Speaker 1: 0:02

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 what's happening, everybody. Happy Thursday to you. Thanks for joining me, thanks for taking some time out of your day to hang out with me for a few minutes to better understand what you don't know, that you don't know about the world of podcasting. I do such a cold start on these live streams here and if you're listening to the podcast, we record this podcast episode live over on Facebook, youtube and on LinkedIn. So if you're watching the live broadcast, what's happening, everybody? And if you're listening to the podcast, hey, thanks for tuning in and subscribing to the show.

Speaker 1: 1:11

But I do this for a couple of reasons. Number one I want to engage with my audience on a live format. Number two I want to capture the archived live video of the podcast recording, not a video podcast, the video recording of the podcast, so we can chop that up and repurpose it into micro content and I want to engage with you live. So I'm going to continue to evolve that. This year it's been a big priority. I've been doing this now for about a year and a half, on and off, more off than on. That's all going to change because, frankly, my engagement on going live is pretty significant, both on YouTube, linkedin and on Facebook. So I've got my team working on some form of animated intro that makes it feel like more of a show and in a perfect world I would go live every single day, but I want to keep things realistic, so we'll probably go live a couple of times a week, but I'm really enjoying this. My brother from another mother, owen Video, has been going live forever in a day chatting about what he does in the world of YouTube, and he's seen a tremendous amount of success because of the live stream. His audience and community have started to depend on him going live, even though he's been slacking, as of late, I haven't seen him go live in like a couple of months. So razz him about it. If you're connected with the good old Owen video, I get a chance to see him and his incredible family tomorrow here in Miami when they get off a cruise ship. I'm really excited for that first time for them to visit Miami.

Speaker 1: 2:45

So let's get into it. Today I want to talk to you about how you can take ice cold leads and turn them into warm conversations, sebastian. What do you mean? Well, do allow me to explain. So let's say that you have a pipeline of leads in your company right now, an active pipeline of leads that you've been working for the past six to 12 months. Some of them you have really been working and following up with and emailing and texting and calling and D all of the above. Some of them have probably fallen by the wayside a little bit. What does it look like to reach out to these leads and invite them to be on your podcast? That's a completely different conversation than you want to buy, want to buy, want to buy, want to buy, want to buy, want to buy, want to buy. Hey, we'd love to get you on the podcast and tell your story completely and I mean completely different conversation than you want to buy. You want to buy, you want to buy, you want to buy, you want to buy which, by the way, unintended. No one wants to be sold. Everyone wants to have their problems solved. So you can follow up to the cows come home to have their problem solved. So you can follow up to the cows come home. But until that person realizes that you do in fact have what they need in order to solve their problem and they are sold on the fact that what's in it for me is going to benefit them, because of you, the sale happens.

Speaker 1: 4:23

In my experience, reaching out and doing something for someone first and then potentially asking for something, I don't really like to ask people do you want to start a podcast? I simply ask them a question when do you start a podcast? You know, bob, starting a podcast is a game changer when it comes to business. You can actually warm up cold leads because of your podcast, bob. You know, I never even thought about that. You see how organic that approach is versus trying to pitch somebody. Again, nobody wants to be pitched, nobody wants to be sold, everyone wants their problem solved. The only question is are you the person that's going to solve that problem? And a podcast gets you there a little bit easier, with a little less resistance. Now, of course, if you don't have a podcast, this is null and void to you right now. So this is my show. So allow me to present you with the opportunity of starting a podcast. Let me be the one to invite you to consider what's possible, with you starting a podcast.

Speaker 1: 5:35

You've been thinking about it.

Speaker 1: 5:37

You've been talking about it. You see, a lot of you are waiting for this perfect time. That was very Gary Vee of me, those of you listening to the podcast. I did some air quotes. You guys are waiting for the perfect time. You're waiting for someday, you're waiting for one day, and I'm here to tell you today. Friends, there is no perfect time. One day does does not exist. The time is now. Listen, your excuses are always going to be there. There is always going to be something else to do. What separates winners from losers are the winners make a decision regardless of what's already on their plate. They figure it out, they make time, they find time. They remove things that are not as productive as they could be and replace them with things that can be productive.

Speaker 1: 6:36

You cold calling all day long. I would rather wake up in the morning, punch myself in the face and eat my pillow, then make a cold call, especially in 2025, who answers the phone? No one. People do respond to DMs, text messages and emails, especially when it benefits them. So when you get a text message that says hey, hope, all is well, just launched my brand new podcast and I thought about you, would love to have you on as a guest to tell your story. Let me know if that's something of interest to you, let me know if it sparks your interest.

