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Verbatim text
Lee:
Welcome to another episode of the Agency Trailblazer podcast. This is your host, Lee. On today’s show, we have my good friend, Mr. Pete Everitt, back on the show. We’re going to be talking about his journey into starting a podcast, how he got into it, what his fears were, what he learned. This is brilliant if you have just launched or you are thinking of launching a podcast in your niche. So sit back, relax, and Enjoy the ride. Before we kick off the show, here is a word from our sponsor.
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Lee:
Welcome to a conversation with me, Mr. Lee Jackson. And today we have In The House. It’s the one, the only Mr. Marketing Development Podcast guy for marketing professionals and consultants. It’s Mr. Pete Everitt. How are you?
Pete Everitt
Hey, am I the only one with my hands up in the air?
Lee:
I think so, yeah.
Pete Everitt
All right, I’ll take them down.
Lee:
Anyone who’s driving, put your hands back on the wheel for Pete’s sake.Literally, for Pete’s sake.For.
Pete Everitt
My sake.
Lee:
So you can get to the end of the podcast because we don’t want to be responsible for deaths and stuff.
Pete Everitt
No, indeed. Indeed. Neither of us do, in fact, which is the shared concern of the Agency Trailblazer podcast is that you drive safely.
Lee:
Yes, indeed. So pull over if it is safe to do so and then put your hands in the air for Pete Everitt. Okay, this is my new favourite intro. I like that. Guys, if you don’t know who Pete Everitt is, you can actually find out who he is on petEveritt. Com. He’s a good friend of mine, a very good friend of mine, along with, we have to mention him, Paul Lacy and the rest of the crew. Indeed. Indeedy. Pete is the host of the Marketing Development podcast. He’s also one of the founders and directors over at the So Group as well. And If you type in Pete Everitt into agencytrailblazers.com podcast search, you’ll find the odd past episode in there as well. I don’t mean it was an odd episode. I mean, it actually could have been an odd episode. I can’t remember. It was years ago, wasn’t it?
Pete Everitt
I think it was to do with the host, to be honest.
Lee:
Was it? Yeah. So there we go. So anyway, me and Pete, good friends. We like to hang out sometimes. He comes to visit me at my various offices that I move to. I’m in a new one he’s not visited, so he’s going to have to come and visit this one.
Pete Everitt
I do indeed.
Lee:
Indeed. And I’m going to shut up for a minute. I’m just going to let you give us a little bit of background about yourself, who you are, before we launch into the world of podcasting.
Pete Everitt
Yes, indeed. So I’m Pete. I’m Pete Everitt, and I do run the Marketing Development podcast, but I also run a digital agency called So. We work with clients of varying sizes, largely our client base is in either education or in the charity or third sectors. We do everything. We work with them, with branding, with design, with marketing strategy, with web development. And we work with people to… Our motto is to try and help you achieve your goals online. And that’s what we do.
Lee:
That’s brilliant. I got to admit, the A little boy inside of me started giggling when you said various sized clients.
Pete Everitt
Yes, I’m very sorry, but we’ve already got somebody that’s a 38 regular, so we can’t service your client at the moment, I’m afraid.
Lee:
Yeah, exactly. Okay. We should probably move on because that could actually probably get really bad.
Pete Everitt
Yeah, we could start offending a lot of people. Unless you want to make this the podcast about what not to do when you podcast.
Lee:
I could do, but I’d rather not. I’d rather this. I’ve got a title. It’s called How to Plan and Launch a Podcast. Now, I know how to do that. I’ve done it several times. However, I wanted to encourage the community with someone who’s only just done it. You’re 2022 episodes in, something like that now, aren’t you?
Pete Everitt
Episode 21 went live on Monday, which featured-Paul Lacy. Paul Lacy. We have to get the shout out in as early as we possibly can.
Lee:
Oh, I already shouted him out ages ago. You missed that one. We need a jingle. Can someone who’s listening please create a Paul Lacy jingle that we can start putting into these podcasts?
Pete Everitt
That’d be amazing.
Lee:
That’d just be amazing. It’s like just whenever his name gets mentioned, this whole little band. It’s got to be like big band style. That’d be incredible.
Pete Everitt
Really? I was thinking more barbershop quartet.
Lee:
Yeah, I could do it, I suppose. That’d be quite good. It reminds me of the Family Guy episodes, but I’m not going to tell you what to Google, though. But there is a certain one, and it is so wrong, but it makes me laugh every time. Anyway, moving on. This podcast is called How to Plan and Launch a Podcast. I want to grill you, Mr. Pete Everitt, on your recent, fresh experience of launching a podcast. Agency Trailblazer was launched over three years ago. People know how I did it. I’ve shared it in the past. I joined up with John Lee Dumas’ Podcasting Paradise. I followed a whole load of guides and did everything by the letter. And three years later, here I am interviewing you. Things have changed since then. Technology has changed. And also, it was a big shift for you, isn’t it? You’ve done all sorts of the original style of marketing that we can all think of. Your email campaign is going to visit people, pressing the flesh, as they say, and all that stuff. So podcasting is completely different. It’s out there, I think, and very brave. So I always commend anyone, including myself, who starts a podcast.
