Podcasting for Loan Officers: Authentic Branding, Storytelling, and Getting Started with Larry Roberts

Rachael Tresch [00:00:17]:
Hey, everybody, we're so excited to have you back at Lending Leadership with the creative Brief. We have a podcast about podcasting today with our good friend Larry Roberts of LarryRoberts.com Red Hat Media. Larry, thank you so much for joining us.

Larry Roberts [00:00:32]:
Oh, it's great to be here. I appreciate it.

Rachael Tresch [00:00:35]:
You've got some pretty great credentials under your belt. You've been on abc. Good Morning, Texas. Good morning. Why can I never remember the name of it? I want to say good morning. I want to say good day, Philadelphia.

Larry Roberts [00:00:48]:
Listen. Yeah, I don't know that I've even ever been to Philly.

Corrine Bibb [00:00:51]:
Well, you have maybe.

Larry Roberts [00:00:53]:
Yeah, maybe I have. I don't recall.

Rachael Tresch [00:00:54]:
But anyways, we get this. We get this question all the time, Larry, from loan officers, from really so many people in the mortgage space, in the real estate space. Hey, I want to start a podcast. I'm sure you hear that all the time.

Larry Roberts [00:01:07]:
I love hearing it because that means I get a new client. When everybody, when somebody tells me that, I'm like, yes, let's make it happen. But yeah, it's. You almost have to have a podcast these days. If you're building a personal brand or you're building yourself as a thought leader, I say there's three things that you need. One of them is a podcast, one of them is a book. And you got to get on stages. And if you're missing any of those three components, you're going to have a very difficult time really establishing yourself as a leader in your industry.

Rachael Tresch [00:01:36]:
Oh, man. Corinne, we need to write a book next, and we need to get on some stages, is what I'm hearing, Larry.

Corrine Bibb [00:01:41]:
I don't feel overwhelmed at all. I'm just joking. Let's bring it back, though, a little bit, Larry. So if you're a loan officer out there and you're interested, but maybe you don't feel. Feel that you have the time to get one started. I know, obviously you can hire a group like yourself to run one, but, you know, what are your thoughts on getting started? Just being interviewed by other individuals that have one. Starting to make some connections that way. Any other tips, basically, around podcasting as you're kind of building up to that big moment?

Larry Roberts [00:02:08]:
Yeah, I mean, guesting on podcast is one of the best ways to get a feel for the industry, get a feel for the process and see if it's something that you really want to do. It's also a great way to build your podcast. If you've already got a podcast and you want to tap into a new audience for your show, go on other shows, that's going to get you a ton of attention. You're going to tap into other audiences and you're going to get that exposure that you're looking for.

Corrine Bibb [00:02:31]:
Yeah, I think that that's important. I think sometimes we're just taking some small steps, or ripples, as you like to say, Rachel, in different directions to get some exposure and to get linked up with other more experienced individuals that are doing podcasting. But I love it. I want to hear more. You know, is there any stats or information specific to podcasting that. That we should share for our loan officers? Larry?

Larry Roberts [00:02:54]:
Well, I mean, there's roughly, you know, a lot of people will say, I want to start a podcast, but the market's already flooded. There's podcasts for everything, even pod on podcasting. But there's roughly 4 million podcasts in existence. But what you want to keep in mind is that only about 8 of those are active, meaning that they've released content in the last 60 days. So while a lot of people, they'll pull that trigger and they'll start a podcast, very rarely do they make it past episode seven. So the market's not flooded. There's still a ton of opportunity. And you know, Rachel, you were saying something a little, a bit, a little bit ago about authenticity and tapping into that authentic self, basically.

Larry Roberts [00:03:32]:
Right? So even if there is a podcast out there that's already covering the topic that you're covering, they're not going to cover that topic the way you will. You have different experiences, you have different stories, you have different perspectives. So there is that opportunity. There's still a tremendous opportunity to start a brand new podcast and really make an impact in your niche.

