Proven Podcast - Turn Engagements into Revenue - Ryan Alford

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

In this episode, Charles delves into the dynamic world of podcasting and content creation with Ryan Alford, the innovative founder of the RadCast network. Ryan unveils his extraordinary journey from a marketing veteran to a podcasting powerhouse, demonstrating how he transformed his media expertise into a top-20 show on Spotify. Ryan challenges conventional thinking about podcast growth, emphasizing the power of consistency, quality production, and strategic multi-platform promotion. Charles and Ryan explore the delicate balance between content creation and monetization, the art of crafting engaging episodes, and developing sustainable podcasting strategies that prioritize both audience growth and personal brand building. Ryan's expertise shines as he breaks down his methods for creating high-converting listener-to-customer funnels, implementing effective guest management techniques, and fostering a mindset of continuous innovation. He underscores the importance of understanding your audience, the strategic use of "borrowed interest," and maintaining authenticity even as the pressure to chase download numbers intensifies. Whether you're a novice podcaster struggling to find your niche, an established content creator seeking to scale your reach, or a professional navigating the complex landscape of media monetization, this episode is packed with game-changing insights. Get ready to revolutionize your approach to podcast growth, audience engagement, and sustainable content creation. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Discover how Ryan leveraged the "18-34 demographic shift" to create a game-changing podcast strategy Learn why crafting a compelling multi-platform presence can dramatically increase your audience reach Gain insights into aligning your podcast content with profitable business models for long-term success Understand the power of "earned attention" in fueling exponential growth Explore strategies for scaling a podcast while maintaining quality and personal authenticity Head over to https://provenpodcast.com/  to download your exclusive companion guide, designed to guide you step-by-step in implementing the strategies revealed in this episode. KEY POINTS: 2:00 Podcasting data: Ryan reveals shocking Nielsen study results about podcast consumption among young adults. 4:00 Media convergence: The discussion explores the intersection of audio and video content in modern podcasting. 6:00 Winning strategies: Key tactics for podcast success, including consistency and quality production, are outlined. 9:00 Content quality: Emphasis is placed on delivering high-value content to stand out in a crowded market. 12:24 Borrowed interest: Ryan introduces his technique for leveraging trending topics to boost podcast relevance. 14:56 Easy sharing: Strategies for making it effortless for guests to promote their podcast appearances are shared. 18:01 Content snippets: The importance of creating bite-sized, shareable content from podcast episodes is highlighted. 20:01 Promotional assets: Ryan explains the value of providing guests with ready-made promotional materials. 22:57 Platform alignment: The conversation turns to tailoring content for different social media platforms. 25:29 Guest experience: Insights on creating a positive experience for podcast guests to encourage referrals are provided. 27:35 Persistent follow-up: The significance of consistent follow-up in securing high-profile guests is discussed. 29:30 Guest expertise: Techniques for making guests feel like experts during interviews are explored. 31:45 Scaling podcasts: Ryan shares strategies for managing podcast growth and maintaining quality. 34:01 Influential connections: The discussion covers how to gain access to influential guests for your podcast. 36:01 Business mindset: Ryan emphasizes the importance of treating podcasting as a serious business venture. 38:30 Marketing basics: The conversation touches on fundamental marketing principles for podcasters. 42:02 Listener conversion: The episode concludes with strategies for turning podcast listeners into customers.

Welcome to the proven podcast where it does not matter what you think, only what you can prove. Everyone treats podcasting like a marketing afterthought. Today's guest, Ryan Alford, proves it's actually the most powerful marketing weapon you're not using. While others' podcasts for Vanity Metrics, Ryan proves podcasting is profit. The show starts now. All right, welcome back. Today we're with Ryan, and this is someone who I could talk to for days, and we will end up doing that. Welcome to the show.

Thanks, Charles. It's pleasure to be here, as always. So you've been doing podcasts for over a decade now, and you're doing something different than everybody else is, and a lot of people look down on podcasts. They don't have this great idea towards it, and you come with a completely different angle. For those of you who are about to listen to this,

hold on your belly buttons because it's going to get intense. Let's talk about it. Well, I was a podcast different in your world since you've been doing it for a decade. Yeah, well, I'm first going to get, like, talk about the data. You know, I'm a data guy, like why, you know, podcasting as a whole, and just remind people

that may turn their nose up at it or think it's saturated or think it's, you know, reached its pinnacle. 18 to 34-year-olds media consumption in the most recent Nielsen study, they're the leader in media research, very trusted. It was just here in the first quarter of 2024, came out with something that had never happened. And basically what that data said is the fastest growing medium for 18 to 34 year olds is podcasting. They watch and listen to more podcasts than they do television, period. Drop the mic. And it's the first time that's happened. So think about this for a moment in a world where a lot of people think podcasting is saturated, it's seen its moment, yada, yada.