Lee:
So my first question for you is, what made you decide in this day and age, sir, to start a podcast?
Pete Everitt
So where do we go with this story? The first is I had a plan. I had a bit of an entrepreneurial plan. I’m an entrepreneur. I run an agency that has a particular lifestyle. It has particular commitments that go with it. Also, the way our agency is set up is I co-own it with my business partner, Steve, who is great, but he is a slightly older gentleman. He’s in a different part.
Lee:
This is being recorded. He will listen this.
Pete Everitt
He probably will, yes. I’ve called him a gentleman. He should be happy with that. The thing was, I knew from my entrepreneurial mind that I needed to have something else. I had a burn, not a physical burn. I had a burning desire that there was something else I needed to explore, and that was going to be something that isn’t a shared Head Agency type thing as much as I love doing that, but it was going to be something for me, created by me, for me, for the betterment of me and my family, and all of that stuff. So what I did was I set up peteeveritt.com, and I thought, right, what we can do is I know all these different, I know all this different stuff. We do all this stuff in our agency, and we could package up a lot of our processes and some of our resources and that thing, and I could sell them as courses. Fine. First things first, identify an audience, which you may have a question about that in a moment.I do.Yeah, I won’t go into that bit. I set up peteeveritt.com, and I turned to what I knew, which was blogging.
Pete Everitt
But the one thing I forgot about was that I am rubbish at blogging. It’s not to do with the actual writing, although I’m quite a matter of fact guy, so my writing is a bit dry, but technically it’s accurate. But it’s With the consistency. I just find it boring. Having that white cursor blinking at the top of a bear document or a word document or even in the WordPress editor, it just freaks me out. In order to launch peteeveritt.com, what I did was I took on the 12 blogs of Christmas, which meant that for 12 days from Boxing Day, which is October, December the 26th, if you’re not from the UK and don’t call it Boxing Day. For the next 12 days, I was going to launch a blog a day, and I got to blog eight and I just run out of steam. I just couldn’t be bothered. I very quickly remembered that I was rubbish at blogging and that this probably wasn’t the avenue for me. If you look at peteeveritt.com, you will see that the blogs are all still there. I think I’ve done a couple since, but they’ve not been…
Pete Everitt
There’s some blogs on there that are repurposed content, which are a bit easier to do. But the actual blogging push stopped very quickly in January 2018. So I went back to the drawing board and I spoke to my good old mate, Lee Jackson. You may have heard of him.
Lee:
He’s all right, isn’t he?
Pete Everitt
He has his moments. I figured that I’d give podcasting a go. And largely, that came down to I spend a lot of my life talking to people, running meetings, presenting strategies, all that stuff. Actually, I naturally We engage with content through a vocal medium anyway. Why don’t we try this? That is where the podcast came from. Does that answer your question?
Lee:
It does in a very roundabout way. I love it. I’m only messing with you. It’s a good story. What I like about what you just told us is you told us what you first started off with and you realised that actually you weren’t very good at it, which is fine. It’s fine to admit that when you sit down in front of an empty screen ready to write something, that the dreaded writer’s block happens, or you write the first line and you reedit that first freaking line so many times. It’s just ridiculous and you’ve now fallen out of love with it. So that’s fine. You and me, we’re great at chatting and having a podcast is a perfect medium. So yes, step one to launching a podcast. Plodcast, I was going to say. Plodcast.
Pete Everitt
It does feel like a bit of a plodcast to begin with. I understand.
Lee:
Recognise. If you’ve got a talent for gabbing, then go for it. So yeah, recognising, maybe not blogs, why don’t we go down the line of podcast? What were your initial feelings when you thought, I think I’m probably going to have a go at this?
Pete Everitt
Initially, I felt quite excited about it. I’m a bit of a geek, so I went and got the microphone and I installed the software and I had a play. And then you have to record your first episode. And you feel like the most experienced person, the biggest imposter thinking, Oh my gosh, why the heck am I doing this? And it feels really weird.
Lee:
Well, can I stop you there and just encourage everybody that that’s exactly how everybody feels and it’s absolutely natural. And it’s actually essential you feel like that because it means you care for a start off. And I love that you felt like that and you’ve been that raw and honest because there are many people listening, I imagine right now, who’ve never launched because that’s how they feel. So I’m encouraged that you’re coming on the show saying, That’s exactly how I feel or felt, and I’m still 21 episodes in with Paul Lacy. We need the Paul Lacy Jingle, remember, folks. Anyone who’s good with music do the Paul Lacy Jingle. Right. So step one then, you decided, Yeah, I’m going to do it. You said you downloaded in software and got a mic and all that. Where did you find all that information? Did you ask friends? Did you have any online resources that you used to work this out?
Pete Everitt
Well, I did speak to you about it. I also just YouTubeed it. There’s dozens of YouTube videos about podcast setups, and you need to be a bit selective in the ones you watch. You’re going to find the videos that say, Hi, to set up your podcast, you need to spend $1,700 on this microphone and $5,000 on this software. And you don’t at all.Not at all.Not at all. But I found a mic, and actually, I believe you bought the same one. It’s the Marantz Professional Podpack One. I’m reading it off the microphone now.
