Sarah Larbi: REITE Club Nation. Welcome back to another episode of the REITE Club podcast. I am Sarah Larbie, and I'm here today with my co-host Laurel Simmons. How are you doing Laurel?
Laurel Simmons: I'm doing great, Sarah. And we should tell people that this is not just real estate investing. This is a mind estate segment, so we're really talking about it. He's more on the business side of real estate or anything else for that matter. It really doesn't matter. But it's been a fun interview with Bruce.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. So Bruce, for that, you guys that may not know, Bruce is our videographer, but he is so much more than a videographer. So some of you guys might have come to the REITE club and seen this event being recorded.
Bruce is absolutely amazing. He's got two of his own podcasts. He's got a really successful YouTube show. He's written books. He's all about content creation. Not necessarily in real estate, but I'll tell you, this is gonna be very important because at the end of the day, we have to have more.
Then two sources of income, right? So some of us might have our jobs, we might have the real estate. But really to become millionaires, you're gonna wanna have more than just your job income. Of course, your real estate will make you a millionaire, but it is really cool if you can create it by other means, whether it's a podcast, a YouTube show, and you have more than just the real estate and just the job world for income, but you've got something else that comes passively.
We talk about how he goes away for two months and he's able to keep doing his podcasts, from Barbados, which is awesome. If it's something that you're interested in creating content, starting a show, starting something like that, this is gonna be the podcast for you. Laurel, anything that you wanna add?
Laurel Simmons: I think that it's really clear, first of all, that Bruce loves what he does. For heaven's sakes. He just adores it and he uses that to his joy of life and his joy of doing what he does and the podcasts and even he has a live television show on the local cable company.
He uses that to really attract people to him so that he can do what he wants to do. It brings in, as you said, different revenue, but it also supports what he's doing with his current businesses because he does many things. So it's a really good way to if you do podcasts and or YouTube or whatever it is, you want to support and augment your business. And that marketing and content piece is so hard for people sometimes. I think people often overcomplicate things.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. And in a time where things are becoming more and more virtual every single year, this is important to, if you're not creating some type of content and you're potentially looking for a joint venture partner or a money partner, and you wanna get your name out there, look at it from more than just attending networking events. Of course, attend networking events, but maybe do in conjunction with really posting content or producing content. And then over time, that consistent effort. We'll produce results.
Laurel Simmons: It is that credibility piece. The more you do of that, the more credibility you are creating for yourself. And the joy of it really is that yes, you are taking part in creating that credibility, but you're, because you're interviewing someone, you're actually, that other person that you're interviewing is helping to create credibility for you. So it's a really interesting dynamic, right? It goes back and forth.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. So what do you say? Should we play the episode?
Laurel Simmons: I think so.
Sarah Larbi: All right. Let's do it.
Laurel Simmons: Hey Bruce, welcome to the REITE Club podcast in our mind estate segment. And we know that you're gonna be talking about content and podcasts and YouTube stuff and all those things that we wow, like a lot of people wanna do and they don't do very well.
Bruce Outridge: You know what? It's nice to be on this side of the camera. I'm normally on the other side of the camera with you guys. I'm usually working behind the scenes helping film your events. So it's neat to be on this side. For sure. This time. Thanks for having me on.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. I think it was really cool when we realized that you have so much amazing content that you're producing and we didn't know. We like, oh, our camera guy, Bruce, he's awesome. He comes with a right, the camera guy. But really, give us a little bit of a 30,000 foot view of who you are and what you do.
Bruce Outridge: How long did you say the show was? Okay, I started in childhood, so at 17 I dropped out of high school, went trucking for 25 years. That's gonna mess up all the listeners right now. Right Now all your real estate people are leaving because they're going to a trucking show.
Sarah Larbi: It's business regardless.
Bruce Outridge: Then I stopped trucking, but I've always been in the industry and started a consulting business, started an art business. So I'm a caricature artist, the kind that you see at theme parks. That's what I do for weddings and corporate events. So I'm usually at a wedding every weekend.
Sarah Larbi: Thank God they're not all mine. And then I started a podcast because I have all this knowledge of the trucking industry and I've become a kind of an entrepreneur, especially for creatives in the trucking industry. And now next week I'll be at 500 episodes on this one show alone. So I have the two podcasts.
I have a television show here in the Burlington area for youth. I showcase youth in the community, partners they work with, and I have a lot of fun, and my wife and I love to travel. And that's it. That's the 32nd. I've got five books out. You guys can go on.
Laurel Simmons: Wow. Okay. So I had the first question that popped into mind. The first of about 300 is 500 podcasts. Wow. We are starting, we'll be hitting a hundred soon, but how do you keep going? Like where do you get your ideas from people, like people say, oh, I wanna start, I wanna do a podcast. And they don't understand that. Yeah. The first one's fun. The second one's cool. The fifth one is, yeah, that's okay. And by the chance I don't wanna do this anymore.
Bruce Outridge: The problem was that I listened to the wrong people. So I listened to all the gurus in the space that said, you must start a daily show, and the only way you can grow is to have multiple shows going. So I started as a, I started right outta the gate.
Seven days a week was the show that I had going, and then I couldn't keep up with it. I didn't, it was brand new. I didn't even know what I was doing. So I went back to a weekly show and then I've grown it. So now as I get sponsor spots filled, I add another episode. So now we're got content coming out every day.
I've got three outta the week. There's three main episodes and then what I call sponsor highlights, which are just about the sponsors themselves. So that's the one show, and it's, I do a lot of events. I get a lot of my work from going to events and covering events and talking to people and coming up with ideas and just repurposing content. And, it's fun. You just gotta keep an eye out on the industry and what's going on, and I go to everything that helps.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. I think one of the best things that I've done prior to even the REITE Club, cause the REITE club is the other awesome thing that I've done was start a podcast because it opens so many doors and it really helps with branding and like creating that person to, so my goal was to help others originally. And that branding piece, that's huge. They say like everything else, like even YouTube you look for like at it for a couple minutes or I don't know what the listening rate is. But podcasts are the one thing where people usually start to finish, listen to the entire episode.
