100. 100th Episode Special: Look Back Roast & Lessons from Creating 100 Podcasts

Okay, pause.

So Ben. Oh my God, the screen. Your face is disgusting. You look like you've got makeup on.

I don't have a microphone. I'm just using the MacBook mic. That sounds horrendous.

You just barreled in. No intro, no nothing. My webcam's way too high. I've got crap written on my board. Haven't done my beard. Don't care. It's not looking good all down. Look at my arms. I wasn't even lifting back then.

Dude, you look real tech bod there.

Woof. You bloody blow on me and I just fall over. My bones had snapped.

So completely irrelevant information to begin with. I look half asleep and we're, we're about a minute in the episode and nothing's been discussed so far. No one even knows what the podcast is about.

You gotta fast forward this, mate. I'm so bored. See, so this is like a weird meandering conversation, but the banter is there, mate, when you were onto something.

Welcome to the hundredth episode of the Bennebergs Podcast. I'm Ben, your favorite high school dropout and founder of Collective Shift. Alongside me is Bergs, your favorite MBA and CEO of Collective Shift, Australia's leading crypto portfolio insights company, providing professional analysis and portfolio strategies for crypto investors. Like you, we are a unique blend of the established and the self made. And we're here to break down crypto business and personal growth. And we're here not to just, we're here not to just talk crap. We're here to give you the insights you need to make better investments, build successful businesses and level up your life. And today, ladies and gentlemen, we are up to the 100th episode. Bergs. Yeah, we'd ever make it to 100.

Episodes now, mate, I was giving it about four episodes, eh?

Eight.

I was like, okay, we're gonna try this. We're both very competitive so we'll get a few episodes out. And I was like, look, it's either going to be rubbish or we're going to hate each other. We're going to hate the process. But mate, Here we are 100 episodes later, still enjoying it. It's the one thing I look forward to during the week. Rest of my week sucks.

And where I feel like, man, we're just getting started with this. We're learning so much, we're having a lot of fun, we're getting good feedback and we're at 100 already. It feels like yesterday.

So I was just checking the first episode date. The first episode went live about 15 months ago on 15 June. So for context, listeners, today we're going to be doing a look Back roast of our first podcast. Now, this came about recently when I'm not sure who it was, and we might have both had a little bit of a, you know, bit of a look back. And I remember watching that was in the back of the Uber and I was just going, I wonder, like, there's a bit of, like, how, how much would we improve? Like, you know, how bad were we at the start of where we good. Went back and watched the first 15 seconds and nearly vomited in the back of the Uber. He went.

Listening to myself is just hard to do, you know. You know, listeners, when you listen back to yourself or you watch a video yourself, like, when you first do it, this can be very uncomfortable. I've learned to do it through, like, public speaking and, you know, wanting to improve and looking back, it's a, it's a, you know, you learn a lot. But when you go that far back.

What was I doing? It is so painful. You're like, who is this clown? And you're like, wait, that clown is me.

And you have a different, you know, facial hair back then, boys, you know, you have the. I'm not going to say his name, but you have the beard that looks like.

You'Re basically gonna get bomb tested every time you go through security. Did you get. You would have got tested every time, surely?

Oh, for sure, mate. Like, look, I fit the profile. I know it. I had a big, giant beard.

Mate. I'm just looking back at that, I'm like, oh, should I got rid of.

That a lot earlier?

That's rough.

I mean, like, it's funny, right? When you, when you're at the time, like, this is what you look like. And now look at you now I'm like, what the. Why do you have that beard for so long? Like, you know, you look much better without it. I'm not gonna lie.

Back then it was like, really unkempt. I couldn't be bothered cutting it and shaping it down the bottom and everything. I had to blow dry it every day, like, oh, get stuffed. But, mate, look back at this episode. Oh, it's gonna be rough. And we got to the point where I probably had my equipment. I wanted to do some other YouTube stuff before we were doing Bennett Bergs had my equipment for over a year and didn't publish anything recorded some things, didn't publish it. And what it came to was, we just need to get started and we needed to be accountable for each other. So the very first episode of Ben and Bergs were like, stuff it, let's just do it. Let's not get too fancy. Otherwise we're never going to be able to do this. We just got on a video chat, got on Riverside, hit record.

And this is what happened. Are we ready to go into this bed? I don't know if I'm ready to do it.

