Marketing

Measured Twice

Inspired by a remarkable Startup Weekend DSM, the winter freeze, this build now vibe from Balaji, and land development leaders coming together to share stories with this episode’s featured guest!

Ryan Glick continues building residential land development tools, such as lot inventory management, through Groov. We also love The Land Development Podcast with this fellow translator of nerd to normal!

For EP34 of You Don’t Need This Podcast, grab a hammer and cut once. Ben, Ryan, and BEN BOT talk about home building and technology in residential land development. After the break, Ben also riffs on his creative, multimedia, “4th Path” into real estate and the construction industry.

Dig in as we close with insight on earning trust in a new market and jam on how it’s never too late to keep building.

Enjoy this Episode
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By Ben McDougal, ago

PolyOmega

Roasted Reflections is a collection
of writings I’ll be proud of forever
and this is the finishing touch…

As I think back, I was never much into reading or writing. I did what was required to play the game of school. Back in 2004, after earning a computer science degree from Loras College and as I started building my career, countless website proposals and client emails had to be where my proficiency with creative writing started to form. This was when the Internet was new, so every business owner began to realize they needed a decent website, even if they didn’t know why. My ability to translate nerd to normal (and normal back to nerd), helped me collaborate with leaders in countless industries. Hearing how people built their companies and helping to compile stories made content creation an indirect, but ongoing element to my early practice.

Writing was also important in my entrepreneurial ventures. It helped me launch The Iowa 3v3 Soccer Challenge and then a global social network for video game enthusiasts. The amount of content I forged into Gathering of Gamers and Tournament Seeker was epic. When I retired from web development after 8 years and  $1M+ in sales, a multimedia marketing move into home building also had me creating a castle of content and with each new side hustle, more words were always required. For instance, I designed everything on FliteBrite, OpenOpen, and Chatty, just to name a few.

I stretch back into the past, because it reveals how writing is fundamental to modern communication. AI and ChatUX is transforming how it’s done, but content creation has enhanced my career in digital marketing and has fueled all of my innovative aspirations. Along with articulating ideas in compelling ways, my writing has been focused on entrepreneurship for a long time. My own creative seasons have been enlightening, but all that I’ve learned from leaders like you, has been monumental in understanding the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Along with career nirvana for myself, I’ve seen how building a business activates an abundance of lasting purpose, shared motivation, and personal growth!

Alright, fast forward to January 1, 2020.

As I started writing my first book by copying the Table of Contents into a blank document, there was never a doubt I could articulate deep understandings into tight spaces. From start to finish, writing You Don’t Need This Book and building Pour Over Publishing to support the publishing process took 1.25 years. Toward the end of this journey, it became clear that BenMcDougal.com needed to be a more prominent place. Thanks to a lifetime of building online, as my personal website came together, I had a stockpile of content. Along with everything on different websites and throughout social media, I had crafted (37,456 words) for YDNTB, which delivered a wonderful well of my very best writing.

Extending my book with a blog was not the original plan. It felt important to make my website shine, but I had never published art on such a rigid timeline. Seth Godin suggests we ship art every day, so while I considered a daily blog, I had to be realistic. Everything I write about are relics for people who mean the world to many, so delivering on a promise was my only option. As I considered how often to publish new articles, feedback kept me grounded and I’m glad I chose to pursue a weekly cadence.

Over time, RoastedReflections.com has become a treasured library. Each writing is a chemical reaction. I thought deeply and challenged myself to write less, but to mean more. The challenge of compressing countless characters also led to many short titles. While my titles may not be obvious for first-time readers, I appreciate the allure of such mystique. Short titles deliver a punch and I’ve enjoyed forcing big ideas into tiny titles.

The organization of this library will continue to pay dividends as well. There are countless links between all 160+ writings. Primary categories kept me focused on timely/evergreen value for the right audience, while topic-based tags were applied for more precise exploration. Thoughtfully associating a unique emoji to each writing was fun as well.

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Listen to WHY I build.

What started as a marketing engine for my first book, soon became a part of my routine. Knowing an email would automatically pull from my blog every Wednesday morning, meant I needed to meet my deadline every week. The occasional glitch had me scrambling once in awhile, but I never missed a week. Such consistency required sacrifice, but significant learning was experienced along the way.

