Welcome to Podcast Suck, a podcast about starting a podcast, where we dive headfirst into the wild, wacky, and sometimes frustrating world of podcasting. If you've ever sat down with a microphone, hit record, and thought, what on earth am I doing? Or if you're just curious about the magic behind your favorite shows, then you're in the right place. Get ready for laughs, insights, and a whole lot of what not to do advice as we embark on this podcasting journey together. Let's dive in. Welcome back to another episode of Podcast Suck. If you don't have one, we record this show live on here on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. I think that's it. That's all the platforms I can handle at any given time because well, something goes awry. I just got notified that I'm not live on X. I don't even know if people watch videos on X. And it's always Twitter. It will always be Twitter. Let's just set the record straight there. I've been getting a lot of questions lately about how to get booked on podcasts. If someone doesn't want to start a podcast, they always say, well, I don't, I don't want to start my own podcast, but I, I enjoy being a guest on podcasts. Yeah. No kidding. Captain obvious who doesn't. So how does that happen? Well, there's a couple of different ways to do it. The first way, which most people don't like, because it involves reaching down in your pocket and spending some cash, that's hiring a booking agency. Now, not all podcast booking agencies are created equal. I've experienced a few different ones and had some less than pleasurable experiences, some good, some bad. As of recent, teamed up with an outfit called Podvantage based out of Maryland. And, um, I'm actually working with them pretty closely on a few other things in addition to their podcast booking program. We're a referral partner for them. Full disclosure, it's no mystery. We're living in a referral partner world, but it's a fit because why I don't want to start offering podcast booking services to get you booked on podcasts. I have zero interest in that. My lane is booking you on, or is helping you launch a podcast and then helping you stay in the podcast game by taking care of all of the work for you when it comes to launching and producing a podcast ongoing. So by the way, if you've been thinking about starting a podcast, Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. It's almost the end of October. We got two months left in twenty twenty four. Plenty of time to vamp up and hit the ground running for January with a podcast. So quick, shameless plug for what we're doing. If you don't already know, if maybe you've been living underneath a rock or you just started following me, whatever the case is. We help you go from idea to iTunes in 90 days or less with our proven podcast launch solution. We've been doing this for the past nine years. We're full service done for you. Podcast launch and production solution. You talk and record. We take care of the rest. So. If you've got questions about that, let me know. I'll include a link in the comments below. You can book a call with me, shoot me a DM. Maybe you're watching the replay of this, whatever the case may be. But the reason I bring that up is because one of the best ways to get booked on other podcasts is to have a podcast. So if I have a podcast that you've got a podcast, like, Hey, listen, I'll be on your podcast. You can be on my podcast. So it's an episode swap, a guest swap, little swap-a-rooney, if you will, and a very, very effective strategy for you because number one, you've got your own podcast to interview people, to create content, to build relationships, to network with anybody that you want. And then you've also got the opportunity to get on other people's podcasts that allows you to be exposed to their audience for SEO purposes, your name and brand, and what you do is getting indexed on the internet's there's several reasons that podcast guesting is effective. It is the new media. So imagine 25 years ago, if I told you I can get you booked on five radio shows this week, that would be traditional PR. So this is PR at scale without the need of a publicist. Now, I guess the booking agents that are booking you on podcasts are somewhat like PR agents, but they actually do something. Did I just take a shot at publicist? I guess I did. Maybe I'm a little, a little jaded in the world of PR, but anyway, that's another topic for another day. But having your own podcast definitely puts you in an advantage to be able to get on other podcasts. Okay. So I'm going to kind of go in reverse order here. I put three resources here, but the third one I put here is to start your own podcast. Then you can do a guest swap with other people's podcast. It's the middle of October right now, time of recording this episode. Perfect time to launch a podcast for 2025. Why do you want to do that? I'm really busy. I got enough on my plate. Do you hate money? Do you hate new business? Do you not like new relationships? I'm pretty sure that's why you're in business. So start a podcast to increase sales, network with anybody that you want, get your content game. in check and consistent because of the podcast. Become a better communicator, a better speaker, a better version of yourself. Get over the fear of public speaking, talking into a microphone in front of a camera. I could go on and on and on about why you should start a podcast, but I believe those reasons in and of themselves are enough. increasing sales and growing your business. There's not one person in business that doesn't want to do that. If you don't want to do that well, and you may want to rethink what you're doing now, second way to get booked under the podcast. is to use a matchmaking service like Podmatch. We teamed up with Podmatch. My good friend Alex and the team over at Podmatch have done incredible work. They just launched their podcast network. Alex is a great guy and they do great work too for podcasters. It's a service. They have a paid service. They have a free service. You can go in there, set up a profile as a guest, set up a profile as a host. You can find guests for your show. You can also find shows to be on as a guest, I think they're paid service like six bucks a month, something like that. Trying to take a quick sip of water, there are lots of lots of jabbering going on this morning here, but I'm on a good one when it comes to podcasting, obviously, and for good reason. Podmatch. Go set up a profile. I think the paid service is like six bucks a month, something like that. Pay the six bucks. It's worth it. You're not capped with anything and you can get in there and set up a profile and then people will pitch you and then you can pitch people. Now, these may not be the top shows that are out there, but they're still podcasts and it's still giving you an opportunity to be on somebody else's show and it's still giving you the opportunity to find other guests that can provide value for your show. So, Both have a benefit on both sides, kind of like what we originally talked about with you starting a podcast and doing an episode swap. Matchmaking is the same thing. You can kind of double dip with Podmatch. You can get on other shows and you can find shows to be on as well. Now, the last resource that I mentioned, and I'm really excited about because we just teamed up with PodVantage a couple of weeks back, And what I like about PodVantage is that you, you, you pay them to get you booked on podcasts, but they're getting you booked on between four and six shows a month. And these podcasts are in the top 10% podcast. So they find your demographic, what you