Small Voices, Big Reach: Owning Your Media Stack with Ann Carden

Ready to turn your podcast from “content” into a client engine? We sit down with business growth strategist Ann Carden to map a clear path from microphone to monetization. Ann’s built and sold multiple businesses, lived through the era of pricey print and radio ads, and now shows why podcasts, when paired with smart positioning, can outpace old-school spend while building brand authority that lasts.

We dig into the shift from one-and-done ads to evergreen media you own and repurpose. Anne breaks down practical lead-gen plays—interviewing buyers, guesting on targeted shows, and crafting calls to action that move listeners to your list, calendar, or offer. If you’re stuck on “hope marketing,” her step-by-step framing will help you define the end game first, pick a format you can sustain, and build a pipeline that turns episodes into real sales conversations. You’ll also hear how she stacks platforms—podcast, digital/print magazine, and a forthcoming TV show—to multiply reach, win stages, and package visibility for partners and sponsors.

For creators and consultants chasing sponsorships too soon, Anne sets expectations on timelines and trade-offs, then shows faster paths to premium clients through relevance and trust. For beginners, she offers a simpler on-ramp: start with a tight avatar, consistent episodes, and ruthless repurposing into blogs, clips, and newsletters that boost SEO and discovery. The takeaway is bold yet practical: raise your own bar, build influence with your voice, and use today’s tools to play a bigger game than your budget suggests.

Connect with Ann:
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anncarden-business-consultant-coach/
Websites:
annlcarden.com
expertinyou.biz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/anncarden

Transcript

Welcome And Anne’s Background

Carl 0:04

Welcome to Communication Connection Community, the Podcasters Podcast. This podcast takes a deep dive into modern-day communication strategies in the podcasting space. We chat with interesting people who make the podcasting and speaking spaces exciting and vibrant. We also dive into the podcasting community with news, updates, latest trends and topics from this ever-evolving space. Let's dive into today's episode. You know, a lot of people come to the podcasting space not knowing exactly where the podcast can lead them, having an idea, maybe having a dream, maybe having a vision of what a podcast could be. And I know those those first 10 episodes can be a little bit rough, but really it's about having a plan and knowing that, you know what? Where your podcast starts and where it leads are two very different places. And my guest today has been in the podcasting space for only four years, but I'll tell you, she's a very seasoned entrepreneur and business owner. And I'm going to share with you that she is a phenomenal person to connect with. You're going to love my conversation today with Anne Carden. She is a top business growth expert, marketing and sales strategist and consultant. She is the CEO of A Carden Inc. and the expert in new attraction, marketing, and media agency and brand. Anne has more than 43 years of business marketing and sales experience with over 34 years as an entrepreneur. She has built seven successful businesses, selling five of them, and is the current owner of two of them. She has been coaching and doing consulting work for the past 14 years and has worked with several hundred small business owners, consultants, and coaches, ratchet up their business. She's been featured on the affiliates of ABC, NBC, CW, and Fox, among many other media outlets, and was chosen by Six Figure Coach Magazine as one of the top coaches in the world and was recently honored to be inducted into Who's Who in America. We are so thrilled that she's bringing her expertise to the platform today. An welcome to the podcast.

Ann 2:26

Thank you, Carl. It's a pleasure to be here.

Carl 2:28

We've been trying to do this, I think, for six months.

Ann 2:31

It feels like I think it's been a while.

Why Podcasting As High-Impact Marketing

Carl 2:34

When people come asking, sometimes it takes a while to make sure schedules are clear. So, Anne, I'm glad we both have time to chat today. You've been at this business game for quite some time. You've been very successful as a business owner. I mean, you don't sell five businesses and still run two and not be successful at it. And all of a sudden, here you are in the podcasting space of all the things you could do for your business. What led you to podcasting?

Ann 3:03

When I came online several years ago, I realized the power of influence online. And if you want to stand out, you have to be doing things that are, I call them high-impact marketing strategies. So you have to be doing things where your voice is being heard, you're being seen, you're more visible, you're playing a bigger game, Carl. And we have never had the opportunities to do that that we do today. When I think about all the businesses I built for many, many years, I had to advertise in magazines and newspapers and the old-fashioned way that was very costly and it wasn't always super effective. And then, you know, coming into the online world and all of the tools and resources that we have available today, I like to say it's leveled the playing field between the small guys and the big guys. And so if people aren't leveraging that, oh gosh, they're missing so much. And so I love speaking, I love sharing and giving back. And this podcasting was a way to do that. But I also use it as a lead generation strategy in my business. And I teach the same thing to my clients.