Rachael Tresch [00:03:50]:
Yeah, I love that you said that. And it really is all about storytelling. You know, a lot of the podcasts that I listen to, you get drawn into the story before you even know what the person, what their company is or what they're selling or what they're doing right. Or we remember in stories and we are connected by stories. And what a unique time to be alive, really, that we have so many mediums than ever before and ways to connect with people. What, Larry, little Larry, growing up, did you ever think that you would be a storyteller podcaster in this space that you're in now?

Larry Roberts [00:04:24]:
Well, I mean, I never really thought I'd be a podcaster. Of course, as the little pup I always dreamed of being on tv. And, you know, TV is not quite as impactful as today as it was, you know, Way back then. But I was always, you know, looking for attention. I was the class clown. I was telling the jokes. I was getting trouble. You know, the one getting in trouble for talking too much.

Larry Roberts [00:04:44]:
I was that guy. So for me to be in an industry where I'm allowed to talk as much as I want to, really not a surprise.

Rachael Tresch [00:04:51]:
That is so funny. Corinne, how. How many times have we said this where it's like, I would love to see all of the people who are doing what we do and are just out there and talking to people. How many people on their report card got too chatty in class? Like, what do they do now? They're doing what we're doing.

Corrine Bibb [00:05:09]:
Me all the way. I used to get. I was voted most talkative, and I think middle school, I was like, is that a compliment? Probably not. And then, yes, you nailed it, Rachel. Every report card, there would be one teacher that write in the comments. Very chatty. Always talking to friends during class at the move seat. Oh, yeah.

Larry Roberts [00:05:29]:
I mean, I did. I did a gig here in Dallas last week where I spoke, and while I was in the audience area, the promoter of the event, I got the evil eye several times just last week because I was talking to the person sitting next to me. We got a little loud a couple of times, so I got in trouble even then. So I still get in trouble for it.

Corrine Bibb [00:05:46]:
But off of that, off of that, relating it back to what we're talking about a little bit, it. It feels fun to just have conversations on here. And this is something that I learned from Larry, guys, because, I mean, Rachel has experience, obviously. Larry has a tremendous amount of experience, and I had no experience doing this. So when I first came on, and Rachel's like, well, you know, why don't we do this together? And we started talking about doing this whole Rach and Wren thing. I had all these questions for Larry, like, where do I look? Do I look down at the person? Do I look straight at the camera? And, you know, I. I really was, like, nervous on how to do it. And then the more you get kind of comfortable just chatting about a topic or a category, you realize that podcasting is just a conversation.

Corrine Bibb [00:06:26]:
We're just sitting here and chatting and having a conversation, and I think that's kind of where I hit a trigger on it for myself, of, this is actually fun, you know, what are we going to be talking about today? And I don't always have to have things scripted. I can just be myself, as you had pointed out, Rachel. So I think it's something important. To note for people that are nervous or new to doing something like this.

Larry Roberts [00:06:48]:
Yeah, a lot of people think that you have to have that podcast voice and you got to get on that microphone and you have to have a performance. It's not a performance. Like you said, it's just a conversation. Just get on here, relax, have a good time, cover the topic that you want to cover, and educate and entertain your audience.

Rachael Tresch [00:07:04]:
How many times, Larry, when you first started podcasting, did you put that, that.

Larry Roberts [00:07:09]:
Larry Roberts voice on?

Rachael Tresch [00:07:10]:
Did you? Was that a thing that you would do in the beginning?

Larry Roberts [00:07:13]:
It's funny because my very first podcast was a comedy podcast. So we were just being stupid. I mean, it really was just me and an open micr from here in the Dallas area that we teamed up and we started that comedy podcast and we just got on and we talked. Now what. What's funny, though, is after that, I had to kill that podcast because it was a little blue. And if you don't know what that means, there was some naughty words and stuff in that podcast, and I was still in corporate, and actually even the name of the show was a bit of an innuendo. And I had fans at the office and they were wearing my merch to the office. So I finally got that knock on my office door, said, hey, why don't we go to HR and have a chat? And they're like, dude, you can't have people wearing this stuff to work.

