MBA2133 Extended Interview: Ronsley Vaz – How He Created Australia’s First Podcasting Conference

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Hey oh. Welcome to the 100 RBA Show. Education and inspiration to get you through your day and your business journey every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company. I started with my co founder back in 2014 and today's episode is a special kind of episode where we go a little bit longer and go a bit deeper. We call these types of episodes extended interviews where I sit down with a business founder and extract their business knowledge and share it with you. You're going to get to be a fly on the wall as they sit down and have a conversation with Ronsley VOZ Ransley is the founder of Must Amplify and the first podcasting conference in Australia. We Are Podcast. We're going to get into his backstory, how he got into the podcasting world, but we're really going to dive into how he created Australia's first podcasting conference, the challenges, the and the things he learned along the way. We Are Podcast is in its ninth iteration and it's hosting its Live in person conference this November 10th and 11th in Brisbane, Australia. This is a hell of an event. I know because I spoke at two of them live and one of them virtually when we're in the pandemic. And I'll be speaking at this event in November, as well as my partner in business and life, Nicole. If you want to learn more about We Are podcasts, go to wearepodcast.com events. Today we're going to dissect what it takes to pull off an event like this. In my conversation with Ronsley, I asked some tough questions because I really wanted to find out what are the challenges he sees every single year he runs this event. So if you're thinking about starting your own event, whether it's a small local event, a meetup, a dinner, or a multi day event like We Are podcasts, you're going to love this episode. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. As I mentioned earlier, Ronse voz, today's extended interview Guest Must Amplify is an agency that helps business owners build great audio content. He's worked with big companies and brands like Gary Vaynerchuk, VaynerMedia as well as Audible Audiobooks here in Australia. We're going to jump into the conversation right now with Ronsley Vos, but I'll be back to wrap up the episode, give my takeaways, and shir, what are the next steps for you if you want to start an event? So let's jump into that conversation right now with Ronsley Vos.

Ronsley Voss. It's great to have you on the podcast. We've known each other for what, like six, seven years now?

Yeah, maybe 2016. 2015. 2016. It feels like the other day though, like it doesn't feel like it doesn't feel. Yeah. But so cool. Getting to know you and Nicole has been absolutely phenomenal.

Yeah, it's been awesome. Kind of learning from you, learning about what you do. And we're going to go real deep in today's episode. So, like a lot of our previous extended interviews, what we like to do is kind of just learn a little bit about Ronzi as a person before we get into, you know, you know, your We Are podcast event, the first Australian podcasting conference, all that kind of stuff and what it takes to kind of pull up an event like that. But you moved to Australia when you were 18, is that correct?

Not 18, 20s. So 20, actually. So 20 years ago. Okay. Is when I moved. So 20 and a bit. Forget the math. But I moved after university. I worked for a little while in Bangalore and I was like, I need to get out.

Okay.

But you grew up in Goa or is that your home hometown?

Well, I grew. So I was born Bahrain for six years of my life lived in the Middle east and then moved to Goa and then grew up in Goa and did till year 12 in Goa, which is kind of different to other parts of England. And for four years did my bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering.

In.

The next door state. So I was out of Goa for like four years and. And learning about other parts of Indian culture. But also like to get that degree I did. I had to give 64 exams in four years.

Wow.

Yeah, so that's like kind of like the big contrast of like doing, you know, studying I suppose in, in India versus coming here and then doing a couple of degrees here, which became so much easier after like yeah, you kind of do that kind of workload.

But yeah, they, they definitely love exams in India. I know that for sure. My Indian friends about that. Were there any entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial minded people that you knew when you were growing up? An uncle, a friend, a dad? You know. When were you first exposed to entrepreneurship?

