Podcasting can take you to new business heights.
Steve Olsher is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Podcast Magazine and the Host of Reinvention Radio.
Discover and monetize your WHAT by identifying your singular Gifts, the Vehicle you will use to share your Gifts with the world, and the People you are most compelled to serve. Steve Olsher can teach you how to profit online, or to massively shorten your learning curve and lead you in expedited fashion towards realizing the ultimate achievement in business and life.
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0:00
Welcome to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. I'm Josh Elledge, founder and CEO of UpMyInfluence.com. We turn entrepreneurs into media celebrities, grow their authority, and help them build partnerships with top influencers. We believe that every person has a unique message that can positively impact the world. stick around to the end of the show, where I'll reveal how you can be our next guest on one of the fastest growing daily inspiration podcasts on the planet in 15 to 20 minutes. Let's go.
And with us right now, we've got Steve, Steve, you're the Founder of Podcast Magazine. You don't become the Founder of Podcast Magazine without being in the industry for some time. So first off, thank you so much for joining us.
0:47
Yeah, man. appreciate you having me.
0:49
Well, so give me a quick background on how you got into podcasting and some of your accomplishments in the podcasting realm.
0:57
You know, it's interesting, I love the medium radio was always kind of been a holy grail for me and I used to DJ in clubs and had a radio gig when I was way back when in the college in the early 20s those sort of days and always love everything about radio and I felt like if I get a syndicated radio show like that would be the Holy Grail. And and, you know, man, it just it was hard right to break into radio being in Chicago, which is where I was born and raised. All right, you got a gig there was really, really hard. So I started looking at some of these am stations and, and whatnot, lots of am stations then you could buy broker time, and this, that and the other. So I did that for a minute. And then I realized that number one I'm paying for the time number two, it's a small channel in a huge market. No one's really listened to this thing. A few people here, there and everywhere. Yeah. And it was around 2009 or so that I realized, you know what, I've heard about this podcasting thing. I know it's out there. I've listened to a couple of them but it was really hard to get those podcasts to put them into a catcher and then download the file. Then put it in another thing. And literally it was like six steps to listen to a show. But technology was starting at that point to kind of catch up with demand a little bit. And I was like, You know what, let me see what I can do about launching a podcast here. And so that was really my first foray into the world of podcasting as a podcast host, launching my first show, which is called reinvention radio, which we still do to this day. And what I loved about it was, you know, with the podcast, you can reach pretty much anyone, anywhere at any time. And so radio, you know, it's like you're just limited by the signal and who's listening in that particular moment, podcasting, evergreen lives on forever. And so I just really started embracing this whole podcast is really the new broadcasting type of mentality. And that was when I started jumping in pretty hard into into the mix and I took a little time off, came back a little time off came back, but really since 2015 Now, I've been going full force into the mix. launched another new show called Beyond eight figures where we sit down with entrepreneurs who have either exited for more than 10 million or currently run $10 million plus businesses, and started an event called the new media summit where we bring in 150 people and 40 top podcasters we give 150 people the opportunity to take center stage and pitch them. And I literally get booked on the spot on those 40 shows. And then podcast magazine, as you mentioned, is something that we're launching here in q1 of 2020. And super, super stoked about that because it's for the fans, not for the podcasters
3:34
you're going so going back to Chicago just simply because so I'm originally from West Michigan, so all of my heroes you know, we could actually we could hear am radio from Chicago, so I was listening to WGS wl s or some of your we'll geek out just a little bit here. Who are some of your like your Chicago radio legends that that inspired you now you don't go back to like Larry Lou jack days. Oh, sure. I do.
3:57
Absolutely. Yeah, you're sure Larry Luber jock. Right and you know, the the morning Zoo type stuff on b 90 x and you know, all that but, you know, from from an early, really early age there if I'm going to start pointing out people I mean I always loved brand Myers approach, you know, to and what he did and Steve Dell's approach, you know to what he was doing and then they brought on howard stern on WC kg there and so Oh yeah, I was kind of like that that whole shock jockey sort of in your face. Let's have a real deal conversation here. Some of it was obnoxious, of course, but a lot of it was money, you know. And so man Calvin came on it so much over the years there. And some people have likened what we do on reinvention radio. Yeah, a little bit of me being sort of the howard stern of personal development, so to speak.
