117: Using a Podcast Booking Agency to Grow Your Business and Podcast with Margy Feldhuhn

Written By Britany Felix
 

What’s This Episode About?

Margy Feldhuhn is a podcast host and the co-owner and CEO of Interview Connections, the first and leading podcast booking agency. She and her business partner lead an in-house staff of over 25 full-time employees in their (now virtual) Rhode Island office, and have successfully scaled the agency to multiple 7 figures.

Since 2013, Interview Connections has been booking successful entrepreneurs as guests on podcasts and providing them strategy and coaching to monetize their guest appearances. They currently represent over 250 business owners.

In addition to being an entrepreneur, Margy is also an animal rescue advocate and personal development enthusiast. With her podcast, “We Get It, Your Dad Died,” Margy uses her own experience of losing her dad to suicide to transform the conversation around grief and show the joy that is possible on the other side of loss. Her show won First Prize in the Best Podcast category of the 2021 Rhode Island International Film Festival.

In this episode, we chat about how their clients utilize podcast guest appearances for their businesses and podcasts, how Interview Connections was created, how many shows they have to pitch to get four podcast guests appearances per month for their clients, why they typically target “mid-range” shows for their clients rather than shows with massive audiences, the criteria they look for when finding podcasts to pitch, why don’t ask podcasts hosts for their download numbers before deciding whether or not to pitch to them, and more.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Margy and her co-owner will be hosting a free podcast guesting masterclass December 13-17th. Click here to register with my special affiliate link.

Transcript

0:07

Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping Coaches and Consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more.

0:48

Welcome to Episode 117 of podcasting for coaches. I do want to start off really briefly by saying that I do apologize if my voice is a little bit off. I have had an acute upper respiratory infection for like the past week and a half and while I am on the tail end of it is being a little bit stubborn. So please bear with me on that. All right, today's guest is Margie Feld hewn. She is a podcast host and the co owner and CEO of interview connections. She and her business partner lead an in house staff of over 25 full time employees and they're now virtual Rhode Island office and have successfully scaled the agency to multiple seven figures. Since 2013. Interview connections has been booking successful entrepreneurs as guests on podcasts, and providing them strategy and coaching to monetize their guest appearances. Interview connections currently represents over 250 business owners just like yourself. In addition to being an entrepreneur, Margie is also an animal rescue advocate and personal development enthusiast. With her podcast, we get it your dad died, Margie uses her own experience of losing her dad to suicide to transform the conversation around grief and show the joy that is possible on the other side of loss. Her show won first prize in the best podcast category of the 2021 Rhode Island International Film Festival. Alright, as usual, let's not waste any more time and get right on into my interview with Margie. Margie, thank you so much for being on the show. I am super excited to talk with you having been in the podcasting space for oh gosh, I think like going on six years now. I have definitely heard of interview connections. And it's nice to be able to chat with you one on one. So for those who haven't heard of interview connections, do you mind giving them just a little bit of a brief introduction? They've already heard like the official bio, the official, you know, company description, but I would love for them to hear it directly from you.

2:43

Yeah, so of course, Brittany, thank you so much. So we book high achieving entrepreneurs, as guests on podcasts, so that they can grow their personal brand, be visible and discoverable online, grow their audience and get new organic leads and clients all the time.

3:02

So for somebody who has never worked with a company like yours, you know, they've been pitching guests themselves or fielding guests requests themselves. How does that process really like work if they they just have no idea? You know, how do you explain that to them?