I think that's why we wanna have you on today just to, because you have so much experience with branding and contents and that marketing and you've done so many different types of marketing, whether it's a podcast or the show, or whatnot. As things are becoming more and more, virtual is becoming more and more important that we differentiate ourselves if we wanna create that brand. So what can you tell us about that?
Bruce Outridge: The one thing I do is don't follow people in your industry. So I actually had an artist call me the other day who's on my podcast, and he says he is phoning other artists to find out how they're building their business, which is fine. He's doing some research.
He's already a very good artist. But what happens when you do that is you copy what other people are doing. So what I do with my podcast, and I speak of YouTube, I actually wanted it to be a video channel. That's how I was gonna start. And then I realized that truck drivers aren't hopefully watching video while they drive 13 hours a day.
I said a pod, and I didn't know what podcasts were, so I said that makes way more sense. And so that's where I started. But I look at my podcast and I try to recreate it like a radio show. So I look at what the radio networks are doing. How can they keep somebody interested for 24 hours a day?
How can they mix music? What makes a good dj? What does all of that kinda stuff? That's who I look to, and I try to model my show after that. I have a tune in every one of my songs, so for my shows, I have one song that I play. At the end of the show, both podcasts are the same. Both podcasts have the same bands because they're all local bands.
They're musician friends of mine. So I love music. I love to promote music. And when truck drivers download my shows, a lot of them will save the downloads. Download multiple shows as they drive for a whole day. It starts to sound like a radio show. You've got a music clip and then you go into another content.
Then you go into another interview and you got another music clip, and so it's if they were to like, look at this channel, it's the same as a radio, and that's how I do my branding. I look at what radio stations are doing, and you go, how can I model that in the podcast world?
Laurel Simmons: That's actually a really good tip because I listen to the radio a lot. Yes, I listen to podcasts, but I like the radio because you can, Like you said, don't follow people in your own industry. Cause you will just end up copying. I like to listen to really diverse stuff. And but one of the things I notice that I do is I go, oh, I see how they did that. Oh, they never say this.
They say that. And I almost, actually, I do have a little tip sheet. I should maybe share that, but it's yeah, that makes sense. Don't follow the industry. It's just like when you want to get ideas for even growing your business, whatever it is, don't go to an industry event.
Go to something that's unrelated. Cause I don't know, maybe we should go to dentist conferences because we're gonna get, it's not that I wanna be a dentist and I'm sure Sarah doesn't either. It's just we're gonna get so many different ideas about how they present and it's gonna trigger something too, I think.
Bruce Outridge: I've just, for our trucking podcast, we are actually about to go out on tour because I started a fan club for the podcast and I said, okay, what would a band do? What does Garth Brooks do when he goes on tour? I dunno if you guys are country fans, but what does Garth Brooks do when he goes?
I modeled a fan club, and now we're gonna go on tour talking to the trucking industry about what's good, featuring their trucks, talking to them about what's cool about their job, and going between here and Quebec. And we're going to, our sponsors, we're gonna be stopping at their locations to do this.
It's like a road tour for a band where we've, I've looked at what, I didn't look at what other podcasts are doing, cuz nobody's doing that. So I went to a band and I said, what are bands doing? How do they promote an album when something comes out? How do they promote a fan club? What do they offer?
We're having t-shirts made, we're having hats made. All that kinda stuff. It's gonna be. Cool. It's not about me, it's about the fan club, but at the same time, I'm promoting the industry while I'm doing it, and that's hopefully gonna be a big thing for everybody.
Sarah Larbi: That's really cool. I don't know Laurel, if you were thinking the same thing as me, but I'm like, it's like a, definitely like an idea that we could consider and go and, as we expand our whole online thing, just do a little road trip and fun tour.
Bruce Outridge: I've been even looking at the guy I follow on boom 97, 1 of the radio stations on Facebook, and one of the DJs every morning. He does this 15 second q and a with. Listeners, and they win, I don't know, 50 bucks or a million bucks. I'm thinking, how can I do that on the podcast? I know it's not live, so I can't do it that day, but maybe that's something we can incorporate into a live event.
I'm starting to do more live and more stuff on Facebook and stuff, and how can I do that and make it fun? Like I said, I don't know any other podcasters doing that. So I'm looking to listen to the radio because that's what they're doing already.
Sarah Larbi: Thinking outside the box, that's how you set yourself apart. So for those people, listening to investors, business owners, people that wanna get started, let's just go through some of the basic things that they might wanna do. Thinking outside the box in terms of branding themselves. What are some tips or insights that you can provide?
Bruce Outridge: For your community a lot of them are in real estate investing. I would probably start, if they were starting a podcast and you guys have found this out. Why are you starting the podcast? The why is probably the most important question you can ask, right? It's really easy to get into, buy a mic, plug it into your computer, and boom, you can start podcasting tomorrow.
To make it past 20 episodes to make it past 50 episodes to make it to 500, you better have a kind of a plan of what you're gonna do. And I find a lot of people don't do that plan. So maybe someone's real estate, I'm gonna use Alfonso because I know he's in the rent to own market. He could start a podcast answering all those questions.
He probably gets all the time about how you start a rent to own. He may do that for his channel. There's so many ways, the REITE club, you guys already have that. You talk to a lot of the people you have about real estate investing and you show them. So if someone's doing that, what kind of clients do they have?
What are the questions that their clients are asking? I know for myself, I use my websites to answer all my customers' questions. Whenever they say, Bruce, how do you do this? Or What do you. I could explain it to them on the phone or I could send them a link to a video and webpage that I've already done.
Say, listen, here's where you start and if you still have questions, let me know. And that kind of gets your brand out there and answers their question at the same time, offering value. So I think something like that. I'm not sure what else you're gonna have to help me with the real estate part cause I'm not in that. I'm not sure what kind of questions you guys have.
Laurel Simmons: I think what you said though about the why, like the why is always the most important thing of any business. I don't care what you're doing or any business venture, it's if your why isn't really clear, then it is just gonna. Eventually disappear because it's too much hard work if you're not. You don't have very clear motivation. And it's persistent, consistent action over time. And if you, if your why isn't clear, then guess what? Not gonna happen. So I think that's the most important thing.