Yeah, Dad, I mean I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur to be honest. I just thought dad was the entrepreneur in the family. Actually dad was the entrepreneur in the family who learned from his grandmother. So my great grandmother started off like selling fish, right. And then started selling like these vegetable that she. So instead of like getting land, growing on the land and selling that and that was how I can start it. And then dad got into construction, you know, take off. He would take over like a piece of land and then kind of develop that and. And then what? And then he would sell that. So he was the, you know, and I think he always thought I would take over the business. But I was like, no, I really didn't. Didn't. Kind of, I didn't, I didn't see myself as an entrepreneur and I didn't really want to be Richard son, which is what I was doing. I kind of wanted to be Ron Slay. I wanted to figure myself out. And I think that's why, you know, leaving home early was, was also a good idea for me so that I could like figure out just my stuff out and figure who I was. Really.

Yeah. I mean this is not an uncommon kind of path. We all need to discover who we are at some point, regardless of who our parents are or what they did. And their definition of success is always different than our definition of success. So if we fast forward to today, does your dad and your family. Your mom. I met your parents at an event one Time. But do they understand what you do? Do they fully grasp, like, the magnitude of the things you've built?

No, not at all. They just don't, don't even, it doesn't even, like, I don't think it even sunk in or sinks in. I remember the first one. I ran the first We Are podcast, and I kind of went, told him, you know, I'm running the first podcasting conference in Australia. I don't know how it's going to go. And, and they were like, oh, cool. Nice. That sounds awesome. Like, but it was, they did, it didn't really land. I think even maybe, you know, writing the book and giving them the first copy, I don't think it all lands necessarily. I think it's just like, oh, he's just my kid, you know. Yeah, he's got to be humble. He's gonna be nice to people. He's got to be happy and healthy and, and really, that's, I don't think they think past that point, probably. So it's a bit, it's a bit interesting. I mean, I feel like everything I have is a platform that they built and it allowed me to kind of stand on because I could have been born in any kind of family, really. And if I give perspective to the listeners, I may be one of two or three people that made it out of my class, you know, of, of year 10 class. Right. Made it out of, out of Goa. So, you know, I think I'm lucky to kind of have this opportunity because of them, like, you know, would have not made it to Australia if not for them. So, and then figuring it all out is, was what Australia makes Australia great. I think it's just land of opportunity, they say. The United States. Right. I don't know. I, I, I think Australia is like, full of opportunity.

I would agree with that. Like, I was quite surprised with how easy it is to do certain things in Australia, like creating a business. You can do that in 24 hours. Like, register your business as an entity. And with the government, like, it's so fast because everything is centralized. You know, banking is much easier. You know, just, just sorting out your life. Even just like in terms of legalities, all the forms, even like at the motor vehicles are written in, like, plain English. So you understand you don't have to get like, an expert to explain what this says. And it's very refres. Because what I love about Australia is that it levels the playing field. Like, nobody's better than anybody. Anybody can do anything and to a fault sometimes with A tall poppy syndrome, you know, but, but I do believe that that's where Australia really shines is because, because of that. You know, I think in the US there's that sentiment of like, no, there's levels to this and you know, we're not all created equal in terms of like our skills and our talents. And you know, often they, I think it's the talent, they don't say talk like that here in Australia. Would you agree with that?

Well, I think just to give perspective, right, If I'm here for 20 or 21 years, I came as a software engineer, I did that. I did. I took two companies to ISO9001, I did two master's degree. This is all in Australia, right? This is all in the, this is how much opportunity is here. Took two companies to ISO 9100, became a financial advisor for a couple of years, did that, opened a restaurant, became a chef, fully qualified chef and then started a chefing agency and then started a podcast training podcast, conference podcast agency. Signed the first deal with Amazon audible in Australia, 10 year deal in 2017. TEDx talk became a TED talk in 2020. Wrote a book like why I can't, like even when I'm saying it now, I'm like, did that all really happen?

Me?

Yeah, like did that happen? Yeah, but I, that's kind of the opportunity here. If, if, if you have intention, maybe, I don't know, I don't know whether I had intention on purpose, but I just sort of, it just sort of happens now that it sounds like a cool story. I don't know whether I knew what I was doing at every step.

Yeah, but you were willing to give.