18 to 34 year olds, usage of them is at an all time high. It is not capped out, and it's now more than television. So 18 to 34 year olds are the leaders of tomorrow. And so they are being brought up on a medium that is just now becoming a leader in the way with which this consumer set absorbs content, where our parents and even us, I mean, I'm a 47 years old. And, you know, we grew up with TV and radio and outdoor boards and the internet comes along and all these things and social media. But podcasting is still in somewhat of an early nascent to rising in that bell curve.

And so once you dismiss that portion, then there's like, how do you do it right? And so, but the reality is podcasting is not on its way down. It's still on its way up as a medium. And what you're seeing and what we're doing with the Radcast Network is this intersection of audio and video. And how these two channels are coming together because podcasting started as an audio medium for distribution of content. content. And now you're seeing this intersection of audio and video and the people that understand that intersection and that understand the interplay and to building the content the right way for those mediums. It's much like social media where everyone used to do the same thing. I'll do the same

thing on Facebook, same thing on Twitter X, the same thing. You have to build the content for the platform. And YouTube is the fastest growing podcast channel on the plan. So the reality is the way that you have to build a podcast is not the way you built a podcast five years ago. And it's changed. And we're really sort of at the forefront of that and helping not only, look, ourselves, because we have the number one show on Apple and marketing and business and top 20 on Spotify. But so we're living, we're sort of the living and breathing laboratory for the clients that we work with. So I love that you said, you know, people think, oh, podcasts are saturated.

And I will say podcasts are absolutely 100% saturated of people doing it the ineffective way. I won't even been doing this for about a month and a half. And we're getting radical results and there's generating income already. And people are you doing this? I've been doing a podcast for all these years. I'm like, because you suck. You're not doing this effectively. You know, as you said, you have to do it specifically for that platform.

And if you go to any marketeer in the world and you say, hey, I can deliver you X amount of eyes between the ages of 18 and 30. they're going to stop their meeting, they're going to have that meeting with you. So with people doing podcasting ineffectively, it's the nicest way I can say it without getting in a whole lot of trouble, what are the things that you've been doing it for a while that people are just absolutely incorrect about

and one of the things they can start doing to actually execute better when they're doing podcasts, and some things are doing it to red. So I'm going to get real clinical on it. So like first and foremost, you've got to be consistent. Like here's what I have,

Charles, you don't know how many people come to me and go, you know, ask sort of that question. We get down that dialogue. You know, I've done my podcast. I've made a go at it and all that. And I'll go look at just their baseline stats. And week one episode, week two episode, week three, no episode, week four episode, week five, no episode, and no consistency.

They say they've done it. They gave it the old college try. And look, the number one determinator of success of your podcast, after quality of content, which I'm going to come back to, like, is literally consistent scheduling. And it's in high value production. High value production doesn't mean high cost. High value and how cost are two different things. So a nice mic, a good camera, baseline quality, consistent schedule releasing.

So literally, people want to make it real difficult. And pod fade is real. Okay, I did seven episodes. and then I quit or then I came back two weeks later. And so all you're telling your audience is I'm not committed. This isn't a real thing. And they have no real schedule of when to expect you. And so imagine if the nightly news with Dan Rather back in the day, I'll age myself.

I'm only one year different than you. And a month will be the same age. And so or whoever. And imagine okay, it's the nightly news. But Monday, we didn't feel like producing. It's introducing it. Tuesday, we're on. Wednesday. Uh, didn't do it. Thursday. You get the point. People don't know to expect it. They don't set their clock to it. They don't come back to it. It's not hitting their feed. And they replace you with something else. So consistency of your show is first and foremost and sticking with it. Look, you know, depending on your religion, other than God building the earth in seven days, like, things don't happen overnight. And so literally, I spent six and a half years in 450 episodes, you know, a lot of consistency, a lot of repetition. And so you've got to build that sort of foundation of consistency.

