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Running and growing a small business.

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The Small Business Show is the official podcast of garuda, promo and branding solutions.

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Hello everyone. You're listening to the Small Business show.

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My name is Swayer Ho. You can also call me the Promo Guy.

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My guest today is Molly Rowland, CEO and founder of Hardcast Media.

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Hardcast Media is a digital agency focused on content marketing for founders, CEOs,

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coaches, and brands.

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Molly specialized in producing high quality branded video for businesses that want to

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generate revenue and create strategic relationships through content marketing.

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Molly is a frequent speaker about the business of podcasting marketing and content

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creation.

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She believes that listening is a revolution and it is evident the work that she produced

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with multiple podcasts in the top ten downloads.

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Molly currently lives in Costa Rica with her four dogs and run her business remotely.

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How are you doing, Molly? I'm good. How are you doing, Swire?

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I'm good. So Molly, it looks like you're living the life here, running a business and doing the work

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that you like to do.

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I'd love to. Find out more about how did you get into content creation and what do you like most about

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it?

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For sure? Well, I've been in multimedia for 23 years now, so it came very naturally to me.

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I've done a lot of marketing and branding and production over the last couple of decades

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now.

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And so about four years ago, I formed Heartcast Media to really focus on helping

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businesses and brands create content that's more sustainable because it's more affordable

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and also more effective than the typical brand video and things that a lot of corporations

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and companies think about when they think about using video.

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They think about these huge, expensive projects that didn't net them many results versus

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how to use branded podcasting video content to really boost your business through SEO,

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through strategic relationships, through content marketing, having assets for your

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calendar, getting that all under one roof in a way that's leveraging your time in a smart

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way.

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Yeah, that's great. And I think that you are the perfect person to answer this question.

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You touch on some of it. And I wanted to really get your take on content marketing because like you said, brands

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could spend millions, right?

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Just to maybe buy a Super Bowl ad. But some of us do now.

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Like, when I ever watch YouTube video, there's a video.

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I don't care who it's from. As soon as I can skip, I skip it.

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However, when I watch short videos or sometimes on Instagram, they're not professionally

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made video, but I spend a lot of time watching those videos, and sometimes I have had made

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my decision based on those video.

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Can you touch on those? And how do you see?

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The industry is changing now, especially for small business, to be able to take advantage

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of this?

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I think it's a really important thing to understand that in this age of AI, authentic

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content is going to be really important because you can put a few prompts in and create a

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beautiful image and all this amazing content, but nothing's going to ever replace you

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being the face of your brand or people or having a podcast.

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You can't recreate swire through AI, like, sure, with this script, maybe you could fake

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some lines of script or something along the lines, but nothing's going to replace us

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having the conversation we had and us having the conversation we're having now.

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Right? So it's all about creating authentic content that really matches who you are so you can

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speak to your audience of people who and I think audience is almost a little too broad.

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It's like the people you want to work with, right, and maybe focus less on the audience

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and focus more on creating content that's going to reach the people that you actually want

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to do business with.

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So walk me through the process. Let's say you have a potential client coming on board.

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Do you help them to find out who they should talk to?

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Because I feel like when brand wanted to get the message across, they want to target

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everyone and end up they're not reaching nobody.

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Well, we really focus on branded podcasting.

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That's our number one tool for business development, right?

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And so we have a very different aspect on that.

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And so our clients will come to us and say, or a new client will say, we want to have a

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podcast and we want to do entrepreneurial stories.

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And I'll say, okay. Well, why? What's the why?

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What does success look like? What is the goal? Because you can't kick the ball through the goalpost if you don't know where it is, right.

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You got to make sure you're kicking the ball in the right direction.

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So that's the first thing, what does success actually look like?

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And then we start to reverse engineer it.

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Well, maybe you don't want to do entrepreneur stories.

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Maybe you just want to do twelve podcasts this year and identify twelve people that you

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want to do business with and focus more on the guests and less of the audience and get

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really clear on what's the point?

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Of having those conversations, what are you aiming to get out of it and then really

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focusing on amplification of that and focusing on those relationships that can actually

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move the needle in your business?

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And so if you don't really know who you're talking to, that's a good place to start

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because you can generate a whole lot of ROI, and then you have room to do additional

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advertising, you have room to do additional things.

