Awarepreneurs

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► Tell us about you and your podcast

Awarepreneurs dives into the stories of some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs and impact business leaders. We look at why they launched their business, what impact they are working for and the granular decisions they've navigated as impact entrepreneurs. This includes how they built their product or service, what their revenue streams are, what some of the challenges they've faced and where they see their business going next.

Our listeners are social entrepreneurs who are dedicated to a) having the most positive impact possible and b) living a good quality of life while they work towards positive change.
 

► Why & how did you start this podcast? 

I like to joke, "My name is Paul and I'm podcast obsessed." :)

I listen to a lot of podcasts and audio books - it's one of my favorite ways to learn. I love how relational audio is as well as how portable it is.

Before I started my podcast 5 years ago, my main form of content marketing was long form blog posts twice per month. While I got at the technical aspects of blogging, it started to become a real drag. I was burning out on basically writing 2 book chapters per month and giving them away for free. It worked to grow my business and keep a steady stream of clients coming in, but it stopped being enjoyable.

A friend of mine, Keith Carlson of The Nurse Keith Podcast, strong encouraged me to pivot to podcasting. He helped me grok how intimate podcasting can be. For example, people literally invite you into the space between their ears when they listen (many people listen via earbuds).

A light bulb went off and I started learning about what it would take to launch my own podcast. I launched almost exactly 5 years ago - we just published episode 251 this week.

Podcasting is so much more enjoyable for me than blogging. It's a relational practice and I learn so much from our world class social entrepreneur guests. Plus, I've learned to invite guests to stay in touch after we're done with the interview. I do this mostly via LinkedIn. So my network has become much, much more robust as a result.
 

► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?

I have had my own business as a coach and consultant for social entrepreneurs for 15+ years. And I learned early on that content marketing is a key part of any sustainable business of this kind.

As I said before, I was previously spending a good 10-14 hours per month researching and writing long form blog posts for my content marketing strategy. When I burned out, I pivoted that time and energy to producing my podcast. I would say I still spend about 10-14 hours with hosting, editing, marketing, etc.

I hired help to set up templates for as much as possible - marketing templates, calendar integrations, email templates - and I use a number of AI services like Auphonic (sound leveling and quality), Ubersuggest (SEO ideas and tracking), Otter.ai (transcription). I find with good systems and help from these AI platforms, I'm able to do the rest myself in about 3 hours per week average.
 

► What do you gain from podcasting?        

By far, the most important monetization strategy for my podcast are a) my coaching and consulting services and b) my membership community for social entrepreneurs (currently 70+ paying members). Combined, these make for a very comfortable full time livelihood and my podcast is a big source of individual clients and new members for the membership community.

In the large majority of situations, I encourage people to market your own products and/or services on your podcast before spending too much energy trying to get sponsors.

That said, I have had a number of sponsors over the years and currently am blessed with a sponsorship with a values-aligned sustainable MBA program at Saybrook University. Saybrook approached me as one of the leading social entrepreneur podcasts, they thought it would be a great niche audience to marketing their sustainability oriented business graduated programs to.

In addition to being the marketing foundations for an incredibly aligned business, my podcast has helped me feel inspired on a regular basis and helped me build personal connections and friendships with some of the most dedicated and skillful social entrepreneurs on the planet. There is no way I'd know so many impact leaders so well without my podcast.
 

► How does your podcasting process look like? 

I use a Shure MV7 mic – which I LOVE because it has built in electronics to take care of sound treatment. No need to have audio tiles or a dedicated podcasting room with this mic. I record with this mich via USB direct to Zoom. I find the sound is quite workable with Zoom as long as I do 4 things:

1) Use the app that comes with the Shure MV7 to tune the mic to your specific voice. It's free.
2) Record directly to my computer hard drive (not Zoom's cloud storage which compresses the file)
3) have both my guest and myself turn off video during the actual recording (concentrate the bandwidth to audio, helps if either person has a moment of slower internet connection).
4) After I record, I then run it through the Auphonic platform to balance levels and enhance the sound.

Next, I use Audacity to splice in my intro, outro and ads. I have a template with everything I need already set up in it.

And presto! I now have a finished MP3 that sounds good, is inexpensive to produce and doesn't take a ton of time.

Lastly, I use Libsyn as my podcast host, so I upload the finished MP3 there and then post the episode for all the players we're connected to and on our Awarepreneurs website.
 

► How do you market your show?

Over 15 years in business and 5 years doing the podcast, I've built a strong reputation in my space. So word of mouth is a big way people find my pod.

That said, the two biggest sources of traffic to my podcast website according to Google Analytics is 1) LinkedIn and 2) organic search. I've worked to learn intermediate level SEO skills and have a main keyword in each episode that goes into the URL, the transcript of the episode, an SEO descriptions, etc.

And LinkedIn is by far my favorite social media channel - I get 4x more traffic to our podcast site than any other social channel.
 

► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?

The best time to launch a podcast was 10 years ago. The second best time is today. :)

In other words, try not to overthink it.

There's a saying in the startup world: "If looking back you're not embarrassed than you waited too long to launch." 5 years from now when you look back, I hope you're a bit embarrassed. I know I am.

But if I hadn't launched, I wouldn't be where I am today.
 

► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?

Podcast site: www.awarepreneurs.com
Consulting site: www.paulzelizer.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulzelizer/