By Cheval John

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A new month of possibilities in growing your business and life #gratitude #socialmedia #simplicity #VallanoMedia

A post shared by cheval john (@chevaljohn) on May 1, 2017 at 6:34pm PDT

I started my podcast What’s The Word? on BlogTalkRadio in 2013 and knew this was going to be a fun journey in interviewing successful people.

Four years later, I achieved a milestone with the 300th episode of the show with the guest of honor Heather Havenwood last Saturday.

I went back to business as usual with yesterday’s airing of the show with guest D.J. Ramirez, social media coordinator of BMC Software.

One of the important traits of an entrepreneur is learning how to pivot your business model that serves a customers need.

I saw the importance of live streaming for podcasters in mid-2015

I would not have ever considered live streaming as an option for recording my podcast because at the time, a person could only use a smartphone.

Then I received a message about this new platform called blab.beta.

They wanted to have a group discussion about our thoughts on attending Podcast Movement which was held in Fort Worth.

At first, I did not understand the platform when it was not working on my side of the computer.

I would have given up on blab had it not been for the trio of Rachel Miller, Brian Fanzo and Christin Kardos, who had switched their #bizhour twitter chat to blab.

I was convinced about blab being a great platform to record a podcast after finding out they saved the live stream in both audio and video format.

Blab.beta changed my mind as their live streaming platform was only for computers.

So I started using blab for live streaming my podcast and it was a blessing and a curse.

The blessing part of using blab was meeting awesome live streamers like Victoria Taylor, Jennifer Hoverstad, Ross Brand, Vicki Fitch, Chris Strub and Jennifer Quinn.

And “meeting” people on video like Rebekah Radice, Kami Huyse and Kelly Hungerford from the years of chatting on social media.

The curse part of using blab was their platform was unstable and I had to worry about whether their technology would stay up during the live streams.

The executives of blab decided that developing their platform was not worth it anymore.

So they shut it down abruptly in August of 2016.

Before that, many live streamers decided to pursue other platforms because they saw the writing on the wall that blab was disappearing.

Plus, Facebook launched live video on their platform in early 2016.

As many of us were getting used to facebook live, were were wondering how we can do a two-person or more show there.

Two prominent live streamers, Mitch Jackson and Mrs. Hoverstad, mentioned about how huzza.io was a great platform.

So I decided to use huzza.io for my podcast recording because they had the capabilities to simulcast to facebook live.

A couple of months later, Blue Jeans Network launched their software “on social” feature which allows you to simulcast to facebook live with multiple people on the same platform.

As I decided to try out blue jeans network’s trial run, I continued to use huzza.io, believing they would still be around.

Then, the founders announced they sold huzza.io to kickstarter in February of this year.

I knew that blue jeans network was THE platform for me to continue recording my podcast via live streaming to facebook live.

Blue Jeans Network is so simple to use because you have the option to simulcast your “meetings” to facebook live or record the same meeting for people who could not attend.

This platform is a lot like blab with the biggest difference being they are very stable.

Mr. Jackson and Mrs. Hoverstad now uses blue jeans network to simulcast theshow.live to facebook.

In a lot of ways, blue jeans network is a perfect fit for live streaming what’s the word? to facebook live.

Plus, many people within my community on my business page on facebook, got the opportunity to see the live recording of the 300th episode of my podcast.

I was very happy that Ms. Havenwood was the guest because I found out through Winnie Sun, she uses blue jeans network as well for her podcast recordings.

As I close out this post, here are the most important lessons entrepreneurs must apply to their business:

1. They must know when to pivot their business.

The above can happen with the help of a business coach and also feedback from your customers.

2. They are many ways to skin a cat

The above saying means there are multiple options in getting your message out to your desired customer base.

Live streaming, blogging, webinars, podcasting, etc. are the mechanisms to build your potential customer base.

3. You must follow the trends that is happening in your business industry.

This is reserve for the podcasters within any sector of the market.

Just because your podcast is serving your purpose does not mean you should be closed minded to other ways to get your message out.

You can live stream your podcast recording to your followers on facebook to build a deeper bond with your loyal listeners because you will gain some new fans as well because they were apart of the recording process of your podcast.

As for me, I will continue to produce more quality shows using blue jeans network in order to take my business to the next level.

Plus, I will continue to use blogtalkradio to air those same recordings.

Both of those platforms are the parts I need to continue to build my business blog as well via podcasting.

How are you moving your business forward?