What Makes a Podcast Successful?

Hi there and welcome to
podcasting for consultants.

I'm your host, Jonathan Baillie Strong
and in this introductory episode,

I'll be sharing some of my background,
what makes a podcast successful,

the purpose of the show and what
to expect from future episodes.

Before we dive in, let me give
a shout out to our sponsor:

Podcasting for Consultants is brought
you by Spotlight Podcasting, a full

service podcast production agency of
mine that helps launch interview shows

for B2B consultants that connects you
with ideal clients and referral partners.

So first off, let me introduce
myself and tell you a bit

about my podcasting journey.

If you're wondering about my
heart-to-place accent, I'm originally

from Scotland, but was born and grew
up in Belgium before moving to London

and I currently reside in New York.

Now I started off my career as a
technology consultant and I was an

avid podcast listener before really
diving into the podcasting industry

back in 2013, working as part of
a team responsible for launching a

lot of really high profile shows.

So working with the likes of Tim
Ferriss Lewis house, and many other

shows of these massive audiences,
I'm talking in the millions, right?

So.

I started off in, I guess you could call
it the deep end and I think like many

others, working with these huge shows gave
me a little bit of a skewed perception

of what a successful podcast really is.

And what I mean by that is, if you
look at, say the top 10 or hundred

shows in Apple podcasts or any podcast
charts for that matter, we often look

at these shows and consider them as
being the quote unquote successful ones.

And as a result, many people starting
out with podcasting, try to emulate these

shows where there's mass broad appeal.

However, first of all, most of these shows
are run by huge publishing giants who

have huge budgets and networks, or people
who have already built huge followings.

What I've increasingly found over the
years is that there's a different kind

of show that I helped a number of my
clients create where they were seeing

spectacular results and outcomes that
really drove the bottom line, without

the need to build a huge audience at all.

So in order to do that, we've really
need to look beyond the download numbers

and instead think of business results.

In fact, even when I've asked some
of those people who had those huge

audiences, what the best outcome for
their show was often they would say,

oh, well it's actually the network
that they've been able to build

of the people they've been able to
interview, and all the opportunities

that that's opened them up to.

So sure, building an audience is a
nice thing to have, but that's often

best thought of as a nice byproduct.

So that leads us on to the purpose of
this show to basically help consultants

like you plan, build and launch a
podcast, but not any old podcast, but

one that supports your business goals
with a particular emphasis on using the

strategy I've seen work so well, basically
using interview podcasting to help you

strategically network with people who
are going to help you grow your business.

So you can listen to this series and
go ahead and implement the steps.

It will also give you a taster of
what it's like to work with a high

end production agency like ours.

So if you're a consultant that's
looking for a new way to break

through the noise and connect
with those hard-to-reach decision

makers, this is the podcast for you.

We have a whole series of solo
episodes lined up as well as case study

interviews with other consultants who
will be sharing the successes they've

seen since launching their own shows.

On our next episode, we'll be answering
the first question we need to ask

ourselves: does podcasting really makes
sense for your consulting business?

Hint: in most cases, the answer is
probably yes, but there are a couple

of exceptions that we'll go into.

And if you want to connect with me
or my team further, you can head on

over to podcastingforconsultants.net
and there you'll be able to book a

discovery call with me or my team so
that we can assess your individual

situation and help you figure out whether
podcasting is the right fit for you.