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Zach Armstrong, founder at Rooster High Productions, guides you through harnessing the full power content marketing powered by podcasts, especially for professional service businesses. In each episode you'll learn another process, method, or best practice for using podcasts as a cornerstone of a content strategy that starts that relationship with your next client before you meet them.
Zach started in theater in 2003, audio in 2010, and marketing in 2015. As an editor, storyteller, small business owner, and marketing process guru, you'll find yourself entertained and informed when you subscribe to Rooster High Radio.
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[00:00:00]
Welcome, dear listener to Rooster High Radio. I am your host, Zach Armstrong. I'm the founder at Rooster High Productions, which is what Rooster High Radio comes out of. This is where I get to do all my yammering.
A lot of people like to focus on interviews in their podcasts, but what I'm gonna talk about today is how solo episodes highlight your expertise If you're using a podcast as a content marketing vehicle for your business.
That is what we're talking about today, so make sure you subscribe if you like this kind of content, if you want to hear more helpful tips and opinions on how to be running your content marketing, how to be making those processes efficient and worth it for you so that your content can build those relationships while you sleep.
Here's the thing, listener, because you are good at things, I want you to [00:01:00] talk about them. Talking about your expertise on a podcast solo can seem intimidating. It's a little bit weird just to talk into a camera, but you can get there and it takes practice and it's fine as long as you are improving.
As long as you are getting yourself out there authentically and you find a way comfortable, you're gonna do just great. And you don't always need to interview somebody with your podcast. Now, there's a lot of amazing things about interviews, but we're looking at what is your overall strategy with your content marketing if you're using a podcast, Why are you having other experts on your podcast if your point is to be marketing yourself? I'm not saying you don't get to show off things about yourself when you have guests on, there's actually quite a lot you can show about your brand, but solo episodes really help focus on what you are an expert in, on what your personality is like, especially as you engage with your expertise with the things that are gonna bring value to a client As as that potential client can say, oh wow, they've really talked [00:02:00] through all of these things with regards to their expertise. Now I really trust them and they might not be getting that as much, or nearly as much, in an interview.
Because when you cover a topic solo, it shows what you know.
And if you are in the professional service industry, like I am, talking is a part of your job. You've gotta talk to clients, you've gotta pitch clients, you've gotta maintain great relationships with, uh, strategic vendors or, or repeat clients. . You are used to talking and presenting well. And so this medium is going to be a natural fit for how you show yourself off to people.
And of course, uh, now of course you can do this in all sorts of ways with social media. You know, you can go the more creator influencer route where it's edited videos on Instagram, this sort of thing. But what I'm talking about is the context of, like we talked about with podcast powered content marketing in previous episodes, where you'll use especially a video podcast as a content factory, right?
A [00:03:00] content machine where you record it in batches and then you pull stuff, you pull stuff out of it. And if you're talking about your expertise, the clips you pull, the content you pull out of this cornerstone right, is gonna be focused on what makes you good at what you do. I'll break it down with a number of principles that I think really point towards solo episodes as one of the best ways to show your expertise in this kind of a context.
Number one. The medium is the message. This phrase was coined in 1964 in a book called Understanding Media by a Canadian communications theorist and what it proposes is that a communication medium itself, not necessarily the message it carries, should be the primary focus of attention.
So, if you look at a medium that is being communicated through and say, okay, what, what is the use of that medium telling me? Right? Let's think about a few examples. If I'm in grade school and I slip a secret note to somebody that says, do you like me?
Yes or no? That carries a much [00:04:00] different message and effect. It's, it is secret. It is sly. It is. I want to avoid attention. I want this to be done privately. Right. But let's take that same message. Do you like me? Yes or no? And we walk up in the middle of class and we scream it in front of the class and write it on the chalkboard.
Do you like me? Yes or no? This is a public display that says many different things about this. Do you like me? Yes or no process than a secret note does. So think about what a solo episode looks like for you. If it's just you and you're talking about your expertise, right?
The medium says you are the expert. You are the one who has something to share. You have something valuable, something with utility that you want to give to your audience, and so you're gonna hand it over to them and you're gonna focus on the good thing that you do and handing that over to the audience.
Now, interviews are great. But what that says is you are bringing somebody else on to interview them and honor them, and that is great. And that has a place in this entire [00:05:00] content strategy, right? And when you bring them on, you get to show off how you are, uh, how you are empathetic, how you are an interviewer, your connection with this person, right?
So interviews are great, but this interview isn't gonna help you, isn't gonna focus in your content on who you are and what you are an expert in.
Another big factor that's really important when you're doing a solo podcast episode, especially for content, is the rule show. Don't tell. This is an old rule that I heard when I came up through the theater of all places, and it's all about don't just tell somebody.
Something, but actually show it to them. Right. Think about it in a personal relationship. If you have a significant other and you tell, but you don't show them that you care for them if you simply say it, but you don't split the housework, you don't, look out for them when they're sick. You go out to the movies without telling them or anything like that.
