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​Russ Johns
And it's a fantastic day for a pirate broadcast. That's what I say anyway, only, you know, sometimes technology kind of gets in the way, kind of has a different plan. And so if you're following the pirate broadcast, you can follow along on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and here on LinkedIn live as well. So I want to, you a very happy and amazing day. Bertrand McHenry is in the room. And he's working to get his camera operational. So Bertrand, but he does have a face for radio so it works out.

Bertrand McHenry
That's the truth Actually, my camera my phone was working I see myself very well.

Russ Johns
So can you actually join the pirate broadcast in stream yard? Bertrand from your thing? Ah, got it pulled up on my phone. So let me enter the broadcast studio, enter the broadcast studio. We're walking this through there. Now for those of you who have just joined us or the ones that are curious is like Russ, what are what are you doing? And and so here we go. Let me show you. There we are

Bertrand McHenry
not that's actually on my computer. Now what's on your computer

Russ Johns
There we go. Alright. Yeah. So here's what happened. This is what's happening is, Bertrands computer camera would not connect. So we said, Hey, we'll just use your phone Bertrand it's pretty simple equation. You just got to go in and knock it out and get it done.

Bertrand McHenry
It's all about solutions. We're just gonna figure it out.

Russ Johns
But now we're now we have some a little bit of hesitation on the, the audio and I wanted to start I wanted to start the broadcast because if you schedule a live stream with Facebook, and you don't go live after nine minutes they've delete for you. So, so.

Bertrand McHenry
Yeah.

Russ Johns
No, I'm not sure if it's your mic, Bertrand or if it's your phone Or what it is you're getting a little distortion. So I'm not sure what that bout. So maybe you can adjust your settings or reduce your volume.

Bertrand McHenry
Hmm, let me reduce volume.

Russ Johns
That sounds much better.

Bertrand McHenry
Does it? Does that sound better?

Russ Johns
That sounds better. Okay, I think I think we're on the path of success here.

Bertrand McHenry
Hey, we'll figure it out.

Russ Johns
You'll figure it out. So Bertrand, welcome and Happy Friday to the pirate broadcast. This is your first now that you're officially a pirate. You know it's it's good to have you here.

Bertrand McHenry
Happy to be a pirate and thank you for letting me come on the show. This is a you've gotten some serious traction. I love it.

Russ Johns
Well, last time I was in Houston, or actually did we connect? I don't know. It's been a while since we connected Well, when I was in Houston, right?

Bertrand McHenry
we met at Ddots.

Russ Johns
Yeah, little cafe down off 45 those from Houston and Texas area if you're ever in in Houston, if you're going down south and maybe on the way to Galveston. You can stop at Dots and check it out.

Bertrand McHenry
It's really yeah. So it's a nice little low threat place.

Russ Johns
Yes, a low threat place so tell us what you're up to today. I mean, it's like you're doing vinyl draft radio station you do. Doing a couple of different things bring us up to speed on what's going on in Bertrand .

Bertrand McHenry
Yeah, vinyl draft radio station. We're going through a rebrand it starts probably mid next month, we're going to go through a rebrand because, you know, we've been doing for three years live streaming radio, talk radio. So we've got 28 close to 30 local shows made of local talent from health and fitness to cooking show to whiskey and cigars to business to you know, all kinds of things. And, and we've attracted a lot of attention, but but streaming radio is, is labor intensive. It's difficult to pull off and compete and change people's habits. Even even when you get an app, it's still difficult to change people's habits. And everybody's already dialed into podcasting. And since we already have the presence that we've built in, chiseled out with vinyl draft radio, we're going to go eventually, dial all the talk shows out by the end of the year from live streaming and make them all podcasting. So we'll have podcast studios, people can come in and record their shows will train them on that will help them develop their shows will teach them how to push their shows out and and find their audience. And it'll be a much, much better it'll be a much better deal.

