How to include the bio of your guest in a podcast episode is a topic of some debate in the industry, and it should really come down, as it always does, to the type of show you’re creating and your goals for it, as well as your personal tastes and preferences.
I’ve been known to say that it’s best not to have your guests share their own origin story on your podcast so that you can get right to the meat of the content more quickly. As a listener of this show, you’ll know that makes me a terrible hypocrite, because I often start interviews by asking the guests to talk about their company and their podcast.
I’ve tried just getting into a conversation, and honestly, for me, I find it a little too awkward and since my main goal of the podcast is building strong relationships, that’s really okay. Maybe it’s not perfect, but it’s much better than fumbling the kickoff every week and feeling weird going into that kind of conversation.
But I’m talking to someone today who is awesome at that particular strategy of skipping the intro and getting right into the heart of things immediately. It’s one of the things that makes her podcast so dynamic and engaging for her audience. And she’s here to give us a deep dive into the podcast that has been a key marketing strategy for her business for the last eight years.
Susan Friedmann is the owner of Aviva Publishing and host of the Book Marketing Mentors podcast. In this case study episode, we’re going to be digging into how Susan has used her podcast as a marketing and audience engagement strategy for over 400 episodes.
Susan was so generous with her knowledge and experience, and this case study is a wonderful example of how a podcast can become a fundamental part of a long-term marketing strategy.
Listen to the episode below or continue reading the blog post!
Tune in to the full episode to learn about:
- The birth and growth of Aviva Publishing
- Podcasting as a marketing strategy
- Podcast planning and launch
- Metrics vs enjoyment
- Susan Friedmann’s podcast production workflow
- Measuring podcast success
- How to nurture client relationships and leverage resources
- Future plans for Book Marketing Mentors
Don’t forget to join us for our free monthly strategy calls on the third Thursday of every month!
Susan Friedmann and Aviva Publishing
Susan: “Aviva Publishing is a publishing company. We call ourselves a hybrid publisher, that space between self-publishing and traditional publishing.
I represent primarily nonfiction authors and what I really like to do is bring them on board, publish their book, and that is their finished manuscript. That’s how they come to me, usually referred by a book coach and they would be referred to me, we publish it, get it up and running.
What I really, really like to do is work with the authors with their book marketing and their author marketing and that’s guiding them through the process because many times they launch their book, and they do the bestseller campaign which we do however there isn’t the follow-up plan and it’s like no sales and they’re like what happened?”
Megan: “That’s so analogous to launching a podcast because there’s so much work in the run up and then you launch it and then maybe launch is really exciting, but then you’re just like, oh, wait, now I’ve just got a task to do for the next week—forever, and it feels so different.”
Susan: “Yes. Well, in fact, I’ve had a question, one of my authors came to me and said, how long do I keep marketing this book? and my response was, well, how long do you want to keep selling the book?
It’s really dependent. Marketing is not an end game. It’s a continuum. It’s infinite. As long as you want to keep marketing that book.
Yes, it won’t necessarily take the same time and energy as you need to put in in the beginning, because then you sort of hit a critical mass where it can take off on its own, but you’ve got to get it to that point first—it’s not going to do it by itself.”
The Evolution of Aviva Publishing
Susan: “I started Aviva Publishing to publish my own works because I was in the trade show industry and one of the things that I was taught early on, one of my colleagues at the National Speakers Association said, write a book to stand out from the crowd, give you more credibility, open doors as a published author and I was like, OK.
He said, it doesn’t matter if you self-publish it, just publish it. Now, we’re talking the early 1990s. I’m showing my age. And so, I was like, okay, but if I’m going to publish a book, I want a publisher. So, then I set about looking at the kind of publisher who might even be interested in my book.
And I came across a group, they were called Crisp Publications, they’re out of California, and they published The 50-Minute Book. That means you could read it cover to cover in 50 minutes, right up my alley.
This was perfect for me because I’m a *tips and techniques, the five ways to do this, the seven ways to do that—*forget the stories and everything, just give me the facts. That was me.
They turned me down three times and then they took a risk on me, and they published my work. Following that, I actually sold 500,000 copies of my first book through them. I did the work, they just took the order, but that was a result of that.
Moving forward, I wanted to publish more stuff, because I was churning stuff out, I wrote regular articles, I loved sharing tips, and I just felt that this was, hey, I was onto a good thing and nobody else was interested in publishing.
So, I decided to open my own company and that was the birth of Aviva Publishing in the early 90s. I did that, and I literally only looked to do it for my own work and then one day I met a book coach and he said, would you publish my work? And then would you publish my client’s work? and I was like, hadn’t thought of that one. I don’t see why not.
If I can do it for myself, maybe I can do it for someone else as well.
That’s really when it was born and now, we are 30 plus years. We published over 500 titles, working with authors all over the world and I feel very blessed. When I lost my passion for the trade show industry, which was about 10 plus years ago, I was like, you know what? I’d like to put more energy into Aviva and work more in depth with my authors.
That’s really when it took off, which is now a great segue into the podcast.”
The Book Marketing Mentors Podcast
Susan: “It was actually quite early on when I heard about podcasts and Book Marketing Mentors has been going now for eight years, 420 episodes—we’ve been doing this weekly.
The only time I took off was when my dad passed away and I was a mess that I hadn’t scheduled the podcast because it happened so quickly, and I was like oh my goodness and I think for two weeks I didn’t publish a podcast.
I thought the heavens would open. It was crickets. No one mentioned it. And I was like, well, that’s an interesting concept. I’ve been doing this now and people didn’t even miss it.”
Megan: “I mean, it’s very possible they did, and they just didn’t reach out about it.”
Susan: “I like that one better. I think they were being very sort of polite, very British, very Canadian, but they didn’t mention it. Yeah, we’ll go with that one. I like that, Megan.”
Featured Episode
Check out my episode on Susan’s podcast!
If you’re an author (or thinking of becoming one), this conversation is a must-listen. Tune it to learn about:
- The benefits your book and business can get from podcasting
- How to evaluate if it will serve your book and business goals
- How to use your book as the foundation for your show
- Choosing the right podcast format that will fast track your growth
- Building trust and loyalty among your listeners
Listen to the episode below or visit this link to get access to the show notes.
Susan Friedmann’s Reason for Podcasting
Susan: “The reason was as a marketing strategy.
Being sort of a little bit of a newcomer on the block, being in book marketing, being more openly in publishing and working with authors more in depth with their book marketing, with their author marketing platform—I needed a vehicle and I just felt podcasting would be a really good way.
I love doing that. I love interviewing people. We recently had an interview where I had you (Megan) as my guest and I didn’t see it as me doing the ranting, I just wanted to interview people.
And I thought this is a wonderful opportunity for me to connect with experts in the industry and people who could share their expertise in practical ways that could help my authors and the listeners be more effective at selling their books.”
Exploring Other Podcast Formats
Susan: “I did not consider doing a separate show as a solo show, however, I decided, based on something some of my clients said, I’d like to hear more of you, Susan and I was like, OK.
Then the stress level went over the roof, as you can imagine. I was like, OK, then let me do that. I tried it once or twice with just me and I think I read a script and reading a script and talking a little extemporaneously in this way, this interview format, I just didn’t sound natural.
So, then I engaged one of my dear friends and one of my editors, Jane Maulucci, and she interviewed me, and she then became the host of my show. I was the expert on my own show, and it works out really well.
We try to do it once a month, but it doesn’t always work, doesn’t always fit into both of our schedules. However, I get the most feedback from those episodes, even though they’re the ones that stress me out the most, which I know they shouldn’t because I know the stuff.
I do get a lot of great feedback—oh, we want to hear more of you, we love that episode, etcetera, etcetera.
Megan: “It’s what the people want. It’s always more of the host in almost every case. “
Susan: “I couldn’t see doing it every week though.”
Megan: “It’s funny because when you think about a podcast, often people think it’ll be easier just to sit down and rattle off a 10-to-15-minute solo but it’s much, much harder.”
Susan: “But some people who do speak well, as I say, extemporaneously, I know people who do that.
I’m part of the National Speakers Association, which is made up of speakers, not listeners and so I tend to be more of a listener, and I love the interview, I love asking questions.
In fact, my son-in-law teases the heck out of me and sort of tries to imitate me when I meet somebody new. It’s like, I know their whole history in five minutes, so he teases me on that.”
Planning and Launching Book Marketing Mentors
Susan: “I was thinking about that question and I’m thinking it was like three or four months.
I’m one of those people that once I get an idea in my head, then I become all immersed in how I am going to do this. So I was like, well, I really don’t know, and I don’t want to just wing it.
I actually took a course from John Lee Dumas he does Entrepreneurs on Fire. He used to do one every single day, I was like, no, John, I am not doing one every single day. I thought once a week would be good because there’s that consistency of once a week.
So, I did his course and then I was assigned a mentor who happened to be a gentleman who works at one of the Boston radio stations, so I was thrilled with this guy, and he really guided me. Then it was just a matter of pulling the plug and just doing it.
I kept on putting it off and John said, *you’ve got to have, let’s say up to about six weeks of interviews in the can before you go live—*so I did that.
I did do a few and they were the worst—they were the absolute worst. But I was like, you know what? I’ve been through this when I started in the speaking business. You’ve just got to get your legs and starts from going from crawling to walking and falling over and hitting your head and getting up and doing it again.”
Podcasting Challenges in the Early Stages
When I look back at our very early episodes, I want to hide my face. We’ve even gone back and retroactively improved the sound on some of them, except for one that had sound that was so impressively bad, we now leave it up as an example.
Here are Susan’s thoughts on this:
“I thought in my wisdom that I would pick a gentleman who is big in the author marketing, or the book marketing space and I thought, oh my goodness, John Kramer.
I thought, oh, this would be amazing to have him, and he said, oh, yes, I’d love to be on the show—I **interviewed him.
First of all, he had a crappy mic, it was a terrible sound system, and it wasn’t a fun interview. I was expecting it to be so much more fun and exciting and yay, this is going to be my debut episode and it really wasn’t.
But I put it out there. I was just like, OK, he’s a name. It was good. And I’ve had several not so good episodes and now I feel they get better and better because as an interviewer, podcast host, I feel much more comfortable now.
Just like on this interview, I’m allowing myself to be me and that’s what I do when I’m on the air. I only do audio and I know people are very surprised because we do it on Zoom and I put it in the notes when I send it to them, this is audio only. You don’t need any makeup. In fact, you don’t have to get dressed if you don’t want to.
The fact is they always come made up and they’re like, oh, audio? Well, I wouldn’t have put makeup on.
I said it in the notes. I couldn’t have been more clear. It’s in capitals and it is highlighted. What can I tell you?”
Chasing the Interview High: Why Susan Friedmann Focused on Fun, Not Metrics
Susan: “I just wanted to keep going with it.
I just got the bug, and I knew for me that this would be the most fun way as a marketing strategy. I know marketing, I’ve studied marketing and I’ve done a lot of it over the years, and I know what I like and what I don’t like—and I love interviewing people.
That’s why it’s kept going all this time. And I love finding new people—it’s almost like a treasure hunt and it often gets easier because, first of all, people refer other people, plus I’m in networking groups, plus I’ve got my National Speakers Association colleagues who you just have to ask them and then they’re like, oh, yeah.
They make really good interviews, for the most part—those ones who don’t go on and on. And it was like, OK, this isn’t a solo episode. This is a conversation which sometimes I have to stress.
And if people go on and on, I just wait for that breath to say, and Megan!”