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However, I feel like in life, it's anything.

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Getting what you want is easy. Knowing what you want is the hard part, right?

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So who do you want to work with?

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And I think we get caught up in like, well, go on TikTok and get all this visibility and

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get a lead funnel.

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I don't want every single person to have the ability to work with me.

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That's not it. I know that the quality of my life and the success of my company is 150% related to the

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quality of the customer, my client relationships.

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We don't want to work with everybody. We want to work with people that are going to work well for us.

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So I think that is the right answer is who do you want to spend your time with?

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Because sometimes your clients you spend more time with your you might talk to your

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clients when you talk to your friends.

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Yeah, I think you brought up a lot of good point. And I recall experience I had with a fitness influencer.

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He is very famous on Instagram.

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He actually have a lot of followers. But he told me that he is struggling to find business for his training business.

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I was wondering why you have all these followers.

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But he told me that, yeah, these people follow me, they like, they comment.

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But none of those are my clients. My clients are actually a different group.

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And I was surprised getting the likes and you're getting the shares online, but they're

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not paying customers well.

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And a lot of people get trapped with a podcast and they think, well, we want to create

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thought leadership and we want to be known and we want to be new and noteworthy on Apple.

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Well, if you get a million downloads, what does that actually get you?

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You can't even communicate with that audience without recording another podcast.

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You really want to dial in, in my opinion, on the guest and not on the audience as much.

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If you're trying to do business development, and really, it's like, well, if you want to

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be famous, that's one thing.

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If you want to get more clients, it's a whole different thing.

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Those are very different objectives, you know what I mean?

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Very different objectives and those numbers don't always mean discovery calls I have a

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client who got on TikTok, grew to 5000 followers in a month had a couple of videos with

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over a million hits zero discovery calls so what would.

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You like us to do? Am I right by saying for example if you have a business then you actually invite your

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prospect to be on as a guest?

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Is that the relationship if you could make this work for them to be on the podcast to be

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worthwhile to having actually a podcast?

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Absolutely. Because if you think about and you understand better than anybody, a podcast is expensive.

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It's expensive in time or effort or paying somebody to make up for those things.

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If you're not doing it yourself, right, it's not a cheap prospect.

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And so if you're looking for volume, then doing a consistent podcast over and over and

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over again, like you're doing live, you're getting visibility, you're consistently showing

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up.

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That's one thing, right? For people who don't have that kind of bandwidth or don't have as much to talk about.

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Like maybe a company that is really trying to expand their reach and their sales client

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base.

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Right. But it's CEOs and founders and they couldn't do a weekly podcast.

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They can't do weekly meetings. Never mind a weekly podcast.

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It's not realistic, it's not sustainable. So it's better to identify twelve guests and they talk a lot about like the Dream 100

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list, right.

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Identify 100 people and it's like Bill Gates no.

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Twelve people who you want to do business with or that could bring you more business.

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Right. Like if you're a Bricklayer, you could go to the Bricklayers Association and interview

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somebody there because they know a bunch of people always looking for Bricklayers.

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Right. Like you got to think creatively and really focus on that guest and focus on the

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relationship.

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Because everything in life is relationships. The quality of your life is based on your relationships.

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Quality of your business is based on the relationships with your clients.

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So create the relationship. Do an interview with somebody, do the best introduction you've ever done.

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Make it last two minutes. Pull things about them that they didn't even remember themselves.

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Impress them with the introduction and then do a thoughtful, intelligent, passionate

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interview about the things that you both like.

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No sales, no talking about you listening and answering questions.

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Then two days later that's when you go for the ask.

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Hey Tom, thanks for coming on my show. I would love it if you would be on my board of directors if I could get an introduction,

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if you would be willing to have a meeting with me.

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Whatever it is. Right. Sometimes you don't even have an ask.

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If you know you're going to pitch a really big company, why not interview somebody else in

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the company?

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So that way you're already a warm name, a warm company, recognition.

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You're not a cold prospect coming in.

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You're somebody who's given something to that company.

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Our already given something to that person already they're going to be more inclined to

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want to give you something back.

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And you create a relationship and you might in that conversation realize you don't want to

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work with that person or you might really hit it off and realize yeah, this is great and

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then they're going to want to work with you.

