And welcome to another episode of Stuck My Mind podcast. I am your host, w I z e. And this next guest, I've been trying to get him on the show since I've met him 3 years ago. This he's oh, man. He's been he's been blowing it up. He is he is killing the AI game. This man has become one of the one of the aficionados in the AI in the AI game, and I'm very excited to have him on the show. Like I said, I've been trying to get him on for the last 2 years since I met him at Podfest.
I'm excited. I'm a fan, and I I'm just happy to to to finally get to interview him. So let's bring him on, Larry Roberts. Hello? What's happening? What's happening, man? What's up, brother, man? It's it's it's cool to finally be here. Appreciate all the mad props and the intro there, but but let's let's be fair. Okay? I think this has been booked for, like, 6 months. Yes. It has been booked for, like, 6 months. It has. But I've been trying to get you on the show for the last 3 years.
It has been I'm only responsible for for two and a half years of that. So Yes. I'm sorry. I'm just I my schedule is is I can't complain, man. I'm I'm I'm booked until to January. Good lord, dude. That's crazy. No. And and I'll be honest on you. I used to do that with my show back in the day, but now it's just you know, I might be booked out for 2 weeks on the show, something like that. But it just gets to be too much. And, you know, I for me, I
found people were getting disinterested. They they were like, who are you? And why why am I on your show? You know? But your show, I think, is so versatile that you you can book that far out. You know what I mean? Because when you when you just have another generic business podcast show, which is what my old show basically was, people are trying to come on the show to promote their book or promote their course or promote this or and by the time, if you're booking 6 months out, their
promotional period or whatever it is is already you know? You know, their books already made number 1 Amazon bestseller, and they forgot they even wrote it by then. So so but, man, it's great to be here for real. I'm just giving you a hard time. I know, man. Brother, I I was like I said, I'm finally I'm excited to have you on the show, man, but this has been 3 in the making. Let let's just jump right into it, man. Yeah, man. You you've been in the game for a
minute. You've been in the game doing this for a minute. And right like I said, now you you you're one of the first people I saw talking about chat g p t. Yeah. You're one of the first ones that was doing any other AI things with with with what you're working with. What what what got you what got you started in the what got you to see that future and see where AI was headed? Yeah. I think a lot of it was just timing too. You know? But my background from a corporate perspective
was I was a business intelligence analyst. So we were already using AI and predictive analytics to analyze massive datasets because the company that I worked for at the time, I mean, they were a $1,000,000,000 company, and they had massive, you know, a $100,000,000 clients. And we were taking data from all these different clients, normalizing that data and using AI to predict potential inventory levels and sales and all that fun stuff.
So while in no way, shape, fashion, or form was I an AI guru or a business intelligence guru by any stretch, somehow I had that title. So I was already somewhat familiar with AI. So when Chad GPT dropped, I was like, oh my gosh. You know, I can see where this could potentially be something really game changing for the content creation space. And then again, it was the timing that came into play because Jad GPT dropped in November of 22, and then Podfest rolled
around in January of 23. And being a part of Podfest, I had the opportunity to do a talk on AI literally 6 weeks after it dropped. So I was one of the first guys to talk about it just because Podfest happened to land a month later after it dropped.
So a lot of it was just divine intervention and timing and that sort of thing, but at the same time also having the tech background that I had at the time, also allowed me to realize the potential that was there for this and the impact that it could have on other content creators. So I I know the story behind the Red Hat. Can you tell because that that's that's your company, Red Hat Media. Can you tell the people out in the audience where where where does the, Red
Hat come from? The the where did the branding and everything Yeah. Come from? Man, and and here we go. See, you're gonna expose me as a fraud here. Because everything I'm saying is like, man, it was just timing. It was just it just worked out. It was just perfect. But, I mean, honestly, I've been, you know, I've been at this game, you said, for a minute, but literally, this year's a decade. I started in 2014. So about April April, May of 2014 was when I launched my first podcast. But the
hat, man, the hat was the thing. We were actually at a conference at the Emily Arena in Tampa, Florida. And I gave a talk, and I think that talk at the time was, I think it was building online courses and building your brand through online. I think that was the talk I did. But at the time and if you look behind me here, it's in a glass case now, the supreme hat that's right behind me. Yeah. That's when you that's when you're stating. So we're always rocking.
