Podcast appearances and mentions of jason swank

Today's conversation is a deep, yet simple one; what can wash away our sin? The answer is equally deep and simple; nothing can wash our sin away outside of the blood of Jesus. No matter the sin, no matter guilt, Jesus came to save us, it's up to you to decide what to do with that information. Join the discussion today and tackle these difficult questions with us. Today's speakers: Nate, Nick & Jason Swank

Taking a break from our "Starting Point" series, this week's episode is about our annual "Be Generous" campaign going on at Avenue Church. Also for our 40th episode, we have our special guest Jason Swank with us today! Christ calls us to be generous with our time, talents and tithe, join us as we look deeper into what Christian generosity looks like. Today's speakers: Nate, Nick & Jason Swank

We review THE MANDALORIAN season 3 with new behind-the-scenes info and interviews with the cast and crew via DISNEY GALLERY. We have highlights from Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Doug Chaing, Jack Black and more! We look ahead to the upcoming STAR WARS film featuring Daisy Ridley as Kathy Kennedy claims Rey made "a promise to Luke Skywalker" and we try to figure out exactly what the hell she's talking about. Plus, listener feedback about Dark Siders escaping death, the potential of a live action Capt. Rex in AHSOKA and more! Get ad-free shows, bonus podcasts, full show video and more with RFR on Patreon: www.patreon.com/rebelforceradio 

If you utilize Java or any other JVM, there's a good chance you know the Maven Central repository. Today's episode brings long-time maintainers and contributors of Maven Central, Brian Fox, Jason Swank, and Joel Orlina to the mic to rehash the early days of Maven Central, lessons learned from managing open source ecosystems, and bring insight into the platform's practical software supply chain management capabilities of the past, present, and future.