4:48
Well, you know, I think what was what was revolutionary about is that it was just much more honest, and it was less programmed, but it was just much more authentic. It was just Hey, this is what I Feeling This is what's the you know, it just, it was less scripted than news and talk it had ever been, I think is and I think that that's really inspired what we have today in the podcasting world, which and what's you know, like to your point what's so amazing is that there's a low barrier to entry that doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna have an instant audience, you know that a radio station people may be able to provide, but you can build that audience based on what I consider to be a true meritocracy. Yeah,
5:34
it's it's truly podcasting has really leveled the playing field for all of us. And when you when you look at some of the top shows, not saying all the top shows, but when you look at some of the top shows right now, in podcasting, what you'll see is a lot of unfamiliar names, and that's a good thing. You know, I mean certainly when you get Ron Burgundy right and you get Will Ferrell jumping into this space And I mean come on. He was on Jimmy Fallon cold bear and Jimmy Kimmel the same night so he went across the country and filmed those segments on the three shows he was on all three shows the same night when the Ron Burgundy show released Season Two of the podcast I mean so insane to be able to converge new media and old media there and get the type of visibility that he was able to get that's not going to happen for us mere mortals and Ron Burgundy you know, I mean, it's it's a it's a cute little tidbits show, whatever you know, I mean, like, but reality is when you look at somebody like a Rachel Hollis, or a Jenna Kutcher, or you know it, any of those types of people that aren't household names and don't have these celebrity you know, these eight that aren't a list celebrities and don't already have millions of followers and other platforms and yet are able to do some pretty impressive things in terms of getting into the charts and getting onto the radar of folks who would never heard them before solely by leveraging the power of podcasting, you can start to see how even us mere mortals, right, who don't necessarily have the benefit of all of that influence of all of that authority of all of that visibility, that they're able to gain through other channels. We can still dance with a lot of these big, big boys and girls, and frankly, in no other medium, are you able to do that.
7:35
Now, let's talk about a podcasts for business owners. So let's say that you have an existing brand, maybe your traditional business owner, like you've got 50 employees, and you've been toying around with the format, you know, you're kind of you're certainly you've got a blog, you're doing some social media, how should some how would someone know if they should add podcasting to their repertoire,
7:57
you know, so it's a really interesting conversation from the standpoint of there's a lot of different ways to leverage the power of podcasting. Now, what what we're seeing it in terms of a 50 employee company versus a 50,000 employee company. There's, there's a big difference. Of course, one of the things that we're starting to see a lot of the larger organizations do is doing sort of what they might call and what you might call, like a personal podcast from the standpoint of it being an internal podcast where they can now communicate with their employees, the world over through a podcast. So it's almost like a private podcast, if you will, just for that company, which is a great way to communicate with them. It's a great way to share, you know, what's going on what's new, what's now what's next, etc, etc. But they don't look at it from the standpoint of building businesses just an internal dialogue amongst the company to its employees. On the other side, if you are a business owner and you're looking to generate visibility, credibility, authority and of course, highly targeted leads and revenue. There's no better platform on the planet right now, then leveraging your own podcast, especially a very niche specific podcast. Let me give you an example here. So our company helps business owners, coaches, authors, speakers, solopreneurs, holistic practitioners, etc. We help them create their new media sales and marketing machines by launching them building their funnel creating their online course. And again, really just creating this whole machine forum that creates visibility leads and revenue 24 seven. Now what we have found is that when you are launching your own show, the best thing for you to do is to get as niche as possible. Because when you think about a niche oriented show, like let's say for instance, a show called the profitable photographer, who do you think is going to listen to a show called the profitable photographer Josh, right. I mean, obviously It's going to be someone who is a photographer and wants to elevate their photography business. So when our client Lucy Dumas decided to launch a show, we pushed her in that direction. Does it get thousands of downloads per episode? No. Does it need thousands of downloads per episode to add a pretty significant amount of income for her and her business month in a month out? Of course not right? Because everyone who listens to the profitable photographer is raising their hand to say, I have an interest in photography, and no one is forcing it down their throat. It's a difference between push and pull media. Right? So podcast is a poor medium from the standpoint of basically raising their hand to say I want that, I want to hear that. And so it's kind of a I liken it to the equivalent of a 100% open rate on your email, and 100% click through rate, which of course none of us have not if you've got more than two People on your email list, no one gets that. And so 100% of the people who are listening to the profitable, profitable photographer are raising their hand to say, this is of interest to me. So when Lucy turns around at the end of the episode, and maybe she interviewed someone who's a profitable photographer and shares what they're doing, maybe she does a soapbox episode where she's just talking about a particular subject, when she turns around and she says, Hey, if you want me to help you build a profitable photography business. Well grab a 15 minute let's chat type of session over here. And let me see if I can help you. Well, he does that people book those calls, not everybody is going to be a fit, but for those who are she's able to turn it into real revenue every single time.
