The Company Show Megan Dougherty

Podcasts that look very similar from the outside can actually create completely different kinds of value for the businesses running them. Here’s what I mean:

Imagine a standard podcast. The podcasty-est podcast you can dream up. You know what I'm talking about: about 40 minutes long, one host interviewing one guest, released every Tuesday. The Ur-Podcast—there are a lot of them.

It’s tempting to think they all sound the same. The more cynical among us might say that they do. But they can be serving very different functions for the companies that run them and making a very different impact based on the Blueprint used and the individual metrics optimized for.

Let’s take a look at how a ‘bread and butter’ podcast format can be optimized for very different business outcomes. Listen to the episode or read the blog post here: https://podcastingforbusiness.com/75


Tune in to the full episode to learn about:
How similar podcasts can serve different purposesHow to optimize podcast for different goalsOptimizing workflows, recordings, and post-productionShould you be concerned about competition?

Don’t forget to join us for our free monthly strategy calls on the third Thursday of every month!

Let’s ConnectI’d love to know your reason for podcasting—and how you’re optimizing for it! Find me on LinkedIn or Instagram.


Need A Podcast?The Company Show was made possible by the team at One Stone Creative.
If you know a business owner that you think should have a podcast, do us a favor and send them to podcastingforbusiness.com!
Key Quotes
“No one has ever found a podcast on a topic they are interested in and said: *That’s it! I have found the one and only podcast on this topic I’m going to listen to; I will never seek out or listen to another one—*that doesn’t happen." - Megan Dougherty


ResourcesOne Stone Creative | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Make sure to check out our free Monthly Strategy Calls!
Podcasting for Business Conference 2023 Recordings
Learn about what other business podcasters are doing:
State of Business Podcasting Report 2023Related:
Does Your Podcast Format match Your Podcast Goals?Using LinkedIn to Supercharge your Relationship Building with Sophie LechnerMaximizing your Creative Energy to Serve Your AudienceCreating Impact with Expert Knowledge with Kachina GosselinPodcasting with Purpose with Fatima ZaidiPFBCon 2023 Recordings
Whether you're a solopreneur, manager of a department, principal at a firm, or a non-fiction author ready to expand into audio, the Podcasting for Business Conference will help you leverage a podcast to meet your business objectives.
Missed PFBCon 2023? Check out the recordings!

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Pareto principle, or the 80-20 rule where 80% of consequences or results come from 20% of causes—or efforts.

On the one hand it’s great because you’re getting huge value out of some of the work you’re doing…. but which part?

That’s the rub and trying to answer that question is the work of entire industries and an important activity for business owners and marketing managers evaluating what they and their teams spend time on.

It’s one of the reasons we developed the Business Podcast Blueprints - so it would be easier to see what work was creating what results to facilitate strategic decision making. I remember when we first started One Stone Creative, and I was another one of those marketers who just kind of threw up her hands and said: it’s going to work but we don’t exactly know why.

It was only through years of experimentation, data collection and analysis that we started to see the patterns that let us codify the Blueprints into tools that could be used proactively to get specific business outcomes and the attendant clarity—from podcasting.
Most of us aren’t just podcasting through, we’re blogging, and posting on social media, making videos hosting events, and creating visuals.

And there’s an expert I’m really excited to introduce you to who is bringing a wonderful level of rigor and analysis to content marketing more generally, with a special emphasis on the king of all content—the email.

My guest today is Shannon Hernandez, the creator of the Joyful Business Revolution.

We’re talking about data, we’re talking about working according to your strengths, we’re talking about email the as-of-yet unseated, most profitable form of communication on the internet, and we’re doing it with Shannon’s specialty—absolute joy.

If you want to step up your content creation game and learn more about the power of email, listen to the episode or read the blog post: https://podcastingforbusiness.com/TCS074


Tune in to the full episode to learn about:
The Content Personality QuizCreating content outside your personalityWhy Shannon is shifting to emailPodcasting and email marketingHow to bring joy to the content creation processCold emails and effective engagementHow Shannon used The Business Podcast Blueprints

Don’t forget to join us for our free monthly strategy calls on the third Thursday of every month!