Carl 4:10

We're going to talk about that, not to give away your best work, but we'll definitely make sure that we talk about that. But you've obviously in 43 years seen quite a bit of change. I mean, obviously, back in the day too, you would have been attending conferences, you would have been putting forward speaker profiles to speak at conferences, setting up trade shows, all of those things. Not that those things still don't exist today, but there's certainly a lot of even at those events, there are digital components, people with phones walking around collecting QR codes to get their prizes or their freebies or whatever it is. What are some of the biggest changes that you've noticed in the, let's say, in the marketing space?

From Old-School Ads To Digital Reach

Ann 4:48

I think really in the marketing space, it is just the fact that now we have all of these online platforms and ways to reach more people. I mean, let's just take a Facebook ad, for example. You can test in real time very quickly for a dollar a day, whether or not something is going to land in your marketing, in your message. And we've just never had that luxury before. So when you think about a trade show, you go to a trade show, you pay thousands of dollars to have a booth to get all of your setup, right? That sometimes that can be tens of thousands of dollars, depending on um how much you get into that. Uh, you've got swag that you have to buy. You're probably doing giveaways. I mean, there's this whole world around it. And we just don't have to do things at that level anymore. There's nothing wrong with those things. But I really believe that if you're going to play in the business world today, you want to be doing both online and offline strategies. And we can't, you know, like being online and being seen and heard online is no longer an option. It's a necessity. So if you want to play a bigger game, if you want to really become known, you want to be able to really grow and accelerate your growth and build opportunities for yourself, you have to be doing things that other people aren't willing to do. And I think podcasting and digital marketing, where you're really using your voice, I like to call it influence marketing, where you're really using your voice, building on that brand, building that influence, it's a game changer. It's just something we've just never had before. So I would say that's the biggest, biggest difference.

Carl 6:33

I remember when I started in the radio world, there was, I mean, digital existed, but not to the point that it does today. I mean, websites existed. If you wanted to connect to the internet, it was dial up and it took forever.

Ann 6:46

You had to I remember the noise.

Carl 6:49

I do. I can still hear it in my head.

Ann 6:52

I can hear it too. And you'd sit there for an hour and watch the little spinning thing. Oh my gosh, we're aging ourselves.

Carl 6:58

Oh gosh. And if you didn't do a defrag by the end of the week, oh, I forgot about that. Your next week would be chaotic, at least for the first day. It's like, why is my computer so slow? Oh, I forgot to do a defrag. Oops.

Ann 7:12

I forgot about that. Oh my gosh, that's so funny. Yeah, for a lot of years, you know, I just didn't have that luxury. And it's just we're in a whole different world, but it's such a great thing because which is kind of why it kills me when I see people that say, What? You know, this much money a month for a podcast. And I'm thinking, you have no idea how much you are saving compared to the way we used to have to do things in the marketing world. It's crazy.

Carl 7:44

Thank you. Can you shout that a little bit louder, please? Because I need my prospects, my next clients to hear that because that's the space we work in. And I think that, and and not to go down this rabbit hole, but but I think some people don't understand the value of even conventional media. So I could picture and say, I know, having worked in radio, that if you wanted an annual campaign in a medium-sized market of 150 to 200,000 people, that annual campaign evenly spaced out might be a $50,000 to $75,000 investment. That's for an annual campaign in radio. Let's not even talk about television, which is a different beast to begin with. So when you start talking about podcasts that are low-end 15, 20, you know, and I'm talking Canadian dollars, but you can do the math to figure it out. Uh, but you know, you're talking some, in some cases, high-end products and services uh in the podcasting space that are there's a reason why you pay a thousand or two thousand per episode. It's because of what it's doing and the power behind that. And it's actually saving you in the end, while it's saving you time, you're not having to figure out how to do it all yourself. And it's also saving you because all of those pieces connect. You know, your podcast becomes your blog, becomes your this, becomes your that. An agency like ours tooting our own horn here, horn here. But we can do that, we can put all that together for you. And you must recognize that too, in the space that you work in as well.