Yeah. So, yeah, I used to always rock that supreme hat. And, obviously, it's red and it just says supreme in white letters because if you're not familiar with supreme, it's just a lifestyle brand. Right? So I wore that hat on stage and I did that talk and I came down and a mutual friend of ours, mister Alex Sanfilippo. Shout out to Alex. Shout out to Alex. I'm Alex's number one fan. But whenever we do talks, and we typically do talks at the same conferences, and,
we'll give each other a hard time. We'll come out, you know, off stage and just give each other shit a little bit, you know, just just just having fun. And, so we went through that, and he goes, but seriously, dude, why are you wearing that supreme hat? And I told him, I said, man, I'm just trying to be cool. You know? At the time, I think I was 48 or 49, and I'm getting old, but I'm still trying to be cool. You know? I got my Jordans on. I've got my rock revival jeans on, and I had my
supreme hat on. So I was just a walking billboard for all these other brands. And he goes, well, are they paying you? And I go, no. He goes, well, then why are you wearing their stuff on stage? He goes, you need to be wearing your stuff on stage. And he goes, but but I love that red hat. Because, well, you know, I'm a fairly big guy. I'm about 63, and I I weigh in about, 250 or so. And, that red hat on top of my dome, it's just like a beacon. And he goes, man,
I can see you literally all the way across this arena. So I love the red. So I went home and I thought, man, that makes total sense. I don't wanna be wearing somebody else's merch on stage, but the red hat man, I jumped on Amazon, but at the time, they were $6 red unbranded flat build hat just like you see right now. Gave it a little 5 degree tilt to the right and, the red hat guy was born. So that's where it came from, but it didn't even really hit until it's probably 3 or 4 months
later. I was at Bitcoin Miami, and Bitcoin Miami is a massive conference. I mean, there's, like, 30, 40000 people there over the span of 3 or 4 days. And during that time that I was there creating content, multiple people I had never met in my life came up to me and said, are you the podcast guy? And I'm like, yeah. But how'd you know? And they go, the red hat, dude. So I'm like, oh my god. This is for real. This is really, really
effective. So from that point on, man, I changed my business name. I changed everything, and it was Red Hat from that point forward. And now the Red Hat is synonymous with podcasting, somewhat synonymous with personal branding. Somehow that accident made me a personal branding expert. So but, I mean, it just it just works. And, you know, I I've helped a lot of people find their personal brands as well. I wrote the book that you see on the other side of
me here. It's called Under the Red Hat because a lot of people think that the red hat is the brand, and it's really not. It it's it's just an identifier. It's just a logo. It's just it's it's just something that I wear to stand out. But the brand itself, the personal brand is everything that's under the red hat. It's me. It's my voice. It's the way that I conduct business. It's the way that I treat people. It's the way that people look at me and talk about me behind my back. So
understanding that the brand isn't the hat. It's everything that's under the hat absolutely critical. And that's what I help try to help people understand is that while, yes, you need that identifying marker, whatever it may be, you need that logo, whatever it may be, your real brand is you. So that's what I help people try to understand, and I do through my book as well as some of my
talks and and some of my consulting as well. And that's actually one of the reasons because I I used to stay rocking my Yankee Fit It. Right? And but like you said, who are they paying you to to it's not like I the I need the Yankees' name to sponsor. Like, they they were alone. So so but it's like that's one of the reasons I asked when I do my show, I don't rock anything with anyone's
logo or anything like that because it's it's free promotion for Yeah. And they're not paying for you for it, so I I understand where that came from. Yeah. That's the only reason the hat's in the in in the in the glass case back here. It's just because it's the story. I'm not wearing it to promote supreme or try to make myself feel cool like I was back in the day. It's part of my story. It's my brand story. So it's relevant to everything that I'm doing here. So how do you see AI impacting the
future of podcasting and content creation? Oh, dude, it's already impacted it significantly. I mean, we're 2 years into this AI game and it's changed the way that everybody's doing everything, whether it's using AI to write scripts for podcast, if you have a scripted type show or even an outline for a show that's not scripted. There's opportunities there for brainstorming.
There's opportunities there. I mean, I'm literally Sarah Loci, my business partner on the branded side, she and I are working on some educational content right now, and we're planning it with Chad GPT. I mean, I use Chad GPT to break down an entire series of videos. There's about 60 videos that we've got all planned out. Guess what? We
plan the topics. We plan the titles. We plan the synopsis. We plan the script for both her and I using chat g p t, and we're able to put together this very extensive course in a super, super short amount of time. So things like that, man. It just streamlines the entire concept process. It
streamlines the back end process as well. So from a post production perspective, you know, you've got you've got tools out there like CapShow and like Cast Magic that will do your show notes for you, will generate titles for your episodes, will write summaries and blog posts and social media posts, and the list goes on and on and on. Then you've got things like CapCut and you've got Opus clips that will sit there and look at your videos
and using AI will try to, and I I stress try on these. I'm not overly sold on them, but they'll identify key moments throughout your videos and then turn those into reels. And, you know, I I say I'm not overly sold on those. They tend to work well in certain scenarios. You got you kinda gotta prep the data a little bit, in order to get something good out of it. But, honestly, it's that way with everything we're doing, whether it's it's it's trying to get video content or whether it's trying
to get scripts or summaries. The what you're getting out of these tools is only as good as what you're putting in. So if you ask a stupid question, you're gonna get a stupid answer. I mean, it's it's just that's just how it is. If you feed a video production tool, so so video, you're gonna get so so results as well. So, I mean, it's just streamlining everything. It's really making things a lot easier. Some people have a perspective that it's dumbing things down. And if we have an overreliance
on these tools, then sure, I can see that. We can lose you know, the cool thing about podcasting and content creation is it allows us to be ourselves. We can jump on here. We can have conversations. We bring that emotional intelligence to the forefront. And if we become too reliant on AI, we lose that emotional intelligence because that's the one thing it can't do. It can't bring emotion into a conversation.
