Marketing Happy Hour - How to Start a Podcast for Your Brand | Brad Chandler, Podcast Strategist

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Thinking about launching a podcast for your brand but not sure where to start? This episode is your ultimate podcasting masterclass with Brad Chandler, Podcasting Strategist and Founder of Made by Varsity. We’re diving deep into why brands should be paying attention to podcasting, how to tackle the biggest hurdles, and what it takes to build a podcast that keeps listeners coming back.From choosing the right tech setup to growing your audience and optimizing for SEO, Brad shares expert insights on every step of the podcasting journey. If you're a brand marketer, entrepreneur, or content creator looking to add podcasting to your strategy, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways to get you started—before you even buy a mic.Key Takeaways:// Why podcasting builds deeper brand engagement than social media or email// The biggest roadblocks brands face when starting a podcast—and how to overcome them// SEO best practices for podcast discoverabilityConnect with Brad: LinkedInLearn more about Brad’s business.: WebsiteWatch or listen to Brad’s podcast: Made by VarsityGet Brad’s gear list: https://madebyvarsity.kit.com/podcast____Say hi! DM me on Instagram and let us know what content you want to hear on the show - I can't wait to hear from you! Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. ⁠Join our FREE Open Jobs group on LinkedIn:⁠Join now⁠Get the latest from MHH, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our email list!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Podcasts can really create intimacy and authority. And so it's these two sides of the spectrum that are really, really powerful. Podcasting is the easiest way to sort of create a long form content piece that can then be broken into smaller content pieces. It's really unlike any other type of medium. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour. I'm Cassie, consultant, podcaster, and your host. Every Thursday, you'll hear episodes packed with insights from brand leaders on an array of topics,

from crafting effective marketing strategies and hitting career goals, to building leadership skills and launching your own business. Inspired by those unfiltered happy hour combos with peers, this show is all about practical, empowering chats to support your professional journey. So grab your favorite drink and let's get to the episode. Brad, what is up? Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour. Cassie Tucker. So excited to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me. Of course. Of course. I'm excited to dive into podcasting with you. We were talking off record.

This is a subject that we don't cover too much on the show, but it's something I want to talk about more because it is, if you know me, it's a huge part of my life. It's a huge part of your life. So I'm like, who better to have on to talk through podcasting? You recently jumped into your entrepreneurship journey. So I want to hear a little bit about that. But yeah, thanks for being here. I appreciate it. Absolutely. So I want to hear a little bit about that, but yeah, thanks for being here. I appreciate it. Absolutely. So excited. I think podcasting is

alive and well, and super pumped to jump into this topic today. Yeah, absolutely. All right. I got to ask you in true marketing, happy hour fashion though, is there anything lately you've been sipping on like coffee in the evening? Like what, what are you enjoying recently? I love exploring new beverages on the show. For sure. So typically I would have coffee with me. I, I run on caffeine and a dream. And so Kansas city, which is where I'm located. I'm in Kansas city, the Kansas city Metro, super underrated, uh, coffee, uh, city. There's a ton of kind of third wave coffee shops there. So typically,

I would have that. But today, I've got kind of my favorite, like little Spindrift, you know what I mean? A little raspberry lime, just a nice refreshing, but typically, yeah, it's a nice pour over from Pilgrim Coffee or one of the other uh cool coffee shops located here so yeah yeah oh yeah no same i love myself some caffeine i just have water today i got a new awala water bottle which i'm very excited look at you so on brand i love it but um anyways okay so i i gotta ask you just diving into this topic just overall why do you i feel like I have my reasons. I'm really curious what you'll say to this, but why do you think brands should be podcasting, whether it's going into 2025, just in general, why is this important for us to think about as a part of our marketing

strategy? Yeah. I mean, I think it belongs in a much larger conversation when it comes to content marketing. And, you know, when I look at sort of the whole picture, creating a podcast is sort of like that top of the pyramid that all other content marketing can be based on. And so, you know, whether you're talking about your email strategy, or you're talking about short form content, or you're talking about blogging and SEO, everything, right? That sort of, you know, within the content marketing sphere, for me, podcasting is the easiest way to sort of create a long form content piece that can then be broken into smaller content pieces to be shared on Instagram or LinkedIn, even written form, all of those different things. And so you got to start somewhere. And so, you know, especially with conversational type podcasts, which is one of the things that I'm biggest on. And one of the things

