He Hit iTunes New And Notable About 175 Episodes In - Meet Andrew Lock From HelpMyBusiness.com - The Podcast Report Episode #71

He hit new and noteworthy about 175 episodes into the iTunes game. Meet Andrew Locke from helpmybusiness.com here on the podcast report. It's the podcast report, episode number 71 show notes, links, conversation and more@thepodcastreport.com 7 1. It's the podcast report with Paul Colligan. And here's Paul. Hey, everybody, it's Paul Colligan. And on the Skype line today, I've got Andrew Locke from well, what was once helped My business sucks, but now it's just Help my business. It's a video podcast recently featured on new and notable inside of itunes Video. It is not the new and notable itunes video story that I told you about a couple of weeks ago. So don't try to do the math on this one. This one is considerably more, for lack of a better description, legit. Andrew has been working in video for quite some time. Before it was cool, before it was trendy, and he spent some money on it as well. So welcome to the show, Andrew.

Oh, thanks, Paul. Yeah, excited to be here.

Now tell me about the show and the move from Help My business sucks to Help my business.

Yeah. So I started Help My business sucks in 2008 and as a. As a video podcast. And the reason I started it as a video podcast was firstly, my original background was a BBC cameraman, so I knew how to do video. And secondly, with a proliferation of audio podcasts, I knew that video would be a good way to stand out from the crowd. And certainly back then there wasn't that much in the way of. Of video. So I took it to number one in the category of management and marketing and it stayed there for quite a few years. I got to a point in 2012 where I got a little bit burnt out. I'd been through some unfortunate business partner challenges, let's say. That's a nice way of putting it. And I felt like I needed some time away. So I took two years off to, you know, rest and regroup and travel the world and fortunately was able to do that. But then this year I came back to it, decided to rebrand with just the name help my business. And strategically that was because for the content of the podcast, it really, I really wanted to attract people that were serious about business rather than genuinely having businesses that sucked. People that had made had some success already and wanted it to take it to the next level. And so the way that I describe the show now to people is it's really like the Daily show for entrepreneurs. It's Entertaining, but it also has substance to it. And so that's the niche that I carved out. And I'm very, very glad that I went the video route even early on because it absolutely has enabled me to stand out from the crowd. And with this relaunch, the show actually went to number one in all of business. It's still kind of finding its place in the charts, but it stayed there for a few weeks and it's become very, very popular, largely because of the goodwill that I built up over the years of the original show. But also it does stand out from the crowd because it's entertaining.

Now, when you jumped after your two year break, you left hosts, you changed hosts. So you had to go back to itunes, get a new fe, do the whole nine yards. And as a result, a show with, you know, how many episodes you got.

Right now, just short of 200, you.

Know, so I loved it that a show of just short of 200 popped up in new and notable. Like.

Yeah, that's. I guess that's. Yeah, that's funny, isn't it? I'd never thought of it that way. True. Yeah.

And you know, and what was interesting was, you know, part of why it showed up in new Notable was definitely the notable part. It's a great show and everybody, I definitely recommend you take a look at it. And I've got, you know, Obviously help my business.com is not a hard name domain name to figure it out, but I've also have it at the show notes@the podcastreport.com 71 and you moved, you got new and notable, you got some attention, you got some top 10 listings. What did that do? I realize this is not necessarily a scientific test by any means, but did you get an email from people who just found you, stumbled across you as a result of sort of this new attention?

Oh, absolutely. I'm getting a lot of that email right now. I'm also getting tons of requests to be on other people's shows. I mean, overwhelming number, more than I could possibly handle, which is, which is great. But other than that, you know, I have the back end, the business side of things in place because the show is the hub of my business. It's for most people, it's the entry point. And so it's important to have the conversion on the website, which I have. And that means that when people do discover it for the first time, they quickly get on my email list with an irresistible offer. And from there I can continue to nurture them with various products and services. So unlike many Podcasts where the, you know, especially with the big names, you know, the podcast is the business. Mine is a way for people to discover what I do, in other words, my other products and services. And so it's the entry level to, you know, all the other things that lead on from there. But it was interesting coming back into this world too, because, you know, after the, after the break of a couple of years, a lot of this, you know, the technical stuff changes very quickly. And originally I'd been on Fiddler as the platform. Well, you know, we all know what happened with them. And then I was moved over to Blip, and we all know what happened with them. And so I was in the. I was in the market for something else. And I really wanted a platform that is very simple to use, but that also has reliability. And ultimately, you know, some may be surprised to know that I ended up with Podbean. And I'm very, very happy with them. You know, I have. I have an editor that edits the show, and so he's the one that uploads to Podbean and does the distribution. And so it needed to be easy for him. And. And it is. And I'm really, really happy.

