Binge Factor Media

Who says podcasting business ideals and practices can’t be fun? Straight from what could be one of the most magical places on earth, Tracy Hazzard delivers one exciting episode from Disney World! Fittingly, she sits down with Rita Richa, the founder of Reignite Media and host of the Bippity Boppity Business podcast, to discuss what it takes to brilliantly thrive a magical and creative Disney-themed podcast. Rita shows how much you can have fun doing your show while doing your passion at the same time! She demonstrates that discussing business philosophies and models need not be devoid of excitement (even magic). It even helps get your insights across to your ideal listeners and clients better and helps build that long-term relationship. What is more, Rita takes us behind the scenes of her show and how Disney inspirations work into the structure of her interviews, monetization process, and ideas.

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Watch the episode here

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How To Brilliantly Thrive A Magical And Creative Disney-Themed Podcast With Rita Richa Of Bippity Boppity Business Podcast

I am on vacation. I am in a magical place. We are going on a crazy vacation or a family reunion at Walt Disney World. As I was prepping up to invite guests to my show, one caught my eye, the Bippity Boppity Business host. I love it. It fits everything. I had to invite Rita Richa to come to my show. She is brilliant. She had me laughing and made me very excited for this crazy family reunion we’re going to have at Disney World.

I was thinking more about it. She’s got a brilliant business model. You’re going to get so much out of this episode that you didn’t think about in terms of how much fun you can have on your podcast. How you can do it in your passion, and yet how you can demonstrate the business ideals, the business practices, and your philosophy on business brilliantly and get that across to your ideal listener, your ideal client, or whatever it is that you want to do.

Let me tell you a little bit about Rita Richa. She has always been a creative person. In the prior chapter of her career, she was a vocal coach and self-proclaimed former theater kid. She decided to leave music education and performance to pursue her work with distinguished brands within the automotive industry, including Tesla and BMW, and earn her business degree from Florida State College.

Driven by her goal to meet as many people as possible, gain real-world work experience and help others find magic in their work, Rita decided to reignite her creative flame and business by following her passion for marketing and podcasting. She is the Executive Podcast Producer and Founder of Reignite Media and the Host of the podcast, Bippity Boppity Business. She specializes in launching and leading the creative direction for business podcasts. She’s an innovator passionate about developing podcasts, scripts, storyboards, social media content, and content strategy for modern business-to-business brands.

Rita partners with brands to bring their creative vision to life through social audio. She’s an expert in all things Disney World, Disney, and the creative process. I am so excited to bring Rita to you. I can’t rave enough about the fun of her podcast, the way everything works in it, and the hard business lessons and models she’s creating that are going to create a great attractor from a business-to-business perspective. Let’s hear from Rita and the Bippity Boppity Business Podcast.

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Rita, I’m so glad you’re here. Your timing could not be more perfect because I have discovered that Disney World and Disneyland are no longer what I remember as a child. It is some serious business and it’s not just serious business behind the scenes. It’s serious business attending and going. The plans for this trip that I’m taking have gone off the rails. Your podcast could not come at a better time, but at least I’m still feeling like, “That magic is intentional. All this creativity is purposeful.” Tell me how you got inspired to start Bippity Boppity Business.

I am obsessed with Disney for more than the face value of the parks and the consumer products. There is so much behind the scenes and in front of the scenes that happen to have this company be a leader in creating magical experiences as they call them, but it is creating lifetime customer value and the strong brand affinity that they have created around them as well. All of those things as an adult and as I love Disney now are why I love it.

Back in the day, I was a former theater kid. I grew up watching movies with my mom. My mom is Lebanese and my dad is as well. When she came to this country, she escaped a war. When she was a child, she never had the ability to watch Disney or enjoy any of the content because of the world and the environment that she was in. As I was growing up and learning to love and watch Disney, my mom was learning to love and watch it for the first time. For me, it’s very special because it’s how we bonded. Her first time at Disney was my first time at Disney.

Even though there’s the business side of it, it’s an emotional and sweet spot in my heart. If it weren’t for my mom, I probably wouldn’t be doing any of this. That’s why I love Disney so much. What got me into it all as an adult is to try to share that magic and wonder with professionals who feel that they don’t have that anymore, especially in Corporate America. The messaging and the brand around what they do while seeming like it’s exciting, can be soulless at the end of the day.

I’m going to stop there and point out something that you said. What we haven’t covered is that you’re doing a lot of business-to-business work. You’re a content strategist for business-to-business. It’s hard to get those executives’ attention. It’s probably hard to close your leads and get them to pay attention to you. There are a lot of people out there who wouldn’t take the risk that you did, which is, “Let’s start a Disney podcast to show them how I work and what I do and get them through the ideas of why my content and creative strategies are in place.”

They would think, “Why would you do that? That’s not hard-hitting business enough,” but here’s the thing. You’re not going to get them to listen to a business podcast. That’s hard enough. They don’t have time for that, but they might be planning their vacation. That’s exactly what happened to us here. I’m in the midst of this vacation that we’re about to go on. Your podcast might not have reached that level in my criteria except that it hit that hot button. A brilliant strategy is to go into the hobby, the off-time, or that place and then show how brilliant you are. Why wouldn’t I want to work with you?

That’s a nice piece that you touched on. In business, many of these executives and professionals focus so much on their craft and forget the ways to relate to other people in their industry and network. Everyone has a hobby outside of work that they love doing. It’s their passion or the thing that they do to forget about work. There are a lot of business owners that have an affinity for the Disney Company. They go on vacation or their kids love it. I’ve found that it’s a great ice breaker for conversations.

Here’s another example of what you’re talking about. A high-end podcaster that I met at a meet-and-greet was planning his trip to Disney too. He was doing it after a summit that he was presenting at. He’s like, “I’m going to Disney. I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do.” I’m doing a summit too. I use that as an opportunity to be like, “I can help you plan your trip casually, but what’s your summit about? Could I go?” It’s an open invitation to be like, “We will talk about it.”

