The 4 Episode Formats Every 6-Figure Podcaster Uses

Dustin [00:00:00] The strategy and the intent behind interviews for this podcast are almost always aspirational relationship building or partner development.

Dustin And so what that looks like is aspirational relationships means there’s someone I would love to talk to. I would love to know them, I would love to learn from them. I would probably pay them money to consult and coach me, and I can invite them onto my podcast—and they’re very likely to say yes. And so it’s access for me to people I really want to meet and learn from.

Intro You’re listening to the Seven Figure Leap podcast. We’re here to leverage rich relationships and smart strategies to take your business to the next level. Here’s your host, Dustin Riechmann.

Dustin [00:01:00] How do you actually make money as a podcast host? I’m Dustin Riechmann, and in this episode, I want to break down the other side of podcasting that I haven’t really talked much about before.

Dustin I talk a lot about podcast guesting. I’m passionate about podcast guesting. I guest much more than I host, and I still think everyone should guest before they even think about hosting. So if you’re listening to this because you’re like, “Hey, I’m thinking about starting a podcast,” I would only do that if you’ve guested at least 10 times, and preferably guested for like a year.

Dustin And the reason for that is guesting is just way more effective in what you’re probably trying to accomplish, which is lead generation, business growth, content production. You can go leverage other people’s podcasts, and it’s way smarter than starting your own. However, when the time is right in the evolution of your business, there’s definitely a place for hosting, right?

Dustin And I’ve been hosting this podcast for over two years. This is around episode 120, 125, something like that. So obviously I’ve found a rhythm here. And in doing that, and just seeing behind the scenes of many other people’s podcasts, I’ve learned a few things. And so what I want to share with you today is how this type of business and this type of podcast can actually be profitable.

Dustin [00:02:00] So there are those big podcasts, right? We all know Joe Rogan, Diary of a CEO, and there’s those industry-specific podcasts that are pretty big—entertainment podcasts, true crime. They make money primarily through sponsorships, right? Because they have a massive following, lots of downloads, and people pay to place ads in them.

Dustin That’s not what we do, and that’s probably not what you do as a listener to this podcast. You’re probably never going to have a podcast that you’re hosting that’s big enough to actually make any meaningful money with ads, right? So your strategy behind why you’re doing the podcast needs to be tied to different outcomes than ad sales and downloads.

Dustin To be completely honest, I was asked on a call—it's part of the reason I’m recording this podcast today—I was asked on a call today, “How many downloads does your podcast get?” And my honest answer is: I don’t know. And frankly, I don’t really care. Of course, I love that you’re listening and I appreciate it, and I want you to leave reviews and we want to spread the word because I do want a lot more people to know about the work that we do and the amazing guests that we have.

Dustin [00:03:00] But my strategy is actually not tied to downloads, and that’s why it’s not even something I frankly track.

Dustin So what is the strategy? Well, my strategy is based on a couple key buckets: thought leadership, relationship building, and the other I call rapport building (or trust building is probably the right word there).

Dustin And so I think the easiest way for me to demonstrate how we use this podcast to grow Seven Figure Leap—and this has become a six-figure marketing channel in and of itself—is to talk about the four types of episodes that we do. So I think in describing the content that we produce with this podcast and the purpose for each of these pieces of content, you’ll start to get a much more clear picture about the holistic strategy and why we continue to do this consistently.

Dustin [00:04:00] So the first is interviews, right? And that may seem kind of obvious. I’m going to go through these. There’s four of them. I’m going to save the newest one for last. It’s actually the one that’s the most direct monetization, if you will. But the first three are formats that we’ve been doing really since the beginning of this show.

Dustin And so interviews, as I was saying, is the first one. If you go back and you look at who we interview, though, you’ll notice some things about it. I don’t take random interviews. I don’t generally have guests on who I don’t already have a relationship with. And so the strategy and the intent behind interviews for this podcast are almost always aspirational relationship building or partner development.

