I have completed 340 podcast episodes. You might think, is that a milestone? No not really. But I learned a lot from them. So I’m going to tell you what I have learned.
Now of course this is Friday. Time for our weekend challenge and unlike yesterday when it was cold, well actually it is cold today. I’m out in the garden, you can hear the birds tweeting.
Anyway, as you can imagine I have done 340 podcasts including this one. And from that I have learned a lot. And things changed and I changed with it.
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So I think that these things I learned can be applied to any business and make sense for anyone. Doesn’t matter what you do.
These can work in my fire safety business, in my marketing business, in anything. So grab your pen, grab your pad, grab your pencil and let’s get started!
Weekend Challenge
#1 Batch Up Your Work: Yes. Record. If you are doing interview, podcast or things do them in batches. John Lee Dumas for example, famous for his show Entrepreneur on Fire, he does seven interviews a week.
Does he interview people seven days a week? No. he puts aside Monday. And he slots them in. I think he actually records 8 on a Monday.
Every Monday without fail. It’s like clockwork. Now when I am away, or quite often when I do these, I will record a batch of these because I have a busy schedule and I can’t just hope that it’s not pouring with rain.
I have to make sure everything’s working or I can find time to do this. Of course sometimes I’m with my kids, or on a break or on a holiday or whatever.
So, Batch things up. And that’s the same with your work. If you do things in batches, you get in to the flow, into the swing.
If you have to start something get into it, finish it, go do something else and then another day start something, get into it, etc. it doesn’t work the same.
If you start that thing get into it, and do another one, another one and another one. So think of the work that you do. Think of what you have to do and think of what you can batch together to do in bunches of work.
#2 Have a Backup Plan: Now stuff is going to go wrong. Absolutely so have an alternative. What else can you do? So for instance in podcast thing, there are going to be glitches. Recently I had Jordan Harbinger of the Art of Charm.
One of the biggest podcast on iTunes. And half way through our interview, which was going great by the way. Skype packed in, completely nothing we could do, we both rebooted at either ends and did all kinds of stuff and tried all sorts. It just wouldn’t work.
We had to just abandon it. So off we went, rearranged for another time but then what do I do. I had something else to do.
Now in that case, that was finding out the work to do and rearranging my schedule around it. With standard interviews like this, my backup is I have a spare battery. I’ve got a battery charger or portable charger for my iPhone.
We get them on amazon. They are that cheap and they are fantastic. I have a spare microphone. I actually have 2 or 3 spare microphones but I even have a spare tripod. So have backup plans. Right. Don’t just wing it. Things will go wrong in all of life.
#3 Be Consistent: Now I record an interview every single Wednesday. I record a podcast, a short just 10 minutes podcast Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.
I batch them. Now on a Monday I mention a recommended book, on a Tuesday we have a tool box tip, on Thursday there is the Drive time podcast, and Friday is the Weekend challenge.
People know what to expect from me. It’s there, it’s going to be like that until something works better or someone asks for something and that works better. So that. Be consistent.
The news on TV is the same time and on the radio same time every hour. Or whenever it is. You know when it’s going to be on, that program you are expecting unless you are watching Netflix, on TV is on at certain time.
The football, the sport is on at certain times. People expect consistency, it’s the same in business. So again apply that to your business and think how that can work for you.
#4 Stay on Topic: The subjects that I talk about and I write about on the blog and talk about on when I speak, are all around marketing for small medium sized business owner or marketing team and around tips to make your life better, to make it less stressful and to build your business in a way that’s easy, using a proven system.
Now there are many aspects to that because I have the 7 P’s of Modern Marketing and there are many aspects to that.
Now we talk about websites, about social media, lead magnets, email marketing, referrals and those are the things that I will discuss all around, but other little tips that help you, the business owner have a better business life, all based on my experience but I don’t really go off topic.
I don’t discuss politics, don’t discuss religion, I am not going to tell you how to write a book, I am not going to tell you how to code your app, or anything like that. Stay on topic. Specialize, be an expert in your niche.
#5 Leverage the Brilliance of Experts: Now the best example of that is my Wednesday expert interview series. Quite simply I find the top experts in the online marketing space so there are people like Omar Zanhom of 100 Dollar MBA.
I have spoken with Kate Erickson of EO fire, and we have had on John Lee Dumas, and John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, Dave Kerpen Likeable Social, Chris Ducker who is a brilliant guy.
We’ve got fantastic people coming and I listen to them. I talk to them, I learn from them but then I am leveraging their expertise, it rubs off.
So recently I was at a little event and I mentioned that I had interviewed Marcus Sheridan and the people were interested in that because I was in a similar place and they were, ‘Wow! What did he tell you? What was it…?’ and couple of people wanted to know.
They now think I am great because I’m friends with Marcus Sheridan. And it works like that. That has got me in through doors. So find the experts in your trade, in your industry, in your niche and get to know them. It’s not that hard. Honestly.
You think, ‘Well Jon, it’s easy for you.’ no its isn’t. They don’t know me. I mean these people I’ve never met. Most of them, I’ve never met them at all. I’ve actually met Marcus. Lovely guy, but I’ve never met them.
They don’t know me from Adam. I wrote and I in effect pitched them, okay. So you can do the same. I actually had, funnily enough, I thought that I would hardly get any response but I got such a good response that my interview guests are actually queued up. Which is pretty cool.
So it’s not that hard. They are real people. They are not super duper celebrities. They are not Kim Kardashian, but they are well known in the business field.
#6 Do More of What Works: That seems like a kind of a strange thing to say but very very simple. If something works well, do more of it, if it’s not working, don’t do it anymore.
Change so, for instance when I added the expert interview series, these are becoming by far the most popular podcasts I do. So doing more. If it hadn’t worked, if it my audience hadn’t liked It, I would have stopped and not continued.
Now we, we also don’t write up what I call normal show notes for that interview. Most if you look at, when most people are interviewed, quick summary of some points that we talked about and then a couple of links to their twitter and so on. And that’s about it.
But we actually write up a full story explanation and make it into a full article and post of what we learn and what we can take away.
Not just the complete transcript which you can get the transcript as well. But we do that. Now that is proving very popular and in fact with the guests very popular, people have said that they are the best show notes that they’ve ever seen.
Which is fantastic but the readers like it as well. You, the readers and me. So do more of what works.
Now there you go, there you have six tips that I learned from 340 podcasts that you can apply to your business and your life today. That is easy.
But over the weekend, think of that. Think of how you can take some of these and use them to your advantage.
Don’t think too hard because it is the weekend so I’d like you had time with your family, with your loved ones or with your friends.
Or whatever you want to do, or just laze around. Like I do sometimes. Have yourself a wonderful weekend. I will be back on Monday!