Cost, Value, And Repurposing Power

Ann 9:15

Not only that, Carl, I can give people some real stories here. So when I was running some of my businesses years ago, I would have to pay for an ad. Let's say an ad in a magazine. My first company went global. That was before the internet, before any of the technology that we had. And the way that company went global was I would advertise in international magazines. But here was the thing: I would pay now, keep in mind this was 33 years ago. 33 years, okay. And I was paying $1,500 to $2,000 for an international magazine ad with my product. And then what happened though is that ad would come out every month, but they would be three issues, three magazine issues ahead. So you were paying three issues out. So you've now got several thousand dollars invested to even find out if your ad was going to do anything. So you would already be three ads in, $1,500, $2,000 per ad. So do the math. And then what if that ad didn't pull? You didn't even know, right? Until you had already invested that kind of money. Now we have the luxury of putting it out on social media. Hey, what do you think about this? And people can say yes or no, right? I mean, it's just such a different world. And so, to your point, I used to buy radio ads, I used to buy full-page newspaper ads. Same thing, they were several thousand dollars for one ad. Now, here's the other piece of it. Not only could I not repurpose those in any way, shape, or form because they were print, right? But the other piece of that is they were not evergreen. Once that newspaper was tossed, it was done. Unless I advertised, and so they used to have this whole philosophy brand awareness. But the problem with that is someone small like me or like you or a solopreneur or even a small company could not compete for brand awareness. And so that's where direct marketing came in. We used to say, you know, small guys, they can't afford brand awareness, they don't have deep pockets to afford brand awareness. However, podcasting, even if you're paying, even if it's costing you two or three thousand dollars a month, which a lot of people don't even charge that to, you know, to do the back end work for you and everything. Even if you're doing that, you said it, you get to repurpose that so many different ways, and it's out there forever. And we've just never had that before. It's just, it's gold. It is it's literally gold in the business world.

Carl 12:02

Which is another reason why it's such a valuable tool for lead gen. Because if you don't mind me shifting into that, because I'm not the expert, I could probably earn a lesson or two from you. But in the lead gen space, with that content, there's so much value. And when you know who you're speaking to, and I think this is one of the pitfalls that early podcasters or people who haven't done their due diligence in their business to begin with, to find out who their client avatar is and who they're really want to be speaking to, or they think it's a different thing in the podcasting space. They think, here's my client avatar for business. But when it comes to podcasting, it's going to be different. It's not, it's going to be the exact same thing, unless you have two different types of clients that you want to attract. But even still, you're still going to be using the leveraging the platform to do that to generate those leads. And for people who are coming to the podcasting space for business, it should be treated like any other business investment. And especially if you know that if it's set up correctly, I'll let you take take the lead here in just a sec. You set it up correctly, you can have a, and maybe not instantly, but you can you set it up correctly and you work it, you can have a good stream of leads coming in because you position that content correctly.

Lead Generation: Strategy Over Hope

Ann 13:18

Yes. So this is one of the high impact strategies I teach to my clients because I help my clients get premium clients in their coaching, consulting, professional business. So podcasting is one of the ways that I help them build their influence, build their visibility, and also use it for lead generation, both guesting and hosting. And one of the mistakes that I see people make when they decide they want to do podcasting is they don't have a clear strategy. They don't have a clear end result of what they're trying to accomplish. And everything, whatever your end game is for your podcast, that's those are the steps, those are the pieces that you need to put in place. And a lot of people don't do that. Like they think if I just put the value out there, it's like hope marketing. If I just put it out there, people will come. But that isn't really what happens. There's a lot of noise, right? So you have to have a clear strategy around what you're trying to do. And if your goal is to get in front of buyers, it's to there's two ways to do that. You can interview those buyers and then learn how to turn that into a sales call. You can guest with buyers and learn how to turn that into a sales call, or you can put out content and then give a call to action, get people on your list to monetize, to sell things. There's so many ways you can use a podcast. You have to figure out what is going to best serve you in your business. And I think a lot of people don't do that. And that's why a lot of times, Carl, and you, I know you see this, I've seen it. I've been doing podcasting for going on four years. And what is the average person sticks with a podcast? 10 episodes or something like that. And that's because they don't have a clear strategy. And so because it they burn out and they don't have a real clear picture of what to expect from that podcast. And so if they're trying to build it up, here's an example. You're trying to build it up enough to get sponsorships. You have to realize you're going to have to put advertising money into that. You're going to have to get some big heavy hitters on your show. And all of those things don't come overnight. So that's a long, more of a long game, right? But there are ways to leverage your podcast and monetize your podcast literally almost immediately, if you have the right strategy. So it's having the right expectations, but it's also having the right game plan for your podcast as well.

