What You Need To Know Before Starting A Podcast

I can’t stop talking about the power of podcasting for your business, and neither can Adam Hommey, the creator of The REACH System. We are going to dig into the ins and outs of podcasting and what you need to know before starting a podcast.

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What You Need To Know Before Starting A Podcast

Tim Fitzpatrick: I cannot stop talking about the power of podcasting to help people grow their businesses, and neither can our special guest today. Hi, I am Tim Fitzpatrick with Realto Marketing, where we believe marketing shouldn't be difficult.

Tim Fitzpatrick: All you need is the right plan. I am super excited to have with me Adam Hommeyy, who is the creator of the Reach System. Adam, welcome, and thanks so much for getting up early and taking the time to chat with me today.

Adam Hommey: Oh, anything for you, Tim. I've been really looking forward to this. We've been chatting back and forth about me being on your show, and I'm so excited by the opportunity to be of service to your community.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Cool. I appreciate it. And for those people that are watching, you may see little snippets of cat parts coming in and out of Adam's screen. It's OK. Yep. There she is. She's poking her head in.

Adam Hommey: Yeah. This is my supervisor, Princess Alessandra.

Tim Fitzpatrick: OK, Princess Alessandra.

Adam Hommey: She'll be in and out.

Tim Fitzpatrick: OK, so if you see something or hear it, it's OK. It's just Princess Alessandra coming in.

Adam Hommey: Yes.

Tim Fitzpatrick: So before we jump into talking about podcasting, learning more about what you're doing with the Reach System, I want to ask you some rapid-fire questions to help us get to know you a little bit. You ready to do this?

Adam Hommey: Let's do it.

Tim Fitzpatrick: OK. When you're not working, how do you like to spend your time?

Adam Hommey: I like to get lost on the Wikipedian to about four o'clock in the morning, go online and play poker for hours and hours and hours and just sometimes go all in every single hand just to see how much money I can lose. And then, of course, there are the long romantic walks to the bank. I love those.

Tim Fitzpatrick: OK. OK, awesome. What's your hidden talent?

Adam Hommey: I think my hidden talent is the ability to be accessible without being available. I've actually created a curriculum on that as part of a system for time management, for business creators and entrepreneurs. It's actually one of the reasons that hosting a podcast can be helpful in terms of generating more leads and more clients for you, because it helps you scale that accessibility versus availability thing. We may speak about that more depending on where you take me with the sequence.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, cool. I love that. That's an awesome hidden talent. Accessible without being available. OK, what's the best piece of advice you've been given?

Adam Hommey: My very mean old 5th-grade teacher said and this is something that has stuck with me for so many years that there are two types of smart people in the world, those who know everything and those who know where to look it up. And of the two the second group that those who know how to look it up have the edge because they can get anything at any time. They're not relying on what's already there.

Tim Fitzpatrick: What's one thing about you that surprises people?

Adam Hommey: There are people out there who think I'm extroverted because I can come on these interviews and be all excited. I'm actually so far on the introvert end of that scale. They have to create a new category for me.

Tim Fitzpatrick: What about success? What does it mean to you?

Adam Hommey: Success means my telephone never ringing. Because it all gets handled before it reaches me and all interactions I have with people are anticipated and planned.

Tim Fitzpatrick: OK, that's a good one.

Adam Hommey: That's also where podcasting comes in because it helps you organize your communications better because it streamlines what you're doing.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Where's your happy place?

Adam Hommey: Out of my balcony. Spend most of my time there.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Chill. Hang out and enjoy the Las Vegas weather?

Adam Hommey: Yes. No matter how that weather is.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yes. What qualities do you value in the people that you spend time with?

Adam Hommey: The ability to have a mutual understanding that when we have divergent or opposing views, that we're not attempting to persuade the other.

Tim Fitzpatrick: OK, that's a really good one for the day and age we're in now, at least the last few years have been that way. And so that's a very good one. So before we jump in and start talking about podcasting, just tell us a little bit more about you. And, you know, I introduce you as the creator of the Reach System. Just help us get to know you more and what you're doing and how you're helping folks.

