How I Built It

How much help is too much help? When do you go from the actual worker to the visionary? And where does AI fit into all of this? Over on LinkedIn, I said using AI to write your book is like using a car to run a marathon. People took issue with that. So my friend Alastair MeDermott and I decided to have a good old fashioned debate. You’ll hear a nuanced discussion around:How to think about AI assistance in writing and content creationWhere AI can help versus replace in the creative processHow iterative prompting can shape the AI outputWhether AI will ever replicate truly original human ideasThe importance of the human editorial eye in approving AI-generated contentWhat we potentially stand to lose in fully outsourcing creative work to machinesIf you’re feeling uncertain about how to responsibly and effectively leverage AI tools like ChatGPT in your business and content creation, don’t miss this lively exchange of perspectives. Tune in now to help shape your own ethical framework.Check out Alastair's podcast ove

Imagine making $70,000…from your bedroom…in one night. That’s exactly what Matt “Dappz” McGuckin did with his online trading cards shop. He got his start “breaking” – that is, buying and opening boxes of cards live online, and selling the contents…all on TikTok. Sounds risky? It is! But today, Dappz Sports is the Live Shopping Company on TikTok in the U.S., making over $20 Million in gross sales. So the risks have paid off. Now maybe it seems like too far-fetched to say you’ll make $70K in one night, but it’s not too far-fetched to say that making calculated risks will elevate your business. It’s a proven strategy and Dappz, and today, he’s going to tell you how you can do it too. Top TakeawaysDon’t try to think about how you’ll go viral. Instead, be consistent and try different things. Experimenting can be low-stakes risk-taking. One of the biggest risks that pay off is hiring someone. They will take SO much off your plate. It sounds scary, but it’s a must for any business owner. Research is SO important wit

Over the years, I’ve published a great many gift guides on my blog. From freelancers, to podcasters, to working from home, and even my hobbies — like pens and cigars. And this year is no different.But given my relatively new focus on helping solopreneurs (and the fact that the “Work from Home” guide is starting to feel a little stale), I’ve decided to change things up in 2023.That's why this year, I'm introducing the Solopreneur's Gift Guide. Enjoy! LinksThe 2023 Solopreneur's Gift GuideView on Casabona.orgRecording / Video Conference GearElgato FacecamElgato Facecam ProLive Stream kitSamson Q2U Sennheiser PC 8 USB Headset Podcaster’s Gift GuideHue LightsElgato Key Light | Key Light AirNeewer 2 PackLume Cube for Video ConferencingHome OfficeSteelcase HON ChairsRoller Blade Wheels for Office ChairsJarvis by FullyE7 by FlexiSpotMoft Sit-Stand Laptop DeskTwelve SouthLogitech MX Master 3 Keycron K2 Pro Mechanical KeyboardErgonomic keyboard from MicrosoftMonitor Arm by FullyAt Home TechWestern Digital My Book  Bac

Do you remember the most awkward moments of your life? One for me was definitely the day I was defending my master’s thesis. I was explaining a complex algorithm, when my advisor interrupted me and said, “Well…that’s not really how it works.”  In front of my classmates, other faculty, and a number of friends who showed up out of support.As you can imagine, I was mortified – until recovered, finished the presentation, and said, If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them. Unless it’s about that one algorithm. They you can ask Dr. Bishop.” That got laughs, and I finished strong. I learned an important lesson that day: awkwardness will happen. It’s how you handle it that has a lasting effect. And that’s exactly what Dr. Henna Pryor is going to talk about with us today. She’s a keynote speaker, and her best-selling book, Good Awkward, came out in September with endorsements from people like NFL Quarterback Russell Wilson. Top TakeawaysWe are living in a society that increasingly doesn’t need to use its

A family walks into a talent agency, and says, “Have we got the act for you…”If you’re familiar with this opening to a joke, you may have had a visceral reaction to it — either you think it’s hysterically funny, shamefully disgusting, or both. It’s the opening to the joke, The Aristocrats, and if you have a weak stomach, I don’t suggest you look it up.See, the point of this joke isn’t actually the punchline, which is right in the title. The point is to see how long you can improv a shocking, disgusting, offensive story.You can think about it as a secret handshake among comedians, that became not so secret after a 2005 documentary came out about it.It going me thinking about the importance of telling a story.This week, I got to speak to my friend Nick Benson’s college classes about Digital Storytelling.Don’t worry, I didn’t tell The Aristocrats.Instead, I spoke to them about why storytelling is so important in any content you create, especially podcasting.Read the article here: https://podcastliftoff.com/podca

