Podcasting is becoming an increasingly popular way for small businesses to gain exposure and increase their profits. From office worker to podcasting entrepreneur, Mark Savant shares his journey and insider advice on using podcasts as a marketing tool for your business. He'll talk about how to monetize, manage the learning curve and create a brand that stands out with podcasting. Plus, get insight on what to watch out for while launching your own business, including performing due diligence and identifying an existing system that is already proven to be successful.
[00:01 - 08:11] How to Monetize Your Podcast and Take Your Business to the Next Level
• Mark Savant on starting a podcast production agency and being a podcast host
• How podcasting is not like running ads, building trust and relationships with listeners
• Why you should take advantage of the premium space of podcasting
• Consider sponsorships, advertising, or using podcasts as a direct sales tool to monetize
[08:12 - 14:37] Mark’s 4 Years of Podcasting and Lessons Learned
• Realize the learning curve to podcasting and the time and money to build up listenership
• Finding a trusted group, advisor, or framework can help expedite the process
• The key is being as clear as possible to whom you are speaking to for more impact
• Repurpose content from podcasts into other forms (social media posts, blog posts, etc.)
[14:38 - 20:13] Mark Savant's Advice on Small Business Success
• Starting a business requires time and money - be sure it's worth it before investing
• When starting a business, it is important to consider why nobody else is doing it
• Find a proven system that people are making money in and put your own spin on it
• Do due diligence and do not take things at face value
[20:14 - 24:04] Closing Segment
• Reach out to Mark Savant!
Connect with Mark through his website https://marksavantmedia.com/listen/. You can also reach him through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-savant/.
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Tweetable Quotes
"Everyone needs to understand that there is a learning curve [in podcasting]... find a system, find a framework, find someone that can kind of lead you through the process." - Mark Savant
“Be as clear as possible on who you speak to, who is listening to you. The more clear we are as soon as possible on who we speak to, the problem that we solve, how we solve it, and what success looks like, the more impactful our show will be." - Mark Savant
[00:00:00] Maybe, most importantly, is being as clear as possible on who you speak to, who is listening to you. the message that you're putting out there, the problem that you're solving is really, really specific to a particular person. And so the more clear we are as soon as possible on who we speak to, The problem that we solve, how we solve it, and what success looks like, the more impactful our show will be.
[00:00:28] Intro
[00:00:57] Hello there. Salim Omar here from the Straight Talk about Small Business Success Podcast. Welcome to another amazing episode. I've got a great guest with us. His name is Mark Savant. Mark, welcome Salim. What's up? Glad to be here. Awesome. Great. Great to have you, man. Thanks for taking the time.
[00:01:18] So before we [00:01:20] dive into the questions that I have for you, Mark, give us a quick, uh, kind of your backstory, a high-level overview of what brings you here. Well, I'm super excited to be here. I love podcasting. My name's Mark Savant. I run a podcast, production agency, Mark Savant Media, and I also host the After Hours Entrepreneur, a Globally Ranked Top 1% podcast.
[00:01:43] I run a pro group for podcast. I consult with podcast. I love podcasting. Sounds like it. So starting out a Tuesday morning, bright and early podcasting is exactly where I want to be. But if we go back a few years, Celine, it hasn't always been this way. It hasn't always been that way. Mm-hmm. Most Tuesdays, I'd be waking up and going into a dry, dreary, boring insurance office to get yelled at by clients because some deductible was too high or a claim wasn't being covered or what have you.
[00:02:15] But there was a certain point during my time there at that job, that job where I'd wake up every Monday staring at the ceiling saying, why me, Lord, I don't wanna go to this job. And one day I decided to make a change and I started trying different businesses. And long story short, I ended up falling in love with podcasting.
[00:02:35] people started paying me to help them with their podcast, and I built out this program over the [00:02:40] past four years. And yeah, I don't know what else to say. The future is bright baby. Got it. Good. Love your, enthusiasm, and it's great that you've, you know, found your passion. Which is podcasting.
[00:02:52] So let me ask you a question. There's so many different avenues of marketing. Why do you love podcasting over anything else? A business owner or an entrepreneur may made you so, to your point, Celine and the fact that, by the way, brother, you have three different podcasts on your own. Super impressive, super impressive.
[00:03:16] So I, I know that you get it. I know that you understand both the short and long-term value that podcasting gives you, but I think that it's important to understand, going into a podcast, it's not just like running Facebook or Google Ads. You're not just putting your face on a bench at a corner or on a billboard next to I 95.
[00:03:38] There's a little bit more nuance. I don't think that typically with podcasting you're going to get immediate results as far as direct leads come like you would with an ad campaign. If I'm running ads to a digital marketing campaign, I wanna know if I'm gonna put in X amount. I'm gonna get Y back in leads and Z back in sales, podcasting.
