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Hello and welcome to the show. It's a wonderful Wednesday afternoon over here. Sorry, not Wednesday, Friday. So wonderful Friday afternoon over here. So let's get started. So First off, apologies because I've been away for a while. I've been away for two days, but I uploaded content that I had created initially for a program that was supposed to go up on an LMS that's an learning management system. So I put two of those audios up on the podcast and there was supposed to be four.
OK, I put three up, but I can't find the original one. When I find the beginner for the series, I'll put over here on the podcast just so that you guys can share in the goodness that I've been putting out over on the Internet in different places. So OK, now that I'm done with sharing the material I put up for the LMS, there's a whole lot more anyway, but I figured, let me just put up the 1st 4. I will go to a listener question.
And the reason why I'm tackling this is because it's a question that I got recently. And I'm assuming that if you've been listening to the show for a while, you probably have this sort of question if you're thinking of using podcasting as a content marketing strategy to boost your business. So the listener question today is how to get unlimited content for your podcast, which is a good question to ask because if you're going to use content marketing as a strategy to grow your business, then it sucks if you constantly have this nagging fear that one day you're going to run out of things to say.
So this is an important question, of course, for those of you who are trying to build your businesses in other ways. Because I have a client right now who is in the alternative energy space and their business is totally built on the back of online advertising. Initially it was an outbound organization with both partners going out to sell, but now they have a team and everything is totally inbound. So they have online advertising on Google, Facebook, where else,
Instagram, and that's how they get their leads for the business. So if your business is that sort of business, then of course this is not your sort of concern. So I'm speaking to other people who are trying to use content marketing to boost their business or to supplement their efforts. Now, the listener in question is in the real estate space and he provides marketing solutions for Nigerian Realtors in the East. So he works around, you know,
Inugu and Ambra, that whole axis. And I hope now this is a good example to show you the flavour of entrepreneurship that we have in Nigeria because lots of people think Nigerian entrepreneurship and they think Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, maybe Kano or Kaduna. Why? I don't know, it's just out there. In fact, I got the taste for it recently when I was listening to one of these podcasts. I think it's this Niger tech, tech something tech crunch or tech whatever.
And we're talking about a bunch of founders who they raised really high valuations and any by the time you do the conversion, I think it's it's close to billions of naira or something like that. And apparently these boys have been running the whole stuff out of, out of Kalaba. Well, one of the towns that is around Kalaban, you know, for me, I was shocked. Like Kalaba, people do business there. I mean, sounds like an ignorant thing to say, but I'm just saying that for those of us who grew up in certain kinds of cities in, in, in Nigeria, when you hear entrepreneurship,
you're thinking about Lagos, Abuja, Port Accord. You're not thinking that stuff is going down in Abu Kaliki, in Enugu, in Anambra, in Auchi, in, you know, other places. For some reason our mind doesn't go there. So yeah, basically there's stuff going on. People are doing all sorts of things, all sorts of enterprises, all sorts of ideas in different parts of the country. So location need not be a barrier. So maybe there was a time when you would say, oh, no, I'm stuck in the farthest extreme of Sokoto.
I might not be able to run a successful business, but nowadays things are changing. So before we answer the question, how do you get unlimited content for your podcast, I'd like to tackle the question whether you should be considering a podcast or podcasting as a strategy for business growth. The reason why I keep bringing this up again and again and again when I'm tackling all these podcasting questions is because lots of people just think, oh, podcast, it's cool,
I'll be able to read. Lots of people, let me begin and they don't think about the more business, don't think about the practical implications that are involved. Oh yes, running a podcast is cool, but how is this going to grow my business? When do we expect to receive returns? What are reasonable returns? Like all these sorts of things, they don't ask themselves these questions. So before you go and start buying a microphone and a new laptop and padding for your house recording space and all that, because even though I keep telling people that yes, those things are nice to have, but you don't need to start your podcast that way.
I still, I'm making all my podcast recordings from the phone And currently I'm over 870. I'm over 875 episodes. I think I have to go and check. So I still run mine from the phone and so far, having conversations with you guys, I haven't gotten any indication of that. The noise from the background and all these sorts of things are a problem. Now. Eventually, yes, I'm going to tool up. I'm going to tool up, you know, the mic, the recording space,
the everything. But right now I record straight from my phone. Point I'm just trying to say is that most people when they hear podcasting, they're thinking I need to go on Alibaba, I need to recall, get a solid mic. This might cost $800. This might cost 1000, some $100. And for some reason people, OK, well, there's some element of truth to that, that I guess the $2000 microphone will be better than the $800 microphone or whatever.