Bruce Outridge: I had a friend and I was gonna do it. We did a little workshop on podcasting and we were gonna do an all day seminar and he wanted to do it on a Saturday, and I said, Okay, so why are we doing the seminar? Because it's fun. It says, let's put on a seminar. And then we all got excited and we had a beer and we decided how we're gonna put on the seminar.
Then I said to him, why are we doing that? Because for me, because I do weddings, a Saturday is a thousand dollars day. If I'm not making a thousand dollars that day, I shouldn't be doing anything else other than making it so for me to turn down a wedding, because I'm holding a seminar, Unless you're gonna pay me that kind of money or whatever.
When we thought about it, we go, yeah, why are we putting it on? We're actually not gonna make the money based on what we were thinking. We were doing it to help the community, but nobody was asking for it, so why were we putting it on? And we actually ended up not putting it on because we thought, actually we don't know why we're putting it on, other than it seemed like a good idea over a beer. And we were all excited about it. That was the only reason we're gonna put it on, but we know how much work it is. So that's a silly reason to put anything on.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. So I wanna just give you this idea, and then maybe you can run with it and I'll tie it into Sure, real estate to some extent, but as an investor, at some point you're gonna run out of money. You're gonna need to find joint venture partners or private money. And I tell this often to many people, start posting what you're doing on social media or start talking to people about it. Because ultimately you're, they're gonna say, okay wow, you've done one, you've done two, you've done three, you've done four.
It gets a lot easier to find people that wanna do business with you because they see you, whether it's on Instagram or Facebook or having a podcast, right? They feel like they know you and that they've seen your work over time. It's just so much easier to go out and look for money if that's what you're looking for.
I'll tell you, the podcast brings tons of opportunity. It's not just about the podcast. Cause I'll tell you, if you're just doing the podcast to make money on the podcast, here's the thing. We cover our costs on the podcast, but you're not gonna get rich off. Making a podcast, the stuff around it. Can you talk about that?
Bruce Outridge: About making money on the podcast?
Sarah Larbi: About the different types of ways that you can make money from a podcast.
Bruce Outridge: There's a traditional advertising model. I use those in mind. There's a course, if you're the kind of person that builds courses, if you're selling a book, you can do podcasts are great for that. There's all kinds of ways to make money. The traditional way is that for every thousand people you have. It's worth $25. All right, so this is the normal podcasting model for advertising that I have. Let's say I have a hundred listeners. I have a thousand listeners. I get paid $25 for a spot on my podcast to advertise whoever the client is.
You're not gonna get rich doing that. Unless you have 20 million listeners and yeah, you're gonna make big money. For most people, that's not where they go, and that's not where they are, I did this podcast for two years before I made one dime. I actually. I tell people the way to make money on a podcast is to go buy a car because that's what happened.
My wife had to turn in her car. I said, I'm gonna go save you cause she had gotten a lease before. And I said, these guys are gonna take, I'm gonna come and help you. We ended up buying two cars that day. That was not my plan, but if my car was 10 years old and they gave us a really good deal, I'm glad I saved her from that.
Maybe she saved me. But anyway we came home and I'm looking at my calendar. There's nothing in the calendar. I'm going, we just bought two cars. That's really smart. We're in business for yourself. What are we thinking here? And I said, okay, I've been doing this for two years. How can I make money? And I phoned 27 people that I knew and I said I'm giving you spots for a hundred bucks a month.
Who wants in? They all took, almost all of them took it. So it was like, and they've been with me for years and over the years we've multiplied and we've made different packages. And now we're anywhere from 25900 for a monthly package. But, It didn't start that way, but I had to prove for two years I was willing to put in the grant.
This is where people need to know that, you've gotta keep going, you've gotta be willing to do it. What I like is that people learn about you and you actually don't have to explain as long as you're being authentic. So you, as long as you're being the same as you are in the podcast. You will get work out of an opportunity out of that because people will like, if they like you if you're trying to be fake and then that's not the person you are in real, it may not work as well.
People know me. I, there's no surprise here. I am the exact same on the podcast as I am speaking to you, which always surprises me when I become a guest. So I don't even know if I answered your question. I probably did.
Sarah Larbi: I guess the whole point is, you're gonna get podcast sponsors, but the opportunities around it, right? Whether you are trying to also, I don't know, let's just say have a course or get business partners or make connections. It's the best way to network in my opinion, because you get all these awesome emails with people being like, I built my fourth house, thanks to you. I've just binged all of your podcasts or all the REITE club podcasts for the past 30 episodes like that. That's the best too. And as we're growing even our online club, the podcast has been a huge part of that, helping us with that as well.
Bruce Outridge: It's a great way of putting people into that funnel of your club and of your courses that you're doing. It's a great way to get people interested there without selling hard. I'm very bad at sales. Let's just go for a cup of coffee. If you don't like me, I'll buy it. I can't even sell you a cup of coffee. That's how bad I am, and I'm really bad on the podcast too. I very rarely go looking for guests. I have guests coming to me all the time.
I get them all, and a lot of people go they're trying to sell something. Everybody's trying to sell something. If it fits with my show and I do the questions for the guests, I don't let a guest come in. And that's why when you guys ask me, what do you wanna talk about? I don't know, you guys make it your show.
I direct the show the way I want it to go. So if this person's in finance and they're in trucking, I'm going, I'm gonna take this towards owner operators because that's who's interested in that. So the questions are gonna lead in that direction. And that's why I don't care what they're selling, what their business is.
If it's interesting to the drivers, my audience, it's gonna make sense for me. And I'm gonna say yes. And I say yes to some, and I've done multiple shows with some people I don't even know. I've got sponsors from people I don't even know because I was willing to take a chance on an interview and say yes to someone.
Laurel Simmons: I think what you said about the podcast, like showing who you are and really short it's the attraction model, right? Like I used to do a lot of training on stage and ugh, speaking and all the rest of it, and that kind of activity really does draw people to you because you are basically proving who you are and even what you do by what you say and how you present yourself. There's very little difference between doing that and a podcast because as you say, if you're really authentic, then that's what people hear. That's what they feel. So you don't have to sell.
