0 (2s):
Like that spark, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like Marketing Made Simple. Today, we'll be talking about how the podcast app that you're listening to this episode on right now stinks. And here's why to drop these value bombs. I brought Melinda Wittstock into EOFire Studios. Melinda is a five time serial entrepreneur in media tech, and the CEO and founder of Podopolo, the podcast app that makes listening to podcasts, interactive discovery effortless, and podcasting profitable for its creators. And today Fire Nation, we will be breaking down what's wrong with most podcasting apps.

0 (44s):
We'll be talking about what Podopolo does, right? We'll talk about innovation, being interactive, being social, what Podopolo can do for podcast hosts. And then we have an amazing opportunity for the first 100 action takers. We'll be winning Amazon gift cards for not small dollars fire nations. So stick around till the end because you're gonna want to be one of these first 100 action takers and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Melinda and our sponsors. Looking for a place where you can experience live interactions with your audience. Then Speakeasy is for you.

0 (1m 26s):
I'm loving creating daily content on Speakeasy, and I know you will too. Visit getspeakeasy.com to download the app and go live today. Success story hosted by Scott D. Clarey is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals success story features, Q and A, keynote presentations and convos on sales, marketing and more. A recent episode on how to protect your business in times of crisis is a must. Listen, listen to success story wherever you get your podcasts. Melinda, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (2m 8s):
Hey John, it's so good to be with you and I'm on fire. And the reason I'm on fire as an entrepreneur is because I come from a place of inspiration. We hear so much about the hustle and the grind. I believe in flow and ease. And when you can quiet your mind enough to actually receive with an open heart, those downloads, maybe it's a bit woo for some people, but it's transformed me as an entrepreneur, as I build my fifth business. Now, I wish I'd known this much earlier,

0 (2m 44s):
Fire Nation. This is something that I can tell you so many successful entrepreneurs have come to these same conclusions. So get there faster if you're not already there, because it's just the truth. And if we're being honest right now, Melinda, 99% of people who are listening to my voice right now, they are doing so on what we would both consider subpar podcast listening apps. So they're having a subpar podcast listening experience as a result. I mean, that's why the title of this podcast is the podcast app that you're listening to this episode on Stinks. And that's what I wanna get into. What is wrong with most podcast listening apps?

1 (3m 25s):
Well, you know, John, they haven't innovated since the invention of podcasting. I, I regard them as Stella's podcasting 1.0 and, and one of the reasons is it can be hard to really discover ever something new. You know, 30,000 new podcasts are being added, you know, month on month, all around the world. There's so much to discover, and yet you have to know what you're looking for on just about any other podcast app that just aggregates everything. And the same thing, the algorithms all work the same way to show the same podcast all the time. So unless you know what you're looking for, it can be hard to discover something that could be transformational for your life in a learning context or just give you a great laugh or make you sleep better at night.

1 (4m 15s):
The other thing that they're missing is they're not interactive, they're not Social podcasting is a digital media and it's really about the intimacy of conversation. We think that there's so much opportunity to take that conversation further with your friends and with hosts around what you're actually learning on a podcast or things you have in common. And so, you know, I, I put this down to the fact that it's really the focus of, of the business that's running the podcast app. So we all know, you know, Apple was the invention of podcasting. It's why it's called podcasting because of the iPod.

1 (4m 56s):
But Apple's number one business focus is selling iPhones and iPads and iWatches and MacBook Pros, which I'm on one right now. And you know, it's, it's a good app, but it's not taking it further to what podcasting could be. I meanwhile, Spotify, I love Spotify. I listen to Spotify all the time for music, but it really added podcasts by acquisition rather than by innovation. And so the listening experience for a podcaster, you know, it's good, but it could be so much better

0 (5m 33s):
In Fire Nation. That's what we're talking about here today. If you're going to consume great content, why not be consuming that great content on a great platform, on a great app? I mean, man, like Melinda said, I've been listening to my podcast on Apple Podcast for literally over a decade and basically nothing has changed. I mean, they've had little tweaks here, little UI and UX here. Basically nothing has changed. And that's very frustrating to me as a listener. But it's also frustrating to me as a host cause I know that's my listeners on the other end having a subpar experience. So that's when I started listening to Podopolo and using that as my primary podcast app. It gets me excited to know what they are building, what they've already built.

0 (6m 17s):
And you have created this fantastic podcast app called Podopolo. What does Podopolo do, right, that other podcast apps are doing wrong?

