Should You Start a Podcast for Your Consulting Business?

With the growth of podcasting, many consultants wonder if starting a show is right for their business.

In this episode we talk about different possible show formats, which business goals a show can align with, resources considerations to take into account and what the exceptions are when it comes to starting a podcast.

Find the full show notes at http://podcastingforconsultants.net/start

Episode Transcript

Jonathan Baillie Strong (00:39):
Now there are lots of different kinds of
formats that you can consider withPodcasting- we're not going to
cover all of them in this episode.
We'll probably leave that to lateron in the show, but suffice to
say, you know, when people firstthink of starting a show, usually
they set out with some great ideas.
What they think will resonate with people.
We get really excited.

(01:00):
You know, we think about whatwill attract listeners, what will
get them jazzed and so forth...
which is a all great and it's very muchfocused on growing this audience which
is very much top of the funnel marketing.
However, I would say, you know, ifyou're really looking for, to grow
an audience there probably better andmore scalable ways of generating leads.

(01:21):
Where Podcasting really excels is whereyou're trying to build deep relationships
with your audience, you know, where you'retrying to build trust, and getting people
to know unlike you, which lends itselfquite well to the sales process, right?
People buy from those,they know like, and trust.
Okay.
And so if you're, if you are stickingto Podcasting for the longterm,

(01:43):
It helps with building this brandawareness and long sales cycles.
Oftentimes, people won't necessarilytake action when they're listening to
a podcast when they're in the car orwhatnot, but you'll stay top of mind.
And it's very common for peopleto feel like they really know that
the podcast hosts, they feel like.

(02:04):
The podcast hosts arelike their own friend
and it's also great forauthority positioning.
If you have the show for yourmicro-niche for your space, your
industry you're the authority.
You're like the voice of God.
You know, there are people are consumingyour content in their rear buts.
You're literally like the voice ofGod, the same way that your listening
to me right now with my deep, nicevoice and my sexy microphone anyway.

(02:30):
So right.
Getting back to the point, Ithink focusing listenership and
audience and so forth is great,but there's another approach.
And there's another opportunity, whichI think people often miss out on...
and I know I've mentioned this brieflyin the past, I'm going to keep mentioning
this because I think it's worth justtrying to hammer home this point as much

(02:53):
as possible, but interview podcastingin particular has this really amazing
way of allowing people (the hosts)to really up level their network.
It really opens doors.
And creates opportunity.
I can't emphasize this enough so insteadof focusing so much from the audience,
if you focus more initially, if you justthink of the guest, the audience and the

(03:16):
listenership, it will take care of itself.
Right?
If you just think of, instead of whoyour ideal listener is, you think
primarily who's your ideal class?
Who do you want to buildrelationships with?
Who do you want to serve?
Once you take that approach, Thingscan really dramatically change.
And so that's a differentkind of format of show.
So I'd say, you know, the first onewhere you're thinking of audience

(03:36):
first, maybe you're thinking of soloepisodes or co-hosted, or maybe some
interview, but the second one where I'mtalking about focusing on the guests is
obviously it's interview based, right?
And that that's the approachthat we like to focus on.
Post
no.

(03:57):
let me get a little bit meta here.
this show itself that you're listeningto actually fits with the first category,
that top of funnel marketing, whereI'm basically telling you, you know,
this is how, how to create a show.
This is what we do.
We're positioningourselves as a authority.
This is a service that we provideand I'm trying to create this

(04:17):
know like, and trust factor.
instead of hearing from guests thatI bring on, you're mostly hearing
from me through these solo episodes,
But in actual fact, this is not the show.
That will be the biggestdriver for our business.
We're lucky to start an interview showwhere we will be interviewing people
who could be our prospects or referralpartners in the consulting industry.

(04:39):
And that would fit thatsecond credit for your show.
What I've done here is I'm essentiallysplitting out those two purposes.
Now, some people they mix andmatch and in fact, our clients have
done this and it, and it works.
I would say though, the, it depends where,where your goals and your priorities,
like what, what we have done hereis we're splitting those shows out.

(04:59):
And essentially it's alittle bit of a funnel.
Essentially what we're doing, we'restarting with this first show,
but it's actually the second showthat will be that interview show.
We're funneling people, listeners tothis show where they can learn more
about what it takes to start a podcast.
So suffice to say, you know, it's worththinking about how the show strategically.

