← Podcast Answer Man
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- [00:00]
A
In 20 years, I've heard a lot of people talking about their desire to become known as a thought leader in their space, whatever that industry, whatever in that niche is. And I will tell you that podcasting in 2026 is still a wonderful way to build a body of work that serves you and those who will become your audience through the content that you create. Today, I'm going to be sharing with you a story of somebody who struck while the iron was hot. Back in 2013, my friend Heather Baer launched a podcast where no one in her industry had yet done so. And as a result of her consistency over the years and more than 650 episodes, she has built quite the reputation for herself and the relationships within her industry. She's built a successful business and sold it. And she is routinely invited to speak at high level industry events all around the world. This conversation is about what it takes to go out there and say, this is who I am. I plant my flag in the sand and I am here to lead in this space. This is what it looks like when you don't wait for other people to give you permission. Now, my friend Heather Behr started this when no one else had done it in her industry. But if you stick around to the end of this conversation, I'll share with you some insights that you can pull from Heather's story that would still be relevant for you today. Heather Behr, you were the first in, in the vacation rental industry to launch a podcast well over a decade ago, maybe even close to 13, 15 years ago, you'll tell us. And now over 650 episodes. What has been your greatest takeaway from all of your experience in podcasting?
- [02:17]
B
My greatest takeaway is getting out there first. As you just said, it was the very first one I got out there first. My biggest takeaway was that I did it professionally from day one. I. It's interesting, Cliff. I, I see so many people out there now starting podcasts and I, I hear this every day. I'm just about to start a podcast. I'm getting out there and I think, well, you know, how are you doing it? Oh, it's so easy. And then you don't hear from them again. And of course, I went through this, I went through this over a decade ago thinking I could do it myself. And the difference between that and doing it in an extremely professional way from the get go was my biggest takeaway.
- [03:06]
A
What's the difference between somebody who takes their podcast professionally from the beginning? How is that different from those who don't take it Professionally, what does that actually mean to you?
- [03:19]
B
Well, to me, firstly, there's a longevity thing I learned from you about you've got to get those seven episodes out there. I learned things about microphones and about the little bits of equipment that go together to create that professional result. I went from just having a small blog that did have some followers, but I learned how to take the podcast and become an authority in my field. That is the difference. Anybody can start a podcast. It's simple. It really is. It's a lot simpler now than it was 13 years ago, or in fact, I, I mean, I, when I started thinking about podcasts, that was back in 2007, so, so with, you know, nearly 20 years ago. But it's easy now. You just connect everything up and off you go and run with it. The difference between doing that and doing it professionally is that you're doing it for your audience. You learn to understand what your audience wants, how to deliver it and how to deliver it in a professional way. And it could be something simple like just taking the time to set up the microphone, a proper microphone, not just speaking into a laptop or speaking into a phone, which, and there again, that's, you know, it is the difference in understanding how audio actually works and how it works in people's ears as well.
- [04:53]
A
There are three things that I heard you say. Well, two things I heard you say and one I heard through what you said. So I'd like to reflect these three things back. Number one, you mentioned that you took the time to learn and educate yourself on how to create a valuable, high quality production value, high audio quality podcast that's easy on the ears to listen to. And people who don't take their podcast professionally from the beginning oftentimes will cut corners, cut, go the cheap route and create content where maybe the content is really valuable, very informative, but it's challenging to listen to because they didn't take the time to educate themselves on how to create a podcast that sounds technically very good. So that's the first thing I heard you say. The second thing I heard you say was you mentioned about the fact that you created content for your audience. And, and what I hear underneath that and what I witness between you being somebody who has done this professionally and somebody who kind of is just haphazardly limping their way into the podcasting space is that you already knew who your audience was. You had a group of people who were seeking information and insight. You knew what their problems were, you knew what pains they were experiencing. And, and you also already knew that you had solutions to offer and you were focused straight out of the gate, knowing exactly who you're talking to, what problem you're speaking to, and what solution you have to solve their problem. That's the second thing that I heard. The third thing that I heard out of what you said, but not specifically said by you, but the third thing that I heard is that you took yourself as a thought leader. You thought of yourself as a thought leader. You didn't go into podcasting. I wonder if anybody will care what I have to say who would listen to me. Oh, my gosh, I don't. I've never done this before. I don't think that, that, I don't think that I'm qualified. I don't think that I have whatever it takes to, to take on this audio program and be the first. No, you actually said, I know there's an audience out there. They're struggling with lots of problems, got lots of pain. I have many solutions. And by golly, I am stepping up to the plate to be the thought leader who's here to be a leader in this space. And those are the three things that stand out to me that have probably led to your success and it speaks to your biggest breakaway or breakthrough takeaway from all of these episodes is you started out professionally. Am I hearing all of that correct?
