Welcome to the Virtual Antics Podcast, where we help entrepreneurs streamline their business to six figures and beyond. These short, sweet and info-packed episodes will inspire, educate and leave you feeling motivated to take one more step forward in your business. So put down your never-ending to-do list, because in this podcast, we are interviewing the best of the best in the entrepreneurial world as they spill their secrets to success. This podcast is sponsored by Nadora, the all-in-one software for entrepreneurs to grow their business, with unlimited landing pages, automations, emails and text campaigns, and so much more. I'm your host, natalie Guzman. Now let's get into it. Hey y'all, welcome back to Virtual Antics Podcast. As always, I'm your host, natalie Guzman, and I'm so excited because I have the amazing Spencer Carpenter on the call with us. He is the founder of LAR Audio, a full-service podcast booking agency that represents talented entrepreneurs, business professionals, securing them podcast interviews. How are you doing today, spencer?
Speaker 2I'm good. Thanks so much for having me on. I'm hoping I can bring some value to the listeners.
Speaker 1Hey, I'm so excited, so tell us how you got started doing this.
Speaker 2Yeah, so my background is actually in the music industry. I was in that for about 15 years and I always worked on either side of talent representation. And when I found podcasts, I recognized that there were a lot of really talented entrepreneurs and investors and business professionals out there, but there's no real talent representation services for them, unless they want to invest a lot of money into like a PR company or they're already a celebrity. And so then, when everyone was stuck at home due to COVID, I decided I would make a shift out of music into representing those people and getting them booked on podcasts, because at the time that's all they could do to really get out there and continue promoting themselves. And so since that time I've booked over 1200 interviews for about 150 talented individuals and, just getting you know, helping them implement podcasts into their overall marketing strategy.
Speaker 1Oh, that's amazing. Now I've been last year I was on over a hundred episodes as a guest and it definitely has helped my business a million times. I love podcasting for either being a guest or hosting and getting clients that way. They're both really cool techniques and I feel like we're seeing more of that, especially this year. Do you feel, like this year, in 2024, that you've seen like a lot more entrepreneurs finally realizing that podcasting is a way to sell and get out there as well?
Speaker 2Yeah, I think there are definitely a lot of people that considered starting a podcast and then they got. They were like I feel like it's saturated which is a conversation in itself about why it's not overly saturated but they saw the angle of being on a podcast and not having to put out additional resources into starting this whole project up as a viable way for them to take advantage of the medium, repurpose content, especially with content being something that everyone is focusing more on. Being able to repurpose content that a host produces that now the guest doesn't have to is a really good way to fill up that schedule of organic conversations, stuff that you don't have to set up a camera and then figure out what it is you're going to talk about. So I definitely think that in the past couple of years, that's been one of the biggest uptrends is just being able to go on and be a guest.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's awesome. What are some benefits that entrepreneurs can see from being a guest on a podcast?
Speaker 2Off the bat, I mean look, I'm not a marketing professional so I'm not going to talk about, like you know, analytics of SEO and stuff like that. But, off the bat, if you were going to pay to do a press release or something and get pressed that way for SEO, that's cool and all. But being on five unique podcasts is way better than having one press release that goes to 300 outlets that all say the exact same thing. So, just off the bat, doing podcasts is great for really diversifying what's showing up in Google searches for you, things that aren't just you talking about yourself, but a host elevating you, then being able to repurpose that content that sometimes the host will create clips and that sort of thing, but if not, you can always go back, get the video and the audio and create your own clips. And I mean from one interview. You could have weeks worth of content if you really wanted to break it up into smaller bits, and that's something that's really done at the expense of the host rather than the individual having to hire a team and dedicate that time.
Speaker 2And then things that are less you know on the surface of the people and think about is right now you and I are connecting, you could be a referral source for me, I can be a referral source for you, even if no one listening ever reached out to me. We can benefit each other from this interaction. And then, you know, taking it further, the listener obviously can become a. You know someone that becomes a client, or they follow you on social media. Maybe they have something that can benefit you and now they learned about you and reached out. I mean, there's, it's. It's one of those things that there are a lot of different ways but you're never really sure what exactly you're going to get out of the result of doing just one interview. You know there's, there's a lots of potential there.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know, I actually had a connection. I was a guest on my podcast and me and him we never did business with one another, but we're always referring to each other, so we end up making a lot of money from referring each other's services and it's just kind of crazy how that happened, like we're completely different spaces but a lot of our you know connections were very similar and needing similar things. So that's really cool. I love that. And what do you recommend entrepreneurs look for when they're looking for a podcast that they should be a guest on?
