Achieve Your Podcasting Goals Faster By Streamlining Your Podcasting Process With Alex Sanfilippo

Want your podcast and videocast to be seen, heard, found and rewarded in this noisy digital world, you are not alone. Join the nonprofit community at Podcasters United and podcast industry experts Tom Hazard and Tracy Hazard as they debunk all that outdated and bad advice you've been getting from the podcast gurus and find out what actually works. Today, get ready to finish feed your brand with smart cut tactics proven to cast your original voice to the world.

Hey everyone, welcome to the binge factor or feed your Brand because this is a crossover episode. So I decided that I was gonna make this a crossover episode because Alex Sanfilippo is so amazing. Creating a brand was the original podcast. He moved into podcasting made simple. So this is all about podcasting and there were so many tips from this interview that I thought really belonged in feed your brand. So we're going to create a crossover between the two shows. So we're actually repurposing it. So if you've listened to it on feed your brand, you don't have to listen to it on the binge factor, but you know, hey, go ahead and give it a, you know, make sure you're subscribing to both if you haven't already. So check that out. And that's also a way at which you can create by creating crossovers between multiple shows. If you have multiple shows, you can create audience overlaps because they'll hear about the binge factor and they'll think, oh, I haven't heard that yet. And on feed your Brand that's going to drive more subscribers and hopefully that's going to happen the same thing for Alex in the future too, because it's going to help them subscribe to his show from two different places. So you're driving more traffic to your great guests. And that's what I want to do here because Alex Zampalippo is amazing podcaster. He's been in the podcast industry a while and I can't believe our paths haven't crossed. We finally met each other live at Outlier and I've been wanting to have a conversation with him. I mean, it's one of the reasons I didn't invite him on the show earlier was I expected to have an in person conversation prior to now. And then it sort of fell through the cracks that I didn't actually invite him and I should have because we should have done this long before now. So I'm so glad this is finally happening. And so I want to give you just a little bit of background on him and then I'm going to go straight into the episode because he adds so much value. Alex Sanfilippo is the host of the top rated podcast called Podcasting Made Simple. He's also the founder of Pod Prosecutors. A Pod Post is a community and a software company focused specifically on the podcasting industry. Alex and his team have created popular services like PodMatch, a service that matches podcast guests and hosts together for interviews, and Podcast sop, a project management tool that helps podcasters keep up with their episode releases. I have just tried Podcast SOP before this call because I wanted to make sure that I talked about it knowledgeably. And in the end of the post of the episode, in my close, I'm going to talk about my experience using it and who I think should be the right fit user for it. So don't want to miss that as well. So stick around after the interview for that. Well, everyone, Podcasting Made simple and an inspiring conversation with Alex Sanfilippo.

Alex, I'm so glad we're talking again. We met at. I mean, I can't believe we haven't met before. Like I said that in my intro, but I can't believe we haven't met in person before. We've both been in the podcasting industry industry for quite some time and we have such, I'm going to say, aligned visions for the industry. And I'm so, I'm so glad we're talking.

Yeah. Really glad to be here. And I have to say this, I didn't tell you this before we started recording, but the Binge Factor, this is an amazing show, like, so good. And I'm just glad that, like, I found it technically you invited me and I was like, well, I'm going to listen to the show because that's what you got to do to have some integrity. Right? And I just started, like, going through episodes. I'm like, this is like, this is binge worthy, right? And that's obviously you're practicing what you preach. So great job. Honored to be here today. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, what everyone doesn't know yet because I'm going to announce that at the end, but I'm going to do it right now because you said this. I'm going to make this a crossover event. So we're going to have a crossover episode between the Binge Factor and Feature Brand because I feel like that we have different audiences there. So our audience here is like podcasters who already have existing shows and are just looking to up their game like the successful pros like you and so. But on feed your brand, it's a lot of newbies and I think they need to know about you and your tools. So we're going to make sure.

Oh, cool. Thank you. That's really exciting. Great to hear.

So tell me what got the podcasting bug for you. We got to start at the beginning a little bit. Where did you say, you know, podcast sounds like a really great idea.

Yeah, well, this happened a couple times, sadly, I guess. Having the best of us, right? So I was blogging years ago and someone's like, you should do a podcast. I was like, a what? I didn't even listen to one. I just started recording audios using my phone and. And I was brilliant back then. So I decided that your car has no echo, so a car would be the best place to just talk straight into your phone and then post it somewhere. Not a good idea. I lasted a couple of weeks. I was like, this is silly. No one's listening to it.

So the fifth fire truck went by. You were like, not a great idea.

I'm like, I don't like this. Like, parking lots are too loud, right? Like, what am I supposed to do here? I was doing it, like, just randomly. Like, my wife would go somewhere like, ah, I can record a quick episode. Right? Which isn't a bad idea. But anyway, let's fast forward to when I for real, got into podcasting. When I decided, you know what, I started listening to shows. I'm like, I actually like this. I think I want to do a podcast. And what got me into it was wanting to become an entrepreneur. I was a senior executive at an aerospace company. And quick disclaimer, I wasn't an astronaut, fighter pilot or anything fun.

So none of the fun things, right?

No. Yeah. People hear aerospace like, ooh, have you been to space? I'm like, nope, I've been behind a computer for many years. And anyway, we were a parts manufacturer. We focused below the atmosphere. It was a really good job. And I was there for 15 years, but I kind of got this itch to be an entrepreneur. Here's what I realized during that time, though, of saying, okay, let me see if I can get some side hustles going. What you learn in corporate doesn't really translate in entrepreneurship. Not very well, at least. My lightning fast brain. Here I am, I was like, I'm going to start a podcast where I talk to people who have successfully left a 9 to 5 job to be a full time entrepreneur, and I'm going to learn from them. And that show just did really well, but that's what got me into podcasting. It was really just.

What show was that one?

It was called Creating a Brand. It's been weird.

This is kind of the precursor. Yeah. So you shifted Creating a Brand into podcasting made. Simple.

Correct.

At some point in the process here. But you know, what you did, that was so smart and I love it. And I tell my clients and I tell everyone on the show. Well, mostly on feed your brand. Not on the binge factor as much, but tip here, keep your feed and just switch your show because you earn that audience. And so I'm so glad you did that.

I'd like to take credit for that, but I didn't know what to do. And I did this at the beginning of 2022 is when I actually made that decision. It was bittersweet. It was sad to let the old show go. But the first 158 episodes of my show are still the Creating a Brand episodes. It still has the same intro. They're really powerful, really impactful, and they still get a ton of listens, which is great. I wasn't sure. I'm like, do I start a new feed? Do I keep this one? What do I do? And I just happened to be connected with Jordan Harbinger, who's a friend of mine, and he's a big podcaster. He's been in it a lot, and he's had a lot of podcasts. So I just reached out. I'm like, hey, man, what do I do? And I expected some elaborate response. He said, bro, keep your current. That's all he said, bro, keep your current feed. He goes, don't lose that. And that was all he said.

I'm like, cool, because you earned all those listens you. Everything there.

Yeah, exactly. And that's what I did. So I just changed the name. I left a couple of weeks in between. I basically had the final episode of Chris Creating a Brand. I did a post about it where I said, like, I think I was holding a little sign that said, farewell, Creating a Brand. And I don't know what I did wrong. Cause I wrote it really well. But apparently people don't read. Everyone thought I was leaving podcasting completely.