Larry Roberts [00:07:51]:
And so one of two things has to go. It's either you or the show. And at the time, I wasn't ready to go, so I had to kill the show. So I started a new podcast, though very clean, but also very boring. It was just an entrepreneur podcast. And I actually named it readily Random because I had those Joe Rogan delusions of grandeur. And I felt that I could talk to anybody and they were just going to listen. And on that show, for some reason, I felt I had to have that tone.

Larry Roberts [00:08:16]:
I had to have that professional radio voice. So it was. It was kind of weird to go from just a relaxed type show to a more structured show. And with that structure came my own assumption that I needed to have that voice. It's kind of weird.

Rachael Tresch [00:08:30]:
Yeah, that's really funny, right? Sometimes it's not what people tell us that we need to do. It's something that we create in our own mind. And it's like, well, well, who told you to do that? Yeah, and. And you came up with it on your own. I, you know, it's. That's funny. You bring that up because I had a similar thing when I was first doing voiceover. I thought that I needed to sound like a Disney princess or even like someone on tv.

Rachael Tresch [00:08:53]:
And I was doing this. This audition for a voiceover, and my husband came, and he was like, why are you talking like that?

Larry Roberts [00:09:00]:
You.

Rachael Tresch [00:09:01]:
You don't talk like that. And I was like, I don't know. I don't know. Why am I talking like that? And when I was just myself, I landed my first job, and I was like, thank you. And of course, he always likes to say, yep, it's because of me. I was your coach there. And I was like, yeah, of course. But that's funny.

Rachael Tresch [00:09:20]:
We sometimes put on this Persona that we think we need to have, but there's only one you.

Larry Roberts [00:09:28]:
There's only one you. And that's what people want to know. That's why you have to put yourself in a position of just having a conversation. Just show up as you are. You know, we've got several clients, and you can watch them on their podcast, and you can realize they're super tense, they're super nervous. They're really trying to just be as perfect as possible, and they're super stiff. And it just does not create really high quality content. High quality content is what we're doing right here.

Larry Roberts [00:09:54]:
You're relaxed. Corinne's relaxed. I'm trying to relax. And, you know, we're all just having a conversation, so that's what people can relate to. And, you know, as a production company, we will leave in. When we're doing people's podcasts, we'll leave in an occasional or. Or what I like to call grammatical grunts, because that's life. If you're having a conversation with someone on the street, there's a good chance you're going to have a in there somewhere or an somewhere in there.

Larry Roberts [00:10:19]:
Now, if it's excessive, we do cut those out. But I did that on purpose. But we have those. So we leave them in there for that natural feel, that conversational feel that we're looking for.

Corrine Bibb [00:10:29]:
Well, we're learning. And just with video in general, as we're analyzing different video types that our loan officers are trying, that when they're just being natural or they're walking the dog or doing something casual, instead of them being in a. A suit or a blazer at the office, at a conference table, they're actually getting better engagement on their videos because individuals just want to see. Did you hear that?

Larry Roberts [00:10:52]:
Is AOL going wild on you?

Corrine Bibb [00:10:54]:
I have it off. I have My everything's off. That's why I said, what do I have to do? I got you serious.

Larry Roberts [00:11:01]:
In your face.

Corrine Bibb [00:11:03]:
You need to leave this in.

Rachael Tresch [00:11:04]:
Leave it in.

Larry Roberts [00:11:05]:
We're leaving this in. This is. This is it.

Corrine Bibb [00:11:10]:
I had a good point too. I have no idea where I was, but I was, I think, with the point that I was getting to was just that video in general, when it's authentic and you're doing something natural, it feels like you get higher engagement than when it's a more corporate style video where you're in a suit at a conference table. So it just lends to the fact that, you know, people can just be themselves. Don't overthink the moment where you're trying to film anything, basically.

