A Podcast On Podcast - Launching Your Own Podcast With Adam A. Adams

Andy Splichal  0:02  

Welcome to the Make Each Click Count podcast. This is your host, Andy Splichal. And today I'm being joined by a special guest to discuss podcast. I guess this makes today's podcast episode, a podcast on podcast. A big good welcome to Adam A. Adams, host of the Apartment Investing Show. How are you doing, Adam?

Adam Adams  1:16  

I'm doing fantastic. Thank you. 

Andy Splichal  1:18  

Well, great. Thanks for joining us. Now. Before we dive into today's topic of launching your own podcast, let's hear a little of your backstory and why exactly you were so passionate about podcast.

Adam Adams  1:32  

Yeah. Why? Thank you for having me on your show. I'm excited to be on the Make Each Click Count. It's almost a tongue twister, by the way, but I'll give you a bit of background. I grew up doing a lot of real estate investing. That's what my friends my family has always been in and what I always believed that I would do. And so I am a real estate investor. That's my main, my main thing. So with real estate investing have grown from 2005 through now it's 21. So over those last 16 or so years, I've grown a portfolio of a little over $100 million of real estate. And it's been a huge thing for me. And what's interesting is I can really pinpoint the success of my real estate growth back to 2017 when I launched the pod that the podcast that you mentioned about the apartment investing show anyway, I sold my first real estate podcast. So that's no longer really my show anymore, but I sold it. And I actually started a podcast on podcasting, which is funny that you said that that's the topic of today, because my podcast is literally called the podcast on podcasting or pop for short. But at any rate I sold the first one I had four offers three of them over 50 grand. So of course, I sold the that old podcast of real estate. And I am launching the podcast on podcasting. And I've noticed that with me in real estate that I got most like 99% of my results happened after I launched a podcast, it was easier to attract private capital for closing on real estate deals. OPM, they call it, it was easier to actually find deals, when we were putting out offers on large apartment communities when the apartment community might be $20 million to purchase or whatever. When we were doing that, and people would look up my name and it would find the apartment investing show, I would get a whole bunch of credibility, they would listen, we I published more than 500 episodes. So they would listen in and they would they would know that I was really focused over the last few years in real estate, in apartment investing, and we got a lot of credibility. And in this industry, they call it if a deal is one. And basically what that means is that the the owner of the the apartment community decides to sell it to us. That's when we win a deal. And we won a lot of deals because of a podcast. So I've just noticed that it's brought a lot of success to me. And the people that have helped launch a podcast it's brought a ton of success to them and their business. They're making more money because they have a podcast. So that's why I'm passionate about it.

Andy Splichal  4:30  

Well, that's Yeah, that's interesting. This this topic, the topic of launching your own podcast, it's it's a bit of a new angle for my listeners. Now the majority of my past Make Each Click Count guest that have come on have discussed improving conversion or streamlining different business processes. Now, given that, obviously if someone has listened to the podcast today that they are they're aware of podcasts, but maybe not the power of podcasts. You touched on that a bit. And that's why I really had brought you on to discuss launching your own podcast. Although your story it's in the apartment investing Navy and the credibility there. Now most of my listeners are ecommerce businesses or work for E commerce businesses. How do you believe? How do you see that launching a podcast could help an e-commerce business?

Adam Adams  5:21  

That is really good question. And I'm trying to think of the best ways that it would be involved. And really one thing with my podcast, any podcasts that you have, you can have affiliate links and everything. So I feel like one cool way that you could do it with the Ecommerce is by subtly talking about not maybe not even subtly, but talking about some of the things that you sell on the website. And you might have different people that you could interview that sell those things or have those things or experience with those products or services that you're selling on your business on your online business. And you might be able to have somebody come and talk about this one product, you asked about the product. And then you can just let the listener know that down in the comments, there's a link that they can get this for a discount, or a link where they can go directly and and grab this thing that you're selling on your ecommerce business. And so that would be I think, a phenomenal way where you could you could interview anyone and everyone. And you could always tie it in or just have AD sponsored ads, where you say this ad is this This episode is sponsored by Ecommerce business number one.com. And, and right now they're offering this one product, and the way that you can get it is scrolling down to the show notes and go ahead and and grabbing that. So I think it just builds more awareness of your personal brand, and can allow you to be able to affiliate your own show.

