Introduction

Brian 0:10

Well, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast. I'm Brian.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

And I'm Shauna.

Brian 0:13

And today, well, we've already been talking for an hour now with our guests, but now we just hit record. So welcome to the episode. You missed the whole episode zero of this edition, but we're sitting here with John and Crystal from Riley Black Studios. So you guys, welcome to the Vero Beach Podcast. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Yes, we're excited. Well, we're excited to have you guys on. And thank you guys for being gracious too. Because I know like there's like sicknesses that came up, cars broke down, and we just like, yeah, we are.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Scheduling is always a headache sometimes.

Brian 0:42

That's part of the challenging of podcasting. Right. Uh well, I guess thank you guys again for joining us. We guys take about 30 seconds. Now there's two of you. So take about 30 seconds. You guys can arm wrestle over who wants to go first and tell us a little bit about yourselves. I'll let you go first. Women, ladies first.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Um, so we have been doing podcasting um and content creation for uh a while. So we created our first uh personal podcast about five years ago. Um I have 30 seconds a laser engraving business, and we don't let him rush you right. We created a podcast around the laser engraving business and we fell in love with it. And so then it kind of just snowballed from there. He does video and other content, and then we're like, hey, let's open a spot where other people can come do the same thing. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Love it. So she's pretty much wrapped it all up.

Brian 1:35

Um it's good.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

I mean, so we should have hit record an hour ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

So um, yeah, I I do the video and I I was the brainchild behind our podcast. I listened to a bunch of podcasts on my spare time. We talked about that just before hitting record. Um, so I was the brainchild behind it, and then I have a production background. I for over 20 years I was in news, in news, doing video, editing, shooting. Um, so I was like, is there are there any podcasts? Like we need we should start a podcast because I wanted to go into because I listened to all of them, and Rogan always tells all his guests you should start a podcast. Oh, really? So um I was like, after hearing it so much, I'm like, maybe we should start one around laser. So I asked her if there were any. There weren't. So there is a void. And then we've kind of like introduced podcasting for um the laser community. Laser let me say laser engraving and cutting, because when you say laser community, people think of hair removal or they think of like of like rust if they're in like automotive rust removal. No, this is laser engraving. If you think of your tumblers and you think of like acrylic signs, they're usually cut with a laser, and that's the community we so a lot of small businesses.

What was before?

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Do you I know this off the subject a tiny bit, but do you also do laser engraving on leather?

unknown 2:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yeah, okay. I was just curious because I've seen that and I think that looks really cool.

Brian 2:52

All right. So before you even got into the creative stuff, what did you guys do before?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

So personally, I I used to be uh in corporate job. I wa worked for an oil and gas company for 12 years in Colorado. It's where I'm from. Um, and I was in accounting and I didn't really fit into that mold, right? Um accounts payable, uh, it was a job that I kind of fell into because my mom also worked at the same company. Uh, wanted to get out of retail. And so I did that for the longest time, but I was always looking for some way to be creative. Um, and but didn't ever really think that I could turn it into a career. Uh and then, you know, when I met him, uh, he came out to Colorado and then he ended up getting a job offer in news back home in South Florida. Um, and then our son was one year old at the time, and I had just started creating uh t-shirts on accidentally fell into it because I bought it so that I could make shirts for my son and ended up never doing that and making it for everybody else. Like a cricket is that we started a silhouette. Yeah. And so I did um, you know, vinyl work for a while. And so when we moved, I was like, let me see where I can take this business. And so then, you know, that's where the the laser eventually came in, and then you know, his idea of the podcasting. Um, so yeah, and you can tell your Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

