Podcasting: A Way to Generate High Quality Broking Client Conversations

[00:00] Hi and welcome to Broker Tools, where we unpack the tools, systems, and strategies that help brokers optimize the way they work. I'm Katie, your host, and today we are discussing how to use podcasts to grow your business. Joining me for this conversation is Victor Laros from Laros Financial. Victor has been generating leads via his podcast, Debt to Financial Freedom, and deeply understands the power of podcasting for building credibility, attracting the right clients, and turning listeners into opportunities. because he has been able to transform listeners into leads through the power of podcasting. He is just about to launch his own service called Evolved Podcast Academy where he can help other brokers leverage this amazing lead generation tool. Victor, it's so good to see you. Welcome to the pod. >> Thank you for having me, Katie. Excited to be here. >> I'm so excited. And I mean, just for the audience's purposes, you and I used to work together. I used to be your ops person. >> Yes, you were. And uh the team still remember you. We all do. >> Thanks.

[01:02] And I really love it because I personally know the journey you have been on through managing your podcast. I think it would be great for everybody to understand. When did you start podcasting? Actually, let me go back one more question. How long have you been running your broker business by yourself? >> Okay. So, I started my current broker business, Lagos Financial, in June 2022. and I recorded the first episodes of Debt to Financial Freedom in December 2022, but it wasn't until January 23 that we published and started the podcast from then onwards. >> And what made you choose to start podcasting? So, I connected with another broker in the industry that had a podcast and told he told me that he had an agency and a videographer that did everything and all he had to do was just get a room and invited guests and they did everything else. So, that's recording, editing, and at that time they were also doing distribution for him as well. So, they were posting on

[02:04] socials. So, I thought that sounds pretty good because I didn't really have any marketing collateral. I didn't actually put my name out there for a while cuz I was working for a broker for 4 and a half years before I launched Logos. Um, so that was important for me to to create some some collateral and just have regular marketing and find that podcasting was something that let me just share all the knowledge that I have as well as the guests that I could bring on instead of actually thinking about you know a structure for marketing and strategy and and obviously hiring people is a whole another thing when it comes to marketing which is I'm sure we can share a little bit of that journey as well. >> Yeah. Well, if you want to go for it, cuz I think that is really what we're all in this right now, like as in everybody has to start somewhere when they're marketing and promoting their business. And instead of going out networking, and I'm sure you did some of that as a I guess a social media form, you actually chose podcasting as your avenue rather than just LinkedIn or just Facebook.

[03:06] >> Yeah, exactly. And I was actually networking as well. So at the time I I was part of BNI and that actually was helpful for me because you know with BNI you have to get up every week and and do like a pitch and you have guests that come in visitors sorry and instead of me going up there and just trying to pitch my services and being like I'm mortgage broker etc. I would always say I'm also the host of podcast called debt to financial freedom. So it actually uh intrigued people and it they then went and listened to the episode and not everyone but of course it just helps I think for people who want to get to know me online but with the podcast why I chose that as well was because it was all done for me and I think that well that's what I thought because it was actually when I met with this videographer uh they said to me if if you want to do the distribution as well that's going to be an extra $1,000 a month and it was already $2,000 per two episodes. So, it was already expensive, $1,000 per episode, including the recording and the editing. And then I had to pay to rent out an office, and I

[04:08] have to obviously think about what I'm going to say and who I'm going to invite, etc. But I'd record them back toback. And it wasn't like a long-term contract. It was just month by month. But I wanted to keep it consistent. But I wasn't willing to pay another thousand just to post on socials. And so what they offered me was if I was to bring on a virtual assistant, they would train this VA on how to do all the posting because there's different scheduling apps that exist out there. I can't remember which one it was, Hootsweet or something like that >> to be able to have someone do that. So um I actually went overseas uh to to Europe, I believe it was. Yeah, it was in Europe um at the end of 2022. And that was pretty cool to have their their team training a VA that I brought on when I wasn't even there on how to do this. And then he started posting while I was away in in January because I hadn't come back yet. But what I noticed is that the quality of the posts were not very good. >> You know, Chad Gippy had just come out so no one was using it yet. Well, some were. I I sort of tested it but virtual

