EP 8 Navigating the Evolving Podcast Landscape with Traci DeForge

Voiceover: 00:00:07

Welcome to Aqua Talks where marketing meets bold game changing ideas.

Join your hosts, Larry Aldrich and Mady Dudley as they explore the art and science of cutting through the noise, capturing attention and fostering meaningful connections with your audience.

Whether you're a destination marketer, government contractor, or simply passionate about the transformative power of marketing, Aqu, Aqua Talks offers engaging discussions, fresh insights and actionable strategies designed to inspire and inform.

Mady Dudley: 00:00:43

Hi and welcome back to Aqua Talks, the podcast for marketers. Whether you're just getting started out or you are a veteran within the marketing industry.

My name is Mady and this podcast is brought to you by Brensys Technology llc. I am joined by my co host today, Larry Aldrich.

Larry Aldrich: 00:01:01

Hello, my name is Larry Aldrich, President and CEO of Aqua Marketing Communications and Brensis. Today we're joined with a podcast expert and professional in the industry, Tracy Deforge. Hello Tracy, how have you been?

Thank you for being with us today.

Traci DeForge: 00:01:17

Hello. It is great to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Mady Dudley: 00:01:21

Tracy, before we get started, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got to where you are today?

Traci DeForge: 00:01:27

Yes, absolutely. Thank you for asking. So I'm the founder and CEO of a podcast production and audience growth marketing strategy agency.

It's called Produce your Podcast. And but how I got there and you know, you guys know I'm. It's difficult for me to tell a short story, but I'm going to try in this moment.

So my background is in broadcast radio, which I spent the first half of my professional career working in broadcast radio. And then that was a great catalyst for me to then do business development strategy for startups and Fortune 500s.

And in: 2015

And at that point in time there just weren't a lot of full service agencies out there and I, I guess you could say I knew too much and so I knew I would need support that I to make it sustainable and to keep it going. So I pulled a team together to launch my own podcast, my first podcast. And right.

Just as a result of that, I just fell back in love with the medium again and realized that there were going to be a lot of business owners, CEOs, CMOs, marketing agencies like yourself, that were going to need a lot of support for people who wanted to launch and grow their podcast. And that's how Producer Podcast was born.

Larry Aldrich: 00:02:45

That's great, that's awesome. We loved hearing about your background.

I know you and I spoke on many occasions in the past, so I had the pleasure of hearing a lot about you and continue to want to learn more about you as we continue to build our working relationship.

And Naya, to have you part of this podcast, I think it's really special to get our listeners, our viewers, our clients, our destinations, our DMOs that we work with to get to know you a little bit more. Also and wanted to talk a little bit about some of the trends in the industry and we were talking podcasting.

So can we talk a little bit about how the pros and cons of integration of video into podcasts?

Traci DeForge: 00:03:28

Yes. Yeah. So the that's a really great question and it's a very hot topic right now in the podcasting space is do you need a video to have?

I mean, do you basically does a podcast have to be audio and video? Can it just be audio or can it just be video?

And there's no black or white answer to that question with the exception of this, which is that right now having a video component is really important to grow your audience.

So you don't want to just jump right into video only because the use of audio is in a lot of cases it is getting anywhere from two times to 10 times more downloads for the podcast.

But because of YouTube and because of the output algorithms, and quite honestly, we feel like in the industry, we like to say that they, they did a really, Google did a really great job of a well launched PR campaign to really thrust the concept of video podcasting into the space. And as a result of that, everyone kind of went like, oh, we've got to have video, we've got to have video.

And you don't necessarily have to have full length video, but you do need it for the YouTube shorts, for the content, repurposing for the reels, for the audience. Then if budget allows, of course it is always great to have video, long form and short form.

And in addition to that, I think it's also just important to really understand like what the objective is for your business, for your growth strategy and layer that into it.

So like I said, there is no black and white, clean cut answer, but there is certain strategies that you want to take into consideration when it comes.

Larry Aldrich: 00:05:19

To videos in your podcast and video clips.

