Hey what’s going on you guys? This is Alex Branning and we are talking today about how to start your own podcast. Gary V said that every influencer and individual interested in producing content, building a brand, starting or growing a business, selling a product, service or idea should have their own podcast. It is a massively important space and as we get more and more leaning towards audio as the way that we digest content, podcasts become more and more important.
So, the first thing that you want to do with your podcast is identify what your podcast’s concept or style is going to be and it should remain consistent. Now I say that now and it’s funny I was just talking to my team about this, we have a whole team that helps me produce these podcasts and we’re talking about making a slight shift in what we’re doing here because right now, up until this point every single podcast I have had an educational bend on it.
In other words I look at each podcast as an opportunity to teach something. Well, I’ll be making a slight shift in that the show will still be mostly me. I may have I guest, some surprise guests are going to be coming on soon but I’m going to be shifting towards bringing you guys on the day to day journey of what it’s like owning your own marketing agency, being in on the ground floor of a lot of exciting things and sharing what I’m learning. But when you start your podcast to be clear this is what I’m doing, this is how I’m going to be delivering my message. This is what I’m going to be talking about. And you want to start with what is the core idea or the core things that my audience needs to know for me.What is the thing that I’m bringing to the table. So when you decide to do a podcast and if you’re listening to this right now and you’re working on building a brand you should. So listen to this as an assumption that you will do this.
Now you need to plan and decide what your podcast will be about before you launch, you can’t figure it out on the go. I wrote out probably … I’ve been doing this podcast now for six and a half months which is so crazy and so exciting. And I knew when I started that this is the type of show that I wanted to run. I wanted to teach people marketing. I wanted all of my listeners to get smarter and smarter about the marketing concepts, the marketing tools that we have. And I wanted to be one of the vehicles that you use to get there so I’m so glad that you’re along for the ride but you want to make sure that you’ve clearly identified it. Now many people have an interview style podcast and that’s great. There’s nothing wrong with that. People love interviews. You bring people on the show. They share what their expertise is about. They take some of the pressure off of you because now you don’t have to be the one to think up all the content.
You know for the last six and a half months every single week I’ve come up with different topics. I figure out what direction the shows going to go, how I’m going to be bringing resources to use so that you know you’re able to take action on this stuff. It is a lot of work. And you know we produce a weekly podcast, you don’t have to do it weekly. You can do it monthly if you want to. Just figure out a regular date that your audience should be expecting a podcast from you.I follow Russell Brunson and he does it kind of sporadically but I know that there’s always going to be at least one episode a week from him, sometimes he does as many as three. But he’s always delivering fresh content. My goal is to deliver content every Monday. Figure out, say OK when should my audience expect to hear from me. Consistency is key. Consistency in the delivery and the style. I get so excited talking about podcast because it’s done so much for my business.
But back to the different types. You can have an interview style podcast. It could be a storytelling podcast which is really fun because it’s all about you know really being able to get creative and imaginative with a storytelling podcast. There’s a teaching podcast, that’s really what I’m doing teaching, educational, it’s all about me being a part of your business as your marketing coach teaching you different ways to use marketing, giving you ideas on things that you can implement and then showing you how to implement it, that’s what I’m all about. That’s my passion. You could also do a mix. You could do a teaching and interview people. It’s kind of like what Ray Edwards does. I follow Ray Edwards’ podcast, he teaches, he brings in experts, he’s got kind of a mix of a show. It’s like an hour long radio show is really what it feels like. So figure out what you want to do. Figure out how you want to deliver the content and have fun with it but make sure that you’ve got it planned out.
Now I recommend recording some really core episodes.These are the things that you want to be able to go back to, you want to be able to appoint people that you meet and say you know go to my podcast and check out episode two where I talk about blank. That way you don’t have to really dive into the details of what they’re asking about. You can just refer them back to the podcast. I do this a lot. The most popular episode that we have on the podcast is episode four where I talk about different types of referrals and growing a referral based business. That episode really took off and it helped catapult my podcast to the next level. But I refer back to that episode in conversations that I have, in emails that I’m sending out, I mean there’s just a ton of different times that I refer back to that specific episode because people ask questions that I could give a full 15 minute response to but I’m like you know just listen to it on your own time. So creating those core episodes is a really important way for you to establish yourself. And it gives you some great content to point back to.