- [07:56]
B
What came up for me as you were speaking was starting a podcast should never be a vanity project. And I think looking back 15 odd years ago, when I was really seriously considering this was about the same time that I heard about avatars or Personas and how important it was to define who an audience was for anything, for any product or for any service. Define the person, the actual person who's going to be taking that product or service and doing something with it. Now, if it's a vanity project, it's. It would have been just me saying, hey, you know, I, I love the vacation rental industry. I'm just going to talk about what I love about it. But the difference is from a vanity project and finding the avatar, the person who, the real person that I was going to be talking to every time I open my mouth in front of that microphone. That was a huge difference.
- [08:57]
A
Let's talk about Heather Baer. Who were you before you ever recorded your first podcast episode? And what industry are you involved in? I know I just briefly mentioned it at the beginning, but let's go into a deep dive of how you got involved into the vacation rental business and what you, what were you doing in that industry? Before you started podcasting.
- [09:19]
B
So I, I've been involved in the vacation rental industry for 30 plus years now. So I had vacation rentals in England and then decided because I'm impulsive, that I wanted to move to Canada because I liked the lifestyle. And since I was doing vacation rentals, well, what would I do? I'd do vacation rentals in Canada. So moved to Canada from England in 2003 and started a property management company. So, so that means that I was renting properties on behalf of other owners, third party properties. And we started with, I, I started with my own. I had five properties at the time in Canada, so I started renting those and then my sister said, can you help me rent mine? The guy down the road said, can you. I've got, I've got a cottage on a lake. Can you help me rent it? I'm not going to pay you anything for it, but I'm going to give you, it's like I'm going to give you the testimonial that you really need to get your business off the ground. You know, looking back and I think, well, now that's a move. Because I did, I took his property on and I rented it for the summer and he got some really good returns and he came back and he said, okay, now I'm ready to pay you. And now I'm ready to tell my friends that you're, you know, you are a person in this hospitality space that I respect. So that, that was really the kickoff. And I started the property management company with a, with a partner, a business partner. And then we ran it for 20 years and sold it in 2022. But I, at the very beginning, I knew nothing. I had no clue how to run a property management company. And there was nobody out there who would tell me at that time, it was like the lid was on the industry and you could not pry that lid open because nobody wanted to lift it up a little and release any of their secrets. And I heard that from a couple of competitors. You know, I can't, no, I'm not telling you how I do it. So I had to learn from the ground up. And I just like you do with notion, documented absolutely everything I did, every issue we had to deal with, every challenge. And from that, I think it was 2005, I started to blog and subsequently wrote a book called Renting, renting for profit. And then it was published by a publishing house and it was called renting your recreational property for profit. And I continued to blog and began to get a Following. And it was 2007 when I first heard about podcasting and I must have heard it from, you know, I've. Do you remember Copyblogger?
- [12:14]
A
I do.
- [12:15]
B
Darren. Darren Prowse.
- [12:17]
A
Darren Rouse.
- [12:19]
B
Darren Rouse. Oh, gosh, Happy memory. So followed Copy Blogger and all sorts of other people. Pat Flynn at the time, who I know is a dear friend of yours, and I thought there had to be something else as well. And then podcasting came along. So I went out and I bought all this equipment. And I'm not sure if I came across you at that time, because somebody must have been out there saying, you need to go out and buy all this equipment. So I bought the microphone. I. I bought a mixer. I bought something called a gate limiter that I had absolutely no idea what it was. And I had all that equipment in front of me. It all got delivered and I'm so excited. And I opened it and I had no clue how to put it all together. There were wires coming out of everything and not connecting. Well, I couldn't figure it out. So, long story short, all that equipment got put away, got put on a shelf and went dusty for the next six years.
