Hello, hello and welcome to this week's episode of relationships rule. I'm your host, Janice Porter, as usual and I have a very special guest all the way from Cyprus. This week, her name is Noemi Baris, I should have checked that before I said it. No, me I got your first name, right. I know that sort of No, I mean, there is. And we have met a couple of times. And again, as I've said, so many times, I met No, me on LinkedIn. And I just keep repeating that it is a place to
meet good people. So I'm very excited about that. And first of all, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me today. I really appreciate that.
You're very welcome. So I know that, that you are a an entrepreneur, that you have your own business and your business is all about podcasting. It's a you're the co owner of the podcast connections, booking agency, correct? Yeah, correct. So tell me a little bit about what you do. And tell my audience you know, what you do and how that all works in your world of podcasting?
Yes, thank you. So we have entrepreneurs to connect to quality podcast shows and enrich their lives through connections. It's we operate like a PR agency and just solely focusing on podcasts and podcast interviews worldwide. We work with mainly podcasts from the US, Canada, UK, sometimes Australia, New Zealand, very few cases, because I find the difference. It's
crazy, right? Absolutely. Yeah, it's where you are right now.
It's 7pm. It's past 7pm. Yeah.
So it's nine. Is it? Is it? Is it what day of the week? Is it? Thursday? There are Yeah, it's Thursday. Yeah, Thursday. Okay. See, I never know. Okay. So, um, so podcasting has become like, cool. It's just, you know, exploded, right. And so there are, of course, a lot of podcast
booking agencies out there. I get pitched all the time, by people, I have no idea who they are they, they say they've listened to my podcast, but I know by their comments in that thing, they have no idea because they'll send me people that don't even make sense for me, okay. So when I come across someone who takes the care and really looks for that connection, and says to me, as you have on a couple of occasions, I think I have someone that would be a good fit
for your podcast. It's that know, like, and trust. Once you get some, excuse me, once you get somebody introduced to you by someone like you, and it's a good fit, okay, now you open up a little bit more now you you trust what they're doing, and that it's working. And you build relationship as I have with you with the agency person, because you want good people and you don't want all these, you know, flaky people that send you weird content, and there's no heart in much of what? So, so because I
know you do differentiate? How do you differentiate? How does your agency you know, stand out amongst that, that sea of people that send me people? That's
a great question. And nobody asked me that question before. It's all about human connections. I mean, that's just so important, just connecting with people. And when I connect with a host, I really want to get to know them, not just pitch someone and you know, just get money or whatever, because the clients are paying me to do that. I really want to know you. I really wanted to know Jenny sporter Hoon Shan is forgeries. I wanted to know more about what you do about your
business about your podcast. And yeah, it just starting some kind of relationship with the hosts. Because once we established that we trust each other, as long as we have trust, we can, you know, we can work together in the future for many, many years to come. And I'm lucky to say that, like, there are so many great podcast hosts in the world out there that I know and I work with, like every day, and I just love working with them. They are
just so important. My life and they are as important as my clients because like, yeah, it's it's an important
it's it's probably really important that yeah, the right connections for your clients because they've invested their time and money with you. And so you know, you want to get it right and I totally get that. So now I forgot the question I had in my head template, it was a good question too. And it completely went out of my head. It'll come back, so I'm not going to worry about it. But oh, well. So when you're looking to make those connections like that, With Me podcast hosts, what are you
looking for? As a good podcast? What are you seeing as, and I don't mean, you know? Well, whatever that means to you, you know what, what constitutes, you know, podcast hosts worth pursuing.
