TBF 100 | Podcast Success

 

Celebrate! Celebrate! Let’s Celebrate! Sharing podcast success in this 100th episode of The Binge Factor, Tracy Hazzard pays tribute to the 24 most remarkable podcasters they’ve had on the show so far. Discover who made Tracy’s best guest list. From the funniest, the most fearless, and the best edutainer to the most unexpectedly interesting and original, learn why these podcasters and their podcasts are worth your while. Who knows, you might walk away with a gem of a tip or two you can use to grow your show and find your binge factor! So sit back and enjoy this recap show as we celebrate this exciting milestone.

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Celebrating Podcast Success! Announcing Who Made The Best Guest List From The First 100 Episodes of The Binge Factor

Welcome to The Binge Factor’s 100th episode. I don’t often celebrate the wins. It’s something that I have been accused of by my coach as not being great at celebrating. I thought we’d celebrate. We’ve been planning this for quite a while, me and my team. We’re going to up our game in this 100th episode to show you what you can do with your 100th episode too. For me, it’s probably like my 1,000th episode. I stopped counting a long time ago but I’ve got multiple shows. The Binge Factor is my fifth show.

I have Product Launch Hazzards, which has about 125 to 130 somewhere in there. WTFFF!?, which has 628 or maybe 650. I can’t even remember anymore. Feed Your Brand, which has well over 150. This Binge Factor was a spin-off of Feed Your Brand. We’ve been doing it a lot longer, but because we spun it off into its own new thing in 2019, The Binge Factor became its own show. That’s why we’re hitting 100 episodes now even though we have been doing these kinds of interviews for a while. We used to do it under the name Center of Influence but now, it’s The Binge Factor. It has been The Binge Factor for 100 episodes and I want to celebrate it with you because you have made this so much more fun to do.

You send me messages, you meet me on Clubhouse and Instagram me. You send me all these kinds of ideas about things that you’re learning from the show, that you’re able to apply in your own podcasts, that have been helping you, or inspiration that has gotten you to start your own show. I wanted to bring you some of my favorites over the 100 because here’s the thing, I talk to thousands of podcasters every year. They all blur together after a while. I hate to say that but your shows do, but there are some rare ones that stand out. It’s the ones that I refer to and share with you and my clients again and again.

I thought maybe the best way is for me to pull the ones that were just straight off the top of my head. I remembered their interview. There was something about it that I loved. I started to put these things together and as I was doing it, it reminded me of that idea of what you call Superlatives which is like the yearbook thing where Most Likely to Succeed or Most Likely to Break Hearts, whatever that is. I and my team turn them into Superlatives. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to give you in reverse order.

There were supposed to be only 20, but there are 24 because there were a few bonus ones that didn’t fall into a specific category area that I had to throw in there. We have 24, technically. We’re going to count down the 24 most memorable shows. They each have reasons that they’re memorable. That’s what I’m going to bring you. We’re going to go into reverse order. You’ll have to check out these shows for the reasons that I’m sharing them. I want to thank all of these hosts for making my business of podcasting so much easier because they did such a great job of sharing on the show. They gave us such great information. They made it memorable and did a great job being a guest, which means that I want to celebrate with them as well. That’s another reason why I want to point all of them out as we go forward.

The Most Fun And Funny

No. 24

I grouped them into sections. I wanted to start with the most fun and funny because we’re having a celebration here. Coming in at number 24 as one of the most fun and funny podcasts that I’ve had and the Life of the Podcast Party, Kevin Dawson with Leaders & Lagers. It’s such a fun format for the show. You get to have a beer and a chat. It worked in and out of the pandemic. He made it work. I thought it was so much fun. I want to go on his show too because I want to go and drink beer with him and have fun with him. Leaders & Lagers, Kevin Dawson, Life of the Podcast Party, number 24.