Russ Johns
Well, I need to probably while you're connected Ozeal. Ozeal is running the podcast community. They're in the Houston he's there in that area, and I know ozeal and I go back way back before he even started podcasting and it's helping him out with that. Okay. Also, another individual that you probably need to connect with is Warren Spiwak He's dialed into the OG&E and the oil and gas industry that is and he's got that he's actually in Sugar Land. He's got an office down there that he's love to set up a podcasting. You know, space where people could come in, record their podcasts and broadcast and I think it ties in well with the Pirate syndicate too. Because you know what I'm doing with the Pirate broadcast. I'm bringing that to the community for live streaming. I'm then live streaming like this show here. I'm taking this live stream and then converting it into a podcast. Then turning it into a blog post converting the audio into text for SEO. So then you have multiple streams going out to multiple platforms, you have the social content that I can slice and dice these episodes, So any nuggets of knowledge that you share, I can I can package those up and put them out on social. So the pirate syndicate is going to be a very much similar space that we could actually have people come in and produce shows at your location and then and then broadcast them on the pirate syndicate as well.

Bertrand McHenry
Yeah, I mean, as the I think it's so fluid right now. It's such a fluid opportunity. And there's room for tons of ideas. I love that idea. The pirate syndicate, people coming in using our studios to record push it out over to you get stuff done. You know, there's something about the collaborative effort in podcasting and it's so democratic. For me. Even the shows even the shows in podcasting are Different and sound different than live streaming radio because with live streaming radio, with commercials with ads with sponsors with going into break and coming back out of break, there's a performance aspect to live radio that's not there. And podcasting, podcasting is more of a, an authentic conversation. And, and a I'm not sure why that is except for maybe the energy of live streaming radio is different than podcasting, but, but I love it more.

Russ Johns
Well, in live streaming radio is much more like the brokered radio, you know, that's where, well you and Dirk had a show back when I was running the radio stations down in down my Sugar Land, you know, when we're doing that and and I had the Fort Bend, I think it's for Fort Ben spotlight. I had a show and Right, right, right, right. Yeah, the shows. And it was really nice to be able to put those out there and get the community behind you and bring people in and engage the community. I think the kind of intersection that's being created right now with podcasting, and broadcasting and live streaming is that, like you said, it's so fluid and opportunity to do because, you know, you are the media, right?

Bertrand McHenry
This is the media right here.

Russ Johns
This is the media. Right? You are the producer, we are the real, everything, everything. And so people have an opportunity to broadcast their their brand their message in a number of different ways. Mm hmm. So we've just talked about a dozen different ways you can produce content, right? Yeah. And I think I think like you said, it's fluid. So what do you see in the landscape of podcasting and how, how do you anticipate you want to allow people to come in and produce shows I mean, it's because it's really it's really a valuable asset. If you have a space as quiet setup for it. You got the mike production studio going on. It's really nice.

Bertrand McHenry
We've had people come in contact us for, because some of those rooms are set up for YouTube as well. So we've had people contact us and ask about web series for coaching programs that they've got that they want to record. I've had people say, I want to record I want to do an audible book of audible recording of my book in one of the studios, we probably won't do music because it's just too loud and in the building, and we're not really set up baffled that way. But we'll have people come in. One of the things that we're doing and talking about doing is with the rebrand creating the the radio stream through December, and then that will just become music. We'll just leave that up. But then we'll do the podcast network, and then we'll do podcast University, and that's yet to be named, but that will be all about newbies coming in and learning how to set up the podcast. Yes, but then how do you how do you find your own audience and then monetize that down the road six months a year down the road, what are the steps you go through to get that and we want to create a culture and a community that they can come in on once a month and get trained on that kind of stuff with different classes have ozeal come in, have you come in and teach how to do that. So there's steps to that, as you know, and people have things that they want to say. But they don't always know how to monetize it. And there's only one reason to build a list. Well it's two reasons is to serve that community and to monetize it.

Russ Johns
Yeah. Well, also, you know, I think and I was just having this conversation the other day with someone.And Bertrand you know, I you and I know this is is that radio broadcasting. Live Streaming is one of the most effective ways to start a conversation. And having a little bit of authority and visibility in the market is really important and critical to the conversation because it gives you a little bit of weight in the in the topic that you're speaking of automatically. And and so if you have the authority built in and you can actually generate that conversation, the people that are attracted to you are typically the people that want your help to solve the problem. And I think the monetization, really not in this necessarily directly from the broadcast, it comes from the results of the conversation after the broadcast.

