The 5 reasons you should enter a business award this year.

Hi and welcome to this episode of the Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Jim here. And I wanted to give you five reasons that you may not have thought about entering some awards. That's right, five things I've been thinking about because I'm just entering the British Podcast Awards here in the uk and on the back of entering the awards for the Unnoticed book, I've been thinking about the benefits and the power of entering awards. I wanted to share with you five points that you may or may not have thought about that you might want to put on your list as a reason to start thinking about what could you and your company enter? So let's just start to review what those five things are that would help you and your team to get and be proud and loud about your business. So, first of all, why should you think about entering awards? I think the first one is that question, why should I win? That's the question that the organizers ask. It's quite a difficult front question that you get when you enter the application form. So on the British Podcast Awards, there's a big open space and it says you've got 250 words to explain about your entry. Why should you win? Well, I talk about this show and I've got some statistics and then I've also got some, if you like emotional stuff. So why should I win? If I start with At a Glass at a Glance, the show is number four in the UK now for the entrepreneurship category in podcasts, which I'm pretty proud after a year and a half. But that's some degree of, if you like, relative recognition for the show. I've got into the top 5% worldwide with the show and I have a listener score of 32 according to Listen notes, which is above average, means that people are listening to the entirety of the show. It tells that the stats I've got now some 476 episodes, including a whole number of one and a half minute trailers. So they're not all 20 minute shows, but 25,300 downloads over the last 18 months since the start of this 103 countries, 1857 cities of which 20% are in Asia, 37 in Europe and an equal 30%, 37% in North America, with the balance 6% in Latin America, MENA and Oceania. So from a stats point point of view, I'm, you know, happy that I've made some progress. But of course this is not just about, you know, my show, this is about competition with other people's shows. So whilst I might be happy with those numbers, it may pale into insignificance compared to the other entrants if I'm sure that it will do. So I'm putting in there, why should I win? And it's because what I'm really praying that I'm doing is delivering value to you. I am every day and every week putting content together which would answer how a business owner can overcome being overlooked. How can you as a business owner learn tools and thoughts on how to get noticed without spending a lot of money on an agency? So I have one central question to answer in two shows every week. And so I'm hoping that consistency and the drilling down into that every week with guests and with my own solo shows is adding value. So why should I win a consistent application against a central question over time and introducing, I hope, some really interesting and really valuable content for you? I've introduced literally hundreds of entrepreneurs in tech and other industries that can share and have shared everything from podcasting to books to partnership marketing to email marketing and so on. So adding value with every show. That's why I think I should win. But let's face it, it takes more than that. So second thing in terms of what we think about when we enter awards and what I've found is it's made me look at the assets that I've created. So the consistency is one part. But am I consistent not only over time, but in all the things I've done? So I've been looking at, for example, the logo, is that the same everywhere? The colors and the typefaces, Is it applied to the podcast cover? Is it on the banner? Is it on my website? In fact, embarrassingly, I do not have a podcast website yet. It's still hosted underneath my East West PR website as a submenu. And I also use the buzzsprout hosted website. So I haven't actually created a website for the show, which I need to think about doing if I need to do that now in order to enter the awards properly. Also, what channels have I been using? I put the show out obviously through the broadcast podcast platforms of Spotify, Apple, Google, Podcasts, Overcast and so on. These all go actually directly from the buzzsprout, so I don't have to do any extra work. I'm also then reposting these through my VA using the Zoho platform, sending them to Twitter, to my LinkedIn, to my Facebook individual and Facebook company account, my Instagram occasionally, and also with Google, my business. So I am using as many channels as I can. So twice a week content is coming out but what I'm not doing is lots of micro content. I had a conversation with one of my guests the other week and she said she does a lot of just one picture, one, one quote, as it were, on Instagram and finds that good listening. Now to the power of TikTok, for example, and also of YouTube with podcasting. Those are two channels I haven't been using. Although I do load to YouTube, I don't aggressively promote it because I haven't got the bandwidth and my production values are really in