I guess there's some element of truth there, but you're going around buying equipment up and down, buying lights, buying this, buying this, buying that, and before you know it, you spent over a millionaire just because you want to start the podcast. It doesn't have to be that way, but you should ask yourself before you go out and spend a bunch of money before you begin, should you be considering podcasting as a viable strategy for business growth?
Now, podcasting is another form of long form content. It's another form of content marketing. The goal of these kind of strategies actually is thought leadership or expert positioning, expert brand positioning against your competition. So podcasting and other forms of long form content, content marketing strategy, thought leadership, blah, blah, blah, all those things. They are excellent if you have a long term strategy that involves you setting yourself apart from the competition.
It is excellent. If you have that strategy, it, podcasting and long form content is very bad. If you are looking to get sales today and you don't give a hoot about how am I going to differentiate myself from the competition over the long term. So whether it's good or bad, it depends. Do you have a long term strategy? Do you want yourself to set yourself apart from the park? You want to position yourself as a thought leader, You know some expert brand positioning, then podcasting is fine.
Those are my goals. It's fine, and it's finally beginning to yield fruit. Sometimes the distinguishing factor is just that people have listened to me longer than they know the other guy or the other girl. They're familiar with my thought process, they're familiar with my frameworks. So when the time comes for negotiation and stuff like that, everybody, every Nigerian is always talking to two or three people before they pull the plug.
I signed a better chance because I've done some stuff to establish myself as a thought leader within the space and also to get some other expert brand positioning. So that works if you have a long term strategy. If you're looking for what to do today, they'll bring money today. Podcasting is a bad idea. Don't do it if you're looking for money today. So now that we're done with that, if you want to start a podcast for business purposes,
summary, just think long term, think years before you start talking about business results. Also, you have to be very clear on your ideal audience because talking to everybody is not going to give you the kind of traction that you need to get things going. So what's your purpose? Who are you going to be talking to? That's really, really important and nothing to remember that content production is one thing everybody's paying attention to.
How do I record the podcast producing with the the content is one thing. Promotion and distribution are actually the main thing. There's no point in producing a podcast that is well produced that nobody's listening to. So produce the damn thing, but then make sure that you promote and distribute it. Lots of people feel feel there. And since I've already given lots of examples about how when I started taking promotion and distribution seriously and more than triple the size of the podcast, I'm not going to go into that here.
If this is your first time listening to this show and you're curious, then if you use Listen Notes, because Listen Notes is a, what will I say? It creates different podcasts and it has a search function where you can search within a podcast. So if you use Listen Notes and you search within my own podcast and Listen Notes, you'll be able to find all the podcast episodes. So excuse me, all the podcast episodes where I'm talking about my experience in podcasting.
So that's for those of you who are curious. Now let's get to the meat of the question. Since we've wasted 10 minutes on the preamble, how do you get on limited content? Now my formula is this, you want unlimited content. You want to, you don't ever to, you don't want to ever run out of ideas. Just answer questions that your customers ask you every day. That's the solution. If you wake up today and decide to answer questions like that is literally what I'm doing right now.
I woke up today, I had something else I was going to record, but then this question came in and I figured it would be a good example to show this young man and also to show you guys as well. I mean, that is how I get unlimited content. I wake up every day and I want to answer questions. Some people ask me questions in different contexts. I answer it, but I think this is a brilliant question. So I, I, I just make a note, put it in Google Keep, put it in Evernote, put it somewhere, and then I have a list of questions that keeps growing and growing and growing.
So on Evernote I have over 800 questions and that I haven't tackled. And that's how I get unlimited content because I wake up every day and I open the document and I say, OK, whose question am I going to answer today? Of course, sometimes I wake up and I think this is something important. I have to talk about it. So I ignore the question. But you can see how I am not going to run out of content because my focus is primarily answering questions.
And of course, I'm answering questions from people who could be my customers. So for those of you who asked me questions about podcasting, who might want to hire me to coach you guys through or come up with the content calendar or stuff like that, I'm answering the sorts of questions that you guys would want to hear. So wake up and answer questions every day. You're not going to run out of ideas. Some people get tired of answering the same questions over and over.
And yes, some questions are the same in quote, but The thing is, the context is different. The question might be the same in principle, but the fact that it was asked by a 40 year old guy who lives in Kaduna will make the flavor of the response different than it was asked by a 16 year old girl who lives in Nimbi. So in principle, it might be the same, but the context is different and that is where the variety comes from.