[05:10] assistants weren't. No way at that point. So it was all manual. He was watching the clips, watching the videos, figuring out what to say, how to say it, how to sound like me, kind of like a ghost rider, right? And I I found myself always giving feedback saying, "I don't like this. Change this." And and then I noticed that there was a lot more to it because he had to do images as well, like thumbnails for for YouTube and and for the post itself. So doing like posters, podcast episodes were going to be released. So, it's been um it's been an evolution, you know, uh on on making that more streamlined and higher quality uh and and I guess to the point where we are now where I've got a whole team that does it, but now we've also developed software that can do it automated. >> This is the evolution cuz most people are like, "Yeah, I want to podcast." And I will say podcasting now is probably a lot easier than when you started it, especially because chat GPT is available and we've got a lot more automations and AI automations in place that you can train your models on. I still see people charging around $2,000 a month for this.

[06:13] >> It's expensive when you want studio quality. That's the reality, right? Like there's studio set up where you want to turn up face to face and they've got the Roadcaster Pro already set up. They've got the video cameras. Usually it's like Sony or um one of the other brands set up multiple camera shots and you literally just sit there and have a chat and then they give you the product. But usually distribution is not covered cuz it's it's one of the most uh tedious things to do to log in to different people's social media accounts and ask for the two factor authentication pins and you know sharing it with a password manager. If they're not using the same password manager, you have to use like a Google sheet. So then there's like a security risk. Uh, and then you obviously um need them to work with your internal marketing guys if you're if you're not just posting podcast because now they need to time it correctly. So you're not just doing podcast clips and shorts or whatever and you're also doing your other social media in between. It needs to sound like you. It's got to be on brand and there's so many aspects to it that they don't want to deal with that. They just say here's the product,

[07:16] you go post it. And it's not sustainable for most businesses because it's expensive and you know the return on investment doesn't come immediately. So imagine in 3 months that's already $6,000 plus GST. >> That doesn't include distribution, doesn't include room hire. All right. If if you go to an agency, yes, sorry, a studio usually you get the room higher. Then let's just say you you pay for distribution. Guess what? Get all out there. There's so much noise out there and organic content is hard to reach your audience. So then you got to pay for ads if you want to get in front of like the eyeballs of your ideal customers. That's more money. So then a lot of time people like it's not worth it. There's so much money putting into this. Uh it's no point. Like they rather just work on referrals because it's relationship building and they don't have to spend money and then it's it's more warm referrals. So I understand why there's a massive drop off rate and many podcasters don't get past 20. >> Wow. >> Yeah. They give up after that. So yeah, I understand why it's painful. >> Yeah. And I guess having your time over again, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently? >> Probably not too much differently just

[08:18] because you have to kind of learn through the the journey. But I think probably if I was to go back in time, it's hard hard to say because I I love the fact that I've got a software now. So all that you know three years later we've been able to take all that intellectual property from the team on what they do how they do it using different tools because there are lots of different tools like cap cut opus clip you know descript and all these things that you can do the editing even riverside can do it natively >> y >> but you still got to learn how to use the tool >> right and then you got to work with other team members when you have the final product to post it and if you imagine you're the business owner the highest and best use of your time is actually dealing with customers because that's what's going to bring in the revenue so sitting there editing videos that you can outsource to somebody else doesn't really make sense. It's not the the right financial decision. So I I knew that early on, but the training aspect, you know, you actually Katie helped out a lot with that to make sure that the team knew how to coordinate with one another because they were in different locations. Uh they did different things. You had one person doing the uh the transcription, the audio, uh another one doing the the

[09:23] thumbnails and the images, the other one doing the social media posts and scheduling. And they needed feedback. And you know, it used to be me and then I transfer that over to you to give feedback. And then you tried to get them to give feedback to each other. So it's like that's the reality. You either pay someone overseas, but you still need a coordinator. Can't be you. Or you hire someone onshore, which is really expensive, like a a CMO or equivalent, you know, marketing coordinator on shore in Australia. Or you or you hire an agency and they're going to charge you, you know, agency fees, too. So, the software, we've developed that using the latest tech like we the MVP, I guess, if you want to call it that or the proof of concept was using tools like N8N and Replet. um and being able to just automate this and we prove that it works. But to make it robust and able to be secure and bring on like thousands of users, we needed to rebuild it. So I actually hired a CTO like a lead engineer who's also hired other engineers to rebuild it whole back end and and host it on Amazon Web Services now. And now we've got native tools that

