Scaling Your Business Rapidly With Chris Reynolds of The Business Method Podcast

Wish you were one of those influencers with raving fans who binge on your every word, consume all your content, buy everything you have to sell, and demand even more. Then stay tuned while Authority Magazine columnist and buzzfeed contributor Tracy Hazzard shares strategies, tips and tactics from top videocasters, podcasters, authors and social influencers on creating that bingeable factor. Now let's join Tracy as she explores how to rise above all noise with the binge factor.

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Feed you'd brand center of Influence where I interview top podcast influencers. People who are getting stuff done, who are getting their podcasts noticed, who are movers and shakers in the podcast industry and are using podcasting to become authority. Not just the center of influence, but the center of authority influence. I've got a great podcaster for you today. I couldn't wait to interview him and it's taken us a while to get our schedules coordinated because he is based in Thailand most of the year and traveling the rest. Chris Reynolds, the Business Method Podcast Just love his show. I love what he's about there. He's been interviewing top influencers and he has a really, I'm going to say a business focus to it. So he asks questions in a really great way on the show. So he's not just running through this like let's get to know this influencer, let's get to know this person. When he does interviews, he has a very business minded questioning process. I really appreciate that because it helps to get to some things that you don't hear on every show. So even if you've heard his guests before, I definitely recommend you tune in.

To listen to the Business Method Podcast.

And listen to his interview because he always does get it at a little bit more intimate and deeper level for the business side of things. So Chris Reynolds is the founder of the Business Method and get shit done live.

We'll talk about that a little bit.

The Business Method helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses rapidly using high performance productivity techniques. Chris has been an entrepreneur since 2007 and he left the USA in 2011 to travel the world while growing business. Over the years he has created business accelerators While interviewing over 300 successful interview while interviewing over 300 successful entrepreneurs on the Business Method Podcast, including people like Steven Kohler, author of Bold and Abundance, Tim Rogers, former partner of George Soros, John Lee Dumas.

Can't miss interviewing him.

Number one Business podcaster Casey Fenton, founder of Coach Surfing and Ron lynch, the marketing mind that took GoPro from 600,000 to 600 million. Currently, Chris focuses on helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses in life using research driven, high performance techniques. I'm so glad I could bring him here to you and talk a little bit more about that middle section, that section in between podcasting and how you benefit from podcasting or how you monetize it in your own business. So let's talk to Chris.

So, hey, Chris, thanks so much for joining me today. I'm really excited to talk to you because you probably talk to as many influencers as I have. You've been on a new bend of Right. In your show. You have a new series about interviewing 100 influencers. How many are you at at this point?

I think we're just over 50 now, so. Yeah, but we had a lot of influencers on the other podcast series that we did too. I don't know.

Yeah, that's what it is. It's like I've kind of lost count. I've interviewed so many people at this point. Yeah, yeah, I love that. And you put out the summary episodes, which I really enjoyed because you talk about what you've learned so far and I think your learnings and my learnings are lining up really well.

You're starting to get at that stage where there's this sign that influencer marketing might be in decline.

Yeah. It's really interesting. I compare it a lot to the used car salesman. And there's a place for the used car salesman back in the day, but the stereotypical negative Persona. And many influencers are getting that because of sloppy influence. And Fireside Festival is a perfect example of that.

It is the perfect example. Yes, exactly. You call it sloppy influencing, and I agree with you. I think that it is.

Focus is wrong.

They're seeking dollars, they're not seeking service.

Yeah. And as much as any of us are money driven, we really have to focus on being adding value to be a great business and to make a lot of money. Right. And if we're not adding an incredible amount of value, then eventually that business or service will fade out.

That's right.

And that's what we're seeing with influencers.

Yeah. So ironic that this series is the center of influence, but what we're seeing, though, is that we're moving to a stage of what I call authority influencers. So they need to be deep authorities.

Experts in their niche.

They need to be able to talk about it for hundreds of episodes on end. They need to be passionate about it, excited about it. And so it isn't just this, like, let's interview anyone and let's affiliate, sell anything. It doesn't work like that.

