In this weeks episode, Podjunctions final, full episode with guest John Roman of ASOM Pod, host Sadaf Beynon sits down to discuss with John the intricacies of podcasting. The pair talk about the logistics of recording a podcast, the benefit of a collaborative group dynamic and the strategic business potential of a podcast. 

Key Takeaways: 

1. Unique Podcast Collaboration Model: John Roman discusses the unique structure of his podcast, ASOM Pod, which features a diverse panel of hosts from different areas of expertise in the eCommerce industry. By combining perspectives from a brand operator, agency owner, software developer, and marketer, the podcast aims to deliver well-rounded discussions and avoid groupthink, thus offering listeners a more comprehensive view of the eCommerce landscape. 
2. Challenges and Learning in Podcast Production: The conversation highlights the logistical challenges of recording a podcast with geographically dispersed co-hosts. Additionally, John and his team learned the importance of using dedicated microphones for better audio quality and discovered the efficiencies of AI tools like Opus Pro for editing. 
3. Podcasting as a Strategic Business Tool: John emphasises podcasting as a strategic tool for business growth, especially in the B2B sector. He believes podcasts can build thought leadership, enhance brand visibility, and foster community engagement. While the direct-to-consumer benefits are less clear-cut, podcasting can still support business objectives by positioning brands as industry leaders and expanding networks. 

If you enjoy this episode of Podjunction and want to dive deeper into the world of podcasting, don't miss out on our future episodes! Subscribe now on your favourite podcast platform! Start transforming your business with the power of podcasting today!

John Roman | Build a Successful Multi-Host Podcast

Sadaf Beynon: Welcome to Podjunction Podcast, a show for podcasters who want to use their podcast to grow their business. I'm your host, Sadaf Beynon, and today I'm joined by John Roman, an entrepreneur, an investor, and currently serving as a CEO of BattleBox, and very, very recently has started hosting The awesome pod.

Welcome, John.

John Roman: Thanks for having me. Yeah. We dropped the first episode last Thursday, so it's perfect timing.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, that was great. I enjoyed listening to it. It was, it was, it was good. So, um, John, I know you've been a guest on so many podcasts and, um, you very recently obviously launched your own awesome pod.

Tell us about the inspiration behind that.

But I know about this now. So I'm not going to. And about a year ago, I had a weekly call with, um, Uh, with our development agency that we use and they were in the call was, you know, at first going through like whatever projects we're working on, but then it turned into this, like, just talking about what's working, what's not working.

Um, and we realized there was probably a lot of like. Takeaways for anybody listening to us. We're going to start recording this.

We're

And we were like, man, something's missing. Like, we don't, we're trying to think through what's missing. And, you know, he, he runs an agency and, and I run, run a brand. And we're like, there's, you know, maybe there's other perspectives we're not thinking of. Um, so I reached out to, um, gentleman named Jimmy Kim, who runs a email platform called Sendlane.

And he's, he could write a master class on, on, on social, like his, their, not their entire model, but they built, they literally just build pipeline of potential prospects through, through social, where he's just, um, offering value, education, best practices in the email arena. And that in turn becomes this funnel, um, for the Sendlane company.

Like we were both, you know, Like having the same thought,

he

John Roman: then found, right, we need one more marketer. And he found, uh, a marketer that was the perfect fit. And, and that was it. So awesome ASOM agency, SaaS operator marketer. So it's four unique perspectives. And we were off to the races. Little different.

We film it in person,

which,

John Roman: which is, uh, quite unusual in a post post COVID world. Um, and yeah, that's, that's it.

John Roman: That's, and that's the hope. That's the hope that it, it provides this full, full picture of, of topics in eComm.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. So how do you guys, um, how do you manage that? Cause I mean, how often do you record? How do you like the logistics around it?

John Roman: So we're not doing ourselves any favors. Um, so I live in Atlanta.

Um,

John Roman: Jimmy lives in Austin. Um, Amir lives in Chicago. And Brian lives, um, in the Northeast. He lives, he lives in Connecticut. Oh, wow. Um, so we're geographically spread. So last month we filmed the first four episodes.

Okay. Um,

John Roman: I have a, I have a newborn, so I'm not able to travel, or I wasn't able to travel. So everybody flew in.

Sadaf Beynon: that,

John Roman: that all of us are actually going to.

Sadaf Beynon: Oh, cool.

John Roman: So we're just, um, two birds, one stone. We're all going to be in this place for three days. So we grabbed a studio

Sadaf Beynon: for

John Roman: a few hours on Monday and a couple hours on Tuesday.

We'll, we'll knock out, um, four more episodes and then. We're doing a, at the conference, we're doing a live, um, a live episode. So we'll have, we'll have five after next week to add to the pipeline. And after that, it'll just be once a month. You know, one day somewhere. Um, so they came to Atlanta. So I believe in July, we're going to go up to Connecticut and, uh, and Brian will host us.

So it's, it's quite, quite a, quite a time commitment, you know, going, going out of town to do it.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. Um, yeah, that's cool. And yeah. Sub Summit next, next week. Yeah. Um, Matt Edmundson is going to be there too. You know him from the eCommerce podcast, don't you? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How do you, um, like say you've got a topic, how do you make sure that each one of you contributes, um, a unique perspective to the discussion?

John Roman: Sure. So I, you know, I think honestly it was, it was us selecting who the four of us are. Um, and because of that, it, it, it's not, it's not an issue, right?

We have, we have four people that are very opinionated, um, some more reserved than others.

Mm hmm.

John Roman: Um. And, you know, one that, that loves to, loves to chat. So it's, I, I think it was the selection process of the four of us.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah.

Yeah.

John Roman: And. And to be fair, there's there's some points where, you know, I might be a little bit louder, and I might lead that conversation. There's times where Jimmy might lead it or Amir or Brian.

So I

John Roman: think, I think reality, we're still figuring it out, right? We've, we filmed one day together. And that day that we filmed, um, You say you like the first episode.

First episodes is the first time all four of us are having like a conversation. So it gets better actually, because it took a little bit to like understand each other and understand flow. So I think we'll just get better as it, as it keeps going.

Sadaf Beynon: Absolutely. Yeah. Um, so actually you said that you. You recorded four in one go, right?

In one sitting. So how did you manage to keep the energy levels up? Because it can be draining, right? Like,

Yeah.

John Roman: I took everybody to, uh, to my favorite pizza place here in Atlanta. Um, but it's not easy, but I, I think again, it goes back down to Um, the, the selection process, right? The four of us, we were just flowing and, and we're all, it's good because we're all very passionate about

eCommerce. So

John Roman: it's, it's interesting, right?

It's not like we're just sitting there in a panel on a topic we don't care about.

Um,

John Roman: we were very selective with the four of us, but also, um, you just go around, Jimmy did it, but he, he spent time on it, finding topics. Um, so each, each episode, we have one main topic and finding topics that he knew, um, all of us were passionate about, all of us could speak to.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. And who, are you all involved in that?

John Roman: Um, so we're still figuring it out. Uh, so the first four, um, Jimmy did, and he's also already put the agenda for the next four, um, next week.

So clearly his, the, the way his brain works, he's good at that. Right.

Yeah.

John Roman: Um, so then I think, you know, will we all do it in the future? Maybe. Well, we find out that, you know, that's just where he excels.

And

John Roman: maybe he's the the brainchild for topics.

I think

John Roman: I think TBD, he has shown a propensity at this point that he is really good at that.

So that might be You know, something that he owns moving

Sadaf Beynon: forward.

John Roman: Um, yeah, I think we're still trying to figure it out.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. Yeah. Exciting.

John Roman: I think so.

John Roman: Um, yeah, so we, so, so looking at, um, what's out there now, you know, we wanted, we did want that, that was, you know, the main driver of having these, these different perspectives

is

John Roman: because you tip a lot of times on some podcasts, you really get in a group think, and they're just talking to merchants and merchants obviously have a very, um, you know, pointed view on, on certain topics because they're not looking at the big picture.

And, um, that was. So that was something we wanted to address. We wanted to pick topics where there's, there's, not everybody's in groupthink.

People,

Hosting guests. Um, we wanted to try to build, uh, with the regularity of just, just the four hosts, um, which you know, that, that still works. It's just not, it's, it tends to not be as common, um, but you look at, um, you know, The Golden Children of the Space, like All In Podcast, for example.

You know,

John Roman: they have the mainstay, the main people that are always on, and then they, sometimes they have a guest, sometimes they don't.

Um, I think we'll go with that model. And, um, the last piece is we, we, we want to have the entertainment value,

right?

We're just like everybody else that you know the first four episodes almost all of it has it to some degree, but uh It might just be a trend in general. So the other three guys, um, are all iPhone users

and

John Roman: I'm an Android user. And I despise, dislike Apple, like to a fault. Like I I've never owned Apple stock because I don't like Apple, which is dumb.

Um, I'm currently shorting Apple stock, um, after, uh, After their new release yesterday, and you know, that might not be a smart move, but like, I'm, I'm emotionally against Apple, um, and you know, Apple, credit where credit's due, Apple's done a great job, um, on the marketing front, um, getting, and I don't want to say tricking, but teaching their users to shame Android users.

And if you're an Android user, you would certainly have, have, have been, been attacked

Sadaf Beynon: for having,

John Roman: having, you know, green text.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. Yeah.

John Roman: So I think, I think that human, human, human element is, is kind of key and in an entertainment kind of proposition.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. That's right. And actually I was, um, I had a conversation with another guest that's going to, that's on Podjunction and he was talking about the parasocial, um, dynamic.

John Roman: think we'll, I think we'll find, find them, right? Like, we have, we, we have an idea, um, with certainty, you know, Brian is very, he, he's definitely the, the, the funniest of, of the group, um, and has a very strong personality.

You have, uh, a mayor who, um, is the agency owner and he's very, um, I would say all four of us have great moral fiber and great ethics and we always do the right thing. Um, Amir is even a step above that. Like, he is very deliberate, um, and, and probably a little bit more reserved. Um, but it's great because that's, that's the character and that's really who he is.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, absolutely. No, that's very cool. Um, so you've touched a little bit about the, on this, but John, would you go into a bit more detail about what your primary goals are for AwesomePod, both in terms of content and, um, audience engagement?

John Roman: Sure. Um, so. I would say there's, there's, there's multiple goals, right?

Um, so I don't think anybody's just going to disagree. You know, content is king and, and building, building audience is key. Um, you know, it's a little bit, um, the, the, the path to, you know, new customers is a lot easier with B2B.

Battlebox.

John Roman: Um, so. You know, that's, that's something to take in mind, that it works a little bit less for the direct consumer brands, um, but there's, there's other goals, right?

So I, my biggest thing that, that I, I enjoy is being able to, you know, give wisdom and give best practices and concepts and things that, that can save other people time, right? I spent, you know, TikTok, for example, when we launched it, we failed for six months. And there were so many learnings and, you know, knowing what we know now, we could have probably figured it out in, in two months, but we didn't know that.

from that.

John Roman: Um, so that's one element. Um, the reality is, you know, I would love, I would love for someone to listen and be like, Oh, what is BattleBox?

Oh, this is cool. Um, you know, hearing about John talk about the company, it's very, very clear that The Customer Experience is one of the most important things and this could be something that I want to join. So absolutely hope for that. Um, I think it also, it, it also positions us as what we are, which is, um, thought leaders in this space and there's, there's value there, uh, as, as a merchant, um, you know, with, with the two, the two brands, Brian and myself.

On there, there's, you know, they'll become opportunity maybe for new tech that we can use. Maybe we'll get a discount.

Um,

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. So in your case, then what kind of, um, benefits do you think you'll get out of like for Battlebox in particular? I mean, get out of, um, hosting Awesome Pod.

John Roman: Yeah. So, so Battlebox in particular, um, so, you know, there's with, with, with the growth of audience there, there's going to, it's the, you know, rising tide.

Sadaf Beynon: sounds, it sounds right. sounds right. We can cut that part out. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, ,

John Roman: that sounds right. Yeah. We'll just, we'll just Google it really quick now. I'm curious.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, let's do it.

John Roman: Raising, raising ti rising. Tide lifts all boats.

Sadaf Beynon: Okay. Close.

John Roman: Okay. Um,

Sadaf Beynon: yeah,

John Roman: so, you know, purely just. Getting BattleBox out there and it's going in a means that we traditionally don't do, right? This isn't, this isn't meta advertising. This isn't TikTok advertising.

Yeah.

