Build Your Podcast and Business with Podcast Guesting – Alex Sanfilippo shares how

You can build your Entrepreneurial success with the right combination of guesting on podcasts.

Today’s episode is one you certainly won’t want to miss. We’re talking with a very special guest, Alex Sanfilippo, the founder of Pod Pros, who’s here to shed light on the power of podcast guesting. Alex is going to walk us through some truly effective strategies for making your mark on podcasts that can help you grow your business.

He’s got a wealth of knowledge to share, from selecting the right niches to crafting pitches that captivate the attention of podcast hosts.

Alex is also going to give us insights into the importance of follow-ups after your guest appearances and why sharing your episodes can make a significant impact on your success. Plus, he’ll be offering his top five steps to becoming a standout podcast guest—a roadmap every entrepreneur should follow.

So, get ready to take notes as Alex lays down the wisdom you need to navigate the podcasting world with finesse and purpose. Whether you’re here to pick up some tips for your first guest appearance or to fine-tune your existing strategy, this episode is jam-packed with advice that’s essential for your entrepreneurial toolkit. Let’s jump right in and start raving!

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TERRY
Hall of Fame keynote speaker Terry Brock is a globally connected leading authority who works with organizations that want to leverage technology and social media for more customer engagement, productivity, and increased profitability.

Terry is the former Chief Enterprise Blogger for Skype, former Editor-in-Chief for AT&T’s Networking Exchange blog, and former Chief Retail Advisor for ACE Hardware.

A master at his craft, Terry earned the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association and was inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Virtual Speakers Hall of Fame and he was recognized as a Legend by the Veteran Speakers Association.

Terry is also a Cavett Award recipient, recognized as the National Speakers Association’s “most cherished” award (only one per year).

GINA
As the CEO of Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, Gina Carr works with business leaders to leverage AI-powered marketing for more impact, influence, and income. Gina has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an engineering degree from Georgia Tech. Known as “The Tribe Builder,” Gina helps passionate people build powerful tribes of raving fans.

A serial entrepreneur, Gina has created several businesses, including an award-winning real estate company, a chain of community magazines, and Video Rock Starz. She is the CEO of TEDxDupreePark. A native Atlantan, Gina now lives in Orlando with her sweetie Terry Brock. Gina is a passionate advocate for animals, freedom, and plant-based living!

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We’re a channel devoted to those with an entrepreneurial spirit who believe in freedom and liberty. If you like the idea of living a voluntary life, not initiating force or coercion, and living life peacefully, abundantly, and making a lot of money, this is the place for you!

We look forward to hearing from you and getting your opinions and thoughts. Drop us a note at Terry@TerryBrock.com or Gina@GinaCarr.com.

Thank you for joining us today.
Terry Brock & Gina Carr

For your convenience, here is a Spanish language summary of this episode:

En este episodio de “Stark Raving Entrepreneurs” titulado “AlexSanfilippo-PodcastGuesting.m4a”, los anfitriones Gina Carr y Terry Brock charlan con invitados como Alex Sanfilippo, Connor Cunneen, Sherry Richardson y otros sobre la importancia de seleccionar podcasts específicos cuyas audiencias coincidan con el perfil del oyente ideal del invitado. Se discute la necesidad de preparar un kit de medios y una propuesta concisa para presentarse a los anfitriones de podcasts, y se subraya la importancia de ofrecer valor y promocionar las apariciones previas como invitado.

Alex Sanfilippo, fundador de Pod Pros y servicios como PodMatch, comparte las ventajas de ser invitado en podcasts para aumentar la visibilidad y la autoridad de dominio, comparando la interacción en podcasts con la interacción en las redes sociales. Reconoce también que hay desafíos, como la competencia para ser notado entre muchos invitados potenciales y la importancia de hacer seguimiento con los anfitriones del podcast.

Connor Cunneen habla sobre su experiencia positiva con PodMatch y cómo ha beneficiado su forma de pensar y le ha brindado oportunidades para aparecer en podcasts. Alex y otros participantes discuten las técnicas para investigar y seleccionar contenido de podcast no explorado previamente y comparten estrategias para destacarse y contribuir a la comunidad de podcasting.

Sherry Richardson explora el tema de por qué algunos invitados no promocionan sus apariciones, y Alex enfatiza la importancia de compartir y reutilizar contenido. Además, se destacan los datos que muestran un declive en la cantidad de podcasts activos pero un aumento en la audiencia.

Terry Brock relata su propia experiencia al usar PodMatch y Alex ofrece consejos sobre cómo mejorar los perfiles y abordan el modelo de precios de la plataforma. Para cerrar, Alex proporciona consejos sobre cómo ser un buen invitado de podcast y la importancia de ofrecer servicio antes de buscar ganancias. Por último, se abre la conversación para preguntas y comentarios de la audiencia y se brinda asesoramiento para que los podcasts estén disponibles en plataformas como Apple Podcasts.

Also for you convenience, here is an unedited transcript to help you get more good from this:

Terry Brock [00:00:00]:
An entrepreneur, you’re always looking for ways to build your business, and that’s what we’re gonna do in this episode because we’re doing something just a little bit different than we’ve done normally. We’ve got a guest who joined us on Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, our regular meetings that we have for members. And he gave us some really good ideas that are gonna help you in your business growth about building a podcast. How you can be a guest on podcasts. And that really helps a lot. His name is Alex Sanfilippo. He talks about how you can use that through his company, PodMatch. This is one you definitely wanna hear.

Terry Brock [00:00:30]:
If you’re into podcasting, if you’re into growing your business, look at the principles that he talks about and how you can use it. This is one that you wanna take some notes on because it’s really that good. And I’ll join you at the end of this as we do a recap of what you can do to grow your business. We’re gonna be doing things just a little bit differently today. So that way we give you the maximum value and let you hear about this marvelous person that, you are going to love when you hear about it. His name is Alex Sanfilippo. He’s an entrepreneur and the founder of Pod Pros, which is a software company specifically focused on independent podcast hosts like us and their guests like us to elevate their voices through podcasting and be heard. Alex and his team at Pod Pros have developed popular podcasting software services such as PodMatch.

Terry Brock [00:01:17]:
Write that down if you haven’t heard it. PodMatch, podcast SOP, Pod Lottery. And in addition, Alex is also the host of the top rated podcast, Podcasting Made Simple, and is one of the most sought after educators and public speakers in the podcasting industry. We know him from our experience at Podfest, one of the largest events in the world, and we got a chance to be there regularly. And so we were just I was just frankly tickled when I knew we were gonna get the Alex Sanfilippo to come on board with us to give us the inside secrets of how you can be a guest on more podcasts to get your message out. It’s one of the best ways to do it. He’s gonna tell you why and how. And if you’re a host and you need to get some guests that are just the right kind, Alex will do that.

