How Embracing Diversity Can Transform Your Business Network For Positive Change With Ben Albert Of The Real Business Connections Network

Wish you were one of those influencers with raving fans who binge on your every word, consume all your content, buy everything you have to sell, and demand even more. Then stay tuned while Authority magazine columnist and buzzfeed contributor Tracy Hazzard shares strategies, tips, and tactics from top videocasters, podcasters, authors, and social influencers on creating that bingeable factor. Now let's join Tracy as she explores how to rise above all the digital noise with the binge factor.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Binge Factor. I'm Tracy Hazzard, and I have been Albert Today. Real Business Connections Network. Real Business Connections Podcast. And this is like five plus podcasts in one. Like, I don't know how else to explain it. It's not a network in that network sense that he has different hosts, different shows, and it's a network just running advertisement. There's no advertisements here at all. He's running a network of show types together. And that's why I invited Ben on the show because it's really innovative and different and just wonderful. Lot of fun, and there's a lot of great ideas here that might inspire you. Maybe one of his show types is perfect for you. Not all of them, but there is a uniqueness and an interesting concept for us to discuss about doing different types for different types of audience members and for different types of purposes and outcomes that you want to achieve. So that's why I invited Ben on the show. But the real reason that Ben caught my eye is because he's from Rochester, New York, and this used to be called the Rochester Business Connections Show. And Rochester, New York, is where Tom and I got married. Well, we got married in a little town outside of it called Pittsford, New York. And so my family lived there for a while while I was away at college. And I just have such, I don't know, fond memories of upstate New York. It's kind of a little. It's a small city, really educated city with lots of universities and hospitals and Kodak and Xerox used to be there. So. Or I guess they still technically are, but they're not as big as they used to be in terms of employment. And so it, you know, it just has this kind of nice, intellectual, metropolitan feel, but with these cute little suburbs all around it. So he caught my eye just because of that. And the more I got to know Ben, the more I thought, okay, this is a guy who we really want to learn from. So Ben's the owner of Bowbert Marketing. He's also the curator of the Real Business Connections Network, where he hosts five podcasts in one. He's an underdog, but a now successful entrepreneur and is passionate about helping other underdogs achieve achieve their dreams. He's on a mission to actually move the needle on 1 million lives, 1 conversation at a time. And I cannot stress enough that you're not only going to want to listen to Ben today, but you're going to want to go check out his show and hear some of these things that we're going to talk about. So let's talk to Ben Albert, Real Business Connections Podcast.

Ben, I'm so glad to talk to you and glad to have so someone from the Rochester region, which I have, as I mentioned before, a really warm place in my heart for, even though it's a really cold area.

Rochester, New York, baby Tracy. I'm excited we connected and I'm really looking forward to this conversation.

Good. So what I found so interesting about your show is that you have like dove deep into the podcasting ecosystem. You have like a network, you've got all different types of shows in there, you're using them in playlisting. But I want to get to where that first little spark happened. And you said, this podcasting thing sounds really cool to me.

Yeah. So we can tell the life story, but I'll go straight to that question. I had already hosted a music podcast for some time. Covid hit by now. It's kind of cliche, but I was furloughed, we were doing video. I was a sales executive doing video production all across the United States. No travel, no video, no fulfillment, no sales, no Ben with a job. So I had already podcast in the past and saw the value there. And ultimately before I started podcasting, I fell into a really dark place. And you know, my father was a heavy drinker, drug user, and I found myself kind of over drinking and struggling. And I've on and off had that issue quite lot of my life. And I took that obsession with partying and music and abusing myself and a little bit of like that ADHD and neurosis that I've for some reason built with and just took all that energy and transported all of it into starting a podcast, launching a podcast, and starting my first over official business during COVID And I really just took my love of marketing, my love of podcasting, my curiosity, my recording technology background, my social psychology background, started a business podcast after hosting a music show for quite some time, took party animal music Ben, rebranded and redefined myself as business Ben and started where we talked about A Rochester, New York based business show that just happened to expand into from Rochester Business Connections to Real Business Connections, which now has 5.25, I like to say, segments. All starting from just honestly being bored during the pandemic. Feeling a lot of shame about the direction I was going, choosing to change Row and using podcasting to do it.

But you had kind of an inkling that podcasting fit you because you'd already been hosting the show already. What was your favorite part about the music show?

I like to get into places for free.

It's the connections that it makes. So it makes sense that you wouldn't have real business connections because you're still trying to get in and good, right?