3:19

Yes. So primarily our clients, they want to be a guest on other people's shows. So a lot of our clients also have their own podcast. Or if they don't when they start a lot of them will fall in love with it through guesting on other people's shows, and then they always decide to start one even if they say they never will. They always do and I always laugh, because they get sucked in. Right? It's okay. So we represent the guests. So we get to know our clients really well understand their messaging, what they're aligned with, what they're not aligned with, who's their target audience, what types of shows are going to be a really good fit, what are their goals? And how can we measure them through the time that they're working with us to make sure we're continuing to make progress towards their goals. And once we're clear on that our team is pitching and booking them on great podcasts like yours, so that they're getting out there in front of new audiences. Every single week, we booked our clients on four shows a month or a show every single week so that they're consistently getting visible getting in front of new audiences. A lot of our clients who have their own podcast will use the guesting strategy to grow the audience of their show, to grow their following on other platforms to attract warm leads, who are you know, much higher trust than a paid lead from an ad or something like that?

4:35

Perfect and for you listening, if you've been listening to the show for any amount of time, you have probably heard me say numerous times that one of the absolute best ways by far that you can grow the audience of your show is by being a guest on other podcasts. Because there is this barrier. A lot of times for people when it comes to podcast, there's a whole entire portion of This planet that still is not listening to podcast. But if you're guesting on another podcast, you've already eliminated all of those barriers, because if they hear you on a podcast, clearly they know how to listen to them, which means it's a lot easier for them to transfer over and become a listener of your show as well. So Margie, how did interviewer connections come about? How did it get started? And just kind of walk us through that journey and what it's been like to have this company?

5:25

Yes. So my business partner, Jessica founded interview connections in 2013, which was early for this type of thing. We were the first type of company of the first booking agency, the first company doing this. And it came about because she became a virtual assistant. And her first client was her dad, Jim Palmer, who is a business coach. And one of the things he had her doing was booking him as a guest on other people's podcasts, because he had a podcast early, you know, so 2012 2013, he knew the value of having your own show. And I love Britney, that you really understand the like how valuable it is to own your media and have your own podcast. And he understood that too. And he understood exactly what you're saying how valuable guesting on other shows was to bring listeners to his own show. And then he knew he was going to convert clients from his own podcast. So he had just as a virtual assistant book him on other shows, in addition to a number of other like tasks that she was doing for him. And she really loved doing it. It was so exciting. And at that time, you know, in 2013, you'd pitch a show. And they would be like, Oh my gosh, cool. You're pitching me like as a host of a great show, you know that you are inundated with guests or requests. But at the time, that wasn't the key. So because he's a great business coach, he helped her really niche the business down to become interview connections, so to go from a VA company to a company that specialized just in podcast booking. And at that time, it was both booking guests for podcast. So representing the host, and also representing guests and pitching them. And it evolved from there, it grew to a team of at least I would say 10 contractors. And I came on as a contract booking agent in 2016. And I became the first employee of the company in 2017, at the very beginning of 2017. And then we totally changed the model in 2017. We moved to in house employees, local employees in Rhode Island, we got rid of all of the contractors all around the world, to have a more high touch service to be able to have employees who we could develop, so we would have more control over the quality. And that was quite a journey. And I became 50%. Co owner after that first year at the beginning of 2018. And I'm now the CEO. And we have over 20 full time employees in Rhode Island and Massachusetts we are now we gave up our office during COVID. So we're now a fully virtual team, but we are still local to each other.

8:13

Right? Well, and I like that because there is freedom and flexibility that comes with being virtual. But when COVID is not such a major issue, you can still have team meetings and person team events and, and those sorts of things. So you kind of have the best of both worlds with that model.

8:28

Yeah, I really do love it. We were actually just talking about this yesterday of doing kind of like the visioning and the creativity and the big picture strategy in person together. But then like the day to day implementation, and work can still happen remotely at home. So I totally agree it can be the best of both worlds.

8:46

Yeah. Now to kind of flip gears a little bit with the actual like pitching that your team does. If you had to guess like how many shows? Would you say that you typically have to pitch in order to get those four for your client? Oh, my gosh, that's

9:02

such a good question. So which by

9:05

the way, I did not prep her at all for that question. So just FYI, ever you're listening?

