Binge Factor Media

Are you planning to delve into podcasting? Then, buckle your seatbelt because we’ll plunge right into this episode with Carl Richards of Podcast Solutions Made Simple. Carl offers insights on starting a podcast like a pro using exclusive Canadian market strategies. Think about your content to excel in this field and recognize that content curation makes your content podcast-ready. Carl also touches on reaching out to a Pro in the field to help you in the space. There are so many ideas you need to unpack today to start your podcast like a pro. Waste no time and tune in to this episode now!

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Start A Podcast Like A Pro Using Exclusive Canadian Market Strategies With Carl Richards Of Podcast Solutions Made Simple

I have a podcaster who’s also a producer. They always have great insights. I loved my conversation with Carl Richards, our guest. We talk about the differences in some of the Canadian market issues and the US market issues. We talk about the common problems that are going on with people starting podcasts, keeping motivated for podcasts, and what’s generally going on in the industry.

Carl Richards has the Podcast Solutions Made Simple podcast and business. He spent more than 25 years behind the microphone on the radio and stage, entertaining and influencing audiences worldwide. He’s a three-time bestselling author, TEDx, speaker, and MC. He’s the host of two podcasts and is the Founder and CEO of Podcast Solutions Made Simple. He helps coaches, consultants, and subject matter experts become the go-to experts and elevate their credibility by launching world-class podcasts.

He lives in Ontario, Canada where he enjoys camping and boating in the Thousand Islands. He’s got a great perspective on how the Canadian market is a little different. We discussed this before the interview. You didn’t get to hear that part because I didn’t turn on the recording for that. We discussed how there’s a little bit of difference. The Canadian listening audience isn’t only smaller because Canada’s smaller, but it’s smaller in that there hasn’t been quite the same embracement of podcasting from a broader audience of creators. That’s been an interesting tell. They have not embraced it at the same pace and rate that we have here in the US.

Thinking about that, is your audience all going to be Canadians? If not and you are a Canadian podcaster and you want to get into the US audience, it might be ideal because there are not as many of you. This is something that someone like Carl Richards can give us insights into. Let’s talk Podcast Solutions Made Simple, and let’s talk to Carl Richards.

Carl, welcome to the show. I’m so excited to have Podcast Solutions Made Simple for us to discuss here because we don’t think of podcasting as a solution that often in the industry. We don’t talk about it that way.

We don’t even talk about it quite often. That’s one of the challenges. We talk about everything else, but podcasting seems to be rearing its head. I almost said ugly head, but it’s not ugly at all. It seems ugly if you are not sure of what’s going on in this space. It seems to be creeping into conversations a lot more. In the last few years, it’s coming to the fold. There is an easy way to go about it. It can be a solution for the right business owner, coach, consultant, or something like that who wants to look at doing something different for their marketing or promotional strategy that maybe was relying on a lot of conventional systems up until then and they are looking at something different.

I always think back to when podcasting became the cool job to have on a sitcom. It was the second season of The Lincoln Lawyer where the podcaster is the bad guy. I kept saying to my partner and husband, “There is no way he made that much money podcasting. Not for that show.” I was like, “That’s not realistic.” You know when it hits mainstream when you are starting to get into that tipping point of where it is a part of the conversation. People then start looking and going, “Maybe I should start a podcast.” That’s where you step right into them. That’s the focus of your show, is making sure that they understand that it’s a bigger program than just podcasting.

Anyone can start a podcast. If you can fog a mirror, you can have a podcast. The difference though is for people who look at the space and go, “I want a podcast, but I want it to do something,” or, “I want it to have some value. I wanted to speak to my passion project, my hobby, or my business,” because a lot of the people we work with are thinking of it from a business perspective.

At the end of the day, if you are getting your message out, that’s the key. That’s one of the things we get right into. What is your message? What’s your purpose for being here? If it’s to spew, that’s still a purpose. Is that something though that is going to bring you what you expect from the show? There are many different things that we look at. One of the first questions we ask is, “What’s the podcast going to be about? What’s the purpose of it?” before we even dive into any of the other minutiae of what the show or what having a show means.