Do you know the importance of building relationships to help your agency scale faster? Brian Cosgrove was doing well at a big agency but felt it kept him from doing what he really wanted to do, which was starting his own business and bringing innovation to the way the services are provided. Once he founded BrainDo, they started scaling and, within a year, had already grown from two to eight employees. In this conversation with Jason, he talked about the important role that building relationships & collaborative culture played in getting his agency off the ground, why he was always confident that they could run a big program, and what bringing value to his clients really means for him and why it is one of the guiding principles for everyone working at his agency. 3 Golden Nuggets What contributed to their growth. Once he and his partner hired their first employee, figuring out how to get benefits for their staff, how to do payroll, and making everything official with the agency made it a lot easier. They ended up going after a big contract, and that led to them getting at least 8 more workers, which allowed them to build out a lot of different services. What contributed to their faster growth? Brian credits the importance he places on maintaining good relationships with past clients, team members, and employers. He left his position at a big agency in good terms and, thanks to this, they still wanted to contract him afterward. Also, they were always confident that they could run a big program and positioned themselves to be ready for it. Building relationships & collaborative culture. Other agencies started reaching out to partner with them because their expertise. This helped them start to build relationships with local agencies that could refer clients. Also, former clients that were working at different companies started calling them. So Brian highlights the importance of these connections to get his agency off the ground. The importance of building the type of network where everyone is willing to help one another and believe they can all rise together. Of course, good work is a big part of it. “Because of that relationship, I don't want to leave the client in a worse place,” he says, “I refuse to do it.” The chain of value. After signing a contract, the agency will usually deal with the company's manager on a day-to-day basis. One of the guiding principles at Brian's agency is to make sure that that manager is benefitted from this relationship with them. They want to see that person get promoted and fully engaged. They should love what they're doing and help break down barriers within the organization to provide value. “The way I see it,” Brian says, “is I need everybody on my team to say everything that we do has provided value.” The principle is to make sure that what they do brings value to the customer, but also helps them help their team, their whole company and organization. And make sure all of that ends up helping their end customer. Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode is sponsored by the Wix Partner Program. Being a Wix Partner is ideal for freelancers and digital agencies that design and develop websites for their clients. Check out Wix.com/Partners to learn more and become a member of the community for free. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher | Radio FM Building Relationships that Will Help You Scale & The Guiding Principle of Providing Value Jason: [00:00:00] What's up, agency owners? Jason Swank here and I have another amazing guest for the podcast so you can grow your agency faster. We're going to talk about building relationships and creating a collaborative culture within your agency so you can scale faster. So let's go ahead and get into the show. Hey Brian, welcome to the show. Brian: [00:00:25] Hey, how are you? Jason: [00:00:26] I'm excited to have you on. So this is your first podcast. I'm honored you picked me to be your first podcast. But, uh, for the people that have not heard of you yet, tell us who you are and what do you do? Brian: [00:00:39] Yes. I'm Brian Cosgrove. I'm the owner of BrainDo Interactive Consulting, and we do a lot of work across the board, uh, focusing in analytics development and different areas of digital marketing. Jason: [00:00:53] Great. And so how did you get started? Brian: [00:00:55] Interesting story. I was in aerospace engineering and I was looking for as some side money during the holiday season and I applied for warehouse job. And found out I wasn't the best at doing packing boxes, but I was a bit overqualified. And the owner of the company asked if I could help out with some things related to their SEO program. So I read a bunch of like white papers. I read a bunch of like academic papers on people that were actually developing these engines. I tried to figure out, okay, who's the talent? Like how they did it? And then figure out what we should do and came up with a plan. And implemented it and started ranking top. In my other career I was like, okay, I can see where I'm going to be at in 10 years. And that's cool. But this is like amazing growth and I'm able to have a huge impact and I'm still in my early twenties. So I got into that and that kinda got me to crossover into this digital marketing thing. Worked in that space for a little while, went to my first agency Razorfish and started off in SEO. And then I had to fix analytics. Was there for about three years and then went into another company another comp company to help them build out their digital practice when they were doing all kind of like direct mail TV, pretty much all traditional marketing. I went there with some, you know, one of my colleagues from Razorfish. And then that went really well and kind of grew that. And then struck out with a good friend of mine on our own in 2013. Jason: [00:02:38] What made you want to leave? Since the one agency was going really well and you were leading that. What was that itch? Brian: [00:02:44] I already knew, like, I kinda knew since I was young, that I wanted to kinda like start my own thing or make my own thing. I always kind of had a sense of, you know, we could do things a little bit differently. We could innovate a bit in how these services are provided or culture. So for me, it was kind of like I liked doing what I was doing. But it was almost like a trap because it was keeping me away from what I really wanted to do, which was kind of start something fresh. Jason: [00:03:10] Gotcha. Awesome. And when you started the agency, how long did it take you to really kind of start bringing on and building a team? Brian: [00:03:20] So it was just myself and my partner for, I guess, February to November. And then we hired our first employee in November. And at that point we figured out how to get benefits for them. We figured out how to do payroll. We figured it out, we made everything official and we got all that squared away and that made it a lot easier. And then we went after a kind of big contract to kind of do all many different digital channels in, you know, a year two and ended up hiring eight more people that year. That kind of allowed us to build out a lot of different services that we needed someone to run point on. So I'd say within a year and a half, we were at 10 from, you know, two. Jason: [00:04:05] That's great. So what do you think contributed to that growth? Like how did you have that fast growth? Because a lot of people for a couple years, they're just kinda, it's kinda them, their business partner, maybe a couple of contractors. Brian: [00:04:18] It's an interesting thing. So while I was still working, before I even started, I really cared about the relationships with my clients, with my colleagues, with my management, with team members, with vendors. So I had a pretty big network at that point. And it was… You know, there's an interesting thing that happens when you kind of let people know like, okay, I'm going out to do this on my own, you know. People that you've built relationships with that care about you they kind of want to figure out how to work with you. So it helped out tremendously just to kind of lean into that. As soon as we left the place that we were working on asked if we could do some contracting with them. And I was like, we can, but you know, it's gotta be at our contracting rate. You know, it will give you somewhat of a discount for a period of time, but this is how we have to work for our business. And we were able to end up converting our former employer into our client, which was based on the fact that it maintained good relationships. We also took a lot of care in transitional work. Backfilled our roles sort of before we left. We left them in a good place to be like, okay, they're good. All of our big retainers are renewed. Our team they're fully staffed. They can run without us. And then they still wanted to contract with us afterward. Other agencies reached out, they wanted to partner with us because they knew that just individually, myself and my business partner had some expertise in certain areas. And they said, hey, we need help there. Can you guys help us out? So we ended up building relationships with other agencies that were in the area, you know. And then it was like someone who was a former client, you know, went to another agency, brought us in. I'd say a lot of it was kind of just relationships that got us off the ground. I think a big thing for us is we're kind of confident we could run a big program, like an enterprise program. And so, while we took on some smaller clients, we kind of just always positioned ourselves to be ready for that. Like we always kind of really played that role that we're ready to do enterprise work at a moment's notice. And we knew that that would get us a six-figure contract or something like that from a client, which again is sort of like a game-changer when it comes to hiring employees and say, I already kind of have your salary on contract. Like I can afford to pay you in the future without worrying about that. Jason: [00:06:37] Yeah, I think so many lessons in there that I want to make sure people don't skip over. It's you know, the one is you gotta be really good at what you do. Like a lot of people are like, how do you, how do you create a successful agency that's growing? And I'm like, well, you have to know how to do something better than most. And to actually get people results. That's rule number one. But I also liked that you talked about building relationships and really not just going, you know, what's in it for me, you know, like a lot of our mastermind members, they do this amazing… where they're like, look, I don't have any problem today, I just wanted to show up and help. Like help other members, right? And then when they do need help, everyone will… Here, here's the shirt off my back. Here it is. And it's not like I'll do this for you, if you do this. Like we get, you know, all those slimy emails that you get? Like, oh, you have my audience, can you just blast this out? Brian: [00:07:43] Yeah, there's a lot of that going on. Honestly, it's, it's building a tighter circle with people that you don't have to… You know, there's no fakeness to it. There's a lot less agenda. It's sort of like let's all rise together, to me has always been important. Jason: [00:07:59] Yeah, iron sharpens iron, right? Brian: [00:08:04] And I also really care about doing good work. So that point, and so I think that was another thing was that we were kind of committed to making sure we did great work no matter what. It wasn't like, uh, maybe we'll do well, maybe we won't. It was like, we're going to do great work no matter what, because of that relationship. I don't want to leave the client in a worse place. I refuse to do that. And that, and that was just sort of a… an important lesson, I think Jason: [00:08:34] When you're an agency partner with Wix you unlock an entire digital ecosystem for creating, managing, and growing your agency. Get the full coding and design freedom to create anything your clients need, along with the tools to manage and collaborate with your team seamlessly from anywhere. And when it comes to growing your agency, you can get matched with new leads every day and earn revenue share for every website you guys create. They're backed by the Wix industry-leading security and site performance. You'll also have a dedicated account manager on standby 24/7 so you can reach your goals and start setting new ones. See for yourself, head over to wix.com/partners and re-imagine what your agency can accomplish. And I think a lot of people forget that, you know, we kind of ring the bell. Or the gong, you know, ring the gong when you sell a deal and you're like, yeah, that's good for you. But you know, the client is already thinking, like having buyer's remorse, like you should be thinking about… Like, I was chatting with Darby, our agency scale specialist yesterday, and he's been bringing on a lot of really amazing members. And he's like, look, I'm so invested because I want them to have the best experience because it's, it's my word of what they went on. And I'm like, that's why we get along so well, we will do anything to move people along rather than like yeah. You gave us money. Yeah. Good luck. Brian: [00:10:10] Yeah, exactly. I mean, the way that I've seen it. So usually when we take on a contract, there's occasionally if it's smaller company, we might be dealing with the owner or upper executives. But usually when it comes to day-to-day, we're dealing with the manager that they have on their end. That's managing the relationship with us. And I've always told my team and, and this is kind of been a guiding principle… I want to see that person be in a position to get promoted. Just for working with us, they're doing so well, but they're now getting promoted. They're fully engaged. They love what they're doing and they're helping break down barriers within the organization to provide value. On top of that, the way that I see it, especially in the bigger organizations is I need everybody on my team to say everything that we do has provided value. Obviously, like it provides value to the brand that we're doing this work for… We're, we're billing for it. And that works out and ultimately it should be contributing to our culture. But after that, the client, that first person, that first line of contact or the person on the front lines, make sure that we're doing everything we can to help them. Make sure that what we're doing not only helps them, but helps them help their team. Make sure what we're doing not only helps them and helps their team, but helps their whole company and organization. And make sure all of that ends up helping their end customer. Because like, if you can follow that, that thread all the way through, and there's no conflict anywhere along the way, let's proceed. Let's move forward with this project and give it everything you've got. If there's a conflict on the way, maybe that's project we don't want to take on. Maybe there's a different reason that we, you know, maybe we want to propose something else. But if you can't follow that all the way along the way, then you can't have confidence that what you're doing is going to provide value. Another thing, I think that was important for us is... And this came up after working in other agencies was, you know, I remember a gentleman said to me said, look, I want to be able to be proud of who I see when I look in the mirror. I want to be able to be proud to tell my kids, the clients and the projects that I work on. And so another thing that we took on very early on was like to be picky. And so it's picky not just on the clients and the projects we work on. We want to do things that provide value to the world, but we also care about kind of like… Are we providing value to that organization? And so the how is just as important as like specifically what we're doing. And I would say, I want to add too, that team members put a lot more energy into it. Jason: [00:12:26] Oh, yeah. I think a big part of why you've gotten to grown so fast too, is you have belief in your team and you. And you said that we knew right away we could take on enterprise clients, right? There's so many of us that didn't start that way, right? We didn't start with at a big agency, like a Razorfish or go to... Like me, I was accidental. I remember I joke with people. I'm like, my first client asked me for an invoice. I didn't even know what an invoice was. I didn't know all these terminologies. And so for many years I had kind of that, um, imposter syndrome. That I could do a website, but I can't do anything else. And I see a lot of people that way. So I just want everybody listening, even if you have that… Look, I even feel like the imposter syndrome too. And I've been in the agency space since 98. And so you got to kind of go look, I'm really good at this and I can dominate this part and go do it. And build relationships like Brian has talked about… Correct me if I'm wrong, if you make all your managers and all those people rockstars, they get promoted and where do they go? Other companies, and then they bring you along. Don't they? Brian: [00:13:43] Yes, exactly. And so, in fact, I just received an MSA for a sneaker brand I'm super into, you know, like huge brands that I liked already loved are now like our client base. And I feel like… This morning, just from work, doing, working hard with some people while they worked in other companies before that. And so the way that I say it is just, that should almost be the end goal. That should be the expectation. Like we're all kind of in our careers together. We are all sort of like at certain points in certain stages. Our clients should be going to other companies, and when they do, they should want to come into work with us. And we should be sort of a secret tool that they bring to the table. Is that it bring that success along with them. Jason: [00:14:26] Exactly. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. Well, this has all been amazing. Brian, is there anything I didn't ask you that you think would benefit the audience listening in? Brian: [00:14:34] I just want to touch briefly on the collaboration part. One thing that helped out was that a lot of our brainstorming sessions early on, and what helped us grow is that we, you know, this person was a graphic designer. This person is doing SEO. This person is an analytics and that person's doing paid media. We would do a lot of like collaborative work early on to say, you know, kind of all hands on deck. Like how do we solve this client's paid search need? And get ideas from a lot of different people and made sure that everybody on our team knew Google analytics, knew kind of some of the mechanics of how the other channels worked. And that went a long way to them building relationships, them doing sort of cross-channel collaboration. And then being able to offer solutions to clients that were kind of like a bit more thought through. A bit more holistic or integrated, and a bit more defensible, maybe from different angles. So I would just say like, if you have a few different disciplines, like make sure to figure out how those two go together to be better than if you only worked on just one discipline alone. Jason: [00:15:38] I love it. I love it. What's the website people go and check your agency out? Brian: [00:15:43] Uh, brain.do. Jason: [00:15:44] Awesome. Well, everyone go check that out. Thanks so much, Brian, for coming on the show. Lots of amazing stuff. And if you guys want to be around amazing agency owners and you believe that iron sharpens iron, where other agencies are sharing the strategies that are working for them, and they're able to see the things you might not be able to see. I want to personally invite you all to go to digitalagencyelite.com. This is our exclusive mastermind just for experienced agency owners. We only take a few every couple of months. So go there now, fill out an application and maybe we'll chat if we feel it's right for you. So go to digitalagencyelite.com and until next time have a Swenk day.

