The Commission Code for Success

Why Business Owners Can't Ignore Podcasting

• The Commission Code For Success from Sims Training and Consulting, LLC

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Ever wondered why your business's social media efforts aren't converting to sales? The answer might be simpler than you think: you're competing for attention in spaces designed for distraction.

Podcast strategist Alecia Gulati reveals the transformative power of podcasting for small business owners in this eye-opening conversation. Unlike social media's quick-hit dopamine cycle, podcasting creates an intimate space where listeners deliberately choose to spend 30 uninterrupted minutes with you – a level of attention virtually impossible to achieve elsewhere in digital marketing.

Gulati pulls back the curtain on her comprehensive podcast launch strategy, debunking the "launch in 24 hours" myth with her proven two-month process. From conducting 8-10 hours of market research to building pre-launch anticipation with audience involvement, she details how thoughtful planning creates sustainable podcasting success. For busy entrepreneurs concerned about time commitment, she shares her genius 10-minute episode format that delivered major SEO benefits and client acquisition with minimal production effort.

As AI floods our digital landscape with computer-generated content, Gulati emphasizes how podcasting showcases your humanity – your stories, experiences, and genuine connection with audience struggles. This authenticity creates trust no algorithm can replicate. The best part? Starting requires minimal investment: a decent USB microphone, free editing software, and affordable hosting.

Whether you're considering a limited series or an ongoing show, discover how podcasting might be the missing piece in your marketing strategy. Ready to turn listeners into leads? Visit helpmypod.com for resources, workshops, and free consultations to get started.

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Speaker 1:

It really showed me the power of podcasting in such a different way. We had people sending us DMs that were like, oh my goodness, me too, I had that experience as well. Or oh my goodness, I can't believe you guys went through that and that you're normal, define normal, right, it's okay. But there was such a deeper connection that the podcast allowed us to create. And then we did very strategic things at the beginning to launch to make sure that people knew that we were going to have a podcast. We had people in our DMs a month before we even launched saying when is this podcast going to come out? When is it going to come out? I need to know. And so that just really showed me like, wait a minute, all right, maybe if we put a little more strategy behind this podcasting thing we can see some success.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Commission Code Podcast. We're here to help you overcome the challenges that most of us face in our business. From time to time, you know things like feeling like you're on a plateau and you just can't seem to grow your business. Or maybe feeling overwhelmed, just trying to make ends meet and yet it seems like you're always working. Or maybe you've done quite well for a while, but now nothing seems to be working anymore. Well, we want to help you solve those problems and many more. Our objective is to provide you with practical solutions so you can grow your business and have more time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Speaker 2:

My name is Morris Sims and I'm going to be your host for this show. I've spent years okay, decades really in the corporate world teaching business owners how to increase their revenue and use professional sales processes and run their business more effectively and efficiently. I started my own consulting and training business about seven years ago, I guess, and I'm helping my clients do just exactly that Get more revenue, increase their revenue and have more time to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But I got to tell you I'm having more fun than ever helping people build successful businesses. So, with all that said, let's get on with today's episode of the Commission Code for your success.

Speaker 2:

Alicia Gulati is our guest today on the Commission Code for your Success, and I got to tell you I'm a little nervous. In fact, I'm a hell of a lot nervous because Alicia is a podcast strategist and I'm just a little old podcast host that doesn't really know what he's doing here. So I'm going to learn a lot from Alicia today and I can't wait for her to tell us more. So, alicia, welcome to the Commission Code. Please tell us a little bit about you and what you do in your business.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate being here and I'm excited to talk podcasting. Anytime I talk podcasting, you guys will hear it in my voice. I love it. It just gets me really excited. So I started podcast guesting in about 2016. And at that point, I was about a year or so into digital marketing online and I also had a corporate job. I worked in manufacturing and supply chain, so I was doing that by day Also a new mom, like all these things were happening, but I realized, hey, you know, I think I can make some money on the side. Let me see what this whole online business thing is about.

