Latest / The Scene Projects / Podcasting Insights with Jennifer Blake: Niche, Marketing, and the Future of Media

Transcript

Podcasting Insights with Jennifer Blake: Niche, Marketing, and the Future of Media · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Welcome into a very exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:04
  I am your host Bubba Starts.
• 0:05
  And with me today from the lead gen podcast is Jennifer Blake.
• 0:09
  Welcome to the show, Jen.
• 0:10
  Hi.
• 0:11
  Thanks for having me.
• 0:12
  I'm super excited to be here.
• 0:14
  Well, I'm excited to have you.
• 0:15
  I'm a huge fan of your content online.
• 0:19
  I just I I love your attitude towards podcasting in general.
• 0:23
  But before we get into that, let let's talk a little bit about your history in production and
• 0:28
  broadcasting, and then we'll pick it up from there.
• 0:30
  How's that sound?
• 0:31
  That sounds fantastic.
• 0:34
  To just get in a little bit of history with me, I was always a kid walking around with a
• 0:38
  camera, trying to upload my stuff to my computer, you know, the videos and stuff as a
• 0:44
  kid, with my friends always recording, you know, videos, and I would always, be the
• 0:50
  announcer on there.
• 0:51
  You know, that was my thing.
• 0:53
  And when I was very young, I decided that I wanted to get into broadcast journalism.
• 0:59
  I wanted to be the person that you saw on, like, MSG and things like that, like announcing
• 1:03
  and things like that.
• 1:05
  So went to college, went for broadcast journalism.
• 1:09
  Absolutely loved my time there.
• 1:11
  I got to be part of so many different amazing projects, met amazing people.
• 1:16
  And then when I got out of college, I actually got into, like, one of my dream careers.
• 1:22
  I got to be announcing for, the New Jersey Devils, the New York Jets.
• 1:26
  I was in front end media.
• 1:28
  So I was the person with the whole camera crew following them, talking to, like, players,
• 1:31
  reporters, you know, just things like that, interviewing.
• 1:35
  So I would be on, like, MSG, ESP plus, things like that.
• 1:39
  And then one day, I just I hated it.
• 1:42
  So just happened overnight.
• 1:45
  I just hated it.
• 1:46
  It's not an easy industry to be in at all.
• 1:50
  So I was like, let me go behind the scenes a little bit here.
• 1:53
  You know?
• 1:53
  I was kinda over in front of the scenes and things like that.
• 1:56
  Let me go behind the scenes.
• 1:57
  So I was very familiar with radio because I was heavily involved in radio in college, but I was
• 2:02
  like, let me double back into it, you know, but behind the scenes.
• 2:05
  And then I actually came across this podcast, and I was like, I love editing things.
• 2:13
  And, you know, there's no reason why I can't do this because it's kinda like a hybrid of, like,
• 2:18
  TV and radio.
• 2:18
  Right?
• 2:19
  So I got into it, and I absolutely loved it.
• 2:23
  And I've been in the industry ever since.
• 2:25
  I've gotten to work with the smallest startup shows, some of the largest names out there that
• 2:30
  you could think of.
• 2:32
  I specifically work with entrepreneurs.
• 2:34
  Specifically, I do like to work with, like, hobbyist podcasters.
• 2:38
  Those are always fun, but I really like to, produce content that converts into something
• 2:44
  monetary for my clients, because that's what I'm good at.
• 2:47
  But I've been in the industry ever since, and I absolutely love the podcasting industry.
• 2:53
  Right.
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  And the name of your podcast, the lead gen podcast, kind of alludes to that, which a lot
• 2:58
  of what we do is all entertainment based.
• 3:00
  Right?
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  Arts and music, getting more into podcast, but there's so many different there's so many
• 3:05
  different roles that a podcast plays.
• 3:07
  And when I when I found some of your content online, I was like, oh my god.
• 3:11
  She gets it.
• 3:12
  Like, so many people get caught up at the, like, well, I'm gonna start, but I need this
• 3:16
  and I need this and I need this.
• 3:18
  And I was like, literally, you need freaking Zoom, and that is it.
• 3:21
  Hit record and just go.
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  That's what you need to do.
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  And that that is all the short form content that I see from you now is the hardest part of
• 3:30
  getting started is getting started.
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  And it's like, oh my gosh.
• 3:34
  It's so hard to get that point across though, isn't it?
• 3:37
  Yes.
• 3:38
  No.
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  For sure.
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  And it it comes from a place being secure and knowing who you are, and it takes practice.
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  I'm not saying it is it is hard to get in front of a camera and talk at first.
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  It really, really is.