Dustin [00:05:00] And so what that looks like is aspirational relationships means there’s someone I would love to talk to. I would love to know them, I would love to learn from them. I would probably pay them money to consult and coach me, and I can invite them onto my podcast—and they’re very likely to say yes. And so it’s access for me to people I really want to meet and learn from.

Dustin And so I think of bestselling authors, high-end mastermind leaders, coaches, consultants in the industry. So on this podcast, I’ve had so many great people: Ryan Deiss, Ryan Levesque, Jay Papasan… boy, I’m going to probably offend people by not mentioning them… Nathan Barry, Justin Welsh.

Dustin There’s these people that I probably would never get 45 minutes to sit down with them one-on-one and learn from them and get to know them. But through having a podcast, it’s given me the platform to do that, and I think that’s really important.

Dustin [00:06:00] The other types of interviews you see are peer-to-peer interviews, and they’re generally people who serve you—our ideal audience, our ideal clients—in a way that’s complementary to what I do. And the reason I like to interview them is because that’s the type of content that fills a gap for us. But also, by getting to know them, we often find opportunities to collaborate, where they will now invite me to be a guest on their podcast or come be an expert in their summit. They can come—obviously they’re a guest on my show as a starting point—and then sometimes there are referrals that happen there. There are joint collaborations and workshops.

Dustin So our bucket-one main interviews are for me to have access to people that I would love to talk to who are ahead of me, and also to talk to peers who have really unique expertise to add to your experience and serve typically as partners to us—affiliate partners, JV partners, or collaboration partners.

Dustin So that’s bucket one. That’s probably the most obvious, and that’s probably the strategy that I’m aligned with that most podcasts do, right?

Dustin [00:07:00] The second one—I think these get a little more unique as we go—is case study content. We’re really intentional that when someone comes into Podcast Profits Accelerator (which is our program about podcast guesting), I don’t volunteer this, but I’m very open to the fact that: hey, when you get through the program and you’ve got way more clarity on your messaging and you’re really good at being a guest, and you have something to share that would be of value to our audience, why don’t you pitch me and show me why you’d be a value add to this podcast?

Dustin And so I pretty much always say yes to clients when they do that. In the short term, that is a benefit—a bonus benefit—of being in our community and being one of our clients, is you basically get access to be a guest here. So you get the platform that we have, the credibility that comes with it.

Dustin For every guest that we have, we create some really cool marketing assets and pull clips and images and things for them to use. So it’s just a really good opportunity from that standpoint. But the other thing it does is it shows that we know what we’re doing, right? So it’s a credibility and trust builder with prospective clients, because by highlighting the success of our clients and showing the types of people we work with—and of course, they naturally start to talk about how our program has helped them achieve the success that they’re sharing—it’s good marketing, right?

Dustin [00:08:00] It’s basically a live case study. And so we have that as a podcast episode, but then we’re able to use that content as our own marketing material. So bucket two is case study content with clients, and there’s multiple reasons that fits our strategy.

Dustin Bucket three, which I think is the one that gets overseen by most thought leaders, is solo content.

Dustin I think the biggest mistake that podcast hosts make—if they are a coach, consultant, agency owner, thought leader, author, et cetera—is they exclusively do guest interviews on their show. I understand the temptation for that. That was my original plan for this show as well. Obviously I believe in the power of guesting, and I think that these types of podcasts definitely benefit from having guests. However, if all you do is interview other experts, the positioning that provides you is that you’re a good interviewer of experts. It does not actually show that you’re an expert at anything, and I think that’s a huge missed opportunity that most podcast hosts fall into where it’s like, “Hey, it’s kind of easy. People keep pitching me on coming on. I’m going to develop a big backlog of shows. I just show up, ask a few questions. I don’t have to think too hard,” right?

Dustin [00:09:00] But the huge downside of that is you never actually establish your own expertise.

Dustin And so I’m a believer that ideally at least 50%—but bare minimum a third—of your episodes should be you teaching in a solo format, exactly like I’m doing right now. I could have had someone else come on and teach about podcast hosting, but I want you to know that I have my own experience, my own strategy, and that I can be a resource on this to you. And the way I can demonstrate that is by coming on solo and putting together what’s hopefully a thoughtful framework and teach you something really valuable about the strategy on this side of the microphone.

