Turn your podcast into a whole strategy

Louder Than Words

Apr 4

Written By

One of the first things I did when I launched my consulting business last summer was relaunch my podcast.

There were, and are, a ton of other things I could be doing. But, I saw where things were going.

Content that’s based on first-person experiences, observations, and insights (both my own and those of my audience) was going to be more valuable and important than ever. Content that’s uniquely my own. That cannot (easily) be duplicated. That has expertise baked right into it from the start.

Podcasting is the easiest way to combine both.

The biggest part? It’s not about the podcast. Whether it gets 10 downloads or 10k is beside the point––the podcast acts as raw material I can use to create other content for my blog, social, this newsletter, etc.

Here’s how I use insights from my podcast to serve all of the other channels I care about (including this newsletter.)

You’re looking at the timestamps from my episode with Chris Savage. I use Riverside.fm's AI show notes feature to generate these, and as an AI skeptic, I’ve actually been impressed with the accuracy and detail of the output.

(Editor's note: Readers of this newsletter get 15% of Riverside if you sign up through this link and use the code LOUDER during checkout.)

I look at each of these timestamps as a potential topic to cover in this newsletter, on social, and on my blog. In other words, it’s raw material that I can use to create content that’s uniquely my own in every other channel/medium I care about.

Not all of them will work at standalone topics, but even if 5-10 are ones that I can expand on, that’s a ton of raw material I can create content around for weeks or even months. From one episode.

These are just starting points. Once I identify my 5-10 topics I want to go deeper on, I’ll listen back to those specific sections of the podcast.

I’ll copy specific quotes, stories shared, as well as jot down notes that include my own color and perspective on what it all means.

Now I have the scaffolding for a unique piece of content that combines both my observations and insights with those of the guest.

I do this for every episode and every guest.

This is largely why I think a podcast is the highest leverage and most important content medium right now. Not just because of the opportunity for repurposing stories/insights into other content, but it also helps solve 2 of the biggest challenges I hear from marketing teams right now…

“We don’t know how to find writers and/or create content with the expertise needed…” Now you don’t have to. Use a podcast to feature and interview those who already have it. Report on their stories and experiences.
“We’re not sure what our unique POV is and/or how to present it…” It’s hard starting from scratch. But, when you approach it this way, you’re more or less reacting to the stories of your guests rather than trying to come up with your own unique takes from scratch every time.

You likely have a ton of valuable stories and insights locked inside of your podcast. Free them.

More than words

Here’s something I think about often:

Wistia hosted a freakin’ parade to announce a pricing change. Check that, a price increase.

I asked founder Chris Savage about this on a recent episode of Louder Than Words.

“We were changing what our pricing options were. It was becoming more expensive, basically. And, how do we get people to know about this? Oh, let's put on a parade. And you would think we wouldn't want to draw attention to it. But by putting on a parade, we celebrated it.”

Most teams would host a series of Zoom meetings to talk through how to message the increase, talk through the email communications, etc. Those things are important, but not as important as what Wistia did here.

“We'd learned this lesson at that point that the tone of the message is incredibly important and dictates how people respond to stuff. So ‘if they're putting on a parade, Wistia must be excited. If Wistia is excited, I should pay attention. Oh look, Wistia does all these things I didn't know that they did. This looks new.

None of it was new. [The features we promoted] had all been there for a couple of years. But, we realized the pricing change was the moment that we could use that.”

A price increase becomes memorable content. How often does that happen?

Turns out, when you treat content like a product (a key tenant for content brands), it can be often.

The content becomes the delight factor much like a great product experience might be. It’s the thing you’ll remember. Tell others about.

Wistia gets that.

“If the content is the product, the details matter. The goal is that if you interact with content from us, you're like, man, this stuff is really high quality. I didn't waste my time, you know? And if I can leave you or anyone can leave you feeling like I didn't waste my time with this thing, like that was worth it, then the next time something comes up, you're going to be more likely to trust that also.”

Listen to the full conversation with Chris here.