WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.540 Joe: It was Christmas Eve and I was waiting in line for bagels. 00:00:04.350 --> 00:00:08.910 As someone who grew up in New York, now living in Philly or close to 00:00:08.910 --> 00:00:13.500 Philly, I'm admittedly a snob about the quality of the bagels I eat. 00:00:14.430 --> 00:00:19.020 I am one of those people who would say it's in the water, like the 00:00:19.020 --> 00:00:21.900 Hudson River had better water than the rest of the country. 00:00:23.220 --> 00:00:27.330 That said, there is a bagel shop not five minutes from my house. 00:00:27.689 --> 00:00:33.749 That makes the best bagels I've ever had outside of New York and New Jersey, and 00:00:33.749 --> 00:00:36.360 they offer pre-orders for Christmas Eve. 00:00:37.230 --> 00:00:40.769 It's become a bit of a tradition in our house to get those bagels 00:00:40.769 --> 00:00:42.720 and do a Christmas Eve brunch. 00:00:44.069 --> 00:00:49.319 They also have a select stock for people on a first come first serve 00:00:49.319 --> 00:00:54.269 basis, and people who pre-order can also buy from this stock. 00:00:55.455 --> 00:01:01.574 That many pre-orders combined with the select stock creates a long line 00:01:02.415 --> 00:01:05.565 after all these bagels are superb. 00:01:06.585 --> 00:01:12.434 So we waited and during that wait, there were some people who complained 00:01:13.005 --> 00:01:18.705 about the weight, but no one left the line or canceled their order. 00:01:19.755 --> 00:01:23.024 After all, if they wanted bagels. 00:01:24.029 --> 00:01:28.559 If all they wanted was bagels, they could have gone to the grocery store just a few 00:01:28.559 --> 00:01:31.439 doors down and buy bagels immediately. 00:01:32.729 --> 00:01:38.550 But those are not even good bagels, and we wanted great bagels. 00:01:39.509 --> 00:01:44.039 See, there's a dirty little secret that no one wants to hear these days. 00:01:44.789 --> 00:01:50.460 Great things require time, and that's what I want to talk to you about today. 00:01:56.357 --> 00:02:00.737 hey everybody, and welcome to How I Built It, the podcast that helps 00:02:00.737 --> 00:02:05.147 busy solopreneurs and creators grow their business without 00:02:05.152 --> 00:02:06.827 spending too much time on it. 00:02:07.367 --> 00:02:12.677 I'm your host, Joe Casabona, and each week I bring you interviews and case studies 00:02:12.827 --> 00:02:17.227 on how to build a better business through smarter processes, time management. 00:02:17.427 --> 00:02:19.527 And effective content creation. 00:02:19.887 --> 00:02:24.057 It's like getting free coaching calls from successful solopreneurs. 00:02:24.687 --> 00:02:29.007 By the end of each episode, you'll have one to three takeaways you can 00:02:29.007 --> 00:02:34.617 implement today to stop spending time in your business and more time on 00:02:34.617 --> 00:02:39.717 your business or with your friends, your family reading, or however 00:02:39.717 --> 00:02:42.537 you choose to spend your free time. 00:02:43.173 --> 00:02:47.823 All right, so I am excited to talk to you about this topic. 00:02:47.883 --> 00:02:52.623 Uh, if you are listening to this, you might've noticed it came out a day late. 00:02:52.623 --> 00:02:55.383 Of course, after the first day, it doesn't matter. 00:02:55.388 --> 00:02:59.973 But I think I wanna highlight this because it really lends to the 00:02:59.978 --> 00:03:01.293 point I'm trying to make today. 00:03:01.293 --> 00:03:03.093 I was away at a conference last week. 00:03:03.453 --> 00:03:09.033 Instead of rushing to get something out for today, I wanted to spend 00:03:09.033 --> 00:03:12.783 a little extra time on it, get the script right, get the editing 00:03:12.783 --> 00:03:15.933 right, and put out something better. 00:03:16.683 --> 00:03:20.403 So it required time, but it was worth the wait. 00:03:21.528 --> 00:03:28.623 So what does this have to do with podcasting or content creation in general? 00:03:29.493 --> 00:03:32.493 I think we see a lot of things today that. 00:03:33.123 --> 00:03:38.433 Tell us we don't need to spend a a lot of time creating 00:03:39.243 --> 00:03:41.253 content or doing something good. 00:03:43.323 --> 00:03:50.943 So last week I was in Orlando for Pod Fest and whenever I'm in Orlando I have to 00:03:50.973 --> 00:03:54.573 take advantage of going to Disney World. 00:03:54.573 --> 00:03:55.683 My brother works there. 00:03:55.683 --> 00:03:57.123 I, it's like my happy place. 00:03:57.663 --> 00:04:00.663 And of course, I'm a huge Star Wars fan. 00:04:01.993 --> 00:04:05.843 One of the routinely panned lines in the first Star Wars movie is 00:04:05.843 --> 00:04:10.793 when Han Solo claims he did the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. 00:04:11.993 --> 00:04:15.323 To most people, it seemed like a Parsec was some in 00:04:15.323 --> 00:04:17.603 universe way of measuring time. 00:04:19.793 --> 00:04:25.328 A parsec is actually a real world way to measure large distances. 00:04:26.528 --> 00:04:31.118 In other words, bragging that you did the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs 00:04:31.628 --> 00:04:37.448 is like saying, I traveled from New York to California in less than 2000 miles. 00:04:38.558 --> 00:04:42.248 You can't, it's physically impossible. 00:04:42.818 --> 00:04:46.118 It, there are 2,500 ish miles. 00:04:46.628 --> 00:04:54.098 Between New York and California, but the shortcut sounds impressive. 00:04:55.538 --> 00:05:00.128 There are plenty of coaches, gurus, and influencers who are trying to sell 00:05:00.128 --> 00:05:07.358 you the ability to do the impossible shortcut because it sounds impressive, and 00:05:07.358 --> 00:05:09.998 therefore it's going to be an easier sell. 00:05:11.438 --> 00:05:14.108 Let's look at an example of this. 00:05:15.563 --> 00:05:16.523 Writing a book. 00:05:17.933 --> 00:05:22.463 I was reviewing the many podcasts in my podcast feed when I came 00:05:22.463 --> 00:05:29.513 across an episode about how to write a book in seven days with ai, and 00:05:29.513 --> 00:05:32.423 there is a lot of content like this. 00:05:33.023 --> 00:05:36.593 I came across another article on Medium about how to write 00:05:36.593 --> 00:05:39.383 a book in three days with ai. 00:05:40.403 --> 00:05:45.563 My immediate reaction to this content is always, yeah, it'll 00:05:45.563 --> 00:05:47.543 be a book that no one will read. 00:05:48.723 --> 00:05:53.613 My feelings about using AI to write just about anything are well documented. 00:05:54.333 --> 00:05:55.503 I'm not a fan. 00:05:56.193 --> 00:05:59.253 I've talked about it on LinkedIn and other social networks. 00:05:59.253 --> 00:06:00.573 I've talked about it here. 00:06:02.043 --> 00:06:06.158 I've debated my friend Alister McDermott on his podcast. 00:06:07.983 --> 00:06:09.813 It's a hill I will die on. 00:06:10.803 --> 00:06:15.453 I've even equated it to using a car to run a marathon. 00:06:17.313 --> 00:06:24.243 The problem with the very premise of writing a book in a week at all is 00:06:24.248 --> 00:06:30.903 that anyone who's written a book know that this is BSS to write a book. 00:06:30.908 --> 00:06:34.293 You can't just say, I'm gonna write a bunch of words and put them together. 00:06:34.293 --> 00:06:34.353 I. 00:06:35.043 --> 00:06:38.283 You need a good premise, an outline. 00:06:38.463 --> 00:06:42.273 You need to flesh out that outline more fully before you start writing. 00:06:42.513 --> 00:06:45.123 You need lots of research to support your claims. 00:06:45.333 --> 00:06:49.293 You need case studies, especially if it's a non-fiction. 00:06:49.293 --> 00:06:51.033 This will help you kind of book. 00:06:51.663 --> 00:06:54.483 You need personal stories to support your claims. 00:06:54.723 --> 00:07:00.693 You can't just say, this is a thing that I believe, and then not back that up. 00:07:01.638 --> 00:07:04.518 Podcast swaps will grow your podcast. 00:07:05.238 --> 00:07:07.998 If I just say that, no one will believe me. 00:07:08.328 --> 00:07:12.138 I need personal stories and I need case studies, and I need data. 00:07:13.158 --> 00:07:16.428 If you're writing a fiction book, you need character development. 00:07:16.578 --> 00:07:19.638 Heck, even if you're not writing a fiction book, you need 00:07:19.638 --> 00:07:21.168 character development, right? 