This week’s episode brings back Collin Mitchell, Co-Founder of Salescast to discuss the power of being a guest on a podcast, especially for Founders. We get tactical on how to approach podcasts and podcast hosts to be a guest, the value in leveraging those relationships, and we touch on what it takes to start your own podcast. This is a great tactical episode for all those in my network that continually ask me “how do you get booked on podcasts?” Salescast is the operating system for the B2B podcasting community of sales, marketing, and revenue professionals. They have an inclusive online community, courses, tutorials, events, guest matching, and even world-class managed production services. Its mission is to connect 100 million sellers to the power of story. Check out Collin’s Season 1 Episode: Ep 46: Don't Overthink, Take Action, and Learn By Doing with 4x Entrepreneur Collin Mitchell Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.
This week’s episode brings back Collin Mitchell, Co-Founder of Salescast to discuss the power of being a guest on a podcast, especially for Founders. We get tactical on how to approach podcasts and podcast hosts to be a guest, the value in leveraging those relationships, and we touch on what it takes to start your own podcast.
This is a great tactical episode for all those in my network that continually ask me “how do you get booked on podcasts?”
Salescast is the operating system for the B2B podcasting community of sales, marketing, and revenue professionals. They have an inclusive online community, courses, tutorials, events, guest matching, and even world-class managed production services. Its mission is to connect 100 million sellers to the power of story.
Check out Collin’s Season 1 Episode: Ep 46: Don't Overthink, Take Action, and Learn By Doing with 4x Entrepreneur Collin Mitchell
Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.
Connect with Collin:
Places Collin mentioned for you to get started finding shows to be a guest on:
Connect with Rob:
Show Produced by: Niranjan Deshpande (Nick), Broken Frames Studio, www.brokenframesstudio.com
Creative Director: Maxim Sokolov, www.maximsokolov.com
Special offer for #BearNation listeners who are interested in trying Brilliantly Warm (https://www.brilliantly.co/), use this 10% off discount code WELCOME10.
We have teamed up with Phin, a social impact company, to give back for each episode to the communities that we serve. To learn more or get involved with Phin for your company, visit: https://www.phinforgood.com/
Ep 68: Why Podcasting Is So Valuable
INTRO
00;00;01;00 - 00;00;38;14
Rob Napoli
The people what is good Bear Nation. How it doing? This is your host, Rob Napoli and today's episode is this one around a question that I've been asked a lot lately, especially by founders that I work with and the clients that I work with, and many people I network, which is how do you get on podcasts? Well, I've had the pleasure to be a guest at about 40 different podcasts, plus the 68 that I host.
00;00;39;00 - 00;01;04;25
Rob Napoli
And I really wanted to answer that question because there's a lot of different ways and tips and tricks and I think it's really, really important. And there's so much power in being a guest podcaster, especially if you're trying to grow your business for visibility, exposure, having to have an audio and video and a written transcription that you can share with clients and investors and things of that nature.
00;01;05;16 - 00;01;27;01
Rob Napoli
So I thought, who better to bring back to the show than the founder of a podcasting company, Colin Mitchell. So this episode features Colin Mitchell, we get into how and what it means to be a guest on a podcast and the tips and tricks and best places to go, even gives some amazing tools for you to get started.
00;01;27;11 - 00;01;47;22
Rob Napoli
And we briefly touch on, you know, the, the benefit of having your own podcast, but also the challenges of it that we may do a full episode on how to start your own podcast later in the year. So without further ado, let's get into the show with Colin Mitchell. Glad to have him back. He's share some great wisdom and insights with you all.
MAIN VIDEO
00;01;48;04 - 00;02;19;19
Rob Napoli
Stay well, Bear Nation. How we doing? We are back again and I brought back one of my favorite people, Colin Mitchell, back on the show again. For those that don't know him, I will link his original episode where he got into his story and how he builds the. He is the co-founder and CEO for a company called Sales Gas, which is all about podcasting and a influential figure in me getting the Bear necessities started out.
00;02;19;19 - 00;02;21;20
Rob Napoli
So Colin, welcome back to the show, my friend.
00;02;22;03 - 00;02;25;29
Collin Mitchell
Yeah, man, thanks for having me on. I'm glad that I made it to your list of favorites.
00;02;27;17 - 00;02;42;01
Rob Napoli
Of course. And we've been through a lot together and there's been a lot of great, great conversations. And I don't think the bear necessities would have truly been possible without, you know, us connecting to be on your podcast as a guest first.
00;02;42;09 - 00;02;42;19
Collin Mitchell
Yeah.
00;02;42;20 - 00;03;06;27
Rob Napoli
Then how we turn that into like why I would be a good co-host and then the show idea, the coming of age of the show. So yeah, it's a big deal. So you know what I wanted to do and you know, we talk about podcasting a lot and obviously I have this platform and I talk to a lot of people, a lot of founders, especially in the accelerator communities I'm in and the incubators and all over the world about the value of podcasting.