Andy Splichal  7:02  

Yeah, no, that's that's a great idea. You know, while you were thinking I was kind of piecing it together as well. And I think another great idea would be for vendors that don't want their web, their products on just any website, you could kind of distinguish yourself apart just like you did with your apartment investing, where you could make that show known and you get that name. And he might give a little bit of cash cache on trying to get more exclusive lines, if you're that kind of website would be another another idea. Now, if if someone who is thinking of launching a podcast, whether ecommerce or not, is there any where a client comes to you since you've started doing that? Is there any advice specific advice that you would give them right off the bat?

Adam Adams  7:48  

100% Yes, there's a couple of things that I probably would share. Regardless if they work with us or do it on their own, or however they do it. I think that these things are going to be concrete and an unwavering. And the first one is that you have to market your podcast. Now, when we launch podcasts for other people, we ask you to give do marketing and we teach you how and we do it on our own. But for for that part that I usually teach others how to do I'll share with you the main thing right now, so that it can be really tangible. And you can leave this episode already knowing how you're going to launch your podcast. Yeah. So the first thing is, I would say Ready, aim, fire versus ready fire aim. And that's that's important to start there. Because everyone else is telling you to start a podcast ready fire aim, just start it. Don't think about it. Don't Don't worry about making it perfect. I hear that all the time, right. So instead of ready fire aim, let's just consider a little bit of Ready Aim Fire. This spend a ton a little bit of time to just kind of identify who your avatar is, basically, who you're creating this show for how that's going to relate to you that you should have some type of free giveaway, I call it a lead magnet, you should have some type of free giveaway, even from your very first episode, that you can say to your listener, when you start your podcast, hey, I've got this free thing of value. If you want to know like for you example, and you probably already have this and if you don't, it's cool it here's an idea for your ecommerce podcast. So you have something it's like the 10 steps or so to how to create an e commerce website how to create your Ecommerce business without failing or without having to do marketing or whatever you put in there. And then at the end of every episode, including the very first one, you just say hey, remember to get your free giveaway on how to create your Ecommerce company by going into this shownotes and clicking that link, or ecommerce.com, Ford slash free giveaway, for instance. Now, now this is what I mean by Ready, Aim, Fire, understanding your avatar, understanding what you're going to give your avatar, what they're struggling with how you're going to help them, and starting to build out a funnel. To be able to give them value, have them take action, give you their email, and then you cultivate them with an email sequence until you call them to action to like in my podcast, it'd be start your own podcast, so I'll call them to action in those email sequences, and I'll say, Hey, if you're ready to do this, call me or set up an appointment. All of this needs to be figured out. Now, some more tangibles for you, besides the funnel, and just understanding how it works is going to be something like how you start marketing it on your own. The first thing that I want your listener to do when they have their own podcast, I want them to start calling their friends and their family. And I will give you a huge tip and trick that might surprise you and even scare a listener. But the thing is, I say try to call 200 friends. Now if you don't have 200 friends, you call the number that you have. But I want to I want you to think big when it when it comes to this, you're launching your podcast, your first episode is published. Now I want you to get on your cell phone and call all the people that you know, and give them this pitch. I'll just give it straight to you. So write it down, you're going to say something effective. Hey, John, I don't know if you noticed, but I just launched my new brand new podcast. It's about this one subject. And all I need is a couple people that I trust, write that down. All I need is a couple people that I trust. To jump on there, listen to an episode or two. And just give me an honest rating and review. Just listen to one or two episodes and give me an honest review. Can I count on you to help me out. That's what you're going to do. Now what I what I'll say is most of the podcasts that you go and look at, they've got less than 30 ratings and reviews because the 90% of podcasts have 30 or less 30 or fewer. And so if you can call 100 or 200 of your friends and family and say that, I need a couple of people that I trust, to jump on there, listen to an episode or two. And give me an honest not a five star by the way, give me an honest rating and review. Now all of a sudden, iTunes can recognize you, as one of the top podcasts in the United States or in the globally in the world. Because they have algorithms that go and look at this. And when you've got a whole bunch of 100 or 205 star ratings and written reviews that are honest, not not five star specifically, then all of a sudden Apple is going to say, Wow, this person's podcast is remarkable. They've got a lot of traction already. What they're doing with the 1.5 million, it used to be only 800,000. Now it's one point over 1.5 million podcast. what Apple does is a bunch of split testing. They put two podcasts in front of people and the one that they take action on there, and the one that gets listened to the one that gets downloads, ratings and reviews. Those are the ones where they say Alright, this one's performing, I'm going to put in front of more people. So that's you hacking into Apple's algorithm, so that they promote you, and you don't have to pay for it anymore. You don't have to stress about it. That's a couple of huge, helpful ideas. If you're going to start your own podcast, Ready, Aim Fire. And make sure you call 200 Friends.