The show is called Rochester Groovecast, you know, Groovy Music and it's a podcast. And I started it because honestly, I felt like I was a consumer and not a producer. And in the entertainment industry, it's built on consumption. No judgment, but I was going to music three, four, five times a week. As we're recording this, I'm going to New Orleans. Like this week, I'm going on a road trip. Huge music advocate, but I wasn't adding any value the existing landscape of Rochester, New York music. I was a consumer, but not a producer. And I kind of knew I could get into places free if I was like a publicist and journalist. So that's something I did on the side for many years before I ever started my firm. And it was just one tiny way to niche down on something I'm passionate about, add value and meet great people while doing it.

You know, this happened to me. Cause I, I, when I first started my very first podcast, it was a geeky podcast on 3D printing. The audience has heard that one before. And it was constantly invited to events for free and getting in. And I was like, wow, this is really cool. Like I don't have to pay for any trade shows or anything anymore. And I went to one in the blockchain community in LA and I paid for the ticket and I walked in and I saw someone there who was running the event and he happened to be somebody who had been on my show before. And he was like, why'd you pay for a ticket? I would've gotten you in for your press pass. I was like, well, I wasn't really covering your event, so I felt kind of weird applying for it. He's like, oh no, you earned it. And then he refunded me. And I thought, but that's pretty cool. Like, I guess, you know, I guess it still applies, right?

You're a celebrity, I guess. Tracy, that's pretty cool. I like it.

Yeah. Well, you cover enough things, right? And that's exactly what you're doing. You're covering so many things. So you have Learn Speak Teachers, Rochester business connections, 15 Minute Fridays, Ben's Bites, Real Hits. I love that you've sort of expanded into so many different segments. You've really given a way for your audience to find something that fits them that they want to consume.

Yeah. And I'll go through. Do you want me to go through all of them? Like in the one to sue, the one that isn't even on that list? That's kind of new is the ABC Lunch Break Live. And it's me and three of my friends. We have a panel discussion live on LinkedIn and we're going through the ABCs of like, business and personal growth, where I put out a poll. The audience chooses the topic. So E, energy, F fear, things like that. And we talk on a panel. So that's kind of like the inaugural 0.25 to the list there, but the super short version. I started Rochester Business Connections because I was in Rochester, New York and I wanted business connections. And we can go deeper into that, but that's Rochester and Western New York business people. That's where I began. I just kept adding things for. I don't even know why. I just like doing things, I guess. And I knew that my audience consumed content in different ways and I knew that I wanted to go more national, international after I built that local following. So skipping the order of things and just getting to the description. 15 Minute Friday is easy to implement business tips for busy people. So that's something quick, actionable that you can consume in approximately 15 minutes. Ben's Bites or solo episode. More thought leadership Monologues where I just talk about whatever I want. Learn Speak, Teach is my international show. It's the exact same show as Rochester Business Connections, but instead of local long form conversations, it's international. Long form conversations in real hits is something I don't really see anybody doing. But it's where I rebroadcast other podcasts on my feed. I'm just one human. I have great guests, but I want more voices, I want more formats, I want more personalities, I want more insights and guests. So that's a way where I can take other podcasters, maybe one of your listeners, if they make the cut, if they want to submit. I take other podcasts. And no like V or like. There's no like fine print. I replay it just like any TV network, replays reruns. I replay reruns of other shows so I can bring more voices to my community. So it's kind of holistic. I know that's a buzz term, but I try to tackle, I want to.

Say right there to my audience, this is not a real rerun by my definition, because I always yell at you all when you try to rerun the same episode you've already played before. This is not a rerun because Ben's running it in his feed. It never ran in his feed before. It's new to his subscriber. It's not a rerun to his subscribers. So this is perfectly acceptable. In fact, it's much preferred. This is a great way to get cross promotion on shows.

It's huge. And I'll be totally transparent. The number one reason I started doing it, two reasons, actually. One, I wanted more content because I just wanted more coming out to my audience. That was like the main reason. But then the side reason was I decided I want a guest on more shows and I wanted to connect with more podcasters. And on the back end, I'd be, okay, can I replay your amazing show on my podcast? And then I possibly do a swap and then I'd have a guest slot on their show. So I replayed them on my show and guested on their show. Our audience intermingle and we both benefit from the process.

So wonderful. I'm so glad you hit on that strategy. And it's a great strategy for you, especially because you're really great at bringing this sort of connection and exposure. It fits the model of your show already. I'm coming to you because I want these business connections and you're providing me real solutions, real people, real outside. This is what I think your binge factor is. It's essentially being this connecting point. But it's because you're coming at it from the, and you say this exactly in your intro, that I'm not your guru. You're not coming from that guru point of view. You're coming from that you're learning along with your audience, which means that you ask the questions at their level, you find the resources they need next, you're really in it with them. And that's the power of why I'm going to tune into the next episode and the next episode, because I want to follow the path that you do.