Lee:
Yeah, I bought it as a backup mic for my home office. Yeah.
Pete Everitt
To be honest, it does everything you want a microphone to do. It sits there and looks microphony and records your voice without too much interference, which is exactly what I wanted.
Lee:
Microphony.
Pete Everitt
Microphony, yeah, absolutely. I seem to remember sending you a messenger message saying, Do I use the microphone Muff, or the microphone What do you call that? The pop guard, pop shield. And you replied and said, A microphone Muff, is that what you call it? That’s the fuzzy thing that goes on the top of the microphone, if anybody’s-It’s called a Sock, I think. Sock? Okay.
Lee:
Something like that.
Pete Everitt
Okay. Yes, I went and bought that. I got it from Amazon. It cost me something like £40. That was actually my biggest single expense in setting the podcast up. To begin with, I I use Skype to record the calls. I’ve changed from that now, but we can go into that in a moment. But yes, use Skype with… What was the name of the Skype recorder, Lee?Call Recorder.
Lee:
It’s literally called Call Recorder.It is called Call Recorder. But ECAM
Pete Everitt
That’s it. Ecam was great. It basically allows you to record the audio, or if you pay for it, you can record the video, too, of a Skype call. Then I use Audacity to do the editing, which is free. I went and got some jingle music from somewhere like Theme Forest. That was literally it. We’ve altered things, the way things work a little bit since then to do with generating graphics and where we host the podcast and that thing. But actually, to get me going, you’ve got my setup right there.
Lee:
You’ve got the setup. The one thing that is missing is where did you host the podcast? Was that via a WordPress site or did you do it a third party like Libsyn or someone?
Pete Everitt
Right. Yeah. Okay. I hosted it on Pippa. Io, and it’s still on Pippa. Io. I know you’ve got some frustrations with Pippa at the moment, but you’re-Mainly around reporting, but nothing else. Right. Okay. I host it on Pippa and I have a WordPress website, and I just embed the players from one to the other. Pippa looks after the syndication. The reason I chose Pippa actually was because it was one of the easier to get the podcast onto Spotify with.
Lee:
So it was literally- You literally check a box and it then submits it to Spotify.
Pete Everitt
Yeah. So I did. That was the reason why I chose it.
Lee:
Yeah. No, it’s a good… I think it was one I recommended actually at the time. I still recommend it to people, Pippa. Io, especially if you just want a nice, clean, simple interface. You can schedule your podcasts, which is what we do with all of our scheduling. You can have private feeds as well, which is cool. They have some good integrations. They also do webhooks, so we’ve got a few things that we trigger through Zepia to make other things happen that we might need to happen, including adding rows to a spreadsheet or setting a task and doing all that other good stuff. So it is pretty cool. I just get a bit annoyed sometimes over the reporting, but that’s no biggie. That’ll change over time. It’s mainly just they don’t have a nice view that I can just see everything. I have to export it to an Excel if I want to manipulate the data. I’m one of those old fashioned, Give me a massive table, damn it, and they don’t give you one.
Pete Everitt
And they say, But that doesn’t work responsibly, Lee. This needs to work on a mobile phone.
Lee:
So I just export the data every time I want to have a look at the figures in the way that I want to look at it, and I’ll run my own little queries on that, and I’m happy. So it’s not really a biggie. It’s just me having a bit of a moan. All right, so next Question then. So we’ve got the tech. So you’ve decided, not good at blogging. I am good at chatting. I’m going to have a go at doing a podcast. We’ve got what you used to get started, which was a 49 quid investment in a microphone, plus $15, $20 a month with Pippa for the hosting. So it’s not cost you a lot to get going. You’ve already shared that you were heart-pounding in your chest, feeling nervous, actually starting to try and record things. So that’s a good thing. So I think everyone can check off all of these boxes. It’s cheap to get started and it’s cool to be nervous. How did you work out, therefore, who your target audience was and what you were going to call your podcast?
Pete Everitt
So what I looked at was what I was trying to achieve. Now, as yet, the marketing development podcast hasn’t actually launched any courses, and that’s fine. There’s no pressure on me to do it. I can take it at my own pace. I have a feeling when you and I meet next at the Upreneurs summit in three weeks time, that may well change. But at the moment, I have a goal in mind or in my sight, but it’s not a pressing time commitment type goal. So I then looked at, who is it that these resources or these courses, who is it that I can talk to? I looked at my own agency, and the people we work with best in our agency are marketing consultants and marketing professionals. So either self-employed marketing consultants, freelancers who need… They have their own clients, and they need agency-level support in order to deliver the different skill sets that they don’t have. Or we work with marketeers who basically, they work in larger organisations. They’re part of marketing teams in universities or big with charities or whatever. Again, it’s a similar thing. Some of these organisations, they may have an in-house designer or they may have an in-house, I don’t know, copywriter or social media person, but they don’t have all the skills that come with an agency, so they’re the people that we work with.