So um, like I said, I was um for twenty in oh two, I began my news career um out of high school um in production. So I did everything from editing to loading back then, and I say back then because it was a physical tape, if you know what that is. A lot different, yeah. Um I would load so if you think of when you watch a newscast, a video, I would be in the back loading that physical tape. So we had like 18 decks and it was like one after the other, kind of like a conveyor belt system. Um so I ran that. Um, and then I the last maybe the last half of my career in news was all out in the field as a videographer. So I had a camera on my shoulder, you know. I'm I'm the guy that shows up with police, you know, on the other side of the tape asking you, hey, can we talk to you real quick? And you're like, no, no, I don't want to be on camera. That was me. That was me. Yeah. So I have a video background, I've been doing it for over 20 years. Um, and then we moved up here in to Sebastian in 23, and that's when I decided to leave news um and start freelancing. Um, and then that led to us getting the opportunity to open up a podcast studio.

Brian 5:26

That's pretty cool. That's really cool. Like you get the like experience a lot. I'm sure you did with doing news and stuff as well.

When Did You Realize You Love Podcasting?

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Yeah, not not always pleasant. A lot of times I was talking to people on their worst day.

Brian 5:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Um, and that was that was tough.

Brian 5:38

Okay, so Crystal, you said that uh, you know, you guys started doing this and you fell in love with podcasting. What made you what what caused you or what helped you realize, like, I love doing this, like we love doing it.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

So, yeah, so he came to me again, you know, I was doing the laser engraving business. Um, he was still working at news at the f at the time, and he was like, hey, we should start a laser podcast. Or is there anybody else doing that? And I was like, no, I don't see anybody else talking about one. And I was like, okay, but I don't want to do video. I was like, I don't want to be on camera, I don't want to have to worry about angles and all that. And he was like, fine, but audio only is way easier anyway. And so we started literally just recording on our couch. Uh, I was pregnant and miserable. Um, and so a lot of the first episodes are while I'm just struggling through, you know, our second pregnancy, but also trying to do the business. Um, but we were just surprised how quickly people kind of took to it in such a niche community, you know. Um it and that's not obviously why we're here today, but you know, what we accomplished with that that podcast shows you the potential for podcasting because again, it's a very specific topic, laser engraving businesses, and we just actually hit 70,000 downloads uh a week or so ago, um, all time over the last five years. And hitting something like that for, you know, again, just a very small community. Um, we were like, oh, okay, this could be something. And so everything else that I did felt like work, but when we were podcasting and when we were interviewing other laser businesses, it wasn't work. I was always interested to hear other people's stories, you know, similar to like you guys do. And I just loved hearing how their journey went, how a lot of times it's accidental and you kind of just ride the wave. Um, and that's what we were doing with podcasting. And then it kind of just took on a whole life of its own. And then we eventually made uh our own studio in our home just for that podcast. Uh, and as soon as we created that studio, we had people asking if they could use it. And we were like, oh, and you know, it's in our home. Right. And so we're like, not really, you know, it's made for us, but you know, and so after so many years of people asking if they could record in our studio, that's actually what birthed this one is um, you know, Amanda Hackford with Southern and Cheese. She wanted to, you know, record her podcast and asked if she could do it with us. And we were like, uh, well, it's in our house, you know, maybe. And we told her no initially, and then couldn't stop thinking about it. And then we looked for a space and we found one that worked for us. Um, and yeah, then the rest is history. So then we opened a rentable podcast thingslash content creation studio to make it easier for other people who don't have that space in their garage to make their own, or they don't have a John to do all the tech stuff for them for creating an audio only podcast, you know? It's it's not hard, but it is a lot to learn if you don't know what you're doing. And he already had that background, so it was it was easy for him.

Brian 8:46

Plus, it's always like if it's not hard, it doesn't mean it's easy, right? It's a lot of time and work that goes into it.