Thank you. I see it personally, really, in that way. It's a legacy piece for me. When I started Rochester business, now it's real business. Connection just because it's.

I don't know, but it's expanded, it's bigger.

I wanted business connections. My one goal is really simple, to get the wisdom from the people who have it to the people who need it. And guess who's in that need A category? Me.

That's right. You are too.

I don't have all the answers. So getting the wisdom from the people who have it to the people who need it, oftentimes it's me and. And then it's my listener that's oftentimes just one step behind me in a category or two. And we're all kind of learning together. And I think that's badass.

Yeah, it really is. Well, there's a couple of things that. And I always love to highlight when somebody deviates from, you know, Tracy's rules, which are of podcasting, which are meant to protect people from making dumb mistakes. Right. But when you're gonna break a rule and you break it for the right reasons, I also wanna point that out. And you do a couple of things that I think are rule breaking, but in great ways because you have this show that has so many different segments and you're recognizing that your listener may only want the Fridays, right? 15 minute Fridays. I'm a really busy person. I want it. You need to label the episodes in a way that makes it easy for me to find those 15 minute Fridays so that I can quickly scroll through and go, oh, listen to this one, this one, this one. As I'm binging it. I normally tell people not to label at the beginning with acronyms or other things like that, but that's important in your show because if you didn't do it, you're not being listener friendly.

I didn't do it at the start and I get it because it's real estate and I shrink it where just number FM F. One thing I did that maybe people don't know about, but it's on my website and you can subscribe to the playlist is there's actually a Spotify playlist of each of them. So if you want to binge a specific segment without having to scroll, there's actually playlists built for each different show. A better practice would be to start an RSS feed for every single show. I just haven't made the time and capital investment to do that. But that is an option as well.

So I'm going to give you all a little tip if you would like. Ben. So I don't recommend creating separate feeds unless you've got enough value. So unless you have like 20 episodes or more, it's not worth spinning off into a feed. You've got plenty of episodes now. It's the perfect timing to do something like that because as you get over a hundred episodes it gets overwhelming to your audience anyway to search and sort through it. But if you start that new feed and you are only to put your 15 minute Fridays in that new feedback, your existing listeners would miss out on it. So you still want to make sure you air the episode in your regular feed and then move it to the other feed later. It's one of the reasons we at my company Potatize, we made a multi feed system so that you could essentially treat your feeds like playlists and you could move episodes after the fact to one playlist or the other, but you air it in the one that has all your subscribers because otherwise you have to work really hard to get the 15 minute Fridays to get its own subscribers, which then they miss out on your Learn, Speak, teach where they might randomly stop and listen to one. They wouldn't even see it if you only aired and only had subscribers. So I think it's smart the way that you've started it and then playlisting and moving out feeds as and treat them like archives so that I can go back. I'll. I'll subscribe to your main feed, listen to everything you have that comes out new, but I'll go back and only listen to the ones that I want and maybe subscribe to that one as well and go back and binge that. So I do think that now's the time before wouldn't have been it's smart.

And to give a little nuance and this was like eye opening for me when I was rebranding from Rochester business connections to real business connections and bringing on all these random people that had nothing to do with Rochester. I plateaued. And a lot of my business comes through the podcast. I was doing just Rochester episodes. I was bringing a lot of local business. My revenue and my sales actually plateaued for some time because I had my niche Rochester, New York business podcast and I stopped serving those people when I started to try to do other things. And maybe it's just a projection on where I wanted to go in my life. I saw it as a stepping stone into something bigger. But you're bringing up a good point that in theory I don't want six different streams, but I could set up a Rochester stream specific for my Rochesterians and have anyone across the globe go to my international stream because I lost Rochester listeners when I decided to change things up.

Well, it gives you that ability to have some of that branding, so it doesn't mean you can't. And honestly, Apple doesn't care. Nobody cares in the system if you air the episode in two feeds at the same time. No one cares. So you can actually do that and then remove it from the other one. But you probably don't want to do that because you want to have one file that's tracking all your statistics at any given time. Which is why our way of put it in the main feed, then shift it to the playlist feed a week later or two weeks later, because your subscribers get it all at once and they download right away if they're going to listen to it. So it doesn't, you know, within two weeks they've listened. And so then you can move it over to the other feed. It gets it a little bit later. But now it's all branded for Rochester, so it makes it easier for the local people to share that and feel like that's the promotion they wanted.

You know, this is the number one thing I love about podcasting, is it is a marathon, not a sprint. It's a journey. Like, I get to learn. Here's the thing. I don't have this huge team calibrating everything and moving levers for me. I'm in the mud like you and every listener learning as I go. And I have 11. Where did the number 11 come into? It's more like 11,000. I have so many ideas that I'd implement if I had a team of a thousand, but I don't. But there's some real, like, I'm really grateful for that, that we can talk about all these nuance add ons, and that's like part of the fun, like actually getting in the mud and doing the work and learning as we go.