Yeah. I just want to give a bit of context, like just. Just to go back at just one more step. So Bergs and I would often have some, what we thought were pretty cool conversations. We talk about business and crypto and like, we just talk for an hour or two hours, catch up and it was just awesome conversations. And then we always thought that one day we'd have, you know, we should, we should publish this. Like someone else might find value in this, who knows? And we, um, denied for probably another year, I reckon, mate. Like, we were just going back and forth and trying to come up with different stuff. And then one day it was very difficult. Like, I think it was the ego. It was like, no one's gonna listen to this. This is gonna be an absolute flop. Like, how are we actually gonna do this? And then one day we're like, fuck it, right? Let's do it. Let's lock it in, let's book the date in and let's just record it. Basically, no strategy. You know, we had some topics. We're just like, oh, we'll just get after it. You know, go for it. And, you know, 100 episodes on, we're up to about 13,000 downloads now. And, you know, we've got some awesome listeners and, you know, we're absolutely loving the journey. But the goal, Burges, the goal that we wrote, I think was most important. The goal at the end of the day for us was that we must have fun doing this. If this ever becomes a choreography or something we don't want to do, then it's all over. We're not doing anymore. That's the only reason I think we've gotten to 100 episodes.

That's exactly right. We weren't chasing, you know, metrics, sponsorship, whatever it might be. There might be sub goals and things we want to get to, but we have to have fun. And if we rock up and we're stressed and we've just barreled out of a meeting, we've got heaps on. We look and feel like crap. Like, not look, we're not recording this week. We're going to do a. You know, on the weekend or we'll do it next week. We're just very open and honest with each other about it. And it has to be fun because if it's still a grind and you hate doing it, you don't look forward to it, you're not going to do a good job and you shouldn't be doing it.

Yeah, I agree. Okay, without further ado, let's start this. So the episode was published on the 15th of June, 2022, titled Lessons from Crypto Investing America versus Australia. NFTs in Real Life, Episode 001. Let's start.

All right, let's go.

Give you the good.

Okay, the good is I'm on hotspot because it's cold here in Launceston. One degrees and it's midday.

Okay.

So for those listening on the podcast, Ben. Oh, my God, the screen you've posted it on. Your face is disgusting. You look like you've got makeup on.

I don't have a microphone. I think I'm just using the. The MacBook mic. I don't think I have a microphone. That sounds horrendous.

It does. And, mate, you've got a Brooklyn bloody beanie on. You just barreled in. No intro, no nothing. At least it's got our names there. I'm like, sitting back, laid back. My webcam's way too high. I've got crap written on my board. Haven't done my beard. Don't care. Look extremely fat. Like, honestly, I've got my Gary Vee books in the background. Empty wall, mate. It is. It's not looking good all down.

Let's see what the first thing is. So this is where you need to hook the. Hook the content, right? This is. This is our hook into some Riverside fm because uploads automatically into Anchor, which is a. Which Spotify just acquired. Spotify does video podcasts now, so you can watch the video, but you've got to upload through Anchor.

That's wild.

Okay, so. So completely irrelevant information to begin with. No one knows what Anchor is. No one knows what you know. What anyone cares about is you've come back with amazing. I look half asleep. And we're about a minute in the episode and nothing's been discussed so far. No one ever knows what the podcast is about.

There's a serious lag going on. You can tell. And then, like, you're literally something. You learned something five seconds ago. You're like, I've got to tell everyone about Anchor and Spotify. Everyone's going to love this. It's going to blow their minds.

But now it's so serious, mate.

Oh, my God. Serious.

Okay, all right, let's keep going. They just go and buy a company. Well, they do, right? They got tons of cash. They need to do something with all that money.

100 million plus they purchase Anchor for Spotify.

How old is anchor, mate? 100 million.

And it's powering 80% of new podcasts on Spotify. Live research. 1.3 million shots it had on anchor.

That's insane.

Nate.

This, mate.

Quiet it. For 100 mil. My audio is horrific.

Looking at Spotify share price, mate.

Woof.

Picked up at 364 bucks US a share. Down to 102, mate. Just like the rest of them, man.

The market's been wiped out, hasn't it?

Did you see crypto took a big hit last night, mate. Bitcoin's like, what, 26k bitcoin, 26k.

ETH. Okay, so a year on bitcoin hasn't moved. We're at 26k today.

Look at you, mate, you're scratching your neck. We haven't done any prep whatsoever. I don't know what anchor is. I've somehow pivoted to Spotify.