First, Mat Bradley-Tschirgi has an interview with popular Star Wars podcaster Jason Swank of Rebel Force Radio on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Then, Mat, Thrasher, and BJ have a longer discussion on the movie itself. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) ditches his friends to train with an old green alien (Frank Oz). After the victorious ending of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, this sequel starts with the Rebels on the run on the ice planet of Hoth. Our heroes split up to different planets for reasons, but eventually they get back together again. After a certain paternal revelation, things will never be the same for Luke, Han, Leia, and Lando. A darker tale than the first with inspired cinematography by Peter Suschitzky, The Empire Strikes Back is a fan favorite for a reason. At times it's meditative, at other times it's a retro romance with sparky dialogue and sparkier performances. An opening large scale battle on Hoth with the elephantine AT-ATs has been adapted into countless video games. This flick is well worth revisiting if it's been a while. Sequelcast 2 and Friends is part of the Greenlit Podcast Network Follow the show on Twitter @Sequelcast2 Listen to Marc with a C's music podcast Discography Buy Mat's books (Podcast You Nerd!, The Films of Uwe Boll Vol. 1: The Video Game Movies!) Buy Thrasher's tabletop RPG supplements from DriveThruRPG Watch Alex Miller's YouTube series The Trailer Project --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Today on the show, I speak with my mentor and agency coach Jason Swank, who helps other agencies scale and market. What I love about Jason is that he's constantly bringing other agencies together to inspire us to grow bigger and better and market our business in a way that works now. And you don't have to own an agency to listen to the show. This is for all small business owners that might have a service industry focus.There's some good stuff in the show for everyone! Get all links, resources and show notes at https://makeyourmarketingpodcast.com

#016 - Jason Swank from Rebel Force Radio joins the podcast to talk 1989 Batman and more!  Let the hilarity ensue!

Jason Swank from Rebel Force Radio promo.  Jason joins the Geeks on April 9th to discuss 1989 Batman and more!