Yeah, I mean, I think there always will be the few that can make that happen. But really, when it comes down to it, I mean, reputation is everything in business. And once you soil your reputation as a entrepreneur, as an influencer, that can go really far and destroying whatever business that you built, image and profile that you built. So you're absolutely right.

So you've been through a couple iterations of your podcast, which is actually really typical. So I love that. I mean, it's typical to someone who's committed to podcasting, though. There's this stage of people who quit. I call them the pod faders, who quit under 25 episodes.

Right.

They were not serious about it. They were not invested in podcasting. They didn't know what they were getting into. But if you get to 100 episodes.

And you start shifting your show or you quit for a little while and.

Then restart a different show, it shows you that it just wasn't quite right.

For you and you figured out a.

New formula and that's what you've done.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I started the podcast testimonials for people that were coming to our business accelerators, and I just wanted people to get inside of those business accelerators that we had and so they knew what it was like. And then I ran out of testimonials and I was like, well, these stories that we're having at dinner are just as powerful because we're just talking at lunch or dinner about content marketing or copywriting or whatever, Facebook ads, and it's extremely valuable for people. And so I decided to do a hundred episodes in a hundred days with six figure entrepreneurs and hire. And that was fun and I enjoyed it a lot. And so then I did a hundred episodes of seven figure location independent entrepreneurs because that's on the move too. This digital nomad location independence thing is gaining more and more popularity. And what's great is there's a lot of people out there there that are no longer just backpackers with a laptop making a thousand, $2,000 a month and traveling the world. There's people that are traveling the world consistently building seven figure solid businesses. So we did a hundred of those interviews and now we're doing the a hundred major influencers. And I think really, like, I need to have these changes in series just because of my entrepreneurial add. It's important to focus on one thing. But if I focus, for me personally, if I focus on one thing too long, I burn out. So I've got to have like that little diversity just to keep me going.

Sorry about that. We have a phone actually ringing in our office, which never happens, like, so I just muted it. It's so funny. Like, we don't really have phones here and yet all of a sudden this phone that I don't even know where it is in our office starts ringing. We're in such a different world, but so interesting.

What I love about your show, first off, it's called the Business Method Podcast.

It was, of course, I introduced you with that. But just to be really clear here.

I like that you call it the.

Business method because we're not just focusing.

On influence for influence sake. You're focusing on how that becomes a business.

And I think that's really what we're looking at here, is that so often we get into these, I'm going to.

Call them trendy ways to make money.

I'm just going to burn through Facebook ads, I'm just going to become a podcaster. I'm just going to do these things.

Because this is a trendy thing to.

Do and everybody's doing it and I'll burn it through till Instagram TV takes off, whatever the next thing is. Yeah, but that's not a sustainable business.

No, no, it's not. And there's an art to the creativity of what influencers are doing now. And I mean legitimate influencers to creating a solid foundation in whatever innovation that they're working at. Like take Laird Hamilton, for example. We just interviewed him recently. So that's why I'm using him, the number one big wave pro surfer in the world, biggest name for big wave surfing, and rode the biggest waves, the most impossible waves ever. He's not an entrepreneur, he's an innovator in the surf industry, windsurfing, foil, surfing world. And because of that, because of his name and the risks that he took and the things that he did, he now has awesome, amazing businesses, multiple businesses under that image. And people have done that in the past, but with social media and the Internet the way that it is now, they couldn't do it as powerful or easily, I would say, as we can these days. And so this is why so many people are jumping on the bandwagon of influencers. Because they see people like Laird Hamilton or other sports stars or movie stars or musicians or whatever it may be, other innovators or creative types that get this following and then they make a lot of money from the businesses behind that. Even YouTubers are great examples of this. And then what it really comes down to is they put the time and work in this image and then set up a team to create a really great business, a sustainable business.

But that's key. What you're talking about there is that team and then building that into sustainable business. Because what we find is, I've been there, done that once. That's what I coaches. Yeah, the gurus have been there, done that once. Yeah, I sold a million dollars on Amazon and great, I'm going to teach a course on this and oh, too bad it's three years later and the formulas don't work anymore. Right. That's not an okay model to me. But that's what we see a lot of. And it's the ones, though. I mean, you're talking about somebody who is an evident expert in what he does. And so lending that and then building a business off of that is very legitimate and a great way to use influence. And I call it an authority. Right, because they're building that off of.

