Greg Wasserman: From Podcast to Profits by Building a Brand and Engaging Your Community

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey everyone, welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. Well, you guys, I love these kinds of podcast interviews because I met my next guest through Joe Fear, who's the host of the Hustle and Flowchart podcast. And he, he connected me to Greg, who is doing incredible in the world of automations, creating conversations all around podcasting collaborations and really speaks in the language that I love, which is helping people work together to create experiences and to be able to grow together and really scale with all the things they're doing. And then he has this automated lens that he speaks from as well through it all, which anytime I've talked to him now, this is just right before this interview, we talked and then we talked on another time and every time I'm just motivated to do all these great things in my business. And so I'm so excited to be able to talk to him even more and then have this on recording so I could listen back and just dive into everything that he is going to help you guys with today. And hearing his story will be actually really cool too. So I'm excited to welcome Greg to the show. Hey Greg.

Hey Stacy. Thanks for having me and all of your, all the listeners here and everyone, thanks for tuning in. I'm excited.

Yeah, yeah, I'm so glad you're here. So we do have a lot of podcasters that listen because I did a podcast challenge and had hundreds of people that had started podcasts from there and now I have a 1 hour and 15 minute podcast workshop that helps people really set up their podcast in an hour and 15 minutes. And so it's always great because I love connecting with people like you for so many reasons. But one of the other reasons is because I help people start their podcasts, but I don't really help them at this point from there. Right. And take them to the next step. And so I love to be able to just hear about you cast magic and everything that got you to this point and then what you're able to help people do.

Yeah. So my podcast journey get started. My background's in media sales. So my podcast journey started when I was working at CBS. I was with the company. We got acquired by CBS and I guess it's 2016, 2017. Everyone was just still trying to figure out podcasting at that point. It was basically, take your radio show and turn it into a podcast. And I loved it. It was, in a sense, radio was always touted as the first influencer. So it was like, great. I get to work with podcasters who are influencers and sell the host red ads and all those things. So that was really my first cut into podcasting. Fast forward years later, out of the media space game. And my last role was running three podcast listening platforms. And so when you're running a listening platform, you really have a unique perspective. It's unique because you're working with the hosting companies. You work with them because if you're hosted with X, Y and Z, you need to make sure your show is on our platform where people can listen. Most people focus on Spotify and Apple and the big five, right? But, like, 30% of the market are the other guys. And it's free distribution. And most podcasters are all like, how do I get more distribution? Hey, you guys, go into your hosting platform. Click the one click that most have set up to get your show distributed everywhere. You always knew who was hosting with anchor. Now it's what? Spotify Podcast or Spotify, whatever it is. Because that was never on any other platform because they kept you inside the Spotify ecosystem. You guys, you got to go do the manual work. You got to set that up. So it was really cool to be at a podcast listing area. And my job was really, how do I help podcasters? How do I help answer your three questions. How to get more distribution, how do I grow my show, get more audience, and how do I monetize? Hate those three questions, especially the last one. But that was it. And that's ultimately how I ended up here. Cast magic. Every Monday, I post three podcasts I think people should listen to on my LinkedIn post because I don't know about you. I spend 10, 11 hours a day in front of a computer. I'll go work out and I'll go sit on the couch and watch something. My eyes are so tired. I'm staring at a screen all day. There's so much value that comes out of podcasts, whether it's entertainment, whether it's educational, whether it's just meditation. So I'M like, great, let me use my platform, since I work in podcasting to help educate people about how they can take a break from these screens and still get something in return from an entertainment standpoint. And with castmagic, now, I get to help people take their content and conversations and turn into all these repurposable pieces, which is really fun. So it's kind of a little bit about the journey and the podcast space.

Yeah. It's so great to see how each step evolves right along the way. I want to get into what you're doing now, but I'm really curious about the sales and the media buying that you were doing. So were you whole calling? Do you have experience with just kind of brutal direct sales or what was that like?