Adam Hommey: Ok. Currently, I. I have this process called the Podcast Reef System, which works with entrepreneurs to launch and host their business-building podcasts. We've come up with a very unique model for doing this that involves a very heavy emphasis on the planning aspect of it, with the idea that the actual launch and the actual hosting become very simple. Just to give you one quick example, and I don't want to go too far into this in case it comes up later in our conversation, a big piece of our curriculum, whether you're taking one of our courses or whether you're in our one on one VIP program is what we call the pre-editing process in mindset.

Adam Hommey: And that involves using a combination of interviewing tactics, show flow tactics, and planning strategies that create a far better original raw recording product that requires little or no editing at all. When I go into podcast support groups and I see post after post people fussing and obsessing over "Oh my goodness, my guests like, you know that. Twenty-three verbal pauses. Should I rerecord all 10 of my episodes"? Like, no, A leave the verbal pauses then you're not responsible for your guests success.

Adam Hommey: They are. And if you're concerned about your own verbal pauses, come speak with me. I have a system to cure them.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Awesome.

Adam Hommey: So that's just one example right there and we move on to the next thing, let me just briefly mention something we cite in our curriculum that really put a lot of what you're going to cover over the rest of our time together into perspective is we encourage our customers, our clients, our followers, and friends to study what's known as the Clint Eastwood director style. See with some movie directors.

Adam Hommey: They'll do 20, 50, 100 takes of a single scene. With Clint, it's rare that they even do a second take most of the time, the first take is good enough, he says, "All right, put it in the can move on to the next scene." This is possible because with the Clint Eastwood director style, he puts a lot of emphasis on the planning, preparation, and rehearsal for the scene, which increases the chances that the first take will be good.

Adam Hommey: The second is he doesn't want the production to get stuck on one thing. He wants there to be a sense of constant forward motion. So if you're doing one scene over and over and over again, that's going to not only physically but also psychologically slow down the entire production. But if you're moving from scene to scene to scene to scene then that creates an inertia that pushes everything forward. The same with hosting your podcast.

Adam Hommey: If you're doing episode, episode, episode, episode, episode. Get them out, get them out, get them out, get them out, you're making more connections and you're being more of service to your community market and audience. But if you're spending 10 hours editing one episode because there was a slight little humming noise at minute 23.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yes.

Adam Hommey: Yeah. I think you can follow from there.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. Yeah. Reminds me of. A quote that somebody told me once done is better than perfect.

Adam Hommey: I can also cite my friend Larry Wincott, who somebody told him that his book was ugly and he said, "Well, my ugly book is better than yours. It isn't published yet."

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, exactly. Got to get the stuff out there. It's never going to be perfect. I'm a recovering perfectionist, so sometimes that can be a little challenging for me.

Adam Hommey: Been there. Done that.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting I'm getting much better. So the first thing I want to ask you this is a really this came up in our pre-interview prep stuff and has nothing to do with podcasting. But I think a lot of people can get some value from this because, you know, a lot of the people that both you and I work with, our coaches and consultants and professional service people, it's so common to have a free strategy session or a free consult or discovery call, whatever it is.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Why do you think so many entrepreneurs struggle to attract new prospects and clients using this type of model?

Adam Hommey: Just go to my Facebook and LinkedIn messenger boxes and find all the conversations that died at red check. Somebody connects with you or friend requests you or vice versa, and the first thing they do is they send you the spiel about all their results and it's about this long you have to screw up and then they offer you a free strategy sessions like, "Oh, cool." So you're asking me to sign up so that you can pitch me. See, when we see the term free strategy session that's developed a connotation over the years that it ultimately is in place so that somebody can pitch you on doing something.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah.

Adam Hommey: And there are a lot of folks out there who may actually be interested in speaking with you and interested in potentially doing business with you, but they may not be in a position to move forward on it right this minute. So if your initial gambit is offering a free strategy session, they may turn down what could turn out to be a valuable conversation for both of you simply because of the connotation that they're going to be pitched on something that they already know is just not going to happen.

Adam Hommey: It's for whatever reason, whether it's the reality of their finances, the reality of the situation, the reality of their energy, or whatever it is. So connections just don't happen. Due to the connotation of the term free strategy session.