Omi Diaz-Cooper is CEO at Diaz & Cooper Advertising, a digital “growth agency” that focuses on developing tight strategic plans and transforming client websites into top-performing salespeople. Omi says that websites are no longer “set it and forget it”—they are “living things that need to be producing” for clients. Since Covid, even companies that used to have “catalog” websites have found the need to proactively nurture prospects along the customer value journey.  Engaging and locking-in relationships with customers before they are ready to purchase is essential. People may start out merely seeking information. Providing great content and thought leadership will encourage today's digitally-empowered potential clients to “keep coming back” until they are ready to buy. Nurturing them after the sale turns them continues the client-journey as customers become repeat customers and provide references.  Diaz & Cooper utilizes data-backed optimization to build a predictable system of growth for two industry verticals – travel/tourism and online retailers. When Covid struck, travel and tourism revenues took a dive . . . and business for companies that sold things online soared. Omi agrees that “anybody who didn't have an ecommerce store who ever needed to decided they needed one pretty quickly.” Diaz & Cooper is both a Shopify Certified Agency and a HubSpot Gold Solutions Partner.  Omi loves the travel industry and expects that it will rebound. She explains that most people who love to travel will do a lot of online inspirational research before they book. They may be looking for a unique experience or an adventure, seeking something new to surprise them, or to go somewhere where they know exactly what to expect.  During the research phase, Omi says, “You have to get them to sign up for something so you can remarket to them with an email.” She recommends offering such things as destination information or tips on how to pack for a given climate to build value so people keep returning to your site. Engagement needs to be an iterative process where each stage brings opportunities to remarket. If potential customers book outside your brand's website, it is hard to recapture the relationship.  After an individual becomes a guest at your venue, remarket to them for great reviews and references. In this interview, Omi talks about how agency focus has shifted. At the turn of the century, agencies created concepts, gave the concepts away in pitches, backed everything up with an invented rationale, and made money by handing accounts off to lower-paid junior executives, padding time sheets, or through media commissions. In the past five to ten years, the focus has shifted to consumer first, with senior-level strategy development, billing based on value provided to clients, and integration of constantly evolving technological innovations. Omi can be reached Twitter at @diazcooperor on the agency's website at www.diazcooper.com. The website offers a variety of audits and calls to action that visitors may find of value.  Transcript Follows: ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I'm joined today by Omi Diaz-Cooper, CEO of Diaz & Cooper Advertising based in Miami, Florida. Welcome to the podcast, Omi. OMI: Thanks, Rob. It's really great to be here. ROB: Fantastic to have you here. Why don't you start off by telling us about Diaz & Cooper and where the firm excels? OMI: Absolutely. We really think of ourselves as a growth agency rather than a traditional marketing shop. Our focus is really on transforming our clients' websites into top performing salespeople. How we do that, or rather our secret sauce, is really data-backed optimization. We want to create a predictable system of growth. We believe websites are living things that need to be producing for our clients, especially since nowadays, consumers are just so much more digitally empowered than ever before. The old ways of building websites, of setting them and forgetting them, and the old ways of how you used to reach customers online really have to evolve. So, we're kind of a bunch of data nerds who understand and love the customer value journey. [laughs] ROB: That seems like it can be better for everyone, because so often the website is this giant project that people work on, they get the website out the door, they work with someone to get it done, they don't talk to them for 2 years – maybe they do talk to them 2 years later – and then you rebuild everything from scratch because the universe has changed. Having a framework where the site can evolve and where the relationship between the agency and the brand can continue – I guess if you're cynical, you'd say it looks like you're just keeping them on the hook, but realistically, something has to change every month unless you don't expect anything at all from the website. OMI: Yeah, exactly. That's why we really focus on people who are actually selling something online. We do well with lead gen, but where we really shine and what really jazzes us is seeing our client numbers go up in analytics, making more and more revenue for our clients, but also connecting them to the people who will have some sort of an enhancement in their life experience by connecting to this particular brand. Like you said, it's really not about those brochure sites of “set it and forget it.” It's really about growth-driven design, and that's driven by actual visitor data. And those things change. We saw the huge changes that have happened over the last 6 months in consumer behavior. If you had a dusty old site that you hadn't touched in 2 or 3 years, you bet your bottom dollar that you're touching it now. ROB: Right. Omi, you mentioned being able to tie something back to the bottom line and measurability. Are there particular industries that you find that Diaz & Cooper engages with most often? OMI: Yeah, we have two pretty big industry niches. The first one, believe it or not, is in travel/tourism. We've worked with everything from local attractions of an aquarium in Tampa that's pretty famous and has actually been in a movie to global brands like Regent Seven Seas and Royal Caribbean. I have a lot of faith in the travel industry, even though obviously it got whacked pretty bad 6 months ago. We can talk about that a little bit later. So that's one niche. But again, it's all about generating bookings online. For example, we currently have an airline client, and it's all about generating those bookings. Then the other piece of it is more of a peer ecommerce place, so retail businesses that are selling something online through Shopify, for example. We are a Shopify Certified Agency as well as a HubSpot Gold Solutions Partner. ROB: That's an interesting place to be. Quite often, when people think about HubSpot, they think very B2B, but HubSpot is also a lot about the customer journey. The past couple years – certainly not this year, but the 2 years prior, we recorded this podcast at the Inbound Conference because they get great speakers in there, and the advantage of recording in person is really helpful. It makes for a great conversation. Talk a little bit about how to think about – I think booking travel is a customer journey, much like buying a B2B product. What are the stages when somebody's thinking about travel that might make sense to us but be not intuitive to somebody looking from the outside? OMI: For sure, travel, and especially with more and more people doing so much research online, travel begins at the inspiration. Unless you're traveling for business and you have to have travel and you don't have that much choice in the matter, most people that love to travel really are looking for an experience, something unique – they either want adventure and they want to be surprised, or they want to know exactly what to expect. Either way, they're going to do a lot of that inspirational research online. That's the piece where a lot of companies, like for example tour companies, have really not been doing super well in the past. I'll give you an example. Have you ever landed in a new city and gotten out of the station and seen people handing out little flyers or little postcards for bus tours or an excursion locally? Honestly, that's been one of the largest ways that a lot of these tour companies have marketed themselves, and they've really ignored that pre-travel inspiration research aspect of it. By the time someone's landed nowadays, they might be pretty set with their itinerary and they may not even look twice at whatever excursion you have to offer. So, it's really about trying to capture the imagination of people who are at that research stage and then having engaging content. From there it's a pretty traditional ecommerce journey. You have to engage them with content, you have to get them to hopefully sign up. If they're not ready to book yet, you have to get them to sign up for something so you can remarket to them with email. And then after they become a guest, how do you remarket to them so that they give you a great review and refer you to others? It's really looking at everything from the time that they first think about wanting to travel through turning them into a raving fan. ROB: It seems like it could be getting very divergent. It seems like there would be a pull. A lot of the travel booking sites would probably be trying to pull these brands into their own marketplace to book alongside their travel, to book alongside their AirBnB. But it seems to me if you're doing that, you've lost complete control of the customer relationship. How is that pull working on the tours? Or is it not much of a factor yet? OMI: It's beginning to be. For example, I think Bookings Holdings, which is the owners of Booking.com, they realize the potential of the excursions & tours area of travel tourism, and they actually purchased a booking engine called Fair Harbor. Again, they want to have more control of that customer journey. But you're right; that means the brand themselves loses that a little bit. It's really important to have a mechanism by which you can engage with the potential customers before they actually book so that they're already looking to you for information, whether it's destination information or whether you're giving them tips on how to dress or how to pack for a particular climate. Whatever the case might be, it's going back to good old-fashioned content creation and thought leadership where you really want to be able to establish that relationship before they book. Because if they book outside of your brand's website, you've lost that relationship until you can capture their email again or something like that. It's really about providing touchpoints prior as well as throughout. As soon as they book, what are you doing to nurture them before they show up? Unless it's like a same day thing. Obviously, every brand is a little bit different, but those basics are the same as far as wanting to figure out ways to create more touchpoints throughout the relationship so that you don't lose that touch with the guest. ROB: And they might even be able to capture some of the referral revenue out to the accommodations, out to the plane flights and whatnot, right? OMI: Yeah, that's actually pretty common in the industry. For example, concierges at a hotel, if they book a tour or something like that, they get a piece of the revenue. That's a pretty common practice. How do we do that digitally, and how do we do it digitally effectively so that you're not pushing things on people that don't make sense? That's the rub. ROB: Got it. March 2020 must have been quite an inversion of your business, because you have this travel vertical that undoubtedly was hit hard, but conversely you have this ecommerce side of things that anybody who didn't have an ecommerce store who ever needed to decided they needed one probably pretty quickly. OMI: Yes. [laughs] That was definitely our saving grace, that we did have that part of the business. We had already been Shopify partners for several years and have had a lot of success with some retailers. Because yeah, literally about 60% of our agency's revenue paused within a week or two of March, the terrible Ides of March. [laughs] ROB: Were people looking for any sort of store to sell their thing online? Were there particular types of products that seemed to accelerate faster? OMI: Obviously anything related to health and toilet paper and sanitation and that kind of thing. Obviously all of that was huge. But overall I think it took a little time for people who had never done ecommerce before. They knew that they needed to go into it, but they weren't sure how to go about it. And that's not really our core target audience. It was really more about finding more of those clients who already had a decent ecommerce shop and how do we make it better? How do we do conversion rate optimization so that they capture more of the market? Because the behavior really changed. The behavior changed in that people were less loyal to specific brands and they were looking for bargains and looking for something that was going to make sense for their budgets. Again, yes, there were a lot more people buying online, but there were also a lot more people with less money to spend. ROB: Right. It all flipped very quickly. We had one client who was in a different business who decided to spin up a third party marketplace for challenger and interesting food brands. You can imagine, they're talking to all these companies that are used to selling stuff in grocery stores; now they're not because nobody is stopping and browsing around a grocery store. If they're going at all, they're going to find their toilet paper and their core essentials. The shift from March until now – at the beginning, everyone they talked to said, “No, we don't have a store.” It has come so quickly to now they fully expect this client to integrate with their Shopify store and integrate their order history. The knowledge and sophistication really turned amazingly quickly. OMI: Yeah. I read somewhere that the CEO of Microsoft said that we experienced 2 years of digital transformation in 2 months, and that's exactly what it felt like. [laughs] ROB: Oh yes, it felt like a lot of things, for sure. Omi, when you look back, tell us about the origin story of Diaz & Cooper. How did you decide to get this business rolling? OMI: That's actually a funny story. A little bit personal, but I'm going to go ahead and share it. I had been in the ad agency world for, I don't know, 10 years, maybe 15. I can't even remember. I had decided to step off the hamster wheel and freelance. I wanted a little bit less pressure; I wanted a little bit more intimate contact with my clients and all of that. I also wanted to start a family around that time. After about a year, I was finally pregnant. I was about 7 months pregnant or so, and my husband and co-founder Todd Cooper came home from work – he was an associate creative director of a kind of large agency here at the time – and he said, “Hey, I want to quit my job too. Let's do this for real.” So, I looked down at my pregnant belly, looked at him, looked at my belly again, and went, “Are you crazy?” [laughs] But then I realized, okay, there's a gap in the market we can fill. Why not? Let's try it out. At that time – this was back in 2000-2001 – most local agencies created work in a vacuum. All the agencies we had worked for would come up with creative and then invent a rationale. Nobody was talking about data, nobody was talking about putting the consumer first. A lot of agencies were hyper-focused on getting creative awards – or even worse, as soon as they landed an account, they just dumped it off on a junior executive. Because strategy was not valued and creative was given away in pitches, the only way agencies could make real money was through media commissions. That really misaligns the agency and the client goals. Tim Williams talks a lot about this, how with hourly billing, the agency is penalized for being efficient, so you either have to make up time sheets or just make a lot of money through media commissions. A lot of that has definitely changed in the last 5-10 years, but back then that was the status quo. We really learned how to value what we do based on the value that we achieved for our clients, and that's really what we wanted to do with the agency from the inception. We wanted to provide senior level strategy, access to senior level thinking to all the clients, and be able to feed our intense curiosity for new technologies. ROB: And if LinkedIn is to be believed, it looks like he joined in early to mid 2001. OMI: Yeah. ROB: So you put all of your family eggs in this basket, you have a child incoming, and then you have 9/11. You're now in your third turning of the world upside down, between COVID, the financial crisis, and 9/11. How did 9/11 and that time affect your business? And were you in travel then? Because that was another travel mess. OMI: Yeah, it was. Luckily, 9/11, as horrific as it was, really didn't have the long-lasting effects to the industry that COVID has had. We did have a couple of travel/tourism clients at the time. I think we had a couple of hotels. They didn't really change a lot. That didn't really affect us horribly. One thing that did, though, was the real estate bubble bursting. 2008 was one that really whacked us because we were pretty deep in the real estate market. Probably 10 out of 15 clients were in real estate. So that was another big wackadoodle. We learned a lot of hard lessons. Big agencies treat employees like cogs in a wheel, but for us they were almost like family, so it was hard to sit down and say, “Oh my gosh, what staff do we need to cut? How do we make it so that people can survive this?” That was just a big lesson in making sure that we weren't overextended not just in terms of staff but also in terms of expenses. We had a big fancy office and things like that. All of those things really played a part in us reassessing the model itself and being able to focus more on the team and less on anything extraneous so that we could be more resilient when things like this happen. And inevitably something will happen again. It's almost our 20th year in business. Bring it! What's next, world? [laughs] ROB: Yeah, you're still here. Did you have an office in January, and do you have an office now? OMI: We did. This is another semi-funny story. We were ROWE Certified back in 2012. ROWE is Results Only Work Environment. Obviously, from pretty early on, it made sense for us to focus on results versus somebody spending X amount of time in a seat in an office. So we've been at least hybrid since 2012. By hybrid, I mean some days some people come into the office, some days some people don't. Back in October of last year, we made the decision that we were going to go 100% remote. We looked around and we saw that almost all the big HubSpot partners were either 100% remote or nearly 100% remote, and a lot of our clients are not even in the vicinity. They're not traveling to our offices all the time. If anything, we would travel more to them for presentations. So we said, let's not have an office anymore. Let's go 100% remote. We can always do a WeWork type situation if we have to do a conference or a meeting or find other ways to meet as a team. So we had already made that decision in October. We had already let our landlord know we weren't going to renew our lease in the summer, and we wrote a blog post about how to measure results remotely and things like that, kind of in preparation for announcing that we were going to 100% remote. Then, of course, COVID hit 3-4 months after that, and we were already ready from the standpoint of letting go of the office. That was already in the works. So we were already ready. And of course, we were already hybrid for many years, so all of our systems are online, our management software is online, our servers, everything. It was a really seamless transition. ROB: Do you think it'll be completely remote when the world comes back? Or do you think you'll have some sort of default remote? Some people were 3 or 4 days in the office before. Do you think it'll be 3 or 4 days remote and 1 or 2 in an office if you choose, or are you thinking doesn't matter, probably fully distributed, maybe not even all in the same city or state? OMI: We already don't have everybody in the same city or state. We've had employees as far away as Italy. Today we work with a U.S. designer out of Mexico; I have writers that are in North Florida. So we already have people. I think the beauty is not just the flexibility for employees, that they have a much more balanced lifestyle and they're actually a lot more productive. The real beauty is that you can get the best talent no matter where they are. I have a very long-time employee, someone that's been with us 10 years, who recently let us know, “Hey, since we're going to be 100% remote, I think I'm going to be moving. I want to try out a new city.” His roommate got a job in New Orleans, and he's like, “I'm moving to New Orleans with my roommate. Is that cool?” I'm like, “Yeah, of course. Why not?” So I think moving forward, if we do have some sort of an office, it would probably be more one of those contracted things where you can have a coworking space somewhere. It would have to be pretty flexible because, like I said, we meet with people usually in their cities. So, it would have to be something where we could meet in different cities. ROB: Right. Our team is very distributed as well. When our team still wants to work remote but not in their house, we may try to equip them with some sort of local coworking membership. The bigger challenge, I think, is in relationship and team rapport. Have you thought at all, or have you done, something to bring a distributed team together and to maybe gain some of the benefit of having been in the same place, even if that's not the norm?  OMI: Yeah. Obviously, we do a lot of video meetings. We do little celebrations online. We send each other things. Culture is such a big part of the agency. Culture is so important. But we're playing around with the idea of maybe having quarterly live meetings in, like you said, a coworking membership type of space, and even like a retreat once a year when we can all travel again. I'm really looking forward to doing that. This is our first year, and I'm definitely itching to travel. So that's definitely something that as soon as it's safe for everyone, we would likely have maybe a once a year agency retreat. ROB: That's going to be such an interesting ongoing conversation, I think, the agency retreat. We have one employee in Santiago, Chile, and I'm hoping we all go see him. OMI: Oh, that'd be fun. ROB: That's some logistics right there. OMI: Yeah. ROB: We've talked about some lessons already, but what are some things you've learned in building Diaz & Cooper that you might like to do differently if you were starting over right now? OMI: I will tell you that I would've done the remote thing a lot sooner. Like I said, the benefits of being able to attract talent from all over the U.S. and things like that – I would definitely have done that a lot sooner. I would've pushed harder to go fully remote sooner rather than later. Also, moving to more of a value or performance pricing model versus hourly billing. We did that pretty early on. If I could do it from the inception, I would've. One of the ways we started when we first started our agency was we were kind of a little creative boutique, and we did a lot of ghost creative for bigger agencies. We moved away from that pretty quick, but I probably would've done it quicker, looking back, because we got a lot more out of getting referrals from those bigger agencies and having them rely on us for things that they couldn't do. I probably would've done that sooner and created our customer base larger more quickly. ROB: Right. OMI: The other really big lesson – this is a plug to all those wonderful agency consultants out there – there's some really good ones out there, like Jason Swank and Karl Sakas. I would've invested in a consultant sooner as well. Because you don't know what you don't know. [laughs] ROB: Jason was an early guest. He was once a fellow Atlantan, although I do believe that's not the case anymore. Not that you'd see anybody in your same city right now very much. When you talk about, especially on the consulting and advice consultants give you there, a few different perspectives on value-based pricing, how do you think about arriving at a cost for an engagement? Do you have packages? Are you using some sort of estimated effort but then adjusting so that it's not hourly and you can have comfort giving certainty to the client? OMI: That's kind of a bird's nest. I'll tell you that agencies will fight over this. “No, my way's best,” “My way's best.” We looked at the whole point system that was pretty popular with the HubSpot Partners a couple years back. What we arrived at, what works best for us and most of our clients, is we do have certain packaged programs. However, they're highly, highly customizable. We always, always start with a strategy engagement. It's a limited time. It's a value for the client. It's not exactly a loss leader for us, but it's not exactly a big money maker either. What that allows us to do is, number one, see how we work with the client. Really shape where we think the account should go. Really understand what their customers' journeys are, what needs optimization, and really be able to craft the program that will work best for them. It's also kind of a dating before you marry for both of us. They can see what it's like to work with us, we see what it's like to work with them. We can see if we're a really good fit. And then after that, there are programs at different levels that they can sign onto depending on how fast they want to reach their goals. Everything is goal-based. Everything is all around reaching certain SMART goals that we define during the strategy process. Then where the performance comes in is certain built-in bonuses for going beyond certain expected performance metrics. ROB: Makes a ton of sense. No matter how you approach the price for what's done, I think one of the big unlocks that a lot of agencies struggle with is how to define an initial structured engagement that is paid discovery that also delivers value to the clients. OMI: Yes. And it does have to deliver value. It can't just be a laundry list of B.S. It really does need to be strategic. And what we deliver, they could literally take it and run or go with somebody else and do it. A lot of people are hesitant of that, but I find that the approach that some of the prepackages that I've seen of “Well, you get four blog posts a month and six social media posts and an hour of SEO” – how can you determine that that's what they need before you even get to know their business? They may not need blog posts. They may have somebody that does it internally and maybe you're just reviewing and helping them out with the topic strategy and the SEO. Until you have a good strategic plan, you're really just checking off deliverables, and that's not what we're about. We're about delivering a result, and you can't do that unless you have a good plan. ROB: That's super key. This is probably a topic we could spend a lot of time on with a lot of people. It's a lever to growth, and it's a lever to not seeming like – you don't want to sound like you're asking to bill hours to fill out their RFP. That's where it comes from, this defensive “Somebody asked me to do a thing and I didn't have an answer for them, so it cost me time, so I'm going to throw up a defense.” But that positioning and framing towards value really helps you stand out and it helps people have some skin in the game with you while also you freeing them to go anywhere and also not wanting to. OMI: Yeah, exactly. ROB: Excellent. Omi, when people want to get in touch with you, what's the best way for them to connect with you and Diaz & Cooper? OMI: We are on Twitter @diazcooper. Also our website at www.diazcooper.com. Those are the best ways to reach us. There's all kinds of different calls to action and website audits and all kinds of things that are of value that we provide free on our website. So that's probably the best way to reach us. ROB: Sounds good. Omi, thank you so much for making time to come on the podcast. You have shared some wisdom from the year, some experience, some nuggets to carry forward, some really good stuff. I wish you and Diaz & Cooper the best, especially as you are able to not only keep your ecommerce folks happy, but bring those travel clients back into the world. Sounds like a good season ahead. OMI: Yeah, we're excited about it. ROB: Thank you so much. OMI: Thank you. ROB: Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