The strategy isn’t to connect to the business owner and their company as a whole. It’s to build a relationship and to connect with the individual. When we build that authentic relationship, we’re not coming off as salesy, “Buy my thing.” It’s like, “I’m here to talk to you and hang out.” If something happens as a result of that relationship building, then we can talk about other things later.

That is a brilliant strategy when trying to do a service-based business where you are a content strategist or doing top-level consulting. When you’re trying to do that at a business level, I can tell you because I did it for 30 years. It is always a relationship-building situation. Yet you’ve already built in this idea of, “I don’t have to sell you on my perspective on the world because Disney is the embodiment of that perspective, that magic, and that customer service level.”

All of these things are already built into what you were aligning yourself with. You don’t have to explain that, which is even more brilliant because the more you explain, the more you lose clients. Go for the thing that they need. Let’s talk about that because, for the rest of the stuff, they will be like, “I like it. I trust her. I feel the creativity and the synergy.”

That’s something so interesting, especially in B2B. Folks are like, “Why would I want to talk to you? You’re that weird Disney girl. I don’t get it. You sound like someone that should be on like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. What’s the point?” My strategy is very tactical because I could sit here and try to build my IP and my brand for years, but why would I do that if there’s one already out there that I relate to and that others know, like, and trust?

When I’m helping podcasters in this B2B world try to set up their brand around their podcast, the first thing that I ask them is, “What’s something that you’re passionate about outside of work? Do people in your industry also relate to that?” I hosted a podcast for B2B tech. We’re talking about the nitty-gritty. It’s probably the driest technical language you could think of.

You’re talking to a girl whose first podcast was in 3D printing. I get the audience.

There was nothing wrong with that, but there was concern around me hosting the episode because of what I am and what I stand for. I came in with the same mindset and looked at these very fancy executives. I was like, “I’m going to ask you a silly question. I’m not trying to stereotype here but do you like Marvel, superheroes, and stuff?” They were like, “We love it. We’re obsessed with it.”

I was like, “I know this episode is about you two merging your company together. I have no idea how to talk about a company merger. That is not my thing, but I can talk about your origin story and how two companies came together like the tech Avengers to create the vibranium product of your industry.” All of a sudden, they were stoked. I had producers warning me about doing this.

They’re like, “These guys are a big deal. Don’t talk to them about superheroes. This is a business podcast.” I’m like, “I’m going to intro it that way, and then we will get to the business, which is my formula. It’s Bippity Boppity plus business. Let’s connect on a human level. We will provide value and tactical insight in the way that you need to and crave for both your company and your audience.”

Let’s talk about some of those features within your show. You’ve got some rapid-fire questions. I love one of the questions. You are not shy about your mission. You’ve got an ask from the beginning. It’s right in your description and intro episode. It’s all there. Your ask is to get into that Cinderella suite, which I can tell you is every little girl’s dream because I have three daughters.

Everyone wants to get into that Cinderella suite. You ask that as one of your rapid-fire questions knowing that one day you’re going to hit on the one person that can make it happen. I love that, but that’s a hard-hitting business strategy. Your focus is a part of what so many people don’t do well on their podcasts, content strategy, and business branding.

That’s something I learned as a part of my prior experience at the agency. People will more likely consume your content if they feel you are a part of their journey. Whatever journey it is you’re going on, you need to involve your audience with that. When I was first starting the podcast, I didn’t know what my journey was. I didn’t even plan on starting my business at the time.

Creative Disney-Themed Podcast: Many executives and professionals focus so much on their craft that they forget how to relate to other people in their industry and network.

I had no idea, but I knew that if I kept asking the right person to get me into that Cinderella suite, more likely than not, that person is probably a big shot. I’m sure it means that they’re up there. They’re doing great for themselves. I wanted to take listeners on some journey, so I created one. Maybe by the 100th episode, I get to go there. Everyone celebrates, “We made it.”

I’m not going to lie. I was inspired by this concept by a YouTuber back in the day. I love YouTube. I consume it so much. There was this OG YouTuber back in 2008. His name was Dave. He always made parodies about wanting to meet Hannah Montana. I don’t know why. It was this shtick that he kept doing. He would weave it throughout his conversations or his content. By the 200th episode, when he made a million subscribers, he got to meet Miley Cyrus. It was amazing. Everyone was excited.

That was the first part of what opened up the second chapter of his career because it created that engagement and that following. People want to see what’s going to happen next. Another thing that goes into that is something that I learned from a wonderful podcaster and show writer. His name is Jay Acunzo. He has a podcast called Unthinkable. He has produced some amazing shows.

I had the opportunity to briefly get to learn from him and take his course in my prior role. He always said that storytelling cannot exist without creating tension. If there is no tension, no hook, or nothing that makes me want to understand why I’m listening to keep me around, then there’s no story. That’s a key element in podcasting, which I am trying my best to implement myself. I’m not 100% great at it, but the awareness being there is the first step.

I don’t think a lot of people even have an awareness of how the content that you have on your podcast is a story. It doesn’t matter what conversation you’re having. There’s always a story to be told and to be found. How are you going to create the tension? What journey are you going to take your listeners on to make them want to stick around for the long haul on the ride?

I’m curious. I hadn’t planned this question, but I’m going to ask it. When you are working with your clients and thinking about Disney in general, who’s the real hero in these stories?

The hero in the story for what you are trying to convey in your podcast depends on what you want to do for your personal brand or your business. If you are trying to promote yourself as a thought leader, maybe the hero isn’t you. Maybe it’s the team around you and the lessons that you learned as a result. You want to take your listeners through the process of what it took for you to be who you are. I always like to say that no one wants to stick around for the, “I’m perfect and nothing ever happened wrong,” story.

