Anna Parker-Naples
SUMMARY
The main reason businesses and investors are funding the podcasting sector.
Businesses and investors are investing in the podcasting sector because they perceive it as a developing and influential market, like to the early days of television, and because podcasts can help listeners feel more "know, like, and trust," which boosts sales.
What suggestions would you have for someone launching a podcast in terms of choosing their niche?
To enhance a podcast's success for commercial objectives, one should be aware of how the podcast will fit into their sales funnel and take into account keywords and phrases that are consistent with their desired personal branding and search engine optimization.
In comparison to being structured as an interviewer, how vital is it for a podcast host to remain natural and unstructured?
Being structured can give listeners a sense of control and familiarity, but it's crucial to strike a balance between having a genuine conversation and participating in it as both the host and the guest, while still having a predetermined structure and theme to direct the conversation. Additionally, it's critical to humanize the podcast and provide the listeners something of value.
TRANSCRIPT
Marcus Cauchi: Hello and welcome back once again to The Inquisitor Podcast with me, Marcus Cauchi. Today my guest is Anna Parker-Naples. She is the author of Podcast With The Impact and a podcast strategist. Anna, welcome.
Anna Parker - Naples: Hey, thank you for having me, Marcus.
Marcus Cauchi: Excellent. I'm, I'm feeling like I'm, I'm being scrutinized on our best behavior having someone as grand as you on.
Quick introduction on your background
Marcus Cauchi: So, would you mind telling the audience maybe in 60 seconds your background and how you got to where you are.
Anna Parker - Naples: So I help people now, I help leaders of their own fields to have really powerful podcasts in terms of launching them, growing them and also being a guest on other people's shows. That's kind of come about because I have this kind of slightly crazy background in audio which saw me winning awards in Hollywood. And I kind of realized at that point, hang on, there's more to what I want to do in the world than just recording my own audio.
Anna Parker - Naples: What I want to do is help people improve their own lives. So I'm really passionate about helping people who feel like they have a purposeful mission to amplify that message and get louder.
Anna Parker - Naples: So that's essentially what I do now.
Why is there a rise in interest in podcasting and voice activated technologies?
Marcus Cauchi: Excellent. Okay. Well do the good line to be in especially nowadays given the rise of interest in audio, audio technology, the investment that's going into it. So let's take a moment to explore that. What, why do you think there is such an a rise in interest in podcasting and voice activated technologies?
Developments in digital technology is` like the beginning of television
Anna Parker - Naples: Well one, there is so much investment right now because if you talk to sort of head hunters at Spotify and Google Podcasts and places like that, they actually see the developments in the digital technology as a little bit like the beginning of television. We know it's going to grow, we know it's going to be influential and people are still finding how this new Wild West is going to run. And you see, big companies trying to claim their stake. We've now got Amazon playing in the podcast space. We've got Spotify who are doing their best to be Apple at every part of the game. We now see Facebook is coming into the podcast space because of the new tools that they're developing that is gonna kind of be a hybrid between podcasts and Clubhouse and I think in terms of, from a personal perspective, the reason why people are consuming so much audio is have been intensified by lockdown and what's happened. We crave connection and there's something very special about an audio only experience. You feel what someone is saying, you know when someone literally resonates with your message, when you resonate with what they're saying. Often, people will listen to a podcast and they will remember where they were when a particular thing was said because it can be a pivotal moment for them.
Anna Parker - Naples: And in terms of business, the reason so many business people are driving over to podcast is because there is an accelerated rate of know, like and trust. And we know that that's essential for sales. When you start to look at the metrics of how many people are taking action with intents to purchase after listening to a podcast, then suddenly you realize why those big investment companies are all over the space.
What a good commercial podcast look and sound like?
Marcus Cauchi: That's really interesting. So can we explore for a moment what a good commercial podcast structure should look like, what sound like?
Anna Parker - Naples: I actually want to remove the word commercial from it. You actually want to bring into your podcast elements that make it very personal. That's what we like as a consumer. As a host, as a business owner, the more you can share one, your knowledge and expertise, but two, elements of your personality, elements of your ups and downs and your real life. That's how people are drawn to you. And what we are seeing is that at, at our high end for people with high ticket offers, that podcast, by just hosting a podcast or being a podcast guest you can actually remove the need for discovery calls and sales calls because people feel like they already know and trust what you did.
Anna Parker - Naples: And, and when you think that, you know, we spend so much time creating social media posts and creating content. And a lot on many platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, that content is gone within 24 hours. It doesn't have any value after that period. Whereas when you create a good quality podcast, you're creating content that lasts for seven years, if not longer.
Marcus Cauchi: Well, it's really interesting cause I've been looking at the stats on mine and yesterday we had a very high number of downloads. But what was really interesting was the number of back episodes that went, were either downloaded once, twice, maybe five, six, seven, eight times. Whereas the episode that I released got one hundred and fifty, two hundred, but at least close to half were actually back issue. You know, from the catalogue and that's really invigorating for me because it's clear that people like the content, but then they're going back and they're finding topics that are of interest to them.