[10:25] we own the IP now. >> Nice. which essentially does the editing that software external software used to do but instead of doing it manually it actually does it automatically. So it uses chatg uses Gemini uses nano banana uses all these different tools in one place and you know you just see the output as a user. So if I had access to that tool back then I would have loved to have used it. >> Yeah. But it's not something that we can kind of go back in time and offer because it didn't exist, right? Like none of three just or two whatever just came out and only now we're implementing it and we're able to be super agile and put it in straight away because we set up the infrastructure and and foundation stuff, right? And we got the right developers that can put it in. So like to do like the thumbnails at like super high quality and be able to have the text in those thumbnails and those images that's cohesive, right? cuz before the old one wouldn't do that. There was like missing letters and So, so that's what's really exciting to actually have a product that's really really affordable. Um, I can't remember the pricing. I believe it's $50 to $100 an episode like really really cheap. And

[11:29] that includes a distribution connected. We've connected it to all the social accounts. So, we've got APIs directly into into Meta into YouTube. So, you don't have to do this um onetime pin and share passwords. They literally just use oorthth and sign straight in. Nice. Um, and they can just post it and it can it can re regenerate it too. So it's not like the the first version is what they get. They can click a button, it'll regenerate. If they don't like the captions, they don't like the image, they don't like which particular clip it's pulled out, they can keep doing that until they're happy with it and then they can post it. I guess those who are brand new to um podcasting, it would be good, I guess, to understand the components because again, you have people doing components and when it got too hard, then you hired me >> pretty much. >> But I mean, I come with a different kind of skill set because I had a back background in marketing. Um, but I now did automations. the two parts of me really just worked well within your environment for what you were doing. And I technically don't sell that as a service anymore. >> Well, I think if it would be good for

[12:31] people to understand what is the whole scope of podcasting first, it's obviously lining up interviews and having a conversation, but then that needs to be recorded. And if you're doing it on something like we are right now, that's just using Riverside and having a communication between each other. And then that's just the raw video. But there will be moments like before, after and during that this video once it's produced, things need to happen to it. >> Yeah, definitely. So, we've actually launched community as well. It's an online community. It's free. So, if you go to Evolved with a D, evolvedodcastacademy.io. You just join the community. We've we've also done a free assessment. You answer the assessment questions. It will kind of tell you where your where your knowledge gaps are, where you're at at the moment, readiness assessment. And then if you join the community, a lot of these things that you you're discussing that preost uh even equipment, what equipment to use or software, we're actually teaching a lot of this within the uh community. And then we'll also have uh members uh within the community that can share their founder story and look for potential guests to invite on each other's podcast as well. I guess to

[13:34] to sort of add to that, my personal experience has been using uh Riverside when I transitioned from live podcasts with a studio to virtual podcast. And a little hack, I guess, if you want to call it that, is if you want to do it face to face, you can still use Riverside because if you don't have the camera equipment and you don't have someone checking all the angles and all that, Riverside actually, the way I did it for one of my live ones was you you can't tell. >> Mhm. But in the background, you've got me on my on my laptop with my face. And then my guest, I was talking to him and I had the laptop elevated. So my eyes were still on his eyes just just the right level. And I had a mobile like a second like like my other my actual mobile on a what do you call it? like on a tripod or it was it was actually a selfie stick that had a connection at the top that holds the mobile up and that was facing him using the Riverside app as a guest so I could still see what he looked like so I could adjust the angle to make that look right. All he saw was a phone in his face but not