Right? It's always about quality, obviously. And it doesn't necessarily mean quantity. Some, some guests and some of my clients, they just want to be on podcast, they have like 150 episodes and 95 ratings. And you know, they have very, very specific expectations about the host. But what I found in my job that there are so many great, like smaller particles out there, too, that are quality, but they are niche. So they are in a certain niche, but they're doing an absolutely
amazing job. And it doesn't really matter how many episodes they have, as long as they are in your niche. And they are, they are great, and they have value, and they give value to their audience. And it's just so important. Obviously, when we were checking out podcasts, we use listened nodes. So we can see what podcasts are in the top five, five to 10%. And we usually work with those podcasts, and podcast host. I mean, they have to have like the stick to like a certain number
of episodes, obviously, that's important. So someone just starting out, and they have like five episodes, we can't really work with them yet. We keep an eye on them. And we'll see. And they check back and we listen to them. So you know, how, what are they doing? How good they are. And to be honest, sometimes I'm the guinea pig. And if the niche is fine, I'm just going to show and I check them out. And it's a great way to test them. Because
it's fine for me. I don't you know, I know. That's okay. And yeah, it's a good thing to test out the podcast. But obviously, I can do that with all the podcasts that I'm sending my hosts. But yeah, I mean, I think it's quality before quantity for sure. And it's not about numbers, not about downloads not about just listenership because that's not all. It's important. But that's not all.
Yeah, definitely. I think I agree with you. And you can tell I'm not 100% Today, I was just sharing earlier that I sprained my ankle. I'm not on top of my game today. But what do you think? Oh, I was gonna say so. Yeah, I think when somebody is new, I think you have to see if they're being consistent if they're gonna last right for a while before, you wouldn't invest your time in that because I am actually quite proud of the fact that I haven't missed a week and I'm at, I'm in
three years now. So I
think, congratulations.
I love my podcast, because I love talking to people and interviewing people and use. One thing that you know about me that I have always done is I don't go in blind with my podcast guests. I like to talk to them first. Not because I want to plan the podcast, but because I want to build some rapport and feel that it's a good connection for me, otherwise, it's not going to happen. And nine times out of 10
It's been pretty good. That you know, I've had the odd one that I've felt, maybe I was afraid to say no, but I earlier on but but it wasn't a comfortable situation. And you can usually tell if that happens. I've never sort of not published or aired an episode. But I know people do that if it doesn't work out in their favor. Have you ever had that happen with, with, with people you've placed on podcasts
once or twice? Rarely? Very rarely. I mean, they usually they usually it happened, for example, the podcast stopped that was more often that like a podcast just stopped operating. And, you know, something happened in the hosts live. And they just they couldn't continue. Yeah, that was like, I didn't really have that once or twice. I think it's sometimes it's not because of the quality of the guests reasons. I don't know what happened. And sometimes it can be anything. Yeah.
So do the majority of people you talk to do what I do or not, like have want to have an intro? discussion because a lot of I've been when I've been a guest on podcast, he just send me a form and you know, away we go. And that doesn't do it. For me.
It's like 5050 like some post, they just want to go straight on the show and they just do the interview. They don't have time. And they just do that and there are holes that I know a lot and they do pre course all the time. So as a as
an agent is a bit it's a bit of more work. Of course you have to organize like it's two times like you'd had you have to organize a pre call then you have to organize the injury you but I completely understand your point of view but because it's just so hard that you meet someone at the first time obviously because we met before and we had Chad before So it just easier but like somebody just coming to you and say,
Okay, let's start start talking about something. Yeah, I, I would say it's important to have that common vibe and just just get to know each other a little bit just like 10 minutes. 15 minutes. It doesn't have to be long. Yeah,
usually, you know, right away anyway. Yeah. So when you're priming your clients to be a good podcast guest, what does that look like? What makes what it what would you say the top three things are for being three, five things, whatever, for being a really good podcast guest from your perspective.
First of all, if you're a great good guest, great guests, you have to do your research, you have to listen to that podcast, at least one episode before your interview. If you have time, do it like more and leave a review. And if that's important, and but try to listen to the episodes, try to get familiar with with the style with the vibe of the topics and just just how they operate, how the hosts operate. It's so
important, because everyone has a different style. And someone can be like free flow, the other host can be like very strict, and we're just focusing on certain questions. So yeah, just check it out. And which is the second thing is, which is really important. It's like come always prepared, don't wing it. It's like, even if you are a seasoned guest, I mean, prepare yourself.