00;03;07;08 - 00;03;30;16
Rob Napoli
And I wanted to ask you a few questions around that and why it's so powerful and what the impact that you could have with a podcast, either as a guest or as a host. That's how I want to cover with you today. So let me start out with your podcasting journey. You know, what made you fall in love with the podcasting life and get you started?
00;03;30;16 - 00;03;35;07
Rob Napoli
Like, how did you get started and what was it that you saw that drew you in quickly?
00;03;35;12 - 00;03;54;18
Collin Mitchell
Yeah, so it all started with me actually guesting on Chris, my co-founder, his podcast for the first time, I think I think you're familiar with the story, so I'll keep it fairly brief and we'll get into more details here. But he invited me on his show is the first podcast I've ever been on. I had a great experience.
00;03;54;18 - 00;04;14;08
Collin Mitchell
It was actually in studio in person when you know that was more of a thing. Those are always, you know, great experiences. We encourage people to come into our studio whenever possible in Orange County to create content because it's just it's just a good time. And at the end of it, I was like, this was awesome. Like, I think I want to start a podcast, how do I get started?
00;04;14;18 - 00;04;35;22
Collin Mitchell
And he made it really easy for me to get started and helped me out. And then we went on this crazy journey of creating a lot of content on a high frequency when it like right into a daily from like zero podcast experience to like daily content. And that was, you know, he was helping me run the podcast and he's also doing some marketing work for my You Cash business before I sold that.
00;04;36;03 - 00;04;56;11
Collin Mitchell
And we created a process and we created, you know, a lot of things around creating high frequency of content all centered around the podcast, right? And that was the first thing that I fell in love with. Podcasting was the ability to take one activity and then repurpose it in many different ways. I know that you do a great job with this.
00;04;56;11 - 00;05;33;09
Collin Mitchell
Like, you know, from your podcast, you end up with lots of content, you know, social graphics, tax posts, reels, LinkedIn videos, audio. Gram's like just through that one little 20, 30 minute conversation, you're like, you can become you can accelerate being a creator or a daily creator through that single activity. And I think a lot of times the reason that people don't get started on high frequency of creating content is because they don't have that vehicle, that one activity that they do consistently to drive all of the content that they need to repurpose across all channels.
00;05;33;21 - 00;05;51;22
Collin Mitchell
Right? So that was the first thing that I really fell in love with it. And then from there we thought the podcast was going to be one thing and this is really common. People start a podcast and they have this idea and they have a goal, they have strategies and sometimes that changes. And that was definitely the case of my first show.
00;05;51;22 - 00;06;12;00
Collin Mitchell
We thought that it was going to help us land clients for my UX business and it just didn't work out. Is a highly competitive space, was very transactional sale and it didn't work. But the second part that I loved most about podcasting, and this is probably my most favorite thing, is the relationships and the connections that I built with the people that came on my show.
00;06;12;00 - 00;06;27;18
Collin Mitchell
I had this insane, awesome network of phenomenal people that I wouldn't have known otherwise. I mean, I know from just talking with you the relationships that you develop with people that come on your show is I want to one of the things you love most as well, right?
00;06;28;04 - 00;06;54;11
Rob Napoli
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and I love that you kind of brought this up because there's two sides, two major things that I think make podcasting so valuable, whether you're a guest or having your own show is one, the amount of content you get from doing an episode right now that's a bit on you, or like whoever is doing the show, it's like get the for the full stuff and they cut it up and like that does take time, energy and effort.
00;06;54;12 - 00;07;17;08
Rob Napoli
But no, Gary Vee kind of talked about the power of it's like video, audio and a written word, right? Like to take that and cut it up like one 30 minute podcast episode could give you 30 pieces of content and repurposes over time and it's amazing. Like there's two months of content out in the game. And the second thing that that's my favorite is the network, right?
00;07;17;15 - 00;07;24;24
Rob Napoli
And I wrote a book about building a value out of network, like whether you're hosting. Yeah, we'll talk about this hosting. I guess like you're meeting great people.
00;07;25;03 - 00;07;25;12
Collin Mitchell
Yeah.
00;07;25;17 - 00;07;43;26
Rob Napoli
And you get to build a relationship with them through that conversation that's real and raw. Like it's, it's meaningful, it's deep. Like you're not going on with, like, you know, I'm not going on a sales call with like my guard's up. I'm not going on, you know, like, you know, a game show or I got to be like perfect.
00;07;43;26 - 00;07;57;00
Rob Napoli
It's like I'm going on to have a conversation about real things that happen, and it's real people talking about real things and it's genuine. And that genuine, authentic conversation and connection creates such an amazing ecosystem.
00;07;57;15 - 00;08;23;00
Collin Mitchell
Yeah, yeah. And the thing is, is you talked about adding value, right? And so this works, you know, on both sides, right? So if you're if you're a guest and you're going on a show and you go there and you deliver a great message with tremendous value, that host is going to be extremely grateful because one of the most important things for a host is to create content that adds value for their network and for the listeners.