[14:36] directly in his face. It was next to my laptop like in front of it. Then I would just look at him. We would talk my mobile filming him and I and laptop filming me and it came out great. We still can do the live ones without paying for you know professional you know videographers to come in. The only caveat I guess I would say is the audio. Audio is really really important with podcasting because while the video is obviously very important for social media and YouTube, most people listen to podcast when they're going to the gym or driving or you know going for a run or whatever and they listen through through Spotify, through iTunes, uh YouTube podcasts, etc. So the audio is important that the quality is is high. So, when I did that live one, I actually hired a studio. It wasn't even a studio, sorry. It was more of like a shared office that didn't have any cameras, but they what they did have is a Roadcaster Pro with the microphone setup. So, therefore, we still me and my guest, we still used the microphones. All we did was just have a micro SD that had all the audio files, MP3, and then I gave that to my um

[15:40] editor, and then he then got the audio from the from the micro SD. Well, actually it was was on Google Drive by that point and he got the videos from Riverside and then he synced up the the the audio and the video so that we had >> in your own experience once the actual product is out there. So once you've got the um the pods using on either YouTube or Spotify or all of that you have found that when the content is out there it's actually generated great leads for you. But getting there has been the hardest part. Yeah, getting there. I think just probably a couple of other things to consider is when you interview other people, you're essentially not so much the expert. You're an interviewer, right? You're a, you know, if you imagine like a radio show, you're the radio host, but you're not necessarily the one that's the subject matter expert. You're not the key person of influence here. It's shifted for me when I realized that the first few episodes or whatever it was where I wasn't really talking that much. Uh I I would come up

[16:42] with a list of questions. I would send it to my my guest like right before. That was a combination of me being probably not lazy but you know just the way I operate last minute for everything. But also I didn't want them to be overly scripted. So if they had too much time to to absorb it then they would then not sound as authentic because then they're scripting in their mind practicing what they're going to say. So I run I wanted them to have a little bit of a heads up but not enough heads up that it's it's inauthentic. And also for me in the beginning I used to have uh my laptop and I would talk to them face to face and I would have those those questions and I'd kind of just look at them talk to them and then I go back just to remind myself what to ask. Not the exact just just as a kind of as a guide for the structure. Yeah. >> As time has gone I don't do that anymore. So, all I ask is for a an intro, like a bio intro, and then they send that to me and and a high quality image, because then I can use that for the thumbnails and the and the poster. Um, but I don't actually go prepared. I I probably read their LinkedIn and read the bio because the reason why I stopped doing that is because I really want it

[17:44] to be a two-way conversation like this. So that way I me as the as the host can also still be positioned as the subject matter expert and it's not just all about the guest >> because I guess this is almost like like you said earlier this is almost like a radio show but you're having co-hosts so you are talking from your perspective they're talking from their perspective but it becomes a conversation rather than an interview. >> Exactly. Whereas in the beginning it was all interview. But then in saying that I also went through a phase where I was like I want to be seen as the expert and I want to teach the things that I can help my clients with. Yeah. >> I got interviewed for a series of podcast episodes by another podcaster where basically I was on his show and he sent me the questions beforehand. So he asked me all the questions specific to finance, lending and things like that. And the good thing about that arrangement was that he posted it on his channel, right? >> And I was also able to get the raw footage and post it on my website and on

[18:48] my channel. So what that did, that crossover promotion meant that his audience now learned about me and then that then got into they then got into my podcast. So like, oh, who's this Victor Laros guy? What's uh what's Logos Financial about? Because they get to hear, you know, uh all the knowledge that I'm that I'm sharing. and then they find my podcast, they get to know me even further and obviously my other guests. So, by the time they actually uh connect with me, they they usually call because I've got on my website like a Calendarly booking or basically like a schedule a chat or or complimentary assessment we call it. >> Yes. >> And >> that's what we changed it to. >> We did. And and it's and it's great because they want to talk to me and they feel like they know me already before the call. And it usually works two way. So, if they feel quite warm and they resonate with how my personality type and my communication style when we talk, it's usually two-way in that it's pretty natural for me to get to know them as well because I didn't know them beforehand, but the fact that they wanted to talk to me and they they