It’s so hard for someone to get over their hang-ups about it. There are a lot of myths around starting a podcast. You talk a lot about these five myths. Let’s debunk them here. Let’s through them here. Let’s talk about what gets people stuck.

You have probably heard these before or stumbled on them, or maybe even when you were getting started, you had some of these yourself. The first one is the money myth. The money myth can be viewed in a few different ways. It can be it is too expensive or not seeing the value in it. It’s because of the perception of what we think a podcast is going to cost like, “Am I going to get my money’s worth out of it? Am I going to get my money back from having a podcast?” We need to think of what the value of that podcast will bring you.

When I’m working with business owners, I will say, “What’s the value of a client? Is it $50,000? Is it $100,000? You can probably have a podcast for less than that. What’s the value of that client by getting the word out about what it is that you do?” That’s the myth number one. It is seeing the value in having a show, elevating your credibility, and seeing you or having you be seen as the expert. As soon as you start talking in those terms, some people go, “I’m sold because I need to be seen as the expert and not be in the shadows hiding behind everybody else. I need to be upfront and out there.”

That is also a myth. There are a lot of people out there who are putting out the message that it costs nothing to start a podcast. They are like, “Use your iPhone. You don’t have to make any investment.” That’s also a huge mistake. It does a complete disservice to your expectations. You will not be able to professionally compete in most of your business categories unless you invest something in the show. You can’t do anything.

I remember seeing Sam Crowley who had a podcast since podcasts were in diapers. I remember going to one of his workshops in Toronto. He said, “You can start a podcast for $0. However, if you want to excel in that space or if it’s something you are going to do for business, you wouldn’t print business cards for free on an 8.5×11 lined paper because it wouldn’t look right.” It is the same reason why you’d want to invest a couple of dollars in professional services like you do and I do because you are going to get something out of it that would be different. The myth of it that you could do it for $0 is a huge misconception.

The second myth is the content myth. It’s, “What am I going to talk about? There is so much content out there already. What am I going to talk about?” I quite often will share with people, “You already have the content.” By the time people come to me and say, “I’d like a podcast but I don’t know what to talk about,” I say, “You do. It is your workshops, webinars, and blogs. It is all of those things that you have al already created. It is our checklist, PDFs, eBook, or whatever it is. That’s where your content’s coming from.” It’s not about content creation. It’s about content curation so it’s podcast-ready.

I find that’s often misaligned when I review a show here. There’s a misalignment between the audience that they think they have and the audience they are speaking to are not always aligned.

That goes back to the client avatar and knowing who your audience is. For some people, when they do come into this space, they are like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. For example, it took me a long time to figure out who my client was. When I say subject matter experts, it’s because I know that those are the people who are most likely to step into the podcasting realm. If I was looking for hobbyists, my language to hobbyists would be different.

If I narrowed it down, instead of hobbyists, which is also a very broad term, and said gardeners, we are getting specific and your messaging is there. That helps you in positioning your content when you know exactly who you are talking to. It keeps people stuck because they don’t know. They hear podcasts and go, “I don’t know if I can sound like that,” which is another myth. That’s the third one. It’s the competition myth.

There’s a lot of them out there already. They are like, “I don’t know if I’m good enough as Tracy Hazzard, Carl Richards, or Joe Rogan.” You name them. There’s more than enough space for other people to come into this podcasting playing field. There is also a huge variety of personality, styles of shows, and all of those things. The fact that you don’t think that you have a space here is ludicrous when you think about it.

Especially when there are only 300,000 active shows in English-speaking. Out of the 3 million, there are only 300,000 active. It says something that there’s a space for you.

We talk about the tech myth as well. That’s the fourth one.

We get that one a lot.

