Transcript

Molly: What is it? Branded vodka, as you ask. Oh, I can’t wait to tell you. Oh, a branded podcast is a business development tool that drives revenue and generates and creates strategic relationships. Boom. Let me say that again. It drives revenue and creates strategic relationships. It is a business development also. A lot of people think what a brand podcast is like when Colgate has a podcast about brushing your teeth. Well, yes, the answer is yes. A branded podcast can also be produced by a business where it doesn’t even really mention the business. Maybe you just want to show your expertise like there are a lot of different reasons why companies would have a branded podcast. And it doesn’t just have to be companies. You could be an entrepreneur, you could be a coach, you could be a thought leader, and you could be a huge company. All of those positions and people are open to having a podcast that could benefit them in a whole lot of ways.

So let’s talk about how a branded podcast could work for you. So let’s talk about like the three pillars. Right. Let’s start from the very beginning. The three pillars of a branded podcast are this strategy, production, and amplification. Right? What are three things strategy, production, and amplification? So. A lot of people skip the strategy part, right? Why do you want to apologize? Oh, everybody’s doing it. Your business coach told me you would be a good idea. Okay, yeah, I got that right, but. But why? What’s the goal? Right. Like it’s 12 months from now. You’ve been doing the podcast. It’s a hit. What does that look like? Are you famous now? Are you going on, Ellen? Are you? Do you have more clients? Are you getting more speaking engagements? Did you sell more copies of your book? Right. Are you being seen as a thought leader in a specific space? Are you retaining clients like Samson this year? I’m going with this. There are so many rate ways that a brand podcast can enrich your business and move your bottom line. Right. So internally, if you’re a large company and you have complicated products or you have a staff that doesn’t like to read the letters from the president and doesn’t seem to engage in your newsletters or email communications. I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but it seems like if you email people like three questions, they ask to answer one. And so yeah, internal podcast. That’s a thing.

Do you have like, like an insurance company and you sell complicated products? Why don’t you do a podcast like a 30-minute podcast explaining that product inside and out, how to sell it, and what the objections are? Then you can have an internal podcasting network for your sales team, You could be doing weekly updates or monthly updates from the president in the form of a podcast, right? Studies have shown that employees who have not traveled listen to a podcast on the way home or while they’re eating their lunch or whatever else and read something, right? So it’s such a great medium. So even if you’re not using it for sales, right, a brand, a podcast can still generate revenue because at the end of the day, if your employees can sell those complicated products now and you didn’t have to pay somebody to repeat that same information for the 450th time, you are saving money. Therefore, you are making more money. Right. We’re going to talk about knowing your numbers more and more every week as this thing goes on. But right now, let’s start there. So, boom, once again generating revenue. So let’s talk about being seen as a thought leader. Right.

Why would you want to be seen as a thought leader? Well, maybe you want to write a book eventually or you want to get speaking engagements or you’re just trying to position yourself that way. Well, you could create a podcast or you could go on other people’s backs ass who is also like thought leaders and people in that space. Or you could start your podcast and invite them to be on there. Now that might not drive revenue per se from the podcast itself. Right? But what it’ll do is it’ll make people think that you’re one of them. You’re now one of those people, you’re in that echelon, those group of people that you’ve been interviewing. So therefore you just leveled up your status, which is therefore going to result in some revenue. It’s going to generate some opportunities for you. There’s no way that it can’t. Right. So let’s talk about client retention. Let’s say you have a business that sells very, very expensive products and your client’s spending is very, very large. Right. And your clients are big, big money clients and you want to keep them well. Doing a podcast, highlighting success stories and showcasing your clients, and telling a little bit about their story goes a long way. Doing a super badass introduction.

I’m sitting here with Molly Roland, who was born in a golden egg and delivered by swans and has done nothing but amazing things. And then here’s some obscure information that nobody knows except for people who care and choose to research here. And here are all the amazing things she’s done, right? And then I’m sitting across the table going, Damn. So that was the best introduction ever. Right now they’re answering. Your questions are opening up. They’re blossoming in front of you. They’re so grateful, man. You took the time you care about me, and told me to tell my stories is great. They’re going to renew that contract with you, right? So maybe you’re not monetizing right then and there. But they’re going to think about you fondly. When that word order comes through their desk, they’re going to probably sign it again. Right? Client acquisition. Right.