- [13:25]
A
Wow.
- [13:25]
B
Sad, isn't it?
- [13:27]
A
Six years. You know that, by the way, that's not unheard of. I have heard your story, obviously multiple times over the years, but I know of at least five or six or seven other people who have gone more than five years after having invested in equipment that sat in boxes never used until they first launched their podcast. One person, 15 years. Thankfully, though, I heard the story of that individual right as he reached out to me and said, Cliff, okay, after 15 years, I'm pulling this out of my attic. I'm ready to hook all this up. Can I still go through podcasting A to Z archives? And I'm like, well, you know, that particular session is no longer live online. But here's the most recent session that I did. I'm going to grant you access to all the tutorials. And six weeks later, all on his own, he had his podcast. But it was 15 years.
- [14:26]
B
Well, it was, for me, it was 2007 to 2013. And it was 2013 when I really, when I came across Podcasting A to Z and I started listening to your podcast and, and I thought, this is, this is time I invest. I need to invest in myself. I need to get some. Because I wanted to. Always wanted to do it right, always wanted to create a professional sound. And I. So I didn't want to do it half heartedly. And the investment at the time was big to join the course. But six weeks later, I launched Vacation Rental Success and here we are at 650 plus episodes later and one at 1.7 million downloads now.
- [15:10]
A
That's incredible. What was the response like? Did you first find that many of your blog followers were the first to jump on board, or did you find that a majority of your new podcast listening audience came from other places?
- [15:29]
B
Well, I think I started with the blog audience. You know, you guys are out there absorbing my content every week, every blog post, and you're commenting on it. And that was the thing. I was getting comments on my blog posts so I could go back and say, look, this is what I'm doing now. And really 2013, it was podcasting had been around for quite a while, but it wasn't really mainstream. I mean, it certainly wasn't in our business. I was the first one. There was another podcast launched about three months after mine, which is still going today as well. So those are the two longest running. But I was able to get out to. I had quite a large audience. And once I got out to them and talked to them, they started listening. They started to talk about it on social media, which was just beginning to blow up then at the time. And yeah, that was. Rest is history. Really.
- [16:24]
A
Did you commit to a weekly schedule right out of the gate?
- [16:28]
B
Absolutely, yes. I think I recorded. No. Having said that, you know, Cliff, I think maybe I did record those first seven episodes in 2013, and then it was a bit sporadic, but it was January 2014. I then made that commitment every week, every single Wednesday, and I have not missed a single Wednesday since January of 2014.
- [16:54]
A
Do you remember ever tracking what your results were as far as number of downloads per episode before you made that decision to go every single week versus what happened, let's just say three to six months later?
- [17:09]
B
I don't think I did okay. I don't think I know. Going back, I wasn't great at tracking
- [17:16]
A
metrics, you know, and it's not that essential for a lot of people. My own observation though, is that once you make that commitment to showing up consistently, and even if you communicate it, it's like, listen, every Wednesday you're getting a new episode. Once you start communicating that and people come to reliably the experience that I've seen over and over again with my own content, the content of other people that I know who have created shows, but also me as a podcast consumer, when I know that a show that I enjoy listening to is going to be coming out on the same day every single week. There are certain parts of my life, like routines or habits that are a part of my life that I just know that, for example, my friend Father Roderick's going to join me as I'm having lunch on Wednesday afternoon. And I know that Leo laporte is going to be with me for the next three days with Mac break weekly as I brush my teeth and. Or go for a walk or whatever. Cause his show's like two and a half hours. I have to listen to him in bits and pieces, but I know what. Where he fits into my regular lifestyle. And if they ever take those vacation breaks or something like that for a week or two, oh my gosh, it's like, oh, I can't wait till they come back because my life just doesn't feel right. It's. Something's missing. And it's that habitual thing that we love, those patterns that we're looking forward to.