Terry Brock [00:02:06]:
So join me in welcoming Alex Sanfilippo with a wonderful, stark raving entrepreneurs. Thumbs up and cheers. Alex, welcome aboard, sir.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:02:14]:
Harry and Gina, thank you so so much. I appreciate the warm introduction. That was, extremely kind, and, it was it was an honor to get to hang out in Orlando, Florida for, your backyard for Podfest. My backyard too, but, super fun. So thank you so so much for having me. And, Stark Raving Entrepreneurs, so excited to be here with you. Live and let live. I sometimes find that helping others live a better life is adding value to their lives, and I believe podcast guesting is a great way to do that.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:02:40]:
And so I’m always thrilled to talk about podcast guesting and I love the vision here. And I’m just excited to talk about mastering this idea of podcast guesting because I can see how it’s really going to serve. The first thing I wanna talk about is just to piggyback right off of what Gina said, which was talking about how it’s how to grow visibility. Right? How to to to grow and get your name out there even more in in the role that podcast guesting can play in that. So really excited to dive in that. And the the first thing I’m gonna share here is, like, a little bonus that I, within the last, I guess, year, really learned about podcast guesting. I was trying to get a new domain up and running, so one of my websites. And I was I had a schedule, like, 6 weeks after launch the website to meet with an SEO an SEO expert to to talk about it, and but I was mentioning on every podcast I was on.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:03:26]:
So when I got on the call with this person, he goes, hey, man. He goes, what have you been doing? And I was like, really not much yet. And he goes, this is the highest domain authority I’ve seen on such a young website. He’s like, there had to be something you were doing. And we started diving into it, and he goes, oh, dude. He’s like, you have links from Apple, from Spotify, from Google, from YouTube, and from literally thousands of other publications. Turns out I was mentioning it on podcast, and people were putting those links in the description, and that was feeding that domain, giving it a higher authority. So here’s something that’s really interesting to think about.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:03:58]:
Just like an early side note, if you will, pretend there’s no one who ever hears the podcast. Pretend like the host did a terrible job or you didn’t even do a good job. At the very least, if you’re getting a link mentioned, it’s increasing your domain authority. The Internet thinks higher of you as a result. Because here’s the thing, if Google said if Google asked Apple, hey. Is is Dorothy legit? And Google says or, Apple says, yeah. Google. They’re they’re she’s legit.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:04:23]:
Then Google then believes that. Right? So that’s a little side note bonus, but that’s not really the value I wanna talk about, but just keep that in mind. Because of that, I don’t really mind if the audience is extremely small because I know that’s a win right there. But if I can add value to 1 life, it’s worth worth it. I’ll get into that in a minute. But beyond the the actual visibility from an SEO standpoint, we’re finding podcasting more and more becoming the preferred medium of successful people to learn and to grow. How many listen. I love YouTube.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:04:52]:
YouTube is great if you’re trying to fix something around the house or the car. Right? Like, it it it’s great for that. But how many of you have 2 hours a day to sit and watch YouTube? Right? If I give you an option to listen to that instead, won’t you take that option? Right? I’ll take that option any day, and we find it’s just the reality of it. The most successful people on the planet feel the same way. They’re saying, if I can listen to this instead of have to sit stationary for 2 hours, I would much rather go listen to it. But here’s the other thing that’s really interesting about that. I don’t know about all of you, but when I was when I was a kid, I had some learning issues. Let’s just put it that way.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:05:27]:
Right? And I end up going to doctors and stuff like that. And 1 doctor told my mom, He said, hey. Next time you’re trying to explain something to Alex, I want you to put something in front of him. Give him something to do with his hands and see if he responds differently. So one time, my mom was having a sit down conversation with me probably because I was being a bratty little kid because that’s what I did. God bless my mom. She is a saint, by the way. I love that woman.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:05:49]:
So thankful for her. And, we have a great friendship now, by the way. But I was a little brat, and, she put Legos in front of me. And then so, like, hey. Just play with these Legos, and then she explained something to to me. And she said I retained a 100% of what she said. Most entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders have a hard time like, they’ll say, hey. I might, like, how often do you hear an entrepreneur say ADHD? I have a trouble focusing.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:06:11]:
Right? Like, it just tends to be one of the traits that entrepreneurs and business leaders have. But if they can do something while they’re listening, they can retain better. Podcasting allows us to do that. We can drive. We can work out. We can cook. We can clean. Right? We do all these different things that don’t really take any any, focus while listening, and most of us retain better.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:06:30]:
So, again, think about how valuable that is. If that’s your voice that somebody’s letting speak to them for 45 minutes and they’re retaining it at a really high level, that’s huge. Right? And the last thing I wanna share is that social media and podcasting are not the same thing. And I’m not here to dog social media. It totally has its place. I totally believe in social media, but it’s not apples for apples. And I say that because if I post a picture tomorrow and it gets 50 likes, let’s say, that’s not as valuable as 50 listeners by a long shot because I might be like this in bed, scrolling through, double tap, next. Right? That might be my social media engagement, if you will.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:07:04]:
But if I’m listening to a podcast, I want you to get this perspective. It’s as valuable as me sitting in a seat and that person talking to me on a stage. I firmly believe it is as valuable as that. So, again, if there’s 50 people in a room that want to hear you talk, are you gonna show up in that room? Would you show up every week if those 50 people want to hear from you or those 30 people or 20? I don’t know about you, but I’d say yes every week to that opportunity to talk to my ideal audience. But when we think about it, like, oh, 20 people, that’s like getting 20 likes on social media. That’s not very good. It’s not the same at all. I recently had somebody tell me, hey, Alex.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:07:37]:
I’m not going on any podcast unless it has 500,000 people listening every week. And I I kindly kind of brought in, like, a, like, I don’t know, like, a passive way. I asked him, like, when was the last time you spoke on a stage with 500,000 people in the room? And he goes, he goes, I don’t know if there’s rooms like that. I’m like, yeah. It’s called podcasting. And I don’t think that you’ve ever spoken on stage that big, but what’s wrong with a 100 people? It’s the right 100 people. Ain’t that great? So, again, that’s kind of the perspective I want you to have on on how podcasting can really serve, from a guesting side or being a host. Like, it’s really great on both sides.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:08:08]:
So, yeah, yeah, think about podcasting, what it can do from a visibility, from a growth standpoint for you. And it’s not as big numbers, but it’s really big on impact, which is what I really think matters. And, the next thing I’ll share here quickly kinda transition this from, like, how and why podcasting can help you from a visibility standpoint. Talk about the state of podcast guesting real quick. Hope you all are okay with them. I’m going to some of the the data here. I have this written down, so forgive me if I’m looking down my screen, but I wanna not quote the numbers wrong. This is from a report that me and my team generate along with another company every month.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:08:37]:
And interestingly enough, podcasting numbers from a host perspective are down. So there are almost on on Apple Podcasts, by the way, the way I track, there’s almost 3,000,000 podcasts now. That number is slow. It used to, like, climb really fast. Now it’s turning to slow. So, like, getting the 3,000,000 point has been, like, a very, very slow process. But at that 3,000,000, there are less than 400,000, just under 400,000 that are actually active. So there’s there’s less than other active.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:09:05]:
And if you look at shows that are independently driven, so they’re not, like, run by big networks. They’re not true crime shows. They’re not any of these type of things. They’re all independent interview based shows that are active right now. There’s just over, a 115,000 in total. Again, looking at the numbers here and rounding it a little bit. So and I have all this data, so I I can definitely share that. It’s on a report that’s public.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:09:28]:
And, but so think about it. There’s only a 115,000 shows that are looking for guests at any given time. And the amount of people that make it as podcasters to, like, a 100 episodes that we track is less than 6%. So podcasting churns a lot. And and so here’s the like, numbers are down on every way except for listenership. Listenership is climbing at an all time high right now, and that’s because big media is talking about podcasting. Whether it’s positive or negative, it all does the same thing, which causes people to go discover podcasts. And, some other great news in the the industry, is that we, Joe Rogan and Call Her Daddy, which I’ve never listened to that podcast.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:10:04]:
I don’t know what it’s about, so forgive me for referencing it. But it’s a big show, apparently, and I actually don’t listen to Joe Rogan show either. But both those shows are huge, and they just ended exclusives with Spotify to go to all the other forms, which is great for podcasting. That will actually cause more listenership to come into the space as well. So I share all that to to make you think. Like, it’s interesting how podcast from a host perspective, is dropping. Less people are succeeding than ever in the space, but listenership is climbing, which means all the shows that are active are doing better. So the smaller shows are even getting bigger listener bases as well.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:10:36]:
Now I share that, and I think it’s really important because there’s 1 more metric, and it’s podcast guesting. This is the 1st place I’ve said this publicly, so I’m gonna go ahead and share this. But I think that the thing that could potentially kill podcasting is podcast guesting. And here’s why I say that. Right now, and this data is extremely loose. We we we’re having a really hard time capturing this data, but we wanted to see how many people on any given day are looking to be a guest on a podcast. So right now, today, there’s a 115,000 shows looking for guests, and there is just over 2,500,000 people looking to be a guest today, which comes up to I can’t remember the exact number. Basically, any given day, there’s 21 people looking to be on a show, on your show, specifically, if you have one.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:11:13]:
Right? What I think might kill podcasting if we don’t figure out a solution is that in 2 years, when everyone sees how valuable podcast guesting is, what if there’s 20,000,000 people trying? And every day, someone wakes up and has literally a 100 emails of people wanting to be a guest on their show. Right? That’s going to tell a host, I can’t do this because I can’t keep up with this. What I do is PodMatch, and we are working on a solution to make sure that we build a foundation that serves both sides of the mics, both sides of the mic in a way that really will help them. But I bring that up because if you want to be a guest on a podcast, you have to work harder than ever. In 2018, I’ll go back to that time, I could not convince anyone to be a guest on my podcast, and I actually had, at that point, a really big show. It was an entrepreneurship based show. It was it was big. Leaders were like, dude, why would I waste my time being on your podcast? Like, that’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:12:01]:
2020 rolls around. People are like, I wanna be on a podcast. Don’t know how. I want guests. Don’t know how. And now fast forward to now, everyone is like, please, I will do anything to be a a guest on your podcast. Right? And I always joke around by saying in in in, if Taylor Swift was like, I wanna be on your podcast to talk about global influence. I’d say, what? Why? Give me your perspective.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:12:21]:
I got 10 other guests that wanna talk about the same thing that are all more qualified than you. Right? Obviously, it’s an extreme, but now I can reach out to anyone on the planet, and they will say yes to being a guest to my podcast. Not because my podcast has anything great, but because everyone sees this opportunity. So that’s gonna transition to this next point here, and, Gina and and Terry, am I good? Still keep on going? Are you all okay. Just making sure that I’m okay here and keep on moving. Everyone with me? Y’all here?