Bruce Outridge: I got a listener out of your group. I was recording one of your sessions for the REITE club, and there's a guy there who lives in Guelph and I think his name is Dave. Dave, if you're listening, I hope I got this right. But Dave came up to me and I was doing one of those testimonial interviews that I do for you guys. And I found out that he loves an AC DC tribute band guy. We talked about music. I told him about my other podcast, which is all for Great, and he's subscribed to that show.
I wasn't trying, I was just, we just had a connection. And that's how I am when I'm with you guys and at your events. I can go up to people. I just, man, I feel like I know all of your sponsors and all of your audience because I love talking to them when I'm there. And that's all you have to do is just enjoy people. That's the secret to a lot of this. And if you do that, people will come on your show because they like you and they like your energy and that kind of thing.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Very true. So I wanna talk about content a little bit. As you're doing your podcasts and your shows, how do you do? Ensure that you don't run out of ideas. And I'm gonna relate it to maybe somebody that wants to start blogging or wants to start putting content out a little bit more on an ongoing basis, whether it's on social media or whatnot. Like how do you come up with the content, how do you create the content, and what kind of advice could you give somebody else that's struggling maybe in that area?
Bruce Outridge: When I started, I used to try and figure out the shows in here. I'm gonna, I've got a book here. I've got two books for each show. You guys, I don't know if you'll be able to see this, but this is my notebook. You won't be able to see it because of the glare, but this is a book, this is for one podcast for two since 2017.
I know exactly what I'm doing with each show, but I don't look for it. So when I started, I used to look for the show and I would go, I would map out my shows for a month and I go, okay, I need to find an artist that does this, or I need to find a truck driver. I need to talk about owner operators.
I would find those shows. I stopped doing that after two years. Now I just go everywhere and I, if I meet somebody I like, I go, Hey, would you love to be on my show? And they usually say yes. Or if they're talking about something and I go, man, that's a fascinating subject. I would love to have that on my show.
I stopped looking. So now I just interview anybody. I could interview somebody on the corner at Max Milk or in front of Max Milk. Am I showing my age? My Sarah doesn't even know what Max Milk is anyway. It's a convenience store, Sarah. So I can't believe I said Max Milk. I meant to say Tim Hortons. Okay, so let's go with Max Milk. So it's like Becker's, I lost her again.
Sarah Larbi: I actually, knew long ago there was one where I lived.
Bruce Outridge: If you meet wherever you meet people, you can just, and especially if I already have my equipment, maybe I'm covering an event or something, I will just start talking to people. And even if they're a little nervous, I'll say, I'll just talk about something else. And then you move into that. So I get my interviews whenever I see some, it doesn't matter what it is.
Then what I do is I move them around. So this is why I was saying the other night, I do things in pieces like I'll do just the interview. And I'll say it's gonna come out next month. I don't tell 'em what week. I don't tell 'em what day. When I get home, I go, okay, what do I have for next month? Oh, I have two interviews on technology.
I have two interviews on owner operators, and then I start moving them in and I could do all the intros so that they're seamless. But so I look at ways to use my content. I just put out an interview this morning about trucking in Australia. Now, I didn't interview anybody. New for trucking in Australia.
I had a husband and wife team in 2016. I had another guy in 2017. I had another guy in 2018. Those are all separate interviews that are on my podcast, but I wanted a new one. So what I did is I took out a piece of each of those interviews that were talking specifically about trucking in Australia, and I put them together in one show, and that was the show that came out this morning.
I've had people, oh yeah, we wanna talk about that, they're three and four years old already, those interviews, but that's how you repurpose it. You never throw out your old material. Keep all of your old content videos, whatever it is. And every once in a while you may have to look at, especially when I go to Barbados, I go, I need two months of content. It's a slow period. So when I'm going to events, if I have interviews that I don't use for a show, I save them. And then maybe I use them somehow.
In another way when I'm there and I look everywhere. I've done trucking shows in Barbados. I've interviewed artists in Barbados. Like when we go there for two months, I take a mic with me, I take my recorder with me, Hey, you wanna do a show? I don't care. You're a photographer. Let's do it.
Sarah Larbi: You just said something super important. This is why we wanna do this kind of stuff, because you can do it from anywhere. I'll tell you, I've been living at my cottage right now since March, and we're recording this in July. I've been back a couple times just to check on, mail and etc, but, If I wasn't doing the podcast and I wasn't already set up, it would be very difficult.
You're just talking about how you're going to Barbados so clearly content and branding oneself and creating that ongoing, whether it's a podcast, is obviously helping because then you get people that will reach out to you. Maybe they'll say, you know what, can you coach me on something? Or, what kind of course can I learn about trucking or come and speak and you get a speaking opportunity.
It's all of those things that are around the podcast that's right. Where you could do really well. And right now everything is virtual anyways, but it allows you in the sense to potentially go away for two months.
Bruce Outridge: We built the business from day one to be a lifestyle business. I've turned down more jobs than I can count. I've turned down opportunities because I had to go somewhere every day. We built a lifestyle business that can be done from anywhere. We go to Barbados for a couple months at a time around the end of December until February. I do my podcasting from there.
I try to record as much as I can before I leave and I do a lot of editing down there so that it comes out every week. I've never missed a day of social media. People don't even know we're gone half the time unless they know us and they see pictures of palm trees. Cause you'll see a lot of pictures of palm trees on my Facebook.
We planned it that way, so I don't. Need to stop working. I don't need to figure out how I'm gonna have enough for retirement. I need to keep doing what I like to do, but be able to do it from anywhere. I could take this show tomorrow and do it from Kentucky if I wanted to. Just like you're doing from the cottage.
It doesn't matter where I am as long as I can do it. And then you start looking for content. So one of the tips for content that's best is the content for your show. The actual content you create, act, doesn't matter if it's a blogger or for a podcast, keep it as evergreen as possible. So when I'm doing interviews, I don't let people go, oh, I'm gonna be here next Monday, cause by the time it comes out, next Monday's gone.