Let's just assume our video editor was somewhere close and could just hear you through the, through the biosphere, the atmosphere or something like that. What would be some tips that you may give for video editors or maybe for our video editor?

Traci DeForge: 00:05:41

Well, I'm going to pivot the question slightly because the most important thing, the tip that I can give is for the host first, because there are some things that you can't fix in post production. And so I think it's really important to educate the host first because that's where the original content is being generated.

And where that begins is that when you are recording a podcast that is going to be distributed in audio and in video, you have to remember as the host to, when you're framing questions, when you're, when you're making comments, when, even when your guest makes a comment to make sure that you're framing everything that's in an inclusive way for the people who may be listening versus watching. So a really good example of that is for people who are listening right now.

Larry, if you said to me, for example, hey Tracy, I really love that back wall behind you, when is the Aqua Talks cover art going to be on that wall?

Then the people who are watching this in video, they would be able to clearly, behind me is a wall with all of our, a sample of all of our clients different cover arts.

But if you're only listening to the podcast, you would feel excluded from the conversation because you wouldn't be able to know what it is that you are referencing. And so they would be feeling confused and your engagement levels would drop.

So in, in a case where we'll just do some on the spot coaching, let's say you were to make that comment, then you would say, hey Tracy, I love that wall behind you that has all of that, those different cover arts. Can you tell that? And then I could answer that. And anyone who was listening versus watching would not feel like their experience was disrupted.

And that's something that is so incredibly important as people evolve into having audio and video recordings.

Because a lot of times, and this is something as an industry trend that I can also piggyback on right now, people aren't necessarily dedicated to one platform for consumption. And what I mean by that is that you might discover a podcast on YouTube, for example.

In fact, 33% of people are finding podcasts either in the search bar. So 33% of people are discovering new podcasts in the Apple and Spotify search bar, and 37% of people are discovering new podcasts in YouTube.

So you may discover a new podcast in one of those platforms and start listening to it. Let's say you're listening to it in your car on the way to work. But then when you get to work, video might be a better option for you.

So you still listening and consuming the same episode, but you're consuming it in video once you get to your office or Vice versa. So that's another reason why it's important to serve both audiences so you can meet them where they are.

But you also need to communicate your content in a way that serves both audiences too.

Mady Dudley: 00:08:45

Right. That's. I found most of my podcasts through TikTok or any other social media platforms.

So like just scrolling and coming across clips from video podcasts and then. Yeah, just on other platforms. So it's good for finding those new audiences.

Larry Aldrich: 00:09:03

Yeah. I listen on YouTube and Apple and one is video and audio, the other's just audio.

So I could definitely, as you were saying, that I'm picturing it in my head. That's why my eyes was rolling to the left and the right. Cause I'm literally trying to picture that.

Mady Dudley: 00:09:19

Yeah.

Traci DeForge: 00:09:19

Like, is she inside my brain? Oh, yes, absolutely. And then you break up another point by happy accident in terms of trends, which is the concept of mixing what.

What we use in producer podcast language. Short form and adding in long. Long form and short form content. A mix of. Of content that is both longer form and short form.

Because people are so time starved right now. Right. And so a lot of times they may sample a shorter clip of content or shorter form episode, maybe up to 15 minutes.

And then they're, they're, you know, dating you before they get marri of content consumption. And so if they enjoy that shorter clip, then they're willing to invest the time for you for a longer clip. And then it also gives you the opportunity.

Let's say, for example, if this was one of your long form episodes, then you two could separately do a short form where you dig deeper into your personal podcast strategy and how it's working for you and why you started a podcast.

And that would be a supplement in a short form that would give you a more vertically deep a way to talk about the topic that we might not be able to cover in an interview. So there's a lot of benefits in a mixed content strategy of long form and short form.

Larry Aldrich: 00:10:36

Why are YouTube clips so important?

Traci DeForge: 00:10:38

YouTube clips are really important for brand awareness and discovery. In fact, we have several clients and one of them is in the travel and destination space. It's called the Luxury Traveler Podcast.