Like, people, they only saw the farewell part.

Yes. And people still, this day will be like, so what do you do now? I know you got out of podcasting. I'm like, what? That's what I do full time. Like, anyway. But it was a bittersweet thing. But again, it was really a right decision. And the numbers actually reflected that. We Obviously had an immediate dip when entrepreneurs left, but podcasters started showing up and listening and podcast guests. And now today, months later, right, or years later, whatever it is, the show has continuously grown at a faster pace than it was when it was creating a brand. The show was already, to me, a really good sized show.

You know what I think is really smart in the shift for you is that this is because I happen to follow you. I know you, and I know what's going on in the podcast industry and what's been going on with your companies, which we'll talk about in a minute. But your audience, the audience you're gathering is more suited to podcasting made simple than they were to creating a brand. So they weren't adopting it at the rate at which they are now. It's just your access to. Your audience is much more interested in talking about podcasting, obviously, because they're, you know, subscribe to Pod Match, Pod, sop, your Pod Pros, community. All of that is really driving the right type of listeners for your show.

Absolutely. And I'm glad you said that, because one of the things I realized in entrepreneurship that people get wrong is not looking at the friction points. There's like, oh, I've got to do this, and it's just not aligned with that, but it's just all part of it. The truth is it should be more fluid than that. And that podcast, as much as I loved it, it was not fluid with the rest of my brand and where I was heading and where I was taking people. So there was some friction involved. I'm like, okay, I gotta stop everybody. I gotta go create and do a creating a brand episode, and I gotta get all that done and ready with team, right? And it's like a separate team and stuff. And then I've just brought all together and now it's all really aligned because people are not asking me, how do I start a business? They're saying, how do I grow my podcast? I'm like, oh, we've got an episode for that. Here it is. Go check that out. Right. Like, now I have a really fluid running business, and I think that's just a really important thing for anyone. Getting into business, getting into podcasting, make sure that it really all aligns with you. Ultimately, you are the brand of what you're doing and make sure that it's just all following one path instead of being like, here's the 10 different things I do, and they're all going in different directions. Right. That just doesn't work for people long term. At least for me. Maybe there's some more talented multitaskers out there, but for me, I've got to have one main thing if I'm going to stay sane.

Well, you know, people always ask me the same thing. It's like, how do you fit in all the podcasts that you do and everything? I was like, it's a part of my job. It's aligned with everything I do, and I actually love it. So it just makes it even easier. Right, so.

Exactly.

Well, I think you really love your community, Alex, and that's just my view from the outside of looking in. But you run masterclasses, you've got your podcast pros community, you've got kind of a rich social media engagement I see going on there. It's just like, you know, what is your mission for that community itself?

Yeah. So the whole idea behind this is, can I help podcast guests and hosts go further, faster? There's some people who get into this space that just. They don't know what they don't know. And if we can help them just make that next step one that's proper one. That's right. We can save them a little money along the way, a little bit of time or a lot of time, like, that's what we want to do. And I've just found that people in podcasting on either side of the mic, they give up too soon. And there's a lot of reasons for that. A lot of podcasters. I'm going to use the ultimate example, which has probably been on every podcast episode you ever done. But people reference Joe Rogan, right? Like, people get into podcasting because, like, I'm going to be like, Joe, you know, like, we're going to do that same thing. And it doesn't happen in two weeks. And then they quit. And a guest, same thing. They're like, oh, I've got this product. Someone said I should get on a podcast. They tried being a guest on two shows and they quit. Cause they're like, oh, I didn't earn millions of dollars off those two shows. Right. Like, everyone has these wrong expectations. So for me, I've just realized, like, I can't necessarily fix the mindset, but when you get into a community, it can kind of change some things and be like, okay, this is something. These guys have been trying this for two years, and it's just starting to, like, really take effect. I need to, like, figure out how he stayed in it so long. Right. People meet each other, they find ways to collaborate. It keeps people motivated. And for Me, I'm a community guy, like, through and through. That has just been like, if I look at my life, my entire history, where I've ever, anywhere I've ever done the best has been in some form of community. And I know that I do a good job fostering that, making it healthy and helping it just to grow together. And so for me, that's why we have that community. It's just to bring everyone together, saying, hey, here's kind of where the industry's going, here's how we can help, and let's just kind of go there together. Let's. Let's do this as a family, basically.

You know what I found so interesting? So I was skimming some of your topic episodes because that's because I wanted to get more of your voice. I found that I listened to one and I was like, oh, this is a masterclass. This is somebody else. As I was listening to the podcast, you know, so when I went to skim some of your topics, one of my favorite ones that you did was really talking about discipline. And I think it's probably a theme that you touch on again and again, because that's what I think has been so missing is in the podcasting world is the requirement that you do have to have some discipline about what you do, some process to what you do, some time commitment to what you do. And I'm glad that you go there because podcasting made simple sounds like you're going to go for the simple, easy. Let me just sell you stuff. And you don't you actually talk about that. This stuff is hard, but it's actually really simple because it's one thing to think about. I'm going to put time in, I'm going to make it a routine. I'm going to do it every morning or I'm going to do it once a week, whatever that is. That's not the hard part. The hard part is committing to that.

It really, it is. I mean, at the end of the day, call it podcasting made simple, because it is simple, but it's not necessarily easy. So I didn't call it podcasting made easy.

I'm glad you didn't.

Right. I mean, in the day, like, yeah, it's a simple process, but it's not easy to do because the main thing being all of us, including myself, like the lack of self discipline that we have in this world, I know that's like a totally different topic, but it is what I'm really passionate about. Like, consistency seems to win time and time Again, I remember a quick story here, Tracy, I just want to share. It was years ago, I met John Lee Dumas, and we had some. We were actually hanging out together for a couple days at an event, and a couple months later, we got on a call, and he's like, hey, man, how are you? How are things? I'm like, good. He goes, hey, man, I want to let you know, I listened to your podcast, which I'm like, oh, my gosh. John Lee Dumas listens to my show, right? And he goes, it's really good. He goes, you want to know the difference between my show and your show? And I was, like, scrambling to find a notepad. I'm like, yeah, please go. Give me these words of wisdom. He just said one simple statement. He said, seven years. That's all he said. And he just got quiet. Seven years. And I was like, I didn't say anything back. I just looked at him. I was, like, nodding like a yes. And he goes, I have never missed a day that I told my audience I'd post something in seven years. And he said, if you do the same thing, in seven years from now, you'll be exactly where I am. And that lesson has always really stuck with me because it is so true. It's the power of being consistent and doing things when you don't feel like it.

Another example would be that's discipline right there. Right? Like, that's the definition of it. And we call it consistent and constant, like, because those two things. But the weird part is, is that humans don't love it. But fortunately for us today, the digital bots adore it. So, like, those of us that can have a little discipline and be consistent, constant. I mean, John's right. It's like, seven years later, you're going to have the killer show.

Yeah. And the other thing is, like, to that point, if you're like, man, this is just too much. If you've got the budget or you see the future budget coming into play, sub some of the stuff out that just keeps you from staying consistent. Like, for me, I actually loved editing. My team finally was like, dude, it's time to stop. I think it's fun. Like, I'm a. I'm the guy who is. If I take up the trash.