I'd lead my clients to the most is to really think through, okay, like an interview show. It's one of those things that it's a low barrier to entry. And if you just kind of start with your friends and then work your way outward from there, it's really, really powerful. As opposed to starting a YouTube channel where you're scripting and you're talking into a camera by yourself in your home, you're going through so many different things. Having just a conversational podcast type show really creates for me, the easiest way to kind of create that top of the pyramid for a larger content marketing strategy. Yeah. And I'm sure AI will come up a little bit in this conversation, but with all these tools that we have available to us, being able to take

this macro piece of content, a podcast, let's say, whether 10 minutes, I know you were part of a show in the past that was like quick, snappy, all the way to 45 minutes, an hour, two hours, whatever, however long it is, there's so much you can create from that macro piece into micro pieces. And it really does create that production, marketing, timeline and funnel a lot easier than just kind of winging everything out of nothing, really. Absolutely. And the medium itself is so unique. And, you know, one of the things I was actually, you know, just helping a client launch in the new year. And we'll talk a little bit about that particular project later. But one of the things that I talked to them about is that podcasts can really create intimacy

and authority. And so it's these two sides of the spectrum that are really, really powerful. The intimacy piece is super interesting because if you actually think about where people listen to podcasts the most, they're usually alone. And some of the top places to listen to podcasts are actually in bed, right? Alone in your car or like getting ready in the bathroom in the morning. And so literally, many of you, you're probably listening to this podcast right now with AirPods on. Maybe you're at the gym. Maybe you're on a commute. And just having the voices in your head, so to speak, is a very intimate experience.

And it's really unlike any other type of medium, you know, when it comes to marketing, is a very intimate experience. And it's really unlike any other type of medium, you know, when it comes to marketing, when it comes to advertising. And so it builds a level of trust and intimacy with a brand, with a personality. I'm a big fan of, you know, even sort of founder-driven content, you know, building a personal brand as part of like a larger content strategy for brands. And then the other piece of it is the authority. I think especially if you're new to the game and you're trying to establish authority in a particular space, one of the best things that you can do is to start a podcast and start interviewing, write people who are in your field. You know, Marketing Happy Hour

is a perfect example of this. I loved the episode with Race from PayPal. And she talked about the concept of the warm email. And go back, listen to episode, it's phenomenal. But for me, like inviting someone onto your show, onto a podcast is the ultimate warm email because it gives you a reason to reach out to that person. And if you're starting a podcast, A, if you're interviewing people who are experts in your field who are, say, maybe further along in the journey than you, it's a great way to get coaching, like, like to just sort of play the audience member and ask them questions that you would normally pay a mastermind or pay in like a coaching type type of a group

that if you're able to interview someone that, Hey, I just want to pick your brain, but you're doing it in a podcast format. It's a, it's a life hack to getting free coaching. The other side of it is to, is to interview your interview your ideal client, for example, especially if you're in a B2B space. So say, for example, you owned a restaurant supply store, okay? And you're local to an area. So if there's a restaurant supply store, Kansas City, whoever owns that store, whoever kind of has a personality, absolutely should start a podcast interviewing restaurateursurs and people who have started restaurants in that local area because how many of those requested as restaurant

tours like get to to have free press right to to to talk about their restaurant and then even better if you do it live and you shoot the podcast you invite them into your space, into your store, you've created the ultimate warm lead. And then now you're able to sell whatever your restaurant supply is to that particular restaurateur. And I think that's the power of it is that, you know, podcasts can, I mean, can make a six, seven figure difference with only 500 or 1,000 subscribers. I think people look at Joe Rogan or they look at a Mr. Beast. They look at these podcasts that are really media companies. But for me, the biggest power of it is that, especially if you're in a B2B space, is that it can really drive your entire marketing engine in such a powerful way that creates intimacy and authority and it

builds trust with your customers and it builds trust with with clients and um i just believe in it i believe in it and it's it's one of the you know one of the reasons i think that we we lead our clients to it as well as because of those i'm curious what do you think by the way i'm so used to being in the interview chair this This is very strange for me. Except most of the podcasts that I've done, I've been in your seat. And so this is fun to kind of like switch roles. I'm going to have to discipline myself to not interview you. No, literally all of your reasons were my reasons.

The only thing I'll add to that is kind of similar to what you were saying of just this, the touch point of someone choosing to listen to your show, they're literally choosing to listen to your voice or watch you speak via video for 10, 20, 30, however long your show is minutes long. And that is such a high level of engagement with your brand. Those are your raving fans. Yep. You don't get that really anywhere unless you have a YouTube channel, like you mentioned, which is kind of similar. Yeah. Or like a paid community. Yeah. Right. Right. So that is such a powerful way, whether it's, let's say your founder starts a

podcast or whoever kind of the face or voice of your company you want to designate starts a podcast, just that opportunity to build connection and build trust with someone else on the other end is, is invaluable. And it goes a really, really long way, especially if you're consistent over time and you continue to feed them with really valuable information. That's going to convert, I think like really solidly compared to social love, social, don't get me wrong. Sure. It's such a higher level of engagement versus.

No question. It's a mindset shift because if you're focused on going viral, podcasting is going to frustrate you. Right. Is the goal to go viral or is the goal to add value to your business? I'm a small business guy. Like, you know, the clients that I love working with are small businesses, you know, and so so for me, I'm going, yeah, okay, do you want a clip to go viral? Or do you want it to be something that's actually going to drive drive your business? And that I mean, that's the that's the power of, you know, like I said, just using that that example of, I mean, for me, like, if you're a real estate agent, and I'm in a market, and it can be a small market, 50,000 people in the metro, 100,000 people. A friend of mine lives in a town called Holland, Michigan, right? And I was like, who's the real estate agent in that area that's going to start Hello Holland?