And he, the host, Rodney George, is just, he's based in Florida and he's just a big traveler and he uses his podcast to drive traffic back to his luxury travel agency.

But one of the things that's really beneficial is that he gets a lot of traction on his YouTube shorts because of the visual aesthetic of shots from a cruise ship, shops Shots from a Caribbean island. Like, they're very quick and engaging.

And then of course we have a strategy on the back end where when you upload those video shorts that they connect to the long form episode of where that content originated from.

So it's both a growth strategy for his business and his podcast, but it's also a way for people to really get a high energy burst of, of sampling of what the overall long form content will be and that the algorithms on all the social media platforms right now are loving video. So the, you know, we can thank tech talk for that.

But Tick Tock reels stories shorts, LinkedIn right now is really favoring thought leadership video clips. So it's, it's really just something that you, you don't really want to go against. You want to go with that tide.

Mady Dudley: 00:12:17

Really great insights there. And in the same vein of diversification, we want to talk a little bit about monetization of podcasts.

So other than traditional media or traditional advertising, I should say, what are other ways that podcasts can monetize themselves? Asking for a friend.

Traci DeForge: 00:12:38

Yes. So, Chris, this is probably one of my all time favorite questions, so I'm really glad you asked.

And there's a lot of myths around the fact that if you don't have 10, 10,000 downloads or more per episode that you can't monetize through brands placing ads in your podcast. And I just want to use this moment in this time to say that is absolutely not true.

We are seeing a tremendous amount of success with audiences with as few as 300 downloads per episode. Very specifically, we have an attorney who is not only is it niche to the type of attorney, she's a divorce attorney.

She targets women going through divorce, so that further niches her down. And she's geographically licensed to the Wisconsin area. So we're talking about niche, niche and niche again.

And she is able to monetize her show through having what we refer to at producer podcast is the arena, right. Sponsorship.

So if you think about, and I think you guys are using this so effectively with your podcast, saying that the podcast is powered by, so it doesn't disrupt the integrity of the content, but it allows a brand to come in and be affiliated with the type of content that you're producing and align themselves with your audience.

So monetization for sponsorship on audiences that are 9,999 or less, which, let's face it, that is like 99% of the podcasts out there, you just have to get past the fact that that what's called the cost per thousand model just doesn't apply in terms of smaller audiences, but it really works effectively if you have vendor relationships, if you work really well with, let's say an interior design podcast, for example, that we produce for five years or more. They had a tremendous amount of success monetizing their podcast through live events through they.

On their hundredth episode they brought in Williams and some Williams and Sonoma was launching a tabletop line with Marlo Thomas. And Marlo Thomas was the guest on their podcast to launch that tabletop line.

And it was, it worked out fabulously and they have really seen a tremendous amount of monetization opportunities. And they again are an interior design podcast based in Atlanta whose primary audience is the Atlanta metro area.

But the sponsorship component worked out really well for them because they had relationships with Sherwin Williams and the wallpaper companies and the Kohler faucets and things like that that they had been doing business with for years and they knew the quality of their work. And when they launched a podcast, it was a, it was a no brainer to say, hey, we're going to be right there with you.

So there's, there's that area which I, I can't speak to enough in terms of how that's possible. When you are looking at a smaller audience that's really highly engaged and very niche specific, like yourselves.

And like the podcast I mentioned, it's important to include the visibility for that sponsor across the board.

So you want to include them in your podcast, but you also want to include them in your social media, in those clips that you're doing in the show notes, summary notes, giving them a broader exposure to the, the brand. Having access to your audience is really ultimately what they're looking for.

But doing it in a way that's, that shows integrity for your brand, their brand and your audience.

Larry Aldrich: 00:16:08

How do you work with your clients to divide, to, excuse me, define their podcast voice and their audience?

Traci DeForge: 00:16:17

Well, thank you for asking that. I'm happy to share. So when we work with clients, our clients typically come to us in one of two ways.

They either do not have a podcast at all, which is very similar to when the Aqua talks came to us. And so we work with you as we did, doing a complete immersion into strategy.