00;08;23;12 - 00;08;43;06
Collin Mitchell
Right? And so being able to add value in that way as a guest really helps you build a bond and a relationship with that host. And, you know, I we often talk about, you know, we do like a webinar where we help people, you know, teach people how to get themselves booked on podcasts on a regular basis. It's like one of our most popular ones.
00;08;43;06 - 00;09;10;01
Collin Mitchell
Tons of people always show up to this one. It hasn't really changed much. I mean, the core of what that looks like and how to go about that is still pretty much the same. But the one thing that most people often overlook is they're so concerned about reaching, you know, the host's listeners, the one too many that they often overlook the relationship right in front of them, the actual hosts themselves.
00;09;10;01 - 00;09;33;07
Collin Mitchell
These are typically well connected people. They typically know other podcasters that they could recommend you to, depending on how you show up. You know, if it's a big sales pitch and it's all about me and like I'm constantly mentioning my website or all I'm talking about is my book or, you know, and it's clear that I am there more for what's in it for me than just trying to add value.
00;09;33;07 - 00;09;37;25
Collin Mitchell
Then you're going to ruin the opportunity to have a relationship with a highly connected person.
00;09;38;18 - 00;10;02;26
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I love that because getting on one podcast makes it easier to get on a second, especially because podcasters know other podcasters usually, and they're willing to share. It's like, Hey, I had a great guest. And in fact what I love about podcasting and when my favorite thing on my show is and I get to have like a first time podcast, they're I've had three is their first ever podcast with me as like I love that, right?
00;10;02;28 - 00;10;21;02
Rob Napoli
Because like, hey, let me like if I was good, I've introduced them to go on other podcasts, right? It's like being able to kind of like give that back like, oh, it was great. And sometimes it's those people like there's people out there that are bit on like 30, 40 podcasts, you know, it's great because he put a social reel out.
00;10;21;02 - 00;10;39;14
Rob Napoli
Like everyone's going to like it because their networks are big, but like the listeners are going to be very smart unless it's a new topic, they tend to sometimes be tough on the same thing. And so it's that drawing, you listeners, it's drawing a lot of social clicks, but like when you get really good stories and really good people, like that's where that happens.
00;10;39;14 - 00;11;03;29
Rob Napoli
And then great guests tend to share the podcast to their network, which really drives this, hey, like I talk about something great here, please call this. And like I said, I always know which episodes. Like my guests like go really market out because like there's a, there's a big gap of like what my normal what each episode gets to like when they send it to all their friends, like, hey, you got to check this out.
00;11;04;07 - 00;11;07;03
Rob Napoli
I was on this podcast and it makes a big difference that 1 to 1.
00;11;07;14 - 00;11;32;02
Collin Mitchell
Oh yeah. And then, you know, that's when they, you invite them back, you know, for a round two or three or whatever, that's when you recommend it to your friends. That's when you know those, those first timers too. Like I've had, I've had my fair share of first timers on my show, but I've also had not necessarily just first timers, but like people really telling parts of their story for the first time ever.
00;11;32;02 - 00;11;53;09
Collin Mitchell
And those are like some really magical moments and can like change the trajectory of how they create content and, you know, finding their voice and like sharing more, you know, parts of them that they hadn't shared before for whatever reason. I don't know why, like people really open up on podcasts. Like there's just, I don't know if I don't know what it is they think like, oh, it's audio only.
00;11;53;09 - 00;12;10;13
Collin Mitchell
Although everybody is using video what the case is. But you know typically the best podcasts and and this is, you know, how you do your show how I do my show and how many people do their show is there's not a lot of prep. There's not a lot of planning. Like we don't plan out any questions. We don't know where we're going to go.
00;12;11;03 - 00;12;29;18
Collin Mitchell
We just hop on, you know, kind of with a bit of intent in mind, but who knows where it takes us? And those are the best conversations because you get real authentic answers. They're not, you know, scripted or thought out beforehand. It almost irritates me when somebody is like, Hey, here's all the questions I'm going to ask you before.
00;12;29;18 - 00;12;36;11
Collin Mitchell
And like, if you run your show that way, that's cool. But definitely not my preference. And you definitely will get better content if you don't do that.
00;12;36;24 - 00;12;58;26
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I agree. And so I think part of what makes podcasting so unique is that genuine conversation and the fact that I do think you're right, the fact that it's kind of audio first like, you know, I put video out, but usually people go to listen to the audio, right. And I think there's this desire that we want people to hear our story.
00;12;59;04 - 00;13;15;11
Rob Napoli
You want to share it, but it's not in front of a camera. Like we're not doing a video interview. We're more comfortable to share it and we want to share it. Everyone wants to be able to talk about themselves. Everyone wants to share their story. It just takes them a while to get for some to get out of their shell and share.
00;13;15;24 - 00;13;36;19
Rob Napoli
So I love that piece. One of the questions that I really have and I think this is, you know, unique because you have kind of the two sides of you just talk about your webinar that to guess it on and then you obviously have a ton of podcasts under the South Cast Channel. Where does one start if somebody comes to you is that I want to get into podcasting.