Pete Everitt
Ultimately, as the courses are being fed from the experiences I have as an agency owner, it made sense that the audience that would then use those courses would be the type of people that would use an agency. That was about as long and as short as my thinking went. To begin with, I also had a little bit of a hook, which was also to look at people who were maybe working in larger organisations who were then thinking of taking the step into self-employment or freelancing. Just because I’ve set up two companies in the past on my own, I understand what that feels like. I understand the pains and the struggles and the thought processes and the, Oh, God, how am I going to afford the bills every month? And all of that stuff. What’s actually happened as the time has gone by and I’ve started to interact with my audience a bit more is that there are a few of those people that come with questions like that, and I’m more than happy to talk to them. But actually in terms of somebody that I’m targeting, I don’t go, Hey, I’m the new freelance marketing consultant podcast.
Lee:
Because there are a lot.
Pete Everitt
Yeah, basically.
Lee:
And a really good ones as well.
Pete Everitt
Yeah. So that’s how I chose my market.
Lee:
That’s Pretty good. I like it. You look to who you’re working with, you look to who you wanted to attract with a long game, as it were, with those courses in the future, and you named and set your avatar, as it were, accordingly. For people who are not sure what an avatar is, it’s not a movie with the papyrus font, papyrus or whatever it is, which it also is. But avatar is just who is the character, the imaginary character that you’re speaking to when you’re running a podcast. We can set maybe one or two where we’re talking to that person. We have an idea of how that person thinks, what that person does, what their job is. You can give them a name, all sorts of good stuff. But it just really helps when you’re on a podcast, especially when you’re on a solo episode, to imagine who you’re talking to. But it’s also really good when you’re planning the content of your podcast because again, you’re thinking, what will my avatar really want to listen to? Who does my avatar follow? Who do they want to have on the show? And all of that good stuff as well.
Lee:
So that’s a really, really important thing. And I’m really glad you went through that process as well, in just working out who it was you wanted to target, because that’s really influenced the content that you’ve put out over the last 21 shows as well. And you’ve put out some fantastic content as well.
Pete Everitt
Thanks, Nate.
Lee:
And had some awesome guests, which leads me to my next question. How did you get your first few guests organised? Bearing in mind, and this is another blocker for people that they think, Oh, no one will want to come on my show. It’s not even launched yet. How did you get that sorted?
Pete Everitt
My very first My guest actually was a client of mine, a guy called Rob White. He’s actually been on the show twice now. He actually used to be my employee. He used to be in my team at a previous agency that I used to work at. We both left there and he’d gone into the world of selling hot tubs. To be honest, he’s just one of those guys. He’s up for a bit of a laugh. He would have just laughed at me if it had all gone peak-tong and flopped. For him, it was a good way. I could then talk to him about how he’s built his marketing career, which seemed like a good place to start. Again, thinking about what the audience may find. It gave me a chance I found somebody, really, that actually I could try out the tech with. Then if it all went wrong, they wouldn’t really mind if it didn’t work or we had to do it again tomorrow or whatever it might be. The other thing I I suppose I should mention is that I launched with three episodes. The first episode was… Well, zero, zero, zero is actually an intro episode from me, which I recorded last, literally just before it went live.
Lee:
Which is also a good idea because what you think you’re going to launch actually ends up not quite being what it was.
Pete Everitt
Indeed. The other thing I found with solo episodes is… When we record the podcast with guests, we use an interface called cast now. That means you can’t see the person on the other end. Now, with Skype, when we use an Ecam recorder with Skype, we turn the video off because the video used up so much bandwidth. You get such a lag in the audio. I still couldn’t see the person at the other end. But when you’re interacting with somebody like we’re doing now, even just through an audio sense, you can bounce things off people. When you’re recording on your own, you realise that three minutes is one heck of a long time to be talking on your own. Then you’re trying to produce a podcast that’s, I don’t know, 20 minutes long, minimum thing. Just what the heck do you say? I’ve started either doing a video recording of those or at least switching the webcam on. So I’m looking at me and it mimics that I can now see somebody else. I’m now talking to somebody else. I’m thinking that person is the target audience and it makes those solo shows a lot easier.
Pete Everitt
So I guess that’s a little bit of a tip for anybody that’s wanting to record solo stuff. So I launched with that solo episode, but I recorded that. That was technically the third one I’d recorded, if you know what I mean, although it was launched first. I recorded one with Rob White. Then also another mutual friend of ours, Mr. Rob Watson, who’s a gentleman from up top north.
Lee:
Top north SEO Ledge.
Pete Everitt
Hi. He came on and did an episode. Rob and I had been communicating about a couple of things. Again, he was somebody that was a bit of a warm lead, but he was looking at changing a few things with his business. He was in a place where he was willing to talk about stuff. But then on the same note, he was, again, somebody that I knew a little bit, and it didn’t matter so much if it fell apart. Then after that, I then started opening the net to friends. I mean, you were kind enough to come on the podcast as well.
Lee:
Well, do you remember that poem when we were kids? First, the worst, second, the best, third, the one with a hairy chest. Well, that’s me. I was episode three.
Pete Everitt
But you’ve definitely not got the hairy head or top of hair. No, chest.