And I always do that, like every single, before every single interview, I try to get ready, like mentally, emotionally, just get into this space, and I'm going to have an interview, I'm going, I'm not going to focus on my work today, like not today, just for that hour, or just before, like 20 minutes. And I'm just focusing on the particular interview, because I owe that to the host. I mean, you I you know, you've spent a lot of time and energy on these episodes. So let's do that. Let's do the
same. And I think it's really important, then why you under Show speak, clearly be engaging, not too stiff, and just try to be conversational and friendly. As if nobody listens to that podcast, just to have you there. And just having a conversation, like you know, in a cafe or you know, wherever you are, just be engaging, and just try to just enjoy that conversation, because
that's the most important for both of you. Then, obviously, be respectful with the host, and don't use the host platform, the podcast as an advertisement for your product service book everything. Yeah, there are no, I know.
Wow. Yes. Very interesting when that happens, right. But yeah, so those are, that's really good advice. But I agree that I like to sort of set this the scene for myself too first, and just, you know, do a little bit of last minute, looking at your LinkedIn profile looking right, right, looking at the notes that that I've made as sort of getting into the zone before, before the call today. I was nursing my ankle but but I, I was actually fascinated by the fact that you are a linguist and
I want to talk about that. If I could I know that's not your world now. But I remember being so long time ago, but I remember taking a course at university on linguistics. Who does? Like nobody? I know. You and me. Yeah, well, it's been a long time ago. And but language fascinating etymology. Fascinating, fascinating. And, and, and sometimes, like, I'm a
real jeopardy fan, I watched Jeopardy every night. And you can, you know, you can get an answer by just looking at the word or getting a sense of, you know, where the word comes from, or whatever. And so what drew you to being like, what was that all about? When you became a link? You got a master's degree in Danish literature? Because you went school in Denmark? Correct.
You're in school in Denmark, but I completed my master's degree in Hungary in Budapest. Yeah, so it's like, that was just like, that was I was an exchange student in Denmark when I was a teenager. So that was before University. Yeah, that's actually goes back to my story. Because I was I became an exchange student when I was 16. So I spent an entire school year in Denmark in like, went to Danish High School, lived with a Danish family. And that was before when we use
internet and emails and zoom and you know, whatever. We just had phones and stuff, like landline, not mobiles. And I'm old. And so I stayed there for a whole year. So I learned Danish. I was fluent in Danish by the time I got back to Hungary, so I had all kinds of language exams
and different language, just like yeah, it is See
I compared to Hungary and it's like, we are like different parts of the world and, like language wise as well, linguistically as well. But it was really fascinating. I mean, Danish is a very strange language for sure. It sounds like, yeah, no offense to Denmark, but it sounds weird, but because it's like part of my heart, it's like, whatever, it always stays in my heart. But it's a strange language for sure.
My mother in law was Danish. And you know that.
And I also learn Swedish, so I both because I, so that was like, very easy to learn. And then I understand Norwegian, because of the other two, I can speak. They're similar. So they're very similar. They're like neighboring countries, and they had just one language group. So it was really, it was easy to learn. So it was fun. So you went to just you get one master's degree, but then you understood the other end. I studied, I wanted to study
Swedish. And then yeah, and that was like a strange choice. And my dad wanted me to be a lawyer or doctor, whatever. But then I told him, You know, I want to study Danish linguistics. And it's like, there were about like five girls, including me, in our group. And I mean, there was there wasn't a huge interest, you know, to do that course. But I enjoy that. And I had a great time. And it was really interesting time on my life. I went to like, spent like five years in Budapest in the
capital. So yeah, unfortunately, right now, I don't really use Danish, but obviously still with me. And I love reading Danish books of watching movies. And it's fun. And there's
a lot of actually here. There's a lot of Danish, really good Danish programming on Netflix. Yes,
yeah. Amazing movies. Yeah, I love them. Yeah. And I just watched them, like in the original language. And like, I didn't know, it just flies me back to the old times. It's like, Ah, I missed that. Mark.