So in that case, we are going to look at everything through the lens of business development. That's our biggest differentiator in the space as a podcast production and marketing agency.

We're going to look at everything through the lens of business development. We're going to look at how the podcast is going to integrate into you, your business and your lifestyle, making it sustainable for you.

But also we're going to start right away having those conversations. What type of warm relationships do you have with brands? What are some of the ways that we can bring a sponsor or monetize your show?

Because, because sponsorship is only one pathway and we'll talk about the other pathways after I walk through this example. But with sponsorship, we're going to build the format of that show for you.

Like, we're going to talk about the business development strategy, we're going to talk about the format of the show, we're going to talk about, is there a special segment that we can drop inside your podcast that then can be sponsorable, that could maybe just start the conversation around a sponsorship?

One of a really good example of that, just to give the audience something to connect dots with, is we have a podcast in our portfolio called Fans first and they have two specialty segments. One's called get off my Lawn, which is a, which is a fan rant. And then the other one is Flip the Switch.

Because they have a tendency to interview a lot of high profile sports figures like John Smoltz and other people in the space and so they have access to ask them questions that the regular audience may not ever get to hear.

So we integrated in their strategy specific segments that could be sponsored so they can do that powered by, they can have each of those special segments sponsored and that starts to layer up.

And so we will work with the client during those discovery pre launch strategy sessions and build that into a blueprint that can be executed when the show launches. And we've had a tremendous amount of success.

One of our podcasts in: 2024

And secondarily, if you come through our to produce your podcast with an already existing podcast, we can do what's called a sponsorship and monetization audit for you where we will literally audit your podcast, figure out how it's being discovered, what SEO barriers, podcast specifically, or maybe breaking your audience growth, look at the format of your show and then help you restrategize and break through those audience growth barriers and bring in those sponsorships in a way that you may never have thought of before.

And so either way, you're, you're getting through that experience with a very tactical, action oriented blueprint that gets you to those next step conversations and to close those, those sponsors. So that is how we, we do that strategically. But I think it's also Important. And I know I'm doing all the talking. I can't. You. You asked me.

You're doing great.

Larry Aldrich: 00:19:35

You have a wealth of information. So it's like, we're definitely. We definitely want to hear.

Mady Dudley: 00:19:39

You're so good at what you do. We're just students, obviously.

Traci DeForge: 00:19:44

Eat, breathe, and sleep it. Right? So, but. But monetization, Mady, when you asked that question, I.

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the fact that you can monetize your podcast outside of advertising and sponsorship. And that can happen through being able to create a live event strategy, which I'm really excited for you to implement.

Ultimately, for Aqua Talks, I think any type of agency like, like yourselves or anytime you're collaborating with, with other types of businesses and brands, really taking that podcast, and you already are working in such a beautiful studio and creating live events around your podcast and getting sponsors that way, people are really, really creating content right now, and we're able to take a lot of that content and repurpose it into published books. So if you're an industry leader, a thought leader, industry expert, you can take.

Take the content episode, and we have ghostwriters that will write it into a published book. There are one of our podcasts in our portfolio that we've been producing for five years or more.

They are not only there as a health and nutrition podcast, but they are. They launched a merchandise line. They did a live event in New York. They're getting ready to publish a health and wellness nutrition focus book.

So there's so many different ways to monetize speaking engagements and. And all the things that you don't really necessarily think about.

And when you're thinking about a podcast, you just don't want it to silo into one area of your business.

You want to think about how can it really broaden my visibility across all different types of platforms and how can I monetize each of those along the way?

Larry Aldrich: 00:21:26

Yes, I know. You mentioned that you're doing all the talking like we mentioned the beginning of the podcast. We're Aqua Talks. We're marketing experts.

We are talking podcasts with a podcast expert. So we know when to take the backseat and absorb as much knowledge as we can.

Mady Dudley: 00:21:43

Yes, well put, Larry.

Traci DeForge: 00:21:44

I know, but I'm very conscientious of the fact that it's not the Tracy Talks podcast, it's the Aqua Talks podcast.