There’s no fun in that.

Everyone loves a good underdog story. If you’re explaining to your audience to build your personal brand and your thought leadership, be like, “I’m like you. I had the same struggles as you did. I didn’t know what to do. My team around me is what carried me and us together. We created X or Z. That’s why we’re successful in what we do.”

What you’re saying, though, is that your listeners are the heroes, or your listener could be the hero. They may need to take the action, do the thing, join your community, or whatever that is, but they could be the hero. That’s what they need to hear. Many podcasters and shows are so self-involved. It’s such a frustration.

It’s so frustrating to me. I feel you on that because your content needs to create impact. How do we create impact? It’s not about you. No one gives two cahoots about you. They don’t know you. You’re not Oprah or Joe Rogan. There’s nothing that you’ve built around yourself for me to want to learn more about you. It’s about the impact you can make with your business, audience, and podcast.

What are they going to take away from the episode that makes them want to implement something that you said and makes them feel like you changed their lives? New hosts often sit there and talk at length about themselves when they should be interviewing other people and putting them as the star. I’m sorry. It’s not very humble. It’s a little bragging-like to sit there and only talk about yourself. I’m not going to be interested in that.

The reality is that there are lots of success stories over there. There’s no question. Joe Rogan has $120 million. He’s laughing his way to the bank for being who he is. That’s fine, but it’s rare. It happened with a combination of timing, luck, and the right message at the right time. Your chance of getting there is slim to none. If you can’t get there, what’s the likelihood you will be able to make that happen? It is not by being self-involved. I’m looking for someone who cares about me. It’s the way it is. When I’m listening, I’m making a choice to listen.

Here’s the thing. At our company, we say it again and again. I probably said it a million times on Feed Your Brand. I don’t know how many times I’ve said it here on the show, but it’s probably enough, “Get your face off your cover art.” However, Rita is an exception. I want you to take a look at it. Rita is an exception because she has created a character. It could be stock art. You have no idea that this is her until you go and watch the video or go to her website and see that it is her.

She has created this persona with this Minnie Mouse-looking outfit. It’s all about that. It’s perfect because it’s insider knowledge when you realize that’s her. We’re in on it with her. That’s a brilliant way to brand yourself and keep that model. It’s not about her. This podcast still isn’t named the Rita Show at the end of the day. She has done it in that perfect balance between doing branding of your own and doing this outward-facing, “I’m here for you, audience. Take a listen.”

I struggle with the idea of putting myself on my cover art because that’s what I learned at the agency before, especially in B2B. If you’re not a comedy show or an entertainment show and you’re trying to network and gain interest in your industry, making yourself, “I am the Rita Richa Show. This is all about me,” is not going to be great to break out. My issue was I wanted to find the balance, “How do I create a show that’s about Disney, but I’m not going to get copyright-stricken immediately and sued by Disney at the same time?”

“I’m not going to put Minnie Mouse on there and end up hitting the shut down.”

I can’t casually put Mickey ears on my podcast cover art and think it’s okay because I’m viewing this as a long game for me. If it was just an enthusiast show, maybe I wouldn’t care, but I want it to go somewhere. For me, it was like, “What’s the essence of what I’m trying to create? How do I convey that?” Nobody can sue me over polka dots.

They were around before Minnie Mouse and they will still be around later, although I don’t think she’s going anywhere. It amazes me how much amazing brand longevity she has. We all need to learn from that. You’re also using episode art and that’s something that I want to point out to people. Each one of her episodes has different art on it. It shows off her guest. It has the title on it. It’s not like it’s super repetitive either when you’re reading it in the feed or you’re looking through the feed of her show. She’s doing that combination of the two things that are going on.

I was going to do a little bit of on-air coaching. I’m going to do it now because it would be fun. We talked about some of the good things that you’ve got going on. Here’s the thing that we don’t always realize when we’re focused on creativity and content. I’m a creative person. I’m a designer. I went to design school. I love the creative side of things. Sometimes when we focus on that, we forget that we’re also playing a digital game. There is the side of content. There are a whole ton of people out there who only play the game.

Creative Disney-Themed Podcast: The hero in the story for what you are trying to convey in your podcast depends on what you want to do for your personal brand or business.

That’s what SEO or Search Engine Optimization is all about. Those of us that are talented, creative, got wonderful brands and have great voices that come across think it doesn’t matter. What happens is that there’s a bot, AI, a computer system, or an algorithm that is controlling whether or not we get seen if we play. If we don’t play that game right, to begin with, we aren’t even being served up as an option. No one is going to find out how much greater you are than every other podcast out there, and you are because I’ve heard a lot. That’s not going to happen.

There are three things that I go over. We do podcast audits. We probably do ten live podcast audits a day. We probably do hundreds in a digital format. Pretty soon, we’re about to launch a product that will do over a million and a half instantly. We’ve got that coming up. It’s a little secret. I haven’t told anyone in the area here. You get a little sneak preview of what’s coming in fall 2022. With that in mind, we analyzed what was working and what was not. Here are the three key factors.

The one that you’re doing excellent is the title of your show. You’ve got the Bippity Boppity, which is fun and eye-catching. It’s what the community wants to see. You’ve got business as a keyword work in there, and then you have a subtitle. That’s awesome because you’ve got that tacked on. You’ve got the whole business side of it ongoing as well for you. That’s working for you. That’s great. You have 4,000 characters to use in your show description, not your episode description.

Those are fantastic too and a lot longer than most people. You’re not using all 4,000 characters. You’re only using about 400. Keep what you have there and then add below it. Here’s my key for you. Go ahead and transcribe and rewrite to slightly mess with your intro episode. There’s no reason not to use the content you’ve already created to make this happen because the only person that’s going to read that is a bot.