Anna Parker - Naples: So this is an interesting thing I'd like to, to share with you. A lot of people will arrive a podcast because they've heard the host as a guest somewhere else first. The guest as a host, they think, I like what they're saying, have they been a guest anywhere else? And very, when you are, when you're strategically guesting for any other shows you've been on, whether it's one you host or ones you've also been a guest on are literally displayed underneath in Apple or Spotify.
Anna Parker - Naples: So there's a very powerful mechanism there for visibility. But what people then tend to do is they'll arrive at your show, they've already heard you somewhere else, they will see that the episode that's recently dropped, most people don't listen to that one unless they're already hooked into your show and they're a subscriber. They'll then scan down the list and think which of those topics, which of those episodes answers something that's going on for me? And then that's the one they'll tune in to. When they've listened to that, very often people will go right back to the beginning of your catalogue and literally binge listen to the whole of your show.
Marcus Cauchi: They'll be tied up for the rest of the year then.
Anna Parker - Naples: Well they may well be, but sometimes when people, people subscribe on average to six shows and that means that they're pretty loyal, right? They're loyal and they like something about what you are delivering. So they will listen to your content. And what other platform do we have a scenario where people are actively going and finding your content? It's not happening anywhere else.
Marcus Cauchi: Yeah, I mean to some degree you sit with people that are followed on LinkedIn and there's quite a loyal following there but I haven't come across anything quite as powerful, certainly in my personal branding and marketing activity that's come close to the podcast.
Marcus Cauchi: So this talks to me about raising your personal visibility and building your personal brand.
Anna Parker - Naples: Yeah.
Marcus Cauchi: It strikes me that it's important to stay on message as well. Because I think, one, one of the things that's been really interesting for me is whilst I stay around the subject of sales and management, it allows me to go slightly off piece and deal with other topics that could be related.
Advice on picking their niche for somebody starting a podcast
Marcus Cauchi: But again, the, the loyalty is built around a theme. So what advice would you give to somebody if they're starting out a podcast in terms of picking their niche?
Anna Parker - Naples: You've gotta make sure that you understand where the podcast is going to fit in terms of your funnel. So if you are starting a podcast for business purposes, and yet your podcast doesn't actually lead people to a product, service, or offer that fulfills the need they had when they tuned into their podcast, you're missing a trick.
Anna Parker - Naples: So many people rush in to try and get into the podcast space and they don't understand, for example, you could with a free app. You could become a podcaster within an hour. You know, that could be live. But if you really wanted to work for your business, you need to think about what the keywords I want to be found under.
Anna Parker - Naples: What am I trying to do with my website and my personal brand over on Google? So one of the things that's happened over the last, well, since last April, so just over a year now, Google Podcasts kind of got a refresh. It used to be known as Google Play, which is their music app. But when Google Podcast was released, it developed the ability to read not just the name of a show and the title of an episode, which would be work, which would work really well for SEO over on Google anyway.
Anna Parker - Naples: But it also has the ability to read the audio content of every episode that goes out even if it's never transcribed. So if you are for example, in your case, you're saying, I talk about sales and marketing. If you are using your own podcast and other podcast guesting opportunities to make sure you are using keywords and phrases that you want to be known for, a result that you want to be known for, and you are mentioning those in enough different episodes, well that's going to actually affect your search engine optimization and we know what that does for our business.
Marcus Cauchi: Right. Okay. I mean, I'm probably the most guilty of all because I set this up primarily cause I wanted to speak to really interesting people who'd read written books that I really liked. And I, I've realized far too late in life that if you want to know how to do things, go to the person who's already done them.
What advice can you give in preparing and the resources needed in starting a podcast?
Marcus Cauchi: And so I've had zero strategies from day one. So we've been going just over two years, we've had about eighty one thousand downloads, three hundredand fifty episodes, something like that. So clearly I'm one of those people who's desperately guilty of not using this as effectively as I could. So in terms of the planning and the thinking that needs to go into preparing before you go to market with your podcast, what advice would you give, what resources can people, look up?
Anna Parker - Naples: So the advice is, one, you don't want to wait, you want to, you want to crack on and get into the podcast space as soon as you can. But the other, the other piece of advice is slow down. Think about who's it for, what are they, what does my business represent? What do I want to be known for? And choosing a name and a description and your initial episode that represent the cornerstone content for what your product offer service is that will appeal to your ideal listener. I'm really thinking about your podcast, not just as, oh, I'm gonna create content, but how does this work as your funnel?
Anna Parker - Naples: So, for example, we, we've had, we've launched shows that have had, you know, close to a half a million downloads in the space of less than six months because they were so clear in their title, their description, every single piece of content that went out for the first three months. Who it was for, and what, what result they got. And you know, that podcast has then changed their life, changed their business because they're reaching people globally. So that's the other thing with the podcast is who, who is it for and where in the world are they? Because I believe it's the only real platform at the moment that we can be hitting, you know, over a hundred countries just like that. And very quickly, if you get your, if you get your launch strategy or, or your relaunch strategy if you already have your own show.
