What Is The Binge Factor And What Makes A Bingeable 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 the Binge Factor. I'm Tracie Hazzard, and I'm excited to bring you the shift in the show. Right. For those of you who've been listening to a while, the show has been called Feed you'd brand center of Influence. For those of you who have been reading my column in Authority magazine, you know, I've gone about featuring those on how to become the center of influence through bingeable podcasting. We always cover every week the five things that make a show more powerful. The best ways to do things, like the best ways to get great guests, increase listeners, increase, encourage engagement, produce professionally, and monetize. I'm always bringing you those five factors every single week. But the other thing that I'm really bringing you is just diverse views on what podcasting can mean to you personally, to your business. What are the different reasons people are starting up shows? What are the problems that they're having as they're starting them up? What are, what are the authority value to having a podcast show? These are the things that I'm trying to bring you every single week. And I've decided to shift the show here from the center of influence to the binge factor. And the reason I've done that is because what I found is that my unique gift to the world is being able to identify that bingeable factor, the thing that makes people come back again and again, listen again and again, buy something again and again. And, you know, this is not just, you know, this random gift that dropped out of the sky to me. This is something I've been working on for almost 30 years in my career. So this is a personal part of how I look at the world, how I've developed my skill set and my career. So I started out, for those of you who don't know, I started out in the mass market, consumer retail world. I have a design degree from Rhode Island School of Design. I helped work on the Aeron chair, that amazing chair that's been selling for 25 years from Herman Miller. I understand what it takes to design and create a product that sells again and again. Tom Hazard, my partner and my husband, he sometimes will be on the show. He usually doesn't do the binge factor shows. He usually does more of the feed your brand side of the shows, which are more on the technical side of podcasting and the marketing tactics side of things. But he and I designed together for over 20 years, over 25 years. And we are. Our flagship product is a office chair that is sold at Costco and it's been in Costco for eight years. And that doesn't usually happen. Usually a product, if it does really well, might last one to two years maximum, and then they replace it out. Now, we changed the model slightly, but it's been in Costco for eight years and it does about $20 million a year. So that is a platinum record. And I'm really proud of what we've done there. But we've done things like accessories that go in your kitchen and juvenile products, baby products, textiles. I've designed a lot of textiles in my career and all of those things. The key to it is that when I look at that open space, when you look at the space of competitiveness, whether it's looking at the field of podcasts that are out on the market or all of the products on a shelf somewhere, when I look at that, my gift is to be able to start to identify the potential open areas. And then what I do is I look at the strategy, I look at how people shop, I look at how people listen, how people behave when they're consuming content, and I look at all of that and I say, how can we create something where the open space in the market and what people really want start to connect together? And when we hit on that, we hit on something that can't miss. We hit in competitive proof territory, to be honest with you, where other people just can't create that mix because you've done it so intentionally.

Now, sometimes we stumble across these things and we. It's unintentional, right? Like I said, there's going to be podcasters out there who didn't know they were doing this on purpose. But it was an instinct. It was a gut reaction that they took to how they were doing something or to how they show up in the world. And that created that bingeable factor for them. So it's not unintentional, although it may be subconsciously intentional, like, you know, they didn't realize they were doing it, but that is the net result of it that has created the binge factor, created Something that we must consume, we must come back for, we hate to miss, and we come back for again and again. So I just wanted to make sure that you guys had a broad understanding of what we do in addition to everything. So the reason why I am so eager to interview podcasters and do all of this is because five years ago, I started my first podcast. Actually, it's more than five years ago. We're about to hit on our sixth year. And so we started a podcast called WTFF Super Geeky. It's all in 3D printing. And for those of you who don't know what 3D printing is, it's where we create models from the base up. We actually build it layer by layer, plastic, and we actually build a physical object in three dimensions. It's not quite like, you know, a replicator out there. You know, it's not Star Trek time yet, but it worked. And so we'd been using it in our product design business for a really long time. And so we stepped out into the world because we said, you know what? I'm tired of being a ghost designer. I'm tired of designing for Martha Stewart. I'm tired of designing behind the scenes for companies who sell into Costco and Walmart and Target, and no one knows who I am. And we're headed into a world where my business is starting to dry up because the economy was starting to hurt. And this is back in 2014 and there was like some issues in the economy and we were starting to see this shift going from these big brands into the smaller e commerce, e seller brands. And we thought, oh, we need to be a part of that. We need them to know who we are. We might need to step out and be the authority, come out from being a ghost designer and be an authority and a thought leader in this marketplace. So let's start thinking about this. And my partner and husband wanted to create products and have a whole product line for sale. And I stepped back and said, wait a second, we don't even know if there's a market. And one of our missions and one of the things that we always did whenever we were designing product was making sure that we could access