Bertrand McHenry
I hundred percent agree with that. And I think just to tag on to that, I think that what I hear you saying in the next sentence is that what podcasting allows you to do is it allows your audience the people that you're talking to, to kind of get next to the campfire without getting scorched early. They get to get comfortable with you and hear what you're talking about, without being asked to buy anything too soon. And so they get to develop trust, they get to look All the all the Guru's that I pay attention to that I buy products from now,, I consumed all of their free stuff for a year and a half or two years. And I remember thinking with all of them, it's like this free stuff I would have paid for. And after a year and a half of taking the free stuff, I said, you know what these guys are not these guys and ladies are not charlatans there for real, I'm going to come and invest. And, and that's how I selected the people that I listened to. But it was that weekly email TV show that Marie phileo sent out it was a regular podcast that came out on a on a weekly basis that allowed me to feel like I knew them, you know.

Russ Johns
And it also allows you to because some of these technologies and some of these thought processes, building content online, or it's different than going to a manufacturer and building a widget and selling in retail brick and mortar store. You know, right knowledge worker and being online presence and selling knowledge is it's a much different model in some ways, you know, of technology that kind of goes along with it and how you present it, how you, how you deliver it, how you, you know, engage in the audience at all. It takes a little bit of time and effort and a lot of people are overwhelmed and kind of shy of diving into the technology. So it's one of those things that we have to we have to kind of get our head wrapped around a little bit before we jump into it. So

Bertrand McHenry
I'm guilty of that. Oh, sure. I mean, I'm guilty of that technology, some of it so that the the deep water scares me a little bit. I mean, I'll jump into anything, just to figure it out, but it still scares me. You know, it's still but I mean, I jumped into radio without knowing anything about it. So and it was it was scary. I think. If somebody And said, This is what you're going to have to go through to get a radio station started, I would have said, Oh, heck no, I'm not going to do that. But having having gone through it, and having learned all the lessons, clearly for me, and this is not this is my doctrine. It's not for anyone else. But clearly for me, podcasting is the way to go. Because I think it's it's not only less labor intensive, which allows you to focus on your message and allows you to focus on service. It also is such a democratic, medium for people and there's so many business owners out there and creative people who have hobbies who have something to say, that don't yet know that they can just jump on podcasts don't know, how how easy it could be, and I want to bring that message to them and create a place for people to come and be creative and have fun and express themselves in the marketplace.

Russ Johns
Yeah, it's really and it's really approachable now and it's even better Compared to when, you know, number of years ago in podcast movement started, and I started, you know, in the radio when I was in the radio business coming up, you know, it's it's really, I got into podcasting from a different direction, you know, when I was broadcasting all of varsity sports teams, Mm hmm. Using podcasting technology, in order to live stream to the radio station. It was, right. I mean, it was pushing the boundaries and a lot of people really didn't understand what we were doing at the time. And, and I think like you said, business owners really have an opportunity to, to present their story and their message and be authentic and produce that vulnerability that says, hey, I'm just a guy. I'm just a person. I'm gal like you. I'm just doing my business thing here if you want to, if you need this, if you have an opportunity. You know, let's connect and he Yes, testing allows you to do every time. Yeah. So Bertrand I couple of cosmic Roz pull for what? Which one of them? which one has the coolest beard? You know? I gotta tell you story. I gotta tell you a story. Bertrand and I were sitting at what was it Chili's on I10 one day. Mm hmm. And we had we were talking about it's like, I had started growing a beard and my are growing a beard. So let's just keep going to grow this beard.

Bertrand McHenry
Remember that? Yeah. And I remember that. And so we both had a beard ever since. And so I think you've kept yours a little longer. So I and I just got back from the gym. I could a little scrunchie in it, because I got it caught in weights before so but I had this I had this goal that I wanted to get it done. Down below my my pectoral line and you see what you know it may be a terminal length now I don't know if it stopped growing or not I can't really tell but but I love the self expression you know for years, I didn't grow I grew a little bit of facial hair but when I grew up in sales the the reigning philosophy of the day was don't grow facial hair. nobody buys people from people with beards or mustaches and always broke those rules a little bit but i think you know, when you and I met and started talking about this, this journey, this beard Journey To me it finally hit me You know, this is the age of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship is in part about self expression. Yeah, and and I will, I will trade my happiness and lose a few potential clients because I wear this.

