Get ready to be F.I.R.E.D U.P!
Because today we have one of the best podcasters, Mark Savant!
Mark is the owner of Mark Savant Media and the host of one of the top 100 podcasts on Apple Music.
Today, you will learn a lot from digital marketing, how to start your own podcast, and the value it can provide to your business.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!
Check out my “F.I.R.E.D Up” playlist with more interviews!
Just visit —> http://bit.ly/3bmkm0o!
Krista:
Okay. Hi, everyone. Are you ready to be fired at because I sure am. Today, I've got Mark Savant with me and you're going to learn so much. He's a super marketer. He's going to talk all about podcasting and media and how to get your message out. If you've ready to be fired up and learn a lot, sit back, sit tight and let's get rocking and rolling.
Mark Savant:
Let's roll. Krista, thanks so much for having me.
Krista:
Hi, Mark. Thanks for being here. I really appreciate it. Tell us. You've got an awesome podcast, the After Hours Entrepreneur. People can find out anything and everything about you at Marksavantmedia.com. You help people take a podcast and just get it out there. You yourself have a podcast that's in the top 100 on Apple, maybe even better by now. Last time I checked that's what it was. I know you're rocking and rolling. Talk to us about podcasting, what you do, and how it's helped your business.
Mark Savant:
Yeah, thank you so much. I mean, it's just absolutely exploded my network. I mean, I think there's three reasons why you really want to get into podcasting. The first of which is, you build your network. I never would have had a chance to meet people like yourself. I've talked to John Lee Dumas. I've talked to Pat Flynn. I've just talked to all these amazing people. Idols, people that I really legitimately idolize. I've talked to the presidential candidates. I've spoken to professional athletes. I've have professional athletes, NFL players locally on my cell phone and it's all because of podcasting.
Secondly, it just really helps you to build your authority in a topic because when you're showing up on that topic, you're talking about it, you're learning it, you actually show that you can actually hold a conversation, it builds your authority. And then lastly attention, because, and this is the thing that I think is really, really important. We spoke about this a little bit on my show, the After Hours Entrepreneur, is that when you're showing up, you're staying top of mind all the time, it just really, really is powerful for driving attention to your superpower. And figuring out what your superpower is, I think, the key to success here in 2020. That's where I'm at and that's why I love podcasting.
Krista:
Talk to me. I mean, I know what's going through people's minds. They're like, “Oh my gosh. Podcasts are so hard and I'm not digitally inclined and what am I going to talk about,” and all that. I mean, I'm sure you know what the most common objections are with people, but before the objections, I mean, how has it helped your business and how has it helped the people that you help? How has it helped their business?
Mark Savant:
Yeah. I mean, I spend very little money actually advertising and reaching out. I don't do the cold calling. I don't send out letters to people. I just create these great listening and viewing experiences online. I just had a YouTube video that reached, I think it's up to 90,000 people right now after two years. It's just unbelievable, but the podcasting itself, it fuels my funnel. I think one of your assistants reached out to me and said, “Hey, let's link up. Let's do a swap cast. Let's collaborate.”
And so, it's just a really powerful way. It's driven my coaching. A lot of people that I'm coaching and working with on growing exploding their podcast never would have happened if I wasn't reaching them because what's really magical… I had the opportunity, this was on an old podcast, to interview Tyler Baltierra from Teen Mom. He's got 3.5 million viewers on Instagram, right?
Krista:
Wow.
Mark Savant:
After interviewing him, he posted a link on his show and I had thousands and thousands of downloads that they were just out of nowhere. And not everyone has that type of audience. Not everyone has that same type of influence, but when you get the right person on your show, it just absolutely explodes your inbox. I wake up every morning and I have five or six emails from people that want to work with me on something and it's really profound.
I just can't say enough. And you agree with this, I think, based on what you do. You can't keep doing the same thing. You have to do, fail, learn. You have to keep trying new things. And podcasting, I think, is an extremely powerful way of getting out there. Video podcasting, by the way, I think is where the real opportunity is right now.