Andy Splichal  14:08  

lots of great tips. Now what because I know you know, you work with people launching their podcasts what how does it work when somebody wants to work with you.

Adam Adams  14:19  

So we have two options only. There's a top 10% option and a top 1% option. If they pick the top 10% option. It's very low price it basically it's just we're going to help you do all the post production of your of what you're doing. And we actually put a little bit of marketing towards your show on a regular basis. And so they chose either want to be top 10% or Top 1% Top 10% right now, as we record, it's 1100 a month and that covers all of the marketing, all of the consulting, we create all of the images, it's done for you. You don't have to worry about anything. And if we fail, which we won't, if we fail, we write you a check for 10 grand. And on the top 1%. Again, we do everything done for you, we create all of your logos and your intro and your outro. You don't have to hire anyone on Fiverr or anything like that. And if we fail, then we'd write you a check for $20,000 we won't fail by the way we know what we're doing.

Andy Splichal  15:23  

And what is as a great reverse guarantee. What do you consider being a success for those clients working with you? 

Adam Adams  15:33  

Well, top 10% is going to be where they have at least 30 ratings and reviews that we want them to have 35 star ratings on their podcast, and we want to make sure that they have a certain amount of downloads. So usually our our clients in the top 10%, they're going to have around 4000 Plus downloads in the very first month. And by the way, a lot of other people, they they struggled to get 5000 or 10,000, in a whole year or two. So 4000 in the very first month is great, that's a really good way to show iTunes that you're performing. And on the top 1% We make sure they have at least 100 ratings and reviews and 12,000 downloads in the first month that will hack into the algorithms to allow iTunes to start promoting them.

Andy Splichal  16:27  

Now besides calling 200 Friends, how do you get those all those reviews?

Adam Adams  16:34  

Yeah, super good question. Because what we're doing on our site, we asked you to do your your part, because hopefully we're gonna get you 300 or 400. But then on our side, we do a number of things. So it, it always will change based on your show. So if you have a show for e-commerce or if you have a show for nursing, or if you have a show for real estate or anything else, it will determine how we do our promotion for you. So the the question, if I understand it correctly, is what are you really doing for the promotion? And how are you able to guarantee that you have all these ratings and reviews? 

Andy Splichal  17:14  

Yeah, exactly. 