1 (6m 30s):
Well, the first thing John and thank you, is really about making the discovery of podcasts effortless time saving, so that people without lifting a finger have podcasts put right in front of them and by extension playlists and clips and interactive videos and much more that are specifically relevant to what interests and inspires them without having to go and look for it. And this is where our advanced AI works like a matchmaker to really connect the right podcast to the right person at the right time, really understands over time what you're interested in.

1 (7m 14s):
And moreover, because Puopolo is fully socially interactive as well, it also understands what your friends are interested in. So you can really, you know, connect with other people that are listening to the same podcasts as you. So we have more than 5 million podcasts globally in all languages, all genres. But they're easy to find cuz they're not stuck in the old school algorithm that keeps the same podcasts. They're, you know, all the time. And you can just take the conversation further too by finding and connecting with friends who are listening the same podcasts as you.

1 (7m 57s):
And then take that conversation further, whether you just wanna share a laugh with somebody or put learning into action everything, all the value bombs, JLD that you have on this podcast. Isn't it amazing to be able to think that you could get together with all the other listeners on this show right now and say, Well hey, wasn't that really cool? How are you gonna put that into action in your business right now in your life? And to be able to care, to compare notes and take that conversation much further and to advance discovery. We also have the feature functionality that anyone can create a short clip of a podcast, a clip or a snippet, and share that instantly.

1 (8m 41s):
Now I know when my friends share a podcast with me and they say, Melinda, there's this great podcast, you gotta check it out and it may be an hour of time of of, of you know, time investment to check it out. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm definitely gonna listen to that, but then I may forget or I just don't have time. However, if someone sends me a clip of something that's 20 seconds, 30 seconds a minute, I'm gonna check it out. And if I like it, I'm gonna dig deep into that. I'm gonna follow that podcast or I'm gonna connect with other people in that community and and much more. Besides the other things about Podopolo too though, is making the listening experience better, just more convenient.

1 (9m 25s):
So whether or not you want to have sleep timers or be able to listen incognito for instance, you don't know, you don't want your friends to know what you're listening to or you really care about protecting your privacy. This is something that Podopolo takes very, very seriously as well. And on top of it all, we're the only app where you can actually earn prizes and unlock social impacts just by listening and inviting your friends. And they're so much more that's coming

0 (9m 58s):
And that's a lot to unwrap. So I wanna take a step back here. I wanna take a deep breath because one thing fire nation I want you to remember is man, do you not love recommendations? I mean recommendations are so fantastic. I mean I also listen to audio books. I will tell you that I love listening to audio books. One of my favorite things about Audible is when that audiobook ends, I get recommended these audio books that I will probably like next. And they have this great AI and algorithms that know what I'm actually gonna like. And some of the best books that I've listened to and also read using Kindle cuz they do the exact same thing over the past years has been through this recommendation tool. So I love how Amazon does this.

0 (10m 38s):
I love how Audible does this. I love how Kindle does this. I mean it's the same thing when you're just buying even stuff on Amazon. It's like I buy something that'll like, you know, customers also bought this and I'm like Oh of course they would. And like that saves me so much time cuz it takes a while for stuff to ship down here to Puerto Rico. So instead of like getting the thing and being like, Oh I needed to order this as well, like Amazon Dream reminding me in the moon, I'm like, yes, add that to cart, let's do that. So this is what Popop is bringing to the game. They are bringing this algorithmic AI that's gonna allow you to say, Wow, I love that episode and now I'm getting recommended these three episodes or these two podcasts. Man I can trust that these are gonna be right up my alley for that reason. We have a lot more to talk about around this pretty soon.

0 (11m 19s):
But one thing I wanna do that's is kind of unique, we'll talk about this more at the end of the episode Fire Nation, but I actually want a number of you action takers to listen to the second half of this podcast on Podopolo. So I wasn't gonna mention this till the end, but I got kind of inspired while I was hearing Melinda talk. I want you to finish listening to this episode on Podopolo. So for those action takers right now that press the stop button on whatever crappy podcast listening app that you're listening to, go to the app store, download Podopolo, it's P D O P o, oop Olo Podopolo, you download the app and guess what?

0 (12m 1s):
You are going to be able to subscribe to my podcast and listen to the second half of this podcast in a fantastic listening experience. In the first 100 action takers, we are actually going to be giving Amazon gift cards to the first 10. Those really fast ones are getting a $50 Amazon gift card. The next 45, you're still fast but not quite fast enough, you're getting $25, so still meaningful money. And then the last 45 are still gonna get $10 Amazon gift cards. All you need to do is go download Podopolo and then enter my name JLD to put JLD as your when you asked starts the app.