Speaker 1: 7:20

Whatever your verbiage is for following up, but it's not sales jargon, sales approach, modern day sales approach, but it's not. Oh my gosh, sebastian's following up with me again. I've been helping people launch podcasts for the past nine years. People launch podcasts for the past nine years. Not one time and I know people argue this is very unpopular opinion and I guess it depends on the product service industry, et cetera but not one time have I done a strategy call with somebody, aka sales call and they've said this sounds great, I'm not ready yet, but I'll call you back when I am and we'll get started. Not one time has someone called me back and said remember when we talked last June, I'm ready to go. So I've come to the conclusion and some would say maybe I'm jumping to conclusions that if we do in fact have a podcast strategy, call and I tell you and walk you through the park on exactly what's possible with you starting a podcast and radically changing your life and your business, and you don't sign up within 48 hours, no deal. In fact, I'm not even interested in talking to you again if you're not starting in 48 hours, because the odds of you starting a podcast after 48 hours of us speaking two months later, a month later, the end of Q3, the end of a summer and vacation and blah, blah, blah Listen you're only lying to yourself with your stupid excuses.

Speaker 1: 9:09

That's it. Once you get out of the way of your own excuses, everything starts to change. My coach, dan Martell, says it all the time If you're lying about this, that or the other, you're only lying to yourself. And when you give people excuses that you know are absolute, total BS, you're lying to yourself. So I'll end the rant on. The time is now for you to start a podcast, or just don't do it, but stop talking about it. Nobody cares about what you're going to do and nobody cares about what you used to do. They care about what you're doing right now and they care about what you can do to help them. What's in it for me, every single buyer on the planet? That is their mindset, including us. When we're buying, you're not walking into wherever you're going to buy something.

Speaker 1: 10:19

I bought a couch about three weeks ago. Great scenario here. Walked into rooms to go here in Miami, been looking for a couch for a minute, bought a couch that I didn't sit on about a year and a half ago. Terrible idea. Don't ever buy a couch online. Horrible idea. Anyway, bought the couch, cost me a bunch of money, sold it for half the price a year later and now I'm couchless. So, thankfully, I had furniture in the old studio and now we're in the new studio and using the old furniture temporarily because the couch won't be here until next month.

Speaker 1: 10:47

But I walk into rooms to go about three weeks ago and I type of person where you just kind of like cool, you can't explain it, you just know when you see it. That's how I am with couches, but I want to sit on them, so I walked in. It was like being in the cosmetic and perfume area of Macy's. You just get bombarded and swarmed by every sales individual in the place this lady, immediately, just I. But the trick is you gotta, you gotta pretend like you're on the phone or actually be on the phone when you walk in and then they kind of leave you alone. So she was like hello, I'm like I'm on the phone, cool, I'll let you know.

Speaker 1: 11:28

So I'm on the phone and I'm kind of just walking around a little bit and the first couch that I see is a leather couch. It's not all soft and you sink into it. It's like a firm leather. It's a light teal, goes with my whole decor. And I go, you know what? This may be the winner right here.

Speaker 1: 11:45

So I sit down on the couch and now I want to know information. Okay, how much is it? How long does it take to get delivered? Is there a delivery fee? I have a bunch of questions now. Now. Now I'm interested in talking to the sales rep that cornered me the second that I walked into the store. Now I'm interested, so I go flag her down. She comes over, she gives me all the skinny on it and she said the only problem with this is you won't get the couch for about a month and a half. I'm like, okay, cool, it's a really cool couch, really good deal, and I think I'm going to take it.

Speaker 1: 12:19

I like to sleep on things, not on the couch, but like sleep on the idea of whether or not I really want to make the purchase. So let me have 24 hours and if you'll be here tomorrow, on a Sunday, I'll come back. We'll get everything all buttoned up. She said not a problem, here's my card. I said cool, I'm also looking for a bedroom set. Takes me around, shows me a few bedroom sets.

Speaker 1: 12:41

I was not done looking. I wanted to know about a recliner, wanted to know about maybe even buying a new mattress. She showed me a couple of those things, but after a while, when she realized that I wasn't going to buy right then, right there, and I wasn't going to buy half the store and she wasn't going to hit her goal, she was like okay, well, you got my card, let me know. I never once told her that I was done looking. I never once told her that was all my. She never said is that all the questions you have? You want to take a look at anything else? Is there anything I can do for you? She never did any of that. I was just there to get my questions answered and, of course, if she met all of the needs and answered all my questions that I needed as a customer. I was going to give her the sale I just needed 24 hours. She wanted it right then, right there. So you know what I did. I came home, downloaded the rooms to go app, pulled up the couch, bought it on the app. Same delivery date. I don't have to drive back to the store and I don't have to deal with a sales rep that just doesn't care.

Speaker 1: 13:43

The moral of the story is you need to meet your customers and prospects exactly where they are and you need to be able to adhere to exactly what their needs are and know, going into it, that they only care about getting their problems solved and the only reason they're talking to you or entertaining a conversation with you is because you have something that they need. You understand that. So this episode is all about how to turn cold leads that's a brand new lead, that's an old lead, that's a prehistoric lead into a warm and hot lead slash conversation, and there is not a better way to do that, in my opinion, than by inviting somebody to be on a podcast. Now, I don't know that a furniture store rep inviting a consumer to be on a podcast would get them to sell them a couch. But if you're doing B2B sales, which is really what I'm referencing here, this is a winning strategy. It has been for quite some time now. I've been using it for 15 years. It's how I built a relationship with Gary Vaynerchuk back in 2010. It's how I was able to connect with Damon John from Shark Tank. Met him before Shark Tank, but connected with him right before Shark Tank, reconnected with him again, interviewed him twice on two book tours and at an event that I was at All, because I had originally asked him if he'd like to be on my podcast.

