Small Business Bestie

26: Bestie Bites - Podcasting for Entrepreneurs with Jennifer Longworth

• Michelle Smock / Jennifer Longworth • Episode 26

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Unlock the secrets to amplifying your business's influence and revenue with the transformative power of podcasting. Join us as we chat with Jennifer Longworth from Bourbon Barrel Podcasting, who shares her wealth of expertise in podcast post-production. We'll make you rethink everything you thought you knew about launching a podcast. From essential investments like the Samsung QTU microphone to the common, yet misguided belief that podcasting is a quick and easy path to success, this episode is packed with insights that even seasoned podcasters will find invaluable. Whether you're just starting out or looking to fine-tune your show, Jennifer’s advice on commitment and polished production will help you maintain credibility and achieve your goals.

Explore how a strong purpose and a deep understanding of your target audience can turn your podcast into an effective marketing powerhouse. With Jennifer's guidance, learn to seamlessly weave podcasting into your business model and streamline the entire process, from editing to guest scheduling. If tech isn't your forte, fear not—we discuss the potential need for outsourcing certain tasks to ensure your podcast shines. Jennifer's approachable demeanor and expert advice make her an excellent resource for those eager to embark on or enhance their podcasting journey. Tune in and get inspired to start or refine your podcast with confidence and clarity.

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Small Business Bestie is edited by Bourbon Barrel Podcasting

Speaker 1:

Hey, besties, welcome to a very special small business. Bestie, this is going to be the first of a new series that I'm doing where I'm giving you some bestie bites, so just some tidbits of information, some business knowledge that you can kind of chew on throughout the week. And I thought it was only appropriate that I start this series with the one and only Jennifer Longworth, with Urban Barrel Podcasting. That's me. Hey, I'm so happy you joined me. Thank you so much. Thanks for asking. Yeah, so for those who don't know who you are, if you wouldn't mind, just tell everybody kind of what you do at Bourbon Barrel Podcasting.

Speaker 2:

So I am owner, founder, chief editing operating officer, whatever you want to call me, Executive producer of awesomeness is what I used to call myself At Bourbon Barrel Podcasting. We're a podcast post-production agency, so we take podcasts and make them sound amazing.

Speaker 1:

And I am living breathing proof of that, because you guys should hear what I send her. It's nothing like what you hear. So I wanted to bring you on today to kind of let everybody know how podcasting can influence their small business. So my first question is just that like why should a small business owner think about starting a podcast?

Speaker 2:

So what it comes down to is influence and authority, which, if you increase your influence and you increase your authority, you end up increasing your revenue. Yeah, absolutely, that's the short answer.

Speaker 1:

Perfect, I love that. And for business owners who are just starting out, like if they're wanting to start a podcast, what's like the most essential things that they need to know about starting a podcast?

Speaker 2:

A couple of things. One it's a long game and you've probably noticing this. You've kind of just started. It's not always overnight success, so you gotta commit. It's also a lot harder than you think it would be, but it's a lot easier if you call me and let me like talk you through things, of course, but it is not as simple as just talking into a mic and hoping you sound good in the end. I mean you can record on your phone and the voice memo upload to Spotify for podcasters and have a podcast, but that doesn't mean people are going to follow you. If you don't have a polished product, there goes your influence and authority aspect of it, because if you don't have a professional sounding show, then maybe the rest of your business is unprofessional either.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, I mean I hate to sound like a snob about it, because I did have like the privilege of having you from the beginning, kind of walking me through that, and I spent about a year and a half getting as much knowledge from you and the podcaster group as I could before I finally jumped in. But I do think that you're spot on with that, that like, the more polished and professional you sound when you release those episodes, the more credibility you're giving to yourself, to the guests that you bring on and to the message that you're trying to convey. Yeah, so what are some common misconceptions about starting a podcast?

Speaker 2:

That it's cheap, easy and overnight success.

Speaker 1:

Okay, great, so let's take those one by one. So OK, it's cheap. What would you say is like if somebody were going to do a moderately decent sounding podcast? What are they looking to invest both in time and money to get it started?

Speaker 2:

Well, like I said, you could start with the voice memo on your phone, but I prefer you don't. So the Samsung QTU is the microphone I typically recommend, which is what you use, and they're about $70 on Amazon and that's a USB or XLR so you can plug it straight into your computer or you can plug it into a mixer or a recorder, or you can plug it into a mixer or a recorder and then you can download Audacity from the internet for free and just go with the Samsung K2U and Audacity and sound decent. Okay, you also I recommend paying for a media host. There are free media hosts out there, but I recommend paying for Podbean or Buzzsprout or CaptiMe or something like that, and that starts at about $10 a month and goes up from there depending on the bells and whistles you want. And then I recommend paying for a license for music, because you can't use music you hear on the radio in your podcast.

Speaker 1:

As much as I wanted to use an Elena Smoor set song, they would not let me.

Speaker 2:

No, not because it happens. I send people to Audio Jungle. You just pay a few bucks. You have the rights to use it. It's all good, right and then cost. If you're using AI tools, you could pay for AI tools to write your show notes like Cast Magic or things like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so you could feasibly start a podcast for. Yeah, so you could feasibly start a podcast for, say, a hundred bucks for the microphone and then a couple dollars a month for the hosting. Yeah, do Like I have two mics and then I pay for editing. So if you're not tech savvy like me and you don't want to try to be tech savvy like me, then the editing is something that you should consider also as part of your cost for the show, just to kind of build that in, unless you're going to try to learn the software to edit your own shows, which I guess a lot of people do.

Speaker 2:

A lot of people do and just know that when you're starting out, if you're editing your own, it's going to take you three to four times the length of the raw audio to edit the show. So if you're doing a 30 minute show, it's going to take you at least two hours to edit it.