(05:21):
Whereas for your business.
Now, I'm not saying thatwhat we're doing is right.
I'm not saying what, whatmy clients have done.
Right.
You know, it will dependon your situation.
but but these are all variables andthings to factor into your own decision.
And if you head on over to the episode,show notes for this, you'll actually
be able to find a download, of somecase studies of other consulting
businesses and how they've usedpodcasts to support their businesses.

(05:45):
So now we've briefly described, youknow, some of the formats around
Podcasting and the ones we'veseen consulting businesses use.
Next thing to consider is do these showformats align with your business goals?
You know, are you lookingto generate new leads?
Is growth important to you?
Or are you just swimming in leadsand you don't need them right now.
Also, is strategically networking withthe right people, important to you.

(06:08):
Is that something that you foundmore difficult because of COVID
pandemic not being able to attendconferences in person, trying
to build relationships remotely?
Is this something that could help youa podcast could definitely do those
things if that's important to you.
Other reasons that make good reasonsfor, for starting a show, building
brand awareness, Making sure thatyou don't get lost in a sea of noise,

(06:32):
especially, when, you people aredoing outbound, and people's inboxes
are full and you're trying to reachout to people who are just, they've
just got so much on their plate andthey've got so much noise, but if you
can not offer them an opportunity whereyou're actually giving them something,
you're giving them value upfront.
And you're able to build a relationship.
You're able to get them on the phoneas opposed to just being one of

(06:54):
those many people in their inbox.
That's gonna really move the knee.
Also, if you're really alsojust looking to get to know more
about your customers or clients.
Become more familiar with the challengesand goals and aspirations they have
having regular conversations with themover the year is great and if you're

(07:17):
looking to combat that fast and faminecycle, that so many Consultants go
through where you're working on a project.
It's great, but businessdevelopment falls by the wayside.
It's not something you're doing regularly.
And then all of a sudden you'reout of a project and you're
looking for your next gig.
This is something where a regularpodcast, a weekly podcast would just

(07:40):
make sure that you're continually havingthose conversations with the people
I'm finally, another business goalwe commonly see with consultancies is
trying to stay top of mind and relevant
creating content on aregular basis is, is tough.
But by having an interview podcastit's essentially your guests.

(08:03):
Third continually bringing up new ideasand new perspectives and things that you
can also enter into the conversation with.
Um, by taking that content, youcan then repurpose that into
bite size, social posts and soforth that keep you top of mind.
So we've talked about the differentkinds of shows that you can do.

(08:25):
We've talked about whether those alignwith your business goals and how they can.
the next thing that I think is worthconsidering is what's your secret
sauce when it comes to marketingor brand presence, like what's your
best way of communicating because atthe end of the day, how you generate
sales or how you market yourself.

(08:46):
It doesn't have to bethrough an audio podcast.
It could be through written, it could bevideo, it could be webinars and so forth.
The main crux is you want to be buildingrelationships with the people that
matter and doing it through content.
Collaboration is great.
Whether that content has to be audiopodcasts, it doesn't necessarily
the reason why we favor audioPodcasting is because it's often.
The easiest one to do.

(09:07):
It's the most efficienttime-wise, resource financially.
As opposed to say, for example,video, which often requires quite high
Production values.
, lighting and, and whatnot, when it comesto written content, that requires, you
know, a lot of time with audio Podcasting.
It's, you know, you'd basically jump onthe, on a call with someone and you have

(09:30):
a conversation, uh, a lot more simplethan a lot of these other formats, but
all that said, if you're killing it,answering Quora questions or writing
blog posts, you know, they can go for it.
I would say though, that havingspoken to people with huge
followings who are really considered.

(09:51):
Thought leaders and havethese amazing blogs.
I've learned so much myself and I reallyrespect and admire them when I talk
to them about their lead generation,where they're getting leads from it's a
little bit haphazard and so they rely oninbound, but it's often quite endurable.
I would say this interview Podcastingstrategy that I'm describing here.

(10:15):
It was a lot more direct.
It's a lot more strategic and itcan deliver results much quicker.
And I actually think that havinga combination of both inbound
thought leadership pieces but alsohaving an outbound channel like interview
Podcasting can work really, really well.
The other thing I would say is at theend of the day, you're in the consulting

(10:36):
business, which means that your jobis mostly based on talking to people.
listening to people, understandingpeople, understanding culture and
an interview podcast is a greatchannel and a way of doing this.
So that's why at the end of the day,you know, this lends itself quite well.
But again, this is anotherconsideration, you know, what's

(10:58):
your favorite communication channel.
So the next thing to think aboutis what are you willing or able
to invest into the whole process?
So with any show, there's usuallyan upfront investment and time.
Particularly in time when it comesto the thought process and strategy
behind the show and getting everythingset up, we really recommend that

(11:23):
you don't do this all yourself
Or in house.
because chances are, it'sgoing to take you so much time.
and there are so many decisionsto make it small variables, that
if you get them wrong, it just.
It doesn't make your showthat professional, right?
You want good sound quality.
You want to frame the show correctly.
you want to make sure that your audioproduction is on point that you have

(11:44):
your workflows and processes all set up.
So obviously, that's whyservices like ours, a exists.
We have a system.
that's in place to help people like you.
We're not the only option out there.
There are freelancers, there areother things, but whatever you
do do get a team together so thatyou're not burdened with too much.
And once things are runningsmoothly, we usually often find our

(12:08):
clients spend, I'd say, two hoursat most, a week on their show.
They record the content and thenwe take care of all the rest, the
audio production, the show notes,the publishing, the distribution,
So thus far, we've talked aboutdifferent kinds of show formats.
You could consider how those couldalign with your business goals,

(12:30):
whether it Podcasting is the bestway for you to communicate and get
in front of your ideal prospects andhow much you're willing to invest.
So funny, I just want to talkabout a couple of exceptions
where maybe a B2B interview show.
Isn't it, the right thing for you to do.
So typically with a B2B interview show, they're done on a
weekly basis, which considering another 52weeks in a year, that means 52 interviews.

(12:53):
That means 52 conversations anda proportion of those are going
to result in close business.
However for that to make sensefinancially, it does mean
that they usually, the dealsize has to be somewhat high.
So high ticket sales, basically,if you're selling eBooks, this
really isn't going to cut it.

(13:14):
So.
yeah, you do want to make sure thatthe math on the numbers make sense in
our next episode, we'll actually talkabout the calculation you can make.
In order to figure out financially, howa show like this will make sense for you.
I would say, you know, typically theseshows are done with interviews on a weekly
basis, but say maybe if your deal sizeis a bit lower than you probably want to

(13:37):
increase the frequency of these interviewsso that you have more lead flow.
Another exception is where it's incertain industries that are a little
bit secretive and PR is kind of shunned.
So obviously in those cases where peopledon't want to spill the beans, maybe
an interview show isn't the right way.
Another exception is just, some peopleare just extremely awkward interviewers.

(13:59):
And in those cases, maybe another channelis better, but that's where, you know,
having good editors comes into play.
Another thing I would say is, fora show like this, to be really
effective, You do have to be genuineand authentic with your guests.
This isn't some sort of Machiavellian,scheme and the idea here is

(14:19):
the really try and lead withgenerosity and helping people.
And there's a sequence of steps, but we'lldive into in a later episode, but where
you're building rapport and you're findingways that you can help the other person.
And a lot of cases, when you do theseinterviews, a lot of the people you'll
be speaking to, you might not findthem at the right time or place in

(14:42):
order for them to use your services.
But the more that you're able to helpthem out, whether it's personally or
professionally in their career, the morethey'll be willing to help you as well.
And this is also where the power ofreferrals really comes into play as well.
So really you have to think ofit from a perspective of Already
serving and helping people.

(15:04):
funny.
Okay.
Just say, you know, it's also a loteasier if you have a very clear target
client in mind and in that case, youknow, it's crystal clear exactly which
guests you should be reaching out to.
I would say though, even ifnot, you can still create a
show that's a little bit broad.
And, your target profile is notexactly clear, but can niche down.

(15:25):
I've seen people do that.
So you can always pivot a show later on.
Once you've found your real targetclient, change the artwork, change
the description, change the title.
That's not a problem.
It doesn't have to be set in stone.
Some people think, Oh,it started podcasts.
Everything has to be,completely set in stone.
It doesn't, you can change things.
So to sum up, Is a podcast right?

(15:45):
For your consulting business?
Well, if you're in B2B,
And do you have a high ticket offer?
The answer is usually yes.
and if you want to see some examples of other
consulting businesses, who you spokeus to grow their business, we have
put together a list for you if youjust head on over to our episode, show
notes page, you'll find a download

(16:06):
at
podcasting for Consultants dot net slash.
start, so that wraps up this episode.
I hope that's answered some of thequestions you've had around starting
a show and our next, episode, we'llbe diving more into the math and the
numbers behind starting a podcastfor your consulting business.
and we'll help you figure out the, returnon investment from a show like this.