Well, that's okay. You can be really, really happy on another host and. But I want to go back to this idea of why you did the podcast. You know, it's funny, you've been doing this for so long. I remember the days when kind of the first phase of my podcast training and whatnot, people would call me and go, okay, Paul, I've put together my high definition video studio. And back then that was expensive, you know, and they call back and say, okay, I put together my television studio. Now what should I podcast about? And I would always have to grab my forehead and just, you know, pain that they would do that to themselves. You have always, even though you are a BBC cameraman, even though you. And I know people will be really surprised with that lineage based on your accent, but, you know, even though you had this history from day one, you always had a business plan behind this show. Is that correct?

Absolutely. Yeah.

And how come the business plan wasn't revenue? Was it just you were hooked on this whole Internet marketing thing. I mean, what do you have against ads as a marketing game?

Oh, yeah. I mean, interesting question. Nothing against ads at all. But I, you know, when I was, when I launched the show or prior to launching the Show Originally in 2008, I was strategic because I felt that at that time there would be a ceiling with revenue with with podcast. And I saw it as a. As a way to stand out from the crowd and a way to build what I really wanted to do, which was, you know, more speaking, having people subscribe to membership sites and things like that. So the, my background or my experience with Internet marketing and business in general made me come to the conclusion that the podcast would be a great tool to attract people. Because the biggest thing, of course, when you have a new business is standing out from the crowd, especially in one that's more of a general topic like helping entrepreneurs. It's very, very competitive. And so this was a way for me to stand out from the crowd. But it was never about building the podcast as the business. It was always about using the podcast as a way to stand out from the crowd. So in that mix, there were opportunities to do, to have sponsors and ads, but because the business was never designed to be the podcast as the business, I was always kind of looking beyond that. So, yeah, nothing against ads or sponsors at all, but it was just, it was. The whole thing was structured in a different way.

Which do you think is easier? A show that makes all of its revenue from advertising or show that makes its revenue from a back end?

That's a really interesting question too. I think that obviously there have been people that have done it. There's shows like Rhett and Link, which I love, and they've done continues to do well with building the business is the show. I think that for me, like I said, I had structured it, that I had structured it differently because I saw, I felt that there would be a ceiling based on just the world of podcasting. I think it's exciting to see where podcasting is going, especially with, you know, connected TVs and Apple TV and Roku and so on. I think we're still at an early stage with those things, but I think ultimately, you know, based on my experience and, you know, having made millions in, in the way that I've done it, I'm not sure that there are that many people that are making millions from just having the business as the podcast.

I remember, gosh, about five, six years ago, I was downstairs in my basement, I was on the exercise bike and I pulled up help. My business sucks on the Apple tv. Oh, yeah, and there, there's Andrew, by the way. Again, guys, watch the show. It's, it's, it's a load of fun and it's, it is well produced and it's funny, especially as since everybody listening to the show is, is a content producer, we, we tend to Enjoy well produced shows even more than others do. But you know, I'm there on the bike sweating. Believe it or not, people, yes, sometimes.

Paul sweats and you're painting quite the picture.

Exactly. And what was funny was you said leave a comment below and then you pointed to my floor and I had to laugh because, you know, you know, back then I was the type of person who would watch a video cast on the TV set, not on the web page. And majority of the market, majority market was obviously watching at the website. Leaving a comment below made sense, but you know, and then today, you know, I got my second Apple TV 4 in the mail because I'm so excited about where this is going and the idea of not just iPhone apps, but iPhone, iPad, Apple TV apps. Do you think now is the time to get into video?