The Reality Behind Podcast Numbers

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Yeah, this was all the decor you see here is her. So she does the aesthetic and everything that that's her. Everything you see here technical from lights to camera, it all comes second nature to me. So for me, it's easy. Where for other people, they don't even know where to begin. You don't even know where to start.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Brian 9:07

For a lot of people that might be thinking about a podcast, or you know, like they're probably that's probably one of the things that I've I've heard more often than normal is well, nobody really is gonna want to listen to my podcast. And I love that you know, we talk, we're talking about the numbers, like yeah, 580 4 million or whatever. Uh but a lot of times people are thinking well, if I start a podcast and I'm only getting like 25 downloads uh for episodes starting off, and that's good. That's good. 25 downloads episodes.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Think about thinking not to interrupt you, but think about if you had 25 people in a room sitting in this room. That's exactly where I was gonna go. Like that's a lot of people.

Brian 9:43

Yeah, it's like, yeah, because you think that you know, if I only have 25 people listening to my podcast episode, you're thinking I don't have a hundred thousand. But the reality is if you had those 25 people sitting in this room talking and they're interested in what you do, that is that would be mind blowing.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Yeah, that would be mind blowing if it's a physical person. Yeah, but because it's a number.

How To Get 10k Podcast Downloads

SPEAKER_00 10:02

So, like we talked about, you know, before we started recording podcast conferences is right, you know, do you you go to them and depending on which class you go to, you feel like you have to have a thousand downloads per episode in order to do anything. And that's not that's not true at all. Um, you know, uh we what we had looked into was oh, you need this many episodes, and you're if you're thinking of monetizing, oh, you're only gonna make pennies on every single download. With 70,000 downloads, we average only a hundred to three hundred downloads per week, right? And that's not even on one episode, that's across all 240 plus episodes that we have in the bank, right? Um, when we first started, as long as your message is getting to your community, it doesn't matter how many you have. You can have a very, very small community. But as long as the information is good, you're you're using it as something for your business to add to the no, like, and trust part, you're now becoming a knowledgeable person in that space. It's a benefit. If it's five people who are listening every single week or every single month, that's five people that now are gonna go to you first if they need something.

Will Anyone Listen?

Brian 11:16

I had someone reach out to us and said, Hey, I want your guys' company to help me market my podcast. I want to get to 10,000 downloads a month. And I'm like, okay, well, we're not a company that's like, hey, we're we're not a performance company, like when it comes to marketing. So I'm like, well, let me let me kind of change your outlook on this. How many downloads are you getting right now per episode? Right. And you know, he said something like, I'm getting about, you know, you know, 500 downloads per episode. I'm like, all right, cool, that's good. So how many episodes do you drop in a week? And then he would say, like, I'm dropping, you know, one or two episodes. I was like, okay, so figure out how many episodes do you need to drop a week at five to 10,000. Yes, exactly. I was like, not, hey, let's throw money and try to increase it. I was like, how many episodes do you need to put out to get to that 10,000? Because that's the better approach for what you're trying to do instead of trying to pay and say, I want to see these explode. Yeah. Because you could do that and still and not even have the right audience. You're just getting clicks or you know, this doesn't mean it's gonna turn into money. Exactly. Right. Exactly. But you know, you guys started off with a laser engraving podcast.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Yeah.

Brian 12:16

So uh for people that are listening thinking, like, I don't know, is anybody gonna listen to this? Does any can I create a podcast about what I do? What would you say to them? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

I I feel like our again, the example of a very niche laser engraving podcast, and again, it's 70,000 downloads, but that took five years and 240 episodes. Um if if you keep at it, if you are consistent for what consistency means for you, if you decide you want to do a podcast, do it if you can do it monthly, great. Do it monthly if it starts to take off and people want more. Okay, maybe increase it to bi-weekly. If bi-weekly they still want more, maybe then increase it to weekly. Uh as a weekly podcast, I would recommend not going straight into weekly because it's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Um, but it really can just be a great potential um in your business. And even if it isn't, so it it doesn't necessarily sure, it's one of the many like income streams that we have across both of our businesses, right? But it's not what makes us the most money, but it's what we enjoy doing the most. So we have fun doing it. We get to meet people within our laser community and locally within, you know, just the the area and that community. Um, but it's that connection, right? And that leads to other things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Um, so it's almost not measurable, right? Yes. Because that's something that people ask us a lot is why are you doing this if you don't really make money at it? And it's because it's not that it's not that uh translatable, right? Like, yeah, we don't charge like you. Um, but the connections that we've made, you can't put a price on it.