That sounds like a former engineer.

Yeah, a little bit. You know, if I take out the trash. But it wasn't on my to do list to do that day. I'll write it down just so I can check it off. Like, for some reason, yeah, I'm being Really transparent.

I'm a to do this one has nothing on it, but I have like five little post its around here. So I always have a to do list too.

And I will do that. Yeah, right. When I'm done with this, I will check off that we had this conversation. But my point in saying that now.

Your podcast SOP site is totally making sense to me.

Yes, right, exactly. But anyway, like podcast editing, when I was doing that, it gave me a feeling of like, oh, I'm getting stuff done. Like I can knock it out. I can see that. I've been through five minutes. I just felt like I'm accomplishing something. Anyway, it was time to sub out. But for me, the thing that I really didn't enjoy was the social media side of things and I'd always end up just skipping it, which is not being consistent. Right. So I hired it out. Now I have somebody who does all that and I. Someone does all the editing. Right. So my point there is just if you're having trouble staying consistent, it's probably because you're doing something that you really shouldn't be doing. And you should. If it is something you say, well, it's a requirement for what I'm doing. Then find somebody to help. Find a team member, get a partner, get somebody that can help you do that thing so you can stay consistent with the stuff that really matters most.

Well, and that's what I think people have such a hard time understanding what's going to matter most. And that's why I really love the way you've set up podcasting made simple. Because when you're thinking about that, the simple things, like what are the simple things that I could do and I can accomplish and what where does my time best spend? Is the next question that they'll then ask yourself, what can I cut away? What can I hand out? What don't I need to do anymore so that I can keep it as simple as possible?

Right. Yeah, I'm in full agreement with that. I think that that's really. I'm glad you got that from it because that's really the point of it. Like, let's just give somebody one thing. And that's why we try not to. Some people, like, they come on and speak on it, they like to share like 20 points for X. But I'm really like, hey, give people just one simple idea. Right? Like one thing that they can kind of go through and do. So I'm glad you got that from it. So thank you for sharing that.

Yeah, well, I want to do my three things that I do on every show because we use them for social media. That's its purpose. It's a repurposed ability. It also goes into our article that we write for Authority magazine. So everyone who comes on my show gets an Authority Magazine article. And so this is our purpose of dialing in a feature that we do in our show. So I always like to reveal behind the curtain what this looks like to our. To our audience here. But this is why I do this. And Alex has some really great tips that I'm going to prompt him to give you because I've heard him speak before and I want to make sure. But we're going to start with our getting great guests. Because, I mean, look, founder of PodMatch. You should know what it takes to get great guests. What do you think the key is? Because when I search through Pod Match, sometimes I'm like, I don't know, like, you know, what criteria do you use? Do you recommend for someone to choose a great guest for their show?

First off, no guest is created equal. So a really great guest for me does not mean it's a great guest for you. And there's a lot of factors there. The most obvious being our personalities can be different. If you're like, super bubbly, super outgoing, and you're going to interview somebody that I interviewed that's like really monotone, doesn't laugh at all, right, that's probably not going to be a good connection. If that's an interview, your listeners will be like, wow, this is painful. They're going to get a little antsy listening to it. So personality alone makes it could be really different. But if you're like, oh, Alex are the same personality, so our guests should be the same still, maybe not the case. How aligned are they with the vision of your show? Is it really going to work? Is there going to be something they can use to actually add value that they can share that's going to add value to your audience? So you always have to think that not all guests are created equal. And to me, it all begins with you knowing who's listening to your show. And the best thing to do, especially when you start off, if you're unsure early on and even when you're more advanced, creating some sort of ideal listener. Avatar is just what you can call it. So your avatar is a fictitious listener, but it basically is accumulation of who's listening to your show. And they can't be general. I even gave my person a name. His name's Adam. Adam is who I always think about. And when I'm getting a guess, I say, would Adam gain value from Tracy sharing on my podcast? And I'll think through it. Okay. Like, Adam is trying to launch a podcast right now. Adam is thinking about how he's going to grow audience afterwards. Right? Like he wants to keep the conversations fairly brief. And I can say, you know what? No, Tracy can. One, she knows podcasting. Two, she's done a lot of audience growth stuff and she can keep it. She can have a good conversation but not talk too much. Right. Like, because some people you listen to.

Let me. But yes, of course, you know, you listen to some sound, bite it good.

Some people like you might listen to them and they could be like a total dominating conversation. A lot of like big names in marketing, they can talk for an hour straight without you even like looking at them and they just feel like they can keep on going. That would be really not a good fit for some audiences. So anyway, the very first step again is make sure that it's a good guess for you based off who's actually listening. So find that avatar.

It needs to be a match. Like that's what that's part of I love about what you name. There is. It needs to be a good match. Right. And that's the idea, is that if you're thinking those things through, you're going to make better choices. I think in the beginning everyone is like, well, let me just get as many guests as possible. Like, I'm afraid I was have any. Right. I mean, it's a starter thing. But after that, be selective because. And I actually think you should be selective from the beginning because I think it's going to make it better, but you might need to reevaluate. So, you know, maybe sitting back and reevaluating your avatar. So when I started my first podcast on 3D printing, we thought it was going to be like geeky 14 year old boys in the garage. And it turned out to be like women engineers in Chicago and educators in Ohio. And so like that when we actually was reached out by our first audience, we actually changed all the names of our avatars and like made new profiles and we would actually give them shout outs on the air. We'd be like, karen, I know you're going to love this guest today. And they would love it. It made them engage more. But it was in our head. Yeah.

And you're right. Like you have to. When I launched even creating a brand which did really well, I thought that who would be listening were people like Me, who were in a 9 to 5 job, had no clue what entrepreneurship was, but wanted to learn one to leave their job. Who actually was listening was people with, like, really successful side hustles. Like, almost successful enough they quit their job. So they were like 10 steps further than I was. But they still wanted to hear from these people because they're just maybe looking for the motivation to finally say, hey, I'm leaving. Right? Stuff like that. So, yeah, I had to redo the avatar. And I think from day one, it's so important if you can, if you're hearing this before you've launched, be picky with who's on your show. Like, I think that that's the right move. Cause I look back to my touch, my first season of creating a brand. There's like, there was 12 episodes in that first season is what I called it. It was just the first 12 episodes, but about four of them really had no business being there. They weren't the right fit. And now I know that. But if you could learn that from day one, be important. So I think that's a good tip. But going back to like, the main question here is how to know if a guest is good. Something I always listen for is how the guest speaks. So what I mean by that is not necessarily the cadence in their voice or like how long they take pauses or anything like that. More so what I'm referring to is, are they always talking about themselves? And especially if a guest pitches and says, hey, I want to talk to your audience. Because I have a new product and I want to grow my business and I think it'd be really good for me and I this and I that. If you start hearing that stuff, then it's not going to be someone who's going to be driving with. With value. It's going to be somebody who's more so interested in selling to your audience. And you've done some great episodes. I heard1 On May 5th 4th, 2022, someone named Nikki was talking about selling authentically through, like podcasts. Really good episode. And yeah, and Nikki didn't do it in a way that it's like. And by the way, if you want this, here's my first four points. You want the fifth point? You gotta go to this website and download this thing and sign up here. It wasn't like that. But some people will try to get on your show and you've seen it and they want to be that way. Cause that's the only thing they know how to do. That is a bad guest that's not a good guest at all.