John Roman: Um, you know, there's, you're, you're, you're going to get more eyeballs and in, in general, you know, more people to the website and more people to the website, more people convert.

Um,

John Roman: it's a very interesting investment criteria where we have to use the product,

we

John Roman: have to like the product, we have to think that there's an edge with this product, and, and more importantly, we, we have to be able to, um, be active and bring value. Um, so it's not just dumb money. It's, it's, we think we can help, um, in, in, in some aspect, whether it's, whether it's finding them new customers or advisory, um, there's, there's gotta be a value we can bring, and it's gotta be a great product that we're, that's actually in our tech stack.

Um, you know, uh, is, is Battlebox in acquisition mode at the moment? Not necessarily, but I would, I wouldn't say we ever are, but when opportunities arise, we, we typically act on them. So Battlebox, um, has acquired a few brands through the years. Um, some have panned out, some have not, but again, all of those came.

Um, came through current network and current relationships. Um, never like a, a deal site or a, a, you know, a, a business for sales site or anything like that. So I think, you know, the deal flow of potential opportunities and partnerships, I think that increases as well. Mm-Hmm, .

So, I,

John Roman: I really think that it just, this.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree. It is great for networking. So, um, going back to your, your first, um, podcast that, you know, you, that you've now recorded, how are you going to, how are you going to edit them? Who's, who out of the four of you is looking after that side of things?

John Roman: So it's Brian. So Brian is, is the marketer and he's, and he's doing the editing.

Um, we didn't do him any favors the first go around. So, you know, we didn't know what we didn't know. And we found a great studio here in Atlanta.

Um,

um,

John Roman: and he filmed, filmed us all.

Um, we didn't think about it, but having all the audio feed in a, uh, the, the mixer was a, was a mistake, right? We needed, um, dedicated mic. programming, Because I just makes editing a lot easier, especially with, with AI capabilities where you can automatically swap to the person speaking. It just became very problematic because we didn't have that separation.

So the editing time probably took Brian three times as long as it will moving forward. Now that we know the micro, so yeah, right now he's editing it. we found. We referred to a couple people. Mm-Hmm, , um, that are in a, you know, very, uh, small capacity. Um, helping us with some, some shorts, um, you know, vertical, vertical, less than a minute content.

Sadaf Beynon: AI,

John Roman: um, and, and just to, just to clarify to listeners, AI, AI editing.

So it took, it took the, it took our giant hour long clip

and

John Roman: it came up with a bunch of, a bunch of short digestible. I think for those, we used Opus.

Sadaf Beynon: Opus, okay.

John Roman: Um, yeah. Had you,

Sadaf Beynon: had you trialed that before? Why did you decide on Opus?

John Roman: Yeah, Opus, is it Opus Pro? Opus, yeah, Opus Pro, which is just instant AI clip generation.

Sadaf Beynon: right?

John Roman: Um, it throws up subtitles. It's fast. Um, you always have to tweak it a little bit sometimes, but so he was just

Sadaf Beynon: the human element, don't you?

John Roman: Yeah. I just gets, you know, I would say like most things AI wise right now, it gets it from zero to 80%, zero to 85%.

Um, and then you take it, you finish it off, but I mean, it's all about the time savings, right?

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we, we tried to do some, um, some of that using AI, but I think, I mean, it's almost a year ago now, and so much, it changes so quick, doesn't it develop so fast?

John Roman: Well, that's the thing, like, I, I find myself where I'm like, oh, I used, um, I used this tool a year ago, and like, Wasn't very good.

Yeah.

John Roman: And I, I catch myself, I'm like, well, I've used Chad CPT from the start and I use it every day. Mm-Hmm. and think about how much better that's gotten.

Yes.

In the mix. So it's, yeah. Like I, I find myself, I used Opus and six months ago, seven months ago, and I wasn't the biggest fan.

Mm-Hmm. . But then I

John Roman: talked to Brian and Brian's like, yeah, it's great now.

Yeah. And it's like, oh,

John Roman: I guess I should, I should look, look at it again. It, yeah. The, the AI SaaS base is super, super interesting right now.

Sadaf Beynon: Mm-Hmm. . Yeah. Um, so were there any other learnings that came out of, out of the first few that you've done together?