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A lot of good point there. Can I ask yourself interest questions?

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Sure. Kind of relate to podcasting but you get me really thinking and I think it also speaks on

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some of the small business owner out there who have their own podcast.

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For example, I know who my top ten clients are.

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I work with them. They do a lot of repeat business with me.

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And the small business show is not about my business.

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Right. I'm in the promotional product industry and none of that sessional show, I would like to

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have them on the show, not to talk about my product.

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It's not going to be salesy, but rather how it makes them successful in their business,

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like what drives them to be where they are.

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Kind of like the guests, the conversation that we have on the show.

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But I am having a hard time for them to be on the show because you and I know why we need

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to guest on podcasts.

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We do that all the time, you and I. But for people who are not guests on the podcast before, I think it's sometimes

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overwhelming and sometimes it's scary, right?

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For people who haven't been on and talk about themselves for 30, 45 minutes, it's scary.

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Right? If you've never been on, how would you guide us or me to encourage those clients to be on

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and obviously to build on that relationship and obviously I will make them look good.

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I'll do sound bites, I'll do write up things like that.

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So that's beneficial for them too, for the PR purpose, for the awareness piece.

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So how would you advise for people who might not be motivated to be on a guest on a

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podcast?

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Well, I would first ask what their biggest pain points are and maybe they don't see

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themselves as a small business and so that's why they don't want to be on the show.

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Or maybe they're just really not comfortable with it.

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Or maybe somebody else in the company could do it, right?

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Like, hey, if you don't want to do it, can I interview your assistant?

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I mean, it's like a company spotlight, but in that case that's really more like client

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retention, more so than anything, right?

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Because you want to give them love. But at the end of the day, if they're not really into it, then I wouldn't really force

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them to.

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But as far as client prospecting, there's always somebody in that company who will be

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willing to talk to you, especially if you're going after bigger contracts.

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There could be a PR person there's a representative there's.

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Oh yeah, talk to so and so. They do all the podcasts for the company.

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Or the flip side, there'll be a lot of people who say, oh, nobody ever wants me to talk

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about myself.

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I would love to maybe easing people's concerns by giving them all your questions in

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advance so they know that they're not going to get blindsided by some political stuff.

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Yeah, I don't think I'm a scary person and I think you're right.

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If you talk to the right person, each company have a more outgoing person.

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Or if I ask a salesperson to come on, they can talk about their.

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Stuff for like hours, all day sales.

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For good prospecting, the approach is to highlight you, is to spotlight you, maybe you

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have a mission for the company.

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I would love to showcase that so that makes a good introduction.

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And maybe if you are reaching maybe to the sea level executive, they might have a slot for

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you for 30 minutes where normally you can't get them on the phone.

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Never exactly submitting your questions in advance, showing what it'll look like, here's

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the time I'm going to take.

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But yeah, there's always somebody if you ask the right person.

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Let me ask you this bigger question. I think you mentioned some of it, right?

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For the prospecting part, for the brand awareness part.

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So how can a podcast generate revenue in any business?

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So that's a really big statement, right?

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Well, it really dials back to the twelve most important people that can move the needle in

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your business.

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That's number one. There's three different facets to a branded podcast, right?

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And so if you're just focused on the visibility, you can get that any way you want.

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But if you focus on the twelve people, you've got twelve interviews and you've got

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relationships that you're forming.

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The other side to that is now you've got twelve interviews that you can turn in that are

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podcasts, your YouTube videos, second largest search engine in the world.

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You're basically getting a ton of SEO value.

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You can make blog posts for each one of those episodes and put it on your website.

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That's SEO data. That's like domain authority right there.

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Then you've got metadata, you've got all this information that's attached to the podcast.

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So that's more SEO value creating.

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Now the third element is you're creating social media assets.

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For that, you've got from that 112 interviews, you could make three different graphics and

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three different small videos from each one of those.

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Now you've got 100 different pieces of content to now fill your content calendar with,

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right?

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And then the fourth element of that is you've got social proof now.

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Now you can tag and say, hey, Swire Ho had me on his podcast and it was super cool.

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We had this great conversation about whatever. Now I've got social proof and validation for my LinkedIn account.