Russ Johns
Well I think what it does is self qualifies a lot of people. Right? If you're if you're not, if you don't feel like it's in your in your zone of comfort or you know, you You don't feel like it's something that's professional. It's like, it's okay. I've been a professional long time. I've been doing this for a while now. So, right. It's like it doesn't slow me down at all. No, no, for sure. But I want to give a couple of shout outs David Riley for one. He's over in the UK. He's doing some great work. I love you, brother and Gabriel, love to get involved in some sort of project. Like what we're talking about, you know, let's continue the conversation because there's a lot of opportunity out there and Roz low. Where do I sign up? Well, the first place you could sign up is you can actually go to Russ Johns.com and get notified for future broadcasts and you can sign up for you know, get notified on on, you follow the broad pirate broadcast on LinkedIn. You can head over to the pirate syndicate. There's there's also places here let me actually let me let me put this up here. So Yeah. So you can do this and try that at this point in time. So and then also, let's do that. There you go.

Bertrand McHenry
Cool. Cool. So here, and then.

Russ Johns
Gabriel. Have you heard of spoon like live streaming audio with listeners engagement? I've checked that out spoon. Spoon. Awesome discussion. Thank you, Dr. Renee, Sherry Lally. It's virtual vetting. I absolutely agree. Do you use product in your beard? I don't typically use product in my beard. So I do. I need to because in Arizona The weather's so much drier. My beard was much more It was different in Houston as true yeah yeah

Bertrand McHenry
it's much I can see that I do I do I use quite a quite a bit of product in my beard yeah

Russ Johns
it's really it's really it's really amazing to just kind of go through evolution and you know we can we connect back forth and we actually grew a substantial network years ago mainstream chamber remember those days and so now we're transitioning forward with live streaming live broadcasting podcasting and all this stuff. So so that's the next adventure down your path is is yes, I think studios and everything that's going on.

Bertrand McHenry
So yeah, we're we're we're branching. We're branching out into Houston. Some of the collaborative spaces are asking us to kind of curate and build a podcast offerings for their, for their members.

Russ Johns
One area that I think would be really incredibly valuable. Bertrand is You know, and I'll share it with you, and I think I've already shared it before is a lot of business owners that have, or a lot of industries to have a large volume of employees, I think podcasting, and what I would call corporate radio would be very valuable to have a presence in because one of those things that you can actually on digital platform, you can you can record, you know, a CEO or a tip of the day or who to contact for this for that, etc. So it's almost like an internal broadcast for the for the employees and the culture of the organization. I think there's a huge spot that's underutilized in that area, that you can actually transfer information quickly, efficiently. And everybody has the opportunity to understand what is going on in the organization. Because I think there's so many people that get lost in organizations that don't have the information quickly and efficiently. And I think that's an area that I think would be really well served by digital audio video streaming. So, you know, thank you for, for mentioning that.

Bertrand McHenry
It reminds me because two year and a half ago, marathon oil contacted me because of an affiliation with someone who had come through the radio station and said, Would you come out and kind of consult with us a little bit on internal podcasting, and there, it was your communications department that decided instead of a newsletter, they wanted to put out a weekly podcast. And so I met with him over a two week period got him set up, and then they launched and they've been doing it ever since. And it's an inch, it's an internal podcast within the company, marathon oil.

Russ Johns
Yeah. And so you've already experienced it, and you already know that it's work. It's available at everything like that. So in your podcasting, Production efforts I should you should have one of my domains podcastyourbrand.com

Bertrand McHenry
Hm I ike that.

Russ Johns
Yeah, I have to negotiate with you

Bertrand McHenry
podcast your brand would you do you want to end it a land grab and just grab that name?

Russ Johns
No I used to train I was trained all the all the time with it but

Bertrand McHenry
Okay, okay.

Russ Johns
But I am doing the Pirate Syndicate now so I'm doing live streaming so however,

Bertrand McHenry
You should do both

Russ Johns
i do i digress I'm working on focusing you know me I've already I've always got about projects go.

Bertrand McHenry
Yes. Is is the curse the curse of the entrepreneur?

Russ Johns
Yeah, I guess it's like okay, Mr. Mr. Wizard here in the lab working on a new project. Right. I just need to get I just need to keep loving on the ones that are working. So right

Bertrand McHenry
Gotcha, gotcha.

Russ Johns
And, you know, the pirate broadcast is it's it's got some people are appreciative of what I'm doing here.

Bertrand McHenry
Mm hmm.

Russ Johns
I'm booked all the way through March.

