How launching a podcast for tech consultants has made this ERP guru Happy and built a new line of income from around the world whilst staying in his Canadian home.

People see that I talk about podcasting and talk about consulting, and when they hear about a need for a consultant, they hear about the need for a digital transformation, whether it's for their own business or for someone else. I have sometimes some inquiries that are coming in. So that's one of the byproducts of building your personal brand through a podcast.

So welcome to this episode of the Unnoticed show. Should I say bonjour? Because I'm speaking to Diazhen and he's joining us all the way from Montreal in Canada. Diogene, share with us why you have felt unnoticed or how you felt unnoticed and what you've done about it.

Yeah, I have. It's an excellent question. I have felt unnoticed pretty much my whole career. I don't want to exaggerate that, but yes, to some extent. So I used to be someone who works in a pretty big company, so I've been working for kind of the biggest consulting firms, and I was working in implementation, software implementation project. So mostly the software SAP, and it was a project where teams were big, both on the client side and the consultant side. And even though you do a lot of work, long hours, weekends, et cetera, and you do it, you try to do it well, even after that, you still feel that you are kind of a number. And you might be lucky if you get noticed by the right. By the right persons that are not necessarily always the person with whom you are working. If you get noticed by them, then you are up for promotion, up for a salary rise, et cetera. So I have. In my career, I've never had any. Any promotion, but I got promoted more by changing. By changing jobs. But yes, I have always felt a little bit unnoticed, and that has pushed me to. To create a podcast eventually last year. It has pushed me four years ago to become independent. So to. To create my own. My own business. So these are the two big actions because I felt unnoticed.

Wow.

Okay, fantastic. So really, rather than sitting there and just accepting the mediocrity, you've kind of got out and done that, which is fantastic to see. Also, you're a soccer coach, so you're obviously a man of action as well on many fronts. Dear Jen, you are technical person, right? And you're working with clients on digital transformation. How did you take the step from being an independent consultant on sort of large B2B technology projects to having a creative outlet with the podcast? Why did you choose podcasting and how has that worked out for you?

I started listening to podcasts in 2015 for the first time. I was listening to Pat Flynn. If anyone knows that person, he has a podcast called Smart Passive income. And since 2017, when I decided to create my company, I had that idea that having a podcast could be nice just because I like to listen and to speak with people. And only since 2019, I went to San Diego to go to the first ever event organized by Pat Flynn by that, that podcaster. And at that time, it was the summer of 2019 and I had in my, in my head I was thinking should, should I create a podcast or should I create an online course? And I did not know much about it, even though I was listening to podcasts already. And going to that event helped me to meet so many people. And at the time I also was not sure about what I would create, what would be the topic of the podcast. But then I saw people that were creating podcasts on the business related subjects and were having, they were, they were having followers or the other type of subject. And it gave me clarity. So going, going to that event gave me clarity. I decided to then purchase his course about launching a podcast. And that's how I got the step by step about just, just the launch of the podcast. Read the first, the first start. Sorry, I got the step by step guide in order to do it well.

And now tell us about the podcast. What's the name and how have you got on some sort of. 12 months later on.

Dear Jen, the name of the podcast is really related to the fact that I was unnoticed because it's named Consulting Lifestyle. So I used to be, as I said, I used to be a consultant with the software SAP, being involved in teams with the implementations. Then I became independent and I work today, even though I still have my SAP knowledge, I work today with software that might be also suited for smaller businesses. So, such as the CRM HubSpot, for example, for example. So I've become a partner with it and my company is now ERP happy. But the consulting lifestyle, the podcast, it has been created for two reasons. One is because when I started my career in consulting, I was not really aware of what the job of a consultant is. What does it mean to be a consultant, to have colleagues with whom you do projects and colleagues with whom you are in the same company, the same department, but you don't necessarily work with them on a daily basis. But still those colleagues have an influence on the fact that you will get a promotion, a raise, et cetera in the company. The other thing is me right now, because I became an independent and I saw something that is pervasive in the consulting for big companies is that there is a business model that Most consultants have 99.99% of consultants, they sell their hours. That's the only thing they. They only sell their hours. And I was thinking, I'm sure there are other business models, but I don't know them. So I used the podcast to get extremely talented, unconventional guests and by having them understand that some other business models do exist. And this is something that I try then to implement and apply in my own business. So consulting lifestyle is really consulting the knowledge and lifestyle means you decide which lifestyle you want to have and then you build a consulting business around it.

Very nice. And you've published over 80 episodes. Now I can see in the production value in the show. Notes are really fantastic. Are you doing it all on your own or are you working with a production partner? Virtual assistants, how are you getting it all done?