Speaker 1:

Fast forward to 2018, I decided to launch my very first podcast. That has since sunsetted. I stopped podcasting that one after about a year, realized I really didn't like talking about supply chain in my job and on podcasting, it was like you know what, nevermind, I'm done. In 2019, launched a podcast with my sister called Two Sisters and a Cult, where we talked about cults and related them to the one that we grew up in which, like, we're not going to talked about cults, and related them to the one that we grew up in which, like, we're not going to talk about that today. People tend to be like wait a minute, like derail the whole conversation. Yes, let's talk about that, not today, today's podcasting, but from that it really showed me the power of podcasting in such a different way. We had people sending us DMs that were like, oh my goodness, me too, I had that experience as well or oh my goodness, I can't believe you guys went through that and that you're normal, define normal. Right, it's okay. But there was such a deeper connection that the podcast allowed us to create.

Speaker 1:

And then we did very strategic things at the beginning to launch, to make sure that people knew that we were going to have a podcast. We had people in our DMs a month before we even launched saying when is this podcast going to come out? When is it going to come out? I need to know. And so that just really showed me like wait a minute, all right, maybe if we put a little more strategy behind this podcasting thing we can see some success.

Speaker 1:

To this day, even though we have since stopped producing that one because cults are really depressing, we still get a lot of downloads, like somewhere between 500 to 1,000 downloads every month from that podcast. Even though we stopped years ago. People are still interested in that, and so it made me think in early 2020, I think I could do this for other people. Let's give it a try. And then I lost my job due to COVID and I'm the sole financial provider for my family. My husband is a stay-at-home dad and he homeschools our kids and I was like, well, okay, universe, if this is the calling, let's see if I could do this. And so I reached out to my network that I had accrued over the years in the online space said does anyone want to launch a podcast? Was able to get someone and that person is still with me today, which is just makes me so happy.

Speaker 1:

But now I have a full service podcast production company where we help podcasters produce their podcasts, where they record. We handle everything else, from the strategy all the way up through email marketing, digital marketing, blog posts, etc. And so being able to offer that service just really is fun, but then also offering the strategy and we don't just offer strategy to our clients, we also offer strategy to anyone who's like I need a strategy session, please, and thank you.

Speaker 2:

That's great. That sounds wonderful. Alicia has so many questions. Okay Geez. Our audience, we believe, is smaller businesses, solopreneurs and professional salespeople. Why start a podcast? Why would any of those folks who are running you know how it is when you're all by yourself, or all by yourself with a couple of independent contractors or something? Why should I slow down and try something new? I've never done any podcasting before, or audio kind of. Why should I even worry about this? And I guess, if you're listening to this, the question is why have you not ever done it? But in any case, why would somebody want to take the time and effort and required investment in order to start a podcast?

Speaker 1:

required investment in order to start a podcast.

Speaker 1:

So if you're a small business owner, you probably already understand that when you're trying to get new people to hear about your business, it is really hard on social media to attract people and then direct them to your website or direct them to your content outside of social media.

Speaker 1:

Because as and we've seen this really big shift in the last five, 10 years on social media, where it's a lot more of the dopamine hit of like, that's what people are going to social media for for the quick sound bites, for the quick information, the quick tips. If you tell them to go do other things, to book a call to hire us for our services, it's not very easy and you're competing with millions of other pieces of content that that person is going to see in that day. So what is beautiful about a podcast over, say, other long-form content like a blog post or a YouTube video or other places where people might consume content is that when someone presses play to a podcast, they are intentionally saying I'm going to sit with this person and listen to them for 30 minutes. Right, there is nowhere else, without the distractions, that you as a business owner, can get that kind of attention to your content, so that is why I think that podcasting is such an important part.

Speaker 1:

Add in the fact that AI has infused itself into a lot of our content that we see on social media and we see on video and we see in all these places and YouTube is now penalizing kind of not really penalizing but not giving benefits to people who are using AI to generate videos that generate views, so like they want real people with real content and I think we're going to see this shift a lot more.

Speaker 1:

But when AI was like first really prevalent in the last year or two, I said that this was going to happen, Like people's voices, our ability to say no, I'm a human, I'm not a robot. I have life experiences and I can connect with you and I know what you're going through and I can connect with you and I know what you're going through and I know the struggles that you're feeling. That is so much more powerful than oh well, I ran my ideal client. Why business owners should have some form of a podcast and we can get into like, okay, maybe we don't want to do a podcast ongoing, Maybe we want to do a limited series, but at least some form of audio content or long-form video that we can turn into audio, where they can generate that content for their audience or potentially generate leads for their business.