Yeah, I mean, the hunter mentality of calling. But my ethos is life is about time and relationships. So you open those doors. And as I tell every person, and I open a door with, look, I don't know where this conversation is going to go. Yes, theoretically, I'm here to sell you whatever the company that's paying my paycheck. Right. Is wanting me to do. But the joys of my knowledge is you tell me what you're looking for. If I can't fulfill that, then great. I guarantee you I know enough sellers in my industry that I can at least refer them to you. And going, like, I will save you 10 cold emails by referring you to the one person you probably want to talk to. That's literally how I've run my career. So, yeah, it is. You may not be willing to buy what I'm selling today, and it may not be a right fit, but I have no clue where my career is going to take you. And we all know most of us move around unless you are your own business owner. And even then, when you're your own business, you may sell your business and then you go work for someone else. You may do something. No one knows where the future takes you. That's the way I've always looked at things. So cold calling, opening doors, building relationships. That's. That's basically what I've done most of my career.

Yeah. I'm curious because what I've noticed with people that are starting podcasts, one of the things they really have to overcome is that rejection. Right. It's really hard for them to be able to reach out to people. And so I have a sales background, too. And I know that's why it's easy for me too, because, I mean, I just am born that way. Right. Where I like to do that. I'm just kind of curious what your take on rejection is and how you've been able to handle that. If you could say something that could maybe help someone listening that it's okay if someone doesn't answer you back or if someone says no or whatever comes up when you're putting yourself out there in the way that we do.

A lot of it comes down to psychology, of course. Right. So the psychology around put yourself in someone else's shoes. Right. So are they not answering your email because it's personal? That's taking you down the wrong rabbit hole? It could be. How many emails are they getting? Did. Did they read your email? Got sidetracked, ADD came in, they got a phone call and they forgot to go back to it. All those things. If you are a LinkedIn person, you send something, a message over LinkedIn and they never respond. I know they read it. It shows they read it. Why don't they respond to me? Like LinkedIn, we all can admit, is a terrible emailing platform. Messaging platform. It's so hard for you to mark on Read. I was so happy I'm an iPhone person. I'm so happy that iPhone went to mark on Read for text messages because I'm like, great, I could read this and then go back to it when I need to. Otherwise, yeah, I forgot about it. So just start putting yourself in the psychology of what is this person probably going through and how much other stuff is there. I got people, I'm like, we are literally working on a deal. You have not responded to me. We are already customers or whatever the case may be. You just have to remember, oh, dog got sick, I had a baby. You have no clue where these are. So always start putting the frame of reference of you don't know what are the facts. Let's go. What is it? CBT mindset here. From a therapy standpoint, you don't know what are the facts. And that will help you then calm down. Also then know the facts. Like how many emails are these people getting? What are the percentage of them that they're able to respond to in a day? Are you able to respond to every email? If so, how long is it taking you to respond to all the emails? Could you stop your workday at 5:00'? Clock? Maybe that's what that person's doing because they don't want to keep going. There's so many different ways. So if you start putting yourself in that mentality, it becomes a little easier to go, am I getting rejected because it's personal or am I just getting rejected? Because I'm not going to reject it. It just. They don't have time.

Yeah. I'm also curious. Can we go deep for a minute? Is that okay?

I love it. Let's go deep. Bring it on. Stacy, I think your audience wants depth.

Yeah. So part of my story, I'm introverted, shy. My past, right. And so different things brought me out through sales and then podcasting kind of took it another level. And now it's sort of evolving and I'm just kind of curious. From your background, do you have any of that or what do you think helps you? It's almost like you have this purpose right? In life. Connecting deeply with people, from what I can tell, and then creating conversations around that. Is there something. Have you connected the dots to where that's coming from yet?

I mean, that's always been who I've been as a child. So if we go back to the days of the schoolyard, right, You've got all the different groups, all your little cliques. It wasn't like I wanted to be friends with everyone. I was just. You just realize you can. We're all humans. I mean, just because you got the group that's playing Dungeons and Dragons, or my case, we're playing Magic the Gathering. I'd go with my friends who would be in there. Like, I have no clue what I'm doing here, but they're cool people. To each their own. I was an athlete, so of course I got along with the jocks. But it's funny to go, hold on, you're an athlete, you're the jock, quote unquote. But you also like some of the nerdy stuff. Well, here's a cool person who likes the nerdy stuff too. And maybe they're not athletic, but how do I connect the dots? I've always been one to like. I always just connect the dots because at the end of the day, humans need connection and I don't know where my future is going to take me. The person who bullied you 20 years ago could be a stand up guy now. We all evolve, and I guess this with my own age. And as I've grown, I look at how I've changed and how we remove grudges and how mindsets change. If we keep that in mind, you can tell your younger self that now as an older person. Yeah, I kind of look at those things. Go like, don't know where the future's taking me. I can't control the future. So let's just have these connections now and see where they take us.

