind of thing. So focusing on more the customer interaction, the marketing, and less on the development, which is hard because I like to come up with awesome ideas and I like to tinker with the code, but it’s harder now than it was with the WordPress plugin, which a lot easier to change things around in. So yeah, I’m making it a conscious decision to say stay away from the code as much as you can, because I need to focus on building the product in terms of getting it out to as many people.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah, I, I, I just thinking of like if I edit WordPress code, it’s easy enough to find something on Stack Exchange, but you know, there’s tonnes of people who’ve already done what you’re thinking. And they’ve shared the code, so you could just go ahead and grab that. But yeah, with something that’s completely unique. So this, I mean, you’ve heard of the phrase side hustle, I assume?

Hani Mourra
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lee Matthew Jackson
This is kind of like an epic 5-product side huckle—

Hani Mourra
huckle? Hustle.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I can’t speak. That’s, that’s pretty impressive. And, and the reason why I’m saying this is just to encourage people who are listening. We all feel really busy all the time, and I am chatting to a guy that is, you know, he’s in a job, and yet can launch 5 products. So mate, feel very big-headed about this right now.

Hani Mourra
2 kids, a 4-year-old and an 8-year-old.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah, let’s, let’s build up this picture. He does also have a 4 and an 8-year-old and a wife, family. And this is insane. You have managed to, you know, using your skills, using people around you, good teams, etc., uh, you’ve been able to create 5 products. So shame on me for ever thinking that I am too busy. I’m kind of preaching to myself right now, mate. Yeah, no, no, no.

Hani Mourra
It’s funny that you say that. Cause I, when I talk to my kids, I’m always like that. I’m like, no, stay focused to this. And I’m really talking to myself. I’m not talking to them. Yeah.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I’m not talking, I’m not talking to the listeners. I’m talking to me. I’m giving myself a pep talk right now.

Hani Mourra
Exactly.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Exactly. No, but it’s slapping myself.

Hani Mourra
That drive that you have, like you, if you working on something that’s exciting.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah.

Hani Mourra
And I honestly, like when I, I don’t mean to like sound arrogant or anything, but with, especially with the latest tools that I built, I’m, I always get excited when I use the tools. Yeah, like when you do that and you feel like that excitement, you know you’re on to something good. Um, so like it’s hard, it’s obviously hard, but you gotta push through in the beginning, especially if you’re building your first one. You’re still trying to get traction with your first product. It’s— I could have easily given up. I did a webinar, the first— the Simple Podcast Press, the first webinar I did. Um, I launched the product around the same time I had a big, big competitor launch their product at the exact same time. And I remember telling my wife, I was like, oh, I have no chance. People don’t even know who I am. And then my competitor, who’s well known in the podcasting space, launched their software at the same time. I’m done. Why am I even doing— like, why should I even launch?

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah.

Hani Mourra
Did a webinar, quote unquote webinar. It was a very small group, had like 10 people show up. And, um, and a few people watched the replay, and I think I sold like 3 or 4 copies. And I was like, wow, all this work and I sold 3 or 4 copies. But now we’re over 1,000, like, in 3 years. So, like, it’s, it’s hard at first, but you just keep at it. If you believe in your product, keep at it.

Lee Matthew Jackson
That’s good, good advice. If you believe in your product, it’s, um, just go for it. I love, I love the back end of Repurpose. In the background, I’ve been just clicking a few buttons to see what is this all about, uh, and I really want to click on view on the first episode. Shall we do this together?

Hani Mourra
I’m sure.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it’s already processed. Uh, it was episode number 68, which was last week’s. Uh, I, I just— it was that easy to use. And, um, oh no, YouTube now says they’re processing. So you’ve now processed it. What we’ll do, guys, is we’re going to publish episode 68. It’s going to be on YouTube on the new podcast channel that happened during this recording through repurpose.io. Uh, and I’ll put the link in. Say again, sorry.

Hani Mourra
Embed the video in the show notes.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Yeah, we will. And that’ll—

Hani Mourra
or maybe turn this into— turn this episode into a video, embed that one.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Oh, I’m totally going to do that as well. But I want to show— I want to show people how easy it was. I’ve recorded a podcast with my mate and just quickly connected my podcast to repurpose.io, and we’ve got a new YouTube video on our channel. That’s really cool, man.