Speaker 2:

Now, alicia, you and I chatted a little bit beforehand, so you know that the commission code in all my podcasts for the past umpteen years have always been audio. Only, I don't know what are your thoughts Audio or video, or both? What?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I'm starting to lean towards both. I hate it. Yeah, so I'm starting to lean towards both. I hate it. But I started in early, like January 2024, we made my podcast, which was then called Listeners to Leads. It is now called Podcasting Unlocked.

Speaker 1:

We had transitioned that from an audio generate a lot of views for us, and with YouTube pushing more of their shorts, which then can lead people to your long form content, it just made sense that if I'm already recording it and I'm already editing it, let me just edit the video and then export the audio and put it in those places. So it's making it a little easier. Spotify is also pushing for video and you can upload your videos. Even if you don't host. With Spotify, you can still upload videos and a short, like a short form video to there once the episode is live as well, so people can watch on Spotify. So I think our apps are starting to push that a little more, and so I think we should kind of just go with it. It's a little difficult, right? Especially if you haven't been historically doing it, but I think it's worth it, especially if you're already editing.

Speaker 2:

Well, you taught me something I didn't know you could upload video to Spotify. Yeah, oh, my, okay, I got it. Jeez, alicia, I think I need to hire you. I got to check that out. That sounds really really cool. Okay, so limited series sounds like a really good idea for somebody that hasn't jumped into this and, you know, maybe they're thinking well, I got to do this for, you know, years before I'm going to see any good out of it, or it's going to take me, you know, half of my week to do a podcast. Limited series sounds like an interesting idea, but whether it's limited or long term, or whatever my objective long term might be, how do I get started? What do I need to do to actually create and publish a podcast?

Speaker 1:

yeah. So I would say your first thing is don't produce it in 24 hours. We see a lot of this like, especially when I first started creating this company, I would see people launch your podcast in two weeks, launch your podcast in 30 days, launch your podcast in 24 hours Right, and I was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. So we take about two months to launch a podcast and it's very strategic in that the first two weeks is market research. I have not seen any other production company do two weeks, which we do about eight to ten hours of market research, listening to other podcasts, seeing what makes sense for my particular client's goals and what they're trying to achieve with their show and how can we set them up for success. And the beauty of this market research is it'll tell you if a limited series would make sense for you or not. For example, we had a client who wanted to do a podcast about GMOs and we found that there were a lot of science podcasts but there weren't a lot of podcasts that were just talking about GMOs, and so we thought I don't know that there's enough content on this topic, so a limited series would make the most sense for this. So we said we'll do 12 episodes. You'll hear the people that we recommend that you interview for this limited series. Here are the discussion topics that we recommend that you do for this limited series. Here's the discussion topics that we recommend that you do, and then you can choose.

Speaker 1:

The client then can choose and has a lot of creative liberty, of course, of like what they want to do with the show, but that at least guides them in a good direction and so that market research is so important. From there you start recording and you've already got your content list. You've got your plan of ideas of episodes based on the market research. Then it goes into almost an entire month of marketing the podcast before it actually airs. And I think this is where a lot of people think like, no, I'm just going to say hey, new podcast, guys, have fun. No, we need to be talking about what we have coming up, getting that excitement going, engage our audience in. Hey, here are six cover art ideas that I'm working on. What is your opinion? Right, get them involved so that they feel a little more invested when you launch that podcast.

Speaker 2:

And you're doing this, alicia, on what? Linkedin, instagram, those kind of things?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so wherever the client has a social media presence or wherever they prefer to have a social media presence as well as email list. So the email list would get it first because they have subscribed to be there. So you get first dibs and then about a week later it would go to the more public.

Speaker 2:

Gotcha. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Yeah, so we do a month of marketing and then grand opening everything. So here we go.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So with the grand opening, it's almost anticlimactic once we get to that point, right, because we've been excited, excited, hyped, hyped, hyped and like, oh my goodness, okay, we're here. That point right. Because we've been like excited, excited, hyped, hyped, hyped and like, oh my goodness, okay, we're here. And so about two weeks before the launch, we actually start planning out the next few episodes, and so what that does is it gets you over that like almost high than really low. That happens with a launch energetically, where you're like, okay, I launched, okay cool, and like, okay, what is next, I don't know, by having these other episodes already planned, already recording, already getting started, you've already started. The snowball effect of you're not going to and I'm using quotes here fail your podcast because you didn't have content ready to go.