Larry Roberts [00:11:33]:
Yeah, 100%. And I understand too, though, you know, if you're not used to creating content or even if you are, you know, I was in New York a couple of weeks ago and I was in Times Square during the day. I'd actually stayed there in Times Square and I had told myself, I'm going to make a video on, you know, in Times Square. But, bro, I couldn't make myself do it. I felt stupid. There were all these people on the street and I felt like a dork, you know, whipping out my phone, going, hey, what's happening, everybody? I'm in New York and so cool. And I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I can also relate to where it's extremely difficult at times to make yourself vulnerable enough to create that type of content.

Larry Roberts [00:12:08]:
But it's, I mean, everybody's doing it. I mean, that's what you have to do to build that brand. You have to. You have to do that to create that content and show who you really are. Because that's who people want to know. They don't want to know the suited up, you know, stiff in the office, loan officer type. They want to know who are having this relationship. They're making massive decisions.

Larry Roberts [00:12:29]:
This is a huge decision to buy a home and they're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and they want to know who they're working with to make that happen. And if they can't get past the suit and know the person, you're going to have a more difficult time having that client relationship that you're looking for. So, yeah, the natural conversation and the natural content is definitely the way to go.

Corrine Bibb [00:12:48]:
Larry, I do have another question for you. Being an expert in podcasting space and just, you know, people getting started. So we have some tips and tangible takeaways from this for, for our listener, you know, just like generalized things when starting and filming. And let's stick with podcasts. I know there's different mediums and different ways to do things with when you're filming with a smartphone, but what do you suggest overall that they're paying attention to? I know there's, you know, you guys have been on me about lighting and you know, what are some of the general logistical things that people might want to make notes on right now? Listening if they're, they're thinking about getting started and trying it on their own.

Larry Roberts [00:13:22]:
Well, I love the fact that you brought up lighting because so many people overlook lighting. You know, they'll get in front of a window and use the windows natural light behind them, which instantly turns them into a silhouette or they'll be dark. And now for me personally, it's extremely difficult to light me because of this stupid hat that I wear all the time. So if I have the lights like everybody else and they come from above and come down, it casts a shadow on my face. So I have four other lights in front of me right here to come up underneath my hat to light my face. Then I'm struggling trying to get the little lights out of my glasses as well. So, so you can see here, if I turn my head, you can see all those ring lights that are sitting there. And that's difficult to overcome also.

Larry Roberts [00:14:00]:
So that's a huge consideration when you're setting up your studio or setting up your recording space is making sure that that lighting is right. Now the other thing is, please, for the love of all that is holy, use a external microphone and an external camera. Now your phone camera is amazing. It's one of the best cameras that you can buy and it's right here in your pocket all the time. So if you want to do it on your phone, that's great. Even the front facing camera is plenty. You know, everybody says no use, use the camera on the back because it's, it's a higher resolution. And that's true.

Larry Roberts [00:14:28]:
It does create a bit of a better image. But even just that, front facing camera is perfectly fine. But use an external camera, don't use your laptop camera, don't use your laptop microphone. And if you can wear headphones as well, you know, I've got these studio monitors that are in my ear there. I like the clear ones here. So they're not super obvi or you can wear the cans. You know, sometimes I do like to wear my, my, my over the ear headphones as well, but I typically do that on my podcast, I wear those. But when I'm a guest on podcasts, I like to wear these just because I think it's a cleaner look.

Larry Roberts [00:14:57]:
So just take those things into consideration. Understand your environment. You know, have a nice quiet place to record. If you're doing audio only, record in your closet. It's an amazing studio. All the clothes that are hanging up in the closet, excellent sound dampeners, really sounds great in a closet. When I first started doing voiceover, I was recording in a closet because that's a great spot till I got my studio built out. But those things are just the basics there.

Larry Roberts [00:15:22]:
Lighting, have a decent camera, have an external microphone and a nice quiet place to record, and it works out great.

Rachael Tresch [00:15:28]:
I was just going to say you brought up a good point about just video and audio. You know, when we first started in this whole podcast landscape, it was just audio, but now the game has changed so much. I actually, I don't really love the term podcasting because it's so, so much more than just a podcast. And I know that's where the roots are and everyone knows the name, but do you find that most people are doing video and audio together or that they should?