It also helps you identify what is your flag in the ground kind of thing right. This is who I am. This is the ground that I’m taking. For me I’ve identified myself as the marketing coach so my flag is in the ground as a marketer, you know so that’s my space. I teach. I’m about to take you more on a journey as I said. I’m going to be changing up a little bit of how I deliver the content. But it’s all about teaching you marketing and trying to positively influence the things that you’re doing so that you add more tools to your marketing tool kit. So pick the style that you want. Write out the core episodes and then make sure that you have a consistent marketing plan around your podcast.If you follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or email you know that I am referring to my podcast on a regular basis. I’m sharing key points every single day of the week, talking about my podcast. It really helps me identify the path that I’m going.
And it also kind of keeps me in check too because then I can look at my podcasts and really say OK is this what I want to be talking about for a full week. You know is this something that I think is going to benefit my audience and if it is then I run with it. If I look at it and go I just don’t think I can talk about this for a whole week then I put that podcast episode back on the shelf. So I’ve done that a couple of times. I had some podcast episode ideas for writing a book and starting a coaching business and you know there’s a couple other ideas that we had and I just didn’t want to talk about it on social media for an entire week. I didn’t feel like I had enough content to last for my entire marketing cycle for that podcast episode and so I shelved it. I put it on the site. I still have my notes. I’ll come back to them later when I get more ideas around those topics but my plan was clear. I know that my marketing plan is post every single day, post the main point. If my main point is lame it’s going to reflect on me so I got to come up with five really good points to talk about.
One of the other things that I recommend that you do when you’re starting a podcast is put yourself in the shoes of the listener and go OK number one would I want to listen to this podcast?Is it going to bring value to me. Number two, is this something that me as your audience member would refer to my friends?Like am I getting a kick out of it? Am I learning a lot? Is this something that I go man I have got to tell Joe about this podcast episode? If it is you’re on the right track.
If you look at this and you go you know I listen to this but I really feel like and be honest with yourself, I really feel like I’m doing this just for me. Then you just have to make a couple tweaks to the delivery and what you’re talking about so that it becomes something that your audience will get excited about. You know one of the cool things about my podcast that I just love it so much, I love getting e-mails from listeners who ask for more specifics on an idea that I share on my podcast. It’s a great way for me to know that my podcast is being listened to, people are responding to it and I get to go and create a deeper relationship with my audience because they’re asking questions. We’re diving in deep together. You know we’re having fun, we’re learning together.
And then I love it when people come back to me and say hey I did the thing that you talked about. I love hearing about people who listened to episode four and say I’m working on building an affiliate program now. Or they listen back to Episode 21 The Goal Setting and go man that goal setting webinar was fire, it really helped me open my eyes and see things and identify areas in my life where I needed to shift my goals. I love that, it brings me joy and fulfillment and I know that it impacted my audience so it’s just great. But it wouldn’t be happening like that, my podcast wouldn’t have that effect if I didn’t have a plan of action around the podcast. And so because I had a plan I’m able to execute the plan.
And one of the most important things that I want to share with you right now as you’re thinking about your podcast. You’re going OK what am I going to create. I want you to think about a spot in the market. Now I know a lot of the people that are listening right now you’re going OK well the podcast sounds awesome but you know my audience I can only serve people within a certain driving distance or within a certain state. So you know my podcast has serious limits on the effect of my business. And I hear that. And I completely understand where you’re coming from. I want to give you an idea. I want to give you an idea to create a podcast specifically for your region. Think about this. So I’m up here in Redding California. I could create the Redding, you know I could call it I don’t know The Story of Redding. I don’t know. I have to think of a better name. Don’t shoot me. I’m just coming up with this part on the fly.
But you know coming up with a podcast about the local news, local events, interview local people, bring the local celebs on the podcast, identify local business owners that you want a relationship with and give them a voice on your podcast, make it fun, do fun contests. I mean just have fun with it. Don’t let your location, don’t let your geographic boundaries limit your imagination about your podcast.That is going to set you up for failure. Think about this. Your podcast even if you only do it monthly, it doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s twice a month. Don’t worry about coming up with weekly content. Think about how you can make an impact in your community and in the circle of influence that you have once you have a platform. The platform is so important. So a podcast is the audio version of your platform. So a podcast is crazy important.