That's a very, very important subject. So when I started I was doing almost everything on my own besides the graphics. So first there was always three phases. Pre recording, the recording and then post, post recording. So prerecording is really looking after trying to get guests. So I was finding guests on LinkedIn, in my own network, on some Facebook groups and I would be reaching out to the, to the, to the, to the person and get them as guests. So I was pretty, pretty lucky with it. I could find pretty. A guest. Then it was the making sure that I provide that I send them the proper information. So I'm using a calendar tool in order to secure the guest. So I use a calendly and on calendly I already gather a bit of information that will help the flow of the conversation and that will also help them to understand what type of conversation we will have. I'm not never sent questions, but I sent subjects because I. It's. It's like what we are doing right now. It's a conversation. It's not completely scripted. So first then I have the calendly. It helps them to choose when they want to to have the interview. Then we do the interview. And I have used two different tools for interviewing. So I have used the zoom and Squadcast. From an audio perspective, I prefer, I prefer squadcast but the squadcast at the time did not have a video. It's just earlier. Right now we are 26th of March when we are recording. And just three weeks ago I learned that squadcast you can also do video recording because I really like the video quality over there. So that's what I use for the recording and then I was doing myself the audio editing and then the graphics. I would ask someone to do it and then I will do myself as well. The social media, the promotion on social media, mainly LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. Today, as you asked, I have a virtual assistant that help with audio editing, that help with building the graphics, doing some of the show notes as well. Even though I give some guidelines on what to write, but they still write the show notes. I have a website for the podcast, so that's for the podcasters that want to have a website. So you have your host. I'm hosted by buzzsprout. And then you have to put your information from buzzsprout also onto the website and create a new post. And that new post is used for promotion on social media. So basically today I do, I do search for the guest, I do records. So I do the recording, of course, and I participate in most of the social media promotion. But I'm trying to also offload part of. Part of it.

Really comprehensive. Thank you. Sounds like we're doing some similar things, including for example, hosting on buzzsprout, which has been really good. You mentioned about the learnings that you're getting as well from your guests. Is that something that you'd anticipated or has kind of been a nice byproduct of the reaching out and interviewing people?

I anticipated it because I could see sometimes when a person is active on. Active on LinkedIn or they. They also have. I have interviewed some podcasters as well or people that have a business, they usually have something to share. I still, I don't know exactly what, but they usually have something interesting to share. So I was a bit. Now I was expecting that they will have something very valuable to provide. And it has been at so many different levels. It could have been business wise. So how do you price what type of being an entrepreneurial consultant, how to do your marketing, how to work in teams. But it can also be a personal life thing because it's lifestyle. So I could meet with people that are more like digital nomads, people that have small kids and managed to still manage to grow. So it's really different. Different things. And I also had people from all over the world.

Yeah.

And so I've got to ask that question. You're doing this as an adjunct to your ERP Happy business, which is a great name by the way. ERP Happy, as you rightly say that very few people put ERP and Happy together. Most people find it quite, quite exhausting. I think enterprise resource planning of course is what that stands for. What has been the impact on your core business then Diagene or the podcast now kind of eclipsing the consulting business?

Yeah, it's not eclipsing right now. I don't necessarily target to do it. I see it as, I see it as something that accompanies the consulting. So a consulting lifestyle. The content has been a lot about B2B consulting in general. Not necessarily focused on ERP, CRM, digital transformation. Not always, but how it has, it has helped my business first. As I said, people share their experience and their strategy. So that's something I could, I could apply. But it also makes myself what we call the know, like trust factor. So I am someone who is open to talk about my own struggles or my own achievements. And when I reach out to some contacts or when some contacts actually reach out to me, the trust is already, is already there. So what has already happened is that people see that I talk about podcasting and talk about consulting and when they, they hear about a need for a consultant, they hear about the need for a digital transformation, whether it's for their own business or for someone el. I have sometimes some inquiries that are, that are coming in. So that's one of the byproducts of building your personal brand through a podcast.

If you think there's a bit of a minimum viable publishing frequency because you're obviously getting a lot of benefits from having a podcast. But one of the hallmarks of successful communications is consistency. And if people publish a newsletter every now and again or appear in a magazine every now and again, it really doesn't have much value. It sounds as though with your podcast you're getting a lot of value from it. What's your view on how frequently one needs to have a podcast episode in order for it to deliver that value that you're obviously getting?

Yeah, by default I would say in average the best frequency I suggest is a weekly. So once a week and you, you pick a certain day, a certain day and a certain time at which you will always publish. Or for me, for consulting lifestyle, it's every Monday and try to be published by 6:00am Eastern Standard Time every Monday. Then I am launching another podcast which is in French about digital transformation. It will be called Transformation Numeric and it will be every Wednesday. I would say maybe in some cases if you have a long form podcast interviews that for a very long time and there is a lot of very detailed information that takes time to be digested and, and it will provoke a lot of engagement, you could Have a lesser, a smaller frequency, but in general, weekly frequency is the best.

Okay. And duration wise, how long are your shows? Because they seem to be of different lengths.