Larry Roberts [00:15:52]:
I think you just have to. These days, YouTube is the number one content consumption platform for podcasters. So if you want to find your audience, you got to have the video to go with it. That's not to say that the audio side is dead by any stretch of the imagination, but you have to have that balance. So Spotify is even allowing everybody now to do video as well. For some reason, Apple is lagging way behind, and they're still audio only, so hopefully we're going to see them step their game up. But it's interesting, over the last three to four years, you've seen an entire shift in the industry. Used to, Apple was the number one content consumption platform for podcasters, followed by Spotify, and then the last place was YouTube.

Larry Roberts [00:16:28]:
It's literally reversed over the last three or four years. YouTube is number one now Spotify is number two, and Apple, they're in third place. And one of the biggest reasons is they don't support video. So people want video these days. They want to see the conversation in. In addition to hearing the conversation. So I would definitely recommend, while you can start audio only if that makes you comfortable, I definitely want to recommend that you get involved in video as well.

Corrine Bibb [00:16:52]:
Okay, that's great. And I, I mean, it was really simple. You know, these. I have a really simple microphone here, guys, that I'm using and a simple camera that Rachel ordered for me. But we can get you links and information on ones that work well because it really is a lot more simple, I think, sometimes than it seems. It does feel intimidating sometimes. Like, you know, Larry, you mentioned all those, all the lighting and how you're trying to get the lighting perfect. But I mean, I.

Corrine Bibb [00:17:17]:
I have just one simple light that I'm using here right now, and it seems like it's pretty. Well, I'm sure there's a little shading, but I would just say get started, right?

Larry Roberts [00:17:26]:
Yeah.

Corrine Bibb [00:17:26]:
Try to improve from there a hundred percent.

Larry Roberts [00:17:29]:
I mean, when I got started, I literally bought the worst microphone you can buy for podcasting. It's called a yeti snowball, and they call it a snowball because it's about the size of a softball and it's round. It looks like a snowball. And me and Jamie, my co host on that first podcast, we had no idea what we were doing, but I was so involved in the voiceover world that I thought that we had to be really quiet. We had to enunciate everything. We couldn't breathe into the microphone. We didn't want to pop our peas. We wanted to get rid of all those.

Larry Roberts [00:17:56]:
So we took this microphone we only had had one, and we untwisted it from the crappy little tripod that it comes with, and we cupped it in our hands and we said what we had to say. Then we would gently pass the mic to the other person and then Jamie would say what he has to say and then he gently passed the microphone back to me. So my point to all that is we just got started. We just. We just did it, you know, and in all honesty, that first podcast episode that we recorded doing that, we never released it. It was really, really bad. But my point is, we got started, you know, and we improved from there. And then we upped our game to some decent microphones and then went from there.

Larry Roberts [00:18:31]:
And now I use the Shure SM7B. My camera selection is a Sony. It's the ZV E10. Most of this is pretty straightforward plug and play type stuff. The microphone, it does require an interface as well, but you can use USB powered microphones that sound tremendous. Rode makes some great USB microphones. And the camera, like I said, the camera is literally plug and play. That's why I use this camera.

Larry Roberts [00:18:53]:
Tremendous image. It's beautiful. And you literally just plug it in using an HDMI cable and it works perfectly. So I like to keep it super, super simple. You can overcomplicate things if you want to, but you don't have to. And even this setup that I'm using right now, right out of the gate, probably all this equipment with lights and everything, I don't know, probably around 2 grand, something like that. So, I mean, you know, that's a significant investment. But if you're doing this to build your brand and you're doing this as part of your business, then two grand's a minimal investment.

Larry Roberts [00:19:24]:
What you're going to get back on that, that roi, and you know, we tend to refer to ROI as return on impact. That impact that you're going to have is so huge, it's going to grow your business, it's going to grow your brand, and you're going to get that two grand back really, really quick.