Mady Dudley: 00:21:51

Well, we actually want to hear a little bit more, so.

Traci DeForge: 00:21:55

Okay.

Mady Dudley: 00:21:55

Do you work.

Do you work with any travel, tourism, or marketing podcasts that you would want to shout out we want to be industry friends here and welcome everyone to the conversation.

Traci DeForge: 00:22:08

Yeah.

You know, I think one of the most fun stories that I can share with you of what's happening right now in the marketing agency space is that we are we have just completed the pre launch strategy for a podcast that's named Decoding Asia.

The marketing agency is based in Japan and so that is really exciting from an international perspective for us to be working with the agency in Japan.

But the the focus of the podcast and the reason why they are launching Decoding Asia is because they really want to talk to CMOs, CEOs and businesses that want to do international business. Maybe they're based in the US but they want to expand and and expand their operations into Asia.

And their whole podcast is going to be focused on and as a B2B agency they are going to be focusing on obviously they' it as a business growth tool for their B2B agency, but the whole content is going to be around educating people on the cultural differences of doing business in Asia in some of the different ways that people are selling products in Asia versus how things are sold in the US the whole sales process itself is a completely different process. So it has been a fan just a fantastic pre launch strategy.

For me personally, I really myself I did a lot of different research than I might have normally done for a marketing agency. So for us that was just, that's been really exciting.

And then as just synchronicity would have it, our client manager has taken a three month sabbatical and it was a bucket. One had nothing to do with the other was a bucket list opportunity for her to live for three months in Japan and work remotely.

And the three months that she's been working in Japan happened to be completely and totally aligned when we were doing the strategy for their podcast. So she was able to literally connect with them in person. So it's just been a really full circle moment. And their podcast is slated to launch in May.

So that's just a fun that has the international component along with the marketing agency component.

But I believe that marketing agencies can use podcasting very, very successfully because it gives you the opportunity to interview your clients and talk about the strategies that you're using with your clients and your clients can share their experiences of working with you, for example.

And it gives people such a behind the scenes authentic insight into what it's like to work with you and why is your agency different and why would they choose your agency versus another agency? And I think the travel Component makes it so fun and so interesting because you can go live on location. You can.

We had the luxury traveler podcast that I was referring to. He records episodes like he will interview the. The. Oh, gosh, I'm not going to get the position right.

But the person who's the master of the ship, the, the. The. The boat.

I mean, I think he's more than a boat captain, so I'm probably not being respectful of his title, but he's like the general manager of the cruise boat when you're on the ship. So we have literally been able to record him remotely while he was on the cruise and interview the. The general manager. The Is driving the ship.

Mady Dudley: 00:25:44

I think our next on location, we should find a Japan. Japanese client. I want us to align. Yeah, well, anything. Yeah, Japan.

I just, I love that you're someone from your team is able to go over and work there. It's bucket list for me too.

Larry Aldrich: 00:26:00

Yeah, I'm pretty excited when we do start doing our podcast on location. We have some pretty great clients.

Mady Dudley: 00:26:07

Yeah.

Larry Aldrich: 00:26:08

Some pretty nice destinations that we will definitely get to. Some events that we. We go to. Chip and I are going to Etourism Summit in Vegas.

There will be a lot of potential clients, a lot of destinations, a lot of current clients there also. And eventually we'll get there and we'll start. We'll take this on a, on a trip with us.

Mady Dudley: 00:26:27

Yeah. Take it on the road.

Larry Aldrich: 00:26:29

I don't like to go negative, but I'm going to go that way for a second. I promise I won't stay there.

Traci DeForge: 00:26:33

That's all right. I can take it.

Larry Aldrich: 00:26:35

What are one of the biggest fails that you've seen with people just starting out doing podcasts?

Traci DeForge: 00:26:42

I'm glad you asked that question because I think it's an important thing for people to have a heads up on. And I'm going to go back to when I was launching my first podcast and why I pulled a team together when I wanted to launch my very first podcast.