 

No. 23

The Best Edutainer Host. You know I talk about edutaining all the time here. That’s our job as podcasters, but the Best Edutainer Host that I found on what is a dry subject and I don’t mean that to be mean about his subject matter. How much can you talk about virtual summits? His podcast is called the Virtual Summits podcast but he makes it fun, entertaining and exciting. He’s a great host. Dr. Mark T Wade deserves the Best Edutainer Host award.

 

No. 22

Coming in on number 22, The Most Friendly Show Host. This one has a great backstory because I met this host just as she was launching her show. Her show is called Mind Love. Her name is Melissa Monte. She was so passionate. We met in a bar at a meetup for podcasters. She just chatted and got me excited about her show. I checked out her show and I invited her to my show. The next thing you know, she’s tearing it up. Being a friendly show host certainly served her. The Most Friendly Show Host out of all of the group of Binge Factor shows is Melissa Monte and The Mind Love podcast.

 

No. 21

Number 21, The Most Perfectly Imperfect Show. Here’s the thing, we all want to strive for perfection. That’s great but sometimes we need to just keep going, prove it along the way, and aim for that perfection. That’s where Erica Courdae calls you out. She has the Pause On The Play podcast. She’s going to call you out when you’re pulling those kinds of things like you’re trying to be the perfectionist in the world. I love that about her. I love the show. I love the name of the show, Pause on the Play. It was one of my favorite names of shows ever. She’s a dynamic and fantastic host. I love that her show is somewhat imperfect but it’s imperfect in that perfectly great way that makes you want to listen to her again and again. The Most Perfectly Imperfect Show is Pause on the Play, Erica Courdae.

 

No. 20

Number twenty, The Most Original Sports Interviewer. I’ve talked to a lot of sports broadcasters. We hear them all the time. We did a big sports event with many sports podcasters at the Super Bowl in 2020. This one impressed me the most because it’s the most original and unusual format to use for sports podcasting. Jack Settleman the SnapBack Sports. It’s a Snapchat show first and podcasting comes out of that. It’s such an original show format, such an original way of hosting a show, and such an original view on the audience that’s going to consume sports. I love the show. It’s a lot of fun. Jack Settleman is a great host. Jack Settleman, SnapBack Sports is The Most Original Sports Interviewer.

 

No. 19

It wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t talk about a Podcaster on Fire. I’m not talking about the one you think. I’m talking about Connie Benjamin’s Podcaster on Fire, My Fire Within podcast. Connie is on fire. She’s so passionate and exciting. She makes you have so much fun while you’re being interviewed on her show. We did a show swap where she came on my show and I came on her show. We got that dynamic thing going back and forth. I had so much fun with her. She’s got an incredible show. She’s great at interviewing and getting people excited about her guest.

 

The Most Takeaways

My next set of shows are the ones that I learned the most about. I learned the most on their show. There was something special I learned or some takeaway that I have that I’ve shared again and again. That is why their names and their shows stand out to me. It’s because I had something that they gave to me that I am able to give to others. That’s a powerful thing right there. When you have a tidbit away, you’re going to remember where it came from. That’s going to create a tremendous value and subscriber base for your show in the long run.

No. 18

This is where I threw in a little special. It’s special because he’s not a podcaster but he is my favorite author. It’s my personal fangirl favorite. I had to throw it in here because I learned so much about being an author, about books, and the way the process works, and the connection with your subscribers which is what we had. We have this distant subscriber connection. He has this distant connection to the readers of his book. You don’t know exactly who bought your book on Amazon. He taught me some great things about it, plus we had such a great connection and it was so much fun for me to fangirl out and get to interview my favorite author. My Fangirl Favorite Episode out of all of the Binge Factors is Shane Snow. The best-selling author of Smartcuts and Dream Teams. I have referred to his books hundreds of times on other podcasts when I’ve been interviewed. It was exciting to get him on my show. He’s my number eighteen, my Fangirl Favorite.