Adam Adams  17:15  

And so to answer that question, we do some things like we will email to our own list, if it makes sense. Because that's cheap and easy for me to email to my own list. If it involves if it's something like the people that are already following me, or I'll pay somebody else who has an email list of your perfect avatar, the perfect client that wants to listen to your show and do business with you. We email a whole bunch of them. That's one of the strategies is we either email ourselves or, or do a strategic partnership with another person that has a list. And other things we do is radio ads, or Google ads, or YouTube ads, we might do Facebook or LinkedIn ads, as well. We'll do we'll put up banners. So we'll go and find a bunch of different blogs in your industry. And we all pay the pay the person who runs that blog, to put a banner of your show on their blog for 30 days, or whatever. And another thing that we'll do is is this is the reason I'm what I'm about to share with you is the secret sauce, to how we get so many actual ratings and reviews. Because we're actually asking for them, we're actually we're having you asked for them one on one to your friends. And I'm doing a private messaging campaign where I go, I start by going to LinkedIn, and I and I scrape some data of your perfect avatar, I might pull 1000 to 5000 of your perfect people. And then I'll go to Facebook. And I'll use those same names. And I'll create what's called a look alike audience. And I'll start promoting on Facebook to the look alike audience and I'll start promoting on LinkedIn to those 1000. And then what I additionally do is any of those people that are already your perfect avatar, if they click on my ad that I've created for your show, we do this thing called pixel data. So basically, it displays a pixel which is microscopic, you can't see it. And but that'll help us to be able to follow them around on Google and other places. And so they think your show is the biggest thing since sliced bread. They see it when they go to the blogs that they read. They see it on Facebook, they see it on LinkedIn, they see it on Google, they see it on YouTube, they're they're seeing you everywhere. And at the same time we implement this private messaging campaign where we start to connect with them on a real one on one basis with only questions. We're not telling them anything. We're not spamming them with a link to your show. That's important that you know that we're not spamming anyone. We're just connecting with them. Actually, I was just on the on call. A discovery call with a chef who wants to hire us for his. And so we were talking about how he would use this. And we would connect with other chefs and talk about and we would start by saying, hey, it looks like you're, you're a chef. Is it okay if I asked you a question? And they're like, Sure, go ahead. And so then our follow up is, hey, I know, I've been really working on my mother  sauces, and I can't get this one, right. It's unstable. It's a chef term, and only they would get right. And and so we're asking them, how do we make this mother sauce? It keeps falling apart? And they give us the answer. And then later on, we say, Hey, have you listened to what says faces podcast, I think would add a lot of value to you, as a third party, this private messaging campaign, they're seeing the ads everywhere already. They're probably hearing it on radio. There, it's worth chasing them around. And now all of a sudden, as a third party, we're saying, Hey, have you heard that show, and it allows them to be able to respond. Now, fast forward, because this private messaging campaign is huge. This is like our secret sauce. Speaking of mother sauces, but our private messaging campaign is long, it takes a long time, and it needs to be very authentic. And so it comes to be the three things that I need to point out to your listener. Number one, after we've asked them if they if they've heard the show, and if they would like us to send the link and they say yes, and we give it to them, we follow up with them, and ask them what they thought of that episode we shared. And that helps to make sure that they subscribe. And when they subscribe, they get several of your episodes all at the same time. So you're getting your, it's counting toward you for all of those when they first download, when they first subscribe to your show, you get tons of downloads, because it's not just one episode, right off the bat, just so everybody knows. And then we reach back out to them later on and ask them what they thought of it, to make sure that they actually listened. So now they go to listen. And then we we go and say, Hey, I just left a five star rating. You know, for Andy, on his podcast, I just left a five star rating. And I think I think he's going to appreciate it, you should leave one too. And so we literally ask them to. And here's the thing that is going to happen, because we're doing the private messaging with your regular listeners, usually, it's around 1% of them that actually give you a rating and review. Which is, is almost sad to hear that. You're like, oh my gosh, I've got like 10,000 people listening, but only 100 People have have given me a rating and review. So when we're doing the private messaging campaign, if we can get them to subscribe to your show, the probability so far are 75% that they're going to give a rating and review. So that's how we can promise that you're going to get so many ratings and reviews because we're literally asking for them. And so you're you're more likely to get them. And that adds so much social proofing to your podcast, to allow you to be able to monetize with sponsorship to be able to monetize if you're selling your own e commerce products, and services. And again, to be able to just have other listeners who see the show to feel like it's really worth it for them to listen, like when I go on Amazon, for example. I don't just love Amazon because I can purchase things in my underwear, or because I don't have to drive somewhere in the snow or whatever. I also love Amazon, because I can see how many people have rated and reviewed it. And that's what's going on with our economy right now with human beings, they are looking for shows that have social proof, where they can see the data that other people like it to, because they're only supposed to like it if other people like it. So when we do this for you, you get that social proofing and that helps sponsors and future listeners.

Andy Splichal  24:09  

Well, that's great. Well, it looks like you really have your system down and set for somebody who who does have a podcast. What would you say though, is somebody's on the fence saying you know, this all sounds great. And I'm thinking to starting the podcasts new here, but I'm just so busy. What would you tell that person?