The authority of what their expertise in thousand percent.

Yeah, yeah. It's the old school celebrity model which the influencers adopted early on. I think that where you're like, I can hawk anything. Like you said, like a used car salesman. I can hawk anything because I have this million followers. But that only lasts so long and it requires something deeper now.

Yeah. And what you see a lot of is people jumping from thing to thing because, okay, maybe back in the day they could do black hat SEO and then maybe they could just get their Instagram profile up big if they were early adopters. But if they're just jumping from thing to thing again, they're not building a sustainable business. They're just going from thing to thing or business model to business model to try to make a quick buck. And all of a sudden they're onto the next thing. And you see that quite often in the entrepreneurial world. But you're not going to build long term, great reputation, sustainable business, passive income if you don't sit there and do the work that you need to.

Right, right, absolutely. Well, let's talk about your business method. So for you, it's not just a podcast, it is a business. So what is your monetization model?

How is your business developed out of this?

Yeah, so we use the podcast as a marketing funnel and it brings people to our events and services that we do. And the majority of our events and services are all around helping entrepreneurs grow. So we have courses, we have a live event. That's actually why I'm down in Thailand now and then we do coaching as well. And so we focus around those three things and we help people become more productive, more focused. We help them teach them about productivity, high performance productivity, and growing their businesses, changing their mindset, helping them understand flow states, the neurochemistry, or the neurochemistry and neuroscience of productivity and what's working. And it's great because neuroscience is really on the cusp of understanding flow states and productivity more and more every single day. And so it's really fun to teach entrepreneurs these little tricks and little hacks and little tools, little methods that they can use that really have a significant impact on their life. And we have an event every fall down in Thailand, October, November, and it's called Get Shit Done live. And it's 10 days.

Love that.

Yeah. And we have entrepreneurs from all around the world come and we sit there and we do check in sessions. We have accountability groups, small groups, and we work together to build business together. And it's really incredible because people get out of their normal workspace to come down to work on one major project for 10 days and they can pump out so much work in such a little time because they're really, really, really focused and they're in a good environment to do that.

You know what I really liked about that is that you're in some ways adopting a Sprint model, but outside of a big corporation where most entrepreneurs cannot do that on their own, they don't have the community around them, they don't have the other team members. That really is what makes Sprints successful. And so you're providing that environment in there. And so it's not like an incubator either. You're not only focusing on one profile of company that you're really going to build.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah. So how did that kind of come out? How did you decide that the podcasting.

Model was the way to really be your lead generator?

I was just enjoying it and it was working. And so I tried it out and we started getting traffic from it. We got a lot of great feedback from it. We got a lot of collaborators, great minds on the podcast and it started working and it worked. And then I put it towards creating business model under that and it's worked.

So what has been some interesting or funny things that have happened to you since you started podcasting?

Oh, here's a really good story. You know what a squatty potty is?

I do, yeah.

So being a location independent entrepreneur, we're always in. Quite often we're in different cities. So my girlfriend has an actual legitimate business and co working space in Rio de Janeiro. And one day the coworking space was just completely full and it was loud and packed. And I had scheduled a podcast interview with the co founder of the Squatty Potty, Bobby Edwards. And so I was just thinking, and this is one of my first a hundred for sure podcast. And so I still had wet feet. And I didn't know, you know, I was just going by the flight of my pants. I didn't know if this was going to be a real thing or not. So there's an alley beside her co working space. So I was like, well, I know the wi fi reaches to the alley. I'll just do this interview outside because I have nowhere else to do it. The co working space is really loud right now. And I was stressed out and this was the biggest person that I'd ever had on the show. And I was shocked, actually, that we even got him on the show. And so we got online and Bobby had just left an interview on the View.

Oh, no. So you're by contrast, right?