Right. You have told them you [00:06:00] care for them, but you have not shown it. So go ahead and show it. And what you want to do in your content is show your expertise instead of just saying you're an expert over and over again. Now, I do think there is a place to say, Hey, like, I'm an expert in this. I think that is appropriate to say from time to time, and sometimes you're in a situation where people haven't believed you or, and you need to repeat it a few times for them to get it through their thick skull. I do think it's okay to tell in there, but what's most important is going to be showing because when you show your expertise through what you talk about, right?
You actually walk them through a process. You show them what's going on with this process, where they're gonna get that value out of what you say. They're gonna say, oh, that is useful. That is gonna change the way I do this thing. This does enrich my daily life to know this from you. Or, that is a great bit of strategy where I'm now gonna change what I do and my business or my personal life, my finances are going going to be better because of it. You have now shown them you are an expert, right? [00:07:00] So show don't tell. You might need to tell sometimes, but focus on showing more than telling.
Another point to make sure your solo episodes are on point to highlight your expertise in a podcast is that you want to be well organized so your audience can follow along.
This might take the form of a worksheet you do ahead of time, an outline in Google Docs or something like that, but you need to organize your thoughts in a way, even if it's just mentally. If you're very good, you can do that, but you need to organize your thoughts so that the final product is a clear journey that you take your listener on.
Because when you do something like a podcast, you have to advocate for your listener. Now it's okay to know who they are and just speak to a specific group of people, right? You need to know who they are so you can advocate for them a bit. If you just talk and willy-nilly bounce all over the place without a, without any clear focus, especially in a solo episode, maybe it's entertaining in an interview.
If you and your host have great chemistry, that's where the value is then, right? But if you bounce all over the place and [00:08:00] you are not well organized in a solo episode, your expertise is gonna get muddied, even if everything you say is, is good and you're showing that telling if it is bouncing all over the place, if it's not well organized, that people are gonna have a tough time following exactly how you say it.
So a little bit of organization goes a long way so you can walk people through whatever process you are explaining, whatever how to, whatever wisdom you are sharing in your podcast.
And lastly, related to being an advocate for your listener is that on your podcast solo episodes remember to know your audience so you can speak to them specifically, but don't be afraid to explain jargon in case somebody doesn't know what it means. Now jargon specifically is words or expressions that are used by particular professions or groups and are difficult for others to understand. I did have to look that up a while ago to figure out what it actually meant after years of using it. Fortunately, I was using it correctly.[00:09:00]
So don't be afraid to, uh, explain some of the concepts. Even if you've explained them previously in the podcast, people might be jumping in just at this episode. That's why it's important to introduce yourself at the start and say what you are about, right. So remember to advocate for your audience a little bit.
You don't have to speak to everybody. Your podcast isn't intended for literally everyone in the whole world. But you can explain some jargon in case you want to ease people's entry into your subject matter, right? And I think it's a, it's a good thing a seasoned person probably won't mind an extra five to ten second explanation of a, of a phrase or, or an acronym, right?
So make sure you've got those clear so that your listener can follow along in an audio first format.
So to showcase why a solo episode really is good for building trust with people, by showcasing your expertise and what you're good at. Think of when you've gone to a town and you've hunted for a new car mechanic. I don't know a lot of car mechanics with podcasts, but hey, maybe that's a space we're breaking into and you've moved to a new town. This is something I've done a [00:10:00] lot. I come from a military family and you need to know what car mechanics you can trust. Now, imagine if you got to a new town and there was a podcast you can listen to where various service professionals were talking about how they do things, and you got to hear a car mechanic and you got to hear this car mechanic say, you know, here's my philosophy about cars. Here's how we serve people.
Here's how I train my people. Here's what I care about in my community. Wouldn't that be such a great, appropriate shortcut? To, to knowing that person's expertise. They've worked on these kinds of cars for this long and they've encountered these problems. What is their favorite story about a car that came in with a problem that was difficult to solve?
Right? That would really get me on board with a mechanic so quickly instead of having to either ask friends, which is always great, of course, word of mouth, powerful marketing, always the most powerful marketing, or jumping around to other car mechanics to try to get a sense of who they are. So remember that you can use a podcast like this, a solo episode to focus on your [00:11:00] expertise so that people trust you both in your personality and in how good you are at your job.
This has been Rooster High Radio, the podcast arm of Rooster High Productions. I am the founder over there, Zach Armstrong. If you want to get in touch with me, check out the website, rooster high.com, or or email me using zach@roosterhigh.com. I'm all about helping service businesses with podcasts make it the most effective version of it they could to maximize the leverage you're getting out of this amazing medium.
So get in touch with me if you have any questions. You can see the kind of offers we have over at roosterhigh.com and the kind of work we do. And stay tuned to the podcast here at Rooster High Radio. If you want to keep hearing more about how to maximize the leverage you can get out of a podcast, especially for service businesses.
See you next time.