11:45
You know, Steve, one thing that you and I've talked about this before, as someone who studied family science, I did a lot of research and one of my big projects was on the debate versus quality versus quantity time and you just spending time in someone's vicinity is just so powerful and I don't know of a medium that can command more of someone's time more easily than podcasting. You think about you know getting someone to spend a lot of time with you on Twitter you forget it's not going to happen everyone gets like a nanosecond and on Twitter and all social media platforms for the most part, you know blog you know, maybe if I'm really wanting to research this and I really want to you know, dig into whatever it is that I'm learning and maybe you know, you might get a few minutes video can be good, but it's also very demanding because the demands all of the senses but podcast I can listen to passively while I'm out walking my dog Levi around the block, I'm taking a bike ride, I'm driving, and so I get the benefit of spending time together. Now you as a podcast host, you know, you have people that have spent dozens of hours with You. And so if they get to know the problem that you solve, then who are they going to go to? Where they going? They're always going to go to you. Because they know like and trust you because they've spent that much time with you.
13:12
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And you know, it's interesting because the average podcast interview is 62 minutes. So out, yeah. 62 minutes. So you know what, what other medium and your point is well taken, I mean, even a fairly long blog article, maybe you know, a medium does a really good job of this in terms of telling you how long it's going to take, you know, I mean, like medium, it'll tell you if it's a four minute read or a seven minute read or whatever it is, right. So maybe you get a handful of minutes. Like you said, social you're doing scroll, maybe you get 30 seconds video. The odds of somebody sitting through something that's that's longer than just a few minutes is not very good, unless they're watching a documentary or something of that nature. But I do you think that's one of the reasons why podcasting is such a growing medium and will only continue to grow as Wi Fi becomes a standard accessory and cars and Apple CarPlay and Google CarPlay becomes the dashboard. You know that a standard and every vehicle and autonomous cars hit the road and of course you can do whatever you want to do as you go from point A to point B. listenership just going to continue to grow and reality is your well, by some estimates anyway, you're going to see more than a billion people worldwide over the course of a month tuning into the podcast as soon as 2023 by many of the reports that I've seen,
14:33
yeah, do you think we've hit peak podcast? I think one of the challenges you know, granted I've been a podcast geek now for
14:42
nine plus years. No, no, gosh, no. 11 years. So for me, you know, I think it's it's it's become very challenging. It's almost like I want to tell the podcasting world Whoa, whoa, stop making stuff I gotta catch up. But that's that's not going to happen we have enough fuel for for enough listeners, I would imagine globally for many, many, many years to come. Yeah. I mean, look, you can you can simply ask this question, which is, how many people from a percentage perspective use a mobile device? How many people from a from a percentage perspective? Watch TV, you know, and and the God's honest truth is, those are high 90 odd percentile. I mean, it's a huge number. And by some estimates, roughly 26% of those 12 and older here in the States, listen to podcasts on a monthly basis. There is a tremendous amount of room to grow. And the reality is, there's about 600, maybe 700,000 podcasts right now, that are in existence, of which only about 100 and 42 150,000 of those are consistently launching and creating and, you know, creating new content and releasing new content. And so let's just say it's on the high end of that, and you have 150,000 shows that are releasing new content on a consistent basis. Well, if you compare that to the billions of websites, it's it's not it's not even comparable. It's not even comparable. So even if you launched a show now or you started appearing on shows now, great, you know, no better time than the present because the reality is, the odds of your being found there's a guest on a show or by launching your own show are exponentially greater than ever being found if you launch a website or start playing in that world as well. So, you know, again, to each to each his own, but I just honestly I think we're just still very much seeing the tip of the iceberg.