audio, not in video. So I know that I've got some limitations. So looking at my own assets and thinking, am I really leveraging them consistently and with really also engaging appeal? And I've just started using Riverside fm, which enables me to capture video to high quality. So now we can use that and it's got some nice backgrounds, whereas Zoom, the video quality was not very good. And so I avoided creating really video. And I've also created in my home studio here, AKA the garden shed, which I've renovated. I put in some white blinds and I put in some lights. And so I'm not only wired for sand, I've made it look more like a production studio, although it is still just a 2 meter by 3 meter garden shed in the countryside, which is why sometimes you might hear the rain coming down, drumming down on the roof. So second aspect of entering an awards is that you will do a review of your assets because you need to put those assets into the contest. So you have to take an honest look at what you've created and that in itself is really useful. Third, I can learn from others who have won in order to improve my own show. So what I've done is I've gone on to the website for the British Podcast Awards and what we've got is a number of shows that I can share with you, I've looked at because they give me a good idea of how my own show could be better. The Britishpodcastawards.com sponsored by Audible this year and the archive from 2021 shows. And I'll just take three as an example. And I do this because in your own business, if you enter awards and look at how other companies have won awards in your own industry, whether it's in restaurants or in software or logistics, it gives you an idea into best practice in China. In 2008, I started the British Business Awards and there were eight different categories and I had the British Ambassador become a patron and I had the British Chamber of Commerce be the official organizer and we had a number of other partners, including the British Council. And what was very interesting was each award would illustrate best practice across, for example environmental across, humanitarian across professional services and so on. And you can learn as an entrepreneur what is the best practice in all these different categories and apply them to your own business. So let's look at this podcast. So the Misadventures of Youth Podcast and the judges said it gave a fresh insight into real lives as lived by young people and offered opportunities for those same young people to learn new skills. I like to think that what I'm trying to do with this show, the Unnoticed Entrepreneur, is to give insight into into the lives and the activities of other entrepreneurs and offer you opportunities to learn best practice from your peer group people that you may or may not get a chance to meet or ask those questions. Now, best branded podcast supported by ACAST was the Gardening with the Royal Horticultural Society last year and the judges said it was an assortment of beautifully told, diverse, relatable and heartfelt stories alongside great tips. This is a forward thinking podcast that engages listeners with new and traditional gardening content. A well deserved winner. So although it's gardening, it's giving me some really good clues about beautifully told stories, relatable, heartfelt. So in other words, authentic alongside great tips. And of course that's what I try and do with this show, is to share practical tools and examples of what could make you get noticed without spending a lot of money. The best business con podcast from last year was the diftk, which I think you can work out what the acronym stands for. It says it's a funny, intelligent, interactive podcast series that totally understands its target audience and looks after them like family. This was particularly valuable in a lockdown year. So that makes me think a few things. One is some humor and I don't do that enough. Intelligent. I'd like to think that the guests and the conversations we have here for you are thought provoking, intelligent, interactive. That's why I have guests, whereas at the beginning I did all solo and then I decided it's more interesting for me, but also for you as a listener, that I have guests to share different perspectives. So I have more guests, of course, coming on shortly into the show and looks after them like a family. And I'm not doing enough if in fact I'm doing anything about community. So I'm absolutely lacking in building a community around the Unnoticed Entrepreneur. I should be doing that more and I frankly have been struggling with how and where I should do that. If you've got any ideas, please do let me know. I don't want to use Facebook because I don't particularly like the identity theft that goes on there. So maybe use something else as another platform, like Mighty Networks, for example. But I haven't created a community, but maybe that's something that isn't even required. Any ideas you've got there would be great. So Matt Hill, the co founder of the British Podcast Awards, says Grow will bring together podcasters who want to grow their podcast audiences, revenue and impact. And we brought together the best brains in the business to share their advice. And best of all, it's free to podcasters into the best new podcast category. So what the organizer has said, there is a few things that I think should be on