Where that real estate agent interviews business owners and influencers, movers and shakers in that city. And it really becomes kind of like a hometown show. And I'm like, not only can you monetize it with local advertising, but it's a super niche and engaged audience. How many listeners is Hello Holland going to really get when you think about virality? That's not a show that's going to get a million downloads an episode. But again, if you're a real estate agent and your goal is to sell more homes or have more people list with you, then, then, then honestly, a, uh, an audience of raving fans of a thousand

to 2000 downloads can absolutely change your business from the inside out just because of a show like that. It can really move the needle in these very significant ways if you stop being obsessed with virality and just look at, okay, do you want to be viral or do you want to make more money? Yeah, absolutely. And I challenge brands to, just a quick note here, for brands who have been approached with sponsorship opportunities, for example, to when they are considering sponsoring a podcast, for example. Think about that, you know, the level of the numbers are quite different from social numbers. You know, 100 views on a social post is not the same thing as 100 listeners to a

25, 30 minute podcast. Something to consider as you think about pursuing those opportunities with podcasters, I think podcast sponsorship, if done correctly is incredibly effective. So just something to keep there because I know that's something brands are still a little iffy on approaching. Well, Brad, I want to ask you too, what was your personal journey with podcasting? Like, I don't even think I fully know this story and I've known it for a bit now, but why did you get into podcasting and what's been your journey with it personally? Well, I'm afraid I'm going to date myself a little bit on this. The first podcast that I can remember listening to was in 2006.

So the medium's been around for a really long time. podcasts that I can remember listening to. One was from a brand called To Write Love on Her Arms, which is a really big deal in sort of like Christian emo warped tour culture. And it was an advocacy podcast on teenagers and young people who were struggling with depression and self-harm. There was another brand called Triple X Church, which was really about helping people who are struggling with pornography addictions. And they had a podcast as well. I got started in full-time ministry before I pivoted into the marketing space. I remember listening to those shows, and it was such an interesting thing even at the time

because I actually felt like this was one of the mediums where the church was actually ahead of culture. I don't feel like the business world really caught up to the power of podcasts until maybe like 2012, 13, 14. I think there's a powerful lesson in this for businesses and brands to learn from because the one thing that churches have going for them is that they produce a long form piece of content, caught a message every single week, right? Without fail, 52 weeks, 52 pieces of long form content. And so it was one of those things where it was really ripe for podcasting early on. Podcasting at its core was birthed out of limitation for me the the most creative people are are people who are not bound by a budget they're not bound by creative energy it's it's actually born out of limitation if if someone is maybe kind of struggling with the idea of like

well how do i start and i don't know if i have i've got the tech for it and all these things like literally the podcasting medium was not birthed out of this abundance of resources. It was birthed out of making something like radio accessible, right? And I think now because there's so many tools, there's so many resources, people don't realize that actually

you can start a podcast very simply. As far as a host had a podcast of my own in 2018 was the one that I first started. I did about 30 episodes there before I transitioned to my role at the chapel in 2020. And then I started producing a podcast for my pastor and his leadership brand and did about 170, 180 episodes of that before transitioning at the end at the end of this year. Now I'm, you know, consulting on a few different projects, helping other folks, you know, launch, launch their podcasts. And, uh, that's a, that's a key part of my business right now. I think the key to one of, one of the things you kind of shared is you're a consumer first, like you consume so much of the

content, having this idea of you as the consumer, what would you enjoy listening to? What's kind of the format that you feel works? It gives you a lot of different ideas that way. But I think ultimately the key to podcasting, let's say if you want to start your solopreneur, for example, or your brand wants to launch a show, just creating something unique to your own personal brand. That's the biggest thing. Personality stands out, making it as conversational as possible and making people feel like they're literally sitting down at a dinner table or at a coffee shop with you and just having a conversation. That's the thing I felt ultimately has worked.

Yeah. It's just being overall, being authentic to who you are, you know? And so PQ, the pastor that I was producing the leadership podcast for, he's from Brooklyn. He has this very, you know, talks fast. Like he's just a very boisterous type personality. When we started Just Lead, we had a rule, like it's 10 minutes, less than 10 minutes, you know, in, out, boom, boom, boom. And the way I always sort of talked about it is I want it to be like we bumped into Pastor Q in the subway, and his stop is coming up in three stops in Brooklyn. I've really got three questions in

the chamber to really be able to ask him, boom, boom, boom, about time management, whatever you want to talk about. And that's almost that visual image kind of drove the whole brand. It's so different than any other leadership show. And that was one of the biggest pieces of feedback that we always got. Oh my gosh, I love that it's only 10 minutes and that I can just hit it on my commute and then I'm done. I love the visualization element of that too, because I think you as the host can kind of show up a little bit differently or uniquely to that setting that you paint the picture

for. Overall, just having in mind, who am I as an individual? Who am I as a host? Those should kind of coexist. And what is the essence and the personality of this show that I'm trying to infuse in every episode? And I think that's huge, huge. Yeah.

