In yesterdays note we talked about how you can compete in a crowded market without discounting your prices.
I gave you the first 3 “Fast Celebrity Hacks” which were all based on getting referrals by being on other people's shows.
While those three methods are excellent for building your celebrity status, they are only a short term answer to standing out in your market.
Today we're going to talk about how you can build your celebrity platform that last longer than one guest appearance on someone else's show.
Before we jump in you should know these next few “Fast Celebrity Hacks” will take more work to get started. You'll have to put in more time, effort, and dough. But the payoff here is you will have an asset that is your forever once you create it. And if you set things up correctly, you should have a system in place that makes it easy for you to consistently deliver.
Now that's out of the way, lets dive in…
Fast Celebrity Hack #4: Creating your legacy
It wasn't until my friend Ben Settle said he wanted to create a legacy that outlived him and one of the ways he would do it was by creating a podcast that I realized how important my work at The Podcast Factory is. You see, I thought I was just chatting with friends and sharing those chats with our listeners so they could have an inside look at a marketers mind. It hadn't occurred to me that recording these conversations and making them available to people online would have a lasting impact for years and decades to come. Although some of the things we talk about have an expiration date, most of our conversations are timeless because we're talking about principles of doing business rather than the tactics.
And that's what I help my hosts do – tap into timeless insights that are as relevant today as they will be three years from now. The first reason we do this is so you can re-use the content you create over and over again. The second reason we do this is so when someone new comes into the fold, the information is still useful to them.
I can already hear some of you saying, “Jonathan, how is creating your legacy a fast celebrity hack?”
Great question, and the answer may surprise you. See the sooner you start sharing these timeless insights with your listeners, the sooner they will be indoctrinated into your way of thinking. When they feel like you are just like them, it instantly creates a bond with them. Before you know it they'll be quoting yo to their friends. Sort of like that third party endorsement thing we talked about in hack #2.
This is the foundation of building your platform online, and podcasting is one of the fastest ways you can do this.
Fast Celebrity Hack #5: Ethically stealing other peoples audience.
I like to ask people, what comes first – the audience or the podcast. Most of them will tell me the podcast comes first. But they're wrong. The average person starting a podcast will not have any listeners unless they bring them. This is one of the biggest reasons I'm so picky about the people I work with. If you don't already have an audience that wants to hear from you, a podcast is going to be a lot of work with a very limited payoff.
The other day I was talking to a very well respected A-List copywriter. If I said his name you would know who he is in an instant. He wants to leverage his experience to diversify his income. Sure, he's doing great writing copy – but if he stops writing today he'll stop getting paid. He asked me if a podcast was a good idea for him and he was surprised when I talked him out of it. The reason why is because he's not ready for a podcast yet.
There are other pieces that need to be in place before he starts his show including building up his email list and having his back end product in place. So I gave him an idea that I'm going to share with you today. Here's the advice I gave him:
First, we gotta build your product.
So we decided to hire some video guys to record a four day seminar he's doing. We'll use that chunk of video to create shorter bits of video, transcripts, and audios that we'll turn into his flagship product.
Then I said to him, “You're a very well connected guy with a lot of deep insight you can share with people. Instead of having your own show, why don't we tap into your A-List friends and see how many of them would like you to do a short one hour training with their people on one of the core topics of your product.”
Why don't we set up a webinar for all your friends that want you to train their people with a landing page so we'll have a brand spanking new “hot list” with all these new opt-ins.
These folks will be hot for your product they got a sample of in your training session.
The little taste you gave the will leave them hungry for more. This is where things get weird.
Instead of selling the flagship video product, we'll give it away for free (sort of)
See, he really wants to launch a subscription newsletter – so we'll use his flagship product as the premium people get when they sign up for the newsletter.
At this point he's got a back end product, a list of buyers, and a bunch of paying newsletter subscribers.
I call this method “Audience Jacking” and it has worked for me time and time again. If you do it right you'll get way more leads than you would using cold pay per click traffic and they'r usually much higher quality too.
Plus, when you're partnering with other celebrities in your market it'll instantly put you at their level in the eyes of their audience.
Fast Celebrity Hack #6: Multiply your results
Howdy partner, this next hack builds upon the last one where you worked with other celebrities in your market to build your audience. Now you have a hot list of email subscriber, you've got buyers, and you've got people interested in what you have to say. The time is right capitalize on all this buzz and launch your podcast show.
Your show will give you a platform to connect with the folks who have already invested in you and bought your product. It will also give you a way to turn the people who haven't bought yet into customers by giving approaching them from a different angle and giving them another way to learn more about you and what you have to offer.
If you launch your podcast the right way, you'll be able to get it up the charts and into the ears of new listeners who might not already know you. (although things are changing in iTunes as I write this to you)
The way they generally rank shows is by using four main factors:
1. Downloads in 24 hours
2. Subscribes in 24 hours
3. Recency of show
4. Ratings and Reviews
At The Podcast Factory we use a method called the “Super Fan Corral” to get all your most active fans hyped up and excited for your shows launch by giving them a little teaser of what is in store for them with your new show. Then, we keep them engaged for launch day where we ask them to go to iTunes to subscribe, rate and review the show. This signals iTunes your show is worth listening to and they bump you up the charts and feature you to their listeners.
By adding a podcast once you have a hot list of email subscriber and buyers you'll be able to connect with them, sell more, and reach new listeners in one fell swoop.
Fast Celebrity Hack #7: The Podcast E-Z button
No doubt podcasting can be a great leverage point for any business.
There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure you can consistently deliver a professional sounding show to your listeners.
There's a big learning curve to getting started and the results can take some time to come in. That's why I always tell people podcasting is a marathon not a sprint. If you're in it for a quick buck, you're better off not having a show at all.
But if you have an investor mindset and you're not afraid to put in the work for some delayed gratification podcasting can pay dividend for your brand and your business.
There is one way I know to make podcasting easier by eliminating nearly all the learning curve, getting rid of all the back end grunt work, and taking all the guessing out of it.
That's by applying to have me and my team at The Podcast Factory to do it for you.
You can hear what other busy business people like you have said about working with us at http://ThePodcastFactory.com/testimonials
Before you apply you should know we're very picky about who we work, we're pretty expensive, and we have a waiting list right now.
If you don't have a budget, or you need to launch your show yesterday – we won't be able to help you.
But if you've got what it takes and you want our help to multiply your results and reach more people, then you can join our waiting list to be the first to know when we're taking on new clients at http://ThePodcastFactory/dfy
Producer Jonathan