Speaker 1:

That sounds terrible. Yeah, okay, so it's not as cheap as we think.

Speaker 2:

It's not as cheap as we think. It's not as easy as we think. Can you speak a little bit on that? So I do a podcast for my church now. One of the challenging things is getting people to come on with me. You would think that it's like oh, here's your chance to be behind a microphone. Okay, not everyone says yes to that. Conversely, if you have a published show, you're also going to get cold pitches of people who want to be on your show and have no value for your listeners. So finding guests who fit your show is a challenge. The tech can be a challenge. The cadence can be a challenge. The cadence can be a challenge for my church. I only do it once a month and that's great. I can kind of keep up with that.

Speaker 2:

With the show I've previously been on, we're about to well we're not sure what direction we're going with it. Yet the podcast editor mastermind. We've tried to be every other week, but recently that's just become really hard because there's multiple people involved. So we haven't been quite hitting a mark of every other week. So consistency is hard If you choose a cadence that isn't practical for you, like if I tried to do every other week for the church. I don't have enough people who are willing to speak to me to do that, and you raised your hand because you're one who changed your schedule Right.

Speaker 1:

I started as weekly and I think it's easy to say, oh, it would have been fine if XYZ hadn't happened or whatever. But there were definitely situations that I was like, okay, I can't keep up with this right now, I'm going to have to go to every other week. That way I can bank a couple episodes. There was a point where I took a full month off from interviewing just to kind of let myself catch up. But yeah, I think 100 percent, like really think through the time commitment for each and every episode before you decide on what you want your frequency to be. But with that being said, I'm jumping back into weekly now with these little minis. Yeah, these are fun. Yeah, okay, great. So we had. It's Not as Easy, it's Not as Cheap, and no Overnight Success. Oh, no, overnight Success. Yeah, that's a tough one to swallow. I've been releasing episodes for six months, like pretty consistently, very consistently. And did you know that not everyone in Lexington knows about my show? You would think you would think that they they did.

Speaker 2:

But no, right. Well, one of the top ways people find out about podcast shows is word of mouth. So just keep pounding the pavement and telling everybody you know about it. Yeah, encourage other people to share. And then also realize that, according to a podcast I heard from Buzzsprout, the median number of downloads of a podcast on Buzzsprout is 30 per episode. So you might be doing better than you think you are. I haven't looked at your numbers, I don't know. And what does success look like? Anyway? Now, we're not all going to be Joe Rogan or the Kelsey Brothers or the Office Ladies or you know some of the true crime shows that are at the top of the charts. Ok, like with Joe Rogan, he had an audience before he started his podcast, so it's not fair to compare yourself to him.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, right, that's absolutely true and, like I get the question, a lot People say like you know, oh, did you do that? Like are you planning to try to make money from it? And you know my answer kind of varies Like I would love to make money from it, I'm not going to say no if the opportunity falls in my lap. But also, I didn't start the podcast to make money, I had other motives for starting. So, yeah, a lot of people I think, would consider monetizing their podcast as like success, that's when they've made it, when they can make money off of it. So I think that'll take some time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and from what I've heard, experienced podcasters who are independents, who started their show and finally made it to monetization, to the level where they could like quit their full-time jobs three to four years.

Speaker 1:

Wow, so I've got some time. I'll just keep going then. Yeah, you got time, all right, so let's kind of switch the roles. Just a little Thinking of podcasts from the opposite side, instead of the podcast host or the podcaster, what about? How can guesting on podcasts be beneficial to small business owners?

Speaker 2:

Guesting is great, especially if you can't come up with more than 10 things that you would talk about your topic. If you're really good at one thing, though, maybe you'd be a better guest than host, and guesting also sets you up with influence and authority to different audiences, though, and in a different way.

Speaker 1:

So is there any piece of advice or tip or trick that you would give to a small business owner in the Lexington area specifically, or the Bluegrass region, if you will, for ways to be successful if they want to start a podcast Like what's the most important thing they need to know?

Speaker 2:

Ooh, to start a podcast other than call me. Chris Kramitzos is founder of PodFest, which is an annual podcast conference in Florida, and he says start ugly. So you probably won't get it right in episode one, and if you are introduced to someone else's podcast you might not want to go back and listen to their episode one. They haven't figured it out yet, but you got to start somewhere. So start ugly, start ugly.

Speaker 1:

I love that. It's very in line with my motto of do it even when you're scared. Start ugly. I love that. It's very in line with my motto of do it even when you're scared. Yeah, yes, start ugly is way better, though. I'm going to adopt that. That's now my new motto. Yes, start ugly. Perfect Well, jennifer, thank you so much. Is there anything else that you can think of that you'd want to leave our listeners with? I know that in the show notes and on all the social media posts for this episode, I'll definitely link your website, your social media, all of that, but is there anything else that you want to tell everybody you got to?

Speaker 2:

know why you're doing it and have a strong why, just like anything else in business. What's your why? You got to have a good why for your podcast too. You know, have a good why and know who your audience is. So, just like any other marketing tool in your business, know who you're talking to and why you're talking.

Speaker 1:

You're so smart Jennifer. Oh, thanks, awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming in and or, I guess, meeting me online and chatting with me tonight. I appreciate it. I know that this is going to be very valuable for all of those people who have been wondering, like, how do I get started in podcasting, what could it do for my business, and all of that. So you guys make sure to reach out to Jennifer If you're thinking of starting a podcast. She makes it so easy Well, so much easier than it would have been without her and she's honestly just the nicest person and somebody that you can just kind of lean on with all your questions podcasting With that. We will talk to you guys later.