I mean, that's a whole skill in and of itself. I mean, just talking about interviewing, you know, how to interview guests and how to really get the best out of them. Here's a whole skill in and of itself. I mean, just talking about interviewing, you know, how to interview guests and how to really get the best out of them. Here's a popular question. What's the best piece of advice, right? Okay, like that's a decent question. But what will actually get a better response is, hey, what's a piece of advice that you

hear a lot in your field that you would say is categorically wrong? That elicits a different kind of emotional response. And, you know, thankfully with chat GPT and different AI tools and things like that, it can give you sort of some of those prompts that can help ask some of those better questions. Well, okay. So you mentioned a couple of hurdles already. For me, I would say the number one thing that people say to me that stops them from podcasting is number one, the tech. What do I buy?

What do I host on? Like, how do I do it? Like people have no idea how podcasting works. They're like, I put it in this host and it transmits it out of the platforms. Like, how does that work? And so explaining all of that stuff. So I would say that's one thing. The second thing is it is a lot of work.

I highly recommend outsourcing as much as possible. The work and then also just what do I talk about? Like having stuff to talk about on a weekly basis. It can get hard to freshen up your content and everything. What would you say are some of the hurdles? How do brands overcome those and just have a fresh perspective moving forward in the podcasting? Well, I think we have to be careful to not get the cart before the horse, so to speak, because I think the second thing you said is more important than even the first,

the hurdle, the hurdle of what do I talk about on a weekly basis? Folks get excited about starting a podcast. I mean, there's something like five or six million podcasts, but I've seen it say something between 80 and 90% of podcasts don't make it past episode five, right? So you've got a lot of podcasts. So if you have a podcast that makes it past 10 episodes or even better, 20 episodes or 100 episodes, you're immediately in the top, you know, you're in the 90th percentile. Having that consistency, having a content strategy in place first is the number one thing, right? So if you're gonna, you've got to figure out your format. So if you're gonna do an interview show, like who are your 50 guests? Like don't even look at microphones, don't even look at video and hosting platforms and get into that whole sea of

things if you're not listening, listing out your 50 guests yet. Right. So starting with that is the most important thing, you know, for me. And then, and then, yeah, I mean, I think there's a, there's a basic way to do it and there's a bougie way to do it, you know? And so it's really just kind of going, okay, are you committed to the long haul of it? At first you may not feel comfortable being on camera. That's cool. Like do audio only. I think Marketing Happy Hour did audio only for how many episodes? It was most of them so far.

Right, right. But you guys have built a highly engaged audience because of that. And so if you're talking about audio only, all you need is like a USB microphone. That's a hundred dollar investment. And then, you know, you can, you can host it on a buzzsprout or red circle or, or a simple cash hosting platform that will take care of some of the distribution for you. Spotify for creators, it's free, right? And so you can host it there. And so you can really get started for little of nothing, but then just talking video, I think people get intimidated by video. Almost everybody has a laptop. Almost everybody listening to this has an iPhone. There's a new feature now

with iOS where you can actually use your high quality iPhone camera. You can actually set up your iPhone as your webcam and you can get a really great shot like this. And if you've got a basic USB microphone, I mean, honestly, the barrier to entry from, you know, the tech side of it, just getting started and then you're recording. And that really is all that it takes to start. Now, if you're talking about a studio show, right, with, you know, four different angles with, you know, and, you know, your Discover Universal over here, like that's a, you know, that's a, that's a true production. But if you're talking about with the thing that I think would move the needle for most small business owners, for most

brands and interview show, like what we're doing right here, that the tech is not as overwhelming as you might think. And I thought that was one thing that might be cool is to just put together kind of like a gear list. Cause sometimes it's just like, Hey, just tell me what the buy man, you know what I mean? Yeah. I couldn't agree more. And I always tell people, I'm like, write down 20 to 50 ideas, like you said, if you're an interview based show, write down those 50 guests, but make sure you at least start there and feel good about talking about each of those topics and having a co host, for example, let's say it's you and one other person making sure you have someone that can pull out those interesting angles to that topic as well.