That's fantastic. Because people in North America do not learn languages, the way Europeans and do and you know, I'm always in awe of people that speak so many different languages. I think it's amazing. I speak English. That's it. I mean, I took French and Spanish in school. But can I speak it? No, I could maybe read some of it. But that's about it. But I wanted to, I don't know if I did this before. But I wanted to share with you this book that I absolutely adored. And it's
about grammar. And I don't know if you ever got into grammar. If linguistics
doesn't Yeah, yeah, we had to Yeah, we had.
This is a book is it written by a British woman? I think it's called Eat shoots and leaves. Did you ever hear it? No,
I didn't. But I would love to read it. If it's about linguistics, or anything.
I'll show it to you off here because it's over there in my queue. Oh, my gosh. Quite funny. Actually. It's quite funny. But anyway, I love language and words. And so I was too. Yeah, I got Did you ever think of becoming like, international translator or anything like that when you were younger?
At one stage of my life. But what I figured out I'm, I'm not really interested in that you really have to focus on translation, and it can be really dry to do translation work. And plus After university I like I applied for so many jobs in Hungary. I did you know, I they didn't really want me anywhere. And then that's why I ended up abroad first in Denmark then in Ireland. And I, yeah, yes. Yeah. For seven years. I've been living in Ireland for so many years. And it was it was a
beautiful place. And you know, there's, again, a special place in my heart. Although it's too cold for me. I had to decide to move to Cyprus in 2011 So it's going to be like 13 years in 2024
Yeah, fantastic. Now I don't know anything really about the island of Cyprus? I'm sure it's beautiful. Because it is beautiful.
Yeah, it says tonight it's a divided Island occupied by the Turkish army like a Turkish on the other part so it's like the capital Nico Zia is divided. And so is the UN troops are still there and but it's like it's it's peaceful and everything, it just we are in the Greek part, and there's the Turkish part. I see.
Okay. Fantastic. So, the other thing I have to ask you about which is again, totally unrelated is about your the collages that you do so your crafts person as well. Right. And you played the drum, the FRIS hang and frame drum what is the hanging frame drum? Is it Hank
is Hank is a handpan it's like a metal No no, you have to like put it down because this huge like they are big. Oh like a metal pipe drum like it's a steel drum. It's just to the drum. Yeah, it's not metal steel. Yeah, it's a steel drum and they are pretty big and heavy and I got it for my 40th birthday from my Mom, it was a birthday gift. So I, you know, we're just so happy that they're quite expensive. So my mom was like, I want to buy it for us like, Oh, thank you. I love it.
So I have it here actually in my office. And the frame drum is a frame drum that you hold, and it's like a big frame drum and they
say you're like feeding it this way.
I do. It might have been my hand by my hands. Okay, yeah, yeah. Well, you hold it, there's like a little thing. You can just Yeah. And it's like, perfect stress release. Relief, if you like, Yeah, after a hard day, or during the weekend. I love doing it. And it can be really loud. But we have only one neighbor. So that's fine. He's okay. Or
just some women have multi talents. I love that. Thank you. So I know I didn't, you weren't expecting me to ask that stuff. But those are the things that interests me the things that that are no, I
have never said that. I'm always like, it's not only about word, but like, that's what beers is off. It's like a puzzle puzzle pieces. And that's like, yeah,
so. So let's go back for a minute to podcasting. And let me ask you this. Where do most of your clients come from? Do they come from like me LinkedIn? Or do they come from you from referrals? So they come from networking events you go to online, or what?