Rachael Tresch [00:19:38]:
I love that shift of, instead of thinking of it as return on investment and return on income, it's return on impact. Return on impact. That's what we need to be thinking about. Because, yes, everybody knows, well, what am I going to get out of this? They want to ask that right away. What am I going to get out of this? And you're not going to see that right away. And actually, the ripple thing, I think I stole from you, Larry. You know, you're not going to see, you're not going to see the effects right away. It's.

Rachael Tresch [00:20:04]:
It's a ripple. You're going to see it down the line. You might not be able to connect the dots right away, but once you start putting yourself out there more and doing all of these things, podcasting and all of the social media networks, and just getting your. Getting yourself out there more, it will come back to you.

Larry Roberts [00:20:21]:
Well, everything that I'm doing today is because of a podcast. My entire business, my entire life that I'm doing, speaking on stages and writing books and all this other fun stuff, it all started with a podcast.

Corrine Bibb [00:20:32]:
Yeah.

Larry Roberts [00:20:33]:
So it's super simple to just start that podcast. Now. I've been doing this 11 years, so it took a while to get to the point that I'm at, but I could have sped it up if I wasn't arrogant. So I remember when I first started podcasting, I. I started in 14, and I didn't go to my first podcasting conference until 19, because I'm like, I don't need any kind of podcast conference. I got this stuff figured out. It's pretty freaking easy. And then I went to my very first podcast movement.

Larry Roberts [00:20:59]:
It's one of the big conferences that's out there in 2019. And it changed my perspective on everything. That's where I met Josh Carey, a mutual friend of mine and Rachel's, and that's what got me involved with those guys. And then I realized, oh, my gosh, podcasting, this is an industry. This is a business. This is a business opportunity. Oh, my gosh. And that's what started it all.

Larry Roberts [00:21:17]:
And then by 2021, I left my corporate career. I was with the same company for 21 years. I left that company January 4th of 2021, and have been doing Red Hat Media full time ever since.

Corrine Bibb [00:21:28]:
That's awesome. What a great story. Yeah.

Larry Roberts [00:21:31]:
Yeah. And again, it all started with a cheesy little comedy podcast.

Corrine Bibb [00:21:36]:
I feel like it always does. It always starts with a story, right?

Larry Roberts [00:21:40]:
Yeah.

Corrine Bibb [00:21:41]:
I mean, I feel like one question that we get a lot, Larry, is like, what topics do I talk about? How do I know what to talk about each week? What if I can't come up with ideas of things to talk about on video or podcasting in general? Do you have any tips or tricks there? Any answers that just help people formulate their ideas quickly so that they're not stumped or confused or stuck on what, what to cover and what to discuss?

Larry Roberts [00:22:07]:
Well, it depends on your goals for the show. Why are you starting a podcast? I'm assuming since we're talking about loan officers, we're going to want loan industry insights on the podcast or how do they handle being a loan officer differently than their competitors or their teammates or whatever it may be. I don't know the loan office officer industry very well, to use industry jargon there. But when it comes to topics for your podcast, again, depending on your goals, you want those. Those topics to revolve around those goals and drive those goals forward. But if you're struggling for content, I mean, my business partner and I, Sarah, we have a podcast called Branded, and we're like, on episode 99, I think we're about to hit that hundred mark. And we've talked about just about everything there is to talk about when it comes to branding. And we're like, what are we going to talk about? So what do you do? Well, you head over to your favorite chatbot, you head over to Chat GPT, you head over to Claude or whatever one you like to use, and you build a profile of your podcast in a prompt, and then you ask for ideas on subject matter, on topics, whatever it may be, and it'll give you a list, however many you ask for a list of ideas and concepts for episodes.

Larry Roberts [00:23:07]:
And if you're the more Structured type. Because, Karine, you said earlier that you don't need scripts. You don't like scripts. I don't either. I don't script anything. But if you're more structured and you want a script or maybe just an outline for that episode, say, hey, I love this topic that you gave me. Now build me a script for it. Build me an outline for it so I know exactly what to talk about.