Well, and that's my favorite part about it too, is that there's, you know, there's so many different ways to actually achieve the same things. But something that's right for your podcast isn't right for someone who just started theirs. And that's where I say, like, this idea of having multiple playlists would never have worked for you if you only had three episodes in it. Right? It just, it works more powerfully when you get 10 to 20 and you start having a real playlist and then you create a webpage for it just like you've done. Like, that makes it easier for your listeners to say, oh, there's real value here. I'm going to consume this and for the sharing value to happen as well from the guests that were on that. So I, you know, it just wasn't time before, and now it is. I know. I love that about it. And I think that at the end of the day, most of us wouldn't have learned these things if we hadn't, like, fallen flat on our face and go, this just isn't working. What. What do we do next? And we try to figure out what's next.

How do babies learn how to walk? That's right.

Absolutely.

I'm still. I'm a grown man child, Tracy. That's all. I'm just a grown man child learning how to walk. Go on.

That's right. We're all learning how to walk. I love it. But, you know, I think that it's interesting that while your shows are all different, the way you ask questions and the way that you interview people and, like, are drawing out through your own curiosity, that's very similar. Did you really refine that doing the music podcast?

No, I have no clue, to be honest. I. To give you a little bit of backstory. I was a quiet kid. I never thought that I'd be a podcaster, entrepreneur, marketer, have a YouTube. Like, no. Like, I wanted to be a basketball player, but I was the shortest kid in school, and I got picked on for it. I'm the shortest boy, only one shorter is a little girl named Olivia Lee. And I wanted to be the next Michael Jordan. So I got pushed around and getting pushed around a lot. Like, if I were to win an award in school, it would be like my being invisible or making myself small and hiding. I was like a professional hider. I knew how to navigate scenarios and stay out of trouble. And then I got into psychology and communication. Honestly, like, went to college for it. I did it because I was trying to figure myself out. I think a lot of people that get into professions like that do it because they're trying to figure themselves out. So I was built on curiosity. I was built on being an outsider and asking questions. And honestly, it was like, why am I different? Is where it started. And it's like, how can I own my difference? How can I be better? How can I use this chip on my shoulder? Destructive household. Like, typical things we go to. How can I not be a victim and learn how to use that as a tool in my tool belt to help more people? And it led me into podcasting. So it's like, I don't know where the questions came from. It's Funny because there's people like Larry King, he's famous for asking why. He'll just ask a question like why? And then Chris Van Vliet, a four time Emmy award winner who's been on my show, he used to do junket interviews or even situations where he only gets one question. And then when you have that one question based on the question you ask, they'll give you more time. So he's walking celebrities on a red carpet, he's trying to get some good clips for the news. He has to ask the right questions. So I've tailored by learning from these mentors in my life. I actually don't know exactly where it came from other than multiple sources kind of leading into who I am. And if you were to kind of get to the actual question, if you listen to the music podcast, it was really bad. I mean, some episodes are good. I say all the time. The best part of my show is my guest was never me. And I guess through doing it hundreds of times, I've refined that a little bit. But people ask, what should I do? I'm like, go practice because I can't give. Do it more. Right. Do a lot of it. The worst thing you can do is learn exactly how to do something and then not do it and then wonder why it's not working. It's not working because you don't have reps in. So I just got a lot of freaking reps, I guess is the point in all that.

It's so true. But you know, you also have concierge services in your business where you're helping people draw their story out, build their brand. And I'm sure some of that comes from your video production background as well. So that's what I think. Maybe also something that you just, you don't say it in that way. You have good experience doing this. You have experience drawing it out of people who maybe are reluctant to or feel like they don't belong in front of a camera or behind the mic.

Yeah. And it's interesting because like with the concierge, with specifically content repurposing most my clients so they can go on a podcast tour and we can repurpose that content into bite sized nuggets. But they don't even have to go to a podcast tour. We can do a private interview where it's just me and them, the world's never going to see it and that's how we create the content. Because I like working with people that have scaled businesses know what they're doing, but they're the best kept secret because they never wanted to be an influencer or thought leader. By now they're onto the legacy piece. And it literally just goes back to the Larry King thing. Why? So there's two categories. There's business and then there's personal, and then there's the why behind that. And if you ask like a question like, where are you trying to go with your revenue? Why? What does that mean for you personally, though? And then they give you some rational reason, you go, whoa, whoa, hold up. No, like, how would your life actually change if you were to accomplish X? And then it goes from rational to emotional. And they go, well, I've always wanted to, you know, pay for my daughter's education. And I think this will help me get that there. I want to impact this amount of people. Or I've already done so much in business that I have more money than I can spend, but I want to actually help people. That's what you get to. But it's all tackling the business. Like, let's talk about strategy and tactics. Let's talk about the personal. What's the point in all these strategy and tactics? And then let's get to the emotional core on why you actually are doing this. Because I feel like a lot of things we do are just like, we want to feel cool, we want to feel accepted.