Terry Brock [00:12:44]:
Yeah. We’re loving it, Alex. Keep going. You’re on a roll, my man.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:12:46]:
Thanks. Thanks. Appreciate it. So the next thing I’ll I’ll talk about is is how to be that guest that should be on podcast. Right? Like, what’s gonna make you stand out among the 2,500,000 people and going on 20,000,000 people sometime. Right? Like, how do you end up being that one that gets picked? Right now it’s between you and 19 other people. Right? So there’s 20 people pitching at any given time. Like, how do you be the one that gets picked? The first thing I wanna talk about is how not and I encourage you to take notes at this part, but not all podcasts are created equal for you.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:13:16]:
Not all podcasts are created equal for you. The days of spray and pray are behind us. Hey, host. Great show. Would love to be a guest on it. Talk about x, y, z. And I still to this day have emails everyday people trying that. The most recent one I got was a group of veterinarians.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:13:31]:
I had tons of veterinarians wanna be on my show. My podcast is about podcasting. I listen. I don’t know. Like and and some of them, like, I’ll always respond because I just think it’s a polite thing to do, but they’ll try to, like, give me an angle. Be like, well, people are sometimes listening to podcasts while their pet is being seen. I’m like, wow. That’s a that is an intense stretch.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:13:51]:
You know? Like, I I should have them on just for that. Right? But my point is not all podcasts are created equal for you. Now if I had a podcast about pets, that would be a really great fit probably, but we can’t just go out and be like, please, everybody everybody have me on your show. Have me on your show. Well, you have to sit down yourself, and you have to get really specific in who it is you serve, how you can actually add value to somebody’s life so that you can figure out the type of shows that you should be on. So I always say this, like, pick a niche, pick a lane that you know that you can be in. And the best way I found to do this is to start with why. Sit down with pen and paper.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:14:25]:
Look. I’ve got pen and paper right here. Right? Like, I don’t know if you all ever seen this. This is there’s paper inside this little book, and this is a pen. You write on it. Right? Get alone with just you and your thoughts, like, not with the computer in front of you to to do the research, just pen and paper, and really think about why am I doing this, Who is it that I serve? And really answer that question for yourself because at that point, you’re now able to go back and say, this is the person I serve. This is my why. This is my purpose for getting into podcast guesting.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:14:54]:
And while you’re doing that, the next thing you wanna do is create what I call it an avatar, which is not the blue people on that movie, which they are as well, but, like, a fictitious character or real character that describes who it is that you want to listen to you. So, So, again, thinking about podcast guesting like being on the stage. Who’s in that audience that you say I’m here for that person specifically? Make that really, really, really narrow specific. Think about the 1 person that you say, that’s who I serve. Now, of course, you can serve a broader audience, but have the 1 person in mind so you’re always focused on serving that person. Right? My fictitious character’s name is Adam, and I always keep Adam top of mind. And when I’m thinking about being a guest on a podcast before I pitch or they ask me, I always ask myself, would Adam gain value from this? Is Adam listening to this? And I find that typically the answer’s no. And so I I’ve started saying no to more podcasts than than saying yes.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:15:45]:
I’m not telling you to start doing that immediately. I’m not trying to sound like I get on all the shows. Right? But sometimes it’s it’s because me and someone have some rapport, but I realized, like, their podcast serves a very different person than I’m able to actually show up and serve. So it’s actually in both our best interest for me not to be there. And I typically position it that way. I’m like, hey. Listen. I’d love to, but I know that I’m not gonna serve in the way that I wanna show up and serve, and I’m not doing you or your audience a favor by doing that.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:16:09]:
And sometimes we’re so focused on the influence and the growth that can be hard to do, but I’m telling you, if you can get really focused and just go off those specific shows, it’s a win. And a hint like I’ve been getting at, it’s not just the big shows. It’s any of them that really have that avatar in mind. Would it be better to be on a show with a 1000000 people listening that aren’t your audience or one that has a 100 people that they’re all your ideal audience? Right? You wanna get really specific with this because you’ll find, I’m gonna succeed more by not going after the Joe Rogans or call her daddies. I did air quotes there. Right? Of of the world, but the really big shows that everyone wants to be on. Instead, say, hey. This one’s got 30 people listening, but those 30 people, I can serve them really, really well.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:16:46]:
Right? So you wanna think about it that way. So have this this avatar. Know your niche. Know your why. Get get into the purpose of why you’re behind it. And, I’ll I’ll keep on moving through this now because this is gonna get real So I’m gonna get more into the training side of it here. The next thing is to have a one sheet, some sort of media one sheet. I will share this.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:17:05]:
If you if you use PodMatch, it builds 1 for you, and it’s digital. You can share it inside and outside of PodMatch. I’m not here to pitch that to you in any way. I know that you all have an affiliate link, by the way, if you don’t mind dropping that in the chat in case anyone is interested. But go look at it later, but make sure that you use you use the, the Stark Raving Entrepreneurs link because that that’s very important to me is to to to respect them, because they they they me with this platform today. So make sure that you check that out. And, anyway but look at it later, but it’ll help you build a digital one sheet. And the one sheet is basically for a host to see everything that we need to know about you.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:17:38]:
Now it’s not going back to, like, where you’re born and stuff like that. Right? Like, they maybe don’t need all that unless it’s super interesting, of course, but all the relevant stuff. And and I’m not gonna get into each of those little things now, but some basics are have some photos they can use, have a bio that they can read. Like, Terry didn’t do hours of research to figure everything he said about me. Although, Terry, you did a good job with that, so maybe you did more than I don’t mean to not give you enough credit. But in general yeah. No problem. In in general, host will want a bio so they know what to read.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:18:07]:
And the other thing is you’re giving them direction. They may not read it word for word, but you’re helping them by saying, this is what I want you to know about me. Right? And so have your bio description, some photos, some links where they can find a little bit more about you. It’s really important you have all this together. So, again, the host can say, okay. I understand this. And most of us are still gonna go do their research, but what you’re telling them is I wanna go this way. When you don’t have something like this I’ve had this happen before.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:18:31]:
I had, like, a 1 sheet. Before Podnatch was a thing, I went on a podcast wanting to talk about, podcasting because that’s what I like to do. Right? But at that point, I had a full time job in aerospace, and this is going back many years. And the whole conversation was focused on that because when the host are doing the research, I didn’t give him any general direction. So he saw full time aerospace guy. We’re talking about that. Right? And I end up having a a great conversation, but it didn’t go anywhere I wanted it to go because it wasn’t my focus. But I didn’t tell them I wanna be in this lane.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:18:57]:
Right? So having a media one sheet’s very important. Again, there’s other resources for it as well, I’m sure. I don’t know where they are, but PodMats gives you a public and private facing, and it’ll ask you all the questions and run you through that. But very important you have that because the next step, more notes here, is creating your pitch. Your pitch is your outreach to podcasters. So it’s how you reach out to them saying, saying I wanna be a guest on the podcast. Right? And I’m gonna walk through the 5 things that I do every time. Having a one sheet in it is very important.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:19:25]:
And I’ll mention that the reason I I say that that’s important, I talk about that beforehand, is because you wanna keep this as short as possible. Like, don’t be so sure that you’re not using full sentences and stuff, but you wanna keep it really short because I’ll give you a little secret about podcast hosts I’ve learned. We talk because we don’t wanna read too much. And so I’ve had some people pitch, and, literally, it’s 10 paragraphs. And I’m, like, reading it, because, again, I I like to respond to everything. And maybe maybe I shouldn’t. I don’t know. But I feel like that’s respectful.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:19:51]:
And so I’m, like, reading through it, and I’m like, oh, man. This is a lot. You know? Like, this is a lot. Like, could we make this a little bit more tactful? Right? So you wanna link to a lot of things so you don’t have to share them in here. Because you don’t have a Media One Sheet. You’ve gotta include a lot of details that make it much longer. So, again, the idea in this pitch is to keep it short. And this is your initial message, email, whatever it might be to a podcast host.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:20:11]:
