Develop your accounting follow by podcasting

Podcasting is celebrating its twentieth birthday. It is now not the brand new child on the block. With so many podcasts floating round on-line, the concept of beginning one may look like an uphill climb. And when you’re in search of a get-rich-quick scheme primarily based on a flood of advert {dollars}, podcasting isn’t the best way to go.

Nevertheless, when you’re making an attempt to develop your community and produce high-level audience-grabbing content material, all whereas deepening your experience, look no additional. 

As director of selling at Summit Digital CFO by Anders, I’ve made podcasting a central a part of our technique, particularly because it pertains to providing area of interest providers. 

It could appear counterintuitive, however you do not should be a well-established thought chief in your area of interest earlier than you launch a podcast. That is the great thing about podcasting: It offers you the chance to have conversations with business specialists and, as you invite the viewers to hear in, place your self as an knowledgeable.

“The problem isn’t a lot your talent set,” says Pat Helmers, a visitor on a brand new podcast collection we not too long ago launched. “The problem is popping out of obscurity in order that others learn about you, your mission, your worth.” A self-taught podcasting knowledgeable, with 600+ episodes below his belt, he argues, “Podcasting is an effective way to do this as a result of it offers you devoted time to speak to somebody and others get to hearken to it.”

On this noisy world, long-format content material like podcasting presents a robust alternative to chop by all that noise. In accordance with Jeff Bartsch, communication and thought chief coach at Story Greenlight, “Individuals who hearken to podcasts count on a long-format piece of content material, they usually’re extra doubtless to provide you their consideration for half an hour or longer simply by advantage of what a podcast is. You possibly can say the very same factor on a social media platform, and the identical folks may swipe on by and miss you fully.”

So sure, beginning a podcast is an funding. Nevertheless it additionally has a really excessive potential upside. 

Here is why.

Podcasting and accounting: excellent collectively

One of many the explanation why podcasting is a pillar of our advertising is as a result of it goes hand-in-hand with our enterprise mannequin: niching.

We have written extensively about the advantages of niching for accountants, however one of the crucial compelling causes is that it permits CPAs to work smarter, not more durable — which is extra essential now than ever with the variety of CPAs leaving the career. 

Within the phrases of certainly one of our favourite podcast friends, Geraldine Carter: “Deal with a distinct segment. Develop into extra particular on who you’re employed with. It makes your supply simpler. It makes your advertising efficient. As an alternative of taking place a black gap, it makes your gross sales conversations a lot simpler. Your confidence goes method up. Your potential to articulate your worth goes method up after which your conversion charges go up, which implies you spend much less time in discovery and also you get extra time again and also you plow that additional time into determining methods to present extra worth in your area of interest. It turns into a virtuous cycle.” 

To find out a distinct segment, you should perceive your viewers: their issues, their passions, their alternatives. As soon as you have performed that work, it naturally interprets right into a podcast viewers, because you’re already pondering from their perspective: What issues have they got? Who might you invite on the present to assist them handle these issues?

Do a deep dive

Podcasting is a chance to attach with, and study from, specialists: You get their undivided consideration for 30 to 60 minutes to ask them the questions you need. When you begin recording a number of episodes, you develop a nuanced understanding of what is taking place in your business and the place your voice suits in that dialog.

Do not hesitate to achieve out to folks you admire and invite them to be friends (after you strive a follow run on some trusted colleagues or associates). Folks love speaking about themselves (particularly folks with a brand new ebook or service line to advertise), so do your homework and attain out to folks in your business.

Talking of doing homework, one other main advantage of podcasting is the accountability it supplies by way of creating your experience: When you invite a visitor on a present, or conform to visitor on another person’s, you are going to be sure you’re prepared. As Bartsch explains, “There is no method you will let your self present up unprepared and threat wanting silly, so that you pressure your self to do the prep work you realize you should do anyway.”

For Helmers, internet hosting a podcast enabled him to construct a wealth of knowledge from his interviews that he then reworked into the skeleton of his ebook mission, The Tao of Gross sales Babble. The common cadence of episodes additionally helped present him with the construction and self-discipline to place pen to paper and make the ebook occur.

Construct a content material windmill

If you do not have a background in advertising, like most CPAs, you in all probability aren’t the largest fan of “self-promotion.” Have you ever ever caught your self asking: “What do I’ve to say?” “What can I placed on my social media?”

Podcasting is an effective way to reply that query. Podcasts might be the centerpiece of an omnichannel content material advertising technique: 

• With AI instruments, you possibly can clip the podcast into a number of short-form movies. 
• You possibly can repost the episode audio or video to your weblog with a brief intro and a transcript you can then promote on social media. 
• You possibly can write particular person articles primarily based on the podcast, which your visitor could also be prepared to cross promote. (If you do not have the bandwidth for this, freelance platforms can join you with specialised content material creators.)

And, when you’ve performed the work to make sure your friends are properly matched to your viewers, it’s going to be extra doubtless that the viewers will have interaction in a significant method.
Make gross sales much less salesy

Few CPAs like advertising and guess what? Not many like gross sales. “It is too…salesy!”

However that is one of many advantages of podcasting: “If you place your self as an knowledgeable by podcasting, you set your data out into the world the place others can see it,” says Helmers, whose long-running podcast has a gross sales focus. “That is a a lot better and totally different promoting expertise than going out and making an attempt to promote your self.” 

If you podcast, you create a number of essential relationships. You present your viewers you realize the business by offering them wonderful sources. You give your friends a platform to share their experience. Perhaps a few of your listeners will change into purchasers of yours; perhaps they will attain out and faucet a visitor for his or her assist; perhaps a visitor will find yourself enlisting your providers or vice versa.

None of that is quid professional quo, and it is a lengthy sport, to make certain. However if you use a distinct segment podcast to develop relationships, you get higher, longer-lasting purchasers.

That is by design: Bartsch explains, “If folks make investments a great period of time with you thru listening to podcast episodes, you are constructing that relationship. There is a transformation that occurs within the dialog – folks hear you, they start to belief you, which implies they’re that a lot nearer to doing enterprise with you.”

The right way to get began

Podcasts do not simply begin themselves. Helmers put collectively his first podcast over a collection of six months, researching each factor and asking for assist alongside the best way.

That is his finest recommendation for methods to get began: “In all probability probably the greatest issues I ever did was be fearless about asking for recommendation. Simply admit you do not know what you are doing. Ask folks, ‘When you have been me, what would you do? How would you strategy this?’ Some actually nice folks helped me, simply by me asking, ‘What recommendation do you could have?'”

If all this sounds a bit too daunting, there are professionals who make it simpler: 

• Communications coaches, like Jeff Bartsch of Story Greenlight, will help you hone your message earlier than you go on air.
• Think about guesting to dip your toe within the water: Platforms like PodMatch or concierge providers like Interview Valet make it simple to search out the precise podcast in your experience.
• Companies like Habanero Media work with people and companies to begin podcasts.