In a way, the chaotic start to our interview, followed by a calm, cool conversation, is a metaphor for Jordan’s business journey this year. See, this isn’t just a story about how to hire good people for your business. It’s a cautionary tale, and proof that running a business is about always learning and adjusting. Jordan runs an agency of high-level remote assistants. Today, she’s telling us her own trials and tribulations with making what seemed to be the right hiring call but ended up plunging her business into a few chaotic months. Don’t worry though, through patience and vigilance, she came out on the other side in a much better position. Plus, in the PRO show, we talk about what she’s doing for me…and why she’s contributed to me potentially leaving Airtable for Notion.Top TakeawaysYou need to share your mission with your team early on. This ensures that you’re both aligned on the same values – which will form a stronger bond than a paycheck. Know when to communicate. Jordan saw that through hiring contra

It's podcast swap time! Except I'm telling you about another podcast of mine: Podcast Workflows. It's a daily podcast that focuses on how to help podcasters improve their processes. Every Wednesday, I do a deep dive into someone's process, and that's what I'm bringing you today. Learn more at https://show.podcastworkflows.com/Arielle Nissenblatt eats, sleeps, and breathes podcasts.Her main job is with a podcast company.Her newsletter is all about podcast curation.She runs a podcast community on Discord.She loves podcasts so much that she, along with her co-host Tim Villegas, produce a podcast about podcasts. Well really, about podcast trailers specifically. It’s called Trailer Park.You might think that this is too niche, but they got 10,000 downloads in just a few weeks. Their outreach process was crucial to achieving that goal. Read on to learn how they did it.IN THIS EPISODEWhy a super-niche podcast is the path to successSpending some time in the edit can greatly enhance your showPitching and direct outreac

If I wanted to cater to the current algorithm gods, I’d probably talk about how this interview is all about what AI can and cannot do for us. But it’s so much more than that. Much like the problem with leveraging AI to do all of the heavy lifting, me positioning this episode as “about AI,” would be inauthentic. And authenticity…well that’s really what this episode is about. Tom Schwab is someone who believes at his core that you’re just One Conversation Away from a profitable…and perhaps quite successful…business. So that’s what he helps people do. He helps them have conversations. And today, you’re going to learn how to get better at having the right conversations, as well as how to leverage those conversations to build your authority…authentically. Plus in the PRO show, Tom and I exchange podcast interview horror stories!Top TakeawaysMarketing is starting a conversation with someone who could be a great customer. But before you can do that, you need to get clear on what you do, and who you do it for. Obscur

Take the 2024 Listener Survey! Did you know that Netflix is also a gaming platform now? That Apple make TV shows? That Disney own a number of YouTube channels without the Disney branding? It’s because they know what Steve Woodruff knows. If you’re a podcaster, you might think the competition is other podcasters. If you make movies, you might think the competition is another movie. You’d be wrong. See, what Netflix, Apple, Disney, and Steve know, is that the competition is everything. People are assaulted every day by stimuli, and if you want to cut through all of the noise, you need to stand out by being an effective communication designer. And there’s no better person to tell us how to do that than the King of Clarity himself. Plus, in the PRO show, we talk about using AI to write books, and Steve’s process for writing his latest book, The Point. Top TakeawaysThe average American spends 7-10 hours per day in front of a screen. On top of that, we see 4,000-10,000 ads every day. In other words, there is a lot