It a shot like that. That's what I know about you is that like, you know, you may not fully feel a thousand percent confident something but you'll, you'll go for it, you know, and, and that's really.

The best.

Thing you could do when opportunity rises. Gas, snacks, tolls.

This trip is draining my wallet.

Yeah, but we'll be with family.

You're in a good mood.

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Yeah.

And I think that what. What other people might see as a risky situation. I kind of have multiple safety nets or safety scenarios that I've created for myself in the sense that, like, I think everyone kind of thinks a podcast is a content creation tool, marketing tool. And I'm like, no, a podcast is a business development tool, and it is the best business development tool that exists. It just happens to create content. It just happens to create business, happens to create distribution, happens to create partnerships. And for a business specifically. And I think just the way my brain works, maybe after the probably the restaurant and it failing, and maybe that kind of helped me to start ventures that have backup plans. But again, there are some scenarios that there's a point like we are podcast, for example. You can, like, there are no backup plans in this situation. It's like you just have to go all out and kind of say, okay, here I am. We'll see what turns out. And it is scary. Like, after doing this, this is my ninth iteration of doing this, and it's still as scary as it was the first time.

I'm really excited to get into the event stuff, but you touched on being a chef, starting your own restaurant, having some challenges there. But in that experience, you started your podcast Bond Appetit, which was a big hit, huge start for you into podcasting. Kind of got you into the world of podcasting. What did you learn from that experience?

Everything, man. What it is the basis for everything that I have around me today. The relationships, the people, the life, the freedom. Like, I get really emotional thinking about it because holy. Like, there was only, like, there was no money in the account. Like, I remember spending $179 on this podcast kit. And what I learned is I'm a bad listener. 100, like, a thousand 500 interviews later, I still feel like, you know, in an interview, I'm gone off and not listening. Right. I still feel like I'm a bad listener. And I definitely was shown up a few times when I started the podcast, I feel that I've gotten to converse with some amazing humans. I've spoken to people on death row like they were inside prison, like, how many barriers to get through, and had this conversation with art, like entrepreneur artists who are trying to get their art out from being on death row, which is crazy, right? And so I think that what I learned from that is consistency is key. Like, when I started off, I was not a great podcaster. I'm still feel like I'm a young one in the game. I still learning. And the best thing about the podcast is the reps. Like, no one can take the reps away from you. Like, you can take everything else away. You can't take the reps away. And those reps give you other things that you can build on, which right now are the relationships that I have. And it's because I've sort of had interviews with all these people.

That's so true, man. It reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography, Total Recall. He has a chapter called Reps, Reps, Reps. And obviously he's referring to, you know, the analogy of going to the gym and putting in the reps. And the whole chapter is about, like, the beauty about the reps is not about. It's the road to improvement or success or the riches. It's actually what's great about it is that it's the only thing you can control Your. You can only control your consistent effort. Like, you don't really have a lot of control over the end result or, you know, outside circumstances, the market, how they. People receive this, all of this stuff. And what you just touched on is really important, you know, especially with podcasting, because there's an audience waiting for your next episode, you know, is just being that.

Being consistent, just being addicted to the.

Process and not really worrying too much about, you know, how my metrics looking, all that kind of stuff. I think when you focus on the craft, like you mentioned, similar to being a chef, you know, focus on creating a great dish, you know, the customers will come.

Yeah, And I think you're right. I think I keep. I forget the amount of reps in general that I have put in. Like, in general, like, just. Just the amount of stuff that I've done and continue to do on regularly. And then when success comes, it's like, oh, that was easy. But actually I. It's my brain not, you know, playing tricks on me.

Yeah.

Forgetting all the work that has been put in. So the reps are so important. Because after a while, it's just doesn't feel like a rep anymore. Just habit. And that habit suddenly turns into what some of. A really dear friend of mine, Carly Ryan, calls me, the master of possibilities. And she's like, I don't know how you manage these things. I'm like, literally, I don't know how they happen, but they happen and they happen regularly. And I think it's just because of the reps and being okay with having absolutely no control on whether they land or they don't land. Really?