00;13;36;25 - 00;13;43;11
Rob Napoli
Like what do you advise them on how to start getting into the podcast game if they haven't before? Yeah. On one.
00;13;43;22 - 00;14;01;14
Collin Mitchell
Yeah. It's, it's, it's a really good question. I'm sure there's a lot of people that are probably thinking that. So I always recommend guesting first. Like I was a little crazy and it was like I went on one podcast and then I started a podcast. Most people guest on a handful of shows before they start their own show.
00;14;01;15 - 00;14;22;10
Collin Mitchell
I know you personally, Rob, like you guessed it, on a ton of shows and really thought through starting a podcast before you actually started, you know, the bear necessities, right? So I don't know what the right answer is. The right answer is like when you're comfortable, you find your voice and you're like comfortable telling your story. That's probably a good time to then maybe start your own show.
00;14;23;02 - 00;14;41;19
Collin Mitchell
The thing that is really good about starting off that way is you start to get a sense of how other people run their show and some ideas of maybe how you want to run your show or maybe some things that you don't want to do. Like, you know, maybe some people have a prep call before some people don't.
00;14;42;12 - 00;14;59;20
Collin Mitchell
Maybe you do want to have a prep call with your guest before maybe you have, you know, sort of some go to questions that are icebreakers or maybe you have some go to questions, you know, rapid fire. At the end, you'll start to see how other people run their podcast, you know, give you a sense of what you like, what you don't like.
00;14;59;28 - 00;15;16;18
Collin Mitchell
So you can start to form an idea on your head. If I had a show, what would it be like? What you know, how would I how would I operate it as host? And then you can start to answer some of those questions. And then a big part of being a host too. And you see this when people start a little bit too early.
00;15;17;00 - 00;15;37;13
Collin Mitchell
And this was definitely my experience where, you know, they haven't guested a lot or haven't totally found their voice or haven't like really created a lot of content. What will happen is the interviews are kind of boring. It sounds like, you know, something you would hear on the news or like, you know, it's a question answer, question answer.
00;15;37;13 - 00;15;53;03
Collin Mitchell
The less conversational, right? So the host really needs to find their voice for the content to be good. And what that means is like sharing your thoughts and opinions and things about, you know, the conversation rather than just asking a bunch of questions because that's boring.
00;15;53;27 - 00;16;15;16
Rob Napoli
Yeah, a lot to unpack that. I love that. I love that. I think that guessing first is a great start. One, it's starting a podcast. We'll talk about it here in a second so that a podcast seems overwhelming, right? It's it was like a great idea. But one thing that held me back was like, oh, I feels like it could be overwhelming, like editing a production and all that stuff.
00;16;16;02 - 00;16;18;07
Rob Napoli
So, you know, I think, yeah, I think.
00;16;18;17 - 00;16;36;03
Collin Mitchell
And there's a feeling like it is it is a lot. Yeah, it is a lot to run a show and to keep it going because like I think only one in nine podcasts like still release episodes today that have launched. Right. And most people never even make it to ten episodes. So like, it is a lot to start a show.
00;16;36;16 - 00;16;54;02
Rob Napoli
Yeah, really. I don't know that people rarely make it to. I mean, I'm at 68 now as we're recording and I do think that, you know, there is there was a little bit for me a struggle of like making sure that I had enough consistency that was so that my fear. So I liked I think guesting is a great way to start.
00;16;54;13 - 00;17;15;04
Rob Napoli
You learn and I for me, you know, I was guesting a lot with my former company as a sales organization sourcing sales podcast. And then as that company got sold and I started Bare Necessities All about entrepreneurship and the new business I had. So I actually had to work on some advice she gave is like, you know, changing your story and like the stories that you tell on the subject matter.
00;17;15;04 - 00;17;37;29
Rob Napoli
Like this was your life before and this is your life now. And how do you like kind of bring that full circle and share that? And guesting gives you that experience to do that, guesting gives you an experience, a great guess. Also ask questions back. So it gives you that chance to like do a little bit of back and forth and get yourself comfortable with being on camera, being behind them, like sharing stories, asking questions, being vulnerable.
00;17;38;10 - 00;17;55;25
Rob Napoli
And I do think the best podcasts are about being authentically you and telling real raw stories. Like I've heard those podcasts, they interview it. It's like the best of highlights and it makes it seem glorified. I was like, This should sucks. Like there's nothing in there that really talks about the challenge and you make it seem so easy and it's not.
00;17;55;25 - 00;18;21;15
Rob Napoli
We know that. So I think guessing, guessing is definitely the way to go. So if somebody comes to us like I want to start casting our show is what do they wish they look for, right? Like when you look to guest that I kind of brought up my story because we had this conversation a little bit. How do you kind of focus on like what shows you should go for and what you should look at and how do you kind of like even know where to start on the guessing side?
00;18;21;15 - 00;18;21;25
Rob Napoli
Yeah.