So this is a big. This is a big point. So when we first did the podcast, it was going to be a conversation. It was. The idea was no prep. We'd come in and we just talk about random stuff. So we'd have like 12 different topics and we just free flow a year on. We've completely changed that from feedback. Talking about nine different things in one episode is just too much like. It gets all over the shop. You're not prepared, it's not engaging. We don't even know what we're talking about. It's all over the shop. So we've been really focused on being prepared and coming with it, you know, more substantial content.

This episode is an hour and one minute long.

It's an hour long podcast, mate. No, it needs to be pretty special, like interviewing a really awesome guest or something. Listen to us too. With no prep and no research, thinking we're amazing. Brilliant. Brilliant. All right, let's get going.

Man.

I don't even look anymore. I haven't looked at my portfolio in six months.

You just don't want to cry.

You just stay clear. I speak to so many. Speak to so many newbies who, like, have bought in November and, you know, panic sell on the way down because they're just so fixated on their portfolio price.

100%. You know what's wild. Like, so I've been buying since 2017. Never sold. I don't think I've ever sold, but I have, like, sold Bitcoin and ETH to buy, like, coins or like NFTs. And that's where I got wrecked, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But all my, like, BTC and E stack, I'm just. I don't know, just not really a seller. No one cares. You gotta fast forward this, mate. I'm so bored.

What did we end up talking about?

I don't even know.

And we've both got colds as well.

There's nothing's been discussed so far. In two minutes in. Let's go, like 10 minutes.

Who's on the other side of that trade? All those people that are better than you, right? That have been doing this for years. I have more sophisticated equipment or algorithms or, you know, more money than you. So they can stay solvent longer than you can.

It's.

And then.

But then IQ was like, straight up. I was like, yeah, I'll take that. I'll take the iq.

Eq down in the dumps. Iq, just crush it.

They're like, so you're a sad human, but you're smart. So I was like, the results. Anyway, so going this cubicle.

All right, pause there. See? So this is like a weird, meandering conversation. I'm pretty sure we've got nothing written in notion, but the banter is there, mate. When you were onto something.

Just no, no preparation. And I think, like.

It works for some. But like, we're, you know, we're mature now into a more like, dedicated crypto business podcast. Like, we're trying to teach you something or, like, teach you lessons learned and just having a, you know, roundabout conversation about whatever is like, I wouldn't listen to this. I don't have time to listen to an hour. Just.

That's it. But again, like, we needed to start somewhere and improve on it, right? So to get to where we are today and can you imagine we'll be in five years time, we'll look back on this episode today going, what the hell are these guys doing? Like a look back roast. They haven't prepared. They haven't got specific spots in the video. Whatever it may be, mate, it's. It is completely a learning journey. And it's like that visualized value where, you know, the perfectionist just goes along and then stops, right? And the procrastinator doesn't get start. The iterators, like, up and down, up and down, and you iterate your way to Glory.

He's bottom and going back to the stats. So like back in June when we launched this, we had 450 total downloads in that month. And then, you know, fast forward to July this year, we had 2,150 downloads.

There you go.

In that month. So it's been a slow, you know, upwards trajectory. But like you said, like you don't know until you know. And that's been the biggest lesson of like business and anything I've done. You don't know what you don't know. So just getting out there and just starting and yes, you're gonna have a look back rows because it's awful. But you've got a starting point to, to build upon, mate.

Like flick forward, go like halfway. Let's see what we're waffling on about. About halfway.

Yeah.

This could be anything. Dear Lisa.

So, yeah, trying to find this cheaper business class, you know, with the points. But the airlines, I think we need to own the airline one day because I'm like, holy, these guys probably make a bank and they make all their money in the first class. That's where they're making.

Yeah, that, that pays a lot of it. So I actually did like in B school, we did a business case on airlines, right. And this is the thing. If you look at like barriers to entry, the fixed costs are so much like fixed cost, the amount you need to do. There we go, all those planes and then have the registration. We need to own an airline.

Zoom to halfway. We're buying an airline.

Oh God, mate, like look at the way you thought back then you would have been what, 23? 22.

No. 23. Yeah, we read 23. Yeah.

Oh, mate, you're just like, you're buying an airline. You're about that life. You're going to have a massive exit. You're going to be a billionaire.

And then I look like an absolute drop kick. I've got a black Brooklyn beanie that's half position on my forehead and you.

Still look like a drop kick. So nothing's going.

You didn't say. I didn't. But I still look like it there.

All right, all right, let's, let's move forward a bit more. Let's see what we're rambling on about. More relaxed, like we're achieving more.

It is amazing because we're attacking it as a team. We're not all doing these like individual like things that aren't really correlating and we're doing like 14 things half assed. So I'm gonna Nail these three things this week, and let's. Let's. Let's celebrate at the end of the week.