And I'm like, oh my God, this guy was just on national television with millions of people watching. And now he's on my podcast. And I'm in the alley in Brazil recording this thing. And I have my microphone. There's literally like church bells in the background and I'm trying to mute as best as possible. But Bobby is. Was just an amazing human being and it turned out to be one of my favorite shows. It was a great interview. He ended up singing on the microphone some song.

Awesome.

And he's just a really, really good person and a humble guy and everything. And so I don't think he knew I was in the alley. I never told him, but that was when I was like, okay, this is a thing. Like this is a real life thing.

And I'm gonna have to treat a little bit more professional so I don't feel so stressed.

Right, exactly.

So you have, gosh, you're headed up to 500 episodes right now, right?

So I'm at 300 episodes, but it says 420.

Yeah, it does.

We started at episode 100. And so my mom always told me to start invoices at like a thousand and write checks.

So you did that with your podcast. I was curious about it because I was looking for your first 100 episodes because at this thing most podcasters, especially new podcasters, don't realize is that itunes will drop you off after 300. So you've got this sort of volume issue that you have to deal with. So I figured you had a back volume somewhere and I'm like looking for it and I can't find it. So that's why I had to ask. I like that. I like that you started at 101.

Yeah, yeah. So we're at like 3.25ish now, somewhere around there.

And have you come to a better system? Like, do you feel like you're like, it's cranking now, it's rocking. I'm on a path. I know what I'm doing.

Or do things still go wrong?

Yeah, I think both. So I'm on a better system for sure. Things are rocking for sure. But things still go wrong for sure, don't they?

For all of us? Yeah.

I think it's just with business and life and our outreach is really great right now because we've had so many amazing people, more amazing people want to come on the show. So that's really great. I've got a lot of people on the show that I never even dreamed that I could have even a year ago. And we've got great people editing the podcast and taking care of the back end and doing the promotions and social media and stuff like that. So that's awesome. Things happen every once in a while. Because I'm a traveler, I kind of admire you because you're more stationed and you have a podcasting studio, but every new city that I go to, I've got to find a new place to make sure we have great wi fi and a good podcasting area. So, like, we did two really big interviews three weeks ago, and I'm like, okay, I was working out of my apartment and I was like, these are too big to have any mistakes. So I had to go find a place to rent for the day. And so it's different with this lifestyle because we are traveling so much, but it comes with the territory because there's a lot of benefits to it as well.

Well, as you may realize from having booked on my show that it took you so long to get on my show, that actually the real reason that is because I restrict it to only the times when I am in my office for podcasting. So I book them up on those days. So when I am in my office. But you know what it is? It's because I don't like that model of where you are, where you're like, where am I going to interview? Because typically when I am on the road, I'm speaking or I'm in the.

Midst of a conference. So finding a quiet Corner, finding a.

Place, it just never works out. And I've had some horrible experiences. So that's why I limit my schedule this way. Because I'm like, I want to be the professional on the other side. So I get that it is challenging what you're doing.

Yes, it can be. And then you end up in an alley in Brazil.

That's right, that's right. But actually that's why we reinvented our new product, our self recording microphone though for being on the road, just so that we can record anywhere with no equipment, just the microphone.

So we just launched it in pre.

Order this like two days ago. So we're excited about it. Yeah. But it came out of just quickly tell you the story. Funny that in a bad interview with Gary Vee. So I was behind State backstage at an event and they were running the interview gauntlet. If you've ever done that and you get like three minutes each person and it's a nightmare because there's always noise around you. It's like so hard. So I had a zoom device, two XLR cables with two microphones in them, like equipment everywhere. And I was like, I can't hold this stuff and shake his hand and it's dark backstage.

So I set the zoom device on the floor gently.

He walks up, I shake his hand, I hand him a microphone.

We start going.

And it is like an incredible three minutes. Like his people are trying to get us off because Common is actually warming up on stage. So there's this background noise of music.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. Bad music. Because it's warming up, right? It's warm up music. It's not even good. So the whole thing is like getting anxious for everybody else.

But the interview is going so well.

And so I don't even remember what I asked. Like that's how in the zone it was. Have you ever done that? You know, you're like, wow, that was so good. And then you listen back and you're.

Like, I asked that.