Totally, totally. So speaking of reps, this is the 9th rep or iteration of We Are Podcast, which is Australia's first podcasting conference. I have spoken twice in person, once virtually. I'll be speaking this year in November in Brisbane. And it's an incredible event, but it had to start somewhere. It wasn't always as good as I remember it. So take me back to that first time you said, I got this idea of this kind of event. Take me from idea to the actual event being pulled off.

Yeah, this is probably easily the hardest thing I've ever done. Right. I think I'd never put on an event for two people before, ever. I mean, I'd put on events like parties, but not conferences where people were paying, exchanging money for a ticket. That was the first sort of event that I had done where people kind of get went, here's my money, can I have a ticket? So my thought at the at that time was because I had like a chefing company, my thoughts were like, how can I bring all these people together who are high performers? Because that was our market at the time where, you know, Bond Appetit was a chef company that would go to people's homes and cook their meals for them. So I was talking to a mentor of mine who you've met as well, Andrew Griffiths. I remember in Brisbane having just a conversation with him and now I forget, but it was a breakfast or a lunch. But I was like, I want to have this event where, you know, maybe like an awards for bringing all these people together so that, you know, I kind of want to be the center of it or be the connector between all these people. And he's like, why don't you have a podcast conference? And I said, but there is no podcast conference. And he, he waited for it, for me, it to land. Like, I literally did not even like, you know, and it took me a while to kind of go, are you telling me to run the first podcast conference in Australia?

And.

And he's like, why not? Like the way you speak about it and the way you want people, they're like. So I'm like, yeah. I mean, if they only understand, if Australian businesses only understand how they can actually use this podcast for their, like, it was, it was always a business thing like that, like useful thing back then, like, how can you use this platform to kind of convey value? Right? And he's like, well, I think you should think about that. And that idea just never went away. It was just eating at me. And then initially I kind of got together like a group of three, four people who are going to do this with me together. And what I did was I contacted a whole bunch of people who had run events and I kind of asked them and every single one of them were like, ronsley, don't do events. Your podcast is just sort of do really cool things. Do not get into an event. And I'm like, so why? And they would give me all these reasons and I would write them down. And here's what's really interesting, which I realize now. I had contingencies for all those scenarios, so I would kind of take what they said and why not to do it and I would have and create contingencies. So part of what they said was, you know, people are going to tell you that it's a great idea and come on the journey and suddenly feel like it's not for them and drop out. So when all those things happened, I was prepared. I was prepared for like, you know, those kind of things happen where people are like, oh, I don't want to be part of this thing anymore.

Yeah.

So man, it was a journey. It like started there and 2015 ran the first podcasting conference in Australia. It happened in on the Gold Coast. Gold Coast City did a big article on it. It was crazy. Got the support of the city, got support of the venue, got support of a few sponsors. We had actually like I think 12 grand in sponsorship, first year, which is crazy.

Yeah.

And 173 people bought tickets.

That's amazing. That's amazing.

I'm so grateful. So grateful for.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and what I love about events in general, you know, I've run a couple in my life. Not a large, like multi day conference. I just wrapped up a smaller kind of mastermind conference for founders in Australia called oscon. But there is kind of this lead up to the actual day. It's almost like a product launch and there's a lot of excitement, there's a lot of anxiety because, you know, in my case, people have paid Thousands of dollars to, you know, to be a part of this event. I gotta make sure they, they show up and they do well and they have a good time and they don't regret their decision. But at the same time, it's like, I want to have fun. I want to make sure that I enjoy this process. So.

Because if I don't enjoy it, I'm.

Probably not gonna do it again. So what do try to enjoy the process, especially when the event's happening those days of the event?

Well, funnily enough, I enjoy my whole event. Like I enjoy the whole event phase. And in almost all instances, except maybe the first one didn't do any work on the week of the event. So it was all ready done.

Yeah, right.