the market. And then the market wanted to buy what we have to sell. It's why we have an almost 9 out of 10 success rate for all the products we've designed. And we did 250 products that do about $2 billion for our clients. So that's like $2 billion wholes. And we had nine out of 10 successes. The going rate in consumer products is seven out of 10 failures on Home Shopping Network Network. It's like 14 out of 15 fail. So we're the reverse of that. So if we can increase the odds, we should do this. So I said, let's look at this. We don't have an email list, we don't have a big social following. How are we going to get the information out there and find out if there's a market for what? For us creating this product line and catalog. And so we started looking around about it. And at the time, video wasn't as big, although it would have made a lot more sense, but of course it was more. Video was much more of a production, like higher production value. I would have my hair done every single day and I didn't want to do that. So we said, let's start podcasting and let's see what we can what happens because there's a lot of information going on. There were only five podcasts at the timeout. They were all very techy, very news. They were like in the industry, like, I mean, I knew enough about the industry and half the time I didn't know what they were saying. So I could imagine they were leaving a lot of people behind who were trying to learn. And there wasn't like a lot of books and other things out there yet because the market was changing so fast. So for us to write a book or do something or do that, long term research didn't make sense because we needed something faster. So this is what we chose. And so we started doing a podcast. It took us about 12 weeks to figure out what we wanted to do, get it all planned for me to read every book and research every blog and read all of John Lee Dumas and everything Pat Flynn had to offer and all of those guys and come up and figure out what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it. And what I did was because I read so many different things, I could start to read between the lines of what was working and what wasn't. And what I clearly saw that podcasting five days a week was the key to outranking those other five podcasters who had been there for a lot longer than we. So that was our strategy. Our strategy was to go in and catapult to the top of the list of podcasts. And so that meant a commitment in time and energy and production to be able to do that. So that's what we did. We launched with three episodes and we launched one a day, five days a week. And we did that for five months. And we didn't really look at our stats over time. And when we casually watched them, but we didn't really look at them, we. At the end of five months, we, we hit 100 episodes. And so when we hit that hundredth episode, we said, well, let's check everything out, let's see where we are. And we had catapulted ourselves to 25,000 listeners. And we were shocked, to be honest with you. We thought, oh my gosh. We just like, what did we do? We went from an email to 0. We had a growing email list that was adding people every single day. People were coming to our website to check out the images and the videos that we had added there. We had full length blog posts. So we tripped onto something as well. I thought the transcript model of doing PDFs seemed ridiculous because who was going to download information off the Internet when it was so insecure? Let's just put the whole thing out in a blog. And we did. So then what happened was we hooked up with a company who had many, many, like hundreds of revenue generating websites. And they helped create a home for ours which is called 3D start point today. And they created a home for this. And so we started putting our blogs over there. And that's how it started is we started realizing the secret sauce for us wasn't just in the podcast, but it was really in the old school blog as well. And keep in mind that I was a writer before that. I wrote lots of articles. I wrote lots of blogs. I've had multiple blogs over time. I had one called Easygoing Green and then I had. And no one read them. I joke about this, but my dad was my only reader and occasionally he would even admit to me that he didn't read them all. He was like that. Yeah, I didn't understand that, so I didn't read it all. So I was sitting out there going, why would I want to be writing? But we were doing this and it was working for us. So people started coming to us and saying, hey, whatever you're doing with your podcast, it's successful. Will you do this for me? And I thought, well, we built a team, we have a process, we have systems. Why not? And that's how brandcasters are. Our core business, which we now call Potaties, or it's its front facing name, it's called Potaties was born. So we started out with a set of 12 core customers. They referred people who referred people who referred people and catapult us to today. And we are the largest post production house of podcasts. We do everything from video to audio to blog to social share graphics. We do all of that. But the real secret sauce we have with Potitize is on our ad mixing system. And you're going to hear that on the show because it happens this episode. I typically won't put an ad in, so you'll probably never hear one on this intro episode. Rather you'll hear it on all the other, all the other shows. But we drop ads in on a monthly basis and we take them back out again. It's kind of our secret of how we work with Potitize and that enables us to catapult, to capitalize on the entire listenership of our show and make sure that you all, as listeners hear the most relevant offers, the most relevant ads and don't hear anything outdated and old. And the invention process of that happened right about that five month time period. We started running an ad on our show and I went to my editor and I said, hey, I want to take the ad out because we're running this ad for a mentorship contest and it's going to end in 30 days and I don't want people in it listening in January or months, months later to be like, oh, I miss this contest and be frustrated because it sounded current and urgent. By the way that we recorded the ad and he said to me, it's gonna cost you just as much to remove it as it did to put it in. And I said, that's ridiculous. We're gonna find a better way. And that's how the potatoes process in our ad mixing system was born and we created software as a service and all of that came about.

