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Everyone wants to shortcut their way to success. What better way to do that than untangle all those complications and simplify the process? Be it for your business or for your podcast. In this episode, Tracy Hazzard invites a guest who has been doing just that! Steve Preda is a Leadership Team Coach and the host of the Management Blueprint podcast, a show dedicated to exploring business shortcuts to help growth-minded entrepreneurs and their teams reach their business pinnacles. Here, Steve shares a couple of those with us, particularly how you can monetize your show. He breaks down the different strategies and frameworks that allow him to grow, then gives us a peek into his book, Pinnacle: Five Principles that Take Your Business to the Top of the Mountain. Steve offers so many nuggets in this conversation, so tune in to not miss out!

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How Having A Management Blueprint Can Help You Monetize Your Show More With Steve Preda Of Management Blueprint Podcast

I have Steve Preda, Management Blueprint. It was previously called the ProfServ Traction or Professional Services Traction Show. He shifted it over time, and I love it when we talk to someone who has found something out, pivots their show, and shifts it into something better. I love when we can talk about that because there’s always an interesting story there that might apply to what you are thinking about. You can start out right or you can make that shift that you have been thinking about. Let’s get some background on Steve.

Steve Preda is a leadership team coach whose passion is to help to emerge privately owned businesses grow and thrive. He built and sold an investment banking firm in Europe before moving to the United States. He has written two Amazon bestsellers about transforming businesses into growing and thriving companies. His latest book, Pinnacle: Five Principles that Take Your Business to the Top of the Mountain, received 90 five-star reviews in its first 90 days. Steve explores business growth shortcuts on the Management Blueprint Podcast, and he loves helping growth-minded entrepreneurs and their leadership teams reach their business pinnacles. Let’s hear all about Management Blueprint Podcast with Steve Preda.

Steve, thanks for joining me and we are going to talk about Management Blueprint, and sometimes podcasters need to have a blueprint. They need to understand what they are getting into. Did you build yourself a plan before you started podcasting?

Not really. I had a wake-up plan. My plan was I want to have a podcast. I thought it could help my business. It would give me a medium that I could use. To regularly communicate with my audience without having to write down or have a blog. What attracted me was its regularity and systemized ability. Let’s put it this way but I didn’t have a specific plan other than wanting to talk about professional services firms, which was my interest. The podcast is originally called ProfServ Traction with a terrible name.

I was going to ask you about that next. ProfServ Traction, I listened to the first episode to check it out, and then I go, “Professional Services, ProfServ.” I thought it was some software term I didn’t know or some weird server thing.

It was a horrible name. I was blessed to have to abandon it because Management Blueprint is better. I’m not sure it’s perfect either because management is out of work term. It’s not just about management. It’s more about entrepreneurial businesses. Anyway, that’s what we got.

That’s the great thing about podcasting, though. You get to refine over time, and it’s okay to change your mind and change your name.

It’s not easy to change as everything is branded a certain way, and then you’ve got the links, and if you change the links, then you lose all the connections and the SEO. I wouldn’t advise this for other people but it seemed to be working so far.

There are some better ways to do it. There are some easier ways than others. We think it’s more complicated but it can be fairly simple. If you make some of the right choices, and not everybody knows how to do that. Luckily, I’ve done it multiple times. We have some tips for that. We give some guidance, so you don’t fall into Steve’s trap. Management Blueprint is a better name for it. When we are talking about some subject matters that have a clear alignment in space, when you are talking about Management Blueprint says, “Plans for management,” you are thinking through these things that not a lot of shows talk about.

There are a lot of entrepreneur shows, and you have to watch out because Entrepreneur Magazine will come after you if you label your show entrepreneur. You can’t use that term. Plus, it’s long. If I were looking for someone to help me with planning and with these things, I’m going to find a show like yours. Like the name’s attractive for that.

Maybe it needs a subtitle like a better description that describes it a little better. You cover those entrepreneurs and professional service people that you are always covering. It’s fine the way it is. I review a lot of shows, and it works. I like Management Blueprint, the topics of that you cover with your guests. I like the fact that you stayed pretty much around 30 minutes, and your people are busy professionals. You have had tight topics. You had one on pricing. The topic of pricing was a good episode for me to check out and listen to your show. Those topics are part of your management plan, and you don’t always deep dive into those individual topics, and you are able to do that with great guests and ideas.