Yeah, I look for that. And the other thing that I listen for is if they say the same thing is on more than one show. So that's why you can't just listen to one time. You gotta pick a couple shows. And so I'll try to pick a couple of shows they've been on that are other people's and go, did they say the exact same thing? Because I don't want duplicate content. It's a no no in the digital footprint that I'm creating. And it's also a no no to me because I don't want to bore my audience. They could listen to any show and get the same information.

So true. And, you know, a lot of big name guests, I'll just call them big names, like celebrities and stuff. They have got their. They have coaches that teach them, only share your sound bite. Find a way to turn it back to this. Like, nothing against them, but like, if you go listen to. I'm not trying to pick on this guy at all, but if you go listen to. I'm blank on the guy's last name. McConaughey. Matthew McConaughey.

Right, Matthew McConaughey. Yeah.

So nothing against him. Like, if you listen to one of his podcast episodes he did when he did his tour, when Greenlights came out, super good, like, really valuable. But if you went listen to another one, it was the same episode. You and listen to another one, it was the same episode again. Guess what? He shared the same exact thing almost 600 times, apparently, is what he did. And nothing against the guy. That's what his coach taught him to do. It's all different audiences, but you can't follow that person around. And I had a big guest on that was a celebrity, not quite at that level, but very close, that never posted the episode because I listened to him and he shared the same thing on every podcast. I'm like, I'm going to be the one to break him. I'm going to get him to share something different. He did not share one word that was different than what he had done previously. And I actually ended up never sharing the episode. I'm like, I don't want to just repeat. Everyone's already heard this. So it's really important that you find somebody you feel that you can have an authentic conversation with that will actually listen to you. So, like, Tracy, if you ask me anything, I'm not going to answer the way I did previously. I'm going to listen and be like, no, I'M going to respond authentically because I think that's a really important thing to do.

Yeah, and that's so true. And so that's why when I prep people for my show here, I listen to your show, but I also listen to you on another show, on a couple other shows, just to check that out and make sure. Because again, I don't want to have that. But normally when people come on the binge factor, lucky for me, this isn't something that they got to talk about on a ton of shows before because they're talking about their podcast. Right. They're usually talking about their business or something else in some of the place. So lucky for me, the format of the show can make can force them to be original. So. Well, those are great, great tips. And everyone in the show notes for this episode@the bingefactor.com or@potatoes.com which is where we house feed your brand. If you're listening on that platform, you'll be able to find all the links to go to Pod Match, where you can learn a lot more about guesting and all of those things as well. So let's move on to the second thing, getting more listeners. Every podcaster I talk to wants more listeners, and this is always their weak point, but you're finding a boost in listenership. What do you do actively, though, to get new listeners?

Yeah, this is what I'm going to want to hear from you on as well. So I'm going to flip the question to you in a minute, but I'll answer in probably the most interesting way that I recently been thinking about. So many of us in podcasting, we're saying we want to grow our listenership. So what we do is we start trying to think of how we can do a massive campaign. Can we partner with somebody? Is there a way we can make like a really viral post of some sort? Can we make more audiograms? Can we make more short videos, more posts? Right? Like, how can we get this out there and just blast out to as many people as possible? And recently I've been thinking, like, what if we did the opposite of that? It might be the opposite of that is not necessarily do less content, but do one on one outreach. So let's just say that, you know what? I found Tracy in a Facebook group. Let's use that example. Tracy looks like someone that might. She's in podcasting, she might be interested in my show. So I'm gonna reach out and she'll be like, hey, check you out, listen to you over here on this show would love to just stay connected and just started an organic conversation. Eventually Tracy's like, oh, I'd really like to know about growing my audience. Be like, well, here's an episode of my show about growing your audience. Check it out. I'd love to chat with you about it and then just leave it at that. And then the next day, reach out to somebody else, do something similar. And I'm not talking about just like link spamming. Like, hey, Tracy, here's my new podcast. Click. No. Building a relationship. And I've been thinking about this. I actually brought it up to a friend and he goes, dude, that would take forever. I'm like, yeah, but okay, let's imagine you do this once a day, like one new person a day, and you have an authentic conversation. You send them to your actual podcast, they listen to it after 365 days. That's 365 listeners. Let's just say you commit to two years of podcasting, you're looking at over like 700 people. Right?

And now if you have 7, 365 new podcasters who've now listened to, you know, some of them have listened to a year worth of episodes. So you're actually talking about thousands of listens, right? At the end of the day.

Yeah, even they only listen to one episode. Like, or they just pick up where they're at and once a week listen. Like, still, if you had 700 new people in two years listening to your show, like podcast listenership, just everyone knows, like, most new shows don't have very many people listening at all. If you had 700 people listening every week, that would put you up toward the top end of podcasting. Like, not maybe the top 0% or anything like that. Right. But it's gonna put you up toward the top. And that instead of creating all this content, trying to push it out, instead of doing that, just saying, hey, let me just try some organic one on one relationship building with podcasting. And I just think that might be an interesting approach that I've just not heard many people talk about yet. Something different. And I wanted to share that here.

So, no, I think it sticks. I think it's a great idea. Like, you know, thinking about doing something that's so simple, that doesn't take a lot of time. You're already in your social media every day anyway. You know what? Take one minute to send a private message to someone that's nice and short and just say, hey, I just thought of you and wanted to share this. And Would love your thoughts. And, you know, people like to reciprocate, and so they like to give their opinion. So I think it's actually really an interesting model. I love to see you do it and then report back. Like, I'd love to see how it really worked.

Like, I have been doing it. The reason I even got the idea is I heard it from a friend one time who said that that's how he's grown. He doesn't have, like, a big show or anything like these, but I've got hundreds of people listening goes. I just keep on reaching out. And I had people starting to reach out to me. So I just started, like, building relationships, feeling like, oh, what you're describing is this episode, is this kind of describe it. And people started listening. It's worked really good for me. My show has grown faster by doing that than anything else, really. Because the other thing is, it has this effect of people like, oh, I met this guy Alex, and he sent me this. He's the host of this, and he sent me this episode. And they sent it to their friend who's interested as well, and they send it to their friend. So it starts bouncing around because it actually came from a human. It wasn't like, dude, check out this audiogram post somebody made, right? No, it was like, hey, this guy actually sent me a message. He's the host of it. And check it out. Like, I'll. I'll share that with people as well. So far, it's going well. I'll report back when I have more. But anyway, to flip the question, I'd love to, like, you're a professional in this space. I'd love to hear what's working for you. And I'm going to try not to be typing up notes here, by the way.

Really, what I tell my clients and what I see so often happen is that we're forgetting to interview podcasters. So when we interview guests, we forget that at least once a month. That's what I mean. I. Mine are four a month, obviously, because of my show type. But even on shows that aren't like that, if we can attract a podcaster to be our guest, we're more likely to get listeners from them than we are from another type of guest. Because they already have podcast listeners. They're going to talk about being on your show, on their show, or promote it within their platform of other podcast listeners. Like, it's going to have a better effect and impact for you in getting listeners driving back to you. It'd be like, I sometimes Wonder why authors are talking about their books on podcasts instead of their Audible. It doesn't make sense to me that the media type is different. And so if you've got an Audible book, you ought to be talking about the audible version of it. Mention it. It's worth it. Because that's the first thing I think a podcast listener goes is like, is this available on Audible? And I'm not one of those. Even though I am a podcast listener, I'm still a reader, but I would check it out in whatever format I wanted anyway. So why aren't you talking about that more? So I think that's the biggest thing is, like, if I can pod match and not only get guests, but go get other hosts to be on my show that are a match for me, I'm going to do better in the long run. And you don't have to do every single person's a podcaster, but you can do it so that once a month you bring in a podcaster, and that's just going to give you this mix and boost.

