How to build a podcast that works even harder than you

by Courtney Reimer

Your podcast can take meetings for you. I mean this pretty much literally, and I have a case study in the form of a podcast episode to prove it...

I’ve said repeatedly (and I know you know) that time is our most valuable, least renewable resource, and that your podcast can put time back in the bank for you if you employ it strategically.

My guest this week, Samantha Hoey Nelson, is a multihyphenate entrepreneur whose podcast introduces her to future clients, filters out misaligned ones, develops her ideas, creates new relationships and has even helped inspire new offers in her business.

All while she is off doing the eleventy thousand other things life demands of her.

So, how can a podcast work hard for you? Let me count the ways (and jobs it can do for you):

1. Your podcast can be the meeting you don’t have to take. Samantha Hoey Nelson calls PowerMomma “the first meeting I get to have with people without scheduling a meeting.” Potential clients get to hear how she thinks, what she cares about and whether they jive with her before either party sacrifices an hour to Zoom. The right people come closer; the wrong people self-select out. Time saved is ROI too.
2. Your "special sauce" sells itself (inside the podcast). Sam has a creative agency, advocacy work, writing, the Kitchen Table Method, three kids and what she lovingly calls her “Sam ecosystem brain.” The podcast helped her recognize the connective tissue between all of the above, which was the point of view she refined and cultivated inside the container of her podcast. Unlike just how-to style information (which the internet and AI can now produce in Costco-pallet-size in an instant), judgment and perspective gleaned via lived experience and peculiar ways of connecting dots are exceedingly hard to commoditize. A podcast lets people experience yours at scale.
3. The person across the microphone may be more valuable than the people listening. Sam intentionally invited women she wanted to know and partner with onto her podcast. Those conversations became relationships that have endured well beyond the time spent making their episode. I will bang this drum forever: audience size is only one measure of podcast ROI. Forging a lasting relationship that wouldn't have sparked without a podcast to facilitate it? Download numbers could never.
4. Your podcast can incubate the thing you haven’t invented yet. The conversations Sam was having on PowerMomma helped develop what became her Kitchen Table Method. I’ve seen this happen again and again: the show becomes the sandbox where you pressure-test a point of view, discover a framework, sharpen the Big Idea, and eventually realize you’ve been building the raw material for a keynote, book, offer or whole new branch of your business.
5. Sustainability is a design decision. Sam makes seven episodes, then takes a break. People forget that shows have seasons. "Always on" isn't the only (or frankly the best) way to skin a podcast cast. A podcast that works hard works with the reality of your life. You can design a show whose effort-to-return ratio makes you want to keep making it.

And THAT is what I mean when I say: Your podcast can (and should) work even harder than you do.

For the visual learners among us...

One podcast episode can fuel your newsletter, social posts, short-form video, website, workshops and that Big Idea you need to land a paid speaking gig. It can build trust with future clients, deepen relationships with guests and give your best ideas somewhere to develop.

Your podcast becomes the rich engine of your business content flywheel.

And this is exactly what we build toward inside the Strategic Podcast Launch Studio, which opens next week.

Before we obsess over microphones or cover art or whether your show should have guests, we figure out its job description.

What return does this podcast need to create for you?

Then we build the podcast capable of delivering it.

JOIN ME IN THE STRATEGIC PODCAST LAUNCH STUDIO

May you rejoice in delegating your dirty work to your podcast,

P.S. If you’ve been hovering over THE STRATEGIC PODCAST LAUNCH STUDIO "click to enroll” button, here’s your nudge: I'm opening the workshop-attendee $250 discount, but only if you enroll before 3pm ET on Sunday. Use promo code STARTWITHROI at checkout...

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P.P.S. Lingering questions? Hit reply and we can chat.