The Value of Podcasting with Lindsay Tjepkema

Intro: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. Each day we welcome transformational executives to share their real world experiences and practical advice about scaling yourself, your team, and your business.

Matt Blumberg: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. I am Matt Blumberg. I'm the founder and CEO of Bolster, and I am very excited to be here today with Lindsay Tjepkema. Lindsay is the founder and CEO of Casted, which is the leading B2B SaaS platform for podcasters. Lindsay and I have known each other for a long time. We're both in one of the same VC portfolios, and Bolster is very excited to partner with Casted on the launch and the execution of The Daily Bolster. So I thought Lindsay would be a great first CEO guest for us. So welcome to the Daily Bolster, Lindsay.

Lindsay Tjepkema: Thanks. This is very exciting. This is very meta and I'm so happy to be here.

Matt Blumberg: It's very meta and even more meta is our topic for today, which is podcasting.

Lindsay Tjepkema: Podcasting, yes.

Matt Blumberg: So my first question to you is, why should a CEO consider including podcasts in their busy schedules? We are all busy. You're a busy running a company. Why should a CEO put it in the routine?

Lindsay Tjepkema: Yes, okay. So a CEO's job is to think and to communicate, right? So connection is hugely important regardless of what you're the CEO O of, and that's connection with your customers, that's connection with the market, but it's also connection with your team. And to truly connect a CEO must communicate clearly and you've got to share the vision. I know you do this all day long too. You got to share the vision in a way that's clear, concise, accessible, and repeatable. And podcasts are uniquely positioned to be able to do that, to get what's in your brain out of your mouth, recorded, published, and used over and over and over again. It amplifies your voice.

Matt Blumberg: And why is a podcast unique in that? So I've been blogging for 15 years, 18 years. Why is a podcast better than blog? Why is it better than Twitter?

Lindsay Tjepkema: Yeah. So, it's better because it creates human connection. It's a basic human need, which makes it a basic business need. Podcasting is the only thing that you can consume while you're mowing the lawn or driving or doing literally anything else. And for a CEO specifically, why should a CEO do it? It's faster. You and I are having this right now in five minutes, whereas if you said, " Hey, Lindsay, will you write me a blog post?" That would take significantly more of my time. And You and I can both connect with your audience in a way that's even that much more meaningful, that much faster.

Matt Blumberg: Okay, so how does a CEO get value from podcasting fast? It takes a long time to build up a library of them.

Lindsay Tjepkema: Oh yeah.

Matt Blumberg: It's like what's the shortcut or how do you get there fast?

Lindsay Tjepkema: Yeah, so set the right expectations first. It's not about closing a$1 million deal off your podcast. It's not about having a million people listen. To your point that you just made, that will come later. Start first with who you talk to and what value you can extract right away. You're doing this right now. How can I talk to people that are going to share meaningful information quickly in a way that's going to engage with my audience fast? And I recommend start with your customers, get some great clips and snippets that not only will be helpful to your audience, but will also be helpful to your sales team or maybe your customer experience team that can be used in lots and lots of different ways.

Matt Blumberg: Okay, well, it's a good thing I'm starting with one of my customers. So where do you start? I'm a CEO. I decide I want to start podcasting or my marketing team says, " Okay, we're going to do a podcast for our brand." How do you get started?

Lindsay Tjepkema: Literally exactly what you're doing. Just start. Just hit record. Have conversations with people that you think are going to be meaningful to your audience. Again, start with your customers, start with your partners. Ask meaningful questions, hit record and start turning things out and then stay with it. So just hit record and see it through. Don't expect a million listeners overnight. Just keep going and get to the place of consistency where you have a show and then you can start setting those expectations and goals for audience growth, brand growth, real impact on revenue, all of which are extremely possible. But as far as getting started, have great conversations in a meaningful way, record them and just start sharing on a regular basis.

Matt Blumberg: It sounds like the proverb right, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one simple stop, right?

Lindsay Tjepkema: One simple recording.

Matt Blumberg: All right. You get the last word. One final piece of advice for CEOs on podcasting.

Lindsay Tjepkema: The future and the past of any brand in any strong company is human connection. And when you can prioritize that as part of your CEO role in a way that is scalable, you start to win, and that's where you see real brand growth. And so prioritizing podcasting is a valuable use of your time, that over time, if you stay consistent with it, will be really valuable for your business. Give it a shot. See it through.

Matt Blumberg: Sounds good. All right, Lindsay Tjepkema, thank you for being on The Daily Bolster.

Lindsay Tjepkema: Thank you.