“How to Become the Center of Influence Through Enterprise Podcasting” with Doug Hazelman of the MSP360 Podcast

As part of my series of interviews about “How to Become the Center of Influence Through Podcasting”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Doug Hazelman is the VP of Technical Marketing for MSP360 (formerly CloudBerry Lab) and runs a weekly podcast called MSP Voice where each week he interviews a different managed service provider (MSP) about their business and any advice they’d like to share with the MSP community. Having just completed its first year of episodes, MSP Voice has gained in listeners each month and has lead to Doug being a guest on other podcasts focused on the MSP community. Through the podcast and other community efforts Doug is raising the brand awareness of CloudBerry/MSP360 with their target market.

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Can you tell us the “backstory” about why or how you got started as a podcaster?

I was brought into CloudBerry (now MSP360) to help raise brand awareness with our target market, IT/Managed Service Providers. As we were brainstorming ideas for how to reach the community we hit on the idea of producing a podcast. I knew that if we just did a “marketing” podcast it wouldn’t be well received so we started with a charter that the podcast would not focus on CloudBerry/MSP360 but focus on the MSPs themselves. While there are other podcasts for the MSP community, most of them never actually interviewed MSPs. Through a bit of trial and error, we’ve settled on a format and try to keep each episode to around 30 minutes.

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

Since we release both the audio podcast across all the platforms and also post a video of the interview to YouTube, it’s been great to see how many people recognize me at events and trade shows. I’ve had several interesting guests and learn something new with each interview.

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?

My biggest mistake has been audio quality for both myself and guests. Being new to creating a podcast, I didn’t have the best setup. Once I recorded an entire episode using the computer microphone instead of my podcast microphone and we had to go through and adjust the audio each time I spoke. At the time I wasn’t recording a separate audio track for myself and guests so it was a tedious process. I now record separate tracks and audio adjustment is much easier.

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

The first episode aired on May 22, 2018 and we keep a weekly cadence (except for holidays). I’m currently up to 55 episodes with a new one each week. For our 1 year anniversary I brought back my first guest to do a special show and it’s been very well received. For “season 2” I conducted a listener survey and am incorporating those suggestions moving forward.

Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Doug Hazelman!

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Podcast Influencer, Doug Hazelman of the MSP360 Podcast shares the best ways to:

1 ) Book Great Guests. Booking guests has been somewhat easy as there are a large number of MSPs in the market. I also utilize our customer base and reach out to them about being guests on the podcast. When I’m at trade shows and networking, I have a “podcast card” that I had out if I think someone would make a great guest. Finally, there’s a form on the podcast’s blog that people can fill out to be the next guest.

2) Increase Listeners. I utilize multiple social channels with the podcast brand, MSP Voice. I also post the latest episode to various MSP groups on Reddit and Facebook. With the sponsorship of the company I work for, there’s also a lot of promotion at trade shows and industry events. There’s been a study upward trend in number of listeners since the first episode.

3) Produce in a Professional Way. I’ll admit that production has been a bit of a struggle, mostly due to audio levels not being consistent. Working mostly on a Chromebook means recording tools are limited, for example, Zoom only allows for recording 1 audio track when using cloud recording. I’ve now switched to the Zoom Windows client that saves a separate audio stream for each person. I use a program called Wondershare Filmora (Windows) to edit the podcast and then output the results to MP3 (audio for podcast apps) and MP4 (Video for YouTube).

4) Encourage Engagement. Engagement and feedback has also been a bit of a struggle. After the first year, we conducted a survey of listeners (and potential listeners) to get feedback. The feedback was very valuable and is resulting in a few changes for year 2.

5) Monetize. I don’t specifically monetize the podcast. It’s meant as a community resource and to help build brand awareness of the company (using a short intro). It’s difficult to track if a listener becomes a customer mostly because the podcast platforms don’t have a way of reliably linking back to the company sponsor.

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 Doug Hazelman!