1244: Simplify, Streamline and Enhance Podcast Production Value with AJ Vassar

Robert Plank 0:02 Hey. So we're here, and we're recording a pre call for Mr. AJ Vassar show. And we we catch you caught up after I don't know how many years, and AJ start a new podcast, and we were just talking about how exciting it is, about all the extra, added possibilities. And I was like, Well, hey, let's record what the pre call is all about. So I mean, let me let you be in charge here, mister aging, and tell me about your show, and tell me what you want to know about me, and how does your pre calls usually go?

AJ Vassar 0:30 So the show is called business problem solvers podcast. And literally, that's what I do. I talk to entrepreneurs and business owners about the problems that they solving business I have been fascinated with how businesses form, what all the different types of businesses they are. And the one thing that came very became very apparent, is all businesses solve some type of problem. So then, knowing that all businesses solve a problem. I just wanted to start talking to entrepreneurs about the problems that they solve. And for me, it's kind of cheating, because I get a chance to pick, pick your mind, and pick my guest mind about the problems they solve, and give me ideas to help help what I call a business. ATM, right. Because I've been I believe a lot of entrepreneurs are trying to get money from their clients, but first you have to get their attention, then you have to get their time, then you get their money. So who? And my thing was like, hey, ATM, you like that business? ATM, so that's uh for me. That's what this was about. It was about having those conversations so I could even get ideas, and my and my audience can get ideas, because I believe some of the best, some of the best advice, and the best tools and and strategies actually come from other industries, because everybody in your industry is doing the same thing. Yes, so that that's that was the point of doing a podcast. And like I said, I want to jump on with you on my on my pre calls. The first thing I want to know is, like, tell me what problem that you want to talk about you solving on the podcast, because so many people solve different problems. So I want to know which problem do you want to focus on as you're on the podcast,

Robert Plank 2:31 I want to focus on simplicity. So when I was 17 years old, I put my very first information product out. It was called simple PHP. It was like a programming ebook Balcon. We had, we didn't even have video then, right? We had ebooks, and people made technical stuff too complicated and and now it's 25 years later, and my business is called, done for you podcasting, and it's simplicity once again, right? And you know, as a new podcaster, you're like, I've got to figure out my my gear, my guests, my lighting, all my stuff, and so my team does the production, and we work with new and existing podcasts. So I'm like, you know, AJ, you do your podcast. Do your thing. But when you get kind of tired or worn out of all the production yourself or whatever team you use, then we just kind of make it simple. It's like you, you send us all the the raw videos, right, all your amazing interviews that you're about to do, and then we, we cut it up, put it on your podcast, host your socials, quote cards, reels, show notes, SEO, all that good stuff. So podcasting production and in the goal of simplicity.

AJ Vassar 3:39 Oh, that's, that's awesome. That's awesome. I know, like you said, for me, that is probably going to be one of the things that that you start looking for as you're doing this, especially if you're, you know, if you're able to monetize it, because it's like, I tell people all the time, you have time, you have money, right? So while you have time, and you don't have the money, you do it yourself, but as soon as you start making the money, then it's time to give that to somebody else, because now you probably don't have the time. So that's that's great to know that. Um, so would you say your target audience, or just podcast get podcast hosts? Is that who you're you're typically going after in your business,

Robert Plank 4:22 yeah, podcast host, because it's a great sort of doing the Swift swap, right, even sort of what we're doing here, right? You, you have guests on your show. You build their relationships. Maybe they have a show, or vice versa. And a lot of and you probably know this already, like a lot of people, they won't even talk to you unless there's something in it for them, even something small, right? And so someone, someone just won't get on the phone for you for no reason, but you're like, Hey, will you be on my podcast? Well, yeah, and if you want to be on their show, well they won't just hand that out. But if you're like, hey, you'd be on my show, and I'll be on your show, and then everybody wins, because you have these relationships. Initiatives. You do the pre call, like we're doing here, and each person kind of hears about their offer ahead of time, and then you do the show, and there's better chemistry. And so, yeah, podcast hosts. But as you know, just there's, there's more people have layers, right? People aren't just podcast hosts or other things, but, and so like, yeah, being a host is great, right? Like we're doing now. People come to you. They play by your rules.

