How Podcast Thought Leadership Propels Your Practice and Creates a Successful Show With Mitchell Beinhaker Of The Accidental Entrepreneur Podcast

As part of my series of interviews about “5 things you need to know to create a bingeable podcast”, I had the pleasure of interviewing business lawyer and estates attorney Mitchell Beinhaker.

Mitchell runs a solo legal & consulting practice representing business owners, entrepreneurs, executives and professionals. Throughout his 28 years of practice, Mitchell has handled business development, marketing, firm management, along with business transactional work for clients of the firm. He has extensive experience with corporate governance, commercial transactions, real estate and risk analysis. Using his many years of practical experience, he drafts contracts, negotiates purchases and can manage outside counsel for any corporate situation. For business owners and executives, he creates and implements estate plans, along with succession plans to help companies continue for future generations.

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Can you tell us a bit of your “personal backstory? What is your background and what eventually brought you to this particular career path?

I have always been more of an entrepreneur than a business attorney. And as a business advisor, I want to help people be more successful and allow listeners to learn from others’ successes and failures. I created the podcast to be a thought leader and create content to raise my profile and promote my practice. I think I can reach and help the most people in this manner.

Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?

I’ve been fortunate to interview many interesting people on “The Accidental Entrepreneur Podcast” who have shared their stories because they feel it will benefit other people. My first interview, with Jack Killion, was the most eye-opening experience which made me realize that the long-form interview format is the most beneficial for the podcast listeners.

Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or takeaways you learned from that?

Early on, I interviewed a guest and discovered after 50 or so minutes that our equipment malfunctioned. Or perhaps I hadn’t set up the recording properly. It was very embarrassing and I felt I wasted this gentleman’s time. I spent a lot of time after that, learning about equipment and software to avoid that problem in the future.

 

How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?

I started “The Accidental Entrepreneur Podcast” about 2 years ago. To date, 69 episodes have been released and 104 have been recorded and are being edited.

What are the main takeaways, lessons or messages that you want your listeners to walk away with after listening to your show?

That they learn from our guests’ experiences and it helps them get a hold of their businesses. Learning to write a business plan, knowing their target market, knowing their numbers, etc…

In your opinion what makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or your content?

I think the long-form interview is the most interesting, natural format. As an entrepreneur’s podcast, listeners have access to people from around the world who have (in Jack Killion’s words) “been there, done that.”

Doing something on a consistent basis is not easy. Podcasting every work-day, or even every week can be monotonous. What would you recommend to others about how to maintain discipline and consistency? What would you recommend to others about how to avoid burnout?

Consistency is not easy, but it is one of the keys to success. I release episodes on Tuesdays and Fridays and you get listeners in a habit of expecting this. Interviewing different people all the time never lacks interest and does not burn me out. I am constantly introduced to interesting people around the world. If someone creates a podcast, they need to be careful about putting themselves in a position of having to create new content time in and time out. That leads to burnout.

What resources do you get your inspiration for materials from?

From my clients who have struggled and had to close their businesses due to lack of planning and foresight.

Is there someone in the podcasting world who you think is a great model for how to run a really fantastic podcast?

Guy Raz and NPR; Jordan Harbinger; Joe Rogan; Malcolm Gladwell

What are the ingredients that make that podcast so successful? If you could break that down into a blueprint, what would that blueprint look like?

The interview format is key. I also use the NPR “Hook” format and hope that compels people to continue listening. It’s also important to make the guests sound interesting and compelling since the podcast is content marketing for them as well.

Can you share with our readers the five things you need to know to create an extremely successful podcast?

1. Choose a unique, catchy and memorable name. Not everyone should use their name in the podcast
2. Create a mailing this to grow your listenership. I know a lot of podcasters who post on social media but do not take steps to add people to their list. I have a growing list of 2,700 subscribers.
3. Contact the top social media influencers in your genre or space and invite them onto the podcast. This allows you to leverage their influence and all the followers they have.
4. Become a guest on other podcasts to promote yours. I attended a podcast summit where Jordan Harbinger spoke. He said podcast guesting was his key to promotion and he now has 6 million downloads per month!
5. Create a website or podcast store to promote any of your guests books, merchandise or products. You want them to support you, so you should support them.

 

Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine Article about Mitchell Beinhaker!

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Mitchell Beinhaker, Host of The Accidental Entrepreneur Podcast shares the best ways to:

1) Book Great Guests. Booking guests can be done using websites (i.e., podcastguests.com), PR specialists or simply searching the internet and podcast directories. There is no shortage of interesting guests out there.

2) Increase Listeners. Building an email list is the key to growing your listenership. You should combine that with social media postings with every episode release.

3) Produce in a Professional Way. There are very good studios that are willing to help with professional production, but for those on a limited budget contact your local university to find a video and sound major who wants experience. There are also some good VA services that can help. If you still want to do it yourself, audacity is free editing software and there are many resources online to teach you about equipment and software.

4) Encourage Engagement. Build your network and relationships. Engagement grows on a viral basis.

5) Monetize Your Show. Monetizing the average podcast is very difficult. Not everyone signs a deal with Spotify. Consider affiliate sponsorships where you make money if listeners buy products, setup an Amazon affiliate account and offer guests products through your account, and create merchandise stores through on-demand services like Printify or Teespring.

 

What makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or the content itself? 

Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine Article about Mitchell Beinhaker!