Today on the show we have Jimmy “Mac” is an award-winning Chicago area radio professional and freelance audio producer. Throughout his radio career, Jimmy worked on or contributed to other shows like the syndicated Howard Stern Show on WLUP he produced shows at the LOOP with celebrity hosts, like Styx lead singer Dennis DeYoung, Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, Siskel & Ebert and many others. Jimmy is the winner of two Chicagoland A.I.R.Awards – 1997: Best On Air Audience Promotion (as voice talent) & 2001: Best Midday Show on a Talk Station (as producer). Jimmy is also a lifelong Star Wars enthusiast and creator of the award-winning podcast Rebel Force Radio (RFR) with co-host Jason Swank. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

"From a Certain Point of View" is not just a very memorable line that Ben tells Luke from Return of the Jedi.  It is also a point of argument when it comes to defending toxic fandom.  Are all points of view equal? Or are there some points of view that are so extreme that they don't belong on the same playing field?  Join Carlos today on GeekFest Rants as we examine an interview Jason Swank from Rebel Force Radio gave Jeremy Griggs from Geeks+Gamers regarding the previously discussed Toxic Fandom RFR situation within the Star Wars community.  Here we'll get a partial "their side of the story" which has been missing from RFR's actual show.  We also discuss this new sub genre of profitable, provocative, verbally aggressive, alt-right kind of fandom that seems to have found it's way into the Star Wars community. 