00;18;22;08 - 00;18;43;07
Collin Mitchell
I mean, so the first thing is, is what kind of value can you bring to an audience like what are your top tracks? Right. And you know, if your sales leader maybe have sales leadership talks, if you're founder, maybe you have, you know, entrepreneurial experience to share, I think the biggest challenge is a lot of people think is like, oh, I don't have enough.
00;18;43;07 - 00;19;07;10
Collin Mitchell
I don't have any value to add. And it's like, you do you your story are unique enough. You just got to start talking about it. And like you didn't, you don't even have like some eight figure nine figure exit or raised 60 million or series B like you don't need to have those like a lot of people need to just a lot of people think they need to have some sort of level of achievements or some sort of job title or some sort of experience before they get started on this journey.
00;19;07;22 - 00;19;28;22
Collin Mitchell
And that's not true. So the first thing you need to do is wake up to the fact that that's not true and stop telling yourself that lie and then figure out what experience that you have, right? Because you started somewhere and there's somebody ahead of you that maybe you look up to and there's people behind you. They look up to where you're at and you can help them figure out to get how to get there.
00;19;29;03 - 00;19;51;02
Collin Mitchell
And so you have a story to share and it's important and it matters. And what is that story? And what type of audience would benefit from that? And so that's the first thing. Maybe it's marketing shows, maybe it's entrepreneurship shows, maybe it's sales shows, maybe it's, you know, maybe you're a technical person and it's, AI shows, I don't know, whatever those are, that's step one.
00;19;51;15 - 00;20;13;17
Collin Mitchell
And then there's tons of resources as of where like you don't want to like scroll through the podcast apps and like look for shows. So just it's not efficient, right? So there's tons of resources of where you can start to put these lists together. There is Listen Notes is a great resource, pod chaser is a great resource. And there's another one called Re Phonic as well.
00;20;13;17 - 00;20;34;21
Collin Mitchell
Those are like the main three. I don't my personal preference what's the last one is refining. My personal preference used to be listen notes, but it's changed to pod chaser. Pod Chaser is really robust and has some really good data. And so you build that list in there and maybe you build a list of like 20 or 50 shows.
00;20;35;19 - 00;20;52;28
Collin Mitchell
Okay. And you have an idea of what your talk tracks are, because there's three things podcasters care about. One, do you know anything about their show? Like, are you just blindly reaching out or like, have you actually done some research? Like, have you actually listened to some episodes? Do you actually know the host name? Do they even have guests?
00;20;53;14 - 00;21;15;10
Collin Mitchell
Because sometimes, like people reach out to shows that don't even have guests. Right. And and so that's the that's the number one thing. The second thing that they care about is reviews. Reviews are like gold to podcasters. So if you're doing your research, you're checking the show out, drop them a review. The show. You must think the show is good if you want to be a guest.
00;21;15;10 - 00;21;42;13
Collin Mitchell
So drop them a five star review and let them know. And then yeah, the third thing that they care about most is can you add value to their listeners? Might so do the work for them. Hey Rob, I was checking out the Bare Necessities for entrepreneurs podcast. I dropped you a five star review. Here's a few topics that I think your audience could benefit from.
00;21;42;19 - 00;22;01;25
Collin Mitchell
How to get started in Podcasting. For an entrepreneur, you know how to lead an organization through founder led sales. When to make your first sales hire as an entrepreneur like those are just some examples that I came up with on the fly. Do you think your listeners would benefit from this question mark? Like that's it and it's really that simple.
00;22;02;09 - 00;22;18;19
Rob Napoli
You can look back at the previous episodes and you can start to see to like which episodes get a lot of plays, which episodes you know, if they're, if it's like, Yeah, first hire thing and there's like five episodes, they probably want to do another one of that. So like, yeah, yeah, this. So you can kind of like tailor your things to.
00;22;18;25 - 00;22;24;28
Collin Mitchell
Yeah, I love that could you just offer the gaps are like, hey, I noticed you haven't talked about this on your show yet.
00;22;25;16 - 00;22;26;06
Rob Napoli
Exactly.
00;22;26;08 - 00;22;37;28
Collin Mitchell
Oh yeah. I mean, you get I'm sure you get tons of outreach, right? Like you've seen probably mostly bad, I would imagine anything good come across your inbox where you're like, I might actually have them on my show.
00;22;37;28 - 00;23;03;04
Rob Napoli
I had two that and one up cutting on one. We just never were able to make it happen. But I to call the outreach me I had five that I talked to three were like absolutely no like will you just talk to me? Knew that they weren't genuine. It was going to be patchy. Yeah. One I did take on and it was that being a good episode because I had to like right before the show I could tell he was like trying to like, here's why I want to talk about here's some questions to ask me.
00;23;03;04 - 00;23;15;29
Rob Napoli
I was like, No, no, this is my podcast as I get, so we're going to do this, I'll cancel right now. But like you're not pitching your services or you're coming in to talk about your story. He was like, Yeah, right. And it turned out to be a great episode. The other one, I was really excited to get on.
00;23;15;29 - 00;23;33;05
Rob Napoli
We just couldn't make the timing work, but a great story, great energy. In fact, like just having this conversation, I want to reach back out to him. But but yeah, I mean, I've only had two and I probably seen 100 people reach out to me about the podcasts.