0 (12m 42s):
And then we are going to be giving those Amazon gift cards out to the first 100 action takers. So Melinda, we're gonna talk about this more at the end cause we have another really cool thing alongside of this that I think is pretty special. But before we move into sponsors real quick on this specific thing, anything you wanna say?

1 (13m 1s):
John, Podopolo is gamified at the core of our whole approach to business. It is really one of abundance. We want every single person to win and be better off as a result of any interaction that they have with us in Podopolo, our whole mission is about elevating, empowering, enriching people as we entertain them as well. So this is completely consistent with the only app where you can win just by listening and engaging. So I

0 (13m 37s):
Love it, love it. So Fire Nation, take action. Press the stop button, you go ahead and just even delete that other podcasting app off cause you're not gonna need it. Download Podopolo. Start listening to or listen to the rest of the episode cause we got another really cool thing coming up at the end. But you wanna be one of those first 100 and those first 100. By the way, they're gonna be stopping right now and taking action right now and we'll be back when we thank our sponsors. Well the midterm elections are here and I hope you're ready to vote because all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 seats in the Senate are up for grabs. Of course, we need to fill these roles with the most qualified people, which is not an easy task, but not every role has to be that difficult to fill, especially when you're hiring for your business.

0 (14m 20s):
That's because there's ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter doesn't work for you and right now you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/fire. How does ZipRecruiter make hiring faster and easier? First, when you post your job on ZipRecruiter, it uses powerful technology to find and match the right candidates up with your job. Then you can easily review these recommended candidates and invite your top choices to apply. In fact, four outta five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. So if you want a better way to find great people for your your team, try ZipRecruiter for free right now at this special url, ziprecruiter.com/fire. Once again, that's ziprecruiter.com/fire. ziprecruiter.com/fire.

0 (15m 5s):
Then like to take some time for you because you've got ZipRecruiter to help ZipRecruiter the smartest way to hire. We all know how important engagement with our audience is as creators. Finding effective ways to provide value while also being able to interact in real time is a challenge. But now there's Speakeasy. Speakeasy is an app that allows you to organize your own live talk show. It's made by creators for creators and is uniquely built to help you monetize your audience. Whether you use it for live podcasting, show recordings or hosting premium content, people can subscribe to Speakeasy has you Covered. Wanna stream private shows for select attendees, you can do that too.

0 (15m 46s):
All you have to do is download the app, go live and you'll be connecting with an interactive audience immediately. I'm loving creating daily content on Speakeasy and I know you're going to love it too. So what are you waiting for? Visit getspeakeasy.com to download the app. Check me out at John Lee Dumas and let's start to rock and Speakeasy together. That's getspeakeasy.com. I look forward to interacting with you. Fire Nation. Feeling connected to your team is a must, but with employees and contractors all over the globe, feeling that connection can be tough. Not to mention the software you use can sometimes make you feel outta sync like you and the rest of your team aren't on the same page.

0 (16m 27s):
And when a team is disconnected, your customers pay the price. If the software you're currently using is sharing out of day data on your business or your customers, that equals trouble. Or maybe you feel like your software is making impossible to see the full picture. If that's the case, then listen up. Customers end up bearing the brunt of this disconnection, meaning a great customer experience is lost sometimes forever. Ready to get your team on the same page. HubSpot transforms everyday conversations, strategic decision making sessions and everything in between into moments customers feel good about. With a lovingly crafted suite of tools, you can seamlessly connect your team so everyone has access to the same data and you're able to focus on what really matters your customers.

0 (17m 9s):
Learn how HubSpot can help your business grow better at hubspot.com. Melinda, we're back. And man, we got some more things to talk about here because Panoply, it's interactive, it's social, you've already given some examples, but I want another one. Safe Fire Nation took our advice and there's at least a hundred people I know who are getting gift cards who did, and they're listening Tolo right now. What could they be doing that? People listening on a crappy podcast listening app couldn't do?

1 (17m 38s):
Well first of all, they can be connecting with each other. They can see who else is following entrepreneurs on fire and immediately connect with all of those folks. Share snippets, share comments, questions with each other in the dms on Podopolo. Podopolo has really robust direct messaging functionality. Also can comment and keep the conversation going in the comments section of any of your episodes. John, I would also suggest that they create a clip of their favorite moment of any of your episodes that inst it's easy to do, it instantly manifests on the app on your podcast listing for Entrepreneurs on Fire, but also in the business category and all the other categories that you're in for Easy Discover, easy discoverability and those very soon are gonna be shareable to all of social media as well.