Wow, good for me. You know, that kind of thing. That's what it was like.

He gets done, he goes, great question.

Shakes my hand and walks away. And I'm thinking, Gary B.

Just told me great questions, awesome.

I'm so excited. I pick up my zoom device and it's dead. Those batteries died.

Oh, no.

Because you know those devices, they don't give you any warnings. There's no flashing lights, they just go blank. That's what happened. Didn't get one single question. Nothing. And I pick up the phone and I scream at my partner. Who's my husband and start yelling at him that this is ridiculous. I feel like a bag lady. I've got all this equipment, it's not working. Like, this is never gonna happen again. I'm not doing any more of these lives, which is why my schedule looks the way it looks. And two weeks later, he shows me this drawing of this new microphone and I was like, oh my God, that's brilliant. Let's do that. And so that's how it happened. But we come from 25 years of doing product design, so don't think that just like the invention just went like that. No, it came out of 25 years of knowing what we're doing and actually having factories we know can make it happen.

But still these kinds of things happen. You're challenged by your environment as a podcaster.

You've got to figure it out.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to check out that microphone because it sounds like something that we could use. Well, good.

We'd love for it.

So how has your position as a podcaster, though, helped improve your authority? Like, are you getting more speaking engagements? What's happened with that sort of influence.

And authority for you?

Yeah, it has helped it incredibly. So, like I hit up for to speak at conferences quite often just because of the people that I surrounded myself with. And so when it kind of started, when I interviewed the second series, 107 figure location independent entrepreneurs and all these conferences that wanted to get a panel of seven figure entrepreneurs or wanted to cross promote, they started reaching out to me. And so I would get more speaking gigs or more opportunities to work with people, and it was great. And literally like 2019 has been pretty chaotic, especially since April. Like I've done, I'm doing either two speaking gigs around two speaking gigs a month, which isn't a lot for a lot of people, but as you travel, like it's quite often it can be.

A lot when you're traveling from other places in the world.

Yeah. And this is my third interview today online, which is great. And so it just continues to grow and people want to do more interviews talking about the influence influencers or influencer marketing or seven figure location independent businesses and this sort of thing. So, yeah, it's a podcast and this comes from Yaro Stark's mouth. I interviewed him, if you know him, old school podcaster entrepreneur, and he said podcasting is the best networking hack you'll ever find. And I completely agree with him.

I agree too, because I like that face to face. I like the networking, I love that. But it's just not possible with the schedules and being able to run a business and do all of that, to be able to cram that in the way that you used to be able to go to an event and have a thousand people and you'd meet lots of. It doesn't work like that anymore. So you're right. It absolutely is a great hack. So normally I'd be asking people about, you know, how to start, what, your advice for starting a podcast and all of that.

But I want to focus on a little different section with you because you've.

Dialed that part in, and I think.

That'S a missing link for so many startup podcasters.

You've really dialed in that I've got my podcast going and it's really got a great audience and I'm cranking with that.

But now, how did you go with really getting that funneling into getting people to show up at your events and.

Getting that section of it, that part of traditional funnel, but that part of.

It working for you?

How did you make that work?

A couple ways. One is through Warm Network and then also through just growing the podcast. So they worked hand in hand together. People saw me as the business method podcaster who is interviewing all these amazing people, creating a lot of content, pushing out a lot of content that can help them grow their business. So then I would get more speaking gigs like we were talking about, more interviews, more opportunities to work with higher level entrepreneurs. And then it would go back and forth. So they would refer their friends to the podcast people to listen to the podcast, would check out other interviews that I had done or other opportunities that I had put out there. And the funnel just started to grow. And then we just put things in the funnel that would start to bring income. And so I think this is where a lot of podcasters think about doing a podcast, putting advertisements on it and just having passive income. And there's a huge opportunity for podcasters out there to create their own types of events or services or products, just like you guys are doing that support the podcasting world or people that are coming onto the show and their networks, then you can sell your own stuff. And so I had been doing events before. I had some business accelerators that I ran around the world. And so I just kind of put it under the brand of what we were doing with the business method podcast. It all came hand in hand. And so then we would promote it on the podcast. So we do like kind of informal commercials after the guest intro and tell them about our event that's coming up. And then we have it all set up. We have a landing page, we have a payment page where they can go through and they can check out if they want to come to the event and hit the buy button and buy their ticket. And the rest is kind of history.