No dates, no anything. Try to keep the focus of the interview to Evergreen. So if we're talking about investing, let's just talk about investing. That's, let's not talk about this new course that's coming out. That could be in the intro and the outro. But I don't want that as a piece of the interview because I may use that interview somewhere else for something else.
Keep it as evergreen as possible. Your social media is where you tie it into. Whatever's going on today. Today is camera day. How come we're not figuring this out? That we're talking about cameras on Zoom because it's camera day today and nobody, but we, you wouldn't know that.
If I'm putting out a post this morning, I might put out a post about cameras and tie it into an interview I did for a photographer. So I'm not, the photography interview is not the one that's the evergreen material which sits there and that's how you can reshare it and reuse it as much as you want.
Laurel Simmons: You've been talking about podcasts. The other side to that is YouTube, right? The video, the actual videos. Because with Zoom you can also like, just like we're doing now Yeah. We can record audio and video. I think a lot of people are in love with the romance of YouTube. Ooh, I've got my own little youTube channel.
Bruce Outridge: I'm not a fan. I do have a YouTube, I have three YouTube channels, so I have, I am a fan of YouTube. YouTube is awesome for sell, so as far as people finding you, you should be on YouTube. YouTube's owned by Google. If you're not on Google, you're not. That's why they call Google it.
You have to be on Google. I use youTube as an SEO way, like to help me get found if you search for lead pedal podcasts or catching on Craig. I'm gonna come up and I'll probably, one of my YouTube videos will probably come up cause I post every week. But it depends on your audience. My audience's, truck drivers, they're not, hopefully not sitting in front of a video screen while they're driving. For me, podcasts make more sense. I have a friend in the industry, he has a podcast on safety and his audience are all the safety managers.
They're probably all on YouTube. He focuses on YouTube first, podcast second. I'm the other way around because of my audience. So doesn't mean you shouldn't use it, is that where your audience is? Is that who's watching, putting out a 55 minute interview? Of the three of us, are people gonna watch it? Maybe they will, but I probably like to do it. I listen to three podcasts every day. Usually when I'm at the gym or walking or doing something else because I can do something else. That's the whole power of a podcast.
Laurel Simmons: Can't you take, for example take a segment or just a clip, a snippet, right? Put it on YouTube. Tag it, whatever you do, and then use that to drive people to your podcast or to your website.
Bruce Outridge: I do that. I do that for every episode. So what I do is I'll take a, if we're doing a Zoom call like this, cause it's how I do a lot of my interviews and in editing. This is the cool thing, you, if you're, and I don't know if you guys do your own editing, but if you're doing your own editing, you can see where it switches to another person speaking.
I will not even look, so picture a 50 minute interview. I'm not gonna go through that whole thing and go, okay, this is where Sarah said this. You know what I do is I just look at the screen and I take out five minutes and it's got Sarah in there, and then I listen to it and Sarah says, I'm at the cottage podcasting and I go, Awesome.
My title is How to Podcast From the Cottage with Sarah Larbie. We're done. That's how I do it. And then in that five minute episode, five minute video, I will have to listen to the whole interview, listen to podcast episode 483 or whatever.
Sarah Larbi: You know what we are, so originally when I first started, I used to edit my own podcast. And especially when you listen to your own voice. Maybe it's more weird in the beginning. You hate everything, right? You say too many ums. You say too many, you know. I know. I did that, and it took me like four to five hours to edit, 45 minutes of an episode, and then we just started hiring virtual assistants. I could tell you I love delegating as much as I can. Virtual assistants for podcast editing. Best thing ever.
Bruce Outridge: Yeah, I, you know what? It depends how you edit. I can actually edit my podcast in 15 minutes. It doesn't take me long. You know why? Is because anything that you're doing when you're creating content, the more importance you put up front, the more attention you put into when you're recording it, the less you will have to do on the other end.
For me, I don't mind, I've had people where their camera has fallen off their desk, like they had a little. Phone and it fell off like this. It looks like they fell out of their chair drunk. It's the most hilarious thing you've ever seen. So I sometimes leave that in unless somebody swears I take that out.
Cause that does affect your Apple rating. If somebody really messed up, like they said something they shouldn't have said. Other than that, I leave it in because I want it to be a real podcast if it's totally perfect, that actually can make your podcast feel not real to some people because we all say it's funny what you were saying is what yours.
Mine was breathing. And you can, so when I started listening to mine, it was like, and I'm going, oh man, how many times did I do that? Like 200 times an episode. And then I started noticing other announcers doing it. I'd watch TV and the guy I go to, he does it too. And he's been doing this for 30 years.
I thought, what am I doing? So I found out, how do you take that out? There's a way to take that out in one shot in editing, so you can take it out in two minutes flat. So now I figured out how to take that out. That's the first thing that comes out in noise reduction. But if I hadn't listened to my podcast, I wouldn't have known that's a problem, because it's not something you necessarily hear until you're editing.
You don't necessarily hear it when you talk. We all do it though, and it is something that we all do. Why take them out? If somebody doesn't know their stuff, if you're prepared as an interviewer, if you're prepared, you know what questions you're gonna ask, you know where you're gonna take the interview.
You won't be saying because you're prepared. The only, and you guys are both speakers, so I know you know this, but the only time you start saying a lot of ums is when you don't know what you're saying. So I tell people, listen, if you don't know what to say, stop. And I tell 'em this when I'm interviewing 'em alive too.
Look, if you mess up, Don't throw the paper in the air and go off to the side and go, oh man, I messed up because now I gotta start again. Just stop. I can cut the film there and start again. We'll just start taking two. But if you are going all crazy, that makes it even harder. So I tell people, you only get one shot. Ain't it a good one? Cause I'm not doing this twice. And that's how I do it. I tape, I edit very quickly in my mind. Maybe it's not, The best way to edit it but the way I edit it.
Laurel Simmons: It really comes back to what you said before, it's that you know yourself, right? Just know yourself and be authentic. If you've got those two things under your belt, you really don't have to worry about it. So what if there's a couple of you knows, and ums and in there that's just, like I said, everybody does it. Even as I am saying this now, I'm going, am I saying, you know.