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  And like you brought up, there's a podcasting niche.
• 3:53
  What I mean literally for everything, there is probably a podcast on utensils.
• 3:57
  I'm not even joking.
• 3:58
  Look it up.
• 3:59
  There probably is.
• 4:01
  But there something I like to say when, you know, I'm working with someone who's starting a
• 4:06
  podcast or looking to get into it, what are your goals?
• 4:09
  Like, what are you trying to do?
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  Even if that's just having a podcast for fun, that's great.
• 4:14
  That's a goal.
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  That's fantastic.
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  If you're looking to generate leads for your business, that's a goal.
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  If you're looking to launch a book one day, but you're looking to just build up your community
• 4:22
  first in your niche, that's a goal.
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  But come in with a strategy beforehand.
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  But what I like to say is that while you're sitting there worried about your lighting,
• 4:32
  worried about your camera, there is someone over here that is just taking their phone,
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  recording something, and hitting publish.
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  So you are years behind them.
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  So start recording yesterday.
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  Like, what are you doing?
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  It it no one your content won't perform any better or worse than what it already would from
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  the quality of things.
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  Like, it just it just won't.
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  So just hit hit record.
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  It's okay if it's bad.
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  Just hit publish.
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  And it's so it's so easy, but like you said, it's so hard.
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  Now I'm someone who grew up in front of a camera.
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  I have been on stage or not necessarily on camera, but in front of people speaking my
• 5:10
  entire life.
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  I never had any trouble in speech class.
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  I never had you know, I've been on stage playing music since I was 13.
• 5:16
  Right?
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  I got a quarter of a century into just being live all the time.
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  And now we're trying to bring that to everyone as just, hey, this is your show.
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  This is your chance to to nobody else is gonna talk about you.
• 5:33
  Right?
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  Especially in this day and age where everyone is so busy talking about themselves, like, you
• 5:37
  need to take that onus on yourself and to just do it.
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  Just do it.
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  And you don't have to post everything.
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  Like, we we hardly ever go live on our podcast interviews because you never know what
• 5:48
  somebody's gonna say.
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  Right?
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  But getting practice in front of the camera is so it's so hard.
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  Get used to seeing yourself in that way and seeing yourself in that light is so important
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  to the overall thing.
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  But, yeah, if you don't start now and you're gonna you're gonna think your way into a hole
• 6:06
  that you'll never be able to crawl out of.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  And even, like, I've worked on professional studios with the thousands of dollars worth of
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  cameras and things, you can still get nitpicky when you're even at that level.
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  No matter what, there's always gonna be something that you wanna change, but just have
• 6:22
  the mindset of starting and evolving as you go.
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  Even my own personal podcast, it did not look like this when I started.
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  And guess what?
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  There are things that I wanna improve on.
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  Okay?
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  And guess what?
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  There's always gonna be things that you're gonna wanna improve on, but just get started.
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  It's not easy, but practice and just get started because you have to make yourself an
• 6:46
  expert in your field.
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  No one is gonna point you out and be like, oh, this person knows what they're talking about,
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  and they go onto your content and nothing's there.
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  You have to tell yourself that you are the expert and show that.
• 6:58
  Even if you're not number one, like, you don't need to be, you know, the Steve Irwin of
• 7:03
  animals.
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  You know?
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  You can be that that local person or whatever.
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  That's completely fine, but no one will know it unless you say it.
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  Well, and there's just so many people on the planet.
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  Right?
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  There's so many people out there, and there's so much content going out, and it's not
• 7:18
  centralized anymore.
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  So, really, you just have to be further down the journey than the people that are behind
• 7:26
  you.
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  Right?
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  It's like the old analogy of the lion chain.
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  Like, I don't have to be faster than a lion.
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  I just have to be faster than you.
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  Well, now that you now we're kinda chasing after the lion.
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  Right?
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  We're chasing the lion down, and it's not necessarily that you have to be the fastest in
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  the group.
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  You don't have to be the best right out the gate.
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  But if you don't get started, you're falling behind everyone else who decided to get off the
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  sideline and get into the game and just start, we say it a lot, building the plane as you go.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  A %.
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  And not even that like, even then after you hit publish, you still don't have to aim to quote
• 8:00
  be the best because there is a niche for you.
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  And that audience is there because that larger person might not work for those people.
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  Your audience is out there.
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  Do not worry about it.
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  So just get started.
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  Don't overthink it, and it's so easy to say that, but just practice.
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  Practice by just talking in front of your phone.
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  Pretend, you know, no one is there.
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  And, you know, I hate the term, like, pretend everyone's in their underwear, blah blah blah.