Yeah, so I'm doing it. I don't remember if I told you I'm doing a TEDx talk in August.

Oh, wow.

About this topic, what you're just saying, which is really cool. One of the pieces of the do the Thing formula, it's my people, and it's when you surround yourself with people that have a common goal and how it helps you feel more connected and you're able to reach your goals faster, Pretty much. And a lot of people, they talk about having their tribe, but they don't realize it doesn't have to just be one tribe. Right. It could be like you said, Dungeons and Dragons, sports people and things like that. And I just kind of wonder, is there anything else you can speak to about that that could help people see just how expansive this world is? And when you're able to identify just what your goals are and what you want, you could actually just find people that are doing that. And if there's any language you could bring around that, I would love to hear it.

One thing I found that's helped me in its recent thing is vulnerability. I know it's the buzzword, but it also is. You put it out there, right? If you speak it, you think it, you can make it happen. We've all heard the secret and whatever juju you want to put, but once you've said it to someone, then you're like, I'm being held accountable. I can do this. So as I was telling before we jumped on here, I had my weekly coaching session and I was telling my coach and I'm like, he asked me a question. I'm like, go ahead and use our Slack community and post your question there. A, you have no clue who's going to see this. B, it will help register for me. So when I do find someone, I'm like, oh, I'm seeing your comment all the time, Stacy, you may tell me something and I'll. I'll do my best to remember, but I've got such a terrible memory. But if it's written down, if it's posted somewhere, people are going to remember it. And that becomes the key thing. So what is it to have your tribe start saying what you want? There's another girl podcaster who really wants to get more speaking engagement. She's like, greg, that is what I am meant to do. I'm like, yeah, but I watched your Instagram post and you aren't talking about that's what you want. So start changing your messaging and letting the million people that follow your Instagram know this is what I want to do, because I guarantee you they will have that as their call to action, and they'll start then following, oh, this is what she wants. I can help you as opposed to what you've been asking for. So I think that really becomes a big thing. What do you want? Ask for it. And once we start asking, once you start advocating for what you want, you'll start finding the success will. Will come to you.

Yeah, I love this. And you're making me think of another thing, which we'll see where this goes. But how we even met. So if we think about how we met, I met Joe 10 years ago through a marketing mastermind that we were in, and then we got reconnected at a recent podcaster meetup in Coronado in California. And then he connected me to you, which is now you have your own community, right, with Cast Magic. And so now if once I join your Slack channel, I'm now connected to this whole new network where if I post something and say, hey, anyone want to blank? Then that all of a sudden all these dots just open up. And who knows what's happening with that? And I think that's something that I don't think a lot of people realize is once you're connected to that group of people, like the Dungeons and Dragons trip or the football group or the podcaster group, it's like all of a sudden, everything spurts open for you and you're able to. I don't even know, it's like expand so much in your life. And I'd just love to hear what you think about that, too.

I mean, I guess. I don't know if it's an age thing here, if people still say this, but we've got the six degrees of separation with Kevin Bacon, right? Has always been the. The joke. But I think now with social media, we are so much more connected than the six degrees. But I post about this, if not weekly, BI weekly, on LinkedIn, where. Here's a good example. I just did. So Tanya Smith is a Cast Magic user. Her and I did a workshop together, the Ecamm family. Shout out. Ecamm here. Saw that, reached out to me, and they're like, hey, we would love to talk to you. And as they joked yesterday in a live. They did. They're like, we had to sell him. We won him over. And I'm like, yeah. I'm like, who are these ladies? And now I've been. Last week, I did their eCamm live event. They're using Cast Magic for their old tools and we've just become friends and so forth, all because of a simple connection that rent to one. So I heard Joe being on your show. I'm like, well, I love Joe. I want to be on Stacy's show. Stacey, I've been trying to reach out to you. We should connect. And Joe was the dividing factor there. You have no clue. This is why also I love the podcast game and the space in the community because once you have this conversation, you have no clue who is going to hear this conversation. But if you move away from downloads and stop thinking about who heard it, just how could we take this content and turn it into a thousand other pieces of content that other people can engage with? We can turn this into a LinkedIn post, into a blog. You can extract, you can turn this into a course, or as you're doing, you're turning into TedX. In some regard, this becomes fooled. You have no clue. So once you put that conversation out there once again, once you ask for what you're looking for, you have no clue who's going to hear it, who's going to read it, who's going to engage with it. And it could be you only have 10 listeners on your, your podcast or you could be only I got a thousand views on my Instagram ad. You don't know who those people are. And those could be incredibly important people that lead to the trickle down fact for you. So just put it out there and see where it goes.

