380: From X Factor to Podcast Pro: Bogdan Bratis’ Audio Journey

Harry Duran 00:00:00:

Bogdan Bratis, CEO and founder of Saspod. Thank you so much for joining me on Podcast Junkies.

Bogdan Bratis 00:00:05:

Thank you, Hari. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Harry Duran 00:00:09:

So for the benefit of the. The viewer and the listener, you want to let them know how you found me?

Bogdan Bratis 00:00:14:

Yeah. So it started to become a hotspot for Romanians to come on this show. Basically, I. I listen to. I'm active on LinkedIn, and I've got Andrea in my network, and I saw that she has actually been on this show, and I have her on my show as well. We started discussing about podcasting and all that, and then I saw basically that she came on your show. So I decided, you know what? I just want to give this a shot as well and meet Harry Duran as well, and see what he's doing with Podcast Junkies.

Harry Duran 00:00:45:

So where's home for you?

Bogdan Bratis 00:00:47:

Home for me is Glasgow.

Harry Duran 00:00:49:

Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:00:49:

That's where I live for the past one year and a half, but I used to live in Southampton as well for six, seven years. I don't know exactly the number. And then before that, I used to live in Bucharest. And then before that, I used to live also in my hometown, which is in Transylvania, where Dracula was from.

Harry Duran 00:01:08:

Oh, yeah. That's the first thing people ask you, I'm sure, every time you say Transylvania.

Bogdan Bratis 00:01:12:

Every time, it's good pr.

Harry Duran 00:01:15:

So when people ask what home is for you, what do you say?

Bogdan Bratis 00:01:19:

I say Glasgow. This is where I'm based. I have my family here, to my wife and my baby. So that's where we live, and that's where we spend most of the time.

Harry Duran 00:01:29:

How did you end up in Glasgow?

Bogdan Bratis 00:01:31:

I wanted to move from Southampton because Southampton is a small place. I followed university in Southampton, popular music production, and I have a musical background. And at some point I came here for a city break, and I saw how people are, you know, behaving and the culture and the city and everything, and I really loved it. And I managed to get a mortgage here for myself. So, yeah, it was a big decision. But, yeah, I'm settled here for now, so it's all good.

Harry Duran 00:02:04:

What's the. Do you miss anything from back home, Romania?

Bogdan Bratis 00:02:08:

I do miss a lot of things, man. There's a lot of things that I miss. Food, especially the food, is the biggest, I think, because food in Eastern Europe is totally different, that what would you find in the west of Europe? It's more similar to what you would find in the United States. Yeah, I think that's the primary thing. And obviously my family, but my family is also Spread across as well. My parents live in Greece.

Harry Duran 00:02:31: Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:02:33:

So it is what it is.

Harry Duran 00:02:34:

Everyone's all over the place.

Bogdan Bratis 00:02:36:

Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:02:36:

But Glasgow is a pretty international city. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of different cultures represented there as well.

Bogdan Bratis 00:02:41:

It is an international city. There's a lot of culture from different countries in here, a lot of people from all over the world and they're very welcoming as well. And when you go in the city center of Glasgow, you just feel like it's vibing all the time. I won't say that this is a city that never sleeps. It's not like New York, for example, but it's still a big place and, you know, you don't get bored. For sure. It's really good. And it's also the scenery of Scotland is. It's insane. Like one hour drive from Glasgow and you go to Loch Lomoth or other nice places and you're in nature, which is quite cool.

Harry Duran 00:03:22:

Yeah. We just recently finished up a Netflix series, Department Q, which is based in Edinburgh. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's. My partner's ex husband is Scottish, so she's been spent some time there as well. And just from the scenery and the images, like everything it's just built with stone and just like castles. It just looks old. Like, it's just like a lot. You can just see the scenes and you're just like, there's a lot of history here.

Bogdan Bratis 00:03:44:

Yeah, there's a lot of history. And fortunately much of the history was maintained here after World War II.

Harry Duran 00:03:49:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:03:50:

Because it was not such a heavy bombed place like London, for example, or Southampton, where many of the historical buildings crumbled during that time.

Harry Duran 00:04:02:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:04:02:

And then you can see the new buildings appearing and.

Harry Duran 00:04:05:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:04:05:

You know, and here you have a lot of history. You're going to see churches that are 600, 700 years old is just insane. Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:04:12:

Are you a student of history?

Bogdan Bratis 00:04:14:

No, I'm not a student of history, but I love history in general. I'm fascinated with history. I was always fascinated because of my teacher. I had a great history teacher back in Romania.

Harry Duran 00:04:23:

Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:04:24:

Yeah. And she was awesome.

Harry Duran 00:04:26:

So you said you studied musical engineering or music production.