But the content is huge because that has stopped a lot of people I know from, you know, let's say they don't have an episode coming up next week. That turns into, oh, it's fine. I'll just record the next week. And then they never record again. And the show stops there. I've seen so many people do that. And it really comes from just not feeling like you're prepared and ready with that in place. Yeah. And I think having, you know, having a plan in place, it's exciting to launch something that's great, but you've, you've got to

be, you've got to be far in advance. I mean, uh, this podcast project I'm working on right now with a client, it's called the Bible Department, and it's a daily Bible devotional podcast. It's video, and there's 365 episodes. You can't run the risk of missing a day. You miss a day, you lose all credibility on that. So you can't afford to launch a podcast like that on January 1 and not have those podcasts in the chamber already. Just the planning that is involved with that to make sure that everything is all dialed and ready to release. The content is done. Now we can really focus on the distribution, which is the real, like the hard work of it. Now we've got this great product. Now how do we distribute it? We overestimate the tech

and I think we underestimate the real beast that is the content plan. Get that in place first. When I talk through social media strategy with people, for example, you know, there's always this question of how often do I post? Like how much content do I put there? And the biggest thing that I recommend to people with podcasts, I definitely recommend if you can do weekly, do it because that just stays, it keeps you in front of your audience on a weekly basis. It keeps your content fresh and interesting. People know when to expect you, for example. However, if you can't do that, or if you want to do more, if you want to do daily podcasts, for example, the biggest thing in my opinion is consistency, stick to a plan, communicate that

plan and show up on that day, you're going to tell people you're showing up because to your point, the worst thing that can happen is someone's expecting your episode to come out Tuesday at 5am and your episode doesn't come out. And that creates that like, not, I don't want to say distrust like that may be a little extreme, but it can get there. You know, you, you, this precedent of how often your show is going to come out. And so just making sure you're showing up for your audience. And so not only with the content, making sure you have that, but realistically with your production level, whether you have a team, whether you're doing it for yourself, what realistically makes sense in terms of distribution.

So a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. We're, I mean, we're big fans of, you know, even something like Riverside where if you record, um, not a sponsored post, if you record, you know, your show within Riverside, uh, you know, they even have AI tools where they can pick out, you know, some of the best moments from the show. And then that really, you know, takes, takes out, you know, 90% of the need for having to hire a short form editor. There are some of these tools that are available now that helps so much with the distribution of your show. I want to kind of jump ahead to distribution and marketing just for a second. And then we'll kind of backtrack here. What do you feel are some tried and true promotional tactics that you use? This is where your show should be going out every week. Is it blog posts on a

website? Is it just on the platforms? Like what are you doing to not only just publish an episode, but share that out and make sure people are aware it's there. Like I said, we're sort of in a new era, you know, in a new frontier for, for podcasts, more people are watching podcasts more than ever. So if you can do video, do video, put it on YouTube. By the way, there's some technical pieces. Sometimes people upload podcasts on the YouTube and they're doing it wrong. They just upload it as a video. There's a tab inside of YouTube that has a podcast tab. So you've got to make sure that you're actually uploading it to the correct place inside of YouTube. Prioritizing SEO and search terms is super important with a video podcast. YouTube, as we know, is the second largest search engine in the world, you know, next

to Google, which owns YouTube. It's the titling, it's the descriptions, it's the channel keywords, you know, tools. My favorite one is AnswerThePublic.com. It's owned by Neil Patel. It's the channel keywords, you know, tools. My favorite one is answerthepublic.com. It's owned by Neil Patel. It's just a phenomenal tool. And so you can really nerd out with stuff like that. Most people don't listen to podcasts on a website, but just for the SEO of your website, not so much to grow your podcast, but to grow your business. Absolutely. If it's attached to your business, your brand, post it on your content management system. Absolutely. Everywhere that you can distribute it. I think other people also ignore some of the smaller podcast platforms. There are

ones that are really big in India, ones that are really big in other countries. Here we focus on Apple, Spotify, but there are other platforms too. And if you can just get it out to as many places as possible, every listen counts. Most of your podcast hosts, depending on what you use, will kind of take you through that checklist of, Hey, make sure you connect it. And I'm not going to go into the whole process of this, but make sure you connect it and Apple and Spotify and Overcast and iHeartRadio. There's like a million to your point. So making sure you just get it out there because just be on as many of those platforms as you can. So that's huge. You mentioned answer the public, which is one of my favorites. Another one that I highly recommend is Ahrefs. They have the YouTube kind of keyword search that the Google thing, doing that kind of understanding your consumer

behavior and like, how is your audience specifically thinking and searching for topic is a really good way just to change your perception on how you should be marketing your content and I think just approaching it with kind of a youtubing mindset is super important one of my favorite podcasts it's a guy named Omar El-Takori and he he has a podcast called the department it's grown incredibly over the past you know past year and I'm just gonna read you just a couple other titles right his bread and butter for many years was YouTube that's really sort of how he came came to be known publicly and now he's got you know his business with with the video

department but just some of these titles dominate YouTube for business in 2025 masterclass and then it says the department episode 35 right it like it doesn't make sense to just name that episode 35 the department here's one of their biggest episodes of the year this past year over 40 here's how to build your personal brand start now right and so these are very like SEO conscious search conscious terms some of those have guests on there. And so you can't sort of just go the Joe Rogan route where you just go, okay, episode 1021, Elon Musk, you know what I mean? Because that's just a different type of show. Most of the people who are listening to this,