And then like what you've done in a fast amount of time, you've done that. And then the quality specificity and the education or entertainment level of the show. So who am I talking to? Who am I adding value to? What do I want? Do I have a clarity in what I'm delivering to them? Because here's what happens. When you're really clear on who your target is and what you're giving them, you get real focused in on delivering that.

When you're not and when it's loose, you have a loose schedule, you have a loose target, you have loose quality of content, everything loose, including your audience and your success. Yeah, and it's there wasn't anything. I took the idea of what I've done with scaling businesses and brought it directly into the podcast. I was like, all right, who's my niche? I want to go inch wide, mile deep. What is the massive pain they're in and how can I eliminate it? Because most people come to the market and they want to be supplements.

And it's the worst thing you can do. Don't be supplements. Be Advil. Be the painkiller. Then you can tell them supplements later. But if they're in pain right now, eliminate that pain. And if your audience, if you're in the process of eliminating their pain immediately, it doesn't work.

When we started out as far as. quality, it was, to put it nicely, garbage. I was using the mic on my laptop. I had a webcam. It was unbelievably embarrassing. And then I ramped it up. And we're again, we're barely into our second season here. We're catching up to it. But to do this effectively, I think what the biggest problem people do when they do podcasting is they're not treating it like a business. This is a business and it's an armiered business. And for us, it is the best marketing we possibly can do. because the minute we ranked and we were in the top 100 wall podcast, we were in the top 10 for entrepreneurship and top 20 for a while,

and we pulled that off a little bit. As soon as that happened, the phone calls you get, it becomes this amazing skeleton key. We start getting phone calls from people who I would never be able to talk to in a normal environment. Now they're dying to be on the show. So approaching this as a business is important. So if they've mastered the ability of consistency and they've got their content so it's clean

and they're giving good value, what is the next steps? What are the things that most people mess up with? You know what? I've tried this. It isn't effective. Maybe I've done two, three hundred episodes and I'm still not making a dollar or I'm all over the place. What do you tell people when they come work with you? What are the things that you want them to do?

Yeah. A couple of different tactics. Number one, I call it borrowed interest. So it's a tactic in marketing where when in a saturated, like let's say you're in a saturated, like business show or you're an entertainment show, very saturated. And so I highly believe in borrowing interest from some people call it news jacking. Some call it other things. But what are the hot topics, hot people or hot subjects of the day that can trigger interest in your show or in your episodes that sort of tie in to sort of what's happening in the world around you?

And in any given niche, that might be something different. I mean, if you're a business show, it's typing into some of the most wanted and desired guests, you know, high profile. And not just big names, but big names that are hot right now talking about relevant topics, whether it's AI or, you know, some kind of marketing trend or something like that. But something that's on their mind and that you're going to sort of, you're borrowing interest from that guest, from that entity, from that subject matter that's already trending to then a person. apply it to your show. And the biggest thing is, so that using that borrowed interest, that could be, if you're cooking, show it's something different. You know, like, what are the trends or different things? So you've got those bud words, those trendy words in your show titles, and your SEO for podcasting and different things like that. But then the biggest thing is, look,

the only way something grows, it's like a garden, is you got to water it. You've got to promote it. You've got to get out there, okay, how do you promote your show at a low budget? look, go on other shows is free, baby. And so put yourself out there, go on other shows. Doesn't matter how big, because look, I'll take every 50 new listeners I can get. I'll take 20 of them, 40 of those, because growing and having a successful podcast is a series of 147 steps. And I don't say that's like, oh my God, I got to do 140. No, it's just it's not one thing.

It's just a lot of things that add up. And so once you get the building blocks right, go on other shows, have your consistent social media using those buzzwords, using that borrowed interest that trigger the algorithms that might get you in the Explorer feed on Instagram, might hit a nerve on LinkedIn. And you have to set up consistent processes with which to make this feasible. So I'm going to have one show a week on this topic to this audience. I'm going to cut that show up into this number of clips. I'm going to post them here.

And again, this changes for every show and what the resources that you have. But you'd be amazed, and you wouldn't, Charles, but a lot of people would be amazed that, you know, when you go down this list, you go, okay, I'm doing the show, I do it every week, okay, like that. At certain point, we get to boxes that they think they're checking, but they're not.