1 (18m 47s):
And plus coming very soon, we have this functionality already, but at the right time, John, I'd love to have you come and do a, a listening party on Podopolo where you can do audio or video in realtime, realtime live interactive podcasting, which is the other feature functionality we have as well. You can also line up all your podcasts, the order in which you wanna listen to Entrepreneur on Fire episodes and mix other episodes into that for your up next queue. Say you have a long drive or you're going on a a run or you're working out or anything you're doing and you just wanna set it and forget it, you have that functionality as well and you can share that with your friends also.

0 (19m 38s):
And one thing that's been really cool that I've enjoyed, and this is gonna be a benefit to you Fire Nation, is that like I've been working closely with Melinda and the team over at Papp and it's, it's a really impressive team and they are implementing things based off of what their users are experiencing. So, you know, I had kind of this punch list that I was like, you know Melinda, like this is a great podcasting app but here's like three or four ways it could, it could really be better because frankly these are things that I, I can't believe like Apple hasn't implemented or they're just so far behind or all these different things and boom, like within the next week she had a timeline out of like those things happening. So you reach out to us, you reach out to me and you say, Hey, I wish Papa had that. I pass it along and if it is something that they can, and, and you know, it makes sense, like you'll probably see that in the app.

0 (20m 23s):
Like this is the type of team and company that you're working with here that you're gonna be a part of. So I mean this is kind of cool that you will have essentially access through me if you reach out to me as I have access to the team of let's make this really the best podcast listening app in the world based off of exactly what you're loving and what you're wishing was part of the podcast listening experience. Now let's shift to podcast creators like myself and so many people that are listening right now are also podcast creators that are podcast hosts. How does pro help them?

1 (20m 59s):
Ah, well I'm also a podcast host and pod really emanated John from my experiences creating and building wings of inspired business. It was ranked by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of their top business podcasts for 2020. And along the way I discovered a lot of what I perceived as structural problems that prevented creators from easily growing their reach and discoverability in engaging with their fans, knowing their fans like having the, the, the deep audience analytics that were actionable to be able to make their content more responsive to listeners and viewers. But also, and here's the big one actually making money from their content.

1 (21m 42s):
So we're, we're at this moment in time where podcasting is the fastest growing media of all time, but some 85% of podcasters don't make a dime. And we set out to change that cuz honestly I came at podcasting as a five time serial entrepreneur in media tech. I'd created shows for the Financial Times and the BBC and grown those to like 50 million audiences globally. I've innovated all sorts of algorithms in all my tech businesses. I have marketing expertise, I had all these things and podcasting was still hard to be discovered. It was hard to beat the algorithms and whatnot. And so for creators and, and this is this whole aspect of everybody wins with kalo.

1 (22m 25s):
In fact Forbes Magazine said that about us because the very same AI matchmaking that makes it easier for a listener or a viewer to discover the perfect podcast and the perfect friends for them. You flip that over and for a podcaster, we're sending them audience that we already know is kind of effectively pre-qualified for their show, right? To really help them grow their discoverability and reach. Also that AI is powering a lot of sophisticated cross-promotion to get podcasters in front of the right audiences. There are all kinds of little ways that we work the recommendations as well.

1 (23m 8s):
And also through playlists and through clips to really aid that discoverability. Meantime, because it's socially interactive, there's a way to really engage on a deep level and get to know your audience without having to be on 50 different social platforms and all the market, all the things that you have to do. That's all one click social shareable from Podopolo. And then meantime on the money side of things, we have a free offer for podcasters to really podcasters who didn't qualify before for advertising can now qualify for advertising and sponsorship on Podopolo. Even if they don't have that magical 10,000 downloads in an episode, that usually qualifies you to work with the different ad networks because of the ai, it means a podcast, even with a much smaller audience, it can actually land lucrative advertising opportunities both on air and interactively on the app itself, plus ways to make money from subscriptions.

1 (24m 13s):
So you have premium content that you wanna put behind a paywall, you can make money that way as well. And there are many other things also. But like, I mean my whole idea and my vision for Podopolo started because I'm a podcaster and Podopolo is the only app out there built by podcasters for podcasters as well as for listeners and everybody else. And so it really is a whole ecosystem where everybody wins

0 (24m 42s):
And that's the big takeaway. Fire Nation everybody wins. You as a podcast listener can feel great knowing that you're helping the podcast host. Let's probably bust in their butt to create great content, to give you free, valuable, consistent content that you are helping them. And listen as the podcast host, if you tell your podcast listeners about this, you know, you're helping your podcast listeners have a better listening experience of your show and other shows and podcasting in general. And that's gonna just help everything because when people are enjoying podcasts more, they become evangelists, they talk about it, they share, and this whole industry rises because all ships rise in a high tide.

