Jason’s 10 Takeaways in B2B Podcasting

If you don’t like to read, here’s a 12 minute video for you.

1) Get Over It

My first takeaway in B2B podcasting is: “You got to get over it.”

Meaning… you are a business. You are not an influencer. I talk to a lot of people (and businesses) who want to start a podcast. Most of them ask right away

“How do I monetize it?”

“How do I get thousands of views?” or even “millions of views…?”

This is the wrong way to look at B2B Podcasting. To put things in perspective, it took us 25 years to get our 500th client. Simple math… we average about 20 new clients per year. That’s about 1.6 clients per month. Sometimes we’ll get one client. Sometimes we’ll get three clients, sometimes zero clients. Our clients stick with us for a very, very, very long time. What would I do if a million people watch my podcast? That could be a disaster. My point is business to business is different than a Joe Rogan podcast. We want to get in front of a finite group of people that matter to us. “Get Over It” means don’t worry about how many views you get on your B2B Podcast.

2) Do Four First

Many people that come into our podcast studio that want to start a podcast are super excited to:

1. Name it, and
2. Promote it.

You probably should not do either out of the gate. Start by doing four of them. You will get better every time you do one. So will your production team. After you’ve done four, a few things will happen to you.

For starters, you’ll know if you like doing it. If it gives you energy (e.g. you like doing it), then you’re onto something… keep going. Name it. Promote it.

But if it drains your energy (e.g. you don’t like doing it), and you’re dreading doing the 5th one… well, thank goodness you haven’t told the world you’ve started a podcast. The good news is: you’ve only done four episodes and you can still leverage its content, but haven’t committed to a series that will wear you out.

Do four of them, take a deep breath, check your energy level, and then decide what you want to do going forward.

3) In-Person is Best – but Remote will Do

Nothing beats in-person podcasting. Find (or build) a studio where you can invite people and strengthen the relationship. A lot of value comes before the podcast and after the podcast. This is when most of the connections are really made. Podcasting is not just about the actual podcast. It’s a time to connect with your guest, (who I assume you like and respect). If you’re looking for a way to connect with people, honor people, enjoy people… starting a podcast checks those boxes. Of course, remote will work if you’re in a pinch, but nothing beats in-person.

4) Listening is Hard

Listening is a skill that I’m still working on. And I think if you really were to take inventory, you would agree that listening is hard. It’s just as hard (or even harder) in a podcast, especially because I don’t do those “long-form podcasts” (again, this is a B2B Podcast). My podcasts are usually 20 minutes long. My job is to ask them good questions and let them do 85% or more of the talking. Which means I am listening; but boy, is it hard to listen and keep time. Sometimes when I go back to watch the podcast episode, I hear the guest say something for the first time- almost like I wasn’t there. Even though I’m working my butt off to listen, it can still be hard. Listening is hard in life, and listening is hard doing podcasts.

5) Speed Kills

This sounds very violent, but it’s not. What I mean by speed is doing things quickly and accurately, and this has several benefits. For starters, you want to honor your guests who come on the show by getting the podcast up quickly. Your guest will be honored you asked, and excited to be on the show. Of course they are… the podcast is about them. If you take a long time to post it, it’s human nature for them to wonder why it’s taking you so long. I’ve been a guest on a few podcasts where many days, or weeks, or even a month go by – and nothing. Speed kills for several reasons: one, it honors the guests;two, it keeps the creative juices going on the actual podcast itself; three, it frees up our plate so that we can do more work without getting the backlog of editing. Speed is important in any business. As we like to say at our company, there is no defense for speed. Speed Kills.

6) Your Podcast Combats AI

In today’s AI-buzz world, people are very skeptical of what they’re reading. I’m skeptical of what I’m reading. I’m wondering if ChatGPT wrote that article or if a person did. While I certainly don’t mind using AI for certain tasks (in fact, we use AI on our podcast to do our first draft transcripts), the podcast is raw and real. People want and gravitate toward raw and real.

7) The Podcast Belongs on Your Website

Business gets done on a company’s website. For this reason, make sure your podcast lives and is promoted on your website first, and then all the other platforms secondarily. The last time I checked, business does not get done on YouTube. It does not get done on Instagram. It doesn’t get done on TikTok. It doesn’t even really get done on LinkedIn. Businesses value traffic to their website. Once a visitor gets to your website, you can cookie them and retarget them. Retargeting is usually the highest value marketing, and that begins only with traffic.

8) LinkedIn is Your Friend.

Announce your podcast on LinkedIn (with a link to your website). LinkedIn is the clear winner in B2B social. Treat the other social platforms (e.g. YouTube, IG, TikTok, Facebook, etc…) as if they are the carpool lane. We’ve already created the podcast. We’ve already posted on our website. We’ve already announced it on LinkedIn. Hey, we might as well keep it going and make different formats (vertical and horizontal) and pepper all the other socials. The effort is minimal, just like using the carpool lane, you can get everyone going to the same place and it doesn’t cost very much more.

9) Keep it Unedited.

Reality TV has proven to us that it is interesting when you don’t edit things. If you have an awkward moment, say something blunt, or even just clear your throat… just leave it there. It’s part of the program. Authenticity is what people are looking for in a format like this. I do see some people editing their podcasts, which makes sense for the shorts. You need to edit it for the sizzle clips to compete for attention span, but the podcast itself, the conversation, I would say don’t edit it. It’s not a film. It’s not a commercial. It’s a podcast. It will have some mistakes, and that’s the beauty of it.

10) Use “The ManningCast” for Visuals.

This final takeaway is only for when you have visuals. I really like this technique. Reference Peyton and Eli’s (Omaha Productions) Monday Night Football production. When Peyton and Eli watched the game with the fans they learned that people have just as much fun watching their facial expressions as they do watching the game itself. A bonus is that there’s less editing involved, too, because this is what we call our “ManningCast” view. Give credit where credit is due.

So that’s it. If you’re in Orange County, our podcast studio is called Sunset 17 TV & Podcast (a simple google search will find it). Feel free to stop by in person (reference takeaway #3 – In-Person is Best).