Yeah, and it actually, it does. It leads perfectly into Cast Magic. Right? Because it's, I mean, I'm guilty of this. It's like you do the podcast, it's great, it's amazing. You upload it to the platform and then you're done. Right. And then that person shares it with their people and you share it with your people. But that could be where it ends, right? I mean, at least you're publishing it, so that's good. But with CastMagic, you upload it to CastMagic and let's kind of talk through what that looks like for people that maybe aren't familiar with it.

So we're not a hosting platform. So you're still going to upload your, your recording to whatever your hosting platform is. What Cast Magic is, we're going to take any conversation. So whether we do this as a podcast or recording over Zoom. So I could do my coaching calls, I take voice memos when I go on walk and I use my phone and the CastMagic app. I'll turn any conversation and it will then turn into the content that I want to extrapolate and extract from it. So I take my coaching calls and I've created a course through castmagic on that. It's ultimately, how do we take the, the value, these dense moments of a conversation and turn into bullet points, blogs, newsletters, whatever that case may be, so that you now aren't focused on. If we go to the podcast side, I'm not focusing on just downloads. I can go, hold on. I can get a blog out of this, a newsletter. I can get an endless supply of LinkedIn posts and Twitter feeds, of, of Instagram ads, whatever it is, so that my content or this conversation goes into so many other places that can engage an audience, wherever that audience is, which then becomes the teacher in me of going like, people learn different ways and time is valuable. No offense. I may not listen to Stacy's podcast every week, even though it's a great one, but if she puts out her newsletter, that's still two minutes of my time that I'm giving to Stacy to read what she wrote in her newsletter or I'll follow you on LinkedIn. Going great. You still got my attention. I still consumed your content that way. Well, that's still audience engagement, that's still trust, that's still value that you're building, even if I'm not listening to that 40 minute podcast that you've got. And that's what people have to start understanding is how do you find the gold in any conversation you've got. Whether I could turn this into a course, whether I can turn more value into my coaching calls, all those things that kind of cast magic gives you.

And it's great because I think what you're doing is you're giving the why behind it. A lot of the times people will think, oh, I need to do this thing because I want to promote my podcast. Right? But it's so much more than that. You're able to make this conversation kind of go on for so much longer because you're able to take out the pieces that really matter, right? And then could really help someone change their business, their life, whatever it is that someone's going through. And it could change everything. And so I think there's a shift there I'm going through right now of taking out the whole, oh, whatever, I'm okay, I don't need to promote this thing versus no, you're literally just adding more value to other people and impacting them in a really Cool way.