Most of the things were already done. And the reason, like I don't stress about whether people are. The thing that I worry about the most is people not turning up. But I know that once they turn up, I have programmed it in a way that they're going to have a good time. Not only because I take care of the content, but also because I take care of the connections. I take care of them meeting other people. I put them on of top certain tables. I kind of make sure certain people talk to certain people. And it's really fascinating because that used to be me doing things always like, it's always been like I would be, hey, I'm having a party, do you want to come? And I just kind of like realized that this was just my party.

Yeah.

How to plan it really well so that while things were going on, I was not having to think during those times. So a lot of the thinking is already done. A lot of the thinking is already sorted during the event. It's literally flow for me, like from the first one, even from 2015, it was like that, it just. That 2015 took a lot out of me because my energy was being sucked sapped and I was everything. I was the MC and I was doing the first keynote and I was like, I didn't know what that looked like and I didn't know how much it would take out of me. But, you know, I got better at understanding my capacity as well.

Yeah, I love that. I love the fact the learnings that you got out of, you know, your own energy, your own time understanding that, like, if I plan ahead, you know, even a week before the event, I can relax and I can just enjoy the process. That's super important. You know, I think a lot of people learned that the hard way. You talked a little bit about you know, as long as people show up. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, what are the things you've learned along the way in terms of what works, what doesn't work when it comes to selling tickets and having people show up to the event on time and, and, and participate throughout the whole event.

Yeah, well, I'll take tackle the first part of the question first because I think getting people to the event.

Is.

Always scary, but somehow people turn up. I think it's only because of the strategy or the reps to, to the day. So a lot of the times what happens is, and it happens even now. So right now, yesterday I went through it, the same feeling of oh my God, this is so scary. What am I doing the right thing? I should just abort, change, plan and do something else. And that's the thing that we don't want to do. Want to do all the thinking at the start, do all the strategizing and just do the reps. Like don't question the method during the thing. And I think that is key to selling tickets. To be calm. To be calm or pretend to be calm and, and do the reps, whatever the reps look like. Just making sure you're everywhere, you know, doing the content piece, telling the database, partnerships. For me it's always been partnerships. It's always been, hey, can we get around this audience? This audience cares about this thing and you make their lives easier because you do certain things. I make their lives easier because I do certain things. How about we come together and service this audience and make their lives easier. And that's the simple strategy of like building relationships and co working with or co creating for the same audience but with people that have no competitive overlap with you.

Right, right. That's, that's an important kind of decision. But I love the fact that you remind yourself that hey, I'm not going to get all my tickets sold out in one day. It's going to take some time. I mean, from what I hear and what my own experience is that often it's up until the event, you know, maybe even a week or two before the event when things start selling, which is, can be nerve wracking, you know, because you want to make sure that you're, you got bums on seats. So moving on past, you know, okay, we got the tickets sold, the event's happening, the event is a smash hit, everything's great. When do you start planning next year's event? How do you start thinking about next year event? What goes in your mind as soon as, like, okay, last keynote's done. Thank you, guys. Have a great day.

It's funny because I don't want we a podcast to end. Like, when it starts, I don't want it to end. And when it's done, I keep having the conversation with myself whether I want to go through selling tickets again. That's the only thing I kind of want because I think, like, I am the artist who kind of feels like selling is not the thing. Right. And I'm having to learn how to provide value in a way that kind of goes well. I have so much value to offer, and part of my art is helping you see the art, not me kind of going, wow, this is great art, right?

Yeah.

So I'm getting better at that.

That's a good way to put it. Ye.

So I'm going to change that, though, because a good friend of mine told me to sell tickets for the next event.

Sounds like a smart guy.

And you know what? I take these kind of things that friends say just in passing, like, as gospel. You know, I literally, like, look into that. Not like I'll act on it in the sense that I won't do the thing, but I'll dig deeper into the whole thing and everything that has been planned now for We Are Podcast, used to announce next year's We Are Podcast is to sell tickets for next year's podcast. We Are Podcast. And it is also to kind of provide more value than what I have been providing all this while, because I have not been wanting to say certain things like, oh, I have this service that could make your life easier. So I'm, like, working on myself to kind of build value and exchange value in a way that is useful. But I'm also trying to find a way that I can just go. All you podcasters understand the process of creating and putting work out there. Let's all share stories. Yeah, because I still have the same issues I have when I started, which is I want more listeners, I want more revenue, I want more credibility for my podcast. So, yeah, yeah, that's.

