Markigy: The Science of Marketing Strategy

How Collaboration & Co-Creation Makes For Better Quality Content w/ Joseph Lewin

Episode Summary

Want to know how podcasting can open the doors to building quality relationships? Join us with special guest Joseph Lewin, The talented and insightful host of the Strategic Marketer Podcast and Director of Demand Generation at Proofpoint Marketing. We’ll be discussing podcasting itself as a great opportunity to dive into how blending creativity, curiosity, and collaboration end up in a triple win.

Episode Notes

Content co-creation has quickly become the strongest bridge between customer-centric companies and their customers.

Thus, it’s essential that we, as marketers, use collaboration to create content that’s not only engaging and relatable, but full of value.

Podcasting has become one of the fastest growing mediums for content co-creation over the last few years.

While podcasters need expert guests, experts need exposure and a place where they can share their expertise… making podcasting the perfect way to foster collaboration that benefits everyone involved.

Sharing a message is what marketers do best, so why not use that skill to boost credibility and expand your and your guests’ networks?

If you’ve never worked with other content creators or been a guest on a podcast, you’re likely missing out on an amazing opportunity. You also might be missing out on new and potentially life-changing job opportunities!

If you're looking for opportunities to create stronger and more meaningful connections with your customers to create more wins for both sides, this episode is for you!

In this episode of Markigy Podcast, your host Leanne Dow-Weimer welcomes Joseph Lewin, Director of Demand Generation at ProofPoint Marketing, to shine light on the power of podcasting and content co-creation.

In this episode we discuss:

Meet the Host:

Leanne Dow-Weimer, Founder & Host of Markigy Podcast https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannedow

Meet the Guest:

Joseph Lewin, Director of Demand Generation at ProofPoint Marketing

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-lewin

Links to content here: 

Listen to The Strategic Marketer Podcast: https://thestrategicmarketer.sounder.fm

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Markigy: The Science of Marketing Strategy in your favorite podcast player.

This episode was produced and brought to you by Reignite Media. 

Episode Transcription

Markigy- Episode with Joseph Lewin

[00:00:00] Leanne Dow Weimer: Hi, I'm Leanne Dow Weimer, and joining me is Joseph Lewin. I hope I pronounced your last name correctly. You got it, I got it. Yes. Today we're gonna be talking about how podcasting and co-creating content helps just make everything mutually beneficial and better content. Uh, I'm coming from this with experience in social media management.

[00:00:26] Right now I spend a lot more time on strategy. [00:00:30] All in all, I have spent my career marketing and in sales positions to help organizations grow with that growth mindset of if we aren't good at it today, we're gonna get good at it and we're gonna expand. Um, Joseph, tell 

[00:00:44] Joseph Lewin: us about yourself. Yeah. I'm, um, director of demand generation for Proofpoint Marketing.

[00:00:50] And so I help customers understand their customers better and create strategies and, and. and help them launch and execute [00:01:00] marketing based on, um, who their customers are and what they're really looking for. Um, my specialty is definitely around messaging and I've spent a lot of time on the content marketing side of things.

[00:01:10] Um, and I also just got over being sick, so I apologize for my more congested than normal sound for this, uh, podcast. But yeah, I'm looking to forward to jumping in. I guess one other thing that's pretty relevant to. Conversation is that I have a podcast called The Strategic Marketer. Um, and that was kind of my, [00:01:30] my main foray into what we're gonna be talking about today and, uh, where I have a lot of experience in creating content with other people.

[00:01:37] Um, so yeah, it's a little bit about me. Yeah, 

[00:01:40] Leanne Dow Weimer: it's a great podcast. I love it. Um, you know, I think there's a lot of actual insight and a lot of really great topics in there, so I'm really excited that you're joining me and that we we're getting to do this. So let's just dive in. Um, how did today came up?

[00:01:58] Because I believe [00:02:00] you might have had, um, you know, a post or a tagline that you were looking for guests maybe at some. and I dm I try to slide into your dms and be like, Hey, can I be a guest? And you're like, I, I've got so many, um, , but you offered very generously to join me, um, on my own. That's the correct story, right?

[00:02:22] I'm not, Yeah, 

[00:02:22] Joseph Lewin: no, that, that sounds about right. Yeah. I end up having, uh, probably a little bit too long of a list and then it's like I can't keep up on [00:02:30] the editing, getting him out fast enough. So at one point I ended up having. Three months of podcast recorded and I'm like, Hey, we'll record this podcast, but it's gonna come out in like 2025.