We push deeper into season four of STAR WARS REBELS with the exciting two-parter "In The Name of The Rebellion".  Jason Swank returns to moderate the conversation for this unpredictable episode of Declassified recorded live and featuring listener calls. With the action taking us to Yavin IV and beyond, we break down the story, the characters, and the action. Saw Guerrera's return means a shake up for both The Empire and The Rebellion, and we analyze the effect his presence has on the members of The Ghost crew and the war itself.  

Dan Z is joined by Randy Therio & Jay Krebs. They begin the show with Dan Z discussing a recent article in The Statewide Standard featuring how he teaches Star Wars. Jason Ward of Making Star Wars.net joins the hosts to discuss the first three episodes of Forces of Destiny, and Tom gives the news. For the Coffee Chat, Dan Z. shares a conversation he had with Jimmy Mac and Jason Swank of Rebel Force Radio from Star Wars Celebration Orlando. This the podcast you’re looking for!Music: Classical Guitar: "Star Wars: A Guitar Medley-Beyond the Guitar" by Nathan Mills; Jazz Music: Eye to Eye by Steve Torok-------------------------------------------Join our Patreon page @ https://www.patreon.com/CoffeeWithKenobi?ty=hPurchase your Coffee With Kenobi tee shirt here 

We look ahead to the future of STAR WARS when Jason Swank stops by to ask the question: Will any of our favorite characters have a happy ending? Jimmy and Paul continue to look ahead with speculation about THE LAST JEDI. Plus, we discuss the recently revealed Star Wars Celebration 2017 key art and talk about some STAR WARS poster art. The Han Solo standalone film has begun shooting in London with Joonas Suatomo taking on the role of Chewbacca solely by himself, Carrie Fisher's Oscar wish gets support in Hollywood and much more.

You’ve seen STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS with your friends and family. Now, see the it with us! Jimmy Mac and Jason Swank sit down to watch the film from start-to-finish with their microphones to present you with the first-ever audio commentary track for EPISODE VII.  We take you through the entire film, scene-by-scene, to bring you TFA…RFR-STYLE! Go see the movie in the theater again this weekend and take us with you in your earbuds. We tell you exactly how to do it! Or, just listen to the show as a stand-alone recap podcast. It’s STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS with Rebel Force Radio!

After one week in release, THE FORCE AWAKENS continues to pack theaters and generate amazing conversation. The vibe continues here at RFR in earnest as we present our latest review show. From the humor to the drama of the film, we cover it all. It’s a podcaster reunion as we are joined by our old friend Pete Nadel, the STAR WARS podcasting pioneer who offers his always entertaining analysis of the saga and beyond. From “Famous Monsters” magazine, executive editor David Weiner stops by to provide his critical take on EPISODE VII. And STAR WARS artist Kevin Liell visits us with his review of TFA, delivered in his trademark, straight-shooting style. Merry Christmas from Jason Swank, Jimmy Mac and “Your Source For The Force”, REBEL FORCE RADIO.

BondCast is back from special assignment with our top field agents reporting for duty.  Serving Queen and Country once again are BondCast hosts Jason Swank, Jimmy Mac and Jonathan Wilkins and the topic of conversation is the 8th 007 film from EON Productions and the first for Roger Moore, LIVE AND LET DIE.  We talk about Moore's debut and the difficulty of picking up where Sean Connery left off. Plus, we get down and dirty with discussion about the antagonist Kananga and his henchman Whisper, along with Bond allies Rosie Carver, Harold Strutter and David Hedison's first stab at Felix Leiter.  And who could forget the lovely Jane Seymour as Solitare?  Ramp up to the release of SPECTRE and get your 007 fix now with BondCast's review of 1973's LIVE AND LET DIE.

The next era of Star Wars animation has finally begun! Star Wars Rebels successfully blasted out into hyperspace with the TV movie event Spark of Rebellion. To honor the occasion, RebelForce Radio returns to the original Star Wars Roundtable with Star Wars Rebels: Declassified . Join stalwart moderator Jason Swank with Jimmy Mac as they are joined by noted Star Wars & feature film concept artist Paul Bateman and Star Wars podcast pioneer Pete Nadel for an informative, insightful and sometimes hilarious look at the premiere of Star Wars Rebels

Geek Out Loud celebrates episode 100 with YOUR e-mails, and a few special guests! First, James Arnold Taylor stops by to talk all things geek, his appearance in Rebels, and his awesome book JAT 365, then Jimmy Mac and Jason Swank from Rebel Force Radio swing in to talk everything from podcasting to comics and even a bit of wrestling. […]

RebelForce Radio is BACK for 2014! Star Wars news and rumors have been flying fast and furiously here in the first two weeks of the year, and we have a lot to say about everything. From Episode VII casting rumors, to comic book news, to canon hierarchy, and even Boba Fett, Jimmy Mac and guest co-host Steve Glosson (Geek Out Loud)  have much to discuss. Get well soon Jason Swank! Plus, Kyle Newman passionately stands up against potential irresponsible marketing of the Star Wars mythology,we catch up on all the Star Wars activities and experiences we had over the holidays, and Chicago Blackhawk superstar Patrick Kane as Anakin Skywalker? Thanks Dave Filoni!  All this and more this week on RebelForce Radio!

Lightspeed is back, this time focusing on conversations with the great Mark Hamill! We caught up with Mark for a pair of exclusive interviews and we are happy to present them both to you in one special program. First, Jimmy Mac sits down with the Luke Skywalker actor at Star Wars Celebration Japan in 2008.  Then, Jason Swank talks to the Jedi Master himself at Star Wars Celebration V in 2010 (while Jimmy Mac sits on the sidelines with a case of laryngitis!). AND, as a special bonus, enjoy rarely-heard highlights from Mark's panel in Orlando at CV.  So, put off that trip to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters and enjoy The Best of Mark Hamill, courtesy of RebelForce Radio! Join us next week as RFR kicks off the 2014 "Year of Star Wars" with the return of our weekly show!  Check out our Lightspeed Series featuring George Lucas, David Prowse & Anthony Daniels Don't forget to visit our friends at Dorkside Toys for the latest Star Wars toys & collectibles!