Bertrand McHenry
So it's great content. It's Russell Russell isn't what you're doing with this is, is, is great, authentic, genuine, real content that people people are, you know, that's what we're looking for. We're not looking for hype. We're looking for genuine, authentic content. And that's what you're, that's what that's who you are anyway. So I can't imagine that you would do a show that would be anything but but that, yeah.

Russ Johns
Well, you've known me for a while and I like the same person. That was right. 10 years ago, right. So, so I love the idea. So when do you see this transition take place and how can we help help Bertrand promote this stuff,

Bertrand McHenry
the brand and the announcement. will take place mid March and will have new logos will have new name, vinyl drauft, you always have to explain that to people and then explain the spelling. So it's always a stumbling block. So for me, now that I'm running it, you know myself can make some changes without without checking. And so the rebrand is coming. We've got the rooms in the suite that we're at now that are being built out for podcast. usage. We also have you know, we work in Houston is wanting us to do some curating of some podcast rooms and there's a couple of their buildings and to help develop a podcast program. So in the new entity may extend their to we may have the pick of the litter on their best podcasts that come out of their membership. Yeah, so there's a few things on the horizon.

Bertrand McHenry
Well, why don't you schedule something in April so we can come back and get updates from you. Okay, that'd be great. Because it's really important, you know, and it's been a passion of mine, you know, it's, it's, you know, going back to my radio days and the ability and opportunity to, you know, share what other people are doing, you know, highlight, highlight the gifts of others, and allow you know, high tide raises all boats, kind of just like, go it goes back to the rule. Jim Rowan, you know, you are the product of the five people you're surrounded by so often a lot of interesting, fascinating, successful, amazing people. And, you know, you might get some insight that you hadn't had yesterday. No question. No question about that.

Bertrand McHenry
Yeah, for sure.

Russ Johns
Well, I know that you're busy. So what do you want to leave with the world today in words of wisdom nuggets of knowledge in and drop some knowledge bombs. On Us

Bertrand McHenry
words of wisdom. And I'm I'm just coming from an entrepreneurial place, I just know that consciously staying outside of my comfort zone is where I thrive the most. It's the scariest place. I don't always feel 100% confident in that place. But it's where I learned the most. If If I push myself to stay out of my comfort zone and I persist in whatever it is that I'm doing, then that's where my skills expand. That's where I my confidence does grow eventually in those areas. But jumping off the edge of the cliff is one of my Happy Places. It's scary as heck, but it's one of my Happy Places because I know when I do that, I'm living part of my purpose and part of my purpose is to be a lifelong student and I love being alive. Love the beginning. I love not knowing everything I love being in awe a lot of the times of what other people are doing like you, I would I would rather be in awe then be bored and know it all, if that makes sense. And so, so for me staying out of my comfort zone and just never quitting, just stay in just persisting until it's until it's over, walk through to the other side and see what's there. You know

Russ Johns
awesome, awesome. Bertrand, thank you so much for being here today. I appreciate the opportunity to catch up and, you know, share some of the things you're working on some of the gifts and you know, like I said, you know, let's, let's continue down this path. There's a lot of interest in this. There's a lot of opportunity that we can help other people broadcast, share their, share their message, share their gifts, share their voice, and I think it's important. I think it's important work that is meaningful. And I will continue to do it and I look forward to helping you do it as well. So,

Russ Johns
Russ, thank you for being who you are always and being so consistent. So awesome. I appreciate that. And Bertrand, speaking of consistency, we went to the gym this morning is still on track, you still

Bertrand McHenry
Yeah. So assuming we get a few seconds. My goal is, I'm 58. And I've said this every decade since I was 30. But now I'm finally doing it. I'm entering a bodybuilding contest. At the end of this year at the beginning of 2021. Just as a marker, I find it hard to get an extreme shape without a goal like that. That scares me going back to being out of my comfort zone. So So that's, that's my goal. So I'm hitting it hard. I've got a trainer, I got a nutritionist. It's not that fun, but you can end up being worth it

Russ Johns
will make it matter. That's

Bertrand McHenry
Yeah, absolutely.

Russ Johns
Others keep going, man.

Bertrand McHenry
Yeah, thank you.

Russ Johns
And also for those of you that are just joining us or, as always, all the gratitude in the world for you being here, thank you for your comments. like, share and, you know, least, at least help us out here once in a while by being kind because kindness is cool. The smiles are free. And you know what I'm going to say right? Enjoy the day.

Bertrand McHenry
Enjoy the day.

Russ Johns
thanks

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