I think you're being a little bit modest, if I might add here, so. Yeah, I do. I think because there's something that every podcaster has.

We call it the bingeable feature, right? Something that makes you bingeable, something that.

Makes people consume all of your content.

Or not miss your show.

I mean, even if they're not going back from the beginning and listening to.

Everything, they don't miss your show. And I think for you, the interesting.

Part about the business method podcast and the product that comes out of it.

Right, your events that are, is that it's unusual.

It's not the typical, let's follow this formula.

You're going to just do your leads in this way.

It's a more customized version that taps.

Into what we're not doing and what we are doing. Well, you're getting both at the same time and you're saying, and we're going to put those pieces together and we're.

Going to figure that out.

Or are you with you?

It's not a one size fits all approach.

Yeah. I think that really came, Tracy, from just listening to the audience, listening to the people and ask them what they asking them what they wanted. We talk about pain points that people need, things that when they wake up in the morning, the fears that they have, the desires that they want. Right? And it always revolves around health or relationships or money and career. People want to figure out how to be more productive, how to be more effective, how they can scale their business faster, how they can be better at work, how they can be better human beings. Productivity is directly connected to people's life purpose. If they can connect to that and understand how they can fulfill their purpose in a more effective way, that's really valuable. And so we noticed the people just saying this phrase over and over, like, I just want to figure out how to get shit done. Like, where can I go to get shit done? Well, okay, well, let's make a place where you can go to get shit done. And we did. And it worked. And it's still working.

See, you were listening, though. I love that. So you're not just talking on your podcast, you're listening as well. I love that. Well, let's talk about some of our five lessons that we talk about with every podcast influencer I talk to here.

What are some of the ways you found to book those great guests?

Ask another guest if they have any friends or connections. Everybody comes on the show usually has a couple people that are in their sphere of influence that they would like to refer to a show. And I never put past, like the power of just cold emails or cold reach out because that got us Bobby Edwards, founder, squatter, Potty. That got us Laird Hamilton. That got us Josh Muccio, who runs the pitch podcast, you may know. And so many people, Jim Rogers, so many people, like, have been on the show just from Cold Reach Out. So whenever I'm low on guest, I look at my top 100 people that I would just dream to have on the podcast and if I don't know somebody that knows them that could do a mutual intro, then I'll just do a cold reach out and it works. I've had people do cold outreach for me and it just doesn't work as well.

It doesn't work as well. Isn't that interesting? You gotta do it yourself. I love that when I hear that a podcaster is doing their own guest outreach because I know that they're more likely to be successful with really great guests.

Yeah, absolutely. And it's fun too, because like Josh Muccio, for example, like, I sent him an Instagram message. I said, hey, we're doing a podcast. Da, da, da. Would you like to come on the show? And he replied back. He said, yeah, but only if I can podcast in my underwear. I don't like to wear clothes. And I said, you'll be wearing more clothes than I will if you podcast in your underwear. And he was like, done deal because.

You sounded fun, right? Like, that was his litmus test. I love that. I love that. Actually derail our five questions slightly here. I loved that episode with him because what I. Yeah, I mean, what I thought was really so interesting about some.

Of the things that he said on.

The show was that there are the types of podcasts that people don't share. And that's a big, big challenge in the podcasting world. And I thought, do you really share one when you're suffering from addiction, you're.

Not going to share that with your friends.

That doesn't make it a less valuable show, but it makes it harder for.

That podcaster to grow their show. And these are some of the interesting challenges of Insider.

And I thought that was such a great insight that he had there. So good for you for asking all those important questions that brought Drew that out.

I Forgot half of them, like you said.

Yeah, that's right.

Questions we ask.

That always happens. But you know, here's the thing.

Along those lines, what are some great ways that you've found to increase listeners?

Well, actually, from going to conferences and speaking, that increases listenership. I'm diving into. I haven't done much of this, but I'm going to start doing paid ads for podcasts.