0 (25m 23s):
And I wanna end with a bang, Melinda, because we have some really cool things that we've already talked about. I don't really want to overwhelm the listener with just so many things because we've already talked about a ton of things that make Podopolo just a better podcast listening app than whatever podcast listening app Fire Nation you're on right now. So hopefully a lot of you are already on Podopolo, hopefully a lot of you have already entered my name in. So let's kind of walk through what that process is. So we've got a prize for the first 100 people that download Podopolo and sign up and and subscribe to Entrepreneurs on Fire within Podopolo.

0 (26m 4s):
You are going to get an Amazon gift card. The first 10 get 50 bucks, the next 45 get 25 and the remaining 45 get $10. So Melinda, what do they have to do to qualify for that prize?

1 (26m 18s):
Okay, super easy. Podopolois free in both app stores, Google and Apple and just go there, download it, it's free, it's super, super easy. When you do, you'll be prompted to create an account. It'll ask you things like, you know, you can log in with your social or you can create a by email or by cell phone and it'll just ask you a couple questions about what your interests are. And this is the beginning of the AI that starts to, you know, give you instant recommendations. You know, before you're even completely logged in, you're already getting recommendations from Podopolo. Now at that moment, you're gonna wanna remember to put in John's email, or sorry, his username on Podopolo so we can track the order that you came in.

1 (27m 9s):
So you qualify for that gift card, whether it's the $50, the 25 or the 10 and fulfill that to you and you'll get that like pretty much straightaway within the week of that sign up. And from there it's super, super easy. Go from there, follow Entrepreneurs on fire, on Pablo, you know, make a comment, start a discussion, see who else is listening, make friends on the app and invite your friends

0 (27m 39s):
Fire Nation make it happen. And for those people that just missed the first 100, we don't want people to be like, Oh, I was like number 1 0 3, so close, like numbers 1 0 1 to 200, we are gonna be planting a hundred trees as a thank you to those hundreds. So just know that even if you weren't in the first 100, the next 100, you're doing something good in this world. So I hope that is some good consolation for you. So go to the app store, download Podopolo, follow the instructions that Melinda said is just following entrepreneurs on fire. Mention John Lee Douma when you're signing up and they will reach out and you will get your Amazon gift card.

0 (28m 19s):
So Melinda, everything that we talked about here today, what is the one key takeaway that you wanna make sure Fire Nation gets from everything that we talked about?

1 (28m 29s):
This is an app created for you. We love as entrepreneurs and podcasters here at Podopolo -create with your customers. So, JLD, something you said a little bit earlier on, we love feedback. You know, we, we love your ideas, we wanna see you really, really get involved in the app. This app has, as John knows, this very long roadmap. So many things are coming, but look, it's gonna save you time, it's gonna make it much more convenient. It's a personalized listening experience and one that's both personalized and social. So check it out.

1 (29m 10s):
I wanna make, you know, I'm excited to be able to give away all these Amazon cards and that's really the big takeaway. This is, this is, you know, a community and one in which we want everybody in it to win, Fire Nation.

0 (29m 24s):
You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with MW and JLD today, so keep up the heat. If you head over to EOFire.com and type Melinda in the search bar, the show's page will pop right up. Hopefully right now you're not listening to a podcast app that stinks cuz you took our advice and you downloaded Podopolo. If you are, now's the time. Fire Nation do it. The episode's over, change the rest of your life and get on the Podopolo bandwagon. Melinda, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nations today. For that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

1 (30m 3s):
Thank you.

0 (30m 5s):
Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Melinda for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. Over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 3000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and I've created a revolutionary 17 step roadmap to your financial freedom and fulfillment. I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, which is personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuck. The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visits UncommonSuccessBook.com to order your copy and I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side, looking for a place where you can experience live interactions with your audience, then Speakeasy is for you.

0 (30m 53s):
I'm loving creating daily content on Speakeasy and I know you will too. Visit getspeakeasy.com, Download the app, and go live today. Success story hosted by Scott D. Clarey is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals success story features Q and A, keynote presentations and convos on sales marketing In more. A recent episode on how to protect your business in times of crisis is a must. Listen, listen to success story wherever you get your podcasts.