So these are the the 5 things I do along with keeping it short in mind. Right? Step 1 is to lead with value. Lead with value. I’ll tell you what lead with value doesn’t mean. I mean, starting off, hey, host. I have a book. I run this company. I would like to be a guest.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:20:30]:
I, I, I, I, I. Nothing in that says anything about them, their audience, what they’re working toward. If you lead with those things, you’re automatically putting their mind that, like, this is for you, the guest. Right? This is for me, the guest, not for you, the host. And so you wanna lead with value. And the best way I found to do that, and I’ve actually only had 2 people ever do this with me, and they both came on my show. Spoiler there. What the best thing to do is say, hey, Gina.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:20:57]:
Check out your podcast. Really, really enjoyed what you do. I listened to the episode that you did with Susan. It was just really well done. I like it so much I left you a 5 star rating on review on Apple Podcasts. I went ahead and attached that here in this email. Listen. If you do that, I’m telling you, you at the very least have that host’s attention.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:21:14]:
They’re saying, go on. Right? What else? Like, you clearly did that time. Right? But if you say, hey, host. Not sure what your name is. Loved your latest episode. It’s like, okay. Did you just say that? Because I get that email every day, right, from other people. So you wanna make sure you lead with value, and it takes a little bit of effort and time, but it does make you really, really stand out.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:21:34]:
So, again, I I encourage you, mention the host, mention something that you like. Even if you wanna go the extra mile, attach a 5 star rating in review of Apple Podcasts, leaving that review for them because that will really make you stand out in their eyes. So that’s step 1. Step 2 is to make a meaningful request make a meaningful request. I get a lot of pitches where I don’t actually know what they want from me. I read it, and I’m like, do they wanna be a guest on my podcast? Or they want me to buy something from I don’t know what they want because there’s no clarity in it. You wanna really set the expectation very early. I’m not saying, hey.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:22:09]:
I wanna be a guest. Right? Making a meaningful request means that would just be a request, by the way. I wanna be a guest is just a request. But saying, making a meaningful request means that you do a little bit of work. So for me, what I like to do is I like to go through their, at least, recent backlog of episodes to see if my topic has been covered recently. Again, I’ve already quantified that I know that I’d be a good fit. Right? Because this I I know my why. I know my avatar.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:22:32]:
They’re they’re listening to this podcast, so I know what value I can add. But has anyone else done that recently? And I’ll scroll through it. A great example is I was on a really big podcast a couple years ago where I, I scrolled through 7 years. It wasn’t as long as you think. I scrolled the bottom, so it’s all on 1 page. I hit control f and typed in some keywords. I couldn’t find them anywhere, which means they hadn’t covered it. Right? And so I basically said, hey, listen.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:22:53]:
I went through 7 years of episodes. I put my presences. Yeah. I know that’s a lot. I noticed you hadn’t talked about podcast guesting in the last 7 years, but I think that’d be very valuable for your entrepreneurs. They’re trying to grow their businesses as a creative marketing idea. I’d love to be the guest to come on the show to talk about this. Here’s the thing that host once again is like, have I really not covered this? Right? Like, have have I really not done this? That’s the question that they’re asking themselves.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:23:16]:
They’re saying, oh my goodness. Like, I can’t believe that. So now once again, you have you have their interest. They’re saying, okay. Wow. That that’s really fascinating. And so the next thing you wanna do after making that meaningful request, again, going through doing a little bit of extra work, is the third thing is to offer credibility. Credibility in the Internet age has changed quite a bit.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:23:36]:
Credibility used to mean your degree, the companies you’ve worked for, things that you’ve accomplished. Right? Like, all those things used to be, what would give you credibility. Now credibility is who you know that they also know. Again, requires a little research, but if you go to some of their social media profiles, a lot of them show who you follow in common, or you can scroll through their episodes. You know anyone’s name that’s in that sphere. All I have to do is if I wanna be on let’s imagine let’s just say that, Gina and, Terry have different shows. If I say I was recently on Terry’s show, here’s the link to that episode, Gina’s gonna be like, oh, of course, you can come on my podcast. I don’t need to know anything else about you.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:24:15]:
Right? I don’t I don’t need to because you’ve already proven that you know that. Another example is I’m, like, kind of flipping the script here. I was recently on a podcast that hadn’t launched yet. I have a very strict no go on shows that have not launched policy. Very strict. I never do that because I I’ve learned after doing, like, 20 of those, none of them ever launched. Right? Like, that ends up happening. But this person did something different.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:24:36]:
She said, I’d love to have him in the show. It’s launching in 6 weeks. I’ve already had 4 people that you know on the show, and she named all 4 of them, and they’re all 4 people that I really respect. If I can get in the same room as them, I’m gonna take the opportunity any day of the week. I literally just responded. I said, send me whatever date and time you want on there, because she offered credibility of who I know that she also knows. Find a way to do that. And this is again where the media one sheet comes in common.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:24:58]:
You don’t need to fill out all the rest of it. They wanna know more about you saying, by the way, here’s all of my details that I you could possibly wanna know about me, probably TMI. Right? I always put humor in it. And then link to your Media One Sheet. So if now if they are saying, okay. We know the same people, but I do wanna learn more. They can click it and go learn more. Right? Next thing we’re gonna do here.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:25:16]:
Step 4 is to mention sharing the episode. Now please make sure you have integrity. If you have no intent on sharing it or you don’t think that’s something that you want to do, then don’t skip this step. But if you are willing to share it, that’s very valuable to a podcast host because they most of us, it’s a labor of love. We pour our hearts and souls into our podcast, and it’s almost a little sad when the guest isn’t even willing to share it at all. And you don’t have to. Right? I’m not saying you have to, but if you’re willing to, share that up front. So the way I always say is, hey.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:25:43]:
Listen. If I can be a guest, I’d love to share the episode. I’ll even link to it from my website and a blog post we’ll do about it. And host are always like, wow. Thank you. Like, it’s so kind of you. Like, I work so hard in this. I would love for that to happen.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:25:55]:
Right? So mention sharing the episode if you are honestly going to share the episode. Now, of course, there’s the exceptions where maybe it’s terrible. In that case, don’t. But if it’s good, share it. And the last thing, your step 5 is to make it easy to say no. I find if you get these first 4 things right, a host might not respond because they don’t wanna break your heart if they just had a guest on that has a similar experience or it’s just like they’re pausing the show. They might not respond because they’re like, oh, man. They put in all this work.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:26:19]:
I can’t tell them no. I don’t know if anyone here else is like me. I’m raising my hand right now. Don’t really like confrontation. Like, I’ll I’ll avoid it if I can, and I I should I’m working on that a little bit. Right? But the reality of it is it’s not really my favorite thing. So making it easy to say no simply means, hey. Even if you don’t wanna have these as a guest, no worries.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:26:37]:
I’d love to hear back from you, and I really only wanna be on the show if I can truly add value. But either way, would love to hear back. Right? You give them permission to break your heart without breaking your heart so that you can open the dialogue. And I’ve learned that a no typically means not now. Maybe they did just have a guess on there, but they might say, hey. If you fall back in 6 months because you gave permission to tell you no, I would love to make this happen. Snooze that email for 6 months and go back to it. Right? So I I I found this to be very valuable because it opens a connection instead of it just being a general outreach.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:27:04]:
And now it gives them permission to really have that conversation with you. And, so that’s kind of my whole idea. Like, I went through the whole flow here, and the last thing I’ll share is kinda just some motivation around it. When we’re being a guest on a podcast, yes, we are gonna grow our visibility. We’re gonna grow our reputation. We’re gonna do a great job. But at the end of the day, remember this. Seek to be a person of value, not a person of profit.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:27:24]:
Seek to be a person of value, not a person of profit. My best podcast guest I’ve ever had, people that show up willing to give it all and don’t want anything in return. End up being the ones that get more in return anyway, but it’s because they’re there to serve. And podcast listeners, again, they’re savvy human beings. When they realize this person’s here for me because they want to make my life better, that’s who they want to know. That’s who they wanna work with. And so, again, seeking a person of value, not a person of profit. I find the profit usually follows the value that you add.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:27:51]:
And with that, that’s it.