Speaker 1: 15:17

Building relationships, growing your business, closing sales, becoming a better communicator, getting your content game in check, because you know it sucks. Right now your content game is terrible. Why? Because it's not happening. You're just not posting content at all, and when you do, it's just kind of well, meh. Let me get in your head for a second and ask you a question what's possible if you decided to really hunker down and get focused on this whole content game and realizing and truly believing and understanding that the eyeballs are in fact, in the newsfeed? They're not in newspapers and magazines? Sure, people still consume those things, but not like pre-internet. We live in a doom scroll society Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll. Why in the world would you not want to be there? A podcast allows you to do that too. So it's a sales tool, it's a content tool, it's a communication tool, it's a networking tool. You can network with anybody in the world because of your podcast and you're reaching out to them and saying, hey, I want to do something for you, I'll get you on my podcast, I'll make it all about you.

Speaker 1: 16:44

I think Gary's third book was Jab Jab, jab, right Hook. It's a boxing analogy. All the jabs are everything you're giving five gives and then the right hook is when you come in for an ask. He would always say and he still talks about it to this day. I guilt people into doing business with me because I've given them so much, I've done so much for them that if I come in with the tiniest ask, it's an astounding yes, an overwhelming yes. I want you to think about this.

Speaker 1: 17:19

As you're thinking about, we all have a pipeline. We all have a pipeline of business, pipeline of referrals, things we should be doing but we're not doing. A podcast solves a lot of those problems. How do I know? I'm living proof. There's not a day that goes by that I don't identify somebody that I know or that I know or just met, that I know does not have a podcast, does not have a consistent content strategy, is out hunting for business, depends on referrals and is a perfect candidate to start a podcast. There's not a day that goes by that I don't identify at least one person and say, hey, man, I'd love to get you on the podcast. Or hey, lady, I'd love to get you on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 18:10

People rarely say no to that, and if they do say no, I don't want to do business with them anyway. What's wrong with you? Who doesn't want to be on a podcast? Who doesn't want their story told? Who doesn't want their business magnified? Who doesn't want somebody else talking about them? Hit the bricks, pal, think about it. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Who's missing out Because you're not showing up?

Speaker 1: 18:37

I'm telling you right now A lot of people, more than you're giving credit to. What do you mean? Well, you've been on the sidelines and on the fence about starting a podcast because you want to get it started at the end of Q3. And now, because you're not podcasting, sharing a message, putting content out, talking about your solution, how you solve problems, what you can do for consumers. Someone is stuck, someone is not able to get the help that they need because you're sitting on the sidelines thinking about what you want to do. Yeah, we're gonna do that.

Speaker 1: 19:14

Q4, I think, maybe q, maybe q5. Yeah, we got the podcast scheduled for q6. Yeah, you guys are planning and putting off and planning and putting off the time is right now imperfect action. Putting off the time is right now Imperfect action. Imperfect action solves 90% of life's problems. If you're willing to just get in the game, get in the race. You can't win the race unless you're in the race, can't win the game unless you're in the game. Someone's missing out.

Speaker 1: 19:45

I hope that resonates with you. I hope it does. I hope it gets in your head, hope it kind of get that little funny feeling in your gut. Good, that's the purpose. I'm just here to help. I'm here to reveal blind spots. Or, like my good friend Rich Barber said, I'm just here to call balls and strikes.

Speaker 1: 20:03

We all need to have our blind spots revealed. We all need to hear what we don't know, that we don't know. That's how we grow. Or maybe you don't want to grow. That's cool. I don't want to mess with you, but most of us do. Most of us want a better life for ourselves, for our family, for our team, for those we love and care about, but it requires getting in the game we love and care about, but it requires getting in the game. So this podcast episode has been all about leveraging a podcast to resuscitate some cold leads into warm conversations, but also, hopefully, some valuable lessons that you can take from it as well, to go, wow, maybe I can start doing things a little different and maybe I shouldn't put this podcast off any longer because someone is missing out. Maybe I can't double my sales and get my content game in check because of the podcast. What does that look like? Hey, listen, I'm rooting for you. I believe in you, but you got to believe in yourself. That's the winning recipe Knowing you can do it. Imperfect action.

Speaker 1: 21:13

I appreciate everybody tuning in both on the podcast and the live recording of this over on Facebook, linkedin and YouTube. Questions, thoughts, ideas, concerns about this episode or any other episodes. Please shoot me a DM over on Instagram at podcasts suck. At podcasts that's plural podcasts. Two S's suck on Instagram. Facebook, sebastian Rusk. Linkedin. Sebastian Rusk. Youtube is a podcast launch lab. Shoot me a DM, send me a message. Comment on this post.

Speaker 1: 21:43

I'm here to help, happy to schedule a time to chat about what's possible, happy to answer any questions that you might have and really help you understand what's possible, with you radically changing your life and your business because you decided to start a podcast. Until next time, friends. 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 this way, with good 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.