They are like, “What am I going to do? A pod what? What’s a home site?” It confuses people when you start talking about technical things. That’s why I say, “We will take care of that. You need to know that there is a tech side to this. If that’s not in your wheelhouse, that’s what we do.” It is understanding that there is tech to it. There are some techie things that you might need to do.

The reason why I don’t fix my car is because firstly, my spouse would run outside saying, “What are you doing?” That’s number one. Also, I’m not a car guy. I’m not a guy who can lift the hood and go, “It’s this,” which would be weird because I have a Tesla. There’s no hood to lift. It’s a frunk or whatever they call it. It’s the same thing. You wouldn’t think to fix your car if you didn’t know how to do it. You’d take to the expert, which is what we say to people. We say, “We will help you in the tech space.”

The other one is no surprise. It’s time. They are like, “I don’t have time to have a podcast. I don’t have time to do this.” It’s not whether or not you have time to have a podcast. It’s whether or not you have managed your time accordingly. One of my clients said it very succinctly. She said, “How am I going to find the time to do this?” That was her stopgap. It was like, “How am I going to find the time to do this?”

When she switched the language and said, “Who am I going to find to do this or help me do this?” All of a sudden, the world changed for her. It is understood that it will take some time, but it will take you the same amount of time to schedule a blog post, do a Facebook live, or do any of those other things that we do as it does to do a podcast. Why not save yourself some time, curate your content, and do all of them succinctly?

Podcast Solutions Made Simple: Why not save yourself some time, curate your content, and do all of them succinctly?

That’s where I like to start. I like to start with, “What am I spending my time on right now? How can I use that for podcasting instead?” That’s how I always look at it. We got off the live coaching call that we do for our clients every single week on Wednesdays that we are recording this on. I finished it. We use that for our show. I was going to do it anyway because I need to nurture my community, so why not repurpose it and use it for the podcast? Finding ways to fit that in is a much better strategy because then, you are looking at, “I’m saving time. I’m saving money.”

It goes back to content as well. When we talk about content creation versus content curation, we can create a ton of content or we could take content we have already created and curate it into something else. If you have written a blog post, you could be like, “That becomes the framework for my podcast.” If you talk about this class that you run, that becomes the framework for something else.

Are you going to switch it up here and there? You might or it might be the same. I have seen people do that before where they will record a class and that becomes their episode depending on what genre they are in for their show. There are different ways to look at it. Once you have gotten past that, it’s a matter of saying, and I know we have heard this before in so many different things, “I’m going to do this.” Doing it and taking that first step is probably the hardest thing to do.

Let’s talk about your show that way and you. What was that one you had to get over to start your show?

I have two podcasts. I have the one that I launched that got me into the podcasting space. That was a Speaking Of Speaking podcast. It took me a long time. I first heard about podcasting in 2012. At that time, I was doing speaker training. I had a colleague who said, “You should have a podcast. It’d be great for you as a speaker.” I remember saying, “What’s a podcast?”

This is 2012. I was like, “Why would a speaker-trainer want to have a show? As a speaker-trainer, I’m helping people get on stage, not getting on something that seems like some crazy version of radio. I’m trying to get them on a physical stage. Why would I want to get them on a podcast? Why would I want to talk about that?” It took me almost seven years to wrap my head around that concept. It was also at Sam Crowley’s event that I realized, “I can do this. I can have a podcast.” It wasn’t even the tech myth. It was convincing me that this is something and this is a real thing.

It was harder in the early days. When we started our first show in 2014, people were the same way. They were like, “You have a show? Why?” Our show was on 3D printing, which seemed like a visual medium. They were like, “Why is it being done on that platform?” It was very successful. In the early days, it was a lot harder to grasp the power of podcasting. This time, we get the opposite. It is like, “Everyone and their brother has a show, so why should I?” That’s the other why that comes into it. They are like, “Why is it a value still?”