Hani Mourra
Yeah, it’s like people are blown away of how simple it is. And that, that’s really the design. Like, if you look at the— I’ll be honest with you, if you look at like the backend, it’s not the most beautiful software.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Like, you don’t have like fancy buttons or anything, but it’s nicer than some I’ve seen, mate.

Hani Mourra
But the whole focus is the output is beautiful, and getting to the output is simple. Like, literally minimal number of clicks. Like, and then within 5 minutes you can have your, your your entire podcast, audio podcast, queued up to go to YouTube, and then you can go to bed. And next day, all your episodes will be on YouTube in a beautiful video format. It’s that simple. I love it. And the other thing is, once it’s— it’s automated. Like, once you set it, you can turn on the auto switch, and every time you do a podcast episode, you publish that to your feed, this repurpose will pick that up and push it to YouTube. You don’t even need to log in and hit publish anymore. It’s fully automated.

Lee Matthew Jackson
So cool. The link will be in the show notes of last week’s episode, and you’ll be able to see this week’s episode with assumedly nice waveforms that will hypnotise you for the full 40 minutes in the show notes over on anglecrown.com/podcast. That’s going to be cool. This is a cool experiment. I deliberately did not look at repurpose.io until me and you were on the phone together because I wanted to see exactly what happened. Could I actually do this whilst you spoke and still listen to you? Um, so if you heard a few gasps of adoration, that was just me looking at this system. So first, first one will be out. Now here’s an interesting question. You’ve, you’ve got a job, you’ve got the Epic side hustle that I just love that. Um, but you know, there’s something we are all, you’re a soft, soft entrepreneur. I can’t remember how you say that. I’m an entrepreneur, but all of us basically are in business because we want to make a life for ourselves, a lifestyle that, that we want. We want to help other people, etc. Um, and obviously you’re a busy guy, you know, job, side hustle, etc.

Lee Matthew Jackson
And this might be a work in progress for you for this answer because it’s definitely a work in progress for me. But like, when, when do you think— I mean, right now, are you already— I don’t even know how to ask this question, but I’m like, I never quite know when I’m going to be satisfied. Like, Yes, I have created the business that I want to be, so I can now kind of like go chill and spend 3 weeks on the beach sort of thing, or whatever it is that’s my ideal lifestyle. Have you ever kind of— do you think about that? Have you got any future ideas? Are you already in that space right now, or do you even understand what I’m trying to ask? Because I don’t even know if this even—

Hani Mourra
I think I’m following. I just— to me, it’s like, what’s the next step for me? I’m always thinking the next step. Yeah, next step is to kind of grow the combined software business, the plugins and Repurpose, um, into, you know, enough where I can focus on it 100%. That’s my next goal. So not to the point where I can go on the beach for 3 weeks and relax, not quite there yet, but I just kind of focus where I can do this full-time and kind of make that my primary focus. And that’s why that idea excites me. Just the fact that I can do what I love 100% of the time gets me excited.

Lee Matthew Jackson
That’s interesting, man, because again, it seems to be quite a common theme here with you is that, and I really like this and it’s something that I’ve been really trying to do, it’s kind of setting your next step goal rather than worrying about the, you know, the 8-bathroom, 20-bedroom mansion that you’ve not yet achieved in 50 years’ time. You’re actually just taking those next steps. What’s the next goal? You know, even with the plugin you did— sorry, even with Repurpose, you’ve done the same thing here, which is, you know, you’ve said, right, what’s our proof of concept? So that’s step 1. So let’s just focus on that, get that done, and you’re breaking things down. Would that be a reasonable assumption or view of what you’ve been getting up to. It’s this kind of one step at a time.

