Produce A Powerful Business Podcast With Tracy Hazzard Entrepreneur Experts Cafe With Kimberly Hobscheid

Hello and welcome to the Entrepreneur Experts Cafe, sponsored by Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel. I am Kimberly Haubscheid, your host and the creator of the Facebook community Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, a community by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs and experts, helping them get to their business, to the next level. Come join the community at www.entrepreneursrocketfuel.com Facebook and join the conversation. Today I'm interview Tracy Hazard. Tracy is an expert on podcasting, both launching a podcast, doing a podcast, getting guests on podcasts. Welcome, Tracy, to the Entrepreneur Experts Cafe.

Thank you so much, Kimberly, and happy to be here. Love to talk to entrepreneurs all the time.

I know, right? It's a good group of human beings.

That's right.

So you and I met a little while ago and I know some about your background, but our audience does not. So can you share with us a little bit about how you got into this and why podcast?

So I was like other entrepreneurs and small business owners out there. I was like hidden behind the scenes. No one knew who I was. I was this great expert, but actually, for me, I was even worse. I was actually a ghost designer. So I was totally hidden. People didn't know that I designed stuff Martha Stewart wasn't going to admit. I helped design her new. Her new office furniture, like, things like that. So I had no way to get my name out there. And in that struggle, I started to look at what was the options. So six years ago, we started our first podcast. It was on something really geeky like 3D printing. And it turned out that, yeah, it was fun. And it is still fun. We still do it. And the thing about it is that what we found was a powerful marketing tool that we hadn't had for getting our voice, getting us getting seen, heard and found. And that's really been the thing. And so people started saying, would you just do this for me? And we ended up with a business before you knew it.

Awesome. Well, I know that a lot of people are thinking about starting a podcast, especially entrepreneurs, because if they're anywhere in my Facebook group, they've heard me say, if you're not being seen, you're being overlooked. If you're not being heard, your message isn't getting out there. So I really love that you're helping people get their message out there. But a lot of people are thinking about starting a podcast. But what do you think gets people stuck? Why do you think people don't actually go into, yes, I'm doing it?

Well, you know what? There's the sense of overwhelm. There's a lot to learn A lot to do. And the problem with most launching of almost any type of type of product. And I've done this for, you know, 30 years. So, like, a lot of that launching something is harder than doing it. But we. So we get caught up in that launching stage of things that. Where it's like, there's so much things to learn. There's so much little things. But I'm a big fan of, unless I need to learn this to utilize it day after day after day as I continue podcasting, then maybe I should just pay someone to do that and have someone else do it for me. I don't want to learn it. I don't want to take a course on it. I don't want to have a lesson. I just want it done for me. And that's really where. If time is more important to you than your money, that's the place you go to, especially in the launching of just about anything that I've had experience with. That's a phase at which just stop worrying about how to do it and go find somebody who can do it for you and then learn the things that are going to serve you really well. Like maybe great interview tactics.

Right.

Those will serve you well week after week.

Absolutely. I think that's really powerful because I do try to share with people that even though we're still. We don't have to do it all alone. Right. We don't have to be an expert on everything. We don't have to be an expert on HR and legal and all that stuff. Even though ultimately it's our responsibility to get it right, it's not necessarily our responsibility to do all of the pieces to it and learn everything there is to know about everything. So if you love building your own website, that's great. I loved building mine until one day I didn't. Now somebody else does that for me because it would break if I kept doing it. And I've forgotten about most of it. Right?

That's right.

Launching anything. Right. And maybe getting it up and started could be like a real part where people freeze. Do you find that that's probably true? It is.