who are trying to do something to drive their brand, they're not in the same business that Joe Rogan is in, right? You can't view it that way. And so approaching it, titling it from that content standpoint is the thing that's going to move the needle, in my opinion. And I like, too, how those titles all lead with what that takeaway is. So someone can read that and they know exactly, hey, if I listen to this episode, I'm going to learn how to do X, Y, Z, like point blank clarity is key. And so letting people know immediately, like what can they expect or who is this for? You said over, over 40, like that's super clear and straightforward. Who's 25 is probably not going to start listening to that episode because it's not for them. And so I think the clearer and the more direct you can get with what is that key learning,

what is that key takeaway someone can expect from this episode is also really important. Yeah, and delivering on that promise. I mean, you know, clear wins over cute every single time, you know. And that goes for YouTube. That goes for anything. It doesn't need to be this kind of like punchy, creative. It's not a book title, right? Like people are going searching for answers to their problems.

And one of the best YouTube strategies you can have is to just answer stupid, simple questions, right? How do I start a podcast in 2025? You know how many people are searching that right now, right? And, and so just somewhere in there that you're, that you're going, okay, this video is going to deliver on sort of a step-by-step process on how I do this, you know? And so just being super conscious with that, you know, but clear over cute. I know we kind of alluded to this a little bit, but just how does a podcast fit into the bigger

marketing strategy for your brand? So we discussed, you. So we discussed how we can take a podcast and use that as micro content for our social and just adding value to our audience that way. But how else do we use that, in your opinion, as a way to drive whatever the bigger picture is, like your core product, your core service offering? How do we use a podcast to get people interested about that stuff? It really depends on your business. The low hanging fruit is that you can, you can sponsor your own show. One of the things about marketing happy hour, which is your, your brand now, right? It's Cassie's brand. You know, what, what people should know as a result of the show at the end of

it is like, Hey, if you're, if you're feeling overwhelmed with this whole podcasting thing, you know who can help our girl right here, you know what I'm saying? Like that's, that's one of the things that, especially from a personal brand standpoint is that you can, you know, honestly kind of sponsor your own show.

You can put a mid roll ad into every one of those episodes. That's your own ad. You don't have to pay for it. Like you're already creating the content. It's really ultimately, it's a branding play more than anything else. And I think that's why you have to see it as a long-term investment.

It's a brand building type deal. You look at one of the biggest podcasts, one of the biggest YouTube shows that has kind of run its course, but it was Hot Ones, right? I mean, Hot Ones was basically the concepts pretty simple, right? You invite a celebrity guest on, they eat hot wings and it gets increasingly hotter. But that whole show was built off of selling hot sauce, right? It's a content machine that really drives the sales of the rest of the product.'s have some fun with it give me an

industry give me an example because i said sometimes that's how my brain works you know yeah oh gosh um okay let's say i i'm just gonna throw out a large brand i'm curious what you'll say about this uber for example uber wants to start a podcast like how are they kind of framing that and promoting the brand that way yeah uber should have started comedians and cars getting coffee right like this the jerry seinfeld show or what's the one with james corgan the the late night host yeah yeah that like that that would have been the play they didn't it's okay they still could still good they could pay me to do it i'll do it

uber's listening this is your sign right yeah i mean because i mean uber has a brand equity where you could get celebrities on that show for sure let's do a smaller business let's say there's a financial planner i don't know what would you do? I actually have a client who's a financial planner and she's not ready to step into podcasting yet, but the play would probably be to really dig into what are the top 150 questions that people are really asking about that particular sphere and then tap your network. So whether it's LinkedIn, whether it's people within your immediate sphere, and then by having them on as a guest, what it does is it just gives you an opportunity to have a conversational, have someone to just bounce the ideas off of rather than just sort of sitting down cold and speaking, you know,

directly to a camera, sometimes having just the, it being delivered in a more of a conversational format, depending on the personality of the person, depending on sort of like what they're interested in. That's, that's when things can kind of get, that's when the cross sections get really, really interesting. If they're super interested in sports or something of that nature, where they may be able to kind of talk about maybe the Carolina Panthers game and talk about financial planning, because if they're ultimately trying to do business in the Charlotte area, is there a way to sort of marry those two things, right? Charlotte's big bank and capital, you know, and so is there a way

to kind of have a little bit of that crossover where maybe there's some pre-show banter that's talking about how badly the Panthers lost to the Buccaneers this week, okay? I'm a little sad. Cassie was at the game. That's where the personal branding, you know, gets really, really interesting. I'm a big WWE fan. One of the best podcasters in the game is a guy named Conrad Thompson, and he has multiple shows. I mean, he has a whole network. He's got about 12 or 15 shows where he has different shows with old WWE legends. He's a real estate agent. He sponsors his show.