So that's my real driver here. But as we've been going through this and as we've been building a bigger company, our goal is to make sure that all 300 plus and you know, there could be 500 by the time you're actually listening to this. Of our clients are growing their shows, but that all of them are successful podcasting, that they're making money in their core business. Only about 2% of podcasts have the qualifications necessary to run ads. About 10% on average can run ads and take sponsorships. But only 2% reach that sort of mass brand value of being qualified for true advertisements enough to make money. That makes it worth selling out your audience. And I want it. There's 98% of US podcasters out there who are creating great binge able shows that serve an audience that deserve to make some money and cover our costs. Podcasting should not be nonprofit customer service unless we want it to be. Right. It should be able to be a profitable venture that gets you more for your business, that gets you more of audience, that gets you more growth, that gets you more community, that serves your community. Absolutely. Because it's only in service that we and in value creation that we are, that we get to create a big audience that comes back again and again because if we're taking from them, they're not going to come back. So. But that means that we need to be able to stick around. And if that means that we need to have our cost subsidized, that we need to make be profitable on this so that we can keep going and providing a great service to people, then that's what we need to do. I just wanted to make sure that you guys had a basic understanding of who I am, why I'm here, why I'm doing this, why this show is so important. But here's another thing that this show is. This show is moving into giving publicity to podcasters. And one of my goals and one of my personal drivers is I know how hard it is. I wrote a column for Inc. Magazine for five years. I write a column right now for Authority magazine and I'm about to write some more columns. We do a roll up and buzzfeed and we also contribute to Thrive Global. So all of those things happen. So when an episode is created here, this is the starting point of the interview. Starting point. So when I interview a podcaster here, I'm going to do multiple things with it. I'm taking the interview, we're having a fun time. You're getting great content and great advice. Then I'm going to write a summary article of it. And that summary article goes into Authority Magazine. There will be links to that, of course, in every episode. So you'll be able to link back to the articles as they go through. Now what happens from that Authority Magazine article? So now that podcaster got a podcast mention, they got an article out of it. The future happens is that then it rolls up into another Thrive Global reposting of that same article. And then the next thing that happens is there's the five things that I mentioned that I cover each week. The best ways to. And when we cover that, the little tidbits that are there get rolled up into a buzzfeed article. And it's a roll up style article where it's like these top 10 podcasters give their tips on how to increase listeners and it'll have everybody's tips separately. And so those podcasters get a separate mention there as well. So it's tracking into multiple things over time, Many, many months go by and all of these things, but it's creating residual publicity value. Then to top it off, what we also do here is that this is also my way to touch base and learn some more about great podcasters, to start to build our list. Because we get asked every week to participate in events where we coordinate publicity opportunities between podcasters and events. So if you're a health and wellness podcaster, for instance, and a health and wellness event comes to us and say we want you to conduct a podcast, we call it the podcast publicity pop up. But if you want to do a podcast publicity pop up, it's a concierge service that we provide between the event and the podcaster and we connect the two things together. And now what happens is you get a shout out from the stage, you're doing behind the scenes interview of the amazing speakers and guests and VIPs that are a part of an event. So you're raising your ability to access greater interviews. So this is how it goes that we're trying to create this publicity opportunity, because that's also what I know it takes. It's a lot of hard work to build your show over time and it takes grinding it out. So if there's anything that we can do in that process, providing ongoing publicity, of providing connections, of providing value to keep you going and keep you podcasting and create a way for you to keep your bingeable content out there and serving the world, then I want to do that. That's a part of our mission here. Our mission here at Pottiti, and it's no different for this show, is that we are reinventing brand marketing, brand casting with an obsessive podcaster centric focus on solutions to get host seen, heard, found and rewarded in a noisy digital world. Because it is noisy out there, guys, and it is the stuff that is bingeable, the stuff that's really great content, the stuff that is also really well marketed, really well publicized, that rises to the top and gets noticed. So if I can create a multicast method for doing that, video, audio, written format, right, creating all of those ways and lives on top of it, then I've created an environment where, by which I give my, my show and your shows the greatest opportunity for success. And that's our ultimate goal here. So I welcome you to the Binge Factor. I look forward to hearing your feedback on the show. I look forward to hearing you if you think I'm wrong, that their binge factor is something else. Because sometimes it seems like psychoanalysis when I go through and I like analyze their show and I tell them what their binge factor is and they're like, I didn't even realize that's what it was. So some of those things will go on and I'd love to hear from you. I'd also love for you to to get your show going. So if you're listening to this and you still haven't started your show yet, get it going. There's so many ways to do that. I'm