[00:02:41] So . So yeah, I got a little 

[00:02:43] Leanne Dow Weimer: behind, but that's that. That just speaks to the power of putting something on your LinkedIn for a business centered podcast and having that inbound. Like met like in like queries, I guess if we wanna be [00:03:00] like super technical as an inbound query, but having people just slide into your dms and you can find like who it attracts and who, who's a good fit, and just different ways to still work together.

[00:03:10] And I think that's part of the cool part about social media and LinkedIn because there's. You know, a litany of not cool parts, but this is one of the, the best better examples of how it just creates that open ended network that you can pull from and join and [00:03:30] create cool thingss with. Absolutely overuse my quota for cool today, but, um, 

[00:03:36] Joseph Lewin: Yeah, I mean LinkedIn is, is absolutely amazing for doing just that.

[00:03:39] And um, I mean I, I've been on LinkedIn actively since like 2015 and then I had uh, there was a two year break in there from 2019 to 2021 just cuz I was starting in a new, uh, industry that I hadn't worked in. And I was having to learn all about that industry to market. You know, I was still doing marketing but [00:04:00] in a, the engineering space.

[00:04:01] So it was like a lot of time learning about technical engineering stuff and I was like, Didn't have . The bandwidth to be posting on LinkedIn is regularly. But, um, almost all of my professional relationships and the best jobs that I've had in marketing so far have come from LinkedIn. Either, you know, finding a job on LinkedIn or networking and, and, um, and same with vendors that I've, that I've worked with, um, that I've hired in to do different [00:04:30] projects.

[00:04:30] And back when I was running my own business, a lot of my clients came from. Um, meeting people on LinkedIn. So it's definitely an extremely valuable place to be spending time when it comes to social media. Um, I think you actually can see a pretty good roi return on, uh, return on investment and return on the relationships that you build, You know, much stronger on LinkedIn than for me, any other social platform so far.

[00:04:56] Yeah, I agree 

[00:04:57] Leanne Dow Weimer: completely. When I was running my own business, I [00:05:00] had more like higher quality leads because people would see my content. They would know my, my vibe, how I run things, what type of customer I'm a good fit for, and they would see that and we would interact and we would build a relationship.

[00:05:14] And I think that that. that relatability is what's hugely impactful across all mediums is like whether or not you're relatable. They, they can feel you're warmth or they, they know what to expect and [00:05:30] there's less surprises. Um, so. There's so much to this and I'm so excited that you mentioned so many cool things about how you've been active on LinkedIn.

[00:05:42] What is an example of, not necessarily this interaction, but another one where LinkedIn or podcasting has, has done something impactful 

[00:05:54] Joseph Lewin: for you? Yeah, so I could give, um, Couple [00:06:00] examples. So the, probably the first big one was that I was working with a, uh, the, the head of sale. I mean, he was really the head of sales and marketing at previous, my previous company.

[00:06:12] And there was this one particular account that we had that was kind of on the. , uh, they weren't really utilizing our product as well as they needed to be. And so they really needed to be spending more money with us to get what they were looking for. But they were contemplating getting rid of us all together because they weren't seeing the value.

[00:06:27] And so we were having to be like, Guys, you're not seeing it cuz you're [00:06:30] not like spending what you need to, to actually see the value from this. And so they were having conversations with high level executive people that were kind of far removed. Actually using the product. So I ended up finding somebody at the, at that company who, um, had engaged with some of our content that was much closer to the actual product.

[00:06:53] And so I, um, reached out to her, invited her to come on the show, and, um, [00:07:00] And she came on, we had a great conversation and then I asked her if she'd be willing to create some content for our website specifically. Um, so then we did another episode that was more focused on what we actually did and, and, and in the zone of, of what our company could help with.

[00:07:15] Um, and then from there she had brought up what we actually do and how it was something they were struggling with. And so then it was a really easy. Conversation for me to go, Hey, we could really help you guys with that. Would you [00:07:30] be open? And we actually already are working with you guys in a different division.

[00:07:33] Would you be open to learning a little bit more about what we do and getting, I can get you in touch with the people on your team who are working on, on this project. And, um, and so yeah, I mean we ended up getting, getting this demo and, um, with her and. Helping to broaden that conversation out from that executive team who was pretty disconnected into, um, into people who were actually using [00:08:00] the product and being affected by not having kind of the full version of our product on a day to day basis.