Susan Friedmann’s Podcast Production Workflow
Before the interview
Susan: “When I invite somebody, again, over the years, I’ve learned that I need more information from the guests because I was doing my own and that was very time consuming.
So now they fill in a form, we’ve got an interview submission form and I think I stole that from somebody else or adapted it from somebody else’s—and so I know a little bit about them.
I also go in and do my own research. I go to their website, I go on Amazon, I look at their book. If I feel that I really want to know more about their book, Amazon used to have this great feature, Look Inside, which they have now stopped. I’m like, why?
Because I want to see the table of contents. I want to read the introduction because that gives me everything I need to know about the book, and I like to read testimonials about the book—if they’ve written one.
Now, guests don’t have to have a book to be on my show. In fact, I get pitched by PR agents all the time: Oh, I’ve got a client who wrote a book. I said, goody, goody and they go, oh, they’ll be perfect for your show—and they’ve never listened to an episode of my show.
Why would they be good for my show? They wrote a book on World War II. That doesn’t interest me or my listeners at this point. I want to know what that author, if they are an author, can tell me about their marketing that will help my authors, my listeners.
You can be an expert, and I’ve had experts on LinkedIn or Facebook, on Pinterest, on every other platform and they don’t have a book. I think I interviewed this woman by name of Megan Dougherty, and I don’t think she has a book (yet).
I interview people about their expertise, not the fact that they have a book. So that is a big part. And I know when people have not listened to and know and understand what the show is about, they see the word book marketing and they’re like, oh yeah, this is perfect for my game.”
During the interview
Susan: “I do my research. They suggest questions as well. They suggest about three to five questions; I ask for that. However, I use that sort of as an emergency backup, in case of fire, break the glass—that’s how I use it.
I usually have a starting question to get us in. I get straight to the chase; this is a 25–30-minute interview, I want to get to something substantive. And maybe I’m wrong here, but I don’t do the, tell us about yourself and your history.
I don’t do that because that can take up a bit of time that I would rather use getting down to the subject. So, I go straight into the subject matter.
I do read a little bio obviously as an intro, but I very rarely talk about that bio. I’ve done it on a couple of occasions where I’ve had people who worked at the White House or who did something really exceptional; they met with the president and I was like, wow, what was that like? We might talk a little bit about that.
So, I have that starting interview and then organically based on whatever they start saying, I usually piggyback off of that and we go off and talk about the subject. If I feel we’re going off on a tangent, I’m able to bring that back to the subject matter that we’re talking about.”
Once it’s recorded
Susan: “Once it’s been recorded, and I do it all on Zoom, as I said, even though it is on the video, my video camera’s turned off because I’ve got my studio here to my right. I take people into my studio, and so they don’t even see me. They said, well, you’re turning off your screen. I’m like, yeah, because you’re not going to see me, you know? I’ve got a picture of me on my screen.
They said, well, I like to look at someone.
Well, look at my picture. Talk to my picture. I can’t help you. Stick a model of me up there.
So, we do the recording. I do a little before we go on the air, just to make them comfortable because some of them very nervous. And what are you going to ask me? And I do not want them to have organized questions.
That’s why I say, you’re not memorizing a question. We’re going to talk; you know your stuff. I just want you to talk from your heart. Obviously, I’ve developed this and feel more comfortable over the years now with this, but I really like the way I’m doing it now and, you know, keep improving all the time.
End of the podcast, they always leave a golden nugget of information and then I thank the guest and then I talk about a little bit of my services and then we end.
From there, I take that recording and I might go in and if there’s some goofs that I’ve made, or I had a guest recently, and she was young, and she was very nervous, and she already said to me, well, if I make a mistake, can we edit it out? And I said, yes, of course.
She took these long pauses between questions. I was like, at one point, I’m like, are you still there? Since I wasn’t looking at her. Any of it, I take some of that out and I take the goofs out and if I goofed as well, I take that out.