Quick Episode Summary: Intro and housekeeping Promo: B2B Marketing Greg Elwell What's on the Libsyn blog Promo: iMake with Martine Ellis Podcasting workflow with Markus from The Omega Tau Podcast 11min Dr. Ginger Campbell Thank You Feedback Rob and Elsie Podcasting Conversation Our new Feedback number + follow up on SpeakPipe Leave your podcast name + URL when sending in your promos… David Dear Feedback on Ep 3 Can you use your city's name in your show? - what do you do if you get a cease and desist letter from the city? Feedburner Feed issues (smartcast problem) How to have two media players in one Libsyn account Libsyn4 Release and how to get access - SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK! Promo: Torg Stories William Torgerson Wrap-up Featured Podcast Promos + Audio B2B Marketing with Greg Elwell iMake with Martine Ellis Torg Stories with William Torgerson Markus Völter from The Omega Tau Podcast Dr. Ginger Campbell from The Brain Science Podcast Podcasting articles and media about podcasting Newest Articles on the Libsyn Blog and Podcasting Links Rockin' Libsyn Podcasts: iMake Rockin' Libsyn Podcasts: The Mouse Castle Lounge Get the 411 on the NFL Network and Podcasting via Rich Eisen! Markus's podcasting workflow Podcasting Articles and Links mentioned by Rob and Elsie Our SpeakPipe Feedback page! Leave us feedback :) Despite Being Oh-So 2005, Podcasting Is Drawing Listeners and Advertisers Alike A Great Response To A Cease and Desist Letter 2013 Parsec Awards Winners & Finalists Rob on Podcast Squared talking about Apps [Rob on A Mediocre Time with Tom and Dan talking all about podcasting][link6] Rob on The Lifestyle Academy Podcast on how to market and monetize your podcast Hey all, thank you and welcome to Episode 5 of The Feed: The official Libsyn Podcast, the podcast that takes it beyond how to podcast into keeping you podcasting, with podcasting tips for the everyday podcaster + taking you inside Libsyn the largest podcast host and distribution network since 2004! First things! We have a voice feedback number! 412 573 1934 AND we have a SpeakPipe account! You can leave us audio feedback over on this page. Submit your Podcasting segment! Since we had our first listener submitted contribution to the show, I'd love to encourage you guys to join in! If you have a segment that you would like to submit to me, something that will benefit the podcasting community as a whole, either something you learned or something that has worked for you, please send it along. It can be hardware, software reviews, your podcasting workflow or possibly promotional ideas that have really helped you grow your audience that you feel would help all of us. Email your contributions to thefeed(at)libsyn(dot)com If you are a Libsyn podcaster and want to be featured in our Rockin' Libsyn Podcasts blog series all you have to do is email thefeed(at)libsyn(dot)com. I schedule those on a first come first serve basis, so when you get all the info to me that you need to get to me, I'll schedule you on the next available date. The Rockin' Libsyn Podcasts are blog posts that usually go live on Mondays. As of the writing of this post I'm scheduled up to mid November 2013. Send in your 30 second or less podcast promo! Share your message in 30 seconds or less! Not only is this a great exercise for you to distill the essence of your podcast, but it also helps the greater podcasting community get to know each other better! Send them into thefeed(at)libsyn(dot)com! Some Elsie feedback about sending in your promos Leave your podcast name and URL when sending in your promos…or any communication for that matter! Make sure when you send in your show promo, your name and your show are prominently shown in the email, as well as a link back to your website or any other social media properties that you'd like to share with us. This makes it super easy for me to connect with you and PROMOTE you. I do my best to link back to you in as many I've been getting people that have been sending me promos that have no URL anywhere, no email signature and the email address that it comes from doesn't help PLUS the name they've named the promo in no way helps to tell me what the podcast is either. It would make my life easier if you could simply offer that information Libsyn Power Tips How to get two different Media players from your one libsyn account Rob has 2 media players on Podcast411 and today in iOS. If you go to Podcast411.com right now you will see a big player top center - with the artwork for Rich Eisens Podcast (at the time of this writing) - that is his show level player - it has in the artwork and it keeps up to date whenever he publishes a new episode. He doesn't do anything to update it. If you scroll down you will see the episode level players - those stay fixed per the episode they are assigned. How you get both is the following. First you set up the player you want for the episode level. You do that by checking out this support article. Get the size and type you want - then copy the embed code and paste to your site. Next - Set up the player you want for the per episode posts. And leave it set there. Then when you publish your next episode at the end after you hit publish you will get the embed code for just that episode - per the size / type you set up. But wherever you previously embedded the Show level player - it will continue to update to show the most recent episode. URL's To Use when Direct Linking Sometime on websites or twitter we will see people linking to their files but with the wrong URL. They will be using the URL - where their file redirects to. For example it may be - http://ec.libsyn.com/…. or http://hwcdn.libsyn.com…. Those are the wrong URL's to use - they are temp URL's - and can and WILL break in the future. The URL you want to use for direct links to your media files is http://traffic.libsyn.com/YOURSLUG/FILENAME If you check your links and it is not traffic after the http:// - you are doing it wrong. It also can effect your stats - as in not getting counted. The real issue is anything other than the traffic link is a temp URL - and will in the future break - not that it may break - it WILL BREAK. Will using your city's name in your podcast episode get you in trouble? Per Rob's email below: “Hi Rob, this evening I went to a community meeting in Inglewood I go to every month. They love the concept of my radio show. But the block club president suggests I should call the councilman in the city or speak to the city legal lawyer to find out if it's OK to use Inglewood in my title. Only word I know is registered is Realtor(r) what do you suggest I do to verify its OK. thank you for your time” Read this article. The second letter in the article sums it up nicely. In other words - just use Inglewood in your show's name. And if anyone gives you grief - send them the link above. Feed not updating in iTunes This next one is an issue regarding those using Feedburner and a problem with the Podcasts App. A Libsyn user was having problems when listeners tapped to download an episode in the Podcasts App - It streamed fine - but it would not download into the app. It would give an error and time out. We figured out it was not the Libsyn feed - as putting that in direct to the Podcasts App worked fine. It wound up being the person was using Smartcast and Stats for Feedburner. When they turned those items off - Then the downloads started up fine. So if you are using Feedburner - check your show in the Podcasts App and see if you can get it to download, if not make sure to deselect all the smartcast and stats options in Feedburner - which you really don't need anyway if you have Libsyn as your source feed. That issue would be for anyone using Feedburner regardless of where you host or what your source feed is - there is something going on with the Podcasts App - that does not like smartcast and stats options in Feedburner. Parsec Awards Winners & Finalists Congrats to the Parsec Award winners! Jimmy Mac and Jason Swank at RebleForce Radio for their win in Best Speculative Fiction Fan or News Podcast - Specific Ash Farbrother Host of Nights at the Round Table - for winning the Best Speculative Fan or News Podcast - General. Mark Soloff - Host of Blastropodcast for winning the Best Speculative Fiction Comedy / Parody Podcast award. David Cumming with the NoSleep Podcast for winning the Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster / Team. Mike Bennett for his wins in the Best Speculative Fiction Story - Small Cast long Form for Underwood and Flinch Rick Kennett - from the Road to Utopia Plain for winning the Best Speculative Fiction Story - Large Cast. Tony Raymond and Daniel McIntosh with Star Trek Outpost for their win in the Best Speculative fiction audio drama Long form. HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! We'd love it if you could please share #TheFeed with your twitter followers. Click here to post a tweet! If you dug this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and subscribe! Ways to subscribe to The Feed: The Official Libsyn Podcast Click here to subscribe via iTunes Click here to subscribe via RSS You can also subscribe via Stitcher FREE SMARTPHONE APPS FOR THE FEED! iOS App Google Play Amazon     [social-bio]