Many of the people I've interviewed in the series so far saying a lot of them are trying them and a lot of them are successful with them.

What are they using that's working?

It's just really sharing out the show.

In an authentic way.

It's not like pushy listen or watch my show.

Here's where we're about.

And then what are they doing? Like what platforms? Facebook.

So I think Instagram's doing really well for some that I've heard and Facebook is the other. Those two places I haven't heard anyone really doing it successful anywhere else.

Yeah, so that's something that we're looking to do when you get influencers on the show, obviously, like we ask people to share the podcast and we give them a bunch of links and we give them an audio that they can share, like Instagram audio that they can share on their story or share on their profile. So that helps a lot. We ask them to share within their email list. Sometimes they do, sometimes they can, sometimes they can't because it's not related as much. So that helps quite a bit. And just getting, I think that's the biggest thing, really, just asking people that come on the show to share, make it a partnership. There's a lot of people that just want to go on podcast and do one night stands with the podcast that they're going on and be done with it. And that's okay. If you're Steven Kotler, you're a really big name and you've got so much stuff going on, but if you're not quite as a big name, like anytime that I go on a show, like, I do my best to help cross promote because I know you're in the same shoes that I'm. You know, we both want to grow together. You. There's many people in your network that can benefit from my show. Many people on my network can benefit from your stuff and that really helps. And I do my best to make it a partnership with the guests and the interviews and any conferences that I go speak at. Because it's about building relationships, right?

Absolutely, absolutely.

I think that's really so true. Though that I find across the board from the people that I've been interviewing and from our own experience, we've done well over a thousand episodes across our four shows ourselves. So is that the bigger the celebrity? A lot of times they don't share, which is such a shame because they have team so they should share. Right. But the PR firms and the people that they hire, their job is to get them the placement, not to do any of the follow up. There's different people involved and they're not always copied on or shared with. And that's part of the problem right there.

And we have a rule like if anybody reaches out to us, we have two rules you have to fulfill. You have to share it with your email list, social media and any other platforms that are relevant and you have to give us a review on itunes.

Important, right? Yes, I love that. Good. So you are challenged by where your location and everything. But how do you produce it in a professional way?

You know what's great is technology is getting better and better. So we just have a regular art audio technology technique. But microphone 2100, I think.

Same one. We're both rocking the same ones.

So it's solid, it's inexpensive, 60 bucks, 70 bucks or something like that. Durable and so it's small. You can put it in our suitcases or backpacks. I actually have two that I travel with in case one breaks and that's it. And then a laptop. Hook it up. We do zoom just like you guys. Exact same setup, so it's easy.

I like that. If you keep it simple on the front end, it's always going to be better at the back end. So wonderful. How do you encourage engagement with your audience?

One thing that we're doing is the Wave audios. Now I don't know if you're familiar with that, but Wave Wa v v E co has these cool audios where you can put your logo of your podcast and then have like the audio waves playing and Audiograms, right? Audiograms, exactly. And those work great. We put them up on Facebook and Instagram stories. We send them out to the people that come on the show so they can share with their group. And then we put it up on our Instagrams as well. Profiles as well. So that's fun. I've been using those quite a bit. And what else we're doing? Email list. Just the basic stuff. Email list, social media platforms. Call to actions. We have Call to actions. Check out this episode here. For people that come to our events, we give them specific like Productivity or focus or flow state podcast interviews that we have done. And I think that's about it. That's good.

What about some ways to monetize creating any type?

Well, it depends on your niche. So, like I'm a big fan of doing courses and especially if you're an expert at it and you've got a lot of experience in it, like it adds value. Amy Porterfield did like 4 years of just selling one course. She had her podcast and sold one or two courses for 4 years until she hit over 500k in her business. And so it's a very simple business model and it can be automated and you can make your course better and better, better over time because we have the Internet, there's so much information out there and especially if you're specialized and you're good with the information that you have, if you're a pro, it's really valuable to people and you can reach places in the world you never even dreamed of. So courses are great if you're qualified, like we talked about earlier, to do some coaching or people on your team can do some coaching, definitely. But make sure you're qualified for that. And then live events are great as well. Live events are fun and they really solidify your brand and they get the opportunity for people to connect with you and see you in real person and meet you in real life.

