With the rise of shows like Entrepreneur on Fire and Smart Passive income, many agents are interested in hosting their own podcast. In our latest episode, we talk about the 3 specific purposes for real estate agents to host a podcast, and interview John Lee Dumas, host of Entrepreneur on Fire, on the nitty gritty details of hosting a consistent, high-quality podcast.
Takeaways + Tactics
First we address the reasons a real estate agent might host a podcast and the target audience for each. 1. Real Estate Market Show- Similar to a real estate radio show, this would be aimed at a general audience of buyers and sellers. 2. Community & Local Business- This would be an interview show with key vendors, contractors, lenders and local businesspeople, speaking to a general audience. This allows you to build relationships with key referral partners and stay in front of them by providing value rather than just by contacting the to ask for referrals. 3. Recruiting - This would be aimed at local agents, giving tips and strategies that are working for you and your agents, attracting other agents to join your team.
We kick off the interview with John Lee Dumas by going back to how John started Entrepreneur on Fire, meeting his initial target guests in person at events and approaching them about coming on the podcast. One great strategy he shared is that when he spoke with potential guests he referred to the first 20 guests he was booking as The Power 20 , which is a great strategy. Giving something a name and a personality can make it far more enticing.
From there, once he had a few high-profile guests he was able to leverage their name and credibility to book his next round of guests. We also discussed how far in advance he would book guests, and John shared the story of moving around a dentist appointment in order to accommodate Seth Godin’s schedule, in comparison to his schedule now which runs 8 interviews back-to-back on Tuesdays.
Next we talked about the curse of knowledge and why John doesn’t prepare for his interviews other than skimming their 50-word bio just before the interview. It only took about 450 interviews to get to the point where John is completely comfortable with that approach.
Knowing your target audience is critical to growing your podcast, and John shares exactly who his “avatar” or ideal listener is and how he developed that avatar to the point where he named the avatar and can describe this ideal listener in great detail. John points out that if you try to resonate with everyone, you end up resonating with no one. Find your niche, build raving fans, get initial momentum and then look to broaden and expand out from there.
John also shares why you need to take every opportunity to engage with your listeners, and ask them what they’re struggling with so you as the host can help create the solution to those pain points. That’s been the key to John’s monetization strategy, which has led to his founding Podcaster’s Paradise, Webinar on Fire and the Freedom Journal.
We finish up by talking about the challenges of putting out a daily podcast, how John records and maintains a consistent 7-day a week publishing schedule while building other parts of the business, and how John would launch a new podcast in this saturated environment.
So if you’re thinking of starting a podcast, start by identifying exactly what your goal is, who your ideal listener is, and get out there and meet them. Learn what their struggles and challenges are so you can create content that helps address those pain points, and then make it easy for them to appear on your show and share it with their friends.
Guest Bio
John Lee Dumas is the founder and host of Entrepreneur on Fire, a top ranked business podcast featuring interviews with 1,200+ of today’s most inspiring entrepreneurs. In addition to running his flagship 7-day-a-week podcast, John also founded and runs Podcaster’s Paradise, Webinar on Fire and recently launched The Freedom Journal, a goal-setting planner that has raised well over $300k on Kickstarter. Learn more at thefreedomjournal.com and check out his podcast at eofire.com.