Terry Brock [00:27:54]:
Alright. Well, Alex, a lot of good information there, and we really appreciate that and looking forward to, asking you and learning even more. I like that. Be a person of value, and then the prophets will come in that way. Don’t seek the prophets initially. Now I also know that at 4:30 our time here in eastern zone, you’ve got something special that’s gonna knock you out of here, and then you’ll be coming back. Is that correct, Alex?

Alex Sanfilippo [00:28:15]:
Maybe. We’re gonna see in exactly 1 minute here, and I’ll start sharing. Oh, it’s funny. Alicia, my wife, is already here. So for everyone joining, I’m like a digital minimalist, which is weird for a software guy, but my computer, I am a, quote, unquote, child on my computer, so my screen time expires at 4:30 every day. And, I told Gina’s like, I would really love for you to be here later. Can you please can you please hang around? So I don’t know what happens at 4:30. My screen just went blank.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:28:40]:
I don’t know if you all can hear me. So hold on. May I hit

Terry Brock [00:28:42]:
We can still hear you, Alex.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:28:43]:
Wow. Really? Can you all see

Terry Brock [00:28:44]:
me too? After 4:30 now.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:28:46]:
He’s still. He’s still kinda here. Okay. So Alicia’s here, and she is now going to let me in the room.

Terry Brock [00:28:51]:
Magic key. Thank you, Alicia.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:28:54]:
Let’s make sure that worked real quick. Hold on. Let me make sure it worked. And then you have to enter it one more time. So, yeah, my computer doesn’t let me on after a certain time.

Terry Brock [00:29:03]:
Nice. You know, I respect that. I respect that you have those boundaries set in there, but you’re making an adjustment for us today and, make sure that people get a lot of value.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:29:12]:
Yeah. Oh, for sure. And it’s hold on a second. Let me see. Okay. I’m back. I have never been on a computer or in recent time, I’ve not been on a computer past 4:30. This is amazing.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:29:22]:
The Internet still works after 4:30.

Terry Brock [00:29:24]:
Works. Isn’t that amazing?

Alex Sanfilippo [00:29:25]:
To put it on, I’m back, by the way. I’m I’m good. Thank you for the grace, everybody. I appreciate it.

Terry Brock [00:29:28]:
Yeah. Wow. I’ll write that down somewhere. Gina, what do you think? You’ve just given us a boatload of great information.

Gina Carr [00:29:34]:
Oh, absolutely. And, of course, we’ve been part of the Podfest community for several years, Terry and I

Terry Brock [00:29:40]:
Oh, yeah.

Gina Carr [00:29:40]:
And Alex has as well. And so when I went to the Pod fest folks, Andrew and Chris Kramitsos recently, Andrew Weiss, and said, hey. We wanna we wanna feature a specialist on podcast guesting. Who do you recommend? And, of course, Alex was, the only name recommended. So I love

Terry Brock [00:30:01]:
that. Yes.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:30:01]:
I’m honored. That’s amazing. They’re they’re pretty much so respect, so thank you.

Terry Brock [00:30:05]:
Alex is one of the best in the world on this. That is not hyperbole in the world, and he’s a person you definitely wanna get to know, check out his company and what it can do, Matt. And I also know it’s 14 or it’s 1645, 445, you need to, exit and take care of some other things.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:30:21]:
Now I can I can be here as as late as you all need? So kick me out at four forty five if that’s the plan. But I can be here for as long as you all need. I’m I’m I’m Alicia unlocked it. I’m good, so I’m here.

Terry Brock [00:30:30]:
Well, I think that’ll be good. And I think one of the things we like to do is to open it up for questions, and we see our good buddy Chris Stone there is up on, stage today. Chris, welcome aboard. What is your question or comment?

Chris Stone [00:30:41]:
Thank you, captain.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:30:43]:
Huge Chris Stone fan, everybody. Just say it on there. Yeah. What’s up, bro?

Chris Stone [00:30:46]:
What’s up, Alex? Yeah. Longtime listener, first time caller. And, no. I I really the the thing that really caught me, and I’ve I’ve watched many, many, of a time where you have spoken. And this is something that that really resonated with me was, as a part of the meaningful request, you had mentioned researching what hasn’t been covered yet. And that is just that’s just so to me, I almost moved that to the top in terms of, like can you because it it does 2 things. Number 1, it shows that you’re you’re ready to deliver to that person’s audience. But, also, you even spoke about it.

Chris Stone [00:31:23]:
You were like, that’s gonna make somebody pause. Like, have I really not covered that? It almost may it all almost puts a task on them to do that. But you had mentioned some you know, your process and kind of researching. I know it was, like, you know, 7 years of episodes. I’m definitely not doing that. But what is you know, what’s that process for for doing it? Do you just go to Apple Podcasts and kinda scroll down? Do you copy paste kinda, you know, the whole keyword process? Because that’s really something that I’m gonna implement in in what I’m doing.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:31:53]:
Good question. Yeah. Am am I able to share a screen? Because I’ll just show you exactly what I do.

Gina Carr [00:31:59]:
Just a second. I thought that might happen. There you go.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:32:06]:
Alright. Let me, give

Terry Brock [00:32:07]:
me a second. You. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now you can share a screen.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:32:13]:
Pretty pretty magical stuff here. Alright. So I pulled I pulled up a, oh, wait. I’m not sharing my screen yet.

Terry Brock [00:32:19]:
Yeah. We’re not seeing your screen yet.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:32:21]:
Okay. Now it should be entrepreneurs on fire. You all see

Terry Brock [00:32:24]:
that? John will do. It’s our buddy.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:32:26]:
Yeah. So what I what I’ll do is I’ll just go through like, I just did. So it says and there’s probably a better way to do this how I do it. So I’ll go through here, and I’ll just I went through a ton of these. So I I did this for, like, 3 to 5, I don’t know, like, maybe 5 minutes. And it got me through, like, years of stuff. So I just kept on scrolling down, and there’s a fast way to do it. I’m just not doing it right now.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:32:45]:
But then I just hit control f, and I typed in guesting. And I didn’t see guesting come up. Right? And I typed in podcast, and podcast showed up in some places, but not where I wanted it to. Right? So I just went through really quick. I typed in guesting, just guest. Right? There came up once. And so I was I wanna talk about podcast guest. I’m just using this as an example by by the way because he has a lot of episodes, so I went straight to his show.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:33:08]:
And, now that that’s like how I’m doing that research. So I’m just having all the keywords. And there’s a chance maybe I’d miss it, but after 10 or 15 keywords, if those aren’t even mentioned in the 1st part of the description, it’s probably not the main focus. So that, Chris, is how I’ve done that. I’ll stop sharing my screen now.

Chris Stone [00:33:23]:
Awesome. Thank you.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:33:25]:
Yeah. There’s probably a better way, like I said, but that is what I’ve done.

Gina Carr [00:33:31]:
Wonderful. Thank you, Chris. And and Thank you. For your for your question. Very, very good.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:33:36]:
Was on my podcast, by the way. It didn’t come out for a few weeks, but, I am so thrilled about what he shared. So, anyway, TBD on the date and everything like that, but it is coming out in the future.

Chris Stone [00:33:46]:
It was my honor. Thank you.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:33:47]:
Thanks, man. And we have

Terry Brock [00:33:49]:
Sherry Richland. Sherry, I

Alex Sanfilippo [00:33:50]:
know you’ve

Terry Brock [00:33:51]:
been doing a lot with this kind of thing. What’s your comment or question?

Sherry Richardson [00:33:54]:
Well, this has been fantastic because I’m just getting started in my business, and I want to be a guest on other people’s podcasts. And I cover divorce and surviving divorce. My first comment is why would somebody not share this with their own community and spread it out? That just doesn’t make any sense to me.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:34:17]:
I don’t know. I I always share all of it. I I really I don’t. The only thing I can think of is there’s there are a lot of people that are seeing the value of podcast guesting, so it’s sort of like they wanna get on a 100 shows in a month just because it it gives them that clout. They don’t have time to share it. Like, they their their audience doesn’t care, or they’re very, like, protective of the type of content they share. And so they they don’t. But, again, I’m like, why are you being a guest on the show if it’s not the right type of con I don’t I don’t know.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:34:44]:
I I don’t really have an answer for that, but it is far more common than you would imagine. I’d say it’s it’s more than norm to not share it than to share it. And I I don’t know why. But Yeah. That makes sense. I wish I had something more for you, but I love that you would be interested in sharing it. It provides great content. Anytime someone sends me something that’s like a clip of me speaking on the podcast, I I do that.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:35:06]:
Like, example, I was on Chris Stone. I’ll use Chris, sorry. I’ll leave you alone after this. I was on his podcast. When was that? Like, a year 2 no. A year and a half ago, probably. Right? About a

Terry Brock [00:35:13]:
year and

Chris Stone [00:35:13]:
a half ago in Dealcasters. Yeah.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:35:15]:
They still share clips from that, and I still reshare them and and send them in my community and all that stuff because they’re still posting it. Right? So I’m all for it. It’s good content. We looked good. We we spoke, said some cool stuff. So, anyway

Terry Brock [00:35:27]:
Yeah. Exactly. And what the influencer is it’s really good to have that. You wanna be on by default, I just say yes to a number of podcasts that I’m on because I find I get value from being with them. I learn about them. I meet some wonderful people. And, plus, if I get a recording, I can take that one excerpt of 3 minutes and 47 seconds when I was saying something really good, and I can pull that out and repurpose it, and everybody wins all the way around.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:35:50]:
Yeah. Yeah. I couldn’t agree more.