Dustin [00:10:00] So solo episodes, I’d say, are definitely our most valuable episodes. What ends up happening is these become a library of FAQ answers. They also become something to point at for credibility. They’re the most searchable episodes. If you’re looking for a specific topic and you see me pop up and I have a whole episode about it, you’re like, “Okay, he actually knows a lot about this,” right? Because I’m an authority because I’m speaking in a long-form educational format about very niche topics.

Dustin And so every week—probably every day—I or someone on our team is sending a link to an episode of a solo podcast to someone who’s asked a question of us, like on social media or following a sales conversation or after a live workshop.

Dustin [00:11:00] I’m hosting a live workshop series as I record this this week, and someone asked, “Hey, what story should I tell on the podcast?” And it’s outside the scope of the workshop. We have limited time. I said, “You know what? I can’t answer that right now, but I’m going to shoot you a link.” And I did a whole episode on this.

Dustin I had another conversation today where someone’s like, “I’m thinking about using a podcast booking agency.” I’m like, “That’s an option. I think there’s a lot of things you should think about, and I don’t think it’s probably the right fit for you. But let me shoot you an episode that I did on this exact topic.”

Dustin Right? And so now I’ve been developing a library. One of the questions I get all the time is, “Hey, Dustin, should I start a podcast?” And guess what? I’m going to send them this episode. So if you’re listening to this and you asked me this question, I’m doing the thing that I’m teaching here because this is a way for me to go deeper and answer that with authority and with some examples and with some context, which I think is really important.

Dustin [00:12:00] So solo episodes are bucket three. In the early days—I’d say the first six months of the show—we did very little solo content. I’d say lately we’ve been doing more than 50%, just because I’ve become aware of just how many things there are to address in this format. And the other thing that this is really good for is repurposing.

Dustin So we can take these clips, and you probably see this from us if you follow us on LinkedIn or emails. We have a YouTube channel, and this is the best type of content for a YouTube channel, right? Versus guest interviews, which are okay, but they’re just not the same as having a solo episode where I can open with a hook and really get into a framework and pay off a specific promise in one episode.

Dustin [00:13:00] So if you’re doing a podcast and you don’t do solo content and you’re trying to build your own authority and thought leadership, I think you’re making a huge mistake. I think you should definitely be doing solo episodes. And I would say if you had to choose between only interviewing other guests and/or only doing solo, I would only do solo.

Dustin But that’s hard, and you miss out on the first two buckets that I already mentioned. There’s a lot of relationship building that can happen when you have great guest interviews, and so I think you should do both. And that’s why I say 50/50 or two-thirds/one-third is really what I would be setting up as a strategy if I was advising you in this strategy.

Dustin [00:14:00] And in the fourth bucket—the newest and the one that has been the most surprising to me—is coaching sessions, like live coaching sessions. So if you are a coach or a consultant and you can do one-on-one work with people and give them insights and give them outcomes, recording that can be extremely valuable.

Dustin So you may notice if you go back over the past couple months here at Seven Figure Leap, we’ve had a coaching series. I did one in the fall, and then we took a break from that, and I just did another series. The way that we’ve set this up—because we have five spots—and we just send out a message on LinkedIn or email list. Honestly, we barely promote it. But when we promote it, we get dozens of people who want to be in that seat.

Dustin And the way it’s positioned is: “Hey, come get an hour of free coaching from Dustin. I’m going to give you my full attention, my best coaching. It’s going to be just like if you’re in a strategy session with me as a client.”

Dustin [00:15:00] I say 60 minutes—some of these have gone for 90, 100 minutes. We’ll go until we get what we need. And you’re going to walk away as the guest with a marketing strategy. So we’re going to really unpack your business, get clear on your goals, see what the gaps are in your strategy to get where you’re trying to go, and then I’m going to give you a marketing strategy just like you were a client.