At the time, I was a very, very busy business development strategist, consultant. I mentioned before, I was working with Fortune 500s and startup and my focus was on my clients, as it should be. That's how I generated my revenue.

And I'm a client. As you guys know, I'm a client first kind of girl.

So when I wanted to launch my podcast, I knew intuitively because of my broadcast radio background that it's a lot of work, it's a ton of fun. It's. It's glamorous, it's Exciting, it's fun, but it's a lot of work.

And so for me, I knew in order to set myself up for success that I needed to have a team to support me.

Now, I'm not necessarily saying that everybody needs a full service team to support them to be successful, but what I am saying is, is that there are some factors that you need to take into consideration. Which is the biggest contributor to audience growth is consistency.

So if you are only able to release an episode once a month, create the absolute best episode you can possibly create and release it once a month. Month. If you can release an episode twice a month or once a week, great.

But it's just that you need to deliver to your audience the expectations you have set up for them. So number one is be graceful to yourself and set up a release schedule that works with you and your team.

And then secondly, there is a lot of challenges around podcast audience growth itself.

As you think about the parallels between organic social media and paid social media, for example, you have a lot of the same challenges which are the organic podcast growth, where you're posting your post to social media, you may be not putting an ad budget behind it. You might not see the growth accelerated as quickly.

And when audience growth isn't happening fast enough, a lot of people can get discouraged because they hear these really big numbers like Joe Rogan has millions of followers and this show has millions of followers.

But you need to take into consideration that there's a big difference between a lifestyle podcast, which is an entertainment driven, you know, the, the David Duchovny podcast, the Joe Rogan podcast, some of the political podcasts like those have a much broader audience appeal in terms of types of possibilities to reach millions of people.

And most often, Joe Rogan included, they show to the microphone with an already existing audience of millions of people that they just have to flip a switch, literally. And those people are going to consume their podcast business to business. Podcasting has a different strategy.

The audiences are typically smaller and absolutely that's okay because normally you're using the podcast for lead generation visibility and for sales to increase your bottom line.

And if you're talking to the right people frequently enough and consistently enough, with really good quality production and good content, then you don't need hundreds of millions of people to convert to a client for your business. And I think that is one of the biggest misnomers is I'm only getting a thousand downloads per episode. Well, you have to put that in perspective.

When was the last time that once a month, once a week, or twice a month that you stood in front of a live audience of a thousand people every month or every week. It rarely can happen. Right.

So being able to just get your mindset around your metrics is probably one of the most important things I hope people take away from this podcast is that your success is not defined by the number of audience downloads you have.

Your success is defined by the amount of people that engage and engage with your podcast and build a brand alongside you and with you and want to continue the conversation with you after the podcast. Which is probably my number three thing of what causes maybe podcasters to give up or fail is they think I'm not seeing results.

Well, that's where those audits really come into play because we've seen things, for example, where there is literally no call to action.

And if you're a marketing agency or you're an attorney, a healthcare provider, or a consultant or coach, and you're using your podcast to grow your business, which is an amazing thing to do, you better bet that you need a very strong call to action at the at the end of that episode or throughout that episode so that people know how to get in touch with you and talk to you or download the PDF or buy your book or set up a consult call with you, because that's the way you're going to then get them into your funnel and nurture them so that they can can continue to know, like and trust you and then ultimately become your customer. If that doesn't exist and you're just like, see you next time, it's like.

Larry Aldrich: 00:32:05

Okay, but where hearing what you just said was very thought provoking.

Our last segment we had our media director, Andrew Hoffman on and a lot of what you just talked about and a lot of what he talked about specifically, specifically a question that he answered and went in depth on about organic social and paid social. What he said and what you said just matched perfectly. And it would have been a very intriguing conversation having both of you talk about that.

Mady Dudley: 00:32:43

Yeah, and I love what you said about engagement. It is true. We feel the same way in pr. Just quality over quantity rather than fake large numbers.

We really do want that engagement from the right people.

