Tell small business stories by interviewing entrepreneurs from across the country to discuss their personal stories.

I am a full-time Lieutenant/Firefighter and a part-time marketing advisor for a marketing agency in Tomball, TX. As an entrepreneur myself, I love meeting other business owners and broadcasting their stories to the world. We love to connect brands with their audience, and a new group of fans, by sharing their personal connection to their business. We tell the story of Entrepreneurs, as well as the "Why?" behind what their business does. Our listeners are everyone from average customers, to first responders and veterans, to business owners. Whether listening in for stories of overcoming the same hardships they face, or to just hear about a new restaurant they should try, we have a diverse set of listeners interested in connecting with a business for more than a transaction.
 

I started this podcast because I naturally connect with many business owners looking for a free way to get their message out. Part of my paycheck comes from helping business owners succeed, this podcast helps both the company I work for, and the business we interview, by driving mutual traffic through all of our channels. I am a huge podcast fan, a DJ and a people person. Getting behind the mic wasn't new, or foreign to me, but podcasting was. I continue to do it because we are seeing people try new businesses based on the interviews they here. This is a service I am able to provide that brings value for the guest, and helps listeners figure out which businesses they will love, before ever spending a dollar. It is joyful for me to build brand reach for strangers while creating new friends. We started our podcast November of 2021 and consistently have posted a new episode every single week. We quickly rose to the top 10% of podcasts and plan on sky-rocketing this next year. We were very purposeful in the way we launched our podcast and recorded for two months to build a backlog of shows so that consistency was our top priority.
 

We release episodes every single week because my job requires me to meet the exact type of person we look to interview. Instead of knocking on doors to sell websites and SEO to business owners, I knock to invite them to be on our show. We have a team dedicated to video and audio production that handles all of the "dirty work" of podcasting for us. Our team loves every single job we do and we work together flawlessly to deliver our episodes, sometimes in less than 24 hours from recording time. My firefighting job keeps me busy 48 hours at a time, working a 2 days on, 4 days off schedule, referred to as a "48/96 Shift". This leaves me available any time I am off Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm to be at the marketing office. We substituted door to door sales with what we have coined as "Podcast Prospecting", where guests find out if we are a company they need through relational marketing, vs. traditional sales. Our motto is "Just crazy enough to change the world", and this is why. We encourage all of our marketing clients to change the way they approach sales to create better, longer lasting, and more loyal clients.
 

The Beef Podcast was sponsored by a bank committed to helping small businesses before we ever released an episode. We do sell ads on our show and we offer a title sponsorship (which is up for grabs now). Our title sponsors get credits on all posts, the podcast artwork and in the intro. Additionally, they receive a host read ad shortly after the first segment on our show. We found this wonderful bank by doing what we preach to our clients, taking part in our local Chamber of Commerce and creating relationships first. Our sponsor started when we had zero downloads and will not renew this year due to a merger with another bank. However, they were there to see our show grow to almost 1,500 downloads per week. As a marketing agency, one way we help generate leads for our clients happens through creating their own podcasts, or advertising on one of the many podcasts we host ourselves. Our CEO hosts Business Growth Hacks along with our Video Producer. Podcasting has opened up so many doors to work with some amazing people. We are able to share information most companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to achieve through traditional routes.
 

We have many different pieces of hardware and software that we utilize to capture top notch audio and video for each and every show. We have a $30,000 studio in our offices, along with a video/photo studio that we use to capture everything we produce. Everything from a USB microphone setup, to a fleet of Shure and Rode mics along with ATEM switchers, Black Magic 6K cameras, and much more are used to produce any level production needed. We have also established partnerships with other studios in the area to swap equipment and locations when needed. Our editors are trained on many softwares, but the full Adobe Suite remains the industry standard for us. We find our guests through our normal sales process, as well as the many podcast guest websites that exist. Word of mouth remains king in sending us amazing entrepreneurs thanks to the connections many of our guests have created. Each guest is booked through a calendar link at https://meetings.hubspot.com/john1936 where any guest can select a date and time to be on the show. Our questionnaire and a pre-show phone call determines if the person will be a great guest. All of our shows are laid back and not scripted. We record both in house and over the internet with Zoom, or Riverside.
 

Our show is found virtually anywhere you get your podcasts. We publish on all major websites, even some of the smaller ones. We always upload a video episode to YouTube and of course include our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google and Amazon. The majority of our downloads come from Apple and Spotify, naturally. However, a large percentage of our audience listens directly at pod.co/thebeef
We market through social media primarily, as well as our own group interaction page called Small Business Nation. We utilize every social media platform, except for Twitter.
 

There are so many resources online for podcasters. The biggest thing we focused on getting right was our launch and consistency.
Any podcaster must consistently post content, to do that, I have some steps.

1. Record at least 10 episodes to start.
2. Create amazing artwork and an intro/outro, as well as a trailer. Build a buzz by mentioning your launch a few weeks in advance and release some sneak peeks ahead of the launch date.
3. Launch 3-4 episodes the first day, then release the same day each week at a specific time. Analytics for engagement on your marketing routes is important for this.
4. STAY CONSISTENT. Post 1 episode every month, or 1 episode every week, or whatever your schedule is. Stick. To. It.
5. Always improve and change, but never let the podcast "not being perfect" stop you from releasing it. Learn as you go and get better, but quit thinking and just do.
6. Be authentic. This is more than a slogan or a goal. Be yourself, unapologetically. People can sense fake people and it is a real turn off.
 

You can find me in a lot of places and I am super responsive and always looking to make new friends.
www.beefymarketing.com
www.linktr.ee/johnthemarketer
john@beefymarketing.com
www.beefymarketing.com/thebeef