Tim Fitzpatrick: So what do you recommend people do instead?

Adam Hommey: Well, gee, let me think. Host a podcast and invite your prospects to be your guest.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Love it.

Adam Hommey: So let me let me develop that slightly further.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, let's let's dig into this.

Adam Hommey: Yeah. When you offer somebody a free strategy session, there is that connotation that you're going to pitch them, so it's sort of like an ask from them. It's like I want you to come do a free strategy session with me so that I can ask you a bunch of questions and give you a little bit of advice. And then you owe me to listen to my pitch and buy my stuff. Whereas if I'm a podcast host and I say, "Hey, like to be on my podcast?"I'm putting the reciprocity upfront.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yes.

Adam Hommey: So I'm the giver. I'm providing you the opportunity to get more reach to make a difference for your community marketing audience and to show people more of your intersection of your brilliance and your passion. So I'm leading with the give. And depending on how that interview, that conversation goes or what happens in the green room before or after that will sort of indicate, is there a potential business relationship? Is there a potential alliance? Is there a potential joint venture? And whatever direction you want to take that in.

Adam Hommey: So it starts with a conversation and it starts with being a giver. That's the little paradigm shift that we encourage people to follow.

Tim Fitzpatrick: So what you're actually saying is there are plenty of people out there that have podcasts that their main focus is not to create this huge audience and listenership and get a million downloads a month. They're using it as a tool to start that initial conversation and build relationships with potential prospects.

Adam Hommey: On the whole thing about listeners and downloads versus connections with your interview guests, I say why not have both? But that being said, here's a slight little shift that I would love your listeners to consider. Getting lots of listeners and lots of downloads, when you think of that as a result, rather than as a goal, you are more likely to monetize your podcasts faster. There are some podcasters who want to increase their listener download statistics in the hopes of attracting sponsors and advertisers based on volume of clicks and impressions. You will gain more revenue and profits for your business if you close a fifty thousand dollar deal with one interview guest, then you will, statistically, spending six months building up your statistics enough to get a potential sponsor advertiser to even acknowledge your existence.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Got it. I love it. And this is, you know, this concept of using your podcast to build relationships with prospects. I don't know if it's I mean, it's been around a while. It's becoming more popular, but there's a lot of people that don't think of podcasts in that way. So, I think it is a really, really important point and something that if that's the only thing people take away from this conversation, it's a really good one to walk away with.

Tim Fitzpatrick: So if they're kind of like in this vibe and they're like, "Yeah, I'm in, I'm OK, I get that. You know, this is making a lot of sense to me." You know, a lot of people think that launching and hosting a podcast is a ton of work. You disagree on that, I actually I agree with you. I don't think it's as much work as people think. But what do we need to know?

Adam Hommey: What you need to know is planning in advance and being strategic and thoughtful about how you launch a podcast in the first place. I have seen podcasts that we're on the air for exactly three episodes and they had a huge build up. They had Hollywood quality imagery and all. There were press releases. There's a big play up about who their first three guests were, and, boy, did they get influencers, their first three guests. In this one podcast I'm thinking of, I believe it might have been John Assaraf was one of the first three guests, and I was all excited about this, too.

Adam Hommey: So I tuned in. I listened those first three episodes. It's been six years. I'm still waiting for episode number four. I know the person who started the show and I was kind of curious about it because I loved that they were doing and I was really looking forward to being a fan of this podcast. So they're not one of my best friends. But there's somebody I've known for a couple of years later, I got around to asking the person, "Whatever happened to your podcast?"

Adam Hommey: I can't remember exactly what they said. But the meaning that I got from their answer was they got so burned out from just getting it started that they lost momentum. Think of the old days when your typical entrepreneur in the space that you and I inhabit, Tim would spend five, six, ten thousand dollars getting their website launched and then their venture would die. I used to own a Web development firm up until about 10 years ago when I dissolved it.

Adam Hommey: And this is the challenge we had over and over and over again. Folks were being coached that their website had to be this that the other thing and what everybody swore at the outset would be a six-week project and we'd get it launched and would OK. Six months later, they couldn't wait for their website to be launched. They would never hear from me again. And I couldn't wait for the website to launch so that when they came to me asking me what's next, I could say, "What's next as you go somewhere else?"

