How And Why I Started A Video Podcast Part 1

I am getting a lot of questions about my new Marketing Matters video podcast and so I thought I would do a series of ongoing blog posts about how I set it up, including the video podcast equipment that I use as well as the why behind the new show.

Be sure and check back to keep getting updates on my podcasting journey. Also, please share this with your friends on facebook who might want to do a video podcast for themselves.

Note: Some of the links are my affiliate links. If you feel like using my suggestions great. It not it is no problem as well.

The Why Behind The Show

I would like to start out with the why behind the show. This is what fuels the how in the first place and also, is something important that I think people should think about.

For about 10 years, I have been making money online. I have made money from all sorts of things. I have written successful ebooks and even built a travel site that was 100% written by ghostwriters which pays my mortgage each month (One sidenote that many of my listeners already know about is I have never even flown on an airplane before).

You hear a lot about making money from your passion. I have been able to do that for years. I have also been able to make money from things that I am not so passionate about because I have developed my skills of marketing online. My friend Tomaz from Freedom Ideas is who turned me onto the concept of being pasisonate about your lifestyle.

As I get older and my goals have changed, I decided to make a change in my business. I want to only work on projects where my passion and energy is there AS WELL AS buyers are present. Being passionate about something doesn’t mean that people are going to hand you money for that. You still have to have a real solution to a real problem someone is facing. Look to see what people are buying right now.

I asked myself a few questions.

• What do I talk watch,read,think,dream,search google about on a fairly consistent basis?
• What would I do if I didn’t need money anymore (of course this is besides watching movies in my tricked out home theater room ha)?
• What are my values?
• Do people spend money on the things that I am interested in?

Well, on a weekly basis, without fail, I am talking about marketing and business, usually with my marketing junkie buddies Jonathan, Scott and Greg. If I am not doing that, I have my 160 gig ipod jammed with marketing audios and videos on various business related topics. I relax to Dan Kennedy talking about writing salescopy to influential people. I am a geek in this area.

I also don’t like to write. When I do write, I write very detailed and elaborate brain dump’s about topics but they are few and far between. Writing for me is extremely slow. I am impatient and want to make something happen now. Even with this post, I wrestled about just sharing it on video instead of writing. However, I chose writing because I feel I don’t want to lose any important details I want to share with my readers about this whole process.

One of the questions I asked has to do with how I want to leave this world and what I believe (values). On the front of my car, I have a plate that says “Start A Business Make A Difference“.

I believe entrepreneurs have the power to change the world. We come up with the ideas and give people the jobs to carry those ideas out. We are the ones out there selling people solutions to peoples problems that can change their life. Some of those solutions can change a their financial family tree.

Example: John D. Rockefellar was the first billionaire. Not only was he successful in business, he created the Rockefellar Medical Institute  which has saved thousands of lives by finding cures for diseases.

I like video. I have been doing videos since 2006. Most were what I call “ghetto faboulous” but they made me money because they built the know like and trust. I enjoy doing video. I am comfortable on video.

I am sharing all this with you because I wanted you to see my thought process of how I came to start Marketing Matters.

When I analyzed all my answers, I came up with:

I would like to do a video show on the topic of marketing that gives people specific activities that they can use to grow their business. I also want this project to help social causes that I believe in as well. I want to build a community of people like my buddies Jonathan, Greg and Scott to hang out with and talk about my favorite subject.

I then went to work on the name. I wanted something that people could easily remember. I thought of the word “matter”.

We all want to matter to someone. We want our message to matter. To be successful, your marketing DOES have to matter. Also, using the word matter is a bit of a play on words since we donate money to rescue orphans in Peru when someone buys our products. We matter to the orphans. This is how I came up with the name www.MarketingMattersPodcast.com.

 How I Setup My Video Podcast

In this section, I would like to discuss the process and steps I went through to setup my video podcast. I am not an expert on this topic and don’t claim to be. There could be better or worse ways to go about it but this is what I did.

First I went and registered my domain name with Godaddy. Next, I went and setup hosting over at hostgator. I still use their baby account to host all my sites.

Once my hosting was setup, I went and chose a wordpress theme. I wanted a simple and clean look to the site. I chose the fast blog theme. There are some great themes out there that work well with video. I know whoo themes has some you might want to check out.

Once I got my theme installed, I activated the plugins I wanted and added my aweber code for people to subscribe.

I also went over to Fiverr.com and got my logo done for…you guessed it…five bucks!! Crazy right?

Now that my site is up, I needed to make sure I have everything to actually put together a show.

I knew I wanted to do video interviews with people over skype. I also knew I wanted to have them split screen. Bill Myers, which is one of my secret underground mentors, helped me with a cheap but awesome solution. It is called, Replay Telecorder for Skype. It allows you to do split screen interviews and I think it is only $20. I need to mention that I use a pc so I am sure it is a bit different on a mac.

Next, I needed a good webcam. I wanted to do a professional show. Many new computers have awesome webcams so you might not need to buy one yourself. I bought the Microsoft Livecam HD webcam. It is awesome and simple to get started.

One of my inspirations for doing a video podcast is David Siteman Garland who runs The Rise To The Top. He has a great video podcast on business and health topics. I decided to use the same audio equipment he uses for his show since there is no use in reinventing the wheel. I bought the :

• Rode Podcaster USB Dynamic Microphone
• Nady MPF-6  6-Inch Clamp On Microphone Pop Filter
• Rode PSM 1 Shockmount For Podcaster
• Rode PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom

The great thing about the microphone is it hooks right into my usb ports. It sounds awesome as well. I would say this is a mid to higher range mic. Highly suggest using it.

I use the easy video player to play my video podcasts. It is awesome and simple to use. I have them hosted on a Amazon S3 account.

Once you are setup, you want to make sure that you have a good background with good lighting. Remember, do it right. Make it professional. I have heard it said, act like Oprah is watching your show. If she likes you, it could change your business overnight.

Once you do a show, you will want to edit the show. I use Camtasia for that. You can also use Sony Vegas Studio. Another option is to outsource it all together. You can find great work for a really cheap price like I do.

I decided to get a nice video intro done as well to spice my show up a bit. I paid $100 for mine which is a STEAL.

I believe that is it for this post. In the next post, I will discuss putting together the content of the show.

What are your thoughts and questions?