Bogdan Bratis 00:04:31:

Yeah, popular music production. At university. I decided to move from Bucharest in 2016.

Harry Duran 00:04:39:

Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:04:40:

After two years of playing in Bucharest that I actually played at a quite high level with a few bands. And also for my solo project as well. I was in the final of X Factor Romania in Romania and I had quite a bit of a let's say celebrity. How could I describe it? Time, let's say. Yeah, yeah, just a little bit. Just for a few months. And then started to die away in my hometown. People still recognize me. But then I decided to move in Southampton. I applied to university, to multiple universities. Multiple universities accepted me. Southampton was one of those places which I thought, there's going to be a lot of sun, which. Nah, not so much. Didn't happen. Not so much. Because they say on Wikipedia, when you go, they say that is the sunniest place in the uk. Well, I'm not really sure about that.

Harry Duran 00:05:29:

Yeah, that's not saying much.

Bogdan Bratis 00:05:32:

Yeah, it's okay. And I studied popular music production, and I was immersed into the audio space a lot. I loved audio before going to university because I was already producing music way before. But it was a reason for me to kind of like come abroad. And I wanted to study as well, and I wanted to see how the university life is in the uk. And I really enjoyed it for three years. And I learned a lot of things, not just audio. I also learned business. I learned how to speak English properly because when I moved, my English was, let's say, rough. I still learn a lot every day. But I remember the first time when I went into. Into the city center and I asked for some indications to a person. I wanted to find, I think, the shopping center or something. And I asked her, like, where is the shopping center? And she answered me, and I couldn't understand the thing. And I said, what the heck is going. So. And in the first year, believe it or not, we had to give a speech and we had to give a presentation of history of music.

Harry Duran 00:06:40:

Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:06:40:

And my teacher, my. The course rep, let's say.

Harry Duran 00:06:43:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:06:44:

He literally was impressed with my speaking skills. And I was like, what? And he wanted me to do another one for a bigger audience, and I accepted. And, yeah, it was funny. It was well rehearsed, let's say.

Harry Duran 00:06:58:

That's good. So if we look up on YouTube, we'll find some of your X Factor videos on there.

Bogdan Bratis 00:07:03:

Yeah. So you type bogdanbratis in there. You're gonna find some of my old stuff. That was in 2013.

Harry Duran 00:07:08:

Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:07:09:

And it was a great time. It was a leap of fate to go there. And I managed to get into the final and. Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:07:18:

What instruments do you play?

Bogdan Bratis 00:07:19:

I'm a singer, but I play piano as well, professionally. I actually still play in a band here in Scotland, in Aberdeen. The band is called Glitz Band.

Harry Duran 00:07:29:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:07:29:

And they play weddings and function events, and I join them with the keyboards on the weekend. I love doing that because that keeps me sane.

Harry Duran 00:07:38:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:07:39:

So.

Harry Duran 00:07:40:

So when did you first hear about podcasting?

Bogdan Bratis 00:07:45:

Yeah, so that was in 2018, around that time, before COVID started to hit. And the reason why I heard about podcasting, I mean, I heard about podcasting way before, but I never got involved into that. I knew what podcasts are for a long time, but I never got involved. 2019, I finished university, and in 2019, I started to get more into podcasting because what I wanted to do after university, I wanted to make a living out of audio, and my music wasn't really recognized. I tried to submit my music to all sorts of different radios, and actually some radios played my music, and they told me, like, it's great, but in order for you to get viral and to actually make a living out of music, you need to have a huge team, big marketing budgets, and obviously a little bit of luck as well. And I couldn't wait for that luck to happen because I needed some income. So I decided to freelance, and I went on the platform known as Upwork today.

Harry Duran 00:08:47:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:08:48:

And I made an account. And funny enough, the way that happened is I contracted an Indian guy to help me with my website because I had an issue with the sitemaps on my website, and I didn't know how to fix it. So this guy paid this guy $10 for that issue. And I think that $10 was the best $10 I ever spent, honestly. Yeah, this guy fixed the website. And then what he did, he told me. He. He started talking to me and started asking me personal stuff. I think he tried to sell me something or whatever. I didn't know exactly what was that all about? But I said, you know what? I'm just gonna answer this guy. I'm gonna tell him everything that I don't like about my life at the moment. And I told him, like, look, man, I don't have a job. My music is not taken by any radio. I don't know what to do. And I just moved in another apartment. Like, what the heck?

Harry Duran 00:09:38:

It's a therapy session.

Bogdan Bratis 00:09:40:

It was like a free therapy session.

Harry Duran 00:09:42:

$10 therapy session.

