Binge Factor Media

Many business authors have written tremendous books, but no one reads them because they lack proper marketing knowledge. Book publisher-turned-business leader Jodi Brandstetter is on a mission to help these promising individuals reach their target readers and make their books known through the power of podcasting. Joining Tracy Hazzard, the host of Book Smarts Business Podcast talks about helping business authors become better guests, establishing influence and building authority one show at a time. Jodi also explains how to repurpose guesting episodes to advance book marketing, how to play the Amazon bestselling campaign game, and why integrating books into email signatures is the best thing many authors ignore.

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From Page To Power: The Path Of A Publisher To Business Leadership With Jodi Brandstetter Of Book Smarts Business Podcast

In this episode, I have got Jodi Branstetter. She’s an author, influencer, and expert who’s got a podcast called the Book Smarts Business Podcast. I like the title. It’s impactful. You want to be smart about business books. Her goal is to work with authors early on in the process because then, she can help them more with marketing, influence, writing the right book, and all the different things in that process.

She believes everyone can be an influencer in their industry by being curious. We certainly know that being curious is one of the strengths most of the podcasters that are successful that I interview here on the show have. She’s no different. She helps curious people in two ways, become an expert in HR and talent through coaching and training and authors to become and gain authority in their industry.

She’s a best-selling author and best-selling publisher with over twenty years of experience in human resource talent and business. She’s the Founder of Lean Effective Talent Strategies, an HR and development firm. She is also a Cofounder of Influence Network Media, a hybrid publishing and media company that has helped over 100 business professionals become Amazon bestsellers.

She lives outside of Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and daughter. She has got a big gift for interviewing. You’re going to hear that come across in the show here. She talks about why but you’re going to hear it in her show. Check out this episode and know what I’m hearing as to why this episode is so great. We have so much we can learn here on this episode from Jodi so let’s go interview Jodi Branstetter of the Book Smarts Business Podcast.

Jodi, I am so glad to have you on the show. We’re going to talk about Book Smarts Business Podcast and all things author to an influencer, that whole model. It’s so interesting to look at the stage timing of this. That’s what I want to ask you about. I know you wrote a book and then you started your podcast, if I’m not wrong in the order of operation.

It is. I have been in the HR world for twenty-plus years. That’s been my bread and butter. I wrote a book in 2020. I love the experience and thought, “How could I help others do that too?” I founded a new company. It is company number two for me, which is crazy to think about. When I did that, I was like “How amazing would it be to have a podcast where we can help elevate business authors to be exact, and help their readers get to know them a little bit better?” They get to know the book a little bit better but then also, we can help our clients that we serve with being that first podcast if they haven’t been a podcast guest before. I started it after the book and after creating the second business.

Did you find it easier after that and for your authors to have the podcasting in the mix made it a little easier to promote the book?

Yes. A lot of our authors are first-time authors. They’re entrepreneurs that maybe haven’t done PR or a specific type of marketing that would be focused around podcasts. We see the power of a podcast for authors so we wanted to help them feel more confident to out there and be a guest, and then hopefully, tear that Band-Aid off. If they mess up, we edit and we can help them shine.

Many of those, I’m going to call them the author profile shows, don’t go on too long. Yours are nice and short. They’re under twenty minutes. They’re talking at the heart of what the book’s about. I hear very often when you are interviewing, you’re not doing, “Why’d you write the book?” You’re not prescriptive. You’re trying to get the authors to converse.

Being a recruiter by trade, I’ve been interviewing since 2000 so for a while. I took my gift of interviewing as a recruiter and brought it over to the podcast. I wanted to make sure that our authors felt comfortable but also that we were having a conversation. It’s so annoying to be listening to a podcast and all the questions are the same or it is question and answer. I feel like as a podcast host, I need to be bringing my voice to the conversation too. Having more of that conversation versus question and answer helps with that.

Business Authors: It is so annoying to listen to a podcast that goes through one question and one answer at a time. Podcast hosts should bring their voices to the conversation to make it more engaging.

I was thinking about you being a professional interviewer. What you do is the same model in human resources and when you’re interviewing for a job. That’s exactly what it is when you’re exposing someone to your listening audience. It’s like a job interview.