Dustin So that’s really valuable. Then on the flip side, we say: “And if you’re going to be in that seat, you have to agree to be transparent, open. You have to be able to talk about your numbers, right? You’ve got to be vulnerable. We’re going to show this to other people, but I want you to really think of it like you’re going to open up and be real, because that’s how I’m going to be able to help you the most.”

Dustin And so people agree to that.

Dustin [00:16:00] And so what ends up happening in this is we say, “Hey, we’re going to do a coaching series. We are going to have five spots available. Apply by X date.” And we get dozens of people that apply. So I think in the two seasons that we’ve done this, we’ve had a total of like 90-something applications, which is really cool.

Dustin For one, it’s very flattering that people value it and they want to come on. But from my seat as the owner of Seven Figure Leap, you can start to see a dynamic that develops here. Each of these people that applies to be a guest for a coaching series has to fill out an application that gives us a lot of information about them, right? Because that’s how we’re going to know if we can help them, if it’s going to be a good episode.

Dustin So it’s not a sales call, and it’s not an application for our program, but it has a lot of the same benefits to us in that every person that applies, we get to see: who are they, what are their goals, where are they stuck, what’s their revenue look like, what’s their offer look like.

Dustin [00:17:00] And so we can be very selective then. And what we like to do—what I like to do—is choose people from different industries with different sizes of clients, right? Like corporate versus small, B2C versus B2B. And a lot of times I’ll select those based on objections I’ve heard from prospective clients. So if someone’s like, “I don’t think podcast guesting will work for enterprise sales,” right? Or, “I don’t think this would work for me. I sell a product.” And so what I like to do is find people who have that challenge, and then I coach them live, and I show exactly how they can be effective with this strategy, with podcast guesting, because that typically ends up being part of the strategy, right?

Dustin And then now I have that to send to people when they say, “I don’t think this would work for me.” I’m like, “Why don’t you listen to this episode? Because I’ve already solved this for you,” right? Like, go check this out.

Dustin [00:18:00] So that’s part of our selection process. But the big idea here is people are asking you to be in that seat. They’re going to give you a lot of information so you can make that determination. And so frankly, I haven’t done this, but I could. We now have like 95 people that we know want to work with me in some capacity. I can see what their challenges are, and we could easily follow up with them—even if they’re not in this coaching series podcast seat—and we could still offer to do a complimentary call, strategy call, and ultimately probably find some great clients in that mix.

Dustin As I say that, I’m like, we should probably do that, but we haven’t. We literally just find the ones that would be the best fit for the next season, the right mix of people, and then we just do exactly that, right?

Dustin And so that takes some ability and some courage, right? You have to actually be able to coach people; otherwise it might be a little embarrassing to record an episode and have it be not very useful. But you know what you’re good at, and if you say, “This is what I can do for you, and the way to get my help at no charge is to come be a featured coaching student or coaching client on the podcast,” it’s really powerful.

Dustin [00:19:00] So that’s great for effectively lead generation, and you can be very intentional about who you’re interviewing so that you have content that will help similar people make a good decision in the future. The other thing that happens, though, is it’s like the best content because there’s always the full coaching session. So if someone wants to know what it’s like to work with me, they can just watch it, right? This is it. This is me doing it. And of course, we can pull some amazing clips because there’s always these lightbulb moments, kind of insights, ahas, epiphanies that happen, and it’s great to capture that as content.

Dustin And then I would be remiss if I didn’t say: pretty frequently these individuals become clients, right? So again, I want to be clear that’s not the primary intent. This is not a veiled sales call. That’s just not how we’re doing it. There are many podcasts that this is their entire strategy, and it’s not really a coaching session as much as it’s a sales call, and they’re actually doing cold outreach.

Dustin [00:20:00] We see this all the time where they’re saying, “Hey, I have a podcast. I want to have you as a guest.” And all it actually is, is they’re inviting you on to be sold to, and it’s kind of high pressure and kind of gross. We don’t do that. What we are doing is no strings attached: come get coached. Get exposure to the audience, get some cool assets, get the chance to really get clear and unpack your story, and get a strategy that you can use.