If we go back to the earlier part of our conversation, right, and we're talking about sales, if you truly believe that sales is icky, like, oh, I feel I'm an introvert, or selling is just not for me. A. We all market and sell ourselves every day. So you are constantly living in a sales environment. But if you start thinking about, hold on, I have a duty, it feels great. I have loved to help Stacy. My job is to. How do I help Stacy's. Make more money, save more time. That is what I'm selling. I am selling you the ability to save time, make money. And if a tool like Cast Magic is now going to allow you to go ahead and say, hold on, I can now make more money because this conversation becomes a course, well, then I'm. I'm helping, empowering you. And so if you start putting the mentality of how is the conversation I'm having as a podcaster helping people, Right? And if we go back, I have to imagine you teach people this and how to start your podcast. What is the why that a person's going through? If the why is, well, I just want to have great conversations. It's like, no, what are you doing this? Are you doing this because you want to build thought leadership? You want to be known as the X person? You want to be getting speaking engagements. You had envisions of creating a course. Start understanding that why, and then you'll start understanding what do you have to do to make that why more valuable. If you're like, oh, I want to just do a podcast, and then I'll get sponsors, do most people understand what a CPM is? Do most people understand how to get a sponsor, or do they. I don't even understand. Which is mostly the case. There's 20 plus ways you can monetize a podcast. There's so many more ways you can monetize a conversation. TaskMagic now will allow you to do all that, but you just have to be understanding. Take the blinders off. You're not a podcaster, you're a brand. And when you take the blinders off of just thinking you're a podcaster and you're a brand, you'll start realizing, oh, wow, I can make money. I can engage with an audience. I can sell what I am providing as love to other people through these conversations and connections.

I'm really excited. I love having these conversations because you totally. You get it. You're doing it in the world. Let's speak to the person that's a podcaster, right? Now, so first question a lot of people ask is how do I find people to interview? Do you have tricks on that part of it in terms of looking for people that are good to collaborate, interview and all that stuff?

Let's go back to put it out there. Put a post like, hey everyone, I'm looking for X, Y and Z. Let your network, let your community help you. Going like, hey, I'd be great for this. Now remember, you don't have to say yes to every person that raises their hand because maybe they aren't a good fit even though they're saying that they are. Right. So ask your community. The other side to not only asking, your community is constantly put out content so people start understanding the value you are bringing. And if people start engaging with that, you'll start seeing I live my contents on LinkedIn so can't speak to the other platforms. But I can imagine if I put out other posts on other platforms and you get engagements, you can see who those people are. Well, maybe those are people that you're like, oh, they would be a good person to have on my show. I'll ask them. So now you are putting out content, but you're also helping to find other people that you could be bringing on your show. Other ones is make your list. Who would you love to have on your show? Don't go with the big names because I always find. And you could probably speak better to this, but I guess this is a case in point. I'm not a big name, but I bet you this show could get better impressions, views, engagement with a headline about whatever we're talking about without the name Greg Wasserman. Because who knows Greg Wasserman versus oh, I got Gary V. Gary V is everywhere. So everyone's like, I need this big name. It's like. But you also forget the big names are everywhere. Sometimes you want the person who's not everywhere because they've got something unique and important to say that no one else has heard. So go find those voices in your niche, whatever it is you are trying to do and go, hey, I would love to have these people. The other one is, and I don't think I see this ever is the person that's now on your show. Ask them, you've been on my show, you liked having a conversation with me, hopefully you listen to my show. Otherwise why are we having this conversation? Who do you think that would be a good fit? And ask them for referrals. Once again, ask for what you want. So I'm not asking my community hey, who should be on my show? I'm asking the person who's on my show. Could you recommend a couple people? That would be a good fit. And if they recommend a couple people, you're building your network, you're building new connections. And if we go back to why is the whole reason you're doing your show. You're now getting referrals that could be leads. Depending on how you're looking at your show. It could be new opportunities, having bacon. Maybe that person knows another person means another person. You're putting all those things out there. That's how I would do it. At the bare bones without a lot of work.

Yeah. I call it opening the spider web. Right. All of a sudden you're just expanding and you have no idea where it's going to go. And so let's talk about after the podcast then. And this is where cast magic comes in so beautifully. But there's a lot of things people could do. Right? But that's when sometimes they can get paralyzed because they're thinking they have to do everything. What would be four things that you would suggest someone do after the podcast to be able to get it out there?