He's one of the wealthiest people in wrestling, period. And he's a podcaster. So I think a lot of it is just embracing who you are you just don't understand like how that can move the needle for a lot of people rather than just kind of a generic cookie cutter type deal and even marketing happy hour with like how you know there's math and magic when it comes really to this to the sphere that we're involved in and just how conversational and approachable this show is, you know, that's, that's one of the things that you have going for you where, you know,

you just kind of have to embrace who you are. I think, I think I learned to do this too, as a communicator, because I spoke on stages, you know, for, for 10 or 15 years. And I used to be really insecure about being from the South and having an accent and having these weird ways of saying things and these weird colloquialisms until I realized, no, that's actually your differentiator. Like, no, that's actually the thing that's going to, that's going to make you different. Like, yeah, yeah. Okay. My podcast studio has wrestling figures in the background. There's Macho Man. I like those things. The right people who are your people are going to come your way as a result of that. And I think if you can just go, go in that direction, that's one way to do it. That was not a great answer to the financial planning conversation.

No, it's so true. It's so true. I had someone ask me the other day, I host a podcast for Universal called Discover Universal. And someone asked me, they're like, are you the same as you are in the recordings? And I was like, yeah, like that's me as a human being. And so allowing, like there should not be a gap there, you know? And so showing up, and I think that also helps the way that you talk about content is going to come across a lot more authentically. And the way that you connect with someone, like I kind of almost think about it, podcasting is like the way that I show up as a host is kind of similar to how I show up as a friend. Like I'm going to be kind of goofy. Like I'm going to share my interests.

I'm going to talk this certain way. And like, that's how it is because I'm working to build a relationship with one-to-one audience members. And so if that's how I do it in real life, like that's how I'm going to kind of show. Obviously, it's a little different because you're in front of a camera. But how can you just be you and connect with someone as you would in real life? Absolutely. 100%. It's it's it's been completely authentic. And I don't want to make sure we don't get past this because I love this concept.

I call it the high school party principle. I don't know if you've heard me talk about this before, but having a show like yours where you're inviting guests on, I call it the high school party principal because it's like, let's say you had 300 people in your high school graduating class, right? And let's say you're not the most popular, right? I wasn't necessarily the most popular person in high school, but let's say you're sort of like middle tier. Let's say that you have the house where like your parents go out of town for the weekend and you throw the party and everyone from the high school comes. We've seen a million 90s and 2000s movies made about this particular concept, right? That kid, those students, like whoever, when they throw that party, they immediately get vaulted in terms of like their Q score, like in the school. Why? Well, not because they did anything special. They just hosted the party. That's all they did was they

hosted the party. And I think for a lot of people, if you just sort of saw it that way, and again, like I said, I'm more of a small business guy. If you just hosted the party, like you just have no idea what could come your way. I mean, I was working with a client, they haven't even started their show yet. And my advice to them was like, hey, I want you to invite your friends on first because I want you to get comfortable with the medium of interviewing them. They got super excited and just randomly cold emailed one of their dream guests and they said, yes, haven't even started the show yet. It was just, it just goes to show you, like if you were just, if you were to

just say, you know what, yep, I'm going to host the party, that's one of those things where you can really, you know, build your brand and, and I say that I'm taking my own advice in this because I'm making a major career pivot into this marketing space, taking everything that I've learned from leadership development and education and ministry over the past 15 years and now applying it in this new sector. A lot of people don't see me as a marketing guy yet. what I'm going to be doing with my show is, like I said, being able to invite people like yourself on because it's one of those guilty by association type deals. I'm involved in these conversations and it's that I think that over time begins to build brand and it begins to build equity. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The authority piece is huge. And whether you're

a personal brand solopreneur or you're running a business, just podcasts stand out. I don't know what it is about it. But it's like something that just kind of clicks in people's minds when they see it. And to your point too, I think one thing that, you know, we were talking about roadblocks. One thing that stops people is they're like, oh, I don't like my voice or I don't know how to talk eloquently or whatever. I was literally having a conversation with a friend yesterday and he was like, well, I just don't know if I'd sound very good. And I'm like, first of all, you're your own biggest critic. First of all, like I promise you the opinion you have about yourself. No one else thinks that. Second of all, it's time and repetition. Like I go ahead and listen to the first episode of marketing happy hour. If you want

to go back to it, it's horrible, but we've a long way, you know, the show has come a long way over time and it's because we have put in the work yes recording almost 200 episodes but the way i sounded day one is not the way i sound now and then also just the confidence too like i was so quiet when i was younger and now i podcast for a living yeah you grow and yes just say anything like if you put in the work you will get better you will get more confident and it's also so many benefits come from this platform. Absolutely. Highly recommend. like an expert, your audience will trust you more if you act as the audience proxy to ask that dream guest that they would never have a chance to sit down and have coffee with.