[19:51] understood my communication style really well meant it's it works the other way around as well. So, then we naturally get along and it's not so much like I have to sell them my services anymore. They know exactly what I do. They know exactly what they want from me and they also value my time. So the actual script has changed. They see me as someone important because I've got a podcast and someone that they value my time. So it's not really like I'm selling. I'm just serving. Right. It become they actually qualify. Are they the right fit for what they're trying to do personality wise? Are the right fit? But do they actually qualify? Right. So yeah, that's that's been a game changer. >> Yeah. And I I guess that's the ultimate power of podcasting is that in a way is your pre-qualifier. They've actually preassessed themselves to be suitable for you >> pretty much. >> And they're like, I can vibe with this guy or I can't vibe with this guy because they've already decided that they think that you're the right person to take them on the journey. You're not having to overcome as many hurdles of here's what I know, here's how I can

[20:54] help, this is the next step. They're not having to, I guess, go through the doubt stage of management, which every person who's coming with lending questions because you might have pre-answered half their lending questions through a podcast. >> Well, that's the other part. It's the whole financial education and and literacy. It's like the amount of time you you repeat yourself teaching the same thing over and over. Having a series of episodes where I go into detail means that if I talk to someone and I realize, okay, they don't actually know enough here. I'm like, "Check out these episodes and then let's let's have a chat." So, that works out two way. It saves me time and they get to go into detail at their own pace, right? Not me just hammering it down in a 30-minute call. And then it benefits them and me because now they can decide if I'm the right fit after going through the education. And then if they do go through that and they learn more, now we're having more advanced conversations that are more strategic and tactical instead of like teach me how this all works, you know, because I've already told you that on the on the podcast. So

[21:56] yeah, it's win-win, >> which is kind of perfect cuz as you think about this whole evolution of podcasting for what it has been, you would say as a lead generation tool, it's probably your best tool. >> Yeah, I think I wouldn't say it's it's like the direct best tool. It's more that it elevates referrals, for example. So, we talked about leads coming through, but if I want to develop referral partners, for example, and I I connect with them on LinkedIn, people just automatically go into my profile and if I've got if I've got clips posted and within the clips in the in the actual captions or in the comments, I've got the podcast episode, they will go in and watch an episode, whether it's or listen to it at least, maybe the first couple episodes where they get to hear my story, maybe something that resonates with them. So, it actually warms them up. So that's more powerful as well in that, you know, future referral partners get to know me before we have a Zoom meeting. Same sort of thing. I don't have to break the ice and try to prove to them why I'm the right broker that they should potentially work with and all that. It's the other way around. I'm actually wanting to know are they the right fit, right?

[22:57] >> Yeah. >> That's what's worked really well from a from a lead generation point of view for sure is the referral partners. And I think just having having content, I think that's something that we we kind of forget about is that what do you come up with? Like I'm not a if you're not a marketer, like you're not there like going into chat GBT even if you if you've got access to it like to to think of all these new different posts and and strategically plan that out across all your social accounts. It's why you hire people or if you don't want to hire people. Having authentic podcast episodes and breaking that into clips gives you like a whole library of content for months. So you don't even have to think about it. You just have stuff posting out. I remember when I was posting out these these clips. I'd go to these social events like for brokers like PD days and all this sort of stuff and they go, "Man, I see you all the time with that podcast. Like, don't you have time to actually write loans?" I'm like, "Man, I don't do any of that. I just I just have a team that does that." Right. Like, >> yeah, >> perception is that I'm just out there, you know, uh, as a key person of influence, as a, you know, uh, what's the other word? >> You're almost like an influencer. >> No, I think it's like an authority, like

[24:01] a thought leader. That's a thought leader in my industry, right? >> Yeah. I become a thought leader in the industry because yes, unfortunately my connections aren't my ideal customers. They're other brokers. But that's okay, right? Because the podcast academy, I get to help them there. They see me. They know me. Like, I know you from somewhere because they see my podcast. So, it does make a difference in the especially on LinkedIn, I find. Facebook probably not so much. I still post there, but it's not not really translated to customers. >> Yes. And I guess this is probably what the ecosystem is. And within the marketing world, we know that there's at least seven touch points and sometimes up to 13 now for people before they even reach out. So I guess this is where the podcast adds value because one, you're technically shooting one piece of content, but in a video format. So it's no longer audio that people can just listen to. they can now listen to it on YouTube, but then you can split that into now shorts. Um, which then turn into posts over time because I remember when I was running your team, what we did was we themed out the months, but