Key Quotes"I've asked myself several times over the last couple of years, did I make a mistake in picking joy as the leader of the brand Joyful Business Revolution? Because early on, we attracted a lot of people who were not joyful at all, and what they wanted was joy.” - Shannon Hernandez

“If the only way to keep my business going was an email every 2 hours on Facebook, I just burn it to the ground.” - Megan Dougherty


ResourcesOne Stone Creative | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Make sure to check out our free Monthly Strategy Calls!
Podcasting for Business Conference 2023 Recordings
Learn about what other business podcasters are doing:
State of Business Podcasting Report 2023
Shannon Hernandez Website | LinkedIn
Joyful Content Creation FrameworkContent Personality Quiz

Related:Maximizing your Creative Energy to Serve Your Audience

I have a weakness for walls of text. I really do.

See, I love to teach and think and expound and explain, and I do it best in writing. This is, as I have been frequently reminded by my wonderful business partner, rather merciless on the end reader, on websites, in newsletters and emails, and sometimes even on social media.

And it's a problem because while the content may be good and fondly like to believe that it is, it's hard to read. This is important everywhere, but it's especially important on social media.

And I've never been a huge fan or a super user of it, which means I've never been great at configuring things in the right way to perform the best. But there are so many experts who are so, so good at it, for which I am profoundly grateful because so many of them are so generous with their knowledge.

We are talking with one of those experts today, and she's got some strong opinions about the length of content that belongs in LinkedIn, as well as the topics, the relationship building, the role of LinkedIn to business, and how podcasters can take advantage of it.

Sophie Lechner is the creator of The Magnet Model, and she helps mission driven entrepreneurs find their audience on LinkedIn and build relationships with them so that they can spread their message and grow their own businesses.

If you want strategies that you can use today to improve your LinkedIn game, listen to the episode or read the blog post here: https://podcastingforbusiness.com/73

Tune in to the full episode to learn about:
The strengths of LinkedIn as a platformHow to make LinkedIn work for podcastersLinkedIn mistakes and best practicesThe ideal LinkedIn post from Sophie LechnerRelationship building with podcast hosts and guests
Don’t forget to join us for our free monthly strategy calls on the third Thursday of every month!

Key Quotes"In this day and age, if we want a book, we'll go get a book. You're serving yourself, right? You want people to read it, so make it so the text will just jump into their brain without having to make any effort." - Sophie Lechner


ResourcesOne Stone Creative | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Make sure to check out our free Monthly Strategy Calls!
Podcasting for Business Conference 2023 Recordings
Learn about what other business podcasters are doing:
State of Business Podcasting Report 2023
Sophie Lechner Website | LinkedIn
Create headlines here!

Related:Learning From ExpertsMastering Facebook Ads for Podcast & Business Growth with Stacy ReedA Dance of Guests and Hosts: Optimizing Your Workflows and Relationships with Jason Cercone

PFBCon 2023 RecordingsWhether you're a solopreneur, manager of a department, principal at a firm, or a non-fiction author ready to expand into audio, the Podcasting for Business Conference will help you leverage a podcast to meet your business objectives.
Missed PFBCon 2023? Check out the recordings!

Stop me if you've heard this one: I want to develop a passive income stream. You've heard it; you might have thought of it—I definitely have.

But I've also been in the Internet marketing industry long enough to know that while evergreen, scalable monthly recurring revenue is possible and can over time be largely automated, passive is at best an exaggeration of the work involved in keeping that kind of machine turning—and at worst a damn dirty lie to sell you a quick fix.

When people think of passive income or, more realistically, scalable evergreen product-based income, courses are usually at the top of the list. Creating a course is treated like getting your very own golden goose that's going to lay profit eggs for you every single month.
The thing is, it can work and be an amazing way to scale your business, serve more people, and make a bigger impact in the world. But it is not a fit for every business, and it is not a fit for every stage of every business.