9:10

No, that's such a great question. So success rate is something we track. So I love metrics. I love data. And so I track for each agent, and then the company as a whole the number of pitches going out and the number of bookings that result from those pitches. So there's some variation in it, right? Like, it really depends. When we pitch shows we have a relationship with like, one of the nice things about having in house employees who are with us for a really long time is they're building these long term relationships with many, many podcast hosts. So for a host like that, you know, they're almost our client, but they don't pay us so like our agents are on the phone with that hose asking, Okay, what are you looking for? What's your vision for the next year of your show? What types of topics do you want to do? And then they'll send over our clients who are a perfect fit for the show. So with something like that those warm pitches, you know, it's like close to 100%. But if we're pitching a show that we don't have a relationship with yet, or show that, you know, you would consider a reach show like a show with a really, really huge audience, then the pitch for site goes down quite a bit. So I would say, average, maybe 25%, it can be as low as 10%. And if you don't have relationships of host don't already know you, it can be even lower than that. So anyone who is like wanting to DIY that, one of the things to be prepared for is just how much pitching and following up and logistics goes into just securing those four per month. And I would say four per month is probably the minimum you need every single month to build the momentum with the strategy that you want.

10:49

Right. And that is kind of what I was leading to was just kind of the quantity of pitches that somebody who's doing this on their own has to send out. I mean, it's, it can be a full time job, you have employees who this is literally their full time job. So I do think that having a service like yours, especially for somebody, you know, like the people listening to this show, who are very busy, like they're running businesses, they're raising families, a lot of my listeners, travel, travel is a big part of what I do. So they're kind of drawn to me for that reason. And so having a service like this, that can take that off of your plate, I mean, that's hours and hours worth of work every single week. And that's not even including actually prepping for the interviews, doing the interviews, promoting them all of those things. So I do think a service like yours can be incredibly, incredibly beneficial. For you listening, just FYI. Now, with these pitches, I am assuming that you have kind of a mixture for each of your clients, you go after some of those shows you have a great relationship with but you do also include those those reach shows, so that you're getting a variety and that your guests aren't like kind of on like the same five podcast, right?

11:57

Yes, absolutely. So it is a mix, we do love mid range shows, and we will talk about the value of mid range shows till we're blue in the face, because there's a handful of really big shows, and there's even fewer that are generally a good fit for our client and for their goals. And they're a good fit for the host, and the host wants them you know. So we're all about consistency, not just like, you know, hitting five to 10 podcasts. And then that's it, we're talking about doing a podcast a week, every week, every year, basically forever. I mean, that's what Josh and I do. And we grew the business from zero to seven figures with no paid ads at all, using this organic strategy in this consistency. So I am a big believer in the power of those, like mid range, not huge shows that are targeted and are the right audience, especially for someone who's a coach or consultant who has a high ticket program, that handful of people who are a great fit tends to convert really well ROI wise. So I always say this is probably more for Fortune than it is for fame, you probably won't get famous podcast guessing, although you will get famous in your niche, you will get visible there and become that like go to expert, which is hugely valuable. But yes, reach shows as long as they're a good fit for the host. And for the guests. We absolutely go after those shows. And it's always very exciting when those are booked. But I will say generally our clients tell us when we booked them on the huge shows, they don't see results, they either don't get anything back, or they're flooded with leads who aren't a good fit. And they actually get a bigger ROI from those shows that maybe don't feel as good to the ego but actually are just such a perfect audience.

13:49

Right? And so when you say mid range show like when you're talking about those those shows right there. What do you mean? Like, what does that type of show look like? Do you ask for download numbers? Do you check out their social media? How do you really like determine, you know, what type of show it is? And as far as their range and their regional those things?