- [18:41]
B
Yeah. There's a podcast I listen to called Everyday AI and a guy called Jordan Wilson, and he broadcasts every single day for about 45 minutes, some sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes up to an hour. But every day is something different. So I know that Wednesdays is practical applications of AI, and I think Mondays is an interview. So it's like that through through Monday through Friday. I'm pretty sure he also broadcasts at the weekends, but it's more of a newsy thing. But I know every Wednesday is going to be practical and I really look forward to that. You know, what's he going to be talking about this week? Is it going to be Notebook lm? Is it going to be Gemini? Is it going to be Perplexity? Something? It's something like that. And I make it a point to listen. So I think that's really just that continuity is so important. I know there's a lot of people who do series, and I don't understand the series type of podcast because if something stops coming across my radar, I'll forget about it.
- [19:48]
A
When you launched your first podcast, by the way, was it vacation, rental, success right from the beginning? Has that always been the brand name of the podcast?
- [19:58]
B
Oh, same brand name, same logo.
- [20:00]
A
Yep.
- [20:01]
B
Not same music.
- [20:03]
A
When you launched the podcast, what was the format of the first few episodes? And by format, I'm talking about, was it solo hosted interviews, panel discussion, or any other format?
- [20:13]
B
Yeah, the first couple were solo. And then I very quickly got into interviews and that was from feedback. That was feedback from the audience who was saying, you know, are you going to interview anybody you know so many people. And that was, that's when the thought leadership really started because I got this connection with people that were really influential in the industry. And, and that has stayed with me. I, over, over time, I don't think. I mean, I still do solo podcasts, but they're, they're fairly infrequent. Usually if I've, if I've cut it short on time and I haven't been able because I, I'm very much just in time. I get a thing in my head that says, ah, this is the person I need to interview. Or I, I read a LinkedIn post or something is, I need to interview this person, I'm going to do this one for next week, and then they cancel out at the last minute. So I'll end up doing solo. So it was solo to start with. Then it went into mostly interviews. I've got to tell you one that I did, Cliff, early on when I did an interview with another influencer in the industry and we talked about Airbnb and it had just been launched and we, both of us said, this is not going to take root. We don't have to be bothered about this little company called Airbnb. Yeah, that just struck me because that was one of my first interviews.
- [21:50]
A
That's hilarious. I love that. Well, you mentioned that when you started to interview people, your observation is that that's when the thought leadership really took off for you. Would you say that's contributed to the idea of what we call credibility by association? The fact that somebody else who is already well known, who's already well respected, like they are the top of the top in the industry, people are like, oh God, I can't believe you got a chance to talk to that person. Wow. And then when you're having a casual conversation, seemingly peer to peer, with somebody who other people look up to with this celebrity status, it raises your own credibility in the eyes of the beholder, if you will.
- [22:40]
B
Oh, yeah, totally agree with that. And over the years when I've gone to conferences and people said, oh, I remember your interview with this person or that person, and you know this person's been on your show six or seven times. I follow them religiously. Isn't it wonderful that you get to talk to them all the time? So, yes, there's that little bit of knock on celebrity effect, if you like.
- [23:05]
A
Yeah. So out of all of these years and ever since you made the decision to commit to a weekly basis, you now, as a result have over 650 podcast episodes, has there ever Been a time where you've thought about just throwing in the towel and quitting?
- [23:23]
B
Oh, yes. Yeah. Not. Not until about, I guess, when the space began to get really crowded and my listener numbers began to drop off. And then I realized that I had to do something. I would have to do something different or just quit. But then I would get an. An email from somebody or a message or a comment that said, I listen to you. I can't wait. Every Wednesday, it's. It's something. It's a highlight of my week and things like that. It's just. It just really boosts you. I had one just recently. Every. Every January 1st, I do a special episode. And. And I have for the first, I think, 10 years or so, it was one industry leader, and he's now out of the business. So two years ago, I asked another person in the industry, who is incredibly well known, if he would join me on the January 1st podcast. And. And he agreed. And somebody emailed me on January 2 and said, I listen. I make a point of listening to your new Year broadcast. It's the best one, always has been. And it was just, you know, maybe I'm. Maybe I'm down to half a dozen listeners, but they're letting me know
- [24:50]
A
there's something important in what you just said. And I want to speak to those of us who are content creators, but also anybody who is not even a content creator. I think it's important for all of us if we are enjoying the content that we are receiving from somebody who is consistently showing up for us. Never underestimate the value of you personally reaching out and letting the person know how much you appreciate the work, the time, the effort and energy to produce that show for you. It is the lifeblood of a content creator. Just imagine how many podcasts have been saved from pod fading because one person out of a few hundred or a few thousand even decided to take a moment to write an email.