00:07:21.168 --> 00:07:26.598 You need a a story arc where the reader is the hero. 00:07:27.678 --> 00:07:30.558 After you have all that, then. 00:07:31.188 --> 00:07:33.558 You can start writing each chapter. 00:07:34.218 --> 00:07:38.478 You need an editor to review for grammar, clarity and accuracy. 00:07:39.598 --> 00:07:47.458 Not to call out specific authors, but $100 million offers by Alex Hormoze. 00:07:48.358 --> 00:07:51.868 Might have great advice and it's a nightmare to read. 00:07:52.408 --> 00:07:58.918 There are so many grammatical errors and maybe it doesn't matter to most 00:07:58.918 --> 00:08:04.078 people, but that immediately cut against his credibility for me. 00:08:04.288 --> 00:08:09.268 This guy's teaching me how to make nine figures, and he couldn't be bothered to 00:08:09.268 --> 00:08:16.048 hire an editor for a thousand bucks to read this book and proof it a little bit. 00:08:17.848 --> 00:08:21.988 After that, you need a round of rewrites for the editing and 00:08:21.988 --> 00:08:23.428 then another round of edits. 00:08:23.938 --> 00:08:28.738 And that's just to get a manuscript that you can put into production. 00:08:29.338 --> 00:08:34.828 And again, this is if you want people to read your book, and yeah, maybe 00:08:34.828 --> 00:08:40.528 if you're famous like Hormoz or Joe Rogan or whoever, maybe you don't 00:08:40.528 --> 00:08:45.478 need to do all this, but the vast majority of us are not those people. 00:08:46.678 --> 00:08:50.758 We need to put actual effort into what we're doing. 00:08:52.648 --> 00:08:56.128 It's taken me longer than a week to write articles. 00:08:56.758 --> 00:09:02.698 In fact, I wrote an article for rss.com that was published last week that is 00:09:02.758 --> 00:09:08.968 over 5,000 words, and it took me eight days from when I started to when I said 00:09:08.968 --> 00:09:12.688 it was ready for review from my editor. 00:09:12.693 --> 00:09:13.468 For my editor. 00:09:14.188 --> 00:09:15.448 Took me eight days. 00:09:17.248 --> 00:09:23.458 Anyone who is telling you a shortcut to writing a book has 00:09:23.458 --> 00:09:25.858 never written a book worth reading. 00:09:26.128 --> 00:09:26.758 You know what? 00:09:26.788 --> 00:09:30.178 They've probably never written a book period. 00:09:31.228 --> 00:09:34.048 And I know I've written five books. 00:09:34.323 --> 00:09:38.938 You have people who are saying, I'm gonna write eight books this year. 00:09:40.858 --> 00:09:44.578 They're not putting any real effort into writing their books. 00:09:45.643 --> 00:09:50.743 They are claiming to do the Kessel run in less than 12 Parex. 00:09:52.273 --> 00:09:53.803 So what's my point in all this? 00:09:54.493 --> 00:09:59.353 Well, let's get into that after a break from our sponsors. 00:10:00.283 --> 00:10:04.183 My point in all of this is you need to spend time on the important stuff. 00:10:05.293 --> 00:10:07.723 All of these examples illustrate the same thing. 00:10:08.548 --> 00:10:14.428 People are trying to take shortcuts for things that will and should take time. 00:10:15.568 --> 00:10:18.358 They want the best bagels without waiting for them. 00:10:19.438 --> 00:10:23.758 They want to get to a destination without traveling the distance. 00:10:24.838 --> 00:10:30.328 They want to write a book without putting the proper effort to write the book. 00:10:32.218 --> 00:10:34.528 And the key word there is effort. 00:10:35.698 --> 00:10:38.878 These shortcuts make it seem like you can do great things with 00:10:38.878 --> 00:10:43.738 minimal effort, but here's a nice cold bucket of water for you. 00:10:44.848 --> 00:10:47.908 That's not going to happen. 00:10:49.468 --> 00:10:51.748 People take the same approach with podcasting. 00:10:52.648 --> 00:10:56.578 They wanna take shortcuts on research, the script, the edit, and 00:10:56.578 --> 00:10:59.098 the content because it's easier. 00:11:00.268 --> 00:11:02.818 But these are the things you need to spend the time on. 00:11:04.228 --> 00:11:07.858 Listeners don't want to hear the raw interview. 00:11:08.758 --> 00:11:11.788 That's a thing lazy podcasters tell themselves. 00:11:12.748 --> 00:11:17.698 And if we look outside of podcasting, the same thing goes for writing 00:11:18.028 --> 00:11:21.358 or videos or artwork or whatever. 