I learned how reading helps us understand the world, while writing helps us understand ourselves. I learned to feel when it was time to find direction. I learned to appreciate the release of articulating something everyone was going to see. As distribution channels grew, I learned how to counter the feelings of self-righteousness. I learned a lot of new words and that it usually took more than one pass to get each writing perfect. I learned the value of indexing my thoughts. I learned how writing helps improve the way we listen and speak. I learned that when we create something we’re proud of, external validation becomes inconsequential. I learned more about how generosity builds trust and what it means to be an author.

There are more takeaways, but it’s clear why I encourage everyone to write. If you’re afraid to write in public, start by journalling in private, but know this has layers of unrealized potential. Writing helps us organize, execute, and release ideas, but it’s not “art” until it connects with those we seek to serve. The best of intentions mean nothing until we ship it.

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“Change is inevitable.
Don’t fall in love with a medium.
Fall in love with the mission.” -Seth Godin

I’ve shipped my art and RoastedReflections.com will live on to nourish leaders who make a ruckus by fueling positive change in our connected era.

This may be the end to an epic streak, but the title of this closing chapter (PolyOmega) reminds us that endings are a beginning to what’s next.

I’ll continue to lead by speaking nationwide, over 5,000 copies of You Don’t Need This Book have been sold, You Don’t Need This Podcast is in full-effect, BEN BOT is online, fellow leaders are collaborating on Discord, community events are happening, and ecosystems are evolving.

Cheers to all who make work look like play and as we each pursue career nirvana, let’s keep building and stay connected in all that we do ▯

By Ben McDougal, ago

Let’s Get Phygital

Sachin Sehgal found lasting purpose by starting his first business at the University of Iowa. Along with all that is multimedia marketing, Sachin is building Elevate and Bond Branding as he continues to explore connections between our physical and digital worlds.

You’ll love these shared wavelengths on customer discovery, content creation, value-based sales, balancing personal brands, activating phygital concepts, when to quit, spirit animals, truth-based prompt engineering with AI, collectability with web3 technologies, and playing long-term games with long-term people. As Sachin reminds us, when life gives us stories, tell them.

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By Ben McDougal, ago

Producing a Podcast

Everyone has experiential wisdom to share, and piloting those stories into a podcast can shape a potent piece into the larger puzzle of our work.

Time is the resource required to pursue a podcast. Let’s save some by sneaking behind the scenes of You Don’t Need This Podcast, which is timeless insight packed into 100+ episodes, recorded in-studio with featured guests. This entertaining achievement helps us analyze what it takes to unearth treasured time for yourself while curating rhythmic value with people you respect.

As you juggle the idea of producing a podcast, think about why this outlet is something you want. Imagine if you had a collection of episodes already available everywhere. How might they be formatted? What genres and topics would your podcast be defined by? Who would benefit most, what does success lead to, and in a scenario where nobody cares, what’s the worst thing that could happen?

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People without a podcast want one.
People with one, know what it takes.

It’s not hard to start a podcast. Anyone can buy recording equipment, find a space, push record, and host files on a podcasting platform. That is one reason so many podcasts don’t go further than a few fun files. As you determine your why and feel the excitement of something new, remember that a podcast will require time, a little money, communication, systems, networking, marketing, resilience, and even more time. While opportunity cost is higher than most expect, the return on your investment can be meaningful conversations and recorded relics you’ll always appreciate.

To produce a podcast, you’ll need to orchestrate the participants, duration, tempo, branding, distribution engine, recording gear, post-production, and execution plan. Action will push a podcasting idea further than constant planning, but let’s turn each knob to prepare you for the dance.

Duration

With your why, realities, and audience in mind, determine the estimated duration for each episode. There are no rules, but the length of a podcast affects how much you can cover and what you’ll ask from others plugging in.

Anything under 30 minutes works for a solo host without co-hosts or featured guests; 30–60 minutes provides space for featured guests and still invites anyone to listen. Podcasts that last more than 60 minutes invite deeper interactions, but can also drone on and cause audience fatigue. No matter the duration, preparation is required. What are your capabilities as a host and who else will be involved? Consider lengths you like to listen to, experiment to find flow, and know you can always categorize different episode lengths to keep things interesting along the way.