Larry Roberts [00:23:24]:
My podcast is, I don't know, 15 minutes long. Make it feel 15 minutes, and ChatGPT will literally go through and put together an outline or a script and break it down minute by minute so you know exactly what you're going to say and when. So there, there's all sorts of tips and tricks out there for leveraging AI to grow your show, but if you're struggling with ideas on your own, I highly recommend you get out there and just, just leverage one of those tools. And you don't even have to have the paid version. It'll do it on all the free versions. So don't worry about another investment. If you aren't using ChatGPT regularly, go and use the free version and you're good to go.

Corrine Bibb [00:23:55]:
Something to remember using AI guys to just help formulate ideas for you. If you're stuck, pump in a question and something new will come back to you that might spark a brand new idea or a new track for the next couple episodes or videos you're looking to do. I really like that.

Rachael Tresch [00:24:10]:
That's got to be a double dog dare for people out there that if they have never used ChatGPT or any of the platforms that Larry mentioned, dip your, your toe into the AI waters and just give it a try. Number one, you're going to be wildly entertained. Number two, you're gonna, your mind's gonna be blown because it's amazing how fast this tool is and, and how much it will save you time and, and leverage your business. And I see a lot of people say or hear a lot of people say, oh, that's cheating. Well, it's not. It's like you're the puppeteer pulling the strings. You have to, you have to be the mastermind behind it. It's not going to do it on its own yet.

Rachael Tresch [00:24:48]:
Yet. But it, it really is an amazing tool. We use it all the time. And yeah, I mean, in, in this space, in this day and age, how many tools we have readily available at our fingertips to make our lives easier. And it's really fun.

Larry Roberts [00:25:05]:
It's awesome. And I'm seeing sentiment shift when it Comes to AI created or AI assisted content. You know, I wrote my book almost a year and a half ago, and I wrote it with ChatGPT. It's called under the Red Hat. It's all about branding and all that good stuff. And when I first wrote it, I got a lot of negative feedback. That's not. You didn't write that book.

Larry Roberts [00:25:21]:
AI wrote it. Whatever. And actually, I have a disclaimer in the front of the book that's about two and a half pages long that says, yes, this book was written with AI and here's why I did it. So it was more of an exercise and a demonstration of the abilities of these tools is one of the reasons that I wrote it. And another reason was I went and gave a talk in San Diego about AI and when I got done giving the talk, I came off stage and everybody's like, hey, great talk, blah, blah, blah, I'd love to buy your book. So I'm like, I cannot show up at another talk without having a book. So I'm flying home. I'm kicking rocks because I was embarrassed, right? And I get home and I'm like, well, dude, you're the AI guy.

Larry Roberts [00:25:57]:
Write a book with AI. So that's exactly what I did. All, let's see, 11 chapters of it. Are AI written or AI generated. Chapter three is all about the red hat. Why I wear the Red hat, the story of the red hat. So AI didn't know that story, so I had to write that one myself. But don't think for a second I didn't feed it into ChatGPT and say, hey, clean this up and make it sound good.

Larry Roberts [00:26:16]:
So it's an excellent tool. And I tell that story because, as I mentioned, I've seen sentiments shift with regard to AI generated content. So much so that two weeks ago, I signed a contract from a publishing company that wants to publish the second edition of my book. And they reached out because they loved the fact that I wrote it with AI. So they want me on the roster just because, well, it's me. But also. I'm just kidding. Not really.

Larry Roberts [00:26:41]:
I'm going to cut that out. They want me on the roster because I wrote the book with AI. So that's a huge shift to see something like that happen. So don't hesitate to use these tools to your advantage and help you create your content.

Rachael Tresch [00:26:57]:
Okay, I have a quick question on that. So when I. And I have the book, I've signed copy, too. I'm very excited to say, when did that come out? When? When did you release the book and it was a self published, right?

Larry Roberts [00:27:08]:
Yeah, it was self published on kdp, which is Amazon. It came out January of last year.