Well, clearly make sure your show is distributed everywhere. So first thing is, is go into your hosting platform and make sure that your show is on all listing platforms. I always recommend going into POD news dot net. They've got a whole list of directory of all the podcast listing platforms there. And just there's a manual process. But once you've done it, once you're covered. Right. So there's an operational piece of setting it up. But hey, get every listener you can instead of just focusing on the top five. So that is first thing I would do. But once you've published it and you've done that, make sure that you are having a blog. Turn that conversation to other pieces of content. Stop thinking about, how do I just get a person to listen to this conversation? How do I get a person to engage with me as a brand? And that is driving people to a website. I see too often people driving them to their hosting platform. And I'm like, but you're sending people to a third party. Why would you do that? Send them to your website. So make sure you have a website. I see people sending them to listen to us on, on Spotify and Apple. Most people know that they can listen to you on Spotify and Apple, send them to your website, and then if they want to listen, they can click there. But your website should be having the blog, a newsletter, the show notes, all the information, your call to action, whatever you're trying to do. But yeah, I would be doing your social posts. This is where castmagic and operational system is going to help you. You load your podcast in and it's going to create the show notes, the titles, the chapters, blogs, and anything you would want to end this for days so that you've got a consistently posting, which gives you the engagement you need with your newsletter, your social and so forth.

Well, okay, this was amazing. I mean, obviously you could. We could talk for hours. But is there anything else major that you think would really help people in terms of this conversation and be able to take the next step for what they're doing?

Just do it. You're paralyzed. We're all paralyzed. And this is why you sign up for your course, right? We're all paralyzed by I have to do. It has to be perfect or it has to be this. Those that are watching this, you have a mic and a boon. That's professional. I'm using headphones. Still sounds good. But do I need the nice mic in order to do this? No, just do it. And then with time, I will make the upgrades. I'll go and get a new tool. So stop thinking, being overwhelmed and just go do it. Go ask. Just do. Yeah, Nike's got the greatest line. Just go do it. Right.

Yeah, I love that because so my podcast workshop, it speaks to that where I didn't get my mic until I was at a hundred episodes and I tell people to just record on their phone with the voice notes feature just in the beginning or zoom. So yeah, I think that's great. I see so many people paralyzed trying to figure out what mic they're going to use or what name for the podcast. But guess what? You could change the name. All of it could be different. So, okay, now we're on to your number one piece of advice for people on doing the thing. What would that be? And that doing the thing could be anything. Doesn't have to be podcasting, specifically ask for help.

I think that if we go back to the part of our conversation do the thing would be ask for help. It is okay to not know everything. We are not meant to know everything. This is why we have our network, or as you call that, your web. This is why we have people in our network that we can turn to and go, I need help. That was something. I raised my hand up the end of 2022, 2023. Beginning of 2023, I raised my hand. I'm like, I know where I'm struggling. I finally was willing to go ahead and say, I'm going to ask for help. And the world changed for me. And so once I started asking for help and asking, I'm overwhelmed. Who can help me here? We remember that we will do that for another person. If a person asks for help, we're. If we're a good person, we will give them that help. So why can't we do the same thing for ourselves and ask for help? Because people will be glad to help you. The giving and getting, it's receiving, love, all those things, just ask for it. And you will be really surprised on the tears that come when people are like, yeah, I'm happy to help you. And you'll be like, wow, I didn't know that they were going to do that. And then you'll realize all the doors that open because you asked.

Thank you so much for coming on today. So many things in here that were just incredible. I can't wait to use cast magic and pull it all out.

Likewise. Right, well, thank you so much for having me, Stacy. And hopefully not only are you finding the good value in this, but everyone that gave me a moment of your time to listen or read or wherever you repurpose this, appreciate the opportunity here. And thank you, Joe, for bringing us together.

Yeah. And feel free to share where they can find out about you, both on LinkedIn and then also with Castmagic.

So I live on on LinkedIn. That's where I post all my content every Monday at three Podcasts. So for your network of podcasters, hey, please. I'm always looking for new content, a new podcast that can recommend, but that's where I live. Goal for 2024 is get a website and start driving people there. And then, yes, I'm the head of relationships for castmagic. I do the onboarding, I do the trainings. I run a community. You can get rid of me once you're in there. So come in there and I will make the connections and build that spider web for you. And a completely new avenue for you beyond just podcasting. We've got coaches, course creators, you name it.

And thank you guys for listening. And do the thing. Don't wait for opportunity, Create it. And hey, guys, have you joined my Facebook group yet? Do the Thing community dot com. And we just started a new one, do the Thing collaboration dot com.

Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. But even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the Thing. Do you have a burning question on doing the thing that you'd like answered? How about an inspiring do the thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We've learned love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at dothothing callcast. Co or email us at hello at dothingpodcast. Com.