How to Entertain and Educate While Creating Podcast Content That Attracts the Most Relevant Fans With Cordes Owen Of The Law Of Relevancy
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 Cordes Owen, CEO & Founder of a full-service Tampa-based digital marketing agency, Bake More Pies.
Cordes is also the host of his personal podcast, The Law of Relevancy. Owen began his career working within the Internet industry in the mid-1990s. In 2006, he joined one of the nation’s largest agencies specializing in local advertising and co-op marketing as their Director of E-commerce and Internet Marketing. Before starting Bake More Pies, Owen served in executive roles at two of the largest Tampa-based agencies where he led teams to deliver custom digital and marketing solutions to a diverse set of clients that ranged from startups to Fortune 100 companies and governments. Owen brings his broad base of experience and proven track record of success to a select group of growing organizations who are looking for cutting-edge and innovative strategies to outpace their competition.
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Can you tell us the “backstory” about why or how you got started as a podcaster?
I started podcasting in reverse than most people. I was in the business of helping other people create their podcasts as a content marketing strategy through our advertising and marketing agency. I saw that this type of content marketing was really working well, especially when attached to information around a specific service. We found that many people crave the deep dive of information that you can get into in a podcast format. Because a podcast can be as short or as long as needed, we’re able to dig in and really create an educational platform. And I think this is what led me to start my own personal podcast, which I really see as more of an educational piece for my industry peers.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
To be honest, I’m always flattered when I hear that people I know have listened to one of my podcasts or when they bring my podcast up. It’s a very humbling experience, and it makes it worthwhile when they share something that they’ve learned from it.
Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the most interesting things about my podcast was my first guest, who may be the biggest guest I will ever have, the Director of Communications for Microsoft. It was a little stressful getting such a big name right off the bat, but what I learned was that there’s no substitute for just jumping right in and doing it. That first podcast actually went very well and gave me the confidence to get back in the studio and keep going at it. One of the funniest things to happen on my podcast was when I interviewed a Santa Claus impersonator, and I was caught off guard when he researched my information on the “naughty or nice list” before the podcast. I made the nice list!
How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?
As someone who helps podcasters, I’ve been in the podcasting space for years and have assisted with hundreds of shows. I have been podcasting The Law of Relevancy for about a year and have completed numerous episodes with incredible industry experts from Microsoft, Freedom Un-Agency, TC Strategic Communications, Neptune Flood Insurance, and the Institute for Economic Evolution, among others. I guarantee that you will learn at least one new thing to make your life and career more relevant during each episode.
I created The Law of Relevancy to bring to the table industry, marketing and communication leaders, and thought-leaders to help other professionals and myself keep relevant in our field in a fun and meaningful way. I find sometimes marketing articles or programs are somewhat outdated or have more stale information because things change so much in this industry — or otherwise irrelevant. Our podcast discusses real-world examples of what is happening right now. Many marketers have ever-changing roles, and can change their scope as much as 12 times in only a couple of years. This is reality. This is compelling as well.
What are the main takeaways or lessons you want your listeners to walk away with?
We guarantee that all of our listeners are going to learn at least one thing during every episode of The Law of Relevancy podcast, and to be honest, the education is the entertainment value. We try to go into each podcast with a set of questions to ask our guests, but instead of just thinking about what the next question is, I try to listen to their answers because the follow-up questions to that are the ones where you get to the more interesting information. Paying attention to what your guest is saying is important, so you can dig into the conversation and go deeper with them.
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine Article about Cordes Owen!
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Cordes Owen of The Law of Relevancy Podcast shares the best ways to:
1) Book Great Guests. Always pay attention when you are meeting new people because the easiest way to book a guest is to ask them in person. If you are lucky enough to work with a PR or communications group, they can handle most of that outreach. However, it’s very helpful to them for you to be specific about your criteria for your desired guests.
Many times people who are already speaking about a topic and are looking for places to amplify and reinforce their expertise — they’re often most eager to join your podcast, especially if you’ve established an audience that they would want to reach. Check out speakers at digital conferences who are already leaders in the industry and are usually well-versed about a specific topic. Guests should be excellent story tellers, be conversational and have ability to show rapport with you. Make a list of people you might not even think is possible to speak with and go for it. Be daring.
2) Increase Listeners. Book guests who have a following and to use syndication tools and partnerships like Castos, Podbean, or Libsyn, which make your podcast easily available to listeners in whatever library they browse.
3) Produce in a Professional Way. People will immediately give you more credibility if they can tell you are using professional broadcast mics and you sound really good. If the audio isn’t sounding right, audiences will literally tune out. Visual is also important. Many times, we’re using up to four cameras with professional graphics and a producer helping with the production. Surprisingly, we don’t normally edit the podcast after the fact; we try to keep it all as a live to tape or live show. I think people really appreciate an unedited story; almost like they’re a part of the conversation or at the same table. The more real, the better.
4) Encourage Engagement. People really like to connect with you over social media as well. Ensure that social media promotion is a part of your process and interact with their questions and comments.
5) Monetize Your Show. I do the podcast myself, and it’s monetized by our marketing agency to attract future customers. People who are in marketing positions, business owners looking to ensure they’re implementing the latest and best marketing tactics are the ones that are paying attention to my partcular podcast. They learn from each episode and will contact me with further questions and the relationship then forms. Additionally, opportunities for sponsorships usually happen when you have tens of thousands of followers.
Help others start their podcasts and help with service and production. When you already have the expertise doing it, it’s easy to sell that as a service.
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 Cordes Owen!