 

No. 17

The Most Fearless Post and this is a thing, I hear this again and again. A lot of people are afraid to get started. This host is not afraid of podcasting. She’s not afraid of anything because she is Fearlessly Facing Fifty. That is her podcast show. I personally resonated with her message. When I turned 50 in 2020, I was in denial about it. She made me a little bit braver to say and talk about that. Also, we’re from the same state originally. We’re both Connecticut girls. We bonded over all that. That’s why I remember Amy Schmidt, Fearlessly Facing Fifty. I’ve referred her show to other people who might be afraid to take that leap and start podcasting.

 

No. 16

Number sixteen surprised me. It is my Most Unexpectedly Interesting Show. When it came across my email, someone applying for the show, and the show was called Business Infrastructure. I was like, “How exciting could that be?” I was unsure about it but I always try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. She met every other criteria to being a Binge Factor guest. I had to check it out. Alicia Butler Pierre of Business Infrastructure, her subtitle is Curing Back Office Blues which sounded interesting. What does that mean? When I went to listen to her show, I thought, “This is not boring infrastructure.” This is about the power of infrastructure, the people and the stories behind it. How can it change a company? I thought, “This is unexpectedly interesting. I’m curious about this. I’m learning something. I’m getting something valuable out of something that I thought was boring.” She’s changed my mind about that. That’s why people hire her. She’s got the magic formula. I found her willing to turn something that I know is important to my business into something I am interested in learning more about. I didn’t know why. She brought that why in there. She brought a personality that made me want to hire her. That’s power right there. The Most Unexpectedly Interesting Show is Alicia Butler Pierre, Business Infrastructure: Curing Back Office Blues.

 

No. 15

Number fifteen, she impressed me so much that I hired her. That’s a big announcement right here because most of you haven’t heard that. She had the most original podcast format I’d ever heard. She’s passionate about the details of podcasting. I’ve hired her to do some special new program that I’m going to announce in the future. Raphie Wagner, Not A Momma Life. It’s such an interesting show format. It’s a short format but she structures it in such a great and highly produced way. She’s a fantastic podcaster and podcast strategist, which is why I hired her. I can’t wait for you to check out her show because you got to hear some of the originality going on here. I can’t wait for you to meet her in the future. We’re going to have her back and talking about the new show that she’s launching next. Number fifteen Raphie Wagner, Not a Momma Life, the Most Original Podcast Format.

 

No. 14

Number fourteen also works for me. Imagine that. The reason she works for me is because I couldn’t find anyone who was such a great social media strategist AND a podcaster too. She was a social media expert before but now she knows how to take that and say, “How do we get Instagram to work for podcasters? How do we get TikTok and make it work for podcasters?” That’s what I love about her. She’s so generous with her information. She shares generously with my community so I couldn’t help but hire her as a consultant for my company. Whitney Lauritsen, This Might Get Uncomfortable is her podcast and she is showcasing some fabulous ways to increase your listeners, get great guests and do all of that via social media. She is My Podcast Social Media Queen.

 

No. 13

Number thirteen, The Best Advice and Wisdom, and this is someone I’ve learned from again and again over the years, which is one of the reasons why I invited her on my show. Penny Zenker and Take Back Time is the podcast. It’s a fabulous show with productivity tips and tools and all kinds of things. Penny’s take on the world is so pragmatic and wonderful to the point that she gives you the details of the things that you need. She gives you great tips and advice. Her wisdom is amazing. That’s why I had to give her The Best Advice and Wisdom Award.

 

Tracy’s Personal Favorites

No. 12

The next group of podcasts are my personal favorites. It’s the ones that I got something out of it. It changed something in my life. It made things a lot more fun for me or I personally got something special out of it. The Best Guest Award has to go to the serial guest star, the hub of everything. He doesn’t have a podcast. I was his 99th guest interview. Mark Herschberg, the author of The Career Toolkit, has been on over 100 shows now and he gave the best advice for being a guest and having a guest. The Best Guest Award goes to Mark Herschberg. He’s the special award that I had to throw in there because he’s not a podcaster but I personally learned so much from him. I got so much enjoyment out of interviewing him. That was one of my personal faves.