Lee:
Chest. Yeah, my hair basically slipped and fell when I was 18. Oh, really? Yeah, it’s on my chest now.
Pete Everitt
Sounds painful. You came on the show. I then looked at communities I was part of. I made sure that I didn’t do anything in a community. For example, like the Agent Trailblazer Group or the WP Innovator Group, I made sure I contacted you and said, Look, Lee, you’ve been really kind in supporting me through starting my podcast. Do you mind if I go fishing for a few guests through the group?
Lee:
And I said, No.
Pete Everitt
You were very gracious enough to say, Yeah, that’s absolutely fine. I might want to go on a real podcast.
Lee:
I even said that I would email people for you if you wanted. You did indeed. I remember saying, I say it to everyone. In fact, if you’re listening and you’re looking for a guest and you need an introduction, you have a podcast you’re about to start, look at our back catalogue. If there’s any introductions, then sharing is caring, even. I’ll happily make introductions.
Pete Everitt
Yeah, you were really great with that. We had people like Kim Doyle. Again, a similar thing. I’ve been communicating with Kim through the content creator stuff. She is amazing. She is amazing. She came on. She’s made a couple of intros for me. Actually, you’ve got to put yourself out there. That’s really the whole thing with this that feels the most weird, actually, is you feel like you’re putting yourself out there in a way that you never thought you would. You release these episodes and you’re waiting for somebody to say, Yeah, that episode was rubbish. You’re going to go, Yeah, I know. I agree. But you know what? Nobody touched wood. So far, nobody has ever done that. Yeah, Yeah, that’s how we went about it.
Lee:
That’s really good. Now, I’m just joking with myself right now, but I’m looking at that picture of Paul Lacy, and I’m thinking, did he really approve that picture of Paul Lacy for the artwork? Because he honestly looks like he’s undressing me with his eyes. Folks, go check out episode number 21. Go check out episode number 21.
Pete Everitt
That’s his Twitter avatar. That’s all I’m going to say.
Lee:
I think he needs his hat on. He needs his Beaver builder hat on. He would look much cooler.
Pete Everitt
He’s actually shared that photo himself as well.
Lee:
Oh, was it? That’s all right. We’ll let him off then. No, that’s brilliant. And it’s exactly right, isn’t it? It’s, put yourself out there, go and ask people. When I first asked Kim Doyle to be on my podcast, years and years ago, you can listen to that. It was episode number three or four or five. I can’t remember. I even asked Troy Dean. I think Troy Dean was episode five, for a memory or something like that. I just emailed them and was shocked that they said, Yes. And they came on the show and then I was also really nervous. But now, Kim Doyle, Troy Dean are all really good friends. We can have a good banter. We have chats outside of podcasting as well. Kind of blew my mind that people who I’d put on this humongoid and thought we’re going to be really awkward and difficult to talk to. We’re actually human. Everybody poops. Everybody’s normal. We had a really good conversation. We’ve become friends. We’ve been able to network. We’ve been able to share people, share guests, and also do business with each other, which has been phenomenal as well. So, yeah, it’s absolutely wonderful.
Lee:
And on that, I mean, so far, you’re 21 episodes in. What opportunities has it, if it has so far, afforded you? By doing this podcast?
Pete Everitt
Actually, through the business side of things, we’ve not… Well, we have had a little bit of paid for business, actually, through the podcast.
Lee:
I guess it’s less that. It’s more your network? What’s happened to your network since? Because I’m looking at your guests here as well. I didn’t know you knew Claire Rossert. I assume that was through one of my links because me and her hang out at the Youpreneur Summit. But what’s it done for you? How has it grown your network? Because business is a slow trickling with any podcast for at least the first year. So that’s to be expected.
Pete Everitt
Ultimately, my network’s grown. I’ve started now receiving… The weird thing is when you start doing this, you feel like you’re putting yourself out there all the time. As I mentioned, you are the one that’s instigating these things. And what has slowly started happening, so the podcast was about six months old now. Over I’d say, the last… Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of podcast. Did I just really say that about my own podcast? That’s worrying. What started happening over the last, I don’t know, six, eight weeks, over the summer anyway, is that people have all of a sudden started contacting me. That’s not to say I’m not still going out and actively seeking people, but all of a sudden… I had a Zoom call the other day with Kyle Van Deusen, who we’ve been in groups together, We’ve maybe even commented on each other’s stuff, but actually we’ve never spoken face-to-face. That was all out the back of a comment that was put on a podcast episode. We’ve started to all of a sudden think the network has grown so that it started to become a two-way type street rather than a single, I’m pushing it, or I’m trying to push this thing uphill street.
Pete Everitt
I’m still in the place. I’ve not yet I approach people like Chris Ducker or Troy Dean, some of those people that I’ve mentioned already. They’re still a little bit up there on that pedestal for me. We talked about the WP Innovator Balls one time when I was on your podcast, Lee. I remember. If I strapped on the WP Innovator Balls and dropped them an email, it probably wouldn’t be as bad as I’m making it in my head. But at the minute, I’m still like, It’s Chris Ducker and Troy Dean. They’re not going to come on my little show. But who knows?