It's now is word of mouth and referrals. Obviously, at the beginning, when we started our business in 2020, it was all about cold pitching cold emails, calling the messages. That's how we started. I mean, we didn't have any connection in the podcast booking world. I didn't know anything about it. So it was I, it wasn't an easy way to learn it. But it was fun. And now referrals word of mouth. And I have to say and I have to
talk about I always do. I talk about the Go givers and bobbers community, because a lot of my clients actually they come from the community. We I you know, I joined the community, the Go givers. That was in June, I think. And since then, I just really became like an active member of it. And I enjoy every moment and every meeting we have. And people just started to you know, this is wanting to work with me. And I'm just so happy to have them in my in my life because they are amazing
plastic. That's fantastic. So Bob Berg, who wrote co wrote the Go Giver back Yes. Seven who isn't a gentleman who actually was a guest on my podcast. I know that I listened to that interview. It was just so special. And I've wanted to have him on for a long time. And it took me I guess it wasn't meant to be until it was right. And because another gentleman who's been on my podcast twice Mark given who's a wonderful man. And he mentioned, Bob, and I said, you know him? And he
said, Well, yeah, I do. I haven't talked to him for awhile. I said, Would you introduce me? I'd love to have him on the podcast. He said, of course. And that and it happened like the next week that I spoke to him. So it was it was really cool. So I I'm interested in looking forward to checking out that station with you, because he's just got the right heart, you know, and so the people that were there that are there, I'm
sure do too. So that's really cool that you've established yourself as, as the the podcast person to go to the go to person there. And I think that's great. You I saw a quote that you did the other day that said, podcasts are fuel for the curious mind. Yes. So what I'm going to there's a couple of things. I want to ask about that. But first of all, what do you do you only listen to podcasts that you know you're trying to find a place for your clients? Or do you have any
favorites that you listen to just for just because? Because I usually
usually it's work, obviously, because I check them out. And but I do have one favorite one. And I started to listen to this podcast. I don't know if it's running right now because I haven't listened to it for a while. But it's about music. I love music, and I love drumming and music is my go to thing when I'm sad when I'm happy, whatever. And there's like a musician called Josh Klinghoffer. He was the guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And I and he started a
podcast during the pandemic. And he was talking about music. He invited his friends. And then they actually showed very unique music and they actually played them during the interviews. And that was so fascinating. And I loved it because that was unique, really unique. But I have so many favorite interviews and so many favorite podcasts also I could then listen, and I could listen to them all day long.
So I just heard some great news because my favorite podcast was Julia Louis Dreyfus, his wife,
I remember you said that Yeah,
well I saw on on Instagram that she won podcast of the year somewhere. And there is a season two coming. So I'm pretty excited in January, I think because she is just hysterical. And interviews, women who she believes are wiser than her because they're older than her generally and that and she's 62. So there's some really interesting, wise women that she
interviews and she really does her homework as a host. I'm so impressed with what she does, because she's got producers that feed her stuff to, you know, while the research for her, but she has to do it, or she'll watch their movies or because you're all famous, or read their books or whatever. That's fascinating. And so I'm I like to listen to podcasts, sometimes based on listening to the host, and how they the questions they asked her the way that we operate. So it's kind of fun.
But yeah, there's so many now it's loads
of them, like 3.5 million for I don't know, it just growing numbers.
So you may have noticed on the sheet that I sent you that one of the questions I like to ask my audience is about curiosity, not my ideas, my guess. And that's what I want to come back to with that podcasts are fuel for the curious mind. So do you believe that curiosity is innate? Or is it learned? That's part one? I've answered that first.
That's a very interesting question.
And there's right I mean, it's I know,
I think it really depends on how you grew up and what kind of family you have, because my mom was like, a kindergarten teacher. And she always like, helped me to being curious and, and to teach me how to learn things. And I always keep learning things. So I don't know if it can be learned, if you are with the right people, and especially with kids, because kids are innate, like from the beginning. And we are like that, but there may be around teenager age, we just
lose that kind of interest in everything. But I noticed with my son, like he loved reading and I was just like, Okay, can you read this page? It's like, No, I don't. So it's like, yeah, that kind of curiosity stops for a while. But then I don't know. It's like, I for me, when I'm I'm 44 this is not a secret about anything. But I'm, like, more curious than ever. So I don't know, it comes with age, and I don't know what's going on. But it's still innate. And it can be learned to which just,
you just have that kind of urge to learn new things. And, and when you're an entrepreneur, you need to do that. I'm doing that. I've been doing that since 2007, since I became an entrepreneur. So it's just continuous learning, and continuous curiosity of new things. And like now AI or, you know, changing how to train GPT to, to do the prompts. And it's just so fascinating. I had a conversation with a host yesterday about that. So it was like, wow. So I
Yeah, totally. Okay, so part two is what are you most curious about right now?