Then I send it to an editor. I found an editor on Fiverr. I found her right at the very beginning. I love her. I’ve been using her for eight years and her English is perfect. I think she’s somewhere in Eastern Europe and she puts the intro, the outro on it, she normalizes or equalizes the sound.
Occasionally if there are a lot of ums and ahs and you knows, then I get her to take some of those out. Sometimes I do a first go over with those if there are a lot of them and then we’re ready. We’re ready to put it out there to the world.
Then I put it up on Buzzsprout. I like to do it if I can in advance. My VA really likes it if I can do it in advance. She’s cracking the whip there and saying, okay, when’s it coming out?
I put the picture of the guest in on my podcast cover and the title—I work hard on the title.
I do some SEO searches I put it through a couple of programs to see if it’s high-ranking like if I use certain words, they rank higher than other words, so I do put a little energy into that.
I actually create a QR code from the website link, which I like to give my guests. So, I give them the promo, which is the promo graphic, which is the cover with that picture and the title and the episode number. And then I do this QR code for them and I send that off to my VA.
She posts it on my blog. She sends out the email that goes to my list. We put it on LinkedIn. It goes up automatically through Repurpose.io, on YouTube, the YouTube podcast, and my platform has been linked to all the other podcast platforms, at least the main ones.”
Susan Friedmann’s Tools for Podcasting
Susan: “I’m using Podpage as my website for the podcast. I know you (Megan) said to potentially put it on my own website. With your help, we hopefully will be able to do that because I know my VA is going to say, why are you doing this?
The other thing is, I was trying to find the best tools. I’ve been through a lot of hosts. I did Libsyn and I did a couple of others and I just like Buzzsprout. It’s easy to use, it’s got a few limitations, and it works—It works for me.
When it’s easy and it works, that’s a good formula for me.
We release it and just put out a note to the guest and say, hey, you know, promote it to your fans and followers. We send them the graphics and the QR code. We also put it on LinkedIn, and we tag the guest on LinkedIn, so we get a little bit more exposure there, hopefully with their lists, their contacts and that’s about it.”
How Susan Measures Podcast Success Through Engagement and Building Relationships
Susan: “If it really lands, I get people who email me.
The other thing is that on the podcast, first of all, I know this is something that you’ve (Megan) encouraged me to do, I was forever looking for a sponsor and you said, well, your own company should be sponsoring it.
So, I’m like, OK, Aviva Publishing is the sponsor of Book Marketing Mentors podcast. Yay.
And at the end of each episode, I do have a call to action and it’s called Book Marketing Brainstorm and it’s actually bookmarketingbrainstorm.com and that links to my calendar to book a 20-minute brainstorming session with me.
And I do get people who book time with me and I’m not as, I’m not a detail-oriented person and everything so I’m not monitoring exactly who comes as a result of the podcast and who comes as a result of other promotions.
When I’m on other people’s podcasts for instance, that’s the link that I give out if people would like to follow up with me and do a session because I really like to speak to people. I don’t like to send out pricing or anything—I want to know what they want. I’m a people person.
I want to understand even if I’m even the right fit for them, because the last thing I want to do is to work with someone and we’re not a right fit for each other. So, I make a big point of that, especially when I publish the book.
We spend sometimes, half, three quarters of an hour an hour talking to make sure that they feel comfortable with the way we work because our model is different from many others and our structure and everything and I want them to feel comfortable with this.”
Nurturing Client Relationships and Leveraging Collaborative Resources
Susan’s work is similar to our work—when we take on a new client and engage in a new project, it’s going to be quite a close relationship for the term that we’re working together.
It’s intimate almost. There’s a lot of back and forth, a lot of collaboration, a lot of communication. It’s so important to start that on the right foot.
Here are Susan’s thoughts on this:
“I want them to know me. I want them to like working with me and know that I have their best interest at heart.