Lee:
Well, remember, just for SEO, it’s backlinks. So they’ll happily get on for the backlink just for that.
Pete Everitt
Indeed. Indeed. I suppose, yeah, that’s a very good point. Best not no follow there, Zane.
Lee:
Exactly. Actually, let me interrupt because this is important. You mentioned Kyle Van Deusen, and I just want to promote their new show because they have launched their own livestream, podcast, whatever you want to call it. You can find that on theadminbar. Com. They do a livestream, they get guests in, etc. They’ve just done their grand opening with the two of them. That’s Matt, but I can never say his name. Matt and Kyle or Kyle and Matt. I don’t know which way around. I’ll let them argue around who goes first and second. But got to check out their website. Kyle is one of my favourite designers. I love the work he puts out there, and so is Matt. So go and check out theadminbar. Com. There’s a couple of guys who are putting themselves out there like you. They’re in the very early stages, which is cool. So we’ve got those guys. We’ve got you at petereveret. Com. And then obviously we’ve got all the established podcasts around the world, etc. So it could It’s going to be fascinating. If you’re listening to this episode in the next few weeks, go check their early episodes out and be involved and support them.
Lee:
Join their group as well. There is a community button at the top of that website, big yellow one. Click on that and join their Facebook community as well. They’ve already got 300 members, which is insane. That is insane. And obviously also join your community, of which there will be links in the show notes, because I guess that leads to my next question. Why have you also launched a community alongside your podcast? And that’s a Facebook group.
Pete Everitt
That is a Facebook group. And to be honest, I don’t think I can actually give you the honest reason as to why I started it. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Lee:
That’s a good inner phrase in for me.
Pete Everitt
Next question. The thing that I would say is that the podcast… It’s the Facebook group that’s brought the podcast to life for me a little bit, actually. That’s where you get the two-way interaction with your audience. I now couldn’t imagine doing a podcast without or doing this podcast without it. Why I started it? I don’t know. It’s a good idea.
Lee:
But actually-Let me tell you why you started it. Let me tell you why I think you started it, why you unconsciously started it. Because we all need a feedback loop. Being able to get some of your listeners into a place where you can continue to serve them and find out more about them is super helpful. It gives you validation, which is super important. Let’s face it, we just need validation. It stops us from feeling like we’re just talking in too thin air to nobody in particular, because it can feel like that. I didn’t have a group for the first year of my podcast, and it felt like I was just broadcasting to who was listening. I knew there was downloads, but that was about it. And then the other thing is that the community have continued to serve the content that I put out because I don’t know everything. I only know what I’m dealing with right now. But as I’m seeing the comments and people getting frustrated with clients, they’re rude or they’re getting frustrated with particular marketing strand, or maybe they are struggling to understand SEO, then I know I can reach out to different people and get them on the show to talk about the stuff that the community are talking about.
Lee:
And I’m seeing you do that already in your community as well. Folks, please join Pete’s community. He’s a great guy. He’s always got good information. He’s really nice and he’s got dead cute kids that look exactly like him, which is hilarious. So I’ll put a link in the show notes as well so that you can go ahead and join that. Sorry, mate, I was just plugging Plugging for you there. How much are you paying me again for all this? I can’t remember.
Pete Everitt
Yeah, the beers are on me, I think, next time, aren’t they?
Lee:
I think that’s the way it works. I’m quite cheap, aren’t I? Just a couple of beers. Happy days.
Pete Everitt
You’re a cheap date. What can I say?
Lee:
That’s good. So, yes, I think that’s why you started it unconsciously. We all need that feedback loop. And I think he did the right thing getting it done early. It’s a slow grow as well because I think my WP and a Vita group had 20 people in it for months. And then suddenly, boom, it just catapulted and catapulted. And we kept talking about it on the podcast. And before long, I think we’re nearly at 2000 now, which is phenomenal. It’s wonderful. It’s a great feeling. And through it, pretty much everyone I know, including you, has been because of the Agency Trailblazer podcast. That’s why me and you are friends. That’s why Paul Lacey gets mentioned every single time. It’s because of the podcast and all of the relationships that have been built up as a result of it. It’s a great networking opportunity. And the business that I’m doing nowadays, a lot of that has been fed because of the people that I’ve met through the podcast. It’s not directly the podcast itself. It’s growing that network of people. And I’m not sure if you’ve done this yet, but also if there are people that you want to work with in the future, I really want to work with that company through the So Group, a really soft in is to contact that company and get them on your show to interview them and say, Hey, you’re doing amazing things in the industry.
Lee:
We’d really love to interview you and share your story to our audience. And now you can build up a relationship with that person before long. You could be working with them. So I’m not going to tell you who, but there are a few guests that we’ve got on the show that are actually some very good clients of ours as well as a result of that soft method. Softly, softly, reach out, get them on the show, they become a client.
Pete Everitt
Softly, softly, catchy monkey. That’s the way you got to do it.
Lee:
Yeah, instead of just trying to sell at them. I hate it People had me on LinkedIn saying, Hey, I offer SEO services, and then give me a list of prices. I wasn’t even asking, How are you? Nice day.