Brian 14:01

And what people what what has happened is then people are like, you know, we do a podcast and they're like, oh, you guys have a marketing company. I need help with strategy. Okay, well, let's connect later after the podcast and we'll talk about that. But that's not what the goal is. It's like, hey, but then they get to know us, they get to earn, we earn trust, just like you guys are doing. So then when they're like, oh, you guys actually help create content, you guys can come and capture video for us. Right, right. You remove that barrier of, well, I don't do this because I don't understand cameras, I don't understand mics, I don't know how to edit. All right, well, you guys know what you like, you guys know, just for example, you know laser engraving, but you don't understand mics and audio. So we'll do that. Right. You just come and talk about what you do and then let us do the rest.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

And it's also, it's also to to tap onto that content. A podcast, if even if it's just a half hour podcast, which I will tell you, you'll start off at half at half an hour and you'll get to like 45 to 15 minutes in no time. Um but if you go, if you do a weekly, um, not even a bi-weekly podcast at half an hour, you can you can generate a month's worth of content just from that podcast. Oh, yeah. So if nothing else, you start a podcast around if you're a business, around your business. Um, if you have an interest, if you have a hobby, not even interesting, like is it obviously your hobby's interesting to you. There are other people who are interested in it. So if you have a hobby, if you have a business, start a podcast around that. And then you can create that can generate content. So now you're posting regularly automatically because of this weekly podcast that you enjoy doing.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, that's awesome.

Business at Husband and Wife

Brian 15:37

That's awesome. I love that. I love that. This is great. Like again, this is what I love about podcasting is like, you know, we we always have outlines. We're like, hey, we're we got some notes, just yeah, because we don't know you guys. We're sitting across from a couple of strangers here we just met, but then we never stick with what we're talking about. That's right. Yeah, that's right. You did, you told me that. Uh, but okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and dive into this next part. So you guys are married, you guys okay. So I want to learn to lean into that a little bit as well. So, you know, you're running a business together as a husband and wife team, multiple business, multiple businesses, multiple businesses. How is it what's it like working together, running a business together? Uh, what day is it?

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Um no, it it so I think I like to think that we play off of each other's strengths. Um, where I lack so perfect example, if you email Riley Black Studios, you're getting a response. Yeah. Because she's the wordsmith.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

I yelled at him yesterday for his response to you guys. You guys are like, someone was like, oh, we're still with the period.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

I yeah, I'm like, I'm you're you're like, you're like excited for tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

She looks at it because again, so we share the so she gets the notification as well as I do. So she also gets a response, and she's like, really? No exclamation point, no emotion whatsoever. I'm like, I said same because it's insane.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

No, you got this there, you I don't know who it was. You or him. It was him. Yeah, I'm so excited to meet you guys. Exclamation point. Him, same here.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

No, he had the little party hat thing. Oh, confetti, like the little confetti emoji things. Yeah, it said same here, period.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

And I was like, really? Are you excited?

SPEAKER_02 17:09

My emotion is uh is a gift. I am the gift king. Oh yeah, I will I will do that instead of a like an actual reply. I'll look for a reply in in like a gift form. You guys are gonna get along so great. Or a meme, as opposed to the oh, so excited, exclamation point, heart face, this and that.

