Unlocking Podcasting's Influence Potential: How To Build An Engaged Audience And Boost Your Reach With John Ball Of Podfluence (Podfaded)

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 Hazard 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 the digital noise with the binge factor.

Hey, everyone, we're going to talk influence and podcasting. We're going to talk Podfluence today. My guest today is John Ball of Podfluence Podcast, and he's a business coach who wants to build influence and audience through podcasts. He wants you to understand what that's deeply like. He's a persuasive presentation coach, an international speaker on topics like podcasting for thought leadership, ethical influence and persuasion skills, and how to be exceptional in interviews. He's an online coach and course creator, over 12 years coaching and training with T. Harv Eker, a former flight attendant and an entertaining and engaging guest with many stories and wide range of life experiences. He's got a great face for audio content and he likes to keep things light and fun and serious and surprisingly profound at the same time. I know you're going to love John. He's fascinating. His pod fluence view of podcasting is why I'm bringing him on and why we're collaborating together to really talk about this. You know, I think that it's this humor that is really working for him here. And I think you're gonna. You're gonna see it not as much on this show, but much more on his show and even more in his social media. So you're going to want to check that out. So make sure you go to the blog post for this episode and click on some of those social media posts because they're really interesting and funny and kind of gives a little new perspective on influencers and podcasting. So let's talk Podfluence with John Ball.

John, thanks for joining me today. Podfluence. I love the title. It's just really great. It fits the show. It fits the kind of person you want to be talking to, both as a guest and as your audience. How did that one come to you?

Well, firstly, it's absolute pleasure to be talking with you, but I think your show has had some influence and impact on mine as well over the time that I've been tuning into you, but it was really a development. So When I first started in podcasting, I had no clue what I was doing. Named the show a really silly name and something I thought was clever and nobody got it, and then eventually changed to being called Speaking of Influence. Then I just shortened it to Speaking Influence and then decided last year to really narrow down the focus much more into how to build influence and audience through podcasting. And simply because there are a lot of people already in the speaker space and not so many people doing this through the podcasting space. So it was a case of a bit less competition in that and also probably the people who are doing that in the podcasting space perhaps more about the how to rather than some of the energy and characteristic and charisma things that I like to include into everything as well. So I like Portmanteaus. It was just seemed like a good idea. So rather than Podcast Influence, just to shorten that to Puff Fluence, it was what I've titled a book that's in the works as well. So I decided it could be a cool brand.

I think it's really a good fit right now. And I think I'm surprised at how many people are sort of focusing on the podcasting space who don't have a plan, don't have a direction. Like, you're clear about the fact that you really want to talk to people about the energy, about the speaking, about what it can do when you convey it. And that is very clear in what you talk about on your show and who you invite on. And I think that makes a big difference. There's less, and I wouldn't say that there's less how to because there's still some how to in there, but it's less about that.

I really want the show to be encouraging people, especially people who are self employed. I target it towards primarily business coaches and speakers, but that by no means the only people who this would apply to. Anyone with a personal brand business, and maybe even beyond that as well, is able to take advantage of the opportunities in podcasting. And I think right now they're potentially far greater than then people have realized and maybe, as we mentioned before, maybe even some great opportunities there than there might be in the speaking world right now. Because there are many people who really want to have guests on their show, especially quality guests. And as it gets more competitive in the field, I feel like it will be super important for people to be able to stand out and not be the run of the mill podcast guests that you see on a lot of different shows. People's charisma really needs to come through their energy really needs to show in what they're doing so that people can connect and identify with them.

I think you're so right right now in this marketplace, as we were talking before we started airing here, you've made some shifts in your show, and you now are doing topic episodes and guest episodes. And that means that you can be pickier about who you choose on your show. You can be really curating the right type of guest, and that makes that guesting environment much more challenging if you're not great at it. And I think that really is where speakers think, I'm a great speaker, no problem. I got this podcasting thing down. You and I both know it's a different animal. It just doesn't work the same way. What advice do you give to someone who's coming out of that speaker world and thinks they're going to just be so great at podcasting?

