This content was created by Eric Siu. This content was uploaded by Eric Siu. This is a YouTube podcast episode titled "Why Do We Continue to Do This Podcast?" (created 2021-08-13). The excerpt is an English conversation between hosts Eric Siu and Neil Patel reflecting on why they keep producing the podcast after roughly five years. They discuss topics such as ROI, audience and community-building, brand growth, live events, networking benefits for deals, and staying sharp as marketers. The hosts close by asking listeners to rate/review, subscribe, and visit marketingschool.io/live.
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Today we are going to talk about why we continue to do this podcast. So as of this recording, I think, Neil, we're coming up on 5 years because I started recording this when I was 30 years old. Now I'm 35. So yeah.
We have been doing it for a long time. And I have to say, neither of you or I really look or even track the ROI that we generate from the podcast. And even though we may be generating a positive ROI, I think right now—
I'm pretty sure it's net positive. Yeah.
Yes, I would say for a very long time we were net negative and we didn't really care. And even that it's net positive, it's not like we try to make it net positive. Don't get us wrong, Eric and I of course always do need money. Who doesn't? But the first thing is we do this because we enjoy it. If you enjoy something like marketing or whatever the topic may be, and you have— you're creating content around it, whether it's audio, video, or text-based content, if you're just passionate, you love something, You're more likely to keep going forward more and more. And I don't know about you, but I've learned a lot by doing the podcast, right? I've learned so much from you over the years, as well as our audience and people leaving comments and interacting with us. That's helped make me a better entrepreneur and better marketer as well over the years.
Yeah. I think that's probably the biggest thing for me. I'm just super grateful that Neil and I have spent all this time over the years. It forced— it's a forcing function, basically. It forces us to hang out with each other. And then some, by default, we have side conversations too. So it keeps me sharp. It keeps Neil sharp because we do have to bring it right. We do have to look at what the trends are. If we're gonna— if Neil's gonna be talking about marketing on his blog, I'm gonna be talking about marketing all the time. We have to know what we're talking about. Neil and I, we're not gonna say we're the best marketers. In fact, I would say over the years, we've probably gotten better as business people than marketers, but we still keep our eyes and ears very sharp. And we talk to people too, and we try to bring that content over to you in addition to whatever we're reading or listening to. I think the thing I love too is pre-COVID when we put that live event together, that was really special. Neil and I got to see for the first time, oh, this is what a community really looks like. And even when we did the event before, I think we had 125 people or so. We kept it small, but people flew in from freaking Minnesota. People flew in from Hawaii just to come to our event for one day. And we didn't realize that was the power of things and getting our friends together for that. So that's really cool when we become the host. We saw that firsthand. And related to community would be the audience too. I think we talk a lot about audience on this podcast and over the years, the audience has been great. I'll tell you right now, I don't know if this is happening for you, Neal, but when I'm looking at other companies to do a deal with, they happen to know you and I from this podcast. And it actually happens to speed deals up, or we can even get better terms that way, or we can figure out a creative way to do something, even if it's not like an all-in deal. So Neal, I'm keen to get your thoughts.
Yeah, I would agree with you. And what Eric's getting at is creating content, doing a podcast. Podcasting isn't that competitive yet. I think that'll change within the next 3 or so years. But having a podcast really does also help build your brand, especially if you have a niche podcast like we do. Ours is more about digital marketing. It's not something broad like motivation. And it's great. And the reason being is it helps build a brand within the community. So whether we're trying to speak at an event or do a business deal or close a client, having that brand or trying to grow it as much as possible through the podcast does help us out.
Cool. So that is it for today. If you want to help us continue to grow this podcast, and we really need this, please rate and review and subscribe. It would help a lot. And don't forget to go to marketingschool.io/live. That's L-I-V-E to learn about our virtual and our live event. And we'll catch you tomorrow.
