The World's Greatest Podcast Guest Shares the Result of Appearing on 600 Podcasts and be Heard by 2 Million Listeners

Speaker 1: 0:01

You're in the marketing world and you're looking for inspiration, or you're a business leader who wants to understand what good marketing looks like. You're busy. You don't have time to sit around listening to a rambling 3 hour podcast. We get it. This is the Remarkable Marketing Podcast, where we celebrate the marketing rock stars that deliver truly remarkable marketing, and you'll hear short interviews with marketing execs who share stories about the best marketing they've ever done, how it delivered a huge impact and how they overcame all the challenges to make it happen. If you aspire to be remarkable, you'll walk away with ideas on how to do truly epic marketing. Getting right to the content of what you need for busy professionals, this is the Remarkable Marketing Podcast. Now your host, eric Eden.

Speaker 2: 0:57

Welcome to another episode of the Remarkable Marketing Podcast. I'm here with Nikki Ballew, who is one of the world's greatest podcast guests. Welcome, nikki. Thanks for having me. Eric, good to be here. Appreciate you making some time for us today. Nikki has done a lot of amazing things. He's going to share a story for us today about some of the things he's done for his company Circle to drive organic growth and so excited to hear about that. Nikki, tell us about some of the best marketing you've done and how you did it. Thanks for asking the question.

Speaker 3: 1:31

So I'm someone who's been in business for himself for over 20 years and I've had some great successes and I've had some epic failures. And in the pandemic and lockdown era, initially we found a way to really make our business come and it was going super calipharalistic, fantastic. But we got a little cocky and there was something we were doing that needed to be tweaked. We didn't tweak it and our business just took a dive. It took an absolute dive. And so I'm sitting here with my business mentor, my business coach, and I'm going hey, man, we need to turn this around. What do you think we can do? He said well, why don't you start being a guest on podcast? He said you're a podcast host. He's like I was and still am a podcast host, and I said, okay, I could give that a shot. He said so the objective of you being a podcast guest is actually to make money, it's not just to go have a conversation. I'm like, okay, just like, keep that intention in mind. I'm like, okay, okay, okay. So here's what happened. We started to think about how can I become a guest on lots of shows and I found PodMatch. Podmatch is how you and I met. It's a company that uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to match guests with hosts, and every six hours I got six new shows that I was able to pitch on me being a guest. So this is amazing. So I started pitching shows and within a two year period, I've been on over 600 podcasts as a guest. You heard that right 600 podcasts. They call me the world's greatest podcast guest because I've been on so many. I've done the work I've put in the reps that I come on these shows. I bring energy, I bring incredible content for people. So that's fantastic. But what I started to understand was there's a way to really use these appearances to create business opportunities. The thing that I needed to do and I understood this and I mentioned this to you off camera is I got to come on the show ready to inspire the people that are listening. Everyone listening to the show has been living through the last four years, just like you and I have. The last four years have been crazy. There's been lockdowns, there's been pandemics, there's been governments giving us all kind of crappy information which is scaring people. There's been wars in Europe, there's been wars in the Middle East, there's been pollution. People are scared. So I come on these shows to give them hope, to give them belief. That's super, super important. I think everyone who comes and is a guest needs to do that. Secondly, I gotta come on this show to make my host look good. I gotta make my host happy than he brought me on. I gotta make him think this is the greatest darn guest I ever had on my show. So my job is to bring lots of value, lots of energy to get you lots of good comments from the people that listen to your show. That's super, super important to me. So I come on to do that. I bring in good content, I bring in good value. And then, thirdly, my job is to build a relationship with you as the podcast host, because you're a businessman, I'm a businessman. As businessman, this is our job. You do business with people that you know, like and trust. So I've developed relationships with over 600 podcast hosts. As a result of doing this, I've generated over $357,000 in revenue and counting, and there's all kinds of other opportunities that have become possible as a result of being a guest on a show, and I started to teach this to people. I put a program together called Get Booked in your Payback, keep in mind for the first six months of being on shows, I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I didn't know my butt from my elbow and, as a result of that man, I made a lot of mistakes. I had a grand old time, but I started to figure out what really made a difference for hosts, what really made a difference for the audience and what really made it possible to be effective in developing the types of relationships that would result in business, and so I started to teach this to people. I call my workshop Get Booked and Get Paid, and what we do is we teach good people coaches, consultants, service-driven entrepreneurs who are looking for strategies that work today, not something that worked 12 years ago, not something that worked six years ago. Not something like launches, which doesn't work anymore. Not something like blogging, which doesn't work anymore. Not something like paid traffic Although I'm a fan of paid traffic, but paid traffic, a lot of upfront investment required on that. But doing things that work today and what works today my friend is being guests on podcasts, being a speaker on stages, virtual and otherwise these are the things that really work in terms of generating business, and I'm honored to be able to teach this to people because I want to see people win. My late father, the late great Napoleon Baloo. He was an entrepreneur. We're Christians from Iran. We escaped from Iran after the Islamic Revolution, right? And my father would always tell me son life is about people, it's not about money. Business is about people, it's not about money. I'm eight years old when he tells me this and I go dad, what are you talking about? See, I'm a smart alec, shit, I know better. Come on, without money there's no business. Ah, I got you, dad got you. Yes, son, that's true, but without people there's no need for business. All business is solving problems for people and making a profit. That's the purpose of business. To the power of four P to the power of four is what it's all about. And when I really got this, I took the torch that my dad passed to me and I took that and I started to do that. I love on people, I believe in people, I care about people, I pour into them with all my heart and soul and I carry the Napoleon Baloo torch to really be a man who makes a difference for a fellow man and woman and helps them win. If you knew my dad, eric, you would love my dad. My dad was a man that if you were looking for work, he'd sit you down in his office. He'd call all his business owner buddies and browbeat them until one of them gave you a job and you'd be working that day. You'd say, eric, you're working as a marketing director at this company. Good luck. If you were trying to start a business, he'd sit you down. He'd like listening to you. He'd come up with ideas for you. He'd introduce you to bankers and funding sources. He'd even try to get your clients if he could. And if you were trying to buy a car or a house and remember, we're from Iran, right, the Middle East the banks wouldn't always give you all the money that you needed and you needed some more he'd give you a loan to top you up so you could buy that car or that house. And when you tried to pay him back, eric, he wouldn't let you pay him back and say come on, that was a gift, forget about it. That was the kind of man that my father was, and he was all about making a difference for his fellow man. He passed that on to me, man, and I like to think that I'm doing my best to carry my father's incredible message and incredible way of being into the world with who I am in business.