16:57
Now, Steve, what happens at New Media summit.
17:01
New Media sounds a lot of fun. First and foremost we dance We hang together we eat, man, like everybody's in one room, there's no VIP, there's no you know, none of that we're all together in one room over the course of three days. 200 people come in from across the globe. 40 of them are podcasters, top podcasters who have all sorts of different shows, business shows, spirituality shows health and fitness. You know, I mean, religious shows you name it, we bring in top podcasters from across the globe as well. And 150 attendees have the opportunity to take center stage, literally the only event where every attendee takes center stage, at least an event of that size, takes center stage to pitch on who they are and what they do, and they get feedback from the podcasters. And they literally get booked on the spot. So it's three days of learning how to leverage and monetize the power of new media, you know, helping real relationships with amazing people from across the globe and getting booked On top podcasts on the spot, we've got 100% track record of people coming to the summit and leaving with bookings in hand the average attendee actually gets booked on 12 to 14 shows. That is really I mean, when you consider the ROI on that, you know, either from having to hustle and find those and work out those deals on your own and getting dealing with the rejections and all that. It's it's like a, you know, it's kind of like a dating metaphor. It's like listen, you can play the field and or you can just show up at a at a dating mixer where everybody is there. The hosts are there to meet great guests. They've got a big audience already. The guests are there. And I can tell you having been interviewed on 180 podcasts, it is life changing. It is absolutely life changing. And I cannot every week I get people will say I heard you on x podcast and you know in a venue Where I got to teach for 3045 minutes or 60 minutes. And so they're already in love with me. You know, by the time they get on the phone, they're ready to buy. You know, they just they just wanted to say hi, before they engage with me. That's the real power. So, of course you can find more information about new media summit, you go to New Media summit.net and that is coming up. Steve looks like in March, right March 2012. Yeah, so March 2020 will be our sixth one and that'll be in San Diego and and yeah, I mean, it's it's a rockin good time. And we have people who, who actually go to we've been told this who have gone to events for years, and now they don't go anywhere else. We ruin events pretty much for you. So you know, if you've been to other events, this one will ruin your event experience for anything else because we set the bar really high in terms of the experience and It reality is, as I said, the and as you said, you know, the ROI of coming there. And getting booked on the shows is huge. And of course, you know, we do other things as well. We do pre event training sessions to make sure that you're ready for the event we teach you how to manage our team builds your media one sheet for you, which of course, you know, the importance of that, Josh. Yep, our team actually creates the media one sheet for you. And then there's other bonuses that we include as well. But yeah, man, it's it really is an experience like, like, like no other and and as I said, we have people who come in from across the globe to be there.
20:34
Yeah, excellent. Well, Steve, Steve, all sure you're a New York Times bestselling author. You're a TEDx speaker, keynote speaker, legendary podcaster. You've been around the space for quite a while. And of course, you can be found at SteveOlsher.com. That's Steve and Olsher is OLSHER.com where you can find all kinds of things that Steve is doing. And of course, if you We're interested in being a guest on top level podcasts where you can get it all done at one event, walk away with more than a dozen bookings. And that is at New Media summit.net. Steve, thank you so much for joining us.
21:15
Yeah, man, appreciate you having me on.
21:18
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