It could not tell my Red Hat story. You know, my book back there, as you know, I wrote it with AI all except for chapter 3. And chapter 3 is the story of the red hat. So it was impossible to write the story of the red hat with AI because AI doesn't know my story. It can't tell that story. It wasn't there. It didn't experience it. And odds are nobody wrote a story about it. So it's not
gonna find it anywhere and even the data that it was trained on. So you have to bring that emotional side of things into anything you're doing with AI, or it gets very, very stale very, very quick. Yeah. No. You you have to input the correct information that you want to get out of it because this helped me in like, I use Cash Magic. It it's it saves it has saved me time in in in, like you said, posting blogs, posting threads, reels, or it takes clips. It might it might give viral and
and the thing is you have to check it out. If if like, the thing is with, Cash Magic, it print it shows you everything. You get to read the clip. If if you feel like, oh, yeah. That's a really interesting clip, then you go on your clip and you and you use it. People yes. It's it's made life easier for me. It's made make it made me producing my show so much simple. It it saves
me time. Sure. And and that's one of the key elements that you're trying to do is is cut back on on having a look at, having a before Opus clip, it took me a couple hours maybe to clip, oh, I like this clip. Or with Opus clip, it'll print it'll click some out. If if I don't like how it sounds and I and I'm reading through it, and there's another part, and I'm like, oh, yeah. I like this information more. I'll clip that part. So it it it's it's like how you said it's
how you use it. It it sometimes it gives you info. You just gotta go through it and and and really do you do your work, man. It's it's it makes work it makes it much simple, much more simpler, but you still gotta do some work. Yeah. And and and even after you use it and you get that output, if you get the the show notes summary or you get a blog post, you know, it's still up to us to go back through and reread what
it did because there's no telling what it's gonna say. Odds are it's gonna be very accurate, but there are those times where it just prints nonsense. Whereas, like, it it got lost, it hallucinated, or it just made stuff up. And that can get you in trouble if you take that human component out of it and you just go with AI and just throw it out there. So that that's not gonna
work well for you, and people need to understand that. And and so many people that are AI opposed think that's what most people are doing. And those that do that, then they get exposed with a quickness because you you you just can't. It's just way too obvious. And, you know, a lot of these companies now, they're putting AI
detectors out there. Currently, there's not a reliable AI detector that's out there, but they're working on some technology that will be a 100% accurate and be able to to, detect AI 100%. Matter of fact, OpenAI supposedly already has this tool. It's just not available to the public yet. I don't know if it's still in testing or what the story is, but there's gonna come a time where it's gonna be very, very obvious and very detectable as to what is completely AI generated and what's not.
Yeah. Absolutely. So we already we we already we've talked about the the red hat story. And so and so what does the role of storytelling play in building a successful brand just like how you with the red hat? Well, people resonate with stories. You know, people don't I mean, they resonate with facts, but they resonate with facts when they're presented in the
shape and form of a story. So the fact that I have a story behind the red hat and that I go deeper than just the story, I define what that hat is and what's underneath that hat, that's what allows people to resonate. And, you know, it's interesting from an AI perspective. You know, AI tends to be very factual, very straightforward. Here is the fact. Here is the answer to your query. Well, it's it's hard for us to resonate with that because we don't
relate to really just straight up facts. We relate to stories where we can identify ourselves either in that brand or in that that fact that AI just put out. So if we can shape that into a story that someone can relate to, that establishes an emotional connection with you, with your brand, and the story behind your brand. And people thrive on emotion. So storytelling and brand storytelling is absolutely essential. It's a critical component to any
business that's out there. If you don't have a brand story, you need to figure out what that story is. And if you don't have a brand story, you may not even have a brand. So you need to do a little soul searching. If you don't have a story behind your brand or you just made it up I mean, I can't tell you how many brands, and I used air quotes for those that are just listening, that I went through trying to find this red hat. I mean, when I first started, my
company was called Readily Random. What what what what the hell does that mean? It don't mean anything. It's so stupid. It means nothing, and nobody can relate to that. Hell, most people couldn't even spell it. I used to have my my email was larry@readilyrandom.com, which that's still a valid email. I don't use it very often, but it's kind of a catch all these days. But I would give people my email and they go, readily? How do you spell that? I'm like, Jesus Christ. I didn't think readily
was a tough word, but it was there was no story behind it. It didn't mean anything. People couldn't relate to it. You know? Then I went through what what's another one I went through? I went through, Podcast Boost. Podcast Boost was another brand that I went through. I went out on the creative market. It's a website called creativemarket.com. I found some cool little icons and a little icon pack. I spent, like, $50 and bought these little rocket ships, and that was gonna be the podcast
boost. And I threw it out there, and guess what? It was like x when they were first launching Rockets. It just it just crashed. It crashed and burned. It did nothing. So it's it's there was no story there. I was just trying to throw stuff at the wall and trying to make something stick, and nothing stuck until the brand that presented itself was, a, something that was authentic to me wearing hats. I've worn hats my whole life. I always wear hats.
You never even back in the day, you rarely saw me unless I was at the office without a hat on. I love hats. So the hat was authentically me. People were already accustomed to seeing me in hats. Right? Yep. And the the story just fell into place because I wore the hat, and the red hat just happened to be an identifying marker, but it still fit me. It still fit my personality. It wasn't something that I was forcing. I mean, hell, if you think
back to those rocketship icons that I bought, they were ugly as shit. They were they weren't even colors that I like. There were some weird freaking color. I don't even know what they were. I'm like, oh, this is gonna do it. This is gonna make me money. And, no, it doesn't work that way, dude. And, you know, readily random. Same thing. I went to back to the creative market, and I bought a speaker icon. That's it because I'm a podcaster. So readily
random, we make podcasts. And it it just there was nothing there because there was no heart, no emotion, no authenticity to it. And I struggle using the word authenticity because everybody says it these days. But you'll know when you find that brand because it just authentically fits you. You know how to use the word when it's just real, when it just is what it is. And when you find that one thing that is what it is, that is a real extension of you look at
Sarah, for instance. I mean, her her business, is is called favorite daughter media. I mean, she is the favorite daughter. Now her sister probably doesn't agree with that, but in her mind, she's she's the favorite daughter. So it's everything that's authentically her. All of her fonts feel like her. Her colors feel like her. It's just natural. Now I will back that up and go, I was never really a red
guy. I was always a blue guy. And I don't know. Blue is just I mean, I'm even wearing my blue hoodie right now, but blue was always about color. So it was kind of an adjustment. You know what I mean? But, I mean, red's okay. You know, I used to love the Chicago Bulls, so I can go back to the red and black. It's all good. So that's what we ended up doing. Everything now is red and black. But aside from the fact that my favorite color is blue, it was just
super, super authentic, and it just it just worked. It just worked. Awesome. Awesome. K. How how does how does your experience as a public speaker influence your approach to to content creation and branding? That's an interesting question. How does my say that one more time. How does your public speak your the public speaker and, how does your experience as a public speaker influence your
approach to to content creation and branding? I think it makes me super cautious, and make sure that I know what the heck I'm talking about because the last thing you want to do is get on a stage in front of 100 of people and you spit out something that you consider a fact when they can turn right around and prove you're wrong. So you got to be up to date on the latest and greatest if you're talking about content creation, especially if you're talking about
technology. You know, AI, absolutely critical, and you can get fact checked with a quickness when it comes to AI. And people love to fact check public speakers. Like, yeah. You said this, but really it's this. So I think it just makes you more cognizant of what you're doing. And, you know, I think too that when I'm on stage, my goal is to make sure that the audience that I'm speaking to walks away with something of value.