Here’s where you want to work in more of that business stuff and the business people you attract because you want your show to pop out, not just if somebody typed in Disney. You want them to pop up because they’re typing in content strategy, how to start a podcast, or whatever it might be. Those things work into that second section that’s below the fold if you want to call it that. That’s an old-school term.

It’s still digitally used because you have to click Read More and then you see the More. The More is almost never read by anybody except the bot. Don’t agonize over it. Make sure you’ve got all those good words in there for the right people you want to attract and the right types of businesses. Maybe even name some of them because if I’m doing some subterfuge and I want to know what my competitors are doing, I might type them into the search engine.

That’s a very good insight that I did not think of before. That’s why I like talking to cool people like you, Ms. Tracy.

I thought we would have some fun together. The second one that is critically important for you is the web link. This is your host. I’m going to be mean about it in the industry. People are going to say, “You own Podetize, a podcasting hosting company, so you think this way.” We specifically built this into our company and our business and the way that we do it because we think this is theft. These other companies shouldn’t be able to get away with this. They are hijacking your website link.

That’s what happens when you click the little world. That’s what it looks like on Google Podcasts. The website is what it says on Apple. It’s a world as well in Spotify. You click on that. It should take you to your website. It’s supposed to take you to where you are on the World Wide Web. That’s what the image stands for. Instead, it sends you to your host, where it’s an absolute duplicate listing of what’s already on the podcast player that you listened to. It’s not your website. It didn’t take you to BippityBoppityBiz.com, which it should. They make it so difficult for you to find that.

They don’t default to it. They make you go back in through the settings, find where it is, and figure out how to change it. I had to build a video for clients with all the different players. I don’t have who your host is. I don’t think I have a video on it, or I would send it to you. In that process, sometimes it’s a two-minute video to show you where one link is so you can drop your website URL. It shouldn’t be allowed. You’re paying them to host your show. They should not be allowed to hijack your traffic.

I had no idea that was happening at all. I’m not going to lie.

I can’t see this on some of the players that I listened to. It’s the third thing to check. It’s probably happening on an episode level as well. There are some players out there that do it on the episode level. There are some that make it a little bit easier to at least see the blog link for your episode. That’s the other thing that I’m going to say to you. The biggest opportunity for your business building, sending traffic to your website, and getting traffic to your business is the blog.

You’re not doing that part yet. If you want a real full content strategy, there should be a video, audio, blog, social share, and all of those things. All you have to do is record the one thing you’re doing already, which is brilliantly packed with things. I hope that helped to give you a little bit of quick mentorship on this. When you fix those things, it’s going to be more powerful. The podcast is going to work harder for you than you do for it.

This is the boost that we need. I’m very open to this type of coaching and feedback because when we’re in it every day, it’s hard to see it sometimes. I could sit there, look at somebody else’s thing, and be like, “Do X, Y, and Z.” You have to be able to look at yourself and be like, “What am I doing?”

Your podcast might be wildly successful in terms of download numbers. You’re not doing any of the things I said but it might be because you had a tremendous following ahead of time. You’re great on social influence. You push out your podcasts well in that one thing that you do. That’s what’s driving it. You don’t think you need to fix any of these other things. You don’t think they’re necessary.

We have launched over 1,000 shows. We have a pattern of behavior where we see, “It’s not working for this group of people. Why isn’t it working?” When we hit 200 podcasts, that’s when we sit down to study the pattern. We do this over here. We have transfer clients who come in. We didn’t offer them a fix. When we set up these shows, they did amazing.

When we transferred somebody in and they already had a low 400 character-count description and our clients didn’t, there’s this significant difference in their download numbers and their growth pace. We said, “What if we fixed it? What happens then?” We fix them and see the pattern of how much percentage-wise that changes. This is the thing. I don’t want to do something that’s not going to be worth my effort.

If we already made the website and we’re trying to work on it and no one is seeing it, why are we paying for it? Why are we using it?

When we talk about being a strategist, we want to connect all the pieces together of all this thing that we’re building. That’s what’s brilliant about Disney. Everything is intentional, orchestrated, and interrelated. I love that. That’s one of my favorite things about Disney, to be honest with you. It’s the fact that everything is so interrelated. I’ll never forget it. I was pregnant with my youngest when Frozen came out. They screwed up that holiday with the merchandise. They did not have it ready and available.

I felt super pregnant. I wasn’t. I still had four months to go. I was sitting in a movie theater, watching Frozen, and having my toddler going, “I want her dress. I want this.” I’m searching. I’m like, “It’s not on Amazon or the Disney store. What are we going to do? Christmas is around the corner. I’m panicking. I’m going to have to make this. I’m going to kill Disney.” When we don’t have those things there for people when they’re ready for it, we’re missing a sale. I don’t want to miss a sale, a client, or a lead.

Creative Disney-Themed Podcast: A good blog post increases the amount of time somebody spends on your website. That’s factored into how great your website is and its engagement.

I’m there for that. I wanted to ask you something and touch on the blog aspect for a moment because this is a little bit of a debate I’ve heard for the podcasters that do blogs. It’s to transcribe an upload or to not and create a new post. I want to know your perspective because some people say, “Don’t transcribe it and then post it as a blog.” Some people are like, “Do it. It doesn’t matter.” I want to hear your perspective on that.

I accidentally discovered this, so I accidentally did it right with my first podcast. It was because I was too busy. I’m a writer. My first podcast was on 3D printing. It got me my Inc. column. For four years, I wrote a column for Inc. Magazine on innovation and product design called By Design. I was busy doing that. I hired this website company. They were going to build tremendous content SEO for me.

My job was to fill it before we launched with 40 blocks. I had twenty already written. I had to write twenty new ones, but I’m now writing these articles because I had gotten a job at Inc. I was like, “I don’t have time for this. What am I going to do?” I was like, “We have all these 3D print podcasts. What if I transcribed them?” What I did was I transcribed them. I made them look like a blog and didn’t do timestamps, “Tracy says. Rita says.” I didn’t do any of that, but I used the transcription cleaned up as is.

