In this monologue, the speaker introduces a "profit cake" framework to illustrate how podcast guest appearances can generate business value beyond the direct audience. The cake has three layers: the base layer of listeners, a wide but shallow group that provides broad exposure but limited direct engagement; the middle layer of partners, a narrower but deeper segment that includes hosts and other potential collaborators who can become referral sources, joint webinar partners, or co‑hosts on other platforms; and the top layer of prospects, a very narrow but deep group representing ideal clients who may not even be listening live but can be reached through strategic outreach. The speaker outlines practical tactics such as building relationships with hosts, using the guest list of a show to warm‑introduce oneself to other guests, and converting these connections into partnerships or high‑value prospects. Real‑world examples reference Amanda’s show, Firecreek, and the speaker’s own experience of leveraging guest appearances to expand their network and sales pipeline. The overall message is that podcast guesting should be viewed as a leverage tool for business development, not merely a channel for audience reach.
Chapters
There's lots of ways to generate value for your business by being a podcast guest that have nothing to do with the people listening to the podcast. And so I want to unpack that a little bit because that'll hopefully bring some context into like why the size matters, but not like that much. And so I, it's kind of a silly analogy, but I talk about like a profit cake. And so it's a, it's a simple visual tool. So just think of a 3-layered, 3-tiered cake. The base layer is like the listeners. So if you're going to be on a podcast, of course you want to speak to the listeners. You want to call the listeners to action. It's the base of the cake. It's the biggest, broadest, widest piece of the cake. But in our example, at least, it's also the least deep, like it's the shallowest piece. So you think of like a thin layer that's really wide. There's a lot of listeners. Most are never going to actually ever be visible to you. They're never going to come out of the ether, raise their hand and let you know they exist. They're just going to be anonymous listeners. Some of them will transact with you, hopefully, right? But like, they're kind of shallow. Like, there's nothing wrong with them, but they're just, most of them are never going to become visible. The middle layer of the cake, picture it gets taller, right? It's a more impactful layer and it's narrower. There's less of these. This is what I would call like the partner layer. So one of the ways that we've had tons of success with podcasting from Firecreek to this business to several hundred clients is finding collaboration partners through podcast guesting. And so by default, one will be the host. So building a relationship with a host is probably going to be really beneficial to your business because they're probably a center of influence in your industry. They have a lot of other connections. They may be a referral partner. They may be someone who wants to do a joint webinar with you. They may have a stage you can get on in other ways. So just think of this middle tier as like all the other people listening, including the host who's hosting you, who would be great partners but not necessarily clients, right? And then the top of the cake in the businesses that we run, Amanda, I call it the prospect layer. So this is Very narrow, but very deep. This is like if you could choose your own ideal clients and put them in your own sales pipeline, they live in this top tier. And so they may not even be listening to the podcast when it's live, but by leveraging the podcast, we can access them. And there's different strategies for this, but one really quick one, just kind of make this real for people, is like the guest list. So you're on a show. So I'm on Amanda's show right now. This gets published. It kind of gives me an opportunity to reach out to all the other guests that have been on this show and say, hey Dan, hey Tony, hey Amanda Goetz, like whatever. Like I know you were on Amanda's show, that's awesome. Hey, I was on Amanda's show too. And now I have a warm reason to talk to them. And some of them may be potential prospects, clients, some would be partners and some have podcasts and other platforms I might wanna be featured on, right? So there's lots more to this, but just kind of think about there's listeners, there's partners or collaboration people in the middle, and then at the top there's this prospect tier that don't actually need to be listening to the podcast for you to get benefit from it. So set that aside. There's lots of ways to leverage the podcast that aren't related directly to the audience.