Krista:
Well, you're doing both. You're doing the video podcasting, which I am too, right? My podcasts go everywhere. We take the video and we put it on Facebook and YouTube and LinkedIn and our website. It goes all over the place so people can see us both visually and they can hear us auditorily as well. It's funny because Joel OSteen, he actually puts his podcast that he does… You could see the video of it and I need to figure out that next because I want to get the video on Apple. He has the video content on the actual… You can watch him too. That's the next little thing to do. Let's-
Mark Savant:
Yeah, Rogan as well, Rogan just took his podcast, his video podcasts, from YouTube to Spotify. That's the new thing. That's what's happening now.
Krista:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll talk about that too, I mean, if we have time. Let me ask you. You just said you've had somebody really successful from Teen Mom, be on the show. How does somebody go about getting an influencer like that to be on your show because I know most people are thinking, “I don't know anybody and that's not going to happen to me and why would somebody want to be on my show?” Talk about that.
Mark Savant:
Well, let me first say that it absolutely can happen to you. This is 2020. There are so many ways to reach people. It's an extremely exciting time in human history because 10 years ago, 20 years ago, I would have [inaudible 00:08:17]. It never would have happened. It would have been impossible. But today in 2020, you can do it. And actually, at Marksavantmedia.com, I have a whole guide, free guide to walk you through the exact steps. I have exact wording and language that you can use because there's certain ways to reach out to people that work and certain ways that don't work. But-
Krista:
Go to Marksavantmedia.com for that. Marksavantmedia.com. His podcast again is the After Hours Entrepreneur. You can learn more about him from there. Okay. Sorry.
Mark Savant:
Yeah, absolutely. Again, free guide. It's about 20 pages long and it takes you from how to not just create a show that's going to win, but how to launch it and how to scale it on the backend. But to answer your initial question here, Krista, on how do you actually reach these people? There's different ways, right? But I have found personally, that one of the most effective ways of reaching people is just DMing them on Instagram. It's super simple. It's super easy to make that happen.
And the other thing that I think is important to make sure that you're actually reaching out to the right people because if you're not getting the right person coming on your show, it's not going to resonate with your audience. It's just going to be a waste of everybody's time. One of the greatest ways to find good guests for your show is go to iTunes. Go to Apple iTunes, look at the top 10 podcasts in your niche.
What are your favorite podcasts to listen to and just start drilling down and DM-ing the guests that have been on that show, okay, because quite frankly, if that guest is good enough to be on Entrepreneurs on Fire or some of these other top performing shows, they're going to be great for your show too. They reach that. It's an easy way of making sure that you're screening the right people.
Krista:
Do you think that some of these people are paying… For Entrepreneurs on Fire, do you think people are paying to be on that podcast is as a guest?
Mark Savant:
I can't speak for what John Lee Dumas is doing, but absolutely. Absolutely. I did have a guest on my show a while ago and he said, “Hey Mark, if you ever need any guests, I have people that are willing to pay 200, $500, just to be on your show.” And that depends. I mean, there's a lot of ways to monetize your podcast, if that's the way you want to go, if it's with advertisements, free roll ads. You can use this top of funnel to drive people to your website. But sure, you absolutely can charge people to be on your show.
I've had guests that I've actually said, “You know what?” They've said, “Hey, we're willing to come on your show, but it's going to be $250. It's going to be a few hundred bucks.” I said, “Look, I've got so many people that want to be on this program because of the audience, because of the platform, let's circle back later,” because I think that you need to have a differentiator.
And what my team does that I think makes our podcast special, is we do a 30 minute video recording and then my team breaks down that 30 minute recording into about three dozen pieces of content that gets distributed all over social media. It's great for my show because now I'm sitting next to experts like yourself, right? But at the same time, it's great for the guest because now all of a sudden, they're turning 30 minutes into tons of free marketing.
Krista:
Yes. Do you give that content back to the guest?