going to invite you back to join and listen to our feed. You'd brand podcast over the coming weeks. It's going to be repurposed into two segments, actually three set. It'll be separated into three separate feeds. It'll also all be together in the normal feed your brand. So you can just listen to one if you want to consume everything. But if you really only want to start your show, we're going to have a one on one setup. So series, a launch series that is just going to all be about all the stuff you need to know to launch your show so it doesn't encumber the feed for the ones of you who already launched and you don't care about that. So that will be there. We also are going to have a special guesting series because even if you already are a podcast host, guesting takes a skill set that you might not have and I want to make sure that you get that understanding. So we're going to have a separate one that's all about publicity and guesting and that kind of side of it. So some of those people who might want to listen to that might not be podcast hosts yet, but it's going to give you some insights on how to be a great guest, how to find great podcasts to be on, and it may be a driver whether you are a podcaster or not. So you may want those, but those are more like I said, educational and you're going to have those two sets. The main feature brand feed is for podcasters. It is not a starter. It is not a one on one thing. It is for advanced podcasters. You already have your show launched. It's got tactics for increasing listeners, ways to increase engagement. We're always going through new marketing methods and things. We're trying out things. We try not to bring just any guest on the show. We try to bring someone who we either personally have experience with or many of our clients have a successful experience with. So there aren't as many guests as there are Tom and I talking on the show. So I mentioned before, that's the place where you'll get to hear Tom Hazard, my partner. So we'll have more of those as well going forward. And what you get on feed you'd brand is you get a sneak peek in. So every Wednesday at noon, any one of our clients, even the ones who just host with us and pay $49 a month, all the way up to the ones who pay $4,000 a month to work with us, like all of them, have the opportunity to participate live in coaching calls every single week at noon on Wednesdays via our Facebook client group. And we also though record a lesson or some kind of tips, tactics, state of the industry, what's going on. We record about 20 minutes or so of that at the beginning of the client coaching call. We repurpose those and those will also be in the feed your brand feed. So the binge factor here is only interviews with top podcasters. Occasionally I'll bring you a social influencer and video influencers. So it's not just podcasters, but video casters, anyone who's casting out there in the marketplace. So in that sort of syndication model, there definitely will be on the show because there's some tips to be learned whether they are podcasting or doing more than podcasting, starting from a different place. So that's exactly what will be here in the binge factor. Everything else will still be at feed your brand. So you can also go to the bingefactor.com or you can go to feedyourbrand. Co. You can get the information from both places. Do they connect up to each other and are connected so you'll be able to find us either way? If you're really comfortable and you're bookmarked and you go to feed your brand and you've been a listener for a while. So but keep in mind, there are two separate feeds now. So if you are subscribed to if you were previously subscribed to feed your brand, you're now listening to the binge factor because the binge factor has took over that feed, you'll have to go back in and subscribe to feed your brand separately. So make sure you do that on your player.

I'm so glad you've come along on this journey with me. I am really excited to bring you some new formats. I'm always looking to shift and pivot our shows to make sure that we're most relevant to what's going on in the industry and the timeframe right now and making sure that I'm bringing you the best value. So. So that happens if you reach out to me and talk to me. So you need to reach out to me. On Instagram, we have eadyourbrand. It's feedyourbrandshazine is my personal Instagram. So you can reach out to me and talk to me there. You can do hasdesign on Twitter, although I don't usually answer back on Twitter, although I do post there. And you can find me Tracy Hazard. It's Tracyleigh L E I G H Hazard on Facebook. I think you have to type my middle name in. I don't know for sure. That might not be the case. But you should be able to find me. It's not that hard. You can find us at FeedYourBrand on Facebook as well. We have a Facebook page there, too. So I look forward to connecting with you. I look forward to hearing from you and I want to invite you to come and be on my show. If you're sitting there and you've produced 25 episodes of your show or more, you qualify. You have enough knowledge to tell me what you're doing and how you're doing it. Don't think you have to have a million downloads to be on this show. You don't. There are valuable tips for people at every level. So my minimum requirement is you've at least podcasted 25 episodes. But that's it. That's my minimum requirement. From there, we'll reevaluate you. We'll either invite you on the show or we'll invite you to do a Q and A first before which is a written format. We'll invite you to do a Q and A. If we. If we think that maybe you're just not quite ready yet or we want to know some more information before we proceed forward. So feel free to reach out and do that. You can do that right on our website featurebrand. Co. Go up to the part that says guest directory and guesting opportunities and you'll be able to connect through and apply in any one of those places. So I look forward to talking with you all soon. I look forward to bringing you new podcasters with new great ideas and I look forward to covering the Binge Factor. Thanks everyone. Tracy Hassett and I'll be back next week.

You've been 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.