[00:03:59] Serves a much [00:04:00] greater longer term purpose at building no, like, and trust, because if I can listen to Ele Omar, the c p a extraordinaire from Jersey for an hour or two on his podcast, I'm gonna feel like I trust you and I know you and I could hear your voice. I've heard your story, you're showing up. holds a lot more weight to me than Cel Slim Omar TikTok ad that I got.
[00:04:24] Right? There's, there's more depth. To the relationship because now I've gotten to listen to and there's a long tail to that as well. Just a few, just two months ago, I had a client come to me and said, Hey Mark, I heard you on a podcast in like January. Now I'm ready to start my show and I'd like to come on board.
[00:04:42] So it's, there's a long tail that grows and accumulates over time in building no, like and trust with your ideal audience. That's why I like podcasting for marketing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, something you were sharing, which really made a lot of sense, resonates with me, in, when it comes to podcasting, you know, when someone's listening to a podcast, they're almost likely driving or something.
[00:05:05] And, you've got their undivided attention. And, and there's a lot to be said for, getting someone's attention, capturing their attention. Right. That's exactly right. And, you know, we were talking about this just a little bit before the episode here. Most of the [00:05:20] time when we're getting bombarded with these messages, we're distracted.
[00:05:22] We're scrolling through our Instagram feed and it's just, we're just getting bombarded with information texts and phone calls and all these stuff. But to your point, when most people are listening to a podcast, it's because they're doing something, they're listening to the podcast in the background, and you're getting that, I think, more premium space.
[00:05:40] I'm jogging, I'm driving, I'm listening to a podcast that's solving a specific problem that I have. And guess who's solving that problem? The host, which is, you know, who is Salim or myself. And now because I've heard the host, they've solved my problem, they've we're able to flesh out a more complex idea over the course of 15, 30, 30 45 minutes.
[00:06:03] Well, now I'm much more inclined to actually buy something because again, the amount of times that I'm going to see an ad on Instagram and be like, that's it, I want to buy it. Less likely, I'm more likely. to Say, who is this person that's selling me some product or service? Oh, they have a podcast. Let me listen to their trailer episode.
[00:06:22] That's interesting. Let me find a guest that I know and I'll listen to that episode. That's cool. And then all of a sudden you're much farther down that, , sales funnel as it were. Yeah. so a person launches a podcast episode. How do they monetize it?
[00:06:38] So there's a lot of different ways. [00:06:40] There's a huge industry behind sponsorships and advertising. That's a hard way, I think to start it first, just because when you first launch a podcast, you're not gonna have as big of an audience. But sponsorship is, there's a big business behind that.
[00:06:55] There's different, more complex methods that you can use as well, which is using podcasting as a direct sales tool. I don't love this. Strategy as much, but it can get you big results very quickly. And the way that it works is you develop a podcast, that serves a very specific audience, an audience that would, really benefit from the problem you solve.
[00:07:16] And then you go and you find your ideal client. Who's your ideal client? Who's the client that would really. Really need your product and service, and then you invite them as a guest onto your podcast, and then you put up an infrastructure of pre-calls and post calls, and basically the podcast becomes part of your sales funnel.
[00:07:35] , I don't love that as much because it doesn't seem as formal. , you know, one of the methods that I've been implementing on my show, and I've been really teaching to my students and my pro group is having sponsored guests. On your show, bring a guest on your show, but ask for a sponsorship fee.
[00:07:52] Ask for a guest appearance fee, and that's a really easy way of covering the bottom line of your podcast. [00:08:00] I run about a thousand dollars in ad traffic to my show each month, paid completely by sponsored guests and sponsors. So those are two ways that I like monetizing a show right off the bat.
[00:08:12] Got it. Great. So you've been, you know, podcasting for four years. You've launched a business that helps others. What are some mistakes that you find people do when they're starting their own show that you can help them eliminate?
[00:08:29] So there's a number of issues. There's a lot of issues. You know, I think when most people get into podcasting, Salim. They might not have experience in broadcasting. I didn't. I went to school. I got my, my bachelor's. I was in insurance for a decade. I hadn't have any experience in broadcasting.
[00:08:45] And so I think that everyone needs to understand that there is a learning curve. It took me about four years. It cost me tens of thousands of dollars to build up my listenership and my knowledge base and my agency. But it's kinda shocking to me people, some people are like, oh, I'm gonna start a podcast and I'm gonna get 500,000 listeners in the first year, and, I'm gonna make money right away.
[00:09:06] But they don't have any experience in the industry. So I think first off, finding a trusted group, a cohort, an advisor will expedite the process tremendously, [00:09:20] particularly when it comes to sounding good. You know, now we're in 2023. Making sure that you sound good on a podcast, I think is becoming a barrier to entry, as it were.