There are a lot of skills that you get by being a recruiter and an interview specialist. I’m able to absorb a lot of content, be able to do a summary of it or be able to then go to the next question that I have in more of a conversation versus going straight to the question. It’s nice. If there are any recruiters out there reading this, you could be a podcast host and do an excellent job at it.

You have a superpower you didn’t even know. I love it. That’s a great insight. Connecting the two, I see why your show is the way that it is and why the flow is efficient too. You get right to the heart of the matter, which is exactly what you have to do as a recruiter. You don’t have a lot of time. You got a lot of candidates to screen through. If you’ve got some questions, you got to be pointed about them. I bet you anything this bothers you as much as it bothers me. When you start to hear that prepared answer, all you want to do is break off it. You want to get out of that into the conversation and move them away from that.

I do provide questions that I may ask before the podcast to help them prepare a little bit. Especially for those newbies, I am giving them something to practice at home with their spouse or a friend to get a little bit more comfortable before they get on the podcast. One of the things I do is it is a fifteen-minute podcast. I always ensure I have at least 30 minutes with them because, for the first 15 minutes, I’m trying to warm them up. I make them feel confident in themselves and make sure they understand the logistics. We then go into it feeling like we already know each other because I talked to them for a solid fifteen minutes beforehand.

I can hear that. It almost feels like they’re already comfortable with you. I had a feeling that they already knew you, which makes sense if you’re interviewing clients.

50% I know and 50% I don’t know.

You can’t tell the difference.

I feel like when I’m listening to a podcast or when I am a podcast host, I want it to feel like we’re having coffee together, it’s a conversation, and we know each other. For you to say that is a huge compliment. Thank you.

Business Authors: Podcast hosts should lead conversations like having a coffee with the guest. It should sound as if a discussion between two people who know each other well.

It is your binge factor. It’s the binge factor that you have a tight and directed intimacy with your authors. That makes for a better promotional piece for them on the other side. Sometimes, we forget about that value to the guest side of them that they need something that’s concise and specific to share out, not something maybe as long-tailed as we are doing for our show purposes.

Since I started as a guest on a podcast and then created my podcast, I do think about my guest and what they’re trying to accomplish. It is so that hopefully, when it’s completed, it is nicely packaged and they’re excited to share it with their audience. It helps elevate them to that author-to-influencer mindset that we have.

Speaking of an author to an influencer, what are some real difficulties that authors have or challenges that authors have trying to create that influence? Most of them come in believing, “I write the book and it’s done. I’ve got influence,” but you and I both know it doesn’t work like that.

That’s one of the detriments of people who don’t know that it’s not just writing the book. I loved writing my book but then I realized, “I have to market this book in a way that connects me with my ideal audience.” That was a whole job itself. I feel like that took more time, energy, and effort from me than writing my book.

As an author, one of the things that I experienced was once I got my book out and I published it, I was exhausted. I’ve read it 10 or 20 times through the editing process. I went for an Amazon bestseller. That was a goal of mine so I was constantly asking people to buy it for launch day. All of a sudden, afterward, I wanted to go on vacation from this book but I can’t. You can’t go on vacation immediately after. You have to keep pushing through.

That’s where planning and having things ready to go is beneficial for authors to elevate it. It is being able to think about, “What are the different talks I might want to present to conferences or organizations that are around my book while I’m writing?” You’re already in that creative content piece. Why not jot some ideas down for presentations you can build from there?

You can also think about making that podcast list while you’re still writing so that you can hit the ground running. You are trying to become a guest on a podcast instead of waiting until the very end and then saying, “I have to do all this research or hire someone to do this for me.” There is a little bit of a lull. You don’t want a lull right after you launch your book.

How early do you get involved with authors?

At the very beginning most of them. We’re a hybrid book publisher. We will help with the whole writing process to designing their cover, formatting, publishing, as well as marketing it. We work with groups of people who want to write together so our collective book opportunity. We also work with solo authors. We do have some that want us to do very specific things like launch their book, market their book, or make it an audiobook when it’s already been launched. We can be at the beginning to the end helping them with whatever they’re wanting us to do.