That's so good. And I'm glad you brought that up, because it actually ties back to the very first thing we're talking about. We're talking about what makes a good guest. Usually a podcast host is a good guest because they at least understand the basics.

Like, they got it down, right.

The phone's gonna be on, like, silent. Right. Their dog's not gonna be in the background.

Their mic's good.

Their mic should be good. Yeah. So, like, you can listen to their show basically, like, oh, they'll show up. They'll be good. So that's like a free little bonus, everybody there. But additionally, sometimes, and I had this happen, I'll share, like, this is my biggest claim to fame in life. Probably I don't have a lot, but this is my biggest claim to fame in life. Jasmine Starr came on my podcast, who's also a podcaster, and she's. I'd consider her a celebrity podcaster. She liked the episode so much, her team reposted it on her podcast feed. And so she has an episode on her podcast with Alex Sanflippo. And for me, I was like, that's the coolest thing ever. Like, being on Jasmine Star's podcast with me interviewing her still. Nonetheless, that's a bonus. That happens sometimes. I guess it's technically called, like, feed swapping. Sometimes people are not doing it.

Yeah, podcast swap.

Yeah, Podcast swap. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. But it just organically happened just because I happened to interview somebody that was a podcaster. But I love that tip. I think that's such a great tip thing that all podcasters should be considered doing. They don't necessarily need to talk about podcasting. They can talk about something that is unrelated to their show, but it'll come up somehow, organically. Just. It does, right?

Yeah. And this is the thing, is, if it's a right match for you anyway, you don't need to ask for a swap. If I just ask you on my show, you're going to naturally enjoy the experience, and if I'm a right fit for you, you're going to invite me back. It happens every time. And so I always ask first. And don't worry about the reciprocation. I think it's going to come. And if it doesn't come, then it wasn't meant to be. It wasn't the right fit. And I'm okay with that. I didn't waste my time, so. And you're getting the crosslink anyway. Like it's happening because they're not going to not promote it. Right. So. So, yeah, so that's my side of it. I think that would work for you. Now let's talk monetization. This is where we actually got to meet in person at Outlier. And I enjoyed Outlier so much. Not just because it was the first podcast event that I've been to post Covid, and I've been to lots of other events, but it was the first podcast community event that I had done live. And so I loved it because of that. But I really thought the caliber of speaker and the topics of which they spoke about was so much higher than any other show I've been to in the last, I don't know, five years of podcasting. And so I. And I was really impressed by it and so sad that they didn't have a bigger audience that could hear that. So I want to bring my audience some of the tips. So we talk about monetization. That's my third thing. It's like, about monetization. And you had some great ideas that were a little bit guest related. I'd love for you to just give me three of them. Give the audience three of those that you thought that you thought were the, you know, your favorite ones out of that monetization group.

Yeah. And you mentioned them being like, more focused with the guest, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So I want to make sure that I cover the right ones because I might just go on a total rant here. So I need to make sure.

Go on a Total rant. My audience is going to be okay with that. If we do more than three, I'm okay. I just don't want to put you on the spots to make you do all of them or anything. So do what ones you want.

I think the first one that I'll share as it relates to you and your guests. So if you're a host and you're interviewing guests, at some point, your show will grow if you stay consistent with it. Right. Like when we really talked about that a lot. And actually, real quick, quick shout out. Is that June 1, 2022. Tracy, you shared an episode with Chase, and I'm blanking on Chase's last name.

Chase Clymer.

Chase Clymer. Okay. Yeah. So diving deeper into your podcast audience and what he was saying is, like, you need to stay consistent and continuously offer value. And that's just how he's been able to grow time and time again. I encourage everyone to go back and listen to that, because we're not going to dive into that. We've already talked about consistency a little bit. But seriously, go back and listen. That was a really powerful episode. But the point is, as you're. You're doing that, staying consistent, adding value, people will start coming to you and saying, can I please be a guest? Can I please be a guest? They may all be a good fit. And the thing is, at some point, you're going to hit the same thing that most podcasters are in these days that have been consistent for a long time. They have this crazy backlog of, yeah, sure, you can come on the podcast in three months and then we'll post it six months after that.

Podcasters that are out nine months, which I think is way too long.

Yeah, that's too long. Yeah, that's crazy. But here's the thing. If I'm an author and I'm going to come on your show and it's a great interview and I loved it, and I'm like, man, my book comes out in three weeks and you're not going to post it for six months? That's too bad. I wish it could be out sooner. Offer what I just call a skip the line option. Really simple.

I love this one, guys. Everyone out there, listen. This is one of my favorite ones that you mentioned.

So just call a skip the line option. You didn't charge the guest to be on the podcast. I don't actually believe in that, really. Like, it should just be an exchange, right? But you can say, hey, I can post it the day your book is Coming out in three weeks from now as a bonus episode. I'm gonna have to move everything around because you will, right? You and our team. And you can just have some sort of fixed fee saying, hey, because of all the production shifts and all things, I have to move. We'll have a little fee and we'll bring it there. It's just a skip the line option. If I'm a author and I really liked the interview and obviously you probably shouldn't offer this if the interview was terrible, right? If the interview is good, like, and they feel like it was good and they're like, oh yeah, I want that to come out the day my book comes out. Cause I wanna promote this episode, which is a win for you and a win for them. They might be willing to pay a little bit for that. And I think that that's a really good tip that I just don't see people taking advantage of. And I think it could really. It serves you and serves the listener and also serves your guest. And I think it's a really. I think it's a great thing that you could do. I'll keep on going here, Trace, you want me just to move along?

Go on.

Trying to keep them somewhat brief. I could obviously expand on any of these if you wanted, but I'll keep them fairly brief. The next one here is to turn your guests into customers. And what I mean by that is perhaps the best thing you can do if you have some sort of coaching practice or some sort of course or something like that. The best person you could be selling to instead of even the listenership they can just be a bonus is to sell to your guest who's coming on the show. So bring on a guest that could be your ideal client. Now what you don't want to do is have an episode where you're just selling them the whole time. Like, yeah, Tracy, that's why you need my course, you know, like, that's why you've got to have this. Like, no, you want to be really value adding but so interesting to them that they want to be like at the end of the recording and be like, whoa, like, Tracy, that was amazing. Like what you just shared. Like, do you really have something that does that? Like they can you bring them on because you're like, yeah, this would be a great client. That's a great way to do high ticket stuff.

So let's do that. I'm going to take a little section, right? I'm just going to take a little piece right now. I had something that I was going to suggest to you after the call, not because I think I want Alex as a client. I'd love to have Alex as a client, but that's not the purpose of it is like when he said something about something he had done, it occurred to me we have a tool that would be amazing for him. And so to drop a tip or drop a share at the end and ask them if they'd like more information about that is a great way to do that. So, Alex, here's my one for you.