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So really it's like, what part of the train do you want to get on?

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Because if you start from the business development angle, then you still get all the

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assets, you still get the thought leadership, you still get the visibility, and you still

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get the SEO and the social media proof, right?

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But you're starting from a place of being very strategic about who you're interviewing and

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why, right?

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And then if you elevate those assets in a smart way, like putting ads on different things

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and putting a little money behind different things, then it can reach more people.

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So it really is a great way to knock out SEO, fill your content calendar, and forge

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strategic relationships with people who can make your business really thrive.

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I think there's a lot of good point in there because when you watch TikTok video, or if

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you watch form video, less than 30 seconds, but they spend hours editing it.

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So if you're not in front of a camera to talk for hours, it's hard to get those done.

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But with the interview that Molly mentioned, all you have to do is do the scheduling,

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obviously, going back and forth a little bit, maybe submit your question, and then you

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lock them in place so you can actually block down a lot of the content creation that you

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have for the year.

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And you're talking to your ideal client.

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And then how you spin it, depending on what department that you wanted to reach out

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afterwards, can be a good introduction.

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I talked to the CEO already. He mentioned that.

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Do you guys have this pain point? Can you talk more about that?

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Then it could lead on to multiple conversation after because the CEO says that you

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probably know about it, right?

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Exactly. And you're in. And then if you are thorough to me, there's three pillars of any content marketing plan,

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and that's strategy, production and amplification strategy.

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What does success look like? Who are you talking to and why?

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How many episodes are you going to do? How long are they going to be like a real strategy?

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How many assets are you going to make for each one?

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How are you going to post them? What is the metric for success strategy?

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A real clear strategy, right? Do you post all twelve episodes at once?

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Do you post them once a month? Do you do them once a week for four months?

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Like, what is the strategy? Right. Then the second arm is production.

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If you're representing your business with your podcast and you've done a great job of

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this, it needs to look good.

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Like, your show looks good. You got nice graphic in the back.

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Everything is consistent. Orange.

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It looks good because you're representing yourself in your business and you understand it

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needs to look good, right?

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You got a microphone. You're doing what you're supposed to do.

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So if you're going to have a podcast for your business, it has to look good.

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I always recommend outsourcing. Or if you're savvy yourself, that's great.

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But if you're not, then outsource it and get a professional to produce your content.

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If you're representing your business, the third arm of that is the amplification, and

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that's where a lot of people go off the rails.

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Once somebody's been on your podcast, that's a great time.

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You've created a runway. Now you got to follow up with them.

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Hey, Tom, thanks for being on my show.

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Here's three graphics. Here's a little video clip you can link.

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I'll be tagging you on LinkedIn on the next few days.

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Keep an eye out for the list by the know.

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I'd love to get virtual coffee with you.

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Here's my meeting link. Let's do that kind of thing.

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Really creating the and the amplification isn't always social media.

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It's the amplification of that relationship. That's what's going to really move the needle.

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Being able to post it on social media and getting the SEO value is just like helping out

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your marketing team.

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Or yourself, depending on the size of your business.

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But the amplification is really with the relationship, not getting 100 views on Apple.

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It would be nice to have Bryce give you kind of like the eagle.

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Sometimes you feel like, oh, I have this person on as my guest, and now a lot of people

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watching it.

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But when you're talking those points, I'm thinking about what can be done.

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Because a lot of people think about Drip campaign, right?

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They talk about social media posts. They talk about the sales funnel, right?

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So you're actually using the podcast to open up your funnel to feed people into your way.

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Maybe you have that prospect on that you think will be great, but after you guys have the

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conversation, you know that they might not be a good fit.

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That could be it. Or what you're saying, Molly, is afterwards you can actually reach out, hey, you talk

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about that during the show, and I'd love to find out more about that and be genuine.

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Especially with LinkedIn, you could follow them.

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Now you can have a really purpose for connecting with them on LinkedIn or their favorite

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platform.

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Now you're following them and see what they're doing.

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Love to learn more about what you said on this.

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I noticed that you're passionate about that. Then you kind of build that relationship, and they see you not as a vendor now, they see

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you as an advisor or even someone that they could mastermind with.

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That could be another way to look at this.