Carl 15:44

Do you think, Ann, that part of the challenge is with podcasting, is you've sort of alluded to it, is that there are so many things that you can do. There are so many different ways you can monetize. There are many different ways you can provide valuable content or drive people to your website. And that when there's that many things to choose from, that people go, I don't know where to begin.

Ann 16:07

Yeah. And I think too, if you think about it, Carl, anybody can really start a podcast if they wanted to. I mean, it doesn't take much to start it. Of course, most people that have anything really going in their business realize that's not a good use of their time to do what you do, the back-end work and all of those kinds of things. So that's why we hire experts to do that stuff for us. But I think people don't really understand business to the degree that they need to understand business. And so as a result of that, they often go down the wrong path. I don't know how to monetize this. I don't know the best way to do this. And so they might look at other people out there and say, okay, this person's doing this and this person's, oh, I think I'll do that. But they don't really understand what's underneath that and what, you know, what the real pieces are to doing that. So it's really a lack of knowledge and experience, I think, in business and marketing that keeps people sort of stuck. And then I think the the other thing is people, yes, we want to give value. That is a big purpose of our podcast, right? To put that value out there to be seen. But at the end of the day, most people have a real reason why they're doing their podcast. I mean, it costs money, even if you're doing it yourself, it's time and money. And you have to realize that and it's effort. And so if you don't really know where you want that podcast to go or what you want to do with it, you're going to burn up time and money and effort. And so it's important. That's why experts exist. That is why, you know, when you try to DIY things, that most of those people go away because they get frustrated. So I think you have to really understand the intricate details of building something.

Avoiding Burnout With Clear Goals

Carl 17:53

I always say it's the reason why I take my car to a mechanic, because if I didn't, my spouse would I would lift the hood and go, geez, I wonder what's going on. And I'd get the response, what are you doing? It's a Tesla. It does, there is no hood. It's called a frunk. Like uh, because I'm not the expert, but I do know that if I need something done, I don't hesitate to go to the professional to have it done, to save me time and money. I don't cut my actually, no, I do cut my own hair. That's a bad example. I don't perform my own dentistry because that's not what I do, right? I go to the professional. The same thing with podcasting and strategy as well. That's why people hire you, is to help them with strategy, to help them just like with some of the things you're doing. And I want to talk about that because you are now leveraging media with your podcast or through your podcast. So talk about that a little bit.

Ann 18:45

Oh, we're not on video, right? But I'll show my magazine. So I have my expert in you magazine is building on my expert in you podcast. And I started that magazine. Number one, I want to continue to build out my expert in you brand. So I sold five businesses, right? So I always have this, okay, at some point you're gonna exit. At some point you'll exit. So what does that look like? I started thinking about owning my own media. What does that look like? So I own my own podcast, right? And one of the reasons I wanted to have a magazine is because number one, it can be digital and it can be print. So it's either. But I wanted to give my clients a platform. I'm helping them build their influence, their visibility, their brand. And I wanted to give them a platform, but I also wanted to be able to leverage media along with the podcast with the voice media. It's turned into a really nice way to monetize both my podcast and my magazine. And so there's a lot of ways to use it. But think about this. When someone wants to be in my magazine, I'm charging for an article or an ad or whatever. I can add my podcast into that as an add-on or a value ad, or vice versa. Someone wants to be on my podcast, I can now offer them the magazine to be in that. And it gives them even more reach, even more visibility. And so that, you know, those are ways that I'm using it. It also makes it easier to get sponsors and speaking engagements and get on stages, having a podcast makes it easier to get on stages. So having the magazine along with that just powers all that up.

Carl 20:24

You're leveraging launching a TV show. Now you're already leveraging YouTube as a platform and obviously the audio platforms too, but you're looking at going beyond that with a TV show.

Ann 20:35

I am. So I in the stages right now working with someone to launch an expert in you uh television show for entrepreneurs and still trying to figure those pieces out and what that is going to look like. Again, it goes along with building an influential brand, attraction marketing, media. You know, these are just opportunities we've never had before. So to me, it's like the next level, it's the next step. But again, how can all of this fit together? I mean, imagine what a robust package I can now offer someone, be on my TV show, be on my podcast, be in my magazine, right? Let me, and let's get you a lot of reach through that. So it's just a way to number one, get to even bigger people that you wouldn't maybe normally be able to get to or reach. It's a way to get referrals and open more doors of opportunity. So all of those things just build credibility and build influence in the market.