Why don’t I go interview the people that you want to do business with, right? Why not show them how passionate you are about your business and what you do and how knowledgeable you are and how excited you are about being in this industry? Right? Like that goes a long way. And that, that heartfelt introduction, taking that time to do good interview research, those people show up like really, really, really show up for that interview. And you will create a strategic relationship that will last you a lifetime in your business. Never underestimate what one powerful strategic partnership can do for your bottom line. Like, seriously? Right. I think that a lot of businesses can operate and make a ton of money off of a very small amount of transactions. So unless you’re doing Dropshipping or you’re doing like mini transactional, like, you know, profits, that’s one thing. But I think the average small business most likely, you write, is going to find a ton of value from a well-thought-out strategic relationship. I’m going to. Is the word strategy and strategic.

So many times you can hate me. You could turn it into a drinking game if you want, right? But with a branded podcast, you know, here’s the doozy with a brand of I guess the guest is more important than the audience. Do what? Right. I know that’s counterintuitive, right? You’re trying to get on new and noteworthy and you want everybody to review your podcast and reverberate about it. Right. That’s not it. Right. Like the guest is more important because you’re trying to develop that relationship. You’re trying to create a pathway to some more success and opportunities. So back to the three pillars of brand podcast strategy. Super important. Why are you doing this podcast right? The next pillar is production. And so many people get lost in the sauce on this. And I just, you know, it’s like, come on, man, what are you doing? Right? Like people go to school for audio engineering, people go to school for video editing, and people go to school for copyrighting.

This idea that as a podcaster, you’re going to be able to do all of the things is insane. And if you’re just doing a Passion Project podcast and it’s fun for you and you’re talking about songs you love or the nanny television show or whatever, right? And then do your design, just work it out, and do the best you can. But if you’re producing a branded podcast, you represent your business and you don’t hire somebody to do that, and you stick that work on your marketing person. Like, shame on you, dude. Like Shame on you dude and dude ads and non-gender specific humans listening to this. That is not. And that is a terrible use of your money because marketing managers and directors make a lot of money and you can save a lot of that money by hiring the right people to produce your content.

So stop spending 10 hours on GarageBand, stop trying to make audio gram, stop making shitty graphics from scratch like just no one to hold them in, no when to fold them again. If it’s a passion project, sometimes you gotta do it on your own. Or if you’re an entrepreneur solopreneur, right? You don’t have a lot of scratches. I get it right. But at the same time, spend 40 bucks and have somebody edit your podcast. Don’t spend 10 hours on GarageBand because here’s what’s going to happen, right? First of all, GarageBand sucks. Number one, sorry, garage man. There goes my iTunes. But Apple’s my sponsorship. But the point is, it’s like. You’re missing the third pillar, right?

The third pillar is amplification. Right. And so you might have nailed the strategy. And you thought up some great guests to bring in here and you’re killing it, right? You got the production line. You did it yourself. My swing show, whatever. You spend all this time on that. Well, guess what? You tapped out and then you don’t even remember to tell your guest, hey, the podcast that you came on for me, thank you very much, is coming out in two weeks. And here are three graphics you can use and here are three sample tweets that I wrote tagging us in it to make it super easy. And here’s where the video will be and here’s where the audio will be. And Molly, I’d love to have you on our board of directors, or by the way, Molly, I’d love to talk to you about our products. We’re, by the way. Molly: Right. Like that’s the runway, man. That is the opportunity. You are creating a relationship. So you need to nurture that relationship. And so many people don’t get this right. They completely neglect to tell the people, Hey, man, your podcast is coming out. That’s a runway. That’s an opportunity, that’s a touch point to keep the conversation going with that person that you strategize to get across the table from you, whether it’s in-person or virtually. Right.

So if you don’t put equal emphasis and love and weight onto the three pillars, then you best not do them at all. Right. And so many people just get caught up in there, like they’re like Atreyu in the swamp rages slowly sinking into the depths of GarageBand and audacity. Hell, right shining, trying to level audio. And somehow you made the podcast zone worse than if you hadn’t edited it. And then you’re just shit that bad because you’re interviewing some random entrepreneur that has nothing to do with nothing. And then you didn’t even tell them, so they didn’t even tell their network that the podcast came out. And so now you just did all this work and you spent all this time doing this very lonely thing and it didn’t work, you know, or business owners who say, you know, we’ll just have the marketing department do that, man.