So don't get tired of answering the same question. You can't say that, OK, Alhaji Kabir asked me the same question last week and today Majid Chukwudi is asking me that question. I'm tired. I've answered it before. It's ready. Of the people who stop asking me the same questions. No, no, don't take the attitude. Alhaji Kabir has a different context, a different business, a different challenge, a different whatever. So in principle, the answer is the same, but the contextual application will be different.
And the same thing with Massey Chukudi. So the question might be the same, but because the context is different, the application is going to be different. So stop being bored by saying that people ask the same question over and over. Yes, it's the same question, but the context is different. And so that is where the variety or the spice or the whatever will come from the podcast. But the chief benefit is this, if truly you have a central thesis behind how you operate,
you have a central framework where you have a central whatever, it actually is a good thing that people get exposed to it over and over and over and over and over. For instance, there's someone that I've dealt with in the past who said, look, you seem to be really big into this whole question thing. And yes, I am. Because qualification and discovery, having conversations with your potential customers, trying to figure out who they are, what the problem is, what they're trying to solve is the key way to drive your business.
That's my central thing. So I never get tired of saying over and over and over again. So people hear it, they get used to it, and they already know before they start having conversations with me. And people who don't believe in our philosophy, guess what? They will never call me. So actually, there's a good thing that you keep answering the same question over and over again because you're expressing people to the core thesis that you have for how you solve XYZ
problem. So if you have come up with this wonderful idea, OK, let's see. OK, cutting grass. So back when we were kids, you know, uncles come and stay in the house. So your uncles are responsible for cutting grass. As for those of us who are boys. And then you grow up, you know, 9/10/11, you go to secondary school, you start cutting grass and then cutting grass becomes your responsibility. So some of us grew up cutting grass.
Now things are changed. It's not like we have people from Villa coming to stay at home anymore. We have kids and some of us say, oh, God forbid my children will never suffer, blah, blah, blah. So our, our children are not cutting grass. So there's a problem. What do you do? How do you get rid of the grass that is out there? So there's this mowing thing that people can buy or you can pay all these people who have cutlasses walking around, at least in Abuja anyway, they come around during like rainy season and you just pay them to cut the grass.
And maybe you think like, OK, maybe have a brilliant idea that you can sell this weed killing chemicals so that you can do the spring yourself. So if that is a business you want to get involved in and you decide to come up with a podcast or put in content on social media to spray this thing, eventually you might get tired of answering the same question over and over again because people might wonder, this can be called that.
I'm spraying all over my house. I know that it kills grass, but does it irritate children? Does it cause breathing problems? You might get tired of answering that question. See, but The thing is just keep answering it over and over and over again. Now I got a question from Madam Chukudi in who? Sorry, Madam Chidima, who lives in Sabungarhi in Kano and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And actually it's not going to cause any problem with your children because it is research.
It has this component. It has that, that, that it has enough that number, it has this, that, that, you know, go ahead and keep making it over and over and over and over again. So people need to get used to what your central messaging is and all of that. So what was I, I lost my train of thought, but only there's some reason don't get tired of answering the same question over and over again. The context is different. And then if something is central to your business process, people need to know about it.
So don't get tired. So that's how I get unlimited content. Basically, I keep answering questions that you guys ask. So long as you guys keep asking questions, then I will keep on recording. If it gets to the point where people listen to the podcast, they love the podcast, but then questions are not coming in, then there's a problem. It's time need to sit down and have a rethink you know, perhaps the content is not valuable or anyway, God willing is not something I'm going to have to get to anytime soon.
OK, then on podcasting idea, as I also told the fellow that it's not a bad idea to start with the three most common questions that you get from your clients and use that to be the forerunner of your show. Because by the time you're in business for a while, 2-3 months, you find out that when people call you, they have you'll find that depending on the product or service, people have some some concerns. OK, like with the weed killing thing, for instance, or no,
let's go beyond weed killing. Let's say exterminate. No, no extermination. What do you call these things? Fumigation. Yeah. So fumigation is your business. You'll find that people have two or three questions. One of them is, I'm sure for fumigation. One of them will be, is this thing bad for children? Another will be how long should I leave the house closed before before I open it up again? What is 1/3? OK, I can't think of a third,
but I'm just trying to show how with any business, you'll find three or four questions that basically 90% of people ask you Take those questions that would be the forerunner for your show. Now, each question, each main question has several subtopics, and the subtopic is just OK, there's a main question. You can usually break your main question down into two or three questions. And if you're publishing one episode a week and you have three questions, then 3 * 3 is 9.