We want to feel accepted. But also there is this, like everybody else is doing. It's like, I feel like I should, right? And sometimes not the real core reason. That's just the pat answer.

And that's the thing. Like, we've done what society has told us to do 99 times out of 100. And then sometimes we travel a journey and a. We travel a story, and we try to accomplish something that was never our journey and never our goal or never our purpose. And then we realize that. And then when we get that clarity, we can move forward somewhere else. And I'm rambling. This is just like, what goes on in my head. But my question is, how can I bring that out of someone? One of the most profound things, a mentor of me, mine taught me. Cal Fussman. Cal was actually best friends with Larry King. He's interviewed everyone from President Gorgajoff to Muhammad Ali to Oprah, everybody. And what he told me. He gave me, like, live coaching on my show. He stopped me because I have a. I ramble and say six things at once. And he first he told me, like, ask one strong question. Because when you ask these loaded questions, I know you're high in agreeableness, Ben. But when you ask one strong question and force them to pause, you'll get a more profound answer. And what he said to an extension of that is the best questions get the person answering just as curious about the answer as the person asking it.

Right. Larry King does that. You're absolutely right.

Oh, my God.

And it was one of the. I mean, and it was such a joy to be on it and.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, it was all about blockchain and cryptocurrency. And he does this thing where he goes and Tracy, like, you know, and he kind of throws to you and he asks you your question, and he sets it up in such a concise, great way that it doesn't set you up to give him the answer he wants, though. That's the interesting part about the way he asked the question. He'll say something like, in my particular case, he was talking about. He's like. He's like, we're hearing all this stuff about cryptocurrency and is the banking system going to shift and why? Like, that kind of, like, more direct question. And it doesn't set you up to say yes, of course. Whatever you think is the right answer, it doesn't set you up for that. And I think that's what your coach was saying, right? He was saying, like, you ask a question in a concise way so that you get them to think about the way they want to give you an answer, not the answer you want to hear.

Yeah. There's an introspection, and we need to flip this. I need to just interview you. I'm talking. Larry's best friend mentored me on this. And you're like, I was on Larry's show, and I'm like, oh, my God. What?

I was. It was a brief, really big highlight of my career, I have to say.

That's amazing. Yeah.

Yeah. And then it was right before the pandemic. It was the February before. And then he passed away, of course, last 20, 21, I think so. But, yeah, it was the absolute highlight to be interviewed by somebody else because I so rarely get interviewed by other people that are famous, obviously. I mean, I. I do podcast swaps all the time, but usually that's a different situation.

Please tell me you'll send me that and put it in the show notes.

I will absolutely connect up to that because, yes, there's a clip of it, of course. I use it as a teaching point, though, because there are different places is where we really learn different ways at which we could Ask questions and studying masters like Larry King are just important. I think Howard Stern is a master at asking questions and getting people to answer from a deep, personal place. That's amazing skill. And he wasn't so great at it in the beginning. He learned, right? I mean, we all have to learn so well. I love this idea of you having a network. And is the future plan to maybe not be the only host on the network?

You know, that's a good question. I have a million ideas. The short version to answer that question and not tell you like, 5,000 ideas is I started a business. I called it Balbert Marketing because my name's Ben Albert, and I needed to put something on the paper to get my llc. So that's what I came up with. But in short, the vision is bigger than myself. And real business connections, SEO optimization, and just the ability to type it in aside, it's just a better brand name than Balbert. Like, what's a Balbert? People are like, is it B Albert or Balbert? How do you spell that? I'm like, it's not that complicated. But real business connections can and will be bigger than me. So I don't know what the future holds. But, yes, I've got my picture behind me right now. I don't want my picture on the wall the entire time. The vision's bigger than me. That could be more hosts, that could be live trainings, that could be a whole network, like a production agency. That can be LinkedIn training, because that's honestly where the term connection came from. Ben Albert wanted more LinkedIn connections, so I put connection in the title. Like, let's be honest, that's where it came from. So, yes, it's going to be bigger than me, but I'm not quite sure what it's going to look like.