I didn’t have a specific myth. I spent 25 years in radio broadcasting. I wasn’t mic shy. I knew how to create content. I knew how to edit content. As far as the technical side of podcasting goes and understanding how you take it from a recording to getting it on some of the playback sites like Apple, Spotify, and all of those, I didn’t know how to do that. I had no clue how to do that. That was a technical hurdle for me.

It was more the proof of concept. I was like, “Why should I have a show? What’s the value to me as a business owner?” I will say what a lot of people have probably said. You probably heard this before. If I had started my podcast back in 2012, 2013, or 2014, when somebody said, “You should do a podcast,” I would have been so much further ahead, but there’s no right or wrong time to start. It was that proof of concept that was the holdback for me.

I start a new show every single year to see what it’s like for clients and understand what it’s going for. You are right. My old shows could still outdo my current shows. There’s no way around it. They have a moment that it’s hard to beat. It is still a better purpose that you are starting from. I love that one of the things that you focus on with your clients is starting with, “Why are you doing this? What’s its purpose? What’s the outcome that you are going to achieve from this?” You can’t get to that why without that. Understanding that as the crux of what show should you create all stems from that. Nothing should be done until you have solved that question for yourself.

Sometimes, it is an experiment. I’m good with that. My show was an experiment when I first started. It was a successful one. In five months, I knew it was working. You don’t always know who your audience is going to be. Maybe you are going to be wrong in your selection. You might be surprised by the results. That’s what I love about podcasting. It’s the flexibility of it. Flex with it. Change it.

It’s okay to be wrong, and it’s also okay to be right. That’s the other cool thing. It’s okay to be right and wrong almost at the same time. It’s interesting though because prospects will come to me and they will say, “My coach said I need a podcast.” I’m like, “We can talk about this, but is your coach the person who has helped you with your client avatar? Do you know who your client avatar is? Do you know what the purpose of your show’s going to be? Do you know who your target audience is going to be?” This is vernacular that we talk about on the radio all the time. It was like, “Who’s your target audience? What does your listener look like?” When I was going up through the ranks in my early years in broadcasting, it was almost like, “I don’t want to talk about that. I want to get on the radio and have some fun.”

You have to know who you are talking to. You need to understand when you are getting into that space. You could make mistakes. It’s going to be exciting as you do that, or test it out and see if it’s going to work. Dip your toe in the water or jump in head first or feet first, whichever is easier. It is probably feet first. Do it to see if it’s going to work. It’s okay to do that, but you should be doing it because this is something that you see as value, not somebody saying, “You should do a podcast,” or a coach saying, “It’s time for you to do a podcast.” If your coach doesn’t have a podcast, I would say, “Coach, you are telling me I need a podcast. Why don’t you have one?”

This is what I always say, “I can’t record for you. It has to still be right for you at the end of the day. I can motivate myself to record. I don’t know what’s wrong with you. You have to figure that out for yourself. You have got to have your motivation system.” It’s not going to change. Let’s talk a little bit about this. A lot of the industry dip their toe in. I’m being nice about it. You and I both know there’s a gigantic podfade rate. It’s at 89%. I pulled the numbers not too long ago. It’s at 89%, and the average podfade show doesn’t make it to 15 episodes.

Those are phenomenal numbers. I didn’t know they were that bad.

It’s gotten worse. A few years ago, it was different.

I tell people that about 40% of shows out there are not active anymore. Podfade happens because some of us approach the podcasting space, and this is one of the biggest challenges, and we see it as a short game, not a long game. We see it as a get-rich-quick or get-recognition-quick solution. Anyone who’s been around long enough will tell you podcasting is the opposite. It’s a long game. If you want to see your show grow, you want to see numbers. You want to have more listeners. You might not see that in your first 10 to 15 episodes. It might take you 30, 40, or 50 episodes before you see large numbers.