That’s so good because when you’re catching them at that earlier stage, you can be a little bit more influential in how they capture content for later marketing. A lot of times, I get the authors and it’s way too late. By the time, they’re like, “I’d like to start a podcast.” I’d be like, “You launched your book two months ago. We got a lot more work to do.”

Right at the very beginning of saying yes to being an author, you have to know the goal that you have for that book. As a business author, your goal is not royalties. It shouldn’t be. It should be, “I want to move into this new role at my organization. Being an author is going to influence that decision. I want to increase my clients. I want to start a business.” Whatever that goal is, know it upfront. While you’re writing, you are also looking at your marketing strategy. That way, the marketing strategy is tied to whom you want to read the book and the overarching goal that you want that book to have for you professionally.

Let’s talk a little bit about Amazon. You’ve got affiliate links into all of your episodes, which I find not the biggest payoff for a lot of people. It’s residual income. You should do it but is it big enough? I don’t know. How can an author maybe get more of those affiliate links going in places?

I agree with you on affiliate. We’re not making amazing money off of it. It’s residual income. I always talk about how there’s a game that’s played and you should be a part of the game. If that is a game, like the affiliate is, then do it. For us, we did it because if I’m going to be out talking to authors and sharing their gifts or their books, I would do a little piece as a thank you. We don’t charge for our podcast. It’s a free podcast for our authors. We gift everything to them that we do. This is one way for us to monetize our podcast. For authors, you want to look at the affiliate program and see if you can be one. It was not that hard.

You can do that in your book. That’s an unknown thing that most people don’t realize. If you go on a podcast that doesn’t have an affiliate link program, you can give them yours. They’ll put it in because they don’t know the difference. They have no idea. They’re like, “That’s your book link? That’s great.” It’s got your affiliate built into it. You were talking about the game so I do want you to mention what you mean by the game. You’re talking about the game that if you drive traffic into Amazon, you get more on the other side.

One of the biggest games that everyone has, whether they love it or hate it, is the Amazon bestselling strategy. I have people talk to me all the time about how it’s not worth it or not real. To me, it’s a game. I want to be a player in that game so I can also win that game. That’s the affiliate program. Our life is a game that we are living each day. If you take every success that you have, like waking up in the morning or making sure my daughter gets out of the house with her hair brushed, these are all successes that I will celebrate. That is my game. I’m going to celebrate every achievement that I have, big and small.

I’m going to be an Amazon best-selling author and publisher because I see the benefit of that game. Visibility, credibility, and opportunity are all there. With an affiliate link, that is a game of getting money without doing much. You have a link. You’re sending it to people. You’re sharing it. You’re providing an opportunity for them to find a book that they wouldn’t have known about without you marketing it. To me, that is a game.

Business Authors: Affiliate links allow authors to get money without doing much. You share links to people, providing them an opportunity to find your book easily.

I don’t disagree with you. We so underestimate the value of playing the algorithmic game, whether it’s on social media, Amazon, or podcasting with the apps. I talk about this all the time on my other show, Feed Your Brand. It’s an optimization game. The reality is if you want your book to be seen and found and you want people to buy it, you have to play the game of showing up in the search engines or you’re not visible.

That’s what I always tell my authors. I’m like, “If someone else is playing the game, why aren’t you?”

It’s the cost of doing business and being an author.

There are benefits. It’s simplistic most of the time. It doesn’t take a lot of time. Amazon gives me this beautiful little bar at the top of my link. I get a little link from it and I’m done. I can click and see if anyone used my link. They automatically put it in my business account. We save that so that we have some pennies to do stuff with. It’s pennies. It’s not exciting like royalties are not exciting.

We wish they were.

I wish they were. At the same time, if I can gift my book to someone and they benefit from it, and they call me and say, “Jodi, I need you to help my business do X, Y, and Z,” and I get a project from them and am truly able to help them, that $3 or $4 was worth it. To me, I’d rather gift my book to everyone or make it my business card than leave it on Amazon and hope people find it.

I am so glad you are advising your authors this way. I would love to hear some of the marketing advice that you give on the social media side as well. We get a lot of guests on the show, especially author guests, who do a terrible job of promoting the podcast that they’ve been a guest on. Do you give them advice? Do you give them direction on what they should do with every guest spot that they receive?