I mean, I love that. So any last bits of advice for someone who's thinking about starting a podcast or any kind of saying, hey, ask.

Yourself these questions to make sure you're right for podcasting.

Yes, I recommend just pre recording at least 10 episodes beforehand. And then you get to dabble in what you're going to play with. You'll get to understand podcasting and interviewing and what it takes, the amount of time that it takes to be a podcaster. Then if you like that, if you think you still you want to continue, I recommend Pre recording another 50 episodes minimum and have about 60 in the backlog. You could publish those on your website if you want to, but I wouldn't recommend publishing them onto Apple until you've got a significant amount of prerecorded episodes.

Make sure you don't fall behind, right?

Yeah. The reason why is because the way the Apple's algorithm is working nowadays is if you publish a bunch of episodes up front, day to day though, they can push you up into the new and noteworthy and give you a lot of organic traffic. They can push your episode and it helps you get more reviews, which helps rank you more and more. And if I had to start all over again, that's what I would do. Absolutely. And I didn't get that opportunity beforehand because I didn't know when we started four years ago, I think four years ago when we started podcasting. But anybody? That sounds like a lot, but I have a guy that's in my podcasting Mastermind. He prerecorded 60 episodes and did very little promotion other than just putting them out on Apple podcast. In 18 months, he was at 30,000 downloads per episode. So it works.

Yeah, it absolutely does. You're right. That is the one thing that we find here. Again, those that launch with 25 episodes.

Or more in the can and launch.

With that do significantly better in their first eight weeks and that tracks over time as increased organic traffic and they.

Will hit a higher and better place. And the ones that continue to do more episodes per week on top of that, for at least the first year, do better as well.

Those two things, they make a big difference. I know, but it's a lot of commitment, right?

It's a big commitment, right?

It is, absolutely. Well, do you have anything else that you'd like to share with us, Chris, about what's going on in the Business.

Method, what we can look forward to in the future?

More great interviews with amazing people. I have an idea about maybe interviewing 100 people that have built billion dollar companies. So. Yeah, that sounds like a juicy one, right?

Yeah.

But we had to finish another 50 or so episodes with major influencers. So some great episodes. More products and services and events to help entrepreneurs grow their business will be coming out in the future. And that's it.

Wonderful.

What days of the week do your episodes air?

Wednesday, 5am Eastern Standard Time.

Wonderful.

So new episodes every Wednesday.

Love it. The Business Method podcast with Chris Reynolds.

Yeah. Thanks, Traci.

I love the center of Influence podcasting.

Segments that these episodes that we're doing every week. I get to talk to such interesting people like Chris. We're getting deeper insight onto this business of podcasting.

We're not just talking about the influence of podcasting. We're talking about how to be an authority and the center of influence, someone who's a deep expert, who is using that influence for good, using it to move their business along, and using it to have ripples of success with the people that they're helping from their podcast. Chris Reynolds is one of them. I highly recommend his podcast, the Business Method. I know you're going to enjoy it as I enjoyed it as well. The influencers and the people that he interviews are just amazing and the insights that they give are so valuable. So definitely check that out and check out his programs as well. Love all information for Chris and for the Business Method podcast at the blog post for this episode at FeedYourBrand code and as always, if you have great podcasters, suggest or you are one of them and you want to be featured on the center of Influence, then reach out to us on social media eadyourbrand or go to FeedYourBrand Co and send us a message. I look forward to talking with you.

As a successful podcaster in the near future.

Look forward to bringing you another successful influencer in the podcast industry in the next week. Thanks everyone for listening. This is Tracy Hazzard on Feed you'd Brand.

You've been listening to the Binge Factor Podcast. For more information on podcasting and video casting, success, tips and tactics, please go to thebingefactor.com and be sure to listen to our other show for podcasters called Feed you'd Brand. If you'd like to be interviewed on this show as well as featured in Tracy's column, please go to thebingefactor.com guest and apply Sam.