[00:08:06] Um, and then I ended up leaving. Before that, I got to see that, like all the way through, um, to my current role. Um, but just being able to get a conversation like that at all. If I would've just reached out to her cold and said, Hey, do you want to jump on a demo? No way that she would've done that.

[00:08:22] Absolutely. No way, . So that that's, uh, that one story. It 

[00:08:27] Leanne Dow Weimer: would've, No, I mean that's a great one cuz because you're [00:08:30] right like it, we have people whose entire jobs are trying to pitch to get into the demo stage and you know, instead of it starting in like this cold, like random outreach, it really. Relevant.

[00:08:44] And it made it, it made sense and it, and you guys were able to talk through and collaborate on it. And I think that collaboration is really one of the largest part about being customer centric. Because at the end of the day, if we aren't answering our customer's needs, wants, desires, [00:09:00] then what are we doing?

[00:09:01] Joseph Lewin: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, and this in particular is a cool example because she didn't have a lot of exposure on LinkedIn before and she had never been on a podcast or talked. About her expertise and she really knows her stuff. I mean, she's extremely smart. Um, and so it's valuable to her because she's getting exposure outside of where she normally would.

[00:09:26] I'm highlighting her expertise and helping her [00:09:30] be able to express her ideas in a way that, um, you know, comes across well. And then I'm sharing that to my audience. And so, um, It just makes her look better. It adds value, it adds actual, real, tangible value to her. And so even if the conversation didn't amount to anything from, you know, the demo perspective, and I, and maybe it didn't, I don't actually know where that led in the end of the day.

[00:09:55] Um, but I'm still friends with her and we still have [00:10:00] conversations now. Um, and it opens up doors. For her that she wouldn't have necessarily had before. Um, and helps her to see that what she has is, is really valuable. Um, so to me that's really the value of, of this collaborative content versus cold pitching because we all get cold pitched all the time.

[00:10:22] I mean, all the time. I get so much. Spam and then, you know, I'm, I see people on these sales guys on [00:10:30] LinkedIn. I'm not against sales people and I'm not a hundred percent against cold calling or cold emailing, but I see these people who are like, Oh yeah, this guy spammed me three or four times in a row and it's like a VP of sales.

[00:10:40] And he is like, you know, keep going buddy. You'll get me one of these days and it's great. And I'm like, Don't encourage that. It's spam . Nobody should be calling you three, three times, you know, in a row, or nobody should be doing that. It's not persistent, it's spam, it's annoying, it's obnoxious, and it's not actually doing anything for me as the customer.

[00:10:58] But instead, if that same person [00:11:00] reached out to me and they said, Hey, you're an expert in your area. I'd love to have you on and promote you and your idea. And help you to get more exposure. It's like, for sure, you know? And then I'm gonna be much more open to having a conversation with them about their product so they get value out of it.

[00:11:17] But I get value out of that conversation rather than just losing 15 minutes or half an hour or an hour. And then, Having somebody follow up with me for weeks or months, and, and pester me when it, [00:11:30] I'm not actually interested in their product. You know, you have that going on and on and on with no value to the customer.

[00:11:34] Whereas this way you could reach out to that same person, add a ton of value to them, build your company's brand, and in the end of the day, everybody wins in that situation versus can I book 15 minutes on your calendar? Absolutely. 

[00:11:49] Leanne Dow Weimer: It changes it from the eye to the we. And I think you mentioned a couple things in there that I really wanna.

[00:11:54] Circle back to, um, but you mentioned that she really knows her [00:12:00] stuff and that she wasn't getting any exposure. And I think that that kind of leads into another thing that you and I were talking about prior to recording was that. Um, people don't know if you're existing in a vacuum and you aren't sharing what you know, you aren't sharing your expertise, you aren't having these conversations in public.

[00:12:20] No one's gonna know what you can do. And then you mentioned, um, you know, about candidates. Do you wanna talk more 

[00:12:27] Joseph Lewin: about that? [00:12:30] Yeah, just, um, I'm in the middle of hiring right now and, um, I out of 20. People that I've interviewed so far for this, uh, particular position I had, um, before this week, last weekend, I had one person connect with me or message me on LinkedIn.

[00:12:52] I think I probably had like four people connect with me. One, one person messaged me and that was just basically say, Hey, nice [00:13:00] talking to you. Looking forward to next steps, you know, which is, you know, okay, better than nothing. But then earlier in this week, I had somebody who was a candidate reach out to.

