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Embark on a journey to success with the Startup Founder Roadmap, your go-to guide for navigating the challenging yet rewarding world of startups. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just launching your first venture, this podcast is your compass for building, growing, and leading a thriving startup company.
Join us for insightful solo episodes where we break down essential startup concepts in our "Startup Definitions" series. From understanding the nuances of Minimum Viable Products to mastering the art of the perfect Pitch Deck, we've got you covered. Learn the language of startups and gain the knowledge needed to make informed decisions on your entrepreneurial journey.
In our interview episodes, we sit down with seasoned founders, venture capitalists, and influential figures in the startup ecosystem. Get inspired by real stories of triumphs, challenges, and the invaluable lessons learned along the way. Uncover the strategies and secrets that propelled these visionaries to success, and apply them to your own startup playbook.
The Startup Founder Roadmap Podcast is your weekly dose of practical advice, industry insights, and expert guidance. Hosted by Christopher Hines, a podcast specialist with a passion for empowering startup founders, each episode is crafted to equip you with the tools and knowledge needed to not only survive but thrive in the competitive world of startups.
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00:00 - Speaker 1
Now there are various podcast formats out there, as you know, but you need this one if you want to impact your business, especially your SaaS business. I believe podcasting is now the best way to scale a SaaS company, but you got a podcast different than everybody else that's out there. Over the years, I've generated hundreds of leads for a bunch of my different businesses and for my clients using podcasting, so I know this works.
00:25 - Speaker 2
Here's a video. This is JB Ellis of the Balancing Sports Pod. I had the opportunity to meet Coach Chris when I was going to Podfest this year. The man knows what he's talking about. He listens to your concerns. He works with you to make sure you get the most out of what you're looking to do. He has great ideas, even just on the basics. If you have questions or concerns, he listens to them. He makes sure you get the most to get what you're looking for out of what you're looking to do with your podcast and to grow it. I would definitely recommend that you speak with him and spend some time and invest your money with Coach Chris, because it will definitely pay off in the long run.
01:06 - Speaker 1
Now, before we get started, make sure you put your ideal client down in the comments below. Let me know what business you're working on so I can give you some podcast strategies you can get started with now. Okay, so what is the best podcast format? I'm gonna tell you. Number one it's not just interviews, it's not solo content, it's not talking in circles. It's not solo content, it's not talking in circles, it's a mixture of content, and I want to give you a strategy. I'm going to break this down to where you're doing four episodes a month, one episode a week. That's it. It is that easy to execute. To where you can put out content consistently, connect with your audience and generate leads. Let's get into it. So the first part of this strategy is doing interviews. Yes, I said interviews, but you're not doing interviews with the cloud chasers, and that's usually who reaches out to you when you have a podcast. I'm just being honest, like once you start a show, especially when your show starts doing well, you're going to have a lot of people reaching out as if they can be a guest or if they can talk to you or whatever it is. I can guarantee it it's going to be 20 to 30 people a week. Like these people hire virtual assistants across the world and have them just spam you with emails and messages on Facebook or Twitter. Wherever you are, they're going to find you, especially if you're on LinkedIn. Oh, it's bad, but that's not who you want as a guest on your show. I'm talking about real experts of your industry, people who have accomplished something in your marketplace. So for my show, startups on the Roadmap, an example of this would be somebody like Rob Waller, somebody who's gotten the results in the SaaS space, who's been doing it for years, launched their own companies and invested in other companies. That's a real expert with real results. That's the kind of guests you get, not just a random person from some Facebook group that wants to be on podcast now. Like. That's not who you want to have on your show.
02:56
Now, the second type of content you release is storytelling. It's not the stories where you sit and talk about yourself and how great you are. I mean real stories. You got to talk about your failures and how it went wrong, why it went wrong. You want to talk about some of your successes, but always try to lean into the more real stories that will actually connect with your audience. Think of it as you want to be relatable. You want to be understanding. If you look at most podcasts, when they're trying to be relatable through storytelling is usually just somebody talking about the great thing they've done and how people can work with them, and there's a place for that. But that's not gonna be the main driver to get you actual clients from your show. It's not gonna help at all.