• 8:27
  Like, that does not work.
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  Okay?
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  What I like to do is I almost have a switch in my brain.
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  And I pretend that Jen is just acting right now, and she is just using her brain and
• 8:40
  speaking in front of an audience, and she could switch that off when she's done.
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  That's kinda like my little trick when I used to speak in front of, television because I
• 8:47
  have, like, thousands of people listening to me.
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  It could be a little nerve racking, but just talk like you were listening.
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  If you were sitting in the audience, what would you wanna hear and speak in
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  that
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  way?
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  And, you know, just just start.
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  It it really is.
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  Just start.
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  It's it's so frustrating to watch, but, really, it is true.
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  Just start.
• 9:09
  Yeah.
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  And that's why I I quit making my own content that said that, and I just share yours now.
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  I
• 9:16
  can be your pawn.
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  That's fine.
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  I'll speak on your behalf.
• 9:19
  Yeah.
• 9:20
  Well and that kinda brings us to to another point.
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  You've come in as one of our experts for the Midwest Podcasting Network Facebook group, and
• 9:28
  we're looking to evolve that into a community that is not just on Facebook, but in the world
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  standing on its own for exactly this reason.
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  There's so many people, and we probably met in a Facebook group that's much larger.
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  Right?
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  But a a group that's 70,000 people strong doesn't really serve everyone in that group.
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  Right?
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  So we're looking to form a little bit smaller community where we can do more of this.
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  We can do more education.
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  We can do more, hey.
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  We're gonna meet you where you're at and then pull you along at whatever speed that you want
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  to go.
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  Right?
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  And making different things available to to people because I have a passion for not just
• 10:07
  podcasting, but for helping people podcast.
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  Right?
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  Which obviously you do as well.
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  I mean, it's not all about the money, although I'm sure, you know, you're just getting mega
• 10:17
  rich off of podcasting.
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
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  You don't worry.
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  I have an episode coming out tomorrow actually about how to go about monetizing your podcast.
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  And the first thing I say, I'm gonna address the elephant in the room.
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  Don't think that you're gonna make a million dollars after publishing on a Tuesday and
• 10:33
  Friday you're going to the bank.
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  Like, that is not it at all.
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  No.
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  But but you found your niche in the helping people, right, in the coaching sector, in the,
• 10:43
  hey.
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  Come on my show.
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  We'll talk about your business, and then, boof, you have a twenty minute commercial about you
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  and your business because products don't sell anymore.
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  People sell.
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  Right?
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  It's stories sell.
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  It's and that's what podcasts are.
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  They are merely a vessel for you delivering your story and you bringing out that little bit
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  of you, right, that other people are gonna gravitate to that builds your audience, that
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  builds your client base, that builds that community that you're going to make money off
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  of no matter what industry you're in.
• 11:18
  You know, I got one guy, John Morris, is the host of the Get Shit Done experience, and he
• 11:24
  sells copiers.
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  Right?
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  Like, they're they're Yeah.
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  But they're talking to clients of theirs and getting these people on and just having a
• 11:32
  conversation.
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  And then inside of that, they run a few ads for their copier company or their media company,
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  and that's what their podcast is.
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  It's not related to copiers or toner or anything like that, but it's delivering their
• 11:47
  message.
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  It's delivering great entertainment value.
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  Meanwhile, they're subliminally in there so that you don't even know why you're shopping
• 11:54
  with them when you go to buy your next copier.
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  Right?
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  Like, it's just because that well, that's who I go to.
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  I go to my guy.
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  And that's, I think, getting that through to not just not just creative people, but to every
• 12:06
  single business owner out there is like, look.
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  You at least gotta do one episode with a lead gen podcast or with a scene projects or with as
• 12:14
  many of them as you can, and then you don't have to spend the money on all the podcast
• 12:19
  equipment.
• 12:20
  You have this basis now of you delivering your story.
• 12:24
  Oh, no.
• 12:25
  Everything that you said is a % and not even that.
• 12:31
  Like I said, there's every business and or personal brand should have a podcast.
• 12:36
  Okay?
• 12:37
  It should because it builds up trust because that's half the reason for conversions on the
• 12:43
  back end on the business standpoint is that they trust you.
• 12:46
  Okay?
• 12:46
  And by going on a podcast or having your own podcast, it instantly builds that trust value
• 12:51
  because they feel like they're on a FaceTime call with you.
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  Like, hey.
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  What's going on?
• 12:54
  You know?
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  Blah blah blah.
• 12:55
  They feel like that they're hanging out with
• 12:56
  their friends.