[00:13:09] and, um, she had applied on, on Friday, Monday she sends me a video, an amazing video. Uh, where she went to my profile was like reading through it, saying things have stuck out to her about me. And it's like, well, that, you know, that always feels good when somebody does that right? And it's a video of her, you know, her face in the corner on my profile.

[00:13:28] So it's clearly like she made it for [00:13:30] me. It's not just something random. Um, and she talked about things that she clearly had to do some research. To find, or, you know, had to have read through my profile and think about what she was gonna say. Um, then she told me about herself and then she went over the job description and said, These are the things that stuck out to me about this job.

[00:13:46] This is why I wanna work at Proofpoint. And I was like, Dang, I need to get on the phone with this, uh, with this candidate. And it put her a hundred percent up at the top, at least to get an initial call and have a conversation. And so, I mean, she [00:14:00] skipped the stack for sure by doing that. Um, and I mean, stood out from every.

[00:14:06] Times 10, uh, by taking an extra 15 minutes maybe to, yeah, to, to do the work on that. Um, so, and, and then while we're talking about candidates, um, to kind of bring it full circle into co collaborating to create content and that leading job opportunity. So you were asking me about the podcast and relationships that [00:14:30] have formed outta that.

[00:14:30] So, um, My current boss, I saw him post on social media, on LinkedIn about, um, building relationships at scale and that that's what marketing is about. I hadn't heard anybody say that before, so I was like, Wow, that's pretty cool. Interesting. Mike, love to have you on my show to talk about building relationships at scale.

[00:14:50] So I had him on the show, um, and after the conversation, um, I had reached out to him to see if I could, if he'd be willing to share with me, um, [00:15:00] about. Like his sales process and, and what he's doing there. Um, so he had another conversation and then after that he's like, Hey, I have this job opportunity. I think you'd be a great fit for it.

[00:15:10] Do you want to interview for this role? And, um, they hadn't, I don't believe they'd even like promoted the role at all to that point. Um, so I interviewed and within a week, Got hired on there and, um, it's been by far the best job I've ever had. Uh, definitely most within my [00:15:30] sweet spot. And that came from building relationship through grading content and being active on LinkedIn.

[00:15:38] Leanne Dow Weimer: Absolutely. And, and I, I heard that podcast too. I listened to it right around the same time that, um, That we first connected and I was like, Wow, this is a really great conversation. And, and you can feel that magic as the person on the end. And I think that that's part of another, like kind of makes the triple [00:16:00] threat of podcasting and content creation where you're showing your face, you're showing your personality, you're showing your expertise is that that connection and that charisma and that.

[00:16:11] Translates beyond just the two people having the recorded conversation because then other people see how you react. And it's like the candidate that you mentioned that did her own self interview is that you really get familiarized with that person, their mannerisms and it's, it's building half the relationship already [00:16:30] and that's, that's so powerful.

[00:16:34] Joseph Lewin: Yeah, I mean, and then your, your product has to stand up in the end, or your skillset has to stand up in the end, but it, it gets you past a huge hurdle, which is getting your foot in the door and actually having a conversation. And, um, I, I mean, I can't tell you how many people just reach out direct to, directly to me on LinkedIn and try to get me to buy their stuff.

[00:16:53] And I'm like, I don't know you from a hole in the wall. I don't really need what you're offering that I know. And then you're [00:17:00] asking for time on my calendar and, and I'm busy and not just from work. I got other things going on in my life besides just chatting with, you know, 20 sales people a week that want 15 minutes to a half an hour on my calendar.

[00:17:13] Not to mention the endless follow up because they're gonna be professionally persistent that they're going to give me after that. So it's like you gotta do something that shows that. Care about the other person, that you value them, that you value their business, that you, you're looking out for their best interest and build that trust.

[00:17:29] And if you can do [00:17:30] that, it makes that next step of saying, Hey, I have something valuable to offer you so much more authentic and, and easier. Right. And that's where reaching out to them to create some content with them, whether it's, I mean, it could be as simple as like a a, a TikTok video where you're asking them to respond to it.

[00:17:48] I mean, I don't really spend time on TikTok. It's not really my thing, but. It could be something as easy as that. Like something really simple. It doesn't even have to be like this huge, complicated, you know, start a podcast and do all [00:18:00] that. You could start super simple. 