[25:06] you would might have recorded only one or two episodes in a month. So, we split your shorts up over those time and we just ran it as a theme. Do you know what I mean? And that's where that whole content marketing loop comes in. >> Definitely. Yeah. content repurposing and I think what you're referring to earlier was a 7114 rule. So like 7 hours 11 interactions across four plat so that's the average it takes people now before they decide they want to work with you or short form is really to to lead them to the long form. So, if you don't have a podcast, then unless you're there recording like long form YouTube videos, then what else do you have where you're talking for 40 minutes or an hour where they get to know you at a deeper level and know how you articulate yourself and uh what knowledge you have and and past success stories, trials and tribulations and all the things that make people connect to a human. I think it's so important right now given the the age of AI and content being AI generated and I think you know we're already at that sort of turning point where everyone's starting to question everything you see online like I know I do when I'm scrolling you know whether it's Facebook or Tik Tok videos and I

[26:09] look at I'm like that doesn't look real and then I look at the comments people are like AI AI so like that's happening now and from I think 2026 onwards we're not really going to know what's real or what's AI anymore podcasting to me is is one of the last and only places in the digital a world where you can actually know that it's the real person. And even if they've intricately created an AI generated video and audio podcast, then there's going to be a point where you realize that it's not real >> because let's face it, there's nuances in when people share stories when they're when they're asked specific questions that that trigger an emotion from, you know, a past experience. And I I don't think AI is going to be able to do that and and and recreate that unless it's an avatar of a past version. So what we're actually doing with with Evolve podcast is we're going to create basically like a watermark. So something that uh certifies that this is actually genuine human recorded podcast and this is AI generated. So we're not restricting AI generated. We're just making it clear to the users of it uh

[27:13] the the ultimate listeners or watchers of the videos that it is AI generated. So we're going to make that very clear because it is going to be difficult to know that. >> Okay. Uh, I guess this would be a really good time to tell us a little bit more about what Evolve is. Cuz while we've talked about it as a software, I think if anybody was interested in using it, it would be great to understand how it actually works. Because we mentioned things like Riverside, which is one tool, but then Opus Clip is a dissecting tool, as in it can see your video and cut it into shorts. And descript is one of those tools that also can do something similar, but it can do a a whole lot of like captions and and so they're like three or four different tools and but were you saying that it's now something that you've kind of rolled into one tool or >> Yeah, definitely. The one thing that we've probably not included is a video recording and hosting service. Riverside, for example, is a really really good tool to still use independently because you can download the videos which includes obviously the the audio and upload that into our into our tool. So when you log in, you have

[28:17] your own um dashboard and your own account. Basically pay per episodes but up to certain minutes, right? So you can essentially like use it as you wish or or switch it off if you don't want to use it. But what it does do is once you've got an episode, you upload it in and you can then uh select your your color schemes, your logos and upload that too. It will do all the watermarks on the images. It will create the thumbnails uh for the actual podcast itself. So it'll do it'll have audio hosting. So we do have audio. When I say audio hosting, I'm I'm talking about like RSS feeds. So you don't have to have a separate Buzz Sprout account for example. It will be included in that. So it will connect to your iTunes and and Spotify and YouTube audio podcasts and Amazon etc. And it will also connect to your social accounts. So this is like Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, YouTube. I think there was I think maybe even X, but I'm not I'm not sure. I have to check whether we're going to use X just because it's not really designed for. >> Okay. >> But once you upload it, it will take the transcript. So it will create the

[29:19] transcripts automatically. It will use that transcript. It connects to this is all in the background by the way. not actually going to see all this happening. You just know that it works this way. >> Yeah. >> Uses Open AI. It determines out of the episode what are the best clips to even generate in the first place. It uses the internal software that we've got to then break up the video into those clips based on the transcript to tell you that's, you know, you guys have touched on an awesome topic. It's a golden nugget to share, etc. And then it will then create the actual captions itself. So, the actual posts that go with the clips. And they're platform specific. So they're written differently depending on the platform and the the type of users on that platform. Yeah. And it has the hashtags also built into that as well in those in those posts. And then you can schedule that out on each of the platforms. So they're not posting on the same day at the same time. You can schedule it at different times. You don't have to use all the platforms. You can just pick two or one. You don't have to use all of them. We just got the uh connect connectivity for all of them. And then the obviously the audios uh and this is just the like the MVP was earlier on. We're now at a pretty robust