I had a team member who did it. I had the team member load them on the website. They weren’t supposed to publish them. They were supposed to put them in the draft. I was going to go through and rewrite them live on this thing and write an article from there. That’s what I was going to do, but she accidentally published them. They went early. I had not realized that had happened. It was still my job to go behind the scenes.

The website company said, “There’s this article that’s going to come out in Forbes Magazine about your podcast. We want to make the website live, so it’s in time for that. We’re going to turn it on this week.” I was like, “I don’t have time.” It was Halloween week. I was like, “I don’t have time. I’ve got kids going to Halloween. I’m making costumes.” I’m that kind of mom.

My mom was also that kind of mom.

It went live with twenty transcripts. I was upset. I didn’t notice for over a week and they called me and said, “We noticed this happen. We noticed that you have all these and that these are transcripts.” I said, “They went live.” I freaked out. They said, “I don’t want you to take them down because we think that would do more damage to the website. Let’s leave them up for a couple of months and then you can rewrite a separate article. Don’t use the same title and rewrite in a separate article your article version of that.”

I still got too busy. I only did about 10 of them instead of 20 of them over the course of three months, but in January, they called me and said, “I can’t believe what happened. Your site came out of the Google Sandbox,” which happens when you have a brand new URL that has never been used before, “It’s ranking in hundreds of thousands.” There are billions of websites. It’s ranking under a million. No website starts under a million. It just didn’t happen. It kept growing from there.

We were getting tens of thousands of keywords associated with us and organic traffic. We were getting podcast listeners from it. Shortly after that, we hit 100,000 listeners a month. It was crazy that a cascade happened. It all happened because of that. We could see the difference in the ranking between the transcript ones versus the articles I wrote. That’s what we discovered. We have done it for thousands of people. It’s a little bit different now. We dialed it in.

What we discovered is if you transcribe but don’t use time stamps and the names on there and clean it up enough, so you don’t have double language because sometimes we say things and repeat ourselves twice. Clean it up a little bit for that but do not edit the verbal patterning. We call it Verbal SEO or Verbal Search Engine Optimization. Do the smart things that you should know how to do if you’re a blogger at all where you create H2 tags and headings, put images in, break up every other paragraph of copy with something like a tweetable or an image, and use captions on your image that have a keyword tag.

Those are some of the typical blog things. If you look at TheBingeFactor.com and the episode here with Rita, the Bippity Boppity Business episode, you’re going to see exactly how to do it because it’s the format. We have our great header graphic, which is our episode art. It’s all there for you. The podcast and videos are there. Everything is built into this page. What it does also is it makes the page sticky because 90% of the people won’t read it.

They will stop at the podcast player and click play or watch the video if they’re video people. They will still be on the page for 30 minutes, 40 minutes, or whatever the length of your show is. I can tell you that there is no way the other way works. It’s a lot more work and money if you’re going to have a ghostwriter or you’re going to rewrite it. I’ve been writing for decades. It takes me a whole lot longer to write an 800-word article than it does to post a 3,000-word transcription.

That’s so cool to hear your perspective on that because of the experience that you have. The numbers speak for themselves. It’s not a debate on an idea or theory. It’s from execution and seeing it. I do love a good blog post with the podcast on it because we want to increase the amount of time somebody spends on your website. That’s factored into how great your website is and the engagement of your website. We want to reduce the drop-off rate of people bouncing. It’s getting over that perfectionism in my brain that you had too of being like, “It needs to be an article.”

It’s hard when you’re a writer. I still write articles and sometimes use a ghostwriter. I don’t have time. I’m the CEO of a company with 100 employees. I’m busy. What we do is we have a ghostwriter, or I write an article, send it out in an alternative publication, and lead it back to the podcast and the original blog or the original interview. That will happen here. In Authority Magazine, that will be a feature on Rita. That will happen out there so that it points back to the original YouTube and the original podcast.

It’s going to increase the listenership and boost it in a second way with an outside audience because that’s the benefit. I can write it on my blog. Nobody read those first twenty blogs that I told you that I already had but my dad because I had no traffic to my website. That’s why I hired that company. I knew I was writing good articles. The few people that did read it loved them. I would send it off to a client, and they would rave about it. If I couldn’t get them to read it, what was the point? If we put our article versions out in places where it can gain you a new audience, then you’re going to help yourself more. Why not do that?

Tracy here is spitting the facts and the knowledge.

I feel for you that there has got to be a Bippity Boppity article feature column somewhere. It’s going to happen.

I think so, too, eventually.

If you put it in a business journal and not a travel journal, that would be unique.

That’s the thing at the end of the day. It comes back to the beginning of all of my journey, which is, “How do I talk about what I love but not be just another Disney enthusiast travel blogger?” There’s a lot of competition in that niche, but there are not a lot of wackos like me out there that are like, “Disney but let’s talk about the business of it.”

Creative Disney-Themed Podcast: Success in this industry is a combination of hard work, the ability to feel discomfort and still be okay with it, the networking aspect, and a little luck when all those things align and you’re consistent.

I love that you’re doing the three questions like we do here. I’m going to hit my three questions, and then I want to talk about how you use yours. How do you get great guests? You have had some amazing guests like Loungefly. I’m in awe. I probably have quite a few Loungefly bags. I should be embarrassed to admit how much money I might have spent on all of that, but I’m not because they’re so cool.

Honestly, it is my LinkedIn strategy. I could be posting on Instagram and Facebook all the time, but since my audience is focused on B2B, I would rather spend more of my time creating more consistent content and connecting on LinkedIn, which can be a little tricky for me. There are so many content options out there where you can post, but I’m trying to be where my ideal client or ideal audience is. We can post everywhere all the time, but if it’s not serving the purpose of what we want to do, then what’s the point? Long story short, Loungefly happened. It was one of those experiences where I was like, “Do they know that I’m just Rita? What’s going on?” They reached out to me and found my website.