That's definitely. I think we're all. We're all in that same boat, you know, trying to. Trying to grow. And.

And we're.

We're often content but not satisfied. So that's. That's. That's usually the case with entrepreneurs. I want to talk a little bit about the speakers you bring on to these events. You also do a speaker retreat, which I want to kind of talk about, and my experience with that. So you've had a ton of amazing speakers come to We Are podcast. You've had Adam Franklin, you've had Pat Flynn, John Lee, Dumas. Dumas now. Her name is Kate Dumas now, but was Kate Erickson at the time. Michael o'. Neill. You've had tons of great people come on the, on the, come on the stages of We Are podcast this year. You know, I'm coming back. Nicole as well is going to be speaking on an incredible topic when it comes to securing sponsors, managing sponsors, she's, she's already been working on it actually. But also, you know, the founder and CEO of Flight center, which is the biggest, you know, travel agency here in Australia. It's quite big. And there's a flight center on every corner here. It's like McDonald's. Um, how do you choose your speakers? What, what are, what are the kind of steps you take in terms of curating your speaker lineup? And you know, I want to learn a little bit more about like the kind of group you're trying to kind of present to your audience and how that fits in with the theme of the actual event. This year's theme being growth.

Yeah, well, variety of different things. I, I definitely want speakers there who are, who love being there. And Nicole and you love being there, which is like, becomes like a no brainer, right? And we love having you there and love having like all the value delivers like insane. So just having you back is amazing. The way I think about curating a podcast conference is I don't want people to come in and have a bigger to do list after they leave. Like, I don't want them to feel so overwhelmed with all the content that they just don't know what to execute next. So the way I do it is like there's lots of group work now, there's lots of connection pieces. And when the content is delivered, it's delivered in a way that allows them to decide how to execute it, right. How they're going to take action on it, or how, whether it applies to them at this point or whether it's a strategy that they can employ in six months from now or a year from now when they are ready for that kind of thing. But in the meanwhile, for the things that they already want to execute, they can. And more importantly, they have the people around them to make that easier. So when it comes to growth this year, I mean the obvious things are like how to grow listeners, that is new audience, how to grow revenue, which is making it sustainable, sponsorships, clients and so on, and then growing credibility, which makes it more Tractable. Like people write about it, want to hear about it in the marketplace, you become more credible. So. So the obvious ones is to go for the same content on those three subjects. But then what better way to think about growth than the people who have done it before the Internet was even a thing. Right. There's lessons to be learned in business from there. So screw Turner as he's politely called amongst his friends again, interviewed him on my podcast, became a friend. He's been at dinner, few times, he's called me. I got a like text message from him, which is insane, right? And I was like, hey, how about I interview you on how you like from a bus. You made this 17 billion dollar a year business.

Yeah.

And he does a lot of media and like that's going to be interesting conversation. Philip dibella, you know, started dibella Coffee, which is everywhere, all around the planet and sold it and you know, has now started the coffee commune. And it's like an incredible business brain. So trying to get not just one way of looking at delivering content, but allowing. The schedule to kind of be of value from multiple different angles. Right. And having backup plans for like covering different sort of topics and different scenarios.

Yeah, that's kind of the vibe I get when I go as a speaker.

Gas, snacks, tolls.

This trip is draining my wallet.

Yeah, but we'll be with family.

You're in a good mood.

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The things that a lot of people don't know that attend we are Podcast is you organize a speaker retreat after the event. So literally right after the event, we get on a bus and we go somewhere where all the speakers that spoke at the event are, like, spend a few days together. The last time I went, it was me and Jordan Harbinger and Jenny and Pat Flynn was there, and just a bunch of great podcasters, Travis Chappell, you know, and we just had a great time. We. We got to network. We did some interesting. You know, I don't know how much I could share, but this is a very interesting sessions with different kinds of, you know, wellness people, healers.