14:07

Yeah, that's a great question. So I would call a mid range show somewhere between 100 and 1000 downloads per episode. Okay, we look at how long that they've been going. So a brand new show with under 20 episodes wouldn't be something we would reach out to, unless it's a big exception, like the host has a huge platform somewhere else or it's a perfect fit. But generally, we want to see at least 20 episodes, so we know that they're not going to pod fate and like give up on the show because it's too much work and they don't have someone like you to help them. Because we see that a lot. I mean, like they want a podcast, but they don't they need help. They get in over their heads and they quit like episode three, which is sad. So we make sure they're past that point, right because we want them to keep doing the show to keep promoting it. So our clients episodes that are you know evergreen in the backlog are getting discovered by new listeners all the time who are binging We generally don't ask for download numbers from hosts. When we have a host who's, you know, a good friend, we will. But it's not something we ask generally out of courtesy because we can tell the value of a show based on the sound quality, the quality of the content, who the host is the number of episodes and number of ratings and reviews, you know, their social media platforms. So that's enough for us to know that the host and the show are going to be a good fit for our client. We care so much about relationship building and having great respectful relationships with hosts. And we would never want to burn a bridge by saying, oh, you know, how many downloads you have? Are you like worth our clients time?

15:39

Right? I do know a lot of people are very protective of their download numbers. I absolutely am not. I very clearly like I talk about them all the time on the show. I include screenshots and my presentations at conferences. But I do understand that that is that is something like I actually I just spoke at Shi podcast live in October. And I included a screenshot and I equated it to almost essentially like asking a woman how much she weighs? Yeah, it's kind of the same thing. You just, you just don't do it. It's very rude for most people. So I do appreciate that you take that approach to it. Because I know a lot of companies are very, like analytical. They want to know every tiny little detail. And if you don't meet this number, then it's like you're not good enough. And so I so so appreciate that. You understand that a podcast and the success of that podcast and the opportunity for ri goes beyond just the download number. That's so so important. Yes, absolutely.

16:35

Yeah. And I love that you share download numbers. That's so I love transparency. But yeah, it is like asking someone their weight. Some people don't mind. Some people post their weight and their progress. Right? Most people you know, you don't ask.

16:47

Right, exactly. So if anybody is interested in working with interviewer connections, or at least learning more, where can they find that information?

16:56

Yes, so our website is interview connections.com. And we have lots of great case studies and information there. And then also lots of ways that you can connect with our team if you want to learn more.

17:07

Perfect. And before we wrap up, I do know that you have a podcast of your own. And even though it's not technically related to podcasting, or your business, I do feel that it is an important show, especially as someone who has a father with cancer, and I want you to have the opportunity to share that. So do you mind talking about your own podcast for just a minute? Oh, yeah,

17:29

of course. Thank you. And I'm so sorry to hear that your dad has cancer. My show is called we get it, your dad died. It is a show about grief, I interview a high achieving mostly seven and eight figure entrepreneurs about grief and loss, usually focusing on one really profound loss in their life and how it shaped them. And also really how they found joy on the other side of that and meaning and even, you know, created a life that was even better and more powerful because of what they had gone through

18:05

and love it. Well, I really appreciate you doing that. I do know that it's an award winning podcast. So congratulations on that. I'm assuming it's on every major platform. But does it have a website of its own or anything that people can check out?

18:17

No, it does not have a website. It's on every podcast platform though. Apple podcasts and Spotify definitely being the most popular.

18:25

Well, Margie, thank you so much for coming on the show. This was so fun. I could talk to you so much longer about all of this. But I do want to be respectful of your time and the time for you listening. So absolutely feel free to reach out to Margie if being a guest on another podcast is something you are considering. Which as you know, I absolutely say that you should consider that. And of course the links to everything mentioned in this episode will be in the show notes over at podcasting for coaches.com. And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, you can do so on Instagram at podcasting for coaches. If you know it's time to finally get serious about starting your podcast, go to podcasting for coaches.com and click on the work with me tab in the main menu to learn more about my one on one launch consultation packages or my self paced online course. And I look forward to seeing the podcasts that you create and put out into the world

 
Britany Felix
Next

116: Energetically Aligning with Your Podcast with Emily K Thomas