Who is Darren?
Darren Saul is a seasoned podcaster who has found his passion in the world of podcasting. With multiple successful podcasts under his belt, Darren has established himself as a prominent figure in the industry. His belief in the power of podcasting as a marketing tool has led him to create valuable content that not only builds brand awareness but also serves as a passive means of sharing his expertise with the world. Darren's dedication to podcasting has allowed him to create a platform for himself and his work, connecting with audiences in a unique and engaging way.
Key Takeaways
00:00 Maximizing podcast content for effective marketing.
07:00 Podcast resources, courses, and free webinar available.
09:04 Traditional advertising no longer effective, turned to podcasts.
12:03 Podcasting creates diverse, reusable marketing content opportunities.
17:03 Start a podcast with a video call.
18:11 Leverage other podcasts for marketing content.
Valuable Free Resource or Action
Some free resources at https://tinyurl.com/3p8pnpnz
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to our newsletter and get details of when we are doing these interviews live at https://TCA.fyi/newsletter
Find out more about being a guest at : link.thecompleteapproach.co.uk/beaguest
Subscribe to the podcast at https://link.thecompleteapproach.co.uk/podcast
Help us get this podcast in front of as many people as possible. Leave a nice five-star review at apple podcasts : https://link.thecompleteapproach.co.uk/apple-podcasts and on YouTube : https://link.thecompleteapproach.co.uk/Itsnotrocketscienceatyt!
Here's how you can bring your business to THE next level:
If you are a business owner currently turning over £/$10K - £/$50K per month and want to grow to £/$100K - £/$500k per month download my free resource on everything you need to grow your business on a single page :
It's a detailed breakdown of how you can grow your business to 7-figures in a smart and sustainable way
————————————————————————————————————————————-
Transcript
Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
podcasting, podcasters, podcasting strategy, brand awareness, marketing content, podcast monetization, podcast guests, podcast preparation, podcast marketing, podcast production, podcast promotion, podcast value, podcasting courses, podcasting resources, podcasting webinar, podcasting content, podcasting journey, podcasting advice, podcasting strategy, podcasting coach, podcasting industry, podcasting impact, podcasting audience, podcasting success, podcasting commitment, podcasting imposter syndrome, podcasting start, podcasting consistency, podcasting confidence, podcasting opportunities
SPEAKERS
Darren Saul, Stuart Webb
Stuart Webb [00:00:24]:
Hi, and welcome back to It's Not Rocket Science 5 Questions Over Coffee. My name is Stuart Webb. I'm here with Darren Saul, who is, a podcaster, pretty pretty experienced at this podcast stuff. I'm fairly sure that he doesn't need any introduction from me on what we're doing. So, Darren, you're a you're a podcaster. You're a you're a strategist, trainer, coach, student of human, attention, you say. And you've started heavily utilizing the power of podcasting. So I'm really interested to hear how you're helping your clients to use podcasting and how it's making a difference in in their their business.
Stuart Webb [00:01:06]:
So welcome to It's Not Rocket Science, 5 questions and go for coffee. I hope you've got your coffee there in front of you. My coffee.
Darren Saul [00:01:13]:
I have to stay on brand with the show.
Stuart Webb [00:01:16]:
Good man. Good man. So, Darren, tell us, how is it that you help people, in their podcasting?
Darren Saul [00:01:23]:
You bet. So podcasting is something that's growing from strength to strength as we all know. I heard some ridiculous statistic the other day. I don't know if it's true or not. That there's more podcast than there are listeners. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's crazy. But it just goes to show you how many people are podcasting at the moment. But that's not to say that every podcast that people set up goes past episode 10.
Darren Saul [00:01:49]:
There's a lot of podcasters, but not many of them get past episode 20 or certainly not to 50 or a 100. So basically, I love podcasting, and I've just fallen in love with podcasting over the years. And so I podcast more and more. I've got 2 podcasts, but I think they're an incredible way to build brand awareness, to build, marketing material, to build content in all those different forms and to be a very indirect passive way to tell people what you do and where you work rather than a very aggressive push sales process, which is something that we all do more and more these days.
Stuart Webb [00:02:34]:
So so what is it that you see that people are doing wrong? And and and what is it that you think people are you're trying to help them to do with with the work you do, Darren?
Darren Saul [00:02:45]:
Yeah. Great. So really two things. I I tackle podcasting from both sides. So I work with podcasters to create a better podcast, deliver a better podcast, monetize their podcast, possibly if they're looking to do that, and just continue to get value and extract marketing content as well as brand awareness and business results from their podcast. But then I also work with guests to help them get podcast ready. Cause a lot of guests jump on a podcast. They're not prepared.