Just interesting.

Just like, I'm a kind of person that, like, regardless if I agree or disagree with something, I'm open to learn. I'm open to figure out what this is all about and then question my beliefs and question my assumptions. But tell me a little bit about, like, why did you decide? Was it always this way, attaching the retreat for the speakers, and what's kind of the goal of that retreat for you?

Wow. There actually, to be honest, there is no goal for the retreat other than me sitting in a corner seeing all the people that said yes to being there. Like, literally, that's my only joy. And I think I. I might, like, kind of maybe worry a bit too much about the speaker retreat because of the kind of people that are there and that I've said yes to being there. And it's really cool and how it transpires and what comes out of that is also really cool. Just setting the container. And I get genuine joy about just being at the back of the room and seeing all these amazing people in one room. Like, I don't know why that is, and I feel it. Yeah. But that seems to be, like, my joy. So I feel like all these amazing speakers get lots of things at different conferences, which is, you know, they get the adoration of the fans and they get their value being heard, and they get more distribution and they get a platform, all those kind of things. But what if I could take it one step further and make sure that the speakers got understood for where they're at and also kind of feel like, I can't tell you, the most important messages that I've been getting recently is, it's okay, you're in launch. Just calm. It happens to everyone. And people who've done launches, understanding that and saying that makes me feel like I'm not doing it alone. I'm not broken. Right. I'm constantly thinking that, that, oh, I'm just broken. It doesn't happen to. It's happening to me, and it's only going to happen to me. So having a speaker retreat is purely about creating a container where cool stuff happens. So, yeah, that's the goal of the retreat.

Yeah.

I mean, for me, the biggest takeaways were just like, getting to know people as people, not just like, as these personalities. Whether it's like, you know, learning a little bit more about Pat Flynn and him balancing his family life and his work life, you know, learning that, you know, Sean d' Souza from Psychotactics makes a killer biryani. He made his biryani. It was incredible. Dinner. All right. You know, just. Just understanding that we, we have our life online, we have our products or services or podcasts, our brand, all that kind of stuff. But then we also have people in.

This world that are trying to make.

It happen and be loved and love other people and, and seeing that makes them more human. And it also makes you more human because you realize, okay, man, I'm not the only one working through things. So I think that's super helpful for you to kind of pull that off and make it part of the event and adds value to the speakers as well. So I definitely love it. One thing I want to touch on before we do wrap up when it comes to the We Are Podcast event is a little bit about the debate of when you run an event, should you have sponsors? Should you not be sponsor free? How do you handle that conversation in your mind and what decisions have you made along the way?

Well, I think always having the optional sponsors is huge and they come with different problems to your point, for 100%. And communication with the sponsors, especially if they're like the top sponsor, is super, super important, which I've had to learn the hard way, unfortunately. Just because, you know, didn't really wrap my head around certain things and I did. I was. Had a lot of spinning plates and did not account for this one in particular. But the way I set out sponsors is quite simple. Simple like, I don't want to change the name of the SO event, but if someone is willing to put a decent amount of money at that point, I will consider changing the event. So I just put that price on the sponsorship document and then I offer different people, different versions of what they can do at the event because I am bringing together a whole bunch of people. And, you know, I keep thinking that we've not done sponsorships, but sponsors have always been part of VR podcasts. Podcast we've always gotten every year, actually, at some stage, we've gotten money from someone to say, can we advertise on ad. We are podcast for certain things.

Yeah.