Pete Everitt
Yeah, that’s the quickest thing to get an unfollow.
Lee:
Or block in a report from me if you do it to me. I’m one of those guys.
Pete Everitt
Oh, you’re badass. That’s the way it goes.
Lee:
Poor people are spamming. It bugs me. Anyway, right. Okay. So moving on. I’ll probably be hated for doing that and saying that now. All right. So the next question then is we understand that when you first were starting those initial recordings, you were nervous. Your heart was beating in your chest, your beads of sweat. All right, I’m adding all of this. But you felt pretty nervous, pretty awkward. It was probably hard to find your voice at the time and all of that good stuff. How is it going now, though? Give us some encouragement. Is it still happening? Is the beads of sweat? I’m just breaking down. I don’t feel like you’re settling in.
Pete Everitt
I’m just breaking down here. I don’t know how I’m going to cope. No, I tell you what, it’s weird. You get so much more confident with it. The other thing you do is you naturally start listening back to your own episodes. Particularly when you’re editing them, you think, Oh, God, I say ‘mm’ and ‘ah’ so much. I went through saying ‘mm’ and ‘ah’ and having to edit everything out to replacing that with the word ‘absolutely’. I say this- Absolutely. Absolutely. I say this to people when we’re starting to hit record on a show. I’ll say, look, you’ll now notice that I say absolutely about 57 times in the next 25 minutes. Don’t worry about it, okay? Absolutely. No problem. Absolutely. But the thing is you start to get a bit more comfortable in the space. You start to feel a bit more confident with what you’re doing. You get to know that actually, you know what? If I stuff this up, I’ll leave a little break I can find it in the recording. I can just go and edit it out. I can record it again.
Lee:
Full disclosure, we just did that because a police car went past my office, so we had to pause. Just letting you know this stuff happens.Carry On.
Pete Everitt
yeah, absolutely. And I’ve just said it again.
Lee:
That’s brilliant.
Pete Everitt
You see what I mean? All of a sudden, the word absolutely just comes out of my mouth like I can’t believe. But you start to get more comfortable and you start to find a rhythm. And But the other thing is you start to know that you need that little bit of planning and that little bit of foresight before each show. You need to do a little bit of your homework so that you have some confidence in what you’re going to talk to the other person about. I have done shows, I still occasionally do them, where you hit in record and you’re thinking, Okay, so I’m speaking to Lee Jackson. Who the heck is that? What do they do? And you’ve got the recordings going, you’ve got their website up in front of you, and you’re trying to put together intelligent questions and have an intelligent conversation, and it doesn’t work. But actually, you don’t need hours of prep either. It’s one of those that you have to have, a bit like with anything, you have to have a goal for the piece of content that you’re creating. As long as you’ve got that in mind and you and your guest or you on your own are working towards that goal, then it all fits together.
Lee:
I love it when a plan comes together. Oh, yeah. I’ll agree that you don’t need too much prep, and sometimes you don’t need much at all if you can take your guest on a journey. So if you’ve got something where, like today, I had a very specific subject. I wanted to learn from you, Pete, about your journey into launching a podcast, etc. So I had some specific questions. Full disclosure, I wrote the questions 43 minutes ago and we’ve been recording so far for 38 minutes. So you can see how much time it didn’t take me to actually prepare. It took like two minutes to write the questions and I’ve taken you through them. The other way of doing the podcast as well, though, is to actually learn with the audience from the person by going on a journey. You’ll remember, I think I took you in the time machine, didn’t I, as well? And said, take us back in the time machine to when you first started, how did you get into the industry? And then naturally, by you telling your story, more questions just come up, and then you go off on this rabbit hole and you end up creating a podcast that you could never have dreamed of.
Lee:
And that does happen as well sometimes. So I would encourage people, don’t think, like Pete said, you do not have to overprepare at all. You don’t have to know your subject terribly well because it’s just as much fun going on the journey with the listeners at the same time.
Pete Everitt
The other thing I’d add to that is to say, don’t be scared of going down the rabbit holes. The episodes I’ve done, probably about half the episodes I’ve done, if I’ve prepared questions, I’ve hardly ever completed the list of questions that I had to ask. We’ve gone down a rabbit hole at some point, and then I’ve looked at it and I said, You know what? It’s been great. We’ve been going for an hour. Thank you so much for your time. I’ve still got half a dozen questions here that I’ve prepared for you and I’d love to ask you, Let’s make another show. That’s the way I’ve tried to turn some guests, I suppose, into recurring guests. But it’s actually been that natural process of go down the rabbit hole, see where it goes. It’s fun.
Lee:
Absolutely. Because you end up coming up with a whole new range of subjects that you could cover, or you end up covering something that you learn And that’s a question actually I have for you. We’re now what? I have 180 something episodes in now in the Trailblazer podcast. And I’ve seen this for me personally as a way of myself learning as well. I’ve always learned from my guests. I’ve been learning as you’ve been talking, which has been wonderful having your fresh perspective on starting a podcast. It’s helped me think, it’s given me a few aha moments, which has been great. Have you had that experience as well?
Pete Everitt
With what? With guests on the show?