[00:18:03] Leanne Dow Weimer: Yeah, and I mean, the thing I like about all the short form video content, TikTok, or Wheels, or however you wanna execute it, is that it's, it's spite, it's it, it can give you those little chunks of a relationship.

[00:18:18] It gives you those 17 touches or 30 touches or whatever. Number of touches you're really after in a more robust way than hi. My auto [00:18:30] responder would like you to have 15 minutes on my calendar so I can pre-qualify you and send you to the next person who will then send you to the ae who will then meet you with the sales engineer, and then you can execute 10 more steps of our B2B like fire's journey.

[00:18:45] And, no, 

[00:18:48] Joseph Lewin: leave me alone. 

[00:18:49] Leanne Dow Weimer: like no candy, no one's home like, like lights out, like. And Yeah, and I think that part of it too is, is [00:19:00] cutting past the, the official flows and just having more of an organic flow. I, I'm very much team organic over team performance, um, as far as marketing and in that sense more towards demand gen.

[00:19:15] But you know, it's, it's, in a way it's pring your own career. It's pring your friend's careers. Doing what as marketers we do best, which is sharing messaging that matters 

[00:19:28] Joseph Lewin: to people. [00:19:30] Yeah. And I guess the last thing I'll say on this like note, and I think it would be helpful maybe to talk through some, some what, like practically, how could somebody start doing this?

[00:19:40] Um, if you be open to going that direction. Yeah. But one piece that. That. Okay. Sorry. This will have to be an edit cuz I just totally lost my train of thought. I had something I was gonna say there and I just, just, uh, floated away. Or you could leave it in and , it'll be funny, but [00:20:00] Anyway. Um, so how can someone get 

[00:20:03] Leanne Dow Weimer: started doing this?

[00:20:05] Joseph Lewin: Wait, I remember. Or go. Okay. So, so one last thing before we move on to, you know, steps that, that people could take to start really implementing this. Creating content together is a lot of people think you have credibility because of your degree or because of your skill or because of some pro past project and that that can help.

[00:20:26] And it definitely, um, especially if you're on a project that's like highly [00:20:30] visible and lots of people know about it, you know, if you like help to design tox algorithm and you can show that, you know, that definitely could give you some credibility on its own. Um, but for the most part, people look for credibility based on.

[00:20:43] Um, the amount of influence that somebody actually has and, um, if they're getting in front of other people and if they're trusted by people that, that you trust, you're more likely to trust them. So the whole idea behind that is you get credibility by [00:21:00] association. It's one of the fastest ways to gain credibility.

[00:21:02] So if you think of somebody, whether you like 'em or not, whether you agree with them or not, if you think of somebody like Joe Rogan, he has an incredible amount of credibility in lots of areas and lots of people's minds because he has people. That are very well known, that are very well. Uh, some of them are very well respected, some of them aren't, you know, it kind of depends, but they're very well known and he's pretty much been the top podcast for a long time because he's having people on that.

[00:21:28] He's borrowing their credibility [00:21:30] or credibility. Or, or influence, you know, one of the two. They both are. Maybe for him it's more influence than credibility. Might be a better way to say it. So he's, he's gaining influence off of other people's influence and you can also gain credibility off of other people's credibility.

[00:21:45] I think that's probably a, a better way to say it. And the point of that is if you don't have credibility yourself right now and you don't have influence, One of the best ways to gain influence is to not get on and talk about how much you know. It's to get on and [00:22:00] ask very thoughtful questions to people who really do know what they're talking about and are already respected.

[00:22:04] And by just being on a video with them, you're gonna get credibility and if you ask a questions and you, you get them to share something they haven't shared before. People are gonna assume that you know what you're talking about much more than if you just come out and say, Hey, I'm so smart. Listen to all the things I have.

[00:22:21] Look at my degrees and all these cool companies I've worked for. That's not gonna do it nearly as fast as as having conversation with people. [00:22:30] Absolutely. 

[00:22:30] Leanne Dow Weimer: And I think. You know when, you know, coming back to the implement implementation steps, is that that background work that you do when you are coming up with the questions you are planning, you are.

[00:22:45] Setting up whatever tech stack you're gonna use and having kind of a, a standard operating procedure or just a protocol that you follow, um, so that you know what to expect. They know what to expect, I think, really can be impactful. What are some [00:23:00] of those things that you started doing early on that you found, just made it just work so much better and more efficient and experience better for you?