John Roman: Um, yeah. If you watch the first episode, I clearly don't know how to use a microphone. Um, so again, we were in a podcast studio, they were directional mics. So like this mic here, like I can talk anywhere, it's just going to capture it, right?

Um, directional mic, you have to, you have to be.

Yeah.

Um, but I clearly did not use a mic on the first episode or at least a directional mic.

Yeah.

John Roman: Um, so. And there's a few comments already about it. My, my dad sent me an email, he's like, Hey, he's like, why don't you speak into the mic? Dad, I can't go back and fix this. Like, this is it. This is live. I, I understand.

I didn't, I was there. So figuring it out.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. Yeah. And I know this is early days, but have you had any feedback from your listeners and or any comments where you, where you think it might, their feedback might shape the, the way you approach future episodes?

John Roman: Um, so there hasn't been any, any, there hasn't been too much proactive, right?

Um,

John Roman: it doesn't bring a lot of value. Right. Um, because typically it's the same idea when you have like a business idea or some, you know, uh, harebrained idea, you don't ask your friends because your friends are just gonna, they're going to be your cheerleaders and that's great.

But it, it's not. Sometimes you want the hard truth and you wanna know, how do I get better? Or what's wrong with this concept or idea.

Yeah. And,

John Roman: um, it's a little bit tougher to get proactively. Right. Um, we've had a couple, we had, uh, we, we've had a couple people just proactively offer some advice that was, that was constructive.

So we can try to improve a little bit.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, I guess as your audience grows too, you'll have a better understanding of what it is they're looking for and what they like, what they don't like. Exactly. So, John, in 60 seconds or less, can you tell us why you think podcasting is a great marketing tool to grow one's business?

John Roman: Sure, so, so I think it's, it's an absolute, uh, for B2B. I think you could, you could argue whether it, whether it is. You have to look at it in a completely different lens when you're talking about a direct to consumer brand. There's benefit, but I think you have to, the business has to have some maturity to it.

Um, you know, before you used to take a phone call, have the demo, Try to make a decision. Um, now it's, uh, it's, it's almost a research piece, right? Like, you're going to your community, whether it's LinkedIn, or you're in a Slack group, um, or Reddit, like, you, or a Facebook group, there's hundreds of, and you're, you're asking the community, and you're listening to the community on, on, on the right, The right solution, whether it's an email provider or an agency like Mm-Hmm.

And, That way when, okay, Jimmy is the example, Jimmy does this great job providing free value and best practices when it comes to email and all of a sudden, you know, you're mad at Klavia or you're looking for a new email provider and Jimmy comes to mind. Well, what, maybe Sendlane is an option. I always see Jimmy's posts.

That a lot of B2B companies do where it's it's host and guest. It's great for networking, right? There you're you're going to build your network and Eventually just you know Organically people you talk to and and and guests and then friends of guests are Going to have a need and you're the first person they think to they seem to go to right and I think that's That's where it's of value Content is key.

Content is king. And podcast piece checks that content box, but it also checks the building your network box.

Sadaf Beynon: Absolutely. That was way

John Roman: longer than a minute. I apologize.

Without even realizing it and the leads are getting warmed up without even realizing it right sense, isn't it?

John Roman: Yeah, it's uh, it's just a but it's it's people want community, right? And that that checks the community box.

Sadaf Beynon: Absolutely. John, thank you so much. Thanks so much for having me. Oh, you're welcome.

It's our pleasure. And we, it's been really great talking to you, especially when you're so early on in your journey and just kind of picking your brains as to how things are going and which direction you want to head in. So I'm going to definitely have you back in a few months time and see how you're getting on.

I think I would love that. Hopefully it's a

John Roman: good story. Hopefully we've grown.

Sadaf Beynon: Absolutely. Absolutely.

John Roman: Cool. Thanks. Thanks for having me. You're welcome.

Sadaf Beynon: It's our pleasure. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in to PodJunction Podcast and for being part of our journey. Be sure to check out AwesomePod for some great insights into the eCommerce world.

And that brings us to the end of today's episode of Podjunction, where business meets podcasting. If you've enjoyed the insights from this episode and want to grab the show links, head over to podjunction. com. And while you're there, we'd love for you to sign up to the newsletter too. Whether you listen while on the go or in a quiet moment, thank you for letting us be a part of your day.