My guest today understands that and has built the criteria for success with courses into every level of her own company. And she has some very interesting thoughts on how podcasts and scalable products like courses and group training programs can work together.

Kachina Gosselin is the founder of Founders Path. She graduated from MIT with a degree in aeronautics and astronautics and now specializes in helping experts monetize their expertise and thrive in the creator economy.

If you want to leverage your expertise and generate more impact, listen to the episode or read the blog post: podcastingforbusiness.com/the-company-show/ 


Tune in to the full episode to learn about:
How experts can turn into course creatorsThe importance of pricingWhen should you create your own course?The related costs and investmentsThe quality standards that you must meetThe intersections of podcasting and courses

Don’t forget to join us for our free monthly strategy calls on the third Thursday of every month!

Monthly Strategy & Networking CallsThis episode was originally a live Strategy and Networking call which we hold on the third Thursday of every month.

There was actually another 30 minutes of amazing discussion and Q and A with Kachina about how these ideas can be applied in different contexts and creating community - if you want to hear it, register for the calls, and you’ll have access to the recording.

Each one has a training and learning portion, followed by Q and A, hotseats for whatever you’re working on with your podcast, and a chance to network with other podcasters, industry professionals - they’re so much fun, and I’d love to see you there.

Learn more and register for free at PodcastingforBusiness.com/StrategyCalls.

Need A Podcast?As always, this is Megan Dougherty, and The Company Show was made possible by the team at One Stone Creative.
If you know a business owner that you think should have a podcast, do us a favor and send them to podcastingforbusiness.com!
Key Quotes"I don't want to be intimidating at all, but I think we do just have to acknowledge those harsh realities, that a course is a really advanced product to sell." - Kachina Gosselin

"The standard for what is expected for an audiovisual product. It's getting higher every year—here are fewer and fewer excuses." - Megan Dougherty

"Simple is not easy." - Kachina Gosselin

ResourcesOne Stone Creative | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Make sure to check out our free Monthly Strategy Calls!
Podcasting for Business Conference 2023 Recordings
Learn about what other business podcasters are doing:
State of Business Podcasting Report 2023
Kachina Gosselin Website | Instagram | LinkedIn
Join her Mastermind Program
Sophie Lechner Website | LinkedIn

Related:Should You Make an Online Course?How to Outline a Podcast, Book or Course in an AfternoonLearning From Experts

Unless you’re overburdened with free time and a desire to learn a variety of new, highly specific skills or have a team member with the time, interest, and aptitude, starting a podcast for your company usually means hiring a third-party service provider.

You’ve got a lot of options for what that relationship can look like. There are solo providers like editors and promoters, podcast coaches and consultants, full-service production agencies, training companies, niche-specific agencies, and recording studios with in-house production—all with their own spectrum of price, quality, and capacity.

As you know, hiring a third-party provider can be such a thing. When hiring for a podcast, it’s also fairly high-risk; your show needs to reflect well on your company and help you achieve important goals, and the provider you choose to work with needs to be reliable and produce high-quality work.

When you work with a great one, then creating your podcast is going to be a really pleasant part of your workflow. You’ll get to focus on creating interesting and valuable content and won’t have to do much else while the benefits to your business stack up. But when you end up with a less than satisfactory one, it will be one heck of an expensive nightmare and time-suck.

Today, we’re talking about what information you should gather from the different providers you talk to when you’re exploring hiring help for your company’s podcast.

Listen to the episode or head on to https://podcastingforbusiness.com/71 and read the blog post!


Tune in to learn about:
Considerations for hiring a third-party podcast production service.Questions to ask potential providers including success metrics, contract terms, ownership of episodes, handover points in the process, and support provided.Understanding the provider's workflow, turnaround time, and use of AI.Importance of trust and clear communication with the chosen provider.


Don’t forget to join us for our free monthly strategy calls on the third Thursday of every month!