Bruce Outridge: I tell people I want the show to be just like if we're having a cup of coffee. That's how I want it to be. And I gotta tell you, some of the worst interviews I've had are with the top people, the CEOs who are trying to sound corporate. And you know what? They sound like fools. They really actually don't know what they're talking about.
Sarah Larbi: Cause you have to relate to the audience. That's the thing. And you've gotta figure out who the audience is and be able to relate. But I will say though, because it took me so long, I don't even listen to my podcasts anymore. Like I record them and then they get sent to the VAs and then, Essentially it's gone. But I was always very critical of myself.
I will tell you that the more that we do this, the more that I started doing this, the less I actually cared over time because I'm like, people seem to be enjoying it. People are reaching out to us saying, thanks for providing the content. And at the end of the day, I do agree with what you're saying. It's authentic and you're probably more relatable if you're not perfect, cause nobody's perfect and I am definitely not perfect.
Bruce Outridge: I don't listen to me, I don't listen to mine, to hear how good I speak or anything, but I do listen to the flow. So I listen to it, I've got some music that goes in, right when an ad starts and when I come back and those kinds of things. And I just wanna make sure it flows. I'm looking at things like levels. Do I have to keep turning the sound up and down or have I normalized it? Is it too long? Am I rambling too much? Did I not ask the right question? Do I talk? And you guys know you're doing an interview and half the time you don't even know what you said until you listen to it. Later on you go, oh man, I really say that.
Sarah Larbi: You're right. Or months later, and I'm like, I don't remember anything that we talked about at all. And I have to do the intro for it.
Bruce Outridge: When I'm listening to my show, I'm now listening. Like a listener, enjoying the conversation, enjoying the banter. But when I'm interviewing, I'm trying to make sure the technology doesn't fail.
I'm trying to make sure I ask the next question. I'm trying to relate to them and look like them, so there's a lot of things going on. So you do actually don't get a chance to enjoy your guests. So I always listen to it afterwards. I only subscribe to my two shows. The rest, I just pick and choose as I want to.
I listen to every episode and I have 500 episodes. I've listened to every episode. Of this show and 200 of the other ones, I still try to improve it. Maybe that's why I should stop listening, but I keep going.
Laurel Simmons: I think that's really good advice. If you wanna make it something better, you just focus on it, right? It's like anything else where the, what was it? What's the saying where the focus goes, the money flows and the ideas come and the what? Everything just works.
Bruce Outridge: Yeah. And I've got sponsors. You guys have sponsors. There's a lot of people starting sp podcasts now because of the pandemic. Everybody thinks they can just start on Zoom and they've got a podcast and so you I think you need to keep, I owe it to my sponsors and to my audience to keep getting better. I just invested $1,500 in a mixer and everything here. I have more mics. I could lend people mics. I have that many mics that I've got around.
I bought the one you're using. Sarah, I bought that about three months ago and I used it for a month. My wife's like, why are we going to Best Buy? Because I was having problems with U S B. I go, I need, my old mixer wasn't doing it. And I said, I need something in between. And now I bought the new mixer, so I've stopped using it.
Now I'll take that to Barbados, so it's not a waste of money. You know what, I'm always, I don't worry about mixing, spending money on technology if it will make it better. It's either quality or, time or money. So this mixer that I bought now allows me to put intros and the music and everything right into the, so now I don't have to piece it together in editing. I can actually do the whole show. One straight thing on one take if I want to on this mixer. So now that's saving me time and editing. It's worth the money over time.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Here's some. That's behind the scenes, right? Yeah. We have a podcast. You have a podcast. There's a lot more to it, but I will tell you it is not that difficult. If I can figure it out. Press me. You guys can figure it out.
Bruce Outridge: Like I said, anybody can do it. This is not rocket science. But why, if they don't have that figured out for sure. It's not gonna keep going, there's a lot.
Sarah Larbi: What's your reason for it?
Bruce Outridge: I started my consulting business in 2009 and I was doing training for truck drivers. So I've always felt I have something to say, whether anybody wants to listen. I have something to say. Even when I was trucking, I wanted to be out of the truck by the time I was 45.
I don't know why. I just felt like I had more to do. I just finished my book, it's called, you're Not Done yet. I still feel I have more to do. Don't ask me what I'm gonna do. I don't even have that figured out, but I thought I could help people by having a podcast. I knew I could make money down the road because I already had the networking connections there.
It was a matter of, how do you start one? I'd never started one before. I'm, I don't have a radio background. I had to figure all this out. So once I figured it all out, then I will. Get better, but my reason is to help other people. It allows me to do something I love from home. I told my son started a hockey podcast and I said finally he found something for us loud mouth people that we can actually do and we're good at because we both like to talk, right?
This is fun for me. I have a blast. This is not, My wife says, what are you doing tomorrow? I said, podcast editing. She knows the answer already. But I love doing this. Like I love being on shows. I love talking to other people. I love meeting other people. That's one of the passions. If I can help a driver have a good career, like I had made some good money, it still keeps me connected with the trucking community.
I go to the shows. I love the chrome trucks, all of that stuff. So it's a winner for me and I make enough money. Like I say I've got enough money. That I make with it, that it's worth it for me to do. I'm paid for my time, so it's not like I'm losing anything. It pays for the time, the equipment, so it's worth doing. I just need to keep that audience growing. And that's, and by doing that, it's making good. Good podcast.
Laurel Simmons: I think you just touched on something there though. I think a lot of people are, They're nervous or they're scared, or whatever you, however you wanna phrase it. They feel that they're introverts, so they're afraid to be in front of a mic. And I think it's just a shift in thinking. It's not you're interviewing someone.
It is, as the interviewer, it's your job to pull something out of someone else. Yeah. And then there will be that natural interaction: the fear about the nerve or the nervousness about I'm on a camera or mic or whatever it is will disappear because it's, in a way, it's kind of a fake fear.
Bruce Outridge: The more you do it the easier it gets. And, I do a lot of work. We are a media sponsor for the Special Olympics, so I do a lot of work with the Special Olympics. I interview a lot of people and a lot of the athletes who are not comfortable on camera. So for me, It's like we're just gonna go have fun with people.