Mark Savant:
Yeah. This is another thing that I'm big on doing. I have a Google Drive, right, and the Google Drive has tons and tons of content from memes to video to images to YouTube. It's all been cleaned up and contextualized. And so, after the interview is done, it takes about 60 days to go through the whole processing. I send an email to the client or to the guests that says, “Hey, here's the whole packet. Here's the whole media kit. Here's a link to the podcast.”
And that's a hard thing to do. Not all guests are going to share your content and not all the guests are going to share your podcast. You want to make it as easy for them, as attractive as possible. Too many people do that and say, “Hey, your episode is live. Go share it.” You got to make it easy for them. I think that's-
Krista:
So smart. You're so right. Yes. Is that in your media kit, that free thing, that tells you how to do that?
Mark Savant:
Oh, for sure. For sure.
Krista:
Okay, good.
Mark Savant:
I mean, there's a lot that goes through chopping up a video because then you got to make it contextual to TikTok, to LinkedIn, to Facebook. But yeah, the free guide is about 20 pages long and it walks through a ton of these concepts.
Krista:
That's so smart. Whenever I'm on somebody else's podcast, I always put their podcast on mine.
Mark Savant:
Sure.
Krista:
Basically, I play my guest's podcasts on my podcast as well. And when I'm on theirs, right, because it gets people to get to know me in a different way and it also helps people to get to know my guests. It's a win-win. I would tell you that. If you're ever on somebody else's podcast, put your… You know what I'm saying? It gets your guests a chance to get to know you because many times what happens is, is you're just so busy always interviewing everyone else, your audiences doesn't get a chance to get to know you on the other end. It's cool to do that once in a while. Well, great-
Mark Savant:
Yeah, especially for someone like yourself, Krista. You're putting out content every single day. Sometimes you run into a situation where, “Where am I going to get the content from?” That's a great way to repurpose valuable insight that you've given and to keep boosting it out. That's what it's all about.
Krista:
I'm excited in two months to get your media kit with all my stuff. I'm going to be using it like crazy. It'll get you more exposures. That's awesome. You saved me some work.
Mark Savant:
Yeah, I love it. I mean, we're talking… It's funny. I had someone reach out to me the other day. I was a guest on their show and they said, “Hey, for $497, we'll give you a media kit.” I'm thinking to myself, “Just give it to me for free. It's free exposure.” I mean, I actually haven't had chance to follow up with them to see how many people are actually converting off of that offer. I think that's an interesting [crosstalk 00:13:43].
Krista:
Yeah. Well, that's probably their business model. Their business model is to do that. That's their business model. But yeah, I mean, for me, it helps both people, right? If other people are promoting your content, it helps them, so it makes sense to do it. Let's talk now about a lot of people I know are thinking, “Well, you know what, Mark, I don't know what to talk about or what to say.” Let's just say I'm an insurance agent and what am I going to talk about on a show and who's going to be listening?
Mark Savant:
Yeah, the first thing to do is just start because you don't really know exactly what's going to happen until you get started. Again, at Marksavantmedia.com. I have a guide to help you walk through, “What is my messaging going to be? What is my logo going to look like,” and all of that. But really, it's just get started and go from there. And one things I love about podcasting in particular, is because it's as simple as just reaching out to local people that can help your business.
For example, maybe you reach out to the mayor or city commissioners. Maybe you reach out to one of the larger real estate firms, loan brokers, maybe large communities, property managers, right? You reach out to people that maybe aren't in direct competition. It might not be a great if you're a State Farm agents to reach out to the Allstate agent across the street because you're probably going to end up in a fist fight. But if you can reach out to niches that are parallel to what you're doing, it's a huge way of reaching people that are going to be in your audience. It's just absolutely… I can't stress enough how powerful that collaboration can be.
