You know, Jordan, I think when we write the history of podcasting, his name has to be up there, does an amazing job with, you know, with interviews and, and goes to a level of vulnerability that I aspire to get to and has just a variety of different experts. He’s had, you know, everyone from William H. Macy recently to, you know, Kobe Bryant back in the day before he sadly passed away and just does a great job with that. So I have to mention Jordan.
Chad Franzen: 10:44
Okay. Very nice An issue affecting the B2B podcasting industry.
John Corcoran: 10:52
Yeah. So this is the one that comes up a lot is swear words and also related to those explicit ratings on your podcast. And people ask me this like should I ask people all the time, should I, you know, label my podcast explicit or not? And what I say to that is, you know, first of all, if you’re creating a podcast that’s not aimed for kids, then it’s not that big a deal to label it as explicit. And the reason why you’d want to do it is because even if you don’t label it as explicit, first of all, it’s not that recognizable for most platforms, like if you go on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, it’s a tiny, tiny little E that you can’t even notice.
However, if you don’t label your podcast episodes as explicit, inevitably will. Inevitably, what will happen is that there will be an episode where either you forget and you know the guest says a swear word, or someone doesn’t even say a swear word, but the algorithm thinks that there’s a swear word. And so, you know, Apple Podcasts or Spotify or something will label it as an explicit episode. And that will stand out more than other episodes that are not labeled as explicit. And so sometimes that drives people crazy talking about the podcaster.
Right. Like they’re like, oh, why is this standing out looking explicit? You know, no one’s going to want to listen to that episode, which may or may not be true, but it just bothers people more, and it becomes more of a distraction. So to prevent it from being a distraction, what I say to people is just label it as explicit. It’s intended for adults anyways.
And when people look at podcasts, your podcast episodes in a, you know, on their phone or on the computer and Spotify and Amazon Music or wherever, they’re just their eye is probably going to glaze over it because there’s a tiny little E on the right side that’s not even what they’re looking at. They’re looking at the content of the episode or who the guest is or something like that. So it’s not that big a deal. So that’s what I say to people all the time.
Chad Franzen: 12:47
So if you’re a host, would you, would you say, just be natural, be yourself. And if you swear, you swear, would you say avoid swearing for B2B purposes? Yeah. You know, I listen to some sports podcasts, and they swear all the time. It doesn’t even affect me.
But from a B2B standpoint, is it different?
John Corcoran: 13:06
From a B2B standpoint? I think it is. You want your podcast to be a reflection of your brand, and if you want your brand to be clean and not have profanity in it, then that’s fine. You know, I think the highest compliment you can get from someone is when someone meets you and they’ve listened to your podcast and they say, you seem just like you are on your podcast. And that’s the benefit of doing a podcast, is because it gives you this tool that allows you to capture a piece of you and broadcast it, essentially.
And people can listen to it on their own time, and thousands of people could listen to it. So they’re getting to know you. So just make sure that’s an accurate reflection of who you are and who you want your brand to be. And there are plenty of B2B brands that you know are edgy and they, you know, have profanity throughout a conversation. Or maybe they would swear naturally if they were talking to a prospective client, or maybe it’s mature subject matter or whatever.
So just have it be an accurate reflection of who you are. If you would naturally swear in a conversation with a client, then you probably have no issue with putting it into your podcast episodes. So that’s just what I would say about that.
Chad Franzen: 14:19
Okay. Sounds good. All right. Last, last thing, a case study of a business who’s been using podcasts to establish their thought leadership and authority. I think you had somebody that you had in mind.
John Corcoran: 14:31
I have to give a shout out to our client, Sameer. Sameer came to us a while back and a couple of years ago now, and wanted to start a podcast. He has a digital agency in the ecommerce space serving ecommerce clients. And you know, the typical challenge is not atypical to what most businesses are dealing with, is they want an authentic way to get into conversation with clients that are ideal clients for them, their ICP. And so, you know, we helped guide him on starting a podcast.
And what’s really notable and memorable about him is that he kept it very simple to begin with. He didn’t get hung up on, oh, the artwork has to be perfect. The intro music has to be flawless. I’m. Because of that, I’m going to have my sister in law who’s flaky, who is going to take two months to produce an original piece of music or whatever.
He didn’t get caught, caught up on those sorts of things. In fact, when he started, he used the same seven questions for each of the episodes, but he used the podcast as a tool to get into conversation with prospective clients and to demonstrate his knowledge. Demonstrate his expertise. Share some wisdom with them and build trust and authority. And as a result of that, he told me recently that he could attribute 2 to $3 million in revenue to his business directly from the podcast.
And that’s what happens when you are really effective about this, when you when you really are disciplined about it, you don’t overthink it. And you use podcasts in, in a B2B context, in a very effective B2B context. So I think that would be one that I would recommend to people.
Chad Franzen: 16:15
That is an amazing amount of revenue. Hey John, it’s been great to talk to you. As always. Thanks so much for having me today.
John Corcoran: 16:22
Chad. Thank you so much. Thanks, everyone.
Outro: 16:24
So long, everybody. Thanks for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast. We’ll see you again next time, and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.