Speaker 2Definitely. I would say the most important thing is that it be a show where there's going to be crossover, either for you to the listener or you to the to the post, because again, they might be the real goal or the real result of being on the podcast. Yeah, I definitely find there are lots of shows about health, wealth and fitness and that's a pretty broad area where lots of people can go on that show. But sometimes when I'm working with my clients, I don't want to pitch them to a broad conversation. Sometimes it's okay. Other times I know their goal is very specific, their clientele is very specific, their clientele is very specific. And so going on those broad, general conversation podcasts, it can be great for all those other things, the SEO and the content and again, you never know what's going to come from an interview. But if you're trying to niche down that broad conversation isn't great. You really want to go where you think that you can provide actionable guidance to the people that are listening.
Yeah, a hundred percent. I agree with that. And then also, like, like I said, that was on a hundred podcasts last year and I felt like it was good for some things. It was horrible for another one. I was super overwhelmed, I couldn't remember anyone. I talked to.
Speaker 1It was just so many people Plus I was doing my own episodes. I did 60. So that's 160 podcast episodes and it was a lot. But I learned a lot of cool things and I think one of the things I learned about is like the fewer podcast recordings that you're doing the week, the more that you can actually focus on them, you learn about them, you connect with them. So like I wasn't just showing up on the podcast.
Speaker 1I was hanging out with them on social media, you know, commenting on their content. I was sharing the posts I was creating the reels from, like those long form videos, like you said, and you know that built they saw me putting effort into promoting their podcast that they then would refer people to me. So there's so many ways that you can continue that relationship. What are some things that you recommend to your clients to do once they've actually booked a or once you've booked an episode for them? What's some like best practices?
Speaker 2Yeah, off the bat, I mean always go leave a five-star review for the show. Let them know that you're, you are paying attention, you are trying to give something back. Um, you know it, this should go without saying. But promoting the episode, I mean, maybe you don't have to go as far as making all of your own content, but you should at least be sharing the linking, letting people know that you're on the show. And usually best practice for that, especially if you're on something like LinkedIn or Instagram is not just saying go check out my recent interview, it's turning it into a piece of content that has some other value that you're, that you're able to uh give to the person reading the post or looking at the post and then say we talk about this in this interview I did with uh, so-and-so on this show. You can check it out here. Um, you know it's the.
Speaker 2I've had people come to me and say can you book me on 50 podcasts in a year? And I do, but they're not going to promote all of them. They can't say over and over go check out this interview. And, to your point, after, after like 25, they're like can we slow down? I like I can only do like one a week. Now it's taking up a lot of time.
Speaker 2You know, I'm kind of getting burnt out from saying the same thing, and so I do recommend people always like space out, don't I'm not saying don't do pot. You should, definitely should, but don't overwhelm yourself, like if if I even think one a week is like a pretty good goal, but even that can become a lot. And I think it's also important to go back, listen to it and see where maybe you can improve upon your message, change it up a little bit, um, spice it up so that's not the same thing over and over again. If you want to create content out of it, then you can't have the same 45 minute conversation a hundred times and expect to get new content from that. Um, but yeah, those, those are a few things I recommend people do is definitely go familiarize yourself with the app. You know the show. At least listen to one episode so you know who the host is and and just little things like that.
Speaker 1Yeah, and then also, you know, we talked about like promoting, right. I think that was one of the things that at our time was was like I couldn't keep track of all the episodes that I was on and then like trying to promote them all, and then so I created a SOP for my team. So for people listening that don't know what that is, it's a standard operating procedure. It's your step-by-step what you do in your business. I always talk about them on my podcast because you need them if you have a business. But what we did was we created that, and so basically we say, grab the YouTube link or whatever link it is, put it into Capwing, which is the AI software that then turns it into social media clips, and then my team would be the ones that would take them and post them. So I didn't have to do it. So if all else fails, hire it out, you should. It's kind of nice. I like to say that I show up and I just look pretty and then my team handles it.