Krista:
And not even parallel. I mean, for example, who doesn't want to know about… Let's just say when I was just a realtor, and who does want to know about the new restaurant that's coming, right? Who doesn't want to know about anything and everything in your community? Reach out to people. Interview other businesses, interview other professionals. All of it will be helpful and that's what we teach on the video side of it. We teach people to go out and create video content, and you can take that video content, and that video content then can be turned into a podcast, as long as the sound is good.
I think the sound is definitely important on podcasts, I have to say. I know like from my mentor Russell Brunson, he would do things in the past where he would do it in his car and it was rattly and all that. We're actually starting to do that now. I ride my bike every day and I'll do a Facebook live and we're taking that Facebook Live and we're putting it on our podcasts, but it doesn't sound as good. I just tell people, “Hey, this doesn't sound as good. Here's the reason why,” so know why it's not exactly crisp and clear. But I have listened to podcasts that I am on and when my sound isn't good, it's hard for me even to hear my own voice. I think the sound is essential. Would you agree?
Mark Savant:
Yeah, I do. I think there's a few different things to consider here, right? A, you can get a pretty decent mic set up for 150 bucks, right?
Krista:
Yes.
Mark Savant:
You can dramatically improve your sound, 10X your sound for $150. It doesn't take a lot of money. But secondly, I love the idea about repurposing, right, because we're living in an interesting time where highly catered, highly edited content is almost a turnoff to people. One of the things I love to do… And it depends on your platform. For example, if I'm on TikTok, I might be doing a behind the scenes of my podcasting setup, right? You don't need to be highly produced, but above all, it's trying the different things and repurposing it.
If you repurpose one of your Facebook live videos for your podcast, people are like “Holy cow. I love this, Krista. It gave me a backstage pass to actually what you do and what you live.” Then you know, “Okay. I'm going to lean into this.” On the flip side, they might say, “You know what, Krista, I couldn't even hear what you were saying. You don't-
Krista:
You're breathing heavy.
Mark Savant:
Exactly. Exactly. It's just like my sign says-
Krista:
Is this porno or is this a podcast?
Mark Savant:
You'd probably get a lot more downloads. Yeah, but it's about trying new things, seeing what works and listening to your audience. I mean, that's the end of the day, what's great about podcasts, using that direct link.
Krista:
And you get better. I like on Mark's wall is says, “Do, fail, learn.” And we were teasing, I said, “You need to say, “Repeat and grow,” right? Do, fail, learn, and then repeat the process, and then you're going to start growing by that. When Mark first started his podcast… I mean, how long have you been doing it, Mark?
Mark Savant:
I started my first podcast about two years ago, and this is a good example. It was all about fatherhood. I was speaking to, again, a lot of high profile athletes and celebrities and so on and so forth about fatherhood, the importance of fatherhood, how to get unique stories and unique challenges. But what ended up happening, Krista, was nobody was really… I wasn't developing much revenue from that. People were paying me to say, “Hey, Mark, how did you start your YouTube channel? How did you launch your podcast?”
I'm like, “People are paying me for this so I'm going to pivot. I'm going to listen to what people are paying me for and I'm going to pivot into that.” That's how the After Hours Entrepreneur got started and the rest is history. JLD, Pat Flynn, Marissa Romero, just a ton of really high profile people have been on my show and I've gotten my Rolodex now, which is just really cool. Speaking gigs start to come together. Again, it's just about do, fail, learn. I never would have gotten here if I didn't just start with that crappy, crappy first episode. You just got to start.
Krista:
Yeah. Okay. And you mentioned earlier, the best way is by DM-ing people. You're saying just start direct messaging people like Pat Flynn. Is Pat Flynn really on the other end of that DM or is it his assistant?
Mark Savant:
Well, it depends. I mean, if you're reaching out to someone like Pat, who's got millions of followers, millions of fans, it's going to be really difficult to get to them. Let's go back to how you actually going to get in touch with that person. You got to provide value. Listen, I can't tell you how much of a turn off it is for me to get a DM from someone and it's a wall of text with a link to their website. The chances of me actually reading that are zero. It's not going to happen. You really want to open up the conversation with some value.