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Exactly. Because I think it's like I've read a lot of business books in the last few years.

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I decided to become a student in business, and I just went all in.

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And the biggest lesson or the biggest takeaway that I think that I took from all of them,

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and there's a lot about leadership and personal development, but when it comes to business

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is take the straightest path to the money.

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And I think that, why not try to interview the people you want to do business with?

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And then maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but you still get all that content anyway.

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Instead of trying to create the content, reach the masses, create a funnel.

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Funnel them down to a smaller why don't you just go straight to the people you want to do

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business with and interview them?

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To me, that seems like the straightest path to the money, because I think this idea of a

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funnel is a little misleading, and it's like funnel hacking and all that.

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Yeah, sure, absolutely. That can work.

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But it dehumanizes all of us.

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I'm not a funnel particle, dude.

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I'm a funnel lesson. You know what I mean?

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Like, don't just shimmy me into a plastic barrel and squeeze me into something else.

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That's not what I am. And the Nurturing camp, it's a little impersonal.

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There is nothing more personal than sitting down and saying, swire Ho was born here, and

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lived here and did this and his second grade teacher did this.

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But what he's most known for is the work he's done for the last ten.

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If you came on my show and I did an introduction like that, you would never forget me and

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you would want to do business with me or you would want to refer people to do you know

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what I mean?

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It's the gift of reciprocity. I think you're better off spending your time interviewing the people you want to do

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business with or adjacent to those people and start to make yourself known in that circle

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and go straight to the people you want to do business with and then get the benefits of

21:46

the podcast at the same time.

22:02

Another way that I found doing the small business show useful is I talk to my client.

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I know that they concern about certain topic, right?

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Some people care about their finances, some people care about employees retention, some

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people care about traditional engagement.

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Then I know because I've talked to them.

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So now when I have guests on, you are also one of them, Molly.

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They care about content creation. So what I would do is when I edit this episode I'll actually cut out snippets or I will

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think about who in my contact list in my CRM cares about this type of topic and I'll

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actually email them.

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So I would just interview an expert in this topic and I know that you mentioned you care

22:39

about this thing and I'll actually send them the episode.

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People appreciate that. So they might not want to be my guest, but I know that they care about those content and

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I'm feeding them what they're looking for and that's.

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So personal and that's so great. Hey, I saw this made me think of you.

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I think you would find value in this. That's fantastic.

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And that's a great way to build those relationships.

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And it's personal, it's not oh hey, here's an email sequence.

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No, I thought about you specifically and don't get me wrong, I think email sequences can

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be great and very I love a good automation, I love zapier and I love all that stuff.

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But not everything can be automated, right?

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We need to get back to relationships, especially in business.

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I think right now virtual relationship is explode for the past two years.

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Because when I send them the video all the branding is all around.

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I'm wearing the logo shirt, my stuff subtly they will see it and the more that they see me

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pop up it keeps them top of mind.

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So with that, that would be a lot of the content strategy that I could do comfortably.

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Because if you ask me to do a five minute talking that video, I'm stuck.

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I'm stuck for the next 8 hours. But I can do this and I get to ask the question too.

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So that's the good part. And I know that what they care most about and I'll actually have the expert on and I'll

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ask the question on behalf of them so they do see the relationship and why I'm having

24:06

those guests on the podcast.

24:20

Yeah, absolutely. That's brilliant.

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Can you talk about more? I love getting into more of the business development tools before that.

24:29

Can you touch on cost a little bit?

24:32

I think people want to do it right if they want to budget for it.

24:36

So what is the normal range people should do if they think that having a podcast for

24:36

business development too could be another stream of revenue?

24:46

Because throwing out to that, if you're buying Google ads, when you stop paying for those

24:46

ads, you don't get anything.

24:54

But if you do a podcast, if you spend some money into podcasting, it's your own content to

24:54

keep and you could spin it any way that you like, really.

25:04

And you can repurpose that content a whole bunch of times.

25:07

Like you can post those things multiple times or when something comes back up in the news

25:07

cycle again that's relevant or hot topic, you can repost that content again.

25:15

So it's a very valid point. Paid advertising is always good, but it's like you said, as soon as it stops, it really

25:17

stops.