00;23;33;20 - 00;23;51;09
Collin Mitchell
Yeah, two out of 100. So, I mean, that's what's that's what's out there. And then here's the key is like, Rob's a busy guy. Like, don't just send Rob one message and think like, because he doesn't, I mean, I don't know, maybe you're pretty responsive, dude, so I don't know. But bottom line is, most podcasters are super busy.
00;23;51;16 - 00;24;12;13
Collin Mitchell
Like they are not full time podcasters. Now, there's some exceptions, but most of them are running a business. You know, they have a job. They do it after hours on the weekend as a side gig, side hustle. Like the podcast is not their bread and butter, right? So like you may have to follow up 5 to 8 times before they're like, yes, I'd love to have you on.
00;24;12;22 - 00;24;29;27
Rob Napoli
You know, the thing that really makes a difference for me get to reach out. And when I look for is a lot of times they'll say like they'll give me like this like huge bio and a one pager with assets like I don't wanna have to go clicking around a PDF, send me a video with a sample clip like either submit a sample clip or any of the like.
00;24;29;27 - 00;24;47;29
Rob Napoli
Hey, Rob, really lovely a show. Here's what I could do. Here's my energy. I'm showing you this so you can see what I'm like. And I feel the energy like you do that that's a game changer. And in fact, I did that for a couple of shows and I had somebody who got back to me is like, Rob would love to have you, love your energy, but like that topic is so covered for me right now.
00;24;48;29 - 00;25;03;04
Rob Napoli
They follow back up with me and and six months and so I actually had a reminder and in fact, as it's July, I actually just write messages like, hey, would love to come back on. Here are some updated topics that I could discuss with you. I would love to come on your show waiting to hear back from them.
00;25;03;04 - 00;25;07;02
Rob Napoli
But like, you know, that video is a huge, huge difference. Yeah.
00;25;07;05 - 00;25;28;26
Collin Mitchell
I mean, because like, look, the reality is, is they can see like, okay, you got a nice set up, you got a mic, you know, you're not a babbling buffoon. Like, I mean, like there's some things that matter. Like, hey, if I get on an episode with this person, can they create some good quality content? And you showing up on video, presenting yourself, well, that's huge.
00;25;28;26 - 00;25;45;03
Collin Mitchell
Like literally just showing them that you have a mic and you have a set up and like, you know, you're comfortable on video like those are huge things. So yeah, I mean that's it's really not that difficult. It does take time. You know, you can do this yourself and then maybe hire a VA to do it for you.
00;25;45;15 - 00;26;06;28
Collin Mitchell
There's agencies you can hire to do it, most of them honestly. Like, I mean, I've seen probably you said you've seen hundreds like I've probably or 100. I've probably seen close to a thousand, maybe not even more, you know, having a, a multiple podcast. And also I see outreach for some of the, you know, shows that we manage as well.
00;26;06;28 - 00;26;13;24
Collin Mitchell
And it's all crap. Like it's four paragraphs long with a bio with a PDF, just like you said, the stuff pretty much gets ignored.
00;26;14;04 - 00;26;38;00
Rob Napoli
Yeah, that's to me a novel on why you sent me something short, sharp, sweet. Saw those founders that and I was talking to a few factors like look like what the best way to you're sorry and also people need to understand like I want to make it clear for a lot that podcasting is a long game, like as a guest and hosting on podcast that sometimes like I've noticed that my show gets binged like over the weekends.
00;26;38;00 - 00;26;58;21
Rob Napoli
I'll have like it's, it's crazy because I mean all like listen to five episodes at a time. It's like, oh, you have five unique users, you know, unique listeners and know 30 plays. It's like, oh wow, five people listen to multiple episodes, right? Yeah. And so understand that you want to go on, you want to go out, you want to share, you want to promote, but like the ROI from that it's infinite.
00;26;58;21 - 00;27;20;10
Rob Napoli
As long as that podcast stays out there and they leave it up like that could be found at any time you can share it, you can embedded into your website and it becomes a great opportunity for you to share your story and show. And also like as you do more, I like showing your progression of like your ability to grow in scale as a guest or as a host, which is a big, big deal for a lot of people.
00;27;20;10 - 00;27;34;23
Rob Napoli
And and I do think that a lot of people are like, oh, I did a podcast. It was cool. But, you know, I haven't seen much from it. It's like, well, you got to give it time to to let it be out in the wild and for people to listen in the audience to catch up to where, you know, for like me, I'm doing weekly.
00;27;34;23 - 00;27;56;15
Rob Napoli
You're doing daily. Like I'm still like months behind on your show. And like, sometimes I skip through episodes and then I get fast, like, you know, set episodes like, really catch fire. Like, Oh, I want to go listen to that one. So there's a lot of content you have to understand, like it takes time to consume that. So don't, don't get too eager to dismiss the idea of podcasting when you got to understand how it's consumed.