Importance on being natural versus being structured as an interviewer
Marcus Cauchi: That's really interesting. So if we think about personal branding, how important is it that you are natural versus being very structured on, as an interviewer?
Anna Parker - Naples: I think having a structure is good in that your listeners know what to expect and you feel in control. I also think we know when, as a listener, we know when we are hearing someone read something. We know and there's an immediate disconnect. We also know when someone is feeling an emotion and believes what they are saying. We can hear it. And when we're listening to audio, whether we're out on a run or we're in the shower or we're doing the ironing or whatever it is you're doing when you listen to a podcast, you can actually be taking on a very interesting journey where you feel connected to somebody. If you are in the first instances fully scripted and formal in what you are doing, in effect you are disallowing that connection with your listener. Does that make sense?
Marcus Cauchi: That makes a lot of sense.
Anna Parker - Naples: So for example, I mean, I've been on shows where the podcast has been doing exactly the same format for the last five years or ten years or whatever. And no matter what I say as an individual, as the guest, they are going to pursue with the question because that's the next question on the list. Now, as now sometimes that is valid because as the host, you know where you want the conversation to go. That's part of your planning. Okay? But as a guest, if you have for example shared something that's really quirky or different or interesting or potentially quite emotional, and then is disregarded by the host because they have their next question, it doesn't feel to the listener like a genuine conversation. Doesn't feel like that. And again, there's, there's that disconnect. So I think it's about finding that balance of having a real conversation, showing up for that conversation as the guest and the host being open to wherever it goes. But knowing that you, you have got a kind of outline of agreed structure. So like today Marcus, you and I have sat down and you said, look this is who I'm speaking to, this is what they like, this is what I'm hoping to get from the show and what, what do you, Anna? What are the things you, you chiefly want to share?
Anna Parker - Naples: So you and I, we don't know where this conversation is going to go and we're comfortable enough with creating content that we're, we're happy to go wherever. And I think the more you can say like, this is our general overall structure and theme, this is what we want the audience to take from it, but we're going to riff in a kinda music term.
Marcus Cauchi: Yeah.
Anna Parker - Naples: I think the better your content's going to be.
Marcus Cauchi: Well, I've certainly found that I, I've always provide guests with a framework, with the caveat, the chances of us following it are closer to a snowball chance in hell.
Anna Parker - Naples: Yeah.
Marcus Cauchi: But it stimulates their thinking in terms of topics. So if they get stuck, then we can readily go back to the stuff they prepared.
Marcus Cauchi: What I'm realizing more and more in marketing generally is that if it isn't humanized, then it just becomes morphine and there's an awful lot of marketing morphine out there. There's, you know, it's just puts people to sleep, it's not relevant, it's not timely, it's not contextually appropriate and above all, it's not valuable.
Marcus Cauchi: And I think one of the most important elements of all marketing activity, whatever it is, is it has to be valuable to your audience and you know that it is when they contact you out of the glare of the public spotlight. My pal Al Tepo measures what he calls buzz, which is the unfiltered subsurface communication that people have with you as the creator of content.
Marcus Cauchi: And that's the thing that's really driven me on to, continue with the podcast. It's a number of unsolicited thank you notes and the, the impact it's had on people.
Anna Parker - Naples: So there's a couple of things I'd like to say about that. So one, yes it is about value for the audience. First and foremost, it has to be because otherwise why are people going come back.
Anna Parker - Naples: But the other thing is the concept of storytelling. We like to hear people's journeys, the hero's journey, we enjoy that as a consumer because we're always looking for how does this in its situation relate to me? How can I, can I take from what they're saying? And also that makes us memorable. That makes it, for example, in, in your scenario in sales and marketing, well what are the personal funny stories that you have that make you memorable?
Anna Parker - Naples: So I'm looking at Marcus now, and he's got the, I don't know their names, but the stooges from the Muppets.
Marcus Cauchi: The grumpy old men from the, the Muppets Statler and Waldorf.
Anna Parker - Naples: So that's something, you know, there's a, there's, there are probably many stories as to why Marcus chooses that. For me, see the first thing Marcus and I talked about before I came on air is why do I work in this field? What's happened? And for me, I discovered that 12 years ago that there I had the potential, I wasn't ever going to walk again which meant that I went down a field of thinking well, what can I do from home? And for me it meant audio, I could be a voice actor from home rather than getting on stage. And then I've kind of gone on this crazy journey. Now, the fact that I've even shared that with you, that makes it way more, way more memorable than me saying I'm the podcast expert because that's not, that doesn't make me unique.
Marcus Cauchi: Yeah.
Anna Parker - Naples: So I think what's powerful about a podcast is, is that that drip feeding of story. How do we intrigue people? How do we invite people in?
Anna Parker - Naples: And there was another thing I wanted to share, but it's completely gone out of my head. So,
Marcus Cauchi: It'll come back.
Anna Parker - Naples: Hopefully, hopefully, it come back.
Marcus Cauchi: It'll come back. It's called L'esprit de L'escalier, the spirit of the stairs. You have a row and you realize what you should have said as you're reaching the top of the stairs.