My concept for the show, it’s called Management Blueprint, was the original term I came up with a couple of years ago. The idea, what it covers, is essentially a business framework. Everyone wants to shortcut their way to success. How do I simplify things? Maybe the first twenty show was not crystal clear about where we were going. After the twenty shows, we now recorded 120. It’s very clear that we are mining the conversation for a business framework.

Also, the listeners could implement it in their own businesses. It’s a short and simple way of doing something in the business, whether it’s pricing. What are the three ideas on pricing? If you follow that, your pricing is going to improve dramatically. The same goes for sales for marketing and the culture of your business for systemizing your business.

That’s what it’s all about. I am super excited because I never thought, except for the show, that there are many frameworks. Many of them have not been published anywhere other than the Management Blueprint Podcast. Many of them have not even been articulated by the person who uses them. In the conversation, it comes out, and then we articulate it. We give it the Pinnacle name, and there you go. We’ve got another framework.

I normally do everybody’s Binge Factor at some point in the episode. I’m going to do yours now, and it’s my opportunity to psychoanalyze what I think is going for you in your show and why people are going to listen to more than one episode. They are going to listen and binge through your portfolio of episodes there. It’s because you come across the Management Blueprint as curious about learning management plans, these blueprints and frameworks that you talk about. You are learning as much about them and absorbing and trying to figure out how to utilize them as your audience is.

There’s a level of excitement and energy that you are bringing through the show about, “This is something interesting and worth learning.” That makes us want to learn more. Of course, we want to check out the next episode to make sure we do learn more. “What’s next in this framework? What’s the next one, and how could we update and change ours?” It’s this learning energy that you have, this curiosity that’s working for you.

Thanks for noticing. It’s great to get feedback. Sometimes I feel I’m one of those selfish hosts that are all about their own curiosity and desire to learn something. Of course, I try to make it so that the guest shines on the show but it is undeniable. I’m curious about the business. I don’t invite people that I’m not curious about, and if I’m curious about them, then I’m going to dig deep and have a couple of my questions answered, and it’s a lot of fun.

I wouldn’t call it selfish. First off, you are benefiting your audience. I guarantee you that your clients are better off for this amalgam of information that you are gathering for them. The new tactics and new ideas that you are melding into your own process. Everyone is benefiting from this. Don’t think of it as selfish. You are putting out waves of additional knowledge so that’s a good thing.

Let’s move on to the three things that I ask everyone because you mentioned guests. I want to talk about how you find these great guests. I can see that you are being careful about who you are inviting to your show. They have interesting ideas, maybe something outside the norm. As you put it before, maybe they haven’t articulated it. How are you finding them? Are you thinking of, “I want to talk about this topic,” and go looking for them or are you stumbling across them?

I’m looking for people who have shown some success as an entrepreneur or as business leaders. I’m looking for people who have businesses that are maturing. If you are a solopreneur starting out, the chances are that you have an original framework that you developed this much lower. I’m going for more mature business leader entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs.

I look at their LinkedIn profile very carefully. I look at the website, their history on LinkedIn, and what they have achieved, and invite those that look promising. I try to mix it up. I don’t just want to have entrepreneurs that run marketing agencies. I’m looking for different kinds of businesses and expertise from these people. If I follow that, then the result tends to be pretty good.

Management Blueprint: I don’t just want to have entrepreneurs that run marketing agencies. I’m looking for different kinds of businesses and expertise from these people. If I follow that, the result tends to be pretty good.

There you go. You have a system down for yourself there and how you are working on it. Everyone wants to increase their listener base. It’s the podcaster’s dream. Everybody has a problem here. You wouldn’t be alone if you said,” I need more listeners.” Everybody needs more listeners. What do you think that you do well that does help you grow that listener base?

I don’t know if I’m doing it well enough. I hired someone who is helping me post. I’m not consistent. What I do is I got good guests, and I’ve got good visuals for the show. You mentioned that I keep it for 30 minutes. I didn’t start out like that. My early episodes were 45 to 50 minutes, some of them were five minutes when I had my own monologue. I made it more consistent. Visually it comes out good, and we promote it on LinkedIn primarily. Now I have someone who’s helping me so I can consistently post it. Certainly, I’m a student here. I’m green and growing. I don’t have a doubt.