- [25:46]
B
Oh. Oh, my goodness, yes. Those people have reached out to me. And I say at the end of every. Every. Every one of my episodes, I say, please reach out. I respond to every single message that I get. Reach out to me for those people who have reached out to me over the years, I am still connected to them. I still remember their names. It's because, you know, so few people actually do it. When they do, that connection is made, and it's so I do it myself. It does not matter how important somebody is or how much of a following they have. As you say, never forget the impact that you can have with a simple message that appreciates what they do. Because it's tough, isn't it? You sit there, you've got your microphone, there's nobody there. You have no clue who's out there listening. Maybe it's nobody. So to get that response, to get that feedback is just so important. I think that's a great message.
- [26:50]
A
Here's what I notice. I mean, obviously you have not been one who obsesses over your download numbers or anything like that, but over the years, I'm sure you've taken a look. I mean, you just mentioned, just casually that, you know, it's like when all of these other podcasts in the industry showed up in my space, my download numbers had reduced. So you are aware of download numbers. You know that at one point it used to be much higher downloads per episode than maybe what's currently being downloaded. I doubt seriously that you're getting a half a dozen listens per an episode, but I get what you're saying for effect. But here's a couple of things that come to my mind, and it really depends on who you are, why you're creating content, and how big of an audience you need to have a good return on investment. Even from a financial business side of things, it's very easy. And I see this a lot with some content creators. It's like, man, back in the day, I remember I used to get like 5,6000 downloads per episode. And ever since TikTok and ever since Clubhouse and the Pandemic and ever since YouTube now and all this other stuff, I'm down to, you know what? I'm lucky If I get 7 or 800 downloads per episode. And I think I'm about ready to throw into the towel. It's been like this for a long time. It's just like nobody's listening to me anymore. And I. And I'm sitting here thinking, what now? Heather, you and I both have the experience of standing on stages, doing public speaking at significant conferences. Imagine 700 people right there in front of you while you're standing on a stage. That's a pretty electrifying energy in the room, wouldn't you agree?
- [28:42]
B
Absolutely. And when you put it that way, it's. It makes it so much more significant. Yeah, seven or 800 in an audience would be fantastic.
- [28:53]
A
And if we can take you there, then what? I'm like, well, gosh, Cliff, that's great. But back in the highest of the highs, I was having about 700 to 800 downloads per episode. I'm lucky if I can get 150 to download each episode now. And I'm still like, wait a second, if I wanted to host a little mini conference or a workshop, and I've got room, technically I've got room for tables for everyone for about 80 people. But 150 people showed up. And so the last few lines of tables had to be taken out and individual chairs and people are taking notes in their laps. 150 people in the room, that's major. And here's the thing, it's not just a workshop or an event that you're speaking at once a month or once a quarter or once a year. That's 150 people sitting down in your virtual workshop with every episode you publish. And what if out of that 150 people, five of them become your next paid client within the next six months?
- [30:04]
B
It's where I've got all my clients. Every single one has come through the podcast because they've, they've heard me talk about something. Way back when I was a property manager, they were hearing me talk about my experience. I just talked about my experiences of being a property manager. And I think people were out there going, yeah, you know, it's the same as mine. She's on my wavelength. And. And that's when I get the phone call. And it still happens now. I mean, I talk a lot more about AI now because AI is more of my bag these days. Every single day I get a call or an email, can we talk about AI? And that comes directly from the podcast. I'm out there on LinkedIn as well. But mostly it is, it is the podcast.
- [30:49]
A
Have you ever had somebody who became a client who said to you, you know what? I think I first started listening to your podcast and then it's X number of years ago and it's like more than five or six or seven years ago. And you haven't ever heard of them until about a couple of weeks ago. Has that ever happened to you?