It's first important to understand podcasting. And being a podcast guest is not the same as speaking. It's more like you being interviewed for potentially getting booked as a speaker. So you need to be able to come across really well. And so I know it's one of the things that you've talked about on your show many times. You don't want to turn up and just give your TED Talk or your presentation, which a lot of people do. A lot of people turn up, they have their agenda for what they want to talk about, but it doesn't always necessarily fit with the show or where the guest is going. And I've had this as a host, where guests aren't really listening to the questions, they're just answering how they want to answer. And that makes the show very hard to want to publish it because it makes you look irrelevant. It makes you look like you're not doing a good job as a host if the guest actually isn't listening. So it is important to have guests who understand what the show's about and what you're trying to achieve with it, and are on board with that and good conversationalists as well. So you want to package down some of the stuff that you do as a speaker that's still going to be relevant to, but have it more nutshelled, like, what are you about? What's your purpose? You should be able to have these things in very simple to express statements, almost like your elevator pitch kind of thing, with some simple stories that you can pull from as well, from your experience or case studies that aren't going to take half an hour for you to talk about, but just take a few minutes for you to highlight some things. You need to be a lot more punchy, I think, with this, but also you do need to listen.

Yeah, I agree. And it's like you have to be both punchy and willing to deep dive. You have to be able to be flexible to do both. And I don't always think that especially a lot of what I see is trained media people who guest on like TV and radio and do a lot of news channels, they don't have the skill set to be able to do both very well. And I also see that as the case of a lot of speakers, they do maybe the long tail, like getting through your whole entire speech to getting to it, but the donors do the short, intriguing things very well. So you kind of have a little bit of both going on.

I think for podcasters and podcast guests, hooks are very important and you need to be able to hook people in to what you're about and to want to stay and listen to more of what you have to say. So if you're going to spend 10 or 15 minutes going through your whole life history, people are going to be tuning out of that pretty quick.

Oh, I so agree. Well, let's talk a little bit about the challenges of the speaking world right now, because you really come out of having a lot of experience over there. And obviously here in the US it's just as challenging as it is everywhere in the world. But speaking engagements are few and far between. They're less trafficked. What are you finding?

I have generally been finding that it's easier right now for me at least to be approaching some businesses directly, to be doing presentations in that environment. But in terms of speaking work, most of my work over the last 12 months has been virtual. Even after Covid, probably most of the gigs I do are virtual. So I do look for things like platform events where you have an opportunity maybe over two or three days to be a guest speaker, where there is some diversity on the panels as well. So that you're not going to be the podcast person talking about podcasting with five or six other people who are there talking about almost exactly the same thing, because you're never going to stand out there. But there are opportunities around. I agree that maybe they're not not as varied and easily accessible as they have been, that I do think the moment, in terms of getting booked and stuff, if you are more well known, the more people are familiar with you and your voice, the more likely they are to want to book you and rebook you if you're doing well. And I think podcasting does offer that opportunity to spread your voice, to get your voice into more ears and have more people being interested in who you are and what you're about. So even if you don't have the speaker bookings necessarily, you hopefully have opportunities to have your own courses, programs, or whatever else you might be able to offer on that, so that you're never really going to be stuck for work, coming in an opportunity.

I so agree with that. And I'm going to be on your show. We're going to record that tomorrow. And I so look forward to that because we'll talk a little bit about that, because I think I found that my speak, I didn't plan to be a speaker. It came out of podcasting. So it's actually the reverse for a lot of people where they. They want to be a speaker and they end up in podcasting to try to increase their influence over there. And I went the opposite way. So it is really an interesting model, though, to think about podcast influence and what that means, and it's not the same meaning as social media influencers. Would you define a little bit about how you term that influence?