• 12:56
  Get out of my head, Jen.
• 12:57
  Get out of my head.
• 12:58
  They
• 13:00
  love it.
• 13:01
  Not even that.
• 13:02
  It makes you seen after if done right.
• 13:05
  You seen as the go to source and the trusted industry expert just because you're out here
• 13:11
  talking about it.
• 13:12
  Yes.
• 13:12
  Guess what?
• 13:13
  There is probably someone out there who knows how to podcast better than me, which I don't
• 13:17
  think there is, but we'll pretend that there is.
• 13:19
  But, anyway, but it makes you seen as the go to industry expert.
• 13:24
  So when people are thinking of things like I don't know.
• 13:27
  Let me think of a a a podcast.
• 13:28
  Let's say that there's a nail podcast out there.
• 13:30
  Oh, I wanna get my nails done, but I don't know what to get.
• 13:33
  Oh, I saw that nail podcast.
• 13:34
  Let me check it out quick, and I'll see, like, what what I should get or, like, whatever.
• 13:39
  You know?
• 13:39
  But it it's that trust value, that industry expert, that go to source that's really gonna
• 13:44
  rope it in.
• 13:46
  And that's what it is.
• 13:47
  A podcast is a trust building vessel.
• 13:50
  It is just your opportunity to, like you said, show up on a FaceTime call with these people
• 13:55
  once a week, once a month.
• 13:57
  I don't think that's often enough.
• 13:59
  Me, I'm on every single day with new episodes coming out plus all the short form content.
• 14:04
  Maybe that's too much.
• 14:05
  I don't care.
• 14:06
  I got all this back content that needs to go out.
• 14:08
  No.
• 14:10
  And honestly, we're trying to build out the Scene Projects network as something that's
• 14:14
  rolling out content like a TV station.
• 14:16
  We're on twenty four seven, right, and rolling it.
• 14:19
  And every single day, you have content coming out.
• 14:22
  Now to do that by myself is is very hard.
• 14:25
  Right?
• 14:25
  There's not enough hours in the day, but that's why I started reaching out to people like
• 14:30
  yourself, people like a John Morris with the get shit done experience to say, hey.
• 14:34
  Would you be interested in, you know, quote, unquote syndicating and throwing us an episode
• 14:38
  a week that we can run out on our stuff to bring us some content, but also link that
• 14:44
  episode now to your stuff and people are coming into your world and absorbing all of that thing
• 14:49
  and then just growing this massive community around that.
• 14:52
  That's the big goal.
• 14:53
  I I I hope that we get there sooner than later.
• 14:57
  The point is is that we're gonna get there because we're all out there working.
• 15:00
  We're all out there moving.
• 15:02
  It's just how do we accelerate everyone's timeline, and that's, I mean, that's where the
• 15:07
  Midwest podcasting organization and network kind of came from is that how do we start
• 15:12
  gathering these people?
• 15:13
  How do we go out and pick the best from where from what I see?
• 15:17
  Right?
• 15:18
  Go out, pick the best people, bring them together, make them experts in their field just
• 15:22
  by whatever credibility I have.
• 15:24
  I am nominated for a content creator of the year award, so I'm gonna challenge you on that
• 15:28
  best podcaster title.
• 15:30
  But we can go back and forth.
• 15:31
  That's okay.
• 15:32
  That's okay.
• 15:32
  I'll represent my belt well.
• 15:34
  Alright.
• 15:35
  I like it.
• 15:36
  I well, I love sports.
• 15:37
  Right?
• 15:38
  We started the scene project sports network because I was like, well, why should we defer
• 15:41
  to anyone else?
• 15:42
  Like Yeah.
• 15:43
  Not that we're trying to cover the devils or the New York jets, but there's just too much
• 15:48
  drama with the jets.
• 15:49
  I don't have that kind of time.
• 15:51
  But covering smaller teams.
• 15:53
  Right?
• 15:53
  Arena football.
• 15:55
  Yes.
• 15:55
  You know, we've we've dipped into some wrestling.
• 15:57
  Right?
• 15:58
  Some pro wrestling, amateur
• 16:00
  wrestling.
• 16:00
  Women's coverage is in sports industry is taking off the past two years.
• 16:06
  If you haven't been in it, get in it now.
• 16:08
  And if you're not in it, you've missed a train.
• 16:10
  Women's sports coverage is taking off.
• 16:13
  So that's a whole another segment.
• 16:15
  Good.
• 16:15
  Well, we're Jen, we're gonna have you as a host of one of our Scene Project Sports Network
• 16:19
  shows that covers nothing but women's sports, and that's all it is.
