The Learning from Smart People Podcast is the brainchild of its host, Rob Oliver. He believes that everyone has an expertise that he can learn from. The podcast features guest experts from around the globe. Entrepreneurs, business leaders and lifelong learners can gain insights, strategies and tips to build a stronger business and live a full life.
Rob Oliver is an entrepreneur, award winning speaker, best-selling author and lifelong learner. His insights on resilience come from his own personal experience, sustaining a paralyzing body surfing injury at age 21. After many years of work in the disability advocacy field, Rob realized that entrepreneurship was the ticket to taking charge of his own employment opportunities.
As an entrepreneur, Rob is interested in learning from the experts about how to grow his own business. Once he understood that all entrepreneurs need to learn, he decided to start a podcast where he and his audience would both benefit from his guest’s expertise. COVID-19 provided the push necessary to get him started and we are now almost one year and 100 episodes into the experience. The podcast is built on Rob’s thoughtful and reflective questions for his guests as well as his sense of humor.
Listeners are LEARNING FROM the information shared. Guests establish that they are indeed SMART. You will get insight into who they are as PEOPLE during “3 Questions to Establish Your Humanity.” That’s what you will hear on the Learning from Smart People Podcast.
What is Learning from Smart People all about?
Learning from Smart People is all about helping entrepreneurs, business leaders and lifelong learners to gain knowledge to grow their business and live a better life. Host Rob Oliver is an entrepreneur himself and interviews experts from around the world on topics that relate. The fact is this, Smart People learn from smart people. By listening to the experts, you strengthen your own skills and understanding. Everything you experience and everyone you meet is a potential learning opportunity. The learning opportunities on the Learning from Smart People Podcast come from the people who have been there, done that and can share their experiences and expertise.
Tell us a little bit about your personal background – how, and why you started your podcast?
One of the things I enjoy most in my life is sharing with others. As an entrepreneur with a disability, I have learned a great deal about life and about business but am on a quest to learn more. My initial thought in starting a podcast was to share my story with others. However, as I contemplated how to do it, I realized that if I brought in guests to interview, they would provide the expertise and I would learn from them as well as add my own information to their content. There were 2 things that pushed me to get started.
First, I heard Thom Singer speak at my local National Speakers Association meeting about podcasting and it really resonated with me. That being said, I didn’t feel like I had the time to get started.
The 2nd thing that happened was the pandemic. My excuse about not having time vanished into thin air and it became a great way to connect with people without leaving my home.
What was the biggest problem you encountered launching your podcast and how did you overcome it?
When I was finally ready to launch my podcast it was at the start of the pandemic and I was worried about how much it was going to cost to create a podcast. I was unsure of how much I was going to be able to do myself and how much I was going to have to pay other people to do. Additionally, I was concerned about the cost for hosting and editing software. I was able to find all of these resources for free or close to it.
- Free hosting: Anchor.fm
- Free audio editor: Audacity
- Free video editor: VSDC Video Editor
- Free graphics editor: GIMP
- Free studio software: OBS
If you are doing a video component of your podcast, you can use Google Slides to make overlays, thumbnails, and intro and extro slides.
What are some mistakes you made as a podcaster?
At the start of my podcast, I didn’t realize how much postproduction work was needed to make the episodes sound professional. I thought that finding guests and doing interviews was the hard part but I was wrong. Using Audacity and VSDC Video Editor, I have been able to produce audio and video episodes which have definitely improved over the course of the podcast. Every now and then, I go back and listen to an old episode and it makes me realize just how far the podcast has come.
Do you have any other projects or businesses you working on?
I wear a number of different hats in my life. I am a speaker, author, trainer, publisher, and teacher. Additionally, I am a husband and the proud father of 19-year-old triplets. As a speaker, I talked about resilience based on my own story of building my life back up from a paralyzing body surfing injury sustained at 21 years old. I also train medical professionals about person and family centered, high quality healthcare. All three of my books have hit the bestseller list. As the founder of IX Press, I help other writers get their books completed, published and marketed. Lastly, I started an anti-bullying nonprofit related to the children’s book I wrote called “Who, Me? Yeah, You!”
Do you monetize your Podcast, or plan on monetizing, tell us how or how you plan to do it?
I never realized how difficult it is to monetize a podcast. Unless you have a boatload of listeners to every episode, no one is interested in advertising. That being said, very few of us are making a living by podcasting. I am beginning to self sponsor the podcast. I am able to put a commercial into the podcast for what I do in real life that costs me nothing. If I am able to sell some services as a result of “advertising” my own business on my podcast, it has the potential to be far more lucrative than waiting for someone else to pay me for that advertising spot.
How do you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business and podcast?
The show started during the pandemic lockdown. At first, it was easy to stay committed because there wasn’t really anything else to do. My initial commitment was to create 2 episodes every week. The show is targeted towards entrepreneurs and as such, the material that my guests share is relevant to my own personal journey as an entrepreneur. It helps me to see the value of what I am doing. In the interest of personal integrity, I tell everyone that I can about the podcast and include the fact that there are two episodes every week. If I don’t produce those 2 episodes, I feel like I have let down my audience, my family, and myself.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your podcast?
I wish I knew how much fun this was going to be. I had wanted to start a podcast for a long time but was concerned about how much work it was going to be, where I was going to find guests, what I was going to talk about, what were my qualifications, and what do I even know about starting a podcast… Once I got started, I began to build friendships with my guests and my listeners. At the end of every episode, I have added: “3 Questions to Establish Your Humanity” which offers an insight into who my guests are as a person. That has become my favorite part of the show, it’s a blast.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your audience?
One of the most effective ways of marketing the podcast is to interview guests with good connections. Encourage your guests to share their episode with all of their friends, followers, and family members. A word of warning, this is a difficult balancing act. When you are just starting out, people with large followings don’t really need you. My strategy is to get guests with as much influence as possible and provide quality content that will keep listeners coming back.
What is your definition of success?
To me, success is measured by the number of lives that you impact in a positive way. A podcast is a way of building relationships. Granted, most of the time they are one-sided and not extremely deep but they are relationships nonetheless. As podcasters share themselves, they are giving value to their listeners, investing in relationships, and building a legacy.
If you had to start a brand-new podcast today, what are the steps you would take?
The very first thing I would do is identify my audience. Who is my podcast for? Once I know who I’m talking to, that sets the foundation for everything I do: the topics I cover, the guests I invite, the questions I ask, the places I market, everything. The more you know about your target audience’s “pain points”, the more you develop content that addresses and lessens that pain. Content that solves the problems that your target audience faces is what makes your podcast a “go-to” resource.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new podcasters?
I have two pieces of advice for you and aspiring podcasters. First, don’t wait to get ready, start now. There are so many reasons we can give ourselves as to why we are not ready yet. We tell ourselves that we need more followers, better equipment, more practice, or any number of other things. The longer you wait to start, the longer it is going to take you to build your podcast into something amazing. Even if you get everything in line, there is still going to be a lot to learn and the best way to do that is by experience.
Second, ask for feedback. Sure, it’s great to have your friends and family members tell you that your podcast is phenomenal but you are going to need constructive criticism to get better. On a side note, learn from every critique that you receive but don’t take it personally.
What is your favorite quote?
The motto for the show is,
“When you stop learning, you stop living.”
How can readers get in touch with you?
I love to hear from my listeners. You can contact me through social media, the show is on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn – @LFSPPodcast. There is a contact us page on the website or you can email me directly Rob@LearningFromSmartPeople.com.
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