 

No. 11

Number eleven, my Best Podcasting Guilty Pleasure. I don’t have a lot of time to do all the research I need. I try to make it a point to listen to three episodes from every single podcaster. I try to listen to your most recent topic or interview, depending on which one is the opposite of what you did, in case you have multiple show formats. I try to go find your 100th, your number one episode, your trailer or something like that, and listen to it. That way so that I can see where you’ve come from and how far you’ve come. Also, getting to what you’re doing right now, what does that look like, and what does that sound like so that I can give a good assessment of a show. I have to say that I kept listening to this particular show. I couldn’t help it. That’s what I mean by this one is a podcasting guilty pleasure. Brooke Siffrinn and Aricia Skidmore-Williams, Even the Rich podcast. The one that I was listening to was all about Harry and Megan. She has ones on Madonna. They have all kinds of guilty pleasures, things that you might flip through those magazines at the end of the aisle at the grocery store. Their podcast is that kind of guilty pleasure. The Best Podcasting Guilty Pleasure goes to Even the Rich.

 

 

No. 10

Podcast Giver Award. I have to have a giver award because so many of you are so generous with what you give out on your podcast. Many of the podcasters that I interviewed did the same thing. The biggest podcast giver I found is Brett DeHoedt of The Hardest Word Podcast. His podcast is a completely unusual format podcast. It’s a letter-based story. It’s someone giving someone else an apology via reading a letter. Sometimes he has professionals read the letter. Sometimes the person who wrote it reads the letter. It’s such a brilliant format. It’s incredibly hard to maintain it because you have to get people to submit.

There’s a lot of outreach and effort that has to go into it, but he was also starting other things where he was trying to support other podcasters by doing #GivingTuesdayPodcasts. I love the idea of switching #GivingTuesday to #GivingTuesdayPodcasts. We did that in 2020 and we’ll do it again. We give a Giving Tuesday shout-out and try to make that happen. For us, it’s right after or before Thanksgiving. It’s a Tuesday right around Thanksgiving. We do the Giving Tuesday format. At that time, we did a shout-out to five nonprofits because we thought that would be the most useful. I had a great time doing that show. It’s a lot of work to do those shows, to prep them up and record them. That’s why I say The Biggest Podcast Giver Award has to go to Brett DeHoedt.

 

No. 9

This one, I loved it. I had a lot of fun listening to the show. It’s been great. I’ve listened to it many times since then because there was something important in there that I needed in my life. My dog, Lucy, is extremely pleased that I’ve met this podcast host. The podcaster who is most loved by my Cocker Spaniel, Lucy, is Krista Karpowich of the Wag Out Loud Pawdcast. She has Krista to thank for making her food better so that she’s healthier. She itches less, her skin is better, and her hair looks even more beautiful. She’s a little Lady and the Tramp kind of dog. She has Krista to thank for that extra soft coat. I had to give the Podcaster Most Love by Lucy Award to Krista Karpowich, Wag Out Loud Pawdcast.

 

No. 8

Number eight, Most Creative Co-Hosts. I’m a designer. I love the idea of someone who does a great job of both designing their logos, doing things on their website, adding great images to their social media posts, and other things like that. These two hosts have done a fabulous job and it’s no surprise because one of them has a Rhode Island School Design, RISD background, which I do too. That’s how I found her. The other one has a background in journalism and writing for great magazines like W and other things like that. Juliana Sohn and Catherine Hong of the K-Pod Korean American Story podcast which is just fabulous. They partnered up with the Korean American Story website. Everything that they do is beautifully crafted from the opening paragraph that they share, and their description to the images that they put with their episodes on the website. They do a beautiful job and they are The Most Creative Co-Hosts.