I don't wanna just get up there and ramble on for 30, 45 minutes to an hour, whatever it may be, and talk about how great this is or great that is. I want something up there. I wanna deliver something where people can walk away and implement whatever it is that I'm talking about immediately, Whether it's in their podcast, whether it's in their business, whether it's in their
brand, it doesn't matter. My goal is to provide value, actionable value, with each and every talk I give, and I think that transcends down into my content as well. Okay. What what what advice would you give someone looking to start out in podcasting? Start a podcast with a plan and a purpose. Now this is from a business slash branding type podcast perspective too. I mean, if you just wanna sit and talk about your favorite TV show, grab
a microphone and record, and it's great. You know, my very my very first podcast was it was a comedy podcast, And I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I had no idea. But, man, I had a bunch of fun. And the podcast to this day is still the biggest podcast I ever had. And we had no idea what we're doing, but we had fun doing it. And that was absolutely critical for that. I mean, if if I think back, honestly, the very first microphone that I ever bought was a,
a Yeti Snowball. And if you're not familiar with the Yeti Snowball, it's literally about the size of a softball and it's white and it looks like a snowball. It's just round. It's a ball. And, my cohost, Jamie, and I, we sat in my den on the other side of the wall here. We sat on the ottoman, and we cut that snowball, and we spoke into the snowball very gently and very
aware of what we were saying. We wanted to enunciate everything so that we spoke very clearly, and then we would pass the mic to the other person. They would gently cup it and do the exact same thing. And we did that back and forth for about an hour and a half, and that was how I recorded my very first podcast. Now thankfully, we evolved from that fairly quickly. I mean, I think we moved up to, like, the Samsung q two u or the ATR 21100, you know, basic
microphone. And we each had our own microphones as well. But that's how I got started, man, was just and and, honestly, too, you know, the the first podcast, like I said, it was comedy. It was very, very blue, meaning it was just as raw as raw can be. And, after we recorded that first episode and we listened back to it, we just looked at each other like, we can't we we can't release this. We we we we can't have people listen to this. This is terrible. There's no way. So that that episode
actually never got released. But, we toned it down just a hint, not a whole lot, just a hint. And, I mean, we we did 100 and 100 of episodes, and the show went on for a couple years. We ended up taking it to a live stage show here in Dallas, and it evolved into a comic open mic night. And that that mic ran for 7 or 8 years until the club that was hosting it shut down. So, it was it was amazing. And the show was, again, so much fun. It launched Jamie's comedy
career. Jamie's down there in Austin these days just crushing it, on the comedy scene. He toured with Eddie Griffin for a couple of years, had a residency at the New Sahara in Las Vegas, all from that freaking podcast, dude. So, you know, if if you've got a passion for something and you want to do something, start the podcast for that. You know, I I sit here and I go start a podcast with a plan and a purpose because my business and what we do
is we launch branded podcasts. So everything that we do that we launch, it's done with a plan and a purpose, whether it's to build a brand, whether it's to tell a story, whether it's to recruit new employees, whether it's to recruit people to a mastermind. Each of the shows that we launch serves a purpose. It's not just for having fun. You should have fun too. Don't get me wrong. But they they have a plan and a purpose. So that's why I say have a plan and
a purpose. Understand what the podcast is for, understand what your goals are for that show, and then build the show around those goals. But if you're just 2 dudes or 2 women or whatever it may be, I don't wanna say chicks, I don't wanna offend anybody, but if you're just 2 dudes or 2 ladies, then grab a couple microphones and just have fun and record and and do your thing. Don't take it super, super serious right out of the gate. Figure out what you're
doing. Have fun with it. And then as you evolve, things can change. I mean, that's exactly what ended up happening with with that podcast. That podcast got so big that I had fans at the office. I was still on corporate at the time. And even the name of the show was an innuendo. And people were wearing my merch to work. And so I finally got that knock on the door going, hey. Let's go talk at HR. And, like, we can't have people wearing that stuff
to to work. So it's either the show or you. Something's gotta go. So I ended up having to kill that show. And, I didn't know anything really about the podcast space then, what the podcast industry was or anything about starting a podcast other than what I had done. I didn't know there were industry standards. I didn't know there were steps to take. I didn't
know how to plan a podcast. So I just started another show that was a business podcast, you know, where I was interviewing well, that's where the name Readily Random actually came from was I started a podcast called Readily Random because I, just like most other podcasters, thought I was gonna be the next Joe Rogan, and I modeled everything that I was doing after Joe Rogan. So he talks to whoever he wants to talk
to. I planned on talking to whoever I wanted to talk to. And while it was fun and I talked to a lot of cool people, I mean, tons of cool people that I never would have met otherwise, Didn't necessarily get a lot of traction. You know? Didn't didn't anywhere get close to what that first podcast did, you know, from a numbers perspective. So it was it was a learning process, and that's when I really started learning
about the industry of podcasting. I think I went to my 1st podcast movement in 2019, and then I learned that it was an industry. I started seeing other podcasters out there that were, you know, building businesses around their podcast. I was like, oh my god. This is freaking crazy. This is I guess it was 2017 because I founded Readily Random Media in 2017. So I guess I went to podcast movement in 17, and that's when I started seeing the industry and what the industry was and how it
kinda worked. And I started getting a grip, and I started establishing some relationships with other higher profile podcasters and started realizing, oh, this is an industry. This isn't just a little hobby thing. This is this is the real deal Holyfield. And that's when things started evolving and changing for me as well. And that that's something similar to me was, and I attended my first pod fest in 2021, and it made me realize, like, wow. This
is this is huge. This is and people it was right after the pandemic, the the following year right after the pandemic. So I I call my so I actually I'm a pandemic. That's because I started because because I was furloughed from work. Yep. I've been I've been wanting to start a podcast for since 2019. I I remember my first podcasting equipment was, a little, studio that I bought from Amazon, a Behringer it was a Behringer mic, a Behringer mixer, a Behringer headphone. There you go.