Speaker 2Well, and with my agency that's. The other thing is we, you know, we follow up with the host. We find out when it's going to be released, so we can plan accordingly. We go and get the video and the audio. We turn the podcast link into a bitly, so that's smaller. You know, those are all things that we manage for people as well, with what we do.
Speaker 1Yeah, and you need a company like yours, because you shouldn't be spending all your time doing that, and there's like other things that you should be doing in your business. This is really something that you should be hiring out, I know that's that's why I like just showing up looking pretty, because if I can just hire it out and give it to someone else, it leaves me to do, you know, those, what I call the CEO tasks right, super important things that your time is worth a lot of money. You should have a set price on your hourly time, by the way. That's how I always think of it. I'm like, okay, what do I rate myself as a CEO? What's my hourly rate? Now, is this a task that I would pay someone else that much money for? No, so don't do it. But yeah, that's amazing. So what are some other things that maybe you guys offer? You take off the plates of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2Yeah, so we really focus more on developed podcasts. I mean, if someone is, obviously we have to meet our clients where they're at in their professional careers. But I work with a lot of people that are more established. They are authors, they've been around for a while and so I focus on getting them a more established podcast that have a larger reach, maybe a community They've been around a while rather than the low hanging fruit from you know some of the podcasting platforms out there.
Speaker 2I also recommend anybody, even before they work with me, go make a pod match profile. You know, get, get some experience. Go connect with all those shows that are right there already asking for you know you to come onto the show and then come to me for more specialized and and you know, not higher tier, because they're they're all. They all have quality conversations but maybe their shows are a little more difficult to get in touch with because they've been around a while. They get hundreds of submissions a month. I help people stand out through that and also Working with people to figure out what it is, what the unique value proposition is, if they don't already know it. There are lots of people that are really good at what they do, but they are not really good at talking about themselves. It's something they really haven't had to do as much. So I you know, through my experience with creating pitches and dealing with a lot of people, I help them curate what I think those topics and value propositions are that haven't already been discussed a dozen times on that show.
Speaker 1That's awesome, yeah, and that's that's so needed, so, and that can do like the strategy and the thinking behind it, cause I know for me, like I am thinking about strategy all day long. If there's something I don't have to think about and I can give it to someone that I can trust, it's just like so much better. It's going to be better content, better quality too, because there's just so many things that we do as entrepreneurs and you know, I think podcast guesting is like huge. It's something that can definitely boost your business, but you need to have like the right team, the right strategy and everything that goes behind it. I know I went to.
Speaker 1I love Podmatch. I found out about Podmatch through Podfest. Do you know? Podfest Love them, so I go there every year and it's like this big expo. It's basically a big party for podcasters and it's so cool and so from there I learned before I ever had a podcast. So I learned all about podcasts and podcast guesting and there was like people there that would go there that were only podcast guests and they were giving out all the strategy and like I was able to watch and learn and it's just so cool how much goes into it, you know a lot of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1I know, like there was this one speaker at PodFest that talked about you know, you find a podcast that you've been on and then you connect with other guests that have been on that podcast and that's how you can expand your network. I thought that was so cool. I was like mind blown because you have something in common. You can refer to that person like, hey, I heard about you from so-and-so, you know from Spencer, and I thought that was like the coolest thing.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean it's. That's also a lot of shows have like their own communities on Facebook and on LinkedIn and you can go and interact with those people as well and you have that immediate credibility from being on the show already.
Speaker 1Yep, I know that's one of the things I put in my email. I give a link to any of the guests to make sure that they join the group. You know where all the podcast stuff is happening, because it's it's a community right we want to build our. Your network is your net worth, and so the more that you can grow that and connect with the people. That's kind of what it's all about. I thank you so much for coming on. I feel like I've learned so much from you. It's been amazing. Where can we find you and more about your services as well.
Speaker 2Yeah, so you can check us out at outlieraudiocom. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Instagram. Both are just under my name, spencer Carpenter, and same with the business name Outlier Audio.
Speaker 1Perfect, awesome. Thank you so much, spencer. I'll make sure I put all that in the show notes and then you guys can connect with Spencer and other guests on the Virtual Antics Podcast at Nadora Connect's Facebook group. You just search for Nadora Connect. It'll pop right up and come and join the party. We do networking meetings, workshops and so much more, and we'll talk to you guys next time on the Virtual Antics Podcast.