They're not, not anymore. And I think, you know, not only is it important for you promote your show, but going on other people's podcasts, allow you to see it from both angles. Because when I first started it, I'm used to a very different world. I'm used to being on stage. I'm used to having to fill in the gaps with a guest and help the audience figure it out. Well, that doesn't work when you're a host of a show. So it gives you the ability to practice and have that dynamic. So working with people in that environment and going on other shows, yes, you can borrow an audience, which of the four ways to get an audience, it's the best way in the

world to do it. Buying, building, borrowing, begging. Begging's the worst. Quit asking people to subscribe your shit. You look ridiculous. Provide enough value. They're going to subscribe on their own. But going in and having that conversation allows you to say, hey, this is how I perform better. Now, you just mentioned marketing. You mentioned about how this is I'm going to promote it. This I'm going to break down my social media. You've been doing this for a decade. You know how to promote this. I mean, I got to talk to your guy before we start recording. Great guy. Probably going to make me buy a MacBook air. But we're going to this situation where, finally going to get the IT guy, the Mac, the Microsoft guy to switch over. I'm going to get a letter.

But in this situation when you're cutting over and you're doing this, what are the strategies that, hey, I'm going to promote this. I put my heart and my soul into this. I showed up. I've got the lights hitting me. I had a great conversation with Ryan. What are the ways that they can start promoting that you found for, because each platform's different, that you say, hey, for Facebook, this is the best way. LinkedIn's this way. Instagram's this way. Twitter's this way. Twitter's this way. in that situation, what are some of the strategies and the tools that you use to help people out? Because again, there are just so many people are lost in the oversaturation of ineffective podcasts. Yep. Number one thing, if you have guests on your show, make it easy for them to promote the episode and have a sequence of communication with which to do that.

Share all the content with them or their team. Give them all the access to the clips. Give them easy links. make it easy for them. Make it, like, don't send them a folder with 17 things in it, uncategorized or undone. Like, it go, hey, here's all the content. Thanks so much. No, send them into individual clips. Send them a link to your Apple link, your Spotify,

your individual links where all they have to do is copy and paste. Make it super easy for your guests to share it with their networks and their community. ask for the order if you want it to be taken. So please share this so that it promotes you and me. Please put it on your newsletter. Please put it on your social media. More specifically, would you mind sharing this to LinkedIn with this link and this caption? Share them a caption idea.

Look, it's the same thing as PR. In PR, when you're pitching a story to someone or one of the editors, you need to make it easy for them to say yes. And a way to do that is to almost pitch the idea of the story. Hey, I'm thinking this idea. I've even written two blocks of copy. I know you'd make it a million times better, but here's what I'm thinking. So again, that just takes sweat equity.

That's not necessarily money. It's your own time sending it to your guests that you've had on the show. So, okay, then social media, LinkedIn. Okay? So you're talking to business people. You're talking to business owners, depending on. So who's your niche? Like, who are we talking to and what matters to them?

Extracting the value from every episode for what would, okay, people love to snack. I like to get the bite size takeaways from the episode if they don't have time. So taking away those bite size pieces from each one specific to the target, specific to the medium, and then making sure that your caption is specific enough while also you know you joked a little bit about you know don't beg but you get asked them to leave a review or ask

them to subscribe you know like you sort of have to you know ask for the order and this is back to sort of like they check these boxes but then when you really check them they kind of gone halfway you got to go all the way I agree and I love that you're making copy for people

that you know it's so easy now with chat GPT and all that you know obviously make it better than just be half ass it's you know One of the things about chat GPT that they don't understand is it's a chat, it's a conversation. If you say, hey, write a thing about this and it's the first one, refine that over and over and over again. Use someone else's voice. But to make it as easy as possible for people, saying, hey, Ryan, I love you on the show. This is what we're doing.

Here's all these clips. I've given sample captions. Again, as you said, I know you're going to make it a million times better. Make it so that all you have to do is click. One of the things that we do is we automate a lot of the stuff from my clients. And we haven't done it yet for the podcast, but we automate all of their stuff. All they're posting, everything for them. So listen, you have two options.

Here it is all for your. Or, by the way, we set up an account for you. It's already set up for you. All you have to do is log in, put in your information, it'll authenticate, and it'll post everything for you. When we front load that for them and there's 40 to 60 posts that are already designed and they don't have to do anything. There hasn't been a single time I haven't had a client.