Let's do it. I got a notepad out. Let's go.

Yeah. You said that, you know, you had 158 or 160 episodes or so right now when you switched your show. And the thing that we love is that obviously putting the feed on top of it and doing what you did was perfect. And Jordan Harbinger perfect. Exactly what I would have advised. But what if you could, because you had multiple feeds available to you because of your hosting subscription, be able to spin off those 158 episodes, weed them out, make them into different series that you could create landing pages for or create new feeds for, Basically remove them from your feed as you go along the way. What if you could do that and now you have multiple feeds, you actually have a second show where creating a brand is its own show. So you could spin off anything in any order that you want, kind of automatically. It's like super simple to copy and move.

So you're saying I wouldn't be creating any new content necessarily, right?

No, you'd actually creating a brand again in a brand new feed. And then you'd move the episodes that you wanted to preserve, like the best of creating a brand, and you create those over on one side. And so it could be the best ones that are the best tips for podcasters. It could be the best tips, the best episodes that are your personal favorites. And so you create a special place for them and you move them out of the regular feed. Because as you get over 100 episodes, it's actually really overwhelming for someone to search through that.

Yes. And it's not all aligned either. It's crazy that you bring this up because I've literally, earlier this morning, I have a certain time in my morning routine where I'm actually just thinking about ideas. I was literally thinking, what the heck do I do with creating a brand? I still own the domain. I've got all these old episodes that are. Some of them are so freak. They're amazing. They're so good. I was literally Thinking about this today, I would be super interested in actually seeing a written out plan of what someone would recommend. Super interesting.

This is what I. Yeah, I'm suggesting a. Creating a feed for creating a brand and too many.

Creating feed.

Creating a feed for creating a brand that's just super simple for you so you don't lose its content as an attractor because it's content as attractor might still be great because people want to brand themselves as podcasters. So like that, you know, that's something that they think about as well.

It's interesting. We have to talk more about this. But you totally just did my point. That is exactly what I'm talking about. Like perfectly aligned.

He didn't sell here, but I was like, this is a tool that we happen to have on our productized platform and I can generate a further conversation without selling.

Literally.

That's the perfect idea.

This is the only time anyone's ever given a real example of that. That was perfect. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Because I mentioned that in the episode. It wasn't even Tracy. Sure, you probably knew that, but it wasn't something that you had the agenda of like, oh, I'm going to mention this, I talked about it and now you just said, hey, by the way, you mentioned this. How about that? To go with it. Right? And yes, I am now super interested. I don't even know if I'm gonna focus the rest of the episode. Cause I wanna hear more about that. I'm gonna bring it back.

Let's bring back. Yeah. So you've got some other ideas for monetization, but I love the strategy of having your guests as whether it's a referrer or the moneymaker itself becoming clients.

Right, right, Yep. I think that, I love that one. That one's, I think a really good one. Move on to the last one here and then we can continue. But the last thing I'll mention is doing like a marketing boost for your guest. So this simply means. And this might, you might need some help with this. Like work with somebody who knows this stuff. But if you don't, like no Facebook ads or Instagram or LinkedIn, all those things, you might want to sub out the work a little bit, which would make the cost go up a little bit. Basically the episode, imagine it's really good, you finish recording, you know that the guest has something they want to get out there. Like again, maybe an author, maybe some sort of coach, someone has some sort of new business or something like that they want to get out there, offer them saying, hey, I will do run some ads against this specific episode. I will get this blasted out there to people and you can actually say, hey, here's like, the cost. There's three options. Or just say, hey, we can run it a dollar a day for the rest of our lives, you know, like, as long as we want. We can run it for a year and just see how it goes. You might have a guest who goes, yeah, I've got a marketing budget. Let's do that. And here's the win for you. Keep a little bit, because it's your time or someone else's time, depending on how you do that. It's going to be used to create that.

Right.

So it needs to be a little bit of margin in there for you. But additionally, what are you bringing people to that you're not paying for? To your podcast, to your show?

Right?

Yeah. They're coming to your show. It's a total win win. Because if they come to your show to hear that guest, it's going to help the guests, but also it's going to drive up those download numbers. So that's another way you can monetize with a guest that I think brings you great business.

Right. And it's better if the ads are running from you about somebody else. It's better for them so they actually get more power than if they were promoting themselves in their own ad system.

Yes. At the end of the day, this is something I really believe in, and I've used this as a strategy. People are like, man, you never sell. I'm like, yeah, I don't really, but if I'm speaking an event, people like, tell us about yourself. I'm like, my name's Alex and I run a company. And then I just start talking, and then what happens is. Which is really powerful. The host is like, hold on a minute. Alex is being so humble. Let me tell you what Alex does. But them saying what I do versus me saying what I do, I mean, it's 10x more valuable because that person is the one that owns the stage and has all the clout with these people. So, yes, I'm a big fan of strategically holding back with what I do and letting someone else kind of sing my praises. Right. It's a lot better to do that. Like, I follow Jesus. That's just what I do. And in the Book of Proverbs, there's actually a verse that says something about that. Like, never be the one to call yourself up to the king's level. Wait to be Called to that level so you'll be honored and respected. Right. Like, that's kind of way I just live my life, let's put it that way.

Well, and it comes across in your community so well, because your community is not about affiliate pitching people, it's about serving people. And I really think that's the big difference. Your master classes and tell us a little bit about the kinds of classes that you run. But your master classes that you run with your events are, I mean, in depth, really useful topics. Are they creating them custom just for you? And, you know, how do you make that content so valuable?

Yeah. So the idea behind it is we want it to feel more like a TED Talk. And I wanted to use the name POD Talks, but I realized, I think that the TED Organization sues anyone that uses any three letters followed by the word talks. So I was just like, we're just going to call it Pod Pros Quarterly.

Anyway, let's stay away from that. We don't need that.

Exactly. Anyway, so we wanted to bring something in. It's like a short 12 to 16 minute talk. And these people are creating this content specifically for what we're doing. And maybe they reused it somewhere else, and that's perfectly fine. But basically, like, hey, what's the one thing that you know about being a podcast guest or host that could add value to other people? Like, what's that magic thing that you do? And it's always something really unique is what we look for. But the way we really build up the topics and I figure out who to reach out to, to invite is we actually have a question. When you join the POD Pros community that says, what's one thing that you're struggling with right now in your podcast or in your podcast guesting? And as people answer that, we actually not only respond and help right there, but we also build it into a spreadsheet and see what people are consistently asking about. And sometimes we get these weird trends that come through, like, oh, people want to know about talking in sound bites. And that was something we had someone talk about last quarter. People want to understand how to get better at that. So I found somebody on podmatch who's an expert at sound bites. That's what they train and teach. I'm like, hey, would you come speak about that and do a Q and A with us? And that type of thing is just, again, it goes back to looking for the problem and offering a solution. And that's what we've done with these events, and that's how we've gotten really unique content. And the thing is, it's not me going out there and learning it and sharing it. It's me finding someone who's already an expert in it and saying, hey, will you come share with the audience? And then we'll push all your stuff. If they want to enroll in a program, you have, let's do that. But at the end of the day, it's just, hey, can we add value to people answering the questions they're actually asking us?