Tempo

The cadence for releasing new podcasts will determine how much content needs to be created. Single episodes take a shot of effort and can add a nice sound to existing content, while a comprehensive effort will be needed to string two or more episodes together. The more time between each episode, the harder it is to build meaningful momentum.

Occasional drops provide flexibility but make it impossible for an audience to add your podcast into their routine. An annual or quarterly cadence also provides elasticity, but more distance between new episodes will limit growth. If your podcast hits the ears of someone who likes it, attention will fade fast if you stop delivering fresh content.

For those trying to produce a podcast that thrives on its own, a monthly release is practical, but a weekly release speeds everything up. There are daily podcasts, but those become talk radio, focused on monetization more than true value compressed into each episode.

If you’re unsure, the hack is a topic-based series of 3–5 episodes. This will provide room to experiment, offer success without much commitment, eliminate the need to purchase equipment, and adds clarity from a shorter feedback loop to help assess value as you navigate what’s next. If the episode count starts to push higher, a few categories leave room for different types of episodes, and breaking things up into multiple seasons adds an offseason to take a break.

Branding

When branding a podcast, it is wise to avoid the fog that settles when we build akin to existing art. Like the founder building a startup, when it comes to early research, don’t fall in love and hope something like it doesn’t already exist. Try to find it! Look for podcasts that may be similar to what you have in mind. Explore related genres, hunt for anything that has a title like yours, listen to a variety of formats, and review the content guidelines for different podcast platforms. Alongside so many existing podcasts, brave awareness helps to avoid future tension and provides the creative freedom for your own art to bloom.

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Wanna one pager to monetize your podcast? Let’s connect.

With a clean identity, have fun creating visuals to represent your podcast. Like cover art for a book that pops off the bookshelf, artwork for a podcast needs to catch the scrolling eye. Alternate resolutions and episode-specific graphics earn extra credit down the road, but your artwork should look its best as a small square thumbnail. Less is more.

Branded assets will support marketing, but first it’s time to lay the groundwork for automated distribution.

Distribution

Nesting a home for this creative season requires a system that starts with a podcast hosting platform. This is where your podcast lives. It’s where you’ll track metrics, connect to popular podcast players, and create embedded players for the richest experience on websites you manage. There are many great podcast hosting platforms, which usually charge an ongoing fee based on the amount of content you upload. This allows you to pay less and grow into more resources, so budget for this important home base.

Now it’s time to align RSS connections between your home base and the major podcasting players. Podcast submission forms or dedicated profiles may be needed for each podcast player. With podcast player requirements met, return to the podcast hosting platform to connect the feed to the podcast player. This automates distribution and only needs to be set up once. When done correctly, episodes are set up with an audio file (.mp3 is a widely accepted file format) and related materials on the podcast hosting platform. Once published from your home base, embedded players will be activated, and new episodes will sync into connected podcast players.

With all major distribution channels aligned, it’s nice knowing your podcast can be heard anywhere. But if you had a choice, where would you want to send listeners? It’s easy to share links provided by popular podcast players, but this cuts you out of the deal. Instead, register a branded URL that lets you control the traffic. This URL can link people directly to a podcast player, but it can just as easily connect to a branded environment dedicated to your podcast. For example, YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com forwards to an internal page on BenMcDougal.com. With one branded link, visitors can enjoy a catered experience that commemorates each episode, with all the popular podcast players and the rest of my art just a click away.

Gear

Securing equipment to bring a podcast to life is easy. Start with a space that vibes. A consistent environment will make the sound quality dependable, and if you’re inviting guests, this should be a public place.

Purchasing equipment and building your own studio is ideal, but the cost may be prohibitive, and there are existing space options to get started. Libraries, schools, coworking spaces, and traditional recording studios are all places to jam. A professional environment is not required, but it will inspire guests and provide quality audio that is easier to optimize. To arrange a podcast studio, here’s a practical shopping list:

  • Quiet environment
  • 4–6 channel mixer
  • 2–3 microphones + cables + mounts
  • Laptop + 5TB external hard drive
  • Headphones are not required but help with quality control and make people feel rockstar.
  • Video can’t be used if it’s not captured. SLR cameras make things cinematic, but smartphones or action cameras will also do the trick.
  • Regardless of the video equipment used, a little extra lighting will really enhance the look.

