In this episode, Brian Mattocks and Sean Boyce discuss the evolution of podcasting, with a focus on how dynamics change as a show grows. Long-term thinking and a farming approach to content marketing are highlighted as essential. Attention garnered by a popular show is explored, as well as insights on handling different types of inbound guest requests. The importance of discernment and building meaningful relationships in podcasting is emphasized, with the three categories of guest requests – generic service providers, PR agencies, and direct outreach from CEOs – being examined for their value and legitimacy.
Sean Boyce has run his consultancy firm NxtStep Consulting for over 10 years but found he wasn’t able to grow his network effectively and efficiently through in-person marketing or lead generation services.
To solve this, Sean founded Podcast Chef, a full-service podcast management platform that helped him grow his network while making awesome content at the same time.
Seeing the effectiveness of podcasting at reaching new people, Sean opened it up to others, helping people to start a podcast and delegating the management from post-production to booking guests. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Hard to Market:
- Podcasting is a long-term commitment that requires patience and perseverance.
- The ROI of podcasting can be extremely rewarding over time.
- Incremental improvements and consistent progress lead to attracting more attention.
- Going deeper into your niche and becoming the best within your specific field brings success.
- Generic service providers offer little value and are often perceived as spammy.
- Doing research on potential guests’ LinkedIn profiles can help determine if they align with your show’s objectives.
- Building relationships and community should be the focus, rather than using podcasts solely for self-promotion.
Resources:
Connect with Sean Boyce:
Connect with our host, Brian Mattocks:
Quotables:
- 01:08 – “I think the first thing that I often come back to when it comes to podcasting, and this is something we share too for people that want to work with us at Podcast Chef, is if you’re not thinking about this as a long-term goal, then just don’t, it’s not really going to be worth it for you.
- 01:31 – “When it comes to pretty much anything marketing-related and gets into that hunting versus farming mentality, one probably gives you instant gratification. The other one probably is going to give you what you really need for like in perpetuity potentially. So I’m very much more attracted to the farming element, which I think is the interesting component to content marketing. I think podcasting is actually kind of a good hybrid approach between the two of those.”
- 03:33 – “I think people are often expecting to become hugely popular or famous as soon as they start their podcast. I think that’s the wrong approach. That’s a trap to fall into. In reality, what you want to do is go deeper into your niche and then be the best of the best, but specifically for your world. Be that big fish in that smaller pond, that’s a much easier way to be much more successful. And then you can eventually become a big fish in a big pond as well too. But that’s not going to happen overnight. You just need to be, you just need to set yourself with the right expectations and mentality for that.”
- 05:16 – “The voice that you get with your podcast, how you approach the in exchanges, what that sounds like, what it looks like, attracts people and folks that are looking for more of that voice, more of that exchange in the way that those work, since we all learn different and we all grow different, and it’s really important to find folks that you can feel comfortable learning and growing from. So as a podcaster, you find that voice and then folks just start showing up at the door going ‘Hey, I don’t know what it is, but this one, this is working for me. Can I be on your show?’”
- 18:50 – Sean: “And I get people reaching out to me when I’m a rather effective networker I think in terms of the things that I’m good at. And I have been connected with people through my podcast that I would’ve never been able to network my way to in like a million lifetimes. So I have only the podcast to really credit and thank for that.”
Brian: “I think that’s the biggest, one of the biggest discoveries that you go through as either a host or as somebody who starts a podcast. And we’ve had plenty of folks on the show that have had a kind of a similar reflection and that is, you have no idea what doors this opens, what connections you can make with this.”