[30:23] version which will be released in in January. We're just getting some test users users at the moment giving feedback and we're changing the UX slightly. So it was just it was very uh generic just making the features work. Now we're actually making it user friendly and uh more appealing to the user. But we're we're always going to be adding features. So some of the features that we're we're looking at uh we're adding in the future would be the ability to put in images in between. So, right now, like if you or even B-rolls. So, so as as we speak right now, like the clips will have just the video clips and it will have the subtitles, but it doesn't have B-roll. So, that's like different forms of images or moving videos in between. We're going to add that feature in the future. So, that will be within the clips as well. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, there's quite there's quite a lot in that. Um, so that means not that you won't need to use dcript, you won't need to use opus clip, you won't need to use bus sprout. Uh, all of those on part of your text stack. You literally just need like a Streamyard or a Riverside. And if you don't want those, you can still use Zoom. Like Zoom is is still acceptable. Yes, the quality is not the

[31:26] greatest, but it's good enough if you don't want to spend too much. And everything else will be handled on the >> I think what would be good for the audience is what we call the old form of managing this and then what your software is offering because again, we understand all the different tools and the mechanisms to make a podcast work, but not everybody does. And so we'll just create like a nice little table so you can see the differences of new versus old, what you actually need to do to manage and have a podcast. And I guess that is the gift of a podcast cuz once you have it running as a machine, then you get to do what you do best, which is have conversations with pre-qualified clients. >> Exactly. That's why we built it. These were the pain points that I experienced. And actually to be honest, initially I wanted to build a course and I and I thought I can teach people how to use these tools and it was another revenue stream for me. But I thought I don't want to sell a course that people are too busy to learn and they have to execute on their own and then they just regret paying for it because it just sits in a in a folder somewhere or the login and like I never use that. So I'm

[32:28] like no, I want people to get the result. So then that's when we went down the exploration path of can things like what can be automated now with software? And then it turns out pretty much 100% of it can now. And it's just gotten better and better. So yeah, we put a lot of time and like and money into this now. This is we're having enterprise grade on this. Like we can handle 10,000 users. So it's and we're going to go global with it. It's actually quite exciting where we're going with this. And if you just think about uh you mentioned earlier like the before and after state, we're also we talk about the tools but also the users of the tools and the coordination of those users are removed. So no virtual assistants required, no marketing coordinator required, no you know we also used to use ClickUp right and we still use it for other other projects but ClickUp is a project management tool which is also quite pricey right to make sure that tasks get set up people check the task they tick it off they you know give feedback they go in in progress all of that's gone like >> nice >> so many tools with just one so yes to your point all you do is just talk share

[33:33] connect with human beings let the software do the rest and then have new appointments with your customers and just serve them, right? And imagine, you know, this is on like a machine where you're just always sharing content and it's not costing you an arm and a leg. You don't have a huge team to do it and you can just Sorry. And basically, you get to know your audience. So, if you want to now like get more reach now, you can put ads in, like pay for ads to promote your podcast and get eyeballs on it, but at least you've got content going out in the first place. That part's handled. >> Yeah. which I guess is a really I guess exciting part of what you're offering and why you're so invested. And I guess if there are people who are listening to this and who haven't even begun the pathway or even know where to begin with podcasting, we'll have another little blog post below. I think having the frame of reference of even how we ran your business would be good cuz from a management point of view there's like marketing strategy then there's the teams who did the content for social media marketing then you had your video editor on top of it and then you had