Bogdan Bratis 00:09:44:

Exactly. And the guy told me, like, look, man, I think there's so much potential, man. Go on upwork. And he sent me a job for sample creation, samples for instruments. You can create drum samples and anything. And I learned how to do that at uni, and I knew how to use synthesizers and stuff like that. And, you know, I never thought that there's, like, a job market like that. So I'm just going to give that a shot. So I went on upwork. I created my own profile, and in the first week, I think I sent 100 proposals. Within that week, I got two jobs. One was a job where I didn't failed. I delivered what was required, but I didn't understand the job properly and I thought that I'm going to get paid more. Where I actually got paid $70 for three tracks, which is really bad.

Harry Duran 00:10:37:

Yeah, yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:10:38:

And I delivered the project. However, I worked my ass off with that project, of course, and that was my first project and I wanted to make sure that I get a great review. And then on the second project, there was a guy that was running an agency, but he was really low key. Like he had just a handful of clients and he wanted some help on the audio. And his job description sounding something like, you must use Logic Pro and you need to know how to edit podcasts. And when I replied back to this guy, I told him, I do not use Logic Pro and I never edited a podcast, but I want this job. And I told him, like, look, I know how to play with audio and I know how to make stuff work. And the guy gave me the job.

Harry Duran 00:11:18:

Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:11:19:

Probably I underpriced myself as well. And I worked with this guy for a little bit until I understood what I need to do and I started to understand what. How podcasting is made. And I started getting my own clients. And I started getting my own clients and so on and so on. I started to build a portfolio of clients and getting more experience.

Harry Duran 00:11:39:

Were you just doing audio editing at the time or video audio editing?

Bogdan Bratis 00:11:43:

Just audio. Just audio. Video podcasting wasn't really, really popular at that time. They started to come out, but people will not come to me, yeah. Telling me like, look, I need a video podcast. Yeah, it was only audio. And I started building a reputation on this platform slowly. And I think, I'm not sure I looked at my competitors on that platform because I still have my account there probably is like one of the best podcast producer on that platform. I guess so, because, like, it went very well for two, three years on that platform. Starting getting clients, and it will never stop. So that's when I decided to hire my first people in the team and start the business. And the first business was called like, not business, but the brand name. The brand name I came up with was called so and sign.

Harry Duran 00:12:29:

Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:12:30:

And the website was soandsign.co.uk and this was only.

Harry Duran 00:12:34:

Where does that name come from?

Bogdan Bratis 00:12:36:

Yeah, exactly. It's a mouthful the name came from the use of synthesizers on a synthesizer. You have a sawtooth.

Harry Duran 00:12:45:

Oh, yeah, that's right.

Bogdan Bratis 00:12:46:

Yeah. And the sine wave.

Harry Duran 00:12:48:

Yep.

Bogdan Bratis 00:12:48:

And what my idea behind was that a sawtooth is the most complex, the most complex form of sound you can create with an electric, electric circuit.

Harry Duran 00:12:58:

Sure, sure.

Bogdan Bratis 00:12:58:

And the sine wave is the simplest one. So to me, sounded cool. And I'm a nerd. And I said, you know what? I'm gonna go up with that. I found the domain and I just. I didn't have money even for the.com domain. I had to buy the.co.uk domain. I'm kidding. But I think I bought that code UK domain. Probably wasn't available, I don't know, but I got it. And then I started building a website and I started getting clients outside that platform as well. I'm a very technical guy. I can deal with any technicalities. I'm not a coder or anything, but I can make stuff work and I can learn anything within a week. I'm like one that kind of guy that is able to like pinpoint what's wrong and sort it. And I started getting the team and slowly, slowly I started building that website into more than audio. Started to offer video production as well, then reels, then show notes, because I started getting help in my business. And then there was a point where I decided, because at that time I was still. I was doing also audiobooks and I was doing audio branding as well for brands and stuff like that. So I was doing multiple things, not just podcasting, because I wanted to test out to see which one works better. And then I said, you know what? I'm going to go full on podcasting. And I started the brand saaspa.com, which is my current brand, and this is focused on podcasting. And I have a strong team of producers. And we do also have a software that I developed with my team which delivers podcast hosting services. Like, what would you. Nowhere similar to Bass Pro, podbean, Spotify for creators, but it's on our platform and yeah, it's really cool. So that's how I got into it.

Harry Duran 00:14:40:

What made you decide to want to get into the hosting game? Because that's really like a big challenge. And I've seen recently Riverside started as a remote recording tool and now they added video editing and now they recently added hosting. So it seems like everyone's trying to be an all in one right now.