Last question we have is we like to do a sort of case study or a recent campaign or maybe it's a client of yours that you've worked with that you are really proud of that you want to share with us. Do you have any big success stories or highlights of your career that you want to share with us?

Traci DeForge: 00:33:11

Oh yeah, we are so proud of the and just absolutely work. The clients that we work with, we love them all. It's hard to pick a fair. It's like asking you to pick a favorite child, so to speak.

But because we have, you know, success stories, like I said, they all vary based on what your objective is. But I think I'll probably just pull the most recent because it's the one that's in the top of my mind.

So we work with a financial advisory firm that's based out of New York and Florida and they are. This comes back to that quality over quantity. Their target avatar is very specific. $12 million minimum to assets under management.

Like you need to literally have $12 million before they will work with you. Talk about no pressure. Tracy, create a podcast that'll target the person that has $12 million. Right. But we were able to do that very successfully.

So they. The name of the podcast is Crazy Wealthy Podcast. The host, Jonathan Blau.

I think one of the biggest success stories I can share just outside of his end result was that his differentiator was he talks about behavioral science around the mindset around money. And so I was fascinated during the pre launch strategy with him because I just learned so much about people's psychology around money.

And he is incredibly brilliant and talks so eloquently about what drives people's motivations around money and saving money and investing money. And that's so important for everybody.

No matter what your assets are, whether you're just starting out and putting money in a 401k all the way up to his target client, you need to understand your mindset around money because that could be the biggest self saboteur. Right. So his podcast is very interesting and he uses it for a lead generation tool.

So he, he has a mix of the long form and the short form strategy that we were talking about about. And his short form strategy is called Fix It Fridays where he does a solo, very impactful tip, tactical information oriented piece of content.

And I think it was right about six weeks ago, from the time we're recording this, he had a new prospect come in and they met the criteria of which that he needed to. To. To align together.

And he sent them the Fix It Friday episode for them to listen to and that sealed the deal and he got the client and they moved forward happily ever after. And I just like that success story because he uses the short form and the long form.

He very much differentiates himself in the financial space by talking specifically about behavioral science around finances. And he has a very, very niche specific target Demographic of which he was able to move from lead to close using his podcast.

So probably can't get much better than that today.

Larry Aldrich: 00:36:17

Yeah, that's pretty, pretty cool.

Mady Dudley: 00:36:19

Yeah, that's great. Well, thank you for joining us, Tracy. This is so fun. We learned so much.

Larry Aldrich: 00:36:25

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Every time I talk with you, I learn more and more and, and I definitely listen to your podcast. You have a lot of information.

I find myself on LinkedIn. That's where I find your podcast, where we're friends, we're connected on LinkedIn.

And, and you, you post a lot of your clips and I do watch a lot of those. And, and, and I'm still learning and I take a lot of what I watch on your podcast to try to make ours better.

Traci DeForge: 00:36:55

Well, I, I appreciate that you do that.

Our YouTube channel is definitely full of a lot, but because you are one of our very near and dear clients, of course both of you have an all access pass to produce your podcast team and to me at any time.

But if anybody who's listening or who is watching this podcast wants to learn more about produce your podcast, I do encourage you to go to produce your podcast dot com. We have tons of resources. It's almost an entire resource library of blog posts and videos and content like we talked about today.

And you can can find the Aqua Talks podcast in our port at our portfolio page as well. And I hope you'll check that out.

Larry Aldrich: 00:37:37

Thank you.

And we definitely have Produce your podcast and your bio and information about you on aqua talks.com so if you want to learn more about Tracy Deforge, you want to learn more about podcasts, you want to go to a podcast expert with produce your podcast.com please find out more information on aqua talks.com.

Mady Dudley: 00:37:59

Thank you.

Voiceover: 00:38:04

You've been listening to Aquatox, where marketing innovation takes center stage with bold ideas and actionable insights ready to take your strategies to the next level. Visit aquatacks.com to book your free consultation and explore resources that empower you to thrive in today's fast paced marketing world.

Until next time, stay bold, stay inspired, stay imaginative.