I don't even, if you look at my show notes, half the time I'm saying so-and-so has a chat with Bruce. Or I look at it as a chat, a coffee shop. I don't look at it as an interview. We're not, I'm not looking at your resume. I could care less about that. I just want to have fun. And if you have something good, let's do it and let's laugh.
I love to laugh, as you can tell. I just enjoy people and I think that's the secret too. Good podcast is just enjoying the people you are. And if the people stop, they don't have much to say. They got those one word answers. Are you able to fill in? Can you come up with something? Maybe you share one of your stories. Keep the conversation going. As they say on the radio, dead air is bad air, so you never wanna have it where nobody knows what to say, right? So I always have something I can add in there.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. That's awesome. We could keep talking for hours and hours, but we told us where we told you that it's only gonna be 30 to 40 minutes and like we're waiting past that.
Bruce Outridge: I'm okay with that if you want to keep going.
Sarah Larbi: The next part of our podcast is our lightning rounds. So Laurel and I will take turns asking you a series of questions and I'll get started. Give us the first answer that comes to mind. You ready? All right. What do you do typically on a Sunday morning?
Bruce Outridge: Watch Sunday morning the show and just usually just have coffee and talk with my wife about the only day she gets or sleep, depending on which.
Laurel Simmons: Okay. Question two, what is the one thing you can't leave the house without or without doing? And we're gonna exclude your cell phone? Cause everybody says cell phone.
Bruce Outridge: Going to the bathroom. Does that count? I'm a trucker. I always go to the bathroom. That's the first rule, come on, kids. Okay. So if we're not counting cell phones, we're not counting bathrooms. Your wallet. I need to take a wallet. I usually forget that.
Sarah Larbi: Nice. So you know what, as you were saying that for real, I was thinking, I'm like, okay with everything being shut down, are there even washrooms for truck drivers in times like these?
Bruce Outridge: Yeah. The truck stops have the washrooms open and stuff. They don't have the restaurants open, but they have the washrooms open. We solved that problem on air waiting.
Sarah Larbi: There you go. All right, question number three. What is your favorite non-fiction or business book?
Bruce Outridge: One, it's an old one. I don't know how many people would know it, but it's called, Taking yourself from Failure to Success by Frank Berger, I think I don't have it in front of me anyway, it's a book about an insurance agent that goes around and he's trying to learn how to sell.
He's having a tough time. It's an older book, but what I liked about it is that the whole book shows you that. Really, it's about relationships with people. So he starts off, he can't, he's cold calling. He can't sell any insurance, and by the end of it, he is not even talking about insurance. He's talking about the hockey game.
At the end he says, so should we sign the deal now? And if you think about how a lot of us get business, a lot of times. We'll go to a restaurant, we'll have a meal. We're talking about our kids or family, whatever. And at the end of the day, oh yeah, we came here to talk about the thing. So you wanna do the deal or not?
Before you know it, we leave and we're going, that's done. And it's the same thing, but I, that book taught a lot that you just have fun with people and just enjoy the people the business will follow. Like I've never had to struggle for business. I do a lot of things and we have a lot, but people will follow you if they enjoy working with you. And then of course you gotta do a good job. But hopefully I'm doing that part right.
Laurel Simmons: Okay. The last question, who do you go to for advice on your business and why? I
Bruce Outridge: go to Paul Cop Cut. Do you guys know him? That little all, I've known Paul for years and we actually have a monthly lunch date where we talk business. We talk about it, we just meet and it's informal, but over the years he's probably one of the guys. My dad was one that I talked business to. He passed away a couple years ago, but he was one that I talked business with about, and I have friends I guess I talk with. But like I said, I'm big.
I'm really big at looking at what other people are doing. I don't necessarily go ask a lot of questions unless I'm stuck and then I have somebody like Paul. What do you think? So Paul is in my area, so I know I can trust the information that he gives us, and he's good at what he does.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. And if somebody is listening and wondering who Paul is, cause not everyone might know, a lot of people do, but Paul is our branding and managing all our marketing stuff. So he is really the one that's putting a lot of the marketing stuff that you guys see, a lot of the content going out to your emails.
Like he basically does all of our marketing and all of our branding for the REITE club and then also for me personally. So he's a huge asset. Asset.
Laurel Simmons: He's great. He's really good.
Sarah Larbi: Bruce, where can the REITE Club Nation, the listeners, reach out, know more about you? Give us where we can go?
Bruce Outridge: I have seven websites, but I don't think you guys have that kind of time. So let's just start with Bruceoutwards.com. If they go there they can find the podcast, the television show, my books, all the stuff that they do, Bruceoutwardsproductions.com is where my art stuff is. If you wanna see caricatures and cartoons.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. And your podcast, what are they called?
Bruce Outridge: One's called the Cashing in On Creativity podcast. That one's for creative entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, anybody trying to start a business based on their talent. That's what that shows for. The other one's, the Lead Pedal podcast that's for truck drivers and then Inspiring Youth is this television show for youth in Burlington.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. Thank you Bruce for being on our show. Thanks for your insights. And guys, if you need questions answered about starting a podcast or a show or creating content, Bruce is doing it, has done it for many years and is continuing to do it even today. Today. So thank you so much, Bruce.
Bruce Outridge: You're welcome. Thanks for having me on. You guys are always a lot of fun. I enjoy your events. I'm learning so much about real estate investing and I don't even know anything about real estate investing, but I feel I know about JV partners and I know that there's the BRRRR. I don't even know what the, what's the one you do, Sarah? I don't even know what that does, but I've heard it so much. I like it, can name it off and I know people there. It's just, but you guys are a really fun group to keep up the good work for sure.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. Thanks so much.
Laurel Simmons: Thanks, Bruce. Sarah, what'd you think of that interview? That was pretty cool, wasn't it?
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. We can keep talking to him. He's so fun. He's so entertaining. He's got tons of great energy and I was listening to his podcast actually before we started recording him and having him on ours and he's got some really cool music guy, so if you are into music and he was talking on the podcast about how he's got that as well, and some episodes have this awesome music.
