3. Pre-podcast processing & establishing yourself as an authority with Wes Schaeffer

Wes Schaeffer’s wasn’t one of those 20 year olds that finally hit “rock bottom” and built an amazing business. Wes went to college, served in the Air Force, got married, raised a family, with a great job, making over $100,000. But Wes found that he still was not happy. While the economy kept changing, the lack-of-vision from Wes’ bosses didn’t. Wes decided to make a change. and he took a leap of faith. With a wife, a mortgage, 6 kids and a dog Wes couldn’t afford to hit “rock bottom” in the traditional sense, but he had hit it as far as career satisfaction was concerned.

Now Wes spends his life and makes his living helping others make the same changes he made. When Wes left his unhappy career, he created the The Sales Whisperer®. The Sales Whisperer® is a melting pot of strong-willed, opinionated, dedicated coders, developers, trainers, writers, marketers and curious entrepreneurs. The Sales Whisperer® company works to develop, find, create, launch, test and perfect the coolest, most effective, easiest to use and maintain and leverage tools, from software to hosting to marketing platforms, to help professional salespeople, sales managers, business owners and entrepreneurs grow. Wes built this business to help others, which is why the success of The Sales Whisperer® is directly tied to the success of his client’s businesses.

In this episode we talk about:

Benefits to Podcasts
Podcast is more of a Mount Everest than a community hill hike
Watching podcast traffic
Spicing up your guest
Pre-Podcasting process
Take notice of what you take notice of
Interview revenue
Be human
Importance of a memorable URLs
Broad experience of selling
Limit the pressure you put on yourself
Misconceptions of making money off podcasting
Not the norm
Importance of blogging and taking notes
Trial and Error of podcasting
Marketing without Sales
Establish as an authority
Sustainable model
Do something that is different
Formatting styles of podcast
How often Wes podcasts
Don’t sugar coat anything

What would’ve made it easier/What would you have changed?

I didn’t understand how much promotion was needed, it was the right topic and right time, but wasn’t the right partnership. Make sure you have a topic that you are passionate about, that you have knowledge about, and a topic that has legs, something that is different and that stands out.

When someone is considering a podcast as a medium, how do I know if it’s for me? How complicated is it to do a podcast?

Libsyn is great for hosting your episodes. Make sure that you have good audio quality, and good images.

What are the first mistakes that podcasters often make?

The only thing that you cannot do is you can’t be boring. Also, don’t let your family and friends listen to your podcast and give you feedback. They aren’t your target market and they can’t give you honest feedback and evaluation.