 

No. 7

Number seven is the show that made me physically laugh out loud and clap. Crystal and Tom O’Keefe of The Clip Out. I love the show. I love everything about it. It’s highly produced. I am not a Peloton user. I might be a little bit allergic to exercise in general, with the exception of walking the dog and swimming in my pool. It’s not my thing. But to get into this podcast, listen to it and have me go, “That was so funny,” and laugh out loud at what they do and the pieces that they put into it, that takes a tremendous lot because it’s not in my personal interest base. They have something special. The Show that Made Me Laugh Out Loud Award goes to Crystal O’Keefe and Tom O’Keefe of The Clip Out. You need to check this show out.

 

No. 6

The last of my personal favorites is another one of those special ones that I had to throw in. I threw it in because she hasn’t had enough time to gain traction with listeners. She was my 99th episode. She was the last episode you guys got. She hasn’t had time to get into being a referred episode every other week. Letting people in Clubhouse know all about her episode. I know it’s going to happen. Why? Because I got hooked on her show and subscribed after one episode. That doesn’t happen for me. Usually, I’ll listen that will be it. I might do the interview and then enjoy it and realize I could get something out of it, but don’t usually hit the subscribe button. Otherwise, I’d have thousands of shows that I’m subscribed to and never have enough time to listen to any of them.

I’m very picky about what I hit subscribe to. I even have a special playlist for that on Goodpods because that’s what I use. I don’t hit the subscribe button very often so it is for few shows that I do. After one episode of listening to her show, I hit the subscribe button and we hadn’t even met yet. Once we met, I knew that we were going to maybe one day do business together or be in a joint venture partnership together or something. Laura Meyer, Scale With Joy podcast. This is an amazing show. You can learn so much about it, especially if you’re building a multimillion-dollar business. That’s why it connected with me because she’s the right person to bring the right kind of information to the stage of business that I’m in. My personal favorite and hooked and subscribed after one episode, Laura Meyer, Scale With Joy.

 

The Best Business Lessons

We are at our top five! I’m going to say that these ones have the best business lessons. They’ve also been the ones that I’ve referred to the most or maybe brought me the most business at the end of the day. I know some of you are out there as business podcasters using your guesting strategy or your topic-based strategy, whatever it is to get business from your show. Mine is not any different than that. I’m trying to attract podcasters who are already podcasting out there, and pull them into our ecosystem so they’ll come and host on Podetize or they’ll come in and utilize our done-for-you production services. That’s the ultimate goal of my show. At the end of the day, it’s also a show for learning what’s working out there. These ones are the best business lessons out there. They’ve done the most for growing my business over the last couple of years so I have to put them in the top five for you.

No. 5

The number five favorite podcast from the past 100 Binge Factor episodes is the Most Engaging Interviewer. Veronica Dagher of the Secrets of Wealthy Women is another one that I subscribe to personally and listen to all the time. Veronica makes me want to up my interview game. She’s a Wall Street Journal journalist. She’s an amazing interviewer. She interviews other journalists, which is intimidating. Interviewing others in your industry when they’re already interviewers themselves can be intimidating. She does a fabulous job at it.

She goes deep and she gets them to tell stories that they maybe wouldn’t tell elsewhere. That’s a gift and so whenever I feel like I’m getting a little lazy with my interview tactics or it’s feeling a little programmatic, I go and listen to more of Veronica’s episodes and get to dial that in. Lucky me, I got to meet her in person at an event where we were both keynoting. I know she’s as engaging in person as she is over her podcast. You’re going to love connecting with her. Veronica Dagher, Secrets of Wealthy Women, coming in at number five as The Most Engaging Interview.

 

No. 4

Number four, the Most Locally Devoted Podcaster. Before I met this woman, I didn’t think you could do a successful local podcast. The one that was serving your local community and local businesses. Podcasters are heard all over the world so it seemed almost like a waste to use it as radio. Why wouldn’t you just record on the radio instead? That was my thinking before I met her. Audrey Bell-Kearney impressed me to no end with Good Morning Gwinnett and the model of podcasting that she’s been able to use to help her local community grow, help local businesses get more visibility, give them more publicity, give them more incredible Google value at the end of the day, being searchable and being found by giving them a podcast to be on, by reaching out to the local community and working with the Chamber of Commerce and all the other places. The Most Locally Devoted Podcaster award has to go to Audrey Bell-Kearney.