Absolutely. There are some key no-brainers that every author should be doing. One is highlighting it and sharing it on social media. If I take the time as a host and create this beautiful graphic for you to use, use it. That’s number one. Use it on social, your website, or wherever people might connect with you. You can even put it in your email signature and highlight that for the month and then the next month, highlight something different. I don’t know if people know this but you can edit your email signature whenever you want. It’s shocking. It’s amazing that you can do this so people, do it. Do you have your book in your email signature? If not, shame on you.

We have a rule in my company that you have to look at it once a month. We have an alert that we send out in our company. I have 88 employees. We send out an alert that says, “Everybody, take a look at your signature. Is it out of date? Add something new. Add the latest episode in,” or whatever it might be.

That’s brilliant because I can tell you that I have seen success for myself, in general, by adding specific things to my email signature. I added all of the As Seen By or all the different media that I had. I can tell you that I got a new quote on my top website that I wanted to be quoted in after I shifted my email signature. It was an amazing quote but it wasn’t my best work. There was a correlation with my email signature.

Going back to social media, one is highlighting it. The other piece is putting your thoughts around the podcast. If you highlight it and people are sharing comments and saying, “I found this part interesting,” write a blog and tag the podcast in the blog. Do a LinkedIn article or go to Medium.com and do an article there.

Find a way to continue that conversation. The host was interested in the conversation and was like, “I’m going to guest other people who are probably going to be interested.” Not everyone goes straight to a podcast so being able to do something in video format, written format, or whatever is always very powerful. The first step is sharing it. You can do that first and then add on.

The thing we talk about a lot with our authors is the power of repurposing content and how that can help save you time. That’s what we’re talking about here. It is taking a podcast and expanding the conversation in very easy ways so that you are still talking about that same topic but directing it in different ways or using different channels. That’s going to boost your engagement on your social media channels.

It’s so often and you talked about this, that if you know your goal and your goal is to increase authority, enter a new market, or do something that is more on a credibility side and then you’re not putting it on your website, not sharing it in your newsletter, and not changing your email signature, you’re not doing it to meet the purpose. You’re not getting there. You’re narrowly thinking of, “I was on a spot and I hope I sold a few books to the listeners.” That’s it. You and I both know that’s highly unlikely because they’re listeners, not readers. Sorry to insult any of my audience out there but I know most of you are not readers.

Even if they are but they can’t find your book easily from that podcast, they’re not going to buy it anyway. You’re asking them to make several steps online. When I was in recruiting, every time you had to click, it was a 50% drop off in general. Each time you’re asking them to do that click, they may not do it. However you can make it easier for them to find you, find your book, or find what you’ve done, the better.

That’s also important when we’re screening and thinking about whom we want to guest on. Some hosts do a much better job of linking in the descriptions and putting out information. We accept guest spots a little indiscriminately and not thinking, “Are they going to do an effective job of putting that?” I’m not in control of how it appears in a feed or the listing for the show so I always check that. That’s a subterfuge thing. I’m like, “Do you do a good job of listing? If you don’t, then I’m not going to be on your show.” We only have so much time in the day.

You have to make good sound decisions on what you do for every moment of your day and life. If it’s not helping you with your ultimate goal or you don’t see the benefit, don’t do it. I remember when I was first looking at being a guest on a podcast, I 100% listened to at least one and looked at the reviews. I made decisions based on that. There was one where I felt like the sound quality wasn’t there. It was hard for me to hear. I’m like, “I don’t want to be on that.” I had another one who had a very low rating because of one specific episode. I listened to it and I didn’t believe in what they were saying so I chose not to pitch myself to that podcast. What if they said yes? You’re then stuck doing it. You’re like, “I didn’t want to be on that podcast.”

Sound is a big thing for me. It’s not like I can’t handle a little bit of an echo or something like that. That doesn’t bother me. Maybe they don’t have the best microphone. That’s okay to me but when there are crackles and annoying pops, you’re like, “Ugh.”

It sounds like they’re on the freeway.

They can’t have a good listening base because you can’t listen to that for a long period.

It’s like with an audiobook. I have listened to audiobooks that authors have created themselves. Power to them. I had a voiceover do mine because my voice is not going in an audiobook. I wish they would’ve listened and heard all the background noise because it’s so hard to pay attention when you have all those noises in the back. They’re not getting what you want and that’s sad. You desperately want anyone who buys your book to read it or listen to it and get something out of it. That’s the biggest goal for any author.