Bogdan Bratis 00:14:55:

Yeah, the hosting part, man, I tell you what's the issue with there? I wanted to get my own host. And at that time, when I developed the plan for the host, there was just Basbron and Podbean really playing around and a few other hosting companies that were smaller than that. And it's, I would say, like, for example, there's so many web hosting platforms. Right. So you're going to find web hosting platforms everywhere. And I wanted that experience for my clients as well, where they would work with us on production and they would not need to go and upload their podcast on another platform such as Buzzsprout or Podbean or whatever. We would have our support, help them out with distributing the podcast, or even manage the podcast for them from our software. So I wanted an all in one solution. And it's something that also provides a little bit of future for the business because you can then integrate AI tools, you can integrate all sorts of different creation tools. So it gives you a little bit of a, not just an agency, but a SaaS business as well, which creates a bit of passive income for the business. And yeah, so that's kind of like was my game when it comes to entering the podcast hosting service. It's a very competitive place. There's some huge players out there, including Spotify for podcasters. But I think no matter what hosting you choose, what matters at the end of the day is the type of show you create. And as long as the host that you work with provides the features that you're interested in and the support behind that host as well is important. So bigger corporations, you may find it difficult to get help, but on SaaSpa hosting, we help our clients actually publish their podcast and do all that distribution. We get on calls with them. It's not just, you know, subscribe and then see you on an AI chat or something.

Harry Duran 00:16:56:

So are you trying to focus most of your clients from a local audience or. Because I know there's a lot. If you try to be all things for everyone, you're gonna have a lot more competition.

Bogdan Bratis 00:17:08:

Yeah, so I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that question.

Harry Duran 00:17:10:

Do most of your clients come from Scotland or do you Europe or, you know, how do you.

Bogdan Bratis 00:17:16:

The English speaking countries?

Harry Duran 00:17:17:

Yeah. Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:17:18:

Yeah. So any English speaking country, we work with them because obviously my team, they speak English.

Harry Duran 00:17:23:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:17:23:

So we don't do podcasts for the Spanish market or anything like that. We can work with anybody in the uk, us, Australia, we have clients in Australia, Scotland, we actually have a few clients in Europe, but they have English podcasts.

Harry Duran 00:17:38:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:17:38:

So yeah, we work with anybody that has a great Podcast idea.

Harry Duran 00:17:42:

And so what are you seeing now? Because it's so challenging to get attention for shows. And when people are getting started, you know, sometimes they're not even sure if they want to commit to it or if they're coming to it as a hobby. So as you're having conversations, how involved do you get with people? Even though you're handling just a technical piece, how involved do you get with them to understand, like show concept, what they're doing, how they're, you know, if they have questions about monetizing, you know, because obviously the longer they stick around as a client, the better for you.

Bogdan Bratis 00:18:08:

Of course. Yeah, yeah. So one of the things that we do at Saaspa probably is different than other. What other companies do. We treat each and every client the same, no matter how much they pay. So if they have an audio podcast or they have a video podcast, which is more expensive, how many episodes they produce a month, it doesn't matter. When we onboard the clients, we actually create an on board. We have an onboarding process that goes through them through a podcast launch strategy, which is completely free of charge. So we want to make sure that our clients understand why they get into the game of podcasting and what they want to get from it. And what is the goal of the podcast in relation to maybe their business or their personal branding. Whatever their goal is, we want to make sure that it plays in that scheme and it actually provides results for them. So we ensure that from a technical point of view, they do everything right. But also we go with them through a few calls to understand the show concept. We develop a basic show concept which they can develop further on if they want to in the future. And we even give them some episode ideas and do a bit of research in their target audience, in the type of guests they would get on the podcast and make sure that this matches with what they want to do and obviously what monetization possibilities there would be later on in the future, or if they want to sponsor their own show because it's a branded podcast. So there's all sorts of avenues there are with the podcast, depending on the client. We want to make sure that it works for them. And all that is personalized in the beginning. We have the team that is able to get on calls and ensure that happens for them. And obviously there is the paid version of the same service where we would do that on a continuous basis while the podcast is produced, come up with show ideas, with episode ideas, even scripting for them if needed, outlining episodes, come up with Narratives for the episodes and all that. So there are different ways of working with the clients.

Harry Duran 00:20:13:

It sounds like you're definitely taking a more hands on approach than most tech companies or podcast hosting companies, you know, would do. Because it's like most of them, they just see people. You know, there's so many people coming in through their pipeline that they don't have the ability to do the hands on service that you're describing. So why is that important for you to have that sort of hands on approach and to work closely with your clients when it comes to developing these shows?

Bogdan Bratis 00:20:35:

Because otherwise the show may not work. So like you said, it's. For me, it's important that the show works and it delivers results to the client. So we make more business as well. And obviously we are proud of everything we touch. Yes, it's more difficult, but if you have a good system in place, a business that has the right people and the right processes, you can make this a reality. So, yes, it's more hands on approach. One of the values, core values of my business is to ensure that we provide a personalized experience to our clients. Our clients will never get an AI response or anything automated from us. It will be every time. There will be a human behind that message on a zoom call or whatever that is we really believe in. It's not cheap. Also, our services are maybe more expensive than the competition, but not more expensive. But it's tailored for the people that really want, don't want to have much stress about, you know, running a show.