- [31:11]
B
Oh, yes, I have a client currently that came on as a consultancy client last summer. And yes, I met her at a conference and she said, I've been listening to you for years.
- [31:26]
A
It blows my mind the number of times where again, somebody like that, they become a client and it's a high paid client. It's a very profitable relationship. How, I ask, it's like, hey, how did you and I first get connected? Oh, well, Cliff, what, you don't know? I've been listening to you. I think it was right, I think it was about, it was July 2007. I heard so and so mention your podcast. And then I started and I've listened to you ever since. And of course, after I get off this conversation, right after I get out of this, I go and I look, that person's never left me a comment on anything. That person's never written me an email, ever. And guess what? That person, since from 2007 to let's at this point, 2025, has listened to everything I produced. This person was one of those downloads for every one of those episodes. And this is what I'm saying. It's like, man, just don't give up. You have no idea. Sometimes I joke that if I could choose three people to listen to my podcast every single week and I knew that nobody else was ever going to listen to those episodes, I would still produce it for those three people. Because those three people are the ones who are consistently talking about me and how what I've said influenced them. And they're always referring, you gotta go check out Cliff Raven. You just go sign up for his course. And I would say thousands of clients came from three different people who routinely, every week listen to the podcast. So there's so much power in that.
- [33:01]
B
I still have. I still have listeners who have been with me for the full 11 years.
- [33:07]
A
Yeah.
- [33:08]
B
And people say, I remember I went back and listened to an early podcast the other day. Don't do that. Don't go back and listen to anything between one and 20, please. Particularly the one about Airbnb.
- [33:23]
A
That's great. I love it. So, Heather, have you done anything with video over the years?
- [33:31]
B
No. Every year I get to the new year and it's this year is a year of video. So I'm telling you now, CLIFF, this year, 2026, is the year of video. I know, it's really, really important. I mean, we have a YouTube channel. It hasn't got video on it. What's that about? It's got my podcast. There are sub that we've been able to get up with video. But it is part of my goals for this quarter that I will be putting out video.
- [34:02]
A
What I've chosen to do so far is I've taken some insightful moments and I have taken the time to go in and teach myself how to create faceless videos with which has B roll footage that pretty much is spot on to this content. Not with the idea that I'm going to try to convince somebody on TikTok or watching a YouTube short to subscribe to my podcast, but instead I'm trying to make sure that that video content that I'm creating is valuable in and of itself so I can build my following on that platform. And so as a podcaster, I'm using video not to try to ATT listeners or subscribers to my podcast, but just to gain new followers to my thought leadership. So there's that repurposing aspect and one of the other things that I plan to do more of, and it's something I've been very successful at in the past and that is this not only video first, so this is video first content. This is first for video live stream. So I have another strategy that I employ and it's called video only content. Now you can have a video podcast, but I don't have video podcasts personally. But video only content for me means that I'm going to create a video where I'm going to, let's just say, demonstrate step by step how to set up something like a piece of equipment, such as a Rodecaster Pro or a Zoom P4 next. Or I'm going to do a video that gives side by side comparisons of different microphones that are less than hundreds and hundreds of dollars. And so you can actually see what they look like on video and hear the audio quality. Now that's gonna be a video only piece of content. What that will do is that it's just not gonna translate well to audio. Cause I'm gonna speak about how does this microphone look on camera. But I'm gonna create that content there and YouTube knowing that that content was created for that purpose. People are looking for that content. That's the stuff that's really gonna take off. And so I think the biggest thing that could really take off is content that is actually created for the platforms for which you're putting it on there. So that's another strategy that I'm going to employ moving forward, even with greater intentionality.
- [36:29]
B
Well, having just purchased the Podtrack P4 next and a new microphone now I'm down here in Alabama and then spent three days trying to get it all wired together. And I kept going back to 2014 and podcasting a to Z when I sent a plea and I said, how do I put this thing together? Which is, as you recall, that was a problem in 2007 as well. You sent me this wiring diagram and I can now see as you were just talking, I'm seeing this video of Cliff just demonstrating how all this plugs together. And I would have been on that immediately. I did go, of course, I went to YouTube, who's out there talking about P4 next. Yes, they are. The Zoom is talking about P4 next. And who's talking about my new microphone? And somebody was out there doing that too. But I want the integration. How does one plug into another? The problem I had last week, Cliff, when I was trying to get this all set up, was that I had my headphones plugged into the microphone.