Adam Hommey: There was mutual loathing. Now that's an exaggeration. That's an exaggeration. In fact, a lot of the folks who are clients that were clients of that firm are still my friends and some of them are still my clients currently. But I think when you chuckle, do you know what I'm getting at, how your website project you thought was going to be the best one ever turned out to be the project from how long it just kept happening over and over and over and over again.

Adam Hommey: It's that same phenomenon. So where we solve that problem with my firm in the last couple of years, I had the epiphany is, OK, so we're going to build that six thousand or seven thousand dollar website. But the first phase of that is we're going to build that 500 dollar website that'll be live within the first couple of weeks will consist of one page. But then while the rest of it's happening and at that point you can just take its sweet time because they have something up that they're generating clients with.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yes, yeah, that's really interesting.

Adam Hommey: And you know what I like to tell people, and this is actually one of my ways of screening, who would be a great client for that firm is to get their openness to the idea that there would be a very quickly implemented phase one that would enable them to get to work right away on client attraction so that their new clients would pay for the website as it was being built. And when I found somebody with that mindset, that's somebody we could work with and we did get a lot of excuse me, success stories as a result of following that approach.

Adam Hommey: But when he got the "Oh, everything has to be just perfect." And an Internet Explorer six, I mean, I remember this one story of this was just a very small job we did. It was like building one landing page. And so we had a formula for that. We put it together and then this client wants to go over a couple of things. And it's her fussing and obsessing over the millimeter just difference between her name and her headshot and this tiny little half millimeter difference between Internet Explorer six and actual browsers and after

Adam Hommey: Twenty minutes of this, she said, "Oh, I think you're great and I can't wait to refer for all my friends to you." And I said, "Please don't." Birds of a feather. So and I and I say this with love because I want I'm bringing this up because for folks who have been around for a while, like you and I have been around for a while and remember some of this stuff from 10 years ago, it does apply to podcasting now.

Adam Hommey: So on the one hand, just putting an episode up on Part B and saying, "Look, I have a podcast" is not the same as having a podcast, but at the same time trying to get everything perfect before we even show that first episode will likely mean you'll never have a show either. So you've got to find that balance in the middle. And that's where things like the pre-editing process with its companion, the Clint Eastwood director style, how we show people the process of going through, creating their avatars and doing their branding exercises, creating their scripts for their commercials in their bumpers.

Adam Hommey: And the way that the Reach System is a cumulative process, so as you complete the first couple exercises, the rest of it becomes fill in the blanks. That's where by doing a little bit of careful planning upfront, we develop speed as we go along.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Love it. So we need to plan. If we plan, it's going to make things a heck of a lot easier and it's not going to take as much work. You're totally speaking my language here. The other thing that I want to pull out that you said that I think is really interesting. You know, this one podcast. They had three episodes and then it was gone. I heard a statistic. This is probably in the last two or three months that something like twenty five percent of the podcasts out there make it past episode 30 and have published in the last three months.

Adam Hommey: That's about right. I've heard that statistic, too.

Tim Fitzpatrick: If you can get in to a habit and be consistent, you're going to be in the top 20, 25 percent of podcasts.

Adam Hommey: And it's just like if you can keep your business alive for three years, you beat all the odds.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, right.

Adam Hommey: All right. One quick way to do that is well, actually, there's one quick way that has three components under it. The quick way is to have a format where at least some of your episodes are you interviewing other people, just the fact you have a responsibility that somebody else will create and stick to it. And this will keep you going because we all believe we're people of integrity and we like to come up. We like to come up having done the right thing.

Adam Hommey: So beneath that, you have, first of all, a process for making it very simple for somebody to get on your shows. And it's a standard process. Everybody fills out an application or information form and to schedule the appointments, everybody goes to a scheduler. You don't make exceptions. Nobody is that good, so to speak. And I'm saying that to be a little bit blunt, because with primadonnas, you just can't let them subvert your process.