Yeah, I think the influence here is much more about being that trusted voice that gives good advice and is also fun to listen to. Because podcasting, I think, does require a level of entertainment. It is an entertainment format at the end of the day as well as an educational format. So people as podcast guests do need to walk this fine line between entertainment and education, as often gets called edutainment. Right. But you need to be able to do that quite well as a speaker. You need to be able to be entertaining as well, because that is an entertainment format and you need to keep people's attention, and you definitely need to do that in the podcasting world. But you also need to give people a reason to keep listening, because in a speaking event, people don't have that many options other than walking out. But at an event or at podcast, people can just find something else to listen to the moment they lose interest. So do want to make sure that you can have to maybe become hyper or anything like that, but you do need to be able to keep people's interest and have relevance to what they're talking about. So I do get. Maybe you find this as well. Some people will say they sometimes hear my voice in their ear, and to me, that's the biggest compliment. It's like they're thinking about, oh, well, you were talking about this on your show. And so when I heard your voice in my head with some stuff that you were saying on your show, and I'm thinking, that's amazing, I was like, never occurred to me that people might have that kind of experience. I love that. And that really is. That's huge influence. Like people are kind of thinking, what would John say or what would Tracy say in this situation? That's influence for sure.

Absolutely. And I think that that's really the difference between the social media influence, which we see as being a lot of like, you just gotta make one great video that goes viral and gets shared out to a ton of people. But it's not this continual voice in your ear over time creating this impression. It's a long tail influence on podcasting and it has a lasting impression and a thought leadership building model which I think is really lasts a lot longer and it's easier to maintain. I think, personally, yeah, I think too.

Many people are chasing the viral opportunities, as you say. And I regularly get people contacting me saying they're trying to be everywhere, everything on every platform or at the same time, and burning out because of it. But they want to know how they can get more focus. And even if all you were doing was guesting on podcasts, getting on the right shows and presenting yourself in the right way, because personal presentation skills are super important in how you come across to people, you are going to find an awful lot of opportunity. And the people who I think generally find that they're not getting a lot of results from their podcast guesting are not being so selective about the shows they're going on and not really looking for.

Oh, I'm so glad you said that right there. Yeah, they're not being selective in and of themselves. We find podcast hosts are starting to be more and more selective, but the guests are operate under this sort of shotgun approach. So they're like, I'll take anything beyond anything. It's gotta be better than nothing. And that maybe actually dilutes your value over time.

I believe it does. I think when I'm advising people, I will say, like, initially, it's no bad thing to get on as many podcasts as you can and get some experience. And it doesn't matter as much, but you still want to be on relevant shows where you're going to be talking in ways that are going to help you prepare for the kinds of shows that you do want to be online. You don't want to necessarily. Like, I waited quite a long time before applying to come on your show. Tracy, simply because I want to feel that I was ready for that opportunity. And I think you'll find that there may be shows like that that just not quite ready for you. You're not really sufficiently prepared for. You may have to build up to that. But if you are looking to do podcasting as something to do with business, which I think funnel for business, there's not a lot in between really, then you have to treat it seriously and be strategic about it.

Oh, I so agree on that. Well, let's talk a little bit about the business coaches that you help. Where do you find that most people sort of trip into and like say this podcasting thing sounds good? I think this is really interesting that sometimes people, it's not the first thing they think of.

This is true. And I do find that I've been connecting with various business networks over the years and that is often where I've come into contact with people. And so they usually want to know about the opportunities in podcasting because some of them have never even listened to a podcast. And even now there's going to be people who have never listened to a podcast. Obviously they're not tuning in to us right now.

It happens more often than you think. I always say on the show that I could tell the difference when a host is a listener too, which I could tell on your show that you listen to other shows because there is a distinctive difference in the focus. I think it's an audience focus. It's just a little tweak to it, but it really makes a difference.

Yeah, absolutely. And so I find that with the coaches that I end up working with, they usually do start listening to the show, but also they've more often come across me through LinkedIn or Twitter where I prefer to spend most of my time posting, probably LinkedIn more than anywhere else. And I do find that even just some of the short videos or I post a lot of humorous stuff on LinkedIn, I find that people respond to that and often curious. And I post a weekly blog as well and surprises me how that has built up and the people who have started following that, I think it helps me.