The podcast is the same thing. You want them to listen all the way through and not crash out because they can’t stand the sound from the beginning. Downloads are not everything. Play through.

It’s so different. When you’re reading a book, you have a specific tone that you’re trying to accomplish. When you’re watching a video, there’s a different quality that you’re looking for. When you’re listening to a podcast that’s audio, there’s a quality that you’re looking for. You want to make sure you do your best so that you can reap the rewards for the time it takes. It’s not easy hosting, editing, and getting a podcast out. This is not like, “It’s done in a minute.” It takes a lot of time, energy, and effort to do it.

Let’s talk a little bit about monetization. I understand that your model is maybe a little bit more on the authoritative and influence side. You’re probably doing a little bit more nurturing for your client base, which is helping you get referrals and hopefully, appealing to somebody else by offering the opportunity of the podcast. How is monetization happening? I’m going to say that in terms of return on investment from your time, energy, and money spent on podcasting.

We 100% use it to nurture our clients to make sure that they feel confident in their book and marketing it. That’s a big piece of our podcast. We haven’t tried any of the traditional monetization with our podcast but the other thing that we do is offer it to other authors. When I’m talking to those authors, I’m learning about them and seeing if is there anything I can help them with.

You’re talking about some authors that you’ve talked to and they haven’t started the marketing or put that energy into creating that podcast. I’m trying to figure out, “What do they need next? How can I help them?” We’ll be able to pitch projects to authors who are on our podcast who either found me or I found them and ask them to be on the show.

Authors want to get more stages. That’s a common thing I hear from a lot of authors, especially business authors. They don’t always have the authority level and value to command an audience. That’s what event planners are looking for. They’re looking for, “Can this person command an audience?” Doing a podcast is a great way to do that even if you’re only guesting.

Every time that you can be in front of a mic and share your story or expertise, you are helping event planners see you as the next keynote speaker or a breakout session individual. One of the authors that was on my podcast was someone who had already published his book. I helped publish his audiobook. I was able to move him to a client from an author guest. He took a piece of our audio from our podcast and added it to his speaker reel. It was powerful. I’m like, “This is an amazing idea.” If you’re on a podcast, use it. Use that audio and content to elevate yourself to that speaker, a workshop host, or whatever that goal is.

We don’t look at all the ways we could repurpose our opportunities from guesting in other people’s shows. It’s one of the reasons we developed a bunch of tools that we use all the time because it’s highly underutilized. It’s still content. Even if you didn’t develop it, to begin with, it’s still your voice.

Share it. Gift it. Love it. Nurture it. It’s a baby. Give your baby love. Every time you talk and it’s recorded or you’re on video, give it love. Make sure.

That is such good advice. I’m so glad you said that. To give you a little love, you’re very close to publishing 100 episodes. You’ve probably already recorded them. Do you have plans for your 100th episode? We were talking about celebrating before.

I celebrate every moment of my life. We are wrapping up our third book series. I’m going to be tying the celebration of the podcast 100, which is crazy to think I’ve done 100 podcasts.

You have hit the elite percentage of podcasters. Less than 5% ever hit 100.

That’s crazy to think that a couple of years ago, I was a sweet little recruiter hiring people for jobs. We’re celebrating. We’re hoping to have a little bit of a bigger celebration with some of our authors and have some in-person time. We started the business during the pandemic so we’ve only had a few years to get to hang out with everyone that we’ve gotten to celebrate. We’re going to do something but it’s probably not going to be until September 2023 because school is about to start. It’s going to be a shameless plug but my daughter published her first book.

I’m going to go make my daughters jealous because I would love for them to be authors.

It’s amazing. She wants to be famous. That’s her goal in life. I love her to death. I need to give that love.

That book has got to be at the launch party.

It’s going to be in every library in the Cincinnati area and every elementary school in Cincinnati. Our goal is to get it out there because it has a wonderful message.

What’s our title here?