So let’s start from the top. You’re going to start a podcast. Figure out what style you want to do; interview, teaching, storytelling et cetera. Figure out how often you want to make a podcast episode. I do weekly, you don’t have to do weekly, you could do monthly. You can do every other week. Think about how you want to market the podcast. I market it on different social media channels. I come up with five little graphics that are super fun and cool and then that’s what we use to talk about the five main points in the podcast. Think about how you’re going to spread the word.
For me, I spread the word on social media and e-mail, through face to face contact, I have it listed on the bottom of my email signature so I’m constantly bringing new people into my podcast in any way that they connect with me. Also think about how you’re going to monetize your podcast. Now, I personally quote unquote monetize my podcast, I’m using air quotes, by creating relationships with new prospective clients that get to learn how I think, the way that I would approach a marketing campaign and the different ways that I treat my clients. Because you can learn a lot about a person in the way that they communicate on their platform. If they’re getting on their platform and they’re bashing people you know that when they talk to you they’re going to have that same sort of energy. When people listen to my podcast and I’m teaching people and I’m sharing my wisdom and my stories they can hear my authenticity and they can hear me. Now some people don’t resonate with that and that’s okay. But the people that do resonate with it they create a deeper relationship with me even if we’ve never met because now they listened to the sound of my voice, they hear my strategies and they identify me as their marketing coach whether or not they ever work with me.
But the way that I monetize my podcast is by my listeners reaching out to me, sharing me what they’re doing and then either hiring me to really help them with a one on one because you can hire me as your marketing coach.I can work with you one to one or they hire me to help implement a strategy. That’s how I monetize. How are you going to monetize? Really you know figure that out. Say what is my goal here? Maybe your goal is just to build a platform, grab some listeners, have fun with it, create it as a hobby. That’s OK. But what if you’re a lender and you want to say I want my podcast to bring me a deal a month. Well depending on where you live a deal a month that’s a good wage right there just from a podcast.
But then you have to figure out how am I going to get my podcast to get people in my door so that I can get an appointment. You have to really map out that customer value ladder. Figure out how you’re going to get them in. For me the way that I get people into my world is I set up a page per episode with resources that people can grab. So people go to like for example this is I believe it’s episode 24 and they can go to the Web site, they can grab the resources that I mentioned. Those resources have a wall there where you have to enter your contact info. And now I get my people in my database right. I get my podcast listeners in my e-mail database. And then over time through the e-mails that I write and the way that I stay connected and continue to bring value and continue to make offers then I’m able to create a relationship with my listeners.
How are you going to do that? Right. Map out that strategy. Your own podcast is your radio show. You don’t need permission anymore to publish, you don’t need to go and knock on a door and say can I have my own show, how am I going to find sponsors or advertisers. You don’t need to do that. All you need is a phone. All you need is an idea and then just for me what I pay per month for my podcast I pay $20 a month and I use Libsyn. That’s all I use. That’s it. That’s my cost. I have a team that helps me create the content and do the post-production on it but other than that my only cost is 20 bucks a month. So it’s really inexpensive and I’ve been able to connect with people all over the world. I have international listeners on my podcast and people find my podcast episodes when they search iTunes and I’m able to connect with people in a variety of ways. It’s so much fun.
So I just want to encourage you right now. You’re listening to this podcast. I hope that I inspired you with some ideas. I hope I dropped some wisdom. If you want to talk to me about your podcast idea let’s do it. Go to alexbranning.com/call and grab a time slot on my calendar. Let’s talk about your podcast vision. I’d love to help you. It’s a free strategy session. If you go to alexbranning.com/podcast, find this episode, I’m going to drop some resources in here so you can use the exact same software and tools that I’m using. And yeah I’m just excited to hear about your podcast, make sure that you send me the link to it once you launch so I can listen in, encourage you and if I think my audience will like it I’m happy to support you by sharing it. Have a great day everyone.
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