[00:23:12] Joseph Lewin: Yeah, I mean, I would say the first thing is that you just need to do it. So it's really easy to let all kinds of things get in the way. Like what am I gonna use to record? Do I have a nice enough setup and Mike and camera and you know, am I, am I gonna record on Riverside or Stream Yard? Or you know, am I gonna publish all the podcasting [00:23:30] platforms or is it just for social media?

[00:23:31] You know, those are all great questions and there are things you should think about. But if you spend a lot of time on those questions, you could be three months out, six months out before you actually launch anything. So I mean, my first piece of advice is just find somebody and get on a Zoom call and record it, and then publish the full conversation without editing it on social media, or somewhere.

[00:23:53] And, um, And, and then you can build out from there and you're gonna learn from that and you're gonna go, Wow, Zoom is really not the best place to be [00:24:00] recording. And, you know, maybe if I had the chance to edit this, it'd be great. Um, and even faster way to do it would be to just like do LinkedIn Live or do do live, which I actually haven't done.

[00:24:09] And I'm a little bit nervous to do that, but it's definitely the fastest and easiest way to get going because you don't have to edit it afterwards and you're gonna build those relationships with people. You're gonna learn, you're gonna start to see some of the pitfalls and then you could start to go, Okay, what area do I wanna focus on?

[00:24:24] First. So I mean, that would be the first, uh, piece of advice. [00:24:30]

[00:24:30] Leanne Dow Weimer: Yeah. Getting started. There's no such thing as a perfect strategy. It's the one you do. 

[00:24:35] Joseph Lewin: Yeah. So I mean, I could give some specifics on, on what I did. So for me, yeah, I was, um, in like late 2020, early 2021, I was taking a bunch of courses on totally different areas.

[00:24:47] So that, one of 'em was pr, one of 'em was about seo, um, and. They basically came down and they're like, In the end of the day, if you wanna build back links, which is really important for seo, [00:25:00] it comes down having relationships with people who are doing the same thing as you at sites that are extremely authoritative.

[00:25:06] And if you have that, you're gonna get back links. And if you don't, ultimately you're not, you could do a lot of cold outreach, you could do all these different things, but. Make some friends that control the blog at these big publications and you're gonna be set. And then, you know, from a PR perspective too, like if you're gonna be good at pr, you need to build relationships with.

[00:25:27] Um, with reporters and those [00:25:30] reporters need to know who you are. You need to have added value to them by sharing articles that have nothing to do with what you're doing. You make their job easier, and if you make their job easier and they know you can trust, they can trust you. They know you bring them good stories.

[00:25:41] Then when you throw in a story or two of yours or something that you need promoted, they're gonna be happy to do that for you. So, you know, they kept coming down to relationship and that kind of set me on this trail of going. How do we do this relationship thing better? Um, so then I, I found some people in my industry that I just got on and recorded for [00:26:00] my company's website.

[00:26:01] So I did an, an interview, um, about a subject that I, I knew I was gonna write a blog about anyway. And it made writing the blog way easier than, It wasn't me going, doing a tons of tons of research. It was me leaning on the expertise of somebody else. Having a video to go along with it, which makes it better for SEO and better for sharing on social and better, you know, pretty much across the board.

[00:26:22] And then it took me probably like 20% of the time to actually write the article because I had all the content there. It was just a matter of [00:26:30] reformatting it in into text. Um, and then I ran across James Carbary from Sweet Fish Media and he has a book called Content Based Networking, which is all about what we're talking about and that kind of, Really started turning my gears on, Okay, this is definitely something to, to be running after.

[00:26:46] So then I recorded a couple more interviews for my company's website, and then I just decided my company wasn't ready to start a podcast at that time. I'm gonna, I'm gonna start a podcast of my own. And that's where the strategic marketer was born. Um, and [00:27:00] um, yeah, that's kinda how I, I started doing it.

[00:27:04] Leanne Dow Weimer: Yeah. That's awesome. I am. At those earlier stages where I am like, Hey, you know what? I've got a computer with a camera. I can reach out to people. I know how to record these because I was recording lives and creating content for clients previously. And you know, at the end of the day, I can put it off, put it off, put it off.

[00:27:28] But at some point, [00:27:30] either gotta do it or. Say you're not gonna do it. And so here I am doing it and I'm really excited. Um, The, the basic things that I feel like I need putting my marketing hat on to get started is understanding what type of stuff I wanna talk about, Understanding who wants to hear it and where they listen to stuff.