03:35
Now the third episode type is teaching. You wanna give people valuable information, give them a process, give them a method, a blueprint, whatever you wanna to call it. Constantly give those out. I've learned that that really helps build your credibility with the marketplace, right, because over time the right people start finding that content, the right people use it and they get results. And it always leads back to you. You know, and that's why I think you shouldn't be too scared to give that out. You know you should already have some of your own methods and concepts, but you also shouldn't have that fear of oh man, if I put this out I'm gonna lose customers. You're not Now. If you're only selling information, you will Like that's the truth If you sell courses and consulting and coaching and that's it. Oh yeah, you in trouble because you don't really have the leverage, but for us as software founders, every time it arises like that's what my tool is for, so lean into that by educating people on everything around your software.
04:38
Now, the last and the fourth content type is coaching sessions. When you bring one of your listeners on, you bring a prospect on and you coach them. That's it. You literally sit there and just answer their questions. Right, and I would even say you can have a centered around a specific topic, right, like for me for one of my tools, podcentral. If I'm bringing a podcaster on my show, I want to talk to them about something in the marketing or monetizing space. I don't want to bring somebody on to talk about equipment, you know, because that really varies based on what you're doing, where you're trying to go.
05:10
All of this stuff is a lot of variables in that, but most of the marketing and monetizing stuff, anybody can listen to that and execute on it. So that makes it really high quality content. So that, right there, four different episode types for that's it. You execute those four, you're going to get leads. People will love your show and when I say love, they'll look forward to listen to it, because it's always different, it's always valuable. It's always helpful.
05:36
That's the kind of podcast you want to have. So I want to give you an example to kind of break this down even more. Right? So, let's say, your product is an ad tracker tool and the topic you want to cover is Facebook ads on a tight budget. Right? So they're very, very specific. So, again, we don't follow the same process and this is how we plan out the content. This is how you should be planning your content.
06:00
If you want a podcast, it's going to get your results. You plan it out in this methodical way. It takes time and effort, but I promise you it's worth it. The first step is finding your expert that's going to cover this topic on the show. Even though you yourself are an expert, you still want to bring on another expert. That doesn't take away from your expertise. It adds to it, because people see you talking to this expert and they associate you with their results. Oh, if I'm a facebook expert and they're facebook expert, we're just experts together. That's it. Your audience isn't like oh, I need to go and work with that guy. That's not usually how it works. So the first thing is getting that other expert to come on the show and talk about this subject. And again you want to have somebody that has results, that has done something, not just somebody that's, you know, getting started and they haven't done anything. And they don't really know their way around the ad machine. They don't know how meta works.
06:48
They'll look stupid, Honestly you don't want to bring that person on your show. That's not a good guest to get, I have. You want to have a high quality experts. Now the next part of that storytelling you want to have a good story around your own ad campaign and if I were you, I would talk about like my worst ad campaign and why it was bad and what I do differently now to get the results I get Right. See, with the stories, you want to almost in a way, talk about yourself mostly, because if you're talking about yourself and your experiences and then you talk about what you learned from it, that changes builds trust versus just coming on and saying, yeah, I'm amazing because I did this and I did that, like it feels good to say. But when you talk about how you fail, people relate to you a lot more. They respect you a lot more. Honestly, you build that respect and trust with the audience because they're like, wow, he failed and he tell us how he felt. Like most people don't do that, so you kind of going out of your way to execute. That is, people notice that and they really, really value it.