Adam Adams  24:33  

I would say that there's a lot of people that are just so busy, and they still have done a podcast and I get what that feels like it's just that the results are too good for you to think of not doing it. Podcasts are starting to become the the new business cart. There's 1.5 million. Of course there's 40 times that amount of YouTube channels, so don't even get me started on YouTube podcast. As a way better place to a platform. But the high net worth listeners are not going to YouTube. The people with high net worth, they're listening to podcasts because now they can go running at the same time, they can exercise at the same time, they can drive at the same time. They can, they can do all sorts of stuff, cook, clean, and listen to your show. So the high net worth better credibility type of Avatar that you might have is listening to podcasts. And if you don't do it, they're just going to be listening to your direct competition. If you want them to just listen to their your competition, you're going to be left out and I think of this thing where Gary Vaynerchuk if anybody follows Gary Vee, I used to follow him cuz he's a wine Oh, and I love good wine. But then he became this marketing genius. And one of the big things that he tells in marketing is that if you're not active on social media, and online, by the year 2022, you are going to lose this business. And I feel the same way about podcasting. If you don't get started right away. The exact people that would have been doing business with you in 2022 are going to be doing business with your competition. That is what what what I'm saying you got to do it. And then just an inspiring story. This guy named Whitney school, he started the syndication show, he never did a real estate deal before. And then he starts the show called the syndication show. And he never did a syndication. Within one year, he had over 1000 units, nearly $100 million of real estate. And then by the next year, he finally quit his full time government job where he was working 40 to 60 hours, and he did a Daily Show. Whitney did a deal every single day, seven days a week, 40 minutes an episode show. I don't I don't I'm not even asking your listener to do a daily show. But he found a way to do it with kids and a wife. And it ended up helping him to be able to get out of his business and have enough passive income to live on. Alright, okay. I hope that's helped.

Andy Splichal  27:06  

I'm convinced I think I need a podcast. Hey, all serious. If somebody wants more information, for working with you, how would listeners get a hold of you about launching a podcast? 

Adam Adams  27:22  

Perfect? Well, the easiest way is just to go to growyourshow.com. That's it's simple. I run the website, they can schedule time with me, they can see what we do. Our prices are low, just go to growyourshow.com. And that's how they can get a hold of me.

Andy Splichal  27:39  

growyourshow.com Got it. You know, I have to thank you. I was doing some research before you came on. And I was listening to a guest appearance you did on a different show. In that show. They they left and they asked what is your most compelling business book? And do you remember what you answered?

Adam Adams  28:00  

No, because I I've been interviewed on so many podcasts. I don't know which one but a lot of times I say I say Compound Effect. 

Andy Splichal  28:10  

It's the compound effect. Yes. And so I ordered it. And I just finished reading it yesterday. So I gotta thank you very much.

Adam Adams  28:16  

Oh, wow. Awesome. Yeah, I love that. I love that book. It's it's very inspiring book. And it just shows that you don't really have to go all out to make a big difference. Just start a podcast, that one little thing. And it'll it'll compound on itself over over time.

Andy Splichal  28:34  

Absolutely, absolutely. So that's all the questions I had, did you have anything that I might have missed in the episode that you'd like to mention before we go?

Adam Adams  28:44  

You know what I will just say that I'm grateful, I feel extremely a lot of gratitude for the time that I've been able to spend connecting with you and others. And so it will be one last tangible. And that's just to the effect of there is a lot of reciprocity. Or you can call it incest if you want but there's a lot of reciprocity.

Andy Splichal  29:09  

Reciprocity sounds nicer. 

Adam Adams  29:11  

It sounds nicer. Within the podcasting space. And so one of the coolest things that I've realized is that my, the five people that I hang around is elevated now. My friends are a little bit elevated just because of the podcast. And furthermore, I definitely have noticed that because I have my own like thought leadership platform. Other people with Thought Leadership platforms kind of choose me first to go on theirs. And that allows me to in a way hack into the people that you've built up Andy, you know, I might get one or two people that call me today. And I wouldn't have had that opportunity unless I had my own podcast and I just it's it's something that I'm extremely grateful for and I think it's unique benefit to being a podcaster that I'm sure you've seen as well. 

Andy Splichal  30:04  

Sure that's a great point. Well, well thank you for the interview and thank you for your time today. And that that is it for today. Remember, listeners if you'd like this episode, please go to Apple podcasts and leave a five star review. And if you are looking or I should say honest review, take Adam's Yes, but hopefully that is a five star review. And if you are looking for more information regarding launching a new podcast, you can reach Adam through the website he just mentioned and you will be able to find his company's contact information in the episodes show notes for your record. In the meantime, remember to stay safe, keep healthy and happy marketing and I will talk to you in the next episode.