I don’t know if we are going to talk about this or not, but podcasting in the United States versus podcasting in Canada and other parts of the world is a completely different game. Even though it’s global, it’s a completely different game. We also compare. If we say, “If a guy like Joe Rogan can get however many billion listeners, as Carl Richards, I must be able to get half of that.” We forget that Joe Rogan, not to give him all the love and publicity on your show, is the guy who used to make us eat goofy stuff and run up cliffs and call that fear factor.

He had an audience to start with. That’s what I keep trying to say. He already had them. He moved them into podcasting. That’s the difference. Are you going to do that?

That’s why when people say, “I want to start a show,” one of the discussions we will have is, “What’s your audience size now? What’s the size of your email list? What’s your Facebook? What’s your LinkedIn? What’s your Instagram?” It’s not to dissuade someone from being in the space, but it’s to see whether you have an audience already that you can talk to and that you can build on. You need to be able to build on that audience.

Somebody like Oprah Winfrey, as soon as she wakes up in the morning, she’s making money. She doesn’t even have to get out of bed. She’s making money. I don’t know how many podcasts she’s on or has. I know she’s on a few of them, but that’s because she’s been through those trenches already. That’s why there’s a certain amount of podfade. It is because we go in there thinking, “I have a podcast. Bring me the listeners.” It doesn’t work out.

I also want to highlight this because this is where you fill that gap that’s tremendous. We think podcasting is so easy, so we are going to go into it and not consult the pros. We listened to that coach that said, “We should start it. We will watch a couple of videos and start it ourselves.” What we are forgetting is that there is a base of knowledge underneath there. There’s a base of knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.

It’s great that we are working on the conceptual side of why we are doing this and all of those things, but there are still all these technical things underneath it that if we don’t do them, too, it doesn’t work. We don’t get pros to help us enough. I see it so often. I watch a great show and I’m like, “If you had done this, then maybe people would have found your show and you wouldn’t have a podfade.” There are 5 dumb things you could have done in 5 minutes. It’s not difficult, but we never ask the pro.

It is rare that people will ask the pros. I’m on a mission to change that.

I was hoping you were. That’s why I was throwing you this question.

I come from a very different angle, too, because there are a number of people out there, podcasters and even people who run podcasting agencies like mine, who don’t have a broadcast background. I have a broadcast background. I have a very keen ear and eye. It’s more ear. I spent more time on the radio than on television. I have so much experience in that space. I know what sounds good. I know how something should sound. I know how an interview should flow so it doesn’t sound like an interview. It sounds like you are having coffee across the kitchen table with a friend. That’s a skill that takes not a couple of recordings to perfect. It takes years. In some cases, you might never get it.

I’m not saying to not do a podcast if you are not a skilled interviewer, but there’s a certain skill behind having those conversations. That doesn’t happen overnight. A lot of podcasters get frustrated because maybe they will listen back and go, “I sound horrible.” I used to do that when I was a young broadcaster. I’d listen to myself and say, “I hate the way I sound.” Most people hate the way they sound and most people hate the way they look. You have to get over that piece.

Trust me. You will eventually get over it. Here’s what I see happen so often. I would agree with you. There are a lot of people without a broadcast background, but there are also a lot of broadcasters without a tech background. If you don’t have a combination of both, you better get a partner. You better get a good assistant in that process.

You mentioned your hosting company. I’m going to say they are the worst ones out there. They are harming them from a technical standpoint. We have to be careful with who we are partnering up with as agencies because the tech is critically important. No one discovers your show if you don’t show up in the search engine. It’s not going to happen. Those are important things.

Too often, podcasters don’t listen to their show. That’s something that happens here on my show a lot. I listen to the show. I also listen to many of your shows in a row so that I can get a binge listener experience and I can discover your binge factor, which I’m about to say here. When I do that, sometimes, it’s an a-ha to the host. It’s the fact that they were like, “I forgot that number one rule. I should check out what the end product looks like. I should open up my box and check it out and see what it’s like to experience it from the outside.” We fail to do that a lot.