Darren Saul [00:03:20]:
They don't know what they're gonna be talking about. They haven't articulated their little 30 or 1 minute commercial. And then when they've done a podcast like this, they say, great, had a great show and they never do anything else. So for me, that's madness. If you do a show like this, you ask for the raw footage and then you actually start using that raw footage in your marketing material. So I'm really trying to work both sides of the podcasting equation so people can really start using podcasting as a medium, or I keep coming back to the same two things, brand awareness and marketing content. That is the power of podcasting. And then of course, all those things can continue from there.
Darren Saul [00:04:05]:
You can turn you can monetize them in so many different ways. You can, have fun. You can create new podcasts. You can get on other people's shows. You can build yourself up as a thought leader in your industry. You can get keynote speaking opportunities. I mean, you can get workshop opportunities, coaching opportunities. It goes on and on and on.
Darren Saul [00:04:26]:
But it's really those 2
Stuart Webb [00:04:28]:
things I love. And and I think it's I think you're absolutely right. Too many people do anything like this where they don't think about what their message is and and make it clear, and then they fail to I mean, most people know that you've got to repeat your message many times for people to hear it. I always worry about people who sort of sit back and wait for the results to sort of flow in rather than having a plan and following it through and actually you know, it's a it's a bit like any activity, isn't it? You've gotta know what your objective is and follow that plan rather than just sort of sitting back and going, well, why hasn't the world turned and faced towards me and sort of run at me?
Darren Saul [00:05:05]:
100%. 100%. And you brought a really good point. It's there's a lot of patience and consistency needed. If you really wanna run a good podcast, you have to just keep on pounding away with the episodes, marketing them well, and fill giving time for the audience to find you and building your your brand. You know? And people start to get used to you dropping an episode every Monday or every Tuesday or once a fortnight or once a month or whatever it is, and they'll start talking about your podcast, telling other people about it. All that stuff takes time. You can't expect to have podcast results in 2 months, and that's why a lot of people start and finish really quickly.
Stuart Webb [00:05:45]:
Brilliant. So, I'm now hopefully gonna ask you for the dead simple one, which is you must have a bunch of advice that you can give us and and and valuable, advice as well that you might wanna sort of pass on. And I know you've got a link on your website, which I'm gonna pull up here. It's it's at tinyurl.com3p8 pnpnzed, or for those of us in the US, that would be z. 3p8 p n p n zed. So, Darren, tell tell us some of the stuff that's at that link. What is it that you're trying to help people to do with that, man? Yeah.
Darren Saul [00:06:22]:
Sure. So there's a a great link there. There's lots of free resources on that link. So, for example, there's a great, PDF that you can download to help you build a podcast from a to zed. It's like my a to zed formula of podcasting. So if you're thinking about dipping your toe in the water, you're not quite sure, there's lots of information in there about the tech needed, the strategy, the little bit about the the preparation sorry, the, processing and the producing, because that's a little bit of a fine art in itself. Exactly. And then there's a lot of production and promotion, working there as well.
Darren Saul [00:07:00]:
I've got stuff for guests as well. If you a little PDF on how to be podcast ready, covering all sorts of different topics from your 32nd commercial or your your story to how to leverage your content, how to choose the right host, how to choose the right podcast, how to choose your target audience, how to choose your niche, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And I've got a few other paid resources. If anybody is interested in jumping on and learning, there's a a recorded course and a few other opportunities. There's also another webinar, a free webinar that I'm doing next week on how to monetize your podcast. So there's a 1 hour free webinar you can jump on, and we're gonna talk about 15 different strategies to how you can start thinking about monetizing your podcast. And you don't have to have a lot of podcast episodes to monetize. You just have to think in a little bit of a creative way, and there's all sorts of stuff you could do, and you can have a lot of fun as well.
Darren Saul [00:07:56]:
So lots of great resources if anybody wants to dive into the podcasting world.
Stuart Webb [00:08:00]:
That's great stuff, Darren. Thank you very much. So I've I've got a I've got a a little link going up at the moment. If anybody has any questions, put them into the chat. But but, Darren, how did you get into Pasciani? What was it? What was there a book, a course, a program? What is it that sort of made you a podcast strategist? And and and if you don't mind me describing you, I think in the very best possible way, a podcast nerd, I actually think that's the highest compliment I can pay somebody, but all those disagree with me.
Darren Saul [00:08:28]:
I love it. I'll take it. I'll take it. I love being called a podcast nerd. I love to nerd out on podcasting stuff.
Stuart Webb [00:08:34]:
Yeah. Good for you.
Darren Saul [00:08:35]:
Love it. So, yeah, good story. So I do a number of different things. I've been working as a a corporate IT recruiter, for 25 years, nearly 25 years. I've been working as a photographer for about 10 years. And about 6 years ago, I realized that the tide had changed in terms of marketing and business development. The yellow pages or we have we have the yellow pages here. I don't know what you guys have
Stuart Webb [00:09:03]:
over here. Yeah. Yeah.