That’s a good sign that you are on your way to that Cinderella suite.

They found my website, which I almost didn’t make because it was me figuring it out on my own. I cried and ate Cheetos while trying to make it because I didn’t know what I was doing but was determined because I knew the value of having my IP and media somewhere. I figured it out. I would start posting a lot on LinkedIn. What I started doing is I started adding folks in high-end publication magazines and PR reps on LinkedIn. I wouldn’t message them, but I would add them and keep posting.

If they followed me back, they would start to watch my feed of what I created on LinkedIn. Let me put it like this. If you followed me on LinkedIn, you would see all my content, but if your friends didn’t follow me but saw that you interacted with me on LinkedIn, it would show that content to them if I was tagged in the post. The algorithm has an interesting way of gaining reach. There’s a high organic reach on LinkedIn. That’s unlike any other platform.

I guarantee you because you’ve talked about other brands. You probably tagged them in your post because I know you’re smart about it. I’ve watched your LinkedIn too. If you tag those other brands, then Loungefly is like, “We want to be featured too.” That’s the PR association strategy. They’re modeling and following other people. They can’t have that. Their client better gets the same coverage.

Here is the best part of all of this. This PR rep was having trouble finding someone to interview their VP of Creative. They wanted somebody that could understand the business of what they do but also was a fan of the product and the consumer. She said that she searched Disney business on Google. It was the first podcast that came on.

You’re winning the SEO game already. You don’t even have the blog strategy in place and all of these other things that we were talking about, but you’re already winning it because podcasts are showing up.

I made a very large effort to make sure that my podcast was also on Google because I noticed that even if my website wasn’t ranking, podcasts are showing up in Google high in the search engine. I was like, “This is great.” She said, “I looked up Disney business. I saw you had a little cartoon version of yourself on your website. I wanted to schedule a meet-and-greet.” We did all these conversations. I got to meet with the VP. It wasn’t until after everything that she was set up. She was like, “How many followers do you have on Instagram? I’ve got to check.” I was like, “I hate to break it to you.”

“Instagram is not my strong suit.”

“I’m a LinkedIn micro-influencer. I’m not necessarily on Instagram.” What happened because of the way I presented myself, my branding, my messaging, and my professionalism, they assumed that I was an extremely up-there influencer, which is a blessing for me. It made me want to do the best work that I possibly could to at least show them that the chance that they gave me to interview their VP of Creative was going to be worth it. It was a fluke plus some actual intention and hard work behind it.

It’s the formula of success that many people experience. I was listening to a Disney animator speak at Podfest. He talked about his ideal for what he thinks success is in this industry. He says, “It’s a combination of hard work, the ability to feel discomfort and still be okay with it and adapt, and the networking aspect or wanting to network and get yourself out there. Lastly, it was a little luck at the end of the day.”

Consistency is the key. That’s the weak link for most people. It’s why we have such a high podfade rate. The weak link is they can’t be consistent about something. They aren’t patient enough to give it the time it needs.

It’s my consistency in the beginning. It ended up being a cool conversation. I get to walk around the Disney stores and be like, “I got to talk to the person that designed this bag.”

How cool is that? I love it. You have amazing guests. What it feels like is exclusive access, which is great. That feels that way even if that’s not how it’s coming across or how it’s happening, but it feels that way to the listener, which is awesome. That’s going to keep serving you well because getting good guests gets you more good guests. That’s going to keep happening. The hardest part for everyone is, “How do I increase my listeners?” What are you doing to grow the listener base?

For me, it’s a combination of two things. The first is I am actively trying to post on LinkedIn and provide the tags of those individuals that are on the show. I also try to provide them with some assets they can share on their page to bring in the listenership from their social media. It’s being very intentional, “I need you to share this. I would love it. I’m creating it for you for free. Would you be open to sharing it on your page?”

What I have done in the past, before I even present the ask of sharing the content, is I send them a thank-you gift for being on the show and provide a business card with my QR code on the back of it. I call it my Disney Care Package that I send them. I send them all the trinkets. In the rapid-fire question, if they mentioned that they like Cinderella, I try to provide Cinderella things in the thank-you gift box.

I ask them to either leave me a review, or I’m asking them to provide me a LinkedIn recommendation on my LinkedIn profile because the long-term play of what I would like to do is eventually, I would like to work either for or with Disney. If I’m able to get the people on that show to leave me a LinkedIn referral on my page, it’s probably going to help my chances of getting a job at the company.

Reviews and ratings have so little to do with long-term value to your podcast. It’s not going to do much there. No one is ever going to notice who made the review. You’re never going to get into that, but on LinkedIn, it’s much smarter for you because if this executive over at Disney made this review of your show and referral for you, that’s something that they could see. They decide to hire you. It has better business value for you to make that the call to action. That’s brilliant. This is going to go for you. It should increase the right kind of listeners.

That’s the other thing. This is the second part of gaining more listeners on my strategy. When I go to ask someone from their network to be on my show, they’re more likely to say yes because their peer or colleague has left that thumbs-up approval on my page. The biggest one for me was this. My very first guest was a big one. He was the former VP of Operations for all of Walt Disney World in Orlando. He had a podcast.

Creative Disney-Themed Podcast: Try not to get too sucked into vanity metrics of the downloads. It’s not the amount of listeners and likes. It’s the quality of the listeners and likes that align with what you want to do for your initiatives or goals.

Other podcasters are a little easier to ask.

That’s the other thing. Even though he did what he did, he had another podcast. I had been casually building a relationship and networking with him on LinkedIn. I would send him messages, ask him questions, and engage with his content. When it finally came time to ask him, he was sweet and open to it. Starting with that guest, the bar was set high so that the guest after that would have a higher likelihood of going on that track.

