Heroes in Business - Rob Greenlee, Godfather of Podcasting, Libsyn VP Content and Partnerships, New Media Show

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

Secrets to Podcasting Success and Guinness Book Records. Rob Greenlee, Godfather of Podcasting, Libsyn VP Content and Partnerships is interviewed by David Cogan Founder of Eliances and Famous Celebrity Host of the Eliances Heroes Show  

Up in the sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Alliances Heroes. Alliances is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities, and startups. We're our heroes in business aligned. Now, here's your host flying in,id cogan founder of alliances and here we are back at the alliances hero show you know it's the only place where entrepreneurs align so make sure you go to alliances.com that's e-l-i-a-n-c-e-s.com where we unlock the secrets of heroes. So with that, I'm so excited. First of all, you know, podcasting is huge, huge. And really, it just continues to get bigger and bigger.

You do a Google search on the number of podcasts that are out there. I mean, the list just keeps growing and growing. Everybody wants to either do a podcast or they're looking at already doing a podcast. And we are going to learn today the secrets of podcasting no other than the godfather i call him the godfather of podcasting no this is actually true and here's one of the main reasons why too is in fact too is you were recognized as the first nationally syndicated radio show program in the world in the world to begin podcasting that was in 2004 and we have with us Robert Greenlee you can reach

him at Libsyn.com L I B S Y N dot com Rob Greenlee first of all, like 2004 to now, would you ever have thought like so many podcasts would be out there and so many people wanting to do podcasting? I don't think that I fully anticipated how big it would have gotten as rapidly as it has gotten. But at the time I had a lot of faith in it because it was something that was very aligned with what I was seeing happen in the digital world in the early days of the internet was the digitization. And TV and music and film and all that stuff was going digital, so why wouldn't radio essentially? At the time that's how I was thinking about it. And that's why I started the radio show that I did was taking that as a radio show. Because back in those days, in the early days of me getting involved in this media, it was the dominant way that people got audio content. And I was just taking that audio and putting it out as a downloadable MP3 file. And then podcasting started in 2004.

And for me, it wasn't really a big revolution. podcasting started in 2004. For me, it wasn't really a big revolution, but it was part of my broader strategy of trying to utilize the internet to get my radio show out there. It seemed to be kind of a cutting edge thing to do at the time. It just has gradually grown. It hasn't been like a hockey stick of growth in the podcasting medium. It's just been steady. It's like 17 years now, just getting a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger, a little bit bigger. And now I don't even have to tell a person what a podcast is anymore.

Right back in the early days, it was like, what's a podcast? And now I don't even have that conversation anymore. That's the big change. You're right, yeah. Like at the olden days, it was like internet, what's that now, podcasting? You're right, nobody asks us what a podcast is. They they know they know on podcasting which is actually pretty incredible um what are

some you know you are again as the the godfather of podcasting you know a significant amount about podcasting itself what are some of the more common questions or questions that you're getting from someone in regards to podcasting those that want want to do podcasting or that itself? Well, I get a lot of different types of questions because a lot of people look at the medium in different ways and try and think about how they can apply it to their lives and what they're doing with their business or their career. You know, some people want to make money from it. Some people want to get their name out, build their brand, build their company reputation. There's just a lot of uses for the medium. The questions come in from all different perspectives.

It's really helpful to have a broad perspective on the medium because it can fulfill needs that many people have, especially nowadays where people are working from home. They're kind of, more and more people are building like home studios. So they're getting familiar with doing Zoom calls and getting on a microphone and their computer. So it really, podcasting is positioned really well to be a medium that's growing in an environment like this at a little higher rate than what we've seen. I think Podcathy is growing at like five to six percent a year. So it's not like, you know, growing like this. It's kind of growing steady, you know, and that's why early on when I was involved, getting involved in the medium back in the early days of it,

I could just see that steady growth and I didn't think it was going to slow down there were some bumpy years especially when youtube launched twitter and social media launched it took a lot of attention away from podcasts in fact too is why wouldn't you mentioned about youtube why wouldn't someone just go ahead and do videos and post on YouTube instead of doing podcasting? Well, they can and the research around podcasting is showing exactly that. People are starting to think of podcasting in a much more broad scope now. They're thinking it's not just audio. But when podcasting started, even back in 2004 or 2005, about 35% of the podcasting market was video. It's just a lot of people shifted their video creation around their podcast to YouTube. And so, you know, YouTube has now become the second most popular way that people actually discover content online.