Well, you're, you know, you're not that early into it in terms of the podcasting space, because you're well over 200 episodes. So that's a pretty darn good track record. But you're still early on in creating a network because obviously you want to have much bigger than that. So I think some of the things that you're doing are really interesting, and I want to touch on them and get some tips from you. You have a production background in video area. Tell us a little bit about what makes better video production. What do you think is some of the best tips that you can give us on that side of the use of video for the podcasting?

So on the production end, my biggest tip is hire a Genius, because you can do it yourself, but you're not going to do as good of a job as a genius. My specific background was a consultant for a firm that did video production. But I can't even hold a camera straight. So that is in my sweet spot.

No, that's not your strength. Got it.

But so I have, I do some like editing. I'm dangerous, but I hire someone to save time and do a better job than me. When it comes to the content in the production, I'm all about leading with values. And I used to say them when I was talking and now it's just embedded but like growth, connection, wisdom, fulfillment, fun. These are deep, integral values in my life. And I can tell a hundred stories based on any individual one of those values because I've thought about it so much. And if you can lead with values, tell a story based around that value, give a valuable insight and or a call to action based on what they learn so they can integrate that into their life. You've done your job. And then if there's a way to hold them accountable that they actually take the information and use it, they'll become a better person. So once you go through a value exercise, it's as simple as Renee Brown has a list, atomic habits has a list. Just Google search list of values. Circle anything that stands out to you, any of them. Then start cross out half of them because we want to get to three or five. And then once you have a shorter list, think about from ages like 8 to 13. That's where the neuroplasticity of the brain like grows the most. And we develop who we are way more than any time in our life. 8 to 13. What values were significant in my life and what mentor stories or sad kind of boo hoo stories like antagonist stories do I have? Because usually the values come from one of two places. Someone who embodies that value to the core, they show you what kindness is or someone who shows you what the lack of that value is. An antagonist story. And then you build a from a place of lack, a chip on your shoulder and you want to be the superhero that ultimately lives a life in abundance. And you can help people obtain more of that value because you know what it feels like to not have it. Those stories are more compelling in my opinion.

And they are. They leave an impression.

They do. And when you have three to five maximum and you can write down and just think about the stories that embody those values, tell those stories with an insight. Don't tell a story that is Incomplete because the masterpiece isn't done yet. So once you have closure, you can tell that story with confidence and gratitude. Give someone an action step so they don't have to make that mistake and then they can go and change their life. So that's more how to create the content. For producing the content, there's a lot of YouTube tutorials, but I'm not afraid to outsource that to someone better than me. Because you want that to shine or.

In your particular case, how's the LinkedIn Live working for you? Because I also find like this is my thing is like if you don't have the budget, then just go for the live. Because people, people are forgiving in the live.

Right.

Like, I'm willing to give you more grace than a live situation because I've been there. And you know, it's a little frightening when tech goes wrong or something happens. Right than you are if you expect it to be highly produced.

Yeah. I mean, even though 97% of stats are made up on the spot like that one, I think like 2 to 5% of people rewatch a LinkedIn live. No one watches the replays. And oftentimes if you don't have a large audience, that LinkedIn Live is just as much you gaining practice as it is reaching a large following. I tell that all the time.

It's also accountability. Like, that's the other reason I recommend it to my clients is because if I make an appointment for something, I create an event in LinkedIn. Right. I'm going to show up even if there are only three people there listening to me. Because I would feel bad if I didn't follow through.

Yeah, like I can post. I'm starting this podcast. We're going to do a 20 episode launch. I get six in, I get burnt out, the social media buzz has killed and then I drop out. But if you set up a LinkedIn Live, you're forcing yourself to be accountable. I love that and I love it for people that don't have a podcast yet are thinking about closing their show and just guesting. Get on lives. Like, you don't have to buy a bunch of equipment and put together cover art and all these things and figure out what an RSS feed is. I mean, granted we have people right in front of us that can help you, but get on alive and see if you even want to do this podcasting stuff before you dive so deep.

So you want to do it actually.

And if you do want to do it, Tracy's the best person on earth to help you but get your feet wet. And I think there's no better way to get your feet wet. And it's just. And even in our lives, like we choose a topic and I don't prep and we just talk from the heart. It's completely off the cuff. It. It's low stress.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, what is now that you've done all these different style shows from your original music show, what's your favorite return on investment? And I'm going to say it that way is like it's a personal return on investment. What is your personal takeaway that makes you say I'm not quitting podcasting?