You’re not asking questions like, “How many Instagram followers?” It would be like, “So-and-so was on the show, so I need to be too.” That’s an easier one.

The long short of it is even though I had a lot to do and I was working, I tried to be intentional with who I built my relationships with and the people that I wanted on my show because there was a certain quality and presence that I wanted to portray.

To the audience out there, I want to point out that what Rita is saying is that her listener base and the download numbers don’t matter. There are going to be certain cases where some companies are going to say, “Unless you have a million downloads, I’m not going to be on your show.” They’re making a mistake there, but you’re never going to change their mind no matter what.

If you have the right listeners, you’re going to get more work and what you’re looking for out of doing the show. The relationship you’re building with the people that you invite to your show is more critically important to you than your overall download numbers at the end of the day. That’s a content strategy in and of itself.

As I’m going more into this process, I’m learning to try not to get too sucked in the vanity metrics of the downloads. It’s not the number of listeners and likes. The quality of the listeners and the likes align with what you want to do for your initiatives or goals. Here’s the biggest example. I only have 25 views on the YouTube video with that VP of Creative. She was very kind. She’s Liz DeSilva. She told me in an Instagram message after thanking me. Even though we said thank you for being on the show, she was like, “My friend Lisa watched the video and liked it. Lisa Frank is the designer.” I was like, “I’m sorry. Lisa?” She’s like, “She loves your content.” I got goosebumps.

That is the best listener right there. For those of you who don’t know, Lisa Frank is brand builder Xtrordinair from a lot of our youth, like rainbows and unicorns. You name it. It’s beautiful stuff.

That was the first lesson that I learned. I didn’t need to get discouraged about the number of downloads. I needed to try to be consistent, keep doing what I was doing, try to network with the right people, and try to have fun with it, too, all at the same time. I have to remind myself that this is something I love and take advice like yourself, which is to get over the perfectionism of what you’re doing, get it done, put your message out there, and connect with the right people because, at the end of the day, you don’t know where this journey could take you. All you have to do is try. You never know what will happen.

The last question that I usually ask is about monetization. I don’t think it’s too early to talk about monetization on your show. You’re just not far enough into it. Do you think about that when you’re planning a show for your clients?

Yes. As far as monetization goes, there are as many avenues to make money from your show. You can either get a sponsor to sponsor an episode for you and create a piece of an ad reel that goes on somebody else’s show and pay you a certain amount of money to position that ad or you can do it as a business model for yourself. My strategy on monetization for podcasting isn’t so much the ad and sponsorship side. It is my way of building relationships to incur revenue and leads for your business.

I use and promote a theory in marketing. It’s called account-based marketing. A lot of people use it. You write down your dream 100 clients that you most want to do business with and that you would be least likely to get an appointment with or be able to work with. Instead of sending out spam messages and doing all of that, you want to build a relationship.

Ask those specific clients to be on your show and try to put them in your marketing funnel that way instead. The reason why is I feel that podcasting is the best way to build relationships to potentially create business for yourself or your company. It’s because it creates an accelerated way to get someone to know, like, and trust you. It changes all the time but around seven touch points is what it takes for someone to make a sale with you.

If I am using each part of the podcasting process to get to know you, those are touch points from the initial message to the meet-and-greet, the interview itself, the follow-up, sending them a gift, making sure that they got the gift. I’m asking them for a referral on your show and asking them a little bit later, “Do you know anyone that would be interested in being on my show?”

It’s always asking, “Who do you know that would be more likely to be a guest on my show?” It’s engaging with their content online. Even if they don’t become your client, they’re more likely to refer someone to be your client. This strategy works best for consultants in the business. It works great for business coaches and people that provide software solutions for business services.

It’s anyone who has something complex that requires multiple conversations. If you’re selling a $90.00 thing, that’s probably not the best strategy.

That’s where I shine the most and it’s how I have been able to grow my personal business as well. I’m sure Tracy probably has much more experience in ads and sponsorships in that regard.

People think that because of our business, but that’s not the case because they won’t make it to that point. Less than 2% of the podcasts out there even qualify for advertisements and sponsorships. I look at that and say, “If I don’t build an alternative monetization ahead of time, you’re never going to be patient enough to get to that point if that’s what you say you want.”

I hope along the way that my clients will bail on that strategy, to be honest with you because it’s the worst strategy. It’s an entertainment broadcast media model. It’s not a business podcast model. It’s not who my clients are. They’re like, “I want to be the next Joe Rogan.” I say, “Here’s what it’s going to take. I don’t think you’re going to be able to do it. Let’s build some of these other things in.”

It takes a lot more work than people think to get these kinds of sponsors and ads.

Creative Disney-Themed Podcast: It doesn’t matter how amazing your podcast is and how great your branding, cover art, and logo are if you are not taking the effort to build genuine relationships with people, provide value, and make an impact.

It’s a whole business in and of itself. If you think getting guests is bad, try getting sponsors.

Sometimes the money you make from those kinds of deals is nominal at the end of the day.

I even pay my expenses.

The thing that I want to convey is that even though we understand the notion that having a guest on our podcast could potentially lead to business, it’s a hard sell for a lot of people in B2B and corporate because they want to see the immediate results, but I can’t stress enough that anything within this industry is long gameplay. It does take authentic time to build a relationship with that individual because even if you don’t make a sale with that individual, you’re increasing your brand affinity and word of mouth for your business. The likelihood of that is even better.

Something I’ve been thinking about is it doesn’t matter how amazing your podcast is. It doesn’t matter how great your branding, cover art, and logo are if you are not taking the effort to build genuine relationships with people and are a great person yourself. You’re trying to provide value and make an impact on every opportunity that you have. People are going to see right through all of that other stuff. Before you work on your podcast and make your website pretty, think about what it is you are trying to do for your industry and the world.