- [37:37]
A
Yep, that'll do it. Yeah, that'll do it.
- [37:41]
B
That's what screwed it up. But nobody was out there telling me because I was listening, looking at these independent. So yes, I. The moment you start putting out those videos, I'm going to be watching them.
- [37:51]
A
I love it. Well, Heather, thank you so much for sharing your journey 650 plus episodes. So, so many years of creating valuable content in an audio podcast. Is there anything else that you would want to say to somebody out there who is thinking about getting started in podcasting today and they're maybe not going to have the same privilege or honor of being the first in the industry? What would you say to that person?
- [38:17]
B
Yeah. Cause that's tough. It is tough when you're not the first. So you've got to, you know, what is your hook? Find the avatar, find the person who you're going to be speaking to. And don't think about this mass. It's not a mass. Massive audience. It's this one person that you're going to sit behind a microphone and you're going to talk directly to that person as if you were just having this nice chat in a coffee shop. If you've got expertise, what is it that they want from you? And I think if you start from that, then that's going to make the process a whole lot easier because you've got information, you've got knowledge, you've got expertise. Make sure that you're wrapping it up in the package that is going to be attractive and appealing to the person who you want to listen.
- [39:07]
A
Heather, where do you want to send people to who are interested in the world that you live in and what do you want to promote to them?
- [39:16]
B
Well, as I said, I am moving into AI in a big way. A lot of, I say 90% of the work that I do now is in AI, not necessarily just in the vacation rental space. So what we're doing now is helping mostly vacation rental companies, short term rental companies, but other businesses learn how to adopt AI into their companies and do it in a professional way. So I'm not about, you know, how, how to create an AI agent or an assistant, but how to build the foundation within the company so that everybody is doing the same thing using the same platforms. Understanding the impact of AI within a small business. Vacationrentalformula.com is our website. Connect with me at heatheracationrentalformula.com and let's talk about how to adapt and implement an AI strategy throughout a small business so that everybody's singing from the same hymn sheet, doing the same thing.
- [40:20]
A
Anything else that you want to bring up that we didn't get into today?
- [40:25]
B
Well, it was you that started me off on this journey through podcasting A to Z. So that's what I'm going to throw out there. If, if you're interested in podcasting and getting off and running in a professional manner, then check out Cliff's course.
- [40:42]
A
Well, there you go. That was my conversation with Heather Baer. And I will tell you, there's just something that stands out more than anything else, and that is she made a decision who she was before there was an audience. She didn't wait for external validation. And these are the things that if those decisions are not made ahead of time, I just see people getting stuck in this constant planning for maybe one day I'll be ready. I want to encourage you to do what Heather did. Now, you may not be able to be the first in your industry, however, you can decide, just like Heather did, that you are there to serve. You can decide today that you're committed to showing up week after week, year after year. And I will tell you now, if you start today and do that and not give up, not fade away into the background, but if you continue to show up consistently, you will see the relational equity with those in your audience compound over time. The most important thing you can do is to take yourself seriously. Don't compare yourself to the other people who are already out there in your space doing what they're doing. There is no one on this planet who could ever speak into your industry, your niche, your space, the way that you can. Your perspective is different and unique from anyone else. And your future community needs your voice. So I have a question for you. Who are you willing to be? Who are the people that you are here to serve? And are you willing to show up for those people? And are you willing to do it consistently enough for that to mean something over time? By the way, these days I spend a great deal of my time, effort and energy investing in those who are serious about the work they are on this earth to do. The people who show up and lead, the people who stand up and say, I've got something that valuable to share. If you are a business owner, if you are on the entrepreneurial path and you want to do life with other people who are like you, reach out to me today, let me know. I have some environments that I think could be very supportive on you making it for the long haul. Email me today. Cliffravenscraft.com I can't wait to hear from you. Podcast and some man.