Anna Parker - Naples: We're not rowing here, Marcus.
Marcus Cauchi: No, no, of course.
What are the blind spots companies are inflicting on in their podcast?
Marcus Cauchi: It's the, the function of the brave. So what are the blind spots that companies have when they're putting out a podcast? Because as an individual, obviously you can put your own stamp on it. When it's sponsored by a business or it's, you know, driven by a business, what are the, the blind spots that you see organizations inflicting on themselves and their audience.
Anna Parker - Naples: Making it too dry. So if you make it too dry, who wants to come back? And making it result driven for the listen because people want to listen because there's something in it for them. So how can you make it clear that your podcast does something, that it helps them with something, that it gives them the knowledge that they need in order to do something else?
Anna Parker - Naples: And I think that is a fine line for the bigger corporations but what we're going to see over the next few years, certainly with by, in, in three years time, it's expected that every website has a podcast, every business owner has a podcast. In the way, my stomach's rumbling. I dunno if that came up on your audio, but that's all good fun. In the same way that maybe ten years ago, suddenly you had to have a blog and if you didn't have a blog, did you even have a business? That's about to happen with podcasting. And so what we have at the moment is this really special opportunity that whilst it might seem like everyone has a podcast, they don't.
Anna Parker - Naples: We've just crossed the two million threshold of live shows worldwide. That's across every country, every category, every niche, every language and when you compare that with YouTube, for example, which has now got something like fifty thousand live YouTube channels, and in the world that there are something like five hundred million blogs worldwide, you kind of think wow, actually podcasting is still in its infancy, so you are still able to have amazing success in the charts which will push your show out out further. You can't do that in any other of those mediums.
Marcus Cauchi: I think I'm number seven in Vietnam.
Anna Parker - Naples: Amazing.
Best practices in packaging a podcast
Marcus Cauchi: Okay, let's talk about the packaging of the podcast because the conversation itself is one thing, but then you've got the imagery, you've got the copy, you've got the headline, so talk to me about the best practices when it comes to packaging your podcast well.
Anna Parker - Naples: It's got to have a clear title thats, does what it says on the tin and speaks to that person as opposed to something quirky and funny. Quirky and funny, nice but it doesn't work from a search engine perspective and the podcast directories are all like search engines. You've got to think about the keywords you want associated with the podcast and direct feed them through your description of your show and also the episode titles of your show so that everything's kind of working cohesively.
Anna Parker - Naples: So generally, someone would come across your podcast because they put in a keyword. They might not think about it as a keyword, but that's what they've done or they would be looking at a similar show to yours already. If you haven't keyworded it and done the description properly, then your show isn't going to sit alongside your competitors because you've not done that due diligence.
Anna Parker - Naples: And then you want to think, well, the artwork, does the artwork represent the level of quality of expertise that my show is going to be discussing? OKay? So does the artwork fit with its category, but also does it pop? So how do you have that thing of fitting in but also standing out? Which is a real balance to make.
Anna Parker - Naples: And then you want to think about, okay, so someone has seen that my show is in that category. For example, they like the look of my artwork, the title speaks to them. So they're going to then see the first few lines of my description. Your whole description can be full of keywords but like sentences you wouldn't ever want to stuff it with, and, and it just be random.
Anna Parker - Naples: Does that speak to them? Does that make them feel that they're going to get the result for the problems that they have? And then, literally the first five seconds of your podcast, is it good enough quality? For example, I see many podcasts where they've got introductions that ramble on for about ninety seconds, even two minutes long.
Anna Parker - Naples: I don't know about you, I don't have enough time in my life to listen to that. So does the introduction one from a business perspective, brand something? Is it quick? Is it clear? Is it concise? Does it get you excited about listening or are you bored before the person even speaks? And then you know, there are things about quality, we do like audio quality. We're a bit forgiving if we think it's been, you know, a live Zoom call or a live stream. We do kind of forgive that as long as other elements of the show are well produced. So you've always gotta think about the, the user experience. And be mindful of, of how people are coming in.
Anna Parker - Naples: You've got seconds at each stage for them to make those decisions. Am I going to listen? Will I click listen? Will I stay and listen? And then how quickly do you let people know what the episode is going to be about. And this is quite a common, common thing that I see is that, someone might have titled an episode in a particular way that has grabbed somebody's interest, but then they've got their intro and then they'll spend a long time talking about their week, talking about what they've been up to, their dog walk, all those lovely things.
Anna Parker - Naples: That's fine, build interesting connection. But if the listener wanted to listen to an episode about a particular topic and yet it's five or ten minutes before that topic is even mentioned, they will feel like they're in the wrong place. So it's often about how quickly can I let you know this is what we are discussing today.
Anna Parker - Naples: This is what you've tuned in for and then when you've done that and kind of put them at rest and they've decided to stay, then you can talk about everything else. So it's about just having that awareness with what you're creating.
Marcus Cauchi: I have to say, when people ramble on for five, ten minutes about them, what they had for learn and the walk with the dog, I'm not listening because I want another friend. I'm listening because I want to learn something. Now I may be anomalist or you know, maybe it's the category that I'm in, but I think if you're not getting to value quickly, then you do them a monstrous disservice.