I say there was a day I still do it where I would fall asleep to podcasts and that's still the case. But I was a traveling sales rep and I would put on podcasts. It was like 2015 where I first started getting obsessed. I would drive 12 hours a week and I would listen to 12 hours of podcasts per week as I was traveling store to store. Those same people that I used to listen to for hours a week have been on my show and they charge 5, 10, 50,000 for a keynote and I get one to one interaction with them and mentorship for free under the guide that I will promote the crap out of it. And I have an audience to make it worth their time. But that blows my mind. The simplest example, and the episode isn't out as we're talking right now, but I just had Jordan Harbinger on my show. Jordan Harbinger is one of the biggest podcasters of all time. I've been listening to him since 2014, 2015. What's crazy is I was listening to Jordan Harbinger's show and he had Sarah and Nippy Ames on. They have a podcast a little bit culty. They were actually in a cult that was right down the street from my hometown, which blows my mind. And they had a HBO series about called the Vow, called the Vow. It's about Nexium, a cult. They were in, they were whistleblowers. They got out. Now they have one of the biggest cold podcasts in the world. And I sent Sarah a dm name dropped Jordan because he's been on the show. And she agreed to have them come on my show. And this is like my dreams coming. Like I don't even care if I'm losing money on the podcast. And it allows my dreams to become reality because I get to meet the people that I once idolized and now they're friends and peers. That's super cool as far as I'm concerned.

It's my favorite part about it too. And I figured with the type connection in your title of your show, that was really the important part. But I'm so glad to hear you articulate it like that. I think that this is the part that I. I don't understand why you wouldn't give it a try. I mean, don't set up a show. You're exactly right on that. Try a little guesting, try a little LinkedIn Live. Just make sure that this is something of interest to you. But why not try this? Because if I could today, every single week, speak to 30 people, and that's all I had as listeners on my show. But I could speak to 30 people, why wouldn't I do that?

Good.

Am I doing my business sitting behind this camera and not talking to anyone? Or if I can go connect to one person that I really wanted to learn from and I really wanted to know, why wouldn't I do that? Which is why Ben is on my show right now. Because I really wanted to hear what he was doing and what he was working on. And it is my favorite part of the show is getting to know you and how you're working and what you're doing and what you're thinking about and where your challenges are. So that's my last question for you, Ben. What's your biggest challenge with podcasting that you're looking for something to overcome?

Wow. Biggest challenge. I gotta think about this one. There's lots of challenges. That's the funny thing. Like, I find that, like, challenges are kind of blessings in disguise. They're just, they're gifts. They're just wrapped a little bit differently because Covid Hit, launched a podcast, launched a business, ended up working double time, making less money for the first year, ended up replacing my sales executive income in a year, which is pretty badass. But through working a ton of hours and everything from like, we just talked about it, do I just have multiple feeds? How do I label the show? Booking the guests, bringing them on, creating content for the show, follow up materials, blogging? Do I automate? I'm a very human to human, personal person. So it's. If I automate, is it going to be like Ben or is it going to ruin my flow? All this stuff, I deal a day to day, I deal with this kind of stuff, but it's just a time challenge. It takes time for me to get the wisdom I need to do it right the next time. So there's lots of little challenges. Almost Always. They're process oriented. Because I don't have the perfect guidebook yet. I'm kind of creating it as we go. But those challenges are kind of like blessings in disguise because it makes me better at what I do. And realistically, if I was smarter, I would just hire someone like Tracy to like give me the guidebook. But I'm stubborn and I haven't done that yet. But.

And you don't need to. That's the best part, right? You don't need to. Because all my advice is free on the podcast.

Right? That's why I like podcasting. It's literally you can listen to Harvard level keynotes for free and never run out of material. All you need is a podcast player.

That's right. Well, I am so grateful, Ben, that you have come on my show. I'm so grateful that you put out the Real Business Connections network and have built all these different style shows for all of us to check out. So appreciate you, Ben.

Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity. This was a lot of fun. I knew it was going to be, but you over delivered in funness. So thank you, Tracy.

I really think that it's so inspiring for someone to be straightforward and honest about the idea that I'm a podcast host, but I'm not the expert, I'm not the guru. I think that's so valuable to have that perspective because when we live in this place of curiosity and we set it up as our mission, as our sort of modus operandi. Right. Our operating mode, then we're really going to get where we want to go.

We're.

And I think that's what Ben's doing here. He's got the best interest of his listeners in place. He's curious, he wants to learn himself. He's growing himself along the way and he's inspiring listeners who have that same kind of mission and that same kind of model. So it may be a slow burn and a slow growth to your platform. And as Ben talked, he, you know, he plateaued at times like this happens to everyone. You make some shifts and it plateaus. These things happen to all of us. And it can really though be. You just have to do a shakeup. Try a 15 minute Friday, see what happens. If it works, dive deep and do more of it. If doing something ultra local works and then moving out of it doesn't work as well, and that's what causes your plateau, which is what happened to Ben. And then you can go ahead and dive back into finding a way to playlist that create a Landing page, create a landing site that's just for Rochester community. In his particular case, being able to understand what you're doing, making experiments along the way, learning from those experiments, but also making sure that they're not anecdotal. I mean, look, Ben put the time in here. He's got well over 200 episodes. He's really put the time in. He's five days a week means that he's, you know, five episodes a week. Five, 25, as he pointed out. Yeah, six episodes a week, really. He's really diving deep into getting good fast.