[00:09:31] People are going to tune out if you are recording on a potato, for example, right? So, Hmm. Um, I think, you know, the first step would be find a system, find a framework, find someone that can kind of lead me through the process. b, make sure that I look and sound good. Because no matter how great my content, is if it doesn't sound good, it's going to be tough to get people to listen.
[00:09:52] And then third, and, and maybe most importantly is being as clear as possible on who you speak to, who is listening to you. the message that you're putting out there, the problem that you're solving is really, really specific to a particular person. And so the more clear we are as soon as possible on who we speak to, The problem that we solve, how we solve it and what success looks like, the more impactful our show will be.
[00:10:23] And again, who am I speaking to? What keeps them up at night? How can I solve that? And what is their life gonna look like on the back end? The more clearly and concisely we can answer those four questions. The sooner we're gonna get a show that really hits the mark that people tune into and listen.[00:10:40]
[00:10:40] To, uh, hopefully every week. Mm-hmm. Like, are there any industries that podcasting is good for and are there others that podcasting is really not as effective? not as effective. I mean, I think that having a sound strategy is important. I think that, you know, if we live in the media age, it doesn't matter who you are.
[00:11:02] Personal branding too, by the way. Whether you're a student, an athlete, whether you're a politician, whether you're a c e O, whether you're a C M O, whether you are getting your engineering degree at m i t, it doesn't really matter. Your personal brand is really, really important. Mm. Your company's brand is really, really important.
[00:11:23] Having a podcast, it enables you to be your own media company. And in a world that's completely consumed by media, I mean, it's amazing to me the first thing we do when we hear about taking our car to a particular body shop to get worked on, or, we're thinking about hiring a C P A to do our legal fees.
[00:11:44] The first thing we're going to do is we're going to ask our friends and family, do you know anyone? And then the second thing we're going to do is we're going to go and we're going to Google those people that we get recommended. To, and what's going to happen when someone googles your name. What's going to happen when someone googles your company [00:12:00] name with a podcast, it gives you tremendous power to control the narrative, to control the brand behind your face and your company.
[00:12:08] And I'll give you a perfect example of this. When I started my journey, my media production journey, four years ago. If you went to Google and you typed Mark Savant, I was not showing up. I wouldn't show up anywhere. You would not see me. There was this, there's this doctor in California. I see you, mark, I see you out there.
[00:12:27] There's a doctor in California. His name's Doctor Mark Savant, md. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. He was all over Google. You typed in Mark Savant. All you saw is this doctor in California who happens to have a very amazing and awesome name.
[00:12:43] But now guess what? But now when, four years later, and this happened over time, but now four years later, when you type in Mark Savant, he is nowhere to be found. It is all Mark Savant Media. It's Mark Savant podcast. It's Mark Savan on on LinkedIn. It's Mark Savant everywhere, and it's me. It's not the doctor.
[00:13:01] And so again, when we look at podcasting as a long tail strategy of building, no like, and trust of building out a media agency that helps us to stand out. All over the place. It's great for search. I can say that I think that every industry, every business, every person needs to have some sort [00:13:20] of digital brand strategy.
[00:13:22] And if your personality fits, podcasting, I think is probably the best way to go about it because it's the backbone of all the content that gets produced. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, when you mentioned that it becomes the backbone of the content you produce, what podcasting does is it gives you that original piece of content that can then be repurposed into social media posts, blog posts, email nurture emails, and so forth.
[00:13:51] So, great point there. Um, and I might just, I just wanna add on, cause I love the idea about the clip Salim. it can go backwards, it can go the opposite way. So, for example, maybe you write a, a brief note on LinkedIn, you know, it's 2023. are five tips to save money on your taxes.
[00:14:09] Oh, by the way, do you want to listen to my podcast about it? And then you can record a podcast with the five tips for, for cpa. So now someone sees a quick tip on LinkedIn and they say, oh, that's cool. Oh, he has a podcast on this topic. Mm-hmm. Cool. So again, it can go both ways. The podcast can be the basis for all of your clips, but it could also go the other way in saying, Hey, the podcast is a place where I can just share a little bit extra.
[00:14:31] In a little bit more intimate, a little bit more distraction free setting. Mm-hmm. Um, on a topic. Yeah. That's great. Good. So I wanna change subjects. [00:14:40] I'm looking at the clock as well, and we're gonna finish off in a few minutes. you've been in business for four years, started your podcasting business.
[00:14:46] So I want to kind of take, take a step back and ask you kind of a general question along the lines of, what's been your journey like, or. What have been some things that you've learned about entrepreneurship, about business ownership in these last few years? Well, there are many, many lessons.
[00:15:07] One of the lessons that I, think, and I mean, listen, this is kind of going very back to the very beginning stages of starting a business or starting a side hustle, or starting that idea. Um, and I was just talking to someone about this over coffee yesterday. Hmm. Because he's thinking about starting up this business.