Are you doing the newsletter style blog? Yeah, this is a strategy. I think. I've got a feed your brand episode where I talked about how I set mine up and I'll link it to this episode so people can see this. But go and find John's newsletter because when you subscribe to it, all of a sudden you start getting just some really interesting week over week over week. It gets pushed to you in a great way. So you want to hit subscribe on LinkedIn for that and we'll link to that as well so that they can get straight there.

Yeah, if they subscribe on LinkedIn, they can get the weekly updates through there if they're already on that channel. If they're not, there is direct link to the. It takes you through to the ConvertKit, subscribe for that, where there's also a free bonus for people who want to sign up to that that people might find helpful just in terms of laying out the game plan for what podcast guesting can do for you and how to prepare for it and how to get yourselves building up along the way.

What do you think some of the biggest challenges for business coaches are right now?

For business coaches, I mean, always the biggest challenge is getting clients. And depending on where you are, depends on what the economy is like, where you are, that can really affect how you get clients. But also the mindset that we get into, there is always opportunity. And I do still find that a lot of business coaches have the same issue that podcasters have of just not being specific enough about what they're about and who they help and the problems that they solve. And also, if you're solving a problem that no one really has any pain about, no one's going to want to buy. I mean, there's just a simple principle of sales is that there has to be some pain around this or there has to at least be a strong desire as well. And usually that's like they don't have the clients coming through. They don't have the consistency. They don't have the social value that they would like to have or the status in their industry that they would like to get to. And I think podcasting actually does allow for you to create all that, to find your following and to have people coming and checking you out. And again, not just from one appearance like a speaking event, you know, you're one and done. But for a podcast appearance and shows, the binge factor for a reason. Because you talk about people binging shows, people will go back and look for shows that they want to listen to. And I think this, I see this from my own podcast listening experience as well. For the shows that I tune into regularly, I look for the topics that I'm interested in. It looks like a good title. That's what I want to tune into. It's not necessarily always that I want the latest episode. I want what's going to give me the most value. So I will go through people's back catalogs and take a look at what else they've been doing that might be helpful for me. You don't get that with too many other formats.

Well, I just want to say for those of you listening out there, you really need to check out podfluence's titles because your episode titles are fantastic. They really give you an outcome payout. Like, why should I listen to this episode? And the descriptions do a really good job of supporting that as well. So you have a fabulous titling, which I most often find is one of the weak points on podcasters, and it's not there. So I'm curious, do you have a blogging experience before?

No, actually I didn't have any blogging.

Experience because I sometimes see that when I see someone who was previously a blogger, they tend to do this right, but you've got that down. It's fantastic.

This came from some podcast coaching.

I was getting some coaching podcasting. I've been in coaching for a lot of years. It made sense to get some coaching around podcasting. And this is one of the things that came up. It led to the rebrand. It also led to me retitling all my episodes and perhaps taking away a few that just were just irrelevant really, and weren't going to be of interest or even use some very early episodes where I was just finding my feet with all this stuff. But I do still leave my earliest episodes up there because as horrific as they may be, I'm not ashamed of them either. That's been my journey. But yes, I do find that the title thing was a case of going through all of them and making them make sense. Like, why would someone want for this episode? And I see a lot of people get that wrong with podcasts as well.

Yeah, you definitely get that right. And I'm so glad that you purged some because some people are so reluctant to delete a video, delete a podcast, delete anything in general. And while I think I would not delete a blog personally, that's kind of my personal view on it because it breaks so many links everywhere. But removing something from your feed is simple and no harm, no foul. It's dynamic and it just is so much easier to do. And that's one of the flexible reasons I love podcasting, but doing it really puts you in a better presentation light to someone new coming to you and you made it easier for them to navigate. So it's really good choice on your part.

Thank you. I appreciate that. And the blog stuff, I just, I wanted to get better at writing. So I thought, what better to do than start writing a blog? Cause I really enjoyed doing it. And this is the thing. I feel like I've been improving in my writing, and I'm not always good at being succinct in my writing, though. That's my challenge.

But that's okay, because the algorithms love length. Humans may not, but the algorithms who search us and make us searchable do love the length.