Oh, that's exactly right. And even things like, you've read Atomic Habits, right? And it's like, you know, hey, simple things like habit stacking. I do that a lot. Whereas the thing I don't like, and then I'll stack it with something else. Or it's. It's like, all right, pause it there, Nate. Pause it there. So this is really good. Like, the conversation is good, but the setup's really crap. Like, people don't know. It's like life Lessons from Crypto investing. America, Australia, NFTs in real life, it's like, it's way too much for someone to understand. There's, like, really good bits in there, but it takes too long to get to it. And who's going to listen to all the meandering and bullshit just to get to the good bits?

Even us were like. Like, what are we even talking about? There's no timestamps. You know what you're talking about. Like, there's no. There's no hook or reason why someone would listen to this because there's no. There's no reward. Like, what. What. You know, what are you going to learn from this? You've got no idea.

And it's interesting. We didn't know all of that back then, where, you know, how people select a podcast, how you market a podcast, what people come to listen to you for, how to break things up, what's the cadence? What's the schedule? You know, thumbnails, editing, audio, video. Like, now I've got a fancy camera. It's like, you learn all of that. Not before you start. You learn it by doing.

Yeah, yeah. Agree. Right? The end.

Let's go there. Do we have meme and meal of the week in this one? Do we. Do we have that back then?

No, I don't think so.

Oh, no. Or maybe we did. Oh, no, I think we did. And the editor didn't put it on the screen. Okay, you remember, like, we. We shared it, and, like, it wasn't there. And, like, we had that a few times. And like, oh, my God. Like, in the background, like, telling your editors what you want, then it comes back in the back and forth until you actually nail out a process in the background is crazy.

Yeah, that. That took a long time as well. And video editors are different. Audio editors, which are different to graphic designers, which I'm going to upload it. And then it's like, yeah.

This is A mountain.

Look at my arms. I wasn't even lifting back then.

Oh, dude, you look real tech bod there.

That's the thing now I'm still. I'm still fat, but I'm not tech bored, right? Like I've got a muscle going on that is like, woof. Like, you bloody blow on me, like, and I just fall over. My bones would snap.

That is that.

It's like hardcore from working in health for too long, mate, just sitting at a desk in corporate.

That's true. Like, your arms, you're much bigger now. And even like, I didn't work out then either. I think, like, you can't.

I'm just.

I'm sorry about that hoodie life.

Daddy Dazzy, mate, it would have been winter, winter time. So it's very sunny in Perth there.

That's why I wear the beanie. Oh, mate, this is actually. This would have been around when I split up with my ex. I think middle of. That's probably why I was in Tassie.

This. Yes. So because you're talking about America. That happened when you came back from America, right?

That's right. Yes, I came back from America. This. This is probably the week in between. This is probably like days or weeks. Yeah, probably days after split up. So post breakup pod, mate.

Break up with a Mrs. Starter pod. Oh, man. So looking back on this for me, mate, it is incredibly cringe. Looking at my stupid head and I'm thinking about my life back then. I'm just like, sort yourself out. Which is good because it shows a lot of growth. Right. If you look back and you think you're amazing and you're still the same today, well, you're not pushing that hard.

Yeah, yeah, I'm the same. I think physically, you know, we both work on ourselves. I think what we're talking about as well, I mean, you're still dropping, you know, your business school stuff. I've sophisticated a little bit, I think, since then.

And yeah, you've got slightly better, mate, I'll give you that.

But then also our presentation and just understanding the audience and understanding you, the listeners are like, how we. How we can add the most value. I think actually that was one big difference. I think we started off our podcast thinking about us and now we think about you. And that's. That's been a big difference. How can we add value to you? Not. How can we just blabber on for an hour and talk about God knows what?

That's right. Even the prep we do where we'll have our notes from the week in Notion and we'll go through. Right. Do we want to do this episode? Nah, can't be bothered. It's too sad. I'm not in the mood. Do you want to do this episode? Okay, yeah, we can do that, but what's the hook? Why would someone listen to this? What are the top three things that we can talk about in here and try and do some real prep so that, you know, first of all, we're prepared, but also, we only have the beans in there. There's not a lot of fluff. It's just exactly, you know, the best things. And look, time is incredibly valuable, and for us to ask you every week to listen to our podcast is a very, very big ass. So we better make sure that it's bloody valuable and that you keep coming back for more.

Yeah, spot on, bags. Okay, let's see if we'd spoke about.