Well, absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind about that. I felt that it was the best way to stand out from the crowd back when I started and I think that's even more true now. I listen to a lot of popular business podcasts and I still think there is this lemmings mentality and I, you know, I don't mean to, to be, I don't, you know, I don't say that to be derogatory. It's just frustrating. I get frustrated for others because I think, you know, there, there's a sea of competition and it is hard to stand out from the crowd. But most people, they see a successful podcast in a particular niche and what do they do? They tend to copy it. You know, if it's a popular interview show, they'll start an interview show. If it's an audio podcast, they'll do an audio podcast and tend to intend to copy the format. But you know, that that's kind of setting yourself up for a big challenge because no one's, you know, if there's already a very, very popular market leader, it's going to be really, really difficult to stand out and as better if you're just copying the same format. So more than anything, I think people need to come up with original ideas for shows and you know, run with those formats and you know, make it the best that you can make it by being different from what others are doing. That's, you know, that's really what I try to do and I do believe that's why the show has been successful.

For those of you listening along at home, obviously we've got a bit of an audio with Andrew here, but we're going to be closing this off. So yes, we we hear the static and we'll fix that at some point, but enjoy the content anyway. I've definitely spoken in previous episodes about the value of the content versus the. The value of the production. Yeah, Andrew, if.

Is it better now, by the way?

Yeah, it's much better now.

Okay, good.

That's also the way for me to subliminally tell you without anybody out there knowing that wanted to see if you.

Yeah, I just reconnected it.

The opportunity to create a show that builds your business is tremendous. I've been preaching it since day one. It's one of the reasons why I've always loved what you're doing. And it was funny. Before we hit record was the first time you and I ever kind of traded some numbers on what you were doing, and I was always pretty sure that that was your master plan, and it obviously is. Why do you think some. Well, no, that's not the right word. Why most don't do this. You know, why do you think a lot of people record a show, like you said, sometimes emulating somebody else, very successful in the niche, and then just decide, you know, that the live, if you build it, they will come or podcast your passions and the profits will follow. Why do so many people fall into that? What is it that. I mean, obviously it's the guys of easy money and instant fame, but once we get past that, why aren't more people using podcasts to build their business than we have out there?

I think it's just ultimately a lack of awareness about what works and what doesn't. I think a lot of people sort of quickly go into podcasting without really looking at the strategy. And I think that, like, looking at my own example, you know, as a case study, before I started the show, it was a very strategic process. You know, I was looking at, all right, how is my business going to look in five years time, and what part of that is this show going to be? Because I knew I wanted to do a show because it was a great way to stand out from the crowd, but then I had to look at, you know, well, what. What is this component gonna do? You know, how is it gonna do it? And I think a lot of people just don't give that level of attention to detail, you know, not. Not that I am anything special at all, but I think it just comes down to the strategy aspect of it, is really thinking it through from day one. And I think most people just don't do that. Our lives are busy. People come across podcasts, they think, oh, that would you know, I could do a podcast. And off they go, and they do it. And then, you know, six months down the line, they start kind of thinking, you know, why am I doing this? I think it's kind of a. It has a bit of a sexy component to it. I think it's, you know, the, you know, being in the realm of the entertainment industry is exciting for a lot of people. And so I think that's why a lot of people do dive into it. And of course, there's nothing wrong with that, but I think that's ultimately why that happens. It's just they don't sort of give that deep level thought to the strategy in how is this, you know, why am I doing this? How does it fit into the big picture? And, you know, where am I going to be with this in. In a year, three years, five years down the line?

Beautiful. Well, thank you so much, Andrew. You've been listening to the podcast report. My special guest today was Andrew Locke from Help My Business. Help My Business dot com. Andrew's been video podcasting for a long time, has outlived, you know, two hosts, hopefully not a third, but has been doing this on purpose and has seen some great results from it. I shared with you some thoughts on why most don't take the route that he takes or the route that I like to think I take. And hopefully you've got an insight into a podcasting model that I don't think gets enough press. Andrew, thank you for being on the show. Best way to find out more about you help mybusiness.com or someplace else.

That's it. You got it. Help my business.com or for iTunes, go to get hmb.com. that'll take you straight there.

Beautiful. Thank you, Andrew.