So, yeah, I'm finding I'm getting better at putting a bit more story in there and also some more humor and entertainment in my writing. I'm a bit of a joker. I like to joke around. I like to have fun with stuff, and I like to bring that into the work that I do as well. Which is why a lot of the stuff that I post as kind of like awareness posts really, is usually humorous stuff, because that's kind of who I am. I do take things seriously sometimes, but I love to play, I love to joke, I love to make people laugh. And don't always get that on my show. You'll get some of it.

You do get it in your LinkedIn feed, though, I have to say, your humor does really come across there, and it's worth making sure that you connect up with John and check it out. So we'll make sure that's linked here in the blog post for this episode. But you said something before that I just want to come back to. You said that it's getting clients. That's what a lot of business coaches are concerned about, is getting clients and all of that. But so many of them flock to this idea that they just need more leads. And I think that that's the mistake. And instead what you said is you get more specific. And the more specific you get, actually, the better at this the results will be.

Yeah. And with that as well is the kind of the difference between generalists and specialists in any walk of life. You know, specialists will be able to charge more for their specialization and for the results that they can create because they've chosen to specialize in it. And I think that's where many coaches and podcasters alike are afraid to go even more specific in who they help and what they can solve. Doesn't mean they're the only people you have to work with, but it may actually create a huge opportunity for you. And I've certainly seen this in my own coaching business and through the podcast as well. The podcast is picking up its own somewhat a newer audience now as well, since shifting from speaking influence to podfluence like some people have stayed, some people have gone. And that's great that the people who are still interested in this, and many of them are already coaches, still tuning in to get that information and to improve what they're doing in terms of their output and their communication style and becoming public figures, which I think is a key part of this. People, your loan quantity, you can charge more as well. These are all things that help you to charge more money because people know who you are and you get more exposure. Be great to have your own podcast as well at that point and keep building and growing that audience. The leads will come, but you will probably find yourself turning more of them away as you get specific to you work with and how much you charge. The goal has to be to be able to scale up your business. And the best way to do that is isn't just taking on more one on one clients, it's getting cleverer about charging more money and the kinds of things that you offer that allow you to leverage your time more effectively.

Well, you know, I think it's a really a growth strategy that most people don't understand and underestimate. And it's really hard to do that when you're starting your coaching business, or any coaching business at that, because you're starting out with fewer clients. So it's anecdotal your results, right. It's not massive. I have a mass amount of clients and I understand which segment is my best segment, which ones I can get the most best results for, which one is the easiest to close as clients, any of those things, they can't come until you've done a thousand or more. And that takes time.

It does.

Podcasting is a selective process. So isn't that a fantastic way to kind of help accelerate that?

Yeah, I think it is. I think one thing I found through podcasting, it's helped me to get clearer about what I talk about and to be able to express myself more clearly in terms of what I do, who I help and beyond as well. But more than that as well. I think it's just a great fun thing to be able to do that you get to highlight hopefully your strengths and have some fun conversations. Build up your network whilst you're doing that and get what's most vital. Get in front of other people's audiences, right?

Absolutely. Other people's audience is really what it's all about. Well, you mentioned casually that you were working on a book, so you shifted your show and you're doing more topic based. Is that helping with the book. Like, how is that working for you, getting your book together?

It is. I did my book like I did my podcast, Tracy, all the wrong way around. I kind of wrote the book first just because I wanted to write a book, and I had maybe two or three started books that had been abandoned, and so I wanted to follow through and complete it. I did that, and then I had a book coach on my show and. And realized that I had done it all completely the wrong way around. And so the book framework is still there, but now with the focus on the show and everything, I have a lot more input from guests in the industry who have many of them have more knowledge and experience than I do, that I'm able to potentially bring some of that and maybe even put some of the interviews or at least excerpts of it into the book. So the book is just on hold until I've had a while of going through some of those guests and being able to bring some of their knowledge into the book as well. So that it's not just me and my sort of most basic. Haven't really got that far along the track with Confluence at that point, but it's going to add a lot more value. So that's the reason why the book is on hold, so it will be revisited when I feel that I have enough content to really just maximize it.