Speaker 1:

A lot of podcasters they get into podcasting and they think this is going to be great, I'm going to keep going forever. And it doesn't always happen because there is so much work that goes into a podcast. You produce an episode, you record it, you edit it, you create the show notes, the social media stuff, Maybe you're doing a blog, you're doing an email, all of these different things that go into the podcast, and then you have to do it again. So there's so much work that goes into it that life happens, we get busy, and so it can feel like this will help you get that snowball going. Now I do want to say that a podcast does not have to always be an interview. In this case, we're doing an interview, but if this feels really overwhelming to you, I want to give you an idea.

Speaker 1:

I did a podcast for all of 2024, on top of my regular podcast, where every week, I answered podcasting questions in 10 minutes or less. That is it. So I took a question that I knew my audience was asking. I took about 10, sometimes 12, because I can go a little longer sometimes I try to keep it under 10 minutes and answering those questions, and what it allowed me to do was have great SEO benefits. I then turned each of those episodes into a LinkedIn article, which ended up getting me clients. It ended up getting me guest spots on other podcasts. My LinkedIn traction was really high based on that, and so that was my focus. All right, I'm doing really SEO focused content to get my voice out there, to get my audience to know hey, this is what I do. Here's how you can work with me, but with low effort on my end, 10 minutes or less.

Speaker 1:

I was able to batch record a month's worth of episodes in about an hour between changing my shirt for the different outfits for YouTube and all that, but within about an hour an hour and a half if I needed to like create the outlines was able to batch four of those and I found that that was really helpful to create a year long limited series of.

Speaker 1:

I'm just going to do this, I'm going to test it out, see how it works. Now, what I've done is I've taken that episode and I use that as bonus episodes for my other podcasts, so that way I could just cross promote of like okay, every other week. Now my podcast that I have now is two times a week Tuesday is me, thursday is my guests, and then every other Tuesday is a bonus episode. Every other one is a like more recent episode of like hey, let's go a little longer and let's get into it. A more recent episode of like hey, let's go a little longer and let's get into it. So I find that when people think podcasting, they think, oh, I have to do all of these things or I have to interview all these people. It could literally just be 10 minutes or less answering questions that your clients have.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I love it. I love it and, yeah, I think that's absolutely right. What happens? Did we get it all done? I mean, we got it out there. Now, what platforms do you use to publish on? Because there are a zillion of them out there. The minute you start actually looking into podcasting, all of a sudden you see StreamYard and Buzzsprout and Ecamm, and Kajabi even will do it. Now, what do you recommend? What do you use?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I use Buzzsprout. That is my podcast host of choice. Yours is Walmart, where it looks like Yep you got it.

Speaker 1:

So I love Buzzsprout. I've been using them, like I said, since 2018. They're very user-friendly. Their customer service is top tier. Anytime I have had a question or an issue, they are so quick to respond and quick to support. I absolutely love them.

Speaker 1:

So I use them as my hosting platform, and so what that means for people who are like wait, what does that mean? Is you produce the podcast, you edit it and then you've got an audio file. You don't have to put that audio file on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and Outkast and like all of those different places. You put it in one spot and then that spot distributes it when the episode goes live. So Buzzsprout is the place that would distribute my show to all of these different places.

Speaker 1:

Now, because I do video as well, I do also publish to YouTube when I'm scheduling that out, and then, once the episode is live, I will go into Spotify and I will swap the audio out for the video. Now, one thing to note with that is that now Spotify is no longer pulling my download statistics from Buzzsprout, and so I need to be looking at that those analytics a little differently, and so that's something that I keep track of when I'm like looking at everything I created like a whole Google dashboard of like here's all my stats, here's all my information, so I can keep track of that in an easy way.