Right.

This is how we learn. When we crash course ourselves into something, we learn quickly what works and what doesn't work, and we can make judgments faster. Otherwise, we have to wait a longer time. And that's. That's exactly the key to success here that I see from Ben that I want you to learn from. It's what I learned when Tom and I did our 3D print podcast. We did five days a week. In the beginning, we did different styles of episodes. We didn't name them something different, but we kind of let everybody know, hey, it's back to business Monday. Like, you know, they kind of knew what our topics were, so they got used to tuning in to the day of the week that we were airing. But for us, doing it that quickly taught us some really valuable lessons about what we could take forward, what we would move to. And that's what Ben's got under his belt here. And it's a significant advantage that he has over another podcaster because he's got that bulk of information and he's got good data to run from that he doesn't have to wait a year to get an analysis on his show that is valuable enough. He did it in the first 50 episodes, which he did in the first 10 weeks. Right. So he got his information quicker. Now, that's not for all of you. That's maybe a little intense and maybe a little crazy to some of you, but I do think that there are many of you out there anxious to get results, anxious to get an outcome and understand what it is. And if that's you, you're gonna have to put in the work. There's no way to sugarcoat that. I wish. I just got chastised by one of my investors. He told me he was pointing out a video from Gary Vee on social media about where Gary Vee was saying, you should come out there and you should episodes. Just start a podcast and do 10 episodes and see how it is. And I was like, no, don't waste your time. If you're not going to give it a year, don't waste your time going into and trying it. However, when I say that to people, it turns a lot of people off. But my answer really is if you're going to only want to do 10 episodes, then go guest, go run a limited series, go do something different. Because it's just not worth the time and energy to really do the whole podcast, startup, syndication, like create your cover art, do all of that. It's just not worth the return on investment. You won't get it in 10 episodes. However, limited series, do a playlist, do a guesting. Those things can be achievable. That's what I prefer you to try. Just wanted to be clear on my reasoning behind it, but I think that the people who are out there going, just dip your toe in the water and see how it is, have no idea what it feels like when it gets up to your eyeballs, right? And that's what happens. We drown quickly, we quit quickly, and we didn't give it a chance because we had expectations that this was easier and simpler than it really is. So I don't like to go in there with those false expectations. At the same time, maybe there's some people who should have dipped their toe in, should have dove in and would have loved it because I didn't encourage them. I'm going to leave that to the Gary Vese of the world and I'm going to take you. Podcasters who are like Ben, want to dive in, want to get good fast, want to figure out what's next, want to pivot, want to grow your show, see the value of podcasting already. This podcast, the binge factor is for serious podcasters. I get that. That's who I talk to. That's who you are. That's why you're listening. You're serious about your show and you want to take it to the next level or you're serious about starting a show the right way. Knowing that means that we can really dive in and we can be deep about this. But sometimes, like Ben, you don't always know who's your listeners. Do they only have 15 minutes and they need a fast start? Or are our listeners have different needs at different stages? Some of you only have 15 minutes and you really wish. Tracy, I know you talk fast, but could you talk even faster so I can consume this in a fast way? There's always something that your audience might need that you might want to test out and try so go check out Ben Albert's show, Real Business Connection Network and get six shows in one to be able to test out and check out. I know you're going to enjoy it. Ben was such a great guest. I can't wait to have him back when I see what he does in the future. And you know what? He's really inspired me. I got to get back to Rochester at some point. Got to see how, you know, maybe Tom and I should go for an anniversary at some point and check out how Pittsford's doing. Of course, we got married in the middle of January, so it's probably going to be pretty cold. So maybe we'll hold out on that and try a summer trip instead. Anyway, thank you all for listening. I really appreciate you listening to the show. I really appreciate it when you suggest guests to me and if you are a podcast host and you haven't reached out to me to say I should be on the show, do it. Just take a lesson from Ben who just reached out to me on LinkedIn, made it super simple and I just couldn't help but have him on my show because he intrigued me. So try for yourself. Love to have you right here on the Binge Factor.

You've been listening to the Binge Factor Podcast. For more information on podcasting and videocasting success tips and tactics, please go go to thebingefactor.com and be sure to listen to our other show for podcasters called Feed you'd brand. If you'd like to be interviewed on this show as well as featured in Tracy's column, please go to thebingefactor.com guest and apply.