00:11:22.558 --> 00:11:27.148 The stuff that stands out is the stuff that took time. 00:11:28.618 --> 00:11:32.308 There was a guy a few years ago who took a picture of himself. 00:11:32.668 --> 00:11:39.178 Every day for a number of years, and he put that collage together. 00:11:40.288 --> 00:11:42.088 It showed him growing up. 00:11:44.008 --> 00:11:45.328 You can't rush that. 00:11:46.048 --> 00:11:50.338 You can't take 365 pictures in one day and say, I got it. 00:11:50.683 --> 00:11:54.448 You actually have to live each day and take a picture. 00:11:55.403 --> 00:12:00.563 Walt Disney would spend years on movies, making sure the script 00:12:00.563 --> 00:12:04.433 was right and the animation was right, and everything looked good. 00:12:05.483 --> 00:12:08.453 But people don't want to do that these days. 00:12:09.383 --> 00:12:14.693 They want to rush content out the door, and I think it's 00:12:14.693 --> 00:12:20.273 because we've been trained by the internet by two day delivery. 00:12:21.923 --> 00:12:27.023 Buy a whole bunch of other stuff that we can get things instantly 00:12:27.023 --> 00:12:32.183 and we can do things instantly, but the best stuff still takes time. 00:12:33.113 --> 00:12:35.393 And you can tell the difference. 00:12:36.353 --> 00:12:41.843 You can tell the difference between a YouTube video where someone just 00:12:41.843 --> 00:12:45.773 turned on a camera and talked and turned it off and uploaded it, versus 00:12:45.773 --> 00:12:47.963 something like what M-K-B-H-D or Mr. 00:12:47.963 --> 00:12:48.413 Beast does. 00:12:49.628 --> 00:12:57.668 Where they put a ton of time and effort into their videos and it pays off spending 00:12:57.668 --> 00:13:05.828 time, crafting the story, doing research to support your claims, finding the right 00:13:05.833 --> 00:13:11.348 stories to drive your point home, or extract great answers from your guests. 00:13:12.728 --> 00:13:14.198 Editing with care. 00:13:14.828 --> 00:13:17.648 This is the stuff that turns content from. 00:13:17.678 --> 00:13:18.278 Okay. 00:13:18.878 --> 00:13:19.508 To great. 00:13:20.948 --> 00:13:27.638 It's what separates a song like Love Story by Taylor Swift from a song like Friday by 00:13:27.968 --> 00:13:30.398 whoever wrote that song for Rebecca Black. 00:13:31.338 --> 00:13:35.178 But that doesn't mean you need to do everything manually. 00:13:35.388 --> 00:13:40.308 You can still save time, you can still leverage the shortcuts. 00:13:41.418 --> 00:13:45.078 After all, if you wanna go to California from New York. 00:13:45.678 --> 00:13:48.168 You can walk, drive, or fly. 00:13:49.188 --> 00:13:54.288 You still have to do the full distance, but each of those will get you 00:13:54.288 --> 00:13:56.298 there in different amounts of time. 00:13:58.018 --> 00:14:02.038 Save time in other parts of your process. 00:14:03.028 --> 00:14:08.038 Use AI instead of actually writing the content to help you come up with 00:14:08.038 --> 00:14:09.988 ideas that you may not have thought of. 00:14:11.638 --> 00:14:15.358 Again, don't use AI to write the script or the questions. 00:14:16.648 --> 00:14:19.228 Don't skimp on guest research. 00:14:20.338 --> 00:14:24.088 Instead, make booking and scheduling easier. 00:14:24.598 --> 00:14:28.618 That way you send your guest one link and you can spend the rest of 00:14:28.618 --> 00:14:31.408 that back and forth time on research. 00:14:32.878 --> 00:14:34.768 Don't release the raw interview. 00:14:35.428 --> 00:14:38.548 Use DSS script to edit through text, or even better. 00:14:39.358 --> 00:14:46.708 Hire an editor, use social media software, leverage AI to create the initial social 00:14:46.708 --> 00:14:53.758 media assets for sharing tools like Cast Magic will at least pinpoint some areas 00:14:53.758 --> 00:14:57.898 that you could highlight even if you don't use exactly what they give you. 00:14:58.678 --> 00:15:01.708 You have 10 timestamped quotes to use. 00:15:02.698 --> 00:15:06.418 Maybe there was something better that. 00:15:06.778 --> 00:15:08.818 The AI prompts you to think about. 00:15:09.768 --> 00:15:16.218 If you want to create a great podcast or YouTube video or article or book, 00:15:16.908 --> 00:15:22.968 you need to spend time on the tasks worth spending time on, the ones that 00:15:22.968 --> 00:15:26.568 will lead you to create great content. 