Heroes in Business - Todd Cochrane, CEO Blubrry Podcasting 150,000 users

Episode Date: December 30, 2022

Just start. Todd Cochrane, CEO Blubrry Podcasting with 150,000 users in interviewed by David Cogan famous celebrity host The Heroes Show and founder Eliances entrepreneur community.  

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. So welcome back to the show. We've got, again, a full day, a lot of activity. I so much appreciate the feedback we continue to have. When I interviewed Wesley Clark, he's the four-star general under Obama. So thank you again. Keep that coming up. And to check out past episodes, make sure that you go to eliancer.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-R.com, the only place where entrepreneurs align. Well, I'm very honored today. Why?

Because I'm going to be interviewing someone who is the CEO and co-founder of a very well-known platform. In fact, a little known secret, we're also on that platform. Now, you may be wondering who and what platform that is. With us is Todd Cochran. He is the CEO and co-founder of Blueberry Podcasting. You can reach him at blubrry.com. Once again, that's blubrry.com. And of course, we'll post it past interviews on our website. So welcome to the show, Todd. We're super excited to have you here.

And I got to jump right in. I heard and understand that you've got 85,000 shows on your platform. How is that possible? And who was the first one on your platform? I was the first one on the platform. And because I still have an active podcast today that i've been doing for 18 years but you know really in in that full scope there's 85 000 shows that work with us at a variety of levels some hosts with us some measure with us some use our tools so it's a it's a it's a wide scope of different types of podcasts so tell us how you kind of how i mean how did you go from you being on the platform to it growing to 85,000 shows? Well, when we started the business in 2005, we really started out as a media agency and we were measuring podcasts. It was one of the first companies to measure podcasts accurately.

And we really had the foresight to build into the business, the service component. So the service component of the business came earlier. So we did this media business for a while, did the measurement of podcasts, and then we built in the full blown hosting platform. And of course, as the owner, you're one of those things you're going to do is you're going to test everything to make sure that it's right. How do you keep up, though, with the growth of that? I mean, certainly, again, going from one and keep growing and growing and growing. I mean, it must just take a ton of resources in that. How do you navigate that? Being a small company, we really built the platform out in automation so that it would be easy to manage. We have relatively small team, around 20 full-time team members and it's really based upon the the back end and the management tools and really making it so that once a customer gets up set up and running they're kind of on autopilot

they don't need a lot of hand-holding and then a great support team of course that answers the phone when customers have challenges. Now, when someone goes to your website, is there like, do you feature a number of different podcasts? Is that right? On the website, we don't, but in the directory we do, we do have a full-blown directory. The homepage of the website is basically giving information for potential new customers to consider us to be their podcast host. Podcast hosting now is a commodity. There's, you know, 10 years ago, there was five companies. Now there's 25. So we have to really talk about the features and what makes us different than our competitors. So the number of people had heard that you were going

to be coming on. And one of the questions, questions probably most popular question is is how do you get listeners how do you get exposure how do you get people to know that you exist with the world of a gazillion podcasts that are out there yeah being there's really probably about 500,000 active shows it's it's not as big as everyone thinks I hear this big four million number but the number of shows creating content, you break that down across 30 some categories and you're not really competing against that many people in the scope of things compared to YouTube. But really, I tell content creators because it's the number one question is always asked me, what, how do I grow?

How do I grow? And I say, what's your goal? Number one, what is the goal? And if they can answer that that maybe the goal is lead generation maybe the goal is just to hang out and have a conversation maybe the goal is monetization and if they know the goal of their podcast they can more set the expectation of what the content's going to be like and where their focus is going to be on marketing but it really bases i really base that conversation about what they want to get out of the show and what the goal is and another popular question i'm sure you've been asked this or if not you know that it's out

there is is they say how do i find sponsors how do i you know get people to pay for this to get that besides exposure now sponsors i think the key there is, you don't ever know who's listening to your show. So oftentimes your first sponsor will actually come from a fan that's listening to the show that may make a recommendation to a company they're associated with. Say, hey, I'm listening to this podcast that aligns with our values. I think it'd be a great sponsor show. So sometimes the sponsor will actually come from within the listening audience. Not always, but if they don't have that opportunity, companies like mine do offer the ability to get started early in part of advertising without even really need to know anyone. It's a matter of

clicking a button and you get programmatic advertising. As the show grows and gets bigger, then those opportunities for dedicated sponsor spots will come to them. But really, it's oftentimes a matter of size unless you have a super, super niche audience, which oftentimes raises the value of that audience. So someone who's a customer of yours and has their podcast on your platform, you provide a way for them to get advertising. Can you explain that a little bit more? Yeah. So basically, 97% of the podcasts out there today are not monetized. And we knew that. So earlier this year, we partnered with a company that does advertising. It's called Programmatic.