Dustin And I don’t even ask, but what happens is we end the recording and they say, “Oh my gosh, that was so helpful.” And I’m like, “Good. I’m glad that was really helpful for you. And what are you going to do with this strategy?” And a lot of times they’ll say, “Actually, I think I could use your help. The things you talked about make a lot of sense. I’d love to have you in my corner. I’d love to know more about your Podcast Profits Accelerator program.”

Dustin In my case, there’s also this added meta moment of like: you just guested on a show, right? If you’re comfortable, this is about the most uncomfortable interview you’re going to have to do because I’m asking you very pointed questions about your business and you’re talking about numbers and stuff. But imagine being in that seat as an expert and teaching the things that you really do teach.

Dustin Long story short, typically a third to a half of the people who come on for the coaching series have become clients of ours, and that’s pretty awesome, right? So that adds a lot to the monetization side of this.

Dustin So that’s really what I wanted to share today: a behind-the-scenes look at how I think about podcast hosting in the context of it. Podcast hosting is very bad for lead generation. So if you’re like, “Ah, I want to generate leads and I want to build a lot of relationships fast and I want to get clarity on my message,” just go do guesting. Do not even start hosting.

Dustin But if you’re at a point in your journey in your business where the things I’m doing make a lot of sense to you—these aspirational relationships, building partnerships with other people in your industry as peers, you have people that you’d love to highlight as a case study, you want to generate solo thought leadership content that can be much more specific and sort of FAQ-oriented, and you have the ability to coach live and you want to create a coaching series—I think hosting is fantastic for all those things, right?

Dustin [00:21:00] I would consider hosting a more advanced strategy. I think it belongs for most people a year after they start guesting. And you never have to do it, right? So you can just guest and you can build a six- and seven-figure business. We’ve talked plenty about that in other episodes. But about half of our clients end up hosting a podcast. So they come in for guesting in our accelerator program and they many times end up creating a podcast of their own at some point. And I think the reason for that is they’re good at it and they love the medium and they can see the value and richness of the relationships that get built. They do want to build their own platform, and this feels like a natural place to do that because they’ve already practiced so much on the other side of the mic.

Dustin And I think all those things are amazing. I just wouldn’t start with hosting. But if you are a host or you’re thinking about hosting and you’re at a point in your business where this is a logical next step, I hope seeing how I think about this and hearing about these four types of content that we create with our podcast will be insightful.

Dustin [00:22:00] And so if you’ve been listening for a while, or even if you’re new here, I would invite you to scroll back through the past year of episodes, and you’ll start to see this pattern and you’ll start to be able to understand why we have the types of episodes that we have. And as I said, I don’t know how many downloads I have, but I can tell you that more than six figures a year is directly attributable to hosting this podcast.

Dustin And that is in addition to the trust-building, relationship-building energy that’s created from this that’s sort of around many of our sales, right? So $100,000+ in sales of, like, they were a guest or they were a partner, or they responded to a specific episode because they found that and they said, “Hey, you did this episode on X. I need to talk about working with you.” $100,000+ in that direct sales—what I would call direct sales. But there’s such a halo effect of all the other content, of just showing up consistently and all the trust that gets built and the expertise that’s demonstrated by having a library of content and being associated with other great thought leaders as peers or people that are further ahead of me on the journey because they’ve been part of this Seven Figure Leap experience here.

Dustin [00:23:00] So if you want to get started with podcast hosting, don’t call me. I don’t teach that. But if you want to start on the guesting side—which is totally what I’d recommend anyway—then do call me. In fact, come sign up and we can have a conversation about that. So http://7figureleap.com/call is always going to be your best bet to have a conversation and learn more about how we can help you with guesting.

Dustin And of course, I do actually help with hosting as well. It’s just not part of that main program. It’s just sort of a bonus benefit for people in our world because obviously it’s something I do and love. So thank you so much. Look forward to unpacking one of these four session types with you on the next episode here at Seven Figure Leap.