Terry Brock [00:35:54]:
Hey, Doreen. I coming in from, near Seattle or, today, not

Alex Sanfilippo [00:36:00]:
Mexico. Mexico? Come on, Doris. Where you at?

Terry Brock [00:36:03]:
I am not mix I am not Mexico today. Usually, I’m just Mexico, but not today.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:36:08]:
It seems like a very bad trade, by the way. This time of year, I definitely think I’d choose Mexico. Anybody else? Anyway, sorry. Yeah.

Terry Brock [00:36:15]:
Yeah. Yeah. I would too. This was this was not my choice.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:36:18]:
Okay. Alright.

Terry Brock [00:36:20]:
I I just joined a PodMatch a few weeks ago. Yeah. And, I had one of the best interviews that I have ever had with anyone yesterday, came as a result of that. Cool. And, it was just we were just a super match. And now we’re sort of talking about a collaboration in the future and doing and doing something else on a particular subject in November. But I am struggling with guesting the guesting side of it. I promise I watched all 10 of your videos.

Terry Brock [00:36:57]:
I watched them twice.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:36:58]:
You knew there was 10, so I already know that you did. So yeah.

Terry Brock [00:37:03]:
There’s 10 of them. I watched them twice. I did everything you said, and I’m still like, oh, I go in there every day, and I try and tweak it. Do you have any recommendations for me at this point?

Alex Sanfilippo [00:37:16]:
Yeah. So Alicia, who came in here and freed me from the the block out of my computer, she is great at the the profile setup. She’s like our native pro, if you will. What I’d love for you to do is just email team at Podmatch.com. That’s me or Alicia, and I’ll know exactly what you’re talking about. But let us know just ask for, like, us to review your profile, and she can go through and help make sure that’s set up and optimized properly. Sometimes it’s not often. Sometimes there’s, like, a bit of a like, some glitches that happen.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:37:45]:
It’s very occasional, but it sounds like maybe that happened to you if it’s not really working properly. So she can, again, optimize, make sure everything’s working, and get it set up really well with you. So that would be my suggestion is let her do some hands on help with you for a little bit.

Terry Brock [00:37:58]:
Thank you. I really appreciate that

Alex Sanfilippo [00:38:00]:
because I’m

Terry Brock [00:38:01]:
very I’m very keen, and I’ve been a good student for all two and a half weeks.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:38:06]:
You knew I had 10 videos. You’ve watched them. I would say so. So so, yeah, thank you for that. But, yeah, team@podmatch.com. That’s only me and Alicia. Check that email. So we’ll, we’ll make sure we help you out.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:38:16]:
Sorry for the trouble. Make sure we get that sorted out.

Terry Brock [00:38:17]:
Oh, no no problems. I mean, I’m enjoying it otherwise because it’s very interesting. And the thing that it’s done for me as a new podcaster, I’ve only been podcasting about 6 months so far, and I have 50 episodes out. Yay. That’s amazing.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:38:33]:
I’m gonna look up the data real quick. I actually said I’d share that. I’m gonna share that report, but so you have 50 episodes just so you for some perspective real quick, and then I’ll I’ll I’ll we’ll move on to the next person here. Fifty episodes, you have a 9.33% chance of making it there. So congrats. You’re in the top 10 percentile of podcasters from an episode standpoint.

Terry Brock [00:38:52]:
Excellent. I

Alex Sanfilippo [00:38:53]:
share that. I I just dropped the link to where I share all the the fun data stuff. But, anyway, congratulations. Fifty episodes incredible. I love that.

Terry Brock [00:39:00]:
Well, I’m I’m just really enjoying POD match because what it’s done is it’s given me a lot of confidence to say no to people who are not a good fit.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:39:08]:
Good. That’s

Terry Brock [00:39:09]:
great. Built my it builds my confidence as a new podcaster, and it’s made me more certain of my topic. So I just wanted to add that. Thanks for everything.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:39:19]:
Thank you. I appreciate it. Love that.

Gina Carr [00:39:21]:
Hey. Hey. Before we, I see there’s some more people up with, with their hands up for questions, which is fantastic. But before we go to that, I wanna show you guys the 1 sheet that I just set up. I just joined today, and so I got started with it. It was a fantastic process. It really made me think through and clarify. Okay.

Gina Carr [00:39:39]:
Why do I wanna be, interviewed, and what am I gonna talk about? And I have a lot of clarity already, but it was it was a great process to walk through. And I also wanna let you guys know, you’re probably thinking this could be a very expensive service because it sounds like such a great service. And and it is a great service, and it’s not that expensive. I’m really impressed, Alex, at how you’ve been able to keep the costs low because of the way you’ve automated, because you’ve added the software to it. It’s not people dialing up and and putting people together. It’s the smart way to do this. So do you wanna just walk through real quickly as I’m pulling this up here

Terry Brock [00:40:19]:
Sure.

Gina Carr [00:40:19]:
What the, what the prices are here?

Alex Sanfilippo [00:40:22]:
I’m gonna go look up the pricing. Give me a second here. I’ll I’ll look it up myself. Yeah. We like you said, though, I appreciate you saying that. We did our best to, to keep it really affordable was very important to us because we wanted to serve real people. And there there are companies that charge a premium for this type of thing, and they do their they do what they wanna do. And I I love I think it’s great.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:40:46]:
There’s a model for that as well, but, like, when we want to capture independent voices like we talked about earlier on, I just I didn’t wanna price those people out. Right? Like and so we we really kinda tweaked it a little bit and figured it out. But if you’re a host, it’s $6 a month, and if you’re a guest, it’s $26 a month. If you’re both, it’s 32, which adds the 2 together. And then there’s a professional version, which you do not need. I always say start on the standard plan, but the professional plan is 57 a month whether you’re a guest host or both. And those are those are our pricing models, and it’s it’s not like that gets you this. It it’s unlimited.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:41:21]:
If you wanna do a 100 a month, which I don’t suggest, you can. Right? If you wanna do 1 a month, it’s gonna be that same price. And we just did our best to make it really simple for people. But, again, we wanted to price it at a point. We built systems internally, make sure we can keep the price where it is because we want it to serve independent voices. Right? Like, again, if I if I was charging $1,000 a month, I’m gonna get corporations and nothing against them, but I I lose who it is I’m looking to serve. So we we’ve done our best to keep it this way, and, maybe it’s may kept us from from growing to the highest level we could, but we’re serving who we wanna serve. So I’m glad you brought that up.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:41:52]:
It’s that’s very important to me to keep it at a realistic price point. And, yes, we we we also something a lot people mentioned, like, oh, you don’t have a free version at all. Like, we don’t. It it’s it’s a premium network. It’s other people that really value their message. They’re all like most of them are like minded. We’re always pruning the group. But, it’s just been very valuable for a lot of people.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:42:11]:
And for that reason, we wanna make sure we protected everybody inside of it. So, my rant is now doing that.

Gina Carr [00:42:16]:
Thank you. Let me see if I can share my screen here, yes, real quickly, and then we’ll come to you, Stephanie, and to Connor. So is on the screen. You you could see this. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great.

Gina Carr [00:42:28]:
Okay. So this is what I set up today. It it took a few minutes. I don’t know. 30 minutes, may maybe an hour, but I think it’s about 30 minutes. My buddy, Chad GPT, helped me a lot, and I just clarified. And so what’s beautiful about this is it’s not just an internal document for the PODmatch world, which is fantastic. It’s also something that you can easily share.

Gina Carr [00:42:52]:
And I know it’s something that, has tripped me up before when I’ve been asked to be interviewed as, oh, okay. I gotta get my bio together and my photo and all that. In in the past, I’ve had really good press pages, but I just don’t have one right now. And so this is I really like it. It really makes it easy for people to figure out how to, you know, what I’m talking about, questions to ask, the bio, just everything. So that’s really great. And, guys, within 20 minutes of me joining, I was already, see, where is it? I had already gotten invitations or it looks like invitations to me. I’m not exactly sure.

Gina Carr [00:43:33]:
But it’s invitations or matches, I guess, is what you’d call it, a pod match.

Terry Brock [00:43:38]:
That’s a Love that name.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:43:39]:
That’s a good show right there. I actually I I, yeah. Anyway, that that’s a good one.

Gina Carr [00:43:44]:
Yeah. So of people that it would be good for me to tell tell us what we are looking at here. This is somebody who would be good for me to, reach out to for an interview?