Take the 2024 Listener Survey! Imagine running a high 7-figure business with over 300,000 followers on social media, then launching a podcast. How many downloads would you expect? 100,000? 150,000? What about…10? We’ve all been there: we spend a TON of time pouring blood, sweat, and tears into a project just to have it launch to crickets. That’s exactly what happened to Yong-Soo Chung with his podcast. Despite the social following, no one cared about his show. But instead of wallowing in self-pity or shutting the show down, Yong-Soo took action. He reactivated his 12-year dormant Twitter account, and started basically from scratch, growing to 20,000 followers in less than a year. Now he has a great process for getting people from Twitter to his newsletter, to his podcast.We’ll cover his entire journey and more. Plus, in the PRO show, we exchange notes on our production processes!Life LessonsHave a clearly defined niche, and know how to reach people in that niche. Yong-Soo’s initial problem was a mismatch betw

Take the 2024 Listener Survey! Cohort-based courses are on the decline if the tastemakers are to be believed. And it makes sense. Now that people aren’t stuck at home, they probably don’t want to spend time interacting online when they can interact IRL. But that doesn’t mean that CBCs have no utility. In fact, I think that there’s a great way we can make CBCs even better, by employing a tactic that has been explored in the K12 and higher education settings: the flipped classroom. In the episode we’ll: Check out the flipped classroom model, a way to get students more involved and boost their learning.See how engaging teaching methods move past old school methods and foster better student participation.Learn some of the pitfalls of the flipped classroom in a practice.Measure the effect of customizing course material to suit students, a way to make education more personalized.See how the topic matters when considering the use of the flipped classroom model.Address how we can incorporate the flipped classroom mod

Take the 2024 Listener Survey! I love Hibachi. I love the food. I love the experience. That seems a lot like building in public, right? After all, the chef is literally cooking in front of us, building our meal. But according to Kevon Cheung – a guy who’s built his entire community by building in public – Hibachi is entertainment. In order to build in public, you need to take your audience on a journey with you. That’s why he believes building in public is more like Omakase. This is where the chef will choose the foods for you, involve you in the process, and tell you a story about the food you’re eating. That’s what Building in Public truly is, and today, we’re going to learn how to leverage it to build great communities and better products.Top TakeawaysYou need to talk about something people care about, not just vanity metrics. No one cares what time you wake up to write. They want to know what you’re writing about, and why you chose to write about that topic. Only your competitors care about how you do som

You need to tell a good story, no matter what kind of content you create. This is obvious in fiction, but it’s just as important in non-fiction. Don’t believe me? Take it from Emmy Award-winning producer, Cody Sheehy. He creates documentaries, and today he tells us why storytelling has been crucial to his work, and is crucial to yours too. In the PRO show, I couldn’t resist: I asked what it was like to win an Emmy. Top TakeawaysEverything comes down to having a good character. Your audience needs to associate with the character for them to feel connected to your content (this is why long-form> short-form). While Joseph Campbell’s formula is great in theory, it doesn’t fit perfectly in the real world. But you still need to take elements from it to craft something compelling. Finishing strong should feel like you’re running through a house, closing all the doors. Your character needs to grow and you need to close most, if not all, of the open threads.Show NotesCody SheehySponsored by: Lulu | Sensei Sponsored

If you think about social networks as people, LinkedIn is TikTok’s dorky older, more professional sister…that the younger, more hip sister needs to borrow money from. That’s how Kathleen Celmins sees it, and she’s very effective at selling on LinkedIn. In fact, she says that if you’re just trying to grow your follower count on LinkedIn, you’re doing it wrong. Instead, it’s all about the connections. How do you convert those connections into clients? That’s what we get into during this call. Plus, in the PRO show we talk about the danger of creating tools that rely on social media. Top TakeawaysWhile every other social network is super content-heavy, LinkedIn is different. If you post more than once a day, you’re competing with yourself. Followers on LinkedIn are a vanity metric. Your goal is to fill your calendar with calls…so create connections and see if those connections are a good fit. Your LinkedIn Profile is your sales page. Optimize it for your offer, and start connecting with people in your niche.Show

I used to think that promoting my podcast was a matter of tweeting it (Xeeting it?) and hoping for the best. And while I’ve learned a TON over the years about what to do, and what not to do, Deirdre Tshien still blew my mind as we talked about her traffic pyramid. As the co-founder and CEO of Capsho (an AI tool to help create promotional assets), she knows a thing or two about how to market and grow your podcast. We’ll get into that, plus podcast discoverability tips that change my approach to this very show, and my audits. Plus, in the PRO show, we talk about what it’s like building niche commercial AI tools. Top TakeawaysLook for the 4 tiers of getting traffic to your content: passive, and active organic marketing, leveraging other audiences, and paid adsThere are lots of ways to improve podcast discoverability, including optimizing titles, descriptions, and even artist names for the words your niche is searching for.The name of the repurposing game is dripping out clips from your show and giving the episod