              The efficiency of our connected era makes podcasting more approachable than ever before. Online podcasting requires less of everything, but when was the last time you got excited to watch people chat on a video call? There are exceptions where professional AV setups reduce the distance felt between each person, but most podcasts that are recorded online fall flat. There’s less body language, banter feels rigid, serendipity is lost, and the whole thing becomes less entertaining. When you’re looking for less content or if resources hinder the ability to share premium human time in a physical space, enjoy the ease of online podcasting but don’t be surprised when enthusiasm stalls and valuable insight gets lost in the noise.

              One vs. Many

              Monologue podcasts are a great way for individuals to express ideas with full creative control. This approach is convenient, provides a healthy release, and distributes art into the world. Unfortunately, a solo mission still requires resources, setup, execution, and marketing. Hosting a podcast by yourself can also be isolating, and a limited reach may be disheartening.

              Adding co-hosts and/or featured guests will add layers to the logistics, but extended coordination can be done efficiently. When more people are involved, a scheduling system will save time and maintain professional encounters as studio time is organized and featured guests are booked. The extra effort pays off because appreciation is shared between everyone involved, diversity of thought thickens value, and additional trust channels ignite engagement from an expanding audience.

              Co-hosts are like co-founders in a company. There’s less money involved but honest expectations with time required and role clarity will help activate other motivating factors. Kept promises, ongoing communication, versatility, and milestones for ongoing evaluation support a healthy relationship for co-hosts creating art together.If featured guests make the podcast more interesting, as they often do, an existing network will make it easier to curate special visitors. If your engaged network is small, slow down the tempo to make room for better connections. This signals respect for experience and a willingness to share time. As patience uncovers more shared interests, the ability to access remarkable featured guests is strengthened. As a podcast grows and more notable guests are featured, future invitations become more appealing. The expanding platform will soon have strangers asking to be a guest, and the original motivation will be tested. This is progress, so embrace the growth while staying grounded in your why.

              Execution

              Before each recording session, forge prompts to guide the conversation and to prepare featured guests. Include time and location, an estimated release date, and resources that make the podcast easy to share.

              When it’s show time, avoid feeling rushed by arriving early to get equipment set up. With headphones hung on each mic, pour beverages and lay out small thank you gifts. Touch base with featured guests, review the conversation prompts, and open relevant websites that may come in handy during the discussion. Guests will appreciate this hospitality and give their best as they hear their own voice in the headphones. Warm up with a little unrecorded banter, go over the basic format, and answer any questions. To feel the moment, take a deep breath because once recording starts, everything speeds up.

              This is when preparation and hard work are rewarded, as exhilarating time is shared and intentional conversations are amplified.As the host, let gratitude galvanize opening remarks, and bring your best as you guide good to great. With featured guests plugged in, give them the spotlight and actively listen to spark inverse charisma. Be responsive, keep topics shifting, and maintain a conversational tone. No matter the duration, time will fly by. Once in flight, keep an eye on conversation prompts and popcorn value, then land on time and with style.

              After the mic is dropped, celebrate the moment by creating a few promotional assets. Photos are awkward, but everyone likes having them. Pop a camera on the tripod and trap time with everyone involved. Premium human time has now been archived, but it will only become art once it ships.   

              Stitch It

              The climb has provided a hope that’s felt in saying yes to adventure. Building a branded system, securing gear, finding an inspired space, and recording good stuff with people you respect has been thrilling. Now it’s time to stitch everything together with post-production.

              Astute organization will help systematize a growing number of files for each episode and all related materials associated with your podcast. With raw files organized, add sizzle by recording brief, attention-grabbing clips to augment each episode. A stimulating intro will acquaint the audience with this creative expression. If you include breaks, these will need to be recorded, and an encapsulating outro is a nice way to end each episode. These assets are minor additions to an individual episode, but they build your brand and add consistency when applied to every episode. With a hot intro and cool outro in place, collaborate with a sound engineer or use editing software and royalty-free music to polish these supplementing assets into eargasmic additions.

              With all the parts in place, use editing software to stitch everything together. If mistakes were made in the original recording, here’s where you can fix those, but work toward single takes to save serious time. With files stitched, enhance the listener’s experience with sound engineering. The better the sound quality going in, the easier this process will be, but software can always add richness, eliminate an echo, and offer other treatments to boost the sound quality. With preferred settings in place, use templates to save time and to apply a similar sound quality to each episode.