Alex Sanfilippo [00:43:54]:
Yeah. That would be that’s a host that’s suggesting. That’s a good show. Josh has a great rep. I mean, look at the episodes they have. 1800, over 1800 episodes. I mean, like, that’s no joke. Right? Pretty cool.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:44:06]:
Yes. That’s a show that’s suggesting you to message, which at the top, you have your 4 options. Message, maybe later pass, previously interviewed. And, by the way, I have walkers of all this stuff. It’s very easy for me to share with people. But yeah. So that’s that’s a host that’s recommending that you reach out to to be a guest on the show. And it’s probably recommending to them as well, so they may or may not reach out.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:44:23]:
If you just got started, it may might take them a little bit. But, if if to reinforce that, can I share something real quick on on my end? It’s the same screen. I just wanna show, this only be a a very quick second here. But this is that same page with the public the public facing version of it. So, this is if I’m not on Pod Match. This is what I would see. And so I can I can choose to send this guest a message, which also doubles as Gina’s affiliate link? We always like to thank people for bringing Google a platform, but she can publicly share this, and I still get all the same information. Right? And you did a very good job on the profile, by the way.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:44:55]:
But, yes, you can use this as your Media One Sheet whether someone’s on or off of PodMatch. So that is a nice thing that we wanted to do to make it easy.

Gina Carr [00:45:02]:
Yeah. Super smart. Very good. Thank you. Okay, Dorothy?

Sherry Richardson [00:45:07]:
Yeah. I know that the probably the answer is you should sign up for PodMatch. But if somebody is not on PodMatch, what is a good way to get started to find podcasts as a guest that are good potential matches? What kinds of searches? Is there anything on AI maybe through Perplexity or something like that? Or we do a Google search? What would you do if you know some of the topics and audiences that you’d like to get at and you want to at least start looking through and seeing what podcasts are there.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:45:36]:
Yeah. I mean, first off, I would go to whatever player app is yours your choice player app, So, like, Spotify, Apple, any of those things, and do a search to see if it exists.

Terry Brock [00:45:46]:
Mhmm.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:45:46]:
Right? Like, to see if there are even shows that cover that. And then from there, I would suggest picking some of those out and then just doing a Google search for those shows Mhmm. And then finding them on social media. But, specifically, the platform they’re most active on, not your favorite platform. Right? I think a lot of us make that mistake. We like Instagram, so we go there, but they’re only on LinkedIn. You wanna go to the most active, and then you can message them. And, sometimes that’ll work.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:46:09]:
Like, obviously, you hopefully, they’re active somewhere, but that’s probably the best place to start. Beyond that, there are some Facebook groups. It’s a bit more general. It has a mix. You can join some different Facebook groups. So it’ll have, like, a bunch of people looking for guest and a bunch of people looking to guest. You can kinda start commenting on some of those and stuff like that. Again, do make sure you have some sort of Media One Sheet though because the comments you wanna keep really short, but you wanna be able to link out to something.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:46:32]:
So, again, I’d suggest manual searching on the platforms, or going to some Facebook groups. And those are kind of 22 things that it’s a little bit more administrative work, but it can you you can do it that way for sure.

Sherry Richardson [00:46:44]:
Okay. Thanks.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:46:45]:
Yeah. No problem.

Gina Carr [00:46:46]:
By the way,

Alex Sanfilippo [00:46:46]:
I’m never gonna push anyone to join Pod Match. I’m just making that clear. I told I told I told this group that before. So I’m like, listen. I’m not here to, like, promote or push anything. Here to serve. So no questions are off limits in it. I will say this PodMatch is not for everybody.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:46:59]:
Nothing is, I don’t believe. So, glad I got the opportunity to talk about it, but by no means am I pushing anyone to do that. So

Terry Brock [00:47:05]:
Oh, that’s alright. And we have a question coming in from Stephanie. Stephanie, the floor is

Alex Sanfilippo [00:47:09]:
Hi.

Stephanie [00:47:12]:
Thank you for taking my question. So I actually recently guested on 2 different podcasts, but then I never heard from the host again. So, I don’t know what that means. Like, did it air? Did it not air? They didn’t send me a link? I mean, I know sometimes they record way out, but, it’s I mean, is that normal, or is it up to me to follow-up with them? It seemed like it was a little unnerving that happened twice.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:47:40]:
Yeah. You know what’s interesting? I didn’t talk about this earlier, but a lot of hosts don’t tell me when the episode comes out. Thankfully, I’m doing everything exclusively through Pod Match right now, so Pod Match tells me when it comes out. So, like, I I know, but I’m like, why didn’t you email me or message me or anything? Like, I didn’t you didn’t do you want me to share it? Like, I didn’t even know it came out. And, sometimes host just get busy, and I think that in their mind, they finish producing episode. They release it, and they’re, like, wash my hands of it onto the next one. And so it might just be an administrative oversight. I I would go to that podcast wherever you listen and see if your episode came out.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:48:12]:
Just go through it for a little bit since time recorded unless it was a really long time ago. But the other thing you do is reach out and just be like, hey. Wanna see what episode was at or something I can do to be helpful. Maybe maybe they forgot. I don’t know. That would be my suggestion, would be to do that.

Stephanie [00:48:26]:
Okay. Alright. Well, I’m glad. No. I’m not, like, glad it happened to you, but kind of because Yeah.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:48:31]:
No. I get it. Yeah.

Stephanie [00:48:32]:
If you didn’t know when a show was, then I kinda don’t feel so bad that I don’t know when a show is.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:48:37]:
Yeah. And the weird thing is I had it happen I’ve had it happen a lot. One time, it was a really big show, which I I expected them to have, like, all their systems buttoned up. And I heard that the podcast was it came out from a friend, like, 2 weeks after it came out. He’s like, hey. He was like, hey, bro. Sorry. I’m, like, so late to hearing you on the show, but you did a really great job on it.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:48:54]:
I was like, I didn’t know that came out. Right? So, it’s more common than it should be. So, again, follow-up, see if it came out. If it didn’t, definitely, like, ask and just see where it’s at in the queue.

Stephanie [00:49:06]:
Great. Thank you.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:49:07]:
Yeah. No problem.

Terry Brock [00:49:10]:
Alright. Very good. And thank you, Stephanie. And we have Connor coming on. Connor, what is your comment or question, sir?

Connor Cunneen [00:49:16]:
Right. I signed up for PodMatch about, maybe 3 weeks ago. I’ve done 7 podcasts so far, and I was looking at the list there. I’ve got 11 actually scheduled right now.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:49:28]:
So That’s a lot. Good for you. Congrats.

Connor Cunneen [00:49:31]:
Thanks. What I found interesting is that something you didn’t mention, but it really does force you to think through your answers and your thought process in terms of the questions that you get asked. Because some people ask very good questions, basic questions, then all the people kind of ask it. And you say, woah. I never thought of that kind of thing. So it actually is helping me to think through some of my material even better. I’m trying to focus more on people who’ve got a YouTube channel because, I use the YouTube a lot, and I wanna just edit some of their material. I’ll put it on to my website, as well.

Connor Cunneen [00:50:06]:
But, overall, for those of you who are wondering, whether or not you should go on PODmatch or go searching through Google, I’m a good Google user, but I tell you what, this is not an expensive process. And you can sign up for 1 month or 3 months or whatever it is. If you don’t like it after 1 month, you can say goodbye to Alex. But I think, the way you’ve got to set up, the kind of, scheduling process that you’ve got is really pretty well streamlined, so kudos to you.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:50:33]:
Thank you. You you know what’s interesting? I I wrote down I was just I go through PodMatch all the time. It’s just I guess it’s kind of my job weirdly enough. Right? And, I saw your name come up, and I wrote it down to find a podcast episode you’ve been on. If you have one that’s out, can you drop it in the chat, so I can go listen? Because I was I was just very intrigued by your whole profile. I’m like, I wanna I wanna I wanna hear this Irish man speaks Connor. Yeah. You know? Like

Connor Cunneen [00:50:56]:
Well well, this goes back to what Doreen was talking about as well. I mean, you do and what, Gina’s working on today. I mean, you do have to have kind of an interesting hook to get them interested. And quite honestly, no. I when I send out the first few ones, I actually have been refused by 1 person, Alex. It broke my heart. I mean, I’m Sorry.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:51:13]:
Don’t tell me that. I hate refusing people, and that makes it way up harder.

Connor Cunneen [00:51:16]:
I I’ve been crying like 1 person refused me, which isn’t good enough, but a few others haven’t responded yet. But what did happen, though, was that after I sent out the first few hoops, a few people came back and said, hey. I like your pitch. So, basically, what I’ve been doing is I’ve been taking that core pitch, dropping the person’s name into it, adapting it marginally to reflect what they want, and it’s been working out Nice.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:51:39]:
That’s great. Love hearing that. And Connor brought up such an important point, by the way. I I think that what podcast guesting does for you, I’m so glad you mentioned that. Like, I need to make sure I mention the future. What it’s done for me is, like, a speaker is, like, I’m night and day better speaker just in my own personal life as well. Like, it’s I’m not gonna say it’s it’s impossible to catch me off guard with questions, but I can typically very quickly think of how to answer something because I feel like I’ve answered a lot of those. So, that’s a really that that I like that, Connor.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:52:07]:
Thank you. That’s a good that’s a good thing to mention. I appreciate it.