 

No. 3

Coming in at number three is the Loudest Podcast Industry Cheerleader. I hope he gets a big kick out of the image that we created for him. Lou Diamond, Thrive Loud podcast. Lou is an incredible podcast cheerleader. He is all about the industry, how it can grow and who you can connect with. He’s connected me with dozens of guests that I’ve had on my show. He is such as super-connector. I thought I was a good connector but Lou outdoes me. I may have been accused of being a little cheerleader-like but Lou fits it even better than me. Lou Diamond, the Loudest Podcast Industry Cheerleader is our number three award.

 

No. 2

Our number two, Most Valuable Show Swap is no surprise, Pat Flynn. A show swap is where I go on your show and you go on my show. Pat Flynn and I swap shows. He came to my show. I came on his show. His show is called Smart Passive Income for those of you who don’t know. I’d be shocked if you were in the podcast industry and you hadn’t heard his name before. Pat Flynn, I consider him the Godfather of Podcasting. John Lee Dumas is the King of Podcasting. Pat’s the Godfather of it. Many people have him to thank for starting their first show, including me. I read a lot of his blogs and I learned a lot from him. I also learned a lot from many other people at the same time. It was a lot of information that I found extremely valuable and it’s part of what we built into being a successful podcaster when we started. It was an honor to have him on my show. I never imagined how much benefit we each would get from show swapping. I’m very sure that he’s gotten subscribers to his show. I know that I’ve gotten subscribers and clients from being on his show. I’m sure that it was the most valuable show swap for both of us, but it was definitely for me. That’s why that one comes in at number two.

 

No. 1

My number one is My Most Referenced Podcast Host. I have said her name repeatedly on many episodes. I have said her name probably every single time I’ve been in a Clubhouse room speaking. I have told clients on strategy coaching calls about her. The reason is because she has a model of a podcast that is perfect. It’s amazing. It works perfectly. It has three components to it. Everything about it is done extremely well. She’s been doing this for years. She’s amazing at what she does. She’s got an amazing personality. She’s great in person as she is on her show. She’s an amazing life and relationship coach, and a love coach. Many podcasters out there have coaching models for a business that they’re trying to use podcasting for, but she is at the top.

My Most Referenced Podcast Host and coming in at number one of the most remarkable Binge Factor Episode is Kim Seltzer, The Charisma Quotient. You’re not going to want to miss checking out that show if you haven’t already, because I’ve already said that so many times! Congratulations, Kim Seltzer, and thank you so much for being on my show!

 

I want say that to every guest. Thank you all for being on my show, all 99 guests. I appreciated every one of them. I learned something from every single one. I’m sorry if you all couldn’t make my top list, but that’s the point of having a podcast library, to go check out all the shows.

If you want to check out more of the Superlatives, see the images that go with each one, click through, and get to any of the ones I mentioned here. Maybe you are exercising or you’re on your Peloton and listening to my show. You can go straight to TheBingeFactor.com. We have a blog post with everything in it and you get to see the fun graphics I created for each host. You can see what I did for them as we share them out on social media. You can click right through to their episodes. You can read about that specific episode. You can click right through to find them and their show as well.

Thanks, everyone, for celebrating my 100th episode with me. Thanks for being around and subscribing to The Binge Factor. If you loved the last 100, please share this with a friend. Share this with another podcaster out there. Invite them to come on my show and nominate them to be one of my next 100 guests. If you’re hesitant at all about whether or not you belong on The Binge Factor, apply anyway. My team is always willing to screen through and give you some feedback. If you’re not ready yet, they’ll tell you why. When you are ready, you can then come on to the show. I look forward to meeting another 100 diverse podcast hosts in the next series of shows. I thank you so much for being around for The Binge Factor. I’m Tracy Hazzard and I will be back for my 101st episode to bring you great podcast hosts with success tips, ways for you to grow your show, and to find your Binge Factor.

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