00;27;57;03 - 00;28;23;03
Collin Mitchell
But you also need to review like if you go on a show, don't just be like, Yeah, now all leads are going to flow in. Like, go listen to the episode because let's be real. You might have sucked like really? You might have sucked. I know I did on the first few or more that I did. And so you learn how to get better and not rant and, you know, answer questions more tactically and really provide value to listeners.
00;28;23;03 - 00;28;39;11
Collin Mitchell
And then the biggest mistake most people make is at the very end, you know, when most podcasters like, Hey, Rob, you know, how can people get in touch with you? They typically will give way too many options, right? And so give one option, like, what do you want them to do? If you're trying to grow your podcast, tell me.
00;28;39;11 - 00;29;00;08
Collin Mitchell
Check out your show. You're trying to grow your social following. Pick one social handle you trying to get people to download the first chapter of your book. Give them something for free. A guy to take away something of value of free course like pick one really killer call to action. So at the very end, after you've provided a ton of value, people will actually go there rather than saying, Hey, follow me here and here.
00;29;00;08 - 00;29;08;06
Collin Mitchell
And I talk about this and my side hustle and I also do this. And then it's just like people do nothing because they're overwhelmed. And then that's when people are like, Yeah, guesting doesn't work.
00;29;08;18 - 00;29;26;28
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I love it because like, I used to have beacons, now I have a on my website, but I'm like, Check it out right now, RobNapoli.com and you'll have access to all the things, all the socials. They're checking out my podcast, checking out my book. Like all of it makes it really easy. Go there, you can purchase and listen and follow me on any platform issue as you desire.
00;29;26;29 - 00;29;45;15
Rob Napoli
My favorite is LinkedIn, right? And so you know where to go and you know which one my favorite is or something most responsive. But I'm not telling you 50 different links. I'm telling you one link that you can't forget, and then they can go pick and choose because some people like Cool rob your linkedin's your favorite, but I'm an Instagram follower and I love your Instagram feed, so I'm gonna go follow in Instagram.
00;29;45;15 - 00;30;03;13
Rob Napoli
So might be TikTok might be YouTube so I love that one call to action as a guest and as a host thinking about like making sure that I get that strong so that you can have all the links in there and you can drive that to your guests and do right by your guest, which is super, super important.
00;30;03;19 - 00;30;19;27
Rob Napoli
We didn't get too much into like starting a podcast. I think we have to do a part two on that. But for those out there thinking about starting a podcast, we did mention that it is it is a lot to be consistent. Where should one start? What would your advice be like? Hey, Colin, I can think about starting a podcast.
00;30;20;21 - 00;30;25;21
Rob Napoli
What is that? What would you kind of say to them to get them in the right? Yeah. So let's say you suggested.
00;30;25;21 - 00;30;42;24
Collin Mitchell
On some shows and now you're like, Hey, I love this radio start. My own show. I have a good idea of what it's going to be about, how I'm going to run it, all that good stuff. Don't overthink it. Like that's where most people get stuck is like, Oh, there's, you know, too many interview shows or, oh, you know, I don't want do another sales show.
00;30;42;24 - 00;31;03;21
Collin Mitchell
Or it's like, these are just like B.S. excuses that you're telling yourself to not get started or like, Oh, I need to have the perfect plan that, like, that doesn't exist. All right, just get started. Like, you'll figure it out. It'll get better over time. You can join communities like we have, get tons of resources and help connect with some other podcasters and be like, Yo, how did you get started?
00;31;04;00 - 00;31;21;23
Collin Mitchell
Right? Like that's a really good thing to do, but like, it's not that complicated. Get started, need a name, you need some artwork, you know, intro, you need outro, you know, podcast host. That's like if you want to go free, you can go anchor if you want like more of a premium host that has some additional features and a reporting and ad support and things like that.
00;31;21;23 - 00;31;46;29
Collin Mitchell
Simple cast is my go to and then, you know, just get started, start recording episodes. Like even if you do it on Zoom at first, that's okay. It's not the best option, but you can get started. Today we're recording on Riverside, which is my recommendation. Um, you know, I used to say Riverside was a little bit more difficult because you end up with a lot of different files and like, matching them all together can be challenging, but they've actually got some features built in where you like.
00;31;46;29 - 00;31;56;26
Collin Mitchell
You can do some of the editing on the platform. I personally have never used them. Our team doesn't use them, but for people that are like doing it themselves, just getting started, I think it's like good enough. It works fine.
00;31;57;05 - 00;32;07;26
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I actually added my first, you know, for those I know this thing I used college team, but I wanted to like teach myself something. So I had to do my first one on this platform.
00;32;07;26 - 00;32;08;21
Collin Mitchell
And it was was it?
00;32;09;19 - 00;32;18;03
Rob Napoli
It was harder than I did considering that I had to take two weeks to get the episode out. Yeah, it was harder than I thought. Yeah, yeah.
00;32;18;11 - 00;32;35;23
Collin Mitchell
And think about like before Riverside had those tools, like it was even harder. But you know, it will be hard at first. And then you'll build a system, you'll build process, you'll figure it out. Maybe you have a VA do it, maybe you have somebody on your team do it, maybe you hire an agency to do it, but like just get started.