It's the summer and I just came off a ton of travel, so this episode is a mishmash of things and a little rambly. Strap in! We’ll talk about a contract position I have, plus some new partnerships I’m excited about. Then we’ll move to my summer of travel and how I’m managing the workload before moving onto the main event: 5 tools I’m trying out this summer. In the pro show, I talk about what I’m using Notion for, more about my new position, Luma, and seeing a therapist. Show NotesArc BrowserVoxalyze AudioPenQuillbeeCapshoLumaRSS.comMy YouTube ChannelSponsored by: Lulu | Sensei Sponsored by:Lulu: Sign up for free today and sell your book.Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONAJoin my FREE Newsletter, Podcast Workflows ★ Support this podcast ★

“I don’t need to write it down because I’ll remember” is hopelessly naive. Sorry if that stung, but it’s true. You need to write things down, as Andy Ayim MBE learned when he started his digital journal.  He’s a father, husband, creator, thinker, investor, and founder of The Angel Investing School. He has invested in over 17 gap-closing startups. And he would be completely lost without what he calls his “Tracker” - a digital journal he keeps in Notion. In fact, he believes his Tracker is so crucial, that he considers it DIY coaching and counseling too. So let’s dive into why YOU need to keep a digital journal, and how to make it happen. Plus, in the PRO show, we talk about investing, single-vs-multi-focus, and how Andy invented Spotify, and I invented Facebook…Top Takeaways“You’re never really failing if you learn from it.” Your digital journal is like the “Google Analytics of your life.” You can keep track of what you do, how do feel, and lots of other data points to help you learn.This can also be an eterna

They say fortune favors the bold, and that’s definitely the case for Brooke Janousek. After decades in the marketing industry, she decided to strike out on her own and needed to take any opportunity she could get to help her business grow. So she took her shot by asking Sara Blakely’s (founder of SPANX) husband, during his talk, in front of 800 people, for a chance to meet her. According to Brooke, you need to be bold in your own business- “if you don’t have a seat at the table, you need to make one.” Those bold moves turned her into a successful fractional CMO. And if you’re wondering if this path is right for you, you need to listen! Top TakeawaysFractional leaders are becoming increasingly popular. They allow companies to bring on a high level of expertise without having to hire a 6-figure salary employee. You build credibility as a fractional leader by showing results. If you can clearly articulate results to a potential client, you’ll get hired. This all goes back to being bold. If there’s something you

If you’re a parent, you’re probably familiar with something that’s been recently reintroduced into my life. It’s 2 am, and my 7-month-old son wakes up and is in need of a new diaper and bottle. So I get up and head into his room. I’m half asleep, I need to undo his PJs, change the diaper, and redo the PJs. And there is one type of PJ's that are head and shoulders above the rest: the reverse zip PJs. So good in fact, that I’m certain they were designed by parents that had the same exact experience I’ve shared.Link: What Baby Clothes Can Teach You About Understanding Your Customers ★ Support this podcast ★

Are you missing the boat on user-generated content? User-Generated Content (UGC) isn’t just for getting testimonials on social media. In fact, today’s guest, Tory Gray, says we can use it for almost anything: SEO, user research, social proof, FAQs, and so much more. And she should know! Tory is a highly experienced digital marketing consultant and the Founder of The Gray Dot Company. With more than 15 years of experience in SEO and growth strategy, Tory has helped numerous businesses achieve their goals through digital strategy with a focus on technical and strategic SEO. On top of the great advice, we walk through a scenario: building a landing page from scratch with UGC. Don’t miss it! Plus, in the PRO show, we talk about the mother of all UGC websites: Reddit.Top TakeawaysYou can create full pages of content from UGC, from photos to social proof to FAQs. Your process for collecting UGC doesn’t have to be complicated. You can have a Google Form or Doc with some pointed questions, or a swipe file. If you’re