I think that's a sorely underestimated side of sort of the book business in general is the fact that you also, just like you need guests on your show, you need case studies, you need people you're mentioning in your book, you need stories that aren't just your experience, and you need to broaden that. And it makes for a better book, it makes for better circulation. And at the end of the day, that's what you're really. Why you're doing it.

Yeah, absolutely. And writing a book is hard work, but I do think probably everyone does have a book in them if they're willing to put themselves through that. But I definitely think it's worth getting a little bit of coaching on that as well before you start, so that if you're going to do it, you do it in a way that's actually going to make sense and do it in the right order and get all the advice who you need to help getting all the editing done, because it is a huge process. It's way more than just writing the book. The same as being a podcast guest should be more than just showing up to a podcast recording.

But so many do that. It happens all the time. You know, I think that one of the things that I hear clearly in your show, because you do talk about, the things you're testing, the things you're experiencing, the way you ask questions of your guest, you're in that curiosity mode, in that also highly coachable curiosity mode, which models that for your potential clients. And I think that's what makes your show really bingeable, because I hear an openness in your show that makes me want to say, oh, we're experiencing this together. We're learning from this guest. And I bet you anything John's gonna apply it coming up, and then he's gonna tell me how it worked and whether it was great or not and what he's done with it. And I think that that's really missing. There's so much of it is like preaching from the pulpit when you think that that separation and it doesn't have the growth trajectory necessary, but your show does.

I definitely appreciate hearing that because that is very much what I aim for with the show. I want to show that I'm very curious and hungry to learn. I'm definitely lifelong committed learner, and I see the interview shows particularly as my opportunity to do that. But also now my solo shows are the opportunities for me to bring my own experience and knowledge into what I'm talking about and to follow up with stuff that I've been doing on the shows and other things that I'm finding work or don't work in terms of ultimately growing your business and your status and profile as a business coach or speaker or whatever it is that you're looking for that kind of growth in. So, yeah, that's wonderful to hear his feedback.

I also think that that's kind of where I'm hearing your topics go, that your topics are sort of going alongside what you've been learning and the application of those things, and you're talking about those experiences, whereas there's a lot of them that are just like 101 speeches at the end of the day. You know, like, I gotta talk about the basics of 101 because I gotta have content for my website. So let me do that as the topics on my show. But it's not where your audience is. Your audience has been coming along with you, and so you decided to keep your topics focused that way. And I think it's very valuable.

Definitely, the show is about giving people what they really need to be able to do this. And even when I'm interviewing guests, I'm always thinking about what would my audience want me to ask and making sure I really do listen to what the guests are saying. But what would my audience be wanting to ask or where should I go from here? That's actually going to be most helpful or useful to them. So the audience is always in my mind when I'm recording the show as well. And I think that's one of the things that helps me to sort of really be curious and put myself in the audience position to some degree, which I hope is a very helpful thing in terms of podcasting. But there does come a time where, and again, I've heard this from you, where you have to show your own expertise, show who you are and what you can do, which is one of the reasons I started making some adaptations to the format and maybe more in the future, who knows? But I think that's the good thing with podcasting. Having your own show is you can. You can do that and you can make it yours and how you want. But one of the adaptations that I'm working on at the moment is trying to get the shows more edited and taking out really anything that doesn't need to be there so that it's even more punchy. Like, I have a lot of shows that are mostly around an hour in terms of interviews, but I think I can probably get them more down to. With good editing, get them more down to 45 minutes or so, because anything that's unnecessary or perhaps irrelevant or just isn't really what people need to be listening to or helpful to them or even entertaining should come out.

That's such a great audience focus. And I really think that you're respecting their time in the way that you're doing that. And I think that's going to come through and it's going to reward you with more listeners and those that are going to continue to subscribe from there. So I think that's great. Well, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you for some advice, because you said at the beginning of this that your direction was a little bit more about the energy and style and other things. And I'm getting a lot more of people interested in hearing about, like, how should I format my podcast? And they don't mean the technical, they mean sort of that level. So what kind of advice do you give?