Darren Saul [00:09:04]:
Yellow pages where you can advertise locally and people can find you and all that stuff. That wasn't being looked at anymore. Letter drops were being thrown in the bin. Cold calling was getting harder and harder to get in past the gatekeepers. So I started thinking about there's gotta be a better way to start marketing my business. And I stumbled onto social media, digital media, podcasting, and I thought, wow, this is amazing. So I thought, you know what? What the hell? So I started 2 podcasts right off the bat, one for my recruitment business and one for my photography business. And the recruitment business is a little bit more esoteric where I interview people about job seeking and career development and building company culture and hiring and firing and all that kind of stuff.
Darren Saul [00:09:55]:
And then I have my other one, which is what I call my variety show. I've got about over 220 something episodes where I talk about all sorts of different things from real estate to health sciences to book launches to music to mindset, entrepreneurship, business, whatever. And that's my my passion project. And since that, the birth of that and the journey, I've started wanting to really just give as much information and coach and teach other people to get the same results out of podcasting because I think it's such a great tool. And there's a little bit of a backstory, but it's been a lot of fun, and I just who knows where it's gonna lead?
Stuart Webb [00:10:36]:
That's brilliant. I think it's absolutely fantastic. So so what is it about, about podcasting therefore then that you see as being the way of sort of driving that marketing? Because, you know, it's it is once again, it's one of those things where it is it is a bit passive. So so how do you how do you what what can you do to sort of make your podcast as successful as you can?
Darren Saul [00:10:56]:
Yeah. Good. Great question. Well, I mean, that's the beauty of it in itself because it's passive. Like, I always use this analogy. If you were to look through your social media, LinkedIn and Facebook in particular, turn off the sound, just scroll down the feed. All you see are people like, like this little if you imagine my little box is one little screen, all you see is people talking to the camera with this all this animation and energy trying to sell you something. Right? So it gets a little bit much after a while.
Darren Saul [00:11:30]:
And I love podcasting because it's the exact opposite. It's me, particularly when it's with a guest. So we've got 2 of us here. We're talking to each other. It really takes the pressure off. You know? We're not we're not trying to sell you anything. We're just we're more almost inviting you in for a conversation, you know, with our coffee, rather than pushing our agenda down your throat. So it's a very indirect, curious way of attracting people rather than really aggressively promoting whatever it is that we wanna promote.
Darren Saul [00:12:03]:
So that's really number 1. But the other thing that podcasting does, and people are really starting to realize this more and more these days, it is an incredible way to create content. So if you run a podcast system and you record in video and audio form, long form, you have so much video, audio, written, graphic content that you can utilize now for your marketing on social media, on your website, in your email newsletters, in your email signature. Maybe if you wanna do letter drops, whatever the hell do you wanna do, there is that many things you can do with that content. You'll never run out of it. And it's fresh and varied because you've got a different guest every week or every 2 weeks or whatever. Then you can start bringing mash up the greatest hits within a month or, I mean, send out newsletters with your, playlist of different topics. I mean, it goes on and on and on, But it's all about getting the content in the 1st place, and a podcast system just gives you that opportunity.
Stuart Webb [00:13:14]:
That's brilliant. Darren, you know, there must be one question you're currently thinking. He hasn't asked the critical question here, and he's he's he's missed the point of this stuff. So what's the critical question I should have asked you? What is it that you are burning to sort of tell me about something? And, you know, now I've given you the opportunity to ask that question. You'll obviously have to answer it because you're the only one that actually knows the answer.
Darren Saul [00:13:37]:
Yeah. That's a really good one. And the real the question would be, if I had to ask people, why are you not starting your podcast? Everybody always is fascinated by podcast. They do podcast courses. They come to podcast workshops. And then 6 months later have you started your podcast? Oh, we're about to start. We're just talking about this. We're just talking about that.
Darren Saul [00:14:00]:
We're just finalizing this. We're finalizing that a year later. They still haven't started their podcast or they've started and done 2 episodes. I'm like, what? What's going on? Why haven't you either started or continued? And the reason is it takes work. Yeah. It takes strategy.
Stuart Webb [00:14:18]:
Yeah.
Darren Saul [00:14:19]:
And it takes commitment. But if you do it and you do it well, it is in one of the best marketing tools available. And the other reason that people stop or they don't start is, you know, I hate that term imposter syndrome, but everybody's using it. So I'll just use it because everybody knows what it is. But a lot of people think, oh, I'm not worthy of sharing my voice with the world. I'm not worthy of sharing my message. What do I who am I to start a podcast? But you look around there every Tom, Dick, and Harry has started their own show. They're talking about what they love.