your list. So I said the third is you can learn from others who have won, but also we can learn from others who take part and who are, for example, the judges in the awards. And one of the best things about being, for example, in an award or especially if you win an award, is the conversations that get started with, for example, the judges, who almost by definition are going to be authorities in the industry. So taking part gets you an audience with those people that otherwise wouldn't take the time necessarily to meet you. So taking time to learn from others. Now, publicity is the fourth reason. Now, the thing about publicity is that entering an awards is no longer just about the winning, it's about the taking part. So if you're going to enter an awards, you can announce that you've entered and you can announce the categories. And what I've done is issued on Twitter, for example, that I've entered the Business Book Awards, and then the organizers reposted my tweet and reposted my book, and then other authors then connected with me and we've been sharing each other's books. I'm building a network as I go along. I'm going to do the same with the podcast so I can discover more people like me, but also I can be discovered by people. So if you enter an award, you get the opportunity to start to put, for example, your logo on your website. When I organized the British Business Awards, people that entered the awards could put in that they had entered onto their website. But also if they sponsored the awards, and certainly if they won the awards, they had little icons and badges that could go on their merchandise, their websites and so on. Everyone loves a winner and a friend of mine in Asia, Tim Charlton reigns business awards and people pay to be in the awards to meet other people, but also for the kudos and the halo effect of winning. Now, the final part is a sense of purpose, coming all the way back to that first, which is, why should I win? The corollary to that is why do I do this? Why do I, in this case, produce a podcast? But why do you do what you do? It's a really good question that sometimes we can lose track of a little bit in the everyday. Keeping the business going, cash flow, product people, supply chain, so on. So the sense of purpose. Question number five, the fifth reason. It gets me to think again about why I'm creating this podcast. Why AM I at 10 o' clock on a Thursday night, sitting in a garden shed in the dark when my family is saying, hey, just stay and watch tv? I could be doing something else. You could be doing something else. You could have a more comfortable job, you could spend more time with family and friends, but you don't, because you've got a sense of purpose. Entering an award reconnects you with that sense of purpose and it connects you with other people who've got a sense of purpose as well. And that's really invigorating. So I said there are five reasons that you may not have thought about why you should enter awards. Number one, it forces one to think about why I should win. What am I really doing and how am I competing? Am I doing the best I can? Secondly, it forces a person, me, to review the assets. Am I being consistent in my frequency and my quality in my channels. Thirdly, what can I learn from others who have won the competition, in this case the podcast show. But what have others done to help me to improve my own performance? A bit like going into a race, if you run along faster runners, you learn how they run, techniques and so on. Number four, the publicity that starts from the moment you enter and only ends after the winners have been announced. And whether you've won or not, you've got an opportunity for that whole duration to have a narrative with your customers, your partners and with your staff and your suppliers to let people know who you are and what you're doing and why you do it. And the fifth is that sense of purpose. Reconnect to one's sense of purpose. Because when you're entering, you having to stand up and be can and say, hey, I do this for this reason. I should win because I do it better than anybody else. I do it to the best of my abilities. But this is my sense of purpose and this is what reconnects me to my audience, to my activities, and why most of us, as entrepreneurs do what we do, although we could do other things, maybe for more money and with more time. Five good reasons. And if you want to find out where there are awards to enter, you can go to Boost Awards. A chap called Chris Robinson who's been on the show, has a global website of awards boost-awards.co.uk I'll put his link in the show notes, but that's a great place to start. Chris has another company that helps you to enter awards. If you want help, take some time and think about awards that you could enter and set yourself a goal. At least one. We enter races and competitions personally, not just for the race, but for the preparation and for the focus that it gives us and the sense of accomplishment. It's remarkable. As entrepreneurs, we don't enter more awards. And hopefully after listening to this podcast episode, you might look for an award for you to have a challenge. And you know what? You and me, we've got just as good a chance as the next person. So I look forward to seeing you on the top podium. Go enter. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Unnoticed Entrepreneur.