I do think it's important as a host to have some structure, and as a guest, you should probably seek it out as well to know what you're doing, getting into. So more important than anything, I think, is one of the bits of advice you give to your guests as well about taking some pauses, because most people don't pause and stop. They're just waiting to answer the question. But give yourself some time to think. If someone wants to take the pauses out in the edit, they can do that or they might leave them in. It's going to be up to what A lot of people don't edit their shows, but it's going to help you far better to do that because it adds some gravitas more than anything else and it shows that you're not just diving in there and you've kind of got your answers off the cuff and ready to go.

It's not a pat answer, right? Yeah. It wasn't pre prepared.

Yeah. I love it when people take a moment to think about things. I really do, and I appreciate it more because usually their answers come out more eloquently. And I wish I was a bit more eloquent myself today. But still recovering from a cold I picked up, unfortunately.

Yeah, you have been under the weather, so there's no harm. But you know what, we'll connect up to the episode where I'm on your show and they'll get to hear it and we'll cross share them. That's. I've been doing that lately and it's been actually working really well. So we'll do that here as well. We'll kind of put our side by side to have that. But John, before we go, what's your biggest challenge going forward and where are you kind of ruminating about what's next for you?

My biggest challenge, I think, is just keeping things going and growing because I do a lot of work outside of the podcast. It's not my main focus with what I do, but I absolutely love doing it and the blogging as well. So keeping them going and growing is one of my personal priorities. So that's what I will stay focused on because the coaching that I've been getting on the podcast particularly, I'm seeing the results coming from that. I'm seeing growth coming from that and that feels great. And I feel like I've got a great show with great potential. I have courses that will be coming out soon. A book that will be probably not this year, but next year will most likely be released once I've got the enough input for that. So that's the direction I want to head in. And I do want to be one of those. I think I'm already in a good position to be one of those people who go to person for talking about podcasting influence and Being an amazing guest.

Well, I think you are well on your way. Definitely a go to person and a podcast podfluence that no one wants to miss if you're thinking about how you want to grow in the podcasting industry. So you need to check that out and we'll make sure that they're connected to it. But John, I thank you so much for bringing forward the podcast in the way that you do and for being so open about how you are in it. Because I think too many say coaches just phone it in and they don't have this in it with you. I do get that this is hard. I get that holding myself accountable, showing up to make sure I'm recording, it's hard. And I get that. And it's going to make you an even better coach for them.

Thank you. I hope so. I have made every mistake that there is to make in podcasting, Tracy, and so I have no judgment on anyone for making those mistakes too.

That's right. That's what makes you so valuable. You can show them where all the potholes are.

Oh, yes.

Well, John, thank you so much for podfluence and thank you for being here today and I look forward to talking with you on your show tomorrow.

I'm very excited for that. Jc it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you.

He's funny and humorous and a serious guy at the same time, right? I mean, that's what you're talking about. So many things that are in needing to be brought to light. Like a smaller pond, a small pond is really actually a good thing in this sea of digital media and underestimating the value of how you play there and what you can do and be thinking about this audience. If I can get in front of 30 people every week, is that not worth it? Right? These are some viewpoints that I really am so glad that John touched on and that we're really thinking about this. But also really, he's a great interviewer. So you gotta go listen to the show podfluence. Check out the way he interviews people. It's always great for us to up our skills in that area. And taking a lesson from listening to a pro like John is really worth it. So go check out John Ball podfluence. Find it everywhere on your favorite podcast listening app or go to the blog post for this episode@thebingefactor.com and connect straight up to John from there. Everyone, I'm so glad you're here with me week after week talking to great podcasters with new perspectives on the industry and successful tactics that you might want to try yourself. But it's nothing if you don't give me some feedback and let me know who you'd like to hear from next. What type of podcasts are you looking to build so that I can help you find a successful podcaster that would be just right for you to learn from? You can reach out to me anywhere on social media, but especially on LinkedIn. And of course you can go to the blog post for this episode and go to the bingefactor.com and leave me a message there as well. Thanks everyone for listening. I'll be back next time here on the Binge Factor.

You've been listening Listening to the Binge Factor Podcast. For more information on podcasting and videocasting 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.