Rachael Tresch [00:27:13]:
January of last year. So From January of 2024 until 2025, the shift has been so great where you're getting all this trash talk and you didn't really write that to now in such a short time.

Corrine Bibb [00:27:27]:
Wow.

Rachael Tresch [00:27:27]:
Have the tables turned that now you're. You have a company coming to you that wants to publish the second version. That's wild to me. In such a short amount of time.

Larry Roberts [00:27:36]:
Yeah, it's insane to see that shift.

Corrine Bibb [00:27:38]:
That's really cool.

Larry Roberts [00:27:38]:
But I mean, it's not to be unexpected. I mean, look at where we've come from. You know, ChatGPT dropped in November of 22 and here we are three years later, not even three years later, two and a half years later, and everybody's using Chat GPT for everything. I mean, I probably shouldn't admit this, but I wrote a eulogy for a friend of mine that passed away in ChatGPT. So it sounded so eloquent, it sounded beautiful. I could have never written it and made it sound as good as it sounded. But I use it literally for everything every day.

Rachael Tresch [00:28:06]:
Wow. Where we will be two and a half years from now. Fast forward. I'd love to be a fly on the wall and see that right now, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see where life takes us.

Larry Roberts [00:28:19]:
Hang in there.

Rachael Tresch [00:28:21]:
Hang in there. It's going to be fun.

Corrine Bibb [00:28:22]:
This was good. I think this was a good one. I know it's getting cut, but this is a good one.

Rachael Tresch [00:28:28]:
Oh, this is great. Larry, thank you so much for taking some time today and chatting with us. If you are interested in dabbling in the podcast space, definitely guest on some podcasts. Start there, see if you really like it. A lot of people say they want to have a podcast, but when push comes to shove, they don't really want to have a podcast. Guesting is a great.

Larry Roberts [00:28:49]:
It's a lot of work in all honesty. I mean, you know, podcasting is amazing, but you're going to realize that it's a job also. It's like having a second job. If you're creating the content, if you're designing the content, if you're editing the content and you're publishing the content and you're creating all the social assets to go with the content, even just right there. That was a massive list of to dos for one podcast episode. And you do that every week so it can be a little overwhelming, but you can also improve your workflows and streamline the process using some of the AI tools that are out there as well. So that can help out tremendously. But if you want to start by guessing, I highly recommend you check out podmatch.

Larry Roberts [00:29:23]:
Podmatch.com is it's basically a dating app for podcasters. In all honesty, it matches hosts of podcasts with guests the podcast and vice versa. So regardless of what you're wanting to do, if you need guests for your podcast, great resource there. If you're wanting to only guest on podcasts, also an excellent resource there as well.

Rachael Tresch [00:29:39]:
So I think we need to have Alex Sanfilippo on here next. He's the owner of of Pod Match. Really cool idea.

Larry Roberts [00:29:46]:
We've got a tremendous guest. He's one of my best good pals in the whole wide world. And honestly, you know, I don't know. Rachel, you may know, but Alex Sanfilippo is the reason I wear the red hat.

Rachael Tresch [00:29:54]:
So I do know. Yeah, I do.

Corrine Bibb [00:29:56]:
I love that. That's great. Well, thanks, Larry. This is great. This is time well spent, I hope. Get something from this. Yeah.

Rachael Tresch [00:30:04]:
Okay, one last thing. I just need to give a shameless plug. So, Larry, you know, if people don't want to go this on their own and they need some help, they can reach out to you because you are absolutely, absolutely an amazing coach. We, we can attest to that. And someone who can help get your podcast off the ground. So we'll link to all of Larry's places. You can find him, connect with him. But Larry, this is great.

Rachael Tresch [00:30:27]:
Thank you so much.

Larry Roberts [00:30:27]:
Cool deal. Thanks for having me.

Rachael Tresch [00:30:30]:
Bye, everybody. Don't forget to like and subscribe and we'll catch you next time. Bye.

Corrine Bibb [00:30:34]:
Take care, guys.