They are variations. Okay, yeah, they are variations. But it's funny what you say because when I started I was saying, yeah, it will only be between 25 and 30 minutes.

Minutes.

But then I, then I was completely dragged by the conversation and at the end it was 45, 50 minutes. So I'm trying, even though my latest episode is the longest I think I ever had, because it's a one hour, nine minutes episode, but I try to be between between 30 and 40 minutes. Yeah, that's what I notice is kind of the sweet spot.

Okay. Yeah. And I heard that really there isn't a rule. Some podcasts can last for hours and some could be 10 minutes. And there isn't a particular formula for success. Right. It's whatever your audience are looking for. And you mentioned you're going to launch a French podcast. Why are you doing that? Is there a particular audience? Is this for the Canadian? Will it be Quagga's or are you looking at Africa or the French speaking world?

The French speaking world in general. So there is a French speaking Canada, Quebec and the French speaking Canadian. Outside of Quebec, there is Europe. The French speaking countries in Europe, Belgium, Switzerland, France and maybe I forget some others. And then in Africa there are a lot of francophone French speaking countries. And sometimes even though I have a podcast that is in English, I had some private messages or questions from French speakers not want to talk. Yeah. So. So then I was thinking maybe there is something to do to do with it. And the other thing is, yes, it's also linked directly also to my, my business activities in which I'm. I'm working also with sometimes French customers. They don't always speak speak English themselves. So I do think that it makes sense. The scope of the podcast at first sight is more narrow because it will be really about digital transformation. But within digital transformation, there is already so much that can be said.

No, that's really good. Of course, in Vietnam people speak French as well. Right. And in terms of time, how much time would you say you're putting into each episode each week? Because you're doing a lot of work, but you're outsourcing Diogenes. So just share with us. Because time is money as well.

Exactly. So I used to put, when I started, I used to put too much work, but I wanted to understand the whole chain of what has to be done. That's also maybe and then for me it was easier to outsource. But at the moment, if I counter recording the logistics, etcetera, I would say half a day, it can take up to four hours. But I want, I really want to reduce it to practically just do recording a bit of research of the guest, but then recording, putting the files where they have to be. And normally it should be it, but at the moment, for every episode, when I count the effort of putting the social media promotion together. So it could be maybe half a day is too much, but closer to three to three hours, I think.

Yeah, I think that what I'm finding is it can take as much time as you'd like to give it. You know, there's no end to what else could be, could be done. And in terms of one piece of advice that you would give somebody that's feeling unnoticed and is a consultant somewhere buried away, maybe breaking out into their own. What, what advice would you get? Would it be podcasting or would you say do newsletters instead? Or what would you say has been the best thing that you've done?

The very first thing would be to network before even. Okay, first, because saying podcast or write emails or make videos, it's up to, it's up to the individual. What do they, what are they comfortable with? How do they think that they can share the best their message or their story? So it's really up to, up to anyone. However, one thing that they have to do whichever way is NETWORKING. I think LinkedIn is great for professional and B2B people. So network with as many people in your niche or the niche you, you want to, to recreate as possible. I think that's the most, that's the most important. Then do you want to share your message in text, audio, video, clubhouse, whatever. You decide how you want to do it. I love podcasting in general, so to me I'm very comfortable doing it. But most important, I think is to network, to fire off ID, receive IDs, suggest your ideas, share your story, and then you see how your voice can increase. But definitely if you want to make it, how can I say that there are less constraints with doing an audio than doing a video. And also the audio consumption is a consumption that is long. People are consuming a podcast episode for a lot of minutes, people are consuming videos for seconds. YouTube videos may be a bit longer, but now it's really the short, short form videos. People are writing or reading your blog post. Maybe they read it in diagonal or they just read the subtitles, or they just look at the images and the quotes. So podcast is maybe the media to which you get the most focused attention from people because they can listen to a podcast, a whole podcast for 30 minutes, for an hour while they are washing the dishes or while they are doing sports, but still they have listened to you during all that time.

Dear Jen, thank you for sharing. If people want to find out more about you and your lifestyle and your lifestyle consulting, where can they go?

Yeah, so there is a ConsultingLifestyle FM. That's the website of the, of the podcast. That's where you can find me. You can find me also on LinkedIn. So Diogene and I think maybe it will be in the show notes or the website of the company erpzy.com there you can find us and maybe send an email@inforphi.com that's the, that's the three best ways to to find me.

Thank you very much for joining us on the Unnoticed Podcast.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Great to be listening. Diogene and I wanted to introduce Dear Zhen because he shared really how as a consultant and independent, he's created a podcast which is helping him to learn and to grow, which I'm also enjoying greatly with my podcast, but also building his business and his personal brand. So thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Unnoticed show. And we obviously have all of our information@eastwestpr.com and you can find us on podcast in Apple and on itunes and Google podcasts as well. So thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Unnoticed show. And we hope that in the meantime you do get noticed.