I love to podcast. It’s fun, it’s easy, it is very cost efficient and as a business owner, it’s a wonderful medium to use. How did I get started? I was listening to a podcast by Kevin Smith called Hollywood Babylon and he went off on a rant about how anyone could podcast. He said, get out there, put your voice out there, create something unique, and be an artist. I have a creative itch that needs to be scratched pretty regularly so this appealed to me. I started thinking about what I would talk about and all of a sudden I had two shows I wanted to do. One about insurance, and one about being an entrepreneur. These are my two professional passions.
After 15 years in business, it wasn’t until the last few years that I finally felt like an expert in my field. It took over a decade but I found myself dealing with even the most complicated situations and most difficult customers with ease. The insurance podcast I decided to do, just to see if I could do it. Can I create something from scratch and put it out in the proper channels?
I want to position myself as a leader in my field. Not just someone who knows about insurance, but someone who knows how to run a good business. What better way to do that, than sharing all you know about insurance and business?
I have run my insurance business from a very educational viewpoint. Anyone who buys from me knows what they are getting and why it is important. The goal was to create a show that explained what everyone needs to know about their insurance in small bite-size pieces. The goal was to have the content very specific and 4-7 minutes long.
I wrote down as many ideas as I could think of, of what to talk about. I knew I could do about 15 pretty easily but was worried I would run out of content. That was some needless worry as there are endless things to discuss and explain in any field. I started with the questions that I get most in my agency. “Do I need to buy the coverage when I rent a car”? “If I loan my car to a friend, is it covered”? “Why did my rates go up?”
That is your goal. Explain all of your most asked questions. Show that you are an expert in your field and push those tips and information out in whatever channel you can. I pretend that I am talking to one of my clients when I am recording and I don’t even use a script. This is information that I know in my sleep and I have discussed it so many times, I just open my mouth and the information comes out.
I am on episode number 56 now and don’t even need to think about new topics. They come to me. It’s like a comedian who has young children. The material just shows up. Every time I get a new question from a client that I haven’t heard before, that is a podcast episode. Every time I get a question and I don’t know the answer, I podcast about it (after I find the answer). This happens every week.
It takes me about 60 minutes to put one of these out. I don’t edit out all of my “um’s” and “you know” and there is very little post-production. I do care about the sound quality though so I purchased a Blue Yeti microphone. Some podcasters go all out with their set up to achieve a studio-like sound. I think mine sounds fine, to be honest and I may make some small adjustments along the way, but I have a good baseline to start with. The formula is to start, listen, refine, repeat.
Now I have a library of educational material that grows every month. I share my episodes regularly through all of my social channels. The content is evergreen- it will always be relevant. Along with that, I email episodes to those on my email list, I can text episodes via the podcast app on the iPhone. I have found a way to get it on Stitcher (another podcast platform) and I am working on getting it on Spotify and Google Play.
The absolute key to podcasting is to keep going. It is fairly easy to throw out a few episodes. The challenge is doing it for more than a month, or 6 weeks, or 3 months. It has to be a formal commitment to add to your schedule or it will end up being one of the 1000’s of shows in the podcast graveyard with 5 or fewer episodes.
I have a second show I started called None of my Business. This show has been a lot more work, but it helps my business in a unique way. As I wrote before, I want to be seen as someone who knows how to run a business. I started interviewing local business owners and have them tell their story. To date, I have interviewed over 60 local business owners.
Every business has its own unique story and I find them all fascinating. I started off by interviewing businesses that i already insured. This became a great way to give back and say thank you. When we are done and the episode is out, they have a beautiful piece of content that they can do what they please with.
I was soon interviewing other business owners who I did not insure but I wanted to hear their story. Many of these business owners became clients of mine. I didn’t even have to ask. I gave them something unique that has value and they wanted to reciprocate. What a wonderful way to do business!
My process for the interviews is pretty straightforward. I meet with them beforehand and we chat for about an hour and I ask them to tell their story to me. I take notes, ask probing questions, and generate an outline for our show. After that, I email them the outline a few days before we record. We find a time that works for both of us, get together, and record. It’s funny, the podcast almost always ends up being very similar to our original conversation, but I find it better to be prepared.
By doing this, I have learned so much by listening to successful business owners to tell their story. I have picked up so many little tips and tricks on marketing, sales, human resources, motivational tactics, and many more. It’s all been so invaluable. Also, my target market for my business, is business owners. This has been a great way to meet the people I want to do business with. I NEVER talk insurance throughout the entire process.
How did I learn how to do it? I taught myself how to do all of it. I googled “How to podcast” and I landed on a 5 part step by step tutorial by Pat Flynn on youtube explaining how to start a podcast from start to finish.
There is another option these days to streamline and bypass ALL of that. The app Anchor. It is an app for your phone that does all of that for you without having to use a blog or a hosting site. It is awesome if you want to get started. The only downfall with that is that the audio quality may suffer unless you use a decent external mic and it doesn’t sound great.
I have really enjoyed to podcasting journey and I look forward to continuing it. It has proven to be a tool for me to push important information that I KNOW others need to know. It’s also allowed me to market in a unique way so I can continue to grow my business.