Yes, they’re paying me because I’m offering a service, and it’s me, myself, and I. We’re a great trio in this company. We work really, really well. I’ve got a bookkeeper. I’ve got a couple of VAs who work with me, and then I’ve got suppliers.
For instance, if somebody needs an editor, I’ve got editors I work with. I’ve got graphic designers I work with. People who design the book cover, who design the interior layout and design. I’ve got companies who will print—printing companies. I’ve got companies who do print on demand.
So, I’ve got resources that I refer people to work with a I will refer them and then that contractor will work with them on the finances. So, I do not get involved with, oh, well, you must use this editor.
No—you go interview these two editors I’m going to recommend and see which one you like best. Because, again, it’s the same situation. You’ve got to enjoy who you’re working with.”
The Power of “How Did You Hear About Us?”
Susan: “It’s funny because I don’t know, obviously, until they tell me.
I was on a call with an author, she published with me a few years ago and she came back because she’s looking to do a second book, and she said, I always listen to your podcast. Now, I didn’t know that until she told me.
So, I don’t monitor and say, put your hand up if you listen to my podcast! I don’t know. I know people are listening to it because it’s up there in the, what did you (Megan) say, the 20% of podcasts listened to worldwide? I’m thrilled.
We did win an award a few years ago from Smart Blogger who did an article and put us in the top ranking, one of the top-ranking podcasts in the book marketing field. They put it in different categories.
But in book marketing, they sang our praises and I love it when that happens, of course.”
Megan: “Well, maybe after we get on this call, you can run over to Calendly and add a How Did You Hear About Us? drop down to your brainstorm booking and make it a required part of signing up.
Susan: “That’s a good one!
When a guest or somebody who wants to be a guest on the show, in the submission form, I do ask them which episode they enjoyed most. Just for them to at least say they listened to one, whether they did or not, because they usually put the most recent one, which, duh, I can do that too.”
Future Plans for The Book Marketing Mentors Podcast
Susan: “I like to up the quality of the guest and interestingly enough, I just interviewed Mark Schaefer who is like a big, big person in the marketing field. He’s written 10, 11 books on book marketing.
I had been wanting to interview him for a long time and I just hadn’t reached out. I’m usually not shy about reaching out, I just hadn’t done it.
Then I was speaking to somebody else, and I don’t know, his name came up and she said, oh, he’s one of my best friends. I’ll introduce you to Mark.
So, we get this introductory email and then he writes to me, and he says, yes, any friend of MK’s? A friend of mine. I’m like, great, we’re best friends now. So, he was adorable. I interviewed him.
Then I have been looking to get on other people’s shows just like this. (Thank you, Megan!) And often it comes as a result of me interviewing somebody and they’ve got a show, and we do an exchange that way, which is lovely—and I would like to be on a lot more.”
Leveraging Virtual Assistants to Land A-List Guests
Susan: “Somebody recommended a gentleman from Fiverr. He charges five bucks an hour. I think he’s in the Philippines, I’m not sure, his English is really good, and he’s been researching podcasts for me to be on.
So, he’s been sending letters out a letter that we approved, and he sent it out and he said he just got this message from Nir Eyal.
So, he asked Nair if I could be on his show and Nair wrote back and said, I don’t interview people on my show, which I was like, bummer.
However, he said, if Susan would like me on her show, I’d be more than willing. I was like, oh my goodness. So, this has put me on a trajectory of like, I’m going to interview more people who are big names.
I’ve interviewed a few because we’ve got several in National Speakers Association. I’ve interviewed Jay Baer and Ramon Ramos, there are some big names out there that a few of them I’ve interviewed.
But I was like, you know, there are a lot more out there.
So maybe, and it may not be every episode, of course, but we have a star. I mean, I’ve interviewed John Lee Dumas, he came on and I’ve interviewed Ray Byrne.
To be honest, I’ve lost track of some of the really great people I have interviewed.”
Megan: “Well, with an archive the size of your archive, that’s not super surprising. 420 plus episodes is an incredible body of work for a show.”