AJ Vassar 5:21 Yeah, yeah, no, that's good. That's really good, man. Um, the one, the other thing that I do, and I just started this for from an idea from one of my guys, is I'm able to, I wanted to, I wanted to make sure I gave value to the guests that come on, right. And I wanted to say thank you some type of way. So I also use this pre this pre call to figure out who the people like, who, who your target audience is, because I've been able to learn how to scrape leads and how to get leads. So one of the things that I want to do is give 50 to 100 leads to anybody that comes on my show, just as a thank you for coming on. So I noticed you go after podcast host. So when you come on, you know, we record, I hope to have a list of podcast leads that I can give to you.

Robert Plank 6:18 That's great. I might steal that and, you know, let me one up here, a little bit here, because something that I've been there's like, two kind of fun activities I've been doing is, you know, you record a podcast and making the transcripts really easy these days, right? There's like, Otter, there's descript, and then I've been running those transcripts through chat, GPT, and, like, you know, the logical thing is, you can make like a social media post out of the big, long transcript, right, extract the good stuff. And so what I've been doing is I've been making like a longer, like LinkedIn article, like a whole blog post length, and I give it to the person sometimes, because there's two sides of it, right? There's the blog post written by me about ag Vassar, and then you can kind of give it another prompt and be like, hey, rewrite this so that, like, AJ can post it. So there's that, and then there's what I've been having a lot of fun too, with is, like, the the LinkedIn recommendations, right? You can go on someone's profile and, like, you can endorse their skills, but you can also post, like a block of text. And who has time for that? But you feed the whole 20 minute podcast transcript into chat. GPT, you say, hey, like, abide by LinkedIn best practices and give me, like, a, you know, 300 word endorsement, and it's like, all the best stuff. So, so I'm gonna, um, I'm gonna steal sort of what you're doing there. You give, like a gift to the young guest, and I've been doing that a little bit as part of the follow up. But like, that's going to be like, Uh, hey, here's your gift specifically for being on my show

AJ Vassar 7:45 dog. That is awesome that yes, and I'm going to need this recording. That's why I can remember that, because that's, I'm

Robert Plank 7:53 glad we're recording. Yeah, yeah.

AJ Vassar 7:55 Me too. Me too. But I think that that's one of the greatest things about having these type of meetings, like I said, different things come from it. So I have what I'm doing. You have what you're doing now. We can put them together, right? I can take part of yours. You can take part of mine, and it's it's really just adding value. And I think that the winners of this next wave of business owners are just going to be people that add tremendous amounts of value, because information is dead, like you can go on YouTube and find anything, right? But ones that are coming adding value to begin with, it's going to take over

Robert Plank 8:36 100% we need to fight the coming AI apocalypse, right? The all the AI, it generates so much useless stuff. But then within all that, the mess, if there's something that, like, connects to the right person, helps the right person, like, that's what you and me are here to do, right? The human connection,

AJ Vassar 8:53 100% 100% you're totally correct. So I love it, man, this is great. So now I know what to focus on on the podcast. I know who to what leads to pull for you, and I think we gonna have a great conversation,

Robert Plank 9:09 me too. And so, you know, I'm glad that we recorded this, because the pre call, it's something I didn't do for you. Didn't even know it was a thing to do. And then someone, maybe a year ago had me do it, and I found it to be, like, really frustrating and time consuming, and I stopped doing it, but then about a week or two ago, I picked it back up, and I love the pre call now, right? It's a good way to, like, Get clear on what you want to say, and then you're getting all this feedback from people and kind of just having the face time with them, building a relationship. And so, you know, I'm doing the pre calls, but kind of, my excitement's been sort of on a decline, but then now I see that you're doing it. I'm like, you know, I gotta follow aj's example and keep up with the pre call.

AJ Vassar 9:48 Yeah, the pre call, I think it makes the podcast go better. The interviews go better, because it's not my first time talking to you, right? I know what we're going to talk about. So. I'm I'm more in tune of understanding you better, and I know the the boundaries of the podcast. So to me, the pre call is great.

Robert Plank 10:10 I agree, and so are we at the end of the pre call, this is about how long goes 10 minutes, or is there more?

AJ Vassar 10:15 That's it? Nope.

Robert Plank 10:18 All right. Well, great. So it, it's easy and painless, and we packed a lot in and also. So because we're recording, I want to make sure to drop some links. So because we'll I'll post this as one of my podcast episodes. I'll give you the recording that way you have, like, your pre call notes. But what's the URL to the business problem solvers podcast? Or what are some next steps here?

AJ Vassar 10:38 So I would say, tell if people are watching this, just follow me at AJ Vassar on my social medias, because that's how you're going to be able to find it like, like I told you before, I've actually been recording all of my episodes. And so I figured out that the average podcast only, I think, records 20. So I already have, like, 19 recorded. So I want to come out and be the average, and then I want to be able to have them, just in case when life happens, I have podcasts on deck so that I stay consistent. Because I think consistency is the most important thing. I say now to people that are are doing great podcasting. They're very consistent.

Robert Plank 11:20 Of course, dedication and consistency solves a lot of problems, right? Woody Allen said, 80% of life is just showing up. I mean, if you're in in a playing a musical instrument, a sport, going to school, it's like, just, just show up to class or show up to the gym, right? Just even if you're you suck at first, just keep being there, keep showing up, and you'll get better without even realizing it. So you said that's AJ vassar.com so that's AJ V A, S, S, A, R, and then my website is D, F, Y, podcast.com so that way we both plugged a couple of links and so at this point, so AJ, like, if we were doing this, like, non recording, right? If we were doing this informal, you just say, like, I'll send you the scheduler link next, right? Or, like, what's the next step after doing a pre call?

AJ Vassar 12:04 That's it. So I just say, Hey, I'm going to email you the scheduling link you get on there. Um, there's only two things that I really need. Is and that's number one, we kind of talked about it, make sure I know who your who your target audience is, and then your intro, because when I, when I start the podcast, I'm going to read your intro word for word so that I can edify you to my audience. So I want to make sure that I put you in the right light so I let you write it.

Robert Plank 12:31 Oh yes, that's important. And it starts us off on the right foot, right. Hit the ground running. And we just we say, hey, attention is limited, and maybe you're only listen to this podcast for the first 30 seconds. But hey, this guy, AJ Vassar, he's a business problem solver, and he's talking about that entrepreneurial journey. Like, okay, good. Like, I'm in the right place. I'll listen to maybe the next three minutes, and that better be good, and then I'll listen to the rest. But it's like, we hook them early by reading the guest file, underrated, but so important.

AJ Vassar 12:59 Yeah, yeah. 100% man, people, people want to know why they should listen to you. So that's what I try to do within the first minute, just tell you why you should listen.

Robert Plank 13:09 I love it and that, yeah, that's, that's how it's done, right? That's what the the Tiktok kids say is, is get their attention early. So, so great. So, yeah, I'll be on the lookout for that link. Is there anything else?

AJ Vassar 13:19 Nope, that's it, man, I appreciate you.

Robert Plank 13:23 Appreciate you too. And here we are doing the behind the scenes, meeting one on one, but also getting some extra mileage out of it. So you send me the link, I'll send you the recording and transcript, and you have yourself a wonderful weekend.

AJ Vassar 13:35 Hey, you do the same. I look forward to it, man, take care.

Robert Plank 13:39 Lookingforward to it. Take care. Bye.