Lee:
Well, yeah. Just Or is it simply your own learning, your own personal development, by having people in and interviewing them, are you learning and growing yourself?
Pete Everitt
Yes, absolutely. I’d say there’s two strands to that when it comes to that. One is the actual stuff that guests talk about on the show. The whole point of getting people on the show is they know more about stuff than I do. So I’m naturally trying to learn something from them anyway. But the other thing I’d say is that, as I’ve said before, I run a marketing agency. We do marketing for people, for clients, but we’re a bit rubbish about doing it for ourselves. Actually, there’s something about getting your hands dirty and doing it for yourself and having the commitment and trying to work on that consistency and all of that stuff that you start to join the dots together of some of the things that you talk about every day. And you say, All right, yes, so that works over there. Or how about I could now try this Facebook campaign with that? Or, you know what? I don’t know about that. So let’s do a Facebook. Let’s just talk to the audience. Let’s do a Facebook poll about this and see what comes back. And all of a sudden, you can start joining the dots together.
Pete Everitt
So as I say, there’s two types of learning. There’s the one where the guests are teaching you and you get to quiz them about it, which is really the best bit because you can keep on drilling them down on a particular point till you understand it. It’s amazing. But then, as I say, there’s then this also experiential learning, which goes from just having the podcast and just making it work.
Lee:
I love it. Absolutely love it. So with that said, folks, go grab a microphone and launch your podcast. No, I’m joking. Obviously, it takes thought process. But I do hope as you’re listening to Pete’s journey through the last 21 episodes from planning, getting it started, etc, that you are encouraged that there are other channels that you can be using. Remember, it doesn’t have to be podcast. It could be that you’re going to sit in front of your iPhone or your smartphone camera and produce one video a week or even a month and put that out there on YouTube about a particular subject. But there are other channels and we all have permission to do it. There’s nothing special about me or about Pete or about the Troy Deans or the Kim Doyles, etc. We’re just all normal human beings who have just gone ahead and done it. We’re doing it because we want to help other people in the community. And at the same time, there’s that feedback loop. We’re building up our network and we’re also learning at the same time, which is phenomenal. I highly, highly recommend it. Please, however, do not rift off our names.
Lee:
So don’t call it the Ogency Trialblazer podcast or something like that. I might come after you. Absolutely. Just saying, but otherwise it’s cool.
Pete Everitt
There is one other point which is very important for the community to recognise as well, which is Paul Lacey is actually trying to avoid starting his own podcast, so he needs more podcasts to feature on because he admitted to me the other day he’s starting to run out of friends with podcasts.
Lee:
Yeah, he needs to be on more podcasts. I better get back on the show, won’t I? Remember, someone listening is a musical legend. I know it. Someone can create as a jingle for Paul Lacey, and then we can just play that at random times. I would really love it. I listen to podcasts all the time. Like, literally, I’m addicted. If you go and search the WP Innovator Group, you’ll see I posted 90 odd podcasts that I’ll subscribe to, and I listen to them all. I honestly do. I would love to have a few random jingles and stupid things that we could throw in now and again. It’d be so much fun just to create that ongoing audio brand. Oh, yes. Instead of a visual brand An audio, an audio.
Pete Everitt
An audio brand.
Lee:
Beautiful. Mate, thank you so much for taking us on your journey for planning and launching a podcast. Congratulations, episode 21, folks. I recommend you also go listen to episode 20 because I believe that’s episode where you share your lessons in more personal, just one on one, you and the listener set up. So go and listen to that episode as well where Pete shares his story. I’m right, aren’t I?
Pete Everitt
You are dead right. In fact, I’ve had the show notes for that episode open while we’ve been talking.
Lee:
You don’t need to listen to that episode. No, I’m joking. You go ahead and listen to that episode. Can I encourage you as well? Please support Pete. Go and join his Facebook group as well. That allows you to keep updated with what he’s doing on the show. But it also allows to channel in what’s going on in your world, especially in the realm of marketing. That’s not something that we do necessarily very well in Agency Trailblazer. We’re talking more about running your agency and tips like that. Whereas if you go and check out Pete’s group, you’re going to learn good things about SEO and marketing and best practises in that realm. So it’s definitely a great place to be. So I’ll put the link in the show notes. And I’m also, after this episode, going to share this in our group, Pete, and see if we can get you some more members before this podcast even goes live.
Pete Everitt
Awesome.
Lee:
Thanks mate.
Pete Everitt
Really appreciate it.
Lee:
So thank you, mate. Have a wonderful day. And hopefully we will have that beer real soon.
Pete Everitt
Yeah, cool.
Lee:
All right, then.
Pete Everitt
Cheers, mate.
Lee:
All right. Slinger hook. And that wraps up today’s show. Folks, if you were not aware, we have a YouTube channel as well. You can find that on agencytrailblazer.com/youtube. There is a whole mix of content in there, including some raw behind the scenes thoughts from myself about what goes on in the day to day, including a video that I did just yesterday at the Youprenuer summit. You can check that out over on agencytraileblazer.com/youtube. If we don’t see you in the comments on YouTube, we will see you in the next episode.