Owning Media: Podcast, Magazine, TV

Carl 21:35

Oh my goodness. An we have covered so much ground in such a short period of time. I do want to ask you one more thing, though, and then I'll give you the opportunity to let people know how they can connect with you. 43 years in business, you've been very successful. You have a podcast, you're you know, you've got the magazine, you're now launching into the TV show. If I'm a brand new person looking at this, hearing your words. What would you say to them? Because I know that it might seem daunting hearing all the things that you, you know, your 43 years of success. What would you say to somebody who's brand new looking at this space for the very first time?

Ann 22:10

Yeah, I would say, first of all, just get clear on your strategy. And if you don't really know what that looks like, work with someone that can help you figure that out. And then start a podcast is a great way to start with getting yourself out there, getting yourself more visible. To me, it's the simpler way, right? A magazine's a little more, a TV show is going to be a little bit more. So to me, they're kind of stages. If you're out there even doing live streaming on social media, you can easily turn those things into a podcast. And a podcast can just, there's so many ways to use it. Oh my gosh, you can just leverage it a hundred different ways. I would say that's where you start, but have a good strategy behind it so that you get traction with it from the very beginning and you don't burn out. And a lot of people burn out just because they don't have that piece in place.

Carl 23:01

I think you said that it's, and I think you're right, with that 10 episodes at most, and say this is either too hard or I was expecting bigger results in a shorter period of time. It does take time, but it also will be a shorter journey traveled if you do what Anne has suggested. And that's going in with a strategy and a purpose, and not to quote Simon Sinek, but understanding why are you doing this?

Ann 23:25

What's the end game? And to your point, Carl, it doesn't have to take a long time. And that's the thing. I make a lot of money from guesting and hosting my podcast. A lot of money, but it's through clients. I get clients that way. And I teach my clients to get clients that way. And so it doesn't have to be a long. I mean, it is a long game because you don't want to start and stop, right? But it doesn't have to take a long time. In fact, if you have a great strategy, you know exactly what you want to accomplish, and you have someone that can say, here's here are the steps. This is how you, this is how you set that up. The results actually can be pretty fast. They you don't have to go through a hundred episodes before you make any money. So, but again, knowing what that is for you is important. But that is it's such an important piece, I cannot stress it enough. To me, it's the most important piece before you start anything in marketing.

Carl 24:18

Ann mentioned earlier uh free digital magazine that's loaded with inspiring stories, insights, and strategies from leading industry experts. Did you want to share just a quick hit of that again, Ann?

Ann 24:31

Yes, you can go to expertinumagazine.com. It is a free digital download. And um, I we have our second issue getting ready to come out shortly, and it is going to be fantastic. I hope you will go grab it, and it's just beautifully done and it's very high-end, and I'm super excited to share that with you.

Carl 24:51

We'll make sure that the link is in the show notes for that. I'm excited to start combing through the pages as well to see what's there. Also, we'll provide all of the information on how you can connect with Anne, follow her on social media and all that stuff as well. Anne, it's been a great discussion. But before I leave you today, before I let you depart, I'll give you the final thought.

Ann 25:12

I always say raise your own bar and build your influence. We have that opportunity today. We've never had this kind of opportunity for the small guys like us to play a big game. And I feel like there are no limits to what we can accomplish in the marketplace today. You can play above other people. And so I always want to encourage people to keep raising your bar.

Carl 25:36

I love it. And that's a great place to leave it. That's a great note to leave it on. Ann Carden, thank you so much for being my guest today.

Ann 25:42

Thank you so much for having me. It was fun.

Where Beginners Should Start

Carl 25:45

And hey, thank you for being a part of the show today. So glad you could join us. Believe it or not, I can't work this magic by myself. So thanks to my amazing team, our audio engineer Dom Carillo, our sonic branding genius Kenton Dobrowolski, and the person who works the arms, all of our arms actually, our project manager and my trusty assistant Julovell Tiongco, known to us here simply as July. If you like what you heard today, let us know. You can leave us a comment or review or even send us a voice note. And if you really liked it, we hope you'll share it with your friends and your colleagues. If you don't like what you heard today, well, please feel free to share with your enemies. And if you know of someone who would make a great guest on the show, let us know about it. You can get in touch with us by going to our show notes where all of our connection points are there, including the links to our website, LinkedIn, and Facebook as well. And if you're ready to be a guest on podcasts, or even start your own show, let's have a conversation. We'll show you the simplest way to get into the podcasting space and rock it. Because after all, we're Podcast Solutions Made Simple. Catch again next time.