Anna Parker - Naples: Yes.
What are the elements of production that one should consider at the most basic level?
Marcus Cauchi: Okay, so let, let's talk about production cause clearly it's not my forte and I'd be, I'd love to get an understanding what, what are the different elements of production that one should consider at the most basic level?
Anna Parker - Naples: Okay, so first of all, people get really caught up in what, what microphone they should use. And that's not actually the first question. The first question is what's going to be the best environment for me to record in?
Anna Parker - Naples: Now as I'm speaking, I'm actually in what was an airing covered that over the years has been upgraded to a professional studio. You don't need that, but you do want to think how noisy is my room that I'm actually recording in? And an interesting way to do this is to literally on a microphone, whatever you've got, go and record in different areas of your house. And then go back to the to one space in your house and listen to them all with headphones or earbuds in. You will hear the background noise. You will hear that the ambiance of that room, an interesting thing as well is if you are, for example, committed that I have to record in my office, well, there are different layouts of your office where you could position your microphone to improve your, your audio.
Anna Parker - Naples: So for example, you want to make sure that you are nowhere near a window or if you have to be near a window, that you've got some kind of sound guard or sound shield not soundproofing cause that isn't what it is that would absorb some of that hard reflective noise. So for example, we would know wouldn't we not to record in our bathrooms. We would know there's too much hard surface and it wouldn't sound right. But people aren't thinking about this when they're recording their own podcasts. That's kinda the big thing for me.
Anna Parker - Naples: The second thing is, again, it's not, you do need a microphone but it doesn't have to cost the earth. It can be really simple and that depends on your budget and how interested you are in having an audi, an audio quality experience for people.
Anna Parker - Naples: But my big bug bear is as a host, certainly as a host, always making sure you record with headphones on. And the reason is that as if I was hosting, I would be really aware of when there are changes in, in Marcus's audio, for example, I would know if something was going on at his end because I can hear it in my headphones. In my headphones, I can hear, you know, if my neighbor flushes the toilet for, something like that. I'm aware of that in my headphones because they're good quality headphones and so I can make a decision as I'm hosting, right? Do I pause? Do I continue? Is there some feedback that's going on that you wouldn't be aware of if you didn't have headphones on?
Anna Parker - Naples: And I know look, because a lot of people are live streaming at the same time and a lot of people don't wanna mess up their hair. Some people don't want to do that, but it means that your edit, the raw audio you then take to edit is so much cleaner because of how you've, how you've used your equipment in the first place.
Which is better in recording, two separate streams of one stream shared by both parties?
Marcus Cauchi: So on the recordings, should you record two separate streams or is it okay to just have one stream shared by both parties?
Anna Parker - Naples: We actually use a mixture of both. You, if you have separate audio tracks, you will, you will get a better edit but it isn't always vital. So for example, I'm always mindful that now that I'm not at the niche, the beginnings of my podcast, I want my content to go as far as possible.
Anna Parker - Naples: So we actually do a lot of live streaming. We'll use something like StreamYard, a multi broadcast to Facebook, my Facebook groups, my pages, LinkedIn and then we'll pull the audio from that. But what I would say is that I always make it clear to my audience we are live streaming today. Which kind of signals to them this isn't going to be crystal clear audio and I think as long as you're communicating, then that's okay.
What media should you use to promote your podcast?
Marcus Cauchi: Okay. And that's interesting. Okay, so in terms of promotion and raising awareness and visibility of the podcast, you've already talked about using the right keywords. What about the media that you should use to promote the podcast that you know, basically I'm always putting mine out on LinkedIn, I put it out on my Facebook feed and on Twitter and that's pretty much it.
Anna Parker - Naples: So what I would say with this, and we, we are really experimenting with this cause I think this is something that's shifting the more people who are podcasting. You do want to promote that your episode has gone live, you do want to have audiograms which are the little videos for example.
Anna Parker - Naples: They'll often get, people will often listen to a sixty minutes, a sixty second snippet and then be intrigued. But actually, you want to take the topic that you've discussed on a podcast and turn it into interesting posts so that people are engaged with your social media content and then you lead them to your podcast, if that makes sense.
Anna Parker - Naples: So it's not always just listen to this episode, listen to this episode. You're enticing people because that's how social media works best. But a lot of people do actually forget to promote their episodes and then they wonder why their show isn't growing. So you've gotta make sure you're actually doing the work and creating good content.
Marcus Cauchi: Interesting. Okay. I, I interviewed a chap called Justin Nassiri and they take one episode and they produce three hundred bits of content from it. And it's really quite amazing how many ways you can skin the cat.
Anna Parker - Naples: Yeah.
Marcus Cauchi: If you are thinking creatively and I, I think certainly I've been guilty of it, but the majority of people who produce podcasts just simply knock the episode out and they might have the odd clip here or there.
What other forms of media can be used for the same content but in different ways?
Marcus Cauchi: What other forms of media can people use in order to deliver the same content packaged in multiple different ways?