Darren Saul [00:14:55]:
They're talking about what they know about, and it's now the era of giving getting away with worrying about the gatekeepers. We don't have anybody to tell us what we can and can't do. We can all have our own show. We can all have our own production, and it's all about free to air. We wanna listen to what we wanna listen to. So why the hell not? You know, if you've got something that you're burning to share with the world, and even if you're not perfect from episode 1, you're gonna get better. When I go back to my episode 1 and rewatch my first show, it's terrible. Episode 10 is terrible.
Darren Saul [00:15:34]:
But as I've been doing more and more podcasts, I get more and more confident. And you just you start to enjoy it and you learn from other people, and it's we're all learning from each other. So all I can say is if you're on the fence about podcasting, jump in, have some fun, at least try it for a couple of episodes before you worry about not doing it. And if I can leave with one great title of a book that really sums this up beautifully, there's a book, I'm trying to think of the name of the the author, but it's called Ready, Fire, Aim.
Stuart Webb [00:16:09]:
Aim. Yeah.
Darren Saul [00:16:10]:
Is it Michael Masterson? I think it's Yeah.
Stuart Webb [00:16:12]:
I think it is. It is. Yeah.
Darren Saul [00:16:13]:
Instead of ready aim fire, and that sums this concept up beautifully. Start the journey, get some feedback from the audience, get some feedback from whoever it is your your viewers and, and, listeners are and tweak as you go. You don't have to have it all sorted out before you begin. It never is that way. Just not and tweak and change and have fun along the way. It's a journey.
Stuart Webb [00:16:38]:
Yeah. Brilliant. Do you know I I just wanna I just wanna add one thing to what you said, Dan, because because I think it is important. I've spoken to a number of people and invited. I hope I hope you've had a good time, which just as you said, it's been 2 2 professionals just just talking. There's, you know, it's nothing more complicated. It's nothing more serious. Well, it is serious, but it's nothing more intimidating than that.
Stuart Webb [00:17:03]:
And the number of people I've spoken to and said, why don't you just go and be a guest on a podcast? And they'll say, I couldn't do that. And you go, well, you can appear on a video call. We all do them nowadays since 2020. We've spent 8 we spent we've re reinvented ourselves as people are able to do a video call. Why don't you just do a video call with somebody and record it? And that is the beginning of your podcast. And I mean Yep. It's nothing more than a video call. And people will turn around and say, well, yeah, I do a lot of those and I record them and I go, okay.
Stuart Webb [00:17:35]:
Terrific. So so that's your podcast. And their immediate response is, yeah, that wouldn't be very good. And I well, what? Who defines if it's good?
Darren Saul [00:17:44]:
That's
Stuart Webb [00:17:44]:
right. It's it's not a it's it's not about good, it's about doing, and it's not only about doing as you said and starting, but it's also about thinking to yourself there may be somebody out there, even one other person that this could help. Great. Help that one other person. Stop worrying about the the 99.999 percent of people that that don't want that. They don't want it, they'll turn away. But there might be 0.0001% of people that go, that was useful for me.
Darren Saul [00:18:11]:
Yeah. If you could have one person if I could have one person with this, I'm very happy. If I've got one person to start podcasting and you made a really, really good point. And this is something that I usually say, if you're not ready to jump in and set up your own podcast, get on other people's shows, at least do that. Get on other people's shows, ask for the content, pop it up, use it in your marketing. You're often away. You don't even have to have your own show if you don't wanna do the extra work and, you know, the extra cost and the resources and whatever else. Just book yourself into lots of different shows and you're up and running.
Darren Saul [00:18:45]:
And then maybe one day you might start your own.
Stuart Webb [00:18:49]:
Darren, I don't know if you've helped anybody else. I hope you have. You've helped me a lot, and I'm really enthusiastic about sort of doing more now. So thank you so much for coming on and spending a few minutes with us. I'm just gonna ask you all, if you could go to, this link, which is link dot the complete approach dotco.ukforward/newsletter. That gets you on to our newsletter website, mailing list, then you get to hear about when we're publishing really interesting articles from the sort of people that we're talking to like Darren. So that's link dot the complete approach dotco.ukforward/newsletter. Please subscribe to that.
Stuart Webb [00:19:27]:
Darren, if you've done nothing else, you've helped me today. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes with us.
Darren Saul [00:19:32]:
My pleasure.
Stuart Webb [00:19:33]:
Looking forward to sharing the content with you because that's what this is all about. I'm quite happy to do that, and I think it's a really good point you've made. People should ask for that footage, that that content, and use it as much as they can. So, Darren, thank you so much for spending a few minutes with us. Looking forward to seeing what you do with this stuff.
Darren Saul [00:19:51]:
You bet. Thank you, Stuart, for having me, and thank you audience for listening and watching.
Stuart Webb [00:19:57]:
Bye bye.
Five Questions Over Coffee with Darren Saul (ep. 110)