Before we start…We published a version of this back in 2022 in our very first podcast season, and a lot has changed since then—the podcasting industry has exploded.

There are so many different kinds of providers and different technologies available to help or hurt your show, and generally, there's just a lot more noise you’ve got to cut through in order to make a great decision for your organization.

So, when you’re ready to take the plunge, or less happily, if you took the plunge and sank, then you should probably plan to talk to at least a couple of different providers; the types of services and prices for production can vary really widely.

If you have friends or colleagues who podcast, asking for recommendations is a fantastic way to get your starter list, and if you don't know anyone, join literally any podcast group on Facebook, post that you're looking for an editor, and be prepared to receive dozens and dozens of messages from people wanting to sell their services.

You will almost certainly find a decent fit within that horde of eager humans. (And you’re warmly invited to talk to us too!)

Once you’ve got your discovery calls booked, here’s what you should ask:

1. What does a successful podcast look like for your company?
2. Do you need a contract? What are your terms?
3. Who owns the life of an episode?
4. What are the handover points in the process, and where and how are information and content shared?
5. Is there any kind of coaching, feedback, or strategic help provided?
6. What is your turnaround from raw audio to finished episode?
7. Is your company utilizing AI? If so, how?
8. What assets do you provide?
9. Who is providing the service, and who are your points of contact?
10. If you're starting a new show, what is included in a launch? Follow-up: How long does the podcast launch take?
11. What type of editing does the firm do?
12. How long do their clients keep podcasting?
13. What d

There's a persistent myth in the podcasting world that you can use a little bit of someone else's content without facing any potential legal consequences whatsoever. Maybe 45 seconds of a really popular song or a clip from a TV show that perfectly demonstrates what you're talking about. It's not true.

There are protections for other people's content in place, just like there are for yours. And of course, that doesn't mean that you can never use other people's content. It just has to be transformative, which is a whole other kettle of fish on its own, and altogether, it's really a complicated issue filled with nuance and can potentially be pretty high stakes.

While figuring out all of this copyright, fair use, and intellectual property stuff alone is totally possible…

Most of the information is available out there on the Internet, on government websites, and in books, and it's especially accessible if you have some experience with legal terminology. But that can be time-consuming, and honestly, who has a whole week to become an armchair intellectual property expert when you've got the new Stephen King sitting on your coffee table waiting to be enjoyed?

No, it's better to get information straight from a reliable source, and on this episode, we've got a bona fide trademark and copyright nerd joining us to shed a little light on the subject.

Erin Ogden is an attorney at the law firm Ogden Glazer + Schaefer. Whether she's helping clients directly or working with other attorneys to help their clients, she helps identify, protect, and monetize intellectual property while looking at the business holistically, which is exactly what we're looking for today.

So if you're ready for a lot of extremely valuable information critical to the long term success of your company's podcast, listen to the episode or read the blog post: https://podcastingforbusiness.com/69

Tune in to the full episode to get answers to these questions:
What is fair use?Do I need a trademark? When should I apply for one?What if somebody steals my content?Should I make my guests sign a release form?Can I create my own agreements? Or do I need a lawyer to do it for me?
Don’t forget to join us for our free monthly strategy calls on the third Thursday of every month!

Key Quotes
“If you think it's transformative, assume you need to talk to a lawyer to make sure, because you are not going to be able to make that determination.” - Erin Ogden

“If in doubt, get permission or don't do it.” - Megan Dougherty

ResourcesOne Stone Creative | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Make sure to check out our free Monthly Strategy Calls!
Podcasting for Business Conference 2023 Recordings
Learn about what other business podcasters are doing:
State of Business Podcasting Report 2023
Erin Ogden Visit The Ogden Glazer + Schaefer Website | Read the Blog

Stacy Reed Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube
PFBCon 2023 RecordingsWhether you're a solopreneur, manager of a department, principal at a firm, or a non-fiction author ready to expand into audio, the Podcasting for Business Conference will help you leverage a podcast to meet your business objectives.
Missed PFBCon 2023? Check out the recordings!