Listen, I work with companies. Here’s a great example, right? I work with the Atlantic Council. The Atlantic Council has a complete AV department. They do live streams and live events. They have camera crews, they have audio and video editing people. They have a badass team of people. Right. They met me and had me do corporate training for the entire company. And now they outsource all of their podcast productions to Heartcast media because it makes more sense because their audio and video guys don’t know anything about a podcast is a completely different medium. That’s like saying you can treat TikTok like LinkedIn, right? You don’t even have to understand either one of those completely to know that that ain’t going to be it. That is not going to get it done. And so, you know, you’ve got to understand that you’re creating a piece of content that’s for a very specific platform.

You know, it’s for a very specific purpose. And so you got to let people do what they are the best at and then focus on the strategy, focus on who you’re having on the show, focus on creating that touchpoint afterward, and be super, super intentional about who you’re interviewing and why. And that right there, those three pillars, man, that is it, you know, and it took me a long time to kind of formulate that into some digestible bites because, you know, it matters. And even with some of our clients, we produce this great content, we produce all these assets for and we deliver them. And then they don’t even post on social media. That amplification piece is so, so important. So I’m always, always, always going to advocate for you to hire somebody and let people do what they are good at, right? Let people do what they excel and you do the same thing. Right? It reminds me of a quote, right? My, my, one of my favorite people in the whole world. Monique Maley said this to me.

She owns the company’s articulate persuasion. Right. And I’ve told his story multiple times and I will tell it again. But she was my very first client with Heartcast media and we were in the same co-working space because I had this brilliant idea. I’m sure I’ll tell you one day to start a podcast studio inside of a co-working space, which was brilliant, just to partner with the wrong people. You know who you are. But I digress. But so I sent her this proposal and she said, Hey, I’m going to come to chat with you, in your offices. Yeah. So she came and she had it printed out and she put it in front of me on the table and she said, you know, I have some questions here. You know, like, what does this mean and what does that mean? And like, how does this pertain? And so we answered all the questions and she said, okay, this is great.

There’s only one problem. And I said, What’s that? And you said, You need to charge me double. And I said, What are you talking about? And she said This is not enough. You’re not charging me now. I was so taken aback when I was like, you know, when does the client ever tell you to charge them more? And and and she looked at me square in the eyes and she said, Always charge the most for what comes the easiest to you. Right? Man. We’re going to do a whole episode on that one. Right. But the reason why is because nobody does what you do the way that you do it. Right. And it’s the same thing with everything else. I mean, if you’re not an audio engineer, don’t try to do that. Hire someone who is. You don’t need to hire somebody who charges $400 an hour and you don’t need to hire somebody on fire or the charge is $5 an hour because that shit is predatory and we’re not doing that. People, okay, pay people a living wage because that’s not a living wage anywhere in the world. But. My point is, that you got to know when to hold them and you got to know when to fold them.

And so I’m always going to recommend that you let people do things like do your oil change and do your taxes and produce your podcast so that you can focus on the strategy and the amplification. So there’s my little rant. What is a branded podcast? Because it’s kind of a new term. Not everybody’s using it. I’m trying to keep the conversation going because I do think it’s the future of audio and podcasting in a lot of ways. And I think it’s because I’ve seen it work for so many businesses and I love all of it. So if you’ve been wondering what a branded podcast is and how that works, there’s kind of the first dabble, Dibble Dabble into that arena. I’m going to be talking a whole lot more about strategy, and how to implement those things. And I just briefly glanced over. We’re going to cover all of it. We’re going to learn some stuff. We’re going to talk about case studies, things that are working, things that aren’t working, and how you could implement them in your business. All of that good stuff. So, you know, if you’re interested, right? If you’re if I piqued your attention and you want to know more, look at Discovery. Go with me, man. You got 15 minutes with me and we can talk about your business.

How a podcast would help you even if you produce it yourself or hire somebody else. That’s cool, man. I always want to do a speed dating brand branded podcast, so book a car with me. You know, I’ll give you an answer in 5 minutes. I guarantee you I can give you three ways. The podcast would enrich your bottom line and your life, but a branded podcast. So that’s enough for today. We’re almost hitting our limit or maybe even a minute or two pass. So thank you for spending some time with me today. I hope you’ve got a little bit more knowledge on what a Brandon podcast is and maybe you’ll even check out one of our SO until the next time we are excellent to each other and I will see you on the flip side. Thank you for tuning in to the next 100 sponsored by Heartcast media. We are a digital media creative agency focusing on branding, marketing, strategy, and amplification for personal branding to podcasting. We’ve got you covered. And to continue this conversation, join me on Instagram. My account is @mollydruland. And of course, you can also find us at Heartcast media. That’s where the really good stuff is going down. So join me there. Let’s continue the conversation until next week. Have a good one.