Speaker 1:

So that is where it would be distributed and then from there, people usually share it on social media. It could go live on your blog posts and then you can embed it into your blog posts, which I really always recommend that if someone is like, hey, I want to listen to your podcast, where should I go? Send them to your website with a blog post with the embed code in there, because it keeps them on your website, rather than sending them to these other apps where they might get distracted, or these other websites where they might get distracted. So any way that we can keep leading our audience or our listeners to our website is going to be really, really important and that way they can stay on your website longer, get to know you a little better, maybe check out your resources and how to work with you, and then you might say, okay, I'm done. Not really.

Speaker 1:

What I would recommend is keeping a running list of all of your links and all of the information for your podcast. So I have a sheet that I use where it's like the title of the episode, the number of the episode, the guest name. So, if I can easily search through, I have the Buzzsprout link, my website blog post link, the embed code and the YouTube video link, and what that allows me to do is, when I'm talking to future guests or having future episodes, I can refer back to my previous content. So instead of saying all right, okay, bye, say if you want to know more about this topic, here are three other episodes that are really good, that are going to help guide you through this Neat idea.

Speaker 1:

And then it keeps people in your content. I'd also recommend that if you have content that is more holiday or seasonal meaning maybe you talk to moms and you have back to school episodes on how to manage your life and back to school, that's an episode that you don't just have to share that one year, you could share it every year. I have a client. She talks a lot about boundaries and so around the holidays we reshare a lot of that content that she has around boundaries with your family because it's relevant to the holiday season and, like you know, everybody's sitting around the table. You got to create some boundaries with some people you know, and so that's why I think it's important to have that list so you can easily go back and grab whatever you need or be like oh, what was that topic I talked about? There you go, you've got that list going and it can keep your audience in your content and keep reusing that content.

Speaker 1:

Once it's done, it's there, yes, anyone can listen to it. It's evergreen, meaning someone can listen to it a year from now, two years from now, if they wanted to, right? But it's important that we keep resharing our content and I think that alleviates a lot of that stress of I have to post something new on social media, not really. You could take those 52 weeks limited series and then next year, all right, let's go back to week one and talk about week one, and so that's the beauty. I think too about podcasting is it's just this evergreen, almost bucket that you have of content that, yes, you're adding to it sometimes, but you can pull from it as well if maybe you're sick or you have other things going on in your life to keep your audience engaged.

Speaker 2:

Alicia, in the short time we've got left, I guess I want to just share with everybody. It doesn't require a huge investment to do this. You can get a USB, a really good USB microphone that just plugs directly into your computer. For less than a hundred bucks or right around that, you can do that and then record it on you know, free recording software Audible was it that I used to use Audacity? Audacity, yeah, use Audacity, it's a freebie. Or you could do what I do and record it on Zoom, whatever platform you want to use, and then you publish it. Buzzsprout, I think, is what? $27 a month or something for what I use it for.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, depending on how many hours of time you need it's anywhere from $12 a month to higher than that.

Speaker 2:

So we're not talking about a lot of money here. This is not a huge investment, even though I'm sure Alicia has, and I do. I guess that's a $400 microphone I'm talking into right now. But you don't have to do that to get started and it really does work out very, very well. And if you do have a couple of bucks in your budget to invest and you can hire Alicia to help you do all those things she just talked about, let me tell you what you do that and I promise you your podcast is going to take off like a bat out of you know where. So just give it a shot. Alicia. Tell us about how to get a hold of you if we do want to talk about hiring you to help us get our podcast off the ground or make our podcast better.

Speaker 1:

Yes, so if you're interested, I have a free consultation. It's 15 minutes. We can talk about what your podcast idea is and I'm not going to make you spell out my name, it's fine. You can go to helpmypodcom. You can go to helpmypodcom and that will take you right to my website where I have resources, workshops, freebies, 15 ways to improve your podcast if you already have a podcast, as well as that free consultation link.

Speaker 2:

And then we can talk about what it might look like to work with me, if that's something that would interest you. Outstanding Alicia, thank you so much for being on the Commission Code for your success. Well, that does it for this episode of the Commission Code Podcast. This is the place where we want to help you find the Commission Code to success in your business. Remember, go to MorrisSimscom for more information and in the meantime, hey, have a great week, get out there and meet somebody new, and we'll see you again next time right here on the Commission Code. Best wishes. I'm Morris Sims, you.