[00:27:53] Um, the basic mechanics of the being an individual contributor of, you know, pressing record [00:28:00] and distributing it and, you know, scheduling or editing or finding a producer. And I think. You mentioned Sweet Fish Media, and I actually have a connection from LinkedIn who used to work there, who is a podcast producer.

[00:28:15] And in my new role, I'm even busier than I was before. And so my time is limited for editing, which is, I used to do more video editing and creating graphics, but now I can, you know, set my time to record and do [00:28:30] this part and then have a partner in that other aspect. And so, , there's ways to do it without it turning into this big iceberg of a project.

[00:28:43] Yeah. And you just get 

[00:28:45] Joseph Lewin: started. Yeah. I mean, that, that's, I think that's probably the biggest learning I've had in marketing over the last, I mean, my biggest learning in marketing overall is I'm kind of a perfectionist by nature, and so I, I like going all in and making something [00:29:00] great and my biggest mistake cost me.

[00:29:02] About three months when I was running my own business and probably kept me from really being able to scale cuz I created this thing that was awesome, but nobody knew about it and I didn't have the timeline or budget to like really keep promoting it because I'd put all this effort into making the actual content.

[00:29:19] Great. But then also like how do I know that it's great when I couldn't get people to go through it and give me feedback. So like I would've been better off to just start with something really small and have one piece that wasn't fully [00:29:30] iterated and then get feedback as early as I could and start learning from putting it out there and, and then growing from that.

[00:29:37] So, I mean, definitely. Just find somebody to, to record. And hey, if you're talking about marketing, I'll be that person. , reach out to me on LinkedIn and if you need somebody to be a Guinea pig and be your first person on the recording, I'll, I'll jump on with you and, uh, we could record and, and it'll be fun.

[00:29:55] And, and you could do that before you, you know, turn into a podcast and turned into this whole big [00:30:00] thing. And to your point, try to figure out how to make it as simple as, You know, simplify your, and streamline. I guess a couple other tips I give, I mean, tech stack wise, I use Riverside for recording. It's really inexpensive and I, I, um, I really like it.

[00:30:15] It's, you know, pretty intuitive and straightforward. Um, we're on StreamYard right now. I don't know that much about it. So, Yeah, but it's, 

[00:30:23] Leanne Dow Weimer: it's. I like it. It's straightforward, but it's not super complicated. But go ahead. What else do you use? [00:30:30]

[00:30:30] Joseph Lewin: Um, and then I use, um, shoot, why is my mind running blank, right?

[00:30:34] The second, um, I use sounder Fmm for hosting my actual podcast and it's, I pay for the pro version, It's like 12 bucks a month or something. Um, and I use Calendly to, to schedule people for my podcast and have like a pre-interview. Scheduling link and an interviewing scheduling link and you know, try to make that as simple as possible.

[00:30:54] And then my initial conversation would usually do that over Zoom and then do the actual recording in [00:31:00] Riverside. Um, I'm trying to think what else from a tech perspective. Um, I have this mic that I've had forever and just , bolt it out and then like, uh, Logitech, you know, off, off computer camera and I mean, you could.

[00:31:16] For like a hundred bucks, 200. If you want to get a really nice camera, you could have an, uh, a microphone and a camera. That will be just fine for doing, especially initial recording. [00:31:30] Um, I guess the only other thing I'd really emphasize is doing the pre-interview is extremely important. I, I will never host a podcast personally without doing a pre-interview with the guest first, unless they're like a celebrity.

[00:31:42] And you know, in that case, that's, that's okay. But if you're looking to build relationships, it's a second touch relationship. So your relationship is stronger, the episode's stronger because you, you, you're able to ask much better questions. You ask the simple questions in the first round, and then those get you right into the really good questions when you go do [00:32:00] the actual interview.

[00:32:01] And then the final piece of it is, um, You're already are friendly with the person before you start recording, and so you have much more rapport during the conversation. And um, I find that to be absolutely in. 

[00:32:16] Leanne Dow Weimer: Yeah, definitely agreed. As we're sitting here, I'm like, Man, maybe I should have thought of better questions,

[00:32:23] But the thing is too is is that that flexibility, I think one of the things, mistakes I made when [00:32:30] I was first acting as like, you know, kind of like a host or mc for clients was trying to be too controlling about it and too, You know, break down and, um, you know, very, very, like, Okay, we're gonna spend 30 seconds on this.