Hani Mourra
Oh, yes, yes. It’s so easy to get stressed by thinking, oh, I want to get to your final destination. But obviously you want to know where you’re going. And to me, obviously my short-term goal is to get this to be my full-time business, all the software, to be able to support myself and my family. And but you just got to break it down, like break it down into— but one thing I want to, I want to just give a warning is you don’t know what the next step is. You don’t always know, um, like you don’t know, you don’t always know your next product is. Like when I came up with the podcasting plugin, even before I have, I had a video plugin, I had no idea that the video plugin would lead me into podcasting, uh, but I just did it. I jumped into the video. I had a YouTube plugin for WordPress. And then through that, I met my business partner who was starting a podcast, who introduced me to podcasting, who— that’s how I got into know the podcasting. And then Simple Podcast Press was born. So you don’t always know where the next step is, but you got to do— you got to take the first action, and then things, opportunities will come out, will come out out of it.

Hani Mourra
You’ll learn more. You’ll learn that you like this, or you’ll learn that you don’t like this. Whatever it is that you’re working on, and maybe it is time to switch what you’re doing to something else. So you got to take the action. But like you said though, like, I do things step by step, focus on this. Like, my focus now from my next short-term goal with Repurpose is get, uh, people into the trials and then getting people from the trials to experience a full app, uh, to go for one of the plans that we have. So from a marketing perspective, I’m not focusing on getting 1,000 people in the door. My focus is how do I improve the experience to get people to really see the value and repurpose and convert from a trial into a paid customer. So that’s the next couple weeks is what I’m focusing on, building email sequences, training videos, etc. So break it down into small chunks, what’s your goals, and focus on what you need to do next to get to your ultimate goal.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Slow and steady wins the race.

Hani Mourra
Yes, yes. I want to do so much in so little time, but you, you can’t. You’re right? You got to focus on what’s going to get you one step closer. What’s the next thing that you can do that has a concrete, uh, you know, positive impact on your business or on your life?

Lee Matthew Jackson
You’ve hit the nail on the head there. I mean, for my stress, the one of the biggest causes of my stress, um, is just that the minute I think too far ahead in the future and become dissatisfied with what I have not yet achieved and not really looked at what is going on right now and the cool things I’m doing right now and the things I am achieving right now, that future just robs me of it. That unachieved yet long time away future that just robs me of the joy that I have in what I’m doing right now and just makes me feel so wound up and stressed. So I feel like you’re Mr. Miyagi on the phone with me right now. You’ve just kind of given me this little eureka moment.

Hani Mourra
And like, review the feedback that you’re you get. To me, sometimes I feel down. Sometimes like, man, you know, when I first launched Repurpose, it was, uh, like, it was slow. Like, the first, the first week I opened the doors, I was like, wow, that’s it after all this work? And I’m only getting a few people in this, in the trials? What’s going on? You know, I get demotivated for a few hours, and I look, wait a second, you know, let’s look at all the feedback you’ve gotten for your founding members. Like, people are raving like crazy. Like, like, they’re just in love with the idea. They save them so much time. Just focus on what your customers are saying, and that kind of brings life back into you. Like, you say, all right, I am doing something to help people. I wish I can help more people, and I’ll get there. But you are doing good to the world by helping people, basically. And you can tell by the feedback you get from your customers.

Lee Matthew Jackson
That’s beautiful. Um, we will change your name to Mr. Miyagi.

Hani Mourra
I should move away from the software business. Become a motivational speaker.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I think you might. What, what, can you do martial arts? So are we, are we, are we skilled in this? No, I feel like I’ve seen a picture of you in like karate outfit on Facebook. Did I dream that? No, maybe it was your kids.

Hani Mourra
Maybe my kids. My kids was— my daughter had a Wonder Woman costume. She was actually— my younger daughter was in karate.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Sorry, there you go.

Hani Mourra
Taking karate, that’s right. Yep.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Well done, brain. You did not fail me.

Hani Mourra
Yes.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Mate, thanks so much for coming on. You are a legend. And really, this has been therapy for me. I’ve loved just chatting to you, obviously finding out about your product, being inspired because I’ve got ideas that I want to launch and I feel like I have no excuse. I’ve learned from you today that I can set small achievable goals and go for those and not think about what I’ve not achieved, but think about the things that I have achieved now or that I’m about to. That is super inspiring, guys. Check out repurpose.io. I kid you not, it’s really clever. I’ve, like I said, I just published an episode, it went out there. This is not an affiliate link either. Me and Hani are friends. I know he’s great at creating products, um, so just go ahead and cheque it out. This is not a massive advertorial either, but go ahead, have a look at it if you’re doing any sort of live streaming at all and you want to get that content in other channels, which I do. And currently me and Larissa having to do things manually, um, it looks like this is going to be an answer for us.