LinkedIn is a good choice for you, that’s where your people are, where the listeners will be, and the under 30 minutes is working for you because they are busy. The people who are going to listen to your show are very busy but too short isn’t enough information. When they listen a little and they go, “That’s an interesting topic,” they will give it the full 30, and that’s important. That’s working for you there. Let’s talk about how this is translating into the business itself. We or you probably don’t think of your show as monetizing through the traditional model of it but I’m sure it’s helping your business. In what way are you receiving a return on investment from the podcast?

There are multiple ways that there’s a return. One is that it’s a great way to network. I meet interesting people. I learn their ideas. It keeps me fresh. I’ve got clients who I’m working with helping companies grow, and I can bring these ideas into these sessions. I can teach some of these frameworks to them. That’s super helpful. I also write books. For example, I’m thinking about my next book and how it is going to be about some of the frameworks I learn.

How I’m going to organize them so that it’s useful and I can touch different areas in the business and give a higher-level business framework and business operating system? My previous book was about that. I can take this to the next level. That’s something I’m thinking about. I meet great people. Many of them read my book. If they like me, they are going to refer me. Sometimes they become my clients. It’s a great way to talk to people who are relevant, who focus on half an hour that we spent together to provide great information. It’s a very engaging way of communicating with them.

I love that you are looking at it from a more holistic perspective as to, “What is my return from this?” Rather than saying, “This is my one metric,” Too often, people give up on their show before they realize how great it is and you’ve gotten over a hundred episodes under your belt. That usually means that you have started to see this layering of return on investment from your show.

Some of the things that I want to mention are that part of what attracted me and made me invite you to my show here. It isn’t because you have over 100 episodes, and Management Blueprint sounded like something we would want to talk about. It was also because you have Ps, and you have your book, Pinnacle, and you’ve got five principles, and they are all Ps.

Pinnacle: Five Principles that Take Your Business to the Top of the Mountain

The process that I used to do with my product development clients was the seven Ps. I was like, “I have to check this up.” I went to go check out your website and the Ps that were there. I loved the overlap in them. You’ve got People, Purpose, Playbooks, Perform and Profit. I love playbooks as an idea. That’s what your show is working on. Maybe that’s your new name in there. You got to work the playbook in there. That’s the new twist on Management Blueprint. That might be your new book name, something like that.

There’s something there because this is what people are looking for. When I was asked to write a column for Inc Magazine, they wanted stuff that was nitty-gritty and tactical. You have that, and that’s a great appeal. Thinking about it, in terms of your process, your platforms, and all the things that you are working on and doing, do you think that Pinnacle your five principles apply to the show itself and not just your business? Could you treat it like that as well? It’s a little ecosystem.

It is possible to relate to it. A podcast is a business. Maybe it starts out as a one-dimensional business. It’s more about communicating and getting the word out. If you think about it, a podcast is all about attracting the right people on the show and the right listeners who would appreciate the content.

Also, the right guests because it’s networking. It’s both.

Exactly, either guests or audience. If it doesn’t have a purpose, then it’s less attractive. It’s more of a commodity. The podcast fits in with my personal but my personal purpose is to create and distribute tools for entrepreneurs that help their business move better and go faster. The purpose of this show is aligned with my personal purpose. Playbooks, that’s what it’s all about.

It’s all about finding new tactics and tools.

It’s about finding playbooks for different areas of the business. Perform if you implement these playbooks, you are going to perform much better. The playbooks are designed to accelerate your growth and your performance and make it more systemized, logical and organic.

Management Blueprint: The playbooks are designed to accelerate your growth and performance, make it more systemized, logical, and organic, and ultimately, profit.

Ultimately, profit.

Profit is going to be the byproduct. We have the Pers Sjofors episode and the pricing that you mentioned. Pricing is all about improving your profits. Sometimes there’s small resistance to increasing the price, and you can improve your margin dramatically by applying one of these frameworks that came on the show, and there are many frameworks like that. It does apply.

It does. Maybe that’s the lesson. Many of us start a show without a plan or a framework in place for what we are thinking about. We miss some of the pieces, and it takes us time to start filling in those pieces. That’s why you pivot your show name, add a social media person and add these things. Sometimes we don’t have the budget to be able to do that at the beginning.