So I think that when you're running an event, just having the option to have the conversation is key because when you come to we are podcast, that's not. You don't feel that like, you don't feel like it's a sponsored event because of the way I run it. And it's probably, probably, but, but there's always the option for sponsors to come on board. The way I go about doing the sponsor part necessarily, or partnership part is actually getting people who have the same market and no competitive overlap to be partners and distribution and getting my brand in front of more people and getting their brand in front of our people. And that's the way I go about promoting VR podcast or. My main focus right now is, is just that is like how can I deliver value to the people who can deliver value for me? It's, it's very simple.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. I mean, I, I always tell people, if you're in Australia, you have to come to this event. Like this is a no brainer event. Even if you don't have a podcast, you're not even thinking about doing a podcast. You're going to meet interesting people, you're going to get inspired, you know, inspired, interesting ideas will be out there. If you're not in Australia, this is a great excuse to come to Australia, especially if you have like frequent flyer miles, they're gonna expire because, you know, Covid, we couldn't do anything. So time to cash them in. But I'll definitely enjoy this week with you guys in the event and the speaker retreat. I'm really excited about my session, which I'll be talking about how people can monetize their podcast through creating their first product. This is something that we've done over and over and over with our show and with our products and services. So more about that a little bit later. But I wanted to thank you, Ronsley, for being on the podcast, for sharing your story, sharing the struggles you went through, the things you've learned. And I look forward to seeing you in a couple months, mate.

I thank you for the platform because I understand what it's like to have one and be responsible for the audience and the content you create. So I'm very grateful that you've given me to share this time on yours. So thank you.

Appreciate it, man. Have a good one. There you have it.

That was Ronsley VOZ sharing his insights in our extended interview. Ronsley is an old friend. We've known each other for some time, but some of the things he shared in that conversation are things I never knew, things he shared for the first time. And I'm so glad because I get to share that with you, our audience. Listen, you heard it from Rosalie. It's scary to run an event. It's scary to worry if people are going to buy the tickets or you're going to fill the seats, if you're going to deliver. But it's also important to have fun in the process because that's why you're doing it in the first place. I mentioned before that we run a small local business retreat for founders called oscon, and I really resonated with some of the things that he discussed. But one of the things I learned in the process of running my own event is what Ronsley mentioned. The planning is your friend planning ahead. So you're not stressing having things in order way in advance, giving yourself enough time to sell those tickets and spots and fulfill on your promise. This is really the best thing to do. And there is really no too early to plan. For example, we just wrapped up in August our event OSCON 2022 and we've already planned 2023. I would say about 80% of the planning is done. We're going to do some final touches on the planning for the rest of this month, but come October it's going to be ready to be announced and sold and that gives me 10 good months to make sure I'm ready for this event. This is how people like Ronse can do many things at once, meaning they can have an event, they can have an agency, they can have other beside projects. It's because of the planning and doing it well in advance. Thanks so much for listening to the hundred RMBA show. If you like these extended interview type episodes once in a while, not every day, let me know. Let us know in a rating and review. Most podcast apps allow you to give a rating. Apple Podcast is the best one in terms of writing a review. So go ahead and do that at Apple Podcasts so we can know what you think. We read every piece of feedback so that we can double down on what.

Works and what you love about the show.

Before I go, I want to leave you with this. If you're thinking about starting a podcast yourself and you want to see this as a way to monetize your business, well that's actually what I'm going to be speaking about at We Are Podcast. How to create your first product to monetize your podcast and I'm not talking about a few bucks here or there. I'm talking about a full, full time income, six figures and beyond. Go to wearepodcast.com events and buy a ticket. Even if you're not going to fly to Australia or to Brisbane, buying a ticket allows you to have access to the recordings of all the sessions if you go with the premium ticket. Nicole, my partner is going to be speaking on stage about how to secure sponsors for your podcast, how to deal with sponsors, how to come up with your rate card, how to negotiate, how to allocate these spots on your show, all that stuff. And of course if you are looking for a reason to come to Australia, this is the reason. I'd love to meet you live and in person. And if you are in Australia, this is a no brainer. You have to sign up for this podcast conference because it's the biggest. It's the best. You're going to meet some incredible people and you're going to learn a ton. We are podcast.com events. See you there. That wraps up today's episode. Thank you so much for listening to the 100 LMBA show. I'll check you in tomorrow's episode.

I'll see you then. Take care. Of.

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