Quick Episode Summary: Intro and housekeeping Promo: B2B Marketing Greg Elwell What's on the Libsyn blog Promo: iMake with Martine Ellis Podcasting workflow with Markus from The Omega Tau Podcast 11min Dr. Ginger Campbell Thank You Feedback Rob and Elsie Podcasting Conversation Our new Feedback number + follow up on SpeakPipe Leave your podcast name + URL when sending in your promos… David Dear Feedback on Ep 3 Can you use your city's name in your show? - what do you do if you get a cease and desist letter from the city? Feedburner Feed issues (smartcast problem) How to have two media players in one Libsyn account Libsyn4 Release and how to get access - SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK! Promo: Torg Stories William Torgerson Wrap-up Featured Podcast Promos + Audio B2B Marketing with Greg Elwell iMake with Martine Ellis Torg Stories with William Torgerson Markus Völter from The Omega Tau Podcast Dr. Ginger Campbell from The Brain Science Podcast Podcasting articles and media about podcasting Newest Articles on the Libsyn Blog and Podcasting Links Rockin' Libsyn Podcasts: iMake Rockin' Libsyn Podcasts: The Mouse Castle Lounge Get the 411 on the NFL Network and Podcasting via Rich Eisen! Markus's podcasting workflow Podcasting Articles and Links mentioned by Rob and Elsie Our SpeakPipe Feedback page! Leave us feedback :) Despite Being Oh-So 2005, Podcasting Is Drawing Listeners and Advertisers Alike A Great Response To A Cease and Desist Letter 2013 Parsec Awards Winners & Finalists Rob on Podcast Squared talking about Apps [Rob on A Mediocre Time with Tom and Dan talking all about podcasting][link6] Rob on The Lifestyle Academy Podcast on how to market and monetize your podcast Hey all, thank you and welcome to Episode 5 of The Feed: The official Libsyn Podcast, the podcast that takes it beyond how to podcast into keeping you podcasting, with podcasting tips for the everyday podcaster + taking you inside Libsyn the largest podcast host and distribution network since 2004! First things! We have a voice feedback number! 412 573 1934 AND we have a SpeakPipe account! You can leave us audio feedback over on this page. Submit your Podcasting segment! Since we had our first listener submitted contribution to the show, I'd love to encourage you guys to join in! If you have a segment that you would like to submit to me, something that will benefit the podcasting community as a whole, either something you learned or something that has worked for you, please send it along. It can be hardware, software reviews, your podcasting workflow or possibly promotional ideas that have really helped you grow your audience that you feel would help all of us. Email your contributions to thefeed(at)libsyn(dot)com If you are a Libsyn podcaster and want to be featured in our Rockin' Libsyn Podcasts blog series all you have to do is email thefeed(at)libsyn(dot)com. I schedule those on a first come first serve basis, so when you get all the info to me that you need to get to me, I'll schedule you on the next available date. The Rockin' Libsyn Podcasts are blog posts that usually go live on Mondays. As of the writing of this post I'm scheduled up to mid November 2013. Send in your 30 second or less podcast promo! Share your message in 30 seconds or less! Not only is this a great exercise for you to distill the essence of your podcast, but it also helps the greater podcasting community get to know each other better! Send them into thefeed(at)libsyn(dot)com! Some Elsie feedback about sending in your promos Leave your podcast name and URL when sending in your promos…or any communication for that matter! Make sure when you send in your show promo, your name and your show are prominently shown in the email, as well as a link back to your website or any other social media properties that you'd like to share with us. This makes it super easy for me to connect with you and PROMOTE you. I do my best to link back to you in as many I've been getting people that have been sending me promos that have no URL anywhere, no email signature and the email address that it comes from doesn't help PLUS the name they've named the promo in no way helps to tell me what the podcast is either. It would make my life easier if you could simply offer that information Libsyn Power Tips How to get two different Media players from your one libsyn account Rob has 2 media players on Podcast411 and today in iOS. If you go to Podcast411.com right now you will see a big player top center - with the artwork for Rich Eisens Podcast (at the time of this writing) - that is his show level player - it has in the artwork and it keeps up to date whenever he publishes a new episode. He doesn't do anything to update it. If you scroll down you will see the episode level players - those stay fixed per the episode they are assigned. How you get both is the following. First you set up the player you want for the episode level. You do that by checking out this support article. Get the size and type you want - then copy the embed code and paste to your site. Next - Set up the player you want for the per episode posts. And leave it set there. Then when you publish your next episode at the end after you hit publish you will get the embed code for just that episode - per the size / type you set up. But wherever you previously embedded the Show level player - it will continue to update to show the most recent episode. URL's To Use when Direct Linking Sometime on websites or twitter we will see people linking to their files but with the wrong URL. They will be using the URL - where their file redirects to. For example it may be - http://ec.libsyn.com/…. or http://hwcdn.libsyn.com…. Those are the wrong URL's to use - they are temp URL's - and can and WILL break in the future. The URL you want to use for direct links to your media files is http://traffic.libsyn.com/YOURSLUG/FILENAME If you check your links and it is not traffic after the http:// - you are doing it wrong. It also can effect your stats - as in not getting counted. The real issue is anything other than the traffic link is a temp URL - and will in the future break - not that it may break - it WILL BREAK. Will using your city's name in your podcast episode get you in trouble? Per Rob's email below: “Hi Rob, this evening I went to a community meeting in Inglewood I go to every month. They love the concept of my radio show. But the block club president suggests I should call the councilman in the city or speak to the city legal lawyer to find out if it's OK to use Inglewood in my title. Only word I know is registered is Realtor(r) what do you suggest I do to verify its OK. thank you for your time” Read this article. The second letter in the article sums it up nicely. In other words - just use Inglewood in your show's name. And if anyone gives you grief - send them the link above. Feed not updating in iTunes This next one is an issue regarding those using Feedburner and a problem with the Podcasts App. A Libsyn user was having problems when listeners tapped to download an episode in the Podcasts App - It streamed fine - but it would not download into the app. It would give an error and time out. We figured out it was not the Libsyn feed - as putting that in direct to the Podcasts App worked fine. It wound up being the person was using Smartcast and Stats for Feedburner. When they turned those items off - Then the downloads started up fine. So if you are using Feedburner - check your show in the Podcasts App and see if you can get it to download, if not make sure to deselect all the smartcast and stats options in Feedburner - which you really don't need anyway if you have Libsyn as your source feed. That issue would be for anyone using Feedburner regardless of where you host or what your source feed is - there is something going on with the Podcasts App - that does not like smartcast and stats options in Feedburner. Parsec Awards Winners & Finalists Congrats to the Parsec Award winners! Jimmy Mac and Jason Swank at RebleForce Radio for their win in Best Speculative Fiction Fan or News Podcast - Specific Ash Farbrother Host of Nights at the Round Table - for winning the Best Speculative Fan or News Podcast - General. Mark Soloff - Host of Blastropodcast for winning the Best Speculative Fiction Comedy / Parody Podcast award. David Cumming with the NoSleep Podcast for winning the Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster / Team. Mike Bennett for his wins in the Best Speculative Fiction Story - Small Cast long Form for Underwood and Flinch Rick Kennett - from the Road to Utopia Plain for winning the Best Speculative Fiction Story - Large Cast. Tony Raymond and Daniel McIntosh with Star Trek Outpost for their win in the Best Speculative fiction audio drama Long form. HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! We'd love it if you could please share #TheFeed with your twitter followers. Click here to post a tweet! If you dug this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and subscribe! Ways to subscribe to The Feed: The Official Libsyn Podcast Click here to subscribe via iTunes Click here to subscribe via RSS You can also subscribe via Stitcher FREE SMARTPHONE APPS FOR THE FEED! iOS App Google Play Amazon     [social-bio]

With apologies to Mr. Swank. Riley and Bethany Blanton from The Star Wars Report stop by to discuss a myriad of things, but to really try to dig into Battlestar Galactica. While here, Bethany starts a joke that becomes an uncomfortable running gag throughout the show. It’s a surprise Epiversary show that I didn’t realize was an epiversary With apologies […]

With apologies to Mr. Swank. Riley and Bethany Blanton from The Star Wars Report stop by to discuss a myriad of things, but to really try to dig into Battlestar Galactica. While here, Bethany starts a joke that becomes an uncomfortable running gag throughout the show. It’s a surprise Epiversary show that I didn’t realize was an epiversary With apologies […]

It’s a packed full episode of Star Wars, Superman and the guys from Rebelforce Radio. Jason Swank and Jimmy Mac stop by to talk about their new podacsting endeavor and what the future holds for two wide eyed podcasters who have taken their first step into a larger world. Then, Steve and Derek discuss controversy, opportunity and Star Trek even […]

At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have a new episode of Frontlines: The Clone Wars Podcast! Mike and Matt are back, and this week Jimmy Mac and Jason Swank of Rebel Force Radio drop by to talk about their new podcast. Plus we talk J. J. Abrams, and […]

Jason Swank and Jimmy Mac present the premiere episode of RebelForce Radio: Star Wars News and Commentary, featuring Supervising Director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Dave Filoni. Plus, listen to learn how you can win an autographed 8x10 photo--personalized--from Clone Wars actor James Arnold Taylor. Plus, Billy Dee and much more in the debut of RebelForce Radio: Your NEW Source for the Force.

Rebel Force Radio is about to usher in a new era of Star Wars podcasting. Listen to this preview of what's to come when Jason Swank and Jimmy Mac crack the mics once again to share their love of all things Star Wars.

The Onderon arc comes to a close with Tipping Points. Listen as we analyze every second with our guests Star Wars Insider Editor Jonathan Wilkins and Jedi Journals co-host Jovial Jay Shepard. Jason Swank... not in this Roundtable.