It’s so true. As a former broadcaster, I will speak to it from that perspective, too. When I was doing the morning show, I had eight pieces of content to deliver every hour. That’s not including the folks that would come in and do the news, the updated weather, and all that stuff. I had eight of my pieces of content to deliver every hour. I have a four-hour morning show. I had sixteen pieces of content for every show. It was five days a week, Monday to Friday. Do the math.

You are not going to go back and listen to every single piece and assess it. I refer to that as garbage in, garbage out. When I worked in radio, they’d come up and say, “I heard your show the other day.” I’d say, “What day?” They’d say, “You were talking about such and such.” In some cases, I would go, “Okay,” because I have forgotten. It’s garbage in, garbage out.

I’d be like, “How did it feel while I was doing it?” That’s a lot of what we do here. It is, “How did it feel while I was doing this so I don’t go back in and I don’t listen?” If you are not going to do that, then you need somebody outside who’s a pro at that who can come in with good ears and check it out and see what the experience is like.

There’s a huge value to that. To your point, it might be easier if it’s not you doing it. Either have a buddy, a coach, or somebody who can be the listener that can give you the listener feedback as opposed to you browbeating yourself and saying, “I said it like that. I can’t believe I wiped my mouth like this on TV. I scratch my nose again. What’s up with that? I rub my head too much. I move my glasses,” or whatever it is. If you get a listener or a viewer, your spouse is probably a good one. It could be your kid or something like that. It’s somebody who would give you honest feedback.

This is the thing that I always used to say when I did a lot of product design and development in my career. Often, you ask your friends and family what they think. That’s a bad idea. Sometimes asking your coach is also a bad idea because they are selling you something. They are going to sell you more. They are going to see an opportunity in that. If you focus on making sure that you are checking with the ideal audience, what they thought they received, and how they heard it makes a huge difference. That’s what is going on in your show here.

There are a lot of podcasting shows. There’s a lot of how-to podcast shows. In the last couple of months, I probably interviewed twenty. There are a lot of agency owners out there. Your binge factor on your show is that you are not focusing on that. You are focusing on a key concept in each show. It might be a way to market. It might be a way to grow your email list. You are focusing on a key concept that supports your podcasting ecosystem as a whole that they may not realize or understand is a part of podcasting.

If you have no email list, you don’t have a podcast. You are not going to ever mind your podcast and turn it into something. It’s not going to happen. An email list is essential. Giving a speech and lecture on that isn’t going to help. Instead, you are doing it with a great interview and a great conversation. You are getting across the essence of the importance of one of these items. That’s a great way to build both content that you can utilize and things that you can refer clients to, which is always a great process.

If you have a client that has a problem, you could be like, “I did an interview with so-and-so. Here it is.” It’s a great substitute and solution process. That, at the end of the day, is what makes the show more bingeable. Once they listen to that one, they go, “That was great. Let me see what else he has,” and then they go through the library. That’s how we get through our library. That creates a binge factor right there. That’s what Carl is doing so well on Podcast Solutions Made Simple.

Thank you. I appreciate the feedback and the binge factor. Is that what we are calling it? That’s cool. Firstly, it’s good that you mentioned that because I wanted to position the show that way. It wasn’t about, “Here’s how you do this for your podcast.” It’s not to be about instructional. Maybe, at one point, I thought about that and there might be episodes that do fall into that category, but for most of them, I’m thinking about it outside of the box. It is outside of the, “Here’s how you do this,” which is the tutorial or the instructional type. It’s more conversational and also concepts that help people understand the space that much more if that makes sense.

That’s good. That’s a focus. It’s something that you probably have naturally shifted without realizing it. You started a couple of those how-tos and you were like, “They didn’t land right.” They didn’t feel great to you. The next thing you know, you have moved onto it. That’s a natural professional way to approach it. You are going to go, “That wasn’t right. That wasn’t what I wanted,” and then you do something. You get feedback and you go, “I will do more of that.”