Adam Hommey: So Number one, you have consistency and you have streamlining. The second thing is, is you have a show for one thing I love about your show here, Tim, is you have a fantastic show flow. I knew exactly how this is going to go before we began. You sent me documentation in advance. We knew what the questions are going to be. We know the overall thinking about what we're going to accomplish together. So you have your show flow.

Adam Hommey: And with doing those two things up front, the streamlining and the show flow, you create a product that requires little to no editing at all that you can deploy quickly so you can do a higher volume of it. You put those three things together, you create the responsibility, the momentum, and the simplicity that drives the intuitiveness it gets you past that statistic.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I love it. So let's talk about being interviewed on other people's podcasts, you do a lot of this, I do, you know, you talk about how hosting your own podcast can help you get booked on other people's, why is that like how does that happen?

Adam Hommey: Oh, that's simple. Reciprocity. If you have a your own show, you're more likely to get booked on other people's shows. They want to be on yours. So they'll invite you to be on their show in the hopes of being on yours. That's the surface level. Then when you go one level deeper, you look at what having your own show implies. It implies that you have your own fans, you have your own following, and you've created a serious enough investment in your media presence that you are going to be somebody who's going to be one of their great greatest hits type episode guests.

Adam Hommey: And you're going to be more likely to share with your audience and have an audience to share it with in the first place. Put even more simply, there's also the suggestion that since you yourself are a podcast host, you'll make a great guest not only because you do interviews, you leave interviews, but you wouldn't want to be one of those pain in the butt guests either. So you're going to be a great guest for them because, you know, from the other side, all those things mixed together.

Adam Hommey: So, yeah, having your own podcast can help you get booked on more of other people's podcasts simply because they see you as a peer.

Tim Fitzpatrick: I love that. I so I'm going to I have a question for you that may put you on the spot a little bit, but I don't think so. I had a guy this was a very interesting idea. I had not thought about this, but. I had a guy tell me that he has his own podcast, he's doing guest podcasting. He has a policy now where he will not interview he does not interview somebody on his podcast unless they are doing a podcast, a guest podcast swap.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Right. So and and he leads with that. So people reach out and he you know, we all once you have podcast for a certain period of time, you start to have agencies that are reaching out to you on behalf of their clients, pitching their client to be interviewed. And he said, "Man, when I reach out to agencies, sometimes when agencies reach out to me for one of their clients and I tell them that we don't interview people unless there's a swap," he said, "Sometimes I'll get two or three interviews because they have other clients that they need to keep happy too."

Tim Fitzpatrick: So have you do you have any experience doing that or any thoughts there?

Adam Hommey: Well, you and I are doing a swap. You were on my show. Yeah, I don't have that as a requirement. But I can tell you that I've gotten a lot of my bookings because I interviewed the person first. So it is a thing that is out there as far as requirements. There may be shows out there to do it. I personally haven't run into that. Nobody's ever said to me that they require that I be on their show before they'll be on mine.

Adam Hommey: I imagine it's out there, though. There are all kinds of things that are out there, including the idea of paying for getting featured on people's podcast. There's a lot of stuff out there that is right below the surface. It's a reality within the podcasting industry. And as far as the agency thing, I own an agency called In Demand Expert and I buy shows known to every agency and talent because they're all trying to place people with me.

Adam Hommey: And we do sign off on most of them, actually, even on the Business Creators Radio Show, which is the longer interview format where we only do them once a week. And I can tell you that, I mean, do you want to discuss agencies a little bit more.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Sure. If you want. Yeah,let's go.

Adam Hommey: So here's my thoughts on that. At this point the pendulum has swung, as I've been predicting would happen for so many years, to the point where the pole position rests with the hosts, with me and you, because there are more folks looking to get interviewed on podcasts who are good interview subjects, then there are shows or episodes available to accommodate them. I have two podcasts and both of them have cans gushing over the edges because you're so full.

Adam Hommey: Yeah. So that being say that being said, why would somebody want to work with an agency? There are a number of great reasons you'd want to work with an agency. Number one, and I'm going to start with the guest perspective, then I'm going to move to the host perspective. From the guest perspective, working with an agency will augment whatever you can get on your own. And the agency representatives may have relationships with some of those higher volume, big listener, big download type podcasts.