Just go, okay, I'll just do what you want. Okay, cool, fine. Because they're doing so many other things. Because most of the people you bring on the podcast, especially if you're in our niche, be it businesses, they're doing this because they're trying. to monetize something, which means they're running a business, which means they barely have time to see their wife and their kids. They're exhausted. So all of a sudden, now you've given them hardcore assets that they could implement immediately, change the bargain. Now, when you give them the assets. Yeah. Sorry. I was just going to say,

Charles, another thing that people don't think through is, you know, just like you just said, your guest is coming on your show, maybe to do you a favor if you're small and getting started, but they also, to promote themselves, to promote what they're doing. Be thoughtful in your questions, knowing why they're on your show. Don't just say, you know, tee them up for success and to look good. There's art to that. It's not just what you think. And maybe if they have experienced, they know what to say, they're going to get to it.

But if you force them to sell it, they've got to sell it. But if you ask the right questions, it comes off better for them, and they're more likely to want to use that content too. Absolutely. And make sure it's in their words, not yours. Yeah. You mentioned that there's specific ways for specific platforms, LinkedIn and TikTok, all of that. Yep.

What do you find to be the most effective when you're posting content on different platforms? Yeah. It really goes back to what is the niche of the podcast, right? I mean, if it's, if you're doing a comic book podcast, you know, like, It's probably like Twitter X and I don't know, Discord or something. But like if you're a business, you need to be on LinkedIn, I would argue Instagram, that's probably my biggest channel just because I have history there and sort of have spent a lot of time in and out of the podcast invested there with giving value. And so a lot of that answer is where is your audience at depending on the topic of what you do?

but I will say, I mean, things like, okay, if you're on LinkedIn, LinkedIn, text posts do really great with no pictures and no video. So, okay, well, it's a text post. Well, a really cool quote from your podcast. Hey, I had XX on the show this week. This really stood, this really like stayed with me, this thought that he had. And you put something he said in quotes. It's all text.

It said it, you know, and then add a link in the comment. Don't put the link in the post, put a link in the comments. That's a good trick right there. The algorithm really sucks the wind out of you if you put the link in the post. So text-based posts for LinkedIn. Video is getting higher in their algorithm. So those video clips do matter if they're done right. And then Instagram, you know, they've been trying to compete with TikTok. So reels always typically perform better. But carousels still do good because it gets more. Look, all of these platforms, are built on this algorithm, does what you're posting and what you do keep audience on the platform longer? But that's the game. Oh, it is. And so your content needs to be aligned with that platform to keep whoever your audience is that's engaging with your content, they're longer.

Carousels can be effective with that because they're swiping. You've got a tin carousel thing. That's time. that you're keeping them on your post. If it's compelling content that's distilled the right way. Well, how do I still it the right way? If you don't know your target and what's important to them, then you've got a bigger business problem.

So, yeah. And so it's not about speeds, feeds, and features. It's about what problem did you solve? What insight did you give from your podcast? What entertainment or education did you give? And so it's, those are the lenses. But then it really comes down to who your target is of where you should be. And when you go into this, I think one of the things you said most people miss,

they're like, okay, well, I'm going to put out this content. It's going to make me look really good. And then I'm going to off platform them. Well, the platform is not going to let you do that. You have to make sure you're doing everything possible to keep them on platform. The next thing that's challenging for people is getting good guests. And I know how I hacked this system because it was pretty simple. But you've been doing this a lot longer than I have.

How do you get those guests that you're like, oh, my God, I really want to get Susie Q. Susie Q is amazing. Susie's going viral right now. I want to get her. I want to get John Doe, whatever it is. What are the ways that you've learned to get the guests? Okay.

One, hire someone like us. And I don't mean that safe self-serving, but it's already like created the process. Because it's not easy and it takes a lot of time. That's just being transparent. I don't say that to be self-serving. I say it because I used to hire people. Like, I'm telling you what I do.

did. So I hired people, had guest management services and all that. So don't do that anymore. We have a part of our build. But number two, surprise and delight. So look, the best way to get the next guest you want is to make the guess you just had feel like a million dollars. So that you build referrals, you build recommendations. And they tell their friends or family, whatever it might be, they become your next recommendation. Now, I'm not saying if it's Tom Cruise, you know, Tom, you're Tom, you. Tom, going to do that favor for you. But I'm saying, but a lot of people aren't going after necessarily celebrities. But the experience that you give your guests in your lineup already will assist you in getting the next guess because then you can leverage them and the experience that they had to get more and better guess because you can ask them for referrals where they'll glad, because if you know you gave them a wonderful experience, you invited them nicely on the show, You provide them an easy follow-up. You were on time.