07:47
Now, next is where you start teaching. This is where you're giving people the game. You give them the method, you give them the blueprint so they can make their ads better. Again, the topic is Facebook ads on a tight budget, so now you need to show them. Here's how you can get X result with this small budget. That's simple. That could be a youtube video, that could be a podcast episode, you could make that into a blog post, and it's going to do very well, no matter what format you put that in, because that's what a lot of people would be searching for. So in that episode, though, you want to get really detailed. Don't try to hide anything and put it behind a paywall, even an email wall. When somebody tunes into that episode, they should walk away like, damn, I'm not gonna do all of this stuff now. Wow, that was really helpful. That's what you want, not the well, I gotta go here to get this other piece. Don't take that approach. It's not gonna work.
08:35
Now the last step is to coach a listener on the show. This works really well if you already have, like a newsletter or a community, or if you're really connected to a lot of your prospects. I think it's smart, it's genius, to bring those people into your world and have conversations with them. You know, literally have conversations with them. I usually do this through dms, but having them on a podcast. Once you start doing that, it opens up a whole new world where people come on the show and want to work with you. They want to learn from from you. Then you can coach them. Now most of your listeners are like man I had that same question and they're learning while listening to the show.
09:12
Now, in this example, I would take it a step further. Bring that person on that's having issues with their campaign, on their small budget, and then you help them, get it set up. You literally help them right. You go through, share your screen, show me your campaign manager, show me your ad manager, all of that stuff, and you go through step by step and help them. That's a game changer, man. Like, if you are a SaaS founder and you take that approach, all your listeners are going to be like man I got to check out this software. This guy knows what he's doing. Like, you put yourself in a different category, because how many other Facebook ad experts or ad experts in general are doing this type of content where they're breaking it down in multiple ways, sharing stories, bringing other experts on helping people one on one. Nobody else is doing that. When you start doing that, you see how this method is completely separate from any other podcast type. It's not to sit there and talk to Facebook ad people or advertising people or just business people in general. That's not going to get you clients, but those four episodes you have a bunch of people lining up to work with you after you put out that type of content. I guarantee it. If you're enjoying this so far, make sure you join the newsletter. We go over strategies and methods like this all the time. It's completely free. Check it out down in the description down below.
10:30
Now I want to talk to you about the podcast system. You shouldn't follow what you should not do, right, what you should not be doing. This is won't take long. I just got to say this. Don't do interview only shows where you're sitting there interviewing people non-stop talking in circles. You don't want to do that because all the podcasts that do that they may become, but it's not beneficial for your business model. The business model you have is getting customers. You're not going to get customers by talking to other experts in your market and or the fake experts even Because, let's be real, how often do those kind of shows bring on real high quality experts that are sharing something different and valuable, helpful, all of that good stuff.
11:03
Another thing don't treat your show like it's an entertainment show. Now, I'm not saying you can't be entertaining, but your focus is on teaching people and giving them some kind of transformation so it can transition into being a customer. That's the focus. That, right there, is what's important. Not the well, let's talk in circles and all of that stuff. That's not going to help. You want to get real detailed and specific in solving their problems. Every month you pick a different topic and you explore more on that topic. Right, think about it this way. The process I just broke down to you you can do this planet out in a weekend. All you need is 12 topics for the year. Then you just need 12 guests. Then you got to have 12 really good store. Like, think about it that way. Right, that's how I process it. And it becomes even easier when you can break it down like that, like I don't have to do a lot, like you're not sitting there coming up with these amazing things.
11:55
It's not necessary man, it's very simple, very, very simple, and I guarantee you're going to get better results than treating your show like it's entertainment, where you're talking about trending topics non-stop and trying to stay on top of the news. And can it be helpful?
12:09
Yes, I'm not going to say it's not, but I know that your listeners that want to work with you or that need help. They aren't there just to hear that. Right Like I could talk about the WordPress war happening on Twitter right now. Right Like, I will do another video on that, but is that going to be the episode that gets you to work with me? Probably not. You know, like that may bring you into my world, but that can't be my main content. So I just want you, as a founder You're watching this, you tuned in to me, I appreciate you Take a better approach to podcasting so you can get better results. Now, if you do have any questions, join the newsletter. No-transcript.