It's pretty awesome. I think it gives you guys, I think it's really cool to also share some of the behind the scenes of what happens, because a lot of it is what we're doing, right? A lot, like you're probably looking at it and you're listening to it, but how does it all unfold?
Of course there's many pieces to how to create a podcast, but you know what it's not that difficult. And if I can do it, you guys can do it. Trust me. Cause I am like, so not technology savvy, but I figured it out at some point. It was really choppy and it really was not the greatest, but over time you get better and we're still getting better. I'm still getting better every day. But, it's something that I'm so happy that I did and Bruce is really well versed in how to do all that.
Laurel Simmons: I think for me what the most important thing, the single most important thing that Bruce said. And Sarah, that I really believe in this.
Sarah Larbi: I think it's three letters. Yeah. Got it.
Laurel Simmons: It's the why, because it's like anything else, if you're not committed and if you don't have a really strong reason for doing it, you can get all excited and start it and all the rest of it, and it's not gonna last. So I think Bruce's advice and my advice, and I know Sarah's advice is. If you're not committed and if you don't have a really clear why, really clear purpose, then don't do it. Do something else. Don't waste your time and energy and money, cause it does cost some money. Maybe not much, but it does cost some. But time, energy, money, effort. Don't bother. If you're clear and why, then great, go for it.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely, and I don't remember what the stats are. I'd have to ask Paul, but the amount of podcasts that stop after five episodes or 10 episodes, like there is an Astronomy astronomical number in comparison of the ones that are actually ongoing and repeatedly, released on a consistent basis, whether it's weekly or biweekly.
There are not that many, but there's a ton of podcasts in comparison. But just some of them maybe haven't had anything new for a year, or some of them more like five episodes and that was it. But the ones that are continuous, if you can get there, if you can do enough, cause it'll probably take. In my opinion from my experience, it took about a year and a half to two years, or maybe 50 to 70 episodes for things to really start moving and flowing the way that I was hoping you're gonna do five, you know what you gotta just keep doing more podcasts and more podcasts.
Yes, it's time, but it's not gonna happen overnight. But I'll tell you that like the podcast, even with the REITE club, we're starting to see people trickling in and realizing, oh wow, there's a whole club. Now that we're online, wow, there's all these forums. There's all of these things I could do at the REITE club online, but they wouldn't have known or found us otherwise if it wasn't for the podcast.
Laurel Simmons: Exactly, and it's, again, it's just that constant repetition of doing the same thing over and over and over again. You're not having the same guess over and over. But is that again, persistent and consistent action over time? That's what gets re results, that's what gets results in anything.
And that's the hardest thing for people to do, is to just keep on doing it even when you don't feel like doing it. Cause I know with the REITE club, we've been doing it now for, oh gosh. Months and months and months and months. And it's true. There is a flow to it, right? You do get into that flow and you go, oh yeah, this is the way that works and that's the way that goal works.
It's not that we're we don't wanna get better, it's just that you start to get that rhythm and it starts to feel a little more comfortable. And now once you get there, you can start improving. I wanna change this, we wanna do that. And that's just a natural growth progression.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. When we first started the REITE club, it was calledREITES, but the concept and the vision changed completely even in three years. And I'm sure it'll keep changing and your business will keep changing as well. The really cool thing about the podcast is you can keep changing with it and then people have the new information in real time.
I think it is really important that we listen to this cause we want, we wanna do real estate investing or we're already investors or we're already landlords and that's great and most of us that are doing it are probably, at least at a million plus in terms of net worth.
You could still do something different that creates different types of income. Will tell you a lot about my podcasts. I've batched records for four or five months, some of them in advance, so that I can take my summers off right. Or at least two months in advance. And that allows us to have that freedom lifestyle of being able to travel or being able to have other sources of income in addition to real estate.
You don't have to do it, but I'll tell you the sources of income that I get. Separate from the REITE Club, but like for me, with my podcast and the opportunities that I get, that probably makes me not as much as the investments, but it's up there. Like it, Hey, you know what, it was all worth it, but it's also super worth it because there's not a whole lot of Canadian content.
Real estate content. When I first started, I'm like, I'm listening to all of these podcasts and they're really awesome, but they're all American. This half of this stuff doesn't apply. And I really wanted to create something for people to be able to say, okay, in Canada things are different and here is information.
Rather than trying to decipher through, okay, what's the US what's Canada, what doesn't apply, what applies? And that was originally why I wanted to start the podcast. Same thing with the REITE Club, right? The more Canadian content that we can offer to Canadians. The better informed that they're gonna be.
The really cool thing for me, if I can be a little selfish, I get to interview these awesome people that have tons of great information and ask them questions that I want. I'll tell you like, some people, some of 'em charge two, three, $400 an hour. I'm like, sweet, come on my podcast. And you can ask them a bunch of questions and they, I don't think I've actually had somebody say, no, I don't wanna be on your podcast.
Laurel Simmons: You're right. The, you can, we get people that on our podcast who they'll charge, they, some of 'em charge between five and $10,000 a day. We get to talk to them and you're creating that relationship with them, so now I know that I can pick up the phone and say, Hey, it's Laurel from the REITE Club, and they're gonna return the phone call.
Sarah Larbi: Those connections are huge for sure. So if you guys are listening to this at Home REITE Club Nation, it doesn't mean that you have to start a podcast, but start creating some content. Start posting what you're doing, start getting out there, get outta your comfort zone, get a little bit more virtual, because a lot of it is going that route. And if you can, even if it's a batch post your. Facebook, so your Instagram or start doing a little bit of video clips on your properties, it's gonna bring in investors, if that's what you're looking for.
It's gonna bring in JV investors if that's what you're looking for, or, it might bring in something else that you're looking for. And I think the more content that we can put out there, you build trust. People like you, if they don't like you, they're not gonna listen to you. It's pretty easy. But then you build the trust that you know, and then you feel, they feel like they know you.
Laurel Simmons: Exactly. So before we close out, let's tell people what to go to our website because there's lots of cool stuff there. So go on, register at www.thereiteclub.com and just go in and see what's happening. And go register. It's free. There's lots of cool stuff on there.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. REITE Club Nation, thank you for tuning in, and until next week, come grow with us.
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