I had someone who reached out to me the other today. They really wanted to work with Mark Savant Media as a virtual assistant. And I get these messages all the time, too. It's overwhelming. And this person said, “Hey, I'm willing to do anything. I'm willing to work for free. What can I do for you?” Right? And so, when you go upfront and you're delivering value upfront, that's a great way to go about it. Maybe if you've worked with someone that they have know, like and trust with, for example, that's another great way.
With Pat, I actually started getting involved with his business. I joined his community. I started getting involved with his community and I ended up just asking him on an episode of his show. I said, “Hey, here's a question, A and B. Will you come on my show,” And he said, “Yes.” It's being where they want you to be, providing value upfront, and that's, I think the best way to actually get that response.
Krista:
Yeah. Serve, don't sell. Always lead with value.
Mark Savant:
Yes.
Krista:
Serving not selling is a huge component of what we preach, preach, preach, because it really is so, so true. All right. I like the fact that you said how you pivoted. That's really important for people to understand, is that he didn't just say, “I started this podcast on parenting, being fatherhood, and it was going good, but I wasn't making any money. But since I started, I need to stay here and just try to make it better.”
No, he pivoted and changed and adapted, which is a large portion of what we need to be thinking about right now in life is that we have to learn to pivot how we are doing business. Are we doing the things the same way we did before COVID, because if you are, you're not going to be in existence because we can't. We have to change and pivot just as you did. And look at the results that you've come from it, right? I mean, now you're in the top 100 podcasts and you're for entrepreneurs and you're just rocking and rolling, interviewing people that you would never, a year or two ago, would have ever imagined.
Mark Savant:
Yeah, and that's another reason why having a podcast is a really important thing because you actually have a way of providing value to these people that you want to speak with. Just for example, if I was to say, “Hey, Pat, can you chat with me on the phone and answer questions for 15 minutes?” He'd be like, “No. I got a lot of stuff going on.” But when I can say, “Hey, I've got a top 100 radio podcast. We have thousands and thousands of listeners across multiple platforms, and da, da, da, da,” then they're like, “Okay. This is worth my time.” That's another reason.
Krista:
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And so again, Mark just started, right? Do, fail, learn according to his board out there. He just started. You've got to be thinking about… Some of you, maybe podcasting isn't it. I preach video all the time, right? With podcast, you can get video and podcasts, the sound. With video, you can get podcasts and videos. What are you comfortable doing? Maybe you start with one and increase as time goes. But the bottom line is we can't keep doing the same thing.
Think about what you were doing in your business as a professional in the past. Can you even do it anymore? Can you do networking events? Can you go door knock on businesses? Can you do open houses? Can you do the things that you have been taught to do? In most cases, the answer is no so we have to be willing to pivot or we're going to be like the travel agent that is no longer in existence. We want to be like Amazon. Amazon wiped out Blockbuster… I mean, Netflix wiped out Blockbuster. Amazon wiped out 8,000 retail stores last year alone because Amazon pivoted. We've got to pivot, right?
Mark Savant:
Yeah. I want to add something to that I think is really interesting because it can be really difficult to know, actually, when is the right time to pivot. Gary Vaynerchuk is big on patience, patience, patience, and there's this culture of you're only one episode away. You're only one video away. It can be hard to decide, “Is this the right time to pivot or should I keep going because I'm just going to grind them in a knuckle down.” And this is something I struggled with and I think about a lot and that's why it's, I think, really great to be involved with communities like what Krista is providing, what I'm doing over at Mark Savant Media.
But above all, it's have a vision, right? You have this vision, have this end goal, and the vehicle to get there doesn't really matter that much. It could be that you start podcasts and you're like, “This isn't for me. I'd rather do Facebook live.” But it's getting in there. It's getting your hands dirty, trying new things. Keep that final vision. You might just be one episode away, but it could be that the skills you've learned in video creation or in podcasting are going to really help you to blow up on another platform. It's about trying these different things.