00;32;35;28 - 00;32;57;23
Collin Mitchell
That's the key. Is it going to be the best podcast ever? No. But like, as long as you're building relationships, having good conversations, creating valuable content, that's a win. Don't worry about the downloads and the unique listeners. It's hard not to pay attention that stuff, but like just ignore it in the beginning. As long as you're, you know, building relationships with people in that 1 to 1, it's going to be a successful activity even if nobody listens.
00;32;58;19 - 00;33;16;24
Rob Napoli
And that's one thing that I will say is I track myself and my downloads and all that, and I didn't pay attention, but it's never bothered me. Like I apply, I'm playing the long game and I'm 68 episodes in when I have listeners from 65 countries, like 65 people from 65 countries have tuned into my my podcast and I don't.
00;33;16;24 - 00;33;20;23
Collin Mitchell
Even think I have that. I have downloads downloading 65. I don't have, I don't have.
00;33;20;25 - 00;33;41;09
Rob Napoli
I'm still surprised like names of countries. I'm like, how the how did you find my show? But that's that's the cool thing about it and I will say this that get started like Anker makes it easy Riverside makes it easy you know you don't even need video to get started like start with audio. Like, I'll tell you, the first ten, 15 of mine, I've gone back and look, that's not bad, but they're not great.
00;33;41;23 - 00;33;47;01
Rob Napoli
Not near as good as the next 15, 20 and the next 1520. And now we're on 60. And it's it's changed so much.
00;33;47;28 - 00;33;50;00
Collin Mitchell
Oh, yeah. And another tip is like for the first.
00;33;50;00 - 00;33;50;22
Rob Napoli
Like five.
00;33;50;22 - 00;34;05;21
Collin Mitchell
Just pick some friendlies like people you know. Well, people you know, you jive well that have good energy, like because it's going to be hard and they will give you some real feedback. Like, so at the end when you're done and you can be like, Yo, how was that? And they can be like, Dude, that sucked, let's redo it.
00;34;05;28 - 00;34;20;22
Collin Mitchell
Because I've had that happen like one of my initial episodes I did with a good friend and he's like, Dude, loosen up, be yourself. That sucked. He's like, I have time. Let's, let's redo it. And I'm so grateful that he said that and called me out and like, we did another episode and it was good.
00;34;20;29 - 00;34;39;16
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I remember like this, the first podcast that I ever guested on, they end up not getting released. All three of the three shows didn't take off and then the fourth time I got asked to guess, like that show never aired, and I finally reached out to like, Hey, what's up? Like, you know, honestly, it was a, it was like, we like you.
00;34;39;16 - 00;34;56;13
Rob Napoli
And the episode was good, but like, it just didn't like it went with the flow of, like, our content. We went a lot of topic on stuff and I was like, You know what we did? That's fine. Like, cool. Thanks for the feedback. That was really helpful. Like, how do those conversation and find those people? And it was, it was somebody I knew well enough that now they could do that with.
00;34;56;13 - 00;35;14;02
Rob Napoli
So I love that. So get started. It does take time. I'm going to give a shameless plug. Joanne, if you if you're interested in like guesting on shows or like learning about the podcast and commuting in space, join the sales cast community. There's a lot of great channels, a lot of great information for you to just get started.
00;35;14;02 - 00;35;28;23
Rob Napoli
So I would like go ahead and plug that. But as we close the show, how do my listeners know, you know, get in touch with you. What do you want to where should I go check out? Besides, I'll definitely have your LinkedIn already and from, you know, the last episode as well. But where should they connect with you?
00;35;29;10 - 00;36;00;03
Collin Mitchell
Yeah, I mean, best thing is like we talked a lot about podcasting. So if you're curious, if you've started and you're wondering like, how can I do more, how can I get better? Or if you're stuck in your like, I don't know where to start and you want to learn more to get started in podcasting, whether that's guesting or hosting your own show, just go to salescast.community and that'll get you access to our community and you get plugged in with, I think, 550 plus podcasters, tons of resources, tons of content, free courses, all kinds of awesome stuff to help you get started on this journey.
00;36;00;23 - 00;36;23;24
Rob Napoli
Love it. Thank you so much. I really appreciate getting a shout this. I know we could talk forever so we'll have to maybe even bring come back on how to get started and maybe do like a mini cool like master class version of it. But I really appreciate you and thank you so much for joining Bear Nation. Appreciate your as well for tuning and make sure if you're interested in the podcast game, join the Sales Cast community.
00;36;23;24 - 00;36;34;06
Rob Napoli
You'll find me there as well. That's a great place. I've learned a lot from it. Colin, as always, my friend. Thank you and take care. All right. Ya'll stay well and rise up
OUTRO
00;36;36;17 - 00;36;46;01
Rob Napoli
Bear nation. Thanks for listening to the bear necessities of entrepreneurship. If you enjoyed this episode. Please subscribe and leave us a review.