You asked the right questions. You gave them great content. You sent them all of the things that we talked about in an easy way and really promoted them. They're going to want to add to your success and to give you other referrals. So that's one thing. The other thing is you need to treat every opportunity and every relationship as special. Like, it's just like my, the biggest. where all our guests come from is through my relationships over the years. And so a lot of people,

even myself included, like I had to Manhattan, the largest brands in the world, done a lot of things, and we're self-limiting as creatures. Like, we tend to forget some of our greatest hits and even some of the best things and things that we've done. And so go back through, like, who you know, who you've met, who's connected to who, and ask them for, you know, suggestions. Or if you know people within the network, I mean, there's, six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Like, but literally, like, everyone's connected more than you are. And it's a people business game.

And so in guest management and all those. And then, I mean, there's a, it's all process and follow up. Look, at any given time, people are going through a lot of stuff. And a no today could be a yes tomorrow. Follow up is everything. Like, I think the biggest guess I've had, I think it was like one ask and it happened, but then, like, all the other ones that are sort of middle of the road, probably took, like, 10 follow-ups.

Like, and I don't mean, like, bugging them. I'm just saying, like, hey, we get you on the show, getting a little bit of a bite, following up with that, chasing it down again, sticking with it till you get it booked. There's a, it's a, follow-up is the biggest thing. There's an art to it. When, so there's also an art to asking questions. And you talk about how to make your, your audience and your guests, specifically feel like it was a wonderful experience. And it's just like dating. There's certain things

you do and there's certain things you do not do on this. You guys have already defined a safe work, but that's totally different. In this environment, when you're going to do this, what are some of the questions that you lock in on? They're like, hey, you know what? This one works really well. These are questions I always try to ask my guests. These are things that I always try and do. These are my bread and butter that really is proven to really help out and make the guests feel like they're amazing. Yeah. It's, okay, recognizing what they're, what they're specialty is and teeing them up for success. I mean, the biggest thing is sometimes people have like these same 10 questions that they ask, but that might be setting up that specific guest for success

and showcasing their expertise. And so if you understand the expertise of your guest, you can tee them up to be the expert. And I think it's subtle cues. It's of human behavior. and making them comfort. I like to disarm. I like to, mine's with like disarm and how do I get the guest to let their hair down? Like, that figure of speech, like, literally like, and some of that, look, I have an accent. I'm from South Carolina. I think some of my approach and, you know, loosening things up is just by your personality,

but leverage your own best personality skill sets in that regard. But again, remember, here's the biggest thing that I noticed. sometimes between great hosts and so-so hosts. They want to be, the host always wants to be the expert and everything. They're the expert. They have the guest on, but they're trying to steal the show because it's their show. But you have to remember that you had that guest on for a reason. They are your special guest.

They are your sovereign person that have done you a favor, giving you time, and in your best way possible, short of a really bad Riverside, experience, you need to make them feel good. Those who don't know, we have that. I keep on Ryan's show and Riverside did not like my computer. So we might not do that one, but it was a lot. But to your best ability, try to make them feel, like, they're the expert and you've rolled the red carpet out for them.

And look, keep it conversational, man. Like, it's just let your hair down too and talk about things. and be fluid. And like, some people are better at this than others. Like, clearly, Charles, you're a pro, like, we're talking. You're formulating as we go. You have some notes, but, like, you're good at it, naturally. Thank you.

Some people are and some people aren't. And that's okay. You can still be a good host. If you aren't naturally, like, okay, well, I got to write down these things. But sort of have topics that you want to get to that you weave in, like a tapestry instead of a, I don't know. a cloak that you're just, oh, I'm going to choke them down with it. Some people can wing it. Some people absolutely can wing it. And I'm not one of those individuals.

I sat down and I researched every guess that I had. I went through. If I can get a hold of their book, I'm going to read it. Before I went on your show, I went and I watched a bunch of your episodes. I made sure I learned more about it. We also, you know, we communicate really well. Just you and I as a whole. We just have a great dynamic. So we already had conversations. But if you're going to be a host, have those conversations. Now, you do something different than most people. Your org actually helps out other podcasts. They come to you when they're struggling

or they want to go to the next level. What are the things that most people, when they come in, that they're just making mistakes and you're like, okay, welcome to our environment. You know, you're under our wing now. What are it like the first two or three steps that you sit down and you have these conversations with them?