A Podcasting Tip from Susan Friedmann
Susan: “This was said to me, this is not original, but I’ve taken it to heart is that if you are going to do it, you have to commit to it and commit to it consistently.
It is a consistency that builds. Chances of being an overnight success in this business is slim to none. So, it’s consistency. And as you’ve heard, mine has built over the eight years.
[Megan], you probably know the stats better than me, but I think after six, 10, 12 episodes, people often give up. So, I think the podcast graveyard is full of great podcasts that people just abandoned, which is a shame.
Mix it up if you want to do it yourself. I’d mix it up with interviews because you can run dry or not feel like doing one. I’ve had days where I just don’t feel like interviewing, and I’ve still done it and it just gives me a buzz.
It’s like my adrenaline. It’s my fix. So that’s consistency. Be consistent and commit to it.”
Warning!
Susan: “Check. Check your mic, check your audio.
Have a good mic and ask your guest if the mics, how mic, I can’t hear how my mic sounds.
I’ve had somebody who is in the business, sort of an equivalent of what you’re doing, Megan. I get to the end of the interview with him, great interview, and he says to me, your mic didn’t sound good at all.
I’m like, now you tell me. Did you not have told me at the beginning of the episode? So, there’s that.
If you are recording, make sure you have hit record. I’ve done that too, where I have had a wonderful interview with somebody and thank goodness, two of them were my good friends. I had no compunction about asking them to redo it, which they also offered to do, but I hadn’t recorded.
So now when I go on Zoom, it’s recording from the minute I get on to the minute I stop my interview. So, then there’s no forgetting to put the recording on because it’s on automatically.”
A Podcasting Resource
Susan: “I would read up about podcasting, even listen to other people’s podcasts. Just get a sense of what you like and what you don’t like and be yourself.
You’ve got to develop your own style and over time it’s going to change as you feel more comfortable with this medium. Just be you.”
Connect with Susan Friedmann
Susan: “The podcast is on bookmarketingmentors.com.
I would say, as I do in my podcast, if you’d like to talk to me, go to book 20 minutes free with me. It’s complimentary. I’m not trying to sell you anything.
I think those are the best links to get me. I’m also on LinkedIn under Susan Friedmann with two N’s. Spelt Frydman, but it’s Freedman.
I always know when somebody calls me and says, can I speak to Mrs. Frydman?”
Megan: “And if you wisely take that book marketing brainstorm session, make sure to mention that you heard about Susan on The Company Show.
Susan: “Absolutely. We’ll find out where they heard about me.”
Final Thoughts
I love how Susan emphasized the importance of consistency.
For any podcast that isn’t a limited release season, it’s one of the most important things to consider and something you should really commit to get the traction and see the results over time.
That body of work that goes back years has done so many things for Susan’s business. Connecting with experts, growing her networking, serving her existing clients without having to do any specific additional work, and of course, generating leads from among people who have already heard and like the things she’s had to say.
It’s a great example of a podcast doing multiple important jobs within a company and it’s a great show too.
Make sure to check out bookmarketingmentors.com and if you’ve got a book and need some support in getting it into the hands of the people that need it, book some time with Susan at bookmarketingbrainstorm.com.
Check out this episode of Book Marketing Mentors
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Key Quotes
“I usually have a starting question to get us in. I get straight to the chase; this is a 25–30-minute interview, I want to get to something substantive. Maybe I’m wrong here, but I don’t do the tell us about yourself and your history. I don’t do that because that can take up a bit of time that I would rather use getting down to the subject.” – Susan Friedmann
“I find often, speakers, they can be such excellent guests because they know when to stop and it’s a really underrated skill in being either a host or a guest.” – Megan Dougherty
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Podcasting for Business Conference 2023 Recordings
Learn about what other business podcasters are doing:
Susan Friedmann Aviva Publishing | Book Marketing Mentors Podcast | LinkedIn