25:23

So it's kind of difficult.

25:26

I'm sorry, what was the beginning of the question?

25:28

Well, how do we use podcasts as a business development tools and what would be the range

25:28

that you would advise people to consider marketing budget?

25:37

Well, I would say okay, so there's a couple of different aspects of this.

25:41

You can hire somebody off of fiverr upwork, which I really don't recommend, it's really

25:41

like predatory and disrespectful to the creative community, but you can do that.

25:50

You can hire podcast managers that can manage your whole thing for a few hundred dollars a

25:50

month.

25:55

It won't be great. You can hire somebody that's going to charge you $600 to $1,000 an episode.

26:01

It'll be good. And then you've got people that charge $1500 to $2,500 an episode and it'll probably be

26:02

the same as the good people, but you're just going to pay a lot more for it.

26:11

So that's kind of the higher end of things.

26:14

The idea is come up with a number that you can comfortably budget for and then leverage

26:14

that time and all of that content to the best of your possible ability.

26:23

So if you can only afford to do one podcast episode a month at, let's say, 650 an episode,

26:23

just make sure you make like, five different graphics out of it and get five different

26:23

social clip videos for Reels and Shorts and LinkedIn.

26:36

And get as much supporting assets as you can for each episode so that you could actually

26:36

stretch it out and really get your bang for your buck on that one.

26:46

So if you are trying to do it in house, which a lot of people do, you're going to spend

26:46

probably.

26:52

Three times that because it's going to take you longer.

26:55

It's going to take you five times longer to edit something if you're not an audio

26:55

engineer.

27:00

It's going to take you ten times longer to edit the video if you're not a video editor.

27:04

Like, let people do what they're good at, including yourself.

27:08

Right. So it's really, I think, identify a budget that you're comfortable with, but then also

27:08

think about the ROI.

27:14

You know what I mean? What is one client?

27:16

If you get out of those twelve people, one client signs, how much money does that mean to

27:16

you?

27:22

What percentage of that are you willing to spend to get that lead?

27:25

Because every lead has a cost one way or another.

27:29

Yeah, I like that analogy. And especially, let's say, for example, each episode costs $1,000, right?

27:35

We're talking about the high enough, so that's $12,000 a year.

27:39

So depending on the business that you're in, you probably spend that much on ads and other

27:39

creation already.

27:46

And if you want to ask yourself maybe only one out of twelve, you get, what is the cost

27:46

for the lifetime for that ideal client?

27:56

Maybe they order millions.

27:59

Maybe they offer tens of millions or even $100,000.

28:03

So that would be 10% of your ROI if you're into KPI, things like that.

28:07

And then I think as a good entrepreneur and a salesperson, right.

28:12

So if you have company A to be on, it turns out that they have no need for your business.

28:16

They're locked in for the next ten years, for example.

28:19

But now, you know, company B in the same industry can be your prospect, then now you can

28:19

use, I have company A CEO on.

28:26

Like, I love the conversation, but I would also love to get your take on it.

28:30

Now you're getting the ball rolling.

28:32

Maybe it takes you six months to get the first client to be on, because they keep saying

28:32

no.

28:38

But once you can show them that you have a certain guest to be on, then it gets easier.

28:44

Do you see that way when you work with clients?

28:47

Absolutely. The people that really understand it and they get it, they make that list, they start

28:49

reaching out.

28:55

Usually with clients, when I actually sit and explain this to them, you can see the lights

28:55

are going on, the wheels are turning.

29:03

They're already making their list. They already got, like, six people for the list.

29:06

So it's like one of my favorite quotes is you can't read the label from inside the jar.

29:11

And a lot of times, people just need a mirror.

29:13

They need somebody to help read the label.

29:16

And so that's what I do. I just kind of guide people in a way.

29:19

And then they're off to the races. They're going to come up with their twelve, and then I help really craft a strategy and

29:21

plan on how to actually make that work.

29:28

But it's true. You leverage them against each other.

29:30

Oh, well, I got so and so on. All right, I'm going to come on.

29:34

And I mean, that's a warm lead, you know what I mean?

29:37

That's a great lead. Especially if you follow up and you say, it was great chatting with you.

29:40

I'd love to be your ex provider, or if there's any events I can attend or whatever,

29:40

because it's all relationships, and that's how it is in business.

29:52

It's like when you have a good and they're really happy with you and they start making

29:52

introductions for you, it's like, start from that place.

30:00

Start from a place where they like you because you've been a human and you provided value

30:00

in their life, and then they're going to want to do that for you.

30:07

Yeah, especially now you touched on the networking part.

30:10

I think that's important. Supposedly, you have the CEO on, right, for your ideal client.

30:14

Maybe the CEO don't want to work with you.

30:17

But now you know that I've been invited to other networking events for internal purpose

30:17

that they invite me to be on because I have their top guy to be on.

30:26

Now you can network with other departments, other individual within the same company, so

30:26

you can look at that too.

30:32

Like, you can really go as deep as you want to.

30:34

I think having the right ideal client to be on your guest, it's just a door opener.

30:40

So you can actually now open the door because you already have that relationship and you

30:40

have proof for it.

30:45

And especially like you talked about, you could get a client that's worth millions of

30:45

dollars.

30:49

Like, I have a client, talked about geospatial satellite mapping, right?

30:55

I listened to it. I'm like, what are they?

30:57

This is not my thing, right? GitHub all this cool stuff.

31:00

It's super cool, right? But I don't know what they're talking about.

31:02

But they got really big contracts out of that know, it's a small community of people, a

31:02

small group of interest.

31:10

And don't you want to hire the people that are so passionate about the thing that they

31:10

talk about it in their spare time?

31:16

And then they also interviewed people that they want to do business with and they got a $5

31:16

million contract out of it.

31:22

So it's not about how many downloads you get.

31:26

It's like if you think about if you were trying to get a $5 million contract just on the

31:26

strength of your podcast alone, not having the person on the podcast, just hoping they

31:26

would hear it, the amount of money you would have to spend on paid advertising to put that

31:26

podcast in so many places that somebody who's making $5 million contract decisions would

31:26

be able to even find it and hear it.

31:48

You would have to spend so much money on advertising to do that.

31:51

Or you could just interview them. That's a really good point.

31:55

And now you're not selling to them.

31:59

I'm sure that if they talk about contract in that magnitude.

32:03

A lot of people are surrounding them, wanting the business.

32:05

But now you're getting over them because you let them talk about what they're passionate

32:05

about.

32:11

You let them talk about some of their pain point, what are their challenges are.

32:14

So now you become an ally, right.

32:17

You let them have their platform to talk about what they like to talk about.

32:21

So I think, yeah, that's really a. Smart way to do it and show it prepared.

32:25

Like, do one hell of an introduction.

32:28

Don't just read their bio to where they're wondering, how did you get this much

32:28

information about me?

32:35

Read every book they've written. Go to their LinkedIn page.

32:39

Read six months of their posts, read their blogs, read their articles.

32:44

Like, really? Hey, in 2006 you said this, but then in 2016 you said this.

32:49

So now it's eight years later.

32:51

What do you think they'll be like? You put time and effort into being prepared.

32:57

You are bringing value, and you're respecting my time.

33:01

That's a great way to start a business relationship.

33:04

Yeah, that's really good information. And, Molly, I think we're getting to the point that listeners might have individual

33:06

questions.

33:11

If they do, what is the best way to reach out to you?

33:14

Well, our website is great, Heartcastmedia.com.

33:18

You can also find me on all of social media platforms.

33:21

But on Heartcast Media, we have contact forms and a content assessment.

33:25

If you're curious how your content marketing stacks, you can take our little assessment

33:25

and get a personalized score and figure out where you're at.

33:33

But, yeah, LinkedIn, but the website is probably the best place.

33:36

Okay. Thank you so much for coming on today, Molly.

33:39

I learned a lot. You got me spinning.

33:41

I need to start taking notes. All right, well, hey, thank you.

33:44

I've been looking forward to this interview for a while. I really appreciate your time and for having me on.

33:49

Thank you very much. Thanks, Molly.

33:52

Thank you for listening to the show. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast and share with your friends

33:54

or colleagues who might benefit from the conversation.

34:02

Any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.

34:06

I'd love to connect with you.

34:08

00 p.m.

34:13

Pacific Standard Time. I'll see you next time.