Because I get it. You've done this. You've monetized this. You're number one in marketing for an exceptionally long time. What are some of the things when people are just struggling? And they're like, you know what? I need Ryan to save my butt. What are the first couple steps that they run into when they do that?

The biggest thing is a lot of the stuff that I've already talked about, you know, is having someone, they finally got into the point where, you know, maybe they're successful professionally or they own a business and they're wanting this podcast to take off, but it's stagnant, is it's having someone to manage all of those things consistently. I mean, it's like we can sweep it under the rug and say, well, I've got four VAs and I've got three of these and we're doing these things, and then you go look at it, and it's not consistently the things that we've been talking about for 30 minutes. It's, they are doing it.

So having someone that's dedicated to them to do all of these things at a high level to help them manage it to take it off of their plate, that, I mean, that is the blocking and tackling of what it is. I mean, then there's the nuance of, okay, is the branding right? Is the photography for the show right? Is the show art right? Is the production quality good enough? Like, is there, because there's a standard.

And look, the first thing we don't do is go, oh, you got to have a $4,000 camera and a $2,000 mic. No, that's not what I'm saying. But it can't be the mic from your laptop either. And so, you know, it can be, but people tune out really quickly. If they hear bad audio and they don't know you. Like, Tom Cruise could start a podcast,

tomorrow. And he would be afforded a lot of, okay, I'll deal with that. Like, audio's not great. The camera is a little fuzzy. But that's Tom Cruise. You want to hear what he has to say. He has equity already built. So if you have no equity built, no trust and authority built with the audience, you don't want to lose it before you even say the first word. And so a lot of it is those types of things. And then, look, opening up the game. the access to the guests that we have that don't immediately become, just because a new show comes with us that has no real base yet, doesn't mean I can go get Mark Randolph,

the founder of Netflix, to go on their show. It doesn't, but the opportunity for that at the right time is there when you're with us. You know, if you want Grant Cardone on your show, a lot of people can't make that phone call. Well, all I got who's got text Grant. I mean, so, and that is what I mean, he's going to say, Yes, he might say in six months, yes, Ryan. Like, whatever it might be.

But access to our collection of ability and the processes that, look, we have built six years worth of processes, standards, and execution tactics that we will, that I gladly give away, like on this show, I'm not trying to hold them back. But sometimes you don't know what you don't know. You don't have the people to execute all of those things within the set and series that they need to happen. I think the biggest part that we, you know, we talk about it before we started recording

that you bring to the ballgame is it's not a podcast. This is not a hobby. This is a huge branch of your media and your marketing. This isn't, so, you know, you explained it really well and the listeners who didn't get to hear it. I'd love you to kind of explain your mindset when it comes to podcasting. Because I think if people could understand

and embrace this mindset, which is hard to do because I can tell you about it all the time about how to work out and how to get in shape and do all that. But you need a trainer. You need someone to hold your hand who can keep you accountable and understands it on a high level.

You've been doing this for a decade. You come in with a very different mindset. When people work with you, they have to understand this is very different. This isn't just be consistent. There's a business mindset. There's a marketing mindset. So I'd love you to kind of explain it again.

I'm sorry to make it repeat yourself, but I wasn't recording the first time. Yes. So let me say this. Some people start podcasts because they want to document their knowledge. It's truly a hobby, and that's okay. But I'm a firm believer and the people that we counsel

and that we coach and as a lifelong marketer and the owner of an ad agency and a podcast network. I have a premise and a belief that podcasting is not only one of the future tenets of media, it's one of the tenants now, But here's the environment that we're in now with it, whether you're a solopreneur or a business, but someone that falls into that number two category that we're talking about that wants to have a podcast. But here's why you want to have a podcast.

Consumers have never been more aware that they're being marketed and advertised to. They know the stick is up. Like they're getting hit. They're tired of commercials. everything is in, here it is, everything is interrupting their flow of life and what the entertainment or whatever they want to watch. That commercial in the middle of the TV show is just in the way of that TV show. The ad on your Facebook feed is just getting away of seeing your cousins, sisters, uncle, her birthday party or whatever it might be. That content that you wanted to get to,

the ad is an interruption. So in an environment where consumers don't want to be interrupted, they're they're they're fatigued with ad like objects the way with which brands solopreneurs and people gain authority trust and ultimately sales is through playing and doing content on the consumer's terms and that is providing education providing value and providing or providing entertainment the entertainment game is really hard i i ours has a little of it. You know, on any given day, I might be better than others, but it's more the education and the value that we provide. And so you've got to have your podcast and the way that people do it, and why podcasting is so that you can showcase content that demonstrates your authority