With the podcast I started back in 2019, that was all about speaker training. That’s exactly what it was. It was that tutorial. It was tips to standing on stage or tips to gesturing, which is hard to explain for audio. At some point, it shifted from being speaker training tips and tricks to overall communication strategies. There are many different things that fit into that. During the pandemic, we explored many different things that fit into that variety. It’s interesting that I shifted it for one podcast, and as I shifted it for that one, it almost inherently became the platform for another one. Isn’t that wild?

Yeah. What do you think is the biggest challenge in keeping your clients motivated, keeping them engaged, and keeping them involved in their podcast? What are some tactics that you utilize with them?

The biggest one is I encourage them to revisit their show. Lift the hood of their show and say, “Let’s take a look at it.” Let’s not look at how many people are listening. That’s a metric. We can always look at that as a measure of success, but let’s look at what we are doing. Let’s look at the content we are putting out there. For example, if we are only doing one content, if we are only doing interviews, Is that watering down the content? If we are only looking at it as an interview-based podcast, what are you missing out on, potentially?

We are always looking at, “What can we do to elevate the content? Are there features within the show that we can use to elevate the content? Are there things such as emails from listeners that you want to embrace?” I know it sounds simple because we have done it for so long. For the right podcast, it might work. I’m not saying it works for all, but it might work for the right podcast. Are there other things or other elements that you want to bring to the show that maybe you haven’t thought about yet?

I’m not a big fan of the download measurement. It’s like getting on the scale every day. It can be very demoralizing. It’s not a good idea, but there is some good data in there and some good things to analyze and think about. You talk about lifting the hood. I like that concept. What are some that you look at when you are analyzing someone’s show for them?

When we analyze somebody’s show, firstly, we will look at the quality of the content. Is it content that somebody can listen to? When I’m doing an audit for a show, I will listen and say, “This is a great show. Here’s what I like about it,” or I will make comments about what is not sitting well with me. If it’s not speaking to me, if it’s not conversational enough, or if it’s too much fact and not enough time for me to absorb the information, we will certainly look at that.

We will also look at other things like are you sharing information that could be getting you in trouble, for example? We have done audits where people in real estate have been giving financial advice. I’m like, “That’s a no-no because that could get you in some pretty hot water with the right associations and agencies.” We look at the goal. We consistently revisit that goal.

That’s the problem if you look at a podcast and you are comparing all of them the same way. There are a lot of these cookie-cutter professional agency services out of there. They apply the same advice to everyone, and it won’t work if your goal is something different. If your whole goal was to mine your guests to have them become agency clients, it’s a different set of advice than if you are mining your listeners to become agency clients.

Exactly, 100%. No two shows are the same either. What I’m going to share with the client who’s a real estate investor who’s speaking to a very specific audience will be different from the client I’m speaking to who’s a business coach. It will be different from the client I’m speaking to who is an oncologist. It will be different from the person who I’m speaking to who is a gymthusiast and becoming an expert in that field. They are all different though, and the goals will be different. What I say might work for the gym podcast but might not work for the real estate investing podcast, the business podcast, or the oncology podcast. Those aren’t the names of the shows. I’m giving you examples because they are all different.

What’s next for you, your show, and your agency?

We are busy. We are having fun. We would like to continue to get the word out not just about what it is that we do, but about the power of this platform. The podcasting medium, the power that it brings is not only how it can bring an audience and shift ideas, but also how it can shift you internally with your thoughts and beliefs and how it can also shift your business, branding, and credibility in that space.

You’d figure the guy who has podcasts has been on a lot of podcasts other than his. No, so that’s the goal. It is to continuously get that message out and share that with people. For those who want to convert themselves to clients or see themselves doing this and need some help, we are more than happy to have a conversation with them about that, too.

Podcast Solutions Made Simple: Continue to get that message out and share it with people.