Harry Duran 00:21:35:

So when you think about the people that have had success that you've been working with, are there a couple examples you can think of? And what do you see as the common thread for people? Is it commitment to producing on a consistent basis? You know, and then there's also, you could be consistent, you could have a quality show. But then if no one finds it, what does it matter? So this seems to be like a secret sauce combination of multiple different things that have to happen for shows to have success. So with the clients that have had success with you, what do you see as a couple of things that people are doing consistently that's working?

Bogdan Bratis 00:22:08:

Mm. So first thing first, like I described before, is they have a clear goal, why they're starting this right. They have a clear idea of why am I doing this and doing this, and they have a vision, vision for it, that if that's written or if that's in their mind, it doesn't matter. They do have a vision.

Harry Duran 00:22:26:

When most of the people say they have A clear goal. Do they talk about it in terms of monetization or do they talk about it in terms of like visibility and growth and exposure?

Bogdan Bratis 00:22:35:

So it could be visibility or growth which turns later on in monetization. You can have multiple goals and multiple aims with a podcast and it can change over time. But they are committed to, to making this work, which I've seen. That's kind of like the difference between the ones that actually succeed and the ones that don't.

Harry Duran 00:22:53:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:22:54:

And also they're very organized clients. I like organized clients. Clients that submit shows on time, they have a backlog in place and they know how to speak. Also they have a good public speaking skills and they work on that continuously and they get great guests on the show. And they also tend to have some sort of business around their podcast. It's not just the podcast that provides the monetization, but it's also the business that that podcast powers.

Harry Duran 00:23:23:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:23:24:

So we do have clients in finance, for example, we work with one of the biggest finance company on data and analysis. It's called Data Rails. And they have a podcast. Now, the podcast itself doesn't drive huge, huge downloads, but it doesn't matter because what matters to them is that there's continuous exposure of people in the industry coming to the show. The host of the podcast, he actually builds a personal brand and the company itself actually gets leads through that podcast because it's very, very niched. It's on data and analysis and it's a subject that is really heavy and it's really hard to describe through a podcast, but the people are tuning in. And that's one show that I am proud of. And another show that we've been working with for many, many years. It's called A Psychic Story and it's run by Nicole Bigley, who is very talented. And she recently started to do this show full time because she was, she had a day job and she was doing this as a part time. But now the podcast grew so much that she's doing this full time and this podcast is actually working with her business, which is on spirituality. And there's a lot of interest in that sector.

Harry Duran 00:24:47:

Yeah, for sure.

Bogdan Bratis 00:24:48:

These are some of the clients. We have more successful clients in all sorts of industries. Some clients stop their shows. That happens sometimes because budgeting costs were like cut down marketing budgets and they didn't want to continue even though the podcast ran great or some other people just gave up on it. That happens sometimes. Or it was just, let's say my goal was to release 20 episodes. And that's it, a series.

Harry Duran 00:25:15:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:25:16:

So it depends on the client, but we do have some clients that have been working with us for. Since I actually started as a freelancer. So I do have clients that started with me as a freelancer and they grew in the company.

Harry Duran 00:25:29:

That's great.

Bogdan Bratis 00:25:29:

Awesome. Yeah. And they accepted all my requests. Change this platform. Change this platform. Change this platform. Very loyal clients, and, yeah, I'm really grateful to have them.

Harry Duran 00:25:39:

Oh, that's nice to have people that have been with you for that long and trust in your vision. So what do you see is working? Do you have success? That's happening on the video side as well. Because everyone keeps talking about video and moving to YouTube. And now obviously Spotify is, you know, letting you upload video, so people are looking at multiple platforms to get that exposure. But obviously it comes with its own set of production challenges and marketing challenges as well. Yeah. So I'm curious if you've had any, you know, enough experience with some shows like that to see what might be working there.

Bogdan Bratis 00:26:11:

Yeah. So I'll just start from the end of your question. It's more expensive to produce a video podcast, for sure. And the return on investment, depending on your audience, may not be worth it. Right. An audio podcast is as good as a video podcast if done right. Now, I do produce my podcast called the POD Files, and I do it video as well because I afford to do it. But I think the benefits of running a video podcast and what is a podcast anymore? Right. I talked with James Kritland on my show.

Harry Duran 00:26:42:

Oh, yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:26:42:

And he said something awesome. He said a video podcast is a podcast where you can see the guys with the microphones in front of them. Which, to me, that's hilarious.