Speaker 2: 7:55

That's amazing. That's amazing. What is the hardest part of doing 600 podcast-cast appearances?

Speaker 3: 8:03

Well, brother, that's a lot of appearances, right? So every day that I got a show, I got to make sure that I got to get up, get my energy going. So I listen to some good music, right, that pumps me up, music that pumps my soul. My mentor, mark Von Muser, calls it my soundtrack of awesome. So I got a bunch of songs I listen to. So I like guys like America, you can do magic. That's a song that gets me pumped up. I listen to Rocky music. I listen to the late great Toby Keat. Courtesy of the red, white and blue, that's one of my favorite songs. And I get up, I get up and I get up there. So that's hard In the mornings. I get up, I don't feel like doing it, I don't want to do it. Oh my God, I want to go back to bed. I don't want to do a podcast, but I tell you what discipline overcomes motivation every step of the way. And I'm a disciplined man, I've got some discipline going on. I follow through on my disciplines and do it. Once I get going on a show, I'm always pumping it.

Speaker 2: 8:54

That's awesome. Let me ask you one question about the podcast industry in particular, since you're doing so many of them. It seems like it's really become a lot more popular, even in the last year. Spotify came out and said in their earnings this week that they spent over a billion dollars on podcasts in the last year. Obviously, they have the Joe Rogan thing for $250 million, but it also just seems a lot more mainstream. A lot more people are doing it. Is that what you're seeing?

Speaker 3: 9:25

Yes, there's over 5 million podcasts in existence 5 million. I was expected there'll be 800,000 more launched this year, in 2024. There are over 500 million people globally listening to podcasts over 160 million in the United States. Of the people listening to podcasts, they're high income earners. Over 35% of them make six figures or more a year. And here's the incredible statistic 38% of the people buy the products and services mentioned on shows. So if you are thinking, should I be a podcast guest, the answer is a resounding yes. You're going to get access to audiences you never, ever, were able to before and you're going to be able to build relationships with hosts, which is incredible. As a business owner, and you're going to be able to inspire people. You're going to be able to take your brand and build it up. So me being on 600 shows, I've had over 2 million people that have listened to my episodes on other people's shows 2 million, dude. That's incredible. Think about that. That's super califragilistic.

Speaker 2: 10:28

That is really remarkable to get that kind of reach from doing 600 appearances, even though I'm sure it's a lot of time and effort, like you said, but it's a pretty rewarding amount. All right, nikki. Well, thanks so much for being here with us and sharing these stories. This is definitely inspirational. I think people should prioritize getting into podcasting and potentially being a podcast guest, just like you have to get that sort of reach have a great impact on the business, like you were saying, and for all those people who aspire to be remarkable. Thank you for sharing that story with us today.

Speaker 3: 11:00

My pleasure. Thanks, Eric. Thanks for having me on the show.

Speaker 1: 11:05

You've been listening to the Remarkable Marketing Podcast. Our passion is to bring you the marketing rock stars who share stories about the best marketing they've done, how it delivered and how they handled all the challenges that go along with it. And we do it all in 10 minutes. We only ask two things. First, visit the RemarkableMarketingio website for more great insights. Second, this podcast has been brought to you by the Next Generation Social Networking App, workverse. You can download and use the Workverse app for free to build your professional brand, become a paid expert advisor and discover the best business events to attend. Download the Workverse app today. See you next time on the Remarkable Marketing Podcast.