What is your why? What is genuinely going to make you want to wake up every morning and do it over and over again so that people can see you in your best light and so that you can build your personal brand with authenticity and create that positive reputation for yourself? When you do create the podcast, the branding, the website, and everything that goes with it, people won’t see right through it. Facebook rebranded. Do we care? No.

We know who they are, name change or not. Rita, I am so amazed. I have to hit your binge factor before we go here because I haven’t done that yet. I already established this from the beginning by listening to the show. I always try to get through to some of our interviews to say, “Does this confirm everything?” Here’s your binge factor. Do not let the princess voice, the Minnie Mouse polka dots, and Minnie Mouse giggle fool you.

These are some hard-hitting business strategies at Bippity Boppity Business. This girl means business. This is why you are not going to want to miss the show. Make sure you check it out. I thank you so much for bringing your podcast’s vision and being a content strategist. I cannot wait to see more of your clients come through and change the landscape of the quality of what we see out here in podcasting.

What a pleasure and amazing opportunity this was. I am, by proxy, inspired by you and your knowledge and experience. If you want to change the way you do podcasting too and create that consistency for yourself, you should probably check out Tracy. She knows what she’s doing.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Before we completely close out here, I am headed to Disney World. No joke, there are 25 family members on my husband’s side of the family. Ten of them are kids between the ages of 16 and 6. What’s the one thing I can’t miss?

Here’s one precursor question for you. Do you have what I call the perfect ratio of adult-child? My theory is that at Disney World, for every 1 child, there should be at least 2 or 3 adults.

I prefer a 1 to 1 or maybe 1.5 to 1, but we will be okay. Luckily, 2 of our children are 27 and 26.

We’re good. The only reason I ask is that I’ve seen some things at Disney and I’m like, “You needed some help. God bless you.” Here’s what you need to make sure that you do not miss. I’m going to hate myself for saying this. The Magic Kingdom fireworks are not the best fireworks. They changed the firework show at Magic Kingdom. It’s good, but it’s not great for that many people in your group to watch because there are a lot of projections that you have to see on the screen to understand what’s happening with the fireworks show. You have to watch the Harmonious show at EPCOT. I cried when I watched it. It was beautiful.

I’m pretty sure that’s on our list, but I will double-check that. Thank you for that awesome tip. Growing up fifteen minutes from Disneyland because I grew up down the freeway, it has always been like, “Pop in, do something, and have some fun. It’s spontaneous.” Disney World is not spontaneous.

I will say one more thing. If you want to do this right, take a break in the middle of the day on the lawn in front of the Magic Kingdom castle. Mobile order your Starbucks or your snacks so that you do not wait in line. The app has an option for that. Mobile order the food and then take a break around 2:00 to 3:00 but then also not that it does rain. It’s okay to take midday naps. Do it. Take a nap. Everyone will be better after.

We did July once before when my oldest daughter was young. We had to take a midday nap because she needed it but also because every day it rained. There was no choice. You’re like, “Either I’m going to get all wet or I’m going to go take a nap. Everybody will be fine afterward.”

I’ve openly napped on the lawn in front of Magic Kingdom. I needed the naps myself too.

That’s a great tip. I might have to bring a little towel with me so that everywhere we go. We can cover up. I love it. Thank you so much, Rita. It has been such a pleasure to have you. I look forward to catching up with you maybe in a year. We will see where you’re going and how things are happening if you get into that Cinderella castle.

I’ll let you know. Thank you so much, Tracy.

—

I told you it was going to be a lot of fun. Rita is a trip. Her giggle cracks me up. I love the fun that she has. She’s got that wonderful voice that makes you feel bubbly and good inside. That is working for her in this episode. There’s a lot of this Disney adulting going on. She’s tapping into a trend on top of everything. I couldn’t find a single thing that I didn’t love about what she was doing. That’s pretty hard for me.

There’s so much in all these podcasts that I review and look at. While I do rave about their good points here, there’s a lot on the other side where I’m like, “They didn’t do this or that so well,” but that the overall structure content of her show is well done. She’s a great interviewer. All of those things are working for her. Like any podcast, there’s always something technical that you can fix.

She and I talked about some of those things, like using a 4,000-character description and doing different things with her web links and stuff like that, but these are tactical, detailed, and nitpicky things. Once you’ve mastered the great and most important side of creating great content, then you can move on to all these other things, add them to your repertoire, and improve what’s going on there. That’s what she’s got going on.

You can connect with Rita and listen to the Bippity Boppity Business Podcast. Check it out for yourself and enjoy yourself as I did. I found myself slowing down some of the episodes, which you don’t often do, but I did that because there were so many interesting interviews going on that I didn’t want to speed through it. I wanted to hear what these great creatives are doing. It brought me back to my former world of product design, development, and all kinds of fun stuff. I haven’t done it in a long time. It brought me flashbacks there.

I can’t thank Rita enough for taking me on that journey with her by inviting me into the Bippity Boppity Business Podcast. I hope she achieved her goal. To anyone out there who’s reading and knows how to get into that Cinderella suite, I want you to reach out to Rita directly and make sure that you help her achieve her dream because I would love to see this be the outcome of our episode. I would love to see that happen.

I hope you’re having fun. I’m having a little fun time off. Hopefully, I won’t be wiped out and exhausted, but I might be. I will be back. There will be no delay because we still have episodes in the queue. That’s my favorite part of the show. We can stack them up and get ready, so we can take time off and make sure that we’re ready for another wonderful episode on a great podcaster we can learn from. Thanks, everyone. I’ll see you soon.

Important Links

• Bippity Boppity Business
• Reignite Media – LinkedIn
• Unthinkable
• Loungefly – Bippity Boppity Business episode
• https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/RitaRicha/
• Facebook – Bippity Boppity Business
• Instagram – Bippity Boppity Business
• YouTube – Bippity Boppity Business

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