I am so glad you are representing above the border here in Canada because we do need more Canadian podcasters. I agree with that. To find the success that USA businesses have, they need to compete as well. I love to see that, coming from someone who lived across the border in Canada twice. I lived over in Rochester and Chautauqua, so across the border over there on that eastern side. I love that you are focusing on that because there is more of a necessity to make sure that you are standing out, that you are rising above, and that you are getting that purpose in there. Thank you for bringing podcasting into a new realm and to a new level.

Thank you. Rochester? We are right across the right across the river. I can’t look across the river and see where you live, but it’s that close. There’s a little bit of road to get there.

We interviewed someone on this show. I will have to make an introduction for you, too. It was Rochester Business Connections. You guys should interview each other. That would be fun. This was great. Thank you. I appreciate you.

Thank you so much for having me on.

—

I love it when we can talk a little industry insider stuff and get insights on what’s working and what’s not. It was so gracious of Carl to share his five myths. Money, content, competition, tech, and time are some of the biggest problems that podcasters have getting started. There are these myths they have about how the industry works or how podcasting works, and they are not all true.

That’s interesting that he’s dialed it into his area where he excels at helping them overcome. That gives him a great mock for who he’s going to coach, how he’s going to coach, and how he’s going to keep them motivated, moving, and overcoming those obstacles on their way to podcasting and business marketing. It’s the same.

I also liked the a-ha about a broadcasting background being very valuable. While I don’t disagree with that, I do disagree with it being predominant. We have so many coaches out there that that’s the only thing that they are good at. They are good at helping you develop a show concept or learning how to get confidence behind the mic. You need someone like Carl Richards and other people that we have interviewed on this show who have a broader background. They can fill the tech gap. They can fill the marketing gap and the business gap.

It is because of his experience, Carl’s experience specifically, in being a speaker on stages, selling business, and selling from the stage. That’s a different model. That translates directly with podcasting much more so than being behind the mic and being a radio guy. Those things matter when you are choosing a coach, choosing a producer, or choosing who’s going to guide you and help you. You need to make sure both things are going on.

You want to be careful with who you choose as your coach for this because pros matter. Make sure you are choosing a pro that can add value to the things that you need and hold you accountable in the areas that you need to be held accountable. Also, walk the walk. Carl is producing an active podcast. There are so many producers out there who don’t produce a podcast and aren’t in it doing it. They are not marketing their business through podcasting. He’s doing that. I’m doing that.

There are lots of people out there doing that. Go and find one of those because if they are not doing it, they don’t know how hard it is. They don’t know how difficult it is. If you want to market your business via podcasting, you need that perspective. It’s important to have a perspective of how it is. If we went back to 2012 or 2014, all those years, it was a lot easier and also a lot harder. There were differences back then. There are a lot more technology changes and a lot more differences now. You want someone who’s keeping up with that.

I was so glad to meet Carl Richards. I’m glad we met through PodMatch. That is my magic platform for getting to meet cool, interesting people around the world. Getting to hear his thoughts on the podcast industry and how podcast solutions can help your business, I hope you got that as well. I’m always here every week with another great podcaster who’s got some insights into the industry, insights into their podcasting journey, and insights into marketing, growing listeners, growing guests, and whatever it is that their mission is or what their purpose is. I’m hoping that what you are finding are some gems in this process and some high-level tips.

I also want to share with you that we have been doing some experimentation. We are doing some new experimentation on YouTube. We are doing some experimentation in partnership with what we call PodShares. We are combining our forces and doing some things to help promote podcasters out there. I want you to check out our YouTube and see what we are doing over there because lots of things are changing. Go check that out. You can find us anywhere on social media and at TheBingeFactor.com. Thanks, everyone, for tuning in. I will get back to you next time with another bingeable podcast host.

Important Links

• Podcast Solutions Made Simple
• Rochester Business Connections – Past episode
• YouTube – The Binge Factor
• Speaking Of Speaking

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