Adam Hommey: Because when shows get to that level, in some cases they will only accept guests to come through their agency relationships because the agency will do their pre vetting for them. So all their episodes will be great and it's just easier to simply have the agency feed people than to deal with all this stuff coming out of the transom, have them do vetting, research and all that. So the agency gives new people and I know they're good because I have that relationship.

Adam Hommey: So that's a great reason for as a guest, if you want to work with an agency and I kind of answer the question of why a host would want to have agency relationships. And I encourage you to nurture those relationships because they may get you access to people that otherwise, I mean, I've interviewed some pretty major people in tech. I have a guest who's coming up on the Business Creators Radio Show. We haven't actually recorded it yet, so I don't want to say his name or even say too much about what he does.

Tim Fitzpatrick: That's OK.

Adam Hommey: I'm just going to use the phrase sex toys.

Tim Fitzpatrick: OK?

Adam Hommey: And your audience thinking, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There are there are about fifteen or twenty companies that sell romance products. That's that's the actual industry term. And it has to do with whether it's marital aids or or sexual aids or other types of things that couples and people who are in love or lust like to do together. They those folks like to get interviewed on a podcast, too, because you have entrepreneurs, you have they become their innovators, they're thought leaders.

Adam Hommey: They become involved in helping people find their voices and live from their intersections, their brilliance, and their passion. So some of these folks are legitimate celebrities. So they're as far as their availability to be on other people's shows, they're going to work through agencies because it makes the most sense for them so they don't have to deal with TransAm stuff.

Tim Fitzpatrick: So I think tell me if you agree, but hosting your own podcast, I don't think it's unrealistic to expect that for every episode you host, you can get featured on somebody else's podcast.

Adam Hommey: No, it's not a one to one. I mean, if you want to require that for your show, go ahead and do it. And you and what the result will be. You might interview a few of us people. You'll get a few more bookings of your own. So just find a balance that works for you. If you want to require that, go ahead and require that. I mean, to me, I think it's a bit much.

Adam Hommey: I think that if you're properly leveraging the power of reciprocity, that you will get a water that just as a result of what you're doing without considering your goal.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, the bottom line is you're going to get a lot of opportunities to speak on other podcasts, so which I totally agree. So let's this is an interesting question. So let's say that I'm just starting out. Right. I have no website, have no lists, no following. Should somebody in that position start a podcast first, or do they wait until they're a little bit more established to do that?

Adam Hommey: It's best time to start a podcast. What drives success? It's celebrity expert branding and recognition as being an expert in that topic. One of the fastest way to get there is to create content around that. And the fastest way to make connections is to interview people from the position of being that expert. You're also going to form your relationships, is that within that industry a lot faster when you're putting the reciprocity up front. In fact, the podcast Reach System is optimized for somebody who is looking to move into a new venture or move into a new space, who hasn't really developed a whole lot of a following yet.

Adam Hommey: One of our VIP reaches right now is very close to the point where their website is going to go live. And it's the introduction of their brand and the industry they haven't really worked in up until now. In fact, I could say that about three of them, it's so think of your podcast is being a potential spearhead to move you into a new space. Let me tell you another story.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Sure.

Adam Hommey: And this coincides with when I wound down owning the Web design firm. So this so put in context, this is around the year 2011, and this is when the idea of website conversion consulting became a thing where, I mean, your website should convert. But you may remember there is at four or five year space where website conversion consulting was actually a separate practice. So I was getting out of the webdesign thing, I shut down the firm, I was winding out a lot of the clients and the ones that were staying with me were moving along with me, the website conversion thing.

Adam Hommey: So I go to a conference and I wasn't speaking there. I was attending there. And I had all my, you know, my business cards. The new website was up and everything else. I'm going there. This is my debut as being a website conversion consultant. So I'm in the audience. And one of the speakers was one of my previous clients from the Web design stuff. And she pointed me out in the audience, even though she hadn't worked with me three years and made it sound like I was currently her Web guy.

Adam Hommey: And she said, "I went to this conference and I got all these business cards and I gave them to Adam and he entered them into my one shopping cart." I said, "No." I had to interrupt her speech to say, "No, I didn't, because if you had asked me to do that, I'd have fired you." So it gets even worse. That part didn't stick, the part that stuck was that she mentioned my skill in creating landing pages.