I think that's that's the thing that's like change GPT and how to train it, how to help my work, and still trying to stay original. And not to lose my identity. I use Excel GPT. So it's kind of yeah, that's, that's the way I found.
Fair enough. Okay, so that's, that's always fun to find out what people think about that. I've actually done a little bit of a, I had to I did an article on curiosity. And I started to look back at how many people that I interviewed said one thing and how many have said the other and it's kind of 5050. So it's, it's
absolutely, Oh, yeah. And this was one more I was really curious about about my ancestors. And I just had done an Ancestry DNA test a couple of weeks ago, and I got the results last week. And I was like, Estonia is just like, what it was. It was really fun. Like, it turns out, I'm Hungarian, like, you know, I was born and raised there and only 1% less than 1% Hungarian. And my origins go back to Maldivian and Ukrainian, Greek and something from the Balkan. It's yeah, it's
fascinating. That's the kind of curiosity is like, where, where did I come from? It's like, where I'm from, like my ancestors from so that's
very, very interesting. So what's on the horizon for 2024? For you?
2024 will be a very busy year, and I started to work with a business coach this year. And I actually met her through one of our networking group and she's amazing. She's from the US, but she lives here in Europe, and we're just working on my plan is to working less in the business and working on the business and I think I'm on the right I pay right now. So I can free up my time. And I can organize a masterclass or
workshops for for people who want to be podcast guests. And I just want to give my knowledge and share the knowledge with them. And that's why it's important to just restructure my business right now. So it's a big work. And it's very, it's hard, but it will worth it. And yeah, that's why looking for it and
having people do the research for you to find the hosts and lists. Yeah. And then yeah, working
with a virtual assistant already for two years. So she's pretty good at that. But we still need a couple of people on board. So we're expanding. Yeah, it's a very interesting phase of the business. It's very exciting to
Yeah, that sounds exciting. And do you see a book in your future? Or a podcast of your own in your future?
Yes, I think one of the I already started to be like a podcast host, one of my friends asked me to interview him for, for, for, for actually, or an event and the virtual event he's doing. And he's going to hike the Appalachian Trail. And I interview him like every week about it, but it's just, you know, I'm just learning it. So I'm, yeah, I have a lot to learn. I would love to be like you. So I have any
training to how to be a podcast host. I just Just curious.
Are you doing an amazing job. And the other thing is this, that's what I'm practicing right now to how to be a host. It's fun, because it's funny, because I'm always on the other side of the microphone. So it's, it's interesting. The other thing, what was what I wanted to say yes, about that the book. Yeah, because I'm an artist. So I make collages, like digital paper, and collages, and canvas, like
hands on collages, and canvas. I would like love to have a coffee table book with all of my collages, like, you know, beautifully photographed. And I would love to write the story of each and every collages that I made, because they usually based on my past about my family about my family's history, my memories. And I would love to include that. And that would be like an album or something like that. But that's for the future. Not right.
Very cool. Well, this has been delightful. I've learned a lot more about you know, me and your business. And I know that we're going to be staying in touch through the next year and see who comes on my podcast from your agency. It's kind of fun to to to know that. That's what you're doing. And I'm always open to speaking to people that come from you. So thank you so much for being here. Any last words for my audience?
Yes. Yeah, um, you know, my advice, just people be consistent and persistent. Whatever they do. When it comes to podcasting, when it comes to being an entrepreneur or doing their art or whatever, we're exercising. It's just being consistent and persistent. And we always reach our goals if you do that. Thank
you. That's great advice. And thank you to my audience, again, for being loyal and for being here. And if you like what you heard, please let us know. And don't forget to stay connected and be remembered.