Well, you know, that's so interesting. So I'm a personal fan of. I pretty much try everything that might be suggested to my platform. So if somebody wants to come in and teach something, I'm like, I need to try it first. I need to check it out myself. Because I consider myself the sort of gatekeeper for what the podcasters will find overwhelming or not. And I have a high tolerance for overwhelming myself. So, like, you know, my threshold's probably not like my clients, but I do that just in case. So I decided to check out your Podcast SOP site, and I'm going to share in the post. My post comments about my experience doing it. It's not for everyone. Like, I know that, like, it's a certain personality that really wants this, but I loved it personally, and I love the way that Podcast SOP is thinking about the things that people are missing and trying to make it simple. And that's really, you know, when I look at your binge factor overall, I'm going to say that I'm not just going to give you a binge factor for your show. And Alex Sanfilippo and Pod Pros Overall has their own binge factor, why you might binge in their community, why you might binge on their products, and why you'll definitely binge on his podcast. Podcasting Made simple. Thinking about what that is. It's because you're really dialing into the simplest value. And that simplest value is my takeaway already. So you've done the work for finding the takeaway for me. I so often have to go into a platform, go into a course, go find these people who want to be experts on my system to really go and figure out where the value lies. They're not good at communicating it. But, Alex, you are great at communicating the simple value of something, and that translates into a whole lot less time I have to spend as a listener and a podcaster figuring it out.

Yeah, that just made my day. I so appreciate you saying that means a lot at the end of the day. Like you got it exactly right. Like, I am looking to solve the simplest problem I can, to offer the. The simplest solution to what people have going on. And podcast sop, The SOP just stands for Standard Operating procedures in case somebody's wondering.

Yeah, I was skipping that. Cause I was like, if they didn't know what it was, they probably don't want to check it out.

And that's why we named it that. But. But, you know, like, going back to the problem we kept on seeing, people were leaving podcasting as soon as they started. One of the reasons is the stress involved. And I was like, hey, use trello. Try asana. You know, like, try these apps.

No way.

If they weren't familiar with them, I just gave them something that does 20,000 things. And although it's great, but I just told them, hey, you're struggling here. Struggle even more with this. Right. So we built it as a simple solution for someone saying, I want to be organized. Can you help me be organized? It's more than this. I'm going to oversimplify it, but it's a glorified checklist for your podcast. When you're releasing episodes, you can check through everything. You set up it up yourself, add your team members. I have seven people who run in there. I only have. Out of 39 tasks we have on our SOP for our podcast, I'm only assigned to four of them. And there's 39, and there's seven people who handle the rest of it. And I think it's a great thing. I love it. And I really appreciate the fact that you checked out. That shows so much integrity on your part. And just appreciate the fact that you figured out my binge factor. Right. I love that.

Well, so I really wanted to test myself. I'm going to say this now to you while you're on the air here with me. I wanted to test myself and see if I could simplify the process even more. Well, you know, I have the benefit of having potatoes behind me. Right. So, like, I don't have to list.

A small little thing. Right, Right.

Like, turn it over to the portal, record upload, done. Like, that's our mott over there. Right. So, of course I had that. So I was like, how many tasks do I. You know? And so, like, I would say, like, probably half of the tasks in there are my tasks only because that's the way I built it. And so when I built in my template and your SOP, I ended up with 10 tasks, and I was really proud of myself. I was like, that looks really doable. And even still, you could have. So if I looked at that, I really. I was five of them, and I probably was one that I almost never do, but I'm there in case they need to tag me on it. So really it's four of them. But I thought, wow, okay. So I have gotten it to a simple level, and that was a good aha for me, just doing that and working through it to realize that the rest of my systems and process really worked for me to automate things.

I love that it takes all podcasters so long to get to that point, but when I first started and I had somebody recently tell me this as well, I was like, I have over 100 things I do. And someone smart like you was like, no, you don't. They're like, you can like, wait, you're building this and this. You could do that at the same time. It's one thing. And I recently heard podcasts be like, oh, nothing like that could ever work for me because I have over a hundred tasks I do every time I release an episode. I'm like, there's no way. It's just. I know what podcasting is. You're not releasing a movie. You know, like, that's too many.

That's right.

I love that you got it down to a simpler form than I do. You challenged me. I'm at 39. I need some work. Apparently, I need.

You need some. Yeah, Simplification. There you go. But you know what? Everybody's different, right? And so everybody's process is different and their team is different. And so lucky for me, I just have a dialed in. And that really works for you.

You are the best in the biz, so it makes sense. You've got it down to. I'm going to get there. Maybe some consulting is an.

There you go. Well, it doesn't require consulting. Hey. It just requires a little bit of running through feed your brand or something like that. So we'll get those episodes connected to everybody so that they know how to do that.

I love it.

So, yeah, that'll be a lot of fun. So are you going to do podcasts for the SOP side? Because I think it might be a different audience.

Yeah, we actually. It's funny you mentioned that we have four of them that are done that are not released, but basically they are podcasters, and I'm just looking at small independent podcasters, what they're doing to release an episode, and I'm finding them in different spaces. And that's exactly what we're going to do, I don't know, is it'll be a podcast feed. Maybe it should. I'm not really sure yet. Again, maybe I should ask your advice on that. What we are going to do is help them. Like, they've built out their template, so people can assign that as their own template if they want to kind of see how somebody built it. But they're just going step by step with everything that they do. We've got four of those ready to go, which I'm really excited about. Cause I think just as an independent podcaster myself, hearing from another independent podcaster is great. I'm really not interested in how NPR releases a podcast episode. Not because they're not great, but because I don't care about the 3,000 tasks and $10,000 that goes into a single episode. That's not me. Never will be, I hope. But the person who's like, oh, I started a podcast and had this really great hack. Here's the 30 things I do. I would actually like to hear that and see if I can pick up anything and learn from it.

Well, I think that that helps people find the fit for them. So I actually think it would be really useful. It was publicly available, so if you sign into the SOP site, you actually can get to that. So podcast sop and you can get to it because they give you examples of the templates. So I've seen those four episodes.

Essentially, we have four new ones.

Sorry, we're four new ones from that. Four that are already there. Because you already have four there. So you can.

Yes, we do. So, yeah, we're working on eight. Yeah, we actually have. I think it was 78 people in addition have signed up to do one. So we're just going to have them. And it's similar. Like, it's not me interviewing them, it's them just talking to a camera, walking step by step. Maybe have a presentation if they want to show people. But. But yeah, so we have a bunch of them. I'm not sure what to do with the content past just sharing it there. So again, you and I are going to talk about that.

But yeah, we're going to have a strategy about that. That'll be a lot of fun. So anyway. But yeah, really brilliant over there, but different audience. And so this is where, like, I can't imagine your podcasting made simple. Like, it just doesn't go hand in hand with that. Right? Like, they're not the same audience. That's when you need a new feed. Right? Like, that's when you need a new show. And that makes sense for me there as a future for you. So podcasting Made simple, you switched it up this year and where is it going to go? Where do you want to see it in a year?