Adam Hommey: So at this big conference, which is supposed to be my debut as a website conversion consultant, I had all these people coming up to me saying, "Hey, how much is it to build a squeeze page?" And I try and have conversations about the website conversion stuff and say, "Oh, we have an expert for that. How much to build a squeeze page?" OK, how I would have solved that if I would have shown up there as the host of the website conversion consulting podcast,

Adam Hommey: I would have flipped all those conversations around, made them all my interview guests, and turned them all into a website conversion consulting clients in the green room. So I went the traditional route of trying to spearhead by doing the branding exercises and the business cards and a new website and the build it and they will come. Whereas if I had to do that over again, because podcasting did exist back in 2011, I would have shown up with a shirt with Website Conversion Consulting Show embroidered on it.

Adam Hommey: I would have had a hat that said website conversion consulting show. I would have had a simple little card with a link, "Apply to be on the website conversion consulting show." There would have been no talk of landing pages or websites or entering business cards and forms, which is God, no, I just can't believe that one. But anyway, the point being is and part of my communication style, by the way. You may notice a couple of times, as I say, things that make people say, "What?"

Adam Hommey: So let me can I give your is it OK if I give your listeners a bonus lesson? Because I'm sure some people may wonder, what the heck is this guy doing?

Tim Fitzpatrick: Let's do it.

Adam Hommey: All right. This is a function of this thing that they have out there called neurolinguistic programing or NLP. And one of the common tactics that pretty much anybody can implement very quickly is the pattern interrupt. So, "Oh, my goodness, what did you just say?" This goes back to podcast listener behavior. When Tim when you listen to podcasts, what are you usually doing while you're listening to them?

Tim Fitzpatrick: Something else?

Adam Hommey: Something else? Like what? Like give me some examples of something else that you're ding.

Tim Fitzpatrick: I could be walking. I could be doing something around my house. I could be exercising. And I'm not listening it walking. I'm listening.

Adam Hommey: Cleaning the gutters. Washing the car. Wax on wax off. Right? So as you're doing that, the conversation that's going on in that podcast you're listening to eventually starts to fade a little bit and you're not catching every word. And then something comes up, it's like, "Well, what what I just missed? That's it right there. if you're doing sticking to strict interrogatory Q&A type and drones on and on and on and on, you may have some of your listeners not even notice that the episode is streaming while their attention is being captured by something else.

Adam Hommey: And so when you get that moment where they say, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, I just miss?"

Tim Fitzpatrick: "What do you say?"

Adam Hommey: Here's what they say, "Oh, I must have missed something there." Somehow they got to that point. "I'm going to have to go back and subscribe to that. I'm going have to go back and subscribe to Tim Fitzpatrick's show so I can listen to that again, because I got to find I got to know when that episode actually goes. Well, that's going to be posted for replay. I want to put that onto my device so I can take it with me when I'm running.

Adam Hommey: What the heck just happened there?" So that's it.

Tim Fitzpatrick: You're getting them to stop.

Adam Hommey: Exactly. That's one thing. Another is folks sometimes will have frustrations in their life that they have challenges sharing because. "Well, how's it going to look if I'm complaining about this?" So sometimes as a podcast host and even as a podcast guest, you can become the voice and say what they're thinking. And because you can say what they're thinking, they can relate to that, so I go and I go to this conference because I have this new brand and I want to get a lot of clients for it.

Adam Hommey: And I get subverted because somebody who probably altruistically was trying to do me a big favor by integrating me into her speech with the idea to send me a lot of clients, did it for the wrong reasons. It actually subverted what I was trying to accomplish and actually really caused me nothing but problems. Has that ever happened to anybody else before? Yeah, I know people personally that I know have gotten referrals that were well-intentioned, but it was for the wrong thing.

Adam Hommey: For three years after I shut down Web design firm, I'd be giving testimonials for people and they would edit my testimonials to add phrases like for a website project. Now, I'd have to say that is not the testimony I gave you. Please remove the phrase for a website project. They thought they were doing me a favor. No, no, no, no. At that point, because this was between 2011 and 2015, that was the website conversion consulting era.