Anna Parker - Naples: So, as I said, I, I often start my podcast by doing a live a, a live delivery. And then we'll get it onto the show. So if I'm delivering that, that's not a rambly LinkedIn Live or Facebook Live that is targeted to deliver the content but it's still getting out there, it's still positioning me.
Marcus Cauchi: So, sorry to interrupt you. You'd, you put the live introduction out and then you play the recorded podcast?
Anna Parker - Naples: No, what I'm saying is that I would live deliver, I would do a live broadcast of the podcast. Then I would strip the audio and then polish it, put the intro and outros, make it go onto the podcast.
Anna Parker - Naples: So I have live delivered something that took me, let's say it's a solo episode it took fifteen minutes. I've live delivered that. It's already created, it's gone on my LinkedIn, my Instagram, wherever. I then put it onto the podcast, we have created show notes from it which then gets, so that goes onto my website for search engine optimization purposes.
Becoming a guest on other people's podcasts is the fastest way to grow your podcast
Anna Parker - Naples: We could then turn that into a blog because we've got half the text written anyway. And then from there we would create social media posts as well and audiograms, the little videos. So you know, you can make it go further. But a really helpful tip, if you are serious about growing your podcast, becoming a guest on other people's podcasts is one of the fastest ways to accelerate it.
Anna Parker - Naples: And not just, you know, a couple of episode, couple of interviews in the space of a year. I'm talking about using it as a strategy, as a targeted strategy.
Marcus Cauchi: So in order to do that, do people need to find an agent or can they do that themselves?
Anna Parker - Naples: So you can do it yourself. You need to be aware of what's the topic you want to be talking about, having the contact to pitch people, having a podcast one sheet and that's actually something that we've developed in the podcast agency to,
Marcus Cauchi: Sorry, what, what's a podcast one sheet?
Anna Parker - Naples: A podcast, one sheet is a little bit like a media one sheet, a media bio if you like, where it's the whole, your bio on your podcast. One sheet would potentially be what the podcast host reads out like out loud. Examples of shows you've been on, topics you could talk about quest, suitable questions for you that might be of interest to the podcast host. Basically doing a lot of the legwork for them and then, and then researching and listening to the shows before you, you cold call them basically.
Anna Parker - Naples: Which is what we've developed in the podcast agency. We now have our podcast booking boutique where we heavily vet the podcast that we're pitching to make sure that if we get someone onto their podcast, it's either the right, right fit for them in terms of authority building or the right fit for them in terms of they might have a small audience, but it's the right audience for them to reach.
Anna Parker - Naples: So that's one of the things that we do now.
Marcus Cauchi: That's really interesting as well. Thank you.
What is your best mistake while developing your podcast?
Marcus Cauchi: Okay, so what's your best mistake that you've made whilst, developing your podcast?
Anna Parker - Naples: In my first podcast I had, I had one that I, because my background was audio,and when I came into the kind of business and motivational space, someone said, you should start a podcast. So I kind of went, oh, okay. And I just did what I talked about. I had the podcast live within twenty four hours without understanding the power of this medium. And the medium has become more powerful over the last four years. My biggest mistake is one that I see that's pretty common, I started my first podcast and it sort of sat there because I wanted to see how well it did before I told anybody about it.
Anna Parker - Naples: And there's a kind of ego thing there isn't there? But how would you expect to sell anything without telling anyone it was for offer? And it's the same with a podcast and you have this kind of unique window when you launch or when you do a new season of a podcast to help it reach more ears. And ultimately, the more people you reach, the more leads you're going to generate. So why wouldn't you do that?
How to identify the perfect listener for a podcast?
Marcus Cauchi: So let's focus on the listener for a minute, in your book you talk about the perfect listener. How do you identify the perfect listener for your particular podcast?
Anna Parker - Naples: Again, you've gotta go back to your offer. You've gotta go back to your offer. What are you trying to sell? What, and I think it's actually deeper than this.
Anna Parker - Naples: I think it's what change do you wanna see in the world? And what part are you playing in that? Now they might seem like really grandeur statements but I kind of believe that a lot of us delivering podcast content or any content, we do actually want to make a difference. Otherwise, why would we show up? Why? Why would we feel any connection to what we're delivering? And when you know what difference you want to make to an individual, the impact you want to have on them and the product offer or service that you have that you could sell them into, then that kind of, where, where those two things meet is, is what you're then delivering with your show and, and who you are speaking to.
In what conditions should you create a paywall and when to involve sponsorship and advertising?
Marcus Cauchi: Okay. So let's move on to the subject of paywalls. You, you've seen the growth of platforms like Patreon, where people pay a monthly subscription and I, I've, to be honest, I've always tried away from it because I do want the content to get wider exposure. I don't wanna create a barrier. I mean, it's not cheap as a hobby cause I'm knocking out two, three a week and I've gotta pay editing fees and everything else, but it's a really worthwhile investment. I, I feel that it's, a worthy cause. So under what conditions should you and should you not create a paywall? And at what point if ever, should you involve sponsorship and advertising?