Brian 17:24

I don't I don't I have learned to embrace the emoji because I'm like trying to. If I give an emoji, then I'll know I'm excited. Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

If that's how you show the emotion, and so that's the hard part, right? Because a lot of the first interactions that we have with people is through text, email, social media, right? And I get it. Like they he has the emotion, he just doesn't know how to put the translating on the answers all the emotion. And yeah, and so when he first started his video business, I would like kind of see some of his email replies, and I'm like, you sound bored. Same, same sound annoyed, annoyed. Sound like you don't want to be here.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

They'd be like, oh, you know, uh when she's busy and she can't, I go to my other personal chat GPT. I was gonna say, like Chat GPT, I'm like, does this sound uh short? I'm like disconnected make this more make this casual. I put in my response to the email, and then I go, make this casual and fun sounding, or you know, like like somewhat professional, but also have a little fun with it, and then gives me something.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

And then it's his true him though. But like his true him when he texts it without help from me or chat is seems like you were annoying.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

And then for the laser aspect, I do all the technical, like if something needs to be something if a machine needs to be cleaned or broken or whatever, I go ahead and frustrated in 2.5 seconds, actually less, probably.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

And so if it's not working, babe, come here, come come look at this. Um if we need to clean it, I hate cleaning them. So they'll do the cleaning for me. Uh, you know, a lot of things like that. So we really, really just play into what each other's strengths and weaknesses, weaknesses are. If I love it, then typically that'll be something that I do. If I don't love it, and either.

Is It Challenging to Turn Off Work

SPEAKER_02 19:01

She explains the design that she's doing. I go, you know, glass over. Oh, that looks cool. I explain gear to her. Same thing. Like gear, like cameras and lenses and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

She's like, oh, he does this and the levels and all this stuff. And I'm like, that's great for you. Does it make your life easier? Then I'm I'm so glad.

Brian 19:18

So happy. As we get ready to wrap up this episode, I would I want to ask you guys, uh, is it challenging for you to turn off work? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Oh, yeah. Every day. Very much so. Yeah. Uh those kids that I was speaking about, just over this, over this break, you know, they were out of school, but but you know, I remember just being on the phone and they're like, oh, how many, how many phone calls do you have? And it's like, I don't know how as many as we need.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Again, it depends on the day. What day is it?

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yeah. And so, you know, a lot of times we're uh bringing them along as we go around the community supporting local events. And, you know, we're uh they, you know, oh, we'll hear it all the time. Oh, you're, you know, you're on your phone. It's like, yeah, a lot of times we're working, we're responding to uh an email, we're responding to someone on social media, we're engaging, or, you know, he'll be there, but he'll have his laptop and he'll be editing a piece because there's just only so much time in the day. And so that's why we do the little things of, you know, making sure that we are all present for dinner for the most part. And we play the games with them and game night and you know, the on the weekends and stuff. We we try to have that balance as having two small businesses. We were not on break. You know, we we did as little as we could.

Brian 20:35

And I love what you're talking to about, you know, I used to always think like, cause it's it's it's hard. That's why I asked, I always like to ask that question because I know it's difficult to take a break, uh, to turn that off. And me and Shauna struggled with that. Uh I've struggled with it more. Uh and uh, but we've worked through that throughout as we continue to evolve into our businesses and what we're doing. But one of the things that I've learned is like taking being purposeful about pressing pause that I thought was always like, hey, if I press pause, I felt like I was being I wasn't productive, right? Yeah. But then I what I've started learning is taking and being intentional and say, hey, I try to take at least like four hours on a Friday and press pause just to process the business. And I've learned that that what I thought was unproductive, that pause has become one of the most productive things I can do. Because it turns off, it removes you from the things that that's going on, your normal things, but allows you guys to have that time to sit and process what's next, what are we looking at? Uh so even though like it's still work, I still feel like those are like those are those pause moments that you guys do. It makes you more productive in the end. It does, it does. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah.

Brian 21:43

So, but yeah, if you guys have enjoyed this episode, make sure you click review. We love your guys' reviews, help others find your local podcast. And we're gonna go ahead and jump into the next episode. So there'll be two episodes on this one, not three, two episodes. So uh we will interrupt. It's too good, yes. So with that, we will catch you next time.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Catch you next time, neighbor.