It is called Go with Your Heart. It is about making good decisions when you’re playing at recess. She also wants to be on podcasts. Sabrina, who has connected us, has already told me that she would interview my daughter. She’s coming into the world of podcasting at eight years old. This is going to be fun. I’m so excited that I was able to put this together for her because I learned something in my life and I was able to give that to her. I’m so proud of her and excited about this because she is pumped.

You got a lot to celebrate. I love it. We hope to make sure that this episode comes out at the right time so that all of the celebrations are happening and everyone can join you. All of you reading out there, please be sure to check out Book Smarts Business Podcast by Jodi Branstetter. Amazing job. Thank you so much for bringing your influence into the author world and the podcasting world.

Thank you, Tracy. I’ve enjoyed this conversation thoroughly. You are a wonderful host. Thank you so much.

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I told you we’d have a lot to learn from Jodi. Here is one of the things that resonate with me. There is so little information out there about the power of podcast guesting for authors and the power of having a podcast for those authors as well. Many authors are not ready to have a podcast at the beginning. That’s why programs and systems like Jodi’s are so important. If they can share how to be better on a podcast, how to be a better guest, get their feet wet, pull that Band-Aid off as Jodi called it, and get them their first interview, it’s going to change the outcome.

How many times have you had a guest who’s an author on your show who’s coached by some professional publicist that all they do are sound bites or say, “You can get that from my book?” It’s not a good experience. What do we do as hosts? We tend to turn away authors. I turn away more authors than I turn away more podcast hosts because of that reason. If someone like Jodi is advising them and her podcast is helping them get broken out of that and understand the power of podcast guesting and the power of podcasting in general, we’re going to have a better ecosystem for all of us.

I also love that Jodi was trying to get across the idea to her clients and these authors out there that there’s more to podcast guesting and more to podcasting than selling books. There’s authority build and all of these other reasons. If you start with that purpose in mind, everything in your marketing is going to flow better. Your book publishing and Amazon bestseller campaign are going to go better. All of those things are going to flow because you understand their purpose better.

It reminds me of when I worked with a well-known shark on Shark Tank. He was putting out his fifth book. He had this list of all these shows that he was going to go and guest on that was built by a publicist. He asked me because we happened to be in the same mastermind group to take a look at it. I looked down the list and it had twenty shows that he was going to be on.

I looked at them and thought, “I don’t think he’s going to sell a lot of books on these shows. I don’t think he’s going to connect with the right people on these shows, the people who might become book buyers, parts of his program, and followers of his in general.” I felt like these were built for the lists that are podcast influence lists. It’s the top best in any category or something like that. They’re usually built off Spotify and Apple lists.

I pulled him a different list. I pulled ten that I thought would be well-matched in terms of listenership form. I said, “Here are the ten I recommend. You probably want to supplement. Maybe you want to substitute some of these other ones.” He decided to go on 30 shows so he took my 10 and added the 20. When he got back to me later, what he said was he sold more books, got more boost in listenership, and got more followers for his podcast out of the 10 shows I gave him than the 20 combined.

What that says to me is that when we approach it from a more methodical way and more of an influence model like Jodi has been talking about here, we have a better chance of having a better outcome when our outcome and our process or our marketing are matched. If we’re looking at what that’s going to be as an author to a podcaster, we need to make sure that we’re following the advice of someone who understands both worlds like Jodi Branstetter, and following the Book Smarts Business Podcast.

If you’re an author-podcaster and treading in both worlds, you want to get advice from both of us. You want to get podcasting advice from someone like me who has been in this world for a long time and understands it intimately. You’re going to weigh that with the advice in the author world too so you can make a decision about which piece of advice overlaps so you could do more with the advice that you’re getting. You’re going to have a better outcome because of that.

I’m so glad you’re reading the show. I can expose you to amazing podcasters like Jodi Branstetter and give you advice that treads into both worlds. Connect up with Jodi and her podcast. Check it out. Find some advice that’s useful to you through that process as well. I’ll be back next time with a great binge-factor podcaster.

Important Links

• Jodi Brandstetter
• Book Smarts Business Podcast – Apple Podcasts
• Lean Effective Talent Strategies – YouTube
• Influence Network Media
• Medium.com
• Feed Your Brand
• Go with Your Heart
• LinkedIn.com/in/JodiBrandstetter

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