Harry Duran 00:26:52:

Right.

Bogdan Bratis 00:26:52:

Because you can call it a video interview as well. Right. BBC had those for many, many years. Right. So it's a little bit strange right now. What's good about YouTube is that it's the second biggest search platform in the world and it's owned by Google. Right. Google is the first. Now, you could argue with ChatGPT, that is that taken some of that market away and stuff like that. But YouTube, if you know how to optimize for YouTube, you could get good exposure for your podcast with the right keywords and the right mentality in terms of, like, releasing shorts. So all that stuff really helps. And I think it's even better when you have a podcast along a YouTube channel. So you release content for YouTube, not specifically podcast content, but it could be tutorials, it could be anything. So Having those two at the same. If you have a YouTube channel and you want to start a podcast, you definitely want to do a video podcast because your audience is already there. Right. So why not tapping into that? So I would say that's one of the things that is really good with video podcasting. Another thing is you mentioned Spotify now. I saw that you actually can upload videos on Spotify. I haven't seen any benefit into that at the moment. It just feels like it's a beta feature still. People still see Spotify as an audio place. Listen to it in the car and all that. They try to compete with YouTube because YouTube starts to take a large market of the podcast industry because Stephen Barlett and Joe Rogan. So I. There was a time where there were clients coming to me saying, I want a podcast, I want to create a video podcast. And they sent me the podcast from Stephen Bartlett. I'm not sure if you're familiar with.

Harry Duran 00:28:37:

Diary of a CEO.

Bogdan Bratis 00:28:38:

Yeah, Diary of a CEO. Yeah. So. And then these huge intros. And I told him, okay, it's going to cost you $2,000 per episode.

Harry Duran 00:28:47:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:28:48:

Because this guy has a guy for trailers, of course.

Harry Duran 00:28:52:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:28:52:

The only thing he does is trailers, of course. Right. So it's a different game. And yeah, when you do stuff like this, which is visually appealing. Right. So you're looking at it and you get engaged through visual, then yeah, of course it makes sense. But if you're a guy that starts a podcast and you have a few guests, you know, and you don't really have a budget, start on audio. You can always put it on video, but do still recording video, however, because you might want to repurpose that video into reels or shorts, which are much cheaper to create. So, you know, it's good and bad at the same time. I would say for some reasons is good, but at the end of the day, you want to be everywhere. I had Craig Campbell, who is an SEO expert, and not just SEO expert, he's a digital marketer, PR expert. And his game is that you need to be everywhere. And I do agree with him. You need to be on as many platforms as possible if you can afford it. Right. If you can't, of course, then obviously put your focus into the one that you think will work for your audience and then you can expect. Expand from there.

Harry Duran 00:29:59:

Yeah. What about on the marketing side? Do you get involved with that or do people ask for guidance there?

Bogdan Bratis 00:30:07:

So for guidance, they ask for that a lot, and I can provide them guidance. However, the only person that could get involved in that in my team and help them out physically. Like, doing the job for them would be me, because I've been toying with marketing, and I have a lot of knowledge in marketing, not just on podcasting, but other things as well. And we do not have a specific service for this. We are actually working on something to bring it on the market. But it's very challenging to create efficient processes for it because it's a very complex side. So sometimes we actually work with marketing agencies and we. If they want to take their podcast to a different level, we send our clients to our network to work with them. But if there's this particular podcast that wants advice on certain things that they can do to push their podcast, definitely I can get on a call and I can provide a good audit of what they should do and give them advice. So I would say, if you want to be discovered, definitely choose a good podcast name. Some people are. Yeah, just forget about how important that is. Because if you, for example, your name is awesome because it reminds you of crime junkies.

Harry Duran 00:31:20:

Yep. So when it's always posting. So he's posting the same search.

Bogdan Bratis 00:31:24:

I know. But when people look for crime junkies, they're gonna find podcast junkies. So that's smart. But it's all about discoverability when it comes to podcast name. Obviously, there's a part where it plays into the brand as well, But I toyed around with the name. So if you change the name of your podcast, you can appear nowhere on itunes, or you can appear on the first page of itunes just by changing your name.

Harry Duran 00:31:46:

Yeah. So you've done back and forth switches. Back and forth.

Bogdan Bratis 00:31:50:

Yeah. I wanted to see what happens. I did some testing. Well, what I did with my show, the POD Files. Yeah, it's called the POD Files. Who's going to search the POD files?

Harry Duran 00:31:59:

Yeah, exactly.

Bogdan Bratis 00:32:00:

So what you can do, you don't need to think about your podcast name as a podcast brand name in the host. No matter what host you're using, you can add an extension on that and you can put some keywords in there and you can say what I did. The POD files, the content marketing podcast, something like this. I forgot. How is it called? But yeah, a content marketing. Let me see how it is. Because I need to look the POD files.