Adam Hommey: So I if they want to play with my testimonials, they could mention something about increased my opt in rate by 60 percent because that would be a conversion metric. Got me 40 percent more sales on my launch because that would be a website conversion metric. So it's the fact that I vocalize these things as well as others who are listening to us to say, "Whoa, that's happened to me before." And that, my friends, is where podcasting comes in because it gives you the stage is particularly in this era where there aren't as many stages to stand on as they're used to being or may never be again.

Adam Hommey: People are so excited about this online thing now. You build your own stage and when you want to change your message, you change your message. It's like Ellen Weiss said years ago when I attended one of his presentations and he got into the whole thing about and this was actually, you know, hyped up. The part of his presentation is going to be about how to raise your rates as a consultant, you want to know what his explanation on how to raise your rates was when we told you?

Tim Fitzpatrick: Fire away.

Adam Hommey: It's real simple. We said you want to raise your rates, raise your rates. That's what you came here to learn. So now there are other things in the presentation. It was an hour long and it was fantastic. But it's the same with the podcast. You want to have a voice, launch your podcast. And if you want to launch a podcast launch a podcast. It's a matter of how you brand it, how you design it, and how you manage it. That's going to determine its success.

Tim Fitzpatrick: So this has been awesome. I want to put a bow on this for people here in one sentence. Why should I launch a podcast?

Adam Hommey: I'm going to basically this is perfect as it gives me a chance to repeat what I just said, because you are creating your own stage that allows you to have your own voice, that allows you to chart your own path.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Awesome. I love it, so this has been fantastic. Do you have last minute words of wisdom are parting thoughts you want to leave us with Adam?

Adam Hommey: Oh, that's a real simple one. You have a voice, you have your brilliance, you have your passion. Put that together and move forward and make a difference for your community market and audience, people want to hear from you, people are ready to hear from you. So get your podcast launched and make the world a better place with you in it.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Awesome, thank you for sharing that. Where can people learn more about you?

Adam Hommey: OK, we do have a website for this. It's w w w dot to reach system dot com. I'd like to extend an invitation to your listeners if you allow me. All right. I what, what I'm going to invite your listeners to do is join my community. You go to w w w dot everything podcasting dot group and that's our online community right now. It's on Facebook and we may do it this court server at some point.

Adam Hommey: But right now it's a Facebook group. I encourage everybody to join and their every week I do live streams on topics for both hosts and guests. And we also have, you know, if you're looking for guests for your show. We have needed guest threads. If you're looking for help getting anything done, we have need an editor threads. If you have any questions about everything, podcasting, come on in. We're here to help. We have a great community.

Adam Hommey: It's fast growing. And I encourage you to come to w w w that everything podcasting dot group. I would love to see you in there.

Tim Fitzpatrick: Awesome. And the Reach System, which is your course to help people get started on the right foot, get a firm foundation for their podcast. What's that website again. One more time.

Adam Hommey: Oh that would be w w w dot the reach system dot com.

Tim Fitzpatrick: OK, the reach system dot com. Yeah. Awesome. Adam, thank you so much for sharing your passion for podcasting with us today. If you guys have been thinking about doing this, check out Adam stuff, because I am a firm believer in podcasting. I love doing it and I think you will, too. And you'll see some significant benefits in your business by doing so. Other than that, I'm going to wrap things up here again.

Tim Fitzpatrick: I am Tim Fitzpatrick with Rialto Marketing. If you want to gain clarity on where to focus your marketing efforts right now, hop on over to our website, Rialto marketing dot com. That's R-I-A-L-T-O marketing dot com. Click on the get a free consult button. You will get a ton of value from that call and walk away having some clarity on what you need to do next. Til Next time, take care.

Connect With Adam Hommey

• Linkedin

Links From The Episode

• The Reach System
• Everything Podcasting Group

About the Host Tim Fitzpatrick

Tim Fitzpatrick is the President of Rialto Marketing. At Rialto Marketing, we help service businesses simplify marketing so they can grow with less stress. We do this by creating and implementing a plan to communicate the right message to the right people. Marketing shouldn't be difficult. All you need is the RIGHT plan.