• 16:24
  So I I know that you're super busy with everything that you got going on just with your
• 16:29
  own podcast, but, what what else do you do?
• 16:32
  Is it all podcast all the time for you?
• 16:35
  No.
• 16:35
  So that that's that's just the surface.
• 16:38
  Okay?
• 16:38
  Podcast is is my Trojan horse.
• 16:41
  That's that's what it really is, and that's how every business and personal brand should use it
• 16:45
  as.
• 16:46
  What I do is I use podcasting as a legion for businesses and or brands.
• 16:51
  But what I do is what I really is I cut my marketing time by 80% by having one long form
• 16:58
  podcast.
• 16:59
  That's what I really do.
• 17:01
  So I use my podcast as a lead lead gen lead gen tool.
• 17:06
  Get it?
• 17:07
  But what I do is example for me, and this is what I do for my clients, is that I have one
• 17:12
  long form video podcast.
• 17:14
  Okay?
• 17:15
  And we are looking to generate leads back to your business with that.
• 17:19
  So we have the long form long form podcast, you know, Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, all the
• 17:24
  major platforms.
• 17:25
  Right?
• 17:25
  Blah blah blah.
• 17:26
  Then what I do is I have the long form out on YouTube.
• 17:30
  K?
• 17:30
  Then we take that and repurpose it into social media clips going out every single day.
• 17:35
  So we have that segment.
• 17:36
  Guess what?
• 17:37
  I'm going back to my long form podcast.
• 17:39
  I'm repurposing that into a blog post for my website.
• 17:43
  I'm going back to the long form podcast, and I'm repurposing it into an email campaign that
• 17:47
  goes out every single week.
• 17:49
  I'm going back to my podcast, and I'm repurposing it into graphics so that I can make
• 17:53
  a downloadable template to capture emails for the traffic that's coming to my website.
• 17:59
  See what I'm doing?
• 18:00
  I am using that long form piece of content because normally people do blog posts, email
• 18:05
  campaigns, email capture, all as separate marketing tools, and you have to get creative
• 18:10
  individually for each one.
• 18:12
  Why?
• 18:13
  Why?
• 18:14
  When you have this long form piece of content, one stone 20 birds, you can repurpose your long
• 18:21
  form piece of content into so many other things.
• 18:25
  And not even that, it's niche specific.
• 18:27
  You already put the creative work in.
• 18:29
  Why are we not repurposing this into 20 different things?
• 18:32
  Not even that.
• 18:33
  Repurpose it into courses, webinars, books, downloadable PDFs.
• 18:39
  It's I I can't even, like, come up with them all, but so many businesses are using so much
• 18:45
  time, so so much resources on getting creative on these individual things when in reality,
• 18:51
  they could just do one long form piece of content and cut their marketing budget and
• 18:55
  their time by 80%.
• 18:59
  Are you using AI?
• 19:00
  What are what are your thoughts on artificial intelligence and podcasting?
• 19:04
  Yeah.
• 19:05
  For sure.
• 19:05
  So as far as an editing standpoint, I don't.
• 19:09
  I use, you know, my me, myself, and I.
• 19:12
  However, for things like blog posts, webinars, email campaigns, I do use AI, but you have to
• 19:17
  use it in the right way.
• 19:19
  AI is a tool.
• 19:21
  It is a tool in the room.
• 19:22
  See it as a second voice, second thought in the room.
• 19:26
  So always prompt know how to prompt it, but also check it over.
• 19:32
  Use it as a second person in the room.
• 19:33
  So I do use AI, but I use it as like, hey.
• 19:37
  What do you think about this?
• 19:38
  Oh, actually, I don't wanna go that route.
• 19:40
  What about this route?
• 19:41
  Oh, cool.
• 19:41
  I like that wording.
• 19:42
  Let's use that.
• 19:43
  That's how I use it.
• 19:45
  That's amazing.
• 19:47
  Well, I I know that you are a busy gal and you got a ton of stuff going on.
• 19:50
  Why don't you tell everybody how they can find you and how they can use the lead gen podcast
• 19:56
  for their own lead gens?
• 19:59
  Oh, yeah.
• 20:00
  You gotta get tons and tons of lead gens after me.
• 20:02
  So you could find me at Jen the podcast expert or you on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram or
• 20:10
  @hookmediaproductions.com.
• 20:13
  Awesome.
• 20:14
  Well, Jen, thank you so much for being part of the scene and for being on the show today.
• 20:20
  Yeah.
• 20:20
  No.
• 20:21
  It I had a great time, and I'm excited to, you know, just stay rolling with you and everything
• 20:25
  that's going on.