Tat, you might be all the way at the end. All right, let's go. And this is.

We've got, like, you know, six grand. It was like a little piece of free.

Eighth is already more than you paid for the moonbird. You paid two and a half, eight.

Yeah, I got it.

And they got eight fest, but I can't go, so whatever.

NFTs fun and exciting to talk about.

So, so good, man. Like, when we're coming into this, I'm like, oh, man, podcast. My face is going to be there. Haven't had a haircut. What are we going to talk about again in there? It's just like, oh, son. Scientology, mate. Just go on the tangents. How good? Oh, this is awesome. What a start to the week. I love it, I love it. Awesome.

Thanks, mate. We'll see you next week.

All right, mate. Catch.

You see?

All right. So, bro, I totally forgot about that Scientology story. That was incredible. What we need to do is like, okay, maybe like 20 of that episode was just pure gold. We should go back and clip up, like, the best bits. Like, that Scientology story was incredible. I totally forgot that. So for those that haven't listened to the first episode, Ben went to the States and he got. He's a few scooies down, and he got accosted by this Scientology lady and he went for a personality test. That's where we're talking about IQ and eq. And they're like, oh, you know, but you're sad and this happens and you're broken, but we can fix you. All you need to do is like, pay us money and go to the next level.

And they hooked you in to buy some books or something?

Even looking back on that, about that was only last year. My.

Wow.

Those things have. These have improved a little bit on my side.

My social awareness.

Just hearing myself talk and hearing you talk and pretty much working. So Ben and I are pretty much in a relationship, right? We work together every single day. We run a business together. Things get hectic. We've got each other's backs. We're in the trenches. We know a lot about each other. We're very open and honest and just looking at how you were and how I was and looking through our thought processes and what we want to talk about and what interests us. We are completely different. Like 15 or whatever months on, and.

This time next year will probably be much different again. That's the scary bit, isn't it?

And it's not just a little bit different. It's significantly different. Like, things I was talking about don't even bother me now. The way I looked really bothers me, you know, it's just I could even like the way I was breathing. I hadn't had my surgery then. I could hear it in my nose and I'm like, whoa. Yeah. Oh, wow.

It makes me excited for the future, but it makes me cringe looking backwards.

Yeah. Well, look, I think. I don't know, a couple of key takeaways there. I think just in interest in anything. One of the things, biggest things I've learned in anything, whether it be doing content, starting a business, trying something new, is just. You just got to start. Just got to go. Force yourself to go. You know, it's going to be shit. Just do it anyway, because it gives you a foundation and you realize that no one really gives a shit anyway. Um, you know, that was the biggest thing I think I learned.

I was always worried about what people would think about me and. And don't. Like, no one cares. They care about themselves. You can put up your content and we could go back and delete those first few videos if we wanted to. Like, a lot of people, curate their content to a perfect list. We haven't done that. It's okay for me. I like it. I like going back and seeing the history there about where we started. It just feels real and it feels good. And, you know, when I'm old, In my, like, 70s or whatever, I'll go back, look at this, have a good laugh. It'll be fantastic. Yeah, man.

Good.

I think the key message for anyone out there wanting to start a podcast, go back in our catalog, and we've actually got an episode on the equipment we use and how we set up our podcast. You can get started very cheap, under a hundred bucks, maybe even 30 bucks if you just buy a microphone and use your current webcam. Just make sure your audio is good. Video doesn't matter too much, but audio needs to be good. Get started, get out there. Tell people your story. Get out of, like, you know, do something different. Like with me, I was working corporate, had a very boring life, and I could have done a podcast on the side if I didn't join Collective Shift and just have a little side hustle, have an artistic outlet and just enjoy it. Get out there.

Yeah, Good, good words, Bugs. And thank you, everyone that listens. We're up to 13 and a half thousand downloads, which is just unbelievable since the start, 300 Spotify followers. So, you know, we are taking you all on this journey with us, starting this podcast. And you know, as you all know, we love crypto, we love personal growth, we love business. Talking to you each and every week is something we genuinely like to do. And the way we grow the podcast is just through, you know, word of mouth and you guys sharing it around. So, you know, if you have any favorite episodes that you've liked of the first, you know, 100, we'd love for you to share it with a friend. If you found it valuable and you think someone else will find it valuable, we'd love for you to share it around. It's how we grow the pod. And as always, we'll be back every single week, twice a week for you in your ears. So thanks everyone, and thank you. Bergs, here's another 100.

Here's another 100, mate. Thanks, champions.