So essentially those three questions can give you 9 weeks of content. Now The thing is, while you're busy publishing stuff for the 9 weeks, that gives you time to think of other stuff. So this is not also a bad way to start. Let's see. OK, so I mentioned that the following question is in the real estate space. And while we're freeze freestyling, I asked him what were the three main questions that he gets from most of his customers.
And the what he shared with me was one question that everybody asks him is how can I get highly interested buyers reaching out to me? Another question is how can I stop unqualified people from reaching out to me? That is, you know, people who don't have money to buy a house, you know, because these are people in the real estate space. So they want people to call who have money to buy a house or who have money to rent.
Then another question that people ask is how can I make sales quickly? So me freestyling now, this is how I will break things down into two or three subtopics. So how can I get highly interested buyers reaching out to me? The subtopics in this case would be a podcast episode on what kind of buyers are available in your real estate market. That's one. Then another one will be how to discern which buyers are interested in you.
That'll be another one. And then another sub question could be how to convert interested buyers from your sales and marketing efforts. So instead of making one episode, how can I get highly interested buyers in reaching out to me? Most people just make one episode or one blog post and tackle that. I break it down a few 3 subtopics because each of these small, small questions. What are the kind of buyers in the market?
How do you descend buyers? How do you convert? If you target it this way, it's a much more richer exposition and allows you to show your expertise in more depth. So that's an example about how I can take one question and break it into three. So you can see that if you do this with the other two questions, like I said, from these three questions, you can get nine weeks of content. Nine weeks of content means you have nine weeks to think up new things.
And of course, if you take that and marry it with answering questions that your customers ask, you can see that these ideas are going to keep going on and on and on and on. Now, remember the bit I said about promotion and distribution of the podcast, Because the more people listen to the show, the more engagement you will get. The more engagement you get, the more some people will have questions and comments and queries.
Some people reach out and say. Hey, I love your show. Keep it up. You're changing my life. That's good. And some people who reach out and say, Guy, you talk too much about this, this, this, this, this. Have you ever thought about this? Instead, that's an idea for a future show. There's somebody who's going to say, I listened to your show, I tried it, I applied it, and the thing destroyed my business. That's also another idea for another show so that we can contextually show explain why your ideas work in this context and this context and maybe not in that context.
So promotion and distribution also important because it get more people engaging. More people engaging means more people reach out with their questions, with their comments and with the with their queries. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that just be audience focused. If you are audience focused, then you can keep your show running for years because I'm currently at over 875 episodes. Yeah, confirmed while we were talking.
Yes, I'm over 875 episodes and my focus is on answering questions that I get from trainings, from public speaking, from coaching engagements, from listener questions. And because of that, there's no sign of stopping because people will always have questions. In fact, the client that I was talking about, who is in the alternative energy space, I've been tracking all the things that I've been talking about with their staff.
He has a sales sales team of three and a whole bunch of stuff has come up. And so in that four we coaching engagement, of course, I've got dozens and dozens and dozens of questions that can be topics for future episodes. And most importantly, there are topics for future episodes that are tied into a specific context. So I might have answered it before when it comes to wedding photography. Now you will get to hear how some of these principles apply.
If you're in the alternative energy space, you know, you do solar panels and inverters and things of that nature. So if your audience focused, the questions will always keep on coming. Now there's one more thing, this audience focus. That's not the only perspective. There's another one that is a much more static approach to building content. That is where you create your content calendar ahead of time. It involves a lot of creativity.
And luckily, with the advent of ChatGPT, it's something that has become a lot easy for us, a lot easy for us to do because you can use Chad GBT as a brainstorming tool, but that'll be the topic of another show. So to cap off, remember recording a podcast, that's one thing. Having a strategy about it is another. Make sure you have a strategy. Make sure you also have a strategy to use the podcast for lead generation and for pre qualification.
So what that means is have a strategy for podcasting and make sure the strategy entices the right people to come to you and sends the wrong people away from you. That is essentially what I mean by lead generation and by pre qualification. The right people come to me, come to me, come to me. The wrong people get behind me Satan. So that's all for today. Rahmat, connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140.
The country code is +234 and you can connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show. And you can confirm the spelling and e-mail address of my name. Sorry. Confirm the spelling of my name and the e-mail address. My e-mail address, yeah, from the link. We're currently listening to this episode, so thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode. And for those of you who are thinking of joining me in the long form content strategy of promoting your business, you're thinking of podcasting.
I hope that these episodes I've been recording are valuable to you guys. I'm not sure what the question is I'm going to tackle tomorrow, but of course, I'll just wake up, open up my phone, I'll check every note, I'll check Google Meet where I throw all my questions, and then we'll just tackle the next one for the day. So yeah, that's it. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.