And basically they go into a pool and a computer essentially buys the advertising automatically. It's not a host indoors ad. It's strictly a, you might hear an ad from Microsoft or you might hear an ad from Geico. You would hear a variety of ads or maybe even something from the local car dealer because they can geo-target. So I think the programmatic is simple. It's easy to get started with.

It's not going to pay as much as that traditional host-endorsed ad you've heard on podcasting, but you can get started immediately day one if you want to with us. But then again, those bigger deals where you're getting those one-on-one relationships and you're getting to do that host endorsed ad deal, those usually come a little later when the show gets a little bigger. Interesting. Again, and you're listening, watching me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. You're listening, watching 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. Why? Because it's the only place where entrepreneurs line. And we have with us today Todd Cochran, CEO and co-founder of Blueberry Podcasting. You can reach him at blueberry.com. That's B-L-U-B-R-R-Y.com. Alliances is also on that platform.

So go to blueberry.com and look up Alliances. Well, we're on there along with 85,000 shows, but definitely look for us. In fact, Todd, you mentioned about the directory earlier in the interview that you have, and you have said that there's obviously there's one through maybe 85,000, 85,010 now as people are continuing watching and listening to this and signing up. How do you bubble up to the top? What's the ranking? How does the ranking determined by Blueberry? In the directory, basically, anytime you publish a new episode, you go to the top of the directory

in your specific category. I love it. But, you know, ranking up really in the podcasting space is about consistency, just like you're doing it. Create a show on a regular basis. It's a consistency of putting that content out. Gets people to build you into their lives. Why do you think podcasting has become so popular? And the second part is, is a little sensitive subject is, do you think it'll take over radio? So podcasting is a medium where you have made a choice to listen to a specific piece of content. So it's not like it's being thrown at you by the radio where you've tuned into FM 100 or whatever. You have actually made a choice to listen to that.

So that is why we call it a lean in type of a medium where people are actually listening. I can't listen to a podcast and work. It's impossible. I can listen to the radio and work. But I think radio is here for a long, long time. I don't think radio is going away anytime soon. But having adult children and having raised those children to the time where digital media was making an appearance, whenever they were in the car, they were plugged into their mobile devices. They weren't plugged into AM FM. They were plugged into whatever they were listening to on Pandora or any of those other platforms. So I think what will happen over time is that radio will still be great for local, but I think it's going to age out over time. that radio will still be great for local, but I think it's going to age out over time. I think radio has a tough hill to climb, but again, it's not going anywhere in the near future, for sure. It's not going to any place. That's excellent. So you've grown this company by, I mean,

leaps and bounds. Do you ever, I mean, do you ever think that what you did 18 years ago would think that what you did 18 years ago would be what it's at now i have had no clue and you know the early days of podcasting it was really about geeks you know that could really figure out how to make it happen now uh the diversity in podcasting is incredible matter of fact today more women are creating content new content than men more ladies now are listening to content than men. It's a diverse platform. It's amazing. And not only in the United States, but all over the world, podcasting is taking over where people have a voice and they have this unique medium, again, where it is this lean in. People have chosen to listen to the content. So I think that's where the big difference is. There's a lot of great radio shows that have been out there that

make you sit and think. But I think podcasting has got the market on that right now. Has there been any topic that's not already been covered in podcasting? I mean, with that many shows and that many people doing like, is anything left something that is unique that exists that there probably is but the beauty of it is and i've known this having done a tech show for 18 years now is that people move around listening to different content they kind of get sick and tired of you after two or three years and they go away for a couple years years and they come back. So I think there is enough diversity in voices that gives people enough options to be able to consume the type of content and have the relationships with those hosts that they want. And again, it's really truly about

relationship and engagement and podcasting because you are really literally in their head because oftentimes they're plugged in with earbuds. Great. Well, again, we've got time for here. One more question in that. And what kind of secrets can you show our children out there that really want to be able to build something that you've been so successful at building? They may be tinkering now with something of, you know, having, you know, one, two type customers or friends, but to have grown like you have, what are some of the secrets you can share with them to make a mark? I mean, Blueberry's well-known

and 85,000 members, podcasters know that and it continues to grow. What secrets can you share with them? It's dedication and grind. You have to work. Nothing is easy. Absolutely nothing is easy. You have to work. Nothing is easy. Absolutely nothing is easy. You have to work very, very hard and put in the hours to be successful.

Some people, sure, they're going to go like a rocket ship to the top, but most people have to work hard and grind. My 25 years in Hawaii, grinding is what we call when we go to eat. But for me, grinding is working and working very very hard and perfecting and making sure that you're watching what's going on the space in the market that you're in so that you can be successful and not only that continue to be successful well phenomenal and todd by the way i want to thank you too for your 25 years in military service allowing us the freedom to even be able to do this show so todd coch Cochran, thank you so much.

CEO of Blueberry Podcasting, 85,000 shows. Make sure that you go to blueberry.com and listen to us there. B-L-U-B-R-R-Y.com. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show. Todd, you got to also dance a little bit here. That's how we end the show.