Krista:
It's a matter of not giving up, right? I mean, you just learn as you go and not giving up doesn't necessarily mean that you're not going to evolve or adapt or change what you're doing. I mean, Mark, pretty much, he adapted. He evolved. He started off with just doing podcasting for dads and then move that into Mark Savant Media, where he teaches people how to utilize, how to get podcasts and do video podcasting to get their name out there and they're profession out there. It really, really helps.
What do you do Mark when you're… Many people, they get tired. They don't see the results right away, right? I mean, especially even with podcasting, with video, it's not an overnight success and many times you don't even see the results. For example, when you run a Facebook ad and you create a lead page and you've got a direct lead directly from Facebook, from a lead page that you've done, you can see that that lead came directly from something. Whereas many times with video and with podcasting, you don't see the direct result.
In other words, you can't always say that… You can. We both know there's ways to do that, but not all the time, right? What do you say to people when they're like, “Well, I don't see the results right away?” Hi, Jimmy. What would your answer be?
Mark Savant:
That's a really good point and I think that's why digital marketing agencies, where people just run Facebook ads are so popular because it's very quantifiable. It's very easy to show you spend 50 bucks, you get a hundred bucks back, right? Podcasting and video production are a little bit different because it's more about brand building, brand awareness, networking. Again, for me, the big ones are networking, authority, attention, and there is… Let me ask you this. When's the last time you watched an ad and you were immediately like, “I know I can trust that person?”
Krista:
No, it takes time.
Mark Savant:
Never. It's not going to happen. But when you start creating an asset like a podcast or a video program or YouTube channel, you're able to build up that know, like, and trust. And I would say this. Fatigue is real. Fatigue is real, and this is something I'm big on. This is something that's absolutely changed my life is getting comfortable with bringing other people on board into your process. You just cannot do everything.
And virtual assistants are an extremely powerful way of really magnifying and exploding your show because now you don't have to do the tedious editing, right? Now you don't have to do the tedious outreach. You can bring other people on board to handle that and it's very affordable. It's very reasonable. It's hard, but once you get comfortable letting go of certain parts of your process, you're just going to be so much happier. It's absolutely mind blowing.
Krista:
It's so true. Gosh, the biggest way to start increasing is to hire somebody before you think you need to, right? Hire before you think you're ready so they can work on the skills that you're not good at. And don't hire someone that looks just like you, sounds like you, does everything like you. Hire someone that compliments what you are not doing. Okay. Everyone go to Marksavantmedia.com. The After Hours Entrepreneur is his podcast, top rated, top 100 podcast on Apple.
Mark, we always end every single episode, and by the way, you've been fabulous. I feel like we speak the same language, which is amazing. But what would you say, if you could give one piece of advice, whether it's business, personal, one piece of advice to end the show, what would that be?
Mark Savant:
I'm going to take a little piece out of the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Get comfortable with discomfort. Get comfortable with discomfort. It's absolutely life changing what happens. When you step outside of your comfort zone, your life will change immediately. Get comfort with discomfort.
Krista:
I'm listening to that book again right now for the second time. I love it. It's awesome. Yeah. Okay-
Mark Savant:
He's so ahead of his time. Unbelievable.
Krista:
Oh. Yeah, he's young too. All right. Mark, thank you. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable so you can get more comfortable later. That's just the case, right? You get uncomfortable now so later you're not. Mark, thank you so much. We appreciate you. You've been amazing. Everyone go to Marksavantmedia.com. If you want to learn about podcasting, he's your man. And I just want to thank you for your time.
Mark Savant:
Krista, been a pleasure.
Krista:
You're awesome and I love the voice. You've got such the podcast voice. It's like, “Oh my gosh. It's so good.”
Mark Savant:
Thank you. Thank you.
Krista:
Bye everyone. Remember, listening is amazing. It does so much to listen and learn, but if you don't implement, nothing happens at all. Make it a great day and thank you so much for a little bit of your time. Hey, hold on a second here.
Mark Savant:
That was beautiful. That was a ton of-