Ask them the question that the audience wants to ask them. And I think that's a big barrier for a lot of people is they think that, oh, I've I got to I got to seem like the expert in the conversation. No, you know why marketing happy hour works? It's because you're not seeking to impress people. You're seeking to be helpful. And when you seek to be helpful instead of seeking to be impressive, and you ask people those burning questions that,

and that's why I said reaching out to people who are maybe feels a little bit out of reach at first, when you kind of send that LinkedIn message or you send that email, right? Now, if you're seeking to be, if you're seeking to be impressive, what's going to happen is you're going to try to overshadow that guest and it's just going to come off weird to your audience. But if you're seeking to be helpful to your audience, you're going to be very sensitive and conscious to, man, what would my audience ask this person? And if you can just play the audience proxy in that moment to ask them, like sometimes what might seem like a dumb question, you're actually serving,

you're serving your audience in the long run, which only builds trust over time. And, and, and to me, like the guests that you want on your show, they appreciate that level of authenticity where you're not flexing, right? Where you're just kind of take, you're not flexing, right? Where you're just kind of take, you're just, you, you're not just positioning yourself as the expert.

You're teeing them up to be great at what they do and talk about like, they're the expert. I just get to host the party. I'm just opening the doors. That's it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And you'll be surprised where some of those new relationships, what they turn into. I mean, I can't tell you how many guests are now close friends of mine, partners, people I've worked with. And that literally just starts because I genuinely wanted to learn from them. Me as the host, I'm curious too. And I'm interested in what they have to share. And I'm treating them as a friend, like as a normal human being.

I'm not like, you know, there's no weirdness there. And so I think that's the biggest thing of just approaching it. Not only your recordings as authentic as possible, but the way that you literally do business inside of your podcast is also that's so important. Yeah. So yeah. A thousand percent. Yeah. I love it. I feel like you have to do like a whole nother podcasting part two thing, which we'll do like a check in here in a few months, I feel like. But is there anything else that you feel is like a non-negotiable for podcasting, something you miss, something if someone was saying today, right now, okay, I'm going to start

this show I've been wanting to in the next few weeks, like what can they not miss? Yeah, that's a really great question. I think commit to the process of like podcasting is a verb, right? You're a podcaster when you create podcasts, when you sit down and you record podcasts. And if you can attack it with the goal of, like you said, let's aim for weekly. I'm going to upload a podcast every single week until I don't. Like if you can just commit to that habit. And by the way, all types of goal setting. I mean, we're here in the new year. That's true for any habit. That's true for any goal, right? So if you're trying to lose weight and you just have like a goal weight,

you're going to be much less likely to reach that as opposed to if you just committed to, you know, an eating plan or you committed to an exercise routine and said, no, no, the goal is the habit, right? And so I would say that the same thing is true of creating content, right? So if you're a writer, are you blogging? Are you going to blog every single day? Like, let that be the goal. The results, the, you know, the results of it, the outputs, I mean, all the, you know, all the analytics, everything that kind of comes with that, some of that's honestly out of your control. But what you can control are the inputs. What you can control is what you put into it. And so there's so much to be said about consistency. And I think if you just commit to the goal is the habit, right, that I'm just going to sit down and I'm just going to do it, then all types of possibilities to start opening up. Because

then you really start getting creative and you figure out your format and figure out great questions to ask. And then, like you said, then you get this unexpected community that just begins to rally around you. You know, I mean, even when I announced that I was making this pivot and, you know, I'm going to start making more noise about it over the next couple of months, it's been amazing just how much my community and the people around me have changed. Like you've been incredibly helpful to me as someone that I haven't even known for a very long time, but just have just been so generous with your time and how you've just given me some counsel and advice on like, you know, starting an agency and moving forward. And so, but that's what I would say is just commit to the process and then all the other stuff, you're just going to get 1%

better every single day. Yeah. Yeah. That's such a good reminder. And I'm excited to see what you continue to build. I mean, this is just the beginning for you and it's going to be awesome. And I learned so much from you, even in this conversation today. And that's literally why I do this show is just like hearing from guests and having a different perspective on a specific topic that I literally do every day, but I still learn something, which is awesome. So I'm excited for you, Brad. And speaking of that, just where can we continue to follow along with you online and just a little more about what you're doing?

Absolutely. Yes. So you can find me on all socials, just at BK Chandler and and then also I'll drop my YouTube channel in the show notes. So you have that as well, Making Varsity with Brad Chandler. And yeah, if you want to work with me, you know, check out the website, madebyvarsity.com. And so it's a lot of new, just relocating, adjusting to a new city. And, you know, so, you know, Cassie and I can help you get off the ground with this whole podcasting journey. We'd love to do so.

So she's the best. Oh, my gosh. Right back at you. I was going to say, contact him, not me. That's enough. Yeah, yeah. You're a little better than I am. Awesome.

Well, Brad, thank you so much again for today. We'll definitely do this again. There's so much about podcasting we could talk about. So I'm going to do a part two. Let's do a part two. I love it. Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode. If you enjoyed this conversation, I would love your feedback. And if you're ready to take things to the next level, sign up for my weekly newsletter in the show notes, you'll get weekly career and marketing insights straight to your inbox. And if you have an idea for a future

marketing happy hour episode, shoot me an email. Hello at marketinghappyhr.com. Thank you again, and I'll see you next Thursday.