by: AskPat 284 Episode Transcript
Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 284 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today, I really appreciate it.
Now, before we get to today's question from Cornell, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is AWeber.com. AWeber is an amazing solution if you're looking to build an email list and keep a great relationship with your audience. That's what I do with my email list: It's been the number one way that I've been able to build a really intimate relationship with them. Not only through direct emails—and I typically email a few people here and there to ask them how they're doing and things like that, to get some insight on how they feel about the brand, which I would recommend to everybody—I also utilize my autoresponder, which means I could write emails beforehand and send them out sequentially over time after people subscribe, which allows me to keep in contact with them, continuing to provide value for them. Then when something timely comes up, like a promotion or some news, they're more likely to open those emails.
Check it out. If you want to get started with email marketing, start with AWeber. Go to AWeber.com/askpat. That's AWeber.com/askpat. You can sign up for a thirty-day trial for $1, just $1. Check it out. Awesome. Now let's get to today's question from Cornell.
Cornell Green: Hello Pat, my name is Cornell Green and I run the GetTubeFit Podcast, and GetTubeFit.com. It's a site that I put together based on being inspired by what you've done and how you help others take their ideas and put them to work. I want to thank you for that. I've been away from my podcast for three or four months due to multiple health issues and multiple deaths in my family. It just took me in a real spiral away from my concentration with the podcast, and I'm looking to get back on with it. I just wanted to know, if you were in the same situation how would you explain to your audience where you've been and what's been going on, and to what extent would you take it to? It really runs deep, and I was in a really bad place at the time. Now I feel like—based on the traffic that I'm still getting onto the site and the emails that I'm getting as far as the interviews that I've already done—there's still interest there.
I just kind of wanted to know, how would you handle getting back into the groove if you stepped away for a long period of time, if you felt it's worth doing so? Thank you for the time and all you've done, I continue to love what you do and how you motivate and inspire. Hopefully you can answer my question, thank you.
Pat Flynn: Cornell, thank you so much for the question today, I really appreciate it. Before I go on I just want to say—based on what you said and the circumstances that you shared—I just want to, from the bottom of my heart, just offer my deepest condolences for everything that has happened, and to your family. My best prayers to you and everybody involved. I know I speak for everybody else out there listening too. We're here for you; I'm here for you too. It sounds like things are on the up and up and you're coming back into the podcasting world, which is great. I think it's really encouraging. I think you know this too because you've experienced it: you still have listeners even though you've been gone for a while.
I know a lot of people who have done the same thing. They've been away from the podcast for whatever reason, and they come back and they're just like, “Wow, there are still a lot of downloads here.” That can happen for a number of different reasons. Your show might be ranking in certain categories without you even knowing it, there might be an episode that somebody finds online that they share which spreads it for a little bit across the internet, and you won't even know that either. Or you might be ranking for a lot of keywords related to what you're talking about, which is cool too.
Whatever the case may be, it is definitely worth getting back into. Just because you've been gone for a while doesn't mean you cannot get back into it again. Now on a similar note, I recently have gotten back into doing videos with SPI TV that came out just recently. You can check it out at WatchSPI.tv. A new episode just went live today actually, Friday—they come out every Friday. I had been away from my YouTube channel for over nine months Cornell, not posting one single video. That's to a subscriber base of about 35,000 people at the time I left. I didn't leave on purpose, I just got really big on the podcasting stuff and just didn't have time. I didn't have a good editorial calendar in place; I didn't have a good team helping me out. I do now and I'm able to now produce more videos. Again, shout out to Caleb Wojcik over at DIYVideoGuy.com who's helping me out and has really helped put the whole plan together for me. Thanks, Caleb.
I was just completely honest with people. My circumstances were much different of course, but mine were moreso I just left it behind and I didn't pay attention to it. I just felt bad. I was just being completely honest and upfront: I think you should do the same thing. I think if you still have listeners, and if they're going to . . . If they appreciate the value that you're providing to them, you definitely have permission. I mean, it's your show so you could do whatever you want. I would go and share as much as you feel comfortable sharing to your audience and just be honest with them.
I wouldn't spend perhaps a whole episode on it, I would just spend maybe five minutes at the front end of the first episode you come out with, to share with everybody who is subscribed who does come across it, kind of the circumstances. That you're there, and you're a real person, and you're honest, and that you just had this thing happen in your life which I know we can all relate to. I think that'll be great, if you were comfortable doing that. If not, you can essentially just pick back up and say, “Hey guys, I was out for a while. Had some personal things going on, but here I am back and here we go.” Either way, it's totally up to you. Whatever you are comfortable with really, Cornell, it's really up to you.
Your listeners are going to listen either way. They're listening without you there, so I think once you come back it's just going to be really refreshing for people. If you were comfortable—and again, you asked me what I would do—I would just share for five minutes kind of what happened. I wouldn't get into too much detail, I would just say that maybe there was some personal things I had going on, and just be honest about the podcast and what happened to it. Then also be honest and say, “You know what? I'm back, I'm committed. I'm here for you guys and thank you for sticking with me. If you're new, just thank you so much. Here we are, and here we go; here's what you have to look forward to.” That's where I would go.
Cornell, it's totally up to you but hopefully that gives you some insight, or maybe just the okay to do whatever you were thinking of doing. You know Cornell, if you have any further questions or want to verify anything with me, or even the rest of the audience out there listening, you can use the hashtag #AskPat284 on Twitter and we can continue this conversation—you can ask more questions if you'd like. That's what the hashtag's there for. I really appreciate you asking this question and being personal on this podcast. I know you'll do whatever it is you feel is right, which will be the right thing to do because that is what you should be doing, whatever it is you feel is correct.
Again, you could get back into it and that's totally okay, it'll just take some time to pick back up. Like you said, you have listeners already and I think they'll be happy to hear you back. Thank you, an AskPat t-shirt will be headed your way Cornell, for having your question featured here on the show. For those of you listening, if you have a question you'd like potentially featured here on the show, all you have to do is head on over to AskPat.com—you can ask right there on that page.
I also want to thank today's sponsor, which is AWeber.com, a company I've been using for over five years now to help collect email addresses and send broadcast emails and autoresponder emails out to my audience too. What I love about them is just the customer support is great, it's super easy to use, and I would recommend them to everybody who's just starting out with email marketing. Again you can go to AWeber.com/askpat. You'll actually see a testimonial video from me there. You'll get a thirty-day trial for
$1. Again, AWeber.com/askpat.
Thanks so much, and to end this week I'd love to end with a quote by Isaac Asimov. He says, “Self education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” Ponder that. Cheers, take care, I'll see you all in the next episode of AskPat. Thanks so much, and if you have a sec, if you enjoyed this week's set of episodes head on over to iTunes: Look up AskPat and leave a quick review for me on iTunes, I'd really appreciate that. Thanks so much and I'll see you next week. Bye.