So it's logical to see what the research is showing is that people are using YouTube to find podcasts. So I think creating video in combination with your audio podcast is actually the ideal strategy. I'll tell you, this is one of the top questions that we got when people were hearing that you were going to be coming on, that by far the top question was, people are hearing that you were going to be coming on that by far the top question was how do i get exposure how do i get people to know that i've got this how do i get those ears those eyeballs whatever it is to know and to go to this podcast because especially now with there being i don't even know how many podcasts there are out there but how do i get people there yeah well there's to kind of answer your the last part of

your question is that there's over four million podcasts that have ever been created of which probably four to five hundred thousand of them are active shows so there's been a lot of people that have jumped into creating shows on some of the free podcast hosting platforms but a lot of people that have jumped into creating shows on some of the free podcast hosting platforms but a lot of those shows don't last so people give it a try it works for some it doesn't work for others or maybe it doesn't match their expectations of what they wanted so we do have a lot of shows that get started that don't continue but the the number of shows that do continue is growing uh it takes a lot of effort takes a lot of you know david like you know it takes a lot of effort to produce a regular content program and and it just so people you know life gets in the way but as far as to answer your

question about marketing a podcast yeah i'd say that's probably the number one question that i get is now i've got a podcast so how do i grow the audience how do i build um a following for what i'm doing and it's my my answer is really if you start a podcast you're really starting a business and you need to think about it and i think thinking about it in a holistic way and really get clear on your goals what you're trying to accomplish is the the topic that you're talking about does it align with who you are can you be authentic can you do the things that need to be done to to produce content every week because that's the ideal way to actually do a podcast is do it every week and and longer is okay you know a lot of people think

that short is the way to go with podcasting but if you look at the actual data shows that are successful out there it's the longer shows that typically do a little better but it's also about the content too if the content's good people will continue listening to it if they'll even it's an hour long people will if they run out of time listen to it. Even if it's an hour long, people will, if they run out of time listening to it, they'll come back and finish it, right? So it's all about the quality of the content, what value that you're bringing to it. But as far as on the marketing side, it's all about connecting with your audience. Your audience is your best sales rep for your show. So you need to build that relationship with that audience.

And that's around trust, authenticity, consistency, all those things. And then ask your audience to share with their friends and to share it online and to have them evangelize your show. And then the other big area that people are using to market their show is search engines. These are a lot of common sense things that even small businesses have to utilize to build success for what they're doing. Because podcasting can build client base too.

It builds your reputation, but it can also just build an audience. So let's say you want to build an advertising business and get sponsors and things like that. You need to build a fairly significant audience to accomplish that. So there's a lot of stuff to unpack in that. But there's opportunity there and I don't think it's too late to get into podcasting. I think you just need to find your voice, find a topic that's unique in the market, do your research with what shows that are out there in your genre uh of of what type of show you want to do and and get her done is what i like to say excellent again and you're watching listening to me david kogan host of the alliances hero show make sure you go to alliances.com that's e-l-i-a-n-c-E-S.com. We have with us Rob Greenlee. I call him the godfather of podcasting.

And yes, he's been doing it plentiful long. He holds that title. You can reach him at Lipson.com. Rob, if somebody wants to reach you directly too, is there any other site that they should go besides Lipson.com? Yeah, actually, I have my own website at RobGreenlee.com. And I post blog posts there. There's links to all of the podcasts that

i'm involved in doing i do a live video show by myself uh every wednesday uh it's about a 90 minute live show on youtube it's also an audio and video podcast it's called the new media show at newmediashow.com and i'm on twitter if you want to send me an email you're certainly welcome to And I'm on Twitter. If you want to send me an email, you're certainly welcome to robg.lipson.com. What are some of the more popular subjects that you're seeing now that are getting those eyeballs? I think it's all over the map, right? I mean, I think at the end of the day, I mean, it's culture, business, sports are very popular.

We're starting to see other genres start to bubble up too coming out of Hollywood, like fictional podcasts. So you're seeing this expansion and growth into storytelling that's really putting a lot of effort into what I call kind of radio dramas or sound experience podcasts, right, that are usually series-based. So as you think about like a television series, that would be the situation with a fictional podcast. a fictional podcast. And more and more of those are getting converted into television series that are made available on places like Amazon Prime and Netflix and other places too. How much does it cost to get started? Oh, podcasting? I think you can get started for probably a couple hundred dollars. Yeah, I think. And just get a good quality microphone there's ones out there that you don't have to spend a lot of money on like 60 bucks uh and then get a podcast hosting

plan like like a place like libsyn.com and uh and then put together your show concept and what you want to accomplish set some goals for yourself set a focus on what type of content gets you excited to get up in the morning to get on that microphone because there's a lot of kind of tough work that goes into creating regular content. So it needs to be something that you have a lot of passion for. Well, it's amazing how long you've been doing it. In fact, I mean, how many podcasts have you done? I've never counted them all. Do you have a world record for that? have you done? I've never counted them all. Do you have a world record for that? I don't. I've been on a lot of other people's podcasts, which is what I've done