Harry Duran 00:32:24:

Oh, you put it. You added it to the name.

Bogdan Bratis 00:32:26:

Yeah, the POD files. A content marketing podcast in a creator economy world. Right. So when people are looking for content marketing and creator economy.

Harry Duran 00:32:38:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:32:38:

They actually find my podcast. Depending on the region where you search from it's easier to be discovered in Great Britain on Apple than in the us, Depending also on how many reviews you have. The more reviews you have, the better. And if you ask for reviews, ask your audience to actually put keywords in the reviews because that's going to push you up. Try to. In the episodes, try to add keywords in the episodes themselves because obviously if you put your title content marketing and if the podcast is not about content marketing and you never mention content marketing in your episodes, then obviously that's a flagship to Apple and they know going to push you up and it's all. It's almost works like Google where keywords are important. Yeah, but obviously there's the other aspect as well. The more you get listened, the more high you're going to get pushed. So you could play into paid marketing there and buy a few listeners.

Harry Duran 00:33:33:

So, yeah, that's a little tricky. You know, there's a lot of companies that are doing that and you know, they'll give you the listen. But the question really remains is that someone who's going around, yeah, they don't.

Bogdan Bratis 00:33:42:

Convert and they don't convert, but that doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter because all that matters is that show actually gets a little bit of a boost and then you get the organic side of it, which obviously is not going to be the same amount, but it's going to be enough for it to start pushing the needle a little bit for you. However, it costs money and some people don't have that, which is tricky. But obviously you can do more organic strategies like podcast swaps, you know, sponsoring on a podcast and you can say like, look, sponsors, I'm going to give you this amount. Just mention my podcast a few times on the show and you get a few listeners from there. Do a bit of a more holistic approach to your podcast. Or not. Don't think about your podcast as the only thing you need to do because you can put your podcast out there. But many people don't understand that there's more to visibility than just a podcast. There's other things. So if you have a podcast, why not turning that episode into a blog article?

Harry Duran 00:34:43:

Yeah, right.

Bogdan Bratis 00:34:44:

Yeah, make that blog article, make sure that it ranks on Google. You're going to get clicks on that article and obviously once you do that, you will be featured in AI as well, if you do it right and if you know how to do it. And then people can learn more about you by typing in AI. So that will come more, it will be more and more Important as, you know, the months go by. And so that's one thing that you can do, social media play in social media. If you have a podcast, you should. Yeah, definitely repurpose your podcast on social media. You're always on social media anyway. We are always spending time on that. So I never. The only time I watch social media is when I. Before I go to sleep a little bit for.

Harry Duran 00:35:26:

Hopefully it doesn't keep you up.

Bogdan Bratis 00:35:28:

Yeah, no. And then the rest of it, I'm posting on it. And obviously, if I get inspired. Sometimes I get inspired if somebody posts something cool. I use LinkedIn a lot more than anything. I like LinkedIn because it tends to be more professional.

Harry Duran 00:35:43:

B2B. Yeah, for sure.

Bogdan Bratis 00:35:44:

Yeah. And I like that.

Harry Duran 00:35:46:

So it's been interesting to kind of hear your perspective. And obviously there's a lot of things. Stuff that we've talked about already on the show, and I think it bears repeating because I think podcasters, there's no. So I always say there's no silver bullet for podcasting. You know, you got to try a lot of little things, and as you've probably experienced, things that work for one client, that you try the same exact approach for another client, and it falls flat. It's going to be completely zero. So I think it's always be. Really be. Just always be working on your show. Like 1% improvement, like every week. If you just did a little bit to move the needle, I think that's probably what you've been experiencing as well.

Bogdan Bratis 00:36:16:

Yeah, exactly. A B test. That's what works, what doesn't work. And then put your efforts into that direction. That works.

Harry Duran 00:36:23:

Yeah, absolutely. So I always have a couple of questions I ask, I guess, as we wrap up, towards the end of the conversation, what is something you've changed your mind about recently?

Bogdan Bratis 00:36:33:

I love this question, man. I think I'm gonna steal this for my own show. So. Wow. There are actually a few things that I changed my mind about recently. I'm gonna go personal here.

Harry Duran 00:36:49:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:36:50:

Yeah. So I have a baby. He's one year old.

Harry Duran 00:36:56:

Yeah.

Bogdan Bratis 00:36:56:

And before having that baby, I was always like, I'm not sure if I want to do this right because I'm not sure if it's the right time. And, you know, it's our big responsibility. And once Skyler came into the world, I was like, wow, man, this is something else. Right. And I changed my mind about being a father. I think this is one of the greatest things you can ever do in your life, and if you have the chance to do it that's good.