do, what shows are a fit. They really, what I like the best about them is they get in and they really look underneath the hood and find out exactly what needs to be done pertaining to getting you on the right shows. Now this is an investment. Yes, you are making an investment just like it would be if you hired a marketing firm or a publicist or a, we've already covered that earlier, any type of marketing that you're doing, but you've got to think about what is the ROI of being booked on podcasts? Well, let's just say, that you're paying $1,000 a month or $1,500 a month to a booking agency that's getting you booked on podcasts. If you're getting booked on four to six podcasts per month and you close one deal, I don't know what your cost per acquisition is, but it's probably worth it for you if you close at least one deal or get in front of one person you've been trying to build a relationship with. So when it comes to the ROI of being a guest on podcast, that's probably what you're looking at there. I'm spending X amount to get on these podcasts, knowing that I want to be able to get my message out, talk about my product, service, business, et cetera, in an effort to get a return on my investment. Same thing with the other options that I've mentioned. That ultimately is the goal, but it's just not the only goal. The return on investment of guesting on other podcasts is, well, somebody else is talking about you, content is being created on your behalf because you're on the show, you're building that new relationship with that other podcast host, and their audience is learning about you, and you may very well be able to do business with that company. So to quickly recap, In order to get booked on podcasts, you need to hire somebody to get you booked, the right person that has a network, that has contacts, that can actually get you booked on quality shows, or you can leverage matchmaking services like Podmatch. Both of these links, by the way, are below. If you're watching this on Facebook or on LinkedIn or on YouTube, both of the links, yes, they're referral links. No, you probably get something with the referral links. I know with Podvantage, that's to book a call with them to learn more. And then with, um, podmatches for you to be able to set up an account. And then I need to add my link as well. If you were thinking about starting a podcast, we need to have a conversation. So a big shout out to my good friend, Adam McChesney with builders of authority, uh, for mentioning and reminding me through a post that he made this week, that if you're not going live at least once a week on social media to tell people what you do and educate, motivate, and differentiate what you do to people, you're leaving a lot of money and opportunity on the table. So, I try to go live as frequently as I can, at least once a week. I think I've fallen short the past couple of weeks because October has been a little crazy, but we're back and I'm going live today. And for whatever it's worth, today of all days, I did not want to go live. I didn't want to press the button. I didn't want to turn the lights on in the camera and adjust everything, do all the things. I didn't want to do it. but I did it anyway. And there is a tremendous amount of power when we shift ourselves into massive action and force ourselves to do something that we know we should be doing when we don't air quotes, feel like it. So let that be just a little life lesson, business lesson, entrepreneur lesson, whatever you want to call it. I did not want to go live today, but it doesn't matter what I wanted to do. It's what you would miss out on in the event that I decided to just not, well, I'll just let another week go by and. another episode of podcast suck won't happen and another person won't better understand and learn what they don't know that they don't know. No, no, no, no, no, no. None of that happened today cause we ended up going live and hopefully you're taking at least one or two things away from. this episode that you did not know about how to get booked on podcasts. So whether you're listening to the podcast, big shout out to our podcast listeners and subscribers, maybe you're watching this live over on YouTube or on LinkedIn or on Facebook. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to hang out with me for just a couple minutes to better understand what you don't know that you don't know about the world of podcasting today, specifically how to get booked on podcasts. So one more thing about this whole life journey thing that we're on. We're all in this experience together on we're doing different things. I am currently working aggressively on my keynote speaking business and really vamping this up for 2025 to really get on some of the largest stages out there with some of the biggest brands out there. This is by far, after being a professional speaker for the past 14 years, by far the most excruciating process I have ever been through. But you know what's more excruciating? Not getting booked as frequently as I like to get booked. Not being on the stages that I know that I should be on. Not getting paid what I know that I'm worth. So this requires me to, once again, get in the trenches, hit the reset button, and figure out what it takes to take the Sebastian Rusk speaking brand to the next level. So stay tuned. for Sebastian, the speaker. My professional keynote speaking business is about to take a turn for the better in 2025, but my goodness, this is a painful process. Life's painful though. Life's experiences are painful at times. So I hope you're listening today and you're getting a little dose of encouragement. Maybe you heard something non-related to getting booked on podcasts that clicked for you. I just want to remind you, you got everything that you need inside you to do whatever you know that you want to do and need to do. Whenever you're getting that nudge, you know, that's what's next for you. It's time to take massive action. So I hope this message is landing for you. This episode was all about getting booked on podcasts and I hope you got some value from that, but I'm a big life. I'm a big life guy. I want to, I want to make sure that whatever I'm currently experiencing, there is no possible way I could be the only one. So why not share it, talk about it in a very productive way so that people shift as well and start thinking differently about where you may be right now. We're never stuck. Stuck is a mindset. Stuck is a choice. We're never stuck. We always have a choice to not be stuck. So I hope this message encourages you today. Questions, thoughts, ideas, concerns about this episode, any episodes on the podcast, Suck Show, Please comment below. Send me a DM. I do welcome all of your feedback. If you're watching this on YouTube, go ahead and comment below. I respond to each and every one of you lovely people on all platforms. I'm here to be of service to you, to help you understand the power of what starting a podcast can do for your life and your business. It can radically change your life and your business for the better. How do I know and why am I qualified to say that? Well, I have lived it. I continue to live it and will continue to live it for the undetermined future. So thanks again for tuning into this episode. Have a great rest of your day. We'll talk to you next time. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. That's the way we get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and share the show with someone you know should start a podcast or may already have one. And remember, podcasts suck if you don't have one. Until next time, friends.

Sebastian Rusk