Anna Parker - Naples: Okay. That's some big questions in there. So first of all, with the, the whole paywall conversation, it's kind of intensified right now. So we had platforms like Patreon and Simplecast was another one where, sorry, Supercast, where as a listener you could pay to get premium content or a back catalogue of content. And in those models you were then as the host able to get the contact details and build a community.
Anna Parker - Naples: You had access to who that listener was. You could then start emailing them and build your funnel and all the other business things in that way. Apple, about three weeks ago, announced that they were now having a new subscription model but that anyone who put anything behind that paywall would have to have the premium content as Apple only.
Anna Parker - Naples: So thereby preventing others going over to Spotify. And the way that this is going to work is that, remember we are so used to on Apple paying, we're just, we subscribe for this. It is a kind of one click affairs. It's very easy to get someone to listen and pay. It's going to be, they think about fifty cents, so you know less than fifty p to subscribe to a show per month.
Anna Parker - Naples: And this will be things like back catalogues, advert free episodes if you have a a, an podcast with that generally has sponsorship, an early release content. Now they're going to be taking thirty percent cut. So what's happened with Spotify, as Apple have rolled this out, they've now announced, well they have this coming and it's going to be spot, is going to be non-exclusive on Spotify and for the first three years, any podcaster who goes with them will get a hundred percent of the revenue. So that's really different, and after that it'll be five percent. So I think it's kind of fair to say Apple and Spotify are really going head to head with, with this space . Now, I'm in two minds as to, for most businesses, whether this is a good idea because many business owners want to have as much free content out there that is consumed readily to build a funnel to bring people to buy. Okay?
Anna Parker - Naples: Most people are thinking that model. Now if you want a kind of hands off approach and your podcast becomes the main in terms of your revenue and you're not going to have products and services, then I think the subscription model works really well. I think where it works brilliantly for example, is where you have a podcast that is really about building a sense of community. So for example, if you were a football fan podcast and people love you, but it is not necessarily a business, but they want the content and they want to support you and they want the extra behind the scenes bits and pieces, then I think it'll work really well. For me, in terms of business and positioning as a personal brand, as an expert, until I've tested this mod, these models, I'm not sure that it's going to be right for a lot of businesses, but we'll see.
Where do you see the future of podcasting a part of the overall marketing mix?
Marcus Cauchi: Okay. Anna we're coming close to by the top of the hour, I'd like to get your take on where you see the future of podcasting going as part of the overall marketing mix? Because I think on its own powerful. But when it's part of a, a mix of really well thought through marketing strategies, then it can be a really powerful accelerator.
Marcus Cauchi: And I'd just love to get your take on where you think the market's moving.
Anna Parker - Naples: So I think important word there is accelerator. The other important one is elevation. How can you elevate your brand, that level of connection quickly? It is a very powerful authority builder and I think with people like hearing voices, they like to have that connection. And I think as Clubhouse and Facebook develop their tools and, and Twitter, their tools that allow audio integration as well. I think having the podcast for your delivery, for your expertise, for the guesting opportunities to bring on high quality guests that you develop a relationship with, really powerful for lead generation. But bringing them then over to a platform such as Clubhouse, where you can have post show discussion on a weekly or a monthly basis, again, just builds that and increases that know, like and trust factor. What I find over on, at, on Clubhouse for example, is that yes, there is a minefield of information there but the conversation can change very rapidly. And it's very hard to sort of stay on topic in Clubhouse and I think that, you know, you could develop yourself a very serious amount of followers in Clubhouse quickly. But if you lead people back to your podcast where you are the expert on one particular topic, then I think there's a, a powerful duality there.
What advise can you give Anna at age 23?
Marcus Cauchi: I really love the idea of the Clubhouse post show discussion. I think that's brilliant. Thank you. Okay, so if we look back at your history and we take you back in time with a golden ticket and you can advise the idiot, Anna, age 23, when you knew everything, what bit of advice would you, give her?
Anna Parker - Naples: Be open and be open to adventure. Be open to, if you want to do something, doing it to the, the nth degree. Just bloody go for whatever it is you want to do but also do a lot of the deep work. So my background as a result of the fact that it helped me recover from life, what I thought would be lifetime disability. I'm a big believer in NLP, neurolinguistic programming and mindset work.
Anna Parker - Naples: And every time I want to grow or expand in a direction, I have to go in and think, well, what is this all about? And again, I come back to these questions, what change do I want to see in the world? And what is my part in that? And I think the bigger you can think for yourself, the easier it is to take risks because they don't become risks, they become part of that adventure.
Marcus Cauchi: I really love that. And again, I think if you don't think big, then chances are you'll be limited. One, one of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain and it's, your eyes won't see if your imagination is out of focus. And I see so many people in life and in business being constrained by what they've always done or by what other people are doing and that tendency to conform, limits their scope. And since I've set up my latest business, and I've focused, or I've created for enormous, almost impossible goals, it's opened up so many possibilities. I mean, the problem that I face at the moment is too much choice and it's really quite an exciting problem to have because it's giving me the scope to really follow my passions.