00:15:27.648 --> 00:15:31.548 If you wanna write a book, you need to spend weeks, likely months crafting 00:15:31.548 --> 00:15:32.928 something that's worth reading. 00:15:34.493 --> 00:15:37.848 That is the only way it will be great. 00:15:39.408 --> 00:15:40.248 After all. 00:15:40.458 --> 00:15:46.788 If AI can write a book for you, what's the benefit of hiring you over ai? 00:15:47.928 --> 00:15:51.918 If all you're doing is having a raw conversation, what's the benefit 00:15:51.918 --> 00:15:56.778 of listening to your podcast over the thousands of other podcasts? 00:15:58.308 --> 00:16:01.608 All you're doing is turning the camera on talking at it for a 00:16:01.608 --> 00:16:03.258 while and uploading it to YouTube. 00:16:03.858 --> 00:16:09.078 What's the benefit of watching your video over someone else's video? 00:16:10.308 --> 00:16:12.168 These are the things that you need to consider. 00:16:13.248 --> 00:16:22.038 Yes, 80% is good enough most of the time, but you make standout content. 00:16:22.038 --> 00:16:26.778 You make standout anything when you get it to 100%. 00:16:28.383 --> 00:16:33.513 Cheating by using AI or some other tool is never going to 00:16:33.513 --> 00:16:36.003 get you to a hundred percent. 00:16:38.253 --> 00:16:40.983 Thanks so much for listening to this podcast. 00:16:40.983 --> 00:16:41.913 I hope you enjoyed it. 00:16:42.183 --> 00:16:43.323 If you do, let me know. 00:16:43.323 --> 00:16:49.713 I wanna do more solo episodes this year because I want to create great 00:16:49.713 --> 00:16:55.983 content and writing out the script and allowing me to tell a better story. 00:16:56.673 --> 00:16:57.963 Helps me do that. 00:16:59.043 --> 00:17:04.533 And the shortcut there is that I'm not scripting with another guest or doing 00:17:04.533 --> 00:17:10.893 raw interviews with guests and then creating documentary style episodes. 00:17:10.893 --> 00:17:16.413 That's something that I can't do right now, so I'm taking the shortcut I need 00:17:16.413 --> 00:17:22.203 to take to create great content, and I'd love to hear what you think about that. 00:17:23.403 --> 00:17:28.413 Now all of these thoughts kind of came to me, uh, over the time 00:17:28.413 --> 00:17:32.433 between Christmas Eve and last week when I was at the conference. 00:17:32.438 --> 00:17:38.013 This was like a, this, uh, topic was a long time brewing for me 00:17:38.973 --> 00:17:42.123 and in the Pro show for members. 00:17:43.173 --> 00:17:48.753 I do want to talk a little bit about my conference going process and some 00:17:49.203 --> 00:17:51.003 things I've been thinking about there. 00:17:51.003 --> 00:17:51.063 I. 00:17:51.603 --> 00:17:57.363 So if you do want to hear that as well as some more things I'm trying, uh, 00:17:57.363 --> 00:18:04.803 a, a conference focus mode and how I'm finding inspiration, you can become a 00:18:04.803 --> 00:18:09.483 member over@howibuilt.it slash join. 00:18:09.748 --> 00:18:14.583 Uh, if you're listening right in Apple Podcasts, you can 00:18:14.583 --> 00:18:16.683 subscribe right in Apple Podcasts. 00:18:16.683 --> 00:18:17.583 It's very easy. 00:18:18.138 --> 00:18:23.478 For you to do that, you'll get ad free extended episodes and bonus episodes 00:18:23.478 --> 00:18:25.248 as well as a weekly newsletter. 00:18:25.278 --> 00:18:28.758 So again, that's over at How I Built Diet slash Join. 00:18:29.118 --> 00:18:36.168 Today I'll be talking about going to conferences, my plan, uh, my 00:18:36.168 --> 00:18:40.248 approach, and how I still managed to find some inspiration there. 00:18:41.598 --> 00:18:43.008 But that's it for this episode. 00:18:43.008 --> 00:18:44.568 Thanks so much for listening. 00:18:44.568 --> 00:18:45.558 I really appreciate it. 00:18:45.858 --> 00:18:49.578 There will be a written to be read article of what you heard 00:18:49.578 --> 00:18:52.308 today over@podcastworkflows.com. 00:18:52.308 --> 00:18:56.718 I'll link that in the description, but thank you, thank you, thank you. 00:18:56.898 --> 00:19:02.448 Thanks to our sponsors and until next time, get out there and build something.