It's a part where they freeze. And then a lot of people also, of course, there's a confidence level right there. So there's always that segment of confidence level in that. And I have, you know, some clients that, frankly, we did all their setup, we got all the strategy in place, and then they don't record, so they freeze when it comes to being in front of the microphone. And that's where you have a confidence level about your message, your voice, your value in the world, that's a whole different thing to work on. Right? I can only do so much coaching to do it. And we have tactics and I'll share a quick one with you. We have tactics for people to get started quickly to pull that band aid off and get recording. The first thing is, is that if you're going to do interview shows, do an interview first with someone you know well enough that if it goes horribly wrong and you need to rerecord it, they won't be offended. But not your best friend, because that's also not the best thing either. So find someone who's a good enough acquaintance that you know they can understand this is your first time. But do the interview because when you have that booked on your calendar, you will show up and record it. So you will do it. So it forces you into the moment to do that. Then the second thing is you do your biggest, most favorite topic. So if you're going to do topic based episodes or you're going to do that kind of thing, do your biggest, your number one question people ask you and just do an episode on that. Because you could talk about that all day long and then try to limit yourself to 20 minutes, you know, or 30 minutes, minutes on that one. But do that and then do your introduction episode, which is sort of like, what's the show about? What am I about? What's my story? And you do that one last. Because it's like trying to write the introduction chapter to your book. Right? We all know how hard that is and you should never write it first.

I agree with that. That's totally true. And that's. Those are really good tips to get people over the hump. So now, like, they got off the hump and they launched their podcast, or at least they started recording and they have these like, episodes. What do they do with them next? Like, do they get stuck in technology? What happens? What happens after? They're like, okay, I recorded this, but now what? How do I get it up on itunes? How do I get it out there?

Well, and here's the thing, like, this is a lot of tech in there. There's a lot of that in there. And so when I started this business six years ago, and the way that this went was that I did it for myself first. Figured out what the team I needed, what the technical skills. I wanted to train them. I trained them. I had techniques, I had tactics. And the whole goal was to make sure that I was found like, that's what my goal was, to make sure that the Google algorithm that, the itunes algorithm, that, all of those things served me up so people would find me in my. In my topic and in my content. So we did that and we were. It was so powerful that people literally started shoving credit cards at us saying, would you do this for me? Because I don't want to learn this. And so that's really, you know, if you're in that place where you don't have the tech skills and I have people who can't plug in, you know, USB microphones. So, you know, if you're a tech challenge, that's not for you. This is not for you. Go hire a production service company. Come to us if you want to. You know, like that kind of thing. It's like it's. There are a lot more resources were than there were five, six years ago when I didn't have that option to really work with anyone. So I could get someone to edit my sound, but I couldn't get someone to blog it for me. So, you know, to develop those full service packages and all that. They exist today. So go out and find that if you don't have the technical skills, but if you do, there's a hundred million tutorials out there. So go to the people who've been there, done it again and again, who have done the most, not someone who did it once, started a show, and then decided to teach a course on it. Let's do it to the person who, who publishes every day, who does it every day. Right. And then the technical side of getting on to itunes and stitcher and you know, it's funny because when the big podcast, podcast events put out a thing about all the different directories you should go register yourself in. And I sit back and I say, no, that should be the job of your host. So as a podcast host, a hosting company like that distribute shows, it's our job to technically making sure you're showing up everywhere. You shouldn't have to do that yourself. So find a good service bureau, find someone who can help you with that.

But when people come to you, have they generally already started their show? Do they feel like they want to create a show? Do they have sort of. Did they have a business and they're trying to get the word out about it or where are they when people usually come to you first?

So usually we are probably the biggest in the business sort of side of podcasting. So people have a business, they have a mission, they have a message. They want to get out there. And they come to us to help them with strategy launching and production after the fact. So we do the whole syndication to get them on the different platforms. So we take that whole approach to them and get them started. So that's a lot of our clients, but there are also those that already started it and then said, wow, this is working for me, but I feel like I should take it up to the next level. I feel like I should do more with it. I feel like I've got this podcast. Why don't I have my videos distributing and why don't I have my blogs going? Like, what? I see all these people who are doing that. Why can't I? And those people come to us as well. So that's the type of. We have. We have over 350 shows that are actively producing today. So we have a lot that are in production at all times. And, you know, some of them start in the beginning and some of them start midstream and, like, say, I got to take this more serious.