What are you struggling and wresting with at the moment?
Marcus Cauchi: So, yeah, fantastic advice. What are you struggling with? What are you wrestling with at the moment yourself?
Anna Parker - Naples: We're growing at an extraordinary rate. In two, in both, both sides of the business. So we run, I run the podcast agency which has a production side. So we, we are launching podcasts, we're producing podcasts year round and then we have the, the podcast booking boutique. And we are having, we're, because the interest in podcast right now, we are having at the moment to turn a lot of clients away or put them on pause because I'm a, I like to get hands in. I, I, I'd say that kind of the message of our business is we help leaders to get louder. We amplify through the power of podcasts and my personal mission is that I really want to understand someone's message so that I can bring my knowledge and all sorts of things to help make sure that we get that done in the best possible way.
Anna Parker - Naples: And it, you know, going from a solo entrepreneur and with a, a woman with an audio background to now running a big company with people all over the world, team, team and managing team. You know, it's a big learning curve but this, the whole platform, podcasting's not going anywhere.
How are you growing the business without taking additional workload?
Marcus Cauchi: So tell me this then, how are you creating scale? And by scale I mean growing the business without taking on additional workload.
Anna Parker - Naples: Training people quickly, training people, making sure we bring in good talent and paying well. I think if you pay people well and you respect them and you empower them to have responsibility rather than being micromanaged, I think you get good result.
Anna Parker - Naples: But I've had to massively learn as a, a leader within my own business. That's been a, a big learning curve over the last eighteen months or so.
Marcus Cauchi: So do you have mentors, coaches?
Anna Parker - Naples: So I'm in, I'm actually part of three separate masterminds. One I started in about two years ago when I still felt relatively clueless about marketing and sales. And then another with, there's ten, ten women with a, a mentor that's very positive psychology led. And then I'm part of a collective of women across the world who are making global impact and we go and mastermind with Richard Branson on his Paradise Island, which is really tough.
Anna Parker - Naples: And it's a business trip, so we will be able to go. So,
Marcus Cauchi: Excellent. Fantastic. I need to organize some jollies like that.
Anna Parker - Naples: It's not to jolly as I keep telling my husband.
Marcus Cauchi: Of course, of course.
Anna Parker - Naples: All work, no pleasure.
Marcus Cauchi: Yeah, Necker Island is hell.
Anna Parker - Naples: I'll hate every minute.
Marcus Cauchi: Absolutely.
Anna Parker - Naples: But yeah, I think it's important to have sounding boards because no matter the stage you're at, you're going to have barriers and hurdles and blocks and things you can't see for yourself but everybody else can see for you. And so finding those, seeking out those places where that can happen is really, really vital.
What can people watch, read and listen to give real value in audio space?
Marcus Cauchi: Excellent advice. So what, what would you recommend people watch, read, listen to that will give them real value in terms of developing themselves in the audio space?
Anna Parker - Naples: Well, first of all, go and read my book Podcast With Impact. But my, my podcast is called Entrepreneurs Get Visible. And we talk about their all sorts of things. So the social media, how you feel about your business and also the podcasting stuff. I talk about it all over there.
What communities would you recommend?
Marcus Cauchi: And are there any communities that you would recommend?
Anna Parker - Naples: So I run the Podcast Community which is a free group for podcasters and people who want to be a guest. If that's kind of, particularly people who are just dipping their toe in, maybe they've not kind of strategized these areas. And if you are looking to DIY your podcast, then I run The Podcast Membership which is a paid, paid membership with kind of like set up like four courses ready to go. You can learn how to launch, grow, monetize, how to be a guest and how to pitch and that kind of thing if you want to do it for yourself.
Marcus Cauchi: Excellent. Anna Parker-Naples, thank you.
Anna Parker - Naples: You're welcome. Thank you for having me.
How can people get hold of you?
Marcus Cauchi: My pleasure. How can people get a hold of you?
Anna Parker - Naples: Go check us out Entrepreneurs Get Visible and I'm always telling people how to come find me over on my show.
Marcus Cauchi: Excellent, thank you. So if you found this conversation stimulating, exciting, informative, then please like, comment, share and subscribe. And if you feel the urge, then go over onto Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts and leave an honest review.
Marcus Cauchi: One star, three stars, five stars, not fast. Just make it honest and heartfelt. Now, I, if you are the owner or the CEO of the tech company in the ten to fifty million space, and your goal is to grow your business and achieve sustainable, profitable hyper-growth and do so with highly engaged staff across all of your revenue operations and to keep customers coming back year after year, decade after decade, then let's have a chat. You can email me marcus@laughs-last.com or direct message me on LinkedIn. And if you are really pissed after the back teeth with how sales has taken such a wrong turn, you'd like to be part of a global movement to take back control of sales, create the conditions for buyer safety and really turn sales into the service profession it should be, then please drop me a line or follow the #SAFFG pro customer and buyer safety. We have a global community, we're capturing all the lessons and we're making them freely available to community members forever, for life. In the meantime, stay safe and happy selling.
Marcus Cauchi: Bye-bye.