And my first interview was my nephew, and I didn't have the jack from the phone to go to the mixer. So what I did was hold the phone to the microphone and interviewed him that way. Yep. Yep. And and that's and he was like, you know, he was like, no. We can't release this. We gotta wait till it's perfect. I'm like, no, man. This this is just the start. Like, we just I want to just show people where we started at to where and now to where I'm at now where
I I I have the the Pro. I invested in the quality mic. I got me a a a good camera. It was just me investing in myself because I was like, yo, this is I love doing this. This is Sure. Being able to to interview some amazing folks and and have some great conversations. And then people respond to it by sending me a message. Oh, I I heard that episode. Thank you. I needed to hear that. And to get those messages is like,
hold on. What what what's going on here? Like Yep. I don't I was like, I didn't I I was 40 something years old, didn't have purpose, didn't I I I have a well paying job, but it wasn't fulfilling. Mhmm. And then I started doing the podcast and started receiving and people who've sent me a message, y'all keep doing what you're doing. You're doing great. And I'm thinking to myself, I suck. I'm like, like, I'm like, what the fuck are
you talking about? I was like, I'm I'm I don't know what's going on. But it it just it just the encouragement and people pushing me and and telling me, yeah, just keep doing it. Keep doing it. You got that voice. Keep doing it. And I'm like, alright. And and it was just started growing and growing. And then I started meeting people like yourself, Alex and Filippo, Sarah, Sarah, Saint John, the food the food, preneur, and all these other people. And I'm like, oh, man. These are
some great people. And then when when you start connecting with people and they they start and they start sharing with you how to do stuff and like, I listen to you. Like, when I I that that I was there for that that AI, that first that AI at at podcast. I'm like, yep. He's right. This is making sense. All everything he was talking about was making sense. So I start I incorporated Chat GBT into my podcast, and and and it's helped me grow. It's helped me improve my show to where
it's like, alright. The numbers is is generating numbers now. Mhmm. People were people were like, okay. This is alright. And and and I kinda went from talking to everybody to, like, alright. This is who I wanna talk to. These are the people I wanna speak to. I wanna speak to coaches. I wanna speak to entrepreneurs. These are the people I want, and then I just knee I niched it down. And and from there, the last 2 years have been my best 2
years. I've been doing some the growth from where from 500 downloads in my first year to now over almost 33,000 downloads. Wow. That's awesome, dude. That is amazing. And I'm like, okay. This is this is and it's all from learning from people like yourself, learning from Alex, being able to to to to have the chance to even message message someone like Alex that, hey, Alex. I got a question. And he and he is one of those guys that he loves to help people. Yeah.
Yeah. So I'm tell me today. I just reached out to him today. I need I need to meet so and so. You know so and so? He's like, yeah. I got you. I'm like, alright. Cool. So, yeah, it's it's great to have those. You know what I mean? You you gotta have those a support system there. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. Definitely. So how do you stay ahead of the curve in such a rapidly evolving industry? Well, you know, I tell this story, and and a lot of people don't buy
it, but I promise it's true. So, I wake up every morning around 4 AM. I don't know why. I don't set an alarm. This isn't something I'm doing because I'm better than everybody. It's just because I'm old and my body goes, it's time to get up. So I wake up around 4 o'clock every day. And, I sleep on the couch also because I've been married 24 years as of last Monday. So, you know, ain't no need to be in the bed together, done well. We've been there, done that, got the t shirts. So, and I got a bad
back. So the couch works. So I roll off the couch and I go in there and I brush my teeth and I grab me a monster because I'm a monster junkie. Crawl back on the couch, I turn on YouTube and I watch videos, dude. That's my education time. And I'll sit there and I'll watch a couple of videos, get the latest and greatest on AI, get the latest and greatest on podcasting, see what
I can find out there. And I'll watch videos until I either go back to sleep, Or if I'm not falling back to sleep, I switch from YouTube to Andy Griffith, and I watch me some Andy Griffith and fall back asleep. So that's that's what I do literally every day. It's just it's like clockwork. It just happens every day of my life. That's that's my time. So you don't have to get up at 4 o'clock in the
morning. You don't have to drink a monster. You don't have to care anything about Andy Griffith, but you do have to find a time in your schedule to invest in yourself, to invest in that education. And that just happens to be the time that works best for me. Once I get up and I get going, I'm typically way too involved in doing something else or or who knows what it is. Life
just gets in the way, whether it's business, whether it's taking care. I got a brand new puppy, and I don't know if you can see my hand, but he's tore the hell out of my hand. He's just man, little son of a gun in the fire, boy. Yeah. It's crazy. But whether it's playing with my pup or or whatever it may be, it's hard to find that time during the day to get that education in. So I picked that time of the
morning, and it works out perfect for me. So what you have to do is you have to find that time for you, whether it's 4 AM, whether it's 4 PM, whether it's midnight, whatever time works best for you where you can sequester yourself for a good 30 minutes, maybe an hour a day. And I say a day because that's what it takes. You know? You asked me earlier, what what how does being a public speaker influence
your content creation? Well, this is what I have to do to make sure that when I am on a stage, I know what I'm talking about and I am up to date. You have to invest in yourself and find that time. I don't care what it is. Find that time. Maybe you're on the treadmill or maybe you're on the stationary bike and you