[34:36] your quality control to make sure that everything was correctly formulated and pulled together >> all that's been programmed into the AI into our tool that's IP because you can't build a tool unless you know how to do it manually first right you have to tell software developers to build things in in a way that you used to do it with people and different software and that's what we've done. It's the people part and it's the old software part. I forgot to mention the thumbnails. So before we used to have also um an offshore team that you introduced us to right that would do like image stuff on Canva graphic design. Now, we don't even need it. You don't even have to hire a graphic designer because we've got, you know, built-in Nano Banana, which is a Google uh software where the prompts create the images from the transcripts from what you say. So, it will automatically create that and then you can regenerate them if you're not if you're not happy with it to to a level that you are. And it can do a structure that has worked for viral posts in the past for other people's channels >> completely. Yeah, that's one of the new the features we're also going to be adding on in the future as well, like

[35:39] virality score and and all the data input that we get from from YouTube channels like to look at how many people are subscribing and how the watch time and things like that because all that data is there. We just got to be able to pull it in to say like, you know, what is it actually translating to? So, yeah, it's exciting. >> It is. And and just to give a shout out to Nano Banana. Nano Banana made my background. I found a picture on Riverside that I liked and then I changed the couch color and I've changed a couple of things in the background and then I added in broker tools into the poster. So, you know, >> amazing. >> It like it took like there's less than two prompts to get what I wanted. So, it it's pretty damn good. >> I know that's that's where we're going. All these new tools and features that are coming out, we're going to have all that integrated in our platform. So, it's just going to keep getting better and better. Yeah. any brokers out there and not even brokers just even business owners like brokers are one aspect but if you're if you're a coach if you're a business owner you're an individual that you know wants to be seen as a thought leader in your industry you want to

[36:40] build connections with people on your audience before they even connect with you it makes sense if you're just a you know podcaster who wants to you know build a brand personal brand or an influencer I probably don't think the tool is ideal for that just because at the end of the day it's great to have customers that you generate as opposed to trying to build an audience audience. >> It's not about building an audience. It's about actually talking to your ideal customers. And the repurposing aspect for your own website is also really really powerful. We we were looking at integrating WordPress as well. I'm going to double check if that's still a feature on the list. So, essentially repurposing the episodes into blog post >> that are uh optimized. So, that way um the website of of the business owners, the brokers will be able to automatically have blog posts going up on their website as well from their podcast, >> which is great. I think that sounds like a replacement for I think it's Ptory or something like that. Um, but I guess at the end of the day, if you people were considering to use podcasts, what you're saying from your offer is one, it's a great tool to generate leads. If you want to build an automated system that

[37:44] takes, I guess, half the headaches that you went through and majority of what we call strategy teams because previously you needed a marketing team, but now you can have AI agents run it. This is where the evolved uh podcast academy can be of service because you're removing half the steps or half the hurdles to publishing. >> Definitely. Yeah. You still got to, I guess, upskill yourself or lean into having an interview type conversation with people. And you still got to buy your, you know, your microphones and, you know, webcams if you don't have the greatest cameras. And if you're using Riverside, you probably need a decent machine and good internet. Um, all these things you still got to do, right? You can't you can't bypass that. Um, lighting is important. Like today, the lighting's a bit off. I didn't put a light on my face, but that's that's really important, too, right? And that's why we've set up an online community as part of the academy, which is for free, because we're teaching all of these tips and tricks and cheat sheets and and resources so that you know what to do from the get- go. So, you really don't have any excuse except for whatever is telling you in your own mind that you

[38:46] can't do it. We're making it so easy now that if if you're if you're not doing this, uh, let's be honest, you're going to be left behind. >> No problems. If people wanted to reach out to you, connect to you, or learn anything else from you, where should they go? >> So, probably the best thing to do is connect with me on LinkedIn. Uh, you just look up my name, Victor Laros. If you're wanting to specifically check out Evolve Podcast Academy, the website is evolvedodcastacademy.io. And if you wanted to check out what my broker business looks like, um, it's called lagos financial.com.au. And if you want to hear me on my actual own podcast, it's called Debt to Financial Freedom. And you'll find that on Spotify, iTunes, uh, and YouTube. >> Perfect. Thank you, Victor. It's been great chatting with you. Again, if you want us to talk further about any of the topics that Victor and I have discussed, let us know. Um, but thank you. >> Thanks so much, Katie. Thanks everyone listening.