All right, well, what do you think the biggest mistake people do in maybe like, losing interest? I think is oftentimes a thing, right? So they start the podcast, they get excited about it, they record 5, 10, 20, maybe 30 episodes, and then they're like, kind of over it. Like, how do you stop that from happening?

Well, yeah, so we call it pod fading. It actually has a term because it's so common. There are a million. Pod. Yeah, it has a term. There are a million podcasts listed on Apple podcasts today. Itunes, most people know it as. But it's actually Apple podcasts. So there's a million of them, but they're only 350,000 actively producing. So all those other ones, pod faded, they quit it. And so now I don't consider quitting it. If you did a hundred shows or more, you did your. You did your time, you're done with that show, your business shifted. Like, that's okay. But when you quit at less than 11 or less than 23, which are the two numbers, the most common is like, you'll quit in, like, the ones, twos, the 11 and 23. If you quit there, you've pod faded because you didn't have a plan. You didn't think it through about the strategy of how you were going to utilize this. And you didn't give it enough time to give you a return on investment. So you didn't have X metric expectations in place that were realistic and viable. And that's because probably a lot of them get out there and somebody's like, all you got to do is just start. Well, no, you need to think about it and then start. Like let's be clear that I totally want you to start fast, but let's just do a little strategic thinking so it really works for us better. So the number one mistake I find is that they don't get as many listeners. And that's what it happens. It's like people are downloading my show. I have like a hundred people or I have 50 and they get frustrated with that. But if it's the 50 perfect people who want exactly what you have, what's wrong with that? Let's just reset our mind to thinking about what's right for that. So the strategy of am I really focusing on the right people and do I my numbers are realistic for that target that I'm doing And does it really matter how many they are? No, it only matters how engaged. And the conversion to that to what your business goal was.

That's right. Because it's all about making money in the end or making a business in the end or making the impact that you want to make. Alright, awesome. So clearly you're the expert, Tracy, on podcasting and launching a podcast. If people want to get to know you and start working with you directly, what's the best way for them to do that?

Well, we have, our company is called Potatize, which is like Monetize but pot at the beginning. So potatise.com is the easiest way way to find our company and our business. And we have all kinds of things where we can have strip free strategy calls and different kinds of things to evaluate your platform and where you are. But if you want to follow me, you can follow me anywhere. On social media, Hazard has two Z's in it. So it's Tracy Hazard with two Z's. And I also have a couple of podcasts. So you can listen to the binge factor and you can listen to Feed you'd brand. Those two are podcasts for podcasters or aspiring podcasters.

Awesome. So that's the binge factor, which I love. It's about like binge watching or binge listening. Yeah. And what's the other one?

And the other one's called feed you'd brand. And it's more tactical and sort of tools to really launching and promoting and working on your show from a strategic standpoint, but from a tactical standpoint too.

Awesome. And then for our podcast listeners who are maybe driving in the car, let's spell it out for them. How do you spell potatoes.

So it's P O-E-T-I Z E.com and Hazard. As I said, it's H A Z Z A R D. Perfect.

Ok, great. Tracy, thanks so much for carving time out of your day today to be here with us. I definitely appreciate it. Before we let you go, are there any final words for our crew?

So I just want to say to all of you out there is that being an entrepreneur is stressful. There's a lot of things you should do, right? But you know what? There are some things that make it just streamlined and easy for to get a lot of different things accomplished, and I love those things. That's what I dive deep into. So when you can find something that you only have to do once, but you get to reuse again and again, that's powerful. And that's what I found for podcasting.

Fantastic. I really appreciate the words of advice. Thanks so much, Tracy, for being here. All right, folks, I'm Kimberly Hobscheid with the Entrepreneur Experts Cafe. Please join the community and the conversation@entrepreneursrocketfuel.com and we'll see you next time.

Cheers.