If we know that’s going to happen when we hit this metric when we perform at this level, then it’s time to add my social media person in place and whatever that might be. If we looked at it from a framework standpoint, we would accelerate the success of our show. Too many podcasters are visionaries. We forget that there are tactics and other things out there.

Vision is great. It’s easier to be a visionary than to be a good execution person.

I’m glad you said that. That’s true. Lots of people think, “There are many people without vision in the world.” I find it is the other way.

It’s easy to dream and daydream and have these grandiose ideas. Execution is the name of the game.

What’s next for your podcast? What’s on top for the future here?

I haven’t thought about how to evolve it. My sense is going to be a soft evolution. How it started was we were looking at these major frameworks like scaling up, email, and Great Game of Business. The big ones are all about the whole company, Pinnacle is like that as well. We are now moving towards niche frameworks inside the business because we covered all the major ones. We are now digging deeper. Are we going to run out of material? I don’t think we are going to run out soon.

I don’t think you are going to run out at all. There are as many frameworks as businesses out there.

Probably, at some point, it’s going to be more frameworks that are on the fringe of the business. We are all over what the major functions are. Everybody’s business has sales, marketing, operations, finance, administration, and engineering. We can find some niche things. Podcasting can be a framework as well. How do you use podcasting for your business? What are the five steps to launching a great podcast? You could be a good guest on the show as well.

Thank you. I would love to at any time. The idea of it, there’s a timing thing. I’m in the restructure. We have over 100 staff members at my core company, Podetize. I’m restructuring the management level. There are times that you make framework changes too. That could be interesting to explore as well. Is it the right time for you to make this change, or is it too soon, and it’s going to stress everybody out? Is it too late, and you are going to need to work harder to make it happen?

You need to close your business now. It’s too late.

As your business shifts and grows, sometimes it happens in a very speedy way, and you don’t realize that you didn’t put the framework in place. What happens to a lot of podcasters is that they accelerate into this, and they are like, “I have all these listeners or I have all these guests wanting to be on my show. I need a system. I need a framework. I didn’t think about this before. How does this fit into my overall business?” I do think that happens.

You have to think ahead of your growth and put the foundations and the infrastructure in place so that you can keep growing, and you are not going to be the stop-and-go growth cycle that can be dangerous.

What advice do you have for an aspiring podcaster out there? Someone who’s visionary and has been thinking about it, dreaming about it but hasn’t taken off?

Just keep doing it. Show up. Don’t try to overly systemize it. That can backfire as well. I see some people who automate everything on their podcasts. I was even invited to a podcast where the host didn’t even show up. They delegated the interviewing to someone else who was not as into it, and that’s a mistake. Overly automating can be a mistake. Stay engaged with it, enjoy it, and be excited about your podcast, and then the guests are going to be excited as well. If you get bored of it, then find a way to rejuvenate.

Steve, I am glad you came on to talk about Management Blueprint, and I wish you well in your show. I hope you make it another 100 episodes. It’s a fantastic idea, and I look forward to seeing the book that comes out next.

Thank you, Tracy, for having me on the show.

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I find it fascinating when someone learns more from their podcast than they are getting anywhere else. That’s a fascinating return on investment model from podcasting. I love to learn. A lifetime learner is a way I am, and I love it when you can do that. What you are learning and communicating back and forth on is taking information and transforming that into something useful for your clients, for your next book or whatever it is that you are working on. That, to me, has a residual value that can’t be measured. It’s not going to be measured in the downloads. It’s not going to be measured in the number of listeners or anything like that.

What it’s going to be measured is the overall growth for your business and you, yourself. That, to me, is very fascinating, and I love that Steve was able to highlight that for us here, and it’s a part of his Management Blueprint. Of course, you have to grow. That’s part of the process. Thanks to Steve Preda. Check out Management Blueprint. It might be something you need in your business thinking about growing. Check out that podcast. I will be back next time with another Binge Factor host who is bringing you a different perspective on podcasting.

Important Links

• Pinnacle: Five Principles that Take Your Business to the Top of the Mountain
• Management Blueprint Podcast
• Steve Preda
• Pers Sjofors – Management Blueprint Podcast Past Episode
• Podetize
• https://Bit.ly/MBPodcastPlaylistYT
• https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/stevepreda/
• https://www.Facebook.com/steveipreda/
• https://www.Instagram.com/stevepreda/
• https://www.TikTok.com/@steveipreda
• https://Twitter.com/StevePredaCom

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