Lee Matthew Jackson
It might be worth you checking out or just go Spread the love and tell other people about it. repurpose.io. If you’re not part of the Facebook group, head on over to the Facebook group on angledcrown.com/group. You’ll be redirected. And guess what? Hani is in there too. Or at least you were unless you’ve left. And then I’ll be way upset. I’ll be like, rude.

Hani Mourra
No, I am still there. Absolutely.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Good. Put you on the spot there, didn’t I? So go ahead, share cat pictures. Uh, you say hi to Hany in, in the group. And mate, what are other ways that people can connect with you or follow you?

Hani Mourra
Um, I think probably the best way, if you go to hanymourra.com, uh, it’s got links to my Twitter, Facebook, and, um, on all the products that I’m working on right now. Cool. Just hanymourra.com.

Lee Matthew Jackson
M-O-U-R-R-A.

Hani Mourra
That’s right. Yeah.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I remembered.

Hani Mourra
I didn’t.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I just read it. I read it from my computer screen. And Hani is H-A-N-I. But we’ll put this in the show notes. Mate, one last question and then we’ll say goodbye, which is if you could have any Christmas present this year, 2017, what would it be? I literally made that question up right now. I thought, okay, let’s ask this guy a random question.

Hani Mourra
I just want to be able to dedicate 100% of my energy to repurpose my products and make this a full-time gig. That would be my Christmas gift. That would be my goal for this calendar year.

Lee Matthew Jackson
And I think I’ve learned something else from your answer, which is that it’s not about the presents. Mate, you are totally Mr. Miyagi.

Hani Mourra
Wow, you’re blowing my mind. I’m blowing your mind. This is good therapy.

Lee Matthew Jackson
It’s not about the presents. I’m like, what’s the present? And you’re like, I want something that will give me time with my family. And I’m like, I’m thinking like a really cool camera and like being all consumerism and you’re just like really nice things. I’m like, mate, that’s epic. Mr. Miyagi, you are.

Hani Mourra
No, I’m a tech geek, but I don’t—

Lee Matthew Jackson
You’re a big softie. That’s what you are. You’re a big, lovely softie who creates amazing software. There you go. Or a softrepreneur, obviously.

Hani Mourra
I just made that up last year. I like it.

Lee Matthew Jackson
It’s going to catch on, you know. I just know it. Have a brilliant day, mate. Thank you so much.

Hani Mourra
I appreciate it. It’s been a blast.

Lee Matthew Jackson
I feel learned. Take care.

Hani Mourra
Awesome. Bye. Thank you.

Lee Matthew Jackson
And that’s our wrap. Yep, I used a video term. You can head on over to our new shiny, bright, gorgeous Hollywood-esque style YouTube channel over on angledcrown.com/youtube, where you’ll get to have a conversation with me about the hot topics of the web and design industry. So now that I’ve really built that up, I just hope you’re not too disappointed. There’s about 4 videos so far, but hey, angledcrown.com/youtube. Enjoy! I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, why not head on over to iTunes and tell people about how groovy this show is. If you didn’t like this show, how about you send me a private message and don’t tell the world? Because like, that could just be our secret. That’d be pretty awesome. And actually, if you didn’t like the show and you want to be super mean to me, that would kind of be sucky as well, so please don’t do that. Also, if you know the identity of WP Trump— he’s totally trolling me right now on Facebook, which is— no, on Twitter, sorry. But it’s quite funny. But also, I just want to know who he is. I’m intrigued. You’ll be huge on the internet.

Lee Matthew Jackson
Anyway guys, have a freaking awesome week, and that’s me. Bye-bye. Didn’t really plan this bit, to be honest. Like, this is, I think, the 8th or 9th outro recording, so there you go. I’m just gonna keep this because if I do another one, I’ll just probably go insane. So yeah, have a nice day. Have a great Easter, actually. Don’t eat too much chocolate. Sorry if you diabetic. I didn’t mean to offend you. All right, have a great day. I’m gonna go now. Okay, bye-bye. Bye-bye now.

Hani Mourra
See ya.