[00:32:43] That's not how you facilitate a great conversation. And so, Um, that was a learning experience for me professionally was to kind of let go a little, but still have good questions. My questions are always teed up to make the other person look better. [00:33:00] So my goal is never, I'm not trying to be the Barbara Walters of podcasting.

[00:33:04] I am not trying to get that like inside scoop deep cut. I'm trying to set up my friend or you know, someone else so that they come across as the best selves and really be like that teammate and. That makes the holding go better when, when people know that you're on the same TI 

[00:33:20] Joseph Lewin: side. Yeah. Oh, I love that approach.

[00:33:23] And I am now produce and like head, head up strategy for four [00:33:30] podcasts for clients. And that's definitely something that we're emphasizing with them. Like how do you, how do you make the guests look really good and how do you make the better, You know, same thing we were talking about before. People are going to like, you better both the guest and people that are listening if you.

[00:33:46] Make the guests look good. I mean, you don't wanna like be over the top about it, but, but you want to get their expertise out and help them formulate their ideas better and ask them questions that that helps them to share their [00:34:00] idea in a more clear way. And if you do that and you make them look really good, they're gonna wanna work with you in the future.

[00:34:05] Whether that's collaborating on a future project or becoming a customer, much more likely that's gonna happen if they feel like. You made them the star of the show versus the other way around. And then you could have, you know, point of view episodes or something like that, which I probably will start doing on my podcast sometime in the near future, where you can share your expertise, but then you don't have a guest on , You know?

[00:34:26] And don't steal the show from, from the guest as, [00:34:30] as, as an excellent, uh, tip. 

[00:34:33] Leanne Dow Weimer: Definitely. Let's see. We have just a little bit of time left and I really, it's hard to like on these notes. I'm not totally just kissing your butt here, but, but you have had, like anyone who listens to your podcast can feel your expertise and I think that's something you do exceptionally well.

[00:34:51] Um, what have been some of your favorite episodes or guests that you felt like were just so. [00:35:00] Like, you could feel it, I don't know how else to explain it, but, but just really made that impact, for better lack of a better 

[00:35:06] Joseph Lewin: word. Um, sorry, I have something weird going on with my mic. It just made a weird noise.

[00:35:13] Um, okay. So I would say my, some of my favorite guests are, um, Ravi, uh, I'm trying to remember his, uh, Ravi kiosk. He talked about, uh, I think we talked about business acumen. I, I [00:35:30] also recorded a different episode with him for my company's website, my previous company's website. So, um, yeah, I think it was business acumen and like growing in your, as a marketer, beyond being seen as like a generalist marketer into more of like, how do you get a senior role or how do you like really move up in your marketing career?

[00:35:48] And that's understanding things outside of marketing. So his was, um, His is really excellent. And then there's another guy named, um, Paul Hepperla, and he [00:36:00] is a, a, a VP of strategy at Emerson. So they do like pumps and motors and industrial products, um, or at least in his, in his division. And he's just a very knowledgeable, humble guy.

[00:36:14] So it was a really fun conversation with him. Um, and then one of my other favorite ones is, uh, Stefanie Casimir. She works at, um, ABB Motors and she talks about product marketing and she's just really smart . She really, she's really [00:36:30] great at, at interviewing customers and helping to understand, uh, I guess a good way to say it would be she helps position the, um, The engineering and r and d team to understand what they actually need to develop by talking with customers and understanding what the needs are in the market so that they're not spending a ton of r and d effort on something that seems really cool from the engineering perspective, but nobody's actually gonna wanna buy.

[00:36:55] Um, so those were all episodes where I felt like we had good rapport, you know, is [00:37:00] great conversation back and forth, but then also I learned a lot from each of those episodes myself. 

[00:37:06] Leanne Dow Weimer: Awesome. Wow. That, that's hard to follow up. So, um, and we're, we're about out of time, so I wanna say thank you so much for letting me borrow your cool with your cool microphone and all of your knowledge.

[00:37:21] Um, and I'm so excited for this and, you know, podcasting as a journey. Um, hopefully you'll, you'll [00:37:30] join me again 

[00:37:30] Joseph Lewin: in the. Absolutely. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. Uh, I'm, I'm, I'm humbled and flattered by by your phrase, and, uh, look forward to a future conversation. Great. Thank you 

[00:37:41] Leanne Dow Weimer: so much. I'm gonna end our broadcast now.