Harry Duran 00:37:32:

That's really good advice. What is the most misunderstood thing about you?

Bogdan Bratis 00:37:38:

Oh, man, let me think about that. I have no idea, man. I'm quite straightforward. I'm a straightforward person. So people do understand what I'm about to. But maybe sometimes, let's say some people believe that I have a lot of time when I don't, and some people are maybe playing into that time a little bit. Not to say that I don't value, you know, having people reach out and stuff like that, but there's people out there that do not understand that you have a life as well. And, you know, they are buzzing you and, you know, and they think that you're always, you know, on call. If you're doing podcasting or you have your own business, you definitely should have a lot of free time. And I'm like, no, man. Is one of the hardest jobs you can get. 24 hours.

Harry Duran 00:38:37:

Yeah. Yeah. Haven't been an entrepreneur since probably 20, you know, when I started the show. So 2014, 2015. It's definitely not for the faint of.

Bogdan Bratis 00:38:45:

Heart, and people start businesses to get more free time. That's wrong, man.

Harry Duran 00:38:49:

No, that's a joke. Yeah, it's. It never turns off as an entrepreneur, you know, because you're always thinking, especially.

Bogdan Bratis 00:38:54:

If you're that guy that is never stops, and you want to do more and more.

Harry Duran 00:38:57:

Yeah, you get a shiny object syndrome. So I've been trying to finish the projects I've already started before starting any new ones, so I can definitely relate to that, so. Well, Bogdan, thanks for connecting and just learning a little bit more about what you do and, you know, obviously seeing how other people are approaching the business of podcasting. And I think the advice that you had for podcasters and creators is extremely helpful, and it's something that bears repeating, and that's why I never get tired of having these conversations, because I think we need to look at podcasting from so many different angles and to see, you know, again and be reminded that what works for one person is not going to work for the other. So I appreciate your perspective, and it sounds like you've, you know, you've had this journey coming through music, and maybe that wasn't the path that was meant for you, but all those skills that you learned. Music production obviously, is related to sound and audio, and it kind of led you to this path. I started podcasting because I was. I'm a DJ. Like, I love house music, and I've done DJing, and I did a little bit of Electronic music production. So I was editing my first shows with Ableton Live.

Bogdan Bratis 00:39:57:

Wow. Wow. I'm still editing shows. Audio shows. On Cubase.

Harry Duran 00:40:01:

On Cubase. That's funny. Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:40:03:

Yes. I'm using Cubase 10 and it's. I learned how to. I mean, before this script and all the other tools that started to become more available for podcasters, Cubase, I think was really good on audio editing. And it's still like all my team actually uses when it comes to audio, they use Cubase.

Harry Duran 00:40:22:

Oh, really?

Bogdan Bratis 00:40:23:

I systemized it in such a way that people know how to use it properly. And everything on video, we use DaVinci Resolve. We like DaVinci Resolve because it's quite a powerful tool. And actually Fairlight. Haven't heard of that, if you're familiar with that. Fairlight. It's actually one of the modules in DaVinci Resolve. Yeah, it's a full on digital audio workstation.

Harry Duran 00:40:42: Okay.

Bogdan Bratis 00:40:43: It has a few hiccups, but I think a year, one more year and I think it's gonna become. DaVinci is gonna become a video slash audio production tool. It's not gonna be just video. It's not gonna be just audio. We'll be able to marry the two sides of production into one platform. And I think that's really powerful.

Harry Duran 00:41:00: Yeah. Yeah. Now we do audio on Hindenburg and we do video and Descript.

Bogdan Bratis 00:41:05:

So yeah, that's awesome. It's really good.

Harry Duran 00:41:07:

So where's the best place for folks to connect with you if they want to learn more?

Bogdan Bratis 00:41:11:

So the best to connect with me. I'm always everywhere online, so if you type my name on Google, you'll find me. But if you want to connect with me directly, you can even email me on contactsaspa.com or you can go on LinkedIn, connect with me there, or you can go on my website. There's a calendar. You can book a call with me directly. I'm really open to talk with anybody that wants to talk to me. Terms of podcasting and help out where I can. Yeah, that's how you can find me.

Harry Duran 00:41:39:

Okay. We'll make sure all those links are in the show notes as well. And I guess they will find you because you're Internet famous anyway, so they're trying to.

Bogdan Bratis 00:41:45:

Not Internet famous, but hey, I'm trying to be.

Harry Duran 00:41:48:

Yeah, why not? Yeah, you got to start somewhere. And that must have been a nice experience to go through. So thanks again for your time. I really enjoyed our conversation.

Bogdan Bratis 00:41:57:

Thank you, Harry.