you jump on YouTube. And while you're cranking away on those pedals or walking your your your 10,000 steps or whatever it is, maybe you're taking in video content then, but find that time because that's the only way to stay ahead. And and that's that's where I've gained a lot of my knowledge is where I've learned how to edit in my videos,
audios, was through YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. That's how that's how I that's how I learned, and and that's where I learned something about some of the some of the tools that I used was through YouTube. It it's it's, it's been it's I call it like, people just call it YouTube University. Yeah. It it it's helped me out in so many ways. It's helped me grow, And and it's every
day. It's something I'm always researching something, looking, trying to find out something new about podcasting or whatever it is that's going on. And and that's how I I've been able to learn. I I I check. I wish when I see you got something new, I could check with you, and and that's how and that's how I keep same way. That's how I keep informed. Yeah. And newsletters are great too. I mean, I probably subscribe to at least
a half a dozen AI newsletters. And, of course, when it comes to podcasting newsletters, I'm the editor in chief of the Podfest Messenger, So I tend to read that one since I write it. Podnews is another great one. What was the other one? Podcast Business Journal, although they've been absorbed essentially by Podnews, they still put out a a a they put out something that usually has 1 or 2 stories associated with it. It's not quite as robust as it used to be because, again, they rolled it
into pod news. But, I mean, there's great newsletters out there that give you specific content that's relevant to whatever you're doing, whether it's podcasting or AI or marketing or branding. Find some high quality newsletters and subscribe to them. They drop them right there in your inbox every day. And while you're sitting there, like I said, during your education time,
catch up on those newsletters. There's usually great articles that have been curated specifically for that subject matter, and it's quick. It's easy. It's typically a fast read and super, super informative. Yeah. It it really is. That that's that's another way. Yeah. I I have the I subscribed to the the Podfest newsletter, Podnews also, and there's a couple other ones that that I'm subscribed to. And and then when I when I when I get up
because I I have to be at work at 3:45 in the morning. So I'm up I'm up at, 2 in the morning, take my shower, have my coffee, and I'll sit down, check my emails, watch a couple of videos, whatever, and then I'm off to work. Mhmm. And so when I when I come back, it's the time where I start setting up to do my show. And so I gotta that's one thing I've learned was to schedule. That's that's what I learned about making sure I I follow
a schedule and and work on on building a schedule. Before, it was just like, alright. I'm recording at this time, and I'm doing this. I was like, nah. I need to really start building some structure. Yep. I really need to start really scheduling things. Like, this is the if I'm this is my recording time, this is when the show is gonna happen. This time, it's gotta be that consistently
with that with that time. So I I've learned so much as far as structuring my show and everything because of people like yourself and and other people that I've been able, feel better as someone else that I've learned a lot from. Oh, yeah. Phil Phil's amazing. And and to be he he, he's the one who got me to to do my email list. He he's got me automation, how how to send out my e my newsletter every week, and and he took me on he took me on his way. He says, yo. I'm
doing the beta program. I see that you're you're serious. You're dedicated. Here, come come test this out for me. And when I went and I learned so much, and I've and I've been like, it's helped me improve in what I'm doing. And I'm like, it's a blessing to be able to have people like that, to to to connect with people like that that they see that you're dedicated and want wanting to learn and wanting to build, that they're willing to yo. I'm I'm trying this out. I want you to
test it out for me. Here you go. So I'm I love it, man. It's it's I'm blessed to be able to to have found podcasting, and and and the community is just amazing. The peep the networking and the people in it are just it's like we go to Podfest, and it's like, if we it's just like one big family. Oh, a 100%. Yeah. I love it. I love that community that it's almost like a family reunion every year when we go to Podfest because it's like, oh, you know, there's there's 2,000 people there. We know them
all. You know? It's it's crazy. Yeah. It it I I remember one time, the first time I went, I was learning about Reaper, and and and I was watching YouTube videos. And and I go to to walk because outside of the the in podcast, every you mean everyone in the hallways. That's where a lot of the magic happens is Yep. Is in the hallways. Yep. So I'm walking through, and I see this this to my end, it's talking about the promoting reaper and all that. And and I'm looking at him. I'm like, I know you.
And then when I when we start talking and everything, he's actually the guy I've been watching the his videos. Oh, that's hilarious. That's too funny. I'm like, man, I've watched all your videos on Weeburn and how to use it. Like, you know, you've helped me so much. He was like, thank you. And then, another person I got to meet because, alright. So when I first started podcasting, I didn't have no clue. So I invested in Podex. Right? Oh, yeah. That's it. And
Look at you. Look at you. Yeah. Yeah. Look at you. Yeah. Look. Look. I invested in Podex. Right? I I invested in Podex. So to get after you get to meet to get to meet Travis and Dan and everything and really speak to him was like it was an it was a I was like I was like, oh, man. This is amazing. I actually get to meet with the because when when when the podcast came out, that was Dan
first started. Like, he was first starting. Dan and Travis, this is when they first started doing and and they've grown and blown up, and they're they're they're out there. But it was so cool to really meet them in person and and be like, yo. This is this is this is where I started with you guys, with Podex and all this this.
