Join us as we recall our journey recording 100 podcast episodes of the Bean Ninjas Podcast

In this episode of the Bean Ninjas Podcast, Meryl and Wayne share the lessons they’ve learned through recording 100 episodes of the podcast. They share their favourite episodes, their best takeaways, and best of all the memories they’ve created.

We’ve had a lot of great episodes and interviews in the podcast, it was such and still is, a wonderful journey to reminisce and go through. We are so excited to be doing a hundred more – with bigger and better goals for you.

In this episode, we discuss:

[01:56 ] The positive effects of the lockdown.
[03:28 ] Biggest benefit of having a podcast.
[05:10 ] Wayne’s experience in being involved in the Bean Ninjas podcast.
[06:38 ] Meryl’s top favorite podcast episode: Launching in 7 days
[10:30 ] Bean Ninjas’ Genesis Story:  Episode 1, 2, 3 and 4
[11:52 ] Meryl and Wayne share their next favorite podcast episode series – Working in Public: Episode 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41
[14:46 ] Meryl’s third favorite episode – Mindfulness and Yoga at Bean Ninjas: Episode 13
[17:10 ] Wayne’s favorite episodes where Taylor Holiday (Episode 93) and Andrew Youderian (Episode 67) are interviewed.
[23:32 ] Interviewing Dan Norris in Episode 82 who has been instrumental in the Bean Ninjas’ journey as Meryl’s last favourite episode.
[28:03 ] What’s next for the Bean Ninjas Podcast

 

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Transcription

What we learned from 100 podcast episodes

Announcer Welcome to the Bean Ninjas Podcast, where you get an all-access pass to see what happens behind the closed doors of a fast-growing global bookkeeping and financial reporting business.

Meryl Johnston:

Hey Wayne. It’s great to be chatting with you again. How’s life during lockdown?

Wayne Richard:

Things are great, actually. I think in light of everything that’s going on, we found an amazing sense of calm as parent to five children with numerous activities that they tend to take part in during a traditional school year. We really had an opportunity to focus in on what really mattered and a lot of it was just spending time together.

So not being forced into committing to dance activities, and soccer activities, and tee-ball, and interchanging schedules, and kind of fly-by parenting, we’ve really been able to use this time to just really enjoy our family and dig into some of the kids’ interests and activities. So overall, things are going well.

And I don’t want to break from tradition. I found in reflecting over these last hundred episodes that a lot of the introductions included your surf check. So how was the surf this morning?

Meryl Johnston:

I didn’t actually surf this morning. But let me tell you, it’s been amazing surf from the Gold Coast for the last three weeks. So I actually have scheduled a surf with a friend directly after this podcast recording. So I’d better make sure we don’t run overtime.

Wayne Richard:

Excellent. Well, I will try my best. I’m not usually one short on words, but I’ll be sure that you are able to get out in time.

Meryl Johnston:

And I really felt what you were saying there around life with lockdown, and I know that’s not the purpose of the episode today. But I’ve been having conversations with quite a few people about how have they found things, and the common theme is that people have enjoyed a slower pace of life and not having as many commitments and more time with family.

And just as you said, that sense of calm. So I think that there might be something positive that comes out of the pandemic and the lockdown. I know we’ve seen many businesses impacted, but I think that we might be able to draw some positives as well.

Wayne Richard:

Absolutely. And what’s wild is some of the impact we’ve actually seen go in the opposite direction of what would have been expected. So now in our work in supporting 7-figure eCommerce, we’re seeing a lot of activity where sellers are having some of their best months in the history of their companies.

Meryl Johnston:

Yeah, you’re right. And that inspired the research project that we’re doing. And I’ve mentioned that on another or some earlier podcast episodes where we’re diving into what actually has been the impact that there’s a global recession, but we’re actually seeing trends within our customer-base, especially amongst the eCommerce segment who are actually doing really well at the moment.

And is that unique or is that something across the whole eCommerce industry? So we’ll be excited to share those results with you once we’ve got all of the data and done that analysis.

Wayne Richard:

Yeah, absolutely. Excited to see.

Meryl Johnston:

So we’re here today to celebrate a hundred episodes of the Bean Ninjas Podcast. And wow, I was never expecting, really, to get here. We’ve started a podcast just to give it a go and see where it went to test it, try it, and here we are recording Episode 100.

So in today’s recording, Wayne and I wanted to share some of our favourite episodes, kind of recap and reflect on those, and also talk about some of our learning’s in running the podcast. I’ll start off.

I initially started doing the podcast. We were using Audience Ops to help us produce the podcast and had a great experience with them. And being inexperienced with podcasting, it was really helpful having a co-host, Elizabeth. If you go back and listen to some of the early episodes, you will hear her leading the way and guiding me through those early podcast episodes, and I found that really helpful.

And then eventually, we transitioned away from that to producing our own episodes. And then it was me, or it was Wayne, or other team members either talking with each other or interviewing guests.

And for me, the biggest benefit from having a podcast; it wasn’t that we’d record a podcast and then have someone sign up for a Bean Ninjas bookkeeping service the next day, it was more about the relationships that were built with partners and people that were interesting to talk to.

Having someone on a podcast for 30 minutes or an hour and hearing their story is a great chance to get to know them and build a relationship. So for me, that was the biggest benefit.

So I’ll throw it over to you, Wayne. What has been your experience in being involved with the Bean Ninjas Podcast?

Wayne Richard:

Yeah, absolutely. I just want to commend you, too. I think you were very generous in saying we started this podcast. But I was not yet a part of the company when the podcast was launched.

So I just really want to say congratulations to you, Meryl, and I really recognize and I commend you for the accountability and consistency and really just the hard work and effort that you put into making sure that just in under two years, we’re now at a hundred episodes. So again, congratulations.

To answer your question, really, what developed for me is a unique ability for us to use the podcast as a vehicle for us to kind of scratch an itch. So if we had a particular workflow that we wanted to understand or a particular way about marketing or doing business that we didn’t quite have a handle around, we can simply reach out and offer to have join us on the podcast experts that then teach us how to g