probably the most of since probably about 2006. And then I've been doing my own show every week. It's a 90-minute live show that's been out there for over 12 years now. So it's something that I'm ongoing doing. Well, maybe you hold the Guinness Book of World Records for that. Several hundred. You're right. However though, I want to share the secret because you do hold the Guinness Book of World Records for something. You got to hear this. Yeah. What is that? I built the world's largest glass of orange juice back in 1998. So it's at the time actually you can do a search in Google if you want to see what it looks like. It's just the world's largest glass of Florida orange juice and you'll find it unbelievable. Where do you see the future of podcasting going? I mean you know we continue

to see this trend and it's growing. What's the next level? What's the next step? What's your crystal ball say in regards to it? I just think it's going to continue steadily growing and the content's going to get better and i do think that the listening platforms have been expanding all around the globe i've been working with you know ellipson that's one of my jobs is to expand the distribution of podcasting and so we're working with music streaming platforms all over the world we just launched two new streaming music platforms in the huge country of India, which gave access to about 300 million more listeners to podcasting just through those two music streaming platforms. And then we're also working with other platforms that have yet to be announced that are in other parts of the world as well. So this medium is

truly a global medium and we're reaching a point where we're podcasting is pretty much in all of the major listening platforms. I think the next phase is going to be listening platforms that are going to be genre based, which means that there'll be platforms that will be built by companies that will be focused on a particular genre like sports or culture or learning and those kind of things. I think we'll see a verticalization that will happen in the medium next. Another popular question that we got is how do I get sponsors? How do I make money on this? Can you make money on it? Yeah, you can and many do. But there's also a lot of other options now, too. You can create a premium podcast, too, which means you can sell access. Not unlike what's being done with audiobooks for many, many years. Apple has their own program now where you can create a premium podcast, upload all your episodes directly to them. Spotify has a program that they're doing as well. to them. Spotify has a program that they're doing as well. And so you can do that. You can create just like donation models with your podcast. You can work with major advertisers if you want to

work with some agencies, but your show has to be at about 5,000 downloads per episode over a four week time span to get what I call like hostery CPM advertising opportunities in your podcasts. But you know smaller shows can monetize too. They put together a pitch for their show and think about it from a holistic standpoint. So if you're doing video, you're doing a website, you're doing your audio podcast, pitch a small advertiser somewhere that aligns with your topic and your genre and who your audience is, and you might be able to get a deal done. You don't have to do a deal with a big agency or a big brand. You can work with small brands and get a few hundred dollars per episode

or something like that to get started with it. And I think that's a terrific way to get started. You think radio is going to go away? No, I don't think radio is going to go away at all. I mean, if you look at podcasting today, some of the biggest players in podcasting are the radio companies. So I guess it depends on what the definition of that question is.

Is radio going away? I think the technology of radio and how people listen through a broadcast signal is in a state of decline. But that's just because it's a generational shift. People are moving over to listening to digital content more. That doesn't mean that there isn't a place for radio. Radio is terrific for live content, traffic real-time info i i i think was where radio has its future and music will continue to be something that i believe is over over the radio waves as well but more and more people's consumption is moving over to digital on demand can we do live podcasting too well it's a little bit of a mix number because um podcasting by definition is an on-demand medium but the concept if you look at content just content yeah live podcasting uh that's

what i do with my new media show every week it's a live youtube facebook twitter video experience and it is live and it's recorded and then we make the audio available as a downloadable version as well and the video is a downloadable version so yeah I think that there is if you expand the definition of what a podcast is interesting and again and you're part of alliances you're a member of alliances in fact you've been with alliances for a number of years and four years yeah i mean time just absolutely has just flown by um and you recently attended one of the events the alliances grand table and that you share with our audience viewers and listeners of

what alliances means to you yeah i think it's it's an energetic community of business leaders and people who just love to connect with others and i I know it's been a little bit of a struggle for all of us because, and that's what was really special about the Elias' grant table that I just experienced was, it's been a couple of years since we've had the grant table. And I know you've shifted everything over to the virtual world and that's where the world I live in now more is as well. But the community, it's but but the community it's all about community it's all about networking it's all about meeting new people and sharing and

and giving to others in hopes of getting something in return as well but that's just part of who I am as a person in the podcasting community too I give before i get anything back absolutely i know you had a line of people that wanted to talk to you because podcasting is still very hot yeah i just want to help people absolutely we appreciate it we're glad that you're part of the community and again you can too make sure you go to alliances.com e-l-i-a-n-c-s.com it's the only place where entrepreneurs align and again we've got with us Rob Greenlee. So again, you can reach him at Libsyn.com or of course, go to his own websites, which we'll also have posted on our website, at alliances.com. Rob, always a pleasure.

I'm so glad and I look forward to our next time seeing you again. I look forward to it too. Wonderful. When you come out to all the grand tables of vacation. Excellent. Well, you're certainly welcome and we appreciate what you do for the community of alliances and helping the members of alliances with that. So thank you so much.

You've been watching and listening to David Kogan, host of the Alliance's Hero Show. Thank you.