[00:15:25] And I, I won't go into detail on that, uh, but I will say he's trying to figure out is this worth my time and money? Hmm. I'm gonna maybe need to get an investor or two. I'm gonna need to pour in tens of thousands of dollars, thousands of hours. Is it worth it? And one of the things that he had said, and this is one of the things that I think is you know, is really important to think about when you're thinking about starting a business.
[00:15:48] One of the things that this man said was, nobody else is doing this right now. Nobody's doing it. Mm-hmm. it first glance when you first hear this, that [00:16:00] sounds great. Nobody's doing it. Let me get, there's a space, I'm gonna do it. Right. Right. But however, now when I hear these terms, these words, nobody else is doing it.
[00:16:09] It's a red flag for me. Mm. I pause, my ears perk up, and I say, Hey, why is nobody doing this now? Mm. Because if nobody's doing it, there might be a reason. Mm. You know, and I think as an early entrepreneur, is an early after hours entrepreneur. I talk about this on my podcast after hours entrepreneur all the time.
[00:16:27] But as an early entrepreneur trying to determine where to spend that time and money, I think, we're so wrapped up in trying to solve that problem that nobody else is solved. Mm. But you know, if, if nobody else has solved it, there might be a problem. Maybe there's not enough margin, maybe the technology is not there.
[00:16:44] I don't know. And I think generally speaking, as a young entrepreneur, it's better to find a proven system, something that people are making great money in. It has a bright future. And then see how you can put your own spin on that idea, how you can make it unique, and then you can create, a business and not start from the very bottom.
[00:17:04] You can actually look at models, , and do better market research. So anyway, I think that's an interesting thing. It just, it's been fresh on my radar over the past 24 hours. Yeah, right. Yeah. So it's really asking, you know, do doing the due diligence and not taking things at face [00:17:20] value that, hey, there's a big opportunity, no one else is doing it.
[00:17:22] But asking those additional questions. And I've seen so many entrepreneurs in my career that will jump onto a new doing. They'll get into a new business. Without kind of, you know, because they're excited and no one else is doing it, but they're opening up a restaurant, there's been 10 restaurants that have failed, right?
[00:17:42] For them. And they're not really taking the, that extra steps to find out, hey, why did they fail? And they feel their touch and their, the new name on the, signage will be the trick. And most times it's not. Right. So, It could be that the foot traffic not there, or the average income in that five mile zip code radius is not there.
[00:18:06] Right. Super, super important. I just think it's so funny when I was starting off, I was dead set on inventing the solution that nobody had invented before. And, and it's just now it's the opposite. Now it's, if nobody solved it, Why have 7 billion people plus failed to solve this problem, and why do I think I can solve it?
[00:18:27] And it's just a kind of an interesting perspective shift. I think all after hours entrepreneurs need to consider when starting a new venture. Yeah. That's awesome. Great. We are coming to the end. anything you want to add? Anything [00:18:40] that, and I know there's a ton, but you know, just final words or wisdom, I guess would be a good way to put it.
[00:18:46] I think that building your own personal business is the most gratifying thing that you can do. you know, I have kids, I'm married, so tho those are pretty satisfying as well. Hmm. Mm-hmm. starting a business for, again, I w I, it's so s sad and surreal to me when I'll walk into a retail establishment or into a restaurant and every employee in there is miserable.
[00:19:08] They don't wanna be there. They're wasting their time. They're meant for something greater and they're just doing something that doesn't fill their cup. But we live in a very special period in time. The internet changes everything. the having a smartphone in your hand changes everything.
[00:19:24] So what I'm really excited about CEL over the coming years is helping these people that are just hate weather life start the process of finding something that you love. And build a business around it, because it is absolutely possible. You need the framework, you need some clarity. You need the structure to get there.
[00:19:45] And I, I really hope that through my podcast, after Hours Entrepreneur and the work that I'm doing, that we can bring people into a better life, creating better products, creating better solutions, leading more meaningful lives, because there's no reason that you need to be [00:20:00] stuck doing a job you hate.
[00:20:00] Right now there's too many ways. There's too many problems that need to be solved, and the internet really enables you to help solve those problems. So that's my word of the day from, mark Savan after Hours Entrepreneur podcast. Yeah. That's awesome. Great. What's the best way for folks to reach out to you?
[00:20:17] best way you can find Mark Savant Media all over the web. So whatever your pleasure, hit me up at Mark Savant Media. Awesome. Great. Thank you so much, Mark. This was amazing. Really enjoyed it. lots of good information that you shared with us insights. Thank you so much, Salim. My pleasure. Have a blast.
[00:20:36] Have a great year. Talk soon, brother. All right. You take care.
[00:20:40] Outro