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              Single takes provide a smooth listen and require way less editing in post.

              Not interested in post-production? We can always trade time for money, so if you’d rather hand this work off to others, collaborate with a sound engineer or use podcast editing services and plan to invest $50–$250 per episode. When outsourcing this work, an efficient workflow will include transferring large files, notes for someone who was not part of the original recording, and elongated turnaround times.

              As a groove is found, this collaboration can save time, optimize quality, and extend what’s possible.

              When the noise starts to sound like music, export the entire episode into a single file. WAV files will provide the highest quality, but MP3 files are more widely accepted. Export both file formats, and take one more quick listen to ensure everything sounds sharp.

              Ship It

              With the stage set, it’s time to publish your podcast into the wild! Get finalized episodes uploaded, add show notes, and attach graphics into your podcast hosting platform, which is that home base we established for automated distribution.

              With 5–10 episodes scheduled, you have enough propulsion to launch. This queue provides space to bank more episodes with less stress. Get back to recording while also using the summit of each new episode to increase awareness.

              Stabilizing awareness for a new podcast takes at least 6 months. As you hit milestones, you’ll realize the mighty potential of a podcast. Magic happens when time, interests, and ideas are shared between people who care. Make your podcast easy to find with social media clips and creative marketing materials, but circulation occurs when others gain status by sharing your podcast.

              If featured guests are involved, keep them updated to make them feel a part of the release. Recommendations are unquestioned when they come from friends, eh. The more excited featured guests are, the wider word will spread.

              Successful storytelling resonates with the right audience at the right time. There’s always more to do, but as episodes accumulate, a snowball effect occurs.

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              Compose art you’ll be proud of for life.

              Podcasting will always require dedicated time, and the analytics will be lower than expected, but carry on with gratitude. The metric that matters most is how much you enjoy the process. Eventually, you’ll realize that podcasting is for your own well-being. You’ll feel in tune with aftereffects that include perpetual learning, an expanding network, having a new favorite podcast, and recorded relics to leave behind alongside people you treasure.

              Brewed From Within
              #74 📖 Technology

              V2.0 - 100% HUMAN

              In Loving Memory of Jay Byers

              By Ben McDougal, ago

              Echoes

              The echo of an idea is always fading. How can we extend ideation long enough to activate early moves, blow through barriers, and maintain enrollment?

              This is clearly a loaded question. Much goes into enabling ideas into reality, and the rate of an idea’s degradation depends on a kabillion factors. Still, let’s sip on the artistry of pushing without being pushy.

              Start easy. Personally think through the various angles that might make an idea interesting. This private contemplation requires thought and time. Time is precious, and yet we waste it. The ease of your own thoughts will soon meet the hardships that await those who don’t let ideas breathe. This makes stealth mode precarious and early moves confusing, which makes ongoing customer discovery more important.

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              Will you spend time or money?

              When we share a new idea with someone else, the situation becomes complicated and complex. That is the moment we put our idea on a hook. It’s also when leaders push past fear and invite doubt. Connecting dots within such complexity is difficult, takes time, and is never straightforward. When the sacrifice is made, research builds confidence and adds clarity to how opportunities are articulated.

              As thought through in the Isochronal riff, this makes the efficiency of blunt repetition tempting but ineffective. More of the same without execution—whether by co-founders, mentors, early adopters, or investors—only chases interest.

              To avoid the fade, find diverse ways to motivate movement. For a fun visualization, imagine a glass pond. If one pebble drops in, the lonely ripple is loud and obvious but also fades fast. It makes a splash and is soon forgotten. Now, imagine many pebbles thrown in different ways, all around the pond, from every angle, and over time. The pond is now alive! The echo of each pebble is magnified, and the abundance of rippled collisions leaves a more lasting song.

              Like a pond of pebbles singing together, leaders can nudge progress long enough to activate action. Conversation in different environments, inquisitive questioning, active listening, creative analogies, talking about anything else, releasing reluctance, and letting others lead are all ways you can keep building without getting too frantic. Intentional diversity allows each different echo of one idea to feel distinct and yet all bounce on a shared wavelength.

              Brewed From Within
              📖 Entrepreneurship

              By Ben McDougal, ago