Yeah, I believe we're just going to really build in a catalog of helpful tips for people so that when I do meet people, they're coming in saying, man, I'm really struggling. Like, example, the sound bites. I'm struggling to speak in sound bites, which I, by the way, I'm totally struggling with. But, you know, like, I'm able to say, hey, here's an episode about that. Or somebody's like, wow, I really don't understand how to monetize my show. I can be like, hey, here's three options. And I probably would never send an option. I'd actually dive in a little further on what they like to do and then send them the direct thing. But we want to just build a good directory of education, and I think that's really the big vision for Pod Pros. Pass the softwares is really can we help educate this industry in a big way? So for us, it's going to be build that catalog out for the next year.

Gosh, I really hope that you take a dent out of the POD fade in the industry as well. Me too.

That is my. I have one big mission. It's that I really wanted to take a little chunk out of there. If we can make it 1% better, I am happy with that.

Oh, well, I love it. Well, Pod Pros is an amazing community. You all have to check it out. Podcasting Made Simple Podcast must listen. For those of you aspiring and existing podcasters out there who want to get to a much more simple process and focus on the things that really matter and the impact. Alex Sanfilippo, thank you for being here today.

I appreciate you an honor to be here. Thanks so much, Tracy.

Oh my gosh, we could have talked for hours here. Obviously, Alex and I are very aligned in our visions for where things are going to go. And I so wanted to share with you some of the great things that I have taken away from PodMatch and Podcast SOP, his two sites that are part of Pod Pros. So you can go to Pod Prose itself. You can of course go to the blog post for this episode at the binge factor, orditize.com, depending on which podcast you're listening to this on, and you can go check out these tools within that. But what I wanted to share with you with about podmatch is that what I found to be the most useful part was for me to sort of look through it from a podcaster's perspective and look at guests and sort of go through there and find some people who had fill out their profiles, really done a good job. And when they've really filled out their profile there, I find them to be better guests if they just are kind of casual in it or, you know, just kind of like basically put their name and link to something like their bio or their one sheet and that's it. Then I find them to not be as good a guest. And there's two reasons for it. One, I find that the case because sometimes they have an agent that is working for them and the agent is kind of lazy in how they're doing that. So the agent is actually the one using pod match, not the actual guest. And so you're not going to have an actual conversation with them. So I find that that happens sometimes. So watching out for a completely filled out profile is one of my keys to making sure that the guest is a really good match for me, because I can really see it in there without having to have a conversation, getting them excited about it, and really then having to reject them. I don't like to reject people, so it's kind of like just one of those things. I don't like to reject them unless I. So I'd rather wait to invite them if they're the right fit. But the other part is when I find less value in people reaching out to me, I find they often are just blanket doing it, which they're not supposed to on POD Batch, but they do do it and they go and they just pick a bunch of people and they haven't actually listened to my show. And that's because I have a couple of shows registered there. And so I know that the binge factor, for instance, when it's registered there, I only take other podcasters as guests and I get lots of authors that apply. So obviously they didn't even read the first sentence that's in my bio over there and that says, unless you're a podcaster, please don't apply. And so they don't follow those directions. And if they can't follow those directions, then really I feel that they're going to be too pushy on my show and so I reject them outright. So I probably reject 99% of the people that apply because they aren't even reading that. And that's not a really good ratio for it. It should be better. So if you're out there and you're trying to match yourself to someone, read their profile, read their little blurb about their show, about them. It gives you an insight into what they're looking for. So either when you send the message you can be a better match for them, or you can make sure that you're not wasting your time applying to a show or trying to match yourself to a show. That's not going to happen over there. So just some tips for how I use podmatch, but I do love it. It's a really rich environment. There's lot of shows on there. If you've heard Mark Hirschberg on my show and he's actually got an upcoming episode that's going to come up again, he mentions using PodMatch exclusively. And when he was on my show originally, I was his 99th interview. And a lot of those he had gotten through PodMatch. And I think he's told me in the new episode that's going to air that he has matched himself 300 times on podmatch. So I know he can do a great job and he's great at figuring that out and reading everything. So I know you can find the right match. If you're looking for it, you're just not screening through that. So make sure you take the time to do that. It's going to be worth it in the end. You're going to get a lot more valuable placements and a lot more valuable shows. And I know Mark has sold a ton of books from his shows, so from the episodes he's guested on. So you can do this too. So use PodMatch podcast SOP. This is for those. We call them Green Blue people because we use the Herman brain dominance model of it. You know, you might heard of all those, you know, mind mapping or psychological profiling, those kinds of things. Well, we use Herman Brain dominance here, and that's blue green. If you are a to do list person, Podcast SOP is for you. If you're a completionist and you like to feel like, oh, I just completed that and checked it off my list, podcast SOP is for you. And if you are the person who really just needs to see this all mapped out for yourself, podcast SOP is for you. But here's the one person that I think is going to discount and not go to Podcast sop, but should you should go to Podcast sop. If you are managing a team of people and need to give them directions or ensure that the team is always updated on what you want and how to do it. So it's a very easy way to lay it out. You lay it out like a to do list. You write some descriptions, but more importantly, you can put instructions in there, which could be a tutorial video for how you like to do it. Like, I have a really specific process for how I title episodes. So if I'm not going to do the titling, but I've decided to hire an assistant or hire a copywriter to help me with this, I can lay out a tutorial video for how I use the CO Schedule headline tool, which is what I use, and how I use it, and how I judge whether or not a headline is good enough. And I can use that as part of the instructions. So if my assistant gets replaced at any point or I lose them or and I hire in a new one, I've got it all in one place, all easy to go. So you can use this for training and tutorial in addition to being a map of your process. So if you have to do that and really handle a bunch of different assistants and juggle this, this is a great place to do it. And hopefully you can sub out to your assistant to create the template and do it if that's not in your vision. So then you can just oversee it, check it off, say, yeah, it's not missing any pieces, and you didn't even have to do the work either. So there's a really great process for how to add people to it, add users to it. I really think it's a really interesting tool. I've invited my entire team to it. They haven't gotten on yet to try it out yet, but I half expect them to go, wow, this is really interesting. I'm finally seeing how the process works. I'm seeing now what Tracy does on the front of the show, and now I know why she's asked me to do these things. So I think it's all working and that you're starting to see a full process in how your podcast is being processed. And of course, as I mentioned on the show too, alex, mine's only 10. And that's because I use the potatoes system, right? So, like, you know, our productized system is taking on and doing the 29 other tasks that has to do with editing and processing and doing that. And instead mine's one light on room saying, wait for it, right? So I've simplified it because of that. But you don't have to do that. You can add in your own tasks in there as well. So anyway, I really think you should check out Pod Pro's community. Check out Podcast sop, check out podmatch, if you haven't already. Those are definitely things. And I'm so glad Alex Samplopo came on the show Podcasting Made Simple. He gave you some great tips today. Take them to heart, use them, utilize some of these ideas. And that's the really brilliant thing about Alex, is that he's always got some great idea that he's pursuing, but it is in the spirit of making your life simpler as a podcast, in the spirit of making the world better for all of us podcasters. And Podcasting Made simple is really focused on making sure that we stop pod fading, that we can dedicate ourselves to our podcasting process. And this is where, like I said before, Alex and I are completely aligned with our vision for the podcasting industry. So I hope by bringing you to Alex and bringing Alex to you, that we are able to move this podcasting industry forward and keep you podcasters motivated, moving, inspired, and keep it simple. Thanks everyone for listening. I'm Tracy Hazzard and I'll be back next time with another interesting podcaster and their binge factor.

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