Real-life Conversations With Marketing Executives For HealthTech

Studio CMO is hosted by John Farkas, the CEO and Chief Storyteller of Golden Spiral, a marketing agency laser-focused on HealthTech. We help healthcare technology companies stand out in crowded, noisy markets and generate the demand they need to grow their businesses. John knows how to get past the surface of companies and their leadership to find the heart and soul of a brand.

I (Mark) am one of two co-hosts. I spent most of my career behind the scenes in talk radio and shifted my career to book publishing. In addition to helping others shape their books, I'm a published author who had an overall Amazon top-25 bestseller (2/14/2003).

My fellow co-host is Anna Grimes. She grew up in a medical family hearing stories of breakthrough surgeries and healthcare public policy debates from her doctor/administrator father at the family table. She has invested her career in public relations. Many of her clients were in healthcare and HealthTech.

We host real-life conversations with marketing executives for HealthTech solutions, vendors who help build our tech stacks, and healthcare systems, providers, and payers.

Golden Spiral hired me in 2018, in part, to launch a podcast. They wanted a radio veteran to help launch a show at a different level, to "hit the ground running." But I didn't know our market. I had a lot to learn. So, in the fall of 2019, we decided to go. We developed our plan, built all of our visual assets, geared up, and booked a ton of interviews in February 2020 with a plan to launch in mid-March. Little did we know that a worldwide pandemic would drive everyone online. That's been a blessing and a distraction.

I'm an audiophile through and through so I listen to radio, audiobooks, podcasts, and tons of music. My favorite podcasts are The Pirate Monk Podcast, Read to Lead, and The Accidental Creative.

We started Studio CMO to give our agency a voice. How can people know we can help them if they can't hear us. We wanted to listen to decision makers and conversation starters. What better way to listen than to interview them.

Studio CMO releases every Thursday at 10am. We don't break our show up into seasons, we run it continually. Each episode takes about 18 hours to produce including my two co-hosts time, booking guests, prepping guests, recording, editing, mastering, writing show notes, editing and formatting the transcript, posting online, and promoting through social media and email.

We want to share the conversations. Our financial goal is the long play. We want our agency to grow and we believe we will grow in influence and revenue as we develop our place as leaders in the marketplace.

Some would call what we do B2B business development. Okay, call it that if you have to put a label on it.

If we were recording in person in the studio, we would be using Audio-Technica HS1 mics.
They are perfect for recording at loud trade shows (what are those?) and for the untrained guest. The headset keeps them on axis on the mic.

Spread out, we use a variety of mics. John uses a Samson 01, Anna uses as Shure MV5, and I’m on an AKG c214.

In studio, we would run all mics through a Zoom LiveTrak 12 to create a backup recording and distribute sound for headphones. Virtually, we use Riverside.FM to record our sessions.

I record extra voice tracks through a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Analog to Digital/DAW interface. I have a pair of KRK Rokit5 near field monitors.

We all use MacBook Pro computers.

I record in and post-produce in Pro Tools (because I’ve been on the platform since 1992. There are other great tools on the market, but my muscle memory makes me fast.)

We use Rev for transcription and subtitle creation.

We distribute to all podcast channels through LibSyn

When we receive weird files, I use Zamzar for audio file conversion (rare)

Our show notes and transcripts are published in HubSpot

GUESTS:
I hunt for guests through Google searches. We have a list of requirements for our guests and I vet them through Crunchbase, LinkedIn, and Owler as well as read/watch/listen to content they've created. I then use Hunter to find their email addresses (if not published online) and reach out to them directly.

PREPARE:
We have a multipart prep procedure:
1. We have a series of emails we send guests to get them ready. They typically reply with answers to a couple questions.
2. I put all of that information plus my research into a prep document that we share via Zoom when the three of us meet to discuss how we're going to take the discussion. That takes place two - five days before we record.
3. The day of the recording, we get together BEFORE we connect the guest to go over our plan and see if we have any changes.
4. We add the guest to the Riverside.fm conversation and get to know the guest(s) a little and find out what hot buttons he or she or they have. Then we go for it recording "live to tape with the ability to stop."

We are a Zoom house and were using the separate tracks feature but the files were messy. I looked at the other platforms and decided on Riverside. I really like it and it saves tons of time in the course of production.

We have a large email list that's been established and growing for years.

We use LinkedIn primarily, with Twitter and Facebook as other channels.

Most of our listeners listen on our website. Apple is #2.

Attend a conference and get to know others.

My talk at goldenspiralmarketing.com/brick can be helpful.

Check us out at studiocmo.com. And shoot me an email at mark@goldenspiralmarketing.com to let me know you found us here. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.