And and it was just amazing to be able to to have those conversations and and and meet them and meet those people that you would it's like you would you would never known you would have met you would have met these persons in real life. Like, man, I thought it was just it's just amazing. Yeah. Yeah. It's real it's a great community, and it it really is amazing to see when people that
you they're influencers in the space and you're right there. You've used their products, you've watched their videos, you've listened to their podcasts, and now you're standing there face to face with them and you realize, wow, they're just like me. When you yeah. They're just regular they're just regular dudes. Regular peeps then, and it's it just makes it it makes it all that much better.
It's it's like you. It's it's I see you and I be and I see you when you show your news and all when you're on the news and you're talking about, I'm like and then but then I go, and I'm like, but I've sat down with Larry, and we've had some talks, and we've chilled. And I'm like, Larry's just he's like me. He's just a regular
dude. It's it's it it is. It's just it's just it's really amazing to see it because and, you know, it's it's funny because in this community, it seems like when you meet the people that you look up to, they're just regular everyday cats. And, you know, I've met some some real celebrities in my time and, you know, they say don't ever meet your heroes. And they say that for a reason, but that does not appear to be the case in the podcast
space. You know, I I've never come across somebody in the podcast space where I'm like, well, shit. Wish I had met them. I liked them a lot better before I met them. You know what I mean? So yeah. So there's a couple celebrities out there where I have met them, but I'm like, yeah. I wish I hadn't because, no, I like their movies a lot more before I met them. Now I'm not not sure I could watch that one again. So
Alright. So so how do you how do you measure the success of a podcast or or or any any of your digital content campaign? Man, there's so many different ways to measure quote unquote success. It kinda goes back to what's your plan and your purpose for the show or the content that you're creating. You know, if you're creating content that's just fulfilling, you know, that first podcast that I had didn't have a plan, didn't have a purpose other than me and
my homeboy got together. We cracked dirty jokes and we talked to strippers and we talked to crazy ambulance Jason lawyers and we talked to the craziest guests you've ever met in your life. And that was it. That was success for us because it was just fun. You know, we eventually took it to a studio here in Dallas. So we'd go into the studio and they stuck us on it Sunday morning at 10 AM right after the preacher. They were like, what the heck? You're sticking. You do know
our content. Right? So but so the preacher come out of the studio. We'd go into the studio, and at this time, we had a whole entourage. There were 6 or 8 of us who was who was on the show. And we go in there, we just have a blast and we would laugh and just it was the best. That was success in our eyes. You know, it opened up stages. We got on stage, we got to do open mics and did comedy. Then we got to do some not so open
mics, some actual mics in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Then Jamie took it to heights well beyond anything that I ever experienced from a comedy perspective. But man, it was a ton of fun and that was success. If you start a podcast, that's your goal was to monetize. You know, you want to use it as a secondary source of income And you grow that show and you establish an audience and you find sponsors or you find additional ways to monetize some indirect
monetization opportunities that are working out for you. Maybe you're selling merch. Maybe you're selling Patreon. Maybe you got a Patreon account or something and you're selling, behind the scenes or bonus footage and people are signing. Maybe you're making 2, 3, 4, 5, $10 a month extra income off of your show. That could be success. You know, one of my clients, he has a very high dollar mastermind.
It's, like, $25,000 a year to join his mastermind. He launched a podcast, and everybody that he brings on the podcast, it's a potential person for his mastermind. So his whole goal is if I get somebody on my podcast and then I recruit them into my mastermind, boom, that's success. So what is success? Success is whatever you define it as. And once you define what you look at as success and you achieve that, then your content and your podcast is successful. That make
sense? Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. It does. So can you talk about the the role of audience engagement in in the success of your brand and podcast? I mean, audience engagement, it's it's kind of what drives us. Right? I mean, I know I went through a lot of times where ain't nobody listened to my content. Ain't nobody download my podcast. Ain't nobody watching my live stream, ain't nobody engaging, ain't nobody
saying hi, ain't nobody saying go away, ain't nobody saying nothing. And, you know, it's funny because if you dial it back when I first started speaking, right, I started speaking by doing virtual engagements. Right? These these virtual conferences because I started speaking I don't know. It was a little before COVID, but then COVID, kicked in and it it just drove virtual events even further. You know? Yeah.
But if you've ever gone live on Facebook, right, you can look in that top left hand corner of the screen and you can see how many people were watching your livestream on Facebook. And guess how many people were watching my first, I don't know, 82 talks? 0. I look up at that top left hand corner, it's a goose egg. And I'm like, why is nobody engaging with this content? What is going audience engagement was absolutely
critical. But now I'll tell you what's even worse. You know, it's worse than when you do a a Facebook live, you look up there and you see 1, you're like, oh, I got somebody. And and then after, like, 30 seconds, they jump in. Right? Then you're like, oh, oh, it hurts so bad. I'd rather just nobody. So, you know, audience engagement is absolutely critical, I think, for the for the for the content creator. You know, we want to know that what we're doing is
impacting somebody in some way, shape, fashion, or form. We want to know that people are listening. We want to know that people are watching. So audience engagement, I think, is absolutely critical. And if you're not getting that audience engagement, then you need to kinda reevaluate what you're doing and figure out what you could tweak a little bit to get that engagement up. Okay. It it it it seems like, I I go live. Right? Because first of all, I don't wanna edit anymore.
My man. I dig that. I dig that a lot. There is nothing on this planet that I hate more than than editing a podcast. Yeah. So that hate it so freaking much. So going live, let's cut that up. Let's cut that up. Yeah. It's out. It's done. Yeah. I ain't gotta I ain't gotta edit shit no more. But then you also get people that they'll they'll stop by. They go, hey. Like, my man, Tony has just stopped by and say, hey, guys. Sound. Yeah.
The Pod Guys, y'all gotta check them out. They have some great guy they have some funny Yeah, man. I was just on their show, I don't know, 3 or 4 weeks ago, something like that. So the 5 guys got you before I did? Well, they they don't book 6 months in advance, bro. They were just like they were like on Monday going, hey. You wanna be on our show tomorrow? I'm like, okay. Cool. It works. So they booked like a day in advance. So But, it's actually it's just cool because, I we're we
we we're both in, Northeast Pennsylvania. Oh, Tony and then and and and I actually got to meet Kevin. He's I used to go to the casino, and, he worked at a an establishment that was in the casino. And it was funny the way we met because at that time, it was right after COVID, and he's wearing a mask, And I'm sitting down having dinner with my wife, and he's serving me. And he and I'm hearing his voice, and I'm he's looking at me. I'm looking at him, and I go, Mary?
He goes, wise? Oh, it was just it was just crazy. It was just crazy. And and my wife was like, what the hell is going on? It's a podcast thing, baby. Yeah. The thing. It's like one of my podcast buddies, baby. Yeah. That's what it is. Oh, that's awesome. That's a great story. It was it was just funny. It was it was I'm I'm listen I'm listening to his voice, and and I'm like, man, I know this dude. I know the joke. Because even he's he's he's a he's a jokester just like he is on the show.
Like, even even when he's when he's when he was waiting to take He blew me away. We got on there, and he just went on a tangent. And I'm like I'm like, man, this is this could be a wild ride. He does. He does. He does. He goes on he goes on some crazy and so but it was just I just it was just funny, like, how life just and it was and we've become good friends since then. That's cool, man. That's cool. It was no. No. I love The Pie Guys. I've been on there quite
I've been on this show about 2, 3 times. So Oh, that's cool, man. I have a good time, man. Yeah. Whenever I'm there. But, brother, it's been a pleasure having you on the show, man. I I love this, man. I appreciate you, man. Oh, I love that. I mean, it was worth the wait. It was worth the wait. I I appreciate you. I just wanna let you know that, man. Thanks for stopping by and and and and sharing everything you've been sharing. But now it's, you get the solo layout. You get to
plug away, let everybody know where they find you, everything. Yeah. Yeah. Well, man, I keep it super simple. You know? It's larry roberts.com. Everything there, will give you all the information on podcasting, branding, and AI solutions for all the above. If you're looking to book a speaker, I've got a speaker tab on there that tells you all of my keynote talks that I have available. It's all right there. It's super simple. Larryroberts.com.
I also host a podcast called Branded with my business partner, Sarah Lohse. So if you wanna know about personal branding and all things branding related, check out Branded as well. You can go to listen to branded.com and check out all the episodes, or you can find us on YouTube and Spotify, Apple Podcasts, all those pop popular players there. We'd love to hear from you. And once again, brother, thank you for for for stopping by and and gracing us with your with your presidents
and everything. You you are one of the you are one of the dudes out there that I truly do respect and and enjoy watching your content and and someone that I admire and look up to because I'm I I've learned a lot from you. Thank you. Just watching you watch just watching you blow up and do what you're doing, it's it's it's an encouragement to me to be like, man, Larry's doing it. Larry's doing it. And and that motivates me because I because I know you're just a regular dude like me. Yeah.
Yeah. And and it's amazing to be like, yo. They and just same same thing with Alex. Just seeing what he's doing, all the great things that he's doing. And he's one of the most down to earth people you will ever meet. And he's he's that genuine. I wanna say this because I say this all the time. But Alex Sanfilippo, truly one of the most genuine Yeah. And and really it makes me it pisses me off because because, you know told I I figured we're gonna get in the Uber, and he'll finally let his hair
down. And now we can bullshit a little bit, and we'll talk shit about some people. No. No. Bro, it's still just as loving, just as kind, just as genuine. It's it's the most unrealistic thing you've ever seen in your life, but real. He he lives it, breathes it. He is it, man. He's the personification of just an amazing human being. So he's he's like, you can't so you can be like, no one
should be that fucking nice. No. No. But, dude, I'm telling you, it's just me and him and the Uber just chilling for, like, 45 minutes to where I think it was in Colorado, and we're taking a Uber someplace. And just still same cat. Nothing different, bro. You don't change, bro. He don't like, we've I got I've been able I've been fortunate enough to sit down and and eat with him and and and chill with him at 5, 5 times. And he's just one of the most genuinely genuinely
great guys. Like, I I it's I don't you you can't believe, like, this this actually someone this nice. Yeah. It's it's it's sickening. It makes me nauseous. So, anyways, with that, I gotta go because I'm I'm I'm feeling a little feeling a little bit. But no, dude. Seriously, I appreciate all the kind words you said about me. Really appreciate you having me on the show. This was great. Anything you ever need from me, I'm right
here for you, and it goes for anybody else's listener watching as well. Don't hesitate to reach out, please. I'd love to talk to anybody out there, answer any questions you have, or maybe help you find what your plan and purpose is for your podcast. So hit me up. Thank you, brother, man. Appreciate it, man. And, you have a great day. Alright. You too, brother. Alright. Peace. Alright.
And right now, it's time for me to close out the show. It's been great having Larry on the show, but big shout out to my RealWise fam. Probably j, Brandy j, love you guys. Big shout out to the boss lady. Love you and appreciate you. And as always, a big, big shout out to all the essential workers out there. God bless y'all. Be safe. You know how your boy wise does it? Peace out.