Terry Brock [00:52:10]:
Very good. And, Greg Williams, what is your question or comment as we wind down here and get ready to move along?

Terry Brock [00:52:16]:
Well, for for one thing, I definitely have to say thank you, Alex, because I’m one of the individuals that, has been interviewed a lot on different podcasts. 9.9 times out of 10, I do not send anything else out about the podcast or anything. And I was pondering exactly why I do it, and I said, hey. Maybe it’s when I bump my head. I don’t know. But my question is, is it too late to possibly go back a year or 2 ago and start sending those out?

Alex Sanfilippo [00:52:49]:
No. Not at all. I I actually, for a little bit I’m gonna give you really transparent here. For a little bit, I I decided I need to get out of some of the daily communication side of things, which was what people always tell software founders. I have since changed my mind. I wanna be front facing. I’m a very unconventional software guy. I want to if you email or message, I want it to be me.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:53:08]:
Right? And for a little bit, I got out of that, and it turns out the person I hired wasn’t sharing any of them. And I didn’t know this. And I got back into it, and then I found out almost a year later that there was this gap of podcasts, and I started sharing them then. And ever almost every single one of those hosts reach out to me saying thank you. And funny thing is a lot of them invited me to come back on the show after I did that. It wasn’t intentional. 1 of the guys even goes, this was brilliant, dude. He’s like, you waited a year to share it, so I’d invite you back.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:53:33]:
I was like, not intentional. I’m like, it’s called bad management. You know? Like but, so that story, just to say, I think it could be a blessing in disguise. I’m not saying, like, keep that as a practice, but, yes, go back and share it. Come up with a strategy for why you would share it and stuff, and I think it’d still be very, it’s valuable. It’s still your story, your message. Doesn’t matter when someone hears it. They might be looking for it today, and they weren’t looking for it a year ago.

Terry Brock [00:53:55]:
Yeah. I like that the idea. We we don’t have to think, oh, it’s over. I can go back. And, Greg, that’s a great marketing idea. Great way to build relationships. Thank you.

Terry Brock [00:54:02]:
Thank you.

Terry Brock [00:54:04]:
Very good. And we have a question also from Anne. It’ll be our last one here before we head on to some other information. Anne, nice to see you. What’s your question tonight?

Alex Sanfilippo [00:54:12]:
Best for last. Best for last. Right?

Anne [00:54:14]:
Yeah. Yeah. You’ll love it. So first of all, one thing I wanna say is with my so I finished my 1st season. I have 7 episodes. They’re all up. I’m doing a podcast and doing the interface on the because of the way that because of my focus, I’m really intersecting both the podcast, the audio, and the visual, and the visual’s really important on my YouTube channel. I think maybe Chris had mentioned that.

Anne [00:54:37]:
So I was grateful to hear that. And I always follow-up, because part of my invitation to people, so I’m doing a lot of interviewing, my invitation is I will always let them know I want them to get that out. I want them to use the interview with me for their benefit. That’s part of the enrollment conversation, you know, that it’s free advertising for them. And then the way I do the interview, it’s just a natural interface for them to then take in and move it out. So that was one thing I wanted to just share.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:55:07]:
That’s smart.

Anne [00:55:08]:
Trying to get on, by the way. So I clicked on Gina’s link, and I think I’m on Spotify and Iheart, but I’m not on Apple. And on the registration, that’s asking for Apple. So I don’t know how to register. So I wanna go register.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:55:24]:
Yeah. So that that is a problem. If if you’re a host, you need to be on on Apple to do that. But whoever you host with will very easily it should just be click of a button to get you on Apple, which would be great for you because Apple owns a very large percentage of the market share of podcasting. So your listenership will start to climb quick because you’re going to one of the main places people listen to podcasts. I use Apple Podcasts. So, yeah, so your hosting provider And

Anne [00:55:49]:
Sorry. Go ahead. Using Anchor. So if I just go back into my Anchor account, go and get myself on Apple, and then come back, click on that link, and register.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:55:57]:
Correct. Yep. It’d be good to go once it’s on Apple. But yeah. And and you definitely want do that because it it’ll be great for your the growth of your show for sure. So that that should give you a very cool natural bonus, to grow the show a little bit too. So working, not natural. Anne, thank

Terry Brock [00:56:10]:
you very much for being here.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:56:11]:
Yeah. Thanks, Anne. Appreciate it. Congratulations on 7 episodes. That’s amazing.

Terry Brock [00:56:15]:
Alex, you are amazing. You have given us a boatload of We’re glad we can go back and watch the recording on this and learn from it. Amazing. Gina, what are your thoughts?

Gina Carr [00:56:27]:
Oh my goodness. I know we could probably go for another hour with questions, but it’s definitely one of my favorite topics. You’ve really clarified what we need to do, whether we’re using PodMatch or not. You’ve emphasized and reminded us all how important it is to get on podcast because it helps you to speak more clearly, helps you to articulate what you’re doing, and you really just get into a rhythm when you when you do that. And these thoughts just keep coming, and and it makes it so much easier whether you’re on stage, on a real stage or whether you’re on a virtual stage. And so it’s it’s really good. And it adds so much more credibility to you as well when you are sharing that you were interviewed. People say, oh, no.

Gina Carr [00:57:10]:
You’re the real deal. You you know this stuff.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:57:14]:
Yeah. That is so true. It it really is. I recently someone asked, they’re like, hey. What I don’t remember what line of work they’re in, but it was, like, random. They’re like, they’re like, yeah. What’s like, what makes you credible to do this? And I was like, well, I saw them. They had Spotify in their phone.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:57:27]:
Like, open up your Spotify. Like, type in Alex Sanfilippo, and then they just started scrolling. And they’re like, these you’re on all these shows, and they just kept on scrolling, like, going through. And it I’ve been at this for a long time, so I’m not saying that happened overnight. But they were like, wow. Okay. So, yeah, you’re you’re the real deal. Like, everyone wants to talk to you, it seems like.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:57:44]:
So, yeah, it it offers that credibility, but 1 podcast does that too. So yeah. Anyway.

Terry Brock [00:57:49]:
Very good. Well, Alex, amazing. And matter of fact, I see we still have we have a question from Frank King, but we’re running out of time. So I’ll tell you what. Frank, we wanna honor you with your question. Alex, would you mind, maybe corresponding with Frank in the chat between the 2 of you? You can do it private or public that way. Make sure we get that taken care of. And Frank will look forward.

Terry Brock [00:58:06]:
Let us know what that is, and we can amplify that in another way because I wanna make sure we get to the commitment we have with Dorothy Erlanger today. Before we scoot out, we get a chance to do one thing. But, Alex, thank you so much. We really appreciate

Terry Brock [00:58:18]:
it. Alex.

Alex Sanfilippo [00:58:18]:
And for sure. Thank you for having me, everybody. Y’all are awesome. This was amazing. Really enjoyed our time.

Terry Brock [00:58:23]:
Very good. Good to

Gina Carr [00:58:23]:
have you. So much.

Terry Brock [00:58:24]:
Well, that was amazing to see what Alex had to say about the kinds of ways that you can grow with podcasting. I think that’s great, but I would say, yes. You can do that with that podcasting, and then use AI and other tools to expand your range even more. Really, when you think about it with business, the more people that know you in a favorable way, the better off you’re going to be. That’s key. I remember hearing that from Brian Tracy long ago and realize I’ve seen that as well. And what Alex is talking about is you’re getting to know more people in a much better way than just sending an email. You’re getting to know them.

Terry Brock [00:58:55]:
You’re working on a joint venture for a moment there that you’re on that podcast together. With AI, you can find just the right podcast that can work for you. A service like Alex has with PodMatch can help you as well. So look into that. Hey. Let us know what you think. We really wanna help you to build your business. This is more than just a little podcast that you’re listening to or a video that you’re getting whichever way you’re getting it.

Terry Brock [00:59:16]:
We’re here to help you at Stark Raving Entrepreneurs. You go over there to starkravingentrepreneurs.com. You’ll find out about us. And we want to help you to really grow your business. Let it be something that you can build on a solid foundation and grow from there. Let us know what you think, and I’ll look forward to hearing from you. Oh, and we got some really good videos designed for you that are coming up next. Be sure and catch those.

Terry Brock [00:59:37]:
They really are designed carefully to help you to grow your business. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.