and knowledge while also adding value to the consumer. Because think about this. Ads are disrupting people's attention. Podcasts done the right way are earning attention. People want that. They want to be part of a community. It's something that I've found more than anything else. We have more communication and more connection to other people

than we've ever had before, but we feel completely alone. If you can provide a community for these individuals, because you know your niche and you're speaking their language, marketing 101, and you're giving them value at a limit, eliminated a pain, they will be drawn to you and it will raise your social proof more than anything else. We talked about this, you know, many, many, many of times when we weren't recording that for me, it's the ultimate skeleton key. It opens every single door if you do it effectively. But most people, as you said, aren't. If you, if you're an individual and you're like, hey, I need to do this.

This makes sense. Ryan's been doing this for a decade now. I'm doing it wrong. How do they track you down? their first steps, how do they get access to you, how do they start this process of hopefully saving their hobby, starting to become consistent, but having the guidance, because you can go to the gym all day long, but if you don't have a proper trainer, you're not going to get the gains. How do they find the Ryan's? How do they be part of your world? Where do they track you down? So the biggest, I mean, I've had the blue check before you could buy it on every platform is the benefit of having a top show. They actually give you that to you. And so you'll see me, Ryan offered on Instagram, TikTok, X, LinkedIn. But Instagram is probably the best place because here's

what I'll say. I'm going to give you the website, but go go look at my 3,000 and 10 years plus on Instagram of content. You'll get to learn me. You'll get to learn about my family. You get to why I do things, how I do things, and the insights that I give away for free and have been for 10 plus years. So go let me earn your trust by going and digesting the content that I've been putting out. Go look at that on Instagram. But then you can go to Ryanofford.com to learn more about me or the Radcast Network.com for a free audit on your show. When people come in and they always ask me, when they reach out to me, I'm sure you get it as well, they ask me, how you doing? What's going on? Hey, yo, please don't do that. Formulate a specific question. They're specific, I'm great. Thank you for

asking. But why are you here? Let's get to it. What are the things that you wish people would have prepared before they come in? Like you talk about free audit of their show. When someone reaches out to you and say, hey, I heard you on Skelat Lab, I heard you on wherever I saw your post, do you want people to show up and say, this is what my show is, this is what my show is, this is what's going on, these are my goals. Do you want them to have that or do you want them to start building a conversation? What's the best way to approach you, let alone find you? Clarity of outcome and objectives. Like, you know, what, If you weren't clear on that, then you don't need to come to someone like me.

You know, like, have clarity in why you're doing your show, who your audience is, and what you want the outcomes to be. And let me tell you this, making money is not the, it's sort of the last outcome and it matters. Yeah. And don't you're wrong. I mean, we would say, like, we help you with ROI on your show. But that's too broad. You need to say, here's what would help. I need help or I have questions about how I can gain more customers for ex-business targeting X types of people with my podcast.

And I'm looking for how to do that. Or because here's the thing. There's three ways to make money on a show. Number one, turning listeners into customers. that's the number one lever. Everybody thinks it's ads or sponsors. Nope. Listeners into customers.

And literally, that's the number one trick. And figuring that out who your target is and how it is. It doesn't mean you're selling on your show, but it's laddering back to that. Number two, sponsors, custom sponsorships, packages, that's what we do. We help you build those. We reach out to brands that make sense for you. Custom packages make way more sense than CPM-based packages because ads, which is the third lever, It's all CPM.

You need a popular show. You need to be doing hundreds of thousands of downloads to make any money with ads, like the ones you're here on Rogan or my show a little bit now. But like, hey, got to pay the bills, baby. But like, but that's the way it is. But yeah, come with us. Be specific and know what you want.

Gotcha. And they track you down. Instagram is the best, man. I really appreciate you. Thank you so much for jumping on and being part of this. And I will figure out. coming back on and not have the computer crash on you again. That was...

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think we've had... I don't know if you've had any issues with Riverside since then, of course, but I don't know what it was. So I really appreciate it, Charles. You're doing a lot of great things with Scale It. Hey, guys, anybody's listening. Yeah, Charles has got it figured out.

So go